"Oh dear, it's stolen?" said Amber, somewhat absently but looking slightly crestfallen.
"Well the first thing to mention is that Splash Flaunt isn't technically a member of STOMP. She was, a long time ago, but...stuff happened. Now I guess I'd qualify her as a freelancer, with her own team, who is very loyal to Brisk Iron. It's made the last few years pretty rough for her. But I shouldn't talk about things I don't fully understand. Within the actual STOMP team there's yours truly..." Snowy steps to the side and settles onto the ground, leaving an image of himself behind that quickly morphs into a smiling yellow earth pony with sea blue hair.
"Then there's Anchors Away, my team lead. She's a seapony that transferred here recently. If you've worked with STOMP before you might have met her. She was moderately disappointed that we weren't all more heroic, but she's getting over that. Marefriend to Static Signal." The smiling pony's coat dulled to a darker shade while their mane yellowed, and the smile turned into a moderate grimace.
"Static Signal, Earth Pony. Most days you can find him running the projection booth in the museum. While on missions, talents include being a distraction, protecting the team, and being one tough nut to crack. Recovering alcoholic, but let him tell you about that before you say anything. It'll probably come up pretty fast; he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. Part of Team Remainder with Rhapsody." The coat and mane dulled all the way down to black while wings formed on the sides of the construct. After a moment's inspection by Snowy, muscle tone was added, and rainbow socks appeared.
"Rhapsody is probably the toughest pony on the team. I'm not sure why she's teamed up with Static, it seems like they'd be better off spread out, but I don't make those decisions. As you may have noticed, she's extremely athletic, and she knows how to use her wings. She has an aura of calm about her most of the time. It's almost unsettling Her solutions to problems include punching things, punching things really hard, threatening to punch things, and utilizing magical music to do Celestia knows what. I don't even know how she does it. Works as an astronomer in the planetarium. Marefriend to Amber Spark...s." If you were going to go for a deception, you may as well go all in. The muscle tone was gone, the color was adjusted, and the wings were replaced with a horn.
"Amer Sparks, leader of Team...other team. We don't actually have team names, Rhapsody and Static have just been short a unicorn since Light Fantastic left. There's only three teams. As a historian, Amber is one of the few ponies to bring her work with her on missions, but in addition to historical knowledge she also has an array of lightning spells and an expansive knowledge of metallurgy. Capable of incredible feats of both magic and pedantism, holds great disdain for everything I stand for on this team. Yet somehow we get along swimmingly. Her teammates are Night Cap and Maplejack."
As the horn melted back into the head of the modelling dummy, the coat shifted tone slightly, and the hair became considerably messier. As the tranformation finished, a small pegasus with a pale coat and crazy red hair dropped down onto 'Night Cap's' back, though the impact barely registered. "Night Cap is a dreamwalker, and he leads quite the night life, so don't judge him if he looks exhausted before things even get underway. He's...I don't even know what his job is anymore, I just know he works in the documents department and is rarely around. His job is surprises and disaster scenarios. You'll have to see it to believe it." The lightweight pegasus stood up a little straighter on his back. "Maplejack is one of the newest additions to the team. We don't actually know how young she is, she has moderate amnesia. Skills include candy-making, friend-making, and hammerspace storage. Her metaphorical rose-tinted glasses have been scratched up a bit in our work here, but they're not gone yet. She's an avid wrestling fan and may actually perform herself. I don't know; I declined my ticket. She joined at about the same time as Misty Monsoon." The back-pony went up in smoke as the beige stallion grew taller and lankier, sprouting wings and enshrouding bangs.
"Misty Monsoon is the other thing you have coming. She thinks I'm a superhero." Snowy lets the statement hang in the air for a moment. "Aside from that, she's the third member of my team. She's always helpful and upbeat. She's a powerful flier and swimmer; If the gang was all here she and Anchors would be taking care of this. I can only swim a little, so I sometimes make life difficult for them. She's apparently from an island out west, but she doesn't really remember how she made it to the east coast. So she's a lovely, bouncy, mystery."
The model regressed down to a clothing store dummy, but remained present as Snowy looked at Scarlet curiously. "So that's us. Three and three and two, and now you. Who are you, Scarlet Spectrum?"
[this is obviously in the wrong thread]
If it makes you feel any better, Zam, I just checked and saw Static was introduced all the way back in November 5, 2014. I...honestly can't believe it. Only a little over a year for me I suppose...but it doesn't feel nearly that long. I only feels like maybe a few months to me that I first ran into Dazzling.
That makes it all the more odd though that IC only...what...a few weeks...maybe a month has passed?
Scarlet watched with a mixture of respect and wonder as Snowy Skies constructed and reconstructed the magical representations of the current STOMP team.
"Eclectic is definitely the word to describe this team. Although i can see why she made the choices she made. Most of them anyway."
As Snowy got the part about Rhapsodys penchant for hard hitting solutions to problems, Scarlet couldn't help but laugh, though he sobered up fast enough when the Unicotprn fmpi ished by turning the illusion around on him. Flaring out his wings and trying to stand tall and impressive. A feat he was pretty sure he was botching, Scarlet smiled nervously.
"Me? I'm and adventurer linguist. I just a teacher of old languages and the truth behind ancient legends at the museum before the Chief recruited me into the team.
V
Well ok, i used to freelance exploring in my spare time, or to escape certain classes. Which is what got Brisk Iron attention i guess. I used to lead a team myself eventually. Like you, we were sent into the corners of Equestria, following have deciphered writings or old legends, to retrieve something that must by salvaged, of safeguarded, for the good of Equestria.
Then my time ended. Things happened that led to my leaving the team, and Caballuston. Not sure whether Splash Flaunt was in STOMP before or after me, though our exits from the team are very similar, to a point.
After that, well, i moved from place to place, taking teaching jobs where i could, as well as freelancing where i could. Although too many of yhose jobs tended to either end in discovering that what we sought was gone, or had never been there in the first place. Those that did succeed, i ensured that what was found eventually ended up in the hands of the Keep.
My magic specialises in understanding foreign tongues, enchanting equipment or travelling gear, and, when necessary, compelling the truth from those who would otherwise lie.
Oh and i write books on the languages and dialects of Equestria," Scarlet added with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Some of which need better proof reading."
Scarlet took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
"I guess i'm a product of my parents. Although if you'd heard of hem before meeting me, i can place odds that you'd be expecting a very different pony than the one standing before you.
Hm. While i don't fully recognise Anchors Away, i do remember one mare who used to work at the Keep. Flairvoyant? Is she still around?"
