But all is not well in Hoofington (A MLP FiM Rp, 3 slots open, PM GM if interested.)

[hiei82]

Bookworm shrugged and moved on. "So if you could call an incarnation of a constellation, who would you call? Draco? Cancer? Hercu-colt? Libra? What would Libra even do - measure things? Do you think Libra would be good at measuring anything other then weight? If Libra is so important, then logically Libra could beat Draco - so how would a scale beat a dragon? It would have to tip the scales in its favor..." Bookworm started saying, no end in sight.

What could she say; she was curious.

 

[Orinon]

"I, well, Just because I learned Constellations could be used to summon astral entities doesn't mean I know everything. I heard stories about this stuff but I never knew the specifics, I had heard stories of Unicorns controlling magic creatures that existed as constellations but I didn't know how they did it, it would require a lot of testing to learn this, and We don't really have the time for me to try and call down a set of scales."
Midnight was a bit stressed out, Bookworm meant no harm but that didn't mean her questions didn't irritate him, mostly because it was reminding him of how little he understood.

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork was listening to the conversation between Midnight and Bookworm about astral creatures and he then remembered the names of two of them. "What about Canis Major and Minor?" Gearwork asked.

Both Bookworm and Midnight looked at him a little confused. "Well, wouldn't the most obivious choice to fight an astral feline, be an astral dog?" Gearwork asked "The only problem is that we would most likely have to summon both to gain any advantage against her astral creature." Gearwork said. "I still have the scrolls that my mother gave to me, I haven't really anytime to have read them, and when I did I forgot. Let's see what there is, maps, armor, stones, Aha! there, we could use this right now." Gearwork pulled out an ancient scroll, even older than the others and handed it to Midnight. "It looks like a spell to summon an astral creature, but I can't really tell what the creature would be. I think it might be a spell to summon another Leo of some sort, possibly a Leo Major. If it is, I hope we can control it."

 

[Orinon]

Midnight looked at this ancient scroll
"This is odd this scroll is old, All the sealed scroll were created at the same time, which means this scroll has been sealed before the others were."
Midnight began to ponder, this spell had been sealed before the Unicorns had quit the use of shouting meaning this shout, whatever it was, was deemed too dangerous to be used.
He managed to open the scroll and read without speaking the words of power.
He studied them for a long time, until he realized it's use.
"This doesn't summon a creature, Remember how the the tribes suffered a blizzard? well at the time the clear sky's shout wasn't working, they obviously were attempting a different shout however shouts aren't easily changed, you can't predict the effects of a shout even with knowledge of the words of power, this was an attempt to bring forth the sun to end the winter, I It may be useful, you see like the stars the creatures disappear at night, if this shout could call the sun it could stop any astral creature. but it could be dangerous, I would guess that this shout was never used.

 

[hiei82]

Seeing the old scroll, Bookworm was reminded of the their original intent in going to Canterlot;Elements and Armor. Returning to the book, she began to read in earnest, and with a speed only a writer could manage. After a few dozen pages, she turned up to the group, shaking her head. "I don't know where you got the older book, but it has a lot of problems in it." she said, not realizing it was one of Midnights family ancestors who wrote it. "It's filled with spelling errors, and grammatical problems." she continued, unimpressed with the old copy.

"It doesn't even make sense; the author manages to use litotes, catachresis, and anacoluthon correctly' even manages to use apophasis, which I'm terrible at - though I digress; I don't mean to speak of my writing." she said, going on a slight tangent and laughing a little at her little joke that she knew few would get. "Anyway; but after using all those techniques well, to prove purposes, he misspells the easiest words in the most bizarre locations."

Holding up a copy of the book, it quickly became clear what Bookworm was speaking of. Simple words, like "The" and "Its" were horribly misspelled or misused throughout the page. Continuing her analysis, she added, "What more, the newer copy is penned by the same author - you can tell by the writing style if you look at the "Y"'s - but the author names are completely different and all the words are spelled right. If I didn't know any better, I'd say your copy Midnight is a rough draft, but that wouldn't explain the change in pen-name." she said, without hesitation, building up her confusion.

