Boss_Hoss1

Thorn was finally feeling better as the metal cooled, the forced hopping ending quickly. "It is *pant* quite all right Miss Gale. -And before, I was annoyed and helping protect my neighbor's stocks." The buffalo calf ahead was coming to the end of the alley and the T intersection there. Gale suddenly spoke at a lower voice, apparently catching her mistake from before, and Thorn responded in kind. "Brilliant idea, Miss Gale. I'll keep on his tail and you can take the other way and head him off since you are so very speedy! Keep your ears open. The bottles may yet pop from the shaking." Ahead, Honovi had nearly hit the wall at the end of the alley and went left. Thorn followed through several turns, but lost him for the moment at another T intersection. "Blast it.." He suddenly heard the hiss and pop of a bottle somewhere nearby. He took a deep sniff, "Aha..root beer..." and began following the sharp smell...

Madam Caramel Bistro smiled brightly and clopped her hooftips together "Wonderful! I shall write up the agreement immediately, Mr. Geary! While you take care of your other customers, I shall celebrate and have Double M here do my shoes." She looked to MM "Colors? Umm, can you do a set in burgundy, one set in black, and one in gold? Will the coloring really be in the metal itself? I have tried gold plated shoes and they look tacky when the plating wears off, and actual gold is too soft to do well as hoofwear." The mocha mare got out a quill and scroll as she thought out the wording of the agreement, planning on writing it out while her hooves were worked on.

Madam Bistro was only mildly surprised when Maximilian actually got flustered at her words. So she was right after all about her guess he never had much personal contact in his life. Her success had not left her much opportunity for personal contact as it was until she came to Appleoosa, and he was raised in that environment of success. This would definitely be a learning experience for both ponies. It was her turn to blush when he said ponies like her should have a place in the history books for what they do for Equestia. She was considering telling him not to sell himself short since he was actually doing something and not being a useless fop like a certain Prince, when he seemed to get even more flustered as they walked along. Bistro held her tongue, waiting for him to speak. It had to be very emotional for him to mull it over so strongly... Madam Bistro earperked as he finally came out in a rush, then smiled brightly and gave a small curtsy to the unicorn. "I would be honored, sir. That it's my establishment just makes me a victim of my own success, I suppose." She winks in amusement. "I do promise that Thorn has been an apt student in the making of my coffee, Maximilian, so the coffee will still be first rate."

Candy Catch-em smiled and waved a hoof "Oh they are relatively shy critters, so it would be rare for one to come into town. If any do come into town though, I can be here in a jiffy." She got a serious look on her face for a moment. "However, if you see any bugs that look like brightly colored golf balls, get rid of them immediately and dont let them eat! Parasprites would be a deadly danger to a town in the desert if they eat all the food." She peered over at Louise. "Hmmm that is a good question from Dan, do you have a preference for mane style?" She winked ".. or are you feeling adventurous?"

Amber bowed "I shall take the one to Twilight, the bearer of Magic then. Magic is my specialty as well..." She reared and galloped forward into the portal, guided by the escorting guards. In moments she found herself in a library made from a tree...

The twins gasped at hearing Doc Holly Day's tale. Shanna fluttered her wings in surprise "That is amazing! Appleoosa must be spectacular to attract unicorns who went to that school!" Hoss nodded agreement "Yes, Our immediate superior in the Observatory is another graduate of that school, Professor Stargazer. Have you heard of him? Midnight blue body, white mane and tail streaked with black, telescope and star cutie mark?" Shanna added "...Grumpy as the day is long and afraid to fly..." Both twins laughed at that one. Meanwhile, the tall unicorn Flim cast an eye at the increasingly impatient townspones as they looked at the brothers expectantly "In the interests of our continued good health, I think we had better sell them as fast as we make them, my Dear Brother Flam. In fact, We had best make the first one a peace offering to Granny Smith or we might find ourselves riding out of town upon a rail, covered in molasses and chicken feathers and wondering what just happened..."

Thorn smiled as he and Metal Maker came to an arrangement for afterward in getting himself shod. "My parents will be very pleased with this, Double M. I thank you." The jack perked his ears as the next pony in line, a unicorn, asked Double M for a very special shoe for writing with. "Hmm that does sound like a great invention at that. Perhaps I could try one as well for accounting at the end of the workday." As he continued his wait, he pulled out a thermos of Madam Bistro's best vanilla-mocha coffee and poured some into the combination cap-and-cup, the scent surely wafting through the line. "Mmmmm, Still quite tasty! I'll have to let her know how well her coffee travels in a container."

