Ancre

Flying slowly along the paths, Whirlwind could hear faint noises of hacking and slashing echoing from a darker spot in the pumpkin fields. Leaving the safety of the lighted pathway she ventured deeper into pumpkin territory, looking for the source of the strange sounds. Soon she found them. It was a filly, of about her age, dressed as a knight, swirling a sword that seemed to big or too heavy for her, and doing her best to hack the pumpkins and squashes in clean little bits. The pink pegasus watched her in silence for a while. The knight filly wasn't very good. There was a lot of smashed pumpkins around her, and her strikes were wobbly most of the time. She was trying to wield that sword correctly, obviously, but right now she was just doing a mess of the vegetable field. But with a charge and a leap, she finally managed to slice a pumpkin in half, cleanly and evenly. Looking satisfied, the earth pony took a break in her work of destruction and looked around. She spotted Whirlwind flying in the air. Both fillies looked at each other for a moment. “Hello !” shouted the pink pegasus, before landing near the earth pony, on top of a particularly big pumpkin. “I like your costume, very cool, you really look like a knight, it's very well done, it looks almost real !” she began, trying to sound friendly. “Why are you squashing the squashes though ? That's not how you carve a pumpkin.” she continued, searching to understand the meaning of the other filly's vandalism. “A sword's too big to carve one, you'll need a knife to make faces like those in the pathways. But you're not trying to carve pumpkins, are you ? You're not supposed to smash them in pieces like this.” Despite the way she talked, the pink filly wasn't particularly interested in enforcing the rules or anything. She was just curious.

Walking along with his friend and his new comrade, Thunderhoof pondered. “We are going to the Lunar Castle because ... well I don't know.” Bumble Buns pouted. “That's actually a good question. You haven't told me why we were going there Re-roll ! Anyways,” “Moving this great rock out of the way can surely be done, but are there any easier ways ? Perhaps going around it, or over it, depending on its size and our endurance ?” the warrior wondered again. He wasn't one to blindly charge into action without any thinking. On the contrary, he always took the time to figure out the best possible solution.

Bumble Buns was interrupted in her noble quest by another pony taking interest in the game. It was a mare, with a light green pelt and a darker green mane worn in dreadlocks. “Yeah, welcome !” the yellow mare answered cheerily. “I'm completely new to this game, and Re-Roll the Filly Master says it's better if I play with more friends, so hop in ! The more the merrier !” Re-Roll the wizard pony greeted the newcomer as well, and gave her a seat and all the character sheets she needed. Pretty soon she was rolling dices and writing things down, going faster as she remembered the rules. Bumble Buns watched in awe. It had took her a lot of time and effort to finish what she was doing in about ten minutes. So many rules to remember and to keep track of ! And once Willow Wisp was done the little group resumed the game. Thunderhoof turned around, looking at the stranger who had just walked in their backs. He drew his sword in a reflexive manner, drilled in his mind by years of training, but dropped his guard just as fast as he realized the pony meant no harm. “Welcome, stranger” he said in his deep voice. “This place is full of dangers, but it is our duty to keep them at bay, and to come to the rescue of those in need !” “I am glad to have you by our side,” he continued as he started to walk again. “This is my friend Gold Rush, he is a wizard, and my name is Thunderhoof, I am a warrior. We travel to the Lunar Castle and we're currently investigating the cries you heard, for I fear somepony might need our help.” “You're doing great !” the young mare dressed as a bee interrupted ; “how am I ? It's my first time playing one of those games, I hope I'm doing well.”

Yaaay now we're two !!!

“We can't stay still when there's a pony in need !” Thunderhoof replied. “Onwards, my magician friend !” Unfortunately the two ponies were soon halted by a branch that got caught in Gold Rush's cloak, wrapping itself around it, as if the forest tried to stop the two adventurers. “I can use my sword to cut that branch if so you wish.” the warrior proposed, while Bumble buns was looking for the six-sided dice. “No need to spend your spells on something as unimportant !” “Haha ! Found it ! “ the mare triumphantly announced as she retrieved the blue square from under a pile of papers and handed it to the Filly Master.

