MLP The Cycle 2: ETalUSUaSTWG 2 - The Good, the Bad and the Cutie: APØNYCALYPSE

[DigoDragon]

“Don't get me wrong, Dawn. I know even the princesses.....killed...some people. But what do you think is at the end of this other way? You and me beating kindness into the angels? I honestly don't have a better plan. But then again, I don't think we can fix Gildaea with just one visit. But I want to see what its like. And maybe....I dunno. Lay some groundwork. Show the angels their grand philosophy isnt so invulnerable.“

"I think you have to agree with me, that so far.. there isn't a complete dark and light situation in this world. It's seems everypony want to do the best, but it's keep ending up... the usual." she motioned toward the mirror.
If we surrender ourselves to the envirment of the game or what ever, we will just end up, continuing the Cycle. We must TRY to break the pattern!" Nobility raised her head and voice again, but.. begging.
"It's a dangerouse plan. I KNOW. But, here an angel offering us a foreleg.. or a paw? What ever he has! We can't turn it down! Do you really want to take on yourself, route that take us to route of genocide? Does it sound right to you?"

Dawn didn't like angels. She scrunched her nose at the thought of them. Those upright postures on two legs (which totally looked like their leg joints were on wrong, ugh) and the... tiny tentacle things that grew out of their flat, fleshy hooves. Plus, who was to say this offer of help wasn't a trap? Dawn had some creepy fanfiction to write when she gets back home. Maybe she'd be the next big thing since Lovecraft.

"If... if I had to choose between visiting the angels or going with the changeling's advice, I'd probably choose the changelings," Dawn speaks, slow and deliberate, "But... if I have to choose between the changelings and your crazy ideas... I'd probably pick y'all. So... guess we'll go to Gildaea."

[igordragonian]

Nobility pounced and hugged Dawn.
"Thank you! I know it's all scary and wierd.. but when we will get back.. I'll... buy you a spa!"
Nobility looked at Heart Mender. "I know you are new here, but you have to be prepared- It's gonna get a little weird, Gonna get a little wild. Stay close to us and you will be ok." She added.

[DigoDragon]

Nobility pounced and hugged Dawn.
"Thank you! I know it's all scary and wierd.. but when we will get back.. I'll... buy you a spa!"

Dawn made a slight noise not unlike a squeak toy when she got pounced. "You're... welcome? Uh... spa day sounds.... kinda cool?"

[The_Iron_Lord]

Nobility pounced and hugged Dawn.
"Thank you! I know it's all scary and wierd.. but when we will get back.. I'll... buy you a spa!"
Nobility looked at Heart Mender. "I know you are new here, but you have to be prepared- It's gonna get a little weird, Gonna get a little wild. Stay close to us and you will be ok." She added.

Heartmender laughs wryly. Yeah! I'll do my best... And hopefully I'll be actually useful too. I can probably patch up your wounds whenever you're hurt... And... Well, I'm glad we're trying for peace, 'cause I can't fight at all. She smiles sadly, then shrugs and asks, grinning You can afford to buy a spa!? Nice!

[Theoboldi]

Silver breaths a sigh of relief when Dawn agree to let sheer chaos and improvisation be the plan yet again. He knows his is not the most confidence-inspiring of ideas, and it makes him all the more thankful that Dawn trusts him and Nobility enough to go with it. He doesn't share in the hug, but shares a smile with Heartmender when the topic of her abilities comes up.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much. I've got the punching niche covered pretty well. Heck, I'm the only one with a weapon here." With a smirk, he adds "And yeah, that's Nobi for you. Some days, I wasn't sure why she didn't just buy Ponyville and had everypony else thrown out."

[igordragonian]

Nobility blinked.
'Well.. I actually never thought of--- ah. I actually did. Filthy Rich already own most of Poniville and he won't sell.' Nobility said with grunt

[Derjuin]

"Plan A, the FacePunch. Oookay," Dawn says with little expression, and accepting the answer at face value. Haha... face. No, she is not gonna stand in the way of that hoof.

"I honestly don't think our games are going to run close together at all. Nobility tried to befriend the angels and that plan ended in tears. Haven't been to Purgist." Dawn shrugs now and flicks her tail. "I would vote for Purgist, because I think if the meeting we just had with the angels here are their first impression, forget Gildaea."

"I guess that would be a little easier for you as ponies, if the angels aren't straight up attacking you on sight. We could barely talk to the angels at all, but from what we learned of their plans, trying to make friends with them ending in tears sounds appropriate," Roshanak says, frowning. The library behind her begins to move, and the shift in perspective means she's probably sitting down with the mirror somewhere. "Nobility - well, I don't want to actively discourage you guys from anything in particular, but... don't expect Metatrot to so quickly change his mind. On anything."

Silver glares back at Ereunike the whole time she is talking, his expression making it very clear that he's not convinced by a single word she is saying. He understands her reasons. Sure. But they still don't make anything that happened in their cycle right.

His piercing glare still persists by the time Roshanak takes over, though he manages to soften it a little for the newcomer. Only a little, though. Rosh also has gone along with what they did, after all.

Trying to figure out whether to visit the angel homeworld. Anything you can tell us to grab or check out while we're there? You know, a little help for the thief.“

"You'll want weapons and powers, if you have them. Gildaea's hostile and no joke. Unlike us, though, where we were harassed by angels everywhere we went, you'll probably end up only being imprisoned or tightly monitored. You might even stir up their leader, Metatrot, easier. I don't know if you're ready to fight him though, even with angel allies. There's a reason he's top grub." Roshanak shrugs and motions to her own weapon, a glowing knife that looks a bit like a changeling's horn as she talks about weapons and powers; it somehow seems to be an important item, perhaps to their Cycle.

