The Drought Prospect

"What'dya need?" Comical flounders in, watching his steps to make sure he doesn't fall. It took him a while to get there, and he almost tripped. "the basics... Food, water, bits… I can't expect that all from you guys though…" he looked at the sandwiches the ponies were feasting on. Then stared away. "my bad, those look tasty." he looked down, then purple pony. "I need help getting back on my feet is all."

Chapter 1:
-The Living Dream
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Alcheir looked back at his sandwich as the pony in the doorway started to make his way in. "...What they said..." Gizmo said, continuing to work on devouring his sandwich. Alcheir was close to finishing his sandwich, but he felt like he was more than satisfied now. The small amount of food that he ate was more than satisfying to him.

As Alcheir turned back to the pony, he noticed that the pony was barely able to walk. He nearly tripped at least four times, and the whole group stared awkwardly at him as he stumbled around, attempting to get over to a table. Alcheir grinned as the pony started talking again.

"...the basics. Food, water, bits, I can't expect that all from you guys though…" the pony said, staring at the sandwiches of the group in turn. He continued staring at Alcheir's sandwich for a second, but then apparently realized he was staring and looked away, sayingm "...my bad, those look tasty..."

Alcheir chuckled slightly after hearing this and put the sandwich down on the plate, then looked over at the pony as he continued talking. "...I need help getting back on my feet is all..." the pony finished, standing still at last as he looked up at Alcheir.

Leafy Dream rolled her eyes and popped the last bit of crust into her mouth as the pony finished his drama act, then picked up the plate and walked over to the counter with it. Alcheir watched the mare for a second, but right before she put the plate down, Alcheir started talking.

"...if ya need food, you can have the rest of my sandwich..." Alcheir said, pushing his plate to the empty fourth seat at the table he was sitting at. "...I'm not going to be able to eat it for a day anyways..." Alcheir pointed out, grinning at the pony.

Leafy Dream then made her way back to her seat and continued what Alcheir said, "...if you want water, open your mouth and sleep outside with your back to the ground. It feels like rain..." she said, pausing as she sat down in her seat. "...as for money, there's a search going on for clues about a book in the Everfree tomorrow. The mayor's offerin' bits for whoever finds clues as to the whereabouts of this journal..."

Alcheir then looked over at Leafy and said, "...as a matter of fact, we're all going to be looking for those clues as of tomorrow..." he then paused and grinned. "...if you're willing to join us, feel free..." He then kicked the chair a foot away from the table with his hind leg, gesturing for the pony to sit down.

"...as for your feet, yeh' seem ta be standin' up fien te me..." Leafy said, grinning with a sarcastic smile.

Logik listened as the other ponies around him greeted the new arrival, grinning slightly at Alcheir's and Leafy Dream's humor. He watched Leafy Dream finish her plate, and, while she was taking it to the counter, noticed that his sandwich had also just been finished. He had eaten the last bite of it without even thinking about it.

He still didn't say anything to the new pony that had just joined them, though he did wonder if he should spare some of his supplies for the colt. However, before he decided anything, he decided that it would be easier to simply wait and see how the colt would respond to Alcheir's offer of joining the group in the search going on for the mysterious journal, along with allowing the colt to settle down a bit and rest his obviously tired body.

Gizmotechnic was about to finish his sandwich until the new pony came along. He then decides to share what's left of his food, although he was still hungry. "You can have what's left of my meal, and my booth." He didn't mind sleeping outside, in fact, he just loved looking at the night sky, which made things worth it. "I was planning to sleep outside anyways." he finishes.

Comical looked at the brown pony and thanked him. Then munched on what he could of the sandwich. He kindly declined the purple pony's offer, having already accepted the others. "hmm, some sense of humor you have." he laughed a bit at the pony known as leafy. "...if you're willing to join us, feel free..." comical considered the last words of this pony's offer. He swallowed the bite of the sandwich he just took in to reply. "whatever gets me off the streets. Sure why not?"

Chapter 1:
-The Living Dream
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"...hmm, some sense of humor you have..." the stranger said in between laughs and chuckles, directing the attention towards the green pegasus mare.

Alcheir watched as immediately after he offered his sandwich to the stranger, the brown unicorn made an offer of his own.

"...You can have what's left of my meal, and my booth..." Gizmo said, looking straight at the stranger, "...I was planning to sleep outside anyways..."

Leafy barely contained herself after hearing Gizmo say this. She wanted to encourage that he sleep outside, but saying thus would change her words from comment to insult. Instead of a hurtful joke, Leafy said, "...there are four other booths from what I observe..." and raised an eyebrow at the pony as she continued, "...and none of them look uninhabitable..."

