Ashton

Trixie giggle "while I'd love to see you fight it, I've heard scary tales of enchanted tools... one of a broom that, after an axe was taken to it to stop its actions, all the splinters turned into more brooms and only made the problem far, far worse" she walked over to the shovel and muttered some arcane incantation... and got another shovel full of snow dumped atop her... Trixie grumbled and shook the show off her and glared at the shovel, this time closing her eyes and focusing as her horn glowed and a jolt of magical energy flew at the shovel. And it stopped shoveling, just hovering in place "There we go, all fix-" Before Trixie could finish her statement it reared up and slammed down, had Trixie not dodged she would have quite a headache "Ack! No! Your supposed to stop! STOP! STOP!" at this point the unicorn was running away from the shovel, which was giving chase, trying to bean her on the head... Clearly enchantments weren't Trixie's strong suit either...

Trixie sighed "Trixie wishes this burden could be shared..." she began "But Trixie knows the high cost of keeping order, and there have already been too many lives lost... The blame sits squarely on Trixie's sholdiers to protect this rock we call home from those who wish to harm it, be they internal, external, or something in-between!" Scootaloo was just standing there staring in awe at trixie, lapping it up like a thirsty puppy

((Sorry it took me a few days to reply, Fri/Sat/Sun are really busy for me)) Trixie sighed "yeah, it does that a lot..." she admitted as she walked over and kicked it, causing it to dump a load of snow on the showmare, then go back to its previous 'job' of moving the snow from one pile to another and back... The unicorn shook the snow from her body, which was covered in a coat that matched her own, along with fake fur along the edges that also matched her mane and tail. "If your not busy, that would be great, I have a show soon and I need to get on the road as fast as I can" she said with a smile, forcing down the annoyance she was actually feeling from the mess she was in --- not that she was annoyed with the stallion, but rather annoyed that her shovel enchantment was broken... again... and that she had neglected her stage so long that it was needing so many repairs and adjustments (even if they were all minor)

((welp, I gave frost/cin a time to react, seems she's left the thread.... continue as before I suppose?)) Trixie's smile faded as the pegasus spoke. she shook her head "That is a sad tale" she explained as she looked towards her wagon and floated out a framed picture, setting it down where TT could see. It showed Trixie alongside two griffens, a pegasus, and a unicorn, none of which looked familiar. Trixie sighed "Not long after the current princess took the throne and the heroes all-but disbanded, Trixie began hearing rumors of a... dark... nature. There was a new threat looming before equestria, one that only the most magic-sensitive or raving mad were aware of. Trixie, being a touch of both, began to gather a band of hero's to combat this threat - The griffon siblings Kyle and Kate, the Pegasus Feather Wing, and the unicorn mage Mage Song. Trixie continued to travel with these companions, using the cover of a simple magic act to investigate the rumors. It seemed Trixie's worst fears were confirmed, the dark lord Nizbal, of the 7th under-realm, was gaining power and preparing to overtake the upper realm in a bid to gain strength and destabilize the other under-realms. Trixie will not bore you with the politics of the Under-realms, simply said, it would be bad for all living things if Nizbal were to succeed in this mad grab for power. "Once the group had prepared and gathered enough information, Trixie and Mage Song prepared an elaborate ritual, spanning no less than a week, to open a path through the various under-realms and directly to Nizbal's domain. While there was some difficulty passing through the Fourth Under-realm, its Ruler was not happy with Trixie's intrusion, but when Trixie explained Nizbal's plan, he allowed safe passage. Once we reached the seventh under-realm though things were... messy. Trixie's information had been wrong, Nizbal was not beginning to build power, he had already grown his power to a terrifying state. Trixie would have retreated and gathered more forces, but this kind of sneak-attack would never work a second time. "With a potent strategy of gorilla tactics, Trixie and her team managed to slowly and methodically decimate Nizbal's army, but this unfortunately drew the dark lord's eye. He attacked directly, destroying our cover and instantly... taking out... Feather Wing. The rest of us fought vigilantly, but he was smart and powerful, using the close-quarters to... eliminate... the siblings, and knowing that unicorns could not fly he began splitting the ground, revealing pools of lava, all while still wearing down our magic reserves. Magic Song was the next to fall, as her teleport patterns were too predictable and he was able to lay a trap and..." Trixie shuddered at the memory, hanging her head, sighing, but continuing "Trixie was alone now, fighting Nizbal one-on-one, a hopeles battle. As trixie's body ws broken and bruised more and more, Trixie finally slipped and fell towards the lava, no magic left to teleport away... "All trixie... all I could think about was how I failed... I failed my friends, I failed equestria, I failed myself... I was ready to let go, knowing how utterly I had failed, but I realized... No, I couldn't give up, I couldn't let him win. I was the only pony left that knew his plans and could have a chance of defeating him, or at least delating him. My horn sparked as I prepared another spell... but it fizzle and I heard the deep slow -sploosh- of myself landing in the lava. I felt the heat burning as I continued to fight to gather enough magic to cast a spell, any spell... then... something happened... I felt the others around me, my friends and comrades, I felt them protecting me. Power surged as their desire to protect me and equestria even after their end filled me with a determination - I could not let their sacrifices be in vain, I WOULD not let them! I rose out of the lava as energy surged through me, the hardened rock encasing me exploded as I unfurled my new wings, much to Nizbal's shock. "most of what happened next is a blur to trixie, but the battle ended with trixie focusing all her power into a single blast that managed to cost nizbal his left eye, which distracted the beast long enough for trixzie to make her escape. While Nizbal was not defeated, he had lost much of his power, and now, still using a traveling magic show as a cover, Trixie travels the world, seeking out the places where nizbal's portals may open, and closing them before he can gather any strength. Trixie may be alone in this fight, but she wont give up until the last breath..." she looked at the framed photo "...I cant give up..." she added quietly

