private Journey to the Higher Plane

[Jack Baker 698]

Quickdraw handed the totem to Everlast. "Take it; I can't use it anyway..." He heard the shouting as well. "Looks like Steel's sense of honor's getting the best of him... damn samurai always need to declare a fight before they get into one... and with a bunch of those things too!"

 

Raze looked ahead. "Well, he seems pretty capable of taking on multiple enemies by himself. Still, the odds are pretty slim, and we're not here to start a fight between species. Let's find the mares, and fast..."

 

Steel saw that the little one had disobeyed him anyway, and shook his head. "They never listen... forget it!" He quietly lifted off from the ground, and, taking out his sword, rushed to the main guard he saw the baby sneak next to.

 

"Hyah!" he shouted, stabbing the hippogryph in the chest, and kicking him off of his blade. He then scooped the baby from the snow, and began to lift up into the air gliding quickly into the entrance.

 

"Alright, we'll do it your way," he said to the creature. "Although I was gonna distract the males so you could go unseen and find your mother... but never mind that. I need you to sniff her out, tell me where she is, but don't peep... point with your beak, if you have to, just do it quietly."@@Lightning Bliss,

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

@,

 

The baby paid no attention to Steel's actions till he was suddenly scooped up again against his will. "MAMA!" it squawked out as they flew into one of the caves. It was damp and dark, and a few male hippogryphs were surprised to find a stallion holding one of their own, entering into their terriority. The baby instinctively knew when to flee, and kicked free of Steel, leaving him to deal with the rest of the threats while he galloped out, following his nose to find Bliss.

 

@@Pripyat Pony,

 

"I...don't think I'd be that easy Stormwing," Bliss explained, "the baby seems intent on staying with me...it's not like..." Then she noticed a magical screen pop up on the cave wall next to the female gryph. It was Clover! The brilliant pony had somehow opened a hole up with her magic so that they could speak with each other. "Clover!" Bliss galloped to the screen. It was still solid rock, but she could see and hear from the other side. "Clover! We've got to get out of here! The son of Darkclaw, Roc! He's trying to eliminate all the females to gain rise in power of this tribe...We're not safe here...Nor is this female hippogryph and her child we've got to...AH!" She suddenly felt sharp pinching talons wrap around her torso, yanking her from the screen. She watched in a whirl of motion as Stormwing, squawked in panic and darted back further into the cave, with her child close in front of her...avoiding the male that had snatched up Bliss...

 

It was Roc...the one gryph she didn't want to meet again...

 

"AHHHHH!!!" Bliss wiggled in pain. "LET ME GO!"

 

"You little piece of meat! Who said you could talk to your new alpha that way? And what's this? More sparkle illusions?" He noticed the screen that Clover made. "My father may have claimed you and those other...female ponies...But not for long... I'll dispose of you all...then I'll be the new alpha of this group because he'll be prove not to be able to protect our flock anymore!"

 

"Your insane!" Bliss whinnied and kicked, flapping her wings trying to get away. "You murder!" She continued to flap her wings, smacking Roc repeatly with them in attempts to flee. His anger grew from this, and he viciously sought to remedy her wings from smacking him by slamming her to the ground....Once he had her pinned, he viciously began pucking out her primary feathers...

 

"OUCH AHHHHH!!! STOP IT NO!" Bliss begged for him to stop, "not my wings please!!! CLOVER HELP!!!" continued to cry out in agony...She turned to Stormwing then, seeing her very well hidding in the farthest corner, clutching her child, making it look away from the horrible scene inflicting on Bliss. "Please!!! MY WINGS!!! They are what I am! Don't do this!!"

 

"Hehe!! That's right beg! Like Snowbow did!" He viciously continued to pluck..."AHHHH!" Roc stopped suddenly, rivaling in pain and whirling back...His sensitive lion tail had been viciously bit into and now dripping with blood. The pain sent him whirling back on his back, clutching it and tearing.

 

Bliss looked up, her wings were mutilated...but thats not what was what caught her attention. There, still clutching a piece of Roc's tail...was none other then the baby hippogryph with the rainbow colors. His tail eagerly wagging that he had saved his mother and defended her like a strong male would.

 

"Baby?" Bliss looked at the little foal. It spat out the tail and came running into her hooves.

