Loud Opinion

Also, break out the streamers he's alive!

As you should. As you should...

@Starforce Glimmer The mint unicorn was only further off-put by Moonlight's antiquated verbiage. She had expected the mare to be cruel and callous by her demeanor. The quaint verbiage all but confirmed that suspicion. After all, Nightmare Moon had carried herself very similarly. The mare had somehow known what was in her bag. Deciding that antagonizing the mare with see-through vision would go very poorly, she turned to face Moonlight and brought the banner out of her saddlebags. The banner slowly unfurled its message like a hammer winding back to shatter a bone, "Welcome home, Princess Twilight Sparkle! We're all so proud of you!" Well, maybe Moonlight imagined that last sentence. Maybe she would have been better off if she had let the skittish mare go. Alas, willful ignorance is frowned upon by the Watchman. @ExplosionMare Starlight's static heart had resonated with the crowd. Her inner stillness begets stillness within themselves. With no anger or fear within to fule suspicion, trust fills the void. And so they gave her a wide birth to do as she pleased with the unconscious pony. The pony in question was horrific. Stiff as a statue, the poor mare's legs stayed locked in position. The yellow mare's chest was puffed back as if she were holding in a breath. Her surprised face remained. A thousand-yard stare through bulging eyes was the best indicator that she was immobile. The yellow mare didn't seem to be breathing, but the crowd didn't seem to mind. Was it even possible for them to mind anything right now?

@Starforce Glimmer Beyond the perception of its guests, the town of Ponyville was throbbing with bustle. Pegasi thrashed tastelessly placed clouds. Administers administrated. Decorations were hung by those that could. An impatient mare distracted Magnolia's resolve with an inquiry. "Sorry, but could you please, um," The mare trailed off as she bounced from hoof to hoof. Moonlight's demeanor did not affect the mare's urgency but decisively halted her request. Thinking the wiser option is to find another route, the mare turned around and hoped for better luck on the next road over. With her back to Moonlight, her saddlebags were made visible. Inside, a banner with the word 'Sparkle' written on it. The banner was rolled up and within the saddlebags, making it impossible for Moonlight to see the banner --let alone what it says. But the word glowed from within the bag. Light of a clearly legible shape begged to be discovered and pierced the mundane bag to reach Moonlight's eyes. To Moonlight's eyes, the bag is transparent, and the banner within is unfurled to show off the conspicuous name. @ExplosionMare By the balcony, ponies continued to skip on approach and cease when they pass, like a speed-bump of impulse. Upon the balcony, the colors would dance until Starlight put her attention on them. The moment she wondered if they would stop, there was a flat-line. Starlight's heartbeat halted, the colors disappeared, and a single, unfortunate pony collapsed. It was not Starlight that collapsed, though. Bewilderingly, Starlight was right as rain without her mortal drum. A little chilly, but very much healthy. The same could not be said for the unfortunate soul that was walking just underneath the balcony. Unconscious, the taffy-yellow earthpony caused a commotion on the road. As if they had awoken from a dream, the ponies abandoned their errands and gathered around the earthpony. They then looked up at Starlight. The crowd murmured in fear and confusion.

I was talking about future reference. I feel like your missing the point. I was concerned with the mechanics of what is actually happening in the story. Emotionally, you post was good. You misinterpreted what was physically happening in the story. Forgive my bluntness, but I feel like I'm being put through google translate.

What are you talking about?

Sorry for the delay. I've been meaning to clarify my last post, but kept getting distracted. Let me get that out of the way now. @abrony-mouse has been my get-out-of-jail-free card but their's really no reason to do that now that I've gotten a plan for how I'm going to handle it. Anyway. I've been trying my best to word my sentences very carefully with my IC posts. The reason being that the events that take place are not intuitive. But my posts keep being misinterpreted. @ExplosionMare The first sentence is what I want to focus on. This implies that they are all skipping at the same time as one unit. The second one was perfect. I never said that her heart rate went down, so it didn't. This is what I want. I used the word each to imply that everyone as an individual would skip and then stop depending on how close they are to Starlight. Imagine your on a side walk and every car that passes you up honked their horn as they did. This case is harmless considering the point I want to get across was understood, but I'd hate for this to take away emotional impact from a scene. It's hard to get invested when people are confused as to what their characters are seeing. I don't know. Maybe corrections like these are fine. I know I didn't do a good job describing the houses everyone was staying at. Let me clear that up while I'm here. The houses are on the far side of the curve, and each character gets a small-medium house. The balcony (which I neglected to describe) overlooks the road behind it.

