open Tombs and Magic: Clear Skies, Cold Hearts (Mature)

[HigurSan 195]

OOC Thread:  http://mlpforums.com/topic/94173-tombs-and-magic-clear-skies-cold-hearts-mature/

+=Tombs and Magic=+

Clear Skies, Cold Hearts

 

Let us raise a toast now my kin

to the honor of our now fallen.

Though we never will come again

we now recall with faces solemn,

The eve when the sky above fell.

Inscription upon a stone, enshrined on Mt Highhorn.

 

Flashback:

 

"The battle standards will be coming into viewing range soon," a soft but disconcerting voice nudged into her ears. It had far too many different tones and accents mixed into it. Thus it had a similar effect to nails on chalkboard for most listeners. She had long grown accoustumed to it, with some difficulty at first. Now she only ever noticed it when it was raised to a yell, whereupon it cut one's brain like glass shards. Looking over to the source of the voice, a smile had to be threatened to grace her expression. She would have smiled if it wouldn't have caused an instant mutiny.

 

Whatever foul circumstances had spawned the carrier of such a voice, there had been nothing like him before. Nor would there ever be anything like him after. This was because the voice belonged to Malcolm, a strange mishmash of nearly every creature under the sun and some that had never seen the light of day. In the most general sense he had the posture of a pony, though it was horribly hunchbacked. Stapled onto this were something like a dragon's haunches in the rear and a gryphon's talons in the front. A brace of insectine wings fluttered constantly by his sides. His tail was that of a scorpion and his head a dire wolf's.

 

Truth be told, the only reason that Malcolm was identified as male was due to convenience, rather than him actually possessing any sort of gender. He sometimes used to joke about it being a blessing, what with not having to worry about the troubles of inter-gender relations. But that had always made her sad, so he'd quickly learned to not mention such things. (That was, inter-gender issues and not his own troubles.) To call him ugly would having been a diservice. The diservice was to the word on the other hand, as it was the unlucky word that had drawn the infamous lot to describe his absolute hideousness. The word would have commited suicide if it got the chance, but thus far that was proving difficult for an idea to perform a physical act.

 

Looking back to the scrying orb, her brows furrowed as the tips of spearpoints appeared in its projection.

 

Present:

Stonewall briefly considered that he -probably- should have stayed inside his tent. Sure, it had seemed like a decent idea to get some work done while sleep eluded him. The problem was that -now- he was sleepy and in the middle of the frigid night. Thick wrappings and extra clothing layers did a little to dull the scything blades of wind as they swept across the mesa. Unfortunately it was not enough to entirely ward off their effects and he soon found himself shivering. At least it would be over soon.

 

In his moment of poor judgment, the unicorn had elected to investigate a set of possible entrances to the inner complex. The general layout of the walls (or the remains of rubble) suggested that there was a major path into the depths of the structure in this area. Numerous hollows in the ground suggested dugouts and fox holes, as well as what were possibly building foundations. If he'd had to guess, everything built here had been a rush job. As such it'd quickly degraded after whatever event occured here. Occasionally he had to changed his direction to avoid hidden rents in the ground. They were all over the place, great tears in the stone below (apparently place at random) which often were covered by a light layer of snow. Stepping on the snow tended to collapsed the fragile cover and send you tumbling downwards. There was a risk of broken bones and possibly suffocating under the snow.

 

All of such rents by the camp proper had been carefully marked out, but the markings were less common the futher one went. Here there were no marks at all, only silent snow drifts. All the other likely sites around here had been investigated and proved to be disappointing. Some of them had been really promising, but were only small hollows in exposed rock faces. This last location was a long shot at best, but needed to be searched regardless. Arriving at the spot, Stonewall sighed and began to slowly manuever rocks and other debris out of the way. Much to his shock and awe, a deep depression in the stone soon revealed itself. Dusty and almost rancid air poured across his nose, causing him to cough as he looked into the darkness. A quick peek told him all he needed to know.

