open IC: Opaline Alone (Private 1x1 RP with Catpone Cerberus)

[Opaline Arcana]

@Catpone Cerberus

"And if we are to assume that there is something as you say, than perhaps our arrival here was not by random chance - but by intentional decision by some higher power? What are the chances that we just appear here for no reason from our respective worlds?" Opaline said with a thoughtful look, keeping her eyes open as they flew along closer towards the Earth Ponies. "I suggest when we end up in the Earth Pony area, we start looking around for anything historical that might be kept. It may very well be the case that Alicorns never existed in this world." Opaline said, pondering to herself just how she might possibly get dragon magic. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
"I am not an expert on travel between worlds, as in, I know nothing of it." "However, considering that my transport was done through an ancient spell created by someone, my fate is anything but random." "I doubt the creator had an exact location in mind, but portals always have two ends, so maybe this world was just the most fit for the portal." "Our exact location of arrival is more easy to explain though, that area has disturbingly low level of magic, and like a hole attracts water, magic flows to where it is the weakest, and I imagine that portals to other worlds have lot of magic." Noctuna let out a sigh and looked at Cinder "You don't happen to know any Draconequus do you Cinder?" "Know any what?" "Thought so, one of those could have been good for asking about these things." 

Cinder had no input for the topic, as she didn't know much about that stuff either, only knowing that it was possible, and having a general idea of how the concept worked.

"And now that it was mentioned, how do their history keeping work? if they are more individual groups rather than a nation, is there any common history records?" Cinder shrugged "Don't know, haven't cared to look into it, but they do have libraries and museums in the larger settlements." 

In the distance a city was starting to get into a view, it was on a small city, but city nonetheless, with smoke rising to the sky from various chimneys and with farms and fields surrounding it as far as eye could see. "Welcome to the Earth pony-land, the most nature tuned type of ponies, yet they care about it the least." 

 

[Opaline Arcana]

@Catpone Cerberus

"That is logical to think, however I have yet to come up with any kind of reason as to why an entire area of the land that was around my castle was transported. It takes a considerable amount of energy to transport one individual somewhere, but a whole castle, and the land surrounding it? That is on another level. I was somehow trapped inside of a tree by my enemies, and I recall the tree itself opening up - allowing me to exit, and I exited to find the area as you saw it." Opaline said, it was clear that at least to her it was no simple portal from another dimension. It was as if some god or some far greater force intentionally chose her, and her area of land and plopped it in the middle of a dead area. "What you say about a hole attracting water, magic flowing to where it is weakest - is a good reason as to why my castle, and the land surrounding it ended up there. That could potentially answer some of the question. The Who, as well as the Why? Remain unanswered..." Opaline said as her eyes fell upon the small city in the distance.

"Now then, we we go in, make as little disturbance as possible - we wish to learn about the natural state of affairs as much as possible before doing anything." Opaline spoke, intent on seeing those museums and libraries. It seemed that at least for now, Opaline proved more amicable. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa

"If the so called 'unity' magic is powerful enough to take away alicorn's magic, who is to say it's not powerful enough to make a bigger portal." "I imagine it works like teleportation, leaving the first location is what takes most of the magic, it's not like you get stuck in some in-between existence if your magic gets nullified in middle of a teleport, you just reappear in different place, sometimes where you tried to leave." "So maybe your enemies wanted to make sure you were gone, so they banished you and your castle." 

Cinder chuckled to herself after Opaline's plan "There won't be 'natural state'." "For someone who seems to want division between ponies, you really don't seem to grasp what it means." "You won't be welcomed as a friend, none of us will, since I'm as much of an outsider as you." "You will be suspicious stranger who needs to be watched over for the whole time." "As little disturbance as possible? we are the disturbance." "They most likely won't stop you from accessing public places like the aforementioned libraries and museums until you do something stupid, but prepare for not having any privacy as long as you are inside their city." 

Noctuna cut in "We should probably land and walk the rest of the way, I imagine hiding our wings wouldn't do much if they can see us flying." 
 