 

"MAMA!" It squawked at her, rubbing into her chest.

 

"You...? You did that? You brave little hunter you!" She snatched up the child and quickly galloped over Roc and out of the entrance into the snow, desperatly trying to find Clover.

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

@@Lightning Bliss, Clover was about to reply to Lightning when she saw Roc jump out of nowhere and begin to attack Lightning. She gasped in horror, then focused. Saving what she had seen into the spell for future reference, Clover used her magic to blast down a wall of the cave, then, focusing on where Lightning was, galloped down the caves. Surprisingly, there seemed to be no hippogryphs at all where she was and Clover, not knowing of the stallions' attack, wondered why. It struck Clover that altho they could not use their magic to fight the hippogryphs directly, there were instead plenty of spells that they could use on themselves and the surrounding area to fight back. Even a simply levitation spell would become deadly if used to hurl projectiles at an enemy. Clover galloped on til she collided with a warm body. About to defend herself, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was Lightning, with the rainbow hippogryph foal following close behind.

 

~~~

 

Stormwing told Nimbus to stay behind, and ventured out of the dark space. There was no need for caution; Roc was lying on the floor, bleeding copiously from the tail and in no fit state to do anything, even defend himself. Stormwing took her courage together; after all, if Snowbow's foal could show bravery and attack Roc, then surely she could do the same, for her foal's sake.

 

"Believe me," she said to the prone hippogryth stallion, "I do not wish to do this. But I have been a witness of your evil for far too long and this latest incident is the last straw."

 

Suddenly, Stormwing struck out at Roc with both her sharp clawed front feet and her razor sharp beak. She slashed the fallen male viciously, tearing his wing muscles and rendering him helpless. He would never fly or fight again, and would find hunting difficult. Stormwing stopped short of killing him, tho, prefering to let him live with what he had done, and what had been done to him, tho she doubted that Roc had it in him to express remorse. Her actions were partly to safeguard herself and her foal, but mainly to avenge Mist, Greyfeather, Cirrus and Snowbow... also, Lightning, the strange pony mare who had somehow helped her without meaning to.

[purple.teal 50]

Everlast took the charm from the gunslinger and lit it up. It guided him up the mountain side until he could see steel fighting. He hid behind a snowbank watching the action, a certain piece was missing. "Where is the damn baby?!" Thinking about saving the hippogryphs their trouble he charged out to steel. "Your honor may have killed an innocent child! Where is it?" He saw the light grow brighter. "Fine, Deal with your fight. If I find that child with even a scratch, I'll give you a whole new fight." He dashed into the cave following the increasingly brighter light. He was hoping that he wasn't going to meet anything aggressive. If only this meeting wasn't so violent. Study opportunity wasted. 

Edited January 10, 2015 by purple.teal

[Jack Baker 698]

@@purple.teal,

"He's not here! He's with Lightning, now quit your complaining," Steel said to Everlast, shaking his head. "He's just fine, and he managed to lead me here. You have no right to yell at me; I know what I am doing." With that, he turned around and ventured deeper into the cave.

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

@@Pripyat Pony,

 

"Clover!" Bliss hugged her alicorn friend, "thank goodness he didn't hurt you at least!" She held the baby tightly in one of her hooves as she lit up her horn displaying he ruined wings. "The horrible beast...if this is his version of fun...Gah..." she quenched back her tears, fearing she wouldn't enjoy the feeling of flight again for several weeks till her feathers grew back, she darted back. "Where's Hurricane???" @Houndoom,

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

@@Lightning Bliss, Clover returned the hug, relieved that Lightning was alright. Well, apart from her wings, but that was something which would eventually get better. "I don't know," she replied to Lightning's question, "But I will focus on her and see if I can find her. We ought to help out that female hippogryph, too."

[Hurricane 159]

((Sorry guys, I've been super busy. I shouldn't happen again though.))

While Linghtning and Clover's fiasco had been happening, Hurricane was in a small cave about the size of a small room by herself. A stone had been rolled in front of the enterance preventing her escape. The only source if air and light was a small hole in the rock. It wasn't quite large enough to stick her hoof through, but her muzzle could stick out if she pressed her face up against it. She had been trying to escape by body slamming the stone, bucking it, and rearing up on it, but it was too heavy. It was placed there on account of her being "too defiant and rambunctious." According to the hippogryphs. She couldn't hear anything and had no idea what was happening to Clover, Lightning Bliss and the others. "Help!" She shouted hoping her friends were the only ones that could hear her. "I'm over here!"

