darkSpyro

"That's true, but is there anypony out here who isn't dead with a grudge against your own family and would wish to kidnap whoever you're looking for to destroy your innocence?" he asked

"This factory holds a mass of technology I cannot just let somepony I just met into," Gulaven looked Red over.

"He seemed rather eager to 'work' inside. He thinks we still operate the way we use to," Rainbow Dash added after a short nod to Luminia for her somewhat comforting words, "And for some reason he thought I couldn't handle myself, offering to protect me. A kind, noble gesture, but I assured him I was well protected as it is."

Gulaven gave a gingerly smile to Red, "Trying to protect my own eh, but also wanting to kill without mercy, for that you'd be better off down below. Now if you'll excuse me, once my guards get up here, these doors are to be resealed. No telling when they will try to take my facility," he turned away just as the two guards became visible from the hall, "Lock her up tight until I get back," He had spoken into a small MIC that was built into his machine leg.

--

Ash was running through the broken streets looking for a place to hide away once more. In his haste he stumbled on a rock, forcing him into a short role. The role ended with a sign post hitting his chest roughly. The wooden post had been broken rather low on its stand, and a jagged splint of wood had lodged itself into his stomach. He held back a cry of pain for fear of drawing attention. He wanted to be alone more than to let out his pain. Pushing on the base of the post to try and get away from it only uprooted the post, in turn it pulled the splint up, pulling his now dirty blood covered skin further apart. Tears of pain, sadness, and somehow hatred fell like a heavy rain. The split section of skin soaked away the tears as if the blood were a river and the tears were mere specs of sand that had been kicked into the flow.

Managing to remove the splinter, he roles over finally letting out a sound. A deep gasp for air, and a sniffle of his nose. He held his stomach tightly as he just lay there in the sand doused with tear drenched blood, making the ground feel like a thick mud. His body was no longer the clean white it once was. Sand littered his body, except his stomach, where it was a bright red with patterns of maroon and pink.

"Very well," Red said leaving, "if you excuse me, I have some business I must attend to..."

"...What?" Arlon laughed. "Slow down there, kid. No, there isn't. Only an idiot would target our empires, so to speak. Hh. Not that I have a hoof in them. Only my mother knows I exist, knows my name."

"That's a relief," he replied, "but for now, we should make sure to stay alive if this pony really does matter to you,"

"'We?' You're kidding yourself." Arlon replied shortly, tossing back his mane wearily. The earth pony picked up the pace slightly, expression flat. This idle chatter had been amusing at best, but he had work to do.

---

Argaent eased up slightly, along with his headache.

Heh... heheh... it's all fine, everything is fine... just relax, reeelaax...

Patriatic picked up his pace and continued to follow, "Yes we. After all," he said, "if whoever kidnapped him has colleagues, you will need an ally of sorts. This pony could after all be stronger than you or be a unicorn and if your friend does die, I could help avenge you. After all, I would spend many a sleepless night if...anything unfortunate would to befall him,"

Arlon stopped abruptly, pinching a spot between his eyes. "You really don't get it, do you?" he asked, voice quite suddenly losing that cheerful tone that the earth pony maintained, opting for a cold edge. "There are no kidnappers after anyone. There never was, and I doubt there ever will be. Hell, I'm guessing you're the most likely candidate for that now." Arlon turned to face Patriatic. "Leave."

Patriatic stopped, "Very well then, enjoy your search, I'll be of doing things you couldn't care about..."

"Good." Arlon adopted that cheery tone again, though his expression remained cold. "I really don't. Good luck, regardless."

"Indeed," he replied going the opposite direction, "if we meet again I will resist interacting with you unless you need me,"

ooc: No popfizzfan4life your new character was not accepted, because I have plans for this area in the story and that character would make things difficult. jet-vac6000 please delete either your first or second post. It is not proper RP etiquette to post more than once in a row. Also you set your characters gender to male but you use she and her to describe said character. Please fix this to clear the confusion.

Dusty laughed at the situation "Darn and there I go thinkin' I was famous or somethin'." He turned back around and walked towards a cabin hidden among the trees. He turns his head back towards everypony else "Do not follow me" he said in a surprisingly serious tone for his usual character. Dusten then entered the building.

