The Dragonslayer nods, lowering her head at the Princess's wisdom. "Of course, Princess," she replied. "Would there happen to be a map to aid us in our travels? I don't brag about it, but I am a lover of maps and keep quite a collection." She gestured to her waist, where her belt was decorated with small golden tubes, as well as the elaborately decorated sheath for her sword.
Tex stayed silent through the entire conversation. When Power began to laugh, his head turned sharply toward the strange pony and his eyes examined him momentarily, and then drifted back to the Princess. His expression did not change. Now, though, he was beginning to get impatient. They had their mission; to go and seek the New Element blah blah, some jewel thing. Apparently it could speak to the one who held it, so he doubted they would have trouble finding it. There weren't too many gems that did that. And now Daress, this pony who seemed to enjoy flaunting her extravagant amounts of knowledge, was slowing them down. They needed to leave soon. Perhaps a map would be helpful, but nothing more was really needed. Tex coughed rather loudly, and when the others looked at him out of reflex, he glanced back at the doorway that led out.
Rexar's interest was piqued at the mention of "talking gems". He'd never heard of them before, and he knew that his Boss would love to get his paws on... He shook his head, trying to dispell those thoughts. We're talking about the blasted Element of Kindness here! And I'm not actually a Diamond Dog! But...there is the issue of staying in character. I'll shelf that idea for now... "I'll try not to harrass the dragon too much, Princess." Rexar thumped his paw on his chest, the typical Diamond Dog salute. If the dragon was who he thought it was, and this time he was thinking out of character, then yes. He would be going through a tough time right now. He took notice when the fighter pony among then, whose name he hadn't bothered learning. "Tex-Mex", was it? He had jerked his head toward the door, seemingly anxious to leave. Rexar strode up to him, also ready to leave.
The Princess eyed Tex a moment before looking back to Daress. "As we suggested, a guide would be best. We believe Gallopmere has a Historical Guild, which should have someone able to help you." She looked at the group and lifted her head, staring down as her wings spread out and she quite calmly announced; "We dismiss you."
Daress nodded her head again at the Royal Princess, and swiftly trotted out of the door. She didn't bother to glance at the others, who seemed rudely impatient.
Power turned and practically jumped all the way to the door. 'With this new body, I have so much free energy! I haven't felt this alive since..forever!' Jhera thought. Power rounded up behind Daress, still hopping. "So," he said to anypony who would listen, "does anypony know where this guild is, or who our guide is to be? Oh, I have an idea! Since the pony in front of me is so smart, how about she just leads us the whole way? Besides, we also have this baby dragon to help us, any more ponies would certainly just slow us down. That is, if you allowed yourselves to be slowed down!" By now he was practically jumping circles around the entire group. So much energy, where was it coming from? "You're all so slow! Just as slow as my parents were!" Power stopped and Jhera took full control. 'WHAT!?' He thought with panic. False memories of Power's family flooded into his mind. Horrible, disgusting memories. Just the through of them made him feel sick. 'I...I made this character?' Jhera thought, even more frightened than before. He shook his head as Power began to take back over. "Ugh..." he said, holding his head, "let's hurry up already! You ponies take too long!"
Tex nodded at the Princess the second she dismissed them, turned around, and walked out. As he did so, Daress pointedly ignored him. He didn't mind. He only needed her to work quickly and get the job done; he didn't need her to like him. The irritating, energetic pony continued to be (surprise, surprise, thought Tex) irritating and energetic. He seemed to stop for a moment, confused or something, and there was a moment of blessed silence. Then it was gone. "You ponies take too long!" Tell that to Daress, he though, but kept it to himself and continued moving.
Rifter looked at his team. Not the kindest bunch but he has seen worse. Dark Shine tried to remember who was who. Rifter shook his head, squaked at Power, then walked a bit forward.
Spoiler: Meanwhile, in Reality Eight Star pulled out a few more glowing stones and placed them around the table. He already had a white stone in front of each of them... except Quill. A small white stream of energy flowed through the air from the bodies of each player and into the respective stone, giving each stone its own gentle glow. As he put a few clear glowing stones on the table he heard Jhera say "What?!" Eight Star lifted his head, giving a raised eyebrow as he looked at Jhera. Then he chuckled gently with an evil smirk. ~Ah, I did forget to mention... for those ponies going into new ponies, you may find that the aspect you have for your character may alter your way of thinking a bit. Don't let it bother you much. If your special talent goes against theirs it may cause a few thought conflicts, but nothing too damaging. Those of you who are non-ponies, you shouldn't have that issue so much.~ Eight Star chuckles deeply. ~I do believe Princess Luna isn't so used to dealing with such a... diverse group. I can see the letter from the real Princess Celestia now.~ He makes a mocking impression of the Princess. ~Dear Sorcerer, my sister complained of strange dreams again. They involved Diamond Dogs in the throne room. We request that you come out of hiding and relenquish what you have of hers immediately.~ With a sigh he gets back into the game mode. ~Anyway, time to be getting along. Unless there's something in Canterlot you really want to see.~
Quill ponders for a moment and absently wondered if he could see his pony-self here and how he would react to a Diamond Dog rummaging through his things. He wisely decided against it. "Got no objections, here," Rexar replied. He followed the others out of the throne room.
