First Checklist Item [Misc Journal Shenanigans / Action]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ In the middle of the day, Luceti is treated to the following eloquent series of letters: ]

DDDDD

[ So this is what happens when a hoof gets ahold of a drawing-to-text synthesizer. This is followed by a voice post about three minutes later: ]

... triangle, a couple of straight lines, and a square have to do with...

[ Several minutes pass, and then a video materializes. The viewer may be greeted with a pair of huge, intense violet eyes. ]

A-ha!

[ The sight of this particular creature might seem out of place to anyone who doesn't know Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash. You can now see a purple pony with a horn protruding from her mane. The horn is bathed in a magenta glow, as is a pointy stick that is way too close to the camera. Like mankind before her, Twilight is learning how to use tools. ]

Hi, um... anypony who's watching this! I'm Twilight Sparkle, and... I don't recognize these woods at all. [ She looks around, probably for the umpteenth time. Twilight's found herself deep within the forest, to the southeast. Not that she knows this. ] It doesn't look like any part of the Everfree Forest I've been to. [ A cloud parts and the sun shines in her face through the unseen treetops. Twilight shields her face with a hoof. ] Oh. Actually, I guess I could...

[ She looks back at herself and spreads her wings. Not her small Luceti wings, though. A huge pair of alicorn wings, of the same purple as her fur. She prepares to take off, then remembers the journal and hits it again with the stick. Video feed switches off. ]

---

[ Following this recording, the population of Luceti may witness a purple shape flying around the sky, observing the village from above. She'll circle a few times, trying to orient herself, before deciding to alight in the fountain square.

Two areas will grab Twilight's interest fairly quickly. First, she'll see her coronation outfit in the window of the clothing shop. She'll find this strange enough to go inside and consider buying it.

The other building she'll notice is the library (with a squee of excitement). Good luck extracting her from perusing the many, many, many tomes that now litter the floor. This is why Twilight needs an assistant librarian. What she wouldn't give for Spike right about now.

Feel free to interact with her in the square, at the clothing store, in the library, or in the air: she's several yards up but not out of shouting distance. ]

Comments

[fourthgenerationprincess]

And the Third Party is what these experiments are supposed to be preparing us for. Right?

[ Just checking that her intel is right so far. ]

[geniustheveil]

It's supposed to be that way, but...

[Ami hesitates. There may be a grain of truth in some of the supposed better intentions of the Malnosso, but she can't ignore, well, everything that's happened. And the experiments rarely seem to make sense.]

sometimes it's difficult to see how they relate to anything useful in our situation.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ She tilts her head in thought. ] Hmm. Well, what sort of experiences have you had with them?

[geniustheveil]

Myself? [This is... probably the thing she regrets most in Luceti. She neatly steers away from that, though, while still answering honestly.]

I've seen people's ages change, or I've seen them given false memories. That can make them differently, too.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ She's really thinking hard now. ] I wonder how many of the effects I could reverse, or at least help with. I can't do an aging spell, but I've helped my friends remember things before.

[geniustheveil]

[Despite herself, a bit of hope seeds itself in Ami's mind. True, various spells like that haven't made a difference yet, but... This is yet another different kind of magic, isn't it? Maybe it will work better.]

I think it would be worth trying.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Has anypony lost their memories now? Do you know?

[ There was the girl in Twilight's journal, but she was asking for something entirely different. ]

[geniustheveil]

My acquaintances seem normal right now. It's often something that happens to many people at once.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

If it were to happen to me, too, I might not be able to help. I'll see if I can come up with a protection spell.

[geniustheveil]

There's one way they claim we can avoid some of it. It seemed to work for awhile, but I don't have enough evidence to say so for certain.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

What way is it? Any little bit could help. [ She pulls out her journal to record. ]

[geniustheveil]

If you earn points by the missions the Malnosso offer, they give things to let you avoid the droids for awhile. It can evade a few of the kidnappings that lead to the experimentation effects.

It seemed effective for someone I knew who had one.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

What sort of missions? [ Ready for anything, our Twilight. ]

[geniustheveil]

[But that isn't so easy to answer.]

They're not all about fighting. I've seen some people sent on information-gathering missions, and I've even been part of one as a medic before.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Information-gathering? I can do that!

[geniustheveil]

Do you want to? [She's done several missions herself, despite her misgivings and objections, so she's hardly in a position to question it. But she's curious, always, about other people's thoughts.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ She's about to answer unequivocally in the affirmative when something occurs to her, and the air lets out of her somewhat. ]

What sort of information, and what would they use it for?

[geniustheveil]

[That hesitation is probably for the best. With the Malnosso, Ami finds, nothing is quite black and white anymore. It was much the same back in her world, so she isn't entirely unused to that, but it makes her caution re-emerge strongly.]

Most of those missions really do seem to be gathering information to fight the Third Party.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

The Third Party again. [ She frowns. ] It must be bad if they want to keep all of us here. Especially if they're the ones bringing us here?

[geniustheveil]

A lot of people seem to believe the Third Party don't want us to be here, either. However, it's hard to know what to think for certain.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Well, it does allow us to fight their wars for them, doesn't it? Assuming our arrival didn't cause the war in the first place.

[geniustheveil]

I don't think anyone should be forced to fight. Especially not like this. But we don't have a choice; the Third Party won't hesitate just because we say we don't want to be there on the battlefield.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ Twilight's pulled her journal out and is attempting to scroll back through previous entries. ] Right, and maybe the Malnosso needed us and brought us here. What if they couldn't fight the Third Party themselves?

[geniustheveil]

After this long, they may have been depleted in resources. [And manpower, she doesn't say. Casualities... And there have been vague hints she doesn't fully understand yet that all is still not as it seems - or as they've been told.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Has anypony... [ gulp ] died here? Anypony you knew?