Tempest Rime

Well, Mr. and Mrs. Cake haven't been taken by anyone, but they are fairly important to Pinkie Pie, so I've taken a few liberties with having them in threads at Sugarcube Corner. As long as you don't focus too much on side characters and don't develop them beyond the canon, I would just go ahead and use them as you would any other NPCs. It'd be awfully difficult to tread around their existence, and using them as supporting characters helps ground the RP within the setting. Of course, I'm not in charge of policy. That's just my two cents on the matter.

"Sure you can use them," burbled Pinkie, her expression brightening. She was always happy to be helpful, even in the midst of her interrogation. "Anyway, um, what would you want the lemons for? And of course we want to know what your purpose is. If you're not a spy like you claim, you ought to be able to tell us that much. Duh." As she spoke, Pinkie attempted to shove her entire body through a small loop, in the mistaken impression that she could get herself out of the tangle through doing so. Instead, she simply constricted the ropes around the stallion and got herself further knotted up. "Hnng. Well that didn't work," she said as she ended up upside-down tied to Dark's back. Gummy, for his part, simply released his bite as DC attempted to shake him off, quite content to shift his focus from the stallion to his owner, where he latched onto Pinkie's voluminous tail. "Oh!" She brightened up as a thought occurred to her. "I get it now! You want those lemons to scare somepony don't you? It all makes sense now. You're a prankster like me." She grinned. "You were probably sneaking in here looking for somepony to prank, too. Ha, well you should have known better than to try to pull one over on ol' Pinkie Pie! That's me. And this here," she flailed a hoof in the general direction of the purple unicorn, "is my new friend Carousel the Purple. So what about you, what's your name? 'Cause otherwise I can just keep calling you 'spy'." She seemed quite content to continue the conversation as if she was not tied up in a somewhat compromising position.

"Ah, my dear Lady Trixie, your naïveté in regards to science is endearing. Scientific progress is never done in a vacuum. All great advances have been done by those working on the designs of those who came before them. And the research is not done simply out of curiousity, nay, the cliché that necessity is the father of invention is quite a truism." She paused to take a deep breath. "Your own magical potency is a prime example of why unicorn magic defeats the need for scientific advances. Why would any pony build a machine to levitate objects when any unicorn can accomplish such a feat without such a machine? To us griffins however, such a device would open up a host of new possibilities. As such the mere presence of unicorn magics has drastically reduced your society's dependence upon technology, at the price of innovation within said field." "Of course, your society may lack the technological progress, but you do have your own advances, most of which are based on those who came before you, just as ours are. The difference is that your initial advances were in the field of the magical arts. Thus while you may lag behind us in our area of expertise, you have your own area of expertise we have no inroads upon. What I therefore seek to do is to merge our separate, entirely different ways of thinking, and should I succeed we will all benefit from an unprecedented amount of new possibilities." She turned to redress the Doctor's final words, but found that he had already gone inside while she had pontificated to Trixie. "Oh he's gone. I didn't get a chance to find out the theory behind his little magic detector. Well, I'm certain I can figure out something similar, he did mention the material he used. If I can use that device to find a naturally occurring source of magic, I'll be halfway to merging the disciplines of magic and technology. Ah well, I'd best get looking for my missing associates, I do hope they didn't get eaten in the forest. Replacing my equipment out this far from Talonopolis would be nearly impossible." She gave Trixie a polite nod of her head. "Thank you once more for the guidance into town, and for the titillating conversation. Fare thee well." With a smug smile, Lola walked off toward the center of town.

