Bramble Rose

Rainbow Dash blushed a little, seeming uncertain for a moment, before throwing out her chest and tossing her head, lifting it proudly. "Yeah, that's right!" she said almost challengingly, "I have fan-clubs, too!" Then she lets out a soft, awkward laugh. "Though, really ... that whole thing with the pie was the high point of my Gala," she confessed. "The rest of it just went downhill from there. That was the worst night *ever*." Her stomach rumbled, and she realized suddenly that she hadn't really eaten at all, for most of the day. Her stomach rumbled a little louder as it realized the same thing. "Ohboy. Yeah, let's get something to eat and drink before my stomach stages a revolution and starts its own perfect storm!" She led the three over to the counter, settling down into the middle seat of a group of three to make sure she'd get to sit next to Soarin'. "Heya, 'Keep! Thanks for stayin' open so late! Three waters and three slice of apple pie to start with, follow that up with a trio of hard cider, and keep the apple pie coming till I tell you to stop!"

Oh, absolutely. There's a number of these 'rules' that I'd love to break, myself, just because they'd make for interesting RP. But there's a number of things that get us to go, "Ah, another one" when we see an app for it. That doesn't mean it can't be done well! But it's worth a joke.

Purple Haze gave a grin to Apple Bloom, her Carrot Family pride stirred somewhat strongly. "Oi reckon Oi dinnae need tae much! Roit easy tae make a tasty Carrot dish! A fancy-colored carrot or two an' we'll be good! But Oi'll be glad tae lend ye some recipes, aye?" She gives an impish grin, so very glad to have a proper challenge. Cooking was great ... but she'd never before had someone to *compete* with in cooking! Suddenly there was a new spice in the mix that made the game taste great! But ... ooo, Camping? "Aye, Camping's a great idea! Ye an' me big Brae kin share a tent! An' me an' Apple Bloom kin take a tent! An' Big Mac's big enough fer a tent hisself! It sounds loik a hoot! Oi know some great campin' games! An' we kin tell ghost stories, an' allt hat sort ah stuff!" She lifted her glass up to the toast. "Work hard, play hard, live true!" she said happily, grinning out over the two families. "Oi'm likin' this new place, Big Brae!"

*laughs merrily* PERFECT! It's a list of overused tropes. we've seen lots and lots of blind ponies come through. Especially unicorns who then use their magic to make up for being blind. But of course! well, 'harsh' is an odd word considering this isn't exactly a set of rules - but the reason why is because we keep seeing pony after pony come through who 'got their cutie mark from winning a contest' ... but their cutie mark has nothing to do with competition or winning, but just with some particular skill that they're good at. A cutie mark isn't about a skill or talent. It's about an aspect of a pony's personality. That's the whole reason the CMC aren't finding their cutie marks - they keep looking for special talents, because they think that's what will 'make them unique'. It's not about what's outside, it's about what's inside. About knowing themselves. I find Folarin cute, and I like ponies with controller cutie marks, personally. But as you say - this is for Mane RP. And Mane RP has only had one throwaway joke with an arcade console - no home machines, or even TVs.

Sweetie Belle stepped out from behind Rarity, a lovely gift wrapped in shiny metallic silver wrapping and a purple bow balanced on her back. "Eeeee! Happy *Birth*day, Apple Bloom!" she squeaked, her voice cracking in her excitement. She trotted up to her friend and reared up to clop front hooves together and bounce happily while letting out excited little giggling squees, very nearly dropping the gift. "Oh, this is an awesome party! *^_^*" She stopped for a moment, going still, her head lifting as she cleared her throat. In more crisp tones, she said, "Thank you very much for inviting me to your party." Having said the polite thing, she went back to squeeing. "I can't wait for you to see what I got you! Start guessing! Start guessing!" She ran along with Apple Bloom to toss the gift onto the table, and then oooooed over the cake, reaching out a hoof to get a lil' frosting on the tip and lick it from her hoof. *^_^* "Mmmmm, that's an especially *good* cake!" she squeeked eagerly!

