The Griffon's Goblet? --Gerrard SteelEagle-- (private, PM for info)

[SteelEagle]

Oooh, how noble an idea from the well-built griffon. He was going to protect her from the big bad traps! If they were in a different position she would have laughed at the silliness of the thought. She didn't need to be protected from the most exciting and pointy edges of an adventure. That's where she lived year around, dancing and prancing on the thin edges of eternity where other ponies dared to tread. He didn't need to protect her but she knew that stallions had this desire to look all big and tough for the mares, and she reasoned that the same would hold true for an Equestrian griffon as well. And a hero to boot- he had a lot to live up to and the poor soul was trying his best. Pathfinder didn't need any protection however, even if his confidence was overflowing. He had a high opinion of his physical form, which didn't shock her any- Griffons tended to be full of themselves almost as much as they were full of meat. He was a big creature to her and, judging by the size of the path in front of them, big for their enemies too.

But he didn't need to hear that or see her react to it, so all she did was smile, squee with excitement, and prepare to play her part. She threw the rock and was excited to see him run the-

-[colour=#006400]"Woah!"[/colour] Pathfinder squealed as her griffy pal took her in his beefy Griffon talons as he ran the traps, which triggered as expected. It wasn't the smoothest of operations though, the passage barely big enough for him let alone the pair of them side by side. They scraped together more than she would have licked, the edges of the spike trap as they receded scrapping her sides and dropping an ounce from her if not more. That would have been ineffective adventuring enough for one night all things told but as they breached the end of the first set of traps, they triggered an arrow trap. Pathfinder would have been able to avoid them easy enough, but she guessed that it wasn't in the cards as her pal took her and hoisted her in front of the incoming arrows. It was quick thinking and Pathfinder moved her head to catch the arrows. Luckily she was wearing her authentic, five-wool, premium class Daring Do hat made by the fine folks at PoniesLoveGreat, and she caught them all with no penetration.

She freed herself from his grasp and by the sheer lack of space pushed herself forward and through an opening, falling a foot onto the floor with a light thud on old, disjointed cobblestone. She perked right back up and stuck her snout back into the hole.

[colour=#006400]"Hey, quick thinking there Gerry! Looks like we're about to break this case wide open! C'mon!"[/colour]

[Gerrard]

Gerrard was going to release his literally close friend from his clutches when she squirmed free from him, the pegasus having a short fall to the ground. He turned around and spotted the mare back on her hooves, the 'great hero' glad everything turned out like it did in his head, minus the few ideas of what might have gone wrong of course. "Yeah, sometimes one must go with primal instinct. Be ready to face harm head on, literally in this case," he cheered, chuckling lightly as he made light of his reckless use of her hat. "We make quite the dynamic duo! Strength and Speed, and whatever you bring," he joked, giving her an instinctive bear hug, squeezing his pony friend tightly the moment she had recovered.

After a moment of squeezing, he released her to the ground, his eyes noticing a few scrapes on her smaller frame, the hybrid feeling a bit guilty, regardless of what his face might have shown. "Quite the cuts you have, lets rub some dirt on them and move along," he said in an inspired manner as he pulled out some gauze and touched up her dyed coat a bit. The taller griffon didn't have much problem spotting all her minor wounds, quickly turning the cloth red before discarding it to the ground for the next pair of hapless adventurers to find on their way through. "Sorry about being so rash. Next time, I'll make sure to take your share of the damage," he added in an honorable manner, the griffon winking one of his golden eyes playfully as he spoke to her.

When she cheered about the case, the griffon was stunned a bit, nearly having forgotten about why he was here in the first place. He was supposed to fix a pipe and figure out why water was going missing. The water had apparently been going into a giant reserve that had been used in an attempt to drown them. "If the villain had water to spare on us, imagine how much water they are storing somewhere else. This is a desert after all, they might really be able to flood a city or two already," Gerrard declared in his normal voice, the griffon starting to get genuinely concerned. "Regardless of what might happen, we must continue onward. The lives of hundreds, if not thousands rest on our talons... and hooves. Lead on friend!" he announced, pausing a bit to add her into the cheer, the griffon seeming willing to allow her to share the glory, like any good hero would.

[SteelEagle]

That was a pretty epic pun, facing danger head on, considering what had just happened. Not that she hadn't heard that or a slight variation a thousand other times considering the highly comedic tone of her friends, from the criminals to the police. It was a highly hilarious life of swashbuckling daring and adventure that she led and she had few spots in her life reserved for those without the mane-raising sense of humor that she valued as part of her life. Luckily, this Equestrian griffon hero had a healthy stockpile of humorous quips and bad puns, and pathfinder had every intention of mining him for every last drop of adventuring deliciousness and companionship he could offer. He gave a firm hug and she smiled, taking a moment to swipe the arrows off of her hat and tossing them in her saddlebag.

[colour=#006400]"I bring leftover arrows!"[/colour] She said, not catching the joke entirely. It was true, too- she had a seemingly endless supply of arrows tucked away from her various brushes with the darn things. She could probably sell them the REA for a tidy profit, but she was a bit sentimental.

He started cleaning her up, which set her back for a few moments. Unless they were about to be tracked down by blood leeches, she didn't find any of the scrapes and cuts worth any attention whatsoever. It was what you got in the middle of an adventure, little souvenirs that dotted your body like the badges to conventions of the past or personalized bookmarks that you paid obscenely for in order to personalize your Daring Do reading experience. Not that she would stop her Gerry friend from cleaning her up some on account of her needing to do it sooner or later. As long as he didn't start stitching her up before she got some scars, they'd be cool. Mostly. Cleaning wounds never felt like a flight in a park, but at least he seemed to know what he was doing in every field that didn't include knowing who the hay he was adventuring with.

