Ashton

Dunes crossed his hooves, reaching inside his coat "Well, it seems time for me to go, Its been a pleasure, I'm sure we will meet again, I promise!" he quickly pulled out a glowing blue horseshoe magnet and there was a bright flash and a deep resonating boom as he vanished Harley slammed her fist down onto the chair "Sonova- HE was the one who sole my Faraday Magnets!" Dash was a bit dumbstruck but managed to blurt out "Your what?!" Harle sighed "Faraday magnets... they're an emergency recall system, you leave one behind, take the other with you, and you can teleport back to the first one. I paid a fortune for them and they went missing after I ran into that snake on a job months ago... I thought they'd gotten lost..." Dash nodded dumbly, not sure what to say Harle shook her head "Well, I guess that at least proves he's underhoofed and was hiding something. As for the kid, I couldn't tell you which rout they took, we planned out a dozen evacuation routs and I purposefully didn't find out which one they were going to take since I was expecting those gunships to be after us and I didn't want to risk them getting caught" she explained "The shortest rout will have them here probably in..." she thought a minute "another half hour or so, provided they had minimal resistance... if they ran into trouble might be longer... the long rout they wont get here till tomorrow... sometime in the afternoon..." "You really expect me to trust you like that?!" exclaimed dash, finally losing her cool "By then anything could have happened to Scootaloo! Just because Dunes was even slimier than I thought her was, doesnt mean your any better!" Harle opened her mouth to comment, when there was an explosion outside and blue smoke filled the streets while somepony announced that they were here to save their captain and to turn her over Harle's claw went to her face "of course they could have rushed out here as fast as they could and gotten here sooner..." she growled "I told them to run and forget about me! We all agreed that with five gunships this was going to be a last-stand and I'd be headed for the gallows... Why did they not listen!?" Dash smirked "You really are an idiot" she said "You tell your friends that its over like that and you might have well been screaming 'come save me!' because if they have a drop of loyalty in their blood they wont leave you to die. Cant say anything about your illustrious career, but you got a loyal crew, and I gotta admit, I respect that" she smiled a little what would no doubt interest Ice when her scryers saw it, though, was among the pirates about to storm her casino was the familiar orange filly, wearing a white cloak against the desert sun, with the hood pulled back, showing a bandanna tied around her head with Harle's flag on the front, and scootaloo holding a sword in her mouth just as eager to save harle as the rest of the pirates...

Dunes opened his mouth to comment, but closed it again silently when Ice raised her hoof. The griffon's eyes only landed on ice and rainbow for moments at a time, she was instead watching Dunes, having already seen what he was capable of, and very weary around him... After a moment of contemplation and amusing that, at least for now, Dunes wasn't going to try anything, harle spoke "th' little gel is with m' crew, they're makin' their way back 'ere as we speak. ah'm sure m' word is worthless t' some of ya, but ta any who trust it, I can give m' solumn vow that sh'll be r'turned safe." Dash muttered something about the value of the word of a notorious criminal, but made sure she kept it mostly quiet Harle frowned but sighed. She knew it was not a good time to keep up the act "Ok, fine" she said, dropping the accent "you've all seen my record, but its as fake as my accent" she said, causing both dash and dune to do a double-take when the famous accent vanished "I used to be a normal, boring chick to a shipwright and a city council member, I got involved with a colt who's noble parents thought I wasn't good enough for their son, so they started slandering my name and it's only gotten worse as I got older. The only crimes I've ever committed were a few brawls, a little public drunkeness, and one count of accidental arson while drunk in a pub - which I might add I made more than adequate restitution with the bar owner" "forgive my disbelief, but I must say, what criminal would ever willingly admit to any crime, you'd be signing your own warrant" commented dunes Dash said nothing but nodded decisively. Harle sighed at the reaction but did snap back "of course, you would know" she said to Dunes before looking at Dash and Ice "I'm sure he's wove a web of a tale with his forked tongue that made him into the hero today. I cant say I'm not an easy target - I really shouldn't have gotten involved but I couldn't let him harm a filly" "I merely was showing her-" "You can cut the horsetrots, you snake in pony clothing" said Harle. "you all want to hear the truth, I'll tell you what happened. Maybe he planned to do something benign but it certainly had changed when I got there. He used his pocket-watch to hypnotize the wonderbolt and the filly and tie the foal up. Doubt any of you noticed but his window was close enough that he could have used his whip to swing out of it and safely to the ground and escape." Dunes rolled his eyes "Really? Your inventing scenarios to serve your own ends. The very fact that you didn't return the filly tells me you either already disposed of her or your scared she would side against you and prove my innocence" Dash's eyes narrowed now as she gritted her teeth. She didn't speak, knowing what would come out would be loud and barely intelligible, but it was clear right now she was siding with Dunes thanks to harle's reputation. Harle sighed, her claw going toward her sword, but passing it by in favor of a crystal decanter with her flag on it filled with a light brown liquid, she opened it and gulped down a swig of the whiskey, taking comfort in the burning sensation, then returning to to inside her coat. This was going to end poorly, she was afraid... but at least she'd have a grand send-off, knowing as boastful as Rainbow Dash was, the mare would turn whatever pitiful brawl that occurred into an epic battle for the ages...

