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Post by Red Charge on Oct 5, 2011 13:26:48 GMT -5
"We're all set here, Watermark." White Fire said, positioning herself along with the other Red Mages dedicated to the ritual. The formula drawn on the ground was complete, perfectly according to the translated slab.
Now to perform the magic, it would not be instant, the spell would have to be channeled by more than one unicorn in order for this to work, and for an extended period of time. Several hours, without being disturbed. It was a shame that Red Charge did not allow the Red Barons themselves to come, as to not expose Percheron yet. He did however allow the new recruit, Wildfire, to be on the security force.
Watermark's own students, Willowisp, Cloud Dreamer, and Muse were also present at the scene, preparing themselves for the oncoming battle. In a moat dug around the ritual ground, the Hippocampus Fishstick was swimming, prepared to defend the area from any assailants trying to swim or cross over it. (There was no bridge) As well as numerous Earth Pony guards, circling the moat from the outside.
The ritual had to be completed, this much Watermark knew, a shame he could not be in the fighting. It was time to begin. Watermark raised an icy wall around the circle, and began the channeling.
From all over Equestria a beacon of light, stretching out into the heavens could be seen, the cause of it was unknown, but it was obvious that it had to be investigated. Whitetail woods was the source.
Now the only question is, when will the ponies begin to arrive? (It takes two turns for ponies to arrive from any town in Equestria. Ponies that are in White-Tail woods must confirm with me why they are there. The ritual will be finished in ten turns, meaning ten full rounds, for every black mage that is disturbed - 6 in total, two turns will be added to the time left.)
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Post by tunnelnexus on Oct 5, 2011 20:38:38 GMT -5
The slate gray mare hiked steadily through the Whitetail Woods, the late morning sun warming the brisk, late-in-winter air. It had been too long that she'd put it off, but finally Tunnel Nexus had scrounged up the money and time to go on a solo exploration of the cave. THE CAVE. The one that she'd fallen down as a filly, where she'd gotten her Cutie Mark.
At that thought, she turned and looked back fondly at her symbol; a double-figure-eight-loop tied around a carabiner. It was such a nice knot... so fitting, in a way.
Lost in her thoughts, the mare almost didn't notice the giant beam of light that shot up out of the Woods nearby.
"What the hay...?" wondered the caver out loud. Intrigued, she began trotting towards the source of the beam. A guilty feeling crept over her; she was so close to finally exploring that cave fully, finally having some closure, and something just HAD to come up.
Sighing, she put the thought aside; this gigantic light, whatever it was, was almost certainly more exciting (and perhaps important) than her cave. Besides, she could always come back later for the cave...
Her mind made up, Tunnel Nexus accelerated to a quick canter, her spelunking gear clanking and bouncing in her pack. All told, she had plenty of equipment:
two lengths of 40 meter rope enough food to last for three days two bottles of water a small iron crowbar mapping tools carabiners, clips, and pitons for driving into cave walls spiked shoes (designed for traction, like soccer shoes)
As Nexus approached the source, she saw a giant circular wall of ice appear over the tops of the trees. Shaking off her growing doubts as "for the weaker-minded" she continued on, although slowing her pace. Eventually, she stopped in front of the ice wall, a few meters away on the other side of a moat, unsure what to make of the whole situation.
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Post by clouddreamer on Oct 5, 2011 21:06:30 GMT -5
Cloudy was rather nervous. She felt slightly unready for the events that might unfold. She had only just joined the cult recently, barely having a lesson from her teacher. She had spent since she found out when the ritual was preparing herself. She tried to make all sorts of illusions to expand her magic ability and had attempted to pick up most in sight with her levitation. She had to be ready. Then should could show her true worth!
