Spring Celebrations at the Elder Tree Teahouse! [Closed - please see OOC]

[Lux]

"Princess Twilight did indeed mention you in a few letters Lore Weaver. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person. Twilight must have some trust in you to let you be the head librarian in her library. She loves books almost more than anything else." 

 

It would have been a very awkward conversation if Lore found out that Princess Celestia hadn't heard about Lore Weaver. He didn't of course think that such a decision would be forgotten considering the meticulous nature of Twilight Sparkle that he saw in practice while in passing. 

 

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well. I do thank her greatly for granting me such a position. I think that her decision was because of her mutual love of books. You see, I owned a bookstore located just across the road from the Golden Oaks Library. Sadly like her home and library my home and bookstore were destroyed in the battle between Twilight and Tirek. But out of the ashes, Twilight was gracious enough to choose me as the head librarian. I promise you that any and all books retrieved from your former castle in the Everfree Forest are being taken good care of withing the special collections of the library, and any magical books of an advanced nature are safely in Twilight's own private library." 

 

"Oh yes, I remember that now; big ado over a missing book of magic?  That made a good story, thankfully with a happy ending.  Never can tell with these artifacts... speaking of which; are you here to play for the ones on offer today?"  He nodded towards the impressive rosebush.  "Thought I'd try a hoof at it myself."

 

Lore's eyes went wide as Earth Writer mentioned what was one of the few incidents under the unicorn's watch which thankfully was contained before anything bad happened. But to say this in front of Princess Celestia was not what he wanted brought out. 

 

"Well, that was due to that book falling off the cart of the recent shipment of books from the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters and was retrieved," Lore said trying to explain, "Thankfully that one was located not far from the castle, and I gave the courier pony a little lecture on proper book stacking and transport so as not to have any more lost books. I made it a priority after that to escort any couriers to and from the castle to make sure that all books could be accounted for. As for this competition, I'm definitely interested in several of these items. Although what the challenge is I can only guess relates to that magically enhanced rose bush there."  

[PyroBlaze]

Flux gave a hum and tilted her head in confusion at Earth's words. Pursuing the performing arts? Why did the conversation turn to that? Sure, she had been on the stage, but as for actually performing...

"Umm... I was only up there to help Ylvvy get prepared for her performance... I never actually performed myself, unless you mean that little tune I hummed for her shawl thingy." Flux said, unsure where he had gotten the idea that any of the performances at that party had been hers. After a couple seconds, she looked over at the princess and gave a happy and enthusiastic wave.

"Hiya! I'm Flux! Nice to meet you, Celly! What's it like being a princess?" She chirped, smiling widely up at the alicorn Princess. She looked at the bird that Celestia had brought for a second before looking back. "And I really like your bird! I wish I could have a pet, but it'd probably not work out too well since I tend to travel around a lot and don't really have a permanent home."

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

“Such a lovely couple! Welcome to the Elder Tree Teahouse,”

 

Flourish smiled as Elderflower welcomed them. She certainly was a sweet mare. Even being around her made Flourish feel calm. This was such a nice day! The pegasus couldn't wait to see what other fun might be taking fun at this event. And the best part of all, she would be sharing it with Ammy. She just loved being with her friend.

 

"I'm kinda new at this."

 

Flourish couldn't help but laugh when Ammy called her 'sugar cow'. She had noticed that the other pegasus seemed to be a bit of as fumble when it came to being in a relationship.

 

"It's ok Ammy!" Flourish winked at her friend and leaned over for a quick kiss on the cheek. "Basically we just keep doing like we were before we were a couple. Nothing much has changed when it comes to that. We've always been friends right?" She looked over to the tea house. "There's so much to see here! Want to go check out the tea house?

 

She trotted over to the house and peeked inside. it was much more quite and calm inside. That when when the giant rose bush caught her eye. Flourish's eyes went wide as she walked towards the massive collection of flowers.

 

"Wow! I've never seen flowers so big! This is so pretty!" She wondered what kinds of tea could be made from this special plant. Maybe Elderflower would show them soon. There were so many guests it was a wonder the willowy mare could keep everything going smoothly!

[Elderflower]

 

El found herself going red in the cheeks when Nocturne stumbled forward, causing their snouts to almost touched. Instinctively she stepped back a few paces, partly so they could both enjoy their personally space and partly because the stallion’s dark expression was...a little scary. She wasn’t particularly surprised when he made his exit, either...oh dear. At least he was heading towards the teahouse with the folio, where he could have some peace and quiet. The willowy mare had no idea how he would fare once the day’s main event began...still. That was a concern for later. For now, she had three guests to see to!

