open Casual stroll

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Dji @Seamore Sandwich "♪I don't know, but it wouldn't hurt to go ask?♪" She doesn't bother opening her eyes, she can feel Princess Celestia's eyes on her, that and the Shieldmaidens. "♪Take a picture, it will last longer♪" she snarks, still on her back. 

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

@Blitz Boom

"I think Dragon Lord Ember is key to fixing things between dragons and ponies and making it clear that there isn't as much conflict between them as everyone thinks. Some of my dad's best friends are dragons and they've always been nothing but gentlemen to me, and Pop and Benny are a fine example of our compatability, as is the friendship you and I share Toxen. Things look bright if she can hold onto that power. Traditions change."

Though Victoria was quite the dragon lover herself she couldn't see herself being involved with one romantically and couldn't imagine how that worked with Benny and Pop, but she knew that dragons had a lot of potential when it came to friendships with ponies, and a more pony-friendly dragon lord was key to bring the two races together.

She listened to what Pop had to say with a small smile on her face, Pop was great at making her feel better, that's why she liked her so much. She looked as if she was about to hug the candy pony but stopped in horror when she suggested that Victoria could end up with a large number of foals.

"T-three? I barely know if I could handle one. I hear a lot of ponies say 2 is the best number, I think that's where I'd like to end up eventually. Maybe I'd have more if I realised I was capable of doing so... but I-I don't know."

Heather noticed Pop throw a quick glance in her direction and laughed.

"Why are you looking at me?! You're spot on with Vicky, she will be a fantastic mother. All you have to do to know that is watch her with my adorable little nephew for half a second and you can just tell that she has a real natural 'mother' quality to her. Me on the otherhoof... can you see me with a foal? I can't even get near to Angel before I stumble and almost crush the little fellow."

"That's not true Heather, Angel loves you and I've seen you playing with him, you clearly love him too, to the point that your clumsiness all but disappears. You're definitely his favourite aunt."

"Haha thanks... though it's between me and Caramel and Caramel definitely isn't the motherly-type."

This much was definitely true, of all the ponies in the cake family Caramel was the only one who would rather not have little versions of herself running about, getting in the way of her work.

"Hey... um... t-these dragons d-don't bite right?"

As the group drew closer to the dragon district, many dragons fluttered overhead which was causing Lemon to quiver a little.

[BloodDrops 762]

On 18/04/2018 at 11:50 PM, Blitz Boom said:

"Calm yourself, you're fine. It appears you have a split personality, and the other side of you took over when you arrived. Likely from a lack of sustenance."

Nerzhei speared another fish, and reached it over towards Blood, more curious than she likely should be.

"From the words, I am going to say that your feral side have gotten a personality of its own. It kept talking about how it was trapped inside your body, and that feeding you made your consciousness stronger than itself. I don't know if this is a result of trauma, or a long term side effect of your condition, but it is... Interesting."

The dragoness were still hurting, and somewhat alarmed from a feral side that were more talkative than she had expected, so she wasn't going into full study mode. However, her curiosity still shone through quite well, and she couldn't help but feel some degree of interest over this whole situation. A potential biologically induced personality split? If it were safer to do so, she would have analyzed Blood under more controlled settings, but considering everything, it felt like nothing but a really bad idea.

"if you think about your feral side as an intelligent being, will all the horrid things that happens when you loose control make more sense then? Ifit less of a random effect you have on areas, and more deliberate, and cruel? I've never heard of something like this, but if that other side have been there for a long time, and directs your more destructive, psychopathic tendencies, it's something to keep in mind. And just another reason to keep you fed. A feral beast is one thing. An intelligent mind driven by hunger and a lust for destruction is something else. Harder to contain or control."

Which were why she didn't stop fishing right now, even if she were feeling the pain more directly in her arm right now. She needed to have something bagged and ready for another feeding situation.

Blood continued to spin around in circles until she smelt the next fish which made her stop and pick it off the pole Nerzhei offered to her, she began to eat it quietly though she didn't stay quiet for long she stared at the dragoness and snorted at her comment. "It's not interesting at all, interesting is seeing a new sort of flower, waking up with a pony eating your intestines isn't what I would call interesting, scary more likely" she said rolling her eyes and taking the third fish which was offered to her, a perch.

Blood frowned as the dragon continued, she tilted her head and snorted getting angry at her comments, "So your saying, deep down I enjoy going around murdering ponies? Well thanks for your analogy Professor Scales, burnt any towns recently or just stuck with the sheep stealing?" she queried shaking her head taking the high ground for once. "I'm surprised you don't want to put me in a cage and dangle a joint of meat and see what happens, I'm sure that would be Interesting" I add sitting down and nibbling on a fish bone.   

"If I thought of my feral side as intelligent, then why are you still alive, she could have killed you multiple times, she also wouldn't have let herself eat if she was intelligent because she knew i would come back and not eat you. There was no guarantee that I would ever flip back again. So she in essence isn't that clever unless shes planning on doing something extraordinary say for instant getting cured and getting her own body, maybe she will bite you after all. Interesting" she giggled to herself. 

She took the forth fish and finished that off licking her lips, "Right i'm fed, lets go on to this village with the whatever you call it to help cure me" I add smiling, "if there any trouble getting you in then I suppose i can flip out and eat everyone, wouldn't that make your life so much more Interesting?" she added rolling her eyes and getting to her feet, she shook her head and tutted.

"interesting, Bah"

[Seamore Sandwich 471]

@Blitz Boom 

@Dji 

@Moonlit 

 

“I believe it’s best that you stay here,” Celestia said calmly to the spirit.  It was as if she had seen spirits before, she was unafraid.  Luna followed Twilight out of the room, it was important that they complete the potion quickly.  “Have we met before, or am I mistaken?”  Celestia thought she remembered a pony that looked a lot like Cherish from back when the old castle was still standing, but there was a chance it could have been somepony else.

 

@Blitz Boom 

 

“I don’t know if we’re related to the Evergrown, but my kind have never gained bodies before.  I’ll be the first.  There’s a pointy pony helping me out with that,”  Charlie then paused.  “Those ones are called unicorns, right?”  Charlie mispronounced ‘unicorns,’ pronouncing the ‘un’ part like the prefix.  They were of course talking about Vivid, who was working on the changeling body when they last spoke.  Charlie needed to get back to the castle, unless Vivid were already looking for them, in which case, would she be able to find them?  The old castle wasn’t too far from town, so it wasn’t impossible.

[Sekel 693]

@Blitz Boom

KARMIC FATE

Karmic slid to the floor and shook her head once Zhu had parted the wind. Quickly realising what was happening, Karmic hurried to catch up and stay behind him. It was unusual for an open door to suddenly bring out a gust of wind, especially underground and in a stone passageway. Maybe it was another trap? "Keep going, we can do this," Karmic muttered more to herself than to Zhu to keep herself calm from being in such a confined space for so long. She butted her head against Zhu's backside to hurry him along.

@Seamore Sandwich

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

"Do you have any idea what kind of ingredients we'll for the specific of the transformation?" Twilight asked Luna, running ahead of her to get the transformation over with as quickly as possible. She wasn't sure what kind of transformation the princess had planned, but she hoped that her stores had the right ingredients. Otherwise it's gonna be a long night.

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Dji @Seamore Sandwich Serenade stays on her back, trying very very hard not to peak to see who is looking at her. She has never been in her adult form around so many before and it's...disconcerting. 

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Rising Dusk

"- and then add the whirly thing to accelerate the kaboom!"

"You're over-complicating it. A few more wires and a larger charge will do a better and safer."

"Nuhuh, you're just jealous that I'm smarter."

The voices outside the office got closer, though it wasn't words that came in as the doors then creaked open, giving way to the two ponies that had been talking. It was laughter.

"If you're so smart, then why am I the one with the working wings?"

Molotov were a strange sight. Hooves covered in thick, soot-darkened cloth, a belt of tools around his waste, and the glowing pendant with plastic-covered wires that lead back to folded down, mechanical wings were some that caught your attention easily. The strangeness did not stop there though, as the glass he had in front of his right eye seemed to adjust to what he was looking towards with lenses, coloration, and vague lights within it, all from just a little working of some small levers around the edge, that he operated with his magic. His cutie mark was a pair of mechanical wings with three gears underneath it, in case his occupation as an inventor wasn't clear enough already.

"That's not fair! You're older, you had time to make them."

The smaller pony looked tamer by comparison, though still concerning in her own way. Blitz had patches of dark going over her fur that would give off a faint smell of gun powder, and her mane and tail looked like she was on fire and exploding from two different ends. Her wings were also folded down, but there were no indications if they worked or not, though the horn with the broken tip clearly didn't work. Though she were young, so it was likely that it would grow out again, as it wasn't a harder break and her body was still growing.

Her cutie mark did not make things seem like she were less explosion-focused, though how would somepony even get that sort of cutie mark at age ten? Seemed reckless, and by the smell, also made her somewhat more flammable, though she clearly didn't seem to mind at all. She seemed more curious as to where they had gotten, and to pout a little up at who were either her brother, or her father.

A clicking, clacking sound mixed into things as an excessively hairy spider crawled out of the saddlebag that Molotov were carrying, and unto his back. The sounds were more metallic than something you'd expect from a creepy crawley, and closer examination would also tell that it wasn't a real one. The fur was false, the legs were clacking too much, giving away their metallic nature, and the two eyes were more akin to lamps. Plus, what sort of spider only had two eyes?

"Older and smarter. Anyway, you know why we're here, so let's be-"

Blitz walked right past him, ignored him, and looked up at the first pony she saw with a curious, semi-crazed grin on her face.

"Hello, are you Riding Duck?"

Molotov shook his head, but couldn't help chuckling over the little twerps start to this whole thing.

"It's Rising Dusk, though your version does sound better. Perhaps with a sun-powered, well sized rubber ducky we could convince him of a name change though?"

"Can it spit grenades?"

"Pff, why use grenades when you can get a lighting rod and a flame thrower?"

He were thinking over the logistics in how to make it work, which were likely a good time to stop his line of thought for whoever they had ended up talking to.

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@Moonlit @Dji @Seamore Sandwich

Cherish looked somewhat nervous as the princess addressed her directly again. It was weird to be face to face with royalty like this, especially since she had read some things in Luna's diary that wasn't exactly the nicest. She had likely just been towards cranky and loosing it, but it was hard to get out of her head.

"I_I Don't know, Princess Celestia. I was at the castle twice, to help a friend of mine to get closer to a guard mare that he had a sweet eye out for, but I don't remember if I ever spoke with you... I uhm... M-Made a bit of a spectacle once, so perhaps you saw that. It wasn't anything bad, but uhm... T-Trying to get to talk with Gleaming Plate kinda made her think I was an attacker, and dragged me in for questioning. It took about an hour before I could convince her otherwise, and then... Well, i-it was easier than I thought to get the two to meet up. I don't know if they lasted though. I... Disease took me away before I really got to see, and I don't remember much about the first years of being a ghost. Only hiding from u-unicorns.

I don't remember when I got to haunt the old castle, but it was already empty then. So I-I don't think you saw me there.

Perhaps... I-I lived in a small village of mainly just earth ponies, pretty close to the castle. Perhaps you saw me there? I usually wandered around town and tried to help others that liked each other to get together."