Jed let out a sigh "I can't believe he still doesn't understand...the value of a pony's life. I figured he would grow out of it." he turned to the others "Life is a precious commodity. You can't simply take another's, for even if they have wronged you they still have families he are waiting for them to come home. Life may be made of up of black and white, good and bad, but that does not mean it is not complicated." Jed lowered his head "I wish he would realize that. It would save lives."

---

A guard approached Sicolus and whispered something in his ear. "good, good. It's all coming together" he started to walk up the stairs "Come on S, I am about to get my wings back"

---

Dusten entered the dust covered room. It had probably been abandoned for years. He quickly looked around to see if anypony was there. As soon as he thought it was all clear he headed towards the pantry only to see a red stallion step in through a door near the food holder.

The earth pony had a desperate look in his eye and his hopes seemed to leap at the sight of the pantry only to fall again when he noticed Dusty. "please I don't want to fight" the stallion said "I need this". Dusty smirked and lowered his stance "If you don't want to fight than back outta here right now". "I can't do that" was the earth pony's reply.

Dusten made a quick leap for him and knocked the stallion to the ground. The tables where quickly turned as the pony flipped Dusty over taking him by surprise. The Stallion began slamming his hooves into Dusty. 'He fighting with so much spirit' Dusten thought in shock 'he doesn't even have a technique he is just really intent on winning this battle.'

The punches quickly stopped. A red liquid ran down Dusten's arm. The earth pony's face was filled with shock at the realization of being stabbed. Dusty gave a smirk of victory. The smirk distorted into an angry snarl as Dusten flipped the pony over yelling and stabbing continuously sending blood across his face and the walls.

"I am sorry" the stallion choked out, too low to hear, with tears in his eyes "I couldn't even take care of our daughter Stel-." He was silenced as the last breath left him and Dusty was left heaving.

A chill ran up Dusty's spine "oooh that's a feeling" he said to himself. He turned around opened the pantry and took out a key. He then made his way from where he came turning once more for the corpse "that's what you get, when you play the game."

Dusten stepped out of the door towards the others with fresh bruises and blood on his face "well that was fun" he showed off the key "now lets get us an amulet."

---

A purple filly appeared around a rock on Argaent's path "daddy are you back?" the little voice asked.

---

The bloody guard limped through Canterlot too tired to call out but too stubborn to lay down and quit. He was in the search of any lucky survivors.

OCC: Alright then

Barkis started to leave the stone lab, knowing Sic he would get the answers from Twilight and probably some other things he was to busy to care about, now that he had protection he felt safe and empowered, "How of many of you guards can come?" he asked turning his head back

Hellena remained silent, watching Dusty enter the cabin with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Bit ironic," Grey replied gruffly, flexing his neck muscles wearily, ears pricked for the echoed crashes from inside the building, silently wondering to himself what exactly was going on in there. "Telling us that, being... professionals n' all."

"No point deluding yourself anymore, Calibre." the mare called back. "Not fooling anyone. We're mercenaries. Murderers. Plain and simple."

"Hh, fine." the pegasus turned his head as Dusty came back out. "Sounded like it."

Patriatic had already left from where he was with Arlon and was heading towards the west, it was time he got a bounty hunter to work something out with him.

Argaent yelled out, startled, and inadvertently let off quite a powerful blast of magic at a dead tree. The sudden panic and subsequent surge of power did nothing more than aggravate the young stallion's headache.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry...!" his words ran into each other, Argaent backing up slightly. "Stupid, blasting everything you -agh- see..."

---

Arlon continued on his way north, towards the far edge of Ponyville. One particular shop of who he knew was owned by a rose grower caught his eye, not appearing in much better condition than the surrounding shops. However, after a quick investigation, he figured out that the property had been long vacated, that the dark grey mare who owned it wasn't present.

"Heh, should've known." he mused to no one in particular, shaking his head in good humour. "You wouldn't let something so pathetic as this do you in after all your grand endeavours, wouldn't you Jo?"

Patriatic stopped and remembered somepony from a while back, "I know...maybe Grey could be of some assistance..." he muttered

A flashing red light pulsed inside the guard's helmet, "Hm?" he looked up to it and brought the visor down again, "Play emergency message," he called out randomly from his flying form now in a more leading position in front of Raptor.

Raptor looked up slightly to the random voice call out, "What?" she figured he was talking to her like he had lost his mind.

