Adventure is a strong motivator, almost as strong as money, truer words were never spoken for privateer procurer of ancient magical artefacts, Blazing Comet. Living for money and adventure and nothing else. That is until he finds something that he can’t bring himself to sell, and meets a pony that might just show him that there is more to life than buried treasure.
These words were etched into the brain of Blazing Comet, a private procurer of magical artefacts for private collectors; basically, a thief for hire. He was a tall Unicorn stallion with a burgundy coat, a strong build dotted with scars that stand as evidence of his adventures, a wind-swept silver mane that comes down to his withers and tired eyes with golden irises.
“Right, so I took a left at the Bottomless Pit of Doom, walked down the Hall of Eternal Despair, and went up the stairs the Dungeon of Eternal Punishment, ugh why did they name two rooms “the eternal”? That’s just lazy. So that means the main chamber should be… here.”
Blazing Comet looked up excitedly from his map, only to find a brick wall.
“…”
“I’m going to kill Charter for this bullshite map.”
After an embarrassingly long time, Blazing Comet finally arrives at the main chamber. He gazed at the awe-inspiring murals that adorned the walls, the golden detailing etched into the floors and pillars, the near tear bringing-
“Yawn.” He let out a disinterested sigh, this kind of thing was exciting the first dozen times, after a while it gets kind of ‘samey’. He scans the room for the usual traps; pressure plates, wires, over-hanging weaponry. ”Safe.” he thought to himself as he made his way to the pedestal on the centre of the room; atop of which was a stone carving of a earth pony with jade markings, eyes and hooves. After a quick inspection and finding no traps he grabbed ahold of the statue with his golden magic, chuckling to himself “Come to papa.”
And with that, the jade on the statue lit up and sounded some kind of alarm “Shite! Rookie move, Blaze ya eejit.” Blazing Comet scolded himself as he watched the statue fire jade-green lightning from its eyes, he conjured a force-field to protect himself but found that no lightning hit him. He watched as the bolts struck the ground, either side of the statue and summoned two pony sized versions of itself. Blazing Comet dropped his shield and cracked his neck in excitement, it had been too long since he last had some exercise. “Now this is more like it!”
The stone and jade earth ponies attempted to pounce on him and pound him to jam, only for Blaze to narrowly dodge both assailants. “Phew, that was close. You can do it! Don’t give up!” he mocked in false encouragement. The stone ponies resumed their assault on their unwanted house guest. Glancing at the statue that is still glowing, Blaze pulled out his notebook from his bag with his magic and began taking notes. “Doesn’t create more golems, 2 max?” He dodges a jade hoof to the temple, he fires a beam at his attacker, who explodes is a shower of rubble “That’s it?” He was surprised that the golem fell so easily; however his disappointment fell away as the statue glowed once more, summoning a new golem to replace the old one “Okay, that’s much better.” he said while noting this new development in this notebook. Though his thought process was interrupted be a swift jade hoof to the cheek by the second golem that he totally forgot about; the blow knocking him off his hooves and onto his back.
Before his attacker could finish the job he conjured a force field once more. “Okay, I’ll let you have that one. Brought that one on maself” he says stumbling as he stands up. Shaking the potential concussion off, he leans against the side of this force-field and resumes his note taking. “Fragile on durability but replenished by artefact, limits unknown; further testing required. Superior strength and aggressive in nature.” His thought process interrupted my both golems wailing against his magic barrier with their combined might in an unending barrage of attacks. “Highly aggressive in nature.” he corrected in his notes. “Hold on boys, I’ll be with ya in a second. Right, this should suffice for now.” Blaze thought aloud before teleporting from inside his force-field to the pedestal; picking up the statue with his hoof before the golems could react. The statue sparked with magic in his hoof before settling and returning to its lifeless state, the golems crumbling to rubble before him. “Now.” he started, looking down at the statue in his hoof “Lets get ya ta yer new home.”
After a few days of travel and experimentation with the statue, he found himself walking the streets of some rundown town in the middle of nowhere; making his way into the cartographer supply store, he finds the bastard that sold him the map of his last score, Charter Scribe.
Charter was a heavyset pegasus stallion with a brown coat and a short black mane; currently sat behind the counter, reading a book. He looks up, hearing the bell at the front door, and sees Blazing Comet as he enters, he adjusts his glasses and smiles at the familiar face “Ah Mr Comet, back from your grand adventure I see. I trust everything well?”
Blaze looked unimpressed as he spoke “Ya could say that, though I probably would’ve had an easier time with it had the map I bought from you made any sense.” He tried not to sound too mad, Charted wasn’t an explorer and had no idea on how to map tombs, but he spent 4 hours trying to find one room because of that map.
Charter sunk into his chair at the comment, he sighed nervously and prepared himself to give a refund like anyone would request had they got a bad map “I-I understand, please allow me to-“ he found himself cut off with a piece of paper falling onto his desk, it was a rough draft of a new map.
“Just update yer maps of the area with these notes and corrections and we’re square.” Before Charter could respond, Blazing Comet turned and left the store.
Soon, Blazing Comet stood before a large mansion just outside of town; he found himself unimpressed with the building having seen so many fancy burial grounds and tombs. Cracking his neck he walks up the steps and knocks on the door. After a few moments he is greeted by a nasty looking griffin, he was covered in battle scars and wearing a black suit; private security for his host, he looks Blaze up and down without saying a word. “So, are we gonna kiss? Or ya gonna let me in?” Blaze asked impatiently, earning a scowl from the griffin who tried to slam the door in his face. Using his hoof, he forced the door open and spoke again “Mr Lavish is expecting me. Ask him, the name’s Blazing Comet. If ya don’t believe me go check for yerself.” the griffin guard reluctantly left him in and lead him to what looked like an office room, two other guards fallowed them in before the griffin left to get his employer. Looking at his two new best friends, Blaze saw that one of the guards left in the room was another griffin and the other an earth pony, both just as chatty as the doorman. And looking around the room itself, he saw it was furnished with a mahogany desk, leather chairs and purple wallpaper with textured flower patterns.
After a while, a large earth pony stallion with purple coat and blonde mane and beard entered the room, dabbing his mouth with a handkerchief, most likely coming straight from dinner. He locked eyes with him and moved to shake hooves with Blaze. “Why Mr Comet, ain’t this a nice surprise.” he spoke with a thick southern accent “I wasn’t expecting you for at least another week! I guess it’s true that they say of your talents.” he grinned as bits of his dinner were still present in his beard and in between his teeth. Blaze shook his hoof, suppressing a grimace and and both stallions sat at the desk.
“So, tell me about this item you procured for me.” He sounded like a spoiled child on heartswarming Blaze though to himself, removing the stone and Jade statue from his saddle bags, he placed it on the table.
“This Item creates two stone golems the will defend anypony or anything that it’s owner requires them to. It can only create two at a time but can indefinitely create more to replace ones that have been destroyed.” God he hated how well he’s gotten his salesman voice down “On this document is the instructions for activation, changing ownership and all other miscellaneous properties I never mentioned.” He handed the scroll to Lavish who took it greedily in his hooves and began reading.
After a moment, he started chucking giddily while gesturing to his guards “Well don’t just stand here, pay the man!” One of the guards nods and leaves the room. While he does so, Lavish got up to shake hooves with Blaze.
“Pleasure doing business with you Lavish, I’ll take my payment and let you get to trying out your new toy.”
Lavish separated their hooves, giving him a bemused look “Oh my dear boy, surely you can have a drink before you go.” He said, moving a cabinet on the other side of the room, unlocking it and pulling out a very old bottle of whiskey. “This is a very old and rare bottle that I’ve been saving; 12,000 bits for the 20 ounce bottle, that’s over 900 bits a drink.” He boasted as he removed the lid and poured two healthy glasses, passing one to Blaze who takes it in a magical grip. “And I’m surely a Trotsman like yourself would appreciate the Malt.”
“Well then, I can’t possibly let a grand go to waste now can I?” Blaze joked, downing the drink while Lavish let out a loud belly laugh. He hated ponies like this but he knew how to speak their language.
Leaving the mansion with a large sack of bits, he made his way to his humble cart, big enough for sleep and necessities. He walks it to a nice quiet spot off the main road and goes inside for the evening. He opens a small strongbox that sits on a desk built onto the side and drops the large sack on top of it. Once he did so, the sack seemed to squeeze itself to fit into the box, falling out of site with the box closing itself.
After doing his nightly routine he climbs into the small bed built into the back of the cart. He looks up to a shelf fixed to the wall just above the foot of the bed, a picture frame the only ornament atop it. On the photo in question was himself as a young colt next to a slightly older filly as they smiled at the camera together. “Don’t look at me like that, Star. No one else was using it, and I need the money.” The picture surprisingly, gave no response. lifting up his hoof, he massaged a particularly large and deep scar on the back of his neck before letting out a long sigh and turning over to face the wall.
“I’m sorry today wasn’t any better then yesterday. Night, Star”
Blazing Comet was awoken from his sleep by a loud banging on the door to his cart. With a groan and he sat up, rubbing his eyes; looking at the clock on his wall, he saw that it was nearing noon. Crawling out of bed, he put on a pot of coffee while the banging continued “Come on out Comet! We know your in there” a muffled, raspy voice croaked. Blaze groaned louder then before, recognising the voice. He grabbed his magic strongbox and his mug before finally answering the door.
“Well, took you long enough” The horrible voice was now much clearer now and Blaze was all the more miserable for it.
“Aye, well I was holding out hope you’d die of old age but we cannae all get what we want, can we, Pocket?” He said with a tired grin, taking a sip from his mug.
The unimpressed pony in front of him, Pocket Watch, was a middle-aged unicorn with long greasy hair and stained teeth; he took a step back, revealing 2 other pony thugs that didn’t exactly look like they were collecting for charity. “Always a treat, Comet.” Pocket Watch spat with a forced smile “You know why we’re here, Caesar wants his cut; 2000 bits”.
Blaze raised an eyebrow as he leaned against the door frame “The last one was 1500, and he didn’t exactly do anything special this time around.” he said sternly.
“Now it’s 2000 I’m afraid. Call it a, messenger’s tax.” Pocket Watch flashed a shit eating grin that made Blaze want to throw up. With a long sigh he set down his coffee, stepped out and opened the strongbox, reaching his hoof inside. “There’s a good lad; see boys? I told you he-“ Pocket found himself cut off as a large sack of bits collided with the side of his head, sending him flying onto his back and knocking him out cold. The other two thing watch in stunned silence for a second before one leapt forward to attack the smug unicorn, only to have a few of his teeth knocked out with the same bag of bits. He fell to the ground holding his hooves to his now bleeding mouth, groaning in pain. Blaze looks to the 3rd thug, who showed that he is smarter then his friend and backs away holding his hooves up in surrender.
Looking down to the unconscious Pocket, he threw down the bag and starts waking back to his cart, stopping at the door, he called out to the last thug “There’s 1500 bits in the bag like we agreed, if Caesar wants more next time, he can ask me himself.” Closing the door, he sets down the strongbox and sits back on his bed, already finished with today. He looks to the picture on his shelf and gives a lazy salute “Good morning, Star.” Maybe now he can enjoy his coffee in peace.
After his eventful morning, Blaze made his way into town, cart behind him. He had a train to catch and he was late enough at it was. Making his way to the station he unstrapped himself from the cart, purchased one ticket for himself and returned to his cart to gather all the things he’d need on the train to Manehattan. Once his saddle bags were filled, he pulled out a copper pendant and placed it on the door of the cart. He recited an incantation and the cart started to shift and fold into itself, changing in appearance until it resembled a large leather trunk on wheels. A few onlookers pausing to watch the impressive display, Blaze gave them a small wave of acknowledgement as he wheeled the trunk away with his hooves. He preferred to use his hooves for mundane, everyday tasks in the event that his magic fails him, or he finds himself against a magic cancelling enchantment, he was caught off guard once and he was not about to leave himself unprepared again; paranoid? Yes. Alive? Also yes.
The train ride itself was quiet; sitting at the end of a row of seats so he could stay next to his trunk which had been tucked into a luggage compartment by one of the sets of doors. To pass the time he pulls picks up a copy of a newspaper he found on the seat to his right; it full of the usual garbage, latest fashion trends and and gossip pieces on Celestia’s alleged diet. Blaze was about to put the thing down until he saw the front page upon closing the paper.
New Alicorn Princess is crowned!! Princess Celestia’s former protégé is officially crowned as Equestria’s forth alicorn princess.
Blaze couldn't believe what we was reading. This former unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, had become an alicorn and raised to royal status. He didn’t even know that was possible, he had to look into the logistics of that later. And on top of that, who even was she? The paper makes it sound like he would already know her.
His reading and train (ha) of thought was interrupted by a couple of young voices. “Whooooa.” Blaze lifted his gaze from the paper to a young colt and filly, staring up at him.
“Blueberry! Cookie! Stop bothering that stallion!” An exhausted mare called out as he caught up to who Blaze assumed were her children. “I’m so sorry if they were bothering you.” She said, giving an apologetic smile.
Blaze gave a warm smile back “Oh it’s no trouble, can I help you two?” He asked the children, rolling up the newspaper and putting it into his bag.
“Those scars are awesome!” The colt practically screamed.
“Are you a soldier?” The filly asked in a slightly quieter voice. The mother looked like she was about to die of embarrassment.
Giving a gentle chuckle, Blaze leaned in closer to the tiny ponies “Actually, I’m an adventurer. Ya see, I travel all over the world, searching fer buried treasure!”
The siblings looked as thought they might explode out of excitement. “NO WAY! THATS SO COOL!” The two yelled out simultaneously in an attempt to murder the eardrums of everypony in the train car.
For the rest of the train journey, Blazing Comet told the children some of his wildest (child friendly) adventures for magical treasure. The two siblings were absolutely enthralled and stayed quiet as they listened, much to the delight of the mother who thoroughly enjoyed the small break from the chaos of parenthood. The trains pulled into Manehattan station and Blaze took his trunk, waved goodbye to the family and set off into the city.
Finding an open space, Blaze opens the trunk which begins to unfold and shift back into a cart, the magic pendant falling from the door. Picking it up and putting it back into his saddlebag, which he then he tossed into the cart. Strapping himself to the cart and making his way down the street, he double checked his map of the city; it’s been a while since he was here last and couldn’t remember the directions to his friends apartment from the station.
“Excuse me.” He attempts to ask a passing pony.
“I’m busy, get lost.” The rushing stallion responded without giving so much as a second glance.
Stunned for a split second, Blaze suddenly remembered what city he is in and lets out a long sigh. “It’s fiiine, I actually never wanted to find where I’m supposed to go”.
“Still charming the locals I see?” A male voice says from Blaze’s side. His ears picking up, he turned his head to confirm who it came from.
“For once I’m actually glad to see you, JJ” Blaze sighs in relief. The pony in front of him was Jumpstart Jr, a slim pegasus stallion with a white coat and short electric blue, spiky styled mane. As well as one of Blazing Comet’s (few) friends.
Jumpstart, or JJ as his friends called him, shook his head with a false look of hurt. “And here I thought you came all this way just to see me.” He said as he wiped away a nonexistent tear. Blaze rolls his eyes at the display; JJ then stepped beside him puts a foreleg over his withers. “I got your letter by the way, you know I’m always down, bro. But what’s the occasion?”
“Payday.” Blaze responds with a smirk. Earning a huge smile from his buddy, who knows what happens when Blaze gets paid.
“Aww yeah! How much we talking this time?” JJ asked impatiently, desperate to know how much fun he’s gonna have tonight.
Blaze paused for a moment, looking at JJ dancing on the spot like he needed to use the bathroom. He leans to whisper into his ear “5000 bits”. He had actually made closer to 15,000 for the statue but needed to keep some for emergencies, or in case he couldn’t find another job right away.
JJ almost exploded with excitement, nearly dashing off leaving Blaze to get lost again. “Aw this is going to be EPIC bro!” JJ had a rough idea of what what Blaze did for a living, mainly how it was dangerous and paid very well. But he didn’t know all the details, and Blaze knew that was for the best.
As the two walked down the street, Blaze’s mind returned to the newspaper he saw on the train. Pulling it from his cart in a telekinetic grip, he showed JJ the front page. “By the way, what do ya know about this?”
JJ’s eyes went wide when he looked at the article. “That’s right, you wouldn’t have heard. There’s a new princess, bro! She’s like, saved Equestria like a dozen times or something. Apparently she was also Princess Celestia’s old student.”
Blaze once again looked at the picture; Princess Twilight Sparkle at her coronation, standing between Princesses Celestia and Luna, along with 5 other mares. In the article, he read the transcript of the speech she gave. “Huh, seems nice enough. You know, for a princess.” Blaze has had enough experience with creatures with money and status to know they can’t be trusted right away, but at lest she seems to be friendly when in public.
“Whoa. That’s like, the nicest thing you’ve ever said about somepony with a title. I think you’ve got a crush, bro.” JJ teased, knowing Blaze’s views on wealth and status.
For what felt like the millionth time that day, Blaze rolled his eyes. “Oh aye, I’m in love. Be still my beating heart!” He falsely proclaimed, holding his hoof over his heart. The two friends laughed heartily as they walk down the street. Eventually reaching the apartment building in which JJ lived, Blaze grabbing his saddlebags before heading inside with JJ.
“I got the couch ready for you man.” JJ said as they entered the mid sized apartment. “Nimbus is still at work, so he’ll be back later. And I can go and let Smokey know you’re here if you just wanna chill here until I get back?”