Name: Chestnut Sex: Male Age: Foal Species: Earth Pony Pelt Color: Brown. His muzzle is a cream beige color. Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: Very light green, generally messy. Eye Color: A very light, almost creamy beige. Cutie Mark: None yet ! Physique: He is a bit taller and stronger than colts his age. Origin: The family farm at the Nimbusgait Lakes. Roleplay Type: Mane RP. Occupation: Being a foal ! Motivation: Chestnut wants to find his cutie mark. That's a distant objective though, because surely he's going to be a farmer like everypony else in the family, and have a nut-related cutie mark, and that's boring ! Running around, having adventures, and discovering new things is much more interesting. He also does his best to help his family, and he especially likes to help mommy cook stuff. Character Summary: Chestnut was born in the Nimbusgait Lakes, in a big family, the Nut family, who had a big farm, and grew lots of different nuts ! He had many uncles, and many aunts, and many cousins too, and family reunions were lots of fun. He was named Chestnut, because chestnuts are cool ! You can eat them raw, you can roast them, you can turn them into candy, you can turn them into flour, and into bread, you can do a lot of things and they taste awesome too ! And the chestnuts trees were awesome trees too, they were big, and strong, and useful, and also not many other ponies in his family was named after a tree ! Chestnut liked his name very, very much. He liked living in the farm very much too. There was a lot of things to do, helping with the crops, helping with the animals, helping mom and dad with the cooking, and Chestnut loved to help. There was always somepony to play with, and the big barn and the great fields were like uncharted countries to explore for the little foal. Chestnut always had a lot of fun living here. The little foal had no cutie mark. He was sure to have a chestnut as a cutie mark eventually, because everypony in his family had a nut cutie mark, so he was going to have one too. That wasn't very fun - he never thought that having a nut cutie mark was something special if everypony in the nut family had a nut cutie mark too, but he never told anypony, of course, because surely they would get mad. Nuts are cool after all. He was also scared to have a different cutie mark - what would the other ponies think ? Maybe he would be kicked out of the family if he wasn't a nut pony ! But he never talked about that too, it was way too scary to ask mommy or daddy about it. All in all Chestnut wasn't sure he wanted to have a cutie mark. He liked having adventures with the other foals, he liked to try new games, to learn new things, but he never really searched what was his special talent like they did. He already knew it surely had something to do with nuts after all ! And he was happy the way he was.

Everypony introduced themselves and were soon chatting happily. They talked about work : Swift Kite was from Cloudsdale, she said, but had moved to the surroundings of Fillydelphia because she worked as an apprentice in a toy shop, and actually had a saddlebag full of little boats to deliver there. She seemed quite proud of what she did. Work … They all knew what they wanted to do ! Whirlwind had still no idea – but then again she still had time to figure it out, too. Stunt maker ? Or putting on a show ? Nah, what she did wasn't showy enough for this. Or something else entirely, completely unrelated to her love of flight … She didn't knew yet. Then Swift Kite asked what kind of stuff did Mojo sell in his wagon. Whirlwind exclaimed in a joyous tone : “Well, a lot of cool things ! He have these lamps with moving things in it, and poetry books, and a lot of hoof-made crafts and, uh, well, a lot of cool things ! ... I think Mojo will explain it better than me.” She gave the other pegasus filly a wide smile, and laid down on the roof on the wagon, letting the others speak.

