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Post by Fantasy Script on Dec 28, 2017 5:43:33 GMT -5
What had been meant as a show of support quickly turned into a second deathtrap as the enchanter frantically dodged and weaved through the storm of potions thrown in his general direction. The chant swallowed all sound, drowned out all thought and all planning. Pretty soon it was only his need to move forward and the pure instinct to run and survive that kept Script going.
He stared, confused, as they stopped and needed longer than he’d like to admit to get his bearings back. Max shout startled him into action and his horn ignited.
“On it!”
Frantically he carved rune after rune. That thing had to stay outside. He panted heavily but tried to keep his horn steady. A mistake now with everything that was going on could be fatal. The smell of the potions tickled his nose and he dearly hoped that none of the strange vapor reacted poorly with him. He held tight to that little ball of irrational fear that one of Lucky’s concoctions would transform him in some silly but permanent way. One day it might happen. Script’s frown deepened. That day might be today, with how frazzled and frightened Lucky was, but that didn’t matter.
Rune after rune was carved and added to the enchantment.
All that mattered was keeping his friends save. All he’d have to do was charge the whole thing and hope for the best. Then they could figure out what to do next.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 28, 2017 11:21:37 GMT -5
Rune after rune carved flawlessly, without a doubt a very lucky feat, considering the mass amount of potions and substances already seeping into the already Equiterian enhanced door. As Fantasy Script charged the rune with etheric energy, the seals hummed in a warm glow, sparking for a moment, before stabilizing.
They were safe. For now. Nothing short of a Prismatic Dragon could possibly breach that door.
That did not give any of them confidence when the voices suddenly stopped. They did not fade, or drop down, they stopped.
"I don't like this." Lucky said, his voice echoing in the great hall and in the other two's ears.
"I thought it'd never stop... weird now..." Max huffed, still panting.
Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok. Hooves came a clopping, in a slow walking pace, getting stronger and stronger.
Both Lucky and Max stopped breathing immediately.
Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok. The hoofsteps approached the door.
Tok. Tok. They stopped.
It was outside the door. That's the only thought in all of their minds. It knows they're in there.
Dead silence. No one dared take a single breath, lest it spur the undead creature into action. Some things should never have been made. That thing was one of them. It became more and more evident that the door was nothing more than a token barrier for something of that power. It could burst in at any moment, and they did not have the strength to outrun it anymore.
Tok. Tok. Tok. The footsteps got all the way up to the door.
The silence rang out for what felt like hours, with none of the three willing to breathe, move, wince, or fidget, they were as inanimate as any of the dining tables around them.
Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok. The hoofsteps went away, slowly fading out of earshot as the Arcani stepped away.
Lucky and Max let out a long sigh of relief and smiled at each other, almost looking like they might start laughing.
"I can wait forever, can you?" A voice, as dark and terrible as the abyss spoke in their minds.
Both Lucky and Fantasy were exposed to a very new sensation at that moment. Pure terror.
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Post by Fantasy Script on Jan 31, 2018 14:04:14 GMT -5
He didn’t know how and frankly, Script didn’t care much. The runes were stable and as far as he could tell, flawless. He had done it. The door was sealed and they had some time to take a breath.
Then the voices stopped.
He almost stumbled, but not quite. Like he had braced against a great gale that had suddenly gone away without warning. It felt like that, only not quite. Since it was sound.
His head hurt. He wondered if it was all the noise, the vapors he had inhaled as he carved or the mind bending thought he entertained.
“I’m just glad the noise stopped. I take everything I get right now.”
Then the hoofs approached. The steady, sedate pace of someone who was in no hurry to arrive. The assured walk of someone who knew with absolute certainty that they would arrive in time. It was unnerving. Script sucked in a sharp breath and tried to make as little noise as possible. Whatever ease had settled over him had shattered like brittle ice and he froze, his muscles cramped and he had to resist the urge to curl up.
Then they stopped. Right there. Right at the door Script had sealed. It knew. By the Princesses it knew. It knew they were there. It knew. Madness bubbled up in him for a short moment until he buckled down. He would not break down into insane giggles. He was a hardened pony of the north, he had survived his first mission without much problem, he would not break down here and now just because the thrice cursed abomination decided to play mind games with him.
Finally, after a long excruciating wait the Arcani stepped away. The sound of hooves faded away. It had left. They were save, for now.
Script covered a mad giggle with a forceful cough and nearly chocked when he heard that voice.
