private Quest for the Forbidden Temple-Take 2-RP

[Ice Storm 1,020]

Ice Storm watched in shock as Luna reacted to the small whimper that she had let out when Daylight hugged her. She immediately felt bad for Daylight. He hadn't known better. She didn't even know of the gash herself until he hugged her so it was, in a way, a good thing that he had hugged her as hard as he did. When he apologized to her for hugging her too tightly, she smiled and nodded. "It's okay. Like I said, I wasn't even aware that my shoulder was hurt until you hugged me, and your actions were out of love not malice so there's no harm done," she smiled to him as Luna began to apologize to him herself about her outburst. She told him that she was just worried about everypony and the strain of the last few days had been that of plenty.

 

Then Electrobolt came over to them and began to ask the princess if there was anything that he could be of assistance with, but the princess once again assured everypony that she was fine and asked him to tend to some pony else that needed it. She then turned back to Ice as she spoke about needing to keep her alive no matter what and immediately told her that she shouldn't talk like that. That everypony was going to make it and that her sister had tasked her with this mission because Celestia knew that she could do it. She added that even without her help that they would have been successful, but now that she was here, she was going to be with them every step of the way, and even though she was battered, she was far from being dead. Ice smiled at her before gingerly scooting closer next to her. Even she had to admit that even with Luna as beaten as she is, she's still never felt safer anywhere else other than in her presence.

 

Her smile grew though once Luna had told her that she would drink once we reach the resting place for the night, remembering earlier that she had stated that this place wasn't exactly safe. Ice had to agree. It was too easy for the winds to breach that door considering that there wasn't one and move into the forward part of the room. Luna also mentioned that she was going to take care of her shoulder though, and this made Ice smile even more.

 

What she did next though surprised her again, as she felt Luna's tongue brushing across the gash on her shoulder. She could feel it starting to heal, bet let out a few small whimpers as Luna's tongue pulled the wound open a small bit from the friction before it sealed up. A few more moments and the wound was gone. She felt a great amount of relief and scooted even closer to Luna being careful to not accidentally lay on one of her own wounds. 

 

Daylight then mentioned something about her and Luna being busy, which made her blush a small bit before he went over to check on Colt. She was actually worried about him too. She knew that he and Iron wing appeared to be as close as she was with Luna. She could imagine the thoughts that was going through his mind, and more importantly, how he must hate her right now considering she decided to move on for the night without Iron Wing.

 

She then began to look around the room for a place to lay where she wouldn't make a mess on everypony once she fell asleep. "As much as I would love to lay here and sleep next you Mother," she said resting her head against Luna's shoulder hoping she wouldn't take offense. Now that she'd expressed how she felt and how happy it seemed to make Luna, she didn't think she would, but she'd find out soon enough.. "As you said, this immediate location isn't ideal. While I'm certain that there is no exclusively safe place in what we are looking for, while we're looking for a better place to stay for the night, we'll need to look for someplace excluded for me...... I still haven't outgrown that issue..." she mentioned to Luna knowing that she would know what she was talking about without having to emphasize anymore. After all, Luna had to wash enough of her bedsheets while she lived at the castle to probably never be able to forget it.

 

"So if you could help me find somewhere that I can sleep where I won't make a mess on everypony..." she added a small tear starting to come to her eye as she was getting very near her breaking point for the day as the possible loss of Iron began to sink in even more. She'd never experienced death before... Abandonment yes, but not death, and it was beginning to hurt her a lot more than she was expecting. She desperately hoped that Luna had some other idea of how to prevent a mess rather than her sleeping alone because that's honestly the last thing Ice wanted to do right now.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Ice Storm

[Electrobolt 2,069]

After having asked Luna whether he could help her out or anything, she then said that she was fine and to tend to anypony else who needed it. Even though he believed Luna needed the help now, he simply nodded as he looked around the area. He was surprised a bit when he had earlier seen Luna shove Daylight out of the way, but he believed she had some sort of reason for doing so. *Hopefully she's right, and that she doesn't really need the aid...* he thought, before his eyes caught onto Luna again, as she was licking on the wound on Ice's shoulder.

 

*Um... Alright then...* he thought, blinking before turning his head away. *Could have gone without seeing that...* With a sigh, he looked around a little bit more before hearing Alex speak up, saying that he would take him to scout the cave out, before asking for Colt to give Electrobolt the torch. Daylight then chimed in as well about the torch, before using his magic to light the area up. It was then that Colt gave the torch to Alex before saying that he had no word in this before saying they already had a pony that knew this area, saying there was no need to risk scouting ahead without knowing what would be out there.

 

At that one bit about the 'not knowing what was out there', Electrobolt had a slightly confused expression on his face. *Isn't that... Kind of the point of scouting ahead?* he thought. *To know what is up ahead for the others in the group?* Afterwards, Electrobolt shook his head before turning around, approaching Alex's side. Once he was next to him, Electrobolt spoke to him. "Well, Alex... If you're good to go, so am I. I got your back, alright?" He then nodded, as he waited to see if Alex was going to scout ahead or if he would listen to Colt. Either way, he would be there with Alex.

[MyLittlePonyTales 273]

After that moment was done, Ice exchanged some words to Princess Luna that made Alex agree with her. "She's right. Everypony here is an essential part of the group. Everypony gets the same amount of attention and treatment. We're a team now, your Highness." Alex said to Princess Luna in a confident yet gentle voice. With that said, Princess Luna seemed more lenient to accept help but only when they reached a safe haven.

The princess gave a huff of annoyance. She really wished everypony would stop fussing over her and take care of themselves and their comrades. As a ruler, everypony was above herself when it came to needs. Sure, she was fatigued, magic-less, cut, bruised, and bleeding, but when Ice Storm had a gash in her leg and Colt was at least as badly injured as herself, well.... it didn't really matter who was hurt, so long as it was somepony in addition to herself, they always took precedence.

 

 

 

She then began to look around the room for a place to lay where she wouldn't make a mess on everypony once she fell asleep. "As much as I would love to lay here and sleep next you Mother," she said resting her head against Luna's shoulder hoping she wouldn't take offense. Now that she'd expressed how she felt and how happy it seemed to make Luna, she didn't think she would, but she'd find out soon enough.. "As you said, this immediate location isn't ideal. While I'm certain that there is no exclusively safe place in what we are looking for, while we're looking for a better place to stay for the night, we'll need to look for someplace excluded for me...... I still haven't outgrown that issue..."

”Shhh, shhh.” Luna cooed, rubbing her neck along Ice's back. Ice had never before called her "mother", and it felt strange to have such a word placed upon herself. Perhaps Ice had lost more blood than Luna originally thought, and was a little delirious. Luna knew they were close, but they were just friends, and Ice Storm already had a mother... But, there were far more important matters at hoof to worry about that. ”Everything will be alright.” Luna wasn't even sure exactly how, but it was her job to keep everypony calm and make them feel safe, even when she felt neither of those things inside herself.

 

 

 

"Here" the dragon said giving Alex the torch "I have no word in here, what I have to say is of few importance but sticking together could be our best option, we already have a pony that knows this place there is no need for you to risk going out there without knowing what could be waiting for you".

Luna had finished tending to Ice Storm, and had been nuzzling her comfortingly, when she heard Alex mention that a few of them were going to scout ahead. She was about to protest, when Colt did it for her. She nodded in agreement, getting to her feet and starting to head away from the group.

 

”Colt is right. Why scout ahead when I've got a map right here?” She tapped the side of her head with a hoof, and then winced. She probably hit it on her way down the stairs, and hadn't noticed the tenderness in her rush to care for Ice Storm. ”I'll go on ahead, and make sure everything is safe. Stay hear and get everyone read to go. There are still those that need healing before they're fit to travel. That means you too, Colt.” She shot him a menacing glare, as if to say, 'I mean it!' ”I'll be back shortly. Please, rest, and get yourselves hydrated. Check the supplies; if there's anything to eat, now is the time. I doubt there is anything of much use down here, but I'll be on the look out.”

 

Having sat down and rested for a few moments, she was able to set her horn aglow, lighting her way as she begun moving down the dark corridor. Her whole body was aching, but she forced her steps to be level and steady, and her head to be held high. She couldn't let on just how bad her current state really was. She had to be strong, for the lot of them. Her confidence and perseverance strengthened their own, and so too, her weakness could make the quest seem hopeless.

Edited August 31, 2013 by MyLittlePonyTales

[Alex Night 870]

 

 

No response came from the dragon he was a little immerse in the consequences this could have, "if they face something over there I wont be able to help them, not like this" Colt thought considering how important this ponies where for him right now. It was the voice from daylight what made him snap out of his thoughts. "Here" the dragon said giving Alex the torch "I have no word in here, what I have to say is of few importance but sticking together could be our best option, we already have a pony that knows this place there is no need for you to risk going out there without knowing what could be waiting for you". 