[Opaline Arcana]

@Catpone Cerberus

It was a reasonable explanation, besides - Opaline had no idea what her enemies had done after she was defeated. So as far as she knew, they could have gotten rid of Opaline and her castle all together. The timeframe of it was odd though - Opaline felt as if she had been in the tree for a really long time, but factually, and in terms of memory - it only had felt like a few moments. It was an odd paradox, so there was something that happened with that. Following Noctuna's advice, Opaline would lead the way down to the ground for them to walk the rest of the way to the Earth Pony city.

"Hmmph. Fine then. I suppose we'll have to mind our words while we are in the city to ensure that none of them overhear what we are saying. However we ended up here, I have a feeling we'll never know for sure. What you say would probably be the most likely explanation for as to how my castle and land area got here. Now then, let us see what we can find." Opaline spoke, leading the way to the city. She felt rather confident, but in truth, she knew it was going to be a lot more complicated. Couldn't just walk around making demands or anything like that. Would have to act like wayward travelers. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
Opaline wasn't alone with her weird experience of time, Noctuna also had experienced something similar, she knew that her casting the banishment spell wasn't a long time ago, since she was still tired from the battle and stuff, which meant that all that happened as little time ago as she thought, few hours ago at this point, however, to say her arrival here felt instant would have been a lie, as she felt like she been somewhere else for both a short instant, and for a long eternity. She however didn't ponder it a lot, as she just assumed it was whatever existed between worlds, something that while she didn't know much about it, she had heard the concept of, due to her studies to creatures like the draconequus so long time ago, as it was stated that more powerful of their kind lived in pockets outside reality.

Noctuna also landed, but Cinder didn't, she did come down with the alicorns, but she flew above and around the two, close to the ground, as it was just simply more enjoyable to her. Now that they were on the ground, they may or may not hear and see things, more specifically, grass, flowers and other small plants moving slightly, and the faint sound of slithering, these things were very faint, so one would need to pay attention to notice them, but if one was to notice, and check on the source, they would find...snakes, by all means regular snakes, but very non-regular amounts of them.

Noctuna didn't notice it at least yet, as she was busy disguising herself, after she landed, she lit her horn, and formed a black cape around herself, which in very close look wasn't actually made of cloth, as it wasn't even physical if touched, rather it was just a very dark shadow that looked like a cape, and hid her body under it. Her horn also changed, hiding its metallic nature, and turning to look like just a normal horn, be it longer than an average unicorn horn. 

She however kept the crown, as there was no real point of hiding it, she could just claim it was an over the top tiara, and besides, it was most likely less attention grabbing than her constantly flowing mane and tail with the night sky in them. 

 

[Opaline Arcana]

@Catpone Cerberus

Upon landing, Opaline would adjust her cloak slightly. It was an average looking cloak so it was nothing really unique. Unlike Noctuna, she didn't have to worry about her mane and tail flowing with magic. Opaline first needed to have magical power in the first place to be able to have that style of mane. When they landed, she would first observe their surroundings. Staying silent for a bit she would stand there and take in the surroundings. They seemed natural. Upon observing more she would hear faint slithering sounds and proceed to check on it, seeing an un-natural amount of snakes. It was strange. Would it be that this world just happens to have more snakes? Or is it because someone with a talent for snakes is near? Or does it mean something else? Opaline didn't word a thing about it to Noctuna or Cinder, seemingly shrugging it off for now but keeping it in the back of her mind.

Looking over to Noctuna she would see that the "cloak" she used for herself appeared to be made out of dark shadow. Opaline wished she had her magic so she could do something like that, though knowing her, she wouldn't be capable of manipulating the shadows. Fire was her strength. Weapons, shields, and mass spells. Opaline preferred to literally burn her enemies whenever possible. Opaline took note that Cinder didn't land, but would start leading the way forward towards the Earth pony settlement. She'd have to suck in her pride here and keep her wits in check.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
Seeing Opaline check the snakes out, Cinder remarked "That's what I meant when I said that I go to the dead-land to get away from snakes." "The things seem to follow me everywhere, except there." The snake around her shoulders shifted positions, bothered by Cinder's constant change of direction while she flew around the Alicorns. Her comments naturally got Noctuna to also look at the snakes, this explained the movement in the shadows under the plant life on the fields, though why they were following this creature was its on mystery, which, by how Cinder said it, was most likely a mystery to her too. 

