Tempest Rime

Fortunately, the new season of Doctor Who is just starting up. Saturday is my new Friday.

"Deafen yourself? Yeah great, that's about as useful as blinding yourself to avoid getting turned to stone by a cockatrice. how about just drowning out the noise? If I could create enough loud, background noise, would that be enough to stop it, or would it still affect me through it?" She frowned at the mention of Tenderbloom's missing friend. "So what do you want us to do about it? I'm no tracker. If your friend went and got herself eaten in the woods, there's not much I could do to help, even if I wanted to. Although... hmm, I might be willing to help search for her if you could return the favor. I've been trying to find some ancient ruins, but I have no idea where to go. You live around here, do you know the way?" Mal glanced back at Champ. "I can't fault your determination, pipsqueak, but you're a moron if you think you can handle this forest alone." She raised a hoof to her face and pushed her hair to the side, showing him her missing eye. "This is the least that can happen when you underestimate this forest, champ." She said, using his name without realizing it.

Hmm, how would you feel about being a Goldplume instead of Goldenclaw? Aside from being upper class, there's nothing else nailed down about the Goldplume clan, so you'd still have plenty of room to expand on the family. Plus, you'd have the disconnect between his noble birthright and his chosen profession, could be a lot of fun to play around with. And we do need more upper-class griffins. Ashi's got the chart of the noble griffin families here: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=737

Tempest smiled. "Well, Ponyville is hardly the most impressive city in Equestria, so don't get your hopes up too much. It's a small town, we're sort of out in the middle of the agricultural center of the kingdom. But that does mean that the food around here is always fresh. Back in Cloudsdale we had to import everything from here, which isn't a super long way away, but there's still a markable difference." She dropped back down to the ground in order to better keep pace with Aqua. There was no reason to hurry, anyway. She trotted alongside at a leisurely pace, actually finding herself enjoying the company rather than the usual self-conscious strain socializing usually produced in her. She was baffled by Aqua's question. "Odd looks? Why would anypony give me odd looks? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll be quite curious at first, but once the novelty of meeting a hippocamp wears off, I'm sure nopony will take issue with your species. They even got over their fear of the spooky zebra who lives in... the Everfree Forest." Tempest's voice dropped to a loud whisper as she mentioned the forest. Just the name sent shivers down her spine. "And there it is," she said as they crested the hill and the town stretched out before them. "In all its humility. It's not that much to look at, but it's a fine place to live."

"P-Princess!?" Tempest's eyes widened, and she glanced back to the wings. "Oh my goodness, I'm sorry, I didn't even notice... I should have recognized you immediately from that ceremony thing back in Ponyville." Now she was making a fool of herself in front of royalty. Just great. "I didn't mean lost, I mean, I did, but you live here, right? At the castle, so that's stupid, you just looked sort of distant, like someone might look if they were lost, even if they weren't..." Now she was rambling. "I, uh, oh, I should bow, shouldn't I?" She dropped down on her knees quickly. "I didn't meen to be improper, your highness. It is 'your highness', that I should be calling you right? I've never spoken to royalty before. Please forgive me if I make a mistake." She gulped nervously. She didn't want to get banished or something, and she didn't know anything about Princess Luna aside from what she'd heard in Ponyville. And that was mostly from Rainbow Dash's bragging.

Mal glared at the pegasus as they followed her. She did not like being ignored. She tromped irreverently through the garden, unimpressed. She'd lived in Canterlot, with its fantastical architecture, and that hadn't impressed her, either, so the beauty of the little garden was lost on her. "Stay? I dunno, I don't really want to be staying here too long with some creepy plant-loving pegasus. No offense." Mal sneered. "I just want to know how you were able to paralyze me like that. And how I can avoid it in the future in case someone else pulls it on me and isn't so amiable afterwards, ya know?" She turned her attention back to the kid. "All pony towns are full of idiots, kid. Get used to it. And most of them would probably ship you right back home if you showed up as a runaway. But either way, you definitely took a wrong turn somewhere to end up in here. These woods aren't exactly on the beaten path to get anywhere."

"Hmmm, not the most well-mannered assistant is he?" Lola muttered of Sprocket. "Still, I suppose the advancement of science takes all sorts. So you say you're attempting to manufacture clouds, but what exactly are you planning to do with them after that? They'll just float around on their own without someone or something to move them, won't they?" She made a point not to comment on his rant on the pegasus 'monopoly' or whatever. She didn't know much of pony politics, but to her mind, monopoly just meant good business sense. Still, no reason to alienate this strange pony right off the bat. She made a mental note not to mention her business policies to him, and continued. "A scientist you say. How fascinating. As it happens, I am something of an inventor myself. I've worked on designs for a few airships and miscellanious odds and ends. Still, if you're trying to reinvent the wheel, as far as creating clouds, perhaps it might be a little more productive to engage in a bit of espionage. Why not simply steal the knowledge from them, if they are being so, uh, stingy with it?"

