1View OnlineOlowpri1This is a desert. There are many like it. But not as many that are quite as lovely desert as this one. From what you can see, there's also a very pretty tent down there. You bet the sky is pretty too, but you don't think you'll ever know since, well, all you've been given is an aerial shot. Speaking of which, how did you get up here? Are you a bird? I didn't think you had it in you... Oh, wait, you're not a bird. You're a pony. This sleepy pony, to be exact. Sleeping on the job is quite normal in your line of work. After all, you're so far away from everyone else, that nobody in their right mind would come out just to punish you. Being in total and utter isolation is so... liberating, isn't it? That said, there does come a time when laying asleep just doesn't cut it. You're thirsty, and from what you remember last time you drank, you have just enough water to make it another day. Time to fill up! That ear-twitch is really starting to get annoying. You hazard a guess that it's probably a temporary thing, so it'll probably go away in a couple days. Nothing to see a doctor about. If you had access to one. Which you don't. Don't worry about it, though. Really, don't. Your inner psyche affirms to you that, after several times in life being told not to worry about teeny tiny medical issues, you should regard this one as a 'non-issue'. Listen and learn, sayeth the psyche. You look over your gear. You certainly packed quite lightly. Part of the reason was to keep your back from breaking. Aside from the scarf and the shako (Quite standard uniform for the desert, sand tastes horrible and sunburn is mighty distracting), there's a gun (You wish you had a better one), a few pouches (one of which holds the rest of your water), the bedroll (Interesting fact: The bag is standard issue, but you lost the bedroll of a cliff. The second-hoof rug you have now just so happens to fit the bag), and the clothes you wore to bed. Savage, some would say! You slept in the clothes you wear? Well, actually, nobody's going to say that. You're still totally isolated. Besides, that sounds like a stupid rule anyway. You feel super prepped for harsh and not-very-tasty desert sand not getting into your mouth. It's time to go outside! I mean, you're pretty much outside anyway. More than half the floor of your tent is sand. But it's nice to have a distinct scene-change. A long time ago, you read one of the dusty tomes in the local library. It was an old fairy tale, and the scene changes in it were always marked with terrifying thunder, or depressing rain, or... something that expressed emotion. The weather hasn't changed for like, at least as long as you've been out here. You're pretty sure the story wasn't set in the desert, either. Hey look, there's the sky! Turns out, it's kind of light blue. You've probably experienced artists who would differ their opinion, but this time, you're like, totally sure that's some kind of light blue. There's also some smoke in the air. It wasn't there when you went to sleep. You can't hear anything, so it must be far away. The dunes make enough of an incline that the least you could do is take a peek. If there's anything over there, you'd probably not be spotted. You noticed it when you came out, but it is especially hot today. You'll probably get through the water in that tent pretty quick. As you walk closer, you can just overhear a murmur. Sounds like... maybe two, three ponies talking behind this dune? You can't tell what they're saying. You could just stay here and wait until they move away. What if they're not friendly? You don't have a clue about who lives here. The only ponies who told you anything about the desert were a couple veterans in training, and they pretty much told you that it would be rare to find anybody in the middle of the desert you're going to. But... what did they say about if you did find some other ponies? Yeah, that's right. What do you think they'd tell you to do, run away scared back into your tent? Besides, curiosity was getting the best of you anyway. With a laid-back determination dousing your deepest set fears, you scale the rest of the dune, and peek over the top. Oh. Uh... weren't these supposed to be ponies? You're pretty sure these were meant to be ponies. But they're not ponies at all. In fact, you're pretty sure they're both naked too, which is extra weird. They also have weapons. Plan B time. . .. There was a plan B, right? If there was, it would be really helpful if it came up right now...! In waiting for magical B to appear vividly into your mind, you try to trace back and think on what the veterans said all that week ago. What do you even do when you see a griffon, or a zebra, for that matter? You haven't ever met either before. If you remembered correctly, there was a lecture once where a pony you didn't recognise started talking about zebras having stripes, and that being important for some reason or whatever. Nobody really cared, and if you remember correctly, the class had a debate afterwards on whether they were black with white stripes, or the other way around. Since you'd never seen one before, you didn't really feel like you had credence to speak, but you're pretty sure the white with blacks stripes took the lead. Also, that doesn't help in this situation whatsoever. The other thing you remember is that there were a couple news articles which talked about a war that happened much further in the desert, and how the zebra country or whatever was really brutal in their apparent attempt to destroy an entire race of ancient creatures, as well as there being countless articles in local newspapers about griffon pirates constantly harassing sea traders to the northeast of Equestria, stealing booty, ships, and kidnapping ponies and other terrifying mean and nasty things. You hope this doesn't help your situation either. You hope these are the 1% of friendly griffons and zebras that will totally not do any of that stuff to ponies who camp out in the middle of deserts.
