A Shadey Nightmare Night(Social celebration)

Kestrel's stare finally snapped the fangirl inside Xeshir. She stopped prancing around and turned the Sonic Screwdriver off. Not even glare could take the smile on her face though. "Right! The Bone Collector!" She said nodding before looking back the griffon, most zebras, ponies or any other creature with the ability to think straight would feel uneasy having a massive griffin looking at you with eyes that promised a very painful future.

Xeshir wasn't like that, if that wasn't fairly obvious by now.

"Of course! History and Mythology is a very interesting subject...To me at least, the rest of the wasteland can't agree with me." She said with smile, still practically beaming at the griffon. "But here you are to prove me wrong! I love, LOVE the glowing eyes and mouth. How did you do that?" She asked with sincere interest.

Crackle's eyes widened at the sight of the massive black griffin entering the room. He took in the grim costume the other griffin was wearing, and came to the inevitable conclusion that dragons might not be the most frighening creatures around. Like most griffins, he knew the old traditional tales. however, intellectualy knowing that the Collector was a neutral spitit and guide and being confronted with a very intimidating real-life incarnation of it were totally different things. He wished he had thought of going as the Bone Collector, but there was no way he could have pulled it off to the same degree as the newcomer. The black griffin had clearly put a ridiculous ammount of time and effort to make such an incredible disguise. It took him a few minutes to get over his suprise, but once he came back to his senses, Crackle noticed the rather awkward conversation going on ahead of him. Preferring not to get involved, he dipped into his special stash and mixed up two of his personal favorite drinks. Keeping one for himself, he walked over to the table the Bone Collector had seated himself at, and presented the second glass.

"I just wanted to say what a great costume that is. Want a drink?"

Cross eyed the newcomer with suspicion and confusion, she seemed a bit strange and a bit off. Not too healthy....

"Umm well hello there Deus." He hid his expression, he was getting a bit annoyed at getting stared at. Whatever the mare was thinking, he didn't trust her. Trying to shake off the awkwardness he turned to his most despised friend he had ever known. Galatic Dash

"Ahh thanks there Dash, I'll be over there in just a moment, though I wouldn't mind a Sparkle Cola." He didn't feel comfortable leaving Winter alone with Deus, though he really wanted a nice cold cola at that moment...

Dash nodded to Cross, happy inside that he finally had the chance to get on better terms with the yellow unicorn. He was seriously getting a little annoyed that it seemed like nothing he did had been able to make him feel less awkward around him when he wanted to talk to his old friend. He looked back to the griffon serving drinks, "I guess Cross here will have a Sparkle Cola."

Deus considers further. He doesn't like you, beat the shit out of him! If he loses his mind, the waste won't care. Just be their friend. She suddenly looked back up, smiling. She gave the stallion a bow, then asked cheerfully, "So who'd be the stallion that stole the heart of the sun?" She asked, grinning.

"A spirit never gives away its secrets." Kestrel said. To most it would have come out as a teasing chuckle...but from Kestrels mouth it was more a calm statement of fact.

He was about to go back to focusing ahead when another walked over. Griffon, young, smaller than him, looked a bit jumpy for some reason. Kestrel said nothing to him just raised a single taloned hand and shook his head and then bowed his head in thanks. A polite turning down compared to what Kes could have done.

"Perhaps later."

Xeshir giggled a bit at Kestrels response. "I guess my Sonic Screwdriver isn't working properly then, Bone Collector." She said as she put the device in her mouth away. "Anyway, my name is Xeshir. May I ask who's the griffin behind the mask of the protector of the death?"

Cross crooked his head and gazed at Deus, a crooked smile growing at the corner of his mouth. Something wasn't right, she was playing games. If she was sick, he wouldn't risk laying down his hand just yet.

"Indeed, but her eyes sparkle of the moon" His eyes didn't break his gaze towards Deus as his horn lit up and he grasped a sparkle cola from the waiter, taking a sip as he continue to smile, even laughing a bit.

"So what brings you here?"

It took Dash a few minutes, but finally, what Kestrel's apparent Nightmare Night costume looked like finally caught up with him and fired the right neurons. Dash wrapped his hoof around his cup so tightly the glass almost cracked, something he couldn't typically be capable of to such a sturdy cup, 'Good Celestia...' Dash shuttered in his mind. He looked a discreet peek back at Kestrel, seeing and confirming every detail that seemed to have crawled forth out of the realm of nightmares and re-manifested itself as concepts that could be perceived by a mortal. As if the griffon hadn't been scary enough already.

"I merely wander where they tell me. Perhaps a harvest. It doesn't matter." She stares at him for a moment, then decides she will go see about that Bone Collector. If there was one thing Deus knew, it was mythology. She wondered if he really was what he appeared to be? She hung back, watching from a short distance the crowd around him. She'd wait until they left him alone.

Kestrel was a griffon of many names, and in all honesty he wasn't exactly comfortable with giving out all of his information to this newcomer. Still his name was a matter of public record, everyone around Stableton knew the griffon and his father. Knew of his job, of his deeds, of his efforts and victories in the original Battle of Stableton and beyond.

Most just knew him as the griffon you didn't want coming after you.

"My name is Kestrel." Was all the griffon said, eyes once more flicking out towards the other ponies in the group scanning them each in turn; making notes about dress, movement, and other such things. Things that were useful to a hunter, and useless to most.

