Personification Life: EPIC (IC Thread XI) [CLOSED]

[Ganonsyoni]

Kale nodded to Alexia as she explained what would happen. Even more pain? She didn't want to think how worse it would be. But, if it meant her leg would be healed, then she would bear it as best as she could. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay then... I'll stay still," she said.

Luckily for her, she had some help in this endeavor. Nick hopped onto the table right next to her and started using his magic to numb her and make her feel tired. She gave one last deep breathe/yawn before Alexia started her healing. Nick's magic worked wonders, she could barely feel a thing. Just a light tingling feeling. She yawned a couple times, her drowsiness increasing. "A nap sounds real good right now..." she thought to herself. She closed her eyes, her drowsiness easing her into a light sleep.... before being woken up by a sudden jolt of pain. Kale would have kicked if it wasn't for the force powers keeping her legs down. She looked to Alexia and Nick, surprised by it. But it subsided as soon as it appeared, and it was back to the tingling feeling. She took another deep breathe and closed her eyes again. "Hopefully that was the only time..." Kale said as she drifted off to dreamland.

By the time Alexia was done with her healing, Kale was breathing softly and sleeping. She had a slight smile on her face, as if she was thanking the two even in while she slept.

[Relikai]

Konayama Miyuki

Everything was normal in the bar, until they could hear a soft melodic singing. Each person in the establishment heard something different, something tailored to their own liking. It was music of it's own class, something which has no fault in itself. It was as if the common thing shared among the sentient beings was the appreciation of this music being heard. There was no instruments, just a soft melodic voice singing in a slightly higher pitched tune.

La... la... la... La... Miyuki began a series of hums and tones, more of a soothing tune rather than an actual song with lyrics. It was unintentional, but Miyuki singing, with that glassof water in her hand as she contemplated her surroundings, has triggered her magic to effect. Perhaps it was from Miyuki's will to overcome her confusion and prosper in this new environment which allowed her to sing on a level far beyond her own mortal voice, perhaps it was a sign that her conviction to succeed and carry those who suffered was enough.

The music did not stop within the pub, it flowed outside as well, almost a hundred meter radius around Miyuki. It was amplified within the listeners' hearts, giving those who were resting, strength, those who were grieving, hope, and those who were lost, a new direction within their heart, inspiring them to keep searching for what or who that seems lost.

One of her Resting Performances, Miyuki continues with her non-lyrical music, using a tune which she memorised from her days as a trainee in Namba. The tune does not matter in her magic, for it differs from person to person...

After four minutes, Miyuki stopped, a tear rolling down her cheek as she dabbed her eyes with a glove. Taking a sip of water, Konayama Miyuki held back a choke as she realised that what she done might be a calling for her, that her 'graduation' from music might not have come to an end.

It was just the beginning.

[Northwest Slobovia]

The Burrows, Clinic

Sandy Listened as Alexia worked on Kale's leg. He'd gotten used to the melody of her magic over the past few months, but it was hard for him to judge how well it was working while in human form. Still, it seemed to be working as expected, with no unexpected changes in its pitch or tempo that would indicate Alexia was struggling to keep her spell under control.

The ritualist nodded in understanding, "Sandy, the spirit will last for as long as I will it to, although it will last drastically less if the patients let it do its work. Kale and the others could use a bit of a boost, I'm sure."

"So can I," Alexia said with a silent huff, sinking onto a chair. "Combat healing is much easier compared."

Sandy nodded distractedly to Anais as he watched Alexia stumble into a chair. He nodded slowly, thoughtfully, as he considered her exhaustion. "I hadn't realized that healing a broken leg was that demanding. I'll keep that in mind; in the future, we'll have to treat as many people with other means as we can to avoid wearing you out."

"Anyway, Any otheruse Maghrl, Sandy?" The squib asked, wondering how else he could be of use. "If no, Squib could use rest. Retrieval not easy job, you bet. Giant spider things!" [...]

"Same here, anything else you need of us?" Sterling piped in, trotting from the side of the room where he'd been watching nervously as Kale was being cared for. At lest she seemed better than she had been, but the pony wasn't sure if he'd still be needed either.

When Maghrl spoke, Sandy was still gazing downward, thinking over what they'd need to do to compensate for how tiring Alexia's penetrating cures were. They'd need more conventional medicine, more Balm and Ox Blood, more of Giovenith's bottled smoke.

He realized Maghrl was speaking and looked up and then over at him, wearing a puzzled smile. "Hmm? Giant spider things...? Oh, I think we're set for now. Elka's injury is apparently minor, and if the other woman has a concussion, or seems to, we'll have her sit quietly by the Spirit of Recovery. Without the super-tech gear in the Building's hospital, there's not much else we can do for her. So, rest and relax, but if you leave to do that, please let somebody know where you're going, in case we need you back."

Sandy made to address all healers, but kept his voice low so not to wake Kale or Nick. "I'm going to locate Mercer, and--"

Far away, within the village, Sandy's magical senses would hear the Building's scream moments before the godling's shield stifled all sound, and the Luxans would taste chaos turn from peppery wrath to bitter lament. But all other eyes would only see the rippling cloud of birds forming a shield between their former home and their current location.

Sandy abruptly snapped his head around to look in the Building's direction, his normal florid complexion fading to paleness. He wispered nervously, "I Heard a great cacaphony, as if Demens' voice suddenly cried out in terror, and was suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened to the Building. Excuse me, I'm going to take a look from outside and... then find the Mayor, and... um, see what medical supplies the Burrows has."

Sandy walked uncertainly out of the clinic, then turned to face the Building, partially visible in the distance. He Listened, but Heard nothing: it was too far away, but the rustlings and flickerings in the structure that blocked his view of it suggested an array of Giovenith's birds. What the hell...? Changing direction to go look for Mercer, he caught the tail end of a new song, an unknown form of magic. He thought of chasing after it, but it faded too quickly for him to get a sense of its origin, and he returned to his previous task.

Ah, there she is! And he headed over towards the church.

Churchyard

Sandy still looked a bit peaked and unsettled as he arrived in the churchyard. While he waited for Mercer to answer Romulus, he took the opportunity to try to recover his composure. He didn't really succeed.

"Mayor? I'm trying to get a sense of what medical supplies are available in the Burrows. So far, we don't have many injuries we know of, but --" He glanced uneasily in the Building's direction, "-- I'm not sure we've accounted for everybody. So, while we have some supplies at hand in the clinic, we may need to buy more."

[Giovenith]

Groundtown

At first Pansy was deeply confused, then a little upset. She narrowed her eyes, flattened her ears, and backed up a little from the wingless ponies, unsure of what to say or how to react. Pansy was nowhere near as vitriolic or bigoted as some other members of pony society, but it didn't change the fact that there was a certain stigma of danger and awkwardness implanted in her instincts when it came to the other tribes, especially with the lockdown enforced because of the lynchings. She also felt just a bit lied to. Willow said he and Rache's group worked for the city! How could they be so casually working together with the other tribes while still doing what they did? How come nopony else had ever heard about this before? This dashed her hopes of being one of the explorers, didn't it? Surprisingly, Pansy found herself looking to Cloud Duster of all ponies for support, sure that a fellow regular Cyniscan would understand the depth of the shock behind this all.

Cloud Duster didn't seem phased by the situation at all. He merely wore a sweet smile and glassy gaze in silent passivity, patiently waiting for something else more worth commenting on to happen. Because apparently this wasn't that.

Aw fiddlesticks.

Her brief defensive guard fell quickly into timid confusion as Rache gently but directly addressed things to her. Such simple and true words for a more progressive time but filled with many unanswered questions and uncertainties for today. Pansy looked back and forth between Rache and the Earth group and tried to force herself to be a little more objective. If Rache claimed that they were his friends then she supposed there was nothing to be actually afraid in terms of safety even if she was still torn on the social aspect.

Pansy bit the inside of her cheek awkwardly as Yuna was pushed in front of her, blushing and flickering in and out of eye contact. What did she say? More importantly, was there anything she shouldn't say? She didn't want to accidentally do or say anything that might make everypony angry with her, but "Let's be considerate of the Earth ponies' feelings" wasn't exactly a prominent course for the little ones back home.

"Hello," Pansy returned the greeting with an equally awkward smile.

SkyWishes, meanwhile, sighed and looked around at the smashed remains of the zombified former citizens. It was indeed a sad sight, but perhaps even more sadly, she was more than used to seeing neighbors and friends as ruined corpses by now. She did not shed a tear but instead closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them to smile reassuringly at Rache.

"It's not really them" she said. "It's just the shells. They already went on to a better place, you know? They don't need those forms anymore. It's sad for the living to see but at least we know our friends aren't truly being hurt. They can't be anymore, they'll be fine. We just need to focus on justice here for us!" Something struck her thoughts though, and she turned to Aegis. "You don't suppose this has something to do with the attack on the meeting last night, do you?"

Willow, who had been busy silently observing the reluctant interaction between Yuna and Pansy, suddenly turned toward this query. "What attack?" he questioned, raising an eye with concern. "And if you don't mind, what's your name?"

"I'm SkyWishes," the magenta teen introduced. She nodded between her, Aegia, and Yuna. "The other night Chancellor Puddinghead called for a town meeting for more discussion about how to cope with the winter, but right in the middle of it, this poor young colt walked in all covered in blood. When some other ponies tried to help him, he started biting them! Everypony who was attending ran out of there real fast and some of the stronger ponies got him down and tied him up, and the Chancellor put herself in charge of investigating, but nopony still really knows what happened."

This made Willow's stomach sink and he exchanged looks with his own companions. "I've, never heard of such a thing before." It was true enough for the natives, but it would have that extra layer of meaning for Yuna and Rache that he'd never before heard this bit of history. "Was he somepony who had died before and been buried like these ponies?"

