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Post by Luna on Jan 31, 2014 1:50:43 GMT -5
Cafe Tobiano
This simple coffee house appears to come from humble beginnings. From the outside it looks like an old grey stone house with a small covered porch and one bay window among with a few smaller ones scattered across the first and second floors. The shutters are painted a crisp, cheery lavender and the woodwork for the covered porch and Victorian-gingerbread styling is bright white. A hand-painted wooden sign set out in the short front lawn among the purple, orange, and white flowers during the blooming season reads 'Cafe Tobiano' with the image of an elegantly curved coffee mug and curls of steam.
Inside, the first floor is converted to a proper, cozy coffee shop. The old wooden-walled library, done in deep green and bright golden oak, retains the old musty odor of books that line the shelves. Several tables and chairs are set up for patrons in there as well as in the converted living and dining areas. Cushy low couches are interspersed for other ponies to lounge on. What furniture is there is piecemeal, lending to that homey eclectic feel. The kitchen is closed off to the public by a large wooden display unit and countertop adorned with a wide array of equipment. More importantly, though, is the space not taken up by machinery is adorned with a dazzling array of sweet and savory goodies from tiny cookies and pastries to fresh fruits and salads right up to larger treats like breads and sandwiches. Specials are on every day, so come back soon!
Upstairs is kept closed to the general public as well, but to the curious there is a small office, restroom, and two bedrooms that remain from the original building. They are done up in soft, welcoming country style and may even serve as a place to crash for the few staff members who need to catch a quick quiet moment throughout the day.
[ Players: Rainbow_Dash, Firefly, Scope, Dusk, Virga, Dinky, Marble_Memory, ]
[ Summersweet, Screenplay, Sugar_Rush, Memoire_Musique, Eclair, ]
[ Thunderball ]
Eclair can only be heard as she hides behind the counter, listening to the commotion in the room beyond, "Es una cosa muy seria. Es una cosa muy seria." Repeated like a mantra.
Memoire_Musique yawns sleepily and curls up in the cushion, snuggling down tight. She blinks once as he leaves, waving a hoof. "Bybey big bro... Come home soon."
The 'brawl' Firefly sees is really just a hyperactive shouting match at the present moment, with insults like 'insensate omnivore!' and 'dust-eating glass-drinker!' being bandied about. The qirin, on the other hoof, are oases of calm. "So, this is the welcome of the children of Harmony? Very well," says the qirin mare. At once, she and her stallion assistants take their device and head on out. This causes the entire fight to pause, and then, within moments, half of the cafe has departed out the door after the qirin, including Rainbow Dash, who follows after them with her empty cup.
Dinky is at the head of that crowd. She was storming out of the cafe before it was cool.
Firefly isn't really paying much heed to the goings on. It seemed to have been handled rather securely. Right now, there is ONE thing on her mind. Lemon tea.
Screenplay heads to the conter odering some dinner with her son as she then comes back. So how was your day.."
Scope snorts as his order is finally followed, then with a roll of his eyes he readies himself for a teleport, closing his eyes and concentrating on that distant place..
Luna is a princess, and one of the benefits of being a princess is that you're pretty much immune to whatever you might accidentally stumble into. Or teleport into. With a flash of bllue light, she appears, looming up right in front of Dinky Doo. Huge princess wings unfurl and spread like the evening over the land. Cold, bluegreen eyes look down at the tiny filly, and Luna declares, "Dinky Doo! We have come to offer thee another lesson in magic. There is summat we would have thee see." One of those wings flicks at the bar, and she barks, "FIREFLY! ATTEND! We have dark and violent work ahead of us tonight."
Thunderball smiles as he says "I'm doing well moma just tired of the snow..'
..There goes his concentration as Luna suddenly appears and bellows, and thankfully he's able to shut down the spell before he ends up somewhere he'd most rather not be. With a growl of annoyance, Scope lifts his head and throws a glare across the establishment at the night princess.. ..rather bold.
Firefly's eyes and ears widen and perk instantly at the call to duty, the pegasus giving a startled inhalation, forgetting all about tea as she spins around, taking flight to whip over and U-turn at her Princess' right flank, an almost violet dust streaming ever so slightly from her wings as she lands, taking her station, at full attention, ready for whatever may be deemed of her.
Virga peered back at the Cafe owner, Cream Puff, as the three qirin left wight heir device. The white pegasus did have something to say, but he didn't. A welcome from him was not a welcome from a child of Harmony. He returned to the ordering platform and submitted a note for Cream Puff. "Take this, a sum for each head of pony that visited tonight as compensation for the situation that arose, from my personal account." How generous of him. He had just finished with that note when Luna appeared. "Princess," he said, closing his wings, and then his eyes fell upon Firefly, who he'd not seen in a while. "Firefly, dear." He didn't expect either of them.
Dinky is shaken and falls seat first into the snow. Then comes the crowd she was barely beating out of the cafe, and it's only their relectance to trample a pricness that saves Dinky. She winces when someone's hoof comes close to her head. "All right, all right," she vents reflexivel as she rolls and stands. "Luna. What's up? You never answered my letter. I thought maybe you were over me." She glances up as Firefly speeds over her (not to mention Rainbow Dash), and glances back at Virga to see if he's showing any interest.
