Trouble at the Beach (Closed : Aquaria + Hyjinx)

[SirJude]

The afternoon sun was something of an interest to her, it stood so high in the sky and yet limited anything she could do right now. With the sun beaming down on her, she was certain that there would be little chance for any shenanigans with the other beach dwellers. With her fate sealed, Hyjinx let out a small sigh, she would not be able to practice at all today. She decided she would at the very least enjoy her day off however. It has been quite some time since she was able to take a proper day off, and although she wouldn't be able to acquire anything, she would at least tackle her latest book. "A History of the Crystal Empire". It has been some time since she last read up on the exploits of King Sombra, and she was hoping that there would be some interesting points of history that she could learn from.

She walked up the beach a little looking for a good spot to set up her umbrella. There was a decent spot not too far from where she came in, so she decided to plant her umbrella down there, laying out a towel for her to relax on. With everything set up, she gave a small nod, "Wonderful. My temporary lair is complete, and I may spend it reading in solitude!" , She said, with a confident hoof stomping. With the perfect setup she lay on her blanket, opening her book and beginning to read. An interesting tale for an interesting mare.

[Gerrard]

"Another day, another treasure," Aquaria thought to herself as her goggled eyes detected a loose piece of coral. Her rose colored eyes looked at the similar colored treasure as she gasped in awe, bubbles escaping her maw before she carefully snatched the object in her black talons and brought it close to her chest. The tiger striped griffoness felt the ocean pushing her gently towards the beach as a large wave blew past her and harmlessly crashed into the sand. She quickly regained her equilibrium before she remembered that she needed to breathe, the hybrid paddling towards the surface as she tried to regain her breath. With a few flaps of her wings and feet, the black feathered hybrid burst from the water, her wet form spreading its wings as she gracefully landed on the beach, the wet sand getting compacted beneath her dripping form.

The wet griffoness did her best to dry off, the clawed character shaking herself free of some water before the glimmer of a shiny object invaded the periphery of her vision. The white and black hybrid nearly dropped her precious coral as her eyes frantically looked for the source of the brilliant glimmer. Her keen eyes quickly pinpointed the source as she spotted a unicorn reading a book while wearing the most glorious and amazing headdress she had ever seen. The diver couldn't hold back her excitement as she wiggled her hips in anticipation of meeting the new pony with the best 'hat mask thingy' she had ever seen!

After taking a deep breath to regain her composure, Aquaria slowly approached the solitary pony. With a few unsteady steps, she stood before the unicorn, a bright red piece of coral in her dark clutches as she sat down on her haunches as looked across to the focused unicorn. "Hi there stranger! My name is Aquaria and its nice to meet someone new on my favorite beach. I must say, I love your mask hat, it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen someone wear! And I have seen ponies in giant dragon costumes! What's your name, I don't meet as many cool tourists as you might think," she comments with a giggle, the diver struggling to contain her excitement as her hips wiggle with the anticipation of making a new friend!

[SirJude]

With her nose quite buried in her book, Hyjinx did not notice the approaching griffon. She was rather focused on this particular entry on King Sombra's leadership when the griffon started speaking. Raising her gaze from the book she laid eyes upon the coral holding griffon, listening to her excited demeanor. She would like to consider this encounter as a little unprecedented, however she did seem to have an eye for her treasure. Taking a quick glance over her lead to a much more active member of society than her, so the best option she had was discussion.

"Good afternoon, Aquaria was it?" she said, leaning a hoof onto her cheek, "I am rather glad that you enjoy my hairpiece, I too enjoy it. It was quite exhilarating taking it for that poor old donkey." She said with a chuckle, adjusting the headdress slightly to keep it perfectly in place. It is best to start with a joke, she thought, and if she was lucky she would give off the 'right' impression. Sarcasm was always a good portion of her humor, deriving from her childhood of being the villain

"My name is Hyjinx," she said, putting a hoof on her chest in pride. "I hail from lands far to the north, coming down here to assert my dominance in taking your beloved beach." There was some sarcasm to her voice. The beach was hardly a spot for a book loving mare to stay at, but outside of her dreams of power fantasy, she would not dare try to take over any kind of settlement quite yet.

[Gerrard]

The rose-colored eyes of the griffoness looked across to the unicorn expectantly. "Yeah, Aquaria is my name, nice to meet you Hyjinx! Your name sounds fun, something like shenanigans," she cheerfully replied while listening to the unicorn explained the origin of her headdress. When the unicorn explained thar she stole it from a donkey, Aquaria gasped dramatically.

"Hairpiece? What it I don't have hair? Do they make featherpieces? Can I wear it on my tail? Wouldn't that look weird," the self-conscious hybrid not realizing that her new friend joked about stealing it. Her short attention span seemed incapable of letting her multitask as well as she might want to!