She was just practicing her final illusions before she'd have to join in the other mages. She had just made a forest, and after a few minutes dropped the background so only the grass, plants, and animals remained. She then went even further, extending the fake grass and flowers over the real grass. She allowed the animals to walk all around inside the ritual area. She began to fill the area with many soft sounds and faint smells. She had to zone herself, block out outside distractions and make many illusions. She made more and more illusions, now adding to the forest animals with a few big dragons and wild dogs. She continued to add and add illusions until the little illusion area was full, then stopping to zone all her concentration and magic for a few minutes. After that, she dropped them all completely, the area clearing all together.
Cloudy turned to Willow Wisp and Muse. "I'm ready. You guys prepared?" It seemed Watermark was ready too. "Ok, time for illusions." She walked up to the ice wall and began a cynlinder shield. It went from the ground inside the ice shield into the clouds and it was sky blue, blocking out all light through it. This stopped some of the light quickly, but not all of it. Cloudy could not imagine the shield to go high enough to block out all the light. Hopefully the ponies would believe the light to be sunlight and would think the cynlinder sky, she made clouds go in front and around it to make it seem real.
What she did not know is that she started the shield slightly too late. Watermark had started the spell a good few minutes before the shield was put up, the light was defidently noticed all across Equestria. It was only time until they found the source.
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Post by dragoonofdeath on Oct 5, 2011 22:03:13 GMT -5
Wildfire Stood on a small cloud over the ritual site, drenched in nervous sweat. She had barely begun training with Percheron when she was assigned to the security team for the cults big ritual, one that she was barely given time to prepare for. She looked around at the ponies bustling around below, not recognizing a single one of them, and not really caring. She had got herself into this, and she had a debt to Redcharge for saving her life. She would pay it back, one way or another. In this, she was determined. She watched as the giant wall was formed, and took off into the air, her armor glistening in the light in the few places it wasn't heavily rusted. "Hopefully, nopony will react till we're long gone. I just hope they know what they're doing." She shook her head and grimaced, looking off into the distance at Ponyville, the town beginning to stir in the early morning hours. "Atleast, nopony I know..."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2011 23:02:28 GMT -5
Angel Grace adjusted her position once again. She had only been sitting in a tree for a few minutes, and she already hated it. The branches poked her and tore at her pelt. Not to mention she wasn't a great flier to begin with, and taking off and landing in this tree was going to be a pain in the flank. Still, it had only been by promising to stay out of the fighting at large that Angel had managed to get a chance to come along. It suited her, of course, she wasn't a fighter at all; but there was no way she was going to let Cloudy come without her.
Her official assignment was to make sure that the lines of communication were kept running smoothly, but she was determined to be as much use as possible to Red Charge, so she kept her eyes scanning the horizon, searching for anypony who would disrupt the ritual. So far, there were no signs of life outside of the cultists...she shivered a bit at that. She still wasn't used to belonging like this, it sent a excited feeling shooting through her.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a beam of light shooting up into the air. "What?" she mumbled, turning to face the ritual site. She thought that Cloudy was going to be casting an illusion spell to mask their presence. It seemed like minutes, nearly hours, before the second spell formed inside the ice wall, muting the lower part of the pillar and masking the higher portion. She nodded to herself, it had begun. She flagged down one of the pegasus that had come with her. "Tell the defenders...that the ritual has begun...if they don't know already." she said, nodding at the spot where the mages had begun working. The pegasus nodded at her and flapped off to the front.
Angel settled into the tree, silently cheering Cloudy on. She had a feeling this was going to be a long vigil, but she could handle that. As long as she was up here, she wasn't going to let any harm come to her friends.
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Post by fishstick on Oct 6, 2011 0:39:45 GMT -5
"This is going to be awesome!"
Fishstick was ecstatic with this turn of events. Not only was she able to get out of the bog for a while and even got to swim in some clear water! Redcharge even told her that she might be able to meet some new ponies as well! Although if some did show up, she was not to let them cross her moat to the center. She found that a bit strange, but as long as she still got to play with some new ponies she was okay with it.
