Applejack pushed ahead despite Rainbows entreaties, having filtered her out into the general noise of the city. She had stopped paying much attention to anything until she practically walked into a pony. She drew herself back with a hasty apology, "Sorry mister, wasn't watching where ah was heading."
"That's a bad habit," came the morose voice as the slate grey pony regarded Applejack, then Rainbow Dash. He had a brown mane and tail, but the thing that drew their eyes was the odd red horn that jutted up from his brow. It didn't match his fur color at all, unlike most unicorns. Beneath them were dull brown eyes that were widening in recognition as they looked over the two mares. "Y-you're..." he stopped, apparently stunned by the two of them, before finding his voice. "You're those mares that had the Elements!"
Rainbow tilted her head at the stallion, "Huh? How do you know about the elements? Are you a spy?"
Applejack bumped against Rainbow from the side, "Ah don't reckon he is, or he's not a good one. Still a mighty fine question. How do you know about the elements?"
Ignoring their question, the stallion composed himself, frowning as he glanced between them thoughtfully. "I am Lex. Lex Legis," he stated it in a manner that made it clear that giving them his name was a concession on his part. "How did you get here from Equestria? Have you found a way back? If so, I require it. It's vital to the kingdom's future that I return as soon as possible."
Rainbow Dash interposed herself between Applejack and Lex, "That ain't how it works, buster. Only Twilight could do that anyway. What's with the freaky horn?"
His frown rapidly turning into a glower, Lex narrowed his eyes at Rainbow. "You're wasting valuable time with your frivolous questions." He pawed at the earth, apparently frustrated at their lack of immediate acquiescence, "Tell me how to get back to Equestria. If you don't know, then tell me how you were sent here so I can try and reverse-engineer the process."
Applejack snorted softly, "Sugar, you need to fix that attitude of yours if you want ponies to help you. Now we're kinda busy delivering something to the castle, so if ya don't mind?" She moved to walk around Lex, with Rainbow following after. Lex trailed along behind them. When they stepped back onto the main thoroughfare and the sun could shine on them fully, Rainbow noticed that his shadow didn't sit quite right, going off at the wrong angle from the sun.
Rainbow moved up beside Applejack, whispering her observation, "His shadow's kind of weird."
Applejack perked an ear at Rainbow, "That ain't the start of the strange on that fella. That horn reminds me of something."
They pushed on in relative quiet after that, arriving at the castle gates with their new 'friend'. Applejack withdrew her letter and offered it to the guard. The mare looked over the letter quickly, "I'll make sure this is delivered." And she trotted up towards the castle.
Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Really? That's it?"
The other guard, a stallion, nodded, "Of course. The letter will be given to the acting mayor of the city to decide what should be done."
Rainbow looked at Applejack, "See?" She guided Applejack away from the gate, though Lex still followed a short distance behind, "If we want it done, we have to do it ourselves, not hope that the Everglow equivalent of Mayor Mare somehow gets her act together."
"Get what done?" asked Lex, approaching into conversation range again.
Applejack turned towards the strange stallion, "Ah thought ya just wanted to go home? This isn't for that."
Rainbow Dash nodded her head quickly, "Yeah. We're gonna save some ponies!" she clopped her forehooves together as her wings held her aloft inches from the ground. "You wouldn't be interested. There's probably loads of danger, maybe a dastardly trap or two. It's just as well, leave it to the professionals."
Lex's features hardened. "You two are the first ponies from Equestria I've seen since I've arrived here," he ground his teeth. "If you two are going off on some ridiculous crusade, then I will accompany you."
Applejack shook her head, "Why would we want that, sugarcube?"
"I am an accomplished spellcaster," explained Lex, "Until you tell me what I want to know, I'm not going to let this go, so you might as well try and work with me instead of being stubborn. There is no good reason to deny me."
Rainbow snorted and shrugged her shoulders, "Twilight's in charge. You can ask her."
"Twilight Sparkle is here too?," again the surprise was thick in his voice, "Take me to her."
Applejack sighed as she moved back towards the library, the two others trailing after her, "Well, the way ah see it, Twilight has two decisions to make. So, Mister... Lex was it? How long ya been here?"