 

 

Alex looked towards the dragon that was holding the torch.  He seemed conflicted about letting Alex and Electrobolt go on their own within the mysterious palace.  Regardless, Colt gave Alex the torch before giving him some advice about not going deeper within.  Alex understood his concerns and did bring a good point, but the pony that does know the way is deeply injured.  "I understand, Colt.  However, I'm still going.  I do favor the idea of sticking together as I don't want to go further without a partner."  Alex said to Colt, putting his eyes on Electrobolt with a confident grin.

 

 

 

Afterwards, Electrobolt shook his head before turning around, approaching Alex's side. Once he was next to him, Electrobolt spoke to him. "Well, Alex... If you're good to go, so am I. I got your back, alright?" He then nodded, as he waited to see if Alex was going to scout ahead or if he would listen to Colt. Either way, he would be there with Alex.

 

 

Alex nodded to Electrobolt who stood by his side, ready to head out with him.  "Alright then, Bolt.  Whatever happens, we stick together."  Alex said to Electrobolt.  He turned towards the dark corridor only to have a deep blue wing bar that belonged to Princess Luna barring his way.

 

 

 

”Colt is right. Why scout ahead when I've got a map right here?” She tapped the side of her head with a hoof, and then winced. She probably hit it on her way down the stairs, and hadn't noticed the tenderness in her rush to care for Ice Storm. ”I'll go on ahead, and make sure everything is safe. Stay hear and get everyone read to go. There are still those that need healing before they're fit to travel. That means you too, Colt.” She shot him a menacing glare, as if to say, 'I mean it!' ”I'll be back shortly. Please, rest, and get yourselves hydrated. Check the supplies; if there's anything to eat, now is the time. I doubt there is anything of much use down here, but I'll be on the look out.”

 

Alex looked incredulously at the Princess as she spoke to him and the others that she was going to go ahead on her own.  He couldn't understand the logic of her going on her own when she is clearly injured.  He was about to address his concerns to Princess Luna, but she already headed off in a walk with her horn giving off a light.  Alex wasn't one to stay in one place for too long, being impatient as he was.  Although it didn't seem like Princess Luna was going to change her mind about going deeper within the Moon Palace, he did have a different idea.

 

Alex looked towards Electrobolt and hoofed over the torch that Colt gave him.  "Here, hold this for me would ya?  The others could use you.  Also, take this and don't lose it.  Ice could use more water."  Alex said to Electrobolt quickly, pulling out his canteen.  He waterfalled a few gulps of water before capping it and gave that to Electrobolt as well.  He gave the young Earth Pony a quick pat on the back before running after Princess Luna, .

 

He caught up with the Princess of the Night and walked along with her in a carefree stride.  "Since I'm not gonna be able to change your mind about staying with the others, I might as well escort you.  A Princess isn't complete without a bodyguard after all."  Alex said to Princess Luna with a smile on his face.  Plus, he knew better than to tell a Princess what to do when he wasn't given permission to do so.

[Ice Storm 1,020]

Ice listened as Luna explained to her that everything was going to be okay before turning to address the others that were wanting to scout out the rest of the ruins. She made the argument of why search blindly when she had a map in her mind. She made it clear that she wanted everypony to try to rest up as much as possible before beginning to move down the hallway, making especially clear to Colt that she meant him as well. The comment would have made Ice giggle if it wasn't for the fact that she was so exhausted, and hurting too much to find anything overly amusing. She watched as Electro and Alex appeared to be following Luna as well, but that was about as much as she could make out.

 

She could feel her eye lits becoming increasingly heavy as she could feel her body succumbing to it's current state and desire for rest. She knew that sleeping right now wasn't something that should be done because they would be moving at least one more time, assuming her leg would allow for such movement. The pain that was in the leg was still pretty high, but had subsided quite a bit since she landed from the fall down the stairs. She tried to fight it as much as she could, looking over to Colt and Daylight she was trying to think of some way that she could create a conversation to keep herself awake, but it was just too much for her. After a few more moments, her body gave way, and with a gentle whimper, as she has accidentally placed her head on her bad knee, she fell asleep.

[Colt 555]

 

 

”Colt is right. Why scout ahead when I've got a map right here?”

 

The drake sighed in relief and felt for moments a refreshing calm, the moon was right "she knows this place, there is no need for scouting, breaking the group would only make all of us more vulnerable" were the thoughts at Colt's mind as he saw the moon avatar take a reasonable approach on their current status and condition. His mind kept on looking up to the royal alicorn "She is after all a great leader, conscious of the situation and her mind its cool to take the correct decision, she is regal, after all a great princess she is..."

 

 

 

”I'll go on ahead, and make sure everything is safe.

 

 

"...Out of her bucking mind!!!!" the dragon jaw almost hit the ground after the statement from the princess, he was unable to understand what was going on in her mind or how did she got to that conclusion, "She is hurt just look at her gait she is not ok... " the dragon thought as he watched Luna walk away limping "she is exhausted and week, she had to brought a useless piece of meat here after all..." his mind kept on as he cursed himself for being not strong enough to do something about it... "why?...why is she walking away from someone that need her like Ice Storm?... why is she putting herself into risk, and all of them?..."  Colt empty eyes saw the princess walk away his stare showed trouble ad and uneasy mind that only the voice of Alex was able to break.

 

 

 

 "Here, hold this for me would ya?  The others could use you.  Also, take this and don't lose it.  Ice could use more water."

 

"Alex!"  Colt was able to raise his voice just for a moment "If something happens, it doesn't matter how small it is or simple it looks like, you both come here...you bring her back" as he said this the dragon eyes were filled of water and almost broke out in tears, his claws tightened with anger, hate over him and his weakness. That feeling just grow as he saw the pegasus and alicorn disappear into the darkness and then a minute later walk out of the reach of his perception. It was a long cold and terrible minute.

 

"You care for her don't you Daylight..." the dragon said to the unicorn that was still at her side "...For Ice Storm I mean...you were so worried for her when we were at the cave... she needs you and your magic go help her, heal ice and then when you are ready come and heal me... " the dragon coughed a little having some difficulties to breath and because the pain in his back peaked, "Ill wait for you to be ready Daylight" he said to close his eyes, the dragon's ears fluttered and aimed in the direction of the corridor Luna and Alex walked, he will wait, for them, for Daylight... for Iron Wing.@@Dave247, 

[Electrobolt 2,069]

When Alex had spoken to Electrobolt, saying that they should stick together, he gave a nod. He wasn't planning on separating with Alex back there, not wanting him to be alone. But then, before anypony could make a step, Luna walked up to them and said that they didn't need to go, that they had a map to which the princess tapped her head. When she did, Electrobolt noticed her wincing a bit from doing so. *Luna, why are you so insistent on moving around when you're injured...?* he thought, refraining from shaking his head.
 

”I'll go on ahead, and make sure everything is safe."

Upon hearing this, Electrobolt's eyes opened up in shock as he looked at Luna. *You're WHAT???!!* he thought, completely surprised at Luna's decision. *But... But you're injured! If anything were to happen to you...* Electrobolt was just dumbfounded at why she would be doing this. Before he could even say anything, the princess began to walk deeper into the cavern, on her own. After a bit, Alex gave him the torch and then took a few drinks of water out of his canteen before giving it to Electrobolt as well.
 

"Here, hold this for me would ya? The others could use you. Also, take this and don't lose it. Ice could use more water."

"Alex!" Colt was able to raise his voice just for a moment "If something happens, it doesn't matter how small it is or simple it looks like, you both come here...you bring her back"

 

After Alex spoke to Electrobolt about everything, he nodded and was about to say something. But then Colt spoke up as he ended up saying part of what he wanted to say. After he was done speaking, Alex then went off to join up with Luna. After that, Electrobolt sighed and turned around to see the rest of the group, as he saw Ice lying on the floor asleep. Shaking his head, Electrobolt walked over to the group while holding the canteen and the torch, before sitting down near the group but not too close. If Ice Storm was still fast asleep when they needed to move, he would most likely be the one to carry her around. After a bit, he turned around to look at the path that Luna and Alex went down and muttered, "Please be safe, you two..."

[Iron Wing 237]

Iron Wing had a wild and confusing dream as a pain called her back into reality. She woke up and looked around, noticing that she still was within the cavern somewhere. A great pain stung on her side as she saw that the wound had opened again and was bleeding. She tried to fix this the patching, but this wouldn´t hold forever. The sound of grumbling reached her. She stood still for a second, looking alerted with flicked ears. Was that the timberwolf? She had to get to the others somehow, and there was only one way up, so she continued with walking. She was tired and exhausted, wounded and with not the best mood a pony would have. Slowly she went up, the walls of the cavern changed the higher she got. At a point, she realized that the walls were build from pony hooves. Was this… a castle or a fortress? Whatever it was, it meant that it would not far from the surface anymore! She rushed a bit forward into the dark corridors in front of her as… a grumbling came from exactly that direction. From a curve, the timberwolf came into sight, snarling at her. Did it knew that she would come this way and used her disappearance to scout forward?

