private Sojourn Inn

[Ampharos 1,009]

"I... Um.... I.... Maybe? I just... I .... Uh...." Diamond Dust had lost it. He couldn't think of a single word to say to Milly. Coal looked up and realized he had done something wrong. He tried covering up the drawing but it was too late. Dust sighed. "It's alright Coal. Yes this is a picture of you Milly and I guess Coal wanted to color it." Dust gave Milly a sheepish grin. He then sneezed, a slightly higher pitch than what you would think, and a cloud of dust formed in front of him and he waved it away.

[PinkieShyFlutterPie 408]

@,

 

 Milly waited for his answer. She looked down at Coal who seemed to be trying to cover up the drawing. She looked back up at Dust when he started talking. She smiled "Really? So...you drew it? Its...a vary good drawing" Milly giggled a bit at Dust sneezing and the cloud of dust that formed "You have...a cute sneeze.." 

[Ampharos 1,009]

Diamond Dust's entire face turned a dark red. "Mah um... Mah sneeze? I... I never really liked mah sneeze. I got teased f-for it." Dust felt really embarrassed and knew he had to leave. Coal had finished coloring the drawing and it now looked exactly like Milly. "I uh... I need to go um... Do somethin. I'll uh... See ya guys around, I guess." Dust got up from the piano benched and walked towards the door, Coal in pursuit. Before he exited, he looked back at Milly and smiled. "You can keep the drawin. Uh... If you want of course..."

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Laying on the soft bed with her eyes closed, Symphony was far from asleep. She had been thinking about her situation, the other ponies here and her friends and family - she didn't have many of either. She had a tendency of pushing ponies away, not letting them get close.

 

It hadn't taken long for the pain in her wing to ease up. Not long at all actually: the pain was far less than she had felt in months after only a short while. Standing, she flared her wings and stretched - still no pain.

 

"Huh." She considered. "Bed rest is some kind of wonder cure then?"

 

Looking into a conveniently placed mirror she studied the blackened patch of skewed feathers - of course it was still there, the injury was permanent. The surge of hope that she had felt quickly recessed a little.

 

"Don't be stupid, it's a bed. It doesn't 'heal' things. Your just tired."

 

Still, she couldn't help but smile at her reflection. For whatever reason she felt good. Better than good even. Bolting the high window and flicking off the light she left to try and find some company - it had been a while since she had decided to go out and socialise, but right now, against her better judgment, this seemed like the right thing to do.

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

Curious trotted through the labyrinthine halls, not seeing any of the marks he had made. "Well, I am utterly lost. That's a rather new experience, I have to say." Oddly, Curious smiled at that thought, "Oh, but I do love new experiences."

 

As he was trotting through, he noticed a clock hung upon the wall, his time with Cerulean and the others took about an hour and a half. Whilst looking at the clock, he noticed little flickers of light bouncing along the walls. "Ah, I did say we might have lunch, and it's about time for that."

 

"Hello, Miss Symphony. It appears we meet again."

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

"Hello Curious." Symphony nodded in greeting. "I hope your well?"

 

Even in her brighter frame of mind she still couldn't help but feel like there was something 'off' about him, like every word he said was trying to pry out information that she would rather keep to herself. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she had learned to trust her instincts.

 

Still, intelligent conversation was always a welcome change from home.

 

"Any progress with your mirage theory?"

[repsol rave 2,963]

After Milly departed from Repsol's side, he had tried to play the piano too fro a bit, only to find out he sucked at it...Real bad.

"Oh well... I still got my MP3 player with me, guess i'll go to my room and listen some music."

Repsol left for his room, but he didn't really remember how he got in this room in the first place. Last time he just followed the music.

"Oh great, now i'm lost." He walked around a bit, until he came to a room wich grabbed his attention.

As he opened the door, his jaw almost hit the ground. He looked upan a full studio, complete with turntables and everything a stallion like him could wish for. "Pinch me, i must be dreaming.." 

He walked to the gear and plugged his MP3 player in the turntables. he loved DJ Pon3's music, but if there's one thing he loved more, it was remixing that music.

As he turned everything on, the room filled with elektronic music. And without really noticing it, he turned the volume up a bit higher every time he mixed a new song in.

[PinkieShyFlutterPie 408]

@,

 

 Milly was surprised to see Dust's whole face turn red. "Um...Alright...see you around" Milly looked down then looked back up at Dust when he talked "Thank you" She smiled then picked up the drawing. She sat down on the piano bench and put the drawing right next to her then started to mess around and play the piano 

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

"Oh, no, haven't even taken a step outside recently to test that."Curious said smiling, trotting up to her."Still too early for that, I think. But, it is about time for lunch, care to join me?"

