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

[Swith Witherward]

ANYPONY KNOW WHERE WE ARE?

Rache's eyes widened at the mention of manufactured clouds. He scrutinized his former perch below, accepting that the spongecake was indeed very not-cloud in texture. This magic was entirely different than the angry, swirling emotional shit that formed his bones. The Daemon hadn't spent a thousand years trapped in a human host without learning a few tricks, however. Concealment was at the top of that skill set; Rache would follow Willow's lead and keep his powers cloaked. This wasn't his dimension and he wasn't about to fuck with whatever pantheon claimed it.

The grey pegasus nodded at Willow's assessment. Were the others here as well? Hans' beloved Chrys, perhaps? Rache peered down, dreading the thought of a Pony-shaped splatter on the soft turf below. But no, they seemed rather alone.

Willow's urgent hiss caused his head to snap back up. Ah, they weren't as alone as first assumed. A quick wing flap brought Rache closer to Willow and the newcomer, a stallion whose armor cast him as a soldier. The Daemonpony's ears laid back as the soldier demanded an accounting and then vaguely hinted at mischief below.

"Lynching?" he echoed Willow's question. Willow had described a friendly, near-utopian monarchy previously... not one capable of hanging sapient species to drive a point home. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. Another quick flap drew him close to the artist's side. If the others accompanied them, chances were high that they might have been picked up by some strange patrol.

"Sir, we've been gone a very long while, taking care of my family's affairs," the daemon spun half-truths into lies, as was his nature, "and, as my friend said, we're lost. We got separated from our companions. My fault. But lynching? When did things get so bad? What's going on down there?"


DAS LOBBY

"Dimitrov? We used to have two of those floating around here," Volker tapped his chin thoughtfully. "In fact, unless my ears deceive me, one of them is yammering away in the dining room... odd, considering they just left yesterday. But who am I to question these things? Still, if you sign the lease, I'll give you permission to go upstairs to see her."

He lowered his hand and pulled an envelope from his breast pocket. "Not only that, but I'll take you to her. Hopefully it's the younger sister. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see me, especially as I just finished sorting the mail from two days ago. She and that winged weirdo will be wanting their marriage license, no doubt."

---

Some collabed stuff...


OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, LET'S AVOID THE FIRE

The Uppers' state saddened the Nifid. The Convocation's rampant totalitarianism, oft loathed by outsiders, served a good purpose when it came to the tumblers under its care. Grimy pockets such as this one would never exist within an established witherward. The children and their parents should be housed in bright, clean quarters in a section where crime couldn't harm them. Ah, but crime? That didn't exist. Not in a population where human beings were a minority, and the rest of the society didn't put up with humanity's social bullshit. No, the Nifid corrected himself, that's not entirely true. Predominantly human witherwards degraded into this sort of hell when the reins slackened or, worse, when the humans tried to enforce their morality on the populace by criminalizing drugs, prostitution and so on.

The Nifid's gaze roved over the junkyard gate. That's what these people were in the eyes of city management - junk. Victims of circumstance, more like it, deserving of all the same opportunities as the city's elite. When things got this dire you sent in the machines to purge the bad elements, starting with the leadership. Rebuild. Repopulate. Spare the contributors and the innocent, turn the criminals' biomaterial into fuel for the machines. Everything would be peachy by time the next generation rolled around.

The sound of the cyborg's teeth grinding pulled Rodney from his asinine thoughts. The xeno politely returned his attention to the conversation at hand, catching on as Mr. Tsiolkovsky waxed on about letting the truck run. The Nifid couldn't help but smile.

"Aw, Thaddikins, poor boo boo lamb, did the big bad junkman touch your stuff? Did he? Awwww," he chirped through the channels, completely forgetting that Septimus was still connected.

Thaddeus resisted the urge to choke the living shit out of his companion. Not here. Not while in the city. His rancor ripped back through the line, however, quieting the nefarious xeno.

The old cyborg's suddenly more-sour-than-usual mood had nothing to do with the truck, though. The love box deprived him of his comms with the warren in the Basement. Adrastus had sent a flurry of verbal messages, as had Marcus. The latest from the abbot confirmed that the young man's tracking signal had vanished. The messages switched to binary from that point forward, a hissing static that rippled through the tether but, thanks to the Nifid's blunt ability to decode, remained unintelligible to Rodney. Each became more distressing, and all focused around the pool and dead construct.

"The least you can do is turn your robot music down and pay attention," the Nifid hissed as he climbed into the cab.

"Diesel, yes," Thaddeus confirmed to Kov with a nod. He hadn't tuned out the conversation around him. "Scrap mechanic? I used to be a bit of the same. Might be back in the next few days to do a little business."

He eased his bulk behind the wheel before voicing a concern that was probably on several people's minds. "Officer Kleo, we need to arrange a means to pay for fuel and ammo. Don't know what passes for money here, although we have some pocket change and other things."



DINING ROOM

Klaus skirted Torii's group. Some things would keep. The young godling didn't need to be told right away. Not here, and not when the moment belonged to Miss Tora. Besides, nothing was confirmed yet. No sense troubling anyone.

The thade and archmandrite were still wrapped up in discussion as he eased into an empty seat at their table.

"Rudolf returned ten minutes ago and confirmed your suspicions about the pool," he murmured to Ocho. "I'm sorry, but if you'd just told me instead of keeping all this shit a mystery, I would have assigned a Man to the damn lizard. Why you would risk the boy's life is - well, gentlemen, it's beyond my ability to grasp."

"This doesn't concern Chaos," the thade grumbled, "it-"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Klaus hissed, "Spare me your bigotry, barrister! This isn't about Chaos. It's about a young man caught in the middle. A young man, I will remind you, that calls one of my pantheon "mother". So that makes me his uncle, in a fashion. I have just as much a right to voice my objections of his mistreatment."

"Mistreatment?!" the thade's hands curled into fists. He bared his teeth as temper neared its boiling point. "Don't you-"

"Don't you start with me, weasel," the avatar's voice lowered to a threatening growl. "You sent him out to die!"

"How dare you accuse me of that," Ocho blanched. "I did no such-"

Adrastus' heavy knuckles rattled the dishes and glasses as he rapped the table to draw their attention. "Gentlemen, table this conversation. A crowded room is hardly the proper venue."

The thade offered a sneer to Klaus before settling back in his seat. Klaus, for his part, behaved as if the conversation hadn't taken place at all. He folded his hands and rested them on a crossed knee.

Bloodshed momentarily avoided, the archmandrite dropped a sugar cube into his coffee and changed topics. "Thaddeus is back in range. He confirmed that it was voluntary on his part. Apparently they had a little trouble getting past the city's checkpoint. I was about to go over the supply needs list. Would you look it over to see if I've missed anything?"

The show had to go on. The change in venue didn't magically grant them all amnesty from daily life. "Ja, sure," Klaus breathed a frustrated sigh. "You have it on a datapad?"...

[Giovenith]

Yuna and Aegis

Cookie frowned upon complete inspection of the two prisoners, shifting her disapproval up at the crowd.

"Fools!" she snapped, causing the first front rows to jerk backward in surprise. A few folded their ears in intimidated bewilderment. "Witches? Witches! Do ya'll see any horns on them?"

Gently, the mare took Yuna's head in her hooves and turned it around to face the crowd. Indeed, a few of the ponies squinted their eyes and tilted their heads in realization that Yuna and Aegis were, in fact, horn-less.

"Did you even look at 'em?" Cookie continued to chastise.

"Uh," the stallion with the hoe up front tapped his cheek nervously. "Maybes, not, quite... but what if'in they made their horns invisible, huh?"

A few ponies in crowd backed him up, thinking this a plausible explanation for their error.

"Invisible horns?" Cookie asked incredulously, narrowing her eyes and clearly not buying that crap. She had begun to almost unconsciously hold Yuna near here, probably more protective of her first given she was a young girl.

"Ya dunno what they can do!" the stallion accused defensively, crossing a foreleg in indignation. "They could'a made their horns invisible and untouchable so we don't burn 'em!"

"Oh ya think I'd buy that for half'a sheck-"

"Even so!" yelled a new voice from the very back. It seized the attention of Cookie and the mob, which parted down the middle to allow for a small bouncing form to make it's way to front and center. It was a tinier mare this time, probably younger than Yuna, whose sherbet orange coat and twisted green hair (in a bow!) gave her a funny, pumpkin-like look to her. Her expression wasn't funny though, harsher and more suspicious than any of the other ponies' there, to the point where even some of those looking on were mumbling in discomfort at her sudden taking of the spotlight.

"Even'if ya wouldn't buy that for half'a sheckle! Even'if!" the little mare protested with all the vehemence and showmanship of a southern preacher, stabbing a front hoof in the air along with her annunciation. "Even'if! I haven't ever seen these two around Groundtown. And I know everypony, and Ah mean everypony! Did'in anypony else ever see these two before? Ya really think we'd sack our neighbors?"

"That don't make 'em witches, Sundae," Cookie narrowed her eyes even further, a warning hiss entering her tone.

"I don't think yeer thinking of our best interests, Smart Cookie," Sundae only rose to Cookie's nonverbal challenge. "Yer just assuming things! And we don't have room for your fancy-pants, no-good, book-headed assumptions here! They can get us dead, they can!"

"Yer just assuming that I'm assuming," Cookie leaned back with a sudden smile. "I'm gonna test 'em, see if they really are witches."

This took Sundae, and the crowd, by surprise, and a flurry of questions erupted.

Cookie quieted the crowd with a raised hoof. "They're Super Secret Ancient Witch-Finding Tests."

"How do you do 'em?" the stallion up front asked.

"Oh but then they wouldn't be a secret, would they?" Cookie dismissed with another hoof wave, lowering her voice and nodding her head in a solemn, serious way.

At this, ponies among the mob exchanged looks, except for Sundae, who kept her glare on Cookie.

"Ya really think we're that st-" she began.

"Makes sense to me!" the stallion up front said with a shrug. He was met by all-around agreement from the crowd, which began to disperse. "We leave it to you, Cookie! Let us know!" One pony stopped to cut Aegis and Yuna's binds away before trotting off themselves. As their wall of bodies cleared away, they revealed many stone and wooden huts around them, showing that the two had been dragged to a village of some sort.

The filly, Sundae, seemed panicked. "Wait! No! Come'en back!" She hopped around after ponies, before turning one back one last time to glare at Cookie helplessly. "Ya'll kill us all, Cookie! Kill us!" she spat in a trembling voice, before running off to who-knew-where.

Cookie merely rolled her eyes, then opened the door to her cabin for her two new guests. "Come inside, honeycombs. Ya two must be mighty cold," she said in a kind voice.


Brit and Chrys

The unicorn hushed the two girls suddenly as soft voices indeed emerged from some of the trees.

"Where did'in she go?!"

"I dunno, you were watching for her!"

