Ashton

Princess Twilight Sparkle

The grounds around the castle were  lovely this time of the year, a thin dusting of snow covered everything off the beaten path (and sometimes the path itself!) the light of the sun glistening off the crystalized snow, gently weighing down the trees, though not covering the benches of the gardens where ponies occasionally visited to see the various rare -or atleast semi-rare- plants that were kept on a sort of display... But all this was disturbed with a flash and the sound of a teleport.

Twilight appeared outside the castle walls, in the garden, wearing her dark purple hooded cape, the fabric trailing down and covering her wings while the hood was up to cover her horn. She shivered as she looked down and realized she had appeared in a patch of snow. With a quiet awkward chuckle she stepped onto the path and a magenta glow smoothed out the patch of snow she had been standing in "Good as new" she commented

Looking around she let out a quiet sigh "Doesn't look like anypony's around, that's good. I hate lying to my staff like that, but I just had to get away for a few minutes" her mind traveled back to just before when she headed into her private magical laboratory, telling her guards and the scientists that she was going to be performing an experiment using dangerous magics - to not disturb her and to ignore any explosions... that usually bought her about a half hour before they would check in to make sure she was ok... and that she hadn't disappeared again... There were some things about being a princess that really ate at her - like how every time she even went to another room her whole staff wanted to know where she was - and often wanted to send guards with her even inside the castle! Did Celestia always get followed by disguised guards? Did the staff not think Twilight was as capable? It wasn't like she had missed more than three deadlines in the last six months or so, she was at least as punctual as Celestia, probably more so... but she still felt the need to get some time to herself, especially outside the castle!

Pushing these thoughts from her mind, the princess of friendship began walking along the path, taking a moment to enjoy the weather and the privacy... atleast, for now...

Spike the Dragon 

The sound of holiday music in the air, along with all the various smells from cinnamon to pine, to peppermint was enough to set anyone in the mood for Hearthswarming, the added decorations and all the market stalls offering everything from expensive jewelry to candy really cemented that holiday warmth - despite the snow that was pushed tot he sides of the streets or was clinging to the roofs of houses and canopies. 

The little dragon was walking down the paths in the market with a satchel slung over his sholdier - officially he was here to deliver some royal letter for Twilight, but unofficially he was looking for a gift for her, since she missed the town that she had spent years saving and making friend in... of course there was also the not-insignificant hope that he would bump into a certain somepony here... but while ever-present in the scalie's mind, it wasn't at the forefront right now as he sipped on his mug of hot cocoa, occasionally looking around and tapping one of the marshmallows so if bobbed down below the surface and back up... trying to find a gift for his friend that not only wasn't something she would likely find in canterlot, but specifically would make her thing of ponyville... so far he was coming up short... but he was sure he would find something soon! Atleast, he hoped he would....

Scootaloo

There was a distinct chill in the air this afternoon, clouds were lazily drifting overhead threatening more snow - though the weather report promised none was scheduled for atleast another day. Underhood the snow that was already on the ground made a satisfying, though quiet crunch-ing sound, and muffling all sounds nearby to some extent. Or, rather it would be if there was any sound to be muffled... Being a short distance away from ponyville and with most of the woodland creatures either migrated or asleep in their burrows until spring, the only sound was that of the four small hooves crunching through the snow, and one small filly talking to herself as she followed an 'ancient treasure map' that she had bought from a not-particularly-reputable-source... but foals never learn, do they?

Scootaloo was bundled up in her boots, scarf, and a festive winter hat on her head as she kept pulling the map out and looking at it every few minutes, trying to figure out exactly where she was, trying to follow the not-exactly-well-drawn map to where the 'X' was. and she had been doing this for hours... she had hoped one of her friends would come with her so they could share in the excitement, but they all said they were busy... and probably atleast one or two of them doubted that the map was real, even though scoots had explained that she had save up 25 bits and bought it from a pony that said it lead to an ancient treasure from the nightmare wars!

Scootaloo looked at the map and looked around "so if I go left at this old tree... wait, where is the big boulder that the map shows?" she looked around for a large boulder like was depicted on the oddly unaged parchment "eh, its probably just there to make the map look cool!" she decided as she turned left, completely unaware that she was hopelessly lost......

