Here we go again! [Closed][Steel Fox+Dovashy]

[Dovahshy]

(sorry for my unresponsivness as of late....AP tests and State tests have come again.)

Mark Time reared his head at Pips idea. At first he thought that it wasn't a bad idea, a viable fall back option, should the plan fail. But, just the thought of the spear doing its deed quickly made Mark dissmis the idea.......and gag a little. Besides, there wasnt much to sharpen a pole with.

"Pip.......that's very inappropriate for a foal like you. It worries me. How do you come up with this stuff?" Then, the answer came to him. Sky Pirate Harle. Those books had a reputation of being a bit graphic. Mark winced after he said this to Pip. There was a tone of hypocrisy in his voice. While Pip was indeed a foal, speaking of such things, Mark himself was still a colt. Mark didn't like hypocrites.

Then, Mark heard Clawee. About how Limestone upsets the eels. The inner machinery of his mind clicked and whirred as he tracked the pebble down Into the freighter. He scrambled down to the ship, and looked around. Some boxes that had the word "fragile" on them caught his attention. His horn glowed, and the lids lifted. One was a box full of electrical parts. Wires, batteries, transistor and the like, most likely on the way to an inventor. Another was filled with jewlery. The last made Mark Time smile. There were little chunks of some statuettes inside. The paper inside said that they Were replicas of the discord statue, ordered by a collector. The paper identified the greenish material to be limestone.

"Pip! Clawee! I think I've found what we need!"

[Stainless Steel Fox]

(OOC: Am I the only one who ever made a baking soda and vinegar volcano as a kid? I thought the idea was common knowledge. Carbonate plus acid = carbon dioxide, whether it's limestone (Calcium carbonate) or baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Very well, assume Mark's discoveries were the content of the crates marked fragile.)

Clawee felt a fierce momentary agreement with with Pip, then felt a bit ill at the fact. Not the idea of killing itself, she ate fish, and occasionally hunted for herself, and a Quarray Eel, for all it's size, was no smarter than a fish. But while killing for food was one thing, she'd wanted to kill it for revenge, for taking her brother, and the realisation brought an acid taste to her gorge.

If there was no other way, she'd take point, carry the spear into position and act as bait, she'd have to, as she was the only flyer. She'd hope she could splint her wing to support her for long enough to succeed, but if they could find another way, she'd take it.

"Pip! Clawee! I think I've found what we need!"

Clawee dashed over and looked in the box at the green dyed stone. She'd picked up odds and ends from her brother... the worry stabbed her for a moment... and so knew a bit about sculpture. Though he worked in cloud, he'd studied regular statuary for inspiration, and being a voracious reader, she'd looked through some of his books. She had wondered why so many of them were fillies with unshorn fetlocks...

This had to have been crushed and dyed, then molded into shape. That meant it could be broken up again. but the one crate wouldn't render that much, to affect something the size of the Quarray eel they'd need a lot. She'd just have to hope it would be enough. But how to deliver it? As she wondered, her gaze rose up to the frame of the wrecked freighter, and alighted on the intact, if partialy deflated, secondary lift cells.

"If we can crush it up, that may work. And if those cylinders have any lift-gas left in them, we can use one of those balloons to fly a bag with the stuff in in front of the cave. We could even tow it on a rope like a kite."

[Ashton]

((Edit: Rewritten the first paragraph, I honestly had no idea what the plan really was untill I went back and really studdied the previous posts... very subtle hints, Fox...))

Pip walked over and gently touched the statue, he was familiar with the mythos surrounding Discord... well familiar wasn't the word, he had heard of them and vaguely knew what had happened in the past and he had seen the statue dedicated to discord in canterlot a few times, it was certainly a strange statue to want a copy of... but he put all this out of his mind, myths and old mare's tales were the last thing he needed to be thinking about rescuing Cloud! ...provided he was still alive... Pip felt a lump form in his throat, Mark and Clawee were certain that the pegasus was alive, Pip wasnt so certain, he'd read far too many times where this happened and all that was ever found were bones and saddlebags... he hoped that he wouldn't need to console clawee over the death of her brother/mate...

"Like you said, Claw, we need to grind this stuff up" he said, his attatude hardening as he drew on what he had learned from his heroine Harle "I'll look around at the other wrecks, maybe there was a grinding stone on one of the ships" he said as he headed off...

As he snooped he found a large dagger, which would work as a short-sword for Pip. He was a little uncomfortable with it, having read enough to know it was certainly not a toy, but at the same time, this situation wasn't a game either, so he took it and afixed it under his neckerchief to hide it (yes I know that doesn't make 100% sence, but Pip's Neckerchief is his hammerspace portal) nearby he found a large hoof-powered whetstone used for sharpening the blades, that might work for grinding down the limestone. He hurried back to tell Clawee and Mark about what he found...

