The Blessed Traveller's Inn. A Roleplay for the Travellers blessing (No Jump-in)

[Travius Trott]

This thread is solely for the Herd of the Traveller's blessing to act in. As that is stated, then I'll write the set just below here:

The Blessed Traveller's Inn.
A cosy little place located on the roads between Ponyville and Fillydelphia, it's form is square with a second floor that is slightly overhanging the entrance, a third floor is also present before the slant of the roof marking this place of rather large capacity. It is built in the common style which is used in ponyville with pale yellow walls with wooden bearings and corners, the roof is made of purple tiles and also is curving up as they slant, making the building a total height of 5-floors. Lastly, the large decorated windows at regular intervals makes it a bit standing out against other buildings of the same style, as they only have few windows at all.
On the inside of this building one first arrives in a warm entrance hall, it's fireplace keeping it warm trough even the coldest winter, yet the wooden building provides a certain cold in the hottest of summer, several tables are located with five cushions around each. At the end of the hall, which seem to take up the better part of the building's lower floor, there is a counter where the book-keeper is at, behind that is a thin wall that separates the kitchen from the hall, and lastly on the far left is a stair-case to the next floor.
The upper two floors are similar in construction, the lower only different with having a small hall containing the stairs up and down on the far right and left side connecting to the other floors, while the upper floor only have a staircase down on the far right side, and also a ladder leading up to the storage spaces above. Both of those halls have a small hallway leading to several rooms, almost all of them in the same size and placement, being large enough for two beds, two chests, and two small tables beside the beds while still leaving room enough to not feel cramped. There's fourteen rooms like this on the floors, eight on the lower with four on each side of the hallway wide as three ponies, and six on the upper with three on each side of a similar hallway. On the end of the third floor's hallway is placed the private rooms and storage of the owners of the inn, being almost three and a half larger than the common rooms.
Lastly, there is the loft functions as a storage for all the Inn's supplies, reserve furniture, and many other items that would make a too long list here. It is a dark place, only with two windows and whatever light a pony would bring with them up there.

The staff of this place is composed of few ponies, the number jumping when there is a large influx as they are not shy to hire travellers to do the serving or cooking in exchange for free rooms. But the permanent staff is composed of four, where only three of them are commonly seen while the forth is merely rumoured at as it have only been sighted rarely. But the three most ponies resting there would learn the faces and names of are named: Tavern Hatch, Tinplatter, and Caramel Bun.
Tavern Hatch is the book-keeper and manager of the location even though he is an earth pony, it is not uncommon for the beige stallion to leave the counter to do other accounts in the private quarters, his eyes are green and mane teal and swirling.
Tinplatter is the youngest of the three carrying out the serving of foods and drinks, as well as some lot of the cleaning of the building's interior, her coat a blue,  golden mane and tail in a short and tidy style, and eyes likewise green, but of a brighter hue than Tavern's. To mention that she is a unicorn.
Caramel Bun, a pegasus and the oldest whom seem to be doing the most part of the cooking when there is few guests, she is usually the one to invite ponies to work for a time at the inn, her coat is a light orange, mane is long but bound up to look as if being short and a dark Gray in colour, while her eyes are also of a green, but more teal than Tavern's eyes.
The three is told to have been around for a while, even if they look as if being in their young adulthood.

That is the set, and I would say it's a good idea to read it to know the set well enough to navigate in it.

And, here is the rules:
1. Always follow the forum rules, that means no sensual acting, no gore, nor violence.
2. No godmodding, powerplaying, or other things that restrict another's character without them having agreed to the scene.
3. No post shorter than a two lines, I recommend around five lines.
4. Keep the roleplaying close to the tavern, it's fine to start on the way to the tavern, but when your characters leave the area then do take any acting in private till they return to the tavern.
5. NPCs are presumed to do their functions at appropriate times of day, feel free to state their action as long it is related to their work, like such as to order some food from Tinplatter and then describe her trotting off to get it from the kitchen, or payment of bits to Tavern to stay in a room to describe him putting the bits in a storage, leading to a room and giving a key.
6. I have final say when it comes to anything about the NPCs.


Now that all the fuzzy stuff is done, Members of the Travellers Blessing, feel free to join in here and happy roleplaying!~

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather Scroll smiled as he approached the inn at last; his journeys over fen and moor had tired him, and he looked forward to staying a night or two at the Blessed Traveler's.  As he reached the door, he stamped his hooves just outside, shaking off the dust of the road and taking off the hooded cloak he had been wearing.  With a contented sigh, he opened the door and entered.