"We better not'a lost her! We can't handle losing a whole dayum bag!"

Two earth ponies emerged from the trees, apparently twins due to their similar coloring. One was wielding a pitchfork and the other a long switch, and although they were walking about furiously in search, they didn't seem to notice the three unicorns.

"Come out, come out, where ever ya are little witchy gal," one of them called out. "I, uh- got some nice shiny things in my pocket! I reeeeeeeally do! It's the truth! I'll give 'em to ya if ya just give back the bag!"

Apparently this wasn't so much a taunt as it was the Earth pony genuinely thought that promises of "shiny things" would lead the unicorn mare out of her hiding place, but only earned an eyeroll from the escapee. The Earth pony's twin unwittingly shared their prey's sentiment, giving her sister a quick lash of the switch across the back of her head.

"Ow! Wat?!"

"You stupid?!" the twin snapped. "She ain't gonna want yer damn dinner spoon! Witches got finer tastes than that!"

"Ah'm just tryin' to help!"

"Well yer helping is stupid!"

As the two bickered, the unicorn turned to Brit and Chrys and pointed to the ponies. "That's them. Do not worry darlings, I have a trick or two up my sleeve," she reassured in a twinkling, proud little voice, before kneeling down and touching her horn to the ground. "I learned this at the boutique, very useful for dealing with savages."

An aura surrounded her horn, as it did with Equestrian unicorns, and a small line of light ran from it, into the snow, and across the ground toward the two arguing ponies, who didn't yet notice it.

"Wait," the snippier Earth pony suddenly silence her sister with a hoof to the mouth. "... Ya smell that? ... Exotic oils."

The light in the snow settled in one spot.

"They're there!" the pony suddenly pointed out to the spot where the three were, raising her switch in action. "Get 'em! Come back, I only wanna cut you a little!"

According to the unicorn's plan, the mare took a step forward, meaning to charge after the three, but unwittingly stepped into the light. The ground below her exploded suddenly and violently, sending the pony tumbling high through the air like a rag doll, flight ceased prematurely when she slammed into a tree trunk torso-first, sliding down against the scratchy branches and plopping motionless onto the snow.

"Sassafrass!" her twin yelped in shock, dropping her pitchfork and rushing to the other Earth pony's aid.

"Ha haaaaaaa!~" the unicorn cheered herself triumphantly, dashing along quickly toward the mountainside again. "Come girls! Quickly now, this is our chance!"


Rache and Willow

"The mud-dwellers are getting stingy with their produce," the pegasus explained, not realizing that this was meaningless to Willow and the daemon. "I will take you back to the city. You really must stay within, it is Commander's orders. There is only so much horsepower to keep track of straggling flyers."

He then rose back into the air and began to fly in another direction, expecting the two other pegasi to follow. Willow looked to Rache before nodding and following the soldier, judging that it was probably safe. You could generally trust guards in Equestria. Throughout the flight, the artist prodded the other pony with questions, either oblivious to or ignoring his stoicness and nonverbal lack of desire to be talked to.

"So, like, about our companions? You're going to help look for them right?" Willow asked, trying to force a smile.

"What do they look like?" the other pony asked, not as amused.

Willow paused, realizing he had no way of explaining that. He didn't know what his friends would have looked like in pony form, and he wasn't about to try and explain humans to the other pegasus. "Um, I, uh, think you'll recognize them when you see them. It's hard to describe, they're... strange folks."

"I would assume."

"Why isn't your armor gold?"

"Excuse me?"

"All of Celestia's forces I've seen have gold armor. And fancier."

"Who is Celestia?"

Here Willow stopped mid-flight, staring dumbfoundedly at the other pony as he flew some paces ahead, before he realized that the artist had stopped following and flew back to the two looking annoyed. "We don't have time for this, the blizzard could start back up any time, then we really will be lost." He flew behind Willow and gave him a gentle nudge forward, which got the painter back into motion.

"Blizzard?" Willow raised an eye, suddenly coming to a conclusion with a satisfied smile. "Oh, I get it, I get it. This is one of those historical-themed parks where the workers aren't allowed to break character, and you're doing a Hearth's Warming Eve theme because it's winter."

"What?" it was the soldier's turn to stop in confusion. His tone indicated he wasn't used to this kind of talk.

"And when we get to the "city," you're going to all be dressed up, and Commander Hurricane will be there screaming at ponies, and Private Pansy will be doing something funny, I get it," Willow patted the pegasus's shoulder, seeming very assured of himself. The Building-resident pony was having a bit of a, what some pop culture savvy individuals might describe as an, Agent Scully moment. "I get it, no, we'll play along. You go right on ahead and lead the way."

"You are friends with Private Pansy of 24th square?"

"Sure, of course, we're all friends here. Go on, go on, play your part!"

The soldier stared at Willow, then looked at Rache, then looked back at Willow. It was a very distinct possibility he was wondering whether or not Willow had been fed alcohol as a baby, but he kept those thoughts to himself and flew on ahead, this time some paces away from the two to avoid having to listen to any more of Willow's weird questions and declarations.

Eventually, the mists cleared again and the three came upon more manufactured cloud. This time though, it was far from a mere sidewalk, it was the beginning area of a complete city, just as the nameless pegasus guard had said. Everything was made of cloud, though some of it was packed so tightly together that it was near indistinguishable from solid wall. The architecture was reminiscent of classical Greece, but the streets were empty and dreary with very few pedestrians in sight.

"I know where Private Pansy is handling duties," the pegasus finally said to the two. "If your family is friends with her's, that would be useful?"

"Oh yeah, sure, I'd like to see Private Pansy," Willow agreed casually but amiably.

[Mincaldenteans]

Primordial - Feasting
“Well then it’s a pleasure to make both of acquaintance.” Primordial said to both of them before explaining “I have been better than usual with this sudden transition. You see I am somewhat of an expert in transuniversal travel so this entire thing has been a nice experience for me. I’m planning a few expedition around this world as well as doing large amounts of research into the various exotic aspect of this strange place.”

Primordial took another sip of a foul acidic smelling liquid he was carrying as Sterling explained about Equestria a place which he had only a passing relation with. He had tried to help Willow return their at one point with less than optimal results, he had gotten a book on equestria magic out of it but for someone without a horn it was nearly useless. Still it had shed some baleful lights on the entire realm of horse based arcane powers one which he was sure he could use to his advantage in the future if he could procure some normal equines.

“Anyway the reason I came over was because I’m trying to better coordinate our metaphysical forces and assets. As you are both aware the number of intrinsic field manipulators and higher reality openers among our party is quite high. In addition our settings are very arcanotech sensitive. So in an effort to not only better use our sorcerers and magicians, as well as avoid any unwanted supernatural disasters, I wanted to talk to each of you about the unknown art. Namely how do you use it, how does it work, and any other important details. Once I have a good log of everybody's abilities I can call on you when a task comes up that you would specialize in.”

A good portion of the advanced vocabulary that Primordial was using flew right over Sterlings head at first, not being used to such, well, technical terminology for magical things. But he did get the jist of what Primordial wanted from them, which was their magical abilities and how their magic worked. Sterling would be happy to explain that!

"Oh well, Equestrian magic is almost an expression of our connection to nature and control over it. Pegasi have power to direct weather, winds, other things to do with the air, et cetera. Earth ponies' magic is more intrinsic to their being. They're much stronger and able to grow things better than any of the other races. Some are good at mining and detecting where precious materials are. Unicorn magic is the most... Arcane, I believe the term is? We use it to manipulate objects mostly, something I've heard humans call telekinesis. We're experts in finding gems and creating enchantments, but as a rule ponies are best at things associated with their inborn talent. More advanced unicorns than myself, or those gifted in magic itself, can things such as even travel through time, but the stronger the magic the riskier it is if it fails. I don't quite know how we perform it,. other than focus the natural magic from our body and surroundings in our bodies, and exert it through various apendages. Earth ponies mostly through their hooves and limbs, Unicorns their horns, and Pegasi their wings."

Sterling stopped for a moment to take a breath, before continuing on to his own talents."My talent is mostly in organization. I can almost naturally and innately see how best to organize something at any given moment for the success of it. I mostly use this to maintain my library back in Equestria, but I suppose it has other uses as well. I only really can do two advanced level spells Telekinesis and Teleportation. Since my job involves moving many objects around, I'm best at manipulating objects and tossing them. I'm unsure just how much I could lift, but boulders haven't bothered me too much before. With teleportation, its basically just this." The pony focused on a spot the other side of the room for a moment, then his horn flashed blue and he was suddenly on the other side of the room, looking a bit tired from it. He trotted back and sat down again. "I have to see where I'm going, and it takes a lot out of me. But with practice I'm sure I'll improve!"

Anais' polite smile soften for Sterling's attempt at the return salute; she appreciated the pony's effort and didn't have the heart to tell Sterling her graceful bow in greeting was due in part to necessity, and later, became habit indistinguishable to her personality.

"Dwayna's Vigilant," she replied to his question,"that is the name of our guild. Recently, I've been appointed as its leader. We, too, haven't been among the Residents very long; I don't think we were in Bielefeld for more than thirty days before we ended up here... wherever 'here' is, but we've assisted wherever we can thus far. In fact, they're right there," she gestured toward her group that tucked themselves at the far end of a corner with Dan & Hunter. The Ritualist offered the pony, "perhaps I can introduce you to them later. And you as well," she said to Primordial.

She listened on to Sterling, noting his enthusiasm to improve and instinctively thought about Kale, and how distraught she atop the roof, huddled within herself. No art was easy to learn and she wondered how many of among them faced similar challenges. Her own guild had their own myriad of disadvantages, herself included. Time and patience were perhaps the most difficult to master out of learning the arts, she wondered how many would be willing to be guided. Breaking out of her thoughts with respect to Sterling and Primordial, she found that she had played with her salad, halfway eaten and halfway forgotten. She set back upon her salad, crunching on a lukewarm slice of apple from her bowl that was tossed with baby greens, small fruits, and lightly dressed in a sweet citrus vinaigrette. The pervading smell did little to deter her appetite, though it didn't mingle itself well with the scent of her own food.

What Anais wasn't prepared for was Primordial's to his apparent objective; the feast at large had given a different ambiance and thus the ritualist had felt matters were put to rest for the next day. Anais set her fork down and explained in case the pony hadn't been briefed in current matters. "Moments after we were deposited here, there was an attack. A village nearby sought shelter and we provided aide and defense. As far as I know, we've yet to come together past some initial planning. Who, what, why and if it will happen again remain largely unanswered."

