[Home, Everfree Forest] Are We Having Fun Yet? [OPEN]

[Saint Cynicism]

Rare was the pony who deliberately chose to explore the Everfree Forest, but rarer still were the ones who willingly chose to live in such a place. Those who did were usually one of two things: resourceful, or not quite sane. Tesla Coil was both (though would only admit to the former, naturally). Sure, being surrounded on all sides by a forest full of fearsome monsters and pony eating manticores was less than ideal, but it had a way of keeping nosy visitors to a minimum. Including those accursed pegasus ponies, always acting like they were so much better than the simple earth ponies because they could make the weather. Well, one day Tesla Coil would show them! He'd show everypony! He would learn to create the weather himself, without any help from the pegasus ponies!

In fact, it was most recent attempt to do just that which had led to an earth shattering KABOOM echoing throughout the forest, sending countless birds skyward and a mild tremor through the ground. And from a distance, a plume of smoke was wafting skyward, pinpointing the exact location of his laboratory. Tesla meanwhile, was outside his lab with his entire face obscured by soot. The majority of his previously pristine lab coat was also filthy, and bits of soot and stone debris fell off him with every cough as he tried to clear his lungs. All the while he mentally cursed the accursed storm clouds he'd been trying to make, and their finicky nature. Those accursed pegasus ponies had have some trick to keep them from violently exploding...likely they were just making them from actual clouds, rather than trying to create them from ordinary water gathered from the forest. Tesla Coil had done the latter, and the result was a large, gaping hole in the second floor of his laboratory, and smoke pouring out of every open window (including those on the second floor that had been broken by the explosion). He'd at least seen the warning signs and made a dash for the exit, even if he hadn't quite made it in time to avoid the resulting smoke and soot that was now everywhere thanks to the chimney for the first floor fireplace being blasted open.

Once he was [mostly] through coughing, Tesla Coil stumbled about the yard outside his lab, blindly trying to find his way to the faucet outside and fill a bucket of water. After groping about with his hooves for a few moments, he finally found one, and minutes later was dunking his entire head inside a bucket of water in an attempt to clean off the black dust that covered his goggles and face. With any luck, nopony would find him there, head submerged in a large bucket of water and generally just looking foolish. This was no way for a pony of science to be seen after all, and especially not Tesla Coil. Nearly blowing himself up was certainly not one of his prouder moments. Sometimes, the whole 'science' thing just didn't seem as fun as it should have been...

[Tempest Rime]

((IGNORE ME))

[Tempest Rime]

Lola sighed and tapped her claws on a branch for a moment, considering her next step. She'd gotten separated from her balloon in a windstorm, and now she was stuck in the Everfree forest on her own. While this was theoretically very exciting, she was also without any of her instruments with which to document the adventure.

She was considering her options when the sound of an explosion shattered the silence. Startled, she nearly tumbled off the branch, quickly latching onto it with her claws. She took to the air and quickly spotted the smoke. While a potential forest fire was not the most ideal thing to be flying into, it was still the only point of reference she'd seen, so she set off towards it, her weaponized parasol at the ready, in case it turned out to be a bandersnatch or somesuch.

She didn't spot the building until she was almost on top of it, it's position would have been well concealed by the canopy had it not been for the smoke. Lola circled around until she spotted the expectorating earth pony, somewhat surprised to see as frail a creature as a pony in the Everfree. She was actually a bit disappointed that it was not some manner of exotic beast, but it was also something of a relief, as she was certain he would at least be able to direct her towards civilization.

She hastily pulled out her hand mirror and checked her appearance before swooping down towards the pony. "Excuse me, good sir, but I couldn't help but notice the explosion. Are you..." She frowned at the layer of soot that was getting everywhere. "Are you uninjured?" She decided not to broach the subject of her missing companions until she could make a judgement on the trustworthiness of this strange pony.

[RCTwilightSparkle]

Sprocket picked himself up and tried to shake some of the soot and dust off of his wings.'Great....' he thought sarcastically as he started looking around for Tesla who was hopefully in one piece. Being smaller than a pony was he always got thrown further than Tesla which meant he had to go hunting him down after the lab exploded.

"TESLA! TESLA! you crazy pony" he quietly mumbled the last bit of that statement and kept yelling Tesla's name as he wandered trying to get his bearings. Luckily the Laboratory still had smoke pouring out of it so it wasn't terribly hard to find once he was finally oriented.

When Sprocket got back to what was left of the lab he started talking before he could actually see Tesla "Hey boss, great job with those clouds..." he trailed off when he noticed there was a griffin next to Tesla. How weird, griffins don't usually come around here, "What's a griffin doing all the way out here?" Sprocket said very bluntly.

[Saint Cynicism]

((Hurrah, break in school assignments, just enough time to post!))

Tesla may have had the majority of his head dunked underwater, but his ears were still exposed. They raised up at the questions posed by some unknown visitor, someone whose identity Tesla could not quite determine from his present head-in-bucket-vantage point. He finally yanked his head out and gasped, taking in a nice lungful of fresh, smoke-free air, before turning to deal with his...guest. He'd heard her fly down, so he was expecting a pegasus to yell at, but was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a griffon instead. This was unexpected, not that he'd ever say as much. At least, he thought it was a griffon; it could have easily been a hippogriff, some black soot was still clinging to the lenses of his blast goggles, making Lola's lower half a bit dark and fuzzy.

"Excuse me, good sir, but I couldn't help but notice the explosion. Are you...Are you uninjured?"

