Majabya

It wasn't long before Whisper began to question his situation, having only delayed so much because such thoughts were secondary in Everfree forest, and those woods were the last thing he remembers. This bizarre city, devoid of light and life, what was it? The rubble around suggested a war zone, the empty streets added the idea of a graveyard, both were bad places at night. Who lived here? Was there anything of worth in these old shacks? The laws of Everfree forest demanded no hesitation in seeking answers. (Rolled a four. So basically my choice, right?) Choosing one of the houses, Whisper kicked the wooden doors down, letting his meager candle light spill in. It revealed several fanged, wooden maws. Three timberwolves against a confused, angry Whisper. How nostalgic. The three rushed Whisper, two aiming for his legs as is standard for their kind, an effective strategy against anything else. The last going for his jugular, a much more effective strategy. His hooves trapped by teeth, Whisper couldn't dodge the smart one, and it's fangs and out stretched claws tore through his bandana, placing nice juicy scars around his curse mark. Reeling from the familiar pain, he pulled his front hooves up, freeing his left, which he brought down with great force upon the wolf holding his right, shattering it with a satisfying crunch. With one down already, Whisper rolled forwards, readying his rear hooves for one of his trademark bucks, gaining sweet vengeance upon the wolf that got lucky as he let it loose. It flew across the room and through the opposing wall, out of sight and probably dead. That left "lefty" who had managed to stand up after a pony rolled over it. Rolling to his right to avoid the wolves snapping jaws, Whisper got back upright, just in time to block the wolf's tackle with a hoof. It's fangs were locked, an easy target for his other hoof, bringing it down upon it's forehead, with obvious results. As whisper stumbled about the shack in victory, he determined it safe for some rest, eager for such after losing blood.

Whisper heard the cheers of the audience as he finished another ballad upon the stage, blowing kisses as he gave the usual "thank you, you're too kind!" speech. As they cried out for an encore, with which he was more then happy to oblige, he felt a pain in his throat slowly growing. By the time the band readied to play, not a word could pass through poor Whisper's lips. Immediately, the audience let loose all the fury of a scorned world, laughing, booing, crying, damning, cursing, and scorning Whisper with such intensity that they began to look like an enormous maw, twisted into a demonic, wailing frown. The stage lifted, as if it was now a plate held by massive hooves, and sharply tilting, sending the silent, screaming Whisper downwards into that fearful face's gaping mouth. Whisper awoke harshly, his screams still muted as he struggled for breath, but soon enough, he managed calm himself and examine his surroundings. It was hard to make anything out in the pitch black surrounding him, but as he stood up and began to walk about, one of his hooves met with a saddle bag. After investigating it's contents, he took a swig of the canteen and pressed onward into the dark, decrepit slums. The way was treacherous and dark, and more then once Whisper's clumsy stone hooves got caught on something. Twas slow going indeed, but in the midst of this bumbling was a spark of inspiration! Time and again Whisper tripped and stumbled, but on one such trip he fell with such intensity that when his stone hoof met the decaying cobblestone, sparks appeared. Small and fleeting sparks to be sure, nothing in comparison to proper flint, but sparks nonetheless. Removing his candle and placing it carefully, Whisper began to hammer his hoof against a loose cobble stone with all his force. Again and again he pounded the stone, the noise carrying through the empty streets for miles around, until eventually he succeeded to light his candle. Now armed with the only light in sight, and having more or less made his presence known, Whisper began his trek again. And this time no tripping.

Madness! That's what this is! Pure madness! Although Whisper's options were few, he had to do something about all this, or he'd go crazy. But what? Lionheart's pressuring of the two hunters was understandable, nay, it was nessicary, but what choice was there in allies? With a whistle, Whisper tried to get everyone's attention as he drew seven circles, two by themselves, and the other five to the side. Pointing to Thunder and himself and then to the two dots, his meaning clear enough. Whisper knew he could take on one of these hunters, so he'd take on the one without a weak spot, leaving the helmet less Jake with the others, giving them an edge if he were to go rogue on them, especially with Lionheart's scrutiny and training. Whisper demonstrates this by pointing at Jake and Lionheart, then to the five dots, and finally tapping his head. It wasn't a much better plan then what Jake put up earlier, but Whisper needed to do something.