[colour=#006400]"Rash? I thought it was pretty quick witted. Next time we have trouble, I'll just make sure to toss you in front instead!"[/colour] She said playfully, elbowing him in the ribs as she started to hover. She was serious in any case. He started talking bout the case and made several valid concerns, none of which really added up to Pathfinder.

[colour=#006400]"All of that's true, but then what about the ghosts? And what managed to suck us down here and do that magic...stuff? The drowning was just the water...but why go after water ad just store i? Doesn't make sense if you have super powerful ghosts and magic on your side. Seems...mundane!"[/colour] She said, spitting the word out like it was an insult as she rose, taking a closer look at her surroundings. Definitely more civilized, but old, hidden, decaying and decrepit Something caught her eye and she flew over to a brick that was slowly falling out of the wall, giving a nice tug. The brick fell out and immediately fell apart, losing all of it's consistency and colour in a few seconds before cracking, splitting, and falling. The mortar and pestle around it did the same until it fell off in several plops on the ground.

[colour=#006400]"Wow, Unicornia enchanted construction! You usually don't see that so far down south. It's been decayed for, gosh, maybe a thousand years or more, but powerful magic keeps it together. Well, until you start to remove pieces, the whole thing starts to falter. Just...like...this..." [/colour]And with that she gave a relatively weak kick, which broke a few bricks. They fell apart, the mortar and pestle as well, and this started a chain reaction whereby brick and adhesive alike fell apart like a ripple. It fell to the ground and in a matter of thirty seconds the whole thing was a pile of liquid goop and dust.

[colour=#006400]"Just like that, see? Griffons first!"[/colour]

[Gerrard]

Gerrard was glad that this mare wasn't the type who needed a great deal of personal space. Most mares either squeezed back just as tight, or simply squirmed free and stomped on his feet. The griffon was glad that there was another outcome, especially one that didn't end with a crushed foot or a grabby mare that wouldn't leave him to his own devices. He watched her scoop away the arrows, the architect scratching his head a bit in confusion at the spectacle. "Surely the arrows couldn't be worth the effort of carrying them around? Sentiment must play a role! Maybe she has a museum dedicated to all the arrows, with placards describing the exploits related to them," the griffon thought in silence, chuckling a bit at the absurdity of it all.

She replied in the manner he expected, the griffon seeming to understand the thought process of the seemingly unpredictable mare. The hearty griffon didn't as much as flinch at her playful jabs, the hybrid used to giving and receiving them as exchanged banter with friends and strangers alike. "Yeah, I suppose it was quick thinking. Just let me wear your pith hat if I need to block any arrows with my head," he joked, deciding to not jab her back in the side. He was pretty sure he had done it to a pegasus who was flying, the black creature remembering someone crashing into wall. He couldn't remember the details, and decided to shrug it off, smiling a bit as he decided against needlessly hovering. Sure he could manage, but his large wings made it tiring to hold a stable position in the air without moving around.

While he was not an expert in the supernatural by any means, Gerrard was an expert in water, and he had read of the infamous things it could do. "Well, you might wonder why someone would want water when they have ghosts. The answer is quite clear if you think about it. We managed to escape their clutches, unscathed as well! While their ghost things might be scary they are hardly dangerous enough to harm a large city, especially one with any amount of skilled unicorns. See, the problem with ghosts is that they lack substance, they lack speed, they lack determination! Water has all three with extra to spare," he cheered, clenching his talon and raising it for emphasis.

"Have you ever see rain on a stormy night? You can see the clear outline of it as it pelts the ground! It falls so fast that not even the fastest pegasus can evade it. As for determination, water always gets to the ground, no matter the path it has to take!" he exclaimed with a smile as a drop of water fell from one of his talons and fell to the ground for Pathfinder to see, assuming she managed to keep her attention on him. He heard a light rumbling and turned his attention back to the pony, just in time to see her pull a brick out. His eyes widened a bit as the object seemed to instantly die of old age before his eyes. He didn't know a lot about magic, but this seemed like serious stuff, the griffon starting to feel even more worried about their prospects. The griffon had never studied Unicornia, opting to avoid as many history classes as possible in college. He went to Canterlot to learn about water, not some silly pony tales! If his dear unicorn friend was here though, she would probably give him a lecture about learning from the past to avoid making mistakes in the future. He flapped his claws like a mouth as he seemed lost in thought, thinking about his robotic unicorn friend,before the voice of Pathfinder snapped him out of his stupor.

"Oh right, I will lead the way, stay by my side and I will protect you!" he cheered, extending one of his massive black wings and draped it over the shoulders of Pathfinder like a warm cloak of feathers. He took a few steps forward and saw something that seemed that seemed to defy reason. Amidst the decay and rubble of the secret passage, modern pipes seemed strewn about the area. He narrowed his eyes and looked the modern material over before gasping in horror. "Someone stole my personal piping! The audacity of it all! And probably using it to destroy Equestria and make me look bad!" he growled, showing Pathfinder one of the pipes that had his name engraved onto it in a fancy font. His loud voice made the room rumble slightly as the faint sounds of running water could be heard above the ceiling. Gerrard gasped and covered his beak, not wanting the already delicate walls above them to collapse before they could formulate a course of action.