Tempest sighed as she walked down one of the many unfamiliar streets of Canterlot. The yearly reports from the ponyville weather bureau had been misfiled, and hadn't gotten sent out with the regular mail, so she'd taken it upon herself to visit the capitol to deliver them to the head offices of the nature bureau personally. Unfortunately, she'd underestimated just how far Canterlot was, and she'd thoroughly exhausted herself flying the whole way. She'd dropped off the paperwork without much trouble, but was left at a loss for what to do next. She was in no condition to make the fight home. Tired and overwhelmed by the city, she wandered aimlessly, gawking at the architecture. She'd never seen anything like it before. Sure, Cloudsdale had been impressive, but it was all clouds, and she'd grown up there. Ponyville architecture was nothing like it either, everything there was small and spread out. Since her wings were tired, she had to crane her head to see everything from the ground, and she failed to notice the Princess as she was walking, and bumped into her awkwardly. "Ahh, oh my, pardon me miss." She didn't consciously notice the presence of both wings and a horn at first, but she vaguely recalled Luna's face from the ceremony they had held for her after the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco, though she couldn't place her. "I... uh, do I know you? You look familiar. Are you alright, you seem a bit lost. Like me, actually." She gave a small nervous laugh. "Heheh, lost..."

Haha, except I ran out of money for WoW a few months after Cata, too. Now I just play League of Legends and sit around surfing the internet when I'm not doing farm stuff. Speaking of which, League of Legends is free, you should try it out if you haven't, it's the best free online game I've played so far.

My friends and I played it for a week or so a while back. We now refer to it by the nicknake "Boring WoW," because it's like WoW, but much more boring. Also, everything is crowded and over-farmed. I'd help, but I uninstalled it when Cata came out, and have no inclination to go back.

"Well... I suppose if you fly there regularly it's probably not too dangerous..." Tempest frowned, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than make any sort of argument with Diomedes. "And if we watch out for one another, it shouldn't be too bad, I guess." She vaguely remembered the dragon incident, it had been Rainbow Dash's little group that had dealt with it. Tempest sighed. "Well alright, but we should stick together and keep it safe." She tensed up, psyching herself up for this. She'd never even considered going into the forest before. That's what Dash and her little band of heroes were around for. Stopping Nightmare Moon, driving away dragons, confronting that spooky zebra, those were things that other people did. How on earth did a normal pony like her get talked into this? She shook her head, no time for second thoughts, she wasn't going to let herself drive this new pony away like she so often did. She'd show him she wasn't just a bureaucrat. Even if she was...

As the screaming stopped and Mal's paralysis ended, it was quickly revealed that this was no monster after all. It was just some ordinary old pegasus. Or perhaps not so ordinary, given the strange plants she was wrapped up in, and the fact that she'd been able to paralyze Mal without even trying. "Ha... how?" Mal struggled with forming words for a moment as traces of the paralysis lingered. "How did you do that?" Her normally violent tendencies were forgotten in her curiosity. Learning new spells was her primary reason for coming out here, but non-spell-based tricks like that could prove useful as well, and maybe she could learn to defend against them in the future. "Yeah, yeah, I won't burn you. Unless you threaten me, at least. Really though, what do you expect, sneaking up on ponies like that in the middle of the Everfree Forest." She began to follow the pegasus. She glanced back at the little colt. "Come on, twerp, there's probably real monsters headed this way after that racket." She grinned at his preposterous attempt to intimidate her as he walked by. "Hahaha, I like this runt. What are you doing out here in the forest, anyway, kid? Looking for trouble?"

"An impressive little display of magic," noted Lola to Trixie. "Summoning up water and electricity from thin air..." She considered the possibilities. If she could harness just a fraction of that power on a longer scale via technological means, all kinds of things could be possible. She landed next to the strange earth pony. "Well then, introductions are in order. I am Lola Silverbeak, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And my benefactor here... well, she's already introduced herself. Your benefactor as well, in fact, as she's just doused what could have become a rather destructive blaze." "Now, then, perhaps you should leave the aerial stunts to those equipped to do them," she said, spreading her wings illustratively. "I'm perfectly willing to aid you, of course, especially if you'd be decent enough to take a moment afterwards to show me about the town. I've just arrived, and I was separated from a companion in the Everfree Forest, I was hoping he'd come through here. An orange unicorn with a gray mane, you haven't seen him by any chance, have you?"

