Neoniie

Mirage felt slightly sheepish, completely forgetting why the two were in the hotel room in the first place. "Sounds good to me," she said, stretching out her wings as she got out of the chair. Then, a realization came to her. "Um...there's only one bed in here..." She didn't quite understand the exact implications of the akward situation they now found themselves in, merely thinking it to be inconvenient. "I could go get another room from that counter pony," she suggested, a sense of foolishness coming over her for not noticing it earlier. "Or," she thought, eyes sparkling, "I could grab a cloud from outside and sleep there. I'll move it just outside the window, so that I don't miss you for breakfast."

"Oh, okay then Hyphen," Mirage ammended her earlier statement. It did feel much more natural to refer to the unicorn by her name rather than title, so she didn't mind the preference Hyphen had expressed. As the unicorn trotted off, Mirage took a moment to consider her day. She leaned against the basket of the hot air balloon and a pensive look came over her face. As far as moving to an undesirable location had gone, it was better than she thought. Though the environment was harsh and not particularly enjoyable, its residents and visitos seemed to be the exact opposite. If everypony in Appleloosa ended up as nice as Hyphen, she could see herself enjoying her time in the desert.

When she returned, Mirage quickly straightened up in an attentive stance. "Ready to go? You probably want to head to the weather team's base first, since you just got here."Mirage nodded, remembering the suitcase that she had been bringing with her. She found the place to which it had been flung by her collision with Hyphen and picked it up between her teeth again. Returning to the balloon, she followed the unicorn's method of entry. "Sounds good to me. I don't want to be running off through the desert with my luggage." Her words were muffled slightly by the handle in her mouth and she proceeded to place it upon the bottom of the basket. She looked up at the balloon, interested in how exactly the unicorn planned to get them into the air.

The pegasus resisted the urge to facehoof upon their realization. It called to mind something her mother used to say when she was stuck on something, 'Look at it in a different light'. She had always been rather signleminded about things and set upon her course, implusivity can lead to such things at times. She followed his hoof motions, nodding as he pointed between them. "I think there are some caves around here. The Spidersilk Caverns, or something along those lines. It's largely unexplored because there's a legend about some creature living deep inside the caverns. Even the skeptics tend to keep away from them."

Lifting her chin up, Mirage continued. "I'm certainly not scared at all. Actually, we could get there in about an hour with the help of some local ponies." She was slightly exaggerating her fearlessness, but those who lived on a whim had little time for patient consideration.

Mirage looked up from her contemplation, surprised by the slight differences that had occurred by just the application of some soap and water. The pegasus didn't hold much with baths, preferring to just pour some rainwater on herself if necessary, but of course, non-pegasi didn't really have that option. Another surprise came to her as she noticed that the eggshell coloured leg had disappeared. She held back her surprised reaction, not wanting to draw attention to it. The mare had noticed it before, but the sight of a pony with only three legs was quite jarring for her. Privately, she wondered what had happened to Vulpus to require his prosthetic limb, but she figured that it was a question better asked later.

"Um...not really. The only things I know that can look like mountains are spires or valleys, if you look at them right. Though, at the time, I don't think they'd have many spires around Equestria..." She stamped her hoof down in slight frustration. "That's probably not much help, to be honest."

Mirage blinked twice before fully digesting the mare's statement. She hadn't actually made it to the weather team's headquarters to get som sort of assignment, but she assumed that this dust clearing at this dig site would be her task anyways. "Yep, I'm actually a pretty new addition to the team. I just flew in from Clousdale today, actually."

"Oh, I-I'm sorry. I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Professor Hyphen, out of the university of Canterlot. I'm currently leading an archeological dig in the desert north of here."The pegasus found this unicorn's mannerisms quite endearing, in a manner of speaking, and couldn't help but smile along with the mare.

"Nice to meet you, Professor Hyphen. I've never met a bona-fied professor before, it must be a pretty cool job." Despite not having the qualifications in the slightest, Mirage had always loved adventure and archaeology was a prime source of adventure. Adventure always brought new ponies and experiences her way and that was why the pegasus had eventually left her weather studies for the practical team. Mirage wasn't a fan of the dry, arid town of Appleloosa, but she loved her job and had to admit that the desert brought much more adventure than Cloudsdale.

