bridlewood Breakfast in Bridlewood (Open)

[StrongCopper]

It had been a... respectable amount of time since Phobiaus had last paid a visit to the dark, forest home of the unicorns.

 

The superstitious, horn headed nutters were a bit of a personally a favorite of his. It was part of the reason he had set up his lair in the depths of the Bridlewood forest to begin with; Relatively easy access to those who were naturally skittish and prone to glancing fearfully at shadows.  The fact that he had personally helped cultivate that state of being over the generations merely made him appreciate the hard work he had put in to ensure that whenever he awoke from hibernation, there would be a meal waiting for him. 

 

And that was exactly what he was looking for as he stalked the predawn shadows of the settlement; It was a wonderful time to scout out the current lay of the land and the ponies that inhabited it since those just waking up would still be shaking off the siren call of slumber and those who had been up all night would be tired and looking to go to bed... both states of mind in which the pony might doubt themselves if they saw something move in a shadow. Plus it provided plenty of shadows in which to lurk, added greatly by the forest nature of the settlement helping to filter out the sun.

 

But right now, he was simply looking for a mark and was staying hidden while doing so.

[SteelEagle]

Sunny Starscout was not a resident of Bridlewood but you would have to form an army to keep her out of it. Izzy was here! The whole town was intriguing to her as she followed rumors that this was the legendary Everfree Forest back in ancient Equestria, but that required intensive study. Study so intensive she had to go to Izzy's all the time. Everypony else in town was helpful to some degree as they had a great working knowledge base of how the forest worked. What you needed to look out for and what they themselves found strange or unusual, or even what they had no real answers for. That was more often than not the place to start. She normally started and ended with Izzy's house. 

 

She stayed with izzy often, and left her home with a bedraggled mane in the pre-dawn while searching for for some ancient roots and flowers, even evidence of those ancient cockatrice. Just something to tell her it was true, even if evidence was mounting it was not. She would still try. With a book, a notebook, a basket and some tools she left, not wanting to wake Izzy up and tip-hoofing her way out and closing the door gently. Once out she took a deep breath and yawned before starting a gentle canter into the town and woods. What she was looking for could in theory be found almost anywhere, especially with all the trees providing such ancient geneology records. Alas, she would have to do it today by hoof and canter.

 

And so Sunny trotted, a gentle hum escpaing her as she looked and identified flowers, plants, and creatures she did not know off hoof, absorbed in her work and enjoying the pre-dawn beauty of this treasured land.
 

[StrongCopper]

Having already been on the look out for a pony that was by themself in a settlement that was still in the process of waking up (or in the event of the nocturnal, going to bed), it was fairly easy to spot a brightly colored mare out and about. The fact that she lacked a horn on her forehead made her stand out more. Phobiaus couldn't remember the last time he had witnessed an Earth Pony actually intermingle with their distant horned cousins in a peaceful manner.

 

It was fully possible that she had simply been born to unicorn parents as an earth pony; In the distant past, pony genetics tended to be rather interesting in how it manifested. One fruitful affair by a great grandmother who happened to have a thing for feathers and there was a non-zero chance that two unicorn parents will have a flying foal who lacked a horn. But as he silently trailed her he noticed that she seemed to... happy to have been natively born to Bridlewood. As fun as it was to frighten the superstitious boneheads, they tended to slip into a miasma of depression fairly easily and generally insisted on dragging others down with them.

 

Opting to stealthy follow the abnormality that was the earth pony researcher, sticking to the canopy of branches and leaves overhead due to the fact that most land based prey animals rarely looked up, he waited until they were a distance away from anyone else before his horn flared up for a moment to trigger a spell he hadn't used in a long time. 

 

The mare would only hear the sharp, crisp snap of a twig vaguely close behind her and the sudden ceasing of almost all animal or insect noises nearby... and the sudden noises of animals moving away very quickly in the mid distance. The spell actually had two parts: The first, of course, being the noise of a twig snapping sharply somewhere that the caster directed. It didn't have to be a twig snapping, but Phobiaus was a fan of the classic betrayal of stealth and sometimes you just couldn't a proper twig that would make the right noise.  

 

The second and more complicated was the wave of dread attuned to creatures of lesser intelligence that spread out from the source. Animals, insects, birds... those in the immediate blast zone would fall deathly silent and hide until the 'danger' passed, which those further away in the fallout would take the opportunity to flee while leaving something as intelligent as a pony unaffected. Well, at least directly anyway. A noise had just indicated that something was nearby, possibly following the mare... and what was moments ago a normal sounding forest had just fallen deathly silent.