Starcrasher kept waiting while the Princesses talked, keeping their voice too low for her to hear what they were talking about. Not that she tried to listen in of course. Not deliberately anyway. But still, she could not hear what they had been discussing. On a completely unrelated subject, she made a mental note to ask Twilight if she knew a spell that would improve her hearing, You know... just in case.

And then Cerlestia cast a spell of some kind, and both she and the Reptans were gone. While that did solve the more immediate problem of finding a way to take the prisoners back to Ponyville and lock them up somehwere, it also meant there was now little else they had left to do at the ruins.

- "Okaaay, that was new... Umm, Captain, did you find what you were looking for with the cages?"

Luna turned back to the three of them, with a sigh as her sister departed. She was quiet for a few minutes, while Starcrasher spoke with the Captain. But she did finally speak. "Well done. We shall return to Ponyville and detain the mare responsible for this - We can keep her here in Ponyville under guard. For now, however - I am extending my vacation." She announced, looking to the Captain. "So I've matters of my own to arrange. When I return to Canterlot, we shall bring that mare with us." She gave her guardsman  firm nod, hen turned back to Starcrasher.

She let her gaze linger a moment, then flicked her eyes toward the Captain. He.. might be able to handle her, but she didn't want to risk the filly. "I shall take you along back to Ponyville, Starcrasher." She levitated the foal up to her back, pausing to look to the others.

Starcrasher didn't object to being levitated, and had had some experience on the trip to the ruins to make her more familiar with riding on Luna, so as soon as she was placed on the Princess' back she already got into the position that was easiest for her to maintain during the flight. Something occurred to her at that moment, causing her to shoot a concerned glance at Natra.

She could recall from one of her lessons that climbing on the back of another was considered an act of establishing dominance with some animal species. While a resident of Ponyville might be able to put her riding on Luna into context simply due to her inability to fly, the fact was that Natra did not have such a frame of reference. Given that she had been the one to talk to -- and successfully calm down -- an enraged Thunderbird, and considering the Camahueto's reaction to Princess Celestia's appearance earlier she had a nagging feeling that Natra would now be recategorizing her as Empress of the Universe or something.

She hoped her hunch was wrong though.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:38, Tue 11 Dec 2012.

The Captain shuffled his hooves a bit as Luna stated they would be apprehending the suspected mare once they got back to town, but spoke up promptly all the same.  "Actually, your Majesty... I couldn't find any linking evidence." he stated directly as he looked amid the gathered mares.  "There's obviously plenty of evidence here to show the guilt of the Reptans, along with their attack on us, but I haven't been able to find anything that places the Unicorn here.  If the Reptans were her accomplices then they could implicate her, but if they don't confess..."

The Bat Pony could only shrug helplessly.  As far as an overall investigation went, it had been successful.  They'd caught poachers and kept them from further threatening the wildlife or, worse, Ponyville.  But there still wasn't any suitable evidence to link Greenwood to the scene of the crime.  All there really was to gather had been fragments of the ruined cages and some scorched traveling bags.

The princess's ears drooped slightly at the news of no confirming evidence. "Oh.. I see... This complicates matters. I suppose the most we could do for now is to keep an eye on the mare in question and await news from Canterlot - which, I fear, may be delayed for some time. We could search the grounds once more, just in case..."  Luna suggested - but clearly, if their first search had failed, the second wasn't likely to turn up anything new...

"I will conduct another search, your Majesty.  In the meantime, I advise that you return to Ponyville with Miss Starcrasher.  It's best not to linger in the Everfree Forest any longer than necessary." The Captain saluted sharply.  "We can rendezvous with Silver Crescent later to see what he has learned about the suspect."

The jungle pony watched on as the Alicorns left. it was even more divine, in her definition of the word, than the week before with the Thunder Bird. This time impossibly more so, in fact. There was a moment she simply stood and stared on, however, there was a sound in the situation that made it seem like the search for the Thief was not going to be as successful as she had hoped.

There was, so it seemed, only so much even the powers of Nature could achieve this close to civilization... or perhaps it was something altogether different. Perhaps it was something that civilization brought to block the natural order of things instead of Nature's lack of the ability to reach such a place. They were, after all, in a forest even now.

She slipped away in that strange sort of way only a Camahueto in the forest could, right after Starcrasher stopped glancing at her. Fortunate for Starcrasher, her hunch wasn't all that accurate. The Alicorns were worth notice far more than the involvement of anypony. That aside, Natra realized just as well as anypony what carrying somepony looked like.

