Mansion on Haunted Hill [Closed]

Dash paused at the threshold of the door. Everypony else was being silent, and now it seemed like they were heading in, with no plan, with inadequate weaponry, in the bucking DARK. He tightened his grip slightly on the mouthgrip of his .45 auto pistol and move forward as well, staying as stealthy as he could as well. He could hardly see anything, so he stuck near the group and in sight of the light spells he could see coming from around the corner.

(Sneak 75, following the others toward the light. (NOOO!))

[Library Group]

As the group moved through the library, they started running into problems, literally. First, Trails' hoof knocked into a desk that he couldn't see in the darkness. Dash brushed against a chair, which leaned slightly, causing its aging frame to creak. Kestrel's talons clicked against an area of marble flooring, and finally Ale didn't suppress his hoofsteps enough. Out of the corner of his sharp eyes, Kestrel saw something to his group's left flank, near Dash. Even with his highly tuned eyes and sharp mind, what he saw looked barely anything more than like a strange group of shadows that defied the way the light from Cuppa and Sooth's spells were bouncing around the Library. Whatever it was quickly retreated into the aisle of bookcases it had been in.

All these sounds reached the ears of the now hyper-attentive Cuppa Beans. However, some of the sounds didn't reach Sooth, who's head was still slightly ringing from the roaring shot of the Casull as well as the shock the recoil had sent through him. He had never actually fired a weapon like it, and had been unprepared for the intensity. However, the sound of a hoof bumping against something near the entrance to the Library alerted him, "Yes that seems like a plan... I didn't quite remember the bookshelves being in this sort of arrangemen-... Did... You just hear something?... In the Library main room?" Sooth asked Cuppa. Shortly after that as well,

Cuppa: Detected Dash, Ale, Trails and Kestrel

Sooth: Detected Trails

Kestrel: Detected... something.

[Lightning]

Lightning's continuous beating managed to get the book off his hoof. Thin red cuts, left by the hungry book, in his leg soon thereafter began to slowly produce blood. It hurt like Tartarus, but the blue Pegasus would live. He then brought up his pistol and fired.

The pistol he knew and loved didn't fail him as he finished off the book he had gotten off his hoof and the other two he fired at. With his last shot, the aisle of books went quiet, the chattering of posessed books no longer filling the space. Then, all the books he had fought suddenly melted into a sort of black tar substance which then ran to one side of the aisle, opposite Lightning. The tar-like substance combined and then formed itself into yet another book, only much larger and with some sort of arcane symbol on its blank, white cover and back. However, this one did not instantly spring to life, hungry for the pegasi's flesh. It laid there dormant, or at least appeared to, for the time being.

Lightning sighed and took a look at his hoof which had some blood starting to come to the surface of his skin. "I'll get a bandage for this later," he would say to himself before picking up his disabled .45 Auto and put it away. His head would snap up when the books seemed to melt into a strange black liquid and form into a larger book, one with a symbol on it's cover. The pegasus narrowed his eyes and with a small limp, slowly approached the book, pistol up and ready. If it dared come to life and try to gnaw his face off, he would leap backwards and use his wings to propel himself in a backflip. Then he would engage his target and make sure he added this book to his kill count. If not, he would slowly extend his left hoof and open the book.

(If book comes to life, dodge/backflip out of the way, 8 AP)

(Then fire .45 pistol x4, Roll Bonus: 65, 36 AP)

(Total: 44/47 AP)

Cuppa's head snapped round to the sounds of movement near the entrance, bringing the light of her magic to try and reveal what was over there. "Ah heard it too, Sooth. Ah think it might be t' others, sounds too clumsy in the dark fer any o' yer ghosts." She explained. The clacking of the talons was most likely Kestrel, there were also hoofsteps and the sounds of a creaky chair.

"Kes? That you an' the others?" She asked loudly in the direction of the entrance as she started to move over. "Follow me, Sooth, at least we'll have more numbers in case summint happens... But we still need t' find Flash."

The massive griffon being called out had frowned a bit at the sudden clacking of his talons. Sloppy. He'd have to work on that later when he had time. For the moment he could stand to reveal himself though.