“That’d be great actually, I’m a little tired from The journey so I might have a nap if that’s alright.” Blaze was exhausted after dealing with Pocket and rushing to catch the train that morning, so a nap was exactly what he needed. He hung up his saddle bags and made his way to the beaten up couch.
JJ smiled as he shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not tired, bro. But you do you, I’ll be back soon.”
Blaze didn’t bother responding, opting to collapse onto the couch instead. It was old and the colour had faded but it was comfortable, that’s all that mattered. Once the door had been closed, he turned his head to his saddlebag with the newspaper still sticking out “I wonder what kind of pony can just be crowned royalty.” he though to himself before falling asleep.
Blaze, to his dismay, was suddenly awoken from another dreamless sleep by the sound of the apartment door opening. Sitting up, he can hear the sound of two ponies having a conversation.
“Man you can’t be serious. If he’s got all that money, why’s he spending it on a night out again?” A masculine voice asked.
Blaze turned around to see JJ and a tall, earth pony stallion with chestnut brown coat and a mid-length, curly black mane, Smokey. “I mean you can just stay home if you want. I’m no gonna force you to enjoy my money” Blaze answered with a smirk while claiming off the couch.
Smokey raised an eyebrow as he walked toward his friend. “Well if that’s how you’re gonna be, spend away.” He said with a smile, offering an outstretched hoof.
Returning the hoofbump, Blaze gave a small laugh. “I like that energy but we gotta wait for Nimbus. JJ, what time does he get off of work again?” He asks, turning to their host.
“In like an hour, we can chill here until he gets back.” JJ answered, carrying a couple bottles of cider in his wings, giving them to his guests before going back into the kitchen to get one himself.
The three shared a drink, catching up on lost time while they waited for the forth and last member of their group to arrive.
About an hour and a half later. The door to the front door opens, followed by a tenor voice calling into the apartment “JJ, I’m home! Do you wanna grab a pizza or something? I’m starv-“
Walking into the living room, Nimbus was met with two of his friends, JJ and Smokey, having a heated discussion about a card game. Looking like it was about to get violent, Nimbus readies himself to step in but was interrupted by a third voice from his side.
“No no, let them fight.” Blaze said with a grin, stopping his friend from ruining preventing a brawl, the two stallions yelling about house rules and bad shuffling.
“Blaze! When did you get here?” Nimbus called excitedly, leaping toward and pulling his much taller friend into a tight hug.
Nimbus was a short, sky blue pegasus with a long blonde mane. He wasn’t the most masculine looking guy and next to his friends, in fact he had been mistaken for a mare on one occasion before, much to the total amusement of his friends. Nimbus however, didn’t find it that funny, opting to try and strangle the poor stallion that clearly had one drink too many.
“Just got here, I sent a letter a day or two ago. Did JJ no tell you I was coming?” Blaze responded with a chuckle, returning the hug with one of his forelegs.
“No, he did not. JJ! Why didn’t you tell me about his?” Nimbus asked through gritted teeth, separating the hug.
Hearing the angered voice, JJ gulped and turned to his small roommate with a nervous smile. “H-hey Nimbus! I-I thought I did tell you, didn’t I?” He asked, sinking into his seat, earning a small laugh from Smokey.
“No. You didn’t.” Nimbus said, leaning close into his friends face.
“S-sorry man. But w-what’s done is done and he’s here now so sit down and take a load off!” JJ says a little more enthusiastically, hoping to calm his friend down.
Nimbus let’s out a long sigh as Blaze passes him a cider from the kitchen. “Thank you Blaze. Okay fine, but you’re paying for my drinks tonight JJ, not Blaze”
At his words, JJ nearly choked on his cider. Blaze and Smokey just laughed at JJ’s punishment “C-come on bro! I said I was sorry”
“Well Blaze usually pays for everypony’s drinks so it’s only fair, right guys?” He asked the other half of the group, who take one look at their friend before deciding his fate.
“Absolutely.” they say in unison, earning a defeated groan from JJ.
That night was spent travelling from bar to bar, club to club, overstaying their welcome and finally a shot at the casino. Blaze didn’t have the best track record with casinos so he just watched his friends and frank some more. After a while he left to the outdoor smoking area, he didn’t smoke but he needed to catch his breath.
A minute later he was joined by Nimbus, who pulled out a cigarette and stood with Blaze by the balcony looking out into the city. “It looks like another unforgettable night, sponsored by Blazing Comet.” He said with a small smile and taking a draw. “You know, we talk about these nights all the time.”
“Really now, When?” Blaze asked, not taking his eyes off the city lights, it must be around 3am but the city is still so alive.
“While you’re out there, in the world. We tell everyone we know about these amazing nights.” Nimbus shoots with a small chuckle, before his smile drops slightly “Before you go and disappear for weeks at a time. W-why don’t you stay for longer this time? I- The guys miss you when your not here.” He said, clearing his throat.
Blaze gave him a dry chuckle “You mean they miss my money.”
“Blaze, you know that’s not true. We love you and wouldn’t care if you didn’t have money.” Nimbus tried to reassure his friend, reaching out a hoof to his.
Blaze gets out a small sigh, getting up to head back into the casino. “Thanks Nimbus, but I think I’m gonna turn in for the night. I’m a little tired, tell the guys I said goodnight.” He was exhausted, and not having the energy to pretend otherwise decided now was the time to call it a night.
“…Goodnight, Blaze.” Nimbus said, watching Blaze walk back into the casino before letting out a sigh.
On his way back to JJ’s apartment (he knew where JJ kept his spare key), Blaze heard a rustling from a trash can in an alleyway to his left. Drunken curiosity wanted to know if it was a raccoon or hobo, so he stayed and watched carefully as the trash can eventually tipped over revealing a dirty, tortoiseshell cat. Seeing the unicorn, she jumped to her paws, hissing at him.
Blaze looks directly into the cats eyes.
And she looks at him.
And he looks at her.
And she looks at him.
And he looks at her.
And she looks at him.
And he looks at her.
And she looks at him.
Later, the rest of the party return to the apartment, stumbling as the try to squeeze through the for at the same time.
“Get-*hic*-out of my way, fatass.” JJ said to Smokey, who tried to push JJ back with his hoof.
“Whooo in Tartarus are you calling fat?! *hic*.” He spat back at him.
“Why is this my life?” Nimbus complained, sandwiched between the two drunken idiots, forgetting that he was also drunk off his mind and stuck in the door.
Just when all hope was lost, the three were enveloped in a golden magical aura and pulled into the apartment. With a chuckle Blaze walked into the view of his now grateful friends.
“Thanks for that one man, I though we-“ JJ began to thank him but cut himself off at what he saw. “…why do you have a cat?”
Blaze stood there, with a now clean and fed tortoiseshell cat sleeping on his withers.
“Her name is Coco, and she’s my baby now.” was all the drunken response Blaze could manage before heading into the couch.
“Where’d he get a cat?” Smokey asked.
“I have no idea…” Nimbus said, just as clueless.
“Whatever, I’m going to bed. Night” JJ said, accepting the new truth, that Blaze has a cat now.
“Yeah, I think I’ll turn in too. Night guys” Nimbus says, having faith the police won’t be knocking on his door about a stolen cat.
“Night guys.” Smokey responds before realising something.
That morning was certainly an…interesting one. To start, Blaze was awoken by the sound of a mug shattering off the floor. Sitting up, he saw Nimbus, wide eyed, jaw practically on the floor as he looked out the window.
“Everything okay?…Nimbus, you good?” A hungover Blaze groaned, to no response. Lifting Coco, the cat he found last night, off of his chest, he got up to investigate. But once he got to the window, his own jaw dropped.
The sun was high in the sky as per usual, but so was the moon. The sky was split in half, day on one side and night on another.
“…”
“…”
“WHAT THE FU-“
The next few hours were spend wildly panicking. Well, JJ, Smokey and Nimbus were in a panic, Blaze was frantically carefully searching through all his research materials and books from his cart to see if the could find any evidence of this being the result of some magical artefact or magic phenomena. Also looking for anything that could possibly help fix it.
Finding out about an old staff in the Griffin Kingdom that might just do the trick, Blaze readied himself for a long and perilous journey, one that may very well decide the fate of the very world. Only he stood between Equestria, and total annihilat-
“H-hey guys…the s-sky, it’s gone back to normal” JJ called from next to the window.
Blaze and the others looked for themselves and surely enough, it was daytime. Just like any other day.
“Right.” Blaze says, confused and a little embarrassed as he turned back to the living room to gather this stuff, along with Coco who was buried somewhere among all the scrolls and books. “Okay. Cool.”
Some time later, after the panic had passed and after they finished tiding all of Blazes stuff back into his cart, Blaze and Coco were ready to set off to their next adventure. The guys tried to convince Blaze to stay longer but he turned down the offer. Blaze was never comfortable staying in one spot too long, so he was happy to get back on the road again soon. In the end, they said their goodbyes as Blaze set off. At least this time he had a little travel buddy with him. He couldn’t believe he picked up a stray cat, but he wasn’t about to abandon her in the side of the street now. He just had to make peace with the fact now, he was a cat owner.
It took a few days to adjust to the new routine with Coco, he had almost been suffocated in his sleep twice with her deciding that his face looked like a comfortable place to sleep. But Blaze found that cats were fairly easy to take take of, so long as she was fed, watered and was provided with love and attention, she didn’t make with life a living hell. “Kinda like a girlfriend.” He would joke to himself, thinking he was funny.
One day, while he was entertaining her with a spell that creates a harmless laser for her to chase, a flash of light comes from his desk. He turned to see a scroll appear in a spark of magic from a sending crystal he bought to receive his mail, it cost him a pretty penny but it’s not like he had a mailing address. Ending his laser-pointer spell (much to Coco’s offence) he inspected the scroll to see if the seal was from one of his previous buyers, but it was unfamiliar to him. This wasn’t the most unusual thing for him, he had buyers recommend him to their friends before. So he opened the letter, finding another smaller piece of paper inside that he set to the side, and begins reading the main letter:
Dear Mr Comet,
I have been referred to your services by our mutual friend. My name is irrelevant at this time; however, if you are as good as I hear you are then you will learn it in time, as I will have more work for you to complete.
Attached to this letter you will find the location where we can conduct our business. You will meet with me there in exactly 1 weeks time. I look forward to meeting you and working with you toward a new future.
“Huh, mysterious.” He thought to himself, taking a sip of his coffee; sometimes these rich, aristocrat types preferred to be all cloak and dagger with the whole exchange. They were usually harmless, and sometimes the items they wanted were already in the possession of another owner so they felt the need to be overly cautious. But he’s seen it before so he wasn’t overly concerned at the moment. He picked up the other piece of paper and unfolded it, finding it showed an address in Canterlot.
“Now that is interesting.” He thought out loud, normally Canterlot ponies were far too concerned about maintaining their image and hoarding their money to need his services. He checks his magic strongbox and decides that the trouble was probably worth the money. He spend more than he meant to on the guys night out. That as well as cart upkeep, provisions, stuff for Coco and general carelessness; he decided to go to at least hear them out.
At that moment Coco jumped onto his desk, taking a seat on the letter and staring at him with an annoyed scowl. Blaze gave her an amused look as he fired up his laser-pointer spell once again. “Alright alright, I hear you. Play first, work later. But just for 5 more minutes.”
They then played for another 3 hours.
They day of the meeting has come and Blaze was almost at the location detailed on the letter. An old pub in a quiet part of town, he was to ask the bartender for “new-dawn shot”. At least if this turned out to be a bust, he’d get to try a new drink.
He walked into the pub; it was the middle of the day so it wasn’t busy, with only two patrons sitting at separate booths. The pub itself was old and rundown, and it looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned properly in years. As if the health inspector assumed the place was already shut down and ignored the place.
“Looks like a nice place.” Blaze thought sarcastically to himself as he walked but to the bar. The bartender was a middle-aged earth pony mare who looked like she could bench him with one hoof. “What’re ya having, hun?” She asked without looking up from the glass she was polishing.
“I’ll have a uh “New-dawn shot” please.” Blaze said with slight hesitation. This was the first time he’s had a secret meeting this, well, secretive.
At his request, the bartender looks up at him, almost like she was sizing him up. Until she looked back down and spoke. “The rest of yer party is in the private room down the hall. They’ve had all their drinks ordered.”
Blaze gave her a not before making his way down the hall. “Last door on the right.” The bartender called out to him. Following her instructions, he finds the door and after taking a breath and cracking his neck, he knocked.
To his surprise, a sweet sounding female voice answered. “Come in!” Blaze was a little taken aback by the cheerful tone of the voice coming from the other side of the door. After shaking off the shock he cleared he’s throat and entered the room.
Upon entering the room, he was met by a beautiful Unicorn mare with an alabaster coat and a long pastel pink mane, her cutie mark showed an Orchid flower in bloom. He is also surprised to see no security accompanying her; no guards or anything, just her sitting at a small table that stood against the left wall.
“Wow, you’re much better looking then I thought you were going to be.” The mare said with a cheerful smile as she watched him walk in through the door. She got up and walked over to him, offering her hoof to him “It’s just so lovely to finally meet you!”
Blaze hesitantly took her hoof, giving it a gentle kiss as was the expected greeting for these kind of ponies, in his experience “Likewise, I’m Blazing Comet. And what might your name be?”
She lets out a giggle as she brings her hoof to her mouth. “What a gentlecolt! And that accent, Mr Comet you’ll make me blush! But I’m afraid I can’t tell you that juuust yet, be patient though okay?” She said with a wink.
“I don’t trust you one bit.” Blaze thought to himself. Feeling a little uneasy at just how cheerful she is being, it was unnatural.
“Oh don’t worry, you don’t have to right now. Just hear me out and we can both get what we want.” She said with a gentle, unwavering smile.
“Wha-“ Blaze was completely stunned “I didn’t say that out loud did I?” he thought, worried that his mouth was running before he could think.
“No. But that’s not what’s important right now.” She said as she made her way back to her seat at the table, gesturing to the other chair on the other side of the small table. “Please, join me.”
Blaze stood frozen for a moment before shaking himself awake and walking over to the table, sitting across from her. “That’s one neat party trick you’ve got there.” He said, trying not to think of anything embarrassing.
She let out a small giggle at his comment. “Wellllll I don’t know if I’d describe it as “neat” but is has its uses.”
“I’ll bet.” This mare was making him more uneasy by the second.
“Now, as much as I’d love to continue chatting, your uneasy face is just adorable by the way, I think we should discuss the reason I reached out to you.” She began as she used her magenta coloured magic to pull a large, sealed envelope from her saddlebags that sat on the old bed in the back corner of the room.
She placed the yellow envelope in front of him and Blaze gives her one more look before opening it, revealing some files on an old tomb and a map of its location. Along with a sketch of an old spyglass with magic ruins curved into it.
“The tomb was built by a wizard from old Equestria, Mystic the Marvel. He liked to imbue objects with his magic, the spyglass is one of those items. It supposedly allows you to read magic and magical effects.” The mare said with a smile.
“If you know so much about it already then why have you come to me? Surely you have guys that you can trust to not run with the spyglass right?” Blaze asked firmly. In truth he was starting to have doubts about this job, and was looking for a reason to drop it.
“Trust isn’t an issue with me Blazey, I can call you Blazey right? And I picked you because you came highly recommended; also, you should know that if you complete this task, the spyglass is yours! I don’t really care about it to be honest.” She said with a shrug.
That…really through Blaze for a loop. So much so that he forgot to ask her not to call him “Blazey”. To be honest It was really tempting, something like that would be invaluable to his work. But one think was still bugging him. “You’re testing me, aren’t you? You want to see if I’m capable using this task so you’ll give me the real job.”
The mare’s smile grows even bigger “Looks and brains, you’re making me weak in the knees here Blazey.” She teases with a giggle “That’s exactly right, once you have the spyglass, I’ll contact you again and we can officially enter a partnership!” She was positively beaming.
“And what if I refuse this, other job?” Blaze couldn’t help but be on the defensive while taking to this mare.
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll just go out separate ways, but I know you won’t refuse.” she says, maintaining her smile “Now, I do have the room for the right, if you’d like to stay~” She looked towards him with half lidded eyes and a grin.
Feeling a chill run down his spine, Blaze stood up, took the files and made for the door. “T-thank you for the kind offer but I’ve got my cart waiting outside. I’ll get this done and we can discuss business then okay?” He put on a strained smile as he slowly backed out the room.
The mare let’s out another giggle bin response. “I understand, safe travels Blazey~”
Once out the door, Blaze wasted no time getting back to his cart and getting as far away from this part or town as possible. Eventually parking it in and near empty street. Spending the rest of the night going over the files.
That mare creeps him out, but this job and that spyglass were too temping, the files had information on the wizard who built the tomb, what it was thought to have been used for and the location, including the nearest town.
It was a quiet morning in the Golden Oaks Library with Twilight Sparkle, the newest alicorn princess of Equestria. She was a lavinder mare with purple eyes and a purple mane with a strip pink and one of a deeper purple. Her cutie mark was a six-pointed pink star surrounded by five smaller white stars.
She had been up early, reading a new book that had just been delivered to the library. ‘Ancient pony-made structures throughout history. Volume 3.’
As she continued to read, she found something in one of the pages and let out a small gasp before grabbing the book in her magic and running downstairs into the main room. “Spike! Where are you? I’ve got you show you this!” She called out excitedly.
