To The Root [Rose/Hou]

[Aisede]

Rose considered this... It didn't take very long to consider.

 

"If you want me to get in sync with my mind and soul, shouldn't you be recommending meditation techniques instead? Look," she gestured out towards the forest. "The forest is calm, the water is still-" mostly. 

 

She stared at it... And the longer she looked, the more she yearned for the open sea. To feel the tropical breeze against her coat, to smell salt in the air. To get in touch with her primal nature.

 

"Or perhaps... We should take this ritual to the sea." There, at least, the water was perfect. The air was perfect. She'd be in her element, instead of trotting circles around a bunch of terrestrial flora. "Hou, I don't know how much you know about my kind- or maybe a better analogy would be seaponies- but... We're connected to the sea. I'll follow your suggestions- I trust you that much- but if you really want me in a state of zen... It should be in the water."

 

She held up a hoof... Then remembered that she just dismissed all of her simulacrums. An awkward throat clearing later, and a bottle appeared in her hoof, swirling and blue. "Seapony transmutation," she explained. 

[Ciraxis]

"What made you think we would be doing anything but meditating after you're done?" Hou eyebrow shot up while she tilted her head. When Rose however expressed her desire to make ritual in place more nautical, Shuren started to get a wee bit irritated.

"What are you? A child to be this fussy?! And yes, I know that all life came from the sea and your kind is one of few sapient ones that maintain close bonds to it, but I told you - we need the ley-lines, we need the enchanted waters in concentrated quality, and I certainly don't believe either of us will be able to watch out for Albedo in the middle of a cursed ocean! I can't bring any of those to the sea and if you believe for a second that I can bring sea...to...you...." sorceress trailed off as a realization hit her. Yes, this could work....

 

"Transmutation? Oh Compass...." sorceresses said as her horn lit up. "I told you, less is more. We don't need that. All you need to do is....." then, in less then the second, the white mare spun around and her hoof shoot up to grab Rose by her face covering all but one eye! The bottle changeling held fell softly on some moss mound before....

 

"Belive......" this one word drowned everything, as one of Shuren's pupils closed up, growing to titanic proportions before Rose sunk into it. Blackness swallowed everything....

 

 

 

 

....before, a sound of wave crashing against rock hit Compass's ears. Rose's eyes snapped open, only to be assaulted by the light of low hanging winter sun that gave little warmth. Next a wind, one that hit her with a water droplets and brought all too familiar salty, watery and seaweedy scent of the ocean.

 

"As I said. Believe..." voice of Hou came from the side. Only then Compass could see that they 'were' on the tall lone rock, stormed by tides,  in the middle of the ocean.

"Don't fight it. You know what you experience can't be, but I ask you to surrender to what you feel and see nonetheless....those don't have to be real to help you." Shuren said, before her words were overwhelm by roar of the waves. illusionary, and yet indistinguishable from the real ones....

 

"You asked to be brought to the sea, but the truth is, it's YOU who has to welcome the sea's and oceans of this world into you. From the frozen seas of the arctic, still and mysterious shallows of the mangrove forests, warm lagoons of equator and abyssal depths that never saw sunlight...you have to allow them a way within...." unicorn said as she poked her in the chest.

 

"Let go of what was, but don't forget. For your children..."

 

[Aisede]

Rose didn't fight it, and she never had any intention to. As the world melted away and she was transported to a more familiar place, she found herself... Relaxing, despite present company. 

 

"Thank you, Hou."

 

Facing the crashing waves, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the rich salty air. Her ears perked towards the crashing waves, and she imagined herself submerged in their cool embrace.

 

Underwater, she didn't have to fight gravity. She didn't have to endure the relentless sun. She floated in a void, relinquished from the troubles of life.

 

Here, she reached within, searching for this inner light Hou spoke of. Reaching out into the abyss for something she had never sought before, yet was intimately familiar with. 

[Ciraxis]

"Don't make a habit out of using me as a crutch." sorceress said in her own, passive aggressive way.

 

As Rose sank, swallowed in darker depth of her self reflection, an ephemeral Shuren appeared alongside her. He didn't appeared physical - rather she seemed compromised of glowing violet lines formed into familiars mare shape. The only solid object on her was a square stone with golden eye on it, hanging from her neck.

 

"Good, you found the way in. We however need to get deeper. I will be your guide, as well as keeping eye on your body and your child in physical world." unicorn explained.

