It all started in a little Café in Stalliongrad ... [OPEN]

[sevofthesands]

Windy Daze looked at the grey pony who had spoke a moment ago to him to be more careful there was something about the mysterious grey pony that unsettled the free spirit. he just nodded deciding to keep his thoughts to himself and took the mug of cider which the waitress had delivered to him, as he took a big drink he felt the himself rejuvenate slowly but surely to his usual self. also seeing that if someone did not do something the newspony over there was going to talk himself into a corner. he casually drifted over to the pony and said

"Calm yourself it does you no good to get yourself into a fluster" seeing that he had the pony attention decided to introduce himself "my name is Windy Daze. what your name?" he asked the pony who had turned his attention back to photo that had fallen out of his bag.

[Twimsy]

Persnickety smiled as Klutz elaborated on her more musically-inclined profession. "Well you must at least be a little good, if you're teaching the newer generations the joys and value of music." To her, it was an important job, all the same. "It seems that all of the musicians have come out, today. This is rather intriguing - I don't usually see so many around the Cider Cellar."

The conversations seemed to wind on for quite some time, after that, and of course the deeper conversation between she and Newsworthy didn't get any less deep. He must've said something right, though, for when he spoke about the inspiration in his own calling, the gloominess in her expression seemed to dissipate, if only a little bit. Such conviction. Such passion for the things he loves to do. "Your muse is kind to you. It's...refreshing to see. Mine seems to be a bit more spontaneous and fickle, only popping about when it sees just the right moment to do so." It definitely lived up to her namesake. "But, all of that...that is something that you seem like you deeply enjoy doing. It's very nice to see..." She could feel her cheeks burn with the slight prickle of heat, for one reason or another, and she cleared her throat. That had been from what she'd said, right? Confounded voices all about in the tavern... "Actually, if you'll believe such a thing, it feels somewhat inspiring to me, in turn."

Between that giant mess of thoughts in her head and the sudden shrieking of another new patron, pestering the one across the room, the headache medicine actually was starting to sound like a good idea. "It's not too much of a problem, really. I wouldn't want to be even more a bother--" Humbleness was cut short at the picture that fell to the table. She wouldn't have bothered being nosey about such a thing, but it did fall quite close to her, and she did recognize at least one of the two ponies as the one sitting next to her at the table. She held it up, inspected it briefly once more, then held it out to him to give it back, "A dear friend of yours, Sir Newsworthy? She's quite lovely--" Wait. Persnickety senses tingling. She thought she'd just heard somepony call her name. Oh...Celestia. Were the voices because she didn't get all that much sleep the previous night? Thrice-accursed pirates...oh. No. Perhaps it was the mare who was walking towards them...but, she didn't look familiar at all.

Holy haystacks, why am I so popular, today? This is...uncomfortable.

[NeilWacaster]

After hearing Persnickety give him such a nice compliment about his work, he smiled broadly. Noticing her blush slightly, his heart leaped. I actually said something right for a change. Now don't go and buck this up. "I'm glad to hear that you find my ramblings inspiring. Yes, I do deeply enjoy my work. But even more than that, I gain satisfaction from the feeling that I am helping ponies be more wise to the world and scientifically literate. Whenever I receive a letter saying that my book helped a pony pass her Science 101 exam, all the months of toil are fully repaid." He looked thoughtful. "I would do this work even if I never was paid anything. The fact that I can make a living doing it makes it all the sweeter."

Still with his head buried in the large briefcase, he heard somepony trying to introduce himself, and another walking towards the table, chattering all the while. Good grief. Are all the ponies in Stalliongrad this nosey? If only Persnickety and I could just talk privately.

Trying to sound calm, he glanced up and replied curtly, "Newsworthy. But my friends call me Newsy."

As he turned back to his briefcase, he noticed with horror that the photo of himself and Rosewood had fallen to the table. And of all the dastardly twists of fate, it happened to land right in front of Persnickety. His eyes widened, the pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

Oh no. Oh no, nonononono....