2 (04/11/16)View OnlineOlowpri2 (04/11/16)You haven't the foggiest idea of what pringles are, or men, for that matter. You're not really sure why your mind sometimes wonders into unknown territory, but apparently, this is one of those times. Maybe pringles are a beacon of hope, in an otherwise bleak and disappointing world? Maybe men are the holders to this magnificent treasure, hidden deep in the caves under the unicorn range? To the flaming halls of Tartarus if you know. It would be really useful if you had a dictionary around, but you forgot to pack one. You'unno. Guess that makes two things two look in a dictionary for, huh? First priority's still that ear twitch, though. You suddenly remember that you're in a potentially deadly situation, and stop thinking about dictionaries and silly sounding words that just popped into your head randomly. It's time for action! ...Unfortunately, you didn't bring your musket with you. It's still back at the tent. You decide that, due to your relative incognito-stance up on top of the dune, you're probably safe to scurry back over. As you do so, you don't alert them at all. To be honest, you're pretty sure they were a lot more interested in that bowl-thingy they had between them, and talking in sentences that you couldn't really hear from all that distance away. You get back to your tent. The musket is still where you left it from last night, sprawled on the sandy desert floor. You kind of have to hope that hasn't blocked up the gun or something, and you feel a bit silly for leaving it out. Maybe you should invest in a carpet. You think that you should probably get a list so that you can mark down all your priorities. You're pretty sure that getting a carpet is at least tied with the dictionary, but right now that ear twitch- THAT ear twitch, is still miles ahead. Having grabbed the musket and throwing it over your shoulder, you take the black powder and the shot bags (because you at least remember to bring THAT), and hoist 'em over too. Look at you, doing soldiery things! You almost feel like a soldier too. Some semblance of pride fills through you at the potentially life-saving idea to take the gun. You head back outside, and take the nearest dune to the dune you were previously standing on. Luckily, the griffon and the zebra haven't moved at all or anything. You have no idea what a holster is (the dictionary is gaining ground in the to-be-created priority list), and since brandishing a musket with hooves while walking is physically impossible, you take an educated guess on your instinct, and carry the musket with your mouth. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? You start by initiating friendly conversation with the two. The griffon doesn't say anything, similar to yourself (you had a gun in your mouth), but the pistol aimed at your face kind of indicates a change in mood.
3 (05/11/16)View OnlineOlowpri3 (05/11/16)Heroics... sound a bit daunting. You've always been an above-average soldier, don't get yourself wrong. But you always knew you could do better. A lot of top-notch pegasus, pumped up to jump and fly in the face of danger, would always go into the newest regiment of lancers, kind of a flying-knight group that every filly and colt always thought were really cool. You probably thought they were cool too, but when you, y'know, went into the whole military career path, you started to think running into a group of ponies with a pointy stick would be detrimental to your health. You're also really happy in hindsight that you chose to go into a much more slower army role, since the country you were enrolled with was entirely annexed by the empire you're currently serving in, with most of the lancer regiments sent in and obliterated not long after. You'd be lying to yourself if you said you dodged that bullet - you dodged a lot of bullets with that life choice. Speaking of dodging bullets: You decide that you probably shouldn't try anything right now. To be honest with yourself, you're not really sure why you brought the gun anyway. And even if you did try to use it... you did you even reload it? Whoops. The griffon says that he's met quite a few ponies that said they were friendly, and says he was pretty sure they all tried to steal from him. He didn't like that very much, so he feels perfectly obliged to point a gun at you in case you try to do it too. The griffin also wants you to explain yourself, because, like, you're in the middle of a big empty desert, and he really hopes you weren't sent over here to steal his bowl. Since he's the one holding a loaded gun at you, and you just threw yours on the ground, he also says he feels in a position to ask the questions here, so you better 'splain up. Lying? Ha! You're pretty sure Any pony'd know that you're good at lying... Wait. That isn't a good thing. No, you're pretty sure that no pony would now how good you are at lying, because you're so good at it. There you go. Anyway, one of the most important things to do when lying, as you well