Dungeon Trotter: Tunnels and Triapses (PRIVATE)

[Tisis Antony]

((( This thread will be GMed to the tune of "Through the Fire and the Flames", by Dragonforce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaSYvvfzYaE

Tisis Antony as GM )))

The distant sound of water drops echoed through the cave. The chamber, lit through the efforts of little crystals lining the walls, had been closed in behind it by the sudden and totally unexpected collapse of the ceiling.

The cave was hewn from stone, and the crystals were inlaid in its walls. Although it was dark, there was enough light here to see the cause of the collapse- a loose strut had given under from stresses, and now sat buried under several cubic tons of stone and dirt.

Lance carried all his belongings with him, but had barely avoided being crushed. A bit of dust and soot covered him.

(((I thought I'd make a bit of a map for you so that we could have some fun with this ^^ )))

[Lance]

Lance couldn't help but wonder where that music was coming from, awesome as it was. as the cave collapsed just barely behind him, he noticed that the music got all faster paced, and if he knew anything about music matching a dramatic scene, he knew he was going to have fun. and with that, he decided to "roll with it." Picking up the pace and breaking into a forward gallop, Lance darted straight ahead.

Only now, did he bother to think sensibly. "Ok, so, I'm caved in... covered in dirt, and gonna have to find a new way back. Brilliant." Lance checked over his shoulders, making sure his saddle-bag is still strapped to his side. eyup. "got food and drink... got my sticky notes... got my conjurations, I'm all set, and ready to... Go~" *SLAM*
Scintillance finally turned his head to the direction he was running in., and rammed straight into a wall, knocking him back onto his rear. somewhat disoriented. "...Is it fibsday already~" said he, through derp-ed eyes. shaking his head briskly, Scintillance regained his senses, and looked both ways. he decided to go right, because the right direction is always right. right? right.

yeah... right...

[Tisis Antony]

The wall was a bit perturbed by the sudden slam. It had feeling too, you know, and didn't quite like being slammed into. Unfortunately, it was just a wall, and was unable to voice its feelings in any way cognizant to perception.

Instead it watched as Scintillance went right, down a winding path of stone and corridors.

Scintillance approached a darkness, an inky threshold of nothingness before him. The lights didn't reach this far, and if he'd want to continue, he'd likely need to find a way to light the way.

(((I'll do the map when the room is lit, otherwise it'd be cheating :P )))

[Lance]

Something told Scintillance that he was absolutely regret lighting the darkness while he was in it. for all he knew, he would wake up an army of zomponies, and he'd be standing right in the middle of it. Lance trotted back to where he could still see the cave well enough, and closed his eyes.

It took no less than ten seconds for Scintillance to conjure his Martyr; a long, large, and powerful weapon Lance would always use, yet only as strong as he could hold and will it. Luckily, that meant a long time, for he's practiced the spell for years. well, four years. ((see what I did there? AWWWWW YEEE-))

Other than being a weapon, the Martyr glows bright, being formed of telekinetically held and compressed light. it would illuminate his surroundings, though not as much as his light orb, but his gut feeling (and that kick-flank background music) told him he'd rather a weapon right now, rather than a floating light bulb.

Scintillance made his way back into the darkness, grinning as the once persistant shadows from from his Radiance.

[Tisis Antony]

((( Sorry for taking so long to post, I had to get EXECUTIVE APPROVAL to make some very special things for you to find. BWAHAHAHAHAHA )))

The music stopped, as if realizing that it was just TOO DAMN COOL for this situation. Something a little smoother, and more ambiguous started playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2uTH0wJRU

As if in some terrible universe, some immature child of a roleplayer had inserted a pun into their paragraph in the same breath as a meme, the lights illuminated the room to show nothing of consequence. The cave walls had stopped abruptly, and stone bricks lined the room's edges, indicating that somehow, Scint had exited the caves and entered... something else? It was unclear at this moment, but he would soon find out.

A lone pony skeleton lay repose on a collapsed roof-stone. It gripped a lantern in its bony hoof. The bones themselves looked as if something had been... chipping at them...

The room had two exits both blanketed in darkness.

((( Sorry for no map, its more time consuming then I had first thought! )))

[Lance]

Scintillance certianly noticed the change in music. Kinda creeped him out a little, but that barely bothered him. No, a more pressing matter was a-hoof: the epicly awesome music was gone. "DARNIT!" but, he'd have to brush those problems aside, because a slightly less, but still somewhat significantly important issue made itself noticable.