Her mouth was moving, but he could barely understand her past the throbbing of his head, his wing, and the whirlwind of emotions. In an instant, all the pain of his relationship with Rosewood came flooding back. He briefly considered lying, saying that she was his sister, or that she had died, but knew that Persnickety was too clever a pony to fall for such a cheap trick. Besides, he was trying to earn her trust, and the best way to gain trust is truth.

Trembling, he reached out a hoof to take back the picture she was holding out to him.

"A dear friend. Why yes, she was. We dated," he coughed, stifling a sob. "Ahem, we dated during university. She was ... the best thing that ever happened to me. It sounds cliché, but it's true. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and I thought she felt the same way. We had been discussing marriage for months, and I thought everything was fine. Now I know I should have seen the signs, but love blinded me. I bought the most beautiful engagement ring in Canterlot for her. But then, on the night I was going to propose ... we ..."

He couldn't hold back the sorrow any longer. The tears began to flow, and he turned away, utterly ashamed.

[QDiscord]

*smirks at the rather large gathering, his gaze looks over to the one approaching the area he was in next to the two chatty ponys. He did frown however as his little suggestion was bounced. So he went back to toying around with the brown pony. It was just to perfect, she was tired and would think it was her exhaustion. As she thought the word haystack an image of a haystack would be there on her table, she blinked at it was gone. Only her able to see it. Then he looked over to klutz as a smile formed on his face, the potential for something strange strong in that one. But then his presence and the situation seemed to cause the blue one to break down. The tears falling bringing a wide smile to his face as he enjoyed his drink." Delicious...." Though he did try and send a little suggestion about a lie never hurt anyone. But it came to late, ahwell. This turned out to be amusing enough.~ Your such a cry baby. What are you... twelve?. ~the blue pony would find himself thinking, as if his own mind was making fun of him.

[MarchingHammers]

Syd noticed the very odd pony giving him a short glance. Syd squinted at him with a stern look on his face. Syd noticed Newsworthy about to break down in front of Persnickety. Syd would not let this plan fail, it was going so well for newsworthy up to now. Something was going horribly wrong, as the aura of unease and despair grew slightly stronger around him as things began to go wrong for Newsworthy. A theory formed in his head, that maybe that odd looking pony was the cause of the aura and maybe the reason that things were going haywire for his friends. Syd excused himself from the table and went over to the table with the white pegasus at it, in order to see if the aura got stronger as he got closer to the odd looking pony, who strangely had similar clothes to him. Syd had not noticed it at first but after a moment of being near him, he realized this pony was Deep Bass, a famous musician.

"Deepbass, how has your career been. name's Syd by the way. So what are you doing here in Stalliongrad? Thought you had settled down a long time ago with that mare Vinyl Scratch. That was one hell of a concert you put on that night." Syd said to the depressed stallion. Syd felt the aura growing stronger, and his mind was being assualted by bad thoughts and negative feelings.

[sevofthesands]

Windy could tell from the tone that the calm in Newsworthys voice was faked but decided it would only make things worse to stay and bother the pony anymore, he could interpret the situation quite well. it made Wind decide to leave the poor stallion be and possibly turn that dizzy looking mare that was coming up to them away

"well i can see your busy i will let you be, i just wanted to apologize for my mishap that was rude of me" after he said that he turned to leave as he heard the pony have what was the start of a breakdown due to a former marefriend. the winds of change can be cruel he thought t himself as he passed and stopped the mare that was walking up to the table just then

"i think we should leave then alone for now, he's a little busy at the moment" The pegasus said with a small wink hoping she took the hint

[QDiscord]

*Would grin even more as he felt himself settling root even more. His gaze shifting over to syd for a moment, the moment syd decided to look at him. The aura did indeed grow ever so subtly stronger the nearer one got closer to the black coated pony with pale furr.~ Curiosity, it just might bite you....~would emit into his head like a faint whisper. And as the solid snake pony thought about winds of change an image of a tornado running amok downtown of un heard of size. The thought only lasting breifly, a side affect of his chaotic presence perhaps. He however remained outwardly psychically silent for the meanwhile. It wasent time to say anything yet.

