Dungeons and Ponies book 1, The Staff of Wishing

by BemnalTheFallen

the CMC are all grown up but still don't have their cutie marks and so they gear up and head outside of Equestria's borders into the unkown, hoping to find their special talents as adventurers but end up getting sweapt along a much more exciting and dangerous quest than they ever could have imagined- (full summary inside)

1. Strange Winds Are Blowing

Dungeons and Ponies book 1, The Staff of Wishing

the CMC are all grown up but still don't have their cutie marks and so they gear up and head outside of Equestria's borders into the unkown, hoping to find their special talents as adventurers but end up getting sweapt along a much more exciting and dangerous quest than they ever could have imagined- (full summary inside) But within this new territory, there are those plotting to cast down the gods and take their place, two adventuring parties, two goals, one to conquer the world of ponies, and one to save it. A dungeons and dragon's based adventure. (rated M for descriptive gore and fantasy violence) OCs welcome!

***DISCLAIMER***

I do not own My Little Pony Friendship is Magic nor do I have any aphiliations with it, it's producers, or it's benifactors, nor do I own Dungeons and Dragons or have any aphiliations with it, it's producers or it's benifactors. This is a work of ficiton made for entertainment purposes only.

Please support the official releases.

***DISCLAIMER***

CHAPTER 1 Strange Winds are Blowing

-the legendary mane six are all but retired, but there are still those who threaten the existance of all equinity be they Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasi, Hobbit, Gnome, Elven, or Dwarven. We need a new generation of heroes- excerpt from the secret book of Bemnal the Fallen

Applebloom walked up to the edge of the Everfree Forest and stared through the breach in the magical boarder seperating Equestria from Ébány, her coat's micro hairs stood up on end as excitement and wonder filled her body and sent adrenalin surging through her veins.

"WILL YOU WAIT UP!?" Scootaloo screemed from behind her.

Applebloom turned her head away from the enthralling view of the magical barier to look upon her Barbarian friend stumbling through the Forest's brush.

"not everponie's a Ranger you know!" the Pegasus cried as she finally managed to get her hoof free of some thorny bushes with a somewhat beligering glare on her scarred face.

Applebloom couldn't help but have a bit of a chuckle at her friend's trouble, it was easy for herself to navigate through the bushes and vines as a Ranger despite her great size, but this was not so for many others. Occasionally the Earth Pony tended to forget that.

"well it's not mah fault yer all as clumsy as a bull in the middle o' summah!" the Ranger retorted in her thick farmer accent.

Scootaloo gave her friend a warning leer before finally making her way next to the hulking pony.

Throught the years Applebloom had gotten ever larger and stronger until she even outmatched her brother Bic Macintosh in both size and strength, and that's a scary thought!

The Ranger now stood a little over 7 hooves tall with bulky muscles hidden under her studded leather armor and sitting at her sides were two hand axes sitting in their sheathes, there was also a battle axe holstered in a custom sheath on her back where upon there was a bulging quiver of arrows.

Strapped to her torso was a Giant's Bow, a rare and expensive weapon and only usable by ponies with such monstrous strength as her own.

attatched through a series of leather straps to each side of her torso were multiple throwing daggers that her sister taught her to use, along with a hunting dagger sheathed and attatched to her weapons belt next to her left hand axe.

Despite her gruff looking equipment and battle ready weapons, her head sported to helmet nor hood and still was adorned with her southern belle curly red mane with the oversized pink bow tied within it's strands. Her tail hung down lazilly in thick curly tuffets; her yellow coat barely showed through her armor save for her exposed head maw and pony ears.

Golden eyes turned to look at the Barbarian as she sat down on a nearby rock and let out an exasperated sigh.

"ugh! where the hay is Sweetie Belle? did she get lost again?" Scootaloo whined as she plopped her rump down on the rock.

Although it was with good reason, Sweetie did have a tendency to get side tracked as did most Bards.

Scootaloo looked up at the pale see-through barrier stretching up high above the sky.

"peh... they always gotta use magic..." the Barbarian grumbled as she crossed her toned arms. Scootaloo's body was riddled with scars from her many battles and from repeatedly crashing into stuff as a filly and to this day she still idolized Rainbow Dash, one of the legendery heroes of Equestria, it was believed that they even had dealings in Ébány at one point.

Scootaloo asked herself for what seemed like the millionth time 'why are we here again?' ofcourse she knew the answer, twenty since the three of them had popped out of their mother's wombs and still neither of the three had gotten their cutie marks, and as such they had formed the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' as young fillies. What had started as a foalish club had become a Creed, a way of life, to try anything anywhere no matter how bizaar or scary, the philosophy had taught the three never give up hope no matter what life threw at them.

And to stick together no matter what.

Even through such a foolish idea as this, Scootaloo could still hear her friend's words ringing in her head.

'CUTIE MARK ADVENTURERS!' the thought was ridiculous, how could such a broad unspecific category earn a cutie mark? 'casue o' all the stuff we'll be doin'! killin' monsters an' survivin' agasint the wilds it'll be fun!'

Scootaloo couldn't stiffle the chuckle that escaped her lips, it was a silly filly idea but... they'd done things a lot more idiodic so what was there to lose really?

And so here they were, at the end of the Everfree forest sitting infront of the only open breach in the magical barrier seperating the continants of Equestria and Ébány.

Scootaloo sighed as she pondered the magical land, oh that word 'magical' a Barbarian's most hated word, the only reason she even associated with Sweetie Belle who as a bard possessed spells herself was because they were foalhood friends. And even still there was a little hostility between them.

Well, more so animosity from the Barbarian, Sweetie didn't seem to even be aware of the tention but then again, Bards were very carefree...

The Pegasus let out a groan while tapping her hoof on the ground as she waited for her friend to catch up, her body was highly toned and lean just like her idol, and she truly fit the ideal of a Barbarian to a T.

Studded leather armor snugged her body close with two crossed custom sheaths on her back that held a Battle axe in the right sheath with a Warhammer in the left; additionally there was a Quiver of arrows on her back.

Sitting at her side was a hunting dagger not unlike Applebloom's and strapped to her chest was a composite longbow.

Scootaloo's orange face carried a few scars here and there which only increased her intimidating appearance, her purple eyes were half lidded with annoyance. Violet mane was cropped short and spiked here and their in a punkish style as her tail also was shaggy and short but the Pegasus could care less about her mane and tail.

"did she like, get eaten by a plant or something?" Scootaloo commented as she craned her neck to stare back into the forest as if her extensive stare would cause the Bard to suddenly pop out of the greenery.

Ironically it did.

"BWAAAHH!" a panicked voice screemed from above, the two mares looked up to see Sweetie Belle fall down from a height in the trees only to be stopped by various vines that stretched a few inches and then bounced the white mare up and down a few times.

Sweetie's head snapped around in quick little motions like a squirl surveying its surroundings before spotting her companions.

"Sweetie Belle present!" she cheered while holding her hand up to her head in a salute.

Applebloom snickered while Scootaloo merely stood up, walked over to her upside down friend, drew her dagger, and slashed the vines effectively dropping Sweetie Belle to the ground with an 'oof!'

"well that could have been done with more tact..." Sweetie criticized.

Scootaloo shrugged "you're down aren't you?" she said nonchaluntly.

Sweetiee stood up while brushing the dirt off of her luxurious clothing "true, true..." The Bard wore some enchanted chainmail armor under her extravegant clothe's but all that could be seen was a lavish overcoat of silky turquise littered with thick embroiderings that left the coat very stiff and padded which was good for the Bard as she used it during shows to conceal many of her 'tricks up the sleeve' and to sometimes cheat during a card came.

Resting at her left side strapped to her weapons sheath was a broadsword, balancing it on the other side was a Dagger.

Hidden on the under folds of her Cloak was a long strip of boiled leather with a hardened patch which she would use as a sling to hurl specially crafted stones.

The Bard's green eyes surveyed her surroundings as she stood up tall. The bard was supprisingly strong for her size and proffession, but more so she was a sweet talker, her sister had raised her to be an amazing linguist and to allways try 'talking' her way out of a situation, but that didn't always imply diplomacy; lying and intimidation were their own forms of persuation.

Sweetie's alabaster coat blended with her thich seductive curles of light purple and pink streaks, her mane having a slight windswept positioning that created a 'dashing Rogue' appearence that drove romanticists crazy.

Her body was generously curvy and luscious like her sisters, filling out in all the right places.

Her tail flowed gracefully behind her every carefully placed step.

"well Ah'm glad ya made it!" Applebloom piped, "now then" she turned back towards the opening in the barrier "let's head on through!" she cried and that they did.

