revenance_rpg | Elementary, my dear ponies

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Elementary, my dear ponies

Who: Soma and very, very open - preferably everyone who wants to help search for the elements.
What: The game is afoot, but it's not a foot, it's jewelry.
Where: Equestria, round and about (Library first)
When: A day or two after this and this
Warnings: Probable violence, possible language, and all the general character-specific warnings. May as well go ahead and say this one's party style, no posting order, since the idea is for everyone to split up.

Soma was finally used to the new world. He could hover, he could soar, he could even do a barrel roll, and weather manipulation was much easier than he had first thought now that he had an actual idea how it worked. And he'd even regained a couple of his normal abilities - namely, the ones that had worked with his Giant Bat form before, plus Black Panther. They were a little different, admittedly - most had been scaled to fit his new form, for example, and Bat had given him something like a sonar sense - but they were familiar all the same, and that made him feel much more at ease.

In the same vein, he'd acquired a new weapon from the Moogles; a nondescript katana, well made but entirely devoid of enchantment, much like the ones he'd found in the castle and subsequently sold to Hammer. He could live with that; it was short enough he could use it in this form, and that was what really mattered to him. It gave him something he could use without relying on his souls or the poorly understood magic of this world. And he had Yoko now, too; the Peepsta Hoo was a welcome addition to his team.

He'd asked for everyone to gather outside of the library tree, since that was where the Elements had been taken from. He had confidence in this group's capabilities, but there were far too few of them likely to be able to use the Elements present. If it came down to a big fight, well... they were going to need all the firepower they could get.

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Given ponies here enjoyed sugar and cupcakes, the lack of obvious and overt grass consumption in favour of cooked goods was interesting in its own way. Carolina had certainly never felt a need to graze when out in grassy areas, at least, but she also made a point to return to Twilight town if she ~~remembered~~ needed to eat.

Only once a thorough search - and Carolina was glad that Emile seemed of the same mind there - did the mare stop and step back out into the central space of the barn, irritated no end. "Nothing. Given this farm is apparently run by a family of ponies, and has been for years, you'd think there'd be at least some clue."

Emile was just as glad, really. His pony form might not take quite the four-thousand-calorie diet that his human form did, but even so, he craved grains over grass. Maybe magical ponies needed a lot of calories, too.

"If it was that easy, Rarity and the others would've found at least one of the Elements by now." But still, they had to at least look. He looked over one more barrel and, finding nothing, headed back toward the doors.

"Keep moving?"

Carolina's metabolism was high enough that now she'd gotten back into the habit of eating real food, rations weren't going to cut it. Perhaps she'd come back for apples later..

"If they had, I can't imagine any of them would have failed to mention it by now." A lack of hands didn't prevent them from using the communicators, even if their typically human counterparts had issues with that. Still, there was no point wasting further time here.

"If the next barn over has no results, there's always the farm house itself."

Real food was still a treat for him, and while Emile ate as much as Rarity would help him make, his level of cooking was definitely more in the "assemble a sandwich" category. Apples at least were easy.

"Roger that."

Time to keep searching.

Easy, except for figuring out how to hold a round object without looking ridiculous. Balancing them on an upturned hoof was trickier than advertised.

"The last time I was exploring around here, the barrels and crates outside had nightmares waiting in them or beside them," she added after a moment's thought as she stepped towards the door. "Didn't seem any stronger than the regular kind, though. I would have thought there'd have been something in here.."

Perhaps there would have been more reason for suspicion if the doors had been barred from the inside?

Assuming one didn't want to eat them directly off the ground or out of a barrel, anyway, which Emile didn't seem to mind doing. He still couldn't quite wrap his mind around pony physics and biology, because they really should have hands.

He grunted in acknowledgement. "Maybe the house? It's the heart of the farm, I think."

But then, he still didn't understand what the Elements of Harmony actually were, aside from jewelry, so how was he to know if they behaved weirdly?

Carolina privately agreed regarding the hands issue, but at least this form wasn't permanent outside of Ponyville. "Can't hurt to look at this point," she agreed, shrugging awkwardly beneath her armor - shoulder movement was weird when you had four legs - before the redhead broke into a sudden trot, moving out of the barn at speed.

Dax all but fell over getting out of her way, while Lela skipped immediately after her. At this point, she wasn't particularly concerned about nightmares - if anything, they'd give Emile and Carolina something to work on.

Emile followed along, a little impressed despite himself at her speed. "You think fast on two legs?" Not that he couldn't keep up - he had been practicing as a pony, after all, and his build was rather ridiculously muscular - but he doubted many of the others could have.

Jorgie couldn't - but then Spirits had a way to poof out of existence and then catch up later, which he took advantage of. Spikes rolled along, though, seeming to have no problem keeping up.

The farmhouse at Sweet Apple Acres was large and almost ridiculous-looking to Emile, but then he'd spent most of his life in military installations. Bright colors, a wide-open feel, and friendly decor. Emile shuddered.

"Always," she replied promptly, tail flicking to one side. Once there might have been an edge of boastfulness to her voice. Nowadays, Carolina didn't have time to waste on such things. Fact was fact, after all. "Learning to adapt to my environment is something I've always been good at."