Scarlet "Jezebel" Rose

It was early morning in ponyville, the clouds were obscuring the sun just enough to keep it from shining in many pony's windows, especially unusually-shaped windows stationed high on a particular wagon on the outskirts of town... little did the occupant know this would lead to tragedy! ...or atleast minor harassment...

A young red unicorn filly, wearing black, dressed as she clearly intended to cause trouble, was walking down the back-roads of the town, muttering to herself in cockney about how dull the town was, when she found herself staring at the strange wagon... she'd never seen it before, and didn't think anyone would be living this far out... so of course with a wicked grin she decided to cause trouble... she lifted up a small rock and threw it at one of the windows... not too hard, but with enough force for it to make a sound... After two or three of these, she assumed that she was right - the wagon was indeed abandoned... then she picked dup the bigger rocks...

Inside the wagon trixie was sleeping in from a late night going over files at the school... and perhaps practicing more magic... and at first the rocks bare caught her noticed, just rolling over in her hammock, but then she hear the shattering of glass and the sound of the larger rocks hitting the far wall, one of them landing in her crate of smokebombs, filling the wagon with blue smoke... THAT woker her up!

Outside the unicorn filly was laughing even harder and grinning viciously as she saw the smoke pour out, thinking she'd somehow managed to set the wagon on fire! she was less excited when the door burst open and throught he smoke she saw the figure of a pony stumble out, she still laughed but she ran as fast as her legs could carry her...

TRixie's vision as blurry and she was coughing hard as she saw the red blur moving away "FOOLISH FOAL YOU DARE ANGER THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE?!" as she fired off several spells at the blur in her vision... but after a few minutes of no apparent reaction as the foal topped a hill and disappeared down it she sighed, she muttered about the smoke and not being able to aim her spells, as she turned back towards her wagon "And how long are you going to keep smoking! dont you know its bad for your health?" she snarked... no, she was not good with mornings.... and it was going to be a long, long, morning...

-----

Anypony that walked by the bench on the outskirts of ponyville was in for quite a sight. There saw the red unicorn filly with a scowl on her face... if 'sat' was the correct term... her forelegs were resting on the bench... but her hindquarters were floating about a foot in the air "bloody o' had not my fault she lives in an abandoned wagon, stupid git..." she muttered, glaring sourly at the ground, wondering just how long untill the spell wore off... it was getting quite uncomfortable, but no way in tartarus she was going to ask for help....... though if it presented itself, she wouldn't be able to stop it...

((sorry for the lack of images, canterlot's acting up for me... and sorry if the intro is a little rusty, its late, I'm very tired, but inspiration couldn't wait! ))

((My next post will probably pretty much wrap this whole thing up, so I'll let everyone else post before our skeletal friend does))

That look in Harle's eyes remained a moment longer, but as the others spoke she closed her eyes and sighed, when she opened them again she no longer looked like she might take a look at somepony's insides. "Maybe your right, maybe I am a little bitter about Felix, even though I know its not your fault... maybe some part of me wants somecreature to blame and is lashing out. I'm sorry about that" she paused "And I thought singlestone was sharing all his notes about his experiments with you, or that this was a general thing... I jumped to conclusions about Griffens being the source of the supposed taint... we get blamed for a lot of sh- er stuff... This is a new to-ol I just got" she clearly had to catch herself and not say 'a new toy' "and its the most useful item I've ever seen, so I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, especially since I'd not seen any negative effects from it before when I used it privately after singlestone turned it over to me"

"As for all the other stuff... I wish I could help, but I know nothing about this gauntlet, singlestone got it from a friend of his and is trying to adapt its magic for that project we'd talked about the first day" the griffen was being purposefully vague in case the others were not aware of Ice's desire for Aether Cannons "I can tell you what 'stone told me about using it for what good that does, but that's all"

((Honestly its supposed to be drawing in the natural magic aura produced by the world and channeling it --- for those unaware its literally the Casters Gauntlet from Thaumcraft --- and yes she has the belt-pouch of foci (stolen from every version of Thaumcraft ever released XP )))

Harley held the sphere of Aer in her gloved paw a moment longer, looking between hem as they spoke, they could all see that part of her doubted them... but it wasn't on the tactics - there was a good reason she had brought magnus along... no, it was about the aether... singlestone had been experimenting with this glove for weeks, and she understand the original creature had used it for years without any problems, which meant...

