TheInvisiblePony

Fantasy kicked her hoof, as she tried to think about Darkness' question. She was starting to get used to the situation again, and she began to feel more calm. Sure, she was still nervous, but she could certainly form thoughts more than a simple answer. [colour=#800080]"I... have no idea."[/colour] It was more or less true, she was out of her element. Well, her element was exploring, and they were still in the ruins so she was kind of in her element, but not at the moment. She felt as thought she should venture some sort of a guess, though, so she took a shot in the dark. [colour=#800080]"Although, perhaps we should get back to talking. I mean, nothing could go terribly wrong if we just talk."[/colour] That was actually a favorable idea, she realized. A slower paced conversation could give Fantasy a bit more time to work this out. She really did like Darkness, but she had no intention of ruining anything, which she somewhat feared doing. Fantasy was reminded of all of the social mazes in Canterlot, only she had no desire to try and navigate those.

Fantasy was stunned. She was just thinking she was overreacting when she thought Darkness was upset, when he continued. She was, in all sense of the term, rather speechless. She stood there, and slowly, her face flushed from her own surprise. Every time she seemed to be getting a handle on the situation, the story changed, for better or for worse. This was most likely for better, if only she could get used to the situation enough to think of something, anything, to say. It took a few more moments (or seconds, or maybe about a minute. She didn't really know) before she broke the silence. [colour=#800080]"Thank you." [/colour] Sure, it was quiet, nervous, and altogether shy, but she spoke with sincerity. Fantasy might not have thought about it, but she rarely got into these kind of situations because, after all, she was a traveler by profession. She never stayed in any one place long for much of anything besides exploring. She ventured a glance towards Darkness, only to notice he was looking away. The silence continued on past the brief interruption.

"Nonononono... I said something wrong, didn't I? By Discord's chocolate rain, I should think I could hold a conversation better given all those books I've read" Fantasy panicked slightly as Darkness blushed and looked at the floor. He looked rather embarrassed more than anything, which bothered the unicorn much more than she was willing to admit. She reflected on what she said, but she couldn't find any particular reason it should upset the pegasus as it did. She hadn't said anything rude, she hadn't implied anything in the slightest, she just didn't know what went wrong. And yet, she had to do something, as it just seemed wrong to have been the one to cause him any grief. "Well, perhaps now should be time to take a more classical approach, seeing as how winging it didn't work." Fantasy paused in thought, as she thought of just what the classical approach was. She strained her memory, before coming up with something she reasoned would provide an apology, or support, or something along those lines. [colour=#800080]"No, please don't be upset! You shouldn't have too here. Remember what I had said before we entered? 'Birds of a feather and all that' I believe it was. If you go and get upset by something I said, well, that just doesn't seem right. Besides, I like you much better when you're happier." [/colour]She closed her eyes as she ventured this little shot in the dark. It could either make things better, or much, much worse. She hoped deeply for the former.

Fantasy nodded, and quickly met Darkness' pace. She was somewhat happier as they started heading back, for merely the mention of books seemed uplifting. Rather shallow perhaps, but anything that lifts the spirits shouldn't be considered negative. She didn't have much time to reflect, as the trip back to the 2nd room hadn't actually taken much time. Reintroduced to the desk and the shelves of various tomes, Fantasy stopped and faced the pegasus, figuring she should be somewhat direct about a couple of her thoughts. If she minded her tactfulness, there would be little harm in it [colour=#800080]"Something has been piquing my thoughts regarding your swooping back there, now that I think about it. It seemed somewhat... out of character, if you will. Thing is, nopony makes that sudden of a move while breaking character. Not on a reflex anyways. So, the thing is, I think I learned more about you back there than this entire, oh, let's call it an adventure for now. I can certainly respect anypony who can act that quickly, so it would seem that you've more than earned yours."[/colour] She paused, hoping that didn't come across as slightly pompous. It wasn't of course, but things could be so hard to phrase just right, it could be difficult to tell often enough. She walked over to the desk (which she had payed very little attention too the last time through) and faced the pegasus. She wasn't quite nervous anymore. It could be dreadfully tiring being shy to just one person, as she learned in her youth.

Welcome aboard! Have fun bench pressing people who are bench pressing llamas. Me? You're asking how tough I am? HOW TOUGH AM I?!? Well, let's just say I got on Celestia's bad list... -Yeah, so? I'm typing this as an immobile statue. Through sheer will power.

Fantasy stared at Darkness for a brief moment, confused as to why he want to call it quits for a moment or two. Course, if he didn't want to explore, it would be almost mean if she continued egging him on, especially after the concern he showed. She looked back up to the statue for one brief last look, then spoke. [colour=#800080]"Alright then. Shall we head back outside, or backtrack to the library?"[/colour] While going through her chit-chat, she walked over to the lever and turned it back off. No sense in letting it run, especially after the trouble it caused. In a few steps, she was where she started, that is to say, next to Darkness.

To keep churning out my own. Eventually one of them would be world changing. Whenever you do something awesome, would you like the power to: A) Have various explosions go off behind you as if Michael Bay was directing your life. or B) Have your completely original yet pretty darn cool theme music play.

How did you know I'm a console person? Its like you're a psychic! The person below me can sing the elements song by Tom Lehrer. By memory, might I add.

They don't have to make sense. If they did, I doubt this thread would belong here. Okay, to be honest, I just wanted an excuse to post this: It is very relevant to my interests.

