FanOfManyShows

@Blitz Boom Astal eventually made her way out of the train, waiting outside for Chow to catch up. "Are you excited as last time?" "Not really, the excitement dies down dramatically after the first time here." "Oh yeah, I've had that, weird that can happen." Astral looked around, as if panicking a little. "Why would Iron take so long?" "Pretty sure he is just fine." ============================= @Dji "Subject for what?" He paused his step, looking to her. "Why don't you just use somepony else for that? Because I'm not risking anything when I'm being called a 'subject'." He resumed walking, and at this point Watts could notice he was on his way to the train, nothing to take notice of, since there were many things nearby that he could be heading to. ============================= @Blitz Boom Iron was listening, right until Emerald mentioned the corpse digging, and did a very visible double take as he wore a face of shock. "Her- your corpse?!" "Yes, we kind of need it to do this." "Well-" He paused, looking to Emerald while gesturing to her.. "Why doesn't she need to dig up hers?" Sapphire sighed. "I had destroyed it while killing her so it's not an option." She looked up. "But nevermind that, we have to find those crystals, like she said." "Actually, you won't have to go far, I have a few on hand, but all of them have magic in them already." "Great, we can just go get those now then." ================================ Warlock too his time getting over to the food, using his remaining hoof to eat it. Definitely used to not having legs by now. "How long will it be before I get out of here anyway?" He asked in passing. "Can't imagine it'll be short. But it'd be good to know what to expect. For me, that is." =============================== Sure, he was a bit caught up in his haphazard speech, but being used to crazy things by now, he ignored the sphinx, though gave a few glances as he spoke. But it was the axe that caught his attention, the runes would glow as the axe lifted up, tilting a bit as it was off balance for a bit, but before long he got it balanced, and started spinning it, though not that fast, to be safe of course. "Awesome." He smiled and slowed it down, putting it upright. "Just what I was hoping for." He said with a smile to Benny.

@Blitz Boom Astral relaxed a bit as she got up, letting her guard down for the time being as she headed out, heading on her way out of the train with Misty. Misty looking up to Astral. "Hope the house is still good." "Should be in order, since no antics happened there. At least while we were there." "Well I wouldn't think it is too messy either." =================================== Iron paused, smiling a bit as Emerald spoke. "Brilliant idea. Still a bit iffy for my tastes but, it's worth it." He paced as he thought, still eying Emerald. "and whose crystals?" He looked curiously at her, Sapphire shrugging at it. "I'd think we could make a neutral crystal and use that. Right?" "I'm not sure, might need to be absorbent to dark magic" Sapphire also paced, trying to think. "We should do the harder tasks first and the easiest as the last for sure." She turns to Iron. "What would be the hardest task?" "Sacrificing a soul, or the timing required to capture dark magic from a curse spell. Many things could be difficult." ================================== Deep in his cell, Warlock was still locked up, of course. sighing to himself, Looking around for any other ponies, mainly for the one that had been there previously. Thoughts crossed his mind as he was still. "How does anypony even eat like this?" He asked to himself, among other things that was the main thing on his head. Really everything was going through his head, except an escape plan. ================================= "I've been around ponies in coronations, just never been the one in the place of them." General Wing said, in reality totally unsure what to say and super nervous, but keeping his cool anyway, he stepped out there, in front of the crowd of ponies, spending only a few moments to collect some semblance of a speech or at least, a thank you. "I am grateful for this position now, humbly accepting it to the, best of my ability." He looked to Dew. "And I will do what I can to play my part as a general." H said with a smirk while looking forward. ================================== @Dji Zealous chuckled loudly weirdly entertained by her saying that. "There is nothing to get off my chest Watts, I've lived with this for most of my life." He let out a sigh as he relaxed. "It only bothers me due to being abnormal for a unicorn to not have a horn."

