Spike of All Trades

by Ariamaki

One if By Land: Part 20

After it became clear that they weren't going to be able to learn anything more from each other in that cramped and tense space, Spike and the mares decided to tour around the castle grounds. Both of the Guards made the judgement call to hang back and observe from a distance rather than get in the way or try to dive into the conversations: While Spike was sure they could have added more useful information about the Benedictions, he also recognized they weren't comfortable being around Ardor and Lilac.

Which, once they'd spent another hour or two talking in the gardens? Spike was beginning to get their point of view. For all that they were powerful and capable mares in their fields, it didn't make either of them easier to get along with. They were honestly kinda weird even by his standards.

Lilac was openly brash and abrasive, and when she wasn't being harsh she was being almost unsettlingly comfortable. Lurid? Every chance she got it seemed like she was taking advantage of acting in ways that didn't suit her filly-sized frame. Ardor had seemed like the more level-headed of the two earlier, but it was clear she had her own problems: Once she got rolling on the subject, her fervent zeal when it came to Princess Celestia's 'great glory' was fanatical and kinda disturbing.

It made a lot of sense that they had made friends with Fluttershy as pen pals, because spending this much time face to face with them was taxing. Add on Fluttershy's general issues with social time to the mix... Eugch, no.

That didn't mean he still wasn't learning volumes from them, however. For all that they could be off-putting and confrontational, they were experts in their fields. In a way it kinda reminded him of Twilight before Ponyville, back when she was 'just' Celestia's star pupil and sole personal protege. So far embroiled in her work that she couldn't even get her head out enough to pay attention to the few ostensible friends she had picked up... Spike heaved a sigh.

"Hm?"

He waved off Lilac's questioning tone with a claw, making sure not to damage the nearby hedges.
"Oh nothing, sorry: You were saying about... What had we even gotten up to talking about?"

Ardor spun around, seemingly just excited to be in the very gardens that Princess Celestia owned and cared for. She thrust one hoof towards him with a particularly dramatic tone and posture.
"Restoration! Repair. Succor and balm, healing... A particularly mythical topic all things considered: Even the Princess herself does not dare to claim access to such powers."

Spike whistled, genuinely impressed... on a few levels.
"Really? I had thought it was pretty rare, but you’re saying..."

Lilac scoffed and plucked a bud from a nearby bush, earning a scowl from Ardor in the process.
"Rare? Bordering on impossible maybe. Recovery is one thing: Potions are capable of that much, although the species with that level of herblore keep things under wraps or behind a veil of mystic obfuscation. Still, you can learn a lot during wars. And we weren't always at peace with Zebrica... Their brews can bolster and even speed up the natural healing of the body, but nothing further."

Ardor stomped her hooves for emphasis, although softly enough not to divot the earth below.
"Exactly! And healing through the use of unicorn magic is beyond absurd: The incompatible nature of two ponies' energy alone would make it futile. Attempting it would likely cause more damage than it could ever consider repairing! That is why in Her infinite wisdom, the Princess has seen fit to make sure that all research on the matter is extremely regulated and deeply scrutinized."

Which left Spike with the curious case of the clinical cupcakes from yesterday: Pinkie Pie had not even used a special recipe to produce them, they had apparently just been elevated into something by their shared abilities and the victory rush. But here were two experts on the subject, as far as he knew, saying that such a thing was extremely rare if not completely out of the question.

He'd previously been a little disappointed in the power of that recipe: Only capable of healing a third of the injuries that were taken in that battle, only if you won rather than just fleeing or conceding, and only if you ate the cupcake immediately afterwards. Now he was significantly more impressed and interested... Maybe they'd have to whip up a batch later and do some unsanctioned experiments? If he could elevate his cooking skills or the quality of his ingredients to the point where the healing value got higher, or the requirements less stringent...

Problem for another time. He'd barely caught a pivot in the conversation while he was having that thought, and jumped back in just in time. Ardor and Lilac had switched on a dime (not for the first time) to talking about another topic entirely.
"Why the sudden switch to talking about the Dis... er, your Art and your Faith?"

