Catpone Cerberus

@Illiad Easle Ædriga nodded and thanked Spike for the bag, but other than that she didn't have many reactions, partly because she didn't understand everything, and partly because she still didn't like being inside alone. She looked curiously at the ponies around Ætheron when she got outside, being bit wary until they started to leave. "Yes, and yes, Spike..?" she wasn't fully sure if that was the name, she just remembered it was someone's name they met before, and Spike she had seen before "...say that there cave no far, 'tall mountain'." she said 'tall mountain' in a different way to everything else, this was because she wasn't sure what exactly it meant, and she was just directly quoting what she had heard "many other caves?" "And ponies friends?" it was two very different questions, but she didn't know when else to ask them. She didn't necessarily want a big cave, since smaller ones were easier to defend due to bigger dragons not fitting in, but she was still interested in seeing it, maybe she could modify it a bit.

@Lucid_Nightlight "I have been alone most of my life and I have managed just fine." Ruby pointed out, 'who will help you' wasn't really a good argument against someone who already believes it's everyone for themselves "And this is nothing to do with my trust, if I didn't trust you, I would have left you in that arena." "No, the question is, why you don't trust me, every time I try to do something, it's you who comes in my way, it's you spewing mantras about friendship, you who chooses a soulless clone over listening what I have to say, you who conspires with those who tossed me away the moment I stopped bowing to them." "You claim to care about me, to want to be with me, yet you do everything in your power to get in my way, to try to prove how I'm wrong every time." "You don't care about me, you care about the ideal of me, the fictional version of me you wish I were." "And it's laughable you think this is about the mission anymore, I have failed already thanks to you, and I'll remember it when Gladia decides on the punishment." "No, there's a reason why I requested to get a killing mission, I want blood, and I'll get my blood, I don't care if I have to fly back to Equestria to get it. If you want to protect your dear Mira, you better help me to get my slaughter." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ember congratulated Myra, but that was about the extend of niceness that came out of her, as what was said quickly changed her mood "Not only is sending individuals you know don't come along to a fight a bad way to try and get them like each other, as it many times may leads to only one returning." "But respect is also not something to be forced, it is something to be earned, and the constant attempt to make it otherwise is exactly the problem, instead of agreeing to disagree, you are trying to get me accept the ways of warmongering world and to happily take any kind of treatment I get from its troops of death and destruction." "I have already agreed to put the differences aside for common goal, why is that not enough for you?"

@Califorum Frail still kept the cup in her magic just in case Sparkly's hooves slipped. "Sorry but no snuggles, you're not there yet." Frail said, her tone was softer than it had been before, and more importantly, less irritated "You looking like a princess does nothing to help, it may actually do the opposite to certain extend, because the appearance and personality don't match if you get what I mean." she had never seen any of the princesses in...that way, they were her rulers and that was about it, so there wasn't any gain from looking like one of them when it came to her interest, and with Sparkly acting different to how she would imagine a princess to act, it was bit uncanny actually. "But we can hug after we are done with the tea." she said with a kind smile before taking another sip. "What comes to magic, I'm not really teacher material, but I'll get you books on magic and try to help get you started, for your appearance, we could get you a new mane-style, it would probably be good to color your mane and tail into different colors too." "For rest the best option is probably to get you clothes to hide the cutiemark and your wings, then if you learn magic well, you could eventually start looking into illusion magic so that you can create yourself a new look with that." she didn't really know much about illusion magic, but she knew somepony who was very skilled in it and thus knew there was potential.

"But they are not rare, they are just marketed as such." Jenna stated "Few companies took ownership of the mines to monopolize the business and then limited the supply to make them seem rarer, under Talon's control of course." "And the hardness doesn't really matter on jewelry, you won't be drilling any stone with your wedding ring will you?" she let out a sigh "Humans are so easily controlled, you pay millions for ugly worthless things as long as you think it's rare." she shrugged and continued walking, the jewelry store had nothing she liked, "But then again, that's how money in general works too, its worth comes from its limited supply, so I'm not really surprised."

