My little Mage Episode 1

"List!?"

Spyke raised the paper and cleared his little throat. " weather team... the town's resident lead Elementalist... one Rainbow Dash should have the clouds cleared 5 hours ago..."

Twilight looked up at the heavily clouded sky.

"What do you think Spyke?... diplomacy or Arcane Fire?"

"See that's what I was talking about! That! Is why the archmage sent you out here ...You have no people skills!"

Letting out an explosive sigh Twilight Shrugged and waved her hands as if dismissing the whole ordeal. "Fine let's find her or him and get the weather cleared... this is ridiculous..."

The two look around until they found what was clearly a stream of rainbow colored hair hanging over the side of a cloud. Considering the anomaly within the world they lived in where people's names usually strictly coincided with physical features or their caste mark, it was not very far of a leap in judgement for Twilight to open her mouth and speak.

"Rainbow Dash?..."

The rainbow colored hair budged, moving lazily the head connected to it peaked over the clouds. Where was a loud yawn, but much faster than she expected and athletic female form leap from the clouds and like lightning flash down beside Twilight and Spyke.

Normally this would have been fine for them both, however beneath this cloud where they stood, there was a very thick mud puddle. The impact from a girl's feet influenced by her rapid descent caused something similar to an explosion of mud and filth from the puddle.

Spyke did not much mind considering all he wore was his own scales, but Twilight's eye twitched involuntarily. She did not have the best robes but she did put quite a lot of effort into maintaining her appearance. She was after all the personal Protege of the literal ruler and protector of the entire world.

"Oh.... sorry about that, here just let me..."

The rainbow haired girl smiled and raised her right hand. The power from her rings flared. It was a quick estimate but Twilight was positive that this was a five prong Elementalist, and judging by the amount of power and the air, this was the village's most powerful elementalit, Rainbow Dash. But before Twilight could say or ask anything. The wind element ring over her ring finger shot up its power and severed a large piece of the cloud she was just laying on. The water element ring on her thumb flared and the entire Cloud let out a torrential downpour. It certainly clean her but also left her sopping wet. Had her clothes not been Enchanted to keep out general weather she would have been violently angry.

The Elementalist smiled again and again her ring finger flared up and Power. What was nearly a tornado quickly dried her however made an absolute mess of her hair.

"Good as....snrk!..." The Elementalist it was not very good at hiding her amusement.

" people skills Twilight people skills! Remain calm and... snrk!..." Spyke too began to chuckle and laugh.

To her immense credit, Twilight stayed her anger. "Rainbow Dash I assume?..."

"The one and only... what can I do for you?" She proudly puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips.

" it says here on my paper which is now covered in mud but you were supposed to clear the skies hours ago..." Twilight's voice decently hid the anger while she telekinetically gripped the mud and tossed it off the paper which was warded against the elements for reasons very similar to this very situation.

"Oh yeah, no need to worry it'll be done on time..."

"On time was 5 hours ago...."

"Oh quit your whining, clearly you're new to this place otherwise you wouldn't be so concerned... this is Rainbow Dash you're talking to... I have plenty of more important things to do before I take 4 seconds it would take to clear up the skies..."

Twilight scoffed and rolled her eyes. " like what?

But something caught her eyes, she thought it Rainbow Dash's role was solely the weather team, she also took note that a normal member of the weather team would not wear her wind Elemental ring so far down her hand as her ring finger. Her middle finger and index finger held fire and lightning rings. It did not take her long to see that the combination was a military one. That combined with her confidence and her excessive power in elemental magic made the next words out of her mouth very predictable.

"I'm practicing for the Wonderbolt Academy... I am practically the best Elementalist Within 50 miles... heck I'm probably the best Elementalist within a thousand miles... "

Luckily for Twilight she understood that such massive egos were easy to manipulate. "Tough luck impressing anyone... an Elementalist 5 hours late for such a simple easy task... hell I can probably do this before you do. I'll probably have to to seeing that you're obviously incapable of doing so."

