Tempest Rime

"Here you are." Tempest showed Carnation her ID and slipped it back into her bag, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. She wondered if she might still get carded when was the age her mother was now. "Damnit," she muttered under her breath, her train of thought had led her back to that again. She could not free herself of her sobriety fast enough. She gave the drink list a cursory glance, and figured the special would be good enough. It wasn't like she'd even heard of most of the drinks in there anyway. She set down the menu, trying to empty her mind of thoughts while she waited for Carnation to return. "The drink special, please," she says as soon as he gets back within earshot, before even waiting to hear if there is ice cream or not.

Hmm, this is kinda tough. Lesse... Zelda (Ocarina is my favorite, but they're all fun) Mass Effect (Pure epic space opera goodness) Super Smash Brothers Fallout (1 will always be best) The Elder Scrolls (Especially Morrowind) Warcraft (Grudgingly. I hate WoW, but I keep going back, and I certainly sunk enough time into each Warcraft RTS when they came out.)

LoL is fun. My summoner name is 'Doctor Online', if anyone wants to friend me.

"Oh yeah, we have all kinds of cake there. Hee hee, we even have Mr. and Mrs. Cake! They own the store. And yeah, we usually have a few kinds of lemon cakes prepared most of the time. I even have a special secret recipe for spicy chocolate cake with jalapeño frosting, but it doesn't sell very well for some weird reason, so you'd have to order that one in advance." She shrugged in bewilderment. That cake was good. Her attention turned to the pegasus. "I'm Pinkie Pie, nice ta meetcha, and this is Ponyville. I don't really know about architecture, but it's not really made of pastry. It's just wood and stuff, and it doesn't taste very good if you try to take bites out of it. And the best sweets we have..." She paused, thinking. After a long time she forgot the question entirely, wrapped up in thoughts of sweets. "You know," she said to Cynic, leaning in very close to him, invading his personal space. A big friendly smile lit up her face, and she continued, "even sour fruit can make sweet candy. I bet you're really super nice, so I won't get mad at anything you say, ok?" Remembering something, she turned back to the fruit vendor. "Oh, Sugar Orange! About the jelly! You especially can't tell Twilight or Rarity about it, ok! Pinkie promise!?"

"Silly," Pinkie said to Rook, grinning maniacally, "what kind of party is quiet? Booo-riiing! I mean, duh, I want to make you guys feel super welcome, so you'll come back and visit sometime!" "YOU WOULD!?" exclaimed Pinkie excitedly when Bramble and Bluebelle expressed an interest in hearing her sing. Without further ado, she took a deep breath, bounded up in front of the procession, and launched into an impromptu song, leaping and somersaulting through the air as she belted out a ridiculous ditty. "When you're tired and lonely from a long day's work, Or you're feeling sad 'cause of some mean jerk, There's one thing to do to regain your perk, That's when you throw a paaaaaarty! "When the rain is pouring and there's lightning out, And there's nothing to do but stay inside and pout, Don'tcha dare cry, don't scream or shout, Just gather up your friends and paaaaaarty! "Celebrations, good vibrations, They'll flip over your frown. Friends and laugher, sing down the rafter And you'll never stay down! "So if you're new in town, Let me show you around, I'll throw a ho-down, 'Cause parties are my renown, You don't need a ball gown, Just a party hat crown, And I'll throw you a Pinkie paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty!!" She landed from a final backflip, winded from holding the last note, and giving the group a goofy, extremely pleased grin. In spite of her singing at the top of her lungs in public, few of the locals had given her so much as a second glance, indicating how commonplace this sort of thing was for Pinkie.

"It's different, hm? Perhaps it's more refined? Elegant? Most upscale establishments do tend to cater to Griffins back west, since we are the ones with the money. It's only natural for places like this for ponies to crop up as we enter areas where they are the predominant species. Uh, where you are predominant, that is," she added, remember that she was in fact speaking to a pony. When Sterling delivered their drinks, she took a sip right away. Lola was no wine expert, but she knew enough to tell that this was no swill. "Not bad at all. I for one and not particularly hungry, but I imagine my associate is quite famished." The supplies Lola had brought had not taken the pony into account, as she'd had them prepared before she had known he would be joining them. She smiled disarmingly at Sterling. "I must admit, I had not expected to find an establishment such as this in such an insignificant settlement. You must get quite a few travelers coming through in order to secure enough business to afford to maintain such an enterprise, no?