[OG Blaze 269]

Blaze trudged through snow to the entrance of the cave reluctantly. Every fiber of his being wanted to chase down the criminals and find the others, but he knew the creatures had home field advantage out here in the Mountain like Tundra. Steel Tempest walked down further into the cave and Blaze regrouped with Everlast. "Even if we do find them Everlast what then? Our magic is useless against them and QuickDraw and Steel Tempest refuse to play tactics. For Now at least." Blaze looked around the cave, "And where's Lightning Bliss's little friend?" He asked curiously.

 

@@purple.teal, @@Lightning Bliss, @@Pripyat Pony, @

[purple.teal 50]

@

"If we find them-" Everlast turned to his Alicorn friend. "I think we run. We can't fight them. Hopefully even the pegasus knows fighting is suicidal. However, if he can distract the guards and buy us all enough time to regroup and find each other, then we can get out of here together, safe and sound. Regarding the kidnapped child... Steel says it already ran off to find Lightning Bliss."

 

He held up the charm in front of him. "First off, it should be easy to find Clover with this thing, and hopefully she will have more information on where the other mares are."

[OG Blaze 269]

"As much as I'd hate to run, you're right, this battle is lost, but even when we were all together they split us up and still defeated us." Blaze looked at the totem that had once been used to find himself. He wasn't sure what would happen when the others would be found. A diversion seemed like a good idea, averting any head on Attack would be the best possible chance of saving the mares. Blaze put his head down to look at the ground, "We just can't get a break, can we?"

 

@@purple.teal, @,

[Jack Baker 698]

Quickdraw had arrived at the mountain, not knowing where exactly to go. Everlast was right; they should have planned this ahead of time. If only Steel didn't run off with the baby and try to take on a mountain full of hippogryphs by himself.

 

He's doing exactly what caused him to be a wandering samurai in the first place... he thought, looking around. Suddenly, he heard shouting coming from somewhere... turning his head left, he saw a cave entrance covered by a large boulder. Listening closely, he could hear Hurricane call for help.

 

"Hurricane! It's Quickdraw!" he yelled to her. "Hold on, let me get you out of there!" He loaded his gun with an explosive shell and aimed it at the rock.

 

"Stand back, it's gonna blow!" He pulled the trigger, and the rock exploded into tiny pieces. Quickdraw coughed at the smoke from the explosion as he walked into the dark cave, looking around.

 

"Hurricane? Where are you?"

[Hurricane 159]

Hurricane came out of the shadows from the back of the cave coughing from the smoke caused by the explosion. "I'm right here." she said as she approached Quickdraw. There was a serious look about her. She was still concerned about Cliver and Lighting Bliss and had a burning anger for the hippogryphs who put her in her rocky prison. "Thanks for getting me out of here." She said. "We need to find Lighting and Clover and make sure they're alright."

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

@@Pripyat Pony, @, @, @@purple.teal, @,

 

The baby cried in terror at the sound of an explosion that appeared to come up alongside their cave area. Dust and bits of rock from their celing threatning to cave them in if they didn't move soon.

 

"Shh!" Bliss held the child, "dang it what was that?!" She lit up her horn again, dazed and confused.

 

She shook her head getting the dust off her, then nodded to Clover. "Well Clover, I'm hoping that was Hurricane, otherwise...it wasn't a good thing...But if you think we have the time to save that other female gryphon Stormwing, then we better hurry up and find her. My gut tells me our stallions are already here to help us...and they got their hooves full."

[purple.teal 50]

Everlast heard an explosion and felt the ground shudder. "Alright then, no time to loose!" He took off, hoping Blaze would stay with him. While splitting up would be good to cover more ground to find everyone, It would be counter productive to gathering the group. As he ran, He dropped orbs of magical light to show which way he came from. 

 

As he went, he would watch the totem. As it dimmed, he would turn around to another path until it brightened again. Eventually he could see another light up ahead. 

 

He sprinted to it, not caring what the source was, anything to escape the darkness of the caves. Watching that as he did, the charm became exponentially brighter. "Looks like we found someone."

