[IC] Equestrian Radio Show's Adventure Variety Hour: Explorers of STOMP

[CoffeeHorse]

"No thank you, Maple, I'm fine. Hello, Moonshadow! Nice to meet you and also Pecky. I like your hat!"[/COLOR] Misty says in greeting.

---

"Okay." maple says with a mischievous frown... she didn't want to try and be a dog anyway. XD

---

"No thank you, Maple, I'm fine. Hello, Moonshadow! Nice to meet you and also Pecky. I like your hat!" Misty says in greeting.

"Oh uh thanks, I needed someplace to store Pecky as I travel." Then in after thought he adds: "And no she doesn't poop on my head."

As for Pecky, her expression seems to carry that she's mortified by the thought of doing such a thing.

---

"So...am I still the newest member?" Wanderlust wonders aloud, filing Brisk Iron's offhand comment about rough introductions for later.

---

"Whether you're currently the newest or not, it depends on what you do once given a chance. I find myself reminded by...actually, would you be interested in a story about a musical group?" Shale Antiquity asked.

---

"I always have time for stories." Wanderlust says with a smile.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"Have you heard of the group Crush Cardboard Boxes Angrily? Rock generally isn't my preferred genre but they presented me with an interesting circumstance. Outside of my usual performances, I produce some sheet music for general purchase to interested music groups. Their lead keytar player, Glitter Axe, requested my blessing to use one of my pieces as the undercurrent to their self titled debut. A raw purchase is one thing but to ask me directly? To get my blessing I asked them to play.

And...they were quite good. To the point where it had me wondering if there was a bit more to seeking out my blessing. Turns out, they wer! e the cover act for some sort of popular star of the month. One who was notorious for being late and that sometimes put extra pressure on the acts before him. I told them to focus on their own work instead of being weighed down by what they can't control.

The night of their first big performance came and as expected, the 'star' opted to not be there on time. Still, the curtain rose and they started up. The audience seemed to enjoy it but there was some sort of spark missing. The song had an interlude in the middle and thier big surprise was dropping cardboard boxes onto the stage. They had a dance centered around their title. However, while they originally planned to do it themselves, Glitter Axe started tossing boxes into the audience and got them into it. The interactivity was a minor shade of brilliance from her. They got one of the stage hands to run through the back and start constantly tossing boxes to the audience and the group really started to 'rock out' as they say. Everypony was enjoying themselves and I think I better understood the lyrics. Crushing cardboard boxes angrily was more of something to relieve stress instead of just being angry. It was a bit of spectacle. While the interlude on recorded versions is two minutes long, in the original performance it lasted twelve minutes. The greatest triumph was that when the original main act finally arrived, nopony was interested. Crush Cardboard Boxes Angrily played a double encore and history was made.

While none of their followup singles did as well as the first, it gave them long running popularity that solidified their careers. I still keep contact with them to this day. Well, Glitter Axe is a music tutor for one of my granddaughters and the group as a whole has mailed me autographed cardboard boxes on the anniversary of that night. I've even had that piece of sheet music pulled from circulation since I feel it is truly their's instead of mine now. So don't worry about being new...worry about being the best." Shale Antiquity calmly said as her story concluded.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Though Wanderlust enjoyed the story, by the end they looked a bit put upon. "...I was making more of a joke." He admits. "Being the best is very important, obviously." He adds hastily. "It's what I do. But I appreciate hearing it from someone so...well-traveled."

---

"Mrs. Antiquity... that was... beautiful!" Misty sputters, obviously moved by the tale.

---

Statics ear twitches and he perks up. "That's right! I knew I heard your name before!" He then turned to Scarlet. "Wow! Who aren't you related to?"

---

"Well, it looks to be a simply fantastical day! Seems like the gang's all...where's Keen?" A purple unicorn stallion burst into the room. His excitable demeanor paired well with his frizzled and poofy orange mane and loose necktie. Behind his black glasses, his yellow eyes made a quick survey of the room. "Oh hey, Square Fun. I'm guessing she's the last one the Chief Director is picking up. How was the teaching conference?" "It had some good and some weird. Don't know if I should get into it since...I'm not interrupting! anypony am I? If not, it's a bit of a doozy."