Within a few hoofsteps, they were no longer in Equestira, a whoosh of air met them as berimetric pressures changed upon entering the new territory of Ébány.

"wow it really is like going into a new world..." Scootaloo sent absentmindedly.

Applebloom smiled maniacly "ya..." her eyes seemed to shimmer as she stared at at the Brynyald Canyon, a dry airy rocky area with elevated land and what seemed to have once been a very deep river but was now nothing more than an empty gorge.

Applebloom pulled out two items, the first was a map of Ébány(ee-bow-n-yay) the second was a traveler's guide to Ébány, both of these she recieved from a strange traveler who'd passed through Ponyville, said he was a Wizard and was collecting stories of distant lands; Applebloom had bought these items from him in exchange for a weeks worth of rations in juicy red apples.

Scootaloo grabbed the map and unfolded it to reaveal the entire map of Ébány along with a small patch of the map showing the edge of Equestria, she saw Baltimare and on the southern patch, Canterlot and Ponyville, then Northeast of Ponyville was the small breach in the magical barrier that they'd just passed through, the only path through which caravans could transport trade between the two continants.

Applebloom looked excitedly at the traveller's guide before Sweetie snatched it out of her hands with hyper abandon.

"hey..."

"ok! so Ébány is split up into 22 Provinces or states and three small uninhabitable islands that are surrounded by sea monsters."

Scootaloo made a rasberry sound "sea monster ha!"

Sweetie gave the Barbarian a bland look before continuing, "there are 10 climates within this land that are fueled by magic seeping from deep within the Earth, the lines dividing the Provinces on the map can be physically seen on the actual boarders of their territories as ethereal violet glowing lines that radiate raw arcane energy"

as the Bard read on, Scootaloo got ever more disgusted at the thought of this land while Applebloom got more and more giddey.

"among the twenty two Provinces are the ten various climates, each Province seems to sustain its own individual atmosphere and ecosystem, for example, a pony in the Province of Nihiltfronálin(nee-hill-t-fr-on-oh-lin) Desert who is crossing into it's North eastern neighbor or Borisúm will find one of the most bizaar and unexplainable paradoxes in the world!

for the Profince of... I'm not gonna try to sound that out again, the desert place is a hot dry boiling dune filled state while Borisúm is a frozen tundra of snow and ice, yet the two are connected, one can litterally take a step from sand and into snow!

the dividing magical lines that seperate the provinces are extremely powerful sources of magic and very little is understood of them, particularly the Province of Wizard Central which contains all ten climates in one province yet none of the areas are seperated by the violet arcane lines! and then there is also the Five points soul eater which is a section of Ébány in which five Provinces meet and within their five corner points there rests a 100 foot diameter circle of a raging cyclone, anypony or anything who walks in instantly drops dead.

Those few brave magic users who attempted to fly through via astral projection were never heard from again, their unconcious bodies jerked and went limp with hearts stopped.

As one can see, this is a VERY dangerous land! and very profitable for the brave adventurer who decides to brave its terrors, there are many ancient caves, dungeons, and old structures used by the ancients that contain legendary treasure and powerful enchanted items and armor/weapons of un imaginable strength and beauty as we have only begun to discover from the few brave mining companies(generally dwarves) an-...Dwarves?"

Sweetie paused in her rant to re-read the section.

"wow..." Applebloom breathed "ah heard from that magic fellah who sold these things ta meh that there were Dwarves an' Elves an' little stunded ponies called Hobbits and even tinier ones called gnomes but... I thought he was just off his rocker!"

Sweetie nodded her agreement, although her Bardic knowledge had brought her many stories of these exoctic ponies, Elves were Unicorns in appearance but much taller with larger horns and odly shapped limbs with cat tails instead of pony tails, their eyes contained verticle slit pupils and their maws held very feline-like features, and supposedly they lived to be 500 years old!

Stranger still were the Dwarves, Earth Ponies that were a couple hooves shorter and much stalkier and sturdy in build, but they shared the Earth Pony's affinity for the ground and soils and were excellent miners yet they had vastly shorter lives than Equestria's ponies usually living to be about 50.

Then there was the Hobbits, even shorter than Dwarves they looked like young fillies and colts, very friendly and gentle Earth Ponies who just wanted to live their life happilly and to themselves, living litterally amongst the earth and woods similar to a certain Druid that Sweetie Belle knew of.

And ofcourse the Gnomes... oh gnomes... Sweetie Belle sincerely hoped they were real, stories of their inventions and ridiculous speech paterns entertained her to no end.

"and that's about it..." the Bard finished explaining the races to her companions.

"well anyway... the ten climates are as follows, Forest, Jungle, Oceanic sea side, Frozen tundra, Desert, Mountainous, meadow, Canyonous, Tartarus fiery area, and Fringe.

Tartarus fiery areas and Fringe areas should be avoided at all costs, the Tartarus areas are filled with Salamander demons, constantly erupting volcanoes and worst of all, a singing heat that boils most ponies alive within two minutes of entering the area!

the Fringe is a whole other can of worms, the Fringe is a deadly rift where all of time and space are twisted and bent out of whack, everything that ever was, is, and will be exists at the same time yet doesn't exist.

All of time is happening at once yet is not happening at all.

Imagine a white space that stretches on forever and ever with no sky, no ground, no space, nothing, just a blank white empty eternal area.

Now fill that area with 30 foot diameter white stone towers that stretch infinitely high into a sky that never ends and stretches infinitely low to a ground that will never appear.

Each of these towers has spiriling stairwells that twist and stretch through the eternal lengths of the towers on the inside, and every 100 steps there is a platform that stretches all around that floor and there are three archways on each of these floors, now imagine 50 foot long white stone bridges connecting the towers through the archways. There are an uncountable number of these towers in the Fringe, and endless maze of all directions and heights. There is one particularly large Province that contains a fringe area, this Province is known as the Realm of Mandess and is aptly named as most ponies go insane wondering it's endless towers.

When crossing from one province into a fringe area, you will see the white expanse and a bridge connecting the ground through the white empty space and into the towers, though one can say that they'll remember which tower and floor this bridge is on, it's often impossible because here's the scarriest part... the towers move every hour on the hour they all teleport positions in the fringe, turning and moving up or down one floor or a thousand floors, you never know.

it seems that the rules of hunger, thirst, and fatigue do not apply within the fringe, and strangely enough, neither does magic (of the arcane kind only) a pony also doesn't seem to age within the fringe, you could be in their for a million years and not die, not age a single bit, never grow tired or hungry and wonder the fringe's endless bridges and towers until you go mad and commit suicide.

And there in lies the next danger... the Time Dragon.

a highly bizaar Wyrm of gargantuan size that is indingenous to the Fringe climate, Time dragons are invisible save for their giant glowing blue eyes which stalk and follow ponies who travel the fringe, waiting for them to off themselves so that it can devour their souls.

The Time Dragons are extremely patient and seem to also not be capable of starving to death(as told by a pony who was trapped in the fringe for 200 years with the same pair of glowing blue eyes following his every step) apparently they simply need to feed to survive but how long they wait between feedings means nothing, as long as they devour another soul, but they never kill their prey, they wait... they wait patiently, for a billion years if they have to.

It seems that the Time Dragons are also capable of casting Illusions(it is not known how they do this as arcane magic simply does not exist within a fringe area) on ponies to further their insanity and push them closer to the brink of suicidal insanity until they can finally feed on their souls.

Time Dragon eyes appear to be slanted 3/4 moon(or almond if you prefer) shapped turquise glowing eyes that are roughly 20 hooves in length from corner to corner which gives you an idea of how big the whole wyrm's body is.

It is believed that they cannot fly and instead are holding onto the towers and climbing them to follow their prey which causes loud rumbling sounds as the pony moves from tower to tower as if tickings of a clock counting down to the moment when a pony commits suicide.

It is not known if Time Dragons will ever attack or if they can even BE attacked as the bridges outside the towers seem to actually be tunnels with invisible walls and cielings that are impenetrable by any known force(even clerical magic and it is not known how these barriers can resist it) it is also not known how Time Dragons are able to suck souls through the barriers and into their bodies. and it is completely unknown how the Time Dragons came about, how they breed(or even if they do) how many there are in each fringe, how long they live(we assume they are immortal) or anything other than the appearance of their eyes, they can cast Illusions without magic(through barriers and stone that can't be penetrated by any force known to equinity) and that they feast on pony souls(possibly animals as well though that is unlikely seeing as how animals aren't smart enough to contemplate suicide and animals usually stay away from Fringe areas anyway.).

