open Rise of the Stars roleplay (1x1 with CatponeCerberus)

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember had nothing to take away, as she was carrying only bit of money, bit of stuff for drawing magical symbols, bag of seeds, and the crow; the two last ones were impossible to be taken from her, as for both the crow would protest to the extreme, and if there was even a slight indication of things escalating, the area would suddenly get lot darker as huge murder of crows would come closer ready to defend the lone crow. 

"As I said earlier, it's up to you, as long as it's something where we can relax and actually talk about things relating to us, I don't really have a preference, I haven't really done much besides my work other than maybe gotten a massage once or twice, so I don't really know what we could do." 

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The medical dragons that were not working on the new dragon greeted Ruby and Quasi as they should "What's her situation" Ruby asked from the closest healer, it was hard to see the patient due to the healers doing their job, but it was visible that she was just another unremarkable nightwing, the only thing separating her from any guard or civilian was the fact that Ruby just happened to know her bit better than everyone else "Semiconscious, she's awake but not aware..." the healer almost started to explain more in detail, but Ruby's look told them that she preferred the short version "....she has consumed lot of poison, but it's very common poison so it's easy to deal with, her recovery fully depends on how long ago she consumed it." Ruby would dismiss the healer after that, though Quasi would have short window to say or ask something if he wished. Ruby half muttered to herself "*What a waste, does all that for survival only to try to throw away her own life after.*" 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I'm sure we can find some high end restaurants. Can't go wrong with pasta with tomato sauce. Good combination those two, very underrated to me. They've tried adding meat as an option for tourists, haven't tried it myself since I'd probably get sick, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to sell meat to herbivores due to health issues. The restaurant I'm referring to though is made by some immigrants from another country on Equus. They're very friendly ponies. They were originally in Manehatten after their move but moved here recently. I know them from when I protected them from the Manehatten Mafia, those fools kept trying to kill me for a while after that but, I kept killing their assassins and hitmen until everyone kept turning down the job to kill me out of fear. Manehattens call me the Mobster Hunter. Being a royal guard, I was able to organize raids on key places and bosses, they still exist but are severely weakened. You can talk bad about them and actually live now. Apologies if I killed one of your contacts but not really." He laughed.

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"Did anyone read a note from her? If so, I want them brought to me, tell them not to speak until they get to me and not to speak unless spoken to."

Quasi was making efforts to respect Ruby's wishes to keep her terrible event secret. He wasn't going to punish anyone that read the note but he wanted to make sure they kept the secret safe.

"We got much business with aircrafts entering our solar system. We'll deal with this and then speak with our scientists and diplomats. All I know is that they don't seem to have a means for an invasion, most likely scientist and explorers trying to learn. Military is on standby bit we will seek peace first."

"But as for now bring the dragons who read the note."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight

"Contacts come and go, but I doubt you got any of mine, maybe contacts of my contacts, but the ones I'm in direct contact with are in positions where law doesn't really have any claws against them, you'd be surprised who some of them actually are." "Many of them don't even break any laws, they just know a lot, is a bartender a criminal for hearing someone mention rumor of a robbery?" "I heard about the Manehattan situation, but your name never reached my ears, some actually assumed I was somehow involved, even though I've never worked with the guard." 

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"Not as far as I know, as far as I'm aware, she gave the paper directly to a guard who then brought it to you." the healer simply responded, and after the order, only the guard that had been the messenger came to them, and assured that besides opening it enough to see what it was, they had not read what was said in it, and reading their mind would confirm it, as the only thing they had read was the starting words, which were 'Your highness, Queen Bekisnhlekil'

For the little report Quasi mixed in, Ruby didn't comment anything, as she wasn't entirely sure if it was meant for her or it was just continuation from his previous statement, telling the others that they were busy, regardless, she didn't feel this was the place to discuss it, and frankly, this personal matter was more important to her than an issue that from sound of it was under control for now.

Ruby stared at the dragon being taken care of and slightly bared her teeth out of anger, one didn't need to be able to read her mind to see something in the situation was pissing her off.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Guess I can't take all the credit, Somnus also played a part in it too. We worked together to organize raids. This was a little after King Thorax took power, we had some Changelings that moved to Equestria. Somnus had experience with a guild of thieves hundreds of years before Nightmare Moon was banished."

