Temple Run

It was a lovely sunny day in Equestria, the birds were chirping, the clouds parted just right, and the air smelled of summer as the ponies danced and played on the warm beaches. Unfortunately for a particular trio, they were not in Equestria. Nor was it sunny or happy weather. Instead, the troupe of adventures were stuck on a rickety boat on a winding jungle river while rain poured down on them from the angry clouds above. These three had been hired by a charismatic old college history professor(who had an amazing hat) to track down some old ruins and retrieve a fabled artifact from within. He had told them that it would be very dangerous and to keep their wits about them while inside, for there could be any number of traps hidden within the ruins of theae old temples.

The boat came to a stop at the shore, the driver urging the passengers to get off, saying he would go no further. The first to get off was the chipper young earth pony, Cynder. A fair young maiden of golden fur which turned to black at her forearms and hands. Her short hair was ash black, with a red strip down rhe middle. She wore a light set of leather armor atop a tan blouse and dark green cargo pants. Her boots squelched in the mud and she groaned at the miserable atmosphere. "Why did it have to rain?" She whines, hefting her oversized greatsword over her shoulder and strapping it down.

((New adventure, start!))

Shortly after, an older looking and somewhat short Unicorn had his horn shine as he stood and got off to walk with bare hooves on the water and sand right after Cynder; Aside from his visible horn and face, the rest he wore was a long blue robe and a yellow pointed hat that seemed to ward off the rain and cold well. "Why did you not bring a cape then? I can still lend you one of mine if you want." Sugary teased lightly as he then extended a white hand from his long sleeve and began to cast a shine ahead of them to light the way. "And hey, you all set back there?" He'd calmly wait on their third companion.

pyro was the last one siting in the boat, a Human who is curently very wet and soggy from the rainy weather, his blue hoodie and red t-shirt and black trousers now darkend by the rain while his backpack and his little bag hanging by his side are protected from the rain by being coverd by plastic.

He looks defenceless att first glance but he has some pieces of armor on him that are invissible, just so that he would not intimidate the normaly cowardly pony population of equestria and with a bit of preparation he disembarked the boat, only to stumble a bit and fall into the mud with a grunt. "im all set....bah!" he said from the muddy ground.

Cynder eeped and helped pyro out of the mud. "I sure hope these ruins are dry..." She says, pulling her own hood over her heard. "We're supposed to follow the path, right?" She looks around, quickly spotting the parting in the thick brush that formed into a dirt path. After making sure Pyro was standing, she decided to take the lead down the way, holding the sides of her hood a bit miserably.

It wouldn't take long before she reeled back in surprise as something dropped from the trees, stopping mid-air to dangle with a rattle in front of her. The item in question was a bundle of skulls, all tied together as a warning to intrusive adventures. "Lovely..."

Sugary let out a light chuckle and then sighed at the sight of Pyro falling, humming a tune that might be more chipper than the weather around them. "Things can only look up from here I suppose. So I say this is a sign of good luck!" He meant it too; Not a hint of sarcasm in his voice as they moved on. The rain should help wash the sand and mud off after all.

At the dangling skulls, he let out a short snort, and then approached as he grabbed a stick and began poking them with it lightly. "Hey, we're on the right track...! Or we're heading down a very awful route. Either way though... We're all still marching on, yes?" He looked to his companions to see their mood, light still shining ahead past the skulls. He seemed rather calm about things.

After reciving help upp from the mud, pyro marched on wards with his fellow companions on the road now coverd in mud and overheard what cynder said, also hopeing that the temple would be dry enough to dry himself from the cold water in his clothes.

Att the dangling skulls,  pyro took a step backwards as they appeared,  not realy expecting something like that would happen untill he responded to the unicorns question " Yes,  lets move i want to keep my heat upp untill we reach the temple before i set upp shop, and before i freeze to much" he said and started to walk upp the one path they could see.

Cynder let out a reluctant whimper as she pressed forward, shivering a little from the cold of the rain. She took point down the path, her hand gettinf friendly with the hilt of her greatsword. They would come across other similar warnings as well, skulls and bones arranged in a threatening manner. Surprisingly soon, the group would come to a stone archway, covered in vines and vegetation.

Cynder looked at it, the opening dark and ominous. "Finally! Someplace dry!" She says, running for the entrance and standing in the archeway. She shakes her head and removes her hood, ringing it out and letting it drip onto the stone floor.

