Rebels in Greater Equestria

by **Atriark** Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:59 am

Year 5, Jan 4th - Early Morning

The day started out with a small zebra with two tone eye colors sitting on his bed. It was an unusual day for the zebra, as he was thinking about the future, something he rarely let himself do. He always thought about his next move, and hardly nothing more. But for the first time in a long while, he could actually see that in next few hours, he would be outside the city, with an actual purpose other than to flee. And that alone made the runt smile a little bit.

It was the early morning and the small group that had volunteered should be gathering in the section of the underground network they designated as the Briefing room. Atriark would be going there shortly, but first he needed to gather up a certain item from a certain location. If all goes well, he wouldn't be more than a few minutes late.

by The Fear Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:08 am

Fear had woken up, but rather than start his day like normal he decided to meditate of sorts. He's going on along with a few others to explore outside the city limits.
Of course, it was asked of him. His skills as a hunter were an obvious choice, not for the hunting part, but mainly for what he knew about surviving outside cities and towns. His way with traps and makeshift warnings would keep them safe during their sleep, and that was only the simplest aid he could give. He could do more if it was needed.

However, the reason for meditation was not to think about his uses. He was more concerned about travelling with day walkers. Granted he didn't know how they'd travel, but he could safely assume he would have to rely more on his hearing should they travel during the day. So he was mentally preparing himself for that outcome.
Eventually the time came to move to the briefing location, he detached his claws from the ceiling and dropped down to the ground. He took a second to remember then way to go, then remembered he didn't need to. He had prepared beforehand and placed down Shadowglyphs. Efficient.

He was the first to arrive, but decided to stay out of the main room. Taking the directive of relaxing in a dark corner while he waited.

by Harmless Fun Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:59 am

Harmless groaned as he pulled himself from the brick that some would refer to as a bed. He was grateful for the rebel hospitality, but that was about the worst bed he had ever encountered. Harmless chuckled as he though about the trip he was about to embark on. "Sleeping on the ground would be far better than this bed, that's for sure."

Finally sobering up, he gathered up his things and threw his saddle bags on. He made sure to pack a generous supply of alcohol, which took up about a half of what he was carrying. The rest was the essentials, but no luxuries. Harmless had learned how to live without luxuries... apart from actual beds that didn't feel like concrete.

Finally ready, he headed out the door. As he walked towards his destination, he wondered about his company. "Perhaps I'll get lucky for once and get to travel with a full company of mares." He chuckled. As he arrived though, he found nopony there, failing to notice the bat pony in the corner. "Hmm... Did I take a wrong turn?" He murmured, pulling out a flimsy map of the route to the meeting place. The map was a scrawled mess of ink that was hard to decipher. "Dam..." He tore the map in half in his frustration. He remembered being a better drawer than that.

by **Syron** Thu May 01, 2014 6:16 am

Skry woke up after a night of little sleep. Today she was embarking on a tour through the eastern half of Equestria, leaving behind the safetly of the Undercity. She felt she could be of help during this mission, and so she had joined without hesitation when volunteers were called for, but soon after she had realized that she was going into areas she had no information about, and where she had no contacts of her own to fix that beforehand. She realized that she had no clue what might happen during the mission, she was going in blindly. She hadn't even met all of the other members of the expedition. It had been set up in quite a rush, and the volunteers were informed about being accepted the evening before. Though, Skry had figured she'd be chosen. A personal recommendation that Silvern had surely made once she had seen Skry's name on the list had certainly made sure of that. Such was the advantage of being friends with a pony in the Rebellion's High Command. For now hoever, Skry wasn't sure if it really was an advantage. She know nothing of the events ahead, and she knew nearly nothing about the ponies (and the zebra) she was going with. For a mare who relied on knowing the situation and its effects to solve her problems or avoid them in the first place, not having a clue was a rather uncomfortable situation. But it was for a good cause, and not knowing what might happen didn't necessarily mean something bad would happen. Maybe it would go without a hitch, right?

Right... When did not knowing ever do anything good to her?

No way this was going to be easy. But Skry stood with her first decision and didn't intend to back out, especially not only half an hour before the briefing started. Trying to think about something else (and failing), she went through her morning routine, but quickly gave up on taming her mane. She didn't have the spirit to deal with the results of restless sleep. At least she had packed everything the evening before, so she simply picked up her blue travelling cloak (water-repellent, thanks to Silvern Gleam) and saddlebags, threw a last look around her humble abode (actually, not so humble for Undercity standards. Most ponies down here had merely some kind of shack in the central cavern, while she had a small tunnel to herself), mentally wishing it goodby before stepping out and locking the door. That wouldn't really help if somepony wanted to get in there, but at least it was a slight deterrent.

by Silver Lining Thu May 01, 2014 10:31 am

((Played by Syron

Because of her function as member of High Command and the resulting quick interaction with Silver Lining, I'll write for Silvern Gleam under this account as well as my own, depending on what the most fluent to read result would be. To avoid confusion thanks to similar names: "Sil" and "Silvern" refer to Silvern Gleam, "Silver" (without the n at the end) refers to Silver Lining))

