To restore or forsake the past (Game B)

snow desided to take a little look around letting lightning deal with the mysterious mare.

lightning curiously approached the mare. "sena... how long have you been down here and what do you mean by resident district 9?" she looked the mare up and and smiled "we owe you many thanks and i wish to learn more about you, you definitely are something special or at least intriguing.. dont worry sena, you have earnt my respect and more than that you have shown compassion as our company said so let it be know you are to be kept safe"

The colt nodded to Dark's offer and struggled a bit to get up, an act that would likely be assisted by possibly several of the ponies in the room. Soon enough though, he was holding on tightly with the un-bandaged hoof while the other was held close to his chest, and nodding to signal he was ready to go.

Both Sena and the colt reacted to Sophie's sudden appearance, but in fairly different ways. The colt hid his face as Verde brandished her weapons, while Sena just watched with her wide curious eyes. Her blank expression bouncing back and forth between the 3 ponies as they conversed, at least until Lightning approached her and began an inquiry. "I do no know," was the first answer to the question about how long she'd been here. "And this area is district nine, that is what sign said," she replied while pointing to an overhanging sign back in the hallway that overlooked one of the collapsed passages. Among the smudges, it did in fact say "DISTRICT NINE", and while there was the evidence of other words being there at one time, time had scuffed them away to nothing.

As the situation seemed to resolve, Sena gave a parting smile to Lightning before turning her attention back to the rest of the group. "We are leaving now, yes?" She asked curiously. "Going up? Oh, I need to get things," she stated suddenly while rushing back to the shack to root through it briefly. A moment later, she emerged from the pile of stuff with an ancient looking, but reinforced pair of saddlebags that were bulging with who-knew-what, a couple of weird looking hoof bracers that had blatant tech to them, and her goggles were pulled back over her eyes. "I am ready nows, we go?" Sena asked beaming in excitement and prepared to follow the group then and there with as big a smile as she could manage.

Sophie rolls her eyes. "You can relax, whatever your name is. I am merely glad that I will be able to carry out the wishes of what I assume was a relative of Sena's. Her father, grandfather, or uncle. He expressed a desire for me to protect her, which I intend to carry out. Seeing as we both wish to do so, I propose our argument cease. I .. apologize if I have roused your ire."

Sophie begins walking slowly towards Sena, but stops a moment and turns back. "And do forgive me for not entirely trusting you. Simple logical deduction is all very well and good, but I see no reason why I should not back enforce it with direct proof if I can do so with little difficulty."
With that parting barb, Sophie walks up to look over Sena. A frown quickly forms as she notices the bracers. Pointing to them, she speaks to Sena directly. "You will need to hoof those over to the nearest Historia Derelicta outpost if we get out of here. They are quite obviously tech, and would get you arrested in short order."

when sena reappeared her eyes beamed at the tech and the development of more mystery. she held herself back alittle to avoid seeming to excited and then approached the mare. "may i see one of those braces? they seem very interesting and.. may be VERY important" she inquired walking up to her "and do you have anything else in there?" hearing what sophie said lightning spoke out. "actually, thats sort of a point you could get arrested, so ill look after them for you ok, me and snow will hold onto your tech that way you don't have to loose them, and then you can tell me all about them."

while lightning did this snow returned from behind  the group and stood beside lightning infront of sena

Dark helped the colt onto his back then looked over at Sophie, Charm, and Verde as they talked. He blinked at the weapon wielding unicorn for a moment before taking an unconscious step back. He turned his gaze to the sign Sena had talked about and raised an eyebrow. Well that didn't really answer much for him. He frowned only slightly as he started to walk towards the exit of the building. He then paused when Sena came back with hoof braces on. He stared at her for a moment eyes going down to the braces. He then looked over at Sophia. Is she...O' course she is... He then looked back at Sena and Lightning warily. Sure he was quite curious about it, but since there was a Historia pony in the room at the moment he made sure his curiosity didn't show on his face or body language. "Ah'm just gonna go on ahead." He said out loud as he continued towards the exit. He did not want to stay in that room at that moment especially with the colt on his back.