Harle continued to watch the stallion with that predatorial eye. All while saying nothing --- she knew she had a habit of sticking her paws in her mouth when she spoke, so it was best to leave this to Ice, who was far more trained in these matters. The griffen though was studying the ice-stallion, watching for even the slightest sign of aggression. She knew how quick unicorns could fire off spells, or set of mechanisms they were concealing (though granted she could do much the same) While the stallion seemed to be relaxing his body language and tone towards mere annoyance, Harle was aware that this could be a ruse to lull them into a false sense of security. She had dealt with those kind before... and she wasn't going to let them get a drop on her and her associates this time....

Harle was no fool, well usually not, even if she certainly spent much of her time being played for one. She gave a warm and polite smile to the newcomer, while quickly and hopefully with none of them noticing, swapped the gauntlet onto her left paw, while her right went inside her coat, gripping her magitech deathray, while the kept the back of the glove away from the new pony, the rest of her party would notice the gem in it shift to a dark crimson red with black protrusions that looked vaguely like tiny wings. The griffon could tell that Ice was concerned about this newcomer, and harle knew it would be best to be ready herself, since she knew nothing about this new... friend? enemy? dinner-guest? she had no clue, but if a fight broke out she had to be ready... ((for those wondering -esp since I hope not to have to use it- Harle's switched to the Nine Hells focus, realizing they're playing Elemental Rock-Paper-Sissors, and knowing either fire or electricity should be his weakness... and even if she's wrong, it would be a good distraction... granted she could be 100% wrong on both counts, but...))

There was the tiniest twitch of a smirk at the corner of Trixie's lips, this mare well understood how these kind of cons worked, though granted this was small peanuts for a con - and really only barely counted as a con since, as TT had realized before, Trixie was less selling the treasure, and more selling the experience. Though one could argue practically everything trixie did was a con since she was a stage magician, but that was a discussion of semantics for the scholars in their ivory towers (arguably something she should be doing at her main job, but she much preferred the stage to a school, so it was more of a 'part-time' gig for her, even if it did account for most of her income...). "Indeed, The Great and Powerful Trixie Never breaks her promises!" said the showmare with a winning grin, hiding the fact that Cin had indeed hit her right in the gut with those words... while anypony else -literally even Princess Twilight herself- could lie to trixie's face and at most it would anger her, the thought of Starlight doing it did cut deep... of course being the seasoned veteran of the stage, trixie didn't so much as flinch "no, she just sometimes bends them into pretzel-shapes" teased scootaloo with a smirk Trixie laughed awkwardly "Er, still not broken, just slightly... reinvisioned!" Scoots still smirked, she enjoyed getting one over on Trixie and forcing her to break character, not that it was hard, but it was still fun to the slightly-troublesome filly "But as for the Dark Lord Nizbal, You need not fear, whatever monstrous deeds he had planned were thwarted by the Great and Powerful Trixie! While other so-called heroes may have abandoned this town, Trixie remains ever-vigilant against any who would harm its citizens" her wings unfurled dramatically as a breeze flapped her cape... no doubt orchestrated by Trixie herself, but then this was the kind of thing she excelled at. ((have a slice of cheese with that excessive ham XD ))