[Twimsy]

Oh, for pete moss's sake, now she was seeing things. Maybe that lack of sleep was getting to her more than she'd formerly thought. She nudged her glasses up for a moment to rub at her eyes once more, though ears paid attention as Newsworthy explained his relationship with the unicorn in the picture. Cliche though it may have been, it was the perfect love story, with an ironically tragic ending. And-...oh. Oh, good. Now he was crying. Persnickety, look what you did. She just sat there for a moment, blinking and glancing around at the other patrons.

"...E-Erm...-- how about a bit of fresh air? I know that I could use some. Let's let the other patrons converse for the time being, we can come back in after a few moments, mm?" She'd already gotten up, muttering a, "Please, do excuse us. We won't be long." to any that may have been a part of their steadily growing conversation circle. With that, she all but began nudging the light blue stallion along with her (if he'd let her do so, of course), and out into the crisp afternoon air. A few minutes away from the growing crowd would probably do the both of their frazzled little minds some good.

[CrimsonNova]

Klutz picked herself up from where she had fallen into the chair, and looked around at the small, yet crammed café. She suddenly saw Syd make her way over to the table she had fallen under. "Hey Syd, whatcha doin'? Do you know this pony? And why does it feel so creepy over here. HEY! Why is Newsworthy crying? Is he okay? Did he hurt himself? Is it his wing? Did Persnickety upset him? Was it that meaniepants over there?" She pointed to the mystery pony over at the next table.

Klutz, being Klutz, started to draw attention to herself, and the odd-looking pony at the table nearby.

"HEY, EVERYPONY, does anypony know that pony? Woah that's a lot of ponies in one sentence." Klutz giggled, completely oblivious to the disorder that was the café atmosphere. She looked up as she saw Persnickety and Newsworthy leaving. "Aww, are they leaving? Is News okay? Is he going to hospital? Is he going for a walk? Is he -" Klutz shut her mouth as she noticed everypony staring at her. "Umm.. Sorry, hehe."

[NeilWacaster]

There were a million reasons why he couldn't do this. He just wanted to curl up in his warm bed back in Ponyville and cry himself to sleep, as had happened now and again since that tragic day. It had never affected him so strongly in public before, though, and that made him feel all the worse.

Persnickety seemed genuinely concerned, if the look in her kind, orange eyes was any indication. She was leading him, gently, outside the small shop. He followed, apprehensive, and afraid that he would just make the situation worse.

It had been a long while since he had talked about this with anyone, and he felt all of the pent up years of anger, frustration, pain, but most of all, sorrow, come welling up all at once. His breath came in short gasps, as he tried to control his sobs.

It just so happened that there was a small park nearby, with a gorgeous display of spring flowers, some wooden benches arranged artistically, and majestic spreading trees to provide shade from the pleasant afternoon sun. It looked empty.

He sat down on one of the benches, his head in his hooves. The tears were coming a little slower now, and for some reason leaving the café served to clear his mind and help him step away from the negative emotions. It still hurt, more even than his wing injury (which the short walk had badly aggravated), but at least the pain was bearable now. After a few moments, he felt strong enough to raise his teary eyes to look at Persnickety.

[DeepBass]

[[Omg someone here read my fic. xD]]

Bass looked at this "Syd" pony a bit confused. What in Equestria was he talking about. Though Vinyl Scratch was a cute mare, Bass had never even met her, yet here was some strange pony talking about him having settled down with her. And what concert was he talking about?

"Um… hi. Are you sure you're talking to the right stallion? I've never even met Vinyl Scratch. I'm in Stalliongrad because I've got a small gig at a local club tonight... And how do you know my name?"

Midsy pranced back to the counter, and sat back in her chair.

"Sorry, Bass. She left."

[NeilWacaster]

The barista sauntered up to the three ponies at the counter.

"Shoo, I got more bi'ness today than all o' last week! Can I get you boys anythin' else? Maybe one o' my dee-licious apple fritters?"

She leaned across the counter, whispering, "An' what the hay is going on? If that Persnickety is a'causin' all this trouble, I swear ..."

