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Post by dragoonofdeath on Jul 14, 2011 21:21:43 GMT -5
Wilfire threw her cape into the corner and flew over to the machine, kicking it into high gear and creating a large and powerful storm. She let out a cheer as she leaped off of the catwalk, letting herself freefall in the rain until she reached the treetops of the mock forest at the bottom and lifted up, zooming through the storm to her hearts content. This was the first time she could actually, truly enjoy herself in a storm without other ponies yelling at her to help get rid of it. She was having the time of her life.
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Post by Selenia on Jul 24, 2011 23:39:07 GMT -5
It had been a long time since Selenia had heard any noise from her group, or any indication they were still there. "They must have headed on to the next destination.." She idly said, her nose buried in a dusty old leather bound book. She had many other books like it piled up next to her, waiting for their chance to be opened and the secrets within unlocked after years of hiding in the shelves.
It was a wonder to Selenia how she had found the particular area she wanted, as right as she parted from her group, she began scanning the aisles for any markings or labels, of which there were none. She then simply thought about finding the magic section, pulled a random book off the shelf, and soon realized she was right where she needed to be. No doubt it was magic, but you could also say incredible luck, as this was one shelf out of thousands within the labyrinth of a library.
The title of the ancient tome Selenia was busy reading was 'The History and Study of Dark Magic'.
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Post by fluttershy on Jul 27, 2011 21:54:56 GMT -5
Fluttershy could not speak.
She simply stood there in stunned silence, staring at the lush greenery, the exotic birds, the adorable mammals, the intriguing reptiles!
"Oh... my." She breathed softly, breaking out of her paralysis. Fluttershy walked past Gale and Ranger into the room. She hardly knew what happened next, so unaware was she of anything else that was going on. Crouching to the level of her new friends, she was immediately surrounded by a colorful array of creatures from the animal kingdom, many of them new and strange to her.
"So you're a koala..." She said with a small giggle to one, "how cute you are!"
"Ah, and you are called a toucan? How fascinating! Please... tell me everything about yourselves."
Yes, this was heaven.
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Post by zeeth on Aug 1, 2011 19:24:37 GMT -5
Lost looked over the map racks, noting that the shelves were organized alphabetically, but by a number of obscure place-names, including Atlantis and Horizon. She made a face. Whoever put this collection together either has a weird way of thinking or a bad sense of humor. Without the ability to cast spells, all she has is what little inner sense she's been able to develop, and it's telling her the shelves aren't quite what they seem.
Unfortunately, her ability to levitate anything had also been curtailed. She made a face, grabbed one of the many sliding ladders, and drew out several maps filed under place-names which should be located in or near the same area, provided one had done the appropriate historical research. Then she laid them flat on the display table.
They turned out to be drawn by the same cartographer in successive years, and arranged neatly around one another, with an open space in the center. And there on one of the dotted lines representing a road is the name she had been looking for: "Via de la Mare Alicornis", the legendary trade route around the Sea of Alicorns, along which the riches of past ages had often travelled before the Nightmare Conflict. There were said to be many hidden caves packed with ancient goods of many sorts all along that path, though Lost's professors had impressed strongly upon her that if one pony can find a place to hide something, another can uncover and take it afterward, to the disappointment of many historians and would-be treasure hunters.
"Well. At least Mr. Rainlock has been thorough. But these were supposed to be treasure maps. I wonder if there's some hidden information on them, like a watermark, or a magical image that needs to be unlocked?" Though these maps are treasures in themselves, and here I am handling them with my mouth and hooves because of that darned suppression spell!
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Ranger
Acolyte Pony
I'm a wood-pony and I'm okay...
Posts: 136
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Post by Ranger on Aug 3, 2011 4:23:05 GMT -5
Ranger trotted besides Fluttershy happily, watching her go to the animals. He however, was more interested in the plants. All of the common specimens were present in the part of the greenhouse closest to the door. Every single space had a sign explaining every detail about each animal and plant, their natural habitat, their food (or fertilizer) and even as much as going into how many years they usually lasted, or how it might be best to grow them. So informative!
This greenhouse was just a huge database about EVERYTHING Ranger loved! He made sure to read every sign very carefully. Fortunately he brought in a small notebook and pencil, hoping he could learn about growing Dragon Crown plants, he copied all of the things that interested him fervently. Dr. Rainlock, whoever he was, deserved to be worshipped for this!
The exotic types of plants and animals were far away, on the other, less lit side of the Greenhouse. Upon noticing this, the well dressed pony became even MORE curious.
Ranger tapped Fluttershy's shoulder gently, lifting up his mask to smile at her, now that they were alone. She's already seen his face, no sense in being coy anymore. Just as long as she didn't know who that face belonged to.
