Luna's Command: The Wibbly-Wobbly Saga

Wandering Eye chuckled a little at the "past thousand years" comment, but it was a dark sort of chuckle. Had he just been mocked? Was Shimmer such a household name that only a fossil wouldn't know it? He hoped he hadn't offended her or otherwise disgraced himself.

He would have apologized for his ignorance, but she seemed to move away from the topic, and he had no objection to the conversation's new direction. "Well, for the most part I study magic and history. Ancient history, in fact, about stuff that does in fact happen a few thousand years ago. I move from place to place a lot and often spend extended periods on expeditions, so I'm not always grounded in the present."

Blast it, Wander, I thought you weren't going to bring the ignorance topic up.

Oh well.

In the meantime, he'd keep quiet about his... other field of interest. Best to establish his sanity in his new companion's eyes before he started telling them about his investigations into things which may and/or may not (yes, and/or) exist.

"Ah, the Daring Do books... I know some who consider them a bit lowbrow, but I rather enjoyed them when I was younger. I have to say I haven't gotten myself into quite the sort of peril she has, however." That was mostly true. He didn't have to dodge too many traps (unless you counted the one time an unstable ruin's first floor turned out to be the fourth floor), but sometimes his line of work had its... perils.

Scorch was pretty pleased with how many of the others actually shook his claw. Most ponies wouldn't attempt it. The blind pegasus really grinds the dragon's gears though. Not want to lash out in front of the guards, Scorch manages to subdue his anger by growling lowly while using his other claw to scratch the seat he was on...

Dusk Raven wrote:
"Ah, the Daring Do books... I know some who consider them a bit lowbrow, but I rather enjoyed them when I was younger. I have to say I haven't gotten myself into quite the sort of peril she has, however."

"Hey, hate to interrupt your discussion of foal's literature," Plug suddenly shouted back in a slightly panicked voice, "But it looks like we're gonna have a problem here..."

Looking forward (Those of the group who could) proves that he is entirely correct, as approximately half a dozen of what look to small stars are streaking across the night sky in what appears to be a very slithery pattern. They are moving so quick, and the carriage in turn moving so quickly towards them, that within a couple seconds the sharp-eyed of you can tell that what appear to be stars are actually snakes with wings, and the only reason they could ever be mistaken for stars in the first place is their bright glow.

Like miniature suns, really. Especially considering the fire coming from their mouths.

Spoiler:

"What the hay..." Wandering Eye telekenetically took his glasses off, folded them, and placed them in his vest pocket before opening the door nearest him and leaning slightly to get a better look at the approaching creatures, trying to identify them.

Spoiler:

Scorch pushes other passengers aside to get to the open door and also leans out. Upon seeing the winged snakes, Scorch snarls "You call that fire?" and then shoots out some impressive puffs of fire of his own, attempting to scare the beasts away from the carriage...

(Persuasion Check: 10 (Roll) + 11 (Bonus) + 5 (Intimidation Freaky Knowledge) = 26)

Dusk Raven wrote:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Wandering vaguely recognizes the creatures, but cannot remember their behaviors, habitat, food, or any of the like. He believes they were called Sunsnakes, however.

Paper Shadow wrote:Scorch pushes other passengers aside to get to the open door and also leans out. Upon seeing the winged snakes, Scorch snarls "You call that fire?" and then shoots out some impressive puffs of fire of his own, attempting to scare the beasts away from the carriage...

(Persuasion Check: 10 (Roll) + 11 (Bonus) + 5 (Intimidation Freaky Knowledge) = 26)

The snakes barely notice the fire at all. Some even pass through it quite unharmed. "Don't think that's gonna work," Plug said, a bit unnecessarily.

Grizzle looks back at the carriage, slightly worried of the extra duty towards keeping his passengers safe that he suddenly has had thrust upon him. "You'll want to prepare and prepare well, Shimmer!" he shouted. "I believe this may be why Her Majesty requested that there be a battlemage on this mission as well!"

"Agreed!" Plug nodded as the snakes, hissing out wisps of stoked breath, come upon the chariot. "We're gonna be way too busy trying not to crash to pluck these things outta the sky!"

Spoiler:

Luthier jumped at the panicked guard's announcement. He looked up to see the rapidly approaching lights. He glanced at his companions to see if they knew what was going on. Wandering Eye seemed like he might recognize the creatures, but apparently not enough to volunteer any information. The dragon Scorch was blowing fire, but the blazing serpents seemed to ignore it.

Thoughts raced through his head: there was no time to see if he knew what they were. They blazed with light, so he couldn't be certain they relied on sound to navigate, so he couldn't make them confused where they were that way. He decided to try another approach.

"HALT, VILE CREATURES! HOW DAREST THOU APPROACH ONE OF MY ROYAL CARRIAGES? THOU SURELY WISHEST TO INVOKE MINE WRATH! FEAR ME AND FLEE, FOR I AM HER MAJESTY LUNA, PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!"

A loud voice sounding to some like the princess emanated from behind a cloud, in the direction of the moon. Luthier hoped that the creatures could both understand, and that he made an accurate enough depiction of the "Royal Canterlot Voice." If they didn't fly away, they would soon enough figure out his ruse. Hopefully they would at least be distracted enough for the guards to try to get them out of here.

Spoiler:

Curunir wrote:"HALT, VILE CREATURES! HOW DAREST THOU APPROACH ONE OF MY ROYAL CARRIAGES? THOU SURELY WISHEST TO INVOKE MINE WRATH! FEAR ME AND FLEE, FOR I AM HER MAJESTY LUNA, PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!"

