The Earthen Connection (Join in OOC)

[AegisTheProtector]

"More beeswax," the earth pony guard requested. "I can't think straight with these moans."

"You already stuffed the last of it in your ears, there's none left." The captain said, his wings at his side and thoroughly concentrated at the forest in front of him. "You're the only one here complaining like a foal, so just get over it. We are still meeting up with a few new recruits here. However late they may be."

"There isn't much you can do about it." Came a squeaky voice from the forest.

The captain looked for the origin of the voice. "Southpaw. What have you found?"

A white feather fell onto the nose of the captain, with no movement in sight. "I've found that you like direct answers. But those are rather hard to come by these days."

"Southpaw, we've been over this before, you are to respect my authority and answer me without question." The captain twitched his nose, eyes narrowing in all directions.

A claw picked up the feather from the nose of the captain. Following the claw, the captain sighed as the cynogriffon blew the feather into the breeze going by. "I didn't ask any questions in my reply. As for authority, you'll earn that as soon as you can spot me first."

"I'll ask one more time. Wh-"

"It's a quarter day's walk into the forest."

"Then why are you here so quickly?" The captain said.

"Walk." Repeated Southpaw, spreading his wings to full.

The captain sighed and stepped back to his position, waiting for the rest of the voluenteers to arrive.

Hopefully none would be as aggravating as this one.

[SongHeart]

Moon was watching from the forest. she didn't know of anypony going into the forest without something being wrong. and she wanted to help in any way she could.... without being seen of course. she kept watching from the trees as more ponies arrived

[fireraven23]

Walking down the trail in the Everfree Forest, there was a stallion. A very dark and dull stallion, who blended in well with the darkness of the Everfree Forest around him. On him were a pair of bright orange eyes, practically glowing in the forest, like an owl. They glanced along, looking at the different plants and natural occurrences within the forest. On his back was a saddlebag, filled to the brim with different materials. It seemed amazing that the scrawny stallion could carry such an explosively large bag without clear indication of loss of stamina. He kept trotting, until he began to hear a curious humming in the air. He tried to ignore it, but his mind continued fixating on it, trying to solve what it could be, what its purpose was. As he kept trotting, it seemed to get louder, until he met a group of guards and other ponies who seemed to be investigating it as well. He put his saddlebags down and faced who he assumed was the leader. "Step aside, lowlife, I have investigating to do." He said with a sigh, trying to get to the stones past him.

[SongHeart]

Moon rolled her eyes. She mimicked the stallions voice in her head

[AegisTheProtector]

Great. They're all idiots. The captain stamped his hoof at the new unicorn. "Unless you have a proper rank, you will be taking orders from me," the captain snarled.

The captain turned to the rest of the group, consisting of the cynogriffin and six other guards. "Listen up! We got a glowing stone in there surrounded by pony statues. We're pretty sure the sounds are coming from there, so if you all are ready to spend your day in the everfree, I say we get moving. MOVE!"

With that all six guards stepped in formation and followed the captain. Southpaw merely flew above the group, just below the tree branches.

He was the only one to not feel the earth quake a fraction. The earth pony gulped. Something was VERY off here.

[SongHeart]

Moon had gotten ahead of them and had sat down in a tree. The Earth quake knocked her out of the tree. She scrambled back up as the guards came into sight

[fireraven23]

Pawn brushed away at the air in front of him, cringing at the captain. "Unless you have proper hygiene, I won't be taking any orders." He told the captain, before following everypony in perfect alignment, floating his overfilled saddlebag behind him. He ignored the earth quake below, putting it off as Everfree tectonic activity, and continued marching forward, watching from all angles.

[SongHeart]

Moon hadn't noticed the PhoenixWhen she had climbed in the tree. The guards had passed the tree just barely before the Pheonix made its call in the tree. It scared her half to death and she fell out of the tree just as the last pony walked by.

[AegisTheProtector]

Southpaw flew in front of the captain after a while of walking. "If we continue heading this way, it will take twice as long. It's easy to spot, just somewhat hard to get to."

The group continued walking. Four straight hours brought them to a spot where a visible light was shining through some tall bramble bushes. "It should be right over these thornvines. I remember an open section to the right for those of you who can't fly. I'll meet you there."

"Stay with me." The captain tossed back, beginning the circle to the right.

"Wait, the ponies weren't glowing when I was here," he said as the group came into view. And indeed, the stone ponies next to the stone were now glowing.

[fireraven23]

With complete patience, Pawn marched with the group, following and noting any strange occurrences. As they kept marching, they eventually arrived at the location they seemed to want to be. Pawn took note of the glowing stones, memorizing every small detail from them, believing it could be important.

[SongHeart]

Moon had remembered Zecora telling her to NEVER get near the stone ponies. she wasn't completely sure if these ponies should either. she watched from a tree making sure to see if there were any animals in it first.

[AegisTheProtector]

The eight stone ponies each shone a different color, none of them a true color like red or green, but all of them were earthly tones. The stony outcrop was the only glow that was bright yellow, giving light to their surroundings.

Which had begun to change dramatically. The bramble grew with unknown speed to completely surround the group, including the tree that Moon had been hiding in. The moan turned to a wail for a short few seconds, causing all the guards but the earth pony to fall to the ground, covering their ears and screaming in pain. The stone itself sunk into the ground like quicksand, leaving an impossibly dark tunnel in it's wake. With all of the strong light gone, the only visible things were now the eight stone ponies, whose eye sockets had been filled with a serene blue fire.