When the tourist further joked about taking over her beach, the striped catbird, went into a pounce position as she smiled devilishly. The hybrid giggled as her tail wagged excitedly, the diver almost seeming to want to fight. "Be careful Hyjinx, a wild umbrella might gobble you up if you aren't paying attention," she explained with a giggle. If you survive the umbrellas, I'll have to put you in my patented full - nelson griffon driver. Nobody has ever beaten it! Rippy got buried up to his head in sand when we wrestled. It was so much fun," she excitedly explained, the hybrid clearly liking to get physical. She probably was harmless, although it was unclear who 'rippy' was, probably one her play 'victims'. "Unless you are secretly a shark, I don't like them. Can you believe there are people with sharp teeth. I wonder what they are for? I mean I like fish, but I don't need sharp teeth," she excitedly remarked, not understanding that beaks weren't exactly the norm, especially for meat eating!

[SirJude]

“ A hairpiece can surely be adjusted for feathers, mine is just a … special piece is all~” she said with her devilish charm, “There are so many jewels in the world that everyone may find something to suit their needs.”

“You have no idea, my dear Aquaria, for I am the master of trouble far and wide!” Hyjinx said, starting to get on her hooves and keeping her hammiest villain voice on throughout, ”Ponies, griffons, and beasts across the land fear my name for the devastation I cause throughout the land!” she is reminded of her past playing with her friends. It has been quite some time since she had the pleasure of playing the proper evil overlord, compared to anything she’s done lately. She takes a quick chuckle to adjust herself, trying to keep track of everything this gryphon was saying, she was a rather talkative one compared to what she was used to. Most of the comments she did not quite know of what was happening, so the best she could do is continue with her little charade.

”No umbrella shall stop me! For the shadows are my ally, and no simple attack will ever stop me as I slink into the shadows, never to be seen until the moment of your last breath” with her ‘threat’ beginning , she raised her hooves in intimidation, her horn glowing with magical energies, trying to focus on her own shadow to at least attempt to sink into it. It’s a bright day out and her only shade is this umbrella and that of the others crawling around the beach, so she would most likely pop back up here if the umbrella is knocked away. ”I am more dangerous than any shark, I will conjure creatures from the farthest depths of the Everfree forests, the most uncontrollable creatures fall under my control! I will keep mind of your fear of sharp teeth, and summon the worst creatures who would love to gnaw down on your brittle bones”. Her childhood has taught her well, and oh how much fun she had in doing acts like these. It would give her more pleasure giving small jumps to the children of the night, but for now, acting out these scenes brought a smile to her face.

[Gerrard]

When told that the hairpiece could be adjusted for feathers, Aquaria let out a loud sigh of relief. She wasn't going to have to wear one on her tail after all! "Yeah, I have tons of treasures in my house, maybe I can go a hairpiece too later. It must be hard to focus though with all the shinies surrounding your face," she theorized while speaking vaguely about her own treasures, a wide array of bounty gained from what seems like hundreds of ocean dives. She giggled lightly while picturing herself surrounded by floating pearls that made her unable to focus on work.

When Hyjinx declared she was a master of trouble, the diver gasped excitedly, her hips wiggling wildly as she thought of wrestling with the 'evil' pony in her midsts!. When she spoke of her devastation, Aquaria crouched down low to the sand, as if it were some kind of protection from the piercing words of the pony. Lucky for the unicorn, Aquaria often wanted to believe everything told to her, even if she knew that it was probably a fib of some kind. The water griffon probably didn't comprehend fear very well though, only hearing stories about scary sharks and never actually seeing one.

Hyjinx quickly declared her lack of respect for 'deadly' umbrellas, Aquaria gasping in shock as she covered her beak with a smooth black claw. Some may have scoffed at the idea of an umbrella attack, but this pony was simply unafraid of their 'potent' attacks as a cool breeze blew in from the ocean. The striped hybrid loved the salty air and let her wet feathers lightly bristle in the breeze, her attention drifting away from the monologuing unicorn until she her voice raised at the mention of monsters. Aquaria blinked her rose colored eyes and spotted a true monster behind the frightening unicorn. "Brittle bones, oh no! Don't eat her," she warned vaguely while pouncing into action, the hybrid pouncing over the head of the shadow manipulating pony. The wind had caught the shadow producing umbrella and Aquaria wrestled with the monster as it tried to ambush the unsuspecting Hyjinx from behind. The wind blew in as she reached for the weakspot the monster, only to have it slip free of her grasp and suddenly contract, 'devouring' the diver as it closed on her. The world went black as Aquaria struggled against her own demise, the griffoness falling over into the sand, her hind legs flailing as she tried to break free of her prison. "Ahh, save me!" she let out a muffled plea for help, her striped tail wagging excitedly while she was being 'eaten' by the dangerous umbrella.

