Affairs of Darkness

The mare remains silent for a long moment as she continues to smile. The corner of her eyes begins to twitch for a moment before she opens them for the first time this whole conversation only to glare at Shock. Her smile turns to a frown as she begins to rant.

"What exactly are you implying then? That you intend to keep the mask, which may I remind you rightfully belongs to me, for yourself?! That you intend to steal from me?! That you think YOU have what it takes to keep it?! Thief! You're no better than whoever took it in the first place! Just a foal messing with powers they couldn't possibly imagine!! Would I be of any help?! Really I should be asking if YOU would be! How much of what you know about the mask you're after did you NOT just learn from me?! I may not know why it is I have it but my ability makes me uniquely suited to keeping dangerous magical objects like the mask in check!!"

She shakes with anger as she continues to glare for a long moment before giving a small cough and schooling her expression back to what it was before. Eyes closed once more, she turns towards Paper and follows her hoof to the other masks.

"Deep breaths...deep breaths.....ahem! These? What about them? If you're asking me if I intend to lend them to you then no, not yet. Not until I know you could actually handle them and can be trusted to actually give them back. They all have powers as well that could help, though none of them compare to the mask that was stolen. They're equally my responsibility to keep out of the wrong hooves and protect until the right ones appear."

Everyone can tell Paper Reign is brimming with curiosity. It's clearly written right on its face. Literally. The mask on Paper Reign's face went completely blank and started filling up with questions such as, "Your mask? What makes it yours? Where did you find these masks? If we pry it from the cold dead hooves of a powerful being who would you be to say that it still belongs to you? What aid are you actually offering us? Why do you think the vague information you gave us that we could have already surmised proves anything? Why should we trust you to keep hold over such power when for all we know you could be just as or even more dangerous?" and so on. You're pretty sure there's a question about pineapples in there too but, it's too small to read and maybe you just read it wrong. You are silly like that.

"My plans were mostly... Win this "game" the Masked Mare has put forth for me and my group, get the mask, give it to the Princesses, then get some popcorn and watch them THROW IT INTO THE SUN." Shock replied. "All you have shared so far is, 1: you are former owner of the mask, 2: you were the one to lost your mask, in some storm, 3: your body somehow allows you nullify all magic that you touch allowing you to collect and hold dangerous magical items that are "mostly harmless" while they are in your care, 4: you seem to just ask the first group you've meet that knows of your magical mask to send us to get it for you... Offering help of unknown merits that you get upset when we ask what said help with be? And when we question that returning the Mask to you is the best course of action. It'll only be safe until you lose it again or at best just until you die... What's to avoid another event like this one?"

"Do me a favor, mare? Don't assume we're stupid foals stumbling in the dark! Some of us already know what comes from playing with things we don't know the potential of!" Scarlet glared right back at the traveller, leaning forward and baring her fangs for a moment to drive home how angered she was. "But Shock's right. Keeping this thing around for any reason short of sealing an even worse monster is truly foalish, and even -that- is a desperate action..." She didn't like this one bit, and she refused to let some random earth pony intimidate her, even if she was a hole in magic!

Chris just shakes it's head. "I don't even want anything to do with this..."

The mare frowns, her eyes open again as she glares.

"You are foals, acting like children secure in your ignorance."

She turns away from you and begins walking towards the door.

"By all means thieves, steal my mask and hand it over to your goddess. It makes no difference to me who exactly I have to pry it from the corpse of when your actions let the mask enact its grudge!"

She steps through the doorway into the sunlight outside, somehow managing to squeeze her over-sized pack through before slamming the door behind her. For the brief moment the door is open you can see blue skies and hear the sounds of ponies going about their daily lives outside.

Chris looked at the rest of the group, "Well that could have gone better... Wait, what did she mean about the mask's 'grudge'?"

"I don't know, but if she calls me a thief again, I will personally ensure she's wearing her flank as a hat." Scarlet shook her head, fuming for a moment before she calmed herself down, glancing at her gauntlet for a moment. Yeah, that definitely could have gone better, but there was nothing to do for it now. Best not to linger on it. "Well, unless you all want to listen to the gears, we should head outside. We have a masked mare to track down." She nodded, heading for the door to go through it herself.

Paper Reign stomped its hoof on the ground once more and the clock it had summoned sink back into the floor. Then follows after Scarlet.

"She calls us ignorant, yet tells us little to nothing info that we ask of her and even what she said was too cryptic for my tastes, she calls us "acting secure" in said "ignorance" when we're clearly in working with a great deal of mistrust and paranoia for any new pony we meet, given who we saw right before her was the current owner of that mask that should be expected if she really knows more about that mask then we do... I swear... She's worse with people then I am..." Shock rants to himself with a sigh. "I'm not sure if I should pity her or want to throw a lightning bolt at her when we next meet."

As you step out of the clock tower, you find yourself on a small pony-made hill in the middle of a large bustling town. A series of steps zigzagging down the front of the hill to a large market square below. From your higher vantage you can see the large hourglass design set into the floor of the large open air market. The Wanderer is nowhere in sight.