Thunderhoof and Gold Rush cautiously entered the Everfree forest. The trees rapidly closed the skies over their heads, and very soon they were walking in a dense, obscure vegetation. They couldn't see any other living being, but they could hear muffled sounds around them, owl-like hoots over their heads, and sometimes, just off their visions, the bushes shuffled slightly. It looked like the Everfree forest was watching the two ponies. A little bit further up their way, the two adventurers could hear even stranger sounds, that seemed to indicate that another pony was lost and in need of help. Listening to nothing else but his courage and his desire to help everypony in need, the brave warrior Thunderhoof explained to his friend what he wanted to do. “We can't let a stranger alone in this forest, especially if they need help ! Let's investigate, my friend, and let my sword and your magic rescue this pony in need.” Bumble Buns was completely caught in the game. She accompanied all of her declarations with grand gestures of her hooves and did her best to speak in character. She was already having a lot of fun !

I have a lot of pony music too ! Here's a few of the ones I like most. http://snd.sc/eOgP00">http://snd.sc/eOgP00 Voodoopony makes awesome stuff sometimes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcVLJyIi2NE Another one by AlexS !

Yar ! Whirlwind was dressed as a pirate, with a cool black tricorne, a fake eye patch with a pony skull drawing on it, a sabre and a gun, and a peg leg oddly fitting on her amputated back leg. She still couldn't walk, but that didn't stop the little filly from having fun ! She had come to the Harvest Spook-Tacular festival with her parents, and was now happily flying around the festival grounds. Cotton candy, toy shops, carnival games, everything promised her she'd spend an awesome time here. But one thing attracted her attention : just off the main festival grounds, there was a “Pumpkin Patch” which really was more like a gigantic field full of pumpkins, of all sizes and all shapes. Curious, the little pony flew toward it. It was like entering in another world. The Pumpkin Patch was lit by a lot of tiny lanterns inside carved pumpkins : a thousand tiny orange dots of light dotted the fields and stretched the shadows across the pathways, lengthening the creepy smiles of the pumpkins. The only other light was coming from the stars, and both stretched as far as the eye could see. White dots and orange dots illuminated the world and reached the horizon, where they finally met. The place was calm, and eerily quiet : there wasn't many ponies walking around the patch at this time of the night, and the vastness of the fields and the skies made them look small and insignificant anyways. Here and there Whirlwind could hear sounds of ponies chatting, giggles and playful screams, or the muffled noises of the festival. And the carved pumpkins all smiled at her. Some of them had crudely shaped pointy teeth ; some of them bore evil looks. Some looked happy, some looked sad, some looked angry. Some even looked like carefully detailed works of art, picturing a pony, or a cat, or another thing. All of them, with their little light inside them that made their faces glow, were slightly disturbing. No wonder ponies said there were ghosts around here, the pink pegasus thought. This place was scarier than the haunted house, in its own way. Whirlwind flew around the field, looking at the pumpkins. She wanted to carve one ! Her parents had said she could, and that they wanted to buy a few pumpkins. She had her knife and everything and she was ready to play and create the creepiest pumpkin of them all. All she needed was to find the perfect one to carve. And so, looking for her pumpkin, deeper and deeper into the fields she flew ...

Bumble Buns imagined the scene ... Thunderhoof eyed the great forest warily. The Everfree wasn't natural : it was as if it had a life of it's own. Here, the clouds moved by themselves, the plants grew without any tending, and the animals took care of themselves on their own. Some of them were big enough to eat a pony, and mean enough to consider it. It was a dangerous place to enter. His sword and his armor brought little reassurance, and he hoped he wouldn't have to use them – but he knew it was a fool's hope. Trotting along with him was his friend and comrade-in-arms the wizard Gold Rush. Together they were on a mission ; they were to find and explore the Lunar Castle, for a great evil laid in it. It was a great danger to the simple ponies living nearby, and they had to do something about it. “What are we waiting for ? Let's enter the forest !” Bumble Buns the young ma – The mighty Thunderhoof exclaimed with his strong and serious voice.

