Ashton

Iggy just stared, almost in a daze as Ice explained her past. Finally the kirin sighed "I thought I had it rough... growing up a mute in a mute village because of immature leadership, trying to learn magic and take care of my little brother half the time because since we couldn't talk none of us could tell the others what was going on..." she paused and slowly put her arm around ice, as if unsure if the pony would welcome the embrace or not "I had no idea how bad it was for you, ma'am... or for others like jasper... or cloudy for that matter... but I'll let him tell you his story later if he feels like it... I'm so sorry, ma'am" after a moment she sighed, but did not remove her arm from ice's soldier "I dont doubt that you meant jasper no harm, ma'am - he is young and immature and doesn't fully understand the world. He's probably hurt and confused right now... thats why he's treating you like he would any other pony he met, with harsh sarcasm and caustic comments... like I said, give him time and he'll probably get everything figured out in his head... right now he's had a lot to take in, and it like nothing he's ever dealt with... hell I dont think he's ever even seen a changeling, so what you did was completely new territory for him..." It was about this time that she would hear a communication from the guards still in canterlot "We found Harle. She looks like... like she just watched a foal die in her arms or something... she gave us back the communicator and asked to deliver a message to somepony named Singlestone. Message follows" then a string of seemingly nonsensical numbers and letters were spoken, matching no known cipher - completely useless without the decoder, likely even ice and her crew would have no way of making sense of it given it was so short. Meanwhile outside the arguing had gotten quieter, but it was clear that cloudy and Jasper had not come to a conclusion in their discussion yet...

"Once your on the ship where its safe. We're too close to dangerous ponies who can spy on us." responded the Mare The robot lay down "PLEASE CLIMB ON MY BACK" it commanded, presumably it could either teleport or fly one, though it wasn't too clear which since it didn't seem to have a horn or wings.

"RESISTANCE DETECTED!" announced the robot as it moved to grab the stallion's tail "I said no violence! Just how stupid are you?!" exclaimed the mare, though the sound of her voice made it clear that she was less angry and more upset, she didn't like violence it seemed and she didn't like those under her command being violent to others The robot seemed to scowl, though it was very hard to tell. "Its not safe to talk outside, please, come onto my ship and I'll explain everything. I need your help. Your an unknown, you dont have alliances, your the only one I can trust"

The storm was much worse than when he had gone to bed... he could feel the rain falling down, and this "bed" was a lot less comfortable than it had been when he had laid down. Once greymane had opened his eyes, one thing was certain, he had not laid down to sleep in a junkyard... and the storm clouds overhead, he'd be able to catch a few faint flashes of blue lightning, something wasn't right. a lot of the garbage around him also did not look normal, strange objects that he could never guess the use of, and the smell of dirty air from some city not far away. A large shadow soon loomed over him, though, giving him a reprieve from the rain, but instead a massive airship was now hovering directly above him, and from that ship leapt what appeared to be 4 ponies in amazingly form-fitting shiney metal armor. they landed on all four sides of him and one raised a metallic "boot" which irised open threateningly as it spoke in a voice like the robots on the radio shows about science gone awry "YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUIRED ON THE PRISMATIC. YOU HAVE FOUR SECONDS TO COMPLY OR YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT. 4...3..." but before it could finish another voice was heard from a speaker somewhere else on the "armored pony"s body, a voice that likely sounded familiar to the paladin, but possibly not... "Stop! I told you no violence! No! Violence! You hurt him and I'll turn you all into can-openers!" exclaimed a mare's voice. The pony hung its head a moment and let out a mechanized sigh "YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUIRED ON THE PRISMATIC. YOU CAN COME PEACEFULLY OR WE CAN DRAG YOU ROUGHLY AND PAINFULLY. THE CHOICE IS YOURS, BUT WE WOULD PREFER THE LATTER" well at least they were honest....

Did somepony convert the nice cumulus clouds to stormclouds during the night? She didn't remember a storm being scheduled, and even if one was planned it sure sure wasn't planned to be in her bedroom! The last thing that she would remember was going to bed, but as her mind slowly transitioned back to wakefulness, the first thing she would notice is she was lying in muddy, shallow, water. Overhead were dark grey clouds, if she looked quick enough she might see a flash of blue lightning, but it was only once or twice and the storm began to fade, leaving behind a gentle drizzle in its wake. The area nearby was a swamp, though thankfully there didn't seem to be any wildlife nearby... she would look east and see the ocean... but that ocean... it felt... wrong... something about the black water made her fur crawl and every alarm in her head ring... but in that sea, some ways off from the land, she would see a castle, it stood tall and proud, powerful, reaching into the stormy clouds above, casting a shadow all its own, despite where the waning sun cast its light. The other direction she would see trees, a forest, this didn't give her as dark a vibe as the ocean did, but even from here she could hear and almost see wild animals... and they didn't seem too welcoming... While she was taking in the scenery she would hear a distant sound, that of a motor... and from that island with the castle, a speck was speeding towards her... the black waves parting on either side from the speed, leaving an impressive wake... So the questions were, where she was, and more importantly, would she stand her ground against the unknown from the island or run into the forest and face the wildlife?