She slammed a hoof down in disgust.

[Twimsy]

The pegasus let out a grand sigh of relief as the hustle and bustle of the Cider Cellar died down, the farther they walked away from it. Occasionally she glanced at her fretting acquaintance, but as far as being vocal went, the mare said nothing. She didn't really know what to say. She wasn't particularly good at cheering people up, but at least getting away from the stress of a crowded social situation was something she knew could help to calm one down. One of her many antisocial tricks.

The park itself was quite an odd, if not pleasant sight amidst the otherwise steam and smoke-billowing city. She sat beside Newsworthy on the bench, brow knitting when he looked up at her with those glassy eyes. She'd just met him, but he was doing a good job of making her feel guilty.

"You don't have to speak on such a sensitive matter any further, if you do not wish to," she said, "I...cannot say that everything will be alright, because I do not know the gravity of the matter, and...I know that it's not, erm...a pleasant memory. That much I am certain of. The world can be a cruel and unfair place, at times." Her hoof hovered mid-air before it finally came to rest on his shoulder, giving it a ginger pat. "Some wounds take a very long time to heal...but they can heal. They do." Oh, yes. She was turning into a veritable pep-talker, this one.

[sevofthesands]

As images of pony's in rubber suits being carried off by a twister danced in his head he wondering what the hey was going on in his head. deciding to ignore mentioning it, Windy Daze suddenly noticed the Air currents in the room seemed to be shifting like somepony else was at the controls it seemed what ever was making the air currents shift in such a way all seemed to lead back to the strange pony swilling vodka in the back. seeing the Newsworthy leave with the mare he hoped that he would be ok as relationship things like this tend to make pony bitter and ridgid and he hated to see ponys Rigid it made things hard for the winds of change to work in their lives.

deciding to sit at the bar and finish his cider there he sat down next to a sullen white pegasus who was looking sullen and talking to a black stallion and said

"hello"

[QDiscord]

*Looks around with shifty eyes unseen under his round glasses. Mischief made him smile, missery made him smile, and it showed. He looked over hearing the mention of apple pie fritters." That sounds... tasty... "he comments looking over to the barista, suggesting to her with his aura that perhaps persnickity was causing the ruckus." Can i have... Five apple fritters please? "~its all your fault. Look at them all misrable and sad cause you dident sit next to them and cheer them. Fool~the thought went to windy daze as the air shifted about the room just a bit.

[QDiscord]

She'd just met him, but he was doing a good job of making her feel guilty

*the feeling amplifies*

[NeilWacaster]

The barista was not afraid of anything, but even so, hearing this strange pony's voice again gave her the shivers. Nevertheless, he had tipped her well with his first order, and so she wasn't about to let her discomfort show. She whisked five fritters out from the dessert case, arranged them expertly on a large platter, and set them before him with a flourish. "Enjoy." she said, faking a smile.

[NeilWacaster]

Her touch on his shoulder. It was akin to the feeling of your first sip of a cup of hot cider after coming in on a snowy day. It made his entire body feel warmer, lighter.

He sniffed, the last of the sobs gone, although his breaths were still ragged.

"It does still hurt. A lot. And I'm afraid that if I talk about it, others will reject me for what I did. What really scares me though," he said, realizing he was about to bare his soul, "is that I don't know whether I will ever be able to love again."

He looked down at the ground, shutting his eyes up tight. A single, large teardrop fell.

[CrimsonNova]

Klutz flew around the room, still completely oblivious to the surroundings. She was humming loudly as she zoomed around, giving the impression that a rather large bee had flown into the room.

"Hey, you know what'd liven this place up? Karaoke!" She giggled, hovering over the counter. She got the impression that everypony was looking at her, but she didn't care.

[NeilWacaster]

The barista was outraged at this pegasus' antics. She had seen how clumsy the mare was, and just knew that any second one of her antique furnishings would be broken irreparably.

"YOUNGIN! Either keep still or git out!"