Eclair's rambling mantra cuts off as she hears The Voice. She stands slowly behind the counter, glancing left, and right at whomever else might be back there with her before peeking over the top. Her eyes double in sizes, staring at the Lunar princess, "Oh." Then, "Well, I suppose that's one way to break up a scuffle."
Just outside the Cafe, the crowd watchs in awe as the qirin stallions repair their device with their magic, which, unlike Equestrian magic, is jagged and sparky, like arcs of lightning. Then, Luna appears, and the excitement builds; wow, /two/ interesting things today! Most excited, however, is the female qirin, who openly gapes at the Night Princess. "It is the lady of the moon!" she declares, and she bows reverently along with her two helpers.
Screenplay looks around then she asks "I wonder what is going on.." She then spots Luna she comes over as she bows first. "Excuse me princess but what brings you here.." she asks "Andf what's going on..'
Luna lowers one wing, curling it around Dinky and scooping her up, then sliding her down to the princess's shoulders. The princess's glittering heavenly mane billows around the little filly, cold and not entirely solid, with a few stars sticking in Dinky's hair. "Much as we revere thee and thy dame, we have many responsibilities, Dinky Doo. We shall bring thee along on one tonight. This is not a trip of joy, but there are things thou should see, to understand the worst. Firefly! Heart of Ice! We leave now." And with that, Luna and Dinky and Firefly all disappear in a flash of blue light. Virga also disappears, it's just a different flash because he's across the room.
Detrot(#1801R)
There is a place of horror and woe, a stinking swamp polluted physically by millenia of death and psychically by millenia of failure. That place is called Detrot. Once a century, some fool ponies get it in their head to try and build a city here, and little cottages rear up on stilts and shallow dikes allow for roads with the usual Equestrian pretty flowers and market stalls. Around this tiny isle of normality is the swamp, a mass of green slime and grey, dead trees, and acrid yellow fog. Oh, and watch out for zombies.
As the blue light faded, Virga peered at his surroundings. He heard of this place, Detrot, but had never been there. The white pegasus spread his wings and took a moment to take in the sights. Extended failure, gloomy, old, swampy, fog. He took a few steps and breathed in the air. "This place is...like home...only it has life in it instead of arid, cold desert," he said. Oh yes, he liked this place already.
Dinky is on three legs and stumbles when she appears on unfamiliar ground. Huh. Not as much snow here. Wonder what's... melting it. Oh. She recoils from the acrid fog and tries to breathe from the cleaner air, though it's not clear if that's high or low. "What. The &#$^%~." Her voice barely cuts through the gloom.
Luna teleports everyone in on the edge of town - right outside it, in fact, atop a low rise of moldy grass. A star blazes on the tip of her horn, and a searchlight sweeps around the swamp as she orates (Princesses never just 'say' anything), "Servants of the crown, welcome to Detrot. We are here tonight to prevent a tragedy, punish a crime, and destroy an ancient and terrible evil - AGAIN." The searchlight passes over a pony crawling out of the bog and into the back garden of a little cottage. Well, it's not quite a pony. It's missing a lot of bits, and the extra coating of slime and coils of vine really don't make up for the deficiency of skin and organs. "Wings of the Storm. Heart of Ice. Destroy that."
Firefly blinks as reality swirls into view. Whoa. It was eerily similar to the Overlord's lands back home. Except for the remains of a stilt city. She had never seen this place before. She glances from Dinky to Virga, then to Luna with a curious questioning look as the Night Princess explains, her eyes locking in on the pony thing in the muck. She nods to LUna and snaps her wings open and takes to the air with a swoosh, sweeping in towards the thing, awaiting to see Virga's action before taking her own so they do not clash. OR crash.
Virga closed his eyes and breathed the air. Being here brought back so many memories of home that he nearly had trouble hearing anyone else until Luna spoke. To be on an actual mission with the night court was unexpected. This was his first time doing so. Virga lightly stomped the ground and sniffed. Yes, he knew these signs. They were a little too familiar to him and something he hadn't felt in centuries. The command, destroy. It instantly triggered his old self, the one that would fly into anything without reservation. A pony that was no pony; one flap of his wings that normally summoned ice instead opened the gates of hell and unleashed the brightest fury to ever coat Detrot. It was fire, it was the sun's rage that hurled at the non-pony-thing.
Dinky turns to look where Luna's light is looking, and... roll for CON... yep, she throws up. It's been a while--so long to your streak, Dinky. And to your green juice blend and strawberry salad. Dinky stumbles and urks and tries to figure out if she's in immediate danger. Doesn't seem like it, but... "Detrot? Isn't that where you sent my mom like three months back? Something about apologies from everyone?" She looks around for something to wipe her face on, reluctant to use her already inadequate shawl.
There's a spark nearby in the air next to Luna. At first it seems like a tiny flicker- a little tingle of light that ripples through the air- but it glows. It splits into a burst of dazzling white light, for only a second, before, Diamond Dancer is quite suddenly deposited on the ground like one might drop a sack of heavy potatos. "No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO! ARRRGGHH I HAVE HAD IT WIF YOU'SE! DUMB STAR! I -SAID- I wish I knew what da Princess was up to! I DID NOT say, RIP ME THROUGH TIME N SPACE AND LEAVE ME...WHEREVAH DIS IS! I HAVE HAD IT! DO NOT, SET ME ON FIYAH! DO NOT, SEND ME BACK IN TIME! DO NOT, TAKE WHATEVAH I SAY LITERALLY! I AM GOING TO SELL YOU'SE FOR CANDY! DO YOU'SE HEAR DAT! CANDY! IT'LL BE DA WOYST CANDY EVAH DAT I CAN'T EVEN......taste?" And there she is, little Diamond Dance, sitting on her rump, holding her Star Piece Pendant in her hooves, and blazing with fury...until she realizes she's sitting next to the Princess. "................Hi."