SkyWishes shook her head. "No! I mean he was bloody and dazed and stuff, but other than that, he actually looked normal and lively. Well, as lively as he could be. "Not like a corpse" is what I mean."

This added yet another cog in the already complex machine that was running in Willow's mind in regards to this whole adventure. According to Rache it was their responsibility to make sure the past played out as needed (and Willow sure as fuck didn't want to have the honor of finally figuring out just what twist in time bullshit really did to you by ignoring that responsibility), but it was difficult to see exactly how they were going to accomplish that with all these new factors being thrown in. Were zombie and biting ponies supposed to be here? Were they some kind of interference from a higher force? Nopony could be quite sure.

There was a need to be productive while brainstorming though, as Aegis seemed to already understand since he lead them out of the woods and over the solid border into Earth pony territory. Did he mention it was still pretty unsettling to see his humanoid friends as other ponies? Gah, whatever. As far as he was concerned, now their top priority was finding Chrys and Brit.

"Can I touch your wings?" SkyWishes suddenly popped up by his side with a wide, goofy smile.

"Whut?" he was knocked from his thoughts.

"You can't tell anypony, but I think you pegasuseseseseses and unicorns are soooooo cool! I've never seen your wings up close, are they oiled? Are they waterproof? Are the bones hollow? Where does the fur end and the feathers begin? How do you preen them if you don't have beaks? Do you even need to preen them? If you don't then how do the feathers even grow back? What if you lose some? Are they even the same as birds'?" SkyWishes asked in rapid succession, hopping onto a bemused Willow and bending his wings and neck around this way and that like a newly caught specimen. "Ooo, you should sit down and let me sketch some stuff out for Smart Cookie! The unicorns don't know much about you guys either, but she loves to learn so-"

Willow blinked out of the bewilderment and gently pushed the girl off. "Smart Cookie?"

"She's our leader's secretary!"

The artist's heart thudded and he looked between Pansy and SkyWishes. "Yes, yes I think I've heard of her before. An old story perhaps."

"Do you want to meet her? Smart Cookie already said we should take you guys to her when we got the chance!" the filly said, nodding to Yuna and Aegis who had also been told this. "I think she said she was going to the Glorianan trash pile when she left, so we could try that."

"I think that-" A large cart came out of nowhere and sent Willow practically flying to the ground.

It was the first contact of other Earth ponies any of them had encountered on their walk (the town was strangely quiet), and while it wasn't malicious, they would find it came with a certain obnoxious aspect. From the other end of the cart, peaking out from behind the towering mass within it covered by a sheet, came Moolisa the conpony.

"Whooooa, you need to look where you're going, birdie-boy," the mare slurred, pulling her cart back up a bit so it wouldn't roll forward and run him over. "I get y'all probably aren't used to looking both ways up there in the skies, but dayum! Hey, ya wouldn't happen to be bruised would ya? Because I've got this new miraculous cure-all that I specially invented-"

"No!" Willow snapped as Pansy helped him up. "No, no, no, no! No!" Fucking snake oil salesponies and their fucking FUCKINGNESS. They were the reason he was in this mess! (Actually, in a convoluted and twisted way, it really was specifically Moolisa's fault that he was in this mess, ultimately....) "Don't even try to pull that shit with me! We don't want any!"

Moolisa whistled and held up her hooves defensively. "Jimney Crickets, gad! Take it easy! I thought maybe folks were exaggerating when they called the pegasuseseseses angry, but beezles shneezles!"

Willow growled by SkyWishes took the lead in standing up for the visitors. "We don't have time for your potion act Moolisa, we're on very important diplomacy business."

"Diplomacy?" Moolisa snorted with a knowing smile and leaned one foreleg against her cart. "Ohhhhh, I don't think we'll be having much of that anymore soon! No offense Birdies, you were always fine to me, but business, y'know?"

SkyWishes narrowed her eyes perplexedly. "What are you talking about? Smart Cookie said-"

"Awwww, Smart Cookie said Shmart Fookie shmed! This is democracy Sky, ponies don't got to be listening to Smart Cookie if they think they found somepony better to listen to," Moolisa shrugged. "Not that I got anything 'gainst Cookie! She knows her stuff! But sometimes you just gotta go with the flow to make your livin'..." The mare nipped the edge of her tarp and pulled it off to reveal her cart's goods. "Ta-da! I'm investing!"

Stacked to the brim in a big deadly cluster were hoards and hoards of unlit torches and pitchforks. It brought a cringe to many of the ponies' faces. Moolisa crossed her front legs pleasantly.

"Moolisa!" SkyWishes gasped with clear alarm. "Why are you investing in mob artillery?!"

"'Cause the market says there's gonna be a good ol' fashioned angry mob soon, duuuuuuh!" Moolisa polished a hoof against her shift. "Well, at least I assume. Ever since that cannibal attack yesterday a bunch of ponies have been kissing Sundae Surprise's tooshy and now word is she's gonna try and speak at the little prayer gathering tonight. And, well, HA! It's Sundae, so, only a matter of time, you know?" She paused. "You guys want a set? They'll be flying like hotcakes soon, so if I were you I'd try to beat the crowds."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Cloud Duster suddenly cried out, pushing everypony around him aside so that he could march up front to the Earth pony mare. "Whoa! Whoa! ... Whoa! Are you telling us that you are going to just sit back and watch your entire city go absolutely insane for one bloody night even when you know better just so that you can sit back and capitalize off of the mayhem?"

Moolisa stared at him. "... Yes?"

"... But mob episodes are so short," Cloud Duster said. "You clearly have a large stock of torches, how do you know you won't end up with a surplus?"

"Cheap wood," Moolisa stated with a great deal of satisfaction. "Those puppies will go out in minutes and they'll keep coming back for more!"

"And the pitchforks?"

"They're resale."

"Resale?"

"Well when nothing has been growing for so long, things like pitchforks tend to just take up space," she explained. "So it was pretty easy to buy everypony's for a low price. Nopony's got their own anymore! So I will sell them back to them for thrice the price!"

Cloud Duster stared at her for a minute before slowly nodding. He turned back and nodded at the others with a mildly impressed look. "It's a pretty solid plan, guys."

"We've got to do something!" Willow declared, clunking his hooves together in a way that evoked slamming a fist into an open palm.

"But how?" Pansy looked at Yuna with folded ears. "What can we do?"

Willow looked down and narrowed his eyes in concentration. There was no time to yell at Moolisa for being a terrible pony as much as he wanted to, he had to make a quick decision and fast, because history or no history, ponies could get hurt! But Pansy was right, what could a handful of pegasi, two humanoids in pony bodies, and one native girl do to influence a community?

"Cloud Duster, do you know where the Glorianan junk pile is?" Willow asked the other young stallion.

"Mhm," he nodded.

"Alright," he nodded. "We split up. You, me, and Pansy will go search for Smart Cookie. Rache, Yuna, Aegis, SkyWishes, you try to calm down anything you see and find the Chancellor. Once we find Cookie we'll meet you back there as fast as we can. They're the ones in charge of this place, so they'll probably be able to put a stop to all this before it begins."

"What about me?" Moolisa asked, pointing to herself.

"You stay here and go fuck yourself."

The conpony threw up her forelegs in an, 'Excuuuuuse me, princess!' manner but otherwise didn't protest.


Brit and Chrys

"Right!" Platinum nodded and shoved Brit back towards the tunnel. "Hurry, now! We have to reach her!"


The scent from Chrys' pouch was like a scream in a room of whispers, it so overpowered and shamed the fainter scents of garden and summer sky. In fact, they seemed to waver and disappear for a moment, like a bump in a radio signal, before quickly returning. When they did, "Hans" was several feet backward and sheepishly smiling back at Chrys.

"I'm sorry," he apologized with a light laugh. "I love you, I do, but something very exciting has happened and we don't have time to waste it. We must make haste!"

He jumped backward slightly toward one of the stone paths.

"Don't worry about Brit and your unicorn friends," he reassured. "We sensed the dimension you were all in you see, and the Men were able to save them and the rest of your missing friends! I can bring you to them dear, and then we can snuggle all you want!"

It wasn't exactly the kind of wording that Hans would have picked. Behind Chrys, Mirare started to slowly drag across the stones away from the scene by an unseen force.



It didn't take long for Brit to make her way back down the original hall and into the room with the black light crystals, which were now glowing at least ten times more intensely so as to pain the eyes. Sight could only be managed through short, winced blinks, and even then the sheer brightness left white spots on the vision. It was in-between all this blinking and visual confusion that things hid.

One blink a figure was there in the lights and the next they weren't. Sometimes something seemed there, but quickly faded into the buzzing lights. The voices were loud and clear though.

"You know, this would normally be the part where we all try our best to fuck with your emotions and ruin you," a voice from nowhere in particular said in a perfectly casual tone. "But trust us, give or take a centuries, that will become so cliche. But you would know that, wouldn't you? So, instead of playing boogiemen, how about instead we talk like grown-ups?"

Other than blinding lights and the voices, nothing was yet hampering Brit's way. The other two tunnels were still wide open.

"We already know your name, Atracia found it, it's Brit," the voice continued. "So no need to introduce yourself. I assume you've guessed we're the Umbrum? Excellent! I'd offer tea but, well, you know, bad timing. Hey listen, just a fair warning, we'll give you a fair chance but we're going to have to inevitably kill you all, so..." The voice made an apologetic teeth-sucking sound. "Yeah, nothing personal."

"Nothing personal?" another voice said.

"Okay, maybe against the princess. We'll deal with that when it comes though. Nothing personal against you though!"