She listened on to Primordial and there was presumption to his words the ritualist didn't appreciate. Some of what he said made sense to her, but only because it was interchangeable with other words taught within similar disciplines or translated easily enough to understand. What baffled her the most was who had put him in charge of the resident magical community and why. By right, she didn't know Primordial, and a pastoral description of her arts would have been polite, but it wouldn't answer her own misgivings. If anything, she would have expected this inquiry from Minerva or Sandy, two individuals that she had shared tea and worth directly with, respectively. While the need to be prepared was certainly understandable, like any person that practiced the arts, authority was earned and respected, and put plainly, practitioners had their own egos. Anais was no different, though she tempered it with well practiced caution.

"Who," she asked succinctly, "has tasked you to catalog those knowledgeable of their arts?"

[The BranRiech]

"Ah, of course." Drova sighed, straightening himself back out in front of Torii, trying to keep his eyes from drawing any lower than her chin. While there was always a time and place to admire someone's form, greeting them after a time away wasn't that time. "It wasn't my greatest moment." He nodded, trying to brush it off as nothing too serious. Now that Torii was back, the fight had proved itself rather pointless considering her absence was the main catalyst. "And Torii . . . It's wonderful to see you again. Uh, I hate to ask now." He muttered.

Coughing slightly, Drova considered how to proceed for a moment.

"Torii, will you go on . . . A-uh . . . A date? A date with me?"

His darkened cheeks showed signs of slight blush. "We could watch the stars on the roof?"

--

"Oh, uh . . . Yes, please and thank you." Yuna softly whispered, too paralyzed to even think about making any sudden movements.

She didn't even know the other pony she was dropped off with, appearing next to her out of nowhere as well. Was he a resident from their apartment? She'd never really gotten to know any of the Luxans, actually, probably better off not knowing how depraved she would have considered them. Yuna shakily followed Cookie inside, her eyes darting to and fro, from Cookie, to the dispersing crowd, and back again in a cycle of fear and confusion.

"W-we aren't witches, right?" She leaned over to Aegis, whispering into his ears. "I-I'm not, at least I think?"

With a curt nod as the 'leader' of this group of peasants held the door open, Yuna stepped inside the small cottage.

[Giovenith]

"That's a great idea, Kale," Giovenith nodded, settling a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Your powers will be priceless to us during this time, any other knowledge you have too. Have you already talked to the big people about this, or do you need some help?"

Catching the words of the romantic moment between Drova and Torii, Giovenith gently pulled Kale and herself backward with a smile to give them some space, knowing these sorts of things were best left uninterrupted. Grown ups were yelling somewhere, but she too shielded all of them from that, knowing better than to get involved.

Yuna and Aegis

"Oh of course not, dearie," Cookie reassured, closing the door to keep the cold out. "Anypony can see you're just regular ol' Earth ponies. Don't worry about those folks, they ain't bad ponies, really, they're just scared. Well, 'cept for maybe Sundae, who's scared and bad, but she's harmless. Here, I'll share some of my tea with you, it'll help ya calm down."

The suited pony lead the other two to some dusty but well-fluffed pillows to rest on while she made her way to the fireplace, atop of which a kettle was cooking. The room was largely empty save for the sitting area, the fireplace, two desks across from each other both covered in papers (one much more organized than the other), and a staircase leading to the upper floor of the cabin. Cookie poked around the embers a few times before nipping a cloth and gently taking her kettle from the fire, bringing it to the organized desk to pour it into two small tin cups.

"Ya know, part of this is what I don't understand 'bout it," she remarked to the other two while pouring. "Not only is burnin' ponies terrible all by itself, but we don't even got the wood necessary to burn somepony. We need to save as much of it as possible to keep warm, the trees are becoming harder to strip every day, and them block-heads wanna go 'round executing unicorns by fire. It's madness, but starvin'll do that to ya. Here's yer tea, honeycombs."

Cookie gave Aegis and Yuna both their tea, which was in very small dose, but would be warm and sweet. The pony sat down in front of the two, pulled off her hat for politeness sake, and smiled.

"So, Ah know yer clearly not unicorns," she said with a small chuckle. "Or pegasuseseses for that matter. But Sundae was right about one thing, I ain't ever seen you two round here before. D'you mind explaining yerselves just a bit? I can introduce you to myself first. My name is Smart Cookie, I'm the secretary for the current Chancellor of Groundtown. You two?"

[Primordial Luxa]

Aegis in horseland
Aegis was relieved at Smart Cookies consistent opposition to the bloodthirsty mob which seemed unusually intent on roasting something. It reeked of underlying tension and other problems. Aegis had been on the wrong end of enough pitchforks to know when people were scared of witches and when witches were just the scapegoat. That Sundae character however seemed like a quiet an enemy and he made a mental note to keep an eye out for her particular combination of mane and fur color.

However, at this moment he had other problems namely trying to stay upright on his four legs which took quite a large amount of mental acrobatics. He was not used to using all of his limbs for motion unless there was barbed wire or bullets over his head. But as Cookie invited them into her house he was able to figure out a couple of tricks to not fall over his own limbs. “Thank you miss...Cookie” he said awkwardly with an overly long tongue “Really, you have no idea how much we appreciate your saving us.”

He gave Yuna a glance that expressed his desire for her to follow along “Were...not from around here...we rarely see other...ponies so forgive us for being so out of it but all of this is very strange for us.” Aegis was trying to come up with some good excuses for their strange behavior and the questions they were bound to have early on. He hoped that feigning foreignness would excuse a bit of their ignorance. “My name is Aegis and this is Yuna.” Aegis feared that if he tried to drink the tea his new form and its foreign nature would lead to a mess and questions which he didn't think he could rightly answerer so he ignored it.

Primordial Feasting
Primordial listened and watched intently as Sterling described and then demonstrated his abilities. As he did so Primordial filled the the blanks with bits that he already knew about the horses but also liked the wordage Sterling used since it added context which instruction manuals lacked. It was also helpful to see these things in personnel and he thought he detected traces of hypergeometic chaos principles during the sudden flash of Sterling's teleportation. Something which revealed a little about how he travelled and Primordial mused out loud “A very skillful teleportation if I do say so myself.”

“Telekinesis is one of my own gifts and I must say it is easily among the most powerful skills any creature can possess. A foolish understanding of it would be to merely move things around, but if you're creative you’ll find that you can use that in a variety of incredibly powerful ways. Telekinetic surgery, spatial senses, even flight. But the real fun stuff is when you can take the movements down to the atomic and sum-atomic level, moving just atoms allows you to transmute things or cause all sorts of chemical reactions. Leng, I bet that teleportation could be just a very focused version of telekinesis where you bend space around you or move yourself with atomic precision.”

“But know I’m rambling, please forgive me. If your powers are based around organization and natural intrinsic fields then I think I have lots of things you could help me with. I want to try and make contact with the nearby Fey soon and their ties to nature may make your gifts very useful. Also i’m planning on combining several magic users power into a series of protective charms and some magical organization would really help bring the whole thing together. Would you be up for helping me with either of those?”

He then turned with a smile to Anais to answer her questions while after saying that he would love to be introduced to Dan and Hunter. “As to who sent me, no one really. Minerva planted the idea in my head but i’ve been sitting on top plans ever since we got sent here. I was going to do with the other Luxans but since they're all busy I figured I try and reach out to other like minded individuals.” His tone changed to a more sincere one as he detected Anais’s hesitancy and reserve towards him. He knew he could be abrasive and assertive but he never meant it in a vain or derogatory way and he tried to convey that in his tone. “I understand, I’m not doing this under any authority but my own but I do possess a lot of experience with the esoteric and metaphysical as well as people. So I sincerely hope the both of you could give me a bit of trust to help improve the life of our entire group through some collective magic.”

[New Aksarben]

"Sandy-Human was talk-saying about dimension-travel before interruption?" HE reminded the human with a nod. "Can explain more-thing about Force later. Though, how know about Jedi? Especially from other dimension?"

Sandy turned towards Maghrl, nodded, and took another deep breath: this was going to take a while. He took a drink of his wine, and then started into a cocktail party lecture.

"What I said originally was that Earth doesn't have faster than light travel, but we do have a little dimensional travel. So, how do we do that? Our spaceships fly with technology. We travel between dimensions with magic. I know a spell that will let me take a few people to other dimensions. The Building was moved with stronger magic, much stronger magic."

"Our landlord is O. C. Demens. He is a god... no, something greater than a god. As I said, my cosmology is a bit weak. In any case, he moved the Building between dimensions with magic." Sandy paused, letting them take that in before hitting them with the parts that may be difficult to accept. "The Building is part of Demens. Exactly how, I don't understand, but it is. The world we're in now, Gallimaufry, is Demens' private domain, along with the entire dimension. Nothing enters unless he wants it do."

Sandy glanced between Maghrl's and Asdra's faces, seeing if they were buying this. He probably wouldn't believe it himself, if he didn't have the Sight and knowledgeable people he could trust. He gave them a bit of time to mull it over while he sipped his wine, looking at them over the wineglass as he did.

Sandy put down his glass and continued. "Let me tie off a couple other questions you asked while you think about that. We know about the Jedi and the Old Republic because, well, it seems somebody traveled from your dimension to ours and brought us the information. It was presented as fiction rather fact, however. But what you're telling me agrees with what I've heard, so apparently the stories were well grounded in truth. This isn't the first time that's happened, so don't feel slighted by it." He shrugged apologetically at Maghrl: these things happened, and nobody was to blame for them.

He let Maghrl's complaint about the Force not being magic go unanswered. He'd demonstrate their equivalence eventually, but that was something for another time.

""Well, I am what's called a Runesmith." She took out her rune hammer. "I am able to empower objects made of metal with special properties depending on what rune I happen to use." She explained. "It's kinda complicated but that's the basically the jist of it."

Sandy turned his attention to the tool Asdra was displaying. He carefully studied the runes enchanting it with his Sight, noting their individual color-combinations and music. He was pleasantly surprised that each one reminded him most of the Anvil Chorus from Il trovatore: music for hammer and anvil, ringing and bright.

A smile slowly dawned on his face as a twinkle came to his eyes: this was altogether a new form of magic-working. "I'd ask you a great many questions about your craft, but I think that would be rude at our first meeting. We'll have to compare notes at some point: I'm a sorceror."

Maghrl thought about what he was told for a bit while the other two spoke. So, his universe was considered fiction to the people of the universe that he'd arrived in. That was such an odd idea, and made it seem like his universe was trivial. However, what if the same was true for things in his universe? There were indeed fictional stories abound, with the population of the galaxy in quadrillions in some areas. Such a massive population made it easy to sell such a huge variety of different fiction. There were even studies of ancient religions, mythos, and stories. Most people in the modern galaxy weren't overly religious, with some exceptions. Plenty considered belief in the philosophies of the force their own religions, and there were ancient ones on various worlds that hadn't gone out of style with the march of progress. And like always, cults were a thing civilized planets contended with. So Maghrl could guess that it would be possible with infinite multiverses that in some other, his world was pure fiction? He'd hvae to confirm just how accurate this fiction was someday. But the last thing that Sandy said made the Jedi's fur bristle in agitation.

