open [RP]Crazy Noisy Bizarre Ponyville

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"Doing what?"

The mare asks Gridia, the submarine's shadow inching towards the mare.

"What are you talking about?"

continues her, the shadow is now standing right by her side and raising its periscope to point at the duo, but other than that standing perfectly still.

"Listen, whatever it is that you're accusing me of, i didn't do it!"

And in the moment she's done talking, a torpedo flies towards Stardust, who is able to deflect it with a punch.

The torpedo hits the floor next to the mare's hoof and - combined with the wet floor - throws her off balance.

"Okay, open up: did you do it or not?"

Stardust asks, clearly not happy about any of this.

"Alright alright, i did it okay? I cutted the line! I saw that you weren't looking and i took your place in the line without you noticing, so what? Everypony does that sometimes!"

She tells the muscled stallion, who's only response is a puzzled look and a quiet "What?".

The submarine simply goes away after that, passing by behind Gridia and emerging from the water. The hatch on top of the submarine opens and Gridia hears a male voice with a slight trottingham accent come from inside it:

"Wrong awnser! Try again, featherhead!"

Edited October 7, 2016 by GreenGreenWhirlWind

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia just slowly blinked at the mare's response. "...okay, so it wasn't you then."

 

She turned around to see the submarine emerge once again, with that annoyingly posh Trottingham accent mocking her from inside.

 

"Why don't you come outta your cute little can before I pry it open," she dared, Jailbreak emerging from her as challenge.

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"Ah, so you DO want to fight, then?"

The mysterious voice continues.

"ALRIGHT, BRING IT ON!"

it exclaims, shooting a torpedo directly at Gridia's beak, but given the nature of her Stand, she'll probably be able to react to it in time, therefore the real question here is: what will Gridia do?

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia blinked as the torpedo shot directly for her face, but thanks to Jailbreak, she was more than ready to react.

 

With as much care as possible, she tilted the missile in hopes that its trajectory would arc over and return to where it came from.

 

If it worked, the attack would just round back onto the... sub thing.

 

She looked down at her shirt again, and wondered if this Stand was just making fun of her.

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

Gridia manages to swat off the torpedo, yes, but instead of heading back to its source the projectile ricochets around the room and hits Stardust's hat, knocking it off his head. Okay, so the thing ISN'T connected to his head.

The stallion turns around to see the enemy Stand trying to retreat.

"Thanks for helping me to find this lil' pain in the plot..."

He says, summoning his stand and using it to pull out the piece of the floor that the Stand is hiding in, leaving everypony around scared and confused, he then smashes it against the floor, effectively crushing the Stand.

After finally sending the letter, the two of you exit the post office, to find a small rocket standing right in front of the door. Once you approach it, the rocket opens, revealing a rolled up file that was inside it.

"Heh, that kid's better than i expected!"

Stardust says, putting the file in his coat.

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia smirked as the little sub thing broke into pieces thanks to Stardust, and he took the file out of the little rocket by the door.

 

"And another one bites the dust," she snickered, dusting herself off and picking up his hat, putting it on her own head, "so what's in that file?"

 

She hadn't thought about the fact that about a dozen ponies had seen the two of them fighting thin air.

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"I guess that's what we're about to find out..."

Upon opening the file, which has the same cover as the previous one, the first thing the two see is a picture of an adult stallion...It's Filthy Rich?

Upon looking closer, it's possible to see what's written under the picture, including certain centences that have been written in red:

"An important asset"

"Doesn't suspect a thing"

"We can never let him know"

"We have his trust, he's eating from our hooves now!"

 

"There's in-depht information about Mr. Rich's life here, it seems that Straight Arrow and his allies have been manipulating him, but what for?...We gotta dig deeper into this."

Stardust says, putting the file back in his coat.

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia leaned over to get a look at the file, and nodded at the picture of the pony. "Yeah, I've seen him before. Just on magazine covers and billboards and stuff. Owns a department store or something."

 

She looked up at Stardust, regarding his question. "What do you think he wants him for? Money, dear boy." She prodded the photo with a talon. "Look at him, he's got a money sign tie and his cutie mark is a few bags of money. Heck, his name's Filthy Rich. Who isn't gonna wanna fleece a few bits off him?"

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"Of course..."

S.S. says, taking a good look at all the notes in the file.

"So Straight Arrow has been leeching off of Filthy Rich? I should've expected something like that from him. Whatever he's been doing with that money we can't let him have it anymore. Right now it's getting late, but tomorrow we'll talk to Mr. Rich first thing in the morning."