This is fifty six pages long ! Wow

It wasn't easy to find the toys without glasses. The world was nothing but a mass of colors and blurry shapes for Moondrop. She scanned the ground with her hooves, moving carefully, trying not to get stepped on by anypony. She was so focused on her search that she didn't notice the pony coming to help her. The white unicorn let out a little yelp of surprise when the stranger pony talked to her, announcing that she had collected every one of her things. “Yes ! I did ! Oh, thank you, thank you so much !” Moondrop thanked profusely. The mare seemed ... white, and green, and taller than her. She had purple eyes. But the unicorn couldn't figure out anything else without her glasses. Grateful and relieved, she took the toys and examined them carefully. The short-sighted mare had to put them very close to herself to see the details, almost to her snout – this one was okay, this one was okay too, there was one plushie who had been teared apart, and she would have to do some sewing, and a little chariot who had a broken wheel, but nothing she couldn't fix. She would just have to wash everything and make a few repairs here and there. Phew. Moondrop put everything in her saddlebags one by one, making sure that nothing was missing, and finally closed the bag with attentive care – she didn't wanted it to burst open a second time today, thank you very much. She turned toward her savior. “Thank you very much once again.” she was more collected this time. “I don't know what I would have done without your help. You see, I've broken my glasses, and I can't see anything at all without them.” She paused for an instant. “Could you …” she bit her lip, looking shy, and shuffled her hooves, as if she was lightly kicking something around. “Could you please do me another favor ? Could you guide me away from this street to a quieter place ? I'll manage on my own from there.” Moondrop didn't dare to ask more. She just intended to wait wherever the stranger leaded her, and try to find her way home when most of the ponies were asleep, or at least inside. She hoped it would be easier to find her house if the streets weren't as busy.

“Fine with me !” replied Bumble Buns. It looked like a good idea to remedy to the shortage of players. Besides, he was the one who knew how to play after all ! She read her character sheet in more details and started to roll dices when she was asked to, using Re-Roll's wizard sheet as an example and asking him questions whenever she didn't understood something. Pretty soon she had completed it, and Thunderhoof the mighty warrior was ready to take on the Lunar Castle with his double-hooved sword !

Poor you ! But I have to admit, it was pretty fun to read ! One minute is fine for hot chocolate (I live on that really) two if you like it very hot. Then again it depends on your microwave.

Night had just fell on Canterlot. Ponies were rushing in the streets, running here or there to go home, to buy the dinner before the stores closed, or whatever else they wanted to do. The city could be quite crowded during the early hours of the evening. It was like a confusing stream of pastel colors, and for the lonely white mare lost in the middle, a constant source of anguish. She kept bumping on random strangers, excusing herself, meekly try to move a few steps out of the way only to fall back in her starting place as she got in another pony's way. Moondrop was lost. She was also scared, although she did her best not to show it. Ponies could handle crowds, couldn't they ? She had no real reason to be confused like this, she just wasn't used to it ! She had ventured far away from home, visiting a distant (but fantastic !) toyshop, and now she was getting in the way of everypony, her long red cloak was being stepped on, making her trip, her saddlebags (full of wooden toys, plushies, and books) bumped on strangers, who gave her hard stares. And she couldn't see a single way out of this mass of ponies. And then she tripped on something, and with a muffled “oof!” fell on the ground. Her chin painfully met the street's hard cobblestone paving, one of her bags burst open, the toys rolling away, and she felt her glasses jump off her nose. Oh, no ! Panicking now, and as blind as a mole, she started to scan the ground with her hooves, searching for her glasses, hoping she could find them before ... until she heard a saddening “crunch”somewhere on her left. Moving her hoof in that general direction, she finally retrieved her glasses, broken beyond repair. She held them against her chest and silently cried. She was so lost now. She couldn't see a thing, she knew her precious toys were being trampled by careless ponies, she was far from home, and she didn't knew what to do anymore. Oh, she shouldn't have gone so far away from her house all alone ! The white unicorn bit her lip. She was grown up mare now ! She couldn't let herself go like a little filly anymore. Snifing and trying to contain her tears, she put her hat back in place and searched for her lost items once more, desperately sweeping the ground with her hooves.

