A shining new adventure

It was dusk.  Many colors filled the sky as the sun made its way behind the hills. The sound of breaks squealed as a train came to a stop.  Many different kinds of ponies crammed together as the doors began to open, letting them off the train and onto a shining road.  Amongst the crowd a an ivory colored Pegasus with long lavender mane.  What separated her from the crowd was a small brown bat hovering above her right shoulder.  Moondust never went on long trips without her pet, he was the most trustworthy companion she could ask for.  Both of them liked exploring better when the moon dominated the sky, which is why they arrived on one of the later trains. The bat, Midnight, was naturally a nocturnal animal.  For Moondust, she liked the night better because there were less ponies to bother her.

The pegasus normally did not like cities, though she had never seen any quite like this one.  Everything from the streets to the buildings seemed shimmery, much like crystals. So the name Crystal Empire made sense.  What brought her here was the the view however, it was that she hardly knew nothing about the empire.  Books seemed to lack information about it, and there was a lot she had questions about, like why and how the empire disappeared for over a thousand years and and then suddenly reappeared out of nowhere. She figured that the library at the Crystal Empire itself would hold some sort of information about it.  Her eyes glanced around her... it was just a matter of finding it.

Sapphire knew she was making a good decision coming to the crystal empire for her vacation. The fresh air, The friendly ponies, And the absolutely flawless landscape was a nice change of pace from her usual dirty abode in Manehatten. She took a deep breath as she stepped off of the train she smiled from ear to ear "Perfection" she whispered as she began to walk through a huge crowd of normal and shiny ponies alike everyone seemed about the same, Except for one of the ponies caught her eyes. Saph moved her messy blue mane from her face to catch a glimpse at a ivory pegasus with what looked like a bat hovering beside her. "well i'll be.." Sapphire whispered to herself once more as she started to rush through the crowd to try and catch up with this eccentric looking mare.

The dark-colored pegasus mare fluttered off the train, landing on the platform with a soft clop of her hooves. Although it was rather hard to tell, she was actually quite excited to be in the Crystal Empire. This was her first time, and as she raked the crowd with orange-red eyes, she was not disappointed by what she saw. 

Everyrhing was absolutely gorgeous. The ponies, the architecture, even the sky. It was a beautiful day, absolutely perfect for touring a new city. Nova weaved her way slowly through the crowd, a light smile on her face. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a blue mare came streaking by. It caught her off-guard; who was that pony and why was she moving so fast? 

Well, in comparison to her own walking pace, everypony moved fast. But that wasn't important. Being the naturally curious pony she was, she decided to ask. 

"Excuse me...!" she called out to the blue mare, her monotonous voice just a bit louder than usual. "Pardon me for asking, but where are you going?"

Wick didn't have to see the landscape to know that it was stunning, the astonished gasps and exclamations were enough to tell him that it was magnificent. He'd needed a change of scenery, something new and exciting, and what was more so than a completely new empire? he was far from Canterlot, and Ponyville, and any other familiar lands. This would be an adventure!

He cast his magic in as far a reach as he could manage, taking in as much detail as he could, there were a lot of ponies all around him, and he kept the spell going as he meandered through them, his saddle bags full of paints and canvases and brushes bounced against his back as he walked, he would have so much fun painting this scenery!

His ears perked as he heard the beating of tiny wings, swiveling them and looking curious, to small to be a pegasus, even a very young one, a bat perhaps? The thought excited him, he loved bats, they used a method of seeing better that was similar to his own spell, bats were the inspiration of even coming up with the spell! He put a bit more spring in his step, attempting to catch up with her, bumping into Sapphire in his distracted haste, "Oof! I am so sorry!"

Sapphire fell over skidding a little bit on the ground gritting her teeth as she skinned her right cheek. "Who the hay just did that!?" She yelled through closed teeth, looking up she only saw a dark blue pegasus standing still. "You!" Saph sprang up stomping over to the pegasus "Whats the big deal huh!?" Sapphire yelled gritting her teeth harder getting right in the face of the mare.

(Make sure to follow the post order, please! :3 It should be Squadala, then you, then me, then Discorderly. I'll let it slide this time since you're new but next time make sure to pay attention to that ouo)

(Alright sorry :3)

(It's fine! :3 No hard feelings~)

Moondust looked at the scenery around her, with the eye she could see out of anyway. It would have been perfect if there was not so many other ponies cramming into each other each trying to get to their own destination. She did her best to try and ignore them and continued searching for the library. She wasn't that into reading, though she did want to learn more about the mysterious empire, and researching was probably the best way to get some quick info.

Despite her efforts to ignore the other ponies, Moondust couldn't help but notice as one crashed into a blue unicorn, sending her skidding across the ground. "How clumsy can these ponies be...?" she said quietly to herself. She began to giggle when she realized the mare had gotten back onto her hooves and was blaming the wrong pony. Other ponies where annoying sometimes, but they sure could be entertaining as well.

(I'm gonna reply to this just to keep the ball rolling, but after this we'll return to the regular post order! :3 After this should be Sapphire and then Discorderly, and then we return back to the first order that I mentioned before.)

Nova blinked calmly back at the mare, looking completely disinterested with the fact that she was getting screamed at. She was actually just confused, but it didn't show very well. After the screaming stopped she swallowed and replied slowly, "I think you've got the wrong pony..."