[Dovahshy]

Mark Time sat down and pondered. He didn't ponder ways to further himself musically, or philosophy, but what he did think about was the configuration of the rescue ship. They needed a vessel that could get the limestone to the eel, without or at least, minimal, damage to themselves. He thought that they might be able to fashion a slingshot, but, that probably wouldn't have enough force, and there most likely was no elastic material around. He liked the idea of fastening the limestone to a long pole, and having the eel chomp on it. Perhaps, if they got close enough, Mark could levitate it. He didn't like that notion, they could get seriously hurt. Then, Mark had heard Clawee say that the lifting cells be used to fly the stuff over, and even could be towed. He liked that idea the best. There was also the issue of the gaining the eel's attention. He remembered seeing the bags of flour in the ship. There was once a time, when Mark was younger, he and some friends had snuck a bag of flour out of his mothers kitchen. They we're intending to bake something, but ended up playing with it. He remembered that one of the ponies got covered in it, and wherever she went, a cloud of white followed. As they walked home, everypony, near and far, had an eye on her. "Maybe we can use that...attach it to the ground up stone...get its attention off of us...." he mumbled. As he thought, he was levitating a stick and drawing diagrams of his ideas in the ground.

He looked up from his seat to find Pip, rushing toward him.

"What's the hurry, Pip?"

After Pip told him what he had found, he looked toward the boxes.

"Great job Pip! Show me where it is, and we can get to grinding."

[Stainless Steel Fox]

Clawee came over to pick a bag of flour, and stopped. "Whoa! Never mind that! Look what I found!"

She came back over in a three legged lope with a barrel on her shoulder held by her free fore-leg. She put down the barrel near to them and said, "Baking soda, I guess this was a delivery for a bakery, what with the flour and stuff lying around. But you know what this means?"

[Ashton]

Pip cocked his head at the griffen "All we need is a cow and we can bake a cake?" he asked, then grinned, making it clear it was a joke "It means that we have a plan and we're going to recover cloud!" though pip mentally added 'or atleast whats left of him' he turned back to the hold and sighed "I dont like this, but I suggest you two take some of the weapons too" he said, lifting his bandana to show his short-sword, then letting it fall back down "we dont know what we're going to face, it's best to be prepared" he took on a suprisingly authorative tone "But I dont want to see either of you swinging them around like a toy, these are deadly-serious" he explained, making it clear that his books had left a very strong impression on him about the danger of live steel "Now, lets get all this stuff mixed together" he said with a bit of a smile, happy to see the plan comming together.

[Dovahshy]

Mark Time's head was swimming with visions of cake at the mention of the bakery products, but went down at the mention of weapons, attentive and heeding to Pips warning, and took a cautious few steps back when Pip displayed his weapon.

"Good idea Pip. Nice work finding that." He wondered what kind of weapons he may use. Something long, like a spear he hoped. He was good at handling lengthly things, like his trombone.

He looked over at Clawee, holding the baking soda barrel. He smiled. He knew what she intended it to be for. Mark left, looking for planks of wood to make a platform and to get the lifting apparatuses they needed.

(Sorry for the short post, my iPod is being erratic. Also, has canterlot been down for either of you?)

[Ashton]

((it was down most of the latter part of yesterday... I'm estimating around 3 or so your time untill probably like 6 am maybe? (was down youghtly from 7pm untill 9am EST))

[Stainless Steel Fox]

Clawee grinned fiercely, and held up a clawed fore-foot. "I've got all the weapons I need right here... close to hoof, so to speak..."

Then she looked puzzled, "Close to paw?... claw? and there's my beak which is pretty darned lethal as well... Nevertheless, if we mix in this baking soda with the powdered limestone, we should have a mix that'll give that monster a terrible tummyache!"

She grabbed a big piece of canvas and laid it out. "Pip, I'm the strongest, so I should get to grinding. I think Mark has gone to fetch a balloon, which makes sense, as his telekinesis will let him reach the hard to get to fastenings. Since you're the expert on airships, you'll probably need to be there to tell him how to do it without damaging it."

[Dovahshy]

Mark Time had found the balloons he needed and managed to scrounge up a few bottles of lifing gas. He set them down near the wreck of the fortune and glory. Now he was going to find some wood and some rope to tie the balloon down with. He looked up into the sky. The sun was getting lower, but they still had a fair bit of sunlight left. Mark walked over to to the grindstone where Pip and Clawee were grinding up the statues. He surveyed the broken ship, and tested some of the more intact peices of hull. He found them suitable, as there were still some strength left in them. He levitated them up and brought them over to his work area, where he was going to assemble the vessel. Before he started, he needed Pip, and his areonautical knowledge. He went back to the two grinders, and mulled over his weapon choice. He chose a spear like instrument. Turning to pip, he asked, "Hey, when you're finished, can you come and help me with the rescue vessel?

[Ashton]

Pip had been working with Clawee on the 'treat' for the eel when he heard mark and smiled "Sure, Clawee, can you handle this for a bit?" he asked with a smile, feeling happy that he was of more use than he feared he would be. Maybe this would all work out, maybe for once celestia was going to smile on them and the 'story' would have a 'happy ending' he certainly was feeling the other two's good nature rubbing off on his now, while he still maintained healthy doubts (after all if worst came to worst, one of them had to be prepared to keep going in case the others just lost their minds and went catatonic or worse) he was starting to think they had a chance!

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Locking at OPs request.