A moment later, Spike, a baby dragon with purple scales and green spines walks in wearing a bright pink apron while carrying two plates of pancakes with a small smile on his face. “Yeah Twilight?”
His walk to their dining table was cut short by a book being telekinetically shoved in his face, causing him to lose his balance and fall back, dropping the plates in the process.
Not noticing, Twilight points to the page in question “I was reading this book about ancient structures, you see most in Equestria have already been explored but not these ones! The secret vaults of Mystic the Marvel!”
Spike; dizzy, annoyed and throughly confused got up off the floor and brushed himself off “Uhhh oh yeah? That’s…really cool Twilight.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide as she continued to explain. “Spike don’t you see?! These are pieces of Equestria’s history, and they’re just sitting there untouched! Just think of all that we could learn if we got the chance to explore them!”
Twilight was beaming with excitement, her face almost right up against Spike’s who just backed up uncomfortably “Well it’s a shame that we can’t then, isn’t it?” He said, tryin to sound disappointed for her.
“But that’s just it Spike.” she said with her smile growing on her face, pointing at a particular section of the page “This one is only a few hours away from Ponyville!” She squealed in excitement. “If we pack now we can be there by midday.” She said, about to go and gather her things, until she was interrupted by Spike clearing his throat.
She turned to see him looking at her disapprovingly, arms crossed and eyebrow raised while tapping his foot. Now she noticed the pancakes and broken plates on the floor. Her ears fell flat against her head as a small blush appears on her face, realising that she got a little carried away “Hehehe…sorry.” she said with a sheepish smile.
After some more apologising and cleaning the mess she made, Twilight returned the conversation to the Tomb of Mystic the Marvel “So would you like to come with me to excavate this tomb, I’m sure an old vault like this one would have plenty of gemstones for a growing dragon.” She said trying to convince him to tag along on an educational adventure.
Spike considers it for a moment, slightly drooling at the thought of a pile of gems all for him. But he snaps out of his daydream as he remembers something. “I’m sorry Twilight, I can’t go. I promised Rarity that I would help her today, and she’s supposed to be really busy with a huge order. But maybe the other girls can help.” He suggested, feeling a little bad for leaving his big sister hanging like that.
“Oh, that’s fine. I’ll ask the girls, I’ll see you later then Spike.” Twilight said with a small smile, she was slightly disappointed that Spike couldn’t come but she’s sure at least one of her friends could make it. So she took some time to gather her blank scrolls, quills, ink, backup quills & ink, magnifying glass, a camera, backup backup quills & ink and her book, which shows the location of the vault. With her saddlebags almost overflowing, she heads out into the day to ask her friends to join her.
Getting to Ponyville was easy, it was just a single train from Canterlot. After stepping off the train and readying his cart, Blaze felt that he couldn’t shake his nerves from his meeting with that creepy mare from the previous night. He didn’t trust her at all but this magic spyglass was too temping to not at least take a look. Taking the path of least resistance, he cuts through the village and finds himself in front of a large forest that the map refers to as ‘The Everfree Forest’. Supposedly it’s filled with unnatural weather, magical beasts and dark magic. The forest seems to make the locals nervous as he discovered when asking if there was a path he could follow.
After finding a path and making sure that he could follow it to the location on the map. He sets off to find the vault of this ’Mystic the Marvel’.
In the limited time he had to research this job before coming this far, he was able to discover that Mystic was a powerful wizard from Equestria’s past. He was born a couple hundred years after the banishment of Nightmare Moon, became a recluse late into this adult life and faded away into obscurity, that was until some of this old notes and research was found in his old home. Apparently he had built vaults all over Equestria and filled them with all the wealth he collected and all the magical items he made over the course of his life. Many tried to access them but nopony ever could. “Of course they haven’t, because Celestia forbid it be easy for me.” Blaze thought to himself, remembering that little tidbit of information.
After a couple of hours of following the directions on his map, he came across a small cleaning connecting to a cliff-face that was completely covered in moss. He looked around and found there was no entrance to be found “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.” He was about ready to leave when he heard a twig snap in the foliage behind him.
Slowly turning to the source of the noice, Blaze readies himself to defend or run. Slowly something starts to creep from the bushes, something with with teeth and claws made of sharp pieces of wood, a green light burning in their eye sockets and shining through the cracks and gaps in their wooden bodies.
“Timber wolves, of course.” Blaze sighs to himself as four timber wolves stepped into the clearing, snarling at the lone unicorn as they surround him, cornering him with his back to the cliff-face. They stood in a stalemate for what felt like hours, until one of the smaller wolves gets impatient and pounces. Blaze turns and fires a concussive beam, knocking it into a nearby tree shattering its body “It’ll come back from that soon.” he reminded himself.
Two more jumping in, attacking from each side. Blaze waited until they were just a few feet from him, then he teleported 10 feet into the air, causing the wolves crash into each other. Blaze then casts a small fire ball spell beneath him at the two collapsed wolves, engulfing them in flames. Casting another spell, he created a strong gust of wind that extinguishes the fire, scattering the now charred wood and softens his landing.
The final and largest Timber Wolf snarled at him with eyes full of rage. It pounced for him just as he landed, tackling him to the ground. The Wolf tried to take a bite out his throat, so to protect himself Blaze put his hoof in the way. A burning pain rushing up his leg as the wooden teeth sank into his forleg. He needed to put as much distance between him and the Wolf as possible, before the smaller one finished rebuilding itself. So as quickly as he could, he put much magic as he could into his horn and blasted the wolf, sending it flying into the moss-covered stone of the cliff-face. Not wasting anymore time, he clambered to his hooves and sends another fire ball at the prone wolf, burning it to charcoal.
Turning to the the smaller wolf, now fully reformed, it runs back into the forest with its tail between it’s legs. Thankful, Blaze almost collapsed in exhaustion as the adrenaline left his body, letting out a sigh of relief.
Checking over his injured forleg, he was glad to find that it wasn’t broken though it was bleeding. Grabbing his first-aid kit along with his saddlebags and he began the process of cleaning and bandaging it. “Some more scars for the collection.” He joked, straining in pain as he wraps the bandage around his fetlock. Looking through his bag, he picks out a potion to stop the bleeding, he hates this stuff so he finishes it quickly with a loud gag as the wound begins to clot, stopping the bleeding.
Once he was satisfied that he is was to walk with no issues, he turned to where the wolf hit the wall, noticing that some of the moss was knocked off, revealing what looked like carvings in the stone. So with a telekinetic grip, he took a hold of a chunk of moss and ripped it from the stone, revealing what looked like a large stone door carved into the wall. He took the mass of dirt and moss and telekinetically threw it into the forest.
He inspected the large stone doors, they are designed with like what appears to be Coltic knots. Upon further inspection, the knots themselves have runes carved in to them. Taking a closer look, he grabbed one of his old notebooks on runes from his saddbags to figure out what kind of runes they were then he could see about translating them. Following the line of runes he saw that some of them were still obscured by dirt, so he tried to brush it away with his hoof.
Upon touching the stone door, the runes lit up with a soft golden glow. Just then, a loud unlatching sound is heard and the doors slowly slide open. Blaze is dumbfounded for a moment “What the- I thought nopony was ever able to open one of these?” He questioned, thinking this might turn out be be more interesting than he suspected.
Before going any further, he moved his cart into the tree line and using the environment to hide it, not knowing whether any spell he casts will maintain once he is inside. And now, with a newfound curiosity, he put on his saddlebags, cracked his neck and cautiously enters through the vault door. Once inside, the stone door slowly closes behind him.
Twilight was taking a lonely, cautious journey through the Everfree by herself; she was so disappointed that none of her friends were free to help her. And she was going to wait until they could like they had suggested, especially with Rainbow Dash not wanting to miss the opportunity to have a ‘Daring Do style adventure’. But she was filled with too much curiosity and excitement to wait another day, the possibilities for learning were just too tempting to not at least take a look.
Also if she was being honest, since becoming a princess, she found that her friends, along with everypony else had become more protective of her. She was happy that they cared so much, but she also found that most ponies now seemed to walk on eggshells around her as though they were trying not to offend her in anyway, she didn’t know if she would ever get used to that. She even had to tell her friends to not refer to her as ‘your majesty’. So honestly, she was glad to to have the opportunity to prove she didn’t need to be treated like different class of pony, that she was just like everypony else.
After a moment, she came across a clearing in the forest; and to Twilights astonishment, she was met with a large carved stone door in the side of a mountain. She moved closer to investigate when she noticed a pile of charred wood by the door “Was somepony camping out here?” she thought to herself, looking around to see if there was anymore evidence of somepony else being there. Unable to find anything, she continued to the door. “They’ve probably left by now.” She reasoned as she took a closer look at the door.
“This writing; I wonder what it means. Ohh how exciting!” she squealed, copying down the runes onto one of her blank scrolls. She had to brush some dirt off the door to finish but eventually wrote it all down. “Now. How do I open you?” She asked the door as her excitement continued to grow.
Chapter 6 - Girl meets boy, Boy meets rock (Edited)
Blaze walked down the stone passageway, a dull glow coming from the carvings in the ceiling that followed him down the pathway. He looked around and found that it was fairly plain save for more Coltic carvings along the walls and ceiling “It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything that reminds me of home. You’d love this, Star” he thought with a sad smile.
Something else that caught him off guard was the apparent lack of any defences or traps of any kind. No pitfalls, no pressure plates, no elaborate puzzles or anything; just a simple stone hallway. Snapping out from his train of thought, he realised that he has come to a crossroad, the path now splitting two ways in opposite directions. Left or right, the two identical pathways stretch out onto the unknown.
Taking a breath, Blaze thinks for a moment “If there are no traps here, then I might be able to explore both. For now, though, I think I’ll go…. right” he decides as he makes his way down the right corridor. The only sound he can hear is the echo of his hooves against the stone as he continues onward. Until he finds himself in an open chamber at the end, he looks around and sees that it appears to be some kind of ancient research lab. There are shelves, some of which are broken; the ones that are still standing are filled with glass jars and bottles, stained with whatever evaporated out of them. Walking further into the room, he finds yellowed research papers written in old ponish on an old desk at the very back of the room. He blows the centuries of dusk off the desk and inspects it, looking for traps.
Satisfied that there are none, like the rest of this place it seems; he reaches and runs a hoof along the desk. As soon as he does, there is a sudden ripple of gold from the point where his hoof touched the wood that spreads across the room and is sent down the hallway. Following the ripple with his eyes, he stands at the ready. Waiting for some sort of defence system to kick in, but nothing happens other than the lights in the room and hallway becoming brighter. Once he turns back he is shocked to see that the desk and the shelves along the walls are as good as new, only the broken shelves, the research papers as well as the glass jars and bottles remained unchanged.
“Well, that’s a new one,” Blaze said hesitantly as he turned his attention back to the desk, deciding to inspect it further.
Twilight had tried everything to open the main vault door; magic, brute force and even chanting old ponish incantations. Nothing seemed to work and Twilight was ready to head home in disappointment until there was a sudden ripple of gold light from the door, which then began to slide open.
“YES! I knew those incantations would work!” Twilight said in relief as she gathered her things and walked through the vault door into a well-lit stone hall.
Looking around at the carvings along the walls, Twilight was in a writing frenzy. Her mind was practically bursting at the seems, thinking about all the possibilities that have come from this massive discovery. Excitedly, she presses onward until she comes to a crossroads dividing the path two ways, left and right. She thinks it over for a moment “I want to explore both but for now, I think I’ll go….left.” she decides as she turns left and heads down the hallway.
She continues onward until she reaches a huge open chamber with a pedestal in the very centre of the room. Stop the pedestal was a large red leather-bound book. Seeing the ancient book all on its own, practically calling her name, Twilight almost dived for the thing as soon as her brain realised what it was. She happily trotted to the pedestal and grabbed the book without hesitation.
At that moment the chamber began to shake violently as some form of alarm sounded, all the lights in the room turning a deep red. The back wall slid down, revealing a large stone sphere covered in more Coltic carvings and glowing runes with a small crystal lens in the centre. And to Twilight horror; it floated into the air, And turned the lens towards her.
Not wanting to stick around and find out with it, she tried to make a run for it but the doorway she came through was now closed; she tried to open it forcefully, then tried reciting more old ponish incantations but they didn’t work. Hyperventilating, she turned in time to see the lens rapidly glowing brighter and brighter until it fired a beam of concentrated magic at her. Bringing up a force field in time, it took the beam dead in the centre, cracking at the impact. The sphere ceases its attack and quickly moves to Twilight's side before charging another beam. Fearing she would be able to charge one strong enough in time she drove forward, narrowly avoiding the beam. Though the force of the beam hitting the ground created a shockwave that sent Twilight flying forward, causing her to scream out in fear and shock.
“AHHHHHH!”
Blaze was standing at the desk, his saddlebags removed and placed on the counter. He couldn’t believe his luck, he had pulled out a drawer from the desk only to find the magic spyglass he was looking for. He pulled it out and inspected it more closely, looking at the runes carved into the surface and its crystalline lens. Wanting to give it a test, he takes a potion from his bag and looks at it through the lens, information now surrounds the glass bottle saying what it does, and how effective it is.
1 healing potion:
Can halt bleeding and accelerate the natural healing process.
Not advised for serious injury requiring surgery.
This was incredible, this was going to make his life so much easier, it was almost funny that getting it was this simple.
At that moment there was a powerful tremor in the chamber, the lights flashed red and an alarm started going off. Blaze then noticed the doors were now sliding shut “Oh of course NOW everything Goes wrong!” Deciding that his saddlebags were a lost cause, he dived into the hallway before the door finished closing. Glad he at least got the spyglass, he made a run for it down the hallway. Seeing the crossroad he knew that he’d be home free soon, as long as nothing went wrong.
“AHHHHHH!”
Blaze froze. Was there somepony in there with him? Were they hurt? If he helped them, would he make it out? His breathing quickened as he found himself unable to think.
Until; without realising it, Blaze took one step down the opposite hallway, then another, and another. Picking up the pace until he brought out into a full sprint “What am I doing?! I need to get out of here!” he thought as he ran as fast as he could. Images flashed in his mind, memories of one of his first expeditions.
“Blaze!”
“Star! NOOOOOOOOO!”
Closing his eyes, shaking those thoughts out of his head. He sprints down the hallway with determination and certainty “Not again” he wasn’t able to make the same mistake again. He came to a sealed door at the end of the hallway, hearing something loud on the other side. Racking his brain, Blaze tries to think of a way to open the door “Come on Blaze, think!” he says bringing his hoof to his head.
Just then, he looks at his hoof and recalls how he first entered the vault. He quickly reaches out to the door, hoping his theory is correct “Please please work!”
Once his hoof touched the door, a familiar light shines over the door as it slides open “YES!” he yelled in victory. Running into the room, he is met with an extremely unexpected sight. An alicorn mare was pulling herself back up to her hooves as a floating stone sphere that seems to be charging some kind of attack. Without thinking, he closes the gap with a teleportation spell and throws up a force field to protect them both.
Exhausted, battered and bruised; the last thing Twilight was expecting at this moment was somepony appearing out of nowhere and putting themselves between her and the sphere. She looked up at her protector as he finished getting up to her hooves, making out a masculine frame and yelling something at her.
“Get up! Move your ass!” Blaze yelled as he strained against the beam hitting his shield. After a few seconds, the beam stops, most likely to charge another attack. He looks back to see the mare standing weakly and with a groan he grabs her by the barrel and leaps behind the pedestal, holding her close to him.
Twilight was surprised by the sudden movement but caught on quickly, pressing herself against the pedestal for additional protection. As another beam hit the pedestal, she looked to the Stallion who pulled out some kind of spyglass “What are you doing to do with that?” She asked, trying to speak over the alarm.
“No time to explain!” Blaze replied as he waited for the beam to cut out. Once it did he stepped out and looked at the sphere through the glass “Please be easy…” he said quickly to himself as he watched as the sphere was surrounded by information.
1 Arcane Sentry:
Fires single beams of highly concentrated magic - Beam charge, 3 seconds; beam duration, 3 seconds; recharge interval, 5 seconds.
Outer stone is impervious to all magical attacks.
Blaze’s heart dropped as he finished reading “Impervious….no. No! it has to have some kind of weakness!” He cursed in frustration as he checked again.
1 Arcane Sentry:
Fires single beams of highly concentrated magic - Beam charge, 3 seconds; beam duration, 3 seconds; recharge interval, 5 seconds.
Outer stone is impervious to all magical attacks.
“Damn it!” He yelled as he grabbed Twilight and moved them to the other side of the pedestal as the sphere finished repositioning itself. This couldn’t possibly be a worse situation, trapped with a killer rock that their magic is useless against.
“Wait. Outer stone is impervious to all magical attacks“ he recalled in this mind “Outer stone”
“What?” Twilight asked, completely lost as to what this stallion was doing and why was talking about ‘outer stone’.
Looking at her as the beam hit the pedestal again, cracks forming around it. Blaze came up with a plan, it was risky, but it may be their only shot. He gave her a determined look “We need to let it fire at us.”
“ARE YOU CRAZY?!” Twilight yelled in response to this terrible plan.
“Look, I know it's crazy but I have a plan!” He said, realising that it did sound completely insane “Trust me.” he looked into her eyes and gave her a genuine smile, trying to reassure her.
Twilight wanted to tell this stallion not to go through with this “plan” but the look in his eyes stopped her words before she could speak. “Okay, what can I do?”
