open Casual stroll

[Rising Dusk 26,082]

@Blitz Boom

Rising Dusk let out a sign of relief when the batter covered mini spider bot came stumbling out of the broken down entry way, guided by her bigger sister.  Well, everycreature seemed to be intact enough to a need to fetch emergency services wasn't necessary, at least for the moment.  Sure, he'd heard plenty of interesting fire stories from the local fire department to know that cooking was quite dangerous.  This though, beat many of the stories that he heard.  Most resulted from the meal being over cooked and burnt.  Using explosives to try and bake with though... that's a first.  He would never claim to be an expert on explosives, but he was pretty sure that overall, the heat caused by one was quite minimal compared to the concussive force.  It's not all that surprising now to understand what happened inside the workshop.

Dusk's own sister was equally forbidden from the kitchen.  Well, maybe not in such a dire extreme as Blitz.  Setting Dawn always loved trying to cook with their mother, but she just didn't have that touch in the kitchen.  Most meals ended up in one of many ways.  Burnt, under cooked, too little of one ingredient, too much of an ingredient.  Hitting that happy middle for whatever reason just seemed beyond her.  Nothing this dangerous, even though he could have swore one of those Hay Cakes she made was close to sending their father to the hospital.  Dusk had enjoyed learning to cook, but the city had made his lazy with all the available restaurants and food carts.  A pony could be rather surprised on how good some of those food carts can be.

While Molotov worked to clean out his lungs, Dusk was introduced to another of Blitz's famous barrage of inquires, which he handled just as well as the first few times.

"Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  No.  Felicia made some friends of her own.  No munchy munchy," he replied to her questions in series, adding the last bit with a smirk.

[Widdershins 9,955]

 @Dji

 In what must have felt like moments passing like ages, Dawn Streak had found herself astride an irate young bronze drake with his scales ruffled from the prior scuffle. Hovering just a few feet above the roofline of the houses in the area, she could easily hop down to one if one was near enough. Instead that safe thought could be easily overshadowed from the sense of unstable footing found through the terse pulses of the larger bodied drake's wing muscles shoving upwards through her lower body and, judging by the awkward, subtle shake he gave, the drakeling was as equally embarrassed to have a rider atop him as she was afraid. 

 Voice in an unsure, low mumble of indirect derision, but making no attempt to hide his own discomfort at the situation Kaltrop spoke to his mare rider.

   "You attack somebody else with wings and you're actually surprised it goes up into the air? Feh, weak wings or not, either you fly yourself off me now or I toss you off. You're lucky I don't just bite you or anything, s-stupid pony."

[Blitz Boom 4,428]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Roger that. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Berry would run off by then, somewhat pleased that she didn't have to threaten Alonsus into becoming her guinea pig for this experiment, though it would have been rather fun and potentially very enlightening to see what'd happen in a test run like that. But Nada had given her judgement of the situation, and Berry would listen to her new friend on this. It was the siren this were all about anyway.

She'd be gone for fifteen minutes, before Nada would see the mare wander back towards the river. Though unfortunately, nopony was following her there.

Once she got close enough, and had made sure that nopony else were there by checking some bushes and rattling a few trees mostly - Berry would start talking to what were likely a somewhat disappointed siren.

"Well, she wasn't home. Remember that whole desert setting I said just popped out of nowhere? Yeah, she went there to figure out what was going on, along with some of her friends. If we wanna track her down, we'd have to go there, otherwise we'll have to wait. Might be all night for all I know though. The princess is... Well, gonna be blunt here and call a spade for a spade: She's a nerd. Really big into getting info, reading, and checking stuff, so she might end up cataloging every speck of sand she can get her hooves on.

How are you with sand? I could get some jugs for water just in case, and we could stop if it's too harsh, and just wait at the edge. Whatever it takes."

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@Catpone Cerberus

"I agree. Shall we?"

Marley went first, sharply followed by Spicy, to provide him with some light as he took a few steps in to see what may be hiding of traps or the like in here. This were simply a catacomb, but some ponies were paranoid about their resting places being disturbed, and set some things in place in case somepony got into their heads that they wanted to snatch their belongings.

It seemed like there wasn't anything here though, or if there had been, it were sprung by the others who were here before them and whatever evidence of it were gone. Perhaps there had been some blood spatter here and there, but that must've hit some items if it were, and they weren't gonna find out what those were, as the room were picked clean. The only thing not gone were the dust on the floor, but everything else that had been in here had been pillaged, leaving only tracks and imprints in the dust.

Still, that was ground floor, but in here again the ceiling went high. Might be there were something up there.

"You two stay down here and have a gander. If you find anything hiding in the walls or under the floor, work together on getting it out. If you sense something up there though, tell me where to start looking, Ruby. I'll deal with it then."

With that, Spicy spread her wings and went to the ceiling to snoop around. Ruby and Marley shouldn't worry about the light though, as the things were bright enough to still light up the room, even if it were a little dimmer.

She didn't stay there for long before something caught her eye however, and the pegasus fluttered over to a wall, and pulled out a jar around the size of her eye, that she carefully opened and kept her head away from, in case it were something dangerous, but nothing seemed to spray out or anything as the lid had been cracked a millimeter, so after this attempt, she went closer, slightly tipped the top again, and sniffed. Whatever was in there seemed to really surprise her, and she jerked back as the lid closed again, before letting out a bellowing *yippee* sound.

"Oh hay yeah! Now we're talking."

Spicy would fly down to the others with a big grin on her face and a look in her eyes as if she were a foal on Heartswarming Eve.

"I take it you found something interesting? Care to share?"

"It's pure jackpot. Just take a sniff of this."

Spicy would then open the lid fully, showing off a jar of some kind of lavender colored liquid, with dark red swirls, and a delightful smell rising from it, which for the mare and griffon, would smell like a symphony of delightful flowers and spices, somehow mixing into a delicious harmony.

To Ruby however, this would be about the most foul-smelling thing in the world. The more she'd breathe in of it, the more it would attack the senses, and should instinctively make her want to not be within at least a meter of this jar's content.

"Aaah, how delightful. Can't say I know this one though. Is it rare?"

"Rare? Hah! Nopony have found out how to make these for centuries. It's called Foul Dragon, and it's worth an easy thousand gold for a jar this size."

Now it was Marley's turn to look like he had been given a magical gift.

"Oooh, that's some good news indeed, though the name seems incompatible. Are you certain about it?"

"Positive. For some strange reason it is absolutely repulsive to dragons. They can't stand being near it.

But that's not the important part. Know what is? There's more up there. I counted at least a dozen. You have to get back to the wagon and get some crates for this, and be careful! These things can be worth even more if we go for auctions in the Alchemist Guild. Treat them like they're made of glass.

Holy Celestia on a stick, this is starting off fantastically. You hear that Ruby? We're already rolling in dough."

Spicy would look to where she had last seen Ruby at that point, though what may or may not have happened to her had passed her by unnoticed. Not like Spicy knew that their new comrade were a dragon after all, and would likely not have taken well to this find.

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@EQ_Theta

"I don't know if I don't feel pain. Standing in fire, there is something. Strange, but not sure if wrong."

To be able to describe it better, Omen wandered into the campfire, which were not as blazing anymore as when it had first been lit, but still had flames licking up against the wood and charcoal ready to singe anything that got near it.

Omen didn't get set ablaze though. The tips of her hair on her legs would get slightly singed, but she wasn't flammable, and whatever small exterior damage it would short term provide to her, would be fixed up not too long after, as the patch of missing mane after she had pulled some of her own hair were showing.

"Feels like being poked with many small sticks. Warm. Don't want to leave it, or scream, so is that okay?"

She had been designed to live in an unstable, and often dangerous world, so Discord had perhaps went a little overboard here and there when molding her, but on the bright side, if Lin could ever convince Omen to learn some firepony basics, she would be perfect for going into burning buildings and looking for others. The fire didn't bother her, and she didn't breath, so smoke inhalation weren't an issue.

Back on topic though, Omen looked at Lin, head tilting from side to side, as her prehensile tongue slid down, and made a loop around a piece of charcoal. She'd put down the hair she had wrapped around the tip of her tongue, next to the fire, before bringing the charcoal to her muzzle and starting to gnaw on it.

"Ponies and you scream in fire. It's bad, and they are in pain? Being melted, also wrong? I think I understand that."

She wanted to warm her belly to, so Omen laid down in the fire, and felt the same prickling feeling on her tummy as she did on her legs. She didn't really know if it was a good or a bad feeling, so she just kept there. If anything, it was fascinating to her.

"Remember something. Sen hurt once, you gone. And in cave with strange things, showed me you evil and Sen's legs bending wrong ways. Strange feeling inside. Felt wrong, didn't like it. Wanted it to stop. Is that pain?"

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@Dji

"I find no interest in causing you, or your host an harm. I simply wish to assist, to drive the boredom at bay, at least for a time."

Another long, drawn-out sigh escaped Enzo's mouth. How he dreaded these dull times he were in now... Hopefully the two-in-one-host mare would be able to clear the clouds of his melancholy through the actions taken to provide these two with a deal they could both agree upon. Who knew? Perhaps they would be able to find a way for them to separate, and not be bound to a compromised body.

"So let us commence, I suppose. Atzy, I ask of you first: What is it that you seek? Dominance over this body, a share in it, or to escape it, and enter into one more suitable for your wants and needs?"

In a way, Enzo hoped it were a shared want from the two that Atzy got a vessel of her own, rather than this shared entity. It would give him something to do. The generals may have to wait a long time for him, but well... Time for them to try that for a change.

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@Rising Dusk

"𝕊𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕟𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕤 𝕒 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕡𝕒𝕚𝕣."

Quite honestly, Felicia wasn't even sure if it wasn't too late for that. Blitz were a high risk threat to herself and everypony else within a five mile radius. The safest procedure for maintaining the population, would be to have her in a small, padded room with nothing except soft, non-flammable items given to her, and only visits through the window of a seven times reinforced steel door.

