Boss_Hoss1

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.

Bistro was fighting to get ahead of Drowsy, when the pegasus locked eyes with her and grinned.

The pegasus suddenly sprinted ahead, daring her to catch her.

The mocha mare panted and put everything she had into the last effort, her legs pounding the ground as she bunched her haunches and jumped.

Bistro sailed over the last hurdle, closing her eyes at the last moment to concentrate on getting to the finish.

She gave one last push with her legs on landing, aiming for the line, nearly collapsing as she made it and slowed to a walk before opening her eyes.

She gasped out "How did I do?"

Thorn brayed and shook his head to clear it after watching the major spat between the two mares he just heard were named Lyra and Bon Bon.

He moved his head to look at Metal Maker and nodded "Yes, a new set of shoes would be just the thing for me, Double M. Thank you."

He watched Metal Maker's efforts at helping the quarreling couple with predicable results. "Sorry to say, Double M, dealing with one mare is confusing enough; when two are involved, only other mares can lend a hoof."

Thorn's eyes went wide when he suddenly saw how Cherry Jubilee thourougly kissed Applejack,leaving the Apple pony dazed.

"That little Applebloom filly there missed out on a money maker. Imagine if she had charged tickets to watch the line for the kisses. Entertainment for hours!"

Amber ulped as she fought to hold the blanket in place, and nodded to Balance pulling the element gem off his neck. "That is a great precaution. and yes, lets stick close. This maze is one big trap to seperate us."

Fortunately, Fireheart stepped out and sent the viking pony away. Amber mopped her brow in relief "Oh, you could say that, Staying alive keeps one very busy indeed."

Candy sighed in relief as things seemed to be going better for them, then turned at Doc Holly Day's question.

She waved a hoof "Oh not at all, at least no one has flagged me down for that today. Two of us are here for a supply trip, and I'm free to shop or get myself taken care of while the supplies are rounded up. when that Royal Canterlot Zoologial society cart is filled up, it's time to go. Did you know they've found two different kinds of Cactus Cougar this trip? One seems based on Prickly Pear cactus." She shakes her head "I shudder to think what they would have found if that Discord wierdo had stayed free. Here we are after several thousand years of nature weeding out the really crazy stuff he made last time, or imprisoning them in Tartarus, and we're still finding bizzare critters."

Red 5 reporti... um Snails here... ;P

(OOC: Thread bump! )

The mare kept the blanket tight around the viking pony's face, then she raised an eyebrow at the cat clinging to the viking's flank "How did that gun do that?"