Briefly she stayed in the surrounding area. Then an idea came to her mind. There was, at the very least, one Pony that seemed to accept Natra Condu. Pinnie Pie? A surprisingly easy name for such a complicated culture. Surely such a thing of exuberance and positivity would be known of by the local plant life! Yes, flowers were always so chatty about positive individuals and Ponyville fortunately was very full of nice flowers. Natra found herself relieved that, above all, at least there was a hardwired Camahueto instinct to not care as much about being judged. Camahueto really DID understand their place. Natra had no illusions of living in Ponyville permanently. If she had to see Nature's Thief again she'd best wait, as well, until said thief leaves town, if she would have anything to do with her at all.

-------------> To Ponyville  --- Sweet Apple Acres

Luna frowned slightly, looking the ruins over. "See that as little as possible has been disturbed... this place shouldn't be dug through." Luna said softly, before taking wing with Starcrasher on her back, rising into the late afternoon sky.

Luna settled down some distance away, just outside of the edge of the forest, though still some distance from Ponyville. "Ah, do excuse me a moment,  my little  pony. I must raise the moon now, though. Give me a moment?" she chimed, before looking skyward, and focusing her magic, waves of it cascading about her invisibly, and focusing through her horn, igniting it with a midnight glow that swallowed up the sunset light, as the moon began to rise into the sky above the horizon.

Once the moon was in the sky, Luna slumped back gently, taking a few heavier breaths from the exertion of the magic, nodding to Starcrasher. "A moment, and we shall return to the town~"

Starcrasher nodded, and carefully jumped down on the ground to allow Luna to focus her magic on the moon. There was a good chance Luna was more than capable of doing that while carrying her of course, but it was the thought that counted. She watched the rising of the moon, feeling a little giddy over what felt like a private performance. And in a way, it was: The clearing held just her and the younger of the Royal Sisters. As Luna took a moment to regain her breath she sat down as well, just watching the moon and giving Luna all the time she needed to catch her breath again.

As it turned out, sitting seemed to have been a very good idea.  While she caught her breath from the exertion of raising the moon, Luna looked down to Starcrasher with a slight smile, but didn't say anything to the young filly.

Leaning forward, a tension furrowed Luna's gaze, and she raised her regal hoof to rub against the base of her horn. Ow.. owww.... She gave a slight groan at a sense of tension, and tried rubbing her hoof in slow circles, her wings tensing up a little... "O-Owww..." she complained.


Her physical stimulation to the nerves at the base of her horn released a spark of magic up the gleaming midnight edge, and Luna bit her lower lip at the sensation.  A ghastly, darker glow enveloped her horn upward from the base, and as she trembled, a haze of shadow mist began to draw about her, thick and black as pitch, shrouding her mane and then rolling out from where she perched on the grass.

It seemed to be some sort of magical discharge, but Luna didn't seem entirely in control of it... The sound of  faint thunderclaps echoed, but there was scarcely a cloud in the sky.

Starcrasher shyly smiled back at Luna when the alicorn looked at her, not really sure what else she was supposed to do, but as long as she didn't make a foal out of herself she figured it'd be just fine. She stood up once Luna started groaning a bit though, looking at the black mist a bit hesitatingly as if to determine whether it was something dangerous or not before finding out firsthand.

Figuring that since it was coming out of Luna's horn it had to be something magic, Starcrasher's own horn lit up in response to gently prod the mist to see what kind of a reaction it'd have on it. Though she didn't say anything, it was clear the shadowy mist was making her feel a little uneasy. Was it the source of her headache, or something cast to alleviate it?

Starcrasher's  magic-unraveling poke  caused the mists she directed her energies towards to dissolve rapidly, unweaving the admittedly simple, almost automatic energy that formed them.

What was left began to billow, and the sound of thunder emanated from the cloud, which was engulfing Luna slowly.  Starcrasher was sure that, if all of the cloud was that easy to unwork, she could easily outpace the threatening, menacing cloud as it wafted around Luna.

Starcrasher blinked as the cloud she had tried to poke unraveled with such an amount of ease that it almost seemed like it was... Well, like anyone other than an alicorn was trying their hand at weather magic. Still, she didn't really like the thunder coming off the cloud, so her horn lit up again as she tried to dispel it before it would have the chance to zap anyone. From what she could tell, it was slow enough for her to avoid getting caught up in it as well, and Luna hadn't told her to stop so there'd be no harm in trying it out and see what it does, right?

Starcrasher's sweeping movements of her magic were like an eraser over the pencil-scratching of the clouds. Stripping hem away, she eventually got to Luna beneath, who had at some point collapsed, and hand her hooves over her eyes. As the miniature storm faded, the Princess looked, and saw Starcrasher, standing by her with that concerned look.

