Bramble Rose

Kill a *lot* of endermen and get ender pearls. Go into the nether and kill blazes. Do something with the loot and the ender pearls, i forget what, and you get Eyes of Ender. Throw an eye into the air, and it streaks towards the nearest stronghold, then drops to the earth again. Be ready for a long, long, *long* journey cause strongholds are very few and far between.

( Continued from Part 1: The Bar ) Brazil Nut in The Adventures of the Treasured Trinket Part 2: The Map of Royals The Great Library of Canterlot, one of the single oldest structures in the city - in the Kingdom! Its ancient edifice was a gorgeous example of Early Postdiscordian Architecture, a historical artifact that was on nearly every tourist route, the building almost as valuable as the massive repository it held within. Some of its deeper corridors of ancient scrolls was known only to the mysterious scribes and librarian unicorns which were responsible for making certain the aging parchment was replenished, restored, and replicated, to keep the knowledge from being lost to any but the memory of the princesses. The library was used to scholars from all over the kingdom coming to peruse their extensive knowledge, but very rarely did they see a crowd such as walked in through the front doors that day. They were big, massive ponies. Not the same ones as the Baron von Hoofington had hired out in the desert - these were city ponies. More civilized, he knew. They knew when to keep their mouths shut. And the small pegasus had always liked to surround himself with big ponies. He could hold his own against the bullies, but it was so much nicer to have a few bullies of his own to keep them away. And many of these ponies were unicorns, too! That horrid little hat-hating mare wouldn't have gotten away with being so mean if he'd had these thugs with him out in the Borderlands. His blond mane streaming behind him, he clopped through the hallways of the library confidently. He was wearing a blue fedora, today, and a blue suitcoat, that went well with the dark green of his coat. He had found the trinket, but it was only half of what he needed. To find the other, he needed the map. The map of all the hidden places of the Royal Family. And he knew where to find it - he strode into the old corridors, the old hallways, where few ponies ever went save the librarians. And they cared only about knowledge, which was all he sought. So he disappeared into the depths of the Great Library, past the secret entrances and the hidden passages, through shelves of fake scrolls to conceal the one true one, and beyond the traps and trickery, feeling like he was coming home.

Yinny ... I'm really, really bad at this. TT_TT Please, if you would be so kind, could you take this: And turn it into something that works for this? RIght now, my mane and tail won't even show up at all!

OK, caught up on stuff, sorta. I'm having a great time on the server, ponies are great! I'mma have to install that mod for pony figures... I saw a server mod that spawns apple trees... <.< >.> <.< Just thinkin' out loud ... Anyhoo... I'm having a *great* time, but something weird happened. I suddenly started glitching and falling through the world, taking damage, and then suffocated to death! I don't mind *so* much, as I didn't really have much except stone tools, dirt, cobble, and torches - Except that I lost my clock and two and a half stacks worth of clay I'd just mined. This makes for sad ponies. I was wondering if I could petition for the clay back? I can make a new clock, but I haven't found much clay.

Bramble smiled broadly. "Oh, goodness yes. I'd love to go to the Gallopocous, they're supposed to have just gorgeous flowers there. Gigantic blooms, not like you find around here. And I want to go to the desert, my sire always told me about the lovely desert blooms. I have a trip planning scrapbook at home, where I'm planning everything out by flowering season and the like, so I can make sure to see everything at just the right time of the year, once I've saved up the bits." He blew over his tea, and took another sip, absently humming to himself, not too hot, not too cold, the song that he'd heard floating out of a window this morning. It was stuck in his head. "I mean, there's tickets, and hotel rooms, and then I need to make sure I dress appropriately. And I'll want to make sure I see the sights. It's a lot of bits. I'm not sure how I'd travel for business..." He paused, frowning. "Well. I guess ... maybe with my side job. But I'm not sure how much time I'd have for sight-seeing if I tried to do that ..." He laughed softly. "Oh, my, but haven't I been rude, turning the conversation to me? Though, thank you *both*. It's... awfully kind of you both to be so nice to me. What do *you* guys want to do? There must be dreams there, too!"

