Where Ponies Dare

[Smartbrony]

So, I've been gone a while, and it seems like most of the RPs here are really far along, so I thought I'd make a new one. The premise of this story is that a mysterious island has appeared off of Equestria's coast. Princess Celestia sent a team to investigate and explore the island, but they disappeared and Princess Celestia declared the island off limits. However, Princess Twilight was extremely curios about the island. Without Princess Celestia's knowledge, Princess Twilight gathered a team of ponies together to discover what secrets the island held, each pony having special skills. You are one such pony. Work together, find out why the island disappeared, why it returned, and what forgotten knowledge it may hold.

This'll be an example character sheet:

Name: Jungle Vine

Species: Earth Pony

Gender: Male

Cutie Mark: Vines in the shape of a horseshoe.

Skills: Survival

Anyone interested can sign up, or feel free to ask more questions.

[RainbowDaringDash]

Easily im up for this

Though question.

Can i be Rainbow Dash?

[Smartbrony]

As much as I wanna say yes, I don't think Twilight would let her friend go on such a dangerous mission, provided she's even told her friends about it. I'm gonna say no, sorry.

[RainbowDaringDash]

That never stopped Rainbow, she would have foudn out and followed anyway And since when has twilight been able to boss rainbow around?

But if you insist

[Smartbrony]

Thanks for understanding. I'm headed to bed, but hopefully more people will join in while I slumber. Goodnight RDD

[Brodzio]

Hi,

May I join? This RP appears interesting and I have OC right to fit in.

Name: Criptic Evolution

Species: Earth Pony

Gender: Male

Cutie Mark: DNA string in magic flame, arachnid in the background.

Skills: Biology, Theoretical magic.

Cryptic Evolution is a scientist interested in magically altered environments and its influence on animals and other organisms. One of his recent most noticeable papers was about Pseudoprocaryota stregonera - bacteria strain that can be found in cave-like ecosystems permeated by magic. It responses to magic as indicator and capacitor... but the important thing is that Cryptic made this discovery during expedition to Vetureldur, a cold-fire Vulcan. Information about this is highly confidential (what has been consulted with Princess Celestia).

[Smartbrony]

Sure! Welcome aboard!

[RainbowDaringDash]

Oh, i plan to use Blackwing, my Griffon OC. The link should be in my char log, sadly i cant grab it right now. Il post it next time im online with spare time

[Hawkeye12]

I'm in!

Name: Hawkeye

Species: Griffon

Gender: Male

Cutie Mark: none

Skills: Survival/combat, namely with his bow

Feel free to dig up his app if you wanna know more

[Smartbrony]

Looks good. Maybe one or two more and we'll begin.

[RainbowDaringDash]

Here he is

Skills are stealth, thievery, speed adn combat. He knows how to strike from the shadows, and even if he wasnt in the shadows to start, he can still fight with any weapon given to him

[Smartbrony]

Well, I guess if no one else is going to join in, we can start now.

[Smartbrony]

It was a foggy morning. Jungle Vine arrived along the shoreline at the point Princess Twilight had said in her letter, and there lay a lonesome rowboat. When he'd received the first letter from the Princess, where she said she had a special mission, he was intrigued about what special mission she would need him for. In her second letter, when she described what exactly he'd be doing, he was a little worried. After all, Princess Celestia had decreed the mysterious island to be off limits.

Then, he saw what she was offering, and he couldn't turn down that many bits. Truly the opportunity of a lifetime! Go to the island, learn a few things, then come back and claim his reward. Simple, right? But, for right now Jungle Vine had to wait for the others Princess Twilight had mentioned would be joining him. So, he got in the boat, sat down at the bow, and watched the shore for any sign of the others. Hopefully they showed up soon. After all, he isn't a very patient pony, and the sooner the job got done, the sooner he'd get paid.

