darkSpyro

It has been one year since the return of the Crystal Empire, and some of the crystal ponies have migrated down from the north and settled in Equestria. The three princesses have accepted the new ponies with open hooves, and contacted all businesses in the country to ensure that they will have no trouble making a living for themselves. Most of the Equestrian ponies don’t mind the Crystalines, and many welcome them as happily as their princesses.

However, there are some ponies who just can’t find it in their heart to accept them. Recently, a tape was leaked to the media via a cross-eyed mailmare who didn’t even know how she ended up with it. The tape showed three ponies with black coats and masks. They were a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony, however it was impossible to tell gender. The earth pony began to speak with a warped voice, telling the audience that the Crystalines were not welcome in Equestria, and if they didn’t leave there would be extreme consequences. The pony explained that they were tired of the Crystalines getting handed everything; jobs, host opportunity for the Equestria Games, and easy access to the entire system. The pegasus stated with the same warped voice that a group known as the Equestria Preservation Society would purge their great country of the “crystal rats”. The unicorn shared the voice of the other two, simply saying “we’ll be in touch.”

After seeing these masked ponies plastered all over every form of media, you begin to wonder to yourself just what this Equestria Preservation Society is. What are they going to do? If they’re looking for attention, they’ve surely achieved that. So where do you stand with the crystal ponies? Do you accept them, or do you think they’re causing trouble and getting everything handed to them?

-

Rules
1) You are either against or embracing the immigration of Crystal Ponies.
2) You can only be a regular Equestrian pony. (No alicorns or royalty. The highest on the totem pole you can get is to be a royal guard.)
3) This RP takes place only in Equestria.
4) There will be interruptions throughout the RP with news bulletins and press conferences from the Princesses. The first will be very near the beginning of the RP.
5) If you show a public dislike of the Crystalines, the Equestria Preservation Society will be in touch with you (a bit similar to the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim).
6) There will be lots of interactivity with the plot. Actions of your characters could lead to anything from the destruction of the EPS to a complete revolution against the princesses.
7) This is a slightly mature RP, so there will be some minor cussing, racism, and romance.
8) No one-sentence posts, UNLESS you are in a conversation with someone else's character, then it's understandable.
9) I have the right to deny you, and if you constantly harass me or other RPers, I will blacklist you from this RP and all of my future RPs.
10) The mane six are not available, but I might let you be a canon background character.
11) I control all four princesses and other important figures like Shining Armor and the rest of the mane six. However, if this gets too much for me to handle later on, I may offer up some of the mane six to users who I believe can do a good job with them.
12) Princess Cadence is ruler of the Crystal Empire, so for this RP she doesn't count as an "Equestrian Princess". Twilight is a princess, but her power is inferior to Celestia and Luna's rule, making them the High Princesses.
13) You can control minor/"face"less characters for your character to talk to and such. A good example of this is a royal guard or a merchant. You may also include something about seeing or talking to a crystal pony.

Character Sheets
Name:
Age:
Species:
Appearance: (description or image link)
Personality:
Location: (town or farm near town)
Other:

My Characters

Name: Amber Mist
Age: Young Mare (17 human years)
Species: Unicorn
Appearance: Bearing a purple coat, Amber is known for her bright emerald eyes and paint palette cutie mark. Her mane and tail consist of reddish brown curls that seem to take up quite a bit of space and attention.
Personality: Bubbly and happy most of the time, and tries to spread happiness to others. When she’s in a bad mood, she can snap at you, threaten you, or even try to attack you if you make her angry. Her face is an open book.
Location: She lives in a loft above a small art shop in Baltimare. She and two other ponies own the art shop.
Other: Over the years she has built up a strong magical endurance, her strongest form of magic being levitation. She can levitate several objects at once as she has done it to make pieces of art ever since she got her cutie mark. She can also do the odd teleportation spell (eases the transportation of fragile art).

Name: Denim Hues
Age: Stallion
Species: Earth Pony
Appearance: Dark blue coat with a light blue and white mane and tail. His eyes are bluish purple, and he’s got light blue freckles under his eyes. His cutie mark looks like the back pocket of a pair of jeans.
Personality: Quiet and polite, especially around strangers and mares. Hardly ever shows his angry side.
Location: An apartment in Manehatten.
Other: Makes jeans for a mare clothing store.