Trottingham. The stink of the city she had spent half her childhood within brought a revolted sneer to Malediction's face. She found herself walking the dirty old roads on the familiar route to the old orphanage. The run down place had seen better days, even when Mal had first been placed there. Now the facilities had relocated uptown, and the building was sitting abandoned amidst the noxious smells from the refineries upwind. The neighborhood was empty now. Mal stood for a long time, simply staring at the old building, remember how much she despised everything about her time spent there. The bitter nostalgia washed over her, building into am unstoppable force of hate, and she summoned up every ounce of magic in her. A wash of emerald flames blasted from her horn into the old building, lightning it up in a freezing inferno. As she focused her fury upon it, she imagined the faces of the other children, trapped inside, begging for mercy. She envisioned the deaths of everyone she'd known here in graphic detail as she razed the building to the ground. Finally, the building was gone, nothing more than ash and frost. She breathed a cathartic sigh as the weight of that little piece of her past seemed to disappear. Then the sound of bells stirred her from her reverie, as the firefighters grew near. There was no risk of her flames spreading unless she wished them to, but any fire so close to the industrial centers would be considered a major threat. Not wishing to be caught, Mal cantered off towards the opposite side of town. She ran for some time, passing out of the slums, through the mercantile districts, and into the nicer residential areas. She glanced behind her to see if she had any pursuers, and in the moment she wasn't looking, she barreled full-speed into Dixie. Mal tumbled to the ground, taking a painful knock to the side of her head. She got to her feet immediately, but her vision swam, and her reserves of anger had been used up on the orphanage. "Wha-? Uh, who?" Was all she managed to utter, before slumping down and putting one hoof to her head. "Ow," she said dejectedly, melancholy taking over where she would normally have drawn upon rage.

I generally only go to small concert venues, so I don't get to see really big bands who do gigs for thousands of people. It's not really worth it to me unless I can shove my way right up next to the band and seriously rock out. Does mean I miss out on some great shows, but I like to be able to see the band.

"Okay," said Pinkie happily as she turned to address the new ponies. "This is the town square. It's where the town meets for important events and announcements, like when the mayor gives a speech, or when we have big town parties! Right in the center here is the town hall, where the mayor's office is and, uh, governmenty-type stuff happens. So if you need any of that kind of things, that's where that is." Pinkie continued walking down one of the streets that intersected at the town square, taking a series of turns that began to lead them through the city via a meandering course without rhyme or reason to it. "That building over there is Rarity's boutique. She makes dresses, and she's really smart about things like colors and not putting too much candy on your gala dress. She's famous on the fashion scene, I think, she even designed the dresses for Sapphire Shores' last tour." "Down this way," she made another few unnecessary turns, "is the doctor's office. Ponyville's small enough that there's not a big hospital, but there's always a nurse on staff and a doctor on call, just in case a piano falls your head." She smiled, then a strange look came over her as her nose wiggled. She rubbed it with her knee for a moment before calling out "HIDE!" and leaping under a porch moments before a swarm of angry hornets burst from a nearby tree.

If any of you are AC/DC fans, you should try to catch a concert by Hells Belles. They're an all-women AC/DC cover band, and they were awesome. Also, if you like newer heavy metal and horror monsters, Lordi puts on an amazing stage show, complete with what must be stifling monster costumes. I'm still jealous of you getting to see Heart, though, I love Heart. Leppard is good too, but Heart owns.

Lola returned from washing up and sat outside the hospital room, awaiting any news of the peryton's condition. She pulled a hand mirror from her purse, checking to be sure the blood had all washed out. Griffin feathers actually cleaned up fairly easily from blood, as they were a race of hunters by nature. The thought caused Lola to ponder just what could have caused the peryton's injuries. She would not have been surprised to see something like that closer to the Everfree, or from any common brawl back home, but they were deep in pony territories, where there were very few predators. She resolved to ask the peryton, building her already piqued curiosity into an insatiable force. She could easily have simply left if not for her curiousity, as while the creature's injuries had been severe, she was quite confident that it would live. She'd seen worse injuries treated without magic, and the nurse had informed her that there was a specialist in healing magic there. She checked her appearance one more time, ensuring there weren't any feathers out of place, before pulling out a notebook and scribbling some notes on a device she had been working on. ((OOC: Lola's on standby, she'll jump back in when the doctor tells her Snow is ready, but go ahead and skip me freely until then.))

Tempest blinked at Aqua's whispered comment. The hippocamp usually had a much better social sense than her, so she endeavored to avoid holding anything against the repair pony. She extended a hoof to meet Klondike's with a sharp shake. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mister Klondike," she said formally. "Inkwell... Inkwell... doesn't ring any bells. Um, but I don't really tend to run in artistic social circles. Most of the ponies I spend time with tend to me more practically-minded. Uh, not that there's anything wrong with art of course. I, um... I actually do a little bit of ice sculpting. As a hobby." She blushed as she admitted it. She'd never even mentioned her sculpting to Aqua Drop, and since she kept her works in her house high above the city where they wouldn't melt, nopony had seen them.