 

Well! Apart from being a little clumsy, this Flaxen Feather character seemed like a very nice stallion! And of course this impression was only cemented by the fact that he had complimented her rosebush - one of the fastest ways into Elderflower’s good graces, after all, was complimenting any part of her precious garden. She beamed up at the large, fragrant rose blossoms when he complimented them.

“Thank you Flax,” she said in a cheerful, sing-song voice, no longer bothering to keep her voice soft or hushed now that Nocturne had made an exit,. She tilted her head happily to the side, “A lot of love and work has gone into rearing that beauty. And of course whenever you’re ready for tea just pop by the station and let me know what you’d like.”

And that was when he took his exit, heading towards Nocturne. A small part of El considered calling out to him in an attempt to intercept him, but at the same time...The mare smiled to herself this time and let things be. Flax really did seem perfectly friendly and he was showing the darker unicorn a bit of kindness after accidentally crashing into him. And who knew? Perhaps and unlikely friendship would be born today!

So then! That left two. It seemed as though Flourish was eager to take in the sights with her new marefriend (it was hard to miss the fact that they were a new couple, which made the romance all the more darling!), so instead of stepping in between the two, El merely turned to Ammy when Flourish took off towards the teahouse and said, “There are plenty of sweets at my brewing station. I’ll be heading there now to see to the other guests...so enjoy yourselves and feel free to come grab a bite whenever you please. There’s still a bit of time to relax before the real excitement begins!”

With that, she left the two alone, giggling a little as she noticed Blue nearly fall out of the sky when Philomena joined him. That little fairy wren was completely smitten! After his embarrassing little display he darted over to the elder tree and hid, completely appalled at himself.

“So! How is everypony’s tea? And might I get something for you two?” she said that last bit mostly to Lyra and Pathfinder as she stepped behind her brewing station once more, a slight hint of sheepishness touching her as she caught sight of Princess Celestia sipping on her spring blend...and that reminded her!

She still had some of her pu’erh golden melons leftover from the last Summer Sun Celebration! She had them stored away for special occasions, since she had poured her heart and soul into those melons in order to make sure they were worthy of the first Summer Sun Celebration since Princess Luna’s return. Having a Princess at her teahouse made her think this was just the day to bust them out! She could send everypony home with a melon of their own! Already ideas were forming...she would have to fish out some tote bags to send everypony home with!

[Zeig]

 

Ah, yes.

Much better.

Nocturne idly flipped through the pages with his magic as the noise from the gardens flit only around the far reaches of hearing. Despite the going-ons outside, the tea house itself remained rather calm and peaceful, sans a few ponies poking their curious heads inside. Luckily for him, they chose to continue explorations in the gardens themselves, leaving the dark-colored Unicorn fully at peace.

And fully informed, as well. Though the information regarding all the prizes piqued his academic interest, Nocturne couldn't help lingering on the information about the cutlass. The fact that this artifact in particular was Hippostian in origin only increased the Unicorn's interest in attaining it, for surely its anti-unicorn properties would serve useful purpose. Many - not all, but quite a few - magical anomalies came into being from Unicorn magic after all, ponies tampering and interfering with the natural magical order of Equestria. A cutlass designed to mitigate or completely neutralize these magics could only prove valuable to the nature of his research.

Though, the extent of its value could only be truly proven on the field, no matter its history, Nocturne mused silently as he took another begrudging sip of tea. Such boldness brought with it another grimace, and the Unicorn finally settled the tea cup onto the table, heedless of the liquid still filling at least half of the mug. He didn't want to be particularly rude to the hostess by leaving a large amount of hoof-prepared tea, after all…but sweet Celestia, there was only so much hot leave juice he could take. Give him a good, steaming mug of coffee any day.

Did he get a good, steaming mug of coffee though? No - instead he got a hauntingly familiar yellow Pegasus.

Of course he did.

And while Nocturne felt his ears perk up at the Pegasus' reason for intruding on his silence - he'd been certain he'd swept the ground for any folds of paper attempting to escape in the warm breeze - they immediately fell back onto his head at the other stallion's sheepish admission, holding onto a piece of paper that mirrored the billion other flyers floating about the entire area.

