A Dangerous Sparkle

by David Silver

118 - Let's get this Adventure Back on its Rails

No monster had much of a chance against the fully assembled party. The martial and arcane might of their combined talents kept the path clear. Most beasts simply didn't approach, rightfully looking for easier prey. An owlbear attempted to make a move, but learned the error of its way when it tried to fight through a rain of lightning and a savage beating of hooves and claws. To Dash's disappointment, the creature had no coinpurse to take after the battle quickly concluded.

Soft Mane suggested, "You could always take its hide if you wanted."

Rainbow was not that eager to make a few coins, and they proceeded past. Twilight gathered the others around, "Let's not chance any further interruptions. Though I have little doubt in our collective ability to fight, we're not looking for trouble." With a twisting of her magic, two great chariots appeared. She assigned Spike to guide one, while Soft took the other. All the slower members boarded them, and soon they were smoothly pulled silently by horses that looked suspiciously like Celestia and Luna.

Applejack looked to Twilight, "Was... that on purpose?"

Twilight lifted her shoulders, "The spell lets you specify and they're the right size..."

The humor was lost on the Everglow residents, but the speed was appreciated. They arrived back in the town of Yi Sheng quickly. While most of the passengers quickly departed with a word of thanks and little else, Willow fished out a bag of money and gave each of her rescuers a platinum coin. "Always pay your debts if you want to receive service again," she said, sounding like she was quoting some saying. "Good luck in your journeys." She then departed, Sunflower in her grasp.

"Now that we're all here," started Applejack, "We can get on with saving those other ponies?"

Rainbow nodded, "I'm at full speed and ready to kick flank."

"Just remember to exercise caution," warned Lex. "We still don't know anything about what happened, or the suspicious circumstances by which you learned of this."

Twilight nodded, "With everypony gathered there's no reason to delay further. Let's get fresh supplies, then we head out. Meet back here in half an hour."

The group separated out through the town, each with some coin to their name. Rations were topped up, water flasks refilled, hot meals enjoyed quickly, and soon they were ready to set off. "Wish there was time for a bath," complained Spike.

Twilight cast a quick spell and soon everyone present was sparkling clean and even smelled ever so faintly of soap. "There you go. Everypony ready?" She conjured a fresh chariot and hopped aboard. The others were soon with her, though Spike hovered above.

As the chariot began racing across the countryside, born by the royal facsimiles, Rainbow shook her head, "Twi, what would they say if I told them about this?"

Twilight colored lightly, "Why would you do that? I have nothing but respect for Celestia and Luna!"

Soft just then put it together, "By the Sun Queen, you modeled them after your queens!"

"Princesses," corrected Twilight.

Applejack shook her head, "Ah reckon you've been waiting for this too long, Twi."

Twilight grumbled softly, but didn't argue.

Standing as much apart from the others as he could in the close confines of the chariot, Lex was barely paying attention, apparently lost in his own thoughts.

Soft suddenly frowned, "I feel something... odd... I think Lashtada is trying to tell me something, but I don't know how to hear it."

Sonata tilted her head at Soft, "Is it a good thing or a bad thing?"

Soft shrugged softly, "It's a thing."

The chariot made good time, even over the rough terrain presented by the mountain trails, and often the lack of any trail at all. Spike asked, floating over the chariot, "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

Twilight gave a soft huff, "Fly up and look for interesting things. I don't think what we're searching for is going to be that subtle."

Spike gave a shrug before zipping up into the sky. It was several quiet minutes before he returned, "I see more of those hyena people. I think they live by here." He pointed a bit to the right, further down the incline. "Three of them were just coming out of a cave, with two more standing guard."

Applejack nodded, "Good work there, Spike. So how are we doing this?"

Sonata raised a hoof, "I could totally sweet talk them?"

Twilight raised a brow, "With your words or your words?"

Sonata blinked softly, "Huh? I was gonna use my magic and make them talk."

Applejack shook her head, "Why don't we try the straight-forward way first."

Shaking off whatever had been preoccupying him, Lex turned his attention back to the group. "We can't just barge in without a plan. We should reconnoiter the area first, and find out where these endangered ponies are. Those things," he gestured at the ground, "are savages, and won't hesitate to use violence as a first resort."

Sonata bobbed her head with agreement, "Exactly, so I'll put them under my spell and we'll learn what we want to learn without being poked by sharp things." She hopped off the chariot and began the stretch out, "This'll be totally easy."