Snails stopped rubbing at his hornet-stung flank when Spitfire came over to see what the problem was . "Ummm s-sorry Ma'am! It was my fault. Haywire had me boost her on up to a better branch, b-but ah got stung by this hornet and m'horn went wild..." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the amazing sight of Peabee finally revealing her wings, and Oh Celestia! What huge wings she had, but just then... Haywire suddenly screamed and fell to a lower branch, and Snails ran around under Haywire as some kind of cushion in case she fell, his horn spitting sparks in panic mode. This extra boost of energy from his horn shook an idea loose in his head "Uh Peabea! Kin Ah use yer coat as a safety net if ya hold th' other end?"

Madam Bistro giggled and blushed at the mention of "marriage", bringing certain stallions to mind. "Oh maybe someday, but I'm just getting myself into better shape in case I need to brave the desert again." She perked her ears as she thought over what Drowsy said "Oh my! What do you do for supplies in this desert? At the least, I will most certainly donate for your equipment and time with me." Bistro took a long drink from her water, then continued. "Manehattan is... a bit more "lived-in" than fair Canterlot. Some sections are what I think of when I hear descriptions of Stalliongrad, and other sections have the elegant townhouses and posh ponies like much of Canterlot. I came from a district that was well kept but not wealthy, where things are busy at all hours. Princess Luna would have nothing to worry about as far as ponies sleeping in her night there..."

(OOC: Ahhh ok, thanks for the correction.

I've noticed activity here has floundered lately . Things slowed down bad enough during the run-up to BroNYcon, but I am guessing many players went to the con and are first time convention attendees. Are any of you feeling down from coming back to Mundaneia after your trip to Equestria? Feel free to talk about it here. It helps a lot to tell about what you did at the con and the friends you met.

I noticed the slowdown in the week running up to Bronycon. and it seems to have stopped dead right after BC. Hopefully its just pre-con preps followed by a bad case of "Post Con Depression" -Which is really bad on the first-timers...

(OOC1; The group was rescued off to the garden of Canterlot to find clues how to defeat Discord. Amber was cured of being actual amber stone. Discord's minions showed up to kick our tails, and Potey stole Strife's discord stone and swallowed it. Strife was sent to Fireheart's cloud city, Cloudhaven, where the Princesses are being kept safe, to save his life from critical injuries. Potey in the meantime threw up the chaos stones and rejoined the group, now free of the taint Discord set the group a challenge to find the real Elements of Harmony in the maze, no wings and such, untill the things were found during a zombie pony attack ("Attack of the blanks"?) Discord has retaken Strife's mind and joined Strife in Cloudhaven with the intent of turning Celestia and Luna into statues. (or have Strife and Discord been tossed out?) Amber is currently at a portal opened by Fireheart directly to Coudhaven to regroup and see if the Element objects found are real, with Cloud walking spells for everypony. (OOC2: I have no problem with it if its not a royal changling or such that would take focus away from kicking Discord's scaily tail Amber wands Whinnied and reared before the portal "Lets do this!" and moved to enter.

For my part, there is my businessmare Madam Caramel Bistro, and her assistant manager, Thorn Donkey, who run the B & B Bistro. As well as a young adult buffalo, Lightning Horn, son of the herd Shaman

Madam Bistro smiles and rubs herself dry with a towel "Pleased to meet you, Miss Drowsy Feather. I am Madam bistro as you may remember. Well, Miss Snowfall is a businessmare pegasus from Stalliongrad whom I have met recently, with an eye on Appleoosa business. That bit with dragons sounds dangerous, so hopefully the local wildlife wont be that exciting." The mare gave a quick, graceful bow. "I am originally from Manehattan, where my parents still run a coffee shop for family tradition. I started a combination Bed and Breakfast and coffee Bistro at the newer Manehattan train station and things took off from there. Appleoosa is my newest location in my chain of such shops, and it looks like it will be a permanent location for me. If things pick up for Appleoosa like we think, Your business will become very busy."

Candy smiled eagerly as the cactus cougars were getting interested questions. "One of the reasons Canterlot is studying these creatures is to find out how they can be plant and animal. Fortunately, the more mundane creatures are more common for me to run into. That makes the strange ones all the more shocking for ponies to find. So far as we can tell without a full magical and x-ray scan yet, these felines seem to not entirely be plant, but it forms on the outside like a thicker, armored skin, and makes them dangerously hard to find. Its very effective camoflage and protection as you can guess. It seems to be a desert version of whatever Discord had done to the Timber Wolves of the Everfree forest back in the Time of Chaos." She winked "I'm sure you will all agree with me in hoping Discord stays locked up for all time so no more wierdies are made..."

(OOC; Just cleared up some confusion. Everypony feel free to check out my Canterlot gallery for what my mares in this thread look like.