"Are you not Historia?" Verde asks as she takes up position near the colt draped on Dark's back, prepared to help steady him in case he starts to slip. "I'm surprised that if you take the trouble to follow us down here, you intend far more than to fret over spirits. Are you an explorer, or are you a pony of good character and came down after us to see to the well-being of this colt?" She sighs and shakes her head. "I somewhat hope that you're not... however I obey them, tis difficult to love the idea of blindly destroying any product of pony creativity, intellect, and industry."

Sena wasn't sure what was going on, but apparently her bracers were causing a problem and she had to shake her head towards Lightning's inquiry. Her eyes drifted up to the goggles that were also fairly blatantly advanced and with a bit of a sigh, she slowly slid all the bracers and the goggles off. Then the articles were levitated to Lightning so she could keep them 'safe'. "We go now?" Sena asked again with that slight accent while taking some tentative steps towards one of the improvised bridges that the group had used to get here.

"Please, I want to go home now," the colt said from Dark's back. Said colt had finally poked his head back out of the stallion's mane when the sounds of clashing metal didn't erupt.

Back topside, the hole was still being avoided by anything in the area, and as such travel back to the village wouldn't be difficult and likely done quickly. The colt would even go the extra measure of providing directions towards his house as the group traveled back to the town.

As the group heads to the main tunnels, Charm followed, lagging behind. Biting her lip, she mulled over everything that had just happened. She was speechless. Not only was she probably no longer trusted among the few that had bothered to converse with her, but this weird Thing, whatever she was, was going with them. She didn't trust Sena one bit. And it wasn't just because of what she'd seen on the Astral Plane. No, that wasn't even a reason. Rather, an excuse to make it easier for her to distance herself from the strange pony.

The real reason was because of what had happened the last time she'd chosen to trust somepony. Somepony she'd really looked up to. Somepony who'd dumped her with her current servants. Whether the event in itself was a blessing or a curse didn't matter, but she would NOT make the same mistake again.

She didn't look where she was going until she bumped into Sophie. Peering ahead, she realized that they had already reached the main entrance, the hole they had come through. She found Dark stretching his wings and readying himself to fly, Verde whirling out her machete and cutting in hoofholds.

Suddenly, Andatime and Cibeo flared to life, shaking and fluttering fiercely. Charm got the message. "STOP!" she yelled as she ran to the front of the group. "We can't leave yet!"

Sophie tosses her head. "I do work for Historia, and I do mean well. Spirits come first though, else I would be questioning this soulless, if adorable discovery about the tech. Regardless, I will have to report it." She snorts at Verde's comment about creativity, clearly amused. "Nearly every spirit I have encountered from that age expresses regrets over their foolishness. Even the makers of these items hate them, the only people who could truly understand any hidden depths or beauty in them. If they cannot offer any course other than the destruction of their creations, then how could you? Or anyone else that matter? Don't pretend like the majority of the populous could get very far without killing themselves, and potentially many others. These things are dangerous, and need to be carefully wiped out. Not only do we have accounts of their creators, but we have firsthand experience, we being the Historia in general. If you wish to fault our reasoning, please come up with a better argument than 'it's such a shame to destroy works of art'. Art can be very dangerous. A well made sword could be considered art, but I doubt that the poor soul whose body just got skewered feels that way, save in special circumstances that are not relevant to this issue."
She turns to Lightning, having caught her conversation with Sena. Her voice takes on an authoritative tone, speaking as an actual Historia soldier. "Actually citizen, it would be best if you left them here, so that the Historia team in charge of destroying them will be able to account for all items."
As the party approaches, Attrition slinks off to the side of one of the rocks, hoping to avoid detection. She would follow behind Sophie once the party left, or would've had Sophie not halted in alarm as the spirits in Darkcharm's possession suddenly became agitated.
"What is wrong?" Sophie says, on edge but restraining the urge to demand. Verde seemed quite protective after all.

