Adventure The Ravings of a Pegasus [PM for invite]

[Halide]

"I'm telling you, it was huge! He must've escaped from Tartarus or something, all stone and rock"

"You hit your head rather hard, you know. Are you entirely certain that you did, in fact, see such an unlikely creature? You may yet have been under some delusion due to blunt force trauma."

"It was a huge rock... Thing, alright!? Like a bunch of slabs of boulder wrapped around a, uh, an ape or a minotaur king or something!"

"If you're not going to cease your indefatigable yammering, at least mind your limbs, you feckless featherhead, before you injure yourself any further. You're not even supposed to be out of the hospital, much less cavorting about in public like this."

The scene : an outdoors restaurant in Ponyville, one well in open air and easily accessed or overheard by any passing mare, stallion, or other such character that might happen upon it. A pleasant enough weekday for a bit of shopping about the market, picking up something at the grocers, or whatever one might decide to while away the daylight with. It was the happenings of two misfits that seemed to be louder than most, though - a rather bandaged-up red pegasus ranting at a somewhat dirty-looking coal-coated pony. Ignition, in all her battered pride, under the escort of Mirthbane, who felt as though his time might be better spent elsewhere.

It had been an eventful sort of fright, of course. Two nights before, some had heard a thunderous roaring in the Everfree, the dusk air split with thunder and shaking of the earth in spite of a lack of lightning. The lone witness of the events, a pony with a bandage about her cranium, three breaks in her left wing, and both back legs sprained. But, in spite of her injuries, the punkrock mare hadn't kept herself shut up, instead deciding to take to the streets and spout her story to any and every individual who might have the ears to listen to it. Not that such happened to be the doctor's orders, but nevertheless there she was, gesticulating somewhat wildly over a half-eaten rye sandwich.

There was more to the story, of course. A pegasus lost beneath the unforgiving boughs of a thicket of Everfree woods, a misguided meeting with a rather vicious brambleworm, a close brush with an ill-fated end, cut short by a great and unexpected rock monstrosity. But, as incredible as the event had been and as best as she'd tried to escape unscathed, Ignition had taken a rather sound thrashing, one that left her to be found in serious disrepair by one of the Everfree's more cantankerous dwellers. An unlikely rescue while the monstrosities fought eachother, much to the disruption of the surrounding forest, and that had been the end of the encounter. But only one of them had been proper witness to the creatures in question, and she'd barely escaped intact. The rescuer - or more accurately, the pony who'd managed to find her quickly enough to get her to safety - hadn't seen much of anything.

"Oh, get plucked, you smelly old grouch. Those softwings in the hospital were just over-reacting, I don't need to coop up in some soapy nest for days on end."

"You're only two years younger than I am, you know. But, if you truly wish to aggress your alleged concussion, far be it for me to stop you."

However, squak and carry on as she might, Ignition was leaving out a lot of the story - Mirthbane was already familiar with it, after all, he didn't need or want to hear it again. Other inquiring minds, however, might be met with a more succinct retelling. After all, it was not every day that such a scene embedded itself in Ponyville.

[Tiktaalik]

Ponyville...Nougat had heard a lot of interesting things about this town, though it looked average and pleasant enough. He supposed he'd find out for himself if anything here was special now that he'd arrived. Though, the trip had left him more hungry than he could ignore for any longer... Fortunately, he happened across a convenient-looking restaurant. Still, though, he had no time--in his mind, anyways-- to wait around for something to be cooked and whatnot. So, he trotted up to the counter, asking for some sugary pastry on display, and promptly found a place to pause in his personal knowledge quest to eat.

Even though, his family had owned a candy shop and he'd eaten sugary things his entire life, it wasn't something he ever really got sick of. It was probably a small miracle his teeth weren't full of holes... As he munched on his pastry, though, he already found himself getting distracted by his own pondering, caused by some very...intriguing conversation nearby he couldn't help but overhear. Though, the pegasus' speech was a bit on the 'raving nonsense' side of things, apparently something had happened to her, judging from how beaten up she looked. Stuffing the remained of his pastry in his mouth and hastily gulping it down, he wandered over, eyeballing the vibrant pegasus curiously. He mostly ignored the pony she'd been talking with, for now, and just butted in bluntly.

"...Could you...elaborate?", he asked, raising a hoof to his chin inquisitively.