 

As if summoned by her moments, a colour.....no....a scene appeared away and beneath them. Both Hou and Compass could vaguely recognize fire...AND sails....

 

"Not this one. Away with you for now." sorceress said with commanding tone while the stone on her neck glowed. With wave of her hoof, the scene was thrown aside, disappearing into blackness.

"You can revisit this one later Compass. Right now, we need not for distractions. Now...what do you remember of your origins? Both of them."

[Aisede]

Her origins?

 

She pictured herself in a rich manor- rich with culture... And with time. No amount of refurbishing could banish the air of solemn age that clung to every painting and fixture. Not the walls, which appeared faded. Tired.

 

Much like the stallion sitting across from her.

 

He was old and worn, much like the house itself. His joints ached like senile wood. His name was bleached with age. And his eyes... Rose sometimes wondered if he even saw her. He spoke, and ge gestured, but were the words ever aimed towards her? Or... The filly she took the place of. When he touched her, she could swear he was ice cold. Although objectively, she knew now that was just one many conditions he had accrued with time.

 

She was a filly again. Young, naïve. Lye and Rush attended them, nodding respectfully to the Master of the house while tossing discreet glowers her way when the Master wasn't watching. They never liked her much. They despised her, probably. Who was she to take advantage of their Master's ailing mind by taking on the form of his departed duaghter?

 

Well, it was hardly a choice. And he was the one who had presented it. She had to live, and so that is what she chose.

 

"Rose..." Master Chronicle spoke, and she could imagine his words curled as smoke in the air. She could choke on them, if not for her excellent acting. "You haven't eaten."

 

Rose looked down at her plate. Fresh-caught flounder on rye, with garland and lemon. It would taste delicious, as all food provided in the house did. 

 

"I'm..." Not hungry.

 

Master Chronicle's brows furrowed. That was a bad sign.

 

She forced herself to eat, and he appeared placated. For now. 

[Ciraxis]

"So....this is where it started....no...this is where your Mind originated." Hou made slight but important distinction as she and Rose walked around the memory. They weren't noticed by the old stallion, his servants or even young Rose herself. After all....this was just a recording....

 

"And this...is your mentor..." Shuren's stated, as her incisive gaze landed at old form of Master Chronicle. "Finally I am able to put face behind the name...." unicorn mare added as she judged the old stallion. Whatever conclusions she came to, Hou chose to keep them to herself for now, as she turned towards the Changeling Queen she was guiding.

 

"So...his real daughter.....was it you that came to him, and latched like a tick, or was it him that asked you to play a lie that he so desperately wanted to believe?" Hou asked as she withhold the grimace of seeing younger Rose eat a fish. While her own dieting habits were called even more horrifying, it didn't changed the fact that for ponies, feasting on flesh was something revolting. However changeling weren't that limited - and while never their first, or even second choice, they could still get some nourishment from it.

 

After all, 'Love' didn't came with minerals or vitamins. It was however, capable of crystallizing into few sugar derivatives. Funny that.

 

 

That Chronicle made this exact dish for Compass showed that perhaps at least some of his senility was obfuscation on his part. He wouldn't choose to do so if he wasn't aware of her true needs. Quite insightful for a mind way past it's prime...but that shouldn't be surprising. After all you didn't lived to ripe old age without getting shrewd.

"Heh..." Shuren smirked, as she watched younger Rose dig into flounder without much enthusiasm "That actually take me back as well. You might find it astonishing, but even I had a teacher once..." sorceress added as she recalled her own early days in Fenghuang Monastery.

[Aisede]

The memory froze, and Rose trotted around and gaze over the shoulder of her younger self. There was obvious solemnity in that gaze, and she sighed, looking across the table at Master Crhonicle.

 

"Not a mentor..." She said, tiredly.  "And... He came to me. He bought me."

 

Suddenly, they were someplace else. The docks of a maritime town. Ponies shuffled about on the docks, carting off their most recent haul of fish to he hawked in the plaza, alongside venders selling exotic, imported fruits and veggies. 

 

And then there was the stage. A crowd had gathered around, attracted by the animated stallion standing atop it. And behind him, huddled in a cage just barely large enough to contain her, was a tiny, shivering changeling.

 

"Behold, the Blackwater Beast!" The stallion shouted, gesturing towards the changeling with exaggerated motions. "Gaze upon its misshapen form! A parody of ponykind!"

