Posey likewise ignored Fizz’s jab at her name. “Good food?” she replied? She tapped her chin with her hoof. “To be honest, not many ponies make good food, but if you want something passable I’d try ‘Glory’s Good Eatins’.” Just then, as predicted, the skein of fabric tore causing both of the fighting ponies to take a tumble. Not-Rarity took this opportunity to quickly shove the other pony down and take all of the fabric for herself. “Haha! You snooze, you lose, loser!” She quickly dashed away toward the edge of the market. The other pony got up, brushed herself off and growled, “You’ll pay for that, Sparkler! GET BACK HERE!” Surprise turned to see what the commotion was about, and doubled over in laughter while egging on the two ponies. “Hehe! Yeah! Run, Sparkler, run!” She tossed a cherry bomb at Sparkler’s heels, giggling maniacally and snorting the entire time. Spoiler: Roll Perception for Entropy 7 + 3 = 10 Entropy looked around for the most logical place that one might find a Princess, but he had a little bit of trouble because of the townsponies who were going about their business. He looked up into one of the towers and saw a large, equine figure. Could that be? It was too far away to tell, and his vision was slightly blurred. Spoiler: Entropy Do you see me, O Son of Null? I see you perfectly.
"Ya know what? Passable is good enough. Food's food, and if it come down to it, I can try to jus' shove it past da taste buds." She sticks out her tongue, pointing at it in example. After slipping it back into her mouth she smiles. "Anyway, see ya around Dozey Posey!" The interaction she had with Posey, and the events between Sparkler and Surprise had her giggling as she trotted off in towards town to look around for this Glory's Good Eatin's. If she didn't have much luck, she'd just find a random friendly looking pony to ask for directions.
Spoiler: Roll “Lookin’ Around” (Luck) for Pink Fizz 5 + 2 (Job) + 1 (Skill) = 8 As Pink Fizz trots through town, she catches the scent of fresh-baked pies. Following her nose, she easily spies “Glory’s Good Eatins”. A runty-looking earth pony is tending the storefront. Spoiler: Roll Perception for Pink Fizz 13 + 4 = 17 As the pony turns to go back into the store, Fizz notices that the pony’s Cutie Mark is a trio of purple flowers with five petals each. Before stepping into the store, though, she turns back around and examines the pie that she has left on her sill to cool, and in the process takes notice of Fizz. “Oh, howdy there.” The pony brushes back her well-kept mane. “I s’pose yer eyein’ up that pie there. Well, no doin’ toots! That pie if fer the Princess! I’m her favorite baker, ya know?”
"Ooohhh! Is dat so, a pers'nal baker fer da p'incess?" She gets her nose near it and lifts it in the air, inhaling slowly the scent. "Ah, ya got somethin' special goin' on 'ere." With a polite grin she bobs her head a little. "Name's Pink Fizz, an' I'm HUNGRY aftuh inhalin' such a good scent!" With that, Pink Fizz trots into the store proper, looking around to see what makes her mouth water most. Her horn sparks a little for a moment and she crosses her eyes from the distraction, looking up. "Huh, dat's weird."
Dark Shine stops looking around and does a quick headcount. 1-2-3-4-5- Wait. Wheres Pink Fizz? "Hey, guys, did you see where Pink Fizz went?"
The earth pony casts a shifty glance at Fizz. "What's weird, sugarcube? 'Cause I can assure you that nothin' in here is weird."
She chuckles gently and leans her head to the side at a bad angle to look at the pony, lifting one hoof to push her mane out of the way of her eyes. "Oh, ya jus' remind me of a real nice mare I know at home. She's good at pies too, but da ingrediants are WAY diff'nt!" She stands upright and she turns to the earth pony. "Now... what's yer name, and what do ya recommend to eat?" She grinned politely, now back to having her eyes mostly veiled by her horribly wild frizzy mane.
The pony thumps on her chest with one hoof. "Name's Glory! I inherited this place after my granny died in a fire. I'm the best baker in all Constellestia! Ask anypony." "So, yas aint from around here, huh? Fascinatin'..." She rubs her chin before continuing. "Well, I reccomend pretty much everything here, but if ya want the best of the best, take onna these here apple fritters!" She pulls a tray of fritters from behind a display case and offers them to Pink Fizz. "We're runnin' a sale today, too! Only 2 bits apiece!" ----- Spoiler: Roll Perception for Darkshine 15 + 2 = 17 Dark Shine turns his head this way and that, searching for Pink Fizz. He doesn’t find her, but he catches the eye of a cyan Pegasus with a grayish mane. She shies away for a moment, but she manages to gather her courage and meets Dark’s gaze. After another moment, she begins to trot toward the group, but she’s suddenly stopped by Posey. “Whaddya think you’re doing, Firefly? Why don’t ya take those puny wings of yours and buzz off? ‘Cause that’s all they’re good for.” Firefly flinches and lowers her head. [size=-2]”Oh, I’m sorry… I-I-I didn’t know that these ponies were…*gulp* friends of yours…”[/size] Posey gets right up in Firefly’s face, causing the latter to draw back even further. “Friends?! I don’t need friends, Fire-can’t-fly. They’re just some newbies I found.” Posey glances back at the group, then returns her attention to Firefly. “In fact, you can have ‘em. They’ll probably just leave you anyway. Smell ya later, losers!” With that, Posey sashays away from the group with a song on her lips. ~Firefly~ ~Firefly~ ~Firefly can’t hardly fly.~ ~She can walk on clouds~ ~But she'll then fall down~ ~Then she's gonna die~ Firefly’s lips quiver slightly and she appears to be on the verge of tears. [size=-2]”I try to fly well…I really do…” *sniffle*[/size]
Dark Shine walked over to the upset pony. "You ok there? My names Dark Shine." He smiled as he went over.