Celestia might well have seen her when she were alive, at the castle, or perhaps after she had died was hard for her to say. She had been dead for a long time, and it made it hard to keep track of all the memories. Especially of her life, as she had gone and forgotten a lot of how she were back in the day. Some of the later things were there, and a few glimpses back, though the majority were either lost, or buried deep and needing a jolt to come back into play. Perhaps once she got to fiddle with things to make sweethearts get closer again, she might remember it easier. Love had been her life, and she had forgotten that calling in the years that had passed. It made sense to her that making that her unlife too, would help her to recollect certain things. Or she would remember, and then know how to work with love again? Either way.

There was also a good chance that the forgotten memories included Celestia, and her that had done something really stupid, like trying to set up the princess with somepony, but she really didn't know. It sadly sounded like something she could imagine herself doing though.

"...Serenade? W-Why are you saying somepony should take a picture? It takes a long time to paint those. And w-why you would want a picture to begin with? Is there something wrong?"

Last certainly wasn't starring at Serenade at least. She still felt shameful, and averted her eyes from everypony, by focusing her gaze on the floor.

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@Seamore Sandwich

Ziggy scratched her chin.

"Well, some earth ponies can be kinda pointy, but if you mean with the horn and stuff, then it's a unicorn. Or an alicorn. They got big wings and horns, but it's only like, really powerful ponies that are that. Guess you'd have to be powerful to make a body? How would that e-"

Her words stopped, and her eyes got fixated on a few puff of purple clouds that suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere at the end of her bed. Did something go on fire down there? It kinda could look like that, since more just came, but what would catch on fire in a hospital, that would give off that hue? A few things, like... Wait, why were she thinking on that? Something might be burning!

Then all of a sudden, the smoke dissipated, and where nopony had been before, a mare now stood. Pretty warmly dressed for the season - like, Way too warm clothes - and with her ears on fire? And was that glowing tattoos going over her body?

"Wauh, your hospital have a magician? That's so awesome! Do you know any card tricks?"

Vivid looked at the doctor with the broken leg, confused as to the reaction.. She were faced with somepony that looked like her, and the response were that she were some kind of party clown? A new one, she'd admit that. She were more used to how the elderly pony reacted. That being with picking up a scalpel and narrowing her eyes at the newcomer.

"I don't know who you are, but you look like trouble. And I don't like troublemakers on my ward."

"Calm your nerves, foal. I'm not here to cause a ruckus. Or to make cheap tricks. I'm here for Charlie."

"Foal? You need glasses young lady. Now get out of this room before I call security."

"I'm 3924 years old. To me, all of you are but foals and seedlings in your infancy. Now I repeat, I came here looking for Charlie, and I am not leaving without him."

Charlie would likely have to butt in soon, or things could begin to get messy. Not violently so, as Vivid were under contract to not cause harm on anypony, unless it was one of several emergency situations, but violence wasn't the only way she could restraint others, or make them unable to come in and assist the two wounded patients, the elderly doctor, and the mimic, who had sat herself on Ziggy's chest, and hissed at Vivid with her mouth fully open.

"I remember those. Nasty little critters."

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@BloodDrops

"Perhaps you do deep down want to, or perhaps it is a side effect of your affliction. I'm not a psychologist."

Nerzhei growled back at the hostility she got from just saying what she had seen, and a few observations about it. Just because she made those observations, she didn't think it fair that she were getting called out, or even told that she was the bad guy in all of this. How the insolent little pony could even... Grrr, no, keep focused. Stay calm, or this would get worse.

"That side of you threatened Lotus and I, and demanded sacrifices, or we would be it. Why do you think I would ever have any interest in having your feral side influence you, or even take over, when it increases the risk of either of us getting infected? Only mad scientists does things like that, and I'm not one of them. I'm a researcher and a scholar, not a monster. If I were, I would have long since burnt you to a crisp instead of trying to be rational about things."

The comment about her burning and stealing had stung, as she were well aware that it were not an unreasonable comment considering she were a dragon. She weren't like the majority she had met though, and she prided herself in that. Sure, she had a lot of rage bubbling under the surface, and the want to simply cause a rampage or antagonizing ponies for no reasons were there at times, but she weren't a savage. She had a brain and used it, which frankly she hated got overlooked constantly. First by the majority of the short-sighted fools of her own kin, and now by random ponies, like this actual monster of a disease factory.

"And if you think that me being alive means your other self isn't smart, then you're a fool. It might get you back in control when you're fed, but it wouldn't kill me, because I provide food for you, and it is tied into your hunger. Grrr, I need a shrink to take a long, hard look at you one day for this... Or an extraction... Pad..."

A small light went off in her eyes, right before she jammed her spear into another fish. Yet this one she put out of Blood's reach. It was rations for later, so there would be something handy.

"If your hunger have some kind of personality, splitting you up into separate minds... No, that sort of technology isn't around, surely. But if anyone would know...

I will need to ask that pony when I find him. Now stop your foolishness and listen: We need to get you into a place to sleep. I need the time to prepare some things, and find directions to the town I was told of. You want the station again, or a hole somewhere?"

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

 

@Victoria Sponge

"I uhm... S-Sorry, it's just-"

A scaled hand landed on Pop's shoulder, and Toxen glanced down at her with a grin.

"I'll handle this shorty. Get your mind in line while I'm at it, right?

As I bet she was gonna say, Dragon Lord Ember is exactly the key in it all. If she can hold her power, I'm sure things are bound to change, but she will be challenged for her views. She'll have to show dominance over her opponents to keep in control, and show that she's worthy of it. There's already enough murmuring from others talking about nepotism, Changing the status quo is just getting more riled up.

Heh, if she have half the brawn of her papa though, this ain't be be an issue. The old man knew how to brawl with the best.

I'm not gonna touch the debacle of my baby bro and his mate here much, as that's really mom's area, and I've already said a bundle,e but the two of 'em are cute. I'll give 'em that, and then hope it's more. Can't say before I see it, you know?

Anyway, back on track, kids. Now Vicky, you are looking like you'd have a h-"

"Idon'tknowwhyIseeyouwiththreefoals!"

Pop had no idea what Toxen was about to say, but something told her that it was something utterly embarrassing, that would somehow involve her. The theatrics of the dragoness had shown her nothing in the short while she had knows Toxen, to convince her otherwise.

"I-I'm sorry. For some reason when the talk came on foals, I just tried to imagine how many there were, and for some reason I just can't see you with less than three Victoria. I just honestly can't see you as one who wouldn't end up with a big family. Uhm... P-Perhaps even bigger than three.

And you too Heather I mean, I think you'd be more careful and start with one for a long time, but everypony in your family seems to be able to do well around foals, and it makes it hard not to imagine any of you being without."

An image of Caramel got into her mind, and she flinched a small bit.

"Errgh. Perhaps some need a bit of help, but still."

"Also, big families are good. My mom's a little intimidating and my brothers had their time of being absolute monsters, but we care a lot about each other, and mom's pretty proud of having a horde of children. But hey, could be a dragon thing to love hoarding stuff, am I right?

Hah! Anyway, family's a grand thing all of you. Though try and pop your first, then see how you like it from there. Unless you're prone to twins. Pheeew, thaty's gonna be a rough start. Far more rush than meeting mom and dad, who I can guarantee you Lemon, won't bite. Ponies ain't food, and my parents aren't idiots. Mom might try and intimidate you, but that's just how she is. Especially after meeting Vicky. She'll be curious were all the spice in her genes came from."

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@Dji

Zhu did not like being pushed, or rushed for that matter. His work were delicate, and required a touch of finesse and patience. Plus if she pushed on him too much, he'd go too fast, and they's be slung into the walls.

So he had to put some resistance in her pushing to make the speed match, though at least this way, he knew that she were close. Even if the physical contact he were getting right now were a little too personal for his taste. It wasn't like he had ever had the time to go and look for somepony to be in his life, which were what he connected with being allowed to push on ones rear, even if there were thick cloth between.

karmic were not one he thought of in that way however. Frankly, he doubted that he would think that way of anypony at all, but if it were, it would likely be one of his own kind. They were scarce in this world, and each egg hatched could help their low population well.

With the rather weird line of thought going in his head, they finally pressed through the door to whatever was on the other side. Hopefully either the end of the spell, or some kind of thing they could crush to stop it. Or if they were unlucky, they had to keep going on for longer because the door starting wasn't the entry point of the wind spell, as much as something further inside could end up being.

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

 

@EQ_Theta

"Wherever you decide to put it, make sure nopony can find it again. It have done enough damage already without being misused another time, though I'm sure if this wrench could speak, she'd claim otherwise."

The two mares locked eyes, though with her muzzle silenced by Spelt, there wasn't really anything she could say about it.

"It will be taken care off. I am more concerned about making sure that Filigree remains in prison."

"Yes, that is worse... It were witnessed that she attacked this place, and even if by some miracle she could claim she wasn't in control, they'd still hold her for examination. At most, we will have this weekend to find something to stick."

"I have enough to have her fall for fraud, but she could talk her way into probation for that, instead of jail. The actual threat is hard to find evidence about. I looked for years, and I only found circumstantial evidence."

"There might be a way to find things more efficiently."

Amethyst's eyes briefly went to the side, towards the rooms where the workers had passed out of just before.

"I'll cover it with you when there is time. I would rather we get this... Abomination picked up so I can have the chance to think."

Almost as if on command, there were three rapid knocks on her door, and when she opened it, a pair of Solar Guards entered. She'd point out the mare in question, explain why she were bound and gagged, and then had a conversation about what had happened, what might end up being said, and made Rosa give up a copy of the evidence he had collected, that the officers could take with them. She were sure that the spy had more than just one folder, and one copy of the diaries, but the originals were needed by them, so he would have to fork them over.

Soon, they'd be on their way, with Filigree in tow, headed towards the local station. It was unlikely that anypony would miss Filigree, who sent them off with a mischievous look in her eyes that seemed arrogantly victorious already.

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

 

@Lucid_Nightlight @Storm Shine @EQ_Theta

"I have no idea how they got the parts, or the bones and heart. That's why I say I'm sure Zhu had something to do with it. All sneaky like and with plans.

I have a plan too. To join the cult of scented pool!"

She snapped her tail, and a cutie mark of a scented candle the size of a pool cue hitting a red ball, suddenly appeared on her flank.

"For it to be a cult it needs uniforms. Coats, hoods, Flower-dresses! There's so many fun costumes you can make ponies wear, and goofy rituals to complete. Like... Okay, like they need to make their own scented cadles, and then hold it in their teeth until it's melted! No wait, ponies can't eat wax. Uhm... Hold it on a small plate until it's melted? Yeah. What of a cult shake? Passwords? Locations? chants? Idea ideas ideas!"

Anomaly was on board witht he harmless cult that had been suggested, which were likely for the best. The only other subject had been death, and she had learned the hard way that she really shouldn't talk about that with ponies. Apparently her views on it were *morbid and wrong*. Come on, it was just taxidermy and common sense. Not something crazy.

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

 

@Lloyd

"Earth pony magic was banned for a reason."

"I believe it was originally because the unicorns of old found it blasphemous. Then later on, some really unfortunate incidents with some of the users validated them, and the books containing the information was gathered, and then burned or sealed up."

