[Nexus] Random Places and Plots 5

[The Bushranger]

[Pearhouse Manor]

"Oooh, that's pretty nifty. Do you know how they did the magic?" Jamie asks, sounding quite intrigued.

[Morty]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Brinika's eyes go wide. A magic house? She lets Jamie speak, though. She knows more about magic and Brinika usually lets her take the lead anyway.

[Gullara]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Salix looks blankly at Natalie. Nope, she has no idea what the other girl meant. A magic house sounds cool, though. Magic sure sounds exciting based on what Sakix has heard.

[Earl of Purple]

Pearhouse Manor

"Um, I think it's Conjuration, which is the magic I'm studying, but it's far more advanced than the level I have reached. I still have difficulty summoning butterflies, and that's moving one thing to another place, rather than moving one space to another space." It's similar in practice, but the theory behind it all is very different. "I think this is our door. Yes, it is. My bedroom's just around here." Natalie will open the door, revealing a much less ornate corridor (guests are less likely to see it, so it's not decorated to impress). It's the third bedroom along.

Also, it's more of a magic room than a magic house, though it has been known to change floors from time to time. But it's only noticeable if you don't visit often, otherwise people remember it being in its new location.

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler

Show

[Statue Garden]

Hmm... Have to do something about that magical dead zone. As soon as all the technicalities are out of the way there's a strong possibility that The King in Yellow will do away with that. A place without magic in such a vibrant world? No doubt he would find it boring.

Aaaand then the draconequus decides to pop in! How kind of him. Spooky gives a little ear twitch before opening one of her eyes.

Psyrrak seems somewhat perturbed that flying through the window lead her to the inside of a nearby fountain. The false princess is now rather wet. But that's nothing a quick pulse of solar flame can't fix.

The others...

Are already beginning to poke and prod at the world. Looking for neat little places to slip in mostly unnoticed. Squirming into dreams. Whispering into deranged minds. Finding new names for a new reality. Most are quite covert with their actions.

Others?

Not quite so much.

"AH! I do so LOVE introduction games. You know the drill, everypony! State your name and tell the group a bit about yourself!"

Quite suddenly all present have been supplied with folding chairs and a healthy helping of mayonnaise. Even Celestia gets a chair!

"Now then, I'll go first!" cackles pale stallion with some sort of weird squiggly yellow sign for a cutie mark. His golden mane has been styled into an absurdly large and rather silly crown-shape. Or maybe a jester's hat. Maybe both? He hooks a leg around Spooky's neck and yanks her over to himself. "This is Momma Spooky. She's crazy and thinks story book characters are real."

Spooky scowls. "You're supposed to introduce yourself Mad Cap," she grumbles.

Which of course results in an absurd grin from the pallid pony. "Bah! Since when have the rules ever mattered? So much more fun just to make things up as you go," he then jerks a thumb at the false-princess. ...wait. When did he get thumbs? "My dear sister here hasn't gotten a name yet. Such a shame, don't you think? Makes introductions dreadfully difficult."

The weird 'pony's sister glowers at him.

Mad Cap gives a little gasp and snaps his thumb against his hoof. "I've got it! You should do that thing you do. The thing with all the fire and the screaming? I'll bet the ponies would come up with some wonderfully flattering names for you in no time!"

"As tempting as that sounds I'll have to decline, Mad Cap. My interest is in the Solar Princess' star. Taking her name would make that all the more simple. But unfortunately-" she casts a sidelong glance at Discord. "Someone doesn't seem to like my plan."

"Oh I know!" Mad Cap says, draping a hoof across his forehead as he speaks in an overly dramatic tone. There comes a loud *clunk* as a spotlight shines down on Discord and Celestia, drowning out all else in blackness. "Have you ever seen a more lovely kisemesis pair? Why! It makes me want to break out into a spontaneous musical number!"

And then he does.

"They are two of a kind
Violent, unsound of mind
She's the yin to his yang, can't you see?
And if he were to leave
She would grumble and grieve
Face it, 'Tia...
You'd be lost without him!
You'd be lost (You'd be lost)
You'd be lost (You'd be lost)
Face it, 'Tia...
You'd be lost without him!"