"Well, the spies being changelings were skilled in arresting connections to bosses after spying as things such as ants or other small insects or even mice. They'd replace the connections and act just like them and gather evidence. I would then plan and orchestrate actual raids and arrests."

"Actually... maybe I should do that. Organize a force capable of bringing down criminal syndicates. A private militia with proper protocol and training. Any advice on that matter?"

-------

"*Are you okay Ruby? You said you don't want to punish her. Should we find a therapist for her?*"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Be ready to work with someone you don't like." Ember responded "You cannot stop crime, when population is big enough, as long as there is something that is illegal but provides some kind of use, there will be organization to exploit it." "Even assuming you can track down everyone so that you can actually destroy a whole syndicate, all that leads to is a power vacuum that gets eventually filled with a new one." "You need an ally, someone to take over that power vacuum, someone you can control, but someone free enough that they can actually satisfy the market." "You cannot remove evil from the underworld, you can only pull strings to make the lesser evil win." "That is why for example I have left the biggest black market mostly untouched, do they sell illegal stuff? yes, but they don't allow things like slaves or that collar Ruby had, if I were to take down that market, there is a high chance that something lot worse would replace it."  

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*"The one time I show mercy and this is how they thank me?*" Ruby said, slight growl in her voice "*For days I worked to convince myself that her actions were justified, and she tries to make it all pointless?*" her claws sank into the floor  "*You once said to me that life for survival is not a good life to live, what is this then..." she pointed at the dragon "...is this a good life? life for happiness? the moment something goes wrong you throw it all away?*" "*For the second time in my life I was made to wish for death, yet here I am, living for survival, 'the bad life', and this dragon feels bit of guilt once and she gives up? Trying to make the things I tolerated for her sake worthless?*" it seemed she has reached some kind of breaking point, she wasn't angry at anyone specific necessarily, this whole thing had just finally released some of the pent up frustration from...well, lot of things, the lack of good sleep probably didn't help.  

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Maybe, I could also make the risk not worth trouble. There have been cases on Earth of law enforcement deciding to do their job resulting in major improvement. Major punishment for corruption also helps that's one upside to private militia, if police go corrupt, militias can clean up the mess if they have sufficient evidence which is specifically specified. It's in the Harmonian Article of Unrevokable Liberties."

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"*Ruby some people are hard to love. And no, her actions were not justified, she did do wrong. But at the same time, she was scared and she turned away from her actions and wants redemption.*"

Quasi spoke with compassion.

"*One does not do this over small pain but only severe pain. Suicide isn't the solution for sadness or guilt or any other negative emotion. But, pain hurts the heart and numbs the mind. Don't say that her actions were justified but say instead 'her actions were wrong but I forgive her.'*"

"*This was not a slight against you but against herself. But one should smile in life. There will be bad things to throw us down but we must choose to get back up and smile again. After a storm is either sunlight or sunlight with a rainbow.*"

"*Remember how you felt at one point. And maybe now. This could be what she feels or at least something as equally painful. Even if it isn't equal, a cracked tail hurts just as a shattered leg and win.*"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Even the most tyrannical police-states have crime." Ember pointed out "Such places actually incite crime since some can't survive without stealing for example." "In fact, what I have learned about earth, is that the nations that focus on rehabilitation over punishment have less crime per capita." "So I'd say that if you are not willing to work with those less moral to keep up more moral standards for crime, then instead of nearing the thin line that is oppression under the law enforcement, one should focus more on preventing crime by making the lives of even the poorest individuals good enough that crime isn't seen as an option." "Those like myself don't actually solve anything in the grand scheme, we are simply a band-aid on a badly bleeding wound." 

