Catpone Cerberus

"I know my limits." Jenna stated "Besides, I need to hunt... before I can lay down... the healing process needs... me to be well fed, and...the rations we have aren't... even close to enough." the last rays of the sun started to fade, bringing darkness and a drop in temperature "And with all due respect... I doubt you can help much...with that." she didn't want to sound like she was underestimating Oliver, but as far as she knew, he was just some dude, who played games and stuff before their meeting, he had been doing surprisingly well up to this point yes, but she had no reason to believe that he had any clue how to hunt animals big enough for her to eat.

Jenna used her ability to try and see if there was anything nearby interacting with the air, but she couldn't sense anything either "The air is still disturbingly still, it makes me uncomfortable to interact with it." "I could make it move to make things feel slightly alive, but I feel like that would be waste of energy?" she didn't sound sure about it, she was tempted, just to make things less still, but it could risk luring something to them.

@Blitz Boom Solar was quick with his second coffee too, getting his part of the bits out too, he had now gotten used to it, but the use of physical coins was also something that had taken some learning from him, because while his world did have physical currency too, it was more a....lower class civilian thing, for him and those he interacted with, money, like many other things, was entirely a wireless, non-physical experience. "I do not grief what has been lost; while I miss some conveniences, it is a net good for that pit of suffering to end." his life had been decent, but he wasn't blind to the state of his world, it was doomed regardless; if not through end of the world, then through the system collapsing under its own weight, suffering couldn't go forever, something would break, no empire lasted forever. "You are free to join me as I go see a place relevant for my duties, if you're not scared of water." he stated as he rose from the table "As the commanding officer and the main authority on the case, I can state that the situation I'm here to look at is not classified." "I am interested in hearing more of what you know, and am willing to in turn share what I can." he thought for a moment "I would also like an outside perspective on something, if possible." -------------------------------------------------------- Ruby's ears perked at the loud sound, but she didn't react to it in other ways, as she was kinda busy with the situation, however, she did make a mental note of it, as it was different from the usual sound of movement of stone. She didn't do much during the first part of the 'conversation' as combination of everything going on with her made it hard to focus on one thing, and she was also now annoyed at the mummy that had left, not just for the curse, but the fact that it had left the more important question of the two unanswered; she was all for sadistic predicaments, but, 'figure something out or die' was bit tasteless for even her. "I'm fine." She stated, in what was probably the least convincing manner she had ever done up to this point, her cold shell was starting to crack under the pressure, though it was not fear that was coming through, she was not scared of anything here, it was more....anxiety? Pain? it was hard to tell. "The good news is that Charir has made it out ." It actually took the eyes narrowing for Ruby to realize that the deer was interested in her specifically, as he following her wasn't anything new to her, since he had followed her here, but the lack of action from him earlier had given a reason to think it was nothing more than regular curiosity. She of course avoided him, not wanting him to touch her, as she had enough stuff going on as it was without some potential death touch from yet another undead "I believe the first thing would be to find the basement, one would think it holds some kind of answers." he was hoping the deer's interest would last so that he would just follow them down anyway, but she didn't want to say it out loud in case the deer had some intelligence left in it. If it wasn't already clear that she indeed was not 'fine' as she said, it would be more apparent as the curse's effects got reaction out of her too, as she staggered not unlike Leviathan, but took a moment longer to recover, and seemed to have at least some amount of shortness of breath; she hoped that the deer would stay at his slow walking pace, and wouldn't pull any tricks out of its non-existent sleeves, as she was already at this point actively fighting to keep her composure enough to not change forms, because if she were to change forms here, they would not be getting in the basement due to the simple fact of her being too big. ------------------------------------- Sheska didn't really mind the difference in shade, in fact, she barely noticed it; being originally subterranean species, adapted to constantly dark forest, their branch of kobolds had slightly weaker color-vision than surface dwelling species, it was not a big difference, but a change of one or two shades didn't make any real difference to them. To her the prosthetic was less about appearance anyway, and more a convenience thing, since she mainly wanted it so that she didn't have one huge health hazard to worry about constantly. She thanked the doctor, nothing here really was such that she couldn't have done it herself eventually, but it was nice to have someone taking care of her once in a while, and it was lot more convenient to have this done by someone already familiar with this world's medicine. Trox was the one to answer the question, as Sheska was 'busy' moving her tail around to get used to the change in weight "We are currently staying in the tavern courtesy of a fellow kobold." "We need to find a more permanent place somewhere fit for us, and possibly a way to get a source of income." Sheska then joined in "Actually that reminds me, if I may ask, where would be a good place to find up to date information on medicine, illnesses, and other medical knowledge?"