Pinkie let out a gasp! "Oh, you're that pony who lives out near the forest! We haven't actually met yet, but I heard about you from Fluttershy, she lives out that way too. I'm Pinkie Pie, what's your name? Oh, and yes, Sugarcube Corner is the bakery I work at, we make all kinds of stuff, cakes and pies and cookies and fudge and, and, and, and all kinds of stuff!" Her attention drifted to the dark-maned artist, and she paused to stare at Inkwell for a few seconds. Her eyes widened momentarily and she blurted out, "Hey! I don't know you, and I know everypony, so you must be new! I'm Pinkie Pie! Did you get a tour of the town yet? Oh, but I'm on errands now, so I can't introduce you to everypony yet." Pinkie swung the sack of oranges onto her back and put the jelly into her saddlebag. "Thanks Orangey. But no, the jelly isn't the secret, what I'm gonna try to make from it is the secret. Oh, but don't tell too many people about the jelly either, 'cause then someone might guess what it is and ruin the surprise!" She smiled broadly and fluttered her eyes briefly at him. Suddenly the commotion behind her yanked her attention away. Her eyes bugged out at the sight of yet two more unknown ponies. "Wheeee! More new ponies! Hiiiiiii!" She reared up on her hind legs and waved cheerfully at the newcomers.

Haha! I thought of that song at first, then immediately figured it couldn't be that and dismissed the thought.

Nedroid, Pictures for Sad Children, Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, and Hark, a vagrant are the main webcomics I read nowadays. ...and Oglaf, but I'm not linking that on any work-safe forum.

I had one where I lived in a castle atop 10,000-foot tall pillar of stone along with a few other people. At one point my friend accidentally surprised Bruce Campbell, who shot his arm off with a shotgun. He appologized, but my friend said it was cool, it was his own fault for surprising him. My friend then mixed up a cauldron with a mysterious alchemical brew, put a golden sword in it, and focused cosmic rays into the mixture with a giant telescope, and the resulting mixture regrew his arm. Later, there was a mysterious golden glider flying around, and the amazon princess who masqueraded as a goddess to the people who lived below us was about to shoot at it with a rifle, but I recognized it as belonging to David Bowie. "Don't shoot David Bowie," I said, "you'll just make him mad." That's probably the most epic dream I've had.

"Ooh, yeah, Cinnamon, this is Sir Knighty," Pinkie added, realizing she'd forgotten to introduce the white pegasus, "I think he's a knight or something, I don't know him super well, but I'm sure he's real friendly. Anyway, more ponies is ALWAYS more fun." Her already divided attention shot back to Cinnamon, unsure how to interpret her weird monologues. "Spying on Fluttershy is no good, if she found out she'd might feel bad, cause she's so shy, and since you like her then you'd feel bad too!" She was convinced that her logic would convince Cinnamon to stop spying, even though she wasn't sure that's what Cinnamon actually meant she was doing. The doubletalk between what Cinnamon was saying and what she was narrating was confusing, and Pinkie figured the narration stuff might just be a joke. Unaware of the possible can of worms she was opening, she added, "what's a Gibberkin?" Bouncing alongside the ground as they proceeded to the cafe, she grinned broadly at Bluebelle's praise of her town. "Ponyville is my favoritest place in the whole world! Not that I've been to that many places, I guess, and Appleloosa was pretty nice too, Applejack's cousin Braeburn was really friendly when I went there, and Little Strongheart and made this delicious mushy stuff, but nopony there understood my song and dance routine." She frowned at the memory.

"Relayed by mouth." Tempest pondered the idea. "How imprecise. I would think messages would often get garbled." She shrugged as Aqua swam off and began to unpack the instruments to take the lake's measurements, setting them out and carefully arranging them so that she could go over each one with Bolt when they got started. She gave a brief summary of each one as she set them out, explaining how their measurements are taken and what they indicate. When Aqua finally resurfaced, Tempest smiled at her awkwardly. "Oh, I don't really know the details of what's in the lake itself. I generally keep to the surface. I think the lake is just naturally this way." Tempe was feeling more and more awkward by the minute. She really didn't have anything to do with the quality of the lake itself, and now everypony was looking at her like it was her responsibility or something. "Uh, besides, most of the area hasn't been doing as well as this lake. We've had a few rivers that are starting to get nasty buildups of silt, that can reduce the amount of water they can hold and create flooding hazards if we're not careful. At some point we may need to dredge a lot of the rivers to clear them out so they can supply enough water for the agricultural uses."

