[mountains near Canterlot] That Sinking Feeling...[Open]

[RarityDash]

Dagger laughed at Lanceguard's comments. "Being consumed by two cute mares isn't the worst way to go that I can imagine," he said with a shrug. "But no, I just meant to say I'd keep you safe from whatever has our pegasus friend here on edge."

At her whispered words, he just laughed again. Radiant had grown up reading Daring Do as well. She supposed it was a common fascination of all young, headstrong pegasus fillies. He had glanced at a couple of the books before himself, but he didn't really see the appeal so much. Either way, Fire Walker was proving amusing. Blathering on about myths, lore, curses and fictional stories; it wasn't exactly what he'd call professional behavior for her former station. Not that Dagger was complaining; she was definitely more amusing than some stiff who kept their mouth shut.

"So these are definitely pony bones then," Dagger said, nodding at the necklace found. "If it was just some animal, it wouldn't be wearing something like that."

He grabbed it from her with his magic then. "Curses are far more common in your fiction than in our reality. It's empty superstition to fear this thing," he said before touching his hoof to the gem. "Also, whoever it belonged to clearly won't be missing it now. As I see it, if either of you mares wants to hang onto it, it's yours."

[tacobob]

"Just wonder where all the heads are.", now that she had some sort of light to see by, Fire Walker stood up and starting to examine the area, "More bones, more of those weird markings. Wish I could read whatever ancient language they were using. I'm starting to believe this is a 'charnel house'.", she frowned deeply at the strange lettering before moving on, "I read that in olden times, when a pony died, they would dump their corpses into these rooms, where the bodies would rapidly decompose, and then they'd make 'art' out of the bones. Chandeliers, holy symbols.. All very creepy.", if any of the two ponies had attended Fire's 'Going Away' party, they would have noticed that she had enjoyed a few 'adult beverages' along with an assortment of fatty foods and deserts over the course of the event after being cooped up in a small room for several hours, so along with being a bit on the 'tipsy side', she probably had a lot of energy to burn off.

"I think I see an exit. Yep, that's an exit. Long dark hallway, probably filled with all sorts of traps. Or not. When you two are finished, I could use some light over here."

[Frain Breeze]

(OOC: Huh. I somehow overlooked that bit earlier when Dagger teleported down.)

Despite her careful start, Lanceguard slipped and dropped ungracefully to the floor with a thud. "OOF. I... do believe I just took a rib to the ribs. I should be fine though." Lanceguard brought herself to her hooves, brushing herself off before approaching the others.

She stood by Fire Walker's side, gazing down the hall. "I see... something down this hall." She took a step forward for a better look, only to feel her hoof start to move down. "NOT AG-" The subtle grinding of an ancient mechanism was heard as several torches along the hall suddenly went alight. "-ain." Lanceguard quietly took a few paces back, glancing back and forth between the now-lit hallway and the floor switch she accidentally triggered. She gave a heavy sigh, shaking her head, "I'm already beginning to miss the times when putting my hoof down didn't invoke big surprises."

Looking down the hall now, Lanceguard could see three doorways at its end. Above each doorway was a skull with two torches on either side of it, their flames tinted to odd colors by some sort of additive. The first door's torches were purple, and the horned skull obviously that of a unicorn. The second had green flames and plain skull, and the third door had sky-blue torches and a set of wing bones on either side of the skull. "I suppose this explains what happened to the heads," Lanceguard said bluntly, looking only toward the doorways ahead of her.

[RarityDash]

Dagger just stared ahead and took it all in. He gave a nod to Fire Walker, "I've heard about such things before as well. Sounds reasonable that this might be just that." He gave a shrug and continued down the hall.

When Lanceguard flipped a switch, he stopped in his tracks instantly and grabbed one of his knives with his magic, ready to draw it at the first sign of any attack. When the torches simply ignited, he relaxed slightly. When they reached the end of the hall, finding a door marked with the skull of each of the pony species, he gave a laugh.

"Interesting. Well, if this is one of those skeleton houses, I guess from this point on its segregated by species," the unicorn started. "So, ladies, how should we proceed? Each of us pick a door, or should we all stick together?"

[tacobob]

Fire Walker glanced up at the skulls, "Well, that's clever. Morbid, but clever. Green for earth, blue for sky, but purple for magic? Maybe the unicorn's original tribal flag was purple, or was it royal blue?", she studied the doors, "I wonder what this all is. Burial chambers for important members of each tribes? Is there anything we could use to keep an door open? I would open the Pegasus door, but I would be afraid that the door might seal itself behind me or even lock itself. If we could find something heavy to keep the door from closing.", she glanced around the area, and could only find bones.

