Piercing the ghostly veil

Griff would continue snapping shots with the camera between each volley of arrows fired. "I don't know whose idea it was to bring a camera of all things along with them, but hey, it works!" He exclaimed to the party. When the shadows would finally disappear, Griff would playfully wrap a hoof around Ash's neck to pull him closer before pointing a camera at them both and snapping a shot, releasing Ash after. "There, now we can have a memory of our first encounter together... along with many photos of shadows." he jokingly said.

"No complaints here," Ash said as he kept firing arrows. He was caught off guard by the impromptu selfie, but it gave him something to laugh at. He was starting to think Griff wasn't such a bad guy, not that he had much of an opinion of him in the first place. "Let's just hope we don't run out of film soon. Who knows what else we'll see today," he said.

As the shadow people where exorcised from the building the paranormal power on the windows and door where released, allowing passage trough them, pyro then went to the door to confirm if that was the case, and it was since it opened without problem but he was greeted with a disturbing sight outside the building, the guards armor where strewn everywhere outside along with hoof trails leading into the mist, showing signs of struggle.

"i guess the mist has claimed yet another unwilling one..." pyro said a bit somberly while cryo went upp aswell to the door "well, we are here to fix this mess, i just hope we can save those who where taken unwillingly" cryo said, looking around for stuff to carry into the unknown landscape.

"Yeah... good idea. One of you, check the house if there's any spare film laying around. Worst case scenario, we might find some in a store inside a mist." Griff said before looking at the sad sight of where the guard used to be. "Fool... why didn't he retreat the moment he left me and Ash here.... What made him stay...?" He groaned and sighed, putting the camera in one of his packs. "A very unwise decision..." he murmured after.

"Well, at least we won't be kicking and screaming on our way in," Ash said as he went to pick up his arrows. The fire arrow hadn't lit the building on fire but was consumed by its own flames. The Ice arrow he fired had sadly lost its charge, making it a regular arrow. The rest of the regular arrows were recoverable. After that, he started searching the house for anything useful, trying not to make too much of a mess just in case the previous tenants returned after they finished the job.

Cryo went to help ash to find supplies for the trek into the mist as he searched cabinets and drawers untill he found a box with batteries and a lens for the camera decided to give them to griff to see if he could put the lens before resuming his supply hunt, meanwhile while pyro was standing guard att the door looking out for any potential threats

Griff would take the camera batteries and put them in one of his bags before attempting to attach the lens on the camera. "Ugh, these bloody hooves..." he mumbled as he kept trying before finally deciding to use magic to try to fit the pieces together, soon finally succeeding and joining Pyro at the door, waiting for the other two to get ready.

Unable to find any extra film on his search, Ash gave up and went to join Pyro and Griff in keeping watch. "Well, looks like I'll be standing guard too. Seriously, this is why I didn't join the royal guard. Still remember this one guy, Dusk Hammer. I swear he had the largest stick shoved up his butt. He could stand guard all day and not be bored. Not much for conversation either. It takes a certain kind of crazy to like standing guard," Ash said.

Cryo was the last one to come upp to the group, having collected provisions for the mission "ok, i stuff for us to eat when we hopefully find a safe area in the mist, so that we dont go crazy from lack of food" Cryo said as he walked past the 3 standing guard att the door "so, lets venture into the unknown?" he asked as he faced the mist.

Pyro nodded and went upp to cryo's side and waved over to griff and ash to come and enter as a group "before we fully enter, im going to put a spell on us 4, think of it like a etheral rope between us, but we can walk trough it and it wont get in our way, just to make sure we dont get to far apart and to know where we are, allright?"

"Safe are in the mist"... Griff repeated after Cryo. "You know, I'd assume that where we stand is the safest of all areas right now." he commented as he walked up to the two. "Okay, one question about this 'rope'. Is it visible to anyone other than the ones that are bound by it? I'm more of a stealth type of guy and what use is stealth if they can locate me behind them thanks to the rope?" Griff curiously asked while waiting.

"I don't expect stealth will help much," Ash said, "Still, I'd rather get out of this alive than dead. Do what you need to Pyro." Ash then joined up with Cryo and Pyro. He had no complaints if they all wanted to stick together. There already was enough weird stuff happening, and having one of them vanish wasn't wouldn't help matters.

"the rope is visible to to those who are bound to it, no one else can see it, its mostly for us to know each others wearabouts in there since i beling we wont bee seing to far ahead in there" pyro said, taking out a rune inscripted gem and used the spell, the "rope" then appeard between the 4, though it looked more like chains and ropes.

"everyone ready to enter?" cryo asked with pyro responding with a nod

"Fair enough... " Griff said and curiously watched as a chain was suddenly attached to his body, binding him with the others. "Looks safe enough, I guess." He added, trying to see if he can touch it. "I am ready to enter." he said at last and pulled the camera out again, keeping it at ready.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Ash said. He went to a low hover so he could hold his bow while moving. Being mobile was key in any engagement for an archer like himself, and he had more mobility than any unicorn could have. He kept his eyes on the mist ahead of them just in case anything tried to surprise them.

