Home 19 - Please Contact Your Friendly Neighborhood Realtor

[Gullara]

[Valentine's Day]

The trail of roses goes all the way into the bedroom. The door is partially ajar and the low sound of music greets her ears. When she pushes her way inside she'll be greeted to the sight of a few lit candles around the room, a bottle of wine and two glasses on the bedside table, rose petals scattered over the bed, and her boyfriend wearing only a pair of silk boxer shorts.

Valente... well, he's fast asleep. He leaned back against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed and nodded off before Astrana could get home. It's not even that late, really.

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

Well.

That's a question Sunder needs to pause and consider.

What do they need?

They have land. Not only the park and surrounding neighborhoods, but also a steadily growing holding in the Gloom. They could use better funding. The Gloom holds innumerable forgotten secrets and treasures, but the difficult part is finding buyers.

"I believe what we need most is a middlemare," Sunder replies. "Team Nightmære uses significant funds in its upkeep. So far we've been subsisting off donations and the sale of the treasures we harvest from the Gloom. But there's a bottle-neck when selling artifacts and works of art from forgotten times and places is concerned. Somepony with a wider range of contacts to sell the goods we acquire would be a mutual benefit, I believe."

Hear that?

Sounds like Sunder is offering to be a supplier for Gilded.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"See? I like you. My next question was going to be, 'what can you supply?' but the supply is the issue, and when it comes to buyers?" She turns dramatically, "My gift is getting people what they want. And when you want people who want things? Oh, that's easy. With some more details I could have you dealing in bulk exports, if can handle that, and payment in astral diamonds."

"...but honestly, astrals are a PAIN to convert to anything actually useful, so I'd recommend a more normal method of payment."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

"My little ponies already do business with many of the outer planes since we captured one of the highways leading from the Gloom to the Empyrean Spheres." Sunder replies with a nod. "The difficulty is simply finding buyers for the treasures we secure. It can be a rather slow process. Astral diamonds wouldn't be difficult since everyone in such places understands the value of crystallized creative potential. Inari apparently believes I may even count as a goddess, so I may be able to make use of them myself."

She honestly has no idea.

And her tone suggests that she's pretty skeptical about it.

"I believe our friendship will be mutually beneficial, Gilded Caravan. If you wish, I can have Checklist provide you with a manifest of the trade goods we presently have stored here at the Hold."

Oooh.

Itemized lists are the best!

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"That would be good. I'll also need some information about a few details, but I'll have my people send your people that list." She combs some kind of bracelet out of her mane, and a holographic interface appears around it, "What kind of artifacts, overall?"

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

"The old, powerful, forgotten kind, mostly," Sunder replies completely seriously. "Lands that slip into the Gloom are places forgotten by the world of the living. Lost civilizations, often the kind that were annihilated by some unspeakable catastrophe. We've done what we can to catalog any historical records we find."

As a matter of fact, they converted a team of undead archeologists of all things. They had been on an expedition to the Gloom to learn about the lost civilizations entombed there. Like so many living people who enter that twilight land, they didn't ever leave. Adding a bunch of archeology talents to the herd had been quite the boon due to their knowledge of many strange, forgotten cities.

Anywho!

"Relics. Works of art. Weapons. Power sources. Knowledge. Everything one would expect from lands lost to time and powerful enough to annihilate themselves," Sunder summarizes.

In other words?

Tons of stuff.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"Good, good. I always try to be sure that sort of stuff gets into the best hands, don't worry. No crazy cult is going to get any of this stuff legally." Thievery happens, and after it passes out of Caravan's hands she can't do anything about it. "I'll have some of my people talk to some of your people, and we can sort out lumps as they come up. sound good to you?"

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

Sunder gives a slow nod, "I can ask for nothing more from you."

Looks like a deal!

And of course, all deals are to be sealed with hoof-bumps.

And once the deal is sealed?

Sunder has another question.

"Gilded Caravan, I'm... curious. With all your travel, have you ever met another alicorn?" she asks. "I grew up here in the Nexus. I've never known any 'normal' world as home. I know many ponies in Carousel Court look to alicorns of the sun and moon, but no such princess exists here. To my knowledge, I'm the first alicorn to ascend here. There's no one I can look to as an example."

Aside from those silly fox folks.

