Champions of New Equestria

A few weeks ago, you received a mysterious letter in the mail. No return address, no date, no name, not even yours.

Loyal Subject,

We would like to request your presence one month from now at Canterlot Castle. We require your help, and will look forward to seeing you there if you so choose to join Us. Five others have been also invited to meet with Us alongside you, and We will be looking forward to their visit as well.

Please note that this is a private matter. We thank you for your understanding.

Her Royal Highness,
Princess Lumina

Through the receiving of further letters, it has been arranged for you and the others of your party to meet in the town of Ponyville before moving on together to Canterlot. You are to meet them at the bar known as "The Cube" in the center of town at one o'clock. It is now a quarter to one.

Tick-Tock went quickly to the place where she would meet her future allies in this unknown quest set forth by Princess Lumina herself. While the Clockwork Pony doesn't think of the Princess as anything but a pony, she was still the royal leader therefore Tick-Tock couldn't help but give her respect... The Clockwork Alicorn just hoped the rest of the group wouldn't think less of her is what she worried right now as she waited in The Cube.

Chocolate Flurry was lounging around on a cloud above the bar when she awoke, not realizing until that moment she had fallen asleep. Well, the weather nice enough so, she could hardly be blamed now could she? Even if she happened to be the one who made sure her's was the only cloud nearby. She reached into her tail and pulled out her pocket watch and noted that it was later than she'd expected but, that she still had plenty of time. She stretched for a bit, then got up and dispersed her little cloud (somepony else could make their own if they wanted one) and lazily glided down to the bar, just drifting on the currents, not bothering to beat her wings at all.

Smoke Screen has been waiting within the bar since half past. If this letter was a trap, he would see the trap being prepared and escape while it wasn't set. He did have thoughts that the letter was little more than a trap, but if it was real, then this could be the job that he has been looking for. And besides, if this was a trap, why would someone say it was from the Princess, that's far too out there to be easily believable. But if it was real, why not just send him straight to the castle? But if it was a trap, and actually from the Princess, would sending him straight to the castle be too obvious a trap? Smoke mused over these thoughts to kill the time, occasionally touching his drink, as he waited...

Tick-Tock looks around worried about what the others in this bar were thinking of the Clockwork Pony... If any of them even thought she was alive or something...

Aquilah had not even been sure if the letter that had come in the mail had been even been for her, or if it was for the previous tenant, as she had just recently moved in to yet another new home. Still, when one received a summons by the Princess, one needed to respond. Besides, odds were the Princess probably had access to up-to-date adress information. She had no idea why the Princess would choose her for anything- unless all of her past science accidents had finally caught up with her. But no- the Princess wanted her help?

Getting off the train at Ponyville, Aquilah rushed to The Cube, not wanting to be late. According to her watch, and double-checking with her pocket-watch, it was 12:45. She did not usually spend much time in pubs, or really any place with too many ponies and objects- it was easy enough for her to get into trouble all by herself, without a crowd of boisterous ponies stumbling around with drinks and food.

Aquilah opened the door a little more forcefully than she would have intended, but let out a sigh of relief as she saw only a handful of other ponies there. Which made sense, she supposed, as most ponies probably did not come here until the evening. She made sure her wings were securely folded so they would not bump into anything (they had come loose as she was running), and found a spot at the bar.

"Hello?" she called to see if anyone was running the bar. "Could I have something to drink, please? Anything non-alcoholic will do. Tea, coffee, juice, milk, water, lemonade perhaps?"

After attempting to order a drink, Aquilah immediately noticed an interesting-looking pony, seemingly made up of clockwork and glass. Or was it just a clockwork machine made to look like a pony? She stared at... it? her? far longer than would be polite, and then whipped out a sketchbook and immediately began furiously scribbling diagrams and sketches.

A small, mint green earth pony filly lept up from behind the bar, her white and red mane puffing up as she jumped. She was carefully carrying a glass of water on her head, and set and it before Aquilah. "'Ere ya go, miss! One water." She hopped down, moved farther along the bar, and jumped up before Tick-Tock. "'S there anythin' ya'd like, miss, while ya wait? You are waitin', aren'cha? Somefin' to eat, some water? Ya set?"

Tick-Tock jumps a little at the Mint Green Pony coming out of nowhere"Some saltwater with peanut butter crackers? Please?" The Robot wasn't sure what else to say to the hostess, after all far as she knows this was a big hush-hush type of thing...

The recent conversation brought the unusual pony to Smoke's attention. Had he ever heard of any stories of such a creature before?

(Streetwise Roll: 3 + 10 = 13)

Guess not. Smoke kept an eye on the creature as he sipped his drink once more...

Chocolate looked around at the other occupants. The strangest Ponyforged she'd ever seen, ordering salt water of all things. A pony with mechanical wings. And another pony just sitting there silently. Oh, and the bartender who just... showed up suddenly. Deciding to order something herself, she said, "I vant your blood...y marey."

The filly (quite carefully) set down the plate of crackers and saltwater before the Alicorn, and turned to the batpony. "'Less ya want a virgin, I'ma need some ID, miss. It's the law'n all."

Tick-Tock nods to the filly and enjoys her small meal.

