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Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:33 pm
>> JaketheGinger
Timestamp:
10:15 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
"Happy Founding Day, Miss Rarity!" called out one of the guards as he passed her by, "Love your mane!"
"Why thank you, darling! You are such a noblepony every time I meet you. Have a marvelous day yourself!" With a wink and a nod, Rarity discreetly blew the guard a kiss and then causally walked along her way. She winced as she heard a smack of nose on brick a moment afterwards.
Rarity was once again in her medium. Delighted to walk amongst her peers and basking in the attention they afforded her, she was absolutely overjoyed to be back in Twilight's city once again. She even prepared a special dress for the occasion, although it was rendered unfit for presentation after a messy incident involving a certain prince and his violent hatred of carrot cakes. The dress was then somehow misplaced into a running turbine engine, though not before going in after the said prince's suit.
Glancing to her right, she had a pleasant, and rare, surprise of catching a few crystal pony tourists to the city (they stuck out like a sore hoof, but a thousand years in stasis can do that to a pony). Despite the city's best efforts to welcome the other races with open arms, for some inexplicable reason, they remain cautious. Rarity attributed it to an inadequate publicity and outreach effort, though their stance remained frustratingly firm.
Walking past the carnival, Rarity suddenly took a double take. There! In the middle of the crowd, that unmistakable pink fur and bubbly hair. That pony's back was to her though, for the mare seemed concentrated on one of the carnival games.
With a smile, Rarity made a beeline towards the with as much grace and silence as she can muster. Once she is right next to the Pinkie Pie, Rarity coughed politely and said,
"Excuse me dear, may I ask for your help in directing me towards The Clockwork Cupcake? I need to meet one of my oldest and dearest friends there."
Timestamp:
10:15 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
"Happy Founding Day, Miss Rarity!" called out one of the guards as he passed her by, "Love your mane!"
"Why thank you, darling! You are such a noblepony every time I meet you. Have a marvelous day yourself!" With a wink and a nod, Rarity discreetly blew the guard a kiss and then causally walked along her way. She winced as she heard a smack of nose on brick a moment afterwards.
Rarity was once again in her medium. Delighted to walk amongst her peers and basking in the attention they afforded her, she was absolutely overjoyed to be back in Twilight's city once again. She even prepared a special dress for the occasion, although it was rendered unfit for presentation after a messy incident involving a certain prince and his violent hatred of carrot cakes. The dress was then somehow misplaced into a running turbine engine, though not before going in after the said prince's suit.
Glancing to her right, she had a pleasant, and rare, surprise of catching a few crystal pony tourists to the city (they stuck out like a sore hoof, but a thousand years in stasis can do that to a pony). Despite the city's best efforts to welcome the other races with open arms, for some inexplicable reason, they remain cautious. Rarity attributed it to an inadequate publicity and outreach effort, though their stance remained frustratingly firm.
Walking past the carnival, Rarity suddenly took a double take. There! In the middle of the crowd, that unmistakable pink fur and bubbly hair. That pony's back was to her though, for the mare seemed concentrated on one of the carnival games.
With a smile, Rarity made a beeline towards the with as much grace and silence as she can muster. Once she is right next to the Pinkie Pie, Rarity coughed politely and said,
"Excuse me dear, may I ask for your help in directing me towards The Clockwork Cupcake? I need to meet one of my oldest and dearest friends there."
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:33 pm
Timestamp:
--11:45 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
He was nervous. Little jitters appeared around his body, shakes that left him unsteady on his hooves. Despite telling himself that he wouldn’t. Cloudbuilder kept glancing around at clocks. If anypony had asked him, he would’ve sworn that somepony had tampered with the second hand, forcing it to move far slower than normal.
It was nearly time for the Founding Day speech, when normally Princess Twilight would make an appearance. Maybe someponies were holding out hope that the reclusive ruler would show up, but he certainly wasn’t going to hold his breath for that.
No, what had him nervous was what was supposed to happen during the speech, that only a few ponies, all pegasi, knew about. It was nearly time for them to assemble at the designated meeting points. Only another few minutes until he would leave the bench he was currently sitting on.
His stomach felt like it was doing flips inside him. With a foreleg, he pressed down on his midsection. Perhaps eating that funnel cake a few hours ago was a bad idea. The last things he wanted to do was embarrass himself in front of the others by puking.
Another jitter passed through him, his hind legs tapping. Soon.
With a grunt of effort, he tore his eyes away from the clock. The festival area was packed with ponies of all tribes. Families escorted their bouncing foals, couples walked together. Everywhere there were ponies, enjoying the holiday.
Cloudbuilder felt pity for them. They were so happy, so content with their lives. None of them knew about the unrest that was brewing just beneath the surface of their perfect little world. He pitied them, but at the same time, he felt angry. How could they be so happy? Things in this city were shit.
On the surface, everything seemed perfect. Here was a floating city where everypony could live in harmony. It was a city that utilized the talents of all the tribes to function and grow.
It was all lies. The city had been created by unicorns, and was controlled by earth ponies. Those mud-dwellers had managed to insert themselves into almost all the facets of the city. They had an iron grip on the city’s food production and supply, letting them use that power to just walk all over anypony they chose to.
Well, all that was about to change. Pegasi like him were tired of being third-class citizens. Today was a very special day, it was the beginning of when they would take back what was theirs.
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
He stood up off of the bench. That was the signal that he was waiting for, the cue to gather. Soon, everypony in this city would be forced to understand that the pegasi were not their slaves. They would know that change was here.
--11:45 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
He was nervous. Little jitters appeared around his body, shakes that left him unsteady on his hooves. Despite telling himself that he wouldn’t. Cloudbuilder kept glancing around at clocks. If anypony had asked him, he would’ve sworn that somepony had tampered with the second hand, forcing it to move far slower than normal.
It was nearly time for the Founding Day speech, when normally Princess Twilight would make an appearance. Maybe someponies were holding out hope that the reclusive ruler would show up, but he certainly wasn’t going to hold his breath for that.
No, what had him nervous was what was supposed to happen during the speech, that only a few ponies, all pegasi, knew about. It was nearly time for them to assemble at the designated meeting points. Only another few minutes until he would leave the bench he was currently sitting on.
His stomach felt like it was doing flips inside him. With a foreleg, he pressed down on his midsection. Perhaps eating that funnel cake a few hours ago was a bad idea. The last things he wanted to do was embarrass himself in front of the others by puking.
Another jitter passed through him, his hind legs tapping. Soon.
With a grunt of effort, he tore his eyes away from the clock. The festival area was packed with ponies of all tribes. Families escorted their bouncing foals, couples walked together. Everywhere there were ponies, enjoying the holiday.
Cloudbuilder felt pity for them. They were so happy, so content with their lives. None of them knew about the unrest that was brewing just beneath the surface of their perfect little world. He pitied them, but at the same time, he felt angry. How could they be so happy? Things in this city were shit.
On the surface, everything seemed perfect. Here was a floating city where everypony could live in harmony. It was a city that utilized the talents of all the tribes to function and grow.
It was all lies. The city had been created by unicorns, and was controlled by earth ponies. Those mud-dwellers had managed to insert themselves into almost all the facets of the city. They had an iron grip on the city’s food production and supply, letting them use that power to just walk all over anypony they chose to.
Well, all that was about to change. Pegasi like him were tired of being third-class citizens. Today was a very special day, it was the beginning of when they would take back what was theirs.
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
He stood up off of the bench. That was the signal that he was waiting for, the cue to gather. Soon, everypony in this city would be forced to understand that the pegasi were not their slaves. They would know that change was here.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:33 pm
Timestamp:
--10:28 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
Pushing clouds around was not as easy at it looked. Soarin’ had found this out fairly quickly when he joined the weather team of Ravaalon, but it wasn’t anything like practice for the Wonderbolts.
If anything, he’d gotten lazy since his retirement. Not that one could tell from having to get up at seven am that morning to go help clear the sky. The speech for the fifteenth anniversary of Ravaalon’s founding was scheduled for noon, and the entirety of the weather team had agreed to stop before then. Unfortunately, this also meant that they had to work hard and fast that morning.
“Phew!” Soarin’ wiped his brow of the sweat he’d accumulated, having flown back and forth all over the city to clear it of stray clouds. “Thank Luna I’m finally done! What time is it?”
Soarin’ glanced over at the clock tower that overshadowed the dais and the surrounding plaza. Just in time, too, because at that moment the clock struck for the eleventh hour. Good timing, too, because that was the agreed time for the weather workers to stop for the day. It would give them all time to fly home real quick and freshen up a bit before they attended the ceremony, which had been the whole point of stopping that early.
In Soarin’s case, he just dashed back to the weather facility, pulled some deodorant out of his locker and applied it, before checking out for the day. He flew leisurely back towards where the speech was going to be happening. As he casually spiraled high above the plaza, he spotted a very familiar mane.
With a grin at all the memories, he started to descend towards the dais to say hello.
The large clock over the square chimed ten-thirty when Spitfire finally made her way to the dais that was set up for today’s speech. She had been trying to get out of the office ever since she had gotten the officers on the field, but it was one thing after another keeping her tied up. However, finally with those issues out of the way, she could continue to the next and last item on her safety checklist: The Stage.
Spitfire, in light of recent events, was making sure that there were multiple exits for any important ponies showing up to give speeches. Not only that, but to get a general feel and an eyeball on things around it. Nothing set her more at ease than actually being there and seeing what she was up against before she had to deal with it, even back in her Wonderbolt days.
Gliding in over the rooftops and streets packed with reveling ponies, Spitfire landed on the dais with two other officers and proceeded to direct them on how she wanted it sealed off from the public. A few ropes there, a short barricade over here, a cleared alley behind.
It took longer than she expected with the masses of ponies milling around. But, thirty minutes later, and some dirty looks from some Earth ponies she shooed away, the stage was set. Now they would sit back and wait to see if Twilight Sparkle really would show up or not.
“Spitfire!” A familiar voice called.
Her eyebrows rose in surprise and she spun around to see Soarin’, her Wonderbolt second in command, landing in the middle of the dais.
One of the officers approached quickly, “I’m sorry sir, but this area is--”
“No that’s alright,” Spitfire interjected. “He’s a friend.”
Soarin’ raised an eyebrow, but promptly grinned back at her with that carefree attitude she knew all too well.
“You seem pretty run down. The rookies causing you trouble again?” He spoke loudly, as the clock tower above them had begun it’s arduous clanging.
Spitfire scoffed. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Just making sure. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Well, you know, work,” she sighed. “I swear, being a Wonderbolt wasn’t so bad when you could set your own hours.”
“It was definitely easier. Are you busy right now?”
“Just finished, actually. What’s up?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to catch up over some lunch. I’ll buy.”
Glancing up at the clock, Spitfire considered it as it finished exclaiming it’s time. “Sure, why not? We’ve got an hour before the speech. Just so long as I’m taking care of things a few minutes before it starts everything should be okay.”
Soarin' looked around the square before pointing towards a small café. "Hayfries and burgers sound good?"
She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off as as her stomach spoke, loudly, for her.
“Heh, I didn’t eat much for breakfast,” Spitfire said. “Anything sounds good, really.”
The two pegasi made their way down the platform and pushed their way through the crowd. While Spitfire often used her air privileges to get around while on duty, it would have been inconvenient as well as rude to do so with Soarin there.
Back in Canterlot and Equestria’s other main cities, the streets were wide and the shops spaced to convenience pegasi flying around. It lessened the crowds for more magically talented unicorns as well. But, here in Ravaalon, they did not have those luxuries, thus making restricted air traffic a necessity.
Getting into a long line at one of the many tofu burger stands, Spitfire picked up the conversation.
“So, Soarin’, how’s the weather work treating you these days? You’ve gotta be one of the oldest guys on the team!” she joked.
He chuckled. “Oh yeah. I’m the most popular guy there. I get requests for autographs all the time.”
Spitfire rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, but couldn’t hide a smile. “Yes,” she drawled, “I bet the mares just can’t keep their hooves off you while you’re taking your pie breaks.”
“It can get a little tiring, but I doubt it’s anything like the stallions you’ve got swooning over you.”
“Ha! Please, a week into their training and officers can’t stand the sight of my flank.” Spitfire paused with a thoughtful look. “Although, it might have something to do with them having to get eye level with it while doing wing-ups.”
Soarin’ snorted. “Your favorite punishment.”
“Yours too, as I recall.” Spitfire responded pointedly.
“Touché.” Soarin’ sighed as he took another step forward in line. “I don’t know about you, but I sometimes miss the others.”
Spitfire chuckled. “Yea. But I think they had the right idea though. They’re all probably enjoying retirement to its fullest.”
Suddenly, a foalish voice screamed, “MOMMA LOOK! It’s Spitfire and Soarink! The two most famous and bestest Wonderbolts in history!”
Startled, the two (ex) Wonderbolts turned to see an aqua blue filly pegasus with a blue mane dashing towards them. She was fluttering her wings for extra speed, but was almost dumping herself on the ground every other step in her excitement as she weaved between the legs of ponies. Soarin’ bit his lip to keep quiet, while Spitfire had to bite down on a hoof to keep from laughing as she watched the filly’s mother try to keep up. The little one more or less crash landed in front of the two with bright, hopeful eyes.
“C-Can I h-have an autograph?”
The little filly’s mother landed behind her daughter shortly after. “Little missy! What have I told you about running off?” She reprimanded before turning to Soarin’. "I’m very sorry about her, she knows better than this.”
Soarin’ smiled. “It’s alright. I could never say no to a sweet filly like her.”
Taking the small sketchbook the filly fumbled out of her minute saddlebags, Soarin signed it with a flourish before hoofing it to Spitfire. Stepping further up the line, she gave it her signature before crouching down.
“There ya go, squirt!” Spitfire beamed. “Now, before you get this back I want some payment!”
Spitfire watched as the filly’s perked ears drooped as realization hit her. But before the filly could say anything, Spitfire held out her forearms suggestively.
With a squeal the filly bounded into the hug. “You’re so awesome Spitfire!”
“Aww, what about me?” Soarin’ asked, crouching down and holding out his forearms.
“You’re so awesome too, Soarink!” The little filly cried, dashing over to him and hugging him tightly.
“Alright... c’mon, sweetheart. We need to go meet up with Daddy.” The little filly’s mother gently enticed her away from the former Wonderbolts.
“Okay, Mommy. Bye-bye, Soarink! Bye-bye, Spitfire!”
The mare glanced at them again. “Thank you so much, you’ve just made her day.” She said with a smile.
“It’s what we do ma’am,” Spitfire responded automatically.
Glancing around at the crowd she noticed they were beginning to receive quite a few more looks than normal. Spitfire chuckled nervously.
“Heh, let’s get our food quick Soarin’.”
“Er... yes. Let’s.”
Soarin’ stepped up to the counter quickly, ignoring all the eyes on him with practiced ease. He got himself a tofu burger and hayfries to go with a big soda with Spitfire ordering right behind him. Together they pushed their way back through the crowd and behind the dais, that was now thankfully free of ponies due to Spitfires ministrations only a few minutes prior.
“The staring is one part of being a Wonderbolt that I don’t miss,” Soarin’ commented as he sat down at a good spot. “I bet you love it, though. All those stallions staring at your flank.”
“Well you know what they say, Soarin’. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” She grinned mischievously. “So, I can see why you don’t like the attention. Must be hard, coping with the wrinkles!”
“You’d know more about that than I would. I mean, you’ve got more of ‘em.”
“Please, I’m not the old stallion here. You’ve got years on me!”
“Oh my, is that jealousy that I hear? Are you jealous of my experiences in romance?”
“Ah yes! I remember, the hotels! The mares! The enchanting night skies! All... Oh wait, no wonder I remember those, that was me! Couldn’t ever go inside, because some stallion’s snoring rattled the windows eight floors down!”
“Yeah... Rapidfire’s snoring was pretty annoying, huh?”
“I have no idea how you could sleep through each other night after night,” Spitfire chuckled.
“Earplugs.”
They both laughed as they dug into their food. Little was said as they stuffed in the delicious hay fries and munched their burgers. Spitfire ate voraciously, reminded of only the granola bar she had eaten that morning. It was good to each other again. While they both lived in the same city, Spitfire’s rigorous schedule and Soarin’s intermittent one kept them from catching up far more than either liked. Their days as Wonderbolts may have been over, but the ties between them hadn’t waned.
Soarin’ burped in satisfaction. “Ahh... that was a good burger. Hayfries needed salt, though.” He paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, we really need to do something like this again sometime.”
With a sigh Spitfire glanced up at the large clock above their heads as it tolled again; they still had fifteen minutes. “I know, Soarin. But you know how things are getting crazy with the pegasus population. Every day things get a little worse and I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of helplessness!”
“I understand how you feel, Spitfire. I sometimes get some of the younger pegasi telling me to make a bigger stand, to be bolder with my support. I keep telling them that there’s a better way to do things than to start getting rowdy the way they are, but they just tell me I’m a stallion out of his time. A stallion that’s gotten old and become too much of a coward to do anything.”
Spitfire stared at a pebble on the ground. “I got into an argument with a pegasus last night. It went almost exactly like that.” Spitfire shook her head and sighed. “I’m afraid that unless Princess Sparkle returns things aren’t going to look so pretty here real soon.
“So you agree with me Soarin’? What has happened with ponies these days? I understand why the jobs have been becoming scarce for pegasi, but why is everypony just letting things get worse?”
“I have no idea why things are just being let go. It doesn’t really make any sense to me, either... sometimes I wonder if something might have happened to Princess Twilight."
Spitfire sighed again and opened her mouth to speak, but was distracted as she glanced down the alley they were sitting next to. Soarin’ glanced around and saw officers bustling up from all directions.
“Uh, Spitfire?” he asked.
She glanced up at the clock again, then back at Soarin’. “I gotta get back to work, Soarin’. I’ve got speeches to oversee and ponies to keep in check.” She got up and crumpled up her wrappers. “I’ll send you a note after today, alright? We should certainly do this again soon.”
Soarin’ nodded and got up, crumpling his wrappers as well. “I’ll keep an eye out for it. Good luck with keeping everything in order. And... Spitfire? Stay safe, okay?”
Spitfire grinned. “You too, you big lug!”
Soarin’ grinned and shook his head at her cavalier attitude. But with a quick wave he hurried out of the enclosed area before anypony made him. He pushed back through the crowd, looking for a place to get a good view of the proceedings.
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
[Written in collaboration with Muse Scroll, who is an awesome Soarin'!]
--10:28 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
Pushing clouds around was not as easy at it looked. Soarin’ had found this out fairly quickly when he joined the weather team of Ravaalon, but it wasn’t anything like practice for the Wonderbolts.
If anything, he’d gotten lazy since his retirement. Not that one could tell from having to get up at seven am that morning to go help clear the sky. The speech for the fifteenth anniversary of Ravaalon’s founding was scheduled for noon, and the entirety of the weather team had agreed to stop before then. Unfortunately, this also meant that they had to work hard and fast that morning.
“Phew!” Soarin’ wiped his brow of the sweat he’d accumulated, having flown back and forth all over the city to clear it of stray clouds. “Thank Luna I’m finally done! What time is it?”
Soarin’ glanced over at the clock tower that overshadowed the dais and the surrounding plaza. Just in time, too, because at that moment the clock struck for the eleventh hour. Good timing, too, because that was the agreed time for the weather workers to stop for the day. It would give them all time to fly home real quick and freshen up a bit before they attended the ceremony, which had been the whole point of stopping that early.
In Soarin’s case, he just dashed back to the weather facility, pulled some deodorant out of his locker and applied it, before checking out for the day. He flew leisurely back towards where the speech was going to be happening. As he casually spiraled high above the plaza, he spotted a very familiar mane.
With a grin at all the memories, he started to descend towards the dais to say hello.
The large clock over the square chimed ten-thirty when Spitfire finally made her way to the dais that was set up for today’s speech. She had been trying to get out of the office ever since she had gotten the officers on the field, but it was one thing after another keeping her tied up. However, finally with those issues out of the way, she could continue to the next and last item on her safety checklist: The Stage.
Spitfire, in light of recent events, was making sure that there were multiple exits for any important ponies showing up to give speeches. Not only that, but to get a general feel and an eyeball on things around it. Nothing set her more at ease than actually being there and seeing what she was up against before she had to deal with it, even back in her Wonderbolt days.
Gliding in over the rooftops and streets packed with reveling ponies, Spitfire landed on the dais with two other officers and proceeded to direct them on how she wanted it sealed off from the public. A few ropes there, a short barricade over here, a cleared alley behind.
It took longer than she expected with the masses of ponies milling around. But, thirty minutes later, and some dirty looks from some Earth ponies she shooed away, the stage was set. Now they would sit back and wait to see if Twilight Sparkle really would show up or not.
“Spitfire!” A familiar voice called.
Her eyebrows rose in surprise and she spun around to see Soarin’, her Wonderbolt second in command, landing in the middle of the dais.
One of the officers approached quickly, “I’m sorry sir, but this area is--”
“No that’s alright,” Spitfire interjected. “He’s a friend.”
Soarin’ raised an eyebrow, but promptly grinned back at her with that carefree attitude she knew all too well.
“You seem pretty run down. The rookies causing you trouble again?” He spoke loudly, as the clock tower above them had begun it’s arduous clanging.
Spitfire scoffed. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Just making sure. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Well, you know, work,” she sighed. “I swear, being a Wonderbolt wasn’t so bad when you could set your own hours.”
“It was definitely easier. Are you busy right now?”
“Just finished, actually. What’s up?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to catch up over some lunch. I’ll buy.”
Glancing up at the clock, Spitfire considered it as it finished exclaiming it’s time. “Sure, why not? We’ve got an hour before the speech. Just so long as I’m taking care of things a few minutes before it starts everything should be okay.”
Soarin' looked around the square before pointing towards a small café. "Hayfries and burgers sound good?"
She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off as as her stomach spoke, loudly, for her.
“Heh, I didn’t eat much for breakfast,” Spitfire said. “Anything sounds good, really.”
The two pegasi made their way down the platform and pushed their way through the crowd. While Spitfire often used her air privileges to get around while on duty, it would have been inconvenient as well as rude to do so with Soarin there.
Back in Canterlot and Equestria’s other main cities, the streets were wide and the shops spaced to convenience pegasi flying around. It lessened the crowds for more magically talented unicorns as well. But, here in Ravaalon, they did not have those luxuries, thus making restricted air traffic a necessity.
Getting into a long line at one of the many tofu burger stands, Spitfire picked up the conversation.
“So, Soarin’, how’s the weather work treating you these days? You’ve gotta be one of the oldest guys on the team!” she joked.
He chuckled. “Oh yeah. I’m the most popular guy there. I get requests for autographs all the time.”
Spitfire rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, but couldn’t hide a smile. “Yes,” she drawled, “I bet the mares just can’t keep their hooves off you while you’re taking your pie breaks.”
“It can get a little tiring, but I doubt it’s anything like the stallions you’ve got swooning over you.”
“Ha! Please, a week into their training and officers can’t stand the sight of my flank.” Spitfire paused with a thoughtful look. “Although, it might have something to do with them having to get eye level with it while doing wing-ups.”
Soarin’ snorted. “Your favorite punishment.”
“Yours too, as I recall.” Spitfire responded pointedly.
“Touché.” Soarin’ sighed as he took another step forward in line. “I don’t know about you, but I sometimes miss the others.”
Spitfire chuckled. “Yea. But I think they had the right idea though. They’re all probably enjoying retirement to its fullest.”
Suddenly, a foalish voice screamed, “MOMMA LOOK! It’s Spitfire and Soarink! The two most famous and bestest Wonderbolts in history!”
Startled, the two (ex) Wonderbolts turned to see an aqua blue filly pegasus with a blue mane dashing towards them. She was fluttering her wings for extra speed, but was almost dumping herself on the ground every other step in her excitement as she weaved between the legs of ponies. Soarin’ bit his lip to keep quiet, while Spitfire had to bite down on a hoof to keep from laughing as she watched the filly’s mother try to keep up. The little one more or less crash landed in front of the two with bright, hopeful eyes.
“C-Can I h-have an autograph?”
The little filly’s mother landed behind her daughter shortly after. “Little missy! What have I told you about running off?” She reprimanded before turning to Soarin’. "I’m very sorry about her, she knows better than this.”
Soarin’ smiled. “It’s alright. I could never say no to a sweet filly like her.”
Taking the small sketchbook the filly fumbled out of her minute saddlebags, Soarin signed it with a flourish before hoofing it to Spitfire. Stepping further up the line, she gave it her signature before crouching down.
“There ya go, squirt!” Spitfire beamed. “Now, before you get this back I want some payment!”
Spitfire watched as the filly’s perked ears drooped as realization hit her. But before the filly could say anything, Spitfire held out her forearms suggestively.
With a squeal the filly bounded into the hug. “You’re so awesome Spitfire!”
“Aww, what about me?” Soarin’ asked, crouching down and holding out his forearms.
“You’re so awesome too, Soarink!” The little filly cried, dashing over to him and hugging him tightly.
“Alright... c’mon, sweetheart. We need to go meet up with Daddy.” The little filly’s mother gently enticed her away from the former Wonderbolts.
“Okay, Mommy. Bye-bye, Soarink! Bye-bye, Spitfire!”
The mare glanced at them again. “Thank you so much, you’ve just made her day.” She said with a smile.
“It’s what we do ma’am,” Spitfire responded automatically.
Glancing around at the crowd she noticed they were beginning to receive quite a few more looks than normal. Spitfire chuckled nervously.
“Heh, let’s get our food quick Soarin’.”
“Er... yes. Let’s.”
Soarin’ stepped up to the counter quickly, ignoring all the eyes on him with practiced ease. He got himself a tofu burger and hayfries to go with a big soda with Spitfire ordering right behind him. Together they pushed their way back through the crowd and behind the dais, that was now thankfully free of ponies due to Spitfires ministrations only a few minutes prior.
“The staring is one part of being a Wonderbolt that I don’t miss,” Soarin’ commented as he sat down at a good spot. “I bet you love it, though. All those stallions staring at your flank.”
“Well you know what they say, Soarin’. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” She grinned mischievously. “So, I can see why you don’t like the attention. Must be hard, coping with the wrinkles!”
“You’d know more about that than I would. I mean, you’ve got more of ‘em.”
“Please, I’m not the old stallion here. You’ve got years on me!”
“Oh my, is that jealousy that I hear? Are you jealous of my experiences in romance?”
“Ah yes! I remember, the hotels! The mares! The enchanting night skies! All... Oh wait, no wonder I remember those, that was me! Couldn’t ever go inside, because some stallion’s snoring rattled the windows eight floors down!”
“Yeah... Rapidfire’s snoring was pretty annoying, huh?”
“I have no idea how you could sleep through each other night after night,” Spitfire chuckled.
“Earplugs.”
They both laughed as they dug into their food. Little was said as they stuffed in the delicious hay fries and munched their burgers. Spitfire ate voraciously, reminded of only the granola bar she had eaten that morning. It was good to each other again. While they both lived in the same city, Spitfire’s rigorous schedule and Soarin’s intermittent one kept them from catching up far more than either liked. Their days as Wonderbolts may have been over, but the ties between them hadn’t waned.
Soarin’ burped in satisfaction. “Ahh... that was a good burger. Hayfries needed salt, though.” He paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, we really need to do something like this again sometime.”
With a sigh Spitfire glanced up at the large clock above their heads as it tolled again; they still had fifteen minutes. “I know, Soarin. But you know how things are getting crazy with the pegasus population. Every day things get a little worse and I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of helplessness!”
“I understand how you feel, Spitfire. I sometimes get some of the younger pegasi telling me to make a bigger stand, to be bolder with my support. I keep telling them that there’s a better way to do things than to start getting rowdy the way they are, but they just tell me I’m a stallion out of his time. A stallion that’s gotten old and become too much of a coward to do anything.”
Spitfire stared at a pebble on the ground. “I got into an argument with a pegasus last night. It went almost exactly like that.” Spitfire shook her head and sighed. “I’m afraid that unless Princess Sparkle returns things aren’t going to look so pretty here real soon.
“So you agree with me Soarin’? What has happened with ponies these days? I understand why the jobs have been becoming scarce for pegasi, but why is everypony just letting things get worse?”
“I have no idea why things are just being let go. It doesn’t really make any sense to me, either... sometimes I wonder if something might have happened to Princess Twilight."
Spitfire sighed again and opened her mouth to speak, but was distracted as she glanced down the alley they were sitting next to. Soarin’ glanced around and saw officers bustling up from all directions.
“Uh, Spitfire?” he asked.
She glanced up at the clock again, then back at Soarin’. “I gotta get back to work, Soarin’. I’ve got speeches to oversee and ponies to keep in check.” She got up and crumpled up her wrappers. “I’ll send you a note after today, alright? We should certainly do this again soon.”
Soarin’ nodded and got up, crumpling his wrappers as well. “I’ll keep an eye out for it. Good luck with keeping everything in order. And... Spitfire? Stay safe, okay?”
Spitfire grinned. “You too, you big lug!”
Soarin’ grinned and shook his head at her cavalier attitude. But with a quick wave he hurried out of the enclosed area before anypony made him. He pushed back through the crowd, looking for a place to get a good view of the proceedings.
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
[Written in collaboration with Muse Scroll, who is an awesome Soarin'!]
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:33 pm
Timestamp:
11:50 AM July 13th, Ravaalon’s 15th Annual Founding Day
Today was the day: the fifteenth Founder’s Day Anniversary.
Today was the day that Princess Twilight Sparkle, at noon sharp, would give a speech about their town.
The town that was, in her absence, falling apart at the seams.
Either way, big things were going to happen today. And Valiant Flight needed to be there just in case things got a little hectic.
So he’d gotten up early, at around 9 AM, and got straight to work as a cloud pusher. The orders from the factory were to have the skies cleared by noon. The station in the city had agreed to have it done an hour earlier than that, so that everypony could head home for a quick break to freshen up.
The biggest thing that Valiant was worried about were the many factions that were around Ravaalon, specifically the ones for pegasi. He was a part of one. Was being the key word. That group had started to get more violent and rowdy, and he’d stepped out.
Being violent like that was not alright with him.
Right now, though, he sat in the square, in the shade of one of the buildings, waiting for the speech to start...
And he was seriously hoping that Princess Twilight Sparkle would show up and fix this mess.
Valiant was jarred out of his thoughts when he heard something.
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
11:50 AM July 13th, Ravaalon’s 15th Annual Founding Day
Today was the day: the fifteenth Founder’s Day Anniversary.
Today was the day that Princess Twilight Sparkle, at noon sharp, would give a speech about their town.
The town that was, in her absence, falling apart at the seams.
Either way, big things were going to happen today. And Valiant Flight needed to be there just in case things got a little hectic.
So he’d gotten up early, at around 9 AM, and got straight to work as a cloud pusher. The orders from the factory were to have the skies cleared by noon. The station in the city had agreed to have it done an hour earlier than that, so that everypony could head home for a quick break to freshen up.
The biggest thing that Valiant was worried about were the many factions that were around Ravaalon, specifically the ones for pegasi. He was a part of one. Was being the key word. That group had started to get more violent and rowdy, and he’d stepped out.
Being violent like that was not alright with him.
Right now, though, he sat in the square, in the shade of one of the buildings, waiting for the speech to start...
And he was seriously hoping that Princess Twilight Sparkle would show up and fix this mess.
Valiant was jarred out of his thoughts when he heard something.
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:45 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:33 pm
Timestamp:
11:55 AM July 13th, Ravaalon’s 15th Annual Founding Day.
Lady Citrus Orange sat quietly as the countdown to the Founding Day speech was announced, and cheers erupted from the excited crowd.
The mare watched from her table, her face hidden from the beating sun with a large ornate hat. She lent forward, and took a small measured sip of tea. After all, there was no rush and she already had an excellent view of the upcoming frivolities.
By her side was an older Unicorn stallion - his pelt and mane a dark grey. He was wearing the smart uniform of a upper class butler, and would occasionally shoo away ponies that attempted to sit with her - either because they were trying to get her attention for some dull business proposition or were simply too common to know who she was.
Citrus took a moment to catch her reflection in a mirror nearby. Her dress was plain and simple, but no less attractive for it - like many of the richer mares at the celebration, she was expected to make some effort - even if it caused her some small discomfort. At least she didn't look like a painted peacock, desperately vying for attention like some of the other nobles.
"It seems we will be beginning shortly," Her butler said quietly, refilling her empty cup.
"Oh quite," Citrus replied, sounding rather bored as she took a sip and gave him a curt nod.
"A magical day for us all, I'm sure..."
11:55 AM July 13th, Ravaalon’s 15th Annual Founding Day.
Lady Citrus Orange sat quietly as the countdown to the Founding Day speech was announced, and cheers erupted from the excited crowd.
The mare watched from her table, her face hidden from the beating sun with a large ornate hat. She lent forward, and took a small measured sip of tea. After all, there was no rush and she already had an excellent view of the upcoming frivolities.
By her side was an older Unicorn stallion - his pelt and mane a dark grey. He was wearing the smart uniform of a upper class butler, and would occasionally shoo away ponies that attempted to sit with her - either because they were trying to get her attention for some dull business proposition or were simply too common to know who she was.
Citrus took a moment to catch her reflection in a mirror nearby. Her dress was plain and simple, but no less attractive for it - like many of the richer mares at the celebration, she was expected to make some effort - even if it caused her some small discomfort. At least she didn't look like a painted peacock, desperately vying for attention like some of the other nobles.
"It seems we will be beginning shortly," Her butler said quietly, refilling her empty cup.
"Oh quite," Citrus replied, sounding rather bored as she took a sip and gave him a curt nod.
"A magical day for us all, I'm sure..."
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:34 pm
>> DarkPhoenix>> Sasha Nein>> Conicer>> DrTechno>> Earl Grey>> Hipster Pony Raven Horn>> notMurphy>> Venatus75>> JaketheGinger>> Muse Scroll>> Spaced
Hello, all. Just thought I'd give you an update. (PS, thank you DarkPhoenix for letting me know) As you have no doubt noticed, last week PC said he'd move the plot along, but he has unfortunately fallen ill and hasn't been online lately. Doubly unfortunate, PC has not shared the details of what he plans to do next with me, so I am incapable of moving it along myself. I ask for your patience as PC recovers, and I will attempt to get into contact with him myself in order that I may move the plot along.
If you desire, you may continue to RP as you see fit. Either myself or PC will make an announcement when the plot is ready to move on.
Please do not reply to this message, I just wanted to ensure that everyone would be notified.
-Tricondon
Hello, all. Just thought I'd give you an update. (PS, thank you DarkPhoenix for letting me know) As you have no doubt noticed, last week PC said he'd move the plot along, but he has unfortunately fallen ill and hasn't been online lately. Doubly unfortunate, PC has not shared the details of what he plans to do next with me, so I am incapable of moving it along myself. I ask for your patience as PC recovers, and I will attempt to get into contact with him myself in order that I may move the plot along.
If you desire, you may continue to RP as you see fit. Either myself or PC will make an announcement when the plot is ready to move on.
Please do not reply to this message, I just wanted to ensure that everyone would be notified.
-Tricondon
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:34 pm
Timestamp:
11:53 AM, July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th annual Founding Day
The main plaza of the Administration District was packed full of ponies. Pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies alike were collected in one place is a seemingly peaceful gathering and Crescent started to think there was still a hope for this city after all. A medium-sized Ursa Major doll hang from the hilt of his enchanted sword which he had claimed from the booth he had won at, he wasn’t much for carrying around one of the bigger teddies. Looking up at a clock over a store, there was still a minute or so to the speech was suppose to be so he might as well just hang around.
Trotting around all day plus the run from the bouncers had worn his hooves and he went to sit down at a table, but a very high-class butler that was sitting with a honeycomb orange mare gave him a sharp look that warned him of trying to sit. He instead went over to a bench a sea blue pegasus just left and took the seat, letting his hooves rest as he felt them burn slightly.
“Hey, is that a weal sword?” A little colt with light grey fur with some darker freckles. He was staring big-eyed at the blade by his side. The kid’s interest gave Crescent a heroic smile.
“Sure is kid, a really sharp one at that too.” Carefully taking it out, he showed the awed foal. “It has a magical spell carved into it as well, it makes it easier for me to use certain types of magic.”
“Can you show me? Plweeas.” Using magic in a big, crowded area like this was probably illegal, but the look from the kid was difficult to say no to.
He pointed the tip up, but kept the hilt to the ground so it didn’t point out above ponies head. It was a bit higher than the foal so it was no fear of burning his mane off by accident. He concentrated on a small burst and it felt like trying to thread a needle, but suddenly a tiny flame proofed to life on the sword’s tip a little bigger than a normal candle flame. His face broke into a wide grin and he clapped as Crescent blew the flame out.
“Oh wow, do you use it as a light in the dawk when you explowe old templews and caves?” It made him chuckle that he thought he was some sort of knight on adventure.
“No kid, but not a bad idea, I’ll be sure to remember that.” He put the sword back in the sleathe as the foal eyed the nightblue bear with white spots beside the seat.
“Awen’t you a bit a old to have a teddy?” He followed his look and smiled.
“Yeah, I kinda am, but that’s not a normal plushie, it’s a real Ursa Major.” He gasped, taking the fake story seriously. “It got cursed by... Princess Twilight, yeah, Princess Twilight to protect Ravaalon when it still was on the ground. Realizing it was too dangerous on the ground, she brought the city up in the sky where it is now.”
“Then why do you have the bear then?” Crescent bit his lip a bit, trying to come up with something.
“Because.... I was one of her royal guards a long time ago. She gave me this so that I might find someone with a good heart to help out with a problem that would be rising which it is now?” He lowered his voice to a whisper as it was a secret and that others wouldn’t hear it. “I bet you have heard about the pegasi problem?” He nodded.
“Yeah, my mom and dad thinks I don’t hear, but I heawd them say that the pegasuses would make a lot of pwoblem if they wasn’t dealt with soon.” Crescent didn’t like the bad name pegasi had gotten, some of his best friends back home were pegasi.
“Well the problem isn’t that they are bad, they just have it more difficult than other ponies. Now this minimized Ursa,” he picked up the teddy he had won with his magic. “I was to give this to a foal that when he grew up, would work to unite every pony and put everypony on the same level as it were before. Hey, maybe you are that foal.”
“Me?!” the foal said shocked. “Y-you think I could do that?”
“Of course, you seem like a kid that could do great things when he grows up. Don’t worry about the spell, as long as you believe everpony will be treated the same one day, it will keep it as a normal--looking teddy.” The foal just gawked as he gave him the teddy.
“T-thank you mister, I will do my best.” He couldn’t do anything but smile at the foal that hugged the plushie.
“Call me Crescent, that’s what my friends calls me.” As he said that, a mare with a worried look came towards them.
“There you are, good Celestia, I told you to not walk off on your own.” Her voice was strict with a undertone of worry,
“I’m sworry mom.” He looked at the ground and the mother just sighed.
“It’s okay, you just scared me. Common, let’s go find your father. Hey, where did you get that from?”
“I got it from the fire knight,” he said, pointing back at Crescent.
“It was just a prize I won at a stand and since I don’t have much use for it, I thought I might give it to someone that wanted it.” He gave to kid a secret wink and he winked back as if to say ‘they won’t understand’’
“Well that was very nice of you, I hope he wasn’t bothering you.”
“No problem at all miss, he was a very polite, young stallion.” She gave him a small smile.
“Well, continue to have a happy Founder’s Day!” She started to disappear into the crowd.
“You too!” They were already gone in between all the other ponies.
Looking back at the clock he’d looked at earlier, it was just about to start. From what he’d heard the speech had been a recording most of the time lately, but ponies were saying this was going to be the year the Princess would show herself as she used to do. If she showed up or not wasn’t his biggest interest, it was just to attend this possibly last year of the city. It would definitely be on the top, well, second top thing of extraordinary things he had been a part of.
11:53 AM, July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th annual Founding Day
The main plaza of the Administration District was packed full of ponies. Pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies alike were collected in one place is a seemingly peaceful gathering and Crescent started to think there was still a hope for this city after all. A medium-sized Ursa Major doll hang from the hilt of his enchanted sword which he had claimed from the booth he had won at, he wasn’t much for carrying around one of the bigger teddies. Looking up at a clock over a store, there was still a minute or so to the speech was suppose to be so he might as well just hang around.
Trotting around all day plus the run from the bouncers had worn his hooves and he went to sit down at a table, but a very high-class butler that was sitting with a honeycomb orange mare gave him a sharp look that warned him of trying to sit. He instead went over to a bench a sea blue pegasus just left and took the seat, letting his hooves rest as he felt them burn slightly.
“Hey, is that a weal sword?” A little colt with light grey fur with some darker freckles. He was staring big-eyed at the blade by his side. The kid’s interest gave Crescent a heroic smile.
“Sure is kid, a really sharp one at that too.” Carefully taking it out, he showed the awed foal. “It has a magical spell carved into it as well, it makes it easier for me to use certain types of magic.”
“Can you show me? Plweeas.” Using magic in a big, crowded area like this was probably illegal, but the look from the kid was difficult to say no to.
He pointed the tip up, but kept the hilt to the ground so it didn’t point out above ponies head. It was a bit higher than the foal so it was no fear of burning his mane off by accident. He concentrated on a small burst and it felt like trying to thread a needle, but suddenly a tiny flame proofed to life on the sword’s tip a little bigger than a normal candle flame. His face broke into a wide grin and he clapped as Crescent blew the flame out.
“Oh wow, do you use it as a light in the dawk when you explowe old templews and caves?” It made him chuckle that he thought he was some sort of knight on adventure.
“No kid, but not a bad idea, I’ll be sure to remember that.” He put the sword back in the sleathe as the foal eyed the nightblue bear with white spots beside the seat.
“Awen’t you a bit a old to have a teddy?” He followed his look and smiled.
“Yeah, I kinda am, but that’s not a normal plushie, it’s a real Ursa Major.” He gasped, taking the fake story seriously. “It got cursed by... Princess Twilight, yeah, Princess Twilight to protect Ravaalon when it still was on the ground. Realizing it was too dangerous on the ground, she brought the city up in the sky where it is now.”
“Then why do you have the bear then?” Crescent bit his lip a bit, trying to come up with something.
“Because.... I was one of her royal guards a long time ago. She gave me this so that I might find someone with a good heart to help out with a problem that would be rising which it is now?” He lowered his voice to a whisper as it was a secret and that others wouldn’t hear it. “I bet you have heard about the pegasi problem?” He nodded.
“Yeah, my mom and dad thinks I don’t hear, but I heawd them say that the pegasuses would make a lot of pwoblem if they wasn’t dealt with soon.” Crescent didn’t like the bad name pegasi had gotten, some of his best friends back home were pegasi.
“Well the problem isn’t that they are bad, they just have it more difficult than other ponies. Now this minimized Ursa,” he picked up the teddy he had won with his magic. “I was to give this to a foal that when he grew up, would work to unite every pony and put everypony on the same level as it were before. Hey, maybe you are that foal.”
“Me?!” the foal said shocked. “Y-you think I could do that?”
“Of course, you seem like a kid that could do great things when he grows up. Don’t worry about the spell, as long as you believe everpony will be treated the same one day, it will keep it as a normal--looking teddy.” The foal just gawked as he gave him the teddy.
“T-thank you mister, I will do my best.” He couldn’t do anything but smile at the foal that hugged the plushie.
“Call me Crescent, that’s what my friends calls me.” As he said that, a mare with a worried look came towards them.
“There you are, good Celestia, I told you to not walk off on your own.” Her voice was strict with a undertone of worry,
“I’m sworry mom.” He looked at the ground and the mother just sighed.
“It’s okay, you just scared me. Common, let’s go find your father. Hey, where did you get that from?”
“I got it from the fire knight,” he said, pointing back at Crescent.
“It was just a prize I won at a stand and since I don’t have much use for it, I thought I might give it to someone that wanted it.” He gave to kid a secret wink and he winked back as if to say ‘they won’t understand’’
“Well that was very nice of you, I hope he wasn’t bothering you.”
“No problem at all miss, he was a very polite, young stallion.” She gave him a small smile.
“Well, continue to have a happy Founder’s Day!” She started to disappear into the crowd.
“You too!” They were already gone in between all the other ponies.