Even dash seemed a little skeptical of Ice's comment about never playing politics, but she kept her muzzle shut. Dunes burst out laughing, taking a moment to compose himself "I'm sorry, but do you have no idea who this mare is?!" he asked "Much as I hate to further inflate her ego, Rainbow has faced every threat known to ponykind and even a few we'd never seen from blizzards, to changeling armies, to demons, to physical GODS and never sustained serious injury, I daresay she is almost invincible and at the least has a charmed life where nothing can go wrong. With her on my expedition I'd not have to worry about any sort of danger, nor would I ever have to worry about her" Dash just blinked, a little slack-jawed "wow dunes, I... never thought I'd hear YOU saying things like that about me" Dunes chortled "come now, rainbow, you should know that it's quite possible to respect somepony you dont like" Dash looked like she wanted to say something further but was highly conflicted... honestly she wanted to explain to dunes that she wasn't some invincible goddess, but she also like the ego-boost that what he said gave her....... Harle though was not so amiable when she entered "oh, now ah see why y' left m' unbound and let m' keep my weapons, y' need an expert hunter t' take care of a rat problem...." her eyes narrowed at dunes "Oh bother..." commented dunes under his breath, knowing now that he wasn't going to get out of this one using his silver tongue alone...

Harley frowned "unless th' proposition includes a hangar for m' ship -and ah accept- then it would be nice if y' would give m' some vague idea jus' how bloody far ah have t' go t' setup a safe garrege f' m' ship..." she commented, not really expecting them to tell her anything of the sort, but feeling the need to vent over her hangar being accidentally setup in one of their back doors. "Th' foal is with m' crew, they'll be makin' their way back to th' city. Th' little gel'd only be safer under sunb- ah mean under celestia h'self" defended Harle, "its a might long walk though pro'ly take 'em a few hours t' get there, but y' have m' word she will be returned safe 'n sound t' her guardian" when they communicated with Ice, if they listened closely they'd hear harle mutter in awe, sans accent "damn that's fancy, I gotta get me one of those..." ---------- Dash didn't comment, she'd said her piece. Though it was clear she was anxious about scootaloo's safty... Dunes chuckled "Please, your part of the government, you know how politics works, I'd never get anything done if I kept completely on the up-and-up about everything. Was it underhoofed? yes, but its far more benign than what any politician does on a daily basis. Lady luck simply chose somepony else to smile upon today... apparently the pirate..."

Jasper nodded, backing up "Remember, family sticks together, if you ever need us, just send three fireballs into the sky. We'll be there" Iggy nodded "and if you ever find yourself in need if a place to stay, our doors open... might be a little slippery from all the soap, but its open" From above Cloudy gave a nod and a thumbs up There was no doubt this was the start of a beautiful friendship... and an long and strange adventure with the town's newest band of misfits...

((just FYI: you cant release it. Not in any significant way. At least not without the proper mechanism --- which can be found if you piece together myths of equestria's-version-of-egypt (I forgot the name >.<) and realize this is actually an ancient, ancient, golem animation core from a very large and powerful (and long-broken) golem --- though if you piece all that together... yes... you can unlock its power to run all kinds of dangerous spells and/or machines. I actually have plans for that little marble that I've discussed with steel *evil grin*)) Trixie blinked at sunset before rolling her eyes "maybe I should make you my stage assistant, you sure got the over-the-top boisterous acting down pat" she smiled though, making it clear it was little more than gentle ribbing The showmare then turned to sunburst, sighing hard "honestly, I'm not too upset, I think I knew somewhere deep down they were fake and thats why I never showed her the supposed artifacts" a rare moment of pure honesty from trixie, though she didn't seem to realize that this would only serve to confuse the stallion even more since she never mentioned to him that she had been collecting these to spite twilight... "though if you happen to know any way to make some of these things work a little better or more reliably..." she smirked "I can think of some Great and Powerful uses for them as... props... provided they're safe" after a moment, she finally addressed the orb "well, its not exactly useful to me like it is, go ahead and see what you can do with it, I never figured it out" she shrugged, clearly having no idea what the scope of this item was, especially given how she thought sunset was overreacting comically to it...

