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

[Giovenith]

Yuna and Aegis

"I know that. They don't know that."

Years and years of dealing with the Chancellor gave Cookie the patience of a saint, but still the ability to be firm. She leaned right back in with a much calmer expression, but laid down the problem as is:

"Nopony else here just magically knows your situation. They couldn't begin to understand it. As far as everypony else knows, you two are just regular Earth ponies who have lived no different than any of us besides being from the woods. Ponies from different tribes are not "just friends," friendship is not high on our list of priorities..."

How horribly, horribly ironic.

"... Sad as it is, inter-tribal affairs are purely business if not hostile. So if we go through the trouble with getting pegasus ambassadors all the way down here, and you go running up to them askin', 'May I please talk with my friend? He's a pegasus just like you, here's what he looks like,' exactly what do you think their reaction is going to be? The ponies round here's reaction? I get that you need to find your friends, but you're not going to be able to find them if the pegasi wind up slapping you out of their face for being an insane filly who wasted their time, and the more puritanical of the townsfolk here make a shaming campaign out of you for claiming to have association with, 'those Birds who are trying to kill us all' in the first place."

It was not yelling, hissing, or at all angry in the slightest, but there was a coldness to it. Yuna's passion was clear, but passion needed to be tempered by reality lest one roast themselves alive with their own heart's fire. In the particular unique case of this town and these three individuals, that could also have been a literal fire. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, and in troubled times before reason or understanding as values, "witch", "insane", and "traitor" were rarely not intertwined. Smart Cookie had just convinced ponies that Yuna was not the first, the last thing the young princess could be doing as a favor to herself was marking herself as the later two.

"You gotta think about what you're going to say, how you're going to say it, before you're going to say it," the secretary emphasized bluntly. "It's one thing to have a goal, it's another to have a plan. You have a goal, but you do not have a plan. You will never get your goal, your friends, without a plan. So help me help you think of one - because 'winging it' is not an option."

She slightly narrowed her eyes, as a non-verbal way of asking, Kapeesh?

[Primordial Luxa]

Aegis
Aegis thought long and hard while Smart Cookie and Yuna had their back and forth of ideas regaurding how best to deal with this new revelation regarding their friends. Smart Cookie made an excellent point regarding how impossible it might be to contact the Pegasi and if they could they might run into natural tensions or outright conflict. The trick seemed to be in alerting their friends but not the entire winged horse community, that way they wouldn’t have to worry about so much other confusion.

“Maybe we don’t need to say anything” Aegis interjected with a look of epiphany on his face “What if we leave a clue for them that were here? Something that would attract our friends attention and signal that it is us? What if we made a snow man?” He turned to Yuna with a little bit of a excited look on his face. “Think about it. I bet they make snow ponies or something around here right? What if we found a place to build a snow man that could be seen from the sky so that if they fly nearby they would realize that were here?”

“I suppose that it could raise some suspicion if other people saw us making it and we would need to worry about finding a safe place to meet but that seems like a perfect signal to me. We could even attach a note in English or something.” He was now looking to both Yuna and Smart Cookie trying to gauge their reaction to his subtler and less direct approach.

Primordial
Primordial concurred about the benefit of having those not versed in the arcane, saying that “Fresh eyes on an old subject are always supremely enjoyable and useful for development. I also must say that there is quite a lot of joy in my opinion in opening up peoples understanding of their universe, makes me wonder if I should have been a teacher.” He said musing towards the end as his train of though was side tracked. His musing was accompanied by deeper sips of his expensive alien alcohol which he notice had not been as popular the party drink that he had hoped it would be. Perhaps he should stick to more earthly blends next time in order to air on a safer side, he figured he would end up drinking most of this before the day was done, not something he was necessarily complaining about. But he quickly realigned himself and added that “In any case can you think of anyone else who you would like to see attend. I’m sure me and Sterling will have a list soon but if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them.”

“The Library was my first thought” the Baron said agreeing with Alexia before pondering some other possible options for locations trying to gauge their responses “But I was also considering doing something on the patio or outdoors if the weather is permitting. Something seems appealing about the idea, cramming us altogether in a library seems thematically appropriate though. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that something a little more environmentally soothing might be preferred by several of the residents. But there is a certain privacy that the library does afford. What do you think? Stick with the Library?”

[The BranRiech]

"But we need to . . ."

Yuna realized it was useless arguing with Cookie. She knew the secretary of the Chancellor wasn't the one who was stifling their progress, but it was sure had not to associate her with the problems that were the root cause of it all. She was the one telling them "No", and yet it was perfectly reasonable. But did that mean that Yuna was really trapped for the time being? Was it not something that they were going to finagle a way out of just yet? She'd never heard of residents being stuck somewhere for more than a day, and yet now Yuna seemed to have found herself in one of the more confusing adventures (Or nightmares) she'd ever heard about.

Then Aegis began to give his idea, which in-turn sparked at least a shred of hope within Yuna.

"Hmm, yeah . . ."

Make some sort of message for their friends, and let them all meet up somewhere?

"Mmm, make it in . . . One of our forms, yes? Make a snowman, or even like, a drawing of what we looked like before we came here." She nodded, lowering her voice as she spoke of their old bodies, the ones that didn't require 4 legs to walk, the ones with wings that let her soar through the skies, and not trot along in the dirt like . . . An animal.

--

"Worthless scum."

Drova twitched. "No! I-it's not true!"

Before him, in the vast expanse of his dream, the kingdom burned. "I-I'm a King!"

His wings rested carefully into the back of the intricately designed throne, the back-cushion molded specifically to the pattern of the Monarch's wings. It may have been the only thing still working though, because the sight in front of him, out the arched window of the palace, was anything but functional. Bodies lay strewn in the streets, the winding passageways and balconies in the caves. They were everywhere, and the stench carried for miles.

Burning, oh Gods, the burning was horrendous. Most of the outer layers of the city, while constructed out of the cave-walls, were set ablaze, the cloth belongings of Drova's subjects consumed by the fires.

"Look at it, all burned to rubble, they're all dead, Drova."

He let out a pained scream. "No! No they're not! I-I . . ."

"Even me, even Torii, and Marcus, and Gio . . ."

The voice was tauntingly out of reach, no physical form attached to it as it echoed across the walls. As Drova looked on from the balcony, down onto his ruined kingdom, the bodies began to resemble his friends, each one of the slumped forms taking on the face of people he knew, people he thought he cared for.

"All of them, all of us, and because of what? Your inability to do anything right?"

The King slowly began to recall what had happened. He ordered it all. Every dead peasant in his view was his own fault, ordering the city to be burnt, and the remaining Pyersai to be slaughtered, rather than lose the entire realm. He watched as his troops marched through the streets, gunning down every last one of the residents, before rushing off to fight the invading Humans.

"No . . . I-I didn't give the order!"

The ghostly form of Yuna appeared, like an unwanted sunrise after a blissful night. "You did, Drova. You killed them, all of them."

The sleeping Prince didn't awaken, his sleeping form squirmed painfully in bed, his murmurs soft, yet still harried and desperate as the boy slept, trapped in his own nightmare, full of loss and misery.

[Mincaldenteans]

Dining Room

The Pony was quite impressed by the display of Dan's magic. It very much reminded him of the illusion magic some unicorns performed, but much more intricate and convincing. Then again many of his friends were still learning the finer points of magic like he was. Hopefully they didn't miss him too much....

But anyway, he had some questions to answer!

"No, Pony races don't quite mix. I mean, we can have kids, but they'll usually take after either of the parent's lineages and have abilities according to which they take after. A pegasus and earth pony could even have a unicorn offspring, should they have unicorn blood in them. As far as we ponies know whichever traits we have, the horns, wings, or lack of them, determines what kind of magic we can use. And no, magic color has little to do with the kind of magic. Most often its just the color of our eyes, or some other feature of our bodies. In fact, what's more an indicator of what kind of magic we can use and possess our pony's cutie marks. I'll get back to those in a second.

"Back to the issue of races: There is a race that shares all the traits of other ponies, but they aren't born very often, and usually are made, in fact. Alicorns, we call them. The last time a pony was made into an alicorn was actually while me and Willow were here together, this unicorn named Twilight Sparkle was made by the princesses into one herself, and she lives in our town now! Its quite an honor for Equestrian royalty to take up a small town like Ponyville as residence. But anyway, alicorns are very special. As far as we can tell, they're nigh immortal, and don't even age. They are of greater stature than the average pony, and much stronger in just about every way, from raw strength, to magical power. They can use the abilities of every race and their long lives mean they become very powerful magic users, with a wide repertoire of spells. As far as we know, there's only four of them in existence right now. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight."