Hangs out at Sugarcube Corner, eh? Sounds like he may end up getting Pinkie to play RPGs... in an RPG. Could be hilariously meta.

From seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie produced a bungee cord and tied it to the branch she was on. She leapt down to greet Cat Napper and began to carry on two separate trains of though at once as she bounced up and down, speaking to Cat and Strawberry alternately. "Hi, you must be-" "Well welcome to-" "Cat Napper, I've-" "town Strawberry," "seen you around be-" "and don't you wo-" "fore, I'm Pinkie-" "rry about me, I'm-" "Pie. Are you-" "good at keeping up-" "OK, you almost-" "with Dashie here." "crashed there!" There was a snap from the branch as she reached the bottom of the last bounce, and she tumbled the short distance back down to the ground. "Whee! That was fun," she bubbled, as she began to climb back up the tree again, apparently unhurt.

"Ooh, that's clever. That would be uncomfortable, I suppose. Like if my wings dragged against the ground." Tempest shuddered at the thought of how much damage that would do to her feathers. "Alright, I need to stop by the town hall first to file today's reading and put away the instruments. Oh, and we can file an application for your employment while we're there. After that I'm free for the day, so we can see whatever you want. We've got all kinds of places. There's a nice park, the library, a few restaurants, some sweet shops, a seamstress, a spa..." She smiled at Aqua's offer to carry some of the tools. "Thanks, but there's no need, they are a well-designed set, see." She folded the last of the instruments neatly away into its bag. "They all fit together perfectly, and they're actually quite lightweight." She took wing and fluttered overhead casually to demonstrate. She pointed towards a nearby hill. "The town should be visible just over this hill, we're not far away at all."

"Tch, suit yourselves. I've probably said too much to this royalist dog anyway. I'm out, have fun doing whatever boring stuff you were busy with earlier." Malediction began to slink away, glancing back frequently to make sure the other two weren't going to make a move on her. She paused when she'd put a tree between her and the others. "Oh yeah," she called behind her. "And here's a parting gift to make sure you don't follow me. Unless of course you really want to see another forest fire." With a sadistic grin and a flick of her head, a lance of sickly green flame shot out from her horn, blasting its way into the tree and lighting it ablaze with freezing flame. "Au revoir!" She yelled, as she cantered off, laughing maniacally. In reality, the flame would only burn as long as she maintained the spell, but the peryton didn't need to know that. She was going to need to lay low now, in case the peryton really did report to the Princess, so after cantering a short ways towards Canterlot, she made a sharp turn and headed west out of the forest. (Exit)

"Thank you," said Tempest, mollified at Dio's formal use of her name. She completely failed to catch the irritation in his voice until Knightly pointed it out. "Er, what looks? I am perfectly calm, and for the last time, I am NOT injured! I'm perfectly able to--wait, did you say Everfree? As in the Everfree Forest!? Are you mad!? There are all kinds of awful things in there! And don't think just because you're flying they can't get you! There's a reason Dragon Mountain is called Dragon Mountain, after all." Tempest sighed. It seemed she'd already managed to get on Diomedes' bad side somehow. She seemed to do that a lot. Especially with the stallions...

"Oh shut up, kid. AUGH!" Mal yelped as the sound started to affect her. This was no scream of pain, this was an aural assault. She could feel the sound locking up her body, and even with her damaged ear she got more than enough of it to freeze her in her tracks. This was not good. Mal thought fast, adrenaline rushing into her system. She was in real danger! Nothing this fun had happened to her in years! She couldn't so much as move her eye to look around, but she noticed that the light from the small flames she had sent out was still illuminating the area. She may be physically paralyzed, but she could still focus her magic. Had she been able to move her mouth, she would have cackled. All she had to do was let the creature get close enough, and then let loose. She had to make sure she got it this time, though, there was no telling what a second scream might do to her. She briefly considered the colt. On the one hand, she hated children, and there was no reason she shouldn't just nuke the entire area to make sure her opponent was dead. On the other hand, this kid had actually yelled at her, and seemed to have a fair bit of anger in him. He might actually have some fire of his own. She found herself surprisingly reluctant to incinerate him.