~Silver Lining's quarters~

For once Silver Lining actually woke up in the morning. Not to say that she had gone to bed at a reasonable time. Oh no, that was a luxury she didn't have anymore. From what her blaring alarm clock and her memory told her, she had gotten about 3 hours of sleep. Way too short, but she couldn't afford to sleep through the departure of their scouting expedition. Maybe, if she had luck, she could catch a few more hours of sleep afterwards... No, not likely. Until then her assistant certainly had found something else for her to do. Hadn't Silvern said an assistant would take work off her shoulders so she could focus on the more important things? Admittedly, the topics Silver had to deal with were now generally more important than before, but that didn't mean it was less work.

Despite her sleep deprived grogginess and annoyance at the noisy bedside clock, she turned it off gently. Despite everything that happened, years of living in inns and sometimes even less, and now even permanently living in a cave, she still kept holding on to the finer mannerisms she had sported before the war. That also meant not delaying when it was time to get up, and no grumbling about it. Though, when she reached her mirror, she couldn't help but see a rather grumpy version of herself, looking quite the way she felt, with a mane Discord would be proud of. "This won't do", she mumbled and took another look at the clock. She had nearly half an hour until the meeting, enough for a shower. Luckily, that was a luxury she had regained since the diamond dogs had helped with relocating a few water pipes. The water came only in cold, but that was just what Silver needed right now.

When she closed the valve, the water had certainly done the job of waking the earth pony up, but also she was left shivering. Like every time. Hopefully the water would get warmer in the summer. But it had helped to keep the process quick, and she had only lost ten minutes. She was about to dry herself off and fix her mane when she heard somepony knocking at the door. She considered asking for a few minutes, but realizing that she didn't have much time at hoof she settled for wrapping her mane into a towel and draping another one over her back before calling out, "Come in!". It was probably Swift Quill, her assistant.

The assumption was quickly proven false when Silvern Gleam entered, white scarf around her neck and a pair of saddlebags over her back. "Good morning", the blind unicorn said smilingly, but not in a particularly cheery tone. The reason for her presence was the expedition as well. For one, she was providing some magical equipment that required some explanation that she was most qualified to give. The other reason was that a close friend of hers was on the expedition, which was probably why she sounded a bit worried.

"Good Morning, Silvern", the Silver Lining answered more confidently than she actually felt. She moved to her mirror again and released her mane from the towel again to get access with the brush. "How are you doing?"

"Let's just say I was considering saying 'Good evening'", Sil said, losing her smile. "I've spent the night making sure the teleportation works correctly, and I still couldn't make the materialization less violent. On the good side though, I have modified the communicators so that one of them can keep up a connection to Manehatten from anywhere in Equestria and they now support five states instead of only three. I suggest we use the two new ones to send messages to them. 'Come back' and 'Go hiding' come to mind."

Straight to the topic, as usual for the business mare. Silver was fine with that. "Sounds good", she said as she combed her mane. "And don't worry, I'm sure they'll be fine. Those are capable mares and stallions, and they appear to have quite some magical trinkets at their disposal thanks to you." Yes, she was definitely sounding more confident than she was, but that's her job. Even if everything was crumbling, she'd have to make them all believe there was a way out, or else they might find none. Even though she was growing close with Silvern and already calling her a friend, she wouldn't lift her mask of confidence in front of a commander of her Rebellion.

"Skry is worried. If you knew her properly, that would make you worried too." Sil had sat down at Silver's desk, too tired to keep her eyes open as she usually did, despite them not working at all. Seeing with her horn instead, with no need to turn her head to where she's looking, one could think she had fallen asleep if she wasn't talking.

"She isn't backing out, is she?" Silver asked casually, already knowing the answer. Being satisfied with her mane (or as much as she could while it was still drying), she moved the brush to her tail.

"No, though I would like if she did."

Silver shook her head. "If she holds enough confidence to go onto this journey, shouldn't that be a sign for you that everything will be good in the end? If she actually expected a bad outcome, wouldn't she just say so and try to get it called off? That's one of the arguments you've delivered on why she would be of help in the team."

"She doesn't know what to expect. She'll only find out once it's too late to return", Sil tried to explain the source of her worries, but her opponent wasn't having any of it.

"'And when the time comes, she'll also know know how to get out of trouble'", Silver quoted word for word what the yellow unicorn had originally said about her friend. "Really Sil, I'm repeating your arguments to calm you down. Just trust your friend like you did when you recommended her. Unless you want to tell me that she has lost her abilities within the last two days..."

"No, not that I know of", Sil admitted, but it was plain to hear that it didn't really help.

There apparently wasn't much Silver could do or say to help the matter, so she simply finished tidying herself up, and slipped into her usual attire, sweater and trench-coat. "Well, we should go. The meeting begins in a few minutes", she said, receiving a nod from Sil before they left the room.