"I heard about that one. Most of the stuff they found were really dark magic kind of stuff too, so it didn't help witches either."

"Yes... But perhaps it is time to move past that, though we still can't let dark magic roam free. It is too great a risk.

Though as General Wings says, it have been taboo for too long, and the details have gone sketchy. We could use some experienced users who can promote the good parts of this kind of magic, to speak its case, and potentially have it being formally considered an allowed practice again. That one is more for the princesses to decide however."

Tidal Wave went over and padded the new general on the shoulder, and looked up at him with a big grin.

"Not a bad one to pick up on rookie. We'll make a general out of you yet."

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"Yes, I'll be the leader and wear a banana costume with a towel as a cape!"

Now... What would be the cult's future... What would go on?

"Oh! We can have retreats where we go to fun places like amusement parks and laser tag! We can also egg the HQ's of other cults!"

There were so many things that could be done!

"Also, since you're on board with the idea, would you be interested in having members do timeshares?"

 

Edited April 20, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

[Rising Dusk 27,713]

@Blitz Boom

Working the front desk at Manehattan's Office of Magical Investigations was often a high target for gripes and moans when one's rotation came up.  Rising Dusk has a new appreciation for it, however.  After his new promotion to extending his field work beyond the limits of Manehattan, having that guaranteed week on station was a relief.

The midnight blue stallion sat at the office's front desk, ready to take complaints from the citizens of Manehattan, or accept messages from other local law enforcement agencies requesting assistance in their own cases.  Today was a pretty slow day though, allowing Rising Dusk to sit there with the latest copy of Daring Do.  He held the book up and open with both hooves while the glow of orange around horn let him turn the pages with magic.  He'd always been curious how a few of these artifacts in the books were similar to some he'd seen in museums or in the office's vault.

Rising Dusk was dressed in his light gray hoodie, a nice perk of his division as they didn't care much for uniforms, as long as one carried their badge on them to identify themselves as law enforcement.  Orange magatama rising over a bright yellow starburst cutie mark stamped his flanks, earned at a young age that marked his destiny as a 'spell breaker'.  A term given to him by his co-workers when he was a newbie that accidentally ended up in the city's paper some time ago and now it's stuck.  Really he just had a unique expertise in Dispel and Counter magic.

His nice quiet morning was quickly broken when the front doors of the office burst open.  The thick waft of soot, grease and gun powder filled the entry way.  The glow of his horn extinguished and he promptly closed the book he was reading to be put away.  The two ponies that now stood before his desk could easily be considered odd, but he's from Manehattan, not much surprises him anymore.  Plus he just recently returned from Las Pegasus where he witnessed... No, what happens in Las Pegasus stays in Las Pegasus he reminded himself.  The three did share similar hair colors.  Rising Dusk's a sunset yellow that transitioned to red at the tips, like the setting sun against the coming night sky that was his coat color. 

Opening his mouth to greet the two, he didn't have much of a chance to do so as he was caught off guard by being called Riding Duck.  Attempting to correct the young filly, his mouth only managed to reach the opened state before the two went off on some details about a rubber duck and his name doing some obscured things with explosives, lightning or fire.  Rising Dusk listened for a moment, waiting for the smallest of gaps to wiggle into.

"Yes, I am Rising Dusk.  How can I help you?"

Edited April 21, 2018 by Rising Dusk

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

@Blitz Boom

Victoria looked slightly startled by Pop's sudden outburst, which was odd considering how stoic she had been when Ahadi's cauldron had erupted so suddenly. Perhaps her mind being focused elsewhere had broken her pokerface.

"What-"

She tried to ask Toxen what she wanted to say but couldn't get a word in over Pop who was acting weird all of a sudden.

"I-"

Pop had a lot to say, she clearly wanted to change the subject, Victoria decided it was best to drop it and instead responded to the slew of words that had fallen from Pop's mouth,

"I think I'm going to stick with two... that would be nice I think, like Battenberg and I, or Heather and Caramel, we all worked so well in pairs back in the day, before I became insane."

Heather felt a little bad for Pop who seemed to be desperately blurting out her thoughts, perhaps letting her know that her opinions on Heather's potential litter were not too far off would calm her a little.

"I'm sure you're right Pop, I probably will have a few eventually, Greenie wants four I think, I don't know how good an idea that is. He's weird though, he likes everything to be perfect, everything has to be even. So he wants more than two but three would be a big no no. I suppose with his help and... motherly instinct I guess, I think I could do it without crushing them."

She laughed nervously, doubting herself a little.

"Four... good thing I don't care about my appearance as much as Vicky, after four foals you're not going to be the same mare you used to be, and if you love your beauty sleep then be prepared to have your world torn apart."

Victoria nodded in agreement.

"Another reason why I think two works just fine, I think I could stick to my style a little easier that way."

"Oh you needn't worry about Caramel by the way Pop, I assume that's who "needs a bit of help" while you're not wrong on her perhaps needing to soften up to foals a little as her cousins and sisters start to become mothers, she really won't ever want any of her own. Which is probably a good thing since she isn't into stallions."

Heather remembered when Caramel had come home one day out of nowhere with Paperback and announced that the two were dating, it was just another thing she had been able to add to the very long list of differences between the two twins. To the untrained eye you probably wouldn't even know they were sisters.

 

Lemon's ears twitched as Toxen spoke those last few lines and she smiled sweetly to herself, hesitating for a moment before responding.

"It's sweet of you to suggest that my dear Vicky got her "spice" from me, that couldn't be further from the truth though."

She chuckled,

"No, that's all from her father. I don't know what she got from me to be honest."

"She got her beauty from you aunty, her beauty and that sweet warm heart of hers. Maybe it wasn't obvious before but the real Vicky takes a lot after you, she talks a lot like you too. I think you maybe didn't realise how much you rubbed off on her even as she pushed you away."

Lemon smiled and blushed a little.

"Thank you Heather, I never thought of it like that, you're very right though Victoria is very sweet and very pretty even if she hid behind an ugly mask of anger for so long."

Victoria's cheeks became a shade of red as she turned her head, letting her mane cover her eyes. She was still a little sensitive about letting other people see her cry, even when those tears were happy ones. Lemon patted her on the back.

"And don't worry about what having foals will do to your appearance honey, you think I ever let that bother me? Why worry about how beautiful you are when you have two beautiful daughters to love. Actually, it's funny Toxen mentions twins because Vicky is likely very prone to having twins, I'm not sure if that kind of thing can be hereditary but every other generation in her father's line has been twins. Felix has a twin sister."

"Aunt Felicity."

"Yes, and his grandmother had a twin sister too and her grandfather had a twin brother. It can be traced back for generations, it's odd and maybe just a coincidence but I wouldn't be surprised if you had two at once Victoria."

Victoria wasn't sure how to feel about that, on the one hoof it would get things over quicker, she could have her perfect pair of foals and never have to worry about it again, but at the same time having two babies at once was not an easy thing in any aspect, from pregnancy to bringing them up it would be a struggle. Her strong will would probably see her through it though, the effects of foals on her was still nothing compared to her worries of her effects on them. 

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Dji @Seamore Sandwich "♪it's a phrase, usually said when you feel somebody staring at you. And the fact I can feel Dawnbringers eyes on me, I'm doing everything I can not to find the nearest ocean to dive into♪"

[EQ_Theta 459]

@Blitz Boom

"I'll carefully consider any option that comes to mind. No one should experience the horrors Filigree has inflicted on her victims."

With the crazy mare being hauled away, it was too soon to think they had won, not when there was still an air of tension hanging over them. Even with their brief hope spot, they still have yet to find tangible proof that could get Filigree to stay behind bars. Unfortunately, this was about as far as the siblings could go; their knowledge, or lack thereof, on Equestrian laws was proving to be a detriment the longer they lingered. Nothing in their travels could've prepared them for this. 

"So, what's next. Sen and I are stumped for ideas and we don't know how to proceed from here." 

[BloodDrops 762]

On 20/04/2018 at 9:29 PM, Blitz Boom said:

"Perhaps you do deep down want to, or perhaps it is a side effect of your affliction. I'm not a psychologist."

Nerzhei growled back at the hostility she got from just saying what she had seen, and a few observations about it. Just because she made those observations, she didn't think it fair that she were getting called out, or even told that she was the bad guy in all of this. How the insolent little pony could even... Grrr, no, keep focused. Stay calm, or this would get worse.

"That side of you threatened Lotus and I, and demanded sacrifices, or we would be it. Why do you think I would ever have any interest in having your feral side influence you, or even take over, when it increases the risk of either of us getting infected? Only mad scientists does things like that, and I'm not one of them. I'm a researcher and a scholar, not a monster. If I were, I would have long since burnt you to a crisp instead of trying to be rational about things."

The comment about her burning and stealing had stung, as she were well aware that it were not an unreasonable comment considering she were a dragon. She weren't like the majority she had met though, and she prided herself in that. Sure, she had a lot of rage bubbling under the surface, and the want to simply cause a rampage or antagonizing ponies for no reasons were there at times, but she weren't a savage. She had a brain and used it, which frankly she hated got overlooked constantly. First by the majority of the short-sighted fools of her own kin, and now by random ponies, like this actual monster of a disease factory.

"And if you think that me being alive means your other self isn't smart, then you're a fool. It might get you back in control when you're fed, but it wouldn't kill me, because I provide food for you, and it is tied into your hunger. Grrr, I need a shrink to take a long, hard look at you one day for this... Or an extraction... Pad..."

A small light went off in her eyes, right before she jammed her spear into another fish. Yet this one she put out of Blood's reach. It was rations for later, so there would be something handy.

"If your hunger have some kind of personality, splitting you up into separate minds... No, that sort of technology isn't around, surely. But if anyone would know...

I will need to ask that pony when I find him. Now stop your foolishness and listen: We need to get you into a place to sleep. I need the time to prepare some things, and find directions to the town I was told of. You want the station again, or a hole somewhere?"

Blood blinked and smirked at her, "Good because i don't want to be a little feral zombie pony. and you be best to remember that" she giggled licking her muzzle. She flicked her tail and snorted, "well my last food provider seems to have disappeared, so this will have to do for now won't it?" she added rolling her eyes, she wondered who had made Slappy disappear in the first place, probably Nerzhei she suspected. 

She blinked and made a effort to get the fish from Nerzhei she had tried to stash away, far from touching her she didn't get the fish as it was put into a food pouch for later, she snorted grumpily and licked her nose. "Extraction pad, sounds painful and shrinks charge too little" she commented with a snort. She tilted her head and thought about the sleeping arrangement. 

"lets find a hole, Or i can sleep standing up. Whichever is easier" she snorted closing her eyes having made up her mind. She could sleep right here. 

 

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Rising Dusk

Molotov looked over on Rising as he identified himself, but kept the thoughts of the lightning duck in the back of his head. It could be a fun little toy if he lowered the setting to just buzz you a little, or perhaps small scale, and linked together with some other cables as a foal-friendly defibrillator? That sounded promising.

The levers on his goggle moved around as he glanced over Rising with a few settings, before returning to the base configuration again and chuckling to himself.

"You are? That's a bummer. From my notes, I would've figured that you were a good deal more impressive looking. Perhaps x-ray would show off something neat."