"Did they now? we saw them do one thing and it barely slowed them down." Jenna pointed out "And yes, the sender probably has an idea, but we don't know who or where they are." she sat down and started interacting with the radio, listening if there was anything to hear

@Blitz Boom "Don't let it go to your head too much." Ruby replied, that being the only thing she said before Marley went to clean his mess, though she too secretly enjoyed the paranoia Leviathan was causing for the feathered bodyguard. "Yes, he is entertaining company, though if it's a compliment towards him or just a showcase of how boring most creatures here are, I'm not sure." it arguably helped that he knew the truth, as that allowed more direct 'pokes' in both directions. "I'm not hungry myself." she then asked something from Charir, to which she got a short answer "But we could go and see if the kitchen has any meat, Charir can use any food he can get." Being so young, he used lot of energy for someone of his size, but couldn't really store much for later use since he could only eat so much at once. The whole magic thing didn't help either, because while it didn't seem to tire him in the same way it did for Leviathan, it still took energy to do. "I have been wondering something, do you have a home?" Ruby suddenly asked "You are adamant about following me everywhere, yet you do hoard things, and while I'm not stupid enough to ask a dragon where they are hiding their hoard, you're certainly not carrying it with you." "And with how old you are, I find it unlikely that you don't have a sizable hoard, even if your collection is...of distinct taste." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "While the last suggestion is the most tempting, I acknowledge the need for interaction if I wish to learn, so talking with someone may be the best course of action." Scarecrow said after a moment of silent thinking "Though your assistance is required to start that conversation, as I do not know how I would approach someone with such intend, nor do I know what may or may not be acceptable topic to start with." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "While we appreciate all the suggestions, currently the plan is to see what kind of place we find ourselves in and if it's worth of adapting to it." Trox stated, looking around now that the makeshift shadow made opening one's eyes possible "Who knows, maybe we'll return underground to live like our ancestors did." "And while a dip in a cool water sounds great, I'd say it's better not do that for now, as it is important to learn how prolonged heat affects us, and with our kind being unknown to most here, the only way is to use ourselves as test subjects." it was partly because a comfort being so easy made them bit uneasy, when you were used to barely surviving, easy anything felt like something was wrong. "For materials, while that too can wait until we get some kind of grasp on where we are, there isn't any specific thing I want to make that needs specific things, and rather, I'd like to see what there is available so that I know what can be made." "I think the first thing would be to get a map, I at least am curious to know where we are in relation to what we know." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- @Widdershins "Nah, I'm not princess Sparkly-butt, besides, it's beyond redemption, it's trying to hit me, someone who doesn't like cats clearly has no hope for any kind of redemption." Cerberus stated "I could always just leave it here and head to town, certainly the rainbow beam of friendship would deal with it if it followed me." he again fixed his glasses as they moved when he dodged "Honestly I'm not really a fighter, I'm somepony who gives others information and free stuff, I'm more of a side character." "I guess I can try to find a river and see if it does anything, water beats rock and dirt....eventually." and so he would do, making his way away from the golem-thing in search for rivers.

@Illiad Easle Ædriga again took a moment to assimilate everything that was said, her capability to understand wasn't yet quick enough to keep up with Spike as he spoke, though eventually she comprehended most of what was said, besides of course the words she didn't know yet. It was slightly embarrassing to her to be so slow with it, but language wasn't one of her strong points, even her native language was bit lacking for her, because her kind didn't really talk that much, so while she learned words quickly, it always took a second to understand everything. When she eventually figured out what was said, her response was simple "No need more help."

@Califorum Frail let out a thoughtful hum "Yeah, I noticed the first thing about you." she agreed with Sparkly about the bad things, so she didn't keep the conversation on them "The way you looked at me didn't go unnoticed, even if it may have seemed like it." "I didn't point it out for various reasons." she went out of sight again and soon came back with two cups of vanilla tea, levitating the other one to Sparkly, holding it so that she could drink from it, it wasn't too hot, having had time to cool a moment. When Frail took a sip of her own tea, her mind relaxed a bit, and with every sip it relaxed bit more, though she wouldn't go in full state of comfort, as the situation was so unusual that she had lot to think about.