Lex paused for a fraction of an instant before retorting, "No. If they shake off your magic, or if others show up unexpectedly, things could fall apart." He turned, gesturing to Twilight. "I think that Twilight and I should enter the cave invisibly - I assume you know that spell? - and scout the area before returning here."

Sonata pouted at being told to not go ahead as Twilight looked thoughtful, "I do. It will only last about ten minutes. Do you want me, or someone more physical for backup? Rainbow, for instance, has mobility and physical strength, if you need it, to say nothing of Spike."

Lex shook his head. "We don't know how deep those caves go or how long it will take to explore them. If we're in there for a longer period of time, you'll be able to cast the spell on yourself more than once. It should be the two of us."

Twilight hopped from the chariot, which promptly vanished, dropping the others a few inches to the ground suddenly. "Alright, let's try to do this the smart way." She vanished from sight shortly. "Ready when you are," came her voice from the air.

One Lex had joined her in the unseen, they walked together up to the entrance of the cave. The guards sniffed the air, looking around with confusion, but they hurried past them before they could figure out what was bothering them. The caves were well lit and roughly hewn as if by miners that weren't sure which way they wanted to go. They wandered through the tunnels, staying close together, lest they lose track of the other invisible presence with them.

"Should we try to go up, or down?" came Twilight's hushed whisper, "The tunnels go both ways."

Lex was silent for a moment. "Let's try down. It seems like a more natural place to keep prisoners." He had considered enhancing his senses, but elected to conserve power for now. He'd already used more magic today than he had in well over a week, plus he was still feeling the damage from his miscast spell to feed everypony earlier that morning.

They began to trot downwards into the mountainside, narrowly avoiding several wandering gnolls with heavy mining picks slung over their shoulders. The sound of picks being put to work began to reach their ears. They arrived at a turn off where the sounds were loudest. Twilight softly tapped Lex before moving to peek down the tunnel. At the end of it, in dim light, worked two ponies with picks in their mouths. These ponies were quite small. They had short stubby legs and shaggy fur. Whatever color their fur once had was caked in the dust and grime of the mines.

Twilight reached out until she found Lex again, then whispered, "I think that's them? Or some of them?"

Lex started to nod before realizing the motion was wasted. "Most likely. We should keep searching so that we know where they all are. The more information we have, the better." He paused as something occurred to him, mentally going over how long they had been there before reconsidering. "Actually, let's find someplace isolated. I think we may be pushing our time limit." That was risky, but so was casting a spell openly - even invisible, the chanting would still be plainly audible to anything around. Besides, he wanted to get Twilight alone for a few minutes...

Twilight obliged, tapping him before moving off down a more isolated tunnel. It was completely dark there and smelled as if noone had been around in some time. "We should do it one at a time, so it's less loud. Did you see how small those ponies were? Are they foals? Who would use foals to mine!" Her voice elevated a little before it came back, "It's awful."

"What did you expect from these savages? They probably use their own young to do things like this when they can't bully others to do it for them." Inwardly, Lex cursed at the darkened conditions. This wasn't going to work nearly as well if he couldn't see her! "Twilight, you realize that if we're in total darkness, we won't be able to tell when our invisibility wears off."

There was quiet before a brief spell caused a rock at the end of the cave to glow dimly, showing that both Twilight and Lex were quite visible in the low light, "There we go," whispered Twilight.

Lex nodded, more to himself than to her, before directing his gaze to the lavender alicorn. "Twilight," he started without any preamble, "I think you're pretty."

His face was completely neutral as he awaited her reaction. Saying that to Sonata earlier that morning had had shockingly-positive results, with her all but demanding elaboration. It had been completely beyond his expectations, and that vexed him. Why had that worked so well? He had initially wondered if it was simply Sonata's capricious nature, but that clearly couldn't be the case, since Willow had been the one to suggest that line to him.

After ruminating on it for the better part of an hour, Lex had finally decided that there simply wasn't enough information to make a proper evaluation. He needed to conduct an experiment - try that line on another mare and see how she reacted, using Sonata's reaction as a baseline. Twilight seemed different enough that any commonalities in their reactions could be tentatively considered a general rule.

