Catpone Cerberus

@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." 

20 hours ago, Steve Piranha said:

Close encounter with divine dragon poneh 

That mouth bothers me  the AI-"realistic" style in general is....off-putting to me 
I would scream  

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. 

@Blitz Boom
"No need to worry, my schedule is notably more flexible than an average guard." Solar stated in friendly manner "Besides, It's nice to have a little break, haven't had many of those lately." granted, he was technically still working since he analyzed the video while waiting, but it was closest thing to not working he knew. He noted the temperature once again, but he wasn't overly curious about it, as to him at least, in a place like this, someone called Magma being bit warmer only made sense, the main reason he made mental notes of it, was to pull connection between her and the marks at the station. "And please, no need to be so official, we are all equals here." He took a sip of his coffee.

He waited patiently for her to write, drinking his coffee, as he didn't want to break her thoughts, but when she seemed to be closing to ready, he spoke once more "I know you haven't questioned me about it, but I feel you should know why we are here." "My interest to this is not only because of the obvious..." he was referring to his metallic appearance "...but also because of my limited knowledge on the local technology." "My modifications are...unique, and cannot be recreated at the current time, so I'm looking into alternatives."  

-------------

And so the trio went, where would they go? would they be back? only they knew.

--------------

Ruby didn't change directions after hearing the leader's voice, after all, she was purposely seeking out the room they most likely were in, though seeing the halls otherwise empty was bit worrisome, as silence was rarely a good thing. Any weird noises she didn't worry about too much, as she assumed it was just the temple moving like it had seemingly done earlier, not a good thing sure, but also nothing she could do anything about. 

She also wasn't on the most thoughtful mood at the moment, she was tired and frustrated,  and she was feeling quite unwell in ways she didn't understand, so her patience was thin, and she just wanted to hurry things along, be it death or freedom that waited in the end. This impatience also showed when she found the deer standing in her way, as after halting for a moment, she walked towards it, looking into its eyes as she did, she wasn't scared, and she was too tired to hold to any kind of act with these things "Whatever you're planning changes nothing, what I said is the truth." "If your corpse-master wants to not be bothered, there's a very simple solution to that." "So can we get this over with" she didn't stop, attempting to just walk past the deer, she didn't actually think it would work, but she didn't really care, she couldn't fight them, she couldn't leave, though even if she could have, she wasn't going to without Leviathan, and she had no patience to just wait, so she would do her best to at least annoy them if they didn't hurry things along.

She also didn't really care what happened to her, her own life didn't hold that much worth to her, sure she had the survival instinct, but life in general was worthless to her, her or anyone else's, though maybe even more than that, she didn't want to survive this if she would be the only survivor, she may have still been unsure if she actually cared about the two others, but she recognized that losing them would once again push her back to the bottom, and frankly, her tolerance for that was running out, if her potential happiness would yet again be taken away from her, she'd probably stop trying. 

And honestly, in her current mental state, she rather go through whatever torture these things were planning, than be trapped in an empty room with only her own thoughts.

------------
There was nothing else for Bubble, as Chega thanked the pony and proceeded to pour some water to one of the cups, then physically taking Sheska's hand and moving it on the cup, telling her to drink, in kobold language of course. Sheska may have been the medical expert, But Chega wasn't entirely helpless either, especially not when it was someone she had, kinda, known for her whole life, this Sheska may have a different past, but she shared the things with her Sheska that made Sheska Sheska, so Chega knew what to do when her friend needed some emotional support.

Sear just watched the situation unfold, she wasn't that good with the emotional stuff, so she didn't know what to do or say here, and instead she watched her partner take care of the other kobold, the caring nature of Chega was part of what she loved in her, under the cheerful and humorous layer of the bard, there was almost motherly figure who worried for her friends and loved ones.

