(Science)
Sky eyed the being who had touched the crystal. Hopefully it would shed more light on their situation and tell the group what they must do in order to go home.
I'm getting some serious vibes of Gruumm here, even though I've yet to see that Troobian for myself.
edited 24th Sep '11 11:25:11 AM by Ominae
The Everfree Forest was not an evil place. It was... wild, for lack of a better world. The forest itself seemed to have a mind of its own at times. If you listened closely, you could hear things crawling through the foliage. Big things. Things that could eat a pony in one bite if they had the chance or the inclination.
A hoof tapping against dirt. An annoyed mumble. Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia and bearer of the element of Magic, glanced around the forest. Sure, she'd arrived a few minutes late, but she'd assumed Fluttershy would've waited for her. Then again, the pegasus could also have been running late, so it was excusable. The magician glanced at her foreleg. A meaningless gesture, since she wasn't wearing a watch.
Twilight ran through her mental checklist for the third time today. She'd left Spike in charge of the library* , all of the appropriate field guides were tucked safely into her saddlebags. Everything was in order.
The unicorn was considering going back to the forest entrance when she heard something in the bushes behind her, a sound that seemed a mix between whispered words and delighted cackling. She turned around. "Fluttershy?" She asked, telekinetically brushing aside the foliage. Nothing. The sound came again, this time from the branches of a large tree, limbs twisted in a crude mockery of legs, bark burnt from what Twilight assumed were either forest fires, lightning strikes, or... something else.
Again, from behind her. She turned. This time, something lunged out of the bushes. It moved at such a pace that Twilight couldn't make out any specific features, though it was around the size of a hoofball and it's flesh was deathly pale with patches of dried blood here and there. Thinking quickly, Twilight batted the creature away with her magic. The thing hit the ground and almost immediately got to its feet.
Said feet where clad in massive iron boots, almost as big as the creature itself. It stood on two legs, like an ape, a pair of beady black eyes set deep into its skull. The creature's most prominant feature, however, was the cap that sat upon its head, a vivid red. The color of blood. It held a sickle in its bony fingers as it lunged at Twilight again, long natty beard trailing behind it.
The creature was further away than it had been during its initial attack, so the magician had more time to react. At this point, she'd already figured out how to deal with it. By running away, of course. Her horn glowed a bright purple as the fabric of space shifted and warped around her, forming a brilliant white bubble. And then, she was gone. The redcap hit the ground feet-first, a resounding clang echoing throughout the forest. It spit and cursed at its failure before stalking off into the bushes in search of more favorable prey.
As Twilight teleported, she felt a tug, in the physical and metaphysical sense, as if someone was pulling at her very soul. Trying the redirect her. And it worked. In a flash, she reappeared in... another forest. Fantastic. The familiar weight of her saddlebags was no longer present and the plants ranged from merely strange to things that she could only equate to things she'd seen in illustrations. From her place in the bushes, she could see what appeared to be a hovering cottage and a bipedal figure, glowing blue, that sat upon a stump. The being offered an explanation, obviously to whoever was inside the cottage.
And so she watched. And waited. Better to stay low and stay quiet that put herself in further danger by exposing herself to whatever else dwelled in this strange place.
edited 24th Sep '11 12:17:57 PM by Bindlestick
"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably" Very well. I won't attack the plants. Unless provoked. When you're ready to exposit, I will be in the cottage with the others." Koragg said as he went the cottage. He looked for one moment at the bush where Twilight was hiding in, sensing something from it. Koragg shrugged it off and went inside the cottage.
edited 24th Sep '11 12:27:20 PM by Psyga315
Caillou decided not to demonstrate when Moja didn't want them destroying the fauna here. He listened as the others explained their powers. "My magic is mostly on the offensive side. I can shoot a fireball, and if it hits something, I can recover some energy. My Pyrobomb skill can make the area around me explode. It's nice for hitting aerial enemies." Caillou sipped his tea as he thought of the pesky lightning bugs he often encountered in dungeons. "My Ice Mine skill is a bit tricky to use. I can make a block of ice that moves a bit, before it bursts out of the ground and hits whatever's near it. My Sparkburst is my most powerful attack. I can fire a torrent of arcane missiles to attack my enemies. It's really helpful for taking down huge monsters." He said thoughtfully as he sipped some more. "Gemini Force is one of my more defensive skills. I'm protected by many magic shields, and if I want them to, I can make them head for, and attack the nearest enemy. I can also Warp, which I can use to teleport to other places. ... I can't control where I'm teleported though." He said sadly.
He got off his chair and then used Warp to demonstrate. He disappeared from the house, and ended up in a bush. A bush where a pony was hiding. Caillou was about to cast Warp again, until he noticed Twilight. "GAH!" He fell backwards and immediately cast Warp to get away. He ended up... quite a distance away from the house. "(Close enough!)" He huffed as he rushed back towards the house. "Um. Are there supposed to be animals around here!?" He asked Moja, slightly shaking and stunned at what he saw.
You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!"..." On the inside, Ayumu was sweating bullets. "I'm sorry, but I only transform when desperate..."