"Yeah. We were coming to check something, picked up the pace when we heard the Casull." He called out his eyes scanning the darnkess once more as he did so. His searching paid off, there, in the shadows, something lurked.

Cocking back the hammer on his pistol Kestrel took aim at the mysterious blob and prepared to fire if necessary.

"Company, in between the shelves." Kes announced loud enough for all to hear, keeping his gaze trained on the area the blob vanished into.

If it appeared again, it'd be getting a quick double tap to whatever it called a face.

(Searcing for Blobby McGee, will fire twice if located. Otherwise on guard and dodging like a baws)

Ale winced when trails and dash bumped into things. "Why can't anypony ever be stealthy?" He asked himself, clearly biased to his own hoof steps. When Cuppa called out he would also reply. "We're all here beans. Is our "gracious" hosts with you?"

Then kes announced trouble. "Great." He muttered under his breath. "Alright group up everypony...and griffin." Ale said as he lite his own horn up with an illumination spell. Surrounding the group in an aura if light. He then cast a second spell, sending a small orb of light in between the bookshelves where kes pointed out the possible hostile.

(Casting two light spells: One personal spell to illuminasate the group and nearby area. A Second cast into the book shelves to find flubber.
PER-7 looking for blob. Guns-60 Do what kes said.)

Dash blew a bit of air out of his nose when it was clear that they hadn't been stealthy enough. Although he was still having doubts about whether or not Sooth Sight had anything to do with this all, he didn't like it that he had failed at something, "Yeah, we're here." Dash said, confirming his presence, "Wait... You said Lightning's gone missing?" he then asked, concerned.

However, the train of thought was cut off as Kestrel announced that they had something else in the Library with them other than the two groups. Dash drew in a breath of courage to oust his fear. Whatever was in here with them might have Lightning. As always, Dash had that feeling that he had failed enough ponies in his life that pushed him onward to help his friend.

Dash moved with the group, sticking near the front.

(Guns 100, keeping an eye out for whatever it was)

[Lightning]

As the young blue Pegasus approached the book, the book stayed as nothing more than a large, dark-covered book. The book seemed like it would not suddenly go on the attack, so Lightning decided to open it. The sight of what was on the page he opened it to was like nothing he had ever seen before. Jagged runes in a language not listed in any database were scrawled about a series of arcane diagrams. Since he was a Pegasus, Lightning likely had not seen very many spell books, but he was pretty sure the ones he had seen even looked anything like this.

Spoiler:

The center rune on the left page kept drawing Lightning's eyes for some reason. And the more times he looked at it, the harder it was to look away to other parts of the two pages. When he looked at it, he could hear his own heartbeat and faint whispering. The longer he looked at it, his heartbeat grew louder and the whispering, still seemingly incoherent nonsense. Seemed to be coming from all the walls, and even the ceiling and the floor. Soon, they began to form words that Lightning could understand...

"Portal..." "Portal..." "Prophecy..."
"Yes, the portal..." "Return..."
"Open..." "Portal..." "Open..."
"Defend..." "Prophecy..." "Portal..."

Although the book seemed to be almost keeping him from looking away in any way or form, Lightning still felt that he could close the book at any time. But the feeling was beginning to fade.

[Library Group]

Sooth looked in the direction of the others, "Ah, Sirs Kestrel, Happy Trails, Galactic Dash and Ginger Ale. A pleasure to see you all once again. But as you can see. Something here is... Amiss. I apologize for the scare earlier, I believed I had spotted somethi-..." Sooth cut himself off as Kestrel announced that there infact was something in here with them.

"Goodness, there is?" Sooth said worriedly, "Well, I suppose our first order of business should be finding Sir Lightning Flash. Lady Cuppa, do you believe you could still carry out the teleportation reconnaissance of our mystery room here?"

As Dash, Ale and Kestrel began their sweep of the Library, they were greeted by nothing but darkness that wasn't in the line of Ale's light spell. A feeling of unease fell over them, like on some other level they knew that something powerful and malevolent was nearby. Then, they heard the sound of the main door to the Library slamming shut.

