Ashton

Dash was still laughing but managed to calm down a little "I.. I've been here all... morning" she said between her laughs "I switched squirt's... juicebox... with one I... filled with... liquid rainbows!" she laughed again, though this time when scootaloo vomited, dash's ear twitched and her laughter slowed down and stopped quickly "...I... er... I might have over done it, huh..." she said, her ears falling back as she realized she'd made a big mistake with her prank She sighed, her spirit broken for now "if there was something magical that happened, it was probably discord or sompony at the friendship school... starlight or maybe trixie... probably trixie, she keeps biting off more than she can chew with her spells" clearly dash completely missed the point and thought that angel was looking for the source of a magical mishap instead of the effects of one

Scootloo coughed several times, before panting "r...rainbow..." she murmured, then she threw her head back and yelled "RAINBOW DASH!!!" And as one would expect a nearby cloud exploded as Dash laughed so hard "NOT FUNNY!" yelled scootaloo, coughing again from the spicy residue, and in fact burying her head in the trash again for another round Dash though was laughing so hard she probably didn't see or hear the reaction

Unsurprisingly, as the Zebasus flew around the town, she wouldn't notice anything unusual, everypony seemed to be going about their usual day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary... until she got to the schoolyard... A few minutes after she came in sight of it, she'd see the fillies and colts having lunch, then all of a sudden a certain magenta-maned orange filly ran for the trashcan and proceeded to heave. After a few of these, she looked up and there were rainbows dribbling down her chin and out her nostrils, and she looked quite ill as tears ran from her eyes...

All three of them looked at her a little surprised, no doubt both because of her ancestry and also her contradictory names "Interesting, your the first half-zebra I've met, if you dont mind I'd like to ask you some questions about it" she paused "later I mean" the last part seemed to be added after she realized this was not the time to be getting distracted by shiny new scientific studies. she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to focus "Ok, first we need to figure out what happened, we should casually check around and see if anycreature is acting unusual, both observing them and if we can be casual about it..." she glanced at Jasper "...asking them if they've noticed anything strange this morning" "Hey, I'm more casual than you were last time! You ran around assuring everycreature that things were 'perfectly fine'... or should I say you ran around screaming it..." Iggy's eyes narrowed as a few wisps of steam rose from her head... Cloudy's claw went to his face "Focus... focus..." he said Iggy once again took a deep breath to help calm down "Right... Angel, if you'd like to help, then do a fly-over of ponyville and look for anything suspicious... well... more suspicious than normal..." feeling the need to clarify since there was ALWAYS something weird happening in ponyville... "And despite the chances... keep an eye open for anypony who's bleeding or vomiting rainbows... I dont want to overlook the chance this really is chromatic plague"

Harle nodded, walking to the stairs before turning and announcing, likely for magnus' benefiet "REMEMBER YOU SCALAWAGS, BREAKFAST IS AT 9! IF YOUR LAZY AND OVERSLEEP NO FOOD!" "AYE-AYE CAPTAIN!" though the response was a little less enthusiastic And so began a new chapter in both the lives of magnus, and those of Harle and her crew.

The cheering continued for several minutes until the clown left the stage, and the applause continued even after that for a short time "you have no idea how long it took up to convince that bloke to do it" explained harle to magnus "he's better than that, he could easily be the star attraction of a circus, and he loves it. It makes me feel good to see the crew getting to do what they love, if only for a little bit" she was smiling quite a bit and her eyes glistened like there were a few unspilt tears in them, she really, truely, did care for her crew, even if her gruff exterior did not show it. After a few minutes harle sighed "welp, that it, three a night" she explained to magnus before turning "ALRIGHT YOU SLOBS GET IN YOUR BUNKS AND IF i HEAR ANY TALKING i'LL CUT OUT YOUR TONGUES!" "AYE-AYE CAPTAIN!" despite the rather harsh threat, none of the crew seemed too concerned and several whispered some things as they were getting any remaining weapons or clothing off and climbing into their hammocks "So any last questions from you before we all shove off to sleep?" she asked magnus

