Catpone Cerberus

@Blitz Boom@Evil Pink One The outside event continued uninterrupted, as Solar joined the conversation "Think your next move carefully Sheez, we understand your anger, but it's over, these ponies had nothing to do with it." "Think with your own brain, you're but a pawn to those you claim to go against." "We all were." "It's time to retire, the war is over, you've done your part." the female dragon stepped forwards "If you want blood, I am the only one here who was there back then, I was there when we invaded your kind's homes, I watched as your kind was enslaved, I was part of all of it, no other creature in this world was involved." "And I take full responsibility for my crimes, do you?" "We all have blood in our hands, and hooves, none of us can ever wash it away, but we can make sure it never happens again." Sheez finally spoke again "What happened to you?" she asked, looking at the covered dragon "Since when have you been this...humble?" "I was given perspective, shown the truth by one of your kind, and now I'm offering that truth to you. It's all pointless, always was." the covered dragon then said something in different language, it didn't mean anything to anyone around, but it was very much familiar to Solar, as it was the message he had asked the twins to translate for him, the one about tyrants drowning in blood. "Those were her last words, and I saw the meaning behind them myself, it's over, the empires will fall, if they haven't fallen already, will you let them die?" Silence fell over the group for a while, until Sheez addressed Solar, loudly "Pony, let your princesses know, that if they ever as much as consider touching my kind, I'll slaughter every creature with hooves on this planet!" "Other than that, I'm done, now leave me alone." she then just...left, and the two dragons walked after her. Solar let out a relieved sigh "Thank the sun, I was really worried there for a second." if he would have had a heart, it would be beating far beyond it's normal function. Sheska and Trox didn't react to the others trying to get involved, for obvious reasons, but Chega, after exchanging some words with Sheska, addressed Shark and Light, starting with Shark "Physically he's fine, mentally...." she thought about how Shark would understand "He has been through lot of pain, and he was reminded of all of it at the same time." it was bit more complicated than that, but Shark probably wouldn't understand it fully, and frankly speaking, it wasn't really any of her business, if Trox wanted to open up about it himself, he would do so. "It's not something you can help with, or I." Behind her, Sheska stopped talking, and wrapped Trox into a hug, positioning herself as a physical barrier between him and the world, and Trox just, broke down, not that it was easy to tell, as Sheska was blocking the view of his face, and he didn't make any sound, but his body language along other small signs showed it to anyone who could read those. "And Light, nobody expected you to be any use, not because of anything about you, but because she just is that dangerous, Sheska and Trox said as much." "Only thing you can be critiqued about is not thinking, you heard what kind of world they came from, to think that someone who has survived in that world for lifetimes, would be brought down by a single pony, is sheer arrogance." being a bard. Chega knew all about that, that's why she didn't sing about individual heroes, she didn't want to feed the ego of 'heroes', she wanted to inspire others. --------- Charir looked down into the hole, tilting his head as he tended to do, so these things were stupid, good, even less of a threat then, one could excuse the first ones to fall in if they accidentally triggered the trap, but just walking into an open hole? even prey animals weren't that stupid. He didn't even consider the possible treasure down there though, as funnily enough, treasure wasn't on his mind, he was lot more focused on the adventure, this was all so new to him, that his greed took a backseat. He didn't jump down, and instead skillfully went over the hole, due to the terrain in the homelands, he was used to avoiding sudden drops, even in small, dark spaces. His attention turned to the glowing crystals in the ceiling, they were pretty, so he liked looking at them, the lighting situation didn't even cross his mind, as he could see well in the dark as long as it wasn't literally pitch black, and even then, he could just breath a small flame to see. He of course also kept his eye on the skeletons, even if seemingly he was fully focused on the pretty crystals, so when they did their...tendril thing, he tensed up and prepared, but didn't attack, as he kept an eye on what Leviathan did, doing what she did, and he also was more defensive fighter in general, due to being so small, he really couldn't afford starting fights. The following of example went for their next direction too, as Charir left the choice of direction to Leviathan, however, his glance went between the two directions the skeletons went, as they still interested him even after the assumed scare attempt, and due to his curiosity being more than his greed, he didn't really even think in what direction treasure would be. Ruby stepped back when the skeletons did their thing, but didn't attack, not because she necessarily wasn't planning to, but because she was so focused on dodging a possible incoming attack, which never came, at which point it was her time to tilt her head, curious, and quite worrying, this thing smelled more rotten than walking dead, maybe she had been right after all, this was a trap, and they had walked into it, even if it wasn't necessarily meant for them. However, it was too late for that, they had already sprung the trap, and she couldn't lie, she was curious to see how it worked. She followed the skeletons in, and while she could tell they led her to a different direction than what the others had went, due to their scent disappearing, she kept following, ignoring the cursed thoughts and feelings trying to convince her that she cared about the two other dragons, they would handle themselves, in fact, due to the small spaces of this place, she was the one who should be concerned, sure they didn't stop her from transforming and fighting, but there was a genuine risk of death if the walls didn't give away, though it was still preferable to dying in this form. She looked around the room she arrived in, if nothing else, these deer had taste, she watched the skeletons be sucked up, and muttered under her breath "Well that's certainly a way to transport skeletons" but she didn't get too close, as she didn't want to know what would happen if someone with flesh went near it. So that left the door, or turning back, so obviously she chose the door, but she did say out loud that she was going to regret it, before taking off the box from her back, and carrying it in her mouth to make herself slightly smaller, after which she went through the door. She tried to be careful, going through whatever was the biggest cap, but if she managed depended on how exactly the bones were positioned, she was agile, but she wasn't as agile in this body as she was in her real form, so if it was a small hole that required lot of balancing, she probably wouldn't make it through without touching something, but if it was a pony sized hole that you could just leap through, it would go fine. Ultimately she would go through though, so if necessary, she would just break bones out of her way.