The pony took a breath, taking a break from his explanation. He then stood up in his seat, balancing before turning so his side was facing towards Dan. On the pony's flank, his cutie mark, a golden pair of fleur-di-lis enclosed in brackets, was quite easily visible. "Now, a cutie mark is in a way how ponies show they've realized their true passions and selves, as it only appears once we find that special thing we're good at. In my case its bookkeeping and organization. Symbolism can be quite strange in some cutie marks, or not at all. Just depends on the pony. But they do show us what we're good at naturally, and usually we end up getting occupations in fields related to them. Willow got his cutie mark doing abstract painting, and continues doing so to the day. I got mine reorganizing a library in Canterlot following their bookshelves getting knocked over, and I work as a librarian now.

"Whatever the story is, usually people end up finding their natural proficiency as a result. For unicorns it tends to be in some realm of magic, or rarer yet, in Magic itself. Earth ponies tend to get food related or craftwork related cutie marks, and pegasi weather, flying, or various other kinds. Of course, some ponies break the conventions. Usually artistic cutie marks tend to be among unicorns, and slightly less so in earth ponies. Its rare for pegasi to become artists!"

The pony grinned at the Fae before sitting back down in his seat, tail swishing against the ground again. "Anyway, yeah, the conclave will be sometime this upcoming week, me and Primordial were going to make and put out fliers tomorrow to invite people. Oh, and your magic is really neat! I've never seen such amazing illusory magic!"

"That's interesting," Dan tilted his head in curiosity to Sterling's explanation of race, magic and placement. It sounded awfully... regimented. The summer fae couldn't help but ask however, "But... what happens if you don't like what you're naturally good at? Let's say, cooking. You could be a great cook, a chef even! But does it also mean you have a love for it? What if you don't like what you do? Has that ever happened? Could you choose something else despite the mark on you? Like a food critic, instead! Maybe the preference is to taste food, not cook it!"

Primordial
Primordial concurred about the benefit of having those not versed in the arcane, saying that “Fresh eyes on an old subject are always supremely enjoyable and useful for development. I also must say that there is quite a lot of joy in my opinion in opening up peoples understanding of their universe, makes me wonder if I should have been a teacher.” He said musing towards the end as his train of though was side tracked. His musing was accompanied by deeper sips of his expensive alien alcohol which he notice had not been as popular the party drink that he had hoped it would be. Perhaps he should stick to more earthly blends next time in order to air on a safer side, he figured he would end up drinking most of this before the day was done, not something he was necessarily complaining about. But he quickly realigned himself and added that “In any case can you think of anyone else who you would like to see attend. I’m sure me and Sterling will have a list soon but if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them.”

“The Library was my first thought” the Baron said agreeing with Alexia before pondering some other possible options for locations trying to gauge their responses “But I was also considering doing something on the patio or outdoors if the weather is permitting. Something seems appealing about the idea, cramming us altogether in a library seems thematically appropriate though. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that something a little more environmentally soothing might be preferred by several of the residents. But there is a certain privacy that the library does afford. What do you think? Stick with the Library?”

Alexia smiled with a nod, "I'm sure the library will be just fine. Like you mentioned, it'll offer the privacy and the outdoors is just a walk away out the lobby if we need more room or becomes a preferred area."

The monk looked to the others and they gave their nods in agreement, having no other alternatives. She rose up, as did the others, except for Dan though the fae took notice. "It grows late, Primordial. We look forward to the meeting," she said with reassurance and offered, "Please let us know if you need any assistance; our hall is 8A. I'm afraid we don't know many magic users personally, except Sandy and Dan," she gestured to the fae at the table.

"We will keep our eyes and ears peeled regardless; I'm sure your meeting will attract the other Residents quickly. Good night, Primordial. Sterling, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Erick stood up next with a nod to the baron, "Until the meeting, Primordial, I look forward the congregation that comes together. If you have some time later this week, feel free to stop by; the same for you as well, Sterling."

With that, the guild bid their farewell for the night and quietly left. Hunter and Dan remained behind.

"Thanks for the compliment by the way, Sterling! It's my preferred form of magic, really, although I'm still considered 'mediocre' among the other fae. My other hand of power is healing, and I tend to mix the two! I find that pleasant illusions provide a good distraction for the mind, ease a person's plight while I tend to them. Anyway," Dan looked at Sterling and the baron. Primordial's visage didn't put the fae at ill ease, if perhaps how he looked, but even that Dan could find more ghastly looks from the Winter Court, "would you guys need any help tomorrow? I don't have anything going for me lately, so finding something to do has become a priority of a sort."

"The same here. I was going to the village sometime this week, but I don't think venturing alone would be a good idea and I haven't heard if anyone else will be going there. So, here it is," Hunter piped up with a shrug.

[New Aksarben]

Dining Room

The Pony was quite impressed by the display of Dan's magic. It very much reminded him of the illusion magic some unicorns performed, but much more intricate and convincing. Then again many of his friends were still learning the finer points of magic like he was. Hopefully they didn't miss him too much....

But anyway, he had some questions to answer!

"No, Pony races don't quite mix. I mean, we can have kids, but they'll usually take after either of the parent's lineages and have abilities according to which they take after. A pegasus and earth pony could even have a unicorn offspring, should they have unicorn blood in them. As far as we ponies know whichever traits we have, the horns, wings, or lack of them, determines what kind of magic we can use. And no, magic color has little to do with the kind of magic. Most often its just the color of our eyes, or some other feature of our bodies. In fact, what's more an indicator of what kind of magic we can use and possess our pony's cutie marks. I'll get back to those in a second.

"Back to the issue of races: There is a race that shares all the traits of other ponies, but they aren't born very often, and usually are made, in fact. Alicorns, we call them. The last time a pony was made into an alicorn was actually while me and Willow were here together, this unicorn named Twilight Sparkle was made by the princesses into one herself, and she lives in our town now! Its quite an honor for Equestrian royalty to take up a small town like Ponyville as residence. But anyway, alicorns are very special. As far as we can tell, they're nigh immortal, and don't even age. They are of greater stature than the average pony, and much stronger in just about every way, from raw strength, to magical power. They can use the abilities of every race and their long lives mean they become very powerful magic users, with a wide repertoire of spells. As far as we know, there's only four of them in existence right now. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight."

The pony took a breath, taking a break from his explanation. He then stood up in his seat, balancing before turning so his side was facing towards Dan. On the pony's flank, his cutie mark, a golden pair of fleur-di-lis enclosed in brackets, was quite easily visible. "Now, a cutie mark is in a way how ponies show they've realized their true passions and selves, as it only appears once we find that special thing we're good at. In my case its bookkeeping and organization. Symbolism can be quite strange in some cutie marks, or not at all. Just depends on the pony. But they do show us what we're good at naturally, and usually we end up getting occupations in fields related to them. Willow got his cutie mark doing abstract painting, and continues doing so to the day. I got mine reorganizing a library in Canterlot following their bookshelves getting knocked over, and I work as a librarian now.

"Whatever the story is, usually people end up finding their natural proficiency as a result. For unicorns it tends to be in some realm of magic, or rarer yet, in Magic itself. Earth ponies tend to get food related or craftwork related cutie marks, and pegasi weather, flying, or various other kinds. Of course, some ponies break the conventions. Usually artistic cutie marks tend to be among unicorns, and slightly less so in earth ponies. Its rare for pegasi to become artists!"

The pony grinned at the Fae before sitting back down in his seat, tail swishing against the ground again. "Anyway, yeah, the conclave will be sometime this upcoming week, me and Primordial were going to make and put out fliers tomorrow to invite people. Oh, and your magic is really neat! I've never seen such amazing illusory magic!"

"That's interesting," Dan tilted his head in curiosity to Sterling's explanation of race, magic and placement. It sounded awfully... regimented. The summer fae couldn't help but ask however, "But... what happens if you don't like what you're naturally good at? Let's say, cooking. You could be a great cook, a chef even! But does it also mean you have a love for it? What if you don't like what you do? Has that ever happened? Could you choose something else despite the mark on you? Like a food critic, instead! Maybe the preference is to taste food, not cook it!"

