The Second Griffon War (Casual Thread - All welcome!)

Anonmare
"I don't quite know." Luna says in reply to Celestia's questioning. She knew that this tree was important, and she had a suspicion as to what it might be, but she didn't understand how it could stay hidden all these years without either of them discovering it. What was even more embarrassing was the fact that it had stayed hidden right beside Canterlot. The two princesses would never live this down. A super powerful magical artifact tree had survived just a few minutes flight away from their city and neither of them knew it.

"Salacia, what are you doing?!" Luna said while running over and scooping Salacia up in her front legs. Luna wasn't really worried about her falling in the water, but she was worried about whatever might be lurking down there.

While Luna was distracted, Silvanus had made a move towards the tree. "Silva!" Luna cried out, running over towards her daughter as quickly as she could. Silvanus just ignored her. Just when Luna was about to reach her, Silva reached out and touched the Tree... And simply disappeared. There was a flash of green light, and then she was gone.

Luna skidded head-first into the tree with a loud thump and rubbed at her head, before cluing into what just happened. "Silva??!?" She called out, to no answer.

Dreamweaver
Anonmare Latios Bored-Tigecko

"Well...lets just say I managed to get it back and the left that green jackass under a pile of rubble", he snickered at the memory of how he got his Topaz back from the green dragon. Just as he thought about explaining the details, his right shoulder started felling very hot. "Eh he he....uh? What? What the?", he startles out of his chuckle as the young dragon grabs his right shoulder, feeling it pulsate like a strong heartbeat. He started to feel slightly dizzy until he just dropped to his knees. 'Wha....whats happening? My shoulder....my head....its hot.', he thought to himself as he desperatly tried to pull himself together. In that moment, he started feeling some kind of force pulling on him and unfamiliar voices started echoing in his head. Suddenly, his eyes were flashing white as he went completely limp on his knees and staring into nothing like a zombie.

Some of the ponies walking by saw what was going on with the tall bipedal figure. They trotted over to see what was wrong. "Hey, is your friend ok?", a mare asked Berry and Galagus. Cass was completely silent and would not make a single response.

"I don't know. Hey, Cass. Wake up." He said shaking him a little.
Bored-Tigecko Wylfen Shepard

Dreamweaver
Celestia was quite knowledgable on all things vegetable, animal and mineral but even she had to admit her lack of knowledge of this tree which she is ashamed to admit had gone unnoticed by her for at least a couple of millennia now. Which was surprising because the tree was obviously magical and seemed to be quite powerful too; how it managed to evade Celestia's notice for so long she didn't know but it wouldn't be able to evade her any more.

The Sun Princess didn't know if the tree was dangerous or not but from the way Silvanus was walking towards it with a transfixed gaze, she feared the worst. “Silva, get back!” She called out whilst Luna was busy scooping up the young blue filly and tried to reach out for her with her magic when Salacia's sister made contact with the tree and simply... Vanished.

Salacia meanwhile was confused, what was going on? Why were mommy and mommy so frightened of the tree and water? Where did Silva go? Was she hiding? “Moon-mommy, where did Silva go?” She asked, genuinely confused. She didn't know her sister could teleport.
Celestia, however, was aghast and merely stared at the place where Silva was stood but a moment ago in shock. She shook her head, mind going into a panic. “Luna, what in Heaven's green Equis has been going on here?!” She questioned angrily, making sure Salacia was nowhere near that tree as she quickly began casting whatever divination spells she knew of to find out where she went. She couldn't have been disintegrated because...

Because she couldn't have been, Celestia won't accept that answer.

Anonmare
To say that Luna was scared was an extreme understatement. Normally she would want to keep her cool around Salacia and any of her children, so as not to make them more scared, but right now that simply wasn't an option. Princess Luna had wanted a family for nearly 7,000 years, and now one of her children just disappears in front of her? That was enough to completely send her into a panic.

Celestia's words didn't help. Having Celestia get angry with her only made Luna feel worse, and in turn she latched onto whatever comeback she could find to sting Celestia. "I am not your property, so don't think you can just yell at me!" Luna retorts angrily before doing the same thing Celestia was doing; using spells to try and find her daughters location. This, however, wasn't like the bond Luna had with Celestia; they barely had any sort of internal bond with their kids, and as such she wouldn't be able to track her easily.