"...unless it's really a book-cypher, this author is a hack." she finished, putting down the older copy without a second thought and returning to the much easier to read copy she had found.

"Good penmanship though" she grudgingly admitted after a few seconds.

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork was about to correct Bookworm that it was his ancestor that wrote the book, but thought otherwise. At that moment it was trivial and not that important, they had other matters at hand. Bookworm was correct though, it was written in a cipher, which could only be deciphered by some of the scrolls that Gearwork's mother had given him along with the book. He planned on working on deciphering it when he and the others arrived back in Hoofington, but having Bookworm working on it now changed his plans and he decided to help her out with it.

He took the older book along with some of the scrolls that came along with it. He also took out a quill and a small bottle ink along with a few pieces of blank paper. He held up quill and the old scrolls and started looking at the old tome and immediately started writing down corrections to it, and he soon realized that the tome was giving him coordinates to the vaults and he immediately took out a map of Equestria and started circling where the places that the coordinates pointed to and soon recognized a few places that he knew. It also showed a few places that the group would have a hard time getting to, and even greater risk leaving. He recognized that one of the vaults was right in the middle of Changling territory and another was somewhere in Ghastly Gorge. He then notices something that was puzzling, one of the vaults was in the Everfree forest, but in the same place as the old palace ruins. 'It would make some sense,' Gearwork then thought 'that the vaults would be built over, since they were built before the princesses arrived.' The next place he circled on the map was near Hoofington, deep somewhere in the mines. "Perfect timing" Gearwork said with a slight smirk "We're almost there now."

The others looked up at Gearwork, a little confused by what he said. He then showed the others the map with the places on the map that supposedly showed where the vaults were. Bookworm gave him a dirty look, annoyed by the fact that he had deciphered part of the book so quickly, and also that the version she was reading didn't give her any hints of the locations of the vaults. He then heard Rarity suddenly gasp and cry out "No, not there! Anywhere, but there!" Gearwork, confused, looked at the place she was pointing to and saw that it was in the middle of nowhere. Even more confused by her reaction Gearwork asked "Why is Rarity acting like that and pointing to a spot that is in the middle of nowhere?"

Spike was the first to respond and answered "It's a place that my friends and I have been to before. It's where the Diamond Dogs live. They kidnapped Rarity and forced her to find gems for them, and they also tried making the others work for them as well. Rarity somehow made them want to get rid of her, and also gave her alot of gems as a price for her leaving." Gearwork listened and already started thinking of ways of negotiating with them. He could build something that would mine gems for them, if that didn't work Rarity could get them to agree.

He then pointed to the spot on the map that showed the Hoofington mines and said "This should be our first stop. I know the mines fairly well and it should be fairly easy to that vault."

Unbeknownst to Gearwork and the others, they were being tracked.

 

[Orinon]

Midnight listened to all this while he had his own while his mind was on contemplation.
In truth Midnight felt like they were trying to be in two worlds at once, they were learning of the world in the past learning it';s secrets and going to those places, but they were in the present which was different, he felt a sudden sympathy for Luna, her situation was almost like their own, she had been gone for one thousand years, things had changed, and what they were searching for was in a place that was not the same as it had been thousands of years ago.
"Gearworks"
"Yes Midnight?"
"The spell that Dusk shadow used to make herself immortal, i think she still has it."
"Yes, likely why do you ask."
"The scroll is undoubtedly a shout, I need you t promise me something."
"Sure anything."
"Don't let me use it, Don't let me touch it, I can't even see it understand."
"I think your getting a little too-"
"I AM NOT, listen to me, that shout it is not a gift it's a curse, I can't have that shout, I can't ever know those words, Please don't let me see that scroll for if I were to somehow gaze upon it, I'd be lost I'd forever be tempted to have it to use it, never, no matter what I plead, never let me see it, Destroy it so when I grow old and feeble I can;t in weakness use that cursed shout to prolong my life. I can't allow myself to live forever and I can't let myself be tempted, so please, never tempt me with that scroll, never, never allow me to use that spell, because while I might intend to use it for great good, I would end up causing horrible pain."