know, is preparation. When command asked you to join the lancer commission, you had to really deceive them. There's actually a few keys features to how you went about it. One: Pretty obvious, really. You make sure the lie-ee (In this case, a somewhat peeved griffon) is not entirely aware of your intruthfulness before the act of lying is conceived. You should therefore act as truthful as possible. In the case of this griffon, he probably doesn't know you, so the issue is merely persistent with the continuation of your present form of attitude, ie, being somewhat terrified, but in a stable condition to carry out-- -Two: The griffon says you're taking too long, and he might just shoot you anyway. You say you're patrolling the nearby region (You thought about saying desert, but the desert is really big) and you mean no harm. In a way, this is sort of lying too, because you know for certain you weren't asked to patrol the desert. Now that you remembered, you actually forgot the reason you're here, because the brief got lost in a sandstorm a couple days ago. Whoops. You hope that the magi in Canterlot grant you a +1 for deception due to your use of lying, which you know you're good at. You also tell the griffon that you don't know much about any bowls, and really don't care about stealing them. In fact, you decide to use that +1 in deception again, and tell him that you've actually never used a bowl in your life, and have always preferred to eat soup and porridge in mugs, or mug-equivalents. Nice. The griffon sort of just looks blankly at you for a while. You think maybe you'd overdone it with the mug thing... And then he speaks again. The griffon asks if you saw a cave in the region you were patrolling. He says it's very important to him and his associate, who's sitting next to him, and wants you to lead him to it if you have seen it. He also asks for your name.
4 (11/11/16)View OnlineOlowpri4 (11/11/16)Come up with a fake name, huh? You're making you do all the work! Do you know how difficult it is to think of names when you're in such a tense situation? Hmm. . . . How about... Sparkle Shy? Yeah, that'll do it. You tell them your name is Sparkle Shy. The zebra cracks a smirk, but the griffon doesn't move an inch. The griffon replies, saying something to the effect that you've certainly earned the Shy bit, so he'll call you that. Until you tell him what he wants, he's not going to acknowledge the Sparkly bit. The zebra murmurs something to the griffon's... ear? He doesn't really seem to have any, which is kinda weird. Is that normal? Anyway, you catch what you think was the word 'Equestria' or 'Equestrian', but nothing else. Again, the griffon doesn't seem to move an inch, while the zebra seems as bemused as before while she looks at you. "I have not seen a cave of any sort!" "I have not seen a cave of any sort!" "I have not seen a cave of any sort!" Is what you could have said if you followed that word-for-word. So, that's what you do. The griffon stares you dead in the eyes for a couple seconds. Then, he turns away. The griffon explains to his associate that Equestria has a really low-level entrance exam for military recruitment, and the zebra nods with understanding. The griffon then looks back at you, and tells you he'll believe it when you give them a tour up to the biggest sand dune. The zebra, saying that she now understands your current mental capacity as an Equestrian, translates for you. You're pretty much left with no choice, unless if you can think of some suave plan to get out while nobody's looking. Luckily, you remember also travelling up to the biggest sand dune when you first got here, and don't remember seeing anything. The cave is actually in between a big group of rocks, if you remember correctly, and they wouldn't detect it on route. Right now isn't the best time to make a drastic move (though it might be possible if you don't have a gun pointed at you), but once they've checked and found nothing, you'll probably be left alone. Then you can go back to your tent, 1-days worth of water, and your... (you're really not wanting to proc it) ...ear situation, in peace. So... Where is the nearest town, anyway? You guess that'd be where these two came from. The griffon picks up the two spears that were stuck around the campfire, and slots them into the zebra's bag. He then picks up the bowl, and tells you to walk them to it. You walk with them up to the tallest sand dune, as they told you to do. You feel that they didn't really need you to guide them up to it, since they would have found it anyway. Maybe you think they're not really sure what to do with you? The griffon isn't holding you at gunpoint anymore, which is kind of nice. When you get to the top, it's more sandy than you remember. There's a rock formation over to your right, which you try not to pay attention to... Neither of them seem to notice. After a few minutes, the griffon says he was sure they were on the right track. You think you're in the clear as they start walking down.