"Reason being because when people see the transformation, they are frozen..." ...with disbelief. He then continued, "They then collapse on the ground..." From laughing too hard. "Thus, I reserve it for the few occasions where I cannot win in my untransformed state alone." He said, trying to dissuade the others from making him transform.
Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.As Koragg looked at the bush, Twilight tensed up, but then relaxed as he ignored her. That was a close one. If he'd noticed the purple unicorn hiding in the bushes, it would have been... very bad, presumably. She just hoped another one of them didn't notice her.
And then one did. Mostly because he just teleported to her side, apparently by accident. A child, most likely. He exclaimed his surprise and then teleported away. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. First of all, these things, whatever they were, were sentient. Second, they could use magic. And third, they knew she was there. A brief expenditure of will and a flash of light and Twilight reappeared in a different, nearly identical bush. Nearly identical in that this one had thorns and it made hiding very uncomfortable. But she'd have to work through the pain.
"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probablyTeam Science
"Let me explain," said Mbili succintly, leaning back in his chair as a series of crystal pillars rose from the ground underneath his finger tips, briefly glowing red as they did so. "The story begins in the deep past..."
Around them, they would notice the world fading away around them, before an explosion flared in their faces. The group hovered above a crystalline city, but one that had been turned into a battlefield. It was truly a sight to inspire nightmares- one of gut-wrenching violence and horrors, as thousands of glowing beings, much like Mbili, tore into one another with weapons or even their bare hands, the anguished wails of the wounded and dying, and the triumphant bellows of their murderers- combining into a single cacaphonious scream of bloodshed and brutality, as explosions brought mile-high buildings tumbling to the ground and fissures to appear in the ground. It was clear that this was a recording or hologram of some kind from the distant past, judging by how Mbili hovered beside them, regarding the carnage below with a detached expression.
" The war." was all that Mbili said by explanation. " It was to put a stop to this fighting that Sifuri was created- the ultimate superweapon, or so said its creators."
________________________
Team Magic
" No animals here," said Moja. " That would be Twilight Sparkle, another member of our group. Do not be afraid, Twilight, for you are among the company of friends."
"[ Now, as for why I have assembled you here... perhaps I should show you in person."
With that, the scenery around them abruptly dissolved and the group found themselves viewing a similar battleground.
" This was our race billions of years ago; one that was locked in bloodshed and warfare. To end it, we created a weapon called Sifuri, one that would destroy our enemies and allow us to live in peace."
Eiji looks at Spiderman incredulously. "You... Leopardon? Giant robot that transformed from the Marveller spaceship? Hell, I've got a picture of you on it in my Go Go Changer's database." Fiddling with the Go Go Changer a bit, A hologram picture of Spiderman on the shoulder of Leopardon shows up.
Wakka-wakka-wakka-wakka~Koragg went away from Mask Donald. He will see the person transform on another date. Right now, Moja was expositing. He paid no attention to what Moja was saying about this "Twilight Sparkle". He only cared for the purpose of why he is here. Although at the moment, he would rather be here then in the underworld getting chewed out by Imperious, for what ever reason. Koragg saw the battlefield. This set off a memory in his head of a similar war. One that was less violent. There were just sword fights, magical blasts, explosions (of the CGI kind), people flying around, and his former boss, Morticon, fighting in the battle. He never recalled being in that war before, but it felt familiar. He then heard of the blue man telling them about a weapon that was made to wipe out their enemies.
" So, you gotten bored enough that you decided to forgo honor and simply build a weapon that kills them dead?" Koragg asked the Nomad.
edited 24th Sep '11 3:09:20 PM by Psyga315
Team Magic
"I never thought I would see a bloodier conflict than the Crystal War." Shantotto declared. She was watching the battle closely, trying to discern the overall strategies of the two sides.
"This Sifuri must have been potent indeed, to try and end such gore."
She then looked at Koragg, looking slightly sad as she spoke, "Honor only really exists in small conflicts. A war, especially one this large, would soon see it out of the mix."
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.Axl watched the vision grimly, his expression darkening with each and every moment. So this guy's universe had been caught up in a war, too? His hands tightened their grip around the busters as the reploid felt an uncomfortable recognition of what was going on. All the killing... all the suffering... all the destruction... he had seen this all before, except that it wasn't aliens in some farflung corner of the multiverse, but his fellow reploids, his brothers and sisters if not in blood then in spirit.
"It's the Maverick Wars all over again..." Technically, the Maverick Wars hadn't abated yet, but aside from the occasional major incident it seemed like he and the others were being called out less and less. Looking Mbili in the eye and with steel in his voice, he said, "'Sifuri'... did it manage to stop the war, or did it just make things worse?"
He had to know. He had to know whether something of that magnitude had any effect on the fighting, or whether it just perpetuated it. It seemed like everywhere he turned, there was war. He didn't exactly hate it in the way X did, but it wasn't something he liked. Sure, it felt like a great adventure, but when he saw what happened "on the front lines", so to speak, what the common Hunter and his enemy were experiencing, and the statistics, it had a very sobering effect.
Locking you up on radar since '09

The robot's red eyes narrowed.
People who say "good and evil just words" always turn out evil.
edited 24th Sep '11 11:18:02 AM by Vox