“Once I tell you, put a force field over us, as strong as you can make it,” he said as he timed the sphere's movements. The next beam cracked through the pedestal further, knocking off a large chunk. The next one would destroy it, so it was now or never. Once the beam ended, Blaze jumped out into the open and began charging a spell and taking the sphere’s attention away from Twilight.
“8 seconds” he reminded himself “I’ve got 8 seconds” as he continued to charge the strength of his spell.
7
6
5
4
The sentry began charging its beam attack once more.
3
2
“NOW!” Blaze yelled as he fired his spell directly at the crystal lens on the sentry. A magical mass of glue-like consistency coated the lens just before the beam was fired. With the magical energy not able to break through the barrier, the sentry began to crack and shake.
Twilight, hearing her cue dove to Blaze and lit up a force field just as the sentry exploded. Sending debris everywhere and hitting them with a powerful shockwave. And with Twilight being so weakened already, her shield shattered and the two were sent flying backwards.
After a moment, Twilight lifted her head and looked back to find the alarm had been switched off and the lights were back to normal. And their spherical friend in pieces, shattered across the room. A sudden jolt of energy allowed her to push her to half up as he looked to Blaze, who was stirring into consciousness “We did it…..WE DID IT!!!!” Twilight yelled in his face with a loud triumphant laugh “I can’t believe your plan worked!! I’m so sorry for doubting you, you rea-“
“No problem, but can you get off me now? Please?” Blaze strained as Twilight looked down and realised that she had landed on top of him and was currently sitting on his barrel with her front hooves pressed into his chest.
Feeling her face become flushed, she quickly climbed off of him and looked away embarrassed “S-sorry. Are you okay?” She asked him in a concerned voice.
“I’ll live,” he said, pulling himself to his hooves “What about you? You okay?”
“Y-yeah. I think so, just a little banged up” She responded, while she wasn’t seriously injured she’d still need to see a doctor.
Blaze gave a relieved sigh “Good, that's good. Now; ARE YOU AN IDIOT!!!” He suddenly yells, making Twilight jump. And leaving her confused.
“DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU WERE DOING?! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!! DID YOU EVEN PREPARE BEFORE COMING HERE? WHY IN TARTARUS WOULD YOU-“
He continued, as Twilight just stared at him, of all the outcomes that she predicted, getting scolded like a filly that ran away from home was not her first guess. Since becoming a princess, nopony would never think to speak to her that way, but then there was this stallion. Who was telling her off for putting her life in danger so carelessly, it was very strange to say, but it was almost refreshing.
Blaze, finishing his rant took a deep breath in and let it out slowly to calm himself “Next time I won’t be there to help so please just think”
Twilight was honestly a little lost for words and didn’t know how to respond. Does she apologise? Thank him? She wasn’t used to being so tongue-tied “What is wrong with you? Just thank him already” she thought to herself.
“I-I uh, thank you and uh s-sorry for the trouble.”
“Nice one Twilight” she thought to herself as she gives herself a mental facehoof.
“It’s no problem, just don’t let it happen again. For your own sake” he said turning to leave “Now I can go get my saddlebag back from that lab” he realised.
“Wait!” Twilight called, grabbing her saddlebags and following after him “I want to thank you properly, you saved my life. So thank you, and again I’m truly sorry for the trouble”
Looking towards her for a second Blaze responds with a small sigh “It’s no problem, you sure you’re okay?” He asks, noting her slight limb.
“Yeah, I’ll see a doctor once I get back to Ponyvile. I certainly have a lot of explaining to do” she said with a small laugh “I never got your name by the way, I’m-“
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I read about you in the paper,” he said keeping with eyes forward before glancing her way “I’m Blazing Comet”
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Mr Comet,” Twilight said with a smile, trying to bring up his mood.
“Please just call me Blaze, princess” he responds.
“In that case, please just call me Twilight,” she said, hopeful that he wouldn’t be afraid to call her by her first name. Though he didn’t seem his he would be.
“Whatever you say Twilight” It’d been a while since he’s spoken to a pony with status who didn’t want to be referred to by their noble title. It was honestly a little refreshing, even if she was just like this because he saved her.
Eventually, they come to the crossroads and Twilight is confused to see Blaze continue down the hall “Isn’t the exit this way?” She asks.
“Yeah but I left my bags down the hall” he answered as they continued onwards until they reached the still-closed lab door.
“Oh no, that door is closed. Do you have a way in?” Twilight asked with concern, as far as she knows have no way of opening it.
Blaze walked over and touched it with his hoof, the door opening at this touch “You tell me.”
Twilight was dumbfounded at the doors opening so easily for Blaze “This stallion has a lot of explaining to do” so thought as she followed him into the room. Only to be stunned to see a perfectly intact research lap, she almost tried to throw herself at the desk with Blaze practically dragging her away.
He had her sit on a desk chair while to took out his first aid kit and checked her over. Not finding any serious injuries, he gets to work cleaning and bandaging her cuts and scrapes. Twilight just watched him work in silence.
“Okay, so that should hold you together until you see a doctor. Here, drink this” he said passing her a healing potion “That should speed up your recovery.”
Twilight gives him a thankful smile “He’s a little rough-and-tumble, but he seems kind.” she thought to herself “Thank you” she said before taking a drink. At that moment, she almost immediately wanted to take her thanks and kind thoughts back; feeling sick at the taste of the foul liquid, she let out a loud gag and started retching at the bitter taste in my mouth.
She give him a scowl for the ages as he just laughed at her “Sorry, I was going to warn you but I just had to see the look on your face” he said, continuing to laugh.
“I take back everything nice I thought about you.” Twilight thought as she looked away with a pout.
Seeing her face, Blaze’s laughter slows before he comes up with an idea. He takes the rest of the healing potion and finishes it, not holding back his gag at the awful taste.
Seeing his face twist as he finishes the potion, Twilight lets out a small giggle which turns into a full-blown laugh “Okay, that was funny.”
The two laughed together at their mutual disgust. Eventually, the two began to set off down the hallway again; though Blaze had to drag Twilight away from the desk again “You can come back later”
As they made their way out, they told each other the story of their coming to the vault and how they got inside. After telling her about the timber wolf attack, she looked to his bandaged leg where the timber wolf has bitten him, which had now started to bleed through “You really should see a doctor about that” with a voice of concern.
“I’ll be fine. I’m tougher than I look” Blaze said nonchalantly.
“I’m serious, it could be infected,” Twilight said with a serious tone.
“Let’s just focus on you for the moment,” he said, changing the subject “Why are you here in the first place? Don’t you have like, guards to protect you in these situations?” One thing Blaze had never seen before was a noble pony in an even remotely hazardous environment without a full security detail with them.
Twilight shifted uncomfortably, both Princess Celestia and her brother had tried to get her a full-time guard squadron when she declined to move to a Canterlot castle. The thought of ponies always keeping an eye on her was suffocating, she already felt distant from normal ponies but that would make it infinitely worse “N-no I don’t. I don’t want to have to be constantly surrounded by ponies that are only there to keep an eye on me.”
“Then who protects your castle?” Blaze found himself interested in what she had to say, another first for him when it came to noble ponies.
“I-I don’t live in a castle…I live in a library, in Ponyville. The day I moved here was the day I met my best friends, I couldn’t abandon them to kind in a castle far away from them” Twilight felt herself smile as she recalled that first day in Ponyville, with no friends, save for Spike and no interest in anything other than her studies. Until she met the 5 ponies that changed her life and the way she saw the world for the better. She owes them everything “Without my friends, I wouldn’t be a princess. But more importantly, I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now”
Her words dumbfounded Blaze, who found himself at a complete loss for words. Never in a million years would he expect such a genuine, beautiful sentiment from a noble, let alone royalty “You are fascinating, Twilight”
“What?” Twilight asked a little caught off guard at his comment.
“I’m not the biggest fan of nobility; but I think I can safely say your nothing like the stuck-up, spoiled ponies that cling to the titles they did nothing to deserve. But you did earn a royal title and you are still so modest, is honestly impressive” he said with a genuine smile.
Twilight felt a small blush appear on her face at his praise, it didn’t feel like the flank kissing that he had seen from nobles in Canterlot. Nor was it like the obligatory compliments she got from everyday ponies, it was genuine and heartfelt.
“T-Thank you, though I wasn’t just being modest when I said owed my friends for where I am today. Maybe you could meet them and decide for yourself?” She asked hopefully.
“Maybe. Come on, I’ll take you back in my cart.” Blaze said as they exited the vault and he brought his cart from the trees. Once he did he showed her inside, showed her the one-room tour and left to go pool the cart along.
Twilight looked around at the modest cart, sitting at his desk. She looked out the window as her mind walked over the last few hours, thankful that Blaze showed up when we did. He was a strangle pony, he didn’t seem to care that she was a princess and he certainly wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. She thought about how he was able to open the vault doors. And how he was so ready to step in and save her. Just then; Coco jumped onto the desk, scowling at the stranger in her home “Oh hello there” said Twilight in surprise, before very slowly trying to pet the cautious cat. Coco reluctantly accepted the pets before slowly melting into Twilight’s lap to go for a nap, purring. Something Twilight could only giggle at “Kinda like your owner, grumpy.” she thought as the cat melted at her touch. But sweet.” She smiled as she looked out the window towards the pony pulling them onward.
It had been a quiet ride back to Ponyville, with Blaze pulling the cart and Twilight spending her time playing with Coco. She had told him the directions to the hospital from the Everfree, once they were there Blaze walked with Twilight from the cart and into the hospital.
Nurse Red Heart was going over charts at reception when she heard somepony enter “Hello there, is there anythi-thi-thiii” She begun stuttering and tripping over her words as none over than princess Twilight Sparkle walked in, bandaged and beat up. She was accompanied by an unknown stallion who helped her to the reception desk.
Twilight cleared her throat, trying to ease the tension before speaking “Excuse me, can we-“
“GET THE DOCTOR HERE NOW! PRINCESS TWILIGHT IS INJURED!” Red Heart yelled down the corridor, panicking as though Twilight were dying in front of her.
Seconds later, a full medical team swopped in, put Twilight onto a bed and rushed her down the corridor. Leaving Blaze alone in the lobby, blinking in surprise. He waited a moment until another nurse comes up to him “Excuse me, sir? Do you need somepony to take a look at your leg?”
“Ehh, aye. Why not?” He eventually said, dismissing the almost superequine feat as ponies worrying about their princess. He followed the nurse into a small room were she asked him to take a seat on the bed and give her his bandaged foreleg.
The nurse unraveled the bandages, seeing the teeth marks still fresh but now not bleeding as much, thankfully the think hair on his fetlocks stopped the teeth form going too deep “That’s a nasty bite you’ve got there, wolf?”
“Timber wolf to be exact” Blaze responded.
“Wow, not many ponies get so lucky with timber wolves. How’d you manage to get away?” She asked with a small twinkle in her eye, cleaning and redressing the wound.
“Well lend me your ear and I shall enlighten you” Blaze joked as he began telling the story of his Timber Wolf encounter.
Some time later, Twilight stay laying in her hospital bed in a private room with fresh bandages and some painkillers. She was waiting for the doctor to come and discharge her. Her mind was wandering to Blaze, and his injured leg. He has told her what happened with the timber wolves, and he was able to walk to the hospital so she knew that he was probably fine but she’d hate for him to have injured himself further by helping her. Maybe she could go and see how he was doing once she was free to go “Or maybe he’ll come and visit me?” she wondered before shaking her head “What am I saying? he’s probably still down in the lobby or in his cart outside” she reasoned to herself.
At that moment the door to the room opened, pulling Twilight out of her thoughts. She looked to the door, expecting to see the doctor. However, in the blink of an eye there was a flash of pink and there was a sudden great force enveloping her. Coming out of her panic, she looked down and saw her assailant “Pinkie? What are you doing here?” Her friend, Pinkie Pie that was now holding her while sniffling, her hair straightened and the colour of her coat a lifeless muted pink. Then one by one bell the rest of her friends rushed into the room, with various looks of panic and concern shown on their faces “Girls? What’s going on? How’d you know I was here?” Twilight couldn’t have been there longer than twenty minutes, how’s they know she was here?
“We heard you were in the hospital, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked with her voice quivering, eyes welling up with tears.
“What ever happened to you Twilight?” Rarity asked face full of concern.
“I’m fine, really. I’m just a few scrapes and bumps” Twilight said trying to reassure her friends. Who gave her a look over and have a collective sigh of relief that she was unharmed. Though Pinkie Pie refused to let her go. So Twilight returned the hug, knowing that it was what Pinkie needed to recover her original colour and the poofyness of her mane and tail “How’d you know I was here?” She asked.
“Somepony came rushing from the hospital yelling that you were injured, the news is all over Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash said gesturing out the window.
“We rushed over here as soon as we heard the news sugercube. We’re just glad to see you okay” Applejack said, placing her stetson back on her head “Right girls”
The rest of them agreeing with her, they each relaxed. At that moment Pinkie jumped back to her hooves, vibrant pink and hair like cotton candy, gave a beaming smile “You really had us worried there Twilight, but don’t you worry. Once you’re all better, there’ll be a huge ‘Welcome home from the hospital’ party waiting for you!”
“I appreciate it Pinkie, but I should be getting out in a few minutes” said with a small laugh, knowing Pinkie would want to throw a party to celebrate.
Pinkie just let got a huge gasp “Then I better get started right away!” She tries to rush out the room only for Applejack to stop her by her tail.
“Hold on now, before any party plannin’ starts. How did this happen Twi?” Applejack asks, looking back at Twilight.
“Well, it’s a long story. Do you all remember the vault I told you about this morning?” Twilight asked as she began her story of the events of that day.
After fishing his timber wolf story and having his fetlock properly bandaged, Blaze’s mind turned to twilight and their close call with the sentry “What was she even looking for in that chamber?” he thought to himself.Then suddenly, he was stuck with a idea. He headed out to his cart and made his way down the path, back toward the Everfree Forest.
As Twilight told her story, her friends gave varying reactions. Fluttershy seemed terrified the whole way through, while Applejack held a concerned look. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were completely enthralled, particularly when she brought up the sentry attack. Rarity on the other hand, was giving a look Twilight could only describe as giddy. Twilight then finally finished her story “And then he helped me into the hospital we’re they took me away almost immediately”
Upon finishing her story, Rainbow Dash was the first to speak “That sounds awesome! . I wish I coulda been there, why didn’t you wait for us!” She pointed with an accusatory hoof at Twilight, clearly annoyed that she didn’t take her.
“I was going to. But then I kept thinking about all the learning opportunities and next thing I knew I was there” Twilight answered with a sheepish smile.
“We’ll ah’d say you learn’d plenty about going into these situations alone” Applejack said with a disapproving look “Ah’d say this ‘Blaze’ feller had the right it’s scoldin you like that”
“Y-Yeah you’re right, I should waited for you all. But I was just so tired of everypony treating me differently now that I’m a princess. I thought that maybe I could show them that I’m just a normal pony by doing this one thing by myself” Twilight said in frustration, thinking about how this should probably only make the situation worse.
“And we understand that Twi, but you can’t go throwing yerself into danger like that” Applejack said, softening her expression. She understood that her friend was having a bit of an adjustment period to her new life and it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. But she wasn’t going to let her potentially hurt herself to in the process.
“I know, I’m sorry. You’re my best friends, and I should had respected that you were all busy. Had I been patient, this never would have happened” Twilight said with a heartfelt tone.
“Awww, group hug!” Pinkie Pie called as she pulled them all into one big hug, the other five returning the hug in turn.
As the hug ended Twilight looked around “Where’s spike?”
“Back at the library darling, he wanted to update the princesses before she heard about it in the papers” Rarity explained.
“That’s right, the whole town knows. It’s only a matter of time before this whole thing blows up” Twilight thought worriedly.
At that moment the doctor came in with discharge papers “Hello princess, I won’t take up too much of your time so if you just sign here then you’ll be free to go” he said with a smile, passing her the papers.
“Thank you doctor. We should get back as soon as possible so ponies know I’m not actually hurt” Twilight said looking to her friends and she signed.
“Agreed, we wouldn’t want a panic on our hooves” Rarity said, the others nodding in agreement understanding how dramatic ponies can be about these situations.
After giving the doctor the discharge papers, the six of them left the hospital together. Twilight looked around, disappointed and a little hurt that Blaze’s cart was nowhere to be seen “Did he really leave without saying goodbye?” she thought to herself as they headed back into town. Being pulled out of her thought; she found herself surrounded by a crowd of ponies asking if she is okay. Twilight was trapped in the middle of the town square, her friends unable to clear a path through the worried townsfolk.
Knowing that the ponies are just concerned for her, Twilight knows that she needs to say something to reassure them that she is okay. So she levitates a cate from a nearby stand and stands atop it, breathing a breath breath in before addressing the crowd “Everypony, I know that you’re all concerned for my health but I am fine, I am unharmed”
“What happened to you?” One of the townsponies called out.
“I will say more another time but for now, just know that I am not hurt” Twilight explained as calmly as she could manage, not wanting to worry the townsponies anymore.
The crown seemed to calm slightly at the explanation and seeing that Twilights wasn’t seriously hurt. They parted enough for Twilight and her friends to pass. Once they were out of earshot from the crowd, all six of them let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Nice save there Twilight” said Rainbow Dash
“It worked for now but they’ll want to know what happened, but I want my family and the princesses know I’m okay first” Twilight said as they pressed onwards to the library.
Once they got there and opened the door, Twilight was almost immediately tackled by Spike who now clung onto her “Twilight! You’re okay!” He cried relieved to see her safe.
