open Casual stroll

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Seamore Sandwich @Dji"We will have to wait until both are done, until then, I will answer any questions you have, all of you" Serenade looks at the Day and Night Princesses as well as the ghost. 

[EQ_Theta 416]

@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight

"Pringle looks to you as his caretaker and is comfortable enough to see you as a parental figure. He thinks that because you're using that kind of language, it is also okay for him to talk to you like that. I suggest toning it down a bit, maybe? He's taking after you, Lucid, and you have to be more careful about what you say because he's Pringle's learning from you. Well, he may have also developed an attitude along with his, um... expanded vocabulary."

It's always a rule of Fluttershy's to treat animals with more than respect, seeing them to be much smarter than they look. Initially, this may be true with dogs and cats, but ever since she opened her home to many more animals, they have so much more to show and plenty of things for ponies to learn. Some domesticated animals look to ponies as companions, after all, and the young ones see them as surrogate parents. It is something to take in and consider when looking for a pet, a thought Fluttershy shares with other ponies looking for an animal friend.

"You could always be a little nicer with your words, Pringle," Fluttershy stroked the lizard on the chin as she gently spoke to him. "That kind of language isn't necessary to get your thoughts across, right?"

[Blitz Boom 4,429]

@Pr0m4NV14 (correct)

The large group amassed outside barely took notice of him as they boarded the train. Several of them had been needing to go away on one for a while, but with the town being as busy as it were, and the train station being closed off in sections, it hadn't been too easy to get to a train. This were the first one to go normally after the station were mostly open again - barring the section starting a few meters to the right - so everypony could get to the Canterlot and such with ease again.

As the news of the attack on Ponyville had spread by now through the ones who had managed to get out fast, several needed to get out there and assure their loved ones they were okay. Sure, several had broken legs and other damages, but nopony had died due to the timely evacuation, so everything would be fine.

The town were bustling with life too, though not all of it were locals. It should be somewhat evident by the large amount of griffons, smaller dragons, the occasional minortaur etc. that roamed the streets, seemingly working to repair the buildings - several were seen to still be missing roofs, a few walls and minor things like doors - while a rather large dragon flew above them and apparently had some oversight with them. the repairs were seemingly going okay, but something weird were definitely going on here.

"Awh cool, I didn't know the big dragons showed up around here."

The excited, feminine voice, belonged to a mare that would slowly flap down pretty close to Mike, though her focus were still mainly on the large reptilian.

"Things must've gone REALLY wrong around here to call a big guy like that in. You think it's serious?"

At the end, she looked down to Mike, who she were more or less towering over, with a curious look in her eyes and a joyful smile on her lips. She tended to be taller than most she ran into, but this guy was a bit smallish, so she had almost a full head higher to work with here, though it wasn't something the mare thought much about. Usually that only happened when she was around really small ones, and she began to wonder if this was how it was like for Princess Celestia. A pretty benign thought, but she wasn't one to judge others on silly things like height. It was all genetics after all. Nothing that anypony could control.

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@EQ_Theta

Scarcity chuckled at the mention of a certain pink mare.

"Ah yes, I believe that would be Pinkie Pie. One of the six mares that once held the Elements or Harmony. She were laughter as far as I am aware, though it is hardly the first thing you think when you meet her. The impression she tends leaves on you are far more in connection with her penance for celebrating things. Considering the hardships Ponyville tends to be center of, one could imagine that it is sorely needed there, more than anywhere else.

I did hire her at some point to hold a celebration for an associate of mine that needed a cheering up. It were a... Memorable experience."

Really, Scarcity had nopony else to blame than herself for how it had went. She knew well how shy her sister were, which limited her to gathering the friends she wished she had. Scarcity had thought that perhaps she could get Pinkie Pie to hold a small scale celebration for her sisters twentieth birthday, and the pink mare had agreed to the limitation of at max ten guests, who she would personally select to make sure the worst troublemakers wouldn't interrupt them.

Unfortunately, Scarcity had neglected to take into account how Pinkie Pie had a tendency to begin to sing, and somehow drag the entire town into a musical number, which had proven to be a little too challenging for Long Stare. Still, there had been about a half hour of joy before that, and Long Stare had been happy to see Scarcity come to her home for once on her birthday, instead of sending somepony that would transport her to a more neutral area.

It were a few years  ago now, and since then they had gone back to celebrating on neutral ground. An irritating side effect of being in the darker corners of the black market like Scarcity were, though she had been working for a long time now on ensuring that she could be more open about her relation with her sister, and visit her openly, rather than only letters and the occasional unseen, random visit. She just needed to squash a certain bug first. Literally, though the changeling were proving elusive to track down, even for her. If she could get hold of him however, and be able to *convince* him to change to her side, things could begin to look better.

Ah, but that could be years ahead. For the time being, things were as they were, and for the betterment of both her sister and herself, she had to keep a legs length between them.

"Yet her company is not for everypony either, so I can understand your reluctance to be too near her. A hard thing to avoid when living in Ponyville though, as she seems to be everywhere, though if you can avoid her, everything is rather calm and quaint. Surprisingly open-minded citizens too, what with them having a dragon, zebra, and several changelings living in the town without too many issues. Even Discord, though I have yet to meet him personally. Have you by chance seen him on your visits? He should be quite easy to recognize, seeing what a mix of parts he seems to be made from."

Meanwhile, The shopkeeper saw that the two customers didn't seem to have any issues with what were presented to them, so he began to put it back in the crate and add up the prices as he went.

"That'll be 73 bits."

Rosa took out the pouch of bits and put began counting up the coin needed for this. it had ended up a little less than he had expected, considering the somewhat high end place they had been before this, yet he certainly didn't mind. Rather have too many bits than too few.

"Here."

"Looks like everything's here. Happy travels."

Tracker pushed the crate forward whilst sneezing to his right, to avoid hitting any customers. He really hoped this illness could be over soon so he could get back on the road again.

Before taking the crate however, Rosa needed to put his mask back on again, and make sure it was closely shut before he could move on. At which point Tracker had already left to help another customer, leaving the bat pony and Sen at the table.

"We should make our way back to Lin now. We have what we need to get through the trip."

Putting the crate on his back, Rosa would walk straight towards the door, and to the right of it were he had stashed their food crate. It seemed to not have been tampered with whilst they had been inside, so that was good, though he had to spend a little time not to stack the two things on one another now so they could get everything with them.

Or he could take the simple solution, which were putting the smaller, lighter crate on his back down in front of Sen, and begin to strap himself to the other one again. This were the choice he went with, as it presented a smaller chance of back injuries to him. He wasn't an earth pony after all. He couldn't drag large loads with no issues.

"You can take that one, Sen. It will make the travel faster if we split the load."

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@Rising Dusk

"Right over here."

So Rising hadn't run off yet, that was a plus. Molotov honestly hadn't been sure that the stallion would be able to muster Felecia's increasing interest in him, but all things considered, the officer took it pretty well. Either he was well balanced, or he just hid his fright well. Either way, pretty professional of the stallion. Keeping his head cool was going to be needed with the work they were going to have to think about, as well as handling the larger spiderbot. Molotov had no idea what she mighr end up doing, but at least he were sure it wouldn't be something horrendous. Unlike with Carmen, he hadn't given Felicia a mouth, functional teeth, or a stomach. He figured at the time that it was better to leave that experimental bunch to the small one, who essentially just went around nibbling stuff, rather than something that might've attempted to munch on his head. Seeing how Felicia despised him, that had turned out to be a smart move.

Wandering over to his desk, Molotov shook the thought off for the time being, and instead kept his focus on finding the plans to his wings. They weren't complete in his mind, yet they didn't have any sort of haste behind them, so he didn't keep the blueprints on the table itself. Instead, he had it locked in one of several metal tubes underneath. The trick were to find the right one, which took him a few minutes of pulling out and checking the numbers he put on the ends.

Finally he'd pull one out around midway down the stack, and put it on the table. Took him a bit more to open it, as he had to put in the five digit code in what looked like the main part of a bicycle lock set at the end, but he'd get there. Many levels of security that took time on this thing, but his plans weren't meant to be looked at by thieves, so in a paranoid fit, he had stolen one too many glances at some of the other department's papers and rigged these tubes. If air came in without the password getting dialed right, the papers would get doused in a foul liquid that'd melt the lot of them. A loss for him, but he could remake it, and it was better than having some schmuck take credit for his work.