The walk to the briefing room wasn't long, and the two of them arrived there with still a few minutes to go. "Good Morning Harmless", Silver smilingly greeted the pegasus standing near the entrance upon entering.

"And Fear", Sil added, pointing a hoof at the batpony's corner.

by Harmless Fun Sun May 04, 2014 10:14 am

Harmless jumped a bit when Silver's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Gah! ah... M'am." He saluted both Silver and Silvern, putting on his stony face expression that he had been practicing in the mirror since joining the rebels.

He glanced over at the corner that Silvern indicated to, spotting the spooky pony that was sitting there. What kind of name is Fear? Harmless thought. He then remembered his own ridiculous name.

Harmless and Fear... Is this a rebellion or a circus?

by The Fear Tue May 06, 2014 10:06 am

Fear raised from his corner, now that he had the confirmation of being in the right place and, because the seemingly blind mare easily spotted him in his secluded corner.

"Dobroye utro." Fear said, giving both Silvern and Silver Lining a respectful bow and offered both a hoof-shake.
"I see I was not mistaken on the meeting location, as I am greeted by the admirable Silver Lining and the wise Silvern Gleam." He said as a compliment, and he showed absolutely no sign of worry about being in the presence of an important figure. More than the other pony in the room could say. Harmless' body language screamed that he was worried about putting on a bad impression.

by Silver Lining Mon May 12, 2014 9:31 am

"At ease, Harmless", Silver quickly said, following the pegasus' salute. She still wasn't used to the constant saluting she received, primarily because she felt herself to be more a civil commander instead of a military one. It was awkward in a way, but of course she didn't let that show. She had tried to get ponies to drop the saluting, but after Prism, her friend and the one actually taking care of most military aspects, had started saluting and calling her "ma'am" as well, she had given up on that.

The flowery greeting of the Batpony wasn't much better though. She wasn't entirely sure if the over-politeness was meant sincerely or if he was just trying to ingratiate himself, but she had a feeling it was the latter. Fear definitely was the most disputed member of the expedition, seeing as he has first made contact with the rebellion in employment of one of the most rotten griffons known, and that was still quite recently. His skills were valuable, but of his loyalty they couldn't be completely sure. He was a mercenary more than anything else. Still, he seemed to favor the Rebellion over the Griffons, which eventually got him into the team, if only barely. But also to him, Silver only showed a confident smile. "So, how are the two of you? Not too nervous, I hope", she said, slightly smirking, with a side glance at Sil.

The blind mare of course didn't notice and simply continued heaving her saddlebags off her back, not using her magic to do so. She had simply returned the greetings with a respectful nod to each of them, and was intent to go over the equipment again, making sure she hadn't forgotten something. However, only moments after setting down the bags, she turned to face the entry, having noticed a certain zebra approaching.

by **Atriark** Thu May 15, 2014 2:29 am

Atriark was trotting through the corridors of the base, whistling a soft tune to himself. It had taken longer than he expected to retrieve what he had set out to get, but now he was eager to get out of the city and on with his mission in Equestria. It took him but a short while to get to the meeting room where everypony else was.

"Ah yes yes, thank you for meeting me here. I apologize for my delay, but I assure you that there shouldn't be any more." He turned to Silver Lining. "Ma'am," he greeted.

by The Fear Fri May 16, 2014 5:10 pm

Fear examined Silver's reaction, easy to see for him. It could be assumed she received his greeting differently then he intended, but it was no matter. He took more concern on her question.
"Nervous? Ah, a mild form of fear. So mild it can be easily overcome by even the weakest minds." He replied with a smile of his own. He saw the approaching zebra, and drew most of his attention to his claws. Checking that they remained secure and if they needed any attention, but he did decide to actually answer Silver's question, in an attempt to be polite.
"Oh yes, your question, Izvinitye! I find myself excited, believe it or not. Returning to the world outside the city once again is always a welcome sight."

by Harmless Fun Sat May 17, 2014 7:39 am

Harmless dropped his salute, it was more a habit than anything else. Harmless was more nervous about his new companion than the whole trip. The way he talked and just sat there being creepy gave Harmless no confidence whatsoever. Must be a bat pony thing.

"No." He finally replied to Silver's question. He thought that might have sounded a bit rude, but Harmless could just blame it on being sober.

When he spotted the zebra, he was slightly disappointed. He heard that zebras rhyme all the time. Still, now all their little expedition needs is a buffalo, a donkey, a changeling and a griffon to be complete.

by Silver Lining Sat May 17, 2014 9:56 am

"Good morning, Atriark", Silver greeted the leader of the expedition, while Sil merely gave him a simple nod before focusing on the contents of her saddlebags again. which basically meant that she was sitting next to them without moving much. The zebra was the one who suggested it in the first place, and he seemed capable of leading such a small group, so that particular decision had been quite easy. And he seemed to be in rather good spirits, a good sign. "Don't worry, you haven't delayed anything, there's still a minute left. And you're not the last one either, there's still two more we're waiting for."