@Props Valroa Sombra wasn't the only one to have a feeling, Una could feel the forest's danger, it had darkness, but it was yet again different, it was more similar to the one in Nightmare Moon's helmet, than it was to Sombra, but it was also very unique, this forest wasn't a normal forest, it was unnaturally dark....it made sense now, she had wondered why the town seemed to be a victim to so much stuff, but this explained it, the town was next to a hot spot of darkness. So it was a test, Una realized when Sombra said his order, of course. She took off the clothes she used to hide her appearance, didn't want to get them dirty, would make her look more suspicious. then she looked around to find something to dig with, deciding on piece of wood that was big and sturdy enough, then, with her magic, and using a stone to hammer the wood deeper, she dug a hole that was more deep than wide, but was big enough for a pony...it wasn't like it needed to be comfortable. As she dug, her mind was running in regards of the next task, but not for the reason one may think. It wasn't that there was some moral feeling going against it, the conflict was more on how to do it, as the three different opinions made an appearance again. There was the middle one, that she considered her own, the neutral one, which wanted to get it over with without any unnecessary hassle, but then there were the two others, one feeling disgust, wanting to keep things clean and quick, and the other, enthusiastic, violent, and....craving? Was her mouth watering? This inner conflict didn't stay entirely inside either, as while Una didn't do or say anything besides just digging the hole, the action itself got slightly more aggressive, and the darkness that had been present in her after the helmet situation, bubbled up again, making her aura just that bit more dark. Then there was of course the deed itself, after she was done with the hole, assuming Sombra didn't interrupt her, she stood above the sleeping mare, she wasn't hesitating, but she was considering her options. She could just snap the neck, that was clean and relatively simple, there were lot of rocks around, she could use those to smash the skull, simple, bit more messy, she din't have a blade, but her horn and various things around were sharp, so that was an option, still simple, even more messy, she could also...no she couldn't that was weird, very messy and gross, why would she....but it was so intriguing, so delici...no, what, that wasn't her, she didn't think that. The rogue thoughts had now become voices in her head, her ear started twitching, she had to give conscious effort to not tell them to shut up out loud...and then she couldn't remember what happened. What happened from outside perspective, would be her standing there for some seconds, her ear twitching suddenly, then her constantly shifting appearance froze, with the golden dragon scales being the one covering most of her face, her both eyes orange with slit pupils of a dragon, she grinned, and suddenly lunged at the sleeping mare, teeth sinking in her throat, the end result was....messy. After...eating a piece, Una backed up, still grinning, but then her appearance started shifting, she turned shocked, and started coughing and spitting like in disgust "Wha- Why?" she tasted it, she smelled it, she could feel it on her constantly shifting face, blood, she hated it, it was awful, she went to the dirt pile she had dug up, and started rubbing herself with the dirt to get the blood off, it was so gross "Why did I do it like that!" she had done what Sombra had told her to sure, but even Sombra probably didn't mean like that.

@Props Valroa "Ha!" Noctuna laughed, Opaline's attempts to show her power was either ignored or went unnoticed by the visitor, as Noctuna met her eyes with her own, bloodshot eyes, she had had a helluva night, and it showed, she looked like she had been through war, which she had, an hour or so ago. "Sorry to disappoint dear colleague, but I have no idea who you are." "I don't belong here either, I banished myself and poof, I was here, I was hoping you would know where 'here' is, but it sounds like you don't." "But I can tell you one thing, it's rarely about what somebody deserves, I was supposed to live in peace, in middle of nowhere, studying magic and dying of old age, yet here I am, over thousand years later talking to you after burning down my own nation I never wanted to create." her eye twitched "Fate has an awful taste of humor." Cinder stayed hidden for now, this was getting interesting, so she didn't want to interrupt yet, she also wanted to wait and see if things stayed peaceful, she was capable herself sure, but she didn't want to get between a pony fight, especially when she didn't know what they could do.

