Luna's Command: The Wibbly-Wobbly Saga

"*sigh* I... am not even going to say it..." Costume facehoofs.

Nice costume, by the way change
Iggy... i don't think you should aim to take somepony's life...
It's not sanitary
wait, no...
I don't mean sanitary...
I... I dunno

nevermind
sorry
Cobbled trails off at the end of his sentence, struggling for words
Heck i dunno

"Well, since we seem to be generally in agreement upon this course of action, let's be off," Grizzle says.

"Me and Costume go in first to feel things out," Plug asks, "Or are we just going to charge in snout-first and and hope for the best?"

"I think the first option is best," Grizzle says, a touch sardonically, "Unless anypony has any objections or better ideas?"

Spoiler:

Everypony stops discussing strategy and turns to look at Iggy, who has just stopped screaming some sort of nonsense syllables and is now just standing there.

"Okey dokey, then," Plug said, looking around warily. "That was weird."

Wandering Eye raises an eyebrow at Iggy and then turns to Grizzle. "Well, so long as democracy functions in this group... I vote for subtlety and hope it works better than before."

"If I didn't want to go the subtle route, I wouldn't've disguised myself at all." Costume stares daggers at Iggy, not that he can tell. "If nopony has objections, Plug and I will go ahead as he suggested."

Scorch moves away from the wall. "Well, what are we waiting for? We have, what, five, four minutes? We're killing more time than guards here. Costume and Plug, go quickly, we'll be right behind." He tries to pick up the fallen ECHO guard, but struggles due to his injuries. "Also, can somepony here help me pick up this body. I said I was going to throw it at some guards and I'm going to do just that."

(Athletics Roll: 5 (Roll) + 13 (Bonus) = 18 (*sigh* Another Assist Please?))

Grizzle sighed and shook his head as Plug shrugged. "Alright, you heard the dragon,, Costume. Let's get going." He begins to step forward, then looks back and says in a hushed tone: "Wait one minute after we head out. Then, assuming we haven't come back screaming our pretty little heads off, come after us." With this, he begins walking in earnest. "Sooooo, what's your story?" Plug asks Costume as he disappears down the hallway.

Grizzle looks around for a moment, then decides that nopony is getting anywhere unless Scorch gets his way. With the briefest sigh, Grizzle nudges under the guard. "Here. I shall shoulder the burden with you, needless though it may be."

"Let's go with both, actually..."

Spoiler:

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:Grizzle looks around for a moment, then decides that nopony is getting anywhere unless Scorch gets his way. With the briefest sigh, Grizzle nudges under the guard. "Here. I shall shoulder the burden with you, needless though it may be."

"Yeah, it's needless," replies the dragon, "But after all that's happened tonight, I think we all could do with a bit of a laugh."

"Okay, let's start with me... I was born a unicorn in Neighagara Falls. When I was in school, we were doing our own little Hearth's Warming pageant. I was a late bloomer, and I had a magic surge the day before the show. I turned into a tiny little windigo, or at least looked like one. The teacher got me to play the windigo in the play, it was a huge success, and, when I turned back, I had my cutie mark. You know, my real one; the star with my initials. And... I've pretty much been an actor since. Or... at least until I joined all of you."

"As for this guy..." Costume looks down on his disguise. "...I'm open to suggestions. I didn't see any info on him at the time, and I didn't really have enough time to get to know the guy..."

Spoiler:

Plug nods along to your story as you walk along the passageway - he seems to buy it. "Ah, I think maybe I've heard of a couple of plays you were in...was A Dawning Hope you or that other...ah, sorry. Time's wasting, right? Let's see, I ambushed a pair of guards to get myself this costume, so if I overheard their numbers correctly then I'm number 25 and you're number 26. You have a Manehattan accent, middle class. I do not."

As he finishes, the two of you encounter a large steel door - still slightly cracked open from (one would presume) the rushing of the guards towards you guy's explosive position. Plug breathes out, drawing out a knife in one hoof and one of the enemy's weapons from another -when he grabbed that, you aren't certain. "On three," he says and starts the count. "One...two..."

Spoiler:

"That it has," Grizzle said, shouldering his burden once more. "Let's be off, then."

Spoiler:

Scorch begins to move towards where Costume and Plug went off to...