The trio all looked a little surprised when this new pony showed up Jasper broke the silence first, also trying to keep things a little calmer, knowing it wouldn't take much more for iggy to completely freak out and burst into flames "Nice ink, little hard to see but wild design" he said to the pegasus Iggy just facehoofed "we dont have time for this!" "Iggy, iggy, calm down" said cloudy, placing a claw on her soldier "we dont know what happened, but I doubt its any kind of plague" "Yeah" said jasper "Plague spells are probably way too complicated, you'd botch it up a dozen times over" Cloudy frowned "Not hel-" But to the griff's suprise, Iggy actually laughed a little "your probably right" Jasper grinned triumphantly while cloudy looked confused Iggy shook her head, looking at the pegasus "Sorry you had to see all that" she said "I'm Azure Ignine, 'Iggy' for short, these are my friends Jasper the dragon, and Cloudy Skies the Hippogriff" both waved as their names were called "What we need to do is figure out what happened" said iggy "did you see anything up there from the clouds that we didn't see down here?"

After the "mage" left the stage (and somepony floated out a broom to sweep off most of the tomatoes...) the final act showed up. This was an interesting change, it was a pony in full clown costume and makeup, who seemed a bit nervous but proceeded to do various, very basic, tumbling tricks, and finished off by (quite obviously) faking slipping on a tomato. surprisingly the crowd went wild and coins were thrown onto the stage by the hoof-full and claw-full, even harle tossed several coins herself, which seemed a bit odd given the previous acts had mostly garnered tomatoes and were much more involved.

Cloudy Skies Jasper Dragon Azure "Iggy" Ignine There was the sound of a powerful blast of magic, followed by a loud clattering sound. If Golddigger looked in the direction it had come from, she would see a peculiar group gathered around a table in the nearby park - a hippogryph, a dragon, and a kirin, the latter having apparently cast the spell. Suddenly the magic exploded from the mirror, making time seem to completely stand still, then waves of energy came out, first red, then orange, followed by yellow, next was green, afterwards was blue, and finally purple. After that every pony in town started resonating one color or another Finally, the glow stopped, and time resumed, the whole thing having only lasted a second or so, and most of ponyville didn't seem to even notice anything had happened... ...well except the three who were involved with the spell "What in tartarus was that?!" exclaimed the 'griff "I! I dont know!" exclaimed the kirin "It was supposed to be a divination spell to make the mirror answer questions!" The dragon sighed "welp, looks like instead you cursed everycreature in town with the Chromatic Plague in stead, nice going iggy" "WHAT?!" exclaimed iggy "nonononono!" The dragon blinked "woah, woah, easy I was just joking, you know there's no such thing!" "Yes there is! Its a horrible usually fatal disease!" she exclaimed "...oh..." said the dragon The griff sighed "nice going, jasper, we really needed her to panic more..." "Panic?! This isn't Panic! I'm not panicking! Who's Panicking?! I only may have just infected the town with an insanely horrible decease! no need to panic!" exclaimed the kirin, hyperventalating loudly ((Just fyi: no, its not the "Chromatic plague" if that even really is a thing here....))

Harle smirked and nodded "dont blame ya, It sounded worse than a cat screeching and I should know" she chuckled The next act was a little unusual, as it seemed to be a griffon dressed as a stage magician, doing slight-of-claw magic. Of course given the type who would join a pirate crew, it was likely that this bird was, or at least used to be, a pickpocket or some other trickster where slight-of-claw came in extremely handy. The bird pulled out a deck of cards, shuffling them with quite a flourish, then drew a card and showed it to the audience asking them to remember it. he then shuffled the deck and spread it out on the nearby table so they could see it was an ordinary deck, and after a dramatic 'choosing' of the card, held up the same one that he had chosen the first time. The crowd clapped and a few coins were tossed... then as the bird took a bow, about twenty of the same card fell out of his sleeves... Now the cheers turned to boos and the tomatoes started flying... Harle just put her claw to her face and shook her head...