Ponies run back and forth some busy with some task or errand, others just goofing around. A group of colts and fillies run off through an archway where two guards in armor you don't recognize stand at attention. You can make out several similar arches throughout the city and the teeth of the bottom a large raised metal gate inside the arch itself. Laughter and shouting drifts on the wind to your ears from the sea of multicolored tarps, so many that you frequently can't see through them down below. The sounds of hammering and general construction can also be heard over the bustle and cheer and you see scaffolding poking out in places from the sea of tents. Construction ponies walk along the wooden framework as if it were some kind raised highway. The houses are generally earthen colors such as brown or orange and none that you can see seem to have more than two floors. The elevation of the seems to shift from place to place, some homes noticably higher while others lower because of the uneven ground.

The town seems generally happy and at peace in this beautiful morning based on the position of the sun. The skies are clear save for the occasional white fluffy cloud, flying bird, and GIGANTIC LOOMING STONE TOWER. It absolutely dominates the skyline, nothing in the multilevel town you see before you even coming close to a third of its height. The stones are a dull grey broken up by colorful purple banners hanging from windows and balconies. The tower is thicker at the base featuring walls and smaller towers jutting out from the main tower, which spiral along it as it goes up, giving the tower the impression of a giant unicorn horn poking out of the landscape. At the top are two prongs that raise into the sky like a massive tuning fork, between them a mass of magical pinkish-white light that occasionally sends out small pulsing waves that remind you of a giant eye blinking.

Spoiler:

Scarlet looked around for a moment, trying (and failing) to identify the armor, though her eyes were eventually drawn to the massive tower and its glowing magical orb at the top...She took a moment to note that it completely dominated the skyline...She supposed it'd be easy to navigate by, but there was something else on her mind regarding it at the moment..."Whoever built that...Had an absolutely MASSIVE case of the little-stallion complex...They were most definately compensating for something..." She simply stared at it for a moment, wondering who had the time and resources to pour into making a massive thing like that...Seriously, you could have redone the entire town in gold for how much it must have cost...!

Paper Reign shook its head in response to Scarlet's comment.

"Personally I just hope that's a public building... Cause if not... I don't know..." Shock comments just shaking his head and tries to go asking around trying to get the pulse of this place.

Streetsmarts Check:

Chris smiles at Shock's "attempt" to get an idea of what's going on, then says, "Let a pro handle this."

It follows that statement by making a deliberate attempt to just be adorable, and convince people to tell it what they can about the area.

check:

Shock gets the impression that everyone's busy setting up for a big holiday celebration of some kind. However whenever he tries to find out more details about what the celebration is for everyone assumes he's playing some kind of joke on them and wander away.

Chris's attempts meet with more success. Amid coos of how cute s/he is and questions about what s/he is, who taught hir to talk, and where they can get one, he learns that the whole town is gearing up for the bicentennial celebration of the Grand Duchess's official rise to the throne at the end of the week. Ponies and non-ponies from across the land will gather in this town and likely this very square to partake in the celebrations under the holy light of the Starlight Tower.

Paper Reign conjures up three pictures picture of each of the ponies that have gone missing from Equestria that are related to the Masked Mare case that they know what look like that. On the back of the last three (all the same picture) is written "Ask around to see if anyone has seen these ponies." and hands a stack to Scarlet, Shock, and Chris.

Scarlet took her set of pictures, thinking for a moment and nodding. "Alright...It seems the little furball will have more luck than I will, but I can certainly try..." With that, she headed off to ask around about the missing ponies...

"Hay! You! You seen these ponies?"

"Don't suppose you recognize any of them, huh?"

...And such probably explained how well her efforts at getting information went.

Streetwise Shenanigans:

Chris goes back to working its magic, this time holding the pictures out and piteously asking "Have you seen these ponies? They've gone missing and I was asked to find them."

Streetsmarts:

Shock nods and tries again asking around showing off these pictures. "Have you seen these ponies?" Like Scarlet, he didn't do that great a job and he at least tries to keep a sharp eye out for any noticable comments, reactions, or well anything as he asked around with the pictures.

streetsmarts:

perception:

thematthew wrote:Chris goes back to working its magic, this time holding the pictures out and piteously asking "Have you seen these ponies? They've gone missing and I was asked to find them."

Streetsmarts:

Thorn looked at the ridiculously cute critter before him. "Unfortunately, no. I haven't seen these ponies. Don't think I've ever seen you ponies around either, though I can't say for certain. If nothing else, I'd think I'd remember 'whatever you are'," looking at Chris, "and the paper golem."

Thorn rubbed his chin with his hoof as he gave the group an appraising look.

Paper Reign puts a hoof in its mouth and pulls out a scroll of paper and hands it to Thorn. It reads, "I am not a golem."

Thorn reads the paper and says "Interesting. What are you then?"

Paper Reign took back the note, put it back in its mouth, then handed it back to Thorn. This time it read, "Paper Reign."