 

"Though, I am starting to suspect it's more than a mere optical illusion." But his thoughts were interrupted by sudden vibrations reverberating through the hallway. At first it was hardly noticeable, but gradually the sounds causing it grew louder and louder.

[Ampharos 1,009]

Dust had left the music room and was now in his own room. He hadn't said a word to Coal on the whole way back, and the bunny was concerned. The black hare nudged Dust as he sat on his bed. "Huh? Oh sorry bud, ah was just... thinkin bout stuff. About Milly. I couldn't tell how she felt bout the drawin. She seemed to like it. And she said I had a... cute... sneeze. Coal how do you think she feels about me?" Dust had known Coal for nearly ten years, and he could almost perfectly understand Coal just by his hand motions an expressions. Coal made a heart with his ears and then shrugged, and Dust took that as him saying that she might like him. Dust sighed. He had never been so smitten over anypony. Ever. He heard music playing from the room. Maybe that's Cerulean. She did say she was good at all of the instruments... But it doesn't exactly sound good... but it's not bad either... Dust sighed again and laid across his bed. Without much effort, he fell asleep.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@GaleFenrir

 

"Lunch sounds excellent." Symphony said. "There is actually something that I wanted to discuss, something that somepony like yourself might like to think about..."

 

She stopped abruptly. Seconds passed as she felt the vibrations run through the building.

 

"Can you feel that?" She asked warily.

 

'What the hay is it now...?'

Edited June 23, 2013 by Cinderscribe

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,@@repsol rave,

 

"Well, I don't think it's a dragon or anything, based on the steady beat." Curious said with a chuckle, "I would say it's music, but... you know what, let's just go check it out." 

 

Curious went ahead of Symphony, trying to determine the source of the sound. It was gradually getting louder, but he couldn't determine if that was because he was getting any closer. The acoustics of the hall seemed... off. "Oh come on, I am getting rather tired of all these twists and turns, now," he thought, slamming his hoof into the ground in frustration.

 

Oddly, after that, the sounds he was following seemed so much clearer. He took just a single turn and he saw an open door where the electronic music was coming from. Unfortunately it was really quite loud, and Curious couldn't think very well. He took some earplugs he conveniently kept in the folds of his scarf and put them in. He turned his head back to where he assumed Symphony would be and said, in a relatively loud voice, but he still wasn't sure if Symphony would've heard him, "I think I found the source."

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@repsol rave, @GaleFenrir

"Well that's... unexpected!" Symphony almost yelled back towards Curious, holding her hooves to her ears. Even if she could have shut out the noise, which would have been impossible, the vibrations of the beat would have been more than disruptive enough on their own.

 

"Hey, you!" She shouted pointlessly towards the stallion at the turntable, waving to try and catch his attention. "Hey!"

 

It was no use. Either he was just too engrossed or she just wasn't loud enough - which said a lot really.

 

'Strange how I never heard anything back in my room though.' She managed to think - It had been perfectly silent back there and they hadn't gone that far.

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

"Curious recognized the stallion engrossed in the music as Repsol, Repsol Rave. "I suppose that explains the Rave in his name. He seems to be enjoying himself, I'll just get out of here and try to ignore the loud bass."

 

Curious tapped Symphony's shoulder, figuring there wouldn't be any point in trying to say something. He pointed back towards the door. He turned around and hurriedly trotted out of the room and a little down the hallway, but close enough that Symphony would easily be able to see him when she followed out. The music wasn't quite muted there, but it was a decibel level that was friendlier to regular pony hearing levels.

 

"I think it'd be best to leave him to his own devices for now."

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@GaleFenrir

Symphony allowed herself to be let out of the room and down the hall - thankful to be able to hear again. As they left the music far enough behind she noticed a ringing still filled her ears, but it was a vast improvement over the thumping bass.

 

"That..." She said. "Was not what I expected. Why would a place like this even have something like that? Everything else seemed so much more... subdued?"

 

Doing her best to regain her composure before she let slip some unladylike comment, the Crystal Pegasus shook her head to try and sort out her thoughts before continuing.

 

"Anyway, where were we? Lunch, was it?"

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

Curious nodded his head, "Indeed. Finding the diner again shouldn't be too difficult..."

 

"So long as I don't get lost again; I'd rather not, honestly. It was fun at first but it's becoming a little intrusive." Curious turned around a corner, and to his subdued surprise he saw the entrance to the diner just down the hall. "Yep, definitely not just optical or acoustic trickery, it would seem."