[SirJude]

Watching the events unfold reminded her heavily of her past. Most of the actions reminded her of the young ‘heroes’ that would try and attack her castle. IT was rather exciting having this chance to act out the villain properly once again. Watching Aquaria pounce into her umbrella unfortunately negates her spell to sink into the shadows, so her horn fizzles out with the failed spell. Watching her rustle amongst the umbrella was rather amusing, although it did give her a bit of a problem. She carefully walked her way over and undid the umbrella. Basic magic is a wonderful tool sometimes.

”I thank you very much for the assistance, clearly I was outmatched by such a fearsome… creature.” she said, with a small chuckle in her voice, going over to dust any sand from the book she was reading “I have not been able to act like that in quite some time… it feels rather foreign to act like such a foal in these aging times I fear.” The book appeared to be in a decent condition, only a small amount of sand managed to get on the book, so she simple brushed the sand off, and held the book up to get any further sand from her precious reading material.

”Although if you are quite finished with my umbrella I would appreciate it’s return. I am not sure how much more use you will get out of it as a fearsome creature without some kind of illusion around it.” she sat down with the book in her control, getting it back to the page it was on, ”Although if you wish I can produce an image for your to tussle with. It is not quite in my nature to flail around like the heroes of old I fear.”

[Gerrard]

Aquaria struggled to escape, but shortly after her own capture, she saw the glimmer of unicorn magic envelop the umbrella and free her from the shadowy prison. Upon being freed, she let out a light giggle before remembering her new friend had saved her. "What dark magic is this? How did you subdue the beast so easily? Teach me your ways sensei," she commented with a giggle while trying to restrain her own excited wiggling.

"I haven't been a foal in a long time. I still remember my school days though. Stingy schools here never served fish," she pouted slightly, before smirking again. For reasons unknown, she seemed to be an endless reserve of positivity. When asked for the umbrella, she gasped and scooped up the shadow maker and dusted all of the sand free of it. She presented the object to the unicorn and was surprised when the mare offered to make an illusion for the hybrid.

"You can make illusions? That sounds fun, what can you make? Maybe I'll make you a gift too," she mused aloud, the hybrid looking over to the unicorn as if she was looking to get scared. Aquaria wondered what sort of special magic tricks were coming.

[SirJude]

”Oh, they are much beyond your abilities dear Aquaria,” she said, with a slight scoff, ”it is a pristine form of magic, that only few are willing to master. And I am one of those individuals.” With her sense of pride getting the better of her, she managed to forget about the umbrella. Putting a hoof to her chest she continued, “I apologize that I am not quite the teacher many would… want. My methods are too outlandish for the general education board to allow, and I would fully agree with them, as I quite detest teaching others.”

Thinking back to the days of old, you remembered your days of school relying more on acting and fiction through her effort to gain friends. The food was rather average, nothing too odd for your tastes, but the food in Canterlot was most likely better than that of everywhere else. “I imagine that most places wouldn’t... but I assume that only based on my knowledge of Canterlot. There were very few Gryphon’s in the schools, and much less a Gryphon focused area.’

With the talk of illusions however, a smirk came to her face. Light magic was certainly something she could conjure on the beach, the harsh sunlight was easy to cast anything from. Now what could she make, the idea of teeth would bring ideas to the fiercest dragons, but she can do better. There was a certain creature that she had read about called the Tatzlwurm, a giant pink and purple creature with three mouths worth of teeth. Such a large and intimidating beast would surely work in such a scenario. ”Oh, you would like to know would you?” she said, starting to focus her magics behind Aquaria, starting to build the image of the Tatzlwurm behind her, her horn starting to glow once more, ”Are you positively certain? I am the master of mischief, are you sure you are prepared for such a fierce showing of power?”

[Gerrard]

When told that the magic was beyond her abilities, she gasped excitedly and squirmed. "Wow, better than my abilities? You haven't seen my magic. It is pretty impressive! Watch," she explained excitedly while sitting in front of the unicorn and showing off her intact black talons.

She covered her left talon with her right talon and poked her 'thumb' claw out for the unicorn to see. "Now watch in awe as I remove it! Mares and gentlecolts, please don't try this at home," she explained with a giggle as she slid her covering talon atop the extended digit. Her rose colored eyes focused on the digit as she seemed to pull on it with all of her might. She squirmed and eventually 'pried' it free, the hybrid wincing as she did the deed. "Oww, is it supposed to hurt when I pull it off, she grumbled with a fake frown before bursting into a giggle and revealing it as a basic sleight of claw!

"See I only made it look like I pulled it off. Then when I was done I showed it off to you. I could show you," she excitedly remarked until looking over to the pony and realizing she had hooves. "Uhh maybe it would be better if you showed me your magic trick. Unless you have a spell that gives you claws," she explained with a giggle. The odd griffoness often thought of herself as a pony, but she did have a certain degree of pride in her smooth black claws.