Luna listens to the retching soberly, letting it play itself out, unconcerned with the mess running down one leg. Her voice softens, solemn and grim but not hard. "Indeed. Thou are in a better position to appreciate the wrongness of that evil toy more than other ponies. Steel thyself, Dinky Doo. We have brought thee tonight to see the worst that thy powers can unleash, as we brought thee to Nettleglum to see the greatest kindness and joy they can create. Know this: Whatever happens, thou are safe. These two are the wings of the sun and moon. They and I shall all perish ere we allow thee to come to any harm. Now, COME F-" And, at long last, even Luna looks completely baffled. She peers down at Diamond Dancer's sudden entrance. "But do help the Star Seeker up, and quickly. Trouble comes."
The undead monster definitely does not like fire. The slime on it sputters and boils, but the vegetation burns, and even the bones catch fire. It flails, beginning a hoarse scream that ends just as quickly as the bones fall apart - whatever held them together severed by the flame. The corpse lies there, flickering, as another just like it reaches a hoof out of the muck and begins to climb up. The swamp gurgles, and shapes begin rising from the slime. A lot of shapes.
Firefly snap rolls to abort her intended attack, letting Virga's blast of blinding light and heat and flame do what is shall. She veers up, inverts and rolls in a fast yet highly arced motion, circling, never taking her eyes off the abomination as it burns until it begins to fall apart. Suddenly she vectors wide and sweeps in low, tilted to one side, swerving around the rising shapes to get a better look before peeling back up into the skies and pulling into a hover across from the group, looking around to better survey the danger.
As useful as the Sunfire was, the intention Virga had was nothing of the sort. Once the flame had fire he sputtered back, steeply unbalanced. Of course he was experienced, but the temperature differentials he discussed with Celestia as being a problem have shown their results. The pegasus panted and spat a searing hot, molten glob from the end of his muzzle. As taxing as that was, he didn't let it stop him, though it was obvious he was still adjusting to an aura that supported sub zero temperatures and the hot of the sun. His eyes focused on the multiple shapes and with a swings of his wings he ascended into the skies in a stream of ice crystals to join Firefly. This would be the first mission in which they flew together.
Dinky groans and spits, making sure to clear the royal haunches. "Umm. Sorry. So... so this is Detrot. Wow. Someone should've doublechecked the listings." She hops unevenly across the firmest parts of the ground toward Diamond Dancer, hardly fazed by her arrival. "Hey. What's up?" She goes to offer a hoof, and then turns toward the bright spectacle. "Looks like we're getting a show."
Diamond_Dancer climbs up onto the Princess's back with Dinky and makes a ick face at the ...what IS that dribbling down her lower leg. No matter. "Heya Dinky...Sorry ta barge in like dis. Da star n' me ain't been gittin' along so good lately. Is uh...we in Detrot...ain't we?"
Luna spreads her hooves, bracing herself firmly. Her wings lift high, and the bright light at the tip of her horn spreads all the way down to its base. "In this swamp, nearly two millenia ago, Drakul the Blood Pony hid and pretended he had been slain. When he rose again with an army of abominations, we threw him down - and again, years later, and again, a century after that. Every time ponies attempt to settle here, his creations drag them one by one in the night to become raw material for the next army. And yet, we left Drakul sealed within a lead casket when we were banished, and he was so sealed when we returned." Raising her voice, she bellows, "WHY NOW, DRAKUL. HOW HAVE THEE ESCAPED? WHY HERE, WHY RISE SO OBVIOUSLY, WHEN THOU KNOW WE WOULD CRUSH THEE?"
Firefly holds her position and looks to Virga as he join her hovering there. "So...what is the plan....freeze the swamp, grab Diamond zip her around to shatter the imobile frozen beasties into crystal shards?" turning to watch Luna adressing the foe who now has a name. Drakul. "Nevermind...just our luck the shards would all become beasties as well when they thawed....besides, I think Luna would have imploded him is fragmentation would have been effective." keeping an eye on all the rising things and where their positions were.
Her immediate answer is the promised army of abominations. The swamp crawls. Ponies, foals and adults and some stallions bigger than Big Mac heave themselves from the filth. Some stagger, and some run. None of them have enough flesh to possibly still be alive left, but mercifully most are unidentifiable from the coating of oily pond scum. A few pegasi even lurch into the air, able to get up slightly above head height on featherless stick wings. Towards the back, several unicorns, just as rotten and dead, raise horns that flicker with black and purple as skulls orbit around them. Behind them rises... a unicorn colt in a red cape, perhaps halfway between Dinky and Twilight Sparkle in age. Other than a certain amount of exposed meat, he looks downright alive. His voice even cracks as he tries to sound evil. "Because a thousand years I have prepared for thee, Moon Lord. Tonight I cast thee down and feed upon thy flesh."
Luna does have one more thing to say. She flicks her left wing towards the army. "Squire." Her right wing. "Heart of Ice. The minions are thine. Protect the town. They shall claim not one life tonight. Those are thy orders."
