Ashton

"we'd never put you on the spot like that" said Iggy "Yeah, there have been times we've even brought our of food, this isn't a problem" "...at least we're not out hunting squirrels and rabbits..." muttered jasper "So" said Iggy "Where are you from? Do you live in canterlot or just visiting?" Jasper sighed "she just said she was here on business" Iggy and cloudy both looked quite surprised that jasper volunteered the information "what? you obviously weren't listening when she said it" The two quickly looked away, trying to pretend that jasper hadn't failed to play dumb and that everything was normal, but from their reactions it was clear that Frost was already having a positive impact on jasper's personality

Iggy nodded at most of it then her gaze grew cold as she looked to the male dragon "...jasper..." He quickly threw his hands up "I never said we would!" he quickly defended, sighing "I know we cant afford things like that" he then muttered under his breath about having to fly here instead of taking the train... Cloudy shook his head "ok you two, calm down, it didn't happen, lets not start a fight in front of jasper's new friend" Iggy sighed and closed her eyes, looking away from the dragon, opening them back to look down at the table "I suppose we can still afford to get lunch, I managed to sell some stuff... though with how much jasper's already treated himself it looks like we're going to be left with the cheap sh-" "Sandwich!" quickly cut in cloudy "the cheep sandwich, good idea iggy" Iggy was about to make a snarky remark when cloudy started glancing over at frost and back to iggy. she realized what he was implying and sighed "...yes, the sandwich..." she agreed, trying not to make a huge scene in front of jasper's new friend. it was starting to be clear that jasper likely didn't have many friends and these two were working hark not to cause any trouble with this one. given what jasper had said before about trying to act like a dragonlands dragon it made sense that most wouldn't want to deal with him... and very telling that he was willing to open up to frost...

Jasper looked surprised but a little excited at the offer, He smiled and opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, two more voices joined in "We figured this would be where we'd find you" smiled a kirin, taking a seat on one side of the table "Oh, hey there, did you find poor dumb jasper wandering around and bring him someplace safe before he got hurt?" Teased the hippogriff Jasper sighed, looking at his hopefully-new-friend "I'm sorry" he whispered quietly, before turning towards the 'griff "you make such a great first impression, Turkey" he muttered, then cleared his throat "Frost, these are iggy and cloudy. Iggy, Turkey, this is frost" The two nodded as their names were called "technically its azure Ignine, but everyone calls me 'iggy' for short" explained the kirin "and despite all the rude things Jasper's likely called me, I'm Cloudy Skies, nice to meet you" smiled the 'griff It would likely become clear to ice that these two meant a lot to jasper, though his relationship with each was completely different - having far more respect for Iggy but being more lighthearted with cloudy... there was no doubt this trio had some very complicated and interesting history to bring them all together.