"You must be tired from all that flying. If you want, I could give you a lift in my balloon?"

She noticed the balloon of which the professor spoke, looking it up and down. It had been something that fascinated the pegasus, the ability of the non-winged species to fly among the clouds. "That would be great, Professor. Thanks."

Mirage pondered Vulpus' idea. She wasn't very certain about Mareado, as it was generally taught to be an old legend that was believed back in olden times when such rumours flourished. Perhaps a more bookish pony would know more of the lost city, but a pegasus such as herself wasn't going to waste time studying when there were mysteries and opportunities out in the open skies. She did conceed that a map maker would likely be a pegasus, griffon, or the like, so perhaps it was something other than a mountain. Unfortunately, the pegasus was just grasping at straws and had no brilliant breakthroughs.

Hearing Vulpus' question, she nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, no problem." She stared out the small window of the rented room, wondering what could make a mountain-like shape from the skies.

Mirage watched the unicorn's search for the creature she called Plato in confusion. As the unicorn scurried back and forth, she wondered whether Plato was another pony and if she had managed to send another pony flying through the air. She felt a bit embarassed at the thought, putting a hoof behind her head akwardly. She was about to offer her assistance to the yellow pony when she scooped up a nearby lizard. The pegasus found herself suddenly interested in the mare before her. Not many ponies out this far had any sort of pets and what an unusual pet at that.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going. That was really rude of me." Noticing the blush on the unicorn's face, Mirage felt slightly more akward then before, but at least she didn't seem angry at the pegasus' clumsyness. "Um, i-if you don't mind me asking, could I get your name?"

"Oh, yeah. My name's Mirage. And no worries about that whole smashing into you thing, it was my fault."

Mirage picked up her saddlebag again, rummaging through it with one hoof. Placing several items including two sandwiches, one picture, thirteen bits, the medical pack, and a book on the floor surrounding her chair, the pegasus finally pulled out a pair of fairly new maps of Equestria. One was a flight map, which showed a pegasus' eye view of the land itself and the other was an oddly made map that had a panoramic view of the landscape, showing only the landmark visable on the horizons of the Badlands. The second map she didn't use much and really just kept around because she had neglected to find another owner for the map.

She lay out the two maps atop the bed, looking from the coin to the maps repeatedly. Then, something caught her attention. If this coin really was so old, why were they using new maps to find these mountains? The tall peaks would have started to erode over the years. Sharing this idea with Vulpus, Mirage began to look for smaller mountains than something like the peaks of the mountain into which Canterlot was set. However, she did say that Vulpus should look for actualy mountians as well, in the event that teh pegasus' thought was incorrect.

Mirage's eyes widened as she held the large coin shaped artifact in her hooves. The intricate carvings upon its surface seemed to be in a language long since abandoned by the residents of Equestria, but their design piqued a memory of the pegasus'. She didn't often pay attention in Equestrian History, but the one lesson she had genuinely listened to involved the first several successful settlements in Equestria. Shortly after the three kingdoms arrived and settled their differences, there had been a rumour of a shining golden city. It was said to hold untold riches and power, as tales of treasure were likely to do. It was said that the directions were carved upon the keys to the city, of which there were five to obtain. However, nopony who venture out in search of them had ever returned.

"This...this could be one of the map pieces/keys to the city of El Mareado. It's just an old pony's tale now, but back near the founding of Equestria, everypony wanted to find this place." She paused, wondering if the legend was true and they had somehow stumbled across something that years worth of explorers had not. "Listen to me, sounding like a history textbook," she said. "But if it's real, this is amazing! You've one lucky pony, Vulpus."