[SteelEagle]

This griffon here didn't understand anything when it came to sentimentality, Pathfinder figured. It didn't surprise her really, griffons didn't have emotions! They had electronic gadgets instead of hearts that emitted shocks whenever they felt anything closely resembling emotion. Well, that was just a side adventure in one of the expanded universe novels where Daring Do went to the future, but the image on the front stuck with her and she had a hard time shaking the thought that behind the eyes of every griffon were laser beams ready to cook her into a nice chicken dinner. Which she had heard enough disgusting jokes about while in the Pit and had no desire to repeat them. So she was happy to just believe he was a silly, emotionless griffon without laser beams.

But he did have a point with water. And rain. As a pegasi, she knew the power of the storm, of the flood, of the unceasing downpour and the flash floods, of the swift surge and unceasing crack in the sky as whole regions felt more like the sea than a nation. But for all their power, he seemed to forget a few things that only a griffon could.

[colour=#006400]"Well, I know all about the power of water. You can't NOT know about the power of weather as a pegasi. I've seen storms that could shear your feathers off from a hundred miles away! Fun stuff. But for all of it's power, it suffers from a few problems. One, it takes time. Secondly, once it's going, you can't control it. Third," [/colour]she offered as he went off about his previous piping, the poor Griffy, [colour=#006400]"it isn't as silent or accurate as, say-"[/colour]

The light around them was seemingly snuffed out like a candle. She assumed BATTLE STANCE.

Not that it was needed. Above them, a small group of ghosts phased through the ground...and ignored them as they phased through a wall. A moment later, the lights seemingly flicked back on. The rumbling around them didn't cease, however, and if anything the walls seemed to weaken.

"[colour=#006400]-ghosts. Well, ghosts and a room about to flood. How exciting![/colour]"

[Gerrard]

While it was true that some griffons were trained to not have proper emotions, Gerrard was clearly an exception. If he knew about her book, the griffon would state that he was just so tough that the shocks couldn't prevent him from feeling emotion! Of course, he didn't purchase the mind reading upgrade and was oblivious to her secret thoughts, the hapless plumber thinking about more pressing issues as they seemed to be perpetually pursued by water that wanted to give them an eternal bath! He listened to her explain that pegasi could control the weather, something that caused the griffon to roll his eyes in discontent. Ponies always seemed to think they had an answer for everything, their 'magic' traits always being a crutch that provided them the hubris to face their doom head on. While he had an ego, and a large one at that, the griffon preferred to avoid facing death in the face whenever possible.

"Oh but of course. I'm sure you have all contingencies covered Lady Pathfinder. Please forgive my ignorance, perhaps I am undervaluing the individual element that resides inside of every pony," he commented, deciding to humor her and play along while she made her claims about weather control. He knew it was better to just go along with the brash claims of ponies, something that served to preserve the sanity of everyone involved.

He paused when he saw the ghosts, the griffon seemingly unphased by them. Gerrard wasn't so much fearless as he was confused, the hybrid overwhelmed by all of the strange things that had been happening to the pair. "Well Pathfinder, it looks like this room is going to collapse soon and flood and I don't see any immediate exits. We can run deeper down this hallway and look for an exit, or we can wait back a bit and let the water fill up this chamber before we try to swim up through to the surface. What sounds more appealing to you?" he asked, offering her two options, only one of which seemed vaguely sane at all.

[SteelEagle]

It was a rather cool thing to be involved in, ghosts and flooding and a secret evil pony with magliomanic visions of global conquest somewhere close by with only Pathfinder and her erstwhile companion to stop him. or more likely, her. It was her experience that despite misandric concepts to the contrary, the sliver of the population that was made up of males did not possess a disproportionate number of vile villains. Nor was she even sure they faced a super-villain but it took a pony with giant wings of steel to try and steal water and use water and ghosts to attack those who sought to unravel your diabolical plans, so it seemed a safe enough bet. And her companion on this adventure wasn't even a slouch like the last ten or so losers that had stuck around her and then bailed when the going got tough. This griffon didn't even seemed phased! Cool griffon was cool, probably had sunglasses at home or somesuch. If not, she'd let him borrow one of her extra pairs.

The walls continued to weaken. It would only be a short while longer before the whole came down around them, and judging from the height of the room, there would be no escape. once it came in. Unless...

[colour=#006400]"Well, you're close to the right idea!"[/colour] She said, flying towards the top of the room and inspecting where the ghosts had phased through. She nodded, licked her chops, an readied herself.

[colour=#006400]"Let's get Daring!" [/colour]She blasted out before she reared back and kicked the top of the wall, once, twice, and finally-

-The top broke, and water gushed out with such force that Pathfinder shot to the other side of the room with a crunch against some decaying wood, fluttering away hazily until she came to a hovering stop in front of Gerry with a smile.

[colour=#006400]"Well, we just let the top of that room drain for a bit and go through the hole! Then we can get to the next room before the whole wall collapses. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!" [/colour]

[Gerrard]

Gerrard gulped silently, hoping that his silly suggestion wouldn't be their undoing. Regardless of his inner turmoil, the griffon maintained his confident facade, putting on a good show for his crazy partner. He had to wonder how much of her was bravery, and how much of her was insanity. No normal person would decide to nonchalantly make such a dangerous risk, but then again, normal people didn't often find themselves in such strenuous circumstances. The dark griffon did have to admit though, he did admire women who were bold and decisive.

