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Post by thepatriot on Nov 22, 2011 17:14:36 GMT -5
He glared slightly over at Ruby as the pony snickered and mocked his response. Just who did she think she was? Obviously she was out here for kicks, or something along those lines. Certainly not wary or thinking benevolently on the situation like she tried to play herself off as a moment ago. Figuring it best to take more care in dealing with this 'Wildfire' he turned back to her, only to catch sight of that newcomer again.
He was approaching Quillson, asking almost the same question from before. Had he not heard him in the first place? Oh well, better to answer again quick than leave that pony confused. It was rude to ignore somepony after all, even if it was just perceived rather than intended. With a flick of his neck he faced the new pony once more, speaking. "Uh, no. I don't quite know. All I know is that light showed up, and here we are all trying to get inside." He nodded, and finally turned back to Wildfire.
Her look shocked Quillson. Why was she so distraught over him knowing her name? Was it because she had been labeled dead in the newspaper?? Surely it was a mistake or misunderstanding, because here she was now standing before him. Hopefully he hadn't made an awful mistake at verbally announcing his recognition of her. She looked almost... afraid that he knew. That wouldn't do at all.
"Look Wi-" He stopped himself, thinking it best not to use her name anymore. It had already obviously damaged their meeting, and would only prolong such issues. "Just, uh... look. I didn't mean to-" She suddenly seemed to regain her firmness and focus, addressing his previous question with solidity. Though what he heard was certainly not what he wanted or expected.
It didn't seem like she was going to listen to him at all. Or if she was, Wildfire had already made up her mind to stand in his and everypony else's way. He squinted his eyes with determination as she finished talking, taking a few steps towards the pegasus.
"I have a problem with it." He placed emphasis on the first word, finishing his few steps towards the green pony. "I can tell you're not going to listen, and that's just fine. I'm not here to fight, but I cannot accept how you're treating the situation here! You don't know what you're being asked to keep ponies from. But if even the Equestriam Military thinks something up, you're going to try and stop them?! You should really think about what you're standing up for here! Something's going on, and it's not good. I don't know who's put you up to this, but I can assure you it won't be good with secrets like this."
He kept his gaze on the Pegasus, seeking for her reaction to his final attempt at negotiation. Only, she seemed to be looking at whatever was going on behind. Quickly, the stallion turned his head to find Ruby Nights twirling a knife around in the air. A knife! Camping ear by his flank, this pony came here looking for a fight. And here she was, whispering something in Kuruka's ear. Nothing good was going to come from this either.
"Hey!" He turned, yelling back at the weapon wielding earth pony. "This is hardly the time to go waving around blades! Go pick a fight somewhere else, because all you're going to do is make things worse here!"
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Post by kuruka on Nov 22, 2011 17:51:55 GMT -5
Kuruka snorted at this Ruby's flattery, but grinned at her use of words. Risk taker? Thrill seeker? Honestly? The pony sounded like a treasure hunter. Kuruka had enough dealings with treasure hunters to be at least 95% certain. The thought that something valuable was behind that formidable of an ice wall almost made Kuruka laugh. No, it was dangerous. Too many ponies were here to protect it, judging by the magic Kuruka had seen earlier, and, if this Wildfire was any indicator, none of them knew what was going on, either. Reasoning that their own lives were in danger would be pointless, although Kuruka was tempted to say so anyway. All of these traits were all too familiar. Had she not participated in many rituals as a filly? She removed her own weapon from it's holder and took a defensive stance, still studying the other pegasus. Still, it would be best to keep her own knowledge a secret, in case it ever gave her the upper hoof. "Very well, Wildfire. Perhaps it is pointless to inform you that your life is in danger here, but I have warned you. I do not know what you or they or whoever is in charge has planned here, I know for certain it is dangerous. Last warning, pegasus. I do not like to leave a pony unconscious and defenseless, but I will if it means keeping everypony else safe." Kuruka had heard Quillson's plea for keeping peace. He, out of anypony, wouldn't understand. He'd been raised in a very peaceful community, a blessing and a curse in its own way. Ruby, on the other hoof, could very possibly turn tail once she found out there was no treasure, unless it was some small ritualistic object that had to be made of pure gold or something else precious, but Kuruka needed another hoof. By herself, she wouldn't last long against even two or three trained mercenaries. Kuruka set her expression, remembering her instructor's words. Your face should be set in stone, so your enemy cannot read your next move and for the love of all good, keep your wings pinned back! They are an easy target, although it might do you some good to have them removed...
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Post by tunnelnexus on Nov 22, 2011 23:39:49 GMT -5
Hm... Nexus thought she could detect a hint of a pause before he gave out his name. Combined with some other things, she was getting the impression that he wasn't so easily bested.