@Props Valroa Una wasn't one to scream when startled, so staying quiet wasn't a problem, but being suddenly grabbed by magic did startle her, and she clearly didn't like it. But while there was no problems with the whole lifting her out, Sombra may have, or may have not, depending on how much he focused in such things, noticed a tiny bit of his magic getting taken from the spell, as in, the spell was a tiny bit weaker than the magic he put into it. It was small amount, maybe even insignificant amount, but it was more than one could explain with natural loss of energy. Una said nothing, but she felt like pointing out that she had wings, she also watched Sombra do his smoke thing again, which made her confused about the whole possessing thing again, but as she knew nothing about possession, she just decided it was better for her mind to try to ignore it, as she clearly didn't understand how things worked. She watched Sombra grab the orange pony and carry her with ease, so she didn't need to carry her after all? so why was she here again? to open a window? She didn't know which was worst, that, or the fact that Sombra needed someone to open a window for him. She followed him without making any of this known, she felt the unknown thoughts in her mind again, maybe she should sit down and listen to them at some point, they just may have a point.

@Props Valroa Cinder knew the owner was back, when she heard the slam of a hoof, followed by shouting, she wasn't close enough to really make out what it was that was said, as it had echoed one too many times to stay clear, and even with her better than average hearing, she was just out of range to hear the original source. She did however, make out the tone of the shouting, and she whispered to the now sleeping snake "Dragon's temper too." it may have been odd to judge a pony's character based on dragons, but that was the only real point of reference she had, she had met ponies sure, but they had always been suspicious of her at best, hostile at worst, so she had never really gotten a good feel of the types there, meanwhile dragons she were very familiar with, because her adoptive parents were dragons, and in general her young years had been spent among dragons in good and bad, mostly bad. She quietly made her way towards the sound's origin, though it wasn't hard to guess where the owner would be going even without all the noise, as those with throne rooms tented to like being in them. One of the blessings of being half-dragon, was the anatomy she had inherited from her predator side, because it allowed her to move quietly, and her bipedal build allowed her to hide behind corners and in the shadows easier, due to being able to make herself flatter and being able to take weirder positions without losing balance. She could also just make herself invisible, she knew the spells, but where was the fun in that? But she didn't need to worry about getting caught for now, as just about when she had gotten close enough to peek into the throne room, a metallic bang came from the direction of the balcony, as certain alicorn landed there with not intent of staying hidden, walking in like she owned the place. She had seen Opaline return home, and decided to forget the plan of not being rude by entering through the main door, and instead just followed the assumed owner of the place, after putting her outfit on first of course. At least she didn't fly through a window. Noctuna would after landing start walking towards where Opaline was, she could sense her shadow, and it wasn't hard to tell where she was either, as she was purposely slamming her steps slightly more than usual, causing the metallic shoes make a noticeable sound every step. "What kind of castle is this? Where's the security?!" she asked, very loudly. This would go on until she saw Opaline, be it in the throne room, or earlier if Opaline decided to go investigate before she reached it, at which point she'd smile and look at her curiously "Hi. Are you a princess or a queen?" Cinder watched from the shadows, following Opaline if she decided to go investigate, wasn't this interesting, two overgrown ponies, she didn't actually know what an Alicorn was, but could tell this was somewhat special, based on the the fact that she had never seen ponies like this. One detail on the intruder caught Cinder's eye , the cutie mark, she couldn't see much from the angle she was in, but she could swear it looked more like a scar than a mark, which she did know was very unusual. There was similar type of scarring in Noctuna's legs, but Cinder couldn't see it as the shoes covered it from that angle. And that mane, it looked like it had the night sky in it, she had never seen anything like that before, and did she have personal wind or something? as the mane and tail seemed to move constantly on their own.

"That or a pipe burst or something." Jenna agreed "It takes only a small fault when there's nobody to turn off the pressure." "Though then again, if there was pressure, it would still be rising wouldn't it?" "So you're probably right." After they had walked a short moment, Jenna spoke "I just realized something, have you noticed? the temperature?" "It's odd isn't it?" "It's not cold, or even cool, but I wouldn't say it's especially warm either." "It's like it's neutral, bland, like everything else here, just constant sameness." Constant even darkness, the same smell everywhere, the temperature felt same everywhere, the absolute silence, it was quite awful when you noticed it, was this why her local version had lost her mind? She was suddenly very glad that she wasn't alone.