Swiggly had proven himself in Whisper's book, but this Lionheart made a sound argument. Better then that, his theory almost seemed to make too much sense. Whisper's thoughts whirled as his gaze went over the other members of the group and began sizing them up. Lionheart seemed like the most professional one here, and the point he made was one that needed to be said. The two hunters seemed to be on the level, but honestly, who could trust them after what Lionheart said. Whisper needed to know more to make up his mind about them, especially seeing as he's the one that's been out of the loop the longest. His gaze fell on Dawn, clearly shaken and eager to run it looked. Of all the ponies that were here she was clearly the most innocent, at least in Whisper's eyes, and also the one most in need of some kind of assurance. A pity Whisper had no voice to reason with, as a lumbering, menacing stallion with stone hooves probably won't get very far if they start interrogations.

Swiggly's erratic movements and eccentric behavior made him a difficult colt to follow, and easily lost Whisper. Unable to continue his pursuit, Whisper headed back to where he saw those tracks earlier, hoping they weren't blown away in the hunter's assault. Some time later, after finding and following the tracks without incident, Whisper saw the main group, and Swiggly too. He also saw two hunters, and feared that the group was actually a bunch of prisoners, possibly awaiting their fate. However, Jake's swift dealing of the hidden hunter proved his standing in the situation. With nothing left to fear, Whisper approached, politely greeting all of them as best as he could, except Swiggly. Essentially leaving poor Whisper to rot in the woods didn't leave a very good impression, and so his greeting to Swiggly was an angry glare, a furious snort, and a swift punch with his not stone hoof. After that all was well.

Whisper was both confused and worried by his rescuer's manner. Swiggly's non chalance at more or less exploding a super pony with a crashing rocket was troubling to say the least. That said, it was refreshing to have somone not try to kick/kill him today. So as the saying went, "don't look a gift puppy in the mouth." Against the wishes of the voice in the back of his head screaming, "IT'S A TRAP!", Whisper followed Swiggly.

Whisper lept back as Swiggly's transport squashed the hunter. Needless to say he was shooken up from almost getting hit by a rocket, and eyed this new pony with suspicion. To be fair, though, this was the only pony to give him a proper greeting, and in the wake of a crash no less. As such, Whisper approached, cautiously, to extend his hoof in appreciation. For a voiceless pony it was the only way he could say, "thank you".

He had been going up river for sometime, and soon enough Whisper came across tracks. Just as he bowed his head to investigate further, an arrow flew past it, coming from his left, and exploding as it hit the rocks in the river. He immediately dove for cover behind some large rocks, gathering his senses. "Aww, isn't that cute. You think those rocks will protect you. Ha!" The hunter's laugh was drowned out by explosive arrows breaking the rocks into gravel. Whisper ducked and dodged from rock to rock, trying to make his way up hill and into the woods, only to be intercepted time and again by explosive arrows. "I've been so bored, and your my first find all day, so I think I can go a little crazy with my ammo." Whisper made it up hill, and weaved between the tree's, slowly getting closer to the hunter as he went. "Oh, a tough guy, huh? Yeah, I'm shaking over here!" Tree's began falling as their trunks were torn asunder, and a fire began to spread. Amidst all this, the hunter lost track of Whisper, and slowly backed away from the mess he started, looking for movement as he readied his bow. "Did I get him?" The hunter said to himself as he lowered his weapon and slowly approached, convinced his prey was done for. Just as the hunter got close and started clearing logs to claim his prize, a stone hoof erupted from the burning debris, damaging his bow. The rest of Whisper followed suit, unleashing a flurry of solid blows upon his opponent's head. The hunter had activated his suit's defensive abilities, so the blows were lessened greatly, but Whisper's stone hooves and hardened battle fury still proved effective. With out his bow, the hunter's only option was hoof to hoof combat, but Whisper's onslaught was not something he was prepared for. On the other hoof, despite his battle prowess and stone hooves, Whisper's blows hadn't done much more then stun the hunter. It seemed their struggle would go on for a while.

