private Destiny Askew

[Time Shield 402]

"Don't worry, I promise I will explain everything," the unicorn said, nodding to Wilhelm.  He turned to address the rest of the ponies as well, "It may not seem it, but the five of you are going to be extremely important to the future of Equestria.  It is somewhat of a long story, and if you'll all take a seat around the fire, I can tell it to you.  But before we get started..."

 

He looked up above the clearing at the sky, pointing with his hoof, and then looked back at Wilhelm.  "That star, the dim one right next to the Horsehead Nebula... could you by chance tell me the name of it?  I just wanted to confirm something that's bothering me."

 

((If you want to answer him, make an Astronomy roll.))

[Dust and Memories 557]

Wilhelm looked at the star for a moment, thinking. Absentmindedly, he drew a star map in the ground with his hoof, looked at it, and then erased it. Finally, hesitantly, he said "I... believe that star is nameless. It does have a designation number, NGC something something, but I'm afraid I don't remember it at the moment. Why?"

[Time Shield 402]

The unicorn nodded, "That's all right, your answer's good enough.  Few ponies would know that it has a designation number at all.  I just needed to be sure you were indeed Wilhelm de Winter."  He walks over by the campfire and sits down, and then gestures for the rest to follow.

 

The unicorn would wait for the others to sit before speaking, "Let me start by saying: what I spoke of in the letters is the truth.  As you've no doubt felt around you, Equestria is beginning to crumble, but the threat is much closer and more dangerous than anypony realizes.  Very soon, events will occur that will bring about the destruction of the Everfree Forest, and from there, the rest of Equestria will follow."

 

"But it can still be prevented," he continued.  "Not just by the actions of great warriors or champions, but by a select few.  Each of you has talents that will play a part in preventing the catastrophe and saving everypony.  It may not be clear how yet, but it will happen, I'm sure of it."

 

((I'd like to wait and let everyone catch up, or at least for Hidden Antler and Beraha to post.))

 

---

 

((Ok, I'm just going to move along with things.))

 

After only a brief pause, the unicorn levitated a branch and began sketching a simple drawing of Canterlot and its mountain in the dirt, and then said, "First, I'll start with the details that I know of.  Wilhelm, you're already aware that Canterlot has been gathering an attack force, and constructing weapons of war.  The logical explanation is that they're planning a move to strike against the Crystal Empire and King Sombra in the north."  He gives a slight confirming nod to those who may have still thought the Crystal Empire's return was just a rumor, and added the Crystal Empire to his drawing far north of Canterlot.

 

"However, what you're probably not aware of is their first staging point.  Princess Cadence will order the fleet to the Everfree Forest, using the ancient ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters as an outpost."  Levitating the branch, he added the Everfree Forest south of Canterlot, and a square representing the ruins.  He explained, "Building up the ruins to serve as an effective outpost will require many resources, which they will harvest from the surrounding forest.  Even the magical creatures within will be no match again the might of the fleet."  He added X's in the forest surrounding the ruins as he spoke.  "Within a few short months, there will be little left of the forest, and they will move on with the next stage of their plan."

 

"But ask yourselves: why use the Everfree Forest as a staging ground for an assault on King Sombra?  It would make more sense to place an outpost between Canterlot and the Crystal Empire..."  He circles the area between the two in the drawing as he says this.  "...Yet they are building it to the south instead."  He looks up from the drawing and says, "It's because the ultimate target isn't Sombra, and never was.  It's the rest of Equestria."

 

He hesitates to let this point sink in, and in case anypony had any questions.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Time Shield

[Midnight_Aurora 571]

Aurora says, "I may not be good and may be afraid of flying animals but I will not stand still while the animals and their natural home."

 

There is a clear hint of anger in her voice before she goes quiet again.

 

"But how will we stop them? That far outnumber us. Also, as you said, they are far stronger. My animal friends will not be able to do anything to save their homes." She says in the quiet voice.

[Dust and Memories 557]

"What?!" Wilhelm said, furious. "If this is true, you're saying that Cadance plans to destroy Equestria! What justification do you have for this?" He paused for a moment, thinking. "No..no, we don't need justification. I've seen the signs, I just couldn't...wouldn't...listen. Even if Sombra tried to attack the invasion fleet, nothing in the Crystal Empire would require so much power. I've seen the statistics; with their full armaments, two squadrons of Arrow-classes could subdue the Crystal Empire, three if Sombra shows up. There's no justification for outfitting seven squadrons and planning to build three Harmony-Class Prototypes."