(Athletics Roll: 8 (Roll) + 13 (Bonus) = 21)

After a long, long trek down a hallway that could only be described as quite literally cavernous (one, it should be mentioned, that was eerily reminiscent of another walk down a too-long hallway a bit earlier in the evening) the party, faux-Trottingham pony in tow, arrived at the same door that Plug and Costume Change had a minute ago, now entirely open.

"Oh hey," Plug said from within the room. "It's, uh...it's empty. Yeah." And so the great cavern was.

Nopony in the room knew it*, but the room - really, the cave-within-a-cave - they were standing in was somewhat infamous back in the days when the Canterlot Caves were more frequently mined. More than somewhat infamous, in fact. When this section of the cave had been discovered, you see, the intrepid group of explorers who had dug so deep called this particular ravenous-looking room "The Dragon's Maw." Looking around, it was easy to see why. With its red walls less the purple crystals dotting every natural inch of the rest of the cave, deep and yawning chasm beneath the scarcest of ledges,a tongue-shaped walkway that did not even extend a quarter of the way across the aforementioned chasm, and series of sharp, deep, thick and tall stalagmites and stalactites, it was hard to imagine calling this place anything else.

Then again, maybe the name could be attributed to the scaled and sleeping form at the bottom of the great expanse before the party.

Grizzle, mostly unaffected by the off-putting surroundings, shrugged the guardspony off of his shoulders and trotted over to something that probably wasn't natural. "Ah, yeah." Plug trotted over to the keypad-on-a-pole attached to a metal disk that was glowing with familiar purple energy. "Non-magical teleporter, if I'm remembering my movies right. Definitely needs a passcode to activate, and though I may look the part right now, I ain't no guardspony. Probably linked to another 'porter on the other side of this chasm. Could always try flying over, but..."

As if on cue, a series of steam columns shot from far below, striking the ceiling and settling hot water as almost a coherent layer over everything and everypony nearby. Even with the door wide open, the heat and sudden hydration were no less than utterly stifling for the several moments they lasted, and when they faded it wasn't quickly. "...we might encounter a bit of difficulty."

Grizzle raised his hoof to his forehead, wiping off some sweat as he thought. He turned to Brilliant Shimmer and whispered "do you think you'd be able to teleport us all over there yourself?" Considering everybeing in the room heard him say it, it wasn't a very good whisper.

*:

"I get this feeling.....that if I try to fly ahead I'm going to be in a world of hurt. So anypony with mind reading perhaps?"

"I believe I may be able to assist with the teleportation," Wandering Eye piped up, having been previously silent and unassuming. He then walked over to the teleporter device. "But it might be safer to use this device, first..."

Arcana Check:

Brilliant breaks her silence and follows Wandering Eye over to the device, attempting to assist his investigation. "I'm not certain. Theoretically, yes. Does this cavern seem... almost-familiar to anypony else?"

Spoiler:

Both Wandering Eye and Brilliant Shimmer are well aware of the cave's history, along with the additional detail that legends spoke of some terrible beast that slept eternally at the bottom of the pit - apparently those legends were at least partly true.

The teleporter is your standard porter - like crystals' magic-storing capabilities, well within the bounds of reasonable theory (and popular enough that one specific design is practically ubiquitous in cheap Mag-Fi and/or Sci-Fi films). That is to say, it is theoretically feasible but not within the realm of current magictech capabilities - likely because of the lack of crystals to store magical energy, and a decided lack of electricity's teleporting properties in this universe. Of course, any grown unicorn worth their salt has been able to teleport once in their life (And experienced magic casters can do so on the fly), but teleporters would be more reliable and would have the capability to transport non-unicorns and multiple creatures, possibly even more than one. Judging by the ring of purple crystals softly glowing around the purple disk where a pony might stand in order to move, the problem of how to store magical energy in crystals has been handily solved by this ECHO group.

The keypad, as a side note, is distinctly unmagical - it might be possible to manipulate it magically, but since it runs on electricity and not magical currents it will be more difficult than your "average" security pad.

Scorch walks over to Cobbled Stone and asks "I don't suppose you could get the teleporter working without the need of a password?"

"If I was a little better prepared I coukd ask one of the dead guys but that option takes too much time for now....."
Iggy paced a bit.
"Exactly how big is this place? The emptiness of this place is making hard for me to guess right."