"...whatever gets me off the streets. Sure why not?..." the stranger said, going back to the question about joining up with them. He didn't look overjoyed at saying this, but his expression was still quite positive.

Alcheir nodded after hearing this, but he personally was thinking the same thing as Gizmo. He wasn't prepared to have shelter that night, at least earlier on in that day. He was still exhausted, but his lack of hunger kept him from falling unconscious momentarily.

"...speaking of sleep..." Alcheir pointed out, shoving the rest of his sandwich into his satchel, "...it's time for me to catch some..."

Leafy nodded and walked over to one of the booths after hearing this. She had a bag as well, but her carrying pack was more of a shoulder-strap bag than Alcheir's satchel. She had to take it off and place it on the table before she could curl up on the soft seats of the booth.

Alcheir picked up his plate and walked over to the counter, then placed it on top of the plate Leafy had. After this, he walked over and jumped over the seat, sitting down in the booth where Gizmo and the stranger were seated. Alcheir landed right next to the position Gizmo was in on the side closest to the wall.

After getting comfortable, Alcheir looked at the stranger and asked, "...so then, what is it that you call yourself stranger?..."

Logik still didn't say anything, simply taking in what everypony was saying, one at a time. Though silent throughout the conversation, he did somewhat appreciate the fact that the group would have another member as of the next day, and also had to agree that he was getting somewhat tired himself, just like all his new acquaintances had stated about their current states as well.

He got up to put his plate on the restaurant's counter about a minute after Alcheir had put away his, and then came back to sit down in a booth that was directly behind the booth at which the other three ponies had sat at, not including Leafy Dream, who had left to take a nap at a different booth. He sat in a position at which he could comfortably settle in while still being able to face the other three ponies there, in order to still be able to listen to the conversation.

"It's fine, I like sleeping out in the open night anyways, it's peaceful." He wasn't very tired, but it might be a good idea to catch some sleep. *Anyways, my tools are stashed somewhere, so I need to make sure nothing gets to them." In reality, he just liked being alone when he slept, he never liked sleeping at inns, or other such places, unless he needed to. He hasn't brought himself to fully trust any pony yet.

"...so then, what is it that you call yourself stranger?..."Comical heard this, yet did not respond for a while, having been eating the sandwich that he was offered. It seemed rude to accept the brown pony's offer to take his booth, yet it looked like he preferred to sleep out. "My name?"Asked Comical stupidly. He belched a bit."Excuse me... My name is Comical." He said tiredly rubbing his eyes a bit. "I was a comedian, a poor excuse of one, so my career never took off. Might I ask of your names?" Asked the curious ex-joker, trying to get familiar with the new faces.

Chapter 1:
-The Living Dream
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Alcheir nodded as Gizmo talked, but wasn't truly listening. He trained his attention on the other pony for the purpose of listening to his response.

"...My name?..." the pony asked, belching a second after finishing his sentence to Alcheir's bemusement, "...Excuse me..." he commented, a bit embarrassed, "...My name is Comical..." The pony then rubbed his eyes and added, "...I was a comedian, a poor excuse of one, so my career never took off. Might I ask of your names?..."

Alcheir grinned and replied, "...I refer to myself as Alcheir, and you may too if you wish..." he said, still grinning as he talked. His grin vanished as he added, "...the mare in the room is Leafy Dream, the only pony here with an actual job..."

He then pointed to the seat behind him, hearing shuffling, and said, "...the pony over here is Logik, the pony who led me here and paid for my food in the first place..."

Alcheir left Gizmo to introduce himself, knowing that the pony would jump at the opportunity to talk momentarily after he paused. Alcheir stared at the pony for a second after he stopped talking however, wondering what a 'comedian' was secretly.

"My name?" The new pony belched after this, and then followed his response with an apology and an answer to Alcheir's earlier question. "Excuse me... My name is Comical. I was a comedian, a poor excuse of one, so my career never took off. Might I ask of your names?"

Logik was about to answer the pony by stating his own name, but Alcheir ended up getting to that part before he could respond.

"I refer to myself as Alcheir, and you may too if you wish. The mare in the room is Leafy Dream, the only pony here with an actual job. The pony over here is Logik, the pony who led me here and paid for my food in the first place."

Logik smiled slightly, and waved a little bit to Comical as he was introduced. "Hello there."

Alcheir paused at that moment, and allowed Gizmo to introduce himself as Logik wondered what to make of the unusual cast of ponies that he was being surrounded by, and about how they would do on the so-called "treasure hunt" that was to happen the next day.

