Foals at Heart [Read OOC First]

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

 

 

 

Presteza backpeddled abit at the sudden laughter and tilted her head quizzically, what was so funny? Was she wrong about his marks? Did he just get the put on him by somepony else? She really wasn't sure but something about how he laughed felt a bit hurtful. The mare almost shrunk abit as she heard the laughter go on... and on... and on, at least in her mind. Eventually she just stepped back with a sad look on her face and muttered meekly, "S-sorry... I uh... um okay, I'll go try and find a book... I'm sorry, sir!" The little filly calmly stepped back beside the dark brown stallion at her side and tried to take her mind off the stallion.

 

 

"Stop laughing!" Razor snapped, trying his best to glare at the laughing stallion. He didn't know why he was laughing, but Razor's brain told him from years of being laughed at when he was young, that it was directed at him.

 

Razor snarled, but instead of a growl after all that came out was a kitten like meow growl.

 

 

The freckled little filly smiled a bit and covered a hoof to her mouth as she tried to hide a giggle from herself. Razor's rather adorable outburst managed to catch the attention of one of her friend's for a moment. Her crimson pegasus friend managed to pull the grifflet into a hug. Pressy then realized that fire had a point... the last time she saw her she could barely walk, how could she have improved so fast to be able to squeeze the air out of a pony's lungs like it was nothing. For the time being the cream colored unicorn decided to talk about her change of condition later on... seeing as right now, she had to help her friend Java with talking to Fire! She took notice of her friend's narrowing eyes and remembered something, he didn't have his glasses on!

 

The filly calmly stroled up beside Voro and whispered in his ear, "Um... where are your glasses?" Before the colt could reply, Fire discovered something... a badge underneath the armor she was on about earlier. The sight made her jaw drop as she walked up and stared at the symbol and the words engraved upon it, "F-fire...  do you think maybe ... we've been sent inta the future, er traded places with our older selves?" She asked in a slightly worried, but also intrigued tone.

 

Soon the fellow freckled filly from he fountain sped towards the group and asked them their names, Presteza, answered almost reflexively. "I'm Presteza!" she peeped in surprise before calming her little heart down and then smiling to the farmfilly, "It's nice to meet you Applejack... and you too butternut!" 

[Hawkeye12]

"Uh... uh, are all perytons named after months?"

 

September couldn't help but chuckle at that. Now that was a question he had never gotten before. "Oh no, it's just a name," he said to the filly. "Besides, wouldn't it be confusing if  all perytons only twelve names?" he smiled at her. To be honest, he wasn't sure why he was named after a month, but oh well.

 

Presteza then went on to say that she had last seen her parents in Trottingham, and woke up on a train coming here. Well, this was just puzzling September even more. "Trottingham?" he said, mostly to himself, while he tried to think of an explanation. It just....wasn't possiblle! The only way it could be is if the parents had put her on that train...and what kind of parents would send away their kids like that? This filly seemed nice enough. Of course, September kept from telling her this, he was trying to keep himself from believing it. There had to be another explanation...

 

He sighed. This was going to give him a headache! The peryton watched curiously as the filly wandered off, first to get a frog from the orange filly haning them out, and then to talk with some other foals who appeared to be her friends. Truth be told, Sep kind of wanted one of those frogs. He had grown up in a forest, after all, and creatures always fascinated him. He was seriously considering walking over there and getting one when-

 

"Ahahahaha!"

 

The sudden burst of laughter made him jump a little, mostly out of surprise. That certainly didn't sound like it was coming from a foal... September spun around, looking for the source. Of couse, it was that grey tattooed stallion from before. He then went on shouting random things that most watching him didnn't seem to understand. 

 

September shot the stallion a look. He hesitated, trying to decide what to say, but all he could come up with was, "Uh....what are you laughing at?" 

 

He sighed again. Honestly, September would rather be in his homey forest than here at this point. But he apparently had a bunch of foals to watch now. He liked kids and all, but who knew how confusing they could be?

[Zeig]

 

Inkbrand was trying, really trying, to pay close attention to what the Pegasus and the Peryton had to say, lest he miss any juicy tidbits of information that could or could not be possibly used for future blackmail.

In reality, focusing was becoming more and more challenging as veritable chaos ran rampant around them, in the form of cute and unsuspecting little foals. Razor's sudden outburst and mewling that sounded vaguely threatening in nature didn't help, causing another short burst of laughter to escape the grey stallion's lips. It seeded that the griffon had been just as…passionate as a young griffon as he was in adulthood. Or maybe, sensitive was a better word?

Either or, the mewling wasn't helping the situation in the slightest, even with Aquaria currently tending to him - or, wait no, she was holding onto a different griffon. Buck, this was getting confusing - and Inkbrand forced the hilarious sounds out his mind as he listened to the two - Naj and September, weren't they? - head cocked slightly to the side. "Tch, Ponyville's about as dangerous as a bunny on salt," he scoffed, then paused, and amended, "…unless, a certain purple Alicorn is involved. Then…yeah okay, I can see that." This was Ponyville after all, and good neighborly feelings or not, the town was positively famous for its blunders and mishaps. Leaving a group of wild foals to run around willy-nilly, whether or not they were actually adults, was probably not the smartest tactic.

Though, Inkbrand wouldn't blink an eyelash if two foals in particular were left behind to rot in the sun. That'd be bucking fine by him.

His somewhat macabre train of thought was momentarily stymied as the Peryton spoke up however, inquiring over the laughing fit he'd just gotten out of. Which, of course, immediately raised to mind the reason he'd started laughing in the first, dragging another involuntary chuckle from the grey Earth Pony. "I'm laughing," Inkbrand drawled, slowly, "at certain feather-brained ponies who get themselves into these sorts of messes. Like they were askin' for it." Which was enough about that. Inkbrand wasn't about to spill his entire life's story to a random Peryton stranger, one who would most likely come to the conclusion that he was a horrible excuse of a pony for not being appropriately sympathetic to the plight of these poor, poor adults caught in such a perilous situation.

Bucking bullrot! Wasn't his problem, he wasn't obligated to care.

“Yer mahrkings ahre ahwfully pretty! Ah hahven't seen nothing like it ever!"

…Unless an endearing, western little voice suddenly spoke up from the general area of his knees. Then he might be obligated to care.

Inkbrand couldn't help the grin stretching across his face as he bent his head lower to the small orange body, and didn't even mind all that much as Applejack reached up to tug at one of his piercings. "Hay yeah they feel all 'cool-like'," he exclaimed loudly, eyes blown wide as if sharing some great knowledge with her, before turning his head the other way to show off the other ear that boasted even more piercings. "And so do these," he extrapolated, voice dropping to an exaggerated whisper as he wiggled his hind leg to emphasize the most prominent of his tattoos, "especially when I paint them, because I'm the coolest. So that's twice the cool, see?"

One of the filly's frogs came over to join them, hopping on top of her yellow mane, and Inkbrand felt his grin widen in an almost conspiratorial manner, leaning his head closer to Applejack. "In fact," he said slowly, "I'll even give you a little marking of your own…if you can do a small favor for me." With his head, the grey stallion gave Applejack a small nudge, turning her around to face the general mishmash of foals and griffons. "I bet you're a pretty good wrangler," he stated, tone considering and thoughtful as if he were slowly forming an idea in his head. "We need all these little guys all together and ready to head out. Think you can take charge here?"

It was a long shot - for all he knew, Applejack hadn't developed her incredible lassoing skills until adulthood - but it was a shot, in any case. Inkbrand raised his head to toss a roughish wink at Naj, despite having no idea where they might go from here. Buck, he could just head home after this - no need to stick around and sheared an unruly flock of foals - but still.

He was clearly the least responsible adult in this haphazard bunch. If he started getting bored, well, he could shove off when he pleased. The others would stick it out 'til the end, because that would be the responsible thing to do.

Which was bucking fine by him.
 

 

 

 

[SteelEagle]

 

 

Applejack listened to the tattooed stallion explain his markings like a true champ of champs, even kindly not stopping her from exploring his piercing with her inquisitive hoof. And he even marked himself, so that was even more impressive! Heck, she didn't know much about no tribal anything but she had gotten in trouble enough for listening to some really weird music to understand at least that it was the cool thing that the colts and fillies did in the big cities. And as much as she loved herself the country, not being allowed to do something because it didn't fit in with the way the family presented itself stuck a sour note with the little independent Applejack. Ma would be beside herself and her pa may just keel over but heck, a nice tattoo and a piercing was just the sort of thing a little flly may experiment with once in a while. And it was being offered for basically free!