((er... little confused, frost, your app says your character is a filly, which would make her the same age as scootaloo, so unless she was trying to be rude she wouldn't have referred to scoots that way... so going to just assume scootaloo didn't hear that comment...)) Before trixie could even speak to the newcomer, scootaloo rushed forward to explain everything that had just happened... and more... "You just missed it, it was awesome, there was this big evil portal and this huge monster so big you could only see its eye inside and all this fire that nearly was going to burn down the town and...!" Trixie smiled, letting scootaloo explain what had happened, after all, the younger ones always embellished more than even she did, and it was far more believable to hear scootaloo talk about it, than if she were doing her own bragging. Instead she turned her attention to the other mare, who seemed unhappy with the results of a treasure map Trixie had sold. She shook her head "Unfortunately, Trixie sadly cannot make any promises of what long lost treasure is at the end of any of the maps she finds, no guarantees, no refunds" she explained, her head nodding slightly at scootaloo, trying to convey that she was going to stick to the proverbial script as long as the filly was in earshot, hoping that TT would understand

Trixie was still panting a little as she looked side-eyed at TT "would you prefer Trixie let the dark lord Nizbal take over our home? Trixie can assure you that would not be pleasant" Scootaloo was absolutely bouncing as she ran over to Trixie "That was amazing! You saved us all from some huge monster! Who even was that? Why was he trying to take over equestria? How did you stop him like that?" Trixie smiled at the foal as she pushed herself back up "Trixie does not remember us being introduced" she said to the older mare "Before you stands THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!" she said without the slightest modicum of modesty, magical fireworks going off all around her, creating a breeze that blew her cape back so her wings were visible, no doubt meticulously planned "TRixiiiieeeeee" whined Scotoaloo as she gently tugged on the mage's wing Trixie winced as her wing was pulled awkwardly, there was no doubt those wings were real, which no doubt raised even more questions for poor TT, she smiled at scootaloo thought "Patience, young one, Trixie will answer all your questions, but Trixie would never set aside social etiquette when there is no threat to equestria" Scootaloo sighed but sat down a short distance away, a little annoyed, and clearly having a thousand-and-one questions "She really is a good if, excitable foal" commented trixie as she looked expectantly at TT, waiting for an introduction.

As they neared the wagon, they did not see the figure within observing them..., who moments later vanished from the window. Scootaloo knocked on the door "Trixie!" she called, less than enthusiastic, after a moment, the filly banged on the door again "I found the thing..." she added. After a moment she turned to TT "Maybe she's not ho-" Before Scootaloo could finish her sentence there was a magical explosion over at the large stage as a portal was ripped open in midair, spewing out a sickly green fire that engulfed the whole structure, smelling of sulfur and brimstone the heat forcing anypony back that got too near, from the portal was spat a familiar pale blue mare, as if kicked backwards through a door The Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon Trixie's wings flared out to catch her near the edge of the stage "You think that would stop THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE? You shall not take equestria this day, Dark lord Nizbal!" AS she spoke a massive blood-red eye could be seen through the portal, fill with scorn and hatred, the fires around the intensified, turning the snow around the stage to steam, as a bright glow formed around trixie's horn "Now, Go back to those fiery depths from whence you came!" a massive blast of pale blue light flew into the portal, and there was a monstrous scream of agony as the portal suddenly snapped closed and the flames died down. Trixie flapped her wings a few more times to clear the steam from the area before landing, falling to her knees, panting hard, swet dripping from her mane, it seemed like the fight had been intense... Scootaloo just stood slack-jawed, though there was a clear outline of a grin on her face from watching Trixie. The foal's mood was instantly elevated quite high it from the sight, all thought of the trinket she had found was banished from her mind, atleast for now... ((Just fyi: yes, those fires were real! if TT got too close she could have burned herself.))

