Sekel

@Blitz Boom & @Widdershins It's been a hot minute since I last posted here because online schooling (blegh) took my time. Last thing I remember was Dazzle trying to get the frog's attention but I think one of Widders characters took it out? What are you, Boom, trying to do with the monsters that invaded the area all these characters are in?

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY KARMIC "Oh, a bat pony? In the daylight?" Karmic asked in complete surprise. She had done a one-eighty and come face to face with the guard pony. Karmic's eyes had widened in surprise because she wasn't all that used to seeing bat ponies in the Royal Guard. She gulped and attempted not to imitate a fish and spoke after clearing her throat. "You ... why? Shouldn't bat ponies, you know, be guarding the night time with Princess Luna?" ATZY Atzy was content to sit slightly behind him, looking out through the gap his wing made between the left side of the doorframe. She took this time to look at her legs and idly poke at the gems that filled the holes regular changelings would otherwise have. "I don't remember much about why I was a parasitic goop. I hope to regain those memories but something tells me they were blocked off for a reason and I'm honestly a bit scared to find out why," she said with a quick shot of nervous laughter and looking, continued on while speaking to his back. "Although I'm sure they don't compare to what you must have gone through on that island." @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "Okay, one more jump and then I really need to recharge," Twilight nodded firmly at the directions the flying, buzzing creature gave her. She didn't exactly trust it because Last didn't but what choice did they have to get out of this current situation alive? "Sorry, Cherish, but you'll need to hold it in for one more teleport," she told her ghostly assistant and breathed out while she lit up her horn. The magenta magic swirled around the manetid, Last, Twilight, and all their belongings. At the same moment her magic shield collapsed, there was a bright flash and they were all out of the forest, exactly where the Manetid said would be the edge. Twilight huffed, quickly shaking her head, and coughed a couple of times. "Did ... I hope ... I hope that's ... the last ... for now." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "I need to get used to this 'Queen' business fast," Aurora sighed heavily. "I know I look like a griffin at the moment, but I am most definitely a Changeling Queen," she told Lulu and smiled at her. Her voice was confident than it normally and that could potentially be attributed to her mind settling into the fact that she was a queen and had an image to maintain, rather than continue to be the meek little changeling she always has been. "My name is Aurora Lights. Just ... Just call me Aurora though, please. I'm still not used to being Queen of anything. I never knew about Chrysalis doing all these evil things until I met King Thorax a little while ago. Far as I'm aware, there's only three hives I know of. Your former one, whichever hive Happy is from, and King Thorax's. You and your friend are definitely interesting but for the moment, Happy and I want to find out what threw the glitter bomb. Do you two want to join us?" @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "Guh, sorry," Dazzle groaned with a shake of her head. "I just don't like it when ponies assume you know what's happening and expect answers!" she shot off, an errant spark of electricity shooting off through the open door. Dazzle shook her head again and laid down on the floor. With a concerning amount of effort, the electricity ceased almost immediately and the blue lines under her fur disappeared. "It's ... maybe? I never really looked into dragon magic. It's always been a part of me so I didn't really think of it as 'magic' or something that can be used to help others."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Right, sorry," Karmic replied and gave the bag to Atzy before taking the scrolls and placing them in the bag Enzo had fashioned for her. She was taken aback though by how well-made the bag was despite being made entirely out of parchment. "The bag is lovely, Enzo. It feels amazingly silky smooth to the touch. I'll go and see what's what and try to find you two later," she told them both, deciding to leave out Atzy's and Enzo's scrolls for them. She left them on the table and walked out the way she saw the Ambassador go. She took it upon herself to keep calm, and remind herself that she was not a fugitive having broken out with Zio, she was a 'sister' to a Gemling Princess and hopefully she can act as such if she finds a general along the way. "So why are you looking all gargoyle like, Enzy?" Atzy asked in a slightly disinterested tone, wrapping her hoof around the pouch while placing the gems within her magic inside it. Her blue glow of her magic pulled out a string from the bag and had it wrap around her neck so it was sitting against her torso. She shook her head so her mane flopped about and then sat down on her haunches beside the doorway leading onto the balcony. She peeked out around the wooden frame and looked at the world past Enzo's wings. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE Twilight sucked in a deep breath and forcibly erected a shield around all four of them, her magic either blasting away or through the tendrils, making the ground they stood upon the only thing not to be engulfed by the fungi. "We need to get out of here. I can tell we're close but I need a direction if any of you bickering idiots would care to help," Twilight said in an angered and tired tone while glaring at the Manetid and Last. "I am tired, scared, and all I want to do is get what we came for and leave. Is that too much to ask!?" @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "Like Happy said, I'm a new changeling Queen. Happened earlier on today, actually," Aurora admitted with a slight shake of her head. She was interested in the changeling that flew up to her, especially with the relationship between her and the Diamond Dog. She did largely ignore Flaxxy in favour of explaining herself to the new changeling. "I don't have a hive at all, actually. I was never in a hive, well, I was taken away from my hive when I was a nymph which was," she obviously hesitated before sighing heavily and looked the other changeling directly into her eyes. "Chrysalis' hive. I was taken away from Chrysalis when I was a nymph." @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "I only got here today, how would I know what's local or not here!?" Dazzle asked, promptly exploding and adding to the chaos as she stared at Blither. She didn't even think today was going to end up as chaotic as her time in the Everfree but hey, here she is, in the middle of some more chaos. "All I know is these toads are not normal and need to be dealt with immediately!" she cried, blue electricity sparking all over her body - sending some static into the air to send everypony's hairs on end that were near her - as she prepared for a fight, be it magical or physical. @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "You never mentioned a bridge. Only caves and dragons doing this and that," Dawn said, poking her hooves into the air before smirking. A hilarious thought occurred to her and doesn't exactly care if Kaltrops found it offensive or not. "You must be the troll under the bridge foals are told about."