"Off my chest? Oh I'm sorry did I dr-" Jasper started to snark but got a swift kick from cloudy and a glare "Jasper, lets talk in the hall. Excuse us, ma'am" said cloudy as he drug the dragon out into the hallway. Iggy was awkwardly silent a few moments before sighing "I kinda figured this was going to happen..." she said "Jasper was born in the dragonlands, I dont think he ever saw a pony growing up, then when he was molting and washed up on equestria, ponies treated him like some kind of sideshow freak and stared or gawked at him, most not bothering or simply not knowing enough to help him... so he has a... distaste for ponies. I dont know if cloudy and I would have gotten so close to him if we'd not been half-breeds ourselves." she paused "dont take jasper too seriously, he's just had some bad first experiences, and I think that somewhere deep down he might feel betrayed that somepony --- or maybe I should say some dragon ---- that he met and thought was special, was 'just another pony'" she paused "Like I said, give him time, he'll get better, but he's got a lot to work out... especially since I think he might have had some feelings for frost... maybe more than just friendship... and now... well..." iggy sighed "I'm sorry... maybe we shouldn't have come... I hadn't considered how you'd react to Jasper's normal snarky dragon-y self..." Meanwhile if Ice listened closely she'd hear that cloudy and jasper were having a much more heated debate, which would be expected of males. Hopefully it wouldn't devolve into violence, though cloudy wasn't exactly the kind to resort to violence.

"Very impressive ship, ma'am" said cloudy as they walked. Iggy probably would have said something too but she was too busy looking at everything around her, having never been on an airship before and even the pictures she had seen were nowhere near this advanced... Jasper was a little less impressed, muttering about Ice's quarters "its almost as big as my closet..." ...which of course earned him a kick from cloudy. Jasper looked like he might take that as an opportunity to start a fight, but cloudy and iggy's glares made him sit down and shut up.

"well, that's still a bit of a distance, but its a lot shorter flight than all the way from manehattan" said iggy "Not to mention it's all downhill" added cloudy "too bad there wont be time to check out any of the record stores, they have a wildly different variety than even this place does" commented jasper "So, I guess its unanimous, if you really want us to, we'll come along" smiled iggy When they reached the ship, though, they might find it odd that Harle was nowhere to be seen, and the guards all commented that they assumed with Felix showing up that harle would have been with Ice...

Felix snorted but said nothing as he lead his marefriend away, clearly wanting to make some snarky remark, but knowing that it would be best to hold his tongue in this situation. The trio looked at each other a bit uncertain Iggy voiced their concerns "Well, we'd love to go but... its a long way to have to get home" "Yeah, especially since we have to take turns carrying this one" Jasper nodded at Iggy "-And dont you even suggest teleporting, you know what happens... I dont want to see the place we're renting burn down..." cloudy gave iggy a firm look Iggy laughed a little awkwardly but said nothing, clearly there was unfortunately some truth in cloudy's comment

Felix sighed "Your wasting your time, Captain Storm." he explained "If you insist on this charade, then fine, I wont resist, but if would be nice if Jasmine could return home, she's likely to be missed and actually has family that will worry about her. I'll accompany you to the dungeons peacefully" it was clear at this point he was highly annoyed and wanted to get this over with, confident that this investigation would turn up nothing and this will have been a huge waste of his time. It was at this time that a voice spoke over the communicator: "Commander we have a positive ID on the suspects, they are attending a party in Manehattan, we're already preparing for launch as soon as you return"

Felix sighed "perhaps I overestimated your mental skills. I stated that I have no idea where my parents are and I do not regularly contact them, they randomly show up to harass me about my life and look over the business." he paused a moment to let that sink in "Secondly, this is a matter that will have to be brought up with my accounting department, however I believe you will find all the records to be immaculate and up to date. Once I took over the business my team went back several years to ensure nothing had been misplaced, beyond the normal Statute of Limitations" All this time, the others were giving felix increasingly dirty looks. They knew a snake when they saw one and unlike Ice, they weren't bound by law or duty in what they could do... even if everything went felix's way, there was no telling what might happen later...