@Blitz Boom "I'm sure we'll never see what Sapphire can do at full power. Being that she could imprison Warlock in stone, which is typically a thing only the elements of harmony can do." "For all we know, she used them." "Well we now know she had an element of disharmony the whole time... Who knows what she could do with it." Mity shrugged, looking to Chow. "Let's relax though, like Chow said. Others could help with it if they do anything." ================================ "I had learned of a curse, yes." Sapphire said while nodding. "It was a curse to imprison ponies in stone, you'd know who I used it on." Iron chuckled a bit. "I might have some crystals on hand. If needed we could conjure our own for the rest of the ingredients." "Possibly? But in that case, how would we get soul magic?" "By using a soul, and we have two right here. That won't mean sacrificing yourself but it does mean permanently losing a part of yourself..." He looked down and sighed. "Since only a small fraction is needed, but we wouldn't be able to choose what part." "This would defeat the purpose of what we're trying to achieve, so we should try something else first." ================================ The General looked to Benny, smiling a bit. "Great to see you again Benny." He said with a smile, before he lifted his hoof for a shake. "Would it be alright if I saw the weapon before, or should I wait?" ================================ @Dji "It broke and horns don't heal." Zealous trembled as he felt what he had once repressed begin to surface. "I don't, like to think about it." He said, barely holding a tear back as he squeezed his eyes shut.His eyes opened as he looks to Watts. "I-" He choked, swallowing his words as he mustered the will to continue speaking. "I-it was-"He paused, sighing. "It was an, accident I got into as a child."

@Blitz Boom "Woo, at least there won't be anything intense here. Right?" Astral looked to Misty, chuckling a bit. "Come on don't jinx it just yet." She looked out the window to Canterlot. "Though, I doubt it'll be calm like this for much longer." She looked to Chow, sighing to herself. "But I hope my dad is dealing with them." Misty looked to Chow. "I'm sure he's fine, Sapphire isn't that powerful, I'm sure." "You don't know her like I did. She was, really powerful. Claimed she was a match for Celestia herself." She looked down, sighing. "But whatever that, thing is. I'm sure he can handle it." ================== Iron looked to her, lowering his head. "Not all of those types are even in use, the texts are written in a language that is not in use anymore" He looked to the shelves around his library, raising his hoof as a lot of guide books glowed, as he took them off the shelves and brought them in front of him. "There is only one missing." The books formed a stack on the floor. "I have no book that has anything about crystallizing dark magic. But you do say crystal form, so the element of dark magic might suffice." "Possibly, I wasn't the one who read the book though." Sapphire walked over and lifted the stack, reading over the book about soul magic. "Nopony would know where it is though." "Didn't Astral have it once?" "She was, mistaken." Glancing to Emerald, she looked back to Iron. "I wanted to throw ponies off. It was one of the disguises I used, around Warlock mostly, since he can sense the elements." ================== The general listened closely, nodding. "I've been as ready as I could be since I learned of it." He looked ahead. "Just not entirely prepared for how to accept it. beyond a thank you. I'll figure out something though." ================== @Dji Zealous looked to Watts, smirking a bit as he had figured she'd follow him. But it quickly faded as he realized he needed to explain himself. "It's useless, so why acknowledge it?"

@Blitz Boom Astral smiled softly as Chow spoke. Laying things on the table like that let her relax a bit, even if what Chow was a little, interesting. "I'd never push you away, you're nice. Even if I found somepony else." Misty shrugged, looking over to the window, seeing Canterlot approach. "I think we might get there soon." =========================== @Blitz Boom Iron opened a final door, entering the library of what seemed to be a copy of every magical book that existed. He approached one book, locked down to a pedestal with chains and a padlock. "This is the book." He stepped to the side, with the very obvious title covering the entire cover, impossible to not notice, along with the gem imbedded into the book. 'Forbidden Magic' Was the title, the gem shimmering like a element of disharmony. "Or at least, what you might be looking for." He said, unlocking the chains as the book's gem glowed somewhat. "It stores magic inside itself, allowing you to use the spells inside, at least for practice anyway." "You know we're just explaining this for my sister at this point." Iron sighed, turning to look to them. "Alright, well what do you need?" "A book for rare magic, I think. It's hard to keep track of these things." She looked down, sighing. "Yeah we were going to search for a book for a type of magic." He looked to one of the shelves, pointing to it. "That shelf has uncommon types of magic, might have what you need" =========================== @Blitz Boom An eternity had passed, or so it seemed, General Wing was prepared for his ceremony now. Walking out to accept his new position, somewhat excited and nervous, as well as unsure what to say. "This'll be interesting for me." He said to himself with a chuckle. =========================== @Dji Francis stepped back, bumping into the other changeling. "Sure." He looked to Zealous, glancing at the horn as Zealous brushing the mane back over the horn. "I covered it up on purpose." Zealous said, grumbling a little as he started to walk off. "But I prefer to keep it covered, let's get going now that we've helped this guy." "Guess I'll be off then." He waved as he followed the other changeling.

