Silly Druid

@Kujamih After talking to the mare, one of the guards gets back to you and says: "Nothing suspicious so far, sir. We were able to determine that her name is Night Fuchsia, and she is the wife of a Royal Treasury Department official. She says she is going home after doing the shopping. What should we do now?" @Samurai Equine @abrony-mouse @Skylight Scintillate The farmer gives you directions to the place he lives as well, it's another small village at the outskirts of Canterlot, and leaves you, going in the direction of the city. "Wood's End? I have a friend there, so I might as well go with you." Shadow Dagger suggests.

The only way I know of is to click on the time ("12 hours ago" in this case) to see that status update only. It won't have that button.

"These holes! It seems the canisters were used in underwater combat or something... And in this state they are pretty much worthless, right?" "Maybe the metal they are made from has some value. Anyway, there is nothing more for us to learn here, we should get going." Unable to find out anything more from the oxygen tanks, the two ponies left the inn and started their journey further west. At first, they were traveling through a causeway between two swampy areas, but later the terrain became more rocky and hilly, as they were approaching the nearby mountain range. At that point they were outside of Equestria's borders, so they proceeded with extreme caution, keeping an eye both on the ground and the sky.

Their trip to the inn was uneventful. After arriving in their room, the two ponies start to examine the canisters. They put them on the floor and take note of everything they can see about them: their size, shape, color, the material they were made of, the blinking lights, as well as any inscriptions on them. The druid is knowledgeable in many languages, so he should be able to decipher them.

"Yes, I suppose we will have to go further west eventually. Thank you for your help, sir!" Forest Storm said, ending the conversation with the stallion. "It was nice meeting you, take care!" Tree Song added. They headed back to the inn to investigate the canisters further. On the way they looked at the sky from time to time, in case the strange vehicle would appear again. "So, if she wanted a map of Equestria, it means she is from a foreign land..." Tree Song theorized. "It appears so. Which is unusual, as ponies rarely live outside Equestria..." the druid said, deep in thought. "And perhaps she or her associates have health problems? That would explain the purchase of herbs." "Possibly," Forest Storm replied, too preoccupied with thinking to say anything more.

"So you traded some herbs and a map for them? That's interesting, can you tell us what kind of herbs and what area on the map she was interested in? That could help with our investigation..." The druid asked. "Also how many of these canisters do you have? I don't think we need them all, a few would suffice." If there are different kinds of them, they would buy one of each kind.

A mare in metal armor... the only one that comes to my mind is Tempest Shadow, but I don't think it's her. She did use airships during the invasion though, so maybe there is some connection here... The druid thought, letting his apprentice be the first to talk to the stallion. "So what are you going to do with these canisters? And why did you agree to the trade in the first place?" Tree Song asked, eager to satisfy her curiosity. "Would you be willing to sell us one of them? We need to examine it to figure out what's going on here..." Forest Storm added.

Tree Song returned to the inn, and related her findings to her teacher. "Cigar shaped, you say? Well, that's new. I haven't seen anything like it, and it's not mentioned in any of the druid records. I think we should find out what exactly was traded with that pony, it should give us some leads." This time they both went to the town to ask around, focusing on finding a pony who participated in the trade, and figuring out what kind of materials were involved.

This is the OOC thread for this RP:

OOC thread A druid's work is never done. There are always issues in the world that need attention. This time it was the rumors that an unknown kind of craft had appeared in the sky above the western frontier of Equestria. The information Forest Storm and Tree Song had so far was vague, but they hoped to find out more after getting closer to the area in question. Two traveling green ponies, a druid and his apprentice, reached their next stop. It was the village of Stillwater, beyond the Smokey Mountains and White Tail Woods, the last settlement on the Equestrian side of the border. It's not a very pleasant place, with marsh terrain all around. Beyond lies the Undiscovered West, a largely unknown region where all sorts of strange things can happen. "What do you think it is?" Tree Song asked, with a slightly worried tone in her voice. "I don't know. Airships are not unheard of in this part of the world, but this time it seems to be something else," the old druid answered calmly. Forest Storm stayed at the inn, while Tree Song, being the more outgoing half of the team, went to the market to sell potions and buy supplies, but also to talk to the locals. Perhaps she would obtain some more information about the strange phenomenon in the sky.

@abrony-mouse I like your spark metaphor, it reminds me of Stephen Hawking's question: "What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?" I believe that thing is consciousness. If the universe described by the equations contains it, it is enough to "self-breathe fire" into them. And a fire starts with a spark... @Props ValRoa It is true that what we perceive directly are the "photochemical signals interpreted by our brains", but I believe these signals originate from something more than them, something that is "out there". Thanks to these signals, we have some information about that something, and we call it "reality". I agree with you about consciousness, for me it's the biggest mystery in the universe, because everything else can be more or less described by our scientific knowledge. Of course we don't know everything, but in general we have a pretty good idea what's going on, and we can use the reductionist approach to explain larger things by their smaller parts. Consciousness is different, we have no idea whatsoever how to connect it to anything else. We have some knowledge about how the brain works, but it doesn't explain our subjective experience at all. I believe it must be something more fundamental than just a side effect of processing information in the brain.

An openable gateway leading to the hall.

Speaking of me being a part of the game, I kind of forgot that Shadow Dagger is still with the rest of the group.

@Kujamih Now I need to make NPCs interact with another NPC... You're not making it easy for me...

@Kujamih You follow the mare. She enters a grocery store and buys an assortment of fruits and vegetables. Outside of the store, you see a patrol consisting of two guards. When you suggest interrogating her, one of them asks what they should question her about. @Samurai Equine @abrony-mouse @Skylight Scintillate The farmer calms down a bit, but he is still a little shaky, especially when he sees that not one, but three ponies expect answers from him. "Of course, I will tell you all I know! And yes, I've seen that pony on this trail a few times. I don't know her name, but I believe she lives in the village of Wood's End, it's not far from here." He gives you directions to the village, in case you want to go there.