 

He had risen from his stump T some point, but now he sat down, slightly abashed at his earlier tirade, but still angry- at a different target. Wilhelm slowly and deliberately took off his glasses, cleaned the lenses, and put them back on. Then, in a dangerously calm tone of voice, he said "Tell me what I need to do. I have access to the blueprints for the classes of airships and weapons in the Equestrian Army; given time and resources, I could devise a way to strike against the Princess herself. First, we may want to destroy the Unifying Harmony at her drydocks. The resources required to rebuild a ship of that scale would be immense, and buy us time to do whatever we need to do."

Edited June 2, 2015 by Orion Caelum

[Time Shield 402]

"Time is what we need most," the unicorn replied, "so when we get the opportunity we should indeed make that strike against that ship.  I am not recommending a strike against the Princess though.  It is unlikely to succeed at this stage, as they've undoubtedly prepared for resistance."  He looks over at Aurora and adds, "Plus, as you've said, we are so few, with so little in the way of the time and resources we need."

 

He continued, "I have a plan, however, and it's the reason I gathered the five of you.  As you've probably noticed, I know a lot about what's going on, and in addition to what I've already told you, there's one more thing that I know: a way to stop them that they would never expect."  He takes a deep breath before saying what is probably the most cryptic sentence he's spoken tonight, "I know how we might prevent it from ever happening in the first place."

[Dust and Memories 557]

Wilhelm tilted his head to the side quizzically. "Before it ever..." He put a hoof to his temples. "So, either we travel back in time and somehow save the princesses, creating a massive paradox which could possibly lead to a magically-induced tachyspatial reflex-recovery time loop, or we somehow destroy six squadrons of heavily-armed airships, each squadron holding five ships, plus whatever ground troops may be present at the installation- likely over a hundred, if what you've told us is true. With the five of us." Wilhelm laughed bitterly. "Neither one of those seems either possibke or palatable. I assume you have a third option, however."

Edited June 2, 2015 by Orion Caelum

[Time Shield 402]

((Okay, this is going to be a long one...))

 

With surprising seriousness, the unicorn says, "You're actually not that far off on your first guess as you might think, though not quite in the way that you described it.  Perhaps it would be easier if I explain how I came to know everything I've talked about tonight."  He climbed back to his hooves and explained, "You may think that the downfall of Equestria began with Nightmare Moon's return, but it began long, long before that.  Many years, in fact."

 

He begins recounting his story, "First of all, my name is Time Shield.  I was young back then, not even having discovered what my talent could be, though I was the oldest pony I knew of that still had no cutie mark.  One day, while travelling on the road to Baltimare, I was struck by an intense headache that caused me to collapse to the ground.  During those few seconds, a flood of images flashed through my mind: images of Canterlot ruled by a pair of princesses instead of one... of the long fabled Elements of Harmony, embodied in the flesh... of strange creatures, chaos and confusion, but through it all, the spread of greatness and kindness throughout the lands of Equestria.  I didn't know at the time if the cause of this was unicorn magic, some kind of psychic vision, or what.  All I knew was, in the next seconds, it was over and gone, and those images faded just as quickly as they were shown to me."

 

He looked back at his cutie mark and said, "When I came to, I discovered that my cutie mark had appeared while I was unconscious.  I spent years trying to understand what had happened, and what it had to do with my destiny.  But it wasn't my only struggle; since then, I have been plagued almost every night by terrible nightmares, with images starkly different than what I had seen in that one prior instant.  Visions of Equestria crumbling, and dark forces spreading across all corners the land.  Sometimes I would even see very specific things, but I always dismissed them as mere nightmares or paranoia."

 

"That is, until the one-thousand year celebration of the Summer Sun festival, when Nightmare Moon returned.  I knew I had seen the same events before, in my nightmares.  Even then, I couldn't believe it was more than just coincidence, and found myself denying that I could have possibly known about it in advance.  But as the rest of the year went by, more and more of my visions came to pass.  I still held out hope that I was just crazy or something, especially since one of the visions seemed flat-out impossible.  But then, it happened: the Crystal Empire returned.  At that point, I could deny it no longer."

 

"That's when everything became clear to me, and I finally understood what had happened on that day so long ago.  What I saw was a glimpse of the future... the correct future.  It wasn't a psychic vision, or even unicorn magic; it was my own memories to come, being erased and replaced.  For that moment, I was in tune with the fabric of time itself, and I alone was aware that something had changed it.  Somepony had gone into the past from beyond these events and altered something, causing the future to rewrite itself."

 

"So you see," Time Shield told them, "I know what my cutie mark symbolizes now.  I'm meant to protect the timeline, to restore it back to the way it was."  With a slight smile, he added, "This is also why I called you all here.  The glimpses of my future memories may be hazy and incomplete, but they included the five of you.  I know you're each meant to play an important role in saving Equestria, and I also know that it starts here, in the Everfree Forest, this very night."