Dinky swallows hard. "Wait. You mean Drakul is still al--" She stops short. "You -gave- me his -armor-, Luna. You gave me the suit of armor of a guy who's still around? An evil, army-leading, body-dredging magical guy who's still -kicking and fighting?!-" She stares at the new wave rising from the swamp. "What if he decides he wants it -back?-" Then she blinks at Diamond. "Star? What star? You somehow finally actually got a star?"
"The plan," Virga called to Firefly, "Is what you deem best. Freeze, flame, torch, defend the town. I am your wing pony tonight, Firefly." Normally he led, but Firefly was just as capable. "Shall we?" he asked, peering down at the scene below. A full on battle, now that's something he had been searching for.
Diamond_Dancer looks down at the little glowing pendant dangling from her chest and she gives a little sigh. "It's uh long story. Princess gave it to me. It's how I became da Night Errant. "She sputters to Dinky. Dinkin' I miiiiight be ovah my head for dis one, though. I'm sure Fiyah Fly has dis all well in hoof. Right? I ain't gots no idea what's goin on...but I'm guessin' dis'll be somedin shy o' fun."
Firefly immediately banks towards the town, or what there was of it. "Protect the town!" ramping up her velocity as she comes in low over the swamp, avoiding the unicorn mucks. "You handle those....I have no magical defenses!" then lets her left wing splortch -through- one of the stick wing pegasi.
Drakul laughs, the squeaky laugh of a colt. It ends in a cough, blood bubbling up out of his mouth, but it's a very cheerful cough. Spitting, he answers Dinky, "Alive? Not yet. But I soon shall be. Thou have brought me a truly royal gift. A baby necromancer. A filly, true, but a little surgery never hurt anypony." He laughs some more, as the mass of zombies charge, running underneath Firefly and Virga as the pegasi home in on both like mindless biting missiles. Admittedly, there's only a dozen or so, but they have a straightforwardness born of not caring if, say, they're cut in half like the one Firefly just chopped apart.
Virga snapped his wings shut and put himself into a spinning free fall that soon emanated a deathly frost amid iridescent feathers. He had given the alicorn wing guards to Rainbow Dash, but that was no bother for when he opened his wings jagged ice covered the leading edges. The first pegazombie he met had the misfortune of its losing its wings, and the next splattered into pieces from a head on collision. "Unicorn mucks, targeted," he said as he continued in his dive.
Luna for herself gives Dinky an embarrassed shrug. "What else were we to do with it? It is the only official necromancer armor we have. Better thou represent that art than this heartless vermin." Taking a step forward, she Royal Canterlot Voices back at the youngster. "THY NEW BODY IS FALLING APART ALREADY, DRAKUL. THY POWERS WANE, AND AT THE HEART OF WINTER OURS WAX. EXTEND THY FREEDOM A FEW MORE MOMENTS. WHY NOW?"
Dinky backs away from the decidedly non-booming voice. She almost skitters backwards. "Daaah!" If Luna was irresponsible with her gift, Dinky was doubly so for complaining about it within earshot of the necromancer himself. How is she supposed to know how god his hearing is? "Yeah, just so you know," she shouts to the source of all this blasphemy, "we don't know if I'm really a necromancer. My record's pretty thin. And by the way, surgery? Hurts a ^@$$* lot, not that you'd know."
Firefly spins around and banks in an arc around the city, sweeping back past Virga. "Freeze the swamp around the city! They can't get TO anypony if the muck they are moving in is frozen solid with them IN it!" pulling up a bit. "That would leave them sitting targets and us with the Pegasi...." spinning at velocity to kick one of the said pegasi's heads off with a wet sounding >crack<! "You know, dragons had the sense to STAY DEAD!!"
Virga closed in on his assigned targets, his tail streaming a comet's tail of ice as his feathers glistened bright. He flew mere feet above the undead army before he unleashed a barraged of 'creeping ice' into the swamplands. His arc took him around the village as Firefly directed, forming a complete wall and arctic wasteland of swamp. It was 'creeping ice' for a reason: it grew, and spread, and showered the undead army in a Tartaran hailstorm that likewise began infesting the bodies with ever-growing ice. "You can only do so much with a dragon's corpse!"
The undead pegasus loses its head - and doesn't care. It wraps its legs and wings around Firefly's, dragging at her with its weight as five more converge. The unicorns have spotted Virga, and they cut loose as well. The skulls spinning around them light up with shadowy flames, leaving their orbits and firing off like canonballs at the halo pegasus. Behind them, Drakul turns blazing red eyes on Dinky, and giggles. "No pony knows better, my new body. Thou shall fit SO much better than the three useless campers I had to stitch togeth-" At this point, he is interrupted. Luna's eyes go beacon-white, and a streak of light descends from the sky. There's a loud boom, scattering zombies and splattering water around, but the fiery bolt from the heavens is deflected by a dome of purple and black flickering up around Drakul. It does throw him to the ground, and as he staggers back up Luna yells, "ENOUGH. WE ARE VIVIDLY REMINDED OF WHY THOU DESERVE NO MERCY. GOODBYE, DRAKUL. WE SHALL MAKE SURE THIS IS THE LAST TIME THOU RISE." Another star falls from the sky, and just as he gets up Drakul is knocked back down by the thundering impact against his shield. Two more miss - and turn zombies trying to fight their way out of the creeping ice into bone shards.