While he had been thinking about the potential of Pinkie's pastries, the two of them had started discussing and fooling around with their respective techniques again. Now that he'd had the time to see them in more action it was all the more interesting and yet somehow less impressive. Much like Fluttershy's trick with the condensation on her drink, these two were just using their natural talents with a bent towards copying the effects of other kinds of magic.

Ardor's 'Faith' was based on trying to emulate Princess Celestia, more specifically unicorn-style horn magic with the aspects of the sun. Manipulating static electricity and humidity along with the refraction and reflection of light... It was a very complicated process to achieve results that, while pretty dang unique, weren't going to make any huge splashes in practice.

Lilac's 'Art' was very similar, calling on earth pony talents to bring the moon's nature... Well, down to earth so to speak. Pulling reservoirs of cold out from the depths of the ground, using the dark within the dirt, precise vibrations and shakes in resonance with things... Again, it was a lot of hard work and calculation to achieve things a pegasus could do with one wing.

But if he had learned anything when talking with these two it was that they were on the right track, and had reaped huge benefits from their Disciplines (or equivalents). By taking the long hard road to get to otherwise common destinations, they understood their actions on a much deeper and more complete level than the average pony! And they could put them to use accordingly.

Yes a pegasus could do many of the things Lilac did, but when it came to explaining it? Nowhere close. Ardor's tricks were about as potent as Sweetie Belle's magic, but she knew what she was doing in her heart and her bones. The result was that otherwise weak options produced extremely powerful effects, used with absolute instinctual knowledge of how and why they worked.

In the end they weren't able to give him a ton of directly actionable advice on his own Discipline, but by showing him what they had accomplished? It opened up whole new avenues for Spike's future.

Of course they hadn't even heard his question, busy arguing about their own abilities: Lilac had been freezing the bud she'd ripped off the hedge, while Ardor warped the heat in the air to try to keep it fresh in a false unicorn corona. Rather than repeat himself he narrowed his eyes and looked at the spot where their powers met in the air, trying to analyze what was going on with the Dragon's Eyes...

"Alter."

Spike just pushed with his magic, sending both of their powers off-kilter at the same time... and in the tumbling turbulence of the heat and cold, the flower bud blossomed open in their hooves like a magic trick. Both mares looked down at it in surprise before looking over to him. Ardor's expression was approving while Lilac's was almost hungry, and they spoke up at the same time.

"Well done."

"...Six and a half."

He waved his own claw in the air ambivalently.
"Out of ten?"

Lilac's laugh was just as chilling as always, even as she threw the flower over her shoulder to him.
"Try a hundred boyo: You're not impressing me that easily."

The next half-hour or so was just him and Ardor talking as they walked through the hedge maze: She had taken an interest in his ability to control the magic of the outside world so freely, and while he had to admit it wasn't (probably) the 'normal' way dragons did such things? He was glad to show it off a bit and get in some more practice.

"Aaah, to be Twilight Sparkle. Not only for her closeness to the Princess, but imagine having such a fascinating presence available to work with day in and day out."

He chuckled a little, trying to bring the conversation somewhere less uncomfortable.
"Well hey, there's got to be some advantages to how you live, right? Writing about your passion, living free and travelling... Twilight and I have our own problems, so don't be too jealous."

The mare nodded.
"True! I am still stunned by the divine serendipity: After centuries without, Princess Celestia took two apprentices within my lifetime! What a blessing to live in Canterlot in this day and age."

Wait, what? Spike knew he was often out of the loop, but that seemed like something big.
"Two? Is she starting to teach somepony new now that Twilight is in Ponyville? I figured she would have told us about something like that."

"No, she... Oh."

Ardor cut herself off and stopped walking, looking at him with an unreadable expression.
"Yes. This would have been before your time very literally, come to think of it."

Lilac came back into the conversation (from behind them somehow) with a laugh.
"I wonder when you're going to stop stringing the kid along, Ray. Maybe in a few years at this rate?"

"Shush, you pest. Weren't you complaining about getting sunstruck earlier?"

"I've been keeping cool this time. More of a pain early in the morning, ya know?"

If the pattern held, they were both about to bicker like this until they were actually interrupted. And while he wasn't exactly angry, he was definitely getting tired of the roundabout way everything kept happening. Spike considered not letting his frustration show, but then he realized that with these two it was probably better to just be honest. Or even a little over the top! He snarled and stepped between them both, making a show of his bluster and ‘rage’ in the process.
"How about explaining yourselves while I'm still keeping my cool, huh?"