Cuppa gave a brief nod upon being asked if their hosts were here. "Only Sooth Sight is, ah'm guessin' that Bane Silver is still in her room." She said moments before Kes announced that they had company, causing her to look around in corncern. What a time for everypony to encounter something.

And then Sooth asked Cuppa a question, causing her to look towards him. "Uhh... Ah guess ah could, ah'll need a moment thought." She replied, jumping a little at the slam of the door. "Watch yerselves, ah'm gonna try an' get t' Flash an' bring 'im right back." She said with enough volume for the others to hear before her horn flared brightly.

The location she was picturing to get to Flash? The stallion's backside was the last thing she saw when he went round a corner, so why not use that as a sort of anchor for the spell?

Regardless, she went through the steps of the spell as carefully as she had the first time to ensure success. But this time, she wanted to see if she could linger in that weird magical limbo a bit longer than before, perhaps that might gift her with some insight on the situation in the library.

Granted, the brown mare already knew that wasn't how the spell worked, so she was only hoping for the spell to be successful in getting her to Flash, however inappropriate the location may be.

(Magic 66, using Flash's plot as a location to teleport to.)

Lightning, seeing how the book wasn't about to gnaw his face off, opened the book carefully. As he looked at it, he could tell it was some kind of unicorn book. Probably magic stuff. As the pegasus continued to gaze at it, he began to look at it in more detail, looking at the writing. However, before long, the look of the center rune began to captivate him.

It...was...so...interesting...The...world...slowly...began...to...fade...around...him...What...was...this...book?...The...whispering...seemed...faint...yet...so...close...SLAM! Lightning managed to regain control of his limbs and shut the book with surprising speed, panting a bit from his creepy experience with the book. "What the hell was that...?"

His thoughts were soon scattered as a red unicorn suddenly appeared out of thin air and fell right on his...flank. Lightning would fall over in surprise as one, he did not expect that Cuppa was going to literally drop in on him. And two, how in the hell did she find him?! Letting out a groan, Lightning slowly forced his body up, regardless if Cuppa got off of him or not, "Oww! That wasn't fun..." Turning towards her, he scoffed in mock anger though he was still sarcastic, "Took you long enough. I had to fight off books while you were gone." He chuckled a little then turned more serious, "How did you find me? How did you get in here? And another good question, how are we getting out?"

The spell seemed to be working, Cuppa was definitely not where she was before, when suddenly she felt herself land literally right on Lightning's rear end which resulted in a heap of confused pony.

As Flash questioned how she got here, Cuppa rubbed her slightly aching horn and looked up at Flash. "Th' only way ah'm willin' t' explain this is, because magic. Now, ah've gotta get you outta here, cause ah dunno if ya realised, but we've got company on th' other side o' those shelves, did ya not hear Sooth's Casull? Or even hear me an' Sooth callin' fer ya? We didn't hear nuthin' from ya." She added afterwards as she rose to her hooves, having just gotten closer to a stallions backside than she'd have preferred given the situation.

Then she saw the book and raised a brow. "Wha's that book?" The mare asked, looking at it curiously as it laid there.

"Good at least we have the gentelstallion with us." Ale thought when sooth's presence was stated. He still was suspicious of their host. But the fact that he was locked in with them put a little bit into his innocence in the matter. "Wait, locked?" Sure enough the main entrance to the library had closed and now there was no way out. And that thing was still in here. "Circle formation everypony. Cover every angle, that thing is still lurking." Ale commanded as he turned to cover one side.

(PER-7 Looking for flubber in the northern section of the library. Double tap the problem if it arises.)

"Oh come on..." Dash said as he heard the door slam. He looked around nervously, "Is there anything in this house that can't be warped to Tartarus!?" He formed up with the others, looking over as Cuppa teleported into some unseen room in search of Lightning. He hoped she found him, but if she did, they might still be all trapped in the Library... Wait... Cuppa teleported!? Dash looked to everypony and griffon else, "Was... Cuppa always able to teleport like that?" Dash asked. He knew this might not be the best time to be bringing this up, but the only other pony he knew who could teleport was Cross Roads.

