Two Horns, Four Wings, And a guitar [Conor Colton, AshtonSSG, Neoniie, CrossStitch, Knight]

[Conor Colton]

(OOC: So the posting order'll be: Me, Ashton, Neoniie, CrossStitch and Knight )

The white pelted, blue maned pegasus Colton Cloudkicker was wandering the city limits of Saddleveil. He was accompanied by the also white pelted, scientist unicorn Quantum Flux, whom Colton is in a relationship with for some time now. The two of them had met in Canterlot but found a certain mystery leading them to the fair city of Saddleveil; and after a long journey with there respective pets, Sparks the sparrow and Tesla the ferret, they were nearing their destination.

The pegasus kept a steady pace alongside the unicorn, all the while turning his head to observe that Sparks and Tesla were still following. He knew that there was no pressing business at hand so he decided to pass the time with some light conversation, "So Flux....you ever been to Saddleveil before?" He asked inquisitively.

"It's a great place and all but I can't say I've been here as many times as I would have liked.....there are defiently some new things here that I must have missed before..." He stated as he waited for the unicorn's response.

Before she could respond however Colton wanted to check over a few things before continuing on, namely their map of the city so they could find their temporary accommodation, but when he searched his saddlebags he found nothing. Colton instinctively turned to his pet sparrow to ask him a question about said map, "Sparks.......did you pack the map?" Colton asked, to which the bird nodded, "Did you bring the map along with us from Canterlot?" Colton asked again to which the bird simply nodded, "Did you lose the map on the way here?" Colton replied to which the bird nodded.

"Oh sweet Celestia...." Colton stated as he face-hoofed. He knew they were all in a rather troublesome situation, so he did what he would normally do.....look for anyone who could give directions. "Give me a second Flux." Colton said as he soared up into the sky to try and get a better view.

As he reached maximum altitude however, Sparks pointed out something crucial and began to make panicky gestures, Colton didn't acknowledge him at first since he was upset at the birds negligence, but he managed to locate a nearby farm; but before he could tell Flux the good news he decided to listen to what the bird had to say.

"What are you getting at Sparks?.......Words?.....Curves?.....?" Sparks then gave up and turned Colton's head around to see that a flock of rather angry looking birds was heading straight for him, "......Oh....you were talking about bi-" Colton was cut off as he was ravaged by the seemingly endless wave of feathered fiends, before they passed and sent Colton crashing head first into the ground infront of Flux. The pegasus quickly got up and dusted himself before addressing the unicorn.

"Okay, I saw a farm in the distance....We should head there for directions......Also, try not to go near any birds....I hear they're very angry in this region...." Colton said as he chuckled and rubbed the back of his slightly bruised neck.

[AshtonSSG]

Country took in a deep breath, and slowly let it out. The air was still crisp from the morning, but the air in the late spring was creeping up on 'em. It was almost noon, and Country hadn't done much today.

Country had been up and around lately recording some things in various places. Country Smash was a up and coming Country Musician, who was raised on a Watermelon Farm in Saddleveil.

All he had done this day, was wake up, eat, then sit around and talk with his family, who he hadn't see for quite a while. After while he had gone out to the shed, which had a few chairs and stools and out by the side. He took his guitar, sat on a stool, and played the songs he used to hear out here. The made him want to be a Musician.

"Got a whole new direction, it seems these days. I use to rush off from work and get home late, but now I show up late and rush back home. My priorities are different, I can’t leave you alone!"

As Country Strummed, he heard a loud squawking noise. He looked over to see a large swarm of birds swoop and attack a flying Pegasus, and he dived into the ground. Country sighed and said, "Well, guess we got some new visitors out here."

Country got of his stool and laid his Guitar on the wall of the shed, and walked over to the edge of the walkway to there front door. Country looked out to see that the Pegasus was already up and moving, but there was another pony with the Pegasus.

"Well, I ain't sure if they're lost...so I'll hang back and watch 'em, see if they do anything. Then I'll decide if I need to do anything."

Country breathed, then laid himself out at the end of the walk way and watched the two ponies as they stood.

[Neoniie]

Flux had been preparing for this journey to Saddleveil ever since she had discovered the mythological book at the Great Library of Canterlot. It was not just the interesting myth contained within that had piqued her interest, but the presence of an odd symbol within its pages. The mare was not a cryptanalyst, but deciphering the meaning or origin of the symbol had driven her to make her way through the Library's entire section on the subject.