Looking back at the clock he’d looked at earlier, it was just about to start. From what he’d heard the speech had been a recording most of the time lately, but ponies were saying this was going to be the year the Princess would show herself as she used to do. If she showed up or not wasn’t his biggest interest, it was just to attend this possibly last year of the city. It would definitely be on the top, well, second top thing of extraordinary things he had been a part of.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:34 pm
As Tri has shown, from now on GM announcements will be marked by quote boxes! Now, to the Event. Sorry for the delay--I wasn't expecting my real job to exhaust me as much as it did, right after I was sick, as Tri mentioned. Now I've got our expected big plot events written down where Tri can see and proceed with them if I am unavailable. So hopefully no more such delays!
A few things: you guys are doing really good. I like it. A couple of you need to spend a little less time on your own--PM some other players and get involved, guys!
So, I'll be posting this and then PMing some of you with plot threads for you to pull on. You can expand upon those how you like, reacting as your characters would naturally.
Please respond in your next post to this post. Whatever actions should begin here. You can post to, oh, let's say July 19th, 6 am.
>> DarkPhoenix>> Sasha Nein>> Conicer>> DrTechno>> Earl Grey>> Hipster Pony Raven Horn>> notMurphy>> Venatus75>> JaketheGinger>> Muse Scroll>> Spaced
The square around town hall was silently abuzz; filled to the brim as it was with ponies of all sorts. True, there were more unicorns from the suburbs of the ResHex than anywhere else. But that was to be expected. Those with means were celebrating in private party halls somewhere nearby, or at one of the exclusive resort-restaurant clubs. If anypony had been paying enough attention, they would have noticed the minority that were the pegasi and that those pegasi in attendance were staying in tight knots to themselves, often along the alleyways out of the way.
But even still--everypony was far too enthralled, their eyes watching the central dais that had been constructed for just this moment. The sun was bright, with just enough cloud cover combined with a light breeze to keep the temperature nice and comfortable. The town square's grand central fountain stood majestic, its statues of the three tribes unified around the city despite the reality surrounding it.
It was nearly noon--would the Princess show? A microphone, tied into the city announcement network, was set up, but otherwise there was nopony upon the dais. Some of RPD's finest kept a respectful perimeter--enough space so they could act if something happened, but close enough that everypony didn't feel excluded or unwanted.
The massive clock atop Town Hall showed noon and, with a massive release of steam and the dazzling mechanical show of various gears and pistons, began drumming out the hour.
Bong. Everypony held their breath--there had been no announcement to dissuade them. Bong. Was Princess Twilight going to show this year? Bong.
Countless pyrotechnicians, unseen by the waiting crowd, began moving to their spots, ready for the signal to begin the parade. Bong. The parade operators themselves readied their floats. Bong. A marching band blew out a few quiet notes, prepared to sound out Ravaalon's joyous anthem. Bong. At the same time, foals began crowding their way between various legs, trying to find a clear spot. Bong.
There--! Bong. Was that movement up on the podium? Bong. It was! Bong.
A unicorn had stepped up, bringing with him a simple stand which he set before the microphone. Bong. Then another--it was Ravaalon's mayor himself--set a large box-shaped object on top of it--it was a recorder, to the disappointment of all. Bong.
With the last ring, the mayor cleared his throat nervously, scratched at his thinning mane, and said, into the microphone, "Uh, I'm sorry to announce that Princess Twilight--though with you in this joyous celebration in heart--cannot attend and deliver the speech. She regrets to inform you all that her research, which is dedicated to assisting everypony of Ravaalon and Equestria, has kept her from coming. She wishes you all the best, to have a fantastic time. And in honor of her sacrifice for us as well as this, the fifteenth anniversary since the city's raising, the Council has decided to play her speech when the doors were freely opened to all ponykind. Thank you--and happy Founding Day, everypony!"
Though there was a strong chorus of "aww"s and "boo"s, everypony returned to their hushed and attentive state. Many had heard the original speech, but didn't mind hearing it again. And plenty had not been there to hear it and were eager to do so.
There was a small click, amplified by the microphone, then a few seconds of silence. It was then that Princess Twilight's voice filled the entire city, as it did so every year.
"Greetings, citizens of Equestria! And I guess I should say... Ponies of this city!" There was a pause as a large crowd cheered in the recording. When silence returned, she continued. "I also want to welcome all our gryphon and minotaur friends who helped in the construction of this, Equestria's greatest achievement.
"I want you all to consider this city a gift to Equestria. It has been a long, hard ten years--of research into magic and the construction itself. It is my hope that this city will shine as a beacon to the entire world that Equestria is truly a place of equals. That this city can be a proving grounds for a new branch of invention utilizing pony magic, no longer just for unicorns, but for all tribes!
"Let this day mark history, as with the story of Hearth's Warming, that nothing separates us as equals. Not our magic, not our tribe, not anything! Harmony reigns eternally in Equestria--through each and every one of you, her children.
"You have given me so much. A pony couldn't ask for better friends, for better subjects. Though my part in this city was small, every day I worked hard to return that gift. And so today, right now, I say to you: This city is open to all. No matter your tribe. No matter even if you're a pony! No matter your skills, your knowledge, your funds. This city is and always shall remain free to enter and to live.
"And now this city needs a name. A great many have been proposed--and to my own embarrassment many involve naming it after myself in some ways. But for a true beacon of equality...I turn to our oldest of histories.
"Over a thousand years ago, the capital city of Equestria was not Canterlot. No, it would be built much later after Celestia took the throne. No! Originally, near Canterlot in what is now the Everfree Forest, stood a majestic city whose very goal was to represent the harmony and equality of this nation. It's name was lost to memory and time, possibly to be forgotten by all but the most dedicated of scholars.
"Instead, I shall borrow its name for our fair city. To renew the promise of the rulers of old, of the ponies of old! Forevermore shall this city, this shining dedication to the magic of friendship and the glory of harmony, shall be named..." There was a long pause and the crowd could hear the intake of breath as the old crowd awaited the name of the city.
She said it simply, calmly, slowly. "Ravaalon."
An immense cheer from the recording let out, followed by explosions from the celebratory fireworks. In reality, too, did fireworks launch, exploding in a brilliant array of colors. They went on for just as long as the recording, returning the city to a low murmur of approval from the crowd.
Twilight spoke again, “Let today always be celebrated as the Founding Day of this great city! Everypony--unicorn, pegasus, earth--come together and celebrate harmony! Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer! For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!”
As the final word of the speech rang out, as the first notes were played by the band, as the first float began its slow movement forward...
There was an eardrum shattering howl as a massive and fiery explosion rocked and ripped through the east half of Town Hall, shooting fire and flaming stone, shards of glass and half-melted metal out into, and onto, the crowd.
A few things: you guys are doing really good. I like it. A couple of you need to spend a little less time on your own--PM some other players and get involved, guys!
So, I'll be posting this and then PMing some of you with plot threads for you to pull on. You can expand upon those how you like, reacting as your characters would naturally.
Please respond in your next post to this post. Whatever actions should begin here. You can post to, oh, let's say July 19th, 6 am.
>> DarkPhoenix>> Sasha Nein>> Conicer>> DrTechno>> Earl Grey>> Hipster Pony Raven Horn>> notMurphy>> Venatus75>> JaketheGinger>> Muse Scroll>> Spaced
The square around town hall was silently abuzz; filled to the brim as it was with ponies of all sorts. True, there were more unicorns from the suburbs of the ResHex than anywhere else. But that was to be expected. Those with means were celebrating in private party halls somewhere nearby, or at one of the exclusive resort-restaurant clubs. If anypony had been paying enough attention, they would have noticed the minority that were the pegasi and that those pegasi in attendance were staying in tight knots to themselves, often along the alleyways out of the way.
But even still--everypony was far too enthralled, their eyes watching the central dais that had been constructed for just this moment. The sun was bright, with just enough cloud cover combined with a light breeze to keep the temperature nice and comfortable. The town square's grand central fountain stood majestic, its statues of the three tribes unified around the city despite the reality surrounding it.
It was nearly noon--would the Princess show? A microphone, tied into the city announcement network, was set up, but otherwise there was nopony upon the dais. Some of RPD's finest kept a respectful perimeter--enough space so they could act if something happened, but close enough that everypony didn't feel excluded or unwanted.
The massive clock atop Town Hall showed noon and, with a massive release of steam and the dazzling mechanical show of various gears and pistons, began drumming out the hour.
Bong. Everypony held their breath--there had been no announcement to dissuade them. Bong. Was Princess Twilight going to show this year? Bong.
Countless pyrotechnicians, unseen by the waiting crowd, began moving to their spots, ready for the signal to begin the parade. Bong. The parade operators themselves readied their floats. Bong. A marching band blew out a few quiet notes, prepared to sound out Ravaalon's joyous anthem. Bong. At the same time, foals began crowding their way between various legs, trying to find a clear spot. Bong.
There--! Bong. Was that movement up on the podium? Bong. It was! Bong.
A unicorn had stepped up, bringing with him a simple stand which he set before the microphone. Bong. Then another--it was Ravaalon's mayor himself--set a large box-shaped object on top of it--it was a recorder, to the disappointment of all. Bong.
With the last ring, the mayor cleared his throat nervously, scratched at his thinning mane, and said, into the microphone, "Uh, I'm sorry to announce that Princess Twilight--though with you in this joyous celebration in heart--cannot attend and deliver the speech. She regrets to inform you all that her research, which is dedicated to assisting everypony of Ravaalon and Equestria, has kept her from coming. She wishes you all the best, to have a fantastic time. And in honor of her sacrifice for us as well as this, the fifteenth anniversary since the city's raising, the Council has decided to play her speech when the doors were freely opened to all ponykind. Thank you--and happy Founding Day, everypony!"
Though there was a strong chorus of "aww"s and "boo"s, everypony returned to their hushed and attentive state. Many had heard the original speech, but didn't mind hearing it again. And plenty had not been there to hear it and were eager to do so.
There was a small click, amplified by the microphone, then a few seconds of silence. It was then that Princess Twilight's voice filled the entire city, as it did so every year.
"Greetings, citizens of Equestria! And I guess I should say... Ponies of this city!" There was a pause as a large crowd cheered in the recording. When silence returned, she continued. "I also want to welcome all our gryphon and minotaur friends who helped in the construction of this, Equestria's greatest achievement.
"I want you all to consider this city a gift to Equestria. It has been a long, hard ten years--of research into magic and the construction itself. It is my hope that this city will shine as a beacon to the entire world that Equestria is truly a place of equals. That this city can be a proving grounds for a new branch of invention utilizing pony magic, no longer just for unicorns, but for all tribes!
"Let this day mark history, as with the story of Hearth's Warming, that nothing separates us as equals. Not our magic, not our tribe, not anything! Harmony reigns eternally in Equestria--through each and every one of you, her children.
"You have given me so much. A pony couldn't ask for better friends, for better subjects. Though my part in this city was small, every day I worked hard to return that gift. And so today, right now, I say to you: This city is open to all. No matter your tribe. No matter even if you're a pony! No matter your skills, your knowledge, your funds. This city is and always shall remain free to enter and to live.
"And now this city needs a name. A great many have been proposed--and to my own embarrassment many involve naming it after myself in some ways. But for a true beacon of equality...I turn to our oldest of histories.
"Over a thousand years ago, the capital city of Equestria was not Canterlot. No, it would be built much later after Celestia took the throne. No! Originally, near Canterlot in what is now the Everfree Forest, stood a majestic city whose very goal was to represent the harmony and equality of this nation. It's name was lost to memory and time, possibly to be forgotten by all but the most dedicated of scholars.
"Instead, I shall borrow its name for our fair city. To renew the promise of the rulers of old, of the ponies of old! Forevermore shall this city, this shining dedication to the magic of friendship and the glory of harmony, shall be named..." There was a long pause and the crowd could hear the intake of breath as the old crowd awaited the name of the city.
She said it simply, calmly, slowly. "Ravaalon."
An immense cheer from the recording let out, followed by explosions from the celebratory fireworks. In reality, too, did fireworks launch, exploding in a brilliant array of colors. They went on for just as long as the recording, returning the city to a low murmur of approval from the crowd.
Twilight spoke again, “Let today always be celebrated as the Founding Day of this great city! Everypony--unicorn, pegasus, earth--come together and celebrate harmony! Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer! For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!”
As the final word of the speech rang out, as the first notes were played by the band, as the first float began its slow movement forward...
There was an eardrum shattering howl as a massive and fiery explosion rocked and ripped through the east half of Town Hall, shooting fire and flaming stone, shards of glass and half-melted metal out into, and onto, the crowd.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:34 pm
12:12 pm July 13th, Raavalon's Founding Day
For several long moments Mirror's mind refused to put together the events of the last few moments. A flaming brick knocked the hat right off of her head and hardly registered. Spatters of metal struck the ground in front of her, spreading into a brownish-silver puddle. Glancing into it idly she saw her own reflection and it struck her. Someone has blown up City Hall. The Grand Square is on fire, and you need to run. So she ran.
She had never paid much attention to evacuation drills, everypony just shuffled through the motions, one more boring thing you did because you were told to. 'What's my motivation?' she'd asked her supervisor once, he'd just smirked and pushed her toward the exit. She'd seen crowds running for their lives, in plays, in serials, and plenty of times in illustrated novels. But the crowds never got anywhere, they just ran because it was scary and that was what you did. It was stupid–
A panicking stallion knocked into her, causing her to careen into a wall. "Outta' the way, grampa!"
Absurdly, she was about to reply in character, when she realized there was nopony to speak to, and nopony to hear anything she said... 'There!' she saw a group of pegasi moving into an alleyway. Starswirl would have said they were behaving surreptitiously (she'd spent an hour reading through a thesaurus to boost her vocab for her costume today). He also would have followed them, picking up details like the ratty looking cloaks several wore, while a few sported worn jerkins. Come to think of it they were all wearing raggedy clothing, most of it not well cared for, either.
It was at this point Mirror Shine realize she was following these odd pegasi. She made one longing glance back at the mouth of the alleyway before cocking the hat she wasn't wearing anymore and continuing. There was a mystery here, and if there wasn't a badflank archmagus around to unravel it, then by Luna maybe she could– and that was when she stepped on the rat.
For several long moments Mirror's mind refused to put together the events of the last few moments. A flaming brick knocked the hat right off of her head and hardly registered. Spatters of metal struck the ground in front of her, spreading into a brownish-silver puddle. Glancing into it idly she saw her own reflection and it struck her. Someone has blown up City Hall. The Grand Square is on fire, and you need to run. So she ran.
She had never paid much attention to evacuation drills, everypony just shuffled through the motions, one more boring thing you did because you were told to. 'What's my motivation?' she'd asked her supervisor once, he'd just smirked and pushed her toward the exit. She'd seen crowds running for their lives, in plays, in serials, and plenty of times in illustrated novels. But the crowds never got anywhere, they just ran because it was scary and that was what you did. It was stupid–
A panicking stallion knocked into her, causing her to careen into a wall. "Outta' the way, grampa!"
Absurdly, she was about to reply in character, when she realized there was nopony to speak to, and nopony to hear anything she said... 'There!' she saw a group of pegasi moving into an alleyway. Starswirl would have said they were behaving surreptitiously (she'd spent an hour reading through a thesaurus to boost her vocab for her costume today). He also would have followed them, picking up details like the ratty looking cloaks several wore, while a few sported worn jerkins. Come to think of it they were all wearing raggedy clothing, most of it not well cared for, either.
It was at this point Mirror Shine realize she was following these odd pegasi. She made one longing glance back at the mouth of the alleyway before cocking the hat she wasn't wearing anymore and continuing. There was a mystery here, and if there wasn't a badflank archmagus around to unravel it, then by Luna maybe she could– and that was when she stepped on the rat.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:35 pm
Timestamp:
10:15 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
Why did they call it the coconut shy? It seemed a bit silly. Coconuts aren't shy! They're coconuts, and it'd be absolutely coco if they were shy!
Pinkie was about to knock down the last coconut when she heard a voice from behind her. She extended her foreleg and released the ball the moment the pony began talking, making her miss the coconut by a significant portion. The stallspony chuckled. "No prize, sorry. Good luck next time."
"Excuse me dear, may I ask for your help in directing me towards The Clockwork Cupcake? I need to meet one of my oldest and dearest friends there," said the voice, although Pinkie was kinda too into the game she just lost to really take notice of it.
Despite that, she started to give a list of detailed instructions to her shop. Very detailed. Even down to discarded pieces of trash on the streets by bins. What could she say? Waypoints were useful in the streets that looked too much the same.
"—and after you turn a left at the lamppost next to that one really nice looking house..." She finally turned to face who she was talking to, and her jaw dropped.
After such a long while, there was Rarity, just as gorgeous and radiant as she always was. Pinkie just stood there for a while, eyes widened, taking everything in. After a while though, her expression relaxed, if only slightly, and she stuttered out, "R... Rarity...?"
Rarity giggled for a moment before flourishing her mane and said, "The one and only, my dear. I say we should make some time to catch up. It has been far too long, wouldn't you agree?"
Pinkie walked around her, prodding her repeatedly and in some places she really shouldn’t have. But, true to her word, she was the real deal. “You’re.... you’re here?”
“Och! Dear, do mind the coiffure! And... not... that’s an extraordinarily impolite spot to ouch, Pinkie. Yes, Pinkie, I’m here, and despite evidence to the contrary, I am not, in fact, a hallucination.“ Rarity winced as Pinkie continued her rather intimate inspection, but still gave a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure herself whether she could find Pinkie in this city, but with her here, her confidence in the future bounded up as joyfully as the happy ball of energy in front of her.
Pinkie was silent for a few more moments, then without warning, she gave Rarity an almost bone crushing hug. “It is you!! Oh my gosh, this is gonna be the best Founder’s Day ever! We’re gonna hang out, eat stuff, play games and have lotsa fun!”
Despite Rarity’s best efforts to escape, she was swept up in Pinkie’s particular brand of enthusiasm. “Whaaa-HUchthhh... …Pinkie... so good to... see you... but you’re... impeding my ability... to breath!”
“Oh, sorry!” Pinkie suddenly let her friend go, then carefully checked her over, almost frantically. “Are you okay?”
Rarity heaved herself from the conveniently placed mud puddle from the ground, and attempted to brush the dirt from her coat - which only seemed to spread it around. Still wearing an increasingly strained smile, Rarity said, “Never been better! Dear, I know it’s been a bit late, but I have had nothing for breakfast since I’ve arrived here. Why don’t we go out for a walk and have something to eat, hmm?”
“Yeah! We can definitely do that. Got any place in mind?” Pinkie asked, starting to walk along.
This time Rarity genuinely smiled, “I hear that your bakery has the best breads and beverages in town, Pinkie. Let’s see if that legendary baking skill of yours matches up to your reputation.”
Pinkie shuffled slightly, her ears flattening down. “Um... I don’t do that anymore. I mean, I cook, yeah, ‘cause cooking’s super fun.” A sad smile crossed her face. “But not for business anymore.”
Concern started to spread across Rarity’s face. “What do you mean it’s not for business- Oh. Oh dear, Pinkie, what happened?”
“I just couldn’t keep up with the competition,” Pinkie said with a shrug. She then shook her head. “Doesn’t matter anyways. I make toys now.”
“Well, I’m so glad to hear that you’re still in the position to make other ponies smile. Do you enjoy the work?”
Pinkie nodded rapidly. “Definitely. It’s a little harder than baking though, ‘cause it takes more time and concentration, but it’s so worth to see a child’s face when you give them that special something that they always wanted!”
“Then all is right in this world.” Rarity looked forward again with a smile. Soon, she spotted a restaurant. Hayseed’s Oats and Barley the sign displayed prominently on the front. Despite its common name, it looked lavishly furnished and decorated, something Rarity kept an eye for.
She trotted up to the entrance of the establishment. The front receptionist was a young mare that slouched in her chair before brightening at the sight of customers. “Welcome to Hayseed’s Oats and Barley!” she announced, “May I- Um, ma’am, what happened to your mane?”
At this point, Rarity had an incredible urge for a mirror, but she resolutely stayed put. “It... had a disagreement with a mud puddle. And lost. Seat for two, if you would be so kind? And directions to the nearest filly’s room would be marvelous as well.”
The receptionist showed them to their seats, which offered a nice view of the festivities going on outside. The bathrooms were nearby, the gender signs on the doors visible from where the two sat. Pinkie took her seat, then flicked through the menu. “Mmm. It all sounds so good, so I wonder how great it’ll taste!”
Rarity took a sprint to the restrooms to give her mane an impromptu makeover before discreetly sliding back down in the chair in front of Pinkie. “Choose whatever you like on the menu, my dear. Let’s just say that this little brunch is on me.”
She took a look at her own menu. “Hmm, I’d suggest the seasoned dandelion casserole with a side dish of rosemary. They always go so well together.”
“Alright, let’s go with that,” Pinkie replied, putting down her menu. “You gonna have the same?”
“Certainly! Now two cups of green tea will make it all complete.” Rarity gave her orders to their waiter before turning back to Pinkie. “Now this is certainly a spectacular view of the announcement. Let’s enjoy it when the time comes, hmm?”
Pinkie bobbed her head, her attention drifting over to a speaker hidden behind a potted plant. She turned to face Rarity. “Have you seen Twilight lately?” she asked, frowning just a little, her voice laced with concern.
Rarity looked at Pinkie as if she had grown another head. Which was entirely within the realm of possibility, but startling nonetheless. “Have I seen Twilight lately? Why most certainly! The last I’ve seen her... wait. When was the last time
I’ve seen her? Not at the garden party, she missed her birthday celebration... thrice.... why... I think I haven’t seen her for the past three years! And you’re saying that you haven’t seen her as well?”
Pinkie sighed, almost deflating. “Yeah. Not even for a public appearance. It’s like she’s vanished...” She swallowed. “Or worse.”
“Now, now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. She might be reclusive, and alarmingly so, but she won’t miss this announcement. It is practically written into law that she must be present for the starting ceremonies. In just a few minutes, she’ll be standing up there in the balcony and giving her merry speech. Afterwards, we can see if we can break her out of that shell of hers.” Rarity said with a wink. “I’m sure everything will be just fine...” She peered outwards to the balcony, over to the empty podium. A tendril of worry spread across her face. “...and then we’ll be together again...”
“But that’s the thing!” Pinkie said, leaning forward and placing both her forehooves on the table. “For the past couple Founder’s Days, she hasn’t even been seen! Only the same recordings are played...”
Rarity leaned back in a vain attempt to keep Pinkie’s head from bumping into hers. “I... what, really? Then this changes everything! First thing after the celebration, you and I are going to the palace to find what out studious friend is up to.
Missing the Founder’s Days? That is practically unheard of! I almost feel that I’ve been living under a rock in my trip to Canterlot, to be rightfully honest.”
Pinkie nodded and the two fell into an uncomfortable silence. Their food came a little later. Pinkie eat her fill, her movements rushed, as her eyes darted about. The sun was getting high in the sky, which could only mean one thing...
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
10:15 AM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
Why did they call it the coconut shy? It seemed a bit silly. Coconuts aren't shy! They're coconuts, and it'd be absolutely coco if they were shy!
Pinkie was about to knock down the last coconut when she heard a voice from behind her. She extended her foreleg and released the ball the moment the pony began talking, making her miss the coconut by a significant portion. The stallspony chuckled. "No prize, sorry. Good luck next time."
"Excuse me dear, may I ask for your help in directing me towards The Clockwork Cupcake? I need to meet one of my oldest and dearest friends there," said the voice, although Pinkie was kinda too into the game she just lost to really take notice of it.
Despite that, she started to give a list of detailed instructions to her shop. Very detailed. Even down to discarded pieces of trash on the streets by bins. What could she say? Waypoints were useful in the streets that looked too much the same.
"—and after you turn a left at the lamppost next to that one really nice looking house..." She finally turned to face who she was talking to, and her jaw dropped.
After such a long while, there was Rarity, just as gorgeous and radiant as she always was. Pinkie just stood there for a while, eyes widened, taking everything in. After a while though, her expression relaxed, if only slightly, and she stuttered out, "R... Rarity...?"
Rarity giggled for a moment before flourishing her mane and said, "The one and only, my dear. I say we should make some time to catch up. It has been far too long, wouldn't you agree?"
Pinkie walked around her, prodding her repeatedly and in some places she really shouldn’t have. But, true to her word, she was the real deal. “You’re.... you’re here?”
“Och! Dear, do mind the coiffure! And... not... that’s an extraordinarily impolite spot to ouch, Pinkie. Yes, Pinkie, I’m here, and despite evidence to the contrary, I am not, in fact, a hallucination.“ Rarity winced as Pinkie continued her rather intimate inspection, but still gave a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure herself whether she could find Pinkie in this city, but with her here, her confidence in the future bounded up as joyfully as the happy ball of energy in front of her.
Pinkie was silent for a few more moments, then without warning, she gave Rarity an almost bone crushing hug. “It is you!! Oh my gosh, this is gonna be the best Founder’s Day ever! We’re gonna hang out, eat stuff, play games and have lotsa fun!”
Despite Rarity’s best efforts to escape, she was swept up in Pinkie’s particular brand of enthusiasm. “Whaaa-HUchthhh... …Pinkie... so good to... see you... but you’re... impeding my ability... to breath!”
“Oh, sorry!” Pinkie suddenly let her friend go, then carefully checked her over, almost frantically. “Are you okay?”
Rarity heaved herself from the conveniently placed mud puddle from the ground, and attempted to brush the dirt from her coat - which only seemed to spread it around. Still wearing an increasingly strained smile, Rarity said, “Never been better! Dear, I know it’s been a bit late, but I have had nothing for breakfast since I’ve arrived here. Why don’t we go out for a walk and have something to eat, hmm?”
“Yeah! We can definitely do that. Got any place in mind?” Pinkie asked, starting to walk along.
This time Rarity genuinely smiled, “I hear that your bakery has the best breads and beverages in town, Pinkie. Let’s see if that legendary baking skill of yours matches up to your reputation.”
Pinkie shuffled slightly, her ears flattening down. “Um... I don’t do that anymore. I mean, I cook, yeah, ‘cause cooking’s super fun.” A sad smile crossed her face. “But not for business anymore.”
Concern started to spread across Rarity’s face. “What do you mean it’s not for business- Oh. Oh dear, Pinkie, what happened?”
“I just couldn’t keep up with the competition,” Pinkie said with a shrug. She then shook her head. “Doesn’t matter anyways. I make toys now.”
“Well, I’m so glad to hear that you’re still in the position to make other ponies smile. Do you enjoy the work?”
Pinkie nodded rapidly. “Definitely. It’s a little harder than baking though, ‘cause it takes more time and concentration, but it’s so worth to see a child’s face when you give them that special something that they always wanted!”
“Then all is right in this world.” Rarity looked forward again with a smile. Soon, she spotted a restaurant. Hayseed’s Oats and Barley the sign displayed prominently on the front. Despite its common name, it looked lavishly furnished and decorated, something Rarity kept an eye for.
She trotted up to the entrance of the establishment. The front receptionist was a young mare that slouched in her chair before brightening at the sight of customers. “Welcome to Hayseed’s Oats and Barley!” she announced, “May I- Um, ma’am, what happened to your mane?”
At this point, Rarity had an incredible urge for a mirror, but she resolutely stayed put. “It... had a disagreement with a mud puddle. And lost. Seat for two, if you would be so kind? And directions to the nearest filly’s room would be marvelous as well.”
The receptionist showed them to their seats, which offered a nice view of the festivities going on outside. The bathrooms were nearby, the gender signs on the doors visible from where the two sat. Pinkie took her seat, then flicked through the menu. “Mmm. It all sounds so good, so I wonder how great it’ll taste!”
Rarity took a sprint to the restrooms to give her mane an impromptu makeover before discreetly sliding back down in the chair in front of Pinkie. “Choose whatever you like on the menu, my dear. Let’s just say that this little brunch is on me.”
She took a look at her own menu. “Hmm, I’d suggest the seasoned dandelion casserole with a side dish of rosemary. They always go so well together.”
“Alright, let’s go with that,” Pinkie replied, putting down her menu. “You gonna have the same?”
“Certainly! Now two cups of green tea will make it all complete.” Rarity gave her orders to their waiter before turning back to Pinkie. “Now this is certainly a spectacular view of the announcement. Let’s enjoy it when the time comes, hmm?”
Pinkie bobbed her head, her attention drifting over to a speaker hidden behind a potted plant. She turned to face Rarity. “Have you seen Twilight lately?” she asked, frowning just a little, her voice laced with concern.
Rarity looked at Pinkie as if she had grown another head. Which was entirely within the realm of possibility, but startling nonetheless. “Have I seen Twilight lately? Why most certainly! The last I’ve seen her... wait. When was the last time
I’ve seen her? Not at the garden party, she missed her birthday celebration... thrice.... why... I think I haven’t seen her for the past three years! And you’re saying that you haven’t seen her as well?”
Pinkie sighed, almost deflating. “Yeah. Not even for a public appearance. It’s like she’s vanished...” She swallowed. “Or worse.”
“Now, now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. She might be reclusive, and alarmingly so, but she won’t miss this announcement. It is practically written into law that she must be present for the starting ceremonies. In just a few minutes, she’ll be standing up there in the balcony and giving her merry speech. Afterwards, we can see if we can break her out of that shell of hers.” Rarity said with a wink. “I’m sure everything will be just fine...” She peered outwards to the balcony, over to the empty podium. A tendril of worry spread across her face. “...and then we’ll be together again...”
“But that’s the thing!” Pinkie said, leaning forward and placing both her forehooves on the table. “For the past couple Founder’s Days, she hasn’t even been seen! Only the same recordings are played...”
Rarity leaned back in a vain attempt to keep Pinkie’s head from bumping into hers. “I... what, really? Then this changes everything! First thing after the celebration, you and I are going to the palace to find what out studious friend is up to.
Missing the Founder’s Days? That is practically unheard of! I almost feel that I’ve been living under a rock in my trip to Canterlot, to be rightfully honest.”
Pinkie nodded and the two fell into an uncomfortable silence. Their food came a little later. Pinkie eat her fill, her movements rushed, as her eyes darted about. The sun was getting high in the sky, which could only mean one thing...
There was a noticeable but not-unpleasant whistle, brought to attention not through volume but magnification via echo as it was broadcast all over the city. Typically unnoticed, but located everywhere, the city's universal announcement system consisted of precisely placed--and typically hidden--speakers all across the districts.
As such, no matter where anypony was, indoors or out, they could all clearly here this message repeat, calmly, three times:
"Attention, attention. The time is now ten minutes to noon--the Founding speech, to be given at Town Hall, will commence in ten minutes!"
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:54 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:36 pm
12:14 pm July 13th, Raavalon's Founding Day
Shrapnel and shattered glass fell from the sky like demonic hail, and the crowds’ screams and cries for help or family echoed around the ruined town hall.
In the midst of the chaos however, a glowing magical barrier surrounded a single table. Fire splashed on the shield like water on rock, leaving the two ponies inside the barrier safe and unharmed.
Citrus sighed as she finished the last vestiges of her tea, seemingly oblivious to the carnage that had erupted all around her.
“So crude…” She said after a moment, sounding somewhat disappointed. The mare glanced up at her butler, thanking him for his quick reactions with a smile as she lowered her empty cup and neatly folded her napkin, before raising to her hooves.
“Impulsive and ill-conceived, but rather surreptitious regardless.”
“The Pegasi group?” The stallion asked, as he offered her back her hat. “I only managed a brief glance...I believe they've already made their escape. One had a silver mirror as a Cutie Mark…”
“Woebegone fool of a mare,” Citrus replied as she placed her hat carefully back on her head and moved away from the table – mentally blocking out the cries and sobs of the injured. There was little she could have done, and help was on its way after all.
“...still, we’ll find her later – It’s time for us to leave before we get pestered.”
Shrapnel and shattered glass fell from the sky like demonic hail, and the crowds’ screams and cries for help or family echoed around the ruined town hall.
In the midst of the chaos however, a glowing magical barrier surrounded a single table. Fire splashed on the shield like water on rock, leaving the two ponies inside the barrier safe and unharmed.
Citrus sighed as she finished the last vestiges of her tea, seemingly oblivious to the carnage that had erupted all around her.
“So crude…” She said after a moment, sounding somewhat disappointed. The mare glanced up at her butler, thanking him for his quick reactions with a smile as she lowered her empty cup and neatly folded her napkin, before raising to her hooves.
“Impulsive and ill-conceived, but rather surreptitious regardless.”
“The Pegasi group?” The stallion asked, as he offered her back her hat. “I only managed a brief glance...I believe they've already made their escape. One had a silver mirror as a Cutie Mark…”
“Woebegone fool of a mare,” Citrus replied as she placed her hat carefully back on her head and moved away from the table – mentally blocking out the cries and sobs of the injured. There was little she could have done, and help was on its way after all.
“...still, we’ll find her later – It’s time for us to leave before we get pestered.”
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:36 pm
>> Peregrine Caged
Timestamp:
--12:15 PM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
Cloudbuilder was huddled in an alley. His heart beat a steady tattoo in his chest as he waited. Around him were several other pegasi, dressed in cloaks that concealed their cutie marks, as well as bandanas around their faces. Only their eyes were visible.
He was shaking. Despite his best attempts, his nerves were getting to him. This was it, this was the moment that pegasi in Ravaalon had been waiting for ever since the mud-dwellers had taken over. Now was the moment when everypony would be forced to take notice of the pegasi.
On the ground in front of him was a bottle, mostly full with liquid and a rag shoved down into it. It looked so innocuous, so innocent. It was just a bottle and a rag, nothing harmful about them, at least separately. Combined, there was the potential for destruction.
The subtle sounds of his compatriots steeling themselves — hooves pattering on the ground, wings rustling, short, sharp breaths — was almost drowned out by the distant sounds of the speech being made. It was the recording, the same as last year. Once more, Twilight proved that she wasn’t deserving of the title of Princess. She didn’t care about her city, or the ponies living there. No, she was happy to perform her experiments, raise this city, rule over it for a time, then just vanish. Twilight was just like a filly with her dolls, playing with them then getting bored and abandoning everything.
“Over a thousand years ago, the capital of Equestria was not Canterlot.” The words of Twilight’s speech floated down the alleyway. Cloudbuilder had the speech memorized. In truth, it was a good speech. Fifteen years ago, everypony believed in
Twilight and the ideals that Ravaalon was founded on. Now though, things were different. Those original ideals were gone.
The cloak on his back was itchy, and it messed with his wings. He’d tried flying in it the other night, but his movements were restricted. He may not be the fastest pegasus, but he was agile. When dealing with clouds and the shaping of them, he had to be. The cloak hampered his agility, made it harder to turn, to get the correct angle on his wings. The bandana across his muzzle felt like it was choking him. His breaths came in short gasps.
“This is it, this is what I want. This is what needs to happen,” he whispered to himself.
“Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer!” The speech was almost over. It was almost time. They just needed to wait for the signal, whatever it was. They were only told that they couldn’t possibly miss it.
“For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!” Twilight’s last words rang out over the entire hex. The band picked up the first note of their song, when the signal sounded, and all hell broke loose.
There was a tremendous boom and the ground shook. From where he was standing, Cloudbuilder could see a huge blast of fire, smoke, and debris shooting up over the buildings. For a brief moment, only the explosion could be heard. Until the screaming started.
From the direction of the explosion came the sound of many ponies screaming. Flaming, half-molten debris could be seen falling amongst what was surely the crowd for the speech. Already, several pieces were starting to land nearby.
“Holy buck...” said one of the other pegasi in the group. Cloudbuilder was inclined to agree. He knew that the pegasi were going for a message that couldn’t be ignored, but he never expected this. This was... This was beyond what he’d imagined.
They all stood, frozen, watching as the thick, black smoke belched into the sky while tongues of flame danced over the rooftops. The panicked screams of frightened ponies could be heard all around. Already several ponies had come running past the alley, not even noticing them.
One of his groupmates, none of them knew the names of any of the others for protection, grabbed his bottle off the ground. Trotting over to where a glob of debris had landed at the mouth of the alley, he used the flames still on it to light the alcohol soaked rag. “Come on, we’ve got a job to do.” He came back over, using his rag to light the rest.
The others picked up their bottles, prepared to strike their target. Cloudbuilder tore his gaze from the explosion to his bottle. The flames stared right back at him. His mind raced with doubts and second thoughts. What had just happened? Is this what he signed up for? How many ponies were hurt in that explosion?
A sharp poke in his side interrupted his thoughts. He looked over to see one of the others. “Come on, man. We’ve got to go before that crowd gets here.”
Cloudbuilder nodded. Now wasn’t the time for doubts. What was done cannot be undone. He was committed to seeing the pegasi given the respect that they deserved.
Grabbing his bottle, he spread his wings and took off, following the others. They flew out of the alley and into the street. Several ponies were running down the street away from the explosion, while others were standing still gazing around in shock.
He ignored them all, instead focusing on his target. Just across the street and to the left of the alley was a building. It was a shop run by a unicorn, nothing unusual about that. Only this unicorn loved to charge pegasi exorbitant amounts for his goods. Earth ponies would get a discount. Behavior like that would not be tolerated, not anymore.
The six of them split up, Cloudbuilder and three others hovering in the air in front of the shop while the remaining two landed, digging into their saddlebags they wore and pulling out cans of paint and brushes.
Cloudbuilder cocked his hoof back, and after a moment’s hesitation, he threw the firebomb at the shop. Somepony else had already thrown, breaking the large window in the front. His bomb flew through the window, exploding inside the shop. Immediately flames spread everywhere, consuming the interior.
The pegasi on the ground were busy scrawling words on the sidewalk. It would do them no good to paint the building when it was just going to burn down. “Mud-lover” and “Pegasi Resistance” were taking form.
Cloudbuilder watched as the store burned, all of the stock crumbling and turning to ash. Already the flames were spreading to places that hadn’t been covered in flammable liquid. Soon the whole building would be engulfed in the cleansing fire.
“Alright! Let’s go!” came the shout of one of the painting pegasi. They were done with their job. Now was the time to leave before any security ponies showed up, though Cloudbuilder suspected they were all busy over at Town Hall dealing with the explosion.
As a group, they were done. Cloudbuilder took off on his own, banking away from the shop and Town Hall. Flapping his wings, he surged forward, trying to put as much distance as possible between him and the inferno.
Flying for several minutes, he settled down on the roof of a building. Quickly he stripped off his cloak and bandana, tossing them on the ground. He turned to look back towards Town Hall.
Smoke and flames still poured into the sky. It looked like all of Town Hall was on fire. Buildings all around the plaza were also on fire, most likely from flaming debris landing on them. Also noticeable were smaller columns of flame scattered throughout the hex. All of those would be targets from other pegasi teams just like the one he was a part of.
He stood on the rooftop, watching as pure chaos unfolded around the hex. From here, he could only faintly hear the sounds of ponies screaming, running. Things were never going to be the same again in this city, not after today. For better or worse, change was coming.
A lone pegasi standing on a rooftop with a small pile of clothes next to him was suspicious, so he grabbed the clothes and left the rooftop, landing in the small alley next to the building. Tossing the clothes in the dumpster there, he headed into the street.
The whole city would be chaos after this. Now was the time for him to head home and lay low for awhile, until it was time to strike again. Hopefully they wouldn't have to do anything else, but it was naive to think that. This was only the beginning.
Setting out at a swift trot, he headed for the nearest CityLine station.
Timestamp:
--12:15 PM July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th Annual Founding Day
Cloudbuilder was huddled in an alley. His heart beat a steady tattoo in his chest as he waited. Around him were several other pegasi, dressed in cloaks that concealed their cutie marks, as well as bandanas around their faces. Only their eyes were visible.
He was shaking. Despite his best attempts, his nerves were getting to him. This was it, this was the moment that pegasi in Ravaalon had been waiting for ever since the mud-dwellers had taken over. Now was the moment when everypony would be forced to take notice of the pegasi.
On the ground in front of him was a bottle, mostly full with liquid and a rag shoved down into it. It looked so innocuous, so innocent. It was just a bottle and a rag, nothing harmful about them, at least separately. Combined, there was the potential for destruction.
The subtle sounds of his compatriots steeling themselves — hooves pattering on the ground, wings rustling, short, sharp breaths — was almost drowned out by the distant sounds of the speech being made. It was the recording, the same as last year. Once more, Twilight proved that she wasn’t deserving of the title of Princess. She didn’t care about her city, or the ponies living there. No, she was happy to perform her experiments, raise this city, rule over it for a time, then just vanish. Twilight was just like a filly with her dolls, playing with them then getting bored and abandoning everything.
“Over a thousand years ago, the capital of Equestria was not Canterlot.” The words of Twilight’s speech floated down the alleyway. Cloudbuilder had the speech memorized. In truth, it was a good speech. Fifteen years ago, everypony believed in
Twilight and the ideals that Ravaalon was founded on. Now though, things were different. Those original ideals were gone.
The cloak on his back was itchy, and it messed with his wings. He’d tried flying in it the other night, but his movements were restricted. He may not be the fastest pegasus, but he was agile. When dealing with clouds and the shaping of them, he had to be. The cloak hampered his agility, made it harder to turn, to get the correct angle on his wings. The bandana across his muzzle felt like it was choking him. His breaths came in short gasps.
“This is it, this is what I want. This is what needs to happen,” he whispered to himself.
“Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer!” The speech was almost over. It was almost time. They just needed to wait for the signal, whatever it was. They were only told that they couldn’t possibly miss it.
“For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!” Twilight’s last words rang out over the entire hex. The band picked up the first note of their song, when the signal sounded, and all hell broke loose.
There was a tremendous boom and the ground shook. From where he was standing, Cloudbuilder could see a huge blast of fire, smoke, and debris shooting up over the buildings. For a brief moment, only the explosion could be heard. Until the screaming started.
From the direction of the explosion came the sound of many ponies screaming. Flaming, half-molten debris could be seen falling amongst what was surely the crowd for the speech. Already, several pieces were starting to land nearby.
“Holy buck...” said one of the other pegasi in the group. Cloudbuilder was inclined to agree. He knew that the pegasi were going for a message that couldn’t be ignored, but he never expected this. This was... This was beyond what he’d imagined.
They all stood, frozen, watching as the thick, black smoke belched into the sky while tongues of flame danced over the rooftops. The panicked screams of frightened ponies could be heard all around. Already several ponies had come running past the alley, not even noticing them.
One of his groupmates, none of them knew the names of any of the others for protection, grabbed his bottle off the ground. Trotting over to where a glob of debris had landed at the mouth of the alley, he used the flames still on it to light the alcohol soaked rag. “Come on, we’ve got a job to do.” He came back over, using his rag to light the rest.
The others picked up their bottles, prepared to strike their target. Cloudbuilder tore his gaze from the explosion to his bottle. The flames stared right back at him. His mind raced with doubts and second thoughts. What had just happened? Is this what he signed up for? How many ponies were hurt in that explosion?
A sharp poke in his side interrupted his thoughts. He looked over to see one of the others. “Come on, man. We’ve got to go before that crowd gets here.”
Cloudbuilder nodded. Now wasn’t the time for doubts. What was done cannot be undone. He was committed to seeing the pegasi given the respect that they deserved.
Grabbing his bottle, he spread his wings and took off, following the others. They flew out of the alley and into the street. Several ponies were running down the street away from the explosion, while others were standing still gazing around in shock.
He ignored them all, instead focusing on his target. Just across the street and to the left of the alley was a building. It was a shop run by a unicorn, nothing unusual about that. Only this unicorn loved to charge pegasi exorbitant amounts for his goods. Earth ponies would get a discount. Behavior like that would not be tolerated, not anymore.
The six of them split up, Cloudbuilder and three others hovering in the air in front of the shop while the remaining two landed, digging into their saddlebags they wore and pulling out cans of paint and brushes.
Cloudbuilder cocked his hoof back, and after a moment’s hesitation, he threw the firebomb at the shop. Somepony else had already thrown, breaking the large window in the front. His bomb flew through the window, exploding inside the shop. Immediately flames spread everywhere, consuming the interior.
The pegasi on the ground were busy scrawling words on the sidewalk. It would do them no good to paint the building when it was just going to burn down. “Mud-lover” and “Pegasi Resistance” were taking form.
Cloudbuilder watched as the store burned, all of the stock crumbling and turning to ash. Already the flames were spreading to places that hadn’t been covered in flammable liquid. Soon the whole building would be engulfed in the cleansing fire.