That voice, so dark, so deep. A rumble and a whisper of darkness and all that should not be. As madness settled on him like an itchy coat, the enchanter remembered. He remembered those moments he thought he was afraid, he remembered those moments he thought he had felt terror.
They all paled in comparison.
Terror curled and snarled and screamed inside him like a terrified beast driven into a corner and Script screamed.
“Curse you! Curse you and whoever made you! Abomination! I’ll wait as long as I have to! You hear me! You won’t get ME!”
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Post by Red Charge on Feb 3, 2018 18:28:44 GMT -5
As Fantasy finished his tirade, the sound of many laughters boomed in his head. The enchanter unicorn could feel his very sanity slipping away, before some stuck something in his mouth and warm liquid began running down his throat, a hoof gently patting it to encourage swallowing. "Ssh, just drink this." Lucky said, quietly, somberly.
It took but a few moments for the laughter in his head to die down. "I don't know how long it can block that maniac from being in our heads." Lucky said, climbing on Fantasy's back and lying on top of him. "But we need to use this time to think. There's a lot of ruins where you come from and I've seen my fair share. We can figure this out together. I'm not dying here."
Max Force was sitting in her corner, eyes closed, slightly clenched in focus.
"She's regaining her energy, revitalizing herself in case we have to fight it again. Come on, go further inside, there has to be a way out." The alchemist said, pointing a hoof at the corridor opposite of the barricaded doors. He sounded exhausted, but determined. He still didn't have to ride on Fantasy's back though... but at his state, it was probably better than leaving him on the floor like a mop.
There were several turns and doorways in the corridor. "Hmm..." Lucky said, "Equiterians usually have an escape route somewhere... Ugh..." Lucky groaned as he had an epipheny. "That bastard wants us to get out. It knows we'll tell others about it, they'll come and dig, let it out... It's inevitable. The info will leak eventually and that thing will be unleashed upon the world. What does it care? It waited a thousand years, what's a few more?" He slumped down further on Fantasy's back.
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Post by Fantasy Script on Mar 20, 2018 4:35:43 GMT -5
As the laughter died down and the madness receded, only cold fear was left behind. Fear of the impossible enemy, fear of being caged and caught forever and the fear of dying. The enchanter scowled. Fear, he thought, would not help him get out, but it would keep him on his toes.
“Thanks Lucky, sorry for losing it back there.”
He didn’t mind as the lighter pony climbed on. The weight didn’t bother him too much, and he could draw comfort from the closer contact. He wasn’t alone. Someone had his back and as long as that was the case he could go on. He had to go on.
He gave Max a long look; the mare in her meditative trance looked odd to him. She should be standing, marching around and throwing around looks that could freeze over Tartarus. But they would need her; they needed her charged and ready to go to war. Because they were at war now. The enemy army was one foe, one foe so strong that it could bring terror to the world all on its own.
They were at war against a monster.
Script trotted along and peeked in here and there as he thought. Lucky’s epiphany made him shudder, but the alchemist was likely right. That thing could wait for someone to dig it out.
“We’re in the heart of a mountain,” Script murmured suddenly. “We’re beneath tons and tons of rock and ore. Maybe someone else will find this someday, but right now, we’re here to make sure this thing stays here.”
The enchanter’s eyes narrowed.
“All ruins collapse at some point. We should just drop the whole mountain on its head. See how it likes that. Someone else might come to dig, but it’ll take time. Maybe then ponies will have a way to stop this thing.”
Script turned to his friend.
“How many explosive do you have on you?”
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Post by Red Charge on Apr 26, 2018 13:34:25 GMT -5
"Fantasy you don't understand..." Lucky said wearily, "The Griffons already dropped the whole mountain on this thing."
A creeping sense of dread was climbing up Fantasy's gut as Lucky said that. Of course, it all made sense now. The Griffons weren't trying to clear away any dragons... they were trying to bury this thing. Were the dragons trying to free it? Harness its powers? Retake the world? The Griffons were willing to go to war to hide what happened here, to hide the existence of this ruin... They were willing to risk the extinction of their entire civilization...
And yet the creature endures, it has lived past the years of the Griffon Kings, until none are left, but it endures. How many living beings have been born and passed away from old age since this abomination came into being? How many civilizations crumbled? How many lakes dried up? Cliffs eroded? Yet it endures.
There was no word for that creature, it was a force of Un-nature.
"We are leaving this place." Max Force said, making Lucky jump with a start, neither of the unicorns had noticed her joining them.
"Max..."
"We are leaving this place." She said, her resolve unbreakable.