Doctor Whooves groaned as he saw the roadblock. Yes, he could normally do offroading pretty well - but he was missing a wheel, and having to pull his cart himself. It was a good thing he had so much practice with galloping! He lowered his head and kept his legs churning as he dodged around the clockwork ponies, slipping between trees. "Somewhere up ... this way ... something changed. You were right. Gotta find ... some way ... to change... ley lines. Hard to do. Gotta be ... something big ... something huge ..." He panted out the words as he galloped, getting winded trying to talk and flee at the same time. Thank goodness those clockwork ponies were so slow. But why did there always have to be so many of them? Well, Doctor Whooves was familiar with this area. Just up ahead was an old washed-out gully, and that would lead them up into the mountains. "Something like ... a new forest ... or an avalanche..." Avalanche was his guess - that's why he was following this route, to the nearest major earth ley line. He turned the corner and stopped dead, blinking. The gully was a gully and a path no longer. The whole thing was full of rushing water, washing around the trees still standing against the flood. Doctor Whooves just stared, blankly. "This... this is impossible! This hasn't been a river for hundreds of years!" His brain started calling up maps of the area. Where did the water come from? What had changed it? Where was an alternate route?! They were trapped! All ways past the gully would now be underwater! This was big! This was huge! This was ... "THIS is what changed!" he exclaimed! "This is what sent the ley line back into the city and repowered the clockwork's 'Come To Life' spell! OK, now it's easy! All we have to do now is stop the river from running!"

I'll admit - this episode did exactly what I was scared it would do. I'm very, very tired of Rainbow Dash always being the butt of the joke, shown wrong every time she tries to do something. Is it any wonder she has such a low self-esteem and clings to her speed so very much? It's the only thing she has. Of course she's 'loyalty', she only sees value in her friends - not in herself. She'd never let them down for her own sake, when she's so worthless. Yay, she's fast. That lets her have big-damn-hero moments for getting people out of the way of danger... But every time she tries to establish her personality in any way, to make a choice other than 'be fast - get someone out of the way' she gets shot down. "Hey, big giant monster is threatening my friends! I'll kick it in the face! ... oh, no, wait, nevermind, I forgot my friend has magic mind-raping guilt powers. OK, well, hey, I'll just have some fun, be a prankster! Oh, no, wait... my old prankster buddy's being kinda... *****y. Hrm. Now I have to choose between two of my friends, boy I feel like crap. Hey, time to rescue everyone by taking out this swarm of horrible bugs! Oh, no, wait - my friend who didn't bother to explain anything to anyone comes in and ruins my rescue, and she gets the spotlight instead, because she enjoys being all mysterious and random. Man, I can't do anything right, apparently." Every time she tries to do something, she gets shot down. The world is too 'nice' and tries to find 'nice' ways of defeating enemies - even if those ways of defeating enemies are actually a bit worse than kicking them in the face. In a different world, she'd be able to grow, develop, and be a hero. Here, she just ends up looking like a clown every time she tries, her fragile self-ego taking yet another kick to the face. Even with all that said - I enjoyed this episode! It was fun, I loved the old Shadow references. I liked the little nods to continuity, like Pinkie Sense, and the bits of personality that keep growing, like AJ naming her hooves. I liked Scoot being all fan-girly. And I don't think that Scootaloo 'dumped' Dash, like everyone says - she has more than enough fangirl for both heroes. She was completely blind to the very idea that Dash might be jealous. No doubt Scootaloo was already writing superhero team-up fanfiction. (Dash/Mare shipping? Who knows!) It wasn't a GREAT episode, just fun, but I really don't see why so many people hated it so much. Not every episode has to be spectacular or deep - sometimes it can just be enjoyable.

Purple Haze broke the kiss and smiled happily. That had been really nice! She smiled brightly to Dark Core, then looked over to see her big brother standing there, with the oddest expression on his face. "Aye, thankee kindly, big brae!" she said cheerfully, prancing over to him with an extra spring in her step. "Wot's eatin' ye? Ye've got th' oddest 'spression on yer face, brae! Ye look just loik th' ole sire, ye do! Roit scary! We ain't got gophers in th' fields again, have we? That'd be dire!" She hopped up to put her little forehooves on the basket so she could peer inside at the treasure trove of carrots within. "Roit, this'll be a good plenty! Thankee gain, big brae! Oi love ye!" As much as she had noticed the odd expression and body langauge, she was completely oblivious to the reason for it. After all, she and Dawn hadn't done anything wrong, why should she suspect he was angry at them?

Whoah! hi there, Dutch! delighted to see you! Big cheers! glad to have you part of the forums!