Noctuna held her head high as they walked, she wasn't really worried about trying to blend in, in fact, she had already come up with a fake story to explain herself, she came from the west, outside Equestria, and was simply travelling around, she had no connection to the Equestrian unicorns, and so on so forth. And really, none of that was really a lie, the closest thing to a lie in the story she came up with, was leaving out the fact that she came from another world. 

At this point they would start seeing the first ponies around, none of them close enough to hear anything they said, but as they entered the area where the fields surrounded the city, they would be able to see earth ponies working on said fields, using relatively simple machines to do so, machines that to Noctuna, looked ancient in technology, answering a question she had about this world, though those ponies didn't acknowledge the three other than giving them suspicious looks, as they were busy with the machines. 

One detail that may have been noteworthy to Opaline, but didn't mean much to Noctuna because she wasn't really used to the whole day and night cycle, was the fact that the ponies were working at night.

[Opaline Arcana]

@Catpone Cerberus

Opaline understood what Cinder had meant and considered it to be interesting. Opaline didn't know what it meant to have snakes following her around all the time, there must have been some kind of magic that attracts them to Cinder. That is the best that she can come up with.

Opaline decided to do much the same as Noctuna - there was not much of a point in trying to hide the fact that they were unicorns. If Opaline had her magic she would have just used her scrying spells and see the whole place from a distance without stepping foot here. Even then, if she had to, she would have disguised her horn. It was less than ideal, and they were so far off from where she needed to be in order to retrieve her magic. While they were walking towards the settlement, Opaline had been thinking of what she would say if anyone asked her anything. Opaline had the idea that she was a unicorn from some far off land and had no connections to the Unicorns here. Similar to Noctuna, she wasn't technically lying. Opaline had zero intentions on saying she was from another world, either.

Looking off at the machines the Earth ponies had been using in the fields as they walked past, Opaline thought they looked fairly in line with what she had seen before. Sure, some of the stuff she saw in her world could have been more advanced - but this seemed similar, if only a bit more simple in design. Since it was night time, the ponies working the fields at night was rather odd to her. Perhaps they just keep going all manners of the day and work in shifts.

Opaline pressed on, giving the Earth ponies only a passing glance as the only sign of her acknowledgement. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
Noctuna closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the shadows were more active here, but like before, they seemed to have no master, and they were notably weaker than what she was used to, which, Noctuna realized, shouldn't have been a surprise to her, since the cursed moon of her home made the shadows lot more powerful. She spoke quietly under her breath, and while quiet, her voice held strong authority behind it "Come to me horrors of the night, join my pack; all the wretched nightmares and forgotten screams, give me your loyalty." "All that hides in the dark, come, for I am your master, I will take care of you."

Nothing obvious happened after Noctuna spoke the words, however, one could feel something watching them, could see shadows move at the edges of their vision, could feel heavy presence around them, it was as if the night itself came to see them for a moment, before it all going away and things returning to normal. Noctuna grinned, this was too easy. 

However, she noticed a obvious lack of actual physical beings around, there was no wolves or other nightly predators in range of her connection, it seemed that the ponies here had managed to keep them out of their settlement's surroundings; there was the snakes, but they didn't count, and were taken already.

Cinder didn't say anything, just observed and was thoughtful, she couldn't help but notice the slight sinister tinge in the queen's demeanor, though, then again, why would she expect anything else from 'Queen of Shadows', there was a reason why shadows were usually symbolic for negative things.

 

When they would eventually get closer to the city itself, they's be able to see the sudden increase of guards, six of them to be exact, and while they didn't approach them at least yet, it was very easy to tell that they were watching them. When entering a city itself, a patrol of guards, unrelated to the six watching them, would come to them, and ask about their business in the city, also asking why they were with 'her', clearly gesturing towards Cinder, who had landed at this point, and was walking with them in her usual nonchalant manner. The way they talked about, and looked at Cinder, showed that they knew her, and didn't like her; not that they seemingly much liked the two 'unicorns' either, though at least they weren't actively hostile yet. 

