Salt Lick City, Ch 2

[TwentySided]

Doctor Gem Shard - Salt Lick City - Shard's House Outside Deck

Rubbing his eyes, Gem was beginning to feel the growing migraine of overcasting, it was beginning to feel as is someone was applying pressure to the back of his eyes. Maybe tomorrow he and Fire could continue their date night, date night take two. "My name is Gem, Doctor Gem Shard. I'm one of the heads of the magic department up at Luna University. And thank you. I have been doing this for quite awhile now."

[Lucy Took]

"Firesong, dean of Mares at the same University. And I teach some choir." the mare said, looking her husband over with concern. Maybe she shouldn't have talked him out of slowly enchanting the whole house so he wouldn't overtax himself if they ever did need to lock down. But before today she never saw reason that they'd need to lock down their peaceful home. "Gem, you're overworking yourself." she said before flying inside and rummaging around in the medicine cabinet before finding some migraine relievers. She made a stop for an ice pack before going back out of to the porch.

She handed her husband a couple of pills and a glass of water, kissing the top of his head. "Thank you for keeping us safe. You lock down the whole house?" She asked before looking back at their newcomer. "My husband is a master. You can trust that no enemies will be following you. I've contacted someone who should be over later tonight to help you adjust to life in this world."

[White Mocha]

"Longshot. I don't really have an official title, though DJ PON3 always called me 'The Last Watcher,' if that counts." He chuckles a bit, though it's not a happy sound. "It's nice to meet you, in any case."

He watches quietly as Firesong worries over her husband and comments to him while she's away. "You weren't kidding about the practice. I haven't seen somepony cast so many complex spells so quickly without burning out. You've sealed the entire basement, as far as I can tell."

He can't help but smile as Fire dotes over her husband, and nods at the assurance, though he couldn't imagine anyone capable of following him. The last bit makes him perk up. "You did? I didn't hear you contact anyone... Do you have some sort of connected terminal?"

[Liberty_Walk]

A loud car rounds the corner, sounding quite unwell. The black hatchback is blowing white smoke, and looking very out of place in this somewhat upscale neighborhood. It swerves into the driveway across the street from Shard's house with a loud clacking sound. as the car shuts off, the muffler clangs to the ground.
A light blue Pegasus in a black T-shirt and jeans gets out of the right side of the car, and sheepishly goes to the back to collect his discarded part. waving at the trio on the porch, he hollers a greeting

"Hey, Doctor Shard! sorry about the noise... and the smell... New project!" he gestures to the beaten car with a massive grin, then pulls the muffler with him into the house. The garage door opens in a few moments, and he emerges, going over to the car again. Opening the door, he hesitates. shaking his head, the gearhead decides not to start the car, and with a muttered "eh, 's light enough," he pushes the car into the garage.

[TwentySided]

Doctor Gem Shard - Salt Lick City - Shard's House Outside Deck

"Thank you," Shard smiled, as Fire gave him the ice pack and pain killers. Popping them into his mouth, the unicorn followed with the water, washing them down, before placing the ice pack on his forehead. "I wouldn't say master. I have just been doing it for longer is all." the enchanter replied, in the distance he could hear the noise of a car building as it came towards their street, louder than usual. "Well, I sealed as much as I could. The mirror itself I don't think I can do much of anything too. If it has the power to cause hops to other dimensions, I doubt a normal shielding spell will do anything, or if it did who knows what happens to those that hit it. I don't want to inadvertently cause deaths."

The noise of the car continued to grow louder, raising the ice pack, Doc watched as a car he didn't recognize drove up their street. It was beat up and in all intense and purposes should not have been running at all by the looks of it. Turning into a drive way, it all made sense.

Hey, Doctor Shard! sorry about the noise... and the smell... New project!

"No problem Liberty." Gem called across the street, his head beginning to throb once more. It must've been one of the pegasus's new projects. This certainly was becoming a evening of events for everyone. "We have extra pizza if you want any." the unicorn called out to the student and neighbor.