 

The crowd murmured, fear dominating the crowd, with a faint mix of curiosity. The tiny creature shivered under their gaze, trying to look smaller.

 

"Look upon her fangs! Those are not for fishing, let me tell you. What, then, do you think they prey on!?"

 

The crowd erupted, anger mixing in with the fear. 

 

"Such an unnatural creature could only be the spawn of Neighvy Jones! But worry not. As you can see, it is safely contained. And for a small fee..." The stallion's lips curled, and Rose shivered from the memory alone. The excitement he felt... "You could add this strange creature to your own collection of cryptic creatures. Perhaps you will tame it?"

 

He looked back at her, but she couldn't possibly make herself any smaller, so she stared back with frightened, turquoise eyes. 

 

"... I wonder what you could make of its chitin? An exotic material to be sure." He chuckled, and the bidding began.

 

Even Hou would be unlikely to recognize the currency, but it wouldn't be hard to guess that they were offering some pretty high prices.

 

A stallion moved between the throng of ponies like a wraith, the ponies be passed shivering in his wake and quieting down.

 

Then he reached the front, and he raised a hoof with a pouch of coins.

 

His voice was solid and firm. At once, the entire plaza went quiet. Every eye was turned on the greying stallion.

 

And his eyes... Were on the changeling in the cage.

 

"D-do we have a higher bidder!?" The stage stallion shouted. Nopony so much as coughed.

 

"Going once... Sold, to the old codger up front!"

 

...

 

"This was my first memory..."

[Ciraxis]

"Owner then. But a poor trader, since it's clear you were worth much, much more." Hou smirked as she corrected herself smoothly, before tilting her head. "So that's it? An old stallion who had you impersonate daughter he lost while fully knowing that it was just a comforting lie? Pathetic and disappointing, but reality often is." sorceress mused. "I actually surprised that your Original fell into what she did, since she lived mostly the same life you did. Couldn't she see that she fell into the very same pit-fall that Chronicle character did? Loosing someone you cared about, grasping straws trying to get them back, or at least imitation of them. Sounds familiar?" Shuren pointed out with mocking glint in her eyes "If she couldn't see that then for all that power she is more pitiful then he is, for she was able to see where it led, and yet she chose to jump into that downwards spiral anyway." unicorn shook her head in disapprovement. "This also means you were able to surpass your Template in that regard, since you were able to move on, unlike Her." Hou said.

 

As the scene concluded Sorceress turned toward her companion.

"You say this is a beginning for you, but it's clear there had to be something before. You may not be able to recall it intentionally.... but with the power of Remembrance Stone, such recollection may be brought into the front." Hou said, as one of her hooves stoked the amulet hanging around her neck. Shuren didn't knew fs Sparkle shared anything about the relicts that sorceress managed to swindle from Princesses possession. Perhaps Equestria's latest souveregin keep the theft under tight lid, to not give other daring enough ideas? Or perhaps it simply didn't came up? Regardless, if Compass would pry about it, Hou herself saw no reason to keep her in the dark about this. After all, she didn't informed Sparkle that Shuren was her acquaintance so far....and after helping Rose save her child, she will have even less reasons for such action.

 

"...Of course this is for you to decide. So...how did you got rid of him?" white mare asked, as her gaze shifted from changeling to Master Chronicle again.

[Aisede]

Rose was silent for several seconds, closing her eyes. She looked... Older. Worn. As if simply replaying these memories added the sum total of their weight in time on her being.

 

Then she shook her head. 

 

"I'm sure there was more, at some point in time. But..." She'd love to see her mother. To know where she came from. But... But why was she sent adrift? What happened to her? After all the pain and suffering of loss she has endured, she couldn't stomach anything having happened to her own mother, even now. "Mister Chronicle."

 

Snapping her eyes open, a new scene played out.

 

A slightly older Rose, a teenager at best, rested her forelegs against the edge of the bed. A wispy, frail thing lay nestled under the blankets, unmoving. It was as if he had turned to dust, leaving the suggestion of a pony in its place.

 

Rose hadn't understood at the time. How could she? He provided her with everything. Food, education, a roof above her head. 

 

"... Mister Chronicle?"

 

Tentatively, she reached out a hoof to nudge him. Lye and Rush watch silently from the back of the room.

 

There's no response. Hou could feel the coldness as if she'd touched him with her own hoof. Feel the confusion, the sinking horror of realization.

 

Rose tried to keep the shakyness out of her voice.

