private Outcasts of the Everfree Forest

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

OOC Thread

 

Outcasts of the Everfree Forest

 

 

Sunyatay sighed as she reached her "home."  It was more of an improvised shelter really, not much to look at.  She'd studied magic, not architecture, and she'd hoped to be able to move into Ponyville before too long.  Maybe I'd better go ahead and build something more permanent, she thought.  Her last foray into Ponyville had been an even bigger failure than previous attempts, and that was saying something.  Her efforts at trying to meet other ponies or help out only managed to frighten them.  Now they had a whole legend built up, of "the Ghost Mare of the Everfree Forest."  For a moment she again considered trying to go to meet Zecora, but decided against it.  The zebra was always making strange potions, and if Sunyatay startled her at the wrong time she could cause a dangerous accident.  The guilt of actually hurting somepony wasn't something she wanted to live with.

 

What if...instead of a house, I made a way station?  Then ponies might come to me!  I could build it deeper in the forest along the path and keep it stocked with food for travelers.  Anypony trying to go through the Everfree would be happy to find a safe place to stay the night, right?  And if they needed healing or anything like that that I could do without being noticed, maybe after awhile it could even become known as a good place.  Then maybe I could make myself visible enough to talk to somepony without looking like a ghost.  I might even get stronger just building it!  She started pacing back and forth, envisioning what she would want it to look like, thinking of the things she'd need to create a design and begin construction. 

 

 

;;RPCode

;;Character - Sunyatay Sutra - InvisiblePinkUnicorn - - %%Invisible Unicorn%%

;;Character - Atlas - Gabriel Smith -  - %%Giant Earth Pony%%

;;Character - Starshine - Starshine - - %%Unicorn%%

;;ExtraLink - OOC Thread

;;DefaultTitle - %%RP Player%%

 

Edited July 4, 2013 by InvisiblePinkUnicorn

[Gabriel Smith 53]

Of course, deep within the Everfree were monsters and horrors from times immemorial. It was a haven for Jabberwocky's and Dragons, to zombie-like Automecha and more terrifying things beyond the scope that most Ponies dare to imagine or comprehend.

 

Of course, none of those are who we'll be following. Instead, we have the less interesting tale of a Pony. A pony of a gigantic size. An enormous pony that - if many knew he was there - would most likely be feared and discriminated against.

 

However, this was of little concern to Atlas. The giant was merrily pruning one of his many plants in his "garden" - a rudimentary collection of plants he gathered and cared for to keep himself company. Eventually, with a sigh he stopped what he was doing.

 

Meal time again.

[Starshine 16,330]

"Blasted ponies..."

 

A lone unicorn trotted through the thicket of trees of the Everfree forest. His dark blue fur and rust colored mane was disheveled, his saddlebag hug limply on his back, its seams were on the verge of tearing apart. The journey back from Baltimare had been very uneventful, the disguise he had chosen, a yellow unicorn filly, was proven to be very effective. His day would be perfect if not for a mare in the station that mistook him as her long-lost daughter. It took great effort and two botched teleportation attempts to escape the berserk mare. At least he still had his package.

 

Starshine stopped at an intersection. The path on the right would lead him to Zecora, while the opening on the left would take him to his hut. The zebra could wait, sleep right now sounded like a very good idea. With a sigh he trotted to the direction of his home, following the familiar track of trees... only to backtrot abruptly when his eyes noticed something behind the shrubberies. There was a wooden shack that wasn't there before, or maybe he missed it up until now. "Huh, I thought Zecora and I were the only one who lived around these parts," he murmured to himself as he walked cautiously to the building.

 

The shack was unremarkable in every way, but from the architecture, or the lack thereof, it was clear that it was made by ponies. There were clopping sounds of hooves trotting back and forth, but it seemed to come from a far distance. Starshine jumped to take a peek from the window. There was nopony on the inside. Curiosity got over him and Starshine pushed the door inward and trotted in, examining the interior for anything that might be worthy of notice. "Well look what do we have here."

