Wanderlust: Equestrian Nights

Bubbling Spring tenses mentally, but his body barely shifts. His adrenaline is all gone now. "We feel similarly about him, then."

"Uh... well..." Wandering Eye thought for a minute. "Certain... individuals think my mane is a bit messy. To appease them, I think I'll have it tidied up a bit. Made a bit more... presentable."

Wandering Eye

"Very vell then," Schnell Schere nods in response, taking a pair of shears. "Must keep der 'certain individuals' appeased, ja? Certain special individual, I'm sure? Perhaps in ze other room?" he asks, stepping around behind you to start snipping.

---

Bubbling Spring

"INDEED," Madame says (relatively) quietly. "BUT LET US ATTEND TO BUSINESS. WE HAVE ARRIVED," she says, gesturing to the limp form of Mint Jewel on the rocky shore.

"FOR SAFE DELIVERY FROM MY DOMAIN: ONE PEGASUS MARE," she says as she picks up Mint Jewel. "FOR SEVERAL MINUTES OF CONVERSATION, HOWEVER, A SMALL FAVOR REMAINS. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE OF ME?"

Bubbling Spring blinks in surprise. "You are impressively fair, madame." He says, contemplating what else he might ask of the Djinn. "...How far away can you sense ponies? Once I get out of this well, I really have no idea where to look for my compatriots. Could you find them for me?"

Bubbling Spring

The djinn seems to contemplate a moment. "... YES. I CAN GUIDE YOUR PATH," she says. "VERY WELL. FOR CONVERSATION: A GUIDED PATH. DO YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS?"

Bubbling Spring swallowed. If he survived this, he probably deserved his own legend. "I accept."

Scorch and Steam Twins

"It looks kind of... scary... " Taffy says in a small, quiet voice, shrinking back into her seat.

An awkward moment passes in silence before it is broken by Sky Lotus. "Okay! It's about time for the next step - mud masques!" she says with a nervous chuckle, opening the door and ushering all of you out. "Optional for the gentleco- er, drake, of course," she says towards Scorch, having been abandoned by the other hostess on the pretense of lunch break.

---

Bubbling Spring

"THEN IT SHALL BE DONE," Madame says, weaving her claws in an intricate pattern. You feel the snow beneath you melting, and water begins to rise up around you in a sort of bubble that quickly submerges you...

... And just as quickly the bubble pops, and you find you are back at the surface by the well where it all began, mysteriously quite dry and warm. A thin line of ice forms at your feet, shooting off down the street, giving off a bright glare in the afternoon sun.

The Twins both give the Dragon some odd looks, before being ushered to the next room. "I don't think they're that scary. Just trying to seem scary." Water says to Taffy. Soft kind of gazes at the dragon, then sits back in her chair and looks at Lotus. "How long do you think Wandering's haircut will last? I would hate for him to miss much of the actual spa time..."

Bubbling Spring is immediately suspicious of his warmth, but quickly recognizes that he's not hypothermic. He just skipped the half-numbness and the pins-and-needles unpleasantness. He was equal parts unhappy and relieved that he hadn't had to see Mint Jewel's fate; he was curious about the process, and would have liked to confirm her death, but had a feeling he would not have enjoyed the experience. Lavender wasn't around, he noted, but he had been down for some time. She'd probably gone to find the others. Stretching out his stiff legs, he follows the ice trail as it winds through the city, eventually finding that it passes...under the front door of a spa.

Bubbling Spring stands in front of the door with his mouth hanging open, contemplating any number of angry pronouncements before deciding that they're not worth the effort...without someone to express them to. He stalks through the front door, tersely asking the receptionist "I'm looking for a quartet of ponies? One unicorn, a unicorn filly, and two twins, a unicorn and a pegasi?"

Spoiler:

"Sure, why not," replies the dragon. "I'm on vacation. Somewhat."

Telebiscuit Jen wrote:Soft kind of gazes at the dragon, then sits back in her chair and looks at Lotus. "How long do you think Wandering's haircut will last? I would hate for him to miss much of the actual spa time..."