This is mainly for fun, but also to give future applicants an idea of what way too many OCs have tried to do before them. As people give suggestions, I'll keep adding to the list. The main list, I intend to keep as a relatively serious-ish list of things we have seen too much of in applications ... but I invite comments to get as silly as you like. This is NOT an official set of rules of what is not allowed in applications - just overused themes that new players should try to stay away from. This is also only appropriate towards *Mane RP*. A lot of the things on this list are just fine- even highly appropriate - for fanfics and short stories, or one-off RPs, or crossover RPs, but just don't translate well to sharing the story-creation process with a bunch of other ponies in the setting of Mane RP. 100 things Mr. OC is no longer allowed to do in Mane RP You are not a unique and special snowflake. Your parents are alive. Get over it. You did not get your cutie mark by fighting monsters. Your parents also love you very much and don't hate you. You did not survive the Everfree Forest alone as a foal. Nor do your parents fight. You are not an assassin. Your parents were also not assassins. You cannot be a secret assassin, either. Your parents did not beat you when they drink. You were not in a war. In fact, your parents did not have a drinking problem at all. You are not a robot. Your parents did not give you up for adoption. You did not get your cutie mark by defeating an adult at a contest. In fact, you did not get your cutie mark by winning a contest, period. Your cutie mark story is not a story of magically being good at something without having ever practiced or trained in it. You cannot prove that science is more powerful than magic. Magic *is* science in Equestria. You do not worship Celestia, Luna, Discord, or any other historical figure. You did not slay dragons as a foal. You did not stay a blank flank until you were an adult. You do not know Rainbow Dash. You are not secretly a changeling. We have a thriving DJ culture. Your DJ did not find it hard to meet other DJs. In fact, there's a surplus of DJs. The market is rather saturated with them. You did not get your cutie mark by being the first to do something ever. In fact, you probably aren't the first ever to do something. Blindness is nonexistant. No videogame cutie marks. Daring Do is not real. Your OC will NOT develop a romantic relationship with a mane cast member you also play 'during RP'. Nor a minor cast member. Just don't RP romance with yourself, OK?

Silver Flash was surprised ... folks *never* showed up all on time like this! This was a good omen! Though ... "Wow, there," she said to Sugar Rush, clasping a hoof onto his shoulder. "You need to take some of that energy and enthusiasm and lend it to these other two! Not sure exactly what you just said, I'm afraid, you'll have to cool it down!" She strode inside and slide the Big Gulp off onto one end of the table, and the alfalfa pizza off to the middle of it, then hefted her heavy bags off onto the floor with a sigh of relief. "Hi! Nice to meet you, everypony! I'm Silver Flash, I ... work in theatre, and I'm really looking forward to this game! " She nosed into her saddle bags and started to pull out books - the Player Guidebook, the Game Editor's Guidebook, the Beastie Book, all the splat books for all the various races and classes, the Terrific Tome of Taking Names, the Mentalist Expansion, all of the region books... plus, folders full of character sheets and record sheets and inventory sheets and spell sheets... "I've got some great ideas for characters, and don't worry! I can help anypony who's not used to the game, I've been playing for *years*! Do you allow custom spells and feats?"

For a several long moments, everything was fine. Better than fine - it was normal. Awesome. She lifted up on the thermals without even thinking, beating her wings to move faster, faster, impatiently lifting herself upwards. The wind in her face, brushing over her feathers, ruffling through her silken blue coat, was like everything was OK again. She forgot about Fluttershy, she forgot about Tobias - it was just her and the sky, like it always was. It was beckoning her to return, to caroom along the gulf screem, to play in and amongst the turbulant clouds, to tame it and to race it and to ride it ... And then her wing spasmed, and she faltered and fell a bit. She winced, and recovered herself, straightening out again, and reminding herself what this was supposed to be. Slowly, she circled, waiting for the other two to catch up to her ... but inside, her heart ached. It had been days! DAYS since she'd hurt herself! And it still wasn't better! She wasn't back up to full strength! How long was it going to *take*?! "Yeah, sure," she said in an off-handed manner to the other two. "Ready to go, all three of us!" Fine, she'd take it easy... but her wings better heal soon! She spread them wide and pointed her nose into the wind, taking long, slow, careful strokes of her wings, sure that they'd follow her...

Rainbow Dash followed along after the other three, floating through the air and sipping at her coffee. She blinked as the lot of them just rushed on into the library ahead of her. Geeze, pushy lot, weren't they? Why'd they even need her help? Ah well, she shrugged, and floated on in through the door after them, sipping at her coffee some more. She was gonna wake up soon, she knew it. "Heeeey, Twiiiiilight! These buncha eggheads wanna talk egghead talk!" she called out, with no respect for the peace and quiet a library was supposed to have. She hoped Twilight was home! She settled down at Twilight's desk, setting the coffee mug down on a convenient stack of papers, and let out a wide, jaw-cracking yawn. "What?" she asked of Muffin, her attention drawn in. "Who, Spike? How'd you hear of him? Heh. Oh, trust me, it's not a problem. He's a creampuff. Makes awesome cookies, though."