A pair of sharp pink eyes narrowed at her "Not very many people have the cojones doubt me... alright new girl, top this"

The rainbow haired elementalist flared her power to an unnatural level. Then like lightning she whipped out her Elemental caster, much like the primitive bow long since abandoned in favor of the easier to attain and much more powerful magical prowess, the elemental caster was like a folded up bow with no string. The string and the arrows would form out of the elementalists own Magic. However a Caster was almost exclusively a combatant's weapon. It was not illegal by any means for an elementalist to have one, it was just highly irregular especially since she was technically on the weather team and she appeared to be using it to do her job.

With a single burst, a flurry of wind arrows blasted apart all the clouds in the sky. It had taken literal seconds. This was a relief to Twilight but also it was very impressive. It was a single matrix spell which cast dozens of wind element arrows at once. Breaking a cloud was not hard, but controlling dozens of attacks spawned from a single spell matrix was something very few elementalists were able to do.

"Well at least you can backup your talk with results..."

"Get used to it purp. I'm kinda a big deal for a reason..."

Again Twilight's eye twitched. " well you have things in control over here I have to move on... "

The rainbow haired girl smiled confidently and without another word she flipped a messy salute and leaped up into a tree and resumed what was clearly a nap.

"List...."

Spyke chuckled floofing his mistresses extremely disorganized and messed up hair before clearing his throat. "Decorations and general festive organization... looking for an enchanter named... oh enchantress! An enchantress named Rarity..."

Twilight sighed and entered the main hall of the town hall calmly despite how rough her time here was so far. She just wanted to get the whole ordeal behind her and not have to worry about whatever this lesson was again. Though to her surprise She could feel her familiar tense up ridged.

"Mistress! Are you seeing what I am seeing? Quick! I know you're a mess but how do I look? Scales? Clean? I... my goodness.. such radiant beauty... it's like the first time I've seen a proper woman..."

He didn't notice Twilight's hand come up before it clamped down over his head. " You know I am a woman too right? I may be still young but I am female and I am still a proper woman... Think about that for a while" Her power flared and the familiar was banished into the ethereal for the moment.

Approaching the figure that Spyke appeared to have been drooling over she did notice the reason he had such a powerful reaction. Her skin was fair as snow and she was radiant, should look as if she could have been descended directly from royalty. However, Twilight's keen senses figure there's something unnatural about it. And it did not take very long to notice the gemstones about the woman's clothes. They were charms. Sharpening her mind Twilight put up a barrier Within to block out the low level charm magic. It seemed odd to her, Twilight could clearly tell that even without the charms this maiden was very beautiful. There had to be a reason why she felt the need to amplify her presence.

" Rarity? I am.."

She didn't get the chance to continue speaking. The young woman turned around and let out a shriek. "Good Heavens girl! What in Tartarus happened to your hair?"

The girl that Twilight guessed was clearly Rarity took Twilight by the arm and with a snap of her fingers, the gemstones within her clothes changed from charms to power amplifiers and just as quickly, she teleported the both of them to a separate location. Normally this would have brought out a hostile response. However living in Canterlot made her quite used to this sort of response from time to time and it was only confirmed when she realized but she had just been teleported into a boutique of some sort.

"I apologize my dear, but this is quite simply an emergency... I don't care who you are someone committed a fashion War crime against your hair..."

Being quite familiar with this sort of behavior and culture Twilight just let it happen, this would not be the first time someone yanked her away to fix something about her hair or clothes. She knew resisting would only make the problem worse, and she did need to get her hair put back into order. Thankfully it was only a few short moments before a surprising amount of expertise and finesse put Twilight's hair back in order.

"Thank you, I assume you are Rarity?"

"Yes darling and I apologize for my sternness but such atrocities are not allowed in my presence."

Twilight had gotten a decent View of what this girl was doing before she was teleported away. Rarity's job had already been completed, and was only becoming more and more fine-tuned as she poured more effort into it. She could move on to the next subject without any problems.

"Well I quite thank you for your assistance, but I was sent here from Canterlot and I just needed to check up on everything here I've got to keep moving considering that you clearly have everything in your areas under control."

The enchantress stopped and her young beautiful eyes widened with clear Joy. "Canterlot?... you are from Canterlot?.. oh goodness this is a treat!"