“Alright! Let’s go!” came the shout of one of the painting pegasi. They were done with their job. Now was the time to leave before any security ponies showed up, though Cloudbuilder suspected they were all busy over at Town Hall dealing with the explosion.
As a group, they were done. Cloudbuilder took off on his own, banking away from the shop and Town Hall. Flapping his wings, he surged forward, trying to put as much distance as possible between him and the inferno.
Flying for several minutes, he settled down on the roof of a building. Quickly he stripped off his cloak and bandana, tossing them on the ground. He turned to look back towards Town Hall.
Smoke and flames still poured into the sky. It looked like all of Town Hall was on fire. Buildings all around the plaza were also on fire, most likely from flaming debris landing on them. Also noticeable were smaller columns of flame scattered throughout the hex. All of those would be targets from other pegasi teams just like the one he was a part of.
He stood on the rooftop, watching as pure chaos unfolded around the hex. From here, he could only faintly hear the sounds of ponies screaming, running. Things were never going to be the same again in this city, not after today. For better or worse, change was coming.
A lone pegasi standing on a rooftop with a small pile of clothes next to him was suspicious, so he grabbed the clothes and left the rooftop, landing in the small alley next to the building. Tossing the clothes in the dumpster there, he headed into the street.
The whole city would be chaos after this. Now was the time for him to head home and lay low for awhile, until it was time to strike again. Hopefully they wouldn't have to do anything else, but it was naive to think that. This was only the beginning.
Setting out at a swift trot, he headed for the nearest CityLine station.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:37 pm
Timestamp:
12:04 pm, July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th annual Founding Day
Gem and Trinket stood near the edge of the crowd milling around the stage; the over-stuffed pack of toys that Gem had won was weighing Trinket down, to say nothing of how impolite it would be to shove other ponies out of the way to accommodate it. And of course she couldn’t carry her own toys, Trinket thought bitterly. As he expected, Princess Twilight was once again a no-show and her recorded message was playing. Still, he hadn’t been around to hear her speak for the town’s grand opening and it was interesting to hear her voice. Gem was far more interested in the fireworks going off.
The recording continued, “Let today always be celebrated as the Founding Day of this great city! Everypony--unicorn, pegasus, earth--come together and celebrate harmony! Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer! For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!”
As the final word of the speech rang out, as the first notes were played by the band, as the first float began its slow movement forward...
There was an eardrum shattering howl as a massive and fiery explosion rocked and ripped through the east half of Town Hall, shooting fire and flaming stone, shards of glass and half-melted metal out into, and onto, the crowd.
For one panic-stricken moment Trinket was frozen in place. A cry of alarm seemed to swell through the crowd as those nearest the explosion trampled over others in their mad dash to get away from the falling shrapnel. The ponies nearest
Trinket turned and seemed poised to run him over, as he still hadn’t fully registered what had happened. The crowd, fortunately, missed him completely thanks to Gem, who had recovered from the shock of the explosion faster than he did and scooped the earth pony in her claws and hefted him into the air. Her pack of dolls, however, slipped from Trinket’s grasp and fell to the ground, where it was soon trampled underhoof by terrified ponies.
“Aww, my toys,” Gem whined.
“Nice to know your priorities are in proper order!” Trinket shot back. The two executed a well-practiced move where Gem performed a brief aeolian roll while Trinket walked along her twisting body, allowing the pony to comfortably straddle her back, being careful not to foul the gryphon’s wings.
From the air the two had a better view of things and didn’t have to fear being run over; any pegasi that were in the area had long since vanished. A little too quickly, Trinket noted. Could they have had advance warning?
“See anything?” Gem asked, scanning the area near the explosion. Smoke rose in billowing black clouds, obscuring the sky — and, as it turned out, her line of sight. Between the smoke and the mass of ponies below it was nearly impossible to notice anything unusual or peculiar.
Trinket looked at the edges of the crowd, noting stragglers or simply ponies off on their own. An orange mare was protected by a shield at her table, a few guards were trying to control the situation, but it went unsuccessfully. Starswirl the Bearded was lurking near some buildings...
Wait, what?
Trinket did a double-take, staring at the oddly-dressed pony. Besides her outfit there wasn’t anything peculiar about her, and yet all the same, that outfit was ridiculously outrageous. That long flowing cloak could be hiding more explosives, after all. Besides which, she kept glancing about her surroundings warily as she ducked into an alley. “If that isn’t suspicious behavior...” Trinket muttered. Tapping Gem’s left wing where it met her back, she immediately turned to her nine o’clock. “The alley. Could be nothing, but keep your guard up,” he said curtly. The gryphon cawed in a feral-like manner and flew towards the alley.
The whole plaza seemed to explode and shook the ground furiously as an array of brick pieces and glass shards rained over the panicking and yelling ponies. Crescent quickly covered his head as bits of stone hit him, some big enough to give him some serious bruises the next day. His ears were ringing from the sound as he looked back up to get his bearings.
Ponies were panicking and ran in every direction, the controlled and cheerful celebration having devolved into complete chaos. There were hurt and injured ponies everywhere; most too busy trying to escape didn’t mind them, but a few stopped to help where they could. Crescent wasn’t sure if he was relieved or worried that he didn’t find the kid from earlier when he spotted a pale pegasus dressed as some type of wizard sneaking away into an alley where nopony had headed.
He remembered the rumors about the underground pegasus and even though it was none of his concern of what really happened in this city, he started to make his way through the crowd. He noticed some unicorns had been hiding behind shields, noting the table where he had tried to sit at earlier was covered by the unicorn butler to the high-horse orange mare. He reached the other end of the plaza where the white unicorn had gone and took a last look around, but everyone was too busy with getting away to pay him any attention so he went in. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps before a ruckus came from behind the turn.
“Hey, buzzard! What’cha lurkin’ around for?” He peaked around the corner to see what was going on.
The wizard-looking pony was standing against the end of the thin street with a big gryphon blocking the exit. The gryphon was standing with her back to him so she hadn’t seen him yet, but the mare, as he now saw, didn’t seem to notice him either, too occupied by the gryphon.
The first thing Mirror saw was the gryphon. It was hard to miss, being huge and having a really sharp beak and claws. She didn't see the pony behind it until she'd taken a few gasping breaths first. Then the bird's words penetrated. When she went to adjust her hat again, she noticed the absence of headcover. "Blasht." she muttered. Starswirl had gotten her into this mess and he was darn well going to get her back out.
She turned her best wizened stare on the predator. "I beg your pardon, beasht; I don't shee any lurking going on." the pegasus was either giving a thousand yard stare or suffering from an extreme case of astigmatism.
If the gryphon was fazed at all by Mirror’s hardened glare, it gave no sign of it, instead stepping forward and clacking its beak. “Faking senility won’t make me go easy on you, you realize.” The gryphon lifted a talon, flexing its claws.
"I..." Mirror stopped trying to scrape rat off her hoof and stared at the very large apex predator. 'What on earth do I think I'm doing!?' She wondered, really, really wishing she hadn't lost the hat. "Youngling, are you accushing me of shomething?"
“A bomb goes off and you lurk around like some sort of...lurker,” the gryphon spouted lamely. It quickly regained its composure before snarling at Mirror. “What do you know about it?”
The green-faced albino squinted squarely, "Harrumph and nonsense! I followed a lead, but I have enough senshe not to make assumtionsh before I know what's going on." The sentence seemed lacking, so she threw in another "Hrrmph!" afterward.
“Who said I was making assumptions?” the gryphon drawled, her tail flicking behind her. “All I asked was what you know, and I think you know something.” She narrowed her eyes at Mirror. “Now talk or I’ll tear off more than that fake beard of yours.” The gryphon slashed the air in front of Mirror, coming closer than she would have liked.
Not being able to stand by and watch anymore, Crescent leaped out and rushed in between the two, catching at least the gryphon by surprise. He unsheathed a bit to show the eagle-winged creature that he wasn’t just carrying a butter knife.
“Listen here, I know there has just been a big accident, but going around blaming everypony with wings to be in league with the underground Pegasi gang won’t work.” He turned to the pegasi. “And you, even foals knows better than go milling around dark places. You shouldn’t even have entered if you knew what’s best for you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Funny, I don’t recall seeing a guard uniform on you,” the gryphon wryly said. “You got any actual authority to make me stop, or is that tiny blade supposed to frighten me?”
"Oh what the hay, you're an anti-hero? That's just my luck, isn't it?" the oddly garbed pegasus held a hoof to her face before glaring at the interloper, "Look, I SAW some suspicious types coming down here." She blinked, "And why are you assuming this was all done by Pegasi?"
“Okay, to you,” he pointed at the gryphon as he put the sword back. “No, I got no authority, I just don’t like possible innocents getting threatened. As for you,” he looked over to the white and bearded mare. “Take off that damn beard, it looks ridiculous. If you haven’t noticed, there has been a lot of brewing by the underclass and big crowds are a good place to send a signal and show how serious they are.”
"Really? I try to avoid politics." Miss Shine removed her fake beard, trying to act as though she hadn't heard the criticism.
"They just seem really depressing."
“Well open your eyes, you actually live in that depressing place, it’s just covered over,” Crescent said, tapping his hoof tip irritatedly against her forehead to knock the point in.
“Alright, horn-head, you seem to be better informed. What do you know about Town Hall blowing up in my beak?”
He just shrugged. “Only that some of the Pegasi have grown tired of being the bottom of the heap. I also heard somewhere that this might be the last year for this town. Before you ask, no I don’t know who said that:”
The gryphon ruffled her feathers, thinking for a moment. “Rumours get their start in all manner of ways.”
“Gem!” The sudden voice came from above, startling the three in the alley. The gryphon craned her neck up, peering at the rooftops. “Gem, quit playing with those idiots and get up here! We’ve got a problem!”
“Who the hay is that?” Crescent asked.
“What’s wrong, bud? Gotta use the little stallion’s room?” the gryphon called back, ignoring the unicorn. She sniffed at the air, scrunching her forehead up in thought. “Does anyone else smell smoke?”
“It’s not me,” Crescent said and checked it just in case. “My sword is sheathed.”
“Fire!” the unseen pony shouted again. “The city’s on fire!” There was a brief pause before he amended, “This building is on fire and I can’t fly, Gem!”
"This isn't, I can't–" Mirror backed away from the others, whirling around when she struck a wall and running full out; the tattered cape tangled around her wings, rendering them useless.
The gryphon, meanwhile, had spread her wings and was already disappearing over the rooftop. The unicorn wanted to help the pegasus out of the silly cape, but a group of City Guards in the other end of the alley. A night or more in custody wasn’t too inviting so he gave her an apologizing look before heading through a back door and into some sort of a store.
Above him he heard the crackling of the fire and the sound of support beams giving way, so he rushed through as quick as possible. Looking back he saw the roof gave not long after and blocked the passage; it would at least buy him some time.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, he silently disappeared into the city.
Written with DrTechno and NotMurphy. Because we're worth it.
12:04 pm, July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th annual Founding Day
Gem and Trinket stood near the edge of the crowd milling around the stage; the over-stuffed pack of toys that Gem had won was weighing Trinket down, to say nothing of how impolite it would be to shove other ponies out of the way to accommodate it. And of course she couldn’t carry her own toys, Trinket thought bitterly. As he expected, Princess Twilight was once again a no-show and her recorded message was playing. Still, he hadn’t been around to hear her speak for the town’s grand opening and it was interesting to hear her voice. Gem was far more interested in the fireworks going off.
The recording continued, “Let today always be celebrated as the Founding Day of this great city! Everypony--unicorn, pegasus, earth--come together and celebrate harmony! Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer! For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!”
As the final word of the speech rang out, as the first notes were played by the band, as the first float began its slow movement forward...
There was an eardrum shattering howl as a massive and fiery explosion rocked and ripped through the east half of Town Hall, shooting fire and flaming stone, shards of glass and half-melted metal out into, and onto, the crowd.
For one panic-stricken moment Trinket was frozen in place. A cry of alarm seemed to swell through the crowd as those nearest the explosion trampled over others in their mad dash to get away from the falling shrapnel. The ponies nearest
Trinket turned and seemed poised to run him over, as he still hadn’t fully registered what had happened. The crowd, fortunately, missed him completely thanks to Gem, who had recovered from the shock of the explosion faster than he did and scooped the earth pony in her claws and hefted him into the air. Her pack of dolls, however, slipped from Trinket’s grasp and fell to the ground, where it was soon trampled underhoof by terrified ponies.
“Aww, my toys,” Gem whined.
“Nice to know your priorities are in proper order!” Trinket shot back. The two executed a well-practiced move where Gem performed a brief aeolian roll while Trinket walked along her twisting body, allowing the pony to comfortably straddle her back, being careful not to foul the gryphon’s wings.
From the air the two had a better view of things and didn’t have to fear being run over; any pegasi that were in the area had long since vanished. A little too quickly, Trinket noted. Could they have had advance warning?
“See anything?” Gem asked, scanning the area near the explosion. Smoke rose in billowing black clouds, obscuring the sky — and, as it turned out, her line of sight. Between the smoke and the mass of ponies below it was nearly impossible to notice anything unusual or peculiar.
Trinket looked at the edges of the crowd, noting stragglers or simply ponies off on their own. An orange mare was protected by a shield at her table, a few guards were trying to control the situation, but it went unsuccessfully. Starswirl the Bearded was lurking near some buildings...
Wait, what?
Trinket did a double-take, staring at the oddly-dressed pony. Besides her outfit there wasn’t anything peculiar about her, and yet all the same, that outfit was ridiculously outrageous. That long flowing cloak could be hiding more explosives, after all. Besides which, she kept glancing about her surroundings warily as she ducked into an alley. “If that isn’t suspicious behavior...” Trinket muttered. Tapping Gem’s left wing where it met her back, she immediately turned to her nine o’clock. “The alley. Could be nothing, but keep your guard up,” he said curtly. The gryphon cawed in a feral-like manner and flew towards the alley.
The whole plaza seemed to explode and shook the ground furiously as an array of brick pieces and glass shards rained over the panicking and yelling ponies. Crescent quickly covered his head as bits of stone hit him, some big enough to give him some serious bruises the next day. His ears were ringing from the sound as he looked back up to get his bearings.
Ponies were panicking and ran in every direction, the controlled and cheerful celebration having devolved into complete chaos. There were hurt and injured ponies everywhere; most too busy trying to escape didn’t mind them, but a few stopped to help where they could. Crescent wasn’t sure if he was relieved or worried that he didn’t find the kid from earlier when he spotted a pale pegasus dressed as some type of wizard sneaking away into an alley where nopony had headed.
He remembered the rumors about the underground pegasus and even though it was none of his concern of what really happened in this city, he started to make his way through the crowd. He noticed some unicorns had been hiding behind shields, noting the table where he had tried to sit at earlier was covered by the unicorn butler to the high-horse orange mare. He reached the other end of the plaza where the white unicorn had gone and took a last look around, but everyone was too busy with getting away to pay him any attention so he went in. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps before a ruckus came from behind the turn.
“Hey, buzzard! What’cha lurkin’ around for?” He peaked around the corner to see what was going on.
The wizard-looking pony was standing against the end of the thin street with a big gryphon blocking the exit. The gryphon was standing with her back to him so she hadn’t seen him yet, but the mare, as he now saw, didn’t seem to notice him either, too occupied by the gryphon.
The first thing Mirror saw was the gryphon. It was hard to miss, being huge and having a really sharp beak and claws. She didn't see the pony behind it until she'd taken a few gasping breaths first. Then the bird's words penetrated. When she went to adjust her hat again, she noticed the absence of headcover. "Blasht." she muttered. Starswirl had gotten her into this mess and he was darn well going to get her back out.
She turned her best wizened stare on the predator. "I beg your pardon, beasht; I don't shee any lurking going on." the pegasus was either giving a thousand yard stare or suffering from an extreme case of astigmatism.
If the gryphon was fazed at all by Mirror’s hardened glare, it gave no sign of it, instead stepping forward and clacking its beak. “Faking senility won’t make me go easy on you, you realize.” The gryphon lifted a talon, flexing its claws.
"I..." Mirror stopped trying to scrape rat off her hoof and stared at the very large apex predator. 'What on earth do I think I'm doing!?' She wondered, really, really wishing she hadn't lost the hat. "Youngling, are you accushing me of shomething?"
“A bomb goes off and you lurk around like some sort of...lurker,” the gryphon spouted lamely. It quickly regained its composure before snarling at Mirror. “What do you know about it?”
The green-faced albino squinted squarely, "Harrumph and nonsense! I followed a lead, but I have enough senshe not to make assumtionsh before I know what's going on." The sentence seemed lacking, so she threw in another "Hrrmph!" afterward.
“Who said I was making assumptions?” the gryphon drawled, her tail flicking behind her. “All I asked was what you know, and I think you know something.” She narrowed her eyes at Mirror. “Now talk or I’ll tear off more than that fake beard of yours.” The gryphon slashed the air in front of Mirror, coming closer than she would have liked.
Not being able to stand by and watch anymore, Crescent leaped out and rushed in between the two, catching at least the gryphon by surprise. He unsheathed a bit to show the eagle-winged creature that he wasn’t just carrying a butter knife.
“Listen here, I know there has just been a big accident, but going around blaming everypony with wings to be in league with the underground Pegasi gang won’t work.” He turned to the pegasi. “And you, even foals knows better than go milling around dark places. You shouldn’t even have entered if you knew what’s best for you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Funny, I don’t recall seeing a guard uniform on you,” the gryphon wryly said. “You got any actual authority to make me stop, or is that tiny blade supposed to frighten me?”
"Oh what the hay, you're an anti-hero? That's just my luck, isn't it?" the oddly garbed pegasus held a hoof to her face before glaring at the interloper, "Look, I SAW some suspicious types coming down here." She blinked, "And why are you assuming this was all done by Pegasi?"
“Okay, to you,” he pointed at the gryphon as he put the sword back. “No, I got no authority, I just don’t like possible innocents getting threatened. As for you,” he looked over to the white and bearded mare. “Take off that damn beard, it looks ridiculous. If you haven’t noticed, there has been a lot of brewing by the underclass and big crowds are a good place to send a signal and show how serious they are.”
"Really? I try to avoid politics." Miss Shine removed her fake beard, trying to act as though she hadn't heard the criticism.
"They just seem really depressing."
“Well open your eyes, you actually live in that depressing place, it’s just covered over,” Crescent said, tapping his hoof tip irritatedly against her forehead to knock the point in.
“Alright, horn-head, you seem to be better informed. What do you know about Town Hall blowing up in my beak?”
He just shrugged. “Only that some of the Pegasi have grown tired of being the bottom of the heap. I also heard somewhere that this might be the last year for this town. Before you ask, no I don’t know who said that:”
The gryphon ruffled her feathers, thinking for a moment. “Rumours get their start in all manner of ways.”
“Gem!” The sudden voice came from above, startling the three in the alley. The gryphon craned her neck up, peering at the rooftops. “Gem, quit playing with those idiots and get up here! We’ve got a problem!”
“Who the hay is that?” Crescent asked.
“What’s wrong, bud? Gotta use the little stallion’s room?” the gryphon called back, ignoring the unicorn. She sniffed at the air, scrunching her forehead up in thought. “Does anyone else smell smoke?”
“It’s not me,” Crescent said and checked it just in case. “My sword is sheathed.”
“Fire!” the unseen pony shouted again. “The city’s on fire!” There was a brief pause before he amended, “This building is on fire and I can’t fly, Gem!”
"This isn't, I can't–" Mirror backed away from the others, whirling around when she struck a wall and running full out; the tattered cape tangled around her wings, rendering them useless.
The gryphon, meanwhile, had spread her wings and was already disappearing over the rooftop. The unicorn wanted to help the pegasus out of the silly cape, but a group of City Guards in the other end of the alley. A night or more in custody wasn’t too inviting so he gave her an apologizing look before heading through a back door and into some sort of a store.
Above him he heard the crackling of the fire and the sound of support beams giving way, so he rushed through as quick as possible. Looking back he saw the roof gave not long after and blocked the passage; it would at least buy him some time.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, he silently disappeared into the city.
Written with DrTechno and NotMurphy. Because we're worth it.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:37 pm
GM post, players may respond around it as desired.
Timestamp
-- 4:26 pm, July 16th
For the hundredth time, Fine Print--mayor of Ravaalon--looked at the ever-growing stacks of paper on his new desk. With dismay he noted that the 'In' tray had doubled in size in the time it had taken him to sneak a late lunch. The 'Out' tray was nonexistent, by comparison. The attack three days ago--he shivered even now at the tragedy that ruined what should have been the city's biggest celebration since its opening--had kept the entire staff run ragged.
He was running on about one half-hearted meal a day and three or four hours of sleep, tops. Still, he knew the RPD and volunteer emergency crews were working even harder with less than that. A part of him felt bad about that--felt he could be doing more. But he had a necessary job with necessary requirements during such a time.
One of the biggest, which he had been dreading the whole time, was almost upon him. The hours and day following the explosion had been pure chaos. Beyond the explosion, groups of so-called resistance fighters had been seen starting fires all over the AdHex. The city, made of primarily metal and stone, had not been expected to see much in the ways of arson. As a result, some of those fires still burned.
The obvious solution--to summon up a rainstorm to put the fires out--had been impossible when it was found that many of the buildings set fire to were connected to the environmental stabilizers that allowed the city's weather to be perfectly controlled. As well, the government had been hard pressed to find many pegasi to help with their own weather talents.
So the fires had to be fought with slow and inefficient bucket brigades.
At the same time, hundreds of ponies had been wounded in the attacks. Worse, the fatality list had kept growing by the hour. Emergency crew had been frantically moving about, saving those they could, comforting those they couldn't. The first few hours had been especially terrible, organization and control being nonexistent.
But finally, they had begun sorting out the mess and really getting things done. Even still, it was only now that he had been given enough clear information to create a sensible report, one that he would use to inform the citizens. He was not jubilant to do so.
His office in Town Hall had been obliterated in the large explosion. A full half of Town Hall was now rubble and ash. He'd been given a temporary office in the RPD headquarters. Looking around, he again felt heat rise in his belly.
They had attacked his city, specifically targeted him. Though he had been voted into office, everypony knew he mostly held the job because of support from Princess Twilight. She had entrusted him with her city, with her gift to ponykind. Well, he wasn't going to fail. The only reason he'd fall is if the city did.
His resolve bolstered, the unicorn gathered what papers he needed and left the office, giving the door a confident little slam behind him. The scene around him was abuzz as secretaries and mailcolts jostled between the cramped desks of RPD's finest detectives. The detectives themselves were either out or busy at their desks, going over clues and leads, filling out damage reports, answering calls, preparing arrests, and generally serving and protecting to the best of their abilities. Many looked ragged, but determinedly kept working hour after hour.
Those who cared were outraged. Those who cared were killing themselves to find those responsible.
But those who paid those who cared cared about a great many other things. It was this secret Print was well informed of.
Well, they'd all find out the truth in time.
Nodding at a few of the detectives he knew, he directed his way to the department's press room. He found it packed even tighter than the offices, though the energy here was nervous potential rather than diligent kinetic. Reporters and journalists of all tribes and reputations sat, awaiting his announcement eagerly.
He stepped up to the podium, then gestured to a technician to begin the broadcast. Print had never been one for pomp and flash. Right to the point, that's what a good politician needed to do in his mind.
As soon as the green light of transmission lit, the few hushed whispers and nervous shuffles in the room abated, leaving silence. Lifting the papers in front of him with his magic, Print began reading the speech he'd been pouring over for twelve hours now.
"Greetings, citizens of Ravaalon. This is Mayor Fine Print saying, 'You are not alone in this dark hour.'"
He cleared his throat and continued, "As you all no doubt know, a heinous tragedy occurred three days ago, on Founding Day. Rumors and scattered reports filled with inaccuracies and only half-known details have everypony scared. Which is why I am here with you now--it is time you knew the truth as Ravaalon's finest have found it so far.
"Live, on the airwaves from myself to you, here is the report of that terrible day."
He flipped through his pages, finding the desired one, and began reading. "As you all know, shortly after noon on the thirteenth, an explosion tore through town hall. It has been found that this explosion started within my own office, making it likely that I was the attempted target of a political assassination. Furthermore, the explosions used were of an incredibly volatile nature--almost half of Town Hall is now in ruins. As such, it has been theorized that the explosion was of magitech design."
He paused, letting the reporters scribble this latest, and previously unheard of, detail. When they looked at him expectantly, he began again.
"Our initial response was fragmented and slow, due to immense chaos following this attack. Reports now indicate the presence of several groups of ponies--typically four to eight pegasi--who began setting fire to key structures within the AdHex. These structures, seemingly random at first, eventually turned out to be key buildings in the machinery designed for weather control. As such, fire fighting efforts have been forced to rely on limited personal magic and bucket brigades set up by courageous citizens. To those of you who volunteered, to those who are still working now, the entire city owes you a debt of immense gratitude.
"Furthermore, as the square in front of Town Hall was completely packed for the Founding Day speech, the debris and shrapnel from the primary attack--tragically--fell upon the innocent crowd. Rescue ponies have been working around the clock, both saving those trapped and recovering the remains of those fallen."
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let it out in a slow exhale.
"Our current information brings the count of wounded at well over six hundred ponies. Dozens of those are still in critical condition, being treated by the best medical and magical care Ravaalon has to offer." He paused again. Though he'd tried to reduce it to a statistic, it was still difficult for him to repeat the next message. "In the worst tragedy Equestria has seen in years, I regret to inform the populace that civilian casualties number somewhere over one hundred."
The scribbling of pens and pencils stopped as the various newsponies looked at one another or stared, horrified, at the mayor. His face was dark, somewhere between rage and sorrow. Slowly, he nodded, and they continued to write.
For the next half hour, the mayor continued to report on the goings on of the last few days. The fires, though mostly controlled, had been joined with other--thankfully much smaller--explosions. There had been no more casualties since the first bomb. It was unknown precisely who was behind it, though the RPD was working as hard as they could to find the culprits.
Reports of shady bands of pegasi being seen were unsubstantiated. No real arrests had been made.
"However, though in this difficult time it may seem easy to place all the blame on one individual group, I urge everypony that--"
"Thsir! Thsir!" came an interrupting shout.
Everypony in the room turned to see a young earth pony, barely out of school. In his mouth was a roll of recording film.
"What's this, son?" he asked, recognizing one of the office's interns.
Placing the roll on the podium, he replied, "This was just received by the police. It's apparently from the group that orchestrated the attack!"
Their was a loud series of intakes and gasps and 'Oh, my!'s throughout the room. Without delay, the mayor picked the film up with his magic and began installing it on the player in the podium.
Just before hitting play, he announced, "Ladies and gentleponies. I'm about to play this recording, just delivered, supposedly from the group that planted the bomb. Sensitive listeners and young foals may wish to leave or be escorted from the room. You have five...four...three...two...one."
He pushed the button for play. The tape began spinning through the machine.
At first there was only a series of headache-inducing clicks and scratches. Whoever had made the tape had been using cheap, shoddy recording equipment. Finally, there was a loud whistle, then a voice began to speak.
It was a strong, comforting voice, though with a slight warbling tenor hanging on at the end of his sentences. The speaker seemed confident, proud even, as he made his declaration.
"Ponies of Ravaalon! Or should I say, true citizens, mud-dwellers, and boneheads! Consider this your honorary introduction to the illustrious fighters for truth and equality. The glorious combatants for justice and freedom!
"We are the Pegasi Resistance Flock. We are a collection of the city's lowest, most unloved, abused, and abandoned. Where alone we were ignored, pushed aside, chained, and silenced, together we speak with one GLORIOUS EXPLOSIVE VOICE!"
The last three words boomed from the speakers, the original speaker being joined by the voices of dozens, if not hundreds, of others. But when he spoke again, it was the lone pony.
"Our first cry has been heard, Ravaalon. Bought so dearly with pain and suffering--the pain and suffering we have long belabored, so too do you now know. But hear me! It is not our first cry! Nor will it be the loudest!
"Every day a new cry will be heard until the cry that has been silenced for so long is ignored no more. This city has failed its citizens. And some of its citizens have failed this city.
"Every day the pegasi in the slums grow closer to starvation. Replaced by soulless machines, their very life-essence sapped by the greed and corruption of Ravaalon's elite, we have been betrayed by the promise of equality! The lies end now. This city will heal or it will die. We're simply here to speed the process up.
"How, you might ask? Simple. The earth pony families--the Crisps, the Fields, the Patches, among others--have had their time. They've basked in the warm glow of the sun, leaving us to rot in the shadow for fifteen long, slow years.
"So our deal is this: your time is over; leave Ravaalon immediately or suffer the cries of those you stamp upon to stand so high.
"You will be given three days from the the day of this broadcast. The echoes of our pain will sing on...but in three days, our pain will peak and the last cry shall pale to the thunderous roar of injustice and outrage!
"Three days, Ravaalon. Keep your promise, keep your pledge. For if you do not, we certainly will. Good day."
There was a click and then the sound of the loosened tape flipping against itself. Stunned, Print at last turned the device off, stopping the useless play.
The room was silent for several minutes as the information sunk in. Finally, one reporter seemed to awaken from the spell and asked, "Who the hell was that?"
Timestamp
-- 4:26 pm, July 16th
For the hundredth time, Fine Print--mayor of Ravaalon--looked at the ever-growing stacks of paper on his new desk. With dismay he noted that the 'In' tray had doubled in size in the time it had taken him to sneak a late lunch. The 'Out' tray was nonexistent, by comparison. The attack three days ago--he shivered even now at the tragedy that ruined what should have been the city's biggest celebration since its opening--had kept the entire staff run ragged.
He was running on about one half-hearted meal a day and three or four hours of sleep, tops. Still, he knew the RPD and volunteer emergency crews were working even harder with less than that. A part of him felt bad about that--felt he could be doing more. But he had a necessary job with necessary requirements during such a time.
One of the biggest, which he had been dreading the whole time, was almost upon him. The hours and day following the explosion had been pure chaos. Beyond the explosion, groups of so-called resistance fighters had been seen starting fires all over the AdHex. The city, made of primarily metal and stone, had not been expected to see much in the ways of arson. As a result, some of those fires still burned.
The obvious solution--to summon up a rainstorm to put the fires out--had been impossible when it was found that many of the buildings set fire to were connected to the environmental stabilizers that allowed the city's weather to be perfectly controlled. As well, the government had been hard pressed to find many pegasi to help with their own weather talents.
So the fires had to be fought with slow and inefficient bucket brigades.
At the same time, hundreds of ponies had been wounded in the attacks. Worse, the fatality list had kept growing by the hour. Emergency crew had been frantically moving about, saving those they could, comforting those they couldn't. The first few hours had been especially terrible, organization and control being nonexistent.
But finally, they had begun sorting out the mess and really getting things done. Even still, it was only now that he had been given enough clear information to create a sensible report, one that he would use to inform the citizens. He was not jubilant to do so.
His office in Town Hall had been obliterated in the large explosion. A full half of Town Hall was now rubble and ash. He'd been given a temporary office in the RPD headquarters. Looking around, he again felt heat rise in his belly.
They had attacked his city, specifically targeted him. Though he had been voted into office, everypony knew he mostly held the job because of support from Princess Twilight. She had entrusted him with her city, with her gift to ponykind. Well, he wasn't going to fail. The only reason he'd fall is if the city did.
His resolve bolstered, the unicorn gathered what papers he needed and left the office, giving the door a confident little slam behind him. The scene around him was abuzz as secretaries and mailcolts jostled between the cramped desks of RPD's finest detectives. The detectives themselves were either out or busy at their desks, going over clues and leads, filling out damage reports, answering calls, preparing arrests, and generally serving and protecting to the best of their abilities. Many looked ragged, but determinedly kept working hour after hour.
Those who cared were outraged. Those who cared were killing themselves to find those responsible.
But those who paid those who cared cared about a great many other things. It was this secret Print was well informed of.
Well, they'd all find out the truth in time.
Nodding at a few of the detectives he knew, he directed his way to the department's press room. He found it packed even tighter than the offices, though the energy here was nervous potential rather than diligent kinetic. Reporters and journalists of all tribes and reputations sat, awaiting his announcement eagerly.
He stepped up to the podium, then gestured to a technician to begin the broadcast. Print had never been one for pomp and flash. Right to the point, that's what a good politician needed to do in his mind.
As soon as the green light of transmission lit, the few hushed whispers and nervous shuffles in the room abated, leaving silence. Lifting the papers in front of him with his magic, Print began reading the speech he'd been pouring over for twelve hours now.
"Greetings, citizens of Ravaalon. This is Mayor Fine Print saying, 'You are not alone in this dark hour.'"
He cleared his throat and continued, "As you all no doubt know, a heinous tragedy occurred three days ago, on Founding Day. Rumors and scattered reports filled with inaccuracies and only half-known details have everypony scared. Which is why I am here with you now--it is time you knew the truth as Ravaalon's finest have found it so far.
"Live, on the airwaves from myself to you, here is the report of that terrible day."
He flipped through his pages, finding the desired one, and began reading. "As you all know, shortly after noon on the thirteenth, an explosion tore through town hall. It has been found that this explosion started within my own office, making it likely that I was the attempted target of a political assassination. Furthermore, the explosions used were of an incredibly volatile nature--almost half of Town Hall is now in ruins. As such, it has been theorized that the explosion was of magitech design."
He paused, letting the reporters scribble this latest, and previously unheard of, detail. When they looked at him expectantly, he began again.
"Our initial response was fragmented and slow, due to immense chaos following this attack. Reports now indicate the presence of several groups of ponies--typically four to eight pegasi--who began setting fire to key structures within the AdHex. These structures, seemingly random at first, eventually turned out to be key buildings in the machinery designed for weather control. As such, fire fighting efforts have been forced to rely on limited personal magic and bucket brigades set up by courageous citizens. To those of you who volunteered, to those who are still working now, the entire city owes you a debt of immense gratitude.
"Furthermore, as the square in front of Town Hall was completely packed for the Founding Day speech, the debris and shrapnel from the primary attack--tragically--fell upon the innocent crowd. Rescue ponies have been working around the clock, both saving those trapped and recovering the remains of those fallen."
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let it out in a slow exhale.
"Our current information brings the count of wounded at well over six hundred ponies. Dozens of those are still in critical condition, being treated by the best medical and magical care Ravaalon has to offer." He paused again. Though he'd tried to reduce it to a statistic, it was still difficult for him to repeat the next message. "In the worst tragedy Equestria has seen in years, I regret to inform the populace that civilian casualties number somewhere over one hundred."
The scribbling of pens and pencils stopped as the various newsponies looked at one another or stared, horrified, at the mayor. His face was dark, somewhere between rage and sorrow. Slowly, he nodded, and they continued to write.
For the next half hour, the mayor continued to report on the goings on of the last few days. The fires, though mostly controlled, had been joined with other--thankfully much smaller--explosions. There had been no more casualties since the first bomb. It was unknown precisely who was behind it, though the RPD was working as hard as they could to find the culprits.
Reports of shady bands of pegasi being seen were unsubstantiated. No real arrests had been made.
"However, though in this difficult time it may seem easy to place all the blame on one individual group, I urge everypony that--"
"Thsir! Thsir!" came an interrupting shout.
Everypony in the room turned to see a young earth pony, barely out of school. In his mouth was a roll of recording film.
"What's this, son?" he asked, recognizing one of the office's interns.
Placing the roll on the podium, he replied, "This was just received by the police. It's apparently from the group that orchestrated the attack!"
Their was a loud series of intakes and gasps and 'Oh, my!'s throughout the room. Without delay, the mayor picked the film up with his magic and began installing it on the player in the podium.
Just before hitting play, he announced, "Ladies and gentleponies. I'm about to play this recording, just delivered, supposedly from the group that planted the bomb. Sensitive listeners and young foals may wish to leave or be escorted from the room. You have five...four...three...two...one."
He pushed the button for play. The tape began spinning through the machine.
At first there was only a series of headache-inducing clicks and scratches. Whoever had made the tape had been using cheap, shoddy recording equipment. Finally, there was a loud whistle, then a voice began to speak.
It was a strong, comforting voice, though with a slight warbling tenor hanging on at the end of his sentences. The speaker seemed confident, proud even, as he made his declaration.
"Ponies of Ravaalon! Or should I say, true citizens, mud-dwellers, and boneheads! Consider this your honorary introduction to the illustrious fighters for truth and equality. The glorious combatants for justice and freedom!
"We are the Pegasi Resistance Flock. We are a collection of the city's lowest, most unloved, abused, and abandoned. Where alone we were ignored, pushed aside, chained, and silenced, together we speak with one GLORIOUS EXPLOSIVE VOICE!"
The last three words boomed from the speakers, the original speaker being joined by the voices of dozens, if not hundreds, of others. But when he spoke again, it was the lone pony.
"Our first cry has been heard, Ravaalon. Bought so dearly with pain and suffering--the pain and suffering we have long belabored, so too do you now know. But hear me! It is not our first cry! Nor will it be the loudest!
"Every day a new cry will be heard until the cry that has been silenced for so long is ignored no more. This city has failed its citizens. And some of its citizens have failed this city.
"Every day the pegasi in the slums grow closer to starvation. Replaced by soulless machines, their very life-essence sapped by the greed and corruption of Ravaalon's elite, we have been betrayed by the promise of equality! The lies end now. This city will heal or it will die. We're simply here to speed the process up.
"How, you might ask? Simple. The earth pony families--the Crisps, the Fields, the Patches, among others--have had their time. They've basked in the warm glow of the sun, leaving us to rot in the shadow for fifteen long, slow years.
"So our deal is this: your time is over; leave Ravaalon immediately or suffer the cries of those you stamp upon to stand so high.
"You will be given three days from the the day of this broadcast. The echoes of our pain will sing on...but in three days, our pain will peak and the last cry shall pale to the thunderous roar of injustice and outrage!
"Three days, Ravaalon. Keep your promise, keep your pledge. For if you do not, we certainly will. Good day."
There was a click and then the sound of the loosened tape flipping against itself. Stunned, Print at last turned the device off, stopping the useless play.
The room was silent for several minutes as the information sunk in. Finally, one reporter seemed to awaken from the spell and asked, "Who the hell was that?"
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:38 pm
Timestamp:
12:04 pm, July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th annual Founding Day
No Twilight.
Somehow, Spitfire wasn’t surprised. Twilight never told anypony her plans, it was overly frustrating for the captain. Still, at least Spitfire didn’t have to worry about Twilight. Nope, instead the likelihood of fanatical pegasi getting out of control had just been drastically increased.
Giving her head a little shake to clear it, Spitfire returned her focus to the crowd. From her position, mostly behind the dais, she didn’t have a good view of the populous. But, she trusted her guard to take care of anything suspicious. The speech was nearly finished, Spitfire waited with baited breath as the final lines of the well known speech echoed across the courtyard.
“Let today always be celebrated as the Founding Day of this great city!” Twilight’s recorded voice rang out. “Everypony--unicorn, pegasus, earth--come together and celebrate harmony! Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer! For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!
As the final word of the speech rang out, as the first notes were played by the band, as the first float began its slow movement forward...
There was an eardrum shattering howl as a massive and fiery explosion rocked and ripped through the east half of Town Hall, shooting fire and flaming stone, shards of glass and half-melted metal out into, and onto, the crowd.
Spitfire immediately took to the air as the crowd exploded in panic. Jamming her earpiece into place she began rattling off orders as she watched the scene unfold below.
“I need medics on the ground outside the Town Hall. I need all teams covering alleyways to converge towards the explosion, be on the lookout for suspicious ponies.”
Spitfire swooped out of the way as a panicked pegasus took to the air to escape the crowd. Before she could say anything about him not being allowed to fly here, he was gone. She growled as she observed many of the other pegasi retreating the same way.
“Keep an eye on all the ponies guards, it is highly likely that it wasn’t just pegasi even though that’s what everypony is probably assuming. I don’t want any to slip through.
“We need a flow set up at all major exit points. We need to reserve room for fire and emergency crewponies to work. And someone get to the blast site, we may have officers down from the explosion.”
Spitfire continued making circuits around the square, directing her officers where they were needed. Currently she was only mic’d into her lieutenants so that her orders could be assigned more efficiently to her troops. However, more than once she spiraled down and directed officers in person before taking off again.
Then she spotted them. It was rather hard to miss a gryphon, and this one was flying while carrying a pony. She deposited her passenger on the roof of the building just East of the Town Hall before swooping down into the alley, where, she just noticed a unicorn stepping in as well. The building was on fire, either the griffon had sinister plans for that pony or they didn’t realize the danger.
She changed course, speaking quickly as she neared the alley. “I need officers in an alley to the east of the Town Hall. Please get them in back to cut off pursuers, I think we may have something here.”
It took her almost a minute of dodging through the chaotic airspace before she was in a position close enough to see inside the alley. At that moment, the griffon flapped up to the rooftop where she had left her passenger. In an instant they had taken off again, amazing Spitfire with their efficiency. Yep, they were obviously a team.
She angled to follow them when something else caught her eye. The unicorn was fleeing East into another small shop, Spitfire glimpsed a sword as he disappeared.
“No way that’s him,” she thought. Griffon forgotten, she quickly dived for the opposite end of the store in hopes to confront the unicorn.
Looking around for the griffin in the sky, Crescent failed to see anything other than the thick black smoke from the building. Having lost the big predator who had taken off with her companion, he turned around to head down the other way when he spotted somepony flying, somepony with a familiar burning mane. She had clearly noticed him as she was blowing a police whistle.
“Hey, unicorn! Stop there!” He turned and ran for it.
He did didn’t want anything to do with any investigation, and seeing how he was wielding a fire sword, he would be put up high on the suspect list. Throwing a look over his shoulder he saw the mare closing in on him. There was no way he could outrun a pegasus, but he tried nonetheless. His running was brought to a stop, however, as she tackled him to the ground without mercy.
“I thought I recognized you, didn’t I tell you not to cause any more problems?” she growled, panting.
Crescent coughed as the dust around them swirled. “I-I haven’t *cough* done shit. I just don’t wanna *cough* get mixed up into this.”
“Then maybe you shouldn't have started running away kid, it just makes you more suspicious.”
The mare dragged him to his hooves and forced him to begin walking back towards the Town Hall. He halted a little due to a bit of a scrape he’d taken in the tackling; how ironic that it was on the bandaged leg.
“Listen, I don’t care about this ranking business that has corrupted this place, I’m just traveling through and-”
Spitfire interrupted him, “I don’t really care for it either, kid. But you being here is really suspicious, especially after last night. Even if you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, you still gonna have to answer some questions.”
“I was drunk and that guy ruined the last drink I could afford. I--"
Spitfire interrupted him again, "I also don't care what excuses you've got kid. You are here now; that's the issue and I'm taking you in for it. You can complain about it later."
Crescent was silent for a minute. "Fine, whatever. I guess you were right when you said this might be the last year. This place is a timebomb waiting to go off." He paused, then added, "So, what’s keeping you here anyway?”
“A promise.”
“What kind of promise?”
She gave him a clearly unnecessary shove. “None of your business kid.”
He was silent for a moment, before another thought came to him. “Okay, I know this might seem weird, b- but could I ask for your name.” He really hated how he always tended to stutter when talking to mares. He’d managed it pretty good with the maid and in the alley earlier, but this was a bit different. “It’s just a name would be better than ‘fiery mare’ seeing how we meet so often.”
She gave him skeptical glance. “The name’s Spitfire; Captain Spitfire. and that’s all you need know.”
Her tone stymied his curiosity and he fell silent. They walked back into the alley he had retreated from, Spitfire maintaining a firm wing on his back.
“It must be a very important promise if it keeps you staying here as the town crumbles around you... Then again, I suppose my own promise brought me here.”
She didn’t answer, but instead guided him over to one of her fellow officers who handed her a pair of cuffs at her insistence. The white pegasus from before was sitting against the wall with the cape still on. Although, it was a bit more tattered than before. She looked up for a short second, giving him a frustrated look before glancing away. Crescent held out his hooves for the cuffs that Spitfire began putting on him.
“For the record: You’re being taken into custody for suspicious activity, so there won’t be any profile unless you turn up having been a part of this. I could also give you a long spiel on your rights if you want.”
“Thank you captain, but I- I know my rights.”
She sat him down beside the now beardless cosplayer. “Next time, let the cat get nabbed for curiosity, yea? Also, I suggest you be honest with everything, better to admit the small things then be caught lying.” Without waiting for a response she turned and spread her wings to fly off.
