Champions of New Equestria

Tick-Tock returns to the carriage and takes a seat of her own.

"Yeah, everyone just pile on in," Phoenix remarks as Tick Tock gets in the carriage. "This is decidedly less comfortable than last time. Am I right, Smokey? Must be hard to get comfortable like this, huh?" He grins as he prods Smoke a few times, preventing him from dozing off. "Huh? Huh, huh? Amirite?"

Light swung the door to the carriage shut, and trotted back to the front of it. He and Dark each hooked themselves up to the carriage, before setting off at a trot down the path to Canterlot.

Over the course of the next few hours, the little carriage traveled down its path to Canterlot. As it slowly approached after-hours and with only a small portion of the journey left, the carriage found itself in the middle of a dark section of path. All was fine until suddenly and without warning, it skid to a stop, flinging its passengers forward into the front of the carriage and onto the floor.

Dark appeared at the door, inspecting the group carefully. Her face noticeably colder, she stood there for a moment before nodding her head and stepping back onto the path.

"...and then so I said-" Phoenix is cut off as his head slams into the wall behind him, and subsequently hits the floor. Looking up at the menacing pony that opens the door, he deadpans. "Oh, really? Is this the part where you murder us and bury us in the darkest part of the woods?" He stands up and faces her. "...Move, you." Phoenix shoves his way past her and exits the carriage, stretching his wings and legs as he does so. "Just had to take the carriage, huh?"

---

(Prep forcefield, lets see where this goes.)

The sudden break disturbs Smoke out of whatever nap he could savage, and he watches silently as Flashpoint freaks out. "Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?

"Huh? What's goin' on?" Tick-Tock asked after falling form the sudden jolt of movement.

"Eep!" Aquilah exclaimed as she was thrown to the floor of the carriage along with her fellow passengers.

elfowlgirl wrote:The carriage seems to be in good shape - hardly used, with the wheels showing little wear-and-tear. The inside is in even better shape, and it appears that few ponies actually sit in it. The carriage is put together well, and will likely last for many more months before any serious problem should arise.

"Could you please tell us what's going on?"She asked Dark, who seemed to be acting very strangely. "Surely there's not a problem with the wagon, that seems unlikely; it looked practically brand new!" Aquilah was quiet for a moment. It was strange that these ponies happened to be nearby with a wagon which seemed to have been hardly if ever used- but perhaps her new company was making her overly suspicious. She attempted to follow "Flashpoint" outside and take a look at the road ahead and the wagon.

Mechanics:

Perception:

((I'm assuming you mean Dark...))

Sure enough, the carriage is still in top condition. Looking down the road towards Canterlot, Aquilah can see the lights of the torches almost all the way to the city. Nothing seems to be ahead of them that would warrant stopping.

Light and Dark stand in front of the group, blocking the rest of the path. Dark waits with wings spread and Light with his horn ablaze. The unicorn speaks first, somewhat apologetically. "We did not mean to deceive you. However, as ordered by Her Royal Highness Princess Lumina, leader of New Equestria, we have been sent to assess your skills for the task that she requires of you. She sends her humble regards for any inconveniences that arise from said test."

Their eyes narrowed. "We hope you can take the challenge!"

"...Mmmm, nah, don't think so." The air around Phoenix ripples a bit, and his wings flare as a forcefield glows to life around the two siblings. "Testing of skills sounds like something you do prior to summoning a group of strangers to come do your bidding. And no offense, but the two of you don't look like you're capable of testing much of us. Feel free to break out of that, though, and then come find us. We'll be talking with your princess." He turns and begins walking toward Canterlot.

Dark bucks the forcefield, although it remains strong. Light blasts the field with a string of light from his horn, and the field does not break. They each give it their last shot... nope, they're stuck.

The purple pegasus glares at the group. "Good luck getting to Canterlot then," she snorts, "and give our regards to Princess Lumina, now that you've likely cost us our jobs."

"Um, that does sound like you meant to decieve us then. Oh well. I think you're jobs are safe though. I believe Ph-flashpoint passed your 'test', albeit single-hoofedly." Aquilah mutters to "Flashpoint"... "I think you made the right decision though- we have no way of knowing they're telling the truth. They could have easily overheard me blabbing about our new patron earlier- although seems like a weird place for an ambush, this close to Canterlot. Oh well, now we can go with your original plan." Aquilah flips a switch to unfold her wings, and takes off rather ungracefully towards Canterlot.

"If us taking you out without combat loses your jobs... I don't see how us dealing with you with combat will keep you jobs. So I believe that's a lie, and we'll be going..." Tick-Tock said and then flew off as well.

Chocolate lowers altitude to land on top of the force field and asks the pair trapped inside, "So how exactly was this supposed to go?"

Light sighed. "We've never really... gotten very far before? Usually on a task like this, they either wipe the floor with us before we can explain anything or they go running into the forest halfway down the road. It's supposed to be a fight between you five and us, and if you win, we let Lumina know. Wouldn't do any good to waste the ruler of New Equestria's time, would it?"

"I suppose not. Well, have a nice cycle I guess." Chocolate says and then flies up again.

"Leave them." Phoenix called back to the others. "They're lying. If they'd been sent by the Princess, then they'd know there were supposed to be six of us to fight, not five. And I don't imagine many groups of strange ponies get summoned by the Princess, let alone to be "tested". They're just bandits who took advantage of a situation they knew next to nothing about."

Smoke Screen tried to find out what the true motive of the two ponies were, but one thing was obvious; if they had been sent by the Princess, how come he had to pay for the carriage while the food and drinks was already paid for? Smoke figured he should get a refund. Maybe more. He hovered out of the carriage and hid out of sight of the two ponies, quickly looking around to see if he can find the box the mare put his bag of bits into...

(Perception Roll for Motive: 12 + 10 = 22)
(Stealth Roll: 4 + 20 + 5 (Flying Ace) = 29)
(Perception Roll to find the box of bits: 20 + 10 = 30 (Natural 20))

From what Smoke can tell, it's about a 50-50 chance that they're telling the truth - he'll have to make the final decision himself.

Looking over the carriage, he can see a bag of bits (including his) cleverly hiding behind the front spoke. Neither of the captured ponies seem to notice.

A lot of the evidence points against them being hired. Why did he have to pay? Why did he have to look for them in the first place? Why were they so bad at this? This wasn't a question of morality, Smoke was just wondering if he should be giving them tips or not. Either way, there's money to be made...

Smoke Screen quietly hovers over to the spoke, snatching the bag and hiding it within his scarf before hovering over to the rest of the group...

(Stealth Roll to sneak to the bag: 8 + 20 + 5 (Flying Ace) = 33)
(Stealth Roll to conceal the bag: 10 + 20 + 5 (Flying Ace) = 35)