"I hope they get here soon!" the Octocampi squeaked happily while doing a back-flip under the water and continued to swim around the large circle. Every now and then she would poke her head up from the water and look around, and only after the first few minutes the first new face showed up, a gray mare with a large pack. Fishstick swam closer and poked her head up in front Tunnel Nexus, "Hi!"
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Post by windstorm on Oct 6, 2011 9:12:07 GMT -5
Wind Storm stood with the other defenders. He wished he was with the other unicorns, yet he had just joined the group and had yet to show his powers until now. Now instead of being eased into the group, he was thrust into what seemed like an impending battle. This was also the first time he had ever been fighting with a group. All of this placed him a bit on edge to say the least.
Suddenly a big light shot into the sky. "I guess the ritual has started," Wind said to himself, "Is there any way to fix that light? Otherwise that thing will be like a beacon drawing ponies here."
He grumbled at the fact that the battle might be tougher than he thought. It was time to warm up. He concentrated as his horn lit up, the dead leaves around him suddenly swirling about as he began to summon the wind...
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Post by rubynights on Oct 6, 2011 11:25:36 GMT -5
“Hehe… Idiot…” Ruby snickered from underneath her breath. At the sight of the large beacon lighting up the dark early morning sky, Ranger had but no choice to gallop back toward Ponyville for help, freeing Ruby in the process. The chains that had been attached to the two would have otherwise slowed the woodspony’s progress, creating quite the convenient scenario for Ruby. She now had the ability to wander off as she pleased… if only that beacon from the ice dome hadn’t been so enticing.
“And he was even kind enough to leave behind my gear and dagger… What a sweetie~!” Ruby giggled as she eyed the dagger and chains lying beneath her hooves. Throughout her mind raced images and fantasies of a variety of coveted treasures. There just had to be something underneath that strange dome of ice. Infiltrating it was a task she simply could not ignore… but it would have been foolish to believe the mare had any interest in serving Equestria. No… She was in it for the adventure.
But like all great treasures, there had to be something guarding it. The mare knew this very well from experience. As Ruby neared the dome, she caught the sight of the numerous earth ponies circling the moat surrounding it. She quickly realized she could not simply rush in. But then again, when did she ever? “Ugh… I’ve never been so eager to say thank Luna in Canterlot...” Ruby muttered to herself again. Though it was morning, it had still been very dark outside. Ruby was great at stealth, but she was also significantly better in the darkness. It seemed she would have until sunrise to successfully complete this infiltration.
A good treasure hunter knew how to use her resources and Ruby Nights was no exception. She returned to the spot at which Ranger removed her chains. Gripping the chains with her mouth, she trotted off a safe distance away from the moat as a precaution. With a number of powerful slashes, Ruby removed the more unnecessary parts of the chain, mostly including quite a few of its shackles. By the time she was finished, Ruby had been left with one single straight and long chain. Ruby had been very well capable of thinking on her hooves and now was the time to bring her plan into motion.
Ruby deftly connected the hilt of her dagger to the end of her chain. With her hoof planted firmly upon the chain's opposite end, she swung the combined tools with her mouth, releasing them to strike high at the bark of a large forest tree. Her dagger’s sharp edge struck deep and securely into the bark, proving more than capable of being used for a climb. She now gripped the other end of the chain with her mouth, galloping towards an opposite tree to release a powerful buck.
THWUCK!!!
The vicinity seemed to awake immediately as a countless number of birds rushed from out of the trees at once. Ruby reacted with haste. Using the dagger and chain she had cleverly secured into the bark, she began to climb the tree of which her combined tools had been attached. Her athletic ability proved more than capable in reaching the heightened target quickly and skillfully. In only a matter of seconds, Ruby had managed to climb several feet above the ground.
Ruby had just created the perfect diversion. Hopefully, the loud buck would prove successful in distracting the earth ponies’ attention, scattering their numbers within the depths of the forest only to search after a false target. Hidden among the darkness of the high-up leaves and branches of the forest, there was no way the earth ponies would ever find her up there. She removed the dagger and chain from the tree bark, preparing for the next phase of her plan.