Silver Flash was quite eager. She'd already *tried* all the groups at the local games shop, and while she kept up an appearance at one of the games ... none of them were really satisfying. All the good games already were full up! And the remaining ones were all little more than wargames, arguing about whether or not the figure on the map had partial or slight cover against this other figure for half an hour, or whether the archer should get any bonus from the wind at his back and greater height ... groansville! But this group hadn't posted to the games shop, which was weird! They'd posted in city hall, of all places! She was lucky she'd even found it! Now *that* was intriguing, and she could only hope it boded well! She wondered if any of them would recognize her. A few weeks ago, it'd have been a definite no - what geek would possibly recognize her from any of those romances she kept playing in? Singing on and on about love and loss and stuff. And the entire theatre world knew she was 'odd' in playing these foal's games ... not to mention anyone who paid attention to the interviews she'd done ... but now that she was playing Daring Do in the next big play, nerds of all shades would probably recognize her. Well, all she could hope would be that they treated her like just anther player. She heaved up the steps under the weight of two very, very full saddlebags, glad to finally reach the top floor. Whew! But hauling heavy stuff up stairs was a lot easier than keeping one's balance trying to carry it *down* stairs from the pegasus entrance! Her hair, striped in various soft shades of sky-blue, was pulled back into a ponytail for the night, and her white coat with its camera-flash cutie mark was partly obscured by the saddle bags, marked with the same image. An alfalfa pizza with a "The Abyss" sized cup of soda was balanced on her back between them. Gotta make a good first impression! She started counting apartment door numbers... oh hey! There was already someone here! And it was a hippogriff! "Hi!" Silver Flash cried excitedly. "You ready for a fun-filled and exciting night of protecting the weak and innocent from the foul evils of superstitious and cowardly crooks?"

Rainbow Dash grinned eagerly at the thought of improving her costume, but then blinked as she heard Madden's voice. She turned to see him open the door and enter the changing room. Paid? What was he talking about? "Oh, it's my first convention!" she said cheerfully, as Carrot rubbed the dye into her wings. "But I do this because I do love the books! They're pretty awesome! Action and adventure, honor and excitement, competition and athletic achivement! It's all the traditional values of Cloudsdale! I used to think it was just for eggheads, and most books are, but these books are something special!" Her grin broadened. "It's neat, this being my first convention! I wasn't sure what to expect - but I see pegasus ponies and unicorn ponies and earth ponies, young ponies and older ponies, egghead ponies and athletic ponies and farmer ponies, goofy ponies and handsome ponies, all coming together and finding something in common! There's incredible costumes, and excitement! What's not to understand? Now, if you'll *excuse* us, we're changing here!" She took up some of the tan fur dye, and taking off her Daring Do jacket, started to apply it to her shoulder. "This is gonna be awesome!" ----- ----- ----- Daring Do spread her wings and flew out over the audience, taking one last celebratory lap, exorting the crowd to cheer even louder, and then was flew through the curtains to disappear into the backstage and be gone. The head of the con tried to get the audience's attention back, but to no avail - all other announcements would just pale in comparison to what had just happened. Finally he laughed, shook his head, and simply announced, "I proclaim Daringcon ... BEGUN! To Adventure!" Silver Flash landed lightly behind the curtains, grinning eagerly at the reaction. She'd *never* had a crowd like that before! Not in high school, and certainly not with the hum-drum romances she usually performed in! It had energized her, and made her feel like she really had been Daring Do! She'd modified the script a little on the fly - she hadn't been supposed to be in-character, but she couldn't help it - the fans deserved their hero! She nodded in passing to the two ponies getting ready for some publicity stunt. They really had found a near stunt double for her in that pony with the rainbow hair - if they could only hide all that color! She got to her own private changing room and settled down, letting out a long breath. *whew* She took a long draw of icy-cold water and relaxed, needing a break before her next engagement. It was exciting, but took a lot out of her!