“I’m okay” Twilight repeated back to the little dragon, giving him a comforting hug “Did to send a letter to princess Celestia?”
“Y-Yeah, I-I didn’t know what else to do” Spike said, sniffling slightly.
“You did the right thing, Spike. Come on, let’s go inside” said Twilight, with Spike now having let go of her and waking back into the library wiping away tears from his eyes.
“Thank you girls, I think I’ll sleep for the next three days” Twilight jokes as she started to follow Spike into the library.
“Hold up now sugercube” Applejack said before Twilight could head inside “Now while you learned yer lesson, we still can’t just let go of the fact that you coulda got yerself killed. So I think you should stay at the library until this mess with the news in town has calmed down”
“What? Are you grounding me?” Twilight said full confusion at Applejacks words. Looking to the rest of her friends.
“We just want to make sure that you’re safe darling, and that nopony gets the wrong idea” Rarity said, trying to reassure her.
“We’ll make sure ponies know what happened so this doesn’t get out of control” Rainbow Dash said with a determined smile.
“Wait” said Fluttershy raising a hoof to get her friends’ attention “I don’t think we should be forcing Twilight to stay inside her home”
“Yeah I’m with Fluttershy on this one” Pinkie Pie said standing next to and putting a hoof over Fluttershy “That seems mean, and boring. Also, how is she supposed to progress the story if she can’t do anything?”
Looking confused for a moment before dismissing the comment at ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’, Applejack rubbed the back of her head uneasily “Ah know; it’s just that, you were hurt and now everypony is on yer flank about it. Ah don’t think that’s fair on ya” she said looking back to Twilight.
“As least let us try to calm things out here, so you can rest a couple days” Applejack said trying to convince her.
Twilight took a second to think before a deep breath “Okay, I’ll rest for a few days, but after that I’ll do everything I can to help” Twilight said giving in to Applejack’s request.
“Thanks Twi, we’ll be everything we can from our end, trust us” Applejack said with a smile. With the rest of her friends sharing the sentiment, Twilight gave them a smile knowing that they would do their best for her.
“Thank you girls, I’m thinking I’ll turn in for the rest of the day. I’ll see you all soon” she said while heading back into her home, the rest of her friends also saying goodbye before going back into town.
Hours later, Blaze had finally come out of the Everfree. It was now sometime after 9pm; later than he would have liked it so he quickened his pace into town. Thankfully there were still ponies up and about so he walked up to the nearest pony, an earth pony stallion, and asked for directions to the town’s library. The stallion was confused at first but pointed him to a building in town that looked like a large tree; no wait scratch that, it was a large tree “Ah yes, of course the princess lives in a tree. A tree that’s a library” he thought sarcastically to himself, making his way to the tree, now seeing the sign ‘Golden Oaks Library’ and seeing the lights are still on “Good, I’m not too late” he said as he parks his cart on the side of the road. He heads inside the cart and comes out holding something wrapped in cloth. He walks up to the door and knocked.
He waits for a few moments before the door opens, his smile turning to confusion as their doesn’t appear to be any one in at the door. He looks around for a second before hearing a slightly annoyed young voice “Excuse me, down here”
Moving his gaze to the source of the voice, Blaze was surprised to see an honest to Celestia baby dragon with purple and green scales “Oh hello there, wee man” he said with a small smile “I’m looking for Twilight, she said she lived in the library in town. Is she here?”
Spike looked at him in thought for a moment “Yeah, but she’s resting just now. You got a message for her?”
Blaze was a little disappointed but understood, so he pulled out the cloth wrapped item and presented it to Spike “Just looking to give her this, tell her it’s from ‘Blaze’”
Spike took the item in his claws and looked up at the unfamiliar stallion, unsure of what to make of him “uhhhh thanks, I’ll pass both on. Take care” he said as he closed the door.
“You too” Blaze said with a small wave. Strapping himself part to his cart, he went to go find somewhere to park it for the night. After doing so, he turned in for the night and climbed into bed. He glanced to the photo on his shelf; today had been stressful, confusing, frustrating and exhausting. But, it was also exciting, interesting and….. fun.
“Today was actually a good day” Blaze thought with slight surprise, as he slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next morning; Twilight awoke feeling stiff and sore, but well rested. Checking her clock, it’s was a little after 8 in the morning, she realised that she had slept over 12 hours “Woah, I guess yesterday took it out of me” she laughed to herself as she stretched and climbed out of bed. After doing her morning routine, she made her way downstairs into the living room, through into the kitchen where Spike was sitting at the table reading a ‘Power Ponies’ comic with a bowl of cereal.
He looked up to her as she made her way into the kitchen and gave her a smile “Morning Twilight, how you feeling?”
“Good morning, and I’m still a little sore but I’m feeling better” Twilight smiled back as she went to make herself some toast and coffee, sweet sweet coffee.
“That’s good, sorry again for getting so emotional yesterday” Spike said, a little embarrassed.
Twilight put her hoof on his shoulder to comfort him “You never have to apologise for your emotions Spike; did you get a response from the princess?”
“Thanks Twilight. And yeah, she said that’s she’s glad to here your doing alright and to keep her updated” Spike replied, taking a big spoonful of cereal.
After Twilight got home, they sent princess Celestia another letter explaining the situation and that she was unharmed and home. She was glad to hear that she wouldn’t be worrying her former teacher. Thought they will still need to send letters to their family to let them know, made they could stop by the post office and head back home.
At that moment the toast popped up in the toaster, so Twilight buttered them and sat down at the table, taking a drink from her mug.
At that moment, Spike remembered something and swallowed a mouthful of milk and cereal before speaking “Oh by the way, after you went to bed, some stallion stopped by asking for you. I told him you were sleeping and he gave me this package to give to you. Said it was from a ‘Blaze’ or something”
Twilight almost choked on her coffee in surprise. After clearing her throat she asked “So where is this package then”
“I’ll go get it” Spike said as he finished his cereal and placed the bowl into the sink, before leaving the kitchen.
“He didn’t leave? Well where did he go? And what did he bring? And why did he wait until so late to try and give me it” Twilight asked in her mind as she waiting for Spike to come back through. She couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief wash over her, though she wasn’t sure why?
It was then that Spike walked in with a large square parcel wrapped in a plain cloth tied with string. Twilight book it in a telekinetic grasp and placed it on the table, moving her toast and coffee it of the way. Slowly she untied the string and unwrapped the cloth, Spike watching closely to see what she got. Upon seeing what was in the cloth, Twilight let out a gasp and just stared.
Spike just gave a confused look “A book? And and some paper?”
Twilight couldn’t believe what she was seeing; it was the book and research papers from the vault “Did…Did he go all the way back and get them, for me?” She wondered, realising why he delivered the package so late. Twilight carefully took the book in her magic and opened it, she looked through the pages and felt so touched at this gift.
Coming out of her thoughts, twilight turned to Spike who just looked confused at her and the book “It’s now just any book Spike, this is the book from the vault” she explained
“WHAT!!” Spike said, recoiling in fear as though the book were a bomb. She had told him an abridged version of yesterdays events so it would make sense that he didn’t trust the book.
“Don’t worry Spike, the book isn’t going to hurt anypony” Twilight said, now with a big smile that she just couldn’t seem to get rid of. She rewrapped the book and paper and passed them at a still terrified Spike “Could you put this in my study please?” She said as she got up, left the kitchen and started walking towards the front door.
Spike followed, holding the book as far away from him as his little arms could manage “Why can’t you do it? It’s your book!”
“I need to find Blaze and thank him. He might still be in town” she said, continuing to the door, she felt giddy but for the life of her couldn't tell why? Maybe she just so excited at the prospect of a new friend “Oh! maybe then I could introduce him to the girls, and then-”
Twilight snapped out of her though process as she opened the door only to be greeted by another pony she’d never seen before. She was a unicorn mare with an alabaster coat, long pastel pink mane and a cutie mark of an Orchid flower in bloom. She was standing at the door with a large smile, almost like she’d been waiting for her.
“Heyyy there! You must be princess Twilight Sparkle” The mare said, taking Twilight’s hoof and shaking it vigorously “I’ve got to tell you, it’s a honour meeting you”
“Um thank you, likewise” Twilight said confused and a little uncomfortable. Before she could say anything more, the mare pulled out a notepad and pencil from her saddlebags.
“I’m a reporter and I heard about your hospital visit. Can I come in ask a few questions?” She leaned in so close that their noses almost touched.
Twilight backed away at the invitation of her personal space before clearing her throat and answering “I don’t think I have time for an interview just now, I’m a little busy as the moment. And besides, it’s a long story” she said hoping that would be a sufficient excuse to get out of this situation.
This strange mare just continued to smile cheerfully at Twilight as she spoke “An alicorn princess ends up in the hospital, how much longer do you really think you can keep ponies quiet about that? I promise I won’t take up too much of your time. I just want to give you the chance to come clean with the full story. That is, before somepony else comes out with a more interesting, marketable story” she looked Twilight in the eye “But it’s your choice”
Twilight wasn’t sure what to do, she didn’t feel as though she could trust this mate but she did have a point. She was able to calm the ponies in town but how long until the news spread beyond Ponyville? Would they even to able to contain it? If not the very least they could do is have control over how it’s announced. So after thinking it over a moment and taking a breath, she looks to the the mare and responds “Okay, I’ll agree to an interview but you have to listen and you can’t take anything out of context.”
“Oh I wouldn’t dream of it princess!” The mare said with a hoof over her heart. So twilight lead her to some chairs by the bookshelf for them to sit “Would you like anything to drink?”
“Oh no thank you, I’ll just ask my questions and be on my way” the mare said with an unfaltering smile.
“Okay, so what do you want to know?” Twilight said, hoping this wouldn’t drag on.
The mare gave a giggle “Don’t worry, it won’t drag on. Now first question, can you please go over the details of yesterday in your own words?”
Twilight cleared her throat before telling the story of discovering that one of the vaults of Mystic the Marvel were only a few hours away from Ponyville and that it has never been explored. About how she made her way there to discover what was inside, and when she got there she found no way that she could enter the vault.
As she spoke, she noticed that this mare wasn’t taking any notes of any kind “Shouldn’t she be writing this down?” she thought to herself.
“I’m waiting for further in the story to write my notes. Don’t worry though I won’t forget the context, I never forget” the mare said with an innocent smile.
Twilight was thrown for a loop for a second “I couldn’t be sworn I didn’t say that out loud”
“Don’t worry, I saw you looking at my notepad” the mare said, as though she were trying to explain how she knew what Twilight was thinking.
Twilight, accepting that logic, continued with her story and how the door mysteriously opened on it’s own. Next she told her about how she found the chamber with the old book, how the alarm system was activated and the arcane sentry attack. And it was then that she brought up Blaze and explained in great detail how he jumped in and saved them both.
Upon mentioning Blaze, Twilight heard the unmistakable sound of a quill on paper as this mare as finally stated taking notes.
“Okay, thank you for that. Now, second question; this ‘Blaze’ stallion, how did he get there?” she asked as he held up her notepad in anticipation.
Twilight thought back to yesterday for a moment, and explained how Blaze had somehow opened the doors within the vault just by touching them. And about how he was already in another section of the vault when she entered. After that, she went on about how he then bandaged her and took her into town and to the hospital.
The mare seamed ecstatic writing down notes as Twilight finished her story “That’s perfect. Okay that’s should be enough for today, thank you so much for this, I really appreciate it”
“That’s perfectly fine, thank you for listen to the full story. But I have to ask, what newspaper do you wor-“
“Oh! Before I go I have to know, off the record. Tell more about this Blaze guy, was he as heroic as you made him out to be?” The mare asked with a cheeky grin.
“W-What? What are you saying?” Twilight was caught off guard and stopped in her tracks.
“Oh come on you can tell me, girl to girl” The mare leaned in close again, causing Twilight to back up slightly.
“I don’t see how this is relevant, and besides I’m pretty busy like I said so I’m sorry but I really have to go” Twilight said trying to end this conversation as quickly as possible. Her mind was racing and she felt herself getting defensive, to which the mare laughed and made her way to the door.
“Don’t worry princess, I was just teasing. You enjoy the rest of your day now, byeeee” she sang as she walked out the door and closed it behind her.
Twilight just stood there a moment in confusion as her anxiety levels came back down to normal. There was something about that mare that didn’t feel right “Wait, did I get her name?” She thought to herself, trying to recall when the mare introduced herself but nothing came up.
“Woah, she was creepy” Spike said from the stairs as he walked down.
“Spike, now that’s not a very nice thing to say” she lectured, thought she had to admit she shared the sentiment “And how long were you listening?”
“The whole time” Spike said, a little bashful “Why didn’t you tell me about this guy that saved you?” He asked.
“I was focused on letting you and everypony know I was okay. Also, I had thought he’d left Ponyville” she admitted with a small sheepish smile. Now remembering Blaze and the gift he got her. She got up as started making her way to the fort again “That reminds me, I should go find him. To thank him again for yesterday and the book”
“Wait, you know the girls want you to rest, but if you wanna go then I’ll come with you” Spike said as he follows closely behind “If he really saved you, then I have to thank him too”
Twilight just gave small laugh in response as the two left the library. She was also just glad to distract herself from that creepy reporter mare.
Watching the two leave the library, a certain unicorn mare started to walk down the street while humming a sweet tune to herself. Eventually stopping behind a building out of sight as she looked at her notes and gave a giggle in excitement.
“It’ll be over soon, my love. It’s really finally happening. One vault down, three to go”
Coco, the tortoiseshell cat recently adopted by Blazing Comet, was not in a good mood. It was almost noon and her owner was still asleep. Ergo, she hadn’t been fed yet. She wouldn’t tolerate this abuse, so she leap onto the desk, then the shelf that overlooked the bed. She stares down her pray, crouched low to calculate her trajectory. She readies her aim and leaps into the air, a determined look on her face as she came crashing down onto her owners stomach.
Blaze had been having one of the most restful nights sleeps he had had in a very long time. That was until 7lbs of feline fury collided with his diaphragm. Waking up coughing and wheezing at the sudden lack of oxygen in his lungs, he turned to his furry little demon who just looked up at him with a look of disdain. As she meowed and pawed at her food bowl.
After catching his breath he rubs the back of his neck as he shoots Coco a glare “Good morning to you too, my dear” He grumbled at her, eventually dragging himself out of bed to get her breakfast. Emptying a can of cat food into her bowl his his magic, he made himself a cup of coffee to finish the job that Coco started, waking up.
Once his coffee was finished, he turned to the sink and looked into the mirror and began his daily routine, while brushing his mane he noticed that it had gotten quite long “Maybe I should try cutting it” He thought before a flash of light came from the send king crystal on his desk, taking it in his hoof he saw a familiar seal. The same one used but that creepy mare he met the other night. With a groan, he opened the letter and began reading.
Dear Blazey,
First of all, congrats on the first job! You really impressed us there, especially with the princess rescue. Who’d have thought you were the chivalrous type? (I like that ;3)
So, for your next job we will need you to come back to Canterlot a week from today. Please find next meeting place attached.
See you soooon~
“Oh Celestia it’s worse than the last one” Blaze cringed as he finished reading. A big part of him really wanted to burn the letter and forgot about his whole thing. But looking back, this job had been the more enjoyable than any other he had in months. Maybe he’s just crazy but in the end he decided to at least hear her out again. After all, he got to keep the skyglass, so who knows what else he stood to gain. That, and he still had his dept to worry about.
But he had until next week to think about that, what was he going to do with himself all week? It’s not like he had the money to go on another bender with the guys. Maybe he could ask Twilight what’s there to do for fun around here. Feeling more energised at the thought, he grabbed his saddlebags and some bits and walked left his cart, heading for town.
Twilight had reached the market with Spike riding on her back. She was looking for a specific cart, belonging to somepony that she wanted to thank. Though the longer they searched, the more Twilight worried that he really had left. So she quickened her pace through the stalls and ponies.
“Uhh Twilight, can you slow down please? You’re gonna run into something.” He said holding on tighter to stop himself from falling off.
Twilight took her eyes of the way ahead to look back at Spike “I’m just just trying to get through this crowd Spike. I’ll slow down when We-“
And just like that Twilight collided with something and fell back onto her flank, Spike also getting knocked off and faking to the ground. Feeling dazed at the sudden collision, Twilight shook her head to regain her composure. She was about to stand up until she heard a familiar voice.
“Woah, princess down.” A baritone voice joked as she sat there on the ground.
Looking towards its source, she saw that she and ran into Blaze, who was now looking down at her with an amused expression. He offered his hoof to help her up, which she took with a small blush at the embarrassment of the situation.
“T-Thank you”
“It’s no problem, so what’s got you in such a hurry?” He said with a chuckle, helping her to her hooves.
“You actually, I was looking for you and I didn’t know if you’d left.” Twilight admitted
“Well that’s a coincidence, I was looking for you too.” As he spoke he noticed Spike on the ground and went to help him, lifting him by his shoulders and putting him back down on his feet.
“Wait, really?” She hadn’t been expecting that “What did you want to see me for?”
“Well, I just heard that I got a job coming up but it’s not until next week, so I wanted to ask you what there is to do around here for fun?”
Twilight felt a wave of excitement wash over her as she thought about showing him around town. “I’d love to!” But then, she fully registered what he had said “Wait, another job? What do you mean?”
Blaze thought for a moment, it was always a gamble telling others was he did. Most frown on selling magical items off. But on the other hoof he didn’t want to lie, so he settled with a halve truth. “Well, I wasn’t in that vault for no reason Twilight. I was hired to excavate it.”