Something told the spiderbot that this may be considered cruel, but seeing as the volatile filly may well end up accidentally destroying half the city in one of her experiments, it seemed like a necessary evil, for the betterment of everypony else. Yet, long as Molotov were around, that would never happen. He were both too protective of her, and wanting to encourage her to explore her mind more, which made for constructions such as Felicia necessary, and bomb shelters for the rest of the city nearly mandatory.

"Don't say *wheeze* *cough* that."

"𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕠𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝕣𝕦𝕟 𝕓𝕪 𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤. 𝕀 𝕣𝕦𝕟 𝕠𝕟 𝕗𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕤."

"Hehe, spider nanny talks funny."

Blitz had no idea what were going on with the two of them. She had tried to sit down and read the language that the spiderbots ran on before, but it was just so long-winded and boring that she had wandered off pretty quickly and hadn't returned to it yet. She kept meaning to, but there was just so any other things to do, like trying to bake without an oven. Tougher than she thought.

"It sounds like you and her had lots of fun Dusky. And I guess it's good she didn't munch on anypony. Somepony would've just gotten all grumpy and stuff, even if she can't eat actually eat them.

I think big bro finished the metal stuff you two were working on. Wanna see? After the smoke is gone. Kinda hard to see anything with that rummaging around in there. Perhaps I should just use one smoke bomb next time?"

The workshop wasn't done pouring out smoke yet, so saying that one would have been plenty, were probably still one too many. Hopefully this wasn't gonna attract attention from anypony, in the few minutes more this would go on before the ventilation system and the open door would finally have gotten the smoke cleared out of the place.

"Clean. Help. Clean. Help."

Throughout all of this, Carmen just kept repeating the same two lines, muffled since her microphone were covered by half-finished cake batter. She couldn't call out for things as easily as Felicia, since her vocabulary and brain were far smaller, so this were the best she could do until Molotov were better and could clean her up, as well as see if there was any damages that couldn't be seen. He'd be furious with Blitz if there were, that was for sure. She were his sister, and though she sometimes made his life a living hell, he loved her dearly, but Carmen wasn't just some kind of toy to him. She was a small life that he had created. A living, non-breathing being. She shouldn't be damaged.

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

Somepony did indeed eat the chocolate, and unsurprisingly, that one were Anomaly, who frankly didn't see any issue taking magic candy from strange beings of unfathomable chaos.

Sure, she turned bright pink with purple swirls, and got a constant stream of bubbles that burst into giggles escaping her mouth, but it were still pretty good, and if she didn't want this in the long run, she could just change herself. Mutation was her game, and she were pretty gosh darn good at it.

She rose her head and looked over to Novia and Lucid again, who had done some talking between one another that was clearly not flirting, but which Anomaly wanted to be flirting. Lucid should grow a spine and just tell her. Or surprise smooches, that worked.

Hay, even the lizards were getting along more, and that were just friendly croaking and hissing, as well as the still unnamed dracolisk apparently wanting to show Pringle where he had found some fish on the tables, in case the other lizard ate it. Even if Pringle was Anomaly's arch nemesis - she really needed an actual enemy - it was kinda cute, and she may or may not have caused some crickets to appear right next to them just to see what'd happen.

Okay, she totally did, and it looked awesome, as the dracolisk stunned them with a reverberating, croaking sound attack, which caused them to fall to the ground. Munchy food for lizard things.

"Okay, but when you find his pet is plain and boring, then just get riiiight back to me. I tell you, pocket mimic is the next big thing. Somepony tries to sneak a bit out of t here? SLAM! Tiny teeth gnawing on their appendages. Absolutely priceless."

Onache heard what the three were going on about, and made a mental note that she definitely needed to put a *draconequus free zone* sign up somewhere, and hope that they'd stay away from the temple itself, but kept her gaze upon Aurora.

"In the past, I may have whipped you for that, but I have come to accept that all changelings have a choice. I made mine because a queen must do the best for her hive, yet you are but a drone. Your choices are for you alone. You do not carry the same responsibility upon your shoulders."

Aurora's choice were one that she could respect, as she too had held her ground for a long time, and refusing to ever consider changing. Yet as had been pointed out to her from multiple sources, if she truly wished to be the best queen for her subjects, and no longer need to think of who to cull to make sure there were food enough for all of them, she had needed to change. That Happy had followed troop were a huge, deciding factor too though, she had to admit. She doubted it would have been possible for her to see reason if she had not had his loyalty to depend on.

"Regardless, you can consider yourself welcome upon these grounds. Think of it as a safe haven for our kind, for the time being. Anypony who wishes to wander in here with harm in mind for changelings, will be met in kind with fury and destruction, of which they will never have seen."

She were allowed to protect her new area, and by the gods, Onache were going to do so, if invaders attempted to come in here and cull from her ranks, or those of other changelings who sought refuge. She may be kinder now, but that were mainly to her own kind. For whomever rode here to hurt those under her care, she would have no mercy, and they would find their final resting place to be among the dunes they now stood in.

Meanwhile, Happy made a small bow to the sphinx after the compliment returned.

"My pleasure ma'am.

And you know princess, perhaps take a step back and think about the possibilities here instead of getting your saddle in a twist?

This here's a sphinx. I don't know a lot about 'em, but this one at least seems insanely powerful, and holds a good head on her shoulders. Even if it's a bit of a bash to your ego, don't you think you might be able to learn something? You know, soon as you pass your math exam, heh.

Plus - and this here's just a crazy thought - I'd think you'd want to try and connect to miss sphinx here, considering that being on her bad side is likely gonna end up biting you in the flank several times over. Spending some time together and bonding might do the trick, eh?"

Happy wasn't one of them fancy intellectual types, but he knew a good bargain when he saw one, and understood the concept of building bridges, rather than burning them. The sphinx and Twilight would do better if they integrated some, even if Ponyville might end getting a jump scare of another world from seeing the large feline wander near. It was cool though, surely. Discord were there more or less constantly, right? They'd have to be used to special things happening everywhere.

Over at the bunnies, Lotus more or less ignored the larger creatures, and focused on Angel, who seemed to have gotten a lot more talkative now. That was a plus really, since trying to communicate in sign language and emotes were kinda weird for her. At least with other animals. Against larger creatures like ponies and dragons? She had to do that there, since they didn't understand anything she were saying. Just wait until the day when she were better at writing, then they'd understand more, although it'd likely not give her many cute points to hold up sheets of papers with several profanities on the, directed at whoever were addressing her.

hearing what he had to squeak though, Lotus gave a funny look towards the main draconequus, then Fluttershy, then back and forth a few more times before pointing at them with a confused look on her face.

"She's his pony? Seriously? Nerzhei isn't gonna believe that at all, and she reads weird stuff all the time.

Isn't it strange for her to be around him, when he makes all kinda of weird things happen? I thought ponies were boring and wanted things to be calm and full of dancing."

If Angel had ever listened to how dragons stereotyped ponies, he'd likely hear some of it in what Lotus said, even though the pink bunny weren't as harsh in it as the scaled ones could be. She had mellowed out her opinions some after the three ponies had popped up in the valley Nerzhei helped oversee, and eventually caused the draconess to have to leave Dragon Isle, but some things were still there, like the dancing and not wanting things to change up and mingle with strange things. Except for the filly, but she were pretty sure that that particular pony were crazy. No normal youngling stayed in the forest to make bombs.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

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

Pringle quickly ate a couple crickets and followed the dracolisk to the fish.

Novia heard Anomaly say *his pet* which she must've been referring to Lucid. Was he the one who was give her some sort of really weird pet? Sure, she could dig through his mind and find out, but she does that way too much without him knowing, besides, it would make things too easy. It wasn't too far fetched though. She has seen that Lucid was typically a nice guy, but it seemed he was especially nice to her for some reason.

"So Lucid is where this strange pet going to come from?"

The blizwolf that Lucid made earlier came up.

"Yea, I made you this. He's called a blizwolf."

Novia's ears perked up when she saw the new animal. She happily picked it up.

"It's so adorable! Wait... why did you decide to make it for me? Surely there must be a reason."

"Well it's beca-"

A giant anvil dropped on the ground a few feet away. Luckily didn't hit anyone.

"What's with the anvil?"

"I was gonna drop it on the sphinx's head if she tried to kill everyone. Also, the sphinx stole 100 bits from me and I wanna steal them back. Maybe even steal another 100 bits as punishment."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,427]

@Blitz Boom
As promised Nada stayed in the river, while Berry was gone, hiding most of herself into the water, and she could tell right away that Berry was coming alone back. She was slightly disappointed, but not surprised by any means. As Berry explained the reason why the princess wasn't there, it both made sense and didn't make sense, it made sense that princess would be sent, but what she didn't understand was that from sounds of it there was no guards with her.

"Well, I can handle heat and dryness, it's just more comfortable to be in cool water." "And since I can fly, sand on the ground isn't a big deal." "But..." she paused for a moment "...going there would require leaving the forest and..." "....that would mean that anyone could see me."

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When Spicy came with the jar, Ruby could tell right away what it was since even if the lid was closed, it wasn't fully airtight now that it had been opened even a little, thus she could smell the foul-smell, she had read about in some old books she had once seen, a foul-smelling liquid that other creatures found good smelling. When Spicy opened the lid, Ruby instantly backed away from the jar holding her breath, she didn't care if this would reveal what she really was, she would rather be revealed than breath that poison even for a second after even the slight amount that had leaked through the lid had made her to want to fly away.

But backing away had brought something good too, she could feel something in different room, just at the edge of her sense, there was hint of gold and sapphire, but there was something else that pushed those two under itself, something indescribable she had never sensed before, but even though she had no idea what it was, one thing was certain, she wanted it, and she wouldn't let anybody to take it from her.

"I'm glad to hear that this wasn't a bust" she replied after Spicy called for her, she was already walking towards whatever she was sensing, her steps were slow, almost careful, as she tried to pinpoint where it was she was sensing, which was harder than usual for some reason. "I wonder what they are or were hiding if they have filled one room with dragon-repellent." "Since as far as I know, dragons don't usually rob graves until they know it is filled with treasure." "And I don't know how they would know."