"Hey Fluttershy, let's go check out the more exotic animals and plants! I really want to see if there's anything about Dragon Crown Plants! And there's all the exotic animals there too!"
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 3, 2011 5:06:49 GMT -5
(Continue posting Normally, detailing what your characters do, one more round, and then the fun begins XD)
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Post by heartstring on Aug 4, 2011 8:46:13 GMT -5
“Exquisite, superb, simply breathtaking.” Since breaking off from the group to sample this fascinating room, Heartstring had been nearly unable to tear his eyes away from his reflections in the multifold mirror that made up the back wall. It wasn’t so much HIS reflection the earth pony was observing as it was his reflection with the mask. The accessory was odd, but not in an ominous way. The mask not only matched his outfit, but also his persona, it almost seemed to radiate his very essence. Everything about him was reflected back by this second face.
Heartstring removed his mask giving his reflection a wink and a smirk “As if a mask could replace this.”
Replacing the mask, the stallion turned to observe the rest of the room he had been left alone in. The Hall of Mirrors easily matched the width of the other rooms, though it wasn’t a high as the Weather Chamber or Entrance hall. The hall contained long racks of clothing extending toward the center of the room with plenty of space for five ponies to walk through side-by-side. Each rack was separated by a trifold mirror and ended in a case that housed the most delicate or expensive pieces of the collection. And what a collection it was! The description from the invitation simply did not do it justice. Of course, the first few racks were dedicated to saddles and suits fit for Equestrian nobility; there was formal Dashiki from the Zebra Nation, fine silk shirts from the Far East, as well as other styles of outfits from cultures Heartstring couldn’t immediately identify, but could guess that they belonged to the Bison tribes or the Griffin and Diamond Dog kingdoms. Unable to contain himself, Heartstring dashed to the nearest rack and dove in, emerging from the other side in completely new garments. He struck a pose in the nearby mirror “Oh yes, this will be marvelous.”
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Post by dragoonofdeath on Aug 4, 2011 13:29:58 GMT -5
Wildfire hovered lazily upside down amidst the small hurricane she had produced, the rain hitting her body like a massage therapist. She had always enjoyed getting a 'rain massage' when she could, because no matter how bad she was feeling it would almost always make her feel much better. She flipped over and flew down to the machine, pretending to be an expert as she turned a few knobs, replacing the hurricane with a light spring shower, with a light cool breeze flowing through the room. If she ever met the pony who made this room, she was gonna kiss em. She leaped into the air and began to hover once more through the rain. She put a hoof to her chin and glanced back at the machine, wondering..... "I wonder if this rainwater is safe to drink..."
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Post by Selenia on Aug 4, 2011 22:43:44 GMT -5
Selenia was in the middle of her fifth book on ancient magical studies and techniques. She had a relatively sizable pile of other similar books stacked up next to the desk she was reading on. She had no idea how she found the desk, but she figured it was by the same magic or mechanism that she had found the exact shelf she was looking for first try.
After finding her books, she just thought to herself that it would be nice to have a desk to read the books from, and she turned around to go searching and there was an antique wooden desk, complete with chair and lamp, sitting in the middle of the aisle. Be it luck or magic, she didn't know. But what she did know was that she was much farther into the library, as the door she had entered from was nowhere in sight, even though the shelf she began searching from was right across from the entryway. This library was quite a peculiar place.
But Selenia ha her mind too full of new magic to worry about the 'specialties' of the library. She had her nose buried in a book from a time well before Luna had been banished to the moon. It was on an ancient technique of taking normal substances and compressing them into crystals while infusing them with magic, making some very interesting effects. A few examples of various crystal materials and their effects were listed. Some of the most interesting were Etherium; which would create a limited forcefield around a user, Phosphorous; which would glow incredibly bright, enough to light up almost any cave or chasm, and Volucite; which would create a small stunning area-of-effect electrical charge. Not nearly enough voltage to cause permanent damage, but it would work very well as a distraction or useful tool for the Royal Guard. The reason as to why such magic had been abandoned and forgotten was beyond Selenia.
She flipped through the rest of the book, each turn of the ancient pages releasing a faint aroma of parchment and natural ink, combined with the slight crinkle that the parchment made at her touch, nearly lulled Selenia to sleep. She shook her head slightly to snap out of it, and noticed the section she was on was detailing something called 'stasis' no doubt another ancient and deserted technique well over 1,000 years old. She dove back into her reading, the lone desk lamp the only illumination in the entire cavernous labyrinth of a library.
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Post by treasuremare on Aug 7, 2011 6:06:24 GMT -5
Trace nickered as she put away a map she had be looking at. These were fascinating things but she quickly realized she wouldn't just be able to glance over them for hunting locations. They seemed straight forward enough, but that Star Cursed little voice in the back of her head kept bugging her about 'mapped locations not being secret'. With a sigh she sat back on her haunches and looked up at the shelves. She had to be missing something....