Jenna pressed several places on her body with her leg, sometimes flinching and/or groaning from pain, she also looked at few of her wounds that she could get a clear view of. "Those things...did a number on me." she tried to smile, but a flinch took the smile off her face "Bastards took my shoulder...luckily they didn't hit the...important nerves." "I'm gonna be stuck like this for a while...transforming to a human would...kill me instantly." she walked on dry land and sat down "What were those things?" "I've never seen...or heard of something...like those things."

@Blitz Boom @Evil Pink One "Isn't that kind of her, usually she goes directly to slaughter." Solar remarked, unbothered by the threat "But I assure you, if something goes wrong, there's nobody left to court-martial." not exactly the most comforting thing to say, but it was true, he personally couldn't do anything to Sheez either, she to him was like he was to the regular guard, that's why he had brought others. It was also his way of saying 'over my dead body', because in all his flaws, his determination for his cause was unwavering. Meanwhile the two dragons walked towards Sheez, and Sheez, after a moment of silence and a one more look at the siblings, in quick movement, took off the collars and said something to the two, before turning her back to them and facing the dragons. The twins didn't attack this time, instead, Sheska ran to Trox who was still standing in place, shaking, and started gently guiding him towards the tavern, all the anger had seemingly left her, as everything from her face to her body language showed only care and worry for Trox, who seemed to be having some kind of emotional breakdown going on. When they got close enough to the tavern to not be close to Sheez anymore, Chega, who alongside with Sear, for various reasons, had done and said nothing during all this other than observing the situation, suddenly pushed past Sear and ran outside, joining Sheska worrying about Trox, and the two practically carried Trox inside, and sat him down on the stairs, both talking to him, the words again wouldn't be understood by others, but the manner was comforting and caring, all the while Trox was relatively unresponsive, seemingly focusing on keeping his emotions in control, as he looked like he was going to either explode or break down. Meanwhile outside, a conversation took place once again "If it isn't the inferno-general herself, it has been a while hasn't it." the dragon hiding her identity responded "134 cycles, and you haven't changed a bit, still wearing that ugly hood." "Don't be so harsh, I've gotten lot faster since then, come to finish me off?" "And who's the red one, doesn't seem like one of yours." the red, gray horned dragon gave a small bow "Brother Myrkr at your service, your infamy precedes you Sheez, even the United was scared of you." "But you aren't?" "No.". "We are not here to fight, and you shouldn't either." "Did I hear you right? You want a peaceful solution?" "The infamous Scorch is offering me friendship?" "No, I'm not offering friendship, in fact, I promised someone that if I ever saw you, I'd make you beg for me to kill you, but I'm offering reason, look at yourself." "Is this what you want for your kind?" "These ponies don't know what your kind is, is this how you want them to see you?" "There's two ways this can go Sheez, either you come with us, or, I'll keep my promise, and do what every kobold wishes they could do to you." Sheez didn't move "And don't even think you can win, we can see your every move." What came to the interactions between Shark, the kitsune and Light, the only ones to really see it happening were Chega and Sear, and they didn't want to get involved. ------ Ruby didn't know why she felt so unpleasant about letting the two go without her, she of course didn't make it known to them, and just watched them go in before looking elsewhere, they'd be fine, Charir was durable, and Leviathan could just blast lightning through the wall, but it still bothered her...why did she even think about it? since when had she cared what happens to others? Charir sniffed the water, but didn't touch or taste it, it was curious sight, but it was less the physics breaking that got his attention, and more the glow, as to him that implied that there was something in the water, thus the sniffing. When Leviathan put the ice in, Charir followed it with his eyes, before making a sound that was probably his equivalent to 'huh.'. He assumed it was magic, but it was still a curious sight. The masks he just glanced at and slightly tilted his head at, because he didn't know anything of...well, any culture really, so to him they were just weird masks. Luckily it also meant that he didn't have the knowledge to even consider why this place was like this, and thus the idea of curses didn't come to his mind and make him reconsider all of this. He followed Leviathan's gesture, and poked his head into the room, and after seeing the skeleton, he just tilted his head in curiosity, he had never seen moving skeletons, yet it also didn't seem like a real threat to him, it seemingly being made of regular bones, so it just confused him more than anything, since he wasn't entirely sure how it worked. Until Leviathan stopped him, Charir would sneak after the skeleton to see where it went. Ruby almost charged the skeletons when she first saw them, but then realizing they didn't seem to care about her, she thought about her options. She could attack, few skeletons wasn't a threat even in this form, and she could always transform if things got complicated, she could just let them be, and make a warning sound so that the two would know someone was coming from this direction....but then there was that damn feeling, that bother, why was her mind making up worst case scenarios for Leviathan and Charir? Why did she feel like she made a mistake by not being with them? What was this nonsense? was it some kind of curse? They were still aright, she could tell, because Charir had never taken off the piece of jewelry she had given him in the kitsune situation, and thus she could tell the position of his horn, and how it moved. Curse or not, she couldn't ignore her mind, so she decided to go in, but approach things carefully, she first whistled to see if the skeletons cared, if they didn't, she'd make more obvious sounds, until finally directly addressing them. If they did react, she'd try to talk to them, acting as non-dangerous as she physically could, basically trying to act like a random pony who just happened to end up here by accident and was lost. She would then act accordingly, if the skeletons ignored her, she'd follow them in, be it after waiting few seconds, if they were hostile, she'd fight, going for the head since it was the easiest thing to aim for when kicking, being the biggest, and so on.

