open Casual stroll

Rising Dusk · September 28, 2018

While it was rather easy for Rusty to get the attention of the yard, from anywhere in it, but Felicia was the one holding all their attention. So far it seemed to be going well as Dusk looked at ponies and their expressions. Luckily it looked like Scoops in the crane was nice enough to break the silence that fell over the yard. Scoops was now the oldest pony that still worked the yard since Rusty's father retired. Head features? Okay, that one required a bit more of translating on his part. He was pretty sure she wasn't referring to the hard hat he was wearing, which left really only one feature left.

"She thinks you have a nice mustache," he translated for the older pony in the crane. Scoops nodded his head in her direction with a smile that was mostly covered by his mustache.

"We got Las Pegasus order almost done ther boss," the older pony told Rusty before pulling his head back through the window of the crane and started it back up. The engine puttered to life and he went back to picking from piles of the scrap to start loading up the crusher.

Nodding her head in the direction of the other ponies, she started walking over to them. Rising Dusk followed, looking up at the sun for a moment to help gauge what time it was, as they should probably be heading back to the workshop soon. Cloud Dust started up the crusher again before turning to meet the group. The younger mare offering up a warm smile to them offering up a hoof in greeting.

"Cloud Dust," greeted, raising his own hoof up to bump her's in greeting.

"Hello Detective. Gee, this isn't quite what I was expecting when coming to work this morning," she admitted, moving her hoof in Felicia's direction this time.

BloodDrops · September 28, 2018

@Blitz Boom

The Sphinx glanced down at the drone and gave him a curious sniff. She glanced at him and then at Onache who was much bigger then him and then back to the drone slightly confused. "She blinked at Onache, so this is the drone you want to build a hive with? he is rather small isn't he?" she asked her with a frown. She tilted her head, she expected Onache's mate to be bigger, though she didn't push the issue.

She turned her attention to the drone. "So, Happy is it? Do you agree to follow the rules I gave to Onache?" she asked him. She was still trying to understand why Onache prefered something so small. She would also let Onache explain ther ules to him, her eyelids were starting to get heavy, besides,

She just didn't get changelings.

On 9/26/2018 at 11:40 PM, Lucid_Nightlight said:

The temple basically stole 50 bits from him... just great.

"Oh well, I'll just steal it back from the vault or what ever the temple uses to store money later."

The explanation made sense.

"Looks like the source of the temples power is linked to you. Judging by previous discussions... it's probably your funny hat. But now the question is... what's causing it to give power to this temple? Why wouldn't this power be yours and yours alone?"

The Sphinx blinked at him. "Every time you threaten someone with something the reverse occurs to yourself. So you might be down another 50 bits" she said to him blinking amused.

She flicked her tail, "Well we Sphinxes were not always bound to our temple, however after a certain incident it was decided we should have some limitations to our powers so we were bound to our temples to prevent the incident from occurring. So the power is mien but for the sake of fairness, since I make the deals. It has to be measured by the tempel to make sure it wasn't bias towards myself. Though there is always a loophole that can be used." she remarked.

"So its my place to sleep and a power sink. I could just decide not to use the temple to funnel my power but then well. I might make a deal that turns out to be catastrophic" she giggled.

On 9/27/2018 at 1:14 AM, Storm Shine said:

Discord chuckled to himself as he sipped his tea, enjoying the constant shift of the conversational flow and the bits of confusion sowed into the mix. "Would you like a pillow?" He offered the Sphinx, conjuring a soft silk pillow with a special comfort cloud filling of a proper size for the Sphinx to lay on. "I personally enjoy that particular kind of pillow when I feel like a snooze."

Discord tapped his claw to his chin, at the Sphinx's suggestion "Yes, I was thinking something similar. Should the deal be broken, the crystal will shatter and each fragment shall form tiny self-sustaining lava lamps." The chaos spirit sipped his tea, "And you'd want to be careful about touching them, Lava lamps get hot after all."

He had to roll his eyes slightly at Lucid's attempts to constantly one-up the sphinx and temple, deciding to pitch in after reading a bit of the script "I'll spot you the fifty bits later Lucid, there's no need to cause trouble for our host or retaliate on her temple, she's really been very patient with you all." He didn't include himself in that as he had, after all, been on his best behavior... Mostly. Thankfully the bits of chaos and the current conflict have been helping him to control his urges to do much more than just relax and enjoy himself. Not to mention the presence of his dear friend Fluttershy, even if she is just a tad bit aggravated.

The Sphinx smiled and sat on the large pillow getting sleepy from sitting on it. She nodded at Discords suggestion for the crystals. "Well they are made of lava so they would be hot" she said sleepily. She then laid her head onto the pillow and started having a cat nap.

Deal or no deal, she needed to get her cat naps in otherwise she would be cranky.

On 9/27/2018 at 4:23 AM, Lucid_Nightlight said:

"Uh... where's the restroom? I really need to use it!"

"ZZZZZ"

Came the response from the Sphinx in the form of snoring. She was happy having a brief nap on a pillow. She hadn't hosted this many guests in a long time and it was hard work for sure.

Blitz Boom · September 28, 2018

@Lucid_Nightlight @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich @Storm Shine @EQ_Theta @Lucid_Nightlight

Onache grew silent, and her jaw clenched so hard she could almost fell her fangs bore into her gums.

She hated what she were presented with now. Back when she had taken over her hive, it had been easy: Chose between your people, or your prey. That one hadn't taken her a second to decide on, and she had relished in that path for ten years since then. But now? She had to chose between becoming an abomination that she loathed the look of, or to fail those she would be raising. Damnation to an endless hunger that hardly ever let up... This were not a choice between her hive and her victims this time. It were one between the hive, or her pride.

"...Happy, do you think I should even consider this ludicrous ideal?"

He could not lie now. He would tell her the truth, if he wanted to or not.

"I know it is not what you want to hear from me, my queen, but for the sake of the hive, I think you should do it.

We lose too many as it is. Culling eggs, scouts not coming back, the exiling... Yours is a hive of strength my queen, but we're forced to keep our numbers low so we won't starve, and even I see how it affects the others. They're hungry and hateful, and I know you loathe Thorax, but wouldn't you only share an appearance with him this way, in exchange for never worrying about feeding us? We are all about changing how we look, but this change could at least keep our bellies full, and cause the hive to thrive. Just imagine how adoring the others would be if-"

"The hive is gone. Chrysalis took it from me, in a battle of queens. You are all that is left of it."

Happy felt like he had been slapped in the face. With a spiked mallet. The hive were truly gone? No wonder he had not received words for months on end. There were nopony there to take his letters, or to return any new orders.

"Then we will rebuild it my queen, larger and stronger than ever. No matter how long it may take."

Onache met his eyes, and Happy knelt before her, though without ever breaking eye contact.

"And what would you do if it failed?"

"Follow you to the bitter end, as I always have, my queen."

The two stared at one another intensely for a few seconds, before Onache finally looked away and towards Lucid with annoyance in her voice.

"Fine. How is this foolish transformation done?"

Meanwhile, Happy fell back on his rear, and took a deep breath. Locking eyes with his queen had always been an intense affair, but this time, he had almost felt the air turning electric around him. As grave as the situation were, and as much as he had to get used to being changed too through whatever was gonna happen as well, these looks had a habit of taking all his attention in the moment, and then make him feel as if the air had been drawn out of him the next. He could even feel his heart pounding away like he had been running a marathon.

Still, he did not miss the question given to him b y Fluttershy, and sadly, he had to be truthful when answering this. Otherwise not a question he tended to be that about, since it did not sound all that well in the beginning. Yet here he were, turning towards the Element of Kindness herself, and opened his mouth.

"I used to be just a regular human, working my vineyard. Then there was this strange sound, as if the air tore itself apart, and then there was just darkness.

When I woke up it was hot and dry, and I was being poked at by changelings. They took me to Onache who made me tell her everything I knew, which were frankly nothing. I was still trying to fathom talking bug ponies.

After she were done, I was drained, and put in a cocoon, to see if I could convert. It took a while, but I did, and I've followed Onache ever since. I don't have to, since I'm not in the hivemind, but I feel like I owe her. What I am now, these powers she bestowed upon me... They are a great gift.

That was what, five years ago now? Maybe six at this point. It's weird, but it's a far better world than where I come from. Far too polluted and dulled down by the sheer lack of any magic. And I can still work as a wine maker, so there's that going for me. Far better than having to rely on that swill you ponies call cider. I'm sorry, but how anypony can drink that and not need a whiskey to down the taste is beyond me."

While Happy went over into his small stab at cider, Anomaly gave up with the cake she had attempted to take up as part of the bet, and just settled on the other one. Once it was up, she sat it on a small table and wait for somepony to take a bite. There'd be knives nearby they could use to cut it if it were.

"Naughty temple who doesn't want cake here. Well, there's this one then, eat up little ponies and others. Sphinxy can have a slice too, eh?"

She glanced at the sphinx, and pointed at the cake, suggesting that she'd take a slice. Not the whole thing preferably, but Discord just gave her a nice, big, fluffy pillow. Surely that would make her calm and happy. She was a giant cat for Celestia's sake. How wouldn't it work to give her a comfy seat?

As said sphinx began to talk, a few of them actually had to respond to her now. That'd be a good way to see the mood she were in, and it started with... Happy it seemed, who were a bit confused at what the sphinx said.

"I follow any rule my queen does, but what do you mean I'm small? It's only my disguise that is that. I still have the general look of a human. I'm taller than the pony princesses for crying out loud."

He'd likely not get an answer, seeing as the sphinx had taken a nap now, but he'd stick to it. Onache were about as tall as Luna, and having seen measurements of the pony royals, Happy could tell that he were a head taller than them, and a few centimeters above Celestia. Must be the angle the winged cat looked at them from.

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@Catpone Cerberus

"Alright, that's fair. No more fish nicknames, Nada."

Nadanna Adratina... Pretty cool name actually. Sounded kinda like a spell being spoken out loud, at least in the weird school plays she had been roped into when she grew up. Berry wouldn't do them now of course, since she knew it was just a way to teach foals to follow orders from an early age, so the impulse were there when The Conspiracy began telling you what to do, but still, Nada's full name had sounded like a kind of spell they'd use in those plays. Kinda neat.

"Okay, let's get moving this way a- No, no wait, that's where the desert is. Forget that one, we'll take the other river."

The pony turned on the spot and started wandering in the opposite direction, where she knew a ton of sand and dryness wasn't happening. It was a very weird thing to have stumbled over before Nada, but who had time to investigate that, when mind control devices were potentially in the game? She had to keep some focus here.

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@Catpone Cerberus

"Yeah, funny how those who cross the wrong sort of folks always seem to *take a trip* somewhere. Must be all the stress."

Okay, something was definitely wrong with this mare. This sort of behavior was totally normal for something like a dragon, but a pony? They usually didn't get this way unless they were involved in some shady business in general, or were crazy. Ruby hadn't tried to bite them yet, so she wasn't the obvious kind of crazy it seemed, but there could be some other variants. Like the one she hinted at now, which were more towards the psychopath kind of nutter. Perhaps she should watch her back for the time being.

Then again, she couldn't be too much of a hypocrite. She was in the shady business, and profiting off that and keeping that a secret at the same time, hadn't exactly been a route filled with hugs, moral high ground, and sunshine. No, a lot of beatings going on there. Like, a massive amount, along with threats, extortion, blackmail, and all the other fun spices of life criminals used.