A loud voice sounding to some like the princess emanated from behind a cloud, in the direction of the moon. Luthier hoped that the creatures could both understand, and that he made an accurate enough depiction of the "Royal Canterlot Voice." If they didn't fly away, they would soon enough figure out his ruse. Hopefully they would at least be distracted enough for the guards to try to get them out of here.

Spoiler:

The snakes roar in absolute rage (an impressive accomplishment for a snake) as they turn towards the cloud, mouths blazing as one, and fly almost perpendicular to the carriage's path in order to more effectively fly in a straight line towards the imaginary source of their rage. After a few brief moments, they have already made their way partly to the cloud in question and are slowly disappearing over the rapidly-disappearing horizon.

"...what just happened?" Plug breaks the ensuing silence.

In the back of the carriage, Cobbled snores a bit, as if responding.

Wandering Eye spent a few moments pondering. He'd been rather surprised at the musician's ability, and the replication of Luna's voice. To his vast surprise, it even worked.

Situating himself back in the carriage, he said, "Those things are called Sunsnakes. Unfortunately, they lie outside my field of study, but I'd wondered from their name if they had some sort of aversion to night... their rage at "Luna's" voice would seem to confirm that. I wonder if that was truly a random incident or if we're being targeted for our service to Luna..."

"Kinda hopin' it's not the second one, to be honest," Spark Plug says, looking down at his armor, designating him a Nightbound.

"Eyes on the skies, as they say, Mr. Plug," Grizzle says.

Brilliant pouts. She wanted a chance to show-off her (super impressive!) battle magic. Focus, Brilli. Something just tried to kill you all. "We need to report this to the Princess immediately! Surely, she'll know what is going on here!" She hesitates for a moment... "Nice trick, by the way, Mr. Luthier".

Luthier pushed up his glasses, straightening them, still shaking from the close brush with the sunsnakes, and from the effort to reproduce Luna's voice.

"Well, that worked a lot better than I could have possibly hoped. Eye's probably right- they certainly have something against both us and Luna. Which brings me to take the interesting wording in our summons much more seriously. Do any of you know any more about what exactly we're supposed to be doing for her Majesty, and about anything else we might be having to worry about?"

He was looking at the guards and Shimmer in particular, but he figured they all wouldn't know anything until they reached the princess.

"Oh, er, thank you... uh... Warmage Shimmer! I was just trying to distract them, I didn't expect them to fall for it so completely..."

((OOC: Sorry, but... LEEROY TIME!!! Besideds, didn't we say we'd do both? ))

Lunar, was in shock over hearing what he thought was Princess Luna's voice itself... So shocked he didn't overhear the fact that it was a fake. So he bolted after the snakes yelling an extreamly loud battle cry. "FOR LUNA!!!"

Now Cobbled Stone was awake.

Spoiler:

The hippogriff was fast... but so was Brilliant, still in ready-mode from the sunsnake ambush. "Sorry about this!"

Her horn glows with the same magenta as her eyes as she concentrates on one of the most useful spells she ever learned. Cube of Force was great for restraining arrestees... and, she hoped, charging hippogriffs.

Spoiler:

"I have no idea what the buck is going on but it sounds like whatever was coming for us is gone."
Iggy's head turned towards Lunar's direction as he made his battle cry.
"And what kind of idiot heads towards the danger we apparently avoided? Can somebody please shut him up before we have more issues to deal with?"

Retrokinesis wrote:The hippogriff was fast... but so was Brilliant, still in ready-mode from the sunsnake ambush. "Sorry about this!"

Her horn glows with the same magenta as her eyes as she concentrates on one of the most useful spells she ever learned. Cube of Force was great for restraining arrestees... and, she hoped, charging hippogriffs.

Spoiler:

Brilliant need not have apologized, however, as her aim was off. The cube formed in the air just behind the fleetfooted...fleetwinged...hippogriff and hovered there, an awkward monument to imperfect aim.

Spoiler:

"Ack, by Celestia's polychromatic mane! Wait, wait, if I rejigger the manadyne conduit... I think I can do this!"

Brilliant attempts a bit of thaumaturgic improvisation to reinforce the force cube's structure and prevent the hippogriff from crashing through. Assuming she can hit him at all...

Spoiler:

Lunar stops in midair... and falls inside of said magical force cube. "Huh-wha?"

Retrokinesis wrote:"Ack, by Celestia's polychromatic mane! Wait, wait, if I rejigger the manadyne conduit... I think I can do this!"

Brilliant attempts a bit of thaumaturgic improvisation to reinforce the force cube's structure and prevent the hippogriff from crashing through. Assuming she can hit him at all...

Spoiler:

Xel Unknown wrote:Lunar stops in midair... and falls inside of said magical force cube. "Huh-wha?"

"Hah! Nice shootin', Tex!" Plug grins, gradually slowing the carriage down.

"Indeed," Grizzle said, bringing the craft into a slow turn to double around and grab Lunar again. "But then I suppose there's a reason you're the warmage amongst us."

Lunar starts to panic not sure what's going on... Scraping at the magical cage he was trapped in.

(OOC: Not doing any rolls, just RPing. I mean Lunar has no bucking clue what just happened... And being a wild-hippogriff, bet being in-caged isn't that great an experience for him.)

"YES! Take THAT, Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns!" She's about to start bouncing when she remember her company. "Uhm. Yes. Thank you. We should probably go get him... Also, what's a Tex?"

Retrokinesis wrote:...Also, what's a Tex?"

"You know, like a textbook," Plug says as the carriage comes to a stop next to the cube of magic energy. "Like, that was some pretty textbook shooting there, and...you don't get it? Yeah, it wasn't that funny anyway."

"How in Equestria are we going to get this thing on the carriage?" Grizzle muses.

"We could just let him fall down in the cube then pick him up later..."