[SirJude]

She raised an unimpressed brow at the display of ‘magic’ that she showed. It was such a waste of potential effort. Anyone at her old school would have thrown Aquaria out immediately. For now she just give her a quick smirk. It was far from impressive by any sense of the word, as Hyjinx would have made her entire body disappear in front of others. ”You most certainly need a teacher, even the beginners know how not to injure themselves,” she said with a flip of her mane, her horn still glowing as the construction of the illusion was nearly complete.

With a quick breath, she went into a short explanation, ”It is not supposed to hurt. You are the rare exception that is trying to do it with talons however, so you may want to try something more simple, attuned to what you can handle.” she put a hoof up to her mouth, tapping it gently as the thought came to her mind, ”I know! The simplest idea is doing something behind your back. Why don’t you practice by turning around, and I can show you how well you can do the swapping fingers trick?”

The illusion of the worm was complete, and ready to roar as soon as the target turned. The illusion looked almost on key, but it was slightly translucent. It could make the proper sounds, as the mouth started opening up for a roar. ‘Drool' dripping from its triple maw.

[Gerrard]

Aquaria poofed her cheeks as she got the deflating news, the striped hybrid almost trying to combat the bad news. The diver knew she wasn't very good, but hearing it crushed her dreams a little bit. When mentioned that she needed a teacher, Aquaria's eyes lit up as she followed the shifting mane of the mare. "You would be my teacher, awesome. What do I gotta do boss," she assumed with a giggle almost inserting herself into that spot, even if she wasn't a serious student.

"The trick was that it didn't hurt because it was all a magic trick. I had you fooled," she giggled excitedly while listening to the directions of the spooky pony. She was wiggling with excitement when the pony told her to turn around and see a magic trick. Aquaria speculated what was waiting for her, the goofy hybrid expecting scary shark. She wondered what they tasted like, hearing that things tasted like what they ate. And if fish were the tastiest thing ever, imagine what a shark would taste like! She then remembered that sharks were basically big fish and if it was behind her, she had to rescue it from drowning in air.

With a quick twist of her hips, the diver turned around a saw a giant monstrous worm with many teeth in its many mouths. Her jaw dropped as the writhing monster screamed and drooled all over the place. She stumbled on the ground and reached for her coral, the panicked hybrid picking up the object and hurled it at the illusion. "Hyjinx, I'll save you," she squeaked as the object flew through the beast. The scared griffon was even more frightened when she decided that it wasn't an illusion at all.

"It's a ghost worm. You need to run away with me. They can't swim, we gotta get into the ocean," the panicked hybrid snatching up the unicorn in her terrified talons as she tried to carry the unicorn into the ocean with her in an irrational rush.

[SirJude]

Hyjinx couldn`t help but chuckle at her success. Such a marvelous display of illusions are wonderful on unsuspecting targets. She was rather impressed with her creation as well. It came out rather splendidly. The comments of being a student brought a slight frown to her face though. She was never one for enjoying teaching others. She would much prefer doing what she did as a foal, and read her way to success. She decided to brush it off since she was turning her head anyways. The thumb trick was unimpressive and deserved little to no comment. It is a form of magic that was purely beneath her.

With the gryphon turned solely upon her glorious creation of light and sound, she raised her hooves in an evil, menacing thought process that only a mustached brute would do. Her plan was coming to full fruition and her target is experiencing a massive amount of fear. The creation was on point, and she had received the reaction that she was expecting. That sheer form of terror that could only be expressed by... kidnapping the illusionist? Hyjinx was not quite expecting this reaction, but none-the less she was quite infuriated with this.

"Unhand me, you foul beast! I did not order such an action upon my pony!" she said. She was rather angry that she was automatically grabbed. In what universe does someone SAVE someone else. What kind of mockery of basic survivability rules is this? Hyjinx felt as if this gryphon was insulting her intelligence by trying to save herself. She started trying to pry her talons loose to keep her safe, and out of the water, "If you drag me into that water I will unleash my wrath upon you! I swear it!"

[Gerrard]

Aquaria "KNEW" that these beasts loved eating ponies. She had heard that ponies were considered a delicacy to many monsters, maybe griffons tasted like chicken, or even taster like fish. The hybrid had to rescue this pony, even if she didn't want to be saved. Unicorns always seemed to overestimate their magic and this pony clearly didn't have the power to destroy such a gargantuan ghost! Her eyes looked the beach over, the area surprisingly vacant, letting her focus on this rescue!

She knew that the ponies always squirmed as they were rescued, luckily this one didn't fight back as much as the brawny stallions who thought she was a sea lion or something. "I'll rescue you, no matter what. Take a deep breath or you might get a mouthful of water," she declared excitedly, the pony locked tightly in her grip.