Jenna shook her head "I'm practically immune...to the elements." "I can lay in dirty, ice cold water...and barely feel it in...extra sensitive burn wounds." she pointed at Oliver "You however... with your squishy thin skin...and ineffective body heat, are very sensitive to temperature." she brought her head closer as she looked him in the eyes "If your clothes get wet, you'll die." this was maybe bit direct, but as much as she tried to not seem bossy, in some things she needed to be bit more direct. She brought her head back up "I appreciate your worry...but you need to take care...of yourself too." "If you don't worry about yourself...you won't be in the shape to help me." 

"Exactly my point" Jenna stated "They clearly wanted us to know that something will happen, but at the same time they didn't tell what would happen, or what they wanted us to do about it." "They sent this same incomplete information to, as far as we know, all people with powers, yet didn't specify anything." "Someone clearly knew what was coming, since the military knew to prepare, even if their preparations weren't enough." "So why to see the effort to send letters to thousands of people all around the globe, if you are going to make them vague enough to seem like a scam?" 

@Props Valroa
Opaline wasn't alone with her weird experience of time, Noctuna also had experienced something similar, she knew that her casting the banishment spell wasn't a long time ago, since she was still tired from the battle and stuff, which meant that all that happened as little time ago as she thought, few hours ago at this point, however, to say her arrival here felt instant would have been a lie, as she felt like she been somewhere else for both a short instant, and for a long eternity. She however didn't ponder it a lot, as she just assumed it was whatever existed between worlds, something that while she didn't know much about it, she had heard the concept of, due to her studies to creatures like the draconequus so long time ago, as it was stated that more powerful of their kind lived in pockets outside reality.

Noctuna also landed, but Cinder didn't, she did come down with the alicorns, but she flew above and around the two, close to the ground, as it was just simply more enjoyable to her. Now that they were on the ground, they may or may not hear and see things, more specifically, grass, flowers and other small plants moving slightly, and the faint sound of slithering, these things were very faint, so one would need to pay attention to notice them, but if one was to notice, and check on the source, they would find...snakes, by all means regular snakes, but very non-regular amounts of them.

Noctuna didn't notice it at least yet, as she was busy disguising herself, after she landed, she lit her horn, and formed a black cape around herself, which in very close look wasn't actually made of cloth, as it wasn't even physical if touched, rather it was just a very dark shadow that looked like a cape, and hid her body under it. Her horn also changed, hiding its metallic nature, and turning to look like just a normal horn, be it longer than an average unicorn horn. 

She however kept the crown, as there was no real point of hiding it, she could just claim it was an over the top tiara, and besides, it was most likely less attention grabbing than her constantly flowing mane and tail with the night sky in them. 

@Props Valroa
"I have a feeling that information like that will be well protected." Una concluded, though she also had a feeling that it wasn't that simple, sure she knew nothing about the elements, but to her something called the elements of...anything really, that seemingly are magically very significant, were unlikely to be something you could just break, if nothing else, they would probably be destined to form again if destroyed. 

But then again, it really wasn't her concern, Sombra was the one worried about them, and would be the one needing to deal with them, she...well, she wasn't naive, she knew she was probably as much of a target for them at this point, but she wasn't as worried, since unlike Sombra, she wouldn't survive as a tiny piece, and death didn't really scare her, after all, her 'life' wasn't exactly the desirable kind. 

 

@Blitz Boom
Solar agreed, and would also of course introduce himself, though he didn't mention his unit or such this time, as this was less official introduction and more personal one, and his introduction was more along the lines of 'A royal guard and a painter.' though Magma probably could tell that he wasn't just a average guard, not only because of the more obvious parts, but also because his armor didn't match any other guard armor exactly. 

He noted things like the higher than usual body temperature, making a mental note about it among information Magma mentioned. 

As he was done with his duties, which had taken bit less than half an hour, Solar headed towards the mentioned cafe, he hadn't been there before, nor had he really studied the cities yet, but he followed the directions given to him. When he arrived, he'd scan the place for Magma in case she had overestimated the time she'd take, and if not there, he'd then order a normal coffee for himself and get to a easy to spot table to wait for Magma, while going through the elite's recording again in his head, trying to get any sense of what triggered the events he saw.

