Peppermint weaved through the giant mass of squirming, excited ponies to get to the edge of the trees where there weren't so many bodies. Taking a few deep breaths and attempting not to hyperventilate, she let out a nervous laugh and shook her mane out. Peppermint should have been used to it by now, she'd lived in Ponyville all of her life, but she never could seem to get used to the large amount of ponies that always showed up during the fall. She plopped down under a tree and just watched for a few moments, smiling a bit at a little filly laughing with glee after she managed to get an apple from the tank, face soaking wet.

The red-maned pony poked her snout into her saddlebags and pulled out a treat she made herself right after work, and munched on it, enjoying the festival from a distance. For now, anyways.

Drip Splash trotted into the small town of Ponyville. The air had a slight chill to it as the Pegasi worked to finish bringing in Autumn in time for the Fall festival and Drip's mane swayed back and forth like a great big sheet as it hung from one side of his head.
To those who didn't know better, they would think he'd been soaked in a down pour or something. They'd be wrong of course, but this was all neither here nor there.

Drip made his way over to the town well. He was a bit low on cash needed to put some spending money in his saddlebags so he could enjoy himself at the Fall festival.

He placed a bin on the ground from his saddlebags and his horn glowed as he gathered a large orb of water from the well. He broke the orb up into ten smaller orbs. Then he grinned.

Drip cast a ice spell and all ten became perfectly smooth ice spheres. As he cast, his mane slowly stopped swaying and became still. Strands clumped together and formed downward hanging hair spikes. It looked as if he had icicles hanging from his head.

Once done, he floated one of the spheres onto the tip of his horn, balancing it there. A few local ponies gathered to watch as his balancing act, giving a short cheer and dropping a few coins into the bin each time he placed another sphere on top of the one before it.

Campin pony was traveling up the road from his last camp around the glowing caves of the desert. He had learned quite a great deal from his visit.

As he moved further north the air seemed to grow chilly. He just assumed that he had become used to the heat of the desert but when he noticed the heavy clouds of fall being brought in by some Pegasus ponies he realized fall was looming in. He remembered ponyville from his youth and all the fun that fall brought him.

Being on his way north he supposed he could make a detour to ponyville. It had been so long since he had been there he thought it would be nice to check in on his old friends.

As he drew close to town he noticed all of the vendors passing him by in a rush to get to ponyville.

Once he reached the hill where he could see the town, he was amazed at the gigantic crowd that filled the town.

As he strolled in he passed many vendors and street performers. One that caught his eye was one balancing balls on his horn. Amused by the spectacle but with no money he pressed on to his old home the library...

Sprinkles wings carried him slowly through the clouds. Below him, other ponies gathered and proceeded with their daily rituals. His eyes darted from pony to pony, looking for anything interesting going on. He landed on a cloud and lied down on it - it was quite soft, and he quickly found himself drifting off to sleep.

>>23
(had to eat dinner so that was a little rushed sounding sorry. Guess I'll pick it up from there if you guys don't mind. No one else seems to be using this too much so far.)

As Campinpony arrived at what used to be his library, he was shocked when his old key didn't fit the new clean lock, or that as he fumbled with the door found it to be unlocked already. He walked in dumbfounded at the sight of his old library, not only dust free, but was clearly being used.

After a moment of shock he remembered that he had not technically owned the library before but had merely been the caretaker of it for the town. The fact they had passed it off to another pony shouldn't have surprised him, but he still felt a twinge of sorrow they had given it away.

He promised to acquaint himself with the new owner later, but for now really needed a place to stay and warm up with the cold moving in so quickly now.

He left the library and headed to the park deciding that the festival was where all of his old friends from town would probably be.

As Banana trotted outside her small home, a pony galloped by her quickly, followed by many others. After smelling the air and looking around, she then realized what day it was. Banana stepped back into her house, sliding on her saddle bags and stepping out. She smiled and trotted around, glancing around and trying to find something to do. As she passed a pony balancing an ice sphere on his horn. Banana smiled at him and trotted on, sitting in the square quietly and watching everypony else dash around her and find something to do.