Doctor Whooves stepped back before Celestia's impressive determination, admiring her strength, her emotion. A side so few ever had a chance to see... Well, this truly had been an adventure! Two princesses, a terrible monstrous menace, ponies saved, a kingdom saved! was that five times, now? Or six? Depended on how you counted. Maybe even seven or eight. Course, this time the princesses were here. They'd probably give him praises and honor. Throw a dinner in his name, ribbons and medals, maybe make him a knight! Make a stained glass window out of him! Everyone would know who he was! He shuddered at the thought. What a mess! Well, they were all busy being mushy and whatnot. The guards safe, the princesses safe ... time to take his leave, before everything got complicated. He swaggered away modestly ducking only a moment to slip a rock out of the way and come up with a large, bright green egg balanced on his nose, speckled with pink spots. "Ah there you are, your majesty," he murmured softly to the egg, and danced off through the door to the staircase. "Well, then, let's get you off to someplace where you won't be feeding on a lot of magic, shall we?" His quiet hoofclops retreated up the stairs - hopefully before anypony would ever notice him missing.

Rainbow Dash's smile becamse hollow, and she squirmed inside in embarassment as Cloudchaser proclaimed her such a fanfilly of the Wonderbolts. Sure, it was true ... but to say it in front of Soarin'! You don't say stuff like that in front of the ones you're a fanfilly of! And she wasn't obsessed! She just ... thought about it ... all the time ... Thankfully, Soarin's words broke through that mental loop. "Awww, well," she said energetically, a her grin growing more brilliant and eager. "You know. I am kinda awesome that way. Fastest Equine alive!" She grinned, and ran her hoof through her mane again, lost cause though it was. "Though, y'know, you're not *just* athletes! You're the most precise-flying, awesome, spectacular, flashy, artistic athletes there are! And you defend the country when there's monsters and stuff!"

Dash froze in mid-air and rushed down to where Pinkie was pondering over possibly pancreas-pickling berries, stuffing her hoof into Pinkie's wide-open mouth before the berries could take up that position. "Pinkie!" Dash cried in frustration. "Remember last week, when you were trying to figure out which mushrooms were good to eat, so you decided to eat them all to find out? Or last month, when you did the same thing with the weird pink fruits? No more eating random stuff! Especially not from the Everfree Forest! Who knows what these would do? They might ... make your tail green! Or make you grow another set of hooves! Or turn into a stallion! Or move in slow motion! Or burp balloons! Who *knows* what would happen?!" Satisfied that her warning was sufficiently good, and Pinkie wouldn't go eating random stuff anymore, Dash turned back around and started flying off in the direction Angel had indicated once more, slashing her hooves against nearby leaves. Muttering under her breath so none of the others could hear, she monologued, "Daring Do's incredible botany knowledge had come in handy that time, as she saved one of the packponies she had hired from ingesting the poisonous berries ... so she moved on, inexorably seeking out the lost royal children stolen ... no, foalnapped ... by the evil ... evil ... Hrm. What would make a good bad guy... er ... bad bad guy ... good at being bad ... "

Sweetie Belle was completely confused by Applejack's admonition. She *had* been cleaning up! She'd been cleaning up real good! She nodded and reached out her hoof to lay atop Applejack's and Scootaloo's, worried by the implied disappointment. She needed to get back to that wash room and finish cleaning up! "Don't you worry, Applejack! I'm so good at cleaning, Rarity sometimes gets upset that I cleaned up too much!" As soon as Applejack let her, she took off full of energy, her little hooves stomping through the house to get to the wash room again. She took up a bunch of towels and started to lay them about the floor, soaking up all the water and soap that had kinda gotten all over the place ... then carefully scootched out a dry corner, and one-by-one started going through the boxes and buckets and drying them off individually, before putting them back where they were supposed to go. Sweetie Belle was *really* good at cleaning up. Sure, it took her way longer than it took Rarity, and got a little messier in the meanwhile, but she always got it cleaned up in the end! She patiently went at the room, one bit of soaked supplies after another, then moved on to see what she could do about the kitchen ...

School does have a tendancy to do that! XD

Purple Fields grinned at her friend Peebee. "Oi'll be roit back, an' we'll make our plans! Oi'm sure we've a roit fun time ahead!" She gave her a big hug, then grabbed up her art and ran off to the Wonderbolts! She bounced eagerly, thinking of how excited her big brother would be to have a signed picture of her drawing of the Wonderbolts! She wondered if he'd put it up in his workshop along with all his other Wonderbolt posters? "Spitfire!" she said excitedly, "Now we're done wi' the demonstration, will ye sign my picture?" She gave her biggest, brightest, most eager smile for the mare, the one that seemed almost guaranteed to make adults cave in and do whatever she wanted.