@Props Valroa Flint hadn't been as careless as one would first think, sure, curses could be broken, but unlike spells and regular magic, there wasn't some single 'get rid of curses' spell out there, every curse was unique, and while some were as simple as purifying some item or something, others weren't, some may require active sacrifice, and some can only be transferred rather than entirely broken. That of course ignoring that Flint's curses were also unlikely to be Equestrian in origin, meaning that even learning the exact types of curses they were could be complicated to say the least. And ultimately, the biggest 'but' of all, could Sombra really be sure he was the first to come up with the idea? "I don't know." Una stated truthfully "Besides a headache I don't feel any different." "She whispered something about a 'gift' and about thanking her later, but I couldn't really catch what else she said." she showed Sombra the pieces of the shattered amulet "Any idea what this was?" the answer was most likely no, the amulet wasn't any well known artifact, and whatever magic it may have had was now gone, the most notable detail about it was the fact that it looked old, as in, ancient, ancient enough that it would have been old even by the time Sombra had still been a ruler.

@Props Valroa Noctuna would have been delighted to see Opaline's paranoia if she would have been there, she was a manipulator, she preferred mind-games over direct conflict, unseen presences, movement in the edges of your vision, unexplained sounds; all that was linked to shadows was her tool, and it didn't matter if you were friend or foe, she'd use it on you. Cinder and the guards watching all of them also got their part, Cinder really didn't care, the snake on her being the only one the react in any way, as she had gotten used to stuff like that, being a lone traveler and all, and even for the snake, it was just regular snake things, so it could also just been curious about its surroundings. The guards however, would now and the look over their shoulders and do other similar small things, as being tense over the outsiders, the sudden feeling of someone breathing down one's neck made them jump slightly, yet, because there was nothing there, and there was no real evidence of any on the outsiders doing anything; which was was the truth, since even Noctuna wasn't actively doing anything, the shadows had their own agency; they could only blame it on themselves imagining things. While alicorns could use all three kinds of ponies' natural magics, Earth pony magic and Pegasus magic were less useful in active use until you happened to be the type of alicorn to specialize in nature or weather, and even those could be done with alicorn magic itself. The magic of earth ponies, or at least as far as this specific city-state's earth ponies used magic, seemed to be rather passive in nature, because while they did harvest magic through runes and such to make tools and other things to help with stuff, the use of their natural magic didn't seem to be overly active. Some things were passive by nature, like the increased strength and stamina of earth ponies, which similarly to something like Pegasi flight, didn't take any active effort to utilize, and the rest seemed to be used by only some over the natural passive effect, more specifically, their connection to the nature. Obviously it was used to some extend by most earth ponies, as seen by the fact that most of the populace was growing something, and those who weren't, were working on something related to growing something, however, only some used the active side of it to for example boost the growth of plants; those who did, seemed to be specialized in doing that specifically, being the 'experts' of their fields. It made sense though, Earth ponies weren't really known for their magic in any world, they were the farmers of the pony kind, the physical labor of equines. Noctuna meanwhile didn't find anything too surprising besides the aforementioned lack of alicorns, the animals in this world, while not exactly the same as what she was used to, were nothing too special, and the only really notable thing was the lack of any real mention of more magical beings, like shadow-creatures, though it didn't cast any doubt on their existence for her; there was one literally behind her; and was more a thing of earth pony perspective, because even in her world, where the shadows had been royally more powerful than here, it was only really unicorns and other more magically capable creatures that actively researched them, because you needed a certain level of access to magic to be able to properly observe them, otherwise they were just as described before, feelings and movement on the edges of your vision. She then moved on to a section about geography, as she wanted to learn more about this Equestria as a place, and possibly even pick some potential spots for her new home.