Bramble Rose was set back by the question. What did he want to be? He couldn't say for certain. He knew what he didn't want to be seen as. He didn't want to be seen as small, or girly. He didn't want to be seen as weak. He didn't want to be seen as ... ... out of place. Too earthy to fit in with unicorns, too small and magical to fit in with earth ponies. He didn't want ponies laughing at him, or jeering at him, or calling him names, or ... or assuming things about him. But what did he actually want? A faint look of worry went across his face. He didn't even really hear much of what Douglas or Ginger Mint was saying... because the question just took him so by surprise. As they both ended up looking at him, no doubt waiting for a response, Bramble simply said, "I ... don't know, actually." He sounded terribly surprised. "I know what I don't want, but ... I don't know what I want." He scratched at his head. "that must sound terribly silly. I mean, I guess I want to work with flowers, of course. That's my special talent." I want to be romantic. I want to be suave. I want ponies to look up to me, not look down at me. I want to be tough. To be strong, and stand up for something. But how do I say something stupid like that? He sat with his mouth open for several long moments as thoughts ran through his head, but nothing he could ever get to come out of his mouth. "I'd love ... to travel, I guess. To do something like Douglas is doing." It felt lame, coming out. His heart sank. And things had been going so well...

Purple Haze looked over at her friend with concern. She was so sad! This wasn't like Peebee, she was usually much happier! Purple considered the problem dutifully as she munched on another carrot stick, forgetting to count down this time. She'd have to do this very gently, very carefully, so as not to hurt her friend's feelings. "Roit, then, ye're loik a grey sky there. Wot's got ye in such a state? Oi should put ye on a clothes loin out in th' sun, cause ye're a wet blanket t'day!" Hrm. That didn't sound as gentle or as funny as it'd sounded in her head ... There was a bunch of commotion over by the door, what with miss Cheerilee poking her head in to hiss at Haywire, and Purple was glad as Haywire came by to snag the frog out from under her hoof, but her attention was mainly on her friend. She said, then, in a quieter voice, "Are ye nay glad tae see me, then? Oi'm nae bein' a bad friend, am Oi?" She looked up as Miss Cheerilee came in. Ack! She still hadn't figured out what to get them to sign! Ah! She had an idea! She whipped out her crayons and some paper, and got ready to draw any wonderbolt that came in. Her Big Brae liked putting pictures of them up on his walls! Well, she'd just make her own picture for him to put up!

Doctor Whooves took a deep breath and frowned. Absentmindedly, his tail brushed off an old, dusty, cobwebbed chair so he could sit down in it, one hoof coming up to tap at his chin thoughtfully. "I have read about them... once. I wish I had the book, it's back at my personal library in Ponyville. Ah, what was it? Menaces of Magic? No ... Profane Powers Beyond Ponies? No, not the Poninomicon ... The Bestiary of Banal Threats? Perhaps. Hrm. Well, there's definitely a good news / bad news thing going on here. Good news is - your guards are still alive. That's why the manasprites have been stealing food - to feed the guards. They've got them webbed up and cocooned, and are feeding off their unicorn magic. Bad news is, that means they'll just keep multiplying as long as they have your guards." He pondered a bit more, then lit up. "Ah! I remember something!" He trotted quickly over to the door and swung it wide open. The entire corridor was awash with surprised-looking manasprites, and the door itself was coated with them, too, like a multicolored fuzzy rug. Doctor Whooves casually grabbed one bright blue manasprite off the door and closed it before they could react. "They're terribly guarded against magic - attacking them directly with spells will just make them multiply, make them stronger. But..." He dropped it to the floor and dropped his hoof onto it, and it burst in a shower of blue smoke and red sparks, washing up over his face and making his mane stand up a bit, his face getting just a little sooty. "A little impact will disperse them back to the magic they're made of. But the bad news is, if you do that to all of them at once... it's kinda explosive, unless you have some way to contain or absorb all that magic." He let out a frustrated noise. "They're not supposed to exist anymore! This is supposed to be impossible! Ahhh, well. Four stars, bonds loosed. I should have expected anything." He glanced up at Princess Luna. "AH! Princess, your magic was always the strongest, back in the day. Celestia couldn't hold a candle to your might! Have you recovered fully from the Elements of Harmony yet?" Then he frowned. "No, no - if you had, your mane would be all sparkly, like the beautiful night. Well, at least that means you're safer from the manasprites. They'll all head straight for Celestia." "They're related to Parasprites, so they were lured to their destruction by music ... but what *kind*? It wasn't polka, I know that got ruled out. I don't think it was the Clopamanea, either. Ahhhh, what was it..." He sighed, frowning again. "Man, if I could only get at my library. Or my lab. Or even my cart. Just one cloud-crystal. I don't know what to do." He glanced up at the others. "But I will! Just ... give me time! I always think of some way out of these situations!"