The Gem on the back of the gauntlet changed color and vanished entirely as the orb faded, though the aether that had been spent was not returned. Harle looked at Ice with a hard,  angry look "How long...." she began "..how long have you known?" she asked "How long have you kept it hidden from me and 'stone, that griffens cant use aether without tainting it and killing ponies nearby?" there was a thinly veiled anger in her words, she was keeping herself civil, but only barely "were you even going to tell me when I got my ship back? Or was your plan to let me find out the hard way after I started piloting and killed singlestone, magnus, and every other unicorn on board?" the look in harle's eyes made it clear she wanted to rip ice's throat out for witholding from her the knowledge of griffens auras corrupting aether and aether tech... and considering how many unicorns harle had on her crew....

Harle chuckled "'jus' need th' clouds cleared? ah c'n take care o' that f' ya" she said in her trademark cockney accent as she reached into her coat and pulled out a strange glove. it appeared to be made of leather with a small circlet of gold on the back, inset with purple glass and gemstones of six colors inscribed with magic runes, it also had a large gem below the circle that faintly glowed. As Harle looked at it, the gem shifted color to yellow and she reached skyward.

All the unicorns would immediately feel magic in the local aura being pulled into the glove, as if some alicorn were casting a massive spell, in the center of harle's gloved claw a glowing yellow orb was forming... but the energy that was surrounding the glove... it was a sickly purple color, while it wasn't actually affecting the local aura (other than the massive amounts of magic it was drawing in)  it was clear this was a very dark and unnatural magic - it had to be for a non-unicorn, to be manipulating it! The effect didn't seem intensely powerful, atleast not yet, but the aura was buckling and warping around the glove, while it was granting Harle magic, it was NOT efficient about doing so!

Harle was still aiming the glove skyward as the energy in it glowed and the wind was starting to get sucked in as it fed on the local Aer energy, if nopony stopped her, Harle appeared to be about to release a large blast of aer magic to force away or even destroy the clouds.

((just to be clear, this thing is not making a huge dent in the local magic aura - Harle could use it dozens of dozens of times without depleting all the magic around her, but it noticeably draining it still))

((sorry, weekends are very busy for me... >.<))

Harle listened to what Ice was saying, though she didn't appear to be paying much attention as her eyes darted around the landscape as their leader spoke; half expecting to see some monster pop out on que. After a couple minutes though she seemed to relax. In fact she seemed to be taking this  expedition rather lightly, though given her fighting skills, and her backup weapons it wasn't too surprising. She did pull her coat a bit tighter around her as the chilly wind blew in - more glad of the heavy red captain's coat now than ever, feeling the thick fabric lining blocking out the weather, she let out the tiniest of smiles and quietly whispered to herself "thanks dad" as a tear slid down her face as she thought of her late father who had given her the coat as a celebratory gift after they completed building the 'wings - the last ship he ever built, and he never even got to see it fly...

The griff' glanced skyward, checking the weather with the eye only a ship captain would have, knowing that even slight changes could indicate a storm on its way, which would be even more devastating here than it would be on the ship (especially considering she rarely ever flew anywhere near the cold mountains, so the most she dealt with was usually rain and wind) hopefully the weather would hold until the finished... whatever it was they were going to do... Ice had been rather vague with everything so far. Hopefully this wasn't a wild goose chase...  though even if it was, she had singlestone monitoring the communications channel - even if she technically wasn't supposed to tell anyone where she had gone, she trusted him and also knew that he could get out there and pick them up quicker than most of the larger ships, especially with the modifications he had made using the technology he had gotten from Ice and the magic he got from his contact... whoever it was... sometimes harle was very frustrated with how secretive Singlestone was, though that also worked in his favor at times like this, knowing he wouldn't reveal her location to anyone unless it was a life-or-death emergency.

At the sound of Gallus' scream, likely too quiet to be heared over the din of the party, but amplified by the arched sealings around the pair clad in purple, Stilight was instantly to her feet "Gallous!" she exclaimed, a glow forming in her hood.

Spike, though, gently, but firmly, tugged on her cloak "Remember your own rule Twilight..." he said "One Scream in an otherwise calm and normal scene is probably a prank. We wait for two screams from the same creature, or three screams overall before we rush in like rabid giant furry snails. Don't forget that time Rainbow scared a pony and you accidentally smote her"

"I wouldn't call it smiting...." Twilight relaxed a little and giggled "but the look on rainbow's face...!" she smiled, sighing "what would I ever do without you spike?"