"Name's Gizmotechnic, but Gizmo's just fine. Just got here from Manehatten not too long ago." He stretches a little, starting to feel aches from sleeping outside on a few rocks. "Engineer by trade, but I have no shop, and no pony has ever heard of me here." He wipes some more dust off his clothes, which had a few stitches, and a few holes, but was in somewhat fine condition.

"Well then, Alcheir, Leafy, Logik, and gizmo, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Said Comical. He finished his meal and bowed his head in thanks. "Now, this treasure hunt you talk about seems like quite some work. I should probably get some rest for the days ahead." He said, laying down on the booth Gizmo offered. Comical pulled down his hat to cover his eyes and gave a simple "Good night."

Chapter 1:
-The Living Dream
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Alcheir nodded as he ignored what the ponies had to say, tuning out slightly. After Comical stopped talking, Alcheir zoomed back into reality. He tried to remember the last thing the pony said, but couldn't. What Alcheir could observe, however, was that the pony was now lying down as if to sleep. Alcheir, being one to avoid crowds, got up and shot off the wall next to him, flying over Gizmo's head as he did so.

Alcheir landed on the ground on all fours with a loud 'thump', then started moving to the other side of the room. When he arrived at a cozy corner, he curled up and looked over at Gizmo. "...see you tomorrow everypony..." Alcheir said, smiling at each of the other members in part. After a few seconds, a brief silence fell over the room. Alcheir enjoyed the silence, and as he did so, he closed his eyes and rested his head against his chest in a comfortable position.

Minutes later, Alcheir was asleep. No other sounds penetrated his brain. All that was said was competely ignored after this point. Very little could wake Alcheir from an actual, peaceful sleep. He only got sleep once a week at most under most circumstances, and he wasn't about to waist that time.

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(OOC : (...one more round of posts to acknowledge the sleeping state of everypony, then I'll time-lapse to morning. I promise the title 'the living dream' will come to make sense by the end of Chapter 1...)

Logik nodded somewhat absentmindedly as Comical responded to the handful of introductions that had been giving, and then murmured a good night back to the pony as he lay down in Gizmo's offered bench to rest. Alcheir then proceeded to make his way to his own booth of choice, bounding off a wall and flying over Gizmo, who was still next to him, and landing on his feet on the floor nearby. This somewhat surprised Logik, considering how tired and hungry the unicorn had seemed to be just a few minutes ago, but he didn't say anything. He waved to Alcheir a little bit as he said his farewell, and then watched him pick a corner of the restaurant to take a nap in.

He looked around, and seeing that most of the other ponies were now sleeping or trying to sleep, he decided that he might as well take a nap too. He once again said a quick "Good night," this time directed to Gizmo, the only other pony not yet sleeping at the moment, and then shifted himself in the booth he was in in order to get into a comfortable sleeping position. The booth's were actually much more comfortable to sleep on than he had first expected, and so he was able to fall asleep there soon after he closed his eyes.

Gizmotechnic proceeds to leave this odd assortment of ponies...no...his newfound companions, and prepares to sleep outside. There is a feeling bugging him though, but he doesn't know what it is. He just trots to his last camping spot in silence, and makes sure his tools are intact. "...heh, looks like my luck is still good after all." He takes some fallen leaves, and makes a bed, then drifts off to sleep.

(Comical is already asleep, so go ahead and skip this.)

Chapter 1:
-The Living Dream
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Nightmare:
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~...Hello?...~

~...Is anypony there?...~

Leafy Dream woke up with a start. She heard a voice, and looked around the restaurant. Nopony was there, surprisingly. Had the other ponies in her group deserted her? Leafy was still observing her otherwise unchanged surroundings as the voice echoed through the room again.

~...hello? C-Can anypony help me?...~

Leafy tried identifying the voice, but it was useless. It seemed as if the second after she heard the voice, it vanished from her mind. Leafy got up out of her booth and started walking towards the door, then shouted,

"...Who's there? I can help you, just tell me where you are!..."

~...S-Somepony's here? Hello?...~

Leafy frowned and stood still in the center of the room, looking around. Where was the source of the voice coming from?

"...Hello! Where are you? Are you alright?..." Leafy shouted again, frowning at the lack of ponies around her.

~...Hello! Can anypony help me!...~

After hearing the voice ask this again, Leafy ignored it and rolled her eyes. After walking over to the door, Leafy opened it and walked outside. She was greeted with a ton of ravens shooting out from roosting positions and into the air. This confused Leafy, but she continued on walking.

