Dio

(( OOC: Tales I suggest selecting a different text color. It's impossible to read with this current setup. )) The purple unicorn returned, bringing with her a steaming mug, which she gingerly set on the table between Rook and the infirmary bed. Bringing the mug to his lips with a faint, luminescent tendril of soft violet, the doctor unicorn sipped lightly at his green tea. The doctor nodded to her, dismissing her to attend to other administrative duties around the clinic. “You’re here because you were gravely injured,” Rook replied with candor, gently blowing a wisp of steam from the mug. “A concerned citizen brought you into the clinic.” As an afterthought, he was quick to add, "I treated your injuries and you have been recovering for the majority of the day. However, I was able to accelerate the healing process with a bit of magic, so you should actually be good to go by dinnertime..." Rook trailed off as he observed. The Peryton was much more focused and interested in her surroundings now. Her ears perked up, the color returned to her cheeks, and her eyes darted around the room, finally fixing themselves on the view of the beach outside. There was a certain child-like wonder on her face, a wide-eyed fascination that transcended species and ages. As she looked over the rolling waves, her tongue subconsciously made smacking sounds against the top of her mouth as she took in the vast expanse of water. Rook paused for a moment. Now that he had time to check, Snowy was looking a bit dry. She had sacks under her eyes and her lips were uncharacteristically dry. “Nurse!” “Yes doctor?” The purple unicorn sighed with exasperation, visibly drooping at being summoned yet again. Rook stifled a sheepish laugh. “Sorry, sorry! I just noticed that our patient looks to be a bit parched. Could you please bring her a cup of water?” “Yes, doctor,” she said as she sulked off again. “She’s such a dear,” Rook said, taking a sip of his tea. “I’m not really used to having assistants. Being on the road teaches you a lot of things about being self-sufficient, after all…”

I don't think the CMC ACTUALLY caused the release of discord. It was just a way to highlight his escape to the audience, an application of dramatic irony. As Celestia mentioned, now that the elements are bonded to different wielders, the spell she had maintained expired.

If you want some cool-looking armor designs take a look at Sanity-X's DeviantArt page and go poking around for the Ponyhammer and Space Mare-ine stuff. You can also look up Fallout Equestria and Armor keywords on Ponibooru to get more practical and less ornate designs. Also I noticed that you have a squire on your hooves. Though it's not canon, I've got a document written for knight-themed ponies. It's not a requirement to follow, but it may give you some ideas for RP hooks and how your pony fits into the larger scheme of things. The link can be found in my sig under [Holy Order of the Destriers].

I am the element of tactics. I am aware, I am intelligent, and I am a far deadlier weapon than some ill-crafted bit of iron... Or I guess IRL I'm the element of failure.

“-nuh really.” As Cherry rose, Virtue bit his lip, hesitating for a moment. The mulberry pegasus didn’t appear to be seriously injured. The cuts from glass were merely superficial and he’d managed to take the two brutes out of the fight before they could do serious harm. However, she was in no condition to be traveling on her own. If what the two stallions had said was correct, their patron would likely send additional “enforcers” after her. Virtue followed her gaze to the broken window two stories above street level. The gangly stallion he’d caught a passing glance of was nowhere to be seen. Virtue growled in frustration. The small one was probably a runner, waiting to bring news back to the boss. He couldn’t stop the runner. He couldn’t be everywhere at once. He was just one pony... Lost in his own thoughts, Virtue only noticed Cherry’s attempted departure when she’d already stumbled halfway down the alley. “Thanks,” She wheezed, turning to her unlikely savior and offering him a groggy smile. “Verah... Gentlecoltly of you. I... I aught ta’go. They’ll be back soon.” “Miss, you are in no condition to travel alone,” Virtue said, refocusing on the more pressing issue. “My name is Virtue. I can escort you home. Do you have a secure place to stay?” Cherry said nothing, instead glancing at the empty window once more, a sorrowful frown crossing her face. For just a moment, Virtue caught a glimpse of her eyes. Sanguine eyes. Tired eyes. Hurt eyes. Cherry’s eyes closed for a moment—a moment too long. She began to sway, an awkward, unsubtle motion. Virtue leaped forward, fluttering his wings to keep him airborne. Flashing across the gap between them, he alighted next to Cherry, gently propping her up as she stumbled. Her frame was delicate, barely registering a touch against Virtue’s burly musculature. “Miss?” Virtue said, nudging Cherry gingerly. No response. She was out cold. “This complicates matters…”

Further cementing my view of Celestia as the Empress of Ponykind and the certainty that Discord is the leader of a Chaos Warband...