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork looked at Midnight with complete understanding, he knew that immortality was not a blessing, but a curse disguised as one. "I understand, Midnight." he said, "A spell like that should have never come into being. I once heard somepony say "That the greatest curse is often disguised as the greatest blessing, and that is immortality." I would like to destroy it as soon as we get it. It should never be used again."

Gearwork then thought about how young Dusk-Shadow had looked and realized that there may be a secondary shout, one that reversed age, a fountain of youth spell. He then looked back at Midnight and said "Midnight, I think that there might be a second spell to that immortality spell. The immortality spell would guarantee that one would never die, but it probably wouldn't stop you from aging. Even if you were immortal but you continued to age. After maybe 200 years, you would become unable to do anything but exist. So there might be a second spell, one that would make you young again. That could explain why Dusk-Shadow looked so young, I don't think that she was just a filly when she was recruited by Dark-Eclipse, and became her second-in-command, she must have been older and used that spell to make herself young again."

 

[Orinon]

Midnight considered this.
"That's possible however that spell is likely to not be a shout, Shouting is very powerful, but limited, as the shout must be made of words of power, and all three words must correlate properly, to reverse aging is likely a construct of the second language, like the spell i used to weaken those unicorns magic, those weren't ancient words of power. I suspect Dusk shadow did the same. I also think Dusk-Shadow proposed the idea to Dark Eclipse, Ancient Pegasi aren't fond of magic, she was likely persuaded by Dusk-Shadow with promises of power."

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork listened and understood what Midnight said. He thought about it and wondered what other types of spells could be created by such means. 'Most likely nothing good, if Dusk-Shadow is the one creating them, or forcing other unicorns to create them.' Gearwork thought. "I'm glad that we have some knowledge on some of those types of spells. With that we have a chance of besting her on the same playing field.'

Gearwork started augmenting the new set of wings, the one made out of dark iron. He decided that adding a few gemstones to it would make it easier and faster for him to grab and use if he needed to. He decided to add seven stones to it; an emerald, a sapphire, a ruby, a light-stone, an onyx, and a spell-stone placed in the center. The last stone he decided, with much difficulty, to use a stone that he would only use as a last resort. It was a black spinel, a black stone that a depth to it, and seemed to hold an abyss within it. He knew that if he had to use it, it would be only when he was the last one standing. Each stone he used, had an elemental ability to it; water (sapphire), fire (ruby), light (light-stone), earth (onyx), healing (emerald), and an amplifier (spell-stone) if needed. The black spinel's element was still pretty much unknown to him, he had never used it's ability before, he never needed to. He just knew that it was to be used as a last resort.

 

[Orinon]

Midnight looked at Gearwork's redesigned set of wings.
"Is that Dark Iron lighter? I assume you design requires it to be light and making it heavier, even to make it stronger, would hamper the ability to fly.

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork looked up at Midnight and answered "Dark Iron is incredibly light and extremely strong and durable. It's lighter than anything that I've used before. The only negative thing about it is that it's incredibly hard to mold, even with my magic. The only way I could actually shape and form it was to hold a spell-stone to amplify my magic so I could. I created this piece while you were sleeping, and it took a little longer than it would normally would if I were to create a normal set of wings. The Dark Iron is a metal that my ancestor created, and I'm pretty sure that the sets of armor were made out of it."