The unicorn checked both the approximate time of day and her mental list of their destinations, staring intently up at the sun. It was beginning to sink farther in the sky, but the darkness of night had not yet begun to tinge to blue sky. By her best estimations, they had about 5 or 6 hours left in the day. She didn't deliberate on the matter too long, still harboring a strong desire to visit the Great Library. In her opinion, it was luring two parasprites with one flute. She could look into whatever it was about the information they'd uncovered that was tingling in the back of her mind and it was a viable tour destination. "I believe-"

Flux's words were cut off by the sudden flattening of her conversational partner. A dark grey pegasus had taken the place of the white-coated one with whom she had been talking. Assuming the worst - that this was the pony who had cleared out the secret passageway and had followed them all this way - the unicorn instinctively called some of her magic toward her. In truth, the scientist knew little of combat magic and couldn't likely hold of an attacker for any prolonged period of time, just the bubbling of her magic to the surface helped to calm her.

However, by the way the new arrival acted, Flux became certain that this pegasus was an outside force, completely independant of their mysterious pony. Releasing her pent up arcane energies, Flux trotted closer to Colton and the pony who offered him a hoof up. She lowered herself slightly toward Colton and took in a deep breath. The spell she intended to use was a rather simple diagnostic spell that her father had insisted that she perfect. Closing her eyes, the unicorn felt out with her magic toward to pegasus. Quickly, she took an inventory of his injuries, sensing them through the scanner-like abilities of the spell. "It seems that nothing is broken, thank Celestia," she mumbled, the last part mostly to herself. "As far as I can tell, it is merely outer injuries that you may have sustained. Certainly no permanant damage. Luckily, Thunderflash here managed to slow his fall a bit before his collision."

Assured by the diagnosis, though the spell could sometimes be severely inaccurate when she attempted it, the unicorn addressed Thunderflash. "There could have been better circumstances, but nonetheless, I am Quantum Flux. However, as you, most ponies prefer to use Flux."

"I agree." Flux didn't argue with the pegasus' suggestion. She could tell that he had good reason for this abrupt declaration, and due to their current situation, she didn't doubt that his reasons were quite well-founded. The unicorn got up from her seated position and levitated her saddlebags from underneath the table, placing them crookedly atop her back in haste. She looked quickly around the immediate area, noticing that waiter was hanging off to the side with a disproving expression still clear on his muzzle. She discretly left a few extra bits behind, more out of courtesy than any real wish to tip the blue pony.

At a brisk trot, she made for the entrance. She had to weave between several oddly placed tables, eyes watching the scene before her for any sign of an out-of-place glance. Thankfully finding none, Flux merely brushed off her worry as paranoia. Though she knew it wasn't true, sometimes it was easier to believe something untrue. As she made it out into the chilly Canterlot air, Flux seemed to let out a breath that she had been holding in for the entire duration of their meal in the shop. Taking a moment to gather herself again, Flux tried to focus on their travel itinerary.

Mirage grinned, pleased that her first proper desert rescue had gone so well. She generally encountered rather irritable desert ponies (who, to be fair, had good reason to be frustrated by a pegasus suddenly picking them up from the ground) or travellers and archaeologists who knew their way around. The pegasus pulled up the small wooden chair that was located in a corner of the room and sat promptly upon it.

"Good to see you're enjoying yourself," she noted, placing her own bag upon the ground. She settled herself into the seat and watched Vulpus with a lightly amused smile.

Flux let out a tiny 'ah' of understanding. It definately cleared up how Colton had met Holly earlier. Once again, it seemed like a strange coincidence that all four had met each other at some point. Their return to this specific spot was quite an interesting recurrance, though they had selected the spot based on their previous meeting there. She then remembered another, rather ungraceful entrance of Colton's. "It would seem that your grace is slightly impaired in restaurants of any kind," she teased lightheartedly.

She turned her gaze toward Holly, who had clearly suffered more than a strange touge-tiedness from her earlier encounter with the poll. The unicorn wondered if she had learned any spells that may be useful, but none were leaping to mind. She continued to ponder it as she awaited Holly's response.

"Yeah," Mirage said, that far-off look still obvious in her eyes. She had always wanted to discover something, anything really, that would lead to adventure. She was always told that she was too implusive, but adventures were times of action, not thinking.

"You did? That's interesting. I would have figured that the archaeologist ponies would have picked the desert dry at this point," her tone was jokey once again. "They're the only folks who really come out this far, and you I suppose." The pegasi ground the lift to a halt, the squeak of the metal gears could be heard as they stopped their movement.