@Califorum "As I told you earlier, nopony will cut anypony apart for science, you also aren't special in any way when it comes to you physically, so even if there was somepony who is messed up in the head, they would have no reason for such." Frail reminded "Your world may be filled with messed up creatures, but here it is a very small minority, and the chances for you to meet any of them is tiny." Frail didn't see Sparkly as anything special looks wise, partly because she was surrounded by conventionally attractive ponies very often, and partly because she didn't pay attention to such things, she if somepony knew that good looks didn't mean a pleasant company. "There isn't really anything specific that I want to ask, I want to know what you're like to be around, and no question will give a straight answer to that." the only way was to wait for Sparkly to get comfortable enough to drop the act that may or may not be there, Frail had no way to know if there was one. "I got one, what thing or things about yourself are such that you feel somepony, in this case me, would have hardest time accepting or tolerating?" hopefully Sparkly didn't expect Frail to do anything about the hoof she reached out as she was far enough in distance that Frail didn't really know what she was expected to do, thus she did nothing.

@Illiad Easle Ædriga nodded and said "Ætheron" when Spike asked about the two books Ditzy had, she didn't have her own bag to keep stuff in so technically speaking she didn't have anything, and instead Ætheron had everything. She thanked Spike when he brought the books, but said nothing else about them. It took a second for Ædriga to respond to Spike's last question, partly due to her needing to think a moment to figure out what exactly was asked, and partly because it took her bit by surprise as it had nothing to do with books. "Yes but more big and more evil."

@Califorum "Well, based on your taste, you probably need to do most of your eating in restaurants and such here, I'm not a good cook and usually just eat what's easy and quick, or plain plants as one could call them, though if you also eat fruits, I can get those, assuming you're pony from inside too, you should get by just fine with that." Frail informed "And I wouldn't say eating meat is immoral, disgusting maybe, and as a vegetarian species I wouldn't touch it, but carnivores aren't all evil." she said as she again went out of sight to get cups for them "It sounds like you have lot of information about history and such, Twilight and some other ponies would most likely love to listen, or read all about it." she wasn't one of those ponies, but even if she didn't necessarily care to learn about it all, she did acknowledge that history of other worlds was interesting to those who liked that type of thing She came back to view, no longer using her magic, they would need to wait a minute or two for the tea to brew "Taxes aren't really a problem here, we do pay some but nothing happens if you don't pay them, we don't have a need to force everypony to pay for things." she didn't know anything about economy or such, she just knew that everything worked without her having to give pick part of her earnings away.

"Not against knifes." Jenna said with a smile, she stopped in front of a jewelry store, looking at the things on the window, lot of it was just rather boring, single colored single material things with colorless gem in them "I don't get diamonds, they aren't that rare and they aren't even good looking, colorless and boring, yet so expensive."

"Only if you assume they are like from movies." Jenna pointed out "That's why I said undead and not zombies, latter implies a certain expectations that aren't necessarily accurate." "The fact is that we don't know anything about these things." "That's partly why I wanted to stay back instead of rushing in, we don't know how to fight them."

@Illiad Easle Ædriga hesitated a bit but did go in, though she became visibly more wary when she did. She wasn't scared of Spike, a wingless dragon who was small even by her standards wasn't that threatening, but the situation as a whole was unpleasant, alone in an unfamiliar place with no obvious escape routes, it didn't help that Twilight's name was mentioned, Ætheron may have told her that she was not a bad pony, but in Ædriga's mind the first thought still was her literally melting a creature without warning. "Need learn words." she managed to answer with small delay to Spike's question, it was immediately bit harder to speak in that language now that part of her focus was stolen by her instincts, but she could manage, hopefully.

@Califorum Frail just listened as she took off the stuff from the cart after Sparkly had gotten off, speaking only after she had said everything "Well I'm glad you're glad." she put the cart into a storage room after it was empty "I have no idea what you're talking about half the time, but I actually prefer it that way, I don't need nightmares about things that will probably never have effect on my life." "Don't get me wrong, I do listen and I'm here if you need to get things off your chest, but don't expect any knowledgeable responses from me regarding it." she also wasn't trained to deal with such things, so the best she could offer as support was to be a listening ear. She put the bags of stuff behind a door that seemed to lead to a stairway, probably to the basement. She then went to the kitchen, being out of sight for a moment before coming back to the doorway, her horn glowing "I don't have any history of species or such to tell, though I must say that even animals at your home sound quite awful if you compare your original kind to them, we don't have any animals who would have the will to do such awful things, evil tends to come from those considered more than animals, though aren't we all just bunch of animals in the end." her horn 'stayed on' the whole time as she was heating up water as she spoke, using her magic of course "I can share my family history though, not that there's much to tell." "We weren't rich when I grew up, not that we were too poor either, we were quite average, we got by but didn't have too much to spend to useless stuff." "I don't have any siblings, so to certain extend I was spoiled, but my parents were big on being humble, and I'd say it was a lesson that stuck, even when I started gaining money through my work." she wasn't actually sure if all her friends even knew of her wealth, it had never came up and they had never seen her house. "Do you want tea?"