When Ice shifted back, jasper and the others backed down and took a few steps away, clearly expecting a fight to break out... also quite possibly the whole Ice/Frost thing was still messing with their heads... and clearly it did seem to have some effect on jasper... Felix sighed "Ice Storm, former commander of the lunar military" he said "To think somepony once so great has fallen so low as to run around with riffraff such as the blackclaw pirates, at least find a competent crew to join" he paused "and I'm sorry, Miss Storm, but you dont scare me, my record is clean and you have no evidence to hold me on. There is no crime for having lunch with a friend" the mare giggled "friend" she repeated, leaning her head on his shoulder for a moment

Rainbow Dash Darkness. What lay in darkness was always something hidden, almost forgotten,and usually kept out of mind. Darkness was where the nagging thoughts always festered and spread like a mold... or perhaps that was just the slice of pizza that lay forgotten in a corner. But then, a glimmer of light! slowly growing larger and larger, as the rainbow mare slid open the door of her closite. She fluttered partway inside, using her forehooves to move things out of the way "nope... nope... nope... I still have that? ...nope... ah here we go!" she pulled out a hanger containing her wrap-up pegasus uniform and leader armband, taking a moment the shake off any dust that had accumulated over the last year and making sure to sniff it to make sure she had washed it after she'd worn it before... she didn't want a repeat of that incident with the Haywii shirt from the summer. After smell-checking it she smiled and tossed the hanger on her back, taking time to slide the door closed once again, shrouding everything inside in that inky blackness. She walked over to the mirror and slipped the uniform on, making sure it still fit. Of course she should have done this weeks ago just in case it did need to be altered, but as per usual for the cerulean pegasus, she kept putting it off. It was indeed a little tight, she hadn't accounted for the fact that all her training with the Wonderbolts had indeed caused her to increase in muscle mass in some areas, but it would probably stretch. She'd just have to make sure that she had it fixed the next day --- meaning that next year she'd probably be going through the exact same scenario... some things never change. But... some things do... Dash posed in front of the mirror and flashed a winning smile, but it quickly faded as she looked out her window "Things were going so well... everypony was on-task and we were so close to breaking the record for fastest traditional wrapup..." she sighed "this year just wont be the same... we'll probably come in last and Derpy will be found next week in Dodge city or applewood again looking for the birds..." she shook her head "really going to miss that egghead... wrapup just wont feel right without her" after a moment dash's face hardened "No! you cant say things like that! Ponies are counting on you! Twilight or no Twilight, we have to make sure this wrapup goes off without a hitch! We may never see another chance at that record, but we have to atleast give it our best!" She took a deep breath and puffe dup her chest "This year is going to be the best wrapup we had! We know what to do! We'll come out of this as winners!" She held that pose a few moments before snorting "Who do I think I'm kidding, this is going to be a dissaster... The only good thing is the weather factory's shortage or whatever that gave us so little to wrap up..." she leaned her head against the wall "No, Rainbow, stop that! Stop thinking like that! Remember what Twilight taught you! We need to... to... to..." she spun around and slid down the wall, hooves to her face "I cant even remember! This is going to be a disaster!" After a few more minutes of worry she pulled herself together and took off her uniform "Disaster or not, I have a job to do and I cant let the others down, we may crash and burn, but we're going to do it awesomely!" she nodded decisively as she laid down in bed knowing that whatever happened, she'd find some way to keep things on track... maybe... with that she clicked off her lamp Darkness.

Felix let out a chortle "you really think they'd tell me where they were?" "yeah if we knew we'd be back in silver's bedroom instead of in this slum" said the mare "Yes, indeed, so whatever you want with my parents, you can tell Harle that unless they're right in front of my nose I dont know where they are, they keep that secret from even me --- and yes, I can tell harle sent you, pretty obvious when you didn't want money" Iggy facehoofed and glared at cloudy asif to say 'you should have let me!' Felix sighed "Now that we're done here, I suggest you move. Unlike you lot of worthless so-called pirates, I have real contacts in these parts, and it would be unfortunate if something were to... happen to you..." "Dont you threaten her." said Jasper with a growl "Oh and what are you going to do about it? Sing sad emo songs at me? you wouldn't dare hurt me with my connections, you would be best to just stand aside" steam was now rising from jasper's nostrils dangerously, the one thing you did NOT do was threaten his friends! Though exactly what he would do was up for debate...

