45 - Diving In
Applejack motioned the Crusaders through and they trotted in, though Scootaloo hesitated a moment, she followed her friends with a sigh. Applejack then tipped her hat at the others in the room. "Thanks kindly for all yer help." With a brisk trot, she hopped in.
Willow patted Sunflower on the shoulder, "Up for another adventure?"
"Huh?"
Willow picked up Sunflower and darted through the portal.
Standing alone in front of the portal, Lex glanced around the empty room. He was half-tempted to let it close without him, but knew that wasn't a serious option...not when there was potential progress to be made in reforming Equestria. Besides, there was nothing keeping him here on Everglow. His sole remaining responsibilities were Blue and Yellow, and he'd been checking in on them, surreptitiously, enough to know that they were getting along on their own.
Readying his magic in case this was a trap, Lex walked into the portal.
The portal closed quietly a minute later, leaving no one behind to ponder its mysteries, though Drowsy End would discover her tenants had quietly departed eventually and resume taking in new clients.
Across the divide between planes, the party arrived not in Canterlot or Twilight's castle, but a small cave that became crowded as they fell into it. There was a smell of something curious in the air, and it felt oppressive. Applejack scrambled to her hooves and looked around. "This ain't no part of Equestria ah recognize. What happened?"
The Crusaders discovered Sunflower came with them and were pleased, surprised that Willow had also come along. Willow, on the other paw, was looking around with Applejack. "Are we not in the right place? I don't trust the look of this even slightly."
Lex looked around, the feeling of anxiety he'd had since the portal opened intensifying. "Either we were brought here on purpose, or something diverted us here. The first order of business is to figure out where 'here' is." He didn't share some of the speculations he'd formed in that regard. This could be any cave system, after all. There was no reason to assume a worst-case scenario... because that's what it would be if they'd been brought to Tartarus.
Sonata pointed a hoof at a small passageway that was easy to miss in the wall. "I found a way out, like, let's get out of here. This place is the pits."
Willow shook her head. "Give me a minute." She began the long ritual to summon Kalik, calling for her across that same divide.
Sunflower hugged each of the girls in turn. "Did you see that? Mom just ran through after you all and brought me with her! I thought she didn't want me to go."
Sweetie Belle hopped at Sunflower, pinning him to the ground. "Now you're stuck with me, and you know your mom's OK with it." She grinned down at him, joyfully staking her claim.
Apple Bloom was busy doing little circles. "Ah think we should save the celebrations. Ah don't like the look of this place."
"Ah hear ya there." Applejack frowned. "Let's assume we're in hostile territory 'till we're proven wrong."
Despite the worry, Scootaloo was simply enjoying the fact that the wings she had just said goodbye to were with her a little longer, allowing her to circle the room.
Lex gave a surprised look at Willow, having had no idea she was a spellcaster. It was enough to prompt him to ask, "Does anypony have a spell to determine our location, or possibly transport us out of here?"
Applejack shook her head. "Ah reckon if we had that power, we'd done been home by now." She looked to Willow. "Let's let her finish callin' her friend, then look fer answers."
Scootaloo landed on Applejack's back. "One last adventure!" She sounded quite excited for the opportunity. "We'll get to the bottom of this in no time."
Willow took a minute, as promised, to finish her summoning. From a circle of fire, Kalik stepped free, shaking herself out. "Where is this place?"
Willow shrugged. "It feels like a demiplane of some sort. I thought we were going to Equestria, where Applejack and her kin are from."
Kalik frowned. "Retiring so soon? It seems the fates have other intents for you."
"I doubt fate has much to do with this," Lex frowned as he looked Kalik over, more from surprise at the appearance of the flaming cat than any sort of disapproval. "While it's possible that some sort of accident brought us here, it's far more likely that this was deliberate."
With everyone prepared, a final series of spells saw Scootaloo and Applejack with hovering shields, the former gaining it from a potion handed off by Apple Bloom. "This'll help keep ya safe. Yer always jumpin' in the front an' everything."
