• Published 29th Dec 2014
  • 9,519 Views, 3,428 Comments

A Dangerous Sparkle - David Silver



Twilight Sparkle botches a spell and ends up in a whole new realm of danger and adventure, where the land is ruled by a much more pragmatic pony empire, ruled by a very mortal queen. A Ponyfinder crossover.

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52 - Getting to the Core of the Problem

The group pushed ahead into what had been the storage area for the kitchen above. Rooms were twisted and disjointed, with some new ones apparently being churned out of the earth around them. It was in these new places that resistance grew fiercest. As they trotted past one such place, the entire wall reached out a hand towards them far larger than any of them.

Pinkie gave an artful spring out of the way as she shouted, "Everypony run!" Though few of the others were inspired to immediately run, they could feel the bard's magic filling them with supernatural speed.

Soft Mane backed away from it slowly despite the speed, fearing it would lash at her. Fortunately Long Road and Spike were heading for it. Their moving forms attracting its attention, but it only had time to aim one titanic brush of its hand. For its stature, it was a soft tap. For Spike, a sudden stop to his flight as he was crushed to the ground under the weight. Twilight let out a shriek of alarm as powerful energy gathered around her body and horn. She was pushed backwards by the force of her rage fueled bolt of electric fury, driving the hand free of the quickly scampering Spike.

Long Road drove his sword into the beast, only to grunt in frustration, "It's a tough one. Spike, we need you." The donkey's blade had barely cut off a tiny sliver of the great stone beast, barely wounding it. Overcome with worry, Soft Mane paused in her retreat and instead advanced with healing magic at her finger tips. The healing spell came naturally to her and flowed easily into Spike just before the dragon surged forward to the emboldening sounds of Pinkie's battle ballad.

The towering elemental swung its great rocky clubs of arms at Long Road, knocking him back under the onslaught, but he pushed back, slashing as well he could. The golden light of his divine fervor shimmered as he held himself together as best he could. Spike dug one of his claws into it with a powerful thrust, holding on tightly as it began to shake him around. The other claw pierced the stone, making his grip secure. In a flash he lashed out, slashing it with his teeth before driving his horns deep at the creature, though the flailing made the headbutt fall short of its mark.

Pinkie began playing in the Hall of the Mountain King before she drew out a small cannon from nowhere and let loose a sudden blast of glitter into what appeared to be its face. It reared back with Spike, roaring in defiance as the glitter blinding it, making it flail just over Long's head and drive Spike inches from the nearest wall with its thrashing.

Spike grinned, "Got em where we want em!" he cried. He tried to keep his grip, but its flailings were getting to be too much, so he let go and focused on slashing sweeps instead, knocking great chunks of the beast free with every powerful lunge. Twin rays of fire curled around him to strike the beast from Twilight's pointed horn, adding to the blinded elemental's pain.

Long Road came in under it while it struggled with Spike, working at it's 'belly' with his blade. "Night Mare take it, it doesn't have a weak spot to be found."

"When that fails," says Spike, "Hit it harder." He dove in where an arm met a shoulder and sunk his teeth into it, worrying against the hardened flesh. Mmm, this one had a very nice taste. It was kind of like zucchini with butter? He let go only to clamp down again in slightly different spot. The arm fell free of the beast with a thunderous crash.

Pinkie Pie let out a loud cheer, "Good job disarming him!" before she went back to the Halls of the Mountain King with a big grin, even if soft groans were the result of her obvious pun.

Twilight projected bright pink bolts into the bulk of the creature. "Do these things know how to give up?" she asked as she backed away from it slowly.

Long Road huffed, "No, I don't think they do." He drove his sword into the center of the bulk, and the assault proved too much. The beast began to fall apart in thunderous crashes of heavy rocks. Long Road and Spike were quickly away, lest they get crushed by the defeated elemental.

Soft Mane clapped with joy, then stopped, as did all the others. The walls were bending and flexing in a most unnatural way. With the force of a released rubber band, everything snapped back to where it once stood, with orderly hallways and shelves full of food. The hole that hid the huge elemental was simply gone, returned to its natural state of a wall. "I guess he was it," said Soft Mane. "We did it!"

Twilight reached a hoof to ruffle Soft Mane's hair, "Yes we did. Very good job, everypony."

Soft Mane grew pink, not with a blush, but with a burst of healing energy. Pinkie helped her with encouraging words and her patented 'Pinkie Pat' that soon had their brave warriors ready to go.

Twilight looked towards Long Road, "Long."

He directed an ear at her, "Yes, Miss Sparkle."

"You can say Twilight. We are friends," she corrected, "And can you do that healing? Firing those extra strength spells knocks it out of a mare."