((sorry, weekends are very busy for me)) Scoots sighed "They usually are, I mean sweetiebelle kept one of them, but to the rest of us its just junk" it was clear she had been let down by this trinket, though it might also have been due to the prior conversations spilling over and dragging her emotions down... "I suppose we should head back and talk to trixie then, see what she has to say about it" she began walking off, then after a moment turned around and began walking the opposite way, this time back towards town with a look of embarrassment on her face... As they walked, TT would likely notice that they had passed through town entirely and were now heading back towards the outskirts on the other side of ponyville, in the distance she would be able to make out a slightly-run-down-and-patched-up travelers wagon, with a small stage set up in front of it and another larger stage set up a distance away, though both were partially burried under the snow which made the larger stage a lot harder to make out (though the canopy over the small stage kept it mostly clear of the snow). What she likely would not make out was that one of the windows had a pane of glass that seemed more reflective than the rest, and from behind this pane of two-way-mirror, they were being watched... ((so is TT looking angry? Amused? bored? Trixie has a rather impressive 'show' planned if anypony shows up and she feels like they need to be shown her power....... i.e. trying to scare ponies away (or atleast cow them) that might otherwise cause her trouble...))

TT would be able to watch the joy and excitement drain from scootaloo as she spoke, the filly being left even less excited now than she had been at the beginning as once again the dream of flight had been dangled in front of her like a carrot on a stick and once again was kept out of her reach. she sighed and simply said "...oh..." looking like she had jsut been stabbed through the heart, and even if she quickly was able to seem to return to her previous level of excitement over the map and treasure, if TT was paying attention she would see the disappointment lingering in the filly's eyes, however well Dash had taught scoots to hide her feelings, she wasn't THAT good at it. She was good enough however to push them down and apologize "Sorry about that, I got a little over-excited" she said, telling the absolute truth "Well I guess we should see what's in the bag, right?" and with a slower gait than a pony who was truly excited over the treasure would have, scoots headed over and opened the bad, dropping a mysterious ring into her open hoof. The ring was of a silver color with a glowing blue gemstone. Scootaloo sighed "a unicorn ring... hopefully Trixie will atleast give me five or ten bits for it" she sighed, making it clear that even if Trixie bought back her 'treasures' she was still earning a profit from selling the maps. While not exactly 'ripping off' her customers, since, as TT had deduced, there was a value in the experience, there was also a bit of a clear motivation to make atleast something of a profit from the scheme... "I guess we should go back to Trixie and see if she can tell us anything about the ring, maybe there's atleast a cool story behind it or something..." she said with a small smile, though it was not genuine, clearly scoots was playing it up for her new friend and really didn't expect a cool story for the ring...

Harle blinked "Aether is measured in qualms?" she asked, getting completely distracted for a moment, but with shake of her head she focused again, first turning to magus "I dont like putting my crew in danger, I'd rather not risk anyone under my care" she said, with only a momentary pause before continuing "But... I've seen first-claw how good you are, and if there's anyone on the crew I trust more than myself in a mission like this, its you" she explained, giving her vote of confidence in the unicorn's stealth abilities She sighed though "But the commander's right, we need to wait for the snow to stop, for all our safety and in case of an emergency" the griffen didn't seem to realize she had just dropped a hint that she had a backup-plan if things went too far south... of course by now none of them would be surprised by that... of course there would always be a question of the quality of harle's plans, given her panache for drama and her alternating length of attention span... hopefully this was a plan that singlestone had devised, or at least advised the captain on, in which case it was at least mostly safe and sane... and mostly sane was the best you could ever hope for with harle...

Scootaloo snorted "well obviously it would make you almost levitate" she snarked, but giggled, making it clear she was only joking and knew that wasn't the answer that TT was looking for "if I had to guess, id think it would make you lighter so you almost floated, though that could be bad, like getting blown around by the wind" scootaloo wasnt stupid, though she seemed to like to make others think she was by how she first was talking to TT, perhaps a trick she had learned from another cfertian pony in town who liked to make others think she was dumb to get out of work... "Wait, WHAT?!" exclaimed the filly as she completely lost her concentration and her balance, falling atop the older mare --- though thankfully her hoof had aught on the drawstring for the bag and drug it down with her "Your dad can make shoes that let ponies fly?! or close to it??" the bag of 'treasure' lay in the snow a short distance away, completely forgotten about now that scootaloo had a glimmer of hop-e that she might be able to fly ---- or at least kinda fly... clearly this meant far more to her than whatever trinket she expected to be in the bag.