@Props Valroa Opaline got her wish when inside the library, as Cinder stayed near the entrance interacting with the snake on her shoulders, and Noctuna headed to the section about creatures, as she wanted to learn what kinds of things lived in the local shadows. However, she would not be entirely alone, as the earth ponies would keep an eye on her, and she would possibly be able to get a sense of being watched, like something unseen was observing her from the shadows, or maybe it was just her paranoia? What came to the history, it didn't answer any bigger questions, it was mainly focused on the city's own history, talking about important individuals, events, and so on, how it started as bunch of farms and grew to what it was now. There was mentions of other city-states they had interacted with in meaningful ways, leaders of other cities and even some non earth pony individuals, but all the names would be unfamiliar, and generally speaking the context was quite boring all things considered, always going back to the city itself. There was no mentions of Alicorns, powerful beings like Discord, or any other such, and all the big events seemed to relate to more...natural things, sickness, crop failure, weather events;things like that. The only mention to bigger events not related to the city, was mentions of 'the separation' and 'the migration', but there wasn't much detail on them, only that they happened a very long ago, several millennia ago specifically, and that they were ultimately the reason why the ponies were like they were now; however, there didn't seem to be much information on what happened, in fact, it was mentioned in the text that most information about the events and the times leading up to them was lost to time. There was also mentions of small conflicts between the different pony kinds, nothing major, no wars or such, mainly annoyances like Pegasi causing weather events half-accidentally, or disagreements on resources and so on so forth, though all of it was of course written to favor the earth ponies, so who knew what the actual truth was on those specific events. One detail would come quite clear regardless of what one read, and at least Noctuna noticed it as she went through books; the lack of Alicorns, there was no mention of them by name of course, but there was also not as much as a hint to them anywhere, no mention of even the concept of alicorns. There was vague mentions of other powerful beings she was familiar with, even if they were written about like they were more myth that actual things, but Alicorns? she couldn't find mention of them even in books considered fiction.

@Props Valroa Flint just laughed, her voice was breaking a bit, again indicating that she in fact felt pain, but other than that, she didn't seem to be affected much. "This thing really is something isn't it!" she shouted "I think it was used as a torture device!" "It amplifies pain, but protects me from permanent injury!" she was silent for moment before talking more "And it's not the only trick in my non-existing sleeves." she then freed her arms like it was nothing, shattering the crystal that was holding them; the flashing lights didn't do much as she simply closed her eyes, not that stunning or confusing her did any good, since even now she was not fighting back in any way. "And the best part? magic nullification doesn't work because all of these are curses!" "But I gotta bounce, so see you later, King" again, 'king' was said in insulting manner. She then materialized two dagger sized military forks, again with symbols, and threw them at the ice that had been forming around them, Sombra's water only increasing the ice's formation; when they hit the ice, it instantly vaporized, covering the area in thick, hot steam, and when the steam faded, Flint and all of her weapons were gone.