 

 

[Props Valroa 26,048]

@Catpone Cerberus

Opaline took notice of Noctuna's actions regarding the shadows - while she did not know much about it, it is pretty much what she expected from Noctuna to be able to do. Talk to the shadows, call upon them, use them for magical purposes including combat. There was probably a lot more to it than what would be spoken. Seems as though Noctuna preferred to keep a lot of her own secrets hidden. At least that was Opaline's impression. Opaline wished she could do such a thing - her magic wasn't very subtle in most cases, though. Opaline preferred to hit her targets extremely hard first, and without warning - but she had little in the way of subtle manipulation of more concealed magics other than her scrying spells. Perhaps there would be a chance to learn more here, or find another source of magic other than that of dragon magic. 

Opaline remained quiet and thoughtful, and when they entered deeper into the city she would take note of the guards. The guards were obviously watching them - because they would clearly be able to tell that they were outsiders. When the other patrol of guards asked about their business here, Opaline would state they are travelers who are from beyond Equestria - and thus not from the Unicorn populated areas. It wasn't technically a lie, after all.

If there were no other incidents, Opaline would wish to lead them to the library so they could garner some more knowledge about this part of the world - likely wouldn't be much about magical spells, but Opaline still hoped that there was a chance they could.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
Noctuna didn't actually have that many secrets, after all, like she had said before, secrets can be used against you, the only reason why Opaline may have had that idea, was because she wasn't as curious as Noctuna, or at least not as openly so, because while Noctuna had been asking lot of questions, Opaline hadn't asked much of anything, and had in fact seemingly actively ignored the extra information spoken around her. 

Honesty was part of Noctuna's way of doing things, she had tried the whole secrecy thing in the past, but had learned that it was actually lot more effective to just be honest, since in bit of irony, being honest made your enemies more paranoid of what you were hiding. And that was ultimately her way of doing things, while she was fully capable of destroying her enemies physically, she preferred tormenting them mentally, to get into their heads, to make them jump at shadows, and to live rent free in their heads. 

Noctuna said nothing to the guards, as Opaline had answered the question and they seemed to be satisfied with it for now, however, Cinder did add her own response, as Opaline had not provided answer to that part "I'm simply showing the outlanders around, since none of your kind would agree to do that." it was clear there was some tension between her and the ponies, but it didn't cause anything at least yet. 

There was no further incidents, but the watchful eye of the guard never left them, while the six guards weren't breathing down their necks, it was clear they were followed, as at any time if they looked around, there would always be at least one guard with clear view on them. What came to non-guards, there weren't that many around, probably due to it being a night. but those who were there, glanced at them suspiciously and kept their distance 

As much as she may have wished to lead, Opaline would need to endure following Cinder instead, as it turned out this city hadn't been designed outsiders in mind, and thus the library wasn't that easy to find. When entering the library, the welcome was warmer than outside, but still rather cold, as the pony in the library welcomed them in, but indirectly emphasized that they better not try anything, and stated that while they are free to read, non-citizens were not allowed to take anything with them. 

The library itself was rather regular library, with all the categories one would expect, minus on the magic side, because while there was a category for magic, it was clear from the sub-categories that it was entirely about magic Earth ponies could use; things like unicorn magic was instead a sub-category of a sub-category, as it was under category of Unicorns, which in turn was under the category with all non-Earth pony creatures. In other word, Dragons, Unicorns and Pegasi were in the same place as wolves or snakes.  There was no sub-category for Alicorns. 

 

[Props Valroa 26,048]

@Catpone Cerberus

Opaline didn't seem to like the close proximity of Cinder and Noctuna to her, but didn't say anything about it for the moment as they would enter into the library. The guards and others looking over at them all the time was something she expected but she didn't have to like it. Opaline much preferred to be alone whenever possible, because it was a lot simpler to handle and there were no other opinions to take into consideration other than her own. Part of the reason why she thought the only opinion that mattered was her own, others opinions only mattered to her when Opaline herself was in danger of their power. Opaline was in that position at the moment. While she was an Alicorn - of which she had all three parts of the pony races within her ability set, the Unicorn aspect of being an Alicorn is what she leaned into the most.