Silly foxes.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"Yes. A lot. But none in the Nexus. I've always found them in other pony worlds of various sorts, or once in this fantasy world? They certainly aren't common. Frankly, unless you try to get another one in the Nexus, you're unlikely to get one," Caravan explains, "At least not for several hundred years."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

"I see..." Sunder replies, her ears drooping a little. "I'll have to forge my own path, then."

That isn't any different from what she always did.

But this...

All this crazy princess stuff.

This is pretty well outside her range of experiences.

She was just an adventurer before!

She wasn't even the leader of her team! She was just the dumb muscle who punched things that they didn't like! But now everything has gotten so complicated.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"Well, good luck with that. I'm afraid I'm unlikely to be very useful in that, if I know of any that are coming to the nexus I'll mention you to them," Caravan says with a shrug.

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

"There is one other thing you may be able to help us with," Sunder says before turning her attention to Myrrh Balm. "Leave us."

The unicorn bows briefly before leaving the great hall. Once she's gone, Sunder heaves a long sight, lighting her horn with icy blue magic and removing her regalia. Crown, shoes, and torq are all set on the couch next to her. And with them gone? It's as though a weight has been removed from the alicorn.

"I'm gunna level wit you. I don't know if I can do dis," she says, her voice dropping the regal, proper accent altogether. "I mean, yeah, destiny and dat stuff. But just doin' the princess thing all the time? I feel like I'm gettin' slowly crushed. Dis sorta stuff ain't my thing, y'know? I was just a dumb adventurer before all the crazy wit the horn and all. My pal Siegfried called all the shots, I just hit stuff."

She sighs, rubbing her front hooves together.

"I got all dese ponies workin' for me now. Smart ponies. Real smart. Dey could run all dis stuff witout me, dey ain't really got any need for me 'cept to sit around 'n look pretty. But dey all look up to me. Dey all expect me to know what to do. But I ain't nobody special. I ain't got all the answers. I'm just really good at breakin' stuff. I smashed the buck outta the chains of undeath and now I'm an alicorn. I just... I need a break, y'know? I need a chance to get away from all dis princess schlock and be me, at least every now and again. I need..."

She glances back and forth, as if expecting somepony to suddenly leap out from behind a pillar and foil her plans.

"I need sometin' dat can disguise me. Make me normal size and stuff? Make me look like a normal pony. Can you get me anytin' like dat?" she asks, her tone hopeful.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"...see, this is why I'm going out of my way to NOT be made into a princess. Sometimes it's hard to. Now listen: I would recommend figuring something out so that you can be a princess on your own terms, honest with yourself, and with those around you. This is from the heart, now: You're going to be a whole lot happier being yourself than who people think you are. Take me, for example. I could be anyone I wanted, but instead I'm..." She then does a complex spin similar to a breakdancing move, ending up lying on her side casually while her mane and tail are splayed on the floor. "ME! And that's why I'm happy, healthy, and successful. You're going to be the best at being you. Being anyone else is going to be shooting yourself in the hoof." Carvan gets up suddenly, but gracefully, and slides over . "I have the thing for you. A handy little device, like this one:" she pulls something out of her mane. It's short, oval, and has a knob on one end. "You twist it," She does so with her teeth, and suddenly the eccentric pony is an eccentric human of grecian heritage. She's dressed, too, in a dress that is swirled gold and blue. "And you're who you want to be. Only works for you. Works whenever you want. Does just what you want. Conveniently and coincidentally small enough to be hidden on your person. Doesn't mess with innate magic. That said, that means it won't alter your cutie mark, but that's what make-up is for."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

"I dunno if anyone told you, but... uh... me is kinda both," Sunder admits. "See, back when Atropus ripped the Nexus a new one I kinda got ate by a nightshade. When a nightshade eats someone, dey's gone. So when I got brought back, I was like... an undead thing in an alive body, right? The little filly died and dere was just me. And I was like her just upside down and backwards. So she was all nice and proper and stuff and I'm well..."

She waves a hoof in the air.

"Y'know."

No doubt Gilded knows.