Scintillance trotted closer to the skeleton. Lance had a list of three things that he personally feared beyond reason: dead stuff, biological mutant-beings, and the effects of mushrooms. this skeleton... was most likely dead. he hoped. but the music wasn't helping that thought. so he calmed swung his Martyr in his most elegantly well-collected way possible.

"HAVE AT THEE FOUL DEMON OF THE UNDEAD!" said he, as he repeatedly swung his weapon to and fro at the hopefully dead pile of bones. When he was finished, he made his way down one of the tunnels, barely bothering to check which way he was going, anymore.

Realizing that he forgot something, he trotted backwards, back into the room, and finally payed heed to the bricked walls. a brief "huh." was voiced, and he returned down the tunnel.

[Tisis Antony]

The path stretched on endlessly, not winding nor curving, just moving in a straight direction and occasionally switching directions at little junctions.

It filed along seemingly forever, for what seemed like miles, until it cam to an abrupt stop over the edge of what appeared to be a cliff.

The room that Scint faced might have been a room, but its vast size in all directions gobbled up all the light from his conjuration. Nothing could be said for its size, depth, or even how low the floor was from where Scint was at.

A far-off buzzing sound was barely audible over the sound of water dripping.

[Lance]

the buzzing sound certainly attracted his curiosity. Scintillance sighed, as he nulled out his conjured weapon of light, welcoming the darkness that surrounded him.

Only recently had Scintillance learned, that sometimes, the best light in the dark, is darkness itself. He wasn't too happy with the theory, nor did he like that it worked, but unfortunately, he be better off to try it. "The darkness is only scary, to those standing in the light..." Lance audibly reminded himself, and he waited as his eyes slowly got used to the dark, and hopefully revealed to him more of the room than his weapon did. maybe he would've rather forced a light-flash... bu that would definitely attract anything dangerous.

[Tisis Antony]

As the lights dulled, the darkness closed in on Scintillance. Whatever was causing the buzzing stopped, and the sound of a gentle water flow became audible. Tiny little thuds sounded off all around Scint, and as his eyes adjusted to the extremely low light, he could see movement all around him. What was moving, he couldn't tell, but it was moving, that much was sure.

And whatever it was, it was tiny. The outline was roughly the size of a pear, and they bounced about in the darkness like bats or some such creature.

Something began nipping at Scint's heels.

[Lance]

Scintillance mustered the stallion-est scream a little filly could possibly exert, and quickly lifted a hind hood, bringing it right down hard on whatever got to his heel-hoof. On reflex, he conjured out his Aegis -a shield-like conjuration- and illuminated what small area around him could hold.

[Tisis Antony]

The small area Scint stood in was surrounded on all sides by a thick, furry black wall of flying creatures. Each had a pair of beady, insect eyes fixating on the glow of Scint's Aegis.

They hovered there, in a buzz, fluttering in the dimly lit area. Not moving, just hovering.

They had been hypnotized by the light. The sound of shouting in the distance reverberate off the walls around scint, though WHO was shouting was indistinct.

[Lance]

Scintillance was on the verge of a complete FREAK OUT. nah, he's fine. (Freaking-out, Insicure, Neurotic, and Emotional.) but after waving his Martyr around a little, he noticed that these bug-eyed bellends were hypnotized. Because their eyes followed the glow around and they stopped. and not because some merciful GM out there with a pretty good taste in dungeoneering music decided to make it so.

upon hearing the scream, Lances own instinct took over. another's needs before my own, though I am the shield before them. Scintillance hoped that these buggies would remain calm for as long as his martyr kept their hypnotized glare, and he rushed down over to the source of the scream.

[Tisis Antony]

The shouting came from a peculiar unicorn in tattered attire. She came running up from a grotto below, beaming a bright light from her horn that seemed to attract more of the flying bat-bugs.

She came running up to Scint, wheezing low on breath. "Don't- *gasp* -stop- *gasp*- whateveritisthatyourdoingrightnow-"

The buzz of the Ingling rose to a roar as more of them accumulated in the area. The mare took her time to catch her breath, and seemed to teeter about like she was on the verge of collapse.

[Lance]

Lance took a moment to think fast: the mare was running away from the creatures, so wherever she came from, that's no way to go. Lance was already blockaded from his direction...