Opaline would begin looking through the sections here, noticing how things had been organized. Unicorns and Pegasi were listed in the same place as wolves and snakes, which spoke a lot about what the Earth ponies thought of them. This was all something Opaline liked by design, with it being impossible for the 3 races to work together - it made her also think she didn't like being on the receiving end of what she wanted to create. As she was looking through the books, if Cinder or Noctuna looked at her - she was deep in thought. Specifically, she was thinking about what she actually wanted going forward. Getting her magic back, yes, but what then? The playing board had already been put into play, and so far it seemed that her enemies were not known in this world - not that they didn't exist. If she was able to confirm that they didn't exist, than what would she do with herself then? Would taking it all over even be worth it? Part of her thought no, and would rather spend that time becoming as dangerous as possible in the off chance that her enemies did somehow track her here. But if they did, they would have likely ended up in the magic deadzone where her castle was, wouldn't they not? So many unanswered questions.

With that in mind, she'd take a look to see what kind of history the Earth ponies kept for themselves. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa

Opaline got her wish when inside the library, as Cinder stayed near the entrance interacting with the snake on her shoulders, and Noctuna headed to the section about creatures, as she wanted to learn what kinds of things lived in the local shadows. However, she would not be entirely alone, as the earth ponies would keep an eye on her, and she would possibly be able to get a sense of being watched, like something unseen was observing her from the shadows, or maybe it was just her paranoia?

What came to the history, it didn't answer any bigger questions, it was mainly focused on the city's own history, talking about important individuals, events, and so on, how it started as bunch of farms and grew to what it was now. There was mentions of other city-states they had interacted with in meaningful ways, leaders of other cities and even some non earth pony individuals, but all the names would be unfamiliar, and generally speaking the context was quite boring all things considered, always going back to the city itself. 

There was no mentions of Alicorns, powerful beings like Discord, or any other such, and all the big events seemed to relate to more...natural things, sickness, crop failure, weather events;things like that. The only mention to bigger events not related to the city, was mentions of 'the separation' and 'the migration', but there wasn't much detail on them, only that they happened a very long ago, several millennia ago specifically, and that they were ultimately the reason why the ponies were like they were now; however, there didn't seem to be much information on what happened, in fact, it was mentioned in the text that most information about the events and the times leading up to them was lost to time. 

There was also mentions of small conflicts between the different pony kinds, nothing major, no wars or such, mainly annoyances like Pegasi causing weather events half-accidentally, or disagreements on resources and so on so forth, though all of it was of course written to favor the earth ponies, so who knew what the actual truth was on those specific events. 

One detail would come quite clear regardless of what one read, and at least Noctuna noticed it as she went through books; the lack of Alicorns, there was no mention of them by name of course, but there was also not as much as a hint to them anywhere, no mention of even the concept of alicorns. There was vague mentions of other powerful beings she was familiar with, even if they were written about like they were more myth that actual things, but Alicorns? she couldn't find mention of them even in books considered fiction. 

[Props Valroa 26,048]

@Catpone Cerberus

Opaline felt the feeling of being watched. It was probably the Earth ponies. Or was it Noctuna's shadow magic? Whatever it was, it made her feel rather paranoid. Opaline was stiff with paranoia, the way she felt was palatable and could almost be cut with a knife, so to speak. It had been a long time since she felt like this. At least in the old days, she had her magic to rely upon. Now she had nothing. One of the unfortunate things about being a Fire Alicorn was relying on external sources for spell casting magic. Dragon fire she found to be the most potent - but natural fire was something that could work. Not as good, and certainly not as powerful. It was her nature after all.

Now that she was reading, she began to focus on finding anything familiar within what she was reading. To her surprise, there was none. No names she recognized. No places she recognized, nor even some of the phrasing of the words. None of it she recognized at all. Above all else, what perplexed her was the complete lack of Alicorns anywhere. No mentions of them anywhere. It was like they never existed at all. Was this because Alicorns never existed here? Was it because they were so rare they were forgotten about? Or the more dangerous option, did something destroy them? Not only that, there was no mentions at all about powerful beings in general. Only natural events, from what it seemed like. Opaline however was careful to not fully believe any of this, after all it could just be the Earth pony view of the world - not the actual truth. Yet still, was something to take into consideration. 

