Piercing the ghostly veil

cryo looked att griff and replied "well nothing has been as it should ever since we started this, we should roll with this meanwhile att the moment, it could have been worse if you think about it with all the nightmare things that princess Luna told us about earlier." he said before wiggling his shoulder where griff stod on and asked " tough you wouldint mind standing on my head instead griff? would feel much easier that way while carrying a guard pony who is heavier than he looks without armor" he said to griff as he started to trot after the shaman and her troops.

scale scribe wraped her forehooves around ash's chest and cuddled her head against the back of his neck and held firmly as her lower body that is designed for water travel just floped on his back "t-thank you kindly".

With the group now following the shaman back to Thier tribe, her warriors showed some basic troop formations which looked advanced for a bunch of tribal men, and after a while, the group reached the ikana tribe settlement, a big large and wide landmass in the swamps with many huts and houses of different shapes and sizes and towers througout the settlement and att key points where actualy aranged in a grid-like fashion as many tribalmen went and scurried around like ants, showing some decent Intelligence of the people as they gather the things that are needed for them, though there was a large open space with 8 stones in a circle in a corner of the settlement.

pyro looked rather amazed from the hill they all stood on before following the shaman down the hill to her lands.

"Dang, that's pretty big. You guys are definitely doing well out here," Ash said as he also began following the group down to the settlement. It was a rather safe assumption that the circle of pillars was important.

He decided to take the time to count his arrows. He started with a quiver of 40 regular arrows and three small quivers of ten elemental arrows each. He was down to 22 regular arrows, 6 shock arrows, 8 fire arrows and 7 frost arrows. If all else failed, he could make his own arrows with the right stick, his own feathers and either bone or stone with time to make the tips. They wouldn't be nearly as good as his quality steel tipped arrows, but he doubted he'd find a merchant to buy them from.

Griff would nod. "Right.." before jumping on top of Pyro's head. It was clear he felt most comfortable in his hawk form right now, and this way he wouldn't have a chance to accidentally wander away from the group. If he had to stick with them, he might as well stick with them, while making sure his talons didn't scratch Pyro's head... much. He would constantly look around from his vantage point, as if to make sure they don't get a surprise attack, even though they were surrounded by probably well-trained warriors.

"Hmmm, interesting..." he said once they found the village. "How come we never found this one yet, I don't think it's marked on any maps, and we didn't even go THAT deep into the forest." the hawk commented before preening his wings shortly.

pyro looked upp att griff who stod on his head and said " well, its a mix of reality and Dreams, anything could happen on our mission untill we find the source" pyro said as he looked around afterwards, still following the shaman who was leading them to some part of the settlement.

The shaman chuckled under her mask and said to ash "we ikana are are fortunate to have dedicated villagers and Braves upp for the task to build our settlement in these unknown lands"

many tribal villagers scurried around and between the somewhat narrow streets of the settlement, many huts looking like homes to live in though there also huts that looked a bit different for other purpuse, one example is a hut shaped like a horse shoe, the clanging of metal was Heard and the fervor of battle Yells also Heard though the Group could not see into the hut as its entrance was on the other side, a large wooden temple could be seen towering slightly above the other huts as the shaman was leading them to it.

"Ah, so you guys are new here too. The ones like you with red clothes may be new too. Haven't seen them, though the little one on my back has, and they were not friendly. I wanna put an arrow between the eyes of the ones who left her to die," Ash said. Ash felt rather safe about mentioning the red clothed humans. It was just a gut feeling that these blue guys were enemies of the red guys, or at the very least were neutral.

"Right, anything could happen. Who knows, maybe we'll end up meeting a dragon or something. As long as it's friendly like some other magical dragon I befriended a few years back.." the hawk ontop of Pyro's head chuckled, before turning to the shaman. "So... how long have you been here, then? By the amount of buildings, I would assume weeks, unless you really are that fast." Griff asked, curiously tilting his head as they continued following the shaman.

the shaman led them to the entrance of the wooden temple Before she turned around to the Group, as she stabed the bottom of her staff to the grassy ground, not looking to happy even if her mask covers her face when she Heard whas ash said "the dakini, one of fiercest rival tribes from our system, Always the one that seek our doom the most whenever we meet, even in a different World they follow us."