There were five blueprints in the tube, which he all lined up on the workbench.

The first were the crystal. It showed the ways he had put it together, the spells used to contain the energy, design on how it collected solar energy, and the transportation of said energy via an external object referred to, but not shown.

The second showed  the wings themselves, the construction, and what metal to use to keep them light and functional. It also showed how he mostly kept them on, which were a mixture of magnets and screws, connected to a metal plate operated in under the skin on his back. They were removable it seemed, though the metal plate weren't meant to be, so it were not mentioned.

Third and fourth one showed what actually controlled the activation of the energy, and the wings movement: A small, metallic rectangle with several pins and four screw holes on the side. The technical stuff in the page were headache inducing to anypony not knowing about advanced mechanics, though that was mainly the third page. The fourth showed the procedure needed to get it to work, which essentially included cutting up the back of his neck and attach it to his spinal cord. It also warned of possible, permanent paralysis if done wrong, which should go some way to explain why Molotov had not sent this design out to the public.

The fifth and last paper were a layout for an experimental necklace made of several rings, not too unlike those zebra's tended to wear, and some scribbles about potential connection to the wings. A replacement for the chip he currently used, yet he hadn't found out a way to properly have it connected to a wearer's electric impulses or brain waves yet. You could see several failed attempts though, crossed out in red.

"Interesting fact: the metal in my body makes me twitch when there's thunderclouds nearby."

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@Lloyd @Dji

Zhu had just gotten free and up from his seated position on the floor when Astral had gotten close. He had expected a flesh wound, yet Sapphire had stopped her? After all that had happened, that seemed unlikely to happen without some thought behind it.

Tidal Wave came in from the side as this happened, but he swatted her away like a bug and looked Astral directly in the eyes. The golden, serpentine orbs held there for a moment as he whispered something only meant for her to be heard. Karmic might be close enough to hear it, but Sapphire were unlikely to, and Tidal certainly weren't.

"When you catch me, I will show you what it really means. A true glimpse into my world."

With that he turned and ran onward, not thinking about taking his hood back on. Karmic should either follow soon after, or she were already ahead, not wanting to take chances.

Eventually, when they were alone, Tidal would come forth and brush off her dusty armor. She had some scratches to match the scars already there, and the cloth on her uniform were torn in places, but that barely got noticed. Doing what she did, damage to her outfit were a normal occurrence, and cloth weren't an issue. The metal would've been worse.

"So we're waiting until he found his accomplish and then catch all of them, right? Don't tell me I held back for you to actually just let him go out and cause more malice."

Granted, Tidal had tried at the start, but when he started to yap off about going to meet Warlock's accomplish, she toned it down to try and give him some openings to run off and think himself safe. Sapphire had already shown she could tell exactly where he were with that teleporting thing before, so they had him tracked to some degree, surely. And this way they could catch all the culprits at once, at which point she'd wring him for every bit of information he held while the others could take that Emerald thing. Sounded like there were a large gang of instigators of violence and murder that Zhu knew about, and she would get that information one way or another.

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@Lloyd

"It kind of depends. I mean, since when is kind of important, and in what field? I mostly know medical advances. Which is going great. Excellent even. I mean, we still got a lot of diseases we can't handle, sadly, but we got uhm... Right, better at treating things. Magic mixing can also make things quicker, like a broken leg, right? We can have that fixed up in days now, instead of months. And prosthetic - the good ones anyway - are getting to the point were you can barely tell the difference between it and your former real limb.

Now that the changelings are making contact, I kind of hope, well... I hope they can add to it. Make the limbs look completely real too, by using some kind of passive transformation magic. They're good at that, so maybe? Have to believe in something."

Hogweed figured that Warlock would want to know something that concerned him when it come to magic advances, and his recovery were the better of the two things she thought he'd care about when it came to this. Something that could hurt others weren't really something she knew much about. And even if she did, it didn't seem smart to try and explain something like that to Warlock, everything considered. It might make him try and use it to lash out instead of try and accept help.

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@Moonlit @Seamore Sandwich @Dji

"Well, I uhm... K-Kinda wonder something? Isn't it w-weird to walk around like a p-pony, considering how you u-usually look? I-I mean, no legs, then l-legs...Must be s-strange."

Cherish didn't really like the silence. She liked hearing others around, and some kind of life or unlife happening around her. Since the others hadn't said anything, Cherish figured she'd try, though hopefully it didn't sound too stupid to Serenade. The siren probably thought they should all know about some of the really interesting things, but the spirit had thrown her dice, so to speak. Had to stand by this and hope she didn't sound too stupid or short-sighted.

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@Lucid_Nightlight @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"So you don't always have to cause some sort of mischief or do weird things? Huh, if even you don't, then I guess my excuse for doing it is gone. No way I can blame this on a racial anymore."

Anomaly snapped her tail a few more times and set up an identical fountain on the other side of the path to Twilight's castle door, as well as causing a paved path to go straight from outside of the grass field, and to said door. Some extra ones began to squirm and spread from there to the sides, causing erratic patterns around the castle for beings to walk on, and stopping somewhere on the back when they collided. Maybe. She'd have to check later.

Seeing the living benches also gave her another idea for the garden, and set up a seemingly small, wooden fence with gaps around the garden. More ornamental than something you couldn't actually just step over, though if the benches got closer, vines would spring up and begin to wrap around them. A small security thing, if it actually worked on ponies, but Anomaly didn't care about that. She just did it to keep the benches in as much as possible. Moving benches roaming the garden? It'd be absolutely perfect! Way better than her idea about groundhogs that'll steal the horseshoes right off your hooves.

While she were going at that, it seemed the others were talking about mostly the lizard. Accursed little thing...

Anyway, they wanted to make it stop swearing for some reason, and tried to make Fluttershy work her mojo on it. Well phooey, where was the fun in that?

"Boring! Let's try and learn it stuff. Like-"

Anomaly went into a long line of what were meant to be something that'd be so foul the grass around her would wither, but ended up coming out as a random assortment of bird sounds.

"Pff, stupid hairless monkey thing... Lucid swears, why can't I?"

Because what you wanted to say in banned in five dimensions, including hell.

"Whatever captain buzzkill. If I can't curse, then I'm gonna gamble. I bet a seven foot peach that he picks Fluttershy when the time's there. Celestia turned him to stone for a jolly long time. Gotta be a turn-off, right? Maybe? How does ponies and flirting work again?"

[Moonlit 593]

@Seamore Sandwich @Blitz Boom @Dji"At first, yes. I would prefer to be in my normal Hippocampi form, but given my job and how ponies react, having four legs" As demonstration, she lifts and wiggles each one of her legs in turn. "means less running away from me in fear, less problems with the Solar and Lunar Guards and not having the nobles try and have me declared a Threat to Equestria."

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Blitz Boom @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"See, Pringle? Even Anomaly isn't allowed to swear! No, you can't bite her."

Pringle goes and bites her anyways then climbs back onto Fluttershy.

"That's it, no strawberries after dinner!"

The lizard stood there giving his usual blank stare.

"No Pringle, it's completely fair! Now you're telling me it's because I didn't buy you that hamster wheel? I'm not made of money!"

Pringle was still giving his blank stare.

"No I can't conjure up money, that's counterfeit! Now tell the pumpkin ladybug thing you're sorry!"

The lizard continued the blank stare.

"No, apologize like you mean it."

Yet again, the lizard gave a blank stare.

"Now was that so hard?"

[Victoria Sponge 1,014]

@Blitz Boom

Victoria looked at her mussed up mane and laughed slightly.

"I'm not that neat myself right now, this could do with a fix..."

Heather half heard Pop's response and half didn't, she'd drifted off into her own world imagining the adventures of the two uncles, she could write a book about this stuff.

"Yeah! It would be... um... great!"

She hoped she'd heard enough for this response to make sense, she seemed to have a knack for lucking out when it came to guess what she'd misheard, which was incredibly  useful considering her personality.

"You and Benny will be fine, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he proposes to you."

Victoria giggled sweetly and looked towards Benny, she knew he was planning something big for his beloved mare.