"Actually, one's already coming", Silvern added, interrupting her equipment check once again to let her sight follow the pony she had identified in the tunnel outside, as well as her company, two ponies carrying something on their backs. "Along with what appears to be breakfast."

"Ah, yes. I've ordered some food to be brought here", Silver confirmed the guess. "It simply won't do to send this expedition off with empty stomachs."

As predicted, a few seconds later three ponies entered, two of them carrying trays with apple juice, bread and different kinds of spread. They simply placed their load on the only table in the room (though one threw a suspicious look at Fear) and left again, receiving thanks from Silver.

by **Syron** Sat May 17, 2014 9:56 am

"Hello Skry", Silvern greeted her friend as soon as she entered the room, causing the green unicorn to look at her for a moment, only to see the expected. Though she tried not to make it too obvious, Silvern was definitely worried. They had already talked about it, and there wasn't anything new to say about it, so Skry just turned to the others again.

"Morning everybody", she said as she looked at each of her future companions. The Zebra she already knew to be Atriark. Her first guess was that he seemed confident enough to do his job, so she didn't linger on him for long. The pegasus was more interesting, but mostly because he was eying the batpony a bit. He was a bit uncomfortable with the company, but that might not hold for long once they got to know each other. That is, if the batpony turned out to be alright. Interestingly enough, Silver Lining also seemed to be slightly wary of him, even if her mask was almost too perfect for even Skry to look through. When her eyes fell on the subject of the suspicion, they stuck. She slowly stepped towards him, drawing in the way he stood, the way he was reacting to her staring, every little muscle twitch. She wasn't sure what to think of him... He did seem a little creepy, but that was in the nature of most thestrals, Skry figured. "So, you're the reason why there's ham with the breakfast", she said without judgement when she was only a pony's length away from him. "May I ask what your reasons for being here are?"

by The Fear Sat May 17, 2014 11:25 am

Fear didn't move a muscle as Skry approached him, it was within his abilities to remain completely still. It allowed him to blend in during a hunt. All Skry received was a curious stare from Fear, until she spoke to him, then his expression changed to his usual calm one.
He was used to getting strange looks from everyone around him, but her's reminded him of the same kind of attention he would give to his prey, to detect if they were nervous or calm, fearful or happy. This information is very useful in simple conversations as well, though he didn't talk with others very often.

After a few seconds, he replied to her question. "Priyatno poznakomit'sya." He said with a respectful nod.
"I have no significant reason for being here, Miss. My skills as a Hunter do have their own benefits to this mission. And..." He tapped his snout . "The smell of this city is quite undesirable." He said with a grin, keeping direct eye contact with Skry. "If you wish it to be put simply, I was bored." Which was no lie, the city did not produce much enjoyment for him. The jobs he was given were hardly worth the time except for the last couple he received. The inhabitants were more than willing to try and steal from him because he looked different, though that was more of a slight irritance once he simply looked at them and they ran away. And it did, in fact, smell bad. Outside the cities smelled far more refreshing, especially in forests. His favourite place to spend his time.

His only other motive was to keep his end of the deal he made when he was in a cell. They allowed him to remain underground without bother, and despite what most would think, he deemed it safe. And for something as simple as that, they had his respect.

by Dawn Star Mon May 19, 2014 2:54 am

Dawn Star ended up coming in tarty to the meeting she was determined to make it on time but ever sense she awoke time has not been on her side today for some odd reason.Upon her arrival she Stoped at the door that lead to the meeting room she sighed Sliver is not going be happy about this Then she took a deep breath and walked in.

by **Atriark** Mon May 26, 2014 10:01 pm

Atriark grabbed one of the bottles of apple juice and then looked over the ponies in the room with him. He opened his mouth to speak, and the door opened, a blue pegasus with a golden and red mane enter the room. A rather attractive mare if Atriark had to admit.

"Well now that everypony is here," the small zebra announced. "Why don't we get this started so we can carry out our mission."

by Harmless Fun Thu May 29, 2014 12:23 am

Harmless decided to quietly listen to what the zebra had to say; although, he was silently thankful that there were at least a couple of normal ponies on this trip. He still didn't trust that "Fear' thing but at least he had some backup... or at least somepony to talk to.

by Dawn Star Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:40 am

Dawn despite her tardiness was a bit clueless to what was going to happen on this mission and who was going with her ..well she already figured that everypony that was in the room was going to accompany her never the less she listened to the zebra's briefing to in hopes to answer her questions.

by **Syron** Mon Jun 09, 2014 11:02 am

Skry regarded Fear for a few seconds longer, ignoring the new pony entering. "Typical mercenary", she concluded her assessment with an unsatisfied scowl. "I hope your payment is good enough then. I'll keep my eyes on you."

Finally she turned to face the door, and quickly recognized the blue pegasus. They haven't met before, but that wasn't really a requirement for Skry to know somepony. "Lieutenant", she said with a respectful nod, and procceeded to get herself a sandwich, eyeing the ham that had been delivered for Fear with slight disgust before concentrating on the briefing that was about to begin.

by Silver Lining Mon Jun 09, 2014 1:06 pm

Sil and Silver both kept their attention on Skry and Fear, and once Skry had spoken her verdict they both found their doubts about Fear rising. He had been seemingly satisfied with what he got for helping, but of course it could always happen that he received a better offer.