Long Road hesitated a moment before reaching out and tapping Twilight on the shoulder. A burst of gold dispelled the tiredness from her with a sigh of relief from the mare. "Thank you, Long. That's a lot better."

Long smiled at her, "Anything to help, Twilight. That was a tough beast we took down. It hit like a runaway cart with each of its arms."

Spike landed beside Long, "You're telling me? Man, that thing was huge!"

Soft Mane beamed brightly, "But not too huge for my knight. You showed it a lesson or three." She grabbed one of his claws, squeezing it between her soft hands.

Spike blushed at the compliment and the affection, "Ah, yea. My training's really paying off. Come on, let's go get paid."

Twilight raised a hoof, "And read those books!"

Pinkie tilted her head, "I almost forgot all about those. Well let's get out of this basement and have ourselves a celebration!" She bounced to the ladder first and began to climb it. Even with Pinkie's eagerness, Spike beat her to the top and began to knock out the code.

The guard cracked open the trap door and poked in his head. When the stallion was satisfied all had returned to normal, he allowed the Returners of the Dawn to ascend into the kitchen. "We have to do a review before we can pay."

"Review?" asked Twilight, "You can see the disturbance is cleared out."

He nodded, "I can confirm that, but battles are messy things, and unbalances can be damaging in themselves. We have to assess the damage done."

Long Road huffed softly, "And deduct it from our pay, I imagine?"

"Unfortunately yes," spoke the guard stallion. "It shouldn't take more than a day to perform the inspection. We'll have your gold waiting for you at the gate."

He began to try to herd them back out of the castle when Twilight asked, "We needed to visit the archives to read the books. We had an appointment."

"Terribly sorry, ma'am, but the librarians and most others were already given the day off," he explained as he led them down the stairs into the first floor of the castle. "There is no one to pony the library. Maybe tomorrow, when you come for the payment?" His words had no confidence in them, but his herding was without doubt. He soon had the group ejected with polite insistence onto the front porch of the castle.

Spike snapped two claws together, "After all that, denied."

Pinkie gave a little shrug before she draped herself over Spike like a jacket, somehow avoiding impaling herself on the dragon's sharp spines, "Don't be sad. We can come back when they aren't having an infestation of bad things."

They walked back to the gate, where the guards saluted them but otherwise let them pass quietly back into the streets. Twilight grunted softly, "If we weren't being paid for that, I'd almost say it was a waste of time."

Pinkie gasped and bumped into Twilight forcefully from the side, "Twilight! We did the right thing cause it's the right thing to do. Don't forget we're heroes, of Equestria, and anywhere."

Twilight flushed with a little shame as she gave a nervous chuckle, "Yea... you're right. I'm sorry, Pinkie. I got carried away with this Seeker business."

Soft Mane shook her head, "Twilight just wants to help me. It's ok Twilight, we can read up on Lashtada later." She moved over to Twilight, "As punishment though, I am riding you home." Twilight gave a sour look but did not stop Soft Mane from mounting her.

With a grunt, Twilight began moving, "How do you make this look so easy?" she asked Long Road, "She's heavy with all that armor."

Soft Mane softly flicked Twilight's left ear, "I can hear you calling me fat."

Long Road gave a soft chuckle, "You get used to it after a while, Twilight. She only rides those she trusts deeply."

Twilight's complaints were stilled by those words, looking thoughtful as she wended her way through the city with the others.

Spike drifted alongside her, speaking to Soft Mane, "You did great, Soft. I thought for sure you'd run away when that huge thing came at us."

Soft Mane pouted at the mixed compliment, "Why would I run away? You think I'm scared of everything?"

Spike waved dismissively, "Because it could have squished you like a bug? We can't all be awesome dragons that can take a hit like that. I was seeing stars. I don't even want to think what it would have done if it swatted you like that."

Soft Mane squirmed a little atop Twilight, "You were worried for me?"

Spike nodded quickly, "Of course. We're friends. I don't want you to get hurt, Soft."

She held out her hands for a hug. Spike looked suddenly less than sure, but came in and gave it. He dipped a claw low, drawing out a squeak from Soft before she was suddenly hauled up off of Twilight. Spike held her carefully as he zipped up away from the others. He took her home with a rush of wind and a great view, though Soft Mane barely noticed either as she curled in his arms until they landed. He set her down on her hooves and rushed away without a word, soon lost to the sky.

Soft Mane ran a still quivering hand through her own hair as she watched him go, letting out a slow sigh of contentment.

Author's Note:

MISSION COMPLETE, and yet still denied in the end. Ah well, no one said it would be easy.

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