Primordial
Primordial concurred about the benefit of having those not versed in the arcane, saying that “Fresh eyes on an old subject are always supremely enjoyable and useful for development. I also must say that there is quite a lot of joy in my opinion in opening up peoples understanding of their universe, makes me wonder if I should have been a teacher.” He said musing towards the end as his train of though was side tracked. His musing was accompanied by deeper sips of his expensive alien alcohol which he notice had not been as popular the party drink that he had hoped it would be. Perhaps he should stick to more earthly blends next time in order to air on a safer side, he figured he would end up drinking most of this before the day was done, not something he was necessarily complaining about. But he quickly realigned himself and added that “In any case can you think of anyone else who you would like to see attend. I’m sure me and Sterling will have a list soon but if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them.”

“The Library was my first thought” the Baron said agreeing with Alexia before pondering some other possible options for locations trying to gauge their responses “But I was also considering doing something on the patio or outdoors if the weather is permitting. Something seems appealing about the idea, cramming us altogether in a library seems thematically appropriate though. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that something a little more environmentally soothing might be preferred by several of the residents. But there is a certain privacy that the library does afford. What do you think? Stick with the Library?”

Alexia smiled with a nod, "I'm sure the library will be just fine. Like you mentioned, it'll offer the privacy and the outdoors is just a walk away out the lobby if we need more room or becomes a preferred area."

The monk looked to the others and they gave their nods in agreement, having no other alternatives. She rose up, as did the others, except for Dan though the fae took notice. "It grows late, Primordial. We look forward to the meeting," she said with reassurance and offered, "Please let us know if you need any assistance; our hall is 8A. I'm afraid we don't know many magic users personally, except Sandy and Dan," she gestured to the fae at the table.

"We will keep our eyes and ears peeled regardless; I'm sure your meeting will attract the other Residents quickly. Good night, Primordial. Sterling, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Erick stood up next with a nod to the baron, "Until the meeting, Primordial, I look forward the congregation that comes together. If you have some time later this week, feel free to stop by; the same for you as well, Sterling."

With that, the guild bid their farewell for the night and quietly left. Hunter and Dan remained behind.

"Thanks for the compliment by the way, Sterling! It's my preferred form of magic, really, although I'm still considered 'mediocre' among the other fae. My other hand of power is healing, and I tend to mix the two! I find that pleasant illusions provide a good distraction for the mind, ease a person's plight while I tend to them. Anyway," Dan looked at Sterling and the baron. Primordial's visage didn't put the fae at ill ease, if perhaps how he looked, but even that Dan could find more ghastly looks from the Winter Court, "would you guys need any help tomorrow? I don't have anything going for me lately, so finding something to do has become a priority of a sort."

"The same here. I was going to the village sometime this week, but I don't think venturing alone would be a good idea and I haven't heard if anyone else will be going there. So, here it is," Hunter piped up with a shrug.

Sterling nodded in response to his criticisms of pony society. It was indeed nowhere from perfect. Its one reason some people did end up in a variety of jobs before settling on something they like. Especially if they were an extremely late bloomer. Some didn't get their marks until they were practically adults! Sterling had been a bit late himself, though that was more due to him not trying many new things very often. Eh, he didn't regret his childhood of reading and learning though. Everypony found their talent in their own time and way.

"Well then they could be that. Cutie marks tend to be vague, but not only that, usually tend to reflect the person's interests. Willow loves his art, moreso than any physical task. I do love my books, and organization. But cutie marks tend to be vague. Few are as specific as, say, Willow's is. Mine is almost as vague as you can get, it just represents organization. That could go to almost any job, especially managerial ones, but I choose to focus that towards a job being a librarian and scholar. I help do research and organize research efforts, especially into pony history, but mostly I just keep the library organized and remind foals to return their books on time. I very much love promoting a passion for reading, especially when kids tend to not have enough of an attention span normally to enjoy them.

"And no problem in terms of the compliment. And I would love some help! If Primordial is good with it too, I'd be more than happy to accept help putting things up! And designing it. My magic may be precise but I do not have the most creative mind, better at organizing you know? You seem like someone who could be creatively inclined, and I can't for the life of me find Willow! Then again he is better at abstract than making posters...."

The pony waved to the group that was leaving, and then he realized he hadn't properly checked in yet! HE had no idea if his room was still around, and definitely didn't have his key! He blinked, hoping he wouldn't get in trouble for that, as he half-rolled, half hopped off his seat. He picked up his plate and glass and floated them over towards the kitchen, placing them on a counter near it, before nodding to Dan.

"I'm sorry, but I just realized I need to see if my room's still here! I haven't been in this building for a good while, Maybe a year! It wouldn't surprise me if my things had gotten like packed up somewhere! Please excuse me, I really need to figure that out. It does seem to be getting late after all! Resume this conversation tomorrow while we work on posters and such?"

He gave a bit of a bow before trotting off to the stairs at a slow pace, glancing back with his head and ears to make sure he caught Dan's response. It'd be rude for him to just run off without hearing it!

[Monfrox]

Brit had been liberal with the chalk as she kept walking, but the chalk didn't protect against energy. She jolted as the announcement and whipped her head around behind her to see none other than the last pony she wanted to see with the drop on herself. Oh, man, this was fishy alright, and fishy to the point of "time to get the fuck out now". Brit sped off, her hood flying back off her head. Another quick peek behind her allowed her to see that giant ball of energy coming after her. Oh, come on! That's not fair!

"What is this, Raiders of the Lost Ark!?" She asked, sliding between one of the statues to take cover.

Brit had no idea how to use her telekinesis powers in the slightest except for "trying really hard". So, she tried really hard to draw the chalk off to the other side of the hall to try to buy more time to keep Arrow away from her.

"This was totally not good."

[Cerillium]

RACHE AND WILLOW

Rache grunted at Cloud Duster's retreating backside. He cared little for whatever punishment would greet him upon being caught. Banishment? Fine. Imprisonment? Hey, shadows. But Willow was a different matter. The pony obviously couldn't thrive outside of his own race. Not here during a time when starvation loomed and every race remained uncooperative. If they were stuck here, they were stuck. But if Willow's tale were to reach the proper fulfillment, Commander Hurricane needed to be in one piece.

The best of bad decisions.

"I'll state that I insisted you three accompany me," the daemonpony hadn't any qualms about shouldering the blame. He smiled reassuringly at Willow and Pansy, silently noting the small emotional struggle swirling inside the latter, and then nodded at her resolve to accompany them.

"Who are we meeting with?" Rache tucked the scarf around his neck and raised a brow at Cloud Duster. He supposed the pony might lead him to a grizzled old veteran. Rache might be able to pass himself off as a fellow vet, but he'd need to carefully craft it so as to make the other think he was nothing but a young, impressionable colt back in the day: nopony of consequence. He cast a sidelong glance at Willow, pleased that the lightening bolt pin was still radiating a bit of War's energy. Turning his attention back to Cloud Duster and added, "Also, how far away are they?"

[Giovenith]

Brit and Chrys

The initial energy ball just missed Brit by a margin, though it managed to graze some of the loose hairs flying from her head in the run, which promptly disappeared into thin air. They were not destroyed, but it was a warning.

Arrow meanwhile was frustrated at the dodge and attempted to run across the floor towards the cadet when an anxiousness overcame her and stopped her in her tracks. She looked down and saw the chalk lines. Damn!

"Ohhhhhhhhh, learning cheats from Clover already, are we?" she teased with an underlying anger, smiling fiercely as her horn began to light up again. "But all magic has it's backdoors."

Arrow did not cross the line, but things were already across the line with Brit herself. One of the torches above her began to clatter against the wall before flying into the air and swiping itself at the pony, meanwhile as stray pebbles and chips from the stone walls began to zing and flick at her face all at once, all strategized and aimed to push her into a corner.

Yuna and Aegis

"It'd have to be a pretty large display," Smart Cookie advised, grateful to Aegis for his forward-thinking attitude. "So as to catch attention from that high up. I doubt you can do something that will only catch your friends' attention, however, you could make something that only they understand. Chances are even if the other pegasi notice, they're not likely to investigate."

She sighed and settled her back, looking off in thought.

"A snow structure sounds most obvious, but if it's too small it might not be seen, and I'm not sure we have the time or resources to make an especially large one." She suddenly brightened with a slight idea. "Ey, you two have well-known songs from your world? Something we wouldn't know, but your friends would?"