Phoenix held up the letter in mild amusement. It looked like the Mail service was unreliable in any version of Ponyville, because whoever was supposed to get it, hadn't. That, or something very wrong had happened, and this Lumina knew he was there- which she couldn't. The implications were terrifying to consider, so obviously, he had received someone else's letter. Oh well. Barely a day in-universe, but he had already established an irritating lack of the bearers, and even worse, of Sweetie Belle. A repeat of last time.

Luckily, the letter brought a Silver Lining. No Celestia to deal with. And whoever Lumina was, it seemed he could use this to get to her rather easily. Hopefully this wouldn't turn into quite as big a deal as his prior adventure. Then again, "five other ponies" seemed to suggest some eerie similarities.

---

A day later, Phoenix approached the bar. He had taken Pegasus form the day before, because whatever was bound to happen, subtlety would no doubt be a factor. Upon entering he noted another disturbing similarity- a bat pony and a robot alicorn were situated near the bar. The rest seemed more or less normal, though they might not be there for the same reason. Phoenix took a seat towards the other end of the bar. He didn't say anything yet, but waited for one of the others to make their move.

At the mention of alcohol, though, he smiled a bit. Ponies drinking. Classic. Getting her attention, he started to order a drink. "I'd like a Vodka and Lemon..." his voice trailed off. The Bartender (who was of debatable age to serve alcohol in the first place) was carding. "Actually, just a glass of Lemon Juice. Left my ID at home. And something to snack on, I guess."

"Ah. V-well, a virgin will be fine then." Chocolate replied, having forgotten she couldn't necessarily count on all bartenders to be as lax as the ones near the academy. She noted the new pony walk in but, nothing about him really stood out.

"Alrighty then, miss and sir. One lemon juice 'n snack, and one virgin Marey. Gimme a few minutes, though, I most always mess up my first try." She hopped off the bar and headed into the back room. "Stupid tomato juice..."

The grandfather clock in the corner of the room quietly rang once.

Chocolate mumbled a traditional Prancesyvanian response to grandfather clock rings that either didn't have any real meaning or was a linguistic mystery lost to the fog of time.

Aquilah sipped her water, watching with fascination as the mechanical alicorn enjoyed her strange meal of peanut-butter crackers and... saltwater? From her exchange with the bartender (for some reason Aquilah thought of the alicorn as a mare) it was clear she was sentient, although from Aquilah's brief study she was certain it wasn't just an elaborate costume nor an extensive prosthetic.

She scooted over to take a seat next to the alicorn.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but how are you enjoying your meal? Not that you shouldn't, that's not what I meant, although the salt water is a bit strange... but I mean, can you taste it? Does it fill you up?"

Aquilah jumped as the clock in a corner chimed. Had it already been fifteen minutes here? She checked her own watches. They were off from this one by a couple minutes. Either this clock was wrong, or time was not precisely coordinated between the towns. She shrugged and set a spare watch to the same time as the clock. She immediately turned her attention back to the clockwork alicorn.

"Sorry if I've been rude! My name's Aquilah. Jazari. What's your name?" Aquilah looked concerned for a second. "You have a name don't you? I hope you do."

At first Tick-Tock again was a bit surprised to be talked to in such a manor... But it quickly calmed down once the clockwork pony realized the questions were being asked... Not hurtful statements that she had feared. "Oh... Saltwater tastes better... And peanut butter is good to help oil my gears... Name I go by is Tick-Tock..." The Alicorn said with a shrug as it ate clearly not sure what else to say.

"Never heard of a Ponyforged eating or drinking before. And last I checked they weren't too fond of salt water due to potential rust issues." Chocolate commented, more or less to herself.

The Clockwork Pony just headtilts. "Those are real? I thought they were but a story..."

(OOC: It doesn't matter what reality it is. Tick-Tock is a bit of a derp and has the worst understanding of like, everything... So to her ponyforged were but stories cause if they were real she'd had meet one or something. That's her logic and I'm sticking to it.)

"Uh..... I would think you would know that better than me...." Chocolate said, clearly confused.

"I might not know much of anything about myself... But one of the few things I do know about myself is that my race is Clockwork Alicorn... Not "ponyforged"... Therefore I am not one of those. And I've never meet any of those ponyforged in what I can recall, so I thought they were stories." Tick-Tock retorts as if that solved everything. It made perfect sense to her after all so it should make perfect sense to everyone else.

The filly strolled back up to the bar, juice and peanuts (on a plate) held delicately in her mouth, and Virgin Mary on her head. She set the plate down before Phoenix, and the Mary before Chocolate. "'Ere ya go. Don' worry about payin', the lot o' ya. Got a message few days ago sayin' that the bills're covered fer ponies 'bout fittin' yer descriptions. Dunno who it's from, though." She shrugged. "Whatever pays the bills, I s'pose."

"Well, I've never even heard of a 'Clockwork Alicorn' before but, I've met a few Ponyforged." Chocolate replied, not entirely sure what to make of this and not sure if this "not ponyforged" wasn't just confused.

Chocolate doesn't even know what to say to the bartender about that so she just takes her drink... and drinks.

Phoenix simply eyes his drink as it was set before him. The robot is almost exactly the same.... no wait, that happens a lot. Coincidence, has to be. But my description, that's a hell of a red flag. He downed the glass, thinking, and then turned to face everyone. "Well, then I guess that cat's out of the bag. I assume this means we're all here for the same reason?" He produces the letter for all to see, and then places it on the counter. Popping a few peanuts, he says nothing else yet.