"A Canterlot Royal Guard has sustained substantial wounds. Life expectancy without treatment is estimated to no higher than 20 hours if he is not attacked and squires water in 37 minutes."

"Show me his recent files, I need to see if he is worth a temporary abandonment of my mission," He used his eyes to slide the visual to only half the visor so he could see ahead.

Running over the file, "One camera has located him interacting with another pony. A member of the Zypher bloodline. Obviously in search of lost members, with audio confirmation. Though the guard does not really wish to be kept alive."

The guard slowed, "Well... If he chooses to fight only for as long as his own body can hold, I will not break his honor for selfless gain," he closed his eyes to the image of the guard, which made the visor deactivate and hide itself again. The forest was in sight now, and they had just passed the last building to the field just before Everfree.

Raptor looked into the forest, "Last time I was here, I left a timber wolf crying to mommy(wasn't sure whether to reference the Slendermane RP from Nyght or not)," she held a rather blank bored expression as they found the trees to be more lively than the village behind them, "I dont see how you expect this to be safer..."

--

S was holding and ax ready to bring it down on Twilight, more for a threatening pose than am actual strike, "Bout time," he dropped it behind him, throwing his hooves to table again, "I'll be back for you later princess," he hopped off and picked up the yellow striped orb Sicolus had tossed, "It's just so cute," he squeed slightly switching to his magic to hold it. Then his expression differed from his previously held pose, "Wait," he stopped, "Wings?" he shook it off and continued up behind Sicolus.

--

The guards, Torch and Cauldron, exited the doors, which then sealed behind them, "Sir," they held their left hooves up to their chests, bent in the ankle area to have their hooves touch their right forearms. Dropping them to the cloud ground, "Rainbow Dash will company us I presume," Torch added glancing at her quickly.

"She will be, she is our fastest, bravest flyer," the doctor replied walking over to her, "She is like a daughter to me, keep her safe."

"You speak as if you expect to not return," Cauldron commented looking between them, "You plan on returning, don't you Doctor?"

Red flew over Raptor and the guard and advanced in speed, They'll get a good scare out of this! he thought to himself

A red light beeped in again, "What now?" the visor slid down, giving a way point to the forrest.

"Current path will be disturbed by manticor, and Red has left the Factory premises. Last sighted heading to the east, camera had lost visual just two minutes ago," The visor slid away. The guard squinted with a thought that his gear was malfunctioning.

"Bring up alternate path through the forest," he commanded, and the visor slid back down quickly, making the guard jump in surprise, "What is up with this thing?" he stopped to take off his helmet. The helmet was long and loose in the neck area, which pulled the coverage over his neck, revealing two rows of curved dotted line scars. In the center was a metal plate, but the marks were very visible, "What?" he pulled open a small panel on the back, "Where did this come from," he raised the helmet up. The light catching a dark spider shaped chip that was connected to a few wires and a processor chip.

Red slowly started to charge up, then released all his pent-up power to unleash something sure to surprise Raptor, a Sonic Rainboom.

Luminia said nothing, the aging mare staring off into the nothing with a distant expression on her face.

Patriatic then formed a brand new idea, to gain protection he decided he would need and ally he could convince easily to help him. He remembered about Grey and though he never interacted with him, he would help him in his new plan, he then started to look for him.

OOC: 'easily' haha good luck with that.

Hellena snorted, though she still looked quite irritated. "Nice bruises. So, where now?"

OCC: I'll try, you don't know me like I do Reshiram, by the way where is Grey?

OOC: with hellena, dusty and jed quite a bit outside of ponyville (forgot which direction)

OCC: Good, then this is setting up to be one heck of a ride for us then

Patriatic then decided that he couldn't be here since it was obvious, so he decided to check somewhere else, outside of Ponyville, he started to soon run and gradually pick up speed.

Patriatic stopped and looked closely into the distance, if he was correct he saw three differnet shapes, one of whom could be his target, he moved in closer

The guard looked up when the boom spread into view(because there is no sound of it until it passes by), noticing the spec flying toward them. The shield flipped around, latching to his left arm, where he then planted the point into the ground, fairly deep too. Raptor hadn't noticed the boom in time, but the guard had already set up and wings out to the sides, locking with gears and pins. Why does he persist on following orders in this desolate land?