 

"C-chronicle... Wake up."

 

Another nudge.

 

"Wake up, please!"

 

Another...

 

Tears glitter at the edges of her eyes.

 

"Miss Rose," Lye voices from across the room, cool and polite.

 

Rose looks back, blinking teary eyes.

 

"... Master Chronicle has passed, unfortunately."

 

"..."

 

"... I also regret to inform you that his nephew, Anecdote, will be inheriting this estate soon. He is as-yet unaware of his... Niece's continued existence. It may be best that you leave the premises before he arrives."

 

"B-but-"

 

She freezes, pinned under the icy glare of the maid. Her ears flick back, and she spares one more glance at the inert Chronicle.

 

"... Yes ma'am," she says quietly.

 

---

 

With just a couple books she'd managed to filch from the study, and a couple neccesities tucked away in some saddlebags, a tiny Rose shuffled away from the manor, colder and emptier than it had ever been before.

[Ciraxis]

"Very well. I suppose that this 'journey' will be exhausting for your spirit as it is, even without dramatic revelations about yourself." Hou mused amicably, although with a disappointed tone. Oh what secrets could she discover if only Rose would agree for this, here and now? Andalusian Changelings were enigma on Equus, due to being extinct for so long. She wouldn't say no to having more insight into her 'home' dimension either. But all in due time. All in due time....

 

As the scene unfolded before them, Shuren gaze was cold and analytical. Only when they 'walked out' of the manor following Compasse's younger apparition did she comment.

"I see! Back then you were young and inexperienced. You knew all but Chronicle and his surroundings so you couldn't help but get attached to him, having nothing else to compare. Only with time and understanding you realized that he was using you." white mare said. And it made sense why Rose opposed usage of 'mentor' label for an old stallion. Passage of years changed Compass's perspective, made her more worldly.

"I had similar revelations about my own teacher Rose." Hou said, opening up a bit for a moment, pondering. "If I got to opportunity to go back I still would make the same choices regarding him, although for different reasons, and with different intent." sorceress confessed.

 

"What I fail to understand, is why you didn't paid those maids back Rose. You might not be fully mature back then yet, but you could still snap them like a twig. They had no power to throw you out. You could take manor for yourself, and even deal with Chronicle's nephew when he came." Shuren prodded, showing up how ruthless her train of though was when she wanted it to be.

[Aisede]

This time, no new scene materialized. Instead, they just appeared in some non-descript plaza, still in the same town. Ponies went about their day as a young Rose perched herself upon the lip of a stone fountain, reading from some book she only vaguely remembers contained scientific knowledge

 

"Hou, I was not even an adolescent at the time," the real Rose said, turning to face her with a small frown. The hustle and bustle of a port town was muted to near nothing. "I was raised in a wealthy manor, by a mentally ill father figure, and two bossy maids twice my size that constantly radiated hatred and disgust. Adopting Rose Compass's form came via intuition, but at the time, I had absolutely no grasp on the scope of my power. It wasn't until instincts kicked in that I even knew I was a queen.

 

Hou, I never met another of my kind until decades later, when I encountered a rival changeling brood in Port Cadiz."

 

Rose scrunched her snout, feeling distinctly irate. Suddenly, their perspective jerked to a spacious room filled with the vapors of incense. Candles burned at the base of a large seat, upon which a portly pink changeling queen rested, smoking from a long pipe. Her iris and pupils we're distinct, shades of violet and pink. Her mane draped over her shoulders, and pooled along the floor alongside her tail, also pink but streaked with white.

 

The creature had a distinctly motherly air about her as she looked down her nose at their visitor: an older Rose. She had a determined look in her eyes, tempered by decades of experience. But there was something else there, too- something cold and indifferent. Something dangerous.

 

Around them, smaller broodlings surrounded their queen, their distinctly piscine fins pink, alongside their elytra. Just like their bright pink eyes, regarding the pirate Rose with veiled hostility. Hou would probably feel at home in this setting, with its oriental tapestry and steam baths. 

 

The real Rose glanced over at them, glaring at the seated queen, frozen in time. 

 

"Queen Storge," her dopplehanger said before the real Rose got to get out a word.

 

Storge nodded, flicking an ear ringed with golden loops.

 

"Captain Scylla. I hear you're looking to strike a deal with me."

 

"A simple exchange of information," Rose corrected.

 

Storge sniffed, then chuckled. "Very well. What is it you wish to know?"

