Catpone Cerberus

"It isn't." Jenna admitted "But neither is stress." she sighed "The truth is, I'm scared to let myself relax too much." "I always make sure I have something to think about when I'm awake, that's part of the reason why I'm so involved with conspiracy-style of stuff."

"That's the thing, I can't really be uncomfortable in that form." Jenna said "Until of course I end up in weird position but that isn't really related to the bed." "Try to think how it would be like to be covered by bulletproof pillows, that's how I feel."

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby looked like she had pretty much switched of her hearing when the sermon about emotions started, she didn't want to hear it, she had heard it too many times when living with ponies, both in written and spoken form, she couldn't stand it. "So you really want to do this?" She asked surprised when the challenge was said, she grinned as she continued "If you insist, though, be warned...." as she was speaking, she started transforming, though it looked less like a pony turning into a dragon, and more like a dragon breaking out of a pony "....I'm not good at being gentle." her voice also changed, and though her pony-voice was still there a little bit, her voice got deeper and notably more rough/hoarse/gruff, and also lot more intimidating, her cold yet soft and feminine pony-voice was lot more pleasant compared to her real voice.

@Illiad Easle Ædriga didn't really get the message, partly because she didn't understand everything, but mostly because it was hard to focus with so many of...everything near them, not that Ætheron would be able to tell, since she stayed close, in fact, she was side by side with him, almost touching him. She didn't really pay any attention to the creatures giving her looks, not because she didn't care, but because she couldn't, with all the smells, and noises, her senses that had learned to spot every little sound and smell that were out of place were getting overwhelmed due to every new sound and smell being out of place for them. This was mostly visible in her expression and general demeanor, as she seemed uncomfortable and disoriented, but she continued following Ætheron, and if Ætheron stopped to see if something was wrong, she would just plead "go" until they continued moving, sure it was fun to find new things, but it wasn't so fun when it was everything at the same time.

@Blitz Boom Ruby just nodded at Leviathan's note regarding healing, her kinds style was very much superior when compared to other creatures, but it of of course didn't come without compromise, as it took lot of energy and evolving into combat had taken away from their reproduction, which probably was for better considering the rest of the planet, her kind having also the superior numbers would mean quite a cruel end for most creatures. This need for energy probably was also why they ate meat instead of gems. Thinking about it made Ruby hungry again, not that she really showed it, having been on the edge of starving to death, her tolerance for hunger had grown quite a bit. "No, because like you said, I don't care." Ruby said "Though I'd like to correct you a bit, it's not that my concept of family is different, it's more that we don't have one, I would never say our system has anything do with family, we don't even have a direct equivalent for that in our language." "We talk about bloodline, offspring and mother, for father our equivalent is more like 'the male' if we ever talk about it, we usually don't." even that wasn't the correct translation but there wasn't one in this language and that was the closest to the worth that the term gives the father. "And you worry I would find something to be weak? Have you met me?" she pointed out, she was very self-aware about herself, and sometimes she wished she wasn't, but that happens when you decide to study the world outside your own bubble "It's not like I'm one to talk, I'm no longer one of my kind as much as I try to act like it, I have became mentally weak, ineffective." "I could crush you both in your sleep without effort, yet I won't." she crushed a small stone as she said it, she then let out an amused exhale and sneered "Why is your blood so weak mother, is there something you didn't tell me." the last sentence wasn't aimed at Leviathan, instead Ruby looked to the sky when she said it with disparaging grin on her face, before lowering her glance and going back to her usual coldness, though there was something more sinister/eery in it this time as she said something in her native language before heading towards the cave, where she would, assuming Leviathan didn't stop her for reason or another, move the small male on the softer material and laying down as far from him as she could in the small cave. --------------------------------------- When the ruckus first started, Nada did go alert, but she didn't move, and when she heard to croak, she moved even less, somehow, she could tell that whatever this was was a creature from everfree, and since she didn't have her magic, she really didn't want to deal with monsters right now. Even when the creature started hitting the door, Nada didn't leave the water, she just looked at the door to see if it would hold, and since it didn't seem like the thing was getting through it, she submerged but didn't swim away, she just wanted to hide her scent until the creature lost interest, because as much as she didn't want anything to get broken, her own safety went above her friends' material goods. Though since this creature sounded like a frog, she also kept the eye on the underwater entrance in case it figured out it existed, and if it did, she would fly in the house as it was the only other way, and tell Agni that he was free to burn whatever the creature was if it came out of the water while she prepared to weaponize her voice, she may have not been able to get creatures under her will anymore, but she could cause them pain if she was cornered. ------------------------------------ "It depends on where you think we may find the hazelnuts, because I suggest we go to which ever is closer first, I know the exact location of the hut, I would tell a time estimate but I can't tell a difference between few minutes and an hour." "It's in that direction..." Scarecrow pointed at a direction "...about 2000 or so steps away for someone of my size." (about 2 km) He didn't really react to the 'birds' comment, but he found it interesting that a someone would create a creature capable of hating its creator. "Ghosts are other type of undead...I think." He would explain whenever the decision about their next stop was decided "They are less a creature and more a...being." "I don't know what causes them to exist, but they are like me, creatures who have died but never left, but unlike me, they don't have physical body, though they can interact with physical world." "I have only seen this one, and I never interacted with...her, as I decided to keep my distance, but she seemed unpleasant and sadistic, not too different from a certain creature." "She was a pony, a mare to be exact, seemingly capable of turning into fog of some kind, and based on the plants around her, she is very cold in temperature." "The few animals around also avoided her."