It was more of a conceptual idea than something he were actually getting anywhere with currently. There were a few steps in the right direction before the attack on his home, though he still hadn't figured out how to not cause the internal side of the lens to microwave his eye, and that was kind of important. He might be able to make artificial wings, but an eye? That sort was way more complicated, and would require some degree of neurology interference as well, to make sure they'd get connected well to the head. You could use magical orbs as eyes, sure, but that would be cheating. The whole point of what they did were to make advancements that didn't rely on magic too much.

"But hey, not here to judge you Dusky. You do you, am I right?

Heh, my name's Molotov Boom, and this here's my little sister-"

"I'm Blitz Boom!"

As she said the last part of her name, Blitz stood up on her hind legs and used her front legs to mimic an explosion. Like if she had held a bomb in her hooves, which would be cuter if she didn't start to giggle afterwards.

"Spot on. We're from the scientist town of Center Zero."

He reached a hoof back to the saddlebag on the left, as he went on about their names and where they came from. He assumed that Rising would know where he was talking about, considering he had been mentioned by name as a recipient, but honestly, only about three fourths of the ones he had delivered to so far had actually heard of them, or enough to know their deal, so it was hard to say. Sometimes the reputation were the reason why they were chosen, rather than any connection at all to their town.

After rummaging around a bit, he would pull out a stack of files in a hermetically sealed, plastic folder. Per instructions, they were to use those in Center Zero to prevent water damage or other issues affecting their research papers, and when delivering to others, Molotov found it easier for everypony to use the same. It helped in case there was rain or something else, and they were pretty easy to open if you had the code.

"About a month ago, our town got hit with an attack from one or more unknown sources, that took all but the two of us away. As per protocol, in case of emergencies like this, we are to deliver research papers from our scientists to the right parties. You know, head biologists, engineers, psychologist, or that weird princess in Ponyville. Phew that one was a hooffull to deliver to, lemme tell ya. Finally got to hand off the files to her, and she goes off on a rambling for an hour straight. I try to add in, and suddenly she needs time alone. I only suggested that her rambling ideas could be mixed with some elbow grease to craft some prototype, magic-infused constructs, and she reacted as if I'd handed her a malfunctioning pulse bomb."

He would lightly and elegantly skip over the detail about him telling her that with the suggestions his father had once made about the same thing, it had a minor, 35,6% chance at ending in horrible disaster. It was really the AI that was  the tricky part, but using Carmen as a base, he were sure that the chance of the constructs ending up revolting against the fleshy beings of Equestria could be as low as 28,7%. Even lower if you were quick to smash them with hammers before they had a chance to improve themselves.

"Anyway, Professor Turntable wrote you down as being somepony he'd wish to get his research, so that's why we're here. I don't understand half of it honestly, but he figured that you did apparently. so here you go. Code is 8 Gamma 5 6 Delta Pi."

It was a lock akin to a more sturdy number lock that kept it shut, so Rising would just have to rotate the dials to hit the right code, and then he'd be met with around thirty pages of intricate, detailed pages of the professors chosen field. That being the *Negation and redirection of magic and magically infused objects* as well as *The practical implementation of efficient containment and redistribution fields*. A couple of long titles, but the professor hadn't exactly been the subtle kind. Confusing though, at least to Molotov, yet the majority of this was to ponies who understood how to counter and meddle with magic in general, and not him.

"Last pages looks like they have some schematics for prototypes, though  I can already tell you that they don't work. Even a little magic, and those things will implode. Trust me, if anypony in Center Zero knows about engineering, it's the Boom family."

He gave a glance to Blitz, who had started to nudge towards the trash can to see what was in it. A bad habit she had gained mainly from Ponyville, where she had done so to gather up parts for her own experiments in the month before he found her again, though he suspected she'd only find banana peels or something like that in here.

"Well, what's left of us at least..."

Molotov refocused on Rising Dusk after that, thinking that Blitz wouldn't be able to do much harm rummaging through trash, unless she started to giggle. In that case, he'd have to get over there right off the bat before her crazed little mind would start to make something. It was always good to see that she were an inventor, like most of their family, but she took more after their grandpa than anything. meaning that it was only a third of what she made that wasn't designed to explode one way or another. Not good in a place that were at least some kind of law enforcement, from what he could gather. He didn't really deal with the outside world that much before the incident, so he didn't know all branches of things that were running around these days.

"Anyway, I think I can get something screwed together to help you out, but the science of magic meddling is beyond me. Turntable was sure you knew your stuff, so perhaps mashing our heads together at some point can get you to complete what he couldn't? Have a look and see if anything springs to mind."

If Rising would look enough a the things in the files, and understand enough of the technical terms to get at what the professor had been theorizing and attempting, he should be able to see that it wasn't just boasting that came from the stallion. The stuff in here - if it could be made - would make machines that could do some simpler versions of what Rising were doing with cursed objects, or potentially even deploy minor fields of magic-negative zones.

Of course, the really impressive stuff would require technology not even made yet, but it could be something worth striving for, and if the base principles got into line, some skilled ponies might be able to get real progress going on the highly theoretical stuff within as little as ten years.

As for the professor himself, Turntable had seen Rising Dusk on a few occasions, beginning with the first time that he had practically stumbled over the pony as he were dealing with an object that the professor had left alone on a road, as part of his study. Molotov had no idea if the two of them had ever actually spoken, but Turntable had mentioned that it wasn't the only time he had left something or sent it towards the office the stallion worked in, to see if he could learn something from the pony's process.

The two of them rarely spoke honestly, so Molotov didn't know much. The magic-study areas of their town were cautious with working too much with his family, as they tended to find ways to incorporate breakthroughs into the town's weaponry. Which kept them safe, but also made some of the researchers uneasy. Especially once the aforementioned pulse bombs had been crafted by his mother. Even if it was just a kind of riot control thing and didn't do any actual harm, they had still been less than thrilled about it.

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

 

@Lucid_Nightlight @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"What's a timeshare?"

Anoamly looked into thin ai- No wait, she's starring at me. Look, I don't know what he's on about either, okay? Best bet I have is that it's some sort of apartment complex thing he have in mind. Perhaps he wants to go full on cult leader and keep the masses away from the indoctrination process.

"Okay, that doesn't sound bad. I'm in. I can make big banana's too, though everypony will need to peel their own. I'll give them moveable vines so they can fight back. It'll be fun!

I dunno any other cults we can egg though. The one that made me again isn't here, and I'm not allowed in like, 5-7 amusements parks throughout Equestria. It's all prejudice against draconequui, I swear. Nothing to do with anything I did."

The smile that spread on her face seemed to say otherwise, but past actions should have warned about her poor self control already.

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

 

@Victoria Sponge

Pop was pretty surprised to hear that Caramel were into mares, rather than stallions. She knew a few who were like that, but it wasn't all that common where she were, or at least not something openly said around her she supposed.

It was something she should probably keep in mind, though she wasn't going to be one of those who would be hostile towards Caramel for that reason. Being with Benny, she would be pretty hypocritical to judge others from being attracted to somepony that they weren't supposed to.

Toxen looked like she were considering saying something, judging from the risen eyebrow at the news, but that didn't really surprise her. From what she had experienced with Benny, it was an uncomfortable thing to talk about for those in his family, as dragons swinging that way was not looked upon favorably on the isle, unless they were really strong, and merciless in beating down the ones talking to them about it. There was a small degree of respect in it, if it were a thing from the top  in any given settlement, though even then, it was secretly frowned upon, and certainly not encouraged.

Or that might have just been with his family. Benny mainly had contact with them growing up, and didn't travel much, so interaction with others to learn stuff like this wasn't something he really did. Though regardless of it, he were trying to not judge things that deviated away from what he had been raised to think. It just made him uncomfortable to be confronted about it, and he ended up saying something stupid.

"I mean, I didn't really see Caramel with foals right now, but I didn't think she were into mares. Though hey, she could still adopt one day if she finds it to be something she'd like. Benny and I are going to do that one day as well, but it's all about being ready. Though even if she weren't I can imagine she could be a good aunt. Foals loves candy, and she makes some pretty good stuff, if the sample she brought along was any indicator."

"...Gonna be interesting that situation.

Heather though, girlie, you don't need to worry about crushing your little ones. If you stumble around, you're gonna instinctively making sure to miss 'em, and if not that, I've seen other ponies carry the tiny ones in packs around their necks or in them saddlebags I see so many places these days. Or your mate can carry 'em around for you. One way or another, you and the little horde of fur, are gonna get through it."

"It might end up being a horde if it's true that your family is prone to twins. I'm sure it'll be fine though. perhaps a little harder with two at once, but I've seen the bakers in Ponyville getting two foals at once and keep their business going, and they're doing great. They do look awfully tired sometimes though."

"Part of the package. Plus you know, having twins can be hereditary. I have a friend on the isle? Her family haven't gotten less than triplets for the past seven generations. She is absolutely freaked out about it."

Pop grimaced a little at the thought.

"Suddenly twins seems easy."

"Right? But hey, both of you got a strong-knitted family to help out it looks like, plus whoever you'll end up picking as your mate, and his family. Gonna be loads of help there I recon. And speaking of help, we're here."

Toxen didn't even knock before she entered the house they had reached, and wandered in. You could hear her soon talking loudly about her getting what they needed to her mom, but leaving the door open in case anypony else wanted to go inside.

"I know Vicky have met her, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have you come in too, Heather and Lemon. I don't think Toxen would mind, but Jade is pretty intimidating."

"Mom's busy in the kitchen actually."

Pop felt a jolt go through her as Benny suddenly stood in the door and looked at her, scratching behind his ear, and either not noticing, or not caring about the blueberry cake crumbs on his face.

"Dad got a weird flip and thought he needed to dig for a well, so the floor is kinda messed up out there.

Toxen says you've gotten something that'd help though? That's great to hear! Is either of you two the ones who made it?"

He stepped out a little and grinned at Heather and Lemon, before reaching a hand forth. A hand he took back once he noticed there was a bit of cake on it that he quickly licked off.

"Right. My name's Benny. I'm *burp*..."

His hands got slammed in front of his mouth quickly while his face lit up like a tomato. He had not meant to let out a burp like that, and then it just burst out, right in front of new faces. Dear Celestia, this was so not the way he wanted to meet ponies.

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

 

@Moonlit @Dji @Seamore Sandwich

"Y-You're finding the princess intimidating too?"

Cherish shimmered a little in surprise at hearing this. Serenade was a big and seemingly strong sea creature, and she were afraid of the princess of day? She figured that the siren would only be somewhat nervous about the reception, not what the princess did or might think about her right now.

"I mean, I know the princesses are good ponies, but it's scary to be near them. Wondering what they think, how they will d-do things... I don't know if they can s-send ghosts away. Makes me scared. W-What is it that gets to you?"

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

 

@EQ_Theta

"I believe this is the moment of my entrance?"

The mare with the silver shoes came out fro the backroom, where she had been waiting for the right time to enter. Originally she had been expected to be introduced, but this had just seemed like far too good of an opportunity to make her way in here.

"You were supposed to wait."

"Until she left, and so I did. Now be a dear and introduce me to your friends, hm?"

"I don't know the name of them all. B-"

"Siblings Sen and Lin, That is Omen, and I am Sub Rosa. I'm surprised you didn't already know that."