@Blitz Boom Astral smiled at him awkwardly, but it was still genuine. "Yeah we just chatted a bit. Surprising so much can happen to any one of us like that." She leaned back, sighing to herself, a really hefty puff of air escaping her. Even with all of this, the heaviest thing on her chest was how she felt about Chow, but his age was, old. Sure it wasn't entirely weird for marriage at a young age, but herself, she was still not an adult. "I don't want to be a downer again, But I have to say this. Okay?" She looked to Chow again, her smile fading. "You know of this, but I've had feelings for you, but it's made hard due to the, age difference. It's kinda why I, look for something to do now. We've been on this adventure ever since we met, even when I heard your age." She looked out the window as the landscape passed by. "Gives me time to think and contemplate if it's not just a childish feeling. It's not, and it feels wrong." She slumped over, leaning against the window now. "Should I look for somepony else?" She turned to him, head still against the window. ================================= @Blitz Boom "I advise staying close to me, I can only disable the traps immediately ahead of us. Not that I couldn't, but I ensured that'd be the case. If somepony followed me." He said, glancing back. "Which you are." "No need to keep explaining stuff." Iron chuckled, looking ahead as he looked to the floor, pausing in his step. Looking the wall and casting a spell in it's way, hitting the wall and causing some markings to glow before he walked ahead. Sapphire walking through it, making sure Emerald was close. "Nearly all of them are invisible, but that was just the door." He said with a chuckle. "If this works, what do you two even plan to do with bodies? if anything you'll only be as powerful as you are now." "I died before I could reconcile everything, before I could find Emerald and fix her. I was, distracted." She lowered her head. "But what I plan to do with a body, is fix all the things I broke." "Understandable." He looked back to Emerald. "As much as I know you're angry at me for 'stealing your sister', I met her after you died." He looked ahead again. "Just want to make that clear, oh and another thing, She met me first, loved me first." He deactivated a trap, a ticking sound making it clear that there was a timer as he walked forward. "She found me in her search to remove you from your prison, and even the child didn't stop her when we had it." "But then I died..." Sapphire added, looking to Emerald. "Sorry this is just, how him and me have chit chat. It's mostly due to how he keeps rambling like this." "If it annoys you, you could just ask me not to do it." He said, looking back to her. ================================= @Dji Panting heavily, he rolled off and onto the ground, laying there. Seeing a pony stepping nearby. "Uhm." He stood up, looking to Watts. "Thanks, but I am a changeling, why would you do that?" "Because we're not terrible." "Right." He looked to the pony who had decided to stand there and watch. "Who are you?" They shrugged. "Same as you." Zealous rolled his eyes. "Great, another changeling." "Yeah I am, and I was told to look for this guy. He got some injuries and snuck out of the hospital. They asked me since I was part of the hive." "Oh well, that makes more sense." Zealous chuckled. "Explains why he's a terrible flyer." Groaning, Francis walked over to the other changeling. "My wing got injured when I was young, I've never been able to fly right since." His wing transformed, revealing a scar and a partially torn wing. "And you seem to be of similar condition, being a unicorn with a broken horn." Zealous narrowed his eyes, his horn wasn't visible too anypony up till now, since he covered it with his mane, but now it was visible. "Is that a problem?" They shook his head, Zealous relieving his serious look. "Good."

@Blitz Boom Iron looked at her, seeming shocked at them. "Well." He chuckled to himself. "Forgive me for being unable to read the minds of things that lack bodies. I would be glad to help, but I will not help if you attempt to do anything other than what you said here." Sapphire dropped the chains, Iron standing up. "I only had reason to not tell you due to not being able to know your goal, Sapphire deserves to be alive as much as you. But there may be one issue with getting your bodies back." He stepped forward in front of both of them. "Your bodies may just come back with the exact same genetic disorder or diseases that killed you." "We could figure out a way to fix that, surely." "I've not exactly seen many attempt to resurrect their own body, there is no documentation on what you want to do, most try to bring a soul back with the body, not just the body." He looked over to Sapphire. "Though since your souls are already here, it may be easier than you'd expect." He turned around, the door to the basement opening on its own as he looked to it. "Follow me, we can get the books you need, but I want to be there as you read them." ========================= @Blitz Boom "I know Chow, I don't exactly appreciate it myself. But he doesn't need as much rest as us." Astral went to find a car, taking a seat in the train with three empty seats, Misty sitting down next to her. "To think we did all this just to go back to Canterlot again." Misty chuckled. "Funny isn't it?" "Yeah." She looked to Misty, checking to see if Chow could overhear them, sighing as she slumps back down. "I like him." "I know that, but it doesn't seem to be the case now." "He just seems grumpy, if we could be, together... it might not work if I tried anyway." She trailed off, looking to Misty. "Could just his worry, right?" Misty nodded to her. "Sure hope so then." She looked forward, the only other seat Chow could pick with be either in front of Misty or Astral. Misty looked down at the table. "Would be nice to have a dad again though."

