Ashton

Princess Twilight Sparkle

The streets of Ponyville were as busy as ever, with ponies running their daily errands, meeting up with friends and family, or just taking a stroll and enjoying the day. Overhead a slight breeze was blowing through town, slow and meandering...

...or was it a breeze?

Using her magic to wrap the light around her, so as not to alarm any of the citizens, a certain purple alicorn coasted through the air, taking in the town. Smiling a slightly sad smile as she flew over her former home, seeing ponies she knew and ponies she didn't, businesses she had often frequented and ones that had only opened after she left, and slightly relieved that for once there were no monsters threatening those who called this little hamlet their home.

The purple mare finally landed on a rock under a tree at the schoolhouse. With school being out for hte summer, there was no threat of anypony spotting her and panicking over what current catastrophe might have brought the Princess herself back to the town. From here she sat in the shade and watched the town below her, still smiling that slightly sad smile.

The Great and Powerful Trixie!

"THANK YOU, EQUESTRIA! AND GOOD NIGHT!"

Fireworks lit up the sky as the crowd cheered and applauded, The Great and Powerful Trixie beamed with joy as the lights went out and the curtains closed. This was her little slice of heaven, this was what told her the true meaning of happiness! Hearing those cheers and that applause was more intoxicating than any food or drink could ever be.

She put her ear to the crack in the curtain, waiting for the applause and cheers to die down and for the ponies to start getting to their feet... she grinned as her horn glowed and a stack of autographed posters nearby vanished...

there were shouts and squeals of joy from the young and old alike --- well, mostly the young, it was the foals who appreciated the little souvenir more than the  adults. Trixie risked a quick peek, just opening the curtain a tiny crack, and then closing it quickly before she was noticed, and her smile grew even wider as she saw all the foals happily clutching their posters and jibbering to their friends, parents, even to a nearby tree in one odd case, about the show and how much they loved it!

Trixie was absolutely skipping and prancing as she moved through the backstage area, straightening everything up and grabbing a broom with her magic. Once she was sure the crowds had dispersed she made her way out under the dim lights and the clear sky to clean up the area around her wagon, taking time to pick up and straighten any left-over posters that were undamaged and put them back in the box, she swept all the confetti and small streamers into a pile. It was then that she realized she didn't have a dustpan to collect them in...

She looked to the left... she looked to the right... she glanced ahead of her... and behind her... when she was sure nopony was there (at least she didn't see them if they were) she smirked and large cerulean wings unfurled from under her cape and with a few hard flaps, sent the confetti and other small debris flying down the hill towards the town. It wasn't like they were going to complain - she wasn't going to be there in the morning for them to complain to!

With a smile she folded her wings back against her sides, letting her cape fall over them and headed into her wagon, not ten minutes later there was the pleasant creaking of a hammock followed soon by quiet snoring... it had been a long and wonderful night!

((yes, its not honest --- if you think back, its clearly Loyalty who is the element of stealth  ))

((and dont worry, stealth will the be least of your worries soon *rubs paws together evilly*)) 

Harle sighed as she raised her gauntlet and the gem turned to tha faintly glowing yellow again, pointing it at the orb, the golden energy shot out and, upon hitting the glow, caused it to vanish. "Fine. I dont much like magic spells -much prefer artifacts- but I guess its the best option for this..." at the second comment she responded "I'm Captain Harle Blackclaw, that's all the reason I need to be anywhere, anytime!" she smirked cockily, though the others could see her bracing herself for the spell, as if she expected it to be painfull.... which might explain why she didn't trust spells - likely a very bad experience in her past that DID involve a spell that ended up being very painful... though wheather it was on purpose or due to an inexperienced caster was up for debate...

Harle shrugged "er they might still be magical... dont really know, the commander supplies m' crew with the headsets" it was starting to become clear to them that harle was not the 'brains' of the operation... or any operation... wits? sure. survival skills? sure. good in a fight? absolutely! but brains...? maybe her egg was cracked before it was hatched...

The griffen held up the odd gold goggles she had been wearing when she arrived, causing another shard of enchanted green glass to fall from the right lens "well, one side's only cracked, hopefully it'll still work" she said "I'll have to get singlestone to put in an order for another pair... but for now I work with what I got... still got my floating orb of light that should help" she nodded at the glowing orb that was still following her around... though how useful it would be up in the air was doubtful not to mention it might as well be a flashing neon sign pointing out her location... once again, making it clear that somepony else took care of all the 'thinking' work in her crew...

