Jump to content

Ciraxis

RP Certified
  • Posts

    2,027
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    37

Everything posted by Ciraxis

  1. Well,l that's the thing - Lady wouldn't get the true motive for Squall's joining. After all, Apple ponies are stubborn. That said I understand your reasoning, you thread and your rules. If it rubs you wrong way, I can just as easily change Swift's motivation to fit in.
  2. After some consideration I decided to bring Swift Squall into this. Squall is financing the construction of Fillydelphia Botanical Gardens - the first in the world to be completely enclosed and in controlled space. Despite his finances however, getting some exotic, oveseas plants roves to be a problem. Some seeds and saplings are not fit for long overseas journey. But Everfree is known for plants that shouldn't be in Equestria at all..... - He's the unicorn, which group don't have. Telekinesis for the win. Also in in excellent physical shape. Possibly Equestria's best swordpony (although that claim is up to debate). - Swift's been in Everfree more times then he cares to remember. Noblepony had displeasure of encountering majority of the dangers the lurk in the forest, and learned how to handle them too. - Being trained commando, Swift has survival skillet. Squall knows first aid, camouflage, shelter building, how to find food and water, and most important - navigation. - Extremely well equipped, to the point of being walking armory. Having his own company with R&D, he's known to sport gadgets that wouldn't be out of place on Batman's utility belt. That and very well supplied first aid kit. - He's rich. He doesn't need to be paid.
  3. Hou: "<eyes Sunset> Nice soul you have there...."
  4. With dedication for @RainbowFoxxy as thanks for ANOTHER gorgeous picture.

     

    1. RainbowFoxxy

      RainbowFoxxy

      Thank you sugar cube! :) 

  5. "Right, what can I know? It's not like I spent past thousand years on - among other things - delving into my private studies on the matter, while You and the Empire took the mother of all power-naps." Hou shoot back before flipping her mane. "And - correct me if I wrong - wouldn't any sane pony hold onto his or her memories so much harder, in an environment deprived of any kind of stimuli?" she asked smugly. Her smirk however quickly faded when Sombra got straight up demanding. That won't do. "I see you have wrong idea about your position here." Hou said, lowering her voice "You still think about us as equals. This...is not correct." she said, before flaring up her arcane might, pushing the stallion back few feet. The plants around them started to get corrupted by dark magic, and this time it was obvious it was not illusion. Shuren's aura was so large that he could actually hear it. It didn't required a genius to figure out that she was gorging herself on souls in past ten centuries. "If you are so certain of that, why don't you ask Discord directly? If he's still alive after today, and if you brave enough to accept the answer that is. I explained You enough, and have no obligation say more then I want!" she announced as their surroundings got further twisted. As practitioners of dark arts, it didn't bothered either of them, but it was clear that cleansing this taint from Whitetail Woods will require lot of work. Hou walked few steps forward with head held high. The talk was over it seemed. "I made clear what I want. I don't want You in the Heartland. So last chance Sombra. Call, or fold." sorceress said, while already waving protective spells around herself.
  6. Pondering on reanimating this on-site blog of mine....