[Liberty_Walk]

Liberty shrugged, and happily started towards the street, like any true college student on a budget. He paused, though, as a thought quite obviously crossed his mind. Looking around the garage, he grabbed a rag off the toolbox, wiping his hands clean of car grime. The pegasus tossed the rag atop the car, and crossed the street, drawn by the call of free food, and his friendly neighbors.

"Hey, how's it going, guys?" he grinned amicably.

[White Mocha]

Longshot watched the arrival of a machine nearly as loud as the factories of Fillydelphia in confused silence, deciding not to comment on it at all for fear of being overwhelmed. When the pegasus waved though, Longshot attempted to imitate it, only to find his fingers in a jumble.

"I have fired three different firearms at three different targets in the heat of combat and had all three bullets hit their marks, yet I have no idea how you keep track of all these things," he comments to no pony in particular while Liberty is still across the street removing the grease from his hands.

[Lucy Took]

Firesong waved and went in to heat up the rest of the leftovers after Doc invited their neighbor over. "Oh, the usual, date night interrupted by magical mishaps." she replied to Liberty as she set out the microwaved goods. "This is Longshot, he's from another world. Another boring day at the Shard household." She said with a little bit of a laugh. "Prism isn't home to complicate things." She returned to a bit more of a serious tone. "We don't keep up with everything, at least not in our minds" Firesong said pulling out her large smartphone. "This little piece of magictech is like an extension of my memory. It's also a communication device that can connect to anyone else that has one in all the world, either through text, voice or video. The text part is how I contacted my friend Kerrigan, she's a dragon that studies ponies that have been through difficulties and how to help them. It is a touch fragile though." She let Longshot take a look at the device. "Also, I'm a mother, it's amazing how that rewires your mind. My daughter is currently living on campus at the school we teach at."

[Liberty_Walk]

"A... another world?" Liberty chuckles, "Good one." He blinks at Fire's smartphone, as she pulls it out, "Wow, nice phone... I still got an old flip phone. Anyhow," he holds his hand out to the new pony, "I'm Liberty Walk. I live across the way there... as I'm sure you probably could tell. What with me parking my car there... and... knowing the Shards, here... and... Er... Yeah... I'm bad at introductions."

[White Mocha]

Longshot takes the device in his magic, not trusting these new strange appendages to hold a delicate device.

"She's not kidding," He says to the new comer as he examines it closely, intrigued and curious. "It looks rather like my PipBuck in that it covers many functions, though it's much more advanced. Especially in the communications department. Easier to lose or break though." He gives it back before displaying the solid hunk of metal on his wrist. It's apperantly controled by various knobs and the green screen is displaying some sort of simplified medical loadout, though the cartoonish "Longshot" displayed appears to be a quadruped. The thirst and hunger display are currently moving slowly away from dangerous levels, the sleep depravation tracker is giving off warnings however, and the magical reserves bar shows almost empty. Nothing else of note.

[TwentySided]

Doctor Gem Shard - Salt Lick City - Shard's House Outside Deck

"I have to vouch for Mr.Shot. The school gave me a relic to study and he fell out of it just a little while ago." Shard explained before looking at the piece of metal bound to Longshot's arm, the professor was rather intrigued to see the piece of other worldly technology. It appeared to be a bundle of different types of technologies all compiled into one clunky piece of machinery. "Is this the type of technology you have in your world? It seems, I mean no offense, but it appears rather bulky for little reason. Then again our own technology like our phones is only about twenty years old or so, well the portable phones that is. Oh right, Longshot, this is our neighbor Liberty Walk. He enjoys late night walks on the beach, cars, and free food." the doctor introduced jokingly, before lowering the ice pack back over his eyes.

[Lucy Took]

Firesong slipped her phone back into her pocket, hoping it would vibrate soon from Kerrigan. "Yeah, the loosing and breaking thing is an issue. That's why I have it in a case and I'll normally have Doc or Prism call it to find it's location when I loose it." The mare took a look at the energy tracker on the arm band. "Clunky, but the health feature is pretty neat. I know you can get a bracelet to send that information to your phone, but I suppose it would be nice to have if you needed to track your heath to have it on your wrist." she took a look at the actual levels. "And you really are totally exhausted. As soon as you're done eating you're free to use our shower and guest bedroom."