Lola had taken a day off from her research in Canterlot to visit the port town of Hoofington, hoping to find exotic goods from far-off lands that might help her in her search for a magic-generating material, and just maybe some fish to supplement the bland vegetarian diet she was forced to endure in Canterlot. As she flew, the scent of blood jarred her from her daydreaming about science, and she swung towards it, wondering what could possibly smell like that in a pony town. She spotted the injured peryton just as the poor creature collapsed. She landed near it, sizing up its wounds for a moment. It had been walking, so it likely didn't have any spinal injuries, so the griffiness decided it would be safe enough to move her. She delicately lifted it up and managed to push it onto her back, wincing at the mess the blood was going to leave on her wings, but doing a good deed would hopefully serve to better relations between griffins and perytons, making it worth a little extra preening later on. "Excuse me," she asked of a nearby pony, "where is the town doctor?" The shocked pony simply pointed down the street, which was good enough for the griffiness. She lugged the small creature into the hospital, depositing her in the care of the nurses and then excusing herself to clean off the blood. She wanted to make a good impression on the peryton when it awoke, after all. ((OOC: You might want to throw a dark highlight on your white text, so we can read it without having to select it. ))

Quite pleased with the dance, Mal flashed a playful smile at DeMasque as he held her. She reached up and put a hoof around him in order to pull herself in close. "If you feel like it, you can come by my place anytime." Her horn glowed briefly as she levitated a napkin over from the hors d'oeuvres table and some black lipstick from a pocket within her dress. She scrawled the address of her shop in Canterlot onto the napkin and tucked it into his jacket pocket. "Make sure you keep the mask on, though." She winked as she stood up, sauntering off with a smug smile. She stepped off the dance floor as the next piece started, a slow piece that Mal had no interest in dancing to. Besides, she'd made her scene, there was little point to lingering any longer. She glanced around at the crowd, many of whom were still looking at her. The last thing she wanted was to be chatted up by a bunch of buffoons, so with one last glance back at the strange stallion, she elected to make her escape, walking determinedly toward the main hall and the exit.

"Hmmm... how about, 'perfectly pulchritudinous perky pink party pony, professional purveyor of pastries, and playfully plucky prankster?'" Supplied Pinkie helpfully. "Anyway, I suppose I could let you go, but isn't that exactly what a SPY would want? I mean, I haven't gotten a successful recipe yet, but how would I know you weren't still spying around, looking over my shoulder? As long as I've got you here, though, I'll know that you're looking over my shoulder, so you won't be able to spy successfully." She attempted to step back for a moment, tripping over the rope that tied her to the spy, and sending her toppling over him. "Ouch," she said as she sat up on top of him. "Besides, I'm not really sure how to untie us," she admitted. She paused as she sat on top of him, considering his earlier outburst for a moment. Gummy reappeared from wherever he had been hiding during the scuffle and gave DC an inquisitive chomp on the snout. "So what does being left-hooved have to do with sneaking around back here, anyway?"

((I've been trying to bug Cat into posting. So, hopefully so.))

"Wicked," said Mal, grinning at the spectacle they were making. She glanced out at the onlookers, hoping to catch a glimpse of that wretched Peryton from the forest, or possibly one of the royals. She didn't manage to spot them if they were there, however. "The big finish is coming up soon, think you can pull off a toss? Flip me into the air and catch me? If I'm too heavy for you, you can always cheat with a little magic." She sneered a bit at the thought that a skinny pony like her might be too heavy for him. Even in the best of moods, she was not above a few veiled insults.

(OOC: I lost track of this thread for a while. First I was waiting to see if anyone else would respond, then I just forgot it was here. Hopefully we can breathe some life back into it.) Tempest shook her head and gave a disapproving humm. "Mmmn, I'm Tempest, my friend here is Aqua Drop," she corrected. "And the word you're looking for is 'hippocamp,'" she added, irritation creeping into her voice. She didn't much care for the hypocrite comment, either. It was a good thing that Aqua Drop was more understanding about that sort of thing than she was, or she'd probably have gotten a bit snarky. Well, a bit snarkier. At Rose's comment, however, she brightened considerably. "You think so? That's great, I didn't want to be in anything too similar to anypony else, but I wasn't sure that would go over well." She paused. "Exes, hmm. That would be... awkward, I suppose." Tempest had never had an ex, so she had nothing to base that on. "Umm, I appologize if you introduced yourself already, but I don't think I caught your name..."

