d20 Pony

Borg

Let's go to the Kirin Empire; odds are against Dirt Flaxen being in danger, but that's far from a certainty, and so somepony should check ASAP. If it's just a case of Dirt quitting an oppressive contract, I'm not sure if we can just come back and say "Dirt's fine and we refuse to go into more detail," but in that case somepony's going to have to deal with that situation, whether or not it's us, and at least we know we'll try to resolve things in a better manner than forcing Dirt to come home.

After much deliberation, your party decides on the voyage to the Kirin Empire; better find Dirt Flaxen before his trail goes cold, you reason. And besides, Old Ponyland isn't going anywhere — you can always visit later.

Twilight Sparkle: "Then it's decided! I'll have a ship prepared for you in Fillydelphia by tomorrow. Coincidentally, that's the town Dirt Flaxen used to live in; according to some information we dug up, he was part of a band called Halfpipe Avenue before signing up with Manehattan Music Management. If you think that's relevant, you can try tracking down the members of his old band before you leave.

Here, take these. With these documents in hoof, you'll be granted free access to trains and boats all across Equestria."

You get Voyage: Elven Research, and Voyage: The Absent Star!

Twilight Sparkle: "Do you have any questions about your assignment?"

You ask Twilight Sparkle if there are any maps of the Kirin Empire you could bring along.

Twilight Sparkle: "None that I know of, I'm afraid. In fact, we've only just recently discovered the location of their island. If there are any maps, they're probably found locally — and with enough luck, you'll meet someone who can translate them to Ponish."

Moonflower: "Oh yeah! Do we get somethin' extra for doin' voyages?"

Twilight Sparkle: "Oh, that's right! I almost forgot — each sponsor offers a reward for completing their voyage. For bringing Dirt Flaxen back to Manehattan, you'll be getting one thousand five hundred bits, split among you."

Moonflower: "Oooh!"

Honourshine: "And an extra thousand bits from me if we find anything about Elves."

You grin, and tell Honourshine that she doesn't need to pay you for going on an adventure together.

Honourshine: "Better in your coin purse than in a bank's vault."

Twilight Sparkle: "Speaking of which, I should warn you: the Kirin use a different currency called zen, so don't weigh yourselves down with too many bits — they won't buy you much over there.

Applejack will have your ship stocked, so at least you won't have to worry about food. Just make sure you have enough room in your bags or in a cart to bring some along with you on your travels."

You nod, and thank Twilight Sparkle for the advice.

Twilight Sparkle: "If that's all, then you should go see Rarity next. Your sealwhistles should be ready by now — you'll need them to call upon our animal messengers. Be careful out there, and if you have any more questions, you know where to find me!"

You bid farewell to the princess, and exit the guildmaster's office. Following her instructions, you make your way over to the outfitter, who seems to have been expecting you.

Rarity: "There you are! I suppose you're here for your sealwhistles? Do take care not to lose them; these whistles are uniquely designed, and will be used to identify you as Agents. Well, here you go!"

You get Trailblazer's Sealwhistle!

Rarity: "If you ever need to communicate with us from afield, simply blow through the mouthpiece here, and one of Fluttershy's critters will be along shortly to carry your scrolls. Now, if you need anything else, just say the word!"

	6Yoshimon1:
	Well then, let's blow it! Gotta check if it's working and safe for bat pony ears, right? Apart from that, we should quickly check if we need to buy any more equipment and ask what's on offer here at the agency. We've already got our enchanted horseshoes and armor at home, the aquatic chokers since we're once again visiting an island... Even a spare armor for Honourshine if she wants it. We can all head back to Hoofington together later, show her our home, maybe have a sleepover if it's late already and then catch the next train to Fillydelphia!
	#359614 Dec 2023*

	Steady Gaze:► Yoshimon1 (#3596)
	My only concern (cause a sleepover sure sounds fun!) is that it's 9:50 am, so we have a lot of time to kill. I don't think there is an issue with skipping it by putting in a command "wait until xx time", but it feels like we can make do better. Honourshine might want to get some more research done in the Ponyville library, if she didn't take any books with her. If we intend to pursue the lead of Dirt Flaxen's old band (they might have nothing, but maybe still worth checking), it would be best to get that done before the ship is ready, maybe taking the train to Fillydelphia and getting that done today, staying overnight, and leaving the mainland tomorrow? The main wrinkle that makes this difficult to plan is that we (OOC) don't know how long the train ride to Fillydelphia is. And I checked 2016-03-30 and 2016-04-14; it wasn't on the route we went on previously. Maybe Rangelost can enlighten us... or we'll find out! And this is barring Twilight sending us in her personal airship. 😇
	#359714 Dec 2023

	Yoshimon1:► Steady Gaze (#3597)
	Ah, huh, I'm quite certain I did check our watch earlier this week, but for some reason I thought it was later already. And not 9pm, but, like, 3 or 4. Not suggesting to skip several hours here, I just thought there wasn't time to do more inbetween. Let me rephrase this, then...
	#359914 Dec 2023