"Wait, Sandy Sorcerer?" He asked, very obviously agitated even for those who were not familiar with squib body language. "Sorcerer not good-thing in Maghrl's place. Associated with Darkness-Side... Maghrl hope Sorcerer mean something else where Sandy from." The squib idly tried focusing his attention on the Sorcerer, curious if he'd have any affect on the Force or not. Maybe his magic came from a different source? And how many of the residents could use magic? He'd assumed that something similar to force use was relatively rare, even inside of his galaxy. The Squib slowly moved his lightsaber back into his hand, eyeing Sandy warily. Sorcerer was a word only associated with Sith in the history he knew.

---------------

Primordial Feasting
Primordial listened and watched intently as Sterling described and then demonstrated his abilities. As he did so Primordial filled the the blanks with bits that he already knew about the horses but also liked the wordage Sterling used since it added context which instruction manuals lacked. It was also helpful to see these things in personnel and he thought he detected traces of hypergeometic chaos principles during the sudden flash of Sterling's teleportation. Something which revealed a little about how he travelled and Primordial mused out loud “A very skillful teleportation if I do say so myself.”

“Telekinesis is one of my own gifts and I must say it is easily among the most powerful skills any creature can possess. A foolish understanding of it would be to merely move things around, but if you're creative you’ll find that you can use that in a variety of incredibly powerful ways. Telekinetic surgery, spatial senses, even flight. But the real fun stuff is when you can take the movements down to the atomic and sum-atomic level, moving just atoms allows you to transmute things or cause all sorts of chemical reactions. Leng, I bet that teleportation could be just a very focused version of telekinesis where you bend space around you or move yourself with atomic precision.”

“But know I’m rambling, please forgive me. If your powers are based around organization and natural intrinsic fields then I think I have lots of things you could help me with. I want to try and make contact with the nearby Fey soon and their ties to nature may make your gifts very useful. Also i’m planning on combining several magic users power into a series of protective charms and some magical organization would really help bring the whole thing together. Would you be up for helping me with either of those?”

He then turned with a smile to Anais to answer her questions while after saying that he would love to be introduced to Dan and Hunter. “As to who sent me, no one really. Minerva planted the idea in my head but i’ve been sitting on top plans ever since we got sent here. I was going to do with the other Luxans but since they're all busy I figured I try and reach out to other like minded individuals.” His tone changed to a more sincere one as he detected Anais’s hesitancy and reserve towards him. He knew he could be abrasive and assertive but he never meant it in a vain or derogatory way and he tried to convey that in his tone. “I understand, I’m not doing this under any authority but my own but I do possess a lot of experience with the esoteric and metaphysical as well as people. So I sincerely hope the both of you could give me a bit of trust to help improve the life of our entire group through some collective magic.”

The pony was always happy to tell about anything people wished to Discuss, it was part of being a librarian and himself, so he obviously didn't share Anais' misgivings. He listened to Primordial's words to him before nodding in agreement with the last notion. "Yeah, that sounds wonderful. I do love helping others. Its one reason Equestria is as nice as it is, ponies helping other ponies! But that Teleport was nothing special. I've seen some unicorns teleport miles and miles away! I'm still limited by line of sight, or visualization of the intended location. Otherwise It would be easy to, say, materialize inside of something else. There's no coming back from that kind of end." He said with a bit of a shudder. "And yes, Telekinesis is very useful. Though, I'm not sure how well I can finely control it. I've never attempted to, well, change what something is by moving? I don't even see how that would be possible. But my organization could help! I'd need a bit of idea of what I'm working with but with enough focus and effort I could for sure make it as efficient as possible!

"However, I do have a big question. What's a Fey? I'm not sure if Equestria has anything like that, but if it does a bit of detail about them might be able to give me an idea of what they'd be. Also, what are atoms? Never heard of that word either!" Equestria was in an equivalent of the early industrializing era of humanity, but nothing like atoms had ever been thought of as existing. Magic meant science tended to focus more on that realm rather than the completely physical one. Plus having magic meant they didn't have to really worry about things like atoms. Pegasi being able to make things rain at will meant they'd never even needed to invent fertilizer beyond manure!

[Swith Witherward]

Rache and Willow

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. The wind took Rache's sigh. It was rapidly becoming apparent that this wasn't Willow's familiar home. The soldier's ignorance regarding the god-queen Celestia drove the point home. Rache's brow furrowed as he watched Willow struggle to rationalize the bitter news. He had only a few morsels of information to go on, and those had been casually imparted during friendly chats rather than an intensive discussion about the pony's dimension. The soldier's body language communed a whole other tale.

"Damn, Willow, you hit that cloud harder than I thought," Rache clunked his head against the other pony's in what he hoped would be interpreted as a friendly giving the elbow. His eyes conveyed a different message, however, widening slightly in silent plea. The more Willow talked, the harder it would be to pass themselves off as belonging. This wasn't any amusement park. It wasn't costumed characters playing a role. If pegasus controlled the weather with their magic, why would being caught in a blizzard matter? More questions filled his head as they flew along, and he vowed to ask them once he and Willow were alone.

"I don't know if Private Pansy would remember me," he shook his mane for emphasis. "Why, she was just a tiny foal when I last saw her. I can't even recall what she looked like."

[Mincaldenteans]

Primordial Feasting
Primordial listened and watched intently as Sterling described and then demonstrated his abilities. As he did so Primordial filled the the blanks with bits that he already knew about the horses but also liked the wordage Sterling used since it added context which instruction manuals lacked. It was also helpful to see these things in personnel and he thought he detected traces of hypergeometic chaos principles during the sudden flash of Sterling's teleportation. Something which revealed a little about how he travelled and Primordial mused out loud “A very skillful teleportation if I do say so myself.”

“Telekinesis is one of my own gifts and I must say it is easily among the most powerful skills any creature can possess. A foolish understanding of it would be to merely move things around, but if you're creative you’ll find that you can use that in a variety of incredibly powerful ways. Telekinetic surgery, spatial senses, even flight. But the real fun stuff is when you can take the movements down to the atomic and sum-atomic level, moving just atoms allows you to transmute things or cause all sorts of chemical reactions. Leng, I bet that teleportation could be just a very focused version of telekinesis where you bend space around you or move yourself with atomic precision.”

“But know I’m rambling, please forgive me. If your powers are based around organization and natural intrinsic fields then I think I have lots of things you could help me with. I want to try and make contact with the nearby Fey soon and their ties to nature may make your gifts very useful. Also i’m planning on combining several magic users power into a series of protective charms and some magical organization would really help bring the whole thing together. Would you be up for helping me with either of those?”

He then turned with a smile to Anais to answer her questions while after saying that he would love to be introduced to Dan and Hunter. “As to who sent me, no one really. Minerva planted the idea in my head but i’ve been sitting on top plans ever since we got sent here. I was going to do with the other Luxans but since they're all busy I figured I try and reach out to other like minded individuals.” His tone changed to a more sincere one as he detected Anais’s hesitancy and reserve towards him. He knew he could be abrasive and assertive but he never meant it in a vain or derogatory way and he tried to convey that in his tone. “I understand, I’m not doing this under any authority but my own but I do possess a lot of experience with the esoteric and metaphysical as well as people. So I sincerely hope the both of you could give me a bit of trust to help improve the life of our entire group through some collective magic.”

The pony was always happy to tell about anything people wished to Discuss, it was part of being a librarian and himself, so he obviously didn't share Anais' misgivings. He listened to Primordial's words to him before nodding in agreement with the last notion. "Yeah, that sounds wonderful. I do love helping others. Its one reason Equestria is as nice as it is, ponies helping other ponies! But that Teleport was nothing special. I've seen some unicorns teleport miles and miles away! I'm still limited by line of sight, or visualization of the intended location. Otherwise It would be easy to, say, materialize inside of something else. There's no coming back from that kind of end." He said with a bit of a shudder. "And yes, Telekinesis is very useful. Though, I'm not sure how well I can finely control it. I've never attempted to, well, change what something is by moving? I don't even see how that would be possible. But my organization could help! I'd need a bit of idea of what I'm working with but with enough focus and effort I could for sure make it as efficient as possible!

"However, I do have a big question. What's a Fey? I'm not sure if Equestria has anything like that, but if it does a bit of detail about them might be able to give me an idea of what they'd be. Also, what are atoms? Never heard of that word either!" Equestria was in an equivalent of the early industrializing era of humanity, but nothing like atoms had ever been thought of as existing. Magic meant science tended to focus more on that realm rather than the completely physical one. Plus having magic meant they didn't have to really worry about things like atoms. Pegasi being able to make things rain at will meant they'd never even needed to invent fertilizer beyond manure!

"Dan is a fae," Anais supplied with a light gesture that rang more chittin fragments from the bangle of her left wrist toward his direction across the dining room and continued, "As I understand it, they're beings tied to nature in some respect. He calls himself Summerborn, though he's inclined to identify himself as a being of Spring." The beads in her headpiece clanked lightly as she shook her head, "You'd have to ask him. If there's other fae nearby, he'd be delighted to know, he's let slip once or twice that he misses home and knowing his kin are among us would give him some solace," Anais trailed off, taking a glance his way for a moment, though the young fae hadn't notice, too engrossed in conversation with the rest at his table.

She continued after a moment, "I'm not entirely sure if that means he's similar to those nearby, however, but it stands to reason he might have some insight on how to recognize and communicate with them. Perhaps bring him along if you intend to contact the fey?

"Which brings me back to your intentions," Anais turned to look at Primordial, "While I can certainly understand curiosity for the sake of knowledge, I cannot simply outright hand over information regarding the intricacies of my own discipline, nor would any in my guild volunteer so freely. I am their leader, bound to protect them and vise versa as sworn by being a member. When you asked to catalog, it feels more of an appraisal rather than the care it deserves - the person and the art. I'm not incline to reveal how my abilities work, nor why, though I will say I've been in the healer's group since its inception if that's not already been established. Please understand, it isn't a question of your experience, knowledge, capability, or ability to make this happen, but magic is malleable and cannot be classified so easily."

The ritualist wasn't trying to be offensive, nor was she posturing. Simple fact being she didn't know the person, nor had he once even his name, and found it difficult to disclose anything when there were two other capable leaders sitting in the same room.

Not want to deter Primordial's ambition to unify the casters among the residents, Anais suggested with a softer, sympathetic smile, "Perhaps a conclave would be constructive, beneficial even, We have practitioners that are curious to know about other disciplines of magic, as well as plenty who could stand to learn control and moderation. A workshop of sorts would help establish dialogue between the varied practitioners and foster a bond rather than a detached approach to quantify and qualify each individual based on utility."