If Silvanus decided to teleport to the other side of the world, Luna would never know. For now, Luna decided to ignore Salacia's question and just focused on spell-casting to find her daughter.

And right now, as far as they could tell, she was just gone.

Dreamweaver
Celestia took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She had no idea what was going on, she had just been told to come all the way out here and upon arriving, Silvanus ends up disappearing in a flash of green light as soon as she touched the tree and now none of her divination spells were detecting her. Salacia meanwhile was detecting the tense atmosphere in the room, and shuffled her hooves nervously. What was going on? Silva was fine, wasn't she? So, why wasn't anypony paying attention to her?

She tugged Celestia's legs to get her attention. “Sun mommy, where's Silva? Why won't other mommy tell me? She touched the tree and she disappeared, is she a tree now? Where did she go? Is she oka-”
“Salacia, please be quiet!” Celestia snapped but immediately cringed and regretted shouting at Salacia, who was shrinking away. “I'm sorry sweetie, everything's fine. Silva's just... Hiding. Can you stay here for a moment, okay?” The Sun Princess asked her gently, kneeling down and laying a wing over and atop her.

“A-Alright, mommy... I'll stay here.” The blue filly said, relenting in her questioning. Celestia immediately turned her attention to Luna and sighed. “Can you tell me what's been going on? It might help find her.” She asked softly, trying not to panic Salacia. Whilst that was going on, she tried to identify the tree she touched, she was one of Equestria's foremost experts on magic and magical artefacts and entities, surely she knew something...

Anonmare
This tree was, for all intents and purposes, an anomaly. Neither Luna nor Celestia, two of the three oldest beings on this planet, knew anything about it. Neither of them had even known it was here, right next to Canterlot. Luna was obviously panicking, and despite her usual calm demeanor when dealing with stress she was anything but calm right now.

"I don't know what's been going on you dumb bitch!" Luna snapped, not really caring if Salacia was there listening or not. "Do I look like I know?? This isn't my fault! Silvanus came to me and said she wanted to come here, so we did! I never even knew this was here! It's not my fault, it's not my fault, it's not my fault!"

.... And then Silvanus just reappeared. She popped into the air in a flash of green light, rolled head over hooves on the ground and stopped when she bumped into Celestia's leg. She rubbed her head and then said, ".... Hi! When did you get 'ere sun-mom?"

Meanwhile the tree behind her was blooming. It was an obvious magical effect as the leaves suddenly sprouted and the trunk gained a beautiful brown color rather than the dead gray it had been a few moments earlier.

Dreamweaver
“Don't swear in front of the children!” Celestia hissed, giving an apologetic look to Salacia who merely looked uncomfortable while she and Luna were arguing. She had no idea what this tree was, where it came from, when it was planted or if it had always been here and so on...
She was effectively at a loss with regards to it and there were few things that could claim to be able to flummox the Sun Princess. She turned her attention back to Luna and kept her back to Salacia and motioned for Luna to do the same. “I'm not saying it's your fault! I'm asking you what's been going on because I haven't been her-!” She cut herself off mid-shouting whisper as their missing filly, Silvanus, re-appeared in the same flash of light.

She rolled head over hooves across the floor as though someone or something had thrown across the room. Celestia didn't see anything about her that suggested she was immediately harmed in anyway and for that she was grateful. “Silva! Oh I'm so glad you're alright!” She said relievedly, helping the filly up and giving her a tight hug. “Can you tell mommies what happened sweetie?” She asked, noticing the tree now looked a lot more alive than it did earlier.

Whether that was good or bad was hard to say.

"He's ill. I don't what kind of illness but I've seen it before." Berry pulled him up straining under his weight. "Lettttts gettttt youuuu uppp!" Wylfen Shepard Latios

Anonmare
Luna was pretty much stunned when Silvanus reappeared in front of them both. She had been barely gone for 10 seconds, before reappearing... And the tree seemed to come to life along with her reappearance. Luna stared at Celestia as she picked up Silvanus for a tight hug, and then joined in by tackling the both of them to the ground and nuzzling Silvanus affectionately.