 

Perhaps with less caution than was proper, he sped back to camp and began to feverishly organize. A flurry of notes were sent off to the various team members by the power of magic, instructing them to assemble at the commons tent in two hours. It looked like an entrance into the ruins proper had been found and they were to enter immediately.

[Mephala 2,633]

@

Solaris was sitting, wrapped in thick, warm blankets, but he was still freezing. Not for the first time, he cursed his idea to move further north in Equestria. Right now, he could certainly use some dragon fire, even if it meant a few more scars along his back.

 

There was a fluttering of wings, and he looked up with a smile, recognizing the feathery beating of his closest and most beloved companion. The beautiful phoenix drew looks of awe, jealousy, and some fear as she soared gently through the air, something clutched in her talons, and  landed gently on the back of the sturdy unicorn, nuzzling him with her head and offering him the scrap from her claws. As soon as this was done, she gave a violent shiver and snuggled under the blankets, her blinking head poking out in a most owlish manner.

 

Solaris gave her another, gentler smile, and accepted the paper, levitating it before him as his horn glowed a brilliant orange. However, as he read the note, the grin fell slightly, and he sighed. Lumiere gave a questioning caw, and he turned his head to look at her, sighing.

 

"Looks like we got what we came for, little lady," he said quietly, seeming thoughtful. "Seems to me that there's a possible entry, now, and we'd better start heading over to the commons tent. What with all this snow, could be quite the journey."

 

The phoenix frowned as much as a phoenix could, and Solaris chucked her under the chin. "Head up, little lady," he said, as he rose to start gathering his things, shedding his blankets for thick cloaks and sweaters. "Can't get any colder than it is right now."

 

Lumiere untangled herself from the blankets and floated a few feet above Solaris as he struggled to button up his cloak with the dragon-bone pin he had fashioned from the last one he had fought. She swooped in a few circles, and once he was done, followed him out of the tent.

 

Biting his lip and trying to ignore the fact that he was freezing despite having been out only a few seconds, Solaris conjured an orb of light that floated neatly above him, guiding him and his friend along. The tent wasn't too far away, but it felt like eons before the pair finally got to their destination. Entering the tent, Solaris removed his snow-covered mask, gasping for breath as he shook himself off. Lumiere let a gentle fire burn at the edges of her wings when she sat back on him, warming them up, and he made a grateful noise before turning around.

 

"Solaris reporting," he said officiously, and Lumiere batted him in the head with her hot wing. "And the ever lovely Lumiere," he added hastily, ducking from a second swipe.

 

(OoC: Sorry this is shorter than usual, I have to go. :c)

[Grapz224 137]

Onyx was freezing, but not as much as he could have been. He was walking along the road close to the camp, his cart creating tracks in the snow behind him, which were soon covered back up with fresh snow. He was taking his trip to the northern mining camp. they were looking for... something. he didn't really know. All he knew was that the ponies there were friendly and caring. It may not be love, but those two emotions certainly were a really good treat. He had learned how to feed off emotions without killing the subject a long time ago, and now could do it so well, no pony could even notice he had eaten their emotion.

 

He started to shiver. He was disguised as Bit Coin, a traveling merchant Onyx had accidentally killed when trying to eat for the first time in Equestria. A brown earth pony with a greyish-black mane, and a cutie mark of three coins, Onyx used this form inside of towns when he was going to sell stuff. He had only started to shiver because he had flown most of the way north as a Dragon, carrying the cart in one claw and flying. He did this because The dragon had an internal fire to keep him warm, and could easily carry the cart while still being able to fly. The only other form he could had that could do that was the Princesses, and THAT would have gotten him noticed.

 

As he was walking, he began to see the markings of pitfalls. Taking care to avoid them, he smiled as this meant he would soon be warm, full, and have some money in his pockets. No sooner did he think this as he saw the faint glow of the camp's fire in the distance. He started to speed up, hoping to get there soon.

 

It took him two hours to trudge his way into the camp, but by then somepony had spotted him, and, exited for fresh food and new company, a few ponies had geared up and gone out to help him in. He could already taste all the pleasant emotions in the air.