( Ok I'm going to call a quick timeout here.
Everypony so far has been telling some interesting build ups but i thought that the whole idea of rp was an interactive thing.
I don't mean to step on any hooves here but i think there should be some interaction between our ponies.
Also for future reference im going to use parenthesis to show im talking out of story.
Well that's my 2 cents to the board. I'll be back in a bit, carry on everypony)

>>28
(Agreed.. I was just about to respond to Banana, but I was thinking the same thing.)

"And now, Ladies and Gentlecolts... I shall place the last sphere on top!" announced the blue pony. The crowd watched in anticipation as Drip floated the last one towards the top of the stack. Sadly, a second after his magic dissipated from it, the sphere fell from it's perch, along with all the others.

The first six hit the ground, but acting quickly Drip caught the last four and started awkwardly juggling them with his hooves. His audience gave him weird looks, unsure if this was part of the show or not, but Drip's insistent smile convinced them. They clapped and dropped in a few more coins, before going on their way.

He ceased juggling and looked into his bin. Not as much as he was hoping.
"Shoot... I'll use more magic next time. Maybe a few ice sculptures or something..." he muttered to himself as he collected his earnings.

(Alrighty! I'll look for an opportunity in my next post to interact with someone. That'll be easier once more people start posting)

>>32
Peppermint was attempting to brave the crowd once more, after her stomach gave a loud roar, causing her white cheeks to match her mane. After laughing nervously and excusing herself to seemingly nopony, she staggered onwards, staring at her hooves as she tried not to notice how many ponies there were around her or how constricting it was. The filly's stomach gave another unhappy grumble and she sighed, beginning to rummage in her saddlebags...

...And, because she wasn't paying any kind of attention, she crashed straight into a blue pony collecting something out of a bin. She toppled onto the ground, the contents of her bags spilling all over the well-trafficked streets, after emitting a loud squeal of surprise and a grunt as her flank hit the ground.

She looked up, dazed.

''Oh.. Oh my goodness! I'm so so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going! Ooh.. Everypony keeps telling me not to look at my hooves when I'm walking..I'm so clumsy!'' She said, smacking a hoof to her face, the filly's voice wavering slightly from being nervous and embarrassed.

(Sorry Banana! But I couldn't resist this one..)

>>35
((Sort of! You have the dialog right, but this is more like paragraph style RPing.. You have to write in the third person, and describe what's going on around your pony, how they feel, what they're thinking or doing and what they're saying. It's more like writing an interactive story than anything else.))

(Okay just to be clear... Serene and Peppermint are talking to me, right?)

>>40
uhh let me try to make some sense out of it
serene was going to ask you his question but before he did peppermint decides to have a derpy moment and bumbs into you.
From there uhh serene goes to help i guess?
(You can take it from there if that works for you guys)

>>40
(Yes, my post was directed at you! Sorry for the confusion.)

>>43
(Posts in paragraphs are out of character statements or questions, not in the actual RP. Sorry, dear! I should have clarified.)

>>49
(that would seem to be the gist of what this rp is.
I suppose future ones could be more first pony perspective. I wonder how many words i have replaced with pony by now?)

>>49
(Exactly! To make things less messy, why don't you delete your other posts and start over? Then you can help Drip Splash and I. :) )

(Alrighty! Thanks! Peppermint mentioned Banana, so I wasn't sure)
Drip shook his head dazedly.
"Uh... It's alright ma'am!" He said quickly trying calm the sudden nervous pony from nowhere. "I'm sure it's my fault being in the way. Let me give you a hoof with all this."
He looked at the young pony who had started talking to him right as the other bumped into him. "Well... uh... I suppose." He replied nervously as he started helping the mare gather everything she had dropped. "I don't do much. I just travel around, looking for place to call home. The shows are just to keep me from going hungry until I do..." Then he grinned. "But I'm glad to hear you like it!"