She jumped into the water with the unicorn, reversing her usual strategy of running away from the water. The splash of ocean water filled the air as the pair got completely drenched in the salty mist. "Don't you just love the ocean? I could swim forever," she sighed in a content manner, already forgetting about the monster. After a light wave slapped into the pair, Aquaria blinked and remembered there was the fiercest monster ever behind them! "Ahh do you know any tricks on how to make one of these ghosts go to sleep or pass on into the afterlife," she calmly asked to her probably furious friend. Aquaria's attention span was short enough to let her forget about even the scariest of things, hopefully Hyjinx wouldn't be infuriated by her now nonchalant reaction to the illusion.

[SirJude]

"I SAID REMOVE YOUR TALONS FROM ME YOU BRUTE!" she yelled, to no avail. She reached her hooves out to the illusion in the distance, by the time they were close to the water the illusion had disappeared, and any other pony that was near it were confused as to the disappearance of this monstrous creation. A single tear formed in Hyjinx's eye, realizing how distance and disturbance in holding the spell was a weak point of hers. However this single tear was immeasurable to the ocean that was slapping her in the face.

Hyjinx dislike for actually being in the water stems from the fact that she doesn't want to risk losing her headpiece. Her first reaction of course is to keep her hooves over the headpiece, even though it's clipped into her hair she wanted to be 100% certain that she would be able to keep it there. Unfortunately this caused her to sink. To no one's surprise the evil witch of the castle had no idea about swimming. The only interaction she had with the water was with putting her lizards in the moat of her castle. No mistress of mayhem would trouble herself with learning the efforts of the water, waters will should bend to hers! It is too bad that was not the case however.

Hyjinx was now underwater. Assuming the Gryphon had not taken her too far into the water with her, she started trying to hoof her way out of the water from the bottom. There was some fuzzy noise that was some sort of sound, but she could not make it out with the water all around her. She was doing her best to get a spell going to put her in the shadows, so she had a slightly better chance to at least breath, but it wasn't working out too well.

[Gerrard]

Aquaria took a relieved sigh as she floated in the water. She was at home in the cool ocean, and easily able to enjoy the sound of lightly crashing waves. Her now calm eyes peered back to the beach and noticed that the worm was gone. The lifeguard took a sigh before realizing her pony was gone. She gasped in horror and slid her goggles on, the pony probably a victim of the worm. It was a water tatzle worm ghost, a truly legendary cteature. She took a brief moment to remember her life guard vow, "rain, snow, sleet or giant water ghost monsters, we rescue those in need!" It was something like that anyway, she had trouble focusing on the details in class.

Regardless, she had to rescue the unicorn and Aquaria dove under the water. Her rose-colored eyes spotted the unicorn in the depths making no effort to swim. Her hooves seemed fastened to her headdress, gasping out bubbles of air as she came to a 'realization'. Hyjinx had her hooves glued to her awesome hat. How it happened didn't matter though, and she torpedoed down and rescued the drowning pony. Her dark clutches pulled Hyjinx to surface and helped her get a deep breath of salty air!

"Try not to glue your hooves to your hat when you go swimming. It makes it really hard to swim," she commented in a cheerful manner as if the witch had chosen to go swimming. She was starting to feel better now that the monster was gone, her drenched tail wagging slowly as she paddled back to the coast. "That sure was a scary incident, wasn't it Jynx," she asked with a smile already coming up with a nickname for her new 'friend'.

[SirJude]

With her body being pulled out of the water by the amphibious gryphon, Hyjinx could finally get a good breath of air. She made sure that her headpiece stayed on her head throughout the trip, as she would gladly fight for her life over this piece. When she was completely above the water and on the land. she took a minute to breath, cough, breath, and repeat that cycle until she was feeling fairly stable. She was used to being dunked in the water, as the usual defeat of the witch left her rather wet. She would come home, dry off and think nothing of it. However she has always had a problem with the ocean. She never wanted to deal with the depth of the water, as she enjoyed 'swimming' through the shadows. It was much more enjoyable to her and she didn't want to worry about her lack of gills compared to other creatures in the world.

As such, the moment Hyjinx could catch her breath, she turned towards the gryphon and began her 'rebuttle'. "How DARE you go against my wishes!" She said, stomping a hoof in anger "There is full reason as to why I stay out of that... thing. The water is far beyond my comprehension or caring and I wish to have no part in it's existence!" She gently waved her hoof at the ocean, accusing it of being a lesser being with the scorn in her look.

"And no, it was not 'scary' in any possible way. I have seen toddlers that gave me more scares than that! I heartily enjoy the look I gave you, but what makes you think I could not see that creature in the first place?!" She was rather annoyed at the gryphon, and her argument proved as much. Although her concept of 'friendship' has never had any sort of protection such as this, so she was not used to people really taking care of her even in situations where she was trying to scare the soul out of another pony. Her horn started glowing again, the same as before as she tried to create... something terrifying, something so frightening that even she would be able to run in fear of the thing. But her horn was sparking as she clearly wasn't fully focusing on the spell enough for it to succeed.