------- 

 "Your observations are not inaccurate." Myrkr stated "She is not the most patient of us three, yet, she is probably the most justified in her anger." Myrkr got up "None of us are heroes, just different flavors of monsters, we fight not for better tomorrow, but for tomorrow without us." "We are monsters, created by our past, our crimes will never be undone, but we can make sure that those who created us will never rise here." 

As he started walking towards his companions, he waved his hand as goodbye "I wish you a happy life young one, may your hunt for knowledge bring great harvest, may darkness never reach your soul." "We may meet again, or may not, but let's hope it's in good circumstances." "Take care" he walked relatively slow, so there was still a chance to say or ask something, but if not, he'd eventually make it to the two others, and there was no words exchanged, no gestures shown, the two others just started walking, and so the three walked away. 

------

As to be expected, Charir had no real reaction to Spicy's words, and there wasn't much room for his usual curiosity to take over, so he stayed in place while Spicy did her thing. He had no interest in going back in, and while he was indeed worried about the others, it really only made things worse, as he blamed himself for it, his uselessness, how come it was him who made it out? he had only ever needed help, he hadn't been able to defend his own territory, he had fled his home only to be rescued from drowning by Ruby, and now Ruby and Leviathan were fighting while he fled like the coward he was. What a poor excuse for a dragon.

Ruby would pace around for several minutes, few tens of minutes at least, she tried to clear her head to think, but for no avail, she kept making noises of frustration, she didn't know whatever she was feeling, only that it felt like she needed more air, and that she wanted it to stop. Before she had assumed it was caused by the limitations of the pony form, but she didn't think it was the case anymore, as she didn't feel the need to transform as strongly anymore, she did still want to shed this form of course, but the discomfort was stronger than that feeling.

If nothing happened during these tens of minutes, she'd finally decide to get out of the cage, but not by using the hinges, as she wasn't on observant enough mindset to really even consider it at the moment, rather she was going for more magical solution. She cast a sealing spell on the lock of the cage, now that may seem counterproductive at first, but like Ruby had warned Marley and Spicy when she had done the spell on her treasure in Spicy's vault, they can be unstable, and this time, she made the spell purposely unstable. 

So assuming the lack of active anti-magical features around, she cast a spell, and then kicked the door, which caused the spell to lose its stability and explode in magical blast strong enough to shatter the lock. If this worked, she'd head towards the room where the main mummy had risen, since it had an altar and the mummy had mentioned preparing it; she wasn't going to leave leviathan behind like a coward. Any spears she ignored, not because she thought about the potential danger touching it, but more because she had no clue how she could use them properly in this form, and they would be more a hindrance for her than anything, besides, what exactly would she do with them, stab a skeleton?

If it didn't work. she'd stay in the cage, getting even more restless and uncomfortable, as she failed to notice the situation with the hinges.

------

 "I didn't think you implied anything." Sheska stated "I just answered the question honestly." her tone wasn't exactly friendly, but she wasn't hostile either, she was just in a bad mood and didn't bother hiding it "Lot has happened in my relatively short life, yet seeing my brother break is what has finally done it." "The easy escape has never felt more appealing." Sheska didn't ask for anything, but Chega did quietly speak "Could you bring her some cold water."  

"Then why tell us?" Jenna asked "That's why it bothers me so much, they told us that something was coming, so they wanted us to see it, but they did not tell anything about what it would be, or how to stop any of it." "They kinda just assumed that curiosity would take over, as it did, not only for us, but others like us too." 

"Time is not on our side." Jenna stated, getting on her feet "But enough of...that." "You." "Need a shelter." "We'll be here...for a while." "Do you know...how to make one?" they didn't have tents with them, so they would need to make a shelter for Oliver.  

@Props Valroa
After some moments, and after there not being any questions or such for a while, the mayor left to figure out the mess that was the town hall.