Sugary continued to light the path, ever vigilant for anything else that came from around, but also getting a slight chuckle from the skeleton warnings popping once in a while. "Goodness... Either someone's watching our every move before releasing them, or we're threading on a haunted resting place..." He hummed thoughtfully. "... Maybe I shouldn't have poked those skulls from earlier so much. Oh well..."

Once they got under cover from rain proper, he thought to give a different sort of service with his magic as he grinned broadly while watching Cynder dry herself off crudely. "Hey, keep doing exactly what you're doing! I got something special for ya both!" He'd leave a ball of light floating above him, and then after extending both arms, he conjured wind and a LOT of warmth upon the three of them, drying them off like a walking talking, and fortunately less noisy, hairdryer!

With the appearance of more skeletal warnings coming down on them, pyro thought that the skeletal wards were coming down to the group because of them treading on hidden preasure plates or something similar and snorted about sugary comment about the place being haunted but didint rule out the posibility of something native following them to the temple.

As he then later saw cynder and sugary run to the stone archway, he immidetly follwed them to finally get a restspot and get himself dry, though as sugary did his spell to dry them all, pyro felt much better as he felt the warmth and the dryness of his clothes now isolate him from the cold humid jungle air from around the cover "So i guess we rest here a bit before going out there again? " he asked, hoping to get some rest after the long walk upp untill now.

Cynder looked at Sugary curiosly as he informed she and Pyro to keep drying themselves. Then she yelped, suddenly hit by the blast of warm air that dried her off rather quickly. Pyro might not have been effected, by Cynder's fur puffed up, making her much fluffier than she was before. "Uggghhh." She says, trying to defluff herself. "She looks around the archeway, peering into the darkness of the entrance and wandering inside a little. With one step, her foot sinks an inch and then suddenly, light! Torches lit themselves, revealing how long the entrance really was, a long set of stairs running deep into the ground.

Pyro went closer to cynder as she turned on the lights to the staircase down and stared down. "Thats a long way down underground, do you think there is a main hall down there so i can set upp shop for us?" He asks, pointing to his backpack as he started to take some steps down the stairs carefully

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad. Nice and comfy I'd say." He smiled as Cynder moved about undoing the fluff, and though he kept the light above him moving to prevent the darkness from being too overwhelming, the sudden appearance of the torches made him dispel the light. "Ah, excellent discovery!"

The stallion then began to conjure ice on the palm of his hand as his horn shined blue. Afterwards, he rolled the ice ball down the stairs, just to get an idea of how far down the echoes went. He kept both ears sharp ahead. "Here's hoping we don't go so far south we end up setting shop in Tartarus..."

Sugary's ball of ice would roll and tumble down the stairs, the sound echoing through the staircase as it got further and further down. Soon it reached the end and rolled on and out of sight, the sound of the echoes soon ending as well. Cynder slumped and started to walk carefully down the steps, drawing her sword cautiously as she walked. "This place is spooky..."

Sugary was pleased to know the stairs had a notable ending below, and so he kept walking at a steady pace with contentment. He then rose a curious brow at Cynder, and tried to be reassuring. "I take it you're not especially used to facing against Supernatural beings? Here's one bit of advice then: Always keep strong to your convictions. Some ghouls just plain take pleasure in seeing the will of others crumble; Even if your blade can't pierce their form, you should at least avoid being overcome with their burdened souls..." He then chuckled, looking at her blade. "But I think you got enough swing and steel there to cut even the strings of fate. You'll be fine."

Pyro went down the stairs a bit quicker than his companions and was ahead off them and while he passed them, he did overhear sugary's Little speech about the supernatural as he tried to calm cynder down.

pyro apporached the end of the staircase, hoping it would be the main hub of the temple that would be connected to several passages inside, though he did slow down a bit and summoned a large Tower shield from a rune he held in his hand while reaching the end.

Cynder didn't find too much comfort in Sugary's words. "W-Wait! We're gonna fihht ghosts?!" She says, looking at him wide eyed. Her hands quivered a bit, causing her sword to rattle. She gulped and whined, following down the stairs cautiously as the staircase started to get wider at the bottom.