"Explosion? Oh, no need to worry, just a minor setback. Just some finicky clouds, very...temperamental, those clouds," Tesla explained, waving one hoof dismissively before noticing the sleeve was smoldering. He casually (at least, in his own mind) dunked his hoof in the bucket to put it out before it turned into a full blown fire, then attempted to kick the bucket out of sight without being noticed with his hind leg. "Injured? No, everything's quite fine. Perfectly unharmed! As I said, this was just a minor...incident," Tesla really couldn't bring himself to say 'accident,' pride wouldnt' allow it. Of course, Sprocket's impeccably bad timing made it even harder to sell the whole 'explosion' thing as just a minor detail. Accursed dragon, always complaining about the silliest things...explosions, special effects, Tesla's flair for the dramatic. Some dragons had no taste at all!

"Oh, there you are," Tesla commented, rather dryly at that, with the disapproval of Sprocket's horrible timing and shouting fairly evident in his tone of voice. "Haven't the foggiest idea. But! She looks like she could use a tour!"

...of the lab that was still partly on fire, right. That was going to happen. No, really, Tesla was practically beaming, sporting a wide, mostly soot-free smile at the prospect of showing off the still smoldering and smoking lab to this total stranger who'd flown in from pony-knows-where. At least with his obviously misplaced priorities, it probably wouldn't be too hard for Lola to figure out just how the explosion had come to occur in the first place...

[Tempest Rime]

"Temperamental... clouds?" Lola was taken aback momentarily. "I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean that the clouds themselves blew up your uh..." She glanced through the hole in the lab, too try to see just what kind of a place it was. "Oooh, a laboratory? How curious, I've not seen much pony technology before. Were you making clouds? I've heard that pegasus ponies have turned weather manipulation into quite the burgeoning industry."

She ignored his attempts to downplay the accident. She'd worked with a lot of scientists before, and his attitude was far from off-putting. The best advances in science always came from those who were willing to take risks, anyway. The small dragon, however, was a much greater source of interest. "Oh my, are you... a dragon? How adorable! I had no idea dragons looked so cute when they were little."

"Ah, but I've forgotten my manners, I appologize, I am Lola Silverbeak, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And to answer your question, little dragon, I am traveling east, to Ponyville, and eventually to Canterlot. And who might you gentlemen be?"

[RCTwilightSparkle]

"A tour? of what's left of the laboratory which is still on fire? oh that's just a WONDERFUL idea!" Sprocket said in an overly cheery tone that was dripping in sarcasm, but it was stuff like this that made him love that crazy pony. Even with half of his lab spread out all over the surrounding area he was still excited to show off what was left in one piece and covered in ash. Looking around Sprocket stamped out a few little fires, and just general tried to assess the disaster he'd be cleaning up soon. Overall it looked like a pretty typical Tesla disaster, they might have even lost a little less of the laboratory than they usually did.

Adorable? Cute? ugh... "Uh, yeah, I'm a dragon" he said dryly to Lola making sure to leave out the baby part, Sprocket wasn't a huge fan of being called a baby. Little dragon? come on, every time this griffin talked Sprocket was getting more tired of her. "I'm actually big for my age and besides eventually I'll be big enough to eat you if I felt like it, I wouldn't but I'm just saying... you're not THAT big either. I'm Sprocket." he was clearly getting grumpy, it was hard to tell if it was just Lola's attitude or the explosion or a mix of the two that was getting on his nerves, both would be a smart guess.

[Saint Cynicism]

"Of course. Storm clouds are finicky things to make," Tesla replied, as if it were common knowledge. In reality he didn't even know if he was doing it properly, but he wasn't about to say so. All he knew was that running a strong electrical current through an ordinary cloud in an attempt to make a storm cloud evidently wasn't the way to go unless he was in the mood to blow something up again. Of course, Tesla blew up at the mention of the pegasus ponies and that accursed weather factory...figuratively speaking, of course.

"It's not an industry, it's a monopoly! Keeping all that knowledge for themselves, feeding their own egos and forcing everypony else to rely on them! Nothing but stuck-up, arrogant, stubborn old mules!"

Lola had, evidently, struck a bit of a nerve. As if the shouting wasn't enough of an indication, Tesla's angry stomping of his hooves should have clued her in. His hatred of pegasus ponies was at least well known to Sprocket, who probably wouldn't find the display terribly surprising. It typically happened in some form or another at least once a week, after all. He too received an angry glare from behind the goggles though, as a result of his suggesting that there not be an incredible amazing tour of the laboratory...

"Ah, but I've forgotten my manners, I appologize, I am Lola Silverbeak, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And to answer your question, little dragon, I am traveling east, to Ponyville, and eventually to Canterlot. And who might you gentlemen be?"

"I am Tesla Coil, Everfree Forest's resident pony of science." Tesla replied, partly boasting, but also entirely uncertain of whether or not he actually was the only science pony in the forest. "Sprocket here is my lab assistant. I don't know where my other one has gotten off too..."

[Tempest Rime]

"Hmmm, not the most well-mannered assistant is he?" Lola muttered of Sprocket. "Still, I suppose the advancement of science takes all sorts. So you say you're attempting to manufacture clouds, but what exactly are you planning to do with them after that? They'll just float around on their own without someone or something to move them, won't they?"

She made a point not to comment on his rant on the pegasus 'monopoly' or whatever. She didn't know much of pony politics, but to her mind, monopoly just meant good business sense. Still, no reason to alienate this strange pony right off the bat. She made a mental note not to mention her business policies to him, and continued.

"A scientist you say. How fascinating. As it happens, I am something of an inventor myself. I've worked on designs for a few airships and miscellanious odds and ends. Still, if you're trying to reinvent the wheel, as far as creating clouds, perhaps it might be a little more productive to engage in a bit of espionage. Why not simply steal the knowledge from them, if they are being so, uh, stingy with it?"