Griff's hoof would just pass trough the chain as he tried to touch it, but as everypony made themself ready, cryo nodded before he slowly troted into the mist with pyro following behind, inside the grey lands of what was equestria the air was humid and thick and the wind felt much cooler on them, thier vission range having droped significantly to a just a few meters around them, though the road leading to ponyville still remained, cryo leading the group on said road

"geez, this is some very thick fog..." pyro said as he looked around, being slightly taller than the ponies he is with by a head

Griff made sure to enter the mist last, keeping just slightly behind his companions as he followed them through the first barrier. After they'd all be in the mist, whoever would've turned around would have noticed that one chain was now connected to a Sabre-toothed tiger with a bright grey fur.

Ash kept himself on alert, looking to the side and even behind him occasionally to make sure nothing was coming towards them. Of course, this meant he once saw Griff in his usual form, then saw him in animal form.

"Wah!" he shouted in surprise, almost drawing his bow back before noticing the ethereal chain connected to him. "Griff? How the... are you some sort of special changeling?" he asked, making sure he was still moving by flying backwards.

Both cryo and pyro stoped to see what ash reacted to, as even they jumped att griff's sudden appreance change before cryo said "i dont think any changeling are able to change thier appearance this much, what spell are you using griff?" he asked moving backwards down the road while pyro was in the front leading the group.

though as the kept walking down the road, odd figures could be seen in the distance moving in the fog but it looked like they always kept thier distance from the group.

The tiger released a sly chuckle at the group's reactions. "Cryo is right, I doubt a changeling would be able to change this much... I am but a simple unicorn who focused his studies into more forbidden side of magical spells. I was a brave and dumb colt back then." Griff said and chuckled again. "And because I focused most of my young age towards learning this shapeshifting spell, I left out on the other useful magic. I can't say I regret it though, feels good to have something unique." he added as he continued following the group, constantly looking around. "This form is useful, though. I get all the instincts of the animal I shapeshift into and all its abilities."

"Well, that should come in handy," Ash said, "Maybe you'll be able to tell when something coming towards us sooner than we can. The last thing we need is a nasty surprise." Ash then kept his eyes on the odd figures that would occasionally pop up. He'd save shooting at them until they became hostile. He did not want a repeat of the previous encounter with the denizens of the mist.

"i agree with you ash on that point, maybe he can sense something we cant" cryo said as he and pyro continued down the road, the figures in the mist just kept thier distance as they moved about, though there where some ghostly images of ponies walking by them suddenly att times, but they where not malevolent towards them.

After a while of walking, the road widend out more as there was a sign saying "Wellcome to ponyville, enjoy your stay" on it, before red text appeard under it saying "for erternity"

"Well I don't exactly know how well my instincts will work here... For instance, I can feel something is approaching, which is a given seeing that there are shadows practically all around us moving towards or away from us." The sabretooth tiger said before noticing the sign. "Oddly welcoming and unwelcoming at the same time. I really do wonder what made all ponies disappear when they were reached by the mist... while we're fi-...." Griff suddenly stopped his sentence and began sniffing around as if noticing a familiar smell and trying to determine its source.

"Well, that's not ominous by any means. I think we're actually gonna see what made everypony disappear, likely sooner than later. May we roast that thing alive when we do," Ash said. Upon noticing Griff had caught the scent of something, Ash then said "I hope you're smelling the hayburger joint. Haven't had a good hayburger for a while. We should get hayburgers after this. We'll discuss who buys once we get paid."

Both Pyro and Cryo turned around to see what griff is senceing "whats the matter griff?" asked pyro "are you picking upp something?"

A moment later, a slight rumbling was heard down the road that increased in volume untill a ghostly stampeding hoard of ponies ran on the road towards them, they even ran trough the group without hurting them, like they where some sort of a memory of something that has happend.

The stampede ran past them but there where some stray ponies left who didint catch upp, but instead, hooks suddenly appeard and grabed the stray ones and pulled them back to a odd figure hidden in the mist, the ponies screamed and flailed in fear and panic before a low chuckle was heard, the captured ponies started to turn into mist while in the figure's grip, a circle around the ponies moved upp along thier bodies starting att thier hind legs.

A moment later, the ponies where gone, small glowing orbs remain where they before they dissapeard in the mist aswell, the large figure let out a low menacing laugh as it was heard walking away.

Cryo broke the silence a moment later "d-did we just see a memory of what happend...?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Ash said. Admittedly, he was surprised that the apparitions didn't harm them in some fashion, not even a chill down the spine. "I guess this mist is being caused by that creature, or maybe the mist is a side effect. Either way, that thing might be walking around somewhere. Should we try to hunt it down or avoid it?" Ash then asked.