To say that Spark had the time of his life during the party yesterday would be a massive understatement. It was the happiest he's been since he graduated college.

During the party, he was finally introduced to the rest of the Mane six. He and Twilight agreed to explain the whole 'fictional world' thing for a later time, without so many other ponies around. The five were understandably confused, but eventually agreed as well.

Being the superfan and brony that he is, Spark couldn't help but try to get the autographs of the Mane 6, Spike, and various other iconic ponies. Most of them were confused, but obliged when they remembered that the party was intended for the–in their perspective–odd-looking unicorn. He spent most of the party running around the dining room, going up to each resident of Ponyville and having them sign a notebook. Rainbow Dash was more than happy to sign his tumbler that had her face on it.

What Spark found to be the most interesting interaction, however, was the one he had with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were present because it was apparently the weekend. They had actually approached him first, as they were shocked to see that an adult pony without a cutie mark. The time it took to explain the basics of his species was rather short, to his surprise, and the CMC left while promising to help him find his mark. He decided to humor them, and thanked the trio as they continued on with the party.

Not before asking for their autographs, of course.

All in all, it was a wonderful time for Spark, and he wouldn't want it any other way.

Eventually, the party ended, and everypony had to leave to continue on with the rest of the day. Spark joined in on the cleanup effort, mainly sweeping away stray bits of confetti and crumbs.

With nothing else to do that day, he retreated back into his room with another stack of books on metalworking and metalsmithing to test the knowledge that he inherited from his OC.

It was during this period that he finally had time to let the last thirty-something hours of his life sink in.

He hadn't put much thought into it, but the fact that he was there, living in Twilight's Castle, with foreknowledge and proof of the show's existence, as a character of his own design, instead of his admittedly unhealthy human form, with said character's special abilities implanted into his mind, in a version of Equestria that–from what he's seen–is nearly identical to the show and where the comics actually happened, made him incredibly and unimaginably lucky.

The thought that, in another universe or timeline, he could've ended up like Anon, Max, Zackery Johnson, or even Jason Wright gave him a downright cartoonish shudder.

He was also once again very grateful he wasn't sent to an alternate version of Equestria where everything is... less than optimal, so to speak. While the character of Crucible Spark came from a grimdark alternate universe, Spark doubted that he could live in one as himself. He didn't want to imagine how it'd be like to end up in a darker Equestria like Eric Allen Brauer or that guy who became Skeletor.

On second thought, maybe he's been reading too many fanfics recently...

Nah, that's impossible.

With that closing thought, Spark went to bed, hoping for the chance to encounter Luna.

The very next day, Spark woke up just as early as he did the day before. He wanted to make some of his favorite meals for breakfast, but considered that maybe he and Spike could swap every other day.

Breakfast went swimmingly as the three denizens of the castle dug into Spike's pancakes. Spark had to force himself to stop asking for more.

After that, he decided to finally practice forging something. He knew what to do and what he required based on Crucible's–the name he started to use to refer to his OC recently–memories, but he didn't know if he knew how to do things.

So, after some searching and rummaging through scrap materials from Twilight's old experiments, he was able to make a scrappy but functional charcoal forge to heat up metal.

Spark found the fact that Twilight kept the anvil that fell on her way back in season one absolutely hilarious. Apparently the delivery service gave it to her as compensation, and that only made him laugh harder. Twilight didn't share the same sentiment.

After calming down a bit, he was able to form a small blacksmithing setup behind the castle, and began to forge various tools, components, and other trinkets from Twilight's scrap pile.

The results were quite interesting, to say the least. In addition to getting Crucible's knowledge, it seemed like Spark had also acquired his physical strength and stamina as well. It made sense to Spark, working with metal isn't a light job, and considering how Crucible's lore states that he uses both his magic and hooves to swing his twenty pound hammers at the speed of a power hammer, Spark wasn't too shocked when he was able to almost effortlessly lift a five hundred pound anvil along with a hefty pile of scrap metal with his bare hooves. Magic wise, he had the same general feeling. He'll likely need some help from Twilight later for specific measurements.

As he continued to forge, Spark felt a weird sensation in his mind. It was as if the spirit of Crucible still lingered in his form, guiding his movements as he molded the heated metal to his will. Spark noted the sensation felt a lot like experiencing deja vu for a prolonged period of time.

Eventually, with the help of a construction hammer and his magic, he was able to form his first set of tools, which included a set of chisels, a set of punches, a pair of forging tongs, a three-and-a-half pound rounding hammer, and various other items used to shape heated metal.

After he had finished, he wanted to go through the enchanting and rune engraving process, which meant that he needed to turn into a nirik and re-light the forge with his magical flames. This made him pause for a moment.

Spark knew that Crucible and his family had the ability to control their nirik forms, but transforming into one as himself was another thing entirely. He was afraid of going out of control and potentially causing damage to the surrounding area.

Nevertheless, Spark gathered up his courage and started the process based on Crucible's memories.

He began by closing his eyes and focusing on his magic. The feeling was unfamiliar to him, it was like putting your hand in a fire but not getting burnt. It actually felt kind of nice.

After that, the guiding sensation returned. It wordlessly told him to put on his goggles before doing anything else. He obliged.