Again, Nocturne was fairly pleased with himself when he refrained from stabbing the Pegasus with his horn. That still didn't curtail the overall annoyance at his broken scholar session, words and ideas and theories effectively short-circuited as he was forced to deviate attention onto this…guy. The dark-colored Unicorn shot a withering glare at the offending paper all the same, letting the silence spiral uncomfortably into the still tea house. He supposed he should have been grateful that the Pegasus had had manners enough not to peek at assumed belongings - the damage a forgotten research paper could occur was astronomical, too horrible to even contemplate - but really now. A quick glance to make sure the paper in question was not familiar to oneself, before making the obvious connection to the pony with a stack of papers - was it too much to ask?

"Yes, I suppose you should have," Nocturne Wisp eventually said in a clipped tone, doing his best to set fire to the Pegasus' obnoxiously springy hair with his eyes. How in Equestria did he get his mane to part into neat yet full strands like that? The silence held for another moment, before Nocturne abruptly let his gaze drop towards the stallion's flank, studying the cherry blossoms adorning yellow skin.

"Thank you for the consideration, in any case," the dark-colored Unicorn stated in a long-suffering tone of voice, hating himself as his gaze skirted from the yellow Pegasus' face and back onto his cutie mark, a safer target. Cherry blossoms…some sort of gardener himself? "I could - it, could have been important, or something," he conceded, voice trailing off into an almost indistinguishable mutter. Sweet Luna, now he felt like he owed the stallion, despite the yellow Pegasus having done nothing but interrupt his reading. That stupidly vapid smile again - how in Equestria was he reminded so much of Dazzle Dawn?

"Would you - " he started, and had to stop and cough into one hoof, eyebrows furrowed low on his forehead, "you can read these." The papers detailing information on the cloak and violin were flippantly slid across the table towards the stallion, as if their words didn't merit anything other than a quick glance and passing on to the next pony. "Not because - I just. I'm finished with them." Nocturne forcibly kept his ears from falling back onto his head as he stuck his snout back down towards his own pages, hopefully expressing a clear disinterest and dismissal of the other stallion.

Never mind the quick glance from under his lashes towards the proffered pieces of paper, confound it.

 

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

 

 

Humming, she topped the mugs with water and slid them in the direction of each of her guests. A guayusa blend with raspberry and almond for Khamsin, and a final cup of the spring blend seemingly for nopony in particular, which she kept near her.

 

The stallion lowered his broad snout, flaring his nostrils momentarily as he filled his olfactory senses with the pleasant aroma of the tea. He had to admit he was very impressed, just from the smell alone he could tell that this tea was incredibly well brewed and made with the best of care and passion. Khamsin took a sip of the beverage and let the taste coat his tongue. It had a hint of a creamy taste to it, in addition to a very pleasant fruity flavoring. "This is incredible! I need to make sure I this shop and it's lovely owner much more frequently when I'm not teaching." The statuesque stallion said with a wink to the group's attractive hostess. Before he knew it, she'd gone over to tend to a rather introverted looking stallion. He wasn't going to bother them, especially not when the princess was speaking to him.

 

 

 

As Celestia sipped her tea, a rather forward pegasus presented himself to her. "Hello to you as well. As for the competition, I cannot say that I had any intention to participate." Celestia knew if she competed she could make a run for winning pretty easily. So for fairness, she had taken to being a spectator more often than not. He then made a rather obvious come on to her, inviting her to his self-defense studio, though he used the guise of training the REA. "I think that might be able to be arranged, I'll have to check with the captain of the REA responsible for training. I'm sure he would like to come along as well. As for what I've picked up, I'm no stranger to confrontation, but I'm more adept at magic than physical attacks." He then offered to teach her directly "I appreciate the offer, but I'm not sure that would be proper. While I'm certain you could teach me many new things, I'm not sure how the Royal Guard would feel about an outsider teaching physical self defense to their princess." Celestia said with a bit of a mischievous tone. She knew his angle, but chose to let him down in an indirect way. "Alishaba? You are of Saddle Arabian decent then? I've had a few Saddle Arabians call me that, so I'm not opposed to it." Celestia was sure his flirtatious advance wasn't done quite yet, but she would at least have some fun with him.