 

Whatever the reason was, now it was in her way between her and the surface. A bit shaky, she spread her wings and showed the blades again, going into a fighting position. The beast just stared at her, like waiting for a move, or something like that. Was it really that wild? Iron Wing thought about it for a second. It was a strange behavior from a creature like that, and she knew that this one was not normal at all. But this was not important right now since the creature build up in front of her, showing that she would not pass him. The knight started her first attack with great force, and the hard claws and the steel clashed against each other. Again the battle between those two was unleashed and this time they did not give away any chances to defeat the enemy. The sound of battle filled the halls of the cavern and parts of the old castle. The Pegasus was able to push back the giant creature made out of hard wood, passing it. But she could not make a run for the surface as the timberwolf continued with fierce attacks. Luckily Iron Wing was able to go backwards while fighting and so the wolf had to follow her more and more into the old building.

 

At a point, it understood what Iron Wing tried to do… to reach the surface. But this beast was not dumb at all. With a charge of massive power, it takled Iron and pushed her into a wall. The wall broke, since it wasn´t really that thick, but they appeared just one floor below the group of ponies who had found shelter within the old ruins of the castle. Shouting and grumbling the two continued to fight, Iron Wing not in a good condition. Also the wolf had taken some serious wounds already and it got more and more angry not to find a way to give the Pegasus the final blow. Again it run towards Iron, hoping to push her into the next wall, but the knight already had made a hoove step onto the stairs. The head of the creature made it´s impact on Irons front armor plate and she was taken with this train of wood and legs. The wolf run upstairs, Iron Wing tried to slash her blades onto him, but it was no use.

 

The beast run into an entry along a corridor. It pushed Iron against the next wall, breaking into the room where the group found shelter. On the impact with the wall, both enemies lost control of their movements and stumbled a bit. Iron was the first who found her balance again and made some slashes with her blades into the wooden creature, which continued to attack. Both traded some attacks, wood was broken and splinters flew into the air, also sparks from the metal of Iron Wings blades could be seen as they impacted on very dense material. Then they paused as both realized where they were. The timberwolf analyzed the situation, and even with the surprise that was written in their faces, he would not have a chance against that many fighters. Some of them were wounded, but the only interest he had actually were the guard and the dark blue alicorn which emitted a great source of power. He sniffed the air to get Lunas scent, grumbling and snarling and then… he walked away, making an exit out of this delicate situation. He would come back sooner or later to deal with the alicorn and the guard. This combat was too much fun, and he learned that ponies were a challenge. Better than some creatures within the Everfree. Iron meanwhile fell onto the ground, panting hard as she tried to get some air. Her sight blurred and the pain was big and it didn´t take long for her to fall down and rest a bit. She was still awake but not able to speak much. With her open and also new wounds she had from the fight, she would need to be patched up. Luckily she had medical supplies within her saddlebag.

Edited September 10, 2013 by Iron Wing

[Colt 555]

*clasp* the ears of Colt twitched in reaction of far away echoes that had sounded like hooves or chains. *clasp*  the sound became louder as if its source were approaching, making the dragon to focus its mind and senses on it. *Clank* *Bam* *Clasp* from somewhere beyond the corridors something was coming close Colt was now sure of that and he felt fear, what was that? was it after them? was it after Luna and Alex? could he face it in his condition?. "Ice is cold out and wounded, Daylight and Electro... no" the dragon stoped his thinking "they cant risk their lives" slowly the messed up body of the dragon started to react to his thoughts. His muscles tensed up and the pain peeked once more, "Come on move!" the dragon thought.

 

Slowly with his whole body trembling Colt was able to rise up while holding with the wall as help. *THWOMP* *BLAM* a crumbling sound covered the hall and the shock waves from a massive fall was felt in the room "Its coming for us!" the dragon realized as the source was now close enough to even feel it "Day, Bolt!" the dragon turned around to the ponies, for sure they saw the death serious expression of the dragon had while screaming with an almost worn out voice "Take Ice with you and get out of here, I...I... Iron?" the dragon face changed to one of incredulity his eyes filled up with hope and confusion, this was her,it was her spirit her wavelenth.... "She is here" were the only words spelled by Colt's mind the moment the wall behind him crumbled to reveal the battle of the knight and the predator. The echo was deafening the resonance in the room terrible, the dust and rubbish flying every where while beyond that cloud of dirt the clasp of blades confirmed Iron Wing was fighting. The dragon turned to see what his soul was telling, it was then when his eyes saw her again.

 

The incandescent shards of metal and stone lighted the darkness revealing for moments the shapes participants of the confrontation, Colt was unable to see beyond the figure of Iron as he walked to her, slowly and tumbling. Then calm arrived, was she victorious... no that other being was still there he could feel it, hidden in the dark veil of the corridor. That same darkness covered his retreat, Colt was only able to perceive a imposing silhouette dashing away as his heavy steps were felt in the ground and his growls filled the silence of the forsaken castle but it didn't matter. In front of him was Celes tiered injured and panting yet she was there, a few more steps were taken by the drake that fell to his knees just behind Iron Wing. His broken wings were unable to cover her, his wasted strength couldn't lift his arms for an embrace Colt just laid his head against Iron's mane whispering "I knew you will not break your vow...I knew you will be back". A sigh of relief was breathed by the dragon he felt a little of his hope and will come back she was there with them the group did not lost its knight. "You broke my heart for a moment" his soul told hers

Edited September 11, 2013 by Colt

[Dave247 568]

Daylight watched and waited for Colt to reply, and noticed that his eyes were not on him. He waited patiently for Colt, who did not say anything until the noise of Alex’s hoofsteps sounded further away.
 

"Dont use that magic on me Daylight" the dragon said with a slight smile and a shake of his head "The Moon and the leader need you a lot more than me, don't forget that this scales and this bones are a lot more resistant, I can hold this better than those two, help them not me " the Colt said with a straight face and stare to the kind pony.

Day just nodded without saying anything, as he didn’t want to risk being overheard by anypony. He had already known what Colt had just told him, and the only reason he came over here was an excuse to remove himself from the awkwardness that had been going on between Ice and Luna earlier.

Day looked over to see the two stallions ready to go, as well the two mares who were thankfully only nuzzling each other.
To his surprise though, Luna then stood up and without waiting for a response, insisted that she herself to go off ahead having knowledge of the ruins. Looking around, Day noticed that he didn’t seem to be the only one with a shocked expression either, except for Ice who seemed as if she was about to fall asleep. Not wanting to leave Ice by herself in her current state now that Luna had left, he walked over to where she was lying and lay beside her, their coats touching for support, but she seemed not to have noticed though as she had already fallen asleep with her head resting on her knee. Not wanting his light to wake her up, he extinguished his horn as Luna who seemed to be back in a good condition again have rested, had lighted hers meaning that Alex would no longer need the torch.

He looked over to where Alex was, who he noticed was not only shocked, but also slightly annoyed for some reason. Day got the feeling that there was no way he was going to stay here with the rest of the group, and sure enough, he was right. Alex quickly passed over the torch and canteen to a confused looked Electro before running off to catch up to Luna. He continued to watch as Electro walked off, shaking his head and looking rather lost with what to do and was thinking about doing something to console the colt before he heard his name being spoken.
 

"You care for her don't you Daylight..."

Day quickly turned his head to see that Colt was speaking to him again.

 

"...For Ice Storm I mean...you were so worried for her when we were at the cave... she needs you and your magic go help her, heal ice and then when you are ready come and heal me... " the dragon coughed a little having some difficulties to breath and because the pain in his back peaked, "Ill wait for you to be ready Daylight" he said to close his eyes,

The heartfelt words of the dragon touched him deeply. He knew what he had to do, and quickly, confident this time it was the right thing.

However, a sudden loud and metallic distracted him, which seemed to be coming from the top of the staircase. Daylight immediately stood up, and took a few steps forward with a rather stern expression in preparation to defend ice if need be, as the closer it got, the more it sounded like a fight of some sorts.
Due to the extent of both his light and the torch not being able to reach that far, he was not able to see what it was exactly making that noise until it crashed into the ground at the bottom of the stairs. His stern expression quickly turned into one of shock when he realised… was that Iron? And… some kind of wolf made of wood…

Before he was able to get a close enough look at it though, the beast quickly disappeared back the way it came into the darkness. It took awhile for Day to recover though, as he just stood there with a dumbfounded look for a few moments, before shaking his head quickly to clear his thoughts. He watched as he saw Colt stagger over to Iron, before collapsing next to her. despite him being tired, weak and injured, it would not stop his love for what he cared most.
As Daylight watched the two of them, Colt’s previous words echoed through his head again, and the weight of what he must do fell on him again. he knew that it was going to require a lot of energy having to heal both Ice and Colt, and didn’t know if he could test fate for him to survive through it a third time… but he had no other choice.

