|
Facade
Feb 7, 2012 1:21:52 GMT -5
Post by Nightbow on Feb 7, 2012 1:21:52 GMT -5
[45th of Summer, afternoon into evening. Open to everyone. I'll bring in my own character soon.]
Rarity and Pinkie Pie had been busy the entire day of the Sun Celebration, preparing for a party that hopefully would have, but unsuccessfully had, driven attention away for the fact that the sun had been eclipsed through the course of the day. As the last lanterns glimmered reassuringly in the fading light the ponies were at least spared the sight of the camp that was beginning to set up outside town.
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 20, 2012 9:56:21 GMT -5
Post by Nightbow on Oct 20, 2012 9:56:21 GMT -5
A tiny, rounded unicorn stepped into the plaza. The last cafés where closing up now, ponies scurrying in the fading rosy light. Some of where in a hurry home with their shopping bags, others lingered, glancing over at a pink pony that seemed to be preparing for the set up of a one-pony orchestra.
The little lilac unicorn, shy as she was, merely stood a chance to get her message across in the mess. "Hello I'm..." Ignored, or unheard. "Excuse me, I-" Shuffled to the left. "Would you be as kind as to-" Interrupted by a short excuse, left alone in the crowd. "Sorry, but..."
It was no use. Lily Lightly dodged two young chatting mares heading past the plaza, backing into something.
"Oi! Watch it there, sweetie!" Someone called.
Looking up, Lily was flicked on the nose and blinded by a light dangling from a chord above. A white unicorn sat atop a ladder, busy decorating the plaza with hanging strings of lights.
"Mind the ladder hon," Rarity said, perched atop of it while trying to pick the string of lights back up with her magic. She thought the little unicorn looked a little confused.
Lily Lightly looked on in wonder as the unicorn remotely manipulated the chord to fling back into the air, tying its loose end to an adjacent lamp post. "Wow, it's so beautiful," she breathed, remembering the lights of the festival nights in Unicornia. "Are you celebrating The Night of a Thousand Lights, too?" She happily inquired, thinking that her home might not be so far away after all.
"Oh, this little social?" Rarity climbed back down from the ladder, folding it neatly and placing it aside with the help of her telekinetic powers. "...The Night of a Thousand Lights?" Repeated the perplex mare. "I never heard of such a thing. We are just trying to create a distra-"
Rarity stopped herself just in time, opening her deep blue eyes to catch the strange pony at a complete disarray. "Why darling, it looks like you are not at all in a festive mood." The white unicorn heightened a forehoof as if she was prepared to move closer to the stranger. "What's wrong?"
"It's true." Lily sighed. She swallowed and her voice was raised to a pitch. Tears were not far away. "I am a long way from home, and I can't find my friends anywhere!"
Rarity was completely thrown off guard. The little mare was breaking down. Something horrendous must have happened. "Oh, my!" The white unicorn flung her hoof dramatically to her forehead. "What ever happened to you? How long have you been gone?"
"I ... I don't know. I just came out of the woods. I was home just half an hour ago." Lily Lightly looked completely lost. Rarity blinked with a perfectly blank expression on her face. "Do you know how I can get back to Unicornia?" The purple pony pleaded.
"Weeeell, no, I don't." Rarity sincerely tried to stop her eye from gently twitching as she put on an extremely strained and and wide smile. How in the world could a grown mare grow so distraught from wandering in the 30 minutes in the wrong direction? "But I know a friend who might," she hurried to add. "It can't be far! And while we wait for her to join us, I bet our party here will turn that frown of yours upside down! Just you stick around me and my pals here and you'll be fine!"
"Thank you," Lily Lightly said, feeling lighter at heart. She looked around at the festivities. This couldn't be so bad.
Rarity thought her breath would leave her permanently as she discreetly let it out when the stranger was looking in another direction. What a weirdo. Thankfully it looked like everything was going to turn out okay. "Um, I didn't catch your name there, darling."
"It's Lily Lightly, Princess of All that Twinkles and Glows. Glad to meet you!" She excitedly extended a hoof.
"Rarity," replied the essence of generosity with a relieved smile. "Just Rarity."
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 24, 2012 14:32:54 GMT -5
Post by Spitfire on Oct 24, 2012 14:32:54 GMT -5
It felt all wrong.
Twilight couldn't help that the thought crossed her mind as she looked around at Pinkie and Rarity's work. After all the guilt, uncertainty and fear that had been plaguing her (and, no doubt, all of them) throughout the day, the festivities seemed entirely out-of-place. She understood the Princesses' reasoning, of course; continuing with the celebration would keep everypony calm, but for those who had been there, had fought Eclipse and barely lived to tell the tale, it just felt fake. A ruse, a cover, nothing more.