@ExplosionMare As Starlight reached an internal consensus, she saw the ponies bellow her, milling through their humble lives. Their mundane traversal through the street was disorganized when their path brought them close to the balcony. Each and every pony within a few feet of her would abandon their stride to skip in line with Starlight's heart. Then, just as suddenly, they would resume their mundane strut just as they left her range. However, it appeared as though not all of each pony would follow, for their color faded ever so slightly. The lost color collected behind Starlight and danced. They were Starlight's backup dancers in her bodily concert. @Starforce Glimmer Magnolia was still in the park, alone. What had the Watchman wanted? Would it be wise to continue using the name 'Magnolia'? It felt dangerous on her lips -like she was kissing broken glass and one wrong movement would pierce her flesh. Hopefully, the analogy was an overstatement and not an understatement. Like it or not, she had an audience now. Opportunity and disaster, both ready to befall her. @abrony-mouse A pamphlet rested on Octavia's nightstand. According to it, the Glovers had help from the Silver family in financing this event. Perhaps there is a relation between them and this Silver Tongue from Fuchsia's letter. Low and behold, within the legal officialization, a credit to Senior-CEO: Fitting Glover and one Jr.-CEO: Mr. Tongue. The pamphlet mentions that the new residents would be welcomed into Ponyville by Mr. Tongue and personally take up residents to show his commitment to the exchange. Perhaps the books on the back wall would hold more, but, oddly, all of the texts were backward, making it impossible to tell a book's title before taking it off the shelf. There were easily hundreds to sort through. That's not to mention the racket it would make to shuffle through so many, right next to Octavia's bed. There were some exceptions, though. A few were showing their spines, but none of them had a title. One was orange and the other a bright purple. However, the need to grove was a strong one, and Fuchsia remembered a record player was in the entrance room. If the walls were responsible for the unnatural muting effect, any funkalicious tunes would be safely contained from Octavia's delicate slumber.

Just waiting to see if everyone else is on board with Fuchsia's fast forward.

I think the Sparkle family is believable enough. Making them any more special would undermine their achievements.

Nevermind. You were right. Now that I think of it, the story doesn't have anything to do with the Changelings. Having a lost civilization of them would dilute the rest of what I'm going for.

I understand. There's really no pressure. I just thought it would have made for a good environment and some extra flavor. To explain, they wouldn't have disappeared. I'm thinking I'd look like a frozen over marsh. I already had an alternative though.

I see everything on discord. If I don't have a good response then I won't. As for how I would use them, I'd say they're long-gone, but what they left behind could be of use.

In the future, if you don't expect it to be related then use discord. I don't want go off topic. That being said, do you mind if I incorporate the Blue changelings into the lore?

Pre-industrial: Steel is expensive and requires a competent smith. Gunpowder is exotic. Electricity is exclusive to storms (Electromancy is nonexistent). The only 'automation' you're likely to see comes from rare clockwork devices that need to be manually cranked.

That being said, they also use candle light, quills, thatch roofs, and parchment scrolls. Most of the modern technology shows up after season 3. Also the theater could easily be candle light.

@Starforce Glimmer Remember, this is before season 4. You do raise a good point with Vinyl. She shouldn't even exist in this cannon, let alone have those things. I'll update the OP.

I had planned to have Octavia do some things before Fuchsia catches up, but I'm feeling like dropping that so everyone can be on the same page again. How do we all feel about that? @abrony-mouse That being said, I have a something to clear up. I'm @'ing abrony-mouse, but this is something everyone should keep in mind. The setting is pre-industrial. Earphones are harmless, but are not on theme. Please keep this in mind to avoid confusion. You don't have to be perfect. This is another world that could have focused on different technologies. If it uses electricity or gas (that includes steam), don't imply its existence. I'll update the OP accordingly.