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Post by thepatriot on Oct 9, 2011 17:30:07 GMT -5
"Well, that there just isn't natural..." Quillson had noticed the beaming light arching up into the sky from the woods almost as soon as it appeared. He'd spent the previous night in Hoofington, hoping to catch a story about the events that had transpired there recently. Dishearteningly though, he had been unable to gather any information from the ponies within the town itself.
He hadn't intended on leaving so soon, but this new event drew his attention more than anything before. The White Tail woods were known for their relative beauty and safety, so this unknown beam of light was of complete surprise. Hungry for a story, hungry for the knowledge of what was transpiring in the woods Quillson set out.
He packed up his things from the inn; his saddlebags carrying his Typewriter and various other writing based materials. With the little bit of food and money he had brought with him from his home in Manehattan, Quill bolted out from Hoofington.
He knew it would be a while until he reached the forest, so he set a strong pace. Time was of the essence, or at least he thought. Quill wasn't sure just what it was about the light, but a sinister vibe arched down his spine. Surely though, if it was of such vile nature there would be those around to stop it. Surely...
And so the pony rushed out across the roads of Equestria, hoping to reach the White Tail forest, to suffice his yearning and peaked interest.
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Post by kuruka on Oct 9, 2011 20:22:54 GMT -5
Kuruka stood outside her home, trying hard to ignore the chill breeze as she studied the maps pinned by rocks in front of her and identify the still-unfamiliar surroundings of Hoofington. Her studies were interrupted by a set of galloping hooves as one of the travelers she'd met recently darted out of town as if his tail was on fire. Kuruka sighed and glanced about the town to identify what had triggered the excitement. She rolled up her maps and placed them inside to keep them from blowing away before heading back outside to more fully inspect the situation. Performing a full, 360 degree scan, Kuruka paused when she spotted a beam of light shining from... which forest was it again? Whitetail something.
Kuruka glanced at the now distant form of Quillson cantering towards the light as if his life depended on it. The cold wind seemed to pierce her heart as she stared. Idiot pony. Didn't he know better than to inspect foreign elements unarmed?
With a snort of decision, Kuruka darted back into her home to pick up the spear and shield her mother had given her before leaving the village. The shield had been repainted to look exactly like Kuruka's cutie mark, reminding her of her special talent: Protection. She was a guardian. Taking a deep breath and bundling up as much as she could without hindering her movement, Kuruka swung her shield over her back and slipped her spear through the loop in her jacket. She glanced down at the bracelets on her fetlocks and whispered a plea for her soul's safety, her traditional ritual before any kind of battle.
With a quick body stretch, Kuruka galloped after Quillson, keeping a steady pace that would preserve her energy and make good time simultaneously.
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Post by searingfrost on Oct 10, 2011 10:25:03 GMT -5
Searing had just left Hoofington where he had been visiting his family and was taking the long way back to Canterlot when He saw a Giantpillar of light pierce the heavens and then disappear: ``Woah that was awesome I want to do that!´´. He yelled out loud and turned to gallop towards the strange phenomena.
Searing was certain this was going to be his best detour ever after a short burst of speed Searing decided to take his time who ever had done that awesome display had to be tired and was probably going no where in hurry. So he picked up some wild mint and other herbs he found along the way stopping in mid trot to look at an interesting tree or a cute animal. Making his slow way onwards.
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Post by eclipse on Oct 12, 2011 6:01:23 GMT -5
Willowisp tried not to pay the things going on around her too much heed; she didn't even say a word to the other ponies that she was working with. She just nodded absentmindedly and concentrated on the task at hand. no time for woolgathreing... as much as you tend to spend your time on it, she said to herself. She had laid the traps around herself rather quickly; she wasn't the type to do enormous harm and most of her magic was better for distractions anyway, so that's what she had focused on. She had a few spots out in the darkness where stepping on them would blind a pony, and a few more spots where she'd used her lanterns to make it seem like there was another pony out there to help them get lost, and that was it.