"Unless you make it personal. Because then..."

A black crystal sprouted from the ground in a flash close to Brit's foreleg and ripped upward into her flesh, leaving a deep, burning gash. Blood pooled from it and clashed against the bright cave room.

"Oh my, it will be harder to run with that, won't it?"

"Aww, stop picking on her, guys. I just wanna talk a little. So, masquerading ape-monster... you have attraction for a lizard-person and a Chaotic husk? That almost makes the pegasus look normal! Try left, by the way."



"What is it doing?!" Platinum pawed at the ground frantically. "What is Brit doing?! What are you doing?! Clover the Clever, do something! We can't just watch this and wait for Brit!"

This was the third time she had insisted this exact same plea. Clover had already since gotten onto attempting to "do something," but despite Platinum's requests for haste, she was still fixed on rummaging through their bags with her magic for something to help. One of those most essential lessons a prospective wizard could learn was to remain stoic during high-stress situations, and although Clover remained concentrated and grit-faced through her rummage, a sweat bead or two was forming on her brow.

"What's taking so long?!"

"I am going as fast as I can,"

"Well go faster! Can't you just crack the code behind the field and bring it down or something?!"

"No," Clover hissed. "I don't have the tools or spells to read it, and it would take too long otherwise."

"Well you've got to do something!"

"Does it look like I'm not trying?!" the magician snapped, which caused the princess to flinch back, looking wounded. Clover normally had a fairly long fuse, but even she was starting to lose patience. Platinum had been taught most of her life that insistence brought results but that was not true right now. What Clover needed was silence in order to evaluate her arsenal and options.

Finally catching on, Platinum flattened her ears and took a few steps back from the sorcerer's apprentice. She felt twists form in her stomach and blush flood her face, always hideously noticeable against her white coat. Unable to stop looking back at Chrys her heart thudded like a steam engine, such so that it wouldn't have been difficult to find herself fainting in a very princesslike manner - before all this, that was just what she would have done, confident that fifty or so silken cushions would be zapped in to comfort her fall. She'd enjoyed pampering. She'd enjoyed making a burden of herself to others.

Not anymore.

Though she knew it to be selfish, Platinum took a moment to squeeze back some tears. There was more to the life of a Glorianan than beauty. One needed true, genuine talent, and being a princess, much as they might all pretend, was not talent. Clover was a mage the likes of which was said to be hardly seen, Chrysanthemum was obviously some sort of warrior, and Brit was a leader... a real leader who needed no tiara.

Like mother.

Clover, meanwhile, was damn near close to giving up when in her mad shuffling, something fell from her pocket and tinkled against the floor. Illuminating the hall with her magic, Clover levitated the object to find that it was a piece of her Babylon Chalk. An idea sparked to life.

"Stand back," Clover shook Platinum out of her sad stupor by pulling her back and approaching the barrier. "I'm going to run an experiment."

"Will it save Chrys?" the princess wiped the tears from her eyes with her foreleg and looked at the younger pony like a deer in the headlights.

"I don't know, but I hope it will help."

Clover's hypothesis was a shot in the dark: Nothing that intended you harm could cross Babylon Chalk, even if it was a magical force. The magician had little doubt that the powers that were accosting them, creating the creature above Chrys, and creating the barrier, were all cut from the same cloth, and whatever it was most certainly meant them harm. The green unicorn spun her chalk mid-air and inspected its length before narrowing her eyes, positioning it, and jabbing at the barrier with it.

A shower of sparks cracked and snapped loudly, spooking the two young mares, but Clover persevered. Pushing the chalk into the barrier felt much like pushing the identical poles of two magnets together, a constant push-back that took all of the magician's strength and concentration to overcome. She may as well have been pushing a saw through steel what with the display that resulted: Fiery sparks continued to burst and shower down as the conflict of magic waged on, the malevolent forces of the caverns locked in invisible combat with the nature of the Babylon Chalk. After a minute of this, Platinum spotted a faint but visible line of shimmering green scorches that at first appeared to be in thin air, but upon closer inspection seemed to contrast in coloring to the rest of space. It was breaking through! Why, it was like a diamond against glass!

"You're doing it, Clover!" Platinum cheered excitedly. "You're cutting it!"

But the Umbrum were ever watching and listening. They surged with fury at the counter against their power and the delighted cries of the insipid daughter of Argenta. While with Brit they put on a facade of hospitality they wasted no such efforts against the unicorn royals, focusing their magic into one strike that pulsed through the rock and stone itself, through the barrier, and manifested as a shock of black lightening that threw Clover the Clever backward and shattered her chalk into dust. Platinum screamed the magician's name in shock. The dark figures then turned their wrath on the mage herself, reaching deep into her and slowly squeezing her lungs, pushing the air painfully up out of the unicorn's mouth and causing her to cough and wheeze violently.

Platinum swiped her bag through the air around Clover as if she could fight off the unseen forces. "Stop it! Stop it! You monsters!" Seeing that would do no good, she tossed the bag aside and dropped to hold the younger pony close. "Clover, try to breathe!"

Easier said than done, not that Clover could hear Platinum. Even suffocation wasn't enough for the Umbrum though, and much like Chrys and Brit before, the apprentice's eyes soon lit up with the color of possession.


It was so traditional for great magic to begin in humble places, and once upon a time, a little unicorn named for the pillows of spring was no exception to that rule. Of course she hadn't known those traditions at the time. All she had known then was her parents and digging.

"This is a dream?" Clover, the modern day Clover, thought, looking around at the scene. "No, an illusion. Their illusion."

Mining was one of the few manual labors that unicorns ever had to experience, and even then, it was only reserved for those specifically talented and willing in the area. Miners were a curious class of Glorianan. Constantly subjecting themselves to dirt, grime, and sweaty labor made many citizens tempted to turn up their noses, however, all were quite aware that they served one of the most important functions in their entire society. What was a unicorn's life without gems? Without precious metals? It was easier to answer what it might be like without water or grain!

"How am I still conscious?" the mage thought, observing a small mountainous path below her vision. "Should I not be the audience, but the participant?"

Her question was soon answered as her vision flickered to that of being inside a small rickety cart going up the mountain path.

Her family, her original family, had been part of that awkward middle ground in the sparkling civilization of the mountains. They were very well-off but didn't have many friends, all due to their work, but they were happy. Father, mother, and daughter all only needed each other. A tiny green hoof poked out of the cart to tap beautiful mommy's snout lovingly.

Clover felt the sensation of her face muscles contorting into a growl. "You bastards..." Not her parents, the Umbrum. The bastards using her parents as a clear taunt in this damned illusion. They wanted to break her heart for their amusement? "You bastards think I haven't accepted this?"

Father had scouted the area earlier that week scanning it with his gem-finding spell and concluded that there was a large, untapped source near that would line their pockets for months, maybe even years! And nopony else had found it yet. Father and mother kept this secret to themselves like naughty children, telling nopony of their discovery, eager to keep the spoils for themselves as long as they could, for if they had then ponies would surely rush to the spot and they would wind up walking home with mere spare change!

It has been their undoing.

She was NOT going to allow them to think that they were victimizing her! The consciousness known as Clover gritted her resolve and began to thrash herself about, ignoring how silly that may have seemed in an illusion, pouring all her focus into shaking off whatever hold was on her so as to ignore the vision and hopefully crack the spell. If she wasn't paying attention, how could it continue?

"Scratched DVD" was an apt description here - though DVDs had not been invented yet in even modern Equestria.

The vision flickered, skipped, and jittered. It was unknown if this was an effect of Clover's resistance or perhaps her patchy memory at the time of her age (four springs), but the Umbrum's torturous memory had skipped much of the trek there, the digging, the rumbles above them, her parents ignoring it, the landslide... and stopped at child Clover (and by extension adult Clover, at least in perspective) as she lay in the dark, releasing many squeaky, terrified gasps, as she stared up at the boulders hovering just a foot or two above her nose. They were covered in the sparkling sheen of her aura, the only thing preventing them from coming down and crushing her to death. It was unheard of for such a young babe to accomplish such a display telekinesis. Let alone for two days without food, water, or sleep. It was a short but inhumane time that would have broken most adults. Little Clover hadn't known nor cared about that at the time: her only care was focusing on her magic, on those rocks, trying not to have it all messed up from crying too hard at the feeling of her parent's blood and brains seeping from the cracks of the rocks around her and into her mane.

"We always wondered why you were not insane," another consciousness joined Clover. "Nopony would blame you for it. Is it difficult? You should give up."

So they said as if giving her conversational, friendly advice. Clover continued to thrash and ignore them.

"If it doesn't bother you, then why do you struggle?"

"So I can help my friends get away from YOU."

"We don't believe you," they continued. "Look at this. Look at you. Your mother and father were greedy fools, they couldn't have cared about you, or else they wouldn't have brought you. They should have left you safe at home with other family or friends, someplace you would not have had to endure this. It's their fault. Can't you see it? Look at the way their flesh douses you. Look at how you suffer. You were just a baby. We have seen the grown and experienced take their own lives over far less. It is unspeakable. Look at it..."

The mage refused to further engage the malevolent cluster and began to turn inward, searching for some magic within to aid in her escape.

"LOOK AT IT!!" the voice erupted into the twisted growl that had plagued Chrys and Brit's nightmares the other night and clutched Clover violently, forcing her to stop her struggle and gaze upon the vile memory.