"I'm sure you could guess what I want in a stallion, just what you'd think was compatible with me. Clean enough, respects boundaries, wants foals, that kind of thing. If he respects who I am as a pony, but also loves me, and wants to look out for me and protect me, and knows what's best for our foals and our future then he's perfect."

 

Upon reaching the bakery Heather moved to open the door but was almost knocked off her feet by a speeding Victoria who entered the shop and went straight through into the kitchen shouting something about an "EMK" as she went. As the rest of the troop entered the shop they were greated by a wide-eyed, panting Battenberg who seemed to have been startled by the sudden appearance of so many people and by Victoria's incredible speed.

"U-uh.. H-hi."

She regained her composure and came out from behind the counter to greet them. She didn't get much of a break before Heather had given her a tight squeeze, happy to see her shyer cousin once more.

"Heehee, Hi Heather, it's been a little while since I last saw you."

"Yeah, it's been a little while, you look good though Batty, pretty as ever, and even as someone who doesn't like cake so much I can still appreciate the sweet smell of your kitchen."

She wasn't sure but she thought she could pick up a slight hint of victoria spongecake and the prospect excited her greatly.

The sounds of crashing could be heard above them, Battenberg looked towards the ceiling and rolled her eyes.

"She must be after her emergency make-up kit. What have you lot been up to? Is Vicky still making good progress with her reformed personality? The need for make-up seems to say otherwise."

Lemon shook her head.

"Oh you have to cut her some slack sweetie, she's been without make-up longer than I've ever seen her without it before. She's doing great."

"I'm sure she is"

Battenberg laughed.

"I guess there's some aspects of her that won't ever change though, not the worst thing to hold onto though, cleanliness and beauty will help her make friends more easily if her persona fails her a little."

She smiled and moved past her family members to Pop and Benny, she seemed quite pleased to see them again.

"How are you two holding up? Did those cakes go down well?"

[Storm Shine 1,195]

@Blitz Boom @Lucid_Nightlight @EQ_Theta

Discord coughed slightly to get Lucid's attention, "You do realize that you could simply conjure the very same wheel with your magic, correct?" He asked with a raised brow, watching the interaction between Lucid and his deceptively unresponsive lizard.

[Pr0m4NV14 837]

@Blitz Boom

 

Mike McGuffin was looking up at the large dragon soaring overhead when he heard a voice above the conundrum of the crowd near him. Without looking at who was speaking, he replied with

"I don't know what you are talking about. Sorry." He looked around for the source of the voice before meeting the torso of a purple-ish Pegasus. He took a look back and looked up, his mouth ajar for a few seconds before he regained his composure and nervously said "Hello."

 

 

[BloodDrops 762]

On 6/7/2018 at 11:47 PM, Blitz Boom said:

"An animal here and there is just the natural order. It's when you commit whole-scale eradication on this place that it gets worse."

So it seemed like Nerzhei had managed to stop Droppy from eating the entirety of the forest then. A step in the right direction, even though the dragoness had to put it in terms of a future investment of food to get this done. Not that it was a lie, but it weren't the only reason behind her not wanting this place essentially cleared of all life. Lyriel were the main reason for that, whom Nerzhei knew would be either heartbroken or furious beyond belief that the one place she had decided to protect had become doomed. Much as the dryad were a level-headed being who had come to terms with many things, failing her home were one that stung, and two in a row could end up being too great of a strain on her mind.Something which she doubted would lead into many good directions.

"And in regards to your request, I am not going to take a riddle from the sphinx unless I know for a fact that I have no other options. If I loose, she could end up cursing me too, and take all of my research. Years of hard work gone in the blink of an eye. I can't take that risk unless it is the only option, and we have not examined alternatives yet."

She were about to make a snide remark about the bucket, but she would let that one slide for now. It would just be mockery, instead of something constructive that could lead them to finding a solution, as she had nothing to really say to it otherwise. Losing a bucket of water were a weird thing to have said, and didn't really lead anywhere. That is... Unless the bucket of water had contained the curse in some way, and she dropped it over herself? It could be the alternative to how Droppy were cursed, and the pony hadn't been entirely clear about the situation on how exactly the sphinx had doomed her like this.

"That bucket, were there anything with it, or the water inside of it? Cursed objects can come in many forms, including sites such as lakes. Do you remember if the sphinx poured said water over you before your curse hit, or was it directly a spell cast by her paws?"

Meanwhile, some way from them, Lyriel fell to her knees in silence. Her jaw was slacking from what she had just been shown, and her eyes filled with horror at it meant about her kind, their origin, as well as their downfall. Something which she would have not believed had it been only in words, but seeing it, knowing the Sphinx had a great deal of power, and how it explained a great deal where she only had guesswork... She could not deny the truth.

"The Messenger... Had us made, just to fool another out of food..."

The dragon she had seen were not the earth mother that she had spoken of before, but she knew well who she were regardless. All of the dryads had, though her name had never been spoken by any of them. To their kind, she were simply The Messenger, sent by the earthen mother to help them live peacefully with the dragons that she represented.

She had been the one who had told them how they came to be, and guided them in what to grow to make every living being in the valley happier, up until the waters began to transform those who drank it into trees, and forced the dragons to go to the mountains around the valley to live. Places that the dryads had long supported with lumber from rapidly growing trees, who they still tended to, and the dragons still harvested in abundance from the place, even as the valley itself became impossible to live in. Repairing the trees taken was the one thing her crazed siblings would still do, even if the trees they rose were twisted and pained, yet now it seemed it had all been because of a lie.

"She told us that the earth mother wished for us to sing her praises, and tend to the lands of those who needed a bountiful harvest. We thought we were brought forth for that purpose... That the earth mother truly had been our maker... But it was you. You are the reason we exist..."

Lyriel turned her head and looked up upon the sphinx with reverence, fear and confusion roaming in her tear-filled eyes. A child seeking answers in a world that didn't make sense to her anymore, and looking at the only one who she had to believe could guide her.

"Great creator, forgive my insolence, and the heresy done by my siblings. Your name be praised, and your glory eternal."

The sound of wind flowing through a field of fresh grass flowed out of Lyriel's muzzle next, as she followed her praise to the sphinx with a prayer to the earth mother. It was hard to translate this kind of speech, and it lost a good deal in translation, but it roughly spoke about letting the crowns upon the sphinx's trunk grow mighty and strong towards the sun, so that she may gain the greatest of nutrient from it's light.  It didn't make much sense in this contest, but it were all she could think about with her head bowed in reverence before the sphinx.

"Your temple grounds is near, creator. Please, allow me to direct you there promptly, so that you may be grown a home befit of your stature."

Lyriel would slowly get back on her hooves, and move to the left. She were visibly shaking and distraught, though she knew now where she needed to go. Not the rocky grounds she had still been working on finding some creature to inhabit, but the point where she had decided to have her own, small home before this. Surely it would not be worthy enough of the sphinx, but she would do what she were capable of, to try and please the creator as best she could.

Droppy blinked and frowned at her, she was hungry now then, screw the investment thing. Animals would come back even if she ate them, just don't damage the environment too much. Droppy's belly rumbled and she moved to fix the problem, eventually coming back with a large hare in her mouth, she blinked and started to eat it giving Nerzhei a look. "I now know where the other one is for later, call it investment" she remarked.

Droppy snorted, "Well you agree what she wants from you, and if its too much then you don't answer the riddle. Then she is unable to curse you since you wouldn't have given a correct or incorrect answer" she told her with a small yawn. She was still hungry but was trying out this 'investment' plan. That hare better have multiplied by now otherwise she would have to eat more then one. 

Droppy blinked, "Well there was water in it. I was meant to do something with it, but I forgot. Then I dropped it and lost it. I couldn't find the bucket again" she said sadly. She liked that bucket it was important to her for some reason. Though she didn't know why. "I'm sure she didn't put water on me but more likely used her paws before flying off. I didn't see her again till she was at her old temple. She got kicked out after some pony beat her at a riddle game. She doesn't like ponies now, though not sure why she likes your tree pony friend" she remarked talking about Lyriel. 

 

The Sphinx blinked at her and smiled, "Pretty much, though her con didn't work that well. She paid the price for her mistake however it seems your species also did because of her actions. I will make you a deal, if you let me reside here then I will make sure nothing goes amiss. Though the only condition of this is no evil is done in this place." she said smoothly. She had a plan in mind, and it would work well.