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

Sunyatay's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of trotting hooves.  She looked and saw a tired-looking pony with worn saddlebags on the verge of falling apart.  A traveler?  Now?  But I'm not even close to being ready!  I haven't even gotten started yet!  Instead of trotting on past her house or avoiding it warily, he approached, peeked through her window, then went inside.  Well...I suppose I don't really mind if he wants to sleep there.  He can even have the fruit if he--

 

 

 

"Well look what do we have here."

 

Is it the fruit--or my books?! she thought.  Her saddlebags, bulging with a modest collection of books of spells, magic theory, geometry, and math were her only possessions besides a simple cloak that was placed neatly over the saddlebags to insure they wouldn't get wet if her roof leaked.  The books were irreplaceable; her journal of magic research even more so.  Careful not to make a noise and startle him, she slipped up to her house and pushed her head and neck through a wall with only the faintest magical ripple flickering across the surface, so she could watch what he was doing.

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine looked around the abode. There was a bed, neatly made. It was clear that somepony had been sleeping in here, but who? He trotted to the saddlebags that were covered with a simple cloak. He rubbed his chin in thought. Should he? Yes he should. With a flicker of his horn he scanned the saddlebags and the cloak for any traps or spiders that might be hidden out of sight. He was so occupied in his task that he didn't notice the faint ripple on the wall. Satisfied that there was none, he sat down near the saddlebags and lifted the cloak aside.

 

"Books?" he asked to nopony in particular. He could recognize some of the books. He owned some of the magic books himself. It was rather curious to see such collection this far in the forest. Was there a researching unicorn living in this place? What was he or she researching? There was a journal among the book. It looked very enticing, its cover teasing him with its content. Starshine chuckled nervously, whatever it is that was being researched should be quite dangerous, the researcher actually felt the need to hide his or her journal in the forest. He spared a look at the still open door and started casting a spell.

 

A couple of nonexistent wood sticks appeared out of thin air, followed with a big log and many more. They assembled together at the door into a form of sleeping timberwolf. Starshine smiled in approval, the illusion might not be perfect but it should be enough to provide him an early warning, should the journal owner returned before he could finish with his business. "That should do! Now, let us see what kind of secrets do you have..." Starshine took the journal and started flipping its pages excitedly, eager to learn what mystery inside it.

[Gabriel Smith 53]

While Starshine studied the contents of the tome, he was constantly being put off by the fact that little loose items - food, pens, just about anything not nailed down really - seemingly jumped. Each was accompanied by a slight rumble in the ground. This persisted for a few minutes, before Starshine heard something else - a loud, creaking moan coming from outside...

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

Sunyatay pulled back out of the wall and watched quizzically as the visiting pony...conjured pieces of wood?  Then he assembled them into a rather convincing simulation...if it was a simulation...of a sleeping Timberwolf, curled up against her door.  Once he disappeared back inside, she approached it cautiously.  It's either a very advanced Conjuration spell, or illusion magic... she thought.  Probably illusion magic.  Conjuration on that scale would knock most ponies out for a week, especially if it's actually magically animated!  Still, even a very probable hypothesis required testing before acceptance, so she gingerly reached out a hoof, which passed right through.  As if that wouldn't happen anyway, she thought, rolling her eyes.  Then she realized: He put that there to keep me away!

 

Poking her head back through the wall, she saw that he was reading her journal!  Whether he'd make much sense of its contents was anypony's guess.  It was written to aid her own recollection, not communicate to an audience.  Without a supply of bits, she didn't know where her next blank book was coming from, so the writing was densely packed with abbreviations and acronyms, efficiently utilizing the space around complicated geometric diagrams, some of them magically animated.  The one he was currently looking at was captioned, "Ennea. as path in icosa space."  The animated drawing started out with the appearance of an icosahedron¹ in outline.  Then each vertex of the figure was linked to its neighboring vertices by lines crossing through the interior.  The figure rotated, then stopped.  A set of lines changed color, revealing an enneagram.  The other lines faded, and the image rotated to reveal the enneagram shape as a three-dimensional form.  A colored ray reverberated around it, following the lines in sequence.  Magically important ratios and numbers like phi or the square root of 3 appeared briefly as the ray passed their locations in the figure.  Finally, the lines of the first path turned violet.  The figure rotated again, highlighting a second enneagram path as seen from the new direction, and again, illustrating the geometric and mathematical relationships between the paths.