Lex walked alongside Rainbow Dash, behind Applejack, "Too long, though my time here has been... enlightening."
Rainbow shrugged, "That's one way of putting it. You get into any wicked fights yet?"
Lex snorted softly, "I can take care of myself. Those that have tried to impede my progress were dealt with."
They soon returned to the library, to find Twilight had moved to another portion, but had changed little of what she was doing. Busily, she was pouring over old looking tomes and making frequent notes in a fresh looking book. "Hey Twi," greeted Applejack, "Spike got that book for you?"
"Uh huh," she replied distractedly. She glanced up, and both the old book and the new fell to the ground as her eyes fell on Lex. "Sombra!"
Applejack and Rainbow took quick steps away from Lex and wheeled to face him, alarmed. Lex winced at Twilight's outburst, "You're mistaken. My name is Lex Legis."
Twilight conjured a briefly glowing field of force around herself as she hopped to her hooves, "Hello.... Lex? Are you aware you..." She raised a hoof to point at Lex's horn, "Have... something, right there."
Rainbow snorted, "I knew I recognized that from somewhere! Why do you have Sombra's horn?"
A librarian poked a snout into the room they argued in. "Shhhh," he urged before moving on without a care for what they were arguing about.
Lex shook his head, an uncomfortable look on his face, "That is a long and painful tale, but I am not Sombra. I was drawn -- thrown -- into this world in the middle of performing vital work for Equestria. Will you help me return?"
Twilight tilted her head, "Of course. I wouldn't dream of leaving a pony behind. I am Twilight Sparkle, though you seem to know me already. This is Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. Also with us is Spike, a baby dragon, and Soft Mane, a half pony. I can't send you back right now."
Agitated, Lex pawed the ground again, "Why not?"
Twilight waved a hoof, "It's not because I don't want to. The spell to travel back to Equestria is very complicated. Last time, Queen Iliana herself did it. I still need a bit more practice before I can do it myself. I have the spell, so you just have to be patient."
Rainbow settled her ruffled feathers as she turned to Twilight, "Hey, Twilight. The guards took the letter but they didn't look like they were going to do much with it but put it on some mayor's desk. We should handle it ourselves."
Twilight frowned, "Well, alright. If you feel that strongly about it?" Rainbow quickly bobbed her head before rearing up on her hind legs, punching the air determinedly. Twilight rolled her eyes at the demonstration, "Then we'll go check it out... after my week is up." She flopped to the ground and picked up the two fallen books in her magic. "If you'll excuse me."
Applejack chuckled softly, "That's our Twi." She looked to Lex, "Well, there you go. Ya get to go home as soon as Twilight's ready ta do it."
Lex seemed ill at ease with the arrangement, "What is this thing you are investigating after the week is out?"
Rainbow fetched the letter and thrust it before Lex. Lex looked it over quickly, "How ominous," he snorted. "This is clearly a trap."
"Yeah, I know," said Applejack, "But if there are ponies being hurt, it's our job ta do somethin' about it."
Rainbow did a flip in mid air, "Now that's the AJ I know! We're going to kick some baddies right in the flank."
Lex pointed at himself with a hoof, "Just remember that we have a bargain. It wouldn't do to have Twilight harmed before she kept her end of the deal."
Spike entered, with a strange pony wearing the holy symbol of Princess Luminace and Soft Mane. "That one, the one reading," said Spike, pointing at Twilight.
The priest approached Twilight and spoke soft but firm words of divine entreaty, which Twilight ignored entirely in favor of reading. He reached out with a hoof and tapped her. She jumped, then relaxed as some of the fatigue of death flowed from her body. She let out a happy sigh, and went right back to reading.
The priest returned to Spike, collecting several large gems for his trouble. He bowed his head towards Spike, "May knowledge ever be found." With that, he trotted out of the room and was soon gone.
Rainbow blinked at the display, "What the hay was that all about?"
Soft Mane replied, "Dying isn't as easy as it looks. Coming back from the other side leaves you tired and drained. That little spell took some of it away, but Twilight'll need another go before she's back to full speed."
Rainbow gestured at Twilight with a hoof, "So go ahead and do it again."