Tempest. Accurate name, something to go on at least, even if they were both spouting lies. Nexus decided to play along.
"Oh, um, okay... I guess if you're sure nopony's being hurt. Private business is private business," said Nexus hesitantly, putting as much nervousness into her voice as she could (which wasn't too hard, considering she was practically sweating buckets already from tension over her plan). She reached back into her pack and pulled out her map, then stepped closer until she was right next to 'Tempest', lifting the map between them with her magic. "Well, I was wondering if you could maybe point me to the nearest path, so I can get out of the forest," asked the gray mare, gesturing with a hoof in her intended direction.
Now or never. If I don't get in now, I'm not getting in. Then again, just how badly do I want to get in, anyway? I mean, this might not be any of my business... but it's just so suspicious. Who knows what's in there? I just have to find out, make sure it's okay.
Or, if not, try to fix it. No, I will fix it.
Nexus brought down her hoof in a fierce sideswipe aimed at the stallion's legs, hopefully knocking him down. Having him go down semi-easily would be a relief- no fighting, no risk of permanent injury. With her magic, Nexus quickly fetched the looped rope from the bag (even if Tempest didn't trip, she'd be able to distract him long enough- she hoped).
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Post by rubynights on Nov 23, 2011 3:46:25 GMT -5
“Make things worse…? Assuming you’ve already made things better!” Ruby snapped back quickly toward Quillson. She immediately ended the playful toss of her dagger, gripping it tightly instead from her mouth with the aid of her hard teeth. “If I recall correctly, you’ve done absolutely nothing in solving our mutual problem. We want to get inside that dome and thanks to your diplomacy, our hooves have done nothing here but stay put in the soil. It’s about time somepony with guts moves our flanks forward!”
With that word, Ruby took a step forward towards the green pegasus pony. She appeared to have already put herself into a defensive stance, though her attitude had appeared very nervous and frantic to Ruby as well. Still, it did not distract from the oversized wing over to the pegasus’ right side.
That wing is gigantic… Ruby could not help but think to herself.
The green pegasus’ large drake wing was surely intimidating. Ruby had nearly been shaking in her hooves just looking at it. But this treasure hunter could surely handle such a threat… right? Ruby's battle plan was the same one as always: use her superior speed and agility to her advantage. The green pegasus’ drake wing had been located to her right. Considering this, Ruby would simply charge from the pegasus’ left, where it would require a greater effort for her to swipe with her larger wing. Taking advantage of the clumsy weight of the green pegasus’ farther, more powerful drake wing, Ruby would from then on simply make the best of her swifter, more agile dagger and hooves. In theory at least, it was a plan that could work.
“You remember what I said, Stripes,” Ruby then stated toward Kuruka. She had spontaneously assigned to the black and white pegasus pony a nickname, having yet been met without a more proper introduction. “You know both you and I have zero chance of handling this situation by ourselves… So when the situation gets rough, don’t back out on me.”
And with that, Ruby hastily galloped towards the mismatched pegasus pony. With her dagger gripped tightly from within the confines of her teeth, Ruby charged in from the left just as planned, aiming to take full advantage of her athletic agility against the drake-winged pegasus.
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Post by windstorm on Nov 23, 2011 8:21:02 GMT -5
(OOC: This will be a generic post until I get the combat decision. I will then update with the decision)
At first Wind Storm thought that this pony had accepted his reply and his offer to help her get bact to whereever she came from. After all she did bring out a map and appeared like she was interested in finding her way. "I can help you find your way. Let me take a look at that map you have and I can show you the right way..."
But then something unexpected happened. The pony took a swipe at Wind Storm's leg, trying to knock him down or at least off balance. At the same time she produced a rope from her bag. It looked like this wasn't going to be that easy after all.
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Post by dragoonofdeath on Nov 26, 2011 14:00:30 GMT -5
Wildfire sighed as Quillson stood against her. She really didn't want to fight here, but she could tell from Kurukas movements that she was going to have to. The Zebra must have had superb hearing as she stated her name,making wildfire shutter again. Why? Why did somepony have to recognize her? She wanted an explanation for this, but it would have to wait. And so would Quillsons. She looked back to the stallion, "Look. I'll explain later just...promise me you won't get hurt out here, alright? your friends here seem determined to fight me. I have to fight back, if only to defend myself. I'm sorry." With that she turned towards thew now charging Ruby, quickly turning to swing her drake wing in a slashing motion towards the offending earth pony once she got in range.