“Ahll yah wahnt me tah do is round up ahll'm fillies and colts? Shoot mister, for a piercin' and ah mahrkin' ah reckon ah could snahp'm up in ah minute or less!” the filly said proudly, fiddling with the lasso she had with her. Pa was a master craftspony when it came to the fine rodeo arts. He won all sorts of rodeo prizes! It had seemed a bit odd that his door wasn't plastered with his overflowing awards but instead were on the side of the barn as she left, but she just figured they had done some manner of midnight re-arrangement without her knowing. Point was, she learned from the best and when it came to the rodeo she was the best learner this side of Dodge Junction. And since there weren't no western towns west of Dodge Junction, that was silly little Applejack code for her being the very best learner!

The first one would be...Pressy! She was a nice little pony and she couldn't ever imagine her saying no to a simple, nice request. Plus she had one of the froggies and nopony wanted to hurt froggies except maybe weird meat eaters like those griffons. Did griffons eat...ponies?!?!?!? No, of course not. Ponies would kick them in the face and everything! So, pressy. Applejack approached her and started hauling her away in a half hug. “Alright, you stahy next ta tha fountahin! Ah need somepony tah wahtch over 'em and yer thah one!” Applejack smiled wide, patting Pressy on the head as the froggies ribbited around. Ribbit? Ribbit ribbit!

The next one was that awfully pretty red filly who seemed pretty darn confuzzled by some armor on the ground and distracted by the marked stallion. Applejack was confused too! What was armor doing here without a pony? Hopefully it weren't no sort of possession based armor 'cause Applejack wasn't so sure she'd be able to handle any of the spooky wooky today. Her big brother was nice insulation against such fears but he wasn't here! Applejack would look at the armor later. For now she was pretty pleased that the red filly was all sortsa distracted. That was good for Applejack- she could get the jump on her! Applejack twirled her lasso in the air and then launched it at her target, the lasso filling in around the shocked filly and followed up by a massive, mighty tug from the absurdly strong filly. The former guardsmare now filly went flying through the sky with the lasso firmly tussling her up, landing next to Applejack. “Hah! Gotchah!” Applejack mewled contently, tail flicking with pleasurable nerves as she went about tying Fire Walker up.

 

Once successfully tussled and rustled, Applejack sighted her next target. Lemme see...there was that one that the marking rich stallion didn't seem overly fond of. He seemed nice enough to Applejack but heck, she didn't quite care much about how good or bad a colt was an why a stallion may not like him. It was all about getting them all nice and together and she was just the filly to do it. Besides, he had tackled Pressy aware from Applejack when they were discussing important froggy-related matters. A second length was sent out and wrapped around Voronoi who was pulled in bit by bit by the determined earth pony, knocking him down to the ground like a baby steer during training. “Hehehe, ah think thahts a winner right *here*!” Applejack squeaked with delight, her voice cracking as her head turned to and fro to spot other potential training targets.

Oh! That meowing griffon! Sorta undercut how intimidatin' them talons were if all that beak could produce was a sweet little meow. Maybe the griffy was afraid of pups and mutts! That'd be a sight, some flying collection of talons and fierceness flying back up into the sky with it's tail tucked between its legs on account of a puppy runnin' about. Applejack wanted to laugh but this was FOCUS TIME. Focus time because she had to get it just right. Griffons could eat ponies and they could eat rope and she didn't want her rope to turn into griffon food any time soon. Put a stop to her plans that way and that wasn't any good. She let loose with her shot, aiming to get the griffon around the middle. It slotted in place and pulled tight, Applejack's mighty tug sending the kitten with wings onto the ground as she roughly pulled it over. “Sorry! Yer not too heahvy but Ah'm stahrtin' tah get a bit winded,” Applejack apologized as she went about tussing up this one too. A ribbiting frog hopped on by. Ribbit. Ribbit.

The final griffon. The final challenge. The adrenaline was flowing but Applejack was starting to feel the strain on her forelegs and time was running out! It was almost a minute! The lasso was snapshotted towards tehengu, finding a home amongst its claws. Not perfect but Applejack pulled anyway, losing her grip- Tehengu went end over end, slamming into Applejack. The duo rolled around and over some of the others, loose rope wrapping itself around Applejack and tying up her back legs as the pair came to a stop. Applejack didn't waste a moment, tying up Tehengun even though she couldn't stand. And she was done! “Under ah minute, right? Right?!” She asked excitedly, meaning to pull her hooves away from- nope, she had tied her hooves up into the form she had used on Tehengu. A frog hopped by and on Applejack's now outstretched back, caught up with somepony on her bottom hooves and tying herself with Tehengu at the top. She was stretched out and unable to move.
“Drahts.”

[moonshineTheleocat]

Voronoi stared at Inkbrand for what felt like ages while he was laughing. The only legitimate response that might have came out of him when the tattoo cladded stallion told him to shove off and read a book, was a quirk of the brow. The colt kept a level gaze with him while he contemplated just how far from the grasps of insanity this buck could have possibly been.

 

Given the situation at hand... which everything seemed kind of normal at first glance, he was pretty close to flipping off the handle bars and sail into the deep end. That, and Voronoi could swear that this particular stallion who dared to tell him to read a book had never picked one up himself.

 

He sniffed and turned around, deciding it'd be best to just ignore the stallion for now till he has something more interesting to add. His gaze returned to Fire walker, whom was glancing down to his toy. The stallion smiled and raised the stuffed displace beast up proudly to the mare, offering it out in such a way for her to hold it.

“Ah... my mom made it for me....” he hummed with a thoughtful tone. “I never knew she was a good crafts pony though... she's the sort who'd find it more fun to wrestle a bear... and that actually happened... then to sit still for hours on end making a quilt.”

 

He was about to go on... until his best friend queried him about his glasses. He stared at the filly for a moment, then finally reached into his mane and pulled out a pair of spectacles. They were bound by a thin gray plastic ring, and were created by two rectangular lenses that were rounded outwards just slightly at the bottom.

 

He'll admit that the question is unusual, as he proven to be quite capable of seeing in close ranges. And he was about to ask about that... till he saw both of the fillies looking down to an empty set of armor. His curiosity was piqued when he studied their reactions, and so he drew closer to see what was just so gosh darn.... oh dear.

 

Fire Walker

 

The little colt's expression went flat. His jaw hung only for mere moments before he set it, clenching down tightly in thought. His eyes flickered between the two fillies, first Fire Walker... and then Pressy when she began speaking.

 

He'd be willing to accept that theory... if it wasn't for the fact that he was experiencing some oddities at home before he ran away. And... if memory served correctly, he remembered seeing an Archemedes Sphere. The same one grandpa Mandelbrot gave him. And it was obscessively taken care of... not a spec of dust. In fact... the entire house he had woken up in had things he remembered as a foal. And the entire house was obscessively clean.

 

Then the reactions from his... now much older folks...

The colts head snapped right as things began to add together. His glasses flashed white from catching a glare from the sunlight. He just about figured it out now... it's perfectly logical that they were sent into the future. But that would cause a whole slew of problems with time travel, most notably a Paradox. They'd have to exist currently in this time period!

He believed he knew exactly WHAT was going on now! IT'S HORRIBLE! THEY WERE... was that a rope that just flew into his view.

 

 

Soon enough, Voronoi's world flipped about, sending him crashing to the ground on his bag, and slowly drug up to another little filly. He stared at the filly with yet another flat expression as she continued her devious plot, tying up his hooves.

“Alright...” the colt finally said. His head rolling to look to his friend. The frog that was on her now bounced off of her face, and landed on his snout. He frowned when his vision was being blocked off by something green, but he didn't bother with shaking it off. Though... he was wearing his expression that Pressy might have known as the, "i'm hiding some outrageously horrible news, that you should probably never ever ever EVER hear. Unless they were both going to die then it's totally alright" look.

 

It's the only look Voronoi had when he realized that just one hint could cause some panic. The kind of information he'd hear and cry over. But he was a tough pony! And he only cried in private! Away from all peeping eyes! So he wasn't going to scream... or cry here! Unless really... really edged on... then maybe he'd crack. A bit? No... a lot. Like a real lot. And... only a small push to make him crack like a lot - lot.