The smile pasted on her face was just as fake. With an ancient evil on the loose thanks to her inability to re-imprison Eclipse just a day ago, there was precious little to smile about, however Twilight knew she had to keep up impressions. To the general public, everything had to appear fine, and if the Element of Magic was wallowing in the misery of her own failure, that would just lead to unwelcome questions.
The first one of her friends she caught sight of was Rarity, descending a ladder, and Twilight made a beeline for the other unicorn. If her conversation with Fluttershy earlier had shown her anything, it was that Twilight couldn't afford to drift away from her friends, no matter how badly she felt she'd let them down. They had to remain united, as they had against Discord.
"You and Pinkie have done a great job," she congratulated Rarity as she reached her, the words sincere in spite of her horribly fake smile. If Rarity had been alone, Twilight would have let the expression - that was starting to feel more like a grimace - drop, however while the unfamilar unicorn she seemed to be talking to was present, Twilight knew she had to keep up pretenses.
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 25, 2012 3:08:57 GMT -5
Post by Nightbow on Oct 25, 2012 3:08:57 GMT -5
It had been a rather stressful evening for Rarity, but the celebration preparations were all in order now and she could tend to the guests. Pinkie Pie had finished setting up the feast table and started to play her curious assembly of instruments, soon to be joined by other musically talented ponies. Only until the sun goes up, Rarity repeated in her head. The elegant mare would normally never pass on a party with the pulse of a bigger city like Whinnyapolis. She started to feel sleepy already.
"Twilight, darling!" She greeted when she saw her friend appear in the growing crowd, waving a hoof to show her where she was.
"Oh, thank you," she replied. "It took all day, and I've been running like crazy to get all the supplies we needed. It didn't really help having Pinkie bouncing around and insisting on inviting every pony in Whinnyapolis - entangling them in strings of light - but in retrospect I think it was a good move." When Rarity was about to complain that she hadn't had any time to fix her mane, she realized that Twilight looked equally thorn. She hoped that they both would be able to think about something else for a moment - anything but that.
Thus the white unicorn motioned gently towards the unfamiliar face in the group. "Twilight Sparkle, this is Lily Lightly. And this young lady has a question for you, Twilight." Weird statement, Rarity thought as soon as she'd expressed it. Lily was probably older than any of them. There was just something uncannily youthful about her.
"Um ... yes," said Lily, half expecting Rarity to pose the question for her. How inconvenient. "Hi Twilight. I've been told that you know how I can get to Unicornia?"
Rarity tilted her head sideways. I never said that.
[If anyone wants to talk to Fluttershy, she has arrived alongside Twilight.]
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 25, 2012 15:39:15 GMT -5
Post by Spitfire on Oct 25, 2012 15:39:15 GMT -5
In spite of everything, a genuine smile crept onto Twilight's maw at the mental image of Pinkie draging ponies to the party entangled in strings of lights. With the darkness looming ahead of them, the lavender unicorn didn't doubt that they'd need Pinkie's element most of all in the days to come, and she was grateful that not even their near-death at Eclipse's hooves had been enough to dampen the earth-pony's spirit completely.
For a moment, Twilight thought Rarity was going to make some comment about the state her mane - Twilight was aware that her hair was looking particularly dishevelled right then and sticking out at odd angles - but then the moment passed, and Rarity was introducing her to the other unicorn. "Pleased to meet you," Twilight gave her a polite nod, although her thoughts were still mostly preoccupied; at least until Lily actually spoke up.
"Unicornia?" The name rang a bell in Twilight's mind, although given the reference's obscurity and her more pressing concerns right then, it took her a few moments to place it. Then she remembered, a Hearth's Warming Eve's pageant...
But that couldn't be right. "I know Unicornia was what Princess Platinum wanted to call Equestria when it was first discovered, at least according to legend." She frowned, the intelectual part of her curious, in spite of everything. "I never heard of the name ever being used for anyplace else, though. Is it within Equestria, or another land entirely?"
(ooc: I'm sorry this post seems a little on the short side ^^")
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 25, 2012 16:58:31 GMT -5
Post by Nightbow on Oct 25, 2012 16:58:31 GMT -5
Princess Platinum? Legend? Nope. Didn't ring a bell. Eyelashes fluttered over a perplexed set of azure eyes. This was so weird. Lily wasn't aware there even were unicorns outside of Unicornia.
"E-Equestria?" Stammered Lily Lightly sheepishly, looking aghast. Poor little pony felt more lost than ever. "No ... the land is called Unicornia. Does that mean I'm not in Unicornia anymore?" The vibrant purple pony fell silent, deep in thought for a brief moment.
"Your friend says it shouldn't be too far from here, but I don't recognize this place. All the buildings are huge - almost all of them as tall as the Rainbow Castle." Lily audibly grew more and more distressed. This place wasn't quite as colourful as she was used to. She must be far away from home, if not even the colours of the rainbow could reach this place.