Heartmender sways slightly, confused by the discussion. I have no idea what they're talking about...dang, what I wouldn't give for a recap "episode" right now. She looks a bit confused by Ereunike's answer to her, then realizes that both she and Silver thought that her question had been about ponies from other multiverses as opposed to multiverse-spanning communication devices. Ah well--I learned something anyways. The filly's eyes widen as the mirror appears to rotate violently on the other side. Blargh...that's weird looking. When the new changeling comes to the mirror, Heartmender smiles and says Hello! Nice to meet you--my name is Heartmender--aspiring medical pony...and the Witch of Blood, apparently.

"Oh! You're the one we wrote the letter to! Welcome!" Roshanak chirps with a smile, nodding quickly. "Sorry about how messy it was, by the way. Ereunike's been bored and we were running low on the magic ink, otherwise I'd have cleaned it up and rewritten it." She utters a quick chuckle under her breath, looking away.

"I think it's 'cleansing' the world of whatever they felt was wrong. Like, they imprisoned Princess Celestia. Yes, a Celestia just like ours back home!"

"That sounds about right. We released ...uh, 'Princess' Celestia from the seal and she - and Luna, too - helped us against the angels. I honestly didn't think we'd get their help, but they were much nicer than the angels, and much more accepting of who we are. Wait, you have a 'Celestia' back home, too? What? How?" Ro looks incredibly confused, suddenly buzzing in between Ponish words in her own language.

Dawn didn't like angels. She scrunched her nose at the thought of them. Those upright postures on two legs (which totally looked like their leg joints were on wrong, ugh) and the... tiny tentacle things that grew out of their flat, fleshy hooves. Plus, who was to say this offer of help wasn't a trap? Dawn had some creepy fanfiction to write when she gets back home. Maybe she'd be the next big thing since Lovecraft.

"If... if I had to choose between visiting the angels or going with the changeling's advice, I'd probably choose the changelings," Dawn speaks, slow and deliberate, "But... if I have to choose between the changelings and your crazy ideas... I'd probably pick y'all. So... guess we'll go to Gildaea."

"Be careful up there," Roshanak offers, putting a hoofy thing to the mirror. "You're, like, our only contact outside of this library. I'd hate to lose you. N-not, like, we have like a friendship or something, I guess, because we've still barely met. But like. You know? Stupid, stupid... that was so awkward..." She begins to blush and look away, her black carapaced cheeks glowing a deep green, and clears her throat.

Heartmender laughs wryly. Yeah! I'll do my best... And hopefully I'll be actually useful too. I can probably patch up your wounds whenever you're hurt... And... Well, I'm glad we're trying for peace, 'cause I can't fight at all. She smiles sadly, then shrugs and asks, grinning You can afford to buy a spa!? Nice!

"Eh-heh, don't worry about not being able to fight," Roshanak adds, giving a grin. Over the length of the conversations, her voice is slowly growing louder and louder. "To be honest our only good fighters are Ty and Ere. Xaxa, Ampy and myself are all pretty poor at it, though Xaxa and Ampy at least have magic. I just have to use my powers to dodge like a crazy grub. It's really exhausting," she says, and you hear shuffling behind her, along with some buzzing and then a sudden sharp intake of air.

And then there is a hideous screech of buzzing and hoofy-thingy stomping off-screen, and Roshanak lowers her head and frowns, her eyes wide. She turns away and yelps a few buzz-like sounds, looking despondent and apologetic, and you hear a new frenzy of buzzes. Ro turns back towards the viewpoint and rolls her eyes.

"I am so sorry, but I need to go calm Xanthena down. I'll be right back, okay? Don't cancel the connection please," she asks, then flits away from the mirror.

[DigoDragon]

Dawn puts a hoof up to the mirror to mimic Rosh and then adjusts herself to keep stable in the air. "Yeah back home we have a Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Guess we got a good deal on realities. Kinda helps here, if we'd actually take advantage of these easy serves..."

She turns to her group. "Okay, so some of us can't fight either, but looks like the bugs there got a bunch of neat gear and powers in their adventuring. We need to figure out how to get ours, cause if we don't find anything in Gildaea we're gonna get our collective flanks kicked and jailed."

[igordragonian]

Nobility listened, and had quite mixed feelings about the changlings.
Celestia claimed her to be wrong.
The Cycle Veterans said she is wrong...
Maybe she actually was?
No.
She know better than them. She feel it.

"I bet Elol can help us with that." she said to Dawn and turned to Heart Mender with a frown.
"You have recieved a letter, from them?"

[Theoboldi]

She turns to her group. "Okay, so some of us can't fight either, but looks like the bugs there got a bunch of neat gear and powers in their adventuring. We need to figure out how to get ours, cause if we don't find anything in Gildaea we're gonna get our collective flanks kicked and jailed."

Silver takes a look at the cape on his back, then at the broken sword on his chest, then the old, torn holster holding it in place.

"You all need to join operation 'Take everything that's not nailed down'. Sure, I've not found anything amazing yet, but there's gotta be some good stuff around the angel homeworld somewhere."

"I bet Elol can help us with that."

"That's a great idea." Silver confirms, turning towards the angel of mirth. "Got any more clues for us? I can't promise that we won't cause mass anarchy by what we'll do with them, but at least it should shake up the status quo." There's a smirk to his face as he adds that last part.

[DigoDragon]

"You all need to join operation 'Take everything that's not nailed down'. Sure, I've not found anything amazing yet, but there's gotta be some good stuff around the angel homeworld somewhere."

Dawn wrinkles her nose at the eclectic junk Silver has collected. "I... feel that there's gotta be a better way than just grabbing every broken item we come across. I hope Gildaea has something for us. We haven't even gotten a clue as to how we unlock our powers."