Cool and crisp I can accept. The cold and misrably soggy we've been getting here I am less enthused about. Where's Rainbow Dash when you need her?

“Oh gods I’m late!” Diomedes scrambled madly around his apartment, half fluttering, half galloping, all bumbling, trying to find all of the things he was supposed to bring, if only he could REMEMBER where he put them! Late, late, late, late, late! Dio’s mind was flying at a million miles an hour. How could he have put this off? Why wasn’t any of his gear where he thought it was? Oh how was he going to explain this to Star Chaser? “Aha! Here we go!” He said as he grabbed two bags of trail mix and tossed them both at his open saddlebags. As he turned around to grab his canteens out of the cupboard, he heard a resounding crash as his office chair tipped over, dropping his saddlebags to the ground and spilling all of his collected gear on the floor. Dio facehoofed. “I hate… everything…” ****** As he touched down at the address he was given, Dio suppressed a nervous shiver. Perhaps he’d gone a little overboard. It was supposed to be a quick flight to the foothills near Solstice Heights followed by a hike through Whitetail Wood, but he’d already gone through the trouble of getting his mane trimmed and his flight feathers preened. His saddlebags were packed with trail mix, water, and some fresh fruit for a picnic in addition to his usual survival gear. He’d even called off work to ensure that he had time to spend with Star Chaser. Their correspondence since the gala had been sparse. Star had mentioned in her letters that the bindings had since been removed and that she was in physical therapy. In fact, when Dio had mentioned “hanging out” again, Star wrote back that her doctor encouraged it. The letters also stated that the lady Pegasus would be good to fly by the date Dio had set. Dio took a deep breath as he stepped up to the door, gently rapping on it with a hoof. “Here goes nothing…”

Tales on Duty: Chan Ops. ... and then some.

You are now picturing Nemeroth as a pony.

I've actually got just the place for you. If you'll check in the Where is [PLACE] thread in the General OOC section, you'll be able to see maps of the regions. The area near Appleloosa is a confluence of both mountains and desert on the edge of Griffon territory. Also, if you experience any problems with the new forums, please post in the bug report thread so that the staff knows to take care of it.