After more reading on the history of the place, she began to look into books involving Earth magic. The kinds of magic Earth ponies used. Opaline was an Alicorn after all, and thus, was part Earth Pony by technicality. Surely she would be capable of using some level of Earth pony magic? At least that is what she thought. Opaline never cared to look into it, at the height of her power. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
Noctuna would have been delighted to see Opaline's paranoia if she would have been there, she was a manipulator, she preferred mind-games over direct conflict, unseen presences, movement in the edges of your vision, unexplained sounds; all that was linked to shadows was her tool, and it didn't matter if you were friend or foe, she'd use it on you. Cinder and the guards watching all of them also got their part, Cinder really didn't care, the snake on her being the only one the react in any way, as she had gotten used to stuff like that, being a lone traveler and all, and even for the snake, it was just regular snake things, so it could also just been curious about its surroundings. 

The guards however, would now and the look over their shoulders and do other similar small things, as being tense over the outsiders, the sudden feeling of someone breathing down one's neck made them jump slightly, yet, because there was nothing there, and there was no real evidence of any on the outsiders doing anything; which was was the truth, since even Noctuna wasn't actively doing anything, the shadows had their own agency; they could only blame it on themselves imagining things. 

 

While alicorns could use all three kinds of ponies' natural magics, Earth pony magic and Pegasus magic were less useful in active use until you happened to be the type of alicorn to specialize in nature or weather, and even those could be done with alicorn magic itself. The magic of earth ponies, or at least as far as this specific city-state's earth ponies used magic, seemed to be rather passive in nature, because while they did harvest magic through runes and such to make tools and other things to help with stuff, the use of their natural magic didn't seem to be overly active. 

Some things were passive by nature, like the increased strength and stamina of earth ponies, which similarly to something like Pegasi flight, didn't take any active effort to utilize, and the rest seemed to be used by only some over the natural passive effect, more specifically, their connection to the nature. Obviously it was used to some extend by most earth ponies, as seen by the fact that most of the populace was growing something, and those who weren't, were working on something related to growing something, however, only some used the active side of it to for example boost the growth of plants; those who did, seemed to be specialized in doing that specifically, being the 'experts' of their fields.

It made sense though, Earth ponies weren't really known for their magic in any world, they were the farmers of the pony kind, the physical labor of equines.

Noctuna meanwhile didn't find anything too surprising besides the aforementioned lack of alicorns, the animals in this world, while not exactly the same as what she was used to, were nothing too special, and the only really notable thing was the lack of any real mention of more magical beings, like shadow-creatures, though it didn't cast any doubt on their existence for her; there was one literally behind her; and was more a thing of earth pony perspective, because even in her world, where the shadows had been royally more powerful than here, it was only really unicorns and other more magically capable creatures that actively researched them, because you needed a certain level of access to magic to be able to properly observe them, otherwise they were just as described before, feelings and movement on the edges of your vision. 

She then moved on to a section about geography, as she wanted to learn more about this Equestria as a place, and possibly even pick some potential spots for her new home. 

[Props Valroa 26,048]

@Catpone Cerberus

As Opaline would read further about Earth Pony magic, she would realize that the Earth Ponies here were not that much different than the ones in her world. Passive abilities that did not do much in the way of active conscious thought. Seemed to be focused around physical strength and farming. Opaline had that physical strength Earth Ponies had, but that was it as far as she was concerned. Opaline would not get much of anything out of farming or growing plants. It was not in her nature. It was at this time Opaline began to realize she wouldn't likely find much of use here in terms of what the Earth ponies could directly offer her. 

Then Opaline would move to the same section as Noctuna - geography. While Cinder did provide a map, it was a rather basic level and did not include anything akin to measurements to how far areas were, other than positional placement. Opaline would focus on trying to find where the dragon lands were, which was the best location to find dragon magic. Dragons were naturally weak to her draining ability - and given that there were supposedly no statements about Alicorns, they would be wholly unprepared for such an attack. Opaline could carry out a mass draining attack during their hibernation or sleep and drain their magic with the least amount of resistance, and gain a considerable amount of power. Though, to do that - she would need to split off from Noctuna and Cinder. To go off on her own.

Something she would likely do eventually. As she looked through the various sections on Geography, she would also be thinking of where to set up a potential home. Her lair was something that Noctuna and Cinder knew the location of. Other than that, her existing lair was something that would not likely be noticed by anyone for quite sometime. Why would anyone venture off into a dead landscape? Opaline needed to find ways to get involved with the ponies and have power over them. To do that, she needed a location to base herself in. The power to back up her claims, but also the ability to manipulate herself into an existing power structure.