  7. Pictured: The rare moment not being capital 'E' Evil. You would think that cobra on her flank would give ponies ideas.....
  8. @RainbowFoxxy Well the picture is so good that I briefly became the fastest liker in the west. Keep being awesome Foxxy.
  9. Supreme! Just as I imagined: Unassuming, until she goes all Shang Tsung on your rump.
  10. Shuren flashed an audacious smirk when Sombra tried to psych her out with physical size discrepancy between them. She begun encircling the stallion while still talking.... "Yes, you are still perceptive. And just as easy on the eyes as before...." she admitted while checking him out.... "....But....." she put the hoof to her temple, poking it. "There are few gaps here, isn't it? Memories that have holes in them, like a film reel with too many frames removed. Knowledge that you realize that by all means you should possess. Spells that names you recognize, but can't recall how to cast them..." she said, noticing with joy the unease in his eyes. "You but a half of a warlock you once were Sombra." Hou stated, noticing with satisfaction that the former tyrant had no idea what she was talking about. "You really have no clue, are you?" white mare noticed with great enjoyment. And it was nice to see his magic again, even if it was only....a foretaste. She herself enveloped her body in in toxic green-and-orange colored aura - just so she won't be upstaged. It was much more impressive then in the past. Illusions apprently, wasn't the only field in which sorceress improved. "You want to know what happened? Grogar happened. Yes, that Grogar. Or rather, Discord, pretending to be Grogar happened." Huo explained "What he tried to achieve through that, I don't know nor care - but he assembled a group consisting of Chrysalis, Tirek and his corresponding partner...what was her name?" sorceress paused tapping her chin as she tried to remember "Ahh yes, Cozy Glow. Well he wanted them to work together...and it worked. Too well. Anyway after unmasking and subduing Discord, those three now are in process of executing their revenge...and taking over Equestria perhaps?" the mare shrugged. "But I am surprised I need to explain all of this to You Sombra. After all 'Grogar' summoned you at the first meeting, when this little dark club was established." Shuren dropped the revelation with a sinister grin. "Although this You will probably deny that...right?"
  11. I have a great sense of deja vu from this picture..... I know! It's like when Lex Luthor was campaigning to become the president!
  12. "More or less." Shuren confirmed former tyrant's estimation "The years you irrevocably lost need I remind you. Didn't it occurred to you, how you could use all this time?" she asked. "But even that short amount of time you got was not gracious on you. You aged like milk. Spoiled, sour and on the way of becoming cheese." Hou summed up while leaning against something invisible. Sombra could notice that the sorceress was no longer smiling, instead sporting expression of...disappointment? It was hard to tell. "And cheese is not an ingredient that I wish should be added to the meal that it's cooking up north. Many tiny pieces of light, two more that are well matured, and three, meaty pieces of darkness. All that is left is to allow them to simmer on their own in the pot...." Hou explained, laying thick the cooking metaphors. "....But then I heard some reinforcements could arrive. And a part of those reinforcements was You. This....this would tip the scales too fast for my liking. I don't need another cook here...." Shuren admitted while squinting her eyes. "......obviously I can't allow that to happen. But I am a reasonable pony, and I hope you are still one as well. So like a dark mage to dark mage - turn around, forget about the case and maybe we can later talk, about various things over a drink or two....." she proposed before widening her stance. "....Or I will have to become more insistent. And you will find out how WELL I have aged." Hou added, threateningly.
  13. Squall caught up quick on what was Twilight was implying. His face expression behind the mask became a grim frown as Princess continued with her explanation. Somehow, Mycus's sudden case of death by poisoning by the hoof of his apprentice stopped being so tragic. For a moment, Sparkle looked like she was going to freak out, but she held herself together - for now. Swift meanwhile, was previously exposed to his own share of horrors - both as the sellsword and as agent of EPIC - so noblepony was less shaken up by the inequine alchemical experiments, although he was uneasy all the same. "....." Swift put his hoof on distressed mare's shoulder, in a reassuring gesture "Steel your heart Sparkle. We have to get to the bottom of this." he advised, before allowing the purple pony to move forward. Stallion