Feeling eyes upon him Kestrel found the pony responsible and offered him a silent nod in greeting.

Winter blushed at the compliments but remained quiet as they spoke. When Deus walked away she leaned on Cross a little, rubbing her side against him, "Come on, let's go talk to some of the other ponies" she said with a smile.

"That sounds great." Maybe Mix didn't screw up after all. He might even have some friends after this. He followed Jasmine and Ash up to the stage and they started unpacking the instruments. Noticing the large array of instruments, Mix finds his favorite instrument the trumpet. As a young colt, Mixtape loved play the brass pre-war instrument. Remembering his childhood he picked up the lovely instrument and played a soft and brief jazz like tune.

He stopped and looked up at his new friends and they were surprised. He set down the instrument and smiled at them. "Sorry, I just love Jazz music.

Cuppa yawned quietly as she sat down, still clad in her obscure costume, light emanating from her horn as she wondered if any would approach.

Honestly, she didn't care much if anypony approached her in her suspicious costume, but if they did, she would play her creepy-trader part as much as possible. She recognised many a pony around her.

REDACTED

Dash shakily nodded back to Kestrel as he was nodded to. He had honestly never been scared as much of a Nightmare Night costume since he had been a colt. Perhaps it was also that he had finally found out that the griffon had a sense of humor behind all the stoicness. Whether or not that bode well was yet to be seen. Perhaps it was alright for him, but what Kestrel was capable of, even if only to enemies, scared Dash, "Y-yeah..." Dash said. He looked over to Deus and saw that Winter and Cross had started to move off, "Yeah, amybe we could hang out later?" Dash called out after them. He knew he still had Deputy services to fufill, but he still liked the return to normalcy he got when he talked to Winter.

Rad had been about to respond to Xeshir when she headed off to go see someone else. "Righty then..." He replaced his gasmask, once more becoming anonomous apart from his brightly coloured tail. He looked around at the steadily growing party, and headed over to the bar to get himself a drink. The liquid remained infront of him for a while as he tried to fathom how he was supposed to drink it with the mask on, that fact he had removed the mask not two minutes ago apparently gone from his mind. "Life for these guys must've been horrible... This is truely a dilema." He was speaking mostly to himself, still not used to hearing his own voice so distorted by the gasmask.

"Kestrel..." Xeshir thought of the name and looked back at the griffon and, compared to the other who had offered him a drink, finally noticed his size and strengh. "Bird of prey...Fitting." She said with a small smile. She bowed her head slightly as a sign of goodbye and walked towards one of the tables filled to the brim with food. On the way she noticed a strange mare in a dark cloak that seemed to cover almost her entire body. Curiosity got the best of her and she walked towards Cuppa. "Hello dear Missy, what are you?" she said with a curious look.

"Oh dear" Ash said as Jasmine unloaded a rather large instrument case on him along with a rather small case. He struggled after Jasmine and unloaded the instruments as gently as he could onto the stage. "Okay so you are some sort of musician Jasmine? what do you play?" his ears perked up at the jazz the brown chicken pony plays he turns to him "I never managed to get your name, and the thing about the trumpet is that it isn't an instrument that sounds very good alone."

Deus decides that she'll bide her time until the Bone Collector is alone again. We could just kill them all... She notices her minion sitting at the bar just... looking at his drink? She decides to join him at the bar. Is it a pretty drink? Now she was curious.

Crackle shrugged at the polite refusal, causing his costume to sway ominously, and set the glass down near Xesher. "I guess you can have this then. If you've been up to anything like what happened on that last escort mission, i'd guess you could use something to re-hydrate."

He walked back to the table and pushed the more commonly available drinks forward, inviting anypony to help themselves. He kept the good stuff to himself, though, Not only did he need them to mix everypony else drinks, but he intended to indulge quite heavily of them later.

Adressing the room at large, he called out "Who else wants a drink? help yourself to the bottles, or i can mix you up something special! Its all on the house!"

Cuppa gave a smile as Xeshir approached, rising to her hooves and giving a rough chuckle. "Greetings, Stranger." She said as she bowed her head before she spoke again. "What're ya buyin'? Or are ya sellin'?"

Rad had just been staring at the drink now, his thoughts weren't exactly in the right place lately, he had felt worried, down, lonely, many things, and what had begun with him trying to figure out a rather simple problem, had ended up him just staring at the drink while he was lost in thought. Though he was snapped back to reality with a shock when Deus spoke from beside him, he hadn't even noticed her turn up and the sudden voice startled him a bit. "Huh... Oh, yeah... I guess so." Rad pulled off his mask and had a drink, you would never have thought that just moments ago he was struggling to figure that out. "Want one?"

Deus stares at the drink in disgust. Just another cup of ewww. She hated alcohol. She looked back at her minion. "Problems?" She tried to ignore the smell of the stuff and kept a close eye on the Bone Collector even as she conversed with Rad.

Kestrels cold, unwavering gaze focused on the mare approaching his table. He gave her the same investigation he did to every pony. Watch the way they move, map out weak points, make a few contingency plans.

Next came the study of her outfit, Bit strange, but well made if nothing else. A bit like Kestrel's in a way, what with the whole 'dark and creepy' vibe to it.

The main question on the griffons mind?

What did this one want?

Even as she stopped and talked to another party goer her eye was on him. Kestrel's keen vision could see it plain as day. So apparently she wanted something...but what?