A Dangerous Sparkle

by David Silver

78 - Water Paddling

The train came to a smooth halt with no station in sight. The conductor slid open the door half a minute later, nodding at the passengers, "It's all clear, your highness. You can disembark when you're ready. I'll... stay here and keep the train ready."

Twilight nodded at him quickly, "Thank you." Her gaze returning to her friends swiftly, "Alright, let's get to work! Spike, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, come here." She tapped the ground with a hoof. Soon the three were assembled and with her magic she made them vanish from sight, "First step, scout. Fluttershy, talk with the smaller elementals. Rainbow and Spike, look and see. No attacking, No assaults. We'll launch the attack tomorrow when we have all the information. Today is about getting that information. Got it?"

A chorus of agreement came from the three, Fluttershy practically unheard between the other two. They were gone with the sound of wings, leaving the others behind. Twilight looked to her other allies with a smile, "Now we wait."

Fluttershy approached the lake that had formed at the base of the Neighagra falls. The water fell from an incredible high above, creating the famous sight. She wished that she could just watch it, and perhaps find some of the local critters that lived in such a special place. Her eyes fell on her target, a small watery creature. It was little more than a tiny wave that lapped at the edge of the water. It was almost... cute. "Hello there," she softly called to it. "Can I talk to you a moment?"

The watery creature jerked in surprise, becoming an upright shower of water that blurbled like a fountain. It didn't flee at least, "I didn't mean to surprise you," insisted the invisible Fluttershy in her kind tones, "I won't hurt you, little thing." She gestured for it to come closer, though it had no chance of seeing the motion. "I just need an eeeency favor, if you wouldn't mind."

The water creature began to blurble more pointedly, to bubble and pop wetly. Though there were no Equestrian words in it, Fluttershy could feel the meaning in them. She nodded her head, "I promise. Can you find the big water creature? The biggest one? Oh, no, don't make it mad, I wouldn't want you to be hurt. That would be just awful." The water creature seemed to relax at Fluttershy's concern, blubbing at her questioningly. "Yes, just find it and tell me where it was and what it looks like, please. I know it's a terrible inconvenience. You don't have to."

With the sound of a large bubble popping, the water elemental rushed into the waves where it became invisible against the water surrounding it. There was little more to do but wait, so Fluttershy landed and watched the pond.

---

Spike and Rainbow Dash did quick survey of the area. "I can't see anything," reported Spike. "Just a few of them at the edge."

"Well, yea," came the annoyed voice of Rainbow from the air, "I bet they're all hiding in the water, waiting for something to show up."

Spike lowered slightly, "Well maybe I should look down there then?" He could hear the sound of Rainbow flying closer.

"As awesome as your flying may be, do you think that's a good idea?"

Spike snorted with a smile, "Rainbow Dash is lecturing me on safety."

"Yea yea," came her voice, "I just don't want my favorite dragon pal getting beat up. How are we going to fight this thing anyway, in the water?"

Spike peered into the dark waters as he considered, "Think we can lure it out? Then Twilight could blast it!"

"Did she get better at blasting things?" asked Rainbow, "I mean, you got better at, you know... dragonny things."

Spike made an expansive gesture that couldn't be seen, "You should see it. She can make lightning bolts that put most of the ones that come from your clouds to shame, and rip open holes in the ground filled with spikes!"

"Woah, what? No way," said Rainbow skeptically, "Like with a book right?"

"Nuh uh," replied Spike defiantly, "She can just, you know, do it, like a snap of a finger." He snapped his claws, making the sound from nowhere.

"Awesome," agreed Rainbow, "Well let's do that then, cause I wanna see that!"

Spike could hear Rainbow quickly flying back towards the train and zipped after her.

---

The three scouts had returned to the train car, then visible. Rainbow shook her head, "Couldn't see much from the sky. We're pretty sure most of the water things are, you know, in the water. On the plus side, we didn't see any dragons or other things."

Fluttershy looked around at the gathered party nervously, "Well, I... The little ones have a request."

Rarity spoke up with confusion, "A request? Darling, I didn't know they could have requests."

"Oh," said Fluttershy, "They're quite smart. The little ones feel bullied by the larger ones and were hoping they could, you know... stay, if it isn't too much of a problem... They promise to behave."