Suddenly Twilight begin to regret opening her mouth on that subject. She was quite familiar with the culture of the upper class, and easily saw that this was similar but not the same. This was someone who belonged in the upper class but was stuck in a lower class. If she did not act now Twilight would most likely be stuck for the rest of the day trying to escape a bombardment of questions and requests all regarding High Society in Canterlot. So in between Rarity's breaths Twilight took the only chance she could find and teleported away.

_____________

Snapping her fingers her familiar popped back onto her shoulder.

" sorry about that... you were caught up in a charm spell... a charm spell that clearly made you say something you did not mean." There was a growl in her voice before she spoke one more word.

"List!"

Clearing his throat as he glared at her, Spyke looked over the list. "Oh this is an odd one... the local temple has offered to cover the catering..."

"The temple?"

"Aye... the temple... apparently there is a family of warrior priests but have been out of a job for a few Generations... you know... those pesky ages of peace."

"Ah... say no more..."

During the last war, patriotism and loyalty to the crown lead dozens into a pseudo faiths that crafted dozens of various orders and knighthoods. Even a fair amount of guilds. When The War ended, these Warriors had nothing to do. As such they turned their duties towards the people of the land. Most started Farms or orphanages. With a small community like this it was most likely a farm that a local Warrior priest Temple would resort to.

Spike looked over the paper and smiled. "Ordos Poma..."

Twilight coughed and withheld a Snicker. "The order of apples?... seriously?"

"Aye, keep in mind symbolic nature of the Apple. Fruit has always been a personification of Works within a faith. Perhaps this was exactly why their name is the order of apples..." Spyke lifted a claw taking up his 'I'll have you know' stance. Twilight let it slide considering she did just banish him even if it was just for a small handful of minutes.

"Well time will most certainly tell... I imagine that the orchard up ahead is most likely where we are headed..." Twilight breathed a little easier and strode forward with Spyke in tow.

The two of them entered and noticed a great deal of activity. She could easily tell that it had been quite a long time since there was any form of conflict in the land. In one corner of the yard, a mass of old veterans huddled together grumbling. On the other side, almost entirely made up of young adults and children. It was the most unorganized looking group of warriors Twilight had ever seen, and they were all wearing aprons. She could not tell if this was a warrior priest Enclave or a bake sale. The majority of them still wore armor, even underneath their aprons. Most of them were still very physically fit, two of these were clearly at the head of the others.

"Alright ya'll keep them coming... don't slow down fer nothin."

Twilight looked over towards the source of the voice and spotted a female proudly standing tall. She was clearly Young, just around Twilight's age, about 15 or 16. But she was well-muscled and her armor was well shined. Unlike the others she could not properly pass off as a baker that happened to be wearing a set of armor. And beside her was a man that put most of the soldiers she had seen to Shame. Easily six foot eight and not appearing to be bothered in the least for the massive Hammer that hung upon his back that was most likely twice as heavy as Twilight was, these two were clearly either the leaders of the group or just it's best warriors.

Plucking the list from Spyke's claws, Twilight carefully read the name of the contact she was supposed to meet with for this service. "Applejack?..."

The armored girl turned her head and gave a shout. Almost instantly the rest of the workers quickly shed their aprons and lined up. Considering the less than 'ready for Duty' condition of most of the bodies in front of her, the amount of discipline was rather High in the ranks. It was more than she needed, for all Twilight cared they could be wallowing around in the mud so long as they got the job done right. However her perception allowed her to see that despite the age of peace, these people still held firm to their traditions and martial discipline.

"Ordos Poma at yer service ma'am!... ah assume yer are the one sent from Canterlot?.."

Twilight was quite pleased with this one. She didn't feel the need to run away and was not covered in mud. So far so good. "That I am... upon the request of the arch-mage herself..."

"Blessid sun! It's an honor Ma'am! The Ordos Poma has unfortunately declined in its combat prowess as a whole, but in a time of peace it is understandable, and though it is a time of peace, we are all still here. We have artificers, paladins, clerics, templars, monks, priests, and more... granted the only action we have had in the past 2 Generations is what you see here before you..." She chuckled pointing at the feast still in preparation before swatting one of the warrior monks on the gut that hung out over his belt, just another reminder of what an age of peace did to warriors.

"Very good, I am both confident and impressed.. carry on, I need to continue."