“Well I'd like to be a warrior !” the farmer mare replied. “A brave warrior pony, virtuous and chivalrous, that protect civilian ponies and fight evil !” The idea had struck her enough to create half a dozen stories for that character. A warrior, or a paladin, is what she wanted to play. Her face fell when the Filly Master mentioned that it was a funnier game if it was played with more than two ponies. “Well, I don't have any friends ...” she started awkwardly, then added quickly : “I mean, here, I have none in the Harvest Spook-Tacular festival. Perhaps we'll meet another pony who's willing to give it a try ?” “And my name is Bumble Buns.” the young mare concluded, on her guards now. She really wanted to try his game of Forest and Fillies, but if the colt started to make fun of her name ... she would probably go away. “What is yours ?” she asked in return.

"Okay !” Bumble Buns replied. She caught the dices, the pencil, the character sheet, and the rulebook. The other pony's explanations and a light skimming through the rulebook explained in better details what the game was about : she was going to pretend to be a warrior, a mage, a thief, or any other kind of “hero”, going through great adventures against whatever villain the Filly Master invented. It looked like storytelling made into a boardgame. Fun ! “So !” she continued, impatient to start. “I can be anything I want from the list right ? Can I be a warrior ? A strong and courageous pony that protect the weak and the innocent, or something like this !”

“Oh I'd love to give it a try !” Bumble Buns rejoiced happily. “There's all those little figurines you see, and all those pictures, and it all looks very interesting.” She hoped the rules wouldn't become too big a problem ; remembering a lot of things at once was not something she was very good at. “So, Forest and Fillies is like a board game you say – but there are tons of different boardgames ! How does this one works ?” she continued, asking questions after questions to the stallion dressed as a wizard in front of her. She wouldn't stop until her curiosity was satisfied.

( Ooc : no problem The-Jaded-Bug ! And don't worry, you write very well ! I'm looking forward to more lengthy posts like this Though don't feel forced to do long either ! Have fun ! ) Whirlwind sighed. Even if she was, she couldn't be angry, and she knew it. They all meant well : they were worried about her, and they all did their best to help since the beginning. It's just that the doctors, her parents, even her friends, everypony treated the little pegasus like she couldn't do anything on her own. Starflower apologized. Mojo and Jubilee tried to explain that the unicorn had reasons to look worried. The pink filly just nodded. They were just worried about her, every one of them, even the stranger pegasus filly over there – wait, what ? A pink-red pegasus young mare had barged in, obviously scared for Whirlwind as well. She timidly introduced herself, saying her name was Swift Kite, with apologies for introducing herself uninvited like this. Whirlwind cringed inwardly. Did she looked so weak that even random strangers were concerned about her health ? “Hello Swift Kite,” she replied simply, “And it's ok everyone, I understand. I'm sorry I've scared you like this. I didn't mean to snap at you too.” She fiddled her hooves for a moment, as if she was lightly kicking something around. “It's just that … I love to fly, really, you know, it's even what my cutie mark means ! And I love doing crazy things and going very fast too. I crashed into a lot of things, but I'm strong, I don't mind, I can take it ! But ever since the accident … Well, I can't walk anymore, so everypony babysit me, and worries a lot, and try to make sure nothing happens to me.” “And well, it's all nice and stuff, but sometimes I feel like I'm in a cage, sometimes I feel like I've lost my wings too.” Whirlwind chuckled. “It's silly right ?” she was starting to feel like she was. “I'll be able to fly again soon, but …” she stopped her ramblings. “Anyways, I'm sorry I snapped at you, and I'm not mad anymore.” she smiled sincerely. She straightened up, and looked at Swift Kite, trying to look friendly. “So, um, hello ! I'm Whirlwind, I'm from Cloudsdale ! The white pegasus is Jubilee, the brown stallion is Mojo, and the blue unicorn is Starflower ! We sell stuff! Welcome here !”

I've just bought the complete works of Saint-John Perse. Now I have another poetry book to finish, next to Nazim Hikmet, Louis Aragon, Robert Frost and Virgil. I shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a bookshop really !