Ardor didn't even flinch, and Lilac actively threw a foreleg around his neck in a brief hug.
"Awww, cute! Little dragon's got fangs after all."

This time he cut the diminutive mare off before her friend could do it for him.
"Lilac."

She just blinked innocently up at him as if there was nothing wrong, playing the foolish filly.
"Mmmh?"

"Answers."

She rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh before gesturing to a nearby bench. At first he didn't want to sit down between the two of them... But then they started to tell him about Princess Celestia's previous personal protege, one who had disappeared just a few years before he was hatched...

And that was how he learned about the existence of Sunset Shimmer.

Author's Note:

Chapter 127
One if By Land: Part 20
- OR -
The First Big Reveal of 2022

Comments

[Spade_McTrowel]

Oh that ending!

Totally looking forward to the next chapter.

[redsopine]

Spikes somehow not gonna turn into a dog a either fight or have a conversation with sunset is my guess

[Mister Morden]

Well, this is before Twilight's ascension, so we haven't met Sunset yet... but I feel this revelation of information will be important.

[yonalkaru]

awesome chapter dude, keep up the good work!!!

[Solid Punch]

Please, please, please, don't go Equestria Girls, it's terrible and ugly!..

[Mr Good Guy]

That didn't mean he still wasn't learning volumes from them, however. For all that they could be off-putting and confrontational, they were experts in their fields. In a way it kinda reminded him of Twilight before Ponyville, back when she was 'just' Celestia's star pupil and sole personal protege. So far embroiled in her work that she couldn't even get her head out enough to pay attention to the few ostensible friends she had picked up... Spike heaved a sigh.

"Hm?"

He waved off Lilac's questioning tone with a claw, making sure not to damage the nearby hedges.
"Oh nothing, sorry: You were saying about... What had we even gotten up to talking about?"

Doesn't Spike have a photographic memory as well as great amounts of focus and abilities of multitasking? Shouldn't he have been able to pay attention to Lilac's conversation while being able to think about those other thoughts as well?

[Ariamaki]

11112478
Possibly! But he's not going out of his way to reveal those talents to others when he doesn't have to. He could have been using that phrasing as just a polite conversational filler / joint between parts, despite actually knowing full-well what they'd been discussing.

Alternately, just because he *has* those capabilities doesn't mean he's always using them at 100% efficiency. He's absolutely capable of doing both of those things at once, but it's not automatic and he's still fairly new to it.

Either way, it's somewhat moot under these circumstances. Just keep in mind that I do keep that stuff in mind, and Spike's abilities aren't forgotten. :3

[ArcherStern]

And that was how he learned about the existence of Sunset Shimmer.

This feels like a setup where Celestia's lost apprentice is going to be a bigger affair than it was in the show.

I am interested in such a notion.

[Booster Spice]

I still like how with EQG Sunset and FIM Starlight, Spike as the scaler makes both groups Monster Lies?

I wonder how many more levels Spike needs before he can actually follow these two?

[link4]

Now I’m confused... wouldn’t the mirror portal incident have already happened? Or am I getting the timing wrong

[Herald of Opera]

11114468
People assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

And this fic in particular is wibbly enough that an "Alternate Universe" tag might be warranted.

[link4]

11115040
touche...

[Ariamaki]

11115040
11114468

As we already previously saw with Celestia's handling of the mirror, the changes that lead to this being such a divergent timeline date back quite a while and have had a lot of knock-on effects. After all, part of the core premise of the fic is that the entire nature of how dragons as a species works is different from canon, and always has been. That shifts a lot of stuff around it, by its very nature.

TL;DR - There is no reason to expect things, even celestial events or "Every XXX years" stuff, to line up with the exact timing of their canon counterparts. Prepare for lots of things in that vein moving forward.

[link4]

11115382
fair. reminds m eof a reincarnation story, where females are anthro, but males are quadrupedal and not intelligent. (hint- clues suggest some female from ancient past forcibly changed males and females so she and other females would dominate the world

[Black--Soul]

Time to rescue Sunset Shimmer as a gaming Dog?