Ponaria: Symphony of the Neigh [IC II]

[McNum]

Lady Applesauce wibbles a little, but doesn't argue. "Well, if you're sure... I can show you how to be submissive and what not to say, which is most things, in his presence. Make him feel like he's always right and he won't hurt you much."

Beryl nods and listens, getting a feel for her upcoming opponent. "...I think I know the type." she adds thoughtfully. "I hate dealing with ponies like that, but hopefully we can make him think that what we want him to do is his own idea. That's usually the way to go for this."

She adds "I used to handle unruly guests back at out family bakery. And since we got guests from the Crystal Guard, some of them were quite... yeah. Some ponies shouldn't ever have power over others."

"The little bakery on 33rd usually gives away their previous-day unsold bagels free with the purchase of a cup of coffee," Pike helpfully adds.

This somewhat calms Beryl's inner voices down a bit. Bagels DO have value, but day-old bagels are better used like this, yes. "That's smart. You don't waste cakes, and you get a good reputation."

[Fable Wright]

Spirit nodded. "This is why he gets a long-term curse placed on him. He won't seek repentance on his own, so his penance will seek him. Still, if we're all settled, shall we head off?"

[Beacon of Chaos]

Spirit nodded. "Still, if we're all settled, shall we head off?"

Frostbite nods, his saddlebags already on. "Sure, let's go."

[McNum]

Frostbite nods, his saddlebags already on. "Sure, let's go."

"We need to get Midnight and Ace on the way." Beryl adds. "Oh, and I'll make that travel bread in the mornings like last time."

[DigoDragon]

"I am as ready as Apple Pie," Lady Applesauce cheers, ready to follow the group.


Pike nods. "Good luck to your journey."

---

For Brevity's sake, Midnight and Ace bump into your merry little group on the streets as you both were moving in near-crossing paths. Ace looks a little tired, mostly from his harrowing experience of what Arendale passes for "Good Cop Bad Cop" during his brief, but scary interrogation on what he might have seen when Sheila and the other pony were found dead. Ace, for his part, had only wandered accidentally to the scene as it was already under investigation, but luckily he was let go, not being any pony of interest to the local authority.

The little wizard relates what he found out about the Horseshoe Crab Festival-- it's several days of city-wide partying, indulgence, and debauchery (within reasonable lines). Ponies come from all over to celebrate the first horseshoe crab catch of the season and have a load of fun. Interestingly, the Trent family doesn't really participate, usually just reserving themselves to private parties in their mansion or at one of a number of their businesses. They tend to just stay out of the way.

Ace of course noticed the bright bubblegum pink mane pony that wasn't with the group before he parted ways for the day.

[McNum]

Beryl greets Ace and Midnight with a smile, and introduces them to Lady Applesauce and that she's going to help, but does leave out the details, promising to tell that later.

"It's going to be three days each way, so be ready for a rough march." she says. "We'll have to stay on our hooves, just in case."

[Fable Wright]

Spirit looked troubled. "Please tell me that the festival is celebrating the harvest of horseshoe crab eggs, rather than killing the actual crabs. They're almost literally all shell, and besides, their blood is an extraordinarily useful reagent for healing potions—killing them instead of bleeding them is just wasteful, and would rapidly lead to depopulation."

[McNum]

Beryl looks a little confused at what Spirit is objecting to, but tries to see if she can explain. "Spirit, ponies do odd things for money. If somepony is willing to pay for crabs, somepony is going to catch them. Sure, crabs might be difficult to get anything useful out of, but that just makes crab stuff rare. And expensive. I wouldn't surprised at all if many ponies here sell crab stuff as their job. That would explain why the harvest is celebrated so much."

"Anyway..." she adds trying to transition the conversation. Her expression settling into a more serious one "We should get moving. We have a long way to go and exactly the amount of time we need to do it. Be ready for anything."

[Fable Wright]

Beryl looks a little confused at what Spirit is objecting to, but tries to see if she can explain. "Spirit, ponies do odd things for money. If somepony is willing to pay for crabs, somepony is going to catch them. Sure, crabs might be difficult to get anything useful out of, but that just makes crab stuff rare. And expensive. I wouldn't surprised at all if many ponies here sell crab stuff as their job. That would explain why the harvest is celebrated so much."

Spirit looked confused. "No, I mean this literally. I have seen Horseshoe crab prepared in odd spots up and down the coast, and the only bit I have seen even the connoisseurs eat from an actual cooked crabs are eggs clinging to the underside of the boiled crab's shell. A large 'harvest' of them seems wasteful, unsustainable, and significantly more difficult than just digging up the hundreds of thousands of eggs they deposit at the shoreline. The roe is tasty, purported to be an aphrodisiac, and moderately rare, but a lot easier to get from the beach than from the shell of a still-living crab. Hence my concerns over the practices involved in the festival."