"sure thing you just go with snow here and she'll get you out of here" lightning said with a smile ignoring for the most part sophie."don't you worry though miss, ill be right with you theres alittle more id like to search before leaving." lightning ushed snow and sena ahead of her so she left after all else had left, leaving lightning behind. lightning took a quick analysis of the area and room waiting until the last ponie left, staying quiet as she put the tech into her saddle bag deeply so as to it not being easily found, she then locked her bag and caught up to snow.

when they caught up to the rest snow and lightning simply watched the scene charm made unfold.

"Mmm...Aye. Ah want t' get back too." Dark said to the colt when he poked his head out of his mane. Even that little display brought a smile to the acting pegasus. He continued onward towards the hole they had went down to get there, keeping his eyes and ears open. He listened to the conversations going on behind them but pretended not to be listening, or even be concerned with anything. He nearly squinted his eyes when he swore he saw something move by a few rocks but simply shrugged it off as his mind playing tricks on him. He was also rather shifty due to there being a Historia pony with them all, but he didn't show it one bit. None at all. When they got to the hole, he was preparing to fly out of the hole with the colt on his back when Darkcharm yelled from them to stop. He raised an eyebrow at her as he backed up a step or two. "Err...And why can't we? Ah'm certain this here colt on mah back wants t' get home mighty badly." He said, glancing back at said colt.

Sophie frowns as Lightning appears to completely ignore her. In addition, Lightning seemed a bit...suspicious. She walks out, but quickly confers with Attrition over their link.
"He completely ignored you?" "Aye. then grabbed as much of the filly's tech as he could, or was about to. I suspect a Phoenix." "Agreed. Shall I watch him?" "Nay, let the spirit do it. Join the group with me, I miss you by my side. We shall have the spirit watch him." "As you wish."
Sophie quickly recalls the spirit, setting it to watch over Lightning as Attrition comes out of cover and walks alongside her.
Attrition gives a friendly nuzzle to her longtime friend and partner. "Missed me already?"
Sophie shakes her head, grinning."Not on your life. Let's see what all the fuss is about." Sophie says, nodding to Darkcharm. she had noticed the mare's spirits becoming agitated, and the filly's sudden outburst confirmed it.

"Just hang on a minute, alright?" Charm huffed at Dark, annoyed at this stallion who was continuously objecting her. "I want to check on something."

She took in deep breaths, then climbed a few hoofholds before stopping. I am ready, she told her spirits.

Her horn lit up, the black aura glimmered brighter and brighter until it turned silver, then almost white. She held for a few minutes. Finally, she let it down as she began to sweat. She'd seen as much as she'd had to. Unfortunately, she slipped.

"WHO-OA!" she yelped as she landed with a painful thud. "I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, raising a hoof as Verde rushed over to help her. Funny, after the incident earlier in that "district", she thought the mare had wanted nothing more to do with her.

"All of you, listen," Charm huffed. "There isn't anything out there that'll used brute force--THAT'S the problem. The moment everyone gets out of this hole, we have to run, FAST." Eyeing Sena warily, she continued. "We don't need anymore Unquiet Psyches trying to get to us." No wonder the hills had felt so weird when she'd first come here.

As the group climbed out, she Spiritually Spake to Andatime and Cibeo. Set off your Darke Auras. We must run into the least amount of obstacles as possible.

lightning and snow turned to sena, lightning spoke "would you like us to fly you up there, it would be no trouble" lightning said as the two unfurled her wings and stretched them out ready to fly up and out. taking heed of what charm said, lightning was acting really rather fidgety simply wanting to leave and avoid whatever she was talking about.

Sophie sidles up next to Lightning, regarding her carefully. "No need to rush. It would probably be better if you stayed in with us, at least until she explains what we're dealing with. Oh, you did but the tech back like I asked, right? I only mention this because you never acknowledged you'd heard a word I said, and it would be an awful shame if we got all the way back to civilization only to find you had tried to keep it." Sophie growled. She wasn't quite sure about Lightning. Yet. Not sure enough to outright arrest her anyways, or report her to her superiors. But she was suspicious. And concerned, for that matter. As nice as it would be to move up in the Historia by "discovering a Phoenix tech lover", neither she not Attrition took pleasure if condemning ponies to such punishment. Sophie sincerely hoped she was wrong about Lightning. Either way, the mare would get a chance to prove it, Sophie had seen to that. She would not assume the worst, not while there was still a chance it was her own paranoia, or an innocent misunderstanding.