@Blitz Boom I only just realised while going through my reply that you missed Aurora's latest part when you last responded to Twilight, Karmic and Atzy. It was this one in case you forgot. And I also forgot what Karmic is meant to be doing because it's been a hot minute since I last thought about it. Is she trying to let a guard know her, Atzy, and Enzo are free to roam around Canterlot?

@Blitz Boom I know this is for Widdershins but this section killed me.

@Blitz Boom All good. Can't wait to see what happens.

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "I take it this is for the scrolls?" Karmic asked Enzo as she grabbed the cloth bag with her hoof and looked within it. "Or did you do something else to this?" "I don't know what the things was, but it rubbed me the wrong way and I'd much rather be out there than stuck in here with it," Atzy mumbled with a violent shiver and looked from where the shadow disappeared and over to the balcony. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "Whatever is happening is at the heart of this forest," Twilight muttered as she looked at each of the taken creatures with sadness but a determined expression. She knew Last didn't care for working with her enemy but at the moment, no one had a choice but to fight together. Or that would be the case if she hadn't spotted a clearing up ahead that didn't have any trees within it. "If I can get us from clearing to clearing, we should be able to get out of this," she told them. "Cherish, you may want to prepare yourself," she warned as she lit up her horn in a bright purple light. There was a white flash and the Manetid, Last, Cherish, and herself all got teleported down the way into the clearing she had spotted. Looking even further ahead, she grinned and teleported them again and again, hopping through the many clearings in the forest that appeared to permeate its structure, acting like holes they could dip and jump out of. Her stamina and endurance did run short before she could hop them to the last clearing where a tower could be seen through the trees. "I ... I can do this once more. Just ... just need a breath. I don't ... don't think we lost anyone but ... I don't hear anything from whatever those creatures are." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "Those boars look happy," Aurora smiled, largely ignoring Happy. She purely thought of his babble as him having drunk too much of his own 'happy juice' and shook her head a small. She did hear running hooves along with a what sounded like a large boulder coming from their left. She turned her head and her eyes widened before taking flight to hover within the treetops. "What the heck is happening here!?" @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "These aren't normal," Dazzle said cautiously as she eyed the frog-like creature still standing. She flicked her gaze between the frog and Shortstack and inwardly groaned at the possibility of actually saving him. The kind of frogs she was used to dealing with staying in Boggy Bottom Swamp and like to stay within the murky depths. Maybe some yelling would work? "Oi Froggy, I'm talking to you! That pony you're eyeing up tastes like spoiled meat and rotten wood! Come and get me instead!" Or maybe some taunting, throw that in too as well. @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Fighting ... banging ... sounds pretty much the same to me," Dawn hummed in thought, swaying her head from side to side as she weighed up the words in her mind. A sentence he spoke did resonate with her, bringing her outo f them. "A wanted man? This is the first I've heard of it. Please do tell more," she gasped dramatically. Maybe that was a bit much but she was interested in why he was on the run. Or maybe this was a ruse? Something to get her to sympathise with him? "Scaring travelling merchants sounds fun but I at least know it's against the law."

@Blitz Boom HAHAHAHA Oh the joys of living down under.

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "I don't know what that shadow pony was," Karmic said, staring at the place the onlooker had vanished too. It didn't sit right with her and she shuddered in thought at what it may have overheard. "I can go look for the guards to let them know about our new status." "I'll stay with Enzo then to see if I can get some more fresh air. Being stuck in a tightly confined space for who knows how long kinda got old very fast," Atzy admitted as she summoned her magic and then realised the food was still around. "I suppose ... well. At the very least we can take some things with us when leave, I think," she added in confusion, her horn powering down as she studied the different items. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "Gah!" Twilight cried out at the sudden psychokinetic push. She performed a quick shield spell and had it cover herself and Last before the latter could get too far away. Once she was sure she wasn't going anywhere, Twilight looked up and out of the shield, quickly surveying the situation. She ignored the ragdoll-like bodies of the manetid, the fungal creature, and Last's mother in favour of spying Cherish. Twilight gritted her teeth and looked at Last before back at Cherish. "Last, get behind me," she said firmly and trusting the guard would do the right thing, shrunk the shield into a more portable shape. It extended a foot out of either side of her front and above and curved around to stop most, if not all, of the debris and branches from cutting her and Last. The psychokinetic push from Cherish was basically non-existent when it encountered the bright purple shield, so using this to her advantage, Twilight stepped forward. She breathed slowly through keeping up the spell and had to even strengthen it a couple of times the closer she got to Cherish, however, upon getting in close proximity, she threw her shield around Last at the same time she leaped forward and attempted to hug the ghost pony. @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "Somehow, I don't believe you," Aurora giggled as she successfully stood up. Keeping her balance, slightly kept her wings extended, and began to walk towards the location where the ball had been thrown from, and went out of the ruined area. She wasn't sure what they were going to find, and it was probably a better idea to at least grab Happy's cart from the hive before investigating further, but the glitterbomb was a bit of a priority at the moment. Maybe there were more lying in wait, ready to get thrown at the pair at a moment's notice! "You are very soft for a hoomin, Happy." @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "Someone is sounding defensive," Dazzle commented as she looked up at Sunny and Shortstack, nodding in time with Stare's words. "So Alonsus is who I spoke to. I don't think I see him around here, although with so many ponies around, he probably is still here and I just haven't noticed." She was thoughtful as she perused the crowded area and then her gaze landed back on Sunny when a phrase caught her attention. Or at the very least a word of that phrase. "Friends ... I don't think I even know what the word means." @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "And now someone is sounding prideful about banging ponies," Dawn smirked across the table and smirked with a fake high laughter; her next few words obviously dripping with sarcasm. "I never thought you would have had it in you, Kaltrops. Banging ponies as a pasttime, I mean really! I thought you were a gentledrake after all we've talked about!"

@Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Ultimately?" Dawn sighed softly and cast her gaze down at the kitchen table. "I just want to see if she's even alive or not. Me actually wanting her here is another story entirely. I don't think I want her back. I've been on my own for so long I've forgotten what it's like to even have her around." @Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Fine, whatever," Atzy muttered and huffed with a glare towards the scroll in front of her. "At least I can walk around freely now and not really on a host." "We'll keep it to ourselves. Sorry, Enzo. Is there a plan for what we do now?" Karmic asked quietly, looking away from her own scroll and up at Enzo to look for a response. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE Twilight was unsure of what to feel. Horror? Disgust? Compassion? All these emotions felt like they had a right for her to feel but slipping off of Last to stand on her own two feet, she looked between the fungal pony and Last herself. Pity is what she settled on and slowly turned her gaze to what appeared to be Last's mother. "I ..." Twilight tried to speak but shook her head to get the words right. "I wish to help everypony I can, ma'am," she eventually said and coughed a couple of times as she looked to Last and spoke softly. "As far as I can tell, whatever is left of her, wants help. I'm sure I'll be able to at least make it so she's not feeling any pain." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS Aurora sighed and wasn't able to believe she was about to say this. "Happy, get on my back. We're walking in that direction the glitterbomb was thrown," she told him in a commanding voice. She hoped it wasn't too harsh or demanding of him but with the way he looked and swayed, she wasn't exactly taking any chances in leaving him alone. So she laid and spread her wings out to either side so Happy could comfortably lie on her back. @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "I don't want to alarm you, but I'm pretty sure everypony that saw you two in this room knows," Dazzle said quietly, leaning in so she wasn't overheard. "But still, I'll keep my lips zipped as best as I can." Dazzle did notice Shortstack's awkward stance and couldn't help but laugh. "You were successful in making Shortstack look awkward though!" she looked away from Shortstack and over at the other members of the family that were currently around. "The other members look really interesting though. Did I speak with one earlier or was that somepony else? It wasn't Scarcity, it was a stallion that acted like a gentlestallion."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "In two weeks ... an audience with Princess Celestia and Queen Dia'Thiz?" Atzy asked in surprise. She picked up the scroll with her name on it and looked from it to Enzo. "It will most likely be fine but I get the feeling things won't be quite as ... smooth as things went today." "That is most likely because of what we did in those caverns," Karmic muttered under her breath, loud enough for both Enzo and Atzy to hear but still quiet enough in case the ambassador and his assistant were still in ear shot. "You've still got the sense of unease and frightened idioticness about you." "Idioticness!?" Atzy exclaimed in shock. "It was idioticness that may have saved me from a fate worse than death but idioticness all the same," Karmic replied in the same quiet tone as she grabbed her own scroll and nudged it open with her muzzle to unfurl to have a proper look at its contents. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "Sorry!" Was all Twilight could squeak out and immediately stopped her magic laser firing. She kept an eye on Cherish and let Last carry her into the forest. She immediately ducked despite nothing having come past them and she shivered. "This forest feels awful." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS Aurora stared at the lines of text and managed to commit them to memory before they faded completely. She shook her head to get the light flashes out of her eyes and raised a claw to press against the bump on Happy's head. "I'm fine, Happy. That bump looks nasty though. Maybe we should go get your cart first after all and get you patched or," she gulped and looked to where she remembered the object being thrown. She sounded a lot more confident than she did in her mind and that may have been in part to her newly recognised status as queen. "Maybe we can go investigate the direction of wherever the object was thrown from." @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "Aww, that's cute, you being having a pony. With the way you've come across to me, I thought you would've been single," Dazzle said with a smile. It may have been a bit harsh, considering what she's seen Long Stare act like, but she didn't exactly have a filter of her own. "All shy and talking quietly. Maybe you should announce it to the whole world."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "No, nothing else at all," Atzy replied with a quick shake of her head. "At least for now. If we do have anything else, I think we can find you here at the castle?" Karmic wasn't sure what to think and only nodded dumbly, stirring at her empty tea cup. "For what it's worth," Karmic said quietly, swallowing a bit. "The scorpion tea was nice, Ambassador." @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "Wh- Manetids!? Those things you've been trying to find!?" Twilight yelped in a panic, unable to stop Last from running with her on her back. She looked behind them and seeing the bug creatures, she lit her horn up and attempted to zap a couple of them with purple beams of pure magic to try and get them to stop following. "What does magic do to the Manetids!? Wait, is Cherish following us!?" @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS Aurora jumped to the side and flared her wings, hovering a bit with a couple of flaps before touching back down. She squawked in fear and her first instinct was to hide under her wings but she couldn't exactly do that when a friend was in trouble. She took a breath and let it out slowly, doing her absolute best to keep fear from clouding her mind. Aurora took stock and looked from Happy and to where the ball had been thrown from. Not seeing anything left behind, she quickly ran to Happy. "Are you alright? Did you see what threw that?" Aurora asked quickly in concern. @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "You'd think I would have retained that information," Dazzle smirked at Long Stare and chuckled. "Nobles sound boring enough to not even give them the time of day, honestly. But hopefully whatever is happening here will happen soon. It's really really strange to me to stand around and do nothing." She added and shifted her stance from hoof to hoof before sitting down and wrapped her tail around her hooves. Looking at the strange assortment of ponies, she wasn't sure what to make of them other than that Shortstack was related to them in some fashion or other. "Shortstack! Why in Tartarus do you have so many siblings here!?" @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "That sounds very specific," Dawn said quietly. "I .. well. I don't have anything better to do with my life. I think I can help you find the filly ... or well mare now. Yeah. She'd be a mare now if she's still around here somewhere," Dawn told him with a quick nod. She was confident she could help him and if not, then well, at the very least they'll have each other, right? "I don't know any of my family other than my mum and that turned out to be a flop because she left as soon as I could fend for myself. I don't know if I have siblings, or even if my parents are still alive. So we could help each other find our family. What do you say?"