Spark continued on with his controlled transformation. He tugged at his magic and channeled it throughout his body, making him feel more energized in the process.

Then, he took a deep breath and pushed it outwards. Immediately, wisps of red appeared around his horn and mane.

From an outsider's perspective, it would seem like Spark was enveloped in a maelstrom of blue-red flames and was replaced by a demon. His magic turning his cutesy kirin form into something more monstrous.

After the flames settled, Spark looked over himself. His coat and scales had darkened, which made him look burnt. His mane, eyebrows, tail, and hooves were covered in roiling flames. His teeth were sharpened to a point, and a pair of long fangs jutted out of his mouth. His horn now resembled heated metal, where the black keratin faded to a glowing white. If he were to take off his goggles, which were apparently fireproof, others would only be able to see a pair of glowing white orbs peering back at them.

Despite being transformed, Spark didn't even feel the slightest bit of anger. He had expected to at the very least feel some mild annoyance or irritation when it happened, yet here he was, just as calm as he was mere moments ago.

"Anjir..." Spark muttered. He noticed his voice was lower and had a bit of an echo.

He looked back at his forge with renewed determination, and began to go through the enchanting process.

Twilight's little project was still ongoing. She had managed to figure out a significant amount of circuits and parts that the portal used to function, only a bit more tampering and she can move on to figuring out the magic and spells used by it.

She was in the middle of writing down her findings when she heard the sound of metal clanking together. Twilight was aware that Spark was experimenting with his newfound abilities, and had created a small forge behind the castle to play around with.

But the compared to the clanking sound from before, it seemed... harsher, and a lot more aggressive. She also felt the presence of an unidentifiable magical aura that emanated from Spark's location.

Curious, she decided to go check up on the kirin-human and make sure he was alright. As she made her way to the back of the castle, Twilight thought about how well he has been adapting to Equestria. She knew that it took Sunset and herself quite some time to get fully accustomed to the world beyond the mirror, but how would a human adapt to being a pony or pony-like creature?

Surprisingly well, evidently.

If one didn't know of the circumstances he was in, they would assume that he was just an odd-looking Equestrian native.

Twilight's train of thought halted abruptly when she approached Spark's makeshift forge. Looking around, he saw a pony-shaped creature who was striking a re- blue? piece of metal with a hammer that had unrecognizable glowing symbols on it. The creature itself looked like it was on fire, with blue-red flames bursting out of its head, face, tail, and hooves.

Twilight took a tentative step forward, "Spark?" she called out.

The creature stopped what it was doing and turned around, "Yo."

"What... happened? Are you on fire?" Twilight asked, being oddly calm about this.

Spark was engulfed by a whirlwind of flames and turned back to his normal kirin form, "I was, yeah. What you just saw was my nirik form. Every kirin can turn into a nirik when they get too angry, but I found out that I can control mine and use it to enchant my stuff." he explained while floating his enchanted hammer in front of her.

Hearing about the prospect of new knowledge to learn, Twilight perked up, almost losing all feelings of concern from before. The possibility of a brand new field of magic to study was all too enticing.

Spark, not really caring about what she was thinking continued, "Now that you're here, I might as well begin the next thing on the list."

Twilight shook herself out of her reverie, "And what's that?"

Spark put out his forge and floated his tools and anvil back to the castle's main entrance, "Testing spells."

Twilight followed and gave him an excited smile, "So what spells do you want to learn?"

"I already know them, I just need to give them a go and just sort of see how they feel." he replied, not looking back.

Turns out, Crucible knew quite a decent amount of spells for a metalsmith. Most of the spells he knew were for utility and not combat, sure, but Spark wasn't going to complain when he had a spell to make an entire smithy the size of Twilight's castle work by itself. Plus, the few offensive spells that he had knowledge of were empowered by his nirik form, which was also a lot more combat-ready than his normal kirin form.

Spark also discovered that he had quite a lot of magical stamina as well, it seemed like his theory from before was correct. Crucible was indeed a fairly strong individual, both physically and magically. Fitting for the go-to producer of steampunk style machine components and weapons in his AU; forging stuff for entire factions, main characters, and secret societies likely took a lot of effort.

Throughout his experimenting, Twilight wrote down each and every new discovery he made on pieces of parchment. The stack that she levitated beside her grew larger and larger as time went on.

Spark summoned an ethereal salamander on the tip of his hoof before turning to Twilight, "Don't you have a project to work on?"

Twilight stopped her writing immediately. The magic holding the stacks of parchment flickered, almost causing them to fall.

"You're right! I got so caught up in studying your magic that I forgot!"

She filed away the parchment in a nearby bookshelf and rushed back to the portal room, leaving Spark alone with his salamander-avatar-elemental-patronus-stand-thing.

Spark looked at the small ethereal amphibian intently before nodding to himself.

"Your name shall be... Ray Jr."

Author's Note

A lot of name-calling this chapter, maybe Spark should cut down on the fanfics a bit.

Ooo... I can't wait to see the finished cover art for Three Outcasts! It'll be revealed with the first multi-part chapter of the story!

If you want to share ideas on how this story should go, consider commenting!

Corrections and criticisms are more than welcome, I can't improve without those now, can I?
Have a good existence!
:)

"Remembered forever, the land of Equestria"