 

“You... might not want to know what's actually going on now. It's... not a very pleasant thought. So... er, have fun?”

[ShadowWalking18]

Razor felt his head steaming as Inkbrand went into another round of laughing. His talons dug into the ground as he glared death at the stallion, and he was ready to tackle the tattooed covered pony until Fire Walker ran up and wrapped him up into a hug.

 

He blinked, and looked at Fire Walker as she hugged him, commenting on his fuzziness. Razor gave the adult now turned filly a slightly irritated look; but sighed and just face  clawed.

 

Finally Fire Walker let him go, "Don't worry about it. Just don't make it a habit." He said.

 

Razor then rubbed his head and began, "Can someone just please tell me why-" But he stopped as he heard Inkbrand and Applejack begin their wrangling plot.

 

"Oh no you don't." He said, and turned to run. He wasn't some cow to be wrangled.

 

But before he could get even a running start, he felt the rope wrapped around his midsection and he was then yanked back and off his feet and hitting the ground with a  grunt.

 

He blinked, confused for a moment as he was dragged toward Applejack and the other hogtied kids and he then grabbed at the ground with his talons....but his tiny form couldn't muster the needed strength to keep a filly earth pony from dragging him and so all he ended up doing was leaving a trail of claw marks in the dirt before being placed with the other kids.

 

The next thing he knew, his legs were tied up and he was left trussed up like a chicken on the ground with a bunch of other kids. Razor growled low, though it sounded more like a kittens growl then anything threatening.

 

"I swear....one day....I'll get you for this." He said.

[PyroBlaze]

Well, Tehengu wasn't expecting a response like that. Not that he was complaining about the piggy back ride. He smiled as he settled into his spot on her back, looking over her shoulder as she asked for his name. He chuckled a bit as she called him 'Mr. Darkclaws', though it was interesting to see they both had black talons.

"My name is Tehengu. It's nice to meet you, miss!" He said happily. After a second, he realized he didn't know the griffoness's name, though before he could ask, he suddenly found a rope wrapped around his claws, and then he was flying through no power of his own. His vision was filled with nothing but the sky and the ground blurring into one another, and he almost panicked. He crashed into a filly before he could though, and the two of them ended up tumbling through other tied-up kids, eventually stopping and her tying him up as well.

When it became obvious that the filly had trapped herself in the ropes she used on him, he began laughing. After his laughter died down, he looked at the filly and raised his eyebrow. He stared at her with a slightly amused expression for a couple seconds before he spoke.

"Care to tell me what that was all about?" He asked, giving another little chuckle at the fact the filly had tied the two of them together, quite literally.

[tacobob]

 

Fire Walker studied the armor, feeling slightly proud of herself. Apparently the adult version of her would not only become an officer, but a rather well ranking one as well. Just by the size of her armor alone, she pondered how old this mare was. Then another idea popped in her head. She would search for her R.E.A identification card. It would surely show what ‘future Fire’ looked like and maybe a few other things. But first, her good friend Presteza had a few ideas. "I don't think so..", as always, the little filly's suggestion was very creative, "I wouldn't be the way I am now...Unless maybe time travel cures health problems?". Her ears perked up as that strange stallion continued to laugh.

 

She glanced over at the oddly marked stallion with a deep frown on her face. Maybe he had something to do with this? He could have magic'ed something up tricky like turning a bunch of adults into kids, but he wasn't a unicorn. Maybe he was the offending wizard's lackey! The leader-baddie would have zapped important ponies like herself and Presteza and turned them into 'helpless kids'. He would have then seized power at Ponyville's town hall, while his evil minion watched over the kids, making sure they did not escape and find a way to stop the unicorn's evil plans.

 

Still, he was kind of cute, and everypony knew evil was only ugly. Maybe the wizard turned a toad or other nasty creature into the stallion and promised to keep him that way, as long as he continued to do his bidding. And there sure was a lot of frogs hopping around the little country-filly. Maybe they were his other lackeys? Or maybe they were ponies who got turned into frogs?

 

FEATHER BRAINED? That's what non-Pegasus bullies usually called her kind. Now that stallion was going too far! The little red pony needed to get over there as fast as her wings could take her and give that no-good, toad-stallion-lackey a good thrashing! And while she was much smaller than he, she knew how to fight. She had never done it before, but she watched her brothers train, and she did read a few books on self-defense. That would be more than enough to take care of the lackey. And considering villains were always coward-at heart, er...

 

Her train of thought was quickly stopped as the country-filly started to play with her rope. While she had never been to a rodeo before, Fire Walker had heard stories of ponies would do interesting tricks with a simple coil of rope, that almost looked like magic. Maybe Presteza knew what was happening..Wait a minute, where did she go...oh...

 

SteelEagle, on 06 May 2015 - 02:50 AM, said:

That was good for Applejack- she could get the jump on her! Applejack twirled her lasso in the air and then launched it at her target, the lasso filling in around the shocked filly and followed up by a massive, mighty tug from the absurdly strong filly. The former guardsmare now filly went flying through the sky with the lasso firmly tussling her up, landing next to Applejack. “Hah! Gotchah!” Applejack mewled contently, tail flicking with pleasurable nerves as she went about tying Fire Walker up.

 

Not pleased to be so involved with Applejack's rope-tricks, the filly let out a screech as she was roped and quickly dragged over to her side, where she was hog-tied! Was the country-filly the lackey of an lackey? She didn't seem to be evil, but maybe the frogs she was minding were her actual family! Maybe if she did the bidding of the lackey, her family would get turned into ponies! What a revolting development this was turning into! Or maybe she was just confused.

 

"Ow!", Fire did not like this at all. "Quit it! You're working for the wrong guy! He's the villain!", she tried to wave a free hoof at Inkbrand. "He's OBVIOUSLY behind this whole mess, I mean, look at him! Gloating over there with an big evil smile on his smug face! You need to tie him up..not ouch! And you need to do it before he gets away and informs his unicorn master! Then he might..er...turn us into frogs!"

 

OOC: Just remembered, I have an pic of a filly Fire Walker....

 

[Gerrard]

 

Aquaria was excited to meet and chat with Tehengu. She had never spoken with a grifflet and wondered if they were any different from foals, the cute little kittens certainly adorable enough on their own. Before she could chat with her cute little friend though, the child was snatched off her back, the puffball flying across Ponyville before landing in a pile of children. Her rose colored eyes went wide with excitement as she spotted the pile of children in the center of town, all tied up in the lasso of Applejack. The young pony was caught in her own snare, all the small creatures seemingly accounted for as the lifeguard approached the pile. She fished through the pile and plucked her new best friend of the day out as if he were some sort of buried treasure, leaving the remaining children in the unorganized heap of limbs.

 

"Well, I'm Aquaria Mr.Tehengu, and I'm a lifeguard! If you ever fall in the water, I'll try to be there and get you out. Just be aware that I usually live in Baltimare and Ponyville is a long flight to get over here," the striped griffoness explaining in her usual misguided manner. It wasn't quite clear if the lifeguard understood she couldn't detect things in other cities, but she meant well enough! After making sure that her little buddy was unharmed, she placed him on her striped back, seeming to undermine the rodeo plan of Applejack and Inkbrand. Tehengu didn't seem to be causing any trouble, not that any of the kids were, and she had to teach the youngster about swimming and such! She was intending to do so until the most unusual thing she had ever seen appeared before her!

 

A creature that looked like some sort of deer pegasus was standing before her, the adult just about as confused as the pile of children. "Wow a flying deer, I've never seen one before, lets say hi to him. Lets make it a surprise, deer are pretty sneaky so he probably would appreciate a great sneak," she whispered to her young grifflet before prowling off out of view through the crowd of concerned ponies. She loved sneaking around, her instincts and playful nature taking over whenever she decided to get mischievous. While not the greatest sneaker ever, she more than capable of catching a distracted pony unaware as her now slinking form circled behind September. The lifeguard had no idea what a Peryton was, but if she had to guess, it was some sort of half-pegasus deer or an alien. None of the ponies seemed to think he was an alien though, but maybe she was the only one who knew his dark secret. With the realization that September was 'definitely' from outer space, she needed to give him a proper Equestrian greeting like any good pony would give an Alien.