"It's good to know we're all on the same page then. Of course, it's all just hypothetical, as you ladies so clearly stated. No evidence to support it being anything by friendly stories between new colleagues.

Fairy tales aside, perhaps you would like to lead the next topic, Ruby? We're getting closer to our destination, but it will still take a little time."

It went pretty quickly when there wasn't any animals causing trouble, yet Marley were starting to think that Ruby had something to do with that. She had a dark side to herself that perhaps some of them could sense, although it were still weird that nothing tried at all. Sensing were one thing, but not even a desperate, hungry wolf would attempt? Something wasn't right.

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@EQ_Theta

"I agree. If the tides are up, we'll have to take somepony who can hold their breath the longest down to check."

"I don't breathe."

"...Well, that's fortunate. Can you swim?"

"No. I walk."

"We'll put some rope around you just in case there's a strong current, Omen. Thank you for letting us know."

How strange he was acting now. Omen never really knew how the bat pony saw her, especially because the mask normally made it hard to guess what was on his mind, but his words were kinder. Whatever had happened before must have been important and changed him. Was this bonding? She had heard of that sort of thing before, but wasn't sure what it were. Something that made better friends, though every time she thought she may have figured it out, the situation that were perhaps bonding were different. It confused her.

When Lin asked her to come over to the fire, Omen put those thoughts aside for now. There's be time mulling over them, as well as everything else, during the night. Perhaps. It kind of depended on whatever Lin would prefer to talk. She was still new to not needing to sleep, and the last time she had wanted to chat for a while.

Considering she was so close to the fire already, she figured that perhaps Lin meant that she should stand in the campfire itself whilst Lin went on, but she barely got a hoof near the fire before Lin started to talk, so she just froze in place, thinking that this was the right spot for the talk.

Lin had gotten good at telling things in a way that Omen understood. Not a lot of complicated details, mainly the points that mattered, and the goal. However, some extra things did get added that confused the mare in question some.

"Who is Scarcity? What are tides? Where is Filigree going?"

A saying she didn't get, a name that didn't register with her, and something related to the unstable Equestria she knew. Considering everything, Lin had really done a great job reducing it to just those three, mostly minor details. Especially considering how relatively shortly they'd known one another.

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@Rising Dusk

Felicia met the hoof with the tip of her right front leg, and surprisingly gently led the hoof up and down, in the closest thing to a hoofshake that Felicia would ever be capable of. At least in her current chassis, though she did have plans to pester Molotov when he got better at things to make her a body more suitable for interacting positively with others. Blades could be hidden instead of being her actual legs for example, soon as he figured out how to work that and not slice through anything important. She suspected he may be able to do so already though, but since Felicia had never been designed with the intent of going outside, he hadn't bothered, and her freedom was still too new to make a case for him getting off his flank and working on it. She'd need more positive interactions first.

"ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠 𝔻𝕦𝕤𝕥. 𝔻𝕠 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕓𝕖 𝕒𝕝𝕒𝕣𝕞𝕖𝕕, 𝕀 𝕒𝕞 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕒𝕟 𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕖𝕣."

She did like the names of these ponies so far. Rusty was close enough to Rust for her to just say that, and Dust was a word she had in case of dirt getting into any of the machinery in the workshop, so that were covered too. It wouldn't last in the long run, but she'd manage in one way or another. Long as she didn't meet somepony with a weird name like Engelbert Humperdinck. She would be completely lost on something like that, and have to go with nicknames.

"ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕕𝕠 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕡𝕦𝕥 𝕞𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕞𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕖. 𝕄𝕪 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕞𝕚𝕥𝕤."

The mare may have understood the attitude Felicia had to the crusher already, from the fact that the spiderbot made sure to not get anywhere near it for any long period of time, in case she would somehow end up falling or being pushed in, but it seemed important to mention this for her, just in case they thought she were attempting a flanking strike of some kind. An effective strategy if need be, but one that would most certainly get her pushed into the crusher.

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@FanOfManyShows

"I never get used to those things."

Emerald kept her tongue until the creature were well out of range of them, to not draw suspicion. Whatever these creatures and their masters were, they were not to be alerted of their presence, or the sisters would be in big trouble.

Emerald had more or less fallen over this place once, when she wrote one of the signs on the door wrong before going away. She had supposed to go to a remote part of Dragon Land for some lava rubies, but then ended up in this place instead. An amazing discovery she thought at first, until she tried to pluck something and the wardens came after her.

She hadn't been fast enough, and ended with a pretty bad wound then, but she made it through, and on returning here, had been more careful. Keeping out of sight, watching more than trying to take anything herself, and trying to keep her wheezing breath down some. It had left her with some understanding of this place, and had given her the chance to find that this orchard carried within it several plants that Sapphire and her's old books mentioned, but which hadn't been around Equestria for a long time. Such as the flower they were after now, which resided in the heart of the orchard, if this place were still as orderly set as it were back when Sapphire and her had gone here. From how things looked now, it seemed to be. A plus, considering how painful it would be to search this large place again, rather than rely on the mapping she had once done.

Well, she didn't remember everything about that either, but the flower she could. It had been a little something she had known she needed for Sapphire's resurrection spell, and even when the two were fighting, Emerald had intended to keep her word of bringing her back, albeit for other reasons.

"Okay, the coast is clear, but keep an eye upwards. If we're spotted, it could be days before we can try this again."

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@FanOfManyShows

Benny carefully picked up the feather between two claws, curious about it, yet unsure if whatever magical runes had been inscribed into it would do... Something, once he picked it up. It turns out that nothing did happen, though that didn't less his curiosity as he reached it up in front of his face and turned it around some so he could really get a picture of how it looked.

"You know, I was thinking they were pulling my leg when the twins said that you had these magical feathers, and that they had replaced some of them, but this is... Man, who even comes up with stuff like this?

I'll try and direct the guys to finish up the axe and giving it a polish before inscribing this sort of thing later, then come around to see how you'd do with it. It's a strange concept, but we'll give it our best. If that doesn't work, I'll try and figure something else out."

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@FanOfManyShows

"So an old fashioned home invasion then? Welp, we're already in the deep end, so why not? Let's do it. I can work on crushing the door if you folks can grab as many books as you think we'll need. Are ya game for that?"

So destroying their way of transportation, and stealing any book that seemed like it were valuable/could give them some intel? It sounded like a fine start, even though there were no way that the two of them wouldn't know that they were being watched then, so they had to make it good before they got proper countered and left in the dark.

But hey, perhaps them books could tell them how to get past that too? Who knew what sort of twisted things the sisters had hidden away between pages back in the day.

"We gotta make sure to watch out for traps though. You sense anything at all, we're out of there."

Edited September 28, 2018 by Blitz Boom

Lucid_Nightlight · September 28, 2018

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine @BloodDrops @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich

The poquus didn't appreciate the temple stealing from him. Now he was gonna take that money back regardless of Discord's offer. He wanted his bits and he was gonna get them!

"Alright, since Twilight is a princess, I'll have her put sanctions on your land until you give me my money!"

He turned and looked at Twilight.

"Hey, can you put several sanctions on the sphinx's land until I get my money back? Pretty please!"

The thing about the temple and limitation of power made a bit of sense to Lucid. Now he knew that there was a threat either way, so he had to do something... or did he? Perhaps things weren't as complicated as he though, of he could also be wrong.

"Well, hypothetically speaking, if someone made the temple powerless, you'd be the leader of your own land. Also, deals wouldn't matter because then all someone would have to do is take you down and the deals that were a major threat would be nullified. Of course, I have no idea how to do that and I doubt you'd go for it even if I did know how."

He heard the question Onache asked, he had an answer.

"In order to change to this form, you must change your heart. You must reform, be friendly, and be non-aggressive. If you do not do that, you cannot hope to have a successful hive. This also means you will be left with no choice to give up your hatred towards Thorax."

Lucid decided to talk to Anomaly, he wanted to figure out what to do after this whole sphinx thing was finished.

"We should throw some kind of party after this. What do you think?"

Edited September 28, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

Pr0m4NV14 · September 29, 2018

@Blitz Boom

Mike found a handy Lectern to to read his book. He was looking at the index of GREAT HEROS OF ANCIENT EQUESTRIA (VOL. II), when he stumbled upon his own surname.