@Blitz Boom "My arrival was accidental, and I'm not the only one." "The world I come from has been suffering from ever increasing dimensional anomalies for last millennia, the leading theory is that it's a symptom of a dying realm." Solar explained in analyzing manner "What comes to science, as a member of the military, I only know what is relevant for war." "So when it comes to biochemistry, my knowledge goes only as far as things like chemical weapons and super-soldiers go." "Militarily speaking though, both Equestrian empires have put more focus behind biomechanical research and weapons research, over things like biological modification." "Latter however seemed to be the choice of our enemies outside Equestria, and having seen the results myself, they seemed rather successful, with the main point of trouble seemingly being control, as sapient creatures don't like being tools." "In general terms, I do believe that when using this world as a reference point, the advancement is true for everything, everything I've seen up to this point here, is by all means, horribly outdated compared to my world of origin." "Our boost of technological advancement was not from a positive source however, as while it brought good things like advancements in medical care, it was fueled by war, anything good is only byproduct." "If you are interested in more detailed examples, I can provide them, however, a public cafe is not the right place for that discussion." ----------------------------- Ruby did instinctively try to dodge the first time, but being aware that there was probably no real chance of avoiding it, she didn't waste her already limited energy any further, and when it came to feeling the curse caused, it was just more fuel to her already uncomfortable state, and she couldn't really even be sure if it was caused by the symbol that had appeared, or if it was continuation to what she was already feeling; good thing her kind was physically unable to cry, as she would no doubt be tearing up from the discomfort alone at this point if it would have been part of her normal physique, though, it did cause her usual stoicism to falter a bit in her voice, not enough to be obvious, but enough for anyone who knew her to maybe notice. She didn't break the 'eye' contact however, even when Leviathan spoke, as she once more addressed the mummy, assuming she wasn't stopped from speaking somehow "Doesn't sound like we have much of a choice." "So what is 'it'? and what exactly are we supposed to do?" "Or are you one of those who only speak in riddles?" was that they way to talk someone who had just branded you with some kind of probably lethal curse? probably not, but Ruby wasn't going to grovel in front of this thing. She also realized that this could be a situation where there was no winning, at least that was the case if the choice of words was considered; she assumed 'it' was the same thing in both context, and the mummy said 'it' could be forced back by dragon's might, 'could', not 'can', so it could be they were given a task that they can't even do. ---------------- The trio spend some time more downstairs, but after a while, Sheska made her way back upstairs, and soon after Chega and Sear headed to their room too, in the morning, the latter duo came down again, having breakfast and such, and Chega once again entertained whoever was there with songs of various topics. Sheska and Trox meanwhile, stayed in their room for a while, even after waking up, as they had a conversation that had needed to happen since they first woke up in the prison, and after finally pouring over that can of worms, they planned their next moves; what direction they would take their lives now that they were given another future, and what things they would need to deal with first. After that they went downstairs, and got something to eat, while also talking with Chega, they spoke in their language, but it wasn't anything secret, and rather was them asking her about any individuals she may have met that would be useful in for example keeping Trox's cybernetics running or having Sheska learn the medical plants of this world, and asking about any other kobolds around she may know of. So when the letter came, they weren't busy, and thus made their way to the hospital. The greeted the doctor, as Sheska would go in first with Trox right behind her, they were close, so there was no reason why both wouldn't have been there, not that this was especially private matter anyway, it was just a piece of tail. Sheska took off the makeshift cover, it had had its own charm, but with how quickly it got dirty and in general its makeshift nature made it so that it was nice to be rid of it, no fault of the nurse who made it, just the nature of that type of stuff. She positioned the tail in a way so that the doctor had a good view of it, it was clean and all that stuff, since Sheska new how to take care of injuries like that, but she still did as the doctor told, because she knew well how things worked. Both she and Trox also looked at it though, mainly because the bone being visible like that wasn't a pretty sight, even if you were as jaded as they were, and while the nerve damage was such that there was no feeling there, just seeing it did give Sheska, and even Trox, a small sting of ghost pain, as they were reminded of what happened.

I kinda guessed, partly because there has clearly been confusion in the RP about the difference between Chega and Sheska, as you have sometimes addressed the wrong kobold in the text Though even with the Dragon and the bard, it's less retirement and more push to background, as they will be around as long as the siblings live in the tavern. I don't really have any specific idea, and it doesn't necessarily need to be 100% calm and nice, but maybe it would be good to have a small pause on things sending creatures in the hospital the poor staff is probably running out of hooves In general I like anything that gives potential for character moments over things that are for example just action for sake of action, you know? One thing is that adventure probably isn't the right direction at least yet, mainly because as I said before so until something forces them to leave, these will have to happen first. For who would interact with them, again, I don't have preference, but it does need to make sense for both sides to want to stick together, so something like draconequus (assuming they are as...annoying, as anomaly can be) wouldn't necessarily work since they aren't really on the mood to deal with that What comes to Sheska and Trox themselves, their current goal is still to get settled into this world, to leave their past and forge a new future, so if you don't have any ideas, that can work as a base for things, they'll need a place to live that isn't tied to their friend's wallet, maybe even find a job? Something like the meditation temple is also something they could possibly give a try to in trying to deal with problems relating to their past. And of course there can be difficulties of different kinds, but maybe someone doesn't try to kill them for day or two I have one OOC question though, with the whole Oni thing, did you actually plan it or did you just make it up in middle of things? Because I, like my characters, am still scratching my head on how the first attack on the elderly couple served the Oni in any way?