"If I'm not home in Unicornia ... then where am I?"
[Sorry, brainfarting here.]
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 30, 2012 15:25:42 GMT -5
Post by Spitfire on Oct 30, 2012 15:25:42 GMT -5
Twilight frowned again, her curiosity only perked further by the pink-maned unicorn as she had spoken. Unicornia was a real land, not just a never-used name from legend? That was intersting - although it provoked a lot of other questions too, that she doubted Lily was in any state to answer just then. "Equestria... well, it's this land. Ruled by Princess Celestia of the day and Princess Luna of the night... are you saying you haven't heard of it before? You're from another land entirely?" A pony from outside Equestria? Twilight wasn't sure such a thing had been documented before - if the situation she and her friends found themselves in wasn't so dire, this would have warrented a furious search through her library once she got back to Ponyville. As it was, this was of secondary importance, but it still had Twilight's interest piqued. "This Unicorna... what's it like? If it's not part of Equestria, it must be different indeed..." ( my posts are getting shorter and shorter, sorry Like I said, my pony muse is sort of at an all-time low.)
|
|
|
Facade
Oct 31, 2012 12:43:06 GMT -5
Post by Nightbow on Oct 31, 2012 12:43:06 GMT -5
"You're from another land entirely?"
What a disappointment. The other unicorn's words where not reassuring at all. Lily could merely shake her head in disbelief. "I ... I guess so. Unless you've heard of any of the castles of laughter, friendship, kindness, happiness, families, music and rainbows ?" Her voice was clinging to a last desperate hope, dying bit by bit for each location mentioned. None of the kingdoms seemed to spark any memories in the eyes of the lilac unicorn.
Lily thought hard. She would have to tell about Unicornia as if Twilight had never heard about it before, which was hard for her. "Well ... I live in Rainbow Castle in Unicornia, and our princess is called Rarity." Lily explained. "Every year, it's our duty to make the first rainbow of the season." But surely, these ponies must know about that? It was an ancient unicorn tradition, after all.
"Unicornia is the home of the unicorns. The other ponies live in Ponyville, and the pegasi live on Butterfly Island and the breezies in Breezie Blossom." Lily Lighlty babbled all these facts at the top of her head, soon running out of air. After taking a breather, she pleaded:
"Don't you know about anything that I'm talking about?"
|
|
Kiernan
Member
Tua Culpa, Culpa Mea
Posts: 384
|
Facade
Nov 29, 2012 1:28:23 GMT -5
Post by Kiernan on Nov 29, 2012 1:28:23 GMT -5
Turnkey scowled at the thought of misunderstanding. A different land? Unicornia? Segregation? Breezies? The entire thing was perplexing to him. When he had started dropping eaves, his intent was to acquire information. Now, there was no sense whatsoever to this unicorn's tale. And yet, there was something he wanted to do to help her. He just didn't know how yet...
As he was contemplating how he was going to help, his hooves became tangled in one of the strings of lights yet to be hung, and he tumbled to the ground, causing a bit of a clamor, giving away his hiding place in plain sight.
Accursed lights... he thought to himself.
|
|
|
Facade
Nov 29, 2012 15:57:23 GMT -5
Post by Nightbow on Nov 29, 2012 15:57:23 GMT -5
A loud thud interrupted the conversing ponies - surely such a muffled crash must have come from a grown pony falling. Judging by the clinking sound, by tripping right over the discarded light strings.
Fluttershy spread her wings in a skittish manner, Lily Lightly briefly took her attention off of Twilight and Rarity gaped, aghast.
"Let me handle this," the white unicorn swiftly requested, taking the opportunity to skip out of the weird stranger's way. She'd leave Twi to handle this, and should Lily need some comforting she was sure that Fluttershy could take care of it. After all, she was used to handling exotic little critters ... Rarity couldn't help but discretely wince as she detached from the group. The purple unicorn must be about the same age as herself, yet acting like a little filly!
As the fashionista made her way over to the coiled chords, she angrily cast a glance over her shoulder, shouting: "Pinkie! I thought I asked you to put these away for me!" But to no avail; her remark would drown in a particularly lively trumpet solo screeching from the centre of the silvery square. Rarity rolled her eyes. The next second they fell right upon a unicorn stallion.
He struck her as undignified, at least tangled in those lights. Optics of royal blue wandered over the brown coat and came to rest upon a (rather unfashionable) necklace that, on first sight, seemed to be made up out of dangling pieces of metal in different shapes.
Shaking off a curios feeling of Déjà vu, violet locks dancing around her petite face, Rarity extended a hoof. "I'm terribly sorry. My friend - um, my terribly irresponsible party planner colleague, left those behind. I keep telling her to watch out, but-" her voice trailed off, realizing that she was merely rambling.