looked at the room over his shoulder. After what Twilight had said, he had an urge to scour this place with fire - but this wasn't his call to make from the moment he invited the Princess for this trip. Perhaps later, when they stop the region from exploding..... Leaving the laboratory behind, Squall caught up to Sparkle. They were in a very long corridor - one lengthy enough that they couldn't see the end of it. Perhaps he can uplift his companion's mood by making her brain-cells work a little? "....Extracting magic is a one thing....." unicorn started "Both Tirek and that friend of yours, Starlight Glimmer, showed that it is possible - even if their methods were quite different. What puzzles me is how Thrice-blessed knew it's the alicorn magical essence that what he needs. Roam's record show that there were none alive in his time period - so how could he come to such conclusion? Could he calculate this up? Or did the records were wrong?" he questioned. Perhaps the next room will get them some more answers. But 'the next room' didn't seemed any closer. This was odd. By his estimate they had to walk along a mile - and yet there was no sign of door of any kind, or the corridor's end for that matter. Noblepony turned around.... To see that the passage stretches endlessly into the other way too. The lab they explored moments before was nowhere in sight. There was only one explanation for this. "We walked into yet another trap Sparkle. First spell that manipulated time, now magic that stretches or bends space...." Swift guessed.
  14. For all my years here, I don't believe I made any requests, so it's a first for me.... Obviously you already familiar with Hou, but would You be so nice Rainbow to provide art for the sorceress as well?
  15. "Of course you did...that crown was very tight after all..." Hou answered, sporting that infuriating smirk of hers. One that implied that she knew more then she let on. The raven on her hoof squawked and turned into dust before Sombra's very eyes. She couldn't do that so quickly before..... "For example, about how much world passed you by, when you were sent to....let's say, time-out....?" sorceress kept going, while her clothing changed rapidly from one design and color, to the next. It was clear she was trying to psych him out, made him question what's real and what's not. "...Or was it because that cape isn't really befitting you anymore?" Shuren kept dwelling on subject, as their surroundings first turned photo-negative, and then into brilliance of psychedelic colors. "Why am I.....? Oh Sombra, isn't that a question that I should ask You?" Hou deflected the question by throwing it right back him..... "For example....it would be very inconvenient if you are going north..." she glanced briefly over her shoulder ..."...or north-west...anywhere near heartland of the Heartland really. Very, very inconvenient....." Shuren's smile turned a bit more sinister. it seemed that a lot weighted on Sombra's answer here....
  16. So glued was Sombra's attention on this oddly familiar mare that he didn't notice he changes around him. Brunches of trees around them started to twist, starting to resemble the claws and talons, the woods outside the road started to be filled with ominous white haze, the crows's croaking could be heard from the distance. Even the group he was traveling with seemed to thin out..... ....But most important of all - he failed to notice that he made a wrong turn at the last crossroads. Or rather, failed to noticed there was another pathway. "<giggle> So you finally noticed..." the mare on which the former tyrant was focusing on spoke at last. "Too little too late...You used to be more attentive." she continued as her coat, mane and clothing changed shape and color before his very eyes. The eastern pony.... A raven flew from outside their view, and landed on mare's extended leg. It's eyes shone jade, unnaturally so. Soul magic. And not of a healing kind... The unicorn mare turned around. Different garb, different manestyle but the same face, and the same self-assured expression he remembered back when they first met.... "It's been a while Sombra. ...." Hou Shuren greeted her acquaintance. "My, you became even more brooding....."
  17. So, you changed the mind on Reckless colours or.....? Also I meant to ask, does she have some areion ancestry? Those ears are quite...distinctive for a pegasus.
  18. Whelp, she's now approved.... Perhaps some reunion would be in order. Like 'Why Sombra wasn't there, kicking ass when Three Stooges tried to have their revenge' as an example.
  19. Done, he's no longer counted as part of the group.
  20. Apped the mare that, ehem....used to know Sombra in the past (far past that is). I believe she will be approved soon.
  21. It might be a bit too late to make New Year resolutions.......