She could not hide her horn, yet she could hide her wings. The best place to do that would be the Unicorns. Which is where Noctuna had already planned to establish herself. Opaline realized that potential conflict between them was inevitable. Though, Opaline saw that this world was her oyster. She could go to the dragons and drain as much magic as possible, to become as strong as possible. Concoct some other plan than she tried to do before maybe. Her plans before were simple - divide the ponies and destroy their trust in one another. This was already done. What could she do here? That was her quandary. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
In what probably was unpleasant surprise to Opaline, she'd find that Cinder would actually be the better source for information about Equestria, as it turned out that the Earth ponies didn't seem too interested about the world. Sure, there were places where information was lot more detailed than what Cinder's map provided, including measurements, but it was pretty much entirely only true for the Earth pony territory. There were names for every mountain, distances to every point of interest, locations of other Earth pony settlements, but only for area about what Cinder had marked to be Earth pony lands, as beyond it, things were even more vague than what Cinder had written.

The dead area was marked as 'the barren lands', and mount ruin was called that here too, however, besides that, there was lack of real detail; while more scientific language was used, in short and simple; North of the barren lands was 'pegasus mountains' and west 'Unicorn forest'. South from the earth pony territory, was 'the great desert'. what came to geographical features, mountains and other big features that travelers would most likely talk about were visible on various maps, but there was no detailed map of the entire Equestria, and what came to places like Dragonlands in the east, they had no details, in fact, there wasn't even any maps that showed the land to the full extend like Cinder had drawn, and rather there was only markings that there indeed was land in that direction, and that dragons lived there, same was true for the northern landmass with griffons.

What came to distance of the Dragonlands, based on what one could read from what the Earth ponies did have, and combining it with what Cinder had drawn, it would probably be at least two day travel if one was to fly in straight line without breaks, so more realistically it would probably take about four days assuming all went well, more if the weather was bad. The route itself also had challenges, as from where they were at this moment, the most straight line would take one either through a sizable, but relatively small desert, or bunch of mountains, which both were challenging even to flying creatures. There was of course the option of avoiding them by going some distance north or south before heading east directly, but the extra distance would add day or few to the travel time. It turned out that this Equestria was quite massive. 

Noctuna wasn't that worried about potential rivalry with Opaline, not only did she not see her as a threat, but she really had no interest in the whole thing anyway; when she had offered to kick the unicorns out, she wasn't joking, she wanted the forest, she didn't care about the ponies in there. Reading what there was to read, her plans only really strengthened, Earth ponies were the only kind of ponies she could imagine wanting to settle into the forests besides unicorns, as they were the nature-race, pegasi was more interested in mountains; so seeing the lack of interest in exploring from them, assured her that they wouldn't try to come to her territory if she took over. However, with the lack of detail, she'd need to get access to unicorn maps to find the exact spot for herself; though she was also thinking of visiting the dragons, because if they were as violent here as the dragons she knew, their lands could be a good source for powerful additions to her shadows. 

While similar, her goals were quite different from Opaline, and she had indirectly stated them out loud already too, she wanted to be left alone, so unlike Opaline, she didn't want to gather power to get involved with the ponies, but rather, she wanted more power to keep the ponies from getting involved with her, she wanted her own little sanctuary of shadows where she could life in peace from politics and the calls to save ponies constantly. She also wanted to gather them against Opaline, as she could see through her enough to know what kind of creature she was dealing with, Opaline was on route to become what Noctuna had called her enemies, a paranoid leader of a large power that cannot stand a smaller, independent forces next to it; Noctuna was preparing for a defensive war with Opaline, a war against a ruler yet to be risen, leading armies that are yet to be gathered. 

 

[Props Valroa 26,048]

@Catpone Cerberus

Opaline wasn't too pleased with this - but at least she came away with more knowledge about the Earth Ponies and the area immediately surrounding them. Opaline couldn't gleam that much about the world, other than that it seemed to be a good degree larger than she remembered. Perhaps the world she was from had smaller landmasses with less distances in between locations or the area Equestria was in, was smaller. Seems as though the travel distance involved here will be another obstacle and that she would need to gather supplies for it. Alicorns didn't really need many of the provisions that other ponies needed, but given her circumstances having some kind of defensive weapons or some sort of armor or at least something to defend herself would be useful. Otherwise she would be confident marching anywhere with her power to back up her word - she didn't have that here.

