"I... I think I should lie down for a bit." Twilight muttered from her position on the library's floor, looking towards the ceiling with a thousand-yard stare.

It was nice to know that Spark's devices were compatible with Mirror Earth's–a name he came up with–technology. Spark had been going back and forth through the mirror to use wifi from Sweet Shoppe to search up tools that he could forge and catch up on his fanfiction reading.

Eventually, Spark realized that travelling through dimensions just to access the internet was too much of a hassle, and decided to print out his favorite stories on paper so that he could read them back in Equestria without whittling down battery power. With some help from Sunset and a bit of distracting with Kevin, he was able to print five of his favorite stories and begin reading them in the castle's library.

Waking up to Spark's hysterical laughter from five rooms away wasn't something that Twilight was expecting when she went to bed last night. Yet for some reason, she wasn't totally surprised that it happened at all.

When she entered the library to check up on the unpredictable former human, she was met with the sight of him laughing his tail off, on the floor, rolling around, while clutching a scrappy book in his forehooves.

After calming down for a bit, Spark offered to lend Twilight the 'book' that he was reading. Twilight, being the pony that she is, couldn't resist the prospect of reading literature that was made under the assumption that her world was purely fictional.

The 'book' that Spark was reading wasn't exactly an actual book, it was a stack of paper that was stapled and duct taped together with two thin sheets of transparent plastic that acted as its front and back cover.

On the side that was visible to her, Twilight saw that the 'book' was titled 'Sunset Shimmer is MAD about EVERYTHING'. This was what pulled her in the most, why would Sunset be mad about everything? And is she an alicorn in that image? Twilight just had to see what it was about.

Suffice to say, it was not the kind of story she was expecting it to be.

Spark couldn't help but snicker at Twilight's fried brain, "Just so you know, this is one of their less unhinged stories. It's also one of my top five favorites."

Twilight slowly turned her head towards the metalsmith, "Whyyyy....." she muttered weakly.

Spark shrugged with a smile, "It's hilarious to imagine you guys acting like that. I'll admit, a part of me hoped that Sunset was like that when we first met."

"But that... she... they... the Baby!" Twilight stammered incoherently.

Spark snorted in amusement, "When you're finished, just put it on the table. I'm going to make a couple firearms."

"M-make Sunburst... royal wizard..." Was all she replied with.

Spark walked along a path in Ponyville while looking at his makeshift map. He was trying to make his way to a pyrotechnics store to get some gunpowder, or as it was called in Equestria, black powder.

Supposedly, the unicorn who ran the store was the previous holder of the 'most unique horn in Ponyville' title. Spark didn't even know such a title existed, or that he was its current holder.

When he finally arrived, Spark couldn't help but notice the various scorch marks and patches of bricks that decorated the store's exterior. On top of the front door was a sign with a carved out image of a flame and the words 'Firecracker Burst's Pyrotechnical Emporium' right below it.

Spark raised an eyebrow, "Blind bag pony?" he muttered before entering.

As he entered, he was able to see multiple racks set up in lanes like that of a convenience store, filled to the brim with various kinds of fireworks. Boxes of sparklers, rockets, and... well, firecrackers lined up in each rack and organized by type and size.

"Gacor..." Spark murmured to himself.

Suddenly, the door behind the counter burst open, revealing a turquoise-coated unicorn mare with an orange mane and tail that had a single streak of yellow in them. It was styled in an eerily similar manner to Twilight's, but was noticably messier. Like Fausticorn's, Spark supposes.

What caught his attention the most was her curved horn, pointy ears with brass-colored piercings, and lanky proportions. She was one of the East Asian-styled unicorns from Mistmane's region.

This came as a surprise to Spark, as even in her very, very minute cameo in the comics, she was shown as a normal unicorn. Could it be possible that this Equestria isn't as normal as he had initially thought?

She turned to him with a smile, "Welcome to the emporium! My name's Firecracker Burst, but you call me Cracker! How may I help..." she trailed off.

