Moonlit Adventures

The two briefly try to resist Star Flash's adorableness, but quickly fail. "We're looking for something that fell from the sky with a weird glow! The pointy bits are for if we have to defend ourselves! Please, stop looking at us like that!" Shielded pleads.

After a moment of being paralyzed by Star Flash's inexplicable cuteness, Masque shakes herself out of it and says, "Y-yeah, we saw that light fall. I didn't think it had landed so close; it looked pretty far in that direction..." The mare gestures with a hoof in the general direction of where she had met Amber and the others, before facing the ponies again and briefly eying the spears.

Star Flash blinks and looks off in a random direction, tilting its head cutely to the side and sticking its tongue out slightly in concentration. You can practically see the gears turning as Flash tries to remember if its ever seen anything like that. Completely failing to recognize something it itself did just a few hours ago, it instead latches on to the next closest thing, and promptly shrieks psychically in fear.

"Black Star! Is be glow, but glow wrong! Like light go in, no out! Black Star is be somepo-err-one! Is be here to eat Star Flash and silly ponies and leafy things and fluffy floaty things!" It gasps out in fear before zipping underneath Masque's legs and huddling up, covering its eyes with its hooves and trembling. "Star Flash is no be here Black Star. Star Flash is be hiding, you no is be find Star Flash here. Is be going away now please!"

And one more:

Masque stands shocked for a moment, but reflexively hugs Star Flash when she hides beneath her.

As they continue to move back up to the elder, Kyo strikes up a conversation. "Oh Amber, I don't know what I should do now," confides the painting to the creature beside it...

"You could.... put things in orifice... er... take vital nourishment from other organisms.... um... how did it go again? Eight?" Amber states, more saying what she felt like doing right now than having any real significant response to Kyo.

"Well, I think.... I think.... I think that doing so now would be important for me?" Amber replies.

Amber gives a full body shrug and says, "I have no idea. This material bodyform is new to me. What's good?"

"Um.... I think... green stuff? And... oh! Red stuff!" Amber says helpfully.

Amber tries to shake her head and shrug at the same time while just results in a sort of flailing movement as she wobbles about in the air. "I don't know. Maybe? What do you eight?" she asks.

I don't eight, I think," confesses Kyo...

"Oh." Amber says, clearly dissapointed as is further indicated by her letting her tentacles just droop down to the sides.

"I mean, I can try to eight if you want to. We paintings are very good at doing things we don't have to do, like sleeping and eating. I'm sure I can eight just fine." A white wave of realisation washes over Kyo's face. "Wait, eight as in ate?"

Amber just cocks her head to the side, clearly not understanding the difference between "eight" and "ate".

"Let me show you." Ryo looks around and grabs a nearby leaf. He puts the leaf inside his head and leaves it there for a moment. The painting then pulls it out and shows Amber the leaf, now covered in dripping paint. "See? I ate it. Kinda." He then gathers whatever paint he can and let it reunite with his body. "Eating is good for conversations but not very good for decisions. Is this what eighting is?"

Amber looks even more confused at the question and makes a soft "whuh?" sound before taking the leaf from Kyo and.... inserting it into her head like he did. She moves her head around this way and that for a bit and makes some odd facial expressions (one is clearly some attempted exertion of muscles that don't exist) before pulling the leaf back out, in exactly the same state it was when it entered her head. She looks at Kyo and says, "I don't think you were doing it right?"

"I think I need to do it right if I want this body to continue to function. And soon!" Amber says, with a sense of urgency and excitement at feeling all these strange feels.

"Okay, okay," replies Kyo with similar urgency. "Well, the ponies and animals I raise eat with their mouths, so, erm, open wide?" He sticks the leaf into Amber's mouth, hoping that this works...

Amber rolls the leaf around on her tongue for a bit and makes a face at the taste and feel of it. Then she tries to chew it and sputteringly spits it out. "Bluhscuseme! Bitter!"