Scintillance picked the mare up and set her to lie on his back, as he thought how long his hypnotizing light spell could last. this was his most often used spell, and casting it was near-effortless to him. same goes for maintaining it... but how long could he really keep the spell going without a break? he didn't know. "And it looks like I'm going to have to find out..." he thought aloud, and then realized he just thought aloud. the safety of an unknown mare now rested on his hooves. well, his back. quite literally rested on his back. Oh yeah, his own fate is kinda hanging in the balance too.

Seeing figured that going down in the direction of the grotto would only take him deeper and farther into the underground. Lance noticed two paths to his left, and thought he'd want to try those instead. With a new weight on his back, and a new wave of bug-things around him, Lance hoofed his way towards the first path.

((that would be ROOM B ^^ ))

[Tisis Antony]

The Inglings followed the illumination in a daze. The mare that Scint had picked up waved her arms about and hollered, apparently unaccustomed to the practice of being placed on someone's back.

The room that Scint entered was a hollowed out gem that reflected his illumination in many directions. Other than its construction it was a dead end. The mare hopped off and tried to run back whence she came, but the Inglings formed a fuzzy, immovable wall blocking her.

"Now why did you go and do that for!" she yelled at Scint, apparantly slightly upset about being carried against her will.

[Lance]

"well, you were kinda pooped out and I figured standing still wouldn't do us much good. my light won't last forever, and it looks like it's the reason those... things aren't attacking."

Scintillance realized that the walls were reflecting his light, and decided to dissolve most of his martyr. the spell would become less exhausting, but the mirror-like walls should make up for the lost light. since it looked like Lance would have an inevitable conversation, he sat down, doing as much as he can to drain as little of his reserves as possible. sitting probably really didn't do much, but it saves... some teensy bit of energy?

"so, down to it... any clue what those things are? oh, and I'm Scintillance. pleased to meet you." Lance turned his gaze to the bugsies. "well, as pleased as a stallion in such a situation could be."

[Tisis Antony]

The mare harrumphed, as if the sudden company had come at a bad time. "Now what do I look like, a magical exposition fairy? I suppose you want all sorts of clues and answers in regards to some sort of perilous bit of Dungeoneering. Well let me tell you, I ain't no floozy who goes about running her mouth on every bit of pertinent plot device and inconsequential third party faction side quest! I like to be courted before I let some stallion such as yourself have their way with the truth."

She banged her hoof on the ground, and as if signaled, several of the Inglings departed from the group, melding and molding on the floor in front of them until they resembled a civil, if rather hairy tea table and accompanying tea pot and cups. She magically lifted the tea pot, pouring out a hot cup of delicious tea.

"So, where are you from~?"

[Lance]

One word in there left an awkward impact on Scintillance. "Courted." a short twitch appeared over Lance's generally confused expression. He was even more confused when the bug things just turned into a table. no really, he was like but with more and a certain dash of to him. this... mare... could use a pair of lawgieckxs. spelt differently, of course.

Lance tried to make the most of the situation. he simply could refuse tea, or a nice conversation. "I am from Canterlot; I suppose I'd have been better off giving my full name, I suppose. "Scintillance DiCanterlot," but the full formality as rarely of any use these days. As for you... weren't we just running away from these hairy lil' critters a few moments ago? [/color] Lance was addressing the hairy lil' critters, of course.

[Tisis Antony]

"Oh nonono not running from, running too- see, I was trying to get you to go the other way before you were trapped here with me for all eternity but I guess you had other intentions," she said, shrugging and gesturing to their prison.

"See, the inglings are ravenous little munchkins- yes you are, yes you are," she said, tickling one, "...ahem- that devour all biomass within the breadth of say, a few seconds. But for some terrible reason they seem to have a thing for illumination."

"I'm afraid that I've been down here for about two weeks now, trying to stave off sleep. If I stop the light-" she said, gesturing to her horn's illumination, "-I'll be ripped to pieces and consumed posthaste."

She had a sort of squirelly grin to her. She wasn't all there, that was to be sure, though it may have been the sleep deprivation more then anything. "So, we're all alone, nothing to do but stave off inevitable death? Guess what that puts me in the mood for?"

[Lance]

Lance gulped, desperately hoping the mare wasn't thinking of doing what he desperately hoped she wasn't thinking of doing. But with new information, Lance turned his horn out to a simple light spell- far easier than his conjured orb.