Una was bit less concerned on if Flint had been here, and more why, nothing obvious was missing, the mayor hadn't at least mentioned anything being missing, and nothing was on fire, so what exactly had she done here? Sneaking around doing things secretly didn't really fit Flints brand as far as Una could read her. There wasn't really ash anywhere else either, at least not in noticeable amounts, so there was no real way to see where she had been, besides this specific point. She just felt uneasy about someone like that deciding to try to be sneaky.

"Do you have a plan on how to destroy them?" Una asked "If they are capable of taking you down, how do you know you can destroy them?" "Or are you planning to use Lunar to destroy them?"

 

@Props Valroa

"If the so called 'unity' magic is powerful enough to take away alicorn's magic, who is to say it's not powerful enough to make a bigger portal." "I imagine it works like teleportation, leaving the first location is what takes most of the magic, it's not like you get stuck in some in-between existence if your magic gets nullified in middle of a teleport, you just reappear in different place, sometimes where you tried to leave." "So maybe your enemies wanted to make sure you were gone, so they banished you and your castle." 

Cinder chuckled to herself after Opaline's plan "There won't be 'natural state'." "For someone who seems to want division between ponies, you really don't seem to grasp what it means." "You won't be welcomed as a friend, none of us will, since I'm as much of an outsider as you." "You will be suspicious stranger who needs to be watched over for the whole time." "As little disturbance as possible? we are the disturbance." "They most likely won't stop you from accessing public places like the aforementioned libraries and museums until you do something stupid, but prepare for not having any privacy as long as you are inside their city." 

Noctuna cut in "We should probably land and walk the rest of the way, I imagine hiding our wings wouldn't do much if they can see us flying." 
 

@Blitz Boom

Solar made a note of everything he heard, but while things like skeletons and exploding insects were unusual, they weren't other-worldly level of unusual, this world had plenty of oddities of its own, in fact, it was the less odd he was more concerned with, since in his world order had won, and all the weirder stuff was either eliminated or went hiding. The threats coming from his home were not weird fauna or tree creatures, but dragons, ponies and other normal creatures with the will and capability to destroy.  But he still kept things in mind, because while it wasn't really under his responsibilities, if he happened to be around when something happened, he'd take care of it until told otherwise by the ones in command. 

And some stories were more believable than others, cryptids usually had some truth behind them, though it was often lot more boring than the stories, and something like moving statues was very much possible, Solar had seen enough golems, cursed armors and other such stuff to not even question something like that.

Solar avoided the impact with the stranger thanks to the combination of inbuilt systems and his generally good reflexes, he also opened the door with magic, so there was slightly bigger cap than there would have been if he would have used a hoof or a wing. He scanned the unicorn with his eyes, but that was just normal practice for him, he did pick up on the glasses, though not to the extend that they were just windows glass, rather, he concluded that they were either that or just a weak prescription, since they didn't bend the position of her eyes. He also noticed the horn, and almost wanted to recommend somebody to help with it, but then he remembered where he was, this world hadn't gotten that far yet, you couldn't just fix a horn like that, you couldn't just put a horn on a pegasus and call it a day, like had done to him. 

"No need to apologize, can't blame you for not seeing through a door, and I'm used to being stared at." He responded in friendly manner, though something peeked his interest "Though, if you are not busy, I'd be curious to hear more about these sketches, would you be up for coffee or something in...half an hour or so?" it was certainly something to ask a stranger for a coffee after almost crashing into her at the door of a morgue, but he preferred to be direct, and he wanted to communicate that it was not a guard demanding information, but rather a fellow stranger that was just curious.  

Depending on the answer, he'd speak again, if his suggestion was accepted, he'd say something along the lines of 'see you then', if not, then he'd say he understands. For any questions he'd answer, if asked his motives, he'd state that he was interested in learning everything he can about the local knowledge on body modification, for obvious reasons, and if necessary, would specify that it was not him asking her for a date, nor him as a guard telling her to do anything, but rather just a hope for friendly conversation.  The reason for the half an hour delay was him having duties inside to take care of first. 