"If he's going to betray them, Skry will know early enough", Sil whispered to Silver, who nodded slowly.

"Let's hope you're right", she whispered back, and finally greeted the newcomer. "Good morning, Lieutenant Dawn Star", she said smilingly, and then nodded to Atriark. "Yes, let's begin.

"As you all already know, the primary goal for this expedition to scout out the situation throughout Equestria. We can't stick to Manehatten forever, but we can't reasonably expand without knowing what we're expanding into. We need to know where we can gain a safe hold, and where our help is needed most. One group is very little for all of Equestria, but unfortunately we're still low on numbers, so we can't expend more. For this reason, your journey will only cover the eastern half of Equestria - the half nearer to us - and you'll return to Manehatten for an interim report and a vacation.

"But since most of you don't know each other, let's go over introductions first." She did as she said, pointing a hoof at the team members as she introduced them. "Atriark first suggested this expedition and helped in the planning. He'll be your medic, and more importantly your leader in everything but combat. In battle, Lieutenant Dawn Star will take command, due to superior experience and training. Combat isn't your objective and is to be avoided if at all possible, but it might be inevitable, so stay prepared. Harmless Fun is on the team for the same reason. He was one of my personal guards until now, and I'm glad to say that his name does not reflect his ability. Skry has a talent in intelligence gathering, which already sufficiently explains her presence here. Since she's also the only unicorn in the team, she'll be handling your magical needs." "And finally, Fear is an expert in infiltration and traps. I'm sure he'll be able to make your hideouts a bit more secure and harder to discover. Though I'll admit that he and the rebellion started on the wrong hoof, he has pledged his loyalty to us and got our trust.

"We'll go over the mission details in a moment, but are there any questions so far?" she ended, looking expectantly at the group.

by The Fear Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:38 pm

Fear smirked at Skry when she called him a 'Typical Mercenary'. He found it amusing, he was never good with introductions so it's no surprise to him that his joke got the wrong reaction.
He left it as it was though, he didn't want to explain anything.

He took the food that was offered, and ate as he listened. He did in fact, have a question. "Da, I have one." He said as he looked at Skry with a blank expression."What kind of... tactic, do you use to find out what you wish to know?" He asked with a genuine tone of interest.
"Forgive me for asking, but your gaze fell upon me with much similarities to my own trained eye. I could not help but notice it, not everyone has such attention to detail, unicorn or not."

by **Syron** Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:36 am

"If you already noticed, then why are you asking?" Skry asked back, but quickly answered the question herself. "Of course, you like to blow up your speech to sound classy, which actually leaves a dent in your attempt to be friendly. It sounds as if you want to hide yourself behind a polite facade, and I have a good guess just what you want to hide and for what reason. I have yet to figure out if it's going to cause trouble, but be assured that I'll get to it in time." She took a bite from her sandwich, and finally answered Fear's original question. "No behavior is without reason. I can read more from a pony passing by than most can gain from five minutes of conversation. As you said, it's just a matter of keeping your eyes and ears open, and knowing what to look for. Though you'll have to learn to look deeper than you're used to."

by **Atriark** Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:15 pm

Atriark watched the conversation going on, deeply confused as to what they were talking about.

by Silver Lining Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:51 am

"Well, I believe you'll have more than enough time to get to know and learn from each other on the way. If there are no pressing matters, let's move on", Silver continued when nothing else was asked.

"The first part of your journey will take you up to the Crystal Empire, which will be your first priority target. That doesn't mean that you're supposed to rush there as fast as possible. Visit as many settlements as possible, and maybe even stay for some time if you notice something of interest. Remember: We want to get a good overview, not only a few specialized samples.

"Once you are in the Crystal Empire, there's a more specific task for you: Where is the crystal heart, and do we have a chance of using it to our advantage?"

At this point, Silvern Gleam took over for a moment, magical artifacts being her domain. "From what we know about it, it's very unlikely that we can use it anytime soon. The Heart needs to be placed right in the center of the city, and more importantly, without the crystal ponies being in a sufficiently good mood, we would only drop another problem on Equestria. Secure the Heart if you can do so without unreasonable risk, but do not attempt to activate it." With a nod she gave the word back to Silver.

"To have any chance to be using it effectively in the future, we have to get in reach of the Empire, so you should look for a suitable outpost in the mountains surrounding it. It's rather cold there, but also easy to hide.

"Should there already be some form of underground movement for our cause, establishing contact will be essential. Finding them might be difficult, if they even exists, but I can give you a few names of ponies who I imagine would involve themselves. Most of them I haven't spoken with in years, and accordingly I'm not sure if they're even still alive, but if they are, they're likely to help you out.

"Anything you want to add before we go to equipment?" she finished, looking at Sil.