“Uhm, hi again,” Crescent said with a regretful smile to the cosplayer, but she didn’t look at him. He didn’t blame her, he had left her as he tried to escape himself and he felt terrible for it. He had problems understanding why he’d gone off his premisses so badly.
Spitfire turned away from the ponies in the alley. She spread her wings to take off when one of the officers galloped up to her, speaking into his portable radio.
“Yes Sir, she’s here.” He gave Spitfire a meaningful look. “Ma’am, reports are coming in from your tail on a ‘Cloudbuilder’? It seems the target has participated in firebombing activities and is now fleeing the scene. The tail is requesting confirmation on following the pegasus out of the district?”
Spitfire’s features darkened. “Yes,” she said, speaking into her own mic. Giving the officer a nod, she took to the air.
“Patch me into the agent directly lieutenant,” she requested.
A few moments of crackle, then panting and faint sounds of clopping hooves reached her ear. “Hello, agent? This is Spitfire, over.”
An out of breath voice sounded over the background noise. “This is... officer Daystar ma’am. The pegasus is keeping a low profile and not flying above the buildings... But, he is still moving at a very fast clip. Near as I can tell, he is heading straight south... for the City Line station.”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can Daystar, keep me posted on any changes.” Spitfire swung towards the City Line station in the distance and piled on her wingpower.
The euphoria from the speed began to overtake Spitfire as she moved faster than she had since... well since she could remember being in the Wonderbolts. Immediately she noticed her speed wasn’t what it once was, but the feel of the wind in her ears and her mane whipping about was almost overwhelming.
With difficulty she focused on her task and beat her wings as fast as she could. The station was rapidly approaching, but even now she could see the train pulling in under the large canopy. She only had a few minutes.
There was a special force field surrounding the station. It was designed to discourage sneaky unicorns or agile pegasi from getting past the ticket counters and onto the train. Spitfire quickly landed at the almost vacant station and galloped up to the nearest counter. She flashed her badge as she jumped the short gate and rushed onto the platform, looking right and left-- There he was!
The pegasus caught sight of her and panicked. He rushed into the train; Spitfire took to the air again and quickly closed the gap. It was lucky of her that she rose above the train, because she saw Cloudbuilder exit the opposite side of the car. He made a beeline for the far station exit, clearing the gates much the same as she had done seconds before.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed whom she assumed was Daystar hurry onto the platform, panting and wheezing, a ticket clutched in his teeth. But, this observation was lost to her mind as she dive bombed the ticket station.
Landing on the far side of the gates, she reached the stairs and passed through the forcefield. Gliding quickly down the steps she saw Cloudbuilder’s tail flick out of sight as he took off at the bottom. She quickly crouched in midair and tucked her wings in, falling down the last few steps.
Just as her hooves touched the ground she thrust out her wings and powered upward with both of them, and her legs; giving herself a tremendous boost in speed back upwards, straight towards Cloudbuilder.
As she neared the pegasus she shouted out. “Cloudbuilder, you had better land, or so help me Celestia, I’m going to tackle you to the ground and it won’t be pretty!”
He called back, “Not gonna happen, Spitfire!” He banked sharply, flying deeper into the hex. If he could get down amongst the buildings, he could lose her in the corners. He heard, with satisfaction, that as she flew past she cursed while turning to quickly catch up with him. Damn she was fast!
He dropped quickly, thoughts of continuing to dodge her in the open vanishing as her last pass singed his mane. She may be fast, but she couldn’t bank worth a damn. Hopefully he could easily lose her after a few buildings.
Desperate times called for desperate moves. Tucking his wings, he dropped like a stone. At the last moment, he flared his wings, catching the wind and taking off just above the street. Already, frightened ponies scattered as he flew over them, his hooves barely missing their heads.
He wasn’t entirely sure where he was, so he took a turn at random, dipping his wing and banking around a tight corner. He could hear Spitfire still on his tail, grunting as she tried to make the turn. With luck she’d have to slow down or risk crashing into a building.
Banking quickly again, he poured on all he had to the next turn. Just as he turned again, he caught her in his peripheral vision. Crap! She was still on him! He began looking for tighter corners with less distance between them. Hopefully he wouldn’t run out of tall buildings before she gave up.
A minute later and he was began to feel his panic returning. He still had not lost her, somehow she was banking as well as he was, which was impossible! Not to mention she was faster on the long stretches. He slowed up slightly to watch her round a corner, his terrified mind demanding an explanation.
Spitfire did not disappoint. As she barreled into view, he watched as she headed for the wall. It looked like she was going to crash but she landed with her hooves on it and pushed off at an angle with brilliant timing from her wings; fluidly transferring her speed into a new direction.
Okay, right, former Wonderbolt. Time to panic again.
His wings strained as he tried to coax every ounce of power out of them that he could. There was no way he was going to let Spitfire catch him, not after what he’d just done. If he couldn’t outfly her, then he’d have to get creative.
A turn was coming up. The wide street turned into a narrow alleyway. It would be a strain even for his skills to make that turn without slowing down.
He gritted his teeth, knowing that right now it was do, or die. His wing dipped, his whole body throwing itself into the turn. The g-forces tore at his innards; it felt like they were all being shoved to one side. Darkness creeped into the edges of his vision.
His outer wing scraped along the wall of the building, a few feathers being ripped out. He bit his lip, refusing to acknowledge the pain, as doing so could lead to him losing his concentration. Losing that meant he would most certainly crash.
Several feathers spiraled down in his wake, he completed the turn, barely. Elation filled him as he allowed himself a moment to celebrate. There was no way that even the famed Spitfire would be able to make that turn.
It was risky, but he looked behind him. His mouth fell open as Spitfire, somehow, managed to pull off the exact same move that she had been, though it looked like even she struggled with it. As her hooves came away, he could see a small amount of debris fall from where they had impacted.
Impossible! She shouldn’t have been able to make that. She should’ve had to slow down, or bank upwards and over the buildings, both scenarios allowing him to escape. She should have crashed! How had she managed to do that?
His gaze returned to in front of him just in time to see the wall looming ahead. It seemed he’d chosen a dead end alley to fly down.
“Shit!” He pulled up, losing precious speed in an effort to save himself from becoming a smear on the wall. The red brick drew closer and closer as once more he put strain on his wings.
No sooner had he cleared the wall, his hooves actually grazing the top of it, did he feel an impact on his stomach, driving the wind from him. Hooves wrapped around his midsection in a vice grip, trapping his wings against his side.
Looking down, he could see that Spitfire had managed to catch up. The former Wonderbolt had grabbed him. Try as he might, her grip was solid, there was no way he was wiggling free. Not that he had much time to try anyway.
Spitfire took control of their flight, tilting so that they were headed directly towards the roof. He had just enough time to think about how much this was going to hurt, and close his eyes, when she slammed him into the rooftop.
His breath came out in one giant gasp, and the pain in his lungs gave him trouble drawing in air. Even after the weight was lifted off of his midsection, he lay on the rooftop, struggling to breathe.
“What the buck do you think you were doing?” Spitfire wheezed. “You really thought you could outrun me? Forget about the whole ‘me being an officer’ thing. Remember that other part about being a Wonderbolt?”
Despite his lack of breath, Cloudbuilder managed a weak chuckle. “I— I almost did.”
He was grabbed roughly and pulled to his hooves, Spitfire still had a disturbing amount of... fire... leftover from that chase.
“I guess your ego got a little too big for your wings, huh?” she growled. “Now you’re going to fly back to the Town Hall in a straight. Slow. Line. Or I make you permanent friends with the ground. Got it?”
He groaned, holding a hoof to his stomach. “Yeah, got it.” That mare may be old, but she still packed a punch. And, as she had just proven, she could outfly him. Trying to run away again would only be an exercise in futility.
Flapping his wings to test them out, he found that they were sore, but he could still manage a shaky flight with them. At this point, he had no choice but to follow her order. He could just be thankful that he’d already gotten rid of his disguise. She had no evidence against him, though he couldn’t help but wonder how she’d found him, and why she’d personally come after him.
Slowly, he made a straight line towards the Town Hall. Normally the clocktower would have been the marker to steer towards. But there was a distinct column of smoke rising to the South-East of it, clearly defining the Town Hall’s location.
His wings burned, and he was still having trouble getting a breath. All those years of stunt flying had hardened her body, even with being out of the game for nearly twenty years. She hit, hard.
As they got closer, his senses lit up. The smell of acrid smoke filled his nose. The moans and groans of injured ponies cried out over the sounds of more ponies frantically working in the plaza. He could feel the heat from the still raging fire. Sweat beaded on his body.
He looked back at Spitfire. “Well? Anywhere in particular you’d like me to land? Or should I just pick somewhere?”
Most of the ponies had been evacuated out of the square by this time. The few still curious ponies had yet to be rounded up. Officers had diverted their attention to other medical personnel as they tried to asses the damage, to building and pony alike.
All pegasi left and willing to help were already working double time: hauling stretchers, double teaming large bags of water for fires, relaying messages. There was a long line being set up for a bucket chain. While it was already functioning, more and more ponies were joining the line in an effort to contain the fires. In short: the whole scene was a mess.
Spitfire ground her teeth and moved in on Cloudbuilder. She forced him down right to the edge of the horrible scene.
Paramedics were weaving in and around the rubble, trying to determine who was alive, or worth saving. One of them stood up from the mangled... corpse... of a pegasus whose innards were splayed six feet out from his mutilated midsection. The culprit of his death laying just beyond, a large block of stone covered in a lot of blood and feathers. It looked as though one of his wings was broken and almost torn off.
Forcing herself not to gag, Spitfire forced Cloudbuilder to look on. “You see this Cloudbuilder? Is this what you wanted? Because it sure seems to me that’s a pegasus you and your friends just killed there.”
Spitfire swung her hoof wide. “And it’s not just this one. I can see half a dozen bodies from here! Is this what you wanted? Because your friends sure made one hell of a spectacle!”
Cloudbuilder looked at the carnage around him. The bloody mess of the pegasus nearly caused him to lose his breakfast. It was horrible. Everything around him was horrible. Most of the injured ponies left were the most critical cases, ones that couldn’t be moved. Even over the smoke, the smell of blood filled the air.
He held a hoof over his muzzle, fighting the urge to throw up. He noticed one doing just that behind him. Through sheer willpower, he kept his food inside him.
The entire scene was grim. Ponies rushing around, fires burning, bodies still laying in the street. No one was ever going to forget this day. It would probably be an event the rest of Equestria discussed for years to come.
Lowering his hoof, he addressed Spitfire quietly. “Is this what I wanted? Yes, and no. We pegasi needed to make a statement, to get your attention. I think I can say that we have it now.
“The only attention you will be receiving is a terrorist watch from Celestia herself!” Spitfire almost shouted.
“Perhaps so. But if it gains the pegasi as a whole what we deserve, then I am willing to make that sacrifice. Sometimes, Spitfire, a few must take the fall so that the many can live.”
Spitfire drooped and shook her head. Hauling Cloudbuilder forward she found one of the senior staff from the medical crew. “Excuse me,” she asked. “What’s the count so far?”
The pony glanced at Spitfire but hesitated as his eyes washed over her uniform. He beckoned her along with him and he hurried about. “Well, we've got a pretty even count on both dead and wounded so far. Near as I can tell we have about fifty wounded accounted for and most removed. Dead? I’ve got about the same, fifty, but both those numbers are still climbing. That bomb couldn’t have been placed better, this end of the square was pa--”
“Doctor!” A voice called. The stallion excused himself and galloped away.
Spitfire stood stunned for a second before turning to Cloudbuilder. “You don’t deserve anything for this, Cloudbuilder. Nopony does.”
He matched her look with one of his own, a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Spitfire, I didn’t want for all these ponies to die.” Hard steel replaced the look in his eyes. “But, it’s done now.”
“Your mindset is worse than that of Discord in his prime,” Spitfire said, shaking her head. “I hope you’ve prepared yourself for living with this.”
With that, she turned Cloudbuilder on his hooves and marched him towards the alley she had left the unicorn cuffed in.
Mirror Shine stumbled out of the alleyway and immediately regretted it. She could barely stand as it was, so when she caught a lungful of smoke-filled air she fell against the wall. In the middle of choking so hard she lost one of her contacts a gruff voice came out of the miasma, "Stop right there, criminal scum!"
"M'naugh... *caff* cribbinma," it turns out to be very hard to speak with one's muzzle pressed into cobblestones. Nor did it help her coughing.
The guard hauled her out of the smoke-filled region, pausing to make sure she was still breathing. before pushing her up against a wall and admonishing her to "Stay put!" When she asked for a bottle of water it was like he didn't even hear her. She just knew the ash was going to stain her fur.
"Umm, I didn't *hack* I never blew anything up, can I go now?" She'd gotten most of the phlegm out, but it might not hurt to build sympathy.
The guard glared at her, "Stop asking, you're not going anywhere until the Captain has had a chance to question you."
"Can I at least get a washcloth? This green fur dye looks really bad without the rest of my costume. I mean, I look like an idiot."
"You got a problem with green fur?" The guard, whose fur color was pretty much impossible to determine in the half-light of the fires, growled.
"Um no? It's just that I only dyed my muzzle, because I was running late and I figured that with a full cloak and a big hat nopony would notice if I did the rest and then I lost my hat and I followed some ponies in really bad costumes and I was threatened by a gryphon and then–"
"STOP TALKING!", the officer clapped a hoof over his face. "For the love of Celestia, just sit there, be quiet, and wait."
"W-well, if I had a washcloth and some water, I'd be too busy cleaning my face to talk."
“Ma’am, I’m certain that washing your face is going to be the least of your concerns here very soon. I suggest you sit back and reflect on your story and what has been done here.”
"Is this a joke?" Mirror quirked an eyebrow, confused. Maybe this was just a really bad prank... "Terry? That's you, isn't it?" She giggled, feeling intensely relieved. "You really had me going for a while there... good one." It wasn't really, but anything you could walk away from...
“Ma’am, please. I don’t know a Terry and it’s really awkward conversing with a suspect.”
'Oh Luna, this is really happening...'
Suddenly, a vibrant yellow pegasus with a very orange mane trotted in with a unicorn in front of her. The mare, she noticed, was in an officer uniform... Wait, orange mane, yellow fur... She knew who this was! For once, Mirror found herself at a loss for words. Spitfire, THE Spitfire. 'I wonder if it's against protocol or whatever for me to ask for her autograph?'
She watched as Spitfire was given a pair of spare cuffs and began to hobble the unicorn. It was then she gave him her full attention.
‘Oh, it’s him.’ The pegasus wasn't sure how, but this had to be the unicorn's fault, somehow. She glared as he grinned sheepishly at her. Waving around giant mystical-looking swords and accusing people of being unaware of boring stuff like politics, he was totally an anti-hero.
“Uhm, hi again.” He tried giving her a shady smile, but she wouldn’t greet him with more than a small glare. As far as she concerned it was his fault she had been caught for doing nothing. She’d been trying to find someone who’d been suspicious and now she was the one with cuffs, if anything he was the one who had earned the metal braces, going around waving that big knife.
“L- listen I, uhm, I’m really sorry for, well, for running off on you. I- I just panicked, I just want to get out of this pl-place.”
“Don’t we all?” she said short. His stuttering was new and pretty irritating to be honest.
He probably was all kinds of bad what with that ridiculous sword and sporting shady leg wrappings. She was surprised he hadn't grown a goatee or some other sinister facial hair. Yeah, she could see it, the tragic past as a potato farmer... wait, unicorns stink at farming... no, the dreary existence of an... astronomer? Sure. Years spent toiling under a cruel master had left him embittered toward other ponies until one day he finally couldn't stand it any longer and ran away.
Yeah, he ran away and... got caught by a press-gang for the Prench Foreign Legion. After spending years at sea in the desert he gained great fighting skills dealing with nomadic pirates but lost all value for equine life. She paused, 'there has to be something about the sword in there...' Oh, the captain of the legion was actually an evil octopus faced seapony who enslaved drowning sailors to be part of his immortal crew that … went around recruiting drowning sailors to be part of his immortal crew.
'What does that have to do with the clunky sword?' So one day the obnoxious unicorn decides he wants to go make ponies miserable on land but not in deserts, so he challenges Neighvy Pones, the captain, to a duel. They have a totally epic fight from one end of the ship to the other end of the foreign legion compound. Eventually the unicorn realizes that the evil seacaptain's sinister sword is making the whole ship fight against him. So he steals the sword, and the octopus face is all like "Sacre-Argh! Moi one weakness'a," and then the unicorn plunges it through the monster's black heart.
'Ok, but are you saying he has a magic boat somewhere? Isn't that kinda' OP?' So he goes traveling, and sees a kid with a really spiky yellow mane and this obscenely large kitchen knife and he says, "Hey little boy want to trade?"--
Mirror Shine stopped in her musings and looked at the ponies around her. Why were they all staring at her?
“Oh crap, I said all that out loud didn’t I?”
The look on the unicorn's face confirmed her worst fears.
“I-- You... I don’t even. You think I’m--” The unicorn spluttered, unable to form a coherent sentence. Mirror could have sworn she saw a thin stream of smoke coming from one of his ears.
He eventually trailed off and sat as far away from her as he could. Thankfully the guards seemed to understand and allowed him a respectable amount of space.
For the next few minutes Mirror observed the guards' coming and going, sometimes interchanging positions with those standing over her. There was a lot happening outside the alley, but there was no way for her to see what. It was getting frustrating, just sitting here... silently.
“Why are we still waiting here?” Mirror asked. Then, without waiting for a response, “can’t I just tell somepony what I know then leave? Maybe I can go help?” she suggested hopefully.
“Ma’am,” the guardstallion turned on her insistently. “Until we have the situation under control you are stuck here just like the rest of us. I can’t let you do anything as you are a suspect for this bombing. If you don’t think that’s fair then take it up with Captain Spitfire.”
“Captain Spitfire!?” Mirror squealed.
The guard face hoofed again, “Oh Celestia, not another fanfilly.”
"And why shouldn't she have a herd of fans? She was the best Captain the Wonderbolts ever had!" the pegasus squeaked indignantly.
The guard rolled his eyes and turned away, unwilling to argue. Mirror watched him peek out from the alley to observe what was going on. She had almost worked up the nerve to ask what he was seeing when there was a clatter of hooves from the entrance of the alley again.
Spitfire had returned. She was escorting another pegasus, they both looked terrible. Both were sweaty, Spitfire’s uniform was drenched and they both looked ready to drop. Well, this seemed like a golden opportunity to her, best to take the initiative before Spitfire left again.
Spitfire shoved the pegasus towards the wall. “Now you sit there until I can take you to the station.” She turned to the nearby guard. “Hobble him, I don’t want him getting away.”
She moved off, presumably to go help coordinate the rescue efforts.
The white pegasus stepped forward as quickly as she could stumble, "Uh, Ma'am, Captain … your honor? Could I have a word? Um, if there's not too much going on..." the sentence seemed ridiculous even to her, "M-maybe later?"
Spitfire stopped and looked at the pegasus mare. Her gaze lowered to the cuffs on her forelegs then to the exasperated looking guard hurrying towards them. She raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
The albino struggled for words, "I, uh, just want you to know I'll do whatever I can to help, and I'm really sorry to waste your guards' time like this, and..." the guard was going to be on her in a second, "I think you're really cool and I got to see you fly once, when I was a filly–"
Pinching her muzzle with a forehoof, Spitfire groaned. “It’s fine officer. Just, take her back to her spot.” She then addressed Mirror, “I’ll talk to you later, but I’m really busy right now, okay?”
Mirror nodded dumbly, knowing a brush-off when she heard one. Still it was more interaction than she'd ever expected to have with one of her heroes. She watched in disappointment as Spitfire took to the air and flew quickly out of sight.
Cloudbuilder slumped against the wall, still trying to catch his breath. Looking around, he spotted the pegasus who’d tried to talk to Spitfire, as well as an orange unicorn carrying a sword. The guard actually let that hornhead keep his sword? They were either brave, or stupid. Probably stupid.
The sounds of activity could be heard from outside the alley, though very little could be seen. Very quickly, boredom set in. Seeing as he’d much rather converse with the wall, using his face, than the guards, his only other option was to attempt to speak to the other ponies stuck here with him.
“So, what all are you ponies being arrested for?” he asked.
"Being curious, apparently," Mirror grumbled.
“Yeah, it seems they’ll arrest you for anything these days. Like minding your own business and trying to go home, not even anywhere near here.” He glared off in the direction Spitfire had vanished. “Name’s Cloudbuilder. I’d offer to shake your hoof but...” He held up his bound hooves.
The white pegasus nodded, "Mirror Shine, nice to meet you." He seemed nice enough, and there wasn't really anypony else to talk to around, maybe she could attempt small talk again. "So, really bad day everypony's had so far, huh?"
“Tell me about it,” the orange unicorn said. Mirror gave him a mad look. “Oh, sorry. I’m still, ehm, n- not forgiven?”
Cloudbuilder glanced between them. “You two know each other?”
“Not really, we kinda just bumped into each other and I left her to run away to save my own skin like a coward.”
Mirror Shine stared at the unicorn, “Sure did you a lot of good, didn't it?” she huffed.
“Listen I’m sorry, I normally w- wouldn’t have done something like that. I mean, the Town Hall just blew up and, ehm, being arrested for something like that would ruin all I stand for. I had a moment of self greed and I’m truly sorry for it. I- if it helps, we are in the same position.” He shook his hooves and made the short chain cling to prove his point.
He had a point, but... 'oh whatever, not like I'd have run if I had a chance.' That brought up the other two players in their little drama, "Did you see what happened to the gryphon and that old guy?"
“Ehm, no. all the smoke made it too difficult to spot them. They probably made it safely out of here.”
"Sooo they were flying away from the fires?"
“They seemed to do so, I only saw them leave from here, but I lost them on the other side. I doubt a griffin would be foolish enough to fly into a burning building.” He tried to sound optimistic to better his chances of forgiveness.
"You know what I don't get? Who the hay would do all of this?", Mirror began the laborious process of getting back to her feet after trying to gesture with a hoof she had forgotten was chained to its partner.
Cloudbuilder butted into the conversation. “My guess is it’s ponies who are fed up with the way things are going in this city. You know, how pegasi are being walked all over and nopony seems to care.”
"Well, I know there are some rude and stuck-up ponies, but how does..." she used her muzzle this time, "destroying stuff help? I mean, how can it be that bad and nopony's done anything?" The logic seemed internally consistent to her at least.
He glared at her. “Nopony does anything because they all want to pretend that everything’s perfect in this city. That way they can go about their lives in peace.” He waved both of his hooves around. “I think today proves that peace is a lie. Now everypony has to see the truth.”
"Wait, there's a war!?" Mirror startled. War fics were always so dreary, and almost everypony ended up dying... that didn't sound good at all.
Cloudbuilder was incredulous. Did this pony seriously not know what was going on? How could anyone who lived in Ravaalon not know? “Are you trying to tell me you have no idea what’s going on?”
"Well obviously somepony is really upset," that was a baseline for most stories, even history. "You're talking about some huge anti-pegasus conspiracy, so... I'm going to go out on a limb and say... there's pegasi protesting preposterous persecution perpetrated per pony partisanship?"
“Um, what?” He ran the sentence through his head a few times, finally able to decipher just what the mare had said.
“Well, yeah. The pegasi in this city have been treated unfairly for years now. We’re sick and tired of it, but nopony will do anything. So now we have to take matters into our own hooves.”
Mirror idly scratched her barrel, "Oh, ok. Now I get it. You're doing it wrong, the tragic villain always looks upward when he lists the indignities heaped upon his person and/or people. Good passion, though." She was proud of herself for that critique. 'Wha the hay are you saying? Shut up, you're going to make him angry.'
Cloudbuilder’s jaw dropped open. “What are you talking about? This... This isn’t an act. This is real. Real ponies dealing with real problems.” His voice was going up in volume as he spoke. “I used to be somepony, an artist. I moved here because what city in the clouds doesn’t need pegasi? Well, this city needs us, to run machines and slave away for nothing.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Is this all some sort of game to you?”
"See, that was WAY better! And, um, aren't we all playing parts, most of the time? I mean, when you're at home I bet you're not like," she tried to deepen her voice, but mostly just ended up sounding scratchy, "I used to be satisfied, but now I have a hunger, and only a salad will satisfy me!" Another thought occurred to her, "Um, what kind of art did you make?"
This mare was insane, she had to be. It was the only explanation that made her actions make sense. As much as he wanted to try and figure out just what was wrong with her, attempting to do so would only make his head hurt. Instead, he humored her question. “Clouds. I had a job in Cloudsdale making things out of clouds, but that just paid the bills. In my spare time, I loved making cloud sculptures.”
"No way! I work with clouds, too – matter of fact... hold on..." she began rummaging through her bags with her muzzle, eventually pulling her head back out and spitting out a fluffy sphere of cloudstuff, "See, I always have some with me – makes good last-minute props... though I'm not really good at making shapes."
“Wait, props? So you’re an actress?” That would actually make a lot of sense. Only an actress could possibly be as dense as this pony was. And it would explain all of her comments about characters and parts.
Mirror Shine blushed through the fur dye, "I'm not really an actress, I do some bit parts at a local theater, although mostly I end up helping the lighting technician." She leaned over, conspiratorially, "what I'm really good at is cosplay."
There was a flurry of wings and air as Spitfire arrived back in the alley. She looked over her prisoners grimly. Then, in a terse tone, “Alright officers, lets wrap these ponies up here and get them back to the station. I’ve done all I can here.”
Collaborated with DarkPhoenix, DrTechno and notMurphy. Without whom this post would be at least 20% less cool.
12:04 pm, July 13th, Ravaalon's 15th annual Founding Day
No Twilight.
Somehow, Spitfire wasn’t surprised. Twilight never told anypony her plans, it was overly frustrating for the captain. Still, at least Spitfire didn’t have to worry about Twilight. Nope, instead the likelihood of fanatical pegasi getting out of control had just been drastically increased.
Giving her head a little shake to clear it, Spitfire returned her focus to the crowd. From her position, mostly behind the dais, she didn’t have a good view of the populous. But, she trusted her guard to take care of anything suspicious. The speech was nearly finished, Spitfire waited with baited breath as the final lines of the well known speech echoed across the courtyard.
“Let today always be celebrated as the Founding Day of this great city!” Twilight’s recorded voice rang out. “Everypony--unicorn, pegasus, earth--come together and celebrate harmony! Let the cry rise up into one glorious, unified cheer! For Ravaalon! For Equestria! For everypony!
As the final word of the speech rang out, as the first notes were played by the band, as the first float began its slow movement forward...
There was an eardrum shattering howl as a massive and fiery explosion rocked and ripped through the east half of Town Hall, shooting fire and flaming stone, shards of glass and half-melted metal out into, and onto, the crowd.
Spitfire immediately took to the air as the crowd exploded in panic. Jamming her earpiece into place she began rattling off orders as she watched the scene unfold below.
“I need medics on the ground outside the Town Hall. I need all teams covering alleyways to converge towards the explosion, be on the lookout for suspicious ponies.”
Spitfire swooped out of the way as a panicked pegasus took to the air to escape the crowd. Before she could say anything about him not being allowed to fly here, he was gone. She growled as she observed many of the other pegasi retreating the same way.
“Keep an eye on all the ponies guards, it is highly likely that it wasn’t just pegasi even though that’s what everypony is probably assuming. I don’t want any to slip through.
“We need a flow set up at all major exit points. We need to reserve room for fire and emergency crewponies to work. And someone get to the blast site, we may have officers down from the explosion.”
Spitfire continued making circuits around the square, directing her officers where they were needed. Currently she was only mic’d into her lieutenants so that her orders could be assigned more efficiently to her troops. However, more than once she spiraled down and directed officers in person before taking off again.
Then she spotted them. It was rather hard to miss a gryphon, and this one was flying while carrying a pony. She deposited her passenger on the roof of the building just East of the Town Hall before swooping down into the alley, where, she just noticed a unicorn stepping in as well. The building was on fire, either the griffon had sinister plans for that pony or they didn’t realize the danger.
She changed course, speaking quickly as she neared the alley. “I need officers in an alley to the east of the Town Hall. Please get them in back to cut off pursuers, I think we may have something here.”
It took her almost a minute of dodging through the chaotic airspace before she was in a position close enough to see inside the alley. At that moment, the griffon flapped up to the rooftop where she had left her passenger. In an instant they had taken off again, amazing Spitfire with their efficiency. Yep, they were obviously a team.
She angled to follow them when something else caught her eye. The unicorn was fleeing East into another small shop, Spitfire glimpsed a sword as he disappeared.
“No way that’s him,” she thought. Griffon forgotten, she quickly dived for the opposite end of the store in hopes to confront the unicorn.
Looking around for the griffin in the sky, Crescent failed to see anything other than the thick black smoke from the building. Having lost the big predator who had taken off with her companion, he turned around to head down the other way when he spotted somepony flying, somepony with a familiar burning mane. She had clearly noticed him as she was blowing a police whistle.
“Hey, unicorn! Stop there!” He turned and ran for it.
He did didn’t want anything to do with any investigation, and seeing how he was wielding a fire sword, he would be put up high on the suspect list. Throwing a look over his shoulder he saw the mare closing in on him. There was no way he could outrun a pegasus, but he tried nonetheless. His running was brought to a stop, however, as she tackled him to the ground without mercy.
“I thought I recognized you, didn’t I tell you not to cause any more problems?” she growled, panting.
Crescent coughed as the dust around them swirled. “I-I haven’t *cough* done shit. I just don’t wanna *cough* get mixed up into this.”
“Then maybe you shouldn't have started running away kid, it just makes you more suspicious.”
The mare dragged him to his hooves and forced him to begin walking back towards the Town Hall. He halted a little due to a bit of a scrape he’d taken in the tackling; how ironic that it was on the bandaged leg.
“Listen, I don’t care about this ranking business that has corrupted this place, I’m just traveling through and-”
Spitfire interrupted him, “I don’t really care for it either, kid. But you being here is really suspicious, especially after last night. Even if you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, you still gonna have to answer some questions.”
“I was drunk and that guy ruined the last drink I could afford. I--"
Spitfire interrupted him again, "I also don't care what excuses you've got kid. You are here now; that's the issue and I'm taking you in for it. You can complain about it later."
Crescent was silent for a minute. "Fine, whatever. I guess you were right when you said this might be the last year. This place is a timebomb waiting to go off." He paused, then added, "So, what’s keeping you here anyway?”
“A promise.”
“What kind of promise?”
She gave him a clearly unnecessary shove. “None of your business kid.”
He was silent for a moment, before another thought came to him. “Okay, I know this might seem weird, b- but could I ask for your name.” He really hated how he always tended to stutter when talking to mares. He’d managed it pretty good with the maid and in the alley earlier, but this was a bit different. “It’s just a name would be better than ‘fiery mare’ seeing how we meet so often.”
She gave him skeptical glance. “The name’s Spitfire; Captain Spitfire. and that’s all you need know.”
Her tone stymied his curiosity and he fell silent. They walked back into the alley he had retreated from, Spitfire maintaining a firm wing on his back.
“It must be a very important promise if it keeps you staying here as the town crumbles around you... Then again, I suppose my own promise brought me here.”
She didn’t answer, but instead guided him over to one of her fellow officers who handed her a pair of cuffs at her insistence. The white pegasus from before was sitting against the wall with the cape still on. Although, it was a bit more tattered than before. She looked up for a short second, giving him a frustrated look before glancing away. Crescent held out his hooves for the cuffs that Spitfire began putting on him.
“For the record: You’re being taken into custody for suspicious activity, so there won’t be any profile unless you turn up having been a part of this. I could also give you a long spiel on your rights if you want.”
“Thank you captain, but I- I know my rights.”
She sat him down beside the now beardless cosplayer. “Next time, let the cat get nabbed for curiosity, yea? Also, I suggest you be honest with everything, better to admit the small things then be caught lying.” Without waiting for a response she turned and spread her wings to fly off.
“Uhm, hi again,” Crescent said with a regretful smile to the cosplayer, but she didn’t look at him. He didn’t blame her, he had left her as he tried to escape himself and he felt terrible for it. He had problems understanding why he’d gone off his premisses so badly.
Spitfire turned away from the ponies in the alley. She spread her wings to take off when one of the officers galloped up to her, speaking into his portable radio.
“Yes Sir, she’s here.” He gave Spitfire a meaningful look. “Ma’am, reports are coming in from your tail on a ‘Cloudbuilder’? It seems the target has participated in firebombing activities and is now fleeing the scene. The tail is requesting confirmation on following the pegasus out of the district?”
Spitfire’s features darkened. “Yes,” she said, speaking into her own mic. Giving the officer a nod, she took to the air.
“Patch me into the agent directly lieutenant,” she requested.
A few moments of crackle, then panting and faint sounds of clopping hooves reached her ear. “Hello, agent? This is Spitfire, over.”
An out of breath voice sounded over the background noise. “This is... officer Daystar ma’am. The pegasus is keeping a low profile and not flying above the buildings... But, he is still moving at a very fast clip. Near as I can tell, he is heading straight south... for the City Line station.”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can Daystar, keep me posted on any changes.” Spitfire swung towards the City Line station in the distance and piled on her wingpower.
The euphoria from the speed began to overtake Spitfire as she moved faster than she had since... well since she could remember being in the Wonderbolts. Immediately she noticed her speed wasn’t what it once was, but the feel of the wind in her ears and her mane whipping about was almost overwhelming.
With difficulty she focused on her task and beat her wings as fast as she could. The station was rapidly approaching, but even now she could see the train pulling in under the large canopy. She only had a few minutes.
There was a special force field surrounding the station. It was designed to discourage sneaky unicorns or agile pegasi from getting past the ticket counters and onto the train. Spitfire quickly landed at the almost vacant station and galloped up to the nearest counter. She flashed her badge as she jumped the short gate and rushed onto the platform, looking right and left-- There he was!
The pegasus caught sight of her and panicked. He rushed into the train; Spitfire took to the air again and quickly closed the gap. It was lucky of her that she rose above the train, because she saw Cloudbuilder exit the opposite side of the car. He made a beeline for the far station exit, clearing the gates much the same as she had done seconds before.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed whom she assumed was Daystar hurry onto the platform, panting and wheezing, a ticket clutched in his teeth. But, this observation was lost to her mind as she dive bombed the ticket station.
Landing on the far side of the gates, she reached the stairs and passed through the forcefield. Gliding quickly down the steps she saw Cloudbuilder’s tail flick out of sight as he took off at the bottom. She quickly crouched in midair and tucked her wings in, falling down the last few steps.
Just as her hooves touched the ground she thrust out her wings and powered upward with both of them, and her legs; giving herself a tremendous boost in speed back upwards, straight towards Cloudbuilder.
As she neared the pegasus she shouted out. “Cloudbuilder, you had better land, or so help me Celestia, I’m going to tackle you to the ground and it won’t be pretty!”
He called back, “Not gonna happen, Spitfire!” He banked sharply, flying deeper into the hex. If he could get down amongst the buildings, he could lose her in the corners. He heard, with satisfaction, that as she flew past she cursed while turning to quickly catch up with him. Damn she was fast!
He dropped quickly, thoughts of continuing to dodge her in the open vanishing as her last pass singed his mane. She may be fast, but she couldn’t bank worth a damn. Hopefully he could easily lose her after a few buildings.
Desperate times called for desperate moves. Tucking his wings, he dropped like a stone. At the last moment, he flared his wings, catching the wind and taking off just above the street. Already, frightened ponies scattered as he flew over them, his hooves barely missing their heads.
He wasn’t entirely sure where he was, so he took a turn at random, dipping his wing and banking around a tight corner. He could hear Spitfire still on his tail, grunting as she tried to make the turn. With luck she’d have to slow down or risk crashing into a building.
Banking quickly again, he poured on all he had to the next turn. Just as he turned again, he caught her in his peripheral vision. Crap! She was still on him! He began looking for tighter corners with less distance between them. Hopefully he wouldn’t run out of tall buildings before she gave up.
A minute later and he was began to feel his panic returning. He still had not lost her, somehow she was banking as well as he was, which was impossible! Not to mention she was faster on the long stretches. He slowed up slightly to watch her round a corner, his terrified mind demanding an explanation.
Spitfire did not disappoint. As she barreled into view, he watched as she headed for the wall. It looked like she was going to crash but she landed with her hooves on it and pushed off at an angle with brilliant timing from her wings; fluidly transferring her speed into a new direction.
Okay, right, former Wonderbolt. Time to panic again.
His wings strained as he tried to coax every ounce of power out of them that he could. There was no way he was going to let Spitfire catch him, not after what he’d just done. If he couldn’t outfly her, then he’d have to get creative.
A turn was coming up. The wide street turned into a narrow alleyway. It would be a strain even for his skills to make that turn without slowing down.
He gritted his teeth, knowing that right now it was do, or die. His wing dipped, his whole body throwing itself into the turn. The g-forces tore at his innards; it felt like they were all being shoved to one side. Darkness creeped into the edges of his vision.
His outer wing scraped along the wall of the building, a few feathers being ripped out. He bit his lip, refusing to acknowledge the pain, as doing so could lead to him losing his concentration. Losing that meant he would most certainly crash.
Several feathers spiraled down in his wake, he completed the turn, barely. Elation filled him as he allowed himself a moment to celebrate. There was no way that even the famed Spitfire would be able to make that turn.
It was risky, but he looked behind him. His mouth fell open as Spitfire, somehow, managed to pull off the exact same move that she had been, though it looked like even she struggled with it. As her hooves came away, he could see a small amount of debris fall from where they had impacted.
Impossible! She shouldn’t have been able to make that. She should’ve had to slow down, or bank upwards and over the buildings, both scenarios allowing him to escape. She should have crashed! How had she managed to do that?
His gaze returned to in front of him just in time to see the wall looming ahead. It seemed he’d chosen a dead end alley to fly down.
“Shit!” He pulled up, losing precious speed in an effort to save himself from becoming a smear on the wall. The red brick drew closer and closer as once more he put strain on his wings.
No sooner had he cleared the wall, his hooves actually grazing the top of it, did he feel an impact on his stomach, driving the wind from him. Hooves wrapped around his midsection in a vice grip, trapping his wings against his side.
Looking down, he could see that Spitfire had managed to catch up. The former Wonderbolt had grabbed him. Try as he might, her grip was solid, there was no way he was wiggling free. Not that he had much time to try anyway.
Spitfire took control of their flight, tilting so that they were headed directly towards the roof. He had just enough time to think about how much this was going to hurt, and close his eyes, when she slammed him into the rooftop.
His breath came out in one giant gasp, and the pain in his lungs gave him trouble drawing in air. Even after the weight was lifted off of his midsection, he lay on the rooftop, struggling to breathe.
“What the buck do you think you were doing?” Spitfire wheezed. “You really thought you could outrun me? Forget about the whole ‘me being an officer’ thing. Remember that other part about being a Wonderbolt?”
Despite his lack of breath, Cloudbuilder managed a weak chuckle. “I— I almost did.”
He was grabbed roughly and pulled to his hooves, Spitfire still had a disturbing amount of... fire... leftover from that chase.
“I guess your ego got a little too big for your wings, huh?” she growled. “Now you’re going to fly back to the Town Hall in a straight. Slow. Line. Or I make you permanent friends with the ground. Got it?”
He groaned, holding a hoof to his stomach. “Yeah, got it.” That mare may be old, but she still packed a punch. And, as she had just proven, she could outfly him. Trying to run away again would only be an exercise in futility.
Flapping his wings to test them out, he found that they were sore, but he could still manage a shaky flight with them. At this point, he had no choice but to follow her order. He could just be thankful that he’d already gotten rid of his disguise. She had no evidence against him, though he couldn’t help but wonder how she’d found him, and why she’d personally come after him.
Slowly, he made a straight line towards the Town Hall. Normally the clocktower would have been the marker to steer towards. But there was a distinct column of smoke rising to the South-East of it, clearly defining the Town Hall’s location.
His wings burned, and he was still having trouble getting a breath. All those years of stunt flying had hardened her body, even with being out of the game for nearly twenty years. She hit, hard.
As they got closer, his senses lit up. The smell of acrid smoke filled his nose. The moans and groans of injured ponies cried out over the sounds of more ponies frantically working in the plaza. He could feel the heat from the still raging fire. Sweat beaded on his body.
He looked back at Spitfire. “Well? Anywhere in particular you’d like me to land? Or should I just pick somewhere?”
Most of the ponies had been evacuated out of the square by this time. The few still curious ponies had yet to be rounded up. Officers had diverted their attention to other medical personnel as they tried to asses the damage, to building and pony alike.
All pegasi left and willing to help were already working double time: hauling stretchers, double teaming large bags of water for fires, relaying messages. There was a long line being set up for a bucket chain. While it was already functioning, more and more ponies were joining the line in an effort to contain the fires. In short: the whole scene was a mess.
Spitfire ground her teeth and moved in on Cloudbuilder. She forced him down right to the edge of the horrible scene.
Paramedics were weaving in and around the rubble, trying to determine who was alive, or worth saving. One of them stood up from the mangled... corpse... of a pegasus whose innards were splayed six feet out from his mutilated midsection. The culprit of his death laying just beyond, a large block of stone covered in a lot of blood and feathers. It looked as though one of his wings was broken and almost torn off.
Forcing herself not to gag, Spitfire forced Cloudbuilder to look on. “You see this Cloudbuilder? Is this what you wanted? Because it sure seems to me that’s a pegasus you and your friends just killed there.”
Spitfire swung her hoof wide. “And it’s not just this one. I can see half a dozen bodies from here! Is this what you wanted? Because your friends sure made one hell of a spectacle!”
Cloudbuilder looked at the carnage around him. The bloody mess of the pegasus nearly caused him to lose his breakfast. It was horrible. Everything around him was horrible. Most of the injured ponies left were the most critical cases, ones that couldn’t be moved. Even over the smoke, the smell of blood filled the air.
He held a hoof over his muzzle, fighting the urge to throw up. He noticed one doing just that behind him. Through sheer willpower, he kept his food inside him.
The entire scene was grim. Ponies rushing around, fires burning, bodies still laying in the street. No one was ever going to forget this day. It would probably be an event the rest of Equestria discussed for years to come.
Lowering his hoof, he addressed Spitfire quietly. “Is this what I wanted? Yes, and no. We pegasi needed to make a statement, to get your attention. I think I can say that we have it now.
“The only attention you will be receiving is a terrorist watch from Celestia herself!” Spitfire almost shouted.
“Perhaps so. But if it gains the pegasi as a whole what we deserve, then I am willing to make that sacrifice. Sometimes, Spitfire, a few must take the fall so that the many can live.”
Spitfire drooped and shook her head. Hauling Cloudbuilder forward she found one of the senior staff from the medical crew. “Excuse me,” she asked. “What’s the count so far?”
The pony glanced at Spitfire but hesitated as his eyes washed over her uniform. He beckoned her along with him and he hurried about. “Well, we've got a pretty even count on both dead and wounded so far. Near as I can tell we have about fifty wounded accounted for and most removed. Dead? I’ve got about the same, fifty, but both those numbers are still climbing. That bomb couldn’t have been placed better, this end of the square was pa--”
“Doctor!” A voice called. The stallion excused himself and galloped away.
Spitfire stood stunned for a second before turning to Cloudbuilder. “You don’t deserve anything for this, Cloudbuilder. Nopony does.”
He matched her look with one of his own, a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Spitfire, I didn’t want for all these ponies to die.” Hard steel replaced the look in his eyes. “But, it’s done now.”
“Your mindset is worse than that of Discord in his prime,” Spitfire said, shaking her head. “I hope you’ve prepared yourself for living with this.”
With that, she turned Cloudbuilder on his hooves and marched him towards the alley she had left the unicorn cuffed in.
Mirror Shine stumbled out of the alleyway and immediately regretted it. She could barely stand as it was, so when she caught a lungful of smoke-filled air she fell against the wall. In the middle of choking so hard she lost one of her contacts a gruff voice came out of the miasma, "Stop right there, criminal scum!"
"M'naugh... *caff* cribbinma," it turns out to be very hard to speak with one's muzzle pressed into cobblestones. Nor did it help her coughing.
The guard hauled her out of the smoke-filled region, pausing to make sure she was still breathing. before pushing her up against a wall and admonishing her to "Stay put!" When she asked for a bottle of water it was like he didn't even hear her. She just knew the ash was going to stain her fur.