Spooky gives an exasperated sigh and face-hoofs. "We're a bunch of scary monsters from outside reality. Your world has begun bleeding over into the Nexus and so we're here to make sure a permanent link is created. This will offer a degree of protection from other things worse than us. We gain a new reality to pursue our own agendas in."

"Don't worry about that one bit! Aside from a disturbing jump in the number of ritual pony sacrifices you won't even notice we're here!" Mad Cap laughs, suddenly lounging in a hammock hung between a pair of statues and sipping some cider out of a coconut. "Well, you know. Most of the time, anyway. And you'll probably get the odd person trasping over from the Nexus looking for adventure in the land of magical talking horses. But it's all in good fun! This place has been waaaaay too dull for the last few millennia. It could really use some shaking up if you ask me."

[Statue Garden]

"Yawn. Tacky song from a droll alien. Back me up here, Celly."
Discord raps on the head of the Celestia statue for a moment, before shrugging.
"Oh whatever. Your big plan doesn't sound very fun I must say. Where's the elegance? The style? The wonderful lopsides?"

A cow is pulled over from...somewhere and the draconequus directs attention towards its coat-splotches with the tip of his tail.
"Note the separation. The uneven shapes, the disunity of placement."
After a moment, a somewhat sickened look comes over his face, and lines begin to connect the splotches, slowly thickening and spreading across each other.
"Then they get all connected, further and blah blah."

Soon enough, the lines grow so thick and numerous that the entire cow's coat seems to have turned solid black.
"And then we have this.
A hideous little unification. It's not even a fun color!"

The cow is kicked away, vanishing into the folds of a tissue storm brewing to the south.
"Celestia's work was UGH enough, without you simpletons mashing the cosmos together."

Finally getting up from Celestia's statue, Discord flippantly waves a paw at the assembled group of aliens and begins walking up into the sky.
"Enjoy your fun, for a little while. I have another matter to attend to and then you're all out."

He's in Psyrrak's face, a fierce look on his own, and a small ball of fire clenched in his talons.
"But Celestia's sun is mine."


And then he's off again, back into the sky.

[Rebonack]

[Castle Garden]

Gone?

Aren't they already gone?

Or are they just lurking somewhere a jaunt perpendicular to reality? Dreams to whisper into and all that. Plant the seeds of knowledge into a few select pony brains. Madcap will no doubt sit back and watch Discord sow his particular brand of mischief around the world. Always fun to watch the style of someone new.

[Ponyville]

And now for something completely different!

Meet Flitter. She was a totally normal pegasus mare. Or at least she was until that weird magic thing the princess (probably) did took her wings away. And apparently everypony else's magic too. She had been outside in the market when the sun suddenly decided to go away and fairly quickly she concluded that running home in a panic was probably a decent idea.

But then?

"Then there is a voice. A voice winding through the weave of the world. Whispering through the space between moments, distorting the line between what Is and what Could Be. The line is blurred, twisted, and twined around Flitter as the mare struggles to comprehend the new sensations as the veil about her eyes is pulled back to the full.

Fear gives way to awe as she sees the grand illusion for what it is. As connections that now seem so obvious in retrospect are laid out before her mind. Everything is so... so clear. So beautiful. It all makes so much sense now.

Opalescent white tendrils of power wreath Flitter in an aurora of radiance growing brighter by the moment. Only to fade. And leaving only the thing which was once a pony sitting on her haunches in the middle of the market in a euphoric daze.

"I... I think I understand, Mother. I'll tell them," the not-a-pony mutters aloud. Then looks about at her no doubt fearful neighbors. "I've been given news," Flitter speaks up, projecting her voice as best she can. "About Princess Celestia."

A rough haze of a opalescent white shimmers around her, holding back the advance of mundane zone clinging to the village.

[The Bushranger]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Jamie slipps inside, looking around eagerly.
"Thanks again for letting us visit. This is sooooo cool!" she gushes.

[Morty]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Brinika, needless to say, has no idea what Natalie is talking about. But she follows Jamie into the room eagerly. Caretaker hovers behind the girls dutifuly, bearing Natalie's presents.