"No. Except maybe 'take bucking care not to be found out', but I hope that's already clear enough", the mare said, her blind stare falling specifically on Skry.

"Then again: any questions?"

((I'll continue on Monday if no questions come in))

by Harmless Fun Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:05 pm

Harmless remained silent for a second before raising his hoof. "I've got one. I mean no offence to our bat pony companion here, but wouldn't we be a bit more inconspicuous if we didn't bring him along? Even if he did cover up his wings and eyes and whatever bat pony appendages he has, he's not exactly... friendly." Harmless looked over at Fear, just to make sure he wasn't going to end up like that piece of breakfast he had there.

"In fact, why are we going as a group anyway? Unless we are pretending to be a bunch of traveling performers or something, we would get spotted out immediately. Shouldn't we... split up and maybe meet there? The Crystal empire that is."

by Silver Lining Fri Jul 04, 2014 8:11 am

"We leave the decision up to you", Silver answered. "While you're together, you have better chances in case of a fight, you'll be able to teleport to safety" - Skry lifted a curious brow as Silver's hoof pointed at her before wandering off to Atriark - "and you have a a skilled medic to treat your injuries. You're certainly right that a group causes more attention, and by splitting up you could cover more ground more quickly, but you'd only have your own abilities to help you. It's a risk either way.

"In any case I suggest that you mostly travel at night as long as you don't have another cover. Being alone doesn't necessarily mean that patrols don't start asking questions if they see you, and though questions alone are not the worst that could happen, it's a rather large risk, especially if you're carrying a weapon. You all know how much griffons like armed ponies. Think well about what you take with you, since you must be able to hide on your body."

Silvern Gleam stepped forward, having pulled four folded cloaks, all blue in color, from her saddlebags, and placed them on the table. Skry was already wearing hers. "These should hopefully help you with that. They're relatively wide cut, and I've enchanted them to keep out most of the weather, so they're useful beyond hiding what you're wearing beneath. As long as your not going swimming, you should be able to stay dry.

In case that you split up but don't go too far apart, you might want to communicate with each other. For that purpose..." This time she took out a small puch, and emptied its content on the table: Five white, uncut stones. "The stones are all connected to each other in a way that makes sure they share the same color. If one changes" - she tapped one of them two times with her hoof, and it went from white to green, instantly followed by the others - "the others change as well. Just tap them one to five times, or in Skry's case, send pulses through it. Tapping them once will always set them to white. The other colors in order are green, blue, yellow and red. Or at least that's what my assistant told me, since I'm not exactly one to accurately determine colors. They should stay connected while you're all in the same city, but I can't guarantee much beyond that." She seperated on of the stones from the others and continued. "Only this one can keep a connection over a much longer distance, and this connection is fixed to a counterpart in my possession. It needs more power, and should be carried by Skry, otherwise it might lose its connection to Manehatten. The last two colors are reserved for warnings that we might want to send you. If your stones turn yellow, come back to Manehatten. If they turn red, and I certainly hope it doesn't come to that, stay away from Manehatten and hide. The other colors are for you to define as you see fit. It's a very limited form of communication, but very useful as signal.

"Lastly, the teleport Silver already mentioned." This time it was an uncut, colorless gem with a soft white glow emmiting from inside. "Skry, this will be for you to handle. It has two triggers, one high powered, one low powered. The low powered one sets wherever you currently are as destination. The high powered one will then attempt to teleport you there, and absolutely everything else within 2 meters distance. It stores some energy for spell construction, but you'll need to pay for the distance. Don't use it while magically exhausted, or you'll and up somewhere in between, most likely unconscious on top of that. To my embarrassment, it also creates an explosion upon materialization. But the alternative would have been not to clear the area beforehoof, in which case one of you might accidentally appear halfway fused into a wall. Whatever you choose as destination, make sure it can withstand the explosion. Ideally, there's nothing but air in the way, in which case the blow will be quite soft.

"That's about it for special equipment", Sil concluded. "Food, money and so on will of course be provided, as well as weapons and tools. We'll stop by the armory on the way outside. They already have everything ready there and can quickly add to it according to your needs."

((Detailed artifact descriptions))

by The Fear Fri Jul 04, 2014 8:20 am

"I see..." Fear said with slight worry in mind, a combination of the Skry's confidence at figuring him out and not knowing how she will be able to do so.
Regardless, he remained emotionless as the details of the items that were being given to him were being told.

by **Syron** Fri Jul 04, 2014 8:54 am

Skry listened carefully (as she always did), and couldn't help to be surprised at the teleport artifact. "It explodes, really? Sil, are you sure this is your work? It's unusually sloppy for you."

"It's even worse", Sil answered, clearly embarrassed by the poor quality of her work. "The spell matrix isn't even stable, only almost. The deterioration is slow, but you'll probably notice it after the first few uses."

The sloppiest work she has ever done, Skry thought. "Only for emergencies then. Let me guess, you stayed up all night, and probably also the night before, to try and fix this."