Rosa seemed to have gotten somewhat hostile and wary as they faced the mare, who did not repay his hostility in kind. in fact, she seemed to find it rather amusing.

"It was a hasty meeting dear. Otherwise, I might have.

As you see to know me, you can ignore the next bit Rosa. I am Scarcity, owner of a lucrative antique store in Canterlot, and somepony who have many a friend to contact, in case help is needed for associates of mine."

"So what, you want us to work for you now? I know what dealings you actually work with."

"I'm sure that I haven't the faintest clue what you are talking about dearie, Now hush hush, the adults are speaking."

"I don't know what sort of history you two might have-"

"I have never personally met this stallion as far as I know. Though who can really tell, when he hides his face like so?"

"I've met you... Now what do you want?"

"Oh, several things, but for the time being, to be of some degree of hellp. I am to understand that you are having some issue finding evidence against your mother, hm? Dreadful business that is, though hardly surprising from what Amethyst tells me. Several false names and many a base throughout Equestria, makes it a rather boring endeavor to dig through for potentially nothing, and I am to understand that you are pressed for time."

"I called her in to help, because I'm willing to do everything to make sure Filigree gets stuck in the jail where she belongs. Rosa, give her the papers you have on Filigree."

Rosa looked like he were going to protest, though he kept his tongue as he hesitantly reached towards the place where he had hid copies of what he had found.

"If you know me, as you claim to, you know that I can procure results. Give me what she speaks of."

He aimed to throw the papers on the ground, but Scarcity grabbed it with her magic before that, and folded them neatly on a nearby table. She would look these over when she had time.

"There you go, that wasn't so hard, no? Now then, my help does come at a certain... Exchange of favors, if you will. But there is time for me to cover that. Your endeavors so far must have been dreadfully tiring, and you could surely use some rest. Or are you perhaps in possession or more stamina than I give you credit for? Would either of you be so kind as to answer that, Sen and Lin? Oh, and do try a sandwich before the workers eat them all. They are rustic, but still a pleasant delight."

Scarcity did not meet any of them with the same hostility or arrogance that Filigree did. In fact, she seemed rather cheerful, though a little above everything, and seemed to like to tease Rosa in a somewhat friendly manner. What you would expect from one of the friendlier higher ups in Canterlot, though more sly in her overall demeanor than the nobles.

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

 

@BloodDrops

Blood didn't seem all that happy about the rationing that Nerzhei was doing, but at least the mare were not unreasonable or aggressive. Perhaps when Nerzhei felt better, she could talk to the pony about running some tests on how much she did need at a given time, and then try to keep the food reserves prepared in case of an emergency. Maybe it'd be possible to learn Blood to not be too greedy, though her hunger in itself were pretty disturbing.

Not the part about needing flesh. That was an unsettling thing that she had thought over several times already. It was more the part where the pony ate in such great amounts, then seemed to sleep for a small segment of time, and then be right back to the same voracious appetite.

Perhaps it was imply greed, or not knowing the limit to her own hunger through an inability to feel sated, but even then, she should show physical signs of consuming all of this, and yet, Blood didn't seem to be any larger than a regular pony. She did not even appear to carry a gut after consuming a mea, which were either some degree of weird magic, or a digestive rate that was so alarmingly high, that Blood could realistically eat her way through a village the size of Ponyville in less than 10 days.

*shiver* Hopefully they could find a cure for this sooner, rather than later, before the world would in essence become eaten, though hopefully, she was just overthinking this, and Blood's stomach juices wouldn't rival that of highly concentrated levels of acid.

Seeing the pony just standing and sleep was odd, but after a minute or so where she hadn't moved, it seemed like she were able to do this fine. If she had enough magic to work with, Nerzhei would have risen some rocks around Blood, to protect both her and the forest as a whole, but in the current situation, the best she could do was to take the food pouch, and hang it in a nearby tree. If Blood woke up suddenly, she should be able to kick said tree enough to rattle it loose, and delay her rampage for a time whilst the dragoness were somewhere else. Hopefully this forest did not have many flying predators capable of opening bags.

(around 4 hours later)

Nerzhei yawned as she got nearer to the place where Blood had last been, an cast a glance towards the sky. The sun would soon be dragged down, and be replaced by the moon, but it wasn't her time to sleep right now. Besides, she mainly felt tired from the first shot of painkillers she had been given more than anything else. Soon as they would wear off and the pain came back, she'd feel awake again.

With her, she had another bag that were more suitable for holding rations, where something edible where already in for the both of them, along with some medicinal things, and four bottles of elixir. Her damaged arm were covered in fresh gauze, and a large plaster were placed on the back of her neck, which seemed to indicate that some sort of damage or test had happened in town or at the hospital. A place she were bound to have been, considering the gauze seemed far more professionally set on than what Nerzhei had proven to be able to do earlier, and included a sling, to keep her arm rested, whereas the dragoness had only prepared some gauze earlier on.

"Blood? Are you awake?"

To be on the safe side, Nerzhei held a small bag of dog biscuits in her good hand, just in case she would hear growling. It might not be the best, but the only sort of meat she could get in Ponyville were pet food, and treats. Most of the pet food were non-meaty too, since apparently, the one they did have that worked with meat in town, had suddenly closed up shop and moved yesterday. A real pain in her rear, but she had to work with what she could.

Hopefully, Blood were still sleeping, wouldn't answer, and the dragoness could climb up into a tree and rest her head for a little while in the tree crowns, but what were the chance that she'd have that kind of luck all of a sudden?

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"I have no clue what a timeshare is either, but I think it's something to do with listening to some guy talk for an hour."

"We could probably just sneak you into the amusement parks, oh another idea! Hay Burger Sunday! Now... no cults to egg? How about the orphanage? Nah, I couldn't egg that place, had too many memories living there... oh! We could egg Twilight's castle, but we would need to be sneaky about it."

[BloodDrops 762]

2 hours ago, Blitz Boom said:

Blood didn't seem all that happy about the rationing that Nerzhei was doing, but at least the mare were not unreasonable or aggressive. Perhaps when Nerzhei felt better, she could talk to the pony about running some tests on how much she did need at a given time, and then try to keep the food reserves prepared in case of an emergency. Maybe it'd be possible to learn Blood to not be too greedy, though her hunger in itself were pretty disturbing.

Not the part about needing flesh. That was an unsettling thing that she had thought over several times already. It was more the part where the pony ate in such great amounts, then seemed to sleep for a small segment of time, and then be right back to the same voracious appetite.

Perhaps it was imply greed, or not knowing the limit to her own hunger through an inability to feel sated, but even then, she should show physical signs of consuming all of this, and yet, Blood didn't seem to be any larger than a regular pony. She did not even appear to carry a gut after consuming a meal, which were either some degree of weird magic, or a digestive rate that was so alarmingly high, that Blood could realistically eat her way through a village the size of Ponyville in less than 10 days.

*shiver* Hopefully they could find a cure for this sooner, rather than later, before the world would in essence become eaten, though hopefully, she was just overthinking this, and Blood's stomach juices wouldn't rival that of highly concentrated levels of acid.

Seeing the pony just standing and sleep was odd, but after a minute or so where she hadn't moved, it seemed like she were able to do this fine. If she had enough magic to work with, Nerzhei would have risen some rocks around Blood, to protect both her and the forest as a whole, but in the current situation, the best she could do was to take the food pouch, and hang it in a nearby tree. If Blood woke up suddenly, she should be able to kick said tree enough to rattle it loose, and delay her rampage for a time whilst the dragoness were somewhere else. Hopefully this forest did not have many flying predators capable of opening bags.

(around 4 hours later)

Nerzhei yawned as she got nearer to the place where Blood had last been, an cast a glance towards the sky. The sun would soon be dragged down, and be replaced by the moon, but it wasn't her time to sleep right now. Besides, she mainly felt tired from the first shot of painkillers she had been given more than anything else. Soon as they would wear off and the pain came back, she'd feel awake again.

With her, she had another bag that were more suitable for holding rations, where something edible where already in for the both of them, along with some medicinal things, and four bottles of elixir. Her damaged arm were covered in fresh gauze, and a large plaster were placed on the back of her neck, which seemed to indicate that some sort of damage or test had happened in town or at the hospital. A place she were bound to have been, considering the gauze seemed far more professionally set on than what Nerzhei had proven to be able to do earlier, and included a sling, to keep her arm rested, whereas the dragoness had only prepared some gauze earlier on.

"Blood? Are you awake?"

To be on the safe side, Nerzhei held a small bag of dog biscuits in her good hand, just in case she would hear growling. It might not be the best, but the only sort of meat she could get in Ponyville were pet food, and treats. Most of the pet food were non-meaty too, since apparently, the one they did have that worked with meat in town, had suddenly closed up shop and moved yesterday. A real pain in her rear, but she had to work with what she could.

Hopefully, Blood were still sleeping, wouldn't answer, and the dragoness could climb up into a tree and rest her head for a little while in the tree crowns, but what were the chance that she'd have that kind of luck all of a sudden?

Blood heard Nerzhei slowly shuffle off, though she soon gave into her sleep and started dreaming. Firstly her dreams started as black though that soon faded into a scene. Though there was two ponies here, both similar but both very different. Blood blinked and walked with her counterpart, side by side but separated by a invisible barrier. Blood glanced at the barrier and continued to walk around it keeping a eye on her counterpart. "Well you seem to have tried to smash your way out of there. You nearly succeeded but luckily my defences are up to your attacks" I remarked putting a imaginary lid onto the wall. 

Blood continued to inspect the wall patching it up where it looked weakest. Strengthening her own mental blocks in the process, "now that's better. Gives me some breathing space. Without having you in the back of my mind all the time, I shall keep you here. More simple that way, now if you come out again, you will not be able to stop me. After all your stuck in that little tiny box, though if you did get out, you wouldn't miss much" she giggled to herself.

Blood twitched her ears, "Ah sounds likes Nerzhei is returning, well have fun but not too much fun, without me after all. I have enjoyed our time together but seems that our time together is over, and the time for just one has come. Unfortunately" she added leaving the forest with the alter ego in. She had many plans and none of them involved her alter ego. She didn't need someone like that causing her problems after all. 

 

Blood opened her eyes and glanced at Nerzhei, frowning as she held some dog biscuits out, she gave a small sniff and frowned "Oh no, that's just. No" she grumbled, the smell had put her off her dinner already. She turned her nose up at it and stuck her tongue out. "Vegetables? Really? I'm a cannibalistic eating machine, I need meat. Not Vegetables or pet food. Eugh, Blugh" she added rolling up a ball of spit in her mouth and spitting on the ground, letting Nerzhei know she didn't want that food ever again. She looked up at the bag with the nice smelling fish in but she decided against it. Too high.

She instead turned around and wadded into the river, coming out again a few minutes later with a giant fish. She nibbled on the tail and put it down giving her coat a shake, away from Nerzhei so she wouldn't get infected, she wasn't that dumb to kill off her only food source. "I think were going to need to set up some ground rules" she told Nerzhei with a smile. "So rule one, no dog food. That stuff is just rancid, second I've had a change of heart, that town with that cure your on about" I add with a grin, "Well thats just not a top priority anymore, something else more sinister has occurred to me while I was sleeping" she remarked sitting down.