Harle gave the pony speaking an odd look, it wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it was clear she wasn't too happy "I dont much like having magic cast on me, I'd rather use m' headset, I can get extras for all of you to borrow" she said as she tapped the side of her head, the feathers moving under her claws to reveal the well-concealed headset "Single, toss three more headsets in the chest, set to my frequency"

After a moment, and before anypony could protest, harle raised the gauntlet, which had shifted to a green eye-like gem on the back, and made a punching motion, causing a tear to open up in the very fabric of reality... much like the rest of the magic, this tear seemed to also radiate an 'otherworldly' quality, not as intense as the glove itself, but it didn't seem quite right itself. Harle then pulled her gauntlet back out of the hole, which closed up. in her grip now were four similar headsets to her own, but sized to fit ponies. she then offered them to the other three.

Harle rolled her eyes "Trust me, I'd rather be back in my nice warm bed, but the queen treats this town and that dragon of hers like her own children" she explained "Apparently there's also a risk of other trouble with this incident, something that She's tracking obcessivly" she explained "If you want to take the lead, then I'll gladly hang back and act as backup if things get nasty - I've been in my share of brawls" she didn't bother to explain that most of those were with the guards who were trying to arrest her on false charges in the past, but she assumed her reputation as a former pirate preceded her "and the gauntlet doesn't have any magic in it... well it is made of magic materials and does store a small amount of some icky black energy for the shield, but otherwise it drains power from the aura like you ho- *cough* like you ponies do" she said, catching herself before she called them 'horn-heads' 

((if either of you are familiar with Thaumcraft, Harle is literally using the Voidmetal version of the Casters Gauntlet from Thaumic Augmentation)

Harle sighed "since we're apparently doing show-and-tell" she snarked, reaching inside her coat and producing her own badge "Agent Harle Blackclaw, S.T.A.R. Special Forces" she gave all three of them time to inspect it so there would be no questions on its authenticity before she returned it to her coat, she then rolled her eyes "I know its not standard field equipment... bloody hell..." she explained as she pulled out another wad of papers and started flipping through them... clearly all of them permits for one thing or another... well mostly permits, a quick eye would notice she just flipped past a reciept for fish from a local market "Its a prototype... or something... what's it called again when its the original that a prototype is based off of?" she cocked her head to the side for a moment in thought before shrugging and continuing to flip through her papers, finally landing on one and showing it to the pair. It was an authorization from Commander Ice Storm to use the "Aura Manipulator" in the field to gather information for classified future projects. Oddly enough the permit included a note from both the Commander and one of the head researchers that the device was safe unless used around a unicorn with a broken or damaged horn... clearly they had done extensive testing... and clearly they knew what kind of eldrich magic they were dealing with... maybe...

((and what acronym are you going to pull out, copper? We already have S.T.A.R. and S.M.I.L.E., plus if I decide to get really cheeky E.V.I.L. will show up, what're you going to add to the alphabet-soup? XD))

Harle nodded along to what copper said, but when lightfood claimed he couldn't do anything because he had no horn, she snorted, pointing at the hovering ball of light above her "wot's that about no horn, no magic, gov?" she asked with a bit of a smirk. she held her tongue about how easily confused the second pony was, since it seemed clear to her that this was the earth-pony's mate, but many unflattering words were going through harle's mind right now, though she did find it a little strange that the seemingly... less intelligent pony was shutting up the earth-pony like that... if she was this simple-minded, she shouldn't have known that he was about to blurt out that he had some unholy ritual on his basement or whatever... things weren't adding up, and a rogue like Harle knew how to look for these things...

Harle rolled her eyes at copper's remarks, but nodded "aye, gov, that's wot I said, yer queen, Twilight Sparkle, that purple pony with the wings and the horn, Sent me, Harle Blackclaw, out here, wherever here is, because the gel's hatchling, the little purple dragon, ran back scared out of 'is wits claimin' there was a ghost or somethin' out here" she said, slowly and elaborating at every point, wheather she was being an ass or wheather she though copper was slow was up for debate... of course considering how abrasive most griffens were, it was likely the former... "An' like I said, I dont believe in such faff as ghosts, vampires, sin eaters, demons, or aubergines, so I'm eager to find this creature, drag it to the nearest jail, and get back to me bed" After that she held up that purple gauntlet again and the gem in the back shifted to a yellow color as energies swirled around the gauntlet and upward, forming a glowing yellow orb above her that seemed to follow her as she moved. As she cast it though, the unicorns would all feel the local magical aura warp, bulge, and buckle in unnatural ways, that gauntlet was extremely powerful and using extremely dark magics...