 

She had circled behind him, hoping that Tehengu would be able to help her surprise the stranger. With a quick leap, Aquaria pounced towards him and placed her smooth talons on her flank as she piped up a greeting almost as strange as an 'alien' deer. "Hello Space Deer! We come in peace! I am Aquaria and he is Tehengu. Welcome to our country, you are free to go anywhere you want. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us for help," she commented with a smile, her tail wagging wildly in anticipation of his answer. She had never spoken to an 'alien' before and wondered if he knew how to speak their language! From her wide 'experience' with aliens though, the diver knew that he could probably just read her mind and speak that way if need be. The hybrid might have been surprised by a randomly appearing creature from 'outer space', but she wasn't going to be surprised twice, she was too 'clever' for that!

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

 

 

 

The young filly soon found herself being hugged from the side and being pulled away from her friends by the freckled, frog bearing filly from before; Applejack. The orange earth pony managed to quickly round up the group with some impressive rope-work. Pressy might have been willing to speak up about the rather rough and tumble method in which she brought everyone together... but for now she was mesmerized by the impressive display of physical aptitude. She hoped one day she could learn to do that. When Applejack asked her if she could take care of her frogs, Pressy couldn't agree fast enough, "I can do that!" the little green hoppy critters were already seemingly trying to explore. One of these frogs was currently making itself comfortable on the nose of a certain dark brown earth colt.

 

The look Voronoi had given her was a bit disconcerting but seeing as it  was that particular look that said they weren't going to die just that the news might be terrifying she decided to take him up on his suggestion to have fun and scooped the frog from off the colt's nose, rubbing her fetlocks on the slightly slimy imprint it left on the little colt's snoot and put it back in the jar, "Now you stay there, Black Ash... " The filly decided to leave her troubles at the back of her mind for the moment, "So, Voro! can ya tell me if ya see any frogs tryin' ta get away?" 

 

The filly tilted her head at Fire's accusation, "C'mon fire. Some cool markings and a darker color scheme doesn't make somepony a villain! If anything he's more like one o' those cool roguish types who saves the day with cool skills most guards don't know!... I bet my dad doesn't know half the stuff he must know about most ponies." The filly went wide eyed as she watched some more of the frogs hopping about towards inkbrand.  The freckled fily trotted over and scooped some more of the slippery creatures back in to the jar, "Um... Sorry sir." She said as she carried off a jar with some still peppy frogs inside. The cream colored filly began to try and figure out some of the knots on these ropes... in all honesty she had no clue what she was doing.

[DerpRavener]

The tattooed stallion didn't seem to think the situation was all that critical.  Even though he eventually admitted that Ponyville could be a hazard at times, he was apparently unfazed by over half the town turning into foals.  And all in a night, if the expressions on some of the other adult's faces were anything to go by.  What the hay was he thinking!?  Something with that kind of power could...

Naj bit back a reply, and took a moment to look around.  Truth be told, the stallion wasn't entirely wrong.  So far there weren't any major injuries, property damage or fires.  The key words there were 'so far' of course, there was still plenty of time for something to go horribly wrong, but as catastrophes went it was still a positive sign.  Naj sighed.  Loathe though she was to admit it, he might have the right idea.

 

Naj had no idea what to make of his 'plan' though.  Leave it to one of the fillies to get this mess organized?  Granted, from what she'd seen of Applejack if anypony could do it that mare could.  But then, Naj had only seen her as an adult.  She could only roll her eyes at the wink, but the orange filly had run off before she could voice any objections.

Even at this age, the earth pony knew what she was doing.  She went about, quickly catching each of her targets and tying them.  Perhaps a little too quickly, as at the end Applejack had somehow managed to get herself tied up not unlike the rest of her victims.

 

“Alright,” Naj mused aloud, still watching everything unfold, “points for creativity, and that was admittedly pretty efficient.”  That wasn't to say it worked perfectly however.  “Of course, now no one's going anywhere for a bit.”  She couldn't quite tell if that was a good or a bad thing.  It did keep things neatly under control, but they weren't out of control beforehoof.  And the instigating stallion had himself asked that they be 'ready to head out'.

 

Still, it afforded Naj one opportunity.  The bundle on her back was heavy enough that she wouldn't want to carry it all day, and she couldn't just leave it out in the open for any foal to find.  Fortunately she already had a safe place in mind.  After a moment's thought, she decided to grab the armour that she'd heard the little red pegasus poking at earlier.  Now was no time to take chances, and if nothing else its owner would appreciate it having less grime than otherwise when Naj was finally able to return it.  She scooped it up and then started to fly off in the direction of her abandoned cottage, “I'll be back soon, try not to burn anything down while I'm gone.”  She was only half joking.

 

Naj would only be gone a minute, it wasn't that long a flight, and when she got back she could help free anyone who hadn't wriggled out of their bonds at that point.  Then maybe, just maybe, if she was really lucky, they might be able to start on a solution to the current predicament.

[Hawkeye12]

September continued to look at the stallion, who kept on talking about things he didn't understand. Bunnies? Alicorns? And feather-brained ponies...was he suggesting that he knew these foals? He sure didn't look like the type to know a lot of kids. The peryton frowned, confused. He was about to question the stallion further when the orange frog-filly walked up to him. September sighed, giving up talking to him. That guy was pretty weird anyways. 

 

Though just as he turned away, he saw a speck of orange run right past him. Wait...was that the filly he just saw? The peryton watched curiously as sheran around with a lasso, trying to gather up the other foals. His ear flicked absentmindedly at around behind him, but he just assumed it was one of the foals scurrying away. September found himself smiling as he watched the scene, it was pretty cute, even though not all the kids agreed to being wrangled.

 

...Though the moment was cut short when something landed right on the peryton's flank. 

 

"What the-?"

 

September spun around in shock, his eyes immediately falling on the culprit of the attack- an adult griffon paired up with a younger one. So that must have been the noise earlier, these two sneaking up on him! He recognized the adult as the one who revived the screaming younger griffon, and the younger one seemed to be the one with the armor earlier. 

 

Gosh, there were a lot of griffons here. 

 

He sighed, somewhat realized that he wasn't being attacked by a wild animal or anything, and listened as the older griffon spoke. Space Deer, huh? Well that was a first. 

 

"Um, sorry to disappoint, but I don't come from space. Just a forest." He said, hesitantly at first, but added a slight smile. "But...do you two happen to know what's going on?" He said, looking at Aquaria. Most of the ponies here seemed clueless, but hey, you never know who might know something, right?

[Zeig]

 

Inkbrand was trying, really trying, to pay close attention to what the Pegasus and the Peryton had to say, lest he miss any juicy tidbits of information that could or could not be possibly used for future blackmail.

In reality, he was failing quite miserably.

"AHAHAHA," the tattoo-clad stallion roared, breathless and near heaving as he was forced to, once again, clutch forelegs around his middle in hopes of alleviating at least a little of the pain that came with having oxygen deprived lungs. As it was, all he did was prevent himself from falling over again - though it was a near miss - as the orange flash barely identifiable as Applejack continued zipping back and forth across the area, like a miniature made of orange and yellow. The fact that the pile of foals all bundled up in rope kept growing, and growing near the fountain, well.

Seriously.

What the buck was he even suppose to do?

It seemed he wasn't as successful in his endeavors as he'd figured he was, and Inkbrand flopped down onto his side, one hoof beating into the cobblestone as he fruitlessly struggled for breath, roaring laughter mingling with the myriad of foalish voices raising up in protest. It was starting to bucking hurt, how hard he was laughing, and Razor's continued mewls of defiance were definitely not helping. "Yeah yeah, one day! One day you'll get your revenge - when you're both older and you can't even look at her without wanting to bury your head in the sand, ahaha!" Inkbrand gasped, hind legs once again reduced to kicking helplessly in the air as he tried to imagine how a griffon like Razor would ever get revenge on anypony of the female persuasion.

Maybe creepily watch them from a distance, then flush and scamper into the sunset at the slightest indication of returned interest. That'd show 'em!

Inkbrand became vaguely aware of a glare boring its way into the side of his face at that time, which was enough to get his crazed laughter under some moderate control as he turned to face the Peryton. Surprisingly however, September was not the source of the heated stare, nor Naj. The grey Earth Pony lay bemused for just another second, before its source suddenly became known in a flurry of spitfire and accusations. From an adult, the words would have been insulting yet expected, ponies all too eager to paint the easiest target as the villain. But from a foal…

Buck, that was bucking cute.
 