"What do you all think?", she glanced at the older and wiser ponies for answers.

[Frain Breeze]

With a look to Steel Dagger, Lanceguard spoke, "I think it would be safest for us to stay together. As for which door, I suppose we could just take a peek inside each before committing to a direction."

She stepped toward the door on the right, marked as the pegasus room, and looked it up and down. It was a solidly constructed wooden door with several iron reinforcements along its surface and at its edges. "Was" being the keyword here. In its current state, the wood was badly deteriorated, and the metal reinforcements could probably use some reinforcements themselves. "Well, Fire Walker, I don't think you have to worry about these doors locking behind us. I think even opening these would be too much for them to withstand." She placed her hoof on the door, demonstrating a light push.

And that's all it took. As Lanceguard put her hoof back down and turned to talk to the other ponies, the door slowly creaked open, leaving the latch still in place in the doorway while the rest was free to swing. Lanceguard looked at the now open door. "...Case in point." Her statement was punctuated by the sound of the ancient door falling off its hinges. "I suppose we should be thankful the rest of this place is made of stone."

[RarityDash]

Dagger nodded. He agreed with Lanceguard. Staying together was the safe option. And even if splitting up might make thing more fun, he wasn't going to argue with sound logic. He watched as the jouster opened the door and it quickly fell off its hinges. He had to laugh. Hopefully this would prove to the superstitious pegasus that this place wasn't cursed or haunted but instead just really old.

"Well, I guess we look inside now," Dagger said with a smirk, walking toward the now open room. "Let's see what we have here..."

He peered inside, finding a murky, dark room. At the center was a massive statue of a heavily armored pegasus stallion in a proud, confident pose. Smaller statues lined the stone walls. Bones were visible all along on the floor. There wasn't anything particularly dangerous looking inside.

Dagger shrugged. "Looks safe to me," he said. "Who wants to check the other rooms?" he added as he used his magic to open the door to the unicorn room.

[tacobob]

"That's not so bad.", Fire Walker poked her head into the entrance, "The statue is somewhat inspiring. Reminds me of the ones they have back in the Gardens. But the armor.", she studied the statue for a moment, "There must have been some pretty fierce battles back then to need such an impressive suit of armor. Makes my Gryphon-steel look more like a pair of foal's hoofie-pajamas." she tried to speak in a brave, confident tone, but it was obvious to the other two, that she was still a little frightened of this dark and mysterious crypt that they were in, as her ears were curled tightly against her helm.

"I guess I could check out the unicorn room. I'm sure we'll just see more bones and statues. I'm not afraid of those.", with a new sense of confidence, she cantered into the new room, only to quickly back out. "L-i-ii-i-tc...", she started to stutter as she waved a hoof into the room. Along with an impressive statue of a unicorn decked out in flowing robes, there stood a well preserved corpse of a unicorn hanging from the far wall. The corpse wore a long necklace around its leathery skin, and it appeared to be grinning, most likely as the skin had long retreated along the jaw line. It was not moving. There was an large leather-bound tome resting between the mummy’s two front legs.

After noticing the unicorn was not chasing after her and the others, she could only weakly grin at the two living unicorns “I didn’t expect that. I wonder who this pony was to gain such a respectful place in the crypt?”

[Frain Breeze]

"...Impressive..." Lanceguard spoke to herself, approaching and slowly circling the armored pegasus statue. "I would love to see such a pegasus in the arena. What about you-" Lanceguard blinked. The other two ponies had gone on to the next room while she was busy admiring the statue. She quickly left the room to join them.

"What pony?" She peeked into the unicorn chamber, then grimaced and tilted her head away slightly. She turned her head, giving the room a quick scan. "I suppose that book might be of some value, but I would rather not place myself face-to-face with... that. It's less a matter of fear and more a matter of.. not staring at ancient rot." She shuddered, glancing again at the mummy.

Lanceguard stepped away from the unicorn room and now opened the door to the remaining chamber, the one marked for earth ponies. Like the previous rooms, it too was decorated with various statues and bones. But unlike the other chambers, this one went further, with an fairly large archway located on the far wall. "Strange, this one goes through.. Shall we see where it leads?" Lanceguard asked the others as she walked toward the far door. On either side of the doorway was an earth pony skeleton, propped up around a framework and dressed in heavy armor. Having no manes or soft tissue to support them, the skeletons' helmets hung low on the heads, the brims positioned at about nose level.