It had been only a few days prior that she had made a breakthrough. With the assistance of an unlikely book, she had found that it was made in a style that was very similar to the traditional symbols made in Saddleveil. Both she and Colton had quickly pursued this lead, simultaneously a welcome change of pace and a new opportunity to discover whatever danger lurked behind the chain of events into which they had plunged themselves.

The unicorn noted that two stark white ponies weren't likely to be very stealthy in a sandy environment, but nopony had encountered them yet. Of course, their entrance into a city like Saddleveil would change that. With a quick bit of levitation magic, Flux pushed her red mane back from her eyes for what had to be the hundredth time. Wind in a desert was clearly not a friend to the mare.

Her attention was brought to Colton with his question. The unicorn considered it, thinking back to her fillyhood. “I can't say I have. My father did mention some very distant relations of ours lived out by Saddleveil, but I've never gone there myself.” However, she quickly realized that Colton had taken to the air, observing the mostly unchanging landscape.

With a flurry of feathers, Colton landed face first into the sand below. She was worried for only a moment, as the pegasus got to his hooves quickly. Flux had to admire the resilience of the pegasus, as fall like that wouldn't be as kind to a unicorn or earth pony. The unicorn heard a slight snicker coming from Tesla, who had peeked out from his vantage point atop Flux's head to look at Colton and Sparks. The unicorn herself had a small grin across her muzzle as well, finding it quite strange that a pegasus wouldn't get along well with birds.

“I'll be vigilant,” she said, poking a bit of good-natured fun at Colton. “As for that farm, lead the way.”

[CrossStitch]

Gladwin was currently travelling with his wife-to-be, Holly. The two had decided to travel around a bit, since travelling was in both of their job descriptions. Gladwin was strapped to that oh-so-familiar cart that Holly always pulled with her, the cart that she sold her lovely foods from. Gladwin had offered to pull it, in art to be nice, but also to actually see what it was like. After a few hours of pulling, it was obvious how Holly got into such great shape. He didn't falter though, and instead continued pulling, travelling the landscape.

"I was thinking maybe we should visit your parents sometime, let them know the good news." Gladwin didn't like the idea, but he knew it had to be done eventually. The mere thought of it made his head spin in nervousness, and he almost tripped. He quickly regained his balance though and continued to pull the cart.

He could see something in the distance... What was it? He squinted his eagle eyes, and peered out. It looked to be a shed of sorts, a barn? A farm? Yes, it was a farm out in the distance! There even seemed to be another set of travelers heading there as well. Something close to Deja Vu hit Gladwin, but he passed it off. The place was insignificant, and he had never seen it before, but something that Gladwin could only describe as fate told him to visit. The farm was on their path anyways, so there would be no harm in stopping by, surely.

Gladwin's pace picked up a bit, eager to find out what exactly was so important abut the place.

[knight]

Holly Dash

Holly trotted along quick-stepped, a little bit in front of Gladwin, happy to be unburdened by her loaded cart. It wasn't as heavy as it had been on occasions in the past, when she had been able to tote around watermelon, but the watermelon had been singed by the fire in her garden, and they were just barely beginning to regrow. As was common, since ponies do not have fingers, her shining engagement ring was slid down onto her horn, the embedded jewels in it gleaming on her brow. She felt positively....FANCY with it there. And she was glad, too. Had Gladwin gotten her one of the oft used 'bracelets' of engagement, it would get nothing but dirty! She was always trousing around in the mud and getting her hooves mucky.

She turned to Gladwin as he mentioned her parents. Her giddy feelings subsided....it had been....quite a while since she had seen her parents....she had, truthfully....never even considered going back to Beakbreak until now....

"Maybe we should visit yur parents first...." She chuckled softly, nervously, "Ah....Ah'm not so sure Ah wanna see mine..."

BOWF BOWF BOWF!!!

As though out of nowhere, Holly's massive dog plodded up, black as night with snowy white paws as dirty as her own hooves. She smiled as the dog--taller than she was, and weighing twice as much, trotted at her side. He acted like a little pup, despite being as big as a stallion. She'd always wanted a dog, it had been pure luck that she got such a great one.

"Who's mama's wittle boyee~~!??" Holly romped around with the pup as they got closer to the town square, where she would be opening her cart for the day. She was gonna be testin' out Gladwin's sales pitch! She was good enough at her job, it was time to put her future hubby to the test! She nuzzled the dog affectionately, and received a sloppy slurp to the face in response, "Oh, Ah wub you too, ya mutt...now, C'MERE!" .