"Dats enough..." Silvanus said while prying away from their nuzzling affection with a little shake of her head. "I 'unno what happened mommies." She said with a shrug. "The tree and I had a chat and it seems nice, then I popped up here! It said it'd look out for me. But it said it without words."

Silvanus pretty much ignored the both of them, wandering instead over to Salacia. "You should go for a swim!" She said while pointing at the pool of water beneath them. Luna immediately stepped forward. ".... You're not going for a swim without me."

Dreamweaver
Salacia kicked her hoof against the ground annoyedly when Silvanus returned, deciding that there was nothing to worry about and that it was just her sister causing a panic for no reason. She obviously disappeared on purpose. Celestia meanwhile was loathe to let Silvanus go, genuinely worried she might disappear again if she did, but it was obvious the young filly didn't want to be held any longer and so she released her. “She seems fine, I can't sense anything wrong from either her or the tree...” She confided to Luna, her millennia of experience in magic didn't reveal anything different about her.

She supposed that she was never in any danger.

“Fiiine.... C'mon moon-mommy, let's go in the water! Water's better anyways!” She said as she tugged Luna's foreleg. For once her sister said something that she could agree wholeheartedly with! She had been resisting the urge to get in whilst they were waiting for Silvanus to pop back into existence, there was something about it that was calling her towards it, as though there were something intelligent calling to her with supernatural means.

Anonmare
"Well, you know the drill Tia. If I die, I want a big statue in the middle of Canterlot Gardens. I expect it to be at least twenty feet tall, and I want fresh moon-lilies laid at the base of the statue once a day." She leans up to give Celestia a hug and a brief kiss on the cheek, before letting go and walking over to Salacia.

"Alright, Sal. Let's go." She looks down into the water. It was dark and foreboding, to her at least. "I hope there's no eels down there..." Luna whispered with a little shiver of fear and a shake of her head. She then jumped into the water and motioned for Salacia to come join her.

Silvanus in the meantime was sitting beside Celestia, watching the two disappear undernearth the waters surface. There was a brief pause, before Silvanus looked up at Celestia and said, "... Eels? Woona can fight dragons, but is scared of eels?"

Dreamweaver
“You know, some Ponies might assume from the way you say that I 'know the drill' that I have your death planned out in advance.” Celestia said dryly, nuzzling and feeling all-round apologetic for shouting at Luna earlier. Of course, they were both fairly stressed at the time but still...
The Sun Princess elected to stay near Silvanus, she had already seen that filyl disappear once today and she did not want a repeat performance thank you very much.

“C'mooooooon, it's just water – A lil' bit of water never hurt nopony.” Salacia said, apparently she didn't count drowning as hurting anypony and, finding her mother's fears about water to be unfounded. “Eels are cute, don't be a silly Pony mommy.” She said matter-of-factly whilst rolling her eyes and jumping into the water, as soon as Luna was in, with confidence and without a trace of doubt or fear whatsoever.
Celestia turned her attention to Silva and chewed her lip. “It's a story I'll tell you another time.” She answered, deciding that story-time can wait for until they got home. Plus she was certain Luna would throttle her if she went around talking about it.

Bored-Tigecko
Latios

'Were waiting for you'

Cassian suddenly heard a strange voice. Or at least he thought it was a voice. Then he started seeing multiple images flashing before him. They looked like hieroglyphics of forests, mountains, seas, deserts and various other terrains. Then came images of ponies and dragon's standing beside one another. Finally it all ended when finds himself looking at at large powerful tree that has two sides like a mirror. One on top and one at the bottom lined up in perfect symmetry. At the center where they interlock were massive roots stretching out endlessly beyond were his sight can see.

'Find us.'

There it was again. That strange sound. His sight went completely white. Slowly his sight transitions back into reality with Berry trying to lift him up and being surrounded by cornered faces of ponies. "Ugh....hey. What's with all the long faces?", he asked

Anonmare Dreamweaver

Anonmare
"... Seems weird..." Silva said with a shake of her head. She couldn't understand how Luna could possibly be scared of eels, of all things. Dragons and zombies? That was fine. But a little wiggly eel would send the mare screaming all the way to the waters surface.

Thankfully, Princess Luna didn't need to breath at all so she could pretty much stay underwater indefinitely. And she was quite attuned to the oceans, due to having control over the Moon, so she found swimming to be a second nature to her. She was able to easily keep up with Salacia.