 

Sunyatay withdrew from the wall again.  Gritting her teeth, she concentrated on becoming more real.  "Please don't read that!  It's private!" she said, her voice soft and hollow on the breeze.  Then she ran around toward the back of the house, so he wouldn't be frightened by her "ghostly" form if he came out the front.  "You're welcome to stay and you can have the f--"  *whump*  *whump*  The trees shook with each rumble, each getting louder than the one before.  Then, a loud, creaking moan.  Wha...?  Hugging the contours of her shelter, Sunyatay peeked around a corner hoping to be able to keep track of the pony if he came out, and spot the...whatever it was...in time to figure out if it was a threat or not.

 

 

OOC:

 

Notes:

 

1. An icosahedron is a twenty-sided polyhedron with 20 triangular faces, the fifth Platonic polyhedron.  The d20 gaming die is an icosahedron.   

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine stared at the imagery before him. The advanced geometry shapes that were supposed to represent the magical leylines of a spell danced before him. It was... simply put, amazing. The possible 3d imagery started to form inside his head. Everything seemed to be rather familiar, he had definitely saw something like this in the past, but what was it? It seemed that whoever wrote these notes, they were trying to discern how something worked, and tried to either boost it or dispel it entirely. It was not a simple spell, not even a conjuration or illusion, no... it was something far more permanent, something-

 

 

 

"Please don't read that! It's private!" she said, her voice soft and hollow on the breeze.

 

Starshine froze. The color quickly drained from her face. He didn't felt anything, any presence or any magical trace from around him, but the voice was unmistakable. He looked around him, he was still alone in the hut, the illusion of the timberwolf was still there, undisturbed. There was another shout, this time the voice, which sounded like a mare, told him that he was welcome to stay in the hut. "What the hay...?"

 

*WHUMP*

 

The ground shook a few times, followed with a loud, creaking moan, as if some trees had been forcefully uprooted from its place. Starshine could feel a panic started to crept in. There was only one creature in the forest to be capable of such feat. Starshine quickly donned his saddlebag and covered the magic journal and other books with the simple cloak from before. He ran outside, the illusion quickly dispelled itself.

 

"Hey, whoever you are who called for me earlier!" Starshine called out to the wind, hoping that the mare from before would hear him. "I'm sorry that I sneaked in and read your journal, but we have to go now, fast! Take your saddlebag, a hydra is coming our way!"

[Gabriel Smith 53]

Contrary to what Starshine thought, there were more things in the Everfree that could cause that sort of thing beyond Hydras - nesting Dragons, merged Timberwolves, giant Automaton zombies...yet the real perpetrator was none of those things. It was actually a Pony. A really, REALLY big Pony, blue in colour with brown eyes and a long, leafy green mane and tail. And it was busy eating the tree - bark and all. Well, what else was it going to eat - Ponies?

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

 

 

"Hey, whoever you are who called for me earlier!" Starshine called out to the wind, hoping that the mare from before would hear him. "I'm sorry that I sneaked in and read your journal, but we have to go now, fast! Take your saddlebag, a hydra is coming our way!"

 

But what would a hydra be doing so far away from water? Sunyatay thought.  Still, he was right: a hydra, a full-grown dragon, or something else very dangerous to little ponies seemed to be headed their way.  This was the kind of situation where her invisibility was a good thing.  Except...he wasn't invisible.  Another pony was in danger, especially if he waited around for her to join him.  As he ran out of her shelter, she ran in, through the wall.  With her telekinesis, she lifted her cloak and checked to make sure her journal was returned--relief!.  She put on her saddlebags and threw her cloak over herself with the hood up, using telekinesis to keep them from falling through her.  As long as he didn't look close enough to see the pink nimbus of telekinesis, or peer under her hood or the hem of her cloak, she hoped she could pass for an ordinary pony in a cloak long enough to get him to safety.  Finally, she followed him out the door. 

