purple.teal

Seeing the newest entrant into the cave, Everlast moved forward, he was relatively unscathed compared to the others, so he put himself right in Royal Flush's face. "If you want to fight, fine, but to fight now is to die. Even if you were to win, defeat us, kill us, whatever would satisfy your reason for hunting us, the end would be nothing more than mutually assured destruction. Fight us, and if nothing else, we would tire you, making it impossible to defeat what would come next. The same logic would apply if we defeated you. We're already in bad shape, odds of finishing you aren't great, the fight after that even less so." Everlast paused, trying to gauge Royal's thoughts. He measured his own resolve, and thought of the outcome of all this. As a safety precaution, he used his magic to latch on to Royal Flush, making sure he felt the surge. "If you want to survive, I offer a truce. We all work to find a way to repel the shade that haunts us, and then you can continue your own hunt. If we fight, I will make sure that you suffer whatever fate you force upon us."

@@Lightning Bliss "I'm not sure that would be a good idea." He was happy that someone was listening to reason, at least in part, but he wasn't sure about sending a group out. "Where could they go to get help and be back in a reasonable amount of time? The closest settlement are the Hippogryph caves we angered, I doubt they would help us. If a team is sent out much farther, say to the Gryphon lands... We can't be sure that any help they are able to obtain will return in time to be useful for any of us left behind." He dug his hooves in the dirt, sighed, and glanced at the two children. "If we do split into a team and a base, which group would get the children? I am loathe to leave them here with the threat of the keeper looming. If we send them away with the rescue team, and if they are his primary target, it may be just as likely that he would end up going around our fortified base and chase them down."

Able to think clearly now, everlast straightened and left the wall. he saw Hurricane attempt to fly. "Guess you are stuck on the ground like the rest of us. and bandaging a cut of that size won't do a thing. It needs to be closed." He sat down again and rubbed his temples with his hooves. "All the same, I don't think walking or flying is going to be useful at this point. Every time we attempt to travel we make a new enemy and come out worse for it. We need to settle down, rest, and heal. Fortify if we can, it will come back."

Everlast felt the oppressive air of the keeper dissipate, and slumped. He was free from the nightmare again, so he quickly swiped all his belongings back into their bag and hoped everypony would be to busy tending their own wounds to notice him. He staggered to his hooves, leaning against the cave wall for support. Silently, he counted heads to make sure the keeper didn't take ponies with him. "I'm alive." He replied to the voice asking if everypony was alright.

Blood on his hooves, Mostly changeling's, but also hers... It was crazy what we had attempted to do. We were insane for trying. How did we expect any other outcome? At the back of his mind, Everlast knew it was just a nightmare, a flashback of the worst kind, but as he was forced to relive the worst moments of his life over and over, each time seeming more real than the last, the voice of reason slowly lost its grasp on his mind. He was there, in the ditch with her, those from afar might have mistaken them for lovers, but the blades they were brandishing would prove otherwise. He was here, charging at the damned changeling, gouging out the eyes. He was asleep. Tormented, a nightmare within a nightmare. He was studying, reversing all the knowledge of healing he had accumulated. The final experiment. The eye. The last thread of sanity was snapping when he felt the nightmares retreat. The knowledge of it all being a dream returned. Love. Love, the joyous memories... Everlast laughed, not knowing whether in his own mind or in the real world. He felt the struggle of the others against the nightmare, and redoubled his efforts. Granted some measure of control, he began to think of his own treasured moments. The first time he saw her, their first 'adventure'. Peace. "The reaper shall not take us today!" he shouted, this time certain it was a real physical cry.

Everlast watched as everyone seemed to be attacked mentally. to protect himself he drew something in front of him, he assumed it must be the pony of souls that they were just mentioning, that was attacking them. He scooted all of his equipment out of the way, to keep any of them from tripping over it. He opened up his bag and pulled the orb out of it. He stared at it, fighting with it. I've got bigger problems, I can't deal with you now. Eventually he was able to wrench his eyes away. This, is going to end terribly. With the eye held in both hooves, he waited for the next surge. He didn't have to wait long before Lightning Bliss fought back. PERFECT! Let's get a look at what this guy really looks like. Attaching his magic to Lightning, he searched for a point of the attack, when he found it. He wrote a second character in the ground before him. Once he was anchored to the Pony of Souls, he let go of Lightning and stared once more into the eye. As soon as he did, he lost consciousness. His mind was being pulled into the eye toward the source of the attacks. When the pain was over, he was able to see the pony of souls, slowly making its way to the party.