[Gerrard]

Aquaria was positive to a fault, able to rationalize all complaints into something positive. She could have scoffed at the angry complaints, but she knew the truth! The unicorn was clearly too embarrassed to apologize and Aquaria understood. She smiled and gently hugged the agitated unicorn with a smile on her maw.

"Sorry about that! I just didn't want to let my buddy get hurt. I guess I wasn't thinking," Aquaria explained with a smile as she left it open ended enough to take blame. She giggled a bit when the agitated unicorn said the ocean was beyond her comprehension, her odd comment an obvious statement.

"Jynx, nobody can comprehend the ocean! It is too big. All we can do is learn more about it little by little. The ocean is like magic, no amount of studying will ever reveal it all," she explained with a sudden burst of common sense. If she wanted to, the hybrid could engage in a thoughtful dialogue, at least until the next shiny thing distracted her.

When the clearly mad unicorn complained that foals were braver than her, the diver giggled and nodded. "You know some brave ponies! I knew you could see the giant ghost worm. I just figured you were paralyzed with fear. I was scared too but my lifeguard instincts and training over wrote my fear. I jumped into action and saved the day. I think you would do the same if you were a lifeguard. You are a really nice pony after all," she explained with a straight face. Aquaria either knew something the wizard didn't, or she just refused to accept the fact that Hyjinx was just a big ol' meanie!

Her eyes watched the sparking of the agitated unicorn's horn. Aquaria gasped and held her talons to her beak as the sparks started flying. She excitedly clapped at the spectacle and looked across her new 'friend' for direction. "I love fireworks! Maybe you can make better ones if you calm down," she suggested in complete ignorance.

[SirJude]

Her eye twitched. Hyjinx has never met someone so… intellectually challenged such as this. There were only so many things that she was expecting of others, and the first would have been at least that ghosts were not so frequent to appear as anything other than another pony. Upon the initiation of the hug Hyjinx knew she would not win at this, She did her best to get out of the hug, as hugging was not something she particularly cared for.

"You clearly were not thinking." She said, getting out of the hug from this creature "And last I checked, it was not possible to have a ghost Tatzlwurm! The fact that you could not see through that illusion is what boggles me the most!" she yelled, stomping her hoof in the sand. "Just to make sure you understand what I specialize in, I specialize in illusions! The fact that it looked ethereal should have indicated such. I mean just... Just look!" A rather simple spell that she has come to learn is creating an illusion of herself. Within moments her horn stopped sparking and upon clarification a quick flash of light brought up a mirror image of herself, standing beside her.

With her illusion up, Hyjinx took a small breath. She was at the beach, she needed to at least keep herself composed, even if this gryphon was utterly... infuriating. The gryphon was unfortunately right, you magic would do nothing if you were too frustrated. Although your illusion of yourself is something you have practiced to no end, so creating that is easier than drinking a soothing cup of evening tea. The ocean was indeed a large thing, something that she did not care about what so ever, however her original message did not get across as clear as she had hoped. "I more meant that I do not care for the water. I swim enough through the darkness, swimming through the water too would just tire me out." she said, in the smuggest way possible. The double of her was mimicking her movements, and her voice.

As Hyjinx continued talking, there was the echo from her double, "I was certainly not paralyzed with fear. I have had to study these beasts before. I will not shake in fear to such beasts after the extensive amount of studying I have done!" She said, not adding to the fact that most of her study of these mythical beasts came from books. "A master of magic such as I, Hyjinx. would ever cower in fear of such a silly looking creature. Three mouths are nothing to be afraid of. It is just preposterous natural design. It serves no true benefit."

Upon hearing of the lifeguard suggestion, Hyjinx only game a smirk, "There are plenty of reasons as to why I am in the line of work that I currently reside. It suits my need much more than much... else that society has to offer." This line was rather true to her. She had not cared much for interactions with others, which is why she normally worked in the library at Canterlot, sorting shelves and keeping everything neat and tidy. There were some instances in which she had to direct those who were not intelligent enough to read the footnotes on each shelf, but she was alright with that. It gave her a sense of power over others that she rather enjoyed.

[Gerrard]

Aquaria gasped in awe as the agitated unicorn tried to explain that the worm couldn't be a ghost for reasons unknown. A normal person might have questioned such a specific circumstance and how anyone might know that, but Aquaria was simply impressed. "Wow you're a tatzle worm expert? You must hang out with them a lot! You must know a lot of dead ones if you say they can't have ghosts. I never had any ghost friends, are all ghosts mean or nice," she commented with a smile as shared with anticipation of meeting one.