@Dji Francis let out a yelp, looking to the pony, before leaping off the side of the roof, Zealous walking finding himself looking up at the changeling doing so. But while leaping, his hoof lands in the wrong place, leading him to trip over, Zealous' horn sparked as he looks up surprised, the changeling flying down. "That's not going to be survivable." He leaps under the changeling, his horn glowing through his mane as the changeling is briefly encapsulated in a magical field, before the horn sparks and the field breaking. "Shoot." He stands right under the changeling, ready to catch him, if Watts didn't attempt to do that first, Francis in too much surprise to attempt to fly. =========================== @Blitz Boom "Oh I do, but he might have something there we could use." As she spoke, they were transported there, Sapphire teleporting them. Looking to his shelves, before hearing something as a spell was broken and the sound of somepony teleporting in. =========================== A few moments prior... Iron paused his step, looking to Astral and Chow. "You three need rest, I don't since I already did at the hospital, due to my eyes." He said while pointing to them. "Which means I can go off to ensure Emerald and Sapphire don't achieve whatever they are doing at my house." Astral looked to him. "What? That's not going to end well..." "Yes, especially with the relics I hid there." He added, looking to Chow. "Even if I won't be getting any rest, at least she will." He said before pointing to Astral. "I'll join you at the house when I get back." He entered into the train, but when Astral stepped over to enter the door, he wasn't in her sight. Looking to Chow, she smirked a little. "Can't do much now, but I do need rest more than him." =========================== Sapphire glared to him, Iron not armed with any weapons, just standing there. "You intrude my home for your evil needs and you think I didn't think to set an alarm up?" He asked pointing his hoof to the two. Sapphire chuckled, her gem glowing. "Oh I did expect it." She stepped in front of Emerald, who even if she didn't have a form, Sapphire wanted to ensure wasn't harmed. "But you can't exactly harm us." She walked to him, getting closer. Iron looked up to her, Sapphire floating slightly. "You can't harm me either." Without any movement, Sapphire was dissipated and her gem flung across the room. "Though your gem is physical so I can affect that." Smoke poured out, forming a new body as her gem glowed, chains springing out of the ground, Iron's legs being shackled to the floor. "Let's stop the flirting, where are your magic books?" "You know this Sapphire." Sapphire tilted her head to Emerald, Iron looking to her. "Basement, protected by many deadly traps, which also affect magical creatures and bodies in the astral plane, or spirits." He looked back to Sapphire. "As long as I am alive you'll not be able to read their script and I'm not exactly inclined to let you in."

@Dji He looked around from above, seeing them following him. "Great, they're probably trying to get me captured or someth-" Conveniently, his distraction leads to him not realizing where he was heading, and that there was a glass window there. This followed soon after Watts finished talking. He shakes his head, fluttering his wings as he nearly touches the ground, flying back over the building. Zealous chuckles to himself, looking to Watts "Guess I called it huh?" The building would block their way soon after, requiring them to lose sight of the changeling to catch up. "Lost them for now." He said to himself, sitting on the rooftops as he took a breather. ========================== @Blitz Boom Sapphire let out a snicker, breaking her serious tone as a funny idea crossed her mind, of all ponies to like it had to be the one Sapphire personally imprisoned. "Yeah, let's call it irregular behavior." She said, giving a wink at her, an oddly childish one at that. She let out a puff of air to relax herself before putting her serious tone back on. "Well, let's check Iron's home. I know he did lots of research into weird and strange magic. There's also Warlocks and our own, but you'd remember if we had any magic books like that." She said, looking to the book shelf. "Potentially Astral has some, but I really doubt she'd find any that special. ========================== @Blitz Boom "What are you saying this again for? We're nearly to the station, and on the way to a place where we can relax and rest." She said, stepping closer to him. "And I sleep just fine, I wouldn't need tranquilizers." "She actually sleeps too well. She over sleeps aallll the time." Misty added, Astal looking to her. "What?" "Anyway, I get it Chow. I need to rest, we discussed this already and we are working on doing that." She said while looking back to Chow.