As soon as she spell began glowing harle raised her front-right claw, which was inside a dark purple gauntlet with a gem on the back, as she did a shield of what looked almost like deep space appeared to protect her... but... it felt wrong... the feeling of the gauntlet was unsettling, unnatural, and off-putting and the shield of stars and space also felt like it didn't even belong here, like it was from some forbidden dimension... clearly this was utilizing some form of very dark magic...

Once the spell missed though harle lowered the shield "Might trigger-happy there, mate" she said, unclear if it was meant to be a joke or an insult "don't worry 'bout me, the blokes I run with make this look like a boring Tuesday" she commented

When the others returned Harle made a dismissal wave with her claws "Nothin' out of the ordinary, gov" she commented "Name's Harle, th' queen sent me here after her hatchling said there was some trouble, claimin' a ghost or monster, so seein' as I was in the district, I was sent to investigate" she explained

It was only a couple minutes after Spike vanished that the pair would hear the quiet, yet distinct purr of engines in the sky, and indeed siluetted against the stars and moon a large airship was coming into view. If either cared to speculate, on its origins based on the direction, it had no doubt been in one of the Canterlot skydocks... though it must have already been prepared to leave, given the time it would usually take for such a ship to ready itself and its crew...

Of course the first question would likely be if this was simply a coincidence. After all, why would the princess send an entire ship down to ponyville? Though on the other paw, she cared so deeply about the small town that it also was not entirely out of the question...

The ship, though, was not slowing down, in fact it was accelerating. If either stallion had a pair of binoculars (or a similar spell) they would see that this was, indeed, just a shipping... er... ship... and given the current time, it was indeed just a coincidence that it was passing them just after spike's teleportation.

But, just as it was passing over the town square, a figure leapt from the railings, no doubt causing some shock from any onlookers... at least until they spready their wings and began to circle down. As the figure got closer, they would notice it was a blue and brown griffen, wearing a large red captain's coat with gold trim on it. She also was wearing gold-rimmed goggles that glowed with a pale green light, no doubt night-vision goggles of some sort.

If either of the pair kept up with the news, they would no doubt recognize the figure as a formerly infamous Sky Pirate, who's name was cleared (though many question just how innocent she and her crew really were) and most speculated she was now be a Privateer for the princess...

The Griffen landed with all the grace expected of her - meaning she stumbled and ended up summersaulting with her captain's coat flipped over her head (which gave the pair a nice look at all the various pouches and weapons on her belt) but she quickly rightened herself, muttering about it being 'too bloody early for this' Despite the lackluster image she had garnered so far, she stood up proudly, quickly removing the now-broken goggles and stashing them in one of her belt-pouches " 'ey yeh Skallywags, Cap'n Harle Blackclaw at yer service" she said with a bow, her strong cockney making it a little difficult to understand her words "Now th' queen's r'port said that hur hatchling said there was a ghost here... ev'ry ghost I've met I've punched so I dont believe in such faff as ghosts, vampires, sin eaters, demons, or aubergines" She looked at the two "alla that out of the way, 'ow can I help unmask this faker or take down this beast? been a time since I had a proper fight" she grinned viciously

While spike appreciated the vote of confidence from copper, he was more than happy to let Twilight send out somecreature else to deal with this. When the suspicious pony claimed to see something, spike jumped slightly. he was NOT cut out for this! but forced himself to remain calm "what your saying doesn't add up" he said "if your in denial you wouldn't be looking for it, and if you only just heard about it and thought it was fake you wouldn't be looking for it... I don't trust you, and being a dragon - a creature pure of heart and unable to tell lies- I can also tell when somepony's lying to me" he said, even though it was complete horsetrots... it still sounded impressive and threatening and most ponies had no clue what 'facts' about dragons were real and which ones were false... he REALLY hoped he was right about this stallion lying now... otherwise it might get spread around that his story was fake...

"Hold onto that spellshard, copper, something's not right, I'm going back to Twilight. If things go really bad, use it. If not, just give it to whoever Twilight sends to look into this" he said, even though his voice was wavering a bit as he spoke, it was clear he was scared trot-less and eager to leave this to the professionals. Without another word he leapt into the air and threw his crystal down, vanishing in a flash of purple smoke...