[Gullara]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Salix just follows along for the moment, still looking around curiously. She, like Brinika, doesn't much understand the magic topic.

[Earl of Purple]

Pearhouse Manor

Natalie's bedroom is quite large, with a high ceiling and a comfortable looking single bed in the corner. There's a desk made of walnut wood beneath a large picture window with a comfortable-looking computer chair at it; it seems more devoted to pens, pencils, glue and modelling knives than a computer, but there's a laptop bag tucked underneath. Currently a book is open upon it. There's a very large wardrobe next to the door, and there's a sofa in the middle of the room facing a wall-mounted television connected to several games consoles. The walls have been painted bright red, with a deep green thick pile carpet on the floor. Natalie takes her shoes off before she enters, but that's more because it's super comfortable on her bare feet and she's not a very shoe-ish person anyway. "Welcome to my bedroom! Sit down wherever you want, Peter and Dad will be along soon."

Also, Caretaker has been receiving some odd looks from everyone- levitating objects is easy magic to perform, but it's hard to enchant an item with levitation There's a levitating teapot in Buckingham Palace and it's the only one in Europe that obeys the person speaking to it. The others have floated out of windows and been lost or found their way somewhere people can't grab them. Unless they've been weighted down or tied to something.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

For the most part, the ponies of the town have been trying to keep going about their daily business.
Some issues crop up, with lacking horns or wings, but ponies are nothing if not adaptable.

Earth ponies, for somewhat obvious reasons, are the least affected and many have taken up the mantle of helping their slightly-more-maligned neighbors.

There are murmurs of concern, as the sun darkens, fading out to the cool embrace of stars and the dully-glowing moon, many hours before the appointed time, but they try to keep going.
Some are less able, retreating to their homes, preparing for the next catastrophe. Others have faith in their Princesses and heroes to make things right again.

Life must go on.


The next occurrence is upon them!

A small group of concerned individuals are now rapidly edging away from Flitter.

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

The thing that was once a pony is still quite pony-shaped. In fact, if one where to ignore the nagging sense that Flitter isn't a pony at all she looks just like a pony. Though that haze of eldritch magic around her is probably a dead giveaway that something is up.

"I've been told that Discord has been freed again-"

That's terrible news.

"-and that..."

The once again winged pegasus' voice hitches slightly.

"...that our Princess has been turned to stone by him..."

Yep.

Really terrible news.

The Not-A-Pony is doing her best to brave and resolute. But she's clearly trembling with fear. "But we shouldn't be afraid! Princess Celestia will be restored and Discord will be defeated again! We have to keep up hope!"

[The Bushranger]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Jamie, of course, heads straight for the bed. To bounce on it, testing the matress!
"This is awesome!" she declares. "You have the best bedroom ever."

I forget, is Oddball with them?

[Morty]

[Pearhouse Manor]

"It's so coooool," Brinika says, looking around her with wide eyes. "And so big. And it has so much stuff."

[Gullara]

[Pearhouse Manor]

Salix follows Jamie and hops up onto the bed as well. "It's so big." Everything in the house is big, but Natalie has this space all t herself. That's so weird.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

Yep.
Definitely one of those days.

Faith in their Princesses!
...hard to keep that, when one has turned to stone, and the other seems to have vanished.

Faith in their heroes!
They too, seem to have vanished.

Faith in hope?
Everything has found a way to turn out for the best, so far, for over a thousand years. Why would this change now?
This is Equestria, a land of peace and beauty.


One of the group, a pink pony with a yellow mane, acquires a particularly frightened look.
"But...what will we do now? Who's going to save the Princess and stop Discord?"

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

It is indeed one of those days.

But what are you going to do?

Just keep calm and flutter on! Though that's hard to do without wings...

And speaking of wings...

The Not-A-Pony that was Flitter stands a little taller and spreads out her wings, doing her best to try to look confident and inspiring. "Another Princess has come. One from far beyond the Moon and Stars. Powerful and ancient and loving beyond reckoning. She's going to make sure Princess Celestia is freed so she can take up her throne again! And she's going to see to it that Discord is dealt with once and for all!"

A Princess named-!

...

Umm...

