"Let me tell you about the time I met the Desert Tyrant..."

As Quillon and Gemini sit at a table sipping their cider, Quillon resumes the conversation.
"So on the way here I was telling you about what I got up to in Appleoosa. Well, I hope you're a good listener, because this is a truly gripping tale!"

"i am. normally. when it comes to stuff thats not boring." gemini says, taking a drink." so, you said it was in appleoosa? sounds interesting. i might have to visit there sometime."

He walked through the doorway into the tavern with a confident smile. "Theres got to be somepony willing to tell me about this town." He observed the characters in the tavern and spotted two pegasi having a conversation. "I think id have a better chance of holding a conversation with my own kind." He walked over to them and held out a hoof. "Hello. I am Lunis Stellaris. I just arrived in town and was wondering if you could tell me about the place?"

"Hahah, sorry pal, but we're both new here. Not much we can tell you except that inns are truly elusive here. BVut, if you'll pull up a chair, I'm about to tell the story of one of my travels." Replies Quillon taking his hoof and shaking it vigorously.

"well, i've been here a bit. it depends, what do you want to know?" gemini asks, then looks back over to quillon. "sorry, probably not the best time to answer questions." once quillon finished shaking the ponys hoof, gemini pulls out a chair for lunis. " good to meet you, lunis. im gemini."

He sat down and shaking his hoof to regain circulation to it. "Pleasure to meet you gemini. Well if you guys cannot tell me about the town im always up for a good story. Please quillon tell me this story."

Quillon rubs his hooves together with a devilish grin. "Well then, I better crack open Quillon's Tome of Tales!" He reaches into his saddlesbags and hauls out an immense gilded blue book. "This is a nearly endless book given to me for helping some sorceror-type-dealy. I use it to record my adventures. I recall him saying something about extremely volatile magic, but that's not important. So let me begin." He opens the book. It suddenly begins glowing with a blue aura and levitates off the table. Before he has time to say "Uh-oh" the book has sucked the 3 ponies into it's pages, snapped shut and landed on the table!

gemini starts to look around as he's flying through a tunnel of stuff he doesn't know. "what..did...you...do?!" he shouts.

He opened his eyes slowly and had a minor headache. "I guess I must have blacked out." He felt as if he were flying. He found it amusing since he was not flapping his wings. When things came into focus he found he was upside down. He tried flapping his wings and scrambling to upright himself but to no avail. "Well this isnt any fun." He looked at his surroundings to find it was a tunnel which looked to be going through the night sky. "I wonder if anypony can see us."
He turned his attention to quillion. "What is this?"

Quillon rises up off the ground clutching his head with a hoof, shaking sand out of his mane.. wait a moment.. sand? He looks around. Sand, barren rock, a few dead trees. A huge chasm behind him, a wide tunnel mouth leading into the ground in front of him. To the right, a path up into the rocky plains. Above him, a beautiful night sky speckled with shooting stars. He knows this place. It's.... "The Appleoosan Desert? No way... how could we be here?" He notices his book is missing too. If he knows his literary cliche's.." Guys, we may be inside my memory. This is when I was in the Appleoosan Desert with the pack of settlers. Look, their tracks lead accros the chasm." He's thinking hard. How could this have happened? The book.. hang on.. that Sorceror who gave him the book.. volatile magic.. seals... "This isn't my fault, it was that damn Sorceror! Curse his boring voice making fall asleep while he lectured me about this damn book!" He looks to the two ponies. "There may be a way out of this place over the chasm, and besides, we can't just sit here forever. What do you suggest we do?"

gemini looks around, slightly confused he starts to get up. "uh....well......i guess i should ask how your experience went first. it may be that we have to see it to get out or something like that." gemini starts to rub the back of his head."plus, i landed on a rock. i hate this place already."( sorry, its short.)

He sat up a bit woozy after flying through the tunnel upside down. "I swear all the blood in my body went to my head. Now as for what we should do we should start moving. Waiting in a desert is a real good way to get dehydrated." He got up to his feet and walked over to gemini. Luckily he still had his saddlebag with him,so he still had all his medicine. He pulled out a mixture of crushed plants and lay them on a small tissue. "Try to finish this and your headache should disappear."

Quillon turns away from the group and gazes up into the night sky. "Sigh.... what I did last time. When we were gathered around that table in the tavern, I was about to tell you the epic tale of how a group of brave ponies drove off a terrible monster..." He hangs his head in shame. "...that I had no part in. I hid behind the nearest boulder. A flying rock K.O'd me and when I came to the monster was nowhere to be found and the settler ponies were in a heap on the ground." He lets out another sigh. "I'm pathetic. I'm nothing but a coward." He turns around to face the others. "Still, it's time to pony up and face this monster. Let's get going." Not checking to see if the others are following, he turns and heads to the thin rock bridge across the canyon.

