AlphaNumeric Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 "This is bad." Val thought to herself. This was only her second day in Ponyville and already she was drawing too much attention to herself. Her previous job only involved walking around and then report back to her superiors. That was before she severed her connection to the changeling Hive though, and now she had to fend for herself. Finding a place to stay was easy enough, as Ponyville had a humble little inn within its borders. However, Val realized that she may have made a mistake when she asked to purchase a room, rather and asking for a room to stay in for a couple of days. That little fiasco had definitely gotten her quite a few funny looks. Food was another problem too. She was never told how to casually interact with other ponies. She certainly did try her best, but her most recent attempt was rebuked with foals laughing at her and calling her a "Neeeeeerrrrrddddd!" Vale was currently pacing back and forth in front of a bench in Ponyville's park, muttering worry-isms to herself. Her insect wings buzzed, her feathered illusions flapping anxiously in sync. Such was the conundrum of a changeling outcast. "Aww jeez what am I going to do? I can't go back; they'll probably banish me and I'll be all alone and hungry!" Val's mind had began to wander in fancifully horrifying place as her legs began to take her toward the center of town. She bumped into several ponies in her distracted state, which only made Val even more distraught about her situation, her thoughts visiting even more fanciful places.Perhaps she could start fresh. Find another small town to hole up in. She certainly had enough bits to survive about a month, maybe two if she did some extremely rationing, but that would mean that she would have to go love starved for even longer while she traveled. That certainly wasn't a very pleasant- "Owwww!" Val was certainly bringing her old employment to shame as she rammed her face into a door. She recoiled off the door and onto her haunches, dazing her for a good several seconds. As he vision refocused, Val beheld a very large tree that had apparently been renovated to become a structure of sorts. Signage on the building indicated that this was "Golden Oaks Library. Well, nerds are supposed to like libraries right?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 ((oh wow, a timewarp RP, now this will be challenging to not get the more recent events mixed in!)) It might suprise the mare that the door opened, though it seems it wasn't opened to welcome her, instead a small... was that a dragon? Yes it was! A small purple dragon with a broom larger than he was had opened the door to sweep out a small cloud of dust. when he finished, he looked up and smiled at the 'pony' he saw outside, and waved "Just cleaning up, we're still open... like always..." he said with a tiny sigh, no doubt thinking about certain incidents where ponies had come by extremely early in the morning or at night to get or return a book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Val's stupor was broken when the door opened, to reveal a tiny dragon with a broom doing housework. She almost reared and bolted, but suppressed to urge to flee. Her instructors had always made it clear that any dragons within the area of operations needed to be reported immediately. Whenever she did, Val would always see her former comrades vacate the area, she could only assume that mean dragons were dangerous creatures. There was no way that his particular dragon was dangerous though. Not only was this dragon clearly only a child, it was doing housework! Certainly, dangerous creatures didn't ever do something mundane as doing housework or being wistful, and they certainly didn't hang around libraries. Plus ponies would be panicking in the streets if he were any danger at all. Interesting, very interesting indeed. "Hi! You're a dragon!" Val blurted out unceremoniously. She leaned forward toward the dragon and gave it her biggest smile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Spike blinked "um... yeah... been one since I was hatched" he deadpanned, leaning against the door casually, though he smirked "you must be new, Most ponies dont start reeking of fear when they see me... though it's kidna nice once in a while. Normally I get" his voice went to a mocking voice "Oh look at the kewt baby dwagon, can I touch it? it's sooooooo cute" he shuddered, his voice returning to normal "Please! I'm still a dragon, I have my pride..." he didn't bother to explain that whenever a certain mare said such things instead of recoiling he tended to swoon... "but if you need something, come on in, if your looking for the Princess, she's up on the balcony" he pointed up to a balcony hanging out over part of the ground, though from her vantage point, Val could not see who was sitting there, which could only add confusion to *which* princess it was that Spike was referring to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 "Princess?" Val thought to herself. To her knowledge, Celestia was defeated at the hooves of Chrysalis, Cadence was imprisoned in a cave while Chrysalis tried to steal her then fiance, and Luna had slept through the whole invasion. All of them had reasons to dislike changelings such as herself. Better make sure that they have no reason to believe that Val was a changeling. "I should probably go in, since this dragon is inviting me. No need to cause a ruckus. I'll