Though before the tattoo-clad stallion could goad the red foal further along her train of thought, MFT suddenly spoke up - in his defense, which was a sure indication that the adults-turned-foals clearly had no memories of their adult lives, at all. Otherwise the cream colored Unicorn would have opened her mouth to lecture him about not laughing at others and hurting their feelings, or rot.

Still, Inkbrand couldn't help the surprised lift of his eyebrows as MFT ran forward to scoop up an overly curious frog. He didn't even bother lifting his head or body up from where they rested on the cobblestone as he critically listened to the cream colored foal's rather glowing testimony, forgetting everything for a moment to play along with the group of youngins. "Yeah, don't you know not to judge a book by its cover?" he wheedled, affecting a passing impersonation of a kicked puppy as he turned exaggerated sad eyes onto the red foal. "It's tough looking so cool - all the ponies think I'm a bad stallion." A huge heave of his shoulders and hind legs had Inkbrand pushing himself almost right next to the red Pegasus, mournful and downtrodden look still on his face as he raised his snout right next to her large head.

"But you know," Inkbrand suddenly whispered, just close enough for his sly voice to be heard only by the red filly and none of the other foals, the noises and sounds of others masking out listening ears, "that's what makes me so effective. How else am I going to get enough frogs for Wicked Caster's evil spell to rule Equestria?"

The grey stallion quickly pulled himself onto his hooves before the red Pegasus could retaliate to his whispered confession, stepping back to survey to group of foals now neatly tied up and ready for transport. Only one remained to roam loose and free - but seeing how that one was MFT, he wasn't worried. She obviously wasn't the adventurous type, too busy being shy and boring and taking care of frogs.

Speaking of.

A wide, genuine grin spread over Inkbrand's face as a frog eventually led him to Applejack, where she had somehow managed to tie herself up amidst the other foals and grifflets. "'Atta filly!" the tattoo-clad stallion crowed as he bent down to try and loosen the ropes around Applejack, careful to leave the other two entangled in their own sections, "that was way under a minute. Probably less than ten seconds, even!" He nearly got his own hooves tied in the bucking thing, but eventually Inkbrand managed to heave the orange filly out of the wreckage, settling her onto his own back. "Soon as we all find a place to settle down, you're getting your own cool marking, whatever the buck you want," the grey Earth Pony promised gleefully, already thinking of a pattern that'd compliment the farm filly.

Apples immediately sprang to mind. Wonder why that was?

Still chuckling, Inkbrand turned his head around towards the other adults, seeing only Aquaria and September in the area. Naj had apparently buggered off somewhere, then. Huh. Well then, seeing how the Peryton and Griffon were content chatting it up, the grey Earth Pony turned back towards the pile of foals, rubbing a hoof under his chin contemplatively. He'd really just wanted Applejack to restrain the foals from running off every which way, but it was getting more and more obvious that they couldn't just stay next to the fountain all day. And seeing how no purple Alicorn was rushing forward to fix this mess with some crazy all-powerful Alicorn magic, they were stuck on their own.

For now.

"Alright," the grey Earth Pony said suddenly, trotting towards the…end?…of the mass of rope and bodies, "let's see how you did." A relatively sturdy loop in the rope looked safe enough, and Inkbrand hooked one hoof through it and started giving the entire mass gentle, but firm, tugs. Hopefully, the rope was tight enough to keep the youngins from wandering away from the train at a moment's notice, but loose enough on all the foals to allow them to walk on their own. Kind of like a very sloppy foal leash some parents used to keep all their foals together. After all, he didn't think Random Ponyville Citizen would take kindly to him dragging a tied up collection of foals through the dirt.

Though it would have been funny.
 

 

 

 

[moonshineTheleocat]

((Foal Java artwork from Pressy))
 
Voronoi blinked as he heard the name Black ash. His eyes turned down to the soot that was left on his nose. What a delightfully appropriate name for a frog. Speaking of... where in the world was this frog before it was caught!? Was it a fire fighter or something that is capable of dragging away a family of ponies out of a fire?! As awesome as that sounds, it's glass prison says other wise.

“Oh yeah, yeah! Sorry, Press but my hooves are tied at the moment,” The colt hummed. Of course he'd tell her if he saw anything. He was just trying to be funny as he strained against the ropes. But he didn't have his glasses on anymore. That tussle with the cow-filly had knocked them to the dirt. Ah well, not much he could do about that.
 
The humiliating experience asside, he was quick to make a quip about that Inked up stallion who was being a jerk.

“I wouldn't say effective. You're more like a punkish rogue for a comic hero. Borderline a villain. Not the most dependable type. Not the most pragmatic methods of solving things. Not the most liked. But hey! Bright side is you get the job done! You're just not the first pony that ponies turn to.”
 
–
 
Scratch that. Forget about humiliation asside! THIS IS HUMILIATING! The ropes that held his legs together was now fashioned into some sort of dog leash! Voronoi frowned at the rope as he gave it a light tug wondering if it would just fall loose.

The rope gave a snap, but remained together. Drats! Darn that filly for using hempen rather than the cheap crud seen elsewhere! His gaze soon fell on his belongings. His glasses, his Glider... still secure in the tree, and then finally his Displacer plushie which lied in the grass sort of sitting up. He could live without the other items... but that? There was no replacing that! His mom gave it to him! And it was probably be the only thing she ever gives him without him directly working for it! That makes it more valuable to him, right?
 
Luckily for Voronoi, a lot of his tools and cool gadgets he showed his friend, Pressy, were inspired by comic book heroes! Most notably the Adventures of Bat-pony and Nightingale (because robin is copyright) and their super awesome gadgets!
 
And... while Voronoi might not have something as awesome as a plasma torch on his horse shoe, He did have the next best thing! The pony kicked off his hind right shoe, and took it up in his wrist with a fore hoof. With the other, he inserted a hex key at the end of the shoe and gave it a twist. And with the twist, swiveled out a small curved knife. And with said knife, he quickly cut the rope.
 
Now that he was free, he turned to collect his prize. But... first... he needed to teach a certain rogue a lesson! Was.... the lesson humility? Well... maybe not, he planned on bragging there after.
 
He dropped the shoe back to the ground after closing the blade, and stamped his hoof down on it to re-embed the tacks. Afterward, he lifted the cut end of the rope and quickly tied a honda knot into it. Then it's accompanying stopper on it's tail. Once he was finished with that. He bit down on the end, and quickly charged after Inkbrand, whom hopefully was still distracted.
 
Once he was close enough, he'd catapult himself into his legs in an attempt to sweep them out and knock the poor fool over. All while screaming out one of Bat-Pony's most notorious battle cries!

"FEAR ME EVIL DOER!"

 

 If he was successful, he'd roll back up to his hooves and jump onto the buck before he could get up. He'd throw the lasso end over one leg, and pull it taught. Then he began to get to work at tying the legs together. While he might not have been anywhere near as depth as Applejack, he did seem to know what he was doing. All those summers that his dad took him from Fetloch and Canterlot to a ranch in Dodge to visit his cousins, sure did pay off! But, he still preferred the smell of soot and grease from trains over ranch animals.
 
Either way, this pony was gonna learn that karma was a-comin!
 
((Should note that the assault on Inkbrand is only an attempt. It's up to Zeig to say where it goes))

[ShadowWalking18]

As if things could not be more humiliating, now Inkbrand was going to trot them all off bound like...like....like some captives!?! It was more then huminliating, it was down right an assult to his pride as a griffon of the Ironclaw clan!

 

No one bound an Ironclaw in chains!

 

'Or well...rope in this case.'  Razor thought. It kinda...made it seem less dramatic saying rope then chains though.

 

Razor snarled, then it came out more cute then threatening, as he struggled against his ropey bindings. He was not going to go willingly to...wherever Inkbrand was gonna take them. Luckily it seemed that Applejack and Inkbrand forgot something about his anatomy.

 

"Idiots." Razor muttered with a smirk, as he extended a talon and let it cut into the rope binding his legs. He purred in delight at this, and then noticed that Java had also escaped.

 

And was now making a go at Ink. Razor smirked at the guys gutsiness.

 

Then....as if some old part of his childhood came back, Razor had an idea. He grinned and looked at Presteza, Fire and the other kids. Well all but Applejack, she was on Ink's side in this. Have to take her hostage.