"She has a catch phrase? I need a catch phrase, something that sounds intimidating maybe! Yeah," he thought silently, failing to notice the large rush of water as it smashed into his form. He watched her get thrown across the room by the burst of water, her smaller frame unable to simply shrug off the water as he held his ground. He might have chuckled at their spectacle if they weren't in such a dire situation. "Yes sir!" he cheered, saluting the pegasus before flapping his large wings and hovering above the water as it started to empty out into where they were. "Now we play the waiting game!" he added with a grin, knowing it might take a minute or so to empty the water into their own chamber. He wasn't normally one for small talk, but the hybrid felt like this was as good a time as any to learn more about his eccentric friend. "When you aren't dodging arrows and swimming through shark infested waters, what do you do for fun?" he asked, curious to what she liked to do on the side.

[SteelEagle]

She hovered in position as the water continued to fill up the room, joined in good time by Gerrard. He wasn't always the quickest on the uptick which meant that this was a more even adventure than she had initially feared. Nothing was worse than an adventure where one outclassed the other, especially when it was her getting outclassed. Luckily, he seemed to have weaknesses too and she was happy to note that if they didn't work together, they'd both be ghost food. How exciting! She fluttered with palpable anticipation of the water to stop being so annoying and just pour out already. It was moving at the speed of boring. Luckily, she had a friendly neighborhood griffon here to ease the passage of time.

His question seemed completely silly, and she responded with a giggling fit that had a few snorts and neighs thrown in due to reflex.

[colour=#006400]"Besides adventure what do I do for fun? I go on adventures, that's what! Dodging arrows and boulders and spells and certain doom is the best thing ever. I go on adventures every day, just like my idol Daring Do! I spend probably ninety percent or more of my life doing these sorts of things. But when I don't go on adventures, I navigate the EQUALLY DANGEROUS WORLD of Daring Do fandom! I lead the Fanclub in Cloudsdale, I write fanfiction and draw some things, and of course I read all the books again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again! It's really fun. Have you ever read the books?" [/colour]She asked, jumping out in front of him with an earnest and eager smile crushing the features of her face. Behind her the water was starting to slow down, the levels almost reaching the level where they could move onto the next room.

[Gerrard]

As he hovered beside the pegasus, he was slowly beginning to understand the depths of her depravity. He knew strange ponies, one his best friends practically being a construct with her numerical view of the world. Regardless, depravity wasn't always a bad thing, the griffon smirking devilishly as he watched the water slowly fill the chamber. Gerrard fought back the desire to facepalm when she answered that she adventured when she wasn't adventuring. Clearly their mutual interests weren't exactly close, but he wasn't going to let that build a wall between them.

"You must really like Daring Do. You put on quite the look, it could easily fool the untrained eye! Of course the all seeing eyes of Gerrard could never be fooled by any facade," he replied with a chuckle, playfully tugging on her tail. "In regards to the fandom itself, yes I have read the first book, one time. An intriguing start to an over arching ark, but I prefer to create my own adventurers. Why read a story when bards will tell tales of my own!" he cheered in an upbeat tone, exaggerating his exploits greatly. His idea of an adventure was firing a crossbow without hurting himself or anyone. A bit of hyperbole never hurt anyone, right?

He could feel the water touching his paws as it basically reached about as high as it was safely going to be. The hybrid waited for a moment to hear any parting words from his pith hatted friend before they went on their dive for the surface. "See you on the other side, regardless of which place this gets us," he remarked a bit darkly for her, cackling devilishly as he tried to hide the fear that was welling up inside in his body. In a normal circumstance, this was a terrible idea, but this was about the only choice they had left. Gerrard took a deep breath and dove under the water, clawing his way quickly through the water, glad not to be hoofed when swimming.

[SteelEagle]

All seeing eyes of Gerrard were right! He had eyes the size of dinner plates like all of his kind and they were eagle-eyed, which made sense since a lot of them were some weird crossbreed with eagles. Better than a hummingbird anyway, but made them a bit ungainly to look at in the final draw of things. At least that eagle vision would come in handy eventually when they were topside, though previously she hadn't been too impressed with his spatial-ghost awareness when they were nearly surrounded by them. Well, he probably had agood excuse like maybe he was inspecting the area for an escape route that they ended up not needing. You know, the more she thought about it, the more Pathfinder started to believe that her famous friend was a bit more trot than saddle, but the more she thought about it and agreed with it the more she disliked the idea and decided that she prefered the likely fictional hero version.

[colour=#006400]"Well, I HAVE modelled myself after her! I even used some permadye for my coat, though it isn't as good as advertised. It rubs off if it contacts too much fire or oily water, but I guess you can't ask for much more. I once added in some everfree sap to it, but all that did was turn that section of the coat purple. NOT a good choice for me!"[/colour] She laughed as he tugged on her tail, previous rump injuries not even allowing her to register the tail grab for a full second later. Silly griffon, that was for Snowfall! What an odd bird.

Speaking of odd bird, he dived under the water. Why? Their room had been dry. She kicked the wall to allow the water in the next room to drain into this room enough for them to then enter the hole that had been blown open and fly above the decreased water level. All she could do was facehoof, but he was too far under the water for her tastes now. She lazily and easily flew across the room, into the hole, and into the next room without getting wet, confused by her companion all the while.