"A most dreadful thing has happened during your absence, the great evil that has plagued me has been trapped, deep in my mind. Sadly I'm not sure she can get out anytime soon if at all. So i'm sure you won't have to put up with any of my antics for some time sadly. I think we should have a moment or a few moments of silence for all that has been lost" she giggled chewing on several fish bones. She picked the fish clean and arranged the bones in a neat pile in front of her. "i implied a useful technique, trapping all her and her negativity in a sort of mind palace. Now she can only come out if I decide to access that part with a memory, though that memory is hidden in another one of these mind palaces which is rather good, don't want to suddenly eat you do I Nerzhei?" she smiled.

"No I don't think I do, though that bunny doesn't fetch me food. No but Nerzhei likes the bunny, which is a problem" I grumble to myself, she then tilted her head at Nerzhei.

"Oh Yeah, i'm the logical side of Blood plus the chewing on your leg part. Though it seems we've mixed personalities again, though in a new way. Think Zombie that wants to eat you, but in a logical way." she giggled. "Hey I like that you know new me, maybe I can be the third personality, after miss logical and miss chew on your leg" she told herself. "Yes I like that plan, though I need a name for myself" I added.

"Hmmm, Droppy. Thats a good name, yes very nice indeed" she finished staring at the dragon. "You can call me, Droppy" she said nodding. 

Droppy liked that name, because she was Blood, and also the zombie thats plague could drop you in seconds. 

[Rising Dusk 27,713]

@Blitz Boom

Rising Dusk could tell the stallion before him had a very busy mind and all those various gizmos sure made for quite the interesting sight.  The only response he could really muster when once again thought of as completely different than one was expecting, was raise his left eyebrow.  Was there a certain look that a pony should have to fit another's idea of being a spell breaker?  Inwardly he simply smirked to himself.  Outwardly though, he lowered his eyebrow, crossed his hooves on the desk and listened.  Once the introductions of the other two were made, Rising Dusk politely nodded his head in greeting.  Offering the filly a warm smile, especially after her adorable little display of her name sake.  It also helped explain that subtle scent of incendiary residue that the pair carried.

He watched as the nicely sealed, and locked, folder came out of Molotov's satchel and came across his desk.  Uncrossing his hooves he spun the folder around until the lock faced him.  So the pair were survivors of passing research along.  Princess Twilight Sparkle and he had exchanged a letter or two, but never met face to face.  For the Boom family to both meet and scare her was rather impressive in of itself.  Checking behind the pair to see if anypony else had come in, only to see the filly going through the trash by the door.  Sadly, she'd only find crumbled up paper balls from when Rising Dusk was bored earlier and shooting them in there.  Next checking behind him, only to find other investigators at their own desks looking busy.  He had time, no need to put this off till later.

Spinning the dial in accordance to the code given to him by Molotov, 8 Gamma 5 6 Delta Pi, listening to each click and whirl from the complicated lock until it disengaged.  His horn came aglow in bright orange and enveloped the plastic folder to lift it off the desk.  Soon it opened and all thirty files came streaming out encased in orange, forming a circle of paper around Rising Dusk.  The folder was put back down and the files spun around him.  Even while still listening, he examined each file.  Files would be lifted up, shuffled around, reorganized and some even folded into different shapes.  Everything here was almost in partial completion, or ideas that rambled on without conclusion.

Rising Dusk didn't remember all that much about meeting Turntable, but the letters and projects that were sent to his office he did.  There were a lot of good ideas here.  Rings that could be produced on larger scales to suppress unicorn horns.  Containment fields to keep dangerous artifacts completely cut off from hurting anypony within five or so feet.  Whole rooms that could be made to prevent any kind of spell casting from happening or even short term suppression when passing through a gate that was less harmful to the pony.

"The formulas are wrong."

His comment was rather neutral on the matter.  Six of the papers were then folded together to make one in the shape of a starburst.  The remaining twenty four went back into the folder for later.  Swinging the folded one onto the desk and slid it toward Molotov's side.  The magic formulas on each of the six papers were combined and folder over top each other until each had added and enhanced another.  Re-crossing his hooves on the desk, he addressed the siblings more directly.

"The formula needs to be cascading or else, you end up with implosion.  These all have great potential that could really help Equestria's law enforcement agencies."

It was always hard to explain to those that couldn't see the actual fabric of magical weave like he could.  Even harder to make it sound more fancy and Wizard-like as there weren't all that many experts in the field of 'magic meddling' as Molotov put it.  The stallion having to learn most of this as he goes along.

 

 

[EQ_Theta 459]

@Blitz Boom

"We can keep going but I hope you don't mind us asking what 'favor' you just mentioned."

So much tension going on in the room right now and both Sen and Lin wouldn't know where to start. To keep prodding for information or to steer clear of Rosa's sudden hostility towards Scarcity. A strange name for a mare with an even stranger profession of selling antiques? A few things did begin to make sense, at least for Sen, when the mention of connections was brought up. If anyone were to get by in a place like Canterlot, it would be in their best interests to look to the more affluent and influential members of high society. Much better than living around in the slums scrounging for food and only focusing on trying to get through the day without starving. And speaking of food, there were these strange things called sandwiches Scarcity mentioned. Both siblings walked up and took one to try with a little more hesitant.

"Hmm... this isn't exactly what I had in mind when sandwiches are brought up. I was expecting something crumbly with more... sand? There's no sand here."

Lin took one bite out of her sandwich and let the taste settle in her mouth before swallowing. "This is strange. What do you call these things that make up this, umm... sandwich? We've never had anything like this."

Sen approached Rosa and quietly asked him to step aside for a moment before asked, "What's your history with Scarcity? You don't seem to like her."
==================================================================================================================

@Blitz Boom @Lucid_Nightlight @Storm Shine

"Um... if I could just mention something. Twilight doesn't take kindly to pranks like that. She may not have guards around her castle like the other princesses but you wouldn't want her getting angry at you."

Starlight was reminded of that lesson, albeit indirectly, back when she tried messing around with a couple of spells. It didn't end well for anypony even though it could've been worse. Fluttershy wouldn't know how her friend would take being pranked like she did before meeting Lucid and Anomaly but if it isn't Twilight who would be getting angry, maybe it would be Spike, and he's got quite a temper.  

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

@Blitz Boom

"I doubt she'll ever adopt, don't know if she and Paperback could. The child would have one parent who seems to be devoid of emotion and another who is so introverted she barely speaks. They could maybe make it work with my help, but I don't want to end up being a mother to someone else's foals."

As much as she doubted her own abilities to properly look after a child she could at least see herself with foals someday, Caramel was a whole other story.

"If I'm lucky my foals will get some of my bouncy energy and will be like Angel, then they'll probably be bouncing about on my back all the time of their own accord. Not necessarily an ideal situation but better they be on above me than below me. I could cope with that, just how I cope with looking after Angel sometimes."

Victoria had been mulling over the idea of having twins and was beginning to come round to the idea, she knew that in a way perhaps having twins would be easier, it wasn't like she had the choice here anyway, she'd either have twins or she wouldn't, but either way she began to think she could do it. Perhaps the first time she'd been truly optimistic in a long time, it seemed her overly positive cousin was finally having an effect on her emotional stability.

"I think maybe I'd quite like twins, I'd have to look after two at once but that would be the case anyway even if there was a gap of a couple of years, if I do have twins it's easier because I'll only be working with one time frame, they'll be born at roughly the same time, start school at the same time, mature at the same time, fly the nest at the same time. I think that knowing how easily frustrated I get over small things, not having to worry about two foals doing two different things at the same time would be a great help to me."

"Aha! There you go Vicky, now you're thinking like me. Every cloud has a silver lining sweetie, the faster you accept that the faster your life will get a lot brighter."

"I fail to see how triplets could have a silver lining"

"The more the merrier Vicky, your twin logic still applies but now you have three beautiful babies instead of just two."

Victoria chuckled a little, Heather truly could make anything positive, but triplets would be a nightmare in her opinion.

"Well thanks for changing my perspective on it girls, I'll think some more on the matter. I feel a lot better about myself and my future now and I feel more capable of handling such a situation. Now I'm just even more eager to meet this stallion Pop, if I could factor him into my thoughts then I'd feel a lot better."

 

Heather and Lemon jumped at the sudden appearance of the dragon, Lemon was of course more frightened as she worked out that Benny was in fact a dragon and darted once again behind Victoria. Heather did not run but her legs did seem to stiffen, a little like a fainting goat, she did however stay upright this time. Heather managed to reach out a stiff and trembling hoof to Benny, ready to greet him. She paused when he let out a great belch, there was a moment of silence after the fact while Benny looked down at the small white pony in embarrassment, it was broken by hysterical laughter as Heather's legs finally relaxed, causing her to sink to the ground in her hysterics. It was an odd reaction but it relived the tension in the air. The giggling mare managed to pull herself to her feet and shook Benny's clawed hand firmly. 

"Sorry I shouldn't laugh but that was the last thing I expected to hear coming out of your mouth mr dragon. No need to be embarrassed by the way, such a belch just indicates you're a healthy dragon who is eating well. Nice to meet you, I'm Heather, Victoria's cousin. And that quivering mass of yellow fur is Lemon Drizzle, my aunt and Victoria's mother. Don't expect much from her heehee, she's a very timid mare, I think you've met Battenberg? Lemon is the same but ten times worse." 

[FanOfManyShows 396]

@Blitz Boom

His eyes fluttered open as he looked around, now contained in a cell, he sighed, working with others wasn't a strong suit for him. This was his end point, he looked to his chains; iron cast. With a test spell he found that the cell was anti magic as well, and brute strength wouldn't break iron chains easily. "So, you're awake."

Warlock looked up at the guard. "Hey there, want to rub in my face the situation I am in?"

"No, just needed to make sure you were awake. The general would probably want to hear." He said, walking away.

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

Iron Wing smiled slightly at the complements. "First thing we can do is collect as many dark magic artifacts as possible, including the Elements of Disharmony."

The situation here was odd, Sapphire looked at the discussion with a smile, but the termole in the gem that she had, the magic of the glass still affecting her. "Element of Deceit..." Her eye widened a bit, a quick realization popping into her head. The sapphire turning to the exact same color of the element of deceit, covering it with her hoof, she shook her head a bit as the color of the sapphire returned to a blue color. "We must find the Element soon, it's possible Zu might find somepony else who can wield it."

Astral looked at Sapphire, looking at the gem.  "He could disguise it right? He might not even appear to wield it at all."

Sapphire looked to Astral with a grin. "True, but Zu might not know that."

"Did we ever mention his name?" Iron Wing asked, looking to the others.

[Sekel 693]

@Blitz Boom

KARMIC FATE

Karmkc kept right on pushing, even when she felt them pass the door. She shut her eyes, purely concentrating on shoving Zhu forward and saw a slightly raised bit of stone to their left. She opened her eyes and let go of the Serpanther. “This should do it!” Karmic shouted and pressed the raised stone on the floor. The howling wind suddenly ceased and Karmic fell to the floor in a pant, having unwillingly stood tensed against the wind while she had pushed the stone down. Torches magically lit up the room around them, revealing artefacts stacked upon and around crates that reached up to the impossibly high ceiling. The stacks of crates were placed evenly around the room that could fit an entire cottage within it, and looked like they were dusted regularly.