Dinky decides at this point that staggering aimlessly backward is tactically unsound. She runs forward to huddle by Luna's feet, even if she is pissed at her right now. Pissed doesn't enter substantially into life and death equations. Neither does banter, for that matter, so she doesn't respond to Drakul, even if he's given her one or two horrible things to think about.
Firefly sees the creeping ice taking hold, whipping around to cleave the wings of another living impaired pegasi, leaving it to splorch back into the muck near the ice. She accelerates past one of the evil unicorns as it freezes, dodging its nasty death beam thing. "Oh, you did NOT just shoot that black evil crap at ME?!?!" snarling as she banks and jets towards Luna and the others, ripping past them juuuust over Luna's head, resulting in the lightening of weight on Luna's back...she had snatched Diamond clean up and was now power climbing with Diamond in her hooves, making a giant circle up into the air, over, and back towards the swamp, over the frozen Unicorn. "Time to dive bomb splat a zombie Diamond! Prepare for impact!" tucking in her wings and dive bombing the frozen unliving Unicorn, spiralling in, releasing Diamond once up to speed, veering off as Diamond completes the attack, one filly shaped indestructible aerial bomb away!
Virga broke off from the ice wall, which he managed to complete just as the unicorns started firing upon him. He ascended into the clouds, his body straining to alter his core temperature enough to fire off a few flares should the skull projectiles seek heat or magical aura. Failure, he couldn't alter it enough without losing concentration on flight. Virga closed his eyes and slowed his airspeed on purpose. One of the skulls hit him in the back and down he went, plummeting from the sky. it'd look authentic, like he was out of the fight...which is exactly what he wanted the unicorns to 'think'. The pain was moderate, severe, whatever, he was so numbed by his own body temperature he couldn't feel it.
Diamond_Dancer has absolutely no idea whats going on at the moment, but this dude over here is slinging threats towards Dinky. Not cool. "Hey, buddy! I don't know who you'se are, but if you'se threatenin' my friend Dinky, you'se is actually asking for a foyst class tail kickin from yours truly. If you'se dink for ONE second, I'm gonna let you'se- HOLYCRAPFIREFLYWHAT?!" Diamond squeals, as she's plucked from Luna's back and turned into munitions. "WHATWHATWHATWHAT! FIREFLY I WAS MONOLOGING! COME ON, I'M NOT EVEN SUPPOSTAH BE HEREEEEEEE~" *THUMPH* She goes HURLING towards the frozen zombie like a little black and white missile, shattering the creature into thousands of shards the moment she comes in contact. Firefly. You are SO not getting a Christmas Card...
Dinky is really glad she doesn't have that one's job.
That leaves Diamond in the middle of half a dozen unicorns more wraith than bone, but they're too busy concentrating their magic. Three of them channel the black power from their horns into a single floating skull, pointed down at Virga as it grows, encased in an ever more ferocious halo of black wind, building up its power before they finish him off. The other three point their horns at the pegasi chasing Firefly, and black and purple magic crawls over the crude zombies, filling out feathers and putting gleamingly sharp edges to hooves. Cawing like three fiery black crows, they swoop after Firefly, faster and spiraling around each other far more gracefully than before. In the comparative quiet between meteors smacking into Drakul's shield, Luna yells, "THY ARMY FALLS APART ALREADY. THY STRENGTH CAN NEVER MATCH MINE. THERE IS A PLAN HERE, DRAKUL. SPRING THY TRAP AND GET IT OVER WITH." She drops another falling star on him - and it's intercepted, as something huge explodes out of the ground to meet it. The behemoth is knocked sprawling, but it climbs to its hooves undamaged. It is a skeletal earth pony stallion, built on a huge scale, bigger than a rhinoceros. "I AM THE PLAN, USURPER," it Royal Canterlot Voices right back at Luna. Luna blinks, the lights in her eyes going out in surprise, and she shakes her head. "Thou did NOT, Drakul." Drakul, for his part, giggles and kicks his legs. One falls off.
Dinky > :rolls CON again...
Firefly was turning back to recover Diamond and make another unicorn-shattering kaboom run when the three re-feathered things chase her. The storm pegasus grins, then snaps her wings out flatways, coming to an almost instant halt in a crack of thunder, letting the three zip past, then rotaing her wings a bit and slamming them down, now herself in pursuit of the nasty hybrids...take care of these first, THEN recover the Night Errant.
Dinky barely manages to keep her stomach acids contained. She brushes up against Luna's fetlock, but then scuttles off to the side. "Huh," she says, beholding the megapony. Or megahorse, if that makes more sense. "It's like one of my nightmares," she remarks in wonder, no longer particularly afraid for herself, but worried that one or more of the good guys out there is going to get lost in the mire of decay and glop and badly tethered power.
Virga's plan had worked, and when he righted himself to unleash a new assault of jagged ice he flew close enough to Luna and Drakul. The thing about war was its randomness is how random it could be. He snapped his wings, unicorns fell solid under his command of the frozen, and one spear of ice harpooned Drakul's severed leg, carrying it into a tree. Bullseye! The pegasus adcneded and returned to Firefly. "Ice wall and creeping ice in place!" he said.
<OOC> Luna says, "So I hope you've all realized that this entire scene has no purpose other than to create an IC explanation of why Detrot really is the most horrible city in Equestria."