Lanceguard's pace slowed as she approached the next room, soon coming to a stop. "This.... this is new." Though the room ahead was dimly lit, she could still make out the nearer shapes inside. On the near side of the chamber were more posed skeletons, one representing each pony species. In the center of them stood the crude representation of an alicorn. Bones from several ponies were tied together to match the approximate size of an alicorn's limbs. Wings were wired up to its sides, and while the skull did have a horn, it appeared to be a separate piece, perhaps grafted onto an earth pony skull so as to represent all three.

The far end of the second room was not yet visible, but it contained a far stranger mix of bones. Many of them were not even from any kind of pony species...

[RarityDash]

Dagger followed the pegasus into the unicorn room, eager to see what lied in store. He stared at the mummified unicorn with interest.

"Heh. I've never seen a mummified pony before. There isn't much of an established record on such ceremonies being performed," he said as he admired the long deceased. "This guy probably was somepony important to them, as he seems to be the only mummified. A political figure, an elder, a healer, a magician of note; something like that probably."

He then nodded and stepped ahead, using his magic to remove the necklace from the pony and stuffing it into his saddle bag to join the necklace found earlier. He also snatched the heavy tome and glanced at it, finding it to be written in some ancient language he didn't understand. He decided to take it with him anyway, figuring it would be worth something to a scholar. "Sorry pal, but I don't think these will be of much use to you here, and they're sure to fill my pockets with bits when we get back up."

Dagger turned to see that Lanceguard, having been disgusted by the mummy, had already bolted back out to check the earth pony room. Dagger shrugged and decided to follow, and was not surprised to find a very similar room to the last two. He could however see Lanceguard moving in deeper, toward an archway on the other side.

"Of course! Let's see what we have here," he said to her as she stopped to look back at them. He nodded and the followed after her, stopping to admire the armored earth pony skeletons. They're armor was really nice; well preserved, and exquisite. He stared at it for a moment, wondering if there was a way to get it out of this place effectively. Ultimately he decided it was just too heavy and cumbersome to work with; he'd have to stick to more manageable items to take back.

Noticing he was falling behind, Dagger trotted ahead to meet back up with Lanceguard in the next room. He grinned as he looked around. More pony skeletons, it seemed. One of each species, and an obvious mash up in the shape of an alicorn.

"How truly bizarre," he said, staring, transfixed at the false alicorn skeleton. "I suppose it's probably a ritual piece or something. I can hardly conceive what would compel these ancient ponies to construct such a thing."

[tacobob]

The red Pegasus watched in horror as Steel Dagger removed the necklace from the unicorn's corpse, "Are you s-sure you want to do that? That thing might be cursed!", she slowly followed him as she spoke, "Well, whatever you do, please do not put it on. I read stories that these powerful wizards back in olden days were able to use dark and forbidden magics to live beyond the grave. They could transfer their souls into new and living hosts. Didn't really say how they did it, but a necklace would make sense.", she glanced into his eyes to make sure he wasn't already turning into a horrible litch.

Fire Walker followed the unicorn into the room Lady Lanceguard was waiting in, "This place is really creeping me out. I don't know how you two can stand it here. The living I can handle, the dead, not so much.", she also glanced at the fake Alicorn with a combined look of disgust and terror, "Our ancestors sure had a lot of free time on their hooves to be making all of this. Thank goodness this all went out of style. When I die, just toss me in a box, but when you bury me, make it shallow, so I could feel the rain.", Fire actually sung the last bit, which wasn't too bad as she had a decent singing voice.

She glanced down at the end of the room, "Well, we visited the Charnel House, and the ossuary, I can only assume the next room will be of a temple. I wonder who these ponies worshipped back then? Haven't seen any moon symbols anywhere, so it couldn't be Luna. Even during her whole 'Nightmare Moon' phase, I don't think even she was as dark as this. I've read about theories and rumors about gods that might have been worshipped before Princess Celestia, but nothing really rock solid. Er.", she glanced into the darkness, "Could one of you please go ahead? I'll guard the rear.", she gave off another one of her nervous smiles.

(20 points to those who could figure out what song I snatched that bit from..Well, the box bit isn't it, but the rest..)