Jasper rolled his eyes and was about to make some snide remark to kojo before the small dragon flitted off, but this did cause JAsper to look over at iggy, probably about to say something smartalec to her to prove kojo wrong... but then he saw what had made kojo upset. Jasper raised his hand at cloudy, who also shut up, then the faux ice dragon walked over to iggy and, after glancing around nervously, wrapped his arms around her neck. For a moment iggy did not react, but then she slowly raised her hooves and returned the gesture, the smoke fading from her fur and her eyes returning to their normal color. "Sorry. I forget your fur's not as think as my scales" said jasper Iggy smiled and just held that hug silently for several seconds longer than a normal pony would, finally letting go and saying "its been a stressful day, I'm sorryI got upset..." she smiled a little "and sorry I made you show this side of yourself to your new friend" Jasper gave iggy another quick squeeze, then walked over to kojo and placed his foot on the smaller dragon's tail to make sure he couldn't fly off "Ok, runt. You just saw something I cant let anyone know about" he said "not even a so-called friend" his claws glistened in the light and jasper looked very much like he was about to end kojo's life right then and there, but instead pulled the other dragon into a headlock "so guess what? your not my friend anymore..." the headlock transitioned into a very awkward hug "your a part of my family..." he let several moments pass, making it clear this wasn't some bad joke (and that perhaps iggy's kindness had indeed touched jasper much deeper than he wanted to admit) and giving the other dragon a touching moment before adding "and now that your a member of my family I can without fear tell you that if you do start telling anyone what you saw, I will hunt you down, I will beat you, then I will disembowel you three times for every creature you tell. Got it?"

And while Iggy and Kojo cleaned, Jasper, being jasper, sat on the card and did nothing but watch... or at least that was his plan before the window above him opened up and a massive pile of bubbles was thrown out. Unfortunately for the would-be "attacker", jasper had plenty of time to react and a small fireball was enough to dispel them as he glared up "You did that on purpose, turkey!" Indeed Cloudy's head popped out "I have no clue what you mean, I was just..." "lifting them up all the way to the window instead of tossing them into a bucket or a sink or something?" asked Jasper "you really think I'm gonna buy that excuse?" Cloudy shrugged "well if you actually helped maybe we'd get through a lot faster" Iggy, already upset by jasper's comment was clearly not taking this argument well as wisps of smoke were rising form her fur and mane as her eyes turned white, warning that she was about to go into Nirik rage mode......

Iggy grinned "Your willing to help without me even asking? Jasper, are you past your trade-in date?" she grinned jokingly Jasper rolled his eyes "better watch it, runt, next thing you know she'll have turned your scales into snow... or in your case probably leaves" "I only did that once" defended iggy "and you were close to molting anyway so it wasn't so bad!" "yeah... you have a loose definition of the word 'bad'" he snorted "Just remember even if he helps you that doesn't mean you get to test spells and potions and other weird things on him" "oh I know, tha'ts why I have you" smirked iggy Jasper sighed, muttering about iggy only saving him to get a free genuea pig... Iggy's grin though faded, clearly that wasn't true and it really hurt when jasper said things like that... though she didn't respond... after a moment just silently passing a broom to kojo as she went to the wagon and retrieved a mop... ((and just to make it clear, Jasper was not at all rude when he called kojo 'runt' thats just his insensitive draconic nature thinking its a suitable nickname since its accurate...))