Sweetie Belle stared in awe at all the insane hijinks that were going on all around them. What were they *doing*? That wasn't how you bucked apple trees! She hardly ever did any apple bucking, and even she knew that! Well, that wasn't her problem, she was teamed up with Apple Bloom and Timid Star! And Timid had just ... "WOW!" she said eagerly, hurrying forward to help Timid Star back to his feet. "That was *awe*some!" she squeaked. "You got six whole apples, that's just amazing! What a great job! Way to *go*!" She was all ready to enthuse some more - and maybe take another try herself - when her attention was drawn away. "Fire?!" She cried! "You're not supposed to cook the apples while they're *on* the tree!" She grabbed Apple Bloom and Timid Star and cried, "Come on!" If there was anyfoal who knew how to deal with fire-based emergencies, it was *certainly* Sweetie Belle! She was already moving as she heard Apple Bumpkin start to give the other foals directions. She opened door after door, zipping through them as fast as she could till she found the buckets, then let out a cheer as she rushed over to the garden and started to fill them up. "Get these over there!" she proclaimed!

Purple Haze quivered with excitement as her brother cut the bread and passed it out, and patiently waited as was proper for everypony else to have a couple of slices before she reached out and snagged a pair for herself. With careful determination, she dipped the knife into the Zap Apple Jam, and spread it on the juicy carrot bread. Every bit of the food process fascinated her - the soft bread was still steaming, so fresh was it from the oven, and she watched how the rainbow colors of the jam half-melted over the bread ... carefully she laid out the crisp apples and carrot sticks, just as Applejack had suggested, lining them up carefully so that every bite would have the same amount of apples and carrots as every other bite ... then laid another steaming slice of bread over the top. Her mouth was watering as she lifted it up before her ... oh, the anticipation, that moment that almost nothing could live up to, where you were about to try something you've never tried before! She salivated over that moment, inhaling, just trying to guess what it'd be like from the smell ... and then her mouth opened wide, and she took one, slow bite ... She paused, her eyes sparkling ... and then she realized. She'd never made anything this tasty. Slowly, she chewed, emotions warring in her little filly heart. She loved it. She absolutely loved it. It was like ... like music in her mouth, orchestral music with this big, rich, wonderful sound, but also full of energy, like a lightning bolt had been harnessed to power the flavor. But it wasn't spicy, it was just ... *tingly* ... effervescent ... it danced on her tongue ... If there were magic apples this delicious, then by golly, there must be magic carrots that were even more delicious! And by golly, she'd go hunting in that Everfree Forest till she found them! If she hadn't already had her cutie mark, she'd have gotten it now! She swallowed, and turned to Applejack and Big Mac, very calm, even though her eyes danced with energy. "Oi've ne'er had a bite loik't!" she declared, solemnly. "Ye're a roit full-on, ye are! Oi'm a have tae step up me game tae keep up wi' that, Oi kin see! Oi'll have tae see what Oi kin get together by th' picnic, cause that's a roit bonnie idea!" Ooo, wait... a picnic. Picnics could be romantic, right? She'd have to make sure her big brae didn't mess up this opportunity! She grinned over at him. "Oi know me big brae loves picnics! And AJ could give him a tour of th' Apple Orchard, jes loik me brae gave her a tour ah his workshop!" And slowly she took her second bite. Oh goodness, it was just as good. No, better. Her eyes half lidded and a contented little smile came over her face as she pondered what her ultimate magic carrot dishes might do with a taste this amazing.

Rainbow Dash didn't care about the historical innaccuracies of her story. At the moment, she wasn't caring about anything. Wonderful, hot, refreshing, energizing coffee was passing through her lips, lingering on her palate, spilling down her throat and warming her stomach ... she took a long, long, careful but long sip of the hot liquid, and then set it back down on the table with a satisifed sigh and a blissful smile. "Coffee," she explained. She bent over and peered at the image before her. The art was ... a little lost on her, but she could see the crown, yup, sure enough. "Man, this sounds like the plot of a Daring Do novel." She thought about that a moment, then grinned. "This is kinda cool! All righty, well, yeah, I can bring you to Twilight, no prob. I guess I'm kinda curious now, too." She glanced around at the onlookers. "But, um ... probably just us. Twilight gets kinda ... touchy ... if there's too many ponies in her library. She likes it to be *quiet* in there. She even flinches when I'm over there hangin', just the two of us, and I make too much noise!" She picked up her coffee again, cradling it protectively, and her wings flapped to carry her to the door, and out. "Just careful of my coffee, 'kay?"