Diamond_Dancer is...um...squawking mad. After she recovers from her impromtu weaponization. She crashes to the ground, skittering across the ground, bouncing like a skipped stone across a lake. When she finally pulls herself from her tangle of limbs, she narrows her eyes and squeals. "WHATS DA BIG IDEA!? DIS is da FOYST Time we's onna mission togedah and you'se THROW ME LIKE A JAVALIN?! DO I -LOOK- LIKE CADENCE?!" She squeals, and huffs, narrowing her eyes at the numerous zombies her squawking has managed to garner the attention of. Oh yes, tender little filly all alone. "...As bad days go...dis is par for da course." She sighs, and lowers her head into a battering ram position. She's tried this trick before, and it's worked...like...once. She shoots forward and tries to ricochet off the encroching zombies like a pinball...
The giant skeletal stallion stomps through the swamp towards Luna, its steps slow and deliberate. Those massive hooves crack ice and crush zombies, with no care of what he walks on or through. They don't just crush. When his legs drag through sheets of ice it splinters out of the way with no apparent strain. The point is, he's seriously strong. He also seems determined to beat Luna for yelling champion of Equestria. "I SHALL CRUSH THEE, USURPER, REGROW MY FLESH, FREE MY KIN, AND TAKE BACK OUR WORLD." He pays no attention to the rest of the battle. Neither does Drakul, even when his lost leg is pinned to a tree. Drakul might not mind that because blood is pouring from his mouth and various wounds, slithering down from his shoulder to form a new leg. Other than that, Virga's plan is working famously. The three unicorns building a spell to destroy him are torn apart in stars of ice. The skull they were creating falls into the swamp harmlessly. Firefly's is a bit less successful. She certainly outmaneuvers the pegasus wraiths, but as she charges them they do something living pegasi can't - they stop still in the air, spinning around in sudden buzzsaws of razor edged wings for her to fly into. But nobody, nobody counted on Diamond Dancer, who bounces off the three remaining unicorn mages, knocking them onto their backs. The magic disappears from the undead flying death machines they created, and it's three pathetic zombie pegasi Firefly tears apart.
Firefly is more than surprised when the three things stop and turn into buzz-saws, and is even more surprised when they revert back to 'normal' undead...hehehehe...targets. Wings and hoove alike, she makes sushi out of them and banks back towards the ground, following the light that was Diamond ripping along below. The giant thing she already knew she could not affect, also, it wasn't in her order parameters....yet.
Luna takes a deep breath above Dinky, slow and deliberate, steeling herself. Muscles bunch up and tighten along her sleek blue form. She doesn't bother to yell back, and her voice sounds tiny compared to the giant skeleton's. "Servants of the Night, meet the titan Menoetious. He took a great deal of killing the first time." She twists her shoulders, like she's working out the kinks. The pupils of her eyes collapse into slits, and her teeth show a hint of pointy fangs as she grins. "It is not often that I must abandon delicacy and rely on brute power." She lowers her horn, and starlight burns out of it, steaming and splattering the swamp it passes over, setting fire to nearby plants, and exploding in a corona against the skeletal titan. He lowers his head and presses forward, but there is a definite creaking, and each step is slow and labored.
Virga soared at Firefly's wing, his eyes still on that distant rag doll leg he pinned to the tree, then on Luna. "Firefly, I have an instinct to dive bomb that creature," he said. And then, just like that, he veered off and barreled rolled into a tightly packed pegasus seething in frost and mist. he's aware of Luna's plan, but himself? A distraction for the brute perhaps. Ice built in the pressure wave before his shape. He'd be hitting the titan hard, possibly smashing into the ground as well if he couldn't pulled out of the dive quick enough. Distract it. That's all he needed to do.
A few metaphorical yards be it from Dinky to interrupt the world's most powerful known mage while she's working, so Dinky doesn't. She watches in horror while the pegasi above whirr, mechanizing themselves. She watches in bafflement while Diamond goes careening, weaponizing herself. But it's the sight of Drakul using blood pouring from his orifices to regrow a lost leg that really gets her. "So that's how that works," she murmurs, beyond disgust, taking a shuddering stop backwards.
Diamond_Dancer is trying to gain height and fly up with her comrades but...it's not happening. "D, dumb wings!" She groans, flapping furiously, but not quite taking off. Left wing flapping faster than the right wing, and the right wing isn't quite leveled.....so she's walking. She races towards the Princess and Dinky, intent on using her 'gifts' to protect her friends, only to stop short when she sees the mammoth Skeletal horse trotting along. "...Screw dis day."
Unfortunately, Virga's distraction runs into a distraction. Those three unicorns Diamond knocked over aren't destroyed. Drakul coughs up some more blood - that gross little colt must be a big 'ol sack of it - and the blood runs across the ground, threading up their legs as they climb back to their hooves. Their horns burst into black and purple flame, and out of the ice leap dozens of zombies, catapulted like machine gun bullets straight at Virga's face. Menoetious isn't doing well against Luna anyway. The beam of starlight keeps getting wider, and the bone of the titan's skull is starting to drip like wax, running back towards his neck. It's a slow process, but getting faster. Just when the titan's next step forward falters, Drakul squeaks, "Ah, wait. THAT was not the trap. THIS is." His horn sparks, but nothing obvious happens near him. Instead a beautiful, athletic young pegasus filly, otherwise invisible, appears highlighted in blue and purple light right on top of Luna. Her wings are particularly long, almost princess length, and she wraps them like scissors around Luna's neck. Her spectral hooves smack against Luna's temples, squeezing. As the starlight beam falters, the ghost of Midnight Dream asks in what would be a musically lovely voice if it weren't so sharpened with hate, "Ready to find out what it feels like to be crushed, Mother?"
