Ashton

The flames instantly vanished and iggy blinked "how did you get it open? when I tried before it was locked..."

Meanwhile, outside the guards were trying to arrest cloudy and Jasper, both of which were putting up quite a fight, or, well, were being an annoyance... cloudy was flying circles around the guard trying to apprehend him, while jasper without fail kept sending the guard who was after him, onto the ground with a series of throws and sweeps. Never actually hurting the guard, but no doubt bruising the guards ego quite a lot...

Iggy held on a few more seconds before she let go and stood up "I suppose we should go out there" she paused "You'll probably want to either stand really close or really far away for this..." the flames began to materialize again... Iggy seemed to think the best way to head outside, near several living creatures she (hopefully) wanted unharmed... was to use the same magic that just all-but destroyed the room she was standing in... Wisdom and Knowledge clearly were at a bit of a disconnect right now... though given what iggy just went through it was more understandable... at least a little... maybe...

Twilight did warn angel about iggy's overzealous use of magic...

Iggy smiled "Thank you" she said "Yeah, I guess your right, nothing really bad happened"

"-WHY ARE WE UNDER ARREST?! WE DIDN'T DO THIS!!!"

Iggy sighed "I had to tempt fate by saying that didn't I?" she asked, holding tight to angel again, trying to gather up the mental strength to go face the trouble she caused

Harle Blackclaw                            Singlestone

It had been several weeks since harle and her crew joined up with Ice, and in this time, unsurprisingly, Harle's name had been completely cleared of any past crimes (though it was still hard to believe some of those were even allowed to be added to the list given how ridiculous they were...)  Things seemed to be going well, not only had harle's name been cleared and she returned with the blueprints for her ship (though she was an emotional wreck for several days afterwards...) but Singlestone had contacted an old college of his about the aether technology (taking creat care to limit what information he passed on so he never strayed outside the exact wording of the NDA -honestly that unicorn could have been an extremely effective lawyer...-) and had in turn made great progress on his research... though he refused to demonstrate any prototypes yet and when asked about his research he pulled out a 3-inch-thick binder filled with complex formulas that would have made any but the best scientist's heads spin... 

...but things are never that simple, are they?

A report came in that there had been a robbery at a museum in fillydephia that was being pinned on Harle... though all of Ice's servailence would clearly show that she and her crew had been in the LP base's research center for the last week (with enough damage to the testing facility to more than adequately back up the servailence...) It seemed that despite Ice's best efforts, somehow Harle was still getting blamed for crimes she had no capability of committing (which did lend credence to the griffon's claims that they were false) but which set up what would turn into an ongoing problem if not nipped in the bud...

Iggy sighed "I dont think she ever burned down a castle just be teleporting in..." she said, watching one of the burning banners fall to the ground as its support rope succumb to the flames, but she seemed a little less depressed. No doubt the fact Twilight had spoken kindly of the kirin helped. Iggy finally returned the hug "I'm sorry... I got carried away..." Angel would feel warm tears falling onto her shoulder, iggy likely fully realizing how much trouble she'd caused with just this one careless use of her magic.

((the sad irony is that this is the only way iggy can teleport... granted she can refine it so she doesn't burn down any building she's teleporting into, but at the least she'll always leave a scorch-mark... it's just part of her being a kirin))

Iggy was silent for several more seconds before speaking stiltedly "is... is this... why?" she asked, quietly "Is why the Princess wont speak to me... because every time I get excited... I destroy everything around me...?"

clearly iggy had realized his how much damage she had caused and while her current state did still tie into twilight, it at least wasn't front and center... though if Angel didn't approach this situation carefully, iggy's reaction could be devastating in any number of ways including but not limited to violent magical outburst or crippling emotional scars...

When she got into the room, it was not a pleasant sight...

The banners on the walls were still burning, along with quite a few pieces of furniture, though some stronger magic seemed to keep the castle itself from collapsing, though given the fact it was built almost entirely out of crystal, it was probably impervious to fire...