 

"Don't move." He said with a smile and a glint in his eyes as he held up his talon. A talon that looked very, very sharp.

 

Razor swiped his talons at the rope binding the other kids to set them free, then turned and shouted as he flapped his wings to pounce at Inkbrand.

 

"Dog pile on the villain! Dog pile!" He shouted, though with a  laugh.

 

Razor would go for the head, and clamp his talons over Ink's eyes. That would keep him from seeing and mount a defense. Hopefully they could get him down.

 

Why was he doing this again? Oh who cares, it was tie for rough housing. A griffon fledglings favorite game.

[PyroBlaze]

Tehengu looked over his shoulder as the older griffon came over again, seeming to look for him. Soon enough, She found him, and released him from the rope around his legs. He gave a wave to the orange filly as he was picked up out of the pile.

 

"See ya later!" He said happily before looking back to the griffoness holding him, who introduced herself as Aquaria. He smiled at her as she spoke about being a lifeguard and saying she would have trouble saving him since she lived in Baltimare and not Ponyville. He laughed a bit at that before he was placed back on her back, peeking over her shoulder.

 

"Oh, I don't live in Ponyville, I live in Las Pegasus. It's nice to meet you though, miss Aquaria!" He said before she began whispering about a flying deer. He tilted his head to the side before looking around and spotting the creature in question, making his eyes go a little wide in wonder. He hadn't noticed that guy before... At least it looked like a male... He nodded at her talk of sneaking up on it to greet it, making himself more hidden on Aquaria's back to make himself less noticeable. Not that a completely brown body was all that noticeable, but still.

 

He had to stifle a couple giggles as Aquaria approached the deer, eventually pouncing. As she did so, he popped up from behind, poking up above her head as he smiled at the deer, his talons resting on Aquaria's head to let him see better over the adult's head.

 

"Hi Mr. Space Deer!" He said in greeting, hoping he was correct about the gender. He could be wrong, but it didn't seem like it from the deer's look and voice...

 

"Wait... You're not a space deer? Why do you have wings then? I've never seen a deer with wings before." He said, watching the deer curiously. "All I know about what's going on is there seem to be a lot of foals around without their parents. Speaking of which, have you seen mine? My dad stands out a lot more than my mom, since he's part wolf or dog or something instead of part cat like me and Miss Aquaria here are."

[Gerrard]

Aquaria was clearly proud of herself, the griffoness smiling as she looked up at the relieved deer. He was much braver than any deer head she had ever met. His story was strange though, he claimed to be from a forest, but she had never met flying deer in any forest. He must have been from a space forest, but she decided against being too disagreeable. She was just here to have fun with her best friend Tehengu until she had another best friend. When September spoke to her though, he made a terrible mistake, drinking from her well of tainted knowledge.

Of course she 'knew' what was going on. Whenever things got confusing, she let her imagination sort things out. Unlucky for September though, it was usually wrong, although her confidence sometimes lent credence to her impressive claims. "Oh Inkbrand is rounding up kids to change them into cute and cuddly frogs. They are so cute that I could just eat them up! Oh look, they are trying to rebel and capture him. Maybe they don't want to become frogs? But frogs can jump really high and taste delicious! Have you two ever had frog legs before," Aquaria explained with a straight face as she repeatedly licked her beak with anticipation. She genuinely seemed to believe her crazy story, although that technically meant she sort of wanted to eat them, but those were just little 'details'.

Her frog trance was quickly broken as her child spoke about his own home. When he mentioned Las Pegasus, she gasped and cocked her head upward to look at the cute hybrid. "You are from Las Pegasus? But you're a grifflet, unless you are secretly a spy," she explained with a gasp before giving him an understanding nod. His 'secret' was safe with her, and September unless he was a tattletail! Before she could dwell on the secret identity of her ward though, she found her cheeks reddening! He called her a miss! That meant she was an adult and he liked her. She never really thought of herself as an adult, and for the first time she could remember, she felt really proud of herself for being a good griffon.

[tacobob]

 

“Huh?”, the red filly was confused, “I didn’t say anything about an darker color scheme! I just know he’s the villain! Look at him cackling away! Good guys don’t cackle! He’s a cackler! And those frogs! They’re hopping over to their master’s lackey! He probably can command them, being all evil like!”, at first the red Pegasus believed his dark charms got the best of her friend, but no! She was just pretending to believe in him, but in reality, she was finding a way to get out of those ropes. Presteza was one clever pony! She’ll probably grow up and become a real life Daring Do!

 

She gave the tattooed pony one heck of a snarl as he continued to chuckle away, using one of the more evilest of laughter a pony could use. How could anypony not see that? And to make things worst, he had spent a moment to gloat over the fallen form of the poor little griffon-boy! The nerve! But that wasn't enough, as he now overheard her brave challenges and decided to mock her up close and personal. A typical tactic for a villain, but this one usually spelled doom for the overconfident ne'er–do–well! She apparently had been pulling the right strings as he quickly gave up the name of his leader. Wicked Caster! She could only picture the evil unicorn as he peered through his crystal ball, watching his minion with grim satisfaction while stroking his well trimmed goatee! First he would steal Ponyville's fillies and colts, and then adults. And then the world!

 

Fire Walker watched the evil stallion as he undid the ropes from the obviously bewitched country-filly. She probably meant well, but his powerful charisma was more than a match for her country yokel-isms. She had been so overwhelmed by his evilness that she managed to tie herself up in the process! If only there was another kid brave enough to pony up and stop this fiend! So far she and Pressy were the only ones! And while they were as dynamic of a duo that one could be, they would still be no match for the stallion!

 

Thankfully, another brave voice was heard! This time, it came from a brown coated colt, one she thought was kind of cute. As all brave heroes, he sounded his opposition directly to the dastardly doer of devilish deeds!  Take that Wicked Caster! She could only picture the black hearted wizard as he spotted the colt stand his ground. This would not fare well for the forces of evil!

 

And another ally arose, this time it was the griffon-kid! He too was not someone to push around, and thanks to his determination and claws, mostly the claws, he soon freed himself! And the cute colt himself would soon be free! Again, she tested the ropes. They were a little different after the lackey-stallion freed the confused filly. A little loose on one side, and slightly tighter on the other, which she took advance of, and thus lead to her freedom!

 

"Raarrrr!", she growled, which somehow managed to sound even less intimating than the griffon's 'roar' before, but she did not know that! To the filly, it was a brave call to battle, which would drive true fear into the hearts of the Inked stallion and Wicked Caster! With a quick thrust of her wings, she joined the 'dog-pile' and pounced the scoundrel! Soon he would fall and be forced to betray his leader! "Darn it, fall!", she growled as she tried her best to stomp the stallion into submission. However, due to the large weight difference, it just felt like a rather intense back massage!

[Zeig]

 

Well.

That had worked about as well as expected.

But how the buck three foals and grifflets had managed to claw their way out of hewn rope nearly a bucking second after they'd all been tied together was anypony's guess.

Inkbrand wasn't sure which little blighter was the first to hit him - bucking That SODD, if that condescending voice was anything to go by - but it was enough to make him stumble, Applejack wobbling precariously on her perch. The grey stallion felt himself pitch forward, hind legs pinwheeling rather hilariously as he struggled not to completely fall flat on his face. And good thing, considered the orange filly probably would have fallen off first, and end up being crushed by his much larger body. Balance eventually achieved - more or less - Inkbrand felt stable enough to whip his head around with a barked "What, seriously? You trying to get Apples crushed to a pulp you bucking - "

Cue the Second Impact.

Still off-balacned from the first, Inkbrand couldn't save himself this time as he went down with a startled yelp, vaguely feeling Applejack vault herself off his back before he landed in the dust. A few quick sputters of sand and dirt out of his mouth were all the grey stallion had time for, before a third weight suddenly landed on his head, followed by sudden darkness as talons clamped shut over his eyes. More pressure at his back - probably where some foal wasn't attempting to dance on his grave while missing a key step - and the combined and sudden assault from a group of seemingly innocent and docile foals was almost enough to keep him pinned.

Almost.

