You are (Not) the Heroes IC

"Sadly, I have things I must be doing," Madame Mask replies, turned away from the rest of the group with a hoof tragically strewn over her eyes, "So I can not attend our first victory pizza party ghost story sleep over." She drops her hoof and walks towards the exit and continues in a stony tone. "Make sure this place is still standing when I get back."

"Bye Miss Mask" Dove Colt's muffled voice comes from under a layer of hoodie and feathers. "See you next mission time maybe"

"Love ya too, Honey Bunches," Robyn teases. "G'night."

Then she launches into her story.

"Story starts with a fella callin’ himself ‘Land Grab’. Big-shot business type. City punk. Dishonest. Wanted to put in a shoppin’ mall. Boss Amble sees bit signs, so he forecloses on a dairy ranch right next to the Horse River, meanin’ to sell it to Land Grab.

"That ranch supplied most o’ the county’s milk, and the rancher was as honest a worker as you can get. I was right there watchin’ a stallion a full head taller than Boss break down in tears over bein’ run outta his home. Like most things I saw ol’ Boss do, that didn’t sound right at all. So as Robyn, I did some cozyin’ up to Land Grab and took him out on a date, to see what I could use against him.

"After dinner and some stiff drinks, he drives me out to the hill overlookin’ the ranch. As he’s goin’ on about his plans to demolish it and biuld his mall, I turn away to cough up a gnat…and he spooks. Turns out, he’s a big believer in ghosts, and he’d just read about the Horsepanic legend of La Llorona in the library while Boss was busy evictin’ the rancher and his family.

The legend runs like this: a young widow mare with two foals fell head-over-hooves with a stallion. Stallion says he likes her, but wasn’t much interested in havin’ a family just yet. So the mare slits her kids’ throats and drowns ‘em in the river, thinkin’ it’d impress him into acceptin’ her. The stallion’s naturally horrified and turns her out when she tells him about it. Realizin’ what she’d done, she ran screamin’ back to the river and threw herself in after her kids. Legend holds that her spirit wonders the area cryin’ and searchin’ for her dead foals, and woe betide any poor soul that sees or hears her.

And for some reason, my voice sounded kinda like how he imagined La Llorona soundin’ like. That gave me an idea."

Inu snuggles up to the small colt, still trying to get pet by someone.

"We'll save you a slice!" Daff calls to Madame Mask. It's such a shame she's going to miss the very first victory pizza ghost story sleep over! Daff looks as excited as can be, galloping over to listen to Robyn's story. "Don't worry, little guy," he says, sitting right next to Dove Colt. And coincidentally, Gaia.

"There's no such thing as ghosts. Besides, ghost stories have to happen during sleep overs!" he informs Dove Colt. "It's a rule. I bet it's even in a book, somewhere. This will be fun!"

Several minutes later, Daff is staring wide-eyed at Robyn, legs drawn up close to him as he hugs both Rousseau and an unwitting Inu close to him.

"What did you do?" he whispers to Robyn.

Robyn's grin widened.

"Glad ya asked," she says. "I'd seen that rancher’s oldest daughter around the county. Huge flirt. Anytime she met a colt or stallion she wanted to impress, she'd gussy herself up in a nice white dress...the kind some ponies claim La Llorona wears. So I went back after my date with Land Grab as Trapshot. Boss had already forced the family to hole up in one o' his crummy motels, and the deputy left to guard the house had fallen asleep hours ago. I went in, got the dress, and came out without much fuss.

Boss had given the family three days to get their stuff out. I used ‘em to work on Land Grab. I spread a rumor around town about the spirits bein’ disturbed that time o' year. I took advantage o' the creaky wood floor outside Boss' guest room to keep Land's imagination runnin'. Put in some practice gettin' my voice just right to get the best effect. While all I was doin' all that, I took the opportunity to sneak out to the ranch and set up a good poltergeist act in and around the house, and paid a visit to the county's general store for ketchup, white makeup and black mascara.

On the third evenin’, I took the dress to the Horse River. Used stage makeup to turn my mane, tail, and fur white, put black mascara around my eyes, and splattered the dress over with the ketchup. Then I put the dress on and jumped in the freezin’ cold river. Swam for a minute or two until I got the bloody-and-fresh-from-the-river look, and then switched on the Invis Watch and wandered out toward the ranch house sobbin’ and wailin’ ‘¡Ay, mis hijos! Mis hijos!’."

As she said the Horsepanish phrase, worked her voice to briefly recreate her past self's ghostly wail. Then just like that, she was right back to her normal voice.