Apparently every one of my friends turned down another friend of mine's request to have everyone go as the power rangers. In the absence of that, we've decided to go as a duo: Myself as Doctor Horrible and my friend as Captain Hammer. This should prove to be interesting if we can get the costumes ready in time. Also: This is brilliant. Here, have the main six's cutie marks:

It all happened fairly quickly, as Fantasy began to turn around to listen to Darkness' shout, then suddenly she was hoisted into the air by the pegasus. The flight lasted about as long as it started, and fairly quickly the caught-off-guard Fantasy listened to the stallion's, well, Fantasy didn't quite know what to call it. She listened, just a bit stunned by the intensity of it all, and didn't say much. When Darkness sat down, she took a minute to collect her thoughts, not knowing quite what to say. (then again, this wouldn't be the first time) [colour=#800080]"Well, erm... I guess I didn't really think that through. I suppose if one visits enough old ruins, one just kind of leaps before one looks. I don't think you should be the apologizing though. I really didn't mean to worry you."[/colour] She took a second pause to stare at her cut. Somewhere inside her mind her story loving persona practically wanted to scream 'Tis but a flesh wound!', and while it was more or less true, that probably wouldn't be appropriate at the moment. Especially after Darkness' unexpected swooping. She tried to think of some reason why he'd be that concerned, but she did realize stumbling backwards on a hill did probably look mildly concerning. Feeling some leftover confidence, she ventured a joke. [colour=#800080]"So, I don't suppose you'd like to give the statue a closer look? I've already been acquainted with the hill its on..."[/colour]

Following closely behind Darkness, the mare didn't quite get a good look at the statue until after the pegasus had made his statement. Stopping beside him, Fantasy looked up at the vaguely technological hill and was just as amazed as she went back to adventurer mode. It was indeed a statue of the mare on the moon, which showed an almost fanatic devotion of whoever made it. That said, Fantasy stared at it for a good while, attempting to take in every detail. The statue was tremendously well sculpted, or at least appeared to be, and the gears looked almost intertwined with the rocks. Fantasy wondered if they were supposed to do anything, when looking around the room, she noticed a small little lever, just rusted and dull enough to camouflage itself near the door. Caught up in the moment, the mare did what any reasonable pony would do upon finding a switch in a shrine dedicated to something that technically wasn't around anymore. She pulled it of course! In a matter of moments, the gears creaked and despite any wear and tear they may have had, they seemed to work well enough. Eventually, as the gears spiraled up the mountain to the statue, it began to turn until... nothing happened. [colour=#800080]"Well that's disappointing. Darn thing must be jammed. Stay here a moment, I'll go see what exactly is the problem"[/colour] With a few awkward hops as she got used to the terrain, Fantasy made it up about halfway up the hill when there was a large noise, as if something jamming the gears just snapped, and the gears started turning again. This included the one Fantasy was standing on currently. She stumbled backwards out of surprise, and scratched her hoof on the gear as she regained her balanced. She winced in pain, and glanced upwards at the statue, which was doing very little besides turning in circles.

Currently, I am in the middle of reading a book titled 'Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Dungeons and Dragons" Yeah, so that's a thing. And must I say, its a fairly lighthearted read, but its not bad at all. I'm rather enjoying it, or the majority of it.

Fantasy looked at Darkness as she thought about his conclusion. The more she thought about it, the she realized he was rather right, at which point she flashed a smile at the pegasus. [colour=#800080]"With a talent like that, I'm starting to think you're getting better than me with this whole explore-the-ruins routine! You should consider doing this more often. Celestia knows that the world has enough secrets. Or rather, perhaps she doesn't."[/colour] Looking around the shrine/sanctuary, she reasoned that is was abandoned at the very least with Luna's return. After all, that's when the mare on the moon ceased to show up on the moon, and it was a long while ago. Fantasy sighed. That probably meant there wouldn't be any ruin monsters. She had yet to run into any, but all the action heroes in books did. No matter, focus on the task at hand! [colour=#800080]"I wonder why they'd build it out here, of all places. Rather risky, placing it so close to Canterlot."[/colour]

((OCC: Oh, that's certainly good to hear!)) Fantasy was terribly excited at this point. What an excellent story this would be! Despite her somewhat trademark naive sense of adventure, she couldn't help but shake an unsettling feeling. She kept scanning the books, thinking that if she could find one title that looked familiar she would have a bit of an anchor to work off of. Sadly, that was not to be, as she froze at the sound of the whispers. "What in Starswirl's beard?!" She tried scanning the shadows beyond Page's light spell but couldn't see anything. Well, not counting the books. [colour=#800080]"Yes, I think I heard that. What in Equestria is going on here? Last time I checked, magic was rarely this, well, creepy. Assuming this is magic, but by now I'd reason that's a forgone conclusion. But hay, look on the bright side, I think your library just doubled in stock."[/colour] She chuckled despite the situation. Or maybe it was because of the situation. Whichever it was, a lighthearted thought usually helps out morale.

Fantasy was slightly confused when Darkness just nodded, but that was mainly because she was still slightly flustered. It took a moment longer then it should have, but she got the general gist of it. Breathing a sigh of relief, she spoke again. [colour=#800080]"Okay then. I guess you can lead the way this time around. It wouldn't be very fair if I hogged all of the adventure!" [/colour] She still had quite a bit on her mind though, namely that last comment. How in Equestria did she not see that one? Had she really come to be that clueless? Mentally sighing again, Fantasy decided it would be pointless to go down that route, and instead devote more thought to reacting to this. Tucking the book she had away for later, she re-adjusted her hat (which had become somewhat lopsided after her surprise), and she waited to follow Darkness.

Let's see if I can't give this a try... Fantasy Trope: I'd say something like kindness. She's extremely polite to just about anypony. It is a bit hard to classify her, though. This one took some thought. Silver Lining: Definitely Generosity. She spends the vast majority of her time making cloud sculptures to share with the world, she rarely charges for them, and she constantly makes them because they don't last as long as she'd like.