Mal ignored the colt's insult, unphased. Name-calling didn't mean much to someone who had grown up in an orphanage with facial scars. Besides, she had started it. She did however note his glance behind her. She wheeled around and split her flame into several, sending them out into the growing fog to help light the vague shape in the forest that was moving towards them. "Well, kid, at least I don't seem to the only thing out here that heard you. Maybe there'll be some action after all." She squinted into the fog. Between the low visibility and her one eye, it was going to be very hard to hit, but she wasn't generally a pony who asked questions. She focused her power and sent forth a cone of flame that blasted out into the forest, burning through the undergrowth wherever it touched and freezing the fog into frost in the area immediately around it. The cone of flame rushed toward the unknown figure and... stopped just short of it. Well, at least she knew it was a bit further away than she had thought. The chill from her cold flames dropped the temperature of the entire area a few degrees, but it had at least burned off a bit of the fog and undergrowth so she could get a better look. "What the hell is that? Some kind of plant monster?" She wished she could identify it. How was she supposed to brag about killing it if she didn't know what it was? Well, it probably wanted to eat the kid, so the best way to force a conflict was to stand in front of him. She stepped into a defensive position and smiled.

With a strong flap of her wings, Lola burst into the air. Though she could barely understand what the pony was trying to say, she was a scientist first and foremost, and seeing delicate equipment damaged was never pleasant. She swooped down and caught the... whatever it was... moments before it would have tumbled to its destruction. She grinned as she held it up proudly, until a sudden heat and the smell of burning hair alarmed her. "KEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" She let out a sharp shriek and stamped on her tail, which had gotten too close to the lit welding torch and caught fire. The fire went out quickly enough, but she winced again when she saw the damage it had done to the fur on her tail. "Good grief." She gave the earth pony a resentful glare. "You really ought to be more careful with your tools. Don't you ponies have tool belts and whatnot so you can hang onto things when you're up high?"

A blue unicorn with a copper mane sauntered through the forest, a wisp of green flame flickering by her, lighting her way. So far this trip into the forest had been a total letdown. She had heard of ancient ruins there, perhaps holding lost secrets and dark magics of the past. But the only thing she'd found this time was trees. Perhaps there was some kind of obfuscation magic at work here. The aura around her horn glowed faintly as she maintained the spell that kept the flame hovering by her head. Her irritation cause the flame to flicker and sputter angrily as it fed off the negative emotions. She kept her eye and her ears peeled for danger, almost hoping for it after the long and boring trip. It wasn't often that she was able to make the journey out this far from Canterlot, and all for nothing. A voice echoed through the woods, and she perked up in surprise. It sounded upset, and it surely wasn't a pony out in this dreaded forest after dark. A tingle of excitement shot through her and she took off towards the sound, bursting out from the bushes with a grin on her face. Her grin immediately vanished when she saw the source of the complaint. "Ha! I... oh what the hell. It's just some dumb kid. What are you doing out here, foal." She snarled angrily. Children, the most obnoxious of all ponies.

"I'm fine," snapped Tempest. "I'm just a little sore, it'll do me good to stretch my wings a bit. And I apologize, but I do prefer to retain a degree of formality. We have only just met, after all." She gave Dio a stern look and took wing. She hovered unsteadily a few feet off the ground. She grimaced for a moment before managing to steady herself, at which point she gave a nod to the other two. "You see. Not a problem. Now, what sort of flight were you planning? Did you have somewhere in mind to fly by? Oh, you know, I think the fruit trees ought to be blossoming by now, there are a few orchards south of town that ought to be rather picturesque if you like that sort of thing." Everyday flight was one of the few things that Tempest's small stature was actually an advantage in. Though she couldn't carry very much, or move large amounts of clouds as easily, she was still lighter than most pegasus ponies, and while she wasn't a particularly fast flier, she was fairly agile.

"Oh I don't know... I find dragon scales aren't immune to my fire. Of course, my fire also burns cold and turns steel into ash like it was paper." muttered Mal. She glanced briefly back at Skye before turning her eye to the greater threat, though at this point she was fairly certain that neither griffon nor peryton were going to make the first move. "Too many ponies in Canterlot. They get on my nerves sometimes, and I have to get away. I'm sure you've noticed by now that I'm not as foalishly naïve as most ponies. Besides, you never know what you'll find out in the wilderness. I've already exhausted every spell book in the Canterlot Library. For the most part, I am all out of leads. Hence why a peryton slinging magic around intrigued me. Normal unicorn spells just don't work for me, even my fire is something I had to discover myself." She sat down for a moment and visibly relaxed. Of course, if she needed to, she could throw a curtain of flames down to protect herself, but she was now confident she wouldn't need to. The griffon was just hungry, and not looking for a real fight, and the peryton was some kind of goody-two-shoes who worked for the monarchy. The lack of violence was a bit of a letdown, but she hadn't given up on getting him to show her some spells, even if it was a long shot that she'd be able to learn them.

Venturing South and Departure at Dawn are both done now, and have been tagged as such.