Twilight’s ears picked up at that, she always loved reading on the history of ancient cultures. So the idea of exploring the remnants for a living sounded like a dream come true. Then she realised what that meant. “So you’ll have to leave then” She asked, feeling more sad than she thought she would.
Blaze was about to answer but found himself unable to, he didn’t know what was wrong with him but he really didn’t want to think about leaving. So instead he decided to focus on the positive side. “Well you’ll get a full week of me, so you’ll probably be begging for me to leave by then.” He joked, shooting her a grin.
Twilight chuckled at this joke. He was right, better to focus of the positive for now. At that moment she felt a glare on her. Looking down to her right she saw Spike with his arms crossed, clearly not impressed that he was thrown off her back.
“Sorry, I should’ve paid more attention to where I was going” Twilight said sheepishly.
“I told you so.” He said before turning to Blaze. “I wanted to come and thank you for helping Twilight.”
Blaze smiled at the small dragon and gave him a pat on the head. “It’s no problem, just so long her doesn’t make a habit of needing saved.” He joked with the dragon who laughed in response. “I’ve got to say though, I’ve never seen a pony and a dragon be friends before. How’d you two meet?”
“Twilight hatched me as an egg.” Spike answered with a smile.
“Hatched you? So is she like your mother or something?” Blaze asked, curious at this new piece of information.
“Oh no no no, more like a sister.” Twilight said, stepping into the conversation. “It was apart of the entrance exam for Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.”
“How that’s seriously cool” Blaze said, serious impressed and intrigued that she would have to do something like the just to get into a school. “But anyway, what is there to do around here. If you wouldn’t mind showing me?”
Twilight smiles as she agreed and began leading him on a tour of Ponyville. She felt excitement welling up as she showed him the various buildings and shops of town. “I remember my first day here, I’m glad to be apart of his first day here.” She thought to herself as the came to the last place of their tour. “And this is Sugercube Corner, it’s a bakery. They do the best cakes, my friend Pinkie Pie works here too.” She said, gesturing to the building that looked like a giant gingerbread house. Blaze thought it looked like you could take a bite out of it, and at that moment there was a loud growl from his stomach.
Twilight turned to him with an amused expression on her face. “Hungry?”
Blaze tried to laugh it off, gelling embarrassed at his stomach exposing him. “Not really, it’s fine.” Then another growl is heard from him. Twilight just gives a small laugh as Blaze hang his head low in embarrassment and shame. “O-Okay, maybe a little.” He says with an awkward smile.
“Let’s go then.” Twilight said smiling as she took the lead into the bakery with Blaze following behind.
The inside of the bakery was nice and warm, with the smell of pastries and cakes in the air, making Blaze even more hungry.
They walked up to the counter, where their was a blue coated earth pony mare with a pink mane that looked like icing on a cupcake. She mare turned to Twilight and gave her a smile “Why hello there princess Twilight, what can I get for you?”
Twilight got a large chocolate cupcake, spike chocolate got one with what looked like sapphires mixed into it. And once it came to him he ordered a simple blueberry muffin.
They took their pastries and sat at a table. As the three of them sat down, Twilight’s mind wandered back to Blaze leaving at the end of the week. “So, what’s this job you’ve got to do?” She asks, genuinely curious but also concerned that it would also be dangerous.
Blaze paused for a moment “How am I supposed to answer?” He thought to himself before answering. “We’ll I don’t have all the details yet, I’ve to meet somepony in Canterlot and they’ll give me the breakdown.”
“Canterlot?” Spike said with a mouthful of cake. “Who hired you? Was it the other princesses?”
“Oh no, it’s not anything like that. The pony who hired me is an… eccentric” Blaze answered uncomfortably.
Just when Twilight was about to ask what he meant by that, the bell to the front door sounds as 5 mares walk in.
“It looks like ponies in town are really starting to calm down.” The blue pegasus with a rainbow mane said as she hovered a few feet off the ground.
“Indeed, it’ll be good for Twilight to not have to worry about it.” The white unicorn said with a relieved voice.
“I just hope Twilight is okay.” The yellow pegasus said timidly following behind.
“She’s fiiiine, she’s over there. HEY TWILIGHT!!” Called out the pink earth pony as she waved in their direction.
The orange earth pony turned her head toward Twilight and frowned at her. “Dagnabbit Twilight, ah thought you were gonna rest t’day.”
Twilight froze and gave a sheepish smile. “Well I was, and then I realised that Blaze was still in town and that he didn’t have anypony to show him around.” She said and a nervous laugh, gesturing her hoof to Blaze.
Blaze watched as the group of mares turned their attention to him, just now noticing him. They each give him a different look, he fights the urge to crumble and instead gives them a small smile and a wave. “Hi there, I take it you’re Twilight’s friends? She’s told me all about you guys. It’s nice to finally meet you all.”
“Nice to meet you too Blaze, do you like parties?” The pink one, Pinkie Pie asked as she somehow materialised in front of him.
“Uh aye, I’ve been known to party now and again.” Blaze answered, taken aback by the sudden question.
The rest of the girls made their way to the table and joined them. The orange one, Applejack was still scolding Twilight for not resting. The white and yellow ones, Rairity and Fluttershy sat quietly with them. And the blue one, Rainbow Dash was asking him about the vault yesterday. “So Twilight told us about that laser-thing yesterday, did you really beat it?” She asked an excited smile, Spike overhearing and scooting his seat over to here better.
Blaze, seeing this gave an amused chuckle “I might’ve done, why? You wanna hear all about it?”
“Yeah!” Spike and Rainbow said at same time, leaning in to here better.
“We’ll alright then, imagine a floating stone eye that shoots lasers at you.” As Blaze blaze began his story, Twilight watched how he captured the attention of Spike, Rainbow Dash and now Pinkie pie as well.
He, of course, hyped up his own bravery and made the situation sound even more dangerous than it already was. But he also made Twilight sound just as brave as he made himself sound, earning her a look of admiration from little brother. She couldn’t help but feel free face flush with embarrassment at the dramatised retelling of the events, but also couldn’t help but smile. Something that her friend Rarity couldn’t help but notice.
Once his story was wrapped up, Spike practically exploded with excitement, wanting to hear more stories and Rainbow Dash talking about how it was like a Daring Do book in real life.
As the day continued, Blaze told more stories until it started to get dark. “Jeez look at the time, listen I’m gonna have to go now but I’ll be down to hang again tomorrow.” Blaze says as he got up from his seat.
Spike, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie gave a loud ‘aww’ at not getting to hear anymore stories but happily said their goodbyes in the hope of hearing more tomorrow. Blaze said his goodbye the the group before leaving the bakery for home.
The group waved him off and as he left, Twilight watched him leave with a goofy smile of her face, until a sly voice picked up beside her. “What are you looking at darling?” Rarity asked with a grin.
Realising that she had been caught, Twilight jumped and sat up straight. “N-Nothing! What are you talking about?” She said trying to keep cool.
Rarity just laughed at her friend’s attempt at a poker face. “You know what I mean, starting off at that colt as he leaves?”
At her words, Twilight stand and grabs Spike in her magic, trying to flee the conversation before it happens. “WellitwasniceseeingyouallbutmeandSpikehavetoleavenowgoodnight!” She called, leaving the barkers in the blink of an eye.
Rarity chuckles to herself, Fluttershy smiled and the others look at each other with confused looks.
Twilight was rushing home, Spike barely hanging on. “Twilight! Please slow down!”
His pleas went unanswered and Twilight picked up the pace, felling her face flush even greater. “I-I have no idea what Rarity was trying to insinuate, but Blaze is just a new friend and I’m just concerned that he’s okay after the encounter in the vault.” She thought to herself as he reached her front door, Spike jumping off glad to be back on solid ground.
They enter and she runs up the stairs without a work to Spike and into the bathroom. She runs cold water and splashed her face. “Why is my face so hot?” She asks and she looks at her flushed face in the mirror. Ideas loping into her head before she shakes with off. “No that can’t be it, we just met and I’m just excited to have a new friend!” She felt a twinge of pain in her chest her her own words, sitting down on the bathroom floor.
Spike the dragon snored away in his bed. It was nearly noon but he was still dead to the world, he hadn’t gotten as much sleep as he would have liked.
Yesterday, Twilight rushed them both home from Sugercube corner and then locked herself in the bathroom. When asked why she wouldn’t come out, she’d say “I’m thinking about something” or ”I’ll be out soon” but she didn’t come out until midnight. Of course he was worried for her, but after a while, nature’s call demanded his immediate attention. He was pretty sure his banging on the door and begging was the only reason Twilight even came out of the bathroom at all.
After that, Twilight began pacing the library and muttering to herself. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, and she didn’t answer when asked what was wrong. Eventually she tired herself out and collapsed into bed.
He stayed up a while longer to make sure his sister was okay, and that she wasn’t going to wake up in the night to pace any more. Until he figured she’d be fine for the night and went to bed. So there he was, passed out, catching up of some much needed sleep.
That was until a loud crash from downstairs woke him up. launching himself out of bed, he ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. Only to find Twilight surrounded by pots and pans, sheepish smile on her face.
“Sorry Spike. Did I wake you?”
“No, no I was just getting up.” Spike yawned, rubbing his bloodshot eyes.
Twilight felt terrible. She could tell he was lying, it was all over his face. She thought that she could make breakfast to apologise for worrying him last night. But she’d been so distracted and in her own head that she accidentally knocked over all their cookware.
“Just go back to sleep, I’ll tidy up here.” She really wanted to talk and apologise, but Spike was clearly too tired.
“No no it’s fine, are you okay?” Spike wanted to go back to sleep, but he had to make sure she wasn’t going to be pacing the floors or locking herself in a room again. What kind of No1 assistant or little brother would he be if he did otherwise?
“Honestly Spike I’m fine, last night I was just having a moment. Thank you for looking out for me but I really am feeling better.” She tried to reassure him, and get him to get back to sleep. She wasn’t exactly lying, she did feel better, all thanks to one powerful approach that she landed on… denial! If she couldn’t stop thinking about it, then she would deny these confusing thoughts and feelings until they went away! So until that happens, she would have to be okay, for the sake of her little brother.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. Just go back to sleep.”
“Okay. But if you need anything-“
“Spike I’m fine, honestly! Now go.” Twilight said playful shooing him away with her hoof. To which Spike then left the room climbing back up the stairs, rubbing his eyes.
Once she heard the bedroom fort close, she found herself left with her thoughts once more. Shaking her head violently, she magically tidied and sorted the cookware back into the cupboards. After that her mind began wandering again, so she dusted and reorganised the bookshelves. Then cleaned the windows. Then moped the floors.
Once there were no more chores to distract herself with, she groaned in frustration as her mind refused to calm down. Until, she remembered something. The gift she had received from Blaze yesterday, the book and research papers from the vault. She rushed to her study and found them placed neatly on her desk.
Her heart skipped a beat as she walked up to the desk and sat down, slowly dragging her hoof along the front of the leather bound tome. A smile found its way on her face as she remembered how touched she was to receive it. Once she opened it and looked and the old writing, her mind calmed, her worries and anxieties disappeared. She used her magic to summon her writing supplies, blank scrolls and a book and translating Old Ponish. This would be the perfect distraction.
Blaze had been up a while, after feeding Coco and finishing his morning coffee he decided to go on a jog. Normally exercise would clear his mind but he couldn’t stop thinking about this last job. It was one of the quicker ones he’d done but it was so exciting and it seemed like there would be more to follow. He didn’t trust his… benefactor for this job. But he couldn’t deny that he’d felt a sense of wonder and excitement he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Coming back to his cart, he pulled out one of his many magical items, a crystal of create water. It came in really handy when he couldn’t park the cart near water, he never had to worry about dying of thirst. Or in this case, going without a shower. Thankfully he could adjust the temperature of the water.
Once he secured a shower curtain around him and the crystal on a hook, he allowed his mind to wander as the water washed away his sweat and fatigue. He thought about whether this new job connects to this one, does it have to do with Mystic the Marvel? He though about the vault itself, it wasn’t the most exciting place he’d been it it definitely was a mystery. He thought about the sentry he fought and how it could be invulnerable to magic, maybe he should have picked up a sample, could he reverse engineer it?
What about the book? Did it have answers he might need? He thought about it and it seemed more and more likely that it would. But then he thought about asking a twilight for it back, and for some reason the image of her disappointed face brought about a tightness in his chest. “Maybe she’d let me borrow it” He thought to himself. “Or maybe we could both work on it together?” He wondered as his still half-asleep mind began to wander.
Feeling a surge of emotions, Blaze suddenly snapped to attention.
“Nope. Nope, nope nope nopenopenope.”
With a flick of his magic he turned the temperature of the water icy cold, purging his mind of all thoughts.
“We’re not doing that Blaze, we’re not even going to entertain the idea.” He lectured himself was he shivered from the icy water.
Having endured enough self-inflicted torture, he switched the crystal off and began casting a self drying spell. Focusing hard as these were easy to mess up. Once he was dry, he dried and folded the curtain and lit it away in the cart along with the crystal.
“Although…” he began. “It’s not like I have much else to do until I have to leave. And I may as well prepare the best I can until then.” He reasoned with himself as packed his saddle back and some bits, thankfully Twilight showed him ‘Quills and Sofas‘ yesterday. Though the combination of stationary and seating boggled his mind, he decided to ignore it for now as he needed the writing supplies. And with that, he set off into town.
This book was amazing! Twilight had been translating it page by page and while it seemed to be mostly in riddles, there was still tones of references to historical events of the time. Some of which gave a new perspective to them, new viewpoints that could change the way ponies viewed these events. She could only imagine what she’d find once she could decode the riddles, what other juicy knowledge the book hid. And the papers, if they truly were research papers, Twilight shivered with excitement at the possibility of what they could be for. Cackling madly, she found herself in a studying frenzy as she wrote in her scrolls.
She was pulled from her thoughts when a knock came from the front door. She wasn’t expecting any visitors today. Checking the time, she saw that it was it was already early afternoon. So she put down her quill and scrolls, she stretched her legs and back before getting up and going to see who was there.
“I wonder who it could be?”
Once she opened the door, she saw standing in front of her a familiar tall, burgundy unicorn holding a paper take-out box. He looked at her with a smile before he began taking.
“Hel-“
SLAM
Twilight held the door shut as she tried to catch the breath that had suddenly left her body. “What’s he doing here?!” She thought to herself, her panic returning. Realising the situation, as shook her head and scolded herself for being so rude before opening the door.
“-lo.”
SLAM
“Nope. I can’t do this.” She thought as she slammed the door again. “What am I doing? What’s wrong with me? He’s been nothing but nice to me.” She said aloud. So took a breath and opened the door again.
“May I speak now?” Blaze asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes of course, sorry, I just wasn’t expecting you.”
“So you slam the door on me? Twice. Come on Twilight I’m not that ugly am I?” He asked with a chuckle, cocking his head to the side.
“No!” Twilight answered a little quicker than she meant to. “W-what I mean is I just wasn’t expecting you, s-so I was a little surprised. Do you want to come in?” She asked quickly, trying to shift the conversation.
“Uhh sure.” He said, stepping into the tree-house. “Here, this is for you by the way.” He passed her the take-out box.
She took the box and peered inside. Inside, was a dozen cupcakes. She felt a smile creep into her face as her turned back towards him. “Thank you. What’s this for?”
Blaze chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well…I kinda need a favour.” He g said with a sheepish smile.
Twilight smiled warmly at him. “You don’t need to butter me up Blaze. You’ve already helped me out more than I can repay. I’d be happy help you out, what do you need?”
Blaze sighed a little sigh of relief at her eagerness to help. She’d already proven that she’s different to other nobles, something he was grateful for, but he was still happy to see her earnestness. “Well, it’s about that book I got for you. I have this feeling that this next job I’ve got has something to do with the vault, or possibly Mystic the Marvel himself.”
Twilight felt a small sadness rising within her as she had a feeling what he was about to ask. “Do you want it back?”
“No. I want you to keep it. Buuut I wanted to know if I could borrow it? Just so I can get some research done for when I leave.”
Twilight was disappointed but understood, she was about to agree when an idea popped into her head. At first he tried to ignore and forget it, but she just couldn’t. So she took a breath and mustered the courage to ask. “Well if you just want for research…maybe you could help me with mine?
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is I’ve started researching the book myself. I’ve already got some notes on it, and between the two of us…I’m sure we’d get more work done.” She held her breath as Blaze thought it over, rubbing his chin.
“I mean, I definitely wouldn’t say no to some help but I don’t want to impose.”
“Don’t worry about it. Come on, my study is over here.” Twilight practicality skipped to their destination. She could hardly remember the last time she had a study session with a friend. Now that she thinks about it, Moondancer was the only pony she’d ever studied with other than her brother. She felt excitement over the new experience rise as they entered the office-like room.
“Nice setup” Blaze joked as he looked at the desk.
Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little bit embarrassed at the mess of scrolls and reference guides strewn cross the room.
Walking around the mess, Blazed looked at the notes that Twilight had already written. He was genuinely impressed, to translate Old Ponish he needed a cypher, and he’d never have been able to connect the historical context within the time frame. But here Twilight has done it without magic or help, he looked to her with a small smile.
“This is seriously impressive stuff, what you’ve got here is probably all I would’ve gotten in a week.”
“That’s nothing, I once studied twelve books in one weekend” Twilight boasted, her note taking skills were something she was deeply proud of. Her capacity for studying knew no limits!
