"NOPE."
FLASH! A tree split down the middle.
"NOPE."
FL-FLASH! A patch of earth exploded into powdery dust.
"NOPE."
FLASH! A cluster of boulders exploded, showering Josho and Booster with pebbles.
"Gaaaugh!" Booster flinched, hiding behind Josho's large girth.
The older stallion side. "Elkmeister, what are you doing?"
Floydien spun about, his muzzle awash in a cold sweat. "Hunting!" Z-ZAP! He fired another beam of magical electricity into the wilderness, sending branches and leaves scattering.
"Uh huh... hunting for what?"
"Floydien doesn't know yet!" P-POW! A tree trunk exploded, its foliage collapsing in a heap behind him. The elk walked numbly through the scattering debris, his red pupils as small as pinpricks. "Boomers should stay away! Not safe in all the bang bang!"
"Yes... b-but what caused you to start in the first place?" Booster stammered, peaking a nervous smile from around Josho's shoulder. He waved. "We're your friends, Mr. Floydien! We've been through thick and thin together!"
Josho motioned with his neck. "What this punk here is beating around the bush to say is that you should spit out what caused you to go ballistic on the nature preserve!"
"NOPE." Fl-Flash! Acorns and pine cones fell like rain around the two flinching stallions. Floydien took his murderous march even deeper into the forest. "NOPE NOPE Nope nope nope..."
Josho stood dead still, his eyebrows straight as razors. He sighed while Booster pawed nervously at a blob of tree-sap sticking to his fetlock. "Nnnnngh..." The obese stallion facehoofed. "I only hope the others are making better progress than we are..."
Rainbow Dash, Bellesmith, and Pilate trotted slowly into the heart of the village. One of several ponies trotted up, carrying a basket over her shoulders.
"Oh! Strangers!" The mare grinned, cheeks warm. "How do you do?"
Rainbow and Belle exchanged glances. "Uhhhh..." Rainbow stepped forward, coiling her wings tightly by her side. "Could be better, actually."
"Awwww... well I hope your day gets better," the mare said. "Need directions?"
"Yes," Pilate nodded. "May I ask who's in charge around these parts?"
"My my, you are from out of town!" The mare cleared her throat. "That, of course, would be the esteemed Duchess Arcanista."
"You don't say?" Rainbow Dash craned her neck to the side. "And where might we go to... y'know... talk it out with this Arcanista?"
The mare pointed towards the ancient, decrepit wall forming a circle around the inner village. "Why, over in the Sehlp Manor, of course!" She giggled. "Along with the rest of the nobles. They treat us earth ponies wonderfully. It's all part of the Val Roan Code, of course."
"Of c-course." Belle smiled. "Thank you, ma'am. You've been very kind."
"What else are we on this earth to do than be kind?" The mare winked. "If you wish to speak with the Duchess herself, I'm sure one of the nobles beyond the Old Gate would be more than happy to arrange a meeting. She's... mmm... not very busy these days."
"I see."
"Say..." The mare leaned forward, eyes bright. "Are you the ponies who were inside that giant, gorgeous airship that crash landed in the forest just now?"
"Uhhhhh..." Rainbow Dash gulped, then smiled. "M-maybe?"
"How wonderful!" The mare smirked. "Welcome to Bountiful. I wish you three a good morning!" Then she and her smile trotted away.
Rainbow Dash watched her leave, an eyebrow heavily arched.
"I really like that name," Pilate said.
"Yeah, well I don't," Rainbow muttered.
"What's the matter, Rainbow?" Bellesmith asked.
"I dunno..." Rainbow shivered slightly as the group trotted through the half-broken arch of the old wall. Foals ran past them, giggling and chasing each other in the crisp sunlight through the lush trees. "I just get this really queer feeling whenever we stroll into a town where everyone smiles at us."
"We were treated like princes and princesses in Abinadi," Pilate said, smirking. "Did that disturb you so much then?"
"That was different. We were focused on bringing Elma closure." She winced slightly. "My bad. Lerris."
"Would you rather we be attacked by changelings or managliders in every town we visited?" Belle nudged Rainbow. "Hmmmm?"
"Mmmrnnngh... sometimes..."
"Awwww..." Belle giggled. "Rainbow..."
"Don't mind me," Rainbow muttered. "With Roarke not around, my cynical side is having to pick up the slack."
"I'm sure she misses you too," Pilate said with a smirk.
"Cut it out, Stripesy."
"What for?"
"You're not allowed to make my heart flutter at the drop of a hoof."
Pilate and Belle chuckled.
"Still..." Belle glanced across the peaceful, provincial town. "This truly is a peaceful place."
"Certainly sounds tranquil," Pilate remarked. "I've never heard this many ponies out and about this early in the morning."
Beyond the walls, the buildings were built taller with firmer foundations. The architecture instantly became wealthier, and there was an even cleaner smell in the air.