Scootaloo saluted in thanks, and the group advanced down the tunnel, Applejack taking the lead. As they proceeded, the faint sound of skittering teased their ears, as if something small and with many legs were scrabbling at the stone, but nothing entered their sight in the gloomy caves. One tunnel became three, which branched out again, and again. No clues were given which was the correct way to go, so Applejack stuck to the right for lack of better idea.
Lex glanced at the fillies as they used magic to prepare for whatever was to come. "I assume that non-unicorn foals learning magic is Twilight's doing?" He didn't bother with any preparatory casting of his own, since his basic defenses were kept perpetually active.
Applejack sighed. "Would ya believe they learned it on their own from our spellbooks and watchin' me do magic? They're little geniuses is what they are, though potion makin's hardly a new field." She drew short as a chasm came into view, with only a narrow walkway of stone leading across it. "Shoot."
Scootaloo spread her wings. "I'll check it out!" Without waiting, she launched herself forward over the black hole and soared quickly until a tentacle lashed out of the darkness and grabbed her by the leg. She flew against it, trying to gain altitude but getting nowhere. "Get it off!"
Adjusting the circlet on his head so as to let him retain the spell, Lex quickly chanted and waved a hoof at the tentacle grabbing the pegasus. A volley of magic missiles flew from it, slamming into the oily appendage with a wet squelching sound.
The attack was followed by a quickly hurled bomb that detonated against the stretched pseudopod. Scootaloo was released, almost crashing into the ceiling before she regained control and came for a smooth landing on the far side of the hole. "I'm OK!"
A sweetly sinister voice echoed from the darkness. "Such a pity. I could have shown you what being a mare is all about."
Applejack turned red with fury, stomping the ground. "That ain't funny! Ya best not be messing wit' us or I'll buck ya so hard ya'll taste yer tail!"
Sweetie Belle was baffled. "What?" Apple Bloom and Sunflower shrugged in mutual lack of comprehension.
Willow gestured forward. "Kalik, lead the way."
Kalik frowned. "Why am I always told to do the most awful things?" She tread carefully onto the narrow ledge, pacing across it slowly, her eyes peering down into the depths.
Also regarding the impenetrable blackness that the voice emanated from, Lex's eyes narrowed. "Attack us again, creature, and we will destroy you," he delivered the line coldly, hoping that in conjunction with Applejack's threat and the thing's initial attack having been defeated, it would decide they were too dangerous to prey on.
"Oh fine," came the sweet voice. "We have all the time in the world. Go on."
The creature, or whatever it was, made no further attempts to harass them, and soon they had crossed over to the other side. Applejack remained by the hole, guarding it as the others caught their breath. When they were ready to go, they trotted away, only for Applejack to be whipped smartly on the flank. She wheeled around, but the tentacle was already slipping back into the darkness under cover of mocking laughter. She snorted and left the pit behind, not missing it.
Scootaloo traded hoofbumps with the other younger adventurers. "Did ya see that? That thing wanted to eat me."
Apple Bloom snorted. "Only ya could be so happy when ya say that. Ah'm just glad yer OK."
Sweetie edged closed to Sunflower. "You wouldn't let that thing get me, would you?"
Sunflower quickly shook his head. "Never! I'd jump on it and beat it until it let you go."
Lex did not share in the younger adventurers' enthusiasm. He was rapidly becoming more and more certain that his initial guess about this place was correct, and that worried him. If this was Tartarus, then they were all in very deep trouble.
Touching his circlet as he cast a defensive spell on himself, one designed to protect him from ranged attacks, Lex immediately followed it up by calling upon Sombra's power. His eyes turned green, purple contrails sprouting from their corners as the dark magic responded, letting him see through the gloom of the caves as though it were full daylight.
Withdrawing a wand from one of his saddlebags, he held it aloft telekinetically. "We should keep moving, in case that thing changes its mind."
Willow nodded in agreement. "I don't know what lurks ahead of us, but certainly nothing good lies behind us."