Now the question was exactly who Twilight was going to send out to deal with all this...

Spike was about to take the crystal when he heard the other pony's strange comment, he turned towards him, letting copper hold onto the crystal for the moment "You seem oddly resistant..." he said, hoping that nobody would notice his knees starting to shake and smoke starting to trail from his nostrils as he build up a belly full of flame "...maybe we already found the mysterious monster..." he looked lope right in the eye with a predatory draconic glare... something twilight (not to mention a certain other dragon that was a friend of his) insisted he learn... despite the fact in his mind he was screaming 'please don't eat me! please don't eat me! please don't eat me!' having no clue that of the three creatures here, he was possibly the most dangerous between his fire and his dimensional magic....

Spike gave copper a look of 'really?' as he held out his claw and let loose a small green flame, which condensed into another crystal identical to the one that copper was holding, falling into spike's open claw "I have like a dozen of these" he said dryly "Twilight never checks if I use one, and always gives me a new one, so I've saved them up." clearly right now he was more annoyed than angry at the action... but he was still annoyed "Knowing Twilight, she's probably reading something... whether that's some important legal document or a book she got from the royal library is up for debate... and its not like she's be coming here personally - the guards watch her too closely for that, and don't think Princess Celestia is above giving Twilight a good scolding for running off on a whim" spike had never actually see celestia scold twilight for such things, but he assumed it happened... and even if not, it made for a good explanation "Besides, I know for a fact she has both mobile agents who could be nearby as well as one group of agents who actually live part-time here, so its not like it would be interfering with her night, and besides, she'd get her assistant back a lot faster this way" he added, a bit of an awkward look on his face, making it very clear that he didn't want to be here with dangerous monsters roaming about... or even just possibly roaming about!

Spike gulped hard as a visible shiver traveled up his spike "This sounds bad... really bad..." he said "and far more important that Twilight's stupid worries about Trixie" he commented accidentally revealing another part of his secret mission... "I think I better go back and tell Twilight what's going on, she can dispatch some of her agents who are far more qualified to handle this than us... I think one group of them is even local to the town" he explained as he drew out a small glowing crystal from behind his back and raised it to the sky, about to smash it on the ground and no doubt initiate some kind of emergency recall spell...

((I'll let y'all decide: do you want to stop spike and keep him in the plot, do you want to see Sky Pirate Harle show up, or do you want the Trinity to show up (jasper/iggy/cloudy) in any case... this is WAY more interesting than my plot was XD ))

Spike looked copper right in the eye and said "No, I simply wear clothes because I like the way they look" though from the tone in his voice it was unclear if he was being serious or snarky... and with spike it was a fair bet that it was the latter...

Once the more serious conversation came up though spike chortled "have you forgotten where you live? there's always something out of the ordinary here, whether its parasprites, long dead gods, or those incompetent members of Team E.V.I.L." he glanced around, as if expecting for the trio to leap out from behind a barrel or off a rooftop and shout their ridiculous mantra... thankfully they didn't seem to be around.

Despite his comments though, spike still looked noticeably more nervous hearing that there was yet another possible threat lurking in the dark shadows of this cursed town... he really didn't want to find out what it was...

((for the record, atleast with my OC Dragon, they do get cold... though given what we saw in the series during the Crystal Empire episodes, I doubt spike does...))

"A pony on the edge of town" said Spike, actually trying not to give away his entire mission "though why I was dropped in the middle of town when the pony I'm after is on the edge I don't know... maybe its so late that twilight cant aim her spells well" he laughed a little, not realizing that the more likely answer is that twilight already had a spell setup to sent creatures to the center of town and it was simply more economical  to conserve her magic and use that, rather than a perfectly-targeted spell... if she even could manage a perfectly targeted spell... that would always be a question in spike's...

Spike jumped when the other pony made himself known, both could see the smoke trailing from his nostrils at the start, but it quickly faded as he recognized one of the town's residence, even if he wasn't well-acquainted with him... and spike was quietly thinking 'please don't ask me what your name is!' over and over as this new pony joined the conversation he looked slightly taken back at the question "Rarity says hooded cloaks are still very chic!" he defended, no doubt having only heard rarity use the word 'chic' and having no clue himself what it meant... "But Twilight chose the color... I wanted to go with green" explained spike, making it clear that neither of them knew the first thing about stealth... well maybe the first thing - do it at night - but that was the limit... it was times like this that the new princess's lack of experience really showed...