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Well ..." Karmic hesitated and decided to drink the rest of her tea to stop from answering for a while. "Zhu sounds like a pony. A pony can't be centuries old unless they're one of the Princesses," Atzy commented as she looked between Karmic and Golden. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "It all feels horrible. So much death ... I think I need a bit," Twilight said as she climbed onto the tree stump and sat down on her haunches. She was visibly shaking despite simply teleporting across the field so obviously something from it had affected her. "Maybe five minutes but ... Marepunzel's tower should be here, right?" @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS Aurora visibly relaxed once she realised they were both alone and she smield at Happy. "Of course a wander ... where to, exactly? The only destinations I know of are King THorax's hive, your cart thingy, and Queen Onache. So it'll either be one of those three or Queen Onache will send some changelings after you." @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "That all depends on if I'm needed here for whatever is happening," Dazzle said as she glanced around at the crowded room. "It looks like everything is fine though .... I don't know ... maybe - wait. What in Tartarus are nobles?" she questioned in abject confusion and swivelled around to face Scarcity and Long Stare. She may have forgotten some things her parents had told her but at the very least she would remember what nobles were if her parents had told her about them. @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Yet you were raised by both so some of those pony values had to get ingrained into you," Dawn said haughtily, scrunching up her muzzle in a cute glare as she stared up at Kaltrops. "Go on, say what we prissy Princess ponies taught you!"

@Blitz Boom ATZY & KARMIC FATE "Then is it possible to explain this to us, Enzo?" Atzy wondered, trying to get away from the train of thought she had in potentially revealing herself. "Did you hear anything about a breakout sometime ago?" Karmic asked, leaning over to the Ambassador. "Something to do with a cloaked pony?" @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE Twilight swallowed and nodded. After she had given Cherish's stick to Last, she went off to the left and began climbing up the spiral staircase. It was falling in places and was a bit too tight for her to spread her wings far enough to get decent lift. She avoided looking out through the gaps in the barricades and kept focus on every step she was taking. It was hard, and slow, and half an hour had passed when she finally arrived at the rooftop. She looked out at the battlefield to orient herself and her face went white. She couldn't help it. She was frozen and everything about the battlefield, all that had happened and everypony that had died, assaulted her mind when she picked up on the latent magical energy in the air. A quick flash of a white light snapped her out of things and she immediately teleported to Last's location, arriving with a gasp and her eyes screwed shut. @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "Mmm, more than ready," Aurora sighed softly and nodded at Happy. She ignored his inebriated state and rolled her neck before using a claw to rub the back of it. "Are we going to retrieve your cart before heading back to Onache with Thorax's answer?" @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "That's what it looks like," Dazzle smiled and humemd in thought. It did strike her odd that Scarcity thought up of a solution to her living situation on the spot rather than asking around for help. "Either way, Scarcity is a wonderful pony to help out a nobody like me. As for the rest of everypony here, are we all waiting for some other ponies to join?"