Spike just smiled as he sat back down to continue reading his comic

Re-Animated Skeleton

(it doesn't have a name, so......)

The pair would likely be surprised that when they looked back down the dark hallway, the dry white silhouette of the skeleton had already made it to the pillar. It had seemed so slow back in the storage room when it was walking towards them, but somehow in only a couple moments it was almost to their location, as if it moved faster when they weren't looking!

The skeleton floated one of gallous' shed blue feathers off the ground around the pillar, just as before it seemed to mutter something slow and quiet, as it stared at the feather, the flames in its eye-sockets flickering between orange and blue, as if an outward manifestation of the skeleton thinking... or as close to thinking as an animated skeleton with no brain could come... after a couple seconds of this, it released the feather and let it float down to the ground. Was it simply not interested in the feather? Or was it coming after gallous and the feather had just allowed it to pick up the griffin's proverbial scent? it didn't seem to matter since the pair had returned willingly... The skeleton looked towards them and once again stumbled forward slowly and methodically, but this time much closer than it had been back in the storage room. As it neared them, they could finally hear what it was muttering... "...collect... collect... collect!"

Harle took the momentary confusion as they were getting to their spots to size up this new pony, this 'raven' since, at least in stories, whoever was in the back tended to be the first one to be picked off. Did that mean that this pony was expendable? or maybe the opposite - that Ice was confident that if anything showed up wanting to fight, that this pony would be able to handle it...   Harle mulled over these thoughts as she again reached for her decanter, but sighed and changed her mind, realizing, even though she had plenty to spare and didn't need to ration it,  this was not a place she really wanted to be caught inebriated... 

So with only her own thoughts to keep her company, given the situation, she quietly followed the others while it was like a thousand flies buzzed inside her head... she really didn't like long, silent, expeditions, her ADHD  and loud nature were killing her... but she pressed on none-the-less

Harley was a little annoyed with the tone that Ice was using, but (1) Ice was military, this had been her life for at least years, and (2) well harle had kinda signed up for this, having not thought through all the implications of joining up with the blue mare - Granted Harle didn't have a lot of choice in the matter, but still, she'd have liked to have known what she was getting into...

The griffen shivered hard in her wet captains coat and red scarf... having leapt out of the ship as it neared the ground and plunked straight into the deep snowbank like a cat... granted she was half cat, but it was still embarrassing. She reached into her coat for her decanter and winced as she heard a loud snapping sound. looking inside she pulled out a small snapping turtle that had hitched a ride from the seaside. having heart Ice's speak, Harle grinned like an idiot and held up the turtle "It seems Mr. Snappy is too chicken for the mission, he says he's backing out" she then carelessly threw the turtle over her soldier. Of course this being the frozen north, he landed softly enough in the snow not to be hurt... whether he'd freeze to death within minutes was up for debate, but the fall at least wouldn't kill him.

After that interruption Harle once again reached into her coat and this time successfully pulled out her decanter and took a swig from it, sighing with contentment as the heat flowed through her body.

Harley sighed "If only I'd chose to be a Time pirate instead of a Sky pirate" she said with a tiny smile. The joke was very forced, but at least the griff' was trying. She sighed but smiled "Fools, the whole lot of them" but from the tone it was clear that she meant that comment in a positive light. Now that there was a crack, the wall harle had built around her heart was crumbling. While it would probably take longer for her to fully let go of felix, at least now she was starting to see things for what they were, instead of seeing them through the lens of depression.

In the distance, Magnus would be able to make out a speck on the horizon, heading towards them. No doubt another of the crew in a smaller ship, likely Singlestone - magnus would have heard enough around the ship to be able to piece together that if anything happened to harle, Singletone would be put in charge of everything... which was not a position he had any desire for, so he had many reasons to try and come after the captain when she did something foolish...

As the small group filed in, it was clear that only the fact iggy knew this was an important criminal trial was all that was keeping the kirin from rushing up to twilight and pestering her with endless questions and talk about arcane studies, but despite this, iggy's eyes were still sparkling and she was shifting around in her seat, excited at just being this close to the princess! though the occasional prods from Cloudy and Jasper - who were sitting on either side of the kirin - kept her relatively calm... she still was acting like a fanatical filly who was in the presence of her idol... which was unfortunately a very true and apt description of the situation...