The familiar smell of wood smoke, barrels of cider and baking bread brought back many fond memories and a smile to the stallion's face as he signed in at the front desk and paid for room and board before finding himself a seat at one of the tables.  He hung his cloak and saddlebags on the hooks to the side before sitting down and waiting for his drink and meal.

As he waited, he took out some blank scrolls, a quill and a bottle of ink, and began composing some verses for later.

[Bravo 658]

Another pony arrived not long after Feather Scroll.  Wavelength, hooked up to a sturdy metal-plated wagon, had been wandering for several hours after taking a wrong turn in the woods when he encountered the open road to Fillydelphia... and the Blessed Traveller's Inn.  Even if he'd been wearing his cozy environment suit, Wavelength still would have dropped by for directions--but as he was not, his condition was both hopelessly lost and a bit uncomfortably cold as the night settled in.  Hopeful that the structure before him was indeed an inn, Wavelength parked his wagon alongside the building and stepped inside, almost--but not quite--forgetting to stomp the forest mud out of his hooves on the front pavement.

As he had hoped, a warm atmosphere with good yet non-obnoxious interior lighting greeted Wavelength when he entered.  And also as he had expected, the building was quite occupied indeed.  Wavelength had never really visited an inn before... or anything other than a vendor stand, for that matter.  His home was the Great Plains Atomic Research Center, and that was where he spent every night.  Wavelength stood to the side of the doorway and waited awkwardly for somepony to reject or accept him.

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather turned as the door opened, putting down the quill and smiling.

"Ah, a new guest.  Welcome to the Blessed Traveler's Inn, friend."

He motioned to the ledger and counter as he stood.  "Are you lost?  Let me buy you a drink after you sign in.  Perhaps I could help you.  My name is Feather Scroll; I'm a researcher and professor by trade, but a bard here.  If you've a story to tell, I'd be happy to compose a verse of it!"

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength was a bit surprised with just how welcome he turned out to be, but he managed to suppress this and return a smile to the bard.  "Thank you, Feather Scroll," he answered.  "My name is Wavelength, I am a research associate at the Great Plains Atomic Research Center.  We just call it GPARC(Jeepark).  You're pretty good at spotting a pony's problem... I must have taken a wrong turn back in the woods, because I certainly am lost.  ...What is this place?"

[The Wandering Magus]

The bard smiled as he sat back down, pulling up a chair for his new friend.  "This is the Blessed Traveler's Inn, a somewhat ancient establishment, once used as a secret meeting-place for a society of peacekeepers in the last days of Discord's first reign."

He smiled thoughtfully, then began to sing in a soft voice.

"Far over the Canterlot Mountains tall,
To Luna's keep, Celestia's hall.
Timberwolves howl in the dark;
The dragons come to leave their mark.
The clouds turn pink,
Our spirits sink,
Equestria fell to Discord's might,
But we returned, him for to smite!

But vict'ry was tempered with mourning.
Suffering ponies, our actions scorning
Showed us the pain that Discord had left,
And though we'd won, of joy we were bereft.
For traveller's aid,
A Blessing we made.
From fair Canterlot out to the world
We travelled Equestria with banners unfurled."

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength sat still for a moment to process the meaning of the song.  "Wow, I heard an occasional story about bards, but I didn't know they put history into songs quite like that.  I thought they could only do little parables!" he chuckled.  "So that's what this place is... it's certainly holding up well.  It's a really good structure."  He paused in thought.  "What was that about pink clouds?"  Before Feather could chuckle at the implication that Wavelength thought the concept was absurd, he continued.  "I remember the facility being bothered by pink clouds about a year ago... those things were dropping chocolate all over the solar panels.  I'll never forget that; I was on the cleanup team.  ...Did that have something to do with this guy's reign?"

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather leaned back in his chair, eyes staring into the small flames of the fireplace nearby as his mind relived the trauma of that day.  "...one might say that."

He looked up at the pony with a somewhat haunted expression, though curious.  "What do you remember of that day?  You seem not to have been touched almost at all, from your tone.  I thought all of Equestria noticed when the sun and moon suddenly ignored all the laws of physics and... ponies... well..."

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, breathing softly before looking up again.  "What do you remember?"