As the two dive underwater, the reason for Salacia being called here was quickly revealed. Directly beneath where the surface tree would be, was another tree. The roots were interconnected. The bark of this tree was a sickly blue color, and it was devoid of any type of leaves at all. Other than that, the tree was the exact same size as the surface one.

Luna knew what Salacia wanted to do, and wasn't about to stop her. "... If you're going to touch it, please make it quick." She spoke telepathically to Salacia. "... And don't tell Celestia I let you do such a thing."

“She is..” Celestia agreed absent-mindedly, though she was very thankful that Luna herself wasn't around to hear that. “Don't tell your mother I said that, okay?” She told Silvanus, in case she was precocious enough to mention it when talking to the Princess of the Night. The Goddess of the Day would elect to wait on the 'surface', or as close to what passes for surface in a subterranean place like this, though if they took too long – Celestia would dive after them at a moment's notice.

If Luna felt swimming underwater to be second-nature to her, for Salacia it'd be her first nature. She swam with such grace and precision that one might think she was half-fish herself. She could see just as well underwater as she could during a brightly-lit day and would often turn her head to make sure Luna was keeping up with her, she didn't want to get into trouble for leaving her behind.

Talking in anything resembling coherence was an impossibility underwater, there was no air to fill their lungs and even if there was – it would come out so garbled that communicating anything more complex than yes or no would be a lesson in futility. She wasn't good at telepathy and merely nodded to everything Luna told her and, without further adieu, reached out her hoof to touch the sickly tree.

Anonmare
"I promise I won't say a thing..." Silvanus said with a mischievous smirk on her face. What Celestia had just done, is give the young filly ammo. At any point she, could simply blackmail Celestia with this information. She could get candy or maybe a new toy...

Luna wasn't exactly surprised when Salacia ended up being a good swimmer. It was her domain after all. As Salacia swam towards the tree, Luna felt a pang of dread inside of her. What if Salacia disappeared, but this time she didn't reappear like Silvanus had? What if Luna just let her daughter commit suicide by touching the tree?

Much to Luna's horror, Salacia does disappear. But she'd seen this once before, and patiently waited ten seconds.

The experience would certainly be strange for Salacia. It wasn't like being teleported as she had been by her mothers before. There was no stomach churning feeling accompanying this. She simply felt... Comfortable. Like floating in the middle of the ocean, with no predators around. Which would probably be comforting for Salacia.

There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, and all she could feel was water.

... Then after 10 seconds, Salacia reappeared.

The tree sprouted blue leaves which somehow thrived underwater, and the bark itself turned a translucent beautiful glowing blue color.

Dreamweaver
Celestia got the feeling that Silvanus wasn't going to to do that, the mischievous smirk was her first big clue. She could only hope that smirk was about a prank she was going to commit upon her sister. She couldn't see anything that was going on underwater but she didn't get the impression anything was wrong yet, Luna would have alerted her to anything if there was. Not too long later however, she would feel the Princess of the Night's panic, worry and horror and she could only surmise that Salacia disappeared like Silvanus did.

She'd give her three minutes, if she wasn't back by then she was going down there too.

Salacia, meanwhile, felt completely at peace. She wasn't sure where she was but she didn't think she had teleported, there wasn't any of the same feelings of displacement that came with it or the stomach churning of disorientation. If anything, it felt like she had simply moved from one room to another, it was simply put – Peaceful.

Of course it wasn't to last, and it seemed all too soon when she was transported back to in front of the tree. She was launched back but the friction of the water stopped her momentum after half a foot. The tree looked remarkably more alive and she didn't feel that same pressure upon her mind that compelled her to touch its bark any more. She turned to Luna and waved at her before pointing upwards towards the surface; whereupon she began to swim towards.

Anonmare
Luna was just about to to in after Salacia when the filly reappeared. Luna let out a breath of relief, which also filled her lungs with water and made her momentarily choke. When Salacia motioned towards the surface, Luna was quick to follow her and make her way up to somewhere she could breath. Just because Luna didn't need to breath doesn't mean she could fill her lungs with water and have no ill effects. It wouldn't kill her but it was absolutely uncomfortable and still made her panic like it would for anyone else.