Edited October 11, 2016 by GreenGreenWhirlWind

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia nodded, and stretched her talons tiredly. "Yeah, after all that, I could sleep."

 

The idea of interrogating a really rich pony sounded like a great idea to her, for some reason.

 

"Hey, maybe he'll bribe us to keep Arrow blackmailing him a secret," she snickered.

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

In the next morning the two find themselves in front of Filthy Rich's house, ringing on the doorbell.

The black maned pony awnsers the door, seemingly confused.

"I don't think i was expecting visitors, can i help with something?"

He says.

Stardust introduces himself and explains that they just need to come inside and ask some questions

He lets you in and you sit on the large living room:it's a large room with three couches around a short glass table anf a fireplace. The room is decorated with old photographs and paintings, even having a grandfather clock. Hanging above the fireplace there's a wooden acoustic guitar and placed on the table there's an ashtray and what seems to be a water-filled jar with roses inside it.

"So"

Mr. Rich says, grabbing a rose and eating one of the petals.

"What do you want to know? Don't be shy, ask away!"

Cleaning his throat and grabbing a pen and his notebook,Stardust begins to ask a few questions:

"Have you met anypony...Unusual, lately?"

F.R. scratches his chin, awnsering shortly after:

"I've seen my fair share of rather 'out there' fellows in my life, but lately? I don't think so."

Stardust writes down the awnser and goes to the next question:

"Is the name 'Straight Arrow' familiar to you?"

Filthy Rich awnsers immediately:

"You two know Straight Arrow? What a coincidence! Lately i started making business with him, he said he needed my help to fund a 'big project' that would 'change the future of Ponyville', now let me tell ya: it's inspiring to see somepony as determined to leave an impact on our town as he is! Straight Arrow said that it involved archeology and some kind of ancient technology - i know, i know, it sounds like crazy talk - but then he showed me all the in-depht research he made! All of it about that stone mask, he said that with the magical properties of the mask he could end almost every problem Equestria faces today AND make more than enough money to pay me back for helping! I think i could tell you about the mask if you want to"

He says as Stardust writes down his awnser.

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia just gave Filthy Rich a greeting gesture as Stardust introduced himself, and she immediately went to poking around the living room while the two ponies talked. Some of the photos were old, but most of them were of this rich pony with a mare whose face looked like she'd lost a fight with a minotaur and was planning her revenge, and a pink filly who wore an expression more fitting a criminal mastermind than a schoolfilly.

 

Something tells me this stallion is the most reasonable of the family.

 

She looked over her shoulder at Filthy while she plucked at the guitar strings. "So what'd he tell you about that mask?"

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"Oh,fascinating things! He said it was THE most powerful medicinal item that this world has ever seen, capable of curing millions of illnesses and healing nearly any wound - i've seen many wizards try the same and fail, yes, but the way he explained its functioning didn't sound quite like anything i've ever seen: he said that the mask uses acumputure to 'unlock the brain's true potential' - now, i know that most ponies think acumputure is just nonsense, but that's not true, alright? Acumputure is real and so is astrology."

The host explains, eating another petal. It seems that along his various business trips Mr. Rich has gathered some "unusual" beliefs.

 

"How would you describe Mr. Arrow's behavior?"

Stardust asks, continuing to take note of everything.

 

"It's...Curious."

The black maned stallion says.

"He has some rather strange mannerisms: he insists on letting his mane grow and won't cut it shorter than his shoulders, seems to be on some kind of diet that doesn't allow him to eat any garlic and - much like the tribesponies from Vietnameigh - oftenly drinks snake blood, althought he claims its for 'cultural reasons'.

He also visits me strangely often, in fact, he'll probably be here again tonight".

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia raised an eyebrow at Filthy Rich's explanation of the mask. Acupuncture to unlock parts of the brain you don't use? Interesting in theory... but she doubted that was a pleasant experience. Or beneficial.

 

However, she had to stop herself from snickering at his description of Straight Arrow.

 

"Can't eat garlic, drinks blood, pops up at night," she reiterated, "what does that sound like to you, Richy?"

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

Stardust stops to analyze the situation, and once Filthy Rich hears Gridia's question, he starts laughing to himself.

"Yes, i guess when i put it this way he DOES sound an awful lot like a vampire, doesn't he? It's actually pretty funny when i think about it!

In fact, that are actual ponies who believe themselves to be vampires: there's a mare in Mexicolt who made plastic surgery to give herself fangs so she could look like a vampire, and one of the former queens of Portugallop would bathe on the blood of her defeated enemies, not to mention all the cannibalistic tribes spreaded all over Equestria and the rest of the planet, there are even specific ponies with genetic defects that make them allerigic to sunlight! So in a weird way vampires - althought not the same as the ones in books or movies - kind of DO exist! Isn't that curious?"