(Concern: Is this like 4chan? Are this threads going to run into a post and or image limit? and start saging? Thus being lost forever?)

>>54
''Oh.. Thank you.. No, it's completely my fault, I should have looked where I was going, and I knocked our things all over the place.'' She said, and then kept quiet as the blue pony started talking to somepony else.

Peppermint noticed the colt talking about traveling and being hungry, and her stomach growled as well.

'Well.. I've got to learn to be social sometime, right?' She thought to herself, and let out a confident breath.

''Well.. Would you two like to get something to eat with me? If it's not a bother.. I could pay for us.'' She said, smiling apprehensively.

>>55
(I have no idea?
I have seen some posts go on for a while on here.
I'll start screen capping for posterity and if lost I'll restart it.
Also i know i haven't contributed to the story in a bit. sorry)

As this spectacle had been taking place, a grayblue and Purple couldn't help himself from staring. He hadn't had much excitement today [He was supposed to be helping Fluttershy with the animals today, but was left behind last second when she was asked to help her friends with something.] and had been swaying in and out of consciousness on a bench until the ordeal took place. (am I doin it rite?)

>>58
(Yes, yes! Very good. :) Just don't forget to interact lots, or else we won't have much to say in response to you and the RP gets pretty dry.)

>>56
(Oh Lawdy! Two shy characters having a social experience. This is gonna be good!)
Drip's jaw dropped for a second. He was being invited to lunch by somepony he didn't even know.
"Tell her no. Be polite about it" His mind told him. Best to avoid these kinds of-
"I'd love to. Thank you!" His mouth said. He smiled
"...Well, at least you're being polite to her." He thought grumpily.
(Serene, are you going to join us?)

'They seem like a colorful pair.', Muffin thought to himself,' Maybe today's the day that I expand my friendship horizons!'

And with that he took his first step into the fray. "But, what if they don't like me? What if they're just like the rest?", the self-conscious stallion said quietly to himself,"I-i can't risk it. I don't think I could take that kind of rejection. especially so close to the festival."

And with that, he did a full 180 and started his downtrodden skulk towards the forest.

>>62
(Muffin is a completely different character. We're still waiting on Serene)

>>64

(Whoops! Edited.)

''So what do you want to eat? There's pretty much no budget limit, I suppose, I brought quite enough for myself and then some.. I may have overestimated my hunger a little bit.'' Peppermint said, her stomach growling. ''Ooh, why there's apple fritters, and sugar cubes, and deep fried dasies, and, and..'' She trailed off, as she often did when she started talking about food.. It was one of her passions.

Peppermint quieted herself to allow the other pony to speak. Her personality flip flopped like that quiet a lot, first you couldn't get her to glance at you, and the next second she was rambling on about something, practically forgetting where she was. She blushed and hushed.

As he was stumbling off and about to take flight Muffin overheard a nearby conversation between a food stall owner and an employee. Though he missed most of the conversation, he did manage to catch that they were short staffed for the upcoming festival and the time before. 'Hm, what better way to occupy my mind than some volunteer work' he thought as he trotted over to volunteer his services.

(I'm going to bed, guys, I have work in the morning.. But I'll post one when I wake up!)

(K me too! Postponed?)

>>67
(G'night!)

"Oh... Anything's fine by me, Peppermint." Taking in everything she had said. Truthfully, he hadn't caught a few of the foods she had named. He was just gonna go along with it.
"My name's Drip Splash, by the way. Glad to meet you."

>>69
((I'm off too, bronies! I'll be seeing you all in the morning!))

(I have to go to school in the morning but i'll try to catch up when i get home and see if i can work myself in.
night everypony.)

(hey everypony! I'm back from school. What no new story content? well I'll have to fix that!)

Campin pony was walking down the street towards the park when he spotted Peppermint. He had been friends with her before he had set out on his studies.