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Cursed items? Like what, if you don't mind me asking?" Atzy asked. She was still nervous but for the moment her voice was clear and steady. It was a bit of a shock to hear the guards searching through her previous but at the very least, she's going to keep quiet about her true origins for the moment. "By element wearers you mean the Elements of Harmony?" Karmic guessed, looking between both Enzo and Golden. However, she didn't think they meant the Harmony Elements. She sighed softly and shut her eyes for a quick second. "You don't. You mean a different set of Elements. Alright. If it's fine, then hit us with what you two know." @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE Twilight stepped back a bit from Last's sudden face appear in hers. She felt her backside bump against the shrine and she breathed out slowly. "I don't want to look at that battlefield again, much less walk through it. I can place a beacon on you and I'll teleport after you," Twilight told Last with a quick shake of her head. She was still fairly shaken from what she experienced and didn't plan on going through it again. As much as she wanted to study the runes in the shrine, she knew she had to get away from this place even quicker. "The sooner we leave and get some of Marepunzel's hair, the sooner we can get Cherish planted at my castle." Having said this, she checked on the ghost pony with a small smile. "Now Cherish, do you want to have Last take you with her through the battlefield, or will you be prepared to teleport with me?" @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS Aurora coughed into her claw. "I don't know where that came from," Aurora mumbled. "I didn't even think about using an authoritative tone. It slipped. Oh Celestia, I didn't want you to cower, King Thorax," she added in a hurt tone while she stared at the changeling king. It came out. It's not like she exactly had control over that yet. She stepped from side to side and then shook her head before bowing it. "I would like to visit again, King Thorax." @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "I don't even remember why I wanted to come to Ponyville in the first place, I'd rather simply meet up with my parents again. If this pony you know agrees to it, it'd be a big help," Dazzle smiled at Scarcity and looked back to Long Stare, ignoring Shortstack and his fiery anger. She tilted her head in curiosity and gently tapped Long Stare's shoulder with her hoof, although with how much strength she was used to exerting, it was more like a small shove. Dazzle smiled nervously and looked away and out at the rest of the crowd while she talked to her. "Sorry. You looked like you wanted to say something. Is there anything I can help with?"

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Chariot?" Karmic echoed in confusion. The name kind of sounded familiar to her but she couldn't place it at all. It was lost to her memory so she had opted to ask outright. "Who would Chariot be?" "Um, I want to know about Chariot too but are you talking about the armory the royal guards have when you mentioned a locker?" Atzy asked the Ambassador in slight nervousness. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE Twilight gulped and stepped up to the shrine itself to study the inscriptions. She did recognise most of them being negation spells and sealing charms but what caught her eye was the inscription on the door. She'd seen it before in old spell books and looked over at Last, keeping an eye on Cherish out of the corner of her eye. She was confident when she talked about spells. It helped to quell her sickness of seeing the intense battlefield by a fair bit after all. "All of these are negation spells and sealing charms," Twilight pointed to the words and pictograms scrawled on the walls of the shrine. "However, on the door, I believe it to be the symbol of Nightmare Moon however I'm not completely sure. I only saw it once before in an old spellbook." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "Other than Onache, the only other royal member I've met is you, King Thorax and I think Onache has more experience in ruling than you do," Aurora told Thorax quietly as she looked at the changeling king. Without meaning to, her voice had gained an authoritative edge to it and she was completely oblivious of the fact. "I'm completely new to being royal. You don't have a lot of experience from what I've seen in the time Happy and I have spent with you. I'd rather go to a changeling with experience, even if that changeling has done bad things in the past. Do you understand me?" @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "You're calming. I like that. It's a far cry from what I've been getting up," Dazzle told Long Stare happily. She gazed around the room and noticed how cramped it was with so many ponies in it at once. She snorted a giggle at seeing Shortstack comforted like a pet from Sunny's giant hoof and smiled warmly. "At least, far more calming than my first encounter upon arriving. You know, I highly doubt we'll be able to fit any more ponies in this place. It's a bit too cramped for my liking. As for finding my parents ... they're most likely still living on the edge of the Everfree on where it meets up with Bone Dry Desert in the south. I thought going through the forest would be the quickest way to get to Ponyville." @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "You make it sound like you don't belong with the dragons either," Dawn said, looking up at him with a tentative stare and snorted. "Ever heard of Spike the Dragon? He's Princess Twilight's assistant and is very much a 'ponified' dragon. Maybe you can learn a thing or two from him about fitting in."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Princess ... Twilight? I'm sorry, I was only aware of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," Atzy said in confusion. This caused Karmic to inwardly groan and rubbed her temple. "Let me interrupt. Atzy did live with us but she didn't get out much. She was only exposed to what our parents knew and that wasn't exactly much," Karmic said immediately before either Enzo or Golden had a chance to respond. "I really should have paid more attention," Atzy sighed softly only for her reveries to be interrupted by the calling of pie and cake. "What the heck is this stuff?" "These are different cakes and pies by the looks of things," Karmic commented with wide eyes at the foodstuff. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE Twilight felt herself tugged along by a coldness and realising it was coming from Cherish, let herself be sent back down to ground level. SHe had no words and the paleness on her face persisted while they rejoined up with Last. It took a few minutes to swallow and wet her lips but she eventually spoke out to her guard. "I ... you ... were right. T-This place is t-too much for me," Twilight told Last with a quick shake of her head. "I d-didn't ... wasn't prepared for the sheer weight of the battlefield when I saw it." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "My parents mentioned a cult once and what they tend to do with ponies and griffins and yaks ... it sounded a bit like what Queen Dia'Thiz was saying," Aurora said with a violent shake of ruffled feathers. "I want to leave and talk with Onache. She'll give some insight on what I should possibly do as a new queen but ... I ... um. I'm leaning towards actually attempting to be Queen of the griffins?" she said with an extremely nervous expression and shook it off. "I can't do that! I'm too young for that!" @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins "Uh no, I don't need anything like that," Dazzle shook her head at the suggestion. She'd gotten by sleeping on rocks and leaves in the Everfree so it's not like she was complaining. "An actual bed would definitely be a nice change of pace, Miss. I'm sorry, I don't think I got your name and you're being so kind to me." She instinctively ducked though when Shortstack began and she sighed softly. "Shortstack is not to be trifled with. I know. I can't help it, it's how I've gone against some of the monsters in the Everfree simply because I was bored." @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "I definitely have," Dawn said in a dark tone and decided to sit down on the floor next to Kaltrops. "The pony I once called mother. She left when I was a filly and I haven't seen her since. No parents around and no family so I had to figure out how to take care of myself and not get this home taken away from me in the process."

