Spike walked along with almost a bounce, the crystal hovering peacefully over his outstretched right hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," muttered Sandra, half-draped over Garble for support as they made their way towards a nice patch of grass. "But we did it!" She tried to be excited, even if fatigue ruined much of the announcement.

Garble casually dumped her onto the soft grass, at least making sure she landed right side up. "There you go. Now, crystal. What is it?"

Smolder held out a little greasy morsel towards Sandra. "10 to 1 it's a material. Bet it needs tossing into that fancy smelter we just left to see what we can do with it."

"It's kind of pretty." Spike raised his hand and the crystal went with it, floating so peacefully. "And warm when you can get your hands on it."

Sandra stayed flumped down on the ground, looking at the trees above her. “I dunno what it is.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “Okay, better question, why did the fire burn us?”

“Probably all the magic it was using,” Sandra answered from the floor.

Garble put his claw to his chin, tapping it. “Nope, that didn’t explain anything.”

“It was siphoning all that magic the fire once had. So probably the fire was magic, and so the magic of the fire still burned you, even though the fire fire would not.”

Garble furrowed his brow. “That’s stupid. This is stupid. I’m a dragon! I breathe fire-I breathe magic fire. I shouldn’t be burnt by some dumb huge monkey thing.”

Sandra shrugged from the ground. “I’ve heard of stuff like that. Magic attacks that can cut through resistances. You probably had some resistance left.”

“Does that mean we fought something that might have been a lot stronger than we were?” Smolder came into view above Sandra.

“It’s likely.”

Smolder’s eyebrow raised. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m alright,” Sandra said, breathing heavily. “I… I am. I did something awesome, and now I’m alright.”

Spike's hand came into Sandra's view, thumb extended as his face followed with a big smile. "That was crazy awesome! Also, what was it?" His shoulders lifted in a soft shrug. "Your golem got all crazy and cool, and then it was gone and you were passing out."

Sandra was about to answer when Smolder lost patience and filled that void with the food that had been waiting. "Chew more, talk after. It'll help get your magic back up." Not having much choice in the matter, Sandra quickly chewed up the tough, yet spiced, meat and swallowed heavily.

Smolder's treat chased away the worst of the fatigue and Sandra sat up, smiling. "I… kinda melded with it? It was exhausting, for both of us. I had the power of the golem, and it had my grace."

"So no grace," laughed Garble with a wicked smirk. "You did good."

Sandra snorted at the insult, but it rolled off quickly. "It felt good. I didn't even know I could do that."

"Been there," cut in Spike. "When you really need it, some of this just… makes sense."

"I hear that," joined Smolder. "You think I have all these recipes memorized? I go with the flow and it just works out."

“No… I’m not…” Sandra took a deep breath. “That’s not how it works for me. I don’t ‘go with the flow.’” She sat up. “I never go with the flow. I concentrate, I worry I’m doing the right thing, I wonder if someone is going to hit me. I deliberately do something. Heck, sometimes I have a hard time breathing, when it’s bad.” She looked at her guildchain. “But the rock… elemental, didn’t have those feelings. All I could feel was a sturdy reliant feeling. All action, no worry.”

She held the guildchain up. “I didn’t need to channel magic using the guildchain, either. The magic felt more… freeform than that. I don’t think that the rock monster had an uppercut skill, per se. It just knew how to harden the ground and channel the magic.”

Spike stepped into Sandra’s view. “That sounds a lot just like a guildchain.”

Sandra stared at the guildchain. “No… Everything was much more raw than that. Like I was assembling parts of an ability, rather than a whole ability.”

“Well, why can’t we do that with normal abilities!” Spike said. “I mean, couldn’t we take like part of one ability, and use it with another!”

Sandra chuckled. “I don’t think it works like that."

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Smolder made a gun shape with a finger at Sandra. "I don't think that's how you've been taught how it works, but us even being here already says what people think isn't what they get."

Garble barked out a laugh at that even as he snatched the floating crystal. "Stupid humans have no idea what they're playing with while they play like they're the big shots around here. Don't know jack."

"Hey!" Spike lifted into the air, lunging for the crystal, but Garble proved better at keeping it away than Spike was at jumping for it. "Come on! If it belongs to anyone, it'd be Sandra, or all of us."

Sandra picked herself up off the ground, her breath coming more easily. "How I got so far without a battle chef even up until now is beyond me. Have I mentioned you're amazing?" Smolder was grinning but silent at the compliment. "But, for the other thing, not quite sold… I mean, sure, I was seeing things through… earth view? That doesn't mean I can just--"

"--Why not?" cut in Smolder. "Give me a real reason that doesn't involve anything you were told."

“It just doesn’t work that way! The guildchain doesn’t do it.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “That sounds exactly like something someone told you.”

“Well, how am I supposed to tell you something impossible is without that?” She glared for a moment, then relented. “So do it now. Right now. If it’s very possible, go and do it.”