Cracker's eyes widened as she saw the metalsmith, "K-kirin?" she muttered under her breath.

Spark did the iconic Kirin Head TiltTM, "Yeah, that's what I am. Anyway, you got any black powder?"

The unicorn kept on staring at him, as if ignoring his question, "I thought you were only myths..."

Spark narrowed his eyes, "Well I exist, so whatever. Now, black powder?"

Cracker shook her head to clear her mind, "Er, right! Sorry, how much do you need?"

Spark tapped a hoof on his chin, "About, hm..." he pulled out a notebook and read through it, "About a barrel's worth."

Cracker's jaw dropped slightly, "That's.. a lot. What do you need all that black powder for?"

"Personal project. So how much for that amount?"

Cracker wrote down some calculations on a piece of paper, "About two hundred bits."

Spark took out a pouch of bits that totally wasn't his allowance that Twilight gave him, "Two hundred right here."

Cracker nodded, "Alright. Any specifics for the powder? Like waterproof or color charms?"

"Less smoke, please."

She wrote down his request on a sticky note and floated it over to a cork board behind her, "The smokeless charm might take a while, so you can either wait or have it sent later."

Spark picked up the now empty pouch before turning towards the door, "Just bring it behind the castle, I'll be waiting there."

"Wait, 'castle'," Cracker gestured air quotes, "as in... Princess Twilight's castle?"

"Yeah, that's where I live."

If Cracker had been drinking, she'd have probably done a spit take, "You live with the princess?!"

Spark knew where this conversation was going, and did his characteristic lengthy sigh, "Look, I'm like... her student, alright? I study friendship and stuff under her while I live there."

Cracker nodded quickly, "Alright! One barrel of black powder for Princess Twilight's student coming right up!" she blurted out while rushing back through the staff door.

Spark could only sigh as he went out of the store, is this what Twilight and Sunset went through when they were Celestia's students? Blegh.

"Wait! I didn't get your name!"

An hour had passed and Spark was waiting for the eastern unicorn to arrive while sharpening a newly casted khopesh with Kevin in his nirik form.

"So when will she come with the powder again?" the forgeling praetorian asked while turning a grind stone.

Spark inspected the shiny surface of his weapon for a moment before taking off his goggles, "She should be here right about..."

"Delivery for Crucible Spark!"

"...now."

Cracker whipped her head towards the flaming equine and took a fearful step back, which caused the cart she was pulling to wobble.

"Gah! Nirik!"

Spark sighed and turned back into his kirin form, "Easy, easy! It's just me."

Cracker calmed herself with a deep breath, "W-what was that? Did you just turn into a nirik?"

"I did. And you probably didn't know this. A kirin and nirik are the same individual. When a kirin gets too angry or frustrated, their magic transforms them into a nirik. They'll turn back once they've calmed down." Spark explained while putting away the khopesh and retrieving what appeared to be a scrappy blunderbuss from beside his anvil, "As for me, I can control my nirik form and turn into it whenever I want."

Cracker slowly shook her head, "According to the legends from my home village, kirin and nirik were sworn enemies. The kirin embodied nature and beauty, while the nirik embodied doom and destruction. Looks like we need to make a revision." she said with a small chuckle.

Spark stopped writing on the notebook that he pulled from... somewhere, "Huh? No more lore?"

"What?"

Kevin gently nudged the superfan aside, "Please excuse his antics, he... uh, likes to learn about other cultures."

Cracker's eyes widened, "Woah, I've never seen anypony like you before."

"I–" he put a clawed hoof on his chest, "–am a forgeling."

"I don't think I've ever heard of forgelings before." Cracker admitted.

Kevin nodded, "Of course you wouldn't know, considering that, up until a week and a half ago, forgelings never existed."

"Wait, what? How does that work?"

It was Spark's turn to nudge Kevin aside, "It's a long story. Look, just bring the barrel over there." he pointed towards a wooden table with a flintlock musket, pistol, and a small mortar cannon set on it.