 

Turning briefly toward the sounds of snapping branches and chomping, Sunyatay could see hints of a massive blue body through the trees.  No scales or wings.  A swish of bright green...hair?  A tail?  She could see just enough of its shape to know that it was not any of the megafauna she'd ever read about.  I think it's a herbivore...  Even if it didn't fancy the taste of pony, a creature of that size could pulp the dark blue stallion with her by accident with a single unlucky step.  Curiosity was overtaking her now, but she had to get the stallion safe before she could go for a closer look.

 

"You need to get clear.  I can use my magic to draw it away if necessary," she said, her eerily faint voice carrying a hint of the effort it took to hold her things in place while summoning enough tangibility to talk.

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine nearly balked when a cloaked pony trotted out of the hut that he could swore was empty just a moment before. Where did she hide? Did she teleported in to secure her belongings in the hut after he got out? Starshine shook his head. It didn't matter, right now they would have to get away from... a big, blue mass?

 

"What in the glorious stars above is that...?" Starshine wondered, the scare from before was fully replaced with befuddlement. The massive creature was not a hydra, that's for sure. It didn't show any sign that it was interested in them, in fact it was busy munching on a tree. The creature also had a long, green tail and what seemed to be a mane. If it wasn't for its size, it certainly looked equine in nature.

 

 

 

"You need to get clear. I can use my magic to draw it away if necessary," she said, her eerily faint voice carrying a hint of the effort it took to hold her things in place while summoning enough tangibility to talk.

 

Starshine snapped back from his stupor and looked at the cloaked mare. "I don't really think that's necessary anymore, miss," he said. The cloaked pony was rather weird. It looked like she was trying her best not to left any of her body to be seen. She also sounded tired. "I mean, it doesn't look like it has noticed our presence over here. It's eating trees now, if it's indeed a herbivore it wouldn't do us any harm." He coughed and bowed his head slightly to the cloaked mare. "Uhm, sorry once again for intruding your house and reading your book, but I'll have to say that whatever you're working on, that spell is dangerous, not something that can be reverted easily. Don't cast the finished version on yourself, or anypony for that matter. Anyhow, I'll have to see the creature's face, see you later!" Without waiting for a reply, Starshine galloped away from the cloaked mare.

 

@@Gabriel Smith,

 

After a few moments, Starshine finally reached the front side of the giant creature. He tried to crawl under the shrubberies to avoid attracting its attention, but he just couldn't help but to peek his head through to get a clearer view. From the front, the creature's resemblance with an earth pony stallion was very evident. It didn't seem to be feral. The colt waved a hoof just to see if the creature can see him.

 

 

 

OOC: Starshine in here is still a colt, around 15 years old (*'-')/

 

 

[Gabriel Smith 53]

Atlas hadn't noticed the panicking pink Unicorn, nor the tiny blue stallion as he continued to eat happily. It was a wonder that anyone could make out he was clearly an Earth Pony though - the long time of living in the forest with nothing to groom himself had lead to thick, overgrown hair and fur - giving him a Fluffle Puff-like appearance.

 

Regardless, he continued to eat in peace, failing to notice the other two Ponies for the time being. Looks like Starshine may want to try something else to grab his attention.

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

 

 

"Uhm, sorry once again for intruding your house and reading your book, but I'll have to say that whatever you're working on, that spell is dangerous, not something that can be reverted easily. Don't cast the finished version on yourself, or anypony for that matter. Anyhow, I'll have to see the creature's face, see you later!" Without waiting for a reply, Starshine galloped away from the cloaked mare.

 

Sunyatay opened her mouth to reply, but the colt was gone before she could utter a word.  She felt a familiar emotional sting.  It seemed that, even with a way to make herself visible in a sense, she could still "disappear" whether she wanted to or not.  It was too bad, really; he obviously had a very keen intellect.  From a brief examination of her journal, he had managed to glean something of the nature of the inquiry she was undertaking: a study of the fundamental nature of physical reality, and how it interlaced with the structure of consciousness.  Of course a pony who was fully real and practiced in illusion magic would be likely to see it as a quest for the ultimate stealth and invisibility spell, rather than a search for the opposite.  He was right about the dangers, if applied as she had managed to do by accident.