[Brodzio]

"Finally some field research!" fought Cryptic Evolution, whilst reading Precesses Twilight letter. Last months spent in laboratory between microscope and chemicals made him exhausted. It's not that he doesn't like laboratory, he loves it, but it can become dull, especially when you're fixed on some problem that appears to be so resistant to standard methods... After a while there came doubts - last such expedition made him almost lost his life due to some nasty factors like long forgotten ancient technology and some psycho that tried to take over it (wow, that definitely wasn't a typical expedition). Even though this may be very fruitful, new data, experiences. Even the financial reward seems quite tempting - science can be very demanding on financial point... Cryptic Evolution couldn't miss such opportunities. Plus this time it's island not creepy ice-cold cave - what can go wrong?

Cryptic Evolution steeped on the boat with the boat with backpack stuffed with his equipment (test-tubes, cotton swabs, chemicals for basic analysis, camera... even such trivial things like first-aid kit and personal effects and be place consuming). "Think I haven't forgot anything..." muttered Cryptic to himself, and then he noticed he wasn't there alone. Cryptic approached the other Earth Pony and presented himself "Hi, I'm Cryptic Evolution, biologist. Are you also a member of this mysterious expedition?"

[Smartbrony]

Jungle Vine was surprised when the boat started to shift as another pony stepped into it. He must've started to daydream and didn't see the other coming. The pony muttered something to himself, seemingly unaware that Jungle Vine was even there. When he did notice, he introduced himself as Cryptic Evolution, a biologist also selected for this expedition. "I am," Jungle Vine replied when asked if he, too, was a part of the expedition. "My name's Jungle Vine, survivalist extraordinaire." Jungle Vine sighed, "And now, we wait for the others. Grab a seat. I feel like it may be a while."

[Soothsilver]

(OOC: Hello. I'd like to join this RP. I read all the posts so far and there doesn't seem to be a game master so I'll go ahead and move the story forward. It assumes that the griffons joined us at the boat and are with us now.)

(OOC: I didn't understand whether Twilight Sparkle is joining us. I'm assuming (and hoping) she's not.)

Character Sheet:

Name: Sooth Silver

Species: Earth Pony

Gender: Female

Cutie Mark: A tic-tac-toe game in progress.

Skills: Teaching, archaeology, general knowledge

Details:

Sooth Silver is an archaeologist female earth-pony with a gray coat and blue eyes and mane. She places high value on loyalty, and, by extension, friendship. She's a teacher in a Canterlot academy. Sooth Silver is strong, agile and intelligent but has a variety of medical antecedents that randomly cause her pain.

Post:

The letter from Princess Sparkle reminded Sooth Silver eerily of the coldfire expedition. An exploration team goes missing. Wonderful. Yet, as with Vetureldur, this was a new area, unexplored by ponies, and who knew what could be discovered. Perhaps more remnants of ancient technology that was hinted at in the volcano? Perhaps dinosaurs? Perhaps a staging area for an enemy army? Or, perhaps, just another island in the ocean with nothing extraordinary.

Sooth Silver packed her expedition essentials along with a sufficient number of scrolls and quills and arrived at the meeting point.

"Cryptic Evolution!" said Sooth Silver, "I did not expect to see you here! It's a pleasure, and a pleasure to meet you, too," she nodded to Jungle Vine.

When they all introduced themselves and everybody arrived, they set the rowboat on the sea and sailed towards the island.

"You know, I'm a little worried about our safety here," said Sooth Silver, "we're on a sea - in a rowboat - without a unicorn. I mean, why didn't Princess Sparkle invite a unicorn? They're useful! No offense, Mr. Vine, but I feel telekinesis helps greatly with survival."

After some time, they arrived within sight of the mysterious island. There was no ice nor fire, Celestia be thanked, and the island looked peaceful from distance, but there was something off about it. It was probably the way the clouds moved. They weren't thunderstorm clouds and did not appear to pose any immediate threat, but they seemed to move in distinct clusters in some strange paths about the island - yet the sky around was perfectly clear. "Not even over Everfree do clouds behave this strangely."

