Ponysona 4, the Campaign.

Melody gets through, but something about the channel sticks in her mind. "Carnival of... Lies?"

Star,dead tired, doesn't hear his phone go off on vibrate and do voicemail kicks in. "This is Star, I'm not home! Leave a message at the tone!" it recites, notes in the background making it sound like a quick jingle.

Spoiler:

"Star? It's Melody...Midnight Channel had you on it again, something about..." She paused...Carnival of lies...That was...Odd...It got under her skin in more than one way...She wasn't a big fan of liars...She remembered she was on the phone, though, and pulled herself out of her own head for a moment. "...S-Something about a carnival of lies or something like that...You looked weird on it too, starved...Uhm, anyway, just check in when you can, okay...?" She hung up, looking back at the TV for a moment..."Carnival of lies...Coming out ahead if you're the best at decieving..." She muttered, trying to think of what that...thing...was getting at. "Star...What aren't you telling us?"

The stones on the cloak stick more in Melody's mind. They looked... Chalky? Not quite like any gemstones since they were dull.

"S-Star Power. Are you there!?"
Roll (Perception)

roll:

Spoiler:

((George= +5 for medical Diagnostic btw, and +3 for physical detai;s.))

Star Power on the tv looked a little odd. He looked malnourished and everything about him looked like someone that hadn't eaten in days. Something about the way he smiled, the way he spoke reminded george of...
Drugs? His skin was taught on his bones, and thinking about it, that flair on Star's cape looked more like Pills than anything...

"Sisters above Star what in tartarus is wrong with you?"
Roll (Heal: Are those symptoms and the appearance of the pills decorating the cape consistent with any known narcotic?)

Roll:

"Star? Hey Star! Star!? Well that was rude!" Brash responds to the TV, having no idea what a TV was (it was just delivered to his room and he'd only just finished setting it up) and having just learned about phones today and of course having no clue what the Midnight Channel was since nobody had bothered to clue him in on that. Or other things that were going on for that matter.

Icing watched the show while sweeping up the shop, dimly lit and, as per usual, all alone. He was idly thinking that he could easily be victim number one in a horror show (the earth pony always dies first, or the beautiful one, he was a twofer there), when the TV suddenly and relatively loudly crackled to life.

Perception:

"Well, isn't that fascinating. I suppose I will need to gossip with the group about this in a socially expected setting. Sigh, this whole "social" thing is tough work." Icing keeps sweeping, having not exchanged any numbers nor gotten any arrangements to have anypony know where he is, beyond school or here at work. He lets out a dry chuckle.

"Carnival of lies. The production values are poor, but lets see how it turns out, eh?"

The three major things that Zeela did in the time-skip:

1. Made sure everyone had eachother's number... (Because it's just good logic to do so.)
2. Meet up with Rumor Mill and as promassed explained EVERYTHING, about what's happened so far. Everything other then the party's names, all Rumor knew for sure was that Zeela was in the main group that helped saved a foal from the TV Realm and that Star's the one next targeted by the weird dark forces at work here. Also Star's apart of two late joiners in the group. And there was one of the group that she lost touch with. Lastly she did offer her number to Rumor Mill to try to set up some meeting point if the group wished to meet her and stuff. (Zeela hoped she wouldn't regret this. But she figured it was better to try to get Rumor Mill on their side then as a enemy... But she couldn't help but have flashbacks to when Zeela made her deal with Cael while she chatted with Rumor.)
3. Relax by doing some potion brewing at her place. (She ended up with rainbow stripes for about a few hours, something Zeela laughed a good deal about.)

Perception check:

By the time Star's Shadow popped up with his broadcast, she was half-awake... And was heading to bed... So she didn't get best look at what was said or anything. And she just headed stright to bed... She didn't notice her phone ringing because it was turned off and was recharging for the night when it was called.