@Illiad Easle Ædriga would probably be ready before Ætheron considering she had nothing to gather, so Ætheron wouldn't need to wait long until she was next to him. Nothing bad happened during the travel, but at some point Ædriga would open her wings and move them around a bit, this didn't affect her moving speed in any way, but they were pretty noticeable considering that unlike pegasis, she didn't have magic to keep her in flight and instead she fully relied on her wings, so her wings were quite big when compared to the rest of her body. Assuming Ætheron didn't do or say something to make things different, s he would do this for minute or so before closing them again as she just wanted to test how long it would be until she could fly again. When they would eventually arrive to where there were ponies, Ædriga would be hesitant for a second, but would follow Ætheron after raising her head in a way that said 'I can do this', though it wouldn't stay high for long, as she moved to more defensive posture and gazed back at everone with mixture of curiosity and wary, she would also quite clearly make the effort to have Ætheron between her and the currently biggest group of ponies, or any creatures in that matter. She also kept her attention on Ætheron's emotions, as in, she checked how he reacted to different individuals, if he was calm and friendly towards them, she would mirror that with some wariness mixed in, but if he was nervous, wary or in other ways showed distrust, she would act more hostile and even growl if necessary.

@Lucid_Nightlight "Do you ever wish to live without them?" Ruby asked "My guess is no, because one doesn't wish for something they don't know anything about." "Besides, having seen those emotions in action, I don't see anything good about them, they only cause problems and limit one's capabilities." quite heartless opinion maybe, but then again, in the metaphorical sense, she didn't have a heart.

"I'm bulletproof, my scales don't get affected by materials." Jenna said, she had bit of humor in her tone to indicate that she understood it hadn't been a fully serious statement. She got closer to Oliver, putting her arm behind him like a girlfriend would, they were around people now, so though nobody was close enough to hear anything, she wanted to blend in a bit better.

Jenna took few more deep breaths before opening her eyes and leaning against Oliver "I'm bad at relaxing." she admitted "That's why I vent it through practice, it's hard to feel stressed when you're too tired to stress about anything."

@Lucid_Nightlight "Why whisper? I can hear you...and smell." Ruby stated before answering the question "And for emotion, yes and no." "While we do feel things like anger, hate, and other such emotions ponies see as bad, they aren't necessarily the same thing as what you'd consider them to be." "There is also emotions we do not feel, Love, compassion, empathy, guilt...things like that, emotions that could make us hesitate." "We also don't feel happiness, we do get amused and can be content, but you won't be seeing me jumping around laughing and smiling." "Expect when I'm acting, I can pretend to feel pretty much any emotion."

@Illiad Easle Also, to add to this, while I try to make the learning order/process bit more realistic, Ædriga's kind is generally more intelligent than humans (or probably in this case ponies) so that's why she learns relatively quick.

@Illiad Easle Ædriga took a second to understand but she got the general idea for the question as she replied "Yes." she didn't understand all the words by themselves, but she did understand it roughly as 'Positive morning, you something positive?' so it was only matter of some logical thinking to figure out the question was related to sleep since it was now morning. For the rest it would took lot more effort and it would probably take long enough for Ætheron to decide to draw some help, because though she got the general idea of what had been said, since she understood the most important words, she wasn't fully sure on the question because 'to be close many' was something she didn't understand yet. When the question was visualized, Ædriga became thoughtful, looking at the both pictures, she didn't really understand the spoken questions, but she got what was asked from the pictures and was thinking, because though she would have preferred to stay away from the crowd, she knew that if she was going to stay here, she would need to learn to live like the creatures here. After few minutes of hard thinking, Ædriga finally pointed at the picture with both of them in the city, it was time to show that she wasn't a coward, even if she was quite worried.