And of course if the mare was busy but suggested a different time and/or place, he would agree.

Regardless of what the answer was, he'd then go inside to do his job.

He was brought to the body, and given pictures from the location it had been found in, as the location had been such that they were forced to clean it up before he got there. It was a stallion, and 'mauled by an animal' was a good way to describe his shape, though this was not a case of feeding, as nothing was missing per say, he had just been ripped apart an unusual amount. The pictures and the report told that the pony had been found from the water, surrounded by seemingly random things one would find from a room; Solar asked them to send whatever was fished up to Canterlot. 

What remained of the stallions clothing, was decorated and high in quality, giving proof to Solar's theory of him being a city elite, however, since he couldn't recognize him, Solar assumed that the pony was from the Night-Realm. After getting everything he could get without touching the pony, he took a closer look to find any potential tech that could give useful information, and it turned out there was exactly what he needed, this pony, like many of the elites in his world, had a small camera implanted into their heads for security reasons, but since they were vain snobs, any such modification had to be as unnoticeable as possible. 

Solar dug the camera out, and connected it to himself to get any data it may have recorded, and what he saw both answered what happened to the pony, but also rose more questions. He then gave the permission to dispose of the body as was seen fit, and left. Curious case this one, it didn't provide anything to help him with his duties, but it did provide information none the less, and he'd need to analyze this one a bit. 

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"Nothing I've said is private, so go ahead and talk about it." Myrkr stated "Anything that should be unsaid, has not been said." "And you are partly right when it comes to my companions, it is not that you shouldn't ask, but rather, I should not speak for them, as their stories are their own."  "However, I can say that they are quite unlike me, in fact, they are exactly like those I used to go after." "A dragon who through violence and greed gained all that dragon could want, riches, power and respect, a tool of injustice, however, once the power she held was used against her, she chose the route of betterment." "And a kobold who is the definition of the aforementioned saying, she fought monsters only to become one herself,  rejected by those she fought for, we try to help her to redirect that anger." 

"What comes to our means, is better left unsaid, as we field advantages better kept hidden." "And while I appreciate the offer, the princesses are no use for us, as our mission is bigger than them, bigger than Equestria, and it is more likely that they will be the ones asking for us." "Besides, there's already someone fulfilling our mission among the pony kind, a pony who's devotion to his duty is comparable to mine." he chuckled "I also have a feeling that the princess wouldn't be too happy seeing certain one of us, like I said, my companions have had a bad day." he took his sword and put it back under his robes, giving Nerzhei another possible glance at his armor, though there was nothing new to learn from it "And thanks for the warning, we wouldn't want to disturb anyone." he wasn't in a hurry, so he waited patiently still sitting down in case there was more questions. 

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Charir didn't need to worry about his wings, as they were clued to his sides due to speed being his main goal, and keeping them even slightly open added notable amount of drag, though it also meant that he didn't have a chance to as much as try to slow down before running into Spicy. Luckily though, since he was smaller than a pony, he was around the same mass as Spicy, thus Spicy was spared from being run over.

At first he reacted by pulling away and getting his balance as quickly as possible, clearly ready to attack if need to be, however, the hit knocked enough sense to him to realize where he was, and who was in front of him, he didn't necessarily right away recognize Spicy as Spicy, but he did recognize that she wasn't a skeleton, and that got her to calm down enough to use her sense over his instinct.

First he started to just talk,but obviously Spicy had no way of understanding what he was on about, so as his wits came back slowly but surely, he started saying in very thick Dragon-accent "Dangggerrr." with every repeat sounding more like the word he was trying to say, that being 'Danger', and as he repeated it, he drew a rough drawing of the priestess capturing Ruby and Leviathan with tendrils coming from the staff; It may have not been fully accurate drawing on the details, but it got the message across hopefully.   