Gearwork knew that there were to be more challenges ahead and if he could would make a set of wings for everyone in the group. Gearwork then continued "Whenever I have any spare time I could try and create a set of Dark Iron wings for everyone in our group who can't fly. I'll even add a slight ornamental designs in the metal for whoever wants it. I will not do requests if there are changes in the design of it. Since we have about an hour until we reach Hoofington, I'll start making a few sets. They won't be finished by the time we get there, but they will be soon enough." Gearwork then pulled out a spell-stone and placed it next to him, he then pulled out quite a few sheets of Dark Iron and started shaping the metal. Gearwork would place a hoof on the stone for a moment and then remove it, absorbing enough energy so he could easily shape the metal but not enough to energy overpower him.

 

[Orinon]

Midnight listened to Gearworks explanation.
"that's all very possible, I'm going to look in my library for any boook that might have a hint on where to find certain shouts, There may be a clue with this old scroll, as well as the use being able to make the sun rise.

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork said to Midnight "That's a good idea. I also that maybe you should grab a few spells for us to learn just in case you're not around or are unable to cast a spell. We should be able have some knowledge of those spells, if in the off chance we're caught off-guard, and we are by ourselves. But, if we do learn any of those spells, I believe that they should be strictly defensive, to avoid any sort of corruption among us. I don't want the burden of them knowing a spell that could have potentially disastrous consequences if used wrong. I already have my stones and I know how to cast with them, but the others are defenseless. They need to learn a protection spell."

Gearwork started to work on the incomplete set of Dark Iron wings that he was already constructing, and this set was for Midnight. He decided to put compartments that would be able to house a few scrolls and keep them protected as well as being easy to access, if one was wearing the set, as well as reciting a small phrase that would unlock the small compartments. He also made sure that these were placed in a way so that they would not hinder the user when the wings were being used. He also decided to add to each set a unique ornamental pattern so that they wouldn't be mistaken for another set. He unfurled one wing and looked at the pattern. It was a pattern that he had created when he was very young, it was very angular and looked like jumble of lines when looked at closely, but it became a much more elegant pattern when seen from a distance. He had changed it slightly over the years and it was now more elegant at a closer distance. He decided that the design he would put on this set would be something that looked like constellations, and on the compartments he decided to put definite constellation patterns each one different on each compartment.

 

[Orinon]

Trixie was looking at the scrolls
"Gear works, Are you suggesting Midnight teach the other unicorns how to shout? He can barely understand it himself."
"My student is right, The most I could do is teach you the secondary words of power but I don't know how it works, the words just come to me. However I can teach you some older spells, not the ancient shouting magic but simply spells that are so old many unicorns have forgotten them."

 

[Korak the Mad]

"I meant any sort of defense spell: shouts, secondary words of power, anything that can protect us against those ancient spells. I figured that it would almost be impossible to learn the shouts, but if there is a chance that we could use one, we should at least try." Gearwork replied.

The group soon arrived back in Hoofington and they exited Trixie's caravan which was now near the observatory. Gearwork had already put his things away before the caravan slowed down, grabbed everything that he had brought with him. He held the bags containing the ancient scrolls and pieces of Dark Iron in a telekinetic grip and slung the unfinished set wings over his back. He already put the original "Elements and Armor" in his saddlebags and said. "I'm heading over to my workshop. I want to finish the set of wings, as well as find anything that we can use for spells. I want to separate them from the other scrolls that aren't spells. I will bring them back over here as soon as I'm done." With saying that, Gearwork headed to his workshop.

As Gearwork walked he started thinking of what the group would do first. Would they immediately try and get to vault that was lying so very close to town, or would they stay a little while to try to learn some new spells. He arrived at his workshop and cleared off a large table and hung a few light-stone lanterns up and opened them to illuminate the workspace. He took out the scrolls and started sorting them, and soon recognized a pattern; the scrolls that contained spells looked slightly different than the scrolls that didn't. When he was just about finished with his sorting, he emptied what was left in the bag of scrolls when he saw what looked like a canister. He put it aside to finish sorting the scrolls.