 

She pushed thoughts of the colt's abrupt departure aside, and redoubled her efforts at retaining her concentration.  There was a new wonder to be seen just up ahead.  She pressed on through the forest, approaching with care.  The massive creature might not want to do any harm, but that didn't mean it couldn't do so unintentionally if startled by ponies abruptly galloping up to it.  Finally she reached the colt, who was now waving, trying to draw the creature's attention.  Sunyatay pulled the hood of her cloak back enough so she could look up, up, up to see the being's head.

 

A...pony?!

 

Something briefly blocked her vision, and she heard a rustle of cloth and the thump-crunch of her saddle bags falling on the forest undergrowth.  Jaw still hanging open in shock at what she was seeing, it hit her that her ghostly form could now be seen standing over the folds of her fallen cloak, her hooves penetrating through its fabric to stand on the ground.

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine could hear that the cloaked mare was approaching him. Perhaps she was also curious on the giant, or maybe she wanted to convince him to run away to the safety? Either way, Starshine as far more interested to see if the giant could speak. He charged a firework spell from his horn. A loud bang in front of the giant should be enough to take its attention.

 

"Stay still, miss. I don't want to surprise him a bit too much," Starshine said excitedly, the spell was almost ready now. She spared a quick glance to see if the cloaked mare- wait a minute. The colt did a double take. Where the cloaked mare was standing there was a heap of cloak, a saddlebag, and a ghostly visage of a mare. The mare was positively translucent, her hooves were still inside the cloak. It took Starshine a couple of second to fully accept what he had just saw, the resulting imbalance caused the firework spell he had been channeling went awry and exploded in a extraordinarily loud bang. "Eeep!" Starshine yelped in surprise.

[Gabriel Smith 53]

The loud "BANG!" definitely got Atlas's attention...but his reaction probably couldn't have been anticipated. He was easily ten to twenty times the size of either Pony. This meant he was a lot bigger, and a lot stronger than either of them.

 

So naturally, Atlas's reaction was to hide behind a thick picket of trees, barely tall enough to cover himself. He was shaking in terror...even moreso when he finally spotted Starshine.

 

Took him long enough if you ask me.

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

Sunyatay's head snapped toward the young stallion just as a firework spell corkscrewed randomly from his horn and went off with a bang and a flash of multicolored sparkles.  Again she opened her mouth to say something--like pleas to the unicorn not to be scared--and again she didn't have a chance to utter a word.  Thundering hoofbeats drew her attention back to the giant.  She spun her head around in time to see him disappear--well, try to--behind a copse of trees.  He was visibly trembling in a way that simultaneously triggered a Cute Response, humor, and compassion.  Then, peering between trees, an eye bigger than her whole body spotted the colt with her. What if he thinks we're trying to attack?!  "They are my enemies" plus "I can squish them" did not add up to an agreeable sum.

 

"Quick!  Say something nice to him!" Sunyatay cried in her loudest voice, which was a soft, ethereal sound barely as loud as ordinary conversation.  Hopefully the colt could make himself heard better than she could.

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine blinked twice, and then another couple of times. The failed spell had somehow scared the giant away, who was now trying to hide behind a tree with little success. His head snapped between the translucent mare and the hiding giant repeatedly. By now he had seen enough wonders from his journeys to amaze most of unicorn researchers, but what he was seeing right now was... Celestia-damned impossible, to put it lightly.  "What." The word escaped Starshine's mouth before the thought registered in his head.

 

 

 

"Quick! Say something nice to him!" Sunyatay cried in her loudest voice, which was a soft, ethereal sound barely as loud as ordinary conversation. Hopefully the colt could make himself heard better than she could.