((That works for me! ^^ Wick can hear the yelling and come back to apologize and own up to being the guilty party! :D))

(Yup! Let's wait for Sapphire to reply first, though. :3)

"Just own up to it i know it was you!" sapphire continues to yell, Her hoof stomping to pronounciate every word. She groans then turns her back to the midnight colored pegasus. "If you would just admit it was you then we could all get back to our daily lives but no,you wanna make it difficult" She groans again noticing a rather apologetic looking white stallion with paint supplies in his saddle bags coming closer to the scuffle.

Wick kept his head low with a rather subdued look on his face as he approached the two mares, his horn lit up to work his spell that kept him from knocking into even more ponies. That was the last thing he needed.

He looked up at Sapphire with his unseeing eyes and shuffled a hoof, "I'm so sorry, ma'am. It wasn't her!" He lifted his head and cleared his throat a bit, "It was me, I got distracted following an interesting sound." He turned to his bag and used his magic to shuffle things around, pulling out a bandage and holding it out to her, "I should have been paying better attention to the things around me."

He turned his head to the other mare and gave her an apologetic look as well, "I am so sorry you got yelled at because of me." He chuckled a little and looked bashful, "Everything is very new to me here, and I'm already bad with directions...I'm Wick, by the way!" He hoped he could mitigate the situation a little by explaining things.

Moondust continued walking, though the group of ponies distracted her from seeing where she was going. Unsurprisingly she tripped over a stone in the middle of the pathway. she fell face down, her muzzle scrapped against the ground "ouch." what stupidity on her part... it was the only rock in sight and she managed to trip over it... what was the rock doing amongst the smooth pathways anyways?

She got back onto her hooves and noticed a couple of younger ponies laughing at her. her eyes met theirs and she glared at them, immidiatley the foals went quiet obviously not looking for trouble. Moondust wasn't looking for any trouble either, so she shrugged it off and continued on her way.

Sapphire looked at the white stallion in front of her analyzing him. She knew that their was something out of place with him so she didn't yell, Plus he was kind enough to come back and give her a band aid how could she be angry? "Look it's uh it's no problem man we all make mistakes" Sapphire sighed "I shouldn't of gotten so hot headed about it anyways". Sapphire then quickly turned to the mare she had yelled at "And uh i'm sorry to you too i shouldn't of jumped the gun and yelled at you can you forgive me?". Sapphire put her head kind of low awaiting the response from both ponies to be get away from us you angry freak.

Nova looked over at the white stallion, noting the hazy look in his eyes. Well, no wonder he bumped into somepony; he was blind.

The pegasus looked back at the blue mare and nodded her acceptance of the apologies. "Don't worry about it," she offered, dismissing their worries with a wave of her hoof and a small smile. "It happens to the best of us." Her curiosity spiking again, she turned towards the blind unicorn again and tilted her head slightly to one side. "Excuse me, sir, but that spell you're using, does it help you see?"

Wick chuckled softly and nodded, glad to see the tense feeling of the situation dispel into a relaxed atmosphere once more, "I'm glad you're not hurt worse than that scrape at least, " he looked a bit guilty and shuffled a hoof, "Goodness knows I'd hate to be the cause of any severe injury..."

He perked his ears when the other mare and grinned, nodding vigorously, "It does! Er well...Maybe see isn't the right word...I can feel around really well with it, and that gives me an idea what something...Or somepony...Might look like!" He chuckled and put a hoof to his chin, "Almost like a bat's echolocation!" He thought back to the odd sound, "Say...Did either of you see a bat? I swear I heard the tiny fluttering of one..." Was that an odd question?

Looking around her, Moondust realized midnight was gone. That bat liked adventure as much as much she did, and every once in awhile liked to explore off by himself. He had apparently thought it was a good time to fly off and explore, though Moondust did not think it a good time to do so. "Ugh... Midnight" she looked around searching for the little brown bat. From the corner of her eye she spotted him flying back the way they had come. "Midnight come back here!" She shouted as she ran towards him.

Sapphire's eyes opened wide, she tapped the white stallion. "I saw a bat with a white pegasus, thats who I was running after" Sapphire put her hoof to her chin backing up so she could see both of her new acquaintances. "Did you guys see her too?"

Nova shook her head carefully, blinking. "Nope, I was just following you," she admitted, lifting her head up in an attempt to look over the mare's shoulder at a white pony chasing a bat through the crowd. She stared at that odd spectacle for a few seconds before prodding Sapphire with her hoof, drawling, "You should turn around..."

Wick smiled at that, flicking his ears up eagerly, "You did?! So I wasn't just imagining things!" His horn lit up as he washed the area with his spell, getting an idea of what was going on around him before looking surprised when he began to pick up the form of the mare chasing her bat, turning in that direction, "I knew I heard the soft flutter of bat wings!" He chuckled a little at Sapphire, "To be honest...I was following after her too when I bumped into you! I got a bit distracted by it because I didn't wanna lose track of the noise."

Moondust continued chasing her bat, barely paying attention to where she was going, though she did manage to get around the other ponies without bumping into them, even if she did come close to doing so a few times.  Midnight eventually realized he was being followed.  This was like a game to him now.  He flew faster above the crowds of ponies.  Moondust sped up her trot soon spreading her wings and getting enough air beneath them to lift her off the ground with several flaps.  A sigh escaped her breath as she followed the bat.  Having much larger wings it was not long until she caught up with him.  "Midnight, get back here, now." The bat knew the game was done at Moondusts stern voice and he slowed down beside her.  Moondust landed back onto the ground soon realizing she was beside a group of ponies who where chatting.  She recognized one of them as the pony who had bumped into the mare.  Studying them now, she realized the stallion was blind which explained why he had bumped into her before.

(Sorry it took so long to reply guys, I have been really busy lately :/ )