Clover was ripped away into a new perspective by the the seizing and forced to look directly downward into the eyes of her younger self. Little Clover could obviously not see the future apparition, being only a whisper of times gone by herself, but it did nothing to take away from the undeniable pain that both aspects of the pony known as Clover experienced in that moment of connection. The foal was fighting, fighting so hard, but the tears still made her eyes red and the struggle to properly breathe in such an enclosed space while still sobbing was clear. Occasionally she mustered just enough courage to desperately try to push the boulders up off her completely and create a way out, but even the miraculous baby of a magic-user just wasn't strong enough for that, and she always screamed as the rocks faltered back and she scrambled to push them back to their original place.

Clover the mare averted her gaze from Clover the filly. Though she was just a consciousness, she still felt the sensation of hot tears freely streaming from where her eyes rested.

And she smiled.

"Why?" the voice asked, no longer growling, instead quiet and confused. Almost hurt. "Why aren't you breaking?"

Clover coughed a laugh. "Because," she said. "You only ever focus on the darkness. The bad times. Not what happens next."

On cue, a flood of brilliant light broke through the scene and shone down on the frightened filly and the two consciousnesses.

The boulders had been pulled out of the way. Somepony gasped, and there was a jingle of bells as 4-year-old Clover was gently lifted with a white telekinesis from her tiny Hell and into a strong, kind embrace. She hiccuped and buried her face in the clean blue cloak of her savior, seeking out warmth and protection.

"Shhhh," the stallion hushed. "Shhh. I have you."

The foal's eyes struggled to adjust to the light of day as she sought out the face of the one holding her. The first thing she should have noticed was long, white, oh-so-wizardly beard hanging from his chin, but what she wound up focusing on were the twinkling honey eyes. They were half-hidden under the wide brim of a bell-studded wizard's hat, wise, but gentle and full of concern for the new foundling.

"You held up those rocks?" he questioned with clear astonishment. "You?"

The foal's eyes filled with tears once again at being reminded.

"No, no, no," the stallion once again comforted. "Shhh, don't think about it. Don't dwell upon it anymore. You're safe now little one. Nothing will hurt you any longer."

His magic shifted the filly to his back where she clung tight. She attempted to look back at the landslide scene but he gently begged her to look away and focus on ahead. And she did. She kept her gaze straight ahead and her back toward the past as the Archmage of the Court of Gloriana took her to a new life.

The Umbrum hissed.

The former frightened child smirked. "You like to dwell on the past. That's impressive. But the past is the past for a reason - there is always a new sunrise around the corner."

Filled now with the strength she needed, Clover the Clever, prized apprentice and adopted daughter of Star Swirl the Bearded, yelled a battlecry and launched herself against the dark presence, dominating and absorbing it.


Back in reality, the squeezing of Clover's lungs ceased and her breathing returned to normal.

"Clover?" Platinum gasped, shaking her friend. "Clover!"

The possession glow had not yet faded. Rather, Clover gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to thrash her head about. What could only be described as purple smoke began to leak and whisper out from the sides of her closed eyes, slowly growing in length the more she fought.

[Northwest Slobovia]

The Burrows, Pub

"Oh and thanks for telling me what to look for. What color are the robes? I saw this little... alien I think, purple furred fellow, who was wearing brown robes earlier and fussing over my body. Really seemed to love the robotics of it."

"Oh, you poor man!" Amanda briefly tried to cover her smile with her fingers, feeling embarrased him. "That's Maghrl, he's quite a character. He's a Jedi, a different religious order... but you may have known that. I think the different orders of techpriests wear different colored robes. I'm not sure of that, but I'm pretty sure they're all human, or were."

"Oh, you can sing? That's lovely! I always wanted to get training on singing professionally too, but the carpentry job kind of took up my life up until the end pretty much. And its rare seeing people who have any real musical talent in the wastes.... I really like this place much better. Its so full of life and hope and everything, even if its strange. Its easy to despair when even the plants struggle just to survive."

Amanda nodded with understanding. "I once got to visit the Sahara, in Algeria near the Moroccan border, so I think I know what you mean: 'desolate' comes to mind. I found the stillness and silence of the desert nights refreshing, but that was just for a few weeks, not my whole life."

"But yes, this area is lush... and very strange. I don't know if you got a chance to look at the meadows between here and the Building. They're... well, they're part of some vast symbiotic organism. We mistook one of their animal parts as predators when we first arrived. And the forest further on? That's the Freywold I mentioned before: the fairie forest. It's so magical, the trees still have leaves in the dead of winter."

One of her Resting Performances, Miyuki continues with her non-lyrical music, using a tune which she memorised from her days as a trainee in Namba. The tune does not matter in her magic, for it differs from person to person...

Amanda listened to Miyuki's song for a minute or so, entranced, before turning back to Sakarais. "And speaking of real musical talent, she's a marvel!"

[Fvaarniimar]

Pub Threshold

Rmwtyliin flinched away from the red, then took a deep breath.  "Uh, yes, do that.  I think we have time."  Her hands would need washing anyway; braiding her hair would calm her -

-and pass some time.  She smiled, relieved, as Duncan translated Amanda's words, then gasped.

Konayama Miyuki

Everything was normal in the bar, until they could hear a soft melodic singing. Each person in the establishment heard something different, something tailored to their own liking[...]There was no instruments, just a soft melodic voice singing in a slightly higher pitched tune.

La... la... la... La... Miyuki began a series of hums and tones, more of a soothing tune rather than an actual song with lyrics[...]

The music did not stop within the pub, it flowed outside as well, almost a hundred meter radius around Miyuki. It was amplified within the listeners'  hearts, giving those who were resting, strength, those who were grieving, hope, and those who were lost, a new direction within their heart, inspiring them to keep searching for what or who that seems lost[...]

Smiling, the girl began humming the tune she was hearing. I CAN do this. I can get home someday, but meanwhile - better me than any of them. They will be okay! I will be okay. They will remember me happily, and I can honor their memory; perhaps I will find them in historical record. Oooh, reading of Venmii's time ruling will be fun.

- it was so hard constantly pretending.  Not crying, not drawing into herself.  Smiling, and squinting her eyes just a bit so that it seemed to reach them.  Positioning brows.  Tilting chin up.

In her room, she cried.  And then, because Rmwtyliin was a survivor, she practiced in the mirror -

And now she realized that the pretense was unnecessary. She was okay. She was growing more comfortable, and the memories pained her less - and that, too, she realized, was alright. Permissible. She would not forget; she hoped she would not be forgotten. I can find a place. I can be okay. Her smile had broadened to a huge grin. "Come, changing-hair! To the clinic!" Walking forward, she was confident that Otonako would follow.

[CAT XIII]

Walking Out Of The Pub

Otonako looked at Rmwtyliin and immediately noticed that she looked a little out of sorts. She wasn't sure what to do. Something certainly didn't feel right, her hair turned blue with empathy, she felt a vibe of negativity somewhat closeby.

Suddenly the feeling dropped a little. She wondered why. Then she heard music which reminded her of band practice and made her smile. Her hair went back to its usual natural but unnatural colour, purple.

"The bad feeling is still here though. The singing could be some kind of magic or something? I should trust my judgement, I've certainly met enough musical magic users in my time to know what coming into close distance with it feels like. If I'm accurate though, it means something's gone wrong out there. Please don't let me be right!"

Bad omens aside, Rmwtyllin wanted her to go with her so she followed but not without waving behind her and clutching her guitar in close to her body, as if she wanted to protect it.

Before they reached the door, she turned round to face the girl-

"Are you ok?"

[Monfrox]

Brit heard them talk to her, even if the light hurt her eyes. She shut them and shook her head. They were talking to her. The crystals? Or maybe those things that she saw next to Chrys. Talking like grown-ups? A fair chance? Nothing personal? She tried to shut it out as she tried to think. There was a lot going on, and she couldn't process most of it in her state. What she did feel though, was that sharp crystal ripping her leg open. She flinched and cried out, tears of pain welling in the corners of her eyes. She looked down and felt her head spin. She'd never been injured this bad before. The cut burned with a searing pain that made her breathe through grit teeth. But they continued talking as if what they did didn't really matter to them as much.

"They're just like them. Like all the rest of them." She thought to herself.

Slowly, Brit put pressure on her leg. Grunting and groaning in agony all the way up to her former stance; She held most of the weight on the other one. Well, for one thing, the pain was real and provided something to focus on as opposed to their incessant ramblings. Who gave two shits about who she thought was attractive or not? She had adopted her own maxim: You have one life to live so might as well live it on your own terms rather than someone else's. At that point, she thought a little more thoroughly. They told her to go left, but that could be a trap. Then again, they could be telling the truth and there could be a trap in the center tunnel. There could be no traps, too. And so, it boiled down to one thing. She could obey, or she could defy them. She made a statement with her choice.

Brit hobbled into the center tunnel with as much of a "Fuck you all" running through her mind as pain from her cut as blood ran down her foreleg. She steeled herself. Ignore them. They're just another group of assholes. They aren't worth your time or effort. Prove them wrong. And she would do just that, even given her wound. Their reasoning was lost with the attack. She would not expect a fair chance, nor would she give one to them. Somewhere deep in her mind, chains rattled loudly among primal screams within a prison cell. She could hear it, just faintly. That pure, unbridled rage of hatred and anger that she kept bottled up for years. It was demanding to be let out, but she did not have a target to focus on anyway, so she kept hold of it now.

There was only one thing to do: Find Chrys. Each step was a trial that she had to overcome. The pain was not dying down, and she would need to bandage it sooner rather than later. A few tears rolled off her eyes and down her cheeks, but she was determined. She would sap from that reservoir for now, using that darkness inside of her as a means to push forward like she'd done all her life. No one was going stop her unless they killed her. She had friends to rescue and a home to return to. A life to mend. She wouldn't be so easily pushed around by whatever these things were. At least, that's what she told herself. For now, she pushed on, trying to focus on what was in front of her and push their voices out of her mind.