@Blitz Boom, & @Widdershins I am so sorry for not having posted in a while. I've been busy adjusting to online schooling from home rather than going into actual school a few days a week. It's been a rough transition for me.

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "A special notice to let me wander around Equestria? Freely?" Atzy asked with a glimmer of hope to her voice. She almost couldn't believe it. She was so close to tasting absolute freedom in fitting in with everyone else rather than being stuck inside an urn as a pile of goop hidden in some dusty corner of the castle. Karmic though, she was having conflicting thoughts. It was written plain on her face and she actually had no desire to return to that place. But if it meant she'd get paid ... and potentially protected ... then maybe it wasn't so bad. "I'm definitely going to need time to think on this, Ambassador," Karmic sighed softly, staring at the tea she was halfway through drinking. "It's a lot to think about. Especially since I just got Atzy back from that place." @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "I ... I don't ..." Twilight trailed off. She was unable to think clearly and her face had gone as white as a sheet. It was unthinkable to think so much destruction could be held in one area and even feeling the aftereffects after all this time. "Something ... h-happened here. I ... maybe ... m-m-maybe Last is ... damaged but she is the b-b-best shot we have," Twilight told Cherish, knowing full well how her voice sounded. She was completely unused to seeing destruction on this scale. Yes, there was Tirek, but he was more localized and contained to one section. The battlefield that spread before her and Cherish was on a completely different level. @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "An island near the dragon lands," Aurora breathed, managing to tear her eyes away from Happy. She looked at Dia'Thiz and gave a curt nod. She did want to do something with her life and touring Equestria is something she didn't want to simply do anymore. She wants to see what she can get out of life and Aurora was leaning more towards ruling every second she stayed in Dia'Thiz's presence. "I'll seek you out if I want to ... rule," Aurora sighed. "If I want to try and rule the griffins. This is going to be one heck of a rule if a pacifist somehow got control of the entire griffin population." @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "Oh, I've already seen his temper flare up," Dazzle smiled at Scarcity and her sister, ruffling her wings as she got more comfortable in the presence of the entire group in the police station. "I think I'll be able to hand Shorty if he comes at me again. Thank you for letting me stay with you two while I get my bearings. I never thought this would happen to me. Although, why are there a lot of ponies in this one tiny space? It doesn't seem right."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "Yes, Ambassador. I'll be able to agree to that," Atzy nodded a couple of times once she got all the words right in her head. "I was established very recently so having somepony help me with all this legalese will be helpful." "We don't know where Atzy's Queen is, honestly," Karmic admitted with a couple of coughs. "But she shouldn't be too hard to find if one looks among the gemstones." @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "I would go up there to have a good look around Last, but that giant insect is in the way of it," Twilight said nervously, looking up to the parapets and then out behind them to the distant land. "Can't see much from down here," she mumbled and then looked at Cherish. "I'm going fo ra short flight. I hope you're used to heights," Twilight told Cherish before spreading her wings and soaring up to the level of the roof the shrine. She turned and the her eyes widened at the battlefield. Her face did turn white upon witnessing all the destruction but luckily, she didn't regurgitate her lunch. She was unsure of how to feel about all of this but she was unable to look away either. "Whoa. Last wasn't kidding." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "I have never heard of 'humanity', Queen Dia'Thiz. Whatever Happy is, he's definitely not whatever humanity is," Aurora told Dia'Thiz, taking a deep breath to steel her nerves. "He's been nothing but kind and along the way to see King Thorax, he fought off Timberwolves that were going to attack us!" She had only met him a handful of hours ago, true, but he was one of the first creatures to take an interest in her as a friend and talk things out like how friends tend to do. @Blitz Boom, & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "Wh-what?" Dazzle asked in complete bewilderment. She'd only just met these two, yet here they were, offering to her help her out. Scarcity and who looked like her sister were waiting for an answer and she had to say something otherwise nothing would happen. "Um ... thanks? I'd take you up on the offer? Is that how ponies still agree to these terms?" she asked, her brain shorting out slightly as she tried to come up with a suitable response. She was startled by Shortstack commenting back and she turned to him, not entirely sure what drove her to keep pestering the short, round pony. "I don't have anything to prove! To me, it sounds like you're compensating for something!" @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Well," Dawn hesitated, and then took a breath. She hadn't had company in so long and now that Kaltrops was a bit settled in within her home, she took a chance and spoke her mind, her entire face giving off heat in a full on blush all the while. "Live with me. We argue, yes, and you already agreed to be my bodyguard, but, if you live here with me, I can help you readjust to being with ponies."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "How would we come to an agreement, Ambassador?" Atzy sighed softly, realising that now was the time for negotiations. At least she'll be able to stretch her brain muscles and attempt to negotiate for the gemlings. "Seeming we can't see any of the Princesses yet, how will we handle my situation?" "At least you're not shouting like you normally do," Karmic chuckled after sipping of her delicious tea. "I do not shout!" Atzy replied, shouting at Karmic. The mare merely laughed and pointed a hoof. "Case in point," Karmic grinned. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "I shouldn't pry, Last, but what happened here? This is a very gruesome remnant of a battlefield," Twilight asked quietly. Something in her gut told her to keep her voice low as they walked through the courtyard in front of the shrine. She figured she should listen to it for the moment unless Last had other ideas. @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "You ... what ... me!?" Aurora asked in shock and surprise. She had never heard of such a suggestion in her life! She may be royalty but at the same time she's never exactly spoken up with the other griffins, always remaining on the outskirts and looking in. "I am no Queen. I have no idea how to even be one! Wh-Wh-Why would I e-even attempt to become the leader of the griffins!? I-I mean, I can stay u-upon that throne, sure, and stay alive by f-feeding on how they l-l-love me but that takes time! Far too much time!" @Blitz Boom & @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "HEY! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT BEGAN FIGHTING ME SHORTY! IT WAS SELF DEFENSE!" Dazzle shouted at Shortstack, her ears flicking at him nicknaming her. At least, that's how she remembered it. He did hit her noggin hard a couple of times after all. After a brief few moments, she composed herself slightly and returned to looking at the shy pony that had scared her scales off. "Sorry about that but to answer your question ..." she trailed off and coughed a couple of times before resuming to talk. "Parents," Dazzle sighed, her face falling. Her ears drooped ad she gazed at the floor. Not having seen her parents in years, they'd most likely think she was dead and moved on by now. Her voice was sullen when she spoke, remembering what her parents were like when she last saw them."The're on the other side of the Everfree Forest, ma'am. I don't think they'll be arriving here any time soon. I ... I tried to walk through the Everfree to visit Ponyville about ... I don't know. Ages ago. But I got lost and kinda lived there until I found my way here." @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Wait, stolen?" Dawn asked in surprise. The argument was forgotten in light of this new information. This was news to her. She'd never heard of dragon eggs being stolen from the Dragon Lands before. "How? When? Why? What have you been doing all this time!? You should go and find your original parents!"