Rache and Willow

"We're not going to get caught," Cloud Duster reassured, opening his door and letting the chilly wind run through his striped hair. He shut it so it opened just a crack to answer Rache's brief questions. "Just a neighbor who stays not far from here. We won't be gone long. Just follow my lead."

And so he hopped out into the cold, Pansy (still determined to keep up her bravery act) moving swiftly to follow him, though Willow lingered for a moment to quietly and quickly speak with Rache.

"You know I just want to let you know that when we get home, I'm going to make this up to all of you," the artist said with conviction, tying a small knot in his scarf. "The others are probably going through a lot of stress, and you've done way more than I could reasonably ask for this whole time. I owe many people a great deal of things, but I do plan to get to work on every last one."

And out they went. Miles away the spell had been performed, and night had fallen. The trip there, while short, was marked by blunt but demanding calculations in movement by Cloud Duster, who said absolutely nothing on the way other than terse commands to stop, stand close, run, fly, or walk as if nothing was the matter. Everything was clearly careful and thought-out, as they kept to shadowed areas and did their best to avoid getting too close to homes with light or sound, which luckily were few and far between. Willow had to guess that if Duster managed to actually survive the winter and grow up, he'd probably be getting handed a lot of group leading positions. As for Pansy, she didn't complain, but she was still not enjoying herself. She wasn't familiar with this neighborhood of the city and felt uneasy at all the sharp angles, corners, and hiding spots that the particular architecture of the area lent itself to. It made her wonder if Willow was right about staying home, but she quickly put that out of her mind and remembered her personal goal.

Soon they came to an alley covered in shadow. Here Cloud Duster stopped and nudged the edge of a raggedy blanket poking out from the blackness, squinting his eyes to try and see through.

"Valoria," he lightly called into the shadows. He was answered only with irritated groans. "Valoria?" he repeated, this time in a sweeter tone. No answer. "Valoria!" Finally Cloud Duster became insistent, nipping on the blanket corner with his teeth and yanking it, forcing the scrambling form of a filthy, disheveled mare out of the shadows and into the burdensome dim light of the night. Even through her colorful coat she was clearly pale in the face, and her venomous gaze was framed by purple circles.

Both Pansy and Willow cringed and back away as the mare wheezed and coughed, though Duster remained unaffected by the disconcerting state of the pony, and instead patiently waited for her to stop coughing and start addressing him.

"Go back to your cradle, cutting curfew'll get yer plot whooped, yearling," Valoria Silvershields growled at the younger pony, swiping a foreleg at him but just falling short of actually striking the boy. Clearly she was not at all pleased to have been disturbed from her miserable state.

"I have something for you," Cloud Duster replied simply, opening up his saddlebag and carefully pulling out one of the sealed jars. At the sight of it Valoria's attitude flipped pretty quickly, though she quickly found herself face-down on the ground as the Private easily maneuvered away from her instinctual lunge. "It's a present, you can have it, I know the cider was one of the first things to go when the Earth ponies made cuts. But I just need one small thing from you first."

Valoria responded by swiping up a small storm of garbage towards the four with her wing, sneering. She added an extra spit in Cloud Duster's direction, especially cross with him. "Foozzinks!" she swore. "Eat up the dirt and swallow the sharpest rocks! Crow! You are a twisted little stool-eating sisyphus Rainshine should have smothered in the rainbow vats!"

"Hm," the Private slightly raised an eye and began to put the jar back in his back, eyeing Rache. "Maybe a book would serve us better." He began to turn around.

The teen was stopped by a pull on his tail, which Valoria's teeth were clamped on.

"Gimme!" she demanded. "The Tartarus do you want?!"

Cloud Duster smiled and took the jar back out. "You're a survivor?"

The mare's nose wrinkled and her eyes lit up with murder even more so.

"I'll take that as a yes." Duster's own teeth ripped off the top of the jars and took a small whiff of the apple-scented fumes. "I've got two of these. Should last you a while..." he paused, and considered her for a second. "... Or not. Either way, we wanted to know about the site of the Crusade, the range it took place in."

"Place is cursed. What about it?"

"Where is it? What's it like?"

Valoria's eyes wandered from the jar and toward the other three ponies in harsh critique.

[Primordial Luxa]

Aegis

“What if we draw something in a large open field instead of directly making something? A big symbol that probably wouldn’t be too visible from the ground but from above would take on the significance we want. If we made a single large word which would be immediately obvious to our friends and if we wrote it in our own language that might work.” Aegis said while looking around the shop trying to speak without being heard too loudly as he wanted desperately to keep the whole ordeal a secret.

Aegis furrowed his eyebrows in a mixture of thought and concern before looked over at Yuna after Smart Cookie had suggested music “Didn’t Bielefeld have an anthem of some kind? That’s something no one could mistake.” The Luxan warrior was sure that their old city had some sort of melody that was played during important events and since that city struck him as the most important linkage between all of them it seemed like the best idea to him. He considered that maybe Smart Cookie had an idea for projecting music but he didn't know how they could do that without attracting attention unless music was often projected. Perhaps from a bell tower or often used public music system.

Primordial

Primordial stood up to give the leaving guild members a slight bow of his head while saying “It was a great pleasure to have this conversation and i’m thrilled that you’ve expressed an interested in the magical conclave. I hope to see you again soon and wish you the best.”

He nodded when he overheard that Dan and Hunter volunteered to join Sterling and himself tomorrow in order to plan their invitations and organization. “Of course, I think we could use another set of hand. Thank you for offering it means a lot to us.” He then turned to Sterling and asked “So where exactly did you want to meet? We could do it at your place, mine or somewhere else?” He figured the DEiMOS would be more ideal if they wanted to take advantage of anything highly magical or scientific but since they were just creating fliers Primordial assumed they could get away with any place really. Plus he would have to clean up his apartment since he really hadn't a chance since the violent dimensional transition.

[New Aksarben]

Primordial

Primordial stood up to give the leaving guild members a slight bow of his head while saying “It was a great pleasure to have this conversation and i’m thrilled that you’ve expressed an interested in the magical conclave. I hope to see you again soon and wish you the best.”

He nodded when he overheard that Dan and Hunter volunteered to join Sterling and himself tomorrow in order to plan their invitations and organization. “Of course, I think we could use another set of hand. Thank you for offering it means a lot to us.” He then turned to Sterling and asked “So where exactly did you want to meet? We could do it at your place, mine or somewhere else?” He figured the DEiMOS would be more ideal if they wanted to take advantage of anything highly magical or scientific but since they were just creating fliers Primordial assumed they could get away with any place really. Plus he would have to clean up his apartment since he really hadn't a chance since the violent dimensional transition.

Sterling stopped at the doorway to the stairs and nodded. "I think my room, once I get it tidied up. It has plenty of room for a group of people. It is a library after all! I'm sure I have printing materials somewhere. Well, not modern human ones you might be used to, but equestrian ones which work with my magic. And if I don't I should have plenty of pens and pencils floating around the place." The pony nodded enthusiastically, grinning at Primordial eagerly as he did.

"If we can't find that, I'm guessing the building's main library would have the supplies we need. I should have everything tucked away in time for our meet up tomorrow. I'll pop downstairs quickly to get checked in again and find out my room and then come back up to tell you where it is so we can meet up there, sound good to you all?"

After a brief pause he then spoke up again with a slightly weaker smile on his face, his tail brushing against the ground almost like a broom as he flicked it to one side for a second. His idea hadn't been well thought out, sometimes the pony wished he didn't speak so quickly and without forethought so often. He cleared his throat and looked over to the group sheepishly, scuffing the floor with a hoof with the sound of, well, hoof against tile(as he imagined the floors of the building. To him it was reminiscent of the castle and libraries of Canterlot, grandiose marble and beautiful architecture, if not a bit cartoony compared to the architecture of the human world.)

"Actually now that I think about it a little bit... It might be better at your place Primordial, or maybe just the general library. Everyone knows where that is right?"

[The BranRiech]

"Why not . . . Why not leave that symbol in the field? Make it out of like, big sticks or something?"

Yuna weighed the options, and figured that Aegis' option was definitely better than anything else they had. Yuna wasn't in the right mind to think of an idea, but the thought of contacting their friends was enough for her to spring into action. "They'd recognize it instantly, and . . . But how would we get them to meet us?" She countered, rubbing her chin with a free hoof. "We can get them to see it, but what about getting us to meet them?"