[CrimsonNova]

Klutz's ears drooped and she lowered to the floor slowly. "Um, okay. Sorry everypony." She sat down on a chair and kept quiet, fiddling with her trademark gold hoof-band sadly.

[MarchingHammers]

((Read your fic and loved it, although I now feel like an idiot for posting something that did not happen yet ))

Syd had no clue where what he had just said had come from. He sure wished he knew. His name was known however, as Syd had seen one of his cafe gigs prior."My name is Sydphony, although you can call me Syd. Nice to meet you finally. I have seen a few of your gigs, as I like to see where the up and coming musicians are, and what they are doing. You certainly caught my eye, and you have a lot of talent." Syd was curious why he was drowning his sorrows in cider however, and asked the pony why he was so downtrodden.

Whispers slowly seeped into his head, and he was disturbed by them, hoping that they would leave his head. Syd spun his head in anger toward the strange pony, who was buying some apple fritters. He said something unintellegable under his breath, which sounded like angry grumbles. Noticing how Klutz was was being a nuisance to the barista, he grabbed her with a dark red magic aura and brought her down to the ground, giving her a look that showed discontent.

[QDiscord]

*he grins looking to her as eh slowly reaches for one of the fritters. His white gloved paw of which a strange alchemical looking emblem was on it, dropped some more coin before going to the side for the treat. He would then slowly place it to his mouth as he chewed on it savoring the taste. Mmmmm failed pony He noticed how fake the smile was, very little escaped his hidden eyes." Oh, and can i get a chocolate milk? These fritters are making Terroribly thirsty.... "he gives a dark chuckle as looks to the barrista with a grin.~ Awww cheer up klutz, go have some fun. You know how much being a Bee is. Landing face first into a mug of cider. Delicious cider.~the whispers would fill her mind.

[CrimsonNova]

Klutz jumped, startled as the whispers filled her mind. "Hey, who said that?" When her question was responded by blank looks, she sighed in frustration. It seemed her anger at herself was blocking out the voice in her head. Why was everypony being so rough with her today? Klutz could never handle a scolding.

"I'm going for a walk," she huffed, taking one last glance back at the few ponies inside the café. She trotted out into the fresh air, and sighed as her pet dove, Sable fluttered down to her the minute she stepped outside. "Am I really that annoying, Sable? It just seemed so fun in there! It was making me super hyper and I ..." she trailed off, huffing again. She grinned at the bird and flapped her own wings. "Hey, who needs those ponies? Lets play!" She flew off with the bird, zooming around the bare skies of Stalliongrad, giggling and singing a few notes every now and then.

(Note: This is not Klutz's exit from the RP - although it kinda does sound like it! )

[NeilWacaster]

The barista was balancing four orders in her head. "Alright, a chocolate milk, two peach cobblers a la mode, a cider malt with bendy straw..."

Suddenly, the elderly gentlecolt who had been quietly sitting and reading the newspaper this entire time spoke up. "I've got a sudden hankering for a caramel macchiato, two shots, extra whipped cream, with raspberry. And hurry it up, I haven't got all day."

Oh dear Celestia... She thought to herself. She normally had no trouble remembering orders, but today she was having a hay of a time focusing.

She bustled behind the counter, preparing the orders a little too hastily. All too soon, she emerged with a heaping tray of food and drinks.

"Here ya are," she said to the two gossips, "Two raspberry cobblers, hold the ice cream." Before they could answer, she was already across the room. "Yer caramel malt, extra whipped" she said, spilling a little of the overfilled drink as she set it down. She rushed back to the gentlecolt. "An' here's your chocolate frappuccino, hold the whipped, extra cherry." He began to bellow, but she had whirled over to the grey stallion with the large black hat. "An' yer cider flavored milk, sir. Though why anypony would want cider flavor milk beats me ..."

Angry shouts came at her from all directions. "I ordered a CIDER MALT, you dolt!" "What an outrage! I specifically told you PEACH cobbler, WITH ice cream!" "Young lady, is this any way to treat your elder? I ordered a macchiato!"

She stood, bewildered. Could she have mixed up the orders that badly? She heard a sinister snicker from the grey stallion's table.