The floor held a massive circular scorch-mark that went up as high as several feet up the walls, and sitting int he center, head hung low, was Iggy, looking miserable... though whether she had realized how much damage she had caused or was simply upset at not seeing Twilight was up for debate...

When they got closer, iggy was already banging on the doors and calling out for Twilight. There was of course no response...

Suddenly iggy's eyes and horn lit up as flames began swirling around her

"Iggy! Dont!" called Cloudy

"You stupid dragon-horse your gonna get yourself killed!" shouted Jasper, perhaps hoping that an insult might penetrate iggy's head better than works of kindness... or perhaps he was just angry... dragons tended to be rather abrasive at the best of times, and Jasper was no exception...

Iggy didn't seem to hear them as the flames completely encircled her and compressed until she vanished.

moments later there was hte sound of an explosion inside the castle and a window shattered outward, releasing a huge gout of fire...

Cloudy sighed, glancing at angel "Iggy's teleportation is... not perfect yet..."

" 'not perfect'? Your giving her way too much credit" said Jasper with a sigh, looking at the shattered window and the smoke coming from it... they were going to be is so much trouble....

What would no doubt surprise Angel was that Cloudy and Jasper both grimaced when she spoke about her adventure in the castle

Iggy sighed "Well thats A relief I-" she froze "t-t-twilight? Princess Twilight?!!?" her eyes were absolutely sparkling as she leapt up and ran towards the castle at an incredible speed, leaving burning hoofmarks in her excitement

"I think now would be a good time to inform you... Iggy has a bit of an obsession with the princess" said Cloudy

"We already have several unofficial restraining orders from members of the castle staff..." groaned jasper as he lowered his head in shame

Cloudy sighed "we better go check on her, she's bound to do something stupid"

Jasper nodded

The trio seemed to jump ever-so-slightly, but turned to listen as angel spoke

Iggy didn't speak at first, but seemed a little relieved

Jasper winced and shook his head "I'm a dragon who literally breathes fire and that stuff is too hot for me... that Rainbow pony is brutal..."

Cloudy nodded

Iggy finally spoke up "ok, so at worst it seems like there's an incubation period before the plague sets in" clearly she was still more than a little scared she had just doomed the town, or atleast made them all intensely sick... she really was hard on herself "I've already been researching how to cure it" she said, nodding to a book that was left open on the table "I just... I dont know if I can handle a spell like this..."

Twilight smiled "Farewell" she said, as her horn glowed

Angel would likely be surprised that when she blinked she was no longer in the castle at all, but rather standing behind the trio from before, though they seemed to have not seen her or heard the teleport... though she had not heard one herself, perhaps Twilight had used some silent teleport spell, no doubt specifically so none of them would notice the spell had happened at all.

Twilight smiled, there was a hint of mirth in her eyes "Chromatic plague?" she asked, shaking her head in amusement "Azure will figure out soon enough what happened. Learning from your mistakes is the best way to grow, but I will lay your worries to rest, it is not any sort of magical illness. Had she indeed summoned such a thing, I would not be here speaking to you, I would have taken action immediately to reverse it. Besides, such foul magic is near impossible to cast on accident, even I myself would have to spend considerable time purposefully crafting such a spell" Though the way she spoke, it was clear she was leaving out something in her explanation, though she was speaking of a very powerful and evil magic, so that was to be expected

"Learning about your friends is the best way yo become closer. I would be a poor princess of friendship if I did not encourage you to get to know them" she paused "if you are worried about anything though, you dont need to be, they are all good creatures"

Twilight smiled "knowing rainbow, she's probably taking a break or procrastinating, she IS a wonderbolt after all"

Spike rolled his eyes, clearly seeing this as Twilight making excuses...