[Gerrard]

Gerrard swam through the water, managing to make his way into the "ghost" chamber. He would have flew alongside Pathfinder, but the wily griffon had other ideas. The hybrid could vaguely trace her form above him, the architect glad to see she wasn't lost. The hapless adventurer seemed ready for stealth, awkwardly keeping his form beneath the water as he poked his long black maw above the water and used it like a snorkel.

"A rookie mistake, the ghosts are looking for a griffon and a pegasus. The simple ghosts could never make the logic jump that beak equaled griffon!" he thought with a smirk on his exposed beak. "Path, get in the water, the ghosts are looking for us. Hide your face under your hat to hide, he whispered to her, the hybrid fighting the urge to gag as he took a mouthful of cold water that had been who knows where.

As 'brilliant' as his plan was, the griffon forgetting that he couldnt see with his head underwater. He aimlessly paddled towards what looked, if he could see, like an exit into another chamber.

Where was the 'master' adventurer headed? Nobody really knew, but it was plausible that he might be able to hear something. Making yourself blind and deaf in order to hide didn't seem to make sense, but he surely had a plan, (probably not)!

[SteelEagle]

Pathfinder cocked her eyebrow at her fellow's proposal, and for about a dozen different reasons. Ghosts probably didn't see the same way ponies or griffons did and probably didn't have the same limitations in eyesight as the living. They didn't even have eyes! It was silly of her pal to think that being in the water would save them from the spooky ghosts. All it would do would be to ensure they moved slower, targets for the ghosts moving underwater in slow motion. Griffons weren't good swimmers and pegasi sure weren't good swimmers. All in all, she'd prefer to stay above and fly rings around the spooky ghosts rather than wait to be taken by them.

[colour=#006400]"No thanks! I'm fine out of the water where I can fly around rather than wait to get taken by ghosts who don't have eyes and don't see the same way we do. I don't know about you, but I'm not built for swimming. I'm built for speed! For flying!" [/colour]She cackled, and as if to illustrate this point she took off, flying across the room. Up top it seemed to go on and on, the small amount of room between the water level and the ceiling more than ample enough for the wiry pegasus to fly about haphazardly. No sign of trouble. No sign of ghosts or traps. It was a bit boring but you couldn't make the bad guys always dance to your flute only if you had a magic flute. And she didn't have a magic flute yet, though that cropped up more often than you'd think in her adventures.

She took a glance down, more out of boredom than anything else. Every thirty yards or so there seemed to be a four walled chamber, each one with an exit from the room-

-From below, she spotted a huge black form as it rushed from one of the gaps and lunged out of the water at her, missing the pegasus by inches. It's scales were as big as her head, it's huge, razor-tooth filled mouth big enough to swallow her whole. It missed her in an arc, Pathfinder juking it at the last second as she felt it's slimy surface caress her just enough to send her spinning out of control. All in all, biggest piranha she had ever seen! It fell back down into the chamber behind her as she regained her flight pattern just above the water, and she spotted a whole school of smaller piranha jumping over the chambers towards the start of the room- maybe going after Gerrard? Oooohhh, was somepony, or something, controlling them?

[colour=#006400]"Finally some action!"[/colour] She bellowed as she hovered up and turned back to the gap in the chambers again long enough to see the black form of the huge piranha lunging out at her once more!

[Gerrard]

The griffon clearly didn't operate the same as the pegasus, the hybrid secretly refusing to acknowledge the ghosts as actual undead creatures. He had never seen one and these all had to be some kind of trick! He had a unicorn friend who had tricky magic and he thought that these ghosts were probably just sent out to keep curious visitors scared away! If this were true, 'ghosts' being able to see heat wouldn't matter because they would need their boss to see him, and he was hidden, mostly at least. This was all of course speculation, the griffon by no means an expert in the ways of the supernatural.

When she scoffed at his proposal, the griffon would have rebutted with his previous thoughts, but had already taken one mouthful of water the last time he spoke. Instead, he continued along in the general direction of the the pegasus, the hybrid aimlessly proceeding forward. While he was built for flying, his feline form was adept at swimming as well, his talons working surprisingly well at paddling, not that he seemed too concerned as he headed down the same path.

While he didn't have the hearing to make out the identity of the thing swimming at him, he could hear the sound waves of something fast approaching. Gerrard gasped and returned to a normal position in the water. He coughed up a bit of cold water as he saw a giant piranha jump out at his companion. Where one might see a dangerous monster, the griffon saw a great opportunity. He licked his maw while he waited for the beast to jump a second time. As the creature breached the surface again, the hybrid burst out of the water as well, his sharp talons primed to swoop up the fish, even if it was a bit too big for carry off.

[SteelEagle]

Whatever agenda they had before was not so subtly set aside in the name of good 'ol adventuring fun when finally the monotony of the day's events were broken up by a vicious pair of piranhas. Pathfinder had dealt with these things before, though not of this size or seeming ferocity. Usually the last resort of a madpony seeking to characterize himself, unaware that he had become stereotypical as quickly as dresses on little fillies. But then again, what could a villain do nowadays to not be completely trite and boring? That well was dry. Had to turn babyface just to remain interesting, but then ponies like Pathfinder would have to play the bad parts and Pathfinder had learned she was a terrible bad pony. Besides, she didn't want to be a loser. She wanted to be a winner! And one key component of being a winner was working well with others, and Pathfinder thought she had that down pat with her Griffy pal.