I am absolutely blows away A couple of the things you added I had not even considered (like the "spade" scales on his tail, I had never paid enough attention to even realize that was a normal feature on equestrian dragons, but even if it weren't, it works!) Slightly different than what I had pictured in my head --- but better! Thank you (I absolutely want to get you to do harle one day too )

Harle chuckled "You'll see" she said "dont worry, I wont make you go on right away" she reached into her satchel and handed magnus three old tomatos and a hoofull of coins "if you like what the bloke's doing, you toss some coin, if you dont like it, you toss the tomahto, pretty self-explanatory really" she said "and dont worry, I get barrels of old tomahtos for free, so its no waste" The first act was a classic, it was a pony on stage with a series of wine glassed all filled to different levels with water and as he ran his hoof around the edge it made a sound... but the sound and the accompanying 'music' was so off-key that he got a lot of 'boo!'s and mostly tomato thrown at him... ((Also just to clarify, Harle has a British vocabulary but not a British accent, so you'll see her use words like 'gov' and 'bloke' and 'fish n chips' but not speak in the actual accent itself.))

As he arrived he would notice that nearly everyone there had a few old tomatoes and also a small pile of coins... likely the point of it was starting to be more clear. "Hey, there you are, gov" said Harle as she walked near, apparently her accent wasn't quite 100% fake - just mostly... "sorry about earlier, this and that and stress" she shook her head "but luckily everything cleared up in time for Last hour, wouldn't miss it for the world" while everyone was finding their beds or seats, it seemed there was a short window where Magnus could talk to harle again before everything started.

Singlestone watched magnus go, making a mental note to talk to him more in-depth later, it was clear something was nagging at the new crew-member, but he couldn't tell what... perhaps it was just the change of joining the crew... but he wasn't so sure... ----- several hours later, after dark and around ten o'clock, magnus would hear the horns bellowing and the whole crew began making their way down to the quarters, he could hear them as they passed him talking about 'last hour' apparently he was going to see what this nonsense was all about now...

i;m a magitech engineer" he explained "i'm the one who designd and built the captains lightning gun" he smiled a little, clearly proud of that "I also work on upgrades for the ship, though thos are few and far between"

They reached the bottom of the ship, and there was a fense that separated all the cargo from the rest of the area, which was locked, as well as another door in the opposite direction, also locked. "This is the cargo bay" explained singlestone "we keep any ancillary supplies here, Myself, Harle, and the first mate all have keys if there arises a situation where you need something" he paused, nodding at the door "That is the door to my laboratory, you'll find me there most nights working on my many different experiments" he paused "So, do you have any questions?"

"You'll find out tonight, It happens last hour before bed, unless we're under attack everyone attends... everyone..." he repeated himself to make sure that magnus understood this wasn't optional. Going lower, they reached a large open deck with the walls all covered in weapons and several armor stands, with a small reinforced door at the end and even an area roped off into a sparing arena "This is the armory" he explained "your free to use any of the weapons for either practice or battle" he explained "Through the door is the smithy, it also gets its heat from the ship's engines. Unless you have skill in working metal you'll probably never go back there" The racks held all manner of weapons, from spears and sword to bows and scimitars, all shapes and sizes of weapon were here, Harle had enough weapons to outfit a small army. Singlestone headed for the final flight of stairs, waiting for Magnus

"This is only the main deck, there are still the lower decks" he explained, motioning for magnus to follow him down the stairs "As you saw before, these are the crew quarters, you can take any hammoc that's not taken -check the locker under it to make sure it's unlocked and empty- and at the bow is the stage for Last Hour" he explained "likewise you saw the galley and mess hall earlier, the ovens and stoves are heated using the main engines to conserve fuel - you can only enter hte engines through the control room on top of the ship for security and safty reasons" he explained. After a momentary pause he added "as long as you behave responsibly, the captain doesnt keep tabs on the alcohol supply, just make sure you dont drink all the bourbon, or things might get ugly" As with the main deck, there were a few creatures around, relaxing or sleeping in the hammocks, though nothing particularly exciting. He headed towards the next set of stairs, waiting on magnus

Given that his image is currently "No image avalible" yeah, Jasper And the griffon in question would be Harle, in her red Captains Coat

Aww... looks like I'm too late... again... but might not matter... My particular requests are... well a Dragon and a Griffon, so idk if those are even options...?