"But a friend helped me get Sweet Spring's virtues back, all six of 'em. Friendship, laughter, honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness. The whole lot. Dat made me do the whole princess thing. And dis undead wizard chick helped wit the not alive and not undead part. So I guess I'm sayin' it ain't all just an act, but I can't act like dat ALL the time, 'cuz dat ain't me neither, y'know?" she explains. "I gotta be Sunder 'n Sweet Spring both. Or... sometin' like dat. It's complicated and I ain't a clever pony."

This is very true.

Sunder isn't the cleverest of ponies.

But then form changing thing!

"Socks on a goat! Dat's just what I need! You got a spare oneah dose?"

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"Not spare, but it's something I could get. Could I maybe get a return favor?" she asks, "I am a collector of impossibilities. Things that break the rules of the place they're made. For this place, the Nexus, there isn't anything of the sort. But if you're getting things from other places? I'm wondering if you have, or have heard of, anything of the sort. Barring that, we'll likely be able to work something out. But... please, understand, this is not cheap."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

Why, the Nexus often spawns six impossible things before breakfast.

"Uuh..." Sunder replies not at all regally. "Impossible stuff? Findin' impossible stuff in the Nexus just don't happen. How do you find sometin' impossible in a place dat has everything?"

That's a pretty good question.

"I guess maybe not impossible, but a while back we found dis window thing in a ruin," Sunder says as she begins putting her regalia back on and starts heading for the door of the great hall. "The clever ponies was tellin' me dey were tinkin' dat dis slab is some kinda window into an impossible place. Does dat sound like sometin' you might like?"

Whether Gilded answers or not, Sunder will begin leading her toward the Hold's vault.

There are some pretty cool things in the vault.

Stuff like that builds up when you're raiding civilizations lost to time.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

"Yes, of course, I was more hoping you would find something in the other planes you've contacted." That's the way things go. And then, the mention of something impossible. "Well, it's worth a look, I think."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

The tree, as mentioned before, is rather large.

And as it happens, it's even bigger below ground than it is above.

The deeper they descend into the roots, the more colors are bleached out of the world around them. Down here, where the Gloom is but a whisper away, life and vibrancy are stifled. It isn't harmful to the living, but it isn't precisely a pleasant place to find oneself in. And it is down here in the depths that the vault of shadowood hold waits.

There aren't the bars and gates one might normally expect in a vault, simply row after row of unremarkable looking crates with bar codes on them. Everything down here is hidden in plain sight. Sunder makes her way to the end of the vault, stepping into a small, sterile looking, well-lit room where a number of equestrians with various science and archeology marks are examining and restoring various artifacts. Several start at Sunder's presence, but she calms them by doing little more than raising a wing and looking beneficent.

"Hello, my little ponies. I have a guest here who wishes to see the table retrieved from the Tower of Oots," she says, her voice kind, serene. Looks like she's back in the Sweet Spring shoes.

"Oh, of course Princess!" an arion pipes up brightly. "This it's on the shelf in the back. It was just about to be put into storage."

Sunder nods her thanks and gestures for Gilded to follow her. Soon both will be standing before a slab of vaguely greenish, glassy black stone perhaps a foot wide and and eight inches tall. She reaches out with a wing and touches the stone, channeling the smallest spark of magic into it. With a hiss the surface crackles and distorts before resolving into a window.

A window into an impossible realm of pure madness.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Hold

Caravan looks into it, a little confused.

"Well... I dare say I'll be very surprised if this doesn't count," Caravan says, "Let's talk details..."

Details are boring, though, and unless Sunder brings up something interesting later, we can likely gloss over it from here.

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

Most everyone who had looked into the slab was at least a little bit confused.

A realm filled with naught but endless, bickering voices is pretty darn weird.

Regardless!

Talks of logistics and details and exchanges of information as Sunder's people talk with Gilded's people happens.

All that boring stuff that doesn't need to happen on screen.

But it should end with a pretty sweet deal for both parties involved!

Yay!

No doubt Gilded Caravan is glad she came to meet Sunder and friends.

[Shadowcaller]

[Valentine's Day]

The trail of roses goes all the way into the bedroom. The door is partially ajar and the low sound of music greets her ears. When she pushes her way inside she'll be greeted to the sight of a few lit candles around the room, a bottle of wine and two glasses on the bedside table, rose petals scattered over the bed, and her boyfriend wearing only a pair of silk boxer shorts.