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Post by eclipse on Nov 26, 2011 18:56:04 GMT -5
There was noise outside; people talking, a little shouting... things were beginning to happen. Willo did her best to ignore the entire proceedings; she didn't really want to have to deal with what was happening, and she trusted that the ponies who were outside the walls would protect those of them in their. She quietly focused on what she was doing; she knew her place.
Still, she couldn't help the nagging feeling that there was something she could do to take the heat off of those other ponies... a distraction or something that would work out. Her mind went over her defenses loosely in her head, doing her best to come to a decision and finding nothing that would work particularly well. Unless...
She'd had the time to prepare three traps that were rather different than her other "Blind them" tricks, and she thought she'd be able to set them off without too much expense of magic. She'd already established the lights that made it up and had them fed, she'd just used a damper that she had to release... She paused to contemplate it and decided that it was worth it if other ponies would be distracted by it.
She released the damper with a thought, and all of a sudden a light similar to the one that the ritual made flashed up, some distance away from the current site and in a completely different direction... at least that's how it seemed. She hadn't known what the light would look like entirely when she'd designed the trap, and she certainly didn't have the magical strength to imitate that light without exhausting herself, so she had to improvise.
The "pillar of light" she'd made was actually made of seven lanterns stretched vertically; they didn't go quite as high as the real light, and they didn't start on the floor, just in the tree. It fell apart when somepony got close enough to it, but from a distance it would serve well enough. She had it set up in a triangle around the main light, hoping to suggest it was a multiple part spell. With any luck ponies would go to explore the others and buy them the time they needed.
Her conscience soothed, Willo went back to what she was doing. She didn't pay attention to her 'pillar' because she was sure that if she did it'd be full of flaws she hadn't noticed, in intensity or color or something else like that, and she had enough to worry about with things as they were.
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Post by Selenia on Nov 27, 2011 7:11:59 GMT -5
Selenia pushed her way through some thick brush in the forest, heading directly for the source of the light. Not long after, the sounds of ponies yelling and physical contact were heard. It seemed Selenia wasn't the only one curious about the pillar of light. She increased her pace, jumping over roots and ducking under low branches, until she came out on a small clearing.
There were a few ponies on the ground, some pegasi hovering about, plus what looked like a zebra with wings. The air of the situation was tense, she could tell by the faces and stances of all the ponies that the two 'sides' were not friends. The situation had escalated past diplomacy, aswell. One pony was already charging at a pegasi who was ready to strike back.
Strangest of all was a massive wall of solid ice between everypony and the pillar. Lights flickered behind the wall, diffusing through the ice and tossing the whole scene into a ghastly blue glow. Selenia smelled ozone and the air crackled with ambient electricity. The source of the light must be behind that wall.
Selenia finished taking in the situation and calmly began walking into the clearing. Anything she could do, physically or otherwise, to diffuse this confrontation, she would try.
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Post by searingfrost on Nov 30, 2011 14:24:04 GMT -5
A very small part of searing remained capable of action as he realized that the situation was quickly coming to blows and that part told him it was time to turn tail and bail out. His hoofs took of before any concious thought could analyze the situation further.
Find a hiding place and keep low untill the crazy ponies stop fighting that was the plan no point in staying in harms reach when a perfectly usable bush was near by.
He needed time to focus and come up with a plan.
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Post by dragoonofdeath on Dec 3, 2011 1:28:08 GMT -5
(OOC Five turns remaining, Red has asked me to take over combats, so have the post for what is going on.)
Wildfire slashed out at Ruby, barely missing the mare as she charged in, her knife scrapping off of the pegasi's armor but not doing any damage.
at the same time, Wind Storm was deftly knocked off of his feet as Tunnel struggled with her rope to bind him.
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Post by tunnelnexus on Dec 3, 2011 8:59:35 GMT -5
Nexus tried to wrap the rope around Wind Storm, but he put up a good fight, and she grimaced at how much of her precious time he was eating up. If her blitz strategy had any hope of succeeding, she needed to move.
Tunnel pulled out her crowbar with her magic as quickly as she could, and with as much finesse as she could manage, tried to knock 'Tempest' lightly on his noggin; hopefully he'd be stunned, but either way, the gray mare dropped the rope was off and running towards the moat.
On her way, she saw over the tops of the trees a few more pillars of light appear, and her stomach turned to lead.
There are more of these? Great, I bet there's some kind of evil conspiracy going on here, and now I'm going to get myself killed... I should've stuck with my cave dive.
Sighing in resignation, the spelunker jumped into the moat and started swimming across, panting already from the weight of her pack and the fight.