[DigoDragon]

"It's going to be three days each way, so be ready for a rough march." she says. "We'll have to stay on our hooves, just in case."

Ace gives a concerned look, as the idea of marching three days was exhausting to just think about.

Spirit looked troubled. "Please tell me that the festival is celebrating the harvest of horseshoe crab eggs, rather than killing the actual crabs. They're almost literally all shell, and besides, their blood is an extraordinarily useful reagent for healing potions—killing them instead of bleeding them is just wasteful, and would rapidly lead to depopulation."

Lady Applesauce held up a hoof. "Some crabs are eaten, but few are into eating crunchy incrustation The population should be safe. More so you'll find a lot of farm produce being killed and boiled alive to make dishes. Quite the slaughter and sight of vegetable guts everywhere. There is a Horseshoe Crab race if you want to get in on the betting pools there. Oh and grape juice making for your unicorn foal there."

"Excuse me?" Ace replied with a miffed expression.

[Fable Wright]

Spirit raised a hoof, then put it back to his lip, considering.

"...Would I be allowed to bet on myself in the race? And are giant horseshoe crabs considered legal entrants?"

[One Tin Soldier]

As the Horseshoe Crab Festival is explained, Midnight decides against explaining his misunderstanding of what the festival was all about. How was he supposed to know what a crab was?

Spirit raised a hoof, then put it back to his lip, considering.

"...Would I be allowed to bet on myself in the race? And are giant horseshoe crabs considered legal entrants?"

"Hey, if you do that, I want to bet on you too. I'm a fan of easy money."

[McNum]

"And then it turns out that every racing crab is a transformed Druid! Surprise!" Beryl adds with a small laugh.

"I hope everything works out so we can go to that festival..." Beryl's thoughts stray to the strange dreams everypony had "I have a weird feeling about that."

[DigoDragon]

"...Would I be allowed to bet on myself in the race? And are giant horseshoe crabs considered legal entrants?"

"Hey, if you do that, I want to bet on you too. I'm a fan of easy money."

"And then it turns out that every racing crab is a transformed Druid! Surprise!" Beryl adds with a small laugh.

"That actually happened two years ago," Applesauce replied to the party. "They created a separate race for druids just to keep it fair. Poor little crabs didn't stand a chance."

[McNum]

"That actually happened two years ago," Applesauce replied to the party. "They created a separate race for druids just to keep it fair. Poor little crabs didn't stand a chance."

Beryl looks at Applesauce with an amused expression. "...and here I was only kidding." She looks to Spirit and asks "Think you can win the Druid-crab race?" a brief pause and she adds "Now that race sounds like a lot of fun to watch."

[Fable Wright]

Spirit smiles and shakes his head. "I have absolutely no idea, and quite frankly, I'd probably lose if anyone on Azurah's level arrived. Nonetheless, I wouldn't miss it for the world; Druidic networking activities are so hard to come by in these parts."

[McNum]

"Somepony like Azurah... or Azurah herself. A Druid race would be something she'd want to do, I think." Beryl muses and adds. "Anyway, we should get out of here if we're all ready?"

Beryl then looks to Lady Applesauce. "Um... which way do we go?"

[DigoDragon]

Lady Applesauce leads the way out through the town gates and eastward along the road. "We're going to have to hustle if we want to get there in good time. So we'll have to keep meals and sleep schedules as short as we can. It'll be tiring, but we can make it. I've seen some of Pike's soldiers make it there in back within a week."

The sun is hanging low in the sky as your trek begins. Many farmers and dwellers in the little villages outside the main city are making their way back out as well toward their homes.

[Fable Wright]

Spirit, sitting in the back of his cart along with anyone willing to trade the stench of alchemy for a chance to get off tired legs, paid little attention to the passing villagers as he tried to distill his ingredients into a potent Potion of Dryad's Splendor, its importance having jumped up substantially along his priority list. As he reached a break in his crafting process, he poked his head out towards Lady Applesauce. "I will need to practice being you for the whole trip up here. To do that, I'm going to need to get in your head. Looking at the road, traveling with a party, and heading out to the prison to negotiate the release of prisoners: What are your feelings on each of these matters? Your feelings towards meeting your dad again after all this time? Memories that this experience dregs up? Thoughts and feelings on a stranger imitating you, and my posing you these questions? I apologize for the invasion of privacy, but I can only get so far imitating your voice, gait, and physical mannerisms."

[McNum]

Beryl politely greets the other ponies on the road with a nod and a smile. No need to be unfriendly just because she's in a hurry.

She tries to get a read off of the other ponies, just to see if there's anything unexpected going on. Anxious ponies or emotions that seems out of place.

Insight (Is everypony acting like normal?): (1d20+2)[20]