The mention that Winter was missing as well was brought up in Dash's mind when he thought of this. Both were good friends of his, and he didn't want to lose either of them. It seemed like all he could do right now for them, however, was survive.

Unlike Dash, Kestrel didn't see Cuppa's ability to teleport as a major surprise...of course that was probably because the griffon was currently scanning the surroundings for any threats.

There was little else he could do at the moment. To dark to read, and interrogating Sooth was out of the question until things calmed down.

Damn house.

(Same move as always.)

Lightning nodded slightly and took a glance around. "Well, I am glad you all did not forget me. I did not know we had anypony on the other side. I can't hear anything outside these shelves. Except for when that Casull went off. I heard that one." The pegasus took another look around and he would say, "Didn't you hear me shooting as well? I'm not sure if you can tell but I have some serious paper cuts on my hoof." He held up his injured hoof and chuckled a little. "Perhaps a bandage to stop the bleeding please?"

When Cuppa asked about the book, his face turned into a frown. "I don't know. But all I know that it is some kind of unicorn magic and it doesn't feel good. I can't explain how but it just doesn't feel right. It's almost...evil...Don't touch it...not yet."

Trails didn't bat an eyelash at Cuppa's sudden ability to teleport, his mind was elsewhere. Namely he was more concerned about where the other half of their hosting party was, and what they were up to. At this point the stallion's commitment to his conspiracy theory was borderline obsessive behavior, and no doubt aggravating to any rational thinking pony sold on the superstition, but he was a practical pony, and hauntings aren't practical.

"Let's not get too jumpy." Trails said, acting as the voice of reason. "Hyping ourselves up aint gonna accomplish anything."

Cuppa frowned at the book in worry as Lightning explained what he thought it was. "Right....." She then looked to Lightning's Hoof and gave a nod. "Alright, ah'll jus' wrap it up an ya should be fine." She said.

Then retrieving a bandage and ushering for Flash to raise his hoof, Cuppa wrapped the bandage around his cut hoof after disinfecting it with a small dab of medicinal alcohol.

Once she was done, she stood back up and looked at the book again. "Ya really think it's unicorn magic? Maybe ah should check, jus' in case it ain't. Ah mean, can ya tell if summint's unicorn magic or not?"

[Ale, Dash, Trails and Kestrel]

Sooth Sight waited worriedly, his Casull hovering beside him idly in his magical grip. He looked over to the group beside him. A thought he just had coming to mind, "Lady Cuppa Beans surely by now would have found Sir Lightning Flash." He said. For now, the Library continued to be pitch black and silent aside from the actions and words of the ponies and griffon near the of group of enclosed bookshelves.

Then suddenly, Dash was swept off his hooves by seemingly nothing and began to be dragged away into darkness. However, the purely reactive and instinctual struggles the charcoal Pegasi immediately put up seemed to ward whatever it had been off. Dash soon found himself back in control of his own movement. This instantly alerted everypony else to the event as well. As everpony focused in, they saw their assailant. What they saw now standing Dash was a spindly, humanoid creature, darkly colored like the shadows around it. It looked more or less like the Plant Demon-things Kestrel has seen in the Greenhouse.

The creature, aggravated that Dash had managed to shake off its grip, then brought a dark claw down on the Pegasus. The strike hit Dash in the side, horribly scratching the Pegasi's hide.

(Dash's HP: 220/265, knocked down)

Dash knew he was in trouble the moment he felt something hit his legs. With how quickly he began to be dragged away, Dash began to panic, "Gah! No nononononono! Oh Goddesses!!" He cried out and frantically flailed his hooves and wings around in the dark and finally felt himself be free from whatever it was that had been dragging him away to a likely dismal fate, 'Thank you, Celestia and Luna, thank you.' Dash thought in the moment of peace he had.