When the unicorn barked back, Aquaria blinked and snatched under her wing with a deft talon before the hybrid smiled back. "What does ethereal mean? Does that mean ghost? It kinda makes sense since ghat was a giant ghost, she giggled, thinking she had it all figured out. And then it all clicked in her confused mind as she gasped loudly and sprang up uncomfortably close to the unicorn. "You make ghosts! You must be a super powerful wizard to slay tatzle worms and make ghosts of them," she reasoned in an... unreasonable manner before the exasperated unicorn made a copy of herself.

The hybrid went wide eyed in awe and fear as she looked at the copy of the unicorn. She had never seen real illusion magic and came to a different conclusion altogether. "You made a ghost of yourself. You slayed yourself! Are you a zombie," she gasped in horror while scrambling behind the pony and checking her pulse by placing a smooth talon on her neck to check. The unicorn was alive, or at least a living zombie she had never heard of.

She seemed to be alive and that satisfied Aquaria for now, the diver relaxing slightly as she repositioned herself in front of the pony. At the mention of three mouths though, Aquaria giggled and shook her head in disagreement. "It would be awesome to have three mouths! I could eat all the fish in the world with three mouths," she explained with a giggle while playing making chomping motions with her maw and talons to simulate the mouths of the monster.

When the pony smirked about her line of work, she gained the attention of Aquaria. The hybrid found her tail wagging with excitement and anticipation. "You must be a professional ghost wrangler. That sounds fun, but it must be hard to corral ghosts when your lasso flies through them," she remarked sincerely while sitting down and listening intently for a reaction from the probably enraged unicorn.

[SirJude]

"I am an expert in a lot of things, not simply... " she said, listening to the rest of her sentence and realizing that 'hanging out' with the wurms was about as true as her seeing one in real life. The idea of being near one is quite frightening, so that is why she uses them. She takes a moment to think before continuing, "Ghosts are an interesting topic however. Unfortunately ghosts are just like other sentient creatures in the world. There are plenty that are all well and fine with talking to those that they feel like, but they usually just stay away! They can become the grumpiest things... or so I've read." She hasn't experienced anything like a 'ghost' in quite some time. IF it has ever happened to her it would have come off as a rather subtle experience.

Although she would have been proud at Aquaria's notice of her skills, she was rather appalled at her answer of 'creating ghosts'. "You are sadly very... very off. Creating ghosts brings up a selection of questions that would border the creations of reality itself!" she said, not in an angry tone more so just confused. The idea of creating ghosts just brings a whole bout of actions that would rely on the creation of life itself, and as such she was imagining what kind of power it would take to create life like that. "However, I do not make..." she started, before the comment of zombification was put into consideration. The double continued copying her speech patterns and hoof movements, especially when she went to straighten up herself. Some correction is needed here. "I do not create ghosts, as nice as that would be. I simply create illusions. Nothing better and nothing less." At that mention she brought the illusion of herself down, hearing her voice over and over again was starting to get rather frustrating. To prove the example, and with a bit of concentration her horn began to glow once more. Within a quick minute an illusion of Aquaria popped up. It was not copying anything she was doing, but was moving around independently of Aquaria. Hyjinx was determining her movements.

"As nice as it would be to wrangle ghosts, I am one of the greatest in terms of Illusions and Shadows. No one can compare to my skills in that field" her experience in said field rely mostly on the fact that she has not encountered any other pony who actually uses that kind of magic. By this logic she is clearly the greatest in the world. She was proud of her abilities in this field. Her pride in being able to make illusions was nothing short of her skill, and her love of scaring other ponies. It took quite some time for her to get this good in her illusions however. Even though she was good at it, she still had to worry about losing her focus. It took a lot of concentration to deal with these illusions, or at least their initial construction. The illusion of Aquaria sat there, and waved at Aquaria in anticipation of her reaction.

[Gerrard]

Aquaria listened to the unicorn become slightly less confident as she spoke about ghosts. The hybrid listened closely and if she were any less friendly, Aquaria might have scoffed at her second handed claims. Hyjinx clearly had never seen one, but that didn't prevent the diver from believing her friend. "Wow, all of the books I read say that ghosts like to posses ponies and act out their desires," she commented with a playfully spooky voice. She went serious faced and raised her talons like a zombie and awkwardly staggered forward to the 'wizard'.

"Brains, do you have brains? I'm all out of brains," she politely asked as the worst ghost zombie thing ever! Aquaria quickly exposed her lack of familiarity when she giggled and ended the charade. When Hyjinx spoke about theories and philosophy, her normally engaged eyes seemed to roll into the back of her head. It was probably beyond her comprehension, but that didn't stop the hybrid from gawking at the illusion statement.

"Ohhh, you mean like a sleight of claw, just with magic. That seems easier than master level necromancy. So you just use magic to trick ponies. That is sorta cheating though. Anyone can make a good trick with magic. I would like make a bunch of awesome sea shells and impress all of my friends, " she explained with a giggle, forgetting that illusions don't last forever.