Applejack joined in the wave, though Sonata looked pensive. "We should be sure we can all see each other. Something even worse than a totally crazy tentacle monster could be waiting to grab us."
Sweetie quickly conjured her floating balls of light, fighting back the gloom a little and keeping them all well in the light. They advanced through the tunnels, wary and ready, but what they found was a dining hall full of set tables and delicious smelling foods of all manner and type. The room was quite well lit and welcoming compared to the corridors they'd been in. A single pony sat at one of the tables. Twilight. She raised a hoof at them. "I'm glad you could make it. Please, join me. I didn't know you were bringing so many friends?"
Lex's eyes narrowed, and he immediately threw a foreleg out in an unmistakeable "stay back" gesture to the rest of the group. Leveling his wand at Twilight, or what appeared to be Twilight, he faced her, even as he directed his words to the rest of the group. "Do not approach her! That is not Twilight Sparkle!"
He started circling, keeping his wand trained directly on the purple alicorn. "This is a most skillful deception, but not skillful enough. The real Twilight would not be here alone, since she could not have brought us here by herself. She told us she lost her spellbook."
'Twilight' gave Lex a half-lidded expression, almost flirtatious. "Oh don't be so defensive. Sit, eat. You'll be here for a while, so you may as well be comfortable."
Applejack grunted in obvious anger. "What are ya? Some kinda changeling?"
"Not a bad guess." She set her head on her forehooves, watching the group with a relaxed energy. "Sit."
Sunflower suddenly approached a table and sat on the bench in front of it. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom joined him only moments later.
Sweetie threw off the command and drew a deep breath before she began to sing Giggle at the Ghosties as loudly as she could. The melody seemed to shake free the hold on Sunflower and the others, and they all scrambled upright swiftly.
Lex felt the compulsion smash against his mental shields with little effect. He had multiple layers of magical defenses designed to protect his mind from attack, and the impostor's attack did little but convince him of their ill intent.
Snarling, he lowered his head while raising his wand, so that it was directly in front of his horn while pointing at the creature. Letting the purple aura around his horn flare around the wand, linking it to himself, he spat out a command word, and there was a bright flash as a huge bolt of lightning struck the false Twilight.
The lightning crashed into 'Twilight' and the table she sat at, vaporizing it and her into a foul black smoke.
Willow raised a brow. "Effective, but I would have preferred a few answers. False as she was, her only crime so far has been to try to compel us to sit."
Sonata snorted softly, unsure how to feel about the situation. Mind control was her bag... "You wouldn't zap me for doing that, would you?"
Applejack huffed. "Good riddance. Besmirching the good name of mah friend like that." She trotted towards the leftovers, head tilted a bit. "Yer a bit overcharged though, dontcha think? Ah don't see a hint of her."
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I thought that gate looked rather suspicious. It's never easy, is it? Well, hopefully this isn't too far off the beaten track. Here's hoping any future tentacle monsters are few and far between.
How long does it take to make a bag of holding, and what level, class etc do you have to be to do it? After all, theres an awful lot of them around.
just as long as the Crusaders dont find out you can use them as weapons.
6006991 You need craft wondrous items, after that is a bit technical to get into.
6006823 It's the demi-plane of infinite succubi?
patted
in
along
Badum ching
her
of
Does
A right-turn algorithm will solve most static mazes
Meh, it didn't look so bad. Just make sure to avoid the locals.
This is case where Lex's stubbornness and ego would work in his favor; he could probably tank mind magic with just his personality.
Because this is an adventure story and it's too much fun to end it here.
The GM's sandbox.
6007388
No, this one actually should be "on," since that indicates proximity/position. E.g. "he's on another plane," instead of "he's in another plane."
Except that's a function of Will save bonus, and he's specifically referring to mystical protections against mind-affecting effects (as the next sentence specifies).