Smolder chuckled. “I will. One boiling cauldron knife slash, coming up.” She pulled her knives back, and focused on the spell to summon that boiling cauldron, and also to use her magic knife slash. As soon as she began the boiling cauldron summon, she felt the magic surge, the boiling pot popping into existence above her, nearly crashing into her head as she got out of the way.

Garble, of all people, snickered. “Sis, you sure you know what you’re doing here?”

“Cool it, just a little bit wrong.” She got up, and the cauldron faded away, leaving the bubbling steaming liquid to evaporate over the next few seconds. She brought her knives back again, trying the other ability first. Her magic surged, and her blades glowed with energy, and quick she tried the boiling cauldron, which this time succeeded in bonking her on the head. “Oww…”

Sandra laid back again, looking up. “See, not too easy. Guildchains do the whole spell for you, from start to finish.”

Smolder stood up again, tongue licking the side of her lips in concentration. “Slowly… slowly…” She gradually put magic into her first ability, the cauldron… and then once she built up enough, magic surged through it again, cascading into a summoned cauldron that she caught, this time.

She grumbled, setting it down beside her. “It’s like once I start it the spell just has a mind of its own.”

Sandra nodded from her place laying down.“The guildchain handles all the difficult stuff. It’s shaping your magic to create a metal cauldron and firey liquid from nothing, using the aura and magical synchronization of the class to help it along.” She looked up at the trees. “I guess the Culinarian class is, like, a class designed to shape magic into physical items. It creates all that food from monsters’ magic, and the cauldron for that attack.”

Spike piped up. “How do you know all of this stuff, anyway?”

“Hm?” Sandra looked over to him. “I mean, I learned a lot of this stuff when I was young, from my parents and tutors and stuff. I just… was never really good at doing it.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do you wanna learn it?”

“It sounds a lot like the stuff Twilight would get up to, but with amazing training wheels.” He held up his guildchain. “Usually being able to fire off bolts and stuff is pretty hard, most unicorns can’t do it, but with the whole guildchain system it gets really easy… It’d be really cool to be able to mix and match powers. There must be a way to do it…”

Sandra laughed from the ground. “Maybe, but I haven’t heard of anyone who has.” She finally pulled herself entirely up. “Maybe a bunch of creatures from another world are what it takes.”

Smolder summoned another cauldron, sighing.

“Just not today,” Sandra said. “C’mon. We’re supposed to be training, right? And that food hits the spot something good. So let’s go!”

Garble began walking for town, his ill-gotten crystal floating over his hand. "You ain't gonna get an argument out of me. We came, we saw, we showed everything how awesome we were. Not a bad day. You did decent, Spike."

Spike was distracted from his quest to reclaim the crystal. "Really?"

"You were fighting and keeping us in one piece. That reminds me. It looked like you were taking our hits, but not all of them?"

Spike bobbed his head as he began to amble alongside Garble. "I kept that going on, you know, the background? So I could focus on more active things like hitting things." He gave his staff a good swing through the air. "And throwing out actual spells."

Sandra quickly caught up with the two. "You had it in both? When did you get the background version?"

"I… didn't?" Spike shrugged softly. "I did that my--"

"--Ah ha," called out Smolder, having joined the group. "There's my proof. He improvised."

"Spike's different," deflected Sandra. "He sees things his own way."

"Is that a compliment?" Spike scratched softly at his cheek. "My sister's big into rules, so I learned to notice when she's getting bogged down in them."

"Your 'sister' is a pony," noted Garble with a roll of his eyes. "Which are not 'sisters' of dragons. Just imaginin' her popping out of an egg…"

Sandra suddenly giggled. "That sounds adorable."

Smolder danced in front of the others. "Hey, she adopted him and they've raised a cool dragon if I say so. Now we're not here to argue family trees." She twirled back to face the town. "We have a material to turn in, and lunch to grab. Speaking of that, anyone up to smashing some easy monsters on the way for lunch money?"

Garble yanked free his massive blade, his arms bulging in the effort of the sudden movement. "Now you're talking. I'll play some victory music on them." And off he ran towards the city, veering off wildly every time something living entered his field of view.

Spike hiked a thumb at the joyful dragon. "Couldn't he end up summoning another boss if he goes too wild?"

Smolder shrugged softly. "This place is even weaker than the forest. If he does, I bet he'll smash it himself and feel like a million bits, so I say we let him have his fun and collect the small change that drops." She wandered over to where glinting could be seen in the grass. "It's like he's leaving us presents." She casually collected the small-time coins and materials and potions as she went. "Win/win."

Sandra held out a hand and made a clenching motion. Her golem rose just in front of it, looking unharmed from the last experience. "Welcome back," she greeted. "Can you help us gather what he drops on the way?"

The golem did not answer in any obvious way, but did move to do just that. It collected things, but not as Smolder had been doing. Instead it just walked over them as if absorbing the coins and other things directly into its stoney body.

Spike suddenly snapped his fingers. "I get it!"