Adapt or die. Pretty fitting description of her life, really.

The farmhouse was...pretty. In much the same way a toy dollhouse was. It didn't seem at all practical for housing a pony, let alone an entire family of them. She smiled slightly at Emile's shudder, in understanding rather than laughter - whoever lived here had a very different set of aesthetics to humans, after all. Theta would likely have liked the place, though - it matched his AI colours! "You want to take upstairs or down?"

"Good." Sadly, in the world of adapt or die, Emile had had entirely too many friends die. It wasn't because they weren't doing their very best--and a Spartan's best was nothing to take for granted, not at all--but just that there had been too many impossible situations. He'd accepted in coming here that he wouldn't be able to count on any of the other dreamers as being quite as skilled or fast or strong as his team had been, but....

But even so, it was very reassuring to have someone else doing her best at a level well enough that he noticed it.

"I'll take down. Find anything interesting, let me know."

He'd just have to have the two Spirits help him look - there were bound to be tons of trinkets sitting around in a residence like this. He could sort of vaguely understand the idea of acquiring lots of things - he had a great collection of alien weapons himself, which was really pretty illegal - but the amount in this house was just staggering to him.

"Copy that," she replied, before making her own way cautiously up to the higher levels of the barn-house. Cat and lizard followed at her heels, unconcerned by the steps, and Lela eagerly bounced away to nose her way through open doors and into unoccupied bedrooms.

Carolina didn't have many knicknacks herself, but more due to circumstance than choice. Anything she'd had that wasn't somewhere on a distant world in UNSC storage was long gone with the crash of a certain ship, save for a lighter kept in a compartment within her armor. (She'd worried, briefly, when it seemed to have vanished on arriving in Ponyville, but it reappeared immediately when she returned to Twilight Town.)

Two rooms later --one intended for a child, the other for an older adult-- and she poked her head over the bannister, calling down. "Nothing here so far!"

There were a lot of metallic objects in the kitchen, but none of them seemed at all like the symbols that had been shared before. Spikes seemed to be more interested in putting a colander on his head and grabbing a spoon to joust with than looking, but Jorgie was dutifully fending him off and poking through the cupboards at the same time.

"Nothin' here, either."

This was starting to get frustrating.

Lela meowed boredly from up above, poking her head between the landing's banisters. Could they go now? The empty house was pretty but not very exciting.

Carolina leaned on the rail as well, distantly impressed it could take her weight. Then again, the family of ponies that lived here all seemed to be the earth type (if the photos were any indication). Stuff here was built to last.

She envied them. Almost. "I don't think we'll find anything here. We should head back to one of the Towns. See if anyone else has had more luck."

"Knock it off, you two."

Giving the downstairs one more cursory glance, Emile frowned and nodded up at her.

"Maybe see if we can find more clues. This ain't going nowhere."

"Copy that." Carolina descended the stairs slowly. Fast as she was, she wasn't used to going down stairs with four legs, and wasn't about to chance a fall.

Lela mewed as she followed behind her, looking mournful. As of on cue, Carolina could feel her stomach growling. "And maybe some lunch," she added. Her appetite seemed fare greater after spending time as a pony - not necessarily bad, given how underweight she'd been when she'd gotten here, but the change in forms seemed to mess with her metabolism something awful.

Emile smirked a little to himself, though she could probably catch it - one of the disadvantages of almost always having a helmet was that he didn't have much practice keeping his expressions in check.

"Pretty sure they don't have the expression they could eat a whole horse here, but I could go for somethin' a little more substantial than a bale of hay and some apples."

Which reminded him, Spikes and Jorgie had been helpful, even if they hadn't found anything and Spikes had spent half his time goofing off. (Better than spending the whole time goofing off.) Emile grabbed a couple of treats and tossed them at his Spirits to thank them.

Seeing expressions on his face wasn't particularly unnerving - he wasn't in armor, after all, and she was used to people being people. ...Even if they happened to be ponies right now. She paused to let Lela hop up onto her back, Dax making grumbly noises at his lack of treats. Only briefly, however, given the Look Carolina cast back at him, before strode forwards to open the door, holding it open for Emile.

"They'd probably take offense," more so if she said than Emile, maybe. Luna, certainly. Rarity would likely be aghast. Oh well. "But I'm sure the moogles have something a little more solid. And there's plenty to drink if you know where to look."

It helped, being aware of a few locations that York had concealed some of his infamous stashes of alcohol - even after many years, some things hadn't changed. And given his absence, there was no one likely to notice if something had gone amiss..

Drinking was always more of a social activity than anything actually effective for Emile, given how fast his system metabolized alcohol, but once in a while he'd got his hands on some very potent stuff that had actually managed to give him a buzz. Good times.

"Thanks for helpin'. Eight hooves are better than four?" Or something like that. But when it came down to it, Emile was no lone wolf, and having someone else to spot for him had made the whole experience bearable--even if they didn't end up finding anything after all.

Anything physical, anyway.

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Elementary, my dear ponies

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Wrap?

Sounds good!