6007388 Typos sent to Tartarus, where they belong!
6007431
Except that Everglow isn't the plane, it's the continent. You don't say someone is "on Africa" you say they're "in Africa." Even if you were going somewhere that wasn't another continent, you would say "We are going to Mars from where we are in Africa."
6007514
6007431 Everglow being continent vs plane, depends who you ask. Many use it interchangeably. Those from beyond Everglow's borders do not.
6007532
Read: Sheesh you guys, you're arguing about that?
6007532 The back cover of the campaign setting refers to Everglow as a "world" rather than a continent or plane, though when referring to a world one would still use "on."
6007563 In many sources, different worlds are different planes. This is beyond where I care to estimate.
6007619 Oh, I don't disagree. Heck, "world" (much like "universe") can often be used to figuratively refer to the whole of a plane, rather than having to literally refer to a planet. I was pointing that out simply for the sake of doing so.
Well this was unexpected! The portal opened, but it seems to have deposited them far from Equestria indeed! Trapped in an apparently-hostile location, it's an intriguing mystery how they ended up here, one that will have to be considered after they figure out how to stay safe from this realm's denizens.
The oppressive nature of the locale - and how they ended up there - aside, what's most disturbing about this place is the intelligence of the creatures they've encountered so far. It's one thing for there to be some sort of tentacle-clad monster that attacks you; it's another thing for it to mock you as it does. While it can be comforting to know that an opponent can be conversed with (and, as we saw, even intimidated), that works in the opposite direction as well - a force that's intelligent as well as malevolent is one that can deliberately work against you.
On that note, I have to say that I appreciated that the tentacle thing threatened Scootaloo with rape, even if she and her friends didn't understand it. I say that not to be lewd, but because I find that helps to up the tension of what losing a fight could cost them. Adventurers face injury and death so regularly that they become almost routine; being reminded that there are other torments that they can undergo helps to keep the stakes high (especially when that's directed at prepubescent children). This does lose some impact from the fact that the fillies most likely have "plot immunity," to that happening to them - unlike, say, Fluttershy's torture in the previous story - but it's still far better than pretending that such things don't exist.
More insidious, however, was that false Twilight they stumbled upon. That's worrisome, because it implies that whatever that really was somehow knew who they were looking for. The question is how. It wasn't scrying on them previously; Lex implied at the close of the previous fic that he has some sort of trap set for those who try that. It might have been reading their minds (Lex again notwithstanding) when they were approaching, but that seems a little far-fetched also. That would mean, however, that whatever that was knew about them before they arrived...that's extraordinarily bad, because it means that whoever or whatever brought them there knows all about them, while they have no idea what they're up against. Literally.
On a note, Lex really seemed to be a bit more aggressive than usual towards the Twilight-impostor. I'd venture that he's either more nervous than he's letting on, or he's trying to show off for some reason. Either way, Willow was right that he was too quick on the draw; whatever that was might have been suspicious, but it didn't seem immediately hostile, and that would have been a good opportunity to try and get some answers. Hopefully he'll be less combative the next time something like that appears.
6007797 The plot thickens and the brakes are working as poorly as they ever did. I can only hope I bring the train to a smoother halt than I did last time, which left some poor passengers with a case of whiplash.
6007563 Epic Trailer Voice: "In a world...one man...against the forces of evil"
6007985 Or you could just never stop, then you don't need brakes.
6007985 Does that mean that we're close to the stopping point? I do hope not; I'm quite enjoying the ride.
6009103 what a rash disision you made, i would not shot someone for trying to mind control me. i would beat them up but not kill them, at least till i know their intents, ps not being serous
7071015 Lex's shot with that wand of lightning bolts wasn't necessarily a kill-shot per se; insofar as this is based on game rules, this wouldn't likely be a deadly shot to any creature that was a credible threat to the group, and Lex knows that. Moreover, when under attack there's a degree of flexibility to which your response needs to be proportional.
7071060 yes but lets be honest, game rules mean crap in this story... he is riting what he wants and he knows that a story needs to have ups and downs and some loses. after all with his other story with silver watch most def does not follow the rules
7071095 No, I don't agree; I believe the author is paying very close attention to the game rules with the Everglow fics, which does not mean that he's letting them dictate the story.