"u-um... it puts you in the mood to get the heck out of here?" Lance had no intention of letting her to her thoughts, lest she leads astray to lust.

"What exactly's keeping you from leaving here? If these... "munchkins" won't attack you as long as your horn's lit up, couldn't you safely trot on out?"

[Tisis Antony]

The mare leapt over the table and tried to grab hold of Scint, but stumbled on the table and fell into his lap. "Oh, so your trying to take advantage of me, is that it." She promptly fell asleep without another word. The Inglings began to buzz rather aggressively as her luminescent horn suddenly flickered to a stop.

The room grew tense as the table dismaterialized and the bat-esque inglings began snapping at her hooves.

[Lance]

half-freaking out, Lance staggered away from the mare and fuzzy table, but seeing the ingling's awaken from their trance, Lance immediately had his horn glow even brighter, hoping to re-force them into a trance. But, he knew she must have certainly been going through a lot down here, and her sanity was certainly damaged.

"...I'm sorry. Sleep, now, so that you may have the strength to glow again." Lance pulled out his pack of sticky notes, and was almost going to write that down,but then, "No, no that just sounds weird. Potential's there, but not with these words." he slipped the notes back into his pocket, and raised the mare back onto his back. he then trotted closer to the ingling-wall, and figured that it would take more than brute strength to get through. So, he took a couple steps back, and conjured his Aegis before him.

"The only thing more efficient than brute strength is magic-induced brute strength. YAAAAAAAAAAH!" he charged at the ingling wall, Aegis before him, and screamed unhelpfully.

[Tisis Antony]

The wall yielded a bit too quickly maybe, as the inglings in his way scattered about from the forceful shove. Inglings were tenacious, maybe, but not very heavy. Scint found himself having accidentally trampled on a few which quickly rebound back into proper shape.

His aegis did its job, keeping the inglings wary and unwitting. He found himself standing in the chamber from before. His only unexplored paths lay to the left of where he stood.

[Lance]

Lance slowed his charge, and looked back to see the wall scattered. "I honestly can't see what the problem was. Just... keep a light on and keep going." Scintillance dissolved the Aegis, and lit his own horn brightly, as best to save energy in this situation. He proceeded to his left, and, well... pretty much kept going, with the mare still on his back.

[Tisis Antony]

Scint entered a huge chamber, colossal in size, that had several stout supports scattered about intermittently. Giant metal grates lined the floor, and all over the place, in about equidistant intervals lied massive, cobblestone buttons that looked too large to be practical. They were sat on the floor, like someone was supposed to stand on them.

In the middle of the room, a large ornate chest with inlaid spikes and silver skulls sat, a beam of light shining down from below. The Inglings seem to have stopped following Scint about a few yards back in the hallway, and a stone slab slid down over the doorway as Scint passed by.

[Lance]

Lance enterred the room, slowly, and certianly curious as the inglings stopped following. when some awkward rock covered the way he came from (AGAIN!) he immediately and graciosly slammed himself into it, knocking on it with his hooves repeatedly. "OH COME OOOOOON!" when he was done making intelligent use of his time, he turned back to the room, and looked it over. "let's see... as far as can tell, treasure chests are evil, so I' not touching that. and cobblestone buttons. no doubt, either one of these opens a way out, or they're traps. all of them."

he conjured a pebble, not bothering to look for one lying about the floor, and tossed it over onto one cobblestone, and readied himself for what may come next...

[Tisis Antony]

The pebble skittered across the cobblestone button, but did absolutely nothing.

[Lance]

Lance signed, dissolved the conjuration and stepped onto the cobblestone himself. maybe it's because the conjured pebble was too light?

[Tisis Antony]

When scint hopped on the button, it slowly depressed into the ground. As it did, the grate immediately in front of it gradually warmed, until a stream of flames spewed up from it. It sustained its flame for however long Scint was on the button.

[Lance]

His mind in Aegis-mode, the said conjuration instantly appeared right before Scintillance, between him and the flames, though useless in the situation. "GAH!"Lance staggered beckwards from the heat and flames, though the brightness didn't bother him, he still covered his face because there's a foofin' column of flames in front of him. at the very least, the action would protect his eyebrows from singing out of existence.

"Okay, that didn't work. any ideas, sleeping beauty?" Lance was talking to the dozing mare on his back, of course. but he never expected any answers, simply chuckling, and further exploring the room, Dissolving the Aegis, and keep his mind in mentioned "Aegis mode." "All the better to quick-conjure on instinct that move it myself in telekinesis. drains more energy, pulling it in and out back and forth, but... better tired than dead. at least the inglings won't be a problem here..."