She scampered off with the dog, distracted in their game of chase, leaving Gladwin behind, still heading for the farm, her going in a completely different direction, vanishing as a family of ponies, also heading to that farm, trotted by.

[Conor Colton]

"I'm sure you will..." Colton said to Flux, also poking fun as he began to lead the way towards the nearby farm, "My pleasure..." He said as he walked, keeping a pace relatively similar to Flux's. As the two walked with their pets in tow, Colton began to think over the past few weeks; most of it had been filled with primitive detective work with Flux, leaving him very little time to relax. But the pegasus was happy to help on the investigating regard, and as long as he was with Flux he was happy enough.

Then something hit the pegasus, not literally of course but you get the idea. It was strange, he could hear what appeared to sound like....barking? And he had a particular feeling, it was strange because he had felt that feeling before; but for the life of him he couldn't remember where. He stopped to inquire to Flux as to the origin of the mysterious barks, "....Did you hear.....barking...just now?" Colton asked, but then he dismissed his question.

"Ah it's probably a dog on this farm up ahead.." He said, feeling rather foolish as of asking earlier. As the two got closer to the farm Colton noticed something...There seemed to be a blue Earth Pony...seemingly watching them. Colton then figured that the pony most likely had seen his earlier displays of 'flying expertise' and came to the conclusion that this pony must have been waiting for them after that.

The pegasus was the first to speak up to the mysterious pony...who seemingly had a guitar, "Uh....excuse us....Buddy?" Colton said as it seemed he had caught the pony's attention, he didn't want to sound too formal, less he make a bad first impression. He approached the pony leaving Flux, Sparks and Tesla slightly behind him by a few feet. "Hey buddy, um.....We were wondering if you could help us out? We're kinda lost..." Colton said....but then he realized that he had not even introduced himself.

"Oh sorry there buddy, uh....The name's Colton Cloudkicker...Pleasure to meet ya.." He said as he extended a friendly hoof, but he noticed a distinct lack of dog in the area, despite what he had heard...

[AshtonSSG]

Country gladly placed his hoof in the white ponies. He shook It a tight but friendly grip. He let go of his hoof and told him, "Well, Welcome to the Saddleveil Plains Farm! It's nice to met you, Colton, I'm Country Smash." Country gave the pony a smile. "Well, What brings you out here?"

Country looked past Colton, to see another pony, who was also White, but had dark red mane. Country just tipped his hat and nodded at her, along with the Bird and Ferret with them. "So, What brings you out here?" There really wasn't much to be out here for. Saddleveil Plains wasn't really much, had a few landmarks, a few ponies, but nothing anything would purposely come to Saddleveil. Country was always really surprised this place helped start of his Music Career, had he'd never been heard here, he wouldn't have the little fame he had today.

But, While Country looked past Colton, he also could see light pony with a tri-colored mane, but the interesting thing was the huge dog with the pony. And slightly behind it was... was a Griffin!

Country squinted to see if he could see correctly. he thought to himself, "Goodness, these sure are alot of ponies to see in one day. I wonder if there's some fair I didn't hear about over in Fillydelphia? They surely aren't headed here to stay. And A Griffin? It's gotta be something big for a Griffin to come through! Saddleveil hadn't seen anything but ponies in, well, ever!"

Although Country had things racing through his mind, he was not worried. He was sure they all had good intentions...hopefully.

Now, all there was to do was wait, to see where all these ponies where headed.

[Neoniie]

Quantum Flux returned the country pony's hat tip with a dip of her own head. It was much more customary in Canterlot to greet an unfamiliar guest or visitor with a more formal manner. It was only with the closest of friends that one would shake hooves. Thus, the sapphire pony's enthusiastic greeting of Colton did strike her as quite odd at first. Of course, her mind caught up with her instincts fairly quickly and she realized that such formalities were likely exclusive to Canterlot.

Tesla gave an impatient sound to get the attention of his owner. She looked down at the brown mammal with confusion, unsure why he would be drawing her attention. With an expression that was as close to a roll of the eyes as a ferret could get, the pointed at the newly-introduced Country Smash with his entire paw. It was then that she realized that she had not yet returned the stallion's introduction. With surprise at the forgetfulness that had struck her as of late, the unicorn began to speak. "I am Quantum Flux. Well met, Country Smash."