"Now, Boss, Land Grab, and a whole crew o’ workers were there with the bulldozer when they heard La Llorona’s cryin’ from clear across the pasture. Just her cryin', with nopony around. Then when I got close enough, the poltergeist show started. See, I’d hidden a bunch o’ these tiny button-poppers under the outside lanterns, set to go off and send ‘em flyin’. So if hearin’ a disembodied voice cryin’ didn’t get the boys goin’, the lanterns spontaneously jumpin’ off the fenceposts sure as heck did.

"About thirty yards from the house, the Invis Watch wears off. Suddenly, there’s La Llorona, weepin’ ’n’ wailin’ ’n’ comin’ toward the ponies gathered at the house, dress soaked in blood 'n' river water. Land Grab broke a land speed record gettin’ in the house, with everypony else hot on his heels. Even Boss. Then I hit the Invis Watch again and started settin’ off the rest o’ the house."

She pauses to hold in her laughter.

"Lemme tell ya," she giggles, "there ain't nothin' in this world quite like hearin' the girliest little-filly screams come outta seven o' the biggest, burliest, manliest stallions you ever did see. Was all I could do to keep from laughin' and breakin' character!"

Dove Colt looks doubtfully at Daff. "That doesn't sound like a real book... I mean, what kind of pony needs a book to run a sleepover?"

As Robyn's story comes to a close, Dove Colt giggles, poking his head out from under Gaia's wing. "That reminds me of that time I scared off those bullies with my powers - except it wasn't nearly as cool. Or scary."

Inu looks up at dove colt and daf and asks: ~well Zell just finished turning in his exam, but is still on Campus, so he could try and check the library if they have some book like that, that place has like all of the books.~

"Inu suggested that perhaps Zellbriq could go and check if a book like that exists," Gaia translates, still smirking from the story. Looking over to the Crimson Chef, Gaia asks, "How's the home-made pizza coming along, Chef? I don't know about the rest of you, but wildshaping takes a lot out of a mare. I think I'm hungry enough to pick a forest clean."

He had the supplies. He had the appliances. Now all that Crimson needed was time to create his pizzary masterpieces. He had plans to make several different kinds of pizza in order to appeal to a large number of different tastes. To that end, he reached into the fridge and removed what appeared to be a rabbit that had been put down through the exact nature of how it had been killed would remain a mystery to everyone but Crimson himself.

With an ear perked up in order to listen in to the ghost stories that were being told, Crimson focused on making several dishes, including one that featured rabbit as a main dish. "It won't be long, but don't rush me. You can't hurry good food."

Actions and Dice Rolls:

Smelling the rabbit, Inu`s head suddenly snapps to attention, her mouth begins to drool slightly, before she dashes over towards the cook, tail wagging vigorously, eyes fixed on the rabbit. During this is she is panting: ~Meat~ over and over.

The small working space gets in the Chef's way a little, and the ingredients are a bit basic for his tastes, but after a bit of testing and experimentation, the Crimson Chef manages to produce three moderately sized pizzas - two of them vegetarian, and one of them with meat - as well as some side dishes such as onion rings and some cobbled together salads. Even if it's not his best work, it's definitely a quality home-cooked meal, and for those not accustomed to visiting high-class restaurants, quite the treat to look at. There's a little bit of burnt crust here and there, and the toppings are cooked a little unevenly due to the space necessitating multiple batches, but on the whole, it's quite the meal.

Faege wrote:"That doesn't sound like a real book... I mean, what kind of pony needs a book to run a sleepover?"

"Well... yes, I guess that would be really silly," he admits.

Sliverbrony wrote:~well Zell just finished turning in his exam, but is still on Campus, so he could try and check the library if they have some book like that, that place has like all of the books.~

"That kind of pony," Daff says, replacing his previous answer as an offer to actually look for a sleep over book comes up.

When the story finishes, Daff finally exhales in relief. "That wasn't too scary! Not that I was scared. It's just that Rousseau is a very sensitive soul. And that La Llorona is kind of scary. To Rousseau. Oh, food!"

Daff gallops off to dig into the vegetarian options, cutting out a little thin slice for Rousseau.

Looking with a slightly wistful expression at the meat pizza, Gaia reluctantly calls after Daff, "Could you cut me a slice of the olive cheese one?"

Meat was good, but experience told her that most ponies did not eat meat, or stomach meat eating well. Perhaps later, though... Anyway, she's sure the vegetarian option is plenty good. Hunkering down for a night of Pizza and perhaps storytelling, Gaia sighs - for the first time in... months, perhaps, she has a pack of her own. This is going to be... interesting.