 

"I require information on a particular sample of flora: the Flower of Forever."

 

Storge snorts at this, bellowing laughter.

 

"A mere myth!"

 

"Is it now? I suppose-"

 

The memory freezes, and they suddenly return to where they were just prior.

 

"I really hate that memory," Rose said, rubbing her temples. "She and her entire brood attempted to kill me and my crew the moment we stepped hoof in her bordello. I ended up having to kill her in the end. Classic betrayal- on my part, however. I couldn't risk another queen knowing about my plans."

 

 

 

[Ciraxis]

"I was Huangjing's most successfully pickpocket before I was ten. And before that I....." Hou cut herself short, realizing that she was revealing more about herself then she wished. Instead she chose to admonish the changeling queen "Age is no excuse. Where there is a will, there is a way. Don't disappoint me by saying that you didn't paid those maids back either, after a time. Their knowledge about your existence was risky enough as it is." sorceress said.

 

Still, the conversation so far revealed at least one thing about Rose's original world - while Andalusian Changeling's were not exactly extinct like they were - until recently - on Equus, they weren't populous the either. And Hou doubted that Rose's own actions earned them rapport with ponykind there either.

 

Her pondering aside, the scene changed once more which prompted mix of irritation and disgust from the white unicorn.

"....I don't practice feng shui, but even I think this place look atrocious. She just threw everything that looked 'exotic' and esoteric without disregard for actuall style. The tapestries are nice, but all that moisture would make them go mouldy." the Long Guo mare shook here head, here aesthetic sense offended.

"Also..." Shuren made a repulsed expression, with one of her eyes twitching! "...your kind feeds mainly on love then transitioning it into pure energy. HOW DID SHE GOT SO FAT?!!!" Hou was suddenly shouting. She knew Hei for centuries, he taught her a lot about changelings and yet even he never presented her a specimens of his species that could be considered overweight. How did this pink, disgusting blob....? Questions for later.

 

When Compass finally spoke again after the memory concluded Hou squinted her eyes.

"And why are you hating it exactly? You did what you thought necessary. Was it because she, your own kin tried to kill you? That you killed her? Or was it....that doing the later made you feel    n o t h i n g    a t    a l l.....?" sorceress prodded. As Rose mulled about what Shuren said, sorceress felt that reminder - and bit of encouragement really - was in order.

"This isn't about what lives or ties you severed Rose. It's about beginnings, new and old. Learn from the former, but don't allow them to influence the later's too heavily Because that's what beginning is. Starting. Over. Maybe when you understand that you already did just that, you will allow this planet to - in a way - adopt you as it's child. Why do you let your earlier lack of place to call home define you when you have one NOW?!"

[Aisede]

"I hate this memory for plenty of reasons. Primarily, however, it was that she had the audacity to attack me and my crew." Rose grumbled, then listened to what else Hou had to offer by way of 'advice.'

 

"... You are right, of course," she said quietly, looking off into the uncrowded streets of Malaga. "I do have a new home now. A new start."

 

She closed her eyes, and the scene transitioned one last time.

 

Into a picture of Ponyville. 

 

She stood within Aloe's spa, the smells of lotion and plants as fresh as memory. 

 

"And this can be Albedo's home, too. As well as the rest of my children." She smiled, feeling a rush. It felt like an awakening, almost. "Is this it? How I connect to this world? Or help Albedo do it. Just... Accept it?"

[Ciraxis]

"And yet, however much you despise it, it's one of the pieces that make you what you are." Hou said "It's tempting to think 'What If?', especially for beings like you or I that - with some effort - can peer through 'Possibility' and find answers for such musings. But be wary, as useful may be to solve those riddles, it's equally easy to start obsessing over them. And this way, lies madness." Shuren warned her companion.

 

When the surroundings within Rose's mindscape changed again, Hou found herself looking around. For all her visits in Ponyville, she never did set hoof into spa it housed.

And why would she? At Wunyun she had numerous servants who tended at to every need of her eternally youthful body at her very whim.

But perhaps change of pace would be nice? Wasn't boredom an one enemy she always wrestled with? That, and finding what kind of mares Compass chosen mate and her eventually sister-in-law would to be.

 

Upon Rose's question sorceress found herself focusing on her companion again.