@Lucid_Nightlight "Prey always flees, that's the only thing they are good at, running away." Ruby coldly stated "And I find it surprising I need to tell you this again, a fight isn't over until one side is dead." "Also, very bold for you to assume you can stop me." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What's going on?" Ember asked, having not really paid enough attention to figure it out "I mean, I can stay behind since these raids aren't really my thing and the only thing that really matters to me is my original targets, but why? What's the situation?"

@Illiad Easle Ædriga waved to Ditzy when they went outside, the plans went bit over her head as there was many words she didn't understand and she didn't know anything about clocks, but she got the basic idea, thus not asking for more details. "Books." she didn't need a place to be before the moment she would be alone, she also guessed that wherever they would be getting the books, it wouldn't be available after certain point, mostly based on the various things relating to time she had heard, she may have not really known how hours worked, but it was clear that creatures here had schedules based on something. "Can take books and go cave, but no can take cave and go books."

It may be my brain as I have been bit slow today but what exactly is going on here? or is that the point? is Ember supposed to be confused at this point? edit- I'm gonna go with that, Ember's reaction wouldn't really change anyway regardless of if I can brain today or not.

@Califorum "It's not really a matter of believe." Frail stated "It's hard to not believe when you see it happening." "Honestly with all the reality breaking magic, alternate words, and beings from outside time and space, weaponized rainbows fueled by friendship isn't really that odd." when you dealt with ponies for a living, you learned lot of things, and if Frail knew anything, it was that, more ridiculous it sounded, more likely it was true. "Glad somepony can appreciate it, many ponies around here question my decision to make it so small." she said regarding Sparkly's praise of her house "I just don't feel the need to show off my wealth, besides, what does a lone mare do with a house that can house a town worth of ponies." "I don't know much about farms, I have visited the Apple farm few times but that's about it, though I can see the appeal of a old house." she pulled the cart inside and stopped, leaving it near the door. "And regarding the pony, I only know of him, don't know him personally." "I have seen him few times, he's a guard, most of his body is made of what I assume is metal." "The word goes that he comes from another Equestria where both of our ruling princesses became evil dictators and have been in a war for the last thousand years." "Like I said, depressing stuff." The house was quite nice from inside, from layout it wasn't anything too special, spacious and homely, and while the wealth of the owner was pretty clear from everything, it wasn't over the top, in fact, there were aspects that told about humbler background. It was a good middle ground, nothing standing out as something that exist only because it costs lot of money, very practical house. Biggest and probably the least surprising detail was that there was lot of decorations made of glass.

"Or they are just bit braver than we are." Jenna guessed, the battle was now so close at the wall that they couldn't actually see everything that was going on due to the location they were "Regardless how it is, there's no time for anyone to learn anything, now the question is if the wall stops these things."

"It would still add weight, and when you're already heavily armored, it would be rather pointless." Jenna explained "It would be like you putting on two t-shirts instead of one to protect yourself from getting stabbed."