Edited June 2, 2015 by Time Shield

[Alex Van Gamer 230]

"Whoooa. That's kinda freaky."Alex blurted out after her long time of silence. "Seems like something that would happen in some science fiction novel, or even in on of my arcade games!" She added with a smile of interest. "But, how do you know how we're supposed to fixed this crazy time-whimey thing? Like, the last part of it, where we're supposed to reverse this whole thing if it doesn't mean having us travel through time.."

[Dust and Memories 557]

Wilhelm whistled, long and low. "Visions of the future? Well, Time Shield, you are a very interesting pony." Thinking for a moment, Wilhelm said "So you're saying that someone went into the past and screwed it up, resulting in today? Well, how are we going to stop them doing that? I assume we have to find some way to get back in time first, and then we have to find the Princesses... Hell, I might even get to talk to myself." Wilhelm forced a smile, but the unspoken further question was "What if we were the ones who accidentally screwed up the timeline?" He leaned forward from his stump. "Where do we start?" On the map previously created, Wilhelm picked up the discarded stick and drew a H over a location which corresponded with a place on the coast of Equestria, in the north. "As a note, that's the location of the construction facility; Dunwall Province. I'll elaborate further when the time comes."

[Time Shield 402]

"Well, to answer both of your questions," Time shield said to Alex and Wilhelm, "I'm not entirely clear on everything we need to do; the visions aren't as detailed as that.  Some of it we'll have to figure out for ourselves.  I think for starters we need to figure out what the change was in the first place.  That seems like a nearly impossible task, but one of the visions I saw involved the six of us talking to somepony else who lives in the Everfree Forest, so we might want to start there."  He sighed, "Unfortunately, I don't remember what they looked like."  He turned to Beraha and Hidden Antler, "You two are the most familiar with the inhabitants of the forest; is there anypony else besides yourselves who lives there?"

[A Joe in the Bush 255]

"Other Ponies living in the Everfree? Well, there are the Deer tribes, but you're vision made it sound like it's a singular pony." Hidden Antler thought back over his explorations of the forest. Who else had he met in here? Then it hit him.

 

"Zeccora! There's a Zebra Shaman who lives around here. She seemed quite knowledgeable about Odd Magics the one time I talked to her."

[Midnight_Aurora 571]

Aurora says, "She is also a good Alchemist. She makes the best tea I know."

 

Aurora has heard and meet her before. Some of her healing herbs come from the shaman.

 

Aurora is sitting between Beraha and Hidden. She stays clear, for now, of the Pegasus she doesn't know.

[Time Shield 402]

"Alchemist, hm?" Time Shield repeated, thinking about it.  "That makes sense... I seem to recall something about a potion in one of my visions..."  He put a hoof to the side of his head, thinking hard about it.  "I just can't remember though... it's in one of those hazy parts of my memory."  Putting his hoof back down, he asked, "Is Zecora's home far from here?  Do you think it's safe to travel that deeply into the forest at this time of night?  We can wait until morning if you'd all like, but it might cost us some valuable time.  Either way, I trust your judgement."

 

Looking over at Alex, he said, "Also, what you were saying earlier about actually undoing it... I assume we'll all have to go.  I just have the sense that it will be important for all of us to be there when the time comes.  And I believe I know a way the actual travel through time can be done, but it's too dangerous to attempt it just yet."

[Midnight_Aurora 571]

Aurora says, "Her place should be just off the main path to the castle of the two sisters. I have been there a few times."

 

She thinks for a moment. She looks to the everfree as if she might know something about the creatures that live there.

 

((Rolling a Knowledge (nature) Check. This is for what my chara knows about the ever free))

[Dust and Memories 557]

Wilhelm steepled his hooves together. "With my and Hidden Antler's archery expertise, I suspect that we could make the journey, especially since we have experts on the Everfree among us. It's dangerous, but as Time Shield has said, time is of the essence."

[Midnight_Aurora 571]

Aurora is aware that between here and Zecora's place, there would normally be any variety of creatures that might be encountered. Given the time of year though, and the nightfall, the most likely to encounter are small packs of creatures commonly called "phantom cats", shadowy creatures about the size of a medium-sized dog. Alone, they're pretty docile and hunt for smaller prey. In numbers, however, they have been known to take down a timber wolf together.

 

The weather's warming, so there's also the slim chance of encountering a cockatrice.

 

Aurora says, "If we are careful enough we might be able to get to her. However, we might encounter a phantom cat. It is about the size of a dog and in larger packs can be a pain. They can take down a Timberwolf in large enough numbers. Other then the pack thing they prefer smaller prey. There is also a chance of the Cockatrice. This time of year they are out and about. Plus it is night time."

 

Aurora got up and got ready to go. "Me hidden and Beraha could lead the way. I can handle a phantom cat or two. But a pack will need a bigger deterrent."