[Primordial Luxa]

Horses are adorable

Aegis thought for a moment about tales he had heard when he traveled to Atarnel. About corpse like humans who through cannibalize had become conduits for the Great Old Ones. White as death as just and gaunt, they walked through freezing blizzards like they were warm summer days. Blood so cold it froze when exposed to air and a hunger vast enough to let the creatures feed on entire towns.

Like all powerful things they had many names, ice elementals, frost giants, wendigo’s, killer snowmen. Aegis was reminded of these rumors but some of the subtle details of these creatures and the one that had attacked the meeting. But there were differences too that made him hesitate to declare these creatures the same thing. Also their was the fact that this world was much different from his own, perhaps they were dealing with servants of the Windwalker but what kind of effects would pony biology and magic have on them?

“I...I am hesitant to say that all of this seems familiar. But cannibals, zombies, winter, and some of the other things i’ve seen remind me of legends from my homeland. I can’t be sure of course. Their are simply too many variables but I believe we may be dealing with some kind of...” Aegis thought for a moment trying to choose his words very carefully “cannibalistic winter spirit. Something with the power of possession and a relation to the wind. If I am right, which I cannot perfectly say, then I predict silver would be a good ward and tool.”

“What about the rest of you? Does frenzied ponies, zombies and this strange weather seem to ring any memories?”

As the group ran into Moolisa, Aegis’s mood went from bad to worse. Ponies preparing for a riot made him immediately anxious to flee this situation and backwater town. He would have advocated for the entire group storming the chancellor house and searching for the relic before fleeing the village and trying to find some other way of locating the others. But Aegis realized they didnt have time to argue about which plan would be the best given the limited time they probably had, so he nodded at Willow.

“Sounds fair.”

[Swith Witherward]

The Burrows

Minerva loosened her embrace, allowing Torsii to slip free of her arms. Nash burbled nonsense words as the cultist leader gently set him against her hip. Miyuki's voice drifted to their ears, though the comfort magically woven into the sound stopped short of Minerva's own eardrums. The cultist leader inhaled deeply and avoided the girl's gaze. Her question was not so easily avoided, however.

Nash whimpered as his mother's hug momentarily tightened. It had been such a brief moment in Time, but it had cost so many very much. Damnit, Klaus should be striding across the field, the goding riding piggy-back and perhaps laughing as he sung a jaunty tune. Or both would pop out of the rain barrel, and he'd make a quip about the need for modern plumbing. Oh, they'd laugh and share a kiss, and Sophie would squeal as her father nuzzled her cheek. Everything would return to normal. Well, as normal as shit could get for them. But each passing heartbeat marked a second lost in time, and then more seconds, and more. A minute's worth, and no Klaus to show for it.

"I don't know what happened to Giovenith," Minerva shook her head to clear away the foolish thoughts. "Mr. Klaus is gone, Miss Tora. Barring some miracle, we can presume Miss G-"

Come on, woman. Get a hold of yourself. Minerva's face slipped into neutrality as her gaze locked onto Torsii's. "Barring some miracle, we can presume Giovenith suffered the same fate. Marcus, the 'droid and Thaddeus - I can not say. Nor do I know what happened to the Building Manager."

She turned her head towards home, but all that could be seen was the white shield. It was slowly crumbling, one dead bird at a time, to reveal the landscape beyond it. The hill's steep angle had always obscured the Building somewhat, with only the top stories visible from the village. But now? It seemed the Building was gone.

"I need to find Romulus and the Luxans," she murmured. "We'll need to launch a search party. People who have some immunity to magic, perhaps. Non-living things, maybe. A probe. I- I don't know what we'll find there. And you should have your cough looked at, Miss Tora. Professor Sandy should be flapping around here somewhere. The clinic..."

Her voice trailed off, and so did she. Sophie darted from her side to latch onto Volker's leg as he stepped from a Minotaur's shadow. He extended his arms, and Nash laughed as he groped the air for the cultist's hands. "Go on," Volker murmured, "I'll mind them. No time to stop now. Too much to do, ja?"

Minerva's hands trembled as she place her son into the care of Klaus' Man. Nash latched onto Volker's lapels, but Minerva's own fingertips lingered upon the Front Desk Cultist's cheek. The last traces of the avatar would be housed within each Man. Suddenly each of them meant something more to her. Her brows pinched together in concern, and then she leaned over to plant a soft kiss upon his cheek. "Take good care of them. Klaus would insist." A pause, and a sign, and then, "Find what's left of the Men and Lads. We need to hold a meeting. And see if you can locate Ogoti."

Volker captured Sophie's hand in his own and lead her towards the pub. Sure, they might have balked over a young lady carrying in a baby, but Volker wouldn't put up with any such truck. The pub would serve as his temporary base of operations.

"John!" he barked at a box of lettuce just outside a market door. "Ferret them all out and send them for a drink."

The shopkeeper scratched her head as the odd German continued on his way.


The pub seemed a bit crowded when Volker entered. He pushed through some curious villagers and past a Resident or two, and made his way up the short flight of stairs and into the parlor. There he chose a table by the window, and pulled old Bielefeld phone books from his pocket for Sophie to sit upon. His jacket became a swaddling baby carrier for Nash.


"You are the only damn clinic this side of Ascalon," Mayer Mercer reminded the General and Healer. "Whatever supplies you have are what you have, remember?"

Oh, she didn't blame them for having a fiddlehead moment. With all the chaos going on, it was hard for Mercer to even recall what she had been doing a half hour ago. Her delicate front hoot tapped against the churchyard's mossy grass. "If you must put up tents and whatnot, you can use the fairgrounds. They're on the far side of the city. Mostly just a clover field this time of year."

The fat friar raised a finger to get their attention. "And if you need more space, we can put my parsonage to the task. It's small. It should house a dozen or so in a pinch." He gestured towards a small stone structure behind the church proper. "I'll need to move my furniture in the parlor."

"We don't want to be any trouble," Minerva's voice interrupted. She joined her fellow Residents at the churchyard gate.

"No trouble at all," the friar smiled. "He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. The Gospel of Basil, Chapter 3, verse 28."

[Torsiedelle]

That was it.

That was it.

Torii broke. That was the news she never wanted to hear, the words that haunted her nightmares. Gio? No, Gio was her best friend, and Marcus was her big brother, and Klaus, despite every run-in and argument...Klaus was her dad. Well, not her dad, but...he looked out for her.

They weren't dead. They were not dead. She repeated it over and over again in her head, but it seemed futile if Minerva...

It was as if in an instant, all the energy and life just vanished from Torii. Her eyes lost that little glint of anxious hope, and her entire went limp.

No, they weren't dead. They were alright. They'd be coming over the hill in just a minute. That was what would happen. Torii knew it. She knew it, even as Minerva stepped away. That was why Torii turned towards the hill and fell to her knees, sitting down and scrunching up to keep an eye out and comfirm it.

They weren't dead.

[Fvaarniimar]

Rmwtyliin nodded.  "I am alright."  If rather miffed that she'd slipped - again.  It grew frustrating, how obvious her emotions seemed to be; the lingering reassurance of Miyuki's song helped her let the frustration go, forgiving herself that slip and others.

Smiling, Rmwtyliin led Otonako to the building she believed to be the clinic, pointing a few moments after she'd determined that it in fact was. I could try English, she mused. "Therr...thee clihnnk." It matters little if she understands later instead, we will arrive shortly...

Indeed, not a 3125th of a day later they were at the door. "Heeere," Rmwtyliin called out rather quietly. Grabbing a lock of hair, she tickled Duncan who of course had fallen asleep. "Mistduur Behla, here she -" She glanced nervously at Alexis, Anais, and The Spirit of (the concept of?!) Recovery. "Where am I needed?"

[Holy Lykos]

The Burrows, Pub

"Oh, you poor man!" Amanda briefly tried to cover her smile with her fingers, feeling embarrased him. "That's Maghrl, he's quite a character. He's a Jedi, a different religious order... but you may have known that. I think the different orders of techpriests wear different colored robes. I'm not sure of that, but I'm pretty sure they're all human, or were."

Amanda nodded with understanding. "I once got to visit the Sahara, in Algeria near the Moroccan border, so I think I know what you mean: 'desolate' comes to mind. I found the stillness and silence of the desert nights refreshing, but that was just for a few weeks, not my whole life."

"But yes, this area is lush... and very strange. I don't know if you got a chance to look at the meadows between here and the Building. They're... well, they're part of some vast symbiotic organism. We mistook one of their animal parts as predators when we first arrived. And the forest further on? That's the Freywold I mentioned before: the fairie forest. It's so magical, the trees still have leaves in the dead of winter."

One of her Resting Performances, Miyuki continues with her non-lyrical music, using a tune which she memorised from her days as a trainee in Namba. The tune does not matter in her magic, for it differs from person to person...

Amanda listened to Miyuki's song for a minute or so, entranced, before turning back to Sakarais. "And speaking of real musical talent, she's a marvel!"

"I very much agree, she has true talent. I wonder how long she's worked to perfect such excellent singing." Sakarias replied with a nod, smiling calmly as he closed his eyes to listen to her song for a bit. It was lovely, relaxing, and made him feel much calmer about this whole situation. Though hopefully things wouldn't get worse than it had, the song made the synth feel like things might be alright. He was tempted to pull out his violin and join her in providing music for the pub, but he was speaking with Amanda right now. Maybe later.

"Oh, I'd imagine the Sahara must be true hell now. not only deoslate but irradiated. It might even have engulfed more of Africa by now. I honestly have no idea the state of the world outside of Boston, though the few people who managed to cross the irradiated seas say Europe is in even worse of a state. They were fighting and fell into civil war with the collapse of the European Commonwealth, so it was wartorn even before they turned to nuclear weapons.