"Umm, I didn't *hack* I never blew anything up, can I go now?" She'd gotten most of the phlegm out, but it might not hurt to build sympathy.
The guard glared at her, "Stop asking, you're not going anywhere until the Captain has had a chance to question you."
"Can I at least get a washcloth? This green fur dye looks really bad without the rest of my costume. I mean, I look like an idiot."
"You got a problem with green fur?" The guard, whose fur color was pretty much impossible to determine in the half-light of the fires, growled.
"Um no? It's just that I only dyed my muzzle, because I was running late and I figured that with a full cloak and a big hat nopony would notice if I did the rest and then I lost my hat and I followed some ponies in really bad costumes and I was threatened by a gryphon and then–"
"STOP TALKING!", the officer clapped a hoof over his face. "For the love of Celestia, just sit there, be quiet, and wait."
"W-well, if I had a washcloth and some water, I'd be too busy cleaning my face to talk."
“Ma’am, I’m certain that washing your face is going to be the least of your concerns here very soon. I suggest you sit back and reflect on your story and what has been done here.”
"Is this a joke?" Mirror quirked an eyebrow, confused. Maybe this was just a really bad prank... "Terry? That's you, isn't it?" She giggled, feeling intensely relieved. "You really had me going for a while there... good one." It wasn't really, but anything you could walk away from...
“Ma’am, please. I don’t know a Terry and it’s really awkward conversing with a suspect.”
'Oh Luna, this is really happening...'
Suddenly, a vibrant yellow pegasus with a very orange mane trotted in with a unicorn in front of her. The mare, she noticed, was in an officer uniform... Wait, orange mane, yellow fur... She knew who this was! For once, Mirror found herself at a loss for words. Spitfire, THE Spitfire. 'I wonder if it's against protocol or whatever for me to ask for her autograph?'
She watched as Spitfire was given a pair of spare cuffs and began to hobble the unicorn. It was then she gave him her full attention.
‘Oh, it’s him.’ The pegasus wasn't sure how, but this had to be the unicorn's fault, somehow. She glared as he grinned sheepishly at her. Waving around giant mystical-looking swords and accusing people of being unaware of boring stuff like politics, he was totally an anti-hero.
“Uhm, hi again.” He tried giving her a shady smile, but she wouldn’t greet him with more than a small glare. As far as she concerned it was his fault she had been caught for doing nothing. She’d been trying to find someone who’d been suspicious and now she was the one with cuffs, if anything he was the one who had earned the metal braces, going around waving that big knife.
“L- listen I, uhm, I’m really sorry for, well, for running off on you. I- I just panicked, I just want to get out of this pl-place.”
“Don’t we all?” she said short. His stuttering was new and pretty irritating to be honest.
He probably was all kinds of bad what with that ridiculous sword and sporting shady leg wrappings. She was surprised he hadn't grown a goatee or some other sinister facial hair. Yeah, she could see it, the tragic past as a potato farmer... wait, unicorns stink at farming... no, the dreary existence of an... astronomer? Sure. Years spent toiling under a cruel master had left him embittered toward other ponies until one day he finally couldn't stand it any longer and ran away.
Yeah, he ran away and... got caught by a press-gang for the Prench Foreign Legion. After spending years at sea in the desert he gained great fighting skills dealing with nomadic pirates but lost all value for equine life. She paused, 'there has to be something about the sword in there...' Oh, the captain of the legion was actually an evil octopus faced seapony who enslaved drowning sailors to be part of his immortal crew that … went around recruiting drowning sailors to be part of his immortal crew.
'What does that have to do with the clunky sword?' So one day the obnoxious unicorn decides he wants to go make ponies miserable on land but not in deserts, so he challenges Neighvy Pones, the captain, to a duel. They have a totally epic fight from one end of the ship to the other end of the foreign legion compound. Eventually the unicorn realizes that the evil seacaptain's sinister sword is making the whole ship fight against him. So he steals the sword, and the octopus face is all like "Sacre-Argh! Moi one weakness'a," and then the unicorn plunges it through the monster's black heart.
'Ok, but are you saying he has a magic boat somewhere? Isn't that kinda' OP?' So he goes traveling, and sees a kid with a really spiky yellow mane and this obscenely large kitchen knife and he says, "Hey little boy want to trade?"--
Mirror Shine stopped in her musings and looked at the ponies around her. Why were they all staring at her?
“Oh crap, I said all that out loud didn’t I?”
The look on the unicorn's face confirmed her worst fears.
“I-- You... I don’t even. You think I’m--” The unicorn spluttered, unable to form a coherent sentence. Mirror could have sworn she saw a thin stream of smoke coming from one of his ears.
He eventually trailed off and sat as far away from her as he could. Thankfully the guards seemed to understand and allowed him a respectable amount of space.
For the next few minutes Mirror observed the guards' coming and going, sometimes interchanging positions with those standing over her. There was a lot happening outside the alley, but there was no way for her to see what. It was getting frustrating, just sitting here... silently.
“Why are we still waiting here?” Mirror asked. Then, without waiting for a response, “can’t I just tell somepony what I know then leave? Maybe I can go help?” she suggested hopefully.
“Ma’am,” the guardstallion turned on her insistently. “Until we have the situation under control you are stuck here just like the rest of us. I can’t let you do anything as you are a suspect for this bombing. If you don’t think that’s fair then take it up with Captain Spitfire.”
“Captain Spitfire!?” Mirror squealed.
The guard face hoofed again, “Oh Celestia, not another fanfilly.”
"And why shouldn't she have a herd of fans? She was the best Captain the Wonderbolts ever had!" the pegasus squeaked indignantly.
The guard rolled his eyes and turned away, unwilling to argue. Mirror watched him peek out from the alley to observe what was going on. She had almost worked up the nerve to ask what he was seeing when there was a clatter of hooves from the entrance of the alley again.
Spitfire had returned. She was escorting another pegasus, they both looked terrible. Both were sweaty, Spitfire’s uniform was drenched and they both looked ready to drop. Well, this seemed like a golden opportunity to her, best to take the initiative before Spitfire left again.
Spitfire shoved the pegasus towards the wall. “Now you sit there until I can take you to the station.” She turned to the nearby guard. “Hobble him, I don’t want him getting away.”
She moved off, presumably to go help coordinate the rescue efforts.
The white pegasus stepped forward as quickly as she could stumble, "Uh, Ma'am, Captain … your honor? Could I have a word? Um, if there's not too much going on..." the sentence seemed ridiculous even to her, "M-maybe later?"
Spitfire stopped and looked at the pegasus mare. Her gaze lowered to the cuffs on her forelegs then to the exasperated looking guard hurrying towards them. She raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
The albino struggled for words, "I, uh, just want you to know I'll do whatever I can to help, and I'm really sorry to waste your guards' time like this, and..." the guard was going to be on her in a second, "I think you're really cool and I got to see you fly once, when I was a filly–"
Pinching her muzzle with a forehoof, Spitfire groaned. “It’s fine officer. Just, take her back to her spot.” She then addressed Mirror, “I’ll talk to you later, but I’m really busy right now, okay?”
Mirror nodded dumbly, knowing a brush-off when she heard one. Still it was more interaction than she'd ever expected to have with one of her heroes. She watched in disappointment as Spitfire took to the air and flew quickly out of sight.
Cloudbuilder slumped against the wall, still trying to catch his breath. Looking around, he spotted the pegasus who’d tried to talk to Spitfire, as well as an orange unicorn carrying a sword. The guard actually let that hornhead keep his sword? They were either brave, or stupid. Probably stupid.
The sounds of activity could be heard from outside the alley, though very little could be seen. Very quickly, boredom set in. Seeing as he’d much rather converse with the wall, using his face, than the guards, his only other option was to attempt to speak to the other ponies stuck here with him.
“So, what all are you ponies being arrested for?” he asked.
"Being curious, apparently," Mirror grumbled.
“Yeah, it seems they’ll arrest you for anything these days. Like minding your own business and trying to go home, not even anywhere near here.” He glared off in the direction Spitfire had vanished. “Name’s Cloudbuilder. I’d offer to shake your hoof but...” He held up his bound hooves.
The white pegasus nodded, "Mirror Shine, nice to meet you." He seemed nice enough, and there wasn't really anypony else to talk to around, maybe she could attempt small talk again. "So, really bad day everypony's had so far, huh?"
“Tell me about it,” the orange unicorn said. Mirror gave him a mad look. “Oh, sorry. I’m still, ehm, n- not forgiven?”
Cloudbuilder glanced between them. “You two know each other?”
“Not really, we kinda just bumped into each other and I left her to run away to save my own skin like a coward.”
Mirror Shine stared at the unicorn, “Sure did you a lot of good, didn't it?” she huffed.
“Listen I’m sorry, I normally w- wouldn’t have done something like that. I mean, the Town Hall just blew up and, ehm, being arrested for something like that would ruin all I stand for. I had a moment of self greed and I’m truly sorry for it. I- if it helps, we are in the same position.” He shook his hooves and made the short chain cling to prove his point.
He had a point, but... 'oh whatever, not like I'd have run if I had a chance.' That brought up the other two players in their little drama, "Did you see what happened to the gryphon and that old guy?"
“Ehm, no. all the smoke made it too difficult to spot them. They probably made it safely out of here.”
"Sooo they were flying away from the fires?"
“They seemed to do so, I only saw them leave from here, but I lost them on the other side. I doubt a griffin would be foolish enough to fly into a burning building.” He tried to sound optimistic to better his chances of forgiveness.
"You know what I don't get? Who the hay would do all of this?", Mirror began the laborious process of getting back to her feet after trying to gesture with a hoof she had forgotten was chained to its partner.
Cloudbuilder butted into the conversation. “My guess is it’s ponies who are fed up with the way things are going in this city. You know, how pegasi are being walked all over and nopony seems to care.”
"Well, I know there are some rude and stuck-up ponies, but how does..." she used her muzzle this time, "destroying stuff help? I mean, how can it be that bad and nopony's done anything?" The logic seemed internally consistent to her at least.
He glared at her. “Nopony does anything because they all want to pretend that everything’s perfect in this city. That way they can go about their lives in peace.” He waved both of his hooves around. “I think today proves that peace is a lie. Now everypony has to see the truth.”
"Wait, there's a war!?" Mirror startled. War fics were always so dreary, and almost everypony ended up dying... that didn't sound good at all.
Cloudbuilder was incredulous. Did this pony seriously not know what was going on? How could anyone who lived in Ravaalon not know? “Are you trying to tell me you have no idea what’s going on?”
"Well obviously somepony is really upset," that was a baseline for most stories, even history. "You're talking about some huge anti-pegasus conspiracy, so... I'm going to go out on a limb and say... there's pegasi protesting preposterous persecution perpetrated per pony partisanship?"
“Um, what?” He ran the sentence through his head a few times, finally able to decipher just what the mare had said.
“Well, yeah. The pegasi in this city have been treated unfairly for years now. We’re sick and tired of it, but nopony will do anything. So now we have to take matters into our own hooves.”
Mirror idly scratched her barrel, "Oh, ok. Now I get it. You're doing it wrong, the tragic villain always looks upward when he lists the indignities heaped upon his person and/or people. Good passion, though." She was proud of herself for that critique. 'Wha the hay are you saying? Shut up, you're going to make him angry.'
Cloudbuilder’s jaw dropped open. “What are you talking about? This... This isn’t an act. This is real. Real ponies dealing with real problems.” His voice was going up in volume as he spoke. “I used to be somepony, an artist. I moved here because what city in the clouds doesn’t need pegasi? Well, this city needs us, to run machines and slave away for nothing.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Is this all some sort of game to you?”
"See, that was WAY better! And, um, aren't we all playing parts, most of the time? I mean, when you're at home I bet you're not like," she tried to deepen her voice, but mostly just ended up sounding scratchy, "I used to be satisfied, but now I have a hunger, and only a salad will satisfy me!" Another thought occurred to her, "Um, what kind of art did you make?"
This mare was insane, she had to be. It was the only explanation that made her actions make sense. As much as he wanted to try and figure out just what was wrong with her, attempting to do so would only make his head hurt. Instead, he humored her question. “Clouds. I had a job in Cloudsdale making things out of clouds, but that just paid the bills. In my spare time, I loved making cloud sculptures.”
"No way! I work with clouds, too – matter of fact... hold on..." she began rummaging through her bags with her muzzle, eventually pulling her head back out and spitting out a fluffy sphere of cloudstuff, "See, I always have some with me – makes good last-minute props... though I'm not really good at making shapes."
“Wait, props? So you’re an actress?” That would actually make a lot of sense. Only an actress could possibly be as dense as this pony was. And it would explain all of her comments about characters and parts.
Mirror Shine blushed through the fur dye, "I'm not really an actress, I do some bit parts at a local theater, although mostly I end up helping the lighting technician." She leaned over, conspiratorially, "what I'm really good at is cosplay."
There was a flurry of wings and air as Spitfire arrived back in the alley. She looked over her prisoners grimly. Then, in a terse tone, “Alright officers, lets wrap these ponies up here and get them back to the station. I’ve done all I can here.”
Collaborated with DarkPhoenix, DrTechno and notMurphy. Without whom this post would be at least 20% less cool.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:43 pm
Timestamp:
07:12 am, July 14th
A sharp knocking on Crescent’s cell door woke him up and even though there were no windows or clocks, he could tell it was way too early. He had been sleeping for only a few hours after getting thrown into the cell, but the bed wasn’t much different than the run-down one he had back in his rental place so it was easy falling asleep. The shutter opened with a clung and he stood up, rubbing the little sleep he had gotten out of his eyes. The feeling of not having the sword by his side made him feel uneasy and slightly out of balance, but he ignored it to face the two eyes looking in at him.
“Get up pyro, the captain wants to see you.” It was a scruffy male voice, not the same as the brute he’d pissed off luckily.
“Now? what’s the time?”
“Early enough for you to get your flank out of bed, now you’ll come with me, without problems, or I will give you a second horn with my baton. Got it?” A piece of deep purple was weighing down on his forehead around his horn. It was suppose to prevent him from using magic, but he hadn’t tried to test if it did so.
“Loud and clear officer.” He shut the shutter before Crescent heard the one outside putting a key in the lock and opening it. He was barely higher than himself with pastel blue fur and slightly darker mane. He had a mean look at him and he knew there would be no sympathy from him.
The walk from the cell to the investigation room was short, luckily the solitary cells were placed closer than the other so he didn’t have to pass many other cells where there was crying and groaning that could be heard from inside the other ones further back behind them. He escorted him to a room with a table and three chairs, one for him and two for probably those who would interrogate him. Else the room was faded white, a sort of orangish white with only one low-hanging lamp to illuminate the place.
“Sit.” The guard said short and hinted at the lonely chair. He trotted over to it and sat down as the guy stayed put by the door. The wait for the Captain started to drag out and the long silence started to work on Crescent's nerves.
“Sooo, what am I being accused of?” The officer was quiet. “Yeah, dumb question. So you’re going to stand there under the whole interrogation?”
“Sir.”
“Yes?” He felt a little revealed that he responded.
“Please shut up.”
“Well sorry, I was just trying to-”
“Please sir, shut up before my patience runs out.” It was clear the explosion had taken someone he’d cared about and it was possible that the officer was blaming him for his loss which he could actually sympathise with.
The door opened. Crescent turned his attention to the fiery ma- Spitfire, as she walked in.
“Morning kid.” Her voice was scratchy, it sounded like she had gotten less sleep than he had.
Her uniform did not fare much better, he wondered if she had slept here at the station, possibly in her office.
She took one of the chairs opposite him and dropped a folder he hadn’t seen from under her wing, onto the desk with a smack. She sat for a moment, staring blankly at the folder before turning to him. “Alright, I’m here to listen to your story. So, lets hear it, from the beginning, after I left you at the bar.”
He couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “Well, of course I’m a bit hazy from being there at the first place, but I’ll do my best. I took the line to my rental apartment on the shady part of town where I went to bed, I was woken by a whistle of some industry nearby and seeing how I don’t tend to sleep more than I need I decided to go to the celebration.”
He was pretty sure that was all, but not for certain. The guard’s hoof was resting at the hilt of his baton, ready to act at the slightest hint of outburst from his side.
“Yes? Then?” Spitfire prompted.
“Well, after that I sat down on a bench before the explosion happened. I saw the pale pegasus go into an alley and seeing it as suspicious I followed. There was a gryphon there and they had a heated discussion before I broke in. The fire in the building by us caught out attention and from there the police officers showed up. I ran through the lower floor of the burning building and from there I think you know what happened.”
“You sat, on a bench?” Spitfire asked skeptically. “What about the speech? Who did you talk to? Actually, hold on, I’ve got some other questions first.”
Spitfire opened the folder and shuffled a few of the papers around before looking back up. “Your name is Crescent Sunrise, correct? You’re a,” she paused, looking back at her papers. “A swordspony for hire, early thirties, came to Ravaalon about five months ago?”
“That’s right ma’am.”
Spitfire groaned and covered her face. “Who the hell even is a mercenary these days? What kind of jobs were you looking to find here? Helping rebellious pegasi cause problems? For real?”
He had been afraid of this, he was a clear suspect to stand in line with the rebellion. He shifted his hooves and the chains on them clang slightly. “No ma’am, I was mainly looking for some way of helping my father back home. Passing through here I heard there was advanced medical treatment here, but not the kind I was... uh, l- looking for. Being a swordspony is something I tak- took pride in, usually posing as a bodyguard for those who’d need it, nothing more.”
Spitfire changed topics. “What did you do during the speech?”
A sad expression showed in his face. “I- I was talking to a foal, a little earth colt that was amazed by my sword. I even gave him a teddy bear I didn’t really have use for and he took it as the biggest gift he’d ever gotten. I didn't see him after the explosion.”
“Those pegasi really made a mess of things.” Spitfire sighed. “There were certainly a few dead children in the rubble.”
“Did they find anyone with grey fur and darker freckles?” He leaned maybe a bit too fast forward since the guard readied his short weapon, but Spitfire stopped him with a hoof.
“Crescent, most of the bodies of the dead were too mutilated to get cutie mark identification off of. It was only worse for small foals.”
“You’re right, I just had a sliver of hope he’d still be okay. S- sorry, the investigation is about finding the culprit, not about my own concerns.”
“Do you have any idea who that culprit might be Mr. Sunrise?” Spitfire asked bluntly.
“No ma’am, none at all.” He stared her right in the eyes to make it seem as an honest answer which it was.
Spitfire narrowed her eyes. “Kid, I could lock you up for five years easy because of what you did out there.”
“For refusing arrest? Fine, though I think that’s a bit too long, I’ll rather be accused of t- that than being associated with this horrible massacre.”
“You are being associated with this ‘horrible massacre, Crescent.” Spitfire stated, leaning back. “Five years, easy, for association. I could tack on more for the resisting arrest, if you like.”
“I had nothing to do with this,” he said persistent.” A few days and I would have left this place behind without looking back. This place would have torn itself apart, just as you told me and I have no contention to this place. I have enough of my own problems if not getting involved in this fight of classes.” He could feel the small grip he might have had start to slip.
“If you weren’t involved, then give me a straight answer,” Spitfire said loudly. “Tell me what you were doing there, tell me what you know! And say it so that I believe it!” She glared at him. “Because, so far, every answer I’ve gotten from you has enough evasiveness in it to make even my granny suspicious!”
“I wanted to see Twilight!” he yelled and slammed his chained hooved in the table. The guard looked like he was ready to give him the worst headache he could ever have, but he didn’t care at this point. “I wanted to see the princess before leaving! Originally I didn’t know she was here, but I thought she would show up at the anniversary, but she didn’t. I met her once and I wanted to see her again. Is that good enough f- for ya?” His anger burst had left him breathing heavily.
Spitfire was silent for a long moment. She put a hoof to her chin and glanced at the papers between them. “Alright Crescent, I believe you.” She paused for a moment. “One more ques- request, before we’re done here: Tell me exactly what happened in that alley up until I arrested you.”
He covered his face as he took a slow, ragged breath to calm himself down and recall as much as he could. “I, uhm, I followed the cosplaying pegasus, I overheard her talk with the griffin who suspected her of being a part of that pegasi organisation and she threatened to hurt her when I came in. I never pulled my sword, I just showed off a bit of the blade before some old stallion up on the roof called out about the fire. The gryphon flew off and took him with her, guessing they knew each other and left me and miss cosplay to be met by your officers. She tripped and I-” He stopped himself momentarily. “Before I left her to use as a distraction for my own escape. I knew there would be questioning and I just wanted to get off this sinking skyland. I’m guessing the gates to the city are closed now... making leaving impossible.”
“Tell me more about the pegasus and the griffon with her passenger.”
“Never seen the pegasus before, was wearing some sort of costume that had a beard and drifts off a bit easily. The griffin and passenger was just as unknown to me though the pony sounded elderly and had red fur and a grey mane and short beard.”
“Alright Mr. Sunrise,” Spitfire said, getting up. “I can’t let you go just yet, not till I clear your story with everything else I turn up. But if it all checks out, and I don’t have any more questions, you will be released with compensation for your time. A couple days at most.”
“Thanks,” he said shortly, standing up for the officer to take him back to the cell. “ and by the way, it’s called Burning Edge. Don’t let anypony think about fire while wielding it.” He noted her confused expression. “You shouldn’t let your papers flow.” With that he was guided out and back to the small room.
Spitfire rolled her eyes. “nerds these days.”
Collaborated with Sasha Nein
07:12 am, July 14th
A sharp knocking on Crescent’s cell door woke him up and even though there were no windows or clocks, he could tell it was way too early. He had been sleeping for only a few hours after getting thrown into the cell, but the bed wasn’t much different than the run-down one he had back in his rental place so it was easy falling asleep. The shutter opened with a clung and he stood up, rubbing the little sleep he had gotten out of his eyes. The feeling of not having the sword by his side made him feel uneasy and slightly out of balance, but he ignored it to face the two eyes looking in at him.
“Get up pyro, the captain wants to see you.” It was a scruffy male voice, not the same as the brute he’d pissed off luckily.
“Now? what’s the time?”
“Early enough for you to get your flank out of bed, now you’ll come with me, without problems, or I will give you a second horn with my baton. Got it?” A piece of deep purple was weighing down on his forehead around his horn. It was suppose to prevent him from using magic, but he hadn’t tried to test if it did so.
“Loud and clear officer.” He shut the shutter before Crescent heard the one outside putting a key in the lock and opening it. He was barely higher than himself with pastel blue fur and slightly darker mane. He had a mean look at him and he knew there would be no sympathy from him.
The walk from the cell to the investigation room was short, luckily the solitary cells were placed closer than the other so he didn’t have to pass many other cells where there was crying and groaning that could be heard from inside the other ones further back behind them. He escorted him to a room with a table and three chairs, one for him and two for probably those who would interrogate him. Else the room was faded white, a sort of orangish white with only one low-hanging lamp to illuminate the place.
“Sit.” The guard said short and hinted at the lonely chair. He trotted over to it and sat down as the guy stayed put by the door. The wait for the Captain started to drag out and the long silence started to work on Crescent's nerves.
“Sooo, what am I being accused of?” The officer was quiet. “Yeah, dumb question. So you’re going to stand there under the whole interrogation?”
“Sir.”
“Yes?” He felt a little revealed that he responded.
“Please shut up.”
“Well sorry, I was just trying to-”
“Please sir, shut up before my patience runs out.” It was clear the explosion had taken someone he’d cared about and it was possible that the officer was blaming him for his loss which he could actually sympathise with.
The door opened. Crescent turned his attention to the fiery ma- Spitfire, as she walked in.
“Morning kid.” Her voice was scratchy, it sounded like she had gotten less sleep than he had.
Her uniform did not fare much better, he wondered if she had slept here at the station, possibly in her office.
She took one of the chairs opposite him and dropped a folder he hadn’t seen from under her wing, onto the desk with a smack. She sat for a moment, staring blankly at the folder before turning to him. “Alright, I’m here to listen to your story. So, lets hear it, from the beginning, after I left you at the bar.”
He couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “Well, of course I’m a bit hazy from being there at the first place, but I’ll do my best. I took the line to my rental apartment on the shady part of town where I went to bed, I was woken by a whistle of some industry nearby and seeing how I don’t tend to sleep more than I need I decided to go to the celebration.”
He was pretty sure that was all, but not for certain. The guard’s hoof was resting at the hilt of his baton, ready to act at the slightest hint of outburst from his side.
“Yes? Then?” Spitfire prompted.
“Well, after that I sat down on a bench before the explosion happened. I saw the pale pegasus go into an alley and seeing it as suspicious I followed. There was a gryphon there and they had a heated discussion before I broke in. The fire in the building by us caught out attention and from there the police officers showed up. I ran through the lower floor of the burning building and from there I think you know what happened.”
“You sat, on a bench?” Spitfire asked skeptically. “What about the speech? Who did you talk to? Actually, hold on, I’ve got some other questions first.”
Spitfire opened the folder and shuffled a few of the papers around before looking back up. “Your name is Crescent Sunrise, correct? You’re a,” she paused, looking back at her papers. “A swordspony for hire, early thirties, came to Ravaalon about five months ago?”
“That’s right ma’am.”
Spitfire groaned and covered her face. “Who the hell even is a mercenary these days? What kind of jobs were you looking to find here? Helping rebellious pegasi cause problems? For real?”
He had been afraid of this, he was a clear suspect to stand in line with the rebellion. He shifted his hooves and the chains on them clang slightly. “No ma’am, I was mainly looking for some way of helping my father back home. Passing through here I heard there was advanced medical treatment here, but not the kind I was... uh, l- looking for. Being a swordspony is something I tak- took pride in, usually posing as a bodyguard for those who’d need it, nothing more.”
Spitfire changed topics. “What did you do during the speech?”
A sad expression showed in his face. “I- I was talking to a foal, a little earth colt that was amazed by my sword. I even gave him a teddy bear I didn’t really have use for and he took it as the biggest gift he’d ever gotten. I didn't see him after the explosion.”
“Those pegasi really made a mess of things.” Spitfire sighed. “There were certainly a few dead children in the rubble.”
“Did they find anyone with grey fur and darker freckles?” He leaned maybe a bit too fast forward since the guard readied his short weapon, but Spitfire stopped him with a hoof.
“Crescent, most of the bodies of the dead were too mutilated to get cutie mark identification off of. It was only worse for small foals.”
“You’re right, I just had a sliver of hope he’d still be okay. S- sorry, the investigation is about finding the culprit, not about my own concerns.”
“Do you have any idea who that culprit might be Mr. Sunrise?” Spitfire asked bluntly.
“No ma’am, none at all.” He stared her right in the eyes to make it seem as an honest answer which it was.
Spitfire narrowed her eyes. “Kid, I could lock you up for five years easy because of what you did out there.”
“For refusing arrest? Fine, though I think that’s a bit too long, I’ll rather be accused of t- that than being associated with this horrible massacre.”
“You are being associated with this ‘horrible massacre, Crescent.” Spitfire stated, leaning back. “Five years, easy, for association. I could tack on more for the resisting arrest, if you like.”
“I had nothing to do with this,” he said persistent.” A few days and I would have left this place behind without looking back. This place would have torn itself apart, just as you told me and I have no contention to this place. I have enough of my own problems if not getting involved in this fight of classes.” He could feel the small grip he might have had start to slip.
“If you weren’t involved, then give me a straight answer,” Spitfire said loudly. “Tell me what you were doing there, tell me what you know! And say it so that I believe it!” She glared at him. “Because, so far, every answer I’ve gotten from you has enough evasiveness in it to make even my granny suspicious!”
“I wanted to see Twilight!” he yelled and slammed his chained hooved in the table. The guard looked like he was ready to give him the worst headache he could ever have, but he didn’t care at this point. “I wanted to see the princess before leaving! Originally I didn’t know she was here, but I thought she would show up at the anniversary, but she didn’t. I met her once and I wanted to see her again. Is that good enough f- for ya?” His anger burst had left him breathing heavily.
Spitfire was silent for a long moment. She put a hoof to her chin and glanced at the papers between them. “Alright Crescent, I believe you.” She paused for a moment. “One more ques- request, before we’re done here: Tell me exactly what happened in that alley up until I arrested you.”
He covered his face as he took a slow, ragged breath to calm himself down and recall as much as he could. “I, uhm, I followed the cosplaying pegasus, I overheard her talk with the griffin who suspected her of being a part of that pegasi organisation and she threatened to hurt her when I came in. I never pulled my sword, I just showed off a bit of the blade before some old stallion up on the roof called out about the fire. The gryphon flew off and took him with her, guessing they knew each other and left me and miss cosplay to be met by your officers. She tripped and I-” He stopped himself momentarily. “Before I left her to use as a distraction for my own escape. I knew there would be questioning and I just wanted to get off this sinking skyland. I’m guessing the gates to the city are closed now... making leaving impossible.”
“Tell me more about the pegasus and the griffon with her passenger.”
“Never seen the pegasus before, was wearing some sort of costume that had a beard and drifts off a bit easily. The griffin and passenger was just as unknown to me though the pony sounded elderly and had red fur and a grey mane and short beard.”
“Alright Mr. Sunrise,” Spitfire said, getting up. “I can’t let you go just yet, not till I clear your story with everything else I turn up. But if it all checks out, and I don’t have any more questions, you will be released with compensation for your time. A couple days at most.”
“Thanks,” he said shortly, standing up for the officer to take him back to the cell. “ and by the way, it’s called Burning Edge. Don’t let anypony think about fire while wielding it.” He noted her confused expression. “You shouldn’t let your papers flow.” With that he was guided out and back to the small room.
Spitfire rolled her eyes. “nerds these days.”
Collaborated with Sasha Nein
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:46 pm
[Soarin’]
Timestamp:
6:30 PM, July 13th
Today had been, in a word, exhausting.
Old flight instincts from his time as a Wonderbolt had resurfaced during the crisis, shortly after the explosion. He had flown away from the shrapnel and harmful toxins almost instantly, running purely on instinct at the time.
I’m too tired to shower now... Soarin’ stumbled his way into his bedroom, and collapsed onto his bed. Closing his eyes, the day’s events flashed before them. Those idiots...
After avoiding personal harm, Soarin’ had gone to help. He hadn’t even thought of it. He’d just gone and grabbed a few of bystanders that were in danger, and got them to safety. One in particular was that little colt he’d given an autograph to, and his mother.
When he’d taken care of as many little ones as he could, he’d asked the emergency workers if they needed assistance.
From there, he’d spent a few hours doing his best to help where he was needed. At least until he’d been sent home for being too tired to be of assistance.
And throughout that entire time, and even now, he could only wonder how violence on this scale could be justified. No matter the reasons.
[Valiant Flight]
Timestamp:
12:05 PM, July 13th
He had heard of Pegasi talking about this kind of thing as an idea.
Valiant had never thought they would actually do it.
At the moment, he was racing to his friends and family, and making sure they were safe.
So far he’d found his mother and father, and his little sister. He’d found his friends, for the most part.
Except for a couple. Two of whom had been at the ceremony, but he had lost sight of them part way through the speech.
And now...
Now he could only hope they were alright.
Timestamp:
6:30 PM, July 13th
Today had been, in a word, exhausting.
Old flight instincts from his time as a Wonderbolt had resurfaced during the crisis, shortly after the explosion. He had flown away from the shrapnel and harmful toxins almost instantly, running purely on instinct at the time.
I’m too tired to shower now... Soarin’ stumbled his way into his bedroom, and collapsed onto his bed. Closing his eyes, the day’s events flashed before them. Those idiots...
After avoiding personal harm, Soarin’ had gone to help. He hadn’t even thought of it. He’d just gone and grabbed a few of bystanders that were in danger, and got them to safety. One in particular was that little colt he’d given an autograph to, and his mother.
When he’d taken care of as many little ones as he could, he’d asked the emergency workers if they needed assistance.
From there, he’d spent a few hours doing his best to help where he was needed. At least until he’d been sent home for being too tired to be of assistance.
And throughout that entire time, and even now, he could only wonder how violence on this scale could be justified. No matter the reasons.
[Valiant Flight]
Timestamp:
12:05 PM, July 13th
He had heard of Pegasi talking about this kind of thing as an idea.
Valiant had never thought they would actually do it.
At the moment, he was racing to his friends and family, and making sure they were safe.
So far he’d found his mother and father, and his little sister. He’d found his friends, for the most part.
Except for a couple. Two of whom had been at the ceremony, but he had lost sight of them part way through the speech.
And now...
Now he could only hope they were alright.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:46 pm
08:02, July 14th, 1st day after the Bombing
Mirror Shine followed the guard into the small white room. She had managed to clean most of the dye, ash, and dirt from her fur last night when she was having trouble sleeping on the cell's cot. Looking at the stark color of the interior, she imagined crawling into a corner, closing her eyes, and simply vanishing from view. It was all much cleaner than she had imagined – she did have to give Raavalon's finest that much credit, the place was almost antiseptic. Two chairs faced an unassuming table, painted pale gray for some reason.
The Guard, 'Officer Fields, so her badge-thing says,' pointed to one of the chairs. The albino sat, taking in the spartan surroundings. "An officer will be in to take your statement soon. Wait here and don't do anything." admonished the guardsmare. Mirror nodded and Officer Fields headed off to take care of... Celestia knew what else was going on right now.
All the previous night Mirror had heard the coming and goings of countless hooves. The scent of smoke and even more unpleasant things she couldn't place wafted into her cell. What had Cloudbailer said, that this was, a war? Whatever it was, it was so far outside what she knew that it kept coming in and out of focus... she could just about grasp the scale of destruction and then it seemed insane, ludicrous, unbelievable.
Except... except that the Guard all looked at her like she'd done it. And it was hard to remember, under that sort of gaze, that she hadn't done anything wrong. She started to wonder if maybe she had somehow been to blame, had let this happen. They'd finally confiscated her bags and belongings, but she had discovered about an hour later that a bit of cloudstuff had gotten stuck behind her teeth when she pulled some out to show... Cloud Builder... that was his name. She played with it now. It was useless for polishing, having absorbed too much water in her mouth. But, if she strained it out, it would lose so much of the mass that what was left wouldn't hold together–
A pony cleared her throat and the white pegasus's head snapped up. There was Spitfire. For just a moment Mirror wanted to shout with joy, surely a Pegasus Captain of the City Guard would be able to sort everything out and … she remembered the orange maned pegasus bringing in the orange coated pegasus to be arrested. She looked at the ace flier, trying to find some hint of where things stood on the yellow muzzle. But there was no expression there, save perhaps a ghost of inquiry. The consummate professional, not giving anything away, it scared Shine to the same degree it simply confirmed how much she idolized the mare.
A folder lay open on the table facing Guard Captain Spitfire, the elder pegasus read from a profile sheet, “Mirror Shine, Albino, female pegasus. Cloud mirror specialist, usually does a lot of lighting work; part time live actress. All this seem correct to you?”
Mirror nodded, "um, yeah. That's... that's me." she mumbled into the table.
"Do you know why you are here?"
"Well, Officer Fields told me to–"
Spitfire exhaled loudly, "look this is a really bad time for you to do or say anything stupid, do you understand? What I want to know is: how the hell you got caught up in all of this, what's your story?" The peace officer rubbed the bridge of her nose.
'Ergh, narrative... crud.' Mirror closed her eyes, trying to recall everything she could about the horrible day. Skipping her morning, um, probably skipping the first couple hours of the celebration... except, shouldn't she establish character?
"Umm, I went to the Founding Day Celebration dressed as Starswirl the Bearded, for..." 'Stay on target...' "because it seemed like fun. I uh, checked out the booths and ponies, did some cloud sculpting stuff. I'm... not very good at it, but I can do shiny pretty well, so kids like it sometimes."
The white pegasus took a breath before continuing, "When the time for the speech came up, I was a little late getting into the commons, so I was pretty far towards the back. The recording played and..." she felt sick to her stomach, and everything became just a little more real. It would be difficult to describe how an all white pony became paler, but Mirror Shine managed it. "Well, the explosion went off, and I couldn't believe it. I was looking around, trying to figure out why everypony was running around. Um, I think I remember a flaming brick knocking my hat off... unless I hallucinated that part, I don't know, it was kind of ludicrous..." She was babbling again.
Mirror began kneading the bit of cloud, causing a few tiny drops of rain to fall on the flat expanse of the table. "Anyway, eventually I realized that a bomb had gone off, so... I ran. I mean, that's what you do when a bomb explodes or there's a huge fire, right? You get away from it." She began twisting the cloud, creating spirals of lighter and darker cloud where pressure pulled water from the inner parts, "Like I said, I was in the back of the crowd, so even though I started later, I was still pretty far ahead of most of the ponies running."
"So, I'm running," the albino continued, "but I have no idea where I'm running to just what I'm running from. And that seems kinda' dumb, but right when I'm thinking that I see several pegasi heading into an alleyway. They seemed to know what they were doing, which was better than the crowd of ponies fleeing for their lives. So... I followed them." This was where stuff got complicated, so she paused for a moment. Her heart was racing and she tried not to think about how many ponies probably didn't even make it out of the square. All of a sudden Mirror was grateful she hadn't eaten anything that morning.
"So, yeah, there must have been twenty pegasi in that alley, and all of them were wearing kinda' tatty clothing. A lot of capes and cloaks, but none of them looked well cared for. It was sort of like a Thirty Year reunion performance of Olive Twist, except stage clothes only look damaged, there's a whole of art to–" she was drifting again, "Anyway, it looked kinda'... fishy, and Starswirl said I needed to find out what was going on, so I went –"
“Starswirl told you?” Spitfire interrupted, an eyebrow raised on her skeptical face.
Mirror was tempted to smack her face with a forehoof, except... well right now that seemed like a silly and childish thing to do. "Oh, um... how do I explain. Uh, you know that thing they do in the funny papers where somepony will be faced with a decision and there'll be a mini-Discord on one shoulder and a mini-Celestia on the other one?”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow, but nodded. Mirror continued, “Yeah, I've never imagined that, personally, but it reminds me of how, sometimes, when I'm playing a character, I'll have a sort of running dialog in my head where the character will express their thoughts and opinions. And... sometimes, when I don't know what else to do, if they suggest something, I'll do it." She looked directly at the former Wonderbolt Captain, the mare was now giving her a weird stare.
"Look, it isn't like I think they're real or anything – I'm not crazy. It's a method acting thing. I read that Johnny Derp and Heather Ledge both used a similar idea..." she realized this particular argument might not be supporting her 'I'm not crazy' claim very well.
"It's just... well, my life has always been pretty boring, and there are all these famous figures, real and fictional, and they've all done such amazing things with their lives. And if I can get inside their heads just a little, well, I feel like they're probably... I can't say smarter because it's still my brain imagining everything. But they seem to have a better idea of how the world wor..."
Spitfire waved her hooves. “Alright, I get it, Miss Shine. Please, continue with your story. Starswirl was telling you...?”
Mirror blushed profusely, trying to return to the topic at hoof. 'Starswirld, the alley, and then... oh, yeah.' "Um, so following my impulse of what I believed that Starswirl the Bearded would have done in the same situation... I followed the odd group down the alley." She paused for a moment, "You, uh, you saw the alley, how there's a bend in the middle, right? Well they were heading to the other side, kinda' away from general view it seemed. I was just about to make it around the corner, when I stepped on a rat."
The pale pegasus pony shivered, "and when I say 'stepped on', I don't mean 'oh, I'm so sorry I brushed your tail', I mean I heard crunching. The only thing about that that is remotely not horrifying is that I'm pretty sure I killed it instantly, because it didn't even have time to scream." her throat muscles convulsed a few times as she recalled the carnage. "And I had rat ALL OVER my hoof. I mean, it's not just a red mess like you'd think, there was plenty of yellow bits, a whole mass of sickly gray, these long tubes of grayish pink stuff, and all kinds of shades of brown, there was like a whole rainbow of gross that I wish I'd never known about. So, I... kinda may have spent quite some time trying to wipe it all off on random bits of trash?"
"That... well, let's just say I lost track of some amount of time there, I'll never know how long, at least ten seconds, probably not half an hour. When I looked up there was a gryphon at the end of the alley. Um, this is when I met that unicorn, Crescent something, the one with the Buster Sword." She tried to think of anything else useful she'd noticed, and couldn't. "So, yeah, I left. And I guess I ended up leaving the way the ponies in tattered clothing did, because everything was on fire when I got out, and then I got arrested, and I'm gonna guess you know the rest. I... um, I guess I don't just get to go home now, do I?" She searched the older mare's face one last time, hoping for any clues.
“Nothing else happened in that alley?” Spitfire inquired.
"Oh, uh... yeah... the gryphon, I think somepony called her Gem, or something that. She saw me... you know what, I never did find out how she knew I was there, come to think of it..." Mirror tapped her chin, eventually shrugging. "Anyhow, she saw me, I guess my costume was almost as beaten up as the shady group I followed, and she made the same assumption that I had: that somepony scruffy looking running down an alleyway right after an explosions might've had something to do with it."
Mirror contemplated this for a moment. "See, in my case it was justified, both because... well." She racked her brains, trying to find a good argument for her feelings. "Because... oh! Because the ponies that I saw had on clothing that was supposed to make them less likely to be noticed, while I was wearing a bright blue cloak with gold stars sewn onto it. That's like the opposite of stealth right there." The pegasus nodded, satisfied with her own logic. "Anyway, um, Gem, hadn't realized that she was wrong, so she started demanding... what did she say? Oh, she wanted to know what I was doing. I tried to brush her off and she got annoyed, so I told her I was following a bunch of suspicious figures."
It began to dawn on Mirror that Spitfire could probably question Crescent too, and he'd already proven he was most concerned about saving his own hide. The polishing pony didn't really want to get the gryphon in trouble, but she wasn't about to be accused of lying or... withholding information, either. "So, I said before that I was sort of … channeling Starswirl the Bearded's motivations. I, uhm, might also have been copying his mannerisms and my best guess at how he'd deal with an angry gryphon? Soo, I might have insulted her, a bit? Like enough to make her brandish her claws."
"Aand that's when captai– uhhh, Sir Misapplied Chivalry shows up with his giant metaphor waving around and tries to break up the fight. He tells the gryphon to back down and tells me that I'm not aware of... well I didn't really understand what he was talking about, but I didn't like it." Mirror crossed her forehooves, frowning.
Shine cast her memory back, trying to remember if anything else had happened before the fire broke out. "So, before anything else could happen this old guy on the roof starts telling the gryphon that a nearby building was on fire. I'm not proud of it, but I freaked at this point – it was just the last straw. City Hall blows up and then more fires get set? That's just right out. So I ran away, not really paying much attention to where I was going. I hit the walls a few times, got what was left of my cloak tangled in my wings, and stumbled into the smoke, which is where I got... well maybe not tackled exactly, but definitely given a chance to inspect the pavement pretty closely." She'd been shouted at by a guardspony and then she was face-down on the ground, didn't take much chalk to connect those dots.
"And everything after that is stuff you've got to know already. I'm pretty sure the unicorn saw me get caught and ran away... I was annoyed at him but... I dunno, I think he's probably had a really bad time."
Spitfire smirked. “As I hear from my officers, you had more than a bit of trouble from that cloak of yours.”
"Okay, okay it may have half hog-tied me on its own..." Mirror mumbled into her hooves.
Spitfire sat up in her chair and took a breath while looking at the open folder before her. “Alright, Miss Shine, I thank you for being honest with me. It shouldn’t take too long to get you out of here. However, until I have everything double
checked and the rest of the evidence in, I’m going to have to keep you here.”
Mirror ran Spitfire's sentences through her head a few times. "O-okay," because, really, what was she going to say? …
What was she going to say, to her parents, to her work, to the gang down at the theater and the poetry bar? She slid her hooves from her muzzle over the top of her head.
“If you stay clean, then this arrest won’t appear on your record and you will be compensated for your time.” Spitfire paused, as if searching for words to say. “I’m sorry I can’t let you go sooner, but I can’t take any risks and there is the possibility that you might not get a very warm reception out there anyway.”
There was a knock on the door. “Come in!” Spitfire called.
The door opened and an officer rushed in and spoke in her ear. Mirror couldn't make out every word, but what she did hear was enough to fill her with a sense of foreboding. “There... two more firebombings! ...said you... disturbed, but this is... out of control. ...need you... coordinate things... stop any...”
Spitfire’s face turned grim. She nodded, then glanced at Mirror. With a sigh she began gathering up her papers and quickly placed them in her folder. “I guess we are done, Miss Shine, I’ve got business to attend to.” She stood up and made to leave.