@Blitz Boom "You are correct you wouldn't get the answer even if you asked, though the reason is bit different than you may think." Ruby stated, not explaining it any further than that, though it was a truthful statement, the reason why she didn't tell wasn't necessarily out of not wanting to tell, and rather it was because she didn't know what to tell, she didn't know yet for sure what it was exactly that was bothering her, that's why she needed a lone moment to think about it. "I can wait, your company would be greatly appreciated, you know the roads better, and more security is never a bad thing." that, and not having to pull the wagon herself of course. She proceeded to move her treasure out of the vault, slowly but surely, she was notably weaker in this form, but she was still in the stronger end when it came to ponies, part of the reason why she had chosen Earth pony when she had figured out the disguise, nobody questioned her greater than average strength since that wasn't unusual for earth ponies. She noticed Leviathan eyeing the items in the vault, but didn't pay any attention to it, as long as she didn't cause trouble for her, she didn't care. Charir was looking at the treasures of the vault with amazement, he had never seen this much clean treasure in one place, but he didn't try to take anything as it frightened him a bit too, too much of a good thing if you will, he had also learned to connect lot of treasure to big dragons, and while he knew there wasn't any, he couldn't help but try to not anger the non-existent dragon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scarecrow didn't say anything, just thinking about what had been said, he knew that nature was complicated, as was life in general, he just shared his thoughts he had been unable to share with anyone before this, there's lot going in one's head when you look things from outside in, and many of his wonders about life and nature ultimately came back to his own existence. He watched as the group played with the ball, he didn't think about the dangers of this town, he understood their seeming disregard about it, after all, he if anyone knew about taking what you were given, it served nopony to worry about the dangers all the time. "Such simple joy, it's pleasant to look at." he almost envied the ponies for that, how easy it was for them to entertain themselves and get so into it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 'In a forest' didn't give any information to the siblings, considering that half of their Equestria was covered in forest, and the other half was desert. But they didn't point it out, partly because the question wasn't really where and what a desert was, and rather what it was like to exist there. Sheska examined her scales closely while Trox spoke "We are aware of the concept of day and night, even if we never experienced it, but where we come from, while we lived in darkness, the Solar Empire is under constant sunlight, Sheska's comment was more related to that rather than this place." "And thank you for the shadow, I'll have to see if I can build us something more permanent at some point." at this point Sheska would cut in "With quick examination I have determined that this is not dangerous, I don't know what exactly is happening, as we haven't dealt with the sun before, but it seems to be only on the surface of our scales." "So while external moisture would certainly make things momentarily more comfortable, there shouldn't be anything to worry about, at worst we need to shed bit more often."

@Califorum "That's...depressing." Frail said, there wasn't really much else what she could say, even if lot of it wouldn't have been things she didn't know anything about "I don't know much about the world outside Equestria, and even Equestrian matters have been getting bit complicated, but as far as I know, there's no wars going on." "Things tend to get dealt with through friendship and magical rainbows, I know it may sound bit ridiculous, but Equestria is very weird place, it's better to not think about it too much." she moved the whole time Sparkly spoke, so it wouldn't be long until they reached her house "I can try to summarize our current political situation when I get my cup of tea if you want, but for more information you need to read books yourself, I'm not really into political things, ignorance is bliss and all that." the house was in a clearly wealthy area, but it was notably smaller than the houses...or well, mansions around it, having only one floor and a basement, though it was still quite impressive with its big yard and all that, it was clear that Frail didn't have any trouble with money. "Also I know at least one pony who ended up here by accident from different world, a different one than where you're from, but equally depressing one, though he was always a pony."

@Califorum "Well then I have great news to you, most ponies are not like that, some are so friendly it gets annoying." Frail remarked "Sure there is the bad apples, but it's the minority." She covered the cart in a way that Sparkly could still see her but it was hard to see into the cart from outside "And I wouldn't say I'm not happy, I have friends, I have enough money to not worry about getting by, I'm just not feeling great currently, that's life, everyone has their highs and lows." she said as she attached herself to the cart and started pulling it "There's many in worse situations that I am." "And we'll see if we become friends, I still barely know you." "And don't get me wrong, I'm not against the idea, but...well, I want to know what you are like when you don't need me as much before I commit too much into it, I'm sure you understand, considering what you just said." she pulled the cart outside and locked the door behind them with her magic. They would be moving through side roads and back alleys so there wasn't many other creatures around, this was Frail's usual route home as she wanted to avoid having to interact with any more rich ponies.

@Califorum Frail wasn't going to be guilt tripped "You are technically trespassing, intentionally or not, most ponies would have locked the door and called the guard the moment they saw somepony had been in their shop, some would have taken advantage of you due to your likeness to Twilight." "I did neither, I not only helped you, but offered you a room in my house, that's not something many do, even here, and we have a princess of friendship." She looked down for a moment, taking few breath breaths, recognizing that her temper was getting out of hoof, she continued with calmer tone, but wasn't submissive "I'm sorry, you caught me at a bad time, I know it probably doesn't justify it, but still." she took a deep breath again "The matter of fact is, I help you because you need help, that's just how I am, but if you decide to not accept that help, I'll get you to somepony else who can help you." "It's the time to decide, will you come with me to my home, where I can sit down for a cup of tea and calm down, or will go your own way?" "I promise I'm not usually like this, but I also understand if you don't want to take the risk, I don't know how creatures acted around where you are from."