[Northwest Slobovia]

"And as for your friend's armor," she rubbed her chin with a gloved finger, its metal knuckled mimicking the movement in front of her face, "Well, up to you guys, I suppose. Been too hard on you, and if the Judge saw fit to let you go then you can't be that bad. But if any of your friends has a problem with you getting your armor back, Mr. Aphrodisiac, I'll be glad to keep it until you guys leave the city. Wouldn't want to have anymore... incidents."

“Incidents are what concerns me, Officer Kleo,” Amanda picked up the conversational thread matter of factly. “I don’t mind so much that he has his armor, so long as I’m nowhere near him at the time. I don’t want to end up as collateral damage.”

Romulus cocked his head towards the lawyer, increasingly becoming annoyed with her, and taking a little offense from her comment. Guess it was now or never apparently.

“How much do I have to make this clear; do you even have an idea of who I am? You’re honestly going to feel that way towards me, to one simple mistake I made at the checkpoint? Which either of us could have just as likely could have committed? At least I didn’t make matters even worse back there, unlike other people.” He eyed the Luxan.

Amanda looked at him in incredulity. “Which is it: that who you are matters somehow, or that this is a mistake either one of us could make?? Because I’m certain neither my law degree nor my passport matters in the slightest to anybody here. Aaaand, somehow, I seem to have left my military hardware at home.”

The General was quick to reply. “Lady, I am the General of Wilhelm XXIX, I obviously matter. And can’t you understand what symbolism I have to have for that, to make sure I look legitimate? My armor does more than simply protect you see. And even if that weren’t the case, I couldn’t expect the City to be quite this… Sort of prepared. I needed to be cautious, and my equipment is very dangerous in the hands of the untrained.”

Amanda listened closely to Romulus, nodded once, and then spoke crisply. “OK: you want to argue that you matter. I hear you.”

She paused for a second, groping for phrasing. She’d prefer to simply pop his presumption, but he did matter: he was another of Demens’ Chosen. Her voice softened. “Who you are matters, not your emperor or your empire. Demens brought you, not them. You shouldn’t expect any assistance from them here: Demens controls the only ways into this dimension. So if he wanted you to have a familiar army to command or a familiar voice to guide you, you would have them. You do not.”

“You matter as much as I do, or Septimus does, or any of the other Residents do. You get no special treatment beyond that. The Border Police do not need or want to care beyond that: they need to protect the people of Ascalon. None of us expected to find their checkpoint on the road to Ascalon. Nor did we expect to find it militarized. But the rest of us adapted to that. You didn’t: you acted like you were at home, despite the obvious fact that you’re not. I would have expected a general to be more flexible, to be able to adapt to changing conditions on the battlefield. Apparently, I’m wrong about that.” She shook her head. “But perhaps the change is too much for anybody to adapt to in so short a time.”

That struck a chord in him. The General wanted to deny all of that, he really wanted to. He didn’t trust the lawyer as it was, and he definitely didn’t want to trust her now. He be damned if he let his loyalty to Wilhelm, his Imperium, and Maccabees waver, who is she to say they didn’t matter? She probably comes from a democracy for crying out loud, what would she even know of what he was? He gritted his teeth and tense, he was losing calm fast.

“Don’t you DARE say the Wilhelm I serve for 17 years proudly, nor my home doesn’t matter! I am chosen by no one but him! As he was only chosen by Maccabees, no one else! I can assure you all, that by the end of all of this, I will return home. The Wilhelm Imperium will persevere, and I am the Wilhelm Imperium, as long as I remain right here, right now! ” He beat his chest with a fist in a proud, prideful manner. His facial expressions began to relax though, he really needed to get that out. He breathed in.

“I-I’ve been fighting, nonstop… For 17 years, getting sent to campaign after campaign, even up to fighting alongside my predecessor, General Titus Everest.” He paused, breathing in again. “All I want to do now is get the things we came for, get out of here, kill those motherfuckin’ Fiends, then find a way to get home. Okay. And yeah I know, ‘I was chosen,’ well I’m going to try anyway, even if I spend my life trying.” His anger had finally gotten to calm by the end of his words. Home was the only that could drive him to still work with these people. He wanted to sit down somewhere now.

Amanda had clenched her fist in frustration by her side. It seemed that Romulus had utterly failed to understand the situation, and she was going to have to try a different approach, but the general seemed to be talking himself down. She relaxed, trying her best to work with him, despite the apparent difficulties. Sympathy might work. For a change, she could, in fact, identify with what one of her guilty clients was saying: home was still Philadelphia.

Amanda nodded again, this time with understanding, not acknowledgement; her voice was friendly. “I understand, General. I want to go home some of the time too. But we’re stuck here, and we’re going to have to make do the best we can. There are more of the locals than there are of us. We’re going to have to play their game now. OK?” She looked at him squarely but with a lowered face, seeking consensus and understanding, not argument.

He looked down at her, starting to feel more as he was before they gotten to the checkpoint, fine. But it still bothered him that she was almost content to throw him under the bus earlier at the Judge’s Palace. He still couldn’t have complete trust of her for that, it was still an insult he shouldn’t allow. But now they have to come to a much more greater understanding of each other than they ever did before, he was willing to let that incident slide, for now. But if she does something like that to him again, especially if it were for something less, he won’t give her another chance.

“Fine. But I prefer I do it in the comfort of my suit right now. And don’t do what you did back there at the Palace again, with what you said. I would preferred not to get discarded, thank you very much, don’t make that be a habit.” He answered her. Still being unable to conclude what exactly she is was, his thoughts remained unsure.

“Discarded?” It took Amanda a second to make the connection. “No, I didn’t intend that. A misunderstanding and a mistake on my part. But we’ll need to clear that up a bit later.” She jutted her chin in Kleo’s direction to make her meaning plain. “But if we can avoid any more misunderstandings like we had at the checkpoint, they’ll be no need for me to do anything. Is that going to work for you?”

“Okay, good. I’ll make sure I hold my end then, and don’t that let same misunderstanding happen again.” He nodded at her.

“Deal.”

Amanda turned to look up at Septimus and the others in the truck. "That addresses my objection. Any others?”

Septimus let out a sigh of relief. What had just transpired had nearly brought him to the end of his wits but, luckily enough, lawyer and general understood each other well enough for it not to come to a firefight.

His acknowledgement, however, was quieted as his processor worked through the binary that was buzzing in the tether. Repeated mentions of “Neste”, “doxi”, the field where combat had taken place, and Marcus not returning made him particularly nervous, but he took care to hide these from the group. The cyborg quieted noticeably, however.

“As long as Mr. Aphrodisiac can be trusted, I see no reason why he should not have his armor,” and with that, the cyborg returned to pondering the message from within the tether. Urbem Ascalon was pushed to the wayside - though he made sure not to totally forget about the visit - in favor of looking into this latest development on the home front.

[OOC: Romy appears courtesy the Wilhelm Imperium. Ego by Maccabee Enterprises. Septimus appears courtesy of the Confederation… now with distracted angsty Nifid center!]

[Giovenith]

Rache and Willow

Willow frowned and rubbed his head at Rache's nonverbal pleading, going along with what he wanted but still not understanding what the deal was. Alright, perhaps the idea of them being in a historical recreation park wasn't the most plausible explanation in the world, but it was a better explanation than time travel... or so he thought. Why Willow had no problem with cross-dimensional travel but drew the line at time travel was just a symptom of the reason Giovenith got into so many arguments with him over things like faith, godhood, and Santa Claus.

"Yeeeah," he forced himself to play along. "I've only really heard stories about her, actually." Which was the truth, just not in the way the soldier thought.

"Well I don't know much else to do with you two," the pegasus admitted bluntly. "Perhaps her aunt will recognize you."

Willow had never heard of Private Pansy having an aunt, neither in the Hearth's Warming Eve play nor in any of his history classes back in Cloudsdale. Personal details about ponies from this era, even especially famous ones, were rather obscure and mostly only known by the top historians. He assumed it was because nopony wanted to really dwell on this time save for how they escaped it. Assuming this was history at all, and not just some made-up backstory by the actors. Actually what he really wanted to do was continue to question the stallion about finding their companions, not be lectured at about "back in THESE days..." by some silly actress, but he was faced with the two very big problems of not knowing how to describe them in this world and Rache apparently believing they should play along with the act. Faced with those circumstances, he supposed he really had no choice but to let the stallion drag them off to see "Private Pansy," eager as the guy seemed to get rid of them. They must have been intruding on his lunch break or something, that was why he was flying around outside the city when they found him. Later on they could just leave, if necessary.

But for now, Willow followed. Maybe the Pansy actor would be willing to break character and explain.

It wasn't a very long walk, the soldier took them to what appeared to be a large cloud storage area. There was another pegasus standing by the door, the seeming only other pony in sight what with these empty streets. He looked a little younger than Willow, maybe about 17, and sported a baby blue coat with dark blue and white mane and tail. He was also wearing armor, though of a different type, probably something indicating a lower rank given the guy's apparent age. He seemed... at peace, despite apparently being set to guard the door. Willow caught sight of a pinecone of all things in his hoof, something he seemed thoroughly engrossed in, which quickly slipped under the tilt of his helmet the minute he caught sight of the three approaching pegasi.

"Hello, sir," the younger guard greeted, in a way that even Willow could tell was far too casual and socially fearless for somepony his age. Stereotypically, you'd imagine younger soldiers all stuttering and eager to please or at least trying to avoid a smack, but this one didn't seem too concerned about any of that. "Is there anything you've forgotten?" he gave a wide, head-tilted smile.

"Private Cloud Duster," the soldier greeted. "Is Private Pansy still in there?"

"Yes," he answered simply, before leaning over and taking a good, long inspection of Rache and Willow. "Yes she is." He opened up the door for them to enter.

The older pegasus went in first, soon followed after by Willow.

"Lovely weather we're having," Private Cloud Duster unexpectedly commented to Willow with a smile.

The artist paused to give the teen colt a look, only for the younger pegasus to smile brighter.

"Uh, yeah, for winter," the painter returned, a bit awkwardly.

"Yes, for winter," the private agreed with a pleasant, laugh-like tone.

Ignoring that odd but not unpleasant exchange, Willow reluctantly followed into the storage shed quickly thinking of ways to talk his and Rache's way out of this. It occurred to him that the daemonpony was probably confused out of his damn mind, not familiar with basic Equestrian history like he was. He was sure he'd rather have a quick explanation from him then shift through this park, so the sooner they made their escape, the better.

The storage itself was filled with what you might expect of the setting they found themselves in, metals this way and that. It was mostly empty for it's large space, but there were a handful of young ponies similarly armored to the other youngster outside flying this way and that rearranging things, polishing, organizing, average chores one would expect. The leading soldier stopped, looked around, and called out. "Private Pansy!"