just grab a random book, pretend to read for a while, then get out." Val thought to herself. Maybe she could also use the downtime to figure out her plan, and also figure out just how she was going to get some love to finally feed herself. Sounds like a good plan for the time being. As Val trotted into the library, her stomach grumbled and growled very noisily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Spike snickered "sounds like your hungry, Good excuse to order out" hs said, walking up to the stairs "Hey twilight! We're ording out for lunch, we have a guest" "ok spike, that's nice" she said absently "So you dont mind if I take the money from your bags, right?" "Yeah spike, that's nice" Spike snickered, he knew how to use twilight's 'book comas' to his advantage. He started going through the various menus that he had "I feel like seafood today" he said "I can jsut get Twilight some hushpuppies and Coleslaw" he looked up at the other pony "what would you like? and dont try to lie, I can smell hunger just like I can smell fear" smirked spike, though wheather it was a joke or not, he didn't exactly need to smell considering val's stomach was growling like a ursa... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 Val stepped up to one of the many, many bookshelf and began browsing through the larger selection of books. Val noted Spike was perusing through what was apparently a menu, since after some time he had looked toward Val and asked her what he wanted. Sure, she could enjoy pony-made food but that was not one of the few things that was on her hunger-addled mind. Without a beat, Val replied, "Oh, no thanks. Pony food doesn't really do anything for me anyways." Val reached for book at random, but paused when she was just about to grab it. Wait a minute... Uh oh. Val's hoof reversed directions and shoved itself squarely into her mouth. Crisis alert. CRISIS ALERT! She hastily turned to face the dragon and mustered the best reassuring face she could. "Uh... I mean... I'm not hungry!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 12, 2015 Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 ((odd, the way I always interpreted it, 'love' was just an additional 'neutrient' that they needed in addition to eating... it seems very illogical that they have no need to eat food, and in fact all my changelings in CC specifically *have* to eat, else they starve to death...)) Spike blinked "...ok then..." he said as he took out a scroll and wrote something on it, presumably the order, and with a flash of magical flame it vanished... Mier moments later, in what seems like a very contrived coincidence, the princess of friendship herself descended the stairs "Well that was a good book. I really like reading, I learn so much" she said, displaying extremely poor acting skills... no doubt it wouldn't take a rocket surgeon to realize spike had grown suspicious at val's reaction and had instead sent a note to twilight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 Val turned back around when Spike, pleased that her (admittedly poor) attempt at fooling the dragon had work (nor really). She took a deep breath, and took the book she had meant to grab before her little panic. Val dropped onto her haunches and just as she was about to crack open the book, a lavender alicorn descended down the stairs and into the room. Val noted this off in the corner of her eye, which piqued her curiosity. The only alicorns that she knew of were the two sisters, Celestia and Luna, and Cadence. Val glanced to the side toward Twilight. However, this alicorn matches none of the descriptions that matched any of the three princesses. Val then remembered that the dragon had referred to the other occupant in the building as Twilight. Could this be Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle? She was briefly mentioned in one of the after action reports of the Canterlot invasion, but those reports indicated that Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn. There was a recent hubbub concerning Celestia's student: there was some sort event commemorating her, but the heightened security had prevented the Hive from inserting infiltrators to figure out what exactly was going on. Could Twilight Sparkle has ascended into an alicorn? This mare fits all of the descriptions that the Hive's intelligence had on her, minus the wings. This could be the only real answer, and upon realizing this, Val's blood froze as she tried to hide herself behind her book. "Well, that was a good book. I really like reading; I learn so much!" Twilight said as she entered the room. Val clearly had not noticed Twilight's poor acting skills, seeing that since Val had received no formal training on infiltration, had poor acting skills herself and could not tell that Twilight was infact acting. As such, Val relaxed a little, thinking that her ruse had worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Spike tactfully watched the "pony" visitor as he went about his chores, no reaction? That was strange, clearly if he was right and this was a spy then she was well trained, they had best be on top of their game... he was thinking this to himself as he almsot knocked over the horsehead statue while lost in his thoughts "spike be careful, I dont want to have to fix it *again*" said Twilight, though not harshly. She turned to the visitor "Hello there, I'm Twilight, the, well, techncially still the head librarian" she said awkwardly "can I help you find anything?" she asked, though pausing only a moment "I've not seen you around here before - passing through or just moving to town?" she added Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Val continued to pretend to be reading, hiding behind her book. She was in the clear now, all she had to do was wait it- "Hello there! I'm Twilight Sparkle, the... well... technically still the head librarian." Twilight's speech was awkward and clumsy, not that Val could notice anyways. "Can I help you find anything? I've haven't seen you around here before. Are you passing through or just moved into town?" Val looked up from her book and toward Twilight, who was looking straight back at her. Um..."Oh... uh... hello!" Val said a little too loudly, "I'm okay! I'm just staying here a couple of days so I can figure out how I can find some lov- I mean food. Gah! I mean... uh.. a job? Heh heh..." Val's heart was pumping and the pressure was mounting. Trying to fool what was in all probability a princess of Equestria was abysmally unlikely, and Val's eyes were glancing around the room looking for an optimal direction to cut and run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 14, 2015 Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Twilight frowned. Spike was right, this was a spy, and she was so good that she was taunting them - making it plainly obvious without openly admitting it, and what was this about a 'job'? Was this a hint that she was here to do something far more nefarious? perhaps an assassination attempt?! Or stealing something highly valuable like the Elements?! Twilight's eyes went to the glass case and her face turned to a threatening look of 'just try it' Spike made sure to take care of some chores between Val and the door so she couldn't easily escape Twilight managed a smile, a knowing one to tip her off that she wasn't so stupid as to overlook what had been said, but she was playing along with the twisted game "So, tell me then, where are you from? What did you do before you came here?" she said, giving the assassin plenty of oppertunity to brag about their home and their past nefarious deeds... this was a very sticky situation and if not handled with foal gloves they might all end up dead... Twilight was for once quite scared since not even celestia had had an assassination attempt in recent memory! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 Val noticed Twilight's smile as questions began raining down on her. "So tell me then, where are you from? What did you do before you came here?" Val still maintained her smile, although it was becoming more forced every second as her mind became more and more frantic, trying to find a way to get to safety. With the dragon blocking the way out the door, the only routes of escape lest seemed to be jumping out the window (which didn't seem pleasant at all!). The thought crossed her mind that escaping by running may not be possible either; probably-soon-to-be captor was an alicorn! "Oh, um. I'm from Manehatten! I used to work as a building surveyor! There was was hiccup in the management in the company I worked for so I got laid off." Val's voice died off at the end as she tried to slink away back into her book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 "So that's his plan!" said Spike as he tossed the broom aside and sifted his weight as wisps of smoke began trailing from his nostrils "He's here to destroy the library, probably with us in it!" "Dont be foolish, spike" said Twilight as she also assumed a more a defensive position "Obviously he's not here for us, he's after the elements!" she said As her horn started glowing and a magic circle appeared and began glowing around the case that held the elements. Then the windows and door had bars drop down over them, locking the three inside "Contact the others, He's probably not alone, we better be prepared for a full-scale invasion!" Spike gulped "An invasion? It's a good thing you've been practicing those necromatic spells. They cant suck love from a creature incapable of feeling it!" he said with a smirk, nodding to twilight. His acting almost as bad as her own. Twilight smirked "yeah, lets see how your queen fares against an army of zomponies!" she really, really, really hoped that the 'spy' didnt call ehr bluff... after all, she didn't even know if it was possible to really make a zompony, but hopefully //they// didn't know that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 The dragon spontaneous tossed the broom aside and threw Val an angry look, with wisps of smoke trailing from his flaring nostrils. "So that's his plan! He's here to destroy the library, probably with us in it!" The amount of horror on Val's face could not ever have come close to accurately describing the amount of horror and fright she was experiencing. She had thought that they had certainly believed her story, but evidently that was not the case. The world around her went blank as the thoughts of pain and suffering began to plague her mind and imagination. Subconsciously she saw Twilight say something, but she hadn't heard any of it. There was no escape and Val was probably going to be left to rot in a lonely, cold dungeon. There was only one response Val's body could come up with, and that was to curl up and begin flooding the room with tears. Her eyes remained open as she began curled up, huddled against the bookshelf as she muttered to herself with a few intermittent hiccuped sobs every couple of seconds. "Alone. I'm going to die alone..