Then his side went alight in pain and Dash yelled once again. He had seemed to have been able to keep his gun up until now, so Dash immediately brought it out and looked toward his assailant, not bothering to gather who or what it was. He just open fired when he saw something that didn't look like a bookcase infront of him. He then tried to get up and sprint away.

(Guns 100, 27 AP firing .45 auto pistol at the creature 3 times)
(15 AP, getting up and sprinting away)

Lightning watched as Cuppa pulled out the bandages to wrap up his hoof, "Thank you." He winced a little from the alcohol burning his hoof but he took it in stride and just waited for the unicorn to finish her work. After the red pony finished, he took a glance at the book at well, pausing, "No, don't touch it...there's some kind of strange symbol on the inside...and when I stared at it, it made me feel as if I am losing control of my own body. I could also hear strange whispering but it all stopped once I slammed the book shut. I don't like it, whatever it is."

Lightning would then walk up to the bookshelves and say, "So you managed to teleport through these? Then maybe I can knock them down and regroup with the others." With that said, the blue Pegasus threw his back hooves up in a buck, attempting to kick down the bookshelf.

(Bucking the bookshelf x11, 44 AP)

(Total: 44/47 AP)

The instant Dash started screaming Kes took action, pulling around and taking aim directly at the offending creatures body. Strange...it looked a lot like the ones down in the Greenhouse had. A few minor differences, this one being a bit more...spidily than the last.

Hopefully it'd die just the same.

(Taking aim, firing four times. Guns 100.)

Ale instantly reacted when dash started screaming like a school filly. His horn flaring up as he sent the light spell towards the pegasus's assailant, hopefully blinding the creature as well as giving the group a better idea of what they where fighting. Once the creature was illuminated he would aim for what could be considered a head and firing upon it.

(Guns-60, Firing 4 shots at spindly mane's head. 32/36 AP used.)

Just as Trails was about to groan in irritation at Soothe's insistence on calling everypony "Sir This" or "Lady That" he was cut off by a sudden change in his peripheral vision. As Dash struggled and bucked the large earth pony snapped his gun up from the low and ready position he kept it, straining his eyes for a target. Slowly the figure became clear against the backdrop of shadow, prompting him to calmly squeeze the trigger three times aimed at the thing's chest.

(three shots with .45)

[Ale, Dash, Trails and Kestrel]

The spindly creature would definitely not be getting its charcoal-colored Pegasi prey today, nor any other day, for that matter. For the group of more worldly beings opened up on the creature in an absolutely withering hail of bullets that would make a Steel Ranger blush. Each shot put into the creature shattered whatever it hit, leaving it as a scattering of dark splinters that vanished into the darkness. As the echoes of the last shot finished, the lights in the Library flickered back on.

"Goodness!" Sooth cried. Having barely had time to turn around before the more wasteland-acquainted ponies and griffon had assessed and dealt with the attacker, "By the Sisters! What was that, was-?..." He saw that although the Stableton ponies and griffon had fired so much, that it looked like only one bullet had gone astray, hitting the floor and cracking some marble tiling. Also on the floor was blood from Galactic Dash who was now next to the group, having scrambled away after firing.

[Lightning and Cuppa]

Lightning bucked the bookshelf, again, and again, and again. Unfortunately, it seemed as if the shelf was firmly attached to the floor. And even if it weren't, it had to have weighed thousands of pounds with all the books on it as well as the durable hardwood it was made from. However, on the opposite side the bookshelf, the group who had just defeated the spindly creature in the Library beyond heard 11 distinct hard knocks against the bookshelf they had been situated near. Although the dark forces in the Library had abated for now, it seemed. The trap Lightning and Cuppa were in still seemed to persist.

Dash gritted his teeth as pain once again shot through his side. Thank the goddesses his wing hadn't been folded there. He drew in his breath and grunted slightly. He kept his left wing extended to keep it from brushing against the wound and causing more pain, and turned around to see if the creature was still there or not. He was able to see that it wasn't just a few seconds before the lights came back on, foring the pony to bring up a hoof to shield his eyes, "Th-thanks everypony." Dash said, "I.. I don't even want to think about what that... thing would have done to me."