Slice of Night

Smoke Screen finds himself levitating slowly, rising about 6 feet above the stage, but his wings are still tucked in. The crowd oooooohs.

Smoke Screen looks out towards the crowd as he floated upwards. He mused to himself about his dislike of magic in his past; a arcane alarm, lock, or trap was enough to ruin his day if he didn't have support. Still, he's up here now, so he takes a picture of the crowd while he does...

(Perception Roll: 15 (Roll) + 11 (Bonus) = 26)

"Merci beaucoup!" She says with a smile. "Oui! I flew into town just a few days ago."

SubjectZ wrote:The teacher smiles, shaking your hoof. Clearly she's been waiting for you. She says, "Hello, Ms. Heartfelt! Come in, come in!" She ushers you into an office, and says, "Let's talk. Quilted, would you mind heading into the class? I'll be in a bit." Quilted goes quiet, but walks away into the main classroom, leaving you and Lotus alone.

Heartfelt makes sure to shoot a last smile at Quilted as the office door closes; she turns to the teacher once they're closed off. "What's up?"

Smoke Screen notices an ordinary, excited crowd, and recognizes Heart Blossom smiling up at him from in the crowd.
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The clerk giggles and says, "well, let me welcome you to town, ma'am! Anyway, yeah, it's right over there on Aisle 12."
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The teacher sits and says, "I wanted to talk to you about Quilted, and her... schooling. Specifically, her social situation." She sounds rather serious.

Heartfelt is disturbed by this and moves slightly closer to the teacher; worry evident in her voice. "What do you mean? Is she getting bullied?"

Smoke gets a bit embarrassed when he spots Heart Blossom in the crowd. He continues to take pictures, but secretly hoped that the show would end soon, or at the very least he wouldn't be stuck in the air for the rest of it. That would suck...

The teacher says, "Well, that has been happening lately, but it's a symptom of the problem. Now that she's with an actual foster parent, I... I'm sorry, Ms. Heartfelt, I need to know: Why did you adopt her? I got a few details about what happened, and you have to admit, it sounds really abrupt."

"It was pretty abrupt, but I saw a filly in need and my instincts just kinda...took over." Heartfelt stops for a moment, before becoming very concerned.
"Are you saying that she's being bullied...because I adopted her?"

The teacher says, "No, no! You seem like a wonderful parent, Miss. I brought you in because, now that she's with a parent who can actually spend time with her, we need to talk about how she's doing in school, grades and otherwise. Let me put it bluntly, Ms. Heartfelt: She's become introverted to the point of muteness, and I haven't been able to get through to her. You can change that."

"Merci again!" She says as she takes a small curtsy with a giggle before heading down the aisle she mentioned. After a moment she returns with a small assortment of different food coloring hues, more than she strictly needed for this cake but it wouldn't hurt to start rebuilding her cooking supplies. After paying for them at the counter she slips them into her saddlebags and head back out the door. "Merci for waiting. Shall we move on to the next store?" She asks Cloudcast as she beats her wings, lifting up into the air and hovering for a moment.

"Huh? Oh, hey Eclair, what are you doing here- er I mean, yeah, let's go then!" Cloudcast fumbles covering her distractedness.

Heartfelt nods solemnly and sighs lightly. "I thought something like that might be going on. I'll be sure to talk to her; see if I can't get her to open up a little." Heartfelt gives a half-smile, before continuing, "Are her grades alright? Is she having trouble other than the...muteness?"

The teacher says, "A bit... it just seems like she doesn't care anymore. I've given her as much leniency as possible, but there's only so much i can d-" There is a loud yell and a horrific screeching noise from the classroom.

Heartfelt quickly opens the door and steps into the classroom, leaving the door open for Lotus to follow through behind. She looks first for Quilted and moves to her, making sure that she's not in some sort of peril before surveying the rest of the room for the source of the screams.
Heartfelt doesn't say anything quite yet beyond a quiet "you okay?" to Quilted, wanting to see how the teacher handles...whatever is going on.

What she sees terrifies her to her very core: A cowering, battered colt is huddled on the floor, whimpering softly. Quilted is standing over him, her eyes dilated and red, and her horn alight, quivering with rage, breathing heavily. She rears up, and prepares to strike.

"WHOA!" Heartfelt rushes over and forcibly picks up Quilted, holding her a ways away from the colt. She attempts to stare the filly in the eyes and calmly ask what happened. It comes out more of a shouted "Quilted! What the hey hey?" She takes a couple of deep breaths before her voice lowers back to normal, and she says with no small amount of disappointment. "...what are you doing? Quilted?"

Roll:

Quilted yells out, with a voice not her own, "HE LIED!" Her horn lights up, and she attempts to wrench herself out of your grip, failing, though. Failing that, shestruggles even harder, to no avail. Her eyes glow even brighter now.
((DC was 30, you needed Yee-haw!))

"Now some of you may know this little trick but we're going to put a little Spin on it." Says stagewing, rolling one of those classic "Put someone in a box, stab the box completely and utterly and they come out unharmed" Boxes. Edit: The box also has two metal rings attached to the top.

"Now if you'd please step into the box." Says stagewing, trying to make smoke float gently to the ground.

Roll:

Smoke Screen looks at the Murder Box, and takes a quick glance at his smoke bombs. Well, at least he has a back-up plan in case things go wrong. "As long as you know that stabbing me won't lead to a good article in the paper," jokes Smoke Screen as he cautiously enters the box...

Lyre, hearing what was going to happen, switched to playing a rather ominous tune. Trying to fit the suspense and fright that the trick made.

Roll:

"Remember everyone, don't try this at home. Or ever, at all, I'm serious." Stagewing continues warning them and continues preparing the spell he had been secretly preparing since smoke got floated into the air

Calling on her expertise from wrestling with her younger sister, Heartfelt flips Quilted onto the ground and lays on top of her, confident that while the filly might have enhanced volume she probably also doesn't have enhanced strength. "Quilted Crafts. You stop this right now,", she says with a dangerous intonation reserved for mothers.

Roll:

Lyre switches his tune, and a sense of dramatic tension fills the air. The atmosphere seems to grow thicker, and the crowd visibly stiffens, drawing in a grand breath.
((Wow. I mean, wow. The effects are essentially: Increased consequences for failure and success))
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Quilted thrashes for a bit, but stops suddenly. The magic surrounding her fades, and you notice her eyes turning their normal color. She blinks once, twice, then says, "What just happened? My head hurts really, really bad."