     

    But let's make WRAITH great again this year!

  22. "Yes. To both." Ossia answered before sliding down some small slope. "I discovered the cave by accident when tracking some crystals for...research purposes." pink mare said. "Since it was so out of place and far from...anything really...I kept it in mind. I used it since then, in different dimensions, whenever I wanted to hid something or as a hideout. Although in some of them I found out it was less unspoilt then in the others. Discovering mummified remains of Harmonious Path Hermit come to mind." Nerezza recalled, before blasting some rocks that were baring their path, in turn causing small avalanche. "If we going to take recruits, we will need hideouts. Multiple ones. No offence to your manor, but bringing too many inside it's basement is risky. This cave system can serve well as the first one in Long Guo. After some refurbishing...." Ossia said. "....Which brings us to yet another goal of this trip besides countermeasures against your aunts and Battlemage - funding for that kind of renovations. You own wealth is more then enough.....but it occurred to me that your wallet taking regular dents will eventually get...suspicious." alicorn pointed out. She didn't had to add to whom. "Which we will remedy in a simple way. Some substances are rare. So rare that they are worth two hundreds times their weight in gold. But what is sparse in this world, in other may be as common as limestone. We will find some that we can carry, and sell it at black market. At Wingapore or Airbourne. Those places are the thing in this timeline, right?" Ossia asked, her knowledge of this timeline still having some large gaps. "Ahh there we go. Let me enter first. For all we know, there can be wendigo inside. Haven't slain one of those in a while." she mused while squeezing through the small entrance. The amaranth light cast y her horn was immediately reflected by hundreds if not thousands of citrine crystals. So numerous the were in fact, that navigating through then resembled a game of Twister. "Yes I know...." Ossia said while bending and flexing her body around the obstacles. "...But I promise, the cavern beyond this one is much more spacious and...uhhh....less damp then this one."
  23. It appeared that the fur coat that she summoned didn't quite do the job, judging how hard the royal pony was cuddling to her. But as befitting a mare centuries old, she had solution for that too. Even if the clones felt rather nice. "Hold still." she asked while flaring her horn, and then poking Blueblood's temple with her hoof. Immediately, Prince could feel as if he was wrapped by dozens upon dozens of hot towels. His sight somehow was improved too, allowing the the stallion to see much farther and sharper in the dark then he could in the day. "Don't worry, it wasn't anything that important really. I will share you some it at different time." she reassured him before walking to the edge of the stone shelf they were on. "Do you know where we are?" Ossia asked. Apparently it was a rhetorical question, because she didn't bothered to wait for his answer. "Far north my Apprentice. Beyond Mount Faba, the desert surrounding it, the mountains that border the dry expanse and even the swamps that lie beyond those peaks. In fact when you turn right, you will see marshlands in question." she waved her hoof in dramatic question, showing Prince wetlands below. The reservoirs of water dotting it seemed so small from this height. "And when you gaze to the left....the cold, windy tundra, ending at the other arm of the mountain chain. And at feat of those other mountains a a thin line - a branch of Serpent Wall that bars the path of the hordes that call this place their home." Nerezza explained. Those that read about Long Guo history at least in passing, knew well capabilities of the barbarians from those frozen wastes. "But neither of those places are of interest to us. Looks east." she commanded her student - whcih amounted to looking forward. "Can you see Prince? A long cloud of haze, sandwiched between two smaller mountain ranges? There is a valley beneath this ashen cover. This is where we need to go. But this is place, better explored during the day - even if little light pierces this cloud." finally pink mare revealed their target. Ossia stepped away from the precipice and begund walking down the snowy 'path' - for the better lack of term. It was clear they were first ponies who stepped on this mountain. "There is a cave down below where we will wait till daybreak. Watch your step, but fear not. I am near."
  24. It seems that Ossia's words really got into Blueblood. good. So far, his activities amounted to...well...sticking it out to his aunt so she acknowledges him. To make her protegee grow, Nerezza needed to plant a seed of ambition in him.....His desire to be recognized made him latch to that idea quickly....Goooood.... "Ahhh...It may have not been in the past, but this is where you are selling yourself short my student." Ossia said to the stallion. "There is more to the stealth then just remaining unseen. Ever heard of 'Beakbreak City Shuffle'?" alicorn asked. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * When magical flurry of sparks and lights faded from their vision they were.....elsewhere..... The first thing that Blueblood could notice was the breathtaking view they had on the star filled sky over mountain peaks.. The second was that the lack of air was certainly not just metaphorical, and how freaking cold it was! "........Amazing is it......?" Ossia asked, her gaze glued to the stars above. For a moment oblivious to the problems the unicorn was having, probably because she showed none of the same issues. "....You may have been told otherwise, but nopony created this view. There is no great destiny written in them, nor are secrets of the gods or past or future hidden in their patterns. There just...are. A distant suns, glimmering at us from million and billion of light-years away. And it's beautiful....Eh?" Nerezza paused her monologue, noticing that Blueblood started to turn...well...blue.... "Ack! I forgot!" Ossia cried out, casting a spell, one that made Prince breathe normally "Usually at such altitudes I am alone. Are you all right? Need something warm?" she asked with a concerned look. Without input she conjured a fur coat to appear on his frame.
×
×
  • Create New...