"I mean the trio you met today, I've heard about them. Azure shows great promise but is a little impulsive with her magic... she reminds me of myself when I was first learning magic, she has a powerful gift if she can simply learn to control it better" explained the alicorn "I hadn't even arrived yet and I felt the shockwave from her spell"

Twilight sighed "My friends all have their own lives. Part of what I remember so fondly was none of us having much responsibility so we could just all get together anytime we wanted... now, outside of our annual meetings, we cant really carve any time out that we're all free. It would be wrong of me to ask them to take away from what they're doing anyway. So I come here myself, remember the good times, sometimes I fly over the town or walk through it invisible, just to see how things have changed or stayed the same..." she smiled "I daresay, history it seems is setting up to repeat itself with your new friends"

Twilight smiled "Ponyville holds a special place in my heart. I may have been whelped and raised in canterlot, but it is here that I met all my friends, and we went through so many adventures... you might say that I was born in canterlot but I was reborn in ponyville" she explained, but at the second question she sighed and shook her head "That would be too... distracting... for the town" she paused "everypony here has their own life and responsibilities, but almost all of them would drop those things in an instant if I were to return... partly from worry that the world was in danger yet again" she smiled a little at the thought "I care for my subjects, I do not want to cause them trouble, and my sudden reapearance here would do just that"

"...and despite being princess of equestria, she's still a huge ball of nerves and has enough butterflies in her stomach to fill the everfree..." came another voice from behind angel

"Spike!" chastised the alicorn, though Twilight actually blushed at his comment, making it clear that even if she had taken over the mantle of "wise unfallable god-queen" from celestia and luna, deep down Twilight was still that socially awkward unicorn that was drug to this town all those years ago... well slightly better...

The familiar dragon was leaning on the door, wearing his own cloak that matched Twilight's - no doubt he had been walking through the castle reminiscing himself

The figure chuckled "Gold digger.. oh, I'm sorry, you prefer Angel, don't you?" said the figure as a bright glow was seen from within the hood

The table began to glow brightly and magical holograms appeared, showing all six elements of harmony in their respective thrones, along with Spike the dragon int he smaller one, Though silent, a scene began to play out, though at an extremely fast speed

"This table has a great power, connected to all of our world, it can sense disharmony, and it once sent champions to counter it, to bring the land together"  she paused "But that is not what you were asking, was it?" 

The figure's hood glowed and was pulled back to reveal a likely familiar purple mane with a magenta stripe, along with a crown atop the figure's head, as she turned, the full visage of Princess Twilight came into view, an unseen wind blew the cape back to reveal the princess in her full glory, who merely smiled at the zebasis for several moments untill the wind faded and the cape fell back onto Twilight's back, she glanced at the table and the magical holograms of her friends "I have fond memories of this castle, of ponyville, of all its residents. I enjoy coming back here on occasion to reminisce and reflect on those simpler, yet happier times"

((er... it was a door, not a window...))

As she entered the voice would slowly become more clear "...really let this place go to waste now... its so sad..." 

if angel ventured further she would eventually come to the throne room with the seven thrones - each displaying the mark of the elements of harmony plus the small unmarked throne sitting adjacent to the larger one reserved for the Element of Magic, a cloaked figure was standing there in the shadows, since the lights were not lit, a hoof gently caressing the table in the center, causing it to spart a few times with magic before it properly activated, showing the world as they knew it, though the images was fuzzy and seemed to flicker now and then. Clearly whatever spells were woven into the table had not been used in a long time and were, at best, taking some time and effort to return to their full power, or, at worst, the time it had spent inactive had damaged the spells and it was not functioning fully.

The cloaked figure was staring at the table, seemingly not noticing the zebasus.

As she was flying past she might notice something unusual... one of the doors on an upper tower of the old castle was open... and if she glanced inside she would see hoofprints in the dust that covered the floor, not to mention hear a quiet voice from somewhere deeper inside....

((eh... that's kinda the only bit I came up with... I mean you can go talk to trixie about it if you want or something, but honestly, its not going to take iggy much thinking to puzzle out what happened... >.< like I said I'm kinda running on empty plot-wise right now... T_T))

Dash sighed "yeah..." she said " 'later" and hopped down off the cloud gliding down to scootaloo and putting her hoof on the filly's sholdier. whatever she said was too quiet for angel to hear but it seemed to be calming down the filly, even if she was still coughing a bit and looked a bit ill... at least dash learned her lesson... maybe... at least for a day or two...

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