Felix looked quite suprised, looking around at the two dragons, 'griff, and kirin, then sighed "I swear there are more 'insurance' agencies here every day" he muttered, pulling out a pouch of gold "Ok, how much does my 'protection' cost from you?" he asked, completely nonchalant and clearly used to being approached by criminals demanding money not to cause him trouble Iggy's eyes seemed to turn to coins as she grinned, clearly very tempted to take advantage of this 'opportunity' though cloudy less-than-gently thwapped her in the back of the head and nodded at Frost and Jasper. Iggy frowned, looking like she might sit there and pout, more than a little annoyed that when free bits presented themselves, she couldn't claim them... Jasper glanced at the others, trying to figure out whether he was supposed to be acting casual or intimidating... clearly used to having to intimidate others... yeah... these three were trouble makers... reasonably good-hearted troublemakers, but troublemakers none the less...

The trio nodded, trying to keep quiet, though they all looked a bit more grim as she spoke of how harle might react to all this... no doubt they all had their own ideas what a griffon so ravaged with emotions that she was nearly rabid could do... though likely cloudy was the closest since he was almost a griffon himself... unusual for them, they were all quite quiet right now. The noise from the room continued for a surprisingly long time, but then faded and stopped, it seemed now was when felix would be coming out so the group would best get into position...

Iggy motioned cloudy back over as they followed, all looking a little apprehensive and surprised, though probably not too surprised given the revelations a few minutes ago "Ya know, I always expected us to be part of a guard sting operation, but I always figured we've be on the receiving end, this is much more fun" quipped Jasper The other two roleld their eyes but smiled a little awkwardly, confirming they likely felt exactly the same... meanwhile when they got to the room, the door and walls were thick enough that they couldn't make out any exact words, but it quickly became apparent that the two insider were not discussing any kind of business deal... at least not one being paid in cash for sure...

((the ironic part is I'm sure at least one of the three is right now thinking "oh hey I could use that to make super-fast popcicles!" XD)) When the foursome returned it seemed to ease the staff's concerns and they slowly began coming out of the back room. Cloudy excused himself to go and talk to them to explain that everything was OK now - apparently the 'griff was the groups proverbial "public relations" which had a lot of interesting implications as to what he was capable of... As they sat back down, Jasper sent a quick flame over his ham, possibly surprising frost that his fire was blue --- some greater power was really working hard to mess with the dragon's life and make everypony think he was some kind of Ice dragon --- and offered to do the same for frost. It was at this point that something frost would never have expected happened... a familiar stallion entered with a mare next to him. She at first seemed fairly plain, but if one looked closely they'd notice the small details, like her cloak having genuine gold stitching, and her much more flashy clothing concealed underneath. Felix went up to the desk and spoke to the pony behind it, soon retrieving a key and he and his mare companion headed up the stairs to the rented rooms, both seeing in extremely high spirits...

Before anyone else could respond, Cloudy Quickly saluted and said "Yes Ma'am, Miss Frost, Ma'am!" with a stupid grin on his face, causing the others to laugh. "Oh dont worry, no creature's coming near the bathroom" said Jasper "when they felt that hugs magic aura expand everyone thought the place was under attack, most of the customers fled and the staff hid in the back rooms" Cloudy shrugged "we figured iggy was just having another magic surge so we hurried in after her" "sometimes pushing too hard makes her release more than she intended" quipped Jasper Iggy turned red "thats enough, guys...." the others laughed again as they started heading for the door.

Iggy had calmed down but her head quickly snapped back to face frost "What?! no, never! I meant I am still suspicious of Captain Blackclaw, not of you, Ma'am! I have zero concerns about you now!" Jasper stared at the ground a moment, silently thinking about what he was going to say "its like I said... I'm almost like a half-breed... I dont think like a dragon and I dont think like a pony... your missing out on a dragon who will rush headlong into danger just because he is too stupid to realize he'll die doing it, and your missing out on a pony who would hold back and stategize and make sure their plan was air-tight before they acted... I would rush in without a plan and try to figure it out as I went... the worst of both worlds... and that's how I do everything... rush in with no plan then panic and try to figure out things as they're happening..." Cloudy smiled "You mean like today?" Jasper sighed and nodded "maybe I'm the crazy one, but looks to me like things turned out alright for you" he smiled Jasper just blinked Iggy smiled "no creature's perfect jasper, and the speculated pony that waited till they had an airtight plan could miss a window of opportunity. Sometimes the best thing to do is go in half-cocked and work it out as you go. Besides, you have others you can rely on to help you, dont sell yourself short like that" Jasper's worried look seemed to evaporate as his lips pulled into a grin and hugged Frost. Though almost instantly he quickly leapt back "Sorry ma'am! sorry! I... er... rushed in without planning" he laughed a little awkwardly a darker blue blush coming to his cheeks, having accidentally demonstrated exactly what he had been talking about...