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength put a hoof to his chin and thought over the events a day before the cleanup crew was sent outside.  The day when the facility was kept dim to conserve power, and chocolate was caked over all the skylights.  "All I can recall is an initial storm of pink clouds, which rained down chocolate like there would be no tomorrow.  They died down after a short while, though, and didn't come back for almost a whole day.  We went outside and started trying to clean up the mess, and then... well, we didn't get far before more started coming in.  All personnel went inside to wait out the storm... we weren't sure just how heavy the rain would be, and everypony was sincerely worried that they'd get fossilized if they went outside.  So, we spent the next day in a dimly-it chocolate bunker, waiting for the storm to die down.  It caked over the skylights, cameras... anything and everything outside was covered."

"Occasionally somepony would kick the doors open to see if the storm was over or if we were now a completely underground facility.  Fortunately, they never quite reported the latter, but they were usually reporting that the clouds must have been so thick that they were blotting out the sun.  Eventually, when the lookout checked outside, the clouds were gone... so we waited several more hours before going outside one more time to try cleaning it all up again."  Wavelength took a moment to catch his breath.  "...What happened on your end?"

[The Wandering Magus]

Everyone in the Castle was a dirt maid, mindless, obedient, throwing dust on everything, ignoring the horrible things happening all around them, laughing as the world went to Tartarus.  Only a few ponies were left sane, and not out of any sort of mercy.  Blueblood was a mare of ice, fleeing from a copy of himself made of fire that wanted nothing more than to embrace her and hold her forever and ever as she melted into puddles of sobbing water.  Lord Fancy was fleeing from a mob of zombies, all former aristocrat political enemies, as three giant golden crowns laughed manically.  Photo Finish was ravenously tearing apart her priceless dresses and EATING them, prancing about in her birthday suit like a Ponyville hobo, ecstatically consuming every stitch of clothing she could find.  Celestia was a golden statue.  Luna was nowhere to be found.  Philomena had been turned to ash about a thousand times and then baked into a pot.  Every prisoner in the dungeons had been set loose on the streets.  The doorways in Canterlot Castle never lead to the same place twice; it was like the Castle was alive.

Feather was a mindless dirt maid, gleefully singing about some poor filly's demise when Big Banana Discord showed up.  He was bored.  She... was the entertainment.

Feather wrapped his forelegs around his belly as if he was cold.  "o-oh... um... stuff," he whispered softly, empty eyes staring at the floor.

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength stared at Feather's expression.  His mind tried to process what must be going through Feather's head to glaze his eyes over like that...

Wavelength shook his head after a moment of thought.  Whatever happened, it wasn't pretty in the slightest.  He started to feel lucky for being trapped underground for one day and scraping caked mud off of a concrete structure the next.  "Stuff... I'll bet.  I presume I shouldn't even ask?"

[The Wandering Magus]

The unicorn shook his head, forcing a smile and trying hard not to let the sob escape from his throat.  "n-no, i-it's all right.  I... the doctors told all of us that holding it in only made things worse.  But... c-can you promise, um, not to tell anypony?  i-i mean... if... if that's all right..."

He looked back down, rubbing his forelegs together, tail tucked between his hind legs and ears folded back nervously.

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength shuddered a little.  "I can keep a secret, but you're making me scared of the very concept of hearing it," he said.

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather smiled sadly.  "thanks... and, um, if... if you ever want me to stop... just say so."

So he told him.  About everything.  The pain.  The humiliation.  The trauma of being... helpless, at the mercy of another being, a Spirit of Chaos that didn't care, that saw you as nothing more than a plaything and a toy to use and throw away.  The feeling of another mind just defiling every bit of your soul with the snap of a claw, turning you grey, taking control of your body, your thoughts, your emotions, everything.  He told him, shakily, about the horror he felt, everypony felt, when the Elements of Harmony gave them back their minds and bodies.  The endless trips to the psychologists, the months of depression.  The struggles with Juniper, his wife, with even talking about the things that happened that day.

Every now and then he would stop, and meekly ask if Wavelength wanted him to stop talking, saying he didn't mind.  There wasn't much that would shock him anymore, though therapy had helped somewhat over the years.  Apparently his shyness and quiet voice was somewhat related to the event.  It wasn't too surprising.

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength managed to keep from telling Feather to stop until the story was done, but he had a feeling he'd regret it later.  He'd never heard something so disturbing in his life... it was like a huge radiation leak right next to a school mixed with a bit of electrified toxic waste blocking the exits, if he were to try thinking up a comparison.  "...How... how did he get into that position of power?" Wavelength asked after a long silence.  "And how did he overpower Celestia and Luna?"