“McGuffin? W-wha?” Ejaculated Mike in suprise. Flipping through the pages to the number of which the index entry labeled.

~~~HOVEDPERSON MCGUFFIN~~~

Hovedperson McGuffin was the hero that lead the path to victory against the dark folk of Tchächulí in the great Shadow Wars before the kingdom of Equestria was founded. Hovedperson faded into obscurity, though there were sightings of him around mining camps in the Crystal Mountains long ago.

Mike looked at the entry. Was that it? Surely there could be more, right? He went back to where the Dragoness was stacking all the books, sliding to a stop before her.

“Um.. Sorry, Ma’am.” Said Mike, with a nervous tone.

“Do you know where Miss Sorrow went? She might know something about the Great Shadow War, seeing as she has that cool ghost necklace. Surely one of the spirits in one would know about it, right?” He inquired, looking around the vast isles of books around him...

EQ_Theta · September 29, 2018

@Blitz Boom

"Scarcity is this unicorn who agreed to help us bring Filigree to justice, make her answer for imprisoning you and those poor miners in crystal. She asked us to do this in exchange for her help. If anything, we really could use someone with her kind of influence since I doubt anyone will be willing to listen to us over someone living in Canterlot. Whatever will happen to Filigree, I hope it's somewhere she can think about what she's done. Frankly, I don't know where but hopefully some place where she won't hurt anyone anymore."

Where to begin with tides, though? This was one area where the siblings have no clue about. The most they know about it is that it involve bodies of water, large ones. The kind that they probably never saw with their own eyes, maybe even bigger than a lake. At least that's the impression the word had when put in context with what Scarcity mentioned. Given how they are heading to a fishing village and how much water might actually be there, it's something they had to go with.

"I don't know about the tides. It might have something to do with water rising or falling. Scarcity mentioned the temple might not be visible if the tides are high so I am guessing the water might be too high for us to reach the temple. Hopefully come tomorrow we won't have to worry about this."

Perhaps Rosa might know more and clear this one up with her and Omen.

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@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight @BloodDrops @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich

Admittedly, that little comment from Happy about the cider came off a little offensive. Fluttershy liked Apple Family cider! She might not like the hard stuff but then again, she probably hasn't had anything harder than what her friend makes. Do ponies know anything about giving their cider more kick? Or maybe Applejack knows but she's deliberately hiding that from everyone else. A secret the family will keep hidden so long as there is a market for it, not that the pegasus would know...

But back to the matter. Thorax and Starlight had come to the realization about what exactly made the changelings metamorphose into their current forms. They had to share love, but they were already in the midst of other changelings. That task was simple for them. If Onache were alone, it would probably be next to impossible. Good thing Happy is here, and his devotion to Onache is one freely made. It might have a chance of working.

"Thorax said that he shared love with the other changelings, causing them to change as well. All of them did. I guess we could try the same thing. Happy should start. You said you owed her, yes? You know what it is that your hive needed, and you believe it can grow again. We could start with sharing positive emotions with your queen."

Catpone Cerberus · September 29, 2018

@Blitz Boom

"Desert?" Nada asked curiously, now that she knew how long it really had been, desert appearing somewhere didn't sound as impossible as it would have few moments ago "I guess little bit more has changed than I imagined." she flew after Berry keeping a small distance between them, it felt surprisingly nice to be out of water for once, even if it made her feel very vulnerable "So....is there anything else I should know that has changed?" "Change in rulership? big environmental changes like the aforementioned desert?"

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Ruby just nodded at Spicy's comment, she was satisfied that Spicy was smart enough to get the meaning behind what she said, it made her respect this pony just a bit more, though she still didn't think her as anything special. When Marley asked Ruby if she would like to lead the next topic, Ruby started thinking, dragons weren't really the chatty type, so she wasn't big for meaningless small talk, but at the same time, there really wasn't anything she wanted to know that came to mind. After a second she came up with something that, she didn't necessary care about, but that was something pony in her place would possibly ask "There is something I'm curious about." "You said earlier that ponies always leave valuable things in places like our destination, so that got me thinking, how many times exactly have you done this?"

Victoria Sponge · September 30, 2018

@Blitz Boom

Raspberry was worried by the prospect of encountering Pinkie again, especially if it meant her meeting her timid husband. She could see herself potentially getting in a fight if she refused to leave them alone, as much as Citrus's shy behaviour annoyed her she would always stick up for him if necessary.

"We'll figure something out with Pinkie Pie, as for my baking skills... baking isn't really my forte. You'll notice that I and my twins have taken a rather different approach to the rest of our family. Even Red would rather stick to wedding cakes and snacks than bake a batch of cupcakes or something of the sort. That's not to say I can't do it if I want to, knowing Lemon you've probably heard the story of the battenberg and Victoria spongecake that she decided to name her children after for whatever reason, but baking is definitely below flying and jam making in terms of fun and my own abilities."

Raspberry had always been keen on doing things her own way, even as a filly she had been very independent, her attitude was evident not only in her interests but in the side of the family that related directly to her. As she had mentioned, two of her daughters were not named after cakes and had taken on non-baking professions with flower arranging and chocolate making being their specialities.

When Benny addressed the approaching pegasus she appeared to be startled by his words, or maybe it was his toothy grin. Her eyes widened and she let out a muted shriek before stumbling backwards and tripping over her tail, landing firmly on her rump. She didn't get up again but instead began to shrink into her self, getting as close to the ground as possible, wanting to get further away from that which had surprised her.

Raspberry snorted with a chuckle.

"Good luck with her, I used to think my sister was easily frightened until I met this filly."

Strawberry had buried her head in her hooves and was breathing quickly, while Raspberry, despite beginning to look a little more concerned, did not make a move to help her, Lemon had finally noticed her friend's attempts to introduce herself and quickly trotted over to help. She sat down between the pegasus and Benny and stroked her mane, encouraging her to look up, making eye contact with her.

"It's ok Berry, he doesn't bite."

She giggled slightly but stopped when she saw the panic and fear that remained in Strawberry's eyes. She stood up and helped the pegasus to her hooves.

"Come on, if I made friends with the dragon then you definitely can. Nothing to be afraid of."

Raspberry nodded and took a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh. With Lemon's help she managed to get closer to Benny. Lemon glared at Raspberry who shook her head and looked the other way, she then turned to Benny.

"Sorry about this, Strawberry is trying her best, it was actually very impressive that she got as far as she did. You can introduce yourself now Berry."

She nudged Strawberry who slowly looked up at Benny, her mane falling to the side and finally revealing her whole face, which was still in an expression of terror, her eyes wide and wet looking directly into Benny's as she struggled to find her words.

"S..."

She gulped, the words couldn't quite find their way.

"I-I-I'm S-so..."

She suddenly looked away, burying her face in Lemon's mane. Lemon hugged her friend and smiled at Benny apologetically.

"If you thought I was scared of dragons you haven't seen anything yet."

A quiet and muffled voice emerged from Lemon's mane.

"I-I'm sorry Mr Dragon... I... just..."

She pulled her face away and slowly turned to look at him again, breathing slowly and deeply she tried again.

"I-I don't m-mean to be r-rude..."

Her face seemed a little more relaxed now, though the rest of her body was still as stiff as a plank, her legs stuck out at awkward angles and her tail flicking nervously behind her.

"I-I'm S-strawberry... Spr-sprinkle."

The poor thing was so nervous you could practically hear her heart pounding in her chest as she continued to breathe rapidly and stand in place as if she were made of stone.

"I-I'm so sc-scared of d... dr...."

She gulped again, trying to swallow the lump in her throat to allow her to speak more clearly.

"D-dragons... b-but y-you seem to b-be nice... m-my daughter l-likes you a-a l-lot!"

Her right hoof suddenly shot up, in a very robotic manner, it seemed she'd just about managed to muster up the bravery to shake his claws.

Lemon stepped back a bit, ready to stop Strawberry from attempting to run the second Benny reached out to shake her hoof, but she kept one hoof around the stiff mare, gently stroking her in an attempt to calm her.

"Just be slow Benny, once she warms up to you she'll be much friendlier I promise!"

Lemon and Raspberry hadn't been friends for the longest time, only a few years but like Battenberg and Sprinkles the two had quickly become inseparable. It was clear Lemon had had to deal with Raspberry before, every move she made seemed to calm the shaken mare more and more. Lemon hoped this would help her friend overcome her dragonphobia at least a little, in the same way she herself had begun to warm up to the idea of dragons and ponies being friends.

Rising Dusk · September 30, 2018

@Blitz Boom

It had become a mix of amusement and approval every time Dusk was able to witness the large spider bot interact with the ponies she has today. Using what limited appendages and movements she had available was impressive enough as she shook hooves with Cloud Dust. It was also about this time that Dusk was starting to realize he would forever be know as Interloper while everypony else at least got their names close. Even though most the ponies in the community just called him Detective since his promotion. Huh, now that he thought about it, his actual name was hardly used anymore. Oh well, he chuckled.

"She says hello and that she comes in peace," Dusk translated and produced a heartful giggle from the orange maned pegasus.

"She also wishes for you not to put her in the crusher," he told Cloud Dust, but then blinked on why he so, considering he could have just told her that wasn't going to happen.

"She's funny. Why would we do that?" Cloud Dust giggled and lowered her hoof after a moment of hoof shaking with the spider bot. The thought of doing so seemed rather absurd, as none of the ponies in the yard would even dream of putting such a pretty chassis in the crusher, or furnace, or any scrap pile really.

"She may have been raised with the wrong impression of ponies," he replied with a shrug. Not that he could blame her, considering how nervous Molotov was about pitchfork wielding ponies.

"Hehe, that's just silly," she giggled again. "Well, I better get back to work. It was nice to meet your Felicia. And nice to see you again Detective," giving the pair a smile as she turned about and returned to her work with the crusher. Rising Dusk returned the smile and waved farewell to the pegasus. Turning just in time to watch Rusty rejoin them.

"Well my dears, that concludes our tour. I need to get back to work myself," the older mare expressed and turned to face the spider bot. "I hope you enjoyed your visit Felicia. Please feel free to visit again."

Sekel · September 30, 2018

@FanOfManyShows

WATTS MECHANO

"You want to try something different rather than ask her out," Watts replied in a dumbfounded tone as she looked over her shoulder at the mare. She recognised her from earlier talking with that weird paper creature and looked back at Enigma. "You're really an enigma, Zealous," she smirked.

@Blitz Boom

KARMIC FATE/ATZY

This shut Atzy up for a few brief seconds before she could formulate any thoughts. She ignored everything Karmic tried to do to get control back and shook herself. Maybe some diplomacy would help her case instead of snarling the minute she got control? She cleared her throat and tried the diplomatic approach. "My, my. You are an angry fellow when provoked. I'll have to be careful about that in the future. As for my 'deal' with Karmic, it's more of a wait and see approach. Neither of us wanted to end up like this, yet when this mare opened up a chest, I latched on and didn't let go. Does that satisfy you, you big kitty cat?"

@Blitz Boom

AURORA LIGHTS

"I hardly think I matter at this point," Aurora mumbled, noticing everything going on from her own cell close to Onache but spoke loud enough for Onache to react. "Maybe it would be best if I join you? But you said you didn't want weaklings. That's probably why Queen Chrysalis threw me out in the first place."

@Blitz Boom, @EQ_Theta, @Seamore Sandwich, @Moonlit, @Storm Shine, @Lucid_Nightlight, @BloodDrops

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

"That is quite a backstory," Twilight coughed, trying to compose herself. She didn't expect to be given a quick history lesson and made sure to file the information about this Sphinx for later. "What kind of riddle did you give Ahuizotl and this Pharoah?"

Blitz Boom · September 30, 2018

@Lucid_Nightlight @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich @Storm Shine @EQ_Theta @BloodDrops

"So you are saying that we need to share love with one another, and you that I need to let go of my hatred towards Thorax? I assumed it were something more substantial when I saw the others change."

She had been there when the transformation happened, standing in shadows some way from them, and slipping away before she got noticed, as she were sure that nopony there would be forgiving about the presence of the Slaver Queen herself anymore. Especially the ponies, and they had Discord in tow. Soon as his magic was usable again, she would be a goner if she attempted anything.

Happy were about to respond to this, but halted, as he saw his queen turn towards the changeling who he honestly hadn't really taken notice of before now, because she had been so quiet. Kinda creepy honestly, but whatever floated her boat.

"I accept only the strong, because my hive cannot be too large, or it will be impossible to feed. If I go through this process, I may be more lenient on my requirements."