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "I'm truly sorry I can't be of more help, Ambassador," Atzy sighed. She thought she knew what she was talking but most of it was something that sounded right in her head at the time. She's no authority on crystal creatures! She became one herself not to long ago to save Karmic from a fate worse than death! She was broken out of her reveries by the Ambassador mentioned another crystal creature, causing her to focus entirely on him. "I ... I don't know what to say to a half-formed crystal bull creature, sir. It's probably somepony that's heeded the call of Queen Dia'Thiz now that she's out and about and looking for information." "Well, the tea is very lovely. I absolutely adore it," Karmic smiled at the Ambassador. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "That graveyard gave me the creeps," Twilight shivered, her feathers ruffling as she flared her wings. She flapped them a couple of times to settle her feathers and folded them against her back with short sigh. They made it to the shrine after ten minutes had passed and she had a worred expression on her muzzle. "At the very least, we're a bit away from there. Why is it so close to this shrine?" @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "I don't know the ins and outs of what made the griffins fall," Aurora admitted, speaking up now there was a bit of quiet in the negotations side of things. Her front talons clicked on the ground as she grew worried. "What I do remember from learning about the history is an old griffin king went mad with power. Whatever granted him that power has since been lost to time and now, because of it, the griffins don't have a ruler to keep everything nice and orderly. Everything's gone to chaos and now no griffin wants to be leader because they think it's too much work." @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM Not having heard Long Stare approach, having been too busy being confused at everypony staring at her, Dazzle jumped and twirled, facing Long Stare when she spoke. It took a couple of seconds for the gears to tick in her brain but when they did, she coughed and had the decency to blush. "Sorry. I don't normally get sneaked up on. A dragon/pony couple? I would definitely love to meet them sometime."