	The Mortal Paper Fist:► Steady Gaze (#3597)
	I assumed that they're preparing a boat for us, but said boat isn't going to leave until we're ready. Because I really hope we don't have to rush to Fillydelphia to catch our boat on time. I would like to do things at my own pace.
	#359814 Dec 2023

	5Steady Gaze:
	Well, we don't have time to take up Rarity's offer of custom ensembles before we leave, but it wouldn't hurt to look at what the guild has to patch up any gaps in the equipment (apparel, runestones, or otherwise) we have at home. And does Honourshine need any armor or anything?
	#359312 Dec 2023

	4Scytale:
	We should go and get our gear into gear, as mentioned by The Mortal Paper Fist. We should also store whatever we won't need. Like, I assume we won't have much use for a Glow Stick, Lantern, Oil, or Grapnel, now that we have our spiffy alicorn magic and flight.
	#359011 Dec 2023

	3The Mortal Paper Fist:
	Time to make some last preparations. We need to tell our friends in Hoofington and Moonflower’s clan that we’re leaving for another adventure. We may also need to buy some equipment: At least one of our magic horseshoes needs a new enchantment, Honourshine may need a weapon or at least an armor, magical bandages are required to speed up the recovery if one of us gets injured and last but not least some magic rune stones may come in handy during combat. The bandages are the most important item so we should start with that. Ask Rarity if she can point us to a place that sells medical supplies.
	#358811 Dec 2023*

	The Mortal Paper Fist:► The Mortal Paper Fist (#3588)
	Some other toughs I didn’t want to put in the already bloated command: According to Twilight our Bits aren’t worth much in the Kirin Empire. The easiest solution would be to change some of our Bits to Zen. But since the Kirin Empire only has been discovered recently that may not be an option. Therefore my suggestion would to change some of our Bits into Gems. The ponies in Midgard, an even more isolated place, still accepted gems so maybe it’s some sort of universal currency the Kirin will accept as well. The may speak another language, so we may need to hire translator. Probably not easy to find one but our best bet would be to look around in Fillydelphia or the Kirin empire itself. *Speaking of Fillydelphia: It’s a pretty big city. So before we set sail we should probably recheck our inventory and buy any stuff we feel we may need on our adventure.
	#359212 Dec 2023

	Steady Gaze:
	In the intro, those are all very good reasons to go to the Kirin Empire that I hadn't considered. sealwhistle I don't see anything relevant when I search; I think this is a novel concept. I wonder if there's anything we should be doing now, before our ship is ready. Or is nothing stopping us from just getting on the next train to Fillydelphia to track down Dirt Flaxen's old band? I don't think Honourshine has anything to wrap up. Other potential options are asking for a map of Ponyville or Equestria, getting some sweets at Bon Bon's shop with Honourshine, asking Rarity for suitable armor/clothing (maybe a pith hat 😛), checking the train schedule, or introducing ourselves to/helping to train the initiates somehow. No map, huh? I was at least hoping for a map of the general ocean area, similar to the North Luna Ocean map we got with Midgard. Maybe the ship will have one we can copy.
	#358710 Dec 2023

	2Spamotron:
	Well if we're at risk of fighting monsters we better make a stop at home first and retrieve our armor and combat horseshoes.
	#358410 Dec 2023

	RangelostQuest Master:► Spamotron (#3583)
	Looks fine to me! The justification is a bit far-fetched, but it's otherwise inoffensive within its context. There's no need to censor your opinions for the sake of fictional characters — it could be their opinions, too, however unpopular.
	#358510 Dec 2023

	Spamotron:► Rangelost (#3585)
	It's the "honest self" part. That's questionable.
	#359111 Dec 2023

	Steady Gaze:► Spamotron (#3584)
	I predict Rarity won't stand idly by when she hears we're in need of armor 😆. Although... will we go for magic horseshoes as our primary weapon and do without armor (see 2015-09-06)? We gave Smoke our sword, so we'd have to acquire another one if we want to use a sword.
	#358610 Dec 2023*

	1Duskdweller:
	Pop over to the crystal castle to see if Moondancer can do that trick Twilight did to turn us back into a filly; more deniability for guild unapproved urges and better representation of the Elements as our honest self.
	#358210 Dec 2023

	Spamotron:► Duskdweller (#3582)
	You probably want to edit to rephrase that. As it is now it comes across as pretty transphobic.
	#358310 Dec 2023

	The Mortal Paper Fist:► Rangelost (#3585)
	The justification is a bit far-fetched The part about more deniability honestly doesn’t makes much sense to me. How would that work? “Oh it wasn’t me who seduced the Kirin Empress and half of the royal court. As you can see I’m clearly a stallion and the pony who did this was a mare. Must have been Blazertrail my notorious twin sister.” XD
	#358911 Dec 2023