The white stone bridges and towers are also impenatrable by any known force (including clerical magic and again it is not known how)

so basically, AVOID FRINGE AREAS!

There is one bizaar case of the Fringe however, within the Wizard Central Province, there is a pseudo territory of the fringe where the rules of other fringe areas do not apply, there are floating pieces of earth, statues, and chunks of land and monuments from all stretches of time and space, even extra terrestrial objects have been seen, also within this particular area Arcan spells work! one of the ten Magic Towers has been constructed in this area and floats on no surface and stands as a testiment to pony power and the will to overcome anything that the universe throws at us.

ther are many pony settlements within Ébány other than the Magic Towers of Wizard Central.

Tribe Shórn is a Barbarian tribe that resides within the meadowland of the Plains of Dréth(dr-ee-th) filled mostly with Earth Ponies there is another Barbarian tribe in the icy snow covered tundra of The Frozen Wastes known as Tribe báth(b-oh-th) filled mostly with Pegasi and finally a third Barbarian tribe in the forests of Large Forest where plants and trees and even animals are of gargantuan and ridiculous proportions and sizes."

speaking of which, the three mares could see distant trees and outstretched leaves from said forest even though they were likely a hundred miles a way, yet they had a good view and they looked pretty sizeable even from here... and seemed to stretch so far into the sky they it looked like they would touch the sun.

"...moooooving on, the Barbarian tribe within this area is called Tribe Bale. The capital of Ébány is Silvoní(sill-voh-n-I) which takes up half of the province of Silvonostye(sill-voh-n-oh-ss-t-I), a meadowy land, and is where the King or Queen of Ébány resides. west of Silvoní is Slavon(slay-voh-n) which is a very prosperous merchant's city, both of these settlements have a mixture of Earth Ponies and Pegasi (few Unicorns are seen outside of the 10 Magic Towers within the Province of Wizard Central) it should be noted that the Magic Towers of Wizard central are not mere towers but are infact entire cities each build into it's territory(explained futher below)

Some more pony settlements are Ranaheron(Ron-ah-h-air-on) Kénalvane(kee-nal-vay-n) and Falkothine(Fall-koh-th-I-n) which are all desert cities and huts within the Province of Mohíbi(moh-hee-bee) Desert and is mostly populated by Pegasi.

*if you haven't at least looked at the map I drew of Ébány please do so it'll help give you a much better mental image than what I can explain alone. Link and directions of how to get to it on deviant art are at the beginning of the chapter in the IMPORTANT NOTE PLEASE READ section*

Ma'hashara(Mah-ha-sh-ah-rah) is another sandy desert Pegasi inhabited city within the Nihiltfronálin Desert.

there are aslo Earth Pony settlements such as the fisherpony's city Cameroon(cam-err-ooo-n) in the Province of Briar(brr-I-arr) Lothlaen(Lah-th-lee-n) which is a sea side area with lots of Fish exports.

There is also a great achievement of Earth Pony craftsponyship within the cities of The Crimson City and The Gold City which are both cities carved from the cliff walls of the canyon hills! the Crimson city is formed from red rock while the Gold city is carved from Limestone. Both of these Earth Pony settlements are within the Province of Morrgothwín(M-orr-goth-w-ee-n) a canyonous area.

Finally there is the Unicorn Province of Wizard Central where the 10 Cities of the Magic Towers reside.

Each of the 9 surroundind Towers fits it's element along with the High Magic Tower in the center where the Supreme Arch-Majii live.

The High Magic Tower is in a frozen wasteland where powerful magics and spells are conducted and often scar the landscape around it, the cold temperatures minimizes the damage hence why it was build there.

The Magic Tower 1 is within a Jungle area that surrounds the High Magic Tower, it is a fairly large city(though not nearly as large as the High Magic Tower) and is ravaged with vines and earthy growth mixed into it's enchanted stone walls.

The Magic Tower 2 in the mountainous area where the city is built out of a mountain side(though this does not campare in scale to The Red and Gold Cities nor does it compare in extravegence to Equestria's capital of Canterlot)

The Magic Tower 3 is an island city resting in the middle of a huge lake surrounded by rocky shores and impressive auquatic life.

The Magic Tower 4 Is an underground base within a canyanous area, and a few Dwarves have been known to set up trade routes with this Tower to trade mining ores.

The Magic Tower 5 is the only settlement of any kind within a Tartarus fiery area, it's walls are blackened and cackle with red lava cracks and brimstone and evil Dragons often surround the place; many Unicorn Sorcerers of a dark nature were born in, and studied magic in this city.

The Magic Tower 6 is actually one HUGE pyrimad within a desert area that contains an entire city.

The Magic Tower 7 is the Unicorn's prized possession, a void city of harmless electricity and shining crystal that exists within a unique Fringe area(they only fringe area that can be safely traversed) Though most Unicorns born within, and study magic at this city tend to be a bit... strange in the head.

The Magic Tower 8 is actually a very long stretching treehouse city within a large forest area, a few Elves have been known to pass through here on occasion to admire the natural structures similar to their homeland islands.

The Magic Tower 9 is a standard stone city within a beautiful healthy grass filled meadow land with a shining sun and pleanty of hay to eat. Many Unicorns born within, and study magic at this city are benevolent and loving.

Then there are the sub-equine settlements.

The Home of The Gnomes(which is the literal name of the city) can be found within the rocky mountainous Province of mount. Th"

"what?" Scootaloo interupted.

"Th"

"...the what?"

"no Th"

"...thhhhheeeeee what?"

"... moving on, Gnomes call this place home despide the stone giants that prowl about, they are amazing inventors by what most can tell but in truth only one in every onehundred inventions will be useful or amazing, all the others tend to explode or tamper with reality but so many inventions are made in a single day that they end up with quite a few ingenious designs.

Hobbits call the city of Krynn home in the Province of Borsiúm(B-orr-s-ee-yuu-m) a snowy wonderland of gorgeous glaciers and heavenly snow flakes that always gently fall, Hobbits within Krynn have set up a city of interconnecting iglues and enclosed ice bridges, each major area is an entire large iglue unto itself, whenever new Hobbits are born and grow up, they brave the snowy wastes to construct attatchments to the city so that they may live within their own iglue, Krynn is an ever expanding and dazzling city of ice and inginuity!

Dwarves tend to live within the city of Kivoností(Kee-voh-n-oh-ss-t-I) which is an underground City in the Twin Mountains Province, they are master miners and forge excellent armor even for the three common pony races and have good trade routes with the rest of Ébány.

Finally are the Elves, mystical and percurious beings of questionable motives, one can never be sure when entering an Elven city if they will be welcomed with food and drink, or killed and used as fertilizer for the forest's trees. Elves reside within no true city as other pony races understand the word, but they do completely inhabbit the Crescent Isle and the Scythe Isle two provinces cut off from the rest of Ébány by a hundred miles of ocean. Both Islands are very forested and contain bits and pieces of elven settlements here and there throughout the entire Islands, some larger settlements are carved into waterfall cliffs or mystical glowing caves filled with jeelyfish mushrooms large as Elophants(not an elephant, and elophant) that swim through the air itself. Not much is known of these areas and the Elves within them as they rarely converse with other races but their settlements are prized for their beauty and preservation of nature; it is believed by some that the two islands are thinking of warring with eachother but that rumor has been going on for thousands of years and probably always will.

Tartarus Gait 1 and 2 are areas of uninhabital wreathing flame and brimstone and lava, surrounded by bloodcrazed wyverns and murderous red dragons.

Dorgon and Dórgon(doo-err-g-on) are Fringe areas.

There are three small unnamed and unreachable islands surrounded by sea monsters and seemingly protected by the gods from any who try to come close, Wizards say to talk to the Clerics who have told us that Krakén(K-ra-k-ee-n) guards the islands fiercely for an unknown reason.

Then there is the island of Drhaego(d-ray-go) which is actually not a part of Ébány but is its own continant of Good aligned Dragons and serves as a breeding ground, nesting area, and home for many dragonlings, it is ruled by Croth the bane of Avorn, who is a legendary and famous red dragon and was once assisstant to Starswirl the Bearded who hatched him as an egg.

The Immortal River also deserves note! The Immortal River is yet another unexplanable anomily that puzzles scholors and Wizards alike. The Immortal River is a very large ever moving river that passes through all of Ébány and provides most of the fresh water for the non-equine creatures of the various Provinces. It is 50 hoves in width and is 100 hooves in some places while only 10 hooves in others, to say that's filled with water would be to lie yet tell the truth, the Immortal River is subject to what it passes through, it is usually water(fresh) but is quicksand in desert areas, lava in Tartarus fiery areas, salt water when going through the ocean off the map of the land, and a pixie dust appearing substance when passing through the Fringe areas.

and that is the traveler's guide to Ébány thank you for reading... huh there's some more stuff but it's mostly population and historical stuff hmm... I'll have to read more of this later" Sweetiee closed the book.