The question posed to the two caused Flux to take pause. Though they had encountered no further meddling in their attempts to devise something from the book the unicorn obtained at the library, she was still apprehensive about sharing their reasons for travelling. She could sense that the stallion was likely merely curious, which did relieve some of the suspicion from her mind. "We have come to Saddleveil in search of the traditional cryptology of this region. A symbol that matched the style of Saddleveil was recently brought to my attention and we travelled here to find a possible clue to its meaning or current use."

Not wanting to trouble the pony with questions unless the opportunity was suggested by the stallion himself, Flux left her explanation there. As a secondary motive, she didn't want to leave Colton out of the explanation, as she wanted to be certain that he agreed with her openness about the purpose of their journey.

[CrossStitch]

Gladwin continued on by himself, a bit lost in his own thought. Holly wanted them to go to see his parents first, but he didn't even know where to begin. His eyes looked on, but they registered nothing, his body continued to pull him along though, heading toward the farm in front of them. He heard talking, but his brain refused to acknowledge it.

Would his aunt and uncle know where his parents were? Should they go straight to Talonpolis? He wore a stern gaze as the farm got closer.

Suddenly, his brain began to register something. It was a familiar voice, no it was familiar voices. "Out here...?" Gladwin whispered to himself. He unlatched himself rom the cart and took off at a full speed. "Could they really be out here!?" He picked his pace up. The farm came into view, and so did the ponies he heard talking. "C-...Colton!...Flux!" Gladwin called out as he noticed the two. It had been quite a while since he saw them last. He almost felt like tearing up, but that would have been completely uncool. Instead, he took off galloping again at full speed, running right into Colton and knocking him over, tackling him to the ground.

[knight]

BOWF BOWF BOWF!!

Holly wheezed as she tried to keep up with the excited animal, who had caught site of Gladwin again and was running back towards the griffon. Who....didn't have her cart. Holly slowed a bit as she approached Gladwin, looking about him, expecting it to be near. It was a good ways off--not a block, but a decent ways left behind the griffon. She frowned in annoyance and trotted to the cart, magicking the harness onto her own waist before huffing and heading towards the griffon, who appeared to have tackled somepony.

She inhaled a heated breath and huffed it out, glaring at the brown wings that faced her as she approached the farm thinking to herself in a huff, 'It'd better be one of the princesses fer him to leave mah cart!'

[Conor Colton]

Colton felt a tad apprehensive at Flux's open explanation as to the purpose of their journey, however Country struck him as a trust worth sort; although Colton couldn't read ponies thoughts Country seemed like an alright sort. He decided to continue Flux's explanation, "Yeah, it's a sorta 'pet project' we've been working on since we were in Canterlot not too long ago." The pegasus stated as he continued on with Country, "It's a pretty interesting story, I'll have to tell you when I get the chance." Colton stated with a friendly smile.

"But.....by some....turns of events..." Colton led into whilst giving Sparks a disapproving look, "We seem to be lost....and we can't find where we planned to lodge for tonight in Saddleveil..." Colton said, rather embarrassed. But Colton's last statement brought out a reaction in Sparks, the bird let off a scared 'eep' sound as Colton turned to him, "......Sparks? ...Is there something you wanna say?" Colton asked, or more so demanded.

Sparks sucked in his gut and explained. The bird made a few crude gestures to indicate one thing, that Colton and Flux had made reservations prior and had to redeem a document to secure entry to their temporary accommodation; and how the bird had lost said document.

".....You have got to be kid-" Colton was cut off as he heard a rather familiar voice calling out his name, "Wait.....Gladwi-" Colton was cut off as a large creature had tackled him. The pegasus looked up to see that it was in fact, his old friend Gladwin, "Gladwin!" Colton said as he jumped up and hugged the big guy around his neck before landing back down in his original place, "Wow buddy, it's great to see ya again!....But what are you doing here?!" Colton asked as he turned to Country, "Sorry Country, Gladwin here's an old friend of ours, just surprised to see him here." He stated with a smile plastered on his face. He walked back to Flux so Gladwin could introduce and re-introduce himself.

".....Wait.....Where's Holly?" Colton asked as he turned his head slightly, to see none other than Holly Dash, pulling a cart with a rather displeased look on her face, "There you are Holly! ...Uh...surprised to see us?" The pegasus said as he stood next to Flux, practically dumbfounded at the current events.

[Neoniie]

((EDIT: *Facehoof*, just after I post, I remember that it's Ashton's turn. So sorry. ))

Edited March 2, 2012 by Neoniie

[knight]

[[has anypony bothered to contact Ashton so they know it's their turn???]]