Sphinx looked down at her, "Well you were brought from the earth, though it was my magic that made it so, to provide for others incapable of providing for themselves. In doing so you caused the dragons to improve there standard of life though they took that for granted. Greed, Envy, Lust. All the worlds ill's can be traced back to these selfish wants. Dragons have it in excess. They were meant to be balanced by your species but they failed by there own flaws rather then yours." she tutted.

She stared hard at Lyriel, before deciding she was sincere. "Your insolence was not your own, merely that of Nerzhei's though she is forgiven by being born a dragon. Your siblings only did such heresy because of discovering of the lie told by the dragons. She flicked her tail and nodded. "If any of your siblings step foot in this forest, they will be cured of there illness and be without memory of said transgressions" she growled stamping her feet on the ground letting her words be bounded to the earth.

The sphinx nodded, she just wanted some flat land or something with a rock layer she could mold. As much as she liked trees, they had a tendency not to last more then a few hundred years. She nodded and followed Lyriel, "oh I can't wait to see what you've built me, as long as its no where near the plague walker is staying. Actually I would prefer that she doesn't stay here, I can tolerate the dragon but not the plague walker. She has other things to attend to rather then lingerer here" she finished.

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Storm Shine @EQ_Theta @Blitz Boom

"I could, but doesn't that break copyright laws or something?"

Lucid remembered something! Lucid put Discord in a chair and shined a flashlight in his eyes, knowing that it likely did no harm considering that Discord is likely way more powerful. He was only doing that for dramatic effect anyways.

"Hey, don't dodge my question! Is your crush Fluttershy or Celestia?"

If the answer is neither, the 50 bits goes to Pringle.

[EQ_Theta 416]

@Blitz Boom

"Pinkie Pie, an odd name for a pony. Usually names have something to do with a pony's profession, or at least that's something I've noticed. Seeing her zip around town makes me wonder if she is even a pony to begin with. She can't move from one place to another in a blink of an eye. Or can she?"

Never did she imagine seeing somepony like Pinkie, one of a kind whose sense of logic can only make sense to her. It may be best to not dwell on it too much; that kind of thinking may drive herself insane just attempting to figure it out, and she's only heard that from the elderly in her village who warned against too much overthinking. It didn't make sense at the time, but she's glad she remembered that. It would keep her up at night more than normal, and Lin is more or less alert the whole evening anyway. Perhaps the only thing that should make any semblance of sense is that it doesn't. 

"As for Discord, I've seen him in town. He's an interesting sight, kind of makes me want to play a game where I try to guess what animals certain body parts are from. Well, I admit I have no idea what some of the animals are. Some of them are just so bizarre and foreign, it was a lot to taken in when I first saw him. I guess I heard about him first before seeing what he looked like. He had a very negative reputation back then but he seems to have change, going by word of mouth. The ponies of Ponyville certainly don't seem to mind having him around nowadays. What do you think about him, Scarcity?"

Back at the shop, Sen picked up the second crate and strapped it on to his back. It wasn't a hassle given his own saddlebag weighing him down, but not by much. The combined weight of the two was just fine and he could keep up if he needed to move faster. Sen turned to Tracker and nodded with a smile, a gesture of thanks before starting on his way back to Scarcity's. It will be interesting to see what he could do after fiddling with the tent after a while.

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

@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight

"What?! What is this with me and why is this a thing?" 

Suddenly hearing about her being a thing with Discord was... odd. Strange is an understatement but this is all new to her. Fluttershy paused for a moment and thought about how anyone might think she or Celestia and Discord... she didn't want to think about it. Is this those kinds of betting pools she's heard of but nobody ever speaks about it? Some ponies really have too much time on their hooves.

Edited June 10, 2018 by EQ_Theta

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@EQ_Theta @Storm Shine @Blitz Boom

"In case you didn't notice, their is 50 bits on the line."

Obviously he meant that more in a joking way, he knows all that could go wrong if he upset Fluttershy.

"You know what this castle really needs? Some guards."

Lucid wrote a note.

"Can I borrow some guards?"

He sent it to whoever was incharge of them 

"No, I'm not doing all that paperwork."

"So much for that!"

Edited June 10, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

[Seamore Sandwich 470]

@Blitz Boom 

@Moonlit 

 

“I wonder, how did you come to live in Equestria, Serenade?  What events brought you here?”

 

@Blitz Boom 

@Dji 

 

“To be honest,” Celestia says before looking over her shoulder as if to make sure nobody else was listening, then, leaning in and putting a hoove up to say quietly into Twilight’s ear, although not in a whisper, “I’ve gotten lost in my own castle a couple times myself.”

 

@Blitz Boom 

 

“I’m so excited!!!  I can’t wait to explore!  To run!  To be free!”  Charlie was practically bursting with excitement.  Actually, that was quite literal, as the stick started to crackle with small sparks.  The stick might not hold up much longer if Charlie got any more excited.  Hopefully they would be at the castle soon.

[Rising Dusk 26,107]

@Blitz Boom

Nodded and followed after Molotov as he was beckoned over to look the plans to the wing device he'd been wearing.  He wasn't going to pretend going into this that he knew all that much about mechanical engineering, but his target was to look at the magical components to the design.  Waiting patiently as the other stallion worked at the complicated lock that he hid his designs in.  Never having to worry about in his own line of work, but it also didn't hurt that Dusk could call up a great degree of knowledge just from having memorized it.  Every now and then he'd look around and up into the ceiling, expecting Felicia to be somewhere, but never ever to pick her out.

His attention brought back to the task at hoof though once Molotov pulled out the plans and rolled them out on the table.  Sure enough, the vast majority of it might as well be written in a non pony language.  Heck, Dusk even knew a little bit of Old Ponish, but this was still gibberish.  Some of the drawings though, made the wings a bit more ghoulish than he thought.  Just looking at the devices, he didn't know they were designed to actually go under the skin.  Luna knows what sort of muscles, bones and nerves they might have been connected to and the pain involved in such. 

"Regular lightning rod huh?"

Dusk jibed before turning his attention to the part of the design that wasn't completely alien to him.  Spell formulas.  Finally, a realm he knew tail from mane of.  Dusk stared at the spell work of the storage gem for a few moments.  It wasn't like sensing magic, but any pony that wanted to delve into the world of magic beyond the basics could to a bit of spell tracing.  Plus he was storing it into memory for when he got home.

The storage spell was too bad, but was made by a less experienced horn.  He felt pretty confident he could plug a couple of the leaks he saw, but weren't know more until a bit of research.  To get it at the levels he was thinking Molotov wanted though, they'd need more gifted ponies in such areas than Dusk.  The solar gathering spell was a bit more of a mess and should be easy to clean up.

Dusk nodded at Molotov.

"I think we can improve that gem.  However, it would just be a step in the right direction."

He affirmed, having stared at the spell work long enough to commit it to memory.  Turning, he headed for the cart they borrowed from Rusty and reequipped the harness to his back.

"I will return this to Rusty in the morning.  I should be able to stop by afterwards."

"I bid you Booms a good evening."

Rising Dusk nodded to each of the Boom siblings in kind with a warm smile before making his way to the exit. 

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Seamore Sandwich"I was hatched from an egg my adoptive parents found on the beach near Horseshoe Bay. I was raised there, just outside of Baltimare. As for why my egg was there" Serenade shrugs, her wings flaring slightly. "I have no idea, you'd have to find my bio-mom and ask her, or perhaps one of the other Sirens that live in Equestria"  

[FanOfManyShows 396]

@Blitz Boom @Dji

Sapphire looked to Tidal Wave. "No, that'd be stupid. But it'd be best to not discuss our plan while he's still here." She said, stepping closer to Tidal Wave. Looking to Zhu running off, waiting for him to exit the room before talking at all.

"Wait, what were we here for in the first place?" Astral blurted out, realizing she forgot when the fight started.

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

@Blitz Boom 

He chuckled at her, this was a stallion of times pass, and had actually never heard of Changelings, he'd seen them for sure, but never knew the species name. "Are you making up words now?" His chuckling died down, realizing something else, he might need to specify what word. "What would Changeling even mean?"