[Frain Breeze]

"I've never seen anything like this..." Lanceguard said to the others as she stepped forward. She slowed as she saw something on the floor ahead of her, some kind of gap. The edges were straight, so it must have been some intentional feature of the room. She approached it cautiously and reached a hoof down, finding it to be wide, but only a few inches deep. "Hm. I think this is some sort of aqueduct right here. Long dried up by now, though. When we're done looking around this room, we should try finding out where this leads. The water had to have come from and gone to somewhere, so we're bound to find a way out if we follow it."

That being said, Lanceguard continued further into the room. It was still dark on this side, but she could start to see what the other skeletons were. The bones didn't come from any one kind of pony... or any one kind of creature, for that matter. Everything on this side of the room was a mashup. The skeletons were made from parts of all kinds of animals, and in the middle of them stood a larger, serpentine set of bones with no limb matching another. On closer inspection, even the stone blocks that made up this side of the room didn't match. "Fire Walker? I don't think this is from the time of Nightmare Moon. This has to be something about the time of Discord. Maybe that aqueduct is supposed to represent some kind of border."

[RarityDash]

Dagger scoffed at the words Fire Walker was saying. He really couldn't wrap his head around all her irrational little fears. It was just silly. Though it did seems at least typical of one of her station. In his experience guardsponies weren't the most logical sort.

"Don't you think that's a little silly?" he laughed, as he looked at her. "Sure, we unicorns can do some pretty amazing things with our magic. But just think about it, will you? Transferring souls into new hosts? Simple transformative spells like giving non-pegasi wings are a fighting struggle for even the very best of us. That sort of magic would be preposterous even for a princess."

He shook his head and smirked. "Furthermore, I'd say the living are a lot more worthy of your fear than the dead. The dead aren't going to do anything to you. They're dead. The living on the other hand can make you dead if you cross one with the will, intent and means for it."

His piece said to the pegasus, Dagger looked back toward the creepy false alicorn statue. Sure, the thing couldn't do anything to them, but that didn't stop its existance from being unsettling. From his perception Fire was right on the history; this was definitely pre-Nightmare Moon. As he followed Lanceguard deeper in and saw what she saw, that was only resolutely confirmed. This was Discord era. Probably from early in his reign, if Dagger were to hazard a guess.

"Yeah. That makes sense. I'd say early in the era of Discord, when his control wasn't absolute. After all, the false alicorn skeleton seems more central and important; these almost seem secondary in comparison," Dagger said, nodding to Lanceguard. "It seems almost kind of tacked on to me..."

"But yeah, following the aqueduct is probably our best bet from here," he concluded with a small shrug.

[tacobob]

The red coated mare nodded her head, "Unicorns can do some pretty impressive feats of magic, even at a young age.", Fire Walker continued to follow from the rear, "But it all had to be much different when Discord ruled. I doubt he enforced any laws of magical morality.". She glanced around nervously at the walls, almost expecting something to come leaping out from the shadows, "I read that one of the first things Princess Celestia did when she came into power was to set up her school for unicorns who had the potential in becoming full mages. And she did use the very guidelines Starswill The Bearded had set up for his students back in the days. So she banned the use of most dark magics, such as necromancy or Maleficium."

She studied the strange new room, "Speaking of Maleficium, I guess this is the Discord room. Celebrating the lord of chaos.", she shivered remembering it was not that long ago when the Draconequus was freed to spread his own form of chaos throughout Equestria. He was thankfully stopped and returned to his stony prison, but how long it would be until he was set loose once again?

"Following this old aqueduct is an good idea, as it's bound to lead into the other rooms. We should be getting near the temple. I just pray you have the wisdom not to touch what may be in there.", she glanced at Dagger, "Stealing from the dead is one thing, but you would have to be pretty foolish to take what was meant for the gods."

[tacobob]

(Sorry to put up an OC message here..I wanted to handle this via PM, but it looks like Phil is a very popular pony and his mail box is filled! So no new PMS for him! So, where should this go? I was assuming charnel house->ossary->temple, but who would this temple belong to? Luna? Any ideas? I'd hate to see yet another one of my rps kick the bucket)

[RarityDash]

((ooc: wow, I had no idea my mail box was full. It isn't anymore. I'd like to see this thread continue as well, if possible. Judging by questions asked in the Questions section, I know Frain Breeze is having some doubts about the direction of it though; if we can come up with something for it, I'd love to keep it going.))

[tacobob]

(Took it to PM!)