When he finished he decided to give that canister a closer look. It was quite interesting, it looked as though it was made from both metal and black diamonds. 'This must be incredibly important or powerful,' Gearwork thought 'if it was locked away like this, in a canister that is designed to be unbreakable.' He then looked at the locking mechanism and saw that it was incredibly intricate. "Midnight will want to see this." Gearwork said as he started heading back to the observatory with the spells.

 

[Orinon]

Midnight Trixie and Twilight were in the observatory looking through the many books and scrolls in Midnight's library
Twilight was surprised how easily midnight found the items it took him only a moment
"How are you doing that so quickly?" she asked
"Doing what?"
"Finding every book and scroll, I'm always looking for my things."
"Really How so? like I put everything away myself, Trixie knows my system since she's studied under me, but I organize and put everything away on my own so I know where everything is."
"Oh" twilight blushed a bit.
"Whats wrong?" asked Trixie.
"Twilight needs me to find everything for her, mostly because I'm always putting her books away." Spike told Trixie.

by the time Gearworks had arrive midnight had a large pile of books, Gearworks looked at one it looked like an ancient journal with a leather cover and the two edges tied with a leather cord, but when he untied the cord he saw the pages were not a proper book, they were different sizes and not stuck by any means to the leather.
"What is this? who wrote this, and why didn't they take better care to make their pages stay together?"
"That is what I call a compilation Notebook, many unicorns experimented with their magic, but of course they didn't use books they would use a pile of scrolls, my family has acquired many of these and have put ones of similar subjects in the same stack so they used that leather as a holder."
Midnight walked over and looked at the papers Gearworks had opened.
"Interesting this is a notebook of many works on Magical fluctuation."
"Say what?"
"Have you ever noticed many unicorns seem to have irregularities in magic? some days they can't use much magic and on others they can do it all day, ever notice how it's never a shock to them? they have explanations: I always feel slower on Tuesdays, the first Fridays is always my lucky day, I can never cast a spell on a rainy day, I'm just better in the summer. these notes essentially take note in how whenever a unicorns magic is abnormal, the subject usually is aware of it and can pinpoint a pattern.
they went into trying to find possible causes for these patterns there's many factors, but in general there's no universal cause for magic fluctuations, for example My family has always had our magic effected by the moon, where it is and it's cycles always effect us, however Trixie's magic is more in tune with the weather and her mood, weather was the best I could use because her mood was often affected by her magic and the weather so that made it hard as a reference,, in fact that was common among many of these papers.
and the most interesting was done by one pony who experimented around and looked where the rest didn't, Fillies and colts."
"What? why look at babies?"
"Simple, baby unicorns are always prone to random bursts of magic, the actual burst they cant control, they can control their magic during a burst, but it's not until they's a few years old that they can call raw magic at will. The researcher looked at several babies and made sue to not of any burst and looked at conditions: weather, time of day, moods, all of that and you know what he found?"
"What?"
"Absolutely no pattern whatsoever, baby unicorns have no pattern it's not until they get older that a pattern emerges."

as he ranted a strange shadow seemed to be approaching.
"uh Midnight." Gearworks tried
suddenly Spike jumped up and screamed he bolted away and hid behind twilight
"Something touched my tail."
the strange shape came out of the shadows it was a bizarre creature it was a mostly rounded sphere like body, with dark green skin, a single purple ey in the center of the head and a mouth that was closed, at the top were eight tentacle like stalks that ended in a yellow eyes the eyes looked around
"Oh that's my pet Aznoth, Don't worry he's perfectly tame, he won't bite."
Spike got closer,
"heh-heh, You just surprised me, you ain't scarier than me I'm a dragon" he flexed showed his tiny claws and teeth. Aznoth's lips parted showing very large teeth, spike backed away again
"Oh Spike, there's nothing to be afraid of," "Right" Twilight asked Midnight a bit worried.
"Aznoth is a rare creature called a beholder, they tend to live alone and amass large amounts of knowledge and bit of treasure, in some instances they're more impressive than a Dragons hoard.
"What Dragons have massive caves of jewels."
"Yes but they're valued on their shininess, hardness or how rare t is. a Beholder's treasure is based on how it relates to knowledge in magic or history.
As an example, The unicorn king held a scepter, a golden rod topped with a fire ruby. to a dragon it'd be lying the fire ruby likely eaten and now being used a a scratching stick, a Beholder would never defile such a treasured artifact, rumor has it a beholder actually stole the scepter because it learned some dragon planed on stealing it.