Mirror sat up a little, straightened, then leaned forward. There was one last thing she had to do, or she'd regret it for the rest of her life, "I, … look, I realize this is a really terrible time to ask. But," she bit her lip, "c-could I have your autograph?"
Spitfire chuckled, giving Mirror a small smile. “Tell you what Miss Shine, if your story checks out, I’ll take you out to lunch someday soon.”
Mirror couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face, or the squeal of delight as she clapped her hooves together. “Yes!”
Written in collaboration with Sasha Nein
Mirror Shine followed the guard into the small white room. She had managed to clean most of the dye, ash, and dirt from her fur last night when she was having trouble sleeping on the cell's cot. Looking at the stark color of the interior, she imagined crawling into a corner, closing her eyes, and simply vanishing from view. It was all much cleaner than she had imagined – she did have to give Raavalon's finest that much credit, the place was almost antiseptic. Two chairs faced an unassuming table, painted pale gray for some reason.
The Guard, 'Officer Fields, so her badge-thing says,' pointed to one of the chairs. The albino sat, taking in the spartan surroundings. "An officer will be in to take your statement soon. Wait here and don't do anything." admonished the guardsmare. Mirror nodded and Officer Fields headed off to take care of... Celestia knew what else was going on right now.
All the previous night Mirror had heard the coming and goings of countless hooves. The scent of smoke and even more unpleasant things she couldn't place wafted into her cell. What had Cloudbailer said, that this was, a war? Whatever it was, it was so far outside what she knew that it kept coming in and out of focus... she could just about grasp the scale of destruction and then it seemed insane, ludicrous, unbelievable.
Except... except that the Guard all looked at her like she'd done it. And it was hard to remember, under that sort of gaze, that she hadn't done anything wrong. She started to wonder if maybe she had somehow been to blame, had let this happen. They'd finally confiscated her bags and belongings, but she had discovered about an hour later that a bit of cloudstuff had gotten stuck behind her teeth when she pulled some out to show... Cloud Builder... that was his name. She played with it now. It was useless for polishing, having absorbed too much water in her mouth. But, if she strained it out, it would lose so much of the mass that what was left wouldn't hold together–
A pony cleared her throat and the white pegasus's head snapped up. There was Spitfire. For just a moment Mirror wanted to shout with joy, surely a Pegasus Captain of the City Guard would be able to sort everything out and … she remembered the orange maned pegasus bringing in the orange coated pegasus to be arrested. She looked at the ace flier, trying to find some hint of where things stood on the yellow muzzle. But there was no expression there, save perhaps a ghost of inquiry. The consummate professional, not giving anything away, it scared Shine to the same degree it simply confirmed how much she idolized the mare.
A folder lay open on the table facing Guard Captain Spitfire, the elder pegasus read from a profile sheet, “Mirror Shine, Albino, female pegasus. Cloud mirror specialist, usually does a lot of lighting work; part time live actress. All this seem correct to you?”
Mirror nodded, "um, yeah. That's... that's me." she mumbled into the table.
"Do you know why you are here?"
"Well, Officer Fields told me to–"
Spitfire exhaled loudly, "look this is a really bad time for you to do or say anything stupid, do you understand? What I want to know is: how the hell you got caught up in all of this, what's your story?" The peace officer rubbed the bridge of her nose.
'Ergh, narrative... crud.' Mirror closed her eyes, trying to recall everything she could about the horrible day. Skipping her morning, um, probably skipping the first couple hours of the celebration... except, shouldn't she establish character?
"Umm, I went to the Founding Day Celebration dressed as Starswirl the Bearded, for..." 'Stay on target...' "because it seemed like fun. I uh, checked out the booths and ponies, did some cloud sculpting stuff. I'm... not very good at it, but I can do shiny pretty well, so kids like it sometimes."
The white pegasus took a breath before continuing, "When the time for the speech came up, I was a little late getting into the commons, so I was pretty far towards the back. The recording played and..." she felt sick to her stomach, and everything became just a little more real. It would be difficult to describe how an all white pony became paler, but Mirror Shine managed it. "Well, the explosion went off, and I couldn't believe it. I was looking around, trying to figure out why everypony was running around. Um, I think I remember a flaming brick knocking my hat off... unless I hallucinated that part, I don't know, it was kind of ludicrous..." She was babbling again.
Mirror began kneading the bit of cloud, causing a few tiny drops of rain to fall on the flat expanse of the table. "Anyway, eventually I realized that a bomb had gone off, so... I ran. I mean, that's what you do when a bomb explodes or there's a huge fire, right? You get away from it." She began twisting the cloud, creating spirals of lighter and darker cloud where pressure pulled water from the inner parts, "Like I said, I was in the back of the crowd, so even though I started later, I was still pretty far ahead of most of the ponies running."
"So, I'm running," the albino continued, "but I have no idea where I'm running to just what I'm running from. And that seems kinda' dumb, but right when I'm thinking that I see several pegasi heading into an alleyway. They seemed to know what they were doing, which was better than the crowd of ponies fleeing for their lives. So... I followed them." This was where stuff got complicated, so she paused for a moment. Her heart was racing and she tried not to think about how many ponies probably didn't even make it out of the square. All of a sudden Mirror was grateful she hadn't eaten anything that morning.
"So, yeah, there must have been twenty pegasi in that alley, and all of them were wearing kinda' tatty clothing. A lot of capes and cloaks, but none of them looked well cared for. It was sort of like a Thirty Year reunion performance of Olive Twist, except stage clothes only look damaged, there's a whole of art to–" she was drifting again, "Anyway, it looked kinda'... fishy, and Starswirl said I needed to find out what was going on, so I went –"
“Starswirl told you?” Spitfire interrupted, an eyebrow raised on her skeptical face.
Mirror was tempted to smack her face with a forehoof, except... well right now that seemed like a silly and childish thing to do. "Oh, um... how do I explain. Uh, you know that thing they do in the funny papers where somepony will be faced with a decision and there'll be a mini-Discord on one shoulder and a mini-Celestia on the other one?”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow, but nodded. Mirror continued, “Yeah, I've never imagined that, personally, but it reminds me of how, sometimes, when I'm playing a character, I'll have a sort of running dialog in my head where the character will express their thoughts and opinions. And... sometimes, when I don't know what else to do, if they suggest something, I'll do it." She looked directly at the former Wonderbolt Captain, the mare was now giving her a weird stare.
"Look, it isn't like I think they're real or anything – I'm not crazy. It's a method acting thing. I read that Johnny Derp and Heather Ledge both used a similar idea..." she realized this particular argument might not be supporting her 'I'm not crazy' claim very well.
"It's just... well, my life has always been pretty boring, and there are all these famous figures, real and fictional, and they've all done such amazing things with their lives. And if I can get inside their heads just a little, well, I feel like they're probably... I can't say smarter because it's still my brain imagining everything. But they seem to have a better idea of how the world wor..."
Spitfire waved her hooves. “Alright, I get it, Miss Shine. Please, continue with your story. Starswirl was telling you...?”
Mirror blushed profusely, trying to return to the topic at hoof. 'Starswirld, the alley, and then... oh, yeah.' "Um, so following my impulse of what I believed that Starswirl the Bearded would have done in the same situation... I followed the odd group down the alley." She paused for a moment, "You, uh, you saw the alley, how there's a bend in the middle, right? Well they were heading to the other side, kinda' away from general view it seemed. I was just about to make it around the corner, when I stepped on a rat."
The pale pegasus pony shivered, "and when I say 'stepped on', I don't mean 'oh, I'm so sorry I brushed your tail', I mean I heard crunching. The only thing about that that is remotely not horrifying is that I'm pretty sure I killed it instantly, because it didn't even have time to scream." her throat muscles convulsed a few times as she recalled the carnage. "And I had rat ALL OVER my hoof. I mean, it's not just a red mess like you'd think, there was plenty of yellow bits, a whole mass of sickly gray, these long tubes of grayish pink stuff, and all kinds of shades of brown, there was like a whole rainbow of gross that I wish I'd never known about. So, I... kinda may have spent quite some time trying to wipe it all off on random bits of trash?"
"That... well, let's just say I lost track of some amount of time there, I'll never know how long, at least ten seconds, probably not half an hour. When I looked up there was a gryphon at the end of the alley. Um, this is when I met that unicorn, Crescent something, the one with the Buster Sword." She tried to think of anything else useful she'd noticed, and couldn't. "So, yeah, I left. And I guess I ended up leaving the way the ponies in tattered clothing did, because everything was on fire when I got out, and then I got arrested, and I'm gonna guess you know the rest. I... um, I guess I don't just get to go home now, do I?" She searched the older mare's face one last time, hoping for any clues.
“Nothing else happened in that alley?” Spitfire inquired.
"Oh, uh... yeah... the gryphon, I think somepony called her Gem, or something that. She saw me... you know what, I never did find out how she knew I was there, come to think of it..." Mirror tapped her chin, eventually shrugging. "Anyhow, she saw me, I guess my costume was almost as beaten up as the shady group I followed, and she made the same assumption that I had: that somepony scruffy looking running down an alleyway right after an explosions might've had something to do with it."
Mirror contemplated this for a moment. "See, in my case it was justified, both because... well." She racked her brains, trying to find a good argument for her feelings. "Because... oh! Because the ponies that I saw had on clothing that was supposed to make them less likely to be noticed, while I was wearing a bright blue cloak with gold stars sewn onto it. That's like the opposite of stealth right there." The pegasus nodded, satisfied with her own logic. "Anyway, um, Gem, hadn't realized that she was wrong, so she started demanding... what did she say? Oh, she wanted to know what I was doing. I tried to brush her off and she got annoyed, so I told her I was following a bunch of suspicious figures."
It began to dawn on Mirror that Spitfire could probably question Crescent too, and he'd already proven he was most concerned about saving his own hide. The polishing pony didn't really want to get the gryphon in trouble, but she wasn't about to be accused of lying or... withholding information, either. "So, I said before that I was sort of … channeling Starswirl the Bearded's motivations. I, uhm, might also have been copying his mannerisms and my best guess at how he'd deal with an angry gryphon? Soo, I might have insulted her, a bit? Like enough to make her brandish her claws."
"Aand that's when captai– uhhh, Sir Misapplied Chivalry shows up with his giant metaphor waving around and tries to break up the fight. He tells the gryphon to back down and tells me that I'm not aware of... well I didn't really understand what he was talking about, but I didn't like it." Mirror crossed her forehooves, frowning.
Shine cast her memory back, trying to remember if anything else had happened before the fire broke out. "So, before anything else could happen this old guy on the roof starts telling the gryphon that a nearby building was on fire. I'm not proud of it, but I freaked at this point – it was just the last straw. City Hall blows up and then more fires get set? That's just right out. So I ran away, not really paying much attention to where I was going. I hit the walls a few times, got what was left of my cloak tangled in my wings, and stumbled into the smoke, which is where I got... well maybe not tackled exactly, but definitely given a chance to inspect the pavement pretty closely." She'd been shouted at by a guardspony and then she was face-down on the ground, didn't take much chalk to connect those dots.
"And everything after that is stuff you've got to know already. I'm pretty sure the unicorn saw me get caught and ran away... I was annoyed at him but... I dunno, I think he's probably had a really bad time."
Spitfire smirked. “As I hear from my officers, you had more than a bit of trouble from that cloak of yours.”
"Okay, okay it may have half hog-tied me on its own..." Mirror mumbled into her hooves.
Spitfire sat up in her chair and took a breath while looking at the open folder before her. “Alright, Miss Shine, I thank you for being honest with me. It shouldn’t take too long to get you out of here. However, until I have everything double
checked and the rest of the evidence in, I’m going to have to keep you here.”
Mirror ran Spitfire's sentences through her head a few times. "O-okay," because, really, what was she going to say? …
What was she going to say, to her parents, to her work, to the gang down at the theater and the poetry bar? She slid her hooves from her muzzle over the top of her head.
“If you stay clean, then this arrest won’t appear on your record and you will be compensated for your time.” Spitfire paused, as if searching for words to say. “I’m sorry I can’t let you go sooner, but I can’t take any risks and there is the possibility that you might not get a very warm reception out there anyway.”
There was a knock on the door. “Come in!” Spitfire called.
The door opened and an officer rushed in and spoke in her ear. Mirror couldn't make out every word, but what she did hear was enough to fill her with a sense of foreboding. “There... two more firebombings! ...said you... disturbed, but this is... out of control. ...need you... coordinate things... stop any...”
Spitfire’s face turned grim. She nodded, then glanced at Mirror. With a sigh she began gathering up her papers and quickly placed them in her folder. “I guess we are done, Miss Shine, I’ve got business to attend to.” She stood up and made to leave.
Mirror sat up a little, straightened, then leaned forward. There was one last thing she had to do, or she'd regret it for the rest of her life, "I, … look, I realize this is a really terrible time to ask. But," she bit her lip, "c-could I have your autograph?"
Spitfire chuckled, giving Mirror a small smile. “Tell you what Miss Shine, if your story checks out, I’ll take you out to lunch someday soon.”
Mirror couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face, or the squeal of delight as she clapped her hooves together. “Yes!”
Written in collaboration with Sasha Nein
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:46 pm
6:56pm, July 14th, Local Emergency Recovery Centre
Her eyes were closed. She barely had the strength to open them, so she listened instead.
There was a lot of commotion, hooves clip-clopped by every few seconds, ponies exchanged a few words every now and then and there was a slow beeping sound that wouldn’t stop. It quickly became annoying.
“Nurse, change her bandages as soon as you have time, tell me if her condition changes.”
The voice was very close by and she could feel hooves on her rear left leg. She gathered her strength and opened her eyes, taking in the form of a slowly retreating doctor and a nurse by her side. The nurse noticed her immediately and stopped fiddling with the bandages. “Doctor quick, she’s opened her eyes.”
The doctor turned swiftly and gave a small smile. He trotted over as shone a light directly into her eyes for a second. “Looking good. Now...” he coughed lightly and looked directly into her eyes, a look of concern in his eyes. “Do. You. Speak. Equestrian?” His words were slow and clearly spoken, laced with a fair bit of unintended condescension.
“Y-yes.” Her voice was weak and she coughed quite a lot afterwards. “It hurts... when I speak.”
“That’s okay, just rest. You sustained some rather nasty wounds, most likely from the panicking crowds. That must have been really scary for you, but try not to think about it, focus on your recovery, okay?” The doctor patted her on the head and ruffled her mane before reminding the nurse to change the bandages. He left for real this time, presumably heading out to check on another patient.
“Now let’s get these bandages swapped out, deary.” The homely looking nurse unwrapped the dirty bandages and Camellia could finally see what was underneath. The bruise was an angry purplish green colour and stood out against her tan fur. It’s shape was obviously that of a hoof, there was no mistaking it.
Despite the doctor’s orders, Camellia flashed back to the moment it happened.
--
Around midday, all the ponies around her began walking in the same direction. She didn’t really know why it was happening, but all of the stalls were closing up and there was an obvious excitement in the air. There was no point in staying where she was and the draw of an event was too good to pass up.
Camellia caught snippets of conversation from around her, ponies talking about a speech and the potential of the Princess appearing. The latter seemed to be discussed in despondent tones however, nopony appeared to believe that she would show up. This seemed strange to Camellia, as back home, the Emperor never missed an opportunity to show himself off at public events.
‘Perhaps the Equestrian monarchy is more vested with decorum and modesty.’ she thought. She shrugged and moved on however, finding herself at the back of a very large crowd. Camellia wasn’t very tall, so she had a hard time peering over the crowd to see the stage, but it didn’t seem like anyone royal looking was up there anyway. Instead, a recording began playing.
It was a nice message, Camellia found herself nodding along with it.
That was, until the world exploded.
To her, that’s what it felt like. An ear shattering explosion followed by the ground rumbling then a scary silence. It couldn’t have lasted more than a second, but it was stretched out to an obscene degree.
Then the screaming started. Camellia was paralysed, the sudden shock had caught her unaware and she had no time to throw up a mental wall of resistance. The crowd wasted no time in scattering and not one of them thought to mind the little maid that had so foolishly stood still at a time like this. She fell under their hooves and felt a heavy stomp to her leg and another to her gut.
Camellia’s senses finally kicked in and she threw up a forcefield, a pale pink half-sphere covering her entire body. In her condition it was a strain to keep it up against the onslaught of hooves, but it allowed her time to crawl towards the shadow of one of the nearby closed stalls. Just as she was about to escape, she momentarily sighed with relief and her concentration slipped. A hoof came down on her forcefield and shattered it with ease, the pony running by kicked her full in the throat and stumbled over her prone body, but not before Camellia’s world turned black.
--
Camellia shuddered. She’d not felt so weak in so long.
Living on her own as she had done these past few weeks, without a Mistress to care for, she had become lax. That needed to change... and soon.
“There we go, deary, your bandages are nice and fresh.” The homely nurse smiled at her warmly and left to tend the other patients. The explosion had surely left her busy.
Camellia fell back onto her pillow and stroked her throat gently. It was bandaged up as well. There was some pressure there, but it wasn’t so bad. It actually felt pretty good.
With nothing else to do, Camellia fell asleep.
Her eyes were closed. She barely had the strength to open them, so she listened instead.
There was a lot of commotion, hooves clip-clopped by every few seconds, ponies exchanged a few words every now and then and there was a slow beeping sound that wouldn’t stop. It quickly became annoying.
“Nurse, change her bandages as soon as you have time, tell me if her condition changes.”
The voice was very close by and she could feel hooves on her rear left leg. She gathered her strength and opened her eyes, taking in the form of a slowly retreating doctor and a nurse by her side. The nurse noticed her immediately and stopped fiddling with the bandages. “Doctor quick, she’s opened her eyes.”
The doctor turned swiftly and gave a small smile. He trotted over as shone a light directly into her eyes for a second. “Looking good. Now...” he coughed lightly and looked directly into her eyes, a look of concern in his eyes. “Do. You. Speak. Equestrian?” His words were slow and clearly spoken, laced with a fair bit of unintended condescension.
“Y-yes.” Her voice was weak and she coughed quite a lot afterwards. “It hurts... when I speak.”
“That’s okay, just rest. You sustained some rather nasty wounds, most likely from the panicking crowds. That must have been really scary for you, but try not to think about it, focus on your recovery, okay?” The doctor patted her on the head and ruffled her mane before reminding the nurse to change the bandages. He left for real this time, presumably heading out to check on another patient.
“Now let’s get these bandages swapped out, deary.” The homely looking nurse unwrapped the dirty bandages and Camellia could finally see what was underneath. The bruise was an angry purplish green colour and stood out against her tan fur. It’s shape was obviously that of a hoof, there was no mistaking it.
Despite the doctor’s orders, Camellia flashed back to the moment it happened.
--
Around midday, all the ponies around her began walking in the same direction. She didn’t really know why it was happening, but all of the stalls were closing up and there was an obvious excitement in the air. There was no point in staying where she was and the draw of an event was too good to pass up.
Camellia caught snippets of conversation from around her, ponies talking about a speech and the potential of the Princess appearing. The latter seemed to be discussed in despondent tones however, nopony appeared to believe that she would show up. This seemed strange to Camellia, as back home, the Emperor never missed an opportunity to show himself off at public events.
‘Perhaps the Equestrian monarchy is more vested with decorum and modesty.’ she thought. She shrugged and moved on however, finding herself at the back of a very large crowd. Camellia wasn’t very tall, so she had a hard time peering over the crowd to see the stage, but it didn’t seem like anyone royal looking was up there anyway. Instead, a recording began playing.
It was a nice message, Camellia found herself nodding along with it.
That was, until the world exploded.
To her, that’s what it felt like. An ear shattering explosion followed by the ground rumbling then a scary silence. It couldn’t have lasted more than a second, but it was stretched out to an obscene degree.
Then the screaming started. Camellia was paralysed, the sudden shock had caught her unaware and she had no time to throw up a mental wall of resistance. The crowd wasted no time in scattering and not one of them thought to mind the little maid that had so foolishly stood still at a time like this. She fell under their hooves and felt a heavy stomp to her leg and another to her gut.
Camellia’s senses finally kicked in and she threw up a forcefield, a pale pink half-sphere covering her entire body. In her condition it was a strain to keep it up against the onslaught of hooves, but it allowed her time to crawl towards the shadow of one of the nearby closed stalls. Just as she was about to escape, she momentarily sighed with relief and her concentration slipped. A hoof came down on her forcefield and shattered it with ease, the pony running by kicked her full in the throat and stumbled over her prone body, but not before Camellia’s world turned black.
--
Camellia shuddered. She’d not felt so weak in so long.
Living on her own as she had done these past few weeks, without a Mistress to care for, she had become lax. That needed to change... and soon.
“There we go, deary, your bandages are nice and fresh.” The homely nurse smiled at her warmly and left to tend the other patients. The explosion had surely left her busy.
Camellia fell back onto her pillow and stroked her throat gently. It was bandaged up as well. There was some pressure there, but it wasn’t so bad. It actually felt pretty good.
With nothing else to do, Camellia fell asleep.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
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Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:47 pm
Timestamp:
04:07pm, July 14th, 1st day after the bombing.
Spitfire stood outside the door to the room that held Cloudbuilder. She wanted to be furious with him, but she hesitated behind the door. Being furious hadn’t worked before, why would it now? There had to be something else she could say, or do, that would get the results she wanted.
But, she hesitated, the plan coming to fruition in her mind had so much potential. Yet, at the same time, far too much room for error. Was it worth the risk? What exactly was she trying to accomplish? Did she know enough about Cloudbuilder to assume?
Spitfire did know that, after interrogating Mirror, the fire bombings were getting out of control. It was becoming painfully aware that nopony in the RPD, or possibly all of Equestria, knew how to handle guerilla tactics of any kind. Even she had a hard time trying to figure out where they would strike next.
It wasn’t until two hours before they realized they were targeting the weather stations, effectively cutting down on the effectiveness of the fire crews and threatening the safety of Raavalon’s weather systems. Thankfully, her hurried scrambling of officers to the few remaining stations had stymied any further attacks... for now.
However, the damage had been done. Spitfire now realized the full danger a few pegasi could cause. It wasn’t going to be very long before they started finding new targets and she had no way of stopping them. She had to think of something, and fast; so she did.
Now, she was standing outside Cloudbuilder’s door. It was time to make, or break it. She had two options, and she had opted for the riskier, yet potentially more rewarding choice. It would take a little to pull it off though... But, being Spitfire, she was confident in her abilities.
Spitfire took a calming breath, checking her saddlebags. Yep, everything was there, all the evidence she would need. With another breath, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The room was a pale grey, fairly older than the room she had interrogated Mirror within. There was a simple table in the middle of the room with three chairs. The two nearest the door were empty, Cloudbuilder sitting facing her. Or, at least, he would have been facing her, but it seemed the long wait was getting the better of him and his attention was clearly waning.
Cloudbuilder had his head on the table in front of him. He’d been waiting in this room for several hours now. Combined with the very little sleep he’d gotten the night before, and all he wanted to do was rest his head.
His muzzle was turned to the side, his cheek resting on the cool, metal table. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself laying on a cloud, soaking up Celestia’s sun. Even the sound of the door opening and closing didn’t rouse him, though he did acknowledge the sound.
With a harsh, grating noise, one of the chairs across from him was pulled out from the table. There was rustling, and a bang as something dropped on the table, but he just snuggled deeper into his mind, content to ignore anything that didn’t require his attention. If one of the guards who’d been posted at the door decided to sit down, who was he to judge? Or care...
A voice, tired and haggard, but still strong, interrupted his reverie. “Hello Cloudbuilder.”
“Mmph,” came his response. Unless the voice identified itself, there was no point in lifting his head off the table.
“The death count has risen to about a hundred,” the voice continued. “Wounded are still coming in and a few might not make it.” It had taken on a displeased tone now, a rather familiar disgruntledness now that he thought about it.
“Ugh, Spitfire?” he asked? If it really was her, at least she could have the decency to say so. After all, he had almost out-flown her.
“I am here to inform you that your trial will be held in two days. If you’re lucky, it’ll be five years at minimum. But I assure you, luck is not going to be at your side... I will.”
Cloudbuilder finally lifted his head from the table, seeing the familiar yellow mare seated across from him. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“I means I’m going to lock you up, Cloudbuilder. And unless you give me what I want, I’m going to make sure you spend at least ten years in a cold, dark cell,” she said, her tone as brazen as her eyes.
“And what, precisely, is it you want?” His own eyes narrowed, matching her stare.
“I think you know well enough,” Spitfire responded coolly.
He laughed, the sound echoing in the small room. “You seriously think you’re going to get me to spill my guts about the resistance by sitting there and threatening me? And here I thought you actually had some brains, Spitfire.”
Spitfire shrugged. “No, I didn’t really expect more than petty insults. But I had hoped.” Spitfire made to get up. “I’ll see you in court Cloudbuilder... Maybe someone will remember you when you get out of prison, because I sure as hell won’t.”
“Wait a second. You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re actually going to toss me in jail.” He slammed his hooves on the table, causing the guard near the door to flinch. “Even still, you’ll never get anything out of me. I’ll rot in prison, first.”
“Fine. Goodbye,” Spitfire said, making for the door.
“Wait,” he said. When Spitfire stopped walking, he continued. “What is it you want?”
“I want to stop the killing, Cloudbuilder.”
“And you think I can help you with that.” It wasn’t a question. Spitfire wouldn’t even be talking with him unless she thought that.
“Yes.”
He laughed. “And how, might I ask, do you expect me to do that? If you want names, I have none. If you want plans, I don’t know any.”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Cloudbuilder.” Spitfire deadpanned. “You found them once, you could do it again. You’ve been privy to plans, faces, voices. With the success you had in that first firebombing, you are sure to be welcomed back into the ranks. It wouldn’t take much for you to take me to them, get me where I can’t go on my own.”
“Even assuming I’d do such a thing, you’d stand out.” He looked her over, taking in her yellow coat and orange mane.
“Everypony knows who you are.”
Spitfire stepped back to the desk. “Let me clarify. All I need are locations. It doesn’t matter whether I stick out or not to the ponies I’m arresting.”
He fixed her with a deadpan stare. “And you want me to help you.” Leaning back in his chair, he smirked at her. “You know, for something like that, betraying my fellow pegasi and all, there’s a price. I just wonder if you can afford it.”
“I doubt it,” Spitfire said, turning back towards the door.
“Well then, it would seem we’re at an impasse. You want what I can get, but you can’t afford it.” His smirk turned into a smug smile. “It would seem like you have no choice but to let me go.”
Spitfire reached the door. “I hope your mother has a nice picture of you. They don’t allow many visitors down at the prison.”
Still leaning back in his chair, Cloudbuilder responded. “I know what you want, Spitfire. You want everything to stop. You want this city to go back as it was.” He leaned forward again. “But it can’t. Nothing will ever be as it was. Even if I get you what you want, you should know something.”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “Not even I had any idea of what was going to happen yesterday. I was only told to look out for a signal, and that we couldn’t miss it.”
“That’s not going to win you any special treatment with the judge, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Spitfire opened the door.
“Be sure to watch the news in your cell; wouldn’t want to miss out on any gloriously liberating actions your friends are taking.”
“Then I suppose this is farewell.” He rushed to finish his sentence before the door clanged shut. “I hope you enjoy the chaos that this town will become.”
The door closed behind her, leaving Cloudbuilder alone in the room, except for the one remaining guard. With a groan, he leaned forward, his muzzle once more resting on the table.
Somehow, Cloudbuilder had managed to fall asleep, despite being quite uncomfortable. So he was less than pleased to find himself being awoken by a sharp prodding in his side.
“Get up!” a rough voice commanded.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision. Standing over him was an armored guard, holding a set of hoofcuffs.
“What?” he asked.
“Alright lets go!” The guard shackled himself to Cloudbuilder and began leading him out of the room.
“Where are we going?”
“Spitfire has ordered you to the prison until your trial,” the guard said. “Maybe a taste of what’s to come will soften that tongue of yours.”
Before he could protest, Cloudbuilder was hauled out of the room, through the station, and onto the street. Outside, another guard was waiting for them.
“So, where’s the carriage?” Cloudbuilder asked.
The guard he was shackled to laughed. “There is no carriage. Spitfire thinks you could do with some exercise.” His grin turned ominous. “And I’m setting the pace.”
Without any further warning, the guard set off at the swift trot, the second guard falling in behind. Cloudbuilder had no choice but to run alongside the guard.
At first it wasn’t bad. Factory work kept him in decent shape. Soon, though, he was breathing hard and it was a struggle to pick up his hooves. Sweat was running down his body. The guard was barely even breathing hard, and showed no sign of slowing down.
Cloudbuilder contemplated just stopping, but the guard would probably just drag him along. No, somehow he needed to keep running. Though how the guard could maintain that pace while wearing his armor, he had no idea.
Along the route, pedestrians were forced to move aside, letting them through. Spitfire wanted him paraded through the streets. She wanted the ponies to know that she’d caught at least one pony yesterday. He was a puppet, being forced to dance for her.
The guard turned down a side street, one that was thankfully clear of other ponies. “Where the hell are we going?” Cloudbuilder asked through panting breaths.
“To the CityLine station.”
“You’re taking the worst possible route there. We can be there in minutes if you just take a right up ahead.”
The guard shook his head. “No can do. Spitfire herself gave us this route.”
“That stupid mare...” he muttered. Of course she would. She was probably back in her office, getting off on pulling him around like this.
From around a corner, a pegasus mare came dashing out. She had a panicked look on her face, and she was calling out a name. “Shooting Star, where are you? Come on honey, mommy’s looking for you.” Curiously, the mare was wearing a short skirt. Not entirely uncommon in Ravaalon.
She spotted the small procession and dashed over. “Oh thank the Princesses! You have to help me find my little filly. I swear she was right beside me a second ago and now I can’t find her. You have to help me!”
“Ma’am, we’re escorting a dangerous prisoner. I’m afraid that we are unable to assist you at this moment,” the guard that Cloudbuilder was shackled to said.
Her panicked look grew even worse. “But you have to! My filly’s missing and she could be anywhere, or in the hooves of those rebels. Who knows what they could be doing to her.”
“Ma’am, I assure you that your filly is probably waiting for you back where you last saw her.”
She knelt to the ground. “Would you at least please come with me to check?” Her face went from panicked to pleading in an instant.
“I’m afraid that we can’t—”
He was cut off by the other guard, who up until now hadn’t spoken a word. “Oh come on Storm, she’s obviously upset. Let’s just go with her. I’m sure this one won’t be any trouble,” he growled at Cloudbuilder.
Cloudbuilder jangled the chain attaching him to the guard. “And how exactly am I supposed to cause trouble?”
“See?”
“Ugh, fine,” the guard said.
“Oh, thank you!” She tried to stand up, only to fall over again, a hoof pointing behind them. A look of fear etched on her face, she stammered out, “B-b-behind you!”
The two guards turned around, but Cloudbuilder kept watching the mare. As soon as the guards were distracted, she got to her hooves and in one smooth motion, turned around and launched a buck at the guard he was shackled to.
With a loud snap, his head jerked backwards, his eyes rolling up into their sockets. Without making a sound, he dropped to the ground.
The second guard turned around just in time to see the mare, a predatory grin on her face, launch herself at him. As she passed him, Cloudbuilder got a good look up the skirt she was wearing. “Pink...” he said aloud. She wrapped her forehooves around his neck, using her momentum to swing around so she was behind him, before pulling him over.
As soon as he was on the ground, she straddled him, delivering swift punches to his face. He tried to block, but she kicked him in the groin, causing Cloudbuilder to wince and the guard to drop his guard.
Several brutal strikes to the face later, and the second guard was out as well, blood leaking from his mouth and nostrils. A quick glance showed that both of them were still breathing, just unconscious.
The mare got off the guard and trotted over to the first guard, rifling through his pockets. She produced a key and tossed it to Cloudbuilder. “Unlock yourself, we’ve gotta move.”
He was still looking at the two guards that the mare had taken out in only a few seconds. His jaw was open. “What?” was all he could say.
The mare smiled at him. “What, you didn’t think we’d just leave you to rot in jail, did you?” She slung a hoof around his shoulders. “No, you’re one of us now. The bosses took notice of your successful firebombing yesterday. Now come on, get out of those shackles. We need to get out of here. The others can’t keep the civilians away for long.”
Fumbling with the key, he managed to unlock the hoofcuff. Shaking his hoof to work the blood flow back into it, he looked at the mare. “So, where are we going?”
She pointed from where she’d come from. “That way. But no flying, it’s too suspicious. The others will meet us back at the hideout. Guards are wary of any gatherings of pegasi.”
Throwing a wing around him, she pulled him close. Her demeanor changed almost instantly to that of a mare out on a date. “Now come on, sweetie. Time to go.”
She led him away from the two guards, just leaving them laying in the street. They turned down the alley she came out of, popping out onto another street, this one full of ponies.
Occasionally, she would lean into him and giggle like he’d said something funny. Twice her lips brushed his cheek. She was really getting into this act... Cloudbuilder wasn’t sure what to think. Part of him said that he should get in on the act as well, but another part of him was still in shock at the sudden turn of events.
In the last day, he’d witnessed a bombing, taken part in a firebombing, gotten into a fight with and arrested by Spitfire, interrogated, shackled and forced to run before crowds, and now rescued. His mind was having trouble processing everything.
Fortunately, they made it to the CityLine station without incident. The mare pulled out a coin purse and paid for two tickets.
“Come on, dear, we should get home.” Her look became one of hunger. “I’ve got a surprise for you when you get there.”
He shivered. It was all just an act, but he nearly believed her. “Uh, okay,” he said.
They entered the train and sat down, her leaning up against him. With a short whistle, the train left the station, taking the two of them wherever the mare wanted them to go.
Spitfire weaved among the buildings slightly behind the two officers escorting Cloudbuilder. She was, so far, only getting a sketchy view of their progress. Still, it was better than being spotted, with her colors, it was wise to take extra precautions.
They had been trotting for almost thirty minutes before they stopped to let Cloudbuilder rest. Spitfire quickly found a roof to land on and observe. She smiled smugly when she saw the pegasus gasping for air while the guards stood impassively. Officer training was no joke.
A minute later, a pegasus mare in a rather short skirt appeared out of an alley and made straight for the two guards. Spitfire held her breath and watched for the inevitable surround. She grabbed her small radio, already calling in medical ponies.
Unfortunately, it was the only way, with the least guards, that she could have plausibly gotten Cloudbuilder rescued unsuspiciously. She had wanted to use a carriage at first, but it would have taken more ponies, and inevitably more casualties. This way, hopefully, her guards could get away with only some minor bruising. However, Spitfire wasn’t counting on it, not after all the damages these pegasi had already pulled. Now she was praying that she wouldn’t have two dead guards for this stunt.
A griffon fluttered stealthily down to a rooftop closer to them. Strange, Spitfire hadn’t noticed anyone else following them... Of course, she hadn’t really been able to see anything anyway. For the moment the gryphon simply seemed content to stay out of sight, watching the ponies below intently. Was she there as back-up?
In her distraction, Spitfire almost missed the mare crouching down in front of the two stallions. As it was, she was only partially paying attention when the mare suddenly twisted and bucked one of her officers in the head.
Spitfire grimaced; in a matter of moments the mare had incapacitated both stallions and was unlocking Cloudbuilder. That was brutal. She had never seen anypony incapacitate another so quickly, and this mare had just done it to two. This mare was bad news, especially if she was working for the PRF.
Glancing across the rooftops towards the gryphon, she was surprised to her still standing there with her beak hanging open. Well, it seemed she wasn’t with the rescue team after all. So, then... What was she doing here, watching?
Before Spitfire could decide what to do, the gryphon softly glided to a closer roof. From her vantage point, Spitfire could tell the two pegasi on the ground had not seen the movement. The way the gryphon moved reminded Spitfire of a cat stalking its prey.
With a gasp she realized the gryphon was going to attack the two ponies on the ground! Spitfire launched herself silently from her position behind the two pegasi on the ground and dived for the gryphon, praying nobody turned around.
She landed with a soft thump behind the gryphon. However silent she intended to be apparently wasn’t enough; the gryphon abruptly spun in place, flaring out her wings and slashing at the air with one of her talons. Spitfire leapt back, momentarily caught off-guard. She hadn’t expected such a violent reaction from the gryphon, though she quickly recovered and stared down the large predator. There was a tense moment where neither of them moved, simply glaring at one another, before the gryphon gave a slight shake of her head and snarled.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she whispered. “You’re lucky I didn’t tear you to shreds. Now beat it, buzzard.” The gryphon gave a dismissive wave with her tail as she turned back towards the pegasi below.
Spitfire raised an eyebrow, but remained calm. “Says the gryphon looking to dive bomb a couple corpses.”
“Not with so many witnesses. Bad publicity if I’m found out,” the gryphon curtly replied. “Now, either you help me catch these two or fly off.”
“No.”
“I don’t give suggestions, wings.” The gryphon was creeping closer to the edge of the roof, her eyes trained on the two ponies below.
“I don’t take any from smartass gryphons,” Spitfire responded. “Now step away from the edge of the roof.”
“Or what?” She was at the edge and slowly spreading her wings, her beak curled up in a smug smile.
“Well, I’d probably tackle you. But, you might actually take off, in which case I’ll get in under you, drive the snot out of your gut and send you flying through one of the windows in this building,” Spitfire stated.
Surprisingly, the gryphon smirked, glancing at Spitfire. “Been a long time since I’ve had a decent mid-air fight, orange. You talk big, but can you deliver?”
Spitfire gave the gryphon a smirk of her own. “I would say: Take off and find out yourself. But I really don’t want anything interrupting those ponies down there.”
At the mention of the ponies below the gryphon looked back; her smile immediately morphed into a frown and she muttered something under her breath. While the word itself was unfamiliar to Spitfire, the tone and context made it easy to pin as a curse.
A flurry of thoughts flashed through Spitfire’s mind. The gryphon’s stance, her words, and now sudden interest in Spitfire herself, made her suddenly realize the gryphon probably thought she was involved with the PRF. She tensed, wondering if the gryphon was going to pounce at her. From what she knew already she wouldn’t put it past the snarky female.
Shockingly, the gryphon furled her wings and stepped back from the edge, seemingly regretfully, though her eyes belied her true feelings; there was still a predatory glare to them, a hardness that didn’t match her body language. She sat in front of Spitfire, rapping her talons on the roof — again, she appeared relaxed, but there was simply something off.
“Alright. Guess the bait’s on your claw, now.”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Well, that was surprisingly easy. The name’s Spitfire.” She offered a hoof.
There was a moment’s hesitation from the gryphon. “Spitfire? As in, the Wonderbolts Spitfire?”
“The one and only,” Spitfire smirked, to which the gryphon returned her smile.
“Ha, would’ve loved to race you.” She took Spitfire’s hoof in her talon, giving a firm shake.
“I’m sure.” Spitfire glanced over the gryphons shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the ground. “So, mind telling me why you’re up here, getting ready to pounce on those ponies?”
“Saw two guards parading a pegasus around. Seemed suspicious, so I got curious. He got free, so I figured I’d help.” She paused for a few moments, lost in thought. “Although, minimal guard. Rescued by another pegasus. Now I’m thinking this was a setup.”
Spitfire gave her an appraising look. “You’re pretty quick. I’m not too keen on just anybody knowing that though...” She trailed off, then refocused on the gryphon. “You think you can take on that mare down there?”
The gryphon scoffed. “She’s easy. She relies on surprise tactics and misdirection.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. I wanted them to escape... You don’t think it was too easy do you?” Spitfire mused.
“I know I’d be suspicious, if only for the odd route they took. If the idea was just to parade the prisoner around I could understand, but they avoided many main roads. A lot of side-roads or simply areas without many witnesses.”
Spitfire furrowed her eyebrows. “How long were you following them? And why?”
It was clear that the gryphon wasn’t with the PRF, unless she was a goddess of an actor. But Spitfire was reasonably sure that wasn’t the case. If anything, it seemed this gryphon was just really nosy, maybe a little reckless.
“Since just after the mare was. And like I said, it looked suspicious.”
“So, you were just going to take matters into your own hoo-- claws... or what?”
The gryphon shrugged, an odd maneuver to say the least. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Rolling her eyes and giving an exasperated sigh, Spitfire carefully stepped to the edge of the building and peered over. The mare and Cloudbuilder were no longer in sight. She opened her wings and prepared to glide down to the downed officers. “Coming?” she asked, then took off without waiting for an answer.
There was a flutter of wings, but the gryphon never showed. Spitfire turned in time to catch her flying off, quickly vanishing from sight, and it was only now that she belatedly realized she never caught the gryphon’s name. Sighing, she turned her attention to the downed guards. One was barely breathing... where were those medics?
“Hey, Red!”
The gryphon’s voice rang out from above, catching Spitfire off-guard for the second time. She cast her gaze upwards at the gryphon.
“You know, considering you wanted them to get away, I’d’ve figured you wanted to know where they’re headed.”
Spitfire shook her head. “No, that wasn’t the plan.”
“S’fine by me. Wasn’t planning on chasing after a train anyhow.”
She glanced up at the now moving cars pulling out of the CityLine. Then, back at the gryphon. “Hey, I’d like to see you back at the police station when I’m done here. I would like to ask you a few more things.”
“If this is about that incident with the poison joke and the cloud factory, I swear I had nothing to do with it,” the gryphon said quickly.
Spitfire snorted. “Get your ass over the station before you spill all your high school exploits to an officer.”
“And if I don’t?”
Rolling her eyes, Spitfire called back up,“Damn you’re almost as argumentative as Fleetfoot, you know that? Because I asked nicely. Or, if that’s not good enough: because I’m the friggen head of security in this city.”
The gryphon scoffed. “Don’t get your wings bent, Red. I’ll be there.” Without a moment’s pause the gryphon once again flew off.
There they were! Two unicorns and half a dozen earth ponies were galloping up the narrow street. The unicorns were wearing saddlebags with the City’s hospital emblem on the side. The Earth ponies had three stretchers between each pair of them.
Spitfire stepped back as they moved in on the officers. She sighed once again as she thought about Cloudbuilder. Had she done the right thing? She was going to be right back at square one if this didn’t pay off. Her one source of information, gone.
Now she was back to hoping that she could get her hands on another pony from the resistance... it wasn’t a very strong hope. That was, of course, if Cloudbuilder didn’t pay off.
She shook her head and took to the air as the two officers were carried off. There were things to do. First off, a gryphon with a little too much information in her claws.
Written with Sasha Nein and Tricondon.
04:07pm, July 14th, 1st day after the bombing.
Spitfire stood outside the door to the room that held Cloudbuilder. She wanted to be furious with him, but she hesitated behind the door. Being furious hadn’t worked before, why would it now? There had to be something else she could say, or do, that would get the results she wanted.
But, she hesitated, the plan coming to fruition in her mind had so much potential. Yet, at the same time, far too much room for error. Was it worth the risk? What exactly was she trying to accomplish? Did she know enough about Cloudbuilder to assume?
Spitfire did know that, after interrogating Mirror, the fire bombings were getting out of control. It was becoming painfully aware that nopony in the RPD, or possibly all of Equestria, knew how to handle guerilla tactics of any kind. Even she had a hard time trying to figure out where they would strike next.
It wasn’t until two hours before they realized they were targeting the weather stations, effectively cutting down on the effectiveness of the fire crews and threatening the safety of Raavalon’s weather systems. Thankfully, her hurried scrambling of officers to the few remaining stations had stymied any further attacks... for now.
However, the damage had been done. Spitfire now realized the full danger a few pegasi could cause. It wasn’t going to be very long before they started finding new targets and she had no way of stopping them. She had to think of something, and fast; so she did.
Now, she was standing outside Cloudbuilder’s door. It was time to make, or break it. She had two options, and she had opted for the riskier, yet potentially more rewarding choice. It would take a little to pull it off though... But, being Spitfire, she was confident in her abilities.
Spitfire took a calming breath, checking her saddlebags. Yep, everything was there, all the evidence she would need. With another breath, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The room was a pale grey, fairly older than the room she had interrogated Mirror within. There was a simple table in the middle of the room with three chairs. The two nearest the door were empty, Cloudbuilder sitting facing her. Or, at least, he would have been facing her, but it seemed the long wait was getting the better of him and his attention was clearly waning.