[EQ_Theta 415]

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

Angel nodded at first, then paused and did a double take. What Lotus said was true to some extent but it wasn't as simple as she put it. Fluttershy and Discord are friends but that is about it. Good friends, yes, but not so much to the extent of having her be "his pony," whatever that meant. Maybe it has something to do with Lotus' background?

"Discord making strange things happen around Fluttershy is normal," Angel squeaked. "It's actually a lot stranger at first. He just comes in like he owns the place because he and Fluttershy are friends. He's a lot nicer now but he wouldn't tone down his chaotic antics. Fluttershy seems to like it."

Discord's antics sometimes involved the animals but after enough complaints filed to the draconequus, Fluttershy got around to asking Discord to stop it. That ended with him using the furniture as alternatives. Sometimes tableware. The gravy boat fish is a favorite of the pegasus. Something got the bunny curious, though. 

"Who is this Nerzhei you just mentioned?"

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@Blitz Boom

If it was something about ponies being caught off-guard about how weird Omen could get, Lin would have a similar expression on her face. One of confusion and a bit of worry. Having Omen mention the part about what she is feeling, combined with her innate regenerative or healing, and that softened the panicked feeling the longma hybrid was building up inside. Well, that and remembering their earlier encounter with Omen looking singed but lacking any reaction of pain. 

Lin stayed quiet for a moment, thinking over her previous question and coming to the conclusion that if Omen were feeling pain of sorts, it was likely feeling something to a lesser degree. What with the hot, poking stick description, it was fairly close to how she assumed being burned would feel like. She didn't actually get burned by flames at any point in her childhood so she didn't have an actual experience to base her description from. 

"Well... being close to fire means you'd be feeling warm. The closer you are, the hotter it gets. Being in it is like those sticks you described poking at you, but imagine them hotter and those sticks are piercing your hide, burning them away and the rest of your body begins to fall apart. It would be bizarre for other ponies because it's just not normal to them. Common knowledge to ponies is that no one should play with fire. Or stand in it. They'd get burned."

Now that she is seeing for herself how Omen could possibly survive being exposed to high temperatures, and going by Mother's explanation about her unformed children gaining forms based on how their masters molded them, she would not rule out Discord as a possible explanation for Omens oddities. Also for the singed look from earlier and the munching on a piece of hot charcoal. If the longma in the village found out about this earlier, they'd likely kick Lin and Omen out for practicing some odd form of sorcery. But right now, Lin seems to be making a breakthrough with Omen understanding pain little by little. 

"Ponies getting burned would be painful, yes, and they'd scream in pain. You're getting it. But that last part you mentioned, about those apparitions in the cave, I think that could count as pain. Can you further describe what you felt? Did it feel unpleasant?"

[Rising Dusk 26,082]

@Blitz Boom

Rising Dusk had to agree with Molotov on that one.  It wasn't the most nice thing to say.  Not that it was completely her fault, she was just very direct, to the point and logical about everything.  After spending the morning with him though, he could already tell there were changes occurring as she started to have a slightly different view on the pony world.  Just like she did though, Blitz had her own specific view of the world and took it in her own way.  While maybe not the best or most effective way to go about doing everything, it was all part of the growing up process.  If anything, Blitz just might need a little more discipline, but he wasn't her family and it wasn't his place to correct how Molotov was raising her. 

This was the first time he'd heard the large spider bot called a Nanny though, and considering what he's seen of Felicia, this did not seem an accurate term.  He hadn't heard of the spider bot making lunches or delivering drinks to the Boom siblings.  It was interesting to think why the little filly's mind drew the conclusion of nanny.  Dusk couldn't imagine Blitz had much experience with a nanny though.

"We did.  And I believe Felicia gave a good deal of experience in her first outing," the midnight blue stallion concluded with a nod to the fact.

His ears flicked as he started to hear the muffled little cries for help and cleaning.  It took him a few moments to notice that they were coming from the small spider sister still covered in cake batter.  Sitting down on the ground, he removed his beige hoodie.  "Hang on there little one," he expressed.  His horn ignited with the orange glow of his magic and the small spider bot was quickly enveloped in the same light.  Using his telekinesis spell to pick up Carmen and float her away from her larger sister, careful to make sure he didn't hurt her while she clank to her sister.  "I gotcha," he tried to sooth her in hope to keep those pokey legs from striking him.  Using his hoodie, he worked to get all the cake batter wiped off her smooth metallic chassis. 

[Blitz Boom 4,428]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Well, yeah, if there's anypony actually in there, so we're just gonna have to be careful. Pretty sure it's just gonna be the princess and whoever she have with her we'd run into though. Or some of the nutters in the forest, and they'd take our word for it if we claimed you were just an illusions of some kind from the desert heat. Except for Zecora, but she's a seer, so chances are she'd known you were here for years and didn't think it'd be her place to interfere. No biggie there."

So it sounded like they had a plan now. Head towards the desert, slowly creep in and see if they could find the princess. If they ran into somepony else, either try to make whoever believe that Nada wasn't real, or beat 'em up and hope nopony would ask questions.

Guess they might also try to reason with them or something, but the option of violence had to be there if it came down to it. Like her old man told her *Never start a fight, but if it's gonna happen, make sure you strike first.*.

But she supposed that thinking violence right away wasn't good, especially if the princess saw them, so... Lie her head off or something might do it too? She'd have to think this over a little when they were on their way.

"Well, no time like the present. Let's go find ourselves a desert nerd. I mean, princess, hehe."

If it wasn't for the hammer on her back, Berry might've just jumped into the river and swum alongside Nada for some of the way, but if she tried that with it on her person, she'd sink like a rock, so she'd just follow the riverbanks and try to keep up the pace as best she could.

Berry really hoped that was going to go well, and that her new friend would be accepted by the princess. Poor gal had been away and for herself for far too long, for doing basically nothing. She deserved a chance to come back into society and experience all the little things in life, like friendship, baked goods, and taxes. Last one sucked, but what could you do? Bits for roads and such didn't just magically appear out of nowhere.

 

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@Catpone Cerberus

"Considering how much of it he had, I'm thinking he must've done something that majorly miffed off some dragons in his lifetime."

SPicy half-shouted this towards Ruby, who were leaving the room, whilst Marley and her exchanged funny looks about the reaction from the mare. It was just perfume, and frankly some really good stuff, even if you weren't into it. Yet she had seemed like it actually repulsed her?

There were an easy answer to that, but it just seemed ludicrous, and both of them needed some more proofs. For now, they'd just silently nod and make some facial emotes at one another to get that point across to one another. It were a crazy thing to even consider really, but the clues were lining up that Ruby might actually be a dragon in pony disguise. But... How? Even if it was an artifact kinda thing, she wasn't holding anything, and surely dragons couldn't just do this, right? Their magic were simple and elemental based, and that was when they even had it. Illusions were more of a changeling and pony thing.

They'd have to see how this went on, which started by following Ruby and seeing what she were doing. It might end up giving them some more answers. Or rather, Spicy would follow her. A pretty stern look told Marley that his job were to secure the perfume first and foremost, as he had been told, so with a sigh, he resigned himself to that and went on his way back to the wagon, with the one that had been opened before in tow. He'd get it sealed up again before coming back to box up the rest.

Meanwhile, Spicy followed Ruby into the room that were clearly the place where the big guy in question had been buried. The walls were full of carvings that depicted somepony standing against a large dragon, whilst he himself were placed on a pile of gold and gems with a spear risen in his right hoof. There were some more to it, but this seemed to be the basics of it, and marked this guy as having had the galls to steal from a dragon's hoard, and apparently survive to tell the tale. That'd get you in some hot water with the overgrown, talking lizards for sure.

The room had also been cleaned of everything obviously valuable, but this depiction on the wall itself may be a hidden treasure. It were in perfect condition, whereas the rest had been either damaged or just weren't as impressive, and somepony were bound to want this piece. If nothing else, a historian with a weird fascination for dragon stuff would likely offer 'em 50 bits, which weren't much, but every little bit helped. And who knew? If this pony had stolen from dragons, he might be a figure of some historical value, so they could jack up the price a little. Spicy would have to ask around about that.

With no obvious treasure in the room otherwise, the things were mostly just broken jars that some ruffians had manhandled, stone formations that hadn't been bothered to be examined which may hold something, and in the middle, on a small layer of risen rocks - which made Spicy think of the bottom two parts of a pyramid - a sealed up stone coffin sat. It seemed the robbers hadn't bothered looking at the body itself apparently, which may be because the coffin had writings on it warning of a great curse befalling any who dared to open his final resting place. The usual  overblown threat that didn't mean anything, but worked in scaring off the superstitious.

Seriously, if this place had been cursed, why just let that work for the coffin itself, and not the entire tomb? Whoever was buried here would've gone that route if this held any merit, so frankly, Spicy considered it safe to open, long as you kept your face away. Just in case there were an acid spray or something, which were more common in these things than you might think.

As for Ruby, she'd likely find interest in this too, as within the coffin were the object she so sought, wrapped around a jar full of the dust of the inhabitant. Pretty rare to find one of the old timers who had been into cremation, but it wasn't unthinkable. Might be he had also went out in a fire, and whoever buried him had just gone on with the preparations set in place regardless.

Anyway, there'd be some trinkets and jewelry as well, laid out in a position as if somepony should have had them on his person when laid in here, but for Ruby, there'd be one thing that weren't so welcome in here: Mainly the perfume that had been sealed within the coffin. Opened up and laid on each side, the imprisoned smell would escape the second the lid were moved, and quickly engulf the room. Whoever this had been, really didn't want any dragons to get in here and get any funny ideas.

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

 

@EQ_Theta

Confusion.

That was the impression Omen got from looking at Lin, after the mare had sat down in the fire and described what it felt like to her. The poking feeling ran down her throat and tongue too, as Omen slowly ate the cooling coal she had grasped up, but she didn't get any side effects. Nothing inside her would burn, and blisters weren't something she had ever tried having. To her, eating this were just a funny feeling, and a special taste. Much like everything else she ate randomly, just to find out what it would taste like.

