ponyville (OPEN) Exploring the new town (Ponyville)

[Ashton]

Cloudy Skies

 

 

It was a beautiful day in equestria, the sun was bright, the heat was moderate, though a little on the warm side and there wasn't a cloud in the sky... ok there was one cloud, but it was so small it probably was forgotten when the pegasai cleared all the rest out! Overall, it was a great day for a new beginning!

 

the long trip had been a chore for the 'griff, as much as he enjoyed assisting his best friend in her research, there was a limit on how many times he could hear the words "Wild Magic" and "Paranormal Nexus" before he went crazy... and Jasper's continual commentary on the bumpy ride and the harness of the wagon didn't help any --- especially when Cloudy had already told him that if he didn't like it, he could just fly --- which was exactly the method that Cloudy had employed for large portions of the trip. Much as he hated to agree with Jasper, the pesky dragon had been right, the wagon was uncomfortable and bumpy... Not that jasper would have noticed it if he had taken a turn helping pull the wagon...

 

But that was behind them, while Jasper and Iggy found their way to the trio's new home, Cloudy had been tasked with finding them all a nice meal to celebrate... so he needed some fish for himself, gemstones for jasper, and enough salad to split between himself and Iggy.

 

Cloudy found himself after a bit of a search looking around the small but surprisingly well-stocked ponyville market. Though he noticed while he was eyeing the wares of the pony merchants, there were quite a few eyeing him as well. Was it really that odd to see a hippogryph here? He thought that in the time since the Storm King's defeat, his kind had spread around enough that every pony would have seen at least a couple before now... maybe Iggy had been wrong about Ponyville being a magnet for weird phenomenon! he chuckled to himself at the idea, making sure to smile at the ponies -mostly foals- who were eyeing him as he began slowing browsing the stalls, looking for the components for his and his friends inaugural dinner in their new home!

[szalhi]

(( My participation is probably a mistake. I'm super inconsistent with this website it's crazy. First posts are always exposition trains.)) 

 

Spoiler

 

Things felt different here after the Coronation. Loose was sort of away when it happened and she wasn't entirely caught up with all the changes. Twilight Sparkle had ascended to the High Throne and with that the castle had been sort of temporary converted to a public museum, although it was more of a Historical reservation in it's current form. There wasn't much certainty over what would happen to it and no one thought ready to pester the new council over it. If it was up to her, she'd just turn the entire place into a full on library instead of the divided section it was formally. The lack of intrusive feeling in visiting the place bolstered more tourism and supposed immigration which felt really weird to her. 

 

She didn't really like to talk much about her current occupation. It was not one in which she was intending to spend the rest of her life with and as far as she was concerned, she just did it to bridge the gap. She was not ready quite yet, though most of her wished she was. She was on break now. Back in her resident town of Ponyville. It wasn't her first stop, that would be her hometown of Appleloosa, but as much as she liked it there, she could not imagine ever living there, it was weird and she was not agricultural. 

 

Maybe when the 'fad' died down she would go visit the castle. It wouldn't be the first time she was there, but it would be different. But right now she had to restock on all the stuff that expired when she was gone. As much as she wanted to be efficient, appetite does not exactly function that way. There was a bit of a problem though, not really relating to the food though. While part of her 'internal clock' functioned- well, internally, there were parts that relied on exterior methods. The sun was a big one, and the sun did not shine equally everywhere. She just needed a bit of calibration, for she was definitely sure it was not 12:37. It wasn't really that big of a deal, it wasn't like she had anywhere she needed to be today specifically, but all of that could add up and it wasn't like she could just look up at the clocktower or anything. She was supposed to meet Haste in a couple of days and she did not want to be late for that. 

 

She would just ask that pony over there. They didn't seem too busy, maybe. There was something off about the pegasus though, their shape was a bit wrong. While she liked to bolster that her perception was strong, it wasn't without fault and half the time she had to fill in the gaps. It wasn't quite clear in this case whether she was perceiving wrong or filling wrong, but hey a weird seeming pony was an interesting one, and nopony could possibly get mad at her situation right?

 

"Hey, excuse me. Do you have the time? I think it's 12:39 but that feels wrong to me." 