"So the answer is no then?" Jenna asked "You don't know... how to make a shelter?" that had been the question that had started the conversation in the first place. "Separation is not an option." she stated "And shelter is not for hiding...but protection." she walked to a tree a bit further away, and brought it down, she then cleaned the branches off, putting them into a pile, and finally she rolled some big rocks from nearby. "Watch...and learn." she then, using these materials, and few standing trees, made a small shelter for Oliver, just big enough to fit him comfortably while also having room for their stuff. "If you need it....to be softer, I can help you...dry some plants for bedding."

"We shouldn't let our guard down." Jenna stated "But we also should avoid getting too paranoid, this darkness and silence are perfect conditions for one to start seeing and hearing things." "We need to do our best to keep ourselves, and each other, sane."

@Props Valroa Noctuna didn't actually have that many secrets, after all, like she had said before, secrets can be used against you, the only reason why Opaline may have had that idea, was because she wasn't as curious as Noctuna, or at least not as openly so, because while Noctuna had been asking lot of questions, Opaline hadn't asked much of anything, and had in fact seemingly actively ignored the extra information spoken around her. Honesty was part of Noctuna's way of doing things, she had tried the whole secrecy thing in the past, but had learned that it was actually lot more effective to just be honest, since in bit of irony, being honest made your enemies more paranoid of what you were hiding. And that was ultimately her way of doing things, while she was fully capable of destroying her enemies physically, she preferred tormenting them mentally, to get into their heads, to make them jump at shadows, and to live rent free in their heads. Noctuna said nothing to the guards, as Opaline had answered the question and they seemed to be satisfied with it for now, however, Cinder did add her own response, as Opaline had not provided answer to that part "I'm simply showing the outlanders around, since none of your kind would agree to do that." it was clear there was some tension between her and the ponies, but it didn't cause anything at least yet. There was no further incidents, but the watchful eye of the guard never left them, while the six guards weren't breathing down their necks, it was clear they were followed, as at any time if they looked around, there would always be at least one guard with clear view on them. What came to non-guards, there weren't that many around, probably due to it being a night. but those who were there, glanced at them suspiciously and kept their distance As much as she may have wished to lead, Opaline would need to endure following Cinder instead, as it turned out this city hadn't been designed outsiders in mind, and thus the library wasn't that easy to find. When entering the library, the welcome was warmer than outside, but still rather cold, as the pony in the library welcomed them in, but indirectly emphasized that they better not try anything, and stated that while they are free to read, non-citizens were not allowed to take anything with them. The library itself was rather regular library, with all the categories one would expect, minus on the magic side, because while there was a category for magic, it was clear from the sub-categories that it was entirely about magic Earth ponies could use; things like unicorn magic was instead a sub-category of a sub-category, as it was under category of Unicorns, which in turn was under the category with all non-Earth pony creatures. In other word, Dragons, Unicorns and Pegasi were in the same place as wolves or snakes. There was no sub-category for Alicorns.