Returning to Lin though, confusion were the only thing Omen kind of understood the expression of, as she had that expression herself more often than not. It were not exactly the same - which she knew as she had once spent three weeks starring at a mirror to try and learn something from herself - and something seemed off, as if something else happened too, but there was just something about her sisters eyes that made her think that this was at least part of what the longma felt. The rest of them, Omen would have to study other times when she thought she'd see them again. It might help things.

Hearing the explanation of fire and how it related to pain though, gave her a good deal other things to think about right here and now, rather than potentially stalking Lin.

"Normal beings burn like wood? Things that breaks them, is pain? ...Okay."

It were a lot to take in currently, but she had gotten the gist of things, if nothing else, and now knew that fire were seen as being pretty bad to be in contact with from other being's perspective, which were probably a good thing to teach Omen before she accidentally gave somepony a lit torch if they said they were cold.

The next question from Lin however, caused Omen to pause for a few minutes, mulling over how to answer it. Describing the feeling she had when she saw Sen and Lin hurt on the occasions that she could remember, were not good, but how could she describe it, when she didn't even understand the feeling beyond it not feeling right?

"...Yes. It felt wrong. Strange. Like poking sticks, but not on legs. In my stomach, poking at bad things. I wanted the bad feeling to stop. Helping you worked.

You in pain, makes me hurt then? Heard ponies talk before on this. Friend in pain, they say it hurt them too. Same thing? If it is, I don't like pain. It's a bad feeling."

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

 

@Rising Dusk

Blitz spread her front hooves out wide as she were told that Dusky and Felicia had a good trip, causing some of the batter on said limbs to fall off and splatter onto the ground.

"Hurrah for adventure! Hope the next one's fun too."

As fr Carmen, she couldn't see who were picking her up wit their magic, but she let go off Felicia as she were, thinking that it was perhaps Molotov.Felicia seemed to tense up a little, with the light glowing slightly darker as her small sister were grasped from her chassis, but she didn't interfere as the officer took in the spider and began to try and calm the still spiderbot, who now finally began to stop repeating the same two words over and over. It were not her creator that were going to help from what sound she did get, but he worked with the one who would, and her bigger sister had gone with him outside, so that meant he could be trusted in her mind.

Dusky were a curious thing for the smaller mind to comprehend. He had been found by the group to be given some paper, and before she knew it, he were in the workshop, talking about making things with her creator, and talking about - and eventually to - Felicia, before getting her off her leash.

Carmen's bigger sister had talked a lot about the officer that first knight after she had seen him, and greeted him with the sign she had written. Something about him had caught the large spiderbot's attention, and she had actually wanted to bait him out,and see how long it would be before he demanded a physical confrontation, rather than just being observed. It had been far quicker than the large spiderbot had imagined, but she had risen to the challenge, and before you knew it, here he now stood, trusted by Felicia enough to take her outside and learn new things. Carmen wanted to know what that was like, and find out if it were like the time when she had gone outside the first time, minus the clown attack that her creator had to stop her from assaulting. It had been a wondrous, strange experience, but scary too, with so many large creatures who could squish her if they didn't like her, and ponies of many kinds.

Felicia was bigger, so she was safe from the squishing, but it could still be dangerous out here. Yet, she had returned in one piece, apparently after having had a good trip, and Carmen was sure that Dusky in some way were responsible for that. It was one of several reasons - mainly revolving around how Felicia and him did together - that made her trust him enough to clean her up without trying to resist. Not that she could do much damage really. Carmen had strong legs that could pinch, but they were rounded and not meant to cut anything, opposed to Felicia, who had been designed to defend, which had meant adding large, sharp legs that could cut or poke if needed be. Carmen could just crawl on you, nibble hair, and pinch, that was about it.

As for the cleaning, the officer did well really. The cake batter outside were sticky, but it could come off, yet the fake fur covering her actual body itself were going to need to be detached and given a good wash from the looks of things. At least it wasn't singed and needed a total replacement, so that was good, along with the fact that neither of her two eyes or legs were broken, and she didn't feel a crack in her chassis either.

Much as Dusky would try though, he wouldn't get all the cake batter, even if he made sure to clean out between the joints of her legs, as again, some would be stuck in her fake fur, and the parts in her speaker and receiver had to be cleaned out with a pipe-cleaner after said fur had come off and the sound parts could be detached, but she did feel a lot better regardless, and looked at him with slightly flickering lights in her eyes, which were her version of getting glimmer of joy in them.

"Clean. Thanks, new pony. Happy help."

As her vocabulary were very basic, complete sentences and some phrases that even Felicia had weren't part of her system, but she tried to convey a thank you to Dusky regardless.

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

 

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

"Nerzhei is my dragon, just like Fluttershy is your pony. She's the one who came to warn you about the sphinx."

Lotus hadn't grown up with many notions of friendliness in Dragon Land, and Nerzhei had mostly introduced Lotus as being her bunny, so eventually, Lotus had just come to calling close friends that. Nerzhei was her dragon, like Lotus was the draconesses bunny, and Fluttershy was Angel's pony. It did sound a bit like ownership, but Lotus didn't think any of them owned another. It was just her way of saying somepony was close friends. If she thought there were more, she would've asked if Fluttershy was Discord's mate. which she wouldn't, as that seemed weird.

"I hope she'd okay. Stress makes her head hurt a lot, and things were bad before we came to look for help.

You are close to your pony too. You're worried about her? She gets caught easily, and doesn't seem like she'd be good at fighting."

Meanwhile, while the bunnies went on, and the dracolisk crawled up a table not too far away to show Pringle where the fish were, the dracone-trio were getting on with the show, starting with the introduction of the blitz wold that Lucid worked on earlier. It still weren't as cool as a pocket mimic, but Novia seemed to like it a lot, and that was the most important part. The blitz wolf seemed to find her okay too, with no biting or anything of the like, so they were off to a good start.

Anomaly wasn't however, as the anvil almost fell on top of her. A few inches more to the side and it would've smashed her head clean off. For some reason it actually kinda irked her that it hadn't, since she would've loved to experience what the others might react to that. A few of them were pretty squeamish, so it could've been fun. Though that Happy fellah did visibly jump and cringe as he saw the thing just suddenly smash down, so there was that reaction at least.

Barring that option however, she instead drew out a piece of chalk from... Somewhere, and started to doodle random animals from her isle on the anvil. She would've written some fun profanities, but the author kept erasing it whenever she tried, so that was quickly a no-go, sadly. What a sensitive, weird monkey-man.

She did stretch over towards the future couple though, and Lucid in particular, as he had been interrupted in saying something that would either push the plot ahead for himself and Novia, or make Anomaly want to slap him in the back of the head for not growing a spine.

"Because? Come on Lucid, don't leave the nice lady hanging."

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

Pringle climbed up on the table and started eating a fish in small bites, being the tiny lizard that he his.

Lucid tried to continue with what he was going to say.

"As I was saying, it's because I-"

He looked over to Pringle who was on the table eating fish.

"What do you mean there needs to be more build-up? This has been building up since I met Novia!"

Pringle stared at him while eating fish.

"Yes, I am fully aware that they didn't get to witness any proper build-up, but that isn't how life works!"

Pringle simply went back to eating fish.

"Anyway, it's because I like you."

"I know."

"Really? How did you know?"

"Mind reading. I'm literally the reason you know how to do that."

"And you never brought it up?"

"I was waiting for you to tell me."

"Does this mean..."

"No."

Lucid froze for a second. Then suddenly Novia started laughing.

"You should've seen the look on your face! It was priceless! Of course we're in a relationship now!"

Lucid seemed to have a mixture of happiness and relief.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

[Catpone Cerberus 23,427]

@Blitz Boom
Zecora Nada repeated to herself in her mind, that didn't sound like a pony name, and she was a seer? Nada wanted to ask few things, but she waited for Berry to finish first, and after Berry's declaration to move, Nada started swimming slowly to make sure the ground bound friend could keep up. "So this Zecora, who is she, her name doesn't sound like a pony." "And you said she may know about me already but hasn't done anything...." "...Would she be able to help us?" "Do you know where she is?" it was probably obvious but Nada wanted to avoid leaving the forest before she had full certainty that she would be safe, especially when the other choice was flat and open desert with not places to hide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby stopped for a moment to look at the carvings "Well, that would explain the dragon-repellent, dragons are known to be revengeful creatures, though they are smarter than to go after dead ponies." "Probably attacked town or the family instead." thought the whole time she spoke, she felt the mysterious item pulling her towards it, she know knew where it was, and really, it was only place intact enough to have it, the coffin.

She quickly read the warnings, she didn't really believe them, there probably was some kind of poison gas at most, since curses were bit more complicated than few written words, and really, the curse would have been on the front door, in which case whoever was here first had it. But she knew that there was risk of something else there, the fact that there was bunch of the 'foul dragon' as Spicy called it, meant that there could be more anywhere, even opened, and because ponies usually put the most important things with the bodies, it was safe to assume that the pony would protect it with the same poison, but she was going to take whatever was inside, she had to.

She readied herself, she took a few long breaths, she didn't care what Spicy who was obviously watching her would think about her next move, this felt more important....she filled her lungs with air and held her breath, she then opened the coffin, waited a second in case of traps, then after reacting accordingly, she reached in to see what she was looking for and identified it. After that she without looking what exactly it was, she took it, even breaking the ash-jar if it was necessary to get it, and hold it tight before running out not only from the room, but outside, and when she reached outside, she stopped gasping for air and eyes forming water, she had accidentally inhaled.

Ruby was fully aware that this may had been here, it was now pretty obvious that she couldn't handle the thing that was supposed to only affect dragons, of course she already had come up with an excuse, but it wasn't sure if she would be even asked. But regardless of that, Ruby fought the dragon that was trying to show itself, she was keeping her eyes closed to hide a change in them, and it was very close that her claws too hadn't started to come through, but she buried her hoof a bit underground just in case.

 

Edited October 16, 2018 by Catpone Cerberus

[EQ_Theta 415]

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

"Good thing Nerzhei got alerted someone to the sphinx. Didn't want my home getting covered in sand."

