Mission Intermission

[Al]

Fretlock had been following the others quietly for the most part. This long-haul mission sure seemed to be super important to the boss lady, but he'd hardly had time to talk to her given that she was always off doing something or other and usually without much warning to the rest of the group. If Fret were high strung, it might have bothered him. Thankfully he was not! He figured if he was needed, somepony would inform him as much and in swift order. His companions didn't seem the type to beat around the greybark when it mattered.

So it was that the hired bard had perched in his own peculiar manner atop a small rock under a red-leafed tree, guitar held in front of him where he could comfortably play it. They'd made camp but a couple of metres hence, and he'd gravitated to this spot almost immediately upon their settling on it. The mottled shade cast by the leaves, as well as the cloud-shielded sunlight could cast light enough for it, made the pale orange horse wonder what had come Before. Such shade was a beauteous sight even in the Wasteland... so one could therefore conclude that before the end of everything, it had been even more beautiful.

Not that he knew much about Before. Nopony did, to his knowledge. It was a kind of distant, barely-acknowledged truth in much the same way as one might acknowledge a species long since extinguished. It had almost certainly existed in the same world, but its existence was so far removed that it was hard to imagine ever having been one with the reality of the present day.

Fret continued on the long and winding path of this thought train as he strummed absentmindedly at his guitar. Hmm...

[Spring]

Rain chose to use the time they'd traveled to fly high above, using her skills as the only pegasus of the group to keep an eye out for any coming dangers. The sharp eyes of her species were of good use for such things. So far she saw nothing but some miles of empty wasteland, other than the occasional dead tree, plant or some other bit of scraggly flora. And rocks, couldn't forget those.

When the time came for their leader to call a halt to set up camp, Rain was relieved; it was good to stretch her wings, but rest was always welcomed of course. The pegasus swooped down to land with her usual silence, other than the flap of wings and brief thump of hooves on hard earth. There wasn't much to do to set up camp, but she did what little was required of her before she could settle in her own spot. At first the pegasus merely flopped down, pulling her new fancy sword out of its makeshift sheath of straps to admire and study. She'd never seen such a weapon like this in the wasteland before.. It was odd, as was the weird feeling she got in the back of her mind whenever she held it. Suppressing a shiver, she put it away- maybe she'd ask that smartypants unicorn about it, once she felt assed enough to talk to her, that is. But otherwise she was eager to use it in battle and see how well it cut.

Rain was distracted from.. well, nothing else to do when she heard the strum of the earth stallion's guitar start up and turned her head to watch him for a moment. He seemed distracted from as much as she could tell, or maybe just relaxed. Foolish thing to be in the wastelands, but his instrument intrigued her. It played interesting music, sure, but he had also wielded it like a weapon. Weaponised music.. Fun. Rain thought, and had a brief, internal debate about socializing. She gave in in the end, and stood up to wander towards him with what she hoped was a neutral enough gait. No sense frightening her temporary comrades into nearly blasting her head off. "Hey, so what kinda guitar is that anyway? Like, is it that new crystal tech shit or.. something else?"

[Al]

The song continued... well, as much as vague strumming of different chords could really be referred to as a song. There was at least some sense to them, though, as patterns slowly became apparent. Maybe he was trying to create a song then and there? Hmm... If that was the case, however, it wouldn't last long since he was swiftly interrupted by one of the others in the camp. He regarded her with a mixture of curiosity and wariness despite her nonthreatening approach, because if her behaviour toward those raiders they'd fought was anything to go by she was one pony not to make angry.

Which was going to be hard since she immediately led off with an insult toward his beloved instrument. Well fuck you too, brood mare.

"T'was a mare, stood surely there, did test the skies with her wit," he recited in a sing-song tone, making use of the new tune he'd composed to offer backup to his voice. "Such blinding class, this wasteland lass, the stars could ne'er outshine it~"

After offering her a pointed look to suggest the lyric of ambiguous insult level was most definitely about her, he smiled in a perfectly sweet way.

"You bet your hooves it's Crystal, friend. Met an old unicorn in a desert cave who bestowed upon me this fabled axe and told me a tale of the night sky," he stated almost whimsically. "What is it with grizzled stallions and their penchant for storytelling, I wonder? Not that I'm complaining. I weave stories too..."

He drifted off into a thoughtful silence and then canted his head to one side at her.

"Why do you ask?"