Everlast listened to them all express disbelief in the keeper of souls. "I've seen some pretty terrible things in my time, And they all taught me a lesson, Nothing is 'just a mare's tale', Seeds of truth are in every story." He backed away from Lightning Bliss now that she was being taken care of by Clover, and went back to open his book. "I don't doubt the existence of the Soul keeper, I've heard too many similar myths to do so. I don't know much more about it than any of you, there aren't any confirmed facts on it. In any rate, I'll be keeping a watch." He felt into his bags to make sure the orb was still there. Everlast glanced at Artemis and the other Hippogryph child. "In any rate, it brings up my next topic. We need a plan. If this thing does exist, I don't want to be bringing two children right to it. But do we have any alternatives to bringing the children along?"

@@Lightning Bliss Everlast heard his name being called and looked up from his scrawls. in front of him was a grotesque mess of feathers. He cringed, wondering how painful the experience must have been. Torture from the hippogryphs I'd bet. A way to keep the mares from flying away. "What happened?" He stood up, closed his own book, and began gently feeling around the wing. "doesn't feel like anything is broken. They just ripped the feathers, didn't hurt anything?" He paused, and realized what he had said. "I mean, not that it didn't hurt, I'd expect something like this to be very painful..." He fell silent and focused on the wing, not wanting to dig himself into a hole. After a few seconds more he fell back. "Alright, this is a bit tricky, normally when I tend to clients, I'd just take the damage onto myself, instantly fixing the problem for the client. However, this time, I don't have wings, so with out my own pair of wings to damage, I can't do it that way." He cleared his throat and continued. "There are three ways of doing this. The first being that I could create surrogate feathers until your real ones grow back, the problem with doing it that way is that the new feathers may not be as strong, being as they weren't naturally strengthened, meaning that after they are fully grown, they won't be as effective at catching wind. The second, Is that If I had someone else willing to loose a few feathers so that you both could fly, albeit temporarily less effective, I could quickly split it between you two. The third, is to use some medicine to help the feathers strengthen and grow back faster, but I don't have any of the proper ingredients at the moment to create such a salve. I could see what I could find to make the best I can, but... I can't make promises on that account."

Everlast saw Raze open his book and couldn't help but peer over his shoulder to read. When he had finished the passage, he backed off. Well, I had I read that before, I would think that there wouldn't be a problem, we could try to avoid the thing. However things changed. He turned to Lightning Bliss and her adopted Hippogryph, and then to Clover's friend and her child. We're dragging two beacons right to it. He held up his hoof, realizing he still had clover's charm. He put it into his saddlebag and began formulating a plan. While in thought, Royal Flush came to mind, one more problem they would have to deal with again. Chased by a mercenary, possibly a flock of angry Hippogryphs, and running into the arms of a grim reaper. Personally, the last one seemed the least frightening to him, but he pretty sure the other's weren't going to feel the same way.

@@Lightning Bliss,@@Pripyat Pony,@ Everlast shuddered at the powerful magic Clover used. I must never make a princess mad. Turning away from that scene and back to the task at hand, he pointed back the way he had come. "We should go back that way. It leads straight out of here." He began a head count, including the new hippogryph they seemed to be taking along. Blaze, Hurricane, Quickdraw, Bliss. Didn't Blaze enter with me? "Hold on, We can't leave yet. Hurricane is still in here somewhere. The others seem to have gone after her already." He turned to Clover and the Hippogryph. "If you want out, Follow the lights down that way. It might be safer to get her out of here if she is coming with us."

@ Everlast saw the light of Blaze's blades behind him, and felt a little relieved. If they did run into a hippogryph, it would be nice to be with someone who knew how to fight. Speaking of the devils, where are they all. There were five that assaulted us and kidnapped the mares, Steel got one, but I don't think it was one of the five. He was pulled from his thoughts by Blaze's yell. He especially didn't want to split up now, as it would mean he would lose his protection. But he was not going put his own cowardice above the safety of three mares. "Let's make it up to the light ahead, see what it is, and then if nothing important, we'll split." @@Pripyat Pony, @@Lightning Bliss Thankfully the light was important. It was emanating from Lightning Bliss's horn. "Princess! Are you all right?" He saw the baby and Clover behind her, and behind Clover, even further back, at the edge of the light, was a Hippogryph. He lowered the totem, it being useless now that they had found the princess it belonged to.