Lola sighed and tapped her claws on a branch for a moment, considering her next step. She'd gotten separated from her balloon in a windstorm, and now she was stuck in the Everfree forest on her own. While this was theoretically very exciting, she was also without any of her instruments with which to document the adventure. She was considering her options when the sound of an explosion shattered the silence. Startled, she nearly tumbled off the branch, quickly latching onto it with her claws. She took to the air and quickly spotted the smoke. While a potential forest fire was not the most ideal thing to be flying into, it was still the only point of reference she'd seen, so she set off towards it, her weaponized parasol at the ready, in case it turned out to be a bandersnatch or somesuch. She didn't spot the building until she was almost on top of it, it's position would have been well concealed by the canopy had it not been for the smoke. Lola circled around until she spotted the expectorating earth pony, somewhat surprised to see as frail a creature as a pony in the Everfree. She was actually a bit disappointed that it was not some manner of exotic beast, but it was also something of a relief, as she was certain he would at least be able to direct her towards civilization. She hastily pulled out her hand mirror and checked her appearance before swooping down towards the pony. "Excuse me, good sir, but I couldn't help but notice the explosion. Are you..." She frowned at the layer of soot that was getting everywhere. "Are you uninjured?" She decided not to broach the subject of her missing companions until she could make a judgement on the trustworthiness of this strange pony.

Solar-something perhaps? Or perhaps something-Shine.

((IGNORE ME))

Only took you, what, 3 weeks? Heh. Finally, another aristocratic griffin for Lola to snub.

[colour=#dd0000]Beachnut[/colour] Hippocamp | Female | Teen Active Threads: Inactive Threads: Coming Home The Nut Family Reunion! [colour=#BF0080]Lola Silverbeak[/colour]Griffin | Female | Adult Active Threads: Inactive Threads: Venturing South Departure at Dawn Are We Having Fun Yet Can go nowhere but up Gala Greetings A Stop at the Rhinestone Lost and FoundCrash Landing! Evening Banquet Let's make a deal [colour=#0040FF]Malediction[/colour] Unicorn | Female | Young Adult Active Threads: Inactive Threads: Hunter and Prey Dark Side Of The Gala Tango to TerrorWrong turn Break Between Classes A Much Needed HolidayTome and Torch Library The Night Watch Cooling their hooves Nasty Business Nightlife in the Capitol Stargazing"Have at you, foul beast!" Honor in the skies of Canterlot Starburst's Not-Quite-as-Grand Galloping Gala The Lost Library - The Search is On! [colour=#008080]Shard Talyn[/colour] Dragon | Female | Teen Active Threads: Inactive Threads: Heroes for Hire [colour=#008800]Tempest Rime[/colour] Pegasus | Female | Young Adult Active Threads: Inactive Threads: Catching a Breather One is the Loneliest Number Oh look it's some resturant or something Like Sleeping on ai... Oh wait The Airship Venture Sunday Diving First Time Visit A Little Slice of Heaven A Watery Predicament Formerly [colour=#FF4080]Pinkie Pie[/colour] Earth Pony | Female | Young Adult Past Threads: An Odd VisitorOranges for Everypony Smiling while you work! Looking for wings Like Sleeping on ai... Oh wait Cart of Curiosities A Confectionery if I Ever Saw One Zecora's Hut, No Longer Shut Correspondence Cupcakes Of Doom? Fall Vacation Pie Sisters Reunion! A gift! A Hearts and Hooves gift! A Trip Into The Dark Sweet Meets Pinkie

((OOC: Proceeding to the thread in Bareback Gulch, located here: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=920 I think we can pretty much consider this thread finished, unless anyone has any final additions to it.))

It seems to have been pretty slow the last few days anyway.

Lola grabbed ahold of the side of the basket at the jarring landing, but managed a polite smile at Ashton's rough landing. She gathered up her things, paying no heed to the fine quality of the gemstones. Jewelry was not one of her interests, in spite of her preoccupation with appearance. "All right then, I'll let you get your things together. I shall head to the inn and secure us some rooms for the night, and then... oh I don't know, I'll probably take a bit of a walk around town, maybe check out the tavern. I can't imagine there's much of a social scene in these parts. We can meet back up here around, say, seven-o-clock tomorrow morning, hopefully get back in the air by eight." She turned to leave, musing to herself as she lugger her baggage. "Hmm, perhaps I should set up my telescope in the balloon tomorrow, I might be able to get a glimpse of some of the forest denizens through the canopy."