[Spring]

The pegasus shuffled a hoof when the stallion finally looked up at her, although she was unfazed by the wariness she saw there. She puzzled over the rhyme he'd sing-songed to the tune he'd been strumming, using that bit of silence to figure out what he meant. Surely he couldn't be mocking her? Her eyes narrowed minutely as she peered down her snout at the look he gave her. Yes, he probably was, but she didn't feel like wasting her energy by smacking him for it. It'd been a long day. She just hoped he didn't take her silence to mean he could keep doing it, otherwise she'd probably pound him into the dirt with one hoof sooner or later..

"I was curious." She answered, relaxing her facial expression. "It's quite an interesting work of ah, craftsmanship. It's a little strange to be accepting things from old ponies in caves.. but it's quite a weapon he's given you. Plus I've never had the chance to be close to any such crystal-tech based musical instruments. Care to tell me how it works, or is that just a secret?" Rain mused as she chose to seat herself where she'd been standing. If he started showing signs of not wanting her company she'd probably leave him be, but until then she wasn't budging; weapons of all kinds interested her enough to stay, disrespect or not.

[Al]

He caught the expression, but chose not to break his ever-so-innocent facade to give her the shit-eating grin that was waiting just beneath the surface in his mind. The bard was definitely going to push his luck, no two ways about that. It was kind of what he did for a living. For now, though, she was safe from any more of his musical scorn. Now they had a conversation going to keep him distracted! He was happy enough for the company, even if the company was a little too serious for their own good.

"It's a wide wide wasteland out there," was all he cared to comment on the strangeness of either the guitar or his past adventures. As for the question... He closed his eyes for a moment, drew his focus inward, and then opened them again.

"No secret," he answered, as his eyes adopted the gentle shimmer of low level magic. In turn, the crystals set on the guitar lit up with a sound that could only be described as a crystalline shine. It wasn't nearly as dramatic or impressive as it had been during the battle, but he was reasonably not in the business of wasting its power pointlessly.

"As easily as your wings fly, the crystals sing. With intent, they have purpose."

The glow then faded from both his eyes and the crystals. Only then did he resume strumming absentmindedly on the guitar as he had been before.

[Spring]

Rain grunted at his dismissive response and noted the soft glow of his eyes and his instrument as it activated. She studied both for a moment and turned her head, lifting one wing slightly from its folded position to peer at it- she wasn't a slow thinker, nor slow to realize what he meant. It was more of a 'huh, so that's it?' gesture. The pegasus nodded her head once she turned back to face him. "Intent.. ? I see. So, if I'm understanding this right, it reacts to what you want, like your mind and your instrument are.. linked. Unless I'm thinking a little too far into it." She ended this with a little curl of one corner of her mouth, not quite a smile but an embarrassed sort of expression.

"Nice to know, either way. So what the hell do you think that mare's searching for, anyway? As glad as I'd be to get to it so I can get my money, I'd like to know."

[Al]

Fret smiled warmly as the pegasus seemed to understand almost immediately. That would save him from having to explain something he only barely understood, himself. The old stallion hadn't been very exact in his wording, most of what Fret now knew he'd had to figure out all on his own.

"I guess... but I think anypony with the right soul could swing this axe. It's a thing of music- so you gotta know how to play before you can play, you dig? That's what makes it a little different than your standard Tech-touched blade, 'least as far as I can tell."

As the topic changed however, he set the instrument down beside the rock he was perched on, and shifted his weight on the rock until he was sitting as most ponies might. Perching to play got real uncomfortable after a while, even if he was strangely adept at doing so.

"She told me she was going to a 'valley', whatever that means. Is that something you can search for?" Geography had never been his strongsuit. "Her and that unicorn are wordhorses, I know that much. Saw a real ancient-looking scrap in the unicorn's bag. Do you think they're following whatever it says in there?"

[Spring]

Rain felt relieved to hear that she managed to hit the nail right on the head. She hated looking stupid, and avoided opening her mouth on topics that would make her appear so if she could help it. Her further understanding on how the weapon worked was given to her by Fret, which she supposed should have been pretty obvious for a musical instrument. If she ever ended up having to wield something like that because she had nothing else, she didn't think she'd be able to make it work for her- she wasn't a musical pony. Hell, she hardly knew how to sing.

"A valley is the dip between two hills, or the gap between two mountains." She stated neutrally as she answered him with a nod of her head. Yes, definitely something you could search for. "There are a lot of them.. If they've got a map on what you said you saw, then they're definitely searching for something. I just wonder what would be so important to brave the wastes for? I can't fathom what could be they'd risk their lives, unless it's some sort of special pre-war weapon, or.. something of power. I'm sure a lot of pre-war stuff is just laying around for anypony to get their hooves on."