"uh um.. ok then.. fine." she said to sophie looking towards charm. "and yes, sorry" she spoke again "I got a little caught up in my own little world, heh, sorry, that and I'm not really good with orders hehe, snow can tell you that for nothing" she said thinking about getting a cold one at the inn in town.

snow watched the surroundings including, snow was a careful character to approach and she wasn't going to trust anyone she didn't know, including sena for now here best bet is to watch peoples magic and there actions.

"I see no purpose in attempting to argue with you, milady, but all that is dangerous in the world is not defeated by ignorance," Verde says to Sophie. "If you have ever seen a mechanical timepiece, seen a dozen minuscule gears whirling and twitching in precisely the right way such that it will move a bit of metal a certain distance in a certain time, you can know that with extreme creativity and extreme skill come extreme intricacy, and from this comes an exponentially greater likelihood that the simple way will only cause a far greater dangers. Just as you cannot dismantle an intricate but dangerously flawed thought unless you understand it and understand its flaw, we cannot protect the ordinary pony from intricate magicks and runescribed devices unless their meaning is made plain to us through consideration, study, and experimental duplication. That these things must be destroyed is not the question but, rather, will we bend such things to our own purposes, to become wiser and wiser with every device we find, dismantle, and neutralize? Will we capture these evil things intact and learn their secrets, the better to undermine and destroy them? For there will come a day when we plumb deeper than we ever have before and find ourselves faced with the epitome of all that we loath, and fear, and know to be the root of another apocalypse. And that root will be full of evil genius, intricate, impossibly complex and thus impossibly dangerous and if we find ourselves ignorant and unwise, we may find ourselves the ones that history will remember as the fools that struck the match of a greater holocaust than before, and all the more contemptible for the fact that we were trying to destroy the device rather than the world."

She smiles a little. "Fear not that my dedication to Historia wavers just because I suggest a way to more safely and thoroughly complete our mission than simply lashing out and smashing, and hoping that that will be enough." And then Charm warns them that once they escape the hole, they must run for their safety, and she looks to the filly. "Then run we shall, so long as we safeguard this colt. All will be for nothing if we lose sight of protecting the innocent, and we might as well stand and let the evil overtake us if we fail in that one thing. For I shall not be the one to tell a child that we let her brother die because we lacked the zeal to shield him and bring him safely to her again. There is no purpose in anything, whether the mission of Historia generally or our own specifically, if we cannot see to that most basic of duties. So if you will, Miss Charm, lead on and tell us what else we must do, if anything at all."

Sena and the colt just stared blankly at all the conversation that went back and forth. Sena thought that a few of them seemed to be almost arguing or attacking each other, but was ultimately just confused by it all. So much so that she barely even registered Charm's warning and just simply continued progressing towards the hole.

The colt however was still just on Dark's back and watching things go on before nudging Dark a little. "Can I go home now?" he asked quietly into Dark's ear.

From Sena's perspective, there wasn't anything around the opening and she began to climb the rocks to reach the surface. If and when any of the others reached the top, they wouldn't see anything around the entrance that wasn't already there.

Dark just stared blankly at the other ponies. Oh how he was so confused by them. He was especially confused by that little filly. "Uh huh..." He said blankly before shaking his head. Whatever they were talking about, it flew way over his head. He was brought out of his blanky stare when he felt a nudge from the colt on his back. He looked back at him and smiled. "Uh huh. Ya sure can." He spread his wings and flew up out of the hole, looking around. He didn't see anything at all. He hummed a bit before shrugging. "Make sure ya hold on as best as ya can, kid. Ah don't want ya fallin' off. And err...Where's yer home?" He said as he flew towards the town at a brisk but slow pace. He really didn't want the colt to fall off so a slow pace would suffice.

lightning and snow noticed the absence of sena and seeing where she went of to the swiftly flew up to her and followed her. lightning looked around for the supposed danger and seeing not much lightning sighed but still for safety she encouraged sena and snow to move quicker just in case there was a threat.