While he was more in his senses now, the panic was still clearly visible on Charir, and he kept looking towards the temple, and even seemingly jumping at any shadow that seemed darker than usual. And when he was done with the drawing, he ran to the wagon and hid behind it, rolling into a ball there. With the blind fear giving way to sense, it brought other emotions, as the possibility that Charir had once again lost everything crept in, and once again he had been unable to do anything. 

Ruby took deep breaths, she could sense that Charir had made it outside somehow, good, that was one thing less to worry about, she looked around her, a regular looking cage, with a lock, and there didn't at least seem to be any of that magic inhibiting smoke around, good, it meant that she would be able to use one of the few spells she knew to get out if necessary, again, transforming wasn't the first priority, it was the last option, especially now that there was a potential way out, transforming would only escalate things, and that assuming it even helped...though, she couldn't lie that she was very tempted to do so right away, as it was getting seriously unpleasant, even painful, to stay in this form...she knew what would be the first thing she'd do when and if she got out of this place, she didn't care if Spicy or someone else would be there to see, this feeling really wasn't worth the act. 

Ruby wasn't too worried about Leviathan yet, as she had a reason to believe she was fine...or well, not necessarily fine, but alive, why? because it very much sounded like they were planning to use her to make Ruby talk, now, it wouldn't work even if she would have been lying, as even with the newfound worry towards the two dragons, Ruby still lacked the necessary emotions for torture like that to be effective on her, but the undead didn't know that, so they were unlikely to kill her without Ruby being there.

She laid down, not much to do now than wait for now, so may as well take the chance to rest her legs, she'd need the stamina if something went wrong. She didn't stay put for a long though, as frustrated cry escaped her, and she got back on her hooves, pacing as much as the cage allowed, she couldn't rest, she felt like she was suffocating, she didn't understand what was wrong with her, she had never felt like this before, this indescribable discomfort, it made it hard to think. 

-------------------

 Sheska glanced up enough to see who was talking, since she didn't recognize the voice, Chega meanwhile provided the physical contact, as she did various comforting things, knowing the reasons behind this, and thus not having reason to say anything. "I haven't been aright ever since our parents woke us up and told us to run." she muttered, before rising her head on her hands, the frustration visible in her demeanor, if she would have had hair, she would have probably been ripping at it "I've seen lot of things during my life, I've had kobolds die in my arms more often than I can count, I had to stitch up my brother after he lost half of his limbs." "I've been through literal torture which I'm reminded of every time I see myself in the mirror." she looked at Bubble Tea "And not once have I drank to cope,  not once have I felt the need to sink my sorrows into a glass." her hands pulled into fists and she looked back towards the table "Yet." "I've never felt stronger urge to just knock myself out for good than I do now." 

Sear made her way back to the table too during this, though she stayed out of the situation as from the two Chega was the one better with these things. Chega said something quietly to Sheska, but it caused no further action from either kobold. 

@Props Valroa
"I am not an expert on travel between worlds, as in, I know nothing of it." "However, considering that my transport was done through an ancient spell created by someone, my fate is anything but random." "I doubt the creator had an exact location in mind, but portals always have two ends, so maybe this world was just the most fit for the portal." "Our exact location of arrival is more easy to explain though, that area has disturbingly low level of magic, and like a hole attracts water, magic flows to where it is the weakest, and I imagine that portals to other worlds have lot of magic." Noctuna let out a sigh and looked at Cinder "You don't happen to know any Draconequus do you Cinder?" "Know any what?" "Thought so, one of those could have been good for asking about these things." 

Cinder had no input for the topic, as she didn't know much about that stuff either, only knowing that it was possible, and having a general idea of how the concept worked.

"And now that it was mentioned, how do their history keeping work? if they are more individual groups rather than a nation, is there any common history records?" Cinder shrugged "Don't know, haven't cared to look into it, but they do have libraries and museums in the larger settlements." 

In the distance a city was starting to get into a view, it was on a small city, but city nonetheless, with smoke rising to the sky from various chimneys and with farms and fields surrounding it as far as eye could see. "Welcome to the Earth pony-land, the most nature tuned type of ponies, yet they care about it the least."