---

"Well, it looks to be a simply fantastical day! Seems like the gang's all...where's Keen?" A purple unicorn stallion burst into the room. His excitable demeanor paired well with his frizzled and poofy orange mane and loose necktie. Behind his black glasses, his yellow eyes made a quick survey of the room. "Oh hey, Square Fun. I'm guessing she's the last one the Chief Director is picking up. How was the teaching conference?" "It had some good and some weird. Don't know if I should get into it since...I'm not interrupting! anypony am I? If not, it's a bit of a doozy."


Spoiler

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

[Getting very crowded in here]

Static squirmed a little bit in his seat.

[What the blasted heck does the Chief have in mind?]

[Can we please crack on?]

---

"So just how many more new faces are gonna get pranced out here before we actually get started?" Rhapsody asks getting a bit impatient.

---

"I don't see any more chairs or cushions Rhapsody, but if somepony else does show up, I guess we could just move out of this room."

---

Scarlet opened his mouth to say a few things, then decided to wait until after training for most of it.

"lets get this show on the road."

---

Moonshadow for his part was keeping mostly quiet, despite the occasional chirp from his companion Pecky.

What am I even doing in here? I thought I was just joining the museum crew... Do they need this many to study or move artifacts and the like?

Then there was the second thing on his mind he was trying to be professional about and ignore.

Sure are some pretty mares in this group...

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Spoiler


*grumble* A stout and heavyset, green pegasus mare walked into the room. Each step jingled from all of the things carried in her vest pockets. She had a pink headband and tail bow but these bright colors didn't seem to brighten her mood. "Uh oh. What happened this time?" "I was called in for some last minute consultant work for a wedding preparation and it's a good thing I was. The entire thing was a disaster waiting to happen. It was supposed to be on a cloud platform and the groom was a unicorn with a cloud walking spell but the clouds were so lightly packed, most pegasi would struggle to stand on it. I don't think the bride to be would have enjoyed that happening during the wedding. I got it all fixed in time but better planning could have caught that sooner. The clouds were certainly secured on my wedding." "And I'm glad for that, honey." Square Fun gave her a nuzzle and she seemed to calm down a bit.

"Ahem." Brisk Iron said as she stood in the doorway.

"Today, all of you will be embarking on a special training session for dangerous expeditions. The local residents have helped the Royal Guard train and the Keep shall be utilizing their services with the princesses' permission. Each team will have a separate mission structure, similar to the training some of you received a while back. The teams are a bit more mixed, both due to needing everypony on track and for the fact that teams may be assigned differently from time to time. On that note:

Rhapsody, you will be leading Moonshadow, Wanderlust, Splash Flaunt, and Dart Noveau.
Scarlet Spectrum, you will be leading Night Cap, Shale Antiquity, and Keen Craft.
Static Signal, Misty Monsoon, Anchors Away, Maplejack, and Square Fun.

Unless there's questions, please follow me."

---

Static sat there stunned for a couple seconds.

[Did...did she just make me a team lead?]

[Ho...ly...*bleep*!]

Static stood to follow Brisk Iron out.

---

Moonshadow seemed to balk a bit.

"W-wait what? Dangerous expeditions? I thought I was joining the museum staff! T-there must be some mistake!"

I don't want to go on a dangerous expedition! Bad things happen when I do!

---

Brisk Iron calmly stated. "You are joining museum staff. However, background checks have shown you to be quite capable so it seemed like a promotion of sorts was in order."

---

"Oh uh... that's really okay um..." He sighed. "I'm... not going to be able to get out of this am I?"

Pecky chirped happily shaking her head, earning another glare.

"You're not helping!" He hissed at her.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"Complaining isn't gonna help your cause now." Rhapsody says as she looks over to Moon. "Most of us get recruited from Museum staff to this team, when it is clear we possess the necessary abilities to get things done. You're lucky, this is a training mission. My first day on this job had a completely inexperienced team thrown across the world to the icy north where we had to stop a malicious force from freezing the entire world. So this is likely gonna be MUCH easier first day for you."

---

"My first day one of the bad guys showed me they knew where I lived, where I worked, where I used to work...everything. She tried to recruit me. That night I fought beside total strangers, helping fight off a full-fledged strike team from stealing some relics from the Keep. Did I mention at the time I was just another out-of-shape movie projectionist? Still don't know how I survived that night.

"It's normal to get the jitters your first time out. But you wouldn't be here if you hadn't earned it."