Firefly takes a quick survey to ensure the town was safe, then with a crack in the air she vanishes towards the horizon after Virga banked downwards. A few moments later she is seen returning, inches above the swamp, a heavy mucky rooster tail ripping into the air behind her as she streaks forward, wings but a blur, front hooves outreached before her, aiming at the ribcage of the colossal behemoth, at least, until the last possible second...attempting surprise, she rotates one pinion, at this speed, it alters her course juuuust enough so that it was Darkul's side she was aiming at, nearly point blank, at high speed, hoping to impact just behind the front leg-weeds. She may not be able to take him out, but she could sure blow through him or blow him in half and keep him a bit occupied with regeneration while the others dealt with the giant creature.
Dinky is cowering and quaking and on the verge of sniveling when the new menace, with its very different nature, appears. A breath passes into Dinky and she forgets to let it out. Now standing at her full, dinky height, the pitiful filly leaps, trying to get back onto Luna, and failing. She shouts: "She -knows-, you idiot. She knows perfectly well what that feels like! I'm guessing you do too, huh? Well, let me ask you this--have you still got a conscience? Or was taht crushed with the rest of you?" Desperate words, yes, but Dinky is right next t the danger now. She leaps again, trying to get closer to the young specter.
Diamond_Dancer's bravado, and all her 'big talk', her threats and her quick wit all come to a grinding halt when she sees that ...um...something? Oddly enough, Diamond has rather good eyesight, what with most of her other senses being null and void. She can't make out excatly what it is she THINKS she sees, but it's enough to cause alarm. "P, Princess? What's...is dat...?" She doesn't know what to say? Is she warning because she thinks she MAYBE see's something? She to far away to tell. So the little filly gathers up what courage she has and bolts forward, past the terrible mammoth pony towards Dinky and the Princess...
That he didn't expect, but it was too late. Virga went into a spine, opining his wings, spreading a cloud of diamond dust that would d shear the approaching zombies. He then snapped his wings tight to plow right through them. He hit the iced swamp with incredible force, churning debris into pluming cloud that streaked across the land. The pdirtied pegasus tumbled until he came to rest at one of the worst places he could--right at Drakul's hooves. He was slow to get back to his hooves, but one leg, his back left leg, refused to cooperate.
A lot of things happen, very quickly. As the ghost tugs at Luna's head with its hooves and strangles her throat with its wings, the starlight beam cuts off. Looking a bit gooey and malformed, Menoetious charges, and like an elephant his shambling gait produces an impressive speed. He's bearing down on the princess when Diamond buzzes past, and he steps on her by accident. A hoof that could crush a tree nails Diamond into the swampy ground, but unlike everything else he steps on, he can't just break her. Given their relative size it's like stepping on a marble, and his hooves fly out from under him, sending him plowing forward into the muck. It's at right about this time that the ghost of Midnight Dream loses it. Only Dinky would have been close enough to see the twitching of her nearly invisible cheeks, but the angry filly's taunts drive the ghost into a rage. Letting go of Luna, she yells, "I shall NOT be insulted by a FLIGHTless, MAGICless HALF BREED!" A spectral wing slaps Dinky, knocking her back into a pile of hay behind a simple Detrot home. Virga hits the ground, and Firefly zooms past above him, her wing slamming into Drakul and cutting him in half. His blood sprays all over her... and disappears, sinking into her hide. The severed body giggles, and so does Firefly, in exactly the same little colt voice, while blood red colors her eyes.
This is a bad moment for everypony - except Luna, who is now free and unthreatened. A flick of her wing cuts through the ghost, which dissolves into vapor with an angry cry of, "You can't kill me twice!" That's as reflexive and easy a gesture as swatting a fly. Her horn and eyes blaze white, and the blast of starlight comes back. She plays it over the body, severing the neck and shoulderblades, melting bones even as they twitch and struggle. The so-resilient skull snaps its jaws helplessly without a functioning body. And as Luna's power flares, the red pouring into Firefly's eyes is replaced with a burning white like Luna's. A horrible smoke rises from Firefly's body - the smell of burning blood as Firefly's body is engulfed in blue flames like Luna's mane.
Air is swelling in Dinky's throat at that angry barrage from the blue-purple ghost, formulating is own response without help from her brain, but it's expelled coarsely by the slap of a wing. Dinky grunts at the force of a thing that's not really there. This time she makes her constitution check, though, and rolls over, not stunned. Hay clings to her coat and warps her mane as she finds her hooves again. "You see quick, don't you," she snaps in a half-broken voice, taking a pause to heave. "But not right. I'm not a h--I'm not -quite- magicless. Want to try me?" She lowers her head and angles her horn toward the ghost, as if vying to skewer her. Though her horn doesn't glow, Dinky is rousing the only magic she knows how to command... first she finds a hornhold, so to speak, inside the spiteful ghost's being, and then she twists, stirs, mangles the force that holds her together. It's weaker with distance, but Dinky is taking step after step back toward her opponent--and then the moment is broken, when Luna takes back control of the situation. So much for Dinky's little skirmish.