"Yes. Two days ago it tried to materialize everything in an area the size of an orange, and that was only one of the minor problems. Unfortunately I don't have any more time to fix everything, but as long as you use it sparsely you shouldn't have trouble."

"We'll manage", Skry said and stored the two artifacts she was supposed to carry in her saddlebags. "I presume I'll have to deal with an exponential increase in required energy over distance?"

"Yes. You should be easily able to teleport across two miles, but be careful above that. You know how magic fatigue is like."

by Harmless Fun Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:26 am

Harmless shrugged. "I'll just do whatever everypony else decides."

After the presentation, Harmless took a tentative step forward and reached for one of the communication gems. "These don't explode, do they?" He poked it half expecting to be shocked. He was pleased when it turned white instead. "Right... that's cool, I guess."

Harmless looked at the magical cloaks. "Are those pegasus friendly?" he asked, motioning towards the cloaks.

by The Fear Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:42 pm

Fear let out a sigh, "Teleportation, chyort..." he said, clearly sounding upset with the fact that it may come to teleporting around.

"I think we should remain together. My time outside cities has shown me there are still those who choose to steal from travellers. Bandits, to put it simply, still show some kind of activity. Though never really in large groups, our numbers may keep them away." He said, to show his side on the way the group will travel.

by **Atriark** Sat Aug 09, 2014 1:33 pm

Atriark was surprised he and the ponies accompanying him were getting special equipment. Last he had been told was that they were going with only the bare essentials. Sometime between when the zebra first was informed of the mission and now, the scouting mission was moved up on the priority list and now they had special equipment. Needless to say, Atriark was not going to complain.

"Leaving Manehattan in a group may cause suspicion, but traveling in a group shouldn't. But as it is," Atriark began, rising from where he sat while listening to Silvern, "let's gear up and get out of here. We've sat around chatting long enough."

by Silver Lining Sun Aug 10, 2014 6:56 am

"Three of them are, though I can't guarantee that they are very aerodynamic", Sil answered Harmless' question about the cloaks. "And no, apart from the teleporter, nothing is going to explode here. If you teleport into free space, you probably won't even notice the explosion."

After everybody had taken their cloak and comm-stone, Silver took charge again. "Atriark is right about leaving Manehatten causing suspicion. That's why the first part of your journey will be underground. We have a tunnel leading west towards Hollow Shades. It's still under construction, but it reaches the woods already and has a well hidden exit. But before you go that way, this was only magical equipment. We'll go by the armory to pick up whatever else you might need, including food and additional weapons if you wish." With that she began leading the group out of the briefing room.

The armory was only one corner away, and they were already expected. A gray, well aged earth pony shortly saluted to Silver, before mustering the group, and especially the saddlebags some of them were already carrying. "Ah, well, seems we have to repack a little. What do you already have in these?" he asked, pointing at the bags.

by Harmless Fun Sun Aug 24, 2014 12:23 pm

Harmless followed the group without saying anything more. He was rather content to know that he won't be blown up any time soon.

After reaching the armory and being greeted by the old stallion, Harmless dropped his bags on the floor and opened them up, pulling out a bottle of Whiskey. "Only the essentials." He said, pulling out another bottle of Whiskey. After pulling out four bottles, he retrieved a dagger from somewhere at the bottom of the bag. "That's one bag." Opening the other bag, he pulled out a bag of marshmallows. "Only the essentials..." He murmured. The rest of that bag was filled with various food items.

by The Fear Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:41 pm

Fear followed the group in silence. The only bag he was carrying contained ammunition, his crossbow and knife were on his harness. He did take interest in the bag of bottles Harmless was taking. "So you had planned on taking alcohol on this trip? Ti spyatil?" Fear said to Harmless as he unpacked the second bag. Harmless may as well have been asking to be robbed by bandits, if not because he drank it, it'd be because the bandits would want too instead.

He eventually replied to the armourer, "I have only the ammunition I require and my blade, comrade."

by Silver Lining Sat Aug 30, 2014 5:05 am

The moment Harmless began pulling out whiskey bottles, Silver Lining could only watch with anger and disappointment. It looked more like he was going to a party rather than a long recon mission. "Harmless... Would you please explain to me why you thought it a good idea to take whiskey with you? Not to mention a whole bag?"

Silvern said nothing, besides murmuring to herself. "And here I thought he had just packed a lot to drink."

by Harmless Fun Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:59 am

Harmless bit his lip. He knew he was standing on the tip of the iceberg with this. "Well... better to look a drunken fool than a well equipped soldier. Besides, I've got plenty of rations in me other bag... And I've got plenty of places to hide sharp objects." Harmless also enjoyed drinking but he left that out of the argument.

by Dawn Star Fri Sep 19, 2014 5:04 pm

Dawn Star was also disappointed at the so called team she had "These are the ponies that I will be covering my back ?" she mumbled quietly to herself while packing her bags glancing over to each of the members of group members then she sighed "may the sisters have mercy on us" she continued preparing herself for the trip

while glancing around her eyes fixed on harmless and his whiskey bottles and then heard his words which made her speak out "You know you say as if it was a joke but I knew a solider his name was thunder wing ..he drank every time he went out to battle ,He was a great solider really social,Extremely funny you would like him he was good at what he did ...but unfortunately ..he's wasn't paying attention one night and ..lets just say he is a part of the earth now..every last bit of him." She then stood up to harmless "If you bring that along your just asking for your own grave site."

by **Atriark** Mon Oct 06, 2014 6:34 am

"Harmless," Atriark began, finally speaking. "If you start to slow us down, I'll personally dump your bottles of whiskey into the nearest river." He turned to the earth pony and addressed him. "I'll need a spear and a dagger, and a few straps of leather. If they have buckles, that would be great. Not sure what everyone else would need."