It was hard for her to speak kindly, after all the years doing exactly the opposite of that, but it were meant as a somewhat nice gesture. If she were able to get through the process, and no longer needed to worry about how her hive would need to be fed, she could expand without that being an issue. She would simply need enough land to get through it, as well as water and perhaps, considering them no longer needing love as a food source, some kind of vegetation. All things which this pumpkin-headed one could assist with, and which she seemed eager to do. A fortunate situation.

While she addressed this, Happy found his turn to speak.

"I don't hate ponies, and honestly, Thorax's kind were almost more disturbing than anything to me. I can let go. What about you, my queen?"

They locked eyes again, and he fell back into those predatory, searching eyes once more.

"Fine. or the sake of my hive, I will... Regret, what I felt towards Thorax and his kind. He have sacrificed more for his people than I gave him credit for."

You could almost her that it hurt her to say this, but the words were sincere. She couldn't lie here after all, and being faced with the facts, she were forced to admit to herself that as much as it hurt her pride, Thorax had been a better leader than her, since he were willing to make himself into something that had caught the ire of almost every other hive, all to ensure his subjects had a better life than what he had seen before that. And in the end, had she not always said that the only thing that truly mattered for a ruler, that they did was best for their subjects? No matter what?

It was a tough one to swallow, and doubly so when she had to factor in that it were ponies that had caused her to face it, so she needed a little time to actually process things and set her pride aside, which were the point where Anomaly leaned in towards Lucid with a huge grin on her face.

"That's an awesome idea! I'll take care of snacks and you get the party streamers, little hats and that sort of thing?"

A party sounded like a great way to celebrate everything. Deals made, lives changes, and more color-bugs. If that wasn't worth celebrating she wasn't entirely sure what today were. Lucid's half-draconequus status? Okay, they may have to celebrate that later. Kind of a birthday of sorts.

Meanwhile, Happy went over and cleared his throat to get his queens attention. Back in the human world he would've gone with poking her on the shoulder, but the last time he had tried to do that to Onache, she had nearly broken his hand, and this was a way more tense situation for her.

"Ready, my queen?"

"...How exactly are we to *share love?*"

Bad jokes from his side had actually gotten him a broken hand, so Happy refrained from making an obvious one right now.

"I don't know. I guess just try to push what we have towards one another like a Care Bear?"

"Which is what?"

"Sorry, human joke. But it kinda feels like just taking the lunchy feeling of love, relax your mind, and just push it ou-"

Happy tried to go through the motion of how he though this was supposed to happen as he talked, and before he knew it, he truly did give off something akin to what he mentioned before, and before he knew it were encapsulated in a floating, shining cocoon. Onache had... Difficulties simply letting go too, but seeing her most loyal drone - and quite literally her only remaining hive-member - going through that for her sake, seemed to help on things, though the excess of love she fired off were far greater than Happy's. He usually ate passively and were sated enough, whilst Onache had gorged not long before entering the desert.

(Insert shiny scene where cocoon breaks from the show, just with Onache instead of Thorax) (Aurora can join in on this too, if wanted)

The cocoon shattered and for the first time she could recall, Onache felt oddly whole, as she floated towards the ground, and felt the dry desert air drift past her.

"Awh, you look so much nicer now. Here, look in the mirror."

Anomaly got a mirror and held it out in front of Onache, who had to blink a few times at what exactly she were looking at.

"...I have chest fluff?"

For some reason, no matter what else she saw in the bizarre imagery, this was the thing that stuck out to her the most. She had always had hair before, but that had been in her mane and tail, which had now become more membranous instead. How in the world she had this though, when Thorax had not had a single strain on him though, puzzled her. Were this a thing for queens? Or her hive specifically?

She got the answer a few seconds later when Happy burst out, sporting the same chest fur as he fell into the sand. Grace had never been his strong side honestly, yet he seemed like he were actually nauseous over what had just taken place. A likely reaction to his role as still being a human changeling. He were now varying stages of green and yellow, with the same eyes as Onache, sporting similar, but bigger wings, and had a pair of what seemed like goat horns on his head,a long with the regular one, yet he didn't have membranes. He kept his long hair and tail, although now, it were less blue and more towards a lighter pink color. He also still had claws, though she had expected those to soften somewhat into something more akin to the hands he had before she turned him.

"Awh, you two are just adorable. Do you need anything? Huh? Huh?"

Anomaly jumped up and sown, shaking the mirror that Onache had returned to staring back into after glancing towards Happy, while the mixture in question were looking at his now whole, lighter hands, and trying to get used to this queasy feeling he had after getting through this.

"Urgh, I need a drink... Preferably a scotch."

==================================================================================================================

@Catpone Cerberus

"Honestly, I have no idea why there's a desert all of a sudden in the forest. Wasn't there the last time I was taking a stroll. Pretty weird, huh?

And let's see... Guess there's a whole bunch of new towns around from when you were around, but the princesses are still ruling, and the biggest environmental change I can think off right now, is down south of Equestria. You know that giant desert that used to be there? About 600 years ago, that suddenly bloomed into a lush jungle overnight. Nopony have any idea what that's all about, but it sure is weird. I was thinking about taking a trip there one day to figure out what's happening in there. Gotta save up some vacation days first though."

Berry scratched her head a little as they went on towards the river that should still be running a little further from here, trying to think of anything really impressive that had gone on that she hadn't mentioned yet. She had several of what she would define as major things, but she needed her charts to really prove her point about how it was all connected, otherwise she was just gonna sound crazy. Couldn't have that, or she'd perhaps get sent to the loonie bin again, and once had been plenty enough for her.

"Tirek escaped from Tartarus once, so that was kinda crazy. Oh, and Discord is back. I guess that one counts as being major. He got loose from his statue and wrecked some havoc, then got turned to stone again and now he's free and reformed. Pretty weird, but he's an overall fine enough guy now. Still a huge troll though."

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@Catpone Cerberus

"Around 10-20 times a year. You'd be surprised how many of these things that're around and have long since been stripped mostly clean by regular looters, adventurers, and archaeologists. A few we have to reopen, but we stay busy even without that."

"Of course, considering you can feel out valuables, perhaps we should revisit a good deal of them again later on, if we are to continue working together. There may be things trapped in the walls that have eluded everypony's eyes."

"Spot on there. It's not our main business to go around and scavenge already opened sites, but when we're in the areas, we don't see an issue in having a glance and seeing what might be lurking within. Far more fun to find one that's pristine though, that's where the real bits are.

Remember, we're not talking about your average pony grave here. These are places where ponies and other beings throughout history got buried with the valuables, or some cultists were there, etc. Few times it also turns out to be prisons for some kind of malignant entity, but this one ain't fresh, so we don't have to worry about that. Fair warning though, if you see anything with locks and seals on it, try not to touch it. It might be some kind of disease or curse."

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@EQ_Theta

"So Scarcity is a friend? Okay."

It sounded a lot like it. They helped her, she helped them, it sounded like friendship. She wasn't sure what the talk about influence meant, but it seemed important, so this Scarcity had to be an important friend. Omen would like to meet her at some point. or perhaps she had, and she had forgotten? Not everypony she had interacted with had given her their names, and others had fallen out of her mind because it wasn't much of a meeting to begin with. Just a few words, then away she went and never saw them again.

"It's something like that, yes. And in regards to the tides, Lin is right, it is in regards to water rising and falling. Low tide the temple should be accessible, while at high tide it may well be covered. It's a complicated matter how it works, but essentially, the sun and moon plays a strong factor in it, with moonrise tending to be when the tide sits the lowest. At least outside Equestria, where the sun and moon rises at set intervals. With the princesses raising either one here, I don't know what our window is, but when we see it, we need to react fast."

It were hard to really get anything scientifically going in regards to anything that had to do with the sun and moon in Equestria, since the princesses handled that lighting. How? Why? That were questions for historians he'd say. Rosa had never managed to find an answer that made sense at least, with his best bet being it having something to do with a kind of
force field* hanging over the entire country and messing with things, but even that had holes and flaws. Honestly, in this situation, he'd just go with the reason being magic, and then walk away from the conversation. It was far easier like that.

"Wait for the water to be low, then temple?"

"Essentially that, yes. And I think it's about time to get some rest so we can get there in good time, unless there is anything else?"

Rosa wasn't even sure he could sleep tonight, and if so, then it would most certainly not be a peaceful one, yet he needed his energy. When this was over, he could drag out his waking cycle a few days more so he'd eventually just collapse on his own and have a nice, dreamless sleep. One where he'd be completely defenseless, but it beat having to wrestle nightmares.

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@Rising Dusk

"ℕ𝕠𝕥 𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕜. 𝔼𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕦𝕝𝕥𝕤 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣."

These ponies were nice and all, but there had been some idea about how ponies would react to her based on how she were designed. Not only were she a large, sturdy version of one of the creatures they may encounter day to day, but considering she had been made to defend, she had also been under the assumption that she were supposed to be terrifying. Something which were strengthened by Molotov's paranoia about being seen as less of somepony who were advancing science, and more like a mad stallion toying with the concept of life itself. A fitting description of him in her mind, but apparently something that he didn't like being put to his name.

She had long assumed that there were some exaggeration in what he said, yet how much exactly were based in truth? She didn't know, so the safest option had been to assume that many things would go wrong, and that she'd be seen as a mockery of life or a threat, if not terrifying.

Yet, these ponies had started to turn around her view on how ponies might react. They were all surprised when meeting her initially, but overall the encounters were friendly and pleasant, as long as she remained the same, which were only fair, and a far better outcome than she had expected. Why, Felicia were even feeling sad that she had to wander away from it when Rusty had to get back to work, and the other resumed their duties as well. She understood that they had a function to complete though, and this were but the first meeting. Perhaps another time, she could arrive at a more fortunate time, and who knew? She may even be able to help with something, like Rusty had suggested earlier. It intrigued the spiderbot to think what would come out of that.

"𝔾𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕓𝕪𝕖 ℝ𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕦𝕤𝕥. 𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕤𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕡 𝕪𝕒𝕣𝕕 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕗𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤. 𝕀 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕟 𝕒𝕥 𝕒𝕟 𝕦𝕟𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖."

Rising her leg and waving again were starting to be a little easier, but she sure would appreciate a sign or something instead. It were simpler than performing an action her body was not build to accommodate.

With the others going back to work, Felicia turned to Dusky again. Still her favorite pony by lengths, even if she had enjoyed meeting Rusty and her crew.

"𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕣, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕟𝕖𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕗𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕤𝕠𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕠𝕠, 𝕪𝕖𝕤? 𝕀 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕟."

She were fully capable of finding her way back herself if it were, as she had mapped out the path they took here into her memory, so if Dusky needed to return to work, she would do so. His needs were important too, and she couldn't keep taking him away from his job, even if he was a good translator. In fact, she were quite sure that somewhere in town, there had to be somepony needing him present, and she were keeping him. It was not a sustainable thing to be selfish and keep him to herself then, even if she had his file under the document *Best friend* in her system.

====================================================================================================

@Victoria Sponge

"Ah okay. Well, I'm sure that there'd still be a market for jam as it is, seeing how much bread gets made and sold in Ponyville. No major wheat farm like the Apple family orchard, but there's a bunch of respectable fields around, and jam works pretty well with it.

Perhaps I'll buy some too to test out a few things too when everything is settled in. I'm always looking for new flavors to put in my sweets, and I've never really tried using jam in any of it so far. Could be fun trying to work with that. And speaking of fun... I'll try and have a chat with Pinkie when I get back home again, and ask her to keep a distance when it is. She's friends with a shy mare, so I'm hoping she'll understand the situation. If she won't, we'll figure something out. Can't have our new town members moving in with a bad taste in their muzzles."