Virtue bristled at the slight. It seemed the two hulking brutes failed to discern who they were dealing with. Their accents and choice of vocabulary marked them as hired muscle, all brawn and no brains. Certainly they were larger in stature than he was, but after taking down a manticore or hydra, taking on a mundane pony seemed like foal’s play to him. The pegasus’ eyes darted away from the glowering form in front of him to the mulberry filly pinned beneath the hoof of the other henchpony. She struggled and cursed, but her speech was slurred and her reflexes dulled, leaving her in no condition to break free. “Wrong. This became my concern the moment you laid a hoof on her,” the knight said, his upper-class accent manifesting as he dropped the growl. “I will give you one more chance to step away.” Oh how Aequitas longed for battle. Between the pounding of the pulses in his head and the surge of adrenaline in his veins, Virtue could almost feel the beating heart of steel in its scabbard. But no, not in this fight. There was no honor to be gained, no blood debt to be settled. This was a street crime with two thugs who thought themselves on top of the world. Aequitas could wait. “It ain’t happenin’ buddy.” “Then this will only end in blood,” Virtue replied, his voice cold with righteous indignation. “Fine, we’ll just clobber ya both then!” the shadow retorted, clopping his front hooves together with a metallic PING that echoed loudly through the confines of the alley. The other henchpony pressed down harder on the mulberry filly, who choked between curses and coughs. Every combat instinct learned from years of training and indoctrination came online in a sudden rush of awareness that allowed Virtue to pick up every last detail, including the sniffling, mewling voice of a stallion in a window above the alley. There was a wall between him and Virtue, however, so his actions were of little consequence in this confrontation. The two stallions were actually colored a dark blue and dark green, both noted by the knight for easy identification later. Leaping into action, Virtue charged down the alley, barreling past the stallion in front with incredible speed. Blue made a clumsy attempt to grapple Virtue, but ended up falling flat on his face as the knight flew past him. The other pegasus looked up just in time to see the fire in Virtue’s eyes as the knight body-checked the larger stallion into the alley wall, impacting with enough force to dislodge bits of mortar and throw up a massive cloud of pulverized brick dust around them. Blue had picked himself up just in time to see both Green and Virtue disappear in a roiling cloud of dust and mist. His jaw dropped at the scene. What kind of training did the white Pegasus have that allowed him to do THAT? He inched closer, unsure of who would emerge from the cloud in one piece. “D-Did you get ‘im?” Blue asked hesitantly to the cloud. “NOT A CHANCE!” Virtue snarled as he barreled forward, parting the dust cloud with sweeping wingbeats. His second charge impacted with the same force that took down Green, but Blue was somehow alert enough to keep his footing. Skidding backwards, but otherwise withstanding Virtue’s attack, Blue reared up on his hind legs and kicked out with brass-clad hooves, lashing at the knight with renewed ferocity. Ninety percent of swordsmanship is footwork. That instruction was not lost on Virtue as he deftly slipped around the larger pegasus’ flailing hooves, getting in a few jabs of his own before swinging himself around and bucking Blue cleanly across the face. His target stumbled backwards unsteadily, blood streaming from a smashed nose and torn lips, eyes bleary from the concussive impact of Virtue’s hooves. Virtue strode forward, cracking his neck as he prepared to finish his opponent. Suddenly, pain—blinding pain from the back of his head. Virtue stumbled at the blow, finding himself propped against the alley wall as both stallions closed on his position. Virtue burned with both embarrassment and righteous rage. There was no honor to be had here. Why did he assume that Green would stay out of the fight? “Ya shouldn’ta come here, shorty. Ya shoulda just walked away.” “Now we’re gonna have to have to chop you up and bury the pieces.” “Boss wouldn’t be too happy to have someone like you knowin’ about the business.” Virtue’s ears twitched at the keyword. Boss. That meant the two stallions had a higher authority guiding them. This crime was far from random—it was planned with malice and premeditation. The smoldering flames in Virtues eyes ignited, escalating into a roaring conflagration that seared away the pain, granting him renewed focus and charging his veins with holy strength. Virtue snapped his hooves to the ground, his stance defiant and the ringing in his ears doing little to interfere with his newfound vigor. “Do not think I will grant either of you the luxury of an honorable death,” the knight said coldly. “What you do in the darkness WILL be brought to the light. I will make sure of it.” “Get ‘im!” Blue shouted. The blue stallion lunged forward, but his brass horseshoes found nothing but brick wall. Virtue side-slipped around his attack, using both his wings and hooves to flit between the two hulking stallions. He whirled around and with a mighty kick sent Green sprawling across the cobblestone. Blue dislodged himself from the wall only to face a series of quick jabs to the face and chest from Virtue. Over and over again, the Pegasus hammered his opponent, slipping through or shrugging off Blue’s feeble attempts to counterattack. A blow to his chest left Blue gasping for breath, giving Virtue enough time to buck him in the face, sending his limp form flopping in a pile on top of Green. As the two stallions slowly came to, Virtue approached them, that same fire still burning in his eyes and holy menace in his voice. Despite being taller and more muscular than the white stallion, Blue and Green both quailed in his presence, having just gotten their rumps handed back to them by what they were now sure was a four-hooved, white-coated, winged demon. “Run,” Virtue spat. “Run and tell your master that he will PAY for the evil that he has done this day!” “C’mon, let’s get out of here! This guy is NUTS!” Blue said, scuttling backwards as he desperately tried to get back on his hooves. Green and Blue stumbled clumsily over each other, bumbling their way out of the alley and back into the street, where their frightened chatter slowly faded into the night. Finally, all was quiet. Virtue exhaled deeply as his thundering pulse subsided to a dull roar. His head still throbbed from where Green had struck him. Bruises from hoof impacts and scratches from brick and mortar fragments covered his side and neck. His flight feathers were ruffled, dirty, and unpreened. “Routine injuries,” Virtue snorted as he shook the mortar chunks and brick dust out of his mane and tail. All things considered, he was virtually unscathed. The knight had seen much worse back in the day. As he approached the crumpled mulberry filly in the alley, he only hoped the same could be said of the victim. “Miss,” Virtue said as he knelt down next to her. “Are you all right?”

