Discordian Promise

In spite of expecting it, Skitter yelped in surprise as something did, in fact, jump out of the hallway. She recovered quickly, however, buzzing out a fairly simple idea. <ATTACK!>

With that order given, she leapt in herself, found a limb that she was sure belonged to Compass, and started hauling on it with her own meager strength...

Explanation:

The group's efforts seemed to have an effect. One if the creatures was tossed off almost immediately. Sunlit successfully bucked another into a wall, and Skitter and Steel ere easily able to pull Compass out of their grip. The combined effect of all this, the electrical shock,  the bee stings, and Marked's careening into them back left the rest of the group groaning on the ground.

Now that they were all till, the party could see the creatures were some weird mix of magpie and pony, with a black and white coat, and wings similar to pegasus wings. If pegasi were that small.

While all this was happening, the first one to be thrown off ended up avoiding much of the fray, and saw Midas and his Element light up. "Shinymaker!" he shouted before attempting to leap up grab the Element and rush down the corridor as quickly as they came.

ooc:

Midas yelped at the strange creature, his horn sputtering and sparking. "No! You can't take!"

Meta:

Midas was apparently so surprised he lost his telekinetic grip on the Element, and the creature had no trouble scooping it up and rushing down the corridor.

The rest of them, hearing the first's call, struggled to move Midas the same way they had Compass, albeit less successfully this time.

As they surrounded him, Midas began to flail and scream. "NO! No no no no no! You can't take me! People don't get haved!"

(OCC: Well I'm going to try and see if I can justifty getting a reflex grab at the theaving magpie.)

Marked Questions just tries to react as quickly as he could to grab for the little creature with the stolen element.

skill checks:

Marked Question is able to see the creature's movements, and even gets a paw on him, however it slips out of his grasp and races down the corridor.

"Midas!"

At another time, Compass might have been impressed by the magpie ponies- how did they fly when their wings were so small?- but after being on the receiving end of their mob, she wasn't feeling very generous.

She felt less so when they began bothering the unicorn.

They wanted the shiny? Fine.
Shopped they enjoyed it.

"Close your eyes!" she shouted, doing the same. The sparkle, crystal shimmer of her coat intensified. Her legs still felt woozy from Steel Works electrical current, but she tried to ignore it, and maintain a steady footing. Instead of focusing on that, she focused on the happiest thought she had:

A grey Pegasus, on a mountain, watching the pure rain fall...

Compass' coat, mane and -were they visible- eyes took on an even brighter sheen, gathering in power...then surging out around her, the group, and the magponies with an in audible boom.

Spoiler:

With that last burst, it became clear that while the creatures like shiny things, they were unused to bright light, and all but one of the group were left curled up on the ground, whimpering. The one that managed to remain standing made no more efforts to take anything, just standing there, shivering.

Sunlit Wave's eyes flash open as the light dies down, and once he sees that most of the...creatures...that were assailing them are taken care of, he darts down the corridor that the fleeing thief had taken.

OOC:

Midas slowly got to his feet, legs trembling beneath him. He let out a soft sob as he moved towards the still standing Magasus, not even acknowledging that any pony else existed. He knew that he should thank Compass or chase after his element. Really, literally anything else would be better than this, but it didn't stop him. He went over to the Magasus and used his magic to turn its head so it would look at him. "Stealing things is bad, but you never EVER take people." Slowly, he lifted up one shaking golden hoof.

Meta:

CRACK

"PEOPLE! DON'T! GET! HAVED!"

(OOC: popping my laughter all 7 of us get a +2 to all skill checks for the next ten minutes in game... USE IT TO RUN-RUN-RUN!)

Marked's element sake starts to glow and everybody starts to feel a minor boost in their energies. "COME ON LETS GO!" He declares as he goes to trying to tunnel under the escaping little things... This theift was totally unfunny at this point and clearly was only a set-up to being foiled or made into a silly punch line. But a small part of the Diamond Dog starts to wonder if his comedy mindset will be right in this context... But that was too weird a thought to really dwell on at this point of time.

Skill Checks:

Midas's blow knocked the creature back several feet. "Sorrysorrysorry,shinymaker.Havingpeopleiswrong.Won'tdoitagain.

Midas let out a soft sigh before sitting down and pulling a vial of bubbly green liquid out of his scarf. He gently poured a bit of it onto his front left hoof, hissing slightly at the pain. After letting it chew through his golden hoof for a minute, he used his magic to pulloff the part that the acid had loosened. It was still golden and shiny, even more so perhaps now that the dirt had been removed. He limped over to the Magasus and held out the piece of hoof to him. "Hey. This is shiny. I'm giving it to you so you don't have to take it and it's a thing, not a person, so you can have it."