[Jack Baker 698]

"Right," Quickdraw said, shouldering his gun. "Speaking of which, do ya know where they could be? Where those hippogryphs might'a taken them?" He looked around, then looked at Hurricane. "Also, you still got yer weapon with ya? If not..." He looked at his gun, then offered it to her, pointing the end of it to her. "You can use mine. It's a bit heavy, so be careful. I wanted to fight these things with my bare hooves anyway, if we saw any."

 

Meanwhile, Steel was in another part of the cave, looking for the mares. He thought he could hear voices... feminine ones... and a baby crying. Determining he was on the right track, he kept walking. Raze quietly followed behind him, having just caught up to him.

[Hurricane 159]

Hurricane considered the weapon offered to her. "Thanks, but my dagger would probably be better. I'm more of a quick, agile fighter. That thing would probably just slow me down." She reached into her wing and grabbed her weapon of choice. "Lighting and Clover should be in that direction." She said pointing with her hoof. "Actually, I think I can make out a faint sparkle in the distance." She noticed. "It could be one of them."

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

@@Lightning Bliss, "She's only in the next cave, and she helped you so much, we'd be fools to leave her here at the mercy of Roc and the others," Clover replied. She of course didn't know that Stormwing had crippled Roc and that he was no longer a danger to anypony. "I'll quickly go and get her, I can be there and back in a moment."

 

Clover used her magic to teleport herself next to Stormwing, who jumped nervously. Clover reassured her by stepping out so that the female hippogryph could see her, and Stormwing recognised her as the mare she'd seen on the strange little screen. "Come with me," Clover said to her. "Both of you. You can't stay here; the roof is shaky, and there's nothing much for you here, anyway."

 

Stormwing considered what Clover had to say, and nodded. Despite Roc being disabled, there was still danger from his friends, for both herself and her foal. She would do better to leave her and perhaps later, try and get to the griffon kingdom. They would always give sanctuary to anypony who asked, whether they be griffon, hippogryph or pony. She picked up Nimbus and tucked the little filly under her wings, before following Clover back to where Lightning and the hippogryph colt were standing.

 

As Clover did so, she heard hooves approaching. Pony hooves, so it had to be one of their friends.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Pripyat Pony

[OG Blaze 269]

Blaze picked up his head and saw Everlast take off in the direction of a loud noise, he then began following behind him. Blaze hoped Everlast knew how the Totem worked because he sure as hell didn't know how. He started conjuring small daggers to produce light to help with Everlasts orbs, in case they ran into anything he would shoot off the daggers and hopefully hit something. "We should split up and cover more ground." Blaze yelled to Everlast.

 

@@purple.teal, @@Lightning Bliss, @, @@Pripyat Pony

[purple.teal 50]

@

 

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.  

Edited January 12, 2015 by purple.teal

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

@@Pripyat Pony,

 

"Alright," Bliss nodded to Clover and waited. She placed the baby down and tucked it under her hindquarters, protecting him should any other foes come their way.

 

That threat came faster then she anticipated...when she heard the baby growl in defense behind them. She whirled around to see what he could be spooked about, and was immideatly slapped agains the ground...the baby just dodging her in the process.

 

"YOU!" Shrieked Berack as he pushed her down harder into the rock, "how dare you leave the nest of Darkclaw! I should tear your wings off!"

 

"You don't," she coughed, "have to worry about that...Roc beat you to it..." she gestured by flapping her wings.

 

"Silence female!"  He raised his talon to slap a cut onto her face...

 

Suddenly once again the baby leapt to her defense, biting down on Berack's talon that held her down. The white gryphon shrieked in terror and yanked back. The baby let go and Bliss quickly snatched him up and tucked him behind her, backing away slowly with her horn out at the ready.

 

"You cursed little runt!" Berack snarled, "you dare attack a beta hippogryph of your tribe?!"

 

"He's just a baby, I'm the one you want!" Bliss whinnied, stomping the ground to get the fool's attention. "You want me not him!"

 

"SILENCE! I'll eat the baby and slash you up before returning you to Darkclaw!" The hippogryph charged at the smaller alicorn and infant, his head and beak extended outward.

 

Bliss reacted as planned, and levitated several large rocks from the ground and began pummbling them at Berack. One large one managed to hit him upside the head, forcing him to fall and slide on his side. While he was dazed Bliss galloped away, the baby instinctively following behind her.

 