[The_Iron_Lord]

"I guess that would be a little easier for you as ponies, if the angels aren't straight up attacking you on sight. We could barely talk to the angels at all, but from what we learned of their plans, trying to make friends with them ending in tears sounds appropriate," Roshanak says, frowning. The library behind her begins to move, and the shift in perspective means she's probably sitting down with the mirror somewhere. "Nobility - well, I don't want to actively discourage you guys from anything in particular, but... don't expect Metatrot to so quickly change his mind. On anything."



"You'll want weapons and powers, if you have them. Gildaea's hostile and no joke. Unlike us, though, where we were harassed by angels everywhere we went, you'll probably end up only being imprisoned or tightly monitored. You might even stir up their leader, Metatrot, easier. I don't know if you're ready to fight him though, even with angel allies. There's a reason he's top grub." Roshanak shrugs and motions to her own weapon, a glowing knife that looks a bit like a changeling's horn as she talks about weapons and powers; it somehow seems to be an important item, perhaps to their Cycle.



"Oh! You're the one we wrote the letter to! Welcome!" Roshanak chirps with a smile, nodding quickly. "Sorry about how messy it was, by the way. Ereunike's been bored and we were running low on the magic ink, otherwise I'd have cleaned it up and rewritten it." She utters a quick chuckle under her breath, looking away.



"That sounds about right. We released ...uh, 'Princess' Celestia from the seal and she - and Luna, too - helped us against the angels. I honestly didn't think we'd get their help, but they were much nicer than the angels, and much more accepting of who we are. Wait, you have a 'Celestia' back home, too? What? How?" Ro looks incredibly confused, suddenly buzzing in between Ponish words in her own language.



"Be careful up there," Roshanak offers, putting a hoofy thing to the mirror. "You're, like, our only contact outside of this library. I'd hate to lose you. N-not, like, we have like a friendship or something, I guess, because we've still barely met. But like. You know? Stupid, stupid... that was so awkward..." She begins to blush and look away, her black carapaced cheeks glowing a deep green, and clears her throat.



"Eh-heh, don't worry about not being able to fight," Roshanak adds, giving a grin. Over the length of the conversations, her voice is slowly growing louder and louder. "To be honest our only good fighters are Ty and Ere. Xaxa, Ampy and myself are all pretty poor at it, though Xaxa and Ampy at least have magic. I just have to use my powers to dodge like a crazy grub. It's really exhausting," she says, and you hear shuffling behind her, along with some buzzing and then a sudden sharp intake of air.

And then there is a hideous screech of buzzing and hoofy-thingy stomping off-screen, and Roshanak lowers her head and frowns, her eyes wide. She turns away and yelps a few buzz-like sounds, looking despondent and apologetic, and you hear a new frenzy of buzzes. Ro turns back towards the viewpoint and rolls her eyes.

"I am so sorry, but I need to go calm Xanthena down. I'll be right back, okay? Don't cancel the connection please," she asks, then flits away from the mirror.

Heartmender grins. I bet we could be pretty persuasive though...And if all else fails...do you know if there's anything angels particularly desire--Metatrot in particular?

Heartmender purses her lips, then asks So how exactly are we supposed to unlock these powers? And--if you don't mind me asking--what's that knife? She peers at the mirror a bit more closely as she speaks.

Heartmender laughs. Yes, the letter was a bit confusing. But it makes sense now, so that's totally fine! It was pretty fun to read at least. Grinning, she nods to Roshanak's next words. Yeah, I guess we got lucky overall...

When Roshanak puts her hoof to the mirror, Heartmender puts her hoof in the corresponding point on our side. Of course we're friends! She smiles. Heh, she's so cute blushing like that! If one was paying particular attention, they might notice Heartmender's ears growing slightly red.

Heartmender is lost in thought for a moment, watching Roshanak speak uncomprehendingly, but returns to reality as soon as the changeling is excusing herself. W-We won't! she says quickly, with a slightly nervous grin.

Nobility listened, and had quite mixed feelings about the changlings.
Celestia claimed her to be wrong.
The Cycle Veterans said she is wrong...
Maybe she actually was?
No.
She know better than them. She feel it.

"I bet Elol can help us with that." she said to Dawn and turned to Heart Mender with a frown.
"You have recieved a letter, from them?"

The grey filly blinks, then turns to Nobility and says Yeah! Didn't you all? Or was that just me?

Silver takes a look at the cape on his back, then at the broken sword on his chest, then the old, torn holster holding it in place.

"You all need to join operation 'Take everything that's not nailed down'. Sure, I've not found anything amazing yet, but there's gotta be some good stuff around the angel homeworld somewhere."




"That's a great idea." Silver confirms, turning towards the angel of mirth. "Got any more clues for us? I can't promise that we won't cause mass anarchy by what we'll do with them, but at least it should shake up the status quo." There's a smirk to his face as he adds that last part.

Grinning wryly, Heartmender quips Heh--I'll do you one better, if we can find some pliers. I'll take the nails out, and loot it all!

[Derjuin]

Heartmender's Questions

Before Roshanak darts off, she quickly gives answers to your inquiries. "I couldn't tell you what angels want, really. They kept trying to kill us and turn the ponies against us. By the time we rescued Celestia, though, the ponies were pretty much on our side. Even when we fought Metatrot it seemed like he was just trying to get rid of us so he could keep doing his weird experiments on Gildaea. As for your powers - your Elements should help with that. And this knife? It's actually from my title. It's called the Slice of Light," she says, holding it up again. You see that it's changed slightly in shape - the holes in it have shifted positions, and Ro's whole body glimmers with pale yellow light for a second. "Shoot! I gotta go," she says, and then you hear frenzy of buzzes followed by an unearthly wail.