He might normally have missed her but there was a small crowd around her and another pony he recognized as one of the street performers he had passed by earlier. The crowd was now more or less dispersed.

He approached the two ponies and said, "Hey Peppermint. Long time, no see."

(I would have contributed earlier, but I just got home from work!)

''Oh, hey! I haven't seen you in a while!'' Peppermint said, brightening up, her tail and ears perking. She had always liked Campin', he was quiet and well read like herself and they both had a similar interest for nature. She looked over to Drip Splash and smiled. ''I'm Peppermint, but I guess you already heard that.., Campin', we were just about to go and get something to eat, would you like to join us? We could catch up and all get to know each other better.'' She said, starting to loosen up now that she felt more comfortable.

''The festival food is just lovely.''

"I would love to join you for lunch."

Campin' began to notice the hunger pangs in his stomach. It had been a while since he had eaten. he often didn't eat much when he was on his trips as he lost track of time and while his own cooking was modest it wasn't much compared to the food he grew up on in ponyville.

(Hey! Folks are back!)
"Nice to meet you as well, Campin!" Drip greeted eagerly. This was turning into a little get together, he thought to himself. "So what's a good place to eat, Peppermint? You seem to know your way around." He smiled at her. "I could go for some fruit."

(Where is everypony?)

>>97
(sorry i was waiting for pep. to get back and i left for food afterwords myself. I was hungry too.)

(Hey, I might join in on this a lil bit later if you ponies will have me.)

>>99
(absolutely pony friend. Anypony can join.
Also mr. Red Tito, will you be joining in on your story anytime?)

>>102
(Sorry guys! I'm a busy pony.)
''Fruit! Oh, well I work as a server at a restaurant here in the square, I think they have a special fall menu just for today. Their fruit platters are yummy.'' She said, smiling, and adjusting the straps on her saddle bags that had gotten messed up when she fell. She had enough money for everypony to eat - that wouldn't have been the case a few years prior, however. Her family used to be pretty downtrodden, but she had worked her way up.

''So Drip Splash, what exactly is your special talent?'' She asked, knowing all unicorns had one that had to do with magic. She was too busy falling to really notice anything earlier. ''And in a bit Campin', you have to tell me what you've been up to lately.''

Drip grinned. "Water magics." He stated proudly. "I'm really good at working with water." He lowered his head a bit as he thought quietly to himself, "and not much else.."

>>108
''Oooh, that's so cool!'' Peppermint said, perking up. She had actually heard about ponies that could manipulate natural things to a lower degree, but she'd never really seen it. ''You should show me sometime when I'm not busy making a fool of myself.'' The red maned pony said, laughing.

''So,'' She started, trotting towards the restaurant slightly, ''Campin, what have you been up to these days?''

Well pep, I had been down in the deserts to the south. It was quite an interesting trip. Other than that i have really only been traveling around studying.
I love being back in town but it feels so cold here after my time in the desert.

Turning to drip now. That is quite an impressive power there. I sort of wish that i had powers, or at least could fly. That would have been very helpful on countless occasions.

(anypony out there?)

Across the restaurant a lavender ear twitched. After years of being nearly deaf with age, Arcane Dream was still surprised by how much detail he could now hear. He raised his head from his meal, gazing towards the door; seeking confirmation that he had indeed recognized that voice.

He had. Campin Pony had just entered with two others. Arcane Dream hurriedly finished the remains of his pumpkin, left some bits on the table, and trotted across the room.

"Back in town Campin?" Arcane asked cheerily. "When I moved here I was expecting to surprise you at the library, but when I got there a new caretaker had taken over for you." He paused for a second, "Recognize the new me?"