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Post by windstorm on Dec 3, 2011 12:47:15 GMT -5
Wind Storm fell to the ground. Such a cheap trick he fell for! As this unicorn tried to tie him up he began to try firing blasts of wind to knock her away. "Oh no you don't! You're not going to tie me down. No pony is going to restrain or control me!" He thought he had beaten her as it looked like she was giving up on using the rope and trying to make a run for it. Suddenly she pulled out the crowbar and much as he tried to struggle she smacked him on the head. Then everything faded to black as the last thing he saw was her heading to the moat. "Wait... stoppp..."
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Post by thepatriot on Dec 5, 2011 14:26:44 GMT -5
That was it, there was nothing he could do now. Quillson watched in regret as the pony who had introduced herself as Ruby charged forward, knife shining in the moonlight. The green mare he now knew as Wildifre countered the move with a swift blow of her wing, though neither pony seemed able to hurt another. What had him worried most though was Kuruka's reaction his plea. It didn't seem like she was going to be halting any hostilities any time soon. The fighting was going to happen, and there was nothing Quill could do against it.
Perhaps something else could be done then. He was sure that Wilfirefire could take care of herself, as could that Ruby. Maybe Kuruka would follow him if he pushed on, instead of joining up with the red hooded assailant. He turned back to Hoofington's Zebra militia captain and the other pony's that had gathered around this mess.
"Feel free to come with, but I'm not sticking around here to fight! This is pointless, somepony's just going to get hurt with this nonsense."
And with that, the stallion charged off towards the moat. He wasn't going to sit and watch ponies hurt each other over nothing. He was going to get answers, then at least something will have come out from all that nonsense. As he neared the edge, Quillson leapt forward into the water. Hopefully he could swim across that mess without too much hindrance. What he was going to do about that ice wall when he got there... well, he'd worry about that when the time comes.
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Post by kuruka on Dec 5, 2011 22:51:25 GMT -5
Kuruka stood, rigid with indecision. She'd hoped Quillson would leave when things started to tense up, but she didn't want him going even closer to the wall. The mare named Wildfire was occupied, but Kuruka paused to leave her new ally. Snorting, Kuruka charged after Quillson, shouting to Ruby: "I will meet you across the moat!" Sticking her spear back in its holder, Kuruka picked up speed until she reached the bank and leaped. She opened her wings just a little to glide the distance and hit the opposite bank in a less-than-graceful manner. She then turned to watch Quillson as he made his way across the water, wishing for the first time in ages that her wings were a little stronger. Then she'd actually be helpful in keeping this ridiculously determined stallion safe. "Keep swimming, Quillson! Give it everything you have! Nopony knows what creatures could be in there." Kuruka paced the bank, still shouting encouragement to her friend, trying to decide if she should risk going back in herself to help. Meanwhile, she kept glancing back at Ruby and Wildfire, hoping there wouldn't be more casualties than were necessary.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 7, 2011 3:49:41 GMT -5
"Everypony stop!" A voice called out over the commotion, Ranger had arrived with a small patrol of Equestrian soldiers, all armed and battle ready. He quickly dispersed them to break up the fighters, getting in between them, neither side being able to attack without risking a fight with a soldier.
"What is going on here?" Ranger asked, directing his question at one of the Earth pony guards, who was previously about to charge at Kuruka, the earth pony, stopping when he saw the military reinforcements, answered.
"This is a very sensitive magical experiment, that requires constant concentration by the mages involved. Any disturbance might destabilize the spell with possibly disastrous results!"
"By who's authority are you testing it here?" Ranger asked, approaching closer to the moat, "And if it is harmless, why all the guards? A moat? A wall?" The Militia Captain inquired.
"Look, we only put those up because we knew that ponies would come around, we just wanted to keep them from disturbing the mages. It will only be a few more moments until we are done." The guard pleaded.
Ranger looked at the scattered pony, catching sight of Kuruka, Wind Storm, Ruby Nights, Wildfire and the others. "I'm not liking it, disband whatever you have here, if you wish to conduct such experiments in the future present an official request to the proper authorities. We have enough problems with monster without taunting them with bright shiny lights."
Noting the insignia on the guard pony's armor, Ranger suddenly paused, "I know that insignia. Sergeant, these ponies are collaborators with the ones who ambushed us in Everfree Forest! Take them in!"
(OOC, there are 4 military ponies now on the field fighting the earth pony guards, leaving the Equestrian ponies to try and breach the ice wall. Sadly, from both sides there are missing ponies (Quillson and Wildfire). The ice wall can be climbed, for two turns, or breached by fire magic for one turn. There is still Cloud Dreamer inside. Two out of four remaining turns have been deducted over this, leaving the ponies two more turns to breach the ice wall and disturb one of the mages.)
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