Everyone

"Now that you are without attention-grabbing friends -" Eloel comments upon seeing the mirror blank "- perhaps I can elaborate. They are changelings, fiends according to Metatrot's crusade. These monsters that are found outside of Purgist are put to the death, seen as being too dangerous and rebellious to exile back to the moon. Metatrot's crusade seeks not only to remove monsters from among ponykind's ranks, but also reform ponykind into loyal, 'dutiful' servants of the Great Will for which he is the Speaker. I and my agents believe he is misinterpreting the words of the Great Will. Of course, because he hears them himself, he will never be convinced he hears them wrong."

Suddenly, the viewpoint of the mirror in Silver's hooves begins to slowly turn, and you see the gentle mien of a curious changeling with a windswept mane and searching eyes.

"Uh... hello? Ponies? It's... uhm... Ampelios," the changeling whom you now recall is named Ampelios says, as he gazes into the mirror. The background seems to shift from the library's ceiling to the main chamber, and you can see Tychosus sitting and staring at his hoofy-things, Xanthena and Roshanak buzzing at each other, and some of presumably their belongings on the floor. Ereunike is nowhere to be found, though you realize now that the unearthly wail sounded much less like the sounds Xanthena and Roshanak are making, and was probably too high-pitched for either Ampelios or Tychosus to make.

And then the background shifts to a plain wall, with Ampelios resting against it. "I overheard from Roshanak that you wanted to learn how to get powers, and, well, no one else was saying it, so..." He looks about, his mane bouncing far more than you'd expect it to. It almost looks heroic, in a silly way.

"Usually after you spend a bit of time in Equinia, you get your first power. I don't remember getting my first, as it was a couple months ago for me. I also... I don't think my title gets any really good powers, but I'm certain I can make something of them." Ampelios shrugs and looks away for a second, closing his eyes. "But, yeah. According to an old scroll about a previous cycle, when you engage on a grand quest, your Elements unlock and you start gaining powers. We got ours when we went from Purgist to Gildaea. I wish I knew more about all this, but I still feel pretty in-the-dark. I'd put Xanthena on - she knows a bunch about it - but she's currently raging at Roshanak about something I'm trying to ignore..."

[igordragonian]

'Great Will?' Nobility repeated, trying to follow.


Nobilty wrinkled her snout. 'What is your element again?'

[Theoboldi]

"So, the leader of the angels is a minotaur? Honestly, that's the weirdest counterpart I've seen in this world yet." Silver notes, scratching his chin in thought. "So, this Great Will, who is he exactly? And why is Metatrot in charge of everything if he exists? Can't you just asked this Will dude?"

He pauses momentarily to answer Heartmender, saying "I think we all got one of those letters. The changelings are trying to contact anyone they can to help them with getting out of their situation." Smirking, he adds "I like your attitude, in any case. Soon, we'll be known as the phantom thieves of Equinia! Who have also learned carpentry!"

As the mirror turns back on, Silver finds himself startled for a moment, before he quickly turns around to the changelings. "Eek! We need to figure out a callsign before you do that again." Afterwards, he attentively listens to what Ampelios has to say, ears raised.

"Hrm....thanks for the info, in any case. Sounds like we've got at least one actually decent reason to go to Gildaea, then." He pauses for a moment, wondering if he should do this, but then decides to go ahead. "You know, Eloel is probably not gonna like me revealing this to you, but I think I've gotten a good picture of why the angels are acting the way they are. It seems like they're trying to build a kingdom of ponies, only ponies, who will then be servants of some kind of greater power that rules over them. Monsters, which appear to be all non-pony creatures, apparently are too rebellious for this servitude, so they get banished to Purgist. And any creatures who don't stay on purgist, well, they are hunted down and killed.

There's still lots that isn't clear to me yet, but I think you guys deserve to know at least that much. And also, that there are some angels who are opposed to this plan. At least in our world, where they still are alive."

Furrowing his brow at the constantly interrupting noise in the background of the changelings, he asks "What's going on with those two? You folks are all trapped inside that library with nopony else, shouldn't you be trying to get along?"

[The_Iron_Lord]

Heartmender's Questions

Before Roshanak darts off, she quickly gives answers to your inquiries. "I couldn't tell you what angels want, really. They kept trying to kill us and turn the ponies against us. By the time we rescued Celestia, though, the ponies were pretty much on our side. Even when we fought Metatrot it seemed like he was just trying to get rid of us so he could keep doing his weird experiments on Gildaea. As for your powers - your Elements should help with that. And this knife? It's actually from my title. It's called the Slice of Light," she says, holding it up again. You see that it's changed slightly in shape - the holes in it have shifted positions, and Ro's whole body glimmers with pale yellow light for a second. "Shoot! I gotta go," she says, and then you hear frenzy of buzzes followed by an unearthly wail.

Everyone

"Now that you are without attention-grabbing friends -" Eloel comments upon seeing the mirror blank "- perhaps I can elaborate. They are changelings, fiends according to Metatrot's crusade. These monsters that are found outside of Purgist are put to the death, seen as being too dangerous and rebellious to exile back to the moon. Metatrot's crusade seeks not only to remove monsters from among ponykind's ranks, but also reform ponykind into loyal, 'dutiful' servants of the Great Will for which he is the Speaker. I and my agents believe he is misinterpreting the words of the Great Will. Of course, because he hears them himself, he will never be convinced he hears them wrong."

Suddenly, the viewpoint of the mirror in Silver's hooves begins to slowly turn, and you see the gentle mien of a curious changeling with a windswept mane and searching eyes.

"Uh... hello? Ponies? It's... uhm... Ampelios," the changeling whom you now recall is named Ampelios says, as he gazes into the mirror. The background seems to shift from the library's ceiling to the main chamber, and you can see Tychosus sitting and staring at his hoofy-things, Xanthena and Roshanak buzzing at each other, and some of presumably their belongings on the floor. Ereunike is nowhere to be found, though you realize now that the unearthly wail sounded much less like the sounds Xanthena and Roshanak are making, and was probably too high-pitched for either Ampelios or Tychosus to make.