Stopping for a moment, Scintillance just realized what he just said to himself. other than that he's going insane, talking to himself. "hold on, there's a constant pillar of light, the inglings won't be a bother, I'm tired, and the nameless mare is already fast asleep! darnit, now's not a bad time to get a rest myself!" but after a short pause, "Nah."

He made his way closer to the strange treasure chest in the middle of the room, willing to open it "OK mister booby trappy chest, let's see how you're gonna wanna kill me."

[Tisis Antony]

The chest sprung open, shooting an item out at Scintillance at projectile speeds. Apparently the mechanism had been developed to hand whatever the chest stored to the opener, but the spring had been so rusted that it just immediately went bonkers and flopped the item out at high velocity.

The item clattered to a rest on the ground in front of Scint, before the chest burst into flames for absolutely no reason. It was a set of four leather boots, worn out and tattered, with frayed strings and old rubber. Nothing -seemed- unusual about the boots.

The mare rolled off his back and flopped to sleep on the ground next to him.

[Lance]

after the items bounced off Scintillance (HEADSHOT-*ding*) He just blankly stared at them for a few moments before the treasure chest spontaneously compusted. and then he stared at THAT for a few moments.

"...daflunk."

Scintillance figured there was no reason not to and started to put the boots on, because frankly, he was incredibly low on decent options, done with that, he begun slipping the mare back onto his back...

[Tisis Antony]

As Scint placed the boots on his hooves, he realized suddenly that they were incredibly heavy. Unfeasibly heavy, actually. Though they were light before as he was putting them on, as soon as they were fastened in their entirety they suddenly felt like he was wearing anvils on each foot.

Just as he began to notice this, an incredibly audible rattle and hiss started coming from the corner of the room. An amber eye opened up in the corner, beaming down on Scint as he stood there with the mare on his back. The explosion had woken whatever it was.

The serpent slithered out from the corner, winding itself up onto a column. It was at least two hundred feet long, and about two ponies thick. It's head was as large as scintillance, it's one, amber eye as large as his head. It looked musty and moldy, like the underground hadn't been kind to it, and its scales smelt of rot. It stood still, just watching him down below.

[Lance]

Scintillance was a lot of these. he was intelligent, he was creative, he was the light bulb incarnate, and he was awesome... but he wasn't exactly the strongest of stallions. he had conjuration for that. and frankly, these boots anchored him down like he may as well stoop on fly paper.

when the serpent rose up coiled he was a sitting duck, gaping in horror at the overgrown monstrosity. He gulped, and conjured his Martyr for offense, rather than the defensive aegis. His shield could hold back a crossbow bolt, but it's fallen to the strength of a large griffins' physical bulk before, and he's much less sure it could withstand a giant snake. but if he aimed the martyr before him, it would cut at the serpent, should it launch an attack. with its face. those serpents tend to do that. 

With a terrified gaze, he looked up at the snake, and whimpered... "u-um... h-hello?"

[Tisis Antony]

The snake lunged, gashing the roof of it's mouth on the aegis. It withdrew instinctively, but with a flick of it's head crashed into Scint. Scint went flying, boots and all, and thudded loudly against the chamber's wall. It flailed about, blood draining from it's mouth, flicking it's tongue out and hissing loudly.

The mare snored loudly on the floor below the serpent, but somehow avoided it's gaze, she rolled over and kicked her feet about in her slumber, as if she were chasing something.

[Lance]

All he could remember was an intense pain, and flying backwards, away from a giant snake before he... woke up.

...

A young, brown unicorn foal lay face down in bed, in a square room with walls painted sea-green and cyan-blue. rather colorful for a room. he slowly pried his eyes open, feeling an odd drizzle from his nose. the eyes shot open, though, when he realized he was waking up to a nosebleed, and a bloodstain left its mark right there on his bedsheets. "aww, mom's gonna kill me!" he hopped out of bed in a way only gravity defying foals tend to, and dashed across the hall to the bathroom.

there, he looked himself in the mirror, eyeing the stream of blood, before starting to wash himself up. a look outside the bathroom window shows that it's some tome late at night. or early morning. it's faffin' dark, can't tell. "gee, that's... the weirdest dream. ever. wait, can dreams leave nosebleeds? that's just plain weird..." he made his way back to bed, and covered the bloodstain with a pillow before promptly flopping onto it. "I'll clean  it... in the morning..."