(("a coin of divination that's right 50% of the time" --- don't give Trixie ideas! She would so find a way to spin that to sell at her shows! XD)) "I keep hoping for an amulet of levitation!" grinned scoots "But a coin that can tell the future - that would be really awesome too!" as usual for a foal completely missing the fact that TT had just described a normal, mundane, coin. Of course it was up for debate just how many of these "magical trinkets" really were just mundane items with some story spun around them, after all if trixie was "giving them away" with her maps, she couldn't spend a lot on the production of said trinkets... Scootaloo's face scrunched up a moment "better just lift me up there, last time I got stuck in a tree and... yeah... it was a whole thing..." she blushed, not wanting to explain how many jokes were made about cats having to be rescued from trees... not to mention all the jokes about 'thats why chickens shouldn't climb trees' even though unlike her, chickens could actually get back down since they could slow their fall... if TT paid close attention (or really any attention at all) she'd probably realize that scootaloo had a strong desire to fly - and a strong embarrassment that she couldn't... of course, especially for a pegasus, that was a whole rabbit-hole of identity issues right there...

Scootaloo nodded as she walked around the tree, looking for inspiration on how to get the bag down "yeah... I'm kinda numb to it now, I didn't really have many friends before I met sweetiebelle and abby, and now that they're gone or mostly gone, I dont really have any now. I try to keep busy so I dont think about it too much" she said this very emotionlessly as her mind was on the tree "...I bet I could borrow an axe from AJ..." she commented, more to herself than to her older companion When the other pegasus offered to help scoots get the bag she was pulled from her no doubt increasingly destructive thoughts, and while TT might hear scoots mutter "atleast you got to fly..." the filly changed tone and managed to force an awkward smile "That would be great!" she said, looking at her own tiny under-developed wings, silently confirming any suspicions that the mare might have had about scootaloo being unable to fly herself... ((also if your wondering, yes, scoots is lying about being numb, she is hiding a lot of pain under her fluffy exterior, and when things go very bad for her, she lets it show --- worst is when she plans something like a picnic for her friends (or Dash) and they don't show up, you can find her REALLY depressed after those.... T_T))

Scooaloo sighed, her excitement drooping noticeably when TT mentioned that. the filly sighed "No... this is my first hunt alone... my best friends are either too busy or gone... and my adult friends have really important jobs that keep them busy all the time..." she sighed, looking up at the pouch "Sweetiebelle could lower it down easily with her magic, or abby could buck the tree so hard it fell down.. if rainbow were here, she could jsut zip up there and grab it without breaking a sweat and looking totally awesome at the same time..." Scootaloo sat down hard on the rock "Sweeteibelle is spending more time working with her sister, or just isn't interested in going on adventures anymore... and abby's moved to another town... and with my adult friends... you know what happened with Twilight, and Dash is a wonderbolt, teaches at the school, and coaches several sports there, as well as winning a lot of competitions around the country... Tango's been busy fighting a war out... west? east? North? I forget, he changes so often... I don't even know where my parents are, they're globe-trotting adventurers... as awesome as it is when your dad shows up at the school riding a cragodile, its another thing to live with the fact that any day they may never come home..." She hopped off the rock and looked up at the pouch "so yeah... even though there are ponies all around me, I'm alone most of the time now..." she turned around and bucked the tree, making it shake for sure - she certainly was stronger than she looked - though it barely disturbed the bag. Scootaloo seemed to be at the point that she was beyond tears and just accepting her fate. While she sounded sad, she only let it get her down a few minutes before she went back to what she was doing... of course the question was weather she was really accepting her life, or if she was just burying the pain and letting it gnaw at her heart until irreparable damage was done... Scootaloo backed up and charged forward, using the rock as a spring-board, flapping her tiny wings as hard as she could, all this together gave her enough of a boost that as she reached for the bag... she just barely missed it and ended up face-first in the snow, where she just stayed for several minutes before pulling herself out and sighing... the look in her eyes was a warning that TT had better interfere before the filly started even crazier things that might get herself hurt... or might have other serious repercussions... ((and as a warning, the final escalation will be scootaloo trying to burn down the tree and causing a forest fire.... yep, she REALLY doesn't need to be left alone without her friends to talk some sense into her head...))