---

Maple waved at Wanderlust, he seemed nice. Or maybe she was just full of joy because her and Misty were going to be teammates!

---

"You did manage to recover the Sixty Birch Draughts of the Great North, a treasure that made its way into the Grape Family's collection before eventually being donated to the Keep. In many ways some of your exploits, accidental as some of them may be, are fairly tied to the team. And as Rhapsody fairly pointed out, this is training." Brisk Iron said to Moonshadow.

As the group followed Brisk Iron, Splash Flaunt gave Maplejack a reassuring pat on the back. "You can do this. Make your team proud." Upon stepping outside, each of the three teams were escorted to covered wagons and taken in different directions. Each arrived at a house being used as the starting point for their training. Basic supplies were given out, complete with color coded charm bracelets like the last time. Neon orange for Rhapsody's team, lilac for Scarlet Spectrum's team, and teal for Static Signal's team. Each house also had a proctor waiting. While Scarlet Signal saw Flairvoyant, the other two groups had cloaked proctors.

---

"Neat armbands!" Maple giggled softly as she strode up next to Misty, holding her leg up so the obviousness of their similar armbands was obvious.

"Okay, Sir. What's the plan team leader?!?" Maple asked turning to the equally stylishly armband-ed new team captain.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Damn me and my stupid past. Moonshadow scolded in his mind. It's not like I was trying to recover those! I was just trying to find a bathroom when I stumbled upon the Diamond Dogs trying to smuggle them! What else was I suppose to do when they jumped me?

He held up his hoof, looking at the neon orange band that now adorn it. Only for Pecky to let out a sad chirp. Looking up at her he realized the reason. Focusing just a small bit of magic on his band, he carved just a sliver of it off and attached it to Pecky's own leg. Earning a happy chirp from her, and a smile from him.

---

"Can't really make a plan until we know what the objective is," Static replied. "Mysterious cloaked pony seems trustworthy. Not that there's any other direction to go." Static took one step toward the cloaked pony and halted. "Keep your eyes open. Until we know what the objective is, I'm not trusting anything here...especially a cloaked pony that just stands there looking at us."

Static walks up to the cloaked pony. "So...what's the objective here?"

---

The cloaked pony responded to Static Signal but kept their face out of sight. "Long ago, there was once an inventor with terrible designs upon the world. He built a machine the likes Equestria had never known in an attempt to bring about his goals. The Marvelous Machine of Magnificent Malevolence. Many brave souls attempted to thwart it but none were successful. However, due to some sort of cataclysmic internal failure, his machine and the lands surrounding it sank into the ground.

Recently, the sound of machinery has started up again. Either foolhardy explorers have activated it or...it has res! tarted on its own. You and your brave explorers, I seek out somepony who can find out the ancient secrets of how the machine works so that it may be deactivated."

---

Maple whips out her notepad and writes down "Malevolence" and drawing a big circle around it, before putting the pad back in her pack.

---

"Hey, Static, you're good with machines and things, right? We've totally got this!"

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Intrigued, since a) his team was a little smaller than the others and b) they got Flairvoyant instead of a cloaked proctor, Scarlet cocked an eyebrow at her.

"So then, what devilry do you have in store for us Flair? What is our challenge?"

---

"Riiiiight! Well, we gotta find it first. Well...I doubt they put this house here in the training field just to look pretty. I say we take a look around. Nothing else, it can be our base of operations."

Static opens the door.

---

Flairvoyant replied to Scarlet Spectrum with, "Su equipo debe encontrar la Llave Oscura del Conquistador."

---

"La Clave Oscuro? Donde empezamos?

---

Maple also began to look for clues
Spoiler
Zam

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Rhapsody walks up to the cloaked figure. "So is your identity important? Or is cloak just for effect?" The black mare asks as her team enters the house. For her there was something odd about the proctor being cloaked, since surely if it didn't somehow factor into this then why be cloaked at all? She then shakes her head. "You probably can't answer that, can you?" All the time, Rhapsody's violet eyes were examining every movement of the figure, trying figure out anything she could about the proctor; every little movement seems to catch her attention. This! was less about not trusting the figure, and more that already there was some kind of mystery in front of her. This was a training exercise after-all, everything would be accounted for, everything would have a reason to be here including a reason why the proctor kept their identity a secret.