[The edit was removing the death of Red here, cause the speed of sound and a solid, non-moving object, do not mix well]

OCC: Crap, it's that powerful? That wasn't meant to kill him by the way

OCC: So Reshiram, are we ready for what we planned?

OOC: i'm just going to wait for sandman to respond here

OCC: Very well, we'll see if he has some good plans as well

Quote: popfizzfan4life

OCC: Crap, it's that powerful? That wasn't meant to kill him by the way

OOC: well at that speed someone is going to get killed, if not both of the participants. Do you know how fast you have to go to break the sound barrier? If it was just a flesh being going fast and they hit something, there will be quite a bit of damage to both parties.

OCC: Oh... well I didn't do much research on it and thought it was just a speed boost.

OOC: lol well now you know. A sonic-rainboom is the equestrian equivalent to a sonic boom, which is going roughly 7800 Miles/Hour, at which it gets much harder to accelerate. So yeah, it is quite fast.

OCC: Thanks for telling me

Red realized how fast he was going and tried to stop himself from getting killed, as he braked, he soon fell over and crashed into the ground

ooc: very sorry guys. There is a plan just not a good battery.

"I was just hoping somepony would take something out of it" Jed said with a small laugh noticing Dusten exiting the building.

Dusty stopped in his tracks a surprised look on his face "I forgot something." He quickly ran back into the building and then came out with a couple of saddlebags, a modified crossbow and a shovel "I am going to need this."

Dusten walked across the graveyard leaning the crossbow against a tombstone along the way until he reached a tombstone with one word scribed on it 'Petra'. He stood on his hind legs and used a mixture of his hooves and teeth to dig into the ground until he reached a small chest. He lifted it up and held it in front of him "finally" he said with a strange look in his eyes "it has been so long since I've seen this thing."

---

"just a couple" Sicolus answered Barkis. Sic gave some orders and several night guards flew off in a direction "we are following them S" he stated plainly. Sicolus turned his head back down the stair way "I will be back soon enough miss Sparkle then we can get working on that project."

---

The tiny filly squeaked in fear and ran back to her hiding spot behind the rock at the sight of Argaent destroying the tree. "p-p-please don't hurt me" she whimpered.

Barkis smiled at the night guards, "This is starting to turn into one good apocalypse," he said, "and I'm sure this going to be fun for us all,"

S1D3 made it to the top of the stairs to stop just next to Sicolus, The one with the plan, and I'm the one with the know how... Well... More know how anyway. He kept this thought from being shared by producing flashes of thought up images of fields and random carcasses with torn or otherwise removed body parts that had been tossed aside for either later use or for fun, "So what exactly did you have planned for this one?" the orb floated by, "You can't seriously be thinking of killing her. She is part of the elements. If the amulet is never to be found or taken by somepony else, what other powerful object could we acquire? Need I remind you of my specific set of skills?" the orb spun rapidly. Spots began to appear around it, four which produced a small screen showing the one contained inside, "If I could get them together and wearing their jewels, the purple one will think they can use them to get away. Once the process starts, at the peek of its power, I have a modified color extractor absorb the attack," he quickly had a set of figures spawn in his magic to demonstrate the idea, "But we'd need some place for it to go, and the only other magical gems I know of are those used by the corrupted king Sombra."

--

The Guard found that there was no collision, but the boom from the sound barrier break rushed by. He lifted away the shield shortly after it passed. Spotting Red who must have stopped and tumbled to avoid the catastrophic idea, "What do you think you are trying to do now? Seems to me like you dont know what you are doing. You could have killed yourself flying that low at such a speed," the shield was re-latched to the left wing, but stayed held out as a precaution.

Red tried to get up, but his front legs were broken, "S-sound barrier broken?" he asked, "h-how is that possible? And who are you?"

"I'm really - egh - sorry." Argaent said quickly, unable to suppress another groan. "Didn't see you there... startled me..." The silver unicorn drew closer somewhat hesitantly, ears pricked warily. Was that an explosion in the distance? "I'm not going to hurt you."

---

If he goes insane, I swear... Hellena thought, her ears flattening back slightly. It was likely that Grey, even in his blinded, 'weakened' state, was already considering how to kill this potential 'adversary'. Interesting, how just even the actions of the most self-guarded and wary ponies could become so predictable. It has been, what, eight years?

---



Even as Phosphora read through the files in the folder she herself condemned, she couldn't keep those words out.