"Alright, you asked for it!" the tattoo-clad stallion roared, pushing to his legs and further up, until he was rearing on both hind legs, "c'mere!" A quick swipe of one foreleg pried the grifflet off his face, holding him by the scruff a good distance away from his own body, as Inkbrand attempted to grab the other nearest foal - the red Pegasus who'd been pounding into his back - breathless laughter making it a bit harder to appear menacing. Roughhousing had always been a favorites pastime of Inkbrand's as a foal, and despite the fact that he knew his strength needed to be carefully moderated against a platoon of eager yet relatively fragile foals, well.

Buck. This was fun.

"Didn't your mothers ever teach you not to tackle your betters to the ground?!" Inkbrand bemoaned, finally snatching up the red filly. That left That SODD that he didn't want to touch anyways, but the two squirming packages in his grip didn't seem inclined to sit quietly, causing Inkbrand to, once again, lose balance and go tumbling onto his back. "OOF," he wheezed out, his hold on the two broken, even as breathless laughter ripped from his throat. Along with a few startled barks of pain, buck. That red filly wasn't holding back her punches, that was for bucking sure.

A sudden flash of green near his face, and Inkbrand swiped up an indifferent frog. "You! Butterbiscuit! Go get Apples!" the grey stallion demanded on the little creature, and sent it flying over the heads of the foals and clear of the fray, just before the grifflet descended upon him again. "Apples! Aaaapples!" the tattoo-clad stallion called out with a fair imitation of despair and hopelessness, as he slowly disappeared under the pile of small bodies. "Aveeeenge meeee - hsst, ow!"

Right in the kidney, that was going to leave a mark.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hawkeye12]

September sighed, preparing to go on his stock explanation for being a peryton and all... until an idea came to mind. "Alright, alright, you caught me," he said, putting a hoof up in fake surrender and bringing his voice down to a whisper, "I'm a space deer. Just don't tell anyone!" He smiled to himself as he talked, it was fun playing around with kids.

 

But then Aquaria explained what was going on...

 

"He's what?"  Said September, spinning around to look at the tattooed stallion from earlier, who he assumed was Inkbrand. That guy was going to turn the foals into frogs so ge could eat them? Who evem ate frogs? They were so adorable! "We can't just let him eat those fro... foals!" September ignored the feeling in the back of his mind that there was something off about this...he had always been gullible that way.

 

But the peryton turned back to Tehengu as he spoke, deciding to deal with the other situation later.  "Um, no, I havent seen your parents. But I've never heard of a griffon that was half dog. You sure he's not from space too?" he said with a wink. Though he was beginning to realize that none of these foals knew where there parents were...which led Sep to beleive even more that Inkbrand had kidnapped them...hmm...

[SteelEagle]

Applejack was pretty pleased with her perch on top of the Inky stallion. She was going to get one of her very own markings and then she'd look like a real big pony and not a small one no more! Sometimes at school the other fillies made fun of her because she wasn't as 'mature' as they were an' they couldn't understand that even though she was blanker on her flank than the opponent's she pitched against during baseball that she was still more than capable of being the most awesome filly this side of awesome town, population her. Ma and pa always told her to be humble and Big Mac seemed to take that to heart which was why he never spoke (because he was so awesome and didn't want to be bragging everywhere) but Applejack couldn't tell a lie. And the truth here was that Inkbrand was a cool stallion and this was all pretty dang fun.

But soon everything started to go oh so very wrong, disaster upon disaster. A griffon, a filly, a colt and more all somehow broke free from her Apple techniqued ropes. That was impossible! They must be super devious villain fillies and colts if they could break free from that. Then they started to tackle the stallion she was befriending, sending her hobbling and wobbling and bobbling for a second or two before she made the executive family decision to jump off of him like he was a burning ship in the middle of a storm. She leapt through the sky like a plump pegasus, falling down on her hooves as she went to turn around. She was smooth though! Super smooth, gettin' right back up like it was no big deal. Which it wasn't. Because she was smooth. She dusted herself off and looked at what the heck was going on in despair, utter despairing all over.

Now this wasn't very nice! Here was a nice stallion wanting to give Applejack a sweet little tattoo and now all of these jealous ponies were being totally mean about it. Applejack had beat'm all fair and square like and they couldn't handle it not one bit, no siree. they were gonna be unfriendly and unponyville like in how they treated strangers and then she wasn't gonna get her new mark becausee he was being wrestled by an overwhelming horde of little ones. Well, she wasn't gonna stand for it. She roughhoused with her giant of a big bro and her parents on a day to day basis. She got scratches and bruises from playing and her chores and she didn't get the sniffles and cry to her mama every time Big Mac hip tossed her into a tree by 'accident'. They were in for a rude awakening! She weas even joined by a frog which ended up landing in her mane again for some reason. Where'd Biscuit even come from? Flying frogs were cool! Maybe they were pegasus frogs? Anyway, fight!

"AH'M COMIN'!" Applejack bellowed in response to her friend's desperate calls for help. She charged and bowled into the group that was beating him up, throwing fetlocks, elbows, and bucking every which way to try and clear a path. "He ahin't evil! Not one bit! Yer just being judging mahntle!" she yelled, bucking to and fro. "Y'ahll need tah be more kind like or Ah'll make ya know how it's like down in thah fahrm!" she bellow roared, continuing to fight and roughouse because that was what an Apple did for fun!

[Pretzelparty]

 

Pressy was a bit too preoccupied with the incresingly antsy frogs in her care to mind inkbrand's actions with her fellow foals. She noticed that the stallion had gone over to her friend and whispered something, it must have been something very upsetting to the group as soon he found himself covered in foals and ... grifflets? was that the term? The little cream colored unicorn chuckled at the genuine smile the dark grey stallion bore, there's no way he could be a villain! Just as she was enjoying the scene of Inkbrand being effectively dogpiled she heard a clink sound that made her eyes go wide!

 

The filly whipped her head around and gulped as she saw the jar she held earlier now tipped over and a group of frogs hopping off towards from whence they came! If what her mother told her about ponyville was right there was only one place they would lokely be heading; Froggy bottom swamp! Somewhere in the back of her mind the filly could have sworn she heard a big over-exaggerated "DUH!" . The only problem with Froggy bottom swamp was that it was ... well, a swamp. Teaming with spores, molds, and fungae; all things that could likely result in a remarkably bad time for the little filly, at least in regards to her respiratory system. However, Pressy made a promise to her fellow freckled filly to take care of these frogs and by Celestia she was gonna keep her word! 
 

Putting on her bravest little face she pulled her oversized scarf over her muzzle and spoke through it to the ponypile, "Uh, I'll be right back!" The filly then galloped off, with the frog jar in tow, chasing after the frogs, bow those little guys could sure book it!

 

"Anypony going after her?" Asked another, new youthful voice. Suddenly on the back of the tattooed stallion was a white filly with bright violet eyes and a two toned mane. Until this time she had not said a single word, merely observed and at this point it was almost as if she had just suddenly come into existance on top of the subdued stallion, "I must say, while this change of shape wasn't something I had been expecting to happen... at least it's made for an interesting day." The almost-monochrome filly hopped off inkbrand, an umbrella about three sizes too big for her on her back and leaned on a nearby fountain, "I should thank you're friend, Applejack. He's given me a wonderful story idea for when I'm back to normal." the mystery pony chuckled softly and positioned her parisol behind her and opened it, shielding her form from the sun."

[DerpRavener]

Even carrying several pieces of semi-random combat gear, Naj's destination hadn't been far away, so the flight didn't take long.  True to her word, it had only taken Naj a couple minutes to make the round trip.  This being Ponyville, it was with some relief that from the air nothing looked out of control.  There was no visible property damage, and nopony was on fire, at least.  As she flew closer, she saw that the tattooed stallion was under attack by most of the kids, but Naj was having a hard time determining just how much that was a bad thing.

 

Naj didn't wish any harm on him, but she got the sense that he probably had this coming.  And more to the point, after a few moments she noticed Inkbrand hamming things up a little.  In fact, after watching for a minute she started to suspect he was having more fun here than the little ones attacking him were.  She gave a wry smile, and spent some time deciding which side she'd want to join, if she didn't just sit back and watch.

She took note of September's outburst.  Was he playing along, or did the peryton actually believe ponies were being eaten?  She didn't think much would come of it, but perhaps it was better to keep an eye on him just in case.

 

"Anypony going after her?"