"So, moving to something you can answer: why are we here? What's our goal?" She moves on with her questions, the possibility that the identity is somehow tied into whatever they were here for filtering into her mind.

---

Misty glances around the house.

Spoiler

---

Flairvoyant tapped the ground with her hoof and a trap door opened. There was a ladder leading down to a lower level. Meanwhile, Keen Craft whispered to Night Cap, "It's a foreign language. I'm sure he'll relay the information to us when he's done."


The hooded pony replied to Rhapsody with, "I am but a humble informant who brings you information. A passage has been found that can lead you to a long lost discovery. The Argent Boom of the Waxing Moon was once thought inaccessible but excavation teams found what they feel may be a trail leading to it. But time is limited. It only blooms for a short time each year and according to charts, this will be the brightest in 1000 years."


Static Signal only saw the door they entered from and the room had no windows. However, Misty Monsoon spotted a small metal file sitting in the corner.

Meanwhile, Anchors Away walked over to Square Fun and asked, "With timing and everything, we didn't really get a chance to find out what you, um, do.""Oh, I teach math and physics. I naturally try to apply such knowledge to life."

Spoiler

---

Rhapsody huffs slightly. "If that were true, you wouldn't need to hide your identity." She states and looks around some. "So where do we find this passage? Or is that our first task?"

---

[So what now?]

[Maybe that's something you should ask the hooded pony.]

[How many questions do I get before it starts looking like I'm asking to have my hoof held like a foal?]

[Swallow the pride. We have a job to do.]

"So where are these sounds coming from? Where do we start looking?"

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"Oh, hey!" Misty trots over and picks up the file. "Look what I found! Now we can give each other hooficures while we wait for Static to figure out what to do."

---

"You're quite the looker Misty Monsoon!" Maple says. with a big doofy smile on her face.

---

"¿Ah, un misterio subterránea?"

Scarlet turned to Night Cap and Keen Craft. With a shake of his head, Scarlet chuckled.

"Oops, sorry. We are to seek the Dark Key of the Conqueror and ww start," he said gesturing at the trap door. "Down there."

---

The hooded pony replied to Rhapsody with, "Exit back the way you came and your path will be revealed."


Upon hearing Static Signal's question, the cloaked pony tapped the ground and a trap door opened in the middle of the room. It revealed a stairwell leading to some sort of dimly lit corridor.

---

Static steps back slightly shocked as the trap door appears out of no where. "Oh! Nice. Thank you very much." He starts down the stairs giving a wide grin to Misty. "Feel free to catch up whenever you're done with your hooficure."

Static leads the way. If anything bad's going to happen, he wanted it to happen to him first. He tries to keep his senses alert to anything and everything that could be threatening or important.

Spoiler

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"This tunnel could get dark at any moment, did anypony bring lamps or torches?" Maple asks, not being able to see much of the tunnel's path beyond Static's rump.

---

As far as Static Signal could tell, the tunnel stretched for at least a mile but he didn't see anything dangerous. Square Fun spoke up. "I can provide light if you need it. How bright?"

---

"It is ever so nice to have a Unicorn on the team again Mr. Fun, we keep losing ours... I'm sure things will work out this time though." Maple smiled.

---

"If they're missing, I can always check the campus lost and found." Square Fun chimed in. If not for his quick wink, it would be hard to tell he was actually joking with his comment.

---

Static takes out a small lantern from around his neck. He kept it as a necklace right beside his other trinket that allowed him to teleport.

It was a small glass casing he used to house some of the glowing metal he'd taken samples of back when he and Rhapsody did that training exercise to find that meteorite. There was a small dial on it that would progressively put more and more filters in front of the light, effectively dimming it.

He held it up so that Maple could see it.

"This also makes a pretty effective lantern. The metal it uses only lights up when it's actually dark. I gave Anchors a shard of it too," he said casting a glance Anchors way.
"Never leave home without it."

Spoiler

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Rhapsody nods and looks to the others. "Make sure you have everything, seems we're got to go back." She says and turns around to exit the house through the door they came through.

---

"we start immediately. Though since we're going underground, i guess lights are needed."

---

The hooded pony replied to Rhapsody with, "Exit back the way you came and your path will be revealed."

Wanderlust snorts.

Rhapsody nods and looks to the others. "Make sure you have everything, seems we're got to go back." She says and turns around to exit the house through the door they came through.