And then the background shifts to a plain wall, with Ampelios resting against it. "I overheard from Roshanak that you wanted to learn how to get powers, and, well, no one else was saying it, so..." He looks about, his mane bouncing far more than you'd expect it to. It almost looks heroic, in a silly way.

"Usually after you spend a bit of time in Equinia, you get your first power. I don't remember getting my first, as it was a couple months ago for me. I also... I don't think my title gets any really good powers, but I'm certain I can make something of them." Ampelios shrugs and looks away for a second, closing his eyes. "But, yeah. According to an old scroll about a previous cycle, when you engage on a grand quest, your Elements unlock and you start gaining powers. We got ours when we went from Purgist to Gildaea. I wish I knew more about all this, but I still feel pretty in-the-dark. I'd put Xanthena on - she knows a bunch about it - but she's currently raging at Roshanak about something I'm trying to ignore..."

Heartmender initially looks at Eloel with growing disgust, before realizing that he's only repeating his fellows' doctrine--not stating it as fact. She still looks a bit uneasy though. The "Great Will"? What is that exactly? Sounds like some kind of religious crusade is going down here...

When the mirror's viewpoint changes, Heartmender glances over and pauses for a moment, then grins. Hello Ampelios! I'm Heartmender... she trails off, looking worriedly behind the curly-maned changeling. Are they all right? Is Roshanak okay? The grey filly's ears flatten slightly.

Though rather distracted, Heartmender replies to Ampelios's helpful comment on the powers. So... We basically just have to wait and do some heroic questing work or something?

"So, the leader of the angels is a minotaur? Honestly, that's the weirdest counterpart I've seen in this world yet." Silver notes, scratching his chin in thought. "So, this Great Will, who is he exactly? And why is Metatrot in charge of everything if he exists? Can't you just asked this Will dude?"

He pauses momentarily to answer Heartmender, saying "I think we all got one of those letters. The changelings are trying to contact anyone they can to help them with getting out of their situation." Smirking, he adds "I like your attitude, in any case. Soon, we'll be known as the phantom thieves of Equinia! Who have also learned carpentry!"

As the mirror turns back on, Silver finds himself startled for a moment, before he quickly turns around to the changelings. "Eek! We need to figure out a callsign before you do that again." Afterwards, he attentively listens to what Ampelios has to say, ears raised.

"Hrm....thanks for the info, in any case. Sounds like we've got at least one actually decent reason to go to Gildaea, then." He pauses for a moment, wondering if he should do this, but then decides to go ahead. "You know, Eloel is probably not gonna like me revealing this to you, but I think I've gotten a good picture of why the angels are acting the way they are. It seems like they're trying to build a kingdom of ponies, only ponies, who will then be servants of some kind of greater power that rules over them. Monsters, which appear to be all non-pony creatures, apparently are too rebellious for this servitude, so they get banished to Purgist. And any creatures who don't stay on purgist, well, they are hunted down and killed.

There's still lots that isn't clear to me yet, but I think you guys deserve to know at least that much. And also, that there are some angels who are opposed to this plan. At least in our world, where they still are alive."

Furrowing his brow at the constantly interrupting noise in the background of the changelings, he asks "What's going on with those two? You folks are all trapped inside that library with nopony else, shouldn't you be trying to get along?"

Heartmender looks surprised. Metatrot is a Minotaur? Huh...I guess that does make sense with the name...

Her confident grin returns slightly as she says Yeah! Though I should probably actually learn how to do... Y'know, stealth... First. her grin becomes slightly sheepish.

She listens to Silver's explaination of Metatrot's plan silently, nodding along, then lets her worried expression show through at the pegasus colt's last question. Yeah... Is everything all right?

[DigoDragon]

Oh joy. The changelings got powers going from Purgist to Gildaea. Now there's fuel to fire this crazy idea to skip out on the monster world and get right to the angel world. Ugh, this is like skipping Prisoner of Azkaban for Goblet of Fire. Why can't they go back to their own library tower and do a little more research now that they know what to look up?

Oh right, she's probably the only egghead on the team.

[Derjuin]

"The Great Will. It is a consciousness above our own, which created angels to enforce its Order upon Equinia. How we go about enforcing the Order is largely predicated on what it speaks to Metatrot, but recently Mastema doubted that this Crusade is actually the work of the Great Will and not Metatrot's own machinations." Eloel explains, shaking his head. "The Great Will doesn't actually have a material manifestation - it is a being beyond flesh. Communication with the Great Will can only be done through Metatrot, as he is the voice. So you can likely see the issue here," Eloel holds his weird hand things out, as if making a gesture his kind uses, though it looks oddly alien.

In the mirror, you see Ampelios' ear-stem-thingers twitch. The buzzing behind him quiets down and it's much easier to hear him. "Ah, my aspect is Heart. I'm the Page of Heart," he says, looking pointedly at Nobility. "Honestly, though, if you're trying to get your powers by going to Gildaea, I don't think it really works like that. I-I mean... you can still go. I can't actually stop you. But if your goal is just to make your powers work, it might not help."

As Silver explains about the angels, Ampelios nods and closes his eyes. "Yeah... I think I was the only one who really got into the lore. Ro and Xanthena seemed like they wanted to learn about their powers and winning, but not really about the world and how everything worked together. They ended up reading up on it with me in the Library, though I knew a lot already. Ereunike sometimes wanted to learn about it, but later she seemed really distracted. Ty... well, I don't know. It seemed like he only cared enough when I asked him about it, but then he just gave up or whatever."