It wasn't his best work, but Crimson had done worse in the past. Taking a slice of pizza for himself before he properly joined the others, Crimson finally decided to speak up on the story that had been told. "I wouldn't be so sure. I've always had a healthy respect for the supernatural; You never know when something everypony believes to be a ghost story is frighteningly true. Still, if this so called 'Boss' was willing to close down a profitable business in order to take a gamble on an untrustworthy Unknown is just bad business sense."

Robyn takes two slices from the veggie pizza.

"And that's why he was better as a Bandit than a Boss."

The party awakens to gentle piano tunes, filtering out from the tricked out radio that Dove Colt found. The pizza has been fully devoured, with Gaia managing to sneak in a meat slice while no one was looking, and Zellbriq returning later into the night to polish off the rest. They exchanged stories and chatted until sleep eventually took hold, and now they're awake again, with sunlight streaming through the gaps of the door and walls.

What's immediately noticeable, however, is the hefty stack of papers piled onto one of the impromptu boxes. Bound together with string, the entire stack has a note attached to the top, saying 'Recorded Hero Dossiers'.

There's also a folded up map with a location circled and labeled 'Gizmo's Workshop'.

Finally, a piece of paper with the words 'Message me when you're awake. ~A' scribbled on top is tacked up on the notice board.

There is no knock as Madame Mask barges into the warehouse. "Bonjour darlings," she greets cheerfully, in costume, levitating what appears to be a book alongside her. "I see you have been busy with paperwork. Is that what ponies do at sleepovers these days?"

"Yeah, it's all the rage," Robyn yawns. Then her card floats in the air from...somewhere nearby...and hovers in front of her.

"Sunglow. We're awake and messagin', Argie. Whatcha got for us?"

Madame Mask, hearing the keyphrase, pulls out and says it as well. More discreetly though, the extra pony was still here...

Dove Colt yawns. "It's too early for heroics..."

That said, he nestles back under Gaia's wing, murmuring sleepily.

From millions of miles away, the Celestia's sun reaches out, working its way through a few of the gaps in the ceiling before pooling in a rectangle on the concrete floor. As the sun moves across the sky, the rectangle creeps silently up a crate next to Daff, deliberately back down the other side, up Daff's chin, and then carefully reaches its target where, with laser-point precision, it blazes relentlessly into his eyes.

Groaning, the stallion sits up, carefully keeping a still sleeping Rousseau balanced on his head. It takes the stallion all of 0.3 seconds to fully wake up and bounce to his hooves excitedly. "Good morning!" he says with far too much cheer - and volume.

He wanders curiously to the new things left for them. How did somepony keep sneaking in here, anyway? The question leaves his mind as he reads the note.

"Hey, everypony! We might have another job!" he says excitedly, searching around to try to find his card. Half a minute later, Rousseau grumpily drops the card in front of Daff, leaving it sliding down and resting on his nose.

"Thanks, Rousseau. Sun...glow!" Ha! He's getting it now!

The sound of the movement and the noise that the others were making was more then enough to raise the still masked Crimson from his slumber. Unlike most of his peers (with the exception of Daff) Crimson seemed to be fairly awake and didn't take long to start moving around a little; namely over to the pile of paperwork labeled 'Hero Dossiers' in order to have a look at what someone else had recorded... And had somehow left there without alerting anyone. Crimson made a mental note to set up some kind of security system in the future.

Remembering what happened yesterday, Crimson said "Sunglow." aloud in order to listen in while he did some reading.

At the sudden outburst of the big Pony Zellbriq and Inu both hold their ears and Zellbriq says: keep it down please, sleep depriven, sensitive ears here he then opens a book and pulls his contact card out of it and barks ~Sunglow~, while Inu burries her face under him and tries to fallback asleep.

"Good morning!" Argent says cheerfully. "I had Ferrum drop by and deliver the documents you wanted earlier, but he couldn't stay to chat. Anyway, I've actually received a message from Gizmo about wanting to meet you. Something about youngsters giving him hope about the future? But yeah, if you have the time, do drop by Gizmo's workshop by Fetlock Lane. He seemed pretty set on meeting you. Sunset Raider, you especially - he's always happy to help out a hero in need."

"We're also getting some intel on the whole Swarm case, but we haven't got much yet. I'll get back to you on that, but right now we're considering getting visitation rights to Low Key in the Supermax. Anyway, that's about it for now. If you have any more inquiries - or just happen to come across something interesting to report, feel free to hit me up. Moonbright."