...

back in the moment, Lance awakes with a pylon to his back, and a bloody nose. "guuuuuh... oh for the love of, I don't know what's the dream anymore..." with some trouble, Scintillance slowly got back onto his hooves, with difficulty, considering the  magic boots of fatponi +3 on his hooves. he almost conjured the martyr again, but after noticing the mare so close to the snake, well, trouble. instead, he conjured the Avian beside him, and took a running start-a clumsy one with the boots- and hopped into the Avian.

hoping to fly, but... well, that's a lot more effort than he was willing to give at the moment, as he was already low on energy... so rather a glorious "AH BELIEVE AH CAN FLAH" moment, the avian slowly descended to grind its front part over the ground, sparks a'flyin', while Lance leant forward, with his hoof out, flying grinding his way towards the mare.

if uninterrupted, Lance would grab the mare with a hoof, and grind away from the serpent. otherwise, Lance does this whole kick-flank scene and gets swatted away or something. or he dodges. that would be pretty kick flank too.

(plus, this post was rushed. sorry ^^)

[Tisis Antony]

The mare rolled onto the conjured hoverboard as Scint skidded to a slow stop behind the next few columns. The corner was dark and dank, and the serpent wasn't in sight. The Avian had been forced to an abrupt stop by one of those protruding buttons that littered the room, and Scint could realize, if he looked down, that he was standing atop one of those odd flame-grates.

The serpent was quite audibly still running amok, the sound of stone cracking as it's sinewy muscle crushed the columns that supported it. It's special heat senses followed the trail of warmth that led to Scint, and it slowly squirmed its way in his direction.

[Lance]

Mare on his back, Aegis at his side, serpent after his neck and grate under his boots. Lance felt the grate slowly skid down and took a moment to think before yelling "HEY SCALEBUTT! YOU CALL THAT A HEADBUTT? GET YOURSELF OVER HERE AND SHOW ME A REAL KNOCKBACK!"

Scintillance slowly backed off the grate, but kept one hoof on the grate to press it down, but not all the way. when the snake would come speeding at him, he would lean in with both front hooves (boosted by the magic boots of fatponi +3) in order to trigger the flame-grate on the snake. Lance would then duck to the side to avoid anything else the snake throws at him through the grate. the Avian floated between himself and the snake, just in case, however, it was not as strong a shield as the Aegis, more easily shattered... but there was not time for a conjuration-switch.

when the snake came into site, Scintillance quietly uttered "Round two, partner"

[Tisis Antony]

The snake squirmed it's way over to Scint, approaching him cautiously. It slid onto the grate, watching the glowing conjuration. It raised itself slowly up, positioning itself over the conjuration and making itself look bigger. If it had a cobra hood, it would have been flared, but the snake made due with a rather menacing glare from it's one usable eye.

[Lance]

Scintillance was just about ready to leap in with the other hoof, but in a moment of adrenaline he felt like if he was going to kill this snake, he was going to do it with some kick-flank style. He had already pressed the grate in quite far, and all the would be left is a little final nudge. He rotated the Aegis over his head, and flourished it like one pony might spin a sword. Leaning back onto two hind hooves,  Lance did that whole epic pony whinny ninny thing with rotating front hooves, shouting "HI-HO, GOLDEN!"

He crashed into the button grate thing with his front hooves, and 'threw' the Aegis at the Snake with telekinesis as it spin rapidly; if the awesomeness of a spinning shield doesn't cut the scaly beast, the fire will. if the flames did none, the Aegis will. and should both leave damage, dang, that would be awesome.

[Tisis Antony]

The snake exploded into gibs before the shield or the fire could touch it. The shield *pewed* past it and clinked anticlimactically against a wall. The sheer weight of Scint's fighting aura combined with his spiral energy had just caused the snake's entire essence to cease wanting to exist.

The gore splattered onto the fire grate, forming a tantalizing smell as it grilled nice and charcoal-y. The room lit up as lights overhead beamed down, revealing the full size of the boss chamber.

As the snake's last bit of gore splattered onto the ground, a brilliant spiral light beamed down upon Scint. A small heart-shaped artiface lowered from the cieling into the center of the beam, floating just within reach.