Twilight shook her head, "I'm not sure how good an idea that is. Equestria has enough troubles without new residents. How do we know they won't cause trouble?"

Pinkie stuck out her tongue, "Aw come on girls. They just want a chance! We shouldn't say no to new friends." She then raised a hoof, "Remember Zecora."

Long Road sighed, "The friend that you didn't rescue yesterday?" When Pinkie's expression fell, he apologized, "I didn't mean to bring such pain, Pinkie. We'll rescue her."

Soft Mane lifted her shoulders, "Well, I vote we give them a chance to be good neighbors. We can always come back for them if we need to."

"Is it that easy?" asked Twilight, "Won't fixing things send them back anyway?"

Fluttershy spoke up, in her own soft way, "They said they will run as far as they can when we fight. They can't stay away for too long, but it should be enough to be here afterwards. All they want... is a chance. If you won't do it, I won't tell you what they told me."

Rarity approached Fluttershy, putting a hoof on her shoulder, "You are something else, dear. If you feel this strongly, I suppose we have no choice. Hopefully, they will just add to Neighagra's charms."

The rest nodded in agreement and Fluttershy began to smile, "Oh thank goodness... The biggest, meanest, rudest one lives in a cave underwater. The little ones can draw the meanie out and will rush past us, bringing it after them. They'll keep running, and then... we fight, I mean... you fight..." She shrank in place a little, looking ill prepared to actually battle. "If that's OK."

Twilight nodded, "That sounds like a plan. Let's draw it away from the train, just in case. From what I remember, it won't have any particular weaknesses. Depending on how large it is, it can and will try to crush a pony. Keep away from the water, it's strongest there. If it runs away, let it. It'll be easier to get it back out than to lose any of you."

Soft Mane raised a hand, "If you're hurt, go to me or Pinkie. We'll make it all better."

Pinkie threw a hoof around Soft Mane's shoulders, "We're healing buddies!"

With the plans set, they departed the train. Rarity lagged behind, "I imagine you'll have this well in hoof, Twilight darling." She was in no rush to enter melee with a water creature. Just thinking about what it could do to her mane and tail made her shudder softly.

Fluttershy was the first to the coast, as the others stayed back on dry land. She splashed softly at the water until a little wave poked free. "Hello," she said softly, "They agreed." It seemed to blurble excitedly, "Yes it is wonderful. Are you all ready? Will you be careful? I don't want any little ones getting hurt." It blubbed singly. "Well, OK... We're ready." She returned to the group, then past it, soon joining Rarity.

At first the pond was just... quiet. They watched it expectantly as they prepared. Pinkie produced a trumpet and began playing a rousing piece, filling the others with a ready energy to battle. Twilight began to use her strange new magic. A barely visible disk of force began to float beside her, then she wrapped her friends in glowing armor made of the same lavender as her coat, including herself at last. The glowing effect faded rapidly, leaving barely visible purple armor of magic around the combatants.

Waiting impatiently, Twilight focused her magic into a bubble of energy around herself,, "Is it coming?" she asked, glancing over shoulder at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy bobbed her head, "Maybe it's really deep... or maybe they're in trouble. Oh no... what? The big mean one is hurting the little ones?" She collapsed and hid her face in her hooves, looking horrified at the idea.

The surface of the pond suddenly became a frothing fury of activity. Small water elementals swarmed out around the ponies, most rushing past without looking back, though one paused long enough to peer at its would-be saviors, though it had no eyes, or even a head. It rushed past them like a wave that forgot it shouldn't work on land.

Following behind them came a veritable tsunami that crashed on the shores, giving a deep blurble of anger as it lashed out with fury. Pinkie gave a sudden jump out of the way of an incoming watery pseudopod, her playing unimpeded. Long Road charged forward at it as a bright stroke of Twilight's lightning caught it in the center of its mass, boiling away the water with an angry hiss.