@Dji He smirked to himself. "Why'd you hiss at him if you're going to mention something like that? If you know we're accepting them, scaring him off like that won't help." He then shrugged at her. "But sure, let's go after him." He walked in the direction the changeling had gone, not heading at a fast pace. "I do expect he might fall back down." ===================== @Blitz Boom She looked around, Sapphire thought to herself as she glanced about. "Then there's not many options. We have to find a way to learn these types of magic." She looked to the door, walking to look closer at the runes. "Like a ancient archive may hold some books for it, but which ones still have any are beyond me." ===================== @Blitz Boom Astral kept heading forward, sighing to herself as she thought, glad that at least taking the train again would still save on time. "I've never really taken a proper break actually, my life has always been busy."

@Dji Obviously this reaction was expected, the unexpected would've been Watts not reacting at all. But then Zealous jutted in. "You're an idiot, Francis, let's just go. He's harmless seeing as he's dumb enough to reveal himself like that." But, that did surprise him, as much as it shouldn't have, it was angering him that someone was calling him dumb. But he never was *that* smart as a changeling. "W-Well." He stuttered, unsure what to do with this unfamiliar feeling, since he never encountered many anger inducing moments. He leaned down and flew off without much thought. "Figures, even if I did that for no other reason, It gives me a reason to leave." He said to himself as he flew off. =========================== @Blitz Boom "Warping time?" Astral looked to him, tilting her head at him. "When did I ever mention that?" She asked, chuckling a little. "I can't warp time, at the least, I don't know the spell for it. We could teleport, but I also need to recharge my magic. So not using any spells would be better. Even if it takes longer." =========================== @Blitz Boom Sapphire gave an odd grin as she listened to her sister. "You've encountered him surely, yet you act as if you've only just met him. But anyway..." She started to pace around the room to think. "The best way to find something for varied magic, would be the Element, of Dark Magic." She looked to Emerald. "Now, it's not a location to learn varied magic, it's not a book. But what I've read on it, it can use multiple types of magic at once."

@Dji Okay so she was a little smarter than he thought. "Ponyville is small, but there's no way everypony walks by you." Zealous started rolling his eyes, walking closer. "You're clearly lying at this point, Where are you from?" Stepping back a bit, he glanced around nervously, unsure what to come up with. "Uhm..." "It really couldn't be such an issue to share it, could it?" He asked, smirking a little. "Perhaps?" He rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. "Ponies don't exactly like my kind." He whispered as his eyes changed visibly into changeling eyes. ======= @Blitz Boom "Of course, but there's not many ways to do so." Iron, glanced around. "And that'd involve removing Emerald from her body, I doubt she'd want to do that." Astral kept on walking. "I imagine walking there isn't prefered for you is it?" She looked back to Chow, heading about the same way they had when they first went to Canterlot. ========= Meanwhile, Sapphire looked up, reaching her hoof into the astral plane and removing the pony she left there, dropping their body on the floor, looking to Emerald. "We need something you can't be removed from, something more permanent until we can make our vessels." She sighed to herself. "But aside from that, who would've sent them after you?" She looked to where the rift was curiously, stepping to it, her gem glowing. "No signature, or residue from their origin point, strange, that shouldn't be possible." She looked back, her sword dissipating. "Should we chase them or continue with getting our bodies back?"

@Blitz Boom Iron didn't like this, not at all. He lost complete connection to Sapphire and Emerald, though for some reason, he regained it the moment after. "You do need rest, but something is wrong." "What is it?" "Lost my vision on Emerald." Astral looked to Chow. "Let's go to Canterlot then, Emerald's clearly up to something." She said, before resuming walking. "Canterlot should be plenty safe for us if she heads our way." =============================== @Blitz Boom Sapphire could tell pretty fast that something was off, being able to see outside the astral plane helped there, since she saw the pony enter and soon noticed Emerald's smoke outside of the plane, exiting the plane, forming a sword in her hoof, but instead of using it, she kicked the stallion across the room away from Emeralds cloud, pointing the sword to them. "You better leave, now."