"but thier savagery has been unmached ever since we arived here only 2 weeks ago, dark magic is att work here, a creature similar to you *Points to ash and cryo* appeard to us, promising us endless Power if we followed him, but we refused and the dakini apparently took his offer and are under his Control..."

Pyro tilted his head to his side and said "a pony? a pony is willing to mess up our reality to do....something?" as cryo replied with " a takeover i suppose?"

Ash looked to the others and said, "Ha, what do you know, someone is actually in charge of all this. Time to find him and put a few arrows in him. May as well deal with these Dakani while we're at it. We got ponies to rescue after all."

Now Ash was practically bounding with energy, eager to get some more action.

Griff almost fell off of Pyro's head as the human tilted it, accidentally digging his talons and wildly flapping his wings trying to regain balance before finally jumping off and landing on top of Cryo's head instead. "Mmm, not one but two tribes... one good, one evil being lead by evil pony... interesting... and I think finding him in the first place is gonna be tough, Ash."

pyro was rubbing his head in pain after griff flew over to cryo who was looking oddly att ash with his boundy exitement "its defenetly going to be hard finding the one behind this i feel, as griff said "cryo said as he agreed what griff said, being carefull not to drop the unconscious guard from his back.

the shaman enterd the wooden temple and directed her warriors to resume thier patroll in the settlement as she enterd, pyro follows soon behind still rubbing his head and cryo followed too soon after, the temple inside was empty, as if she preperard for this moment.

Ash was still rather excited, a little less so when he saw the empty interior of the temple. "Hmm, could use a little more decoration in my opinion. Though I am a fan of things that put function over form. So, what are we gonna do here?" Ash asked. He made sure not to move around too much as he had Scale on his back. He did not want her falling off.

"Hum... seems... very empty indeed..." Griff commented from the top of Cryo's head. He continued wildly looking around, as if trying to see anything of interest. "I'd have expected at least a shrine or something. Unless the temple itself is a shrine..." Griff mumbled to himself before looking back at the shaman, as if waiting for something to happen.

the shaman looked att the Group and responded with "this temple is used as a library and a Place to train and learn about the art of preacing for my followers, that is Before an anomoly appeard in here in the temple some time ago and anything in here dissapeard afterwards as a small red portal was in the center here, but it now reacted to you 4 arriving in in this plane of existance" she said.

the shaman afterwards backed upp to the side as she made said red portal vissible, having made it invissible earlier "what ever is inside the portal i do not know, i am unable to enter there and it reacts to your pressence, perhaps you could resolve this as this anomoly prevents me from making more landbridges to connect us to more land and towards the dakini, holding your Young one's parents".

"we will do what we can, right cryo?" "indeed we will!" pyro and cryo said, as cryo gently laid the still unconsious guard on the ground, looking like he is sleeping now as both then Went closer to the red portal, it looked different to the first one that led them to the swamp.

"Well, looks like we're off into dangerous lands again. Once we're done there, we'll come back and save your parents Scale. You wanna come with us or stay?" Ash asked Scale. He could carry her, that wasn't an issue. Keeping her protected would be, but he didn't see that as major. He was confident he could keep her safe, especially with the others helping. Still, it was worth asking. If she didn't want to come along, he wouldn't force her. The village seemed pretty safe.

"A portal reacted to us four only? That's intriguing to say the least." The hawk spoke, taking a slight step back as the shaman made the portal visible again. "Oh great, what sorcery... I mean, yeah, sure." He then turned to Ash, who was talking to Scale. "No offense, but something tells me it will be both safer for us and for her if she stays here." Griff smiled at Scale. "I mean, who knows what we'll encounter through the portal, there's a chance we may need to run as fast as possible." He added before shrugging.