Somepony was very startled by the sudden shout, as it was succeeded by a high-pitched yelp and the sudden clattering of metal falling against metal. All the eyes in the room shifted upward and slowly moved down to follow the falling 'BANG! BANG! BANG!', echoing out as something slammed against the elevated levels of the storage, finally ending as a large shield landed and slid across the floor with a loud scratch in front of the three pegasi. Within the concave center was a small form curled into a tight little ball.

"Private Pansy, these two are for you," the soldier introduced Rache and Willow simply.

A tender face slowly lifted from beneath the wide brim of the subordinate helmet up at the two new ponies. Pansy looked, but as expected, no recognition crossed her face.

"They say they are friends of your family," the pegasus explained.

Carefully, Pansy pulled herself out of the shield, adjusted her helmet and frowned at her visitors. She looked back and forth between him and them, looking uncertain of what to say. "I-I don't know these ponies," she admitted in a smallish voice, wringing her hooves together.

"Ohhhhh, you wouldn't, it's been so long," Willow played along with Rache's story, patting the shoulder of what he thought was an actress. "It's nice to finally meet you, "Private Pansy"."

"Who are you?"

"Like he said, family friends!"

"My aunt never talked about..."

"Really distant family."

Figuring his job was done at last, the original soldier snuck around out the small group and slipped out a door in the back, leaving Rache, Willow, and the teen pegasi alone to speak what they would. There was an awkward moment of silence as all the other (presumed) Privates stopped what they were doing to stare at the newcomers and their klutz of a peer, waiting for something to happen.

Willow coughed. "Alright, so here's the thing, I know you guys must all take a lot of pride in your job, but we really don't have a lot of time for this, so we need your help."

"I don't know what you want from me," Pansy frowned, flattening her ears beneath her helmet.

"Directions perhaps? How far does the fair ground go?"

"Fair ground?"

"Look, even in-character you guys usually keep map pamphlets for the tourists. So if you could just give us one of those, we'll be on our-"

Before Willow could make them look even more stupid, the whole scene was put to a grim end by a sudden heavy boom that literally shook the entire storage building. Several ponies were tossed into the air and onto the floor as the cloud foundation itself was unsettled, shields and weapons tossed from their places across the room despite their large weight (luckily nopony was hurt) and a loud but low rumbling curling through the air afterwards. The atmosphere shifted immediately. Once the shaking had stopped, the other pegasi quickly flew from their spots and gathered toward the center of the room to cluster, joined even by the Cloud Duster fella from outside.

"Oh god!" Willow was thoroughly shaken. In the clear starting phases of a panic, he urged Pansy to help pull him from the ground and unwittingly clung to her. "What the hell was that?!"

Nopony answered. There was another short moment of silence as the armored adolescents huddled together, and, one by one, began to collectively make their way towards the back door where the elder soldier had slipped out. Many kept to the sides as a safety precaution, with one filly taking the lead and carefully pushing open the door.

At first there was nothing. The wind had clearly picked up though, it's whistling audible and stabbing streaks of snow visible, possibly the beginnings of the blizzard the pegasus soldier had warned about. Other than the howling though, things were eerily silent, and the Privates exchanged looks. The peace was quickly shattered as a bright crimson mass slammed out of the sky onto the pathway of the door, colliding forcefully enough with the cloud ground to slap the nearest pegasi's faces with speckled lines of warm blood. They panicked and quickly began to futilely wipe away the splatter with shocked screams, but only managed to further smear their own faces.

Doing what nopony else apparently wanted to, the blue colt guard glided up to the scene without hesitation, and landed to inspect the mutilated corpse of the elder soldier. Half of his body and most of his face had been sliced downward as if by a giant grater, his armor all mangled and peeled away like tinfoil in a child's hands. Practically unrecognizable, his rapid bloodloss was quickly darkening the white cloud on which he had been thrown, causing the Private to take a few steps back to avoid dirtying his hooves.

"Ohhhhhhh," Cloud Duster sucked air through his teeth in disappointment, looking back to the others and waving a hoof. "Eeyup. He's dead."

An unmistakable, monstrous roar cut through the air and shook the ground and building once again, the air suddenly being cut through with the vomit-inducing smell of rotting corpses.

"It's an attack!" somepony else cried.

And like that, the adolescents scattered, Pansy included, darting through the air as fast as they could out the opposite door to avoid their superior's shredded body and the monster that committed the act, warning cries following them. Willow was too stunned to react. If ponies came with a blue screen of death, he would be experiencing it - utterly shut down. He slowly lifted a shaking hoof to wipe a speck of scarlet off his cheek and stare at, beginning to hyperventilate.

[Northwest Slobovia]

The conversation Sandy heard from the other end of the table while the Maghrl was explaining his religion worried him, but he didn't let it show to the new Residents. Marcus apparently was dead, and since there were only two 'lizards' in the Building, and Nila had been with him and Ocho, that meant Neste had some connection to his death. That part made little sense, as did the recriminations Klaus and Ocho argued about, but the implications were all bad. His eyes flicked to Giovenith, and Sandy hoped that if Klaus did get the confirmation he sought, he had the humanity to wait until after dinner to break the news to her, to leave her one bit of joy before shattering her world.

"Wait, Sandy Sorcerer?" He asked, very obviously agitated even for those who were not familiar with squib body language. "Sorcerer not good-thing in Maghrl's place. Associated with Darkness-Side... Maghrl hope Sorcerer mean something else where Sandy from."

"Yes, 'sorcerer' means something much, much different where I come from." He nodded emphatically, with a tight smile: sorcery had a bad enough name even on Earth that he couldn't blame the Jedi for not knowing. "'Sorcerer' is a technical term for the way I practice magic. Where I'm from, there are many different ways of working magic, and so many different names for the people who work it. I'm a sorcerer. There are also magi, witches, wizards, alchemists, enchanters, and a few others I can't remember. Being a sorcerer simply means that I learn spells from books."

"But as whether magic is considered Light Side or Dark Side... Where I'm from, magic is a tool. Whether it's used for good or evil is up to whoever uses it. How I use magic is best described by example. We -- all of us in the Building -- arrived yesterday morning in the middle of a huge battle. An army of... monsters... or maybe wild animals was chasing a large group of shepherds from the nearest village, and we tried to save the shepherds. My part in the battle was as a healer, and for my success in saving lives, I was asked to lead our healers. I hope that's enough evidence of my good intentions."

While Sandy waited for Maghrl's and Asdra's reply, he caught Anais' voice drifting over from another table:

[...]hand over information regarding the intricacies of my own discipline, nor would any in[...]

He jerked his gaze in her direction, and was surprised to see her addressing Baron Primordial. He didn't make out any more of what she said, but her tone indicated she wasn't happy him. What the hell was he up to now? Did Blackwater get a chance to talk to him? He'd have to figure it out later, after the dinner ended.

[Tiltjuice]

Brit and Chrys

Surprise explosion was still a surprise explosion, even if it was impressive. And it was impressive, in truth. Manipulating heat and time was one thing, but this...it was flashy!

Decidedly less flashy than hauling haunch toward the mountainside, but Chrys kept up easily. The other reminded her a lot of herself, but more seasoned, or slightly less flighty. She certainly smelled better, at any rate; but was that only when putting on a light show? She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. This time, with no hesitation as the questions boiled out of her, even through the exertion of the run.

"How did you do that? Can you teach me? Why did they call you a witch?"

[Torsiedelle]

"Oh, right, the gifts."

Torii facepalmed. "I left them back with my sister. I had them in a tiny chest on my dresser. Katya had all of our guns in hers. I know because we got two new ones back home. Anyways, the seed, I haven't planted yet. I wanted to put it somewhere special."

She sighed and carried on, letting Drova get his thoughts off of his chest. She tensed up, though, at the suggestion of a date.

"A-um, a date?", She repeated. Oh lord, now she looked stupid! "Oh, um, sure.", She replied, not wanting to disappoint anyone. "That sounds fun. I haven't done much stargazing lately, being in a big city."

.......

"Ugh, fine, just get me to the brat."

Audette patted herself down, trying to find a pen on her; then, it hit her.

"Wait, marriage liscense? Winged people? What the hell do you folks do 'round these parts? Some weird shit. I know it's a new age and all, but shit."

Ah, there it was. She produced a pen and pointed casually to Volker. "Just sign...the paper, right? Then I can go get my girl?"

[New Aksarben]

The conversation Sandy heard from the other end of the table while the Maghrl was explaining his religion worried him, but he didn't let it show to the new Residents. Marcus apparently was dead, and since there were only two 'lizards' in the Building, and Nila had been with him and Ocho, that meant Neste had some connection to his death. That part made little sense, as did the recriminations Klaus and Ocho argued about, but the implications were all bad. His eyes flicked to Giovenith, and Sandy hoped that if Klaus did get the confirmation he sought, he had the humanity to wait until after dinner to break the news to her, to leave her one bit of joy before shattering her world.

"Wait, Sandy Sorcerer?" He asked, very obviously agitated even for those who were not familiar with squib body language. "Sorcerer not good-thing in Maghrl's place. Associated with Darkness-Side... Maghrl hope Sorcerer mean something else where Sandy from."

"Yes, 'sorcerer' means something much, much different where I come from." He nodded emphatically, with a tight smile: sorcery had a bad enough name even on Earth that he couldn't blame the Jedi for not knowing. "'Sorcerer' is a technical term for the way I practice magic. Where I'm from, there are many different ways of working magic, and so many different names for the people who work it. I'm a sorcerer. There are also magi, witches, wizards, alchemists, enchanters, and a few others I can't remember. Being a sorcerer simply means that I learn spells from books."

"But as whether magic is considered Light Side or Dark Side... Where I'm from, magic is a tool. Whether it's used for good or evil is up to whoever uses it. How I use magic is best described by example. We -- all of us in the Building -- arrived yesterday morning in the middle of a huge battle. An army of... monsters... or maybe wild animals was chasing a large group of shepherds from the nearest village, and we tried to save the shepherds. My part in the battle was as a healer, and for my success in saving lives, I was asked to lead our healers. I hope that's enough evidence of my good intentions."

The squib idly tried focusing his attention on the Sorcerer, curious if he'd have any affect on the Force or not. Maybe his magic came from a different source?

Sandy Saw a trickle of magic flow from Maghrl to him, but it lacked distinct form or any meaningful sound. Sandy wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and since he was already talking to Maghrl, he had no visible reaction. Sandy wondered what Maghrl might feel in return. He'd said he wasn't very sensitive to the Force, so Sandy wasn't sure if he'd be able to feel the feather-light touch of the Ears of the Wolf: it was a feeble spell.

While Sandy waited for Maghrl's and Asdra's reply, he caught Anais' voice drifting over from another table:

[...]hand over information regarding the intricacies of my own discipline, nor would any in[...]

He jerked his gaze in her direction, and was surprised to see her addressing Baron Primordial. He didn't make out any more of what she said, but her tone indicated she wasn't happy him. What the hell was he up to now? Did Blackwater get a chance to talk to him? He'd have to figure it out later, after the dinner ended.