[Lance]

Lance was absolutely covered in snake guts. He put on the bravest face he could manage while repeating "EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW" and did an awkward dance involving wiping his face and rear across the ground. and hooves. and other hooves. you get the idea. he was still covered in snake guts, though. as he ground his rear across the floor he slip in and out of the pillar of light before bumping his face into the floating heart shaped artifice thing, and stared as it dropped to the hoof he held out to catch it. "ooh, pretty."

[Tisis Antony]

Scint heard a little electronic ditty play in the background of the chamber as he touched it, and it somehow compelled him to lift it up over his head. He had the vague idea that a scrolling text notification would somehow fit perfect right about there.

It pocketed itself into the unknowable regions of Scint's inventory. Now that the heart was gone, it became clear that the ring of light was eminating from a normal hole in the roof. Some room was visible in the regions above.

As the electronic ditty wore off, the doors on both sides of the room opened- and scint could hear the tell-tale buzz of the Inglings gradually making their way to his position.

[Lance]

Lance started to slam his head into the wall a couple times, for fear of going insan from all the strange thoughts in his head; he they weren't. then realising that driving his head into a wall would only further drive himself insane. once seeing all the inglings, he changed his Aegis into a simple orb of light, exclaiming SERIOUSLY!? he grabbed one of the inglings with two hooves and held it close to his face, looking at it, eye to eye. I JUST. WANT. TO REST HERE." he then tossed the little bugger behind him, and made his way towards the mare, putting her on his back, and trotted in the direction that he was pretty sure he didn't come from.

Is a little peace and quiet privacy so much to ask. he could feel himself draining; he might've had energy reserves that scream at other-worldly rp-ers "OH PEEEEE" but he wasn't a god, and dangit, he just exploded a snake with pure Super-Scintillant power; heck he could sworn he saw his mane glow yellow like his horn back there, and that's just exhausting. REALLY exhausting. he's tired, and barely walking straight at this point. "STOP TALKING TO YOURSELF... and stop shouting."

[Tisis Antony]

The inglings began hovering up to the light source above the room, completely ignoring Scintillance. A steady stream of buzzing inglings hovered up into the hole in the ceiling. Scint entered a chamber with a small set of locking doors in the front and back that could be dead-bolted. The room looked like an old maintenence room of some sort- a set of wooden benches lined each wall, and lockers lined them as well. Old uniforms lined the area, that seemed to have been made for sewer repair.

The room had a calming aura as best described by this theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XieKzxhi8vw

A sentence was painted in what appeared to be dark, dried blood over the locked door on the other end. "NO EXI--". The edge of the bloody script trailed off to the right, revealing the collapsed skeletal remains of what appeared to be an old maintenence worker.

[Lance]

Scintillance saw the bloodstain on the wall, and walked a little closer to examine the dead body. "please tell me the snake got you... He then started to search through the lockers, keeping his guard up for anything to attack him, and eyes open for anything useful. he couldn't help the nudging feeling that he had to constantly press the x button on the lockers, but had no idea what made him feel like that.

[Tisis Antony]

As Scint searched the locker, he found a green herb, nine shotgun shells, and a blue keycard. The green herb was most certainly just a badly wilted pot plant, and the shotgun shells were useless because shotguns hadn't been invented yet. The blue keycard wasn't actually blue anymore because the damp and the fade had turned it into more of a black-and-mold colored lump of ruined plastic.

The noise alerted something in the room- the sound of rattling came from the corner where the skeleton sat.

[Lance]

Scintillance moved the objects into his inventory, and noted that he had no idea how that work, and the rattling lured him to the skeleton in the corner. the thing just... creeped him it, but for some compelling reason, he just had to take a closer look... and poke the dead thing with a ten foot pole. no, seriously, he didn't think twice about where the giant wooden stick came from.

[Tisis Antony]

A skeletal arm grasped the pole and began hauling itself up to it's boney hooves. The skull of the pony cracked, and snapped off, rolling onto the floor. The rest of the body began shaking and shivering and hissing, dragging itself further along and approaching Scintillance.

[Lance]

Certainly this has been said before, as Scintillance has only three "AH GAWD NO"s in his life: dead things, biologically altered things, and anything in between. and looky here, dead thing. in instinct, he screamed and yelled and dropped the pole and just kinda panic-attacked. no, he didn't have a panic, attack, he actually attacked out of panicking himself; conjured the Martyrand madly attacked the bony creature with downward swings as if he was holding a hammer.

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