Baron von Hoofington ducked the incoming objects, snarling in frustration as the delay caused that bartender and the blasted Doctor Nut to catch up with him! He didn't have any particular malice towards the bartender. Why hadn't she just sold him the key?! He'd tried to do things the nice way! They never listened! Well, he'd go his way, and she'd go hers, and he'd never have to see her again. The foal. He froze at her words... and stared at her as a new light of absolute hatred lit in his eyes. "T ... Trashy ... hat?" he asked, his voice starting to shake his teeth practically becoming sharp in his frothing fury. "TRASHY?! HAT?! Hyu liddle foal! Vot is hyu callink a tashy hat? Dis hat is de verra finest of fashion! Hy iz searchink for days to gets just de right hat! Hy... Hyu... RAAAAAARGH!" The baron spun around and, in a burst of furious strength normally beyond the diminutive pegasus, kicked the bed so that it flew towards the door and crashed into the two ponies there, the third pony screaming and clutching her pillow as she flew along with the bed, all three ponies getting buried in the wreckage of bed and wall, a cloud of feathers puffing out from the burst mattress and pillows. The brief spurt of insane rage seemed to clear the Baron's mind, though he was still seething. His mouth opened in a furious yell, the trinket on its chain practically floating inside his mouth as he monologued. "Hyu tink hyu is a shmot gal, huh? Vell, sveethot, hyu just made de list!" He snorted a bit at Brazil Nut - though for the moment, he actually hated Martini more than his rival. "Hy am Baron von Hoofington! Und mine brains gots plenty of backoop plans! Hyu kin try all hyu vant, but de Baron vill alvays vin! Mine minions ain't mine shtrength - iz mine shmots vot makes me shtrong! Do no mistake dat I am a leedle pony! I vill neffer giff up, no matter how funny hyu all tink hy am! NEFFER FORGET WHO HY AM!" He suddenly calmed down, then, and gave a wicked grin. "And hy vin dis day, because hy gots de key. Und I do not forget dot." With that, he reared up, front legs kicking the air, and spun around to gallop towards the window of the room. He leaped through it, hooves covering his face, the glass shattering around him. He dropped out of sight for just a moment, before his dark form could be seen lifting up again beyond, his wings flapping mightily to swiftly carry him away from the saloon. In the chaos left behind by his flight, the cloud of feathers floated over the railing and drifted down into the main room, where Survey beat valiantly at the flames - one feather was touched by a spark and burst into flames, and the entire cloud went up, settling all over the saloon to set dozens of little flames. One settled into all the spilled spirits, and the alcohol lit up too, sending a wash of blue flame across floor and bar, the building igniting right and proper.

Doctor Whooves lowered his head. "Right. Just need a run-up, then," he muttered, his hooves beating faster on the ground. "And with enough momentum, it's just a matter of ... timing." He gave a little jump, getting the front wheel off the ground, but too soon - it landed again, bounced off the ground, and he jumped again to get the wheel even higher. The front wheel hit the trunk and bounced into the air, the cart rattling as it took the jump and landed heavily on the far side, the cart letting out a loud cracking noise, as something broke. Doctor Whooves winced, but kept galloping. "Oh, baby, my poor girl... Don't worry, you'll get some TLC soon, sexy!" He wasn't about to argue about the direction. He'd seen that go quite wrong before - groups split up mid-gallop, picked off one at a time. He didn't want to lose anypony today. However, he wasn't going to let her forget their role. "Don't light it up!" he cried as they passed the log. "Our job... is to get them... to chase us..." He was already panting hard as he pulled the three-wheeled cart. He hazarded a glance backwards. There certainly was a large crowd of clockwork ponies chasing them. "PUR-SUE VAN-DALS! PUR-SUE SPARE PARTS! DETAIN! DETAIN!" "Don't worry!" he panted. "I'll find you ... something to destroy ... very soon ... but first ... try to do something... nondestructive ... with that green fire. Something flashy... to get their attention ... but takes less juice!" Ah, galloping. This certainly was how he knew he was in another adventure. He had a LOT of practice galloping. The previous Doctor Whooves had told him that he'd gallop a lot before passing the title along, but he'd had no idea. He did, however, start scanning the landscape. He couldn't see ley lines, but he could guess. "Ley lines," he started talking out loud - it always helped him think - "shape the land. The land... affects the ley lines... so what we need... is to find ... something major... to change..."