With Sandy's description of what he used his magic for, the Squib relaxed, and then laughed. He grinned up at the sorcerer before speaking again. "Oh! Much Jedi-like then. Jedi heal, help others, similar things in combat. Some jedi frontliners, but most support. Assure allies, usually Republican-troop get home. Sith are fighters. Drain life from others, shock electric-bolting people, stuff similar-like that. Darksider and Sith draw-gain power from emotion: passion, lust, desire, greed, wrath. Jedi power through what call Living Force, being at one with Force, calmness and focusness. Jedi keep-make order, Sith start-bring chaos. Maghrl generally weak in force, can't easily meditate, connect to it. Much to Hyperactive, Maghrl believe word-is. Can't center self easily. Jedi's power come from strengthening natural flow of force through self-person by peace-calm" He explained, trying to better define the two kinds of force use, and his own shortcoming. "In truth, darkness-side tempting to Jedi for that reason. Promise quick solution to power and connection to Force, by forcing connect."

"But Force itself is neither. Master Luke tread both paths, neither truly balanced for force. Force itself neutral, both intermixed. Jedi still mostly use light though, Darkness lead to infightness and war. Ancient Sith tore selves apart as often as enemy! Sith where Sorcerer term came from in galaxy." Maghrl's ear twitched a bit as he worked on focusing his force sensing to see if he could properly feel SAndy through it, beyond just the normal presence a living being had. If he didn't feel anything more than that, or any trace of the force being used it would be proof enough to him that Sandy was indeed not a sith, or force sensitive. There was, in fact a certain way Master Luke had used to use that Maghrl was interested in trying to some of the magic users which involved a slight mind probe aimed for the back of the mind. Force sensitives had a sort of trigger point back there where if prodded would naturally lash back and kick the intruder out of the mind or at the very least fight back. But that would require direct contact, so maghrl settled for just trying to sense for a proper presence in the force similar to his own. While he did that he continued to talk about things jedi could do with their powers.

"Jedi do many thing with force-Power. Strongest even predict future, see visions, even retain conciousness-life past death. Strongest in force can retain themselves past death and guide living as Force-Ghost. Many also say-think lightsaber only able to use by Jedi, as the crystal used is strong in force too, heavily reactant to Jedi owner. EVen have their own signature within force. Maghrl able to find lightsaber no matter how far away lightsabers."

[Swith Witherward]

Willow and Rache

Rache had never heard of Hearth's Warming Eve, nor was he clued in to pony society. He lapsed into silence and chose to observe instead. He was deep in enemy territory - a spy sneaking through a camp. No, worse. A Jew trapped outside the ghetto on accident, overlooked by authority that had been spread too thin. They would need to pass for citizens here if they hoped to avoid a noose around their necks. The thought of it put the daemon on edge. While he didn't doubt his own immortality, he felt responsible for the artist. Willow's desire to see home was one thing, but Rache had actively broadcast a desire to go. Be it cruel Chaos magic or artifact magic, they were here, and he wouldn't allow Willow to fall victim.

Alarm bells clanged in his mind, but the unfamiliarity of the setting made it difficult for Rache to distinguish them from one another. Rather than fidget, he became more withdrawn. Had he been freed from his host, the massive daemon would have found a dark corner to brood in, leathery wings wrapping his body as pale yellow eyes glared into the night. Such a thing was a luxury they could not afford.

The younger guard's greeting fired off yet another bell. Rache's brow furrowed. Did ponies eat pine cones? His knowledge of equine dietary needs was limited to only what he had gleamed while cooking beside Willow. The youth's casual demeanor didn't sit well with Rache either. Was this the cultural norm? Were militaries so lax here? Even the odd conversation between painter and private reeked of strangeness. Again, weather. Perhaps all pegasi were overly fixated with it?

Rache followed the two in. The room's contents went observed but not remarked upon; the daemon's mind had reached a new, frightening conclusion: weather as a weapon. Ho shit, would the flying ones do that? Hapless, helpless, feeble little earthbound ponies dying in droves due to brutal snow and wind from above? It was a delicious thought for War's daemon to savor yet the taste was too sour for his liking. Such attacks were pure cowardice. Meet your foe on the field and wage your war one-to-one. Leave the innocents but sacrifice the strong for the delight of the God. That God would cherish warrior pony skulls crushed under a heavy axe, not the frozen bones of the starving masses.

Rache blinked. The room's architecture belied his imaginative battle lust. The soft curves and colors were wrong. Too whimsical. Too pure. The faces staring at him were too soft, and much too sweet. Their emotional flavors cast them in a far different shade than anything from Rache's home dimension. Even Private Pansy gave off that sickly kind air.

Willow's mind apparently hadn't wrapped around their circumstances yet. Rache sighed. If he felt like a Jew on the wrong side of the wall, Willow was the dunderhead Jewish tourist who thought he was at a holocaust museum rather than grasping that he'd been flung back in time. Stop asking the Nazis to break character!

"Wil-"

The explosion tore away the rest of the pony's name as Rache found himself violently thrown down. Falling equipment rang in his hears. Rache scrabbled the ground with ineffective hooves, cursing his lack of fingernails or claws. He gained his feet, shaking the dust from his coat, before swinging his body around to make certain Willow was alive. A sickening splatter caused his head to swing back, however, and the coppery promise of death washed through Rache's nostrils. This arousing aroma gave way to something far more sinister - as if Ogoti's foul brood had rolled in for supper. The oppressive rot rang through the building. Rache's pulse quickened.

The ponies around him panicked. Rache did not. Oh sweet War, no. If someone wanted to waddle in and play Big Bad in the Land of Rainbow Kitten Farts, he'd meet the opposition snout on.

"Move, NOW," the daemon-pony's head swung to deliver a nip to Willow's ass. "Move or I'll tear your wings off with my teeth."

He struck again, this time a blunt strike to the underside to muscle the pony onto his withers. His own wings clapped shut. Rule number one: flyers fly, and that's how flyers die. Let the others crowd the door and fill the air. Rache cast his eyes about and found a nice crate. He took to its cover at full gallop, swaying and shifting his balance to keep the artist on his back.



Lobby

"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies. Sign, please," Volker insisted with a fixed smile. The front desk cultist witnessed the signature then took the clipboard away, trading it for a golden key which he pressed into Audette's palm. "And now, we go!"

The mouthwatering smells became stronger as the pair took the stairs to the second landing. Conversation was much clearer now, as was the clatter of plates and the clink of glasses. Rache entered the room, nodded at Klaus, and brought the newest Resident to the teen group.

"Welcome back, Miss Tora. I believe you know this young woman? She claims to be under your employ."

Volker held the envelope aloft. "Also, you'll be very happy to know this arrived before we left Beielefeld. I've only just got the mail sorted, my apologies to you and your husband." He handed the envelope to Drova with a slight bow. "And now, good day. I have nothing to do and many ways to go about not doing it."

The envelope did indeed contain one marriage license, issued by the Bielefeld government and signed by Torii and Drova. Further, the officiant was indeed that strange creature that had pronounced them husband and wife on the stage during Zalgofest.

[Torsiedelle]

Audette was taken up with confusion as she was rushed along, following the strange man now out of worry that she'd get lost for good, rather than to make sure she really was being led to the girl - that was, until she had indeed found Torii, and what appeared to be a nice little feast as well. Was that Thanksgiving? It reminded her of home, minus the whiskey and football game.

Her attention fell back on the Russian girl in front of her. Audette was taller, around Katya's own height, though where Katya was a more elegant and formal woman, Audette looked the part of a security guard: combat uniform, combat vest, combat boots, weapons, and an intimidating look to boot.

Despite them both being fighters, Torii looked like a clueless girl in comparison, which was fitting because she was, at the moment, just a clueless girl. She was also confused. What husband? Audette snorted and backed away a step. "This is gonna be good."

Torii eyed her, then Volker. "Um, yes, she's with me. My, uh, Mom paid her. My family is crazy, I swear.", She rolled her eyes. "And I don't understand. I'm not married, I'm only nineteen.", She chuckled nervously, taking the envelope. She opened it, and, reading the contents, felt her stomach flop over. Her entire face slowly went pale with realization at what it meant; she really was married to...Drova?

She stood in place, petrified. Her bodyguard watched curiously, one hand on her hip, the other fiddling with her pistol, which now set nestled in its holster on her right hip.

[Monfrox]

"I think I have a few ideas. Man, when they talked about the show they never mentioned anything close to this. Something's not right." Brit said a little low to herself. She looked to Chrys and whispered. "We need to play along for as long as we can. Find the others, if they're here. Low profile stuff." She turned to the other unicorn and spoke up. "So uh, where exactly are we going?! I imagine you have some kind of a plan or something along the lines of a safe place? I would really like to get some clothes soon too!" She made her voice loud to make sure she was being heard as they ran off.

Brit paused to look back in case they were being followed. Savages? Witches? Something was most definitely not right here. She may not have been interested, but many of her friends watched the show that Willow lived as his life. Never had she heard anything along the lines of what was happening. Deep down, if this was her getting thrown into this as a sort of prank, she was not amused. Magic, overly vibrant colors, though the cutesy stuff seemed to be lacking or over-shadowed, or just altogether missing. Part of her entertained the thought of what Willow would do, trapped with her in one of her First-Person Shooters she liked to play so much. Well, that was a bit more cruel than what was going on now though.

[Tiltjuice]

Chrys turned her head back toward Brit and flicked an ear curiously. "Play along for what?" she chimed loudly, in a unicorn-version of her regular voice. "I haven't seen much out of the ordinary, and things are still handled for the time being."

The evil of the moment was sufficient thereto. Honi soit qui mal y pense meant nothing to Chrys, but if it had, it would still have been so many words due to her belief and personality. Whatever lay ahead was only a decree, to be worked through, and she paused her sniffing of the other mare to bonk Brit with her nose. "Cheer up, Brit! It's all fun and games."

[The Carlisle]

Kale gave a smile to Torii before she was pulled away by Gio. The plant girl gave a curious look to Gio, not really knowing about the relationship between Torii and Drova. "Didn't know the two were dating. When did it start," she said in a slightly cutesy way. She felt it was adorable Torii and Drova were together. She didn't want to play match-maker, but she didn't expect the two together. But it made her feel good regardless, a contrast to these past few days.

She did watch as things played out, her curiosity turned to concern quite quickly. The revelations shocked Kale, being clearly displayed on her face. She turned to Gio right next to her, wondering if she knew anything about it. "Married?! When did this happen?" Kale said in a quieted tone, her concern showing.