The guard next to him looked at him, probably just as surprised as Hogweed. "How the hay do you not know?"

"I was frozen in stone for 300 moons" He said, looking to the guard. "You tend to miss a lot of history like that."

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

 

@Blitz Boom 

"So are they safe now?"

"The fights over, I did say she wouldn't need help." Iron Star looked to Misty. "And that's the fifth time you asked, No need to worry so much" He sighed to himself, looking to Chow, they hadn't done much in a while, Iron Star had gotten to take off the bandage as his eyes healed significantly faster than they should've, and Misty was still in a cast, the only pony fit for a fight would be Chow, or Iron Star "Are you doing alright?" Despite his words earlier, that wasn't exactly the first time he asked Chow if he was doing good.

[Blitz Boom 4,429]

@Rising Dusk

"My first prototype attracted lighting, so I had to remake the design from scratch to stop the wearer from getting electrocuted in bad weather. Trust me, you don't want to know what happened with the test animals."

Molotov had almost felt sorry for the poor things that got instant roasted via his design, or paralyzed and needed to be put out of their misery, but considering what would've happened to them if they had stayed at the lab he kept stealing them from, he frankly thought it was more merciful to be electrocuted. Faster than what the others would've done for essentially the same end result.

A small shiver went down his back as he recalled the few times he had seen the end results of the experiments in the particular section of Center Zero. It wasn't something he'd like to dwell on, but with Rising checking out he blueprints and being silent for a while, the engineer's mind began to wander. He needed the distraction of work to not dwell on things like this, and the disturbing feeling of missing even that department of his old home. Which were saying something, as at the time, they were among his three least favorite areas.

Finally it seemed like the officer were done checking the plans through fully, though sadly, it appeared as if he didn't have anything to say regarding the design or the technical aspects. Perhaps those parts were a little above his pay grade? To be fair though, Molotov came from a town focused on knowledgeable ponies, and were one in a long line of inventors. It wasn't fair to say that everypony should or would understand much of what they worked on. Only specialists in the fields would get the majority, and when it came to his work, Molotov didn't even know where to start looking for somepony that would be on his level. Robotics and cybernetics were a relatively new field, even in Center Zero, and his travels outside hadn't shown him anypony that he'd consider good enough to take over any of his schematics.

There had been a brief time when he had found interest in somepony called Flim and Flam, as they seemed to be inventive with robotics at least, even if their designs were clunky, but they were off the list as soon as Molotov dug deeper into it and found they were con artists. He'd sooner give his entire collection to Felicia than fork them over to charlatans like that.

Oh well, he'd gotten out of Center Zero's attack alive, and so had Blitz, so it wasn't like he needed to find somepony to take over his work currently. Besides, why not focus on the good news instead? Such as the fact that Rising seemed to think he could improve the gem part of his current design. That would be a pretty good help, as it might increase the time the wings could function between recharging by several hours if the leakage were handled.

"Sounds grand Dusky. I'll try and remember to turn off the defenses when morning shows up."

"Huh? Oh, goodnight officer pony!"

Blitz managed to get out of her work trance as Rising were about to leave, and rose a hoof to wave enthusiastically at him. The pony would've barely gone out before she'd stray back t work, only stopping when Molotov came around with her snack an hour later. Must mean it was soon time to sleep.

In the present time however, Rising got a final farewell from another angle, though if he noticed were hard to tell. Felicia, from the room above the door, opened her hatch slightly and rose it with one of her long, bony legs. Several red *eyes* starred at him from the dark for several seconds, before the hatch slowly closed again. She'd make no attempt of going out after him.

Not this time anyway.

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

 

@Seamore Sandwich

"Restrain yourself, or you might not make it there."

The stick sparking as it did were alarming to Vivid, as this might mean the piece of Charlie were more unstable than she had thought it were. A danger to her, but also one to Charlie, as the ways she would have to get his spirit to stick around without this part of him as an anchor would be... Testing for his trust. Certain things even the naive couldn't just brush aside, and if Charlie didn't have some level of trust in her when they started to transfer him, it could end up with him struggling against it, and cause all kinds of trouble. He could resent her afterwards if he would, but she had made a deal, and she intended to fulfill her end of the bargain.

It wouldn't be much longer like this thankfully. A few seconds in the world of ponies, or in their track, a mere ten mi-

A sound to the right made Vivid turn immediately. A creaking, unsettling sound, followed by vague moans that seemed to come from far away, and sadly this time, she hadn't just been paranoid about hearing it. It was there, it was getting louder, and from the purple rift tearing slowly down through a nearby tree, it wouldn't be long before the originator had gained herself access.

Vivid went pale and grabbed a close grip in the stick.

"We're leaving."

More wasn't said before she stepped through the layers and got them back into the pony world. Currently, about 400 meters from the castle it seemed, and thankfully not smack down in the middle of a pack of timberwolves, or whatever *lovely* things this forest had to offer.

"We're taking the rest of the trip on this side. It's not safe in there right now."

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

 

@Seamore Sandwich @Dji

Last saluted Princess Twilight as she entered the room, but otherwise didn't interact with her, or Princess Celestia as they began their talk. As silly as it may seem, this was a talk between the two of them, and they had not included the earth pony in that. For the time being, she would see that as being for a reason, and just stand still where she were. She had already embarrassed herself in front of royalty once today, and she would not repeat that by speaking out of order.

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

 

@Seamore Sandwich @Moonlit

"M-Makes sense. A shame to hear t-those nobles would be p-problems..."

Cherish had a faint recollection of what she considered a noble, but it was barely with any substance, and it didn't tell her how they had behaved. Perhaps if she focused on it enough at some point she'd get to an answer, though nothing were assured. The memories she had were few and far between, and even though some of them were starting to slowly bloom back, she doubted that something about nobles would be there. Not unless she had been one herself, but that kind of thinking was just fantasy. This were real unlife, and things like that just didn't happen.

"It m-must've been difficult for your foster parents to h-hide what you were. Must be a l-lot of love there to go through t-that much."

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

 

@Pr0m4NV14

Awh, seemed like one of them nervous fellahs. How adorable.

"You haven't heard what happened here? It's all over Canterlot at least. Two days ago, they had a big, shadowy monster attack Ponyville and smashed a lot of houses around. Huge work to fix it up again apparently, so lots of ponies shows up to help the locals fix things up again. Other creatures too it seems, hehe.

Anyway, hello to you too. My name's Sorrow. Who're you?"

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

 

@Victoria Sponge

Before the reached the shop, Pop had been confused why it were that Victoria had glanced past her after saying that Benny would (hopefully) soon propose to her.

Until she turned around anyway, and saw that the sneaky dragon had just gotten there and were silently wandering closer, no doubt to grab her and give her a surprise squeak. His plan got foiled by this, but it were still pretty funny to Pop. Doubly so since it seemed like Benny hadn't heard what Victoria had said, which would have been somewhat embarrassing. She didn't want him to think he were forced to act soon or anything like that.

It was likely better he hadn't heard it too. He would've blushed up like a tomato, and knowing himself, he'd end up giving away the whole plan out of nowhere too. Not intentionally of course, but it didn't have to be for him to ruin something great.

Thankfully they didn't get to think on this sort of thing for long, as they soon after reached Battenberg's shop and the whole family began to mingle in an instant. Okay, Victoria ran off quickly to supposedly freshen up, but beyond that, mingling and happy times.

Pop were happy too, seeing Battenberg again, while Benny... Well, she were sure he were happy too, but his flaring nostrils told volumes about what also helped spike up his mood.

"Well, we left some of the spice one at my parents place, but the others were excellent. Especially the blueberry one. Delicious."

"They were good, yes, and we're doing fine. Today have taken some twists and turns we didn't expect, but it have turned out for the better.

Victoria met up with several others of your family, and seemed to bond well with basically all of them. Just went better for each one."

"Yeah, she's come a long way. She was even all nice 'round my family, which says something. Mom can be a little trying for most.

We even had a little adventure where we got a sleep potion for my dad. Or well, they did, along with my youngest sister. I had to stay home and make sure dad didn't accidentally try and dig a well in the floor."

"Hopefully he'll be awake and well when we next come around. I'd like to get the parent meeting over with on our side, just the few of us."