@Starforce Glimmer The sky was silent, and the sun was as indifferent as it had always been. Seconds drew on in the garden, too early even for the birds. Then searing pain rocketed through Magnolia's skull. The world dimmed ever so slightly, and Magnolia's head shown brighter than an angel's halo. Memories of childhood. Memories of realization and betrayal stung worse than the Light. One thing stood out. 'Magnolia.' The Watchman is unforgiving and shows no favoritism toward the like-minded. Most pressing is his paradigm of identity: Faces, names, authorities: these are given to honest ponies and taken by liars. When the glow recedes, it recedes from a lesser pony. Something is lost. The Watchman has returned the name to the flower it came from, and Magnolia's subconscious scrambles to fill in the gap. Instinctively, 'Moonlight' leaves her lips, and it hums with righteous power. The word feels so true to her that, for a few moments, she knows no lie could deceive her. @ExplosionMare As Starlight flipped through the books, her better-rested mind picked up on some symbolism that she had mistakenly taken literally before. Some references were obvious, but most were obscure. They were representative of broader ideas, but what ideas they represented would not present themselves. 'The Apollo and Marsyas' was the least egregious offender. It starts by recanting Apollo's regrets for having flayed his musician, and that is where the symbolism ends. The rest of the books list the various uses of the skin of Marsyas, the musician. Ingesting shaves years off a pony's age. Fashioning it into an instrument will play forbidden notes. Clothing of the material will attract attention. The most emphasis is on the instruments it can make. With so many uses and such a unique source, who's to say all the skin hasn't already been used up? Perhaps Starlight will have to make do with the next best thing. With her attention drawn to music, Starlight noticed that her heart rate was not normal. It seemed to rush three beats, then slow down for the fourth and fifth. Again and again, the rhythm persisted at that rate.

Never mind, I have a lot for Starlight to work with with just one book. I'll just post and see if it'll be enough.

@ExplosionMare I'm in the middle of writing my response. How long do you want Starlight to read for? To read all three would take up most of the day and leave her with barely an hour before the banquet.

Alright. Their's a time-line at the bottom of the OP. Let me know if the time-line needs more or less detail. I'll get to posting soon.

@ExplosionMare You're absolutely right. It's not fair to keep everyone waiting so long for so often. I've tried to make my posts more frequent but, in case that never comes to pass, I can at least make this RP easier to come back to with a timeline. As the GM, it can be hard for me to get in the mind of the player, so I never considered memory as a potential issue. Thanks for bringing this to my attention and giving a helpful suggestion. I'll be doing that tomorrow seance it is very late for me.

@Starforce Glimmer Magnolia should know by tomorrow. I edited the post detailing what Magnolia read in her book. Let me know if that helps Magnolia experiment. Starlight read three books. So, I interpreted that as her skimming through them, so she wouldn't have spotted those phrases. Fuchsia could go the whole game without tapping into her aspect. She has the law on her side, after all. As for the terminology. Let's say it's a very old way of labeling magic that fell out of use some time ago. I'll leave it up to you as to whether Magnolia knows it or not.

@Starforce Glimmer No dream shenanigans this night. I'd like to get to the next day as swiftly as possible. First we should make sure we're on the same page with the magic system. Necromancy is magic concerning the dead Necro-: Concerning the dead and -mancy: a specialized magic. When you see a name like hydromancy you separate it into two parts: hydro-: water -mancy: specialized magic. That's for general magic. The study of magic has the prefix '-ology'. So, Hexology is Hex: Curse magic -ology: the study/profession. The aspects are attuned to a person. A person can only be attuned to a single aspect at a time. In order to use an aspect that you aren't attuned to, you need to use an item that is (like a flesh-tambourine for Heart). The point of aspects is to have a lucky trump card. The character taps into an aspect if they think it will help them. If their right, they'll perform that task better than any normal magic could. For example: if Magnolia wanted to see in a dark cave, she would call upon the Watchman or try to look beneath her skin. Her aspect is Lantern, so she would get night vision and her gaze would incinerate liars for a few minuets. I'll admit, I missed a huge opportunity to give your characters phrases they can use to experiment with the books they read. Magnolia put all her focus into the book she read so I'll edit my post to include a little more knowledge your character can use when she wakes up. Now, lastly, their is a strength to a characters attunement which goes up as the character understands more about their aspect. This is what dictates their power to summon. That won't come until later though, so don't worry about having a weak attunement now. Just experiment. Now that I've made the system less cryptic, is their anything about the system that could use improvement?