Cloudbuilder had his head on the table in front of him. He’d been waiting in this room for several hours now. Combined with the very little sleep he’d gotten the night before, and all he wanted to do was rest his head.
His muzzle was turned to the side, his cheek resting on the cool, metal table. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself laying on a cloud, soaking up Celestia’s sun. Even the sound of the door opening and closing didn’t rouse him, though he did acknowledge the sound.
With a harsh, grating noise, one of the chairs across from him was pulled out from the table. There was rustling, and a bang as something dropped on the table, but he just snuggled deeper into his mind, content to ignore anything that didn’t require his attention. If one of the guards who’d been posted at the door decided to sit down, who was he to judge? Or care...
A voice, tired and haggard, but still strong, interrupted his reverie. “Hello Cloudbuilder.”
“Mmph,” came his response. Unless the voice identified itself, there was no point in lifting his head off the table.
“The death count has risen to about a hundred,” the voice continued. “Wounded are still coming in and a few might not make it.” It had taken on a displeased tone now, a rather familiar disgruntledness now that he thought about it.
“Ugh, Spitfire?” he asked? If it really was her, at least she could have the decency to say so. After all, he had almost out-flown her.
“I am here to inform you that your trial will be held in two days. If you’re lucky, it’ll be five years at minimum. But I assure you, luck is not going to be at your side... I will.”
Cloudbuilder finally lifted his head from the table, seeing the familiar yellow mare seated across from him. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“I means I’m going to lock you up, Cloudbuilder. And unless you give me what I want, I’m going to make sure you spend at least ten years in a cold, dark cell,” she said, her tone as brazen as her eyes.
“And what, precisely, is it you want?” His own eyes narrowed, matching her stare.
“I think you know well enough,” Spitfire responded coolly.
He laughed, the sound echoing in the small room. “You seriously think you’re going to get me to spill my guts about the resistance by sitting there and threatening me? And here I thought you actually had some brains, Spitfire.”
Spitfire shrugged. “No, I didn’t really expect more than petty insults. But I had hoped.” Spitfire made to get up. “I’ll see you in court Cloudbuilder... Maybe someone will remember you when you get out of prison, because I sure as hell won’t.”
“Wait a second. You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re actually going to toss me in jail.” He slammed his hooves on the table, causing the guard near the door to flinch. “Even still, you’ll never get anything out of me. I’ll rot in prison, first.”
“Fine. Goodbye,” Spitfire said, making for the door.
“Wait,” he said. When Spitfire stopped walking, he continued. “What is it you want?”
“I want to stop the killing, Cloudbuilder.”
“And you think I can help you with that.” It wasn’t a question. Spitfire wouldn’t even be talking with him unless she thought that.
“Yes.”
He laughed. “And how, might I ask, do you expect me to do that? If you want names, I have none. If you want plans, I don’t know any.”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Cloudbuilder.” Spitfire deadpanned. “You found them once, you could do it again. You’ve been privy to plans, faces, voices. With the success you had in that first firebombing, you are sure to be welcomed back into the ranks. It wouldn’t take much for you to take me to them, get me where I can’t go on my own.”
“Even assuming I’d do such a thing, you’d stand out.” He looked her over, taking in her yellow coat and orange mane.
“Everypony knows who you are.”
Spitfire stepped back to the desk. “Let me clarify. All I need are locations. It doesn’t matter whether I stick out or not to the ponies I’m arresting.”
He fixed her with a deadpan stare. “And you want me to help you.” Leaning back in his chair, he smirked at her. “You know, for something like that, betraying my fellow pegasi and all, there’s a price. I just wonder if you can afford it.”
“I doubt it,” Spitfire said, turning back towards the door.
“Well then, it would seem we’re at an impasse. You want what I can get, but you can’t afford it.” His smirk turned into a smug smile. “It would seem like you have no choice but to let me go.”
Spitfire reached the door. “I hope your mother has a nice picture of you. They don’t allow many visitors down at the prison.”
Still leaning back in his chair, Cloudbuilder responded. “I know what you want, Spitfire. You want everything to stop. You want this city to go back as it was.” He leaned forward again. “But it can’t. Nothing will ever be as it was. Even if I get you what you want, you should know something.”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “Not even I had any idea of what was going to happen yesterday. I was only told to look out for a signal, and that we couldn’t miss it.”
“That’s not going to win you any special treatment with the judge, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Spitfire opened the door.
“Be sure to watch the news in your cell; wouldn’t want to miss out on any gloriously liberating actions your friends are taking.”
“Then I suppose this is farewell.” He rushed to finish his sentence before the door clanged shut. “I hope you enjoy the chaos that this town will become.”
The door closed behind her, leaving Cloudbuilder alone in the room, except for the one remaining guard. With a groan, he leaned forward, his muzzle once more resting on the table.
Somehow, Cloudbuilder had managed to fall asleep, despite being quite uncomfortable. So he was less than pleased to find himself being awoken by a sharp prodding in his side.
“Get up!” a rough voice commanded.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision. Standing over him was an armored guard, holding a set of hoofcuffs.
“What?” he asked.
“Alright lets go!” The guard shackled himself to Cloudbuilder and began leading him out of the room.
“Where are we going?”
“Spitfire has ordered you to the prison until your trial,” the guard said. “Maybe a taste of what’s to come will soften that tongue of yours.”
Before he could protest, Cloudbuilder was hauled out of the room, through the station, and onto the street. Outside, another guard was waiting for them.
“So, where’s the carriage?” Cloudbuilder asked.
The guard he was shackled to laughed. “There is no carriage. Spitfire thinks you could do with some exercise.” His grin turned ominous. “And I’m setting the pace.”
Without any further warning, the guard set off at the swift trot, the second guard falling in behind. Cloudbuilder had no choice but to run alongside the guard.
At first it wasn’t bad. Factory work kept him in decent shape. Soon, though, he was breathing hard and it was a struggle to pick up his hooves. Sweat was running down his body. The guard was barely even breathing hard, and showed no sign of slowing down.
Cloudbuilder contemplated just stopping, but the guard would probably just drag him along. No, somehow he needed to keep running. Though how the guard could maintain that pace while wearing his armor, he had no idea.
Along the route, pedestrians were forced to move aside, letting them through. Spitfire wanted him paraded through the streets. She wanted the ponies to know that she’d caught at least one pony yesterday. He was a puppet, being forced to dance for her.
The guard turned down a side street, one that was thankfully clear of other ponies. “Where the hell are we going?” Cloudbuilder asked through panting breaths.
“To the CityLine station.”
“You’re taking the worst possible route there. We can be there in minutes if you just take a right up ahead.”
The guard shook his head. “No can do. Spitfire herself gave us this route.”
“That stupid mare...” he muttered. Of course she would. She was probably back in her office, getting off on pulling him around like this.
From around a corner, a pegasus mare came dashing out. She had a panicked look on her face, and she was calling out a name. “Shooting Star, where are you? Come on honey, mommy’s looking for you.” Curiously, the mare was wearing a short skirt. Not entirely uncommon in Ravaalon.
She spotted the small procession and dashed over. “Oh thank the Princesses! You have to help me find my little filly. I swear she was right beside me a second ago and now I can’t find her. You have to help me!”
“Ma’am, we’re escorting a dangerous prisoner. I’m afraid that we are unable to assist you at this moment,” the guard that Cloudbuilder was shackled to said.
Her panicked look grew even worse. “But you have to! My filly’s missing and she could be anywhere, or in the hooves of those rebels. Who knows what they could be doing to her.”
“Ma’am, I assure you that your filly is probably waiting for you back where you last saw her.”
She knelt to the ground. “Would you at least please come with me to check?” Her face went from panicked to pleading in an instant.
“I’m afraid that we can’t—”
He was cut off by the other guard, who up until now hadn’t spoken a word. “Oh come on Storm, she’s obviously upset. Let’s just go with her. I’m sure this one won’t be any trouble,” he growled at Cloudbuilder.
Cloudbuilder jangled the chain attaching him to the guard. “And how exactly am I supposed to cause trouble?”
“See?”
“Ugh, fine,” the guard said.
“Oh, thank you!” She tried to stand up, only to fall over again, a hoof pointing behind them. A look of fear etched on her face, she stammered out, “B-b-behind you!”
The two guards turned around, but Cloudbuilder kept watching the mare. As soon as the guards were distracted, she got to her hooves and in one smooth motion, turned around and launched a buck at the guard he was shackled to.
With a loud snap, his head jerked backwards, his eyes rolling up into their sockets. Without making a sound, he dropped to the ground.
The second guard turned around just in time to see the mare, a predatory grin on her face, launch herself at him. As she passed him, Cloudbuilder got a good look up the skirt she was wearing. “Pink...” he said aloud. She wrapped her forehooves around his neck, using her momentum to swing around so she was behind him, before pulling him over.
As soon as he was on the ground, she straddled him, delivering swift punches to his face. He tried to block, but she kicked him in the groin, causing Cloudbuilder to wince and the guard to drop his guard.
Several brutal strikes to the face later, and the second guard was out as well, blood leaking from his mouth and nostrils. A quick glance showed that both of them were still breathing, just unconscious.
The mare got off the guard and trotted over to the first guard, rifling through his pockets. She produced a key and tossed it to Cloudbuilder. “Unlock yourself, we’ve gotta move.”
He was still looking at the two guards that the mare had taken out in only a few seconds. His jaw was open. “What?” was all he could say.
The mare smiled at him. “What, you didn’t think we’d just leave you to rot in jail, did you?” She slung a hoof around his shoulders. “No, you’re one of us now. The bosses took notice of your successful firebombing yesterday. Now come on, get out of those shackles. We need to get out of here. The others can’t keep the civilians away for long.”
Fumbling with the key, he managed to unlock the hoofcuff. Shaking his hoof to work the blood flow back into it, he looked at the mare. “So, where are we going?”
She pointed from where she’d come from. “That way. But no flying, it’s too suspicious. The others will meet us back at the hideout. Guards are wary of any gatherings of pegasi.”
Throwing a wing around him, she pulled him close. Her demeanor changed almost instantly to that of a mare out on a date. “Now come on, sweetie. Time to go.”
She led him away from the two guards, just leaving them laying in the street. They turned down the alley she came out of, popping out onto another street, this one full of ponies.
Occasionally, she would lean into him and giggle like he’d said something funny. Twice her lips brushed his cheek. She was really getting into this act... Cloudbuilder wasn’t sure what to think. Part of him said that he should get in on the act as well, but another part of him was still in shock at the sudden turn of events.
In the last day, he’d witnessed a bombing, taken part in a firebombing, gotten into a fight with and arrested by Spitfire, interrogated, shackled and forced to run before crowds, and now rescued. His mind was having trouble processing everything.
Fortunately, they made it to the CityLine station without incident. The mare pulled out a coin purse and paid for two tickets.
“Come on, dear, we should get home.” Her look became one of hunger. “I’ve got a surprise for you when you get there.”
He shivered. It was all just an act, but he nearly believed her. “Uh, okay,” he said.
They entered the train and sat down, her leaning up against him. With a short whistle, the train left the station, taking the two of them wherever the mare wanted them to go.
Spitfire weaved among the buildings slightly behind the two officers escorting Cloudbuilder. She was, so far, only getting a sketchy view of their progress. Still, it was better than being spotted, with her colors, it was wise to take extra precautions.
They had been trotting for almost thirty minutes before they stopped to let Cloudbuilder rest. Spitfire quickly found a roof to land on and observe. She smiled smugly when she saw the pegasus gasping for air while the guards stood impassively. Officer training was no joke.
A minute later, a pegasus mare in a rather short skirt appeared out of an alley and made straight for the two guards. Spitfire held her breath and watched for the inevitable surround. She grabbed her small radio, already calling in medical ponies.
Unfortunately, it was the only way, with the least guards, that she could have plausibly gotten Cloudbuilder rescued unsuspiciously. She had wanted to use a carriage at first, but it would have taken more ponies, and inevitably more casualties. This way, hopefully, her guards could get away with only some minor bruising. However, Spitfire wasn’t counting on it, not after all the damages these pegasi had already pulled. Now she was praying that she wouldn’t have two dead guards for this stunt.
A griffon fluttered stealthily down to a rooftop closer to them. Strange, Spitfire hadn’t noticed anyone else following them... Of course, she hadn’t really been able to see anything anyway. For the moment the gryphon simply seemed content to stay out of sight, watching the ponies below intently. Was she there as back-up?
In her distraction, Spitfire almost missed the mare crouching down in front of the two stallions. As it was, she was only partially paying attention when the mare suddenly twisted and bucked one of her officers in the head.
Spitfire grimaced; in a matter of moments the mare had incapacitated both stallions and was unlocking Cloudbuilder. That was brutal. She had never seen anypony incapacitate another so quickly, and this mare had just done it to two. This mare was bad news, especially if she was working for the PRF.
Glancing across the rooftops towards the gryphon, she was surprised to her still standing there with her beak hanging open. Well, it seemed she wasn’t with the rescue team after all. So, then... What was she doing here, watching?
Before Spitfire could decide what to do, the gryphon softly glided to a closer roof. From her vantage point, Spitfire could tell the two pegasi on the ground had not seen the movement. The way the gryphon moved reminded Spitfire of a cat stalking its prey.
With a gasp she realized the gryphon was going to attack the two ponies on the ground! Spitfire launched herself silently from her position behind the two pegasi on the ground and dived for the gryphon, praying nobody turned around.
She landed with a soft thump behind the gryphon. However silent she intended to be apparently wasn’t enough; the gryphon abruptly spun in place, flaring out her wings and slashing at the air with one of her talons. Spitfire leapt back, momentarily caught off-guard. She hadn’t expected such a violent reaction from the gryphon, though she quickly recovered and stared down the large predator. There was a tense moment where neither of them moved, simply glaring at one another, before the gryphon gave a slight shake of her head and snarled.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she whispered. “You’re lucky I didn’t tear you to shreds. Now beat it, buzzard.” The gryphon gave a dismissive wave with her tail as she turned back towards the pegasi below.
Spitfire raised an eyebrow, but remained calm. “Says the gryphon looking to dive bomb a couple corpses.”
“Not with so many witnesses. Bad publicity if I’m found out,” the gryphon curtly replied. “Now, either you help me catch these two or fly off.”
“No.”
“I don’t give suggestions, wings.” The gryphon was creeping closer to the edge of the roof, her eyes trained on the two ponies below.
“I don’t take any from smartass gryphons,” Spitfire responded. “Now step away from the edge of the roof.”
“Or what?” She was at the edge and slowly spreading her wings, her beak curled up in a smug smile.
“Well, I’d probably tackle you. But, you might actually take off, in which case I’ll get in under you, drive the snot out of your gut and send you flying through one of the windows in this building,” Spitfire stated.
Surprisingly, the gryphon smirked, glancing at Spitfire. “Been a long time since I’ve had a decent mid-air fight, orange. You talk big, but can you deliver?”
Spitfire gave the gryphon a smirk of her own. “I would say: Take off and find out yourself. But I really don’t want anything interrupting those ponies down there.”
At the mention of the ponies below the gryphon looked back; her smile immediately morphed into a frown and she muttered something under her breath. While the word itself was unfamiliar to Spitfire, the tone and context made it easy to pin as a curse.
A flurry of thoughts flashed through Spitfire’s mind. The gryphon’s stance, her words, and now sudden interest in Spitfire herself, made her suddenly realize the gryphon probably thought she was involved with the PRF. She tensed, wondering if the gryphon was going to pounce at her. From what she knew already she wouldn’t put it past the snarky female.
Shockingly, the gryphon furled her wings and stepped back from the edge, seemingly regretfully, though her eyes belied her true feelings; there was still a predatory glare to them, a hardness that didn’t match her body language. She sat in front of Spitfire, rapping her talons on the roof — again, she appeared relaxed, but there was simply something off.
“Alright. Guess the bait’s on your claw, now.”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Well, that was surprisingly easy. The name’s Spitfire.” She offered a hoof.
There was a moment’s hesitation from the gryphon. “Spitfire? As in, the Wonderbolts Spitfire?”
“The one and only,” Spitfire smirked, to which the gryphon returned her smile.
“Ha, would’ve loved to race you.” She took Spitfire’s hoof in her talon, giving a firm shake.
“I’m sure.” Spitfire glanced over the gryphons shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the ground. “So, mind telling me why you’re up here, getting ready to pounce on those ponies?”
“Saw two guards parading a pegasus around. Seemed suspicious, so I got curious. He got free, so I figured I’d help.” She paused for a few moments, lost in thought. “Although, minimal guard. Rescued by another pegasus. Now I’m thinking this was a setup.”
Spitfire gave her an appraising look. “You’re pretty quick. I’m not too keen on just anybody knowing that though...” She trailed off, then refocused on the gryphon. “You think you can take on that mare down there?”
The gryphon scoffed. “She’s easy. She relies on surprise tactics and misdirection.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. I wanted them to escape... You don’t think it was too easy do you?” Spitfire mused.
“I know I’d be suspicious, if only for the odd route they took. If the idea was just to parade the prisoner around I could understand, but they avoided many main roads. A lot of side-roads or simply areas without many witnesses.”
Spitfire furrowed her eyebrows. “How long were you following them? And why?”
It was clear that the gryphon wasn’t with the PRF, unless she was a goddess of an actor. But Spitfire was reasonably sure that wasn’t the case. If anything, it seemed this gryphon was just really nosy, maybe a little reckless.
“Since just after the mare was. And like I said, it looked suspicious.”
“So, you were just going to take matters into your own hoo-- claws... or what?”
The gryphon shrugged, an odd maneuver to say the least. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Rolling her eyes and giving an exasperated sigh, Spitfire carefully stepped to the edge of the building and peered over. The mare and Cloudbuilder were no longer in sight. She opened her wings and prepared to glide down to the downed officers. “Coming?” she asked, then took off without waiting for an answer.
There was a flutter of wings, but the gryphon never showed. Spitfire turned in time to catch her flying off, quickly vanishing from sight, and it was only now that she belatedly realized she never caught the gryphon’s name. Sighing, she turned her attention to the downed guards. One was barely breathing... where were those medics?
“Hey, Red!”
The gryphon’s voice rang out from above, catching Spitfire off-guard for the second time. She cast her gaze upwards at the gryphon.
“You know, considering you wanted them to get away, I’d’ve figured you wanted to know where they’re headed.”
Spitfire shook her head. “No, that wasn’t the plan.”
“S’fine by me. Wasn’t planning on chasing after a train anyhow.”
She glanced up at the now moving cars pulling out of the CityLine. Then, back at the gryphon. “Hey, I’d like to see you back at the police station when I’m done here. I would like to ask you a few more things.”
“If this is about that incident with the poison joke and the cloud factory, I swear I had nothing to do with it,” the gryphon said quickly.
Spitfire snorted. “Get your ass over the station before you spill all your high school exploits to an officer.”
“And if I don’t?”
Rolling her eyes, Spitfire called back up,“Damn you’re almost as argumentative as Fleetfoot, you know that? Because I asked nicely. Or, if that’s not good enough: because I’m the friggen head of security in this city.”
The gryphon scoffed. “Don’t get your wings bent, Red. I’ll be there.” Without a moment’s pause the gryphon once again flew off.
There they were! Two unicorns and half a dozen earth ponies were galloping up the narrow street. The unicorns were wearing saddlebags with the City’s hospital emblem on the side. The Earth ponies had three stretchers between each pair of them.
Spitfire stepped back as they moved in on the officers. She sighed once again as she thought about Cloudbuilder. Had she done the right thing? She was going to be right back at square one if this didn’t pay off. Her one source of information, gone.
Now she was back to hoping that she could get her hands on another pony from the resistance... it wasn’t a very strong hope. That was, of course, if Cloudbuilder didn’t pay off.
She shook her head and took to the air as the two officers were carried off. There were things to do. First off, a gryphon with a little too much information in her claws.
Written with Sasha Nein and Tricondon.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:47 pm
Timestamp:
08:32 am, July 15th
Back in the cell Crescent started to grow bored. It had been too long since he had had to stay put with nothing to do and he started to get impatient. He had been trotting around in his confined space for well over an hour now with the thought of that he had told that Spitfire about why he'd stayed a little longer. He knew the princess wouldn't remember him anyway, he just wanted to see if she was the same as he remembered her. Thanks to a small moment of self-interest he was now stuck here until this whole thing cleared up, if it ever did.
He stopped walking and instead sat down on the bed now realizing he maybe wouldn't be able to save his father before it was too late. The thought of losing him too gave him a terrible feeling and sent a sting up his left hoof. He wasn't sure if he should check up on what was beneath the now faded bandages and he was going to consult his lucky coin, but it was in the sheath for his sword which they had taken away. Left with only his own decision he decided not to, it would just bring up bad memories and he didn't need that to occupy his mind now.
Hey cheer up, at least you're not lying squished under a slab of stone.
Oh no, he was starting to hear things now. Could he possibly so bored his brain started to make conversations with him? Why did it have to pick her voice of all things too? Why not his mother or any other he'd met?
Because this is the voice you memorize the most about, the voice said cheerful. Now, you are starting to get real homesick, aren't you? Can't blame ya, almost two years wandering around here to help your dad would start to nag on anyone
"Thanks, really what I needed right now on top of being trapped here, wanting to go home," he muttered to the voice. "I'll just keep a low profile till this whole thing goes over and then I'm off again."
Tsk, tsk, tsk, the voice said teasingly. You have really fallen Crescent, the one pony I knew would have taken matters into his own hooves. What happened to the one who helped his own rebellion back home?
"This is completely different," his muttering getting an irritated tone. "They've blown up the Town Hall to make their statement. We never went for the public, we only wanted to work out what does higher up was planning. These rebellions want freedom from the slum and are using mass murder and destruction as a signal."
Her voice went quiet for a while and he wondered if he'd driven it away. Then why not stand on the other side? she said as if it was the best idea ever. You seem to have made a good first impression on the captain her so why not join them and help out? Working alone will only leave you on bad term on both sides.
"Why should I care for what happens to this town? I just want to get out of here in one piece." He talked loud enough for someone outside might notice him.
There it is again, you not wanting to help out. Look, if you're gonna go around with a big razor sharpener without using it, you're going to grow a beard. Beside, you might get out of the city quicker too and it'll be just like old times, minus me and the other of course, but with new friends. He sat there for a minute and wondered about it until the voice got impatient. If not for any of those reasons, it would maybe help out the Princess.
"You already had me convinced, I just needed to think it over." He had to smile as he remembered her face when she used a trump card and he was already onboard with it.
Why you... well, at least I cheered you up. Now start working on a convincing way of talking yourself into helping, wouldn't be much good in convincing you if you can't speak for yourself.
It took him a couple of hours to come up with something he thought sounded good. It might not be the best, but it had the least contradictions as he could make out.
Her voice had stopped calling in his ears when he started planning the speech and he did feel a bit alone, but it might also have been him taking a dip into inanity than any voice from beyond the grave. The voice episode probably should be left out, an unstable swordspony would end up in more depressing surroundings than this.
“Meal!” A slot near the floor opened and a plate with food got shoved in. At least it held a little higher standard than soup from the soup kitchen.
“Hey there, guard, could you get me an appointment with the captain?”
“This isn’t a waiting room,” the guard yelled from outside. “You can make one when you get out of here if you ever do, she’s a very busy mare. If you got something to confess you got to wait.”
“Well, I guess we just gonna bite my time then.” He sat down on the bed with the dry vegetables and felt a lot better than earlier, at least he didn’t feel like trotting around in endless worry. With a smile he started to eat the somewhat decayed greens.
08:32 am, July 15th
Back in the cell Crescent started to grow bored. It had been too long since he had had to stay put with nothing to do and he started to get impatient. He had been trotting around in his confined space for well over an hour now with the thought of that he had told that Spitfire about why he'd stayed a little longer. He knew the princess wouldn't remember him anyway, he just wanted to see if she was the same as he remembered her. Thanks to a small moment of self-interest he was now stuck here until this whole thing cleared up, if it ever did.
He stopped walking and instead sat down on the bed now realizing he maybe wouldn't be able to save his father before it was too late. The thought of losing him too gave him a terrible feeling and sent a sting up his left hoof. He wasn't sure if he should check up on what was beneath the now faded bandages and he was going to consult his lucky coin, but it was in the sheath for his sword which they had taken away. Left with only his own decision he decided not to, it would just bring up bad memories and he didn't need that to occupy his mind now.
Hey cheer up, at least you're not lying squished under a slab of stone.
Oh no, he was starting to hear things now. Could he possibly so bored his brain started to make conversations with him? Why did it have to pick her voice of all things too? Why not his mother or any other he'd met?
Because this is the voice you memorize the most about, the voice said cheerful. Now, you are starting to get real homesick, aren't you? Can't blame ya, almost two years wandering around here to help your dad would start to nag on anyone
"Thanks, really what I needed right now on top of being trapped here, wanting to go home," he muttered to the voice. "I'll just keep a low profile till this whole thing goes over and then I'm off again."
Tsk, tsk, tsk, the voice said teasingly. You have really fallen Crescent, the one pony I knew would have taken matters into his own hooves. What happened to the one who helped his own rebellion back home?
"This is completely different," his muttering getting an irritated tone. "They've blown up the Town Hall to make their statement. We never went for the public, we only wanted to work out what does higher up was planning. These rebellions want freedom from the slum and are using mass murder and destruction as a signal."
Her voice went quiet for a while and he wondered if he'd driven it away. Then why not stand on the other side? she said as if it was the best idea ever. You seem to have made a good first impression on the captain her so why not join them and help out? Working alone will only leave you on bad term on both sides.
"Why should I care for what happens to this town? I just want to get out of here in one piece." He talked loud enough for someone outside might notice him.
There it is again, you not wanting to help out. Look, if you're gonna go around with a big razor sharpener without using it, you're going to grow a beard. Beside, you might get out of the city quicker too and it'll be just like old times, minus me and the other of course, but with new friends. He sat there for a minute and wondered about it until the voice got impatient. If not for any of those reasons, it would maybe help out the Princess.
"You already had me convinced, I just needed to think it over." He had to smile as he remembered her face when she used a trump card and he was already onboard with it.
Why you... well, at least I cheered you up. Now start working on a convincing way of talking yourself into helping, wouldn't be much good in convincing you if you can't speak for yourself.
It took him a couple of hours to come up with something he thought sounded good. It might not be the best, but it had the least contradictions as he could make out.
Her voice had stopped calling in his ears when he started planning the speech and he did feel a bit alone, but it might also have been him taking a dip into inanity than any voice from beyond the grave. The voice episode probably should be left out, an unstable swordspony would end up in more depressing surroundings than this.
“Meal!” A slot near the floor opened and a plate with food got shoved in. At least it held a little higher standard than soup from the soup kitchen.
“Hey there, guard, could you get me an appointment with the captain?”
“This isn’t a waiting room,” the guard yelled from outside. “You can make one when you get out of here if you ever do, she’s a very busy mare. If you got something to confess you got to wait.”
“Well, I guess we just gonna bite my time then.” He sat down on the bed with the dry vegetables and felt a lot better than earlier, at least he didn’t feel like trotting around in endless worry. With a smile he started to eat the somewhat decayed greens.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:08 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:47 pm
11:34 AM, July 15th, Second Day after the bombing
Mirror considered the room. OK, it was kinda' weird, but it wasn't really her fault per se. It was just soooo boooorrrrrrriiiiinnnnng here! There was literally nothing to do but polish stuff, and even than only because they were so short on pegasi guards that nopony had thought to take away her cloudstuff. She'd slept all the sleep she could stand, and dreams hadn't even availed her of much. They were all either really boring or... disturbingly on fire, and ponies kept yelling at her some nonsense about choosing sides. It was like her subconscious was trying to tell her something, but that was silly, hay, they didn't even resort to that in writing unless it was to set up some really overblown plot development.
She'd started by polishing the mirror over the tiny basin that they called a sink. While she in no wise had her normal toolkit, she had a washcloth and enough clouds to at least touch it up to way better than anything the city'd ever have sprung for. But... she was used to making the really high end stuff, so settling for the limitations of the materials she had at hoof just sat wrong. Plus, all that junk about feeling powerless or whatever. Sure.
So... she'd gone on to put a sheen on every metallic surface in the room, and even started working on individual bricks in the wall. Those were waaaay harder to work with, and that turned out to be a good thing, took hours just to get a reflection of them, let alone coherence. The problem was that she was starting to accumulate a fair pile of stone dust. Some of it she'd managed to incorporate into her rough cloud, but there was only so much fine particulate matter you could get a cloud of a given size to absorb. She didn't want to just flush it all down the toilet, that seemed like a good way to get in trouble, especially if it clogged the pipes... not having working plumbing just didn't bear thinking about. So she'd just started collecting it in one corner.
The one thing that was kinda' ok about the whole thing was that none of the guards quite knew what to make of it. They were too distracted by shiny bricks to really worry about the pile of rock dust yet, and she'd started hiding all but the bit of cloudstuff she was using at any given time... 'cause ... well, she wasn't quite sure why, but that was what prisoners did, wasn't it? Hide tools and junk? She hoped she didn't need to start trading cigarettes. She hated cigarettes, they smelled bad, and they left a patina on stuff that was difficult to get off. Sure, it might look slighly shiny on its own, but it dulled actual reflective surfaces like nopony's business...
Shine blinked, realizing she'd just wasted nearly ten minutes contemplating polishing bricks. Then she remembered that she had nothing better to do and shrugged. Mane, this place was booooooorrrrrrriiiiinnnng! Whelp, time to shine another brick...
Mirror considered the room. OK, it was kinda' weird, but it wasn't really her fault per se. It was just soooo boooorrrrrrriiiiinnnnng here! There was literally nothing to do but polish stuff, and even than only because they were so short on pegasi guards that nopony had thought to take away her cloudstuff. She'd slept all the sleep she could stand, and dreams hadn't even availed her of much. They were all either really boring or... disturbingly on fire, and ponies kept yelling at her some nonsense about choosing sides. It was like her subconscious was trying to tell her something, but that was silly, hay, they didn't even resort to that in writing unless it was to set up some really overblown plot development.
She'd started by polishing the mirror over the tiny basin that they called a sink. While she in no wise had her normal toolkit, she had a washcloth and enough clouds to at least touch it up to way better than anything the city'd ever have sprung for. But... she was used to making the really high end stuff, so settling for the limitations of the materials she had at hoof just sat wrong. Plus, all that junk about feeling powerless or whatever. Sure.
So... she'd gone on to put a sheen on every metallic surface in the room, and even started working on individual bricks in the wall. Those were waaaay harder to work with, and that turned out to be a good thing, took hours just to get a reflection of them, let alone coherence. The problem was that she was starting to accumulate a fair pile of stone dust. Some of it she'd managed to incorporate into her rough cloud, but there was only so much fine particulate matter you could get a cloud of a given size to absorb. She didn't want to just flush it all down the toilet, that seemed like a good way to get in trouble, especially if it clogged the pipes... not having working plumbing just didn't bear thinking about. So she'd just started collecting it in one corner.
The one thing that was kinda' ok about the whole thing was that none of the guards quite knew what to make of it. They were too distracted by shiny bricks to really worry about the pile of rock dust yet, and she'd started hiding all but the bit of cloudstuff she was using at any given time... 'cause ... well, she wasn't quite sure why, but that was what prisoners did, wasn't it? Hide tools and junk? She hoped she didn't need to start trading cigarettes. She hated cigarettes, they smelled bad, and they left a patina on stuff that was difficult to get off. Sure, it might look slighly shiny on its own, but it dulled actual reflective surfaces like nopony's business...
Shine blinked, realizing she'd just wasted nearly ten minutes contemplating polishing bricks. Then she remembered that she had nothing better to do and shrugged. Mane, this place was booooooorrrrrrriiiiinnnng! Whelp, time to shine another brick...
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:48 pm
Timestamp:
07:20 pm, July 14th, 1st day after the bombing.
Gem looked up at the building with a sense of trepidation; it seemed as normal as any other on this block, save for the simple sign denoting it as the guard headquarters. It wasn’t as if the insides of the building were wholly unknown to her either, thanks to more than a few trips to the drunk tank, though this would be the first time she’d be a willing entrant. Gem shook her head and clacked her beak in annoyance as she plodded inside, ashamed of her own misgivings.
A few heads turned as she walked in, but she ignored them and walked up to a guard who looked like he was one of the higher-ranked ponies.
“Hey, flat-, er, hey officer. Which way to Spitfire’s?”
The guard regarded the gryphon with a calm sort of indifference, eying her up and down. She felt rather like a piece of meat being eyed by a hungry dragon. He seemed to inspect her for far longer than felt necessary before motioning with his head. “Up th’ stairs, turn left, end of the hall.” Gem nodded, giving a half-smile as she quickly scampered up the stairs.
Scampered wasn’t the right term, though; the buildings were built for pony anatomy. While gryphons weren’t much bigger,
it still caused troubles at times such as this, when two individuals were trying to pass in tight quarters. That didn’t even call into question her dislike of being indoors; gryphons were designed to be outside, beneath the sun, able to take flight on a moment’s notice. Gem had to keep mentally reminding herself to keep her wings furled.
It was easy enough to find Spitfire’s office; it was the one door everypony seemed to be consciously avoiding. Gem boldly strode towards it and rapped on the glass.
She peeked into the room to see a receptionist... or secretary... whatever they were called, staring back at her. Forcing herself not to roll her eyes, she opened the door and entered.
“May I help you?” The mare asked.
“Yeah. Spitfire around?” Gem asked.
“She’s in her office.” The mare raised an eyebrow. “Do you have an appointment?”
“Na, she asked me to come herself.”
The mare sighed, but got up and moved towards another door behind which Gem could see Spitfire sitting at a desk, her head in her hooves. She opened the door and said, “Spitfire, there is a gryphon here to see you.”
Spitfire looked up quickly. “Oh, uh, send her in, please.”
The mare turned back and opened the door wide for Gem, who quickly walked in, shutting the door behind her. “Alright, so. I’m here.”
“I’ve been looking through the file we have on you, Gem.” She paused, flipping through the pages. “Needless to say, you’ve got quite a few petty convictions on record.” She closed the folder on her desk. “Been having a hard time getting a job?”
“Not a lot of jobs for gryphons in this town. Gives me a lot of free time, though,” Gem responded coolly, her face curiously blank, making it tough for Spitfire to get a read on her.
“Gem, I’ll be frank. I don’t know you, and that makes me worried about that information you have. Only I and a handful of officers that I trust know what I just pulled out there.” Spitfire pushed her chair back and glanced out her window. “Hell, for all I know you’ve already told the PRF what I’ve done.”
“I might have. Info like that would be worth something.” She paused a moment. “Hard to sell it, though. You don’t last long being known as an information dealer for talking too loud, and I’m not quite foolish enough to burst into the PRF headquarters and demand they listen.” She paused again, clacking her beak. “Still, the fact that you want to know means the info means something to you. So what are you planning to offer me to keep my beak shut?”
“I want to offer you a job.”
Whatever retort Gem may have had died in her mouth, her beak hanging open dumbfoundedly, showing the first recognizable emotion to Spitfire.
“Obviously, it’s not a job as an officer. I can’t do that, not with your record. But, I can certainly offer you a similar job, one that would allow you to do what you do best.” Spitfire was silent for a moment, but spoke again as Gem opened her beak.
“At least, keep doing what I saw you do.”
“I can guarantee insurances for anybody close to you if you want.” Spitfire continued. “Safety, or tickets out if you wish. I can also offer respectable pay directly from the information you bring in, or from jobs I assign. We can go over those details later. But, more than enough to get by comfortably on... Probably equal about what another gryphon would make in a specialized field here in the city.
“You would basically be working like a freelance, but with a specific focus and reporting directly to me.” Spitfire paused, taking a deep breath. “I can’t say now what all of this would entail, but I cannot condone the use of lethal force and will not ask you to take the life of another.”
The gryphon just sat there for a long while, clacking her beak and ruffling her feathers, mulling the information over. “Alright. Sounds good to me.” She seemed to think for a moment longer before continuing, “Though, I shouldn’t come here any longer unless I’m being arrested again. Not many gryphons on the force, after all. Folks might get to talkin’ and you’ll lose your info flow.”
Spitfire nodded. “Naturally. You will also be allowed access to any equipment you wish... Within reason.”
Gem nodded in return. “You got a method of keeping in touch with me?”
“I... Honestly I didn’t think you would accept that easily,” Spitfire chuckled, scratching her mane. “I’m afraid I haven’t thought much beyond convincing you.”
“Well, you could always drop by my place until you think of something better.”
Spitfire tapped a hoof to her chin. “‘Kay, sounds good. You’ll be hearing from me soon then.”
Gem turned to leave, but hesitated. “How do you know where I even live?”
Tapping the folder Spitfire smiled. “We know quite a bit about you Gem. Multiple accounts of misbehavior tend to get you on the watch list. Everybody has to register with one governmental office or another, and we have access to those documents.” Was she seeing things, or did Gem actually appear afraid for a moment?
“Fine, makes sense. Be seein’ ya, officer.” Without another word Gem swiftly left, the door swinging shut behind her.
Written with Sasha
07:20 pm, July 14th, 1st day after the bombing.
Gem looked up at the building with a sense of trepidation; it seemed as normal as any other on this block, save for the simple sign denoting it as the guard headquarters. It wasn’t as if the insides of the building were wholly unknown to her either, thanks to more than a few trips to the drunk tank, though this would be the first time she’d be a willing entrant. Gem shook her head and clacked her beak in annoyance as she plodded inside, ashamed of her own misgivings.
A few heads turned as she walked in, but she ignored them and walked up to a guard who looked like he was one of the higher-ranked ponies.
“Hey, flat-, er, hey officer. Which way to Spitfire’s?”
The guard regarded the gryphon with a calm sort of indifference, eying her up and down. She felt rather like a piece of meat being eyed by a hungry dragon. He seemed to inspect her for far longer than felt necessary before motioning with his head. “Up th’ stairs, turn left, end of the hall.” Gem nodded, giving a half-smile as she quickly scampered up the stairs.
Scampered wasn’t the right term, though; the buildings were built for pony anatomy. While gryphons weren’t much bigger,
it still caused troubles at times such as this, when two individuals were trying to pass in tight quarters. That didn’t even call into question her dislike of being indoors; gryphons were designed to be outside, beneath the sun, able to take flight on a moment’s notice. Gem had to keep mentally reminding herself to keep her wings furled.
It was easy enough to find Spitfire’s office; it was the one door everypony seemed to be consciously avoiding. Gem boldly strode towards it and rapped on the glass.
She peeked into the room to see a receptionist... or secretary... whatever they were called, staring back at her. Forcing herself not to roll her eyes, she opened the door and entered.
“May I help you?” The mare asked.
“Yeah. Spitfire around?” Gem asked.
“She’s in her office.” The mare raised an eyebrow. “Do you have an appointment?”
“Na, she asked me to come herself.”
The mare sighed, but got up and moved towards another door behind which Gem could see Spitfire sitting at a desk, her head in her hooves. She opened the door and said, “Spitfire, there is a gryphon here to see you.”
Spitfire looked up quickly. “Oh, uh, send her in, please.”
The mare turned back and opened the door wide for Gem, who quickly walked in, shutting the door behind her. “Alright, so. I’m here.”
“I’ve been looking through the file we have on you, Gem.” She paused, flipping through the pages. “Needless to say, you’ve got quite a few petty convictions on record.” She closed the folder on her desk. “Been having a hard time getting a job?”
“Not a lot of jobs for gryphons in this town. Gives me a lot of free time, though,” Gem responded coolly, her face curiously blank, making it tough for Spitfire to get a read on her.
“Gem, I’ll be frank. I don’t know you, and that makes me worried about that information you have. Only I and a handful of officers that I trust know what I just pulled out there.” Spitfire pushed her chair back and glanced out her window. “Hell, for all I know you’ve already told the PRF what I’ve done.”
“I might have. Info like that would be worth something.” She paused a moment. “Hard to sell it, though. You don’t last long being known as an information dealer for talking too loud, and I’m not quite foolish enough to burst into the PRF headquarters and demand they listen.” She paused again, clacking her beak. “Still, the fact that you want to know means the info means something to you. So what are you planning to offer me to keep my beak shut?”
“I want to offer you a job.”
Whatever retort Gem may have had died in her mouth, her beak hanging open dumbfoundedly, showing the first recognizable emotion to Spitfire.
“Obviously, it’s not a job as an officer. I can’t do that, not with your record. But, I can certainly offer you a similar job, one that would allow you to do what you do best.” Spitfire was silent for a moment, but spoke again as Gem opened her beak.
“At least, keep doing what I saw you do.”
“I can guarantee insurances for anybody close to you if you want.” Spitfire continued. “Safety, or tickets out if you wish. I can also offer respectable pay directly from the information you bring in, or from jobs I assign. We can go over those details later. But, more than enough to get by comfortably on... Probably equal about what another gryphon would make in a specialized field here in the city.
“You would basically be working like a freelance, but with a specific focus and reporting directly to me.” Spitfire paused, taking a deep breath. “I can’t say now what all of this would entail, but I cannot condone the use of lethal force and will not ask you to take the life of another.”
The gryphon just sat there for a long while, clacking her beak and ruffling her feathers, mulling the information over. “Alright. Sounds good to me.” She seemed to think for a moment longer before continuing, “Though, I shouldn’t come here any longer unless I’m being arrested again. Not many gryphons on the force, after all. Folks might get to talkin’ and you’ll lose your info flow.”
Spitfire nodded. “Naturally. You will also be allowed access to any equipment you wish... Within reason.”
Gem nodded in return. “You got a method of keeping in touch with me?”
“I... Honestly I didn’t think you would accept that easily,” Spitfire chuckled, scratching her mane. “I’m afraid I haven’t thought much beyond convincing you.”
“Well, you could always drop by my place until you think of something better.”
Spitfire tapped a hoof to her chin. “‘Kay, sounds good. You’ll be hearing from me soon then.”
Gem turned to leave, but hesitated. “How do you know where I even live?”
Tapping the folder Spitfire smiled. “We know quite a bit about you Gem. Multiple accounts of misbehavior tend to get you on the watch list. Everybody has to register with one governmental office or another, and we have access to those documents.” Was she seeing things, or did Gem actually appear afraid for a moment?
“Fine, makes sense. Be seein’ ya, officer.” Without another word Gem swiftly left, the door swinging shut behind her.
Written with Sasha
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:49 pm
11:57 AM, July 15th, Two Days After the Bombing
"Gahhh!" the guard screamed, upon swinging the door open.
Not wanting the poor pony to feel left out, Mirror screamed as well, "Waugh!"
The guard had brought a lamp, expecting a dark room, like every other cell on this side of the hallway. He had not brought eyeshades in case the room somehow reflected back all the light he shone into it, nor had he brought goggles or a breathing mask in case the lunatic prisoner had managed to produce an unspeakably large pile of dust that was just waiting for the cell door to be opened with a good breeze. Choking and wheezing, Cellar Door desperately reached for his alarm whistle. These damn pegasi had weapons and tricks hidden everywhere!
Mirror stumbled out of the room, wings filtering her face from the worst of the impromptu dust storm, but no all of it.
"Guah, can't you knock first!?" Her mouth tasted like rock, which was sourer than she'd expected. A metal tube rolled up against her forehoof. It looked like a really heavy whistle, and the poor guard seemed to be looking for something 'hey… I wonder if he dropped this...' she turned the brass device over and over, frowning at the poor care that had been taken of it. Ultimately she decided it wasn't really her business what Ravaalon's finest did with their whistles… and she was suddenly extremely glad that Fresnel, the light technician, was neither present nor capable of reading her thoughts.
Wanting to be rid of the now dubious device, she tugged on the guard's shoulder, noting his name from his badge, "Um, Officer Door? I think you dropped your whistle?" she winced, unable to purge the unwanted mental images from her head.
"Geaughruh, *wheeze* hu-what?" involuntary tears streamed from clenched eyes and what was possibly a bit of snot ran from the abused feeling guard's nostrils.
"You dropped your thing, I think. Um, this." She pushed the end of it against his barrel, just above the collar line of his armored vest.
Cellar froze for a second, and then very slowly reached out, taking the flute in his hoof. With great care he wiped his eyes and blinked away the debris. He very carefully looked at the earnestly smiling pegasus who watched him. Well ingrained training, years of professional pride, and a healthy mixture of respect and fear for the Captain prevented him from choking the life out of the prisoner.