Day’s expression changed to one of determination. He turned around and knelt down in front of Ice who amazingly still seemed to be asleep after all that ruckus. Unfortunately though, the knee she was resting her head on was also her injured one, which would pose a problem for the stallion as he wasn’t able to get a clear area of the wound to touch with his horn. he considered for a while, how he could get ice to move without waking her up, and was worried what the effect of trying to nudge her slightly would do… until he got an idea. Day hoped no pony was watching but he didn’t want to worry himself by checking, so he immediately just moved his head inwads and kissed ice on the lips.

It was short and passionate, despite being a little strange as the mare was asleep. When he opened his eyes and pulled back, Ice stirred a little, shifting her head slightly with a small whimper. She was clearly still in pain from the wound, but at least now enough of was uncovered for him to touch his horn to it.
“Shh… it will be over soon…” Day whispered to her, fully aware that she probably wouldn’t hear him but he didn’t care. Very carefully, Daylight tilted his head downwards and touched the very tip of his horn to the wound and closed his eyes to concentrate. he could feel the energy pass through his horn as a warmth, as he pictured the wound in his mind. This was a little more complicated than a simple cut though, as the thorn has passed right through her knee, piercing a vital nerve that would be need to be repaired as well. It took longer than he expected, and required more energy too, but when he finished he had repaired the nerve as it was the most crucial, and as much as everything else surrounding that as possible. Lifting his head up and opening his eyes to examine his work, Day was disappointed that he had unable to completely heal the wound as there was a still a small scar that remained. He had to cut the spell off where he did though, otherwise he feared he wouldn’t have enough energy left for Colt.

Standing back to his hooves rather shakily, Daylight immediately began felt a little light headed, and had to pause a little with a hoof raised to his head while he waited for it to subside before walking over to where Colt and Iron were. He tried to look as natural while trying to hiding the true state he was in as much as possible, but he had never been good at lying. He hoped that because his horn was no longer lit and only the edge of torchlight reached this far he would be able to at least partially conceal himself in the darkness. Once having reached the couple, he silently examined them hoping they wouldn’t notice his presence. iron didn’t look in a good condition from what he could tell… but from what he could see they were only cuts and bruises to various degrees. Plus she was already pulling out what looked to be medical supplies from her saddlebag, so his attention was still required on Colt. Day walked around to the back of the of him as he was still hunched over Iron, trying to make as little noise as possible hoping that the pair of them would continue to be unaware of his presence there. Although the dark scales of the dragon blended into the darkness, he could still clearly make out the mangled wings, and as their was no direct wound, he could just touch his horn to anywhere on the wing.

Although Daylight was feeling rather tired and weak again, he didn’t have any time to waste until he was discovered.
“Hold still Colt.” Was the last thing he said before lowering his head again touching a outer part of one of his wings with his horn, then closing his eyes to concentrate while he felt the same warmth pass through his horn.
Just like with Ice, Day was surprised at the complexity of the injury. He had never healed a dragon before, let alone even the wing of a Pegasus so navigating the mental image of the wing was a bit of a challenge. He wasn’t sure what he needed to focus on being unfamiliar with dragon anatomy, so he just tried to fix as much as he could until… it became too much.

As the spell required a deep level of concentration, he was unaware the strain it was putting on his body until it was too late, and he was forced to hastily break it, staggering a few steps back towards ice, before falling over unable to keep his balance. His energy fully spent, Daylight felt tired… extremely tired… a lot more than he’s ever felt before for some reason… he also began to feel quite cold too for some reason, as if there was a strong wind blowing over him… yet he knew there shouldn’t be where they were, otherwise he would have felt it a lot earlier...
That’s when the realisation hit him. The spell Celestia had put on the group must have worn on off him. As he had come directly from Manehatten when he heard the news, the spell must not have had enough time or strength to properly set with him… or something like that. It wasn’t important as it was too late to do anything about it now.

Daylight’s eye’s were getting very heavy, and he had to fight just to try and keep them open. He thought he could make out the shadowy silhouettes of something standing over him… as well as hear their shouts but… it was all just white noise to him now, as the light was quickly getting replaced with darkness. He had drained himself from healing Colt, a lot more then he probably should have but he couldn’t change that fact now. He just hoped that he had done as a good enough job though as had been unable to inspect his handywork, which was what made it worth all the effort.

As he could feel himself slowly drifting away, Day kept cycling the memories everything that had happened since they started the Quest. Alex… the somewhat hard and mysterious pegasus that could never stay still for long… Iron… the guardian with the biggest heart and heaviest armour to weigh it down, as well as Colt… The dragon that no one expected but everyone accepted… he would always think of dragons in a different light from now on thanks to him.
Electro… the still growing colt with still much to learn… how it pained him to have to just leave the earth pony to his own endeavours... but he was confidant in his abilities to always be able to dodge any trouble he runs into with his lighting fast reflexes.

And finally Ice Storm. How of all things he expected to find on this quest the last of which was love. The last kiss they shared resonated with him deeply, and he made sure it was the thing he focused the most on. The idea of leaving her too felt extremely heavy as it was if he was abandoning her… but he knew that her quick wit and warm heart will melt anything that tries to freeze her over. Besides… she now how both Luna, her Mother, and Iron, her sister to take care of her now.

Daylight could feel himself sucumbing to the tirdness, so with his final breath he managed to say to anypony that was around,
“Take care… of Ice… only she…”
Before he closed his eyes and fully sucumbed to the darkness it brought.

---

While he slept, the same final memories kept playing over and over in his mind, and it was that what gave him hope while he waited for what felt like an eternity… until he woke up.

[Electrobolt 2,069]

As Electrobolt sat on the ground with the torch lighting up the area around him, he looked around. *What happened to the light, anyways?* he thought, recalling that Daylight's horn was the source of the light. *Perhaps he's trying to conserve his magic...?* He shrugged, as he let out a sigh, getting a little bored. He was grateful that Alex did leave him with the torch rather than taking it while following Luna. He began to close his eyes to get a tiny bit of rest in, but instead, his ears perked up as he heard a few faint noises.

 

Quickly getting up and looking around, he tried to figure out what these sounds were, and where they came from. *Who could this be, and what is the cause for all this noise?* he thought, as the noises began to get closer. Whatever was causing all this ruckus, it was beginning to approach them. Looking over to Colt, he could see that he was worried about the noise as well, though he began to tell both Electrobolt and Daylight to get out of here with Ice, before beginning to stop as he sounded like he was distracted. One word, however had caught his attention: Iron.

 

At this, Electrobolt just blinked in confusion. *Iron? What??? You... You mean she's...* But before his thought could finished, the wall in their area wound up finally breaking down as something tumbled into the room. However, not much longer, he realized that the thing was two creatures, one of which was Iron Wing! At this, Electrobolt was shocked, yet happy at the same time. She's finally back with the group! But then he looked over to the second creature which Iron was fighting with, as he saw it was some sort of timberwolf. However, it looked different from the others, not to mention it was also bigger than other timberwolves.

 

But this fight didn't last for too long, as the timberwolf looked around before sniffing the air, fleeing not long after. But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, Iron fell over, injured. Electrobolt was surprised and was about to hurry over before thinking about both Ice and Daylight. Looking back over, he caught that Day was there with Ice, seeming to heal her up. At this, he sighed with a bit of relief before looking over to Colt. He was on the ground near Iron, but he seemed glad that Iron was there with them. *She's back... She's really back... I... I'm so glad that she is safe...* he thought, as small tears of joy began to form in his eyes.

 

He shook his head to refocus himself, however, as Iron Wing needed some medical attention. With this in mind, Electrobolt began to approach Iron Wing before resting the torch down nearby. As he was about to start to try something though, a thought came to mind. He didn't have anything with him for something like this - his saddlebag only held fruits. He was at a loss as to what he would do now, before noticing something approaching Colt. He then recognized this pony as Daylight once he was close enough, as he seemed to begin healing Colt's wing.

 

*Wait... Perhaps Daylight could...?* he thought, before recalling that he had healed Ice first and was now trying to heal Colt without a break. He might end up being exhausted by the end from all of this, so he might not have the power to heal Iron Wing after all. He waited for a while to watch Daylight, before his eyes shot open as Daylight began to stagger back, falling over near Ice. "Oh no...!" he muttered in shock as he got up quickly, hurrying over to Day as he was worried about him. "Daylight!" he called out, before stopping quickly, leaning down near him. "Daylight, are you alright?"

 

He was most likely exhausted, though, considering he tried to heal both Ice and Colt without taking a break, but Electrobolt gave the unicorn stallion a soft hug so as not to possibly harm him, or wake him up. After a while though, he let go of Day before getting up again. As the young earth pony was about to return to Colt and Iron Wing, though, Daylight began to speak up, saying to take care of Ice, and that she was... Well, she was something, but Daylight couldn't finish as he ended up falling asleep, the exhaustion most likely having caught up to him.