"I think this is—like—the rich quarter or something," Rainbow said. "Must be where the nobles live."
"Is it right up near the central manor?" Pilate asked.
"Uh huh."
"That would explain it."
"That's not to say anything bad about the rest of the town!" Belle said, turning to look behind her. "Even outside of the gate, things look prosperous. For a society built from the fringes of a feudal system, they appear to be doing quite well for themselves."
"Then we're struggling with quite the puzzle," Pilate said.
"How's that, beloved?"
"Just what on earth could have possessed Floydien to run the Jury aground from the mere sight of this place?"
Rainbow suddenly jerked to a stop. Her wings flexed and unflexed. "Don't look now..." She pointed. "But I think I found the puzzle's solution just now."
Belle craned her neck to see.
From across the way, a group of deer padded across the town lawn. They were all dressed richly in shiny clothes, and a few equine servants in browner drab followed close behind. A tiny fawn in a pink dress stumbled beside her mother. She turned to glance at the group, her little nose wriggling curiously. Not long after, the mother nuzzled her, ushering her into the store where they were headed. A pair of bucks in uniform trotted across the street, warily eyeing the strangers. Their branching antlers made stately shadows in the golden dawnlight.
Belle's lips parted. She gazed at Rainbow. Rainbow gazed straight back at her.
"What?" Pilate asked, ears twitching. "Are th-they hippos?"
Holy shit! We may finally get some backstory on Floydien!
Thirty pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Oh my!
Congratulations, Arccy.
Wherever you are, know that you made it, pal.
I thought it might be something like this. I wonder if Floydian has some family here...even if he doesnt I am looking forward to some back story on him, we know so little as it is.
Ah, so we now why there was no chapter posted yesterday.
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/384482/ow-my-fingers
Skirts was preoccupied with another story.
5093775 I guess that depends on the kind of experiments you're talking about.
There's no way that our dear captain is the result of only one evil company experimenting.
But, if Floydien is from here, then how did he end up in Ledomare?
Character development for Floydien!!!
Oh, this is gonna be so good...
Oh Crud.
The Jury is grounded for a day? Not if Props, Zaid, Pilate, Josho, Kera and Booster work all night what with the engineers, the scanning, and the Heavy TK and magical brute force available.
This place scares the willies out of me.
But, all the ponies are happy in their peasantry lifestyle, while the nobility is all posh and silver deer.
Yah, and Ive beeen in situations similar to this before.
Run Forrest. RUN.
Yeah, this oughta be interesting.
This place seems pretty nice so far. I'm trying to keep my cynicism on a short leash, but it's not always easy. I mean:
Yeah, that's totally a non-bizarre thing to throw into the conversation out of nowhere.
I'm keeping my eye on you, Bountiful.
OHH MY GODDDDDDD! FLOYDIEN IS A PRINCE.
The Val Roans... are deerfolk?
oh shit floydien what the tits have you done
Whelp that's not a shock, wonder why he ran, maybe hes a prince as some have said.
5093910
5094033
My money is on duke, seeing as this is the duchy of Selph.
Just imagine it.
Duke Floydien, Lost Son of Selph, Captain of the Skies, Conqueror of Hearts, Spewer of Spit Spit.
Well I was not expecting this.
5093693
I'm a DUCHESS.
mlpchan.net/space/src/1346437483022.gif
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/tsar-bomba.jpg
yyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
PS Zaid- I'm not your pal, guy.
WARNING:
Floydien.exe has stopped working.
Windows is searching for a solution to the problem.
5094201
are you corrupt and evil?
Welp, after that initial reaction, let's do a little bit of analysis.
I doubt(Somewhat) that all Val Roans are Elks,
MeeseMoose, or other antlered ungulates. I seem to recall that Val Roa proper is a desert, which would suit poorly animals that are built for cold weather. Also, if the name Floydien is anything to go on for their general naming, Arcanista, which is based off of a word, like most ponies(and especially Unicorns, as with the magic-associated word- knowledge of hidden truths), at least the good Duchess seems likely to be unicorn. Perhaps these are Deer nobles visiting from holdings on the former Strip of Flurries?Also, this certainly puts this continent as either Floydien's or his family's home.
We need names for the actual continents rather than the nations, right?
I'm going to call them Lux after Luxmare and Valm after Val Roa.
Now I have to wonder if I'm being impersonated by Chrysalis. That would make me sad, but hopefully my pony/elk/moose/some other Ungulate namesake would give her a royal(or duchess, ha ha ha)
assfetlock-kicking once this was exposed.I kind of hope i'm a pony rather than an elc, but whatevs.
I am prettiest ponyungulate princessduchess.
Squee.
5094251
Tell you what- let's find out TOGETHER.
5094263
Lucky you. My character is technically dead. What would've been my named character renamed herself.