"Clearly he was trying to steal my new secret recipe!" Pinkie yelled as she jumped off her captive. Or tried to jump at least, as she'd gotten her rear legs tangled in the mass of rope as well as the intruder, and she went careening into a counter, dragging Dark Core along with her and spilling a large bag of flour onto them both. "Oops." She tugged at her legs for a moment before shrugging and simply pulling the stallion along after her. "Well, Mister SPY, if you want to try my tasty treats today instead of waiting for them to be finished, then I guess you just volunteered to help me test them out. Now, let me get the one I was just worki-" Before she could finish her sentence, there was a loud pop and the lid of the pan on the stove was sent flying, where it slammed into the ceiling with a clang before falling back down onto the counter. The blue stuff itself leapt out of the pan and bounced around the room, somehow maintaining a cohesive mass rather than splattering apart until it chanced to bounce out an open window. Pinkie frowned. "Ok, guess we're not trying that one, on to the lollipops then." She pulled out one of the lollipops and dipped in into a jar. When she attempted to pull it out to give it to her captive, however, she couldn't get it out, as the contents had frozen solid. "Freezing? That's weird, it doesn't feel cold." She reached into a cabinet and retrieved a chisel. She chipped a piece out and dropped it into a bowl of water, which also froze immediately, in spite of it remaining at room temperature. "Darnit, I guess that's not edible either. I just hope I can melt this junk out of my dishes." She set the bowl on a stove to attempt to boil it back into water. "Well what now, either of you have any preferences, there's lots of things left to try."

"Ah, I understand. And yes, actually, I was heading straight to the source itself, as it were. To Canterlot, the city of magic and whatnot. Though I'm not just seeking news of current events, I'm heading there to research magic. If I can find a way to replicate some of the more unique effects of unicorn magic through technology, it could revitalize the whole griffin empire, not to mention put my clan at the top of the pecking order." She smiled. "Of course, it's not just us who would benefit either. I also wish to strengthen relations between our countries and increase trade between us. In fact, if I'm successful, you may find yourself with significantly more travelers through here than you are used to."

"How preposterous. Leadership requires the ability to make sacrifices for the greater good. Besides, I'm not saying I'd intentionally throw lives away, that would be abominable, but rejecting potential advances simply because a few people died in the process is nothing more than a waste of valuable information. Implying that the knowledge itself can be somehow 'tainted' is superstitious twaddle. Science doesn't care for morality, it is simply the undiluted objective truth that it seeks as best it can, and even a flawed scientific theory can lead to greater insights through analyzing its failings." Lola sighed. "I wonder if it isn't your reliance on unicorn magic that has lead to such a primitive outlook on science in these lands. I actually had the good fortune to meet a pony scientist hiding out in the forest with some quite phenomenal ideas. And rather than be supported by society, he was driven out to work in secrecy. It's shameful, I tell you. One way or another progress will come here, and you'd do well to support it."

"Hmm, the same doesn't apply to the waltz? If anything, the waltz is a bit easier." By this time, the area around them had mostly cleared out, as they dominated the center of attention. "Looks like we're already center stage, what do you say we spice up the show a little more?" She winked, and her horn began to glow the distinctive red and green aura her magic created. Small tongues of green flame shot out into the air around them, where she twisted them into patterns in time with their dance like a troupe of incandescent backup dancers. "Care to add anything with your magic?" She whispered, giving DeMasque a faux-coy look.