The dragon turns his attention at that sentence, and moves closer to the pair. "Wait. Wandering... Eye?"

Scorch and Steam Twins

"It'll probably be a while," Sky Lotus says in response to Glowing Soft's question,  pausing briefly to apply the masque with a smooth, deft motion. "Schnell moves like lightning-" she continues, pausing again to put a cucumber slice over each eye. "-But he's always been really careful with hair cuts ever since - "

She is interrupted by a bell over the door. "Excuse me a moment, I'll be right back," she says, going off to address whoever it is...

((Perception check, DC 15, to overhear the next bit. Just because.))

---

Bubbling Spring

The receptionist -  a blue coated pegasus mare -  comes from the other room, raising an eyebrow at Bubbling Spring's appearance -  or perhaps his behavior, or the question itself. "... Wait, isn't a quartet four ponies? You named six... Whatever. I have a pair of twins back here, they might be yours, I suppose, but I'm not supposed to just let you in," she says, pointing at a sign reading "Guests Only Beyond This Point".

The twins hesitate, both because of the Dragon's response and because of Lotus seeing to the door. "Uh, yeah, him." "He's... you know him?" They reply while listening after the spa pony.

---

8+7=25

Bubbling Spring didn't like cities for a variety of reasons. He didn't like that setting fire to something to make a point (and immediately putting it out thereafter!) was unacceptable. He hated solid walls big enough that you could round corners without the slightest idea of what was on the other side. And most of all, he despised this ridiculous obsession with pulling metal out of the earth's crust and exchanging it for goods and services.

This hatred only deepened as he realized that he was broke. He had spent his last bits on a lemon sorbet and some chocolate mousse for Lavender. However, Princess Twilight had been perfectly accommodating to him in explaining just what Disturbing the Peace entailed, and he kept his temper in check. "I have almost died three times today," he says to the masseuse, his tone leaving little doubt that his exhaustion matched his claim. "And I am looking for the only ponies I can trust in a 50-mile radius. I am broke, so I cannot become a 'guest,' but I would greatly appreciate a look inside." Given that freezing your feet and muscling past isn't an option right now, my alternative is passing out on your rug, he neglects to add.

The receptionist purses her lips nervously, as if unsure of what to do. "I still can't let you in... Though if you could tell me your name I could go ask them if they know you?"

Water heard more of the conversation at the door than Soft did, and hear the pony mention twins. "I think that's whats his name, the one with the filly." She gets up and heads out to the door. "Oh hey, it is you. Bubbing... Bubbling, right? What happened to you?"

Meanwhile, Soft waits in the other room, eyes shifting nervously between the door her sister just walked through, and the still intimidating dragon. Experience screamed at her to go with Soft, but she knew she should stay with Taffy for now. So she just coughs nervously and stays in her seat.

Bubbling Spring visibly relaxes when he sees Water Drop. He actually staggers a bit. "The Herdmind wants us dead. Like, really dead. I happened to be the first target, apparently. " He says all of this with an air of removal, like someone listing damages to an aircraft that was already stowed in a hangar, but disbelief begins to tinge his voice as he says, "While you lot...went to the spa." He also sounds a little relieved, though. "Can I join you...somehow? You all need to hear what happened to me, and I really need to lie down."

Water blinks at him. "Uh... yeah, sure..." She doesn't recall what he might be talking about, but isn't going to tell him that while he's like this. "Yeah, you should lay down, and have some water or something. Is there somewhere we can take him?" She asks Lotus.

While this is all going on, the dragon begins to slink away towards where the inn's barber would be, chains rattling as he moves...

Bubbling Spring and Steam Twins

Sky Lotus looks between Bubbling Spring and Water Drop with a frankly flabbergasted look on her face before quietly leaving to attend to Taffy Stretch, who appears to be ignorant of the whole conversation.

---

Scorch

Nobody appears to notice or care about you until you crack a door open, revealing an earth pony chatting and trimming hair off a fairly disheveled Wandering Eye.

"I'm going to take that as a yes, and join you in the spa." Bubbling Spring says dully, following Sky Lotus back through the door. He's suddenly acutely aware of how dry he is. "You said there was water?"