The lunar princess breached the top of the water, coming right up beneath Salacia so that the small blue filly was sitting on her head. Luna swam the both of them over to the rocky ledge, letting Salacia disembark first before climbing up herself. The moment she was on dry land, she immediately puked up like a gallon of water and wiped her mouth. "... Well, that's the last time I open my mouth underwater." She said, somewhat dizzy from the whole experience.

"EW!" was the only response that came from Silva, who turned around so as not to look at the puked up water... Despite the fact that it was only water.

Dreamweaver
Salacia didn't make the same mistake as her mother, her instincts told her that any opportunity for water to get into her lungs was a very bad idea even if breathing wasn't strictly required. She swam to the surface quickly, even quicker her than Luna did, however the moon mare was much bigger than her and she covered more distance as she swam even if Salacia was quicker when compared relatively. The blue filly reached the surface first but the blue mare was not even a second behind her and the filly found herself atop Luna's head as she surfaced.

She waved to Celestia and Silvanus waiting on the surface. “Hi mom! Hi sis! It was weird down there. Fun! But weird.” She said as Luna helped her disembark before she climbed onto dry land herself and chucked up the water she had inadvertently swallowed. “... Mommy was sill and tried to breathe underwater.” Salacia explained to everypony, rolling her eyes at her sister's reaction. “Is just water, don't be a little chicken.” She said dismissively.

Celestia was quickly upon the two of them and using her magic to help them dry off. “Are you both alright? Was there anything down there?” She asked as she patted Luna's back to help her clear her airways. The Sun Princess wasn't present for when Salacia disappeared but she assumed there was something down there that did, not unless that panicking she felt was from Luna's choking.

Anonmare
Luna waved Celestia away, showing that she was fine and simply nodded her head. "There was another tree. It's an upside down tree, though. It's as if the roots of the underwater tree and the roots of this surface tree are the same. But, as far as I can tell, I think we are done here?"

She looks over at Salacia and Silvanus, both of whom seem much more content and less restless now. "... Yeah, I think we're done." Luna said with a chuckle, before motioning for them all to follow. Silvanus hopped along beside Salacia and leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Celly called Woona weird..."

As they walk out of the cave, the water door and earthen door reappear. And each door they pass by closes once again, sealing off the chamber.

Dreamweaver
“I wonder what this was all about?” Celestia asked curiously, though she knew not even the children knew why they had felt the urge to be called here. “I think I might come back here later, I'm surprised I never noticed these trees were here earlier, especially if they're powerful enough to call others here.” The Sun Princess said to Luna, she hated leaving a mystery unsolved and she didn't intend to leave this very large stone unturned.


Salacia meanwhile raised her eyebrow at Silvanus. “Why would mommy call Wo-Luna weird? She asked her sister curiously, she knew Luna didn't like it when she called her Woona and had to remind herself to call Luna by her proper name, or mommy. Celestia had never corrected her on her own name however. So, like any precocious child, Salacia decided to hear things from the horse's mouth, as the saying strangely goes, and went up to Luna and tugged on her leg.


“Mommy? Why did Celly call you weird? Is it cause you don't like eels?” She asked innocently, not realising how deep a grave she was digging for Celestia. Were she not already in possession of a pearl-white coat, she would look remarkably pale but what was obvious was her wide eyes and a begging look she was giving to Salacia who remained ignorant and oblivious to her wishes.

Anonmare
"No Sal, don-" Silvanus began to call out, but it was too late. Salacia had just dug Celestia a deep grave, and what was worse was that Silvanus wouldn't get to blackmail her mom anymore!

"Oh I don't know Sal, she probably ju- wait what?!" came Luna's sharp and angry reply. She turned towards Celestia and punched her in the chest lightly with her hoof. "I-I'm not weird. You're weird! I'm just... different, is all!" Obviously she was looking for something insulting to say back to Celestia, but she wasn't coming up with much. "W-Well, next time you want to come visit this place, you can do it alone!"

And with that, the lunar princess just vanished in a black cloud. A stinky black cloud. Like 1000 farts.

That was her revenge...

Very mature...