Looking over his shoulder, Ampelios' wings twitch for a second. In the background, you see Roshanak and Xanthena looking through the pile, with Xanthena occasionally making a loud buzz and gesturing to Roshanak with a hoofy-thing. Ty is still sitting there looking at his own, and Ereunike is still nowhere in the scene. "Well, normally we're good. We all try to get along and for the most part it's pretty easy, even though we're from different hives. And... yeah, Xanthena can be really overdramatic sometimes. Even more than Ereunike, which is insane because if you knew her from back home... yeah," Ampelios says with a sigh, turning back toward the mirror. "Once we got stuck in here, we piled our stuff together, including our elements. Xanthena wanted us to make sure they were all together in case we needed them when-slash-if we leave. And... now they're gone. Neither Ro nor Xanthena know where they are... I already told them I don't, and Ty is... being Ty. They can't find Ereunike, either, but saw her fly away after she found the mirror. I wonder what she's up to?"

He scratches his head, looks about, and then whips back to the mirror when he hears Heartmender say his name. "Oh, uh, hello! Yeah. The old scroll said that 'when the Prophecied heroes begin their grand quest, the elements shall come to their aid.' For us, that was when we decided we were going to free Equinia from the Angels' tyranny. Ro found her dagger on Purgist, and it sort of snowballed from there." Again, he looks over his shoulder, and with his head out of the way, you see Roshanak and Xanthena approaching each other, looking calmer. "Yeah, they should be fine. Ro and Xanthena are a good team - they bounce off each other really well." He smiles - for the first time in the conversation - and watches them for a minute. He barks something to them in that buzzy changeling language, and while you hear a response, you can't really understand it.

"Ro and Xanthena are gonna take a break for a bit, which I guess means they're done talking for now. I don't know where Ereunike is... and I doubt Ty will talk, after all this time. Did you ponies need anything else?" Ampelios looks to Dawn in particular, curious again.

[DigoDragon]

"Ro and Xanthena are gonna take a break for a bit, which I guess means they're done talking for now. I don't know where Ereunike is... and I doubt Ty will talk, after all this time. Did you ponies need anything else?" Ampelios looks to Dawn in particular, curious again.

"What did you do to get to Purgist?" Dawn asks.

[igordragonian]

Nobility tilted her head.
She felt sort of connection to Ampelios- after all, they shared an element. It was something.

She was angry at the monstrouse action they took.. but she couldn't release the feeling it wasn't Ampelios's will at all, and just like everypony in this dimension what ever thing, they tried to do the right thing, by doing something terrible. She.. couldn't be apathic to what she has seen before her.
'Umm.. it doesn't sound like you are fine. Not at all.' she looked worried, and then stomped.
'Your team is breaking apart! You have to do something, or you are done for!" she yelled.

[DigoDragon]

"Ow. Dude, inside voice," Dawn said with folded ears.

[Theoboldi]

"She's right though." Silver notes, nodding solemnly. "Looks like all that time locked in the library is taking a toll on them." He crosses his hooves for a moment, appearing to be in thought, then looks back at Ampelios.

"You know, I'm just wondering. Why did you decide to go on such a grand quest to free Equinia if you all think it's not real anyways? Couldn't you have just searched for Elysium and gone home?"

Knowing that his endless curiosity in the businesses of other people probably will do little to help, he afterwards adds "That shield of yours, is it both ways? Could Ereunike have gone outside?"

[DigoDragon]

"Though they kinda trapped themselves, didn't they?" Dawn whispers.

[Theoboldi]

"Though they kinda trapped themselves, didn't they?" Dawn whispers.

“Yeah, completely. No need to rub it in, though.“

[DigoDragon]

“Yeah, completely. No need to rub it in, though.“

"Just organizing my facts," Dawn whispers back.

[The_Iron_Lord]

"The Great Will. It is a consciousness above our own, which created angels to enforce its Order upon Equinia. How we go about enforcing the Order is largely predicated on what it speaks to Metatrot, but recently Mastema doubted that this Crusade is actually the work of the Great Will and not Metatrot's own machinations." Eloel explains, shaking his head. "The Great Will doesn't actually have a material manifestation - it is a being beyond flesh. Communication with the Great Will can only be done through Metatrot, as he is the voice. So you can likely see the issue here," Eloel holds his weird hand things out, as if making a gesture his kind uses, though it looks oddly alien.

In the mirror, you see Ampelios' ear-stem-thingers twitch. The buzzing behind him quiets down and it's much easier to hear him. "Ah, my aspect is Heart. I'm the Page of Heart," he says, looking pointedly at Nobility. "Honestly, though, if you're trying to get your powers by going to Gildaea, I don't think it really works like that. I-I mean... you can still go. I can't actually stop you. But if your goal is just to make your powers work, it might not help."

As Silver explains about the angels, Ampelios nods and closes his eyes. "Yeah... I think I was the only one who really got into the lore. Ro and Xanthena seemed like they wanted to learn about their powers and winning, but not really about the world and how everything worked together. They ended up reading up on it with me in the Library, though I knew a lot already. Ereunike sometimes wanted to learn about it, but later she seemed really distracted. Ty... well, I don't know. It seemed like he only cared enough when I asked him about it, but then he just gave up or whatever."

Looking over his shoulder, Ampelios' wings twitch for a second. In the background, you see Roshanak and Xanthena looking through the pile, with Xanthena occasionally making a loud buzz and gesturing to Roshanak with a hoofy-thing. Ty is still sitting there looking at his own, and Ereunike is still nowhere in the scene. "Well, normally we're good. We all try to get along and for the most part it's pretty easy, even though we're from different hives. And... yeah, Xanthena can be really overdramatic sometimes. Even more than Ereunike, which is insane because if you knew her from back home... yeah," Ampelios says with a sigh, turning back toward the mirror. "Once we got stuck in here, we piled our stuff together, including our elements. Xanthena wanted us to make sure they were all together in case we needed them when-slash-if we leave. And... now they're gone. Neither Ro nor Xanthena know where they are... I already told them I don't, and Ty is... being Ty. They can't find Ereunike, either, but saw her fly away after she found the mirror. I wonder what she's up to?"