(Will add more as the RP goes on.)

Name: Lieutenant Steel Ripper Pteryx
Age: Stallion (22 human years)
Species: Pegasus
Appearance: Stark black with ruby red eyes. His mane is slicked back in thick, red-tipped spines. Steel's left.foreleg and wing are cybernetic. His cutie mark is a silver wrench crossing a white wing.
Personality:. Normally an easygoing, amiable pegasus, he can snap if pushed too far. His rage tends to be psychotic in nature. Steel welcomes the immigrants and cracks down hard on racism.
Location: Canterlot Castle, in a small guest room.
Other: Steel is the last remaining member of the Pegasus Operative National and International Emergency.Squad (P.O.N.I.E.S.). He refuses to mention the fate of his former team, but it seems to be connected to his prosthetics. He views the EPS as nothing more than terrorists and will deal with anypony involved to the full.extent of his military assets.
His special talent is engineering, and he has created things from supercomputers to flank-mounted guns to nuclear weapons (never deployed).

OOC: Can I do a OC that is the long lost brother of Princess Celestia and Luna? His name is Astrello.

OOC: Accepted!
@Wrystel, no. The closest thing you can have to royalty would be one of the guards or something.

OOC: Do you want me to put up a character sheet as well for him?

OOC: For Astrello? Why? I just told you that you couldn't use him in this RP.

OCC: Well you may see me or you may not, we'll see.

OOC: okay you aren't even making sense now

OOC: I may join, I may not.

OOC: S-G, accepted!
Wyrstel, if you aren't joining, please stop wasting posts.

Name: Violet Strike
Age: 17
Species: Pegasus
Appearance: Violet Pegasus with a blue mane and tail. Violet's eyes are green. Her cutie mark is a sword.
Personality: She is an expert blacksmith and sword fighter. Violet Strike has a secret hatred for the Crystal Ponies and was overjoyed at the 'warning' tape. She may seem happy all the time but she is a mean, cold mare deep down. Violet Strike is building up her madness until she finally bursts out in public.
Location: Forgery in Ponyville, beside Rarity's Boutique.
Other: She is against the crystal ponies and will make the worst weapons and armor for them. Out of copper with no fancy engravings. She'll even export the armor to the Crystal Empire at times when she is really angry. She belives she needs to cleanse Equestria of the 'unnatural beings'.

OOC: Oooo, a nasty character! Accepted, dinorang!

Name: Solar Spark
Age: 15 (mare)
Species: pegasus
Appearance: her main colour is sky blue, with her cutiemark being a sun with a white feather through it. her main is raspberry red with golden streaks through it. the mane and tail are long, and slightly curly. Her eyes are a pale gray
Personality: Solar is a open-minded pegasi with an attitude. She tends to be short tempered and a little vain, especially about her mane. She has a soft spot though, and shows her caring side when she is around her flock of falcons. Honest and loyal, she is compassionate and thirsty for knowledge. Independent, she doesnt like large crowds of ponies
Location: on the outskirts of ponyville
Other: completely on the side of the crystal ponies. She doesnt understand the hatred against them, as she hardly understands hate against ponies herself

Name: Hellena
Age: 31
Species: Unicorn
Appearance: Hellena
Personality: Quite relaxed and cheerful, if a little hot tempered. If pressured hard and long enough, she will display her usual traits of being bitter, aggressive, violent, and overall foul natured. Views the world as a whole in a brighter perspective, as opposed to her previously pessimistic outlook, and is more in touch with reality.
The relationship between her and Loony is like that of a pair of opposite gender twins.
Location: An apartment near central Canterlot.
Other: Apparently 'turned a new leaf' since an incident in the Badlands, bringing along her old colours and a happier demeanor. Though calmer, she's still a firebug, through and through.
Doesn't harbour negativity the Crystalines, though a little suspicious of them, and just overall avoids having much to do with them.
A powerful unicorn, specializing in fire magic, and the ability to teleport short distances. A drawback to this is having a relatively short stamina, and still being fairly frail physically.