"He's actually getting a manecut? At a spa?" Scorch thinks to himself, "What in Tartarus does that have to do with a cursed suitcase? Heh, looks like I wasn't the only one to go on secret 'vacation' then." Scorch doesn't enter, but doesn't hide himself either...

Soft watches the dragon leave, and Lotus, and then Water return, with a disheveled Bubbling Spring in Tow. "There should be some water around somewhere..." Water says, looking for a tap in the room, and her wings twitch, knowing she can produce some if need be. "Where'd he go?" "I don't know, off to find Wandering I think." "Huh..."

ooc:

Bubbling Spring spies a tap on the far side of the room and approaches it as quickly as he can. He takes a very long drink before letting the tap run for a few seconds, pulling the water out sideways to loosely encircle his neck. "I'll get right to it, then. You two can fill in Wandering Eye later." He says, drawing some of the water up to his mouth and drinking it with some noises that could only be described as 'slurping.'

ooc:

Spoiler:

Bubbling Spring takes a deep breath and another slurp of water. "After we split up, Lavender and I went more or less directly towards the wishing well. We were guided by a perfectly-pleasant-looking pegasus that lives around here, named Mint Jewel. Only when we got there...she threw me down the well." He freezes a small bit of water into a thin toothpick and drops it into the grating below the water faucet. "Murder attempt one. I survived the dive and managed to pull myself ashore in what is apparently an underground waterway that sits under most of the city. I only learned that because Mint Jewel followed me down and felt like chatting before properly killing me." Pausing to contemplate how ridiculous that sounded, Bubbling Spring adds. "I think she was bored. Anyways, she explained that the cultists that attacked Ponyville are indeed part of a hivemind. They call themselves the herdmind, and they essentially merged all of their memories and experiences into one collective ball. However, tapping into that ball too often turns you into a 'drone,' the sort of pony we captured during the attack. The drones are subservient to the Dominants, who can better withstand the strain of collective consciousness. Among these Dominants are Mint Jewel, my attempted murderer, and Sunglaze, Taffy's sister." He nods to Taffy and forms another two ice toothpicks. "Mint Jewel said that the dominants were gathering to plan something big, and that these attacks were just to distract us. Then she tried to kill me. I escaped for all of thirty seconds before encountering...a desert god. A desert god who was a loooong way from home." He drops the two toothpicks down the drain, same as the first. "The desert god wanted to kill me too, because I was treading in her domain, so that's murder attempts two and three. Now that we've capped out on murder attempts for this story, things start to look up. I traded Mint Jewel's soul for mine, and got directions to you lot thrown into the bargain." He takes another deep slurp of water. "The way this affects all of you is that according to Mint Jewel, because we encountered Sunglaze, a dominant, while defending Ponyville, and then we immediately showed up here, shortly after their own cultist attack, the Herdmind has determined that the five of us are their enemies, and that we must be--" He gets cut off by a brief coughing fit from his still-dry throat, but this happens to give his voice an intimidating death rattle for his final word. "--eliminated." His coughing fit continues, but eventually dies down, and he turns to look at Taffy. "If you're a dominant like your sister, I'm beyond defenseless right now. You could just take one of these nice stone pots and cave my skull in. The only defense I could really mount at this point is to lower my head. Care to try?"

Bubbling Spring and Steam Twins

By the time Bubbling Spring has finished his story, Sky Lotus (who seems to be pointedly ignoring the tale) has finished applying masques to Water Drop (who has been sat back down next to Glowing Soft) and Taffy Stretch (whose look of increasing horror is hard to see behind the green paste and cucumbers). Sky Lotus then nudges Bubbling Spring into a chair, and starts lathering something pungent and cold into the remnants of his mane.

"This is our special regrowth treatment," she explains as she rubs it in with tender care. "Try not to muss it. Your mane should be good as new in about half an hour," she finishes, as she wraps the whole thing in a linen towel before scurrying off to attend to some other spa-goer.

"... What are we going to do now?" Taffy asks quietly, despair creeping into her voice.