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather thought about how to phrase what he'd learned from various myths and legends.  "w-well... um... nopony really knows for certain, but if the most ancient stories are to be believed... Discord... Discord is, well, was, what some might call... a god."

Slowly his nervousness went away, as he slipped into storytelling mode, growing a bit more comfortable now that he was in familiar, and not sensitive or painful, territory.

"Long, long ago, thousands of years ago, when the current era, the Fourth Age, was just beginning, there was a great cataclysm.  The Second Age was ended, all its magic and wonders destroyed in an instant by a spell that was meant to fulfill the wish of every pony in the world.  The Third Age was undone, unmade, wiped entirely from history, if it ever existed at all.  Each of the Three Tribes blamed the other for the cataclysm, for the failure of the very spell that was meant to ensure conflict never happened ever again, that every day would be perfect and happy forever.  Pegasi blamed unicorns and earth ponies for conspiring, earth ponies blamed pegasi and unicorns, unicorns blamed earth ponies and pegasi.  At some point, the Windigoes came, freezing over the entire world.  Then came the Three Heroes, who used the Fires of Friendship to destroy the icy spirits of hatred.  But it is said that these creatures were not merely spirits of the world, but manifestations of Nothingness Herself.  The Fires of Friendship, being a gift from Life Herself, burned Nothingness deeply, a grand insult to all Draconequui.  A war was waged in the heavens, and Celestia, Luna, and Discord were cast down into the Mortal World, either for Their own safety, as with the Sisters, or of their own volition, as of Discord.  The three took on mortal form for a time, but it was discovered that Discord had absorbed a great portion of His Father's power, and the power of His Brother, Destruction.  With the power of three gods, the Draconequus conquered the world, bringing great suffering for thousands of years while Celestia and Luna searched far and wide for the legendary shards of the Rainbow of Light, which had been destroyed and shattered at the end of the Second Age.  But Discord discovered Their plotting, and destroyed the Shard of Trust.  Thinking Himself safe, with the Rainbow incomplete, He grew complacent, and that was when Celestia and Luna forged the Shards into the Elements of Harmony: Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Kindness and Magic, all bound together by the invisible bond of Trust.  With this new power, They froze Discord in stone, for gods in mortal form are spirits, and if Their bodies are killed They can inhabit another, destroying the soul of the mortal that inhabited it originally.  Alas, the evils of Discord were too great, and Luna Herself fell to His plans, becoming the Nightmare of the Moon.  After Celestia banished Her Sister to the Moon, for a thousand years She worked to rebuild Equestria, leading ponykind as a Princess.  Yet none realized that Discord was still very much capable of shattering His bonds, if only a little Chaos were to occur before His prison.  With the strength of three gods, He was more than a match for even the Sun and the Moon, and with the Elements of Harmony... broken... there was little that could stop Him.  It was to the fortune of all that the Bearers were able to come together once more and defeat this evil.  Celestia alone knows what would have happened if they had failed..."

[Bravo 658]

"Indeed," Wavelength concurred.  "From what you told me he does merely for entertainment, I fear the planet itself would become scarred in time... what if he began toying with massive disasters?  Earthquakes?  ...The stars?"

[The Wandering Magus]

The bard shuddered.  "Celestia knows.  But enough about such things.  The point is, this tavern was built with the Traveler's Blessing in mind.  A sort of "secret society" of Watchers, Trackers, Traders, Lorekeepers, Guides, Bards and other Associates banding under a Trailmaster with the explicit intent of protecting Equestria's roads and travelers, especially in places that tend to be uninhabited or unsafe, such as the Everfree."

He touched a small medallion hanging from his neck, the symbol of a lantern-holding unicorn within an upright horseshoe.

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength marveled at the simple yet story-telling icon.  "Very fitting indeed... the shoe signifies traveling, and the hooded figure holding a lantern indicates one of these associates leading the way through the darkness?" he asked, attempting to come up with a definition through the icon.

[The Wandering Magus]

"Indeed, or a Watcher guarding the roads, or a Guide showing the way out of a maze, or a Tracker in search of a lost foal," replied the Bard.  "It is an often thankless task, spending long days watching an empty road, or fighting off bandits from an unsuspecting family.  But perhaps it is for the best.  If ponies, protected from all harm, become naive and complacent, then so be it.  Better to have happily complacent ponies who feel free to travel from place to place without fear, than to resort to the fortresses and distrustful caravans of ancient times."