'Little brother'? she thought, staring out over the lake. Beside her, a lamp she'd brought down with the beans flickered. Did I really write this? Never, never in all the twenty-two years since he's been alive, have I even given so much of an indication that I cared.

Something shook. A wire came down, flickering as the power within it died, coming to rest just above the water's surface. Phosphora winced, and she wasn't even sure if she knew why anymore.

Even then, it was just to get myself out of hot water. I didn't even have the inclination to help him.

Screaming. The voices present within the labs created an almost musical ambience, as they flickered and died. The constant numbers that were produced were dropping, the mistress didn't need to check the numbers to know that.

"No..." Phosphora moaned. Those screams didn't belong to a computer. They were almost bug-like, in a way, those shrieks...

Without further hesitation, the CEO shot up into the air, notes tucked to her chest tightly.

Patriatic approached them at last, "Aaw...you must be one of Grey's friends," he said greeting Hellena.

Hellena turned to face Patriatic, eyebrows furrowed. She didn't respond to the demeaning question, instead asking her own. "Who're you?"

"I am Patriatic Wentworth Gideon IV, you must be a colleague of mister Grey here," he responded approaching further.

"Uhhuh," Hellena tilted her head in an almost child-like manner. "why?"

"Didn't know my name was so widely known outside the greater Badlands area." Grey stated coldly.

---

The changelings streamed out of the tunnels, though they were naturally created over the centuries, they were lined with the near-sentient panels that they too seemed to favour over the natural rock. Resembling the changelings of Queen Chrysalis, this group that had numbered at about fifty were differing in colour, their colour schemes centring around yellow instead of teal.

The queen was nowhere to be seen, lost among the smoke and fire tumbling forth from her family's home. Only about ten other changelings remained, flitting about the air in a terrorfied daze.

Had I- Had I really forgotten about keeping them safe? Keeping her safe?

"Pharate!" Phosphora yelled out to one particular changeling she recognised. He shot back, startled. "Where is she?"

"I-" he managed to choke out in a strangled stutter. "I don't-"

"Where is Phora?!" the pegasus screamed shrilly, recoiling from the sudden pain at the utterance of the mare she herself was named after.

"Of course," he said, "you are after all a volatile and aggressive stallion. I'm surprised you've gone in a team with her, you seem like you could wipe out anypony on you're own,"

The Guard walked up to Red, placing the shield on his back again, sure this pony couldn't move in any attacking motion anyway. He leaned in to look into Red's eyes, "Hey R?" he said without turning around, "Could you be a friend and get my helmet please. I seem to have dropped it when I took a defensive formation."

"I'm not your damñ(lol) maid," she started walking off away from them, toward the tree line in particular, "Catch up when you can," she said dully again.("I do what I want")

The guard dropped his head with a sigh, "Hold on," he said softly to Red as he turned around to retrieve the bugged helm, "Now, lets get this thing out," he pulled his sword out with the clamp on his right hoof. With such an awkward angle it would be hard to pry the chip out without damaging anything else. Not able to see it very well from the lighting and the position, his eyes darted around, identifying his surroundings. He closed his left eye, and his right eye's iris light up a fluorescent blue. The pupil had little slide of metal and glass now, a cybernetic eye. Taking on night vision and magnified the sight on the part of interest. Flicking the sword side to side, then back, the black piece flung out of position and rattled into the casing of the helm. He quickly picked it up, after closing his right eye and reopening both eyes, turning brown again, shook the insect out. Pocketing it into a saddle bag, he turned back to Red, Raptor hadn't gotten too far, she seemed to have slowed her pace.

"Do you know who you are?" The guard returned a question to Red.

OOC: I'll be off for a few days, dont go too far guys

"Yeah," he replied trying to get up, "are you...the guard and Raptor? Oh crap this won't end well for me,"

"'Volatile and aggressive', right." Grey scratched at a spot under an eye, careful to avoid the numerous cuts that criss-crossed his face. "That's a first. I don't let my emotions get in the way of work."

"Think you got your mercs mixed up there, kid." Hellena smirked, drawing her axe from its holder along her back. She forced into the ground a few inches, enough so that she could lean much of her slight weight against it without the weapon giving way. Despite the faint smile the mare displayed, her orange eyes carried a wary mistrust of this stranger.