Jasper looked at her oddly "If This is some joke by Flux or tha tbig-headed rainbow pony, all of us are going to be pissed..." he said, very seriously, but as quickly as he dismissed it, he clearly didn't think that was the case He glanced both ways and leaned in close "look... whatever it is, dont worry, we've done worse... once when we were in vanhoover, iggy actually......" "Hey! Go ahead and kiss her dont be shy!" laughed the waitress as she came back Jasper nearly leapt out of his seat at the shock and steam started coming from his nostrils, no doubt wanting to turn the griffon into a thanksgiving dinner for the interruption "Aww, wish I'd been a little later... and with a camera!" she laughed, clearly thinking jasper really had been leaning in to kiss frost. "But enough about that" she reached behind her and plopped down two large hams, each one meticulously encrusted with every color of hte rainbow, from large jewels that covered the cut side of the bone, to fine gemdust sprinkled over the whole thing. It really was a masterpiece to a dragon. Jasper stared at the hams for a moment before turning back to the waitress "oh right, thanks for reminding me why I come here, I was just about to leave..." the griffon laughed "Whadid I tell ya? he's a real wise-guy! Now you two lovebirds eat up, an' remember we got rooms for rent... no shortest time!" she winked at the two as she left "and once again that desire to burn this place to the ground starts to grumble... sometimes I dont know if I'm glad iggy instilled so many morals in me or not..." he sighed, taking a large bite, crunching through several gems and into the meat "Dig in, its great, and everything's on iggy's tab so no worries!" he laughed As they were eating, Frost would get her report from Harle... "well, Ma'am, we've finished all the main quarters, was mostly a good time, but they didn't take the bait... and that last quarter was... well your guard I think became a hero for supposedly arresting me... none of them trusted me, all of 'em said I paid off the papers or blackmailed them... none of them trusted me in the least, I bet if I'd stuck around too long there would have been a lynching..." harle sighed hard "you dont know how good you have it ma'am, any time you want you can snap your claws and turn into a dragon without a past... every time some bloke talks to me I wonder if he's talking to me or to the idea of a bloodthirsty pirate captain or the idea of a daring adventurer... I never know if a creature really likes me or wants to be my friend or if they just like the history they heard... your really lucky ma'am..." there was a pause before harle concluded "going to check some of the other ares now like the docks, doubt we'll find them but thought I should check in from finishing the main living quarters. 10-4"

Jasper smiled, but then started to chuckle a little, though he didn't break his smile, then he shook his head "From the moment I met you I knew you werent like the dragons back home" he sighed "I hate to sound like iggy, but let me explain - there are basically three types of dragons I've come across in my life. There's the dragons who never left home, the ones who left when they were young, and the ones that somehow were taken away before they ever really learned about draconic culture" he sighed "I try to act like a normal dragon; pretend I only just left - you know big dumb violent... honestly kinda foolish and... well..." he sighed "I grew up with just dragons, but when I molted I ended up in equestria... long story, but the short version is a native of this land raised me, so you might say I'm almost a halfbreed - I have a lot of background and mental conditioning telling me how I should act... but... thanks to iggy and, I guess, cloudy too, I've sorta grown beyond it..." he paused "but you... you never grew up in the dragonlands, did you? or you were only there such a short time you probably dont even remember you life there as more than a blur, right?" he sighed "you know, your lucky, you dont feel the need to conform to idiotic stereotypes, if you get a reason or even a whim to go and learn something you can do it... if you want to talk about something, you just say what your thinking instead of trying to water it down to sound dumb..." he paused "Just asking this makes my brain hurt because of the two conflicting worlds I've lived in but... I know we've only met... but... would... would you like..." he closed his eyes, focusing and gathering his mental strength "wouldyouliketobefriends?" he took a few deep breaths as if he had just run a marathon, and clearly mentally he had "I know... dumb thing to be stressed at asking but... I'm serious... I like you and I think I could learn a lot from an actual dragon that thinks the way you do" he forced a smile, and while it was clearly forced, it was also very clearly genuine. "What d' ya say?"

Jasper laughed "I was kidding, on both counts, while I wouldn't say I'm the ugliest dragon ever born, there are plenty far bigger than me" he explained as he lead her to a seat "and you wouldn't believe how many times I've heard that 'dragons are pure of heart' crap... though never from a real creature, Mostly from books" he paused a split second there, quickly adding "Iggy loves to read and often does it aloud so I hear a lot of those nerdy stories from her" at this point a waitress came by, a red griffon "whats this? your with one of your own instead of that kirin? something happen to her?" Jasper rolled his eyes "Iggy and cloudy are still out shopping, they'll probably show up later. whats so strange that I have other friends?" The waitress chortled and leaned over to frost "watch out for this one, he's a wiseguy" Jasper just rolled his eyes "Menus?" she asked, pulling them out of her bag "bah, you know a dragon like me cant read, I'm too strong and dumb for that" "yeah, that's why you and the kirin got into an argument about how to pronounce the disk of the week last time" Jasper winced, realizing his story about being a dig dumb brute just got cracked if not shattered... clearly he has issues admitting his intelligence "Just bring us a ham encrusted with jewels" The waitress laughed "sure, sure, coming up" she said, fluttering away "OK, so I *can* read... I know, not very dragon-y..." he sighed, looking a little ashamed