Jasper shrugged "saying we live there is only slightly true right now, its closer to saying we will live there, I doubt izzy's even got the wagon unpacked, much less everything set up, but I can still show you where it is" he said, pushing himself up and stretching, flapping his wings just enough to hover above the ground so he didn't have to walk in the slimy mess that he was sure izzy had made "its out near the castle. I dont know if izzy planned that or not since that twilight pony was long gone before we even started looking here... 'course maybe she plans to study the castle itself, dont know and dont care." After a few minutes the two would come to a small, boring looking ,slightly rundown two story house that had its paint flaking off, with a large wagon outside filled with crates and boxes, and indeed within just a few minues they saw a kirin with a broom in her horn's glow, sweeping out a mound of bubbles Jasper landed on the inclined yoke of the wagon about a dozen feet from the door where it was at least dry from being out in the sun "So I was right... you tried a little too hard and botched a spell again, didn't you iggy?" Something was different though with how he spoke to iggy, it was still a little condescending (though that was expected from a dragonlands-born dragon) but he seemed a little softer and kinder, a little more open to her. It was clear cloudy had not been kidding when he said Iggy had somehow saved Jasper, which made the kirin and dragon much closer and more amiable... though the harshness of Jasper's race still was clear it was much more subdued Azure "Iggy" Ignine The gold fur'd kirin looked up, a little annoyed "Jasper! Where have you been?" "Where your magic is not, your dodging the question" he said giving her a knowing grin Iggy sighed, hoof going to her face "yes... I tried to clean the house in a hurry so we could unload our stuff" she then noticed the other dragon "Oh Hi!" she said "There's another dragon living here? Are you Jasper's friend? you have to come by later when everything unpacked, I'd love to ask you some questions and cross-reference you and jasper to help understand..." Jasper frowned "He's not a experiment, iggy..." Iggy blushed a little "oh, right, sorry" she said "Lets start over, I'm Azure Ignine, Iggy for short, what's your name?" she asked the other dragon, being polite though she did seem to think he was younger than he was by the slightly silly smile and tone she spoke in --- though she tried to sound respectful none the less.

And that is all that was written...

Trixie blinked... her joke went right over bluebelle's head... was she really being too subtle? that was never a problem she'd had before... maybe working at this school really was changing her... hopefully it wouldn't impede her shows... None the less trixie smiled "yes, have a nice night, headmare, I'll be sure to lock up when I leave" she then walked back around to the back of her desk and opened a drawer levitating out a file and laying it on her desk, shaking her head, muttering about how some students have such difficulty comprehending the lessons... ((anything else to add? or shall I slap a nice shiny "THE END" on this and mark it as "complete"?))

Trixie smirked "oh... oh!" she laughed "Ok, so that's how it is, everything falls into place so cleanly now" she smiled "I just hope your not letting her little familiar watch anything he shouldn't be" she teased

Trixie nodded "I have a report to fill out on my last student from this evening, then I'll be heading back to my wagon" she said, though she smirked "Oh... so your technically living with Starlight and Sunburst?" it was clear something... kinda inappropriate... was going through trixie's mind, though it looked more like she was thinking how she could turn this to her favor... she couldn't help scheming, old habits died hard... "and wait, what do you mean twilight wont let you use the throne room? did she put one of those anti-teleportation stones in there or something?"

Trixie managed to gather her wits once again after a moment, which really said volumes that it took her any time at all, given she was a professional showmare, but she managed a smile "yeah, we all do" she said "honestly, I dont think anypony's been this nice to me outside of Starlight" she said "I admit I was a bit apprehensive working with you, but... I think this may be the start of a gr- I mean, a beautiful friendship" she turned a little red, realizing she was about to get carried away with her theatrics again, but managed to cut herself short before she got loud and the magical fireworks came out... who knew, maybe in time she might break herself from her old hammy persona.... nah... but she could learn to tone it back a little... maybe...

((aww... now I gotta pester the loonatic-of-a-thousand-threads to make time for a trixie thread... though given the bombastic entrace trixie will make, even under these circumstances, it will atleast be fun, even it I'll probably have to schedule it six week sin advance......)) Trixie just nodded absently as she took the paper and looked over it, about to make a snarky remark, when her eyes went wide "...your... your not joking!?" she exclaimed, clearly expecting to see a bad doodle of twilight with a sily caption --- certainly not expecting that bluebelle would genuinely pull strings for something like this "Trixie is at a loss for words!" she said, clearly meaning it since she slipped into her 'stage persona' and began speaking in third-pony

((funny thing is I've heard of a lot of characters having this... issue... and tbh I think it's more a certain player than the character )) Trixie tolled her eyes "uh, she's a princess now, like THE princess, I cant just go up and talk to her" she sighed "And before you suggest writing her a letter that will just be answered by one of her secretaries... if I was lucky it might be answered by her dragon familiar, there's no way a pony of her position would ever see my letter..." she shook her head "asking something like that is foolish, and trust me I know foolish... but... if I could... yeah... your right" she snorted "maybe she'll visit me in a nightmare like Luna used to..." she rolled her eyes