@Props Valroa Flint was beyond finding things amusing, she was having fun, and she didn't hide it. Sombra's skipping and jumping were rather pointless, as Flint wasn't trying to dodge his attacks, nor was she actively trying to attack him either, so at most it made her rise an eyebrow, as it looked quite silly to her. This however didn't mean she was standing totally still, because as Sombra did his thing, she did hers, more specifically, she materialized two axes from her hands, they too had some kind of red magical symbol on them, but instead of using them against Sombra in any way, she tossed them to her sides, and when they landed, they started freezing everything around them. This didn't seem to have any real threat to Sombra, as they were relatively far, and the Ice wasn't spreading towards them, but rather evenly around the axes. Regarding the crystals, Flint just looked at them before looking at Sombra gain, chuckling "Trying to restrain me? aright, I'll humor you." she spread her arms and just stood there, mocking grin on her face "Do your worst, king" the way she said 'king' was mocking and derogatory. Una meanwhile, now that she was in safe distance, observed the situation and grew bit concerned, what was the deal with this creature? she just stood there taking blows, and now she just waited to be restrained instead of even trying to avoid it?

@Blitz Boom I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but you forgot the kobolds. However, this could be a good time to have a tiny timejump for them, to next morning or something, since there's obviously nothing big going on at the moment, and the current day has been going on for quite a while, I have stopped saying specific time for when they appeared because I can't really even remember how long it has been. I'd like to say few days, but I don't remember if there has actually been any nights during this time (in fact, what even is the current time of day for them?) It would also serve as a soft reset if you have hard time coming up with anything for them, since with a timeskip, I can write them to be pretty much anywhere.

@Blitz Boom Solar hadn't heard of Center Zero, but he made a mental note about it, he'd need to make a respectful but strongly worded inquiry on why he hasn't been informed of such place existing, considering how critical something like that could be for his duties specifically. The attack itself wasn't necessarily his concern, as there was no real reason to think that it was done by non-local to this world, however, if it ended up being a obstacle for him to get what he needed, he'd get involved as far as he needed to get what he wanted. "Don't worry, I am more that familiar with the joys of military bureaucracy, I don't expect it to be entertaining to listen to." he said with tone of humor in his voice, the legal tape wasn't really a concern for him; he had other leads to look into, so he could wait, and with having a direct line to the princesses, and technically being relatively high rank himself, he would probably be able to speed things up a bit if it seemed like it went nowhere, especially since the information he needed was specific documents rather than more general information about the facility itself, there was really no real reason why the specific information he wanted would be highly classified. When the waiter came, he ordered another regular coffee for himself; it wasn't that he preferred it over anything else, it was more a force of habit, in fact, due to how effective his artificial body was in keeping toxins out, caffeine was filtered out and thus didn't even do anything for him. "It's bit more complicated than that." Solar said regarding the question "Because I am, in fact, from Equestria, just not this Equestria." it wasn't really a secret, or, rather, nobody had told him it should be kept a secret, and to him, it was just better to tell the truth to avoid misinformation about other places on the planet. "In the Equestria I come from, technology is far beyond anything I've yet seen in this place." ----------------------------------------- Ruby felt the unease on instinctual level, but it got no reaction from her, after all, her ignoring her instincts was the reason why they were in this mess in the first place, so there was no reason she'd listen to them now. She was bit surprised that she was just let past the deer, but at the same time, having seen its seeming curiosity, she wondered if it had a certain level of commonality with her; more specifically, if it, like her, was the type to let things happen because the end result could be interesting. Either that or it wasn't really there to guard in the first place, and rather was more a walking pair of eyes to inform the leader about things happening. Ruby glanced at the priestess and Leviathan, but then turned her eyes towards the main deer, looking it into its eyes, or where the eyes would be if they had rotted away, seemingly unaffected by Leviathan's situation. She entered the room fully, and didn't break the eye contact with the deer even when the door closed behind her, she was now fully serious, so the act had been dropped entirely, sure she was still in pony form, but she was fully herself otherwise. "I cannot tell you something I don't know." "It doesn't matter what you do to her, or me, or the young dragon, it doesn't change the reality that I have no idea what you are talking about." she said in cold manner "In fact, if you have any brain left in that body of yours, think about it just a moment, why would a mare, who was here before with another pony, bringing dead to life, then come back later with two entirely unrelated dragons and without the other pony?" "I know equines aren't the smartest bunch, but even the most foolish pony wouldn't be stupid enough to return to a place after doing something like that."

