Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver

251 - How Dare

Though Silver had carried her in, Nefertari led the way out, scowling. "The nerve... The power..." She slammed a paw against a wall as they went, just shy of damaging it. "This is growing too complicated."

Silver waited until she was outside in the sun before moving to match her stride at her side. "What happened in there?"

"I met a female that needs your touch." Nefertari smiled cockily. "Add her to your harem and you'll be--"

"--Stop that," cut in Silver with an equine snort. "What happened?"

Nefertari grew quiet as she stormed through the streets, seething almost audibly. "It was a mistake," she broke her silence with, glancing aside at Silver. "I thought to come as an equal. Maybe you were a bad influence. This changes."

Silver bumped against her as they walked. "The female you spoke about, was it the one running the cult?"

"Could be." Nefertari stopped suddenly, just to be on top of Silver. He never saw her climb or jump, she just was, mounted on him firmly with her legs squeezing either side. His royally-enhanced height allowed her to not look too foolish in the effort. "If she is, our task is that much more dangerous." She arched a brow as she stalked. "You might like her. Bipedal, feline." She leaned in closer to Silver's long ears. "She has breasts."

Silver swiveled one of those ears, lightly thwapping her in the motion. "Most bipedal females do, I've noticed since coming here." A quick glance around revealed several females that lent support to the idea. "Why the sudden turnaround? I have a wife literally riding me, and half a dozen more waiting at home. I have more than enough for a few lifetimes, I think?"

Nefer nudged him with her heels. "We have to get our things and move. Too many know where we are."

"I imagine they do. We were trying to be noticed before." Silver glanced over his shoulders at her. "Where will we go?"

A gruff female voice shouted, "watch where you're going!"

Silver danced to the right, narrowly avoiding a large cart that took up most of the street they were on.

Nefer tapped him on the head lightly. "One, someone has a rumor of marrying one of every species he befriends. Two, I know a safe place, but speaking of it in the public is how it becomes unsafe." She sprawled out across his back. "You never did select an umbrum partner, come to think. Too unsightly for you?"

"They're like changelings," replied Silver as he resumed their journey. "They can be very cute, or equally terrifying, if they want. They're powered by fear, so I'm not sure how well I could provide for them. I try to be too stubborn to spook."

"You were quite scared before." Nefer's eyes were on a stand they were passing. "Stop." She reached over and snatched a kebab off the grill, replacing it with a coin. "Proceed." She sank her teeth into the still juicy meat, a happy sigh escaping her. "Just what a warrior needs after an intense battle. I will concede, she was an excellent match. I wouldn't mind... a rematch, when I am prepared for her."

"She almost killed you," hissed out Silver as he hastened his steps across the sand-dusted cobble. "I doubt she stopped out of kindness."

"I should think not." Nefer dangled her already mostly-eaten skewer in front of Silver. "Want?"

Silver's ears perked and he glanced around. Most present were busy paying attention to anything but him. He turned his head and snatched up a meaty morsel. Horse teeth were not quite the same as human teeth, and he had to work a little harder to get it into pieces, but it wasn't impossible by far. It was also delicious, if a bit spicy. Local food tended to be, he had noticed. "S'good."

"I do enjoy owning a pony that understands the pleasure of meat." She sat up on him, tossing the skewer aside without a glance.

Silver snatched it with his magic and hovered it behind them until he spotted a trash bin. it was a small round thing someone used for their stand, and soon it had an extra skewer in it. He hastened to a full trot, soon arriving at their inn. Nefer slid free rather than trying to fit through the door on his back. "Get our things," she instructed as she went for the front counter.

He strode through the main hall, noticing all the eyes that were trained on him. Though he wondered what they were looking for, he didn't stop his motion. In his room, or what was left of it, was largely ash and soot. The stone walls of the building were unharmed, as was the furniture, somehow, but all the things that were his that he had left there were gone, reduced to cinders.

What they had been looking at became clear. He imagined his things had made plenty of smoke while they were burning.

The clink of coins shook him from his thoughts. Nefertari was standing beside him with a small bag. "They refunded us our remaining time and requested we leave. I didn't argue." She flashed a brilliant smile of sharp teeth. "And you claim I don't learn."

He returned the smile, with less teeth. "They got my souvenirs, and my wardrobe." He glanced back at his saddlebags. "Glad I wear these."

Nefter snapped her furry fingers. "Those can be replaced. This is more interesting." She stepped past Silver in a few graceful motions, her hand plunging into the ash and drawing out a paper Silver had not seen buried. She shook it out violently, the ash falling free of it. "Mmm..." Her eyes swept over it rapidly. "She knows where we are."

Silver leaned in to have a look.

It was a pleasure meeting you,

A pity we didn't get to finish our dance. If you find this, you're still alive, and that's good. I don't like unfinished engagements. I expected better from the Nefertari. Was your reputation overblown? Does your husband match you?
I do hope not. Tamer of the wildest beasts and fiercest of hearts, I look forward to meeting him. I'll even let him give it his best before I take his. Pony hearts are quite a treat, prepared correctly.

It's not too late for you. You could run away, back to Equestria. That would be just fine. We don't need you, either of you.
This is a prophecy that can fail miserably, much like you did.

There were more words, but the paper burst into green fire, ignited with an angry clenching of Nefertari's paw. She tossed it onto one of the piles of ash to join it. "She didn't write that."