Aquaria gasped at the sudden appearance of her illusory doppelganger. She shook her hips in excitement and growled playfully. That is a funny looking cat bird, where did you see that one," she explained with a smirk, it being slightly unclear if she recognized it as herself. "Do you know any cool illusions Miss? Hyjinx, my good friend, can make giant ghost monster illusions, they are pretty incredible! Maybe you can play a game of tag with us," she gasped excitedly before running over and roughly tagging the illusion with her tough black talons. Tag, you're it," she cheered playfully, tripping over her feet as and tumbling face first into the sand.

[SirJude]

Hyjinx took a quick look at Aquaria before nodding, "There are many books detailing those accounts I fear." she said, looking up at the straggling hybrid, awkwardly shuffling back to keep away from her, "Many, many researchers will talk about it... and will continue to do so for quite some time. I do wish one party would just give up and agree with the other." There were many times in her life that one would come to the library ;looking for information on our phantomlike counterparts. She did not have much in terms of knowledge on the subject, but from what she's heard she does not want them to bother her. The illusion continued to sit there, looking interested in the conversation.

At the comment of lacking brains, Hyjinx had to hold back a bit of a laugh. She almost wanted to continue with her sentence, but Aquaria seemed rather content with her actions. The eye rolling at her own comments brought a frown to her face. Philosophy and theories were important, and everyone should be bringing through the horizons of thought pattern. Although for now it should be bypassed. Aquaria is not the kind of creature to care about such things, so it would be best to deal with those things differently.

"Indeed. Illusions are similar to slight of hoof. I would argue that they are not necessarily.. easier than necromancy, but there are also laws surrounding that kind of magic, so I have certainly not tested things out in that regard." These facts held true, Hyjinx has never attempted necromancy for the main reason that it seemed completely outlandish, as well as the fact that she could never find any information on the subject. She imagined it would be something held within the locked backlogs of Canterlot's main library, only accessible to those that live in the castle.

Hyjinx had a little bit of a laugh when the gryphon was talking, essentially, to herself. Her illusions were a mixture of throwing her voice and creating images for others to look at. All of this is done in her head however, the thought of roaring like a tazlewurm almost made her giggle. But for now, her horn glowed and on came the conversation with Illu-Aquaria "I can't say that I do me!" the illusion said, "All I know what to do is swim and find shiiiiiiny things! OH! Like that mirror over there! IF you wanna play tag though okay!" the illusion reached over and 'touched' Aquaria before running off.

[Gerrard]

Aquaria squirmed in the sand before she pulled herself free and rubbed the sand off her beak. She giggled and looked around for herself, the unicorn giving her a lecture on illusions that was beyond her understanding and limited attention span. "I guess you're right. I don't really know any magic beyond necromancy. I brought back a few drowned ponies, but I had to put them in quarantine to see if they became zombies. I can't just let grumpy zombies walk around and bite everypony," she joked in a lighthearted manner that her prior actions deemed plausible.

When the illusion spoke, it quickly grabbed the lifeguard's attention. It sounds familiar, but that would have to wait as she gasped with excitement. "I love swimming and shiny things too! We can be like best friends. What's your name? Mine is Aquaria, " she asked her doppelganger without realizing it was an illusion. When the fake agreed to play tag and quickly caught the griffon. Aquaria tried to dodge and fell down, not feeling the tag but assuming it was true because the 'ghost' ran away.

"Hey, you need to tag better,"she giggled before recovering and bounding after her illusory copy. Her black talons and striped paws flashed by as she darted through the terrain. While she wasn't the greatest flier, she could definitely sprint fast. She even finished in the top ten of the running of the leaves before. She probably would have done better, but she got side tracked, something that 'never' happened to a lifeguard as 'focused' as her.

[SirJude]

"That is ... not quite necromancy but..." Hyjinx was starting to get the impression that anything she tried to explain wouldn't quite work. She was used to this of course, being one of the most knowledgeable member of the library's staff. No other could compare to her vast knowledge of books... surely. An interesting idea however, to bring zombified ponies up from the beach after drowning. She mused over the idea that they would go back into the water and act like sharks, going after other ponies to share the infection. But that was a story for another time. She could muse about it to the children to see their reactions to such a thing. "Be careful with your powers then, I doubt too many would like to deal with the walking dead."

As Aquaria started talking with her double, she took note of the things she saw. One of the key things was speed, and how wrong she thought Aquaria moved out of water. She was surprisingly fast for a sea oriented creature. She started to make her adjustments as she tried following as the gryphons started to move. "My name's Aquaria too! Being Best Friends sounds Super Fantastical!" she said, continuing to run through the sand as she made her way around. "Hey, I can only tag so well. I'm only you after all!"

Hyjinx followed after. She was not the fastest pony in the world, so she tried looping her illusion around to run closer to her, to keep Aquaria close enough for the illusion of her to not fade away as well.