"I'll have to look around the area. It'll be refreshing seeing actual living plants again. Boston only has sickly life, struggling to even flower and propagate. Each generation does give more life to the plants though, I do remember that. They're adapting to the radiation like everything else is. Animals certainly have become nastier. Deathclaws, Brahmin, Radroaches, Radigators, et cetera." Sakarias sighed and frowned, glad he was away from those. A deathclaw would have rent him apart. He had no doubt about that, which was why he avoided them like any rational being would.

"Anyway, what is it like where you come Amanda? It sounds like things are still nice from what I've heard, and It'd be nice hearing about things not straight from Hell for once. Oh, and about the Jedi, he didn't really bother me. It was more surprise to see such genuine interest in how I function. Most don't even like looking at me, let alone are curious how I exist."

---

Maghrl nodded as Sandy left, wondering what was going on. He winced a bit, feeling some sort of sudden.... loss, or something to that effect. Certainly something just died, but beyond that he could not tell what was going on and it worried him. Things here didn't seem quite as tied to the force as his home was, he hadn't gotten as many premonitory dreams since arriving here.

Well, either way he needed rest. He wasn't going to go far and indeed was going to simply be deeply meditating, letting his consciousness rest in the Force and revitalize himself. It wouldn't take as long as normal sleep, and he would be able to wake up when needed should someone just talk to him.

So the Squib left the building and sat just outside the clinic, a bit away from the door so he wasn't in the way. He gave smile to Rmw and the one she brought to the clinic, and a wave before he closed his eyes and shifted to a more meditative sitting position. Soon he let himself be brought into the force by its flow, both letting the world fall away but keeping tethered to it as he rested and let himself familiarize with the flow of the force in this area more.


Meanwhile Sterling stayed inside, checking on supplies and seeing what they had. He even made sure that they were properly sorted and organized. It would do no good if people couldn't find things they needed. His ear twitched as someone entered the door, glancing back at it and noting that Rmw and the one young human filly had arrived. Er, girl. Right, it was difficult remembering humans called them girls sometime. Either way, he gave a wave with a hoof and trotted over to them.

"No idea, miss. Sandy went to go speak with the people in charge of the Burrows. You got the one girl who we wanted to check to see if she was healthy after the treatment you gave earlier, right? Who's in charge while Sandy's gone, does anyone know?" He chimed happily, trying to hide the worry he felt behind cheeriness. Sandy seemed so worried when he left, he had no idea what was wrong at all.

[Chedastan]

The Burrow, Churchyard

Romulus nodded in acknowledgement to both Sandy's and Minerva's well-timed arrivals, as they were just the people he needed to be here with him and the Mayor right now. When Mercer mentioned using the fairgrounds for space to set up the tents, he certainly agreed that it was likely the best spot for them after having realized its wide openness, but he felt a bit annoyed that he now has to go tell Deuce and the Tech-Priests to set up there instead of where they were now. Though he supposed in his defense they haven't really had a reason to have prepared for the Building to suddenly go critical on them until now in the first place, especially not from any internal source from how it appeared to him.

"Alrighty, I'll tell Deuce and the Tech-Priests to relocate the hospital tents at the fairgrounds in short order." He said to the Mayor, and then turned his head down at the friar. "Thank you for your offer, it is very likely we'll need to use your parsonage very soon, so I'll suggest you get to clearing whatever you can from it right away." He gratefully said to him.

He then turned around to face Minerva, realizing she likely needed to know what was going on from him. "I got Mez to get Guild Members to secure the Burrows' perimeter, and now I just need to tell Deuce and the Priests that they are to now establish the tents for the relief center at the fairgrounds, as you just heard. I also spoken with Sandy here about our current treatable causality situation, and it is of only minimum concern." He nodded at the Healer as he finished filling her in.

[Northwest Slobovia]

The Burrows, Churchyard

"You are the only damn clinic this side of Ascalon," Mayer Mercer reminded the General and Healer. "Whatever supplies you have are what you have, remember?"

Sandy's reply to Mayor Mercer started with a puzzled look, then he muttered something about being sure that there were herbalists in the village, but then decided that it didn't matter and let the subject drop. If they needed anything else they'd have to make it or buy it from Ascalon. No... Amanda was carrying a dose each of the Balm of Gilead and Ox Blood, but those were two drops in a potentially large bucket, with the same conclusion: make or buy.

"No trouble at all," the friar smiled. "He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. The Gospel of Basil, Chapter 3, verse 28."

Gospel of Basil? That sounded like Apocrypha, and what Sandy knew of obscure Christian writings was limited to their effects on the civilizations around them: heresies, suppressions, wars. There was a famous Saint Basil, but surely he must be too late for anything he wrote to be considered a Gospel, even by a tiny denomination. Wait a minute... Sandy shook himself out of his contemplation, and addressed the friar: "You mean the Gospel of Demens according to Basil?"

"Alrighty, I'll tell Deuce and the Tech-Priests to relocate the hospital tents at the fairgrounds in short order." He said to the Mayor, and then turned his head down at the friar. "Thank you for your offer, it is very likely we'll need to use your parsonage very soon, so I'll suggest you get to clearing whatever you can from it right away." He gratefully said to him.

Dammit! He'd missed most what Romulus said while he was thinking. But hospital tent? He turned towards Romulus. "Oh, we have a field hospital! Any idea what equipment is packed with it?"

Sandy noticed Blackwater for the first time, and his previous worries returned in force. "Um, Captain... the Building's magic did... did a very strange thing a little while ago. An unsettling thing." He looked nervously around: what to say? The Residents were on good terms with the Burrows-dwellers, but who else might hear? Cowed or not, the gangs that ran Ascalon were no less rapacious than before; would they take a shot at the Residents while they were down? Conversely, Demens was the Burrows-dwellers' god--er, Greater Being. Shouldn't they be told if he's been hurt, even trivially?

Sandy mentally flipped a coin. It landed edgewise: let the spy decide. "What's going on in there? All I can see is that screen around it, which flutters like it might be Giovenith's work."

The Burrows, Pub

Amanda could only shake her head in sad agreement as Sakarias described what was left of his world. His world... or the world? The future or a future? She had no way of answering that.

"Anyway, what is it like where you come Amanda? It sounds like things are still nice from what I've heard, and It'd be nice hearing about things not straight from Hell for once. Oh, and about the Jedi, he didn't really bother me. It was more surprise to see such genuine interest in how I function. Most don't even like looking at me, let alone are curious how I exist."

Amanda tried to reassure him. "You'll find that we Residents are very accepting and tolerant. You're a machine person. There are other machine people in the Building. Some aren't remotely human; FUBAR is a war machine from an interplanetary empire I'd never heard of before coming to Bielefeld. You'll be fine."

"But as to Philadelphia? By the standards of the day, it was considered a second-rate city; some people called it Filthy-delphia." She smiled, with a light laugh, then seemed to gaze at something far away. "But it wasn't a bad city, despite areas of crime and poverty. It was vibrant, with historical and cultural areas, huge parks, and a bustling downtown. The city held a million or so people, with millions in the suburbs. But most importantly, it was home."

She focused on Sakarais. "Here, let me show you." She reached down and into her briefcase, and slid out her laptop, which she put on the table so both of them could see the screen. It woke up with a legal document on the screen: some sort of contract, which Amanda quickly minimized.

She brought up an electronic textbook, scrolled to near the end, and started narrating the pictures. "The downtown skyline from the south. This building here is City hall, which is... The vantage point from which this picture was taken, looking down the Ben Franklin Parkway; that's the Museum of Art in the distance. Just off to the right here is the Rodin Museum, another art museum." She scrolled a bit. "This is the University of Pennsylvania, where Sandy worked." Amanda pushed the computer closer to Sakarias, gesturing that he could do the driving if he wanted.

[Relikai]

Konayama Miyuki

"That looks good on you girl." The shopkeeper exclaimed as Miyuki stepped out, checking herself out on the mirror. Nodding, Miyuki gave a smile and a twirl, the dress flowing with her and keeping to her form, a comfortable fit.

"It looks nice! But I... I don't have money..."

"It's alright girl." The shopkeeper said, folding her old clothes and preparing a set of clean wear for Miyuki. "You helped us a great deal. Many people required comforting, and your song did raise our spirits up. It's been a while since I felt... at peace..."

Miyuki turned and bowed to the shopkeeper, thanking him as she adjusted her new gloves. Unfortunately, her handshakes were termed as a 'Godly' level back in Japan, when she shook hands with thousands of people every time there was such an event. Coming over, her hands has... retained... some of it's properties, and Miyuki was truly unsure of what would happen should she make contact with random people, especially after seeing the different phenomenons of this world.

"Thank you, I will find a way to properly repay you. I am in your debt, Tailor-san."

Stepping out, Miyuki, now carrying a bag full of clothes looked around the village, and it's denizens. She still felt a little lost, seeing few, if any, familiar faces. Walking about, Miyuki stopped at a bench where she sat down, before taking out her book to read. Her photobook, nearly 800 photos of Miyuki and her colleagues over six years, and some of her own... modeling... shoots. A smile formed on Miyuki's face, she had already said her goodbyes to them. Perhaps the book would be a memento, to share with someone she could trust when things right themselves.

[CAT XIII]

The Burrows- Clinic

"Erm..." Otonako spoke, looking at the horse, "I can't help you with who's in charge- although that question wasn't directed at me- but I can introduce myself. My name is Otonako, however you can call me Oto if you want." She outstretched her hand in greeting.

"Dude, we're quite a bunch. Talking animals, colour changing hair, robots... What is this place? A social gathering for freaks like me?
I like it though." There eas a gap in her thoughts before- "Hold on a minute..."