The Princess slowly rose up and shook her head, wordless for a moment, as she stretched her wings out...  She was confused, and now, markedly different - afraid? The Royal mare looked up at the risen moon with a sigh.. "Thank you...  young Starcrasher." She lowered her gaze then, to the young Unicorn. "You seem rather gifted with anti-magic... Your teacher, miss Sparkle, must be very proud."

Luna bit her lip, and glance doff into the forest from whence they'd come, wings ruffling uneasily. Whatever that had been, or whatever she'd seen, she was upset by it.

Starcrasher smiled, though it was more out of relief that her initial actions were right. She was happy to have been able to lend a hoof as well of course, but the thought of not having done anything wrong was still stronger. She tended to rush into things a bit too much, according to her teachers.

- "Oh, i've actually been able to do this ever since i started using magic. Twilight's... helping me control it."

She bit a corner of her lip, suddenly finding a tuft of grass particularly interesting. Putting her hoof forward, she started dragging a circle around it.

- "It umm... kept interfering with my own magic, and ponies back at the Academy did kind of get upset when i kept accidentally destabilizing all their spells."

Luna sighed, finally...  "That...  what ... exactly did you see?" she questioned the filly, as she lightly lifted her up onto her back again, to take off, , back toward Ponyville and off the ground on the edge of the Everfree.. not far to go, now...

- "What... I saw?"

Starcrasher gave Luna a puzzled look, not really having expected the question. She was there, so she would have seen it too, right?

- "Well, you started groaning like my professors do when they get a headache. And then there was this shadowy storm cloud thingy that tried to envelop you. It was magical though, pretty easy to dispel actually. What was it?"

"Oh..." Luna said softly... had she seen something else? She shook her head gently. "'Tis nothing to concern yourself with, little one. But I thank you for being there, and for helping as you did." Luna lowered he rheada little in flight, spotting he town proper. "We've arrived..." She poaused gently, and spoke to her again. "I must ask you something - tell  no pony  what you've seen tonight, with me. Not even Twilight Sparkle..."

- "Uhh, sure."

Starcrasher found Luna's request to be a little odd, but if she was in some way ashamed about it then she could understand. She would not tell anyone about it. On the other hand, if there was anything wrong that somepony should know about...

- "You sure you're going to be okay, princess?"

There was some worry in her voice, while she could keep a secret she didn't want to be the pony that knew all along when it started affecting Luna's health. Sure, she lived with Celestia and if she couldn't tell what was going on pretty much nopony else could, but she still felt she should ask regardless.

"yes, my little pony..." Luna chimed gently. "Point me to where I should let you off, so you can get inside and to bed... You owe me a few dreams, I should think, up so late..." she laughed gently, more trying to comfort herself than amuse the girl.

- "Oh, i'll be dreaming about this for a while, that's for sure."

Starcrasher looked down -- surprising how fast somepony could get used to those things -- and looked at the houses, taking a little longer since the angle at which she saw them was all wrong. She eventually spotted the library though, and that meant the Summer Song would be around... there! Okay, now all she needed to do was retrace her steps using those reference points and that meant the Workshop would be...

- "Oh, over there's where i live. Next to the house with the blue roof."

When she had arrived she honestly couldn't understand who a pony would have paid bits to have their roof painted blue when one could barely see it at street level, but all things considered she had to admit the different roof colors did look kind of nice from above. She stifled a yawn, feeling a shudder go down her spine before leaning closer to Luna in preparation for the descent.

Luna swept her down gently to the ground, and helped the little filly off her back. A hoof and wing around her, she nuzzled the girl in an affectionate, friendly manner, then put a gentle peck on her forehead. "You've done very well today, and I'm very proud of you. I shall be in town for some time more, and should anything come of my guards' investigation, I shall inform you... but for now, go to sleep little one." she nudged her on toward her home, and watched her go, humming a soft lullaby that would follow the filly all the way to bed.

Starcrasher smiled at feeling solid ground under her hooves again. It wasn't that the flying had been uncomfortable, far from it. It was just that she wasn't a pegasus and didn't want to get used to asking others to airlift her around. She was no longer a foal after all. Turning around, she gave Luna a deep bow -- despite being in Ponyville she was Canterlot raised -- and backed up to the door, knocking on it to let Quill know someone was at the door that would like to come in. After a few seconds of waiting, she'd test the door, trying to turn the handle with one hoof and pushing it open the way she sometimes did when she had her hooves full of books. Regardless, she'd eventually find herself in Widget's Workshop.

--> To: Ponyville Business District - Widget Whatsis' Wondrous Works -->

With the filly dropped off, Luna took wing, but she wasn't going far... she skimmed the rooftops gently, settling down anxiously near Ponyville's spa...


Exit to Ponyville Spa- Night

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:04, Tue 23 June 2015.