"...What kind of cloak has bits of...chalk-ish stuff on it anyway...? Ugh, hopefully the others have a clue, I'll have to find out tomorrow after classes..." Melody muttered before realizing she was talking to herself a lot more than was probably sane. With that, she headed to sleep, trying to catch up so she could actually pay attention in class...Star had one thing right, she supposed...Couldn't let her studies lapse altogether because of this...

In the morning, the four students all recieve a small test, and the two workers get a quick meeting with one of the higher ups.
Students:
1.) What is the pythagorean theorem
2.) To (Who, Whom) does this pencil belong?
3.) What is the name of the Alicorn that raises the moon in the evening?
4.) Describe yourself in three sentences, no less.
Workers:
You have 3 lines to impress one of the higher ups.

LoganAura wrote:1.) What is the pythagorean theorem
2.) To (Who, Whom) does this pencil belong?
3.) What is the name of the Alicorn that raises the moon in the evening?
4.) Describe yourself in three sentences, no less.

1.) A² + B² = C²
2.) Whom
3.) Princess Luna
4.) I'm a Zeela the Pegasus, born of an Unicorn and a Zebra... Don't feel like saying much else. Not even sure what else I could say in fact.

LoganAura wrote:
1.) What is the pythagorean theorem
2.) To (Who, Whom) does this pencil belong?
3.) What is the name of the Alicorn that raises the moon in the evening?
4.) Describe yourself in three sentences, no less.

1) a² + b² = c²
2) Whom
3) Princess Luna
4) I'm Charming Melody, a unicorn. I'm studying music to be a performer someday. Also, I'm really hoping I got the other questions right at the moment.

On his way to his meeting, Brash caught one of the student tests that had flown out and window and decided to fill it out, when he later had to sit and wait a bit.

LoganAura wrote:
1.) What is the pythagorean theorem
2.) To (Who, Whom) does this pencil belong?
3.) What is the name of the Alicorn that raises the moon in the evening?
4.) Describe yourself in three sentences, no less.

1) The pythagorean is a relation in Euclidean geometry among the three sides of a right triangle (right-angled triangle). In terms of areas, it states: In any right-angled triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle).
The theorem can be written as an equation relating the lengths of the sides a, b and c, often called the Pythagorean equation: a² + b² = c², where c represents the length of the hypotenuse, and a and b represent the lengths of the other two sides.
If the length of both a and b are known, then c can be calculated as follows:
If the length of hypotenuse c and one leg (a or b) are known, then the length of the other leg can be calculated with the following equations:
or
Named after some math pony called Pytha Gorus or something like that.
2) A) That was a question, not a pencil. B) I'm using a pen. You can tell because of the ink. C) The pen is in my possession but, school property as is this piece of paper on which the question is printed.
3) Luna (official title Princess Luna) preceded by Princess Celestia preceded by Princess Luna.
4) My name is Brash Landing, born in Equestria, son of Bad Lands. I've traveled to quite a few places. I'm an inventor, a bit of a novice thaumaturge, and a natural born flier for being an earth pony.

At the interview Brash introduced himself and just rambled about his accidental teleportation here, his hover board, and the work he'd done in the engineering department lately. Just before coming here he'd taken apart one of their novel television devices and re-made it into a three dimensional holographic projector but, he could only get it to project small blue images with the occasional strange signal interference he couldn't explain so he'd scrapped it. When he finished talking he, as an afterthought, handed over the test sheet saying, "Oh yeah, I found this and got bored waiting so I filled it out for a bit of a lark."

LoganAura wrote:Workers:
You have 3 lines to impress one of the higher ups.

The interview consisted, more-or-less, of George handing over (edited so he doesn't sound insane or make it sound like Redfeather or Shiro were doing anything suspect) copies of his notes regarding the previous two nights.
"Other than that this first week in medical has been fairly quiet, just some students complaining of headaches and sore-throats."

Icing breezes through the test, stopping briefly on the last question, nodding his head along with the syllabic count before putting it to paper. The textbooks are, like, ten years old, but they were pretty good to follow, give a textbook answer whenever possible, as expected of him. Unfortunately, his writing is messy, he envied the unicorns for such simple penship.

