Starfox64x x Neoniie RP

[Neoniie]

Mirage put a hoof behind her head in an expression of slight akwardness. "Well, anything for a fellow pony," she declared, giving a mock-salute toward Vulpus. She flew up behind him it a flash, leaving an image of the salute behind her due to the speed of her transition, and lifted him slightly off the ground. The inn doors were luckily propped open at the moment, meaning the pegasus could hover him into the lobby itself. A few of the patrons looked a bit scandalized at the unconventional entrance, but Mirage payed them no mind.

"Welcome to the Palomino, how may I help you?" The desk stallion spoke professionally, a well-rehearsed smile upon his features. It unnerved the pegasus, but she answered quickly.

"Yeah, I need to rent a room for a few hours. My friend here has been prescribed some bed rest by Red Cross." The stallion nodded, handing them a room key without changing any bits. He winked as Mirage picked up the key and turned back to his filing without a word. "Oh. Thanks!" She read the room number and passed the key to Vulpus. "Room 25, then. There's a lift over there." The elevator was more a simple pulley system and wooden platform manned by two pegasi, but it served its purpose.

[Starfox64x]

Vulpus was a bit surprised that she continued to carry him around town. he wouldve been grateful for her to just show him the way, but he had to admit, she had a gentle touch, and she seemed to have a kind heart about her. he was a little embaressed when other ponies saw her carrying him, but said nothing about it... he was more embarrassed by the wink the pony at the counter gave them, feeling like the situation looked... odd... a mare and a stallion... wanting a room for just a couple hours... yeah, it made him blush...

"Thank you." he told him nonetheless before turning to her, "and thank you too. i can't wait to just kick back and relax..."

[Neoniie]

Completely oblivious to the implications that had occurred to Vulpus, Mirage chalked up his blush to a mere temperature readjustment of his body. With considerably cooler air of the inn would be a rather radical change from the scorching rays of the desert and Mirage had never payed attention in school enough to remember that redness only appeared when going from cold to hot. She trotted briskly over to the elevator and called up to the pegasi. "Second floor, please!"

As the pegasi worked the pulleys, she decided to pick up the threads of a conversation with Vulpus. "I can definately agree. As much as I love flying, my wings could use a bit of a break. So, where are you from Vulpus? Probably not Appleloosa or I'd have recognized you."

[Starfox64x]

he joined her in the elevator, watching the pegasi lift them upward. "Oh? Me? Oh i'm from a small place outside Trottingham... nowhere special... but it's been a loooong time since i've lived there... i've been roaming around for years now." he glanced over at her, taking a good look at his hero. he wanted to make sure there was no way he'd forget her in the future. the odd cutie mark was pretty unique to her, so he was sure he wouldnt forget...

[Neoniie]

Mirage listened intently, trying to remember where Trottingham was. Unable to pinpoint it exactly, she decided on a neutral answer. "That's pretty cool. I haven't travelled much myself, but it sounds pretty exciting. I many just get around to it someday." She made a mental note to double check the maps of Equestria that she kept pinned to her walls to find the location of Trottingham. "I suppose you've had some cool adventures on your travels then?"

The pegasus' eyes lit up as she spoke of adventure. She had a natural tendancy to rush into things, but an adventure seemed the epitome of freedom and exploration, two things that Mirage found necessary to ease the dull repetition of weather duties. She didn't really notice anything else around them and nearly fell into Vulpus when the lift started working. "Oops," she said, slightly embarassed once again. "I'm not usually this clumsy."

[Starfox64x]

he quickly caught her, his reaction time honed to be very quick, "Heh, it's okay, you didn't mean to..." he smiled a little, helping her back up, "Yeah, i go on a lot of adventures... nothing REALLY exciting, but exploring is really fun... And finding cool things is great too! OH! Speaking of which i DID find something while i was out there... I'll show it to you when we get to my room." he told her, waiting for the elevator to stop.

[Neoniie]

"Yeah," Mirage said, that far-off look still obvious in her eyes. She had always wanted to discover something, anything really, that would lead to adventure. She was always told that she was too implusive, but adventures were times of action, not thinking.

"You did? That's interesting. I would have figured that the archaeologist ponies would have picked the desert dry at this point," her tone was jokey once again. "They're the only folks who really come out this far, and you I suppose." The pegasi ground the lift to a halt, the squeak of the metal gears could be heard as they stopped their movement.

"Second floor," said one of the pegasi, gesturing them out of the lift.

[Starfox64x]

Vulpus casually walked out, taking a look around for his room number, "Yeah, it surprised me too, i didnt have much time to look at it though, i was busy trying to get out..." he found his room and opened it up, quickly heading inside only to drop his saddlebags by the bedside and flopping down onto the cool covers of the bed, "Oh thank celestia..." he mumbled with a happy sigh.

[Neoniie]

Mirage grinned, pleased that her first proper desert rescue had gone so well. She generally encountered rather irritable desert ponies (who, to be fair, had good reason to be frustrated by a pegasus suddenly picking them up from the ground) or travellers and archaeologists who knew their way around. The pegasus pulled up the small wooden chair that was located in a corner of the room and sat promptly upon it.