Piranha jumped out at her, and flew out to get it. Good companion! Of course he didn't seem all that aware of the piranha that had been tracking him either, which shot out from the water towards him as he went to take on the one coming from her. Silly griffon forgot the first rule of adventuring- watch your back. Wait, that was rule seven! Rule eight helped even the score: When in doubt, rely on your companions.

[colour=#006400]"Huzzah!"[/colour] Pathfinder screeched, bolting from her position towards the piranha, the pair almost clipping one another in the air as they passed. Pathfinder flew straight and fast towards the row of sharp, turned around, and bucked the beast in between the eyes. The fish shot into the water below with a mighty splash, drenching the mare in it's reaction, and Pathfinder shot her view up to see how Griffy Griff had handled the other!

[Gerrard]

Gerrard often fancied himself a tweener, opting do what was awesome instead of stooping to absolutes like right and wrong. This of course never happened, because he was decidedly less awesome than he thought, and a nice guy at heart, unable to let the innocent, no matter how capable, be bullied by monsters or criminals. He was of course not the most gallant of fellows, but he was always willing to try, especially when the alternative involved getting eaten. As quickly as he had moved to strike down the fish, gravity had already aided him in returning the sharp toothed monster to the water. The griffon gave the fish an elbow drop of sorts to help gravity along, the confused fish falling back into the water, clearly disoriented and dazed. The monster was surprisingly tough, his foreleg hurting from the rough impact of the the two. He of course gritted his beak to hide the throbbing pain, while he wasn't very tough, he could put on a decent facade.

"As much as I want to put on a wrestling clinic with these monster heels, we don't have a way to efficiently stop them, and fighting for a prolonged period of time would only serve to tire us. Lets get out of here and away from Mr. and Mrs. Bitey!" Gerrard explained quickly to the pegasus as yet another piranha burst out of the water and aimed right at the grayscale tail of the distracted adventurer. He knew that she might not react fast enough to a warning, and decided to play to her vanity, all pegasus begging to race him at one point or another. "Race you to the exit, try to keep up!" he called across to his friend before darting deeper into the cave system. No self respecting pegasus could turn down the challenge, it would just be a matter of time until she was zooming past him.

[SteelEagle]

Yoohoo! Gerrard sometimes was a slight disappointment as an Equestrian hero, but other times he lived up to his own epic billing. Well, maybe not quite as much as he would have thought but still sometimes he pulled through pretty well. Definitely moving up the vaunted Pathfinder adventure buddy rankings and cannon fodder list. More or less one and the same sometimes but hey, even fodder could be buddies! But the way Gerrard handled his end of the nasty fish attack told her he wasn't a complete slouch. He elbow dropped the whole fish nation and sent it to the deep not too long after Pathfinder had speed-kicked the other, a one-two punch of a tag team that these silly willies couldn't even handle! He then challenged her to a race, which was normally okay but they were in the middle of some fun.

[colour=#006400]"Come on, don't chicken ou-" [/colour]She began before the newest attacker nearly enveloped her whole, the cast off water from it's mouth heavy with it's stench as it tried to take her in whole. Her four legs shot out in a flash, two hooves on the top and two on the bottom as it tried to bite down with crushing force. Pathfinder used every muscle in her body, strained to their limits, each and every fiber of her being aching to be relieved of the pressure. She repositioned her hooves and let go, pulling back as the teeth came down in front of her, the fish heading down towards the water. She gave the beast a swift kick out with hind-legs in the head which accentuated it's natural dive, sending it end over end. The tail came down almost on top of her, Pathfinder moving out of the way enough to only be spinned like a top in the air for a moment or seven before stopping. She stopped finally though her pith helmet didn't for about another minute, Pathfinder's grin dimming for a moment as she had to reach up and stop it's admittedly super cool spin.

FINALLY she took off after the griffon.

[colour=#006400]"Sorry, was winning at everything again!"[/colour]

[Gerrard]

While dropping the people's elbow on giant fish was fun, Gerrard felt that living another day would be much more fun in the long run. He lead the charge (retreat) out of the cave system, assuming that Pathfinder was more interested in flying than racing. While he was clearly wrong, Gerrard didn't glance back to confirm his theory. He didn't fly too fast, especially in the dark, still within reasonable proximity to the made as she vanquished her fishy foes.

When she spoke, Gerrard couldn't help but chuckle, Pathfinder apparently loving battle above even flying. He would have applauded her dedication, but decided that it would probably encourage her. His better reason for holding though was unbelievably simple. "If I praise her, that would show that I'm impressed. I could only be impressed if I wasn't the legendary hero of prophecy," Gerrard rationalized in his mind as he held back a deep laugh. These thoughts would need to wait for later though, the pair needing to escape before they could reminisce over their exploits.

A light could be seen in the distance, its mere presence seeming to signal freedom. Gerrard didn't know for sure, but it always seemed best to expect the worst and hope for the best. "Take the point Pathfinder, it's your turn for dome limelight," he cheered in an excited manner, using a sly excuse to let the faster pegasus ahead of him.

[SteelEagle]

Pathfinder flew with what little speed she had, being on the abysmally average range of pegasi fliers. She had never taken it all too seriously and she was yet to regret that decision. Flight camp had been fun and all, but physical ability mattered little in her line of work, at least as far as flying was concerned. She could turn on a bit pretty well though, which she found a much better and more useful sill then flying super fast like. Besides, she would rather not go ahead and use up her allotted speed for the day on a silly race that didn't even end with her drop kicking a drop bear or something else equally awesome and cool. Just not a good use of her energy, and she used her energy rather effectively she believed.