He scratches his head, looks about, and then whips back to the mirror when he hears Heartmender say his name. "Oh, uh, hello! Yeah. The old scroll said that 'when the Prophecied heroes begin their grand quest, the elements shall come to their aid.' For us, that was when we decided we were going to free Equinia from the Angels' tyranny. Ro found her dagger on Purgist, and it sort of snowballed from there." Again, he looks over his shoulder, and with his head out of the way, you see Roshanak and Xanthena approaching each other, looking calmer. "Yeah, they should be fine. Ro and Xanthena are a good team - they bounce off each other really well." He smiles - for the first time in the conversation - and watches them for a minute. He barks something to them in that buzzy changeling language, and while you hear a response, you can't really understand it.

"Ro and Xanthena are gonna take a break for a bit, which I guess means they're done talking for now. I don't know where Ereunike is... and I doubt Ty will talk, after all this time. Did you ponies need anything else?" Ampelios looks to Dawn in particular, curious again.

Heartmender listens attentively to Eloel's clarification, then speaks, a slightly confused expression on her face So... Nopo--no one else can contact this "Great Will" other than Metatrot? That's certainly problematic... Is there any potential alternative? It seems like that might help solve your problems...

As Ampelios begins to speak, Heartmender turns her attention to the mirror. She wobbles slightly in midair, but manages to stabilize herself with greater ease than earlier--practice makes perfect and all that. She listens passively as the changeling talks--her ears flick forward when he mentions Roshanak, but otherwise she doesn't say anything. Then Ampelios says how their element are "lost". Heartmender scrunches up her muzzle in thought, then asks How can you lose your Elements? I thought they were just intrinsic? Is it different for changelings, or...? she trails off, looking confused.

The grey filly looks slightly disappointed when she hears that Roshanak probably won't be talking anymore, ears folding down, but Ampelios's off-hoof mention of Ty not speaking intrigues her What do you mean, "after all this time"?

Nobility tilted her head.
She felt sort of connection to Ampelios- after all, they shared an element. It was something.

She was angry at the monstrouse action they took.. but she couldn't release the feeling it wasn't Ampelios's will at all, and just like everypony in this dimension what ever thing, they tried to do the right thing, by doing something terrible. She.. couldn't be apathic to what she has seen before her.
'Umm.. it doesn't sound like you are fine. Not at all.' she looked worried, and then stomped.
'Your team is breaking apart! You have to do something, or you are done for!" she yelled.

Heartmender looks slightly surprised at Nobility's intensity, but nods all the same. She is right...and who would save your Equinia if something happened to your group? But more importantly-- Heartmender assumes a look of worry Who would help your friends?

"She's right though." Silver notes, nodding solemnly. "Looks like all that time locked in the library is taking a toll on them." He crosses his hooves for a moment, appearing to be in thought, then looks back at Ampelios.

"You know, I'm just wondering. Why did you decide to go on such a grand quest to free Equinia if you all think it's not real anyways? Couldn't you have just searched for Elysium and gone home?"

Knowing that his endless curiosity in the businesses of other people probably will do little to help, he afterwards adds "That shield of yours, is it both ways? Could Ereunike have gone outside?"

Heartmender looks curious, one ear up and one flicking down at Silver's last question. What shield? Is that what's keeping them inside the library?

[Derjuin]

Ampelios taps his chin with a hoofy-thing, looking up. "We used this giant flying stone platform, I think it used to belong to the Starcutter pony? We found it in Nocturne, under the huge mountain with the shrine to Luna on it. We found the Element of Life just outside Starcutter's tower, and found out about the "ship" from Princess Lily." He recounts, nodding his head. "I don't know if you'll be able to do the same, though; I heard your session's not like ours, you might not be able to get the Element of Life that way."

"But if you've already helped Celestia and Luna, they could probably get you there. It's a bit farther away from Equinia than Gildaea is."

At Nobility's outburst, Ampelios' ear-stems flatten, and his head sinks. "I... I don't know. Th-they all say they're fine," he says, motioning over his shoulder. "E-except... Ereunike... but I don't like talking to her much," he mumbles, sinking into a laying position. "Sometimes she's really cool to talk to. Other times she's really scary. I d-don't want to make her mad," he says, biting the equivalent of his lips (though the carapace nature of his body prevents the lip from actually being bitten). "I-I'll let Ro talk to her - yeah, Ro knows how to talk to Ereunike. She's brave and a girl and strong enough to not be afraid of her."

Looking to Silver, he regains a bit of his composure. "W-well... yeah, being stuck here isn't the best thing. Like, you want to be around your friends, but not thirty-eight-four. You know? Some of us need private time, especially me... but I thought Ereunike and Roshanak would love it. They loved hanging out with us and talking a bunch."

"Ah, it's not quite that easy though..." Ampelios says to Silver's first question, tucking his legs under him. "I wanted us to do that, to just go home. It was too much for me at first. Please don't tell Ro or Ereunike I said that, please please please," he says, giving you a shy smile. "You have to do all these quests and stuff to unlock Elysius. It's actually literally locked up by magic, and can't open even if you try to pry it with magic. Just getting to it is a challenge; it's so far away from even the moons."

"Ereunike was actually the one who wanted us to check out Purgist, to check on the monsters. While she, Xanthena and Ro just thought of this as another Ex.A.R.P. game, Ty and I had never really played one before. Xanthena in particular, I don't think she played as often as Ereunike and Ro did. I think we went through all the quests just to finish the game, but the others might have had some other reason to keep going. I'm not sure."