While Opaline was no beginner flyer, she realized that the path there for a direct straight line would be dangerous. Even with her ability she would have quite the challenge getting there. This would mean that she would either have to go around the Mountains, which would add more time to her journey - or just attempt the straight line as fast as possible with greater risks of possible injury. That was not even factoring in the weather or other unintended disruptions. Could be about a week to get there in total when all was said and done. 

As Opaline read up further she remembered what Noctuna said about wanting the Forests near to the Unicorn lands. Opaline could take control over the Unicorns, sure, but that would only be after such a dangerous journey, and that would only be if she was successful in gathering the magic she needed. This would all mean the 3 of them would inevitably split up to go their own way. Their goals were not likely to be compatible beyond mere introductory purposes and gathering information. Noctuna wasn't a friend. She was a stranger, who was likely already plotting Opaline's downfall. That was Opaline's paranoid thinking. Perhaps in the far future when Opaline has her power and the ability to raise armies, Opaline would lead the Unicorns and other races to build up their power to be a dangerous force if ever attacked, or perhaps attack first before she had a chance to gather her strength. Opaline's desire of power and control in her mind, at this point began to take a contradictory path - and she knew it. If she wanted power over everyone, that would mean that some day everyone would need to be united under one system... which sounds awful a lot like what she sought to prevent in the past.

Opaline knew it was a different world. Change was going to be required to how she would do things, and she would need to prove her ability to lead her subjects. She wanted them to admire, respect her, willingly, so that she would have to find other methods of ruling to have a stable power base to rule from. Opaline actually had no experience with ruling, only with tearing down systems of power - so she had to find a way to earn the trust of any potential followers. Her previous ways of doing things wouldn't work here, and that was a bridge she would have to cross eventually. Of course, she was just dreaming at this point and hadn't even taken any real steps towards these lofty goals. 

Opaline would continue to read up on the surroundings of the Earth ponies, not finding much else - after a bit she would go to read about important historical figures and history of the Earth pony leadership themselves, to gain an insight to how they view themselves and their leadership. Perhaps that could lead somewhere. 
 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,428]

@Props Valroa
Opaline was once again left alone, as Noctuna headed from the section to somewhere else, more specifically, she sought out information on science, not technology, but science. It was not however because she didn't know things already, she did, she had had millennia to learn lot of things, but she wanted to see if she could spot differences that would answer few questions she had. She was connected to the shadows, and due to the lack of competition, she could also feel her connection to the moon stronger than in her home world, and thus, she was able to tell that something was....different, the flow of magic here seemed to work slightly differently that what she was used to, so she wanted to look into that. However, as Earth ponies were not Unicorns, their very limited magic research wouldn't be any use for her, so she figured that maybe there was something in the natural order and natural laws of the world that could tell her something.

And she did find some small details, the biggest one however was that this world had more than one moon, with the one main one being the one they saw currently, which was there every night, while the others made an appearance now and then, and in rare nights, all of them were visible at once. This to her, explained why the night felt different, however, it rose new questions she'd need to ponder about, and also gave her an idea, if she could figure out when the next time was for all the moons to appear at once, she could prepare something to increase her power by great margin; she smiled.

 

What came to Earth pony leadership, from the long list of names Opaline wouldn't recognize, and events solved by non-magical means, the takeaway would be that, Earth ponies didn't really like being told what to do, even by other Earth ponies. Their leadership was what could have been better described as a board of directors, rather than any kind of ruler; they were in control yes, but only as far as keeping the city running required, any decision not directly related to keeping the system from failing, was outside their control, and was left for individuals and communities to worry about. In fact, there was even some examples in the history of situation where the leaders had decided something, but it was forgotten because the population just refused to listen.

And how was the leader(s) chosen? there was a vote, but most didn't care enough to vote, so it was basically just whoever happened to be the most influential already at the time, as nobody else cared to run for power either. 

All in all, these ponies would not appreciate a Queen trying to take over, in fact, it seemed that they actively ridiculed the idea of monarchies, as evidenced by how pegasi was talked about in the text.