Roaming, restless [After Dungeon Keeper]

[morganknight]

Morgan was restless.

When restless, he tended to roam the ship, checking on things he knew of, or seeking out places he didn't out of curiosity. Today was a little of both. After the pitched battle in Hydroponics, he felt a particular obligation towards one plant in particular: the apple tree he'd helped Applejack grow from a seed. For all that he'd done his best to contain Hydroponic in the fight, he hadn't been able to do anything specific to protect that plant.

Done there, he headed back down in the City, off to one particular place that had caught his interest when he had heard about it: an 'air temple'. Not on the map, not listed in the directory, or he'd have wandered over just to take a look a long time ago. Now that he'd heard about it, well...

Time to investigate.

[OOC: Just say where you find him; it can be pretty much anywhere, since his trip covers a lot of ground across the ship.]

Comments

[morganknight]

"Magical shapeshifting isn't the same as natural shapeshifting," he said, not really helping with clarity and understanding. "Some of the ways people change shape magically can be very bad magic indeed, I won't pretend otherwise."

[appletastic]

Congratulations, Morgan, you've successfully confused her further?

"When you say 'bad', do you mean bad like 'hurts for them to change' or like 'they hurt everypony else when they change'?"

Oh, she'll need time to think about magic vs. natural too, but the tendency is to fear the bad stuff.

[morganknight]

"Both can happen. It all depends on how you do it. Some people would use blood sacrifice to do it, for example... not a practice I recommend," he said with a grim smile.

[appletastic]

"...Blood sacrifice?"

Applejack's ears flattened against her head. She made a noise of disgust, gently pawing at the ground. "Well I hope your family's all right, anyway."

[morganknight]

"My twin sister is probably in the pods. As for my adopted family... I can't be sure. I hope they are." He spoke without particular inflection, keeping the worry and fear at a safe and measured distance. Dwelling on it served nothing.

[appletastic]

"I sure hope so too," Applejack whispered. She wasn't quite as successful at keeping the worry for her family out her voice, she never was. But as far as she knew, those robots hadn't taken down any ponies.

She lowered her head onto her front legs, deep in thought. "Just gotta give it all time. The trees'll bounce back. Us too."

[morganknight]

"Never give up, never back down, never let 'em take you without making them pay for the attempt, right?" The sentiment was stubborn and maybe a little bloodthirsty, but he said it with a smile. Anything to yank this conversation out of the dark paths it's gone down. "At least it's an adventure?"

[appletastic]

"Never!" She agreed, definitely looking a little happier. "We'll make 'em pay. I might twist some more metal around if I've gotta."

She rolls on her side, taking in more of that artificial sunshine. Not that she'd tell the others this, but there was time for a good rest every once in a while.

[morganknight]

The scandal, AJ. But seeing her lounging and at least momentarily content makes him smile. He flopped back onto the grass, sprawling out again.

"What do you do when you're not tending to the plants here?" he asked.

[appletastic]

"Catch up with the plants. Walk around 'em sometimes. I was tidying up my little barn for a while, but it's as finished as it'll ever be."

Her hat falls to the side, but she doesn't care. "Anything new out there? I don't get out too much, just to eat the mush."

[morganknight]

"That's pretty much your life, huh? Taking care of the plants and the animals?" He couldn't imagine it; he had too many things going on to focus so narrowly. But they were from different worlds in more than the literal sense.

"I haven't heard too much about anything special, but honestly, I haven't been paying much attention. After everything that happened... gotta step back and take a breath, you know?"

[appletastic]

"And making our living. But nopony's got money here, we just work to live." That was a rough adjustment, but it was freeing in a way. She could just give and help wherever she liked, but old habits died hard.

"You deserve it. You've been fighting. Just...stay a while, the weeds won't eat us."

[morganknight]

Her comment earned a genuinely happy laugh, just from the sheer amusement. The fighting, after all, didn't bother him. He enjoyed fighting, a little more than he probably should given that the goal of martial arts was to need never use those skills. It was the loss of friends that got to him.

"On Earth, there's a kind of plant called kudzu. Viney plant. Grows about a foot in day, and it is pretty much a weed considering it ended up someplace it shouldn't. So if we sat around for too long somewhere close to that..."

[appletastic]

Now there's a shocker. Her eyes widened as she imagined being wrangled by kudzu. "We'd be buried, right? Is it magic, like your seed?"

[morganknight]

"Nope, it just grows that fast naturally. It's a real pest of a plant, it got introduced where it shouldn't have been and it just spreads and spreads..." Good intentions, gone horribly wrong.

[appletastic]

"Bunch of farmers didn't know what they were doing? No surprise there. Nature will one-up you like that."

She rolled upright, staring in wonder at the field in front of them. "But no, that's not all I want to do. I wanna fight too."

[morganknight]

"From what I saw when the robots were coming for us, you do a lot more than just wanting to fight," he said, stretching out an elbow to nudge her with a smile.

[appletastic]

"Won't deny that," she admitted none-too-modestly. "But I'm gonna do more! Nopony touches my orchard."

[morganknight]

"I'm all for making that vow a reality!" He lifted a hand up to punch his palm, which would've been a determined and powerful gesture if he weren't flopped in the grass.

[appletastic]

"Darn' tootin!" she laughed. "Now why don't you take up an apple and have a bite?"

She casually taps the side of the tree, causing precisely one apple to fall between them.

[morganknight]

Morgan caught the apple on pure reflex alone, then, somewhat comically, turned his head to stare at the fruit in his hand.

"Did you just.... " He sat up to look at her with an expression midway between surprise and awe.

"That was incredible."

[appletastic]

"You get to know the trees after a while, learn to go easy on 'em," she laughed, gently butting her head against it. "Or maybe it was a lucky guess!"

Nah. She was that good.

[morganknight]

"...If you can do that, you're amazing," he said wonderingly, shaking his head. "Application of force that precise is just... just..." He lifted his hands, describing confused circles with them. "Amazing. It really is."

[appletastic]

"It's just what we Apples do best. Apples! I could take down the whole bushel if I wanted to."

She tips her head against the tree, happy as always. "We can't fly or do magic. Us earth ponies have gotta do something right."

[morganknight]

"Well, what you just did with a simple tap would take my magic to do, and years of training besides. And more than that, it's..." He leans back, trying to think of the words. "That was such a pure expression of everything I've ever tried to learn that I'm not entirely sure you should be learning from me and not the other way around, now."