Name: Loony
Age: 31
Species: Unicorn
Appearance: Light pink with a light blue and white, poofy mane and tail. Tall, with a long horn, with three light blue spots on his back, and a white patch going from his chest to his flanks. No Cutie Mark.
(Picture soon)
Personality: Calm and collected, though almost perpetually happy. Has a playful streak, while remaining stoic and protective towards the ponies he cares about. Quite intelligent, with a strong memory. Doesn't mind the fact that his coat is a feminine colour, or that ponies point him out for being so.
The relationship between him and Hellena is like that of a pair of opposite gender twins.
Location: An apartment near central Canterlot.
Other: Started his life as Hellena's imaginary friend. Started showing signs of becoming an independent being several years ago, and doing all he could do to steer himself away from this path. Recent events, involving something that almost eradicated his existence, strove him to part ways with the realm of the imagination permanently, resulting in an adult body and no Cutie Mark.
Much more open than Hellena, regarding the Crystalines, due to his nature and what he was 'created' to be.
Can't do much more than simple levitation with his magic.

OOC: Both accepted!

OOC: The opening post will be posted here in one hour.

OOC: Haha... I accidentally put 'she hates the ponies' instead of the crystal ponies. I'll edit that.
Also I might be in a different time zone than you Solemn. It's 8:09 here. PM.

OOC: Actually, you're in the same timezone as me! It was 8:09 here when you posted that!

Thursday, 2:46pm: 24hrs since EPS tape surfaced.

Ponies were all a bustle throughout Equestria today. The "Equestria Preservation Society" tape had debuted yesterday around noon on the Daily Canter news show, and had been replayed on pretty much every other pony talk show in the country since then. It had even been displayed in the Griffon Kingdom and Crystal Empire. Now today, the tape was being replayed on every news show every three hours, and the newspapers and tabloids are covered in EPS. The newspapers are a little more believable with interviews and such, but the tabloids and magazines were blowing everything out of proportion. Some of these magazines even claimed that the EPS was secretly a Sombra worshiping cult.

Not to mention, all of the Crystal Ponies are scared out of their mind.

One particular newspaper, The Canterlot Sun, reported that ticket sales via train to the Crystal Empire had risen dramatically since the previous day. It was obvious that a good portion of the Crystalines were packing their bags and taking off for home.

-

Canterlot and its Castle were particularly busy today.

Princesses Celestia and Luna were in the throne room, trying to deal with the swell of petitioners who had come to the castle to demand they do something about the EPS. They seemed to have started arriving right at the crack of dawn, catching a well rested Celestia and a sleep-deprived Luna.

There were hundreds of ponies crowded outside of the castle walls. It appeared that many of them were picketing and yelling with outrage, while some were stuck out there due to trying to get in for petitioning to the Princesses. Both the Solar and Lunar guard had been called to arms to keep ponies out of the castle. It was to the point that they might have to raise a protection shield around the place.

Further in the city itself, there were ponies wearing signs and yelling at passbyers. Some were agreeing with the EPS, others were against them, and then there were the few who were yelling about the End of Times. These were the usually sign-wearing callers.

Other than that, and the city being a bit more crowded than usual, it was actually a pretty average day in Canterlot.

-

Ponyville, however, was having a very less than average day.

After Princess Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony were pestered all day yesterday by ponies both from town and outside about the EPS, Ponyville awoke to a very noticable difference. Carousel Boutique was locked up tight, and all of the windows were blocked by shades. Sugarcube Corner was closed for the day, with a sign on the door saying the Cakes were taking a personal day after being harassed so much. Fluttershy's cottage was boarded up and practically abandoned. The only evidence left of Rainbow Dash's cloud home existing was the mailbox in the middle of nowhere. Sweet Apple Acres was empty of the usually hard-working Apple family. And most of all, the Golden Oaks Library was locked up with metal walls over all openings, and a magical shield was suspended around it.

Nopony knew where the Elements and their families were, but there was rumors that they'd been temporarily relocated to Canterlot Castle until the commotion calmed down.