As frost spoke she might notice that as soon as she said she was hunting, Jasper's eyes narrowed, though they relaxed when she said it wasn't for food. While he was a dragon and likely didn't value ponies as high as many species, he seemed to not approve of hunting them either... as she wound down, Jasper sighed, rolling his eyes and chuckling a little "You know how dragons, being pure of heart can never tell a lie? You have no idea how many lies I'd love to tell you right now" he teased "But, cursed with not only my dashing good looks but this accursed honesty, I've never heard of them..." Of course the way Jasper said all this seemed to be a joke on some level, given that he was quoting the old fairy tale about dragons being unable to lie... also he didn't seem so egotistical as to call himself 'cursed with dashing good looks' He laughed a little, unable to maintain the facade "yeah, but no, seriously, never heard of them... I dont really get involved in politics, not nearly smart enough for that. My friend Iggy might be able to help though, she has all kinds of crazy magic" as he spoke he gently wrapped one of his wings around frost slightly as he lead her down the street towards the tavern in question, which she might be surprised at being in a.... not a "bad" part of town but one that was not the best... and most of the patrons of the establishment were dragons, griffons, hippogryphs, or other creatures that preferred a more carnivorous meal...

"Its all about show, I'll leave the hard thinking to you blokes, but I'll handle the theatrics" she said as she went off with the guard to get things arranged However it was at this point frost would likely notice another figure from the corner of her eye, and if she didn't the wolf-whistle would no doubt draw her attention... The other dragon was cutting through the same alley, a shopping bag hooked around his wing claw and dangling on his back, he smiled a grin that showed all his fangs "Hey, didn't expect to run into another dragon 'round here" he said, walking closer "I was just running a few errands, was about to stop and get something to eat, would you like to join me? my treat.... I know this nice little place that not only serves gems, but fresh meat" he smashed his open palm into the wall directly in front of frost leaving it inside a noticeable crater as he leaning there casually, white mist drifting lazily from his nostrils "Name's Jasper, how 'bout you?" any normal pony would probably think that the dragon was intimidating them, trying to scare them, or at the very least harassing them, but if frost paid attention or knew anything about dragons, she's very quickly realize this was an attempt at intimidation... it was more seduction... actually a rather mild one by dragon standards too, no doubt he did find frost attractive, but he seemed more casual and friendly than overly romantic... of course if frost wanted she could easily sway it more that way if she said the right words...

((Actually Tempest used cauldrons to talk to the Storm King, the one who used crystals was Chrysalis. But beyond that, we've had communicators since all the way back in S2! Iron Will from 219 "Putting your hoof down" had headsets he used to communicate with his goat lackeys and with the PA system. the only in-universe reason I can guess that they're not more common is they're hella expensive... or maybe ponies themselves couldn't make them...)) Harle cocked her head "No offense, ma'am but I thought a disguise made you blend in more... you stand out like a sore thumb as a dragon in a city of unicorns..." when it got to the instructions harle sighed "Thats not my usual demeanor, some bloke would call me out... unless..." she paused a moment in thought "I just need to get a half-empty bottle of whiskey, splash a little on my face so it seems I've been drinking, and all the scavs will just think I'm drunk.... you'll have to bail me out of jail afterwards, and I make no promises against a brawl of two, but it would work!"