"Why is everypony so busy?" Said leorrix as he walked into town, he hadnt been on Ponyville for 3 years because his parents had died and had to visit them, Leorrixx had bought some apples and went to his old hoome, once there Leorrixx came in his house and saw evereything dirty, Leorrixx tired said "Better get working" and so he started cleaning up the house, after 3 hours the house was clean, Leorrixx counted his money and tought to himself "Damn, im low on cash" thinking he said to himself "Maybe i could get a job somewhere around here, since everypony is busy" and so he went to look for a job

>>119
It took Campin a minute to understand who he was looking at.
When it finally dawned on him that he was looking at his old friend Arcane. Or atleast he had been old the last time he had seen him.
He stood in complete shock.
"uhh. Ar... Arcane? What. What happened to you? You look younger than me!"

Arcane smiled. "Believe it or not, you can learn a thing or two in seven decades of study. I'm not at liberty to say exactly how it happened, but It appears theory was indeed as good as practice," he said with a smirk. "I heard you had been wandering for awhile, Learn anything interesting in your travels?"

Leorrixx went to see his old friend Big Mac, trotting over to sweet apple acres, when he arrived he saw Big Mac working in the farm, "Howdy Leo, its been a long time no see eh?"
"Hello Big Mac, hey i was wondering if i could help you with something? its just that im low on cash and i need money."
"Well, ah think you could help with somethin', Applejack is busy doing stuff for the Fall Festival and-"
Leorrixx interrupting said "Oh my god the fall festival!, how i could forgot, well anywas sorry for interrupring, eh what dio you want me to do?"
"Maybe you could help bucking apples"
"Seems ok to me" Leorrixx said "So when do i start?"

>>123
"Yes, well i suppose i have learned a thing here or there, but clearly you have certainly learned something. I have no idea how you managed to pull this one off you sly old- uhh young fox."
Remembering the two ponies he had just come in with. "Oh yes, well I'm sure you know peppermint, and the other pony is Drip Splash. We were just about to eat lunch. Although it seems like you already had lunch."

>>126
Arcane Dream gave a smile and a nod to peppermint and Drip Splash. "Sorry, I don't mean to intrude on your lunch, just wanted to say hi." Turning to Drip Splash, Arcane examined the new unicorn, eyeing his cutiemark thoughtfully. After a few moments of stroking his chin in contemplation, Arcane said one word: "Hydromancy?"

>>17
(By the way, I hope my character's backstory doesn't count as godmodding, or "overpowered" as brought up in the rules thread. The whole Idea for the character is that he WOULD be overpowered if he could actually cast the spells he knows. Seems to be close enough to the edge to warrant me asking.)

(In an unrelated note, I'm fairly new to posting in the chan medium. It may take a bit before I can get my posts to be formatted into a more aesthetically pleasing shape.)

>>126
>>128
Drip smiled as Campin introduced him to Arcane.
"Just call me Drip. No need to use my full name." he said to them both.
Drip's eyebrows raised up in mild surprise when Arcane correctly guessed his special field of magic.
"Uh... Yeah! That's absolutely right! But how do you know so much about magic? I heard you say you spent 7 decades studying... but you don't look 70." Drip tilted his head in confusion.
(Sorry! I was in class today.)

Arcane smirked back at Drip, "Well, I'd be lying if I said you misheard my age, but I'd be breaking an oath if I settled your confusion. As far as my knowledge of magic..." Arcane Dream gestured towards his cutiemark, a unicorn's horn in mid spell. "I know because I've spent a long, long time trying to do it myself."
"So it is hydromancy then," Arcane continued. "That's fairly advanced stuff. It took me almost five years to fully comprehend the theory behind it. How far into the field have you delved, hmm?"

"Advanced? I don't now about that. It's always come easily to me. Easily enough that I got my cutie mark the first time I cast a water spell. But..." Drip grimaced. "Other spells. The stuff that other unicorns would call the mere basics... has always been impossible for me." He admitted embarrassed and ashamed. "I can't even perform telekinesis on small objects like pencils."