The Test:

LoganAura wrote:In the morning, the four students all recieve a small test, and the two workers get a quick meeting with one of the higher ups.
Students:
1.) What is the pythagorean theorem
2.) To (Who, Whom) does this pencil belong?
3.) What is the name of the Alicorn that raises the moon in the evening?
4.) Describe yourself in three sentences, no less.

1) The Pythagorean theorem is the rather famous mathematical formula for finding the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle as expressed by the formula a2 + b2 = c2, where c represents the length of the hypotenuse, and a and b represent the lengths of the other two sides whose perpendicular nature form the necessary 90° angle.
2) Whom is the answer in keeping with propper grammatical format.
3) Luna, Princess of Equestria
4) I, Star Power, am a unicorn of exceptional intilect and talent. I have received numerous awards and recognitions over the years for my academic achievements. I am highly determined and strong willed in my goal to accel in the academic world. I intend to be the highest ranking student by the end of the year.

It's the afternoon now, the day passed by uneventful after the test and everypony recieved a short note
Zeela: It might be a bit better for you to understand yourself a little more, and learn to express yourself. However you do show good courage writing so little actually for that last answer.
Melody: You've expressed your worry and between you and me, you did answer them well. You might want to be a bit more Diligent with your other classes, though. simple Intelligence isn't going to cut it in the world.
Brash: That was surprisingly well put, Brash. For some reason- either we didn't Understand you or you didn't have enough practice expressing yourself, you didn't come off like that. I'm sorry for doubting your intelligence.
Icing: That was a rather beautiful poem at the end, but you need to understand- The assignment was 3 sentences, not five. I have no reason to doubt your intelligence, but you need to diligently read the assignments more.
Star: You have wonderful Diligence in your education, but you need to learn to read assignments. I asked for three sentences, and you gave me four. Try to explain yourself in less words next time. It might take courage to not over explain things, but you'll need to have faith in your Intelligence
George: I'm surprised at how quickly you gave us the report- none of the other aides really could handle how much courage it took to write down every detail- especially with some of the more ... awkward circumstances. I'm proud to say I'm happy you're taking over for Ms. Redfeather while she's injured, and have no fears that you'll express the utmost diligence when taking care of the students.

Spoiler:

Available options: Weapon Shop [! Star must go here]
Other shops
Velvet Room
Shiro[?]
Other things you decide

Brash accompanies Star (and anyone else who's going) to the weapon shop, having told the group about the deal there over lunch.

Melody breathed a mental sigh of relief. She was worried she'd gotten the theorem wrong for a moment, but she was through that...She felt like a little better person...Since Brash had told them about the deal, she figured she could stop in and check on what they had...It shouldn't take too long, she could probably hang out with someone later...

Zeela went to the Weapon Shop with Melody, just enjoying some time spent with her new friend. "Don't get what was up with that "explain yourself in three sentences" question..." Zeela said making some small talk with Melody.

Icing grumbled. 'It said "no less", the implication being more is okay! Well, nopony likes those who argue for marks, I should have just made them commas instead of periods I suppose.' His mental rant went on, in order to prevent a verbal one.

He sighed. Well, no use crying over a dropped cone, what's done is done. More important, perhaps, is the coincidence of the midnight channel and somepony so soon joining with this circle of doomsday buddies.

And there was only one pony who might know the answer to that.

Mind made up, Icing decides to walk to the mall, and find that scintillating azure door to the Velvet Room.

"I'm just saying, no less doesn't put any restrictions on a higher count. And how is it that it 'takes courage' to give less detail about yourself instead of opening up more? I think whoever wrote that test has some screwed up priorities." Star complained on the way to the 'weapon shop'. Seriously, how was a store like that even legal? There were massive restrictions on owning any sort of weapon whatsoever, and on top of that selling to minors? All together, these details must screamed "We are so illegal we make stealing candy from foals look like a saintly act".

Brash just shrugged in response.