 

The colt shook his head forcefully to shake out the stupor. He couldn't afford making any mistakes now. The mare's voice was somehow softer than before, when he was reading her journals back in the hut. Was she phasing out? Either way, she was right, he would have to pacify the situation. Starshine took a deep breath and trotted out to the opening so the giant could see him clearly. "Uh, hello there!" he yelled. "Sorry about the, uh, firework earlier, I was trying to get your attention. We didn't mean any harm to you, we are your friends!" Starshine waved a hoof and took a wide grin, he hoped that the giant could understand his words. "My name is Starshine, from the Ponyville. Do you have a name?"

[Gabriel Smith 53]

Atlas looked down at the little Unicorn who was trying to grab his attention. The fact that he'd approached him was even scarier than the failed fireworks spell! Looking around, he ripped a tree out of the ground and...

 

...cuddled it, as if it was a safety blanket, oddly enough. Clearly, Atlas hadn't been with or spoken with a civilised pony in some time. To call his behaviour "apprehensive" would probably be the understatement of the century. He was still looking down at Starshine, but wasn't displaying any sign of hostility.

 

Hopefully.

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine could feel his hide jumped off his body when the giant pony suddenly uprooted a whole tree out of the ground. He almost instinctively started casting an offensive spell, but he quickly cancelled it when the giant... hugged the tree? The giant didn't make any attempt to shoo him away. Starshine's stood there, mouth agape. "How... could that. What?" Starshine simply sat down on his flank and rubbed his forehead. This is something else entirely, he thought to himself.

 

Starshine sighed and looked at the giant. If not for the sheer size, Starshine could swore that the giant cuddled the tree close as if it was a shield of some sort. The giant was afraid. Maybe his last encounter with ponykind didn't end really well. Starshine gave the giant a wide smile and slowly backtrot back to the tree cover, near the translucent mare. He shrugged in resignation and spoke to the mare. "Sorry, but I don't know what to do in cases like this. Usually things that big would only try to eat me, or stomp on me, or both." He cleared his throat. The goosebump from seeing the giant uprooting the tree was still there. "At least he didn't seem to be very aggressive."

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

When the giant ripped the tree out of the ground, Sunyatay's eyes went wide, then she instinctively faded to invisibility.  I need to make a shield spell around him, she thought, glancing toward the colt, but how can I make it strong enough to withstand--  Instead of wielding it as a weapon, he...hugged it?  Like a shy foal hiding behind his mother's leg.  Sunyatay shook her head to clear the boggle, returning to translucence.  The colt back-trotted toward her, coming up along side.  Then he spoke to her.  As if she was actually somepony, and not a ghost or monster to run away from.

 

 

 

"Sorry, but I don't know what to do in cases like this. Usually things that big would only try to eat me, or stomp on me, or both." He cleared his throat. The goosebump from seeing the giant uprooting the tree was still there. "At least he didn't seem to be very aggressive."

 

"Maybe you could tell him not to be afraid?  That we want to be his friends?  Sorry, I...don't have much luck with that myself.  What do you think I should do?  He hasn't noticed me yet, and I don't want to scare him.  Should I disappear?"  Sunyatay felt a sudden realization: she didn't want to.  For once...the first time since her initial disappearance...she was having an actual conversation with somepony.  And he was nice.  But if the giant was scared of an ordinary unicorn, how would he react to a "ghost?"  Well, maybe he's got good reason to be scared of ordinary unicorns.  At least when ponies get scared of me they don't attack, because why attack a ghost?  But if ponies look at him and see a 'Giant Monster' then maybe they would attack, and try to drive him away so he wouldn't step on them or their houses.  He's gonna notice the colt is talking to somepony other than him.  But if I try to put my cloak back on he might see the movement, and that would be scary too, especially if he saw before I got it in place.  Given her own ill fortune with attempts to relate to other ponies, Sunyatay decided to wait for the colt's advice. 

[Gabriel Smith 53]

Sure enough, Atlas was watching the pair talk. Or rather, he was watching Starshine talk to nopony, as seemed to be the case. Regardless, he kept hugging his tree and very carefully observing the Unicorn. Most Ponies by now would be running away in fear - instead, this Unicorn seemed to be talking to an imaginary friend.