 

Speaking of keeping an eye on things.  One of the foals was running off, as pointed out by another little filly (who seemed weirdly familiar to Naj, but that wasn't important right now).  “That'll be me,” Naj said in response.  Much as she wanted to help, Naj wasn't really sure what to do with offspring.  She was a soldier, so she never learned much about caretaking and most of her default solutions wouldn't help anything.  As such, 'foal-wrangling' seemed like the best she could do at the moment.

 

Naj spread her wings and took to the air once again, in pursuit of the fleeing filly.  It was surprisingly difficult to catch up, the filly was realy moving, though Naj thought she could catch up if she was more desperate.  When she reached shouting distance, she called out as she worked to keep pace.  “Hey!  Where are you off to in such a hurry?”  She saw the empty bucket, which until recently had been used to hold frogs.  Taking a guess she suggested, “I think the frogs will be alright on their own.”

[Zeig]

 

Frogs were apparently an effective substitute for search and rescue dogs.

Who knew.

The easily identifiable southern accent could only have hinted at a successful retrieval of one Applejack by Butterbisquit, heroic frog that he was, though Inkbrand only had a faint view of her orange body as it veritably leapt into the fray. That didn't last long however - farm-bred kicks were also an effective substitute for get the hay off him or I'll buck you into next week, it seemed. The mass of writhing ponies were cleared in no time, leaving Inkbrand free to pull himself upwards without threatening to upset any remaining fillies and colts attempting to clamber on top of his head.

"'Atta girl, Apples!" the tattoo-clad stallion crowed for what felt like the millionth time today, reaching down to muss up the orange filly's mane a bit, "you were stellar out there! Apples is right, you guys are so judgmental," he added, whirling on the dislodged young ponies with an attempt at a severe glare, broken by the laughter still coating his tone of voice. "Didn't you ever learn not to judge a book by its cover, eh?"

Most of them hadn't seemed to learn that lesson. Razor had been laughing all the while, obviously playing, but the other two…well. The red filly had seemed pretty intent in her efforts to bring down the Big Bad Stallion - though he had goaded her on, so he could probably take the blame for that - but bucking of course, That SODD had joined in for whatever reason. Probably because he'd taken insult at the blue highlights of his tattoos and decided to settle his honor with a brawl after the fact, or some other inane and illogical reasoning.

Wouldn't have surprised him, not in the slight. Inkbrand rolled his eyes skyward as he turned back around to Applejack, to -

"CRIPES!"

- narrowly avoid shouting in the young filly's face as another filly's face quickly removed itself from his own, the white body hopping down from his back as Inkbrand struggled to regain his breathing. Where the buck had she even come from? He hadn't felt her hop onto his back at all, bucking weird. And even stranger, Inkbrand observed as he half-glared, half-inspected the unassuming filly, was that this one wasn't panicked or put out, or upset. Or crying. Or wondering where her parents were. In fact, she seemed perfectly amiable to everything going on around her, as if this were just a normal day in the park, and her eerier serenity made it a bit difficult to focus on what she was actually saying.

…Was she a filly? Like, a filly filly? Not an adult under whatever shenanigans that had undoubtedly been caused by bucking Unicorn mage? It certainly seemed that way, considering how calm the filly was. Inkbrand certainly didn't recognize her, so he couldn't say for certain. Whichever she was, she seemed utterly content to stick around the group lingering at the water fountain, and with a small shake of his head, the grey Earth Pony turned back around - luckily without any creepy fillies repositioning themselves atop his back, this time - just in time to see Naj return.

Aaaand, take off just as quickly, apparently to chase after one of the escaped youngins.

Another shake of his head, though without an ounce of true remorse. "Tch. That's why I said, wrangling everypony together was the best way to go. Young boys and girls can't be trusted not to run off after the first shiny thing they see," Inkbrand commented blandly, though more to himself as he plopped his rear back down onto the pavement, sitting rather relaxed as he ran one hoof through his messy mane.

"Your turn then," he called out, with a quick nod of his head towards September. "Seeing how a length of thick as buck rope doesn't work to keep a bunch of little foals tied up together," - and no little sarcasm coated his voice as he said it - "I hope you've got a better idea on all…this." A vague wave of his hoof around the surrounding mass of ponies was all the explanation Inkbrand felt like giving as he leaned backwards on his forelegs, one eyebrow raised challengingly.

Hay, maybe the youngins would actually fall in line for the Peryton. 'Ya know, 'cause he didn't have any evil looking tattoos or anything.
 

 

 

 

[moonshineTheleocat]

LO and behold! By the combined power of young foals, the villain of the day has been felled! The group of kiddies along with Voronoi had triumphantly pulled the buck to the ground and began to playfully pummel away at him! Till suddenly the loyal minion Butterbisquit the Frog ran for his master's aid! Or was it a she? Doesn't matter! It wasn't long till one of the young heros of the Foal Titans had glanced up to be greeted with a solid buck straight to the face!

 

The poor foal had been flung into the air into a flailing backfilp before landing square on his chin with his fore legs out stretched. His body stood high over his head for only a few more moments, before that two flopped down into the dust, raising a small cloud in it's wake.

 

The little pony, though dazed, slowly rose to his hooves with a bit of an awkward shuffle. He was glad that he was an earth pony... other wise that might have hurt a lot more than it did. Buuut... part of that was also a factor of him not being a stranger to horse play! Especially when the entirety of his family was a lot bigger than he! It's never easy being the runt of the litter, so it just meant that you had to be tough!

 

And being tough was something Voronoi was prepped to show off to that rambunctious orange filly!

 

Though... that'd have to wait when he heard something close to a yelp. Which in turn had made the unsuspecting foal darn well near jump out of his own hide. The foal took a glance to Inkbrand... and then around himself. Where was Pressy? She was here not but to long ago...

 

 

Huh... it looks like the Inked up stallion spotted that too. Perhaps he gave him too little credit. He might be slightly intelligible after all. -SLIGHTLY-

 

“Erm... first... rope don't do to well against tools and claws. Second, I'm sure Pressy will be fine! She's a clever one! Sides it's only Ponyvil-” The colt caught himself mid sentence. Voronoi's eyes twitched about in thought, as his eyelids and tail gave a nervous fidget.

Where was Ponyville again? Oh yeah... right next to the wonderful Everfree forest! A forest where your night mares come true! Who builds a town next to something so dangerous?! Adventurers? Yeah... that sounds about right. And awesome. But still...

 

 

She'll be careful right? The colt tried to reason with his growing doubt and fear.

Will she? Pft! NOPE! The adventures these two have gotten into! Nearly getting eaten by giant crystal spiders in the Crystal Caverns of Canterlot. Thus mentally scaring the poor buck for life, against anything dead OR demonic things with eight legs!

Getting LOST in Ulyssai for a few days, and nearly getting eaten by Giant plants, Cougars, and a variety of other nasty wild life. The lesson they took away? Just how awesome Zebras were.

 

Annnnnd going on a monster hunt! For the fun of it! No pony thought they'd run into a real monster! Well... that happened with a baby behemoth somewhere in Fetloch. It was only a baby... and about the size of a Workshop's shed... but still. It was a behemoth. Describing it in a few words; big, nasty, snarly, and hungry dog.

 

And... welp the list goes on.

The stallion fidgeted again with his eyes growing wider as he finally breached the point of an epiphany.

One: WHAT KIND OF BUCKING ADVENTURES DID WE GO ON!
And two: The two of them wondering off ANYWHERE is a slippery slope to danger that becomes reality!

 

Finally, something in the pony snapped the foal into action! A LOGICAL THOUGHT! Get an adult into action! Heck he barely even knew Ponyville longer than a few minutes. And he knew Pressy was just a determined little filly!

 

He quickly sprang up and planted his fore-hooves against September's chest. She had wings! She could catch up fast! Sides... that one with the Ink already showed off just how much of a jerk face he could be. The stupid jerk just didn't seem to like him and his friend!

He met her gaze with a fearful wide eyed one! He even managed to get the glassy bit that adults often cave in for!

“PLEASE! You have to fly after her,” The stallion whined, leaning back and forth rapidly to knead his hooves into her chest to keep her attention. “I know this sounds dumb! But you have to believe me! Every time we run off to go play we nearly get eatten by something! Giant spiders! Cougars! Praying Vines! Manticores! She might get attacked by something! Like a Timber wolf! Or an Owl bear! Please! She's my only friend!”

The pony inside him winced after admitting something that personal. And in hindsight he realized that this... probably wasn't even needed to get the... weird deer with wings to fly off after his friend.