When the glow subsided, Compass fell to her knees. She was still glowing- barely, with effort- but between the shining and the electricity, she felt exhausted. She grunted, and forced herself to rise to her hooves, staring as Midas approached the creature, and struck it.

She felt like she should tell him to stop. Beating on something defenceless like that was wrong. But...
But Midas was right. Ponies weren't things to be stolen, or bazaar treed, lorded over or even admired.
She glanced at the trembling creatures, before Narked shouting out. The diamon dog was right, they needed to recover the element... but what good would it be without a bearer, or a pony generous enough to use it.

She stepped towards Midas, her limp subsiding. She couldn't let herself be tired; not now. They needed the element.
They needed Midas.

She stared as the pony transmuted a piece of his own hoof, genuine wonder at the sight filling her. First the statues...now this?
Questions for another time. She swallowed, putting a hoof on Midas shoulder. She wasn't sure why... but the pony looked like he needed the support right now. Was that reason enough?

The creature's eyes widened. He hesitantly took the thing in his mouth, and placed it in the center of the tunnel so that the rest could see it. Then, suddenly, he shouted, "Chaoticonewasright!Shinymakerhascomeandwillleadandwillmakeus-all-the-shinies!"

Midas couldn't help but smile at the feeling of Compass' hoof on his shoulder, but when the Magasus spoke again, a confused look spread over his face. "Wait, what?"

The creature turned to Midas once more, eyes shining. He even made an attempt to speak more slowly. "No-shinies-here.Then-chaotic-one-came.Said-shinymaker-would-come-with-symbol-of-tunnels-and-he-will-make-us-shinies-and-we-will-follow-him

Sunlit Wave and MArked Question are both able to follow the creature down the tunnels. Marked Question finds them first, stopped in what sounds like a larger cavern.

Midas was floored for a minute. "Um...okay. I'll help you and I'll make you shineys, but the way it works is that when I do things for you, you guys do things for me and my friends when we need them. And right now we need your help understanding this place. Okay?"

"Right.Rightrightright. We-will-take-you-to-the-cavern-and-answer-all-the-shinymakers-questions." He nodded to the others, who seemed to have recovered and moved to lead them down the tunnels.

Sunlit Wave arrives at the cavern, where he sees the creatures crowded in a circle, presumably all looking at the Element.

At reaching what sounds like under a larger cavern... Marked starts to move more steathfully... And Tries to peek out to get a look at what kind of place he's followed the theft into.

skill checks:

The magpie creatures sounded genuine. Except...it was a little more than that. Compass felt a small surge in her chest; she was sure it had just been the result of channelling so much...whatever it was that made her coat sparkle.

Spoiler:

Sunlit Wave skids to a halt as he sees the larger group of creatures. He hesitates in the mouth of the cavern, trying to get a proper count of the swarming ponies, before he shakes his head and backs up a few feet, into the shadows of the hallway, watching the creatures to see if they move elsewhere.

OOC:

((You miss one day...))

Skitterbuzz followed the group quietly. It was harder than she cared for it to be, considering her remaining bees. But then, she was mostly feeling shy.

She watched carefully as the group paraded down the tunnel. Midas seemed to have them under control... For now, at least. She decided to find out how much.

"Hey," she said quietly, tapping one of them gently to get it's attention. "Is there somewhere my bees can rest a bit when we get there?"

Sunlit can see about nine of the creatures in the cavern. As he backs up, he accidentally bumps into a less stable part of the wall, knocking several rocks lodged in it off with loud thumps and causing dirt to rain down on Sunlit, The creatures hear the clash and angrily rush towards Sunlit, clearly ready to attack.

Sunlit Wave ooc:

Thanks to the commotion caused by Sunlit, Marked's presence goes completely unnoticed. Marked can see a large, natural cavern with several exits. Near the back of the cavern is an altar made of dull stone, with the wrench symbol engraved in it. Other than that,the cavern is rather empty of objects, only having loose stone. Marked also sees the altercation between Sunlit and the creatures

Compass, in her deepest heart, can fee the eagerness, joy, and even wonder bursting from the creature's heart. But that eagerness also has a slight edge to it. Perhaps he's a little too eager, a little desperate, even?

The creature looks up at Skitterbuzz and her bees confusedly. It has clearly never seen anything like them before. It shrugged. "Idon'tknow.Cometocavernandsee."