Scootaloo was sleeping while Applebloom blinked at the amount of information she just took in, "wow now Ahm kinda glad Ah didn't have tah read it mahself..."

Shaking her head, the Ranger set her mind back to what was infront of her, the vast canyon of Brynyald, elevated red rocks and empty gorge. "well..." a smile of new excitement plastered her face as she placed a hand on each of her friend's shoulders. "LET'S GO!"

and the three charged down the hill of the canyon slope which turned out to be much steeper than any of them had anticipated.

Applebloom's dexterous steps kept her body upright as she barrelled down the slope bouncing from hoof to hoof.

Sweetie Belle downright tripped and summersaulted down the hill while Scootaloo face planted and slid down the dusty smooth rock while spining horizontally as she went.

At the last step within the bottom of the cavern, the Ranger hopped and landed on the flat warm stone of the canyon floor while her Barbarian firend finally came to a stop next to her.

The Bard zipped right by them and crashed into an abandoned trading cart, the only sign of equine civilization within the entire region, Applebloom frowned as she approached the riddled cart with her inspective yellow eyes.

"huh..." she completely ignored her dissoriented friend and searched for any signs of pony life.

"oh ya I'm totally ok over here thanks for asking!" Sweetie begrudged as she stood up and dusted the debris off her expensive clothes.

Scootaloo managed to regain her dignity as she crackd her neck and joined her Unicorn friend next to the cart "well, that wasn't my proudest moment." the Pegasus mumbled.

Behind the cart, Applebloom discovered a small undamaged chest, the rest of the contents were in shambles, perhaps they were attacked? More likely the cart took a turn for the worst as it was headed up the hill. The Ranger opened the chest to find some very large and smooth grey clothings, one was a cloak that synched at the neck with a hood, the other were hoof boots of the same silky material.

Applebloom didn't need the knowledge of a bard to know these items, her sister had ones just like them.

"hey Applebloom?" Scootaloo called as she reached her head around the cart only to discover that she was gone!

"Applebloom! Aaaapplebloom!" the Barbarian called out while the Bard took notice of her friend's absence and began searching as well.

The Bard had the living daylights scared out of her when a certain gargantuan Earth Pony tapped her shoulder "kyah!" Sweetie shrieked as she hopped up in the air, spun around 180 degrees and landed facing Applebloom who doned a smug smile.

"Cloak and boots of Elven kind" Apllebloom explained cheekilly.

Sweetie did a duble-take before regaining her composure "wow, talk about lucky" she quiped with a smile of her own.

Scootaloo scoffed, first Sweetie goes running arouned with enchanted chainmail and now even Applebloom's using magic items? what was the world coming to?! so thought the Pegasus.

After all three companions had taken a deep breath and restored their dignity, they continued on through the lower section of the Canyon and fortunately did not encounter anything along the way and eventually came to thee territory line that divided the Brynald Canyon and the Everfree Jungle.

upon reaching it, they saw the strange purple line marking territory within the earth as well as on the map, the light violet hue radiated with a soft yet powerful light, it was only 3 inches in width but stretched all the way through the Province boarders, and while on one side there was the rocky canyon, on the other side there was grass and leavy jungle brush.

"huh, just like the book said." Sweetie thought aloud. Scootaloo mumbled something about 'stupid sorcery' and Applebloom was already on the other side.

"hey wait for me!" the Bard cried while running over the line to join her party leader.

Scootaloo cringed as she looked down at the line, her Barbarian instincts telling her to stay away from anything remotely magical and with a grumble she sprang in the air and glided over the line into the jungle filled Province.

The three of them travelled along for an hour with no encounters, but upon the second hour they were face to face with a very unhappy Ogre who charged out of the thick leaves, a giant hulking mosnter with rippling muscles wielding a particularly large club, behind him came another barehanded Ogre.

Sweetie Belle was about to grab her sono-crystal guitar when the Barbarian stopped her "don't. you. dare." she warned, "I haven't had a good scrap 2 weeks!" and with that, she charged at the armed ogre while drawing her weapons from her back and wielding her axe in right hand and hammer in the left, her Battle axe barely bit into it's hide but the follow up strike of her warhammer crashed down into the top of its rib cage and cracked bone, the Ogre let out a shriek of rage and pain.

Applebloom rushed up to the bare handed Ogre and as it raised its hands to strike, the Ranger clasped onto them and begun a deadly game of mercy. Applebloom's hatred towards Ogre-kind fueld her as she used all of her incredible strength to crush the monster before her, and like all Rangers of a high caliber she had chosen a specific monster of the wild to hunt down and destroy above all others, for Applebloom this was creature was an Ogre.

As the Earth Pony roared with power and matched the Ogre's own unimaginable strength, Sweetie drew her broad sword in her right hand and wielded her dagger offensively in her left as she began circling around the distracted ogres.

The Ogre that Scootaloo struck retaliated with his large club and crashed it into Scootaloo's side, with her warrior training, she braced the hit and took it hard as it slammed into her body but managed to stand firm.

The Ogre wrestling with Applebloom screemed in her face as it attempted to throw her off, but the two giants were of the same strength and he only managed to move their hands around clumsily.

Scootaloo's adrenalin shot through her body at massive copious ammounts and her eyes flashed black as a loud boom sounded throughout the forest, her body seemed to grow slightly in size as a red hazy aura surrounded it in swirling currents, the Barbarian had gone into her berserker rage.

Scootallo roared with untamed power as her body moved severely faster than before and she swung her weapons with twice as many strikes; unfortunately they were poorly placed hitts that the Orgre managed to block by barring his club as a shield to defend against the assailing blows of the Battle axe and Warhammer.

Applebloom crushed harder and harder until she actually managed to snap the Ogre's wrists who then let out a cry of pain which was only increased as Sweetie Belle back stabbed him, her sword slicing down into the back of his latteseral muscle and her dager pierced through his hide into his thik back muscles inflicting massive damage to his organs, blood gushed out from the wounds onto Sweetie's face and clothes as the Ogre fell pathetically to the ground barely able to stand.

The Ogre attacking Scootaloo swung again with his club and this time aimed for Scootaloo's head but she feinted down just in time to be lightly nicked by the club.

The Ogre fighting the other two mares could hardly do anything other than whine pathetically at his broken hands.

Scootaloo once again flailed out her four strikes but the Ogre amazingly managed to block them all yet again and thus, took to the skies in a hovering stance to gain a height advantage.

Applebloom moved her hands to draw her axes as Sweetie Belle got in another backstab with her weapons to the Ogre's exposed back. her sword sinking into the side of its neck realeasing a gush of blood all over the jungle floor while her dager pierced into the back of its heart twice. The ogre fell over with a few gurgle of sputtering nonsense before he stopped moving all together.

The remaining Ogre made another swipe at Scootaloo but missed her hovering form as she easilly dodged out of the way and then raised her weapons to strike.

scootaloo's hammer and hammer fell upon the Ogre, he was only able to dodge the axe while the hammer slammed onto the back of his neck sending him down to his kneese, the berserker didn't stop there, she lifted both weapons up almost immediately in an incredible display of speed that would have made Rainbow Dash proud, and crashed them down upon the Ogre again; the axe just scratched him while the hammer obliterated his collar bone.

Applebloom launched herself into the battle with her two hand axes and swung them with her insurmountable strength, her right hand axe cleaved its way into his skull, a cracking thud filled the air as she dug her axe out, ripping the ogre's head open as she did so, slimy brain matter fell out in membranous sticky clumps onto the jungle floor.

"woah! now that's some good quality adventuring!" Sweetie Belle cheered, Scootaloo however didn't look so happy, her body was still surrounded by the blood list of her berserker fit deep down she tried to regain control but failed, she landed to the ground and her black eyes turned towards Sweetie Belle with a psychopathic expression.

"w-woah now come on Scoots it's me!" the Bard said backing up in a defensive but terrified stance.

"cahmon Scoots you can beat it!" Applebloom encouraged as she gently approached her berserk friend.

In an instant, Scootaloo lunged for the spell casting bard who jumped back with a yelp, Applebloom tackled the fitful Barbarian to the jungle floor and attempted to restrain her with all her might. Sweetie Belle stood faaaaar away.