The filly sat there, still trying to come up with an idea of her own. "We could take shifts watching it, maybe set up a small shelter nearby, if that's an option." She shrugged. All the years she'd spent working with her tutors wasn't helping her, as soon as she felt she needed her skills. The Priestess couldn't make potions with these hoofs, she couldn't turn the pages of a book, couldn't write, anything! What she didn't know, however, is that she just hadn't tried doing any of that yet, which only served to add to her hopelessness.

[Tiltjuice]

Brit and Chrys

Clover briefly looked after Brit with worry as she went out the door. She determined that once curfew kicked in and everypony else went to bed, she would go to question Platinum about the conference and perhaps persuade her from any poor set-ups or decisions made during the meet. For now though, the young teen apprentice had to trust Brit to take care of herself, and turned her attention back to Chrys.

"She'll be okay, she seems like a tough girl," the little green unicorn reassured. "And as for you, I need you to promise to keep this secret, okay? I really shouldn't be doing it, but I have a feeling that it might yield some interesting results."

Encouraging the Conservator to follow, Clover the Clever lead her guest over to the far back of the library where several heavy wooden doors were located, built into a rounded wall round a corner that hid the area from immediate sight. They were all uniquely but equally intricately designed, save for one, which was a simple Medieval wooden door with a barricade lock against it and a big sign that read, DO NOT OPEN!!!

"Don't open that," Clover pointed out the obvious. "Trust me, you don't want to know. We're going down this one..."

The young pony lead Chrys to the door on the farthest right, a polished white thing laid with silver and prismatic gilding curled into graceful and ethereal shapes. Magic reached out and opened it up with almost reverent care, revealing a downward stone stairway dimly lit by silver, glowing, engraved lines in the wall. The path was narrow so Clover went first to relieve Chrys of any possible fears, using her telekinesis to gently shut the heavy ornate door behind them as they descended. The long stairway twisted at wide intervals and went deep, deep down, such so that even though the stairway never became any thinner, the inexperienced may have begun to feel claustrophobic at the prospect of the hundreds of miles of pure rock surrounding them on all sides.

Soon though the stairs ended at the opening to a wide new room at the very bottom. It was a large shrine of some sort, dimly lit as the halls yet decorated with so much glistening white, silver, prism, and crystal that it gave off the illusion of being bright. Put together with clear taste and piety, the wall was covered in tapestries smaller than the ones in the grand hall above but just as ornate, the ceiling draped in ivory silk streamers, and the chamber itself packed with well-preserved belongings such as couches, carvings, desks, statues, and chairs, as well as tables holding smaller items such as jewelry and books upon them. It was a sight to behold, lovely, but almost eerie and morose.

Chrys tucked her wings in closer as the ornate door opened without a sound, and her head turned this way and that to take in the sights. Slowly at first, then gradually, faster, as her gaze brushed past the whimsically simple sign on the wooden door that somehow made her feel a bit more at home. She leaned in to peer at the engraved lines, nose nearly to plaster. Always going forward, though she stumbled into the walls every now and then as she tried to both keep her way and study the patterns lining the narrow path.

As the chamber opened up again, though, she ducked her head again to adjust to the brighter light. Time's hand felt heavy here. Was this what things felt like...? But she cut the thought short again as Clover began to speak, and to act.

"This is the memorial room dedicated to the late wife of our king, Queen Argenta," Clover explained, gesturing Chrys to stay put where she stood and carefully crossing across the sacred chamber to gently lift a large white box off one of the tables with her magic. "Queen Argenta was a very powerful sorceress and an inspiration to all of Caer Gloriana, most of all her daughter, Princess Platinum. She passed tragically from us many years ago, taking her place among the Heavens now. A mare of many talents, we have preserved as much of her as we can..." The robed mare turned back to walk toward Chrys with the box. "... including this."

The box clicked and slowly opened, and a reflection of Chrys' eyes shone back at her. It was laid on an cushion within and at first difficult to see because of it's appearance, but slowly Clover lifted it out to better demonstrate to the dimensional traveler. It was medium length, flat, and thinned out from the base of it's handle into a very sharp point, like a very large knife or dagger. It was reflective. Not merely polished to the point of luster, no, truly reflective, pure and perfect as any modern day vanity mirror, flashing back whatever entered it's vision.

"This is Mirare, the looking glass sword," Clover looked down at the treasure through half-lids as she slowly ran a hoof along it's edge, just centimeters away from a cut. "We have little use for weapons here, but we do have a few. This was the Queen's, and to date, it is one of the most mysterious and powerful artifacts we have. She forged it herself though we know not how, therefore it is one of a kind, and history says that Argenta used it in many a battle with spiritual forces beyond our scope."

Pinkish-purple eyes flicked back to Chrys and scrutinized her, magic pulling the sword back close.

"I have gazed upon the energies that lie both within you and Brit, and I feel that based upon what I have felt, Mirare may find compatibility with you," she explained with clear reservation. "But Mirare is sacred, both in power and in history. I would never be offering this were our ponies not on the edge of darkness as we are. I have very little in the way of time to seek out other options. So I ask you truly now Chrys: Can I trust you to give this the honor it deserves? Can we trust you?"

Her telekinesis froze the sword between them in heavy display, presenting challenge to the Conservator's will.

Whereupon her wings unfolded, both pointing straight out but unponyishly stiff. A breeze drifted past, with undercurrents of warmth spiraling through the chamber. Her head rose from Mirare's surface to Clover, and as it did, the expression on the normally cheery woman's face was unreadable. Her eyes, too, gave away nothing of what she thought or how she felt, in their normal shade of blue. But the words that came forth were unusually formulaic, stiff as the Conservicorn's wings.

"To ask you to trust in Time would not do. You are not His in the way that I am. But maybe that is for the best. I came to the land where I now am, following those I call family, but my purpose was ever to wander, never ceasing to follow Fate's direction. If nothing else, Clover, trust me to shed my blood, sweat and tears to bring back the balance of your world." So saying, she lifted a hoof and laid it on Clover's shoulder, tucking her wings back and tilting her head slightly as she tried to refocus her own telekinesis, evening out her breathing, to try to lift the sword.

"And then afterwards, we'll meet for drinks and a better party than the last one, right?"

[Tiltjuice]

One of the residents waved to her and introduced the robot to a certain Enali, Astra, and Rim… Rimwi… Rim-wi-til-leen? The way that she put it was very confusing—Macy didn't remember that in the Palmarian master catalog of names for naming people. Approaching the group she extended her hand first to Dora. "It's very nice to meet you all. I'm Macy, and you are?"

"Dora," the red-haired woman replied. "Long-time Resident, as such things are measured."

A quick handshake and then the former priestess was back against the wall as if she had never moved in the first place. "Where do you come from, Macy?"

[Saleon]

Putting out the cigarette out of courtesy, she waved to Macy. "The female elf is Enali, the woman in orange is Astra, and Opa is of course Opa. And I believe you've met Rmwtyliin before? We were just passing through, but it's always nice to join others for a conversation with Time's blessing."

Amanda welcomed Dora's change of subject, and she tried to recover some of her previous grace, greeting each of the young women by name. "Glad to meet you, Enali. Welcome, Astra." She shifted to one side to look around the robot. "Oh, sorry, Rmwtyliin! I didn't see you back there. And... somebody else is coming?" Amanda tried to peer around the doorframe to see who was coming down the hall.

Astra was still collecting her thoughts about these apartments as the tour rode to a stop. They arrived in another lady's room, which, from what she could see, was decked in the color of cream white. Clean and soft with a feel to it that could not be replicated by her home[world]. The whole experience was not what she was used to yet. It almost put her off, with how alien it had been, but at the same time it had its own flair.

Amanda greeted her, and Astra returned it with a soft "hello, madam," and a head bow.

One of the residents waved to her and introduced the robot to a certain Enali, Astra, and Rim… Rimwi… Rim-wi-til-leen? The way that she put it was very confusing—Macy didn't remember that in the Palmarian master catalog of names for naming people. Approaching the group she extended her hand first to Dora. "It's very nice to meet you all. I'm Macy, and you are?"

"Dora," the red-haired woman replied. "Long-time Resident, as such things are measured."

A quick handshake and then the former priestess was back against the wall as if she had never moved in the first place. "Where do you come from, Macy?"