"There's enough melodrama in that one for the smash hit film of the year." He comments when they get outside.

---

Upon stepping outside, Rhapsody and the rest of her team found there was a thick cloud cover overhead. Lining the ground was an almost glittery trail leading them to a small hill about a mile away.

Spoiler

---

"So... we walked all the way here, just to walk back outside to a cloud cover and glittery road?"

Just what kind of museum is this?

---

Following along, Misty takes a peek over Static's shoulder, to try and see if she spots anything dangerous ahead.

Spoiler

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The hooded pony replied to Rhapsody with, "Exit back the way you came and your path will be revealed."

Wanderlust snorts.

Rhapsody nods and looks to the others. "Make sure you have everything, seems we're got to go back." She says and turns around to exit the house through the door they came through.

"There's enough melodrama in that one for the smash hit film of the year." He comments when they get outside.

"Yes, She does seem like she's trying way too hard to be the vague mysterious mentor trope."

Upon stepping outside, Rhapsody and the rest of her team found there was a thick cloud cover overhead. Lining the ground was an almost glittery trail leading them to a small hill about a mile away.

"So... we rode all the way here, just to walk back outside to a cloud cover and glittery road?"

Just what kind of museum is this?

"'Sometimes to move forwards, we must first go backwards.' Or something like that." Rhapsody replies with a shrug. "Anyways, seems like its time to follow the yellow glittery road..."

---

"What's causing that glitter anyway?" Moonshadow asks as he peers closely at the ground. Pecky pops out and mimics his expression, as both rub their chin/beak at the same time.

(I'll edit this into a spoiler later. I'm assuming I have to roll a d20 for perception?)

---

Spoiler


Dart Noveau quickly whipped out a notepad and pencil. "Gonna try to maintain a rough map throughout this. Figure it'll come in handy later."


"While I might not always have mine on me, I keep it with my first aid supplies. It allows me to light the way for those in need."Anchors Away replied and smiled. Meanwhile, Misty Monsoon didn't see any danger but she did see a door at the end of the long tunnel.

---

"Huh, that's actually kinda clever." Moonshadow says out loud as he looks up at the clouds. "Reminds me of the tale of Thirsty Hill."

Maybe I have this all wrong. Perhaps this is some sort of initiation for new recruits like myself. Well at any rate, this lovely young lady was appointed our leader, best to do as she says.

Pecky meanwhile noticed where Moonshadow's gaze moved, and lands on his muzzle, eyeing him with a stern expression.

"What?"

In response Pecky let out a short string of chirps accompanied with wing flaps as she pointed at Rhapsody.

"WHAT!?" Moonshadow barked before snapping his mouth shut. Then in a hushed hiss he added, "No I wasn't thinking that! She's like half my age!"

---

Maple moved with the others down the corridor, careful to make sure she neither took the lead or fell behind... but not always sticking as close to Misty as perhaps she would like. After all Misty was proving to be an excellent spotter of neat stuff, while Maple had failed to notice anything at all. She wondered if she needed glasses, or if somehow she hadn't shifted her eyes right the last time. Regardless she wanted to make sure she wasn't being a distraction to any pony.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Static smiled as Anchors told about what she did with her shard. He was glad she was able to find some use for it.

He pulled up short of the door. "Too easy!"

He studied the door.

Spoiler


"That's the problem with these things. You expect a trap, nothing happens. You expect another trap, nothing happens. You let your guard down, WHAM! Well, one way to find out!"

Not seeing anything (stupid D&D roller) Static tried to open the door.

---

Scarlet takes a stop towards the ladder, then everything goes black. He blinks.

"Night Cap, what did you just do?"

---

Confused but intrigued, Scarlet asked.

"How does that work?"

---

the silence was getting to her.. it had only been moments, but maybe it felt amplified being boxed in as she was... but as Static played with the door, she finally had to ask.

"So how did the thing you and Mr. Night Cap did... go, Static?" Careful not to blow their cover.

---

Amidst the conversation between Night Cap and Scarlet Spectrum, Keen Craft calmly pulled out a small flashlight, turned it on, and slipped it into her hairband.


When Static Signal opened the door, he found a purely vertical drop. It looked to be about 30 feet down to an area that seemed to be slightly more well lit. What wasn't seen was any sort of rope or ladder.