Pop wanted to help whatever way she could to make things easier for Citrus when him and Raspberry would move to Ponyville, up to and including asking a few associates of hers to keep Pinkie at bay. Not by force, since that would be like attempting to halt the ocean with a spoon, but they'd be able to distract her with others targets for her partying needs. Perhaps Glamour Hoof would be the best of them really. He tended to have a need for somepony to arrange a festive setting now and again, and they were both nuts. Match made in an asylum right there.

Benny on the other hoof, had been more focused on Berry and her reaction to his usually friendly greeting. Usually it worked, but the mare had been more timid and terrified of dragons that he had thought it seemed, as she silently shrieked and scuttled backwards, whilst he stood there and slumped his ears, looking as guilty as a puppy that had just been found doing something bad.

What was it he had done that caused this though? Had it been the sudden movements? The teeth? Oh Celestia, that was it, wasn't it? He might not be large and terrifying, but he still had the sharp teeth of a predator, and with the poor mare not being fond of dragons already...

When Lemon helped Berry with enough support to try to approach Benny again, he didn't say anything at first, but just kept looking at her apologetically, and with his lips covering his teeth this time. As they got to the point where she suddenly held a hoof up to greet him, he very slowly, and very gently, placed her hoof in his hand and gave it a slight shake before just as carefully letting go of her.

"You don't need to apologize ma'am, I'm the one who should be sorry. I should've presented myself better than I did. Please forgive me."

He said all of this calmly, whilst still keeping his lips covering his teeth. It made his voice sound a little weird at times, yet not to a degree where he couldn't be understood.

"I know that dragons have a bad reputation, and sometimes for good reasons, but I swear on my badge that I have no intention of hurting anypony. If I in any sort of way appears threatening to you, it's not intentional, and I really hope that we can get along.

And speaking of Cupcake, she is a real sweetheart, Berry. And an impressive baker too. I'm sure she learned a great deal from you."

Benny hoped that complimenting Berry and her daughter were going to make things a little better. Ponies seemed to like compliments, and talks about family, and he really had no other idea what to talk about otherwise as an opener. That he were part of the guards? A nice thought, but his badge - or okay, more of a stamp of sorts - were on his armor, and that were back at the hotel room. Pop hadn't wanted him to bring it, in case something seemed out of place and he felt like stepping in to take care of what the local authorities should be dealing with instead. He still had a photo of him at the graduation in his bag though, but he didn't want to risk sudden movements right now. If the teeth alone had set off a panic attacking, rummaging through the saddlebag to his left would most definitely also do the trick.

==================================================================================================================

@Dji

"It's a start, insect mush."

He knew it was a petty response to being called a big kitty cat, but it was an annoying nickname. Certain members of his people had fought wars over less annoying nicknames, but quite frankly, Enzo just didn't care enough. Apathy had started to enter his mind at around the same time his wants when he got out of the temple had loosened up. To begin with, he wanted the entirety of Dragon Land to burn for the transgression, but then time passed and staying angry and vengeful all the time stop meaning anything. There wasn't anyone else but the vermin anyway, so what was the point?

So apathy began sneaking in over him, and his demands went more towards just getting a town to rule with an iron paw. Then a few servants of his choosing and a real temple, then just for half the crops in a given month, and so forth. Before he knew it, he just wanted someone to come around and talk to him, as well as someplace better to sit and some fish. The occasional treasure hunter that came for the element he actually wanted to succeed sometimes, just so he could go out and try and gain this, but there were hardly any, and they tended to fall for the traps the ones who build this place had set.

Honestly, if the two that had at last gotten to him hadn't been so arrogant, he would have let them straight through and told them to get that stupid thing off his neck, but instead he gave some resistance, as well as some pretty tame riddles. A little loophole in his forced contract there, in that while he had to give riddles to surrender the element, it did not need to be tough ones.

That all aside, he had a more pressing situation in front of him he supposed, though at this point, Enzo just let out a sigh - making sure the warm breath fell upon the mare - and went down on his belly again.

"You need to set terms, or you'll end up fighting one another, until the vessel is no more. Unless you have a way to regain a vessel outside of this one, is it not in your best interest to get along? Or are you aiming for her to lay an egg and be hatched within it? I have heard stranger tales than that."

You could both hear and see that he had lost that flare of anger that was present before, and just energy in general. He'd like to really get invested, but he just couldn't keep up being so riled forever. That sort of grudges were more befitting of his parents. Why, if they had been called what Enzo had, and been faced with the same attitude, Atzy/Karmic would currently be pulverized, or at the very least prepped for mummification. Mom especially had always been a traditionalist like that.

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@Pr0m4NV14

"Please just call me Nerzhei already. I don't particularly like the formal talk."

It had only ever come into play once she got to Equestria, but she had found that hearing her being called generic things like ma'am, miss or madam, quite frankly began to irritate her after a while. It was understandable for one who just met her, and she hadn't shared her name. That was fine. But when it kept happening over and over again from the same being it began to get on her nerves.

A good thing she were somewhat blissful right now - considering the circumstances - as it counteracted how annoyed she were with today as a whole, and by the current lack of her furry little friend. Made her more neutral in it, rather than seeming like too much of a big grouch.

"I saw her going down the aisles, talking about jokes of some kind. You should search the comedy section.

...Correction, we should. I want to know why you two are going to talk about a war, with spirits. Or even how."

Nerzhei put down the book she had been holding in a pile she thought it belonged in, judging by the title *Jam making 101*. Didn't seem to match the others she had found, but she were starting to suspect that some of these had been knocked down and mixed up, which she had put in their own pile, that had to be sorted again at some other time.

Rising up, she thought about what Mike just said, about the necklace and spirits. It sounded like necromancy to her, which were going to be nothing but bad news, and had to be monitored. How a pegasus could do that were a question for the ages, yet that was just another question that had to be answered in some fashion, which were why she would follow Mike as he went out to find Sorrow. The mare in question indeed standing over at the comedy aisle, and reading through a book of puns.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Blitz Boom

Lucid_Nightlight · September 30, 2018

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine @BloodDrops @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich

"Now all we need to do is work on the hive, which should be easy once we have the perfect location. Since you're reformed, we don't need to build it on limestone. So, what would you consider to be an ideal location for building the hive?"

Lucid was happy to see things solved without violence. To him, this was the perfect outcome, especially with the party idea that Anomaly seemed to agree to.

"We'll need a chocolate fountain, marshmallows, one of those colorful floors, and a whole lot of soft drinks!"

When Lucid heard the joke that Happy told, he covered Pringle's ears so that the lizard wouldn't hear it.

"Hey, not near the innocent lizard!"

After hearing Happy's comment on needing a drink, Pringle looked up at Lucid.

"Pringle, even I'm not legally allowed to drink, so what makes you think that you are?"

Pringle stared at the poquus.

"Yes, root beer is fine."

Pr0m4NV14 · October 1, 2018

@Blitz Boom

“Sorrow! Sorrow!” Mike called out, his hooves rapidly clicking on the hard, shiny floor as he trotted down the Comedy Isle.

”Sorrow, I know you’re kinda booked with those jokes that might be tickling your spine, but there’s something I need you to cover.” He said to the taller Pegasus, placing the book on the shelf with it open to the absurdly short entry that had interested the young Earth Pony.

”I found my ancestor in this book, and there isn’t much to cover. I was wondering if one of those really kind um.. Spirits would know something about the Shadow War?” He said, pausing to find a polite way to refer to whatever was Leigon.

”Neeh... Ner.. (Mike proceeded to botch the name of the dragoness) said that you’d be in here.”

Catpone Cerberus · October 1, 2018

@Blitz Boom
Nada listened patiently as berry explained, though yet again she didn't really know what he was talking about, since Discord and Tirek both had first appeared after her exile and she never really had went to the south-side of Equestria, but she had an idea who Discord could be, based on his name. "Yet again nothing you said rings any bells, but based on the name, I assume that Discord had something to do with the two times when everything went weird?" "And speaking of weird, it indeed is odd that desert just appeared out of nowhere....wait..." she suddenly realized something again "The princesses?" "Are you talking about those Alicorn sisters training under that bearded one?" she had already forgot his name, thankfully "They too are still alive? and ruling nonetheless?"
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As Spicy started explaining, Ruby found herself more interested than she had assumed, she had never really thought about searching through old burial places for treasure, but now that she thought about it, she had read somewhere that ponies used to put lot of things in them. But as Spicy mentioned curses, she started thinking about the risk and worth of exploring the sites, because though many pony diseases didn't effect her that strongly, curses were something even she knew to stay away from, and malignant entities, they sounded like something that could be a help on her guest to riches if it wasn't personal haunting type of thing, she needed to investigate that a bit at some point. "Interesting, I have never really thought that this type of thing could be that profitable, but now that you mention it, it makes sense." "Maybe if this ends up being worth it, I could consider Marley's suggestion." Speaking of Marley, Ruby was getting hungry and could feel her stomach rumbling, they were in a forest now, so that wasn't a problem, but she needed to get away from the two to hunt some food, though she was going to do it in her pony form, because she didn't want to end up roasting the two by accident.

EQ_Theta · October 1, 2018

@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight @BloodDrops @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich

Fluttershy looked on in awe as the transformations happened before her eyes. It was the outcome she had hoped and seeing this change for herself, it was every bit as accurate as Starlight said. Amidst the situation she found herself in, this one was more than just a nice distraction. Now that Onache and Happy metamorphosed into the changelings resembling thorax and his hive, it was time to plan for the future.

It wasn't her area of expertise, but having enough friends acquainted with the changelings meant it was possible to start anew with less difficulties. Perhaps going to Thorax was a first step towards rebuilding. It would be a little easier with having fewer subjects to manage for now, and things could gradually grow steady with time. Maybe it was high time to see things from a different perspective.

"May I suggest going to Thorax?" Fluttershy turned to Onache, still marveling at the transformation. Seeing fluffy hair on a changeling was something unexpected. "Finding a place suitable to rebuild the hive is a start but it would be a good idea to learn about it from someone who has first-hoof experience with the challenges of starting anew. It would make things a little easier if you had an idea of what to expect. I heard he had problems with a changeling who refused to change like him and his hive."

=================================================================================================================================

@Blitz Boom

"I guess you can say Scarcity proposed a mutually beneficial deal. Both sides get something good but we have to hold up our end of the bargain. Who knows what kind of pony she'll be if we don't succeed. But I guess that's something we shouldn't worry too much about. We can talk more in the morning, everyone. Better get some much needed rest."

"Alright then," Sen nodded and looked to everyone in camp with a smile. "Rest well, everyone. We've got a big day tomorrow!"

Sen turned in for the evening, harboring some conflicting thoughts about what had just happened today. For one, it was nice to see Rosa feeling better, even if it might be a temporary reprieve before the feelings of dread return, if they would. Coming from personal experience, it could happen. But having friends and just being able to talk about it makes bearing that kind of burden a little easier. Sen's been having fewer nightmares ever since, and having both Lin and Omen for company always put him at ease. On the other hand, bringing up old wounds just makes trying to forget them more difficult. The swamp brought it out and being able to move on from it... it wouldn't make things easier. He didn't have to go in to swamp to remember how much of a wreck he when he returned home.

As for Lin, not being able to sleep meant she'd be watching the fire tonight. It was relatively simple: add fuel when it was going to go out but not too much to keep the flames small. Perhaps they had too much kindling for the evening. Either way, it was just her and Omen left to keep watch. She opened a gate back home to retrieve some reading material to pass the time, though she still had something on her mind.

"Omen... something's been bothering me. Remember that talk we had back at the village? About chaos and how you don't feel like you'd fit in a world that was more orderly than the one Discord made? I'd want to ask if it was okay if we could, I don't know, talk to Discord about this when we get a chance. I thought maybe if staying with me and Sen in the village for prolonged periods of time isn't for you, you'd have a realm with an amount of chaos you're comfortable with to go to."

Edited October 1, 2018 by EQ_Theta

Seamore Sandwich · October 1, 2018

@Blitz Boom