OOC: I may allow SOME people to take on some of the mane six further into the RP.

OOC: So do we start now? Because its 2 hours now.

OOC: Sorry about the wait! I was walking my dog at 8:30 and a husky attacked my dog and followed us home, so I had to deal with that :s I'm halfway done the post right now.

OOC: Oh great. Your dog isn't injured right? Anyways, I might need to do it tomorrow, school starts soon and I'm on my phone, and it's at 10%. I need to be asleep by 9:00 and- OH GREAT IYS ALREADY 10! I might need to do it tomorrow. My phone's about to die. Sorry.

OOC: Oh no, he's fine! Okey dokey, that's fine.

While most of the streets of Ponyville seemed visibly more empty, it seemed to be the opposite in the marketplace. Without the Apple family as fierce competition for selling, it was as if there were more merchants out than usual. A few other apple merchants had appeared, and three ponies were trotting about, trying to sell their newspapers to whoever passed through.

The few ponies that weren't in the market were mostly gossiping to each other and reading the latest news about the Equestria Preservation Society. This was particularly prevalent in front of Daisy's flower shop, where a light cyan unicorn and a candy maned earth pony were chatting away with Daisy.

"Good day to you, miss!" said the pony at the stall. She was a pale yellow earth pony with a honey brown mane and a cutie mark that looked like a loaf of French bread. "How can I help you today? I sell the best of breads, pastas, and other grain products!"

"Ah yes! One of my finest!" the earth pony said. She pulled out a plastic bag and gently placed the loaf inside. "That'll be five bits please!" she said, placing the bagged loaf on the counter in front of StarSong.

"Have a good afternoon!" the bread pony called, scooping up the bits.

A unicorn with a press hat and a levitating note pad stumbled into StarSong only seconds later. "Oh, so sorry lady!" the stallion said quickly. "Please pardon a clumsy old guy like me!" The reporter had a brown mane that had a few silver streaks in it, quite a contrast from his mint green coat.

"I didn't damage ya bread there, did I?" the reporter asked, nervously scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I'm fine." the reporter sighed. "Still though, sorry for runnin' into ya like that. I've just been a little stressed today. The big boss wants a interview from a Ponyville resident about the Elements of Harmony disappearing by four o'clock, and no ones throwin me a bone!"

Steel groaned at the commotion outside. Even though his room was inside the castle, it wasn't soundproof. Deciding to abandon a schematic of some design, he stretched his remaining biological wing and popped the joint. His metal wing merely whirred and clicked in protest to the unnecessary practice. Knowing full well he had ni chance of having a word with any of the Princesses, he began to daydream a humorous scenario of having to covertly smuggke the Solar and Lunar alicorns out of their throne room. He chuckled heartily before crossing his small, messy room to the door.

"Ah, shoot." the reporter sighed, pawing slightly at the dirt road. "Well, miss, if ya come across anypony who knows some good info on where they might be, will ya let em know I'm lookin' for a interview?" he asked hopefully.

-

A knock sounded from Steel's room door. "Lieutenant Steel? I'm here to update you on the current situation!" called a voice from the other side. From the sounds of it, it was defiantly a stallion, presumably a guard.

Solar Spark was flying above the village of ponyville, heading for the marketplace. Since she lived on the outskirts of town, she wasn't having too much trouble about the commotions, but she wanted to know more about this "EPS." Solar always wants to be caught up with the latest rumours and news, and this was big news. With so many crowds of ponies in the marketplace, the pegasus decided to stay in the air, even though it seems the skies are almost just as crowded.

Hellena peered through the shutters, at the noisy crowd below, narrowing her shadowed eyes as she drew back from the windows.
"Is all this really necessary?" she voiced quietly, clear voice ringing out. "I mean, did they have to start so early in the morning?" She looked around at the sound of a crash, ears flattened. Loony smiled sheepishly, picking up the shards of what had once been a glass.
"Well, I guess things like this get the population riled up," he started, dropping the mess into the bin in the corner. "Even Teufort, y'know? I heard people talking about this before we left. 'Course, there's no crystal ponies that far south, most ponies think that there isn't anything in the Badlands."