"okay......but what im saying is, maybe we only have to watch the memory. we might not really be here......i hope." gemini starts to look very nervous and almost panicky." a-and im not f-fighting a m-monster." gemini starts to panic more and starts to shake a bit."b-besides...w-weren't there, right? if we are truly here, maybe we shouldn't interfere or something.."

He placed his hooves firmly on geminis shoulder to steady him. "Come on bro pull it together. You are having an anxiety attack. The best thing for you is to calm down. Take deep breaths. If all else fails ill fight the monster to protect my friends. After all thats how I got my cutie mark." He pulled out a root from his bag. "If you start to get another one eat this. It calms the body and mind,so the pony can focus and not have to worry." He helped gemini up and followed Quillon.

Quilon hops and takes to the air and flies towards the chasm. He glances to his left and sees a shoal of odd creatures swimming through the sand. The appear to resemble beige swordfish with blue dorsal fins. "Oh, a shoal of Delex. They swim through these parts sometimes. Though, they all seem to be swimming away from the other side of the canyon. Burrowing creatures are able to travel via the bottom of the canyon and a system of tunnels in the rock. Anyway, let's all get moving." Suddenly, a noise echoes across the canyon. A horrifying noise. Quillon's blood runs cold and his wings snap to his sides. He tumbles out of the sky and lands in a sand dune.

(This is what the noise sounds like)

gemini immediately starts to panic again, then starts to eat the root."t-thanks for the root, lunis. so...e-exactly what was that sound? and please tell me i don't have to find it." when he finishes eating the root, he starts to hover a bit in the air, cautious of his surroundings.

He had flown into the air to follow quillon when he heard the shriek. It startled him to the point that he almost fell out of the sky. He landed and watched quillon spiral out of control and crash into a nearby sand dune. "Quick gemini we need to get him." He galloped to where quillon was and pulled him out of the sand. "Are you hurt? What was that noise." He noticed he had left gemini behind. "Oops I guess I kinda got caught up."

Quillon pokes a head out of the sand dune and shakes the sand out of his mane. His face is pale. "T-that was.. the r-roar of the...Diablos." He shudders. "I've heard stories. They are extremely territorial, and despite being herbivores, they..." He gulps. "They brutally slaughter anything that enroaches on its territory." He climbs out of the sand dune, his wings still involuntarily clamped to his sides. "I-I'm not going to make the same mistake I did last time. I'm going to try and help those settler ponies fight it." He turns back to the other two. 'I don't know about you two, but I'm going on ahead. I guess if my wings are a dud, I'll have to cross the bridge. I'll get us out of here." He turns and trots toward the thin rocky bridge.

gemini rushes to catch up to the other two, not wanting to be left alone." s-so...what you're telling me is....you want to FIGHT that!" gemini starts to follow quillon, checking every sand dune for anything that might try to harm him." so...what do you...think will happen if we get hurt in a book?" he asks, starting to hover a bit off the ground." a-and...what if we die in here? do we stay in here forever, or are we kicked out of the book?" he starts to at the bridge, and the drop under it." also, thats a loooong fall."

He walked beside gemini so that he wouldnt be as scared. "Who knows my friend. If we get hurt it may do nothing. Who knows maybe it will just phase through us if it attacked. The only way to find out is to be attacked by it. Come on lets catch up to quillion." He hurried his pace until he was beside quillon. "Does the thing we are going up against have any weaknesses?"

Quillon doesn't look back as he sets a hoof on the bridge. "Nothing that we have available, unless any of you can scream loud enough to shatter a window. I've heard about unicorns driving it off with ice spells. I'm starting to form a plan, but-" He stops abruptly as he stumbles, nearly tipping off the bridge. "Arrgh... that fall must have hurt me more than I thought.." He clambers back up to his hooves, resuming his progress across the bridge.

gemini starts to cross the bridge, not wanting to look down any more."well, i'm not being the one to test that, lunis. as for the diablos...." gemini starts to think back to his siblings." does it have horns or something? if so, we could get it to ram into a wall and get stuck.....hopefully. i remember when my brother taurus and his friend tried to tackle me and his friends horns, his friend was a bull, got stuck in the wall. think we could do that to the diablo?"

(uh....its been about a week since i replied....are we still doing this thread?)

He thought for a bit. "Im not really sure. In worse case scenario we will have to outrun it. If we can get to a place thats too large for him to get through,then we will be safe. As for you quillon once we got over this bridge I am going to have to take a look at you. You could have broken,or dislocated something."