Stardust, slowly comes closer to Gridia, whispering into her ear:

"I don't think it's possible for S.A. to be a vampire YET: if he had already found a mask he wouldn't be trying to get himself another one, but judging from his actions he's clearly 'training' his body to adapt into the lifestyle of a vampire, he's probably been planning this for years!"

F.R. continues to speak:
"I think that's all i really know about Straigth Arrow...Oh, of course! this week we took this picture together, you can take a look if you will!"
He says, going upstairs and coming back with a picture, it shows Filthy Rich and Straight Arrow shaking hands, and for the first time the two Stand users see S.A. himself:
His mane is long, smooth and black, his coat is dark grey and his eyes are brown; he seems to be as tall and muscular as Stardust is, despite looking somewhat younger.

Straight Arrow is giving a big, toothy grin that show no signs of him having fangs whatsoever, his ears are also normally shaped and not any pointier than normal and the stallion himself seems perfectly healthy, he's not transformed...Yet.

Straight Arrow shows no signs of wings and has a horn poking out of his forehead that is covered by a couple of rebelious strands of his long, silk-like mane.

Filthy Rich begins to speak again:

"As i said, he'll probably be here tonight, so if you want to drop by and talk to him, go ahead!"

Edited October 13, 2016 by GreenGreenWhirlWind

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia blinked up at Stardust. "Maybe he's a beginner vampire. Has to do a rite of passage to earn the fangs or something." She smirked cheekily.

 

She took the photo and took a look closer at it. Indeed, the pony looked relatively normal. She wasn't so trusting of that grin of his.

 

She looked up at Stardust again. "You think it's safe? Him seeing you, I mean."

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"As long as we stay close to Mr. Rich, yes. Straight Arrow wouldn't attack somepony in front of somepony who's obliviousness is a key aspect of his plan, after that we get out we'll just need to stay alert, and if he follows us we'll kick his plot."

Stardust explains, getting up from the couch

"Well it was a pleasure talking to you Mr. Rich, me and my partner here will talk about it and if we come to an agreement we'll be visiting you tonight."

He says, heading to the door.

"Alright, i hope to see you soon!"

Mr. Rich says waving to S.S.

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia gave Filthy Rich a mock salute as she left with Stardust, wondering what it would be like to fight a vampire. Albeit a fake one, in this instance.

 

"So this guy pretends to be a vampire?" She asked, smirking. "Sounds like an attention seeker, if you ask me."

 

She took a few moments before asking something else. "So what's the plan? If we see this guy?"

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

"The plan is simple enough: We`ll play it safe. We`re gonna stay close to Mr. Rich or his family, watch closely everything Straight Arrow does and if he acts even slightly suspicious, we`ll create a distraction for Mr. Rich`s family and deal with him on the spot.

We`ll observe him closely and listen to him carefully, and in the moment Straight Arrow comes near, i`ll use my Star Platinum to grab a strand of his hair, that`ll be vital to our plan.

If Straight Arrow comes after us or sends somepony after us, we`ll beat them to a pulp, simple as that."

Stardust explains, walking into a seemingly empty part of town.

"...Now, i hope you won`t need to use it, but just in case i`ll teach you this trick..."

He says, grabbing a barrel and putting it on front of Gridia.

"...As you know, my Star Platinum can release a rapid and powerful barrage of punches that can shatter even the hardest of diamonds, but truth is that any Stand that focuses on strenght and speed - such as your Jailbreak - could do that. Let me demonstrate:"
Continues the stallion, summoning his Star Platinum and making it pummel the barrel with absurd strenght and speed while the Stand screams:
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA! ORA!!"

reducing the barrel to splinters.

The Stand then grabs a nearby wooden plank and holds it in front of Gridia as Stardust begins to speak:

"The secret here is to get competely in the zone, to focus all of your strenght in the target and forget about everything else. At first it only happens in short bursts, but after some training one can hold this attack for about two minutes, maybe even more.

Give it a try."

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia nodded and sat down, watching Stardust's demonstration of his big punchy move thing. It was definitely a cool move, and she'd certainly like to master it.

 

She watched closely, and summoned Jailbreak before getting her own wooden plank.

 

 

"I, uh... don't have to make that noise, do I?" she asked, before she began attacking the plank with Jailbreak. "GRRRAHH!!"