"Good to see you're enjoying yourself," she noted, placing her own bag upon the ground. She settled herself into the seat and watched Vulpus with a lightly amused smile.

[Starfox64x]

he chuckled, "heh, yeah... i am..." he laid there quietly for a few seconds, almost falling asleep before he recalled something, "Oh! The coin, thing..." he moved to the edge of the bed, grabbing onto his bag and lifting it up, taking a look. he pulled out a large golden disc, taking a look at it, "Hm, this is neat." he said to himself, examining all the odd markings. "What do you think?" he asked, carefully handing it over to her.

[Neoniie]

Mirage's eyes widened as she held the large coin shaped artifact in her hooves. The intricate carvings upon its surface seemed to be in a language long since abandoned by the residents of Equestria, but their design piqued a memory of the pegasus'. She didn't often pay attention in Equestrian History, but the one lesson she had genuinely listened to involved the first several successful settlements in Equestria. Shortly after the three kingdoms arrived and settled their differences, there had been a rumour of a shining golden city. It was said to hold untold riches and power, as tales of treasure were likely to do. It was said that the directions were carved upon the keys to the city, of which there were five to obtain. However, nopony who venture out in search of them had ever returned.

"This...this could be one of the map pieces/keys to the city of El Mareado. It's just an old pony's tale now, but back near the founding of Equestria, everypony wanted to find this place." She paused, wondering if the legend was true and they had somehow stumbled across something that years worth of explorers had not. "Listen to me, sounding like a history textbook," she said. "But if it's real, this is amazing! You've one lucky pony, Vulpus."

[Starfox64x]

Vulpus listened to her little story... and it piqued his interest a bit. he too had heard of such a legend... mostly from story books as a kid, but later on he noticed actual documentation in books when he got older. however since then he hadn't paid it much attention to it since then. but now to find a piece that may have come from the source... it made the hair on the back of his neck tingle. "I've heard of that place..." he moved closer to her, taking another look at it, "It does look like a map... like these parts look like landmarks of some sort..." he said, pointing out a large mountainous looking marking. it had a surprising amount of detail, as if the artist wanted to make sure that those who saw it would recognize it as a specific mountain peak.

"Do you have any maps or anything? something to compare this to?"

[Neoniie]

Mirage picked up her saddlebag again, rummaging through it with one hoof. Placing several items including two sandwiches, one picture, thirteen bits, the medical pack, and a book on the floor surrounding her chair, the pegasus finally pulled out a pair of fairly new maps of Equestria. One was a flight map, which showed a pegasus' eye view of the land itself and the other was an oddly made map that had a panoramic view of the landscape, showing only the landmark visable on the horizons of the Badlands. The second map she didn't use much and really just kept around because she had neglected to find another owner for the map.

She lay out the two maps atop the bed, looking from the coin to the maps repeatedly. Then, something caught her attention. If this coin really was so old, why were they using new maps to find these mountains? The tall peaks would have started to erode over the years. Sharing this idea with Vulpus, Mirage began to look for smaller mountains than something like the peaks of the mountain into which Canterlot was set. However, she did say that Vulpus should look for actualy mountians as well, in the event that teh pegasus' thought was incorrect.

[Starfox64x]

he sat close to her, looking carefully at the mountain peaks... but non of them looked quite right... "It doesnt look quite right... to any of them... even the smaller ones... hm, are we sure it's a mountain? Maybe... were there Pesasi in Mareado? Maybe they were up high when they saw this..." he was just shooting out ideas, still uncertain about his thoughts... although somethign more important came to mind very quickly.he shifted uncomfertably, feeling a bit off at the moment, "Hey, um, i feel like i'm covered in sand... would you mind if i took a quick bath and we can continue looking after that?"

[Neoniie]

Mirage pondered Vulpus' idea. She wasn't very certain about Mareado, as it was generally taught to be an old legend that was believed back in olden times when such rumours flourished. Perhaps a more bookish pony would know more of the lost city, but a pegasus such as herself wasn't going to waste time studying when there were mysteries and opportunities out in the open skies. She did conceed that a map maker would likely be a pegasus, griffon, or the like, so perhaps it was something other than a mountain. Unfortunately, the pegasus was just grasping at straws and had no brilliant breakthroughs.

Hearing Vulpus' question, she nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, no problem." She stared out the small window of the rented room, wondering what could make a mountain-like shape from the skies.

[Starfox64x]

Vulpus nodded, quickly heading to the bathroom to wash the sand out of his hair and body. there seemed to be a lot of sand between him and his prosthetic leg, so he took it off to clean later. he came out a few moments later, dried off and clean. his fur seemed a much brighter shade of blue than before, now that the dust and dirt was off. his hair poofed up much more than before too. however he left his leg behind, so now he sort of bounced back over to her on his one front leg, looking at the coin again, "Any ideas?" he wasnt really thinking about his leg, or how it might be odd to see him without it.