That's when she realized she wasn't alone, another pony had stayed in the room as well. The mare with the dog mask. The maps seemed to be giving her some issues as well. She pulled herself up and made her way over to the other party goer, her stupid shoes clicking against the floor with each step until she was next to the mare. Trace tried to peer over Lost's shoulder, "Ya find somethin' interestin'?"
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Post by fluttershy on Aug 7, 2011 19:06:31 GMT -5
Giggling, Fluttershy turned to see what had been buzzing by her ears- a pair of small hummingbirds, much more colorful than Hummingway, had been flying around her head. Of course, she had noticed a few informative signs around- but she preferred to talk with her friends to learn about them rather than read some other pony's analysis.
"Hello there!" She laughed, quite at ease and very unlike her usual self, she did a little dance of happiness as she saw dozens of birds taking wing above her. "How wonderful!"
Ranger came up behind her and tapped her shoulder gently. A little startled, and more than a little abashed at being caught prancing like a young filly, Fluttershy gave him a questioning look. As Ranger raised his mask and made a suggestion, she raised her own mask and broke into a broad smile of pure delight. She wasn't sure why, but it made Fluttershy happy that he had asked her to go with him, instead of going off by himself as he might normally have done.
"Oh, yes. I'd like that very much!" She said quickly. Then, just as fast, she ducked her head with a little blush and a cough of embarrassment.
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Post by zeeth on Aug 10, 2011 16:35:45 GMT -5
Lost looked at Trace.
"I haven't found much, but... what year would you say these maps were drawn in?"
"Note the terrain; that corner, there, would be part of modern Equestria. This city doesn't exist now, but the paper is relatively modern. So these have to be copies of maps at least eight hundred and fifty years old! And this road is the Via de la Mare Alicornis. Here, here, and here we have discovered caches marked.. the dots for those continue on, but there's a pattern in the markings that suggests there's another cache... here."
Lost was pointing in the unmapped space between the three sheets.
"Out in the Sea of Alicorns, but nowhere near any known or legendary islands, even sunken ones. My best guess is there's a treasure in the care of Sea Ponies, but I'm thinking anypony who wants to know more should look up the creatures and symbolism of that particular area. If Sea Ponies ever held a legendary treasure that is being pointed to by a whole raft of caches and constructions, then somepony wanted it found. The only questions are, when and who?"
She turned toward the door. "I'm going to the library to research the signatures on these maps, and maybe find out who made them and who copied them within the last hundred years. What about you?"
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Ranger
Acolyte Pony
I'm a wood-pony and I'm okay...
Posts: 136
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Post by Ranger on Aug 13, 2011 9:15:42 GMT -5
Ranger happily led Fluttershy through the green house, the other end of it still nowhere in sight. A sort of strange feeling began to creep over him as the open, fenced fields turned into barred cages on the animal side, and the bright, colorful plants turned darker and more Earthy. He could recognize some of them still, Terraroot, Poison Joke, right across from a Blue Joker. Wow, how'd Rainlock get one of those? He thought he'd have known if Rainlock visited Everfree. So strange! And then there were glowing plants of all varieties!
Oh how amazing it was - Embercaps and Blazepetals, White Vortexes! Oh what delightful and invigorating teas he could make from these! "One moment Fluttershy!" He said excitedly, turning to write down the notes on them, oh he could fill his notepad easily here! He copied everything he could about every plant he wasn't familiar with. Oh his gardener friends in Ponyville would be so impressed!
On Fluttershy's side, the animals have become... quite less than animals. She spotted quite the few monsters in the cages now, and it was obvious that no free animal dared approach this part. Spiked Slithers, were in the cage nearest to her, glaring at her through reptilian eyes. Something wasn't quite right...
A sudden movement from behind the cage, in the row behind it caught her eye, it passed in a flash and disappeared, leaving not so much as a color impression on the mare. She felt her shoulder tapped again as Ranger finished taking notes, and wanted to continue.
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 13, 2011 9:39:29 GMT -5
As the ponies all were spread out in the different rooms, Lost Star being the only one in the hallway, the mood suddenly seemed... lonely.
Anypony could notice the absence of others in such huge rooms, halls and locations. But the feeling itself suddenly intensified. The echoes of their hoofsteps, the sound of them breathing. No noise, nothing at all.
In the Library - As Selenia was browsing a shelf at the back of the library, the eerie silence within seemed only to intensify; The unicorn could now very loudly hear her own breath over the ear-numbing stillness. Every step she took went side by side with an unnervingly loud clop of hoof against floor, echoing in the acoustics of the massive labyrinth of bookshelves. The dim lighting on the top ceiling was just enough that she could read, but not much more.
