A Dangerous Sparkle

by David Silver

72 - Fluttershy Reports

The door opened into the room that held Soft Mane. She was seated on the comfortable bed, legs swinging. She looked up when the door opened to see a butter yellow pegasus peek in. Soft raised a hand in a soft wave at the new pony and received a nod for it.

"Hi," she tried, mildly unnerved that the pegasus was still peeking through the crack of the door and not coming or going. "I'm Soft Mane, what's your name?"

That drew her in. She closed the door behind herself and landed, walking towards Soft with timid, uncertain steps, "I have seen many creatures of Equestria, but never one quite like you." She confessed this as she tried to walk in a wide circle around Soft Mane, examining her, "Are you a pony minotaur?"

Soft hopped to her hooves, making the new pegasus jump back in surprise. "I'm a human pony. Pony on the mother's side. And you are a pegasus. Now that we know everyone's species," she rolled her eyes as she said this, "can I get your name?"

The pegasus nodded faintly, "Oh, I'm Fluttershy. Twilight told me all about humans from beyond the mirror portal. Did you come from there?"

Soft Mane snapped her fingers, "Fluttershy! Twilight mentioned you. You're one of her best friends. It's nice to meet you." She thrust a hand towards Fluttershy, who flinched but did not retreat. After an awkward moment the hand was met with a hoof and they softly shook.

"I was about to go see her," said Fluttershy. "The guards said there was a new creature in here and I wanted a peek."

Soft Mane snorted in annoyance. "I'm a guest, not an attraction," she contended. "But that's not your fault. Please take me with you. I want to be with the others, doing things, not hiding in here like a little child."

Fluttershy tilted her head a little, "You sound like a child?" At Soft Mane's flat expression, she continued on, "But you can come with me."

"Great! Let me just throw on a shirt." Soft Mane had been naked the entire time, not that this is very unusual for the pony species. She snatched the undershirt from her shed armor and pulled it on and together with Fluttershy, they went off in search of Twilight.

---

Twilight and the others had retired inside to a war room. The map of Equestria was a permanent enchantment that shone brightly in the otherwise dim room.

"Princess," asked Twilight, getting the attention of both sisters, "Didn't anypony try... fighting back, until now? Has it been a holding pattern while I was away?"

Luna nodded, "While the solar guards have focused largely on the well being of the citizens, the lunar ones have had limited success in scouting the enemy. We know much more now than we did before. In addition, your friends, the former element bearers, could not be stopped from their own actions."

A bright streak of rainbow throw open the door, allowing light in as it collided with Twilight, knocking her to the ground under a grinning Rainbow Dash, "Ha! Wait, is this Twilight?" Twilight's slightly off proportions threw off the pegasus, but she didn't have much chance to ponder it as Long Road advanced on her with a quickly drawn blade.

"Peace," said Celestia, "This is Rainbow Dash, friend of Twilight. Rainbow, this is indeed Twilight."

Twilight bobbed her head from underneath Rainbow before reaching up and pulling her friend into a tight hug, "I missed you so much!" The embrace was soon returned. Though Rainbow will never admit it, she shed a few drops of liquid pride onto the lavender coat of her long lost friend.

Spike waved a claw, "Hey RD."

Rainbow came out of her hug to look at Spike, mouth going agape. While Twilight changed in many subtle ways, Spike was much more drastic. As big as a pony, with real spikes instead of soft fins. Did he have actual muscle tone now? "Woah Spike, looking good!" She flashed him a bright grin, "You didn't go on a greed binge again, did you?"

Spike struck a heroic pose, "I had to grow fast to protect the Lady Sparkle."

Rainbow snorted into laughter at the cheesy line as she helped Twilight back to her feet. "Oh Spike, don't ever change. Who's the new guy?" She directed a hoof at Long Road, "And where's Pinkie?"

Long Road, having sheathed his blade, responded. "Miss Pie is planning a party," Rainbow rolled her eyes at that, but he continued, "and I am Long Road, Twilight Sparkle's Knight."

Rainbow approached Long Road with a skeptical expression. She flew around him, leaving bands of rainbows, "Twi, you kidding? Celestia gets gold armor, Luna gets that cool purple stuff and bat wing motif, and you go for a donkey?"

Twilight stomped a hoof, "You stop that right this instant, Rainbow Dash. He is my friend, and a fine warrior on top of that. Donkey, pony, or dragon." She directed towards Spike lightly, "My court is the court of friendship. We're going to judge people on their merit, not their species."

Rainbow held up her front hooves and waved them placatingly, "Take a chill pill, Twi. If you say he's awesome, I'll take your word for it. Hey Long, nice to meet you." She thrust a hoof at Long Road, who met it in a bumping of hooves. "So are you here to help us fight all the crazy stuff going down? 'Cause I already have a head start on you."

Spike blinked, "You have? What have you been up to, RD?"

Rainbow Dash fluffed out her feathers as she landed, looking proud as she reported, "I cleared Trottingham, and helped get the ponies out of Baltimare. You should have seen it! It spread a lot faster there and the ponies thought they were goners, but I was all fwoosh!" She started gesturing her dramatic flying moves, "Woosh! It took like three days to get everypony out of the city, but they couldn't stop me!"

Celestia nodded, pointing at the clear patch around Trottingham, "Rainbow Dash's heroic efforts have given us Trottingham, where we can house many of the displaced ponies."

"Aw man," said Rainbow Dash excitedly, "You should have seen what Flutter's been up to."

As if summoned, the already opened door was darkened by the presence of the named pegasus, with Soft Mane beside her. Soft Mane closed the door behind them, "I found Fluttershy."

Rainbow zipped over only to stop, peering at Soft Mane with confusion written clearly on her face. "Are... you another of Twilight's friends?"