@Props Valroa Una stayed in the hallway, not even trying entering the rooms until they found the right one, after all, there was no point, since Sombra could just look in and get out. She was actually a bit glad for the loud snoring of one of the inhabitants, as it covered up any accidental hoof steps she may have caused, not that they were loud enough to wake anyone up, but you never knew if someone was actually sleeping or not, until of course you could hear it this obviously. The only one she was worried about after getting glances into the different rooms, was the snorer, mainly because he was so large, sure she didn't underestimate anyone in the house, they were farmers, so physically they were probably all very capable, but the biggest felt the most dangerous. Una did as told, opening the window, she used her magic to make sure she could do it quietly, as one never knew if it was stuck or something, and it was lot easier to control with magic over using one's hooves. She did wonder what Sombra's plan was, of course she would know right away, but she still wondered, would he throw the pony out of the window? make her carry her through it? It didn't even cross her mind what exactly they were doing here, which probably would have made her question herself, if it wasn't for the fact that she failed to realize it.

@Props Valroa "Anyone or anything home!?" Cinder shouted after stepping inside, asking the same in draconic for good measure, "Huh, no security." "But, just in case." a dim red glow came from her hand, and a colorless dagger, seemingly made of crystal, materialized in her hand, not the most effective weapon, but better for indoors than her scythe. She explored the castle, wary of corners and other blind spots, Cinder was very relaxed creature, smiling at danger and so on, but it didn't mean she was totally careless, if she was going to get hurt, she would do so in her rules. She looked around the throne room, ignoring the urge to taste the unknown liquid, it was clear from the layout of the room, that the pool had more use than being just a decoration, most likely magical, thus, as curious as she was, she didn't want to touch it, just in case. "You know scale-noodle, this place reminds me of those stories about evil ponies, they all seem to have similar...aesthetic" "But those stories are ancient history at this point, and this castle doesn't look like it's thousands of years old." she checked every room that wasn't locked, she wasn't looking for anything specific, just exploring, and when she stumbled upon Misty's room, she looked around, but didn't touch anything. "No familiar faces here." though it wasn't the only thing about the drawings she noticed, "And what's with this group, as far as I know, the equines haven't gotten along for a long long while." she looked around "Maybe this place really is older than it looks." and walked to the nearest window, looking outside "Or even more misplaced than I first assumed." the snake went to sleep. Time travel or dimension travel wasn't necessarily something that everyone would consider as valid options, which Cinder found bit odd considering that there existed magic that can do both, nobody just knew how to use it, but to her it was lot easier to accept them as a possibility, because she had talked with beings outside the usual reality, they had saved her life after all, she knew reality was lot less simple than most thought it was. --- Noctuna didn't worry herself on how the water got there when she spotted some, she had already concluded that this castle had come here through very unnatural means, and that was as far as she looked into it, not that she would have necessarily been able to figure things out anyway, she was a queen of darkness, she hadn't studied what lakebeds look like. She took off her shoes and washed them, watching the blood wash away, she stopped for a moment to look at herself from the reflection of one of the gems, her eyes were bloodshot, and her crown and metal horn painted red from still fresh blood "It has been a long night hasn't it." she looked at her hoof, at the permanent reminder of her struggles "But it was all worth it, we won. I won." she took off her collar and crown, washing them too, they were misshaped and damaged, both due to being self made, and due to the violence earlier today "Long live Queen Noctuna..." and finally, she splashed water on her horn to clean it "...and may the traitors suffer in darkness."

@Props Valroa It was obvious. after all, it was the one thing Una mentioned herself, though she hadn't really expected anything else from Sombra, it was clear that he wasn't used to working with somebody, and was more used to having mind controlled servants with lacking ability to think for themselves. Una watched Sombra open the door, and started thinking about the poor security around this town, it was ridiculously easy to get past locks, even with Sombra going under doors and opening them from inside, had nobody thought that somebody could just do that with magic? a third of pony population was unicorns, and nobody had thought of magic-proofing their doors? Were they idiots? or was it really just so safe here that they didn't see the need? She followed Sombra inside, again focusing on staying quiet, she did take note of the decor and such, but didn't compare to it anything, because it was only natural that a farmhouse would look different than anything in the town. She did note that it seemed that this was a family residence, though it was impossible to tell just how many ponies lived here without counting bedrooms or such, which did worry her a tiny bit, because the chance of getting caught was lot bigger.