>>140
"Hmm." Arcane Dream rubbed his chin again in thought. "You know, I've always thought of magic as some great tree. The various schools of magic are branches, moving away from the core. But no matter how far down one branch you are you still have a path back to the trunk." Arcane paused for a moment to formulate his next words carefully. "Whereas most unicorn's talent lies either near the base of the limb or within the trunk its self, yours lies near the end of a branch. What others call 'the mere basics' are only the 'mere basics' for the majority that lies near the trunk. Your path would be unusual -perhaps unique- but if you want to learn beyond what you know, you must climb along your branch until you meet the trunk." Arcane gave a warm smile, "It may take some time to reach the center of the tree. As I said earlier, hydromancy is advanced magic – it lies rather far from the trunk. Do you understand my analogy?"

>>142
Drip blinked as he thought about it. In some weird way, that made perfect sense to him. "Yeah. I get what your saying I think. You think I need to work backwards with my hydromancy, back towards 'the trunk'? Am I getting that right?"

"Thats exactly it." Arcane Dream turned back towards Campin, "It was good to see you again, but I shouldn't hold up your lunch any longer. So long everypony, I've got to pick up a grimoire from the library. I had to get it delivered from the Canterlot University's library." With that Arcane Dream waved and headed out.

He had been waiting almost a year to get ahold of this book. Such is the price to pay for such a rare thing. Smiling, he thought to himself "At least I have time now."

(Guess I'll post)
Drip waved goodbye to Arcane as Equestria pony left. "What an interesting pony." Drip turned back to Peppermint and Campin.
"Shall we?" He asked, indicating an empty table.

(Sorry, I would have been on but ponychan wouldn't load when i got home.)

Campin seemed to be jostled out of shock when he heard food mentioned again. He had tried to keep up with Drip and Arcane's conversation but pony magic was more than a little beyond his field of knowledge.
"Oh uhm yes, let's all get something to eat."

>>150
>>145
Peppermint had stayed quiet for the duration of Arcane's visit, but her eyes and ears were fixated on him the entire time. She was just an earth pony and couldn't do magic, but she always thought learning about it would be really interesting. She shook her head as she noticed she wasn't talking.

''The desert! How was that?'' She asked, her stomach growling as she sat down at the nearest table.

The ponys attending the fall festival laughed, danced and played. Little did they know that they were being examined, by a pair of sinister and ancient eyes.
The Watcher stayed in the shadows as he studied Ponyville. Soon he would find a suitable pony. A pony worthy of replacing Princess Luna as his new "Nightmare".
"All I need now is a suitable candidate", he muttered.

(sry for intrurrupting, but I felt this story need an evil character for drama and stuff. Also, sry about my bad grammer. My bad writting won't improve without your advice, so criticisims are encouraged. Also, sry if I'm "godmodding". I can take this post down if anypony wants me to.)

>>155
"Oh yes, the dessert. Well it was for the most part hot, dry, and empty. They are called desserts for a reason. But thats not to say it didn't have an oasis or 2. Infact I found a tribe of Zebra down there. An odd culture they are... oh my i guess im babbling again..."

The waiter approached. "May i take your orders"

"Oh i guess I'll have some baked flowers on a bed of leaves."

>>156
(I personally think it's fine. Red Tito hasn't been in and i think there should be some conflict. It's really up to everypony but you have my ok with it.)

Drip looked over the menu quickly and made his choice.
"I'll have the fried hay with a side of roses. Oh, and a water to drink." He told the waiter.

''I'll take some apple pie, and some water, if that's okay.'' She said, smiling, slightly embarrassed at her choice in comparison with the other pony's food. Her stomach rumbled and she let out a sigh.

''So Campin', Drip, how long are you two staying in town? I hope it's not just today.'' She said, her tail swinging back and forth. ''It seems like all of my friends have moved out of Ponyville! I'll I've been doing lately is studying and working at the restaurant.''

Drip thought to himself for a moment. "Well, I usually travel about and I was only planing on staying until the end of the festival, but I have been looking for a place to call home. I might end up staying if I find reason to."