All three of them were silent a moment, shocked at Ice's honesty. Iggy spoke first "I'm sorry for what I said... I have a history with pirates... I'm sure you understand why I assumed the worst... I'm still suspicious... but..." she sighed Cloudy looked over at iggy, suprised "...you told her about jade?" Iggy nodded sadly, hugging cloudy cloudy quietly whispered "you didn't tell her about... other things, right?" she shook her head "she'll find out on her own when she gets home, we're safe till then" she whispered to cloudy Finally jasper spoke up, sounding uneasy "I... I dont understand, m'am... your the captain of some elite black-ops military group... why would you want to be friends with a broken creature like me... I'm not even a proper dragon - I think way too much... or... was that just part of your cover... you were just... pretending to care..."

Iggy looked up and stared at ice for a long moment in utter confusion "but... this power... I've never felt anything like it before! Even Princess Twilight doesn't have this kind of aura!" then her eyes seemed to reconnect with reality as she apparently came to some conclusion about it in her head "I'm sorry I accused you of being in leage with that nefarious pirate, I'm sure you can see how easily the two stories would tie together" she said, laughing a little "blackclaw is probably lucky she didn't run into you or you would have made sure her reign of terror was ended permanently" she didn't directly address her brother, probably because it was a painful subject, but she did smile when ice mentioned looking into the proverbial case. It would likely suprise both of them when the door was opened by a very concerned dragon and hippogriff... apparently Ice's aura had allerted them something was wrong... as they rushed in though, they had two very different reactions... "Where's Frost?" "The guards!" Iggy though quickly hurried over before either could do anything stupid "wait, wait, its ok, I've been talking with commander storm here" "you were talking?" asked Jasper "oh, well sorry we rushed in, didn't mean to inter-" "Where's frost?!" interrupted jasper Iggy sighed "She saw her target out the window and had to go after them. She asked me to tell you she had a wonderful time and hopes she sees you again" "so... she's gone now..." "its for the best... you dont want a long-distance relationship like that anyway..." of course the big question now, was wheather Ice was going to go along with the story, or call iggy out on lieing to jasper...

For just a moment as ice began, the flames only intensified, no doubt iggy's less rational mind was thinking this was all a lie, but as she spoke, the flames calmed, in part because iggy was calming and in part from the ice magic that the pony before her was using... by the end, the flames finally turned to smoke as iggy lost her rage... well smoke and steam... the latter from the tears coming from her eyes and hitting the remnants of the flames or her still hot fur "Jade... they took him... to get back at me..." she said, looking at Ice with very serious, but not accusation eyes "My little brother... when I wouldn't join them, they kidnapped him... I dont know if he's even alive, I've not seen him in years..." Now pieces would start to fall together... Iggy didn't trust pirates because they took her little brother, and she was overprotective of jasper because her brain was seeing the dragon as a sort of substitute for jade... "I'm so sorry, your highness" said iggy, now neiling "I had no idea who you were... please forgive me, princess luna" It was also clear now that none of iggy's history books had been in color, that she had never met the former princesses, and that the tears were making her eyes very blurry...

Once the door was shut, iggy glanced around to make sure they were alone, then locked the door. "Ok, you can cut the crap" she said "I'm not Jasper, and I'm not going to fall for your manipulation" she frowned, looking very stern "I saw your captain swagering around town drunk off her ass and I saw the paper. Your with that pirate Blackclaw, arent you?" thought it didn't sound like a question the way iggy spoke "somone here said something your boss didn't like so you two came here to shut them up for good, right? that's how you creatures opperate." her nostrils were flared and wisps of smoke were occasionally starting to drift from iggy's fur as she started letting all her emotions boil to the surface "I dont know what kind of use you think Jasper would be to your boss's thugs, but I'm not going to let him get mixed up in it, after all the trouble we've had, the last thing we need is the nieve dragon joining a bunch of pirate thugs. So I suggest you and your boss keep away from us..." at this point iggy burst into flames as she went full nirik "I'm not letting your pieces of s--- hurt me and Jade again!" she roared So now it was clear, sometime in the past Iggy had been hurt by pirates, and presumably somone she cared deeply for since she let the name 'jade' slip out despite having no relevance to the conversation whatsoever it seemed... but that was only half the problem... frost now also had a raging nirik to deal with, which was a major danger on its own!

As she spoke, cloudy and iggy both eyed her critically, an uneasy glance that made it clear the way she was talking made them suspicious of her "You know, its always best to use the restroom before you eat much to... help digestion... why dont I show you where it is, frost" "Yeah, I'll go ahead and look over the menu while you two ladies are gone, I'm sure I can find something good" offered Cloudy, likely just to distract Jasper while the kirin lead frost off somewhere they could talk privately...