"Hmm. Looks like a good time to leave," said Southpaw. However, upon a tedious flyby of the thorny wall, no opening was seen to get them out. He set himself down next to the hole, peering down. "Anywolf up for a game of peel the pony off the floor?"

"We're going down the hole regardless," the captain told his squad. "We can't let something like that be loose in Equestria."

"What exactly is that?" asked another guard.

The captain raised an eyebrow. "What do you think we came here for? A picnic? We are finding out!"

[SongHeart]

Moon moved to a tree closer to the guards. She landed on a slim branch. As the stone sunk there was a small earthquake. The branch she was on broke.

[fireraven23]

Pawn was surprised by the sudden raising of the natural life in the bramble, surrounding them all in thick walls of vines and wildlife. He could find no way out, and realized it was much too late to turn back. But he didn't even want to turn back. At this point, he needed answers more than anything. He continued standing as the moaning changed to a wail, not wanting to grab his ears and show weakness to the rest of the group. He saw the tunnel up ahead, and scoffed when the gryphon suggest running away. Even if they all left, he would still continue going, so it made no difference to him. Besides, he refused to work with cowards. He looked at the captain with admiration when he seemed to want the rest of the team to go on forward, despite what happened. He tried not to let it show though. He started trotting towards he entrance of the tunnel, the blue fire in the eyes of the statue ponies making little to no difference to him.

[SongHeart]

Moon rubbed her head. "Stupid branch and earth quake. ......" she mumbled

[AegisTheProtector]

"Who goes there?" the captain yelled, turning to Moon. "What are you doing here?"

"She was here first." Southpaw interrupted. "She's been following for the entire time. I never told you because you didn't have the proper eyesight to believe me. I can't belive you couldn't see a neon pink pony following us this entire time. Tut tut tut."

The captain ignored Southpaw. The moaning started up for a second, and faded just as quickly "If you are to be with us, then we need to know who you are. And you!" He pointed at the earth pony guard. "Toss a statue down the hole. We need to see how deep it is."

"Yorrar ko'domir yastoue srendi."

"Who said that?"

One of the eight stone ponies, who had been glowing a red orange, raised it's hoof.

"Sa."

The guards stopped moving. All of them stared at the statue that had moved.

"Hey earth pony." started Southpaw, "I think they got you beat in that category."

[SongHeart]

Moon was still rubbing her head. "I wouldn't get near those if I were you. "

[fireraven23]

Pawn looked down at the tunnel. Being a quick thinker, he levitated a large pebble out of the left saddlebag, and threw it down, waiting to hear it echo back. Before he could, he turned around and saw that a statue began to move. He rolled his eyes. A minor annoyance getting in the way of their main goal. He started examining it in detail again, looking for any weak points he could exploit.

[SongHeart]

Moon stared at the moving stone pony. " so that's what Zecora meant when she said strange. ...." she thought

[AegisTheProtector]

The other "statues" began to shift as well. The stone grumbled, the moss covering several diffusing and falling onto the ground.

The one that had spoken first put his hoof down, while three of the remaining began advancing to the tunnel. One of them, glowing an ocean blue, took a look at Pawn, eyes turning deep magenta as he passed over his figure. "Orrokun shamar lok'roken," it spoke, before it turned back to the circle as it's eyes turned back to normal. The four remaining ponies stopped glowing, and sunk into the ground in a similar fashion to the boulder without leaving a tunnel.

"What do you want?" the captain asked, readying his stance to draw his spear at any moment.

"Drovun sa tordoll bi'ket." spoke the stone pony. He motioned to the tunnel. Slowly, a cloud of smoke rose to the surface, colored as the missing stone ponies. It stopped, as if it were contained by invisible galss. Stepping onto the smoke, the red orange statue stood in the middle of the hole without falling.

"Well why didn't you just say so?" spoke the guard, as he too stepped onto the smoke platform and stood next to the statue.

"Wait, you can understand it?" the captian said, wide eyed.

"You can't?" the guard replied in a similar manner.

A unicorn guard cautiously stepped onto the smoke and found it solid. "I got nothing to loose, I guess."

Southpaw hit the smoke face first in a dive. He pulled himself up from the ground with a grunt, wincing as he put weight on his shoulder. "That's some solid stuff there."

"Ga Ga Ga."

"At least these things have humor." Southpaw laid down on the smoke. He turned to Pawn. "C'mon checkers. Let's get to the bottom of this."

[SongHeart]

Moon could understand the statue ponies to. She got on the platform as well

[fireraven23]

Pawn watched everything unfold with curiosity. Definitely an interesting situation, the statues coming to life and speaking to them in an odd language. He naturally couldn't understand a word they were saying, and couldn't decipher anything from it, but from what he could see, they appeared generally peaceful, possibly with some passive plans to murder them all. He watched more, seeing the ponies stepping onto the seemingly solid gas. Pawn began to step forward onto it, confused by how it did it, but being sure not to show it. He began stepping across, wanting to see everything go through first hand. Or hoof.

[SongHeart]

Moon was curious as well

[SongHeart]

((dead))