She took note of the next girl to meet. Macy had hair of gold, and eyes of sapphire. Her skin had a livid peach to it. She was a vivacious girl, as much as she could tell from first appearances. Astra gave her a similar bow, but only a bow this time.

"so, what do you all do in these apartments?" she inquired, "What happens here? This place is weird... I can't get an idea of how so many different cultures live peaceably."

[Stormwrath]

Macy stopped in front of Dora's tour group, which was in turn in front of the apartment room of a certain, what was her name? Anyways, the group was in front of an apartment labeled 6C, occupied currently by a certain middle-aged woman and a bald man. The group was allowed to come into the apartment and make themselves comfortable.

"Me?" she pointed to herself. Yay, Macy was finally interacting with other people! Dora sure is a nice person in her eyes. "Well, I come from the country of Palmaria—you may have never heard of it. My builders created me seven years ago as an attempt to create synthetic people." Poking at her silicone skin she continued, "I guess you can say that I look convincing as a human girl."

Astra asked the others what do they do in these apartments, to which Macy had no idea herself, but answered anyway. "I guess we do regular apartment things, like visit other people and hang out with them," her reply was full of naivete. She had never known what it was like to live in an apartment building, and this place would count as her first time. Adjusting to here would take some time for her.

[Giovenith]

Brit and Chrys

That answer, mysterious as it was, was good enough for Clover.

"The best drinks."

Gently cupping a hoof, Clover gestured to help Mirare through the air and steady within Chrys' psychic grip, taking it down the moment she seemed assured that it would not fall to the floor. It wouldn't matter too much anyway; Mirare was strong, just like any unicorn who wished to wield her had to be.

The sorcerer's apprentice focused her own telekinesis within her cloak to pull out a small green crystal ball from it's folds, holding it in the air and she looked Chrys in the eye again. "It's a shame you two didn't come at a more peaceful time, we could be talking over those drinks already about space and time rather than this. But still, I think this will do us good. If you're going to use Mirare, the least we need to do is practice a bit with it's specialties."

The magic surrounding the crystal ball remained, Clover closing her eyes daintily to maintain the concentration, but allowed it to fall to the floor. Rather than shattering upon the stone it seemed to quickly melt down into the floor, the surrounding room becoming blacker and blacker as it did until they were standing in dark, formless dimension with no apparent corners or walls. It was almost harrowing, until Clover opened her eyes and the space simultaneously lit up with brilliant twinkling lights and bright, swirling clouds of colors. The glorious sight surrounded them on all sides, for though beneath them felt physical as any ground, the powerful illusion that engulfed them made it as though they were walking on the non-air of deep outer space. The illusion was apparently more than just visual though, as Clover walked on and lead Chrys through the ethereal nebulae far further than the walls of Argenta's memorial room had confined.

"I will tell you a little about our own faith," the young magician said, leading the Conservator on through the magical walk. " 'From Adam's choice, to Amalthea's regret', that is the motto of our tribe. It is mysterious in it's meaning, and we like it that way. For as long as our race has dwelt in the mountains, and upon the planet itself, we have told a story to our children. It says that an unfathomably long time ago, the Heavens came into being and decided to create our world, and all the creatures upon it. They wove their vision into every ocean, tree, and mountain, and they set about every species and race in the cradle of their existence, but it was not until after the Creation that they gave each creature their name. Our First was the first to be named, called 'Unicorn' by the holy creation force, and such as touched upon the horn and declared most blessed among creatures..."

She sucked in her lips briefly and smiled bashfully to Chrys. "Or at least, that is how it is often phrased. I know this may come as a surprise, but we can be rather vain from time to time..." she giggled in wholesome self-deprecation. "The point though is that the Heavens, our Creator, gave us a duty then, at the beginning of time. Touching Unicorn's horn and bestowing them with heavy blessing, the Heavens in all Their wisdom gave us custody over Their physical avatars in this realm; the sun, the moon, the stars, all in-between. For noble on Earth would we be, yet still proud servants to the larger-than-life wonder, a deep and enduring responsibility to maintain the cycle while the Heavens slept, till came the time when They would awaken and return to us in a new and familiar form and relieve us of our duty. It is only then a bright and golden new future will begin, far, sweet, eternal utopia ruled with fair hand by Them - the Great to-be Queen and God."

Clover at last halted their walk, stopping them above the distant but bright sight of a forming star. It was in that radiant in-between stage where it was no longer a cloud of cosmic dust but not yet a glowing orb, smoldering arms swirling around a bright center like dancer's ribbons. It would be a powerful sun one day, for now it was a nicely lit spot for Chrys and Clover's practice.

"The part us Glorianans tend to forget is that the Heavens are said to treasure all the ponies," she explained, bending her snout low to the invisible ground to inspect the growing sun. She smiled, quietly rooting for it in her heart. Yes, she could relate, that was all their dream - be big, be strong, be beautiful. "The pegasi and the Earth ponies too. After the Heavens gave us Their personifications, They gave the pegasi the air, and They gave the Earth ponies the life force of the, well, Earth. When They return to us to rule They will take all three of our kinds under Their guidance, and we shall all enjoy the future forever Golden Age together. But only we know this, the other tribes have no version of our legend, despite us thinking to include them in it. Even the greatest prophets cannot decipher any specifications beyond the simple tale though, and in these times..."

The green pony frowned, stood back up straight, and took a deep breath.

"... many believe the Heavens have become displeased with us and revoked their promise of utopia, leaving us, and subsequently the Earth, to perish. But I do not. I am one of those with the gift of prophecy, though it is imperfect, and I believe that this is a crucible we will endure if only we continue on. If only I continue on. But I have you and Brit's assistance now." Clover smiled brightly at her new friend. "I believe you are a gift sent through the unfathomable by the Heavens to help us endure, and I will not let that gift go to waste. I will teach you the secrets of Mirare, so that we may continue on."

Pinkish-purple magic surrounded Clover's horn again, and what appeared to be new tiny stars hovered above them, though these were within their reach and clearly under Clover's control. "Are you prepared?"


Yuna and Aegis

"I like the symbol idea," Cookie nodded along with Yuna. "Of course, we would need quite a bit of material, and something nice and dark to contrast with the snow too. It would take time. I might be able to employ some other ponies to help, though it would take quite a bit of round-about excusing. As the Chancellor's secretary I can give you a bit of an official standing, but we'd still need to be prepared..."

"Heeeeeeeeere we go!" SkyWishes finally returned with Smart Cookie's refurbished cup, setting the piping hot liquid down carefully so as not to spill. "What 'choo guys talkin' about?"

Poor SkyWishes. She was a curious creature, ripe for learning and wonder, but the world hadn't lent her a life of circumstances where those things could flourish. If there was anything Smart Cookie wanted to accomplish during Chancellor Puddinghead's term, it would be to develop the official education of Groundtown more so that fillies like her could have a chance to put smart traits like curiosity to their proper use. For now though, her services belonged to Aegis and Yuna.

"Just trying to talk about getting these two on their hooves now that they're staying here in Groundtown," Cookie brushed off with a sigh and smile. "No time to be building new houses."

"Oh, but there are many empty houses, Smart Cookie..."

Gloom overtook counter maid and secretary alike. "Yea," Cookie reluctantly agreed, but quickly shook that off and pushed back into business, pushing herself up from the seat. "But all that can wait! The Chancellor will probably be done spreading the word about the meeting by now, we should all be preparing to head over."

"Town meeting?" SkyWishes held her hooves to her mouth. "About what?"

"General concerns. I imagine we're going to be going over the lynching issue again."

"Oh dear..." the dark pink filly looked down. "Well I'll just close up here then. Grandpa's too tired to go to be going out and about these days, so I'll meet you three there."

Smart Cookie winked at her two temporary dependents. "SkyWishes' grandpa was the Chancellor before Puddinghead. He had a good run, but he's in his later years now, so he deserved settling and the ponies deserved a fresh approach to the leadership." Knowing they need to make haste, Cookie chugged her drink again despite it's heat, coughing a bit and shivering afterwards. Woo, that warmed her up. "Thank you honeycomb, you're always a joy."

SkyWishes blushed but smiled as she gathered up the cup, plates, and menus. "Always a pleasure!"

[The BranRiech]

As much as she knew it wasn't true, the fact that Smart Cookie was telling people that Aegis and Yuna were going to be staying in the town made her extremely uneasy. Her heart raced, wanting nothing more than to dive into her soft, fluffy bed back in the apartment, to wake up from this dream at some point. How was it even possible!? That they were transported to a completely different world, and even their bodies were changed. Yuna still didn't want to believe that it was true, but she still knew it was, conflicting her mind.