Sitting right next to twilight's 'bench' was the familiar purple and green dragon, holding a quill and a large scroll, acting as the stenographer, though he didn't seem to be taking this nearly as seriously as the others, looking quite calm and relaxed. Granted this really was just another day for him since he still mostly was tasked with taking notes on Twilight's activities and taking dictation for her many different letters, treaties, proclamations, and other legal documents. By this point his writing claw was probably so strong he could crush stones with it...

The two defendants though... they looked far worse for wear than when Ice had picked them up... their clothes were slightly more torn and dirty, as well as being in dissaray, much like the pair's manes and tails, they also were looking around nervously, their ears twitching and eyes darting around at every little sound... it seemed like something had happened to them during the journey... something devastating... and while Ice and her crew likely wouldn't notice it, around each of the plaintiff's necks were small bands of a purple material... these bands though felt just... wrong... on a primal level... despite being solid metal of some sort, they seemed to move and ooze with an oily appearance, and they contained vile unknowable magics, something that twilight might recognize from the darkest of dark tomes, written only in hushed whispers - a power that made even the likes of Discord and Tirak's magic seem pure and white... these bands contained dark, primal, eldritch magic. And any attempt, even by twilight herself to interfere with them caused the magic or spell in question to be absorbed into them. In fact if any attempt was made it would be clear that there was no way to remove these bands short of cutting off the ponies' heads... and the aura that the metal projected was likely the source of their distress, as it was warping their minds... though thankfully the aura was weak enough that it would not affect anyone else nearby, and most wouldn't even notice it unless they touched the bands themselves. If twilight wasn't scrutinizing the bands she likely wouldn't even notice them herself.

The two defendants were soon joined by a pony with a slicked-back mane and an immaculate business suit. Twilight and possibly even Ice would recognize him as one of the best -and most underhooved and vile- lawyers that money could buy. This would be a very difficult trial indeed.

Harle sighed "If I wasn't good enough for him, how can I be good enough for all of them? They deserve a real captain, a good captain... the best captain... not some miserable failure like me" she stared off into the distance a moment "and I cant find it in my heart to hate Felix, despite everything he did... somehow... maybe if I'd been around more, or if I'd just straight-up spirited him away from his corrupt family... if I'd just acted sooner he wouldn't have turned out the way he did... its because I tried to keep away from him and give him enough space so his family didn't come down on him... if I'd just..." she sighed. Though the tone of her voice did seem to crack and change slightly... Magus' words were getting to her now, and somewhere in the back of her head there was now a tiny voice screaming (well, squeaking since it was so tiny) that she was just making excuses... it was still going to take more time and work (and consolation) but logic and reason was starting to pierce through the veil of darkness that had settled over the Griffon captain.

  Cloudy Skies  

Cloudy was standing there waiting to see if Blueblood or the guard would make any connection to Iggy, hoping he wasn't going to have to make the first in a long line of apologies for his friend, but, knowing the most realistic option, was formulating said apology in his head as Blueblood also joined them at the scene of the small fires on the carpet near the display...

-----=====-----

((I have a better, more cartoony, image somewhere, but, for now... >.<))

The Skeleton turned his head tot he chip of stone and after a moment its horn flowed a blue flame-like energy and picked up the crystal chip and put it inside the back of its skull where there was a nice pocket-like cavity. This meant that as it moved it now made a slight rattling sound, which was both slightly more comical and possibly slightly more terrifying. It then turned towards the two winged creatures, and as it did, inside those black eye-sockets, tiny blue flames appeared as it started at them, making it clear it could indeed see and hear them. It stared long and hard, as if it was trying to stare into their very souls, and it began walking towards Gallus and Silverstream at a slow, measured pace... or perhaps it was just its normal walking speed, one never knew with animated skeletons...

Hope smiled at the guard, blushing a little "thank you, your name's nice too - very fitting for a strong guard"

Cloudy nodded politely to blueblood "Of course, sire" he said as he started leading the earth pony away "I've not seen them yet but I smell them this way" he explained "I'm suprised you didn't smell them... maybe it's a hyppogriff thing... or maybe its because my friends burn so much food" he chuckled, hoping some humor would lighten the mood, though he sighed hard when they turned down a hallway "iggy..." he muttered under his breath

Indeed there were about a dozen small fires, about the size of a hoofprint... heading down the center of the carpet towards a display of some near-inexplicable gizmo that Twilight had left behind...