"Do you find it too easy Compass? It is not. Finding the place to belong is one thing, but you have to preserve it, care for it and  at times, fight for it.....there lies the challange." for a split moment, an image of Ponyville building was replaced by dried rice fields, and desolate village at the foot of the mountains in faraway eastern lands. Hou's image squinted her eyes, recomposing herself before they disappeared, replaced by insides of spa once more. "It's not once and done affair Rose, you have work for it every single day." Shuren explained, before she was interrupted by door of the spa suddenly opening. As if by enormous vacuum, both mare found herself pushed by a mighty wind that seemed to move them towards the whiteness that laid beyond it.

"We are not fonished yet Rose. While both your Mind and Soul seems to welcome the sprouting Root, I suspect your Magic might require some ponysonal convincing..." unicorn mare mused. With those words, Hou tackled the Rose, ending any potential resistance against the suction. They fell through the door, and whiteness surrounded them...

 

 

Which was soon replaced by cloudless blue sky. When Rose came to herself, she would find herself laying on the surface of the sand and stone desert.

No...actually not desert. Upon closer examination, the stony formations around where actually reefs. Dead and dried reefs. And the sand beneath was coral sand.

This was bottom of dried up tropical sea.

"So, this is reverse part of your soul...." Hou's familiar voice could be heard. Upon looking around, the sorceress - now no longer mere lines of light, but identical looking to her flesh and blood self if clothe-less could be seen, standing upon top of one of the reef formations.

"Makes perfect sense. As a creature of the water, it's depths must represent comfort. Thus, the reversal is true. This dried up landscape is your sorrow, rage, regret and fears. That your Magic chose to hid itself here is...telling"

"Is the owner of this dreadful place the mare you so heavily invested in?" came the second voice, one that Rose did not recognize.

"Yes. Just like Hei, she is...very special changeling." Hou answered while looking behind over hr shoulder. "I looking forward what kind of the waves in the world she will make." Shuren admitted bluntly.

[Aisede]

Rose could invest as much as needed in Aloe, and their children.

 

She started when the scene shifted, observing what must be an important place to Hou before it disappeared. 

 

So it worked both ways... Hmm...

 

"My magic? What-"

 

She wasn't prepared to be tackled. Thankfully, she'd long since learned to temper her potentially deadly reflexes, and weathered the fall. What she saw was... Unsettling, to a degree.

 

She'd have expected a perpetual cloudy cover for her darker side. Perhaps rolling mist. If she squinted, there in the distance, sne could spot the broken hulls of ships. Tombstones.

 

"What do you mean my magic hid here?" She asked, quirking a brow. "Magic is not sentient, Hou."

[Ciraxis]

As soon as Rose words of rebuke left her mouth, a scoff could be heard. Not from Hou. This other mare.

"Is she for real? Did she not heard or remember your earlier explanation? I am not impressed." said the stranger in a haughty tone.

This prompted Hou to sight and turning her head towards the owner of the voice.

"Do not undersell her. She did had to face memories she would rather revisit, one after another. It's bound to shake up anypony." sorceress defended the changeling.

"She lives with those very memories in the back of her head. Constantly. It defines what she wishes to be." the other mare disagreed.

"It might be what motivates her, yes, but she's more then just some cast-off copy, haunted by memories not even her own. As unpleasant as it might her wisdom to grow beyond, and avoid pitfalls her Template fell for." Hou shot back before focusing on Rose again. In the background, the hoovesteps could be heard, before the owner of the haughty voice shown herself....

 

A quilin mare. A very regal looking mare, garbed like queens from Saddle Arabia's ancient ages stood next to Hou, her cold, glowing blue gaze glued to Rose.

Yet...something was off about this quilin. Unnatural. Aside from from those blue irises, everything was of varying shades of silver...and with metallic sheen....and they actually reflected the desert light.

"....Fine, I will humour you Hou...as unlikely as I am to be proven wrong." the quilin said while still sizing Compass up.

"You much more irritable the usual Mercury...." Shuren mused....which prompted and angry response.

"I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME AMI!" the Mercury in question. thrown a minor tantrum., which only made Hou give a noise that was akin to a an groan. Apparently this was usual occurrence for the unicorn mare.

"I sorry for her. Since that one trip to Neighpon, Mercury Queen started insisting to call her *sigh* Ami. Must been due to those Neighponese comics. Now idea when she got her hooves on those. I was staying in penthause...."

"It's called manga!"

"Yes, yes...manga...." sorceress repeated, more for the piece of mind then anything. This little exchange seemed to completely sidetrack them both.