"Hullo?! You need to move FASTER!" Charm growled as she headbutted into Dark's legs. This stallion was beginning to get on her nerves.

"I'll explain everything when we get back," she huffed. "But right now, PLEASE go to where you all just came from!"

Andatime's and Cibeo's Auras darkened. She found the ones who were accustomed to working with spirits (like Sophie) shying away from her. She sighed. Of course. Of course no one would want to stick to a filly with such Darke servants.

Sophie glares at Lightning, but moves away from her, grumbling. To Verde's argument, she shrugs ambivalently. "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you are not. Regardless, I think here is not the opportune time to discuss such things. Perhaps we should wait until we return to the down, at which point we can get very drunk and debate philosophy? We could call it a date?" She says, grinning. Attrition huffs grumpily, but turns away before Sophie can see.
Sophie calls ahead to Darkcharm. "Lead the way then, filly! Since you appear to have spotted something that I have missed, the task of navigation now falls on your admittedly diminutive shoulders!"

"A date." Verde gives her a very level look. "To get plastered and attempt to be coherent." She taps her chin thoughtfully as she contemplates the offer, before shrugging. "I see no reason why not. A good stiff drink would be appropriate celebration of the fact that we shall fulfill our word and bring anew a child to his frightened sister. And attractive company while you drink can never go entirely amiss, however complicated it may become."
She, too, looks ahead to where Darkcharm is urging them to go faster and smiles despite herself. "You know, I'm starting to become rather attached to that little scrap of filly," she says to Sophie as she picks up the pace. "She has boldness and sass far outside her tiny and rather adorable proportions."

The trek back to the town was largely uneventful, though as the group passed the halfway point, there was something of a rumbling far off in the distance, but too far to really draw much attention. Especially compared to the sudden scene of the colt scrambling off of Star's back, and then scampering along the path once the village gates came into view. At them was the familiar sight of the little filly from before and a pair of older ponies, who's connection was soon confirmed by the colt's happy cries of 'mom', and 'dad'.

When the colt reached them, he was heartily scooped up, and the small family shared a tight embrace, full of happy tears, sweet and comforting murmurings, and promises to never do this kind of thing again. The scene drew a curious look from Sena, who took a hesitant step forward and then smiled sweetly at it. "We did a good thing, didn't we?" she asked the group rhetorically before moving with them into the town itself. Upon entering the town at the later hour though, evening had set in and with it was the evening rush, meaning the streets were busy and many ponies were out and about, some rather constantly bumping into each other.

"Ah, there you two are," called out a pony in armor and proudly sporting the badge of an officer of the Derelicta. "There's some new orders for you, come with me," the stallion bellowed as he led Attrition and Sophie away from the group. As for the rest of the group, more ponies continued to jostle them in the crowded scene until eventually Sena pointed towards where a lot of them seemed to be going towards, the tavern.

"Should we go there?" Sena asked curiously while already taking the first few steps towards it.

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Lolk has informed me that they wish to leave this RP, and have done so.

Dark sighed as Darkcharm headbutted his leg. "Fine. If this colt falls off mah back though, ah'm blamin' it on you." He said as he picked up his pace, though...even then it was still slow. He was never really known for being a fast flier. When they got close to the town and the colt on his back was trying to scramble off his back, Dark landed on the ground and lowered himself, helping the colt a little. He watched the colt as he ran back to his family with a smile. "Aye. We did." He said to Sena, looking around the town.

He grumbled a little as ponies bumped into him and sighed. Nothing could be done after all. He looked over at Sena then over at the tavern. "Ah could use a drink right now..." He said before shrugging. He opened his saddle bags for a moment and read a piece of paper quickly before closing it. He sighed again, shaking his head. "Ya'll can go t' the tavern if ya want. Ah have something ah need t' do. " He said as he turned and started heading west, hoping none of them would follow him.