7071106 well don't think that a spell from lex would phase her... he already had in his mind that it would be her and wanted to thicken the plot and personal develop ment and what better way than haveing lex do what he thought was "right" and thy being bad at him, he clearly thought he had killed it and thy thought so too
7071186 The salient points here are that Lex had just cause to 1) presume that this creature wasn't a pony (since it wasn't Twilight, they were in hostile territory, and real ponies don't shapeshift), and 2) that his lightning bolt wouldn't likely be lethal. Even if this second point didn't appear to hold true, it doesn't matter very much since this was a hostile non-pony creature, and so nothing that really needs to get worked up over.
7071196 still i did not think that he thought of point 1 but he lives in a world with hundreds of creatures, but i guess this is wheier his mentality gets the best of him. and him himself thought that it was overkill.
7071225 Don't forget that Lex comes from Equestria originally, not Everglow. The latter may be a world with "hundreds of (sentient) creatures," but Lex's primary concern is ponies; other creatures are less important, graded on his own (byzantine) ranking of how much respect other races deserve (even before getting into questions of individual merit).
7071238 I guess but it does nt excuse it that he tried to blow it to smitheriens when it had not phisicaly attacked
7071268 As I've said before, yes it does. It had used hostile magic on them, which meant that an attack in response was entirely justified; that it did so on children was especially heinous. There was no particular reason to think that the attacking creature was a pony, or that it would necessarily be killed as a result of the attack, so the level of force was also justified. Everything Lex did was with a rational basis.
7071330 maybe so but no Humanity (or whatever thy would call it) was used in the disision, in skyrim, if you fell asleep and woke up somewhere else, would you immediately kill it? so what if it was using trance, if it wanted to it could have kiled them or told them to kill themselves with their own weapons
7071417 "But no humanity was used in the decision" doesn't mean anything, and so isn't a valid rebuttal. What does "humanity" constitute there, and what role should it have played in the decision making process? Without answering those basic questions, that's just an expression, and not a counterpoint.
It doesn't matter what it was using mind-altering magic to do. If someone uses magic on you without your permission - especially magic to alter your thoughts, which is especially invasive (and is even worse if used on children) - then it's an attack, and you're well within your rights to attack back in defense of yourself and others. If that attack has a rational basis for being perceived as less than lethal, then even if it turns out to be deadly it's still justified.
7071429 when i say humanity, i mean caring for otheres and not going around and killing people, and i don't think that thy whier mindcontroled as much as i think that their bodys whier forced to move.
7071591 Caring for others does not preclude defending yourself when attacked. Likewise, it's already been established that the defensive response had a rational basis for not being expected to be deadly; that it turned out to be that way is largely immaterial.
Further, the story establishes that the effect was a form of mental manipulation; hence why the text says that Lex felt the compulsion hit his "mental shields."
7071688 Insofar as "why everyone else got upset," that's what Lex doesn't understand (as is made clear following the incident). That said, just because everyone else is upset does not, in and of itself, mean that Lex was in the wrong; personal morality is not a majority-rules issue.
7071726 lets be honest, lex is not the kind of person to understand how the world works whatsoever, he would do things simmilar to a PC. if their wheir people protesting and in the steats he would have water trucks blow them away
7071843 The "honest" fact of the matter is that Lex understands how the world works just fine. It's how other people (that is, other ponies) work that eludes him. It's to his credit that he keeps trying to figure them out anyway.
If people were protesting (presumably you meant his reign), his response would largely be to figure out why they were protesting...though that's largely a moot point, as the show doesn't have very many examples of ponies being inclined towards any sort of group displays of outrage or anger (they do happen, but they're rare and fairly easily quelled). If they had some sort of legitimate grievance, then Lex would hear them out. If he didn't think that their issues were logical or rational, however, then yes he probably would use a nonlethal method of dispersing them.