"COME ON SCOOTALOO YOU'RE STRONGER THAN THIS! FIGHT IT!" the Ranger screemed as she looked into the berserker's black blood crazed eyes "you can do it, we're all here for you c'mon Ah know you're in their somewhere!"

The Fitful Barbarian attempted to regain control but failed again as she lashed out at the hulking Ranger ontop of her, but the strong Ranger ontop of her just managed to hold her down as Scootaloo squirmed beneath her.

"Damn it Scootaloo listen to meh! YOU are the one in control! Ah'm not gonna leave you here and Ah'm not gonna let go so yer just gonna have tah be strong!"

Once again scootaloo attempted to regain control, but with such low wisdom she continued to fail each time.

"sorry about this Scootaloo" sweetie Belle whispered as she snuck up around the prone pair and crashed the but of her sword on her friend's skull effectively knocking the raging Berserker out.

"PHEW!" Applebloom breathed out as she crawled off the unconcious Barbarian, this wasn't the first time Scootaloo had lost control in her berserker fit and been unable to come back no matter how hard she tried, nor will it be the last they figured.

Although it came in very handy with particularly tough opponants so they couldn't really complain.

The Bard ran through Scootaloo's wounds and accessed the damage, she wasn't hurt too bad but there was a small bit of internall bleeding by her guess and a fractured rib from that club to her torso.

Applebloom pulled out some medicinal herbs and cut open Scootaloo's skin enough to expose the fractured rib, with her herbs she mashed them up in her mouth and then spat the goup into her hand and rubbed a bit of it into the crack, within a few seconds it secreted into a pasty glue that would hopefully hold the bone together provided Scootaloo didn't put her body under too much stress. 'that'a a laugh' the Ranger thought to herself as she stitched up the opening she'd made and then felt around the rest of Scootaloo's body, thankfully there was no internal bleeding fom what she could tell which put Sweetie Belle at ease.

After an hour of waiting, the Barbarian began to stir as her eyes fluttered open "hnh?" she sat up and immediately regreted it as her head throbbed with a banging sting "argh, what happened?" she looked over to her two companions who were sitting with their backs against trees, Sweetie Belle with her Sono-crystal guitar out and strumming along to a peacefull tune, *skalds and shadows by Blind Guardian*

"would you belive in a knight like thiiis? a knight like thiiis? when visions come true!"

Scootaloo pieced together the events of the hazy fight in her mind until she came to a conclusion "... I lost control again didn't I?"

Applebloom gave her a grim nod "damn it" the Barbarian cursed, the Berserker fit was a double edged sword, poweful yes, but also very dangerous and unpredictable sometimes one could come out of it easilly, others they could come out of it with great difficulty, it all depended on the Barbarian's strength of wisdom.

"would you beliiieve in a tale like this? a taale of bliiss? praise in the oaaklooore come to the blazing fire and SEE ME IN THE SHAAADOWS!"

Scootaloo rose to her hooves and cracked her neck "well, whatcha waiting for? an invitation? let's get a move on!" and with that, the Barbarain marched off through the jungle, ironic was her fervency since they really didn't have any particular destination at the moment.

Applebloom sighed and Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as they both joined their stubborn friend, the Bard continuing to sing along her tune "seee me in the shaaasows! songs I will sing, of ruuunes and rings, just hand me my harp, this knight turns into myth!"

they passed through the bushes looking upon the many creatures and wildlife, monkeys with multiple arms and giant ants crawling through the high trees.

"nothing seems real! you sooon will feel, the wooorld will live in as annnother skalds DREEEAM IN THE SHAAADOWS!"

up high in the sky they could see the stretchings from the nearby Large Forest Province.

"doo you believe the rescence in iiit? is it truth or myth? they're ooone in my rhymes!"

the many smells and sounds of a hundred alien like animals and insects buzing about the strange world beyond.

"nooopony knows the meaning be-hind the weeeavers lie! well noooopony else but the goooods can seee through the blazing fires of tiiiime and! how things should procede as the chiiiild of the heerrald will speeeak to you noooow! SEE ME IN THE SHAAADOWS! SEE ME IN THE SHAADOWS!"

they crossed through a great brush of giant snakes and pixies who buzzed about while the sun's golden honey created an opalescent glow that illuminated a glorious path.

"songs I will sing of triiibes and kings! the carryier bird and the haaal of the slain! NOTHING seems real, you soon will feel the world will live on as another skalds DREAM IN THE SHAAADOWS! DREEEAM IN THE SHAADOWS!"

the Bard latched onto her friend's shoulders with her outstretched arms and smiled at both of them as she continued "do not feeear for my reason, there's nothing to hide!"

the other two companions smiled and joined in "how bitter your treason, how bitter the lie, remember the rules and remember the light! haaaal I ever want is to be at your side!"

by this time the three of them were skipping along, "we'll glad and the ravon and III will RUN through the blazing fires that's myyyy choice, 'cause things should proceed as forSEEN! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~"

now in good spirits, the three of them traveled for a few more hours along the route that the sun provided thinking that it would be least likely to hold any nasty beasties.

Their plan held true as the three of them found the day waning on to night and eventually they set up camp for the night, the Ranger set up a nice little fort of sticks and leaves and the like while the other two brought out their bed-rolls and lay down for a nice rest.

Fortunately nothing attacked them in the night which left Scootaloo a bit grizzled as she'd stayed up second watch for nothing although Applebloom had warned her to take it easy as she nurtured the Barbarian's body.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle yawned as they awoke, the Ranger decided to get some fresh food since they'd merely eaten apple rations the night before.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo sat back and enjoyed a discussion.

"oh gosh that was so funny! it took a long time to get that grime out of my hair but it was all good in the end, and Babseed stood up for us in the end" Sweetie finished.

"ya, I wonder how she's doing? Haven't heard from her in like, forever!"

Applebloom then arrived with a two dead and skinned foxes in her hand held by thier hind legs "Ah got breakfast!"

Scootaloo licked her lips while Sweetie cringed slightly but held her tongue, not many ponies from Equestria were omnivorous but a few like the Apple family tended to be big meat eaters alongside their apple diet, and as Sweetie read through more of the book she discovered that quite a few settlements in Ébány were either omnivorous or down right carnivors so she had better get used to it quick.

After skewering the rodents, she roasted them on a spit on the fire that Sweetie had made and after a few minutes the three enjoyed a nice meal(even Sweetie had to admit it was better than preserved rations)

The three continued along the sunlit road until they reached a section of the Immortal River that ran through the full of the Jungle "hmm... any idea-" Sweetie wasn't allowed to finish her thought as the Barbarian lunged into the River and began swimming accross.

"SCOOTALOO! what it's filled with Piranah or worse, Dreugh!"

the Pegasus paused halfway through the water and turned to face the Bard while striding "oh please, there's no such thing as-" CHOMP! "ack! something bit me!" Scootaloo panicked as she reached her hand under the water and pulled up a Slaughterfish "...wot?... they're real! sea monsters are real!" she screemed as she took to the skies beating her wings fiercely.

Sweetie Belle nibbled her lip as she looked down at the river, how were they going to cross now?

"hey how 'bout a lift?" Applebloom called.

Scootaloo turned to the Earth Pony "didn't you tell me to oh I dunno, take it easy?" she said while hovering above the water.

"well we aint gettin' around any other way!" the Ranger retorted.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes "fiiiine" she flew over, picked the large Eath Pony up and carried her accross the river before reapeating the same with the Unicorn.

"thanks Scoots!" both wingless companions let out in unison.

The Pegasus waved them off dissmissively.

The party traveled for another hour or at least they would have until something popped up in their way effectively stopping them in their tracks, a single Horse Dragon of all things lunged itself at them.

"Woah!" Applebloom cried as she readied her weapons, she thought she'd heard something moving around.

Sweetie got her broadsword ready and switched her dagger to a parrying stance while Scootaloo drew her weapons.

"no! ya gotta stay outta this one! you're hurt and we can't risk ya going all whacko on us!" the party leader commanded much to Scootaloo grumbled to herself, her warrior's pride being severely wounded as she stepped back.

Just then the Dragon Horse reared up and slammed it's hooves at Applebloom, the first hit was completely and utterly dodged, the second one bounced off of Applebloom's armor.

The Ranger retaliated with her dual hand axes and swung them with fervor, but both strikes bounced off of the Dragon's hide which shocked the hay out of the Ranger.

The Bard tried her own hand at striking, and amazingly her sword managed to sink into the creature's neck stabbing through sensitive muscles and earning a cry of pain from the Horse Dragon.