@, @, @, @@purple.teal,

 

Suddenly the came to a fork in the cave, not sure where to go from here..."Curses Bliss think!" Her ears went up as she heard the distinct sound of her attacker gathering himself up and was now in pursuit...

 

Then her ears picked up another sound...along with two familiar lights and the smell of pegasus feathers...Hurricane? Everlast? Blaze?

 

She could see the lights of alicorn and unicorn magic get closer.

 

"HERE! HERE!" Bliss whinnied and reared up, shinging her horn brightly, "HERE WE'RE OVER HERE HELP!"

 

"YOU! WRETCHED FEMALE!" Berack found the alicorn along with the infant she protected, and leapt forward to pounce on them again.

 

Bliss whinnied in shock and ducked down, protecting the baby, awaiting for pecks and scratches... Luna help us...!!!

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

@@purple.teal, Clover walked forward towards Everlast. "Don't panic, this hippogryph is on our side," she said. "This is Stormwing, and her foal Nimbus. She's leaving with us."

 

@@Lightning Bliss,

 

Hearing a commotion behind her, Clover half turned. When she saw the hippogryph male attacking Lightning, one of the males who'd attacked them in the cave, and heard his threat to kill her friend and eat the hippogryth colt, Clover saw red. Wheeling around, her horn glowing, Clover put a spell on herself to make her pale grey fur glow like fire, her eyes blaze, and her body grow bigger so that she towered over the male. She remembered what she had thought before, that while it was no use putting spells on these creatures when they were immune, putting a spell on herself to make herself bigger and stronger ought to work. Clover had seen with her own eyes that these hippogryph males only respected size and strength. Now, she was bigger than the alpha male, Darkclaw, and she galloped over to Berack and dealt him a heavy hoof across his head.

 

"LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!" Clover yelled angrily, her voice magically magnified like that of a raging minotaur. She turned and gave Berack a double hoofed kick, using all her magically enhanced strength to do so. Clover knew full well that this kind of spell would tire her, so she wanted to get the full use out of it before she had to take it off.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Pripyat Pony

[Jack Baker 698]

@@Lightning Bliss,

Steel looked closely ahead, and saw Lightning Bliss about to be assaulted, but being protected by Clover, along with some lights that appeared to be from someone else. There was no time to lose. He charged head on, and performed a high kick at Berack's gut, knocking him upward. In the blink of an eye, he unsheathed his katana, and rushed up behind the hippogryph, slicing at him furiously two times, before raising the sword once more.

 

"Die, coward!!" he yelled to Berack as he slammed him down into the ground with his blade.

Edited January 13, 2015 by DJ Rabi Ray Rana

[OG Blaze 269]

Blaze stood aghast as he watched Steel Tempest tear up the Hippogryth with his katana. He hoped that would stop the creature for a little while. Blaze turned his head and also tried to look past the others to see if Hurricane was there. To his surprise she wasn't, Blaze looked around and dashed off into a different direction to try and find the remaining member of the team. "Hurricane where are you? We gotta go now!" He yelled out throughout the area.

@

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

Bliss looked up in awe to see a giant sized Clover defending her's and the infant's life with a powerful spell...but she could sense she wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. But just then Steel came flying through like a bat out of hell, slashing and stabbing at the large brute that dared to threaten her and the child.

 

The baby squwaked and growled, seeming to be cheering Clover and Steel on as they battled Berack back.

 

Bliss held fast to the baby, retreating back into the side of Stormwing and her child as Steel and Clover had the upper hand. Bliss turned to Stormwing and blinked at her and the child...almost feeling like she was seeing herself with the baby in the future like state.

 

"I'll take him if you wish..." Stormwing offered Bliss, lowering her talon, trying to coax the baby to come to her. "It will be difficult but...in time he may grow to see me as his mother...It's rare we hippogryphs have more then one offspring in a clutter of eggs...And even harder when they already attatch themselves but...I can give him a home."

 

"No." Bliss said softly and pushed the female hippogryph's claw down and away. "No...it's ok..." she looked to the baby and he looked up to her. "He's already found a home with me..." She nuzzled the little colt's cheek, with him cooing at her in return. "You hear that little one...you got a home with me...Now come on. Let's go find our friend Hurricane."