((sounds like a fun story for the pack, I personally don't play many story-driven packs (unless its extremely light story, like "The Ferret Business") because they tend to gate one mod behind another, behind another, behind another, using "expert" style recipes ...)) Harley chuckled, seeing she was on the far side of the cave with ice between herself and raven, the gem on the back of the glove turned to the creepy eye and with one swift move, harle punched... literally thin air... and it rippled and distorted in a severely unnatural way, as the glove slipped through the ripples like waver, and pulled out a massive bottle that probably held a whole gallon of bourbon "I'm good, ma'am, I'm good" she grinned as she reversed the motion and put the gallon of booze back... wherever it was before... Noting Ice's other comment harle sighed "I would offer to sneak around and see what I can find, but that's one thing I cant really help with, I can do lots of stuff with th' gauntlet, but it doesn't help me with stealth, and you remember what happened last time I was supposed to be stealthy and ended up foalnapping a filly" she rolled her eyes at the context "its jus' not my style" ((and just to clarify, yes, Harle just opened her Enderchest))

((I like that name for the deck of cards, I think I may keep it =^_^=)) Scootaloo let out a barely audible but highly adorable little squee as TT handed her back the map, the filly ran over to the rocks and stood on them dramatically over-analyzing the map before running off to the right... only a few moments later to turn around and run to the left, blushing a little at her mistake. This kind of adorable reaction landed a good half hour or so until scootaloo finally found the end of the map, which was a tree with a suspiciously missing branch and a hollow where the branch should be... Scootaloo grinned as she began trying to climb the tree... failing spectacularly, but not giving up as she kept trying... What was completely missed by the oblivious and highly-excited filly, but likely not by TT was the4 size of the tree... Scootaloo claimed the map was to a treasure left behind centuries ago during the nightmare wars... but this tree couldn't possibly be that old! at the absolute oldest it was maybe 50 or 100 years old... once again, as was becoming the norm on this little misadventure, things were not adding up... If TT looked closely or took the time to fly up and examine the tree, she would see a pouch just *barely* visible, sticking out of the hollow where the branch had once been... a small pouch that was in absolutely impecable condition and seemed to be made of very modern fabrics... one that couldn't possibly be as old as scootaloo was claiming, not only because of the quality of the materials, but because if it had been out here even a few months, much less years, it would have been completely ruined if not fallen apart... By now scootaloo had given up trying to climb the tree directly and was instead slowly pushing a large rock towards it... certainly not large enough to get to the knothole, but it was an impressive attempt none-the-less...

((I just imagine as the pair is having this conversation, a ways off, trixie's ears begin twitching and she comments "Trixie's ears are burning! Somepony is talking about trixie! ...oh wait... that's never good...." XD)) Scootaloo nodded "Twilight didn't just live here, she helped me and my friends find our cutiemarks!" she grinned - granted it was a bit of a stretch, but if twilight hadn't taught them everything she did, the trio might still be off trying insane unrelated things to find their destiny, so, in a way, it was true, Twilight did play a part in them earning their marks. The filly gasped "You mean like 50 or even a hundred bits? Trixie would never have to work again!" her failure to grasp the value or magnitude of money was adorably naive, or perhaps she was rally playing up the 'foolish foal' bit for TT, with scootaloo it was never clear which she was doing... the truth was probably somewhere in between. The filly also nodded at the warning "Yeah, I used to have a set of playing cards from one of Trixie's maps, they were _so_ awesome!" she grinned "They were creepy at times, like the ace of hearts made this sound like a beating heart, and two of the kings screamed and dripped ilusionary blood..." she sighed "And then I learned that throwing them, they flew so perfectly... but that one black ace kept looping around and tried to kill me, if my now-friend Tango hand't been there..." she shook her head, stopping this gr5im train of thought "They were from one of trixie's maps, and tango convinced me it was safer to give them to twilight for safe keeping. I told trixie about them and she promised to hand them over for me, since she was going to canterlot anyway. I wonder what Twilight thought of the cards. They were made by her idol Starbeard the Swirly after all!" she grinned. No doubt the filly was completely unaware that the cards never made their way to twilight... And if TT knew even the least bit about history and magic, nothing in that description would have made any sense having been made by Starswirl, atleast not something made on purpose and if it was, likely the overly-critical unicorn would have burned the cards to cinders.... There was no doubt more to this story, and just like before, all the arrows pointed back to Trixie...... When she explained about the map being oriented eastward, scootaloo's eyes lit up, she had no idea that was even a thing! she nodded excitedly "I cant wait to see what kind of treasure is at the end! I just hope it snot like that amulet of invisibility we found a couple months ago" she shuddered "it only made your fur and skin invisible... it was gross looking at pony insides..."