The Horse Dragon turned its attention away from the Ranger in favor of the Bard as it lunged at her with another two strikes of its hooves, the first strike glanced off her enchanted armor, but the second one slammed into her skull with critical damage and sending her stumbling a bit but she managed to re-balance herself and shake the heavy hit off.

Applebloom jumped in the air and brought her axes down on the creature's neck, but again they bounced off as she landed causeing the reverberating shock to nearly knock her on her rump but she managed to steady herself.

Sweetie hoped for another piercing strike at the monster's throat but her blade bounced off its heavilly armored scales just like Applebloom.

the creature changed its mind yet again and struck the Ranger who took the brunt of the first hoof strike to her chest but the second one only glanced her shoulder.

Applebloom hacked yet again at the creature form the side praying to Celestia that she'd break through it's hide, to her supprise, one of her strikes made it through the armor and all of her strength followed through with the damage right into its neck furthering its blook loss, the creature began to stumble a bit.

But now Sweetie Belle rushed in, aiming for the open wounds to finish it off, luck was on her side as she scored a vital strike to its throat, but it still swung about as her blade ripped its way out of its neck.

The Horse Dragon made a last stand as it attacked Applebloom with both hooves which were easilly dodged.

Applebloom spun around and hacked her axe into the back of its neck to finish it off. The blade of the axe severed the creature's spinal cord and it fell to the ground, dead.

Sweetie and Applebloom were both left panting and exausted.

"awe that looked fun..." Scootaloo pouted.

"oh yes real fun." Sweetie said sarcastically as she began speaking in an ancient clerical language and tapped into the bit of priestly magic that all Bards had to heal herself of her head injury with

"croth mivaliin" a white light surrounded her head for a few seconds and a warmth filled her body as it was completely restored.

"and you couldn't of used that on me?" the Barbarian complained, earning a deadpan expression from the Bard "you hate magic..." she said blatantly.

The Pegasus blushed a bit as she realized she'd been duped. "ya well, you're... dumb..."

"Rally? that's the best you can manage?"

"jrghk! shut up!" and with that, the Barbarian stormed off with her entire face flashing crimson from embarassment and humiliation.

the rest of the trip through the Jungle was uneventful atleast until they came accross a peculiar flyer nailed to a tree with an arrow, it read as such,

King Wratharm Protector of the Realm is calling to all skilled and brave adventurers, crusaders, and mercenaries of renown, a Quest and duty to the Kingdome of Ébány must be fuffiled, reward of 100,000 Gold Pieces in blocks of mithril shall be rewarded to any who comply to-and complete-said quest. Willing perticipants shall be outfited with 2,000 gold for expenses.

Sweetie Belle finished reading. "well well well! Ah think we just found our adventure!" Applebloom said smiling.

The other two nodded with their own giddyness, this is what they came here for!

"so like, where are we supposed to go?" Scootaloo asked curiously.

"well... says here we should meet within the Capital of Ébány, Silvoní within the Privince of Silvonostye, I think we can get there faster if we cut through Mount. Th, the Gnomes there are supposed to have some kind of really fast travelling device called a 'wush wagon' might be worth a look"

the others nodded.

"alright then, let's a get a move on!" Applebloom cried and with that, they headed for the mountains north of the Everfree Jungle.

Another night of camping, During which time Sweetie healed Applebloom of her minor wounds and the Ranger did the same to the Barbarian with her herbs; and 4 hrs of travel brought them to the boarder.

Both Applebloom and Scootaloo were nearly healed of all their wounds with their warrior's matabolism but still thought it best to avoid conflict(or Applebloom thought it best, Scootaloo merely complained about wanting to kill something again)

as they ascended the mountain, they noticed a large amounts of black rocks, although that would be common, these looked a little to large for comfort...

"Ah got a baaaa-" Applebloom didn't get to finish her sentence as the rocks began to move on their own and form together into 50 feet tall rock giants.

"WHA! THEY'RE REAL?!" the Bard cried, even her vast imagination had refused to except such creatures.

"finally a battle!" Scootaloo said maniacly with a lick of her lips, but the Ranger picked her up and slung her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes "Hey!" the Barbarian whined as Applebloom booked it up the mountain with the Bard far ahead of her, funny how Rogues seemed to gain unnatural speed whenever they were running away from something.

Once they reached the actual rock solid area of the mountain, the ponies passed through a barrier of invisible untangible substance that the stone Giants crashed into and fell apart upon.

the two ponies didn't stop to look behind them, they kept on running and running and running until their legs felt like jelly.

"um, guys, I think we may have given them the slip." the Pegasus commented prompting the two fleeing ponies to finally fall to their kneese tuckered out.

"that, was not, cool." Sweetie Belle breathed as she panted upon her back, chainmail now hot from her ventalating heat, its weight upon her shoulders and neck were becoming very uncomfortable.

The others voiced their agreement as they finished resting and rose to their hooves and continued along the black rock filled mountain(Scootaloo finally being put back on her own two hooves)

The three of them made it to their destination at last and saw ahead a large metalic city built around and partial into the mountain.

"ah the Home of the Gnomes! and that's the actual name of the city!" Sweetie said with a wanton smile.

Applebloom and Scootaloo both were very curious to see just what these 'gnomes' were like.

Upon entering the gate-less city, they noticed immediately the tiny three hoof stall Earth Ponies scrambling about, moving at ridiculous speeds, as one of the CMC turned to the right, she saw a large long table of Gnomes fiercely scribbling about their pages, their tiny hands but a blur, one of them even wrote so fast that his quill and parchment spontaneously combusted from the friction.

"AIE AIE AEI!" the Gnome cried out as it grabbed a frying pan and began smashing the fire like a madpony "firedie firedie!" it spoke so immensely fast that it was hard to understand what it was saying.

eventually some kind soul came over to the clerk and replaced his quill with a stylis and gave him a glace plate to write on.

one of the other mares noticed a different Gnome working on some contraption or another, he tweaked it and turned its cogs, it made a rumbling sound and the gnomes mouth went abright. Then it puffed and died out, the Gnome angrilly grabbed a hammer and smashed the contraption causing it to explode and send the gnome flying into the air so high he twinked out of sight "AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee..."

Applebloom blinked "...wot..."

the three arrived at a sign that had 'wush wagon' written in every language concievable on the board along with a map of Ébány, albeit the most horrid representation of a map ever! the words so tiny you could barely read them, many islands were in the wrong places and the whole thing was just a botched job.

"ugh, I don't think I like Gnomes" Scootaloo sighed.

The three of them moved further to the Gnome arranging the wush wagon. "detinin?"

Scootaloo blinked "what?"

"detinin?"

"... det..in..nin?"

"detinin?"

the Gnomes voice came out so incredibly fast it couldn't even be deciphered.

The Bard attempted her own try.

"detinin?"

"de..destination?"

"detinin!"

"oh! um... Silvoní"

"thirgo"

Scootaloo shook her head furiously "what?"

"thirgo"

"..."

The Bard once again tried to sound out the fast words

"thhhhirtty gold?"

"thirgo"

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes "ten gold" she said sternly.

"thirgo"

"no, ten gold!" the Barbarian insisted now with some anger in her voice.

Sweetie Belle shook her head, was Scootaloo honestly going to try and haggle with a Gnome?

"thirgo"

"fifteen"

Appareantly so...

The gnome pointed at Scootaloo "ten gold"

"wh-oh... ya... ok then..." the Pegasus pulled out some coin and handed it over to the Gnome and then proceeded to walk towards the wagon, but her two companions were stopped by the gnome who then pointed at each in turn "ten gold" "ten gold"

The Barbarian ruffled her mane "gaaah!"

"oh enough of this!" the Bard cried as she reached for her coinpurse but was stopped by the Barbarian "no! we are not paying thirty gold!"

the Bard attempted to still get her purse out and the two sturggled over the coin until 5 Gem Fragments went flying out.

"shiny?" "shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?""shiny?"

the three were suddenly asulted with an army of gnomes who were crowding around the three and feeling around their bodies and admiring their weapons and anything with a shine.

"gah! get off meh!" Applebloom cried as gnomes climbed their way up her body only to be flung off into the distance at the wave of her arms.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" The Bad screeched in Scootaloo's ear "me?! this is your fault!" but the two didn't have any more time to argue as the gnomes crowded around them and brought them to their kneese, Scootaloo downright fell into a see of of them sending splashes of gnomes into the air only to fall back into the sea of tiny ponies.

"RUUUUUNN!"

"WE CAN'T!"