~...Oh! There you are! Help me!...~

Leafy heard the voice shout this and quickly looked around, her eyes darting everywhere around her. She was in town square, so there were plenty of places to look. After a second, she ended up looking right back at the shop, and to her surprise, stared right at the face of a pale-blue filly with deep, blood-red eyes.

"...there you are!..." Leafy said, smiling, "...are you alright? What do you need help with?..."

The filly looked back at Leafy and said, ~...I need your heart...~ then took a step forward.

Leafy's heart skipped a beat when she heard this, and she instinctively backed away from the filly a step. "...what?..." she asked, confused, "...why would you want that?..."

The filly took two steps forwards after Leafy asked this, then replied, "...to find the book..." in a more monotone voice. The filly's eyes were locked on Leafy's, sending images of terror, falling and death to the bounty hunter's mind.

Leafy stared for three seconds into the filly's eyes, then blinked, watched the filly take another step, and bolted. Leafy was sprinting now, right away from the filly. "...Not today you won't!..." Leafy shouted, gritting her teeth as she started running.

As Leafy ran, ravens swirled and swooped overhead. A few birds got close to the rooftops, but they all stayed more or less at cloud level. As Leafy ran, she noticed that there wasn't a single other pony in all of the town.

~...Please! Help me!...~ The filly cried out, running after Leafy, slowly catching up.

Leafy was breathing heavily now, even thought she wasn't running at her maximum effort. Breathing allowed for better physical ability over the long run, and thus breathing heavily helped her sprint longer. Leafy was still running when she noticed the streetlights around her slowly start to dim.

~...Just help me! Please! Please miss!...~ The filly cried again, much closer now.

"...I don't want to!..." Leafy shouted in reply, looking back at the filly to see how close she was. As she looked at the filly, she saw blood streaming out of the filly's eyes, her eye-sockets empty. "...AEHH!..." she managed to squeak out, now utterly terrified.

The lights shut off the second after Leafy looked back at the mare, and the next instant, Leafy crashed into a wall. She swore her life was over, but after ten seconds passed, all of which were filled with her hard breathing and heart beating, she realized her heart was still very much functional.

~...come with me!...~

Leafy quickly shot to her hooves and felt her body. She wasn't stitched up or anything, so she assumed nothing had happened. As she looked around, she noticed that she was in a library. The filly wasn't in sight however, which was probably for the better.

~...I said, come with me!...~

Leafy clenched her jaw and started trotting along an aisle, looking for the source of the voice yet again. As she looked around, she noticed a few ravens hanging around in the library, and also spotted a few bones every now and then. These bones were definitely pony bones. Leafy shivered as she walked towards the far end of the shelf next to her.

~...Wrong way!...~

Leafy turned around and looked back where she came from. There was nothing but a wall over there.

"...where are you?..." Leafy asked, frowning at the wall, standing still now.

~...come with me!...~

Leafy sighed and trotted over towards the wall again, her heart beating fast. She didn't have a clue what was over there, but she didn't really want to find out. As she stopped in front of the wall, she stared at it.

"...what now?..." Leafy asked, unamused.

~...Help me!...~

Leafy punched the wall after hearing this, and felt a general lack of resistance. She had punched a loose rock out of the wall, and uncovered a oddly shaped hole.

~...Help me, please!...~

Leafy stared at the hole for a few seconds, then understood what was going on.

"...I can't help you..." Leafy replied, staring at the hole, "...I'm not quite there yet..."

Seconds later, Leafy's entire dream-world collapsed. Books flew everywhere, wood warped and cracked, sending splinters flying all over the place. Rocks blew up and sent pebble shrapnel flying everywhere, and a convenient earthquake devastated the structure of the building Leafy was in.

She screamed all she could, but it didn't help. After a few seconds, all of existence was gone, and Leafy woke up with a start.
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Reality:
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As Leafy awoke, the sun began leaking in through the windows near the front of the shop. Leafy heard a gentle click of a pot in the kitchen in the other room of the building, then sighed in relief. No more odd nightmares, she was back in reality.

As Leafy got up, she felt her wing. She winced slightly as she rubbed across a fracture-point, but the pain was gone very quickly. Leafy doubted her wound would delay or limit her much more than a week.

"...morning..." Leafy whispered, looking around.

Alcheir was relaxing in the corner, awake, but with his eyes closed. Alcheir opened his eyes after Leafy's greeting and replied, "...good morning sunshine..." then grinned slightly at the mare.

Leafy rolled her eyes at Alcheir and tried thinking back on her dream. What did it mean? Was it another one of her odd foresight dreams, or was it just a relapse of the events of yesterday. Leafy didn't know for sure, but she was definitely going to try to remember what the dream held.