Jenna rolled her eyes, got on her feet, and brought down some trees, moving them to lean to each other in a way that it formed a structure over the pool of water she had laid in "There, I have shelter, now...take care of yourself." she again brought her head on Oliver's level "I understand that you are...worried about me, but...I'm not like you." "We dragons aren't made...bedridden, just from... breaking few bones....and few wounds." "If you stubbornly insist...on me, without taking care...of yourself, you will in long run...cause problems for me." "Sometimes the most selfless...thing to do...is to be selfish."

"Very few things are simple." Jenna mentioned "But this has for now been easier than I expected, I expected us to meet some kind of resistance when we got here, yet, there has been nothing on this side." "It's either a good sign, or a very worrying sign."

@Props Valroa Noctuna closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the shadows were more active here, but like before, they seemed to have no master, and they were notably weaker than what she was used to, which, Noctuna realized, shouldn't have been a surprise to her, since the cursed moon of her home made the shadows lot more powerful. She spoke quietly under her breath, and while quiet, her voice held strong authority behind it "Come to me horrors of the night, join my pack; all the wretched nightmares and forgotten screams, give me your loyalty." "All that hides in the dark, come, for I am your master, I will take care of you." Nothing obvious happened after Noctuna spoke the words, however, one could feel something watching them, could see shadows move at the edges of their vision, could feel heavy presence around them, it was as if the night itself came to see them for a moment, before it all going away and things returning to normal. Noctuna grinned, this was too easy. However, she noticed a obvious lack of actual physical beings around, there was no wolves or other nightly predators in range of her connection, it seemed that the ponies here had managed to keep them out of their settlement's surroundings; there was the snakes, but they didn't count, and were taken already. Cinder didn't say anything, just observed and was thoughtful, she couldn't help but notice the slight sinister tinge in the queen's demeanor, though, then again, why would she expect anything else from 'Queen of Shadows', there was a reason why shadows were usually symbolic for negative things. When they would eventually get closer to the city itself, they's be able to see the sudden increase of guards, six of them to be exact, and while they didn't approach them at least yet, it was very easy to tell that they were watching them. When entering a city itself, a patrol of guards, unrelated to the six watching them, would come to them, and ask about their business in the city, also asking why they were with 'her', clearly gesturing towards Cinder, who had landed at this point, and was walking with them in her usual nonchalant manner. The way they talked about, and looked at Cinder, showed that they knew her, and didn't like her; not that they seemingly much liked the two 'unicorns' either, though at least they weren't actively hostile yet.

@Props Valroa With the daggers, Sombra would find that the metal thing Flint was wearing, wasn't just an odd fashion statement, as regardless of it barely covering anything physically, it turned out to be a full-body protection, in a way. The blades did hit her, they even seemingly hurt her, but, there was no physical damage to her, not a scratch. She was shoved off Una, however, it happened on her terms, as she jumped off her and with a roll landed on her feet, the amulet she had been holding was left on top of Una. Flint was grinning as she faced Sombra, both of her eyes engulfed by the blue magic, however, interestingly enough her horn wasn't lit, rather, the magic seemed to flow through her entire body, and it was quite powerful magic indeed, and similar in its nature as dark magic, "Ha Ha, Finally!." "You were so boring!" "Lets see if you can hurt me." She then materialized a knife from her hand, and threw it towards Sombra, the knife had a red symbol on it, and when it hit something, the symbol glowed and the point of impact grew small vines out of it, which would be quite painful if the point of impact happened to be alive. If Sombra kept going attacking Flint, she wouldn't dodge, or even try to block it, and would instead to just take the attacks, and while she seemingly felt pain, and would be pushed back and so on like one would expect, she seemingly did not get injured, and every time she just smiled, grinned or laughed, she was enjoying it. Notably, besides the one knife throw, she did not attack Sombra, she only did things to provoke him to attack, and then took the attack straight on. Meanwhile Una, now that the literal weight was off of her, scrambled on her hoofs as best as she could, the amulet moments later shattered, which put a stop to the continuous pain surging through her, though it didn't mean she was feeling fine, as she was still feeling it, and she needed to catch her breath. though she did move to the side to avoid getting hit by something. What came to Sombra's aura, Flint had not ability to feel it, and Una, whiles he could sense it, didn't really comprehend it at the moment, partly because she wasn't in the right headspace, but also because it wasn't the only thing, Flint's aura had also gotten lot stronger, and it felt different to her usual weird aura, it was oddly similar to Sombra's normal aura, just more...ancient.