Silver canted his head a little. "How can you be so sure?"

"If she felt like leaving that place, she would have caught up. At best, she gave that to someone else, who set the fires and left the note behind." Nefer turned for the door. "It's time we started gathering allies. This is not a battle we will win one on one, as galling as it is to admit."

As one, they strode from the inn that Silver still held faded dream memories of. It was just as well, perhaps. It held neither of the two Saddle-Arabians he would have wanted to see the most. He walked alongside her as they wove through the city. "Not going for another ride?" Not that he particularly wanted to give a ride, but it wasn't that big of a deal, and if it made her feel better, he wasn't opposed to it.

She quirked a faint smile that was quickly submerged in her scowl. "The offer is appreciated." She waved it away before turning down a narrow alley. She had to turn sideways, shuffling along.

Silver watched her go, not even trying to squeeze himself. Once she emerged from the other end, he vanished, and appeared beside her in a silver shower of magical particles. "Forgive me for cheating."

"I am only going slow for your benefit, husband." She waved a finger as she walked. The back-alleys they were in were quieter than most of the city, almost silent. The sun was blocked by the overhangs above them, only allowing the occasional slit of light to break it up and cast a gloomy illumination on the rest of the area.

Silver bid his horn glow, and it did so, shedding its silvery light across the bare space between buildings. It was sparse and empty, devoid of the signs that people lived there. The air was still and somehow dirty in some new way. Musty? Silver put it aside as he walked behind his wife. He wondered where they were going, but trusted that she knew what she was doing. He let his magic start to seep out, just a little.

The ache of his efforts before had not fully faded, but he felt rejuvenated enough to reach out a few feet in all directions. He had grown so used to doing it, not having it was like being blind in some sense he hadn't possessed before he learned the trick. The world came alive for him, able to feel more than he could see or hear or even feel physically.

It was only thanks to it that he felt a hand approaching from behind, its fingers spread as if to take hold of him. He surged ahead, bumping into Nefertari. She spun around, glaring at him, but that moved quickly to what was past him. "Ah, good to see you."

Silver turned around, or tried. The alley they were in was too narrow to allow his equine form to do that easily. Peeking over his shoulder, he could see a jackal, male. "Um, hello?" he offered the stranger.

"Your husband is keen." The male flicked a blade that he had concealed in his fingers into view a precious moment, but it was gone just as fast. "Nefertari, we had thought you would not come."

Nefertari lifted her shoulders. "Twice the fool I am for putting it off. There are important matters to discuss. Is he here?"

"He is."

Silver clopped a hoof down. "Pronoun game is never fun. Can we use names?"

The jackal behind him laughed softly. "Does Chieftan Crossed Arms make you feel better, Foreign Prince?"

He did not recognize the name, still... "Yes. And I am Silver Watch. Silver is fine." He turned ahead. "Does this mean we've arrived?"

Nefertari backpedaled free of the narrow space, then gestured to the right. "Welcome to our home away from the sands, such as it is."

Silver stepped free of the confining space, letting out a breath as he expanded just faintly to take up some of that extra room. "Finally, what is..." His words cut off as he turned to see the jackal and instead saw the entrance of where they arrived. It was a door, like many others, wooden in a stone building. The inside was dark and gloomy, with the flicker of distant or small fires barely visible within. "That's foreboding."

The new jackal stepped out into the open. "I will not be accompanying you, much as I'd like to. My place is here. If you're with her, you're welcome. Watch your manners."

Nefer stepped towards the darkness without fear. "He is mine. If he offends, then I offend, and we can deal with that personally, mmm." Despite her recent injuries, she showed no lack of confidence. She descended a few steps into the building properly.

Silver descended the stairs after her, his wings fidgeting lightly as he went. He could feel other jackals watching him. They were lost to the darkness, to his eyes, but his magic picked them out as he went, at least until a fresh pain exploded from the root of his horn.

He was blind again, his field cruelly snuffed without warning.

A new, female, voice spoke. She sounded older than Nefertari, but not venerable, "You bring a unicorn, here, and one that uses magic as much as most of us breathe. How curious, Nefertari..."

Author's Note:

Perhaps we can make some friends to make up for the enemies? This is a bonus chapter, as voted on the patreon!

Get this story updated faster or get your own tale written by joining the atreon!

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Dravkwn]

[Booster Spice]

If you Spangle when you dongle, you go out like a treat?

Silver really needs to work on rotating his shield so that he picks up its temporal and probable ranges also. Very very short ranges but coupled with auto responses can start to deal with most time and dimention based detection etc?

Has he been sending back souveniers regularly or was that the entire current crop of the trip to date?

[harts fire]

this looks as if this story ark is going to get interesting really fast.

[Skulljack17]

Read through all of it. ALL OF IT, over the course of two or three weeks...lost count. From Clueless to Stars through Sky and back to Robe and Wizard Hat. And now I'm at an end, and can't wait for more!!

[David Silver]

8829545
That is some dedication! Any favorite parts?

[Dimensional Librarian]

He had grown so used to doing it, not having it was like being blind in some sense had hadn't had before he learned the trick.

There seems to be a lot of had hadn't had in this sentence. Not sure how to fix it just saying it doesn't read easily.

[David Silver]

8888631
Fixed!