//------------------------------// // Ruined Runes // Story: My Little Caboose: Blue is Magic! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// "So Tex, how does it feel to be on the receiving end for once?" Tucker chuckled. "Don't instigate her Tucker." Twilight said quietly. "Aw, come on! She's had this coming for a long time." "Even so, we need to work together to get out of here and that will be hard to do when we're at each others throats. So Alli- I mean Tex, I apologize for doing what I did. You have to understand it was the only way to end the conflict." "Whatever." Tex grunted as she rubbed her ankle. "So you said Grif had this virus too?" "Yes, but we didn't get the antidote soon enough, so it got too far into his blood stream and the area it affected has effectively become stronger." "Maybe if I leave it in my blood for long enough I can hit hard enough to hurt him again." Tex said with a smirk. "So how old do you think this tunnel system is?" Tucker asked. "I'm willing to bet a few hundred years or so." Twilight said as she examined the symbol on the rock. "It's strange though, I never heard of any tunnels under the Everfree Forest..." "There's no way that this place is a few hundred years old." Tucker laughed as he stepped on another rock, causing a spike to shoot upwards into the ceiling. "Okay, if this place is a few hundred years old then how the hell can these traps work?" "These aren't regular traps, these are runes." "What the hell are runes?" "Look at that rock." Twilight said as she rubbed some of the dust off of it. "Do you see the small spiral on it?" "Yeah. So a rune is a rock with a symbol on it?" "What? No. Well, sort of." Twilight said thoughtfully. "Runes are magical symbols that are etched onto a surface, be it a rock or anything else. The reason they still work after all this time is because the magic does not escape the rune, it stays inside it." "You mean like what Celestia put on the Archaic Wing?" Rarity asked. "In a way. She is much more powerful than a regular unicorn, so when she casts a spell it can last eons. Unicorns can do the same, they just have to use runes." "Then why aren't runes more prevalent in Equestria?" "Because they only have a limited amount of uses and they are extremely dangerous to use." "But if you can't use magic then how do these runes work if they also use magic?" Tucker asked, beginning to grow confused. "I don't know." Twilight admitted. "There might be some wards in here that disallow non-rune based magic. Either way we have to walk carefully and avoid anything with a symbol on it. When I get back to the library I'll have to look into this place..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Are we there yet?" Caboose whined, legs beggining to tire. "We have no predetermined destination so I cannot answer that question." "Does that mean yes?" "It does not seem like the timberwolves have followed us, so if it is a break you want..." "I heard yes." Caboose yawned as he came to a screeching halt. "Now there is a matter I wish to discuss with you now that we have no need to run." "I like matter. Matter is good." Caboose said as he laid on the ground. "I am glad you think so." Delta said as he looked around. "I wish to discuss physics with you, are you aware of that concept?" "Are you a mind reader?" "Not psychics, physics. To make it simple I will just say that in physics, there are certain laws everybody has to abide to-" "I fully understand what you are saying and you have my complete constipation." Caboose said as he nodded his head. "Concentration." "That too." "Yes, well I have noticed that you, as well as your friend Pinkie-" "Oh, is Pinkie here?" Caboose asked excitedly as he hopped to his feet to look around. "No she isn't, now if you-" "Why would you tell me she is here if she is not here?" "I never said she was here." "Then where is she?" "I don't know where she is." "Oh." Caboose said quietly. "Who were we talking about again?" "Pinkamena." "Who is that?" "Pinkie." "Oh, is Pinkie here?" "No Caboose, she isn't. Now will you please allow me to continue?" "Okay." Caboose said happily as he sat back down. "As I was saying, as of late I have noticed that you and Pinkie have been breaking the laws of physics and-" "It wasn't my fault. Someone put a psychic in my way." Caboose said when the sound of a branch snapping came from behind Delta. "I thought you said Pinkie wasn't here." "Who's there?" A gruff voice asked from behind a bush. "Hello Sarge, you are just in time for story time!" Caboose said happily. "It is good to see you have not been harmed Sarge." Delta said without turning. "Where are the other blues?" Sarge asked as he jumped over a bush. "Due to the situation we had to split up so I do not know." "Situation?" "Have you encountered any traps yet?" "No, why?" Sarge asked slowly. "Did you guys build some traps to catch the AIs? You should have told me. Building is my middle name." "No, it was not us that set up the traps. It is someone else entirely. One of the traps failed to harm Epsilon and he began to grow angry, causing a pack of timberwolves to come to us. We ran away from them and came to a fork in the road, and that's where Epsilon decided we should split up." "Damn. I really wanted to rub it in their faces that we managed to get one of the AI guys." Sarge said as Simmons and Grif jumped over the bush, followed by Applejack who had a magenta glow around her body as she hovered over the bush. "You managed to catch Gamma. Well done." "You know, it's weird actually. Isn't he supposed to be the ability to lie?" "Not lie, deceive. While they may be synonymous to some they actually have a very distinct differ-" "Yeah, that. I would have thought he would be harder to catch since he would be able to trick us." "Since Applejack's and Gamma's personalities differ so greatly it appears they cancel each other out to some degree." "It always pained me t' see ya work with these dirty shisnos." Gary noted as he floated around. "Hey, we're not shisnos anymore, we're horses." Simmons said as he kept focus on the spell. "Once a shisno, always a shisno." Gary chuckled. "I am having quite a bit of difficulty trying to understand is why you let them catch you." Delta noted. Gary's smile faltered and he avoided Delta's eye contact. "Could it be you wanted them to catch you?" Delta asked. "Of course not! Do ya know how hard it is t' wash the smell of shisno off?" "So do we get a prize for grabbing an AI before the blues?" Sarge asked. "I've always been fond of medals." "Not at this time." Delta said slowly. "Damn." "That was long enough of a break Caboose. Now we need to find Church and the other fragments." "But I didn't get to take a break yet." Grif muttered. "We're the red team. We don't take breaks." Sarge said with a cruel laugh as he punched Grif in the shoulder. "Man, being a red sucks sometimes." Grif sighed.