[A Joe in the Bush 255]

"I'll go on ahead of the rest of you, that way if I see signs of Timber wolf Packs, I can lead them a different way. Or Beraha could probably send them away without fighting. Either way, I see no reason to not go right now, unless we need supplies." He pulled out his bow and waited for Time Shield to decide.

[Time Shield 402]

"I think I have enough supplies to bring along either way," Time Shield said.  "But yes, if everypony is okay with moving out now, we can hopefully be in and out of the forest before the night is over."  He begins to pack everything up from the campsite.

 

((Everyone please make Perception rolls (it's just under the attributes on the left side of the sheet for those that don't know) and post the results in the other thread.  Aurora, add +5 to your Perception because of your Acute Hearing advantage.))

((Or wait... duh.  It actually lists "Hearing" on the character sheet under Perception, and already has the +5 for you in it, doesn't it?  Just roll Hearing then, everyone.  Sorry, I'm new to this character sheet program and didn't know it breaks it down for you.  Useful!))

---

 

As everypony prepares to move on into the forest, Aurora's sharp ears suddenly pick up an unexpected noise, the muffled sound of hoofsteps in the foliage nearby.  No pony in the group is in that direction, so it wasn't coming from any of them.  Somepony else is nearby, somepony spying on the group!  Whoever it is hasn't realized that Aurora's noticed them yet.

 

((As a quick note, if Aurora chooses to get everypony else's attention, Hidden will be surprised for a moment due to his critical failure and won't be able to react for a second or two.))

Edited June 3, 2015 by Time Shield

[Midnight_Aurora 571]

Aurora steps over to Time Shield. She taps him and in a whisper says, "Somepony not in our group is that way. I don't think they notice I can hear them yet. What should we do?"

 

Her voice is so quiet right now that only a really really good listener or the one she is talking to can hear her. Her wings flutter in a way that both points and doesn't point at the same time. As far as the hoof steps are concerned she just fluttered her wings. The group however can tell only the pointing wing is fluttering.

[Time Shield 402]

Time Shield froze for a moment after Aurora whispered to him.  He saw where she was indicating, and gave the slightest of nods to her in acknowledgement.  He casually walked over and started taking down his tent so as not to draw attention, but instead of rolling it back up, he lifted it with his levitation spell and abruptly tossed it like a net towards the bush.

 

There was a cry of surprise, and the pony who was concealed in the bushes tried to escape, but was tangled in the tent and tripped.  "Quick!" Time Shield exclaimed, "Stop them!"  The pony stuck his unicorn horn through the tent fabric in the meantime and ripped it, trying to get out.

[Dust and Memories 557]

Wilhelm started at the noise, turning abruptly and twisting off the top of his cane to reveal a gleaming silver sword. Leaping into the air, wings outstretched, he landed on top of the spying pony hooves-first. Drawing his sword back and preparing to impale them, he thought better of it, and merely hoisted them into the air and held the blade against the mysterious unicorn's neck. Breathing hard from the sudden exertion, Wilhelm stared directly into the unicorn's eyes. There was no mercy hidden behind the glasses. "Who are you, and what are you doing here? I... heavily advise against... lying or attempting to escape, by the way." To make his point obvious, he tapped the blade against the other pony's neck.

[Midnight_Aurora 571]

Aurora flutters up to him and says, "Sorry for my friend's actions, but why were you following us? If your wondering, I have sensitive ears."

 

Aurora is hovering near him. Her wings not allowing for higher then this and she can't fly fast either. She awaits the unicorn's response.

 

Beraha has his horn ready just incase he needs to control the plants to trap him. (GM. Can you do his charasheet stuff. He isn't gone but is in one of his modes.)

Edited June 3, 2015 by Midnight_Aurora

[Time Shield 402]

((No problem))

 

The pony appears to be an average-looking unicorn, with a brown coat, red mane and blue eyes.  He has a cutie mark of a mushroom.  He cowers at Wilhelm's sword at his neck and stammers, "I-I'm sorry!  I was just... just walking by here, t-trying to find my way back to the path... then I saw your campfire a-and... and heard you talking... I-I didn't meant to eavesdrop, honest!"  He seems terrified.

[Dust and Memories 557]

Wilhelm looked closely at the pony, then lowered his sword and carefully put the pony on the forest floor. Sighing. he said "I do apologize for that. However, we may need verification. While I am reluctant to use sodium thiopental on you, I will if I have to. However, if my friends and comrades believe that you are to be trusted, you will be free to go." Wilhelm alighted in front of the pony, sheathing the sword back into his cane. "So? Time, Beraha, Aurora, Hidden?"

Edited June 4, 2015 by Orion Caelum