@Props Valroa The snake on Cinder's shoulders tasted the air slightly more actively than usual "You smell something?" she asked, before sniffing around herself, while her sense of smell was bit better than a pony would have, she hadn't quite inherited the full dragon sense, though it was enough to spot a difference in the air quality, not that she thought about it much beyond deciding it as the reason for the snake's interest, after all, she expected things to smell different, if not for any other reason than the fact that everything wasn't dead. Cinder looked up at the castle "You know snake, this thing reminds me of something that the Dragon lord would live in, if he himself wasn't the size of a building." "It reeks of arrogance and pride." she once again took flight, flying up to a balcony she spotted "But I get it, I wouldn't mind one myself, though this is bit big for me." she landed on said balcony. --- Noctuna didn't think much about the color or exact size of the moon, mainly because the moon she was used to, was the unnatural one, and while she had seen a normal moon and sun, that was thousand years ago, thus, with combination of age and few hits to the head, she had forgotten what those looked like. She was lot more interested in the castle, she had already confirmed that she had succeeded in her self-banishment, and that was as far as things mattered to her, it didn't matter to her if this was some dead word, or if she just happened to land on unusually desolate part of it, she was just glad to be away from home. However, there was something off about this castle and the assumed owner that had flown above her; even besides the obvious, the shadows were slightly different here than they were in the rest of the forest, maybe Noctuna wasn't the only newcomer around here. She scanned the castle with her eyes, spotting what she assumed to be the main entrance, she could always just fly through a window, but she didn't want to be rude, she rather brought down the front door when when trespassing, so she started walking towards the assumed front door, sure she could have flown to get there faster, but she was over millennium old, few minutes were less than meaningless, besides, she deserved to take it easy. She was also looking around to locate any kind of water source to wash her shoes, it was far from her main priority, but it was polite to not leave bloody hoof prints on the floors of somebody else's castle.

"How long was I out?" she suddenly asked after watching the sun set for few moments, speaking quietly, but loud enough to be heard, she rose her head a bit, but winced "Yep...definitely broken...no question about that." she didn't sound as tired as before, after all, she had had quite the nap, but it was clear it still hurt to speak somewhat. She slowly but surely got on her feet, "We'll need to check...my injuries, now that...my legs aren't made...of wet noodles."

"Let's go then." Jenna stated, giving a one more glance towards the closed bedroom before heading to the apartments door and opening it, waiting for Oliver to exit first, some questions were better left unanswered. She was slightly surprised by the humid air in the stairwell, but then remembered the reason "I almost forgot the basement was flooded." she led them outside from the front doors, she couldn't lie, she did consider turning back towards the portal for a fraction of a moment, but she decided to go on, and started leading them deeper into the city, following the dark beam on the dark sky.

@Props Valroa "Understood, but, what exactly is my part in this?" Una asked quietly "Besides moving her, since you are currently in a physically less capable body?" "I'd just like to know if there's something I should know in advance, it would ease the process for you to not need to order me around as things happen." she would accept any response regardless of she found it satisfactory or not, and would follow Sombra until told otherwise.

@Props Valroa The laughing had stopped, so Cinder failed to locate the source for it, however, what she didn't fail to notice, was something flying past her, it was just a blur, and she didn't bother trying to catch up to it, but she did get a glance "That was unusually big pony, I'm guessing it's the owner of that castle." she kept flying towards the castle after failing to spot the alicorn on the ground "They'll be back, probably.", but stopped when she saw the border between the forest and the castle's surrounding area "Okay, yeah, that's not natural, this thing is not from around here." she spotted a hill, or well, what was left of it, and landed on top of it, just outside the border where the castle's area started, picking up bit of the crumbled ground and throwing it towards the castle, watching it land on the ground. "Good, no barrier." she then jumped down and started walking towards the castle, taking in the environment "I've seen lot of things during my life but this is certainly something new." "This must be what I felt, but where did all of this come from?" the snake, unsurprisingly, did not respond. "You know, this may turn out to be lot more interesting than I thought." -- Noctuna did not notice Opaline flying past her, she however did notice the shadow, or more specifically, she felt it, and then looked up "Ah, so you already have a queen? that explains why you don't talk to me." she said out loud "But worry not my dears, I'm not here to steal you, a good queen doesn't force subordination." she kept walking until she too reached the border, at which point she threw a rock to check for barriers, before looking closer. She walked next to a tree that had been cut in half and pulled her hoof against it, leaving a small red streak on it from her shoe, before looking at said shoe "I should probably wash these." she muttered herself, it wasn't until now she noticed the castle "oh." She looked around, going through what she could see, Different terrain, unnaturally instant change, clean cut trees and rocks, remains of clouds on otherwise clear sky, round shape...this had been placed here, either transported from somewhere else, or created...she would need to be careful, it took lot of power to do something like this. "Was it your queen who did this?" she asked aloud, yet there was no response, the shadows stayed quiet. What came to the sun and moon, due to her low position, she barely saw them from among the trees, yet, she didn't pay much attention to them either, because knowing that they were different was enough to her, it was what she had wanted after all. The sun, lot smaller than the one she was used to, though saying she was used to a sun would have been inaccurate, as she had seen the thing only relatively few times in the last millennium, and this one, was nicely cold compared to the ever-shining sun of the east, which made Noctuna feel like she'd combust if she stood in place for too long. The moon, wasn't the cursed moon, it didn't radiate darkness in the same way, thus, it was lot more pleasant. And most importantly, they moved, it had been so long since she had seen a moon rise, or anything similar.