@Blitz Boom "It is healing as it should." Ruby simply replied, not showing what she thought about Leviathan's earlier comments, though one couldn't be sure if she even listened everything considering her attention wasn't fully in the conversation "It doesn't matter if it connects back or not, it will dissolve if it doesn't." broken bones was the most common injury to her kind if ignoring quickly healing things like wounds, so her body was well prepared to fix such injures "Like I said to the bird, it'll take day or two, and it seems it'll take two." she looked towards the injury "That of course doesn't mean it'll be fully healed then, that will take a day or two more, but that's when the separated piece is gone in way or another and it has healed enough for it to not need support." She looked at Leviathan, this time actually looking at her and not through her "You're enjoying this." her tone was calm and emotionless, there was no judgment or similar motives behind it, she was just stating an observation "I can tell when you smile, it's not only a visual change." "Family, I don't think you used that word jokingly." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nada shrugged "Aright, don't feel bad for bothering me if something happens, I have more than enough time to rest in the future, though first." she would eat the apology fish that Fah'lina had brought and after that settle to a resting position, she would go party into the water, but she would float on the surface with her head upwards so if Agni didn't mind being above water, he could easily and safely rest on her head. She sometimes preferred this way of sleeping over sleeping on the bottom, because while sleeping underwater was comfy and safe, this way she could hear any sound that may or may not be travelling through the water. -------------------------------------------------- "I think I know." Scarecrow said, cursed hut was very vague, but considering who they were dealing with, it was likely that Anomaly had heard Scarecrows explanation about the unicorn siblings, and was now most likely talking about their residence "There's a house build into a tree inhabited by two unicorns, I don't know if the place is cursed or not, but they do seem to be haunted by a ghost." "That's really all I know for sure because I can't get that close due to some kind of barrier that stops me and the ghost, while animals don't seem to even notice it."

I would look for nearest kind human to get pets and scratches as it seems to be very nice :3 I would also try sleep in places where I know human body would suffer to figure out the secret behind cats' ability to be comfy in most non-comfy places and positions.

@Lucid_Nightlight "Predictable, like I said." Ruby coldly stated "I have grown up somewhere where everyone I met were there to kill me, and hiding was impossible, we can sense everything from fear to threat, it doesn't matter if you blind me, it doesn't matter if you hide, it doesn't matter if you cripple me, I will always win." only way for her to 'lose' was to die, retreat or surrender were not an option for either side.

Of course Ruby won, she's Ruby. And no idea what IHop is, though that would probably be off-topic regardless.

"What I'm sleeping on doesn't actually matter." Jenna explained "My scales are so thick that it makes no difference, I could be sleeping on a bed made of knifes and it would feel no different from a normal bed."

Jenna sighed "Maybe." she admitted before heading towards the door. When she got outside, she took a deep breath and sat on the ground, looking towards the sky, continuing to breath deeply and slowly, closing her eyes for a moment to empty her head.

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby didn't seem bothered by the cat, the only indicator that she even noticed was the movement of her ear as it reacted to the small amount of pain caused by the cat. "I don't cook my food." She stated coldly "And for strength, I have killed 20 local dragons since I came here, all of them bigger or same size as I, none of them even a slight challenge, they were slow, predictable and weak."

@Illiad Easle Ædriga got up and stretched, her injuries still hurt a bit but that was to be expected, it took her few seconds again to remember where she was, she was surprised she could sleep as well as she did, though she was still haunted by bad dreams so she didn't necessarily enjoy it. She filled her lungs with the morning air, she had studied quite a lot last evening, and besides learning more foal-friendly words, she had also figured out the words used in questions, though funnily enough the word 'question' wasn't one of the words she learned. She had also looked at the page with time related things, but it had only made her realize something, she didn't know how Ætheron and other creatures around here counted time, her kind didn't have clocks or calendars, so pictures with those in the book didn't help her at all. There was one thing she had got out of that page though "Morning." she said, butchering the pronunciation, but at least one could understand what she was trying to say.

@Lucid_Nightlight "Better not even try it if you value your life." This wasn't even a direct threat necessarily, because while Ruby would be quite violent if Arrow tried to ride her, he wouldn't necessarily even survive getting on her because of the sharp spines on her back that would easily stab him if he put any weight on them. If the cat was to follow her, Ruby wouldn't give any effort to stop it, even if it went as far as climbing on her back, because unlike ponies, cats were allowed on her, not that any sane pony would even try when she was in her pony form.

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby ignored the cat, having more important matters to care about. "I'm surprised there is records, since I understood you didn't even know my name." she commented, though then again, she did know that Celestia knew more than other ponies, so it wouldn't be a surprise if she knew more about Ruby than anyone else in Equestria "I'm always up for some good ol' dragon killing." the part about the record and citizenship was whatever to her, they could be a nice help with her plans for the future, but they could also hinder them depending on how it would happen. "And if I get paid doing it...how could I refuse?" she was in, even though she again didn't directly use the word yes.

"Diamonds are boring." Jenna stated "And overpriced." "And I would have to constantly polish them." "I rather lay on the floor and watch them all shine on the walls and the roof." "That would also be bit easier to explain than a pile of stuff if someone found the room."

"I'm fine." Jenna said "I'm just processing what's going on." she got up and started walking, pacing back and forth "This used to be the place where I came to feel free, where I could let myself go without the risk of getting seen." she stopped and looked around "It no longer feels that way, I feel trapped."