"Let me help you out of those."
|
|
Kiernan
Member
Tua Culpa, Culpa Mea
Posts: 384
|
Facade
Nov 30, 2012 1:30:52 GMT -5
Post by Kiernan on Nov 30, 2012 1:30:52 GMT -5
"Oh, no, that's quite alright," chuckled Turnkey, clamoring to his hooves. "I just need to keep a closer eye on where I'm going..."
As he twisted and turned in various directions, trying to make sense of the knots, that he might untie himself, he seemed to only make them tighter. "No need to assist, I'm sure I can--" he was cut off as he bound his back hooves together and clattered to the ground once more.
He silently cursed himself for getting caught in this situation, and once more, for allowing somepony to watch. Still, he tried to keep his mind together as he once more stood, and began fumbling with the knots. "I just need to find the end. If I can find the end, I can--"
Once again, he tumbled to the ground. He was making an absolute fool of himself. All he had wanted was to stay unseen, and had been doing very well up to this point. But alas, now all eyes were on him.
"Third time's the charm!" he exclaimed, pulling himself to his hooves once again. Unfortunately, he pulled too hard and was now not only tangled completely in a mess of lights, and unable to untangle them with any eyes on him, but he was also lying unceremoniously on his back, barely able to move, let alone untie himself.
"Maybe you should help me," he conceded, lowering his eyes. "It seems to me, I'm stuck."
|
|
|
Facade
Dec 1, 2012 20:52:10 GMT -5
Post by Person on Dec 1, 2012 20:52:10 GMT -5
Silent Storm walked through the square, headed home after he'd procured and then consumed several pastries from a small bakery that he'd grown quite fond of. He heard a dull thud and he stopped, his ears perked up, curious. After the thud repeated another three times, he turned to see a light brown unicorn flat on his back, hooves bound by a string of festive lights.
He repressed a smile at the sight of the awkwardly bound stallion. Storm paused and thought for a moment, then trotted over to the pony.
He knelt down without a word and examined the poor soul's predicament, ignoring however the mares next to him may have been looking at him. He examined the cord, looking for any one central knot that could be untied, but it almost appeared as if the unicorn had been attempting to tangle himself as tightly as possible.
After several moments of examining the situation, Silent Storm chose the simplest solution. He unsheathed his dagger and looked to the brown unicorn for permission to continue.
|
|
Kiernan
Member
Tua Culpa, Culpa Mea
Posts: 384
|
Facade
Dec 2, 2012 2:31:48 GMT -5
Post by Kiernan on Dec 2, 2012 2:31:48 GMT -5
Turnkey was faced with a decision. A difficult one, based on his past experience. He didn't trust ponies with daggers, for good reasons.
On one hoof, he could let the new pony with strange wings cut him free, but that would involve trusting him, momentarily, and in his line of work, trusting other ponies just wasn't an option. Further, cutting the cable that bound him would render the string of lights unusable, and dangerous if plugged in.
[OOC note: Really? How do they do these lights? I can't imagine there being electricity being in this world, because everypony is always using candles or magical light. Electricity could explain why Twilight's lights went out in Episode 8, but there's otherwise no mention of it. I find that strange...]
Of course, if he could bring the cord to someone who worked well with cords and cables, like Kai, they could be restored safely. Supposing he wasn't in a bad mood, that is...
On the other hoof, he didn't want to be stuck there all night, and he really needed to not have so many eyes on him.
He considered the two options for a few moments, then looked to the new pegasus. He tried to nod, but found it difficult to move anything but his jaw. "Please don't cut anything... important," he said tentatively.
|
|
|
Facade
Dec 2, 2012 14:36:29 GMT -5
Post by Person on Dec 2, 2012 14:36:29 GMT -5
Silent Storm gave a curt nod, and decided where to cut the cord without cutting it into too many pieces nor harming the unicorn himself. He identified a few knots that were far enough away from any limbs or his neck.
Storm exhaled slowly, steadied himself, and then slashed at the cord with three precise strokes. He pulled at the cord gently and it fell to the ground in several large pieces.
Silent Storm sheathed his blade and gave his work a look of approval. Quick and efficient, just the way I like it, he thought and extended a hoof to the stallion to help him get up.
|
|
Kiernan
Member
Tua Culpa, Culpa Mea
Posts: 384
|
Facade
Dec 3, 2012 2:58:07 GMT -5
Post by Kiernan on Dec 3, 2012 2:58:07 GMT -5
Turnkey slowly stood, making sure not to become tangled once again amid the wires and cables still strung about on the ground. He gingerly stepped out of them, the gathered them up with his magic, placing the mess into his saddlebag.
"I'm so very sorry to have distracted you all," he bowed to the two who had come to his aid. "I'll have this string of lights repaired, immediately."
He then started off, bowing once more to those around him.
|
|