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

Jailbreak releases a short but powerful barrage of punches that shatters most of the plank, leaving only the parts that were being held by Star Platinum.

"Good job!"
He says, patting Gridia in the back once.

"We`re heading to Mr. Rich`s house as soon as the moon rises, so see you there.

Until then...Could you sign this petition here?"
He says, giving Gridia the petition and a pen.

It`s a petition to create protected areas for...Salmons?

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia smirked with pride at Stardust's praise, then nodded at his plan. "Nightfall, rich pony's place. Got it."

 

She took the petition and read it, then slowly blinked at the header. "...salmons?"

 

After a few moments, she shrugged and put her name to it before handing it back. "Eh, I like me some fish."

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

Once the day becomes night once again, just at the time it always does, the duo finds themselves at Filthy Rich`s house, sitting on the dinner table. The content itself is surprisingly common: there`s spaghetti, mashed potatoes, tomato salad with buffallo mozzarella(try to guess what kind of milk they use to make it), grilled hay and...Hey, are those sausages? Yeah, they must`ve known that they were having a griffon over, that`s pretty nice! They`re a tiny bit burnt, yeah, but it`s the tought that counts.

A few minutes later, Straight Arrow arrives, and his presence changes everything:

Before he got there, the table was anything but silent - Rich`s wife was nagging on him about inviting strangers over or something like that while his daughter wouldn`t shut up about a trashcan suddenly getting all dented all of the sudden and how some filly named "Silver Spoon" was saying that it was an alien invasion, the strange part is that Filthy Rich himself didn`t seem to be bothered that much.

But in the moment Straight Arrow sat on his chair right next to the family`s daughter, everything went silent.

The filly herself looked uncomfotable, nervous even, at the presence of the long-maned unicorn. The family wife was staring at him with an anger filled glare...Or is that just her natural face? 

Stardust was looking at Straight Arrow and sweating bullets, while S.A. himself didn`t look even slightly happy with the unexpected visitors.

You finally hear Straight Arrow`s voice, it`s deep and stern - just like that of a certain hat-maned stallion - but while Stardust just sounds bored most of the time, Straight Arrow sounds sinister, menacing even, it even sends shivers down the little filliy`s spine, althought she seems to try to hide it.

The voice says firmly:

"So mister Rich, i see that tonight we have a couple of...Special guests."

The brown stallion smiles and replies:

"Oh, yes we do, Mr. Strider and Ms. Gridia over here really wanted to meet you! It seems that you are becoming quite famous around here."

Arrow`s only response is a penetrating glare at S.S.`s eyes and a couple of words:
"I see."

[Awkward Silence]

"So mister Stardust..."

Gridia hears a snooty female voice say, clearly coming from F.R.`s wife.

"What exactly is your profession?"
Stardust awnsers as monotonely as usual:

"I`m a marine biologist, i work at the Horseshoe Bay marine life institute."

...Well this explains a lot.

"Oh, is that so?"

The mare asks with a crooked smile.

"It must be sooo fascinating to play with dolphins as a living, huh?"

She continues, her tone reeking of sarcasm and cinicism.

"As a matter of fact it is."

Stardust awnsers, unbothered by the mare clearly trying to put him down.

"Dolphins are the most intelligent marine animals on the planet, they`re fascinating creatures indeed.

We used to believe that sea serpaints and marine dragons were more intelligent due to their ability to speak, but recent studies have showed that dolphins not only are smarter than both animals, but that they do speak, only not in a language that we comprehend."

Gridia then hears a much younger voice speak, it`s coming from the pink filly:
"It`s getting cold here, i`m gonna grab a coat"

She says, leaving her seat and heading to her bedroom to grab a coat.

That`s weird, it`s not cold at all, neither inside OR outside the house.

"Diamond Tiara, it`s against  the rules of etiquette to leave the table without asking first!"
Her mother says scolding her.

"Yeah, it sure is."

The filly awnsers mockingly, continuing to climb upstairs anyways.

Gridia can actually see Filthy Rich and Stardust Strider smirk a little bit, meanwhile D.T.`s mother and Straight Arrow almost look like they`re having a competition to see who can look the grumpiest.

Edited October 15, 2016 by GreenGreenWhirlWind

[Unicorncob 5,696]

Gridia was more than content to chew on the sausages as Filthy Rich's wife and daughter went on and on about whatever. They were a bit burnt, but it was refreshing to finally taste some meat again since leaving home.

 

Though, the atmosphere changed when Straight Arrow showed up. She knew right away that she didn't like him. And she could tell nopony else did either.