The Dr. obviously did not spend his time reading in the library, as several of the lights were flickering, and some even not functioning. As Selenia contemplated what book to read next, a sudden crash was heard from another row, in the acoustics of the library, it might as well have been a train crashing through.
As Selenia rounded the shelves, she saw a single book laying on the floor, it must have fell from one of the shelves she was browsing, that is, if she had been through this row, which she hadn't. Examination would show that the shelf the book fell from was rather high up, and Selenia would have to tip toe to get to it.
In the Hall of Mirrors - The self admiring pink pony was busy admiring his recently tried on outfit. Taking in the majesty of the unique design, this was just up his alley, just what he did best - posing to display the attire.
What a delight it was, oh the fabric, the patterns, the fashion designers from Equestria had much to be ashamed of! His admiration in the mirror however, was promptly broken when in the reflection of a mirror he saw movement behind him.
Much was strange about this movement, as the model pony did not hear anyone enter the hall of mirrors behiind him. But what was truly bizarre and irregular was where he saw the movement. When looking at the infinite reflections of himself, he noticed that the movement came from in front of him, not behind him. It had to be the skewed perception caused by his infinite reflections right? Something couldn't have actually moved through the mirror.
In the hallways - As Lost wandered through the corridor on her way, she noticed how eccentric the Doctor's sense of design was, with busts, suits of armor and paintings that seemed very off.
What more that every single portrait along the corridor was drawn in the special technique that makes it seem as though its eyes follow you around the room, something unnerving in and of itself. But the portraits were stranger than that, they were unnamed, and the ponies characterized within were unsettling; some seemed insane, while others' expression showed rage, some fear, and some simply had very deformed faces. A wonder as to what the considerations were for the Doctor to hang these in his halls.
Funnily enough, Lost just couldn't find her way, crossing hallways, twisting t-junctions and strange curves, kept bringing her back to the same very long hallway, one she had yet to cross, as it was longer than she could see clearly. However finding her way back was impossible as well, for every turn she made kept bringing her back to this specific corridor. The noise from the ballroom has long since died from her ears, and now she had only her hoof-steps and the occasional creaking of the estate to accompany her.
Within the Map Room - The next map opened by Trace... was empty. How odd, it seemed old enough, it seemed to be good for writing on, and it even looked worn. So how was it empty? But then, the next one was too, and even the ones she had already looked at. Perhaps she had accidentally triggered some sort of anti-theft device? But the maps were all empty now. A good thing she was adjacent to the treasure room, she had best moved on to view what Rainlock had collected in his travels, and perhaps even visit his secret vault while she was at it. Having been given instructions on how to access it.
In the Weather Room - Wildfire was enjoying the breeze and rain, flying carefree within the room, when something caught her attention on the grassy ground of the massive hall. Something strange, an object of some sort. Someone must have dropped it earlier! Perhaps she should investigate.
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Post by Selenia on Aug 13, 2011 21:27:09 GMT -5
Selenia adjusted her fox mask and walked over to pick the fallen book up. She flipped it over and examined it with an eye to detail, no title or any markings. It was just a plain book, same as many that she had seen in the library. She picked it up and stood on her hind legs to slide it back into the open spot from which it had fallen. It fit in perfectly, no obstructions behind it, which means somepony or something had moved it and dropped it.
And just at that moment the fur on the back of her neck stood up and she got an overwhelming feeling of dread. She got down off of her hind hooves, lit up her horn quickly and looked down the aisle of shelves she was on. Nothing.
A cold bead of sweat rolled down Selenia's neck. 'This quiet and the enchanting of the library must be playing tricks on me.' She thought. She stood there, eyeing about, shining her light around to ensure she was still alone, and she regained enough composure to make a slow walk back to the comforting light of the desk, piled high with books she wanted to read.
Over the course of her walk, she kept her horn lit and continued to nervously look around. Selenia hated being alone, more than anything. She hadn't bothered earlier because she had books to accompany her, but now she really realized that she was alone in this maze of a library. Also, with each of her abnormally loud hoofsteps, she could have sworn there was another noise in there, and whenever she stopped, so did it.
Soon enough she reached the comfort of the familiar desk. She went to sit down, and when she did, she flopped herself down audibly then became dead silent. She was going to test her theory, and see if her mind was playing tricks on her. After a few minutes in relative silence, she slammed one of her forehooves down on the floor, creating a loud and startling bang. She expected to hear nothing and just let the sound echo away, but the sharp noise was followed by an unnerving scratching noise, akin to the sound a running dog makes when it tries to make a quick direction change on a hardwood floor. And as quick as it started, it stopped and echoed through the entire chasm, as if whatever had made it had realized it had been discovered.
Selenia was frozen to her seat, her pupils tiny, stifled breathing and heart rate greatly increased. Whatever she heard was almost certainly not friendly, not by a longshot.
Selenia wasn't alone in the library.
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