 

The stallion smiled when he heard the princess mention the possibility of having R.E.A. officers training under him, "I'd very much appreciate that, Princess. I've already been teaching a rather sweet and lovely young pegasus by the name of Sugar star. She's showing promise and even she said my lessons have made her better." the stallion said with a bit of pride in his voice. When the princess brought up her talent being better with magic then physical aptitude and her consideration of the guards feeling, Khamsin chuckled, "Well in my experience teaching one of my own students who uses magic, I've found simple spells such as unicorn telekinesis -even not particularly strong users of it- can be incredibly useful... But  suppose you're right. We wouldn't want your loyal guards to feel inadequate would we?" The princess's words on his nickname for her let the smile drop for a second before nodding, "Aww and Here I was thinking I was being original... but then again considering how long you've been around interacting with saddle arabians I shouldn't be surprised you'd be called such a perfectly fitting moniker. Also, yes! it comes from my mother's side. She taught me the language, her own philosophy and all she knows about self defense." 

[CaptainMcDerp]

 

 

 

"Basically we just keep doing like we were before we were a couple. Nothing much has changed when it comes to that. We've always been friends right?"

 

Amethyst was a little more than relived to hear those words. She wasn't sure how many more pet names she could think of! "Just gotta be myself?..." She gave a hearty salute. "Aye aye, Captin' Flo!"

 

Ammy followed her marefriend over to the tea house. That dark colored stallion was sitting at one of the tables inside. She couldn't help but feel relieved to know his eyes were now fixed on some pages rather than glaring at her. He looked like quite the grumpy pants, that's for sure.

 

"Wow! I've never seen flowers so big! This is so pretty!"

 

Ammy cast a glance in the direction Flourish was looking in. What met her eyes was the biggest rose bush she's ever seen! "Well butter my flank and call me a biscuit... I've never seen roses that big. How in tarnation did that happen? It's plum beautiful though. I wish I could get my orchard to grow like that. Just Imagine all the grape pies!"

 

 

 

 

It's amazing how much the stallion reminded him of Vesper. All the way down to those brief sentences and intimidating glare. Heck, he might've found a long lost relative! Flaxen Feather practically beamed when the unicorn thanked him for his consideration.  He was expecting to get dismissed but instead the unicorn seemed to really appreciate the gesture. Even it was just the result of a mistake.

 

"you can read these."

 

He couldn't help but grin at such a friendly action from such an unfriendly pony. It's a bit of a goal of his to reach out to those who's disposition no doubt makes them a bit on the lonely side. This unicorn would probably make a great friend if anypony got the chance to know him! Flax glanced down to see pages detailing the cloak and more importantly, the violin.

 

"Oh... thanks! I was pretty curious about the violin actually."

 

He pulled up a chair and sat down across from him. Rather that was the unicorn's intentions or not, Flax took it as an invitation. He pulled the violin page closer and read a few lines before speaking up. "The plant life in my conservatory really enjoys violin music. If it came from an enchanted instrument, maybe they would grow as big as that rose bush outside. I'm pretty eager to find out." He chuckled. "But it would probably help if I'd read this instead of talking about reading it..." He took a few more unfocused glances towards the page before casting his eyes upwards once more. "...I just realized that I never told you my name. It's Flaxen Feather. But most ponies call me Flax."

 

Flax gazed wide eyed at the unicorn, waiting to for an introduction.

[Blueblood]

Oh, so Flux wasn't much of a performer?  Well, she seemed pretty comfortable on stage, and that was honestly the biggest hurdle most performing artists ever had to face.  "Oh?  Well, do come around anyhow."  Earth Writer picked out a card from under his hat, and handed it over to Flux.  It bore the words: 'The Canterlot Bohemian Club, "The Low Society"' under which was printed the address of the Veiled Garden, one of the more unusual hangout spots in the city.  Artists tended to congregate there, along with journalists and other fun reprobates.  "I'd like to see you there, sometime.  I'd think you'd like the place, anyhow."

 

Turning around, he was startled to see that Princess Celestia had approached the group!  And what was more, he seemed to have embarrassed Lore Weaver in front of her.  He blushed at the faux pas; he may have styled himself as an irreverent Bohemian, but he was hardly a mean pony.  He stammered, "I, ah, didn't mean that it was your fault, it's just when we met last, is all."  

 

At least the librarian changed the subject.   "I overheard that experience in gardening would give ponies a leg up; which is bad news for me, I guess."  He gave a sheepish grin, which turned into a humorous one as he continued.  "I've got a brown hoof, you see."  And the stallion held up his hoof, and it was indeed brown.  It took a special kind of wit and nerve to bring out so bad a pun in front of a princess.  Not that Celestia was likely to notice, given the fact that she'd just gotten glomped by a changeling.  *I'd put that in my story, but it might cause a panic.*

[RarityDash]

Lyra continued to hug Celestia, not really paying attention to anything else that was happening. Princess Celestia was all kinds of awesome. She was kind and beautiful and just so cool. Lyra had Bon Bon who was the best mare in all of everything, but if she didn't, Celestia was the sort of mare she wouldn't have minded settling for.