Applebloom had had enough as she stood up with her Ogre strength and flung the gnomes left and right before running over and yanking Sweetie Belle up onto her shoulder, then bull dozing her way through the tiny ponies like bowling pins until she got ahold of the Barbarian slung her over her other shoulder.

"we're getten outta here now!" she yelled. The Ranger finally managed to toss the ponies into the wush wagon by diving into it and taking them with her.

Infront of the wagon was yet another Gnome "wush wagon!" he cried hapilly before grabbing a torch and throwing it at the other end of the wagon.

A sssssss sound could be heard from the back of the cart, Sweetie peeked over to see a series of flamable and very combustable containers with a lit fuze "... are those explosives?... THOSE ARE EXPLOSIVES!" BOOM!

the three were sent rocketting through the air at high speeds with their bodeis pressed agains the back of the cart, cheeks and mouthes streetching behind them from the intense speed.

"MOOOOOOMMMMYYYYYYY!"

the three did a loopdiloop of a natural forming rock ring which prompted Scootaloo to cry, "HOW WAS THAT PEFECTLY PLACED THERE?" "WE DON'T KNOW!"

after a few minutes of terror a random gnome fell into the wagon covered in soap suds holding a sponge.

"wush wagon?"

Sweetie Belle picked the gnome up with a question mark practically materializing above her head before tossing it out of the cart "wuuuush waaagooooon!" it cried as it landed on the ground and shook its tiny balled fist at them "nyyyraaaaghhh!"

they didn't know how long they bulleted through the landscape but at one point they left the ground from flying off of a ramp in the rock below them causing them to literally soar through the air.

"THIS HAS TO BE BREAKING SOME KIND OF SAFETY REGULATION!" Sweetie Belle cried(literally)

XXXXX

Two Pegasi guards stood at the gates to Silvoní a rather peacefull day so far, a few travelers here and there, and two particularly creepy ponies earlier in the day but other than that a quiet time so far.

"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAH!" a fell voice on the air increased as it came ever closer to the gate.

"... you hear something?" the one guard asked his companion.

"what do you mean?"

the two looked forward as something came flying at them with a large amount of speed. "... is that a wush wagon?..."

"... IT IS!"

"open the gate quick!" the two ponies rushed to open the large adamantine gates just in time for the wus wagon to come flying through, nearly hitting many citizens along the way until it crashed into the side of a stone building.

The guards rushed over to see if the wagon's passengers were still alive "woah! are you three ok?"

"...define...OK?..." Scootaloo rasped out.

two hours, some medical attention, and a room at the Ruby Brazen Inn later...

"ugh!" scootaloo plopped down onto her bed, the inn's room was exceptionally lavish as was befitting an inn within one of the richest cities in Ébány.

Sweetie Belle was ever so relieved to get her own chainmail suit off, it's enchantment may have kept her silent but... it was still heavy.

a happy sigh of relief escaped her lips as she too plopped onto her own bed.

Applebloom coudln't even comment as she pased out on the ground and fell asleep.

"finally rest!"

"amen to that!"

The three of them stayed a few nights at the inn until they were fully restored of their vitality, then they stocked up on some more rations and were readty to be on their way.

But first they decided ot have one last mug of ale.

As the three friends sat there in conpanionable silence... until it was completely broken by sweetie Belle hopping up with an ecstatic face "hotty at 2 o' clock!" she cried as she eyed a handsome young Earth Pony a few tablew away form them in the inn's tavern.

"wha? really Sweetie?" Applebloom chastized.

"hey, I haven't gotten laid in a month!" and with that, the Bard strided over to the young gentlecolt and layed down her charm.

within a few secons they saw the stallion blush and bite his lip with a questioning look to his friends who eagerly edgedhim on wihth encouraging nods.

And with that, the Bard walked passed her companions holding the stallion's hand, giving them a wink "see you fillies in an hour!" she said cheerefully.

Scootallo blanched "how does she do that?"

Applebloom shrugged.

Scootaloo pouted for a bit before eyeing a cute little mare in the corner of the room, and her friend followed her glance.

"Scoots don't..."

"oh please watch this."

Applebloom facepalmed as she painfully watched her friend make a fool of herself.

and two minutes later the Pegasus sat back down at the table with the red stinging mark of a handprint on her cheek.

"I hate Sweetie sometimes..." she grated out through gritted teeth.

"she's more charismatic than ya, what can ya do?"

and hour later the Bard in question returned to their table with a dreamy half lidded expression and a faint glow of satisfaciton about her.

Scootaloo glared at her with envy.

"we done bein' fillies here?" Applebloom asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I feel like a mare." Sweetie quiped with a stupid grin.

"I'm gonna kill you..." Scootaloo grunted with hatred in her voice.

Eventually the party left the Inn and headed for the King's gates but as they did so, two very strange ponies passed them by, heading in the opposite direction, one of them in a white kimono with pink lillies on it, and the other swaddled up in a black cloak and cloth tunic, pants, and boots his face was also covered.

"wow... sure are some wierd ponies around here" Applebloom comented before returning her attention to the city around her, it's beautiful stone walls and enchanted barriers, even the sky of the city was protected, there were Clerics of sea gods defending the coasts and Paladins defending the meadowland areas.

The three of them finally made their way into the castle and arrived infront of the Castle gates, the guards looked at them with raised eyebrows.

Applebloom held up the flyer from the Jungle "ah..." and with that, the guards led them inside the glorious palace of white stone and golden engravings.

The CMC saw within the palace a series of powerful looking Paladins and Clerics, this apparently was a very religious city, and at the edge of the room stood a few of the King's court Wizards, leaning on their staves and discussing magics.

"ah! you must be answering the summons!" the King cheered, King Wratharm, a tall Alicorn enraptured with full body plaitmail, a heavy shield and a Katana lay at the sides of his throne, and upon his head he wore a heavy helmet shaped like a dragon's head with a hole for his horn. All of this looked heavilly enchanted if their' unnatural glow was anything to go by.

"yep!" Applebloom let out cheerfully, she and her companions walked up to the king and gave a small bow.

"good good! with the two others that makes five companions, the more the merrier!" the King cheered in his loud booming voice of an aged and experienced soldier.

"so what exactly is this 'quest' that the flyer tells of?" the Bard asked.

"ah that," the King began. "I suppose there's no point in beating around the bush, in a prhase... I need you to save Ébány if not the entire world."

The three mares blinked "... come again?"

The Immortal chuckled "tell me, have you ever heard of, the Staff of Wishing?"

Sweetie Belle searched the annals of her bardic lore and knowledge, going over each and every story she'd learned.

"huh... no actually..."

the king nodded "not supprising, the story is one that is rare even amongst the Bards and story tellers of the Magic Towers. But before I get into that lot, you should be introduced to the other two ponies who answered this 'calling of heroes' as it were"

Sweetie bit her lip wondering if she liked that title or not, being an adventurer was one thing, but being a hero? that was more her sister's area of expertise, Applejack's as well.

On the other hand... 100,000 Gold did sound nice...

The three ponies turned to a corridor from which their two new comanions walked through.

XXXXX

Far to the southern end of the Plains of Dréth, an Assassin in black cloth tunic, fingerless gauntlets, pants, and boots with a black cloth cloak(hood up) and a black cloth face mask sat with his back against a tree, that teleporting stone hadn't gotten him and his comanion all the way to their destination, but it sure did get them close.

his turquise eyes looked out at the cloudy sky, the weather here ín Ébány often followed its own rules, it could still be manipulated, but generally it followed its own course.

The Assassin's black bangs of his mane hung down the left side of his face covering most of his left eye, sitting at his left side on a weapon's belt was a sheathed Elven cleaver of Bloodletting, a very formiddible weapon, and it'd served him well thoughout his life ever since he'd been granted it from the Assassin who'd taught him his craft.

Strapped to his thigh was a black steel Ulak, an unusual dagger that came in very handy with protecting him in open conflict, and ofcourse strapped to his lower back were two extra cartridges of bolts for his repeater crossbow which sat in a specially made sheath on his back. His name was Ironheart, he was light of hoof, skinny, toned and a definite loner. One of the only Pegasi who preffered the company of nopony, his black wings and cutie mark of a grey heart of cold iron fitting him perfectly.

"BOO!"

save for one.

Ironheart gave a bit of a jump at the sudden noise, he looked up to see the only pony in this world that he held any compasion for, Vanilla Sanguine.

The Earth Pony mare was tall and muscular, but not the sort of 'bulky hulk' although her muscles were very sizable, they were also extremely toned and defined, honed through years of pefect training.

The two were in their early twenties yet were both of a very high caliber in power and experience, blood thirsty merceneries paied to do whatever job ponies were willing to pay their high rates for. The two may have been expensive, but they were effective.