If only the super awesome Equestrian hero, if he was who he claimed to be, gave her the super awesome Equestrian credit she deserved. Oh well, that would come with time and when all was said and done he would be singing her praises up and down the nation and when he wrote his memoirs fifty years from now he'd dedicated fifteen chapters to his love for her and how she denied him at every turn and when he finally passed away his gravestone would read, "To Pathfinder, my rock! "

Or maybe not, either way was fine by her as long as the adventure continued and it appeared as though they were on their way to a crackling good time as she took the lead, bowing politely before zipping ahead towards encroaching light. The hole grew, the light as well in intensity, until they reached the end. It was a small enough hole for her and so Pathfinder pushed her way through into a well-lit cavern, as barren as the one they had started out in but with far less water. She turned back to the hole.

[colour=#006400]"Need any help there, Griffy?"[/colour]

[Gerrard]

Gerrard wasn't the greatest flier himself, the hybrid taking university courses instead of flight classes. Instead of practicing flying and using it to show off, he took an extra course in architecture. Building layouts are like pipe layouts, just with different materials and ways they are arranged! He was almost glad to see that his partner was a spectacularly average flyer as well, the griffon always having to claim he was sandbagging when a hyper pegasus pestered him for a race. It was good not having to heave and struggle for air because he was forced to go full throttle over a petty race.

He saw the source of the light more clearly, a hole in the wall that hopefully lead to a better place, like outside or maybe Canterlot. "That would be nice, anywhere that isn't here," he thought to himself, the hybrid grinning at that lovely thought just in time to see Pathfinder squirm her way through the hole. He looked at the spectacle and marveled at her 'form' for a moment, getting a feeling of deja vu as he looked at the black maned sandy mare. Gerrard couldn't quite put his talon on it, but when her hooves slipped through and he saw the last traces of her greyscale tail, a thought crossed his mind. Her form vaguely reminded him of a standard griffon, the back portion anyway. While one might have thought this was a plus to the dark hybrid, he actually shivered at the thought, remembering that his advances were usually met with sharp claws.

"Coming, just give me a moment. You know the saying, griffons can get through any hole that they can fit their head through," he remarked deciding to interchange griffons and cats in the sayings. And while griffons were similar to cats, cats didn't have wings and such. Griffons were a lot more flexible than ponies, that was sure, but they were also a bit larger than them as well. Well, larger than normal ponies that weren't musclebound behemoths. Of course he remembered seeing a few griffons like that and wondering how they could fly with giant barrel chests. He shuddered to think about the amount of weight that had to be lifted to create such a mass of muscle. Regardless, he shook off the thoughts and slipped his talons through the hole, and followed with his head, slipping his long black beak through as he awkwardly squeezed through. He wheezed a bit and sucked in his chest and squeezed his wings in as much as he could, the architect not finding it quite as easy to slip through.

"It appears that this hole is not agreeing with sliding through. I believe I may have done a few too many bench presses to be able to squirm through such a tiny hole. Give a griffon a helping claw or hoof. I don't want to flex and destroy this entire wall and collapse a mountain on top of us. That would be rather unfortunate if my might was our undoing," he explained in a completely straight face. While he was lying, it wasn't very clear, the hybrid learning a lot about maintaining his composure from his strange courier friend. He hoped it wouldn't take too much effort to dislodge himself from the hole, and while Pathfinder had a lovely face, he wanted to be able to look at where he was escaping into.

[RarityDash]

*Due to decisions to restructure the forum and trim unneeded sections, the Private RP Forum will soon be removed. As such, recently active RP threads in this section have been moved to the sections in the WoE we deemed to be the best fit for them. If you would prefer your thread be moved to another section in WoE, or to a Free RP section, please contact a moderator and we will be happy to move it as you desire.*

~Canterlot.com staff.

[SteelEagle]

Pathfinder looked out at the cavern with a certain degree of sadness. There wasn't much to it, really, the walls well-starved of any reak attention and the few pieces of archetecture that existed were wooden and not worth her attention. And, well, that was it. All of it. Boring and lifeless. Not a single trap was triggered by her lazy flank entrance. Not a single arrow flew towards her face with lethal ambitions, triggered by their blundering ways deep in a mysterious place. No acid pit bubbling underneath to threaten them should they fall, and no rocks from above trying to ease such fall into the aforementioned fictional acid pit. The game wasn't very fun if there wasn't any obstacles, and her compaion wasn't betraying her or anything. She sorta wanted to go back and fight the pony eating piranhas some more but she figured that with how lame this all was they were probably taking a nap.

At least watching Gerrard struggle to get in the hole was funny. Griffons were pretty athletic creatures all told and it wasn't like Gerrard was some muscle bound beasty who was chargin' through the cavern with nary a thought. He was probably super strong owing to his somewhat believed stories, but he didn't show it which was well enough by her. She didn't want to have muscle envy like she did back in the Pit, which was the one time she considered weight training for anything short of the Iron Pony. He struggled fruitlessly for a few more moments before he asked for her help. Hah, a Griffon asking a pony for help was starting to become a running theme in her life! Maybe she could become a superhero who helped griffons after she had found all the adventure she could find. maybe there was more to be had in the superhero side of things! Ahh, oh well. She's fly over that bridge when she saw it.