"My name," said Soft Mane, "Is Soft Mane, and yes. Nice to meet you... Rainbow Dash, right?"

Soft Mane's offered hand was met by Rainbow's hooves, using two to hold the hand and shake it up and down, "Ha! Even new ponies have heard of the amazing Dash! Nice to meet you, Soft, and good job bringing Fluttershy here." She was on Fluttershy next, hovering above her, "Go on Fluttershy, tell Twilight what you've been doing."

Fluttershy looked increasingly self-conscious, shuffling on her hooves, "Well, I..."

Twilight moved up to give Fluttershy a soft hug, getting a squeak from her before she began to relax. "I missed you, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy returned the embrace, "The princesses and Zecora said you were alright, but I missed you too, Twilight." If Fluttershy found anything odd about Twilight's appearance, she did not voice it. "So, um... I learned the smaller ones can be talked to... like my animal friends. They've been helping us, but they can't fight the big ones."

Spike clapped his claws together, "That's awesome! We can use all the help we can get."

Fluttershy blinked at the changed Spike, but her mind swiftly moved on, "The dragons don't like what's going on... I... talked to them."

Twilight jerked back in surprise, "I thought you were scared stiff of dragons."

Fluttershy quickly nodded, "Oh, I am, but it was very important. So... I talked to them anyway... They are ready to go, but need to know where to... attack."

Twilight flopped onto her haunches, "It sounds like you all have this under control."

Celestia shook her head, "We moved ahead with plans and backups. How could we not? But your presence, Twilight, will make this faster and smoother. We will risk less lives of pony and dragon warriors with their new princess to lead them."

Twilight shook her head, "All you have to do is find the biggest, meanest looking thing in the disturbance and teach it a lesson, then the rest go away with it. If we have the support of the dragons, we just have to find the targets."

Luna gave a light smile, "Then your mission has become more clear. Have you learned magics that will help you with this?"

Twilight considered a moment before nodding. She reached over and poked Long Road with her horn with a few strange words, and he faded away.

"I don't think," said Celestia, "Teleportation is going to help you scout."

Long Road's voice spoke from where he had vanished, "I am still here, m'lady."

Spike raised a finger, "That won't work in places where earth elementals took over."

Luna looked towards Spike, "I fail to see why not. Tis a most interesting trick."

Twilight nodded in agreement with Spike, "He's right. They feel through the ground and will know something invisible is creeping through them. But for the others, we can scout freely and direct our allies."

She hopped up, fore hooves on the table, and peered at Ponyville and its ugly brown smear, "Figures."

Spike poked Twilight in her side, "Ahem, you're forgetting something. Some of us never touch the ground if we don't want to."

Twilight brightened, "You're right! If we make Rainbow or you invisible, they won't know you're coming at all. This reminds me, Rainbow, how did you defeat the mess over Trottingham?"

Rainbow tilted her head a bit, "Huh, oh! You shoulda seen it! There were these tornadoes everywhere! They kept trying to knock me out of the sky and beat me around, but I wasn't having any of it. I'd punch one, and kick another, but they just kept coming. I thought 'It's now or never!' and I don't do never, so I went flying in on the center of all the tornadoes and boom I sonic rainboomed all over them. Just like that." She clapped her fore hooves together, "Cleared."

Author's Note:

Two more of the mane six arrive, and battle plans quickly start shaping up!

In the darkness of the war room, typos could be hiding.

Comments

[RadicalDishonesty]

I'm uncommonly excited to see more responses from the mane six to Twilight and Spike, and such. But first they've gotta get busy.

I wonder... the smaller Elementals can be reasoned with, but when the nexus is destroyed so are they... or are they just returned to their source plane?

[Mad Maudlin]

5579964

It's usually the case that Outsiders can only be killed permanently on their home plane.

Depending on setting and GM. So theres, like, a 50% chance they're just banished.

[terrycloth]

Sonic Rainboom banishes air elementals?

It makes sense that Rainbow would have fought them -- she's always going after unnatural weather, even if she's badly outmatched.

And I guess Fluttershy is a dr00d?

[RadicalDishonesty]

5580156
Aha. My D20 fantasy kung-fu is weak. It has been too long.

[David Silver]

5580182 Fluttershy is best and worst diplomat.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, I'm appeased.
...oh geez, now I feel kind of bad. Still, I was definitely not expecting Fluttershy to pull ambassador duty for the dragons. Certainly not for the smaller elementals. Very nicely done!

In any case, good to have the gang back together. Awesome things lie on the horizon, and I'm looking forward to them. Soft Mane and Long Road just needs to put up with Applejack's inevitable reaction. And that of any troops that might be following them. And bystanders...
Well, Long Road may be used to it, but Soft's patience is definitely going to be tested.

In any case, looking forward to more.

Also, typo found:

...but she didn't have much chance to ponder it as Long Sword advanced on her with a quickly drawn blade.

A bit of weapon/donkey confusion there.

[David Silver]

5580409 It's easy to confuse the two, what with the donkey being a weapon all on his own, and preferring a long sword.

Thanks for the nice thoughts!

[F0lkL0re]

You know I'm wondering where Discord is in all this and how the folk from Everglow will react to him.

[David Silver]

5581602 That is a most excellent question. Where did that chaos master get off to?

[Bugsydor]

named pegasi

named pegasus

Leave it to RD to find the biggest, meanest thing in an area and buck it's face in.

[David Silver]

5868969 Fixed!

[Not so New Brony]

Rainbow Sonic Rainboomed a tornado/wind elemental out of existence...now that is awesome.

[Seraphimus]

6840706 I can totally see Dash doing that. She's a weather pony, out of control tornadoes? Not on her watch.

[Shadow Lance]

5868976 so does twilight look any diffrent?