After a few more coughs he reached down, picked up his lamp, extinguished it, looked into the room – how did you even report a room as out of regulation, to sparkling? And closed the door. Once that was done he turned to face the prisoner. "Ahem, Mirror Shine? The Captain wishes to see you."
Mirror Shine lit up, Spitfire – Captain Spitfire – wanted to see her. She didn't realize she'd squee'd until she notice the guard wincing. "Heh, sorry. Um, yeah, totally." It was all she could do to keep from fluttering off the ground.
Officer Cellar Door groaned inwardly, yeah yeah, Captain Spitfire had been leader of the Wonderbolts and personally knew the Princess, but seriously, did every feathered fillyfooler in city limits have to have a crush on her? No, he was not jealous, they all tended to be nuts – maybe not as bad as this freak – but still, pegasus mares were just bad news.
Whatever, all he had to do was deliver her and get out of the way. Word was that O'Leary's had survived the last round of bombings and the owner was offering guard a free pint each to celebrate. Cellar could sure as hay use that after this little incident…
That was when he realized he had started walking. That the pegasus was guiding him with a wing on his back while she talked and talked and talked, about… well who in Celestia's mane knew what she was talking about, but he was not going to be caught letting a prisoner walk him around like a trained dog–
Captain Spitfire opened her door and saw the two of them. "Good, I was just about to go looking for…" the orange pegasus looked at her subordinate's uniform, "Cellar, why is your uniform so dirty?"
"Uh, well you see–"
"He opened the door before I was ready, seriously, don't you guys ever knock?" Mirror huffed, still annoyed about the whole thing, the swirling dust had given her momentary flashback of the fires two days ago. Not good time.
Spitfire leaned forward just a bit and focused on the guard, "You did what, exactly?" She remembered who the prisoner was and pinched her forehead, "no... forget it, just write out a report – and go put on a clean uniform first."
The Captain regarded her former prisoner, scratching her head. "Alright, you’re free to go. I'm sorry you had to spend time locked up like a criminal. But I promised you lunch once this was over and that’s what we’re going to do... Unless you would rather do it some other time?
"Nonono… today's fine, today is great." Mirror waved a hoof hurriedly, "Um, if you've got the time, that is…"
Spitfire chuckled, “I said I’d make time. I owe you.”
"Oh gosh, nopony is going to believe this."
“Would you like to go to someplace specific?” Spitfire asked, turning back to her paperwork.
"Well… I usually go to… no, that wouldn't be… huh." Mirror's mind ran in circles as she tried to find some impossible mixture of casual, upscale, affordable and classy. "What about...that one place next to the thing? The one with all the
gears? It was kinda north of central street but south of the piers."
“You’re talking about going all the way to the Docks.” Spitfire deadpanned.
The white pegasus scrunched her brow, "there's this place just on the inside of the industrial district that does a really good grilled daffodil sandwich, and they have a decent tomato soup, um how's that?" Mirror paused, considering what she'd just suggested, 'am I really suggesting a diner? That's the best thing I can come up with?'
With a quick shake of her head, Spitfire declined. “No that’s alright, the docks have plenty of places for good food. I don’t mind the extra flight time.”
"Oh! Great, I know a little family place that does the best Palomino dishes." Mirror glanced at the ace flyer, trying to decide if she dared ask somepony with the word 'fire' in their name whether they liked spicy food. "They make a great red curry sauce… or so I've been told," She usually opted for carrots and peas in a coconut sauce.
Spitfire rolled her eyes and humored Mirror with a smile. This mare was crazy loopy, but at least it was a refreshing change from the regular types she made random promises to.
“Alright, Mirror. I’m going to need a few minutes to finish up this work before we can ditch this joint.”
Mirror backed out of the room, nodding and grinning, and almost dumping the trash can on her way out.
The thing about aerosolized dust, aka 'clouds', was that it got everywhere. As soon as Spitfire excused herself to finish her paperwork or whatever it was PICs did, Mirror began trying to get as much of the remaining rock dust out of her coat as she could.
They'd given her back all of her belongings – not that she'd been carrying much on the day of the celebration… two sets of clothing with interchangeable vests, a skirt, two shades of blue fur dye… she couldn't remember why that had seemed like a good idea… a collapsable spyglass (fake, it wouldn't help you see anything at a distance, but it was much lighter than any of the real one's she'd ever tried), a copy of Random Walk's guide to Ravaalon, the latest Harry Trotter novel, a half-eaten scone, and a washcloth. She looked through the bag again, no, there was still not a comb.
She made do as well as she could with the washcloth. After her best effort she made the mistake of looking at the abused laundry item, and decided to simply dispose of it. After a few moment's consideration she tossed the scone as well, although she was never really sure when they were fresh to begin with. Ravaalon might be a melting pot of various cultures and ideas, but their bakeries weren't exactly legendary.
Mirror briefly considered looking through one of the desks to see if someone had left a comb or brush… but then she considered having to explain what she was doing when somepony would inevitably show up at just the wrong time. No, she'd spent enough time in… what did they call it? The Pokey? The mostly white pegasus frowned, that sounded about right, but it didn't really make any sense, jails were usually pretty square, weren't they? Maybe rectangular at a stretch, but there wasn't really– the Guard Captain exited her office and Mirror gladly abandoned speculations, trotting to catch up.
Spitfire had taken to the air and they had flown straight to the docks. It was the first time Mirror had ever gotten to fly between the hexes and over much of the city in one go before; it was a fantastic feeling, getting to fly with Spitfire. Even more so with the extra privileges granted the head officer.
Mirror grinned uncontrollably. Most ponies, as far as she knew, would have immediately started asking questions about Spitfire's achievements as a Wonderbolt. Literally every article she'd read about the team captain harked back to the '999 Pegasus 500: Wing Cup Race, which she won in the last five minutes of the competition. It was like the foals who went to cons and asked writers where they got their ideas from.
No, Mirror had a much better plan than that. Everypony wanted to ask about the victories and the dramatic finished, but life was what happened the other 90% of the time. Plus, ponies loved to complain. The trick was to keep listening long enough for them to remember something interesting. And ponies seemed to remember way more details about the stuff they didn't like. How'd you feel about winning? Uh, good, I guess. What about the time you almost won? It was a tuesday, the weather had been a little cloudier than… Mirror smirked smugly at her own cleverness, it was foal-proof.
She found her first opportunity as they waited to order, "What was the worst part of touring?"
“The cameras.” Spitfire grimaced.
"Do you think there's something else you'd have done, if you hadn't gotten into aerobatics?" Mirror asked as they collected their paper plates of steaming food, somehow comforting in its anonymity.
Spitfire scoffed. “That’s not a question I usually think of answers to. I think that I would have gotten into aerobatics sooner or later. That kinda makes any other career paths pointless to think about.”
"When Princess Luna returned… did anypony actually resign over it?", She'd been too young to really remember, but her parents assured her it had been a big deal. And that was when the Element Bearers had first show up...
“Nopony in the Wonderbolts,” Spitfire said proudly. “But that doesn’t include a number of governmental officials over in Manehattan.”
Mirror giggled, "You are feathering awesome." The words hung in a silent pause, Spitfire torn between rolling her eyes and laughing it off. "Sorry, I know that's not a question." Mirror concluded, sheepishly. "It just… I don't know, sometimes it feels like the age of legends came again, and … I missed it, because I was a kid. The stuff the Wonderbolts and Element Bearers did, in one ten-year span… it just boggles my mind."
“The Wonderbolts are still out there you know. They are still awesome.”
Mirror nodded, "Of, of course. And I still follow them, but… what kind of world ending monster in it's right mind is going to go up against a nation with four living godesses, the elements of harmony, the Crystal Empire – complete with an active Crystal Heart, a flying city that doesn't need clouds, AND the best flyers in the entire known world?"
“You sound like you want something bad to happen before you’ll be happy with the performance of the new Wonderbolts.” Sptifire frowned.
The white mare waved her forehooves. "No no no! That'd be terrible! But...” She paused. "Well, there's what's good for everypony, and then there's what's interesting. I didn't mind living in a quiet world, so long as I could take trips in my imagination. Isn't there a phrase in the Jade Empire about… may you live in interesting times? I think it's supposed to be a curse, or an ill wish, or something." Mirror sighed. "I never understood what they meant before, but…" she trailed off, glancing toward the city center.
“Riiight.” Spitfire nodded, but was clearly confused with her reasoning.
Mirror continued with her next question, rather than try to express the comfort of a mundane schedule to someone who had kicked dragons. "Where did the whole Soarin' likes pies thing come from?"
“I wondered when this would come up.” Spitfire chuckled. “Funny story that... Well, funny for us. It was something he grew up with and was ‘normal’. But we have kind of a main suite in Manhattan which is kind of our group headquarters. There is a full kitchen up there.” Spitfire stopped to snicker. “Nopony ever really used that kitchen. But when Soarin came along he had rifled through all the cabinets on his first day and almost came unglued at how poorly stocked everything was.
“Well, he immediately ran out into the city and went shopping. We were all there to meet him of course, at least, those that hadn’t met him already. Anyway, everypony just kind of shrugged it off, everypony has their own quirks right? We figured this was just one of his things; but it kinda got us wondering if he was much of a chef. Ha, we were not prepared. He came back with saddlebags chock full of ingredients I didn’t even know existed and he started making pie crust and filling on the spot.
“It’s not as crazy of an addiction as we all make it out to be. But, ever since that day we kinda tease him about it to where he makes a big deal out of loving pies even in public.”
The albino was silent for a moment as she worked up the nerve to follow through on her question. "And… w-what about, um…" oh Luna, she was blushing, wasn't she? "I've heard rumors that Sor- that he had a taste for.. uhhh, a, uhm, 'different' kind of pie?"
Spitfire stared at Mirror, showing no expression at all.
The white pegasus squirmed, "well, when I say um… 'pie' I mean the slang term for–"
"I know what it means." the orange mare crossed her forehooves, "why are you asking me?"
Mirror could feel sweat collecting on the back of her neck… "Well, that is… ok, look. At the theater, there's a few people on the crew who like to tell… y'know, dirty jokes. And mostly it's funny, but Fresnel Lens – he does the lighting – keeps making this dumb one about 'like Sorren eating pie'. It was maybe a little funny the first time, but he keeps using it, and it's getting dumb. So, I figured that since you worked with him for years, and I'm kinda' guessing you're friends that maybe he might have one time or another said something… maybe?" Her face felt like it was on fire and she wanted to sink through the floor.
The Captain of the City Watch raised an eyebrow, that was a new reason. Usually everypony just assumed that if Spitfire and Soarin' had known each other for years they must have slept together at least once. "It never came up." She enjoyed watching the younger pegasus squirm under the double entendre.
That was not what Mirror had expected, whatever she had been expecting. Time to move on, quickly, "Are there any members of your old team you wish had kept in touch?"
“Everypony,” Spitfire sighed. “Damn but Fleetfoot might drive me up a wall sometimes, or Rapidfire make me pull my mane out. But I miss them all, we were a great team. I’m just glad Soarin came to live here.” Spitfire paused, tapping her chin. “Heey, you should meet him sometime!”
She drew in a deep breath. This was always the risky part, but she had a near compulsion to find out, "Um, have you ever meet The Great and Powerful Trixie?"
“Who? I guess not.”
"Who is the most famous person you've had to turn down for the team… if you can talk about that kind of thing, I don't know anything about NDAs or that kind of thing."
“Princess Cadance.” Was all Spitfire said.
Mirror stared, open-mouthed. There was really nothing to say to that, though; she hurried on to her next question. "Uh, have you ever had a unicorn or earth pony try to join the team?"
Spitfire snorted. “Not really. There’s always ridiculous fanboys trying to sign up, but nothing for real.”
“Wow,” Mirror finally said. “Just ... wow. That was amazing, thank you. Do you have to go back immediately?”
Just as she finished speaking, their food arrived. Spitfire spoke as her plate was placed in front of her, “It would probably be wise. I’ve got a few errands to run and if there isn’t more paperwork when I get back, I’ll certainly be making some.”
"Yeah…" The minor thespian chased a few peas around her plate. "There's just all this stuff. I mean, how do you even start to make sense of it? One explosion, and then a bunch of fires, and then more explosions later?" The coconut sauce was good today, she noted. "I meam, I'm mott an ekfpurt," she swallowed rather than spray. "Sorry, but… doesn't it seem kinda', uh, dis-jointed? It's like there's more than one thing going on, that, or a plot by Gary Trotterson with a really big effects budget." The white mare held up her forehooves to the sky, "The Pegasus Brief."
“No...” Spitfire’s expression soured. “No, it’s the PRF, or whatever they’re calling themselves. They’ve been bombing all the weather buildings around the city, effectively removing the ability to get water around to all the fires.” She stared at a leaf of lettuce she had speared. “If they keep this up there won’t be a city left to takeover.”
Mirror swallowed a carrot with difficulty. "But that's insane!" she cried. "Isn't their big beef some nonsense about economics or something? If they blow everything up, there won't be any jobs. If they chase away the unicorns, how would they keep the city in the air? If they manage to get rid of the earth ponies, what'd they eat?" She rubbed her head, frowning at the pakorma. "I know ponies do dumb stuff when they're upset, but… this is like… a lot of work to go to that's gonna be at least as hard on them as anything they think they'll get outta' it!" Mirror stabbed a potato mercilessly. "Bad plot, would not watch again."
“Finally! And here I was beginning to think I was insane for thinking myself the only sane pony here!” Spitfire crowed.
The white pegasus nodded. "Sure, but if there's more crazy ponies than sane ones, what happens in the end?" The food still smelled really good, but she wasn't feeling as hungry. Which was dumb, why be afraid and hungry?
“I guess we’ll find out.” Spitfire responded dourly.
The remainder of the meal passed in silence. Mirror focused on getting just the right amount of sauce on each bite. There had to be some left for the last bite, but she didn’t want any left over. It was a delicate process, demanding her full attention at the rate she was downing her dish... It was just so good!
Eventually they were finished. Mirror Shine regarded Spitfire, who seemed just a little more equine after getting to talk to her, but none the worse for that. "Well, thanks. For everything." Goodbyes really stunk, they were either way too long and insincere, or too short and kinda depressing.
Standing up from her chair, Spitfire turned to Mirror. “It wasn’t the least I could do. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.”
Shine took that in, and tried to contain the idiot grin she felt forming, "Uh, yeah, I wouldn't have missed it for anything." It felt like she was forgetting something, one of those last minute questions you realize about twenty minutes too late and it bugs you for the rest of the week. She hated that.
Spitfire glanced around, clearly ready to leave, but she hesitated. “So, did you want an autograph or something to show off to your friends?”
Mirror did, she totally did. But it was tacky, wasn't it? Besides, she didn't really have anything that she could… no, no way… Almost of it's own will her right forehoof reached into her saddlebag and retrieved one of her shirts. "I… yeah. Could you, umm, sign this, maybe?"
“Awesome, I love doing t-shirts.” Spitfire grinned. “Here, lets see if the front desk has a marker.” She grabbed the t-shirt and tucked it under a wing.
They did indeed have a black marker at the counter, A slick sharpie. Spitfire expertly popped the cap off and laid the shirt down on the counter. She quickly began writingi her name in an embellished cursive. But once that was finished, she still did not stop. With ease born of practice, she continued to draw a quick sketch of her phoenix cutie mark.
Hoofing the shirt back to Mirror, she squished the cap back on and thanked the speechless cashier.
'I will never wash thi–' visions of brown stains and flies danced through the albino's head, "I will carefully treat this with a fixative and obsessively maintain it." She'd just spoken aloud, she could tell by everypony's reactions. "Um, I mean thank you, this is amazing. If there's ever anything I can do for you, just let me know. I may not have a lot of skills that are useful in the real world, but if you ever need a mirror that could be used for precise scientific research, just let me know."
“Relax, Mirror, you’ve been very calm and easy to talk to so far. Don’t ruin your streak so late in the show!” Spitfire laughed.
Mirror Shine saluted, grinning. Spitfire tactfully didn't point out that it was the wrong hoof, not done at attention, and inappropriate for their respective ranks. Instead she gave an official nod of her head then took off.
Written in collaboration with Sasha Nein, still at large.
"Gahhh!" the guard screamed, upon swinging the door open.
Not wanting the poor pony to feel left out, Mirror screamed as well, "Waugh!"
The guard had brought a lamp, expecting a dark room, like every other cell on this side of the hallway. He had not brought eyeshades in case the room somehow reflected back all the light he shone into it, nor had he brought goggles or a breathing mask in case the lunatic prisoner had managed to produce an unspeakably large pile of dust that was just waiting for the cell door to be opened with a good breeze. Choking and wheezing, Cellar Door desperately reached for his alarm whistle. These damn pegasi had weapons and tricks hidden everywhere!
Mirror stumbled out of the room, wings filtering her face from the worst of the impromptu dust storm, but no all of it.
"Guah, can't you knock first!?" Her mouth tasted like rock, which was sourer than she'd expected. A metal tube rolled up against her forehoof. It looked like a really heavy whistle, and the poor guard seemed to be looking for something 'hey… I wonder if he dropped this...' she turned the brass device over and over, frowning at the poor care that had been taken of it. Ultimately she decided it wasn't really her business what Ravaalon's finest did with their whistles… and she was suddenly extremely glad that Fresnel, the light technician, was neither present nor capable of reading her thoughts.
Wanting to be rid of the now dubious device, she tugged on the guard's shoulder, noting his name from his badge, "Um, Officer Door? I think you dropped your whistle?" she winced, unable to purge the unwanted mental images from her head.
"Geaughruh, *wheeze* hu-what?" involuntary tears streamed from clenched eyes and what was possibly a bit of snot ran from the abused feeling guard's nostrils.
"You dropped your thing, I think. Um, this." She pushed the end of it against his barrel, just above the collar line of his armored vest.
Cellar froze for a second, and then very slowly reached out, taking the flute in his hoof. With great care he wiped his eyes and blinked away the debris. He very carefully looked at the earnestly smiling pegasus who watched him. Well ingrained training, years of professional pride, and a healthy mixture of respect and fear for the Captain prevented him from choking the life out of the prisoner.
After a few more coughs he reached down, picked up his lamp, extinguished it, looked into the room – how did you even report a room as out of regulation, to sparkling? And closed the door. Once that was done he turned to face the prisoner. "Ahem, Mirror Shine? The Captain wishes to see you."
Mirror Shine lit up, Spitfire – Captain Spitfire – wanted to see her. She didn't realize she'd squee'd until she notice the guard wincing. "Heh, sorry. Um, yeah, totally." It was all she could do to keep from fluttering off the ground.
Officer Cellar Door groaned inwardly, yeah yeah, Captain Spitfire had been leader of the Wonderbolts and personally knew the Princess, but seriously, did every feathered fillyfooler in city limits have to have a crush on her? No, he was not jealous, they all tended to be nuts – maybe not as bad as this freak – but still, pegasus mares were just bad news.
Whatever, all he had to do was deliver her and get out of the way. Word was that O'Leary's had survived the last round of bombings and the owner was offering guard a free pint each to celebrate. Cellar could sure as hay use that after this little incident…
That was when he realized he had started walking. That the pegasus was guiding him with a wing on his back while she talked and talked and talked, about… well who in Celestia's mane knew what she was talking about, but he was not going to be caught letting a prisoner walk him around like a trained dog–
Captain Spitfire opened her door and saw the two of them. "Good, I was just about to go looking for…" the orange pegasus looked at her subordinate's uniform, "Cellar, why is your uniform so dirty?"
"Uh, well you see–"
"He opened the door before I was ready, seriously, don't you guys ever knock?" Mirror huffed, still annoyed about the whole thing, the swirling dust had given her momentary flashback of the fires two days ago. Not good time.
Spitfire leaned forward just a bit and focused on the guard, "You did what, exactly?" She remembered who the prisoner was and pinched her forehead, "no... forget it, just write out a report – and go put on a clean uniform first."
The Captain regarded her former prisoner, scratching her head. "Alright, you’re free to go. I'm sorry you had to spend time locked up like a criminal. But I promised you lunch once this was over and that’s what we’re going to do... Unless you would rather do it some other time?
"Nonono… today's fine, today is great." Mirror waved a hoof hurriedly, "Um, if you've got the time, that is…"
Spitfire chuckled, “I said I’d make time. I owe you.”
"Oh gosh, nopony is going to believe this."
“Would you like to go to someplace specific?” Spitfire asked, turning back to her paperwork.
"Well… I usually go to… no, that wouldn't be… huh." Mirror's mind ran in circles as she tried to find some impossible mixture of casual, upscale, affordable and classy. "What about...that one place next to the thing? The one with all the
gears? It was kinda north of central street but south of the piers."
“You’re talking about going all the way to the Docks.” Spitfire deadpanned.
The white pegasus scrunched her brow, "there's this place just on the inside of the industrial district that does a really good grilled daffodil sandwich, and they have a decent tomato soup, um how's that?" Mirror paused, considering what she'd just suggested, 'am I really suggesting a diner? That's the best thing I can come up with?'
With a quick shake of her head, Spitfire declined. “No that’s alright, the docks have plenty of places for good food. I don’t mind the extra flight time.”
"Oh! Great, I know a little family place that does the best Palomino dishes." Mirror glanced at the ace flyer, trying to decide if she dared ask somepony with the word 'fire' in their name whether they liked spicy food. "They make a great red curry sauce… or so I've been told," She usually opted for carrots and peas in a coconut sauce.
Spitfire rolled her eyes and humored Mirror with a smile. This mare was crazy loopy, but at least it was a refreshing change from the regular types she made random promises to.
“Alright, Mirror. I’m going to need a few minutes to finish up this work before we can ditch this joint.”
Mirror backed out of the room, nodding and grinning, and almost dumping the trash can on her way out.
The thing about aerosolized dust, aka 'clouds', was that it got everywhere. As soon as Spitfire excused herself to finish her paperwork or whatever it was PICs did, Mirror began trying to get as much of the remaining rock dust out of her coat as she could.
They'd given her back all of her belongings – not that she'd been carrying much on the day of the celebration… two sets of clothing with interchangeable vests, a skirt, two shades of blue fur dye… she couldn't remember why that had seemed like a good idea… a collapsable spyglass (fake, it wouldn't help you see anything at a distance, but it was much lighter than any of the real one's she'd ever tried), a copy of Random Walk's guide to Ravaalon, the latest Harry Trotter novel, a half-eaten scone, and a washcloth. She looked through the bag again, no, there was still not a comb.
She made do as well as she could with the washcloth. After her best effort she made the mistake of looking at the abused laundry item, and decided to simply dispose of it. After a few moment's consideration she tossed the scone as well, although she was never really sure when they were fresh to begin with. Ravaalon might be a melting pot of various cultures and ideas, but their bakeries weren't exactly legendary.
Mirror briefly considered looking through one of the desks to see if someone had left a comb or brush… but then she considered having to explain what she was doing when somepony would inevitably show up at just the wrong time. No, she'd spent enough time in… what did they call it? The Pokey? The mostly white pegasus frowned, that sounded about right, but it didn't really make any sense, jails were usually pretty square, weren't they? Maybe rectangular at a stretch, but there wasn't really– the Guard Captain exited her office and Mirror gladly abandoned speculations, trotting to catch up.
Spitfire had taken to the air and they had flown straight to the docks. It was the first time Mirror had ever gotten to fly between the hexes and over much of the city in one go before; it was a fantastic feeling, getting to fly with Spitfire. Even more so with the extra privileges granted the head officer.
Mirror grinned uncontrollably. Most ponies, as far as she knew, would have immediately started asking questions about Spitfire's achievements as a Wonderbolt. Literally every article she'd read about the team captain harked back to the '999 Pegasus 500: Wing Cup Race, which she won in the last five minutes of the competition. It was like the foals who went to cons and asked writers where they got their ideas from.
No, Mirror had a much better plan than that. Everypony wanted to ask about the victories and the dramatic finished, but life was what happened the other 90% of the time. Plus, ponies loved to complain. The trick was to keep listening long enough for them to remember something interesting. And ponies seemed to remember way more details about the stuff they didn't like. How'd you feel about winning? Uh, good, I guess. What about the time you almost won? It was a tuesday, the weather had been a little cloudier than… Mirror smirked smugly at her own cleverness, it was foal-proof.
She found her first opportunity as they waited to order, "What was the worst part of touring?"
“The cameras.” Spitfire grimaced.
"Do you think there's something else you'd have done, if you hadn't gotten into aerobatics?" Mirror asked as they collected their paper plates of steaming food, somehow comforting in its anonymity.
Spitfire scoffed. “That’s not a question I usually think of answers to. I think that I would have gotten into aerobatics sooner or later. That kinda makes any other career paths pointless to think about.”
"When Princess Luna returned… did anypony actually resign over it?", She'd been too young to really remember, but her parents assured her it had been a big deal. And that was when the Element Bearers had first show up...
“Nopony in the Wonderbolts,” Spitfire said proudly. “But that doesn’t include a number of governmental officials over in Manehattan.”
Mirror giggled, "You are feathering awesome." The words hung in a silent pause, Spitfire torn between rolling her eyes and laughing it off. "Sorry, I know that's not a question." Mirror concluded, sheepishly. "It just… I don't know, sometimes it feels like the age of legends came again, and … I missed it, because I was a kid. The stuff the Wonderbolts and Element Bearers did, in one ten-year span… it just boggles my mind."
“The Wonderbolts are still out there you know. They are still awesome.”
Mirror nodded, "Of, of course. And I still follow them, but… what kind of world ending monster in it's right mind is going to go up against a nation with four living godesses, the elements of harmony, the Crystal Empire – complete with an active Crystal Heart, a flying city that doesn't need clouds, AND the best flyers in the entire known world?"
“You sound like you want something bad to happen before you’ll be happy with the performance of the new Wonderbolts.” Sptifire frowned.
The white mare waved her forehooves. "No no no! That'd be terrible! But...” She paused. "Well, there's what's good for everypony, and then there's what's interesting. I didn't mind living in a quiet world, so long as I could take trips in my imagination. Isn't there a phrase in the Jade Empire about… may you live in interesting times? I think it's supposed to be a curse, or an ill wish, or something." Mirror sighed. "I never understood what they meant before, but…" she trailed off, glancing toward the city center.
“Riiight.” Spitfire nodded, but was clearly confused with her reasoning.
Mirror continued with her next question, rather than try to express the comfort of a mundane schedule to someone who had kicked dragons. "Where did the whole Soarin' likes pies thing come from?"
“I wondered when this would come up.” Spitfire chuckled. “Funny story that... Well, funny for us. It was something he grew up with and was ‘normal’. But we have kind of a main suite in Manhattan which is kind of our group headquarters. There is a full kitchen up there.” Spitfire stopped to snicker. “Nopony ever really used that kitchen. But when Soarin came along he had rifled through all the cabinets on his first day and almost came unglued at how poorly stocked everything was.
“Well, he immediately ran out into the city and went shopping. We were all there to meet him of course, at least, those that hadn’t met him already. Anyway, everypony just kind of shrugged it off, everypony has their own quirks right? We figured this was just one of his things; but it kinda got us wondering if he was much of a chef. Ha, we were not prepared. He came back with saddlebags chock full of ingredients I didn’t even know existed and he started making pie crust and filling on the spot.
“It’s not as crazy of an addiction as we all make it out to be. But, ever since that day we kinda tease him about it to where he makes a big deal out of loving pies even in public.”
The albino was silent for a moment as she worked up the nerve to follow through on her question. "And… w-what about, um…" oh Luna, she was blushing, wasn't she? "I've heard rumors that Sor- that he had a taste for.. uhhh, a, uhm, 'different' kind of pie?"
Spitfire stared at Mirror, showing no expression at all.
The white pegasus squirmed, "well, when I say um… 'pie' I mean the slang term for–"
"I know what it means." the orange mare crossed her forehooves, "why are you asking me?"
Mirror could feel sweat collecting on the back of her neck… "Well, that is… ok, look. At the theater, there's a few people on the crew who like to tell… y'know, dirty jokes. And mostly it's funny, but Fresnel Lens – he does the lighting – keeps making this dumb one about 'like Sorren eating pie'. It was maybe a little funny the first time, but he keeps using it, and it's getting dumb. So, I figured that since you worked with him for years, and I'm kinda' guessing you're friends that maybe he might have one time or another said something… maybe?" Her face felt like it was on fire and she wanted to sink through the floor.
The Captain of the City Watch raised an eyebrow, that was a new reason. Usually everypony just assumed that if Spitfire and Soarin' had known each other for years they must have slept together at least once. "It never came up." She enjoyed watching the younger pegasus squirm under the double entendre.
That was not what Mirror had expected, whatever she had been expecting. Time to move on, quickly, "Are there any members of your old team you wish had kept in touch?"
“Everypony,” Spitfire sighed. “Damn but Fleetfoot might drive me up a wall sometimes, or Rapidfire make me pull my mane out. But I miss them all, we were a great team. I’m just glad Soarin came to live here.” Spitfire paused, tapping her chin. “Heey, you should meet him sometime!”
She drew in a deep breath. This was always the risky part, but she had a near compulsion to find out, "Um, have you ever meet The Great and Powerful Trixie?"
“Who? I guess not.”
"Who is the most famous person you've had to turn down for the team… if you can talk about that kind of thing, I don't know anything about NDAs or that kind of thing."
“Princess Cadance.” Was all Spitfire said.
Mirror stared, open-mouthed. There was really nothing to say to that, though; she hurried on to her next question. "Uh, have you ever had a unicorn or earth pony try to join the team?"
Spitfire snorted. “Not really. There’s always ridiculous fanboys trying to sign up, but nothing for real.”
“Wow,” Mirror finally said. “Just ... wow. That was amazing, thank you. Do you have to go back immediately?”
Just as she finished speaking, their food arrived. Spitfire spoke as her plate was placed in front of her, “It would probably be wise. I’ve got a few errands to run and if there isn’t more paperwork when I get back, I’ll certainly be making some.”
"Yeah…" The minor thespian chased a few peas around her plate. "There's just all this stuff. I mean, how do you even start to make sense of it? One explosion, and then a bunch of fires, and then more explosions later?" The coconut sauce was good today, she noted. "I meam, I'm mott an ekfpurt," she swallowed rather than spray. "Sorry, but… doesn't it seem kinda', uh, dis-jointed? It's like there's more than one thing going on, that, or a plot by Gary Trotterson with a really big effects budget." The white mare held up her forehooves to the sky, "The Pegasus Brief."
“No...” Spitfire’s expression soured. “No, it’s the PRF, or whatever they’re calling themselves. They’ve been bombing all the weather buildings around the city, effectively removing the ability to get water around to all the fires.” She stared at a leaf of lettuce she had speared. “If they keep this up there won’t be a city left to takeover.”
Mirror swallowed a carrot with difficulty. "But that's insane!" she cried. "Isn't their big beef some nonsense about economics or something? If they blow everything up, there won't be any jobs. If they chase away the unicorns, how would they keep the city in the air? If they manage to get rid of the earth ponies, what'd they eat?" She rubbed her head, frowning at the pakorma. "I know ponies do dumb stuff when they're upset, but… this is like… a lot of work to go to that's gonna be at least as hard on them as anything they think they'll get outta' it!" Mirror stabbed a potato mercilessly. "Bad plot, would not watch again."
“Finally! And here I was beginning to think I was insane for thinking myself the only sane pony here!” Spitfire crowed.
The white pegasus nodded. "Sure, but if there's more crazy ponies than sane ones, what happens in the end?" The food still smelled really good, but she wasn't feeling as hungry. Which was dumb, why be afraid and hungry?
“I guess we’ll find out.” Spitfire responded dourly.
The remainder of the meal passed in silence. Mirror focused on getting just the right amount of sauce on each bite. There had to be some left for the last bite, but she didn’t want any left over. It was a delicate process, demanding her full attention at the rate she was downing her dish... It was just so good!
Eventually they were finished. Mirror Shine regarded Spitfire, who seemed just a little more equine after getting to talk to her, but none the worse for that. "Well, thanks. For everything." Goodbyes really stunk, they were either way too long and insincere, or too short and kinda depressing.
Standing up from her chair, Spitfire turned to Mirror. “It wasn’t the least I could do. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.”
Shine took that in, and tried to contain the idiot grin she felt forming, "Uh, yeah, I wouldn't have missed it for anything." It felt like she was forgetting something, one of those last minute questions you realize about twenty minutes too late and it bugs you for the rest of the week. She hated that.
Spitfire glanced around, clearly ready to leave, but she hesitated. “So, did you want an autograph or something to show off to your friends?”
Mirror did, she totally did. But it was tacky, wasn't it? Besides, she didn't really have anything that she could… no, no way… Almost of it's own will her right forehoof reached into her saddlebag and retrieved one of her shirts. "I… yeah. Could you, umm, sign this, maybe?"
“Awesome, I love doing t-shirts.” Spitfire grinned. “Here, lets see if the front desk has a marker.” She grabbed the t-shirt and tucked it under a wing.
They did indeed have a black marker at the counter, A slick sharpie. Spitfire expertly popped the cap off and laid the shirt down on the counter. She quickly began writingi her name in an embellished cursive. But once that was finished, she still did not stop. With ease born of practice, she continued to draw a quick sketch of her phoenix cutie mark.
Hoofing the shirt back to Mirror, she squished the cap back on and thanked the speechless cashier.
'I will never wash thi–' visions of brown stains and flies danced through the albino's head, "I will carefully treat this with a fixative and obsessively maintain it." She'd just spoken aloud, she could tell by everypony's reactions. "Um, I mean thank you, this is amazing. If there's ever anything I can do for you, just let me know. I may not have a lot of skills that are useful in the real world, but if you ever need a mirror that could be used for precise scientific research, just let me know."
“Relax, Mirror, you’ve been very calm and easy to talk to so far. Don’t ruin your streak so late in the show!” Spitfire laughed.
Mirror Shine saluted, grinning. Spitfire tactfully didn't point out that it was the wrong hoof, not done at attention, and inappropriate for their respective ranks. Instead she gave an official nod of her head then took off.
Written in collaboration with Sasha Nein, still at large.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
Re: The RP Itself
by DarkPhoenix Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:49 pm
02:14 pm, July 15th, Second Day after the Bombing
As the white pegasus stepped off the train, she considered the experiences of the last few days. She was already considering them a brief chapter in her life, something to be polished and refined into an anecdote and passed around at parties – her brief brush with adventure.
Right now she was going to check in at work, reassure her boss that Mirror would indeed be reporting to work tomorrow – praise the Sun for vacation hours, she wouldn't have to answer any awkward questions about the last few days.
The city was changing. For one thing the lingering smell of smoke hung like a pall over the town, she had a fancy that it might be possible to tell which way the wind was blowing by differences in what was burning in the various hexes. There was also an indefinable closed-ness to the faces of ponies passing by. Rav' hadn't exactly been the city of sibling love beforehoof, but the way that people glanced at each other – and especially at pegasi – spoke more of fear, suspicion, and hostility.
Mirror shook her head. The best thing she could do was keep her head down and count on the guard to sort everything out. That was what they were there for, and with Captain Spitfire leading – she let the thought drop when she started remembering how tired the orange pony had looked, how grim when thinking about the present.
The Tycho Reflectives employee signed in, checked her schedule, and wrote a quick note to her boss. It wasn't hard to notice the number of employees listed as 'sick' or 'family leave' ... which could mean anything from a foal with the sniffles to bereavement. That was unfortunate – for the ponies themselves of course, but it also meant that the ponies who were "ok" were going to have to make up the slack. But maybe that was a good thing, she could always use the extra pay, and Shine didn't exactly want to be spending a lot of time by herself right now.
timestamp
03:23 pm, July 15th
Mirror Shine arrived at her parent's apartment, out of breath and breathless at the same time. It had struck her, as she left the Tycho building, that she hadn't had a chance to check up on them while she was locked up. There was a nagging feeling that one of them was going to be hurt because Mirror had forgotten about them, and it made her sick for all that she knew it was irrational.
Nevertheless, she found herself banging on the door until her mother opened it, broom readied. "Awright alright, hold your horses whoever– Mirri?" The younger Shine embraced the elder, thoughts about how much she hated that nickname subsumed under relief. "It's ok, sweetie, we're both fine." The maternal pegasus eased a wing out to close the door behind them. "Lu! Tell your daughter you're alright, for Celestia's sake!"
"I'm fine. You ok, Kid? Nothing broken?" Mirror could hear her father groaning and cracking joints as he got up from his chair. Lucent Gleam had definitely passed his prime, and years of construction work had done him no favors.
The white pegasus finally began to relax, heading into the living room, "yeah, I'm ok, Pop."
"Oh no you're not, you're just covered in dirt! I raised you better than that, where have you been sleeping to get so dirty?" Bright Shine clucked her tongue in disapproval.
Mirror thought quickly, "Look, things have been crazy since the... the incident at the speech," She knew it was a mistake as soon as the words escaped her mouth.
"You were there!?" her mother shrieked.
"Uh, yeah. I TOLD you I was going, Ma."
"I heard they were rounding up every pegasus who was anywhere near the square. They didn't lock you up, did they?"
"No Ma, I've been huddled up at home for the last few days." Lying to her parents wasn't something she was proud of, but making them scared out of their wits seemed worse, in the long run.
"Well you came to see us when you could, and we're all going to sit down, as a family, to dinner."
"Ma, it's three-thirty in the afternoon. I've got–"
"Nothing else to do that is more important than assuring your parents, who spent the best years of their lives seeing to it that you'd live long enought to provide us with grandfoals that you are not starving yourself."
"Ok, ok... sheesh."
"And I'm not kidding, the sound of little hooves is what I'm holding on for, you've got a definite time limit here, Mirri."
Every time, every moon-damn time, "Ma! I'm not ready yet."
"Take the garbage out, and who says you get to plan these things?"
03:36 pm, July 15th, Two Days after The Bombing
Mirror chuckled, tossing the trash bags into the dumpster. Her mother could drive her to distraction, and she never. stopped. talking. If only there was some way to distra–
Out of the corner of the white pegasus's eye she saw a figure on the fire escape, using one of the paint dispensing cannisters to write letters on the wall. Something about "Down with Earth–
"HEY! What the Hay do you think you're doing!?" She cried, flapping up to give the vandal a piece of her mind. The pony in question seemed to have no intention of being seen, and leapt from the railing, opening their wings at the last second and flipping around the building's corner with practised speed the industrial pony couldn't hope to match.
Mirror sighed, looking at the crudely scrawled letters. She retrieved a rag and a bit of dingy cloudstuff and set to work trying to scrape the paint away before it set.
"Right there, Officers! That must be the hooligan, in the act!" An ancient looking earth pony was flanked by two burly members of Ravaalon's finest. "Why, I never – Mirror Shine, you out ta be ashamed of yourself! You're going to break your parents hearts, leading a life of crime!"
"Wait, you've got it all wrong! I- I tried to stop the pony who was writing this, and ... I was cleaning the wall off. Honest!"
The guards looked at each other. The unicorn addressed the pegasus, "Ma'am, you can plead your case down at the station, but I'm afraid we're going to need you to come with us. And we'll be confiscating your 'paint supplies' as well."
"But, but..." there was no way she was getting out of this, she could tell. "...fine." And thus Mirror Shine was arrested for the second time in her life, and in as many days.
As the white pegasus stepped off the train, she considered the experiences of the last few days. She was already considering them a brief chapter in her life, something to be polished and refined into an anecdote and passed around at parties – her brief brush with adventure.
Right now she was going to check in at work, reassure her boss that Mirror would indeed be reporting to work tomorrow – praise the Sun for vacation hours, she wouldn't have to answer any awkward questions about the last few days.
The city was changing. For one thing the lingering smell of smoke hung like a pall over the town, she had a fancy that it might be possible to tell which way the wind was blowing by differences in what was burning in the various hexes. There was also an indefinable closed-ness to the faces of ponies passing by. Rav' hadn't exactly been the city of sibling love beforehoof, but the way that people glanced at each other – and especially at pegasi – spoke more of fear, suspicion, and hostility.
Mirror shook her head. The best thing she could do was keep her head down and count on the guard to sort everything out. That was what they were there for, and with Captain Spitfire leading – she let the thought drop when she started remembering how tired the orange pony had looked, how grim when thinking about the present.
The Tycho Reflectives employee signed in, checked her schedule, and wrote a quick note to her boss. It wasn't hard to notice the number of employees listed as 'sick' or 'family leave' ... which could mean anything from a foal with the sniffles to bereavement. That was unfortunate – for the ponies themselves of course, but it also meant that the ponies who were "ok" were going to have to make up the slack. But maybe that was a good thing, she could always use the extra pay, and Shine didn't exactly want to be spending a lot of time by herself right now.
timestamp
03:23 pm, July 15th
Mirror Shine arrived at her parent's apartment, out of breath and breathless at the same time. It had struck her, as she left the Tycho building, that she hadn't had a chance to check up on them while she was locked up. There was a nagging feeling that one of them was going to be hurt because Mirror had forgotten about them, and it made her sick for all that she knew it was irrational.
Nevertheless, she found herself banging on the door until her mother opened it, broom readied. "Awright alright, hold your horses whoever– Mirri?" The younger Shine embraced the elder, thoughts about how much she hated that nickname subsumed under relief. "It's ok, sweetie, we're both fine." The maternal pegasus eased a wing out to close the door behind them. "Lu! Tell your daughter you're alright, for Celestia's sake!"
"I'm fine. You ok, Kid? Nothing broken?" Mirror could hear her father groaning and cracking joints as he got up from his chair. Lucent Gleam had definitely passed his prime, and years of construction work had done him no favors.
The white pegasus finally began to relax, heading into the living room, "yeah, I'm ok, Pop."
"Oh no you're not, you're just covered in dirt! I raised you better than that, where have you been sleeping to get so dirty?" Bright Shine clucked her tongue in disapproval.
Mirror thought quickly, "Look, things have been crazy since the... the incident at the speech," She knew it was a mistake as soon as the words escaped her mouth.
"You were there!?" her mother shrieked.
"Uh, yeah. I TOLD you I was going, Ma."
"I heard they were rounding up every pegasus who was anywhere near the square. They didn't lock you up, did they?"
"No Ma, I've been huddled up at home for the last few days." Lying to her parents wasn't something she was proud of, but making them scared out of their wits seemed worse, in the long run.
"Well you came to see us when you could, and we're all going to sit down, as a family, to dinner."
"Ma, it's three-thirty in the afternoon. I've got–"
"Nothing else to do that is more important than assuring your parents, who spent the best years of their lives seeing to it that you'd live long enought to provide us with grandfoals that you are not starving yourself."
"Ok, ok... sheesh."
"And I'm not kidding, the sound of little hooves is what I'm holding on for, you've got a definite time limit here, Mirri."
Every time, every moon-damn time, "Ma! I'm not ready yet."
"Take the garbage out, and who says you get to plan these things?"
03:36 pm, July 15th, Two Days after The Bombing
Mirror chuckled, tossing the trash bags into the dumpster. Her mother could drive her to distraction, and she never. stopped. talking. If only there was some way to distra–
Out of the corner of the white pegasus's eye she saw a figure on the fire escape, using one of the paint dispensing cannisters to write letters on the wall. Something about "Down with Earth–
"HEY! What the Hay do you think you're doing!?" She cried, flapping up to give the vandal a piece of her mind. The pony in question seemed to have no intention of being seen, and leapt from the railing, opening their wings at the last second and flipping around the building's corner with practised speed the industrial pony couldn't hope to match.
Mirror sighed, looking at the crudely scrawled letters. She retrieved a rag and a bit of dingy cloudstuff and set to work trying to scrape the paint away before it set.
"Right there, Officers! That must be the hooligan, in the act!" An ancient looking earth pony was flanked by two burly members of Ravaalon's finest. "Why, I never – Mirror Shine, you out ta be ashamed of yourself! You're going to break your parents hearts, leading a life of crime!"
"Wait, you've got it all wrong! I- I tried to stop the pony who was writing this, and ... I was cleaning the wall off. Honest!"
The guards looked at each other. The unicorn addressed the pegasus, "Ma'am, you can plead your case down at the station, but I'm afraid we're going to need you to come with us. And we'll be confiscating your 'paint supplies' as well."
"But, but..." there was no way she was getting out of this, she could tell. "...fine." And thus Mirror Shine was arrested for the second time in her life, and in as many days.
Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
DarkPhoenix- Admin
- Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-03-18
Age : 37
Location : Los Angeles -
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