-----

Far above Twilight smiled "see spike, Blueblood has it under control. No need to interfere!" it was clear there was a tiny bit of nervousness about her though... it was starting... though she was a lot better about anxiety than she used to be... it would only be a matter of time if things went further downhill...

"how many times have we said 'under control' just before bedlam broke loose? you just jinxed us" he joked, though slightly worried this really was just the start...

-----

It wouldn't take long for Silver and Gallus to find some trouble... when they entered one of the unused rooms, they found an animated pony skeleton already in there, looking around as if searching for something. It didn't seem to be doing any damage though and, at least for now, completely ignored the two students.

((was trying to wait for Steel to post, but it looks like he's busy so...))

The changeling looked confused by blueblood's reaction, but before she could question him, the earth pony nearby spoke. She turned a little quiet but after a moment managed to say "I'm Hope. Its Nice to meet you, Mister Tiger's blood" her shyness was still very clear around ponies she wasn't familiar with. She may have been slowly coming out of her shell, but it was still just that - slow.

Meanwhile the Hyppogriff made his way back other towards blueblood "You need to relax, your majesty, things look like they're going well, I dont see anything missing - and only one broken vase in the hallway, and at least I haven't seen any monsters except for the skeleton peeking out from the closet --- probably best to leave it alone --- and from the small amount of smoke, there only seems to be one or two small fires so far. From what I hear, that's a successful party for this town" he nodded politely

-----=====-----

Spike cringed "Did he just say fire?"

"from the tiny amount of smoke, Its still small, Probably the kirin got too excited and her hooves scorched the carpet, let blueblood handle it. Remember spike, we're here to observe, not interfere" commented Twilight as she watched the unfolding scene

"...and I thought you cleaned the place out before you left, why is there still a skeleton hiding in a closet?" he asked, sitting down and pulling out a comic book to pass the time, pulling his hood back again, despite Twilight's insistence he keep it up.

"I did clear out all of mine, They like to move in to old castles, its a natural thing" commented Twilight "...though this castle isn't that old... keep an ear open if anyone finds more, there could be an infestation!" from the tone of her voice she was no doubt grinning under her hood

"heh, Only you would be excited about such a thing..." commented spike with a smile, his voice a mix of irritation and amusement, though more the latter than the former. 

Harle silently watched the boulder and rope fall, after a moment she sighed, gathering up her remaining strength "... it was all a lie..." she said "...my whole life... everything I fought for... everything I dreamed for... everything I wished for... it was all a lie..." she said "...I wasn't good enough... I tried my hardest, I made headlines with my escapes, I became a household name... but I wasn't good enough for him... if only I had..." she stopped there, not even knowing what to say, not knowing what she could have done to make things different

She sat down hard as the tears started rolling again, clearly harle had misplaced the blame for the failed (and arguably falsified) relationship on her own back, despite the fact that it had been her fiance who had been stringing her along , lieing, and cheating on her... sadly not an uncommon reaction to the end of a emotional relationship.

The cool breeze blew up the high cliffs of the mountain, the birds were singing their final songs of the day, and the sun was just starting to set, casting long shadows and painting the sky a lovely orange and crimson.

But for one griffon, the breeze only reminded her of the chill in her heart, the birds lovely songs were a cacophony of former love, and the colors of the sky and land seemed to have faded away and been replaced with darkness. She had lived most of her life for the one pony she loved, she had dedicated every second of her day to fighting her unjust reputation and finding a way to save him from the clutches of his evil family, and now she finds out it was all a lie... and not only a lie, but a lie that he perpetrated while giving his heart to another the whole time...

Harle stood at the edge of the cliff, a large boulder next to her with a rope tied around it. The other end was tied around her midsection, holding her wings closed --- though under her coat, even now she took care of that coat; the last gift from her father after they completed building her ship.

She took one last look at the sky and the horizon, as tears fell from her eyes, and she began to slowly push that boulder forward, unable to see anything but the pain in her heart, and hoping that when it went over the edge, the pain would finally stop...