Max turned to look at Fantasy, waiting for him to speak. He had a choice now. He could either side with Lucky, resolving to stay and rot here with the creature, letting the knowledge of the ruin die with them and prevent a cataclysmic disaster... even if that meant turning on Max and even, if necessary, or possible, murdering or critically wounding her. Or he could side with Max, following his orders blindly, clinging to life and duty and possibly dooming the whole world.
Carrying Lucky was foal's play in comparison to the weight of this choice. Fantasy felt the walls closing in on him... suddenly he could understand claustrophobia perfectly.
It was time to decide.
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Post by Fantasy Script on May 24, 2018 9:50:29 GMT -5
What to do? Such a simple question. Three little words but the implications of them far more terrifying and enormous than anyone could possible comprehend. The weight they carried pressed down in him like the mountain above them had collapsed. He tried, vainly, to control his breathing. Panic bubbled within him once more and yet he couldn’t allow himself to drown in it just yet.
Decision. What to do? Indeed what to do in this situation. Go forward and die, go backwards and die and doom the world, defy orders or follow orders. Side with his only friend in the world, or his commanding officer he swore to follow. If they stayed behind he’d have to kill Lucky anyways.
Maybe.
He’d promised. He wouldn’t forget… he wouldn’t…but he dreaded the moment Lucky brought it up.
The enchanter sidled closer to Lucky, frown firmly in place and looked at Max.
He started and stopped a few times; trying to find the right words, until finally he just gave up and went with what he knew he did best. Blunt truth.
“And then what Captain? We tell the higher ups, knowledge gets out and someone else will have a crack at this monster?”
Script snorted his voice turned bitter.
“We just found the next super weapon someone could crave. The next thing that will be a reason for war. And in the meantime innocents will be slaughtered by it; ponies will die because that thing fancies it’s a good idea.”
The enchanter kept an eye on Max.
“Though it doesn’t matter much what we do here right now I guess. Does it? If we die, someone will come to investigate. In the end its pointless.”
His stance firmed.
“Still, I’d rather take this to my grave and hope nobody ever sets foot into this ruin again. In the meantime we can see if the Equiterians were nice enough to leave something behind with which we can kill the Dang thing for good and do something worthwhile instead of dooming generations in the future with a bloodthirsty monster.”
“Any opinions on that Captain?”
Decision. It all came down to a decision. Script wondered whether this was the right one. But then again, he stood by his friend, that had to be worth something. And if fate willed it he’d die besides his friend, which was a far nicer fate than he had imagined in his darker hours.
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Post by Red Charge on May 24, 2018 14:16:19 GMT -5
Something glinted behind Max Force's eyes. Neither Fantasy nor Lucky had ever seen it before. All that strength, that dedication, that discipline. It was not her strength that Max Force had been training her whole life, but restraint.
It would never be more apparent what the female battle mage's name truly entailed than in that moment when that spark of murderous animalistic fury flared behind her eyes. The enchanter could feel it in his horn, the ether around them warping, spiking like the EKG of a pony on fire.
The commanding officer raised a shaking, accusing hoof. "And you would presume to know better what to do with this knowledge than the Princesses? You would gamble your life, your honor, your duty on the chance that no one will ever come seeking this place?" Max's articulate inquiries came in stark contrast of her cracking voice.
"There are things in this world you cannot begin to fathom. I have taken it upon myself when I became a Slayer, to survive and destroy these things. Maybe you Goddessless hicks up north don't believe in Harmony, but I do. I will not let this Equiterian Abomination stand in the way of my duty!" The walls termbled as her volume spiked. "And I will not. I will NOT! Accept TREASON under my command!"
Lucky gulped, but stood his ground, shaking just as harshly though for a very different reason. "And what if this thing cannot be killed? Celestia knows the entrance hall shows the bones of those who tried, ponies, griffons, DRAGONS! What if this thing just never stops?"
"Nought exists that comes from nought; all comes from all, just well as it ought." Max recited to him. The first law of Alchemy.
Lucky looked as though he had been slapped in the face.
Fantasy's mind protested in his own head, but this creature is not of the natural order. It moves, it manipulates its environment, it has tremendous power. But the most unnatural thing, which was instinctual to the three unicorns, but which only now Fantasy had begun to realize was, that it was not using the ether to do so. It was etherless. But if it had no ether then... the thought trailed off in his head, it was at the tip of his tongue, he had the feeling he was on the cusp of a tremendous breakthrough that would stop the abomination, yet allow them to live. Would he be able to figure it out on his own?
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