"You don't get it..." Jenna said, again shaking her head "My, Our, ideal place of comfort....is a damp, cold, dark cave." "I'm not trying to be tough...I mean it when I say that...I physically don't need shelter." "I'm probably going to sleep...in the water anyway." "You in other hand...can get sick, or even die...if you get too cold, or wet, or even hot."

"I think it's bit too late for that." Jenna stated in somber manner "Even if we did go back, I don't think this can be just forgotten about." "Really, even if we manage to put stop to this somehow, this won't be forgotten for a long while."

@Props Valroa Seeing Opaline check the snakes out, Cinder remarked "That's what I meant when I said that I go to the dead-land to get away from snakes." "The things seem to follow me everywhere, except there." The snake around her shoulders shifted positions, bothered by Cinder's constant change of direction while she flew around the Alicorns. Her comments naturally got Noctuna to also look at the snakes, this explained the movement in the shadows under the plant life on the fields, though why they were following this creature was its on mystery, which, by how Cinder said it, was most likely a mystery to her too. Noctuna held her head high as they walked, she wasn't really worried about trying to blend in, in fact, she had already come up with a fake story to explain herself, she came from the west, outside Equestria, and was simply travelling around, she had no connection to the Equestrian unicorns, and so on so forth. And really, none of that was really a lie, the closest thing to a lie in the story she came up with, was leaving out the fact that she came from another world. At this point they would start seeing the first ponies around, none of them close enough to hear anything they said, but as they entered the area where the fields surrounded the city, they would be able to see earth ponies working on said fields, using relatively simple machines to do so, machines that to Noctuna, looked ancient in technology, answering a question she had about this world, though those ponies didn't acknowledge the three other than giving them suspicious looks, as they were busy with the machines. One detail that may have been noteworthy to Opaline, but didn't mean much to Noctuna because she wasn't really used to the whole day and night cycle, was the fact that the ponies were working at night.

@Props Valroa Una, as usual, nodded, and for ideas, she didn't have any at the moment, and mentioned as much, but also stated that the only thing currently was that they should use what they have access to, so if, when, they got their hooves on the elements, they should probably see if Lunar can tell them something before doing anything drastic with them. Train catching wouldn't go quite as planned this time though, because certain somebody would interrupt them on a quiet spot in their way to the railyard, though this time she seemed lot less amused, and lot more...sinister, not that they had much time to see her face. As out of nowhere, Flint dropped from above, landing directly on Una, with enough force to knock the air out of her. Blue magic burned in her eyes, in the same way dark magic flowed out of one's eyes, and the symbols in her hands were glowing red. As she landed on poor Una, she grabbed her middle horn with one hand, while holding some kind of amulet on the other, though other than that and the glowing magic, it wasn't clear what exactly she was doing. Una meanwhile, besides gasping for air from having had air hit out of her, tried to struggle to best of her ability, but Flint had a good hold on her, and it didn't help that she could barely breath, and there was intense pain similar to what she had gone through with the helmet, which actively hindered her from even trying to use magic to free herself, not that she could have done much anyway, since she was yet to learn any actually powerful spells. After Flint got her position in order after landing, she moved her amulet-hand to also press it against Una, which spread the pain beyond the area around Una's horn, and she spoke quietly something to Una's ear, though due to her current state, Una didn't really catch all of it. This all happened in matter of second or two, so there was no real chance to stop it from happening.