"Gerrypoo, Don't be a silly griffy. We all know the only griffon strong enough to cause mountains to collapse was Lord Razorclaw McGuffin, and that was just a mare's tale! Do they tell your kind the same story? Probably a hero in yours, huh?" She considered it, investigating him closely. Too small a hole for too big and silly a griffon. Could she lick him up and down and side him through? Lubrication would work. But no, that was probably not needed. He was big but not that big to require lubrication. That meant she'd have to use good old fashioned pony power to see the day through, but she had one more thought left- why the heck were his eyes scanning her so intently, almost hungrily? Well, he probably didn't want to eat her as most griffons she had met tended to not want their prey alive and kicking, thoygh most of them didn't count vultures as their bird bros. But then again maybe he did and maybe this was all a trap and he was going to eat her now! Ooh, that would be exciting, if illogical- like the best villain plans.

"Alright you carnivore, let's get you out of there. Don't scream like a little filly!" Pathfinder laughed, flying up to his poking out head. She then placed her back hooves on either side of his face as if she were standing on them on the sides of the wall- like a super spider pony!!! - and then leaned in, taking his head in her front hooves. She then pulled and pulled, grunting as she tried to pull his whole body through the hole via his head.

"Come on you lugnut, get in'ere!"

[Gerrard]

Gerrard wasn't quite the seasoned adventurer his partner was, but he had read enough stories to know many of the rules that all great adventures followed. The villain strikes at the most opportune time and both have had more than enough opportunities to mug the other. Pathfinder seemed nice and honorable to him. Just not nice enough to be hiding an evil secret from him. A true villain always gave themselves away by being too selfless for any reasonable person.

His personal speculation aside, the griffon welcomed her help, using his flexible talons and the 'gentle' pulling of his friend to get through. It felt like she was trying to pull his head off, the griffon grinning and bearing it ad best he could. He sucked his already lean chest in and finally managed to slip through, the griffon doing his best to hold back a yelp as he felt a hip seem to bend to fit through.

Gerrard gritted his black beak as used all of his manliness to hold back a tear. "Ah, freedom. A few flaps of the wings and we will be home free," he explained carefully as he disguised his groan as a sigh of relief.

"Let's just snatch up whatever magic pony is causing all the problems here and drag them back to Canterlot. They will throw parades in our honor and everyone will know the names of Greyfeather and his trusty steed named Pathfinder," he joked play full as he poked a pink tongue out of his long black beak at her. For one reason or another though, the griffon had pinned this whole incident on a pony, quite the charge considering how little information they had.

Regardless of his goal though, it seemed that the pair still had a bit of work to do before they collected any prizes. They were no closer to figuring anything out, unless of course the masterful griffon was holding out on her to take all the credit for the capture later!

[SteelEagle]

Pathfinder was a mare of near boundless confidence wrapped up in a healthy dose of self-delusions of grandeur but she knew when you would get famous and when you would not. And as awesome as they were, clearly the best pony and griffon of all time or at least in western Equestria at that moment, they weren't going to get famous. Nah, not in Equestria. You didn't get famous for things like this, parades thrown in their honor. Simply put, they weren't super adorable- well, Pathfinder was but Griffy there was too gruff- enough for parades. Heck, all she had was a meeting with the Royals after she went through heck and high water (not to mention a few hundred guards and various prisoners and defenses) to retrieve a lost Equestrian relic! Ahh, too bad, so sad.

"Ha, I'm not so sure about THAT! Those milk drinkers don't reward super cool adventurers like they should. I mean, I receive more criminal complaints from them than i do sincere thank yous and I'm ninety nine point nine nine percent sure I'm the only pony they have who does things like that for them and all I get is super high lawyers fees!" She finished, rolling her eyes and patting her pal on the rear, "sorry, but parades aren't going to be thrown in our honor. But maaaaaaaaaybe will be the clue that leads us on even greater adventures! Imagine if he was a wizard who was part of a cult who was part of a secret society who was part of a conspiracy who was secretly one of the Princesses who was secretly a changeling who was secretly a viking caribou! That's like eighteen or so adventures in one, give or take a dozen. But in order to do that, let's go find the evil supervillain mastermind behind this!" Pathfinder said, pulling her friend along as she took fight down...a really long, boring tunnel with dim lighting. Not even spooky dim lighting either, just dim lighting. Huh. Talk about a joykill!

[Gerrard]

Gerrard grinned as she explained that they probably wouldn't get a parade. "Oh, they haven't given YOU, a parade yet? That's a bit odd, maybe you lost the artifact that you eventually had to recover. To get a parade, you need to do something that seems more substantive to the average Joe. An artifact is something foreign to them, but rescuing a drowning foal out of a burning building that was getting dragged into a sinkhole, that gets you on the front page of the newspaper. Not that it was too much for me to handle," the griffon smuggly explained as if it happened. It seemed that a bit of her insanity was rubbing off on the griffon. Surely that never happened, right?

Gerrard didn't let her words get him down though, the hybrid knowing that a true hero does things because they are right. Fame, glory, women, those were all perks or penalties that came later.

His golden eyes scanned the rocky walls around them as the pair slowly meandered through the tunnel. It was long and boring. Too boring, at least that was what Gerrard thought as he saw a cave in the face of the canyon. Water seemed to trickling out of it, a strange sign considering that the area had no water anywhere else above the rocky canyon floor.

"There, that must be the lair of the big bad! Ready to lay the smack down on a criminal mastermind," he asked with a grin, deciding to treat this like something normal. This was all too crazy to Gerrard for it to be real. This was a dream or some game to be played for fun. It had to be, right?