When the guard walked up to harle and started talking to her the griffon was quick to assume her usual demeanor, though if Ice paid close enough attention she'd easily see that Harle was still upset, but was hiding it really well. When the guard gave harle the headset, ice might hear the griffon mumbling again about wishing she had cool gadgets like this... after a few awkward moments of positioning the headset on her head; since griffons lacked any sort of bodily structure that most would define as an 'ear' she responded "I hear you... er... which one are you?" before ice would get a chance to respond though the guard whispered something to harle and the griffon quickly corrected herself "Oh, sorry, ma'am, I wasn't expecting the voice" clearly harle had mistaken ice for one of the guards, and yet again Ice would likely hear harle muttering about how she wished she had just a quarter of the mind-blowing gadgets that Ice had because any of them would make her work so very much easier...

Harle just sat there in the middle of the street staring at the door, completely at a loss. the guard would follow him inside the building which was a warehouse filled with crates and pones going through the crates, clearly this business was more of a wholesaler than a direct to-the-public goods shop. Felix was reading the paper and wandering through a series of crates heading towards a small walled-in area that was labled 'office' - inside the office were several other ponies going over reports and one that was working at an adding machine, clearly the finance manager, but the two ponies that the group was after were nowhere to be found.

Felix groaned "Harleeeeee, I'm working..." he commented, trying to push her off "...stupid cat..." finally he managed to get enough leverage to roll her off, which seemed to come as a surprise to the griffen "huh? what? since when were you so serious about work?" she asked "Since mom and dad dumped most of the daily runnings of the business on me, I'm here every day from open to close, its not easy and its not fun." he sighed "Sorry, I have to get back into the office, you should probably go before they catch you around here" he said as he took his paper and headed back inside Harle was left sitting in the street with a confused and slightly hurt look on her face...

Harle glanced at Ice sideways, as if to say 'really? you think that would work?' Though likely to both of their suprise, a figure they'd both recognize did come out to buy a paper... Harle's face contorted into a grin as her front end went down and her tail and but went up, shook twice, and leapt forward in a flying pounce "FELIX!" The other pony was knocked over backwards onto his back, looking stupefied "H-H-Harle! What are you doing here!?" he exclaimed, then as if as an after thought began to hug her, but looked very nervous and uncomfortable... though perhaps it was their long separation... or perhaps it was something else... Harle was too busy holding him on the ground and purring to notice anything for a moment... it was quite comical how to big tough pirate turned into a giant kitten around the pony she loved.

Harle looked like she might burst out laughing but managed to hold back all but the tiniest chuckle "yeah... most of the world thinks you blokes're a few cards short of a deck. Its a bit of a running gag with 'most everyone that ponies all think some magic of harmony is going to save them from everything" she explained "No offense, of course. I kinda got the memo on that early as you can tell" As they walked they'd likely notice more than a few of hte residents kept their distance, muttering about the newspaper article about harle raiding a museum and wondering if this was her and if she was being taken to jail... or the gallows... Harle was gritting her teeth in frustration so hard that it was a suprise sparks weren't coming from her beak... clearly this gossip, however minor was getting to her. It wasn't long before she reached into her coat - making may fear she was going for a weapon (which only served to piss her off more) but instead pulled out her decanter and took a long pull at the brownish liquid within, clearly having to resist the urge to down the whole bottle...