[Liberty_Walk]

"You're not joking? For real, another world?" Liberty stares at Longshot incredulously, "wow, that's incredible!" He shakes his head in disbelief.

[White Mocha]

Longshot nodded at the younger pegasus by way of greeting. "I don't recommend visiting."

"Don't worry about the sleep bar. It's been telling I'm sleep deprived since I put it on. And yes, it's big and clunky but for good reason. My friend Bittercup had the same model, but hers survived a point-blank balefire bomb explosion. Didn't even need repairs, we just had to slap it on her and ignore the scorch marks."

[TwentySided]

Doctor Gem Shard - Salt Lick City - Shard's House Outside Deck

"In a world as you described, I am not surprised that they would develop technology such as that. It would need to survive the hardships that it would inevitably endure. Even still after all that it can do, it can't call other forms of those gauntlets? That seems a bit short sighted."Doc spoke his mind racing about the possibilities of what type of technologies could be found beyond that mirror in the basement. Moreover what other technologies could be found beyond that. Sure Longshot came from a world of war and destruction, but that didn't mean that was the only world out there. How did their technology progress, did they even have technology? Magic? What else could be different in these various worlds. "Longshot, might I suggest you follow what my darling wife says. She does get her way one way or another." Gem grinned, giving a playful wink to Fire.

[White Mocha]

Longshot waved a hand dismissively. "I probably should sleep soon, I doubt you have hell hounds or alicorns to keep me up. And I do appreciate the offer, but I think I'll pick a place that doesn't have a newborn foal sleeping in it.

[Liberty_Walk]

"Newborn foal?" with a raised eyebrow, Liberty turns to Firesong, "You babysitting?"

He shrugs, then looks back to Longshot, "I guess you could probably crash on my couch for now, my Uncle's cool with couch surfing. Just keep it down at night, you know, no hookers and blow, the usual types of etiquette." Liberty grins at his own joke.

[TwentySided]

Doctor Gem Shard - Salt Lick City - Shard's House Outside Deck

"Newborn?" Gem replied raising the ice pack once again, "We don't have another child. The only one we ever had was Prism, but she did just move out so I bet she left a few things here." the doctor looked back to the unicorn. "Though if you do want to go over to Liberty's I do have to ask that you stay here just long enough that Kerrigan gets here. From what Fire was saying she must be on her way, and she will very much want to know about this rather large advancement in my research as well."

[White Mocha]

"I- wait, wait." Longshot looks utterly baffeled. "What do you mean your filly just moved out? She'd be way too young. Unless you're telling me you fed her milk right up until maturity."

He laughs a bit at first, but realizes he knows so little about this world, he stops quite abruptly. "Wait, you don't actually do that here... right?"

[Lucy Took]

"Of course not" Firesong said confusedly. "At least not pony milk, we occasionally drink cows milk because it's good with cookies or on cereal. And though it does supply some nutrients, ponies of all ages here primarily drink it due to taste preferences. Did you see some in the refrigerator when I pulled the pizza out? I know I keep half a gallon on hand for cereal and cooking."

The Dean of mares glared at Liberty "I would hope that no hookers is a personal policy on your part. I'd like to remind you that it is a practice that the school disallows on campus and highly frowns upon the use of the profession by out students and staff outside of campus due to the murky levels of consent and questionable sanitation." she said, half seriously, half in keeping with the joke. "And as for blow...I'd like to have a private talk with you sometime about exactly what that is. I have a vague idea, but I feel that I should have as concrete and idea of what in the world that is as possible without having first hand experience. And lastly, as for sleeping arrangements, I'd like to avoid solidifying those before Kerrigan gets here. She might even want you to go home with her."

She felt a buzz in her pocket and pulled it out and pressed a few buttons. "Speaking of the Dean of Psychology, she's on her way."