((OOC: edited this post so it wasn't a train wreck, hope nobody saw that, but if ya did, "oops.")) Whisper walked through the woods, an eerily familiar place to him, more or less scouting the area for food and shelter. Eventually he came to a stream, and hoping for some fish to catch he peered into the water. Curiously he found chunks of ice instead. Deciding that little oddity merited investigation, Whisper headed upstream.

(And everything was going so well), Whisper thought when all the comotion started. He decided that with all the higher ups in the interrogation room could handle themselves, and instead opted to follow Thunder Roller, as any decoy would be needing back up if things went south. However it was difficult to keep up with the speedy pegasus from the ground, and Whisper soon lost sight of him as a few demon ponies jumped in Whisper's way. Not slowing his pace, Whisper slid into a roll, bringing his rear hooves to the front and aiming them upwards for a devastating buck, soundly ending the demon ponies with a loud crack. (Great, now where'd Roller go?) Just as whisper pondered this and looking to the skies, he spotted Silver Storm flying with haste. (Best lead I got, better follow him!) With some difficulty he arrived on the scene just as Silver cried out "I'm coming!". Eager to crack some demon pony skulls, Whisper followed Silver's charge, heading in the direction of whomever was closest to the ground, in this case a few of the demon pegasi, and lept at them, his stone hooves choosing targets individually as hewas airborn.

Slowly things came into focus as Whisper began to regain consciousness. Remaining motionless as he gathered his bearings, Whisper noticed that the guards had already removed his bindings and landed the boat. They appeared to be arguing as they waited for him to awake. "We're late." The one on the right said. "O'course we're late havin' ta drag dis jerk around!" Lefty exclaimed. "Say, Why ya think he was so 'evy anyway? I bet he's gots rocks fer hooves." He continued, to which Righty replied, "Dude, you've been hitting the stuff again, haven't you? The boss is going to murder you if he finds out. Also, I think rock hooves are impossible, unless he was like, dead or something." Whisper chose to ignore a debate he already had with himself a long time ago and began to get up, his heavy hooves making a fair bit of noise. "I think they're casts which means we're sending a bucking crip-HE'S GETTING UP! Quick act menacing." The two guards quickly straightened up and became silent, paragons of duty. "RUN. NOW." Lefty commanded, a slight slur in his tone. Whisper gazed at the two guards, doing his best to not crack a smile at their antics. "WE SAID NOW." Righty explained as he delivered a swift and mighty kick into Whispers front left "cast", and after a loud crack was heard, Righty remained motionless. Easily confused, Lefty asks, "'ey Righty, you ok?" To which poor Righty quietly replied, "you were right about the hooves." Silently snickering as he made his way off the boat and into the woods, Whisper pondered the question: "What the buck is going on around here?"

So much had changed while Whisper was trapped in the Everfree Forest, but to him it was all strangely familiar. The struggle between ponies and demons was not unlike the constant fighting of the Everfree, with the only difference being the introduction of new tactics and numbers. Seeking out the resistance to help him compensate for this change, Whisper has since become one of their heavy hitters, usually reserved for combat as his speed was an issue with most other operations. He still hasn't really opened up to anypony else and seems distant, but the main reason for that is his silence, not his manners. Word of the captured scouts was going around, and the interrogation was going underway. That was all fine and dandy, but to Whisper such a matter was to be left in the hooves of his "C.O.'s", and simply sat at his post down the hall. As Thunder Roller came out of the room, his wide grin still on his face, Whisper watched silently, wondering if such levity was appropriate, considering how small the catch was. He decided that all things considered, a win is a win so why sweat the details.