Suddenly her hair went blue again, her senses found worry, panic and other negative emotions lurking around. Her empathy felt like it was trying to reach out to someone.

"Hmm. Not a good sign... I think something terrible has happened. Surely I'll find out all about it after I'm done here."

Otonako realised the mare would probably be surprised about her hair, and she could almost feel Rmwtyliin wincing behind her, but couldn't really be bothered to explain the way it changed colour again. She simply said,

"My hair changes with certain emotions, it went blue because I'm thinking about how other people are feeling."

Then she remembered an all-important question, "Anyway, what did you want me for?"

[Swith Witherward]

The Churchyard

"Good man," the Mayor's curt nod indicated her approval of the General's statements. "The grounds are nice and level, and there are two cast iron water pumps out there. A few good pushes will draw clean water from the cisterns below."

Deuce happened along as they were speaking, and his Astartes' hearing allowed him to catch most of the conversation. He offered a sigh and a two finger salute before turning around to see to the change in plans.

"The hospital tent is an old GP large. 18' by 52'," Minerva explained to Sandy and Romulus, "though we'll need to procure some planks if you want flooring. Those large bags should also contain a few cots and woolen blankets. We don't have an operatory, sadly, and I'm afraid any medical supplies are at least three years old. No telling what condition any of it's in. The good news is that those crates should also have field rations. And the bad - it's most likely chipped ham and beans. There are mess trays, too, I presume."

Her brows knit together again, and it seemed as though she paled slightly as she glanced in the direction of the odd white shield. "The Building... well, it's destroyed itself before. The Drones. We had to make it appear as if they had scored a victorious hit. Seeing no other option, the Entity and BOB did... something drastic. But nobody was in it at the time. I-"

The cultist leader shook her head. This wasn't the time nor place to discuss her thoughts on their losses. Her expression shifted back to a no-nonsense state. "Good thinking on the perimeter, General. We'll rotate people out as the night wears on. Let's see if we can get some Residents to make a fire pit and perhaps borrow some pans for the beans. Professor Bela, I leave the wounded in your capable hands. I have no doubts as to your team's ability to function. All your planning and training has paid off well."

She turned to regard the Cervitaur. "Mayor, if I may have a moment of your time?"

Mercer nodded and gestured towards the church.

The friar, seeing an opportunity for enlightening without distracting from the efforts of others, softly coughed. "The Gospel of Basil. Basil of Caesarea. Wonderful man," he smiled at Sandy. "A saint in his home dimension, and a masterful Christian theologian. He wrote a beautiful Gospel based on his love for the poor and underprivileged. In fact, he established the guidelines for our own monastic life. It is not what one worships, my good man. It is the manner in which one shows the beauty of that Being's divinity. We took that to heart."

He reflected for a moment on his own words, one finger gently stroking his long beard, and then laughed. "I've always found Demens' tolerance of other faiths amusing, considering he banned most of the gods from here. Did you know that Elohim himself complained about the unicorns? Well, that's a story for a less-stressful day, to be sure. I've things to move, and you've people to comfort."

[Swith Witherward]

Rache, Perplexed

"Hi!" Yuna's nostrils twitched, and then her nervousness manifested in a soft peal of giggles. A deep breath stilled them seconds later. The princess turned her attention back to Pansy. "I'm sorry. I'm... shy around new people. My brother always gets on my case about it. I wasn't laughing at you or anything." Yuna examined Pansy's face, fearing the inevitable traces of rejection, and then tried to smooth things over once more. "You have beautiful wings."

The fuck is that about pitchforks and torches? the daemonpony's head tilted as Moolisa went about her spiel. He sat on his haunches and patted his pockets down until finding the one Hans stashed stress relievers in. It was a bit of a fumble, but he managed to nudge a cigarette from its depths. Lit, of course, because that's how it should be and thus it was so. He remained quietly to the side, smoking and thinking as the group held their discussion, but one ear remained swiveled in their direction.

He wasn't privy to any conversations had between the earth ponies prior, and there was great concern over the truth of their situation being shared. How much would it alter history? A thin, bluish stream of smoke danced about the lashes of one eye as he stared at the strange pony and her cart. The cigarette clamped between his teeth rose slightly as he sealed his lips and inhaled.

Apparently things were altered before they ever arrived, if Willow's hints held water. It could be that this chapter was neatly glossed over in later years. After all, the focus was on the unification of the tribes. Why muddle it with horrible stories involving zombies, or angry mobs, or anything else that was occurring? Or they might have been sent here to prevent all of this. Perhaps it was their goal to wipe everyone's minds so that only the Hearthswarming Eve story remained? Neh. That would take far too much effort. Between himself and Aegis, they might pull it off but, damn, it would consume so much time. No, best to stop shit before it got out of hand.

An ash toppled into the snow as he took a final drag. "Right, we'll calm things down and find the Chancellor. But first we should make sure no innocent earth ponies are hurt by greed." A smile curled the corners of his lips as he rolled the filterless stick to the very front of his mouth. Ptu! The cigarette, aimed true, landed on the pile of cheap wood in the cart. And, of course, what's the sense in having torches if they don't light? And thus they did, because daemon magic is a horrible thing when left in the hands of, well, his kind.

A wicked chuckle burbled up from his belly as the flames spread to the pitchfork handles. "Go away, Moolisa. If I see your wares used on anypony anytime soon, I'll find you and set fire to your tail.

"Let's go, Yuna."

"But, I wanted to go with Pans-" Yuna sputtered, but was silenced by a glare.

"We have work to do," there wasn't any humor in Rache's tone. "Let's go."

His eyes met Aegis'. As much as he enjoyed Willow's company, it was reassuring to have a fellow Chaotic pers- er, pony around. "Can you fill me in on what's happened to you two since your arrival? For our own part-"

Rache recounted their part of the adventure as they followed SkyWishes down the snowy path, including the battle with the monster and the night spent in Cloud Duster's home. "-After we were brought to the city, we met with some of their leadership. None of the Cyniscans know what's behind the wintry weather."

He drew closer to Aegis and lowered his voice. The language changed to one the daemonpony hoped the Luxan was able to grasp. The Aklo phrases tumbled forth, though his own magic dampened the power behind them, thus sparing Aegis from ill effects and the others from insanity should they chance to overhear. The story unfolded in more detail now. The doubts regarding Cloud Duster, the concerns over fucking up the timeline, the reality that this was in fact Willow's own past and not an alternate dimension, the necessity of making certain things stayed true to the story, and the fact that the Pegasi presumed them to be fellow Pegasi from a distant land. Most striking was the retelling of the timeless holiday story. The language stripped the beauty from it, sadly.

"And that is why we need to find out where Hurricane went," he reverted back to English. "We need to make certain that these three leaders and their subordinates are at the right place at the right time. We need to keep them safe until then."

The daemonpony paused. Ah, but details were important, weren't they. "I am not Hans," he conveyed in Aklo. "My host has gone temporary more insane than usual. I am Rache, Bloodthirster, a Greater Daemon of the Chaotic God of War, breathed into Being of Klaus himself." Rache snorted. "And now... if you please, tell me what's transpired with you two."

[Northwest Slobovia]

The Burrows, Churchyard

Sandy nodded slowly at Blackwater's words, more troubled by her worry than the confirmation of the Building's absence. He rubbed the back of his neck as he considered the situation. "But perhaps 'destroyed itself' goes too far...?" He paused for several long seconds, struggling with ideas just beyond his comprehension. "Maybe 'Demens has withdrawn part of his supradivine presence from Galli'? That might explain what I Heard..."

Sandy shook off his contemplative state. "Demens can take care of himself. I... We have people to care for already." He went on, though he was addressing Romulus and Deuce more than Minerva. "I don't want the tent, at least not just yet. I'd rather keep the healers together in the clinic, to prevent... I guess 'miscommunication' is the problem we had before. But I do want everything else. It's possible some of the medical supplies are still good; I think... um, freeze-dried... plasma will keep that long. And we might as well toss what's gone bad."

Oh, right! Sandy was about to wave away Blackwater's praise: if the healers were working effectively without him, all the better, but the credit was theirs. But since Sandy saw that she was busy, he moved to be ready leave with Deuce once Romulus gave any additional orders; he wanted to check the medical equipment himself.

The friar, seeing an opportunity for enlightening without distracting from the efforts of others, softly coughed. "The Gospel of Basil. Basil of Caesarea. Wonderful man," he smiled at Sandy. [...] "I've always found Demens' tolerance of other faiths amusing, considering he banned most of the gods from here. Did you know that Elohim himself complained about the unicorns? Well, that's a story for a less-stressful day, to be sure. I've things to move, and you've people to comfort."

Sandy added his own chuckle to the Friar's laughter. "Yes, fourth century AD; too late for me to know anything of him but his reputation. I thought of him, but I hadn't considered that you'd adopt the teachings of another religion. But--" Sandy gave him a sad smile -- "yes, for another time."

[Fvaarniimar]

Hospital

The Rmwtyliin of not even two years previous would have been continually awed by Otonako's mood hair, and quite dumbstruck.  The Rmwtyliin of the present had seen stranger things - as a matter of fact, courtesy of the Carnal Carnival, she'd been stranger things.  Blood-hues, however, she'd always equated with evil, and that elicited flinching.  Perhaps two years hence reds would be met with equal nonchalance as changing hair; perhaps not.  Really, it would depend on how those years were to play out...