“And you did this in like what, a day?”
“This morning actually.”
“Whoa…I mean I figured you were smart, being princess Celestia’s student and all..but this? You really are something else, aren’t you Twilight.”
Twilight smiled, and as she felt herself blush at the compliment, she looked down to hide her face. “T-Thank you.” Then she came to her senses and shook her head as Blaze continued to look at the papers.
“Hmm looks like old Mystic wasn’t a fan of nobility. Guess we’ve got that in common.”
Looking through the book, he saw more coltic runes. Noticing that they hadn’t been translated yet, he pulled a language cypher and his own notes on runes from his bag.
“Do you recognise them?”
“Aye, they’re coltic runes. Haven’t seen these in a while, feels a nostalgic honestly.”
“You read them?”
“Not fluently. It’s a dead language for the most part, though more modern dialects are still spoken in some communities. But the O.G stuff? I don’t see them very often in my work so I don’t have a lot of notes I’m afraid.”
“That’s okay, at least we know where to start.”
“That’s true.” Blaze said with a chuckle as he began making himself comfortable. He was used to researching these old cultures and languages, but never with a friend.
“Heh, a friend.”
If somepony told him a few days ago that he’d consider a noble, let along a princess, a friend then he’d laugh in their face. He looked to a twilight who had brought another chair some books and old languages. “Who knows? Maybe this could be fun.”
Spike was stirring awake. Slowly, he sat himself up, still coming out of a dream and stretched out his little arms.
“Boy, I needed that. I’d better go see how Twilight’s doing.”
Looking at the clock, he saw it was 2 in the afternoon, he really should get something to eat. “I wonder if Twilight's eaten yet?” He thought to himself, knowing his sister’s habits of forgetting meals when she is working or stressed. He was making his way downstairs, calling out to Twilight to no response.
“Huh, maybe she-“
BOOM
CRASH
“Ow”
Hearing what sounded like a small explosion, Spike sprinted to the source of the noise, Twilight’s study. Coming to the door to the study, he saw the door had been completely destroyed and smoke was bellowing out of the room. It was then he caught sight of a pony-shaped hole in the wall opposite the now doorless room.
“Sweet Celestia! Are you okay Twi-“
Looking in the hole, he was surprised to find not his sister, but Blazing Comet. He was embedded in the wall, smoking and covered in soot.
“Wha-“
“Ohmygoshsorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry”
Twilight came rushing out of the smoke filled room in a panic, her mane sticking out in all directions with little sparks of pink electricity running through it.
”It’s okay…we shouldn’t have tried that spell...”
“What’s going on here?!” Spike cried out in frustration, overwhelmed by the situation.
“Oh, sorry Spike. We didn’t wake you did we?”
“No, I was looking for you and then I heard this explosion! I thought you were hurt!” He looked up to her on the verge of tears. Twilight felt a huge wave of guilt wash over her, clearly this has been a lot for Spike. And she certainly hadn’t been helping his situation.
“Spike…I’m so sorry for worrying you. Not just now, but every thing that’s happened. I know this whole situation can’t have been easy for you. I truly am sorry for ignoring your feelings.” She said, putting a hoof on his shoulder.
“It’s okay. I was just really scared after you wound up in the hospital, and I’m worried that something is bothering you.”
Twilight pulled him into a tight hug, which Spike returns. “Nothing is bothering me Spike, I’ve just been overthinking…something. I’m fine, really.”
“You sure?” Spike looks up at her with a sniff and a hopeful look on his face.
“Positive.” She smiles comfortingly has she looks down at him.
“As cute as this is, can I get some help please?”
The two snapped out of their heart-to-heart and turned to the disgruntled Blaze, who was still embedded into the wall.
“I’m stuck.”
After freeing Blaze, and profuse apologising from Twilight, the three went about clearing the smoke from the hallways.
“By the way, what are you doing here Blaze? And what even happened here?” Spike said, fanning the smoke from the study as Blaze was opening a window.
“We’ll, I wanted to go over that book I got for Twilight, I was thinking that It’ll come in handy. As for what happened…”
15 minutes earlier
“It does what?”
Blaze look at Twilight confused as he beamed at him over the scroll she at just finished translating.
“It’s an invisibility spell! These are incredibly rare and difficult, but it seems that Mystic had his own version of the spell.”
“Really? Different how?”
“It seems like it can also make you fly? I’ll admit the translation is a little strange but it’s fascinating nonetheless!” She continued to beam at him until and idea popped into her head. “We should try it out!”
“But is it safe though?”
“Should be, you wanna try it?”
Blaze let out an amused chuckle as he shook his head. “Fine, I’ll be your guinea pig. But if you turn me pink or something I get to shave you bald.”
Twilight rolled her eyes as she charged up the spell.
“Are you definitely sure about this?” He asked with a nervous laugh.
“Don’t be a baby. Besides, you’d look good in pink.” She joked to try and put him at ease.
BOOM
CRASH
“Ow.”
Present time
“Turns out it said incendiary not invisibility.”
Spike had burst out laughing at the story, the thought of Twilights face when it happened was priceless. Probably not in the moment but hey, nopony got hurt so he was free to openly find it funny.
“Yeah yeah, go ahead and laugh at my near-death experience.” Blaze said holding back a chuckle, he did have to admit it was funny in hindsight.
Twilight on the other hand, was mortified at her mistake. How could she mix up the translation like that? Was she really that excited about the scroll? Or did she just want to show off? She looked to Blaze, still covered in soot as he spoke with spike. The two were laughing about something. She was happy he wasn’t hurt and that he was still in good spirits. She walked up to them slowly as the last of the smoke cleared out off the window.
“That should be the last of it, what are you two laughing about?”
Blaze turned his head to her and gave an amused smile.
“I was just saying to Spike that while you blew me up, at least you didn’t turn me pink.”
Spike continued to laugh at the thought, while Twilight was just confused. “He seriously could have been hurt and he’s concerned about what colour he is?” She thought to herself. It was just so ridiculous, she couldn’t help but giggle at the absurdity. Her giggle became a chuckle, then a chortle which evolved into hysterical cackling.
Blaze watched her, his own laughter slowly building until he was clutching his sides with a full on belly laugh. All of the stress built up over the last couple of days was finally getting let out. And it was over the silliest, stupidest joke.
Eventually, they calmed down and their laughter subsided. Twilight wiped a tear from her eye as a few more chuckles escaped her lips.
“I think I really needed that, thank you.”
“No problem Sparkles. After all, my comedy skills are second to none.”
Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile at the stallions words before raising an eyebrow.
“Sparkles?”
“Yeah, the last thing I saw before you cast the spell. And it just fits you.” He said with a grin.
“I little basic for a nickname isn’t it?” Twilight retorted.
“Yeah well you blew me up, so I get to call you whatever name I want.”
“That’s going to become a thing isn’t it?” She replied with a sigh.
“Absolutely it is.”
“I guess that’s fair enough.”
The two continued to look at each other for a few seconds before Spike cleared his throat, getting their attention.
“So what now?”
Blaze thought for a moment before answering.
“I guess we’d best check the book and papers weren’t burned up.” He said with another chuckle.
At his words, Twilight’s heart sank and her mouth turned dry. She couldn’t have possibly destroyed the book, could she? Before anyone else could say or do anything she sprinted back to her study to check that she hadn’t accidentally destroyed a precious piece of Equestrian history.
It was a normal day at the Canterlot Times headquarters and the chief editor, Fine Print, was going over the suggested stories to use for the front page of tomorrow’s paper.
“Garbage. Tacky. Predictable…Uuugh what’s it take to get a DECENT STORY FROM YOU KNUCKLEHEADS?!”
She threw the stack of stories back at the poor intern that brought them to her. The other pony’s at their desks took cover, incase she decided to give them another one of her famous “pep talks”. She was a ruthless boss with very high standards for her newspaper, with another groan she let her head fall onto the desk.
It’d been slow since the incident with the princesses going missing and the sun and moon being in the sky at the same time. ’Why can’t things like that happen all the time?!’ Fine Print thought to herself, thinking about how they apparently do in Ponyville of all places.
At that moment the young, shaky voice of her intern picked up.
“E-Excuse me Miss F-Fine P-P-Print?”
She looked up from her desk the at the timid earth pony, not impressed at her sulking being interrupted.
“What is it, Proof.”
The intern, Proof Read, cleared her throat before she began speaking.
“There’s a m-mare here and she says she has a m-m-meeting with you?”
The poor mare was terrified of her boss and it was obvious. She was good at her job and Fine Print knew it but she hated feeble ponies.
“Meeting? I don’t have a meeting scheduled.“
As she finished her sentence, there was a cheerful voice that picked up and invaded the conversation.
“Oh don’t worry about something as small as schedules. I promise you’ll love what I have to say.” A alabaster unicorn mare stepped out from behind Proof Read and pulled out a file.
Fine print just raise and eyebrow at the mare who just lied her way to her office. “Who does this mare thing she is? Barging into my office like this, I should have her thrown out.” she thought to herself.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, you’d miss out on the story of a lifetime!”
Fine Print froze in place, did she say that out loud? “Wait, story of a lifetime?” She said with a confused but hopeful look.
I’m response, the mate smiled and placed the file on her desk. Fine Print picked up the file and read through it carefully. Her jaw dropping as she did, before a creepy smile found its way onto her face.
“This. Is. PERFECT! Proof! Fire up the printers, we’ve got our front page story! I don’t know who you are but you’ve given me gold here, what’s your na-”
She looked up from her desk only to find the mysterious mare gone. She looked around confused for a moment, only to shrug and look through the fine again, giggling with excitement.
Blaze, Twilight and Spike had finally finished repairing the damages to the library. Happy that the book and scrolls weren’t destroyed or damaged, Twilight gleefully suggested they get back to studying. And so they did, though Blaze made sure they triple-checked their translations this time, especially before they tested any more spells.
After some time had passed, Twilight found herself unable to shake a thought from her head.
“There’s just one thing that still bothers me about all this.” She said looking up from the book.
“That’s that?” Blaze asked, keeping his eyes on the notes from their last translation.
“How exactly did you open the vault door? I tried everything I could and it wouldn’t even budge.”
Blaze looked at her inquisitively, putting their notes down. He thought back to the moment the vault doors first opened for him and didn’t recall anything special he did. Rubbing the back of his neck, he responded. “Honestly? I have no idea, I touched the door and it lit up and opened.”
“Just like that?” Twilight found that a little hard to believe.
“Why would I lie about that?” He said, feeling a little offended at the insinuation.
“I didn’t- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so mistrusting. It’s just, I can’t wrap my head around it. Nothing happened when I touched it.” She didn’t mean to make it sound like she didn’t trust him, it just frustrated her not knowing or understanding how it happened.
Seeing her frustration, Blaze looked to their notes that they had made on the door, specifically about the runes on it. Picking them up with his hoof, he read over their translation.
Kept safe is my knowledge *** here, for only *** *** *** crypt may enter
Blaze groaned internally, some of the runes on the door were too worn down, so they couldn’t get a clear translation. And the end of that phrase bothered him, ‘crypt may enter’? Honestly, that made no sense!
He wracked his brain until a sudden thought struck him like an arrow. Grabbing his book on runes from his bag, he flipped through to the Coltic section and found the rune for Crypt. It was as close as it could get but that didn’t matter, he had completely forgotten that language can be based on context! On top of that, the wear and tear may have removed any slight variation of the rune itself.
So he looked for other words that used the same rune or a slight variation of it. “Crypt, war, group…”
“Blood!”
Twilight jump at the sudden nice and looked to Blaze with a look of worry. “What? Are you okay?!” She asked, wondering why he shouted blood at the top of his lungs.
“What? Never mind that, look! We got it wrong!” He said, pointing to his notepad. To which Twilight walked over to get a better look.
“What do you mean?”
“Remember the phrase on the vault door? Well we were right, it doesn’t make any sense.”
Twilight looked back to their notes, it was a particularly frustrating point in their research that sadly didn’t lead anywhere. However, hearing that they may have a possible outcome was already making her feel better. A premature, hopeful smile started to form on her face.
“And you think you found something we missed?”
“Not just that that, I think I know what the whole phrase says.” He said with a determined smile, normally the research side of his job was silent and boring. But seeing Twilight’s outward frustration at every roadblock and glee at every success made him feel more energised, though he didn’t know why.
“What really?!” Twilight said, fully beaming.
“These runes are worn down, so I first thought we might have mistranslated it. But then I remembered that runes can have different meanings. Look here…” He said, gesturing to the list of words the use that same rune. “…if we use this list and context clues, changing the translation from ‘crypt’ to ‘blood’ the phrase becomes this.”
Kept safe is my knowledge in here, for only one of my blood may enter
Twilight just looked in disbelief, her eyes fixed to the page for a moment. Until the excitement welled up and exploded out of her in a second.
“YES! Now we’re getting somewhere.” She yelled as she looked that the new translation. Just then, the gears started turning and the full meaning of the phrase and the implications of it came to her mind. “Wait…’one of my blood’? But that would mean…“
“That I could be a descendent of Mystic the Marvel. If that were true, well that paired with this retranslated phrase, it suddenly makes a lot more sense why the door opened for me. Mystic had enchanted it so that only himself or those real aged to him could access it.” Blaze said, turning to face Twilight as his own mind started to wonder with this new enlightenment. “Did that crazy mare, or whoever she works with sent me there know that? What that what they were tested me on?…what exactly do they want?”
“That makes since.” Twilight said, putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “It would explain why you were able to open the doors and why I couldn’t. And very little is known about Mystic himself, so he easily could have had descendants that were never recorded.”
“Well, outside of the issue with the door it doesn’t really matter anyway. I mean he wasn’t really that culturally significant or well known at all outside of his vaults.” Blaze said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Of course it matters!” Twilight said, pointing a hoof into Blaze’s chest. “So little is known about him and his life. If we could get into his other vaults, just think of everything we could learn!” She proclaimed in excitement, shoving her face almost into his with a beaming smile.
Seeing just how close she was, Blaze took a half step back and cleared his throat. “W-well maybe for now, we should just focus on translating this book.” He said with a slightly nervous laugh.
Twilight, now realising how she’d just invaded his personal space, stepped back with a sheepish smile and a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks. “Y-yeah you’re right.” She didn’t mean to get that close to him, she cursed herself internally for being so rude as she made her may back to her desk. “Come on, we can continue from where we left off. I think I’ve just about translated the next spell.” She said, with an excited smile.
“Are your sure?” Blaze said raising his eyebrow.
“Yes, of course I’m sure.” Twilight said defensively, to which Blaze just continued to give her a deadpan stare.
“I-I’ll check again.”
Blaze gave a small chuckle as he joined her her her desk. “I’ll help you, just so you don’t blow me up again.”
Twilight buried her face into the book and groaned in embarrassment, he was definitely not going to let her forget that.
Since there were no chores to do (courtesy of Twilight’s morning freak-out) Spike had spent his day relaxing, he took a 7-hour bubble bath, snacking on some gemstones he had saved up and was now chilling on the sofa in the main room with a Power Ponies comic. “This is the life, I could get used to this.” He said to himself as he closed his comic.
Looking up at the clock on the wall, he realised that he should get a start on dinner. No doubt Twilight had forgotten to eat today, so it looked like he’d have to make extra again. Though he hadn’t heard from either her or Blaze since they went back to studying that old book, he should go and check on them first.
“Wait, is Blaze still here?” Spike thought out loud as he hopped off the sofa, not recalling the seeing or hearing him leave.
Twilight’s study was close to the main room so he arrived quickly, not hearing any noise he opened the door and walked in. “Hey Twilight, you in he-“
He cut himself off at the sight of in front of him, it was complete chaos. Small stacks of notes, mounds of crumpled up balls of paper, scorch marks on the walls and several whiteboards covered with what looks like possible translations, most of them crossed out. He also saw the two ponies he was looking for, Blaze currently laying in one of the piles of balled up paper and Twilight with her head resting on her desk.
“Whoa, what happened here?”
Twilight opened her eyes and looked to him, her mane was a mess and her movements were sluggish as she lifted her head. “Oh hey Spike, we were just taking a small break. We’ve made some good progress here.”
“You have? I honestly can’t tell.” Spike said, looking at the mess around him. This was going to be a pain for him to clean later he just knew it.
“Tha sin ceart an dràgon beag” Blaze said through a yawn from his pile.
“…What?”
“Ignore him, we tried a spell to help him read the language in the book more fluently…but it didn’t work.” Twilight said sheepishly. “I-It should ware off soon.”
“It sounds like it worked though, I think?”
“Chan urrainn dhomh ach a bruidhinn, chan urrainn dhomh fhathast a leughadh” Blaze said in a deadpan voice as he pulled himself to his hooves.
“He still can’t read it. But at least he can speak it now.” Twilight said with a nervous laugh.
“Can’t you just reverse it?”
“It’s not that simple Spike, if I tried and made a mistake then it could permanently alter how he speaks. The spell is only temporary so It’s safest for us to just wait it out.”
“Tha do phiuthar na fhìor phìos obrach”
“Right…so I was just coming to check on you guys. It’s late and you need to eat something.”
Which that Twilight was about to protest when her stomach growled loudly. She conceded defeat with a sigh. “Okay…we can pick up on our research later, right Blaze?” She asked with a hopeful smile.
“Cho fad 's a tha mo chànan ag atharrachadh air ais”
Guilt and embarrassment began to grow on Twilight’s face for not being able to understand him because of the spell she cast on him. Spike just looked confused as he tried to repeat some of the words but found some of the words practically impossible to pronounce.