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Dji @Seamore Sandwich "♪Dawnbringer is the apex predator to myself. As in Bookworm and NightTide.♪" Serenade avoids looking at Celestia, as the Solar Alicorn truly scares her. It's partly her Siren nature,and partly having worked in Canterlot being hidden right under her nose. 

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Lucid_Nightlight @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"Nuhuh, not egging the orphanage. That's like, super evil."

Anomaly had next to no morals really when it came to messing around with others, but even she had some limits, and scaring or making orphans sad were one of them.

Sure, she had visited one, and had meddled a little, but it had not been in a bad way. She had given them candy and treats, and only toyed a little with one of the carers there. She  wondered if he still had that chocolate armadillo following him around actually, or if he had eaten it... Meh, something to check another time. Who knew? Perhaps when she did, it had not been eaten, and instead gone on to spawn small ones. Could be kinda fun if this was the start of a new race, though who could resist the taste of chocolate?

"Twilight's castle is the big shiny one, right? Tricky place to not be seen, but yellow mare says no anyway. I better listen to that then."

A few seconds passed, and a big grin spread on her face.

"Hah, or not. Just have to think of something else, like say... Rose bushes shaped as ponies, that'll make weird faces at her when she's not looking. Or vines up the castle walls with decorative pumpkins. Grass with pollen like itching powder perhaps? Something fun and nature-like. Come on yellow mare, your friend can't be a big borehole, have to be something fun to do against her. Does she have a favorite flower I could grow there, who sings rowdy sailor songs?"

Anomaly figured that Fluttershy meant that she could not do pranks like she had done here, or small scale stuff like egging, but messing with a garden wouldn't be the same thing. Perhaps she needed to grow a garden too, but that was barely a challenge.

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

 

@BloodDrops

Nerzhei were rubbing her forehead in a combined attempt at battling another annoyance-induced migraine, and a somewhat classy facepalm, at the flood of things she were now presented with from the zombie mares side.

"I'm going to need to learn some new profanities..."

A sip of elixir were needed after all to stem the tide before she could address Blood, or Droppy, or whatever third name she would have picked in five minutes from now.

"With the greatest degree of respect I can muster, you're thinking too narrowly on this. Whatever mental exercise you have taken to use, I highly doubt it will last for the rest of the eternity you wander around to potentially infect other beings. If you think it is kept down and you're now more logical in your food choices, then fine, it will make things easier for the time being, but it is not an excuse to not seek assistance in fixing your infection issue. The armor does some, but it won't last, just like any prison your have trapped your mangled mind in."

She were trying hard to not just roll her eyes and tell the mare outright that she were thinking with a brain that had clearly melted away ages ago, but her opinion was still not all that well hidden. Even with the pain killers helping on the pain in her arm, as well as the oils they had rubbed on it prior to bandaging it up, it only removed the pain aspect of her irritated annoyance towards what *Droppy* said. The part of her mind that just inherently disliked idiotic things were still doing well, and cranky over what she had been told after all of her preparations.

"Regardless, you don't need to think about the town anyway. I managed to find the pony, and he told me that it had been attacked a month back, with no trace of the other townsponies. He have told me of someone who have taken up the mantle somewhere else though. We will go there and talk with him about this.

As for the dog food, it was the only thing they had in town. Closest thing they had to a butcher left yesterday, so it were the only thing that seemed to be workable. I suppose it can still be used as bait for actual prey at least, which is going to need to be caught. We're a few days away from the town in question, and I'll need rations, just in case. I doubt this will last long."

She went to the tree and took down the bag with the fish she had left behind. A meager meal for Droppy likely, but it were what she had to work with until she could find some tracks of better prey, like a boar. There should be enough meat on one of those to last for at least a day, if she cut and gave out proper portions of it to the zombie mare.

"Now then, Droppy, can we be on our way, or do you have an actual, urgent reason why trying to cure you isn't a worthwhile thing to do?"

Nerzhei highly doubted it, but she would need to try and be on this mare's somewhat good side to make things work more smoothly. She might have hundreds, if not thousands of years to live, but that didn't mean that she wanted to spent it all babysitting this wandering disease factory, so for her, finding a way to negate her disease, or at least make it non-infectious, were a somewhat urgent priority.

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

 

@Rising Dusk

"That ain't the only way it could go wrong. look at the internal structure of the cage he thought off. Stretching it thin is possible, but without reinforcements and some way to redirect the flow of energy, the cage will become densely magnetized and the sudden gravity increase from that will smash it all into a ball the size of my hoof in less than 8 seconds. Sure that keeps the target from casting magic, but it's way too gruesome. Princess Celestia wouldn't like it if we let that be a possible outcome before presenting it to her."

While it were different around town how and to whom they would present their findings, it were tradition in his family to only show them directly to the princess of the sun herself. As the ruler of Equestria, they had long believed that any sort of technological progress they could make should be presented to her for approval, and all of them yearned for that chance in the sun, so to speak, to get her approval of something they had aspired to benefit the country. They would show lesser things at smaller conventions if they felt like showing off, but the actual good stuff were not presented to anypony lesser than the royal highness herself.

It were usually decades between them getting something done that they believed good enough to present to the princess herself, as they were insanely worried that they'd show her something that would then malfunction, but the things they did show were rather ingenious he'd say. His great, great grandfather had been a key instrument in providing the base for the train that were used throughout the country, and had been the reason why their family had been invited into the town of Center Zero in the first place actually. It was meant as a town for great minds and scientists, but they had needed somepony who were actually able to get some physical things done as well, and tend to the defenses of their home, so they had sought out some capable inventors. Igneous Boom were pretty much their top choice, and then things had gone on as they then did.

Several generations and lab accidents later, here were the newest branches on the tree, and neither of them had made something to show the princess. Blitz were far too young to have gotten to that point, even though she had started tinkering a good four years earlier than any in the family had thought would happen, and Molotov... Well, he were still waiting until he could perfect the wings he were using.

They were workable, and should be possible to use by anypony, but they needed to look a lot better before he could present them, the charge should be higher, or an indicator should be present to avoid somepony falling out of the sky on a low charge, and he still had some issues with the implant needed to work these. Unicorns had a nearly 96% guarantee'd chance to be able to use it o manipulate the things, but earth ponies worked at a different brain wave, and it presented him with problems. Problems that had, so far, made it so that the success chance with them were only 7%. By far not enough to qualify as a success.

"You seem to understand the magic part of this mate. Feel like mashing our heads together one day and see if we can work out a base for a prototype unit? I swear that I won't steal the credit either. I'm running things legit with no cranks and bolts in bad places. Long as you don't nick some of my work either. Fairs fair here, right?"

He heard the sound of the trash can tip over as Blitz had gone towards digging into the bottom of it now, but still only finding paper. So far she hadn't set any of it on fire, so that was good, but he should still hold an ear out. He never knew what might happen with her around.

She took far too much after their grandfather, Hazard Boom. The same great mind, scattered to the winds, and the same liking to explosives. His mother had been thrilled about it, since she admired her father, and were somewhat saddened that the others of them were more inclined towards more functional, lasting things, but of course, all of them were worried too. Blitz were a hazard to herself as much as anypony else, since she were still trying to get the grasp of the concept of safety measures. Their mother had thought she had more time to teach that, but then Blitz had hit six and almost leveled the workshop with spare bits and stolen tools, so that went out the window. Usually none of them got anything really done until they hit ten, but Blitz had been out and earn her cutie mark early on there. Thankfully she mostly stuck to fireworks, but still, he had seen the kind of high explosives she could make if left to her own devices for too long.

"You've been to the east side of town before, Dusky? Bit of the edge, I got a workshop going in the old steel mill, if you know that one? Great space, the noise isn't bad for the complaining ninnies around the area, and there's barely a chance to catch anything on fire after I incinerated the vegetation."

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

 

@EQ_Theta

"Sandwiches can be made of what you wish, but as we are ponies, it is customary to use only vegetarian ingredients. In this case, it is freshly made bread, with honey-roasted mushrooms, crispy salad, ripe tomatoes, and of course, a generous amount of seasoned mustard, to ensure it is not too dry. The plate next to it also includes pecan nuts, if it holds interest to you.

As for the favor, you needn't worry much. What i ask is simply a deliverance of something I seek. A fetch quest, if you will. But it seems you have things to discuss among yourselves first, so do please finish that whilst Amethyst and I go and address the workers. It will be but a few minutes."

Amethyst were somewhat hesitant, but she went with Scarcity as the mare wandered elegantly towards the back room. It left the antique dealer with no ears in the room, but she likely didn't think she needed it. What she could provide of help could be the difference between bars and freedom for Filigree, and she were well aware of the fact that the incarceration were a highly sought commodity for the beings in the room. Enough to make her think little of what slander Rosa would bring upon her name.

And speaking of which, the bat pony hesitantly had taken a sandwich as well, as he had not been able to eat for some time after all of this had started, and he did feel somewhat peckish. His fur matched the wings, so there was nothing special to see from the lower half of his face being exposed, beyond perhaps dental care, which seemed to be fine. A disappointment if anypony thought that he were hiding many hideous scars on his face, or something similar.

He were halfway through when he were dragged to the side by Sen, who wished to know about his information regarding Scarcity.

"I can only tell you accusations. Even standing in the same room as her, and seeing what she have done, I have nothing to prove things. Let that be the first thing to know about her: Whatever you think you might have on her, don't bother taking it forth. Nothing sticks, and she knows how to quiet slander, or return the favor in kind.

As for how I know her... I was the seventh spy from my town that was sent to investigate her. The six before had either been disgraced, found nothing, or had suddenly left without a word to work elsewhere. I have no idea what our mayors reason were for trying to hold something over her head, but whatever it was, he wasn't letting up.

The information I was given were simple: Scarcity was a wealthy antique dealer with ties across Equestria and beyond, who had made a name for herself by procuring several artifacts, and donating anything of significant historical value tot he country in question's museums. Good publicity stunts, though officially, that was it. Just a salespony with ties and charisma."

He chewed down another bite and looked tot he side, where Omen were currently eating the plate the first batch of sandwiches had stood on.

"It took twenty days of shadowing her before I found something else than that. An auction she traveled through back channels and portals to reach, selling things that wasn't just of historical value, but highly magical and dangerous items too. We're talking cursed items along the lines of the Alicorn Amulet, or statues from forgotten civilizations, as well as machines that from the name weren't made with good intentions and so forth.

I knocked out somepony else, stashed them in a back room, and took their place among the buyers, waiting to see what this was about and memorizing as many faces as I could.

Somepony was always watching me in return though, so I couldn't wander off to gather up anything beyond the few things I had found before that, but it wasn't as if I should move, considering Scarcity placed herself right next to me and started chatting away about the things on stage, frowning at what she considered to be *ridiculously plain* items, and so on. I couldn't do more than just nod or shake my head, and when it was all done, all she did were to reach in close and whisper in my ear *Do come look for me if you seek work my dear spy. I could use somepony of your talent.*

She had known she were being watched the entire time and had gone anyway. She didn't say anything when I left through the door and flew off, carrying more than enough evidence to fell down anypony that had been in that room.".