Marcus responded quickly, “Why do you not heal the white-eyed in the Sacred Springs? That has always been the way. The white-eyed would be brought to the Sacred Springs for their Reawakening. It was a very important ceremony where their life essence would be restored, and their amulet would be transferred to the next to take their place. How could this be forgotten? This must be rectified! And none were to be forced into such a life! I am apalled at this behavior! We must restore this order to what it once was!” He turned to Sugar Lime, and said loudly so all could hear, “Please bring me the elders, that they may answer my questions!” It wasn’t said in a way that directed the anger towards Sugar, just loudly so everyone would know he would not tolerate such behavior, and that this was not what he stood for.

BloodDrops · October 1, 2018

22 hours ago, Blitz Boom said:

"So you are saying that we need to share love with one another, and you that I need to let go of my hatred towards Thorax? I assumed it were something more substantial when I saw the others change."

She had been there when the transformation happened, standing in shadows some way from them, and slipping away before she got noticed, as she were sure that nopony there would be forgiving about the presence of the Slaver Queen herself anymore. Especially the ponies, and they had Discord in tow. Soon as his magic was usable again, she would be a goner if she attempted anything.

Happy were about to respond to this, but halted, as he saw his queen turn towards the changeling who he honestly hadn't really taken notice of before now, because she had been so quiet. Kinda creepy honestly, but whatever floated her boat.

"I accept only the strong, because my hive cannot be too large, or it will be impossible to feed. If I go through this process, I may be more lenient on my requirements."

It was hard for her to speak kindly, after all the years doing exactly the opposite of that, but it were meant as a somewhat nice gesture. If she were able to get through the process, and no longer needed to worry about how her hive would need to be fed, she could expand without that being an issue. She would simply need enough land to get through it, as well as water and perhaps, considering them no longer needing love as a food source, some kind of vegetation. All things which this pumpkin-headed one could assist with, and which she seemed eager to do. A fortunate situation.

While she addressed this, Happy found his turn to speak.

"I don't hate ponies, and honestly, Thorax's kind were almost more disturbing than anything to me. I can let go. What about you, my queen?"

They locked eyes again, and he fell back into those predatory, searching eyes once more.

"Fine. or the sake of my hive, I will... Regret, what I felt towards Thorax and his kind. He have sacrificed more for his people than I gave him credit for."

You could almost her that it hurt her to say this, but the words were sincere. She couldn't lie here after all, and being faced with the facts, she were forced to admit to herself that as much as it hurt her pride, Thorax had been a better leader than her, since he were willing to make himself into something that had caught the ire of almost every other hive, all to ensure his subjects had a better life than what he had seen before that. And in the end, had she not always said that the only thing that truly mattered for a ruler, that they did was best for their subjects? No matter what?

It was a tough one to swallow, and doubly so when she had to factor in that it were ponies that had caused her to face it, so she needed a little time to actually process things and set her pride aside, which were the point where Anomaly leaned in towards Lucid with a huge grin on her face.

"That's an awesome idea! I'll take care of snacks and you get the party streamers, little hats and that sort of thing?"

A party sounded like a great way to celebrate everything. Deals made, lives changes, and more color-bugs. If that wasn't worth celebrating she wasn't entirely sure what today were. Lucid's half-draconequus status? Okay, they may have to celebrate that later. Kind of a birthday of sorts.

Meanwhile, Happy went over and cleared his throat to get his queens attention. Back in the human world he would've gone with poking her on the shoulder, but the last time he had tried to do that to Onache, she had nearly broken his hand, and this was a way more tense situation for her.

"Ready, my queen?"

"...How exactly are we to *share love?*"

Bad jokes from his side had actually gotten him a broken hand, so Happy refrained from making an obvious one right now.

"I don't know. I guess just try to push what we have towards one another like a Care Bear?"

"Which is what?"

"Sorry, human joke. But it kinda feels like just taking the lunchy feeling of love, relax your mind, and just push it ou-"

Happy tried to go through the motion of how he though this was supposed to happen as he talked, and before he knew it, he truly did give off something akin to what he mentioned before, and before he knew it were encapsulated in a floating, shining cocoon. Onache had... Difficulties simply letting go too, but seeing her most loyal drone - and quite literally her only remaining hive-member - going through that for her sake, seemed to help on things, though the excess of love she fired off were far greater than Happy's. He usually ate passively and were sated enough, whilst Onache had gorged not long before entering the desert.

(Insert shiny scene where cocoon breaks from the show, just with Onache instead of Thorax) (Aurora can join in on this too, if wanted)

The cocoon shattered and for the first time she could recall, Onache felt oddly whole, as she floated towards the ground, and felt the dry desert air drift past her.

"Awh, you look so much nicer now. Here, look in the mirror."

Anomaly got a mirror and held it out in front of Onache, who had to blink a few times at what exactly she were looking at.

"...I have chest fluff?"

For some reason, no matter what else she saw in the bizarre imagery, this was the thing that stuck out to her the most. She had always had hair before, but that had been in her mane and tail, which had now become more membranous instead. How in the world she had this though, when Thorax had not had a single strain on him though, puzzled her. Were this a thing for queens? Or her hive specifically?

She got the answer a few seconds later when Happy burst out, sporting the same chest fur as he fell into the sand. Grace had never been his strong side honestly, yet he seemed like he were actually nauseous over what had just taken place. A likely reaction to his role as still being a human changeling. He were now varying stages of green and yellow, with the same eyes as Onache, sporting similar, but bigger wings, and had a pair of what seemed like goat horns on his head,a long with the regular one, yet he didn't have membranes. He kept his long hair and tail, although now, it were less blue and more towards a lighter pink color. He also still had claws, though she had expected those to soften somewhat into something more akin to the hands he had before she turned him.

"Awh, you two are just adorable. Do you need anything? Huh? Huh?"

Anomaly jumped up and sown, shaking the mirror that Onache had returned to staring back into after glancing towards Happy, while the mixture in question were looking at his now whole, lighter hands, and trying to get used to this queasy feeling he had after getting through this.

"Urgh, I need a drink... Preferably a scotch."

The Sphinx had been pretending to be sleeping, though she infact had been watching the whole thing, she waited until she was sure of the outcome and then stood up and looked down at them contented, they now met all of her criteria and she was very pleased at that, she had been away for too long that's for sure. She flicked her tail and purred at the outcome, just as she had predicted and without any prompting from her, well not much at any rate. She preferred the whole cute reformed look, so it was much better then the evil slaver look, though she would have preferred the opposite in her youth.

"Well, you two look ready to start a hive together, now that you no longer are a parasite on the local vicinity i'm sure you will get used to your new looks. And on what you need, you have it right here, if you will agree to live in it and take care of it" she said with a smile. She pointed to the temple with her tail which suddenly came much closer to the group, "when you step inside it then it will change to what you would need it to take care off your new hive" she said with a smile.

The crown upon the Sphinx's head turned bright white and started to glow, making her much more pleased with herself. She had done the right thing after all and this problem was solved.

22 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

"Now all we need to do is work on the hive, which should be easy once we have the perfect location. Since you're reformed, we don't need to build it on limestone. So, what would you consider to be an ideal location for building the hive?"

"Why build it when they can have my temple since I no longer need it. I have no purpose here since my goal has been achieved" she giggled. She had another place to visit now, a more permanent settlement.

On 9/30/2018 at 12:51 PM, Dji said:

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

"That is quite a backstory," Twilight coughed, trying to compose herself. She didn't expect to be given a quick history lesson and made sure to file the information about this Sphinx for later. "What kind of riddle did you give Ahuizotl and this Pharoah?"

The Sphinx turned her attention back to Twilight. She smiled "Oh a rather simple one, Ten Fish are in a Tank. Two drown, Four swim away and Three Die. How many are left?" she told her, she flicked her tail "The Pharoah knew no evil so logically solved it in his own time, where Ahuizotl only saw evil and was tricked into the easy answer" she chuckled. She liked tricky questions and fools who rushed into them.

"You can guess it Princess, but I will only be explaining one of your questions if you do. One your all going to be thinking about now" she remarked.

5 hours ago, EQ_Theta said:

"May I suggest going to Thorax?" Fluttershy turned to Onache, still marveling at the transformation. Seeing fluffy hair on a changeling was something unexpected. "Finding a place suitable to rebuild the hive is a start but it would be a good idea to learn about it from someone who has first-hoof experience with the challenges of starting anew. It would make things a little easier if you had an idea of what to expect. I heard he had problems with a changeling who refused to change like him and his hive."

The Sphinx blinked at the suggestion and watched both her and Onache wondering what she would say to the idea. "I concur, unless you plan on invading him still. Getting to know him might make you friendly towards him, though if your still thinking of invading then you will probably want to know how he thinks to be able to attack him successfully. It matters not to myself" she said with a small chuckle.

She was pretty sure that Onache could rule on her own, after all she transformed to provide for her hive, more noble then enslaving others and breaking there minds.

Rising Dusk · October 2, 2018

@Blitz Boom

Rising Dusk wasn't afraid to claim this outing with Felicia as a victory, although he would still reserve caution. The scrap yard crew were a good bunch, but not everypony in the city, or even Equestria larger, were going to be the same. There were still ponies out there that mistrusted even close non-pony allies, and Felicia was just a new being to add to that list. In time though, hopefully the large spider bot would get to learn that those few should not turn her away from the many friendly ponies that are out there.

"Felicia says farewell and that she'll return sometime for a visit," the midnight blue stallion translated for the crew one last time before giving them a wave of his hoof. Turning, he made his way toward the exit to the scrap yard. Again though, forever the Interloper. At this point hearing it caused the detective to let free a slight snicker, but he didn't break stride on his way out of the scrap yard.

"Worry not Felicia, I don't have work today. We can walk back to the workshop and finish that cage project with Molotov," he explained. Getting back to the road that separated the scrap yard from the maze of alleys that would be their paths back to the workshop. Dutifully looking both ways to make sure the roads were still mostly clear of busy taxis and ponies. Still looked like they were pretty much in the clean and Dusk trotted across the street to make his way into the alley.

"If you not longer have the love for filling the function of a guard, you may want to consider taking up Rusty's offer and see if you may want to find a new one at the scrap yard," Dusk brought up, being a bit more chatty than his trip over here to begin with as they reversed their trek through the hidden shortcuts of the city on their way back to her home. After saying that though, he might have to make sure Felicia knew the difference between a normal job and what she experience as the warden of the workshop. He wasn't quite sure of her grasp of the concept of only performing duties for only a hoof full of hours and then the rest were her own free time.

Blitz Boom · October 2, 2018

@Lucid_Nightlight @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich @Storm Shine @EQ_Theta @Lucid_Nightlight

Onache turned from the mirror and looked around her, trying to find words but every time she attempted, it were about to come out as a snide comment, and she closed her muzzle before she let those words out. With what she were presented with here, and the connections she were going to have to make because of the laws of this land that had been set, she had to strain herself to not accidentally insult anypony right now.

"We're getting a roof over our heads? I dunno who you are miss, but that's mighty kind of ya. Thank you."

Happy was still looking for that drink, but was starting to think that there just wasn't something like that here. And if there were, it were likely going to be some weak cider. You know what? He'd take that right now. The sphinx's offer was really nice, and he responded to it as you should when given a home - minus the jumping up and down whilst screaming - but this were a weird situation, and his stomach was feeling sort of queasy, so yeah, he could really use a drink.

"I dunno what a scotch is, but I have some spiced pumpkin latte. Eh? Eh?"

Anomaly began poking him with this wooden cup almost filled with a liquid straight out of a coffee bar, though Happy were better off not knowing where it came from. If his stomach was bad, then knowing he were drinking from a draconequus's head was likely not going to help.

"Better than cider. Thanks."

Happy grabbed the cup and began to take some sips. Wasn't too bad really. Warm, smooth flavor, everything. Reminded him a little of home unfortunately, but nevermind that.

"...We will take the offer, and make the temple our home. Much appreciated."

Onache finally found her tongue and talked to the sphinx, who everything considered, were owed the most right now in her mind. Words were all fine and good, but a temple were something else. A malleable one at that. A fine start point for a miniature nation.