"Thanks for the food." She bowed her head, getting up to leave for the meeting with Aegis and Cookie.

She considered herself lucky, however, as much as their luck seemed to be going down the drain with each and every passing revelation that finding their friends would be somewhere near-impossible. They hadn't been burned to death as witches, they'd been taken seriously by at least a few of the Ponies they'd met, and they were actively trying to get back.

Still though, Yuna couldn't keep the thoughts out that this might just end up being the world that she had to grow up in, living a constant cycle of famine and depression, in a cold, uncaring world, stuck without her wings, without her friends, and without her family.

[Primordial Luxa]

Aegis - Groundtown

“I think some wood would be ideal for what we're planning, and I don't think we’d need that many people. If you direct me and Yuna to an open field and give us a way to chop wood we could probably get the project done. But if you know some trustworthy ponies who won’t ask questions that would definitely speed things up.” Aegis said. He was reticent to get too much help and spread their story but he was eager to get out of here as quickly as possible and he figured it might be nice to help the others while he was at it.

When their drink arrived he began sipping it slowly while watching the back and forth battle between Smart Cookie and SkyWishes. SkyWishes curiosity seemed harmless enough so he ignored it although Aegis’s guard was up for anyone who seemed suspicious or treated him with suspicion.

“How long do you think this town meeting will take” Aegis asked Smart Cookie “I hate to sound ungrateful but I would like as much time as possible to complete this structure.”

[Northwest Slobovia]

"so, what do you all do in these apartments?" she inquired, "What happens here? This place is weird... I can't get an idea of how so many different cultures live peaceably."

Amanda's smile shifted from polite to amused, and she chuckled softly. "We mostly live our lives here, like people do in any apartment building. We spend more time with each other than most people, because we all seem to have have been invited here by our landlord, Demens."

"You're now in Demens' private dimension; it seems nobody enters without his permission. The rest of us and this building were in another dimension until early yesterday morning. Which is, I suppose, a round-about way of answering your question: we're not sure what's going to happen here. I will say that I and some others -- include the General -- spent today in Ascalon, a city about an hour's drive from here, and the last I saw of my husband, he was going to help people from the nearest village find sheep in a magical forest near here."

"Me?" she pointed to herself. Yay, Macy was finally interacting with other people! Dora sure is a nice person in her eyes. "Well, I come from the country of Palmaria—you may have never heard of it. My builders created me seven years ago as an attempt to create synthetic people." Poking at her silicone skin she continued, "I guess you can say that I look convincing as a human girl."

Well! That's an odd way to start a conversation. But given that I just said hello to another machine, I can't say it's beyond the pale for the Building. Amanda acknowledged Macy with a nod, but she both she and Macy were already in conversations, left greeting her at that.

[Monfrox]

Brit tried to shield herself and pull the hood down.

"Oh now that's just TYPICAL!"

Brit hated the position she was in right now. Hated it with a passion. Being cornered was a feeling she was used to, and a cornered animal is the most dangerous, for they knew the only escape was through whatever was staring them down. And so, she broke out of her cover and started running. Maybe Arrow wasn't quite strong, being a unicorn and all. She imagined the peagasai and earth ponies had to rely more on brawn than unicorns did since they didn't have telekinesis. If that held any merit, she hoped that by running to the sides and trying to avoid flying rocks and whatnot, she could bowl over Arrow and use that to escape. With the chalk she put down all along the hall since she started walking like her paranoid self did, she felt fairly confident.

For the hell of it, she tried once again to get control of one of the pebbles and fling it around to hit Arrow in the side. Hopefully, if she could do it, it'd break her concentration enough, of make her switch targets.

[Cerillium]

BIOGARDEN

Relief spread across the old abbot's face. Really, somebody should have inquired about Giovenith's psionic potential prior to letting her in. The breech was inexcusable although it didn't matter now: she lacked telepathy. She was safe. "Always good to know," he replied lightly, "Especially when working around these xeno." Luckily for Adrastus, the conversation didn't progress beyond that. A message rippled through the priest's comms, he acknowledged it, and then he rose.

"Seems like enough time has passed. Why don't we go see what Thaddeus is up to?" he suggested before offering an arm to the godling.

Calming scents rose from the beds as abbot and godling meandered down the path between. Adrastus kept his thoughts to himself, and offered little explanation regarding the odd plants, other than to suggest they not move too quickly and startle them. They rounded a bend and found themselves in front of a large, ragged hole. Something large had chewed through the wall to burrow into the room beyond, fashioning a sort of single-bed infirmary for Marcus. The abbot cringed at the amount of damage being done to the Building's subterranean levels.

Adrastus broke away from Giovenith and moved towards the bed, visually assessing in the young man whose hue matched that of the clean white sheets and pale woolen blanket. Only his bare shoulders and arms were visible, and he seemed uninjured as far as the abbot could ascertain; The scarred tissue ringing the area where the flesh of Marcus' arm met metal seemed pinker than normal but otherwise undisturbed. "Is he asleep?" he sought Thaddeus' face to determine just how grim things were.

"For now," the old cyborg's expression wasn't any more grim than usual. He lifted a hand to beckon Giovenith into the room. "He might not wake up for a while, or he might wake up in an hour. Nila isn't certain. But he's decontaminated. He is not, however, dead."

Thaddeus gently ran the back of a metallic finger against the boy's temple to wick away sweat beads. He sighed and silently conceded that the whole mess was entirely his fault. With nothing better to do, he settled on a low bench near the bed. "Apparently Scel "rejoined" him, whatever that's supposed to mean. I confess I've never heard the expression used by them before. Nila's very closed regarding information. Typical shitty Nifid," he grunted as he cast a sidelong glance at a small door across the room from the hole. "I suppose we won't learn a damn thing until he awakens."

"Thaddeus..."

The old cyborg furrowed his brow at the abbot, but the latter maintained a meaningful stare until his companion finally cottoned on.

"Why don't we give you a minute, Giovenith?" Thaddeus pushed to his feet again.



RACHE AND WILLOW

Valoria Silvershields had seen better days. Was this how the Pegasi treated their war veterans, then? Throw them away as though they were useless garbage? The mare should be someplace warm, with mush at her elbow, and not sleeping under filthy blankets in a shadowy alley. Her plight disgusted the daemon.

Yet it wasn't her state that drew Rache's interest. She made mention of sisyphus - why would anypony here know Greek mythology? Once again, it was an out-of-dimension reference specific to one society. It unnerved the daemonpony, though he couldn't exactly explain why. She had nailed Cloud Duster's personality, however. Clever girl. He adopted a compassionate expression and politely waited for the little shit to stop baiting the ragged old mare.

"Nopony wants to recall it," he solemnly addressed her silent question, "But something has come up that requires an unpleasant trip down memory lane. Can you help?"



BUILDING ROOF

The cherry at the tip of Klaus' cigarette flared then dimmed. Two smoke rings sailed into the approaching night, and the avatar tapped an ash over the Building's edge. He'd come up to the roof to have a think but stayed long after the thoughts revolving around Krampus' news had died away. Today hadn't been a good day. Tomorrow didn't look very pleasant, either.

He peered into the night and took in Ascalon's distant glow. The clouds rolling over it seemed heavy. Given the chill, Klaus wouldn't be surprised to wake up and find it had snowed overnight. A bell's urgent ring drew his attention towards the village, and to Demens' odd little church. Someone was playing the holy hell out of a single bell. He counted the rings, slowly growing concerned as they turned from a simple call to an amount that could only be a call to arms. His eyelids pressed to near-closed as he forced his eyes to focus in the gloom.

The village seemed to explode into activity as the inhabitants sought to batten down the hatches. The churchyard gates swung shut, as did the main village gates. Fires cropped up along the high walls. Klaus swung his attention outward in search of Fiends. Surely they hadn't returned! The mayor had stated it would be at least a week!

Nothing seemed to move. The woods remained silent. The rocks didn't hide any rats. In fact-

Wait. Rocks? When did the rocks arrive?