She still wasn't very confident in her ability to help out with this ritual, despite Watermark's insistence; this kind of magic wasn't the kind of thing she was used to doing, and it seemed to her that after what had happened last time she shouldn't be out here risking it at all. She sighed, and continued to direct her magic at towards the ritual.
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Post by rocketsilver on Oct 18, 2011 15:08:16 GMT -5
"What a day."
All day long, the pegasus delivered heavy objects from Canterlot to Manehattan; some wealthy ponies wanted to have a quick and highly secured delivery since some delivery resulted in either an unfortunate crash or late schedule.
Rocket was never late, nor did he encountered some problems on the sky roads.
Observing the landscape from the sky with a tired smile, he didn't realized he was flying over the White-tail forest. He was heading home, in Cloudsdale.
Usually, after a long day's work, the former guard would simply fly slowly over a random place just to admire the dusk and the shinning stars. The cold wind would dry his sweat. He slowly flapped his long wings.
"Hmm... I don't recall this place... Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll just check the map to figure out-
ZZZOOOOOSSHH!!!
From out of nowhere, a huge light pillar suddenly appeared at a dangerously close range near Rocket, who got knocked out from the shock. He began a free fall while he was still unconscious, but the strong and freezing wind woke him up; and he quickly tried to regain his flight balance.
*FLAP*
His wings deployed, crashing on a nearby cloud.
"Ugh... What in the world?..."
The vision was blurry for a few seconds, and when his sight has returned to normal, he looked at the strange light. He frowned.
He looked down from the cloud where it came from. Activities could be noticed down here: a group of ponies were behind a great icy circle wall.
Rocket was unsure. Who were they? What are they doing here? And most importantly, what was that sudden light?
"I should go down and check this out." he thought.
He slowly came down from clouds to clouds, and stopped and kept a low-profile on the lowest cloud.
For some reason, the mysterious group of ponies didn't seem... quite friendly.
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Post by Red Charge on Oct 23, 2011 14:36:51 GMT -5
The ritual continued, the guards patrolling firmly, the moat secure, the ice wall standing, and the mages continuing on. Other than just being flashy, it didn't seem like what they were doing did any actual harm to anything really.
(9 turns remaining!)
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Post by tunnelnexus on Oct 23, 2011 15:12:13 GMT -5
Standing uncertainly in front of the ice barrier and moat, Tunnel saw the column of light vanish into nothingness. The gray mare took a step back, entering a defensive stance, when suddenly a pony's head appeared out of the moat.
"Hi!"
After recovering from her initial jolt, Nexus kept a level gaze focused on the seapony, trying to project an aura of concealed awesomeness.
"Hey there. Do you know what the hay is going on here? There was this giant beam of light just a few moments ago, behind that wall. Could you help me get over there? I wanna find out what it is."
At that moment, she realized two things; there were several other ponies standing around the ice wall, and there was a loud CRACK of splintering wood from the woods off to Tunnel's left. Neither the ponies nor the wooden crack seemed very friendly.
Suddenly tense, Nexus whipped her head around, looking for any signs of an ambush. Perhaps this seapony was some kind of distraction. Well, Tunnel had no intentions of sticking around for other ponies to beat her up, so she quickly stole off in the opposite direction of the loud sound. Sneaking through the woods, she thought she saw over head a lone pegasus flying around.
Odd. There should be more pegasi than that... There's something REALLY fishy going on here. Tunnel made up her mind. I'm going to find out what's happening if it kills me.
All through the woods there were more earth ponies and unicorns patrolling along the ice wall. Frowning, Nexus got down and began crawling on her stomach, inching closer to the wall and trying to keep out of sight. The gray mare pulled out a few of her climbing pitons from her pack and looked around for an easy way to get to the moat. Unfortunately, none presented itself.
"Now, how am I going to get there without being noticed...?" Tunnel mused to herself quietly.
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