Silver chuckled. "Perhaps he dragged himself in. Maya... Dusty... what about you? You have not seen our late friend the Architect lately, have you?"
Dusty shook his head. "No. I've not seen him return." "Yet," Maya added. "Yes, I do think he'll be back. Hopefully without the keter class army."
Nightshade tapped Silver on the shoulder. "That was Edmond, his buddy. Smells kinda like him. Talks kinda like him. Not him though. Wouldn't it be nice if the guy writing this would stop making these stupid mistakes?"
Wonder how the other guys are doing... he wondered, sipping his wine. Finishing the rest of it, he started to go over to the booth where Maya and a few others were talking about whatever.
"Az." Raven waved the dead stallion over. "Come hold the baby in your big, strong hooves." Azrael sighed. "I really do not-" "Do it." "Fine, fine..." Azrael walked over, sat, and reluctantly took Moondust in his hooves. After a moment, his disdain faded. He started to show a semblance of a real pony emotion: a small smile cracked on his face. Maya tilted her head. "Blacky. Dude. Keep back. He's smiling at a cute tt hing. This might not really be Az." The foal's eyelids slowly opened, revealing a set of red eyes, identical to Maya's. He let out a tiny mumble and started to reach for Az's face with his tiny hooves. Dusty chuckled. "Looks like your father, dear. But with prettier eyes."
"Hm..." He began to smile at the adorable sight of Moondust, though his emotions were mixed due to Az's uncharacteristic reaction to the child.
Holly walked over and sniffed the baby, shifting to her pony form as she did. "It has always struck me as odd that ponies have such horribly inefficient reproductive methods. An eleven month pregnancy, then almost a decade before the young can care for themselves. It's a wonder the species hasn't died out."
Maya pointed at Holly. "Hey. Shut up." Azrael shook his head. "Even dead stallions feel someti-" He was cut off when Moondust reached up and yanked a small chunk out of his beard, the colt laughing hysterically at his action. Azrael winced at the ghetto trim before narrowing his eyes at Moondust.
Maya and Raven gulped while Dusty prepared to snatch the foal. Was Az getting pissed at a baby? But then Azrael started laughing. "Yes. A devastating blow. I think this young one will make a fine fighter some day. What do you think, Blackened?" The rest of the party quickly relaxed, Dusty breathing a sigh of relief. Maya reached over and took the facial hair away from Moondust. "That's not good for you, kiddo. Sorry."
*With a ripple of air in the corner, a glowing blade slices the wall between Universes and Edmond steps through, before he closes the rift and sheathes his katana, but keeps a tight grip on it.* Edmond: (covered in a faintly glowing dust.)
I don't have time for a lot of pleasantries. (He snapped quickly before pulling a vial from his robe pocket, and brushing the, now slightly fainter, dust into it.)
I don't. (Quickly capping the vial and stashing it in his robe pocket once more.) This dust is very rare, and very unstable. Do you have a stove, fridge compressor, some dihydrogen monoxide, and a bit of what would chemically be known as Ba(ClO3)2H2O, that I can use? Oh! And some, do you have plastics?, if so, I need some PVC piping, perlite, Bentonite clay, and masonry cement.