[Ashton]

((Dangit! I was rooting for the "really expensive apartments" that taco suggested XD (j/k). Well, now you have a reason to be more consistent  ))

 

Cloudy was surprised when the pony spoke to him, but smiled, then he realized a small problem "uh..." he looked around, hoping to see a clock somewhere nearby but realized there wasn't one "Well... I dont know exactly, I dont usually carry a clock in case I want to take a swim, but between the sun, how long I was on the road today, and the fact its not started cooling down, I'd say it's probably late afternoon, so probably like three or so" he explained "Is everything alright?" he asked, a little concerned because the pony's judgement of time was so far off, though not terribly - he assumed they probably just overslept so their whole day was thrown off; something he was all too familiar with.

[szalhi]

"What? No! Or yes! Totally. Everything's fine. Nothing's wrong. Ha, ha ha. 12:39, nice joke right?" She laughed in a totally not legit manner that could never really fool anyone. Late afternoon, really? If it was that far already, just imagine how far it could get with subsequent days. Part of her wanted to blame the High Princess for this, but the rest of her prevailed. No it was totally her fault. But that seemed like too much of a big gap. Unless, he was wrong. He said himself he wasn't certain and with him supposedly being a traveler or something that aided that factor, but well, now that she thought about it... 

 

"It would be really nice to be able to use clocks normally," She said under her breath before realising that she was still there. "I mean uh, yeah, it sure is a nice afternoon is it?" She should probably have just stopped talking.

 

 

 

[Ashton]

He paused, looking at her oddly for a moment, even though he only stared at her for less than a second, it could seem like an eternity if she realized he was scrutaning her, clearly aware that something was wrong but not sure what it was, then he came to the realization "...you... you cant see, can you?" he asked, a little taken back "thats why you didn't know how low the sun was... and...thats why you approached a strange creature like me..."

[szalhi]

Well, it seemed she wasn't really perceiving the peg- no wait, whatever they were called, she forgot. "Well, I mean, it really depends what you mean by see." Would she keep beating around the bush like this? Possibly. She already got the answer she sort of wanted. "Like, I guess by most ponies definition. And the medical definition. And the legal definition. And the totally not noticing definition." Wait, she was just making the situation more weird than it had to be. 

[Ashton]

He sighed, but smiled "trust me, I know what it means to have to admit weakness" he said "clearly you can at least make out shapes... you thought I was a pony, didn't you?" he asked "Well, it should have been obvious I wasn't... except I'm small, which makes me faster and more agile, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm not a big Hyppogryph like my dad is" he paused "but... you know what, I just had an idea... why dont we help each other - I literally just got into town like 10 minutes ago, so i dont know my way around, but I bet you do. And maybe you cant see small things as well, but I can, so why dont we work together? I just need to get some foods for my friends, and I can help you find what your looking for too. Sound good?"

[szalhi]

"As much as I like to think I've adapted within the last twelve years there are still things that really like to frustrate me, like well, obviously time." She sighed. It wasn't that she had something and lost it, it was more that she never had it in the first place and she's not getting the full experience. "Well, yeah sort of. I knew something was different but I just assumed it was my fault. But with the changes, I guess it makes more sense now." Although Hippogyph Isolation ended a year or two earlier, she hadn't really met one properly up until now. She wasn't sure whether to ask about the Gryph's new experiences up on land since she wasn't entirely sure how long they had been up. 

 

"Hey, I can see small things. Sometimes. It's complicated. I've basically found what I need and whatever more that I may be missing I can just grab later. It's not dire or anything. But really I can help you. You've found the market already, that's good. A day or two in this village and you could basically know everything." 

[Ashton]

Cloudy rubbed his beak in thought "yanno...." he began "I have an idea... my friend Iggy is amazing with magic, I've never met a pony who knew more spells..." he paused "...oh wait, they're probably still unpacking... never a good idea to disturb iggy during organizing... I've never seen a creature so obsessed with everything being organized and lined up so perfectly..." he sighed "Hey, that gives me another idea... do you like swimming?" he asked "I heard somepony around here mention a lake, maybe you could see better as a seapony" he smiled, placing a reassuring claw on her soldier, since he realized she probably couldn't see his beak well enough to know that he was smiling at her.