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"*Saying what you suggest would be dishonest, I do not see her actions as 'wrong', because I still do not believe in set moral code of right and wrong, I may hate someone for following different principles than I, but I would never claim to have some moral high ground; nor do I forgive her, I only acknowledge that her actions were not special, that anyone, even myself, would have done the exact same if they were to be in identical position, and as little as it may seem like it, I don't actually care for pointless killing.*"

"*And it does not matter if she did this to specifically spite me or not, as regardless, it does spite me, it directly invalidates my actions, or in this case lack of them.*" "*I had the choice to kill her you know? I was never ordered to not harm her*" she hadn't calmed down at all, but it could be seen that she acknowledged her own lashing out and she made an effort to control it "*And try as you may, I feel absolutely nothing for her but hatred and anger, just seeing her makes me seethe, because even thinking about her makes me remember all she did, she does not have my forgiveness, she only has my mercy, there's a great difference.*" it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that Ruby was a tough customer when it came to things like this, because while she had warmed up to Quasi a lot, and even let herself  show her more vulnerable side to him, she still had lot of problems when it came to her emotional side. 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You make a good point. I can't trade freedom for security, we'd lose both. We'll punish those that refuse reform and reform those that accept it even if they don't accept it at first. I'll talk to Somnus about some lowering poverty, I think we can have business ponies have their products made in Harmonia to ensure more jobs."

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"*To forgive is to be free from anger. You don't only free her but you free yourself from distress. If not for her, do so for yourself for the sake of your mental health. Are you don't want therapy? It could help with your trauma.*"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I can't comment on what is the right way to get the result, as I do not know enough about economics and politics to have an educated opinion on the matter." Ember concluded, her knowledge was limited to crime related things, because that was what she had seen. "I also don't think it's a good topic for 'Vacation thing' " she kept quoting it like that because she found it amusing to do so, she was fan of slight, innocent teasing, her job was so serious that she enjoyed non-serious things like that, though her dragon-like nature may have had some effect on that too, since dragons tented to be fans of humor that demeaned others, some more than others, but most of them had at least a little of that in them. 

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"*Anger is what has kept me alive this long.*" "*When I had nothing to live for, I kept going to spite those who took it from me.*" "*I learned magic and left my home to spite my mother, I've decided to treat my offspring well to spite everything I was taught.*" "*I will take care of my potentially corrupt daughter to spite Darkstalker.*" "*I won't forgive, because I don't know how, I only know spite.*"  "*And therapist? still no, not only will I not give a stranger information that can be used against me, but there also exists no therapist that understands my kind enough to be any use, I am not like you, everything from my biology to my mind works differently.*" "*Your tricks and drugs will not do to me what they do to you.*"  

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You're right." He laughed. "No talks about work on vacation. Vacation is for getting away from those problems. If I bring up war, politics, or work, hit me," He joked.

"You know, I've never understood bursting into song with a sofisticated musical number. It is impressive though, they're improvised but seem as if planned and written. I prefer tavern bard songs singing about heroes."

"Myra actually made one about all of us from our adventure. He took out a phone and played audio of Myra playing a guitar of some sort and singing the song she wrote."

The song would mention people like a Sky, Arrow, Ruby, Ace, Ember, and others. Though it seems they weren't all named directly but, described in what role they played and their background.

For example Arrow was seen as "a knight" and Ember "mysterious assassin"

Myra seemed to care about preserving history.

"Now if only that Swedish metal band would make a song about me." He joked.

(The song is similar to this)

-------‐---

"*There is one thing that effects you. A heart with love for you. I will love you regardless. You are my beautiful wife and I love.*"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"She's not a bad bard, but I'm no hero." Ember stated "Just the lesser of two evils." she didn't like to celebrate what she did, that was partly why she didn't take part in the end-of-war celebration, killing was not something to be proud off in her opinion, one could be proud of beating something stronger of course, since that was about the challenge and not the fact that you killed someone, but her actions were not that, there was no challenge, just work. "I appreciate her not mentioning my name." after such serious moment, she smiled slightly "And don't get too proud, I have vague idea of who you mean, and as magnificent as you are, I don't think you're quite that magnificent, if being bit more serious, I think that from all of us, Ruby would be the most likely to get a song if they are brave enough to try to get interview with her, because no matter how immoral her actions are, I'm sure her story would be interesting to a species like humans." "I personally prefer smaller stories in songs, like the ones this one kobold-bard sings, she purposely chooses stories that would otherwise go unheard by most, and they are more often about family,  community, and cooperation than about heroic stories of individuals, though there are those too." 