Spike chortled "Insomnia? I've got the opposite of that, I had to drink a whole pot of coffee just to make it this far and I have another thermos in case I need it" he explained, even though there was no clear place for him to possibly have it stored since he was only wearing a hooded cape and it was not weighed down in the slightest...

He snorted "required? no. you must have moved here after twilight left, imagine the nerdiest pony you can... ok, now make that pony twice as nerdy... that's still not as nerdy as Twilight is" he he laughed quietly "Honestly, it it weren't for all her royal duties and the guards watching her every move, she'd probably be out here herself sneaking around... like I said, all we need to do is ask somepony some questions, but Twi had to make it far more complicated... I have half a mind to just sit down, read some comic books for an hour or two, then go back and tell her I failed and we need to do it the sane way instead" even though spike was being quite critical of Twilight's plan, it was still clear that this was all frustration and at no point did it seem he had any negative feelings towards twilight... well maybe that she was too nerdy for her own good...

For the moment spike didn't seem to notice the second pony walking around, but given the fact that the dragon's eyes were still glowing, indicating his darkvision was still on, there was no doubt that he would very quickly notice movement out of the corner of his eye...

Spike was relieved that it was a pony he had bumped into, to be fully honest he felt a little bit less scared with them around... with ANYONE around! Unfortunately, this pony didn't seem to recognize him, then again it was dark and unlike spike, the pony probably didn't have darkvision...

"I'm here on royal business" he said, pulling out his medallion from inside his cloak "...or maybe I should say royal insanity..." he muttered "Twilight had a crazy solution to a simple problem... and of course she had to see it through, even though it would be so much easier to come here during the day and just talk, she sends me sneaking around in the middle of the night..." he sighed "how about you? why are you out here in the middle of the night?" asked spike, equal parts curious and suspicious now....

Prelude:

Ponyville, 11:00pm

Spike The Dragon

The small cloaked figure tried to make his way through the town quietly, knowing all its residents were asleep... or at least they were supposed to be...

"I don't remember it being so creepy here at night..." he gulped as he darted past a dark alley "don't think about monsters... don't think about monsters..." he quietly repeated to himself until he ran right into somepony who was still out at this hour, knocking his hood back off his head, his cloak flapping open behind him, making it clear to any who had not already guessed it was the little purple dragon "MONST-!" he started to exclaim as he covered his mouth before he woke the town as he looked at the figure in front of him "Oh... hi" he said meekly and rather embarrassed ...

Trixie sighed as her horn glowed and she was now in her iconic had and cape "Get back, It is time for the Great and Powerful Trixie to pass judgement on this Spunky Spellbound Spade!" As soon as Copper was clear, Trixie's horn glowed brightly as her... wings? yes! Her wings fanned out "You are now a danger to those around you! You have outlived your usefulness! Ashes to ashes, Dust... to... DUST!" with that a massive blast of energy hit the shovel and there was a loud flash, leaving nothing but a few trailing wisps of smoke behind.

Trixie's wings folded back under her cape as her horn glowed again, this time a new shovel appeared, noticeable different from the last as if to assure copper this wasn't a trick "Hopefully this one wont give so much... difficulty" she said as she sat down hard, slumping against the side of the stage to catch her breath, it seems that spell took a lot out of her.

Trixie's wing went to her face in frustration, her normal tactics of dealing with trouble-makers had both failed now.... she lowered her wing and sighed "Scootaloo, why dont you go find your friends, Trixie needs to have a talk with this pony mare-to-mare"

Scoots sighed as she placed the bag with the ring down at trixie's hooves "yeah, sure... and here's the treasure I found, its some unicorn ring"

Trixie nodded as she floated some bits out of her wagon and into scootaloo's bags "Sorry it wasn't something you or your friends could use, better luck next time. Trixie will be sure to file it away for safe keeping"

"Yeah, whatever" said scootaloo as she headed off.

After the filly was far enough away, Trixie turned to TT "Look, some mistakes were made, but everything is taken care of now" she said, floating the ring out of the bag and with a flash of her horn the gem was now green and the band silver, she then returned it to its bag and floated it back inside her wagon "Its hard to keep up with demand with those three, you have no idea how many maps I have to draw, every time they do some chores or something scootaloo runs here and buys a map" she sighed "I mean, its good business and it keeps those three out of trouble, but I openly admit there were some bumps early on... I had no idea how dangerous that deck was. Its in my personal collection now, never top be used by any pony except for me"

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)