((*gasp* your alive! *throws rainbow-colored confetti*)) Runes raised his hooves in defense "I did nothing but invite her into my room and showed her some photos, she came willingly and in the custody of her acting guardian, had that pirate not interfered we would never be having this sort of talk" Dash ignored dunes, focusing on ice "If you were retrieving intel, I'd trust you. If you were intercepting an enemy force, I'd trust you. But this isn't some military operation your dealing with, this is my little sister, right now, there are only 7 ponies, two fillies, and one dragon I 100% trust with her. I have faith in your skills, but she means more to me than life itself." declared dash. If was clear, hopefully, that this wasn't professional, this was purely about it being Scootaloo - anything else Dash would have had full faith in Ice, but with scoots... full faith was reserved for a very close circle... The latest report on Streak was that he was still out cold, quite odd for a simple concussion, but not unheard of. ----- Needing a moment to process the important part, Harle reacted to the latter first with a faint growl "how buckin' big is you git's base!?" she exclaimed "This 'ere's miles from yer bloody casino..." her claw went to her face (thankfully the one without the sword) She looked at them with fierce eyes, sheathing her sword "fine, nuthin' fer me ta lose, ah die here or ah die there, but ye wont be bindin' me, ol' Harle wont be put down lak a dog with 'er wings tied, understand?" it was clear she still didn't fully trust them (of course given the long list of crimes she was wanted for it would be hard to trust anyone not to want to turn her in -dead or alive- for the bounty) but she cared only about giving her crew time to escape "an ah wouldn't bother goin after m' crew if ah were you lot, y' wont get 100 feet b'fore ya get another blockage, an even if y' did manage... well... we didn't want no heavy artillery left behind..."

((yeah... thats the problem with the radically-different site canon, half the time you dont find out about it untill your already waist-deep in a thread... I spent two hours in DMs with somone I was RPing with on here trying to sort out how to make a thread canon because it was accidentally mincing timelines... the site seriously needs to go back to having 1 forum show-canon and 1 forum site-canon but from what I'm told there just isn't enough activity for that... I really wish they could atleast have a document somewhere that lists the major deviations... for the sake of the thread, I'm just going to assume that Trixie is the secondary/assistant counselor then...)) Trixie cocked her head "she did what to you on accident? made you the headmare?" she smiled jokingly. Trixie shook her head "Hard to lose something you never had, her majesty and I were never friends, at most she just kinda tolerated me because I was friends with Starlight, but she wasn't openly hostile anymore..." she sighed "I want to put it behind me, its just hard and it left a scar hearing a pony who's supposed to embody friendship itself -who even forgave a former dictator and event he god of Chaos himself- treat me like that..." she paused "...I'll try to keep my head on straight and not jump to conclusions again" she smiled awkwardly

((yeah... but the rules I thought were basically "show overwrites RP"........)) ((...wait... so trixie's not the counselor? @_@ so trixie was just unknowingly breaking and entering into an office that wasn't hers!??! ...and but you said she was and..... ugh! *head-desk* I'm so very confused now...x_x T_T )) Trixie sighed "I didn't have to eves-drop, she said it right in front of me... maybe she's changed since she got her throne, but in the past, her Majesty was as subtle and sneaky as a chainsaw..." she paused though "...could I forgive her? with how she's treated me..." she took a deep breath "...I suppose if she was genuinely wrong and was genuinely asking for forgiveness... then I would... " she sighed "honestly, there was a time when I would have begged her forgiveness... after she saved me from myself... but seems it was a good thing I didn't..." she shook her head "I'm sorry, there's just a lot of conflicting emotions... So much happened with Her Majesty back when she was, well, not her Majesty yet...."

((...yeah... I keep running into that... which is the reason I'm not really using any of my cast characters now except trixie --- since afaik I'm basically the only one who has every used her on here so she doesn't have a bizarre alternate history...)) ((...so we're going with "starlight and sunburst were eaten while fighting giant pygmy ravens?" )) Trixie blinked loudly. It was clear that this had completely taken her back. It took her brain a moment to comprehend what buebelle had said, and when it did, it was clear that it hit the mage like a ton of bricks. She hung her head again, silent for another moment "...she... she did...?" asked Trixie "I never... I never expected her to have good things to say about me... not after what happened in the past... last time I saw her, which I admit was a long time ago, she was telling other ponies that I Was still not to be trusted... a pony that was a friend, and despite that became my closest friend later... that leaves a mark..."