 

Gently, Electrobolt gave Day another hug before whispering, "Rest easy, Day... You did good..." He then began to head back to Iron Wing and Colt, unaware of what had truly happened to the stallion, as he sat down near Iron and Colt. With a sigh, Electrobolt looked over to the dragon before asking him a few questions. "Hey Colt, um... How's your wing? Does it feel any better? Also, um... You mind helping me with patching up Iron? I, um... I don't really have any medical supplies with me..."

Edited September 16, 2013 by Electrobolt

[Ice Storm 1,020]

Peace was not something that came easily for Ice Storm. For even in sleep, did her experiences torment her. Her leg was still plaguing her even in sleep. However, her body was far too exhausted to do any sort of movement to deal with the pain. All she could do was lay there in a semi-unconscious state. Thankfully, the further into her sleep she went, the less the pain was felt. That being said as she began to enter the dream world, everything around her began to shift and form again, replaying the events of the last dream up to where the moon was showing the mountain top.

 

After the moon had crested high into the evening sky the winds were blowing full force again as they were making their way to the doors of the temple. The bone-freezeing temperature of the winds at this point were even getting to Ice and they were starting to become a hassle to move through. Each step felt like shards of ice going though her leg at any moment because of the numbness inside of it. She wasn't sure if they could hold out too much longer but they had to get inside.

 

After a few more agonizing minutes that felt like eons, they made it to the doors and had pressed inside. Once inside though, it was dark, dreary, and did nothing to improve the atmosphere around them. Ice looked around to through the room before noticing something. This was just a housing chamber. The door closed behind them as soon as the last pony entered, and cut off all light that she was using. Without a second thought, she lit up her horn with a light spell and looked along the wall.

 

She couldn't make out what most of the hieroglyphs meant, but one thing she definitely recongized was the complexity of the overall temple, and the fact that in one of the pictures shows a very larger labyrinth. She decided to take as much time as she needed to try to study the labyrinth and copying it down trying to picture and analyze the way they needed to go. The issue was, there were multiple end points going to multiple different symbols and she didn't know what a single one meant.

 

About this time she felt something brush up against her. It felt like something was pressing against her face in a weird way. It wasn't unpleasent, but it made her shift a bit awkwardly before a sharp sting went through her. She looked down at her leg and all of the cuts that were on it from back at the palace slowly begin disappearing on their own. Okay... that's weird, she thought to herself wondering what else was going to randomly disappear.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Ice Storm

[MyLittlePonyTales 273]

He caught up with the Princess of the Night and walked along with her in a carefree stride. "Since I'm not gonna be able to change your mind about staying with the others, I might as well escort you. A Princess isn't complete without a bodyguard after all." Alex said to Princess Luna with a smile on his face. Plus, he knew better than to tell a Princess what to do when he wasn't given permission to do so.

Luna looked over her shoulder at the sound of hoof steps coming closer. She groaned quietly at the sight of the familiar blue Pegasus. Not because she didn't appreciate the company, but because anypony that was healthy should have been back aiding the others. But she could tell from his words as he trotted up next to hear that he was going to be just as stubborn as she was. Luna was too tired to argue anyway. The previous battle, as well as caring for Canterlot the past couple of days, was beginning to lay heavily on her body. She had a slight limp from falling down the stairs, and her side was still throbbing from that most recent incident.

 

She sighed. It would be a good idea to have somepony along who was uninjured, just in case. But still, in the grand scheme of this quest, she was an extra piece, not necessary for them to complete her task. Better for her to risk the possible dangers alone than risk losing a crucial pony that was needed to defeat the greater evil. Luna chewed her lip, before noticing the silence between them.

 

”You're not injured at all, are you?” It seemed pretty obvious that he wasn't, but Luna wanted to be positive. He could still have some bruising, or internal injuries. In her rush to care for Ice Storm, though, she had basically ignored everypony else. For all her wanting to protect everypony else, she was certainly doing a great job of ignoring five of them. Yet, she knew that she was too weak to help the rest of them at the moment. She wanted to tear her mane out in frustration of her shortcomings!

[Ice Storm 1,020]

Now that her leg had randomly, magically healed herself from means that she knew not of, she began to press deeper into the mysterious temple. To be honest she didn't have any idea what to expect. The only thing that Ice knew was that she was heading into some sort of maze. Where this maze actually led, or whether she actually wanted to find out, she had no idea. However, Ancient Civilizations wouldn't have gone to such lengths to hide something in a place like this behind a complex labyrinth if it wasn't important or valuable. She had to find out what it was. As she pushed through, she found herself slipping on an unforeseen wet patch on the floor and landed square in the middle of it. Thankfully it didn't splash, but now her tummy and backside was wet. "Great, now I'm going to need to find a river to get that out... who knows how long that waters been there..." she said to herself pushing herself back up and moving on.

 

AS she progressed, the maze got darker and darker until it got to the point where she couldn't see anything. Not even her own hoof in front of her face. She didn't want to make a light though as she knew how quickly that spell had drained her before, plus she didn't want to give her presence completely away. Especially since she wasn't sure what had happened to the others. After a few more steps though she felt the ground rumble under her and she immediately spread herself to keep her balance. The floor tremored again and this time it felt like the entire place was coming down around her, and before she could reacted a piece of the roof fell in hit her head causing her to black out. 

 

In reality she wasn't blacking out but rather waking up as she felt something rather large thump on her head. "Ouch!" she yelled as she instantly looked around. The first thing she noticed was the dampness around her. Thankfully the debris from the second thing that she noticed was hiding most of it as it wasn't a large puddle like the night before and it was centralized around her. After shaking herself of the debris, she noticed two more things, the second by virtue of the first. The first thing she noticed was that there was a hole in the wall that she was sleeping by and more importantly, she saw Iron Wing, and she appeared to be badly injured.

 

"Iron Wing!!!" she yelled instantly rushing over to her. The adrenaline took the place of her sleepiness which she knew would end up plaguing her later. For now though, this concerned her not. What did concern her though were the amount of injuries on Iron, and many of them fresh. "Colt, I don't know how much strength you have, but I need you to help me sterilize these bandages so that we can get as many of her wounds sealed as possible. The more we can help her now, the less she will feel later, and the less risk from something in this forest infecting it. Electro, do you think you can find us something we can use to heat ice and boil it to clean the bandages?" she asked, herself still a bit damp from her dreamworld misfortune.

 

The second thing that she noticed though, in her rush to get to Iron was the fact that she had put a severe amount of weight on her 'injured' leg. At first she had completely forgotten about it until she looked down and saw the very small scar from some of the cuts she had just received after she had tumbled down the steps about an hour earlier. She also noted that Daylight was out cold and figured he probably had something to do with that. With the way everything looked on her, magical healing was the only explaination, and Luna was already struggling for strength to begin with. The fact that Luna wasn't in the room anymore though, concerned her further. She knew that this place was more dangerous for her due to the fact that it was unsure whether the darkness remained here after the Element of Harmony had drove it out of her. She could only hope that she would be resilient enough to fight it off if the issue came up. One thing she knew that would be different this time should that actually happen, Luna wouldn't be fighting it alone. She would not allow that, just how she wasn't going to allow Iron to hurt anymore, or how she wasn't going to allow any of her friends get hurt. She would come up with a plan that kept everypony safe until she herself dropped.

[Alex Night 870]

Alex could tell that the Princess was not particularly happy to see him, but at least she didn't try to order him to go back to the group.  Even if she did, he wouldn't really do so.

 

 

 

”You're not injured at all, are you?”

 

 

Alex was suprised at the question.  He felt relatively fine himself or at least from as far as he could tell.  "Nah, I'm fine.  I did take a conk on the head from hitting a tree back in the fight with that creature.  Saw a bunch of flying orange chickens around me...  Still, nothing too much for a pony like me."  Alex said reassuringly to Princess Luna.  It was a tough hit to be sure, but it wasn't anything that he could handle.  "I'll be fine.  I could ask the same thing about you though.  You saved our tails back there with that shield of yours."  Alex said to Princess Luna.

 

His mind did fall back to the ponies in Ponyville.  He had to be strong for them all and for the group.  He had to live up to the title of the World's Fastest Stallion...  "Heh, figures that Rainbow Dash would say that."  Alex thought to himself, remembering the little title she gave him.  She never was one to admit that she was almost beaten by him...  Almost.

 

He wondered about something that Princess Luna might know about as he had no idea of where to start looking.  "Say...  Princess Luna, can I ask you something?  You watch over the kingdom as much as Princess Celestia during the night...  Well...  I was wondering if you may have any idea on how to find somepony that was missing?"  Alex asked Princess Luna a bit uncertainly, tracing his hoof over his silver star that hung around his neck.

 

"It's...  It's about my parents..."