Hopefully Otonako's head felt fine!  Back in the present, the girl who'd been experimenting with beribboned braids the week she was taken peeked out.  "Can you do other colors?  Green, maybe, or yellow?  What happens if you mix emotions?  Are stripes possible?" 
- before the decorous diplomat reasserted herself, flushing.  "I am  interested if you wish to share, but please do not feel you must."  Rmwtyliin toyed with her own hair, feeling as though she was forgetting something important, before suddenly whirling to face Sterling.  "That is she - not our leader, the woman.  Our leader - who here has the most experience with medicine?  If we are equal in that, it may be a question of heredity -" although she had no clue how they, drawn from myriad universes, would determine that - "Or chain of command."  As she paused, her expression grew solemn.

"We need to choose someone now, I realize.  Without a leader people falter.  I see that happening - right now.  I will start by saying: I have some experience, but not with the medicine used here.  I likely am the least of you.  What experience do you have?"  She glanced at the meditating Jedi.  A prospect?

--

Nick heard in a dream, and responded in dreams...
Unfortunately, the dream included his collar, and activation thereof.  Hopefully nothing terribly awkward would result.

"I know she isn't your leader, but Tina isn't hurting anything! Please. I'm trying to fix her, can't you...please... Why did you do that!!

"If you pick me as your leader I will FIGHT Elka and she will shrink to normal - and I will wait with handcuffs!

"I'm great with medicine. Of course I can help her! I can heal most diseases of the mind." Likely not, especially at this point. "We just need to get me close enough, right?"

Dreams can...rather strongly alter subjective reality, after all, and love is said to make fools of all. Nick thrashed on the bed; Kale got off lightly, poked briefly with a claw. The biggest fools, of course, would be those taking the oddly-paced speech seriously.

Especially if they noticed that Nick's eyes were closed.

[Mincaldenteans]

When life gives you headaches, get Clinique -nods-

Anais and Alexia could only exchange glances that bordered on mutually agreed or in sync irritation, you pick. Somehow a need for a second in command in Sandy's absence was top priority, and among the healers it was decided fairly early on (what with each healer having their own methods) that such would only be an impediment rather than progress. Anais could appreciate the need for a proper communication system, but ranking was ridiculous among the "main" healers; no one among them had the upper on the other, mutual respect was paramount above such distinction.

The ritualist sighed and shook her head and urged them forward behind a thinly veiled annoyed tone. Somehow Anais managed to remain poised and polite despite her irritation, "I'll take charge while Sandy is away. The rest of you," she paused for a moment. Their moment, she realized among the minor league of healers who helped and worked closely the last couple months to improve their skill and show their worth, "Attend to your patient. I'll step in if necessary, but this situation seems well under your abilities."

[Holy Lykos]

Clinic

Sterling nodded towards Alexia, picking up the measure of annoyance in her tone and wincing. He probably should have taken charge here when he came to talk to them, at least to make sure Oto was healthy. "W-well, Nice to meet you Otonako. I'm Sterling Venture." He somehow used his hoof to shake her hand, as if that was a completely normal thing to do. Well, it might as well be with how long he'd been around those with hands and such.

"Anyway, we wanted you to stop in here to make sure you're healthy and doing well after the whole ordeal being trapped in the one apartment. Are you feeling weird, or off, or anything else strange going on? Aside from the normal strangeness of being here, of course. We want to make sure everyone's as healthy as we can get them." Sterling spoke, his hoof idly tapping against the floor as he did so. It certainly wouldn't do to let someone's injuries go untreated, that's for sure. Rmw had mentioned treating her injuries before, but it would be good to make sure everything was right with her officially.

An ear flicked as he glanced over towards Nick noting the cat apparently.... talking to himself? After falling asleep No less. He must be talking in his sleep or something. The pony's eyes widened a bit as he saw that the cat's thrashing pricked Kale a bit. Oh that wouldn't be good if his restless sleep caused more harm. But he was no animal expert so he did his best to think quickly and started to use his magic to stroke down his back in an attempt to relax him even in sleep. He had no idea if that would actually work but the cat deserved a restful sleep after how he'd helped.

Pub

Sakarias nodded along with her explanation of Philidelphia, deciding to not go into what her home had become in his world. A den of slavers and slavery, heavy metal industry choking the life out of the bombed out remnants of the city as those same slaves are forced to toil among the decaying and rusted out machinery, using what little of it could still be used to produce weapons and other goods for the wasteland. He'd heard that something or another had changed in it recently, but that was only rumors and there was no telling if it'd been for better or worse. And even if he had wanted to tell Amanda, the... thing she pulled out amazed him.

He listened to her narration quietly, trying to figure out what it was she pulled out. It looked like a computer, vaguely, but portable and lightweight? Was her world more advanced than his own? She'd said something about being from 2016, yet he was a few centuries past that and their technology couldn't make anything like that, even before the war... The city pictures were beautiful too, It'd been so long since he'd seen non decrepit buildings and cities lacking detonation craters. It was very nice. When she passed the thing to him it took him a bit of fumbling to figure out how to properly scroll it the screen to see more of the pictures. It certainly could do more things than the computers of his world.

"What is that?" He asked, gesturing to the laptop. "It... It looks like a computer? But much more advanced and lightweight than any I've ever seen in my life! Not even prewar America had anything close to something that small yet able to boot up that fast. Our computers take a few minutes on average, especially the more powerful models and supercomputers!" He seemed almost amazed by that just as much as the pictures now that he mentioned his confusion about it. "The most portable things we had in our world were pipboys, and even those don't seem to have anywhere close to the power of this machine."

[Cerillium]

CHURCHYARD

Minerva and the Mayor had gone only a step when the small device in the cultist's pocket screamed for attention. The same sound pierced other ears as pagers went off across the Burrows. Villagers stepped away from Sandy, Maghrl, and Romulus. There wasn't any mistaking the noise, however. Not for the Residents. Myra Bones had called for a team.

"FUCK! Of all the FUCKING times to need us! The fuck!"

The friar winced as Minerva turned the air blue but said nothing as he scrambled towards the safety of his parsonage.

"Maghrl!" Minerva's sharp voice sliced through the din around her. Hopefully the Jedi was nearby. There was no time to waste. The bathtubs were back at the Building. They'd have to make the departure point by determination alone.

"Sandy! Find the Jedi. We'll need Pegasus to transport him. I'll meet up with you at the Gatehouse," she left the professor to his task.

Quick steps brought her to Romulus' side in less than a minute. "General, we need to get to the Gate. I'm afraid you're too large for Pegasus. We'll have to travel my way." A pause. "Try not ego trip on me, alright?" She gave him no time to ponder her words. A pale hand latched onto a finger of his gauntlet-clad hand, and then the earth under his feet vanished.

Klaus' Men traveled by tunnels comprised of angry eyes and flapping ravens' wings. This was not the case for Lads and their ilk. Romulus found himself flying through a world sans any sound or shape. A heady perfume assaulted his nostrils and roused his loins, and for a moment Chaos tickled his fancy. He could be a great General once more. He was the mightiest of his kind, invincible and as brilliant as every last star in the galaxy, a man women would long to bed. A man of his calibre had the potential to rule a backwater place such as Gallimaufry Mundi, and he could best accomplish this by placing all his trust in the woman latched onto his right hand. She was the key to his greatness. She alone knew how to enhance his talents beyond their current state. All he need do is accept and trust, and give in to his desire for greatness, to become the most mighty prince, and to embrace his destiny.

The scent intensified, and now was accompanied by visions of perfection. A perfect him, wearing armor that surpassed his current set. A perfect weapon crafted for his divine hands alone. And a perfect lover, a woman so beautiful that all the world would quake in anticipation of her touch. He was alive here in this place of ecstasy. The world around him demanded he breathe in, and demanded he fuck something, and intensified his senses until he felt giddy from it all. And then he-

"Think about something awful. Think of an ugly thing. Nila. She'll do." Minerva's voice came from far away though she was tumbling though the tunnel right beside him. Her fingers constricted more to keep him on the right path.

The perfume seemed to invade every pore, seeping into him as it played with his desires. He alone could uphold Imperium ideals, and to do that, he need only-

"Watch your feet!"

The illusion shattered, plunging Romulus back into the cold reality of life as the pair emerged from a shadow in the corner. The Gatehouse had never looked so bleak, nor Myra so mousy. The last wisps of the perfume clung to the fiery-haired woman permanently darkened by Chaos' taint. She sighed and released his finger. "Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

[Holy Lykos]

Outside the Clinic

The Churchyard was a bit away, but Maghrl's ear's picked up the shout of his name easily, rousing him from his meditative slumber. Well, better some rest than none. He'd gotten at least an hour, he thought? Time was a strange thing, and him falling into the force as he did through that rest muddled his sense of it more than a little. He was needed right now though, sounded like Minerva called for him! Another rescue? Was this really the time for another rescue to take place at all? He was in no place to argue though, so might as well get off his rump and get moving. The little Jedi jumped up onto his feet in one movement, using the force to pull on his cloak and get his things together as quickly as possible before dashing off towards where he heard the voice coming to.

He managed to weave his way through the residents of the Burrows easily, he was much smaller then them after all and his reflexes let him slip around barely being noticed, or at least cared about. He managed to reach the churchyard a minute after Minerva left, finding the leaders of the community and Sandy in the yard. "Oh, hilo, Sandy-sir! What need Maghrl for, yes yes?" He called out, skidding himself to a stop carefully before the man. " 'Nother mission rescue, Maghrl bets, Minerva shoutwise and all that, yes yes."

Of course the purple alien was a bit hard to understand, but he seemed to already have guessed the meaning for this intrusion on his rest. He was dedicated to making sure he could be the utmost help to the people here too, and going on these rescue missions seemed to be something he was greatly suited to help with. He still needed to work on his noncombat skills after all, but that could wait for when things weren't going boom one after another.