(Guys, I do apologize for the lack of updates. It is entirely my own fault and I hope that it doesn't happen again.)

by Silver Lining Thu Oct 30, 2014 12:45 pm

"You won't need to dump them, because those bottles will stay right here. They might even be useful in case we run out of disinfectant again", Silver Lining said, looking disapprovingly at the offending pegasus. "Speaking of which," she continued and turned to Atriark. "I trust that you've got your medical supplies covered? If not, I suggest we add that to the packing list. We might not have much, but it still should be possible to find enough spare for only five ponies."

by **Syron** Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:49 pm

Skry paid attention as the others reprimanded Harmless for his questionable luggage, feeling no need to say something when the conversation was going on its own. And as long as there was conversation, Skry was sure she could pick up some information in the process. Meanwhile she led another conversation with the armorer. "I have my noteook, writing supplies, and lots of free space in those bags. As for what I still need, that's for you to determine."

The earth pony nodded, but looked at her with a critical eye. "What about weapons?"

"Figured," she whispered to herself before answering. "I'm not much of a fighter, and would need to learn every weapon from the ground up. If you think it's safe to give me a weapon, you have to decide what would be best."

He didn't give it much of a thought. "Lieutnant Dawn Star," he said as he turned to the pegasus mare, "since training will likely fall into your hooves, I leave the choice up to you."

by Harmless Fun Fri Nov 07, 2014 11:40 am

Harmless closed his eyes and took a deep breath before responding with an emotionless "Fine." He left the four bottles of Whiskey on the floor but put everything else in his pack. He was pretty pissed off that Silver was taking four bottles worth of bits off him, but he used his training to appear as an emotionless rock on the outside which hid his anger fairly well.

Ignoring the rest of his comrades, Harmless turned his attention to the old pony. "Give me something to sharpen my blade. Other than that I require nothing."

by Dawn Star Mon Dec 08, 2014 10:28 am

Dawn glanced up at the earth pony Stallion as soon as he said her name tasking her to think of a weapon if any for her in experienced Allie Skry "no weapon experience..." Dawn frowned then sighed as she stood up "Normally I wouldn't recommend any weapon to somepony that has never been properly trained." She said in a disappointing tone while thinking "but..these are ..hard times ..so she does need to learn how to defend herself aswell as others...I recommend something simple..perhaps small but deadly ...easy to use........perhaps a small sword."

by **Atriark** Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:28 am

Atriark rubbed his forehead as Silver Lining took the bottles of alcohol away from Harmless. He could understand why she did it, but he kept his mouth shut regardless. There wasn't much he could do, other than slip a bottle into his saddle bag on their way out of the base. But that wasn't likely as he wasn't sure how the old pegasus would act as a drunkard, and didn't want to risk the mission.

"Yes ma'am. I have the medical supplies covered already. Should anything short of a dragon attack befall us, I would have it covered," he responded.

by Scrapper Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:44 am

[As Fear]

"Ah, yes, a sword. I would not recommend any bladed weapon to an untrained fighter." He said calmly, and in thought.

"You see, edge alignment is important for swords. Otherwise they, would not do their job correctly. The easiest weapon for any beginner would be a spear, or perhaps a crossbow. Both help keep distance with any foes." Fear said again, looking at Skry.

"Hm, it is your choice. Those are the weapons I'd consider to be very beginner friendly. Everybody knows how to thrust a stick by instinct, after all." Fear said, to finish up his small lecture.

by **Syron** Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:05 am

"Conceiling a spear would be difficult. A crossbow bears too much risk of missing and hitting a friend. A sword it is," the earth pony concluded. Skry sighed in prospect of carrying (and likely using) a weapon, but didn't object. The armorer pointed at the luggage he had packed beforehoof. "These bags contain your provisions and general equipment, distribute it among your bags as you see fit. I'll go fetch your requests." He turned to go, but hesitated as he recalled what he had to bring. He turned to Atriark. "Actually, the same argument goes for you. How do you want to conceal a spear?"

by **Atriark** Thu Dec 11, 2014 3:29 am

Atriark paused a moment to actually consider this. He hadn't really been thinking about hiding a weapon when he first asked for a spear, so now that it was brought up he was thinking about it a Spear would not be the best option. "Get me a Crossbow instead then, a small one. I'm fairly good with my hooves for close range if I need it."

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