[Iron Wing 237]

Iron Wing didn´t notice much about what happened around her. She heared voices, somebody or something touched her and she feld warmth, fur and scales. Her mind concentrated not to fade out, and her training reminded her not to fall asleep. Slowly, she reached out for her saddlebag and opened it. With a little movement she let the medical supplies fell out of it so that whoever was there could use them. The guardian was shaking, not because of the cold, but because of the many injured points on her body. She turned her head to see Colt, Ice and Electro and shortly she smiled a bit. She had made it back to the group, and she hoped that everypony was ok. She didn´t want to look bad in front of Luna, her primary commanding pony, but since Iron couldn´t see where she was, she relaxed a bit.

 

Her hind leg hurt so much, also her wings weren´t in the best shape and needed rest. She was unable to fold them in as they had a slight cramp in their muscles. Overall Iron´s main wound was still the one the shadow beast had did to her, the scratches could be patched up easily.  She could feel the head of the dragon on her mane, and she was happy that they all seemed to be ok.

[Colt 555]

A flow of warmth and comfort ran across the body of the dragon, it was as is sunlight covered his body with a kind embrace. For moments Colt's mind was lost inside that feeling during that time it all felt like sheltered in by a kind fog making the world blur and imperceptible yet safe and simply put right. The ache below the scales of his back and arm vanished, little stings of pain arose but they were quickly eased and forgotten. As he rested his head over Iron’s back the dragon was healed without noticing.  Only till the voice of the ponies worried about the armored knight echoed in the dark room he was able to snap out of this stupor.

 

 

"Oh no...!"..."Daylight!" "Daylight, are you alright?"

 

Feeling like waking up from a long lasting dream, for Faust did he knew that feeling, Colt senses slowly began to catch up with the world. He first saw the blurry figure of the green earth pony and he just listened to some buzz he was unable to understand, seconds after ElectroBolt appeared and he recognized him now listening to his words.

 

 

"Hey Colt, um... How's your wing? Does it feel any better? Also, um... You mind helping me with patching up Iron? I, um... I don't really have any medical supplies with me..."

 

"Electro?... what?..my wings...?, I, I feel better yeah…what happened?" Colt said trying to move his wings, he was still unable to but the pain was gone and his back felt almost normal. “Iron?,  Iron!” the dragon said finally noticing the azure knight in front of him, she looked like in the verge of fainting, Colt looked back to the earth pony, he was right in front of him worried about the knight and maybe about the dragon too. “Yes… I… Iron for sure has something we can use, she always carries a med kit when she goes out to missions” he said trying to find the saddlebags where she kept the supplies.

 

 

 

"Iron Wing!!!"..."Colt, I don't know how much strength you have, but I need you to help me sterilize these bandages so that we can get as many of her wounds sealed as possible.

 

 

The scream from the hoarfrost unicorn made the dragon place his sight over her she ran towards to her new big sister with a worried expression on her face. Once more the leader of the group took control and told them what to do, Colt was happy as this happened Ice was showing the temper of a great pony he. The dragon was weak but the healing of his injuries gave him back some energy. He felt able to comply to Ice’s request but he was worried about what she asked to Electro, they needed something to heat the water and they need it now. “Wait Ice I think I can… do something” he said as his claw was placed in the floor, with slight golden glow at his eyes Colt raised a little formation of crystals three little poles made of quartzes and a pot big as the head of a pony over it. The dragon panted while doing this he looked tired while doing this but he yet have strength to lit some fire, “Come on Colt she needs you right now hold on” he thought knowing he couldn’t fail her now .

[Ice Storm 1,020]

The small smile that lit up Iron's face was all that Ice needed to see from her to know that she was, mostly, okay and inclined her to give a small smile of her own. Cautiously she gave her a gentle nuzzle alone her cheek while she was waiting for the others get the preparations done so they could sterilize the bandages. Once she had told Electro to find something for them to use for the ice though, Colt solved the issue by creating a small pot out of quartz. It was a decent sized pot, and wold be plenty big enough to get the bandages clean in. With a smile and a nod, Ice used a bit of her magic to create a block of ice almost to the brim of the pot to be melted and boiled. As soon as it was ready, she would add the bandages.

 

After creating the ice she turned back towards Iron Wing to examine her a bit more. The most pressing wound that she had that Ice could see was the wound from where the shadow beast had stabbed her. Likewise it was going to be the wound that received most of the attention. That being said, she herself knew that no wound out here was a minor wound and all of them would have to be cleaned. There was no telling what type of diseases or the likes thereof were in the forest. She then noticed the other cuts, scrapes and bruises from what appeared to be more fighting from where her armor was impacted along her, and she could see a large amount of bruising on her hind leg. Without any other words. Ice took the dry blanket from her saddle bag, cuddled up next to Iron, and covered both of them with the blanket to keep both of them warm while they waited for the bandages.

[Electrobolt 2,069]

After he had asked Colt about how his wings were doing and if he could help patch up Iron Wing, Electrobolt looked on as he watched the dragon react somewhat surprised with his wings being healed up. *He must have been resting when Daylight repaired his wings...* he thought, as he then saw Colt suddenly react to seeing Iron. It was then that he mentioned that Iron always carried a medical kit around with her whenever she went on missions. *Heh... She always comes prepared, doesn't she?* Electrobolt thought, before his ears perked up when he heard a familiar voice going "ouch!"
 
Looking over to where the voice originated from, he could see Ice as she appeared to be surrounded by debris. She seemed to be alright for the most part now, thankfully, before she began to call out Iron's name before hurrying over to her. It seemed like Daylight healed her up good as she seemed to be moving fine. Bringing his attention back to Ice, though, she started to crack down on what would need to be done, sterilizing Iron's bandages. Once she suggested that Electrobolt should try and find something that they could use to heat ice and boil it in, he was about to get up.
 

He felt able to comply to Ice’s request but he was worried about what she asked to Electro, they needed something to heat the water and they need it now. “Wait Ice I think I can… do something” he said as his claw was placed in the floor, with slight golden glow at his eyes Colt raised a little formation of crystals three little poles made of quartzes and a pot big as the head of a pony over it. The dragon panted while doing this he looked tired while doing this but he yet have strength to lit some fire, “Come on Colt she needs you right now hold on” he thought knowing he couldn’t fail her now .

 
Before Electrobolt could get up in time, however, Colt stated that he could do something. After that, he place one of his claws on the floor while his eyes glowed a little. At first, Electrobolt was curious to know what Colt was doing, but after a while he saw that a formation of crystals rising from the ground, forming three poles and a pot. Electrobolt could only watch in surprise, having not known that Colt was capable of doing something like this. After it had been formed, Colt then began to light a flame under the pot as Ice formed a block of ice in the pot to melt and boil.

 

After everything was fixed for the ice to melt into water and then boil, Ice went over to Iron and began to cuddle next to Ice before covering the two of them with a blanket. Closing his eyes, he began to breathe slowly while waiting for the ice to become boiling water. A little later, he opened his eyes before looking over to the direction of where Alex and Luna went. "I wonder if they're both doing alright..." he whispered under his breath. "I hope they get back soon..." With a sigh, he slowly shook his head before beginning to look around the current area. *It doesn't look like there's much I can do right now... I'm not sure though...*

[Colt 555]

The mind of the dragon was still blur and slow, each second it tried to process all that was happening, and one particular question was the one filling his thoughts “where is the pain?” There was no more suffering each time he took air into his lungs there was no more tearing inside of him. Unable to understand and while the ponies were tending to Iron and waiting for the water he took a deep long breath he felt how his full chest and back grew with the action and in the end not a single sign of the pain he was feeling, his back was almost back to normal.

 

Right after that he turned to his left watching Ice covering Iron Wing with a blanket he was about to say something but right at that moment the he realized his left arm was not limited by the scorched scales any more, the pain of his burnt flesh was also gone …”How is this possible…?” he thought last thing he remembered before Iron Wing came back was the pain now he was not feeling any of that little by little his mind was keeping up with the situation. The daze and clouds in his thoughts started to banish he began to trace the room with his eyes, Daylight Ice, Electro and Iron were there 

 

 

"I hope they get back soon..."

 

“…thats right, Alex and her majesty went forward to explore and fine a safe route…”the words of the young earthpony made his short term memory start to work, soon he remembered all what happened even what he asked to Daylight, he was not the one to be ok, why he didn’t helped Iron, things were fully clear yet but at least he was now in conditions to be useful to the chosen’s of the sun. For a few seconds the dragon looked to the sleeping unicorn "what were you thinking Detective? " he tried to understand the thinking of the golden pony thankfully for the group the steam coming from the boiling water snapped Colt mind back to reality. 