"Second floor," said one of the pegasi, gesturing them out of the lift.

Mirage listened intently, trying to remember where Trottingham was. Unable to pinpoint it exactly, she decided on a neutral answer. "That's pretty cool. I haven't travelled much myself, but it sounds pretty exciting. I many just get around to it someday." She made a mental note to double check the maps of Equestria that she kept pinned to her walls to find the location of Trottingham. "I suppose you've had some cool adventures on your travels then?"

The pegasus' eyes lit up as she spoke of adventure. She had a natural tendancy to rush into things, but an adventure seemed the epitome of freedom and exploration, two things that Mirage found necessary to ease the dull repetition of weather duties. She didn't really notice anything else around them and nearly fell into Vulpus when the lift started working. "Oops," she said, slightly embarassed once again. "I'm not usually this clumsy."

Well, I'm a unicorn, but you, Colton, Thunder...Wow, that is REALLY weird.

[Why yes, I did slightly rework the first couple paragraphs from my lastest fanfic, that was originally this post, to make this post. (Postception?) U mad?]

On the outskirts of Ponyville sat a disused clock tower. It was one of the last surviving remnants of the older parts of the small town that had been abandoned for the newer developments that had been constructed in less forgotten times. Most ponies didn't stray too close to the old building, as the ghost stories told by mischievous colts and fillies even deterred the older ponies to an extent. However, for its two residents, the seclusion was not problematic.

Inside the old structure's lowest level, a young mare dashed between two flasks that were connected by a curled tube. The curl was mostly for aesthetic purposes, but everything factored into the unicorn's experiment. The area immediately surrounding the experiment was cluttered with notes, diagrams, and bottles of chemical that had been haphazardly placed around the room. In one corner, a bed and closet sat stationary, though their use varied greatly as revealed by the lack of creases in the fabric of the sheets. The one oasis in the sea of discordant organization was occupied by a light brown ferret. The ferret watched the frantic movements of the mare from what he perceived to be a safe distance, knowing that this recent foray into science could go one of two ways.

The unicorn concentrated upon a small flame that hung without a platform beneath the first flask. It's size increased, as though invisible tinder had been added to the fire. It caused the green liquid inside the first to bubble and some of the substance sloshed through the tube. It reached the other container with some coaxing by the unicorn and mixed with the red substance that lay still at its destination. The produced substance was a mildly acidic, desaturated yellow liquid.

"Aha! I have done it at last, Tesla," said the unicorn, extinguishing the fire with an offhand thought. The ferret sighed, still unsure what the purpose of creating the rather useless substance served. She bottled the newly created liquid and placed ito upon a shelf that contained several such creations of varying colour. She also consulted the notepad that hovered near the unicorn constantly during her work. "Now that we have finished our part for the Summer Sun Celebration, it is time to get cracking at our true objective for the day." The excitement in her voice was barely contained and she had a hop in her step as she paced the room.

"We shall finally begin our first stage of Experiment U.P.E.M.C!" The acronym seemed to hold great promise for the unicorn, but her animal companion looked on in confusion. "Unicorn, Pegasi, and Earth Pony Magical Co-relation," she explained. "It shall be my legacy unto the scientific world of Equestria! Unified Magical Theory will finally have to proof it requires to become fact!"

She stopped, realizing the one barrier to her grand experiment. "However, I shall need test subjects." The unicorn looked around hopefully, as though she expected three prime ponies to simply materialize at her will. "Onward Tesla!" she exclaimed. "We have a pegasus to procure."

And a pegasus they found, right in the middle of the town square. Two pegasi in fact. And the finding was more like crashing.

It. Is. On.

Completely oblivious to the implications that had occurred to Vulpus, Mirage chalked up his blush to a mere temperature readjustment of his body. With considerably cooler air of the inn would be a rather radical change from the scorching rays of the desert and Mirage had never payed attention in school enough to remember that redness only appeared when going from cold to hot. She trotted briskly over to the elevator and called up to the pegasi. "Second floor, please!"