Cracker nodded and grunted as she lifted the barrel in her orange magic.

After everything was set up properly, Cracker gave in to her curiosity, "Could I, uh, stay and watch? I really want to know what you're going to do with that much powder. Just for, um, safety reasons."

The kirin-human and forgeling looked at each other before shrugging, "Sure./Alright." they answered at the same time.

Spark guided the group towards a makeshift shooting range. It had multiple metal targets of different sizes placed in various distances away from a short fence that acted as a firing lane.

Cracker looked at the setup with a puzzled expression, "What does all of this have to do with black powder?"

Spark opened the barrel of black powder with his magic, and used a small metal cylinder to pull out some powder.

He replaced the blunderbuss in his magical grasp with the pistol and proceeded to load the powder into the weapons barrel.

Cracker and Kevin watched him intently. The former was curious of the odd usage of her product, while the latter was waiting for a promised lightshow.

Spark continued the process by inserting a thin carboard disk along with a small metal ball right after the powder. He used a metal rod to properly position both objects inside.

After that, he took a pinch of powder and placed it on a small pan that was a part of the firing mechanism attached to the right side of the pistol.

Once he was finished, Spark looked over the firearm one last time before aiming it at a target that was positioned about thirty meters from the fence.

Spark pulled the trigger with his magic, causing the hammer to strike the frizzen with its piece of flint, igniting the powder in the pan which lead to the powder in the barrel.

BAM!

Thanks to the charms Cracker had applied to the powder, it fired with barely any smoke, removing one of the annoyances (at least accordding to Spark) of using muzzle loaders.

Cracker looked at the weapon and penetrated target with an awestruck expression while Kevin was laughing heartily at the results.

"That was awesome!" Cracker shouted.

Spark blew the tip of the barrel and spun the pistol in his magic, "This is why I needed an entire barrel. The mortar's going to take a lot."

He floated the gun over to Cracker, who eagerly took it in her hooves.

"Woah..." she muttered while inspecting it.

Spark turned to Kevin, "That ferromancy came in handy. Imagine what would've happened if you didn't reinforce the barrel!"

"The target wouldn't be the only thing getting blasted, I assume?" the praetorian replied.

Spark nodded, "Good thing I don't need to use one of my limbs to shoot it."

Cracker abruptly grabbed Spark by the shoulders and stared right at his eyes.

"Teach me."

Spark glanced towards Kevin, who only replied with a puzzled shrug.

"...Teach you what?"

She moved the pistol towards him, "How to make these."

Spark walked through the castle's hallway happily as he recounted today's little adventure. He had another friend now! While he didn't expect becoming friends with a pony by teaching them how to make guns, he didn't really mind. Spark was ecstatic to know that he was on his way to creating his own group of close friends made up of peculiar individuals. Friendship is magic indeed.

It wasn't long before he decided to write a mock friendship report to Twilight for the sake of authenticity. He did tell Cracker that he was her student, after all.

Spark opened the door to the library to show his report to the purple princess, "Hey Twilight, guess what? I made a- eh?!"

In the center of the library, an alicorn, a unicorn, and a baby dragon lay down in a triangular position. Each of them were staring off towards the ceiling with a far-off look in their eyes.

"Ngapain..." Spark shook his head, "Sunset? Spike? What are are you two doing there?"

"List..." Twilight muttered.

"Baby..." Sunset mumbled.

"Horn..." Spike murmured while developing a blush.

Being the fanfiction connoiseur that he is, Spark instantly knew what they were talking about, and saw his 'book' neatly placed on a nearby table.

He took the book with his magic and looked towards the dazed main characters once more.

"I'll uh... talk to you later."

Author's Note

The next member of Spark's crew! Firecracker Burst! I don't think there's ever been a story that uses her character before.

The next member we'll meet is a particularly famous background pony, known for their inventions and questionable doctorate!

Looks like Spark needs to start off easy with the fanfiction. Maybe they'd handle a romance story better?

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"