 

“Ice, Electro here the bandages are ready” he said as he placed his paws for some seconds in the boiling water to take out the sterilized cloths. He squeezed them taking out the excess of water and approaching the ponies holding white steaming bandages for Iron Wing. Sometimes being a dragon had is drawbacks but being immune to heat always proved useful. “Be careful ,this ones are still very hot.” He said  to the mare and colt at the side of the knight. “Iron this will sting a little but we need to treat you injuries” He continued speaking to the guardian of the Ponyville tower. “Ice, Bolt you take care of this please, Ill watch over Daylight and get him close to the fire” the dragon completed leaving the bandages in the care of Ice.

 

Some moments after that as the treatment over Iron’s injuries was taken care by the ponies the dragon kneeled at the side of daylight to lift him up. “What was in your mind Daylight, she needed you not me… ” Colt whispered thinking he could awake the unicorn. “hey Can you hear me?” The dragon said placing his paw over Daylight’s shoulder to wake him up, right there he shoked “he is frozen cold…” the drake thought as he touched him inmediatly Colt placed his paw over the unicorn’s neck, Daylight had pulse and was breading like if he was calmly asleep but his body felt cold and he was not waking up no matter what. “Whats going on?” he rhetorically whispered as he carried the golden pony at the side of the fire. Colt sat right behind the sleeping pony.

 

 

The eyes of the dragon were able to see al the ponies from there, Iron was being healed by Electro and Ice Storm then there was fire and then laid down in his slumber was Daylight … “Daylight…“ he thought moving his eyes from the sleeping one to the others “Light of the day…” back and forth the golden eyes switched between the blonde stallion and the rest of the ponies “He is not shining… he has lost  the light of the sun” he realized, that glow he was able to feel and see with his magic on all the chosen ponies was gone. 

 

 

 

"These winds... Dazzling Wing is... she sleeps now..."

 

 

my parents, and much like Dazzling Wing... They've been affected by the winds as well..."

 

 

 

Celestia entrusted this task to you, she knew you could do it

 

 

he Nightingale's Feathers aren't a threat to us anymore thanks to Celestia's spell, we aren't immune to whatever that Icy wind is

 

 

Flashbacks and memories of what the ponies have told him start to rush into his mind, the dragon remembers what they told about the ponies that were into that wicked slumber.  "Daylight...The blesing of the sun...its gone" the dragon voice resounded in the room as he realized Daylight was not going to wake up.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Colt

[Ice Storm 1,020]

~~~Ice Storm~~~

 

Even though they had only been waiting a few moment, it felt like it took an eternity for the bandages to become completely sanitized. It was something that had to be done though. Not only where they already mostly used, but just the general area and how everything seemed to be accumulating on them, making sure that they were as helpful and protective as possible was the best course of action. Any sort of infections material right now, or any sort of contaminated material in general could cause a lot more harm than good. First thing was first though, as it was made apparent that she had forgotten about it until it brushed against Ice's coat. they had to get Iron Wing out of her armor before they could treat the wounds. As carefully as Ice could, she removed the armor bit by bit. She took extra caution to make sure that not only would she not cause Iron any more discomfort in the process, but that she didn't cause any further damage to the armor as well. If everything went as well as she hoped that it would, Iron wing could put her armor back on in the morning over her bandages once they were changed.

 

Once all of the armor was off, and stacked as neatly as the armor could be next to the deep blue pegasi, pulled the bandages out of the pot and rang them out with her magic. She new that touching them right now would be a bad idea, at least while they were still full of the boiling hot water. Once they were wrung out, Ice brought the tip of one to her own leg to make sure that the bandage itself wouldn't burn Iron Wing and cause her more discomfort. The one thing that kept Ice calm was the fact that Iron was still awake though. She wasn't the smartest pony in Equestria for sure, but she knew that falling asleep with that many open wounds would not end well. As she started looking her over though without the armor, she was a bit less at ease. There were many scrapes and bruises on her, and her hind leg appeared to have a few injuries in it as well. How bad she couldn't tell by looking, but considering that she'd just been healed of a leg injury herself she could imagine the discomfort. Her wings looked to be a bit banged up as well, but the injury that was still most notable was where she was stabbed by the shadow monster. The sight of it made Ice's stomach churn a bit. She looked at the pot and saw that she had four bandages to work with. "That's going to make things a bit tricky..." she said to herself.

 

"Electro, Colt, I'm going to need one of you to help as much as you can give me with this. We're going to have to prioritize injuries because we don't have enough bandages in order to protect all of them. Most obviously we're going to have to focus on the stab wound on her chest. That appears to be the largest and most prominent of the wounds. Unfortunately it looks like it will also be the one that takes the longest to heal. I'm afraid continuing further until that wound in particular is looked at is not possible. Luna knows plenty of healing magic, as well as Daylight, and I'm sure as soon as one of them regains their strength, they will be able seal the wound. Or at the very lease, make it shallow enough to where it will heal on it's own without causing issues, or being a hindrance to Iron Wing."

 

"Her leg is also a matter of importance. I would normally just make an ice cast around it like I did myself, but I do not know how resilient she is to cold. So before I can do that, I'll need to wrap her entire leg with a bandage so that the cast isn't directly on her skin. The cast itself should be melted by morning at which point, like the wound on her chest, we can address then. If we're lucky, we might be able to position the same bandage that we use to cover the stab wound to cover these smaller wounds on her side, thus making better use of what we have to work with. It may not be as thickly applied, but it will protect a greater area. We can use the other two bandages to wrap gently around her wings. If nothing else the warmth of the bandages will help relax the muscles. We just have to pray there isn't more serious damage to the bones under that is preventing her from folding them properly," she address as she started wrapping the bandages she had around Iron's hind leg before hearing Colt say that the blessing of the sun had left Daylight.

 

"What do you mean the blessing of the sun...." Ice started to say confused before it clicked. She had used this phrase several times herself, only using Luna's entity rather than Celestia's. She turned around to look at Daylight, who was the only one that was actually asleep at the moment. She wasn't really sure how the dragon could tell that Daylight had lost the blessing, but if he could and Daylight did, that would cause a problem in the morning. At the very least, they were at a safe spot in the Moon Palace. If he truly had succumbed to the winds, they wouldn't have a choice but to move on. One thing to remember in this situation, falling victim to the winds did not mean they were dead unless they gave up, or failed. In fact, this only further encouraged Ice Storm that she needed to succeed.

 

Prior to this quest, there was only one pony she really cared about, and she was safe. Now that she had traveled with these ponies, she had grown accustomed to them, and Iron Wing had even invited her into her family. She cared for everypony around her, and the one pony she cared about before hand was also now part of this group. Now one of them had fallen, and the one that had invited to share her family with her also had a loved one impacted by this. "We must stay strong and stay together. If there was a place for this to happen, this is the best possible place. This is the most secure shelter for miles. He will be safe here while we are finishing the mission," she said as she finished wrapping the bandage.

 

 

 

~~~Luna~~~

 

 

"I will be fine once I've had a chance to regain some of my strength. With the combination of that shield, and the lack of oxygen from that creatures actions, I've lost a lot of it. Magic of any sort at the moment is quite a challenge. Thankfully I know some... unusual ways that it can be manifested through so that it requires less energy to cast in situations like this," Luna explained as she moved a bit into the other room before sitting and keeping watch on the doorway. She could vaguely hear the conversation from the other room, and it sounded like Ice Storm was not only awake, but handling a situation inside of it. Luna briefly heard her name mentioned but in her condition right now there wasn't really a lot that she would be able to do to help.

 

After a few moments of silence though, Luna heard the pegasi speak up once more. He inquired about asking her about something. She immediately jumped to thinking that he was going to ask about what her relationship with Ice was like. It was a topic that she didn't really want to talk about, not so much for the fact that she didn't care for Ice, but more of the opposite. However, the stallion asked about her watching over Equestria just as much as Celestia did, and wanted to know how to go about finding somepony that was missing. A question that kind of made her eyebrows raise a bit considering the situation. There were a lot of ponies missing right now because of how these winds were spreading, but when the stallion added that it was about his parents. Luna could feel that this was something much deeper than a few gust of winds could have brought on.

 

"Well, at this very point in time, there isn't a whole lot that we can really look into. That being said, once we get out of this predicament that Equestria's in with whatever crazed fiend released these winds, there are a couple ways to start. Either way though, you're going to need at least one of three things. You'll either need a picture of them, their names, or what their cutie marks were. If you don't have any of that information, then I will need some more information before I will be able to adequately help you. After all, I can't help you solve a puzzle if I have only one piece to work with," Luna explained.

[Iron Wing 237]

 

Iron Wing was barely awake and she had problems in hearing and her awareness. She was tired from the battle and the bloodloss and her body started to feel cold, so she shivered a bit. Her body hurt everywhere, the deeper wounds were burning and the wings hurted like crazy. As she had fallen down the ravine the wings had taken significant damage, and still she had to use them to fight the big timberwolf. She had never imagined to get that outpowered during a fight, but this all was the fault of this vile shadow beast that had attacked them. The journey they took was a difficult one, and she hoped that all the other ponies were ok.