As the designated driver/babysitter, I often find myself in a similar situation. It's amazing when your charges actually manage to do something on their own, though I'll admit it gives me hope for them in the future.

Fillydelphia. The cobbled streets of the middling-sized Equestrian city gleamed in the pale glow of oil-wick street lamps, wet from a freshly concluded storm. In the distance, low thunder rumbled as the sky yawned in boredom at yet another late summer night. The passing storm had done little to dispel the humid haze that lingered at street level like a murky miasma, sticking to a passing stallion’s coat like so many hitchhiker seeds. Between the cracks of eroded cobbles and in the basins of uneven dips in the stone, water pooled, forming myriad liquid looking-glasses. The shallow pools reflected the dancing oil lamps above with their glass-like surface, a dim likeness of the night around and above it. Calm reflections scattered into myriad ripples as the sedentary stones were set vibrating by something yet to be seen. The ripples dispersed, a flash of white the color of freshly cleaned bone revealing itself in short order. The weight of his hoof-falls reflected his training, but the measured rhythm of his steps and the faint jingling of metal on metal that punctuated the steady clip-clop marked his pedigree. Virtue couldn’t sleep. Though reasonably furnished, the the inn had provided little in the way of fans or air conditioning. The room was stuffy, hot, and oppressive. Perhaps he would have been served better by taking his chances bivouacking that night. The burly Pegasus ambled along, no particular destination in mind, working his hooves mostly to clear his head and perhaps allow him to doze off when he returned. There were few others about at this hour of night. Hustlers, cabbies, drunkards, the odd citizen simply making his or her way home after a night out. All was as it should have been. However, as Virtue continued down the street, a subtle change at the edge of his perception set his senses on heightened alert. The tempo of foot traffic changed. Their clip-clops were faster now, more agitated, as if yet another storm were rolling in. Virtue’s eyes narrowed as he continued undeterred. Something lurked in the darkness, something that the average citizenry wanted nothing to do with. As if on cue, a BANG punctured the darkness, quickly followed by the sickly tinkling of shattered glass on stone. It was close, not farther away than around the next corner. Incoherent shouts broke the eerie silence that had descended upon the street, interspersed with the clattering of hooves scuttling along cobblestone. Finally, a scream rang out, a guttered feminine shriek that seemed to hang in the air like the thick miasma of watery haze. Virtue had heard enough. He strode around the corner of the nearby brick structure, making his way into the alley. Virtue’s eyes smoldered with pale fire as his gaze fell upon two burly pegasi flanking a fallen form. The street lights at his end of the alleyway cast strange shadows on the aggressors, masking their faces and painting them with solidified darkness and sharp slivers of golden light. “Come on kid, don’t do this.” “There ain’t no where to run no more.” Virtue lowered his head and flipping his wings open, both for their menacing profile and to prepare for rapid and violent action. “Let this blade be a shining beacon in the howling darkness, flashing steel against the sins of the wicked, and an ever vigilant guardian against the insidious powers of corruption and vice,” he mouthed as he approached. Though his blade Aequitas remained in its scabbard, it practically thrummed with eagerness at his side, impatiently awaiting its chance to sing in battle once more. “That’s close enough,” Virtue growled. “Step. Away. NOW.”

We now have a workaround for weird formatting codes showing up in the post editor after the preview function is used. In the upper left-hand corner of the editor window is a button that looks like a lightswitch. When you see weird code start to appear, hit that button to switch it over to BBcode mode, then hit it again to switch it back into the rich text editor. That should remove the weird characters. Be advised that you will need to "flick the switch" every time you load up a new preview.

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