 

"That's awesome," Lyra said to the things the princess told her. She nuzzled Philomena back when she swooped in. She feared for a moment that the phoenix would be hot to the touch, but nope, she was just a floofy bird. "She's so pretty! I want a pet phoenix. I wonder if Bon Bon would let me keep one..."

 

As she pondered that thought, she peeled herself off of the princess and decided to finally look again at the others there. "Ooh, I know you," she said as she bounced and smiled toward Lore Weaver. "And you!" she turned and pointed then toward her fellow Bohemian Club member Earth Writer. "And..." she started as she searched the crowd. "And, nope... none of the rest of you."

 

She found Pathfinder. "Well, you look like Daring Do with a different cutie mark, but nope... don't think we've met."

 

Her ears perked up when the proprietor of the teahouse called to her, asking what she wanted. She tilted her head as she looked at this pretty mare. "Well...I'm not actually much for tea... but..." she turned her head back to Celestia. "I guess, I could have what Tia's having.' She nodded. "I mean, if it's good enough for a princess, it has to be unbelievably amazing, right?'

​

[Lux]

Lore Weaver hoped that the statement he made was able to resolve things. He knew that all ponies made mistakes, but on the other hoof he did not want to be seen as a careless librarian, one who lost books especially of a dubious magical nature. It was a tough job as it was determining the nature of magical books. Most of the theoretical or basic spellcasting books as well as books on the history of magical development were safe for the public to read.Then there were the ones that while not dangerous were restricted in a special portion of the library where ponies needed permission to use and could only access limited materials at a time. The last were those that could not be even kept in the restricted section, those books that when placed in the wrong hooves for a very short time could spell disaster. Those went straight to Princess Twilight as she knew best how to use them. 

 

"I, ah, didn't mean that it was your fault, it's just when we met last, is all."

 

"That is fine," Lore said as he sipped his tea and looked around at the ponies and the rose bush, "I knew that was what you meant."

 

"Ooh, I know you," Lyra then spoke after gazing at the phoenix that Princess Celestia had with her. 

 

"Well I do live in Ponyville like you," Lore Weaver said, "Actually I might need your help on a certain project. I'm trying to compile a library within the library of sheet music, but I need help with classifying the songs by era. Would you be able to sometime stop by and help me with that? After all you seem to know more about music as you play an instrument. Actually seeing the items as prizes I take it that the violin is one that catches your eye the most."

[starswirlthebearded]

Celestia was rather used to attention... It is quite hard to keep a low profile when you are the princess of Equestria and the most recognized pony in the world. And by that same token, Celestia tried her best to remember every pony that she met, even in passing or in letters. This was the case with Lore Weaver. She had heard about him from Twilight, and his diligence with books almost rivaled her former pupils. The topic of Tirek came up. "I am sorry to hear about your shop, and though not directly my fault, I do feel some degree of responsibility as my plans to counter Tirek were not fruitful, and the last ditch effort was what lead to the destruction of many homes and businesses, especially in Ponyville." Celestia replied with a tinge of regret... She was quite sure of her decisions at the time, Discord was the best option objectively, but perhaps placing a fail safe would have been more wise... Still she was happy that it worked out for the stallion. "However despite all that, I am happy to hear everything has worked out for you, and that Twilight was a part of that." Celestia gave him a warm smile. Celestia always believed putting other ponies first, and it seems that sentiment had been passed on to Twilight as well.

 

Then the subject of the lost book came up. Celestia heard various versions of the story... but really... what mattered to her was that no pony was harmed from such a dangerous book being lost. Celestia smiled at Lore's rendition of it as well as his actions to prevent it from happening. "You needn't worry about explaining. I've heard much about it, but still, I appreciate the reassurance. I wouldn't have granted Twilight access to that library had I not thought she was capable of keeping those books safe. As I'm sure you know there are many important and even some dangerous books as well." Even though Celestia knew that most of the exceedingly dangerous books were kept in Canterlot under strict guard. 

