Group One Her eyes went wide when Zephyr flew in front of her, and so close too! She even flinched and pulled back a little as he reached out with a hoof, but once she noticed it wasn't in offense, she took a deep calming breath. With her one eye covered, she looked at him, then back at the ground as she reached out lightly with one of her hooves and offered out her name. "Pickpear... but you can call me Pear, Zeph." She spoke rather quietly, and there was a little bit of a noticable blush as she kept her eyes at the ground to the side. "Oh... I just waited on the roof for the right moment and dropped down. Their captain came to check on their progress... so I took the opportunity to come in."
PERFECT MELODY: Melody smiled. "I guess that means you also work for Eight Star! Pleasure! I am Perfect Melody but you may call me Melody!"
Emerald landed by Melody. "Name's Emerald Whirl. And since we're all going by nicknames, you can call me Emerald. ...But not 'Swirl'..."
SweetTreatFloat had fluttered her wings as she waited outside the temple. It was too hot to be standing outside in the blazing sun. Her worries for the adventurers were growing. Where could they be? Minutes turned into hours. Had they already gone in? She thought as she felt the rays starting to burn. She decided it was finally time to go in. The pony opened the door to the ruins, the rumbling of stone on stone startled her but she scurried in. The first thing she saw was a room, it was rather large. Had they gone in there? Her head hung low as she peered in, only to see a painting. It looked like Zebras gathered around a big rock monster. The mural was like none other that she had ever seen. Now curiosity was getting the best of her as she searched for any clues of the adventurers but they were no where to be found. So of course she looked across the room to see a cob-web filled hallway. The archway partially damaged. She approached to get a better look. There were paintings on either side of the hall. Her eyes grew wide as she looked upon their beauty. The paintings while tribal told a story of a war that had happened between two groups of Zebras. By the end of the hallway it shows the story ending with one group of Zebras locking themselves behind two massive doors. Her attention was quickly taken by a loud hissing. It had startled her so much that she had dropped a cone of mint-swirl ice cream that she was trying to grab from a very un-oridanary saddlepack she had brought with her. Any other pony probably would have ran but the fury in her eyes from the dropped goodie seemed to enrage her. She stomped a hoof and waited for their move. They were quickly crawling and climbing towards her. As soon as one of them was close enough she charged, toppling them over like bowling pins. She soon found herself in a very dark room, one that opened to the left and to the right. It had four pillars on each end of the room, but she made her way towards the door straight ahead. Soon after she had panted for a few moments she heard some voices behind her. She squinted her eyes to find a group of unicorns behind her. She again stomped hoof to get their attention.
"I'll tell you what happened, Shield." Arc gruffly replies. He points a hoof lazily at Silver. "You attacked one of the blobs and they attacked back. Survival." He leans his head forwards, meeting with Silver's eyes. His face is gravely serious. Possibly more annoyed and curious than actually angry with Silver and his actions. "Mind explaining the little mad science moment?"
Silver Shield, Group Two "Um...heh..." he grinned sheepishly. "I wanted to see if it would react to magic. I wasn't aware that it was sentient or anything... it was just an experinent..." Facia Amicus, Group Four "Gaaah!" Facia jumped in surprise, then whirled around to face the source of the noise. Seeing it was a pegasus, she sighed with relief. "Oh, good, you're not a creepy spider! Are you the ice-creamy pegasus?"
Ultra Violet floated her orb close to the pegasus stomping behind them. She was proud that she didn't startle, and she puffed out her chest. "Oh, Ms. Pegasus! We've been looking for you, are you ok?" She smiled brightly at the pegasus. "We thought we'd lost you to these ruins!"
SweetTreatFloat blankly stared at the unicorn that asked what seemed to her as an obvious question. Her hair looking that of ice cream and a cone poking out where a unicorn's horn would be. She wriggled her nose at them. "Yes, i'm okay.I was more worried for the ice creams safety then my own. More so for yours. Who would eat them before they melted?" She question as she then poked a hoof into the saddlepack. She then grabbed three cones, perfectly scooped. "Here!" She exclaimed. "Eat up before they melt!"