Upon reaching the hill, Rhapsody's team found an opening leading to a tunnel. The interior was moist and it was soon found that there was glittery trail leading to a lake.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"The thing?" Static asked, more focused on the training session than anything that happened the night before. It took him a split second before it sunk in. "Oh right! The thing. It was...we haven't heard back yet. I think we put on a decent show though. I'm hopeful."

His eyes opened wide as he opened the door. "Woah boy! Umm, Maple? Misty? The rest of us are going to need your help getting down there. Maple?" Static held out his hoof for Maple to help him down.

---

"Okay Static." Maple grabs his foreleg and lifts him off the ground

Spoiler
Zam

Maple struggles for a moment with the grip... with all his equipment Static isn't exactly easy to lift, which is fine since they're going down, but she'd get in trouble for dropping the team leader what looked like about 10 meters. They were going to have to build a harness of some kind for this situation.

---

"Thanks for the ride," Static said as he felt the ground under his hooves again. As Maple went back up to get somepony else to bring down, Static scanned the area for trouble.

Spoiler

---

Maple was half way back before she wondered if there would be enough room for her to fly past Misty and whomever she was bringing down before deciding to turn around and stick with Static.

---

"Uh, Night Cap? I have never seen anypony absorb light, into a bag. Your gonna have to run that by me again. Can you just, summon that light when we need it?"

Sucking all the light if anywhere could be kinda dangerous in the wrong hooves

At the appearance of Kken Crafts flashlight, Scarlet waved a wingtip at her.

"I am impressed my friends. Its just that this is more what i was thinking of."

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"Who's next?" Misty asks Square Fun and Anchors Away.

---

Static gave Maple a questioning look as she came back down. "Is there a prob...oh! Right! Kinda crowded up there. May need to wait for Misty to come down before you go up. Good thinking." While the others were still out of earshot, Static lowered his voice. "First match the opponent went down with one shot. Night Cap didn't even have a chance to do anything. Not that I was that good...more because they...putting it kindly...probably had no business getting in the ring.

"Second match Night Cap actually held his own pretty well! I was impressed. Unfortunately I got hit with a submission hold and tapped out. Still a little tender."

---

Square Fun pointed at Anchors Away. "You should probably take her next. Worst case scenario, I could still wink down."

---

"Gotcha. Alright, Anchors, let's go!" Misty gently lifts her friend and heads down.

Spoiler

---

"Really a Submission hold! Wow, Congrats Static, you don't often see those used in audition matches... you two must have really been impressive." Maple gave Static a big hug. "I'm extra sorry I missed seeing that now, but Boss Vine stopped by the Keep's gardens after hours and well... I've seen her in action, she's not a pony I'd like to disappoint."

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

[color+#ff0000]"okay, if you say so.

Well then, we'd better get to it."[/color]

Moving to the trap door and ladder, Scarlet started his descent.

---

"Really? Boss Vine? Nice to hear she's been venturing beyond Petrichor. Yeah, I can totally understand missing a wrestling match for that. And hey! If things went as well as I hoped, I'm sure there will be more matches for you to see. Heck! I'm a heel, you're a face. Could be we'll even face off against each other some day...hopefully after I've gotten some experience. Because I've seen the Masked Mystery Mare wrestle. I'm not really sure I'm up for that kinda hurt quite yet!"

---

"What's that?" Misty asks as she touches down with Anchors.

---

Static turns to Maple and shrugs. "She's your marefriend and Anchors is mine. Probably wouldn't hurt if they knew about it.

"Later though. Right now let's get Square Fun down here and keep moving."

---

Walking down the corridor, Scarlet Spectrum's group eventually reached a broken wooden sign that read, ¡Peligro! "Ah, it's nice to know we're headed in the right direction," Shale Antiquity said with a mild hint of sarcasm. Trekking a mile further in, they soon found two locked doors. One seemed to have light shining from under the door while the other did not.


As the tunnel stretched on, Static Signal found a dozen gears scattered about the floor and they all seemed to be in good condition.

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Static took the gears and put them in his saddle bags. "Whether we're supposed to destroy or fix this machine, these may come in handy," he says more to himself than to anyone else.

---

Scarlet couldn't help a low chuckle.

"Riesgo, es nuestro negocio.

If we're not headed towards danger and mystery. We're going the wrong way."

Stopping when he saw the doors, Scarlet eyed them.