Sweetie Belle squeaked fearfully as the doorknob came off on their side, too. She moved up to the hole left behind, peeking through it to see the dark storage closet inside. "Oh my ... that looks serious." She raised her voice to call, "the doorknob is being wonky again, Rarity!" She pondered seriously, tapping her chin with her hoof, glowering at the door. "Maybe if we use the soap to suds up the door, it'll slip free?" She ran to go get the bucket of soap suds, and came galloping back, her tiny little legs churning, the bucket bouncing on her back. She bounced the bucket up into the air and sent soapy water all over the clean white door. The door promptly responded to the humidity by swelling up and sticking even more firmly in the door frame. The puddle of soapy water seeped under the stuck door into the storage room. "Oh dear," said Sweetie Belle uncertainly. "That didn't work... " She rubbed at her chin again, thoughtfully.

I actually really *like* the result. There's often a place for recognizing that the world WILL NOT change for your convenience... and instead of needing to change everything, one needs to accept and understand better, to look at the positives instead of the negatives. That's what Luna was doing. And that was the BIGGEST lesson Luna needed, because refusing to look at the positive and trying to change everything was the mistake she made 1000 years ago. One of the most annoying problems I see in this world are people going "I want everyone to accept me in exactly the way I want to be accepted" and refusing to accept anything else. As for Rarity's 'legitimate complaints' ... Mostly this. But also - you rarely have 'legitimate complaints' against little kids. They can be wrong and you punish them - to teach them what's wrong. You can be active with them and show them how to do things right - to teach them what's right. But just yelling at them or telling them something is wrong rarely gets through. The fault usually falls upon the caregiver, not the kid. The degree of how good the kid learns is up to how well you provide punishment, reward, and instruction. You need to be very active with them - which is what Rarity was learning. Rarity is good at giving to ponies - but kids respond poorly to having things given to them. They become spoiled, they become demanding, they reject it, they don't value it, but rarely does it work as expected. What they need most is instruction, activity, and interaction. Rarity wanted to either have Sweetie do it, or do it herself. Doing it *together* was the problem. I am, however, surprised that she understood AJ's apple pie example.

Holy Moly, Sweetie Belle's parents are SO not like Rarity. No wonder Sweetie Belle has such a problem emulating her big sis! I kinda facehoofed when Sweetie went to clean up the creation room. Because ... I knew that the better a job she did, the worse it would turn out. Because creative types *need* their crazy mess. Exactly where they have it. I guessed it was Rarity under all that mud. Except. Y'know. MUD. That's amazing, right there. I couldn't help but think of the "Muddy in the Mornin" thread and the "Dirty Lyrics" threads when I was watching this. *^_^* I think there was even the phrase "What am I going to do with you?" uttered in there somewhere. Eeee! My *ONLY* disappointment with this episode was that it could have been perfectly topped off if, instead of that little arguing at the end, the letter had ended with a fade-out to Celestia reading the letter to Luna. That would have been *just perfect!* And this. It was that Rarity's parents were leaving, and that Sweetie was going to be staying with Rarity for a week.

Purple Haze laughed softly. "Ye silly! Gwan tae a party innae evil!" she giggled and dumped some sliced carrots into the boiling water, then walked over by the taller colt. "An' villains innae cool! They're a roit nuisance, they are! Buncha big bullies! An' stupid! Nae tae mention villains always lose. Lookit Nightmare Moon! Haverin' villain, innit? Knocked roit out by niceness, spent a thousand years onna moon!" She leaned closer, grinning a little bit more, inches away from Dark Core. Her voice dropped a little. "But moi big brae, allays talkin' bout scientific method an' wot, innit he? We'll just have tae have ourselves a lil' experiment, then, an' test the hyper-thesis, loik he'd want me tae! Oi'll be nice tae ye, an' ye be evil tae me, an' we'll see who wins, nae?" With that, she nuzzled lightly along Dark Core's cheek, then drew back just a bit before pressing her lips to his, experimentally. She'd never kissed a colt before, and she didn't know what was possessing her to do so now, but it just seemed like too much fun not to go with it! And she'd never been much one for holding back!