As the pegasi worked the pulleys, she decided to pick up the threads of a conversation with Vulpus. "I can definately agree. As much as I love flying, my wings could use a bit of a break. So, where are you from Vulpus? Probably not Appleloosa or I'd have recognized you."

"Well, I'll certainly keep that in mind." Flux tried to keep her tone light, but her last words trailed into a more serious tone. The unicorn had a feeling that whatever they were now entangled in was far more sinster than it had already seemed. Flux hated feelings like that, because some part of her felt as though it was part of some magical unicorn instinct. It was of course completely illogical to think that anypony could see the future, beyond possibly the Royal Sisters, but it still caused a deep-seated worry to lodge itself in her mind.

Colton could clearly sense her unease, attempting to reassure her nonverbally. She took comfort in his assurance, but even a worry out of mind can grow. The mare followed his eyeline quietly, not wanting to draw too much suspicion toward them. She wasn't at all comfortable with this state of suspension they seemed to be in, with neither party wishing to make the first move. Nonetheless, she watched the dinning ponies around them, hoping that both of their glances would not cause anypony to suspect them of illicit activities.

Haha! Now it is my turn to pounce upon the post order! *Lesson Zero Twilight Grin*

Mirage put a hoof behind her head in an expression of slight akwardness. "Well, anything for a fellow pony," she declared, giving a mock-salute toward Vulpus. She flew up behind him it a flash, leaving an image of the salute behind her due to the speed of her transition, and lifted him slightly off the ground. The inn doors were luckily propped open at the moment, meaning the pegasus could hover him into the lobby itself. A few of the patrons looked a bit scandalized at the unconventional entrance, but Mirage payed them no mind.

"Welcome to the Palomino, how may I help you?" The desk stallion spoke professionally, a well-rehearsed smile upon his features. It unnerved the pegasus, but she answered quickly.

"Yeah, I need to rent a room for a few hours. My friend here has been prescribed some bed rest by Red Cross." The stallion nodded, handing them a room key without changing any bits. He winked as Mirage picked up the key and turned back to his filing without a word. "Oh. Thanks!" She read the room number and passed the key to Vulpus. "Room 25, then. There's a lift over there." The elevator was more a simple pulley system and wooden platform manned by two pegasi, but it served its purpose.

"Well, it's mostly just to make sure that rest is all you need. It's probably gonna be just a quick physical and then we can set you up with a room at the Palomino Inn." Mirage flew him inside the boarder of the town, setting him down gently on a well-used dirt path. Another pastel colour earth pony trotted out to meet them, this one a light pink-coated mare. She looked him up and down before addressing them.

"I ain't sure that he really needs mah help. Some water and a good conkin' 'round the head maybe, but I think ya just need ta let 'im rest." With that quick diagnosis, the mare returned to her home, leaving Mirage slightly baffled.

"Um...she really does mean well. Don't take all of that conking stuff too seriously." Mirage sounded a bit embarassed as she located the Palomino. She turned back to Vulpus, "Do you want some help?"

Yay Lime! *Pinkie Pie Party*

As for the RP, I'll probably be having Flux set up something for the Gala that QuickLime can come to check on (lighting effects with her chemicals, perhaps?). Not really any particularly special meeting, kinda like AJ's.

"Woah, a hot air ballon? Pegasi don't have much use for them, clearly," Mirage said, flapping her wings quickly to illustrate her point. "I've always wanted to see one though. It's pretty fascinating, though I'm certainly not about to read endless textbooks on them." After a moment, she added, "Once you get rested, you'll have to tell me some of those stories of yours."

The houses in the distance had become surprisingly closer within the past few minutes and a young colt had even trotted out to meet them. He was a green earth pony, quite a contrast to the brown snads around him. "Mirage!" He bounced forward excitedly. "Who's the visitor?"

Mirage chuckled at the colt's enthusiasm. "You'll see soon enough. Now go fetch your mother." As the colt bounded off, she elaborated for Vulpus' sake. "That's Balloon Bright, son of the medic here. Nice colt, I met him on an earlier patrol of the Painted Pinto Desert."