Moma Spooky? That sounds more like a silly title. The sort of thing Pinkie Pie might call somepony. Hmm... she needs a better name than that... Ideas come unbidden to the Once-A-Pony's mind.

"Princess Epona will save us! She already saved me from... whatever it is that happened to Ponyville," Flitter gives her wings a few flaps. "See? Good as new!"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

A new princess?

Technically, not entirely impossible...
There was that pink one who moved north awhile ago.
What was her name again?

Eh. Doesn't matter much.


Flitter is still receiving some skeptical looks, although the ponies don't seem to be retreating anymore.
Curiosity is a dangerous thing.
"Well, you definitely seem...different..."


Meanwhile, there's is a flare of purple light from the library's upper floor windows, followed shortly after by a series of fainter pulses of other colors.

"Hasn't done that in a couple hours..."

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

"I do look a bit different, but that's nothing to worry about! Princess Epona has just empowered me with her magic," Flitter says, her tone suggesting that this is in fact the greatest thing in the world. She sure does feel like that's the case right now! Super-duper extra spectacular amazing! "She needs me to investigate what happened at the library and what this... umm... magic stopping thing...? is doing to the Everfree Forest."

That isn't a very technical term, Flitter. Clearly the Once-A-Pegasus isn't well versed in arcane terminology.

She takes a deeeeep breath, turning her attention toward the flashy tree.

"Right. I can do this..."

...Flitter isn't moving yet.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

The group of ponies stare at the tree for a moment, before shaking their heads and moving on.

Flitter was crazy.
Why would she go in there, weird Princess magic or not?

Minuette went in there a little bit ago and still hasn't come back out...


Lily sticks around for a moment longer, being the only one brave enough to even talk to Flitter in the first place.
"Um, are you sure you have to go in there? Couldn't you just tell your Princess that stuff is bad and then she can fix it herself?"

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

Yep.

Crazy is about right.

If Flitter started talking about the things she now knows and the things she now sees then she would, without a doubt, be dismissed as completely bonkers.

But that's okay.

Her Mother, her Princess, has given her a task to accomplish. And she wouldn't have done that if she hadn't believed her to be able to see it through.

"Princess Epona is probably busy working out how to free Princess Celestia. She picked me for this. I-I'm sure I can do what she needs me to do!" she takes a deep breath and a step forward, only to pause. "If... if I don't come back out? Tell Cloudchaser not to worry. She'll see me again."

And then she heads forward, a haze of opalescent white reaching out in front of her to push the door open.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

Lily frowns a bit.
That sounds like a decent explanation.
Still not really a great one, but hey, Celestia's pretty darn important, right?
The Sun! The Day! Peace!

"...good luck, Flitter."


As she moves onwards, and pushes open the library door...well, she doesn't explode.
So that's a good thing.

But she is greeted by a very opaque wall of what appears to be milky mist, almost completely obscuring the interior of the library.

It isn't solid to the touch and doesn't seem as thick further in, judging by the light that seems to be emanating from behind it.


A couple ponies have opened the door, most just turn around not wanting to risk anything.
Minuette, for whatever reason, didn't seem to accept that. Against the insistence of at least five other ponies, she charged straight into the mist and hasn't been seen since.

Will Flitter's determination persevere?

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

Come on, that's a great reason. When is the last time Celestia has done something herself instead of sending others to carry out the task? Okay, probably a bad question since she was active recently. But still! Even a princess can't do everything on their own.

...anyway...

"Right," Flitter declares as she peers at the haze. "The Star's magic. I remember this. And the power of Mother's demesne could corrode it. This is just another part of the Dream. Nothing to worry about."

She takes a deep breath as the haze around her tightens and focuses into a nearly skin-tight aura of white, tendrils of almost organic looking power reaching away from it.

"Here goes nothing..."

Into the mist she trots!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

Interesting point that.
The Star's Magic.

As a matter of fact, there's a lot of magic in here.

Flitter passes the entryway, with no real harm or foul, any gap in the mist she carves sealed in her stead.
There seems to be a lot of it, hugging the walls of the lower floor, and only making a trace appearance elsewhere in the air.