Twilight adopted a stunned expression. It wasn't actually that far off from Sonata's for a moment before she frowned, "That's very sweet, but I hardly know you. We should focus on the task at hoof and save dating for after ponies are not in danger." If ever, she silently added to the statement, baffled at Lex's sudden approach. Was there something in Everglow's water that made ponies seek out mates?

Lex canted his head to the side inquisitively, pausing for a moment until it became clear that that was the sum total of her reaction. Frowning slightly, he nodded, starting to cast his invisibility spell again. As with the first time he'd used it, he channeled the energy through his body rather than expending the spell directly, so that it would remain prepared in his mind. Doing so caused his muscles to spasm and slacken, but he knew from experience that they'd recover in a few days.

At the moment, he was more concerned with how Twilight had reacted so differently than Sonata. Rather than pressing for more information, she had apparently wanted to drop the topic. Or had she...? Was the phrase "save dating for after" indicative that she wanted to date him now? If so, had Sonata been making the same implication? The possible interpretations were myriad.

Twilight followed suit shortly after, "Let's go." The light went out at her silent command, and they pressed deeper into the tunnels. Following the sounds of mining found more slaves. Most were not the smaller ponies, though there were more of them. The gnolls even seemed to have other, slightly smaller, gnolls enslaved. There were also humans and orcs put to work, hammering away at the stone. Twilight made faces at the sight, though they went unseen. She guided Lex to another out-of-the-way corner to speak, "This whole place is just... terrible. I thought those orcs were bad, but I think I have a new least favorite people in Everglow."

"I agree," he replied softly. "Those in power are supposed to work for the benefit of those without it, not exploit them. This is an insult to basic pony decency." He paused to mentally tally how long they'd been invisible this time. "We've seen enough. We should get back to the others."

Author's Note:

The enemy is known!

Spoiler: It's typos.

Comments

[blindbronyinblack]

I wonder if these are the same gnolls from the train or a different tribe?

Random thought: I wonder how the group would react if they encountered a psionic individual. Twilight would probably go crazy trying to figure out how psionics work.

[David Silver]

5756825 Was it a unicorn psionic? She may not know the difference between it and 'normal' Equestrian magic at a glance.

[Breakfateschain]

Wow... Lex is the most socially inept pony ever

[Borderline Valley]

Lex is playing with fire, and he's going to get burned.

It seems like he doesn't yet realize how much of an enigma to him other people really are. If he did, he ought to know that social experimentation of this sort is much better suited to conditions where continued positive social bonds are not necessary to survival. Making mistakes with people carries the potential for rather catastrophic results, so he should endeavor to stick to his guns until he's out of the woods, not probe outwards into new territory.

Twilight has the right idea. Now's not the time.

Edit:
Also, Lex reminds me of this.

[blindbronyinblack]

5756835
That would depend on the display the power emits, I think. Though if the manifester chose to hide the display it would look like a stilled and silent spell. I guess she would just peg the individual as a very gifted mage instead of thinking a different form of power.

Edit: Though if somepony were to manifest a mind blade, that would be fairly obvious.

[Alzrius]

5756907 If you mean why he said that to Twilight when they were deep in enemy territory, well, he wanted to ask her when they were alone together, since others might interject before she formulated her response, and thus "taint" the results he was trying to achieve. Since Twilight is almost always with her friends (or at least Spike), he had to make do with the opportunity he had.

[Borderline Valley]

5756973
My problem is that it seems like he's trying to model the female mind more generally by getting a second data point, in order to better understand Sonata. Sound in theory, but dangerous in execution, as a second or third data point is dangerous to his continued health, when the subjects are fellow adventurers. It's worse that these people are also his ticket home.

It'd be safer if he put 'understanding Sonata' on hold until they reached Equestria, where he can find a wider variety of less volatile subjects to help get a handle on the mystery of the female mind.

Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to see the powder keg he's lighting.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Interesting. Lex can cast spells without expending the slot by dealing ability damage to himself. Certainly useful. And he continues to be hopeless with social interaction. Heck, it wasn't even the best use of the scientific method; more than one variable has changed. Environmental factors need to be taken into consideration. Still, if anyone can help him, it's the Princess of Friendship. Of course, first he needs to acknowledge that he needs help...

But now isn't the time for such things. Lashtada's people need rescuing. Now, let's just hope that the squishy wizard scouts can sneak out as adeptly as they snuck in, especially with the guards and their noses on alert.

[Alzrius]

5757025 Well, he was more concerned with experimenting on Twilight without interruption. The environmental factor was an issue, to be sure, but there was no other good way to get her alone.

