Visual

[hattrickery]

When the scroll goes live, it shows Hayate, down near the fountain in the center of town. Today, instead of her fancy blue hat, she's wearing a boater with a yellow feather in the brim.

Her expression is...unusually serious.

"So. I'm Hayate. Most of you know me - I'm the Guardian Angel of Ponyville. In light of recent events - " she doesn't really need to say more than that, does she? " - I am officially putting this out there: I have the capability to instantly teach anyone the magic and fighting skills of my home world."

A pause. Those who know Hayate have probably noticed her tendency to shift her wings about restlessly whenever she isn't talking, but right now they are as still as stones at her side.

"These skills range from increased facility with weapons, to healing spells, to destructive magic. I am making them freely available to anyone that feels they need a method to defend themselves or others."

Comments

[hattrickery]

"Once you've mapped out the spell matrix, you just channel your personal reserve of magic into it and you get the result you want. The spells themselves are pretty static, for the most part; it's your own abilities that determine how much they vary between castings."

[wizardofharmony]

So basically the way she does things.

"Do you have a grimoire from your world that I can use? Or I suppose I could temporarily accept your gift and take copious notes..."

[hattrickery]

"The gift isn't temporary; I suppose Discord could take it from you, but that's beyond my power. What I can do is work with you to reverse engineer the spells, if you want?"

[wizardofharmony]

"I would very much appreciate that," Lucia says. "And there may well be a reason that Discord did so before."

[hattrickery]

For a brief second, Hayate's expression flickers - too fast to make out her expression, but just slow enough that someone with sharp eyes could catch it.

"...mm. Yes."

[wizardofharmony]

Hello, have you met Lucia? She bears the element of Magic, which is also Friendship and Correspondences. She catches that.

"A reason that, likely as not, has nothing to do with you," Twilight amends. "Consider Calice's ties to the dungeon. Now consider where most people gained their powers."

[hattrickery]

At that, Hayate's expression turns surprised, and it almost seems like she's about to say something before she clamps down on the impulse and her expression turns neutral.

"...I thought it might be something like that, yes."

[wizardofharmony]

"Hayate, I would much rather you risk insulting me than dance around this. Please, I pray, tell me how I've offended with what I've said. Tell me what you suspect."

[hattrickery]

Hayate pauses for a long, long moment before replying.

"...not over the scrolls. Face-to-face."

> Action

[wizardofharmony]

"As you like it," she says. "Tell me your location and I will teleport a hundred paces from it."

[hattrickery]

"...give me three minutes and I'll be in the library."

[wizardofharmony]

When Hayate arrives, Twilight is already there, adding her two bits to the Speculations scrolls.

Away goes the quill. She nods her head to you in half a bow. "Hail and well met," Lucia says. "Let us speak in Honesty."

[hattrickery]

Hayate dips forward in greeting, spreading out her wings as she bows. As she rises up, her expression turns serious, with just a hint of...anger?

"You did not offend me - I was mostly surprised you hadn't figured it out yourself."

Pause.

"I'm fairly sure the reason Discord did that is because that thing is murdering the stars."

...um. Hasn't Hayate publicly stated several times before that...her entire race turned into stars?

[wizardofharmony]

Lucia's jaw drops.

"You are CERTAIN of this," she says.

[hattrickery]

Hayate's gaze is intense.

"They may still be alive. But it's plainly obvious that they are not there."

Hayate's pinions move, very slightly, as if she's forcibly preventing her wings from moving from where they're pulled in against her sides.

"...Caloenas and Raphinae vanished last week; I'm still a little on edge."

[wizardofharmony]

"You claim the stars as kin," she says - it's clear that this is a revelation to her from the shock radiating across her face. "That is how you know."

"...and Discord knows," she says, looking down at the floor - no. Her eyes are closed. She's rambling, stream of consciousness, stream of deductions. "He must. He thinks they disappearance of the stars is linked to the dungeon -"

She shakes her head. "Hayate. Thank you. I think I need to go ask Discord some questions."

[hattrickery]

"When our duty as Celestrians was fulfilled - when I fulfilled it - they cast off their fleshly bodies and became the stars that shine in the night sky. I alone remain; perhaps in time I might regain enough of my original power to join them."

There's a far-off look in Hayate's eyes as she gazes beyond the walls of the library, looking at something beyond the end of the horizon.