Which doesn't make the air any less saturated, hazy, dream-like.
This place is heavily warped by power, and has acquired an unrealistic sensation to it. Everything looks the same, but doesn't seem the same. Still the same book shelves, tables, chairs, books...just with a sense of difference.

It seems to worsen over by the stairs, which have an actively distorted appearance, shifting back and forth as if fluid.


Not that that seems to be stopping Twilight Sparkle from ascending them with a stack of books at her side, completely unaware of Flitter's presence.

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

Dreamlike. Surreal. A whimsy. A fantasy. A passing imagination.

Flitter's wings twitch nervously. This smells too much like the power of the Others. The Formless. The Weavers. Raksha. Fey. Fair Folk. Many mortal titles for things that inhabit what lies beyond.

Many mortal names for the enemies of the Old Ones.

This discovery bodes ill. Mother must know of it. If these Stars are a fantasy of the Sidhe born into and calcified by this world then this situation is vastly more dangerous than was initially anticipated. Direct conflict could sunder the world if care isn't taken.

All these pondering evaporate like morning frost when Flitter spots Twilight. Or at least what she believes is Twilight. Belief and perception and reality tend to twist and bend and flow in the holds of the Sidhe, so best to be cautious.

...how does she know all this? Where did this knowledge come from? Ah well. It doesn't matter that much.

"Twilight! Twilight, wait," Flitter calls out as she peruses the purple unicorn. She really doesn't know Twilight that well. Not in her circle of friends. But of course there's nopony in Ponyville who doesn't know about the saviors of Equestria!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

Flitter's concerns go relatively unnoticed.
No one is reading her mind here, right?

Twilight ascends the distorted steps with no recognition for the physical impracticalities they seem to be.

And as Flitter moves to follow her...
"Did you need something, Flitter?"

Twilight speaks up from a few feet to her right, pulling a book off of a bookshelf.
"Rather busy at the moment, so can this maybe wait for a while?"
Her voice seems unusually tranquil, as does the expression on her face, but otherwise she does very much seem to be Twilight Sparkle.

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

Oh, someone's reading her mind alright. Someone is watching the newly born Starspawn very closely.

Flitter does a double-take as Twilight begins to be somewhere else.

...or...

At least that's what seemed to have happened. It's hard to tell. Can't trust senses here. Have to stay on guard...

"Twilight, Discord has been freed. Princess Celestia has been turned to stone! And some kind of... some kind of monster has done something to the library. Can't you see any of this?" she waves a wing at the surreal state of the treehouse in general. "I think this is all probably more important than whatever you're doing here."

A beat.

"And... is Minuette in here somewhere? Lily said she came in a while ago and never came back out."

Technically not true. The Story said she had come in here a while ago. But Flitter is still having some trouble getting her head around that concept. Easier to just think that a fellow pony informed her.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

"Hm...Discord is a little surprising, I guess. The Princess must have made it back to the castle then."
Twilight turns away, plucking a few more books from the bookshelf.

Then she begins to move towards the stairs.


Twilight Sparkle walks out of the first floor's side room, several rolls of parchment drifting in the air around her.
"Not sure I appreciate being called a monster, but yes, Minuette is here. Somewhere.
I think she stepped into one of the circles. Too busy to really figure out what happened after that. Maybe later."

[Rebonack]

[Ponyville]

Wide eyes, mouth hanging open, and incomprehensible sputtering?

"Buh... I... what...?"

Check, check, and check!

"YOU did this Twilight? But... but WHY?" Flitter moves to step around in front of the purple unicorn, jaunting through possibility and bypassing both wall and door completely. The new Starspawn's first movement perpendicular to reality! She probably isn't even aware that she did it. "You know what's going to happen if Discord is on the loose! Shouldn't you be... I don't know... getting that big crown and blasting him with your friends?"

Big crown thingy!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Ponyville]

Twilight finally pauses in her rather detached movements, staring at Flitter with something not unlike curiosity in her eyes.
And a frown.

For just a moment, she seems normal again, then the hazy atmosphere sweeps back across and she gestures towards the stairs with a hoof.
"Perhaps you should ask around upstairs. It'll be more efficient.
I need to find my primer on combustive interactions."