"Pardon the request sugar cube but won't ye be staying to sample the feast?... Sure it aint as fancy as what you find up in the capital, but this Paladin out fights and out cooks ever order in the land!.. ye just got to stay at least fer a while..."

Twilight was indeed hungry and was not entirely opposed to the idea of staying even if the overly welcome Paladin was a bit overbearing in her opinion. " I'm sorry I just have to keep going I have a list and a schedule to follow..."

There was a soft whimper and she looked over just in time to see something that drained her soul. The girl must have been just barely old enough to have started her training. But clearly she was dressed as an artificer's Apprentice. The light of joy and Hope was quickly fading from her large expressioned eyes. Eyes like a puppy.

"Please miss?... I worked really hard on my cobbler..."

At the risk of having her soul shatter Twilight gave in and sat down at the nearby table. Instantly she was greeted with the cheers of joy and celebration.

"...ugh....list..."

Her belly was a little too full. Every time she had finished sampling one dish, a precious set of puppy eyes begged her to sample another. It was practically an endless cycle and now she was trying to review spells for some slight relief for her stomach pains.

"Aye... this is an odd one. Supposedly a local druid was requested to put together an animal Orchestra... we should find her out here near the edge of town."

"Animal Orchestra?... are you certain?..."

"That's what the list says..."

"So are we to expect something cutesy and pathetic or masterful? Only the most well known animal Tamers in the entire nation have ever been able to do anything remotely close to a successful musical number with animals. Everything else is most likely going to be a few children putting on a play with their pets dressed up..."

" it's a list not a documentary... all I know is what and sometimes who we're looking for."

Twilight was going to ask more but she got her answer in a surprisingly delightful way. A stunningly beautiful voice sang out in Flawless rhythm. A accompanying it was a chorus of birds. It was almost as if it was out of the old Legends and tales. However it's stopped abruptly and a figure dressed in yellow and green scrambled, nearly leaping behind a tree.

"Umm... are you ok?..."

The silence was almost deafening but Twilight tried it again. "I don't quite understand what you're trying to do.... I already saw you..."

The figure stepped back out, it was clear that the young Maiden did not get out much. She looked like the type to do her best to hide from the world despite having very useful and even beautiful talents. Not to mention her outfit clearly pegged her as a druid. Like the legendary maiden's of the forest. The only thing that came to mind when looking at her was a hidden Beauty and Grace.

Twilight snatched up the list again and searched for a name. However, this time she was not as lucky. Instead she just stared onward

"...h..hi.."

"Um...hello.. I am Twilight, I was sent here to see how the orchestra was going... clearly you have that under control, it was quite beautiful if you don't mind, what's your name?... it's missing from the paperwork but taking a look around I don't see very many other Druids, much less Druids practicing an animal Orchestra."

Twilight calmly watched the young druid who did her best not to make eye contact. She did however attempt to speak. 'Attempt' to speak. All that Twilight could make out was hushed tones that sounded like it was the beginning of a introduction.

"....ok...then... miss druid... you keep up the good work..."

She turned about understanding that some people just needed space. This girl was obviously an extreme introvert, she just hope that the girl would be able to do her job As the list Implied She would.

"Well mistress.... that's all of them... I guess we can turn in for the night... the arcanaeum reserved the room in the local library for youuuu...ah... hello there..."

Twilight turned back around in confusion at Spyke's latest words. And there she saw the Druid, just staring in awe and joy. Large expressioned eyes and barely contained joy. "A dragon familiar!.. I've never seen one before!... he is so cute!"

Spyke blushed smoothing his claws over his frilled spikes. "I am rather appealing to the eye if I do say so myself... glad someone finally notices.."

"Ah! He talks.. this is so wonderful!"

"The stories I could tell lass..."

"Spyke!... library?" She held up her hand as if requesting a physical object from him.

"Cant miss it, center of the town, old oak tree grown into a library."

He turned his attention back to the druid. "And what is your name lass?..."

"Oh!... I am Fluttershy, s...sorry about before. I just don't spend much time with anyone but the animals...d...do you mind talking with me.. I would like to know more about you and dragon familiars..."

"Well certainly... it's quite flattering to have someone interested in me... for once... what would you like to know?"

She smiled happily and spoke a single word.

"Everything!"

Twilight groaned loudly.