At first he thought he'd imagined them into being, so suddenly did they crop up. But no, these weren't Germanic in flavor nor had his mind dwelt upon anything rockish in the last hour. They moved swiftly through the moonlight, striving onward with a purpose unknown to him. But strive on they did, at a pretty good clip, until they were finally in better visual range. It was only then that Klaus realized that the rocks weren't very rocky. Ugly, though. Big, hulking creatures with tiny eyes and craggy faces -- Ogres that stood at twice the height of a man, and three times the size in girth. Powerful legs pumped under grimy breechcloths, propelling them towards the Building at an uncomfortably quick speed despite their massive, protruding bellies and heavy shoulders.

Klaus flicked the cigarette over the edge. The heavy clubs and axes in the ogres' hands told him they meant business. He doubted they'd come for polite discussion over tea.

"Rudolf," he spoke to the shadows behind him, "Zu den Waffen rufen, ja? Be a good man and sound the alarm."


"ALARM! ALARM!" Rudolf lacked subtlety (and explanation) as he tore through the halls and pounded on doors. Sandy's door was open and people were milling about. He paused at the apartment's threshold. "Hey, we are going to be hit by big and nasty, ja! Rouse! To arms!"

The former Nazi was gone in a flash -- down the stairs, and through the next hall. He'd eventually end in the Lobby where Volker, already a step ahead, had taken the liberty of locking the front doors.

[Germanic Templars]

GYM

The low humming of the treadmill and the rhythmic beat the soles made when hitting the surface became Max's escape. Mentally Max was phased out from reality, or what seemed to be reality to him.

Despite the weighted plates placed in his jumpsuit and the bandolier of equipment he carried on him, the anthro was able to keep a steady 6 minute and 30 second pace and entering into his third mile.

Mech room, Chrildren's play room, Room 3D

Thriller was kept occupied for the longest time keeping maintenance with the mech suit. Initial reboot and set up of the mech suit frustrated Thriller due to having no knowledge outside the suit to add any real upgrades or programs to it; coding was not the emperor's thing.

Adding insult to the injuries he inflicted on himself, Thriller wiped a few programs from the terminal used to modify the programming suit. The cryo-pod did not cooperate either as parts started to go bad and equipment used to keep the body preserved and frozen.

It has indeed been too long since he had to use his old mech suit and even longer since he had any maintenance done to the suit.

Alas, enough time has past to where Thriller threw his hands up screaming, "Fuck it! Fuck it all, i'm taking a nap!" He cleared space on the counter, knocking boxes of tools, parts, and other junk onto the floor. Using his coat as a pillow Thriller fell asleep forgetting to close the door to the playroom and the mech room.

[TotallyNotEvilLand]

GYM

The low humming of the treadmill and the rhythmic beat the soles made when hitting the surface became Max's escape. Mentally Max was phased out from reality, or what seemed to be reality to him.

Despite the weighted plates placed in his jumpsuit and the bandolier of equipment he carried on him, the anthro was able to keep a steady 6 minute and 30 second pace and entering into his third mile.

APARTMENT 7G
Her spartan accomodations had become somewhat tiring after a while. After the initial attack on the building, Crysal and her sister remained in their rooms, independently trying to find a way to get back to, or at least somehow contact their homes. Unfortunately, it became obvious that it wasn't happening any time soon, and feverish praying wasn't the solution either.

Having realized this, Crysal needed something to focus on other than getting home while they were in this strange, other world. Her health always took priority, so the idea of hitting the gym was an appealing one. Stepping out of her room (inexplicably it was more of a neolithic forest than a bedroom), she made her way to the gym, where she had spotted someone wearing a jumpsuit, and a bandolier... curious, she thought, as she stepped onto the treadmill next to his, giving him a acknowledging nod. It was then she heard some yelling of 'ALARM' from outside of the gym.

"Well, that's another way to exercise." The Arkadacian muttered, not even getting to start the treadmill before she stepped off of it, looking to the fellow she hadn't met before. "Are you coming with me? I'm sure whatever is enough to get an old German man running through the hallways and screaming is important enough to involve everyone in the building."

[The BranRiech]

Bran, who'd somewhat fallen asleep at his little corner of the dining room, was rather rudely-awakened by the Nazis warning. He had been slumped over at the table for a good few hours, and it was definitely noticeable. He noted the distinct lack of the earlier crowd, and saw just a few people remaining. Heck, even an entire table had vanished, along with Yuna, the nice girl who'd helped babysit Tolya when he was much younger, only a few months old at the time.

"Shit . . ." He muttered, rubbing the black mass of hair on his head, leaning up, and then getting up, from the table. Were they really about to be hit again? He sighed and broke into a run, headed up to the roof to grab his rifle from the helicopter.

It was around another minute or so and Bran was back already, rushing towards the lobby with the Branriechian-made Assault-rifle in his hands. Had it's original creator known that his rifle (originally designed to be used in the fields of Europe in the event of a 3rd world war) was being used against fantastical beasts such as the Fiends, and now giant Ogres, he would have fainted, or been arrested. Bran chuckled at the passing thought as he bolted down to the lobby.

"What!? What is it now?" He asked, stumbling harriedly around the room, trying to find at least someone who knew what was going on.

[Mincaldenteans]

A collab short lived is an ogre slained for interrupting!
A comfortable silence fell between the two healers in the library. Sandy moved slowly and with keen interest by the books, looking at the many carefully bound volumes, books, and tomes housed the dark cherry wood shelves. Anais paid no heed, content to letting the sorcerer look at their collection at his pace; she did inform him however, that the second and parts of the third shelf pertained mostly to healing and ritual summoning - shared between her and Alexia. The fourth shelf, furthest from the library doors, held the combined personal collections from fallen guildmates. Her tone was quiet for mentioning it, but the meaning was clear, and the rituatlist resumed in her reading, comfortable in her chair as she opened the last page to one of her favorite tomes she said was a copy from the Durheim Archives: a massive library/repository carved into several gigantic trees and side of a mountain, deep within the Echovald Forest of the Kurzicks.

Engrossed in her book, Anais barely heard the soft whispering melody that sang through the library and throughout the guild hall. She placed a soft, aged, brown string between the pages and closed the book, setting it aside and rose from her chair. “They are here,” she explained, not elaborating on the enchantment that heralded the arrival of anyone that entered. Taking the brown shawl that was draped over her chair, she wrapped it around herself and moved to the door. Erick was the first one enter the hallway.

“Erick, we have a guest,” Anais announced by way of greeting. “How was the dinner?”

“Illuminating,” Erick replied, the others were slowly gathering behind, “Primordial spoke of a meeting to be held sometime this week.”

“Yep, some magical party or some such, a meet and greet,” Cherry chimed with a nonchalant shrug, the mesmer moved past them and into the library and took notice of a familiar face as well as recalling his name, “Good evening Sandy. I see Anais has let you into our fine collection here, anything of interest?”

“It would seem we’re the community will come together, or at least that’s what the baron has hopes for,” Alexia said, standing next to Erick. Traxt moved into the library, as did Reyna, passing the trio at the entrance.

“He made mention of knowing anyone else,” Traxt piped up, taking a pipe from the mantel and prepping it, “Alexia told him of you, Sandy, and of the fae. We also met a… horse.”

“Pony,” Erick corrected with a smirk.

“Right,” Anais said out loud, turning to face the rest of the guild, “the meeting-”

"ALARM! ALARM!" Echoed through the halls and bounced off walls, amplifying it twice over and forced everyone to wince. The entrance that led everyone into the courtyard thundered for a moment, and fell silent as quickly. The echo was gone, the warning was given and Anais looked at everyone as confused as she was.

“Gather your equipment, we leave for the lobby, perhaps others will be there,” Anais announced.

“Is that really necessary?” Alexia asked with a concerned frown.

The ritualist shrugged and shook her head lightly, “Better prepared than not,” she reasoned. The woman shrugged off her shawl and paused as others left to gather their weapons. She told Sandy to wait by the courtyard; they’d only be a minute.

Within minutes, each member had their usual weapons ready. Except for Traxt, who changed his headpiece, the item swirled in white wisps.

“Air?” Cherry inquired with a perked eyebrow, noticing the change.

The Krytan nodded stiffly as the mesmer fell in line with his steps, “Easier than fire after the previous night, I think I’ll stick to this air until I feel better again.”

The mesmer nodded, as they joined the others in the courtyard. Without further discourse, they ambled out the door to the lift, depositing them at the lobby within a few silent minutes.

“What’s going on?” Anais addressed Volker and Rudolf, moving past her guildmates with only Sandy by her side; giving only second notice to the rest starting to assemble on the floor.