[Brodzio]

Cryptic Evolution pleased with presence of the old friend, hardly noticed peculiar phenomenon. It was Sooth Silvers words that broth him down to Earth. "Indeed, very peculiar phenomenon" said Cryptic "It may be caused by many factors also that reminds that I forgot to take my binoculars... I believe that we should put off investigating this (since it seems to be harmless) and focus on more important tasks: like finding shelter or indicate what happened to the first crew. Jungle Vine, as a specialist, do you have any suggestions from what we should start?

[Smartbrony]

(OOC: Well, to be quite honest, I do play as a game master too, and I'm a little upset that you kind of took over like that. I wanted to give everyone a chance to make their first posts before we got into the big story. While I'm sure you had only the best of intentions for this RP, I don't believe you have the same idea in mind for this island as I do. I suppose if everyone's confident that prior knowledge of the island won't alter their posts (meta-gaming), then I can enlighten you.

You see, the island is a sort of "Atlantis". It's inhabited by merponies (not seaponies). When merponies are on land, they appear to be normal ponies, but with fins and gills. However, we would not discover the merponies for quite sometime, most likely with them watching us while we explored the island.

Now for some history. Long ago, the merponies and Equestria were at war. It was a losing battle for the merponies, for they could not match the combined strength of the three pony races together. In their desperation, they turned to using dark magic to turn the tide in their favor, but the magic was strong, stronger than they had anticipated. It trapped the merponies on their island, and dragged it to the depths below, lost to the waves of time.

Now, it has returned, tainted with the dark magic that drew it beneath the sea. Crawling with giant spiders and other large insects, laden with hazards and booby traps, and looked after by the shadows of the once great merponies, you now wander this island. Some of you seek treasure, others knowledge, but by the end you will all seek to escape, and maybe, just maybe, you can lift the curse from this dreadful island.

So, I've kind of had a plan from the start, but what's done is done. I just kind of wonder if RDD and Hawkeye are still in this. Also, yeah, Twilight's not along for the ride.)

---

Jungle Vine nodded back to Sooth Silver after their verbal greeting.

When she commented about magic being more useful in survival, he only had one thing to say, "Magic's a bother."

Jungle Vine couldn't have cared less when the other two Earth ponies started jabbering on about the clouds, but when Cryptic asked him what they needed to do first, he couldn't help but oblige. "Well, first we should set up a base camp and find basic necessities like fresh water, if there is any on this island. If we can't find any fresh water near where we land then we'll have to start distilling some. We'll also want to set up our camp far enough away from the tree line so we can't be snuck up on."

Jungle Vine finished just as they reached the shore. He was the first out of the boat and pulled it safely up on the beach. Then, he got to work marking an area for their camp just above the high tide mark. He made sure that the camp area would be big enough for each of them to have a standard sized tent, as well as leaving some extra space for equipment and work stations. "It would be a good idea for you to start unpacking. Hawkeye and I will start searching for drinkable water and learning the area around our camp. Sound like a plan to you Hawkeye?"

(OOC: I'm assuming Hawkeye's still in this, but I'll double check with him/her.)

[Hawkeye12]

((*appears* sorry I'm late!))

Hawkeye flew across the sky, scanning the ground below with his bow dangling at his side. He swooped down when he finally saw the boat. He couldn't believe he was doing this. Heck, he didn't even know why he was doing this! But he couldn't turn down a letter from Princess Celestia herself, so apparently he was going to go on an adventure. Hopefully it would be exciting. He liked excitement.

As the griffon landed, he noticed most of the ponies were already there. He said his hellos and climbed in the boat. He stayed quiet most of the trip, when two of the ponies started going on about clouds, as he didnt really care. When they arrived, one of the ponies- Jungle vine, asked him to help find some fresh water.