((not familiar with that pack (currently playing "Mythic" which is TC4 with *almost* all TC addons!), but its easy to tell if is has TC6 in it - can you craft iron nugget into want caps? if not its TC6, if so it may be TC5, TC4, or even earlier versions... (ofc the even easier way to know is what MC version are you using? if its 1.7.10 then its TC4, if its 1.8.x then its TC5, and if its 1.12.X then its TC6... if its 1.6.4 then it might be TC4 or TC3, I think both versions were available for 1.6.4)) Harle nodded as Raven spoke, clearly not understanding most of what she was saying, though she did pick up on one thing "I dont think a focus works, that's the part that tells the glove what to do, like to make fire or ice or holes in reality" was harle serious? could this love actually tear holes in reality? or was she just being facetious? it was hard to tell with her peculiar sense of humor. The griffon clearly was pleased that Ice wasn't going to ban her from using her 'toy' but she nodded at the suggested restriction "I'll try to make sure there's a safe distance as long as its not an emergency... I'd hate to make her horn worse, but I think a larger crack is a better choice than chatting with the reaper" When ice shifted her conversation to the weather, harle chuckled a little "'slong as I have this" she held up her decanter "and this" she held up the gauntlet, who's gem shifted to the color of a softly glowing coal - clearly a 'fire' focus "I'm good, but I dont know about the others" she did wince though as some thought went through her head and the focus quickly changed "probably shouldn't be playing with fire though" she commented a little sadly, looking off into the distance, no doubt thinking about that time she accidentally burned one of her favorite taverns to the ground... yeah, with the way that haunted her - and it was a complete accident - it would make a creature wonder how anypony could have ever thought harle was actually a hardened criminal with a list of crimes as long as had been fabricated...

Scootaloo nodded attentively as TT explained what her title meant, though given the fact that the filly didn't question ehr further, clearly scoots wasn't particularly interested in the occupation. Though she did look more than a little concerned when TT explained about the oddness of their speech "If only you'd come here a couple years ago, we had this awesome pony in town that knew everything about magic and curses and stuff and she could fix anything... or sometimes make it worse..." scootaloo paused a moment, clearly thinking of some misadventure "But she's now the princess and lives in the big castle in canterlot" she sighed "Things were more fun when Twilight lived here, I miss the cool magic explosions" yes, this filly had just spoken casually about the princess as if they were old friends... or more likely the princess had been a mentor. Though the way she spoke, she clearly wasn't trying to name-drop that she knew the princess, it really was that casual of a relationship they'd had! When TT asked about the map scootaloo stared acting nervous and stumbling over her words, before she finally gave up and decided to tell the truth "Its an ancient map that Miss Trixie sold me, it leads to where a pony family hid their most valuable artifact back when they had to flee the town during the nightmare wars - trixie has some kind of secret stash of these maps she found and sells them, normally the treasure's nothing really exciting, but if that's the case she usually will buy it off us if we don't want it" yes, it was clear this 'trixie' had made a steady, if small, income off the fillies and colts of the village likely for some time now...

"I hope so!" said the filly, then awkwardly adding "I really don't know what's at the end so..." she shrugged, but cocked her head when the other pegasus introduced herself "equl- eqil -eq..." she shook her head, admitting defeat in pronouncing the word, much less knowing what it meant! but despite the odd use of the 'formal we' the orange filly smile "Nice to meet you, I'm Scootaloo!" she said, though she did look at the mare oddly "er... are there more than one of you?" she asked, leaning over to look around the older pony, as if expecting to see a twin to something hiding nearby... But despite this, she pushed on "Well, the map's kinda old, so the landmarks might not be accurate" she commented, completely believing the story that the map seller had spun about it being an ancient treasure map from the Nightmare Wars and having almost completely abandoned her story about it being a map her friends drew up for a game... "so, since I cant make mane-or-tail of it, sure, why dont you have a go?" she said, offering the map to Twister

Scootaloo had to hold her tongue because her first reaction was of course to start to blurt out that it was an ancient treasure, but she managed to focus and simply say "A while back... I dont really know for sure" no doubt making TT a little suspicious, but given the fact that this was a filly, it was possible her scale of time was slightly distorted... the one thing that wouldn't be as questionable was how new the map was, unlike fooling an over-excited filly who was easy to dupe, any adult who looked at the map would recognize not only very modern landmarks on the map, but also the fact that the paper looked, felt, and even smelled very fresh and modern. "I've been trying to follow it all morning and I dont want to give up, that was a whole week's allowance!" she then immediately realized her slip and her hoofs adorably went to her mouth as she realized she just let it slip that this wasn't 'just a game' that her friends had set up......