No, he does have a good point. We really don't have a lot of ponies who are from/have a reason to visit Fillydelphia. Appleloosa, Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and even Manehattan all have actually been developed a little bit, and are located somewhat centrally, so that they can be conceivable destinations, or stops on the way to a destination when it comes to having a pony show up in a thread there. Even the griffon cities have draws, since we've taken the time to flesh them out a little. Fillydelphia, on the other hand, we know almost nothing about, and it's located way down south where few ponies can really use it as a rest stop, so we're limited to those ponies who live there or can come up with a reason to be there specifically. I think the real solution to this is to expand the map south, add some other attractions, make Fillydelphia a more central place to be. And perhaps more importantly, flesh out Fillydelphia itself, think of some tourist attractions, maybe what its speciality in Equestrian society really is. Fillydelphia brainstorming thread, anyone?

Tempest smiled. "Besides, there's plenty of water right here if Aqua needs it." She pointed a hoof up at the sky, which was partly cloudy. "I may be small, but I am still a weather pony. I can pull a rain cloud down if need be. There's really nothing to worry about, I'm sure." Tempest scowled as Granola dashed off again. "How inconsiderate. She destroyed that flower pot, and left the pieces here where anypony walking could end up stepping on them. Just a moment, I'm going to clear that up." She disappeared back inside for a few seconds, emerging with a broom in her mouth, which she used to sweep the pieces of the flower pot up, gripping a dustpan between her hooves as she fluttered over the mess.

"Ponyvillians, I suppose." Tempest said in response to Scale Model's question. She opened her mouth to begin to say something else when the guard arrived and sent a bolt of flame into the air. Tempest disliked heat and flame at the best of times, when it was expected and well-controlled. As it was, she was already nervous, and had not expected it in the least. Her eyes went wide at the sight of it, and she shrieked "FIRE!" before bolting away, shooting into the air and out of Canterlot as fast as her small wings could carry her. She was clear of the city before she began to regret not waiting for Granola, or getting a chance to say goodbye to the Princess, but it would be much too awkward to return. She resolved to send a letter of appology to the Princess when she got home, and to look up Granola later on to make sure the earth pony was alright. (Exit)

Mal paid no attention to her partner for a while, until she was snapped back to reality momentarily, as she realized that she had forgotten to give any signs for a while. The masked pony hadn't missed a beat. On the next swing in, she leaned in close and whispered in his ear. "I guess you know this one, huh? And you didn't even need to practice." Secure in the knowledge that she didn't need to help him along, Mal really started to cut loose, wild revelry flowing through her. Her motions became more and more frenetic, as she actually started to throw herself around just to see if DeMasque would catch her. Perhaps the mask helped her, as there was no pretense of trust she had to deal with in doing so, there was only pure, reckless passion. She actually found herself laughing, a strange sound to her own ears. The two dominated the dance floor for the moment, quickly becoming the center of attention as they whirled around the room, but Mal's antisocial spite was forgotten in the face of her total abandonment of her inhibitions.

(OOC: Oops, I totally lost track of this thread for a while there.) Pinkie picked a random lollipop from the jar and popped it into her mouth, lodging it into the corner of her mouth so she could still speak almost normally. "Thanks a bunch. I'll be sure to keep your advice in mind." The slightly off taste of that weird sugar-free sweetener stuff mixed with the lingering taste of blood in her mouth from the still-healing cut, but Pinkie had eaten much worse, so she ignored the taste without difficulty. "Well... um..." She paused, searching for something she could say to solidify a friendship with the dentist. She had already exhausted her favorite subjects, however, and she was already looking forward to eating without that nagging pain. "I guess I'll see you around then. Bye." She pranced out, happy simply to be painlessly sucking on the lollipop as she wandered off. (Exit)

"Kaaw!" Lola squawked, disdainful of such arguments. "I've heard that sort of rubbish before. A defeatist attitude in the face of science. Had everyone throughout history been so cowardly in their outlook, we'd be lucky if we'd discovered fire by now. Being paralyzed by the specter of what could possibly happen is no way to advance the sciences. Science is like the hunt. When your prey strikes back at you, you don't let it go. You seize it by the throat until it stops kicking, or else you go hungry." Lola paused, realizing too late that the hunting metaphor would probably not go over as well with ponies as it usually did among her own kind. "Ahem, anyway my point is that disasters may very well happen in the course of progress, but our mistakes often teach us far more than our successes, and abandoning an entire course of research simply because a few hundred individuals perished in one little explosion does nothing more than cause those deaths to have been in vain."