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 Twilight blinked "...what...?" "Be careful, Twilight, it could be the Fatal Fetal maneuver!" warned spike, showing his distruct of strangers at the moment... of course he had good reason to distrust changelings specifically... Twilight shook her head "I dont think so, spike, it doesnt seem at all rehearsed... maybe I was wrong" "Dragons cna sense these things!" responded Spike Twilight rolled her eyes "your dragon sesnses seem to fail at anything but fire and rarity... dont even get me started on the old myth of 'dragons cant tell lies and thus can detect the purity of others' your one of the worst liars I know" she smirked, while a zinger she clearly wasn't trying to be too harsh Spike but frowned, looking like if this were any other time he might pout, but right now he was more concerned with their guest, though the smoke did fade from his nostrils... Twilight nelt down, though not without being out of range of any physical attack and hopefully an angle where a magical attack woudl be tricky "hey... its ok... we're not going to kill you" she said "in fact we're not even going to hurt you" "we're not?" asked spike in suprise Twilight frowned this time "of course not, Spike, even if she really was a spy we'd enver hurt her" she said, a bit annoyed "Why dont you try and explain what's going on..." suggested the alicorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Amidst the sobs and tears, Val heard a soft voice call out to her, "Hey... it's okay... we're not going to kill you. In fact we're not even going to hurt you!"Val's tear covered eyes drifted toward the source of the of the voice. A blurry Twilight Sparkle was knelt beside Val, beckoning her to come out of her metaphorical shell and speak with her. Slowly Val began to uncurl into a half-sprawled position while blinking the tears from her eyes. Her mouth was still making hiccups, "The h-hive doesn't want m-me anymore. I never k-knew how to feed for mys-self."Val's stomach churned and grumbled again. "Please Princess, I'm r-really hungry." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Twilight smiled "even if you had said you were here to assasinate me I would never deny you food, that's just barbaric" she explained, looking to the dragon "Spike, run make a few sandwiches for our guest... and for celestia's sake dont poison us!" she said with a humorous grin. While it might worry and shock the changeling, thinking that Spike really might try to kill him, truth was that Twilight was simply refering to spike's panache for hotsause... far beyond any sensable pony... or eveninsensable... heck Rainbow Dash herself wouldn't eat food spike had made for himself and she was from a city that cooked with liquid rainbows! Spike snorted "Fiiiiiine" he said, as he walked to the kitched and turned back "Im watching you... dont try anything..." he said, dissapearing into the kitchen Twilight sighed, but smiled, opening her mouth to speak "...-" "Still Watching!" exclaimed spike from the kitchen Twilight face-hoofed, but smiled a little "dont pay him any attention, he's like that sometimes" she said "First, why dont you tell me a little more about yourself while spike makes your food?" she suggested, trying to decide if she really trusted this creature or not, but passing off a fascode of pure trust, at the least she would catch her off-guard if she proved dangerous, and at best, twiight hoped soon she really would trust the changeling... she hoped... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted May 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Val had managed to blink the tears from her eye. The Princess and the dragon hadn't killed her, banished her or otherwise done anything unfavorable to her just yet. An irrational part of her mind, stemming from her hunger, was telling Val that she was going to perish one way or another. "First, why don't you tell me a little more about yourself while Spike makes your food?" The Princess tone was very casual, easing some of the stress and terror in Val's mind. She adjusted her resting position from lying half-sprawl on the ground to lying upright with her hooves underneath her. Val's head nor eyes would meet Twilight's when she spoke, "Um, I'm Val. I used to be a... scout for Chrysalis." Val didn't say anything else and let the response hang in the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashton Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 There was silence for several seconds, the tension so thick it could be cut with a butter knife before Twilight spoke again, her voice cold "I suggest you dont tell anypony that" she said "many ponies lost friends or loved ones to her attacks, In the future I asvise you to simply say you were a scout for the Changelings" there was another uneasy silence before she continued "but the past is the past, the present is now and the future is what you make it into. Tell me, why did you decide to leave?" her voice was starting to warm back up, if val was unaware of the attacks he would still be very aware NOW that they had a high cost and had personally hurt the now-alicorn and her friends... but the fact Twilight was willing to look past that said much for her, as they say, to err is common, to forgive is divine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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