"As for Thorax... I will send word to him, yet if he answers will remain to be seen. I did not treat him kindly when I were stationed with Chrysalis, nor many others in his hive. We will see if he can let go of the past and look forward.

And the changeling you're referring to is likely Phalanx. One of his many siblings, and one of the few I saw did not change before I left the hive. A tough nut to crack that one, unless you apply enough pressure and beatings to get him in line. I suppose I would need to apologize for that one if I meet him."

Onache had not been a kind changeling when she worked for Chrysalis for a time. She had been supposed to train the changelings in fighting, and made the sturdier, and so she did. Partially by beating them senseless, and tormenting them until they broke, at which point she could begin rebuilding them into something more useful. If she were to try and connect with Thorax, she'd have to try and say sorry for that, along with her actions in general. She had been one of the crueler and more infamous changeling queens outside from outside Equestria, and she had never had an issue living up to her reputation. That sort of thing gave you enemies among the kinder of their kind, which were those she now had to communicate with. Not the most fortunate of situations, but it were what it were.

Her eyes next went to the princess, who were speaking with the sphinx about history of all things. Surprisingly jaded that one were it seemed, since that were the thing that drew her in, but Equestria tended to be a magnet for all kinds of weird and wrong things. She supposed that not everypony would be able to get through a life of that without being unable to find every weird thing all that enticing.

"Remember that the deals are still in place, princess. We will show no hostility towards you, and in turn, you won't attack us either."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. You're all too serious. It's time to party!!!"

Anomaly broke in before the queen could go any further and then began to use her magic to snap all kinds of edible things into existence. Mostly snacks from a lot of different places she had been and tasted, along with bisquits that looked like her, soda that looked more like glowing lava lamps, several bowls dipping sauce and nacho cheese, along with varied other things. Lucid were supposed to be in charge of small hats and such, so she let him have his fun with that, and focused on the biological matter that were food and drinks.

"Try the chocolate, it's with Saddle Arabian butter milk. It's delicious."

==================================================================================================================

@Catpone Cerberus

"Man, you've really been out of the loop.

Discord is the Spirit of Chaos, who got himself turned to stone by Celestia and Luna millennia ago. He broke free a few years ago, caused some weirdness, and now he's a good guy. Sort of. I don't really know how deep that rabbit hole goes, you'd have to ask his marefriend Fluttershy about that."

Berry had seen Discord being insanely jealous and even talking to himself about feeling left out when Fluttershy were talking with others before. She wasn't sure if there was an actual relationship going there - and she sure as hay wasn't gonna poke to him about that - but it was pretty obvious that he had a crush on her at least. Heh, crazy old loon.

"Tirek was a centaur that stole magic, got trapped in Tartarus, got out and rinse repeat. I wasn't home at the time, so I didn't really see anything, just heard he got himself locked up again.

And yeah, Celestia and Luna runs this show. I'm not too big on that history as it's kinda boring, but at some point the three pony sub-races got over their bickering, and the alicorn sisters were chosen as their leaders. They've been at it ever since. Except Luna. She got herself trapped in the moon for a millennia after going ballistic over her work not being appreciated enough, and trying to cast the world into eternal night. Still amazed she isn't hostile to Celestia for doing that to her, but that's their weird life, not mine.

They were also the ones that stopped Discord the first time. I'm sure that gave them some street cred when it came down to choosing leaders."

The stream wasn't into view yet, but she could hear the water flowing down the river. A few trees more and presto, fish for her new friend. Here was hoping it wasn't going to get too graphic and shark-like.

=================================================================================================================

@Catpone Cerberus

"Like I always say: Why let morals stop you from getting rich?"

Spicy were hoping more and more that this mare were going to be legit, and not some kind of turncoat, undercover agent, or untrustworthy when it came to the actual work. She seemed like the right mix between dangerous and lacking in morals to really get somewhere in this world, long as she got a little helping hoof towards it, and Spicy would be more than happy to provide that. For a cut of the profits, of course. This wasn't a charity.

"I for one would welcome some intellectual company for a change. It can get tiring speaking to this meathead sometimes."

"Itching for a fight, are we tough guy?"

"Hardly. I could grind you into dust in seconds. I'm just saying that it would be a good change of pace to speak with someone else for a change. And circling around to some of our old nesting spots wouldn't be a bad side effect either. I have a few feathers to ruffle here and there."

"Thinking about Officer Goldie again, are ya? Wasn't one restraining order enough for you?"

"She simply enjoys playing hard to get. Remaining confident will eventually swoon her and grant me a fine mate, whilst you're going to be an old spinster and die alone, surrounded by your money."

"And if you keep that up, and I'm gonna add to that pile by selling your first clutch of eggs on the market."

"If you want to experience old age, you're not getting anywhere near them."

With the two of them going at eachother extra hard right now - seriously, how did they get along on a day to day basis? - it could prove a good enough distraction for Ruby to wander off and not be taken too much notice of.

==========================================================================================================

@EQ_Theta

"Believe me Lin, I've only seen a sliver of the pony that Scarcity actually is, and I'm guaranteeing that you're right in not wanting to catch her ire. But we have plenty of time to go, so there is little to worry about unless something have happened at the temple. We'll worry about that when we get there though. Be at peace."

Lin had already vented her concerns about their *friend* so Rosa saw no issue in adding his own, minor observation to support her claim. No matter how much she were spied on, by no matter how many of his kind, there wasn't a shred of evidence against her. Plenty were seen, as she brazenly shoved it in their faces just to discourage them when in the end, they wouldn't find anything, and that was a tough one to pull off. How exactly he had no idea, but if there was one thing he could say about Scarcity without the shadow of a doubt, it were that she were a problem solver, and may Celestia have mercy upon the poor beings who became her target.

That being said, they still had about a day and a half to go, as the swamp had not taken too long to traverse - the panicked running may have something to do with that - so if they got there before midday, they would have long enough to even wait for the tides, in case they were not in their favor when they arrived.

So he fluttered up to the sturdiest branch he could see, and swung his tail around the best branch he could get a reasonable grip on, then closed his wings around himself. It were going to be some time before he dared attempt rest, but he'd try, and hope the nightmare's weren't as severe as he feared.

Omen said goodnight to both him and Sen, then spend the foreseeable future starring at the bat pony and how he were sleeping. She may have spend the entire night doing so, like when she kept watch over Sen in previous times, if not for Lin, who decided to speak with her after a trip through a portal. Where it led, Omen had no idea, but it seemed to be inside a building, and she were getting things from there... Were she stealing? Seemed like it, but it wasn't like that was really a problem anyway. Omen barely understood any laws as it were, so she didn't see anything wrong in it.

The words that came from Lin confused her though. It sounded like something the two of them could have talked about, and the questions afterwards made sense enough, but when had they talked about this?

"We were in a village? When?"

She still had a massive blank space in her memory after she had to clear her head and handle the orb, so between them going into the forest to look for the village and Mother's realm, she only had fragments, and nothing she could grasp at right now seemed to indicate a village. Huts and other longma? She thought so, but it were barely any that came to mind, and the area it laid in were a complete bust. It were like she had been on small pieces of land a few times that looked like a place in the woods, but it were too brief to get any idea of the details around the place.

Perhaps she should just answer the other questions, and then Lin would fill her in about the first things?

"Mother says it's home, but it feels wrong. Too stable. Always the same.

Master Discord can make the world right again, but the snake man says it's wrong. Ponies says it's wrong. You want us to talk to him about... Making a little of the world right again? Many places nopony lives, but don't know if master will. Fickle is he. Never know what he does."

======================================================================================================

@Rising Dusk

The cage project. A strange little construction that could mean much, but it were still in the beginning stages. Magic applications and construction only, with nothing truly tested yet. Felicia were aware that the two ponies had high hopes for it, but she didn't think it were going to work so soon. Though, Dusky and Molotov were determined little ponies. They may yet end up surprising her.

As they went on their way towards the outskirts of the scrap yard, Felicia were thinking about the optimal time for her to perhaps wander away from the workshop and go here. Night were ruled out as per her agreement, she'd need to watch out at least sometimes, and when the ponies slept seemed like the most important time to stay there until her replacement got made, but further she didn't get with that thought before Dusky asked her a question that she considered as taking priority. Partially because her current line of thoughts could be done at night, when there was nopony there, and partially because the officer took priority over several things in her mind.

"𝕀 𝕔𝕒𝕟 𝕞𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕙 𝕞𝕪 𝕗𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖. 𝔸𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕤𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕤, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕘𝕦𝕒𝕣𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞. 𝔹𝕦𝕥 𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕒 𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝕝𝕒𝕣𝕘𝕖 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖. 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕓𝕖 𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕒𝕥 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕤, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕚𝕣 𝕗𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤."

The scrap yard was a great place, with some lovely ponies that she would have no issue both helping with whatever Rusty had in mind, and against potential attackers, but Felicia had not wanted her freedom to just go to 1 other place. She wanted to be out in the world and explore it, even though she knew that it was at this point, a very bad idea to even try. She didn't know the laws of the land, nopony knew her, and since she couldn't speak in ways they understood, things could get ugly. She had to wait for certain upgrades before it was possible, though in the long run, she were going to wander off and explore on her own. Potentially with somepony. There had to be somepony whose function were to explore, or travel a lot, yes?

"𝕀 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕀 𝕒𝕞 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕣𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕗𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥, 𝕓𝕦𝕥 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕝𝕡. 𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕗𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕔𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕠, 𝕪𝕖𝕤? 𝔻𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕟𝕖𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜?"

====================================================================================================

@Seamore Sandwich

Sugar just stood there, stunned and with a quivering lower lip.

"Then... They died for nothing? Everypony that's-"

He felt a meaty hoof on his shoulder and looked around to see Brute had taken a grip in him.

"What's done is done, try and focus on the present."

She admitted, it was a weird one to follow, but essentially it sounded like this cult or whatever it were, had been sacrificed because some scriptures had been altered, forgotten, or just removed. It frankly made her want to punch some teeth out, and she completely understood the reaction of Sugar, but if they were to get this resolved, he had to get a move on.

"I-I'll get them... Dear Celestia, what have we done?"

He mumbled the last to himself as he scurried out of the room and headed for the elders room in haste, with Brute joining him in case some actual pain had to be doled out. Tears began to drip down from his face before he even exited the room, but he tried to ignore it and just moved on. He didn't even see the concerned look that Belladonna gave him on his way out. She wasn't the biggest when it came to emotions, but she still felt sympathy for her brother at what he had to face now. Something she had tried to tell him for years mind you, yet now were not the time to bring that up. It would be tactless.

So instead she looked up towards the irate Marcus, who had surprised him with both his outburst, and his response. She had ventured a statistical guess that his view on their situation would not have been favorable, but the things he said about a spring, and being revived... It were far too late for her parents, but her brother could get a second chance at life like this, and that were more than she had ever actually dreamed of. She had simply hoped that he could have his diminished time slowed down, so that he'd have a few more years.

"I underestimated you it seems. Fortunate, though it does bring up the question of whatever the elders neglect were with malicious intent or simply out of idiocy. As I discussed, I would put the statistical odds higher at it being on purpose, as otherwise it would seem pointless to rewrite and destroy older scripture and records, correct? If need be, I can provide evidence if they claim it to be otherwise.