5094294
Maybe Arcanista(tentative pronunciation; Ar-KHAN-ist-e?) is the corpse of an incredibly powerful unicorn/Elkic sorceror that preserved her mind and body with spells to anchor herself to the material plane? That would make me technically dead as well.
5094201 You lucky duck. I seriously wish I had a character but I swear IC isn't gonna use my name until he runs out of commenters and he has no choice but to use my stupid name.
5094323
You could always change it to keep the feel of your original but turn it into something more... useable? I bet he will. IC tries so hard to use everyone's names. Remember that Uncreative Numbers guy? His name could never be a character so it was a chapter title in Eljunbyro.
Speaking of which, IC doesn't like letting good parts of names go to waste(As mine is...maybe...I guess?)
Like Axan Zenith and Zaid Val Roa, I wonder if(and if so, how) the ascendant half of my name will be used.
Will there be a Magus Ascendant of Val Roa?
gamewol.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/League-of-Legend-Xerath-Classic-Wallpaper.jpg
5094144
But if that were the case, why would he have any problem hearing the name Sehlp, and knowing they were going there? I think he had that reaction to the deer, not Sehlp.
5094323
Maybe one day they'll run into an army of ninety three birds that can never make any kind of sound because of reasons.
5094448 That would be quite funny. But I honestly don't think it's that bad of a name for a pony just maybe kinda boring. Well I actually did think up this name for a mute unicorn OC originally but then I changed it for reasons.
My guess is that Floydien blew up part of this place on accident, flew out of there on the Jury, made it through the flurries, and got captured in Ledomare.
Interesting. Floydien backstory commence.
5094201 You're the next Zap Nator, I'm calling it now.
Heh. I do the same thing at family reunions.
5093894
You and me both. DO NOT TRUST. Keep the cynicism, Dashie.
5093948
FINALLY CERVINE REPRESENTATION. This excites me.
I'm going to dream of Noping elk now I just know it.
Well thanks for the b-day reading material IC.
I find the idea of Floydien noping into the forest with his antlers set to HE blasts highly amusing.
Maybe they can direct him to the nearest goblin settlements and he'll make it rain goblin giblets.
Neat. Is Floyiden royalty maybe?
Floyden is the last of his people, who were driven from their homeland by the deer!
Yay Deer! *Squee* Some relation to Floydien maybe?
5094336
Hey, countries get renamed all the time.
As far as we know, this could have been Floydland a decade ago.
5094627
If I was a great aid to the Jury, that would be great. But if I was ludicrously evil, that would be...
FABULOUS
5095735
Floydien seems too free-spirited to have ever ruled.
Perhaps that's it, he was a prince of some faraway land elsewhere in Valm that abdicated before he could rule?
5094702
HUPPY BIRDDAY
Well there goes my headcanon, ready to be cleansed by the holy light of His eternal, unending truth that shall now be bestowed upon us.
5093794 It might have involved a skystone ship.
5095735 Floydistan.
5094201 Considering your earlier prediction, the irony is quite staggering.
5097256
Haha, yeah, I noticed the irony.
I remember the deer in Eljunbyro were firestarters and could shoot fireballs...
Hey, maybe this Duchess is that little deer in the pink dress. I bet Arcanist would love that.
Hmmm
5097671
I was thinking(hoping) something a bit more...
powerful,
anime.astronerdboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/x07+Sabers+modified+bike.jpg
Like a female King Arthur on a god-damn motorcycle. But whatever, I feel like IC has a better idea of what I want than I do.
Besides, from what the townsfolk said, Her Grace is likely in her manor/castle rather than out and about.
Oh good, Floydien backstory! Please don't make it sad IC
5094201
Belated congratulations!
5094248 And will never EVER find it... ever.
5094201 I was wondering how our golden savior IC was going to fit your name into the story. Just a little tweeking and we have ourselves a new duchess...
Is it the same queer feeling Roarke stirs in you?
Is it the same queer feeling Roarke stirs in you?
Tell me you didn't just say that out loud...
Also, dafuq, Roidien? We don't need our pilot to be having a nervous breakdown in the middle of an adventure.
I need to play catch up. I was in a deep trough of bipolar depression, and being depressed and selfish, I turned my back on this great story because I wasn't really a part of it anymore. Or I didn't feel a part of it anymore. For that, I apologize to the author for my lack of respect for your skill in looking for a crutch at things I knew that could help me smile just a little bit(Applejack). It took me a while to come back out, but I feel like I'm already sliding back down and resolve to enjoy this story until I fall again. I do truly enjoy this story(Just not when I am depressed anymore).
5479172
You know, even though your character is gone, you're still very much a part of the Noble Jury. I look forward to the day you rejoin us in our discussion, speculation and paranoia because I care about you – not just as a fellow fan, but as a friend – and I'm sure the other Jurists feel the same way.
You'll always be welcome here. Don't forget that.