Facia leapt onto the treat, devouring it in one bite. After a few seconds of chewing, she got a look of confusion, then panic in her eyes. "Bwnnwnnn Fwzzee!!!!! BBWWWWNNN FWWWZZZZEE!!!!!!" she said with her mouth full of ice cream.
Group One Pickpear's eyes light up at the mention of Eight Star, like Melody had mentioned a best friend, or a special somepony. She sighed gently and nodded. "Yes, I happily work for his Order. It is a pleasure to meet you Melody... and Emerald." She bobs her head to both ponies, then looks away quietly. "So... the doors aren't locked..." Group Two Firebolt sighed exaggeratively and threw up her hooves. "Well, a lotta good that experiment did. Next time you wanna blast some random gooey thing... don't! Now we need to find another spot to rest, and I'm already tired!" Throw Down earns 1 CP and 95 Experience for his solo defeat, by the way. Arc gains 25 Experience for experiencing combat. Firebolt gains 20 Experience for experiencing combat, (a little bit.) Silver earned 1 CP for finding out that ice bolting a passive gas slime makes him unconcious.
"I'm sorry! I was just curious..." He almost said something, then hesitated. "I never even got to find out what they were... or how they worked... all I know is that they release some sort of gas when attacked with magic...most likely some sort of self-defence mechanism." "................Um...can we maybe.........go back?"
A sparkle lit up in Ultra's eyes, and she took the ice cream quite happily. She stared at it reverently, a sweet treat in the middle of these forbidden ruins, and devoured it.
"Ha-ha! No." Arc curtly answers, looking around himself for a viable direction to travel in. The forest looked as unforgiving and hostile as before. Most importantly, it was still too thick to ever allow a pony to see through it. Over it maybe but the question what whether Arc's muscles could climb a tree right now? His legs ached but he could still easily use them. It was the still raw throat that was the pain concern, just above appearing to have lost the ability to smell anything and dissipating wooziness. His lungs had been subject to a savage lack of breathable air for a good couple of minutes there. It was a wonder he hadn't collapsed like Silver did. Maybe one good climb was left...maybe... He trots towards a trunk and readies himself for the jump.
Silver saw what Arc was planning to do. "Um, you know that Firebolt could just fly up there, right? I mean, if that's okay with you, Firebolt. I don't mean to volunteer you or anything." He dropped down out of Firebolt's hooves, wobbled a lot, then collapsed in a fairly comfortable position.
Group Two Firebolt sighs and rolls her eyes. "Alright boys, hold on." She puts her hoof to her chest. "Let the scout go up there." She spread her wings and pushed up from the ground, soaring above the trees and stopping for a hover as she looked around. After a few moments of staring out she calls down. "Well, it's pretty dark out, but I see a clearing with another cave... I think. We can just camp at the mouth of it, looks like."
"Sounds like a plan," said Silver. "And this time, I guess I won't go exploring if there are any weird noises coming from inside." His annoyed expression resulting from his inability to return to study the jelly creatures said otherwise, but it was doubtful he had the strength to do much more than walk to the new cave.
PERFECT MELODY: Melody tapped her chin. "Do you mean those doors?" She pointed a hoof towards the doors with Unicorns on the front. GREY MANE: Grey shook her head, before talking. "No thank you for the Ice Cream. You have it." She looked down the ruins. They were what she was interested in. Nothing else at the moment caught her eye.
Group One Getting fairly quiet again, she nods. "Y... yeah." She trots over to the large doors and puts a hoof on the marble surface of one of the carved unicorns. Applying only a little pressure, the sound of grinding stone proves her point, as one of the doors open a crack. She then puts her side against the door and grunts with a quiet whimper, shoving the door wide open. Group Four While still fairly dark, the close proximity to the massive stone doors before the group shows that there's a large circular stone connecting the two doors with indents around its edges for hooves.
Facia examined the disc on the door closely. After a few moments, she said, "Oh, look! Hooves go here!" She shoved her hooves forcefully into the indents and started trying to turn the disk. Either way, clockwise or counter, didn't matter to her.