 

((also just fyi, kinda killing time here - Iggy really is a real character, but hasn't been approved yet... so I'm kinda hoping that before this thread is done they can go talk to iggy, but given how slow apps are moving right now.... >.<))

[szalhi]

"More spells than Twilight Sparkl- Wait, no that's not a great comparison. More like Starlight Glimmer. She was the Guidance counselor at the school. She's probably the headmare now." With how everything was going, she would be surprised if that wasn't the case. "There's also another two unicorns. I'm not sure how many spells they actually know but the ones they do know are quite amazing." 

 

"Swimming? Yeah kind of. But I'm not a marine creature so, I'm kind of hindered more in the water. But it's still good," She explained. She didn't have that part of dolphin. "That lake is not very deep at all though, so the amount of true swimming one could do there is really debatable." Something he said confused her. "What do you mean as a seapony?"

[Ashton]

Cloudy laughed awkwardly "Well I've never met either of them, so I'm not sure" he admitted "but iggy knows lots and lots of spells... even if many are rather... specialized..." when she asked about the second part he just grinned, over-exaggerating it in Hope's she could see "common, I'll show you" he leapt into the air to get a better view of the area, eliciting a lot of quiet gasps and other sounds of surprise from the ponies who had not noticed them before, he then landed "this way, I saw the lake" he said, heading off in that direction slowly so his new friend could tell where he w as going

[szalhi]

"What is Iggy exactly? A normal pony would just assume they're a unicorn, but I'm not a normal pony. I know sorcery is not as restrictive as ponies think." A lot of ponies just assume that only unicorns can cast spells when really it's just way easier when you have a focus appendage. "Alright I'm coming. You don't have to lead me or anything, I already said I know about it. I've been living here for seventeen years. Or maybe actually sixteen. And it's always been there." She made the point by quickly overtaking him. If it was up to her she would have stopped by her house first to unload, it wouldn't have taken longer than an extra minute, but she didn't want to distract him from his objective.

[Ashton]

Cloudy laughed "Did the fact none of us are ponies give it away?" He asked "Iggy is a kirin, jasper is a dragon" he explained as he switched to flying and coasted alongside her "we're all kinda misfits so we gravitated to each other I suppose" when they got there, he tossed his bags down on the shore and waded into the shallows "oh yeah, its deep enough to try... put your bags down and come on in" he said, more than a little excited.

[szalhi]

"Ah well, you know, If you merge at least two of you together you'll get a pony. Because that's totally how science works." At that moment, she felt as if she was getting a glare from her mother. How she could know what that was like was something no one could possibly answer. "Well, you're only misfits here in this country." She thought about a certain town that she heard about down south. A town where everyone was so different that in the end there were no misfits. What was it called again? 

 

"Well, I suppose it's been a while," She said to herself as if she wasn't already planning to go in. She placed her stuff down to the side and, well, trotted into the lake. "Alright, show me whatever magic you've got." She had somewhat of a clue, but she didn't believe it was actually going to work.

 

((I'm quite tempted to hijack your other thread even though it might be detrimental to my totally existent quality. ))

[Ashton]

((Actually they're on a colision course... these are both on the same timeline...I'm also getting ready to make a third thread in this set with Jasper))

 

Cloudy opened his mouth, when suddenly the sound of a muffled explosion rang out... and from here the dust cloud and ensuring flow of bubbles could easily be seen...

 

Cloudy's claw went to his face "oh no...iggy botched her cleaning spell again..." he groaned "you know what, forget it, lets get bellow the water before the dust gets us!" the ping gem around his neck began to glow, the flow enveloped him and as he reached out and gently grabbed the pony near him the glow enveloped her as well, and with a splash the two were below the surface --- not far below given the shallow nature of that end of the lake, but far enough. They had both been transformed into Sea ponies!

 

Cloudy quickly swam over to the deepest part of the lake, which wasn't but a couple feet deeper, but gave him a bit more space to move around underwater "whatcha think? And as a bonus none of that dust iggy just stirred up will reach us here!"