Angel started grooming himself, licking his fur clean and tilting to his head to the side to let some little bits of sand fall out. Getting licked up by Anomaly wasn't very considerate but apart from Fluttershy, who has had her share of getting licked by larger creatures, he didn't like it one bit. But back to what Lotus squeaked after, about Fluttershy unable to fight. Personally, she didn't seem to need to fight. She's got her signature stare, but for the most part, her kindly tone of voice usually gets the animals living with her to listen. And they seem to like her back. Even the animal sanctuary has grown, attracting lost animals and settling in as they have found a new home.

"Worried? I'm worried she couldn't stand up for herself, being assertive an all that! She has a problem being a doormat and when someone tells her to be tougher, she takes it the wrong way! Fluttershy gets really angry and nasty when she does." 

The pegasus had a problem understanding what assertive and being a jerk was, sometimes thinking the two were the same. Even she had a tendency to lapse into being a jerk when she didn't intend to do so. Still, she was learning and perhaps in time the lessons will stick.

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

@Blitz Boom

Perhaps Omen was still trying to get the concept of pain. Lin couldn't blame her for her lack of trying but this one might take a while. It isn't that she was getting frustrated with her; she always wanted to help. It was simply because abstract concepts were more difficult ideas to get across. Teaching or just helping Omen get around and learn about the things that piqued her curiosity was part of the task, one that the longma hybrid was taking to heart. In a way, this was also a learning experience for Lin. Was this how the teachers in the village felt? Or maybe even the young ones' parents?

"You're getting close, Omen. Pain isn't what breaks beings like me or ponies but what they feel when something is breaking them. Physically, mentally, or emotionally, these are ways we could be hurt. That feeling in your stomach, that unease, that is one way of describing emotional pain."

Lin wanted to try something else: a different approach to explaining things to Omen. It was steadily growing apparent that maybe explaining things the way she normally did could get Omen mixed up on details. If she were to see things from Omen's perspective and use the words she used to make sense of things, it might be able to clarify things better without mixing up. The next thing Omen brought up gave her pause as even she was struggling to find a way to explain it using this new method.

"It is a bad feeling but maybe I can give you one way to look at pain. Being friends is like having a piece of yourself with someone you share a bond with, and they with you. When your friend is hurt, you feel their pain and want it to stop, just like you mentioned with ponies and their friends. I'd feel the same way if someone hurt you; I'd be in pain too."

Edited October 18, 2018 by EQ_Theta

[Rising Dusk 26,082]

@Blitz Boom

Rising Dusk knew the use of his hoodie on the small spider wouldn't be enough to get the parts of Carmen that required a tool of more finesse.  Getting at her eyes and the majority of her chassis was the main goal though, Molotov would have to do his work to get at her joints and that speaker that kept her speech muffled.  He knew that cleaning spells existed out there that could solve this particular issue in the stamp of a hoof.  Sadly said spells were not in his repertoire to make this easy.  Laundry day was just around the corner anyways, so a cake battered hoodie shouldn't be too big of an issue.  Well, that and the six other identical hoodies hanging in his closet also helped.

With as much of the cake batter as he could get with his hoodie off the spider, he moved the dirty cloths away from Carmen and slowly lowered her back to the ground.  The glow around her disappeared as he released the spell and the magic of his horn extinguished.  He smiled down at the thankful spider with those adorable glittering eyes now that she was at least more clean than when she stumbled out of the workshop.  "You're welcome little one.  Molotov will need to do the rest though," he told Carmen while he lifted up his hoodie to examine it.  With a shrug, he draped the dirty cloth over his back just as he stood back up onto his hooves.

Looking into the front door of the workshop as the black smoke that bellowed out was slowly coming to an end.  Dusk was curious if the magic circle he drew on the workbench had survived the explosion.  It did sound like the explosion itself had come from the kitchen, so it should be okay.

"While it would be nice to see how Molotov's forging work had come out.  I have a feeling the workshop is in the need of a little TLC," he pointed out.  Sure, other than the cake batter and the smoke, he hadn't managed to get inside after Felicia to see what kind of damage had actually occurred to the workshop.  Judging though by what he knew about the Boom siblings, he had a good feeling a lot of the workshop was built to take such punishment.  Either to resist such things or at least be super easy to repair.  It would be rather interesting to find out.

[Blitz Boom 4,428]

@Catpone Cerberus @Moonlit

"Zecora's a zebra. You know, sort of like a pony, but with stripes, and a tendency to rhyme constantly. She's a pretty nice mare though, even if she should keep her muzzle to herself sometimes."

First time Berry had met the zebra, she had been greeted by her real name, and not the one she lived under now, along with some comments about her mental health. It wasn't meant in a bad way, but the result had not exactly been a calm start to things.

"I dunno if we can find her though. She lives here in the forest, but it's like you get off the trail pretty easily if she doesn't want to see you. I figure it's either the zebra mojo, or the poison joke that's messing with your head. Makes it hard to get a read on her when I can't even find her place to lurk and see what happens, but I think she's alright, if a little noisy."

It were pretty obvious that Nada wasn't too thrilled about meeting the princess in the desert, considering the way she grasped at straws like Zecora, but really, how could Berry blame her? They didn't know who else might be in the desert with the princess, and if she brought a whole team, it might not be the best first impression. The princess might act nicely in the situation, but the citizens were another thing that were more unpredictable, though it leaned heavily towards *Not a pony? Be afraid of it*. Even Zecora went through that, and she were about as close to a regular pony as could be. The little dragon servant Twilight had hanging around were more of an oddity than the seer.

"You know, I think it would be good if we went to her and tried to get her support on things. Twilight is likely gonna nerd out in the desert for hours anyway, and since Zecora's a seer and everything, getting her stamp on you being about as harmless as can be would help. The princess have gone to her for advice before, so Zecora might be kind of like a trusted adviser at this point? Again, I haven't been able to get a good grip on the zebra, but it couldn't hurt.

We'll just have to take a left up at the thunderstruck tree up there, then keep going for like, ten-fifteen minutes, and we should be in the general area. We'll see if she's taking visitors then."

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

 

@Catpone Cerberus

"Well you know, this guy might've died getting roasted, who knows? Let's see what sorta shape he's i-Hey!"

Spicy saw Ruby quickly snatch something from the coffin before running out like her flank was on fire. She nearly toppled the urn too, though thankfully, Spicy managed to save it and keep the lid on. It might seem a little morbid, but she could sell these ashes along with the wall decoration to make for an interesting set for some dragon who might hold a grudge. She knew dragons who held grudges against ponies who died seven generations ago, so it could be possible to find somepony this guy got on the bad side off, and make a bit of cash on some dragon who'd love the irony in owning what was left of an old thorn in the side. The jewelry were nice too of course, and those were more guaranteed profit than this set, but she liked a challenge.

Outside, after Ruby had finally stopped running away from the smell and tried to regain her composure and not reveal herself more than she already had, a familiar voice would talk to her.

"My dear Ruby, I think you might need some stamina training if a short run like that leaves you breathless. Or is it simply from being in my presence? I can't blame you, I am rather magnificent."

Marley chuckled at the mare who had stopped up not too far from the entrance, which in turn, were not far from the wagon he were currently dragging some boxes out from. Thankfully for Ruby, he had already sealed up the jar from before again, and whatever minute traces had been in the air in the process had gone away, so the dragon in disguise wouldn't have to worry about getting another whiff right now.

(next part only if the necklace is in view)

"I see you found something down there. Peculiar thing I'd say, especially the eye in the center. It seems almost real. May I have a closer look?"

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

 

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

Anomaly popped in right after Novia had pranked Lucid rather severely. A burn which could scour the land frankly, but had gotten itself a happy ending, which meant it was time to celebrate.

An over-sized party hat with antlers fell on each of the new couple's heads, and as two beanpoles rapidly grew up and got connected by a layer of vines and flowers that spelled out *Happy coupling* above Novia and Lucid's heads, the pumpkin-headed draconequus blew into a party horn, as it felt appropriate for the moment.

"Congratulations! Here, take this."

She snapped her tail, and a small statue of the new couple appeared on a log in front of Novia, with Lucid literally carrying Novia around like a horse, saddle and everything. It felt like a nice way of saying that Novia owned Lucid now, which were perhaps a bit early on to say, but Anomaly was not the patient type, so she'd take this in advance. Plus, she could make fun of Lucid, which were always good.

Said pooqus would also find something next to him. A diploma that marked him as a medical wonder, through his spontaneous growth of a spine. It was even framed and not written in crayons, which Anomaly normally had a fondness for doing.

"You two are gonna make a great couple. All happy and prancing everywhere, causing strange things wherever you go. Or you'll decimate a continent, but that sounds more like a *third date* sorta thing."

Whatever were gonna happen, one thing was for sure: They were gonna have some goofy looking children. Perhaps not the best thing to think around a mind reader, but it wasn't like Anomaly had a brain for conventional mind readers to work with. Her head were more of a containment unit, usually filled with pumpkin juice or candle light, depending on if it were a spooky holiday and she wanted to freak somepony out. It never failed to work to just reduce herself to a head, then wait until somepony came around and looked, then followed after them whilst letting off a hollow cackle. Barely any got institutionalized from the trauma either.

Meanwhile, Lotus listened in to what Angel were saying, and watched him groom himself with interest. She understood why, considering the large-tongued plant monster and her *cleaning* earlier, but he could've just used a water bowl too, and if it was because of sand, then what was the point? They were surrounded by it.

But eh, perhaps this were how Equestrian bunnies behaved? She wasn't sure, since she had been taken from her burrow and sold to a merchant before she had even opened her eyes, but it might well be, and honestly, Lotus wouldn't be off worse from learning a bit of regular bunny behavior. She acted more like a dragon than a fluffy little pet, which made interacting with her kind very difficult. Angel here were actually the first it went well with, and she had some idea that it was because he had a violent side too. Might be that it made him a bit more tolerant than the usual, scared little fluffball.