Vanilla herself was a Kensai, a unique class of Warrior who did away with armor and focussed so heavilly on the mastery of one weapon that they were not just fighers, they were martial artists.

The Kensai wore a white kimono with pink lotusses decorating them beautifully, at her left side synched with a weapons belt were two Katanas the weapons fit her nicely, especially her cutie mark, a bleeding red heart impailed with a Katana.

the Earth Pony had an Alabaster white coat and a very light minty green mane that was shorter than most females and flowed around her head in wavy strands, her crimson red eyes added a menacing element to her maniacle smile, both mercs were more or less insane, one a maniac, the other a natural born psychopath.

The Kensai also had some throwing knives hidden on inner pockets of her kimono and a dagger strapped to the other side of her belt just in case.

"you ready ta get goin'?" she spoke in her lazy voice often skipping many syllables.

The Assassin nodded silently as he usually did, opting to talk as little as possible.

and with that, the two headed towards the southern Province of Borisúm a frozen tundra where the Hobbits made their iglue city of Krynn.

and thus they reached the boarder of the Province, a skip and a hop and the two heard and felt a sshhhfup! of berimetric pressure and atmosphere change and suddenly the freezing cold of Borisúm overtook them.

an hour of silent Travel insued, both mercs covered up in thick furr coats to stave off the freezing cold of the snowy atmosphere, until they came accross a hobgoblin.

"gnnaaaa! you two dummies! poor dummies who give me shiny or I make dead!"

Vanilla blinked, then turned to Ironheart "care to?"

the Assassin walked forth towards the goblin who drew a heavy crossbow "ah ah ah! no stetp closer! you give gold now or die!"

Ironheart ignored him as he continued his swift almost souless gait.

"s-stop no! no closer or you die!"

"then shoot me you bucking pussy" the Assassin breathed out in a soft but menacing voice, his icy blue eyes piercing into whatever shamble of a soul the goblin had.

Ironheart was five hooves from the goblin when he fired, the bolt bounced right off of the Assassin's chest as if it were an acorn.

"wh-wha?!" the goblin panicked as the Assassin dexterously drew his elven enchanted cleaver and with a swift upward slash, he sliced the goblin's torso from one diagonal corner to another, leaving the goblin falling to his kneese with coupious amounts of blood flowing forth, much more than should have been, the cleaver's enchantment forcing the goblin to bleed more and more and more, gushing out like a gyser he clutched his chest but in futility as the blood just ran through his fingers, tears formed in his eyes as he looked at the two ponies who now had long since walked past him, leaving the sot to bleed to his death in the snow.

afte a few more moments, that's exactly what happened, and from then on, the goblin was ever silent.

"what a bucked up way to die" the Kensai commented.

Ironheart shrugged for his nonverbal response.

"ya you're right..." Vanilla replied, over the ears since their foalhood, they had become like siblings and the Kensai had learned well how to read the Pegasus' body language.

After a few more hours and no more fateful encounters, they arrived at the iglue city to find the hobbit settlement, they rented out a room at an undersized inn and took to the icy streets in search of information.

The clients of the two merceneries were known as 'the Guild' a supposedly evil and very very powerful organization, why they had them searching for this 'Staff of Wishing' or what their motives were, the two could care less. They were merceneries, they got paid, they killed or bullied and they moved on to the next client, no questions asked, and that was just the way they liked it.

Inside of a shop, Ironheart was holding a Hobbit by his throat up to a wall, with the Hobbit's small pony frame, his hooves weren't even touching the ground at this point.

"now now!" Vanilla chirped as she stood next to the Hobbit and leaned against the wall nonchaluntly, "why don't you just tell us what we need to know and we can be on our way, oooorrrr I could let my friend here have his fun, he's only supposed to kill and torture for business but if you ask me," she leaned in close to him and spoke with a mock voice of concern "I think he'd easilly mix business with pleasure if he had reason to"

"OK OK I'LL TELL YOU JUST PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"

The Assassin dropped the Hobbit, looking down at him with the soft yet terrifying eyes of souless eyes of a murderer.

"I-It's in the black water cavern south of the city! it was just a tiny little thing, just a stunded drake at first but, but a few months ago he changed that's all I know I swear!"

the Kensi scrunched her lips up in conetemplation "hmmmmmmmmmm ok I believe you"

the Hobbit let out a sigh of relief and the two mercs left the shop without another word.

a half hour of trekking ouside the city and they arrived at a cave, the black water cave, famous for a 'demon' that now resided within, this was their most recent job from the Guild, to investigate rumors of The Staff of Wishing, whatever the hay that was; as well as any extremely unusual activity around certain settlements.

This was one of them.

Walking into the cave the Assassin quickly surveyed the area of the green stone tunnel slightly flooded with cie water and discovered a few traps which he then dissarmed.

"huh, didn't know drakes were that smart" the Kensai thought idly.

Ironheart gave the slightest of silent nods as his agreement.

the two of them didn't need to travel far to find what they were looking for, a Large ...Dragon?

"Drake my flank! that's a bucking Shadow Dragon!" the kensai did a double take.

"..." the Assassin 'voiced' his own shock.

The Shadow Dragon turned towards the invadors of his domain "aaaaahhhhh more fodder for my army I see... hmhmhmhm" the Dragon rose within the large domed area of the cave and with him, 5 zombies rose.

"weeeellll... this should interesting!" the Kensai said maniacly as she drew her Katanas while the Assassin redied his Cleaver and Ulak both in offensive stance, he didn't need to worry as much about attacks due to the mithril armor he wore under his black clothing.

"ready?" Vanilla asked.

"..." the Assassin replied prompting his partner to shut her eyes tight as he threw a falsh bomb at the shallow water, its blinding light singed the zombies and dragon alike. The Assassin rushed forward with all haste and dissappeared from sight whlilst the Kensai charged straight for the Dragon, she knew this was a particularly high level opponant and would need to be dealt with first.

The Dragon and his zombies finally managed to recover.

The Kensai lashed out at the Dragon while roaring with her special kiai power, allowing her to inflict maximum possible damage (provided she hit), she lashed out with four super fast strikes, only two of them got thorugh this demon's scales but the ones that did hit home on his major organs and ripped all the way across his torso, those two attacks alone... inflicted enough damage to kill the seemingly invincible beast... the Kensai ran with fervent speed in a circle around the Shadow Dragon with her Katanas inside until it was effectively cut in two, one single round and she'd taken out such a legendary beast, it's blood sprayed accross her fur coat and filled her face with an insane manic grin of blooth lust, oh how she loved killing her prey in a single attempt.

Meanwhile the Assassin had pulled out his repeater crossbow and with a pull of a leaver, it's stings and metalic launchers unfolded and were ready to launch a folly from his sneaking position he had a snipers box ready to take out the zombie Hobbit ponies.

three bolts were launched in rappid succesion of a thwf thwf thwf! all three hit their mark with his sniper's aim and his carefully placed shots took landed each bolt in a different zombie's head effectively blowing the skulls up

the zombies slowly moved towards the mercs and as such, their doom.

The kensai stalked closer and with a wush of air, struck each of the zombies twice with her katanas, once zombie was decapitated, the other was split right down the middle.

The Earth Pony stood in the puddle of zombie blood with her Katanas lowered and glistening off the reflection of the water "well that was fun..." she said with a giggle.

The Assassin shruged and gathered up the bolts he'd fired, one of them was useless but the other two were still good.

"alright let's head back, you'll need to write a report on this for the Guild" the Assassin nodded.

On their way back to the Hobbit settlement the air was peaceful save for a whize through the air, the Kensai turned just in time to snatch an arrow aimed for her head, she calmly untied the note that was attatched to the shaft.

"...huh...too many big words" she handed the note to the Assassin who was more versed in the finer arts of reading an writing.

"... the Guild is sending us 'assisstance'..." Ironheart said in his soft barely audible voice.

"huh... can't wait to meet 'em..."

XXXXX

The two mercs finally arrived back at their rented room where they were instructed to meet their 'assisstance' more companions... just what they needed. Vanilla thought this with a mixture of sarcasm and sagelyness, while it was true that between the two of them there was little physical opposition that could survive, they could certainly use some ponies talented in other arts than just stabbing things until they stopped moving, although it would be entertaining to have another one of those...

"how many did they say they were sending?" Vanilla asked.

The Assassin looked at the note "three..."

the Kensai shrugged "well... let's meet the newbies!" and with that she opened the door to meet her and Ironheart's new companions.

END OF CHAPTER 1