Singlestone frowned, ever-so-slightly, at Magnus' reaction. Unlike his captain, singlestone wasn't so sure that this was going to work, but he trusted harle, and if she wanted to try to make it work, he would do everything in his power to go along with that plan. Perhaps it just would take time for this one to warm up to them... he dreaded to think what Last Hour would be like... "This is the main deck" said Singlestone, starting the tour, "from here you can head on down into the crew quarters, up the stairs to the controls, or over to the captain's private quarters... and yes, before you ask, that *is* a shuffleboard setup near the bow" he explained "we do not have a traditional 'crows nest' due to the danger of anycreature being so close to the propellers, so the lookout is usually in the control room" On the main deck, there would be several creatures, some of whom were dressed more-or-less normally, while some seemed to have fully embraced the 'sailor' or 'pirate' aesthetic, though none of them sounded like they were particularity mean or evil - not that one could make a solid judgement by vocal patterns and snippets of conversation, but it did server as a start. Singlestone walked over to the far end of the ship, past one of the propeller masts which had barrels around it to kinda-sorta block off the ladder leading up to the propeller itself for maintenance. He stopped outside the large door at the end "These are the captain's private quarters, though she rarely uses them except to sleep, make sure you always knock" If magnus looked through the window, he would see that despite it being dark, he could make out a writing desk, a bed, and a couple bookshelves (one filled with books, the other nick-nacks, including a couple plush toys, interestingly enough), as well as several large chests against a wall, along with one at the foot of the bed). In contrast to most ships, which often had a picture of their captain over the bed, or their matron, this one had a picture of a well-to-do pony, though it was too dark to make out the details.

She held him a few seconds more, likely thanks to the alcohol making her mind a little cloudy and not realizing he didn't like the hug, afterwards she smiled a little "Welcome to the crew. Singlestone can show you around... I... I need to lay down a few minutes, I'll catch up with you in a bit" she said, stumbling into the next room and closing the door, and soon the sound of her snoring was heard... though it would likely amuse magnus if he looked into the room and had realized it was a storage room... yeah, the stress and the alcohol had gotten to harle, apparently she had drank a lot more than she had shown... If magnus tried to leave, he would find singlestone waiting at the door, if he did not, the unicorn would let himself in after a few minutes "I trust from the sounds of the captains snoring, that everything is in order?" he asked with a bit of a smile "I'll be glad to show you around, we dont have a lot of rooms here, but there are enough to forget what is where"

Harle walked over and took the papers solemnly, placing them in her inside coat pocket, no doubt going to file them later, then, far less solemnly she threw her arms around magnus "you have no idea how bad I felt" she said, her accent completely gone "or how happy I am now, knowing that as bad as things have been, I can still help you" she held tight, the smell on her breath making it clear the indeed had imbued at least some of the alcohol (probably quite a bit of it), and her heightened emotional state only confirming it "I promise, whether your only cracked or even completely shattered and broken, I will help fix you, I wont walk away and I wont back down, I promise!" from atop the stairs, singlestone merely smiled as he quietly closed the door.

most of the papers were fairly normal fare, stating he got a place to sleep and store his personal affects, free and unlimited use of the ship's facilities, a cut of all treasure recovered (even if he was not a part of the party who recovered it - though of course a smaller share in such a case) and a pledge to serve the crew - not harle herself, but the crew as a whole - as well as it being stated that he was under no obligation to remain a part of the crew but was welcome to leave at any time he chose. The one page that stood out though was a magical contract, required to be signed in blood, which stated that should he ever betray the crew (as a whole) for his own personal gain, that he would... be turned into an eggplant... it was almost comical, and it was clear that (if it was even truly binding) the contract only came into effect for malicious betrayal, and there would be cases where no other possibilities existed (such as perhaps torture or similar) that the contract held no weight... it seemed to be there just to dissuade or prevent any crew members spilling the crew's secrets for their own gain, not an overall contract to control those it was bound to. ((to make it clear, essentially if you sell them out for wealth, you get turned into an eggplant. Though whether this would really happen is up for debate (even if we're not considering site-rules, its a rather... unique... magical contract, so...)))