Sweetie Belle let out a sigh of relief at seeing she had no more customers to take care of. As excited as she was about helping Rarity out, it had been a lot more work than she'd expected! Still ... she let out another sigh, this one a bit twitterpated, as she remembered how that handsome Prince Blueblood had treated her so nicely. And he was available! How could such a sweet and nice stallion - and a prince! - be available? Then she remembered the whole point of this - to get her boutique-related cutie mark, so she and Rarity could be fashionista sisters together! She quickly twisted her head around, moving in a few little circles as she tried to see whether she'd gotten a cutie mark yet, then let out a sigh. Ah well, no cutie mark. Well, no worries, there's plenty of things to do as a Fashionista's assistant! First off, she needed to make sure no other ponies tried to cut in line! That had been a *real* problem. She glanced out the window to see if any other ponies were coming. Huh, her view of the road was blocked by the boulder out front. Ah well. She stepped away from the window to - What? Boulder? She stepped outside, and peered up at the sizable boulder sitting before the Boutique. How very *strange*! Had it just been delivered? She wondered if it came from Pinkie's family farm. "Well, hello there, Mister Rock!" she said cheerfully, not really expecting an answer. "I wonder where you came from?" She frowned, rubbing her chin as she looked at it in consideration. It wasn't ... *fancy* enough to be out in front of the Boutique by itself ... how could Sweetie pretty it up?

The tour guides all looked up as the two ponies approached the carriages, eager for a commission. Bramble smiled to Ornatia. "I think your sense of taste is impeccable, of course," he said with a smile, stepping over to the carriage and opening the door for her politely. As the tour guide came over from the group, smiling to see that they'd chosen his carriage without even needing a pitch, Bramble greeted him and arranged the fare in a low voice. He *was* a little surprised at how much it cost - but they were probably bumping up the price because they were all clustered around here at the fancy art gallery, hoping for wealthy fares. Still, it wasn't beyond what he'd budgeted for his vacation, and he paid it gladly, then joined Ornatia in the carriage with an excited grin.

Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise, then darted forward to help Soarin' to his hooves. "Oh, man... we're both exhausted, I guess, huh?" She laughed awkwardly, forgetting to let go of his hoof once he'd gotten up. "Coltfriend? OH, nonononono." She giggled nervously at the question. Oh, what if Soarin' thought she was telling folks that? "He's just a Wonderbolt! Well, not *just* a Wonderbolt, but yeah, I just saved his life once, and his pie, and we danced together at the Wedding the other month, and stuff like that!" She waved a hoof as if that was all just nothing, finally letting go of Soarin's hoof. "So yeah, he's pretty cool." Maximum coooooolness factor. That's the ticket! "Though we better be more careful or we'll get kicked out for destroying the club!" Why did Cloudchaser think they were going out? He was a Wonderbolt, after all! Not that dating a Wonderbolt wouldn't be *awesome!* but they weren't even acting like they were going out!

Rainbow Dash looked up at Cloudchaser's voice. "Ah, hi there! You ended up this way, too, huh? Yeah, I was even further north - what a storm! Wooo!" She tried to affect her normal energy, but it came out really tired and low-key all the same, and her eyes just wouldn't open all the way. Not, at least, till she saw who was coming in behind Cloudchaser. She certainly recognized him - she'd recognize any of them, but especially him! There weren't exactly a whole lot of stallions she'd danced with recently. Or, if she had to be honest, at all. Soarin', the Wonderbolt! Not in his Wonderbolt costume, or in his incredibly dashing dress uniform, but just himself, looking wonderfully mussed and rumpled. Dash instantly put on a broad grin, and lifted a leg to lean it on a nearby table. "Soa-" she started, then squeeked "RIN!" as the table overbalanced and nearly dropped her to the floor, stumbling a few steps. She recovered quickly and leaned suavely against the wall, running her hoof through her mane again, just briefly. Aw, man, he was seeing her when she was like this? This was *not* awesome. Still, he looked really good... "Soarin!" she repeated, as she rested against the much more stable wall with her shoulder, her forelegs crossing. "Hey, hi, whatcha up to here? How bout that weather, huh?" Idiot.