"I've read some very interesting reports on the fauna of the Everfree, but very little of it is ever substantiated. There's fairly solid evidence for river serpents and dragons, and there's been reports of travelers being turned to stone, which would indicate the presence of basilisks and/or cockatrices. Other than that, nearly anything you can imagine has been linked to it, and who knows how accurate the reports may or may not be. Manticores, chimeras, hydras, sphinxes, will-o-wisps, ghosts, ursas, treants, yetis, catopblepases, cerberuses, ant-lion, simurghs, you name it and it's been mentioned in some tale, even if hasn't even been proven to exist." Lola rambled on about it for a little while, showing off her slighty-greater-than-passing interest in cryptozoology, until she looked down at the town below again as they descended. "Goodness, is that really the entire village? I don't think I've ever seen a town that small before. Even the little towns built around the coal mines my father owns were bigger than that."

Lola did wait to be asked. She put away her parasol, grabbed a rope, and climbed out of the basket, flying up after after Dellios. "Here, let me give you a hand. Upper class I may be, but I'm willing to get my claws dirty when the situation calls for it." She strained to keep up with the stronger griffin, doing an adequate enough job that the balloon was soon tugged into the promising air current. She gathered up her rope once the balloon was moving on its own again and headed back down into the basket, sneaking a quick peek in at her pocket mirror to make sure she hadn't rustled any feathers during the exertion. When she turned her attention back our to the scenery, she spotted the other mountains off in the distance. "Fantastic, we're making better time than I'd hoped! At this rate we'll be at Bareback Gulch by midafternoon. If it wasn't for the Everfree Forest, I'd say we should keep going and perhaps even reach Ponyville by midnight. Oh well, much safer to traverse it by day, I suppose." She sounded almost disappointed. ((OOC: I was thinking pretty much what you said. We could even pre-empt actually reaching it and start posting in threads over there, unless anyone feels like throwing in some kind of mishap or other such plot twist to liven things up. Personally, I'd sooner wait until we're over the Everfree Forest for that to happen, though, for stronger dramatic effect.))

Lola gave a sharp laugh. "Kyahaha! I'll drag them out of their dark ages thinking if it kills them. You don't get ahead in high society by following the rules those above you lay down. The Razor-clowns have a vested interest in keeping the social order as is, but change will come one way or another, and I intend to be on top of it." She paused. "Which actually brings me back to why I'm making this journey in the first place. Magic and technology. Ideally, I'd love to find a way to bring the esoteric abilities of your unicorn brethren to the masses. Everything about your magic is alien to us, but I'm confident that with the proper understanding, I can learn to at least reproduce its effects. For instance, magic can call up lightning, but so can I using this." She draws her parasol and flicks the point out of the balloon, creating a small electrical surge. "As for time, I have set aside a little over a month for this particular trip, though I will probably not stay in Canterlot for the full duration. And Delios, there is nothing wrong with mirrors or bubble baths, though a quick shower is just as effective. A good appearance goes a long way in any social circle. Oh, and you did not hear me call the Razorclaws anything derogative, by the way." ((OOC: Man Lola talks a lot, I had another whole rant in there that I cut because this post was getting way longer than I wanted.))

Lola scoffed. "Most likely your bulk gems are getting resold at inflated costs to a bunch of prissy upper-class fools who can't be bothered to look past your race. It's exactly that sort of attitude that will eventually bleed the old-money families dry. But at least you're able to do well enough for yourselves in Rockwington. Talonopolis is even more intolerant." She pulled a makeup kit from her purse and checked her appearance, as she had been in a bit of a rush to get ready earlier. She touched it up a bit before speaking up again. "Anyway, I'm not sure I'd describe myself as a scholar, it may be technically correct but it carries the connotation of the sort of person you'd find in some dusty library. I am an inventor, a scientist, and a businesswoman. Books are all very well and good, but they are no substitute for experience."

"It's not just the landscape, either. There are all manner of dangerous creatures lurking in the area. Not much that will trouble a balloon, most likely, but it's still a good idea to keep an eye out, especially above the forest. They are still discovering new varieties of monsters that wander out of it from time to time. Quite a mysterious place." Lola seemed more excited by the danger than worried. "Anyway, a jeweler. That's a nice respectable business." She hesitated for a moment, not sure if the subject she was about to broach might be particularly delicate to the Unicorn, but decided to dive on in anyway. "I don't suppose you actually do much business with the elite, due to your, uh, well, species. I do find that the upper classes tend to be rather closed-minded about other creatures."