Regardless, you have presented a response that should help clear the olden ways, and save my brothers life. I owe you appreciation for that, though I reserve some judgement until I have witnessed things actually turning around. Words are a good beginning, yet actions speaks louder. I'm sure that you would agree to at least some extend, Marcus."

She spoke to him with a more respectful neutrality than she had before, and didn't spend time belittling the ways she had grown up with, as a sign of good will to somepony who seemed to have a grasp on changing things for the better. His reaction to this were minor compared to what would happen when the elders got here though. That should be fairly interesting.

Somehow, she hoped they would resist being brought here though. The unicorn with the rather large body mass would likely drag them out here by force if needed, and Belladonna could not see herself feeling any amount of pity or sympathy for them. Not unless she had data to prove that in some way, they were also victims, which she found unlikely.

==================================================================================================================

@Pr0m4NV14

The puns made Nerzhei roll her eyes. She really wasn't a fan of low brow comedy like that unless it was done right, and she wasn't entirely sure if this pony were just messing with her by making them intentionally bad. She still had yet to really get a grasp on how the equines worked, and until recently, didn't care much either. Even when she moved here to Equestria, she had preferred to stay away and to herself, where she could bury down in her studies. Seeing this library though, made her think that she needed to find a place where she could work on making a house within the actual city limits, so she wouldn't be too far away from here. She could imagine spending quite a long time within this place, to a point where she may need to be dusted off now and again.

"It's Nerzhei. N-E-R-Z-H-E-I. Try and get it right."

It was a petty thing to focus on next, as they had found Sorrow - who judging by the giggling, seemed to like the puns - but mispronouncing her name were kind of irritating as well. Just because she wasn't named after some sort of activity or food like most ponies seemed to be, it did not mean that her name should be all that difficult to pronounce.

"Shadow Wars you say? Uhm... I dunno, Legion? Does that ring a bell?"

The only ones who'd be able to hear the response would be the spirit in Mike's sword, and Sorrow herself, though considering the look on the mare's face, you could see that it wasn't all that great news she got back, even from not listening in.

"They say that they used to have one, but he moved on. We'll probably have to go to wherever that war took place and see if any spirits lingered to figure out more. Does it say in any of these books where the Shadow Wars took place? Funny name for a war really."

"War is not entertaining, but more to the point, are you carrying around a skull filled with spirits?"

"No. There's only a few over twenty in there. Far from full."

The dragoness put her index and thumb around her nose, covering her eyes and trying to keep a migraine attack down.

"Just what this day needs. Necromancers."

"Hey, I'm not a necromancer. My grandma is. I just talk with spirits."

Catpone Cerberus · October 2, 2018

@Blitz Boom
"I'm noticing a pattern here." Nada commented, her tone was..not pleased, but not displeased either "And what is with everything happening millennia ago?" "I'm not sure if I'm glad or disappointed that I missed that part of history." she was going to continue, but then she heard sound of river and dashed past Berry, and as she got closer, she could smell the delicious smell of fish she had missed so much.

When she reached the river, she went right for the fishing, and fortunately to Berry, it wasn't too graphic, because she mostly ate the fish whole and even that happened mostly underwater.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruby agreed on Spicy's comment about morals, though as firm believer of survival of the fittest, to her the concept was stupid invention by the ponies in the first place. She was going to comment on it, but when she noticed the two had started to bicker about nonsense again, so she just shrugged and walked into the forest, she might as well use the opportunity to go eat something, Too bad you two are useful.

When Ruby figured she far enough from the duo, she didn't waste any time and started building a simple trap. Sure it could been lot easier to just turn to her real form and hunt something down, but she didn't want take the risk that Spicy or Marley walking on her and getting roasted out of reflex, and really, she kinda wanted to know their reactions if they walked on her in her pony form eating meat, at least there was change for amusement there if things went wrong.

After she was finished with the trap, Ruby walked deeper into the forest until she found a rabbit that hadn't noticed her yet, she then sneaked behind it and scared it so it started running to the direction of her trap, and got caught in it. She then walked to said trap satisfied smile on her face as she snapped the rabbit's neck so it wouldn't injure her fragile pony-body, starting to take it down, and eventually if she wasn't interrupted, eating it with help of a sharp rock she had found laying around.

FanOfManyShows · October 2, 2018

@Blitz Boom

Glancing above, curiosity struck her at what these things were, since they were a new addition to the surveillance this place had before. "Should the flower be much farther from here?" She whispered, still observing above them for more of the guards, or at least what she assumed were guards.

============================

@Blitz Boom

The runes that Benny could see, were small, surrounded by what was clearly decorative carvings while the runes themselves didn't take up much, and could easily fit on most objects. "I'd think it'd work, it does work on my feathers, after all."

============================

@Blitz Boom

Smirking, Iron teleporting the moment Chow finished talking, with a swift and quick teleportation, almost instantaneous. Astral flailing a bit when they landed in the location. "You could've warned us at least you know!" She cried out, Iron immediately shushing her. Astral sighing and collecting herself. "Well since we're here now... is this it?" She turned around, looking to the door.

"That is it, yes, there isn't much time till they get back, which is why I did it when you finished talking." He said, looking to Chow. "So no warnings, I'll take us out as quick as we came in if something goes wrong. Likely to your new home in Canterlot, haven't seen it myself yet." Astral breathed in deeply, drawing her hoof back before punching the door frame. "That might not wor-"

The runes sparked frantically as the punch cracked some, and knocked others out of place, the door rattling a bit, whatever she damaged messed up the enchantment on the door, causing it to explode outwards, the door being torn apart and the frame around it, but not damaging much else. "Jeez. They didn't even put a protection spell on that." She shook off the dust from her hoof as she winced a bit.

============================

@Dji

He sighed, glancing down as he attempted to hold back the frustration that boiled up from that one comment. "Well you wanted to know my plans." He stood up, and turned around. "But your interests are elsewhere, clearly." He said, walking off, though still leaving the potential for Watts to follow anyway

Meanwhile, Crystal was watching this unfold, trying to make it look like she wasn't listening in to them. "Likely suspect right there, I do recognize him, too." She said, under her breath and barely audible.

Lucid_Nightlight · October 3, 2018

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine @Dji @BloodDrops @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich

"You're giving them the temple? Well, I guess that means it'll be less work on us and we can focus on the party."

The snacks Anomaly created looked quite nice. Now all Lucid needed to do was do the rest, which would be pretty easy. With a stomp of his hoof, party hats appeared on everyone, a colorful floor appeared, there were streamers, and there was the most important thing of all... a bouncy castle.

"Now this right here is what a real party looks like. Well... It's nowhere near as good as Pinkie Pie's parties, but we can't be the best at everything!"

The poquus started drinking a whole lot of sodas. Pretty soon, there was a massive bucket of soda, which was almost the sphinx's size. He began to chug down the bucket. Strangely enough, he maintained his own size.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

Sekel · October 3, 2018

@FanOfManyShows

WATTS MECHANO

"Hey, I may not have any interest, but I can at least give you some company," Watts said in frustration and followed Zealous.

@Blitz Boom

KARMIC FATE/ATZY

"It would be," Atzy said thoughtfully once she had been given time to process what the Sphinx said. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply and slowly. "At the very least, working together has benefited both my host and me so far."

'I have a name you know!' Karmic shouted to Atzy in her head.

'And so do I. You may want to use it from time to time and I'll think about using yours too.'

@Blitz Boom, @EQ_Theta, @Lucid_Nightlight, @Storm Shine, @BloodDrops, @Moonlit, @Seamore Sandwich

AURORA LIGHTS & TWILIGHT SPARKLE

Twilight thought about the riddle for a good long while. She knew that swimming away didn't mean leaving the tank where the fish lived and dying and drowning are the same thing which left five instead of one. Still, this didn't necessarily mean that five left was the right answer. "Can I ask a question about the riddle? Where did the four fish that swam away swim to? Because swimming away isn't the same as dying and where can they swim to when all of them are inside a tank?"

Aurora gulped at seeing Onache's transformation and pressed up against the far side of her cage away from the Changeling Queen. It's not that she was opposed to this new kind of changeling, she just didn't see any point in it. Not when she got enough love from the ponies around her in her transformed state. "Queen Onache?"

EQ_Theta · October 3, 2018

@Blitz Boom

"My village? We were there when we were handling that issue with Solasan. Sen and I wanted to give you a place to stay so we both offered a room at our old home just for you."

Perhaps it was as Mother said back in her realm, that some of Omen's memories weren't processed and there were some gaps she and Sen needed to fill. It wouldn't be a big issue because they planned on showing her the new place when it's done. It should be done by this time, supposedly. Not too much in the way of cleanup and replacing old fixtures and the occasional dusting off of the cobwebs. Their family home was in a state of disrepair, something felt like it could come crashing down anytime soon but maybe not this time around. Of course Omen's room would be barren save for the essentials but the siblings said they'd let Omen choose what she wants for her own private quarters.

"I guess that's not the main point. I can show it to you some other time. What I'm trying to say is that maybe our village isn't always for you, that maybe you don't like having too much order. Maybe we can talk to Discord and ask him if there is a realm with some level of chaos that you are comfortable with so you don't have to always be in an orderly place. I'm not suggesting we bring chaos back because other ponies wouldn't like it."

Lin paused for a second, feeling like she is blabbering on but not actually getting to the point. She needed something simpler to explain the idea she wanted to get across.

"Has Discord told you about what a vacation is? Like temporarily getting away from something so you can be refreshed? What I'm suggesting is something like that."

From here on out, Lin would need to keep her voice hushed out of respect to Rosa. Sen could sleep through some talking but she couldn't begin to guess about Rosa. He needed sleep now.

==================================================================================================================================

@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight @BloodDrops @Dji @Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich

So it was settled, and everything looked like it was turning out for the better. Even the new hive will soon have a home to thrive in. Fluttershy chuckled at the spread Anomaly presented and was looking to join everyone. That was, if she wasn't still locked up in the cage. The sphinx's crown was glowing again and it was another problem sorted out.

"So... that crown is looking bright once more," Fluttershy nervously turned to the sphinx. "Does that mean we can get out of these cages now?"

Edited October 3, 2018 by EQ_Theta

Rising Dusk · October 4, 2018

@Blitz Boom

It was quite understandable that the spider bot, who just recently gained her freedom, had adopted the adventurous nature. Wanting to get out into the world of Equestria and explore, experience as much as she could before finally settling into something that she herself chose. It of course seemed like a good idea at first, but to Dusk it sounded like jumping straight into the deep end of the pool. Foal steps needed to be taken. At this point, he wasn't paying all that much attention to the route they were taking to get back to the workshop, instead deep in thought.

"Try thinking of the scrap yard as a foundation. Learn pony habits from a small group first. Then let them introduce you to some ponies they know and trust. Meet new ponies and grow your social network, learn new functions. When you're ready to explore, just keep in mind that you'll always have ponies you can return to. Regroup, share what you've seen and learned, then go out again. One day, you'll find a function that you chose. And I think you'll be really go at it," the midnight blue stallion chuckled as he rounded another corner and crossed alleyways.

The conversation then shifted to his own work. While it was true that he protected citizens, there was a little more to it than that. Out of habit, Dusk just recited the common motto of law enforcement agencies. "To Protect and Serve." So yes, she was correct with the first part. The covered law enforcement in a board brush, but his own position with his specific job in the O.M.I. had it's own say of things. Reaching up, he tapped his chin while he looked up a little at the tall buildings around them while deep in thought.

"My job is a little more complicated that just protecting though," he started while lowering his hoof back to the stone ground of the alley. "Yes I do protect citizens of Equestria in a board sense, but I have a focus in protections of a magical nature. Such as dispelling harmful magics from objects and ponies alike to keep them safe. Unfortunately, we can't be everywhere at once so as detective, I spend most my time investigating crimes that were already committed. Finding the criminals and bringing them to justice."

He let out a sigh though at the last thought. "I will always try to talk them into turning themselves in if at all possible. If I fail to do so, then I will do what I can to detain them. I will defend myself though or others, when necessary," he concluded, hoping that answered the large spider bot's question. Has he had to fight while on duty, of course. Sadly, taking down a criminal isn't as clean and easy as the story books make them out to be.

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