((No, I was referring to why bluebelle is now headmare of the school, since as per cannon, its Starlight and Sunburst. I'm just assuming the two either eloped, or were killed fighting off a murder of giant pygmy ravens... probably the ravens...)) Trixie hung her head, frowning, almost growling "...she told you about my past..." came the angry reply, but the venom was very short-lived, clearly directed at twilight. Of course Trixie wasn't surprised given how twilight had never truly forgiven her and had even tried to keep starlight from being her friend... this seemed no different for the so-called 'princess of friendship' than to sabotage every last good thing Trixie had going for herself... "...yes, I made some huge mistakes in the past. I have been my own worst enemy... even to this day I have to watch my ego... but whatever her majesty said about me, I promise you, I've learned my lesson and it only helps me keep perspective, it no longer interferes with me or my job" she sighed "Im sorry, I shouldn't have snapped like that... I'm just... dissapointed... that her highness still feels that I've not learned my lesson and that I still dont deserve a second chance after everything that's happened..."

Jasper shrugged "He worries about her too much. Yeah if she's out exploring some dangerous ruins or this nightmare forest she might be in trouble, but worst I've ever seen her do with magic is catch herself on fire --- and if you dont know about kirin, they're fireproof, I mean you get one pissed off enough and they literally burst into flames and even when they're not angry they can summon and toss around fireballs even easier than we can, so yeah, she's safe with magic" he chortled "I dont even know if she's really at risk in this forest since if anything bothers her she can burn it to cinders... I think the forest is in more danger from her" he laughed "looks like they're getting things cleaned up" he said, pointing to some disgruntled pegasai bringing in rain clouds "Now the question is whether to stay out in the rain or go see what kind of disaster Iggy's made of the house in the meantime..." he commented

Cloudy shrugged "Maybe its a dragon thing I dont get, or maybe its just from the fact I live with him so I see more of his bad side. whatever, its good to see you two are getting along. Something really needs to get Jasper off his tail and doing something other than sleeping" he snorted, this time more clear he wasn't just taking a light-hearted jab at jasper... of course given the fact that kojo had met jasper when the latter was trying to take a nap would likely lend credence to cloudy's comment about jasper being lazy... Jasper rolled his eyes "So... what did iggy do this time?" "no clue" said cloudy "I saw the explosion and headed back to check on her" "So no lunch yet?" Cloudy rolled his eyes "You know, iggy was the one that saved your scaley hide, you really should care more about her than your gut..." Jasper shrugged "Iggy's never met a spell she couldn't handle, even her own broken ones, we both know the chance of her not being 100% fine are low, at worst she's probably soaked in water and covered in dust" Cloudy opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by jasper "Fine, go ahead and check on her, but remember that all three of us are hungry, Iggy too..." Cloudy sighed "fine, I'll get your dinner, but I'm going to check on Iggy first" he said, with a few hard flaps of his wings he quickly dissapeared into the sky above the tree Jasper smirked "Its easy to get under his feathers" he said "and he worries way too much"

((not gonna lie, I have no clue whats going on here or what happened to the others, I'm assuming something happened in another thread I wasn't privy to, so I'm just going to assume Trixie knows whats happening and I"ll bumble my way through until whatever off-screen plot bubbles through)) Trixie frowned for just a moment, having come from humble beginnings she felt an internal and sometimes harsh disconnect with the nobility, but unlike years ago when this would have manifested in her words or actions, she had managed to mature enough to hold it in, realizing that it was not a conscious choice that the nobles made, it was just the proverbial throw of the dice that they were born into those families, and that Trixie shouldn't hold it against them, as long as they don't use it as an excuse to be callous and pretentious. Of course the fact that her 'boss' had gone from being her best friend and/or said friend's coltfriend to now being some appointed aristocrat did still rub her the wrong way, whether it was the right course of action for the school or not... But, being a master of the stage was one of the few aces Trixie had up her sleeve against even those of the decadent court, whens he focused on it, being able to even out-act some of the best nobles, and she put it to good use in situations such as this The doorknob glowed as Trixie opened it to the heiress "Oh yes, sorry about the noise, something broke - though to be honest with you, its a bit of a relief. You never realize how something can be holding you back until its gone" she smiled, indicating the dustpan showing the broken glass "it was a sort of keepsake from my earliest years of travel, and now that its gone I feel you might say lighter and certainly less focused on the past" she explained. OF course her normal tone and means of speech were slightly off - much more proper and formal than usual, but she doubted her guest would notice --- especially since she was actually speaking the truth.