In any case, what he squeaked were interesting, though the mental image of Fluttershy being mean just didn't work in Lotus's head. She seemed too... Innocent for that sort of thing. Guess you couldn't judge a pony by it's whimpers.

"My dragon can't beat this sphinx, but she's smart. She knew where to look for help, so she took the plant pony away and found your pony and her friends."

Lotus's ears perked as she thought about something and excitedly jumped up and down, whilst pointing at Fluttershy. Something which caused her hair tuft to fall over her face, which she had to get styled up again once she were done talking.

"Perhaps she can help Fluttershy? Nerzhei is tough, but she can be nice to others too. Perhaps she could learn Fluttershy how to stand up for herself without being mean?"

Of course, Nerzhei had her own demons to fight with when it came to rage, and draconic pride, but she were generally respectful to others that did not give her a reason to be mean towards them. In Dragon Land, they were usually rough, and she had to answer in kind to get any sort of respect, but ponies were different, and she generally only began to snarl at others who began a fight with her first, physically or verbally. Fluttershy might be able to learn a few tricks on how to stand up to herself and gain some respect, rather than be stepped on, and not at the same time become a kind of harsh pony who acted mean towards everypony. It should just be against those who deserved it.

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

 

@EQ_Theta

"...Pain is shared with friends?"

If Omen tilted her head more to the side in confusion, she might end up twisting it off entirely, as she tried to fathom everything that were going on. It were like, every time she had some idea what was right and how to think about things, it suddenly threw a curveball at her, and she got lost again. Which didn't help when she then were told new things and had to think that what she said was around the same lines, but not the whole thing, so she had to reevaluate everything and...

It had been a long time since this happened, but Omen finally just shut down completely, and laid motionless in the flames. No light flickered in her eyes, no breath or attempt to move were seen. If it wasn't for the ever-moving mane and tail, you may as well think that she had been frozen in place.

Hours would go by, and the flames underneath her would have long since cooled down and be little more than ash and and flakes of wood that the fire had not consumed.

"Physical is breaking, emotionally is when friends see friends be hurt. That is where the bad feeling comes from."

Omen would just start talking again out of nowhere, with no warning or even any acknowledgement that time had passed, as her overstuffed brain had finally had to process some of what she had been told. It were good to have friends in her opinion, but it left her little time to process things, and with everything that had gone on ever since she had been taken out of the crystal, there were just too much unprocessed information. With trying to grasp emotions on top of that, it had been too much for her to push aside, and so, her cognitive functions had ceased for a while, so that she may get at least some things sorted in her head.

Lin may have been worried, but Omen had simply starred into the sky before when she needed to think, or watched Sen unblinkingly until he woke up, so hopefully she wouldn't have panicked about that, nor about the low shrieks that had escaped Rosa about an hour after Omen had shut down. He didn't seem to wake from it, but there had been a good few minutes with pained sounds and rustling beneath his wings, before he fell silent again.

The night had moved along in the meantime, and the sun were soon to rise. Hopefully those who could sleep, had gotten enough of it to last them through the last part of their trek.

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

 

@Rising Dusk

As the smoke cleared, Dusky would be able to get a look at the scale of how things looked in there, which were... Well, frankly not so bad. The workshop main room still stood, although several things had been blasted to the side near the door to the kitchen, and the inside of that room were.... Colorful, and full of things that had tumbled around and likely needed repairing.

It was going to need some cleaning, and most of the place were going to require that things got rearranged before the order was returned, but the place still stood, and nopony had died, so that was good.

A rustling were heard as Molotov slid down from Felicia's back and stumbled a little, whilst a few more coughs of smoke escaped his lungs. It was lucky that Blitz's smoke bombs were not toxic, or this whole situation would've been a lot worse for him, though he might still want to remove what she had left of them for a time. Just until she learned that he meant it when he said to not test explosions inside the workshop. It was an outdoors thing.

"Urgh, this is a mess."

He scooped up Carmen, and put her on his back as he stumbled in and had a look around with a grimace on his face. Something which didn't lessen as he glanced into the kitchen and saw the absolute mess Blitz had left behind her.

"This is why I have to reinforce everything I own, and it's still looking bad. Dents, loose screws, calibrators cracked... This is gonna take us all night to get fixed back up."

With a sigh, he went back outside and let out another deep, guttural cough.

"I know you're all game for seeing if this new attempt will work Dusky, but I'm gonna have to insist on it being tomorrow, or some other day when you ain't busy. I need to get Carmen properly cleaned plus repair a lot of things, and this little cake monster needs to clean up her mess."

Blitz pouted at that comment, but Molotov weren't having it.

"Actions have consequences. Just be happy I don't ground you. Mind letting her go Felicia? And you know... Thanks for the rescue. It's appreciated."

The large spiderbot set down Blitz, who were about to walk in before she got hosed. Literally, Molotov pulled a hose out from the wall usually meant for fires, and washed the worst of the batter off her before he'd let her inside. She knew were the towels were so that she could dry herself, which were needed with that huge tail of hers. She would keep stepping in it if it were just dragging around the floor constantly.

"And Dusky? Thank you a bunch for taking her out to meet somepony new, and bringing her back in one piece. It means more to me than you might think."

Molotov felt like he just wanted to sleep for the next seven to twelve hours away right now, but there weren't any time for that. The longer things stood in disrepair, the bigger the chance that something else would go wrong, and he couldn't risk that. Besides, Carmen needed to get fixed up before she overheated from the lack of some of her airing options. Blitz explosion were nothing compared to what would happen if Carmen suddenly went critical, and Molotov neither wanted that, nor to lose his favorite little assistant.

it was a shame that they couldn't see if the new things worked yet, but hopefully Dusky would understand. If not, he could get the pieces with him and try to assemble them at home. Whatever would work best for him.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,427]

@Blitz Boom @Moonlit

Zebra, a striped rhyming pony Nada repeated to herself picturing it in her head, and to her usual manner, she listened everything Berry had to say before saying anything. "The part about her knowing the princess was actually what I was going to ask next." "I really hope she's willing to help us, I'm not sure if I can bring myself to leave the forest without certainty." she got out of the water now that they had decided to change direction, though Berry's minute estimation didn't mean anything to Nada since she couldn't even tell millennia from century at the moment. "It's not that I don't trust you, I just don't know if the princess trusts you enough to trust me." "I hope you get what I mean."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@Blitz Boom
"D...don't...flatter yourself." Ruby managed to say between her still going gasps that were slowly settling, like was her will to transform too, the fresh air was quite effective in cleaning the poison out of her system "I'm...not into feathers." she wasn't into really anything if she would have been honest, she didn't even know if she was capable of feeling that way in the first place.

When Marley mentioned the necklace that was next to Ruby's forehoof, it's chain under her buried hoof, she pulled it slightly towards herself as a reflex, and then brought it closer to her face and opened her normal pony eyes to actually look what it was, wrapping the chain around her hoof tight, she could tell right away what it was, her mouth opened from shock. Dear fire that burns inside me...."Trust me feather-duster, it's a real dragon-eye" she obviously wasn't going to give it to Marley so she continued, but her tone got colder "But it is mine now.".

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Catpone Cerberus Serenade opened her eyes, before rapidly blinking. How did...she end up next to a river, and why was she in her Siren form. She looked around, then slid into the river. The last thing she remembered was...talking to Princess Twilight?. Her eyes opened wide when she caught a scent in the water.  

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

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

Lucid took the diploma, opened the portal that showed a living room with a couch, and put the portait on the wall. Probably because the poquus sleeps in the living room. He came back and closed the portal.

"My non-existant parents are going to be so proud!"

"Actually they aren't non-existant, just unknown."

"Fair enough."

He thought for a second.

"Your dad isn't gonna hit me with a bat, right?"

"Probably not, but even he did, it wouldn't really do anything to you since you're supercontinent level chaotic entity."

Lucid looked over at Anomaly.

"So, do you like anyone?"

[EQ_Theta 415]

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

"Anything to help Fluttershy. I like her but sometimes, she's too naive for her own good."

The bunny smiled and nodded. That gave Angel a strange idea. Or a strange picture in her head depicting Fluttershy taking lessons from a dragon. To be fair, she behaved like her normal self if she were around young animals and to an extent, Spike when they first met. Now if it were Nerzhei giving the lessons and going by the accounts about how large dragons could grow, it's going to be quite a sight.

"But only if it is alright with your dragon... I'm sure Nerzhei has her own problems to worry about but if she wants to do it, I'll let Fluttershy know."

Speaking of Fluttershy, she overheard the two bunnies squeaking and grew curious about what it is they were talking about.

"Angel, what are you two talking about?"

The bunny hopped over and pulled the pegasus' ear down to his level, whispered a thing or two and Fluttershy's eyes grew wide.

"I know you mean well, b-b-but is that r-really what you think is best? I mean, I might have taken Iron Will's words too far but I think I'm better at being assertive. Maybe Nerzhei won't want to do it, you know, with me being a pony and all that. Or she's probably busy with other things and we shouldn't be disturbing her."

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

@Blitz Boom

So it was that Lin might have overdone the explanations until it got Omen still and quiet. Maybe a little too much information confused her so much it left her still and unable to respond. She was getting close and if she only had a little more time, Lin might have been able to clear up a lot of the things Omen was confused about. For a while, it left Lin befuddled about what she did wrong. Perhaps it was her explanations going in circles instead of moving forward, throwing in another detail that seemingly brought the conversation back to square one.

With Omen staying in the fire pit for a while, she tried to maybe move her off it but changed her mind, not wanting to interrupt her if it was something important. The sounds coming from Rosa provided a distraction but it didn't last long, leaving the longma hybrid to return to figuring out what to do next. Again, she would've tried to do something to ease Rosa's worries but out of respect for his need for rest, she let him be. It was a good thing she opened a gate back to the village to grab some reading material before waiting out the rest of the evening. 

Eventually, Omen came to once more and spoke, showing the things Lin said earlier had stuck. Well, maybe it still needed a bit of refining but Omen was getting there. 

"What happened back there, Omen?" Lin looked up and asked, a little worried about what happened earlier. "Was what I said too much for you? Because we could continue this another time if you'd like." 