One can only wonder what would have happened if he'd tried that on Rainbow Dash instead.

I'm glad you picked up on his taking ability damage to retain the spell, though. I tried to make that as obvious as I could, but I'm never sure if the message gets across.

[David Silver]

5757112 Pretty sure Rainbow would have laughed, and agreed. She is pretty awesome.

[Alzrius]

5757131 I was pretty sure it would either have been laughter, or a punch in the face.

[Booster Spice]

5756907

I resemble that remark.

Two unknown scents going down unused side tunnels can have good and bad results, giving warning someones been there, butcreating confusion as to what they were doing.

Also a good idea while they can see, to spot the choke points, guard posts, and places that Mr Lizerd wouldnt be happy with again.

Excuse me sir, may I distract you for just a moment? What class armour do those carriages Twilight summon have?

[David Silver]

5757201 Not that high.

[albedoequals1]

An owlbear attempted to make a move, but learned the error of its way when it tried to fight through a rain of lightning and a savage beating of hooves and claws.

extra space and "ways"

All the slower members boarded them, and soon they were smoothly pulled silently by horses that looked suspiciously like Celestia and Luna.

smoothly and silently pulled

While most of the passengers quickly departed with a word of thanks and little else,

What about the cripple? She can't go anywhere without help.

The group separated out through the town with some coin to their name.

"...town, each with some coin..."

Applejack shook her head, "Why don't we try the straight-forward way first."

Magical compulsion is pretty straightforward.

"Twilight," he started without any preamble, "I think you're pretty."

Lex is not controlling all the variables. For someone so concerned with science, he's really bad at it. Also, if he refused Twilight's recommendation for a more balanced scouting force just so he could do a social experiment, he owes Sonata an apology for everything he said about her intelligence.

[David Silver]

5757397 Fixed, except Lex. Lex is beyond my powers.

[albedoequals1]

5757410 Lex's problem isn't a typo anyway. I was just calling him out on his hypocrisy. Actually, when he wanted to get Twilight alone, I half expected him to stab her or steal her body or something.

[Alzrius]

5757397

Lex is not controlling all the variables. For someone so concerned with science, he's really bad at it.

He's controlling the variables as best he can - it's an imperfect situation, and he knows it. Some knowledge, even if it's possibly flawed, is better than none at all.

Also, if he refused Twilight's recommendation for a more balanced scouting force just so he could do a social experiment, he owes Sonata an apology for everything he said about her intelligence.

His reasoning was sound for that - he and Twilight were able to sneak around and scout very well, and were able to renew their invisibility spells because they were spellcasters. He was able to kill two birds with one stone.

[terrycloth]

5756945 In 3.5 we always played with the rule that magic and psionics were the same thing (as much as arcane and divine magic is the same thing -- dispel magic works on it, etc.). But that was an optional rule.

[Alzrius]

5758143 Actually, that wasn't an optional rule; that was the default. "Psionics are different" (where the two aren't transparent) was the optional version.

[Vutava]

They arrived back in the town of Yi Sheng quickly.

Yisheng.

"Alright, let's try to do this the smart way."

What kind of murder-hobo adventurer are you?

We should focus on the task at hoof and save dating for after ponies are not in danger."

Awkward phrasing.

[redmar]

Lex seems to be totally ignorant about how social interactions work. Even Twilight at the start of the show didn't think that ponies behave like robots.

[Alzrius]

7715837 You're right about Lex not understanding how social graces function, but there's a key thing to note: not only does he not understand them, but he has serious trouble detecting them, in addition to interpreting them. He knows that they don't function according to the same set of criteria that he has, but is unable to understand what those criteria are, which is maddening for him.

[Autumn Maize]

The sound of picks being put to work began to each their ears.

Enemy spotted. Deploying 'r' suggested.

[David Silver]

8084526 R is inbound. Munitions unlocked. Engaging the enemy.

[Crystal Treasure]

had much (+of) a chance against

"Always pay your debts if you want to receive service again," she said, sounding like she was quoting some saying.

And now I'm thinking that Purrsians and Ferengi have a lot in common. Do Purrsians have a Rules of Acquisition book?

[Silent_Knight]

Ur auther notees state u rlly h8 typtoes :P

[David Silver]

9251427
Oh god, they've gained the will to rise up and communicate. Run!