 

She heared voices around her and with a blurred sight she recognized Ice Storm and Electrobolt. They seemed to treat her wounds and she was happy to see them. Down there in the ravine she almost paniced to had lost them. She was not an expert for the Everfree Forest, a place so dark and full of dangers, and no pony really could have told what could happen out here. Some mysteries and stories were all about missing ponies who were swallowed by the darkness of the woods, and slowly Iron believed that all these stories had a certain truth in them. Some times the wounds burned Ice Storm touched and her muscles twitched as she growled silently, biting on her lips to endure the pain.

 

Luckily she was able to endure much and due to her pegasus nature, she normaly recovered very quickly even from bigger injuries. But now she just was tired and exhausted. Also then Colt was noticed by the blue pegasus. She slightly smiled towards him, not able to say or understand anything. Her eyes got heavy and she nearly fell asleep, wanting to rest a bit for just a short time. But was this a good choice? No... she had to stay awake, at least for the time they needed to do something about the wounds.

[Colt 555]

Something was different, something didnt made much sense, why was he feeling so right? "Did he really did this? why would he..." the drake thought as he thought about the sunshine unicorn who he guessed to be down, while this happened the fire he lit was burning and it showed a very injured and damaged Iron Wing. "Ill help with her armor" he replied getting away from his thoughts and focusing on the most important thing right now, to save the azure pegasus. With his claws it was a lot easier to remove them and the help from Ice Storm worked wonders soon the locks were free and the pieces away from her damaged frame, "Im sorry to do this here" the drake whispered to the ears of iron as he worked as fast as possible to take the armor pieces off. He knew she would have stomp over him for this, the mission was no over and her pride would not let them take off that armor, but this was way off the question.

 

The drake listened to every single remark made by Ice storm, suddenly it all injured him deep inside, as he held the hooves of Iron to help Ice with the injuries. He squeezed the hooves from time to time his face showed a sincere and terrible concern he even caressed her cheek with the tip of his tail from time to time, there was no way Ice or Electro would have known that he was holding the a pony that meant so much for him, they count even imagine what was happening inside is mind and even worse in his heart. Watching her like this with his chest bleeding and open not able to do anything for her felt like a life in tartarus itself. He looked unable to do more holding his tears inside Iron Wing would have never forgive him if he ever cried for her, he once promised to believe in her and in her strength he had to hold that promise but right now it was harder than anything else. "Why did you had to heal me why not her?" the mind of the dragon spelled and even some grudge brew in him towards the golden stallion, that was quickly forgotten when the now stripped knight showed signs of pain. "You can do this, come on endure it Im here" whispers like this echoed in the ears of Iron from a voice that was breaking at this situation, a situation that suddenly got a little brighter again because of iron wing. 

A simle was drawn at Iron's face, he almost let his emotions overflow at that moment but he took a deep breath and kept in control he talked to her said many things faking that everything was allright that this was just another regular day in a way he knew that she was unable to understand what was happening but he kept doing it. "Hey there, stay awake there are a lot of things i have to tell you I saw this knight, fighting terrible foes, winning against them" he said squeezing her hoof even tighter and cursing himself for not being able to do something about her situation knowing that she maybe would go away at his own paws for him being useless. 

"You heard the leader right Iron?" he said again talking to her as if she was alright. "We have to stay together we cant just break the group, you cant break an order right? you are not allowed to break the group Iron thats the order from your commander officer " while saying this he smiled to her as if this were teases or jokes his face tried to stay happy but it was obvious that her condition was breaking him apart. As soon as Ice finished the drake released her with care and placed the knight to a more nature and comfortable position to rest "Thank you Miss Storm" He said with his deep breaking voice and a moment after he curled around her to protect the injured mare from the cold, it was the only thing he could do for her right now.

[Electrobolt 2,069]

Electrobolt continued to look in the direction of where both Alex and Luna had gone while waiting on the cloths to be cleaned and usable. As he waited, the young stallion closed his eyes to concentrate on things. He knew that Alex and Luna went to scout ahead for whatever, and that Iron Wing is now back with the group. He was very grateful for that, as everypony - and dragon - was back together now. They needed to make sure that Iron was patched up though, before anything else could really be done.

 

 

“Ice, Electro here the bandages are ready” he said as he placed his paws for some seconds in the boiling water to take out the sterilized cloths.

 

 

"Electro, Colt, I'm going to need one of you to help as much as you can give me with this."

 

 

When Colt had spoken up, Elecrobolt opened his eyes as he got up, turning around to face Colt as he saw the bandages were clean enough to use again. Ice then commented that she would need their help with all of this, to which Electrobolt nodded. She then brought up the priorities of which area should be patched up first, beginning with the chest. *Reasonable enough, the chest is indeed the most important place to patch up first,* he thought, as Ice continued. He listened to what Ice was saying and making sure to remember everything so that he would be able to handle this. However, after Ice had finished, one voice caused his eyes to open up.

 

 

"Daylight...The blessing of the sun...its gone" the dragon voice resounded in the room as he realized Daylight was not going to wake up.

 

 

As soon as he heard this, Electrobolt quickly turned around to face Colt as he saw the dragon next to Daylight. The words, they echoed in his head as his heart began to beat heavily. *Wha... What does he mean by that...? Day... Daylight no longer has the blessing of the sun...? You... You don't mean...!* The young stallion's eyes then shot wide open as he looked to Daylight, seeing the stallion sleeping peacefully. He couldn't have fallen prey to the winds... Could he? Ice then spoke up again.

 

 

"We must stay strong and stay together. If there was a place for this to happen, this is the best possible place. This is the most secure shelter for miles. He will be safe here while we are finishing the mission," she said as she finished wrapping the bandage.

 

 

As Ice spoke, Electrobolt listened once more. Although he was sad that Daylight had been claimed by the winds, he remembered that the only way to wake up the slumbering ponies was to stop the winds once again. Ice also made a good point with this place being the most secure location for miles. As they would go to continue the mission, he would be safe here, locked in slumber until the day they succeed. Electrobolt couldn't back down now. They had to succeed in their mission now; they must. He then saw Colt helping by removing the armor from Iron Wing as Ice finished wrapping a bandage around the leg.

 

Electrobolt looked around for a bit before taking one of the bandages and carrying it over with him to Iron Wing. Upon looking at the wound on Iron's chest, he winced a little. *Ouch, she really got hurt bad there...* he thought, before taking in a quick breath. He then began to softly speak to Iron, smiling gently while saying, "I'll be careful, Iron, don't worry." He then nodded a little before beginning to wrap the bandage around her chest as gently as he could. As he was doing so, his mind returned to a few moments ago, with Daylight. He couldn't feel down in the dumps about that now. No, instead, he needs to keep strong and press on, for his sake. *Don't worry, Daylight... We'll stop the winds and wake you and everypony else... There is no way we will let the winds get the better of us.*

[Alex Night 870]

"Well, at this very point in time, there isn't a whole lot that we can really look into. That being said, once we get out of this predicament that Equestria's in with whatever crazed fiend released these winds, there are a couple ways to start. Either way though, you're going to need at least one of three things. You'll either need a picture of them, their names, or what their cutie marks were. If you don't have any of that information, then I will need some more information before I will be able to adequately help you. After all, I can't help you solve a puzzle if I have only one piece to work with," Luna explained.

 

 

Alex listened on as the Princess gave him an answer that he was really not hoping for.  Given how she was one of the Royal Sisters who constantly watch over Equestria from Canterlot, he thought that she or Princess Celestia may have seen his parents somewhere disappearing after he ended up at the Sunnyside Orphanage in Fillydelphia.  He only looked away from Princess Luna as he continued walking with her, not saying a word after that.  To be honest with himself, he wasn't sure how ready he was to see his parents again.

 

The only thing that they left him was the silver star necklace that was around his neck, bearing his name on the front as well as the inscription, To our shining star, on the back of the star.  He made a certain connection to his necklace with his Cutie Mark seeing how the red shield also bore a silver star on the center, but that was all he could gather from his Cutie Mark.  Even to this day, he could not fully understand the reason why he got this Cutie Mark.  It just happened to pop up when he helped give back a filly's doll back at the orphanage when it was taken by a group of bullies.

 

"Ah well...  I guess I was hoping too much..."  Alex finally said to Princess Luna, trying to not sound disappointed with the answer.  Alex decided to try and hide his emotions by doing some exercises to keep his muscles warmed up.  He had to keep a mindset like this all the time.  He wanted to perform at his absolute best since he secretly did have hopes of joining the Wonderbolts one day.  If he and the others made it through this, then he may be a likely candidate for the Wonderbolts Academy.  He knew that he couldn't stay down as a Weather Patrol pony forever, especially with his affinity for speed.  He proceeded to doing a small amount of wing-ups to make sure they don't cramp up as well as keeping them warmed up as he waited in the other room with Princess Luna, counting to himself as he went through his little regimen.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Alex Night