[Rising Dusk 26,082]

@Blitz Boom

Oof, that was indeed an interesting mess made from baking.  Rising Dusk could see a good portion of things just from the entry way, and he definitely had to give Blitz the gold medal over his own sister for kitchen disasters.  Luckily, it seemed that the damage was mostly just having to clean up multi colored batter.  So not only did Blitz attempt to bake using explosives, but it looks like she was trying to bake for the whole city with how much there was.  It was impressive how well prepared the Boom siblings were for such things to occur on the regular.  The fact that no pony was harmed though was by far the most important part.  It didn't look like it would take repairs too long, although it didn't look like it'd be the most pleasant of activities for Molotov and Blitz's night.  Now that he thought about it though, living in the community of Center Zero must have been rather interesting when it was common place for a neighbor's house to be exploding every other day with a new invention.

While wanting to see how the new cage design did come along, it was something that could easily be put on the back burner to make way for more important things.  It wasn't all that big problem for Dusk, not being in all that much of a hurry with the completion of the project.  "No need to worry about the cage Molotov.  There are more important things ahoof," he told the other stallion when he came out.  It was nice though that he was going to have Blitz clean up after herself, these were the types of lessons a young pony should learn early.  Of course, the fact that he pulled out a fire hose to un-batter her might be a tad overboard.  Hose water came from the ground water, which was cold and the little filly was having the sticky batter blown off her with high water pressure. 

"It was my pleasure Molotov.  I believe we had some fun and learned a lot," he expressed with a smile.  "Hopefully she'll want to drop back by the scrap yard for a visit.  I'm sure the crew would like it," he continued before looking back into the workshop.  He had to go to work tomorrow, that couldn't be helped, but he should be able to swing by in a couple of days.  Or maybe even include the East side of the city in his patrol route.

"Do you need a hoof?" Dusk asked, motioning to the messy workshop.

[Blitz Boom 4,428]

@Catpone Cerberus @Moonlit

"I don't even know if the princess knows I exist. I'm pretty sure she would've had words about me rummaging through her trash if she did."

It wasn't the most clean thing to do, but how else was she going to find out secrets? Ask them? Nah, that'd just alert The Conspiracy that she was getting closer, even if the royals wasn't in on the whole scheme. Besides, who was gonna be truthful when you asked them face to face, when everypony had their dirty little secrets to keep from others? Nono, the trash talked the truth, and sometimes, that truth were just plain old weird. The things she had found around Long Stare's place...

A shiver went through her as that particular string of images came to mind. It still had to be cataloged, and it sure was interesting, but Berry was never going to tell anypony about what she found. Both because it wasn't evidence of much, and because of what she found out from those small pieces of the puzzle, even if it wasn't substantiated, she were going to be a very missing pony if she ever tried to use it against Stare. Some family ties should not be messed with.

Besides, as weird and off-putting as Stare were, Berry liked her. She didn't hurt anypony, and after the trashy letters she had found at Chop Chop's stand once, she sure wasn't gonna try and poke a stick in that wheel. Doubly so since Chop had been very clear that his own injuries would be nothing compared to hers if Berry ever tried to harm Stare. Considering his proficiency with knives, she wasn't gonna bet against his shark attack wounds being prettier than what she'd look like if she messed around with the wrong mare.

Nada here were an easier friend to deal with than those two. Sure she were a siren and getting her integrated into society was gonna be a pain in the flank, but at least this one hadn't threatened her or had potentially disturbing connections. Yeah yeah, she didn't trust Berry too much right now, but who could blame Nada? Wasn't like the last few millennia had been spent thinking ponies were angels after all.

"Anyway, don't worry Nada. it's not like I trust that many either. The Conspiracy runs deep and their spies are everywhere. I'd be pretty sure you could be one too if you hadn't been isolated for so long, but everypony else? All of them could potentially be part of it, and I haven't ruled out enough to be sure I don't need to take most with a grain of salt. The forest dwellers seem mostly okay though. Zecora, the weird filly with the explosions, and Special Harvest, before he went completely bonkers and began cultivating and eating Poison Joke. Which reminds me, if you see a faded-yellow shack out here, don't go near it. Some of his uhm... Well, let's just say that he had pets, and not all of them were caught. You really don't want details on that."

Berry frankly didn't want to think about it either, so she went on towards Zecora's area, with Nada freshly out of the river, and still completely unaware that anypony were following them.

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

 

@Catpone Cerberus

The first response, about Ruby not being into feather, only made Marley chuckle a little more. Quite frankly, he wasn't into anything that were not a griffon, but at this point it seemed like Ruby and him could have some fun poking at one another, regardless of their preferences. It were not as if he had honestly thought that she were breathless simply from gazing upon him. Something else were afoot, and he were pretty sure it had something to do with the amulet she now clutched protectively, and the perfume that had affected her so.

At the last of her responses, Marley hadn't gotten any closer to try and touch the amulet, but simply looked down at Ruby with a somewhat amused look going over his feathered face.

"So it seems. Usually we have things evaluated before splitting them up, but not to worry, I can make an educated guess on what it is worth, and talk it over with Spicy to ensure that it will simply be seen as your first cut of the deal. Keep it."

He didn't blink as he said this, but just starred at the possessive little thing. Such a fragile little body, for someone who he were now certain were far more than what she appeared, or that he first thought.

"...Did you know that the job of a bodyguard is not as easy as you may think? Our employers trust us in making the right decision that will keep them safe, both from strangers, and those they allow to get close to them. It is our sole responsibility to make sure that we make the call, including whatever to tell them something which may be important, or outright lie to them, in case we determine it is more of a benefit to them to keep hidden."

Hardly had he said this, before Marley turned around and grabbed some of the boxes needed for the jars, and put them on his back, with his wings spread out halfway to allow more surface area to be covered.

"I am making that call now, since I believe it is more of a boon than a plaque to have you with us, and because I can respect your need for secrecy. I sincerely hope that you will not prove that this were an unwise decision, and if faced with the same choice, that you will repay the courtesy.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a job to do."

With that, Marley went back downstairs to began stashing up the jars, a smile on his beak and no further comment to what he were certain now were a dragon in disguise. How? Why? It didn't really matter, as much as whatever she'd use her secret or true form to harm Spicy. Currently, he saw mainly benefits, so he would give her the benefit of the doubt, and lie on her behalf if need be.

If she did eventually become a problem though... That would be a bridge they had to cross if they arrived at it, though in a fair fight, he found it doubtful that he could win.

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

 

@EQ_Theta

"Many things to think about these days. No time to think. More thoughts come. Still no time. Head makes time."

Omen didn't know all the ins and outs of why or how she shut down when she had an overload of unprocessed information, but she did know a little, which basically just boiled down to what she had said. Her head couldn't take it all at once and keep going with other things, so eventually, her brain would just take over and try to filter through some of it, until eventually there were enough room for her to be back. When? How long? If it were dangerous? Omen didn't know, but then again, she had never thought much on it either. It hadn't seemed important compared to all the things in her head she had to try and get in line.

"Still a lot to think about. I need time to understand."

"Just give her some time, and don't try to feed her any new information. Then we get the statue, let her go and think for a few days to clear her head."

Every time Omen *spoke* the words were transported into anypony's head that were close enough, and Rosa were within range. Whilst he slept that wasn't an issue, but he hadn't really slept well, which were evident as his wings spread out and stretched, revealing the grim, drained-looking bat pony.

Still dangling down by his tail, his tired eyes rested on where Omen laid, then over towards Lin, and then finally, over towards the tent, though it seemed like Sen were still asleep. How Rosa envied him that calm nights rest, but at least the bat pony had gotten a few hours before the nightmares rustled him too much. It would have to do.

"So, have the night gone well for you, Lin?"

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

 

@EQ_Theta @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight @BloodDrops @Dji

Lotus rolled her eyes at Fluttershy's response to the offer. That mare sure needed some help getting a spine up and running, that was for sure.

Since it seemed that she understood what Angel were on about, Lotus would try to talk to her directly herself, and jumped closer until she stood just in front of the timid mare, then rose on her feet. Her arms were folded in front of her too, to try and give off an air of confidence and stubbornness to herself. Not an easy task when you were a pink bunny, but Lotus would stop trying when she were dead.

"My dragons spends a lot of time reading, but she wants to get closer to your village. Helping you can help her with that too, so I'm sure she'll be fine with it.

Besides, you're out here, helping with the sphinx that nearly got her, and you're keeping an eye on me. She owes you. Just go up to her, and very clearly say *Please help me get more confident.* and if she gives you lip, tell her that after everything, she owes you to try. She'll respect that."

Nerzhei were a dragon, with much of the pride that entailed, but she weren't as dominating and a jerk as many of her kind were. She respected beings who had the courage to talk to her not as the talker being superior or an underling, but her equal. If Fluttershy asked, she'd perhaps dismiss the mare to try and see what she would have to work with, or simply because she were buried in some other project, but being told *You sort of owe me, after the sphinx* or something along those lines, would get her attention. Nerzhei honored her debt, and as long as it wasn't shouted at her in a way that made it seem like Fluttershy thought herself as having the right to demand whatever she wanted - AKA being a jerk about it - the dragon would be compelled to at least try.

Meanwhile, whilst the cute circus commenced, Anomaly had almost managed to crawl through the portal that Lucid had made to see what was really on the other side, when it began to close and she got spat out and back into the same old Equestria. She had managed to throw her left ear in there though, so provided that Lucid didn't notice, it could evolve into something and explore from there on out, though knowing that buzzkill, he'd likely go snatch it up before it even got done making a cocoon.

Yet, Anomaly had other things on her mind, which became evident as Lucid turned to her and she stood with a balloon bat, ready to take a swing. Which she took too, straight to Lucid's head. SHe considered using a real bat after his comment, just to see if he could really take it, but she had decided against it in the last split second. It'd just get all sorts of messy then. Plus, this one could make squeaky sounds when you hit somepony. It was clearly superior, even if it hit like a wet noodle.