@Blitz Boom@Evil Pink One "Anyone else?" Sheez asked nobody in particular, loud enough to be heard over the two younger kobolds cursing her, though only indication that it was cursing at this point, was the way the two kobolds said things, as they had in their rage fallen back on their native language, which only the other kobolds understood. After not getting attacked for a long enough moment, Sheez would address the two kobolds and start speaking to them, in their native language, though it was less a conversation, and more a shouting match, and it went full on argument soon enough. Sheska was the loudest of the three, screaming and hissing with full force at the metallic kobold, and would have most likely, if it hadn't been for the odd collars, launched at Sheez like a feral animal, it was really a surprise of its own that she didn't lose her voice or pass out from it. Trox meanwhile, while not exactly calm either, was more shouting than screaming, as his words carried more of the hatred and contempt over rage, though he wasn't hiding his anger either. And Sheez, while she kept the unnervingly neutral tone of voice she spoke with, also had to increase volume to get any words in. All in all, even without understanding a word that was said, one could gather that this was far from civilized, mature conversation, and was closer to an argument between family members that really should stay in the home, the main difference being, that this was clearly about something lot more serious than petty family drama, as the animosity was very real and very apparent. Things slowed down, as Trox said something that made the two other kobolds go quiet, after which he started laying into Sheez, but he wasn't shouting anymore, and rather, was speaking slowly and calmly, however, his voice was shaking with anger, he looked like he wanted to explode, and his words were heavy with emotion. As he spoke, he very slowly moved towards Sheez, every step, every word, was heavier than the previous, and his accusatory tone slowly changed to a questioning one, it all culminating to him standing right in front of Sheez, looking her directly in the eyes and asking something quietly, shaking, and sounding more pained than angry. Whatever he said, not only seemed to make Sheska's anger fade to be replaced with concern, but also seemed to hit something in Sheez too, as the kobold took a step back and for the first time looked genuinely bothered, if not remorseful. This was followed by silence, the three kobolds all stood still, until a sound broke said silence, as a familiar guard landed not too far, looking around for a bit before greeting Stargazer "You're still alive, good, means I'm not too late." he had gotten new armor, no longer wearing the Solar guards' set which looked silly on his part-metal body, and instead wearing a custom design combining things from all the various sections of the royal guard. "Sorry for the delay, I had to get some backup." two other individuals landed, dragons, robed like Sheez had been, though one of them had his hood down, revealing him to be a red male dragon, while the other was purposely positioning themselves to hide their identity. however, these were not a new sight for everyone, as they were the two dragons that had left the Tavern when the group had arrived there the last time. "I'll explain later, but I'll be taking the command over this situation, you and rest of the town guard focus on keeping the civilians away." ---------------------------- "It's not entirely selfless caring" Ruby responded half-jokingly "I know how I feel about my own mother, so I don't want to give Charir reason to think about me like that, it would be inconvenient to have him hunt me down hundred years from now." she didn't have much to say on the topic of romance, because even ignoring all the previously mentioned, she simply didn't know enough to have an opinion, she never cared about such things, so she never looked into it, she also believed that if one was to find a partner, it would have to happen naturally, outside the mating season. "Though, I do admit, I wish to see him happy, if not for anything else than to spite my mother." Charir did his own investigations near the entrance, sniffing the hoofsteps to try and figure out their age, and after the squirrel incident, he smelled the bush and surrounding area in case there was some reason the small animal had left the bush instead of staying in there hiding, he wasn't familiar with squirrels, so he didn't know what was normal behavior for them. "Somebody should stay outside, both to make sure the exit stays clear, and to be here in case Spicy appears." Ruby pointed out "I can be that somebody if you insist on going in, just, don't get yourself killed." the entrance was uncomfortably tight for her real form, and in this form she was physically lot less capable, so she didn't really want to risk getting herself in danger before Spicy's arrival, because at least then she had someone to use as bait in the worst case scenario. She made a mental note of what she could sense, hoofsteps combined with things being scattered around, they weren't the first ones here, so either those things were missed for reason or another, or there was some reason for them to be left behind, like being worthless compared to whatever used to be there. Charir meanwhile, while wary, didn't have anything against Leviathan's suggestion, even if he didn't know she even said it, as he was sniffing the air inside, and until he was stopped by somebody, would slowly but surely step in to investigate.