Blaze, realising the futility of his attempts at communication, grabbed a quill and a piece of paper in his magic, writing something and flipping it round.
“I said, as long as my language changes back.”
Twilight let out a small sigh of relief before responding to him. “It should revert back soon. I’m really sorry again.”
“It’s okay, just one more thing I can hold against you.” He shows with a grin, earning a stifled laugh from Spike.
Twilight’s ears fell to the side of her head as we put on a forced smile, remembering the other spells she messed up today. “What is wrong with me?! What do I keep messing up these spells? Normally I could do this in my Sleep! I wonder if I’m coming down with something…” She wondered, embarrassed that she of all ponies would mess this up.
“So Blaze, you sticking around for dinner?” Spike cheerfully asked, hoping to hear more treasure hunting stories.
“Bhithinn ach-“ Blaze began before groaning in frustration and grabbing another piece of paper. “I would, but I gotta get home and feed my cat. Maybe next time.”
Spike let out an ‘Aw’ in disappointment as Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder, chuckling. “Thank you again for the book. I’m looking forward to continuing our research.” She said with a gentle smile.
”It’s no problem, I couldn’t have you risking your flank going back for it after I worked so hard to save it.”
Twilight cheeks turned a light shade of pink as she chuckled with a hint of embarrassment at the reminder of her recklessness.
They said/wrote their goodbyes at the door, Twilight and Spike waving to their guest as he made his way home.
Once Blaze had turned a corner and was out of sight, Spike gave a small sigh in disappointment. “Dang, I really wanted to hear more stories. You want hayburgers tonight Twilight?” She asked as he turned and started heading back into the library. Though he stopped as he realised they’re was no response from his sister.
“…Twilight?”
He turned back and saw her still standing at the door, still waving as she stared into the empty street. Feeling concerned, Spike walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Twilight are you okay?”
Jumping slightly at the contact, she turned turned to respond. “W-wha? I uhhh- I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?” She stammered out, acting like a filly that got caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. Before Spike could respond, she trotted past him into the library.
“Oh boy I’m starving! What’s for dinner?”
Spike just gave her a confused look before shrugging and closing the door.
The entire journey home, Blaze had been trying and failing to speak ponish again. He was close, he could feel it!
“Hel- halò. Daingead!!” He groaned in frustration at another failed attempt. Taking a deep breath a paused for a moment before trying again.
Feeling proud of himself, he jumped up into the air and cheered. And upon landing proceeded to dance with joy.
“Oh yeah! Who did it? I did it! Who did it? I did it! Uh huh uh huh. Woooo!”
Only once he looked at the empty pathway around him did he realise how cringey he was being.
“…Thank Celestia nopony saw that…” He said to himself shamefully as he hurried home.
Once he arrived at his destination, he fed the very hungry and very annoyed Coco. He fixed himself something to eat and sat on his bed once he had finished. Taking a breath, he though about how the day had gone. He had been damn near blown up, his language temporarily changed and failed miserably at translating the book multiple times.
It was one of the best days he’s had in a long time. He couldn’t help but smile at the ridiculousness of it all, this simple boring day had been better then almost any “adventure” he’d been on in the past year. He looked up to the picture on his shelf and lifted it down with his magic, taking it in his hooves.
“It took me a while but I think I’m finally starting to take your advice, Star.”
He found himself actually excited for tomorrow, for studying of all things. He though about the book and what he could learn from it, the fact that he might be a distant relative of Mystic the Marvel. And he thought about the one that was helping him on that journey. Twilight was an enigma to him, she was a noblepony, a princess! However she acted like just another pony, like she wasn’t special or interesting.
He just couldn’t wrap his mind around it, from what he heard about her and from meeting her, she was clearly capable and brave, fiercely intelligent with how she basically did all the heavy lifting while studying the book and she was always so excited y every new thing that she could learn. She had every opportunity to be a stuck up brat with an overinflated ego, so why was she so kind? And humble? He could even kind the right words to describe her. He found that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, which frustrated him to no end.
“What’s wrong with me, Star?” He asked the photo frame in his hooves. Sitting in silence for a moment as he started at the photo, he massaged the back of his neck as he let out a sigh.
“I wish you were still here, you’d know what to say. But you’d probably just laugh at me for not figuring it out on my own.” He said with a light chuckle. He set the photo back down on the shelf. He climbed into bed, Coco curling up on his chest, he looked up at the ceiling in thought, wondering about the new day on its way until he finally drifted off to sleep.
It was early morning in Manehattan, and Nimbus was (as per usual) the only one awake in his apartment. He cursed his long hours as he sipped his coffee, desperately trying to wake up and shake off his hangover. He had the apartment to himself left night and indulged a little too hard on the hard cider. When his roommate came home, he found him over the toilet emptying the contents of his stomach and crying about how lonely he was.
He bitterly swallowed a bit of coffee at the memory. “Yeahhh…not one of my proudest moments.” He thought to himself. Just then, a knock came from the door to the apartment. Cringing at the assault on his poor sensitive eardrums, he got up and dragged himself to the door, mug in wing. He opened the door, silencing the abhorrent knocking sound, only to be greeted by a small earth pony colt with a saddlebag overstuffed with newspapers.
“What do you want?” Nimbus would normally be nicer to kids, even the ones he doesn’t like but he wasn’t feeling it this morning.
“5 bits for a copy of the newest issue of the Canterlot Times, sir.” The young colt said with a beaming smile on his face.
“5 bits? You trying to rob ponies or something? Not interested.” That was wayyy too much money for a newspaper, especially for one based in another city. The Canterlot Times was always full of cheap gossip pieces and celebrity drama, entertaining but no real news.
“Are you suuuure? Not even to read about Princess Twilight in the hospital?” The colt had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face as Nimbus’ jaw (and almost his mug) dropped.
“What!? Gimme that!” Finding himself instantly awake and sober, he tried to snatch one of the colt’s newspapers.
“Uh-uh, you want the story, pal? Pay up!” The little brat held out his hoof in anticipation.
“Ohh you little sh-“ Nibmus stopped himself before clearing his throat and fetching the money.
“Here you go, kid. Now like I said, gimme!” He said, taking the paper and closing the door. He looked over the paper in sustained shock with his mouth hung open. He rushed to his roommate’s door and kicked it open, waking JJ up with a heart attack in the process.
“Sweet Celestia Nimbus, what in Tartarus is wrong with you?!”
“Shut up! Look!” The smaller pegasus said as he shoved the paper into his friend’s face, who proceeded to read over it groggily.
Princess Twilight Sparkle hospitalised?!
Equestria’s newest alicorn princess narrowly saved by mystery stallion.
It took a few seconds for the cogs to turn in JJ’s mind before he realised what he had just read.
“…WHAT?! How in the fuck did that happen?!”
The two read on, the article talked about the princess recklessly strolling into an ancient and dangerous tomb were she almost died to the traps and defences. Until a mysterious, unnamed stallion came out of nowhere and saved her life before vanishing into the night. It went on to talk about the ineptitude and carelessness of the young royal, and how lucky she was to have a brave, dashing rogue come to her rescue like some fairytale.
“Whoa, they ripped into her here,” JJ said, feeling a little sorry for the princess. She’s well known as somepony who’s saved Equestria multiple times and they’ve made her look like some spoiled brat that’s way in over her head.
“I know, it’s terrible,” Nimbus said, sharing the sentiment. He was pulled from his feelings of pity when he recalled something.
“Hey JJ? Where did Blaze say he was going in his last letter?”
“Uhhhh I’m not sure, why?”
“…”
“…Wait.”
“…”
JJ calmly climbed out of bed and walked into the living room, followed by Nimbus. They found the letter sent by Blaze a few days prior. The one that said he was going to Ponyville.
“…Huh.”
That morning, Blaze’s eyes slowly fluttered open to the usual sight, Coco sitting on his chest while staring into his soul. He reached out and scratched her behind the ear with a hoof, earning a purr from his furry companion.
Knowing that he’d have to get up, he stopped his scratching and sat himself up. Coco leapt off and made a dash for her bowl, meowing demandingly.
“Ack wheesht ya wee bi-polar demon.“
He had just filled her bowl when his sending crystal lit up with a flash, a small note landing on his desk.
“What the?”
Picking up the letter, he first recognised the writing as Nimbus’.
Dear Blaze,
Sorry for the bluntness but please can you tell us what you know about this?
- Nimbus
At that moment, the crystal flashed again and a rolled-up newspaper landed in front of him. He saw the heading before he has a chance to pick it up. With his eyes going wide, he picked it up and read through the article. He had thought Twilight’s friends stopped this from spreading. And this wasn’t even close to what happened! Selfishly, he was grateful that his name was left out of it but immediately scolded himself for thinking that.
Normally he wouldn’t care if a pony of prestige were ever mocked in the news he’d probably laugh at it. But he had gotten to know Twilight, and she didn’t deserve to be dragged like this. He felt himself becoming agitated the more he read.
With a sigh, he rolled up the paper and shoved it into his bag. “I should tell Twilight about this if she hasn’t already heard.” He said as he strapped the bag to his barrel and left his cart, heading towards the Golden Oaks library.
Meanwhile in Manehattan
JJ and Nimbus sat in anticipation of their friend's response, he’d gotten them this sending crystal specificity for reaching them quickly. Surely he’d respond soon and be able to explain that this surely, this was just a wild coincidence that he had arrived in Ponyville just when this story supposedly took place. Yeah, he’d explain everything…
…Any second now.
Now, to say Twilight was angry would like be saying that the sun was ‘a little warm’, that Celestia ‘kinda likes cake’ or that Lyra and BonBon are ‘really good friends’.
She had been pacing the door for almost an hour by this point, her mane had become a raging fire and she left smouldering hoofprints as she continued to pace. Spike and Blaze watched her seethe, muttering to herself, from a (safe) distance.
“Wait, why are you keeping a distance? I thought you were a dragon.”
“Do you want to get in the way of that?!”
Blaze turned his look to Twilight, he looked at her flaming mane and tail and her blood-red eyes. She had a huge scowl on her face, anyone could tell she was beyond angry. But the more he looked, the more he could see. She had a look of hurt and embarrassment as well, her breathing had quickened until she was almost hyperventilating, and looking closer at her eyes he could see what looked like tears evaporating from the intense heat before they could fall.
Without our saying anything he walks up to her, blocking her pacing path. She snapped her gaze to him, scowl still on her face. He looked into her eyes fighting against the heat irradiating her.
“Alright, let it out.”
“…What?” Twilight asked, confused.
“Your ragin and need to let it out. Pretend I’m them, that I wrote the article. Come on, let me have it.”
“I…I don’t know.” Twilight said a little hesitantly, still angry but not wanting to yell at her friend.
“Come on Sparkles, you’re not gonna help yourself trying to keep calm. Get angry, yell at me, tell me everything ya want to tell them.”
Twilight stared at him for a few seconds before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “W-Well…you can’t just take advantage of somepony who got hurt to sell a newspaper…” she says quietly, looking away from Blaze.
“And just because I’m a princess, it doesn’t give you the right to say such nasty things about me…” she spoke a little louder and more assertive.
“You have no right to doubt my ability to protect myself or those I care about!” She snapped her attention back to Blaze.
“And how dare you question Princess Celestia’s choice to make a princess in the first place!” She got right into his face as she spoke.
“Who do you think you are?! You don’t care about informing ponies at all!!! You selfish, greedy, inconsiderate-“
Blaze flinched at the heat as she got closer and he had to squint his eyes to stop them drying out, but he couldn’t help but smile at Twilight voicing her feelings and frustrations. He knew that this would help her, and possibly save the library from burning down.
As Twilight continued to vent, her hair slowly cooled and returned to normal. Until she stood there, breathing heavily from yelling. She let her head hang as she tried to catch her breath. Now that she was done, Blaze lowered his head to meet her eye-line.
“Feelin' better?”
“Yeah…thank you.” She said, lifting her head. “S-Sorry I kinda went a little crazy on you there.” Giving a small sheepish smile, she fidgeted with her hooves.
“Ack don’t worry about it. I’ve got thick skin, I can take it. Besides, you needed to get it off your chest.” With a slight chuckle, he tries to cheer her up. “Though next time, try. Try not nearly setting the place on fire. First yesterday now this? What’s wi you and fire?”
Twilight looks at the scorch marks on the floor and the burnt newspaper Blaze brought. With a slight blush of embarrassment, she lit up her magic to repair the floor. “T-that’s not usually a problem. If fact, that hasn’t happened in a while, promise.”
With another chuckle, Blaze walked over to the table with Twilight and dropped the paper before having her meltdown. His smile faltered, and he picked it up. “How’d this happen anyway? I thought your friends stopped this from spreading.”
Twilight’s scowl came back immediately. “They did, but this reported came to my door the other day and asked for an interview.”
“And you just agreed to it?” Blaze was a little confused, when did they interview her? How’d they find out and send a report so fast? “What happened?”
“She said that if I didn’t tell the truth, other reporters just make up a better story! So I told that…that LIAR exactly what happened. But I guess she thought they’d be better off lying anyway!” Twilight said stomping her hoof at the memory.
“Typical…guess they thought this version would sell better.” As frustrating as it was, it wasn’t particularly surprising that they’d bend the truth like this.
“And to top it off, they completely left you out of it!” Twilight snapped as she pointed to him. “And especially after how ‘interested’ that reporter was in you.” She said in a mocking tone with her anger building up again, after trying to probe information about him out of her. they don’t even mention his name.
“Wait you mentioned me?” Blaze didn’t know how to feel, on one hoof he was grateful that she wanted to give him credit. But on the other hoof, this whole situation was messy and he didn’t want to be a part of it more than he had to.
“Well yeah, you saved me. You deserve to have ponies know that.” She said with her anger subsiding slightly.
“Well I appreciate you feeling that way, but I’m happy to say on the sidelines for this one.”
“But-“
“Please, I doubt the situation would be any better if my name was in there.”
With a sigh, Twilight let her head hang slightly, she was tired and it was only morning. She had no idea how she was going to deal with this and that stressed her out more than anything. “Well anyway…thank you for telling me about this. At least I can get a head start on fixing it.”
Blaze looked at her and how defeated she looked, he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. It was difficult to watch, he didn’t know how she could just make this go away quickly. But he did know one thing, he didn't want her to try alone.
“You say that like you’re about to try on you’re own.”
“Well, there’s the other princesses. And I’m sure my friends would be happy to help.”
“Not to mention your ‘mystery stallion’ here,” Blaze said striking a dramatic pose and putting a hoof on his chest.
“You want to help me? But what about your next job?” She was a little surprised, she didn’t doubt that he’d want to help her but the scale of the drama of this whole thing.
“Ack it can wait, you’ve already helped me massively with that. Let me help you with this.” He said, putting his hoof on her shoulder in comfort.
“Thank you, Blaze.” Twilight’s smile found it is way back into her face, with her cheeks also turning a very slight shade of pink.
“By the way, why’d you not say anything about this reporter before?”
“I didn’t mention anything because it just happened so suddenly, the whole thing felt like it was over really quickly. I think I actually forgot about it until just now.”
Blaze was lost in thought, something about this whole thing bothered him. Regardless of him being a nopony, saving the princess would warrant interviews and lots of invasive questions. One about who he was, why he was here with the princess and of course, what his relationship with her was. Why would they voluntarily give up the opportunity to stir the pot?
“You said this reporter wanted to hear about me?”
Twilight's smile dropped, she remembered back to the reporter trying to get her to talk more about him as though they were best friends. “Yeah, she was real interested I’d hearing about you. She wanted to know what your relationship was with me. And she was just too friendly like she already knew me. Like she knew what I was thinking.”
At that moment, some of the stray pieces in Blake’s mind snapped into place. “No, it couldn’t be…” He thought to himself, but he had to be sure. “What’d she look like?”
“Excuse me?” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow and an almost offended look on her face.
“Huh? Oh! No no no, not like that! I just meant, in case she was someone I know. I…know somepony just like that and if it’s her, maybe I could talk to her.” He half lied to her, he felt guilty but he had to know if it was who he thought it was.
“Wait, what?” Twilight asked with a slight bit of hope. “Okay, she was a unicorn with a alabaster coat and pink mane.” Twilight was really hoping for an easy solution to this problem.
Blaze’s heart sunk into his stomach. “What…how’d she pull this off?! Just who is this mare?” He wondered in frustration as he wracked his brain to try and figure her out, but to no avail given their limited interactions.
“Blaze?”
Blaze was pulled from his thought process by Twilight's questioning, pleading eyes. He uncomfortably avoided eye contact with her, feeling conflicted between his desire for anonymity and wanting to tell Twilight the truth.
“…No, sorry, I don’t know her.” He had no idea where this was going to lead or why she did this to Twilight, but it’s probably for the best if she’s kept out of it.
“Oh…I see, well there goes that plan.” Twilight’s ears dropped as she hung her head in disappointment.
“Look, I think…I think I need some time to process this. Thank you again, Blaze.” Twilight have a tired smile to a increasingly guilty feeling Blaze.
“N-No problem, Sparkles.”
Twilight left to go and rest, at that moment, Spike finally came out from hiding behind the furniture. “Man, what’re we gonna do?” He asked as he watched Twilight slowly climbed the steps to her bedroom.
“I really don’t know.” Blaze said as he internally kicked himself for lying to her. “It’s for the best…for everyone.” He lied to himself.