Princess Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash The streets of canterlot were bustling with activity. Ponies comming and going from work, eating, shopping, or just waundering around, enjoying the city and taking pictures. It was a rather typical and picturesque day inside the country's capital city... ...Outside though... A purple dot kept circling around the peaks around the mountains, while a light blue pegasus stood on a hilltop, occasionally flying upwards into the sky a ways, holding a megaphone and shouting instructions "Good! Good! Build up some speed, then break free to shoot yourself forward!" called dash over her megaphone. Twilight gritted her teeth and nodded, all the while thinking to herself 'why am I doing this? I'm the one in charge, I can say no!' and yet, despite thoughts like these, every time that rainbow insisted that she needed training, despite all the scrapes, bruises, broken bones, and lost teeth, she kept ignoring her better judgement and listening to the technicolor mare The alicorn broke out of the tight circles, her head feeling like it was still spinning and a little bit dizzy (not to mention a little sick to her stomach) and began angling down. She felt the air stinging at her face and body, the burning pain in her wings. But even so she felt the air start to gather around her hooves! It was the first step that dash had been pushing her towards for so long. She pushed harder, and harder, trying to shape the air... then... suddenly...! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" twilight screamed in pain and tumbled from the sky as one of her wings cramped up so hard she couldn't unfold it. Fortunately for twilight, and all of equestria, the fastest pegasus in the world was on standby and while she did let twilight have some tumbles in the air and a couple seconds of absolute terror, she sped in and saved her friend long before the alicorn would have become a purple smear on the ground. Twilight's eyes and mouth were still squeezed shut both from the pain and the terror when dash lay her down on one of the patches of ground outside the city "I keep telling you, you have to pace yourself, if you just dump everything you have into it, this will keep happening..." chided the cerulean mare with a sigh as she carefully began massaging twilight's wing, waiting for the alicorn to relax enough to be able to speak or even open her eyes...

The others nodded and hurried off, running away from the suspicion, and into a bright new future together.

"If we try to go find help wont we have to explain how it happened? You dont think these creatures are dumb enough to believe 'we just found it like that!' do you?" commented Jasper Iggy sighed "good point" "Well then we need to clean up this mess Iggy made with her magic... again..." teased Cloudy Jasper paused and smirked "clean up... hey fire-butt, you remember when we first came to town, the spell you used that filled the house with soapy water... think you can do that again... maybe a little smaller this time?" Iggy was about to snark back but then realized the dragon had a point "ok... stand back" she said, getting to her feet and walking inside the castle doors. She closed her eyes and reopened them, pure white, as a complicated magic circle materialized around her "Ok, everycreature hide behind something!" exclaimed cloudy Without hesitation, jasper ran behind a tree as cloudy took refuge behind a large rock The circles glowed brightly as magic gathered around iggy, turning translucent; waterlike... then... *BOOM* *SPLASH* a large explosion of water errupted from the kirin, quickly extinguising the flames and soaking everyone and everything within a rather large radius....

Harle was about to say something but stopped when she heard Ice's comment to singlestone, giving him a very concerned look Singlestone smiled "oh dont worry, ma'am, I merely mean that... there are higher powers than us and I'm sure that their deeds will be noticed" Harley looked at her friend oddly "I think you should go take a rest, you seem tired and I'm sure it will be a bit before we get there" The unicorn nodded and walked to his temporary quarters on the ship Harle sighed "The whole time I've known Singlestone he has never directly hurt anycreature... well unless you count all the times his experiments backfired and left me burnt, twitching, frozen, or otherwise in pain... but that wasn't the same... this isn't like him... and he is not religious..." she looked over at ice "I hate to say this... and I hope you wont tell anycreature... but... honestly... I wasn't scared before, but I am now... and not of Felix's parents..."

Harle looked both relieved and a bit annoyed, though keeping proper decorum she simply said "For the sake of Felix, Thank you" before turning around towards singlestone and muttering "great so they're going to be captured, asked to 'please never do it again' and after they lie and say they wont, we'll be right back at square one... at least sunbut would have banished them to the moon or something..." Singlestone simply smiled "Dont worry, Captain, I'm sure they'll get what's coming to them" the devious look in his eye might be alarming to Ice, but harle didn't seem to notice. Of course considering that singlestone was a scientist who didn't think twice about joining what seemed at first glance to be a crew of bloodthirsty pirates, his morals likely weren't exactly the highest - quite possibly only being kept in check by harle... or else this was simply his own twisted form of loyalty to her... in either case, he clearly had some sort of plan...