"How very, binary. Which door do we choose and does anypony have a Lockpick?"

---

While Static went about Gear collecting... and either the new colt teleported down or if Misty went and got him, Maple had no idea, she'd completely locked up... she just stood there thinking about part of what Static had said...

Misty was her Marefriend

---

Rhapsody looks to the lake unperturbed. They had a marine biologist on the team, so of course there'd be some sort of water. Just like how the last training exercise seemed perfectly designed for her and Static, this one will likely be the same with this team. She looks over to Splash. "So, water is your expertise here, is there anything you can learn from this that might be important in helping us find our Mcguffin?"

---

Square Fun adjusted her goggles and walked up to the lake. "Simply 'water' is an oversimplification. That said, this doesn't smell of brine. It's also got a fair bit of depth. My assumption is that there's an underwater tunnel that will lead to the next area. Requesting permission to dive, ma'am."


Once Square Fun reached bottom, a click could be heard and the floor shifted downward slightly. A door slowly opened up ahead. Suddenly, water started pouring into the room from ceiling vents at a rapid pace!

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"Maybe so, but it still gets the point across." Rhapsody replies with a shrug and looks over the lake as Splash explains. "Go a head, but don't overexert yourself. We don't know how deep or long it is." Rhapsody doesn't expect it to be terribly long, but still she didn't know how well some on this team could handle a potentially long swim.

---

Splash Flaunt adjusted her goggles and walked up to the lake. "Simply 'water' is an oversimplification. That said, this doesn't smell of brine. It's also got a fair bit of depth. My assumption is that there's an underwater tunnel that will lead to the next area. Requesting permission to dive, ma'am."

"Wait what? Um, if that's the case there's a problem... I kinda can't swim. Neither can Pecky for that matter..."

---

As the water starts to poor in, Statics ears pin back and his eyes widen. "RUN!" Static runs, looking back to make sure nopony is getting left behind.

---

Scarlet gave a wry smile as he looked to Night Cap key shaped mark.

"Hehe. I forgot you were the safe cracker here.

Hmm. Open the dark door first."

---

Splash Flaunt adjusted her goggles and walked up to the lake. "Simply 'water' is an oversimplification. That said, this doesn't smell of brine. It's also got a fair bit of depth. My assumption is that there's an underwater tunnel that will lead to the next area. Requesting permission to dive, ma'am."

"Wait what? Um, if that's the case there's a problem... I kinda can't swim. Neither can Pecky for that matter..."

You're a Unicorn. You don't have some kind of ability to to create a bubble around you or something to just walk through the water?

---

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Moonshadow shook his head. "That's not exactly my area of expertise. I could possibly freeze the water, but I don't see how that'd help. Even if I did attempt a bubble, there's no telling how long I could keep it up..."

The thought of said theoretical bubble popping and trapping him and Pecky in a watery grave sent shivers up his spine. He knew never learning to swim was going to bite him in the rear someday.

---

"Well you're gonna need to learn quick. Chances are we're gonna need you on the other side of that lake. Just makes it more important that Splash figures out how deep and long the tunnel is, means we can figure out how long you'd need to bubble for. Worst case scenario: I could just drag you through the water by your tail." She says with a half grin, surely not serious is she?

---

"Wait a minute... That's brilliant!" Moonshadow exclaimed. "If I just focus a bubble on my head alone to allow me breath and protect Pecky you can drag me through the water as quick as you can! That way I only have to focus on keeping a small bubble active which frees up more magic and is easier to maintain!"

He gives a small laugh. "No wonder you're the leader!"

---

"Yes, I figure any who couldn't swim would need to be dragged under. Be right back." Splash Flaunt dived underwater. After a while, she resurfaced. "Not too far. Only about a minute, pending on swimming speed. I'd assume our medic should go first to care for any who intake water afterwards. Presumably either you or Darty should come along since I figure you have the physical ability for the swim and I'd guess you can hold your breath that long. How do you want to handle this?"


Splash Flaunt dived underwater. After a while, she resurfaced.


Square Fun teleported ahead as most of the group rushed forward. Anchors Away had a slightly more casual pace than the others but was also actively keeping an eye out.

Spoiler

---

"Oh, it's just water." Misty trots alongside Anchors. "Can you do that bubble thing you did before? I'm fine, but the others might need a little help."

---