@Blitz Boom She looked to him, confused as to why he didn't bring this up earlier, but he was correct about them needing a rest after all of this. Iron looked to Chow as well, with a similar look to Astral. "Alright Chow, where should we go to rest?" She asked, approaching him. "And feel free to say stuff like this to us, I don't exactly notice when I need rest, especially without that gem to indicate how much magic I have." =============== @Blitz Boom Sapphire's gem glowed with magic as she grabbed onto Emerald, the world seemingly shattering like glass around them as they entered the astral plane, both of them entering it. Emerald would centeraly notice this before Sapphire did as it turned out that moment, that only those she touched would be taken, causing Emeralds form to be ripped from her host, as the host was taken to the astral plane instead. "Alright, there we go." She said, to the now empty vessel, not realizing she left Emerald back in the physical realm. "We can still use spells from here I believe." She looked around the plane, floating around. ========= @Dji With a weird grin, he could now make something up since it was only the canterlot archives. "Well I am just a visitor from Ponyville." He lied of course, but being a changeling made that easy, but there was *still* a chance the others had a way of seeing if that was true. He just had to hope there wasn't another way they could. "Really?" For a first, Zealous sounded genuinely surprised by that. Which did crack his previous emotionless sounding tone. "I've not met many travelers from there to here, nor any who stayed." "Just, passing through is all."

@Blitz Boom Astral sighed looking back to Chow. "Not what I meant, you are still able to voice concern over our plans." "That's a good idea Chow, let's discuss something else before we enter town." Iron pointed ahead, they still had a bit of distance, but it was going to be pretty soon that they'd start seeing other ponies and get over heard. "Oh right, I should've gotten used to not discussing this stuff." It turned pretty silent after that, really not knowing what to discuss that wasn't related to magic or what happened recently. ===================== @Blitz Boom "My husband isn't easy to hide from, I do know that he goes blind in order to see, and deaf in order to hear. His power weakens his body. Distracting him and the others would make it harder for him to focus on us." She rose a hoof. "There is also this spell I created, that detects if he is watching the one who casts it." In her hoof formed flowing smoke, turning red. "Red, he's not watching or listening, if it's green, he is." The smoke dissipated as she put her hoof down. "There is no other way to ensure he's not watching with you in a vessel like the one you're in now, the fact you have a body is an issue, since he can only observe those with bodies." Suddenly, an idea popped in her head, as she put her hoof back up. "Unless..." She looked to her sister, now she'd not know if Emerald would think the same idea, but they did both know of Sapphire's ability, entering the astral plane. "If we entered the Astral plane, he couldn't see us there either. How bound are you to that body? If it's not strong enough it would detach you if we tried that." ==================== @Dji So he had to make an excuse, clearly. But if the mare had this type of stuff on her it'd be hard to gauge what she'd do next to check if his lie could be true, as much as it wouldn't. "I'm not exactly from here." Which was the first thing that came to mind, 'darn it that'd just attract her to ask me where I am from' was the second thought to come to mind, but it'd be easy to change the subject, which was only a hope for him. "How does that thing work, anyway?" Zealous looked to Watts and the goggles, then to the pegasus, and then back to Watts. "I'm a bit intrigued myself."

@Blitz Boom She looked to him, walking towards Chow. "You agree too easily." She kept on, walking past him. "Yeah, she is right." Iron looked to chow as he took the book, with a questioning look at Chow after. "I'm surprised you managed to keep this on you, wherever it was." He opened it up to look inside. "It's a spell book by the looks of it, but I've never seen these spells before." He searched through the pages further, stumbling across a page, describing in great detail the elements of disharmony, with artistic renderings of their origins, it seemed. Iron closed the book suddenly as his eyes expressed sternness. "I can tell why they had this, best to keep it out of their possession." Astral looked to the book as Iron let her take it out of his grasp. "So documentation on the elements of disharmony?" "Yes, that's what it is. I imagine the other spells are just to help using them." He looked to her as she walked past him, as she headed away from the house. "Let's get going, I'd like to visit ponyville until they reappear." She kept on going, not exactly checking if the others followed, but Misty and Iron did, though it was up to Chow to follow. ========================== @Blitz Boom Sapphire looked away, sighing. "Hundreds of years makes it hard to remember things like that" She looked back to Emerald. "They didn't exactly struggle much, I expected more. Though I suppose without my gems power boost, they were harmless." She chuckled to herself, though a slight amount of worry crossed her, if they were to encounter a problem again, they wouldn't handle themselves as well. "If we have our bodies, what next?" ========================== @Dji Zealous shrugged. "I'm just wandering." "Dang it" said a pegasis nearby, who was laying face first on the ground nearby the two, Zealous only glanced at them, as they got up and dusted themselves off. looking to the pair from where he was, which was the result of him crash landing, again, he did that a lot around here. Something radiated off Zealous. "Odd, no love between the two." He glanced to Watts. "Are you two together or something?" He said to himself, but failed to consider the idea of talking quietly. Zealous paused his step, looking to the bystander. "I am just attracting all the strangers to notice me, aren't I?" He gasped a bit, looking flustered. "No, I'm just- Curious I guess?" He nodded. "Uh-huh, what do you think of this, weirdo?" he looked to Watts. "I'm, Francis by the way." He said, knowing full well that the two would not know of his changeling form. But there was some chance they'd heard his name before. "Odd name, I know."