[Giovenith]

Rache and Willow

Leaving behind the storage and into the streets again, the air of the city had been overtaken by the wailing of primitive sirens. No longer empty and eerie, the streets had been filled to the edge with pegasi running this way and that in a controlled chaos. Some were panicking, but those who did were quickly lead away the sane majority; most ponies were scrambling to zip up their windows and doors (done with a simple swoop of the hoof across the cloud openings), clear younger people off the streets and into homes, pile out supplies into the open, and hurdling off some space away from the immediate area.

"I don't know what's going on!" Willow was visibly panicked, shaking behind the crate. Their current position seemed to be somewhere near the edge of the cloud city, his fight or flight driving him to notice that this particular edge lead into what appeared to be mountaintops.

Quickly noticed for their position regardless of their hiding, a small crowd was quick to grab hold of the two and start pulling them away from the edge urgently. They were being yelled at now, though not out of malice but as warning. It was as they were pulled back that the sirens began to become drowned out by an even louder sound: humming. It almost vibrated the air itself with it's volume, and as it grew louder so too did the terrible stench, and it became evident that it was the source of all this dread that Rache and Willow had been pulled away from. Whatever it was, it was approaching the edge.

Suddenly, everything grew quiet.

Quieter, anyway. The sirens had since silence and the buzzing had disappeared without warning, though the clammer and rush of the waiting crowd of flying citizens remained, a sea of bright candy colors all gathered round an empty space at the edge of the clouds in deafening anxiety.

Then the first of the claws came through. Willow at first thought there was some kind of metal flagpole rising from the clouds, but his stomach instead dropped in horror as it curved into a point and was joined by four more exactly like it. The full hand set busted through the thickened cloud edge and embedded themselves with a thunderous rumble, hoisting up their owner over the edge: Hair. Waves upon waves of course black hair made up the house-sized mass that pulled itself over the cloud's edge, bending and cracking the sidewalk under it's weight, destroying the foundation of the luckily emptied buildings that had stood in it's way. There was no way to tell what it was underneath that hair, as the only places the tangled horrors did not reach were the pale, vein-filled arms which held it's five-digit claws, and the giant, insect-like wings that sprouted from it's backside: the source of the humming. Waves of corpse and meat smell rolled off the black hair, and the same roar that had succeeded the original soldier's death erupted once again from the creature, shaking the world again.

Somepony's voice rose above the rest, ordering the call, and the gathered ocean of winged ponies charged into action against the beast, weapons ablaze.


Brit and Chrys

"Mmm, yes, it was rather impressive, wasn't it?" the unicorn clung the Chrys' compliment and she continued to lead the away from the scene of the injured Earth ponies. Not quite as concerned about the two following them anymore, she had slowed into a steady canter as she began to climb up a rough path up the mountainside. "Oh, "witches," that's what they call us, you know? They call the pegasi, "Birds." Fitting for them yes, but not for us. We're special! Oh my dears, we are going home, at last!"

They continued up the rocky path, which wasn't impossible but not necessarily easy either, as it seemed very barely settled. They would have had to leap and climb over some rocks, deal with a few scrapes, until they finally hit... a wall of solid rock blocking their path. The unicorn mare paid no mind, trotting up to it, feeling around with her hooves, and then tapping a few select spots on the stone with her horn.

Previously invisible, the rock wall slowly lit up with glyphs and folded away in on itself, literally; it smoothly broke into brick-like shapes which twisted and folded like Rubik's cube pieces away into the sides of the cliff, until a full path through was realized. Behind the wall, two more unicorns stood, looking expectant.

"Razzalia, my darling!" one of them cried, a yellow one, running over and embracing the blue mare. "You are my absolute hero! Ohhhh, did you get what we asked? Did you? Did you?"

The blue unicorn, Razzalia, responded by confidently lifting up her satchel with her telekinesis and presenting the prize within: an entire load of carrots.

"You did!" Razzalia's friend almost cried in melodramatic joy.

"Oh, but look at my poor friends!" Razzalia gestured to Chrys and Brit with a dramatic gesture. "Those mud-dwellers robbed them!"

The two other unicorns gasped with more terror than was probably socially acceptable back in the human realm.

"Oh, oh, we must simply refurnish them, this is simply unacceptable!"

"I know we must dearest Diamond, we must! We shall give them a few of our things! We have plenty!"

"Indeed we shall! Oh goodness Razzalia, it almost brings me to tears!"

"Their misfortune?"

"Well yes, but I was referring to our generosity!" the yellow unicorn dabbed a few tears at the corner of her eye with an embroidered handkerchief. "We are such good ponies! Such! Come along dear ones, come, you are quite fortunate to have run into such a gold-hearted band as us!"

The stone wall closed behind Brit and Chrys, looking no more disturbed than it had been before the spell.


Yuna and Aegis

"Living alone, huh?" Smart Cookie took an inquisitive sip of her own tea. "In the mountains or the woods I presume? Ah've heard of such things, yes. I can understand why you would come back to the main tribe then, it's not good to be out and alone during a famine."

She turned to Yuna. "Same story with you, honeycomb? I assume you're this fella's lil sister or daughter?"

Building

Giovenith's eyes widened and her smile dropped. Married? Now? At this age? And Torii didn't even know??

"Torii," her voice dropped it's happy edge, immediately moving to her friend. "What's on that document? May I see it?"

Her mind conjured up all sorts of Vegas scenarios. This was a problem. There was no way they could stay married, they would have to get annulled... but could they do that on this planet? Giovenith was still hoping this was some sort of joke.

[Monfrox]

Oh, perfect. Just, fucking, perfect. There were few things in this world that made Brit just angry for no reason. One was being told to "man up", and another was self-indulged, narcissistic, hoity-toity, royals. Still, they were the outsiders, and the last thing she wanted to do was possibly get Chrys in hot water along with her. So, for now, she resolved that she needed help and would go along as much as she could with these unicorns. Still, she was uneducated, and so maybe feigning amnesia would work. Or it could get her into trouble. She inwardly sighed as she looked to Chrys and did her best to put a grin on her face.

"Thank you. If it weren't for you, I don't know what might've happened."

Those words felt almost physically painful for her to say, but it was an act she must take up. For them, and for hopes of finding the others. If the others were here. She decided to take stock of herself. From what she could see, her mane was that same chocolate brown that her hair had been. Still thick as it could be, too. Her skin tone also stayed the same. Well, with any luck, anyone from the Building if they were here or ran into them would be able to tell her right off the bat. At least, theoretically. She also noticed there was a mark near her rear. A contrast to her pale skin tone, but she recognized it. A black star in a hollow black circle that encompassed it, with gaps in the circle at each point of the star. It was like the kind she saw on the side of M4 Sherman tanks in World War 2. A true military symbol, and it made her happy.

Brit walked with Chrys as they followed the unicorn trio into what she assumed could only be a mountain castle, stopping to think about the injured ponies they left behind back there. "Mud-dwellers", "Savages", she had done nothing wrong and yet she felt a little guilty about it. Perhaps there would be a chance to leave this world in a better condition than they arrived. But, she would cross that bridge when she came to it. Right now, the important thing was finding out what in the hell was going on, exactly.

[The BranRiech]

"Married? W-where did that come fro . . ."

Drova stopped for a moment, stepping back to think about it for a second.

"Oh, wait. I remember." He said chuckling. "Remember that huge party back in Bielefeld? I think everyone ended up in a rather embarrassing position, like Torii and I were in a mock-wedding." He said, a grin on his face from remembering it. He figured it was safe to tell the story, considering no one in Zalgofest seemed to remember how they ended up in those positions. "So I think that's where that's a thing. It must be a joke." He affirmed his position, having no time to actually read the note before Torii took it.

Wait . . .

"Oh! And uh, thanks for accepting my invitation. Sorry, I guess I've never do-"

He looked at his girlfriend, staring at the letter in shock. Drova took a few steps over to the side, by Gio and Kale, joining their group's gathered anticipation and confusion as to why Torii seemed so worried about the note. He desperately wanted to ask "What is it?" But that face was one that didn't seem to be in the mood to be asked prodding questions. Drova kept his mouth shut as he waited with his friends to see what it said, from Torii's mouth herself.

--

Too preoccupied with her tea to answer, Yuna nodded when Aegis took the time to introduce her. Wait, how did he even know her name?

No matter.

Yuna set the tea down with a slight clatter, wiping her mouth off with a free-leg. "Yeah, I'm Yuna. He's right, but we're . . . We are not from around here." She said, confirming the story Aegis had told the pleasant Mare in front of them. "Y-you're Cookie, right? Can . . . Can we keep that as the official story? We aren't from around here, but we're from, another world? Do you believe us?"

She let her process it for a moment, her eyes wide with fear of rejection. Would she take it the wrong way and actually assume that they were witches, like the rest of the townsponies thought? "We're looking for a way home, and . . . Maybe some of our friends got stuck here too?"

[Torsiedelle]

Oh god, she thought. Torii felt sick. She wasn't really married, right? She couldn't be, but it said it on the letter. She wouldn't get married to him though. Marriage was sacred, right? It wasn't something that she would just run into with some Abhuman boy that she called a friend, she'd save it for when she knew that she really loved someone. That was how those things worked, right?

She held the letter for Gio and Drova to take, and stepped back. She needed some room; she was too hot. Her stomach felt queezy. She was going to puke. Torii held her head in her hands and stepped over to lay her head down on a nearby table.

Next to the group, Audette stepped around to watch the girl. Honestly, she thought the situation was hilarious, but she knew when not to laugh, and this was that time. What she found funny wasn't the same to these kids, and she needed to make sure that Torii didn't freak out, either. That was her pay on the line, after all.

[Primordial Luxa]

Primordial in the feast

Primordial nodded along with Anais’s description of the Fey. The term was typically used interchangeably with Fairy, which could also be interchangeable with Little People, Nymphs, or really any number of nature spirits. The term Fey was a catch all descriptions for something that could be anything, but Primordial was certain the classical definitions would hold true. “I’ll make sure I offer Dan a chance to join us when we go to contact you thanks for that piece of insight.”

“Atoms are just the building blocks of matter. Atoms can be combined in different combinations to create different types of matter. Gold is made out of gold atoms, water is made out of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, everything has different rules and there’s a lot of different types and variants but that’s the short of it.” He mused to Sterling question about chemistry while leaning forward and spilling a bit of his acidic drink.

He then turned his focus to Anais and alleviating her worries and concerns. He returned her sympathetic smile with a thoughtful respective one as he considered her conclave idea. “I understand your reticence to reveal anything private to me. Personally if I was in your position I would be hesitant to reveal the secrets of how I use my own gravitational field to smash atoms together to a person I just met. So let me tell you that I respect your privacy.” Primordial nodded and pursed his lips in a sympathetic manner before saying “But that said perhaps you could tell me exactly what field of healing or magic you specialize in? You don’t have to tell me how it works or why, but if I just knew what you could do I would really appreciate it. I would love to call for your help when it falls under you area of expertise.”