Valente... well, he's fast asleep. He leaned back against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed and nodded off before Astrana could get home. It's not even that late, really.

[Valentine's Day]

Poor guy, he must be exhausted with all the preparations he had made, not to mention the children. She must have underestimated how much of a choir it was being at home.
She creeps down into the bed besides him and snuggles up close. "Val?" She then asks softly.

[Gullara]

[Valentine's Day]

Valente mumbles something and rubs his eyes. "Astrana?" Suddenly his eyes shoot open. "Oh no. Oh jeez I can't believe I fell asleep." Stupid stupid.

[Deathkeeper]

Skullfort

Mist is here, knocking gently on the front door. Or ringing the doorbell. Or doing whatever it takes to get someone to let him in. I'm not sure what the place is like, honestly.

[Recaiden]

[Skullfort]

Outside the town of Meadowgreen, there rises a hill. On the hill is a massive tree, the last oak for many miles around. Built surrounding the tree is a fortress, a five-towered keep of moss-covered bronze. On the next hill over, towards the looming tangle of branches that makes up the Wode Forest, is the tiny village of New Peacefield. The center of the village is the gigantic stone skull that Mist is looking for. One follows switchbacks up the hill to where the teeth open in a wide entryway. There one pulls a cord to ring a distant bell.

After a short wait, a light comes on and here is Leah coming up a ramp and through a door from the inside.

[Deathkeeper]

Skullfort

Mist waves and walks over to Leah. He arrived at about noon, by the way.
"Hi Leah! I hope I picked a good day. You did say any day." he says nervously, clutching a brown-wrapped parcel in his hands.

[Recaiden]

[Skullfort]

Other features of the surrounding area include the bright blue flower everywhere, the small church, the spire for pterosaur-riders. The fort isn't exactly shaped like a skull; it's filled in, and the proportions aren't perfect. The eye and nose sockets hold weapon emplacements, and most people don't have a door in the top of their head. The place is big, mostly in height, but you could get lost even on this smaller floor.

Leah trots up, grinning at Mist, and stills the bell-cord.
"Of course! It's a fine day, and I'm glad to see you. Come on in!"
She motions to a different door than the one she came up from, and goes to open it. Beyond is a rather narrow hallway, but other than feeling slightly claustrophobic, it's not bad.
"We'll head up to the living areas. Should I take the package, or do you hold onto it?"

Overhead there are coiled ladders, for when the fort isn't so accessible from the ground.
Old signs direct one to different parts of the fort: Cockpit, armory, hold, barracks, engine room, etc.
Newer signs point to where you might find people, and uses for the different areas: Lyra, Kestrel, Nurse, To Airlock, To Observatory, etc.

[Deathkeeper]

Skullfort

Mist looks around at the complex. Sheesh, he hopes that he doesn't get lost if he ever has to get somewhere without Leah to show him around.
"That sounds fine, Leah. And please, take it. It's yours." he says, gingerly holding out the parcel for Leah to take. He's very nervous about the whole thing. He hopes she likes it...

[Recaiden]

[Skullfort]

Leah turns and takes the parcel, very carefully. She leads the way through halls and up stairs to a point where the hall opens up onto a living room of sofas, tables, and shadowy potted plants.
"Oh, thank you, Mist."
With evident excitement, the parcel is opened.

[Deathkeeper]

Skullfort

Mist doesn't sit down on a sofa just yet. It's generally courteous to wait until the host says to sit down, or does so themselves. Considering Leah's body, the latter is unlikely for a while.

"You're welcome." he says quietly.

Inside the parcel is a crisp new black jacket. Similar to Mist's in color scheme, but cut in leather instead of cloth like his. It should be her size, and if not, very close to it. It's clearly had a lot of time and attention into making it. And inside that is a small wooden box containing a lightly curved, elegant knife, balanced perfectly for throwing. Engraved on the blade is: 信託

[Recaiden]

[Skullfort]

"Sit down if you'd like."
Leah draws out the jacket, admiring it. Oh, it's heavy. Something inside. A box! She sets it on the table for a moment, and slips the jacket on. Perfect fit! "This is beautiful."

And inside the box...she takes the knife out, looking at the engraving. She moves it from hand to hand, feeling the thing.
"'Trust'." Her smile grows wider. "Why that?"