@Blitz Boom "Listen you two, she's not even corporeal, all hits would just dissipate her form, and with her, I'd not take her threat lightly." Astral said, her anger boiling out with some magic sparks. This encounter was frustrating her, she just had to be continuously presented with this issue's end, and have it ripped away. "If they have bodies, they'd be easier to stop." She opened her house door and stepped inside, glancing around. "She would've been serious, we should wait their plan out. Just interfering if you can sense them doing wrong." She looked to Iron as she stepped back out of the house. "I'm only able to check on them so often, But through this whole thing." He looked to Chow. "Did you get any other books?" ========================== @Blitz Boom "You're going to have more luck at getting our bodies back, with an element of disharmony with you." She turned around to walk next to Emerald. "Actually, as much as I am responsible for it, I'd prefer my soul to be extracted from this gem." She pointed to it as she spoke, before putting her hoof back down. "Would it be, difficult to add that to getting our bodies back?" She placed the speaking book back on the shelf. ========================== @Dji He paused his walking, looking back to her. "I figured you'd follow me." He said, chuckling a bit. "Maybe I should be more clear with things like that."

@Blitz Boom Sapphire just held the book to her side. "No good comes out of you either." She said with a chuckle. "Hey!" Astral cried out. "He's done good this whole time!" She turns around. "The one time he helped you was when he bled out. I've witnessed every event from within this gem so far. Has he done anything more than get injured?" Her form phased for a moment as Astral tried to hit her, passing through her body. "Thought so." Misty threw a rock to Sapphire, which also passed through her. "Why must you insult Chow like that? He's our friend!" As she turned around, Astral grasped the book as Sapphire looked back with an unimpressed expression. "My sister needs this book, and whatever else you may have stolen." "Hang on! How can I tell you are the real deal?" The moment of the book speaking did startle Sapphire, who hadn't really considered that it was the one that spoke Which made her lose grip as Astral managed to take hold of it, She sighed. "I destroyed my sister with you." She said, looking to the ground, Astral dropping the book suddenly after hearing that. Sapphire smirked a little and teleported the book over to herself. "My sister will get her body back, so am I. If you want to end this, don't interfere." She said, before teleporting away with the book. ========================== @Dji "Remind me what you'd be helping with exactly? Since I have said I have nothing to do today." He chuckled a bit, looking around. "Your interest in what I do is going to be limited." He looked back to her. "I can't really make something up right now either." He started walking off, gesturing for her to follow, because why not? He really had nothing better to do, and no reason to do his plans soon.

@Blitz Boom Astral's house was now visible as she stopped walking. Stepping closer and looking in through the window. "Of course you returned here." A cloud of cyan colored smoke formed together, Sapphire's form appearing out of it, her mane flowing as if in water as her eye glowed. She jumped back at the sudden appearance, Astral almost falling backwards. "How-" "Doesn't matter to you, what's more important is my sister needs that book of yours." Sapphire turned to look to Iron, who drew a sword. "And your the only one giving off it's magic." She walked over as an aura surrounded the book, pulling it from his grasp. His magic held on, the book being caught in between them. "This doesn't have to be done, you know that right?" Sapphire tugged her head back, ripping the book from his grasp. "I can achieve my goal of helping my sister without harming any of you, all I need is this book." ================================ @Dji He chuckled to himself at her just listing things off that everypony did, seeing as he was asking for what he could help with, outside of her being able to read stuff from the Canterlot archives which not many were able to do. "Everypony does those things, it's not something I'd need to help with, seeing as that's all I need to do as well. I suppose I can see why you'd find more entertainment with what I might be up to with so little to do."