 

"In fact, it's just over there." Curious said, pointing a hoof.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@GaleFenrir

"Thats a little... weird. How far did we go again?"

 

She was certain that they had traveled much further in the other direction. Blinking a few times, Symphony put the thoughts to the back of her mind - something unusual was happening and she wasn't certain whether she liked it yet. Stepping ahead into the room she motioned for Curious to follow.

 

"I hope your offer still stands?" She said, mentally adding 'And that you might have figured out more than your letting on about this?'

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

"Come to think of it, when I had breakfast here earlier, they didn't charge. They must keep a tab or something for when you check out," Curious said following Symphony into the diner, "awfully convenient, isn't it?"

 

Curious went ahead of Symphony and ordered a simple lunch for the both of them, and sat down at a table for two. "I'll give you some bits to pay for this lunch later."

 

Curious didn't much want to admit he currently had no bits; with his last case having gone so sour, he had received absolutely no payment. "I'll just have to make sure I 'check out' of this inn a bit early."

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@GaleFenrir

Symphony nodded at the stallion, sitting down across from him.

 

"Not a problem." She said. Of course it wasn't a problem - bits never were. Even now that she no longer needed to, she found that there was still pleasure to be had in acquiring items, money, anything really... and since she had years of practice...

 

She smiled, entertained. "Not a problem at all. Shall we begin?"

 

It was actually quite refreshing to put on her airs and graces in company without having to be concerned about being caught out - like a game almost. 'Maybe I should have been born a noble or something?' She thought.

 

"So then Curious. I'm quite curious myself." The mare began. "What do you do? I find it hard to believe that your just a 'mirage enthusiast' so to speak."

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

"I'm an investigative journalist. I was expecting this place to be just a pleasant stay in between stories, but it might be worth an article itself." Curious said confidently. Now that his reputation as a private detective was in jeopardy anyway, he might as well moonlight as a journalist.

 

"What about you? With a name like Symphony, I would assume that you are some sort of musician?" Curious didn't really think that; he had taken notice of her injury, and he figured she was really some sort of explorer herself.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@GaleFenrir

'A journalist? Well from what I've seen, he's probably pretty good.'

 

"Not at all. I'm uh..." She stalled. Why wasn't she prepared for this question? It was obviously going to come up. "Well, last thing I did was go traveling with some friends. Right now I'm on a break, trying to get over this." She held up her wing. "Injured it back up near the kingdom."

 

There wasn't much she could do now - at least a journalist, while seemingly a really skilled one, wasn't a threat.

 

'Also, You've done nothing wrong and nopony knows who you are. Stop worrying.'

 

[GaleFenrir 281]

@,

 

Curious winced slightly at seeing the wound closer up. He was no stranger to injury, but thankfully he had yet to experience anything crippling. "Traveling with some friends, eh? Sounds exciting," Curious paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to put what he had to say elegantly, "though, I had you figured for one who could handle travelling alone."

 

"Can't say I expected her to have friends. But, I suppose that was me projecting my own experiences onto her."

[Ampharos 1,009]

Diamond Dust woke up from his nap and looked at his clock, noticing that he hadn't been sleeping very long. He heard his stomach growl and he got up. "Hey Coal, Ahm gonna go get somethin ta eat. You can come if ya want." He left his room and went to the diner. He noticed that Curious was sitting with a pony he hadn't seen before. He got his food and walked over to the two. "Mind if ah sit with you two? Unless... this is... um, more than just a friendly lunch?" He gave a sheepish smile to the two ponies.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

@@GaleFenrir

 

Seeing him wince, Symphony flashed a glare at the stallion. "Don't pity me. It was my own stupid fault."

It lasted only a fraction of a second before her face returned to normal. "Truth be told I was alone, met them out there in fact."

 

Much as she might not have wanted to talk about her time up in the mountains it was preferable to trying to make up stories about her checkered past, considering how well he seemed to sniff out information. "They helped me out of a tough situation. Then I did the same for them. Thats how I ended up with this."

 

A brown stallion approached, asking if he might join them - signaling a perfect distraction to get away from talking about herself.

 

"Well there's nopony else in here, It would be rude to tell you to sit on your own." She smiled.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Cinderscribe

[Ampharos 1,009]

@,@@GaleFenrir,

 

"Well thank ya kindly. Mah name's Dust and this here is Coal. So what's ya name?" Dust started eating his food while waiting for Symphony's answer. Coal was eating a salad next to him. Dust was interested in the crystal pony, as he had never seen one before. He gave her a smile. Hmmm, her wing looks damaged. Maybe that's why she's here? But ah don't think there's any nusrsing stufff round here... oh well.