 

((you get to decide, of course, if transforming her into a seapony helped her vision, made it worse, or left it the same))

[szalhi]

From this range she couldn't quite make out the exact effect, but she could hear it was explosive. Naturally an explosive sounded bad by itself, but what Cloudy said confused her. "Cleaning spell? That doesn't sound so bad," She replied misinterpreting the exact effects of the spell. She didn't have much time to think as her body shifted both biologically and positionally and she was pulled beneath the surface. Her pony brain told her to hold her breath but her new instincts overtook. With a click, she could perceive just as if she was on the surface, with no impact to her respiration. 

 

"I... wasn't exactly expecting that to work." She knew of the transformative traits of the hippogryphs but she wasn't entirely sure how they worked and assumed they were innate like with changelings. "So, you can use it on anyone?"

 

(( So, yeah, it's basically the same, just without the other effects impeding. I guess you could argue that it might get better underwater, but she has to train for that )) 

[Ashton]

Cloudy laughed "Our queen once transformed six ponies herself, and I saw another 'griff transform three small ones, the Pearl is an ancient artifact of powerful magic, and most of us carry a shard of it" he explained

 

But he sighed "yeah... cleaning spell... you might not have seen it, but the whole town was covered in a dust cloud... and there were bubbles falling from the sky... so I'm guessing our new place hadn't been cleaned in a while... and iggy tried to clean it all at once using her magic..." he shook his head "She knows a lot of spells... but she hasn't exactly perfected all of them yet... well she hasn't perfected a few..." he snorted "...she hasn't perfected really any of them..." he finally said "You should see what she did to Jasper... and we're all terrified of what could happen if she tried to use a teleport spell... so... yeah, you might ask her if she knows a spell to help your eyes... but if she does you probably should get one of those other ponies you mentioned to cast it..."

[szalhi]

Huh, so it wasn't an innate racial trait, it was from an artifact. That explains how he could so easily use it on her. "That's pretty cool. You said shard, so that kind of implies that maybe it can't be replicated? So, there's a limited supply of shards then." It would have been cool if everypony could transform. "And does it work on creatures not relating to hippogryphs?" Yeah, that was enough questions for now.

 

"I don't think there are any spells to restore- well grant sight, otherwise it probably would have already happened. I never had sight to begin with so that might make things a bit harder." There were tiers of 'restoring' sight and for her, she was far from the recently damaged eyes tier. "As much as some of us blind ponies would love to have sight, there's also part of us that are afraid of the experience and the changes."

[Ashton]

((bah, just go ask trixie, I'm sure she has a spell that will grant you sight but for every second you see, you'll lose two seconds of your life! 😜 ))

 

Cloudy blinked then sighed "yeah I suppose so... I never thought about it, but I guess there would be a limited number... I know a lot of 'griffs that dont have a shard... but they may just not want to go back and forth... so..." he paused "I dont really know... I mean it was the queen that transformed every-griff after the first battle with the stormking... and she was the one who transformed the big group of ponies... and the rest of us have to be touching a pony to make it work... but it might just be nobody but a 'griff has a shard... if you want to try it, I dont mind letting you borrow the shard for a minute" he offered, not really wanting to address the second part of what she said... he felt kinda bad now, getting her hopes up like this...

[szalhi]

"Well, you said you had a dragon with you. Have you tried it with him? Dragons aren't directly related to ponies so it would be a good work. If it works on him, it's safe to say it works on everycreature." Of course, that was ignoring all the animals and stuff. "I don't really need the shard. This is the largest public body of water nearby, I'm not entirely interested in being a seapony for very long, although it was an interesting experience." The Hippogryph shouldn't have to worry about her as with the lack of her ever having sight, it's harder for her to know what she's missing out on.

 

Sensing around, she could sort of notice the dust on the surface, but not much else. "How long do you think until everything's okay?" 

[Ashton]

He laughed a little "For Jasper to use it, he'd have to take off his headphones and wake up from his nap... he's the laziest dragon I've ever met" he snorted, which was quite amusing underwater... "though I'll mention it to iggy, I'm sure she can convince him to try, she's about the only one who can get through to him... probably because he knows if there's any chance of learning something new, Iggy wont stop pestering him until he tries it" he chuckled

 

"I'd give it a few more minutes just to be safe, that was a pretty big cloud... they must not have dusted the house in years..." surmised Cloudy