Steel opened the door with haste, glad to finally have something worthwhile to do. "Yes, go on."

"It's better that way. They don't want anything to do with Equestria or its citizens."
"Oh, yes. And where do you come from again?" Loony scoffed, his light blue magic enveloping horn and a second glass.
"Pfft, they don't like the likes of us, anyway. The only reason we haven't met the gallows is because we're protected under the contract." Hellena shrugged, stepping back from the window.
Loony was silent for a moment. "...The gallows."
"It almost happened." Hellena said simply, trotting to the door with an uncaring air. "Doesn't matter. I'm going to go on a little... investigation. Come with?" She gestured towards the open door.
"..."
"You might find a Cutie Mark!" Hellena trilled teasingly.
"Fine."

Violet Strike walked outside and sighed. "A fresh new day..." She stated to no-one. "What in Celestia- What the hay is going on here?!" She yelled as she scanned the streets filled with protesters. Violet looked beside her and gasped. "Rarity? What the- Carousel Boutique is... It's.." She stammered. Violet walked to her forge, shook her head and started to make copper armor. "I can't believe that kid in Canterlot wanted THIS for Hearth's Warming Eve." She sighed.

It seemed like the more ponies came into Ponyville marketplace, the louder and more competitive the shopkeepers were getting.

"Come on over for some crunchy carrots, best in Equestria!"

"Pies! Pies for sale! Only ten bits a pie!"

"CORN CORN CORN CORN COOOOOORN!"

Daisy, however, wasn't as concerned with selling her flowers as the food merchants were. She was still gabbing away with Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops (Bon Bon) about the EPS tape. They had now each pulled out the same copy of a glossy magazine, the image being a really bad photoshopping of a high quality photo of King Sombra behind the blurry image of the EPS members from the tape. The girls didn't seem to notice though, they were eating it up.

-

The guard at Steels door seemed like a rookie. His solar armour was a little too big for him, and he wasn't anywhere near as muscular as most of the Solar Guard.

"Sir, Princess Twilight Sparkle is on her way to the castle!" the guard said, saluting. "The other Elements of Harmony and their families are on their way too, they left in the early morning! Their chariots will be landing a mile south of Canterlot in twenty minutes. Princess Luna request that you and two guards meet them and take them through the Crystal Caves into the city. Princess Celestia cannot address the people about this 'EPS' threat until Twilight and her friends are present."

-

A few crystal ponies in Canterlot were still walking about the streets. These seemed to be the few that felt they were save within the city walls, and didn't care about the threats the EPS had given. In fact, there were some who walked with their heads held high.

As Violet finished her work she wrote up a sign on the forgery door and walked out onto the street. FORGERY CLOSED It said. She noticed the ponies protest and laughed. Violet carried the box with the copper armor and sent it to Equestria Post through mailbox. She didn't trust Derpy, with those wall eyes she could crash and everything would fall out of her mail pack. Violet Strike picked up a newspaper and started to read the EPS page.

The particular newspaper that Violet had happened to get was the Manehatten Marvel, and the headline read "Equestrian Preservation Society, terrorists or hoax?" The picture was, of course, the same image of the three masked ponies from the tape.

The article provided a recap of what all occurred in the video in great detail, an interview or two with some crystal ponies in Manehatten (who's names were kept anonymous), and the authors ideas of what the Princesses would do to combat this issue.

OOC: Just so everyone knows, I edited the rules a bit.

Steel smirked a little. "Oh, alright." He cleared a pile of papers from a chair, revealing a thick dark-grey combat vest. Slipping it on and buckling it tight, P.O.N.I.E.S. could be seen stamped across his chest in white. What looked like a small can hung from his left shoulder, and a muzzle-wielded combat knife sheathed on the right.
"Always be prepared." He stated as his raised metal leg split open, revealing a steel bar supporting a toothed chain wrapped around it. It revved, making his cybet-wing droop from lack of power.
"Industrial-grade diamond-edged tungsten carbide rock saw." It retracted into the limb smoothly. "For engineering applications, of course." He added.