 

In short, Atlas was confused. Very, very confused.

[Starshine 16,330]

 

 

"Maybe you could tell him not to be afraid? That we want to be his friends? Sorry, I...don't have much luck with that myself. What do you think I should do? He hasn't noticed me yet, and I don't want to scare him. Should I disappear?"

 

Starshine allowed himself a short chuckle before replying, "With eyes that huge, I would be surprised if he hasn't noticed you yet. But no, I don't think disappearing would be the best answers. About that..." The colt looked at the translucent mare, or to be precise, through her. It almost seemed like somepony had applied a bit too much of a invisibility spell. She looked very unreal. Starshine walked closer to the mare and slowly poked a hoof to her torso, taking care not to push into her, afraid that doing so might disrupt whatever spell that was shrouding her. He could almost feel the mare's fur texture if he focused enough, but it felt so far away. He spared a glance on the crumpled cloak below the mare. He had studied much in the verse of enchantments, but all of that offered little to no explanation on what was before him.

 

"This is very interesting. I don't know that it's possible to phase and unphase over the invisibility and... tangibility like this." Starshine spoke, amazement was clear in his voice. "If it's okay with you, I would love to speak more about this. Well, after that giant is calmed down anyway."

 

Starshine took off his tattered saddlebag and trotted slowly back to the opening, keeping his posture low. His eyes focused on the giant, but he tried not to stare at him too much. A few strides to the opening, he stopped. He wanted to show the giant that he meant no harm, and that he was harmless, not something that should be feared. Starshine sat down and smiled. He slowly rolled over to his back, his hooves held up in the air. "It's okay, there is nothing you should be afraid of."

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

 

 

"This is very interesting. I don't know that it's possible to phase and unphase over the invisibility and... tangibility like this." Starshine spoke, amazement was clear in his voice. "If it's okay with you, I would love to speak more about this. Well, after that giant is calmed down anyway."

 

"Yes, of course!" Sunyatay said, delighted that he wanted to talk to her, instead of run away screaming.  Now if they could just achieve the same result with the giant...  The mighty blue pony growled at first when the colt approached, but then he seemed to settle down to observe.  What should I do?  If he spots me before I show myself, he might think the colt is distracting him so I can do a surprise attack or something!  But if I show myself, I might startle him!  I'll probably wreck everything whatever I do...but showing myself is more honest.

 

Gathering the new-found strength she'd gained from making...if not an actual friend, at least an acquaintance...and lit her horn to illuminate herself.  Her translucent form seemed to shimmer almost like a Crystal Pony.  "Please don't be afraid!" she called out as loud as she could.  "I'm just different, like you!  I could groom you if you want!"

[Gabriel Smith 53]

Atlas's attention turned towards the new, female sounding voice. Did it just offer to groom him?

 

Regardless, when Atlas looked he could barely see who - or what - was standing there. All he saw was something very bright and shiny. He tried moving over a little with slow, deliberate movements to try not frightening whoever it was off - putting his muzzle pretty close to Sutra.

 

"H-Hello?" Atlas asked. He was a little weirded out by the whole thing.

[Starshine 16,330]

Starshine noticed that the translucent mare had joined him in his attempt to pacify the giant. Now she looked less translucent and more sparkly under the sunlight, not unlike those Crystal Ponies he had heard from travelers. What surprised him more was that she offered to groom the giant. He hopped back to his hooves. "Wow... You're going to groom him? He's huge! The amount of needed shampoo could drown an entire herd."

 

The ground rumbled as the giant trotted closer. Starshine fought an urge to run and hide. The giant slid closer and moved his snout to the shimmering mare. Starshine could only stare in barely veiled amazement. He can speak! This is fantastic! Maybe I can coax him to reveal what had made him this huge, Starshine thought to himself as he inched himself away from the two to get a better look at the giant's cutie mark. Unfortunately there was only a large, brown smudge on where his cutie mark should be. Hardly surprising, considering something as huge as him would have a hard time cleaning himself in the forest. Starshine decided to sit and wait while the mare work out the situation.