 

Once again her attention was moved, this time it was a unicorn mare... who seemed rather energetic... 'Celly'? Celestia hadn't heard that nickname since she was a filly... And not many called her by a nickname after first meeting her, but she didn't dwell on it. "Greetings Flux, it is nice to make your acquaintance." Celestia said smiling. "As for being a princess, it is busy, but very fulfilling. I get to help many ponies from all across Equestria." Celestia responded to the question. "Thank you, I'm sure Philomina apprecaites the compliment." Celestia replied giving a quick look around for Philomina whom was basically flirting with the shops fairy wren. "A loyal pet will follow it's owner and friend anywhere. So long as you can take care of the pet while traveling, I've known many that have done so. However, it is a rather mature stance to know what you are and are not capable of. Philomena over there often travels with me." Celestia said now slightly wondering where that bird of hers went off to... Last she saw she was putting on a show for that little fairy wren. 

 

Celestia nodded at the pegasus stallion's positive response and understanding. "I will do what I can, expanding training is always sought after. Especially considering recent events, the captain in charge of training has been pushing for more combat training so you have a good chance." Celestia replied hearing his words about Sugar Star, whom was a specialist if memory served the princess... "I have no doubt your training could not improve most ponies, and as for my own training, I assure you I'm very adept at using telekenesis... among other magics for not only my defense but the defense of all ponies." Celestia replied with a wink. Celestia was no pushover, she wasn't a physical combatant, but when it came to magical attacks she was certain she was not easily bested. "I'm not sure whom first called me that in Saddle Arabia, but it was explained quite readily that it was a name of endearment and not offense." 

 

Her attention went back to Lyra, whom had only just released her leg. Apparently the green mare was happy to see her. But her bubbly personality and free spirit never failed to garner a smile from the sun princess. "Phoenixes are very unique and rare birds. Each has their own personality, and Philomina has been with me for quite some time... Though I'm not sure my personality rubbed off on her or her's on mine..." Celestia said with a mischievous smirk. Philomina as if she didn't want to miss anything returned to her perch on Celestia's back. When the subject of tea came up again, Celestia decided to chime in. "I would greatly recommend this tea, Lyra, it is quite lovely. I do not believe you'll be disappointed." Celestia said with a smile as she looked at El... 

 

"El, where did your fairy wren go, I do believe Philomina wished to get to know him better... He seemed to run off while Philomina was trying to... show off." Celestia inquired to the hostess.

[Zeig]

 

Regret. Regret, everywhere.

Nocturne Wisp gave a sort of noncommittal grunt as he buried his head even further into the papers in front of him, valiantly giving his best impression of a singularly focused rock as the yellow Pegasus continued to prattle off next to him instead of actually reading. He'd expressed interest in the enchanted violin - and judging from his explanation and cutie mark, said interest probably ran along similar lines to his own interest in the cutlass - but the speculations and fantasies were really not what Nocturne had been counting on listening to today.

Eventually, his reading...companion?...slowed down his speech long enough to realize he'd been prattling on, which was something to be thankful for, Nocturne supposed. Until the other continued on by introducing himself. Fair enough. "Nocturne Wisp," the dark-colored Unicorn returned, with only a brief flash of his pale eyes towards the Pegasus, and left it at that, returning to his perusal.

Yes. Definitely good enough.

It wasn't for a while later, however, when Nocturne realized it had become too good, causing an uncharacteristic break in his reading to glance up and out towards the garden. For one disorientating moment, Nocturne wondered if he had missed the beginning of the competition - but to his mixed surprise and incredibility, the gathering outside was still milling about, doing nothing of note or import.

An irritable sort of grunt left his lips as Nocturne glanced down at the papers one more time, before eventually heaving himself upwards. An enchanted cutlass had been worth the investigation, but he had far better things to do than sit around all day waiting for a stalled competition. Oh well. There would be others to attend, other artifacts to collect or enchant himself.

Ones that came without the accompanying chatter.

With nothing more than a brief nod of acknowledgement towards Flaxen Feather, Nocturne excused himself from the table, not bothering to glance back into the garden as he made his way out of the teahouse, back onto Canterlot streets. The sun was still high in the sky, boasting a beautiful afternoon, and Nocturne stood on the cobblestone for a brief second, glancing left and right.

Well, then. To his research laboratory.

The towering rose bushes and bumbling Pegasi were soon nothing more than a backdrop in his memories as Nocturne Wisp made the appropriate turn towards the south, pace sedate and calm as he trot towards his inexorable goal of all magical understanding.

 

 

 

[[ Exit ]]