 

[Korak the Mad]

Gearwork thought about what Midnight said about magical irregularities, that patterns only emerged after a few years. 'It would make sense that patterns would appear around the same time a personality would be forming as well. The patterns would revolve around that pony's personality as well as heritage.' Gearwork thought to himself, he had noticed that on certain days it would seem that he had almost no magic. It also seemed to be tied with his emotion, when he got angry, his magic would become erratic, and when he finally snapped and let it go, it would be weaker at first but gain strength and be more controlled later on. He also noticed that his magic was strongest, when he was around nature and it would become slightly weaker when he was in cities, that was one reason he always had a few gemstones with him, as a focusing point for him.

He then noticed the pet that Midnight had. A "Beholder" Midnight called it. He listened to what it did, how it would preserve old and sacred things, and he realized that this being was an archivist of sorts. He respected that sort of thing, anything that would preserve ancient pieces, he would treat with respect.

He started going over different spells that could be used for defense, and there were a few that seemed akin to what he was looking for. There were a few that would be used that could be used to create a defensive barriers, there were also a couple of spells that could be used that would surround a pony in a protective field of magic like armor, the only disadvantage is that it could only be used for a short period of time and completely drain the caster of their magic for the next few days.

He then noticed a spell that would be perfect for fighting other unicorns, and would allow minimal expenditure of magic for the caster. It was be spell that would deflect another spell and return it to the original caster, at full strength. He looked over the spell and made sure that he would remember it. He hoped that it would be powerful enough to deflect spells as powerful as shouts, but if not, it would still be a good spell to know. He motioned to Midnight, Trixie, Rarity, and Twilight over and showed them the spell.

Gearwork then took out the canister made from metal and black diamonds, and examined the locking mechanism, it was designed to be opened only by somepony who was akin to how mechanisms worked. He closed his eyes and his horn glowed as he started moving the metal in the lock very carefully to ensure that he didn't accidentally seal the container permanently. After a half hour of focusing on unlocking the canister, it finally unlocked and Gearwork pulled out what it contained.

There were a few things it contained, one was a note that read To the one who was unsealed this container, let it be known that this message was created by both Metalmind and Silverhoof, and that only one who is skilled in metallurgy as well as knowing gems hidden attributes should be allowed to use these following spells.

Gearwork then pulled out multiple scrolls, each with a different spell. One spell caught his attention; it was a spell to create Dark Iron, as well as other types of metal as well. Most of the other spells were spells that focused gemstones, as he read the gemstone attributes and spells, he learned that each stone had multiple spells to them. He saw that multiple lightstones could be used to create a barrier or cage of light. Emeralds, besides from healing, could be used to grow vines or trees very quickly, but took a lot of magic to do so.

 

[Orinon]

Trixie read and re-read the spells, she had trained under Midnight who merely needed to glance at the spells to refresh his memory, Twilight studied them rarity did he best to read and understand Midnight's neat cursive but it was tricky.
"Very well, this should do but we'll need practice, Aznoth might be able to assist if we have a lace to train."

 

[Orinon]

Trixie though for a moment
"Wait, we practiced inside the caves plenty of times, but I don't remember Aznoth ever helping during practice except maybe organize your notes."
Midnight smirked
"Ah yes Aznoth like many beholders is capable of magic but it can be dangerous, I had decided it wouldn't be necessary to have Aznoth help you train, the risk wasn't needed at the time."
Midnight stated putting the useful notes and spells in book bags along with parchment and quills, he also took a map of the caves.
"Lets go down to the mines, I may want to take a look."