"Sure, let's go," he said

[RainbowDaringDash]

(Sorry its taken me so long to post )

Blackwing was in the shadows, just sitting as he watched all the others meet up. His face was emotionless, and he was invisible in the darkness. He was a griffon. His black coat and claws made him hard to see in any dark area. His shadow blue mane and tail were also extremely hard to see. On the ground behind him, a bow was their, along with arrows. It was a bow made from pure crystal, and the arrows were the same. He was a thief, well, a ex thief, now hopin to do som,e good in Equestria. The bow was a old suvonier(cant spell) from one of his biggest heists. It was also the heist that got him kicked out of Stalliongrad, never to return. Although if anyone could, or had, seen him now, his face would be completely blank, and very unnerving due to the emotionless feel and expression he had. Though on the inside, he wished he was allowed back home.

Black stood up, picking the bow up with his wing and placing it on his back. He was wearing a outfit that was made to withstand the enviroment. It was solid, and cuts from tree's would not occur, but it also had a bit of a magnetic system where Blacks back was. It allowed him to put his bow their, and his quiver, without ether of them hindering his movement or falling off. The stuff only came off if he, or someone else, pulled it off with a claw, magic or a hoof. Anything else, just hit it and went over.

Black didnt move after standing up, just watching them. The group might feel a bit uneasy, and maybe even feel like they are being watched.

[Brodzio]

"And that reminds me why I usually don't collaborate with non-scientists" fought Cryptic Evolution "Same as school, everypony's playing only I'm observing beetles on a trunk. At least Sooth Silver is here. She can understand my point of view..."

"Hey Blackwing!" appealed Cryptic Evolution "could you help me with these tents?"

Griffon with a bow didn't seem very friendly, but if they are going to stay on this island at least few days, it's better to learn how to coexist. Plus it's always good to keep close someone armed, especially in such... unpleasant environment.

"What is with this place? Weather is great, sum is shining, but still I can sense tingling on my back" fought Cryptic

After few hours of unpacking and putting tents Cryptic got to his stuff. "Now when everything seems to be ready I can do some measurements..." muttered Cryptic whereas opening his box "What the!..." The box contained multiple differently signed tubes filed with liquid. Many of them were brightly shining. Earth Pony steeped out of the tent and asked everypony to come closer.

"Look, as I've told you on the boat we, I mean, I and Sooth Silver some time ago discovered bacterial strain that responds to magic" started Cryptic "I've been working on it for a time and I obtained new genetic modified strain that allows me to detect magic in environment and measure its intensity. Actually it was quite easy, after I discovered that there are tow main gene complexes, one responsible for magic assimilation and other for storage. Mechanism is not so simple, but every complex can be turned off by simple gene knock-out of... that's not important... Important thing is that I've detected that this island is packed with magic! From level zero to ten, where one zero means lack of magic and ten means that in close range a full power spell is being cased by normal unicorn, it's five! Sooth listen, in Vetureldur, with all systems activated it was about six, but this is open space!" Beagle Earth Pony was feverish. Probably nopony fully understood what he meant, but such magic level was a sign that on this island was extremely powerful source of magic, or whole island was enchanted, or cursed. In whole Equestrian history there was only one instance of such case - Crystal Empire.

[RainbowDaringDash]

"Hey Blackwing!" appealed Cryptic Evolution "could you help me with these tents?"

(He isnt even near you, he is watchign from the shadows which makes him pretty much invisible. He is not on the boat, or where you are, he is kinda like on a adjasant area)

[Brodzio]

(OOC: ok, sorry. I fought Cryptic had had this pleasure to get known your character. Anyway, lets just skip that part)

[RainbowDaringDash]

(Its k. Black is just like that, he.... kinda has something agaisnt being seen and talking in general)

[Smartbrony]

Jungle Vine was out exploring the surrounding area. The island seemed fairly normal so far. The only thing was that it seemed to be really quiet. Despite being on an island, there was no wind, even though they were barely inland. After a little bit of searching, Jungle Vine found something. "Hawkeye, over here!" He called. He'd found a pond, and while it did mean fresh water, but there was something off about this pond. As Jungle Vine stared at it, trying to figure it out, he thought he saw something moving in the water before disappearing.