"Yeeeeah, about that..."

Benny scratched the back of his head and glanced nervously up into the ceiling.

"Mom said she'd like us back at noon in two days... When the entire family gets there."

Pop paled at the news, and looked at Benny for any sign that he were joking. Considering her hanging jaw, it was clear that she didn't find it.

"We were gonna have a get-together before they showed up, but with how dad were it just had to be pushed a bit. She figured we might as well get it all done at once then, instead of trying to get them all over here at once. Which were especially hard with grandpa and grandma. They're really not happy about leaving the island.

Anyway, the trip went really good Battenberg, but the important thing isn't us. Victoria's gonna be the star of the show. Though I think the others could tell that better. Or herself I guess, heh."

Pop didn't have much of a response, just the slacked jaw, and an impression that seemed to get paler by the second, as she thought more and more on how it was going to be when she had to meet the entire dragon family. 90% of whom did not look well upon ponies.

...She really needed a distraction right now. Hopefully Victoria would be back any second.

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

 

@BloodDrops

Nerzhei didn't even bother giving a response to the completely missed point Blood had abour what investment actually meant. It didn't seem like anything short of encasing the pony in rock and throwing her out of this place would do anything, and frankly, it were getting more and more tempting by the second.

"Recall how I talked about rationing? You just ate a large slab of meat, with bones. With the hare too, don't you think you've had enough?"

She were honestly happy that Lotus were sleeping in her back. The bunny might be a tough customer, but seeing something so closely related to her treated like food, and in such a sloppy manner... Everyone had a limit.

"As for the little *game* the sphinx plays, I will at best think about it. I don't trust their kind, and their mischievous ways. Sadly, it seems like I need to talk with her at some point regardless, considering you just confirmed that it was completely the sphinx's magic that did this, and not a cursed object of some kind. Something tells me it might be sooner, rather than later."

Sphinx magic, and all that had to do with that kind of creature, could go ahead and fall down a well, because nothing of it made sense. If the curse wasn't magical, was it biological then? Could it then be removed by medicine? And what about if it were completely magic? Could it then be removed by finding something anti-magic in nature and equip the mare with?

Much as she hated this, Nerzhei were going to need more answers before she could move on with this, and for that, she would have to consult the creature itself. Today just got better and better...

"I'm going to see her and try and gain a few answers, without answering the riddles. Can you behave while I am away, or- What am I saying? You're coming too, so I can keep an eye on you."

The mare behaving... Yeah, that'd be a neat trick.

Meanwhile, Lyriel Bowed her neck before the sphinx until her nose hit the ground.

"I-I don't know if I can guarantee no evil to fall, but I will do what I can, creator. And Thank you for the boon you offer my delusional siblings, great one. If I can, I will get my brethren here so that they may also be free, and know the truth that were hidden from us. They too will praise your name, I'm certain of it."

Lyriel had been unable to believe that this sphinx could help them before, but knowing what she did now, it seemed like there might actually still be salvation to find for her poor brethren. It may well leave her as the only one who could remember what they had done, if she managed to get them here, but were it not a price worth paying for their salvation? To be the keeper of their heresy? She would think so.

If it were possible for her to stop all evil in the forest though... It were a stipulation that she did not know if she could handle, especially since evil were different for everyone, but for the creator, Lyriel would try.

"The plague walker is trouble, but I pray that she will leave soon. Nerzhei have yet to fail me, and she seems to want this consumer away too. I put my trust in her, a nd pray the earth mother will remove the creature with some haste."

She lead the sphinx onward for a little more, until they arrived at Lyriel's glen. A lake with clear water surrounded by a clearing filled with bountiful trees and fresh grass. It were little, but it had been what she needed. Now however, she had work to do to re-purpose this place.

She laid her hooves on the ground and let her will wander down into the earth.

Around her, trees started to uproot and walk slowly away, leaving a larger, more flat ground a little by little, as the grass went back below ground.

When finally the area seemed big enough, large tendrils, roots, vines and so forth began to spring from the ground, slowly interweaving with one another to build a temple of sorts. It were not as great as what the sphinx had shown her, but Lyriel did what she could to recreate it as best she could. making a roof, forcing more and more of her power to create and push upwards until it reached the top of the highest tree in sight, at which point she would spread some of the various vines, leaves and such from the front to make an entrance, and a few other places for windows.

After that, she recoiled back into her body, and fell to her side, gasping for air. The ordeal had been the most taxing she had ever done, and she certainly felt it now. Yet if it pleased the creator, would it not be worth it?

"I can *gasp* ask Nerzhei for help *wheeze* getting stone added. She uses *deep breath* stone magic."

It was geomancy Nerzhei had called it, but it were a strange word Lyriel were still getting used to, so for the time being she simply called it rock magic.

Glancing up at the noble form of her maker - she might idolize this creature a little bit - she prayed that what she had been able to do would please the sphinx, at least some. There were still the lake inside the temple, but it had seemed the sphinx liked this, from the waters shown in the other temple. It seemed wrong to remove this when she were working.

"I know it is not *wheeze* worthy enough, but is *gasp* is all I could muster."

It could end up being days before Lyriel could do much more nature magic, yet if it had been worth it or not were up to the sphinx to decide, whatever her name may be.

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

 

@EQ_Theta

"My opinion depends.

On a professional level, I find him fascinating. A living fossil, older than there exist records to keep track of it, and the eldest of the once more wide-spread race of the draconequui. The knowledge he must have amassed, and the legends he have partaken in, fascinates the antiquarian in me. If given the chance, I wouldn't mind hearing of what ancient wonders he knows, that might have never been found any remnants off since. What one couldn't find in such a place.

Personally though, I find myself detesting him. An all-mighty creature with little that can stop him, that spreads chaos in the delicate order in everything? I find it repulsive how everything I have spent a lifetime building up, can be destroying in an instant by a noisy demigod having a tantrum or feeling bored.

His kind uprules the way the world works, which for some can be interesting. However, for somepony like me, he is more a threat than a boon, no matter how much I might find his insight into certain things interesting.

As for Pinkie Pie, I have come to understand that trying to find any reason or logic in what she can do, and her actions as a whole, are an endeavor that's best left to the insane. I would advise to believe what stories you hear, and be cautiously aware of it. A little vague, I am aware, but even having seen her personally I find myself unable to answer how she does some of the things that she does."

Meanwhile, Rosa and Sen would silently begin to go back to the shop, and so far still not being stopped in their tracks. There were several eyes on them, but they should be able to get to Scarcity's place without incident.

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

 

@Lloyd @Dji

Tidal looked at Sapphire like the witch were drunk.

"Are you seeing in two different times or something? I didn't speak until he had already run off comfortably."

What, did the witch think that they should wait until they were not within the same area? This was a series of tunnels, not the rooms in the darn castle. A hundred meters after their point were fine enough. Weren't like they could return either, what with the collapsed tunnel that were that way.

"We were going to capture two fugitives, who is now solidly going for traitors, as well as that Warlock guy's accomplish they were to meet up with. I assumed we let them go to catch them all, but apparently, this one thinks that she have another idea. One that hopefully does not involve leaving dangerous criminals on the loose."

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

 

@Lloyd

Hogweed were indeed surprised, but not only at Warlock having no idea what a changeling were. The fact that he had been in stone for 300 moons were the other, and though she personally didn't know how much time that were, she knew somepony who she could ask. It might be important for them to know this down the line.

"Changelings are... Well, that's to say that they uhm... Kind of hard to explain in details. They look like a mixture of bugs and ponies, they can change their appearance with magic, and eats love. They have a lot of holes in their horns, wings, and legs too.

There's also the new changelings, but they're really hard to put words on. They got a lot of color, and gems around their necks."

It sounded even stranger now that she said it out loud actually... Warlock might end up being more confused than enlightened about this.

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

 

@Lloyd

Chow looked up from what, his eleventh time nervously cleaning the spear the nice folks had made to him earlier? Or well, what was left of it anyway. It was basically only the blade that were going to be useful for anything in the long run, so he were gonna need to find a staff to it at some point. Didn't stop him from cleaning the broken parts too.

"Told you, I'm just grand. I ain't ever been better."

Man, even he could hear how false that sounded this time. At least the other times it had sounded a little convincing. This time, he couldn't even fool himself to believe it.