@Props Valroa "Well, that's new." Cinder muttered to herself, a snake slithered up her arm and wrapped itself on her shoulders, she was hanging on the top of a tree, scouting the area around her, when she had spotted something peculiar in the distance, a castle. She wasn't one to claim that she knew everything about places, but she had been around here often enough to be certain that there was no castles around, until now, that is. "What do you think little fella? Could this explain the weird feeling I got?" the snake, was a snake, so Cinder's question went unanswered "You're right, why do I even ask?" She didn't usually feel things going on with magic, but a tiny while ago something big enough had happened to make even her feel it, thus she was here, hanging from a treetop, talking to a snake....not that it was too different from what she usually did. "Weird clouds too, don't think they usually do that." she let go of the tree and took flight "But well, you seem calm enough, so it's probably safe." the snake just flicked its tongue, as snakes tended to do. She flew towards the castle, but didn't make it far from her starting point before hearing something, laughter, "Well, that's ominous." -- Screaming, roaring, crashing, the sounds of a battlefield, it was so,so glorious, yet, all fun came to an end, and so was the case for Noctuna too, she could hear the rhythm of their steps, they had come to ruin her life yet again, but she was ready this time, this was all part of the plan. She could hear her wolves draw their last breaths, her shadow creatures flee back into the darkness, for even her horrors could not stand the might of the empire, so it was time, she lit her horn, and as the door of her old home was brought down, with a last smile, she cast a spell. It took her a moment to gather her surroundings, she was...in a forest? a desolate and dead forest, but forest none the less, and more importantly, it wasn't the dark forest she was used to. "Did I do it?" she looked around, up and down, there was no cursed moon, or endless sun, there was no endless darkness, or forever deserts. "I did it?" "I did it!" "Ha ha..." she started laughing, first carefully, then manically. She laughed for a while, before she got all the emotion out and became composed again, the next question was, if she had made it out of her own world, then where did she end up? She hadn't actually thought her plan that far, she hadn't bothered to think where a banishment spell would send her. She took a deep breath and focused, calling upon the darkness, and while she couldn't locate any beings at the moment, there was something in here, it was faint, not too powerful, but something. Dark corners, the underside of a bed, shadows darker than shadows, yet they didn't respond to her call, were they scared? too weak? or did they belong to someone else? There was only one way to find out, so she started walking towards them, towards a castle she hadn't yet spotted. Little did she know that above her, not too far away, a curious creature with a habit of talking to a snake, was investigating a noise...

@Props Valroa Una followed Sombra quietly, she had nothing to really say, nor did she want to call attention to the two by saying something that some random pony on a nightly stroll could hear, or Flint, the weirdo had either stopped singing, or gone far enough to not be heard by them, and Una didn't want to take the risk that the former was the case, and she was actually close enough to hear them. Previous questions again came to her mind when Sombra made himself actually blend in, however, for the previously stated reason, she didn't ask those questions yet, figuring that if it was important, she would get the answer anyway. Una found the sight of animals weird when they got to the farm, she herself of course had no qualms about such, but she found it slightly weird that ponies had a farm with other quadruped creatures, especially since going by everything else, this was an apple farm. What did they use pigs and chickens for? She shook the thoughts out of her mind as it was again time to sneak, Sombra still hadn't explained to her what the exact plan was, so she just went along, hoping to get, if nothing else, clear instructions when the time came.

@Props Valroa Una didn't respond, but let out a small sound to indicate understanding, she had gotten an answer to her question, so she had nothing more to add. She focused her search in places where one would expect to find writing materials, which ultimately lead to her finding them reasonably quickly, it turns out that someone that neatly organized things, stores things in places that make sense. When Sombra summoned his outfit, Una threw away all the previous questions she had, it was clear that the point of the possession was not to actively blend in, so her previous question about herself was not relevant. Una observed his writing, she would have argued that maybe it would have been better to choose any other location, since Canterlot was close enough to be seen from the town, and thus easily, and quickly checked, but she assumed Sombra knew what he was doing, so she didn't bring the point up, as she still was bit unsure about the purpose of the whole possession thing, besides finding gems, which in turn probably would have had easier ways to do, like asking the pony who uses them where she got them. She would follow Sombra, figuring that she should probably try to stop thinking about things too deeply, she was just the follower after all, she was only told what she needed to know, right?