 

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"*We'll see how much effect that will have in the long term, as I stated when I was....more open, I do have what I think could be defined as love towards you too, but I still do not understand it, so it will take time for it to truly mean anything.*" it was weirdly genuine considering her current emotional state "*I can't keep looking at her.*" she called over a healer "If she comes to her senses, come tell me, and make sure she won't speak to anyone before me." she then turned away and left the area, she was fully aware she shouldn't be so angry, but as much as she denied it, she too had emotions, they all just happened to come out as hostility. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I don't think it's meant to be completely literal, it's more of a way to tell a story and keep history. It's more to record what happened. Honestly, she probably hates what you do, though understand she doesn't hate you."

"And I'm so magnificent! I once won a free hayburger gift card. It was expired but, I won! That's totally worthy of song!" Obviously this was a joke though, it would be funny if they made a song about that.

"Bard songs are classic, it's an art. I also like when soldiers will sing in battle for sake of morale. Myra is a pretty known singer in America after she left Dasonia for a while to be with Sky until they went to Dasonia. Also, they love Dasonian Tea and Cryonian Hot Chocolate. Made over a fire and natural. And who could forget Chloranian Coffee. There is a saying. If it's not made over a fire from completely from the ingredients, it's not Nomadikan. Gotta get the plants and make it all yourself, no processed stuff. A Dasonian made some them for me once, it was pretty good. They have lots of traditional foods too."

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Quasi walked over to a room where scientists were discussing.

"Any news in the space faring people?"

"Oh that? Turns out it was an asteroid. Burned up in the atmosphere. But we know where Earth and Equus are now. Equus is 100,000,000 light years away from us. Earth twice as much."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

 

@Lucid_Nightlight

Ember rolled her eyes at the joke, but it was the good kind of roll, as evidenced by her smile "Why does something even have expired gift cards as a reward, that sounds like a scam."  while it was said humorously, she did slightly wonder that, assuming Arrow hadn't just made it up, why did something have something like that as a possible reward?

"Processed stuff?" She questioned "Is that what that disgusting earth 'food' is called?" "I tasted it like once and no thanks, I rather just hunt and pick my own food, I'd rather eat a rotting carcass than eat that stuff again." that was one more thing that she preferred not to change in Equus, she didn't want factory made mash to replace what ponies had been doing for as long as they had existed. The whole 'industrialization' thing was one more thing that Ember saw as a very bad thing, as much as others tried to claim otherwise, she believed that it would destroy individuality in pony culture and ruin the quality of pretty much everything for sake of quote unquote, progress, not to mention what it had done to earth as a planet. 

She got bit more serious for a moment "It concerns me that you have already been influenced enough that you speak of things we have been doing for several millennia as something exotic." "While I'm sure their exact recipe is special, something being natural shouldn't be a selling point, it should be the norm, like it has been since the dawn of nature." considering that Arrow also had a phone, Ember wasn't necessarily surprised, between them two, the relationship to Earth and things coming from there was to most likely be one source of disagreement they would need to compromise on in the future

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Ruby didn't know why she even followed Quasi, she was still angry, and whatever it would have been they would have needed to talk about next wouldn't have interested her much, and turns out, she was absolutely right, the whole idea of some space creatures was uninteresting to her in the first place, as long as they didn't affect them of course, and hearing it was nothing didn't exactly peak her interest. She also couldn't care less how many units of a distance no living being could truly understand away the other worlds were, and she wondered why they were paying for this kind of stuff? 

"So why exactly is this something we are using our time and resources on?"  she asked, and while everyone could understand it, it was clearly addressed to Quasi. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Yeah, it's crazy. Give us real food, am I right? And I know that we can't keep all Earthling technology out. Some of it yes but, in some ways we will have to adapt or we will have to die. The idea is to not depend on technology. Ingrained it in our culture to enjoy nature, to go outside, touch grass, and to do our own research and check the facts before coming to a conclusion. Twilight Sparkle actually is a big help with the last one and that's the important one."

"You know what's funny? I've never wanted kids of my own. Even now I don't want kids. I don't know why."

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"Well, security and science. With magic, advancement of technology of our potential enemies is going to get boosted. We need to know if they would be able to get here through space travel. As it stands now, it would take forever to reach speeds that would get them there in a reasonable amount of time."

"And our moons. The order of the moons I was born under made me able to read minds. They're why Moonwatcher sees the future and reads mind, same case with our enemy that I've had executed. There were also rumors about them having something to do with Animus magic in nightwings, though this is believed not to be true."