 

The wife was nothing like she looked in the photo - she was worse. A live performance certainly beats a photo, that's for sure. She could actually feel daggers in her eyes when she fixed her angrily condescending stare at the griffon.

 

Though, she had to admit she might have misjudged the filly. She snickered at her sass. "Good kid you've got there."

 

She then looked at Straight Arrow, and decided if no one else would ask, she would. "So, what's your story then?"

[GreenGreenWhirlWind 161]

(Note: i forgot to mention but Straight Arrow`s cutie mark is a bow and an arrow)

Everypony goes silent - except for Diamond Tiara, who just came back with her coat and has no idea of what`s going on - and all those sitting on the table turn to face Gridia except for Straight Arrow himself, and on that moment he wears a sick, twisted grin on his face before beginning to speak:

"Why, that is a great question!"

He says.

"I was born in Manehattan, my great great grandfather - Strait Laced - was a master in an ancient martial art known as `Hamon` or `The Ripple` who trained along his partner, Dire Heart. He seeked to master the art of the ripple with the sole objective of expanding his lifespam...But it was not enough, he needed something more powerful! The thought of dying before the right time was unacceptable to him, so he seeked the stone mask. He was close friends with Speed Wagon himself, you know? Speed Wagon? Founder of the SpeedWagon foundation and famous corporate tycoon? - anyway, back to the story - One day, Speed Wagon found something incredible: the very source of the stone mask! it was a large stone pillar with a large, muscular stallion sculped into it, and the pillar was covered in masks as a tree gets covered in fruits.

He called upon Strait Laced and Dire Heart - along with their master, who trained both of them - to see it in first hand, and in that moment, Strait Laced used the stone mask, you may not believe what i`m going to say, but in that moment he became immortal.

Going to Manehattan to enjoy his newfound immortality, Strait Laced ran across...Him.

Hermit Bramble."

Gridia could swear that Stardust`s heart skipped a bit when he heard that name, the usually stoic stallion wore a shocked expression on his face.

"Anything wrong, mister Strider?"
Straight arrow asks, smirking maliciously at him.

The stallion slowly recovers his composure and awnsers:
"Hermit Bramble...Was the name of my grandfather."

Straight Arrow`s smile grows even more wicked as everypony in the room looks at Stardust in shock, he then returns to the story:

"Well i`d just like you to know that your grandfather killed Strait Laced, he thought that Strait Laced was a vampire of all things! didn`t even  ask questions before killing the stallion! You see, being immortal meant that he didn`t age, yes, but he still could be killed!

He died and left his wife and son to take care of themselves, those were hard times indeed for them, until now!

I plan on honoring the death of  my great great grandfather and not only finding the stone mask, but discovering all of its secrets and use it for the best of all of Equestria! And with the funding of Mr. Rich here - who i will forever be thankful to - i will finally be able to do so!"

 

You hear the faimly daughter ask something in a petulant tone to him:
"Wait a minute! just HOW did Strait Laced become immortal from using a mask? how does that work? and what would it mean to `Enjoy his immortality`? isn`t it kind of a weird coincidence that he ran across this Hermit Bramble guy out of the thousands of ponies who live in Manehattan?"
 

"DIAMOND!"

The filly`s mother says.

"Well those ARE pretty good questions."
Filthy Rich replies.

"I`m curious too, Mr. Arrow!"

He continues.

 

Straight Arrow is...Sweating? he looks nervous and is even shaking a little bit, he stutters for a while before awnsering the questions:

"W-why, how would i know? this all happened decades ago! the only reason for me to even know about this story at all is because my great great grandmother told my great grandfather who told my grandfather who told my mother about it! This is the entirety of the version i`ve heard! Nothing altered or removed, i`m telling you!"

 

Suddenly the room starts to get...Chilly?

Yes, definately, it`s getting colder! Right now it`s just a slightly cold draft and doesn`t seem to bother anypony else except for Diamond who...Is the only one sitting right next to Straight Arrow...

When the filly breathes you can even see a white fog come out of her mouth as if she was in the middle of winter and - are those snowflakes? there are snowflakes forming around Straight Arrow`s body!

"Well it...Sure is starting to get cold, hehe...But it`s not a problem, let`s just go on with dinner."

Filthy Rich says.

Over time the room starts getting colder, to the point where it starts feeling like everypony is inside a big freezer, the family tried to light the fireplace but it doesn`t seem to be helping much.

Troughout the whole thing, Gridia feels as if her paws were resting on top of...Snow? it`s as if there was snow under the table!...Will anything bad happen if she decides to look under the table?