"...yeah, morning..." Leafy replied back, frowning at Alcheir. As Leafy trotted around, she spotted Logik laying down belly-up on his booth, and continued walking to see comical laying belly-down.

Alcheir got up and walked over to see how the other two ponies were, then grinned. "...well, I slept fine, how about you?..." Alcheir asked, smiling at Leafy as he sat down in the chair he ate dinner in the previous night.

Leafy looked over at Alcheir, standing in front of Comical's booth, then replied, "...I'm a bit tired, but I'll manage..." with a smirk.

The morning of the first day had now officially begun.
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-Objective: Wake up

(OOC : (...I realized that posts in the past have been going a bit slow, in that we took about three pages just to get to know each other. From now on, I'm going to create little objectives for you guys to accomplish each post. I'll only post them when I find them necessary actions. The one above is to wake up. I might add more than one objective later...

...the reason I added this is because I find that it helps with organization. It also speeds things up. I want to actually get to the dungeon pretty soon, but we have some ground to cover this chapter, so I was thinking of speeding things up just a tad. If you have an objection, voice your opinion...))

Logik squinted his eyes as sunlight shone onto his face. His horn glowed for a moment as he tried to close the blinds in order to block the bright light, but, strangely, there were no blinds. He frowned and opened one eye, and, upon seeing the environment of the restaurant he was in, suddenly remembered where he was. Oh yeah. Train, Ponyville, Alcheir, restaurant, friends, booth.

He groaned slightly, and then turned his body over so that he was laying in his booth in a more comfortable position. He lifted his head over the back of the booth to see if anyone else was awake, and, sure enough, saw that both Leafy Dream and Alcheir had awoken. "Good morning..."

Logik climbed out of the booth he had slept in the previous night, and stretched himself out a bit once all of his forehooves landed on the ground. He yawned, and went over to where Leafy and Alcheir currently were nearby as he did so.

The brown unicorn is just sitting outside, looking slightly tired. He then looks around, and takes out a pocket watch. "It's still a little early...oh well." He shrugs, and puts it away, he now has two bags with tools in them.

Comical slowly scratched his eyes and lifted himself to see everypony. It seemed they were all up but him. "Eh... good morning..." He said, as he fell back onto the booth to continue his sleep.

Chapter 1:
-The Living Dream
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As Leafy and Alcheir watched Comical and Logik awake, they couldn't help but smile a bit. Logik joined the two in awareness while Comical attempted to fall back to his state of unconsciousness. Leafy didn't want to let that happen.

"...get up ye' lazy on'. We got clues to find today, and the sooner we get a move on, the better!..." Leafy said, jumping up onto the table of the booth Comical was sleeping on, staring down at him, "...breakfast awaits us in the forest! We need to find Gizmo and start our hunt!..." Leafy said, suppressing her urge to jab the pony's head as a wake up call.

Alcheir looked over at Logik and said, "...we got an exciting adventure ahead of us..." in an enthusiastic tone. His robe's hood wasn't on his head, and thus his dirty hair flowed freely once again. The previous night, where he left his hood up, his main facial features were still barely noticeable. This morning, however, the various details of his mane and face were piercingly noticeable.

Alcheir continued his talk with Logik by quickly adding, "...all we need to do is find Gizmo and get going..."
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-Objectives vary:

-Comical: React to Leafy
-Logik: Respond to Alcheir
-Gizmo: Walk(either find the team, become lost somehow, or wander somewhere)

Logik chuckled slightly as Leafy attempted to keep Comical up and awake. The night before, she had talked about the mysterious journal that they would be searching for as if it was purely business, but it seemed that she was actually more enthusiastic about it than she had first let off.

Logik turned to face Alcheir as he spoke. "We got an exciting adventure ahead of us."

He grinned slightly at this comment. "I guess we'll see soon."

"All we need to do is find Gizmo and get going."

Logik nodded, and then looked over at the scene between Comical and Leafy Dream again.

The brown unicorn trots up to the rest of the group. "Nice to see your all up and at 'me." He then turns to Comical. "Or at least most of us." he jokingly says. "Anyways, we ready, or do we need to wait some more?"

"...breakfast awaits us in the forest! We need to find Gizmo and start our hunt!..."
Comical's eyes slowly opened. He rubbed them a few times and yawned before he could make his response. "Eh... now breakfast... that sounds pretty good..." He got up with a couple of yawns and saw everybody else up. "Come on, lets get going, my stomach is practically eating itself." He said as his stomach growled.