@Blitz Boom "It's only assumptions, I've heard little about this book, just legends and myths about it." He held the book back up again. "Some may be true, some not, so I'd rather not share anything if it turns out to not be true. Or I hide what you'd not understand." He said, giving a sly smile at him, Chow did have much to learn if he intended to use magic, but this book was indeed beyond him, especially it's contents. Misty followed next to Astral as they kept walking, looking back to Iron and Chow. "You think that there's a chance Emerald could recall being at your home from his time there?" Astral chuckled to herself as she looked to Misty. "She'd not expect us to be going there just to find her. Chances are she'd find it empty, and leave to another place to find us." "You don't know her though." She shrugged, looking ahead again. "It's the best case scenario, besides, we've been to a lot of places, which one is she going to pick and wait for us to arrive?" By now they already entered the forest, Astral looking around, sighing a bit. "Alright. Shouldn't be to far now." She continued on as she looked to her neck, it was surprising what she had this entire time was the element of deceit, thinking about it. She was able to harness its power even though she wasn't deceitful, was she? A moment passed before she cast a spell, without lifting a hoof. It was the same spell she used to see if Iron was reading her mind Being more focused on Chow now., he wasn't, as soon as she found this out she discarded the spell, hoping none of the rest noticed it. "Only thing I know for certain is the books requirements; trust in the user. We haven't earned that yet, Emerald has, so breaking it's trust in her is necessary, as she's made it distrust us already, and all we have is words, so yes, some form of evidence like what she looked like, or is doing with his spells, may work."

@Blitz Boom "I am doubtful Sapphire would be the one to reveal my place's location, So her homes are more likely." He said, pointing to Astral. "Even if she's been there while trapped in the gem. In which case Emerald only knows the location of your new home as well as my place." He said, still looking at Astral."On the other hoof, it's possible she convinced Emerald to not deal with us, and Sapphire is going to go after us herself." "So let's head to my tree house then." Astral said, turning around to the forest. "Don't think Sapphire would hurt us anyway." Misty stood up. "Makes sense she'd check there anyway. Not like we're familiar with where our new home is." Already she was walking towards the forest, Astral shrugging and following her. Iron held the book close as he looked to Chow. "I don't think we give stuff to this book, if Emerald convinced it we're bad news... Then showing her true intentions with it will be more efficient." "Surprising! She said you'd do something like that!" With a bit of a groan, Iron kept carrying the book into the forest. "Let's just go, this place is closer. Whichever of them was sent to deal with us, we can end this soon."

@Blitz Boom Iron looked to Chow, narrowing his eyes. "This is a book that requires trust to use it. You can't threaten it to be readable. Besides, if this is the one I think it is, It could just regenerate itself" While they spoke, Astral was pacing about, thinking about what to do next. This book thing did change things up, and also made things complicated at the same time. "Look at where we are." She said, sitting down next to a tree. "Far from home, dealing with a problem we caused. What could this book even do for us at this point?" "Well, I'd assume Emerald uses spells from it. But seeing as you can't read it unless it lets you, we can't know what they are." He opened up the book, showing the inside. "See?" Looking inside would reveal the interior pages to be blank, no text at all, or even images. ======================= Sure, magical residue was a thing, but Iron was efficient with his teleports, never using more magic than necessary. So Sapphire found no real clues to their destination. "Nothing, best guess is they went back home... but which one?" She said to herself, before shrugging it off and teleporting off. ======================= @Dji Zealous chuckled, smirking a little. "Suppose I did." He said, sighing a bit as he turns to Watts. "What do you do, besides building stuff? Because with me having to not do anything. interest in you is preferable" As much as he hated to distract himself from it, leaning into this may just make her leave him in the long run, it may also prove that his plans for the day weren't as beneficial to him.. Crystal smiled a bit, glancing at the two of them. Being in a similar situation of not doing much that day, outside of getting her manuscript back,though it'd be smart to consider getting the guards on it. "I'll be off, since you two aren't having a problem. Nice talking to you though." She waved and walked off, looking around for some guards.