Once at the bottom of the steps, there would be a high hanging archway that opened up into a large outdoor pavilion. Where exactly they were wasn't too clear, but the rain had stopped and the sun shone bright with nerry a cloud in the sky. In the distance was a towering pyramid that stood high over the treetops. Before the adventures lay a path through the jungles, winding through the trees. Though there was an unsettling movement in the shadows therin.

He blinked, and he sighed. The mare had somehow felt worse after that pep talk. "Darn, that could've gone better..." He began to feel he'd have to work extra if she really was so cowardly; He hoped she'd step up to his expectations regardless.

While thinking on how to keep spirits high for more pep talk, the new exit came into view. And as they emerged with him becoming puzzled as to how bright it all looked, he was excited to see they had found virtually a new land altogether. "Wow! This is way better than just a town under a cave! I need to update on my findings..." He then searched within his robes, and brought out a Stone Tablet for him to write on magically. The movements he more or less noted, but he was initially more interested in taking notes.

"huh, this is something you dont see everyday" he said, looking around att the enviroment they curently found themself in, rather amazed that something like this could exist, though then again, this is a magical World afterall, but as he noticed the movements in the shadows, he took a guarding stance with his shield infront of him.

new lands would possibly mean new dangers aswell and he wasint taking any chances while being in this underground world and said "there is something moving in the shadows here...i dont know what it was"

Cynder was momentarily distracted from her fear of the supernatural at the lovely sight, but snapped back to reality when Pyro spoke up about movement in the shadows. "Where?! Is it ghosts?!?!" She asks, holsing her sword out in front of her. The movement stopped, leaving only the trees and shade they hmgave off. "M-Must have just been the branches in the wind... Yeah..." She sheaths her sword and looks around, stepping onto the stone path. "I bet our artifacts are in that pryamid over there." She says, looking out in the distance. It looked to not be too far away, but who knew what was between them and it?

"well, what are we waiting for? that artifact aint going to deliver itself to us, hehe" he said as he took front position with his large shield infront untill he turned back to cynder and asked " so, why are you afraid of supernatural? something happend when you where Young?" he said with curiosity vissible in his Eyes untill he shock his head and corrected himself "aahem.... pardon me, a bit rude of me, sorry, i dont Think i actually asked the names of you 2, did i?" he asked sugary and cynder

Sugary was still just mostly making notes, but still found Cynder's attitude amusing. Instead, he grew more curious towards Pyro. "Oh...? I'm Sugary Market, and that's Miss Cynder. Did we really travel together all this time without you knowing who you were meeting up with for this mission...? You're not feeling dizzy, are you?" He hoped their companion wasn't losing his mind. He then wondered if he was losing his mind. He entertained that possibility with a low hum...

Cynder was fairly certain they had all introduced thenselves to each other before the boat ride. That was how she knew his name, right? She wasn't psychic or anything was she? She nods when Sugary reintroduces them and shudders when she's asked about her fear. "Ugh, when I was little, my brothers would play tricks on me pretending to be ghosts!" She says with a shiver. "Locked me in our basement one time and spooked me real good. Jerks."

She turns her attention to the trail, starting to walk down it... But behind Pyro this time... His turn to take the lead...

"Hey, sorry for asking, i am a bit forgetfull with name, no need to be suspicious, ok?" He said, though he did chuckle lightly att her missfortune for her fears but he did respect it, he would then turn around facing the road to start walking down there to the temple.

"Goodness. All those pranks really got you that riled up about this, Miss? Your brothers must've been quite awful then..." He'd have to be wary in the event of Supernatural apparitions. Wouldn't do for Cynder to lose heart fast at a critical moment.

As Pyro showed himself to be coherent after all, Sugary went about and began to pick up a few small pebbles off the ground, and got to tossing them at the bushes from time to time. He recalled the noise, and was checking to see if they were being followed or just surrounded by small creatures left and right all over. That, and he wanted to see how many times he could bounce the pebbles on mere objects.

Cynder imps along behind pyro and his big shield, watching out for apparitions or ghouls or anything of the sort(though she likely wouldn't actually see any) it was about that moment when she realized something was wrong. Someone was missing! She turns to look to Sugary and his bag. "Oh! Hey, Sugary? I think you can let her out now. Not a cloud in the sky as far as we can see." She says, speaking of their other companion who entered the story through a crack in spacetime was totally woth them the entire time. Yep, nothing strange about this at all.