Spike shook his head, "Not that easy. It only works once a week."
Applejack snorted, "Perfect timing. We can hit her again when she's done reading the entire library. Then we see about rescuing some ponies in need."
Oh, it's going straight to accusing him of being Sombra first chapter. Good. I'd hate for that to not be addressed.
Hey, it's chapter 100! Wow.
5690265 Thanks for riding with us, these 100 chapters of madness!
Introducing: Sombra's Horn, Major Artifact
Thought you might be interested in knowing that TVTropes now has pages up for both Ponyfinder and this fanfic in particular:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/Ponyfinder
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/ADangerousSparkle
Both are pretty barebones, but I'm sure that fans will flesh them out eventually.
5690389 I saw the Ponyfinder one, but am amused to see this fanfic also got one made up! Thanks to the anonymous pony out there that did one or the other.
AJ and Dash rolled low, Twilight got average for recognition, given the trauma theyd been through?
Hopefully this will be intresting seeing how someone pulls off the whole I havent a clue how I became sombra behaviour so that you dont think Im actually Sombra trick without messing up, especially if they aint actually Sombra, just his puppet.
A weeks going to be a busy time on the town to keep Dash and AJ occupied. Maybe the cage fight scene?
Well, gee, the new guy isn't obviously evil.
Oh, wait, he's a reader OC. I suppose he can be trusted to a degree, then. I'd think he'd show a bit more respect towards multi-time world saviors. Or, you know, explain what his vital work actually is to the aforementioned saviors. Eh, I'm just not a fan of the "more important than thou" character archetype. I don't like which class features it replaces, like common courtesy.
In any case, a week of downtime. That should be plenty for a pair of training montages.
Congratulations on hitting triple digits. Here's to however many more are left.
5690475 AJ has something else to occupy her time that she intends to bring up with Twi.
5690497 We'll really pop the corks when we hit four digits! Party at my house!
5690265 It's usually good to have the obvious things be obvious to the characters as well.
5690378 The funny thing is, the significance of Sombra's horn still being around after he was destroyed was something that was hinted at on one of the MLP trading cards and nowhere else. I figured if they wanted to toss a tidbit like that out there, why not run with it?
5690497
Well, after a lead-in like that, you'd think that they'd ask, wouldn't you? I mean, after saying something like that it was just rude of them not to.
I'm going to make a wild guess and say he's some kind of lawful alignment.
There's obviously evil going on here. Whether he's a villain or an unwitting pawn, you can always count on a shadow to out unnatural creatures. And then there's the red horn, which in most stories would turn out to be the mark of a murderer. I deliberately said "most stories" though, I'm open to it meaning something else. My suspicion meter is now at 11.
How did everypony miss such an obvious threat? Also, they don't have a bargain, they just said, "You'll have to ask Twilight," and Twilight merely said she wasn't ready yet. There's no promise there.
That's harsh, even for Rainbow. Mayor Mare may not be any help with monster attacks, but she seems to do her actual job well enough.
5690556 If you plan on going into quadruple digits, you may have to hand off to the CMC at some point, because the Mane 6 will be too old. (I would be totally okay with that)
5691419 I can't make any promises, but I don't plan to stop just yet. The well's not run dry and my fingers are in good operating condition.
You're got a little... Hitler there. On your forehead.
5691866 No no, he just has very heil standards.
5691362
I had wondered if anyone would figure out what his name meant.
That part was pretty straightforward - his horn is red because it's Sombra's.
The agreement is understood, at least to Lex. He said he'd accompany them until they gave him what he wanted (e.g. a way home), and Twilight said she'd give it to him. Ergo, it's an implicit bargain - his presence (which is understood to be aid and assistance if they're in danger) in exchange for the spell to return to Equestria.
5691656
5692776
Great. The last thing they need is a mage getting possessed by Sombra at the worst possible time...actually, that would be pretty cool.
Except Twilight didn't say she would give it to him. What she actually said was,
(Capital T missing, David)
She implied she might be willing later, but that's far from making a promise.
Add an "h" to her "Yeah" here.
5693825 Fixed! Also, I'm slow. I only just realized your icon...
5693832 Feel reproachful gaze of Lex Legis judging you.