Scale scribe held on to ash tightly, feeling much safer with the Archer Pegasus than in the village, the much heavier sleeping guard on the other hand would be safe here, but he also seemed to react the red portal, wimpering sadly.

"ill enter the portal first to see what quirks it has, ill send a message back with information" pyro says to the Group as he jumps into the portal Before the others, cryo meanwhile asked the shaman for help to get the guard on something to sleep on.

a moment later pyro's message comes out from the red portal, a scroll that cryo picked upp and read out loud " the area on the otherside of the portal forces a change in perspective, its Jarring first but you see yourself from a distance, and its slightly pixelated, even i am pixelated in this area, so heads upp! there is however a large door here".

"well, this is intresting, you guys ready to enter?" cryo asked, scale nodded her head

Feeling that Scale Scribe wasn't going to stay, Ash made one last check of everything he had just in case. Upon hearing what was on the other side of the portal, Ash simply said, "Um... okay. I don't know what that means. But, let's get going. Geronimo!" Ash then dove into the portal.

Griff casually watched as Pyro jumped into the portal, sighing and hopping off of Cryo's head, moving to the unconscious guard. "Right, I'll make sure the fella here stays alive. I have learned a healing spell or two back in the day, so this may assist the shamans who have never tried healing a pony before." Griff said as he switched back to his unicorn form and prepared a soothing healing spell. "Good luck out there."

cryo nodded to griff as he was going to remain behind with the guard, cryo then Went into the red portal with pyro and ash, the original group size count now Went down to 3 members now that pyro, cryo and ash now Went to where ever the red portal led them.

On pyro's side of the portal, the World was a rather pixelated forest/plains area att dusk but given the nature of the reality bending mist, there still where some misty spots in this new pixelated area, it also was in a 2-d perspective which messed with pyro's Eyes when he first came in, his own vision seing the area in a 2-d perspective by some unknown magic, but he rather quickly to like it, mostly being a gamer during his off time as he waited on cryo and ash to come and reasure them should they be very disoriented.

Once Ash had landed in the new area, he was very taken aback by how different everything was, especially how different his perspective was. "Uh, this is weird. At least I can keep an eye on you better Scale," he said. After a little bit, he soon said, "Um, am I jumping? It doesn't look like I'm jumping to me. This is really going to suck if I can't jump or fly."

pyro Heard ash come trough the portal and turned around towards him "ah, about time you came trough ash, where is cryo? " pyro asked, moments later cryo came trough aswell, taken aback aswell as he looked around att the new suroundings and his pixelated but still detailed body.

scale just nodded, she was a bit disoriented with this world's look and perspective but she hugged ash's neck tightly "a-are we in a game or something?" she asked, it did certanly have looks and feels of it.

"Maybe?" Ash said to Scale, "I never was interested in those video games. Waste of time and a waste of bits in my opinion."

Ash then looked around a bit and noticed the cave that Pyro had mentioned earlier. "Well, wanna check out that cave first? Maybe there'll be a Dragon to fight. ...Actually, let's hope there's not a Dragon in there. Took me a while to regrow my tail after my last run in with one," Ash said, glancing back at his tail as he said that last bit.

cryo chuckled a bit when ash said about his encounter with a dragon as pyro said "well, thats upp for debate what we encounter here, and there was a large mechanical door here, not a Cave as this door i saw is just out here in the field not connected to anything oddly enough"

scale then remarked by saying "thats maybe how we continue further here"

"Well, if it is our only way of going forward, then let's go forward. Ponies are counting on us," Ash said. He started walking up to the door before having something come to mind. It concerned him enough to hesitate. He turned back to Cryo and Pyro and said, "Um, why don't one of you two go first. I don't think I should be the first one to go in since I'm carrying Scale. It's best to not put her at risk as much as possible."

pyro nodded as he understood ash's concern for scale hanging on to his back "understood ash, ill go ahead first then" he said as he walked past ash and scale and stood infront of the door, 2 spotlights mounted ontop of the large door shined its light down towards pyro, gears where attached to the sides of the big door and started to turn, opening the door and oppening the way foward into the unknown.