"Alright fine, you want the truth? I'm concerned about the witchie. Her mom might be one hay of a magician, but there's loads of evil things going on out there, and even with Warlock locked up, Emerald is still out there. Along with who knows how many servant at this point? Heck, she might've had the chance to build herself a quaint little cult, just waiting to strike at her niece.

Frankly I don't feel all that good about not being there to try and keep her hide outta trouble, even though I've been getting the tar beaten out of me by all this magic loonie a few times."

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

 

@Lucid_Nightlight @EQ_Theta @Storm Shine

"Peh, that was barely a bite. Didn't even puncture my uh... Yeah, I think I have flesh there."

Anomaly pulled her tongue at Pringle, and turned to Fluttershy. Much more interesting than the mean little expressionless cold-blood.

"I just wanna join in on some sorta vice, Flutterpony. Gambling on Discord's smoochie friends seemed fun. But if that's not to your liking, wanna have some fun making up weird animals and give them names instead? I bet you can't beat Squidzilla though!"

Anomaly moved in closer to Fluttershy.

"He's actually really tiny, but he's delusional, so he thinks he can stomp on everything. It's hilarious."

Having a small, lizard squid jump from a tree and start to step on your head were one of those fun little things that could happen whenever on her isle. Such a good place that were. pPace, quiet, and everything grown and mixed up on her whim. A deliciously chaotic safari of oddities and affronts to nature.

"Actually... Doesn't Twilight have 1 guard? I saw that strange mare with the sword and a closed eye go in earlier. She acted like a guard, and she weren't wearing a uniform like the boring Royal Guards. Author's notes also says lotsa stuff about her being a fanatic loyalist too. Pfff, what a tool."

Anomaly only barely avoided an anvil falling on her head from somewhere unseen.

"Somepony's a little touchy about his silly puppet. What a wuss."

Wait, what was that last part?

Just a smudge on the screen. Shush.

[Pr0m4NV14 837]

@Blitz Boom

 

Mike looked up at the purple Pegasus, a bit more confident. "Well, Miss Sorrow, I'm Mike. Mike McGuffin." He said. He looked at the town past the station. It was bustling with all sorts of the races of Equestria, even some he hasn't seen before. Quite a few of the buildings were damaged. He looked back up at Sorrow. "I'm looking for my Sister. Has anyone been seriously hurt?" He asked, with a slight waver in his voice. The train's whistle blew, and one of the trains left the station, which was mostly empty after the departure. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

"Honestly, you're a bit of a puppet if you bend to the will of a silly human."

He opened a portal, put dish soap in all the toilets, flooded them using the soap bottles, went to the human's fridge, grabbed a can of soda, went back through the portal, and closed it.

He opened the can and took a sip.

"Hey Anomaly, tell your human to buy a better variety of sodas."

"That water is gonna be all over the floors!"

The poquus was laughing really hard. Pouring dish soap into a toilet then putting the soap bottle in it to clog it was one of his common pranks. Classic!

[BloodDrops 762]

32 minutes ago, Blitz Boom said:

Nerzhei didn't even bother giving a response to the completely missed point Blood had abour what investment actually meant. It didn't seem like anything short of encasing the pony in rock and throwing her out of this place would do anything, and frankly, it were getting more and more tempting by the second.

"Recall how I talked about rationing? You just ate a large slab of meat, with bones. With the hare too, don't you think you've had enough?"

She were honestly happy that Lotus were sleeping in her back. The bunny might be a tough customer, but seeing something so closely related to her treated like food, and in such a sloppy manner... Everyone had a limit.

"As for the little *game* the sphinx plays, I will at best think about it. I don't trust their kind, and their mischievous ways. Sadly, it seems like I need to talk with her at some point regardless, considering you just confirmed that it was completely the sphinx's magic that did this, and not a cursed object of some kind. Something tells me it might be sooner, rather than later."

Sphinx magic, and all that had to do with that kind of creature, could go ahead and fall down a well, because nothing of it made sense. If the curse wasn't magical, was it biological then? Could it then be removed by medicine? And what about if it were completely magic? Could it then be removed by finding something anti-magic in nature and equip the mare with?

Much as she hated this, Nerzhei were going to need more answers before she could move on with this, and for that, she would have to consult the creature itself. Today just got better and better...

"I'm going to see her and try and gain a few answers, without answering the riddles. Can you behave while I am away, or- What am I saying? You're coming too, so I can keep an eye on you."

The mare behaving... Yeah, that'd be a neat trick.

Meanwhile, Lyriel Bowed her neck before the sphinx until her nose hit the ground.

"I-I don't know if I can guarantee no evil to fall, but I will do what I can, creator. And Thank you for the boon you offer my delusional siblings, great one. If I can, I will get my brethren here so that they may also be free, and know the truth that were hidden from us. They too will praise your name, I'm certain of it."

Lyriel had been unable to believe that this sphinx could help them before, but knowing what she did now, it seemed like there might actually still be salvation to find for her poor brethren. It may well leave her as the only one who could remember what they had done, if she managed to get them here, but were it not a price worth paying for their salvation? To be the keeper of their heresy? She would think so.

If it were possible for her to stop all evil in the forest though... It were a stipulation that she did not know if she could handle, especially since evil were different for everyone, but for the creator, Lyriel would try.

"The plague walker is trouble, but I pray that she will leave soon. Nerzhei have yet to fail me, and she seems to want this consumer away too. I put my trust in her, a nd pray the earth mother will remove the creature with some haste."

She lead the sphinx onward for a little more, until they arrived at Lyriel's glen. A lake with clear water surrounded by a clearing filled with bountiful trees and fresh grass. It were little, but it had been what she needed. Now however, she had work to do to re-purpose this place.

She laid her hooves on the ground and let her will wander down into the earth.

Around her, trees started to uproot and walk slowly away, leaving a larger, more flat ground a little by little, as the grass went back below ground.

When finally the area seemed big enough, large tendrils, roots, vines and so forth began to spring from the ground, slowly interweaving with one another to build a temple of sorts. It were not as great as what the sphinx had shown her, but Lyriel did what she could to recreate it as best she could. making a roof, forcing more and more of her power to create and push upwards until it reached the top of the highest tree in sight, at which point she would spread some of the various vines, leaves and such from the front to make an entrance, and a few other places for windows.

After that, she recoiled back into her body, and fell to her side, gasping for air. The ordeal had been the most taxing she had ever done, and she certainly felt it now. Yet if it pleased the creator, would it not be worth it?

"I can *gasp* ask Nerzhei for help *wheeze* getting stone added. She uses *deep breath* stone magic."

It was geomancy Nerzhei had called it, but it were a strange word Lyriel were still getting used to, so for the time being she simply called it rock magic.

Glancing up at the noble form of her maker - she might idolize this creature a little bit - she prayed that what she had been able to do would please the sphinx, at least some. There were still the lake inside the temple, but it had seemed the sphinx liked this, from the waters shown in the other temple. It seemed wrong to remove this when she were working.

"I know it is not *wheeze* worthy enough, but is *gasp* is all I could muster."

It could end up being days before Lyriel could do much more nature magic, yet if it had been worth it or not were up to the sphinx to decide, whatever her name may be.

Droppy rolled her eyes and sneezed at the mention of rationing, she hated that word and what it was used for. "I might get myself a deer to polish this meal off, the slab of meat was a snack, the hare was desert and now this deer i'm gonna catch will be the main course" she remarked with a smirk. "you want me to show restraint, your lucky i'm not running around eating everything that smelled half tempting, that is the restraint I've shown" she answered Nerzhei.

"Oh you will play her game even if you don't want to, she will find a way to make you play her game, and she will win, she cheats" she remarked. "Its that or i drank some dodgy water and this is just a bad dream, and if that's the case, i'm gonna start eating everything. Because being a dream I can do what I want" she tutted with a slight scorn, still grumpy at being told to not eat stuff. 

"Can I behave? How about you leave that bunny behind and some barbecue sauce. You have more luck getting Blitz to give up her fireworks obsession" she snorted shaking her head, "Honestly, that question, was worse then that Sphinx's riddle. Yeah I can behave, I'll just not eat everything that's stationary." she added scornfully. She let out a yawn getting tired, she got cranky when she was tired, and hungry. There was probably a word for that as well, she blinked at the dragon, "Well lets go meet her again then" she grumbled not liking that idea. 