Salacia, however, remained ignorant to her sister's warnings or ulterior motives for giving said warnings and dropped Celestia into the proverbial 'it'. Celestia got that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and knew she was in trouble, Luna hated being called weird. “W-Wait when I said that it was out of context! I meant it like a good weird!” Celestia said trying to defend herself but Luna was having none of it, she disappeared in a huff and a puff of smoke. Smoke normally wasn't meant to smell like that so Luna probably put in that extra bit of effort just for petty revenge.

Celestia sighed.

She turned her attention to the two children, Salacia trying to look innocent an inch closer to the water doorway. She probably assumed she was going to be punished. The Sun Princess gave the two of them her undivided attention, especially to Silvanus. “So...” She began, trying to grin but all it did was make it look 'evil'. “Who wants to be the first to write Luna a hundred apology cards?” She asked rhetorically and, before anypony could escape, teleported them back home in a flash of golden light.

Who says she couldn't be petty?

*beeeeep* The alarm howled , sending echoes through the halls and shaking the ground it'self with it's low hum. The slow tap of hoovesteps quickly began getting closer and closer...

"Sis, are you sure this will work? I mean- the last subjects have been nothing but failures- and they were reported to be both physically and mentally fit for such an experiment!" Argued the grey stallion, his short yellow mane reflecting the Warm lights of torches that lined the stone hallway.. He followed close behind his sister- coated in a lighter grey and sporting a blue mane."This subject was...nowhere near these requirements! how could you expect the young foal to-"

"Listen- I have had it with your constant complaining!" The other exclaimed, not bothering to turn around to face her sibling.
The silence that ensued was quickly shortlived.
"I have run the simulations... This one shall be just fine. The reason the others didn't work was because-" She paused, searching for the right words to describe the errors.
"Because they were not kidnapped at birth?and had a full life before we memory wiped them?" the brother hastefully pointed out- finishing her sentence.
"I wouldn't call it a kidnapping ... "
"oh? and what would you call it then?"
"a...uh...conscription!"
" I would call it unethical..."
the two continued argueing for quite some time, unaware of their surroundings. It wasn't until one of them bumped into a cold metal door that they had realized where they were. The door was black with yellow stripes, holding a red sign that read
"Attention! S- 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Containment Room. Authorized personel ONLY."
"Why do we have this sign? I mean, we are the only ones in this lab." The grey stallion questioned. His question was left unanswered as the doors suddenly shot upwards. It disappeared into the ceiling almost immediately. The stallion sighed, looking to his sister who was currently not paying it any mind. together ,they stepped into the dim and cold room...

"Heeeyyyy buuudyyyy..."
the soft voice of the mare ripling through the air...
the dark room seemed to respond. Something- unseen from the darkness- Gave a low and raspy roar, causing the mare to stumble back away from it. The mare lifted her hoove to the wall, tapping around the wall for a lightswitch.after a few attempts, the mare finally switched the lights on. Soon, Candle light illuminated the room . The lights flickered to life and revealed the mare's little project.

Subject 109 looked like the average stallion: only, it didnt look like the average stallion. It's once red coat has grown pale and distorted, making it look more like a pale brown. It's face was gaunt- matching with it's sickly body. It's ribs purtruded outwards from it's chest, making it visible through the skin. There was a few noticable "additions" to the stallion. Metal backlegs and a large metal- covered limb in the front. Only one leg was left unchanged, looking mostly malnourished like the rest of his non-metal body. His jaw had been replaced by a metal one, sporting two switch-blade teeth that unsheath from the jaw like retractable fangs.It's eyes were covered by see-throigh goggles that held metal eyelids for the creature. It had a short-black mane that sat mostly untoached. Strangely, it didnt even have a cutie mark. It sat with it's metal chest puffed out. The plate on the chest acted like a cover to the inner diagnostics panel. It''s glowing yellow eyes danced around the room with a curiosity inspired courage. They seemed to be moved differently than the average pony, being moved seperately than usual. It gave it the look of a dumb chicken. It still had a young look to it, despite it being the same height as an adult.
It had to be the most advanced abomination they had created....

(Im back from the dead- and reporting for duty! yaaaayyy!)
(I did not find the sign-up sheet for the Main thread and I didnt find a place to ask this question...so I wrote a few long paragraphs of an rp post. I coupd just slip this into the post. I didnt want to waste anyone's time with a question that polluted the rp forum so...)