"We want to know why the moons do what they do. Not to mention trade. Mining asteroids could give us lots of gems and metals to trade. Mostly with dragons of this world and the one with that Vulpine nation."

"But no colonization of planets or moons. Our population could not sustain such colonies in a meaningful way. And also, if these worlds exist, why wouldn't others exist? Wouldn't want a surprise invasion would we?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember almost went on a rant about how they could have stopped any earth stuff coming through the portal if the princesses would have just been willing, but she stopped herself as it would have been kinda breaking her own wish about no-politics and stuff.

"I have never even given the topic any thought." Ember admitted "At least not as far as I can remember, at the age that it would have been first relevant, I was already mentally set to the idea that I'd live my life alone." she didn't really know why Arrow said it was funny, but assumed it was just his way to change the topic, not that it was in any way sensitive topic to anyone as far as she knew, but she wasn't sure how choosing 'no' in 'yes or no' question was funny...she was looking way too into the word choice, she pushed the thought away "But I can say that I don't understand those who are overly obsessed with that." She gave a short chuckle "Luckily I don't need to worry about my parents being pushy about it, they had hard enough time with me, I imagine  they see nightmares about what grandchildren would be like."  

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"There is three worlds, all of them have had sentient life for many millennia, yet none of them have any real evidence that anything from out there would have as much as visited the planets, why would they suddenly attack us from all the places?" Ruby challenged "Have you also considered, that maybe poking them makes them attack, think Homelands and earth, the only reason why we got involved with the Homelands in any way, was because certain species kept poking at them with their 'research'" "And what if the moons are the same? What if poking them too much makes them stop working?" "I also find it silly that you need to even wonder about how they work, isn't it obvious? This planet, is magical, your species, is magical, so, the conclusion is....maybe the moons are also magical, like everything else in this place?" funnily enough, this was probably one of the only places where Ruby's tendency to find holes in ideas was a good thing, since in science skeptics could bring up new points one hadn't thought about.  

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Life alone is no fun, honestly. I like to talk about things. That's what I do."

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"Four that we are aware. Remember that fox that humanoid fox with blue fur? I got a letter from the king of Vulpine. They found out that one of our dragons were killed by the person the blue fox mercenary was hunting. This killer was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Not death, the murder wasn't planned and doesn't meet the standards to allow a death sentence. They can make an appeal to be extradited to vulpine though. Not that they'd be better there. Vulpine has sent us some goods of value to compensate the family of the dragon killed."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"It's not, but back then I was willing to sacrifice my own well being for sake of what I saw as justice, I'm still ready to do that for good cause, I just nowadays have come to realize that what I do is not real justice." "Cinder actually helped me to realize few things relating to that, I still don't like her, but she had few good points about happiness and freedom." 

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"That only proves my point more." Ruby stated regarding the fourth world before addressing the latter topic "As far as I'm concerned, we should send them to spend their own kind's resources and just make sure they don't come back here, if the act truly wasn't planned, I doubt they would be a future problem for us, and if they will be, then it's enough reason to just kill them." "I don't believe we should use our citizens' taxes to take care of someone who will never be any use for Starlania." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I think there is a time for certain things. Peace, war, kindness, sacrifice. We should always be kind but, we should strive for peace and fight only if we have to. Justice will be done eventually. Anyone who doesn't give up evil will find judgement, just not from us ultimately. Not saying we should not enforce laws, those who enforce laws are there to keep order. Though, we shouldn't oppress others either."

"It isn't really about justice for me, as it will happen. The things I do are more about protecting others around me. I don't know what will happen from it. Maybe I'll be killed, maybe not, however, I'm not worried about tomorrow, today has enough to worry. Tomorrow's worries can wait. Plan, but don't worry or be afraid."

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"I guess you're right, we can send them over to Vulpine. Tax money and all that. Made a lot of progress actually, lots of small businesses and jobs. With more businesses paying tax and more sales tax coming in, I was able to make the order to abolish property taxes. I felt that property tax implied we owned the property of the citizens and I don't like that. Citizens have a right to the property they purchased. Our farmers are able to continue to pay for resources for their crops and livestock."