Her eyes widen for a moment as she looked at the fritters, but her ears suddenly flattened into her mane when she heard the dreaded word bits. Suddenly, she thought a moment, where all your dreams come true, and tried to levitate bits from her pouch. "Hmm, lemme see if I has dat on me!" Successfully pulling out 2 bits, she smiled brightly. "It's a newcomer sale ain't it? Ohh boy, I can't wait ta try it, now. You da best, Glory!" Of course, Fizz was soaking in way more information than she was concerned about... Constellestia... ponies with personalities, names, and marks swapped around while still appearing much like the very six they were looking for. She was only missing two marks... and she knew exactly which gnarly old tree she'd be going to next. Well, after the fritter. A girl like her loved to indulge and fit in, after all!
Jhera watched the scene with a distinct fascination and horror. Why do I feel I've already met all these ponies before? he thought with agitation. He walked up beside Dark Shine looking as friendly as possible, but he didn't say anything so as not to interrupt him.
Firefly sniffles again. [size=-2]”I’m…I’m okay… I’m used to it…” “D-Dark…Shine?”[/size] Firefly ponders on the name for a moment, then blushes deeply. [size=-2]”That’s…a nice name. I’m[/size] [size=-4]Firefly…”[/size]
“I never said we were having a sale. Where’d ya get that idea? Ah well, nevermind.” Glory takes the bits from Pink Fizz without a fuss. As she tends to her other responsibilities in the bakery, she keeps casting glances at the white, poofy-maned unicorn. ----- [size=-2]”You…want me to tell you about this place? Well…okay.”[/size] She straightens up a little bit and flutters her wings, producing a light buzzing sound. Then, she begins: [size=-1]”Um…this is Dream Castle, if Posey didn’t already tell you. The princess here is very nice. Her name is Constella. She took the throne after banishing her wicked elder sister into the sun.” “At least, that’s how the legend goes…”[/size] She gets a faraway look in her eyes before continuing. [size=-1]”I wish I could be as cool as her…but I guess not every dream comes true in Dream Castle…”[/size]
Dark Shine's eyes widened. Constella! Where do I remember that name from... It sounds... Familiar.... Dark then forced himself to calm down. "Do you mind telling me a bit about this, Constella?"
"You jus'..." Wait, Fizz. That's it! "Ah, well t'anks Glory! Om nom nom!" She audiably downed the fritter as she trotted out of the shop. Hmm... yup... passable is right. She stood still outside of the shop for a moment as she thought. The grears in her head were turning so hard her mane was shivering... like it was alive. Eventually she snapped out of it and licked her lips of crumbs. With a lively step, she trotted off towards the gnarley tree that Twilight Twinkle was said to reside in.
Spoiler: Roll recollection (Mind) for Dark Shine 11 + 2 = 13 The name Constella does indeed sound familiar to Dark Shine. It's as if somepony told him that name before...like fairly recently. "Oh, sure!" Firefly replies. "Constella is the ruler of all of Constellestia. She's beautiful, powerful, kind, and she..." Firefly suddenly stops midsentence and ponders for a moment. "She...did something..." Then, as if recalling a distant memory, her eyes light up and she chirps, "She recently performed in the Annual Summer Sun Celebration play! It was great!"
Summer sun celebration.... Hmmm.... "Thanks for telling me Firefly. Your cool." He smiled, before heading back into a train of thought.
Firefly blushed once more. [size=-2]"Um...thanks."[/size] She turned away then, seemingly deep in thought. ----- As Entropy continued to search for the Princess, he spied Pink Fizz trotting through the market. It seemed that she was headed toward a large, old, gnarled tree on the edge of town. The tree itself didn't look particularly inviting, although one could see that a light had been turned on somewhere inside. As Pink Fizz got closer, she could see somepony moving around in the "treehouse", flitting from window to window. A front door on the tree was closed.
Hearing what Firefly was saying about Constella, Entropy became really nervous. He knew EXACTLY who Constella was; he knew that Celestia had gone off to fight her. How could he forget? She was priority number one!!! Suddenly, when Firefly talked about the Summer Sun Celebration, something in his mind clicked. Almost without thinking, he growled loudly (though to himself), "So that's your game, hmm Constella? Well. We'll see how it works out." He remembered the voice that had talked to him as he was watching the figure in the building. He shivered, despite himself, but nothing was going to keep him from completing his orders. If they couldn't find the Princess, they needed to find her "Most Faithful Student" and friends, and the best way to do that was...he looked at Fizz walking toward the tree that Posey had warned them off of. Posey didn't seem like a particularly nice or trustworthy pony, though, so he galloped after Fizz trying to catch up. Basically, how it looked to everyone else (without all of Entropy's thoughts): Entropy growled, "So that's your game, hmm Constella? Well. We'll see how it works out." He then galloped after Fizz in an attempt to catch up to her before she reached the door of the tree.