@Widdershins DAWN STREAK "If you can take care of yourself then why are you so hesitant to eat!?" Dawn cried, lowering the plate back onto the table after she hopped off of it. She was furious because he yelled at her, not necessarily the contents of his words. She had a bright red face that marked her embarrassment as she began to engage Kaltrops in a shouting match. "Why are you so hesitant to do anything here!?" @Widdershins, @Blitz Boom DAZZLE GLEAM Dazzle tilted her head at Scarcity, completely at a loss as to what she was talking about. Her head then slowly tilted back into an upright position as she thought hard about the question the mare had asked of her before. When her head was fully upright, she smiled when she fully remembered it. "Oh, right. My scales. The ones you labelled as a disease. I'm fine in telling you the answer here. I don't care who knows or finds out. They are not a disease. They're a part of my biology, Miss Scarcity. I was born part dragon," Dazzle told her with a couple of nods. She's spent the better part of her life alone in a forest full of magical creatures. If they think of her as one, then so be it. @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "You don't want to see the rest of the griffins, Queen Dia'Thiz," Aurora sighed heavily. "Most of them are downtrodden and snarl and fight. I was lucky enough to live on the outskirts of the area to avoid most of the downfall of the kingdom some years back." Her voice sounded like it would crack from reliving partial memories. It didn't do well to dwell on these for too long. She was a Queen now, so she should try and at least act strong in the presence of this crystallized Queen. She'd let Thorax and Happy sort out Dia'Thiz's other request while she listened and tried to learn from this meeting. At the moment, it seemed like Happy had been drinking that same foul tasting juice she'd tried on their wway to Thorax's hive so she wasn't sure on how much help he'd actually be. @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "You look and sound troubled, Cherish," Twilight said in slight concern, her ear flicking in response to Cherish's whispers. She wasn't sure was going on but the hairs on the back of her neck had started to straighten. She gave a small shiver as a cold swept through her. "This is a creepy, creepy place. I hope we don't spend too long here, Last." @Blitz Boom KARMC FATE & ATZY "The Queen of the Gemlings is called Dia'Thiz. She fused with a Changeling Queen long, long ago. Dia'Thiz is a crystal deer, to put it bluntly. The changeling she had fused with is suspended within the crystal deer but both of them speak in unison. I am unsure if the changeling still has a mind of its own but at the very least its body is always suspended inside the crystal in a perpetual state of suspended animation," Atzy explained. She couldn't get the image of Dia'Thiz out of her mind and it scared her somewhat if she was being honest with herself. She wasn't sure how far the Queen's power extended from the mines but at least she can provide some information to the ambassador. She munched on another gem within her magic and swallowed before speaking further. "She is very curious. We've been trapped within some far off mines for quite an exceptionally long time. So sooner or later, Dia'Thiz will definitely make an appearance here." "I've never been outside of Equestria. Can you remember what Saddle Arabia was like?" Karmic asked curiously before blowing on her cup of tea. A small sip later and she was grinning like mad. "I haven't had tea in a long time. Whatever these Red Scorpion Tea Leaves are, they are simply divine."

@Blitz Boom KARMIC FATE & ATZY "I honestly don't know what unification does. I never really paid attention. In hindsight, I should have," Atzy admitted with a small sigh. She spied some gemstones on the table. She levitated one over to herself and bit into it. "I'm sorry I'm not much help in this situation, Ambassador," she added after swallowing her bite. "That sounds like a lovely tea, Ambassador," Karmic said in genuine surprise and gratitude. She dunked some red tea leaves into the boiling water the Ambassador offered and waited for it to steep. "You're from Saddle Arabia, is that right?" @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "Keeping some samples would be of great help when you experience these extreme emotions, Cherish, thank you," Twilight said happily as they continued walking down the path. "I don't think we've reached the graveyard yet, have we?" @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS "Yes, Queen Dia'Thiz, this is a griffin. It's the form I prefer over my changeling form because it's the way I was raised, away from the other changelings," Aurora told Dia'Thiz with a nod. "I'd rather not find other changelings just yet. I think I would rather let time choose that for me, especially since I'm not looking for anypony at the moment." @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "Well, thanks for the offer, Alonsus," Dazzle told him with a smile. She was bit put off by Shortstack's loudness and looked at the rest of the ponies before realising there was a pony missing. Or at least, she thought she did. "There was a pony with that big giant pony who asked me a question. I want to find that pony and answer it, they noticed something about me and I want to set it straight I just don't remember who it was other than they came along with the giant pony outside." @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Yes, tea is basically boiled plant water," Dawn sighed exasperatedly and hopped up onto the chair so she could help him scrape the food into his mouth. "Chew when this falls in, try not to choke."

@Blitz Boom ATZY & KARMIC FATE "It feels normal, ambassador. I don't know what else to tell you. I know I mentioned unification but, as Enzo said, most gemlings don't get to be unified. They're born instead of made," Atzy said, running with what Enzo said because she couldn't come up with anything else. "But, I do know that being unified with another being is kind of like a higher calling to the gemlings. It is definitely religious, and one we hold in high regard." "Oh, thank you," Karmic said. She listened to the conversation as she made herself some tea. In a whisper to herself that Enzo may pick up on, depending on how good his hearing is, Karmic mentioned "It's been such a long time since I've had tea. I wonder if this is any good." @Blitz Boom TWILIGHT SPARKLE "I've dealt with many different substances before, Cherish. While ectoplasm is certainly a new one, it's not that much different from some of the experiments I've done," Twilight smiled when she looked a Cherish. "If you're willing when we finally get this ritual sorted out, maybe I could see the other kinds of ectoplasm a ghost can create? At the very least this sample I've got will provide valuable information into ghosts that we didn't have before." @Blitz Boom AURORA LIGHTS While Dia'Thiz talked with Thorax, Aurora changed back into her griffin form, with red hair hanging down the side of her face. She flapped her wings a couple of times to get settled and sighed heavily in relief. "I love being a griffin. It's what I grew up as, Queen Dia'Thiz," she told the gemling queen but her expression changed to shock when the queen mentioned her and Thorax being an item! Don't just assume things like that! "Wh-what? A r-royal changeling c-c-couple with Thorax? I-I'm still n-n-new to this entire queen of the hive thing!" @Blitz Boom, @Widdershins DAZZLE GLEAM "I ... uh ... fought with Shortstack," Dazzle said slowly, pointing with a hoof at the red miniature pony. "I don't know what I'm doing here beyond that, to be honest." @Widdershins DAWN STREAK "Put the plate on the table," Dawn said slowly with a slight anger to her tone. She sat down and flicked her tail around her hooves. She didn't like that her instructions weren't getting through to him but she's going to keep on trying! "What did you do before coming to Ponyville?"