Iggy nodded "of course" "ug, guys, hate to interrupt, but the castle is still burning so... we should probably either put out the fire or run before more guards show up that we cant bluff so easily" pointed out cloudy "Or we could just go ahead and burn it to the ground" suggested jasper "WHAT?!?!" "kidding. Just kidding" smirked jasper, clearly knowing that iggy would react that way Iggy snorted as a wisp of smoke rose from her mane, but she sighed "Cloudy's right, we need to either 'A' try to save the castle ourselves, '2' get help before the fire spreads, or 'Third option' run before somepony else notices us here"

Harle looked suprised at seeing Ice in full battle armor and sighed "I cant believe I'm saying this... but... I'd rather if you didn't kill them... dont get me wrong, they're both absolute c---s but they're still Felix's mum and dad, and I dont want to see him hurt like that..." Singlestone smiled a little at harle, glad to see her desire for justice wasn't all-consuming and she was thinking about those involved

((oh gawd... I pulled those names out of my arse and did not intend them to have any connection to Ice --- especially Silvermane (who ironically I named after a character in a game I'm playing named Thonar Silverblood) aka Felix, who is harle's significant other and essentially a bit of a damsel in distress thanks to his parents...)) Harle hesitated "Dealing with them has never been pleasant" she said "while I've grown more weathered and used to insults thrown my way, hearing them from the parents of my chosen is never pleasant" she sighed "though... it does give me a chance to see Felix, at least at a distance, knowing his mum and dad..." she shook her head "If things get too hairy, I'm sure the Aura Manipulator will come in handy, it could prove to be a good field-test" commented the unicorn "yeah... without a convenient pool to dive into if it sets me on fire again..." muttered harle, clearly not having a lot of faith in the prototype... None the less harle nodded and she and singlestone followed Ice When she got the report it was so large it too two binders to contain it. Clearly these were the typical underhoofed and conniving merchants/nobles that always seemed to spring up, wanting nothing less to rule the business world and become rich through any means necessary... there were even a few vague rumors of their participation in necromancy and eldrich magic, though these were hopefully just nasty rumors one of their no-longer-business-partners had spread about them... hopefully... The binder on Harle was of course slightly smaller, though they had been diligent at trying to keep the griffon at or near the top of equestrias 'most wanted' list. Though quite a few of the accusations it seemed couldn't be traced to the directly and one or two simply had seemingly no connection to them... though given harle's personality and service even in this short time, there was no doubt the accusations were false - but how they were orchestrated was beyond even Ice's intelligence network... As for their current location, they seemed to stay at several different residences, some they owned, some owned by associates of theirs. It seemed they were well aware of how many proverbial bulls-eyes they had on their backs and were activly working to make it difficult to track their individual movements. Finally, the bind on Felix... while it did make it clear where to find him (at the company office mon-fri 7am-9pm) it held very litte negative information. Sure he had made a few bad deals and lost some business partners, but he seemed to be striving to be better than his parents... not that it would be difficult... in the end, the only truly criminal deed that could be turned up was where he had double-parked a wagon.... either he really was an honest businessperson or all his dark dealings had been absorbed by his parents in one way or another.

Iggy smiled "That would be great! I dont really have a fully-planned expedition right now, but as always the more the merrier" Jasper rolled his eyes, far less enthusiastic, though whether it was because he wanted to group limited to his friends or he genuinely felt that angel wouldn't be a good addition was up for debate --- considering his close bond with iggy it was more likely the former though.

"Treasure hunting, escorts, fetching materials, scouting, everything you read about heroes doing in books, these two have done, its almost funny" smirked Jasper "yeah, funny you know about that, its like you've been with us on all those missions" responded cloudy Jasper Humphed "I was there because you asked me to go" "And funny how you even know about them being stuff from books considering how nerdy reading is" This time jasper made an almost cute little -erp- sound and crossed his arms, going back into pout mode again Iggy finally spoke up "The main reason we're here though is to study the everfree" she explained "I have some theories about it that might revolutionize how we view the forest and indeed posibly all magical plants and areas" her eyes seemed to sparkle as she started talking about magic