Rainbow Dash and Spike were just after Long Road. Despite it being made of water, it proved just as resilient to their blows as any rock beast. It would flow and wobble around the strikes, refusing to take any hit solidly. Long Road and Spike, trained in dealing with such things, swung slower but powerful blows to drive their weapons into the beast as best they could. Rainbow became frustrated at the lack of response from her flailing and took off into the sky, "Be right back!" Leaving her friends in the melee below, she grabbed the darkest cloud she could find and quickly pushed it down towards the battle. "Now you get to taste some pegasus fury," she said with a satisfied smirk as she hopped up onto the cloud and stomped her hooves on it just so. With a clap of thunder, the elemental was struck by a painful blast of the cloud's pent up energy. The creature began to melt in place, oozing out in all directions with a defeated blurble, "Aw yea! Did we win?"

With a soft shudder, the land returned to as it was, the lake retreated from the shore almost two feet to where it was before things went crazy. "I believe so," said Long Road. "I didn't know you were a weather pony, Miss Dash."

"What?!" exclaimed Rainbow before she flew down through the cloud to stand beside her friends, "I'm only the best weather pony in Equestria!"

Pinkie tilted her head as she tucked away the trumpet, "I thought you were the fastest, Dashie."

"That's what I said," replied Rainbow with a shrug.

Twilight smiled brightly, "Good job, everypony. No one even got hurt."

Spike saluted, "We were way too much for that guy. I only hope Manehatten's so easy."

A soft murmur was heard that grew in volume as the small elementals returned like the receding tide. Several stopped beside Fluttershy, bubbling and burbling something at her before moving on to the water. Rarity, still standing beside Fluttershy, asked, "Whatever did they say, Flutter dear?"

Fluttershy peeked out from behind her hooves, "Oh! They, uh, said thank you, and they promise to take good care of the falls." Fluttershy rose to her hooves and looked around, "Is everypony OK?"

Rarity nodded at her, "Not a scratch. Our brave warriors were ever so dashing."

"Like me?" asked Rainbow.

Rarity smiled at her, "Of course, darling. You were all fine examples of Equestrian warriors. Now let's get back on the train."

Author's Note:

A bit of a quick fight, but there's another minor unbalance to take care of before they hit Manehatten, assuming all goes well. Fluttershy stands her ground and gets Equestria a few new immigrants, for better or worse.

All the splashed water may have smudged the ink a little, be wary of typos.

Comments

[Mad Maudlin]

Hmmm... Flutters is totes a nature themed Summoner.

[Hilltopper2]

Or a druid multiclass.

[David Silver]

5603598 On the cover of Ponyfinder, I see a warrior pony in armor, a purrsian also wearing some kind of chest kind of covering, and the pink/red unicorn that I don't see any clothing on, so that's 66% clothing in that one picture. The next picture in the book rates in at 100% dressed. The conventions do vary with profession and location. Cities are much more picky about not being nudists. If you want to go to the show(you don't have to), city ponies there also tend to be dressed more often than not.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, that went well. Though I worry that the continued presence of the smaller water elementals will maintain the imbalance. Remember what happened when Fluttershy thought it wouldn't hurt to keep just one parasprite...

Only one smudge, but it's a curious one:

I won't hurt you little thing.

There's a missing comma here, and it could go either before or after the "you."

[David Silver]

5606395 Fixed! And surely this will have no consequences at all.

[David Silver]

5606859 Hey, they can get things done off screen.

[albedoequals1]

giving a deep blurble of fury as it lashed out with fury

Not actually a mistake, but it might be more effective with only one "fury"

[David Silver]

5609154 Adjusted.

[Dagan4d2]

Oh no... what the big mean one is hurting the little ones?

Fluttershy has much more gooder grammars than these.

[David Silver]

5803597 Darn you missing punctuation! Fixed.

[Dagan4d2]

5803621 I thought that it was supposed to be "...What if the big one..."

I don't know anymore.

[Seeking Dusk]

Elementals can be bones to an environment. Hopefully the little guys hanging around stays on the bone side of matters and not shift to the bane.

[Bugsydor]

Ok, incorporating periods of rest assuages my worries there. Guess I wasn't thinking enough like a magical murder hobo an adventurer.

Would Fluttershy happen to be that elemental druid archetype you came up with?

[Seraphimus]

I kinda like the idea that not all of the elementals are mean. ALso FLutters is shaping up to be a really good druid summoner

[Chrome Masquerade]

Spike snorted with a smile, "Rainbow Dash is lecturing me on safety."

That's when you KNOW it isn't a good idea.