Firefly's mind was racing, she did not know necromancers could do this....it was the second time she was seized in body by a magial mind and force beyond her control....and suddenly, freedom...unity, and freedom, a searing sensation felt once before. Once again in control of her abilities, she turns towards Darkul, saying nothing, as nothing need said. She KNEW. And now, she could deliver, wings of black flame rise up as she locks them into position, the white flames in her eyes brightening as she rears up and slams her front hooves into the ground, her wings go from black to white, lighting swirling around her, out of her wings, her eyes, merging as she unleasing everything at once towards Drakul, the swilring surge of lighthing blended with what looked like Luna's horm beam explodes forward in a mixture of destruction, like a wave motion gun.
Diamond_Dancer is...um...more or less under a giant hoof. So lets say she's not totally up to snuff on the situation. She lies there, frozen in the ground, flattened by the massive hoof that's stepped on her. She's of course, alive- a gazillion pounds worth of demonic skeletal horse can't stop her....but she IS pausing to take a little....break. Yes. A break. Thats what we'll call it.
Virga knew that hew was now only a liability if Drakul somehow noticed him between all the ponies present. His damaged leg wasn't letting him get much of anywhere as he dragged it behind him, and his wings, while not broken or heavily damaged, didn't want to carry him. As he lie there in the torn ground he did managed to motion his wings enough to strikes the earth in a frost that quickly spread. Ice was not what he wanted. He had to have the sun. Again he flapped his wings, but only ice came from. he snorted, frustrated that it wouldn't come. But then on the third try the same feiry blast that eliminated the first zombie pony raged at Drakul.
Drakul is one tough little monster. Cut in half, burned out of Firefly, assaulted with ice and solar fire and lightning and purifying starlight, he doesn't stop fighting. In the middle of that glare he gets the hooves of his front half underneath him, black and purple magic rolling across his horn. Strands of blood reach from the two halves to grab their partner, starting to pull them together. It doesn't work. The blood connection goes up in more nasty metallic smoke, and the back half gives up the fight, consumed in a second into char. The front half falls to its knees, and from the char creeps up from its back end like a cigarette, until only a unicorn horn falls into the baked mud. The horn bounces around, but weakly, and it doesn't seem to be any threat. Meanwhile Luna strides into the middle of Menoetious's body, kicking ribs apart, blasting them one by one until they stop melting and start burning to ash. When the titan's body is a wreck of unconnected bones, the light blazing from her horn and eyes goes out. So does the power raging through Firefly. Luna lifts her head, her face cold and imperious even though her chest heaves like a bellows and her hide is distinctly matted with sweat. "Heart of Ice. Wings of the Storm. Gather up the foals and take them home. Handle them gently, for they are both heroes. We shall return to our sister's palace to sleep as soon as we have cast some binding spells. They shall give us time to find a way to destroy that which cannot be destroyed." Turning around, she takes a few steps towards Dinky. Luna's eyes are still slit pupiled, but she gives the filly a warm, affectionate smile. "Thou have, quite possibly, saved the life of a princess tonight. Go to sleep proud, and with no fear. Thou shall dream not at all tonight. We shall see to it."
Diamond_Dancer is laying there, broken and bleeding, breathing in sharp, shallow breathes. She tries to shake her head, when the Princess order's her back to Ponyville, and grumbles. "N, no! NO! I can still fight! Lemme stay!" She announces, even if a number of her bones have been fractured under the hooves of that massive stallion. She can still fight- really she can! Just give her a few minutes to get her hooves back underneath her!
Dinky is feeling a host of feelings as the fight wrap up in a confluence of all its flavors. But they all add up to something a lot like blankness. The ghost was the only part of all this Dinky had any chance of controlling. The titan, the mucks, the lightning, the necrom--necromancer himself--her mind trips over the word--they were in the league of these warriors, these wings of the night. But that one thing was more theater for Dinky. The specter... that was... that was hers. Dinky is sitting. In what passes for ground in this forsaken city. Her ears tilt forward at Luna's instructions to Virga and Firefly, and then she tilts forward and Luna's words to her. She blinks. "Th... yeah. That'd be nice," she acknowledges. This kind of mayhem makes for -no- kind of dream.
Firefly is still glaring at what was left of Darkul, then zips over and stomp-stomp-stomps the ashes into the mud, snorting angrily before she walks over to Diamond, her own eyes still slitted, has wings still a misty black flame, "Ready to head back Errant?" looking over to Virga as she calms down. "Are thee too damaged to fly?" she asks, knowing for him a broken leg was more of a nuisance than anything serious. She takes a slow deep breath, shifting back to normal, shivering a bit, but truly glad to be reconnected to her abilities again. "The fight is over Errant, we are deployed away."
Virga slowly stood, but kept weight off his back leg. "I have one teleportation scroll," he said. "It'll allow us a quick return. I'll retreat to the medical wing for inspection." That was all he had the strength to say. It had been too long since he'd been in a battle, but for having not been in a full battle in so long it was reasonable. he eased his weight onto the leg in question. "It would not be wise for me to fly until I've undergone examination," he answered. "My leg does not feel broken entirely. Minor fracture or damaged muscle. The shielding of ice aided in preventing a complete break."
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