Tyro/Arc looks over his shoulder at those leaving and gives a low bow to the princess before turning to trot out. Well, Arc was kinda useless here, Tyro thought to himself. He's a gruff, actiony type! Unlike the magical know-it-alls around here, he's going to have about as much use in that respect as he's clueless about anything magical. And that's if this Arc has never met Silver Shield, meaning no magical knowledge what-so-ever. Tyro might know a thing or two about this stuff, but Arc doesn't. He's a nerd in the football captain's clothing. All Arc is good for is running and jumping. But Arc, not the pilot of his form...probably, stops and stands before the Princess. He bows once again to her and attempts to formulate his words as carefully as he can. Tyro can feel him trying to put the words together comfortably. It was like a tiny car engine pulling a freight train. "Your Highness? Seeing as this is of the upmost and all, can we borrow a balloon or something that could get us to Gallopmere faster than if we hoofed it? Time's important here and travel needs to be as quick as possible, right?" He puts forwards, unwavering in the face of the clearly agitated royalty. "The faster we get to each element, the fast we can all get this mess sorted out, right? Not all of us are pegasi." He watches Luna, waiting calmly and patiently for his reply. So...He's a common-sense, practical thinker type then? Where the hey did that come from in my frazzled scatterbrain? Not complaining of course; I could get used to this...
Luna imagined herself far, far away. Somewhere cool and dark, and filled with satin sheets and comfy pillows. Grimacing, she tried not to get a stern and aggressive tone, she really did. "As we stated, Arc, we have prepared a train to Gallopmere. It is the fastest mode of transport available to us right now. It awaits your party at the Canterlot station." Actually, she did fairly well to keep it under control... even as she did not enjoy repeating things. Though, perhaps it was mis-understood? Or lost during the conversation about the baby dragon who was patiently waiting onboard for this group of... Adventurers. That's what they were.
Oh damn it... Arc bows low. "Thanks. Sorry. Just assuring all the details! I'll get going." His hooves barely touch the ground as he skips out of the hallway to catch up with the others. His tail was truly between his legs. That...that sounded like me...Tyro thought as he rejoined the others, maybe Arc's not so unlike me after all! Poor guy... "All right everypony!" Arc said, cutting through the group to get to the front. "I think we'll get out of here much faster if we split up, how about that?" He points to Jhera, Legion and Quill in turn, addressing them by Arc's respective nickname for them: "Me, Lollypop, Six Shooter an' Jewels can go and find and wait on the train. The rest of you magic types can find and pick up anything you'll need. But we gotta get moving." He checks the thick watch on his foreleg. "Shouldn't take fifteen minutes minutes to reach the station from here but no chatting, OK? We should be moving pretty soon. Remember, that you can get info from the dragon too. Understood?" Arc gives a stern sweep over the eyes that are undoubtedly upon him, making sure they're going to follow him. Or at least that they'd agree he was making sense. I bet I can guess who the dragon is....
Six shooter? Hmmph. He didn't even like guns. Ah well. Splitting up sounded like a good way to get separated, which sounded like a good way to get slowed down. But, forcing himself to slow down and think outside his basic instinct to get the job done pronto, he realized that perhaps it was a good idea to let the "magic types" pick up what they needed. After all, not everypony could be as self-sufficient as him. "Shouldn't take fifteen minutes minutes to reach the station from here but no chatting, OK?" said Arc. Heh. No complaints about that plan, thought Tex, and followed after Arc.
(Oh yeah! this is starting to get better!!!) J, or actually Norm, just listened to his teammates, He doesn't mind talking to much since from his childhood, talking got him in trouble. He just listened to everyone talking, occasionally nodding in agreement when the right moment presented itself. He got into thinking as if the needed to grab stuff on the fifteen minute wait, but he didn't need nothing. So he decided to analyze the spell book he had, wanting to know what type of magic he had. It began to bug him as why his character was a Diamond Dog that used magic, as his past encounters with them always went physical. He arrived at the train station and sat on a bench and began reading his book. It had all sorts of writing on them, from simple images to weird and complex anagrams. The odd thing is that he could understand it, well, some parts. He manage to understand that he had only supportive magic for starters, as the rest of the book he couldn't understand. So, he decided to wait for everyone on the train station, trying to at least memorize the spells he had.
"Oh, does this train run on electricity?" Power Surge said as they arrived at the train station. He nearly ran over to it and stuck his face on the tracks, but Jhera took over and stopped him before he could. He shoved his iron rod in his mouth as a substitute for the sudden urge. Pulling the rod back out of his mouth, he replace it in his leather strap and said "Was it really necessary to send the other two off? I want to get off the ground as fast as possible!"
As each character arrives, they find a train waiting, as promised. A large group of ponies are gathered around the boarding area and the ticket booth in a rather chaotic and un-coordinated manner. Over-hearing the complaints at the ticket booth, one would hear things like; "My train was supposed to leave an hour ago! What gives?" or "Delayed? What do you mean delayed for royal business?" The guards notice the group as they start to arrive. While normally difficult to pick out from other ponies, the diamond dogs make this feat simple. With a little work, they separate the group of agitated ponies to allow the group to board, which causes most of the mob to glare at the ponies who make their way to the royal transit which awaits them. Outside of the open and waiting train doors is a dragon. At least, you think it's a dragon. Only about 3-4 feet tall, a primarily purple dragon paces with his hands behind his back and wearing a painted look of worry. His fins, eyes, underside, and spines are all different shades of green, contrasting the light purple of his prime coat of scales.
Tex walked on board the train, evenly returning the looks of the ponies on either side of him. When he got on board, he walked over to the dragon and nodded once he'd caught his attention. "Name's Tex," he said.