"Ah, the shield? It's just Starcutter's WMZ - the, uh, Weird Magic Zone. The demon can't enter the library because of it, and that's all that's left of the tower now. We can 'leave' whenever we want, but that horrible demon is out there..." Ampelios shudders, shaking his head. "I don't think she'd leave."

At Heartmender's question, Ampelios sits up again, holding a hoofy-thing out to the side, towards the pile of treasure behind him. "All the elements are inside us, yeah, but they also have physical manifestations. Anyone can "use" the physical manifestation to get some of the powers, but they're temporary and not at all as powerful as when the element is used by its Bearer. Like, I'm the Page of Heart, bearer of the element of Heart." He traces a hoof on the ground, looking a bit upset, then he shrugs. "Eh. It's not like them missing really changes much, we can't use them in here anyway. The WMZ..." he says, looking up, though the mirror's viewpoint doesn't change.

"Oh, Ty went silent about two months back. We were four months into our run when we had to split the team; Ty and Ereunike went I think to Equinia? And we stayed on Gildaea. When they came back, Ty was silent and Ereunike seemed really upset, but she didn't want to talk about it. She kept brushing us off about it, so we figured it was best not to," he says with a shrug, looking defeated. "I mean, Ereunike is a really strong changeling. Ro kept telling me not to worry, because she could get over it. I... to be completely honest, this is the first time I've thought about it since it happened. Ty hasn't said anything still, so we don't know what happened, and Ereunike won't talk to us about it. I'm... I don't really like her, so it wasn't really something I thought about a lot," he says, looking away.

"Oh, our Equinia was saved before the demon attacked, but now I guess it's destroyed... but technically we have what we need to win. Ro has the World Seed, so we just need to open Elysius and use that, and we can go home. But... I'm pretty sure the demon would destroy Elysius if we unlocked it. As for who'd help us... well, we were kind of hoping you ponies could," He says, giving you an oddly pleading, toothy smile.

When Heartmender asks a question of Eloel, he nods.

"It is possible for another angel to hear the words of the Great Will, but Metatrot must be destroyed first. Otherwise, he remains the Voice. As I said, we believe we have sufficient evidence that Metatrot isn't actually speaking the word of the Great Will, but rather is enacting his own agenda. Such failure can't be tolerated if we are to truly spread the Order."

[Theoboldi]

Silver nods solemnly. Though he has a hard time keeping up with all the new information he keeps being presented with, he knows one thing.

"It sounds like you're really afraid of Ereunike. And like she hasn't been a very good friend throughout all of this." He gives a sigh, then stares back at the wavering changeling. "I can't claim to know exactly how your relationships work. But whatever is going on, you shouldn't feel afraid of one another. You should...well, you should trust each other. And not act like she does.

Whatever her reasons, she's causing trouble for everypo-...uh, everychangeling around her."

Having said that, he pauses momentarily. When he continues, his tone is still slightly somber.

"What's that thing you talked about, Exarp? Is that some kind of console?"

To Eloel, he says "You sound like you really trust this Great Will. But if Metatrot really is misinterpreting it, we can't let him stay in charge any longer. What's the Great Will's end goal, though?"

[DigoDragon]

"Equina destroyed, Gildea destroyed... well they're certainly consistent," Dawn says to Silver. She makes a mental note to ask Princess Lily about Nocturne and the ship at some point later.

Dawn turns to Heartmender. "Yeah, they have some kind of magic shield in the library to keep this summoned monster out. They can't defeat it so they're stuck there until another option comes up."

[Derjuin]

Silver nods solemnly. Though he has a hard time keeping up with all the new information he keeps being presented with, he knows one thing.

"It sounds like you're really afraid of Ereunike. And like she hasn't been a very good friend throughout all of this." He gives a sigh, then stares back at the wavering changeling. "I can't claim to know exactly how your relationships work. But whatever is going on, you shouldn't feel afraid of one another. You should...well, you should trust each other. And not act like she does.

Whatever her reasons, she's causing trouble for everypo-...uh, everychangeling around her."

Having said that, he pauses momentarily. When he continues, his tone is still slightly somber.

"What's that thing you talked about, Exarp? Is that some kind of console?"

To Eloel, he says "You sound like you really trust this Great Will. But if Metatrot really is misinterpreting it, we can't let him stay in charge any longer. What's the Great Will's end goal, though?"

"I don't know," Ampelios says, scratching at the floor. "None of the others are afraid of her, and it's not like she picks on me. It's just sometimes, she's loud and dramatic and tries to take charge and gets mad easily." After a few moments, he stands up, now standing over the mirror. Somehow, he doesn't seem much larger from this angle.

"O-oh, Ex.A.R.P.? It's a game for mostly girls back home. It's a powerful spell-game that simulates an ancient story and you get to fight your way through its challenges, just like ancient changelings did. There are some more fantastical ones in it, but most of them are based on history. Guys like me and Tychosus don't usually play; we had our own stuff to do. Like make music," he says, pulling out a small set of panpipes, dark grey in color with seemingly randomly-sized and placed holes. "...And stuff."

Waiting for Silver to finish, Ampelios scratches his chin. "You know... Xanthena is still wondering if Ereunike is actually okay. I don't think Ro actually cares... which, makes me think, maybe I should check on her. On Ere, I mean," Ampelios says, suddenly looking up as you hear a faint gasp in the background. After a moment of searching, he turns his attention back to the mirror. "Sorry, I thought I heard Ereunike say something. Thanks, Silver... I think I see what I need to do."

******


"That is one of the problems. We do not hear the Great Will's voice, so we are in the dark as to the Great Will's end-game. My brethren believe Metatrot's millennium kingdom agenda is his own, but we cannot so far as guess as to what the Great Will's is."