 

Sphinx smirked as Lyriel agreed to her terms, excellent. She blinked as she bowed and flicked her tail slightly amused. "Well they should praise me, after all I'm going to be curing them, though if they try to harm you, they will feel my wraith like no creature ever has before" she exclaimed. She would need Lyriel for her future tasks after all, even in her pony form which was a poor choice of form though she didn't say as such. As soon as her temple was built she could make sure no evil fell in her territory that would be the forest. 

The Sphinx smirked, "Oh the plague walker is currently eating one of the many animals in this place. I fear she will only leave after eating everything in this forest. Though you are the guardian of this place, so you know whats best for this forest after all" she remarked as she followed Lyriel to the glen, she smiled as she spotted a nearby lake. "Ah I do like water, this is rather perfect" she praised. 

She nodded and smiled as she watched her clear the land for her temple. She waited in silence as she made a makeshift temple out of the earth. She did rather well for a lesser creature, though she couldn't do it all in one go, not that it mattered, she could finish it herself. She moved inside the makeshift temple and nodded before turning her attention back to Lyriel, "Very nice, thank you. Let me take it from here, I'm very impressed" she finished flicking her tail, she slammed her front paws down digging her claws into the earth and causing the ground to fill the gaps that the dryad couldn't finish. 

She smiled as the temple was finished, she had added stone pillars inside for support though left the tree structure intact, It was a nice touch and she liked the water feature that was the lake, she had made herself a throne that overlooked the lake, she had also added two large statues outside of the main chamber that showed Lyriel and herself. She smiled and glanced down at Lyriel, "You may rest now, this temple is indeed mighty and i'm very happy with inhabiting it." she said with a smile. "You can come and go in it as you want, even drink from the water if you like, though only yourself have that right, no other" she answered.  

She frowned, "I think your friends might be coming this way" she added getting herself comfortable. 

 

 

 

[EQ_Theta 416]

@Blitz Boom

It is true, then, the response being rather mixed with those two. Pinkie's eccentric personality and Discord's unsavory past ellicits the kind of reactions Lin expected. The latter is so much true with Discord's actions reaching the ears of her villlage and gave her a first impression long before seeing him with her eyes. Suffice to say, she didn't like him one bit but it now things didn't stay true for her. She wouldn't hesitate to turn to him for help, a far cry from her younger self's predisposition. Still couldn't hurt to know more.

"So your opinion wouldn't change even if he is slowly integrating into Ponyville? I've seen him walking around and nopony seems to mind him mingling. Though I hear he isn't always around, probably has his own place to go home to."

Meanwhile, a thought about Omen ran through Sen's mind, curious about where she went with Belladonna. It was a strange thing to suddenly think about but he was a little worried about her. He wouldn't voice that concern out loud though. Maybe to Lin but not right now. 

"Rosa, do you know about the place Omen and Belladonna went when we parted ways back at the quarry?"

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

@Blitz Boom @Storm Shine @Lucid_Nightlight

"Well, I suppose if you want to indulge in your vices... could you keep it to yourselves, please? I wouldn't know what to think if word of it starts spreading around. I'd be terribly embarrassed about it and hide in my home until everypony forgets about it."

That, however, is an understatement. Even if she did hide away for several days at a time, she would likely sneak out and stay with Zecora for good measure. Very few ponies ever venture to the Everfree Forest for leisure, much less looking for esoteric herbal cures. Fluttershy could count on Zecora to hide her until things calm down. 

"And as for your made-up animals, I might be able to top squidzilla with... a dracolisk! Swift and agile, nimble on its feet but hardy like a dragon with its spikes and scales. I'd give it wings but I think that would just make it a plain old dragon."

She let out a small chuckle after, though she prefers to think of creatures she is familar with and mix some of their traits. Fluttershy's idea honestly comes off as a little unoriginal, save for the name. That one she's proud of. 

[Sekel 685]

@Blitz Boom, @Lloyd

KARMIC FATE

"Come on! Hurry up!" Karmic shouted behind her in hopes of Zhu being within earshot. She had taken off when the tendrils were snapped off and hadn't looked back. There was no way of knowing what had happened to her companion but in the heat of the moment she ran for her life. If she was being honest with herself, then she would much rather leave him behind and fend for herself.

'Why are you calling out to him!? That will bring the others down upon our heads!' that voice that keeps speaking odd things gave a shout and forced Karmic to wince. She shook her head and kept on going forward, eyes flashing a cloudy white when she spotted Sunset Shimmer just ahead of her. 'I refrained from commenting earlier when we were in the process of being caught but this vision of yours can prove useful,' the voice mused.

"What ... should I ... call you then? You're being awfully chatty," Karmic panted from her frantic pace.

"A name? I'll need to think on that. Nopony has ever bothered to name me before,' the voice hummed within her skull in thought.

@Seamore Sandwich, @Blitz Boom, @Moonlit

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

Twilight raised a hoof to cover her mouth in order to stifle a few giggles before coughing to clear her throat. "Sorry, Princess. I mostly keep to a few select areas but this time I seem to have gotten further into the castle than I thought."

[Moonlit 593]

@Blitz Boom @Seamore Sandwich @Dji"If you talk to my parents, my dad is grateful that my 'bitey' phase was short, apparently he still has the bite marks on his flank from when I was about a year old. My Mum adapted fairly quickly, being a Guard. As for how they hid me, they contacted a Unicorn mage at the University my father teaches at and had a gem enchanted with a transmorgification spell, that was my original gem."

[Brobot 1,436]

@Blitz Boom 

AJ looked up to starts, she shifted the piece of hay in her mouth from side to side " I never get bored looking at these stars " she said to herself. She started to get up when she noticed a leaf has fallen from one of the apple tree. " odd... " she thought, she started to survey the farm land to make sure nothing was their. She felt a presence but saw nothing, she shrugged off and she turned around and started to trot back to the farm house.

[FanOfManyShows 396]

@Blitz Boom

Sapphire looked to Tidal Wave. "I tend to worry that the enemy just camps out around the corner, listening in, that is all." She looked away from Tidal as she spoke. "And I realized the only way to stop Zhu, is to stop my sister from committing further evil. To do that we need to find her." She looked in the direction Zhu ran in, and pointed to it. "In order to do that, we follow the ones who know her location." She knew very well Tidal already just said this in a simpler manner, but Sapphire felt the need to elaborate, to include context.

Astral sighed. "Well, did we come here to fetch an item, to fight them?" She kept her eye on Sapphire, who put her hooves together, casting a spell. "What are you doing?"

"Observation spell, I can see their location now, and the spell is designed so they can't sense it either." Sapphire looked to Astral. "Void is really all we need, that and the element she possesses, wait, where did she even go?"

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

@Blitz Boom

He looked intrigued, at her explanation, chuckling to himself. "So that's what Nectar was." He said, having seen Nectar prior to her reformed body. "Well that certainly clears some things up, if there's hope in any region of magic involving limb regeneration, I'd be interested in helping there." He smirked slightly as he said that, his knowledge of magic was extensive, dark magic more so. So what he had to offer experience wise, was a lot.

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

@Blitz Boom

"Sapphire is a skilled pony, yes. and Emerald is only strong because if we fought her, she could steal any of our bodies to gain more magical strength. But I doubt she'd make a cult." He looked away from both Misty and Chow. "and I sure hope she doesn't steal Sapphire's body." 

After hearing it, Misty couldn't help but ask him; "What happens if she does?"

He looked to her, glancing at Chow. "Sapphire is really skilled with magic, and her eye produces magic from nothing and has no limit for magic storage, Which should be impossible, but even she's hid how it's able to do it from me."

"Well that just makes me worry! It could be an element of disharmony!" Misty said, throwing her legs up.

"Unlikely, Warlock can sense them. Well, he was only ever around the gem while already in possession of an element. Huh." He glanced to Chow, recalling what Chow said earlier. "Well let's not worry to much, whatever it is, I know I can trust Sapphire to defend it." He swirled his hoof, creating a flame floating above it. "Chow, I could teach you magic if you wanted to, we could use an extra magic user around."