        Cloudy Skies                  Jasper Dragon          Azure "Iggy" Ignine

It might surprise blueblood to see three figures walking towards hte celebration, partly because the group consisted of a Kirin, Hippogriff, and dragon, but even more so because the kirin had a gift wrapped in pastel summer colors with a large sparkling bow on top - something that was more than a little out of place at the festival...

The kirin grinned and nodded as they approached "Happy Summer Solstice, your majesty!" she said, clearly also not 100% sure how equestrian titles worked - which wasn't as suprising given the fact all three of them were from different lands "I'm afraid I didn't get a chance to really research the holiday before we arrived, its been a busy week, so we all assumed this was a summer version of the winder solstice festival!" she placed the gift down in front of blueblood as they made their way into the fairgrounds area around the castle.

If Blueblood decided to open the gift, he would find that it was a lamp in the shape of the sun... clearly the trinity had taken the name extremely literally... and while they weren't wrong they weren't entirely right either....

Once they were in the castle though, things changed quickly...

Iggy was shifting weight from one hoof to another as they ducked into an alcove, clearly excited

Cloudy sighed "Remember, Iggy, even if the castle is officially open, dont go sneaking around too much... I know not to bother telling you not to wander off..."

Iggy was grinning "Its so much more exciting when I dont have to keep an eye open for guards! maybe I'll even get lucky and find a book or test-tube that Princess Twilight forgot!"

The males shook their heads sadly at their kirin friend's obsession...

"right..." said cloudy "Jasper, keep an eye on her"

The dragon nodded, though he looked quite annoyed at the prospective of having to play foal-sitter to Iggy, he knew how excited she could get

it wasn't long before the kirin and dragon had vanished into the bowels of the palace, while Cloudy stayed out in the open to act as a distraction.

-----=====-----

Fleeting Hope

Unfortunately, it wasn't the end of the afternoon's confusion for poor blueblood, only a few minutes later he would see, well... himself! a much scruffier version of himself atleast, mane astray, numerous small cuts on his body, and his clothing torn rush up to him "Thank goodness I found you! you have to run! the Toad Lord has returned and he's about to steal all the spoons in the city! its going to be disastrous!" after a few seconds the not-blueblood-pony giggled though and green fire washed over it to reveal the young changeling Fleeting hope "Suprise!" she said "...this is the day we're supposed to play a prank on somepony, isn't it?" she asked awkwardly "Equestrian history isn't by best subject..." Indeed, while Hope had made tremendous progress over the last year in coming out of her proverbial shell, she still was very awkward, and most of the progress seemed to be towards the adult teachers and staff - she still was very shy and quiet around students close to her own age.

Hope then noticed the gift that Iggy had left and gasped "Oh no, was I supposed to bring a gift too?!" she asked, quickly rummaging about in her bags and hastily tying an awkward bow around a large green mellon "Happy Summer Solstice, sir!" she said awkwardly as she placed it at his feet near the other gift.

-----=====-----

High above the castle floor, on one of the balconies that was sufficiently out of sight, two small flashes of magical energy erupted, revealing a somewhat large purple-cloaked pony and a notably smaller bipedal cloaked figure.

"Remind me again why we have to hide like this? I mean you know nearly everypony here, its not like we're sneaking into some secret fortress of ultimate evil or something" commented the smaller figure

the large figure sighed "because we dont want to disturb anything, remember we're only going to be here a little while, we have to get back in time for the main ceremony in canterlot"

"I still think your pranoia is getting the better of you" said the smaller figure as he pulled back the hood to reveal the familiar face of Spike

Quickly a purple glow pulled the hood back up though "we dont want to make a scene!"

"I think your paranoia has gotten much worse since you became high-princess" muttered spike "remember, these ponies are your friends, they're more likely to just wave and say 'Hey Twilight, good to see you!' than panic... they're not you" he smirked

The other figure sighed "I know spike, but I have a lot of responsibilities now... I just wanted to pop in and check on how things were going, now be quiet before we're noticed, and keep an eye on the magic mirror in case somepony decides to burst into the throne room while we're here"

Spile sighed and pulled back one of his sleeves to reveal a small mirror mounted to a band, looking not unlike a wristwatch, that showed an image of the canterlot throne room doors... One thing never changed, and that was twilight's backup-plans for backup-plans for backup-plans...