He narrowed his eyes and chewed a little extra hard on his snack now that the last bits of this story went through his mind.

"It only took e six hours to return with a squadron to gather more evidence, but when we got there, it was clear. No beings, no auction, not even the building they had been in. There was just a field of grass and trees that looked as if it had been there for years.

All the evidence I gathered led nowhere either, and the beings seen were matched with several that had strong ties to the black market, but the few that we managed to wrangle in from other things we had on them to turn on their fellows, didn't give us anything on her, or the others. The only thing they said were that they knew better than to cause trouble with somepony like her, and then clamped up.

The auction led nowhere whatsoever. It had been arranged, blatantly shoved in my face, and then taken away without a trace or anything tangible to hold over anypony that we didn't already have enough on already, and I'm positive that she were behind it all. Nopony would be that confident in letting a spy join in unless they had full control over the situation, and she had me on a leash so short I might as well have been glued to her.

No matter how much I looked after that, she didn't do anything else again. I had gotten the taste of the truth she wanted me to see to try and entice me into joining her, and that was it.

Trying to bring her in is the next-biggest failure and embarrassment of my life, so yes, I carry resentment towards her. Do I think that she can actually help though? Begrudgingly, yes, and I am inclined to take her offer, depending on what she wants in return. I want Filigree down more than I want to spite Scarcity, though the lot of you will need to make up your own mind about her, and this favor she wants done.

If you accept it, try and spin getting something on Filigree as something she does only for me, so you can gain something from the work as well. She is a businesspony more than anything, so perhaps you can strike a deal for something you'd want."

Scarcity were, from his observations, a trouble solver that you did not wish to land on the bad hoof of, lest you became trouble in her eyes. But she were also as honest of a businesspony as you could expect from somepony with ties to the black market. If she thought it was gainful for her to hire outside help, she would ensure that they got compensated with something they wanted, as long as it was within certain limits. In his case, it would be for information, in the others... He didn't know what they might want if it were, but they'd have to decide on their own if they would even take her up on her offer to begin with. He were pretty much baited and hooked from what she could give him, so it was all but guaranteed that he would do what was asked at least.

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@Victoria Sponge

Benny wasn't exactly acting any less embarrassed when the laughter started. Quite the opposite actually, as he went down on his stomach with his arms covering his brightly red face. Even with her having taken his claw to shake, it wouldn't stop this, and he'd frankly not shake it back as he were too busy being mortified at his own actions.

"Sorry sorry sorry..."

Pop went over to her mate and nuzzled his arms aside with her muzzle, at which point he'd raise his face slightly to face her with those big puppy eyes of his, and she kissed him right on the snoot.

"Come on you big dork, let's get you up."

She talked to him with loving words and kissed him again on the forehead to make him feel better, before nuzzling him under the neck and pushing upwards to try and make the now chuckling dragon get back on his feet. It'd help pushing him along at least as he got back up, and looked down on his only half-head shorter mate with a great blush still on his cheeks.

Pop were about to say something when he put a finger on her lips, and gave her a kiss on the forehead in return, causing her to be the one to blush up alongside him now.

"Thank you."

The two of them were a weird couple, but times like this just kept proving to him that she loved him as much as he did her. How she keep dealing with his embarrassing little displays like that were more than enough evidence, if how she looked at him didn't already.

*sigh* He really had to remember to get away to have that suit made sooner, rather than later, so he could finally get around to proposing.

Trying to get his thoughts away from how Pop would look in a dress, he instead turned to the other ponies again, and Heather in particular.

"I'm sorry about that, I just... There was still cake, and it smelled really good, so I went into the blueberry one a little before you arrived and had a little taste. Guess it wanted to say hi too, heh... Hehe..."

He scratched the back of his head and glanced to the side, looking about as awkward as he felt.

"Battenberg was the ones who made the cake, so I met her, yeah. She didn't seem to be timid though when we were there though, but I mean, things might be different with others. You don't need to worry though miss. I'm a Royal Guard, and we don't hurt civilians. Though uhm... Mom might verbally though, so perhaps it's best if we stay out here for a bit. I can pick up some of the cake if you want? It's still warm."

"That'd be nice. Could you perhaps bring some water and cups too?"

"Right on it."

Benny went back into the house to look for the things asked for, which would mainly not be an issue beyond the cups. That might be difficult with the kitchen being how it were right ow, but he'd see. perhaps Jade was too busy with his dad - who would hopefully get some uninterrupted sleep now - to really bite notice in him.

"It's okay Lemon, he's gone for a bit.

So yeah, that is my mate Benny. He's really sweet, but sometimes he make a first impression that leaves him a little embarrassed, and things goes a little weird.

He will probably be back in a minute or so, but I don't know if you'd prefer to be away when that is, Lemon? He's harmless, but I understand that not everypony does well with even the pony-sized dragons. I'm really sorry that I didn't think of this before we knocked on the door."

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@Lloyd

Captain Hailstorm were none too pleased with seeing that one of his subordinates had decided to take his own actions, and thought to go to the generals right away, but he would have to reprimand the guard for this later. Perhaps setting him on kitchen duty for a while would leave him time to think.

"The situation you are in is that you are imprisoned, and you're not getting out of here again. Your attack on Equestria failed, witch.

Now you are going to tell us where to find your accomplish, and where you have hidden any Elements of Disharmony that you have gotten in possession of, or this interrogation is going to start to go a lot rougher. I have no reason to show kindness to enemies of the kingdom."

He wasn't actually going to torture Warlock, as that was strictly against the law, and he were bound by his duty, but perhaps Warlock did not know that. In his experience, evil beings often thought that others were willing to be as depraved in their methods as they themselves were, so you could make them believe plenty of things.

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@Lloyd

"The c-captain said his name in the cell. He was the o-one who escaped."

Void let out a nervous response to the question, as the others had started to look between one another as if to silently say that they had heard nothing about this.

"Very well. We had already prepared to send out word to find Zhu regardless though, so this changes little, beyond us needing to do with a more thorough examination when it is."

"Watch out for the wind magic."

Scorn had been silent for a while, and standing motionless in the corner examining things, so he had mainly been ignored thus far. Tidal Wave and Screecher looked towards him with some small degree of acknowledgement - and in Tidal Wave's case, a channeling glimpse as well - in their eyes, but they kept not addressing him further for the time being.

"We need more information. Sapphire, tell us what you know about this, please. I suspect you know more than you are letting on, especially after what happened just now."

Screecher had not missed that Sapphire's gem eye had acted erratically. To the full extend she didn't see though, as Sapphire had covered it up, but after all were said and done, she seemed to be in possession of some kind of knowledge about this, and the bat pony wanted that information. Dealing with the elements, they were going to need as many details as they could get, not more deceit in the first place.

Of course, Screecher and the others wouldn't know the connection Emerald had to the element, as only Sapphire had been alive when her sister had been around it to see the effects, and Scorn had only shared what he knew, which were that it was sought after by Emerald. That she believed it to be the key to unlocking the curse that kept her from getting a body of her own, were a burden that only Sapphire would potentially know, though she also seemed to know that it wouldn't work, and that the elimination of Emerald's original, diseased body, had caused this parasitic stage, which wouldn't end with something as simple as the gem crushing the lock keeping the majority of Emerald's powers down.

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@Dji

Zhu had almost been thrown forth when the wind stopped, from the opposite winds that he had to use to keep them in check, b ut he had managed to only slide forth and narrowly missed a crate instead. Which, from the looks of things, were fortunate.

"This isn't good."

It was not just that they had found a chamber with several items that he could identify as being important and/or magical through stories and pictures he had encountered throughout the years, it was also that the whole thing seemed to be kept somewhat clean. Which meant that they had either run into the lair of some kind of hoarder that lived beneath the castle, or worse, they had accidentally managed to find a secret passage into the castle's storage of dangerous relics. Which meant that they were still trapped in said castle, but were now also around things deemed too dangerous to keep in the public for various reasons.

"I wouldn't advise you to touch anything. In case this truly is the forbidden relics that Equestria hides from the public's eyes, many of them would be highly dangerous to even get near."

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@Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich @Dji

"So s-sirens are above ponies, but alicorns are above sirens?"

It sounded like this was the case, though not in the same way, surely. Sirens had great big teeth and could munch on something like a pony, even if Serenade didn't.. Alicorns however, didn't eat meat. At least they didn't when she was around, and that was one of the things she didn't think had changed. Alicorns were still ponies after all, and it was bad for them to ingest meat.

Serenade must have meant it more as in a threat level thing. Ponies were afraid of her kind, and in turn, she were afraid of alicorns, perhaps because of their high magically powers. Cherish was afraid of unicorns because of their magic too, so it wasn't like she couldn't understand fearing that sort of thing, and unicorns were pretty weak compared to alicorns.

"Where oes something like c-changelings fit in then? They go for ponies, but a-are they above or below sirens?"

Cherish was not aware of the hostility there were between the two races, so whatever answer Serenade were going to come with from this question, had a good chance of spooking the spirit. Might be that she was dead, but instincts were instincts after all.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

Anomaly had a point, egging an orphanage would be pretty wrong.

"Yea, you're probably right, plus they were pretty nice to me when I lived there as a foal, and we'll have to listen to Fluttershy about not egging the castle, I don't wanna get the stare. Oh! Have you been banned from any stores around here? Maybe we can egg them!"

An egg appeared in Lucid's hoof and he threw it at straight at Anomaly. Whether or not it would get her... he had no idea, she seemed rather unpredictable.

[EQ_Theta 459]

@Blitz Boom

"I really wouldn't know what to ask for, honestly. I guess I'm just satisfied with what I have right now and asking for something more.... Well, it might lead to more regrets I wouldn't want to have. If you insist we work together with Scarcity, I suppose there's no harm with that."

She may not seem much but the way Rosa spoke about her gave Sen chills. Being seemingly in the know about everyone, always watching from eyes that may not be all that visible. That left Sen quiet for a bit, merely munching on his sandwich but not noticing the taste. It sounded familiar but Scarcity's case sounded low-key compared to past experiences. Lin overheard the story and remembered the meeting in the sanctuary. If she couldn't feel safe in a place that was meant to be so well hidden no one could find it, what more could someone like Scarcity do in a situation like that? It sounded like connections meant more than just meeting others and expanding their circle. Expanding influence through invisible webs, it is a gamble if they found themselves part of it. Frankly, Lin had a feeling she and Sen found themselves part of said web but whether they would take advantage of it, that was another question altogether. 

Right now, it was one mere task. Gather something and return it. It sounded so simple and yet it may lead to more. Exactly what, they weren't certain, but what have they to lose? 

"I guess we can go along with her request," Lin said, jumping into the conversation. "We've already seen just how bad things can get with Filigree around. I suppose counting on Scarcity's help is the way to go."

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@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight

A map in the throne room, numerous utility closets, rooms for Starlight, Spike, and herself... there wasn't much else other than a library and the usual rooms anyone would expect in an average home in the castle. Fluttershy even doubts if any of the current occupants in the castle ever dabbled in gardening. 

"Well, I... wouldn't know what flowers she likes. There no room for a garden in the castle. Twilight frequently goes to the hayburger place in town, though. It's a long purple cabin with straw on the roof. It's usually busy during lunchtime, however."