"Hehe, nope. I like my seer since he's a sneaky sneaky with funny features, but he isn't interested, so that's a bust. I sorta figure that I'll run into somepony one day, then mutate them and give them a longer lifespan to have happy days for a looong time, back on my isle. It's just so hard to find anypony who wanna date somepony who wanna twist their being and have a kid, you know? But I'm sure that one day, I'll find the perfect being just withering away in some mental asylum, and kidnap him under the guise of darkness to an extended lifetime of weirdness."

A long, drawn-out, dreamy sigh came afterwards as Anomaly thought about how her crazy kidnapping scheme romantic idea would unfold itself, until something started to click in her head, and she focused on the newcomer instead.

"Wait... Novia? Why would your dad be swinging bats at anypony? Is that the way you say hello in your dimension? I like the idea."

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

 

@Rising Dusk

Molotov shook his head at the offer, whilst Blitz spat out a stream of water, shook the worst water and running batter off her, and wandered into the workshop to get dried up. She'd take a real bath later, but big bro said they had to get things clean and fixed, so it'd have to wait until he wasn't so stubborn on that.

"Thanks for the offer, but this is going to take all night, and you have a job to do. Besides, Blitz needs to learn that her actions have consequences, and she won't if she keeps getting help from everypony, so she needs to make an effort. I'll help her once she gets the idea, and start repairing until then. You better get on home and get some rest so you're ready to tackle the day tomorrow Dusky, and we'll see you around at some point, alright? If we ain't in, just knock and see if one of the girls are here. They can explain where we're at.

Who knows? Perhaps I'll even have some good reserves of metal to really get cracking when you ain't on duty. Got far with the bot in there, so hopefully it won't be too long before I can start getting some raw material from Center Zero. Gonna take Blitz there when it's done too, and see if it rustles any memories, though I'm gonna have to keep her on a shorter leash than normally, heh. Wouldn't want her to break into workshop 2,5, 7 or 12. Especially not 5. I don't wanna know what she'd do with what's in there."

He sure appreciated the concern from the officer in regards to needing a hoof, but Molotov just really wanted to get the place fixed up as a family matter, and then get on to a few other projects. He had a chance to tinker a bit with the bot after making the steel needed for the cage, yet it hadn't been a lot, and as he were saying, Dusky needed his rest. He might not be the one out there making all that many arrests, but what if like, fifty magical items slumped on to his desk tomorrow morning and he weren't rested? That couldn't be good.

"Anyway, you're a trooper Dusky, I really mean it, but the town is gonna need you at your game more than we need an extra pair of hooves to clean up this joint, so you should head on home. Though if you want the bars to test this thing out at home, I could give it to you? I'm trying a new design around more screws and bolts, rather than welding them together, which might help with the pressure wearing at the welded parts. Want 'em? I'll let you borrow a #9 Multi-tool as well, long as you promise to keep it safe."

"𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕣 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕟 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖, 𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕕𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕤 𝕥𝕠𝕠𝕝𝕤."

Molotov wanted to argue that, but he just didn't have it in him right now. Not with the dread of having to clean for half the night floating around his head.

*sigh* He really had to invent some kind of cleaning robot or something. It'd be so much easier in the long run.

"𝔸𝕟𝕕 𝕀 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕡 𝕪𝕒𝕣𝕕, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕪 𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕤. 𝕋𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕦𝕟𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕟"

Though she wasn't sure when, Felicia did wish to return to the scrap yard, and though she initially thought of doing so on her own, communication with the workers could be gained through writing if needed, so the potential were there to have visits alone, though she'd have to remain unseen by the uninitiated, just in case. At least on the way there. She didn't want to worry the officer about having to deal with reports about her presence there, when he likely had more important things to worry about. Whilst he had told her of what he did, she did hope to one day see it for herself, yet one thing at a time. First integration into their society, then examine Officer Dusk's work behavior.

For the time being, all of them were ready to call it a night in their respective ways, though Molotov stood ready and waited to hear if he should fetch the metal and a tool, so that Dusky could work on it on his own. Felicia also stood ready, though this were mostly so that she may say a proper goodbye to the stallion in question. It seemed to be what the ponies would consider *polite*.

[Sekel 685]

@Widdershins

DAWN STREAK

“Oh yeah? Well, how about no!?” Dawn shouted to be heard from the back of the dragon. “It’s not like I planned this or anything!”

@Blitz Boom

KARMIC FATE

“I’m a changeling slime. I was an experiment done eons ago so I would rather stay here for the moment,” Atzy replied out of curiosity more than anything else. Enzio did intrigue her, but with Karmic trying to take back control, she was starting to get a bit antsy.

@Blitz Boom

AURORA LIGHTS

“Oh, thank you, Queen Onache,” Aurora said in surprise. She was half expecting the recently changed changeling to reject her and force her out of the temple grounds. She found it a welcome suprise when it didn’t happen though.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine @Dji @BloodDrops 

Lucid saw the ear go in, but didn't do anything about it. The fake bat turned into a fish when it hit him in the head.

"If it messes up my house, I'm sending it to the animal shelter."

"As for your lack of relationship, we'll just go around Ponyville finding you someone!"

Was it going to work? Probably not, but it would give him something to do.

Now as for her question to Novia.

"Lucid watches a lot of movies. My adoptive parents won't be mad. Honestly, they've been waiting for me to get a boyfriend for a while. As for how things work in my universe, we're similar to you guys."

 

[Blitz Boom 4,428]

@Dji

"Then your wish is promptly stated. What then of Karmic? What does she wish would happen? And think not to lie to me. I know her desire is not to carry you around out of simple goodness in her heart. If she truly wishes to carry you too, she must have a reason for that."

He would guess something along the lines of gaining certain attributes before expelling the invading parasite, yet he didn't know what went through the mind of these two. Enzo were not a mind reader. He could simply guess that the pony might want some of the powers that a changeling could bring among her own, and carrying this being within her for a time could grant her that.

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

 

@Dji

"Your appreciation is accepted. Though be warned, upon these grounds, attacking any others than hostile invaders, are forbidden as well. When you seek shelter here, you will leave your personal bias against certain individuals at the door. Even if by some miracle a siren appears, the rules stand."

The relationship between sirens and changelings were... Pretty ugly, honestly. As predators feasting on conflicting emotions, their kinds were not unheard of in having turf wars with the opposing species, trying to get the best victims and areas for themselves. The sirens usually hid at coasts, and not many in Equestria likely, after the three large ones had been banished, but at times, their kind moved inland to set up shop somewhere with more prey, and though she had personally never seen one, as Onache had always lived in deserts, she knew that an oasis were as fertile grounds for their kind as a lake, and considered this to be a thing to be said, simply because it may happen. Even in Equestria, of all places.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,427]

@Blitz Boom @Moonlit
Yet again, Nada started by listening what Berry had to say, but this time something else caught her interest, a faint scent that came with the wind, it couldn't be what she thought it was, it was probably her own scent coming from the river, but she needed to makes sure, but she didn't want to alarm Berry...so she decided to go for the most logical thing that came to mind, after she had replied to Berry of course, "I'll remember to keep away of that." she had pretty much ignored the part about the conspiracy and listened just a bit about the ponies, and zebra that live in the forest.

Now was the time for checking if she had smelled right, she started singing, a short and low tune, that she knew would travel a long distance, leaving short pauses between tunes to listen....she hoped that if she had smelled what she thought, she would soon hear a response. It was beautiful tone, and very recognizable to be that of a siren.

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@blitz Boom

Ruby didn't say anything, it was obvious now that Marley had figured out something, she had no way of knowing if it was the truth that he had figured out, but the whole talk about his job and his decision about trusting made it pretty obvious that he knew something. Now that the bird was gone, she took even better look of what she had found, the feeling was impossible to describe, but she could feel the eye calling for her, she didn't usually care for stuff like this, dead dragon here and there, they didn't cause any type of feelings to her, but this one did for some reason, and it was far stronger than any greed she had ever felt before.

After just standing there for a moment, Ruby took the chain off around her hoof and put in on her neck, it was quite long chain, so it required some adjusting to make it sit right on her neck, but eventually she succeeded by just wrapping it around few times, and after she was done, she walked back in with lies ready to go if Marley already didn't tell something to Spicy. It would be a shame if the partnership had to be broken, but Ruby could always just steal what the two already had, even if they had jars of poison on their hooves.

[FanOfManyShows 396]

@Blitz Boom

Iron looked to Chow, narrowing his eyes. "This is a book that requires trust to use it. You can't threaten it to be readable. Besides, if this is the one I think it is, It could just regenerate itself" 

While they spoke, Astral was pacing about, thinking about what to do next. This book thing did change things up, and also made things complicated at the same time. "Look at where we are." She said, sitting down next to a tree. "Far from home, dealing with a problem we caused. What could this book even do for us at this point?"

"Well, I'd assume Emerald uses spells from it. But seeing as you can't read it unless it lets you, we can't know what they are." He opened up the book, showing the inside. "See?" Looking inside would reveal the interior pages to be blank, no text at all, or even images.

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

Sure, magical residue was a thing, but Iron was efficient with his teleports, never using more magic than necessary. So Sapphire found no real clues to their destination. "Nothing, best guess is they went back home... but which one?" She said to herself, before shrugging it off and teleporting off. 

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

@Dji

Zealous chuckled, smirking a little. "Suppose I did." He said, sighing a bit as he turns to Watts. "What do you do, besides building stuff? Because with me having to not do anything. interest in you is preferable" As much as he hated to distract himself from it, leaning into this may just make her leave him in the long run, it may also prove that his plans for the day weren't as beneficial to him..

Crystal smiled a bit, glancing at the two of them. Being in a similar situation of not doing much that day, outside of getting her manuscript back,though it'd be smart to consider getting the guards on it. "I'll be off, since you two aren't having a problem. Nice talking to you though." She waved and walked off, looking around for some guards.

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Catpone Cerberus Serenade stops, her ears swiveling back and forth. She could faintly hear the song, she smirked. It's unfocused. She thought, then decided to show this new siren, how things went in Ponyville. She began to sing. Faintly at first, before getting a bit louder as she followed the trail.