Mid looked suprised, but not shocked, clearly she knew what this meant "You've only been here a day and you've already spoken to Storm... he must have a lot of faith in you... he used to speak to me and Rad... but... Rad's gone, and I've not heard from him since before we left... I think that since I failed he's given up on me and moved on..."

She paused "If storm trusts you... I'll tell you..." she paused a moment to gather he thoughts "Scootaloo is a Fallen - The precursors who fell to this world back in ancient times, their command of technology is so far beyond even what we can comprehend now. They had technology that does not rely on lay, they could travel between stars... they could punch holes in the universe itself... and scootaloo has access to all of that technology... if its small, she has it, if its large she has the schematics of it... and I know she has a slip drive that can punch holes in dimensions and the accompanying shield to protect her from the void... she is the most likely one to have survived, though given she had no time to prepare, I dont know what her odds were... now that I'm thinking about her specifically... probably high... but like I said, despite my mate being a fallen, I have no idea how their technology worked, or even where to find any of it... the only ones left that know anything are Luna - because she and Nova were close and I'm sure she managed to weasel some secrets out of him... and Scootaloo herself, because she's the last of the Fallen"

Mid sighed "Officially the ice queen is working exclusively with celestia... but the truth is she's working to undermine her at every step, If word got back to Celestia that the ice queen was working with Luna and Storm... Celestia might get suspicious and shut her out... and it would be my fault... I already damaged our relationship enough by losing her hat, this would probably end it... along with any hopes of defeating celestia without an all-out war...

"...there's one more thing... well... two more things... but I dont know if I can trust you yet..." she said with a sigh "...as important as the ice-queen revelation were... these last two facts are even more dangerous..." she sighed "...but I will say this... if anypony else were more likely to survive... it would be Scootaloo... she has means beyond anything that I or the Ice Queen possess... but the only pony who'd have any hope of finding out where she is... he's probably dead...my mate, Nova" a few tears leaked from mid's eyes again, but she forced the sadness down. Whether she was just trying to put on a brave face and pretend or whether she was really trying to convince herself that nova and the others were still alive was unclear.

Midnight hesitated but finally spoke "There were three other foals... well, I say foals, but one was several hundred years old --- apparently reincarnated---... they were actually demon-ponies, raised from hell and bound by old law to Scootaloo to be her friends, its a long story... but their demonic power might have thrown things off" she paused again "more importantly..." she hesitated, clearly this was an important part "The last member of the team..." she was really fighting herself, you could see the strain in her face as she tried to decide the right thing to do "...Was the Ice Queen!" she took a deep breath or two, calming herself down now "Yes, I said the Ice Queen. We kept it quiet because she didn't want anypony to know she was technically working with storm and Luna --- the truth was she came along as a favor to me..." Mid snorted "And she made it back immediately... no world-hopping, no delay, nothing..." there seemed to be just a tiny hint of bitterness in Mid's words, as if she were jelous that the Ice Queen had managed to take a shortcut, while she herself had to take the proverbial long-way-around to get home.

Mid let out a sort of dark chortle "No interest in this world's Twilight or Rarity?" she asked, a little cold, but sighed, realizing that she was taking the question a little too personally since she herself was a twilight. "Pinkie has a city of her own down south that is the party capital of the world, sadly things there have gotten out of hoof as a lot of seedier types have used it as a hub for the drug trade since drugs are legal there. Pinkie's own mind seems to have been warped and strained as well, her 'fun police' as almost as terrifying as Storm's Enforcers, Much as it scares me to say it, the fact that Discord lives there is probably making the city safer and more sane that if he weren't.

"As for fluttershy... I really dont know... She went into hiding somewhere. Dash still hears from her occasionally, but that's all I know. My best guess is that she's living deep in the everfree wilds - one of the few places that the modern world cannot touch because of all the wild and dangerous magics there, and equally dangerous creatures and flowers"

As she packed a few things into her saddlebags she finally stopped and let out another sigh, this time deeper "I know you didn't read my report - even queen Luna had to ask me to simplify parts of it... but there were things I did not put into the report... things that might make a difference in your search... There were four other members of that final party that weren't listed... and one of the ones listed I never explained who he truly was..." it was clear that she was ashamed of witholding information from her queen, but she also seemed to have her reasons for it, which no doubt she had thought about for a long time... but the fact she would mention them to Morgan while keeping them secret from Luna said a lot about either how little she trusted Luna, or how little she thought luna would care about the information...