Shanna was surprised the little red maned filly wearing a bow, or the colt that had just left, had not rushed over to meet the new filly, but she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She looked up at Fluttershy when the gentle yellow mare gasped in shock and stammered out questions. The bay filly rubbed a hoof on the back of her own head sheepishly. "Y-yes... I-i crash landed into a big patch of them after that grumpy unicorn boss of mine accused me of acting like a foal." She sighed "Just 'cause he's afraid to fly, dont' mean I have to put up with him taking it out on me and My... My partner in harness... I think a barrel roll was sufficient payback, dont you?"

(OOC: I'm surprised the Player of Arpee has not tossed that filly in this thread yet...) A panting Madam Bistro looked at the green pegasus in surprise,"I..I won? Wow! I did not know I.. *pant* had it in me." The Mocha Mare then followed her to the rest area, pausing to giggle when Drowsy said Bistro could not beat her in a flying race. "I should say not, not without a catapult. I'll leave that to the silly unicorn filly that wants to fly like a pegasus." The mare sat down and drank from her water bottle, stretching her legs to keep from getting stiff. "You sound like you came from the area Miss Snowfall calls home. Is there an epic tale involved of how a mare from Stalliongrad came to Appleoosa?" Bistro winks "I can tell you how I ended up here from Manehattan in return."

(OOC: oops, forgot to reply to Cadence. Editing...) The Mocha Mare dipped her body in a bow to Princess Cadence. "I am Madam Caramel Bistro, owner of the fine chain of Bed and Breakfast Bistros in every city and town the Equestrian Railroad touches, save Ponyville. It would not be fair to compete with the excellent local Cafe' so I left this town alone. I decided to shop around since I found myself with a 2 hour layover and I wound up here." Madam Bistro nodded to Pigpen and got out a pouch of bits and counted out the price quoted by the pony for her purchases. "You are an amazing pony, Mr. Pigpen. I shall make it a point to visit Ponyville on every major business trip and see what else you have dug up." She packed up the items she has selected and looked to the nervous naval buff. "How about you, Miss? Shall these fine colts give you a hoof?" Bistro blinked, her eyes caught by the gleam of gold. she peered at the figure held up by Highroller. "Oh my! Did you make that, Sir?"

Thorn was catching up quicklly as long as the buffalo ran alongside the train station platform. Suddenly, Gale commented about the possibility of the thief running away from the platform, and having to say it loud enough to be heard over the clattering of the luggage cart. Of course Honovi heard this and suddenly ran away down an alley. Thorn groaned and dropped his back hooves off the cart to stop it with a screech of his tiny horseshoes on the thick wooden decking. "Ow! Ow! Hot!" He jumped off the platform onto a stack of crates, leaping from layer to layer and to the ground as he ran toward the alley. He raised his right rear hoof every couple steps to let the metal cool off. "That Honovi is beginning to irk me..."

So Gmod is an add on to existing games? So that's why I see pics of the ponies with screenshots of Team Fortress... what games can they be dropped in on? And to keep it on topic, there has been learning behaviors observed in robot insects (available as plans or kits somewhere) and personally in a FPS with early AI for the NPCs. no matter what the setting in the deathmatch mode, the bots started avoiding the killzones where I would snipe them, and soon after, figure out how to come and get at me on those maps when they were set too low in difficulty to do that according to the settings... (Game was Unreal, in a mod using modern weapons)

Amber Wands stood up proudly. "I am ready, if the rest of you are. The sooner we are out of this maze, the better!"

*Evil Discord Laugh* I could see some fun tinkering occuring with the 3-toed ancestors to horses... and Astronauts will return from the space station to find.. the Planet of the Ponies! ;P

Madam Bistro nodded at Braeburn's answer as Braeburn looked at the steep sides of the nearby mesas and looked troubled. It did not look like it would be pursued after the initial esitmates come in on the cost of doing it. She would not push it, but at least it would get them thinking about how to expand Appleoosa's cash cow if the growing space was as limited as it sounded. Somepony would think of something eventually. As long as it involved the looming waste problem she would be happy as it would solve two problems at once. She turned to Maximilian with a smile at a new proposal from him. "A fine choice... That is the very mesa those twin pegasi from the Royal Canterlot Observatory chose to observe the Sparklestar Comet from, along with a number of townsponies and some of the buffalo. The trail to the top is sturdy, so I am told." The mocha mare's amber eyes widened in surprise as Braeburn suggested splitting up to inspect the orchards, and pairing her with Maximillian. The suggestion was quickly and eagerly taken up by Louise, making it plain the pairings was intended as romantic for two of the pairs anyway. Bistro smiled and gracefully put her hoof in Maximillain's offered leg. "Oh I could hardly call you a bore, my fine sir. Ponies who build a place in Equestrian history could never be a bore." The mare spared a glance at Braeburn, hoping he would not overdo his speaking with Miss Snowfall in his tour.