[Neoniie]

Mirage looked up from her contemplation, surprised by the slight differences that had occurred by just the application of some soap and water. The pegasus didn't hold much with baths, preferring to just pour some rainwater on herself if necessary, but of course, non-pegasi didn't really have that option. Another surprise came to her as she noticed that the eggshell coloured leg had disappeared. She held back her surprised reaction, not wanting to draw attention to it. The mare had noticed it before, but the sight of a pony with only three legs was quite jarring for her. Privately, she wondered what had happened to Vulpus to require his prosthetic limb, but she figured that it was a question better asked later.

"Um...not really. The only things I know that can look like mountains are spires or valleys, if you look at them right. Though, at the time, I don't think they'd have many spires around Equestria..." She stamped her hoof down in slight frustration. "That's probably not much help, to be honest."

[Starfox64x]

the word 'spire' caught his attention... he continued to look around, but everything seemed to be a bit odd other than the mountain... "Wait a sec..." he leaned down and grabbed the coin with his mouth, turning it upside down. he took a look at it again... now the mountain looked like a stalagmite, "What if its a stalagmite? like in caves?... Hey, does that part look kinda like that?" he suggested, pointing at a few marking on the coin, then onto the map where the points seemed to match up, "Are there caves in this area?"

[Neoniie]

The pegasus resisted the urge to facehoof upon their realization. It called to mind something her mother used to say when she was stuck on something, 'Look at it in a different light'. She had always been rather signleminded about things and set upon her course, implusivity can lead to such things at times. She followed his hoof motions, nodding as he pointed between them. "I think there are some caves around here. The Spidersilk Caverns, or something along those lines. It's largely unexplored because there's a legend about some creature living deep inside the caverns. Even the skeptics tend to keep away from them."

Lifting her chin up, Mirage continued. "I'm certainly not scared at all. Actually, we could get there in about an hour with the help of some local ponies." She was slightly exaggerating her fearlessness, but those who lived on a whim had little time for patient consideration.

[Starfox64x]

he smiled at her eagerness... however he was still exhausted. "It makes sense that they would make a legend to keep ponies away from a huge treasure... so i bet it's there! or something is anyway... But not today... i'm still exhausted and i dont feel so well... lets wait until tomorrow! We'll go right after breakfast!"

[Neoniie]

Mirage felt slightly sheepish, completely forgetting why the two were in the hotel room in the first place. "Sounds good to me," she said, stretching out her wings as she got out of the chair. Then, a realization came to her. "Um...there's only one bed in here..." She didn't quite understand the exact implications of the akward situation they now found themselves in, merely thinking it to be inconvenient. "I could go get another room from that counter pony," she suggested, a sense of foolishness coming over her for not noticing it earlier. "Or," she thought, eyes sparkling, "I could grab a cloud from outside and sleep there. I'll move it just outside the window, so that I don't miss you for breakfast."

[Starfox64x]

he blinked, he was a bit confused for a moment before recalling that this wasnt her hometown. "Oh, well, i wouldnt mind you bringing a cloud inside if you wanted to..." he was blushing a little bit because his mind had wandered when she said 'or' his first thoughts being somethign else, "I mean, it IS a big bed, plenty of room for us both to spread out... but uh... i mean, if you'd prefer a cloud that... might be best... um..." he slowly got more and more red, feeling himself digging a deeper hole...

[Neoniie]

Mirage had actually been halfway out the window when Vulpus had given his input. She turned back to him with a little laugh, confusedly amused by his embarassment. "I'll be right back," she said, unfurling her wings and jumping out into the air. She picked up speed quickly, remembering that tonight was scheduled to be nearly cloudless. The pegasus needed to snag a cloud before the nightly weather team came out to round them up. She flapping her wings repeatedly, keeping herself stationary in the air as she looked around for a cloud. To the east, she noticed a tiny cloud. It was just big enough for her to use, but not big enough to produce any rain. "Bingo."

She jumped on the cloud a few times, to make sure that any stored water wouldn't decide to rain all over the hotel room. Then, she began pushing it back toward the hotel. Getting it through the window proved to be a slight challenge, but the cloud was not a solid and was very malleable, making it possible with some carefull cloud sculpting. Moving it into the air above a vacant part of the room, Mirage dived into the fluffy whiteness, loving who much it reminded her of home.

[Starfox64x]

While she was out looking for a cloud, Vulpus went back to the bathroom to clean up his leg. he wasnt really thinking that he was standing with her without it, but the fact that she didnt say anything made him curious... usually it was the first thing people mentioned. at this point he wasnt afraid to tell his story, it was a lon time ago anyway. soon his leg was nice and shiny, but he was planning on going to bed soon, so he just laid it by his bedside.

when she returned he smiled at the puffy cloud being in his room. it still amazed him how pegasi could play with clouds, he sort of envied them. he reached up and swatted at it, his hoof going right through, "You're lucky, you know?"

[Neoniie]

Mirage poked her head up from her 'cloud bath', looking down at the earth pony. "For being a pegasus, you mean?" She lay back, staring up at the ceiling. "I suppose it is pretty awesome, but you earth ponies aren't too shabby yourselves. I mean, just the fact that you have those hot air balloons makes you at least the most inventive of us." She formed small smile, "Besides, I still thnik there are some hidden talents of the earth ponies that nopony has found yet. It only makes sense."