Unbound CYOA #2

>>30032691
"HUH?! W-WHAT?!"

Twining strands of magical energy then erupted out of a nearby crystal and latched onto me, quickly dragging me inside it. I struggled and thrashed like a fish on a hook, utterly terrified of my unknown impending fate. I was certain this was going to be the first step in being consumed by this place like the other ghosts here but then I felt "it" - the familiar pull my lantern - and without hesitation I dove headlong into its vision portal. I would quickly discover that it wasn't my lantern that guided me this time.

I emerged into yet another strange place, mostly dark, staring out of two tiny holes. A thick forrest of blue and red grasses stretched high into the air and flanked a large purple spire. Beyond that, giant interlocked wooden beams comprised the horizon. The ground moved violently beneath me and my sight shifted in every which direction. If I were alive I would have thrown up by now just from the motion sickness this bobbing around would have given me.

"DID-IT-WORK-DID-IT-WORK-DID-IT-WORK-DID-IT-WORK?!"

Oh great, another loud, scarry disembodied voice. I say nothing and continue to observe my suroundings from my little hiding place. The voice groaned and whined in apparent frustration.

"UUUGH! COME OOOOON! I KNOW I DID THIS RIGHT. RIGHT? YOU'RE HERE AREN'T YOU? COME ON OUT ALREADY!"

Was the voice adressing me? I quietly weighed my options. I could stay hidden but it might make whatever was out there even more angry. But seeing as how I'm already dead there's not really much more for me to lose. Cautiously I announced my arrival and moved out of my little cave.

"I-I'm here."

"AHH! OH CRAP!"

"I'm coming out now."

"AH, UH, YES! I MEAN OKAY! YES! COME ON OUT!"

File: Bound.png (183KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

183KB, 800x800px

>>30032702
As I passed through the opening of my hiding space I felt something akin to a pop and I found myself in a room of decent size. Alchemical equipment and other curiosities dominated the room as did a large chalkboard, a desk, and other familiar looking things. Wait a sec...

"YYYYYES! It worked! It worked! I can't believe it!"

Startled again I turned around and found myself face to face with that purple unicorn I'd last seen when I lost my lantern. I'd apparently been brought back to the mountain village, to her basement. But she's staring right at me. And I seem to be stuck to her head. This is new.

"Uhhh... hello?"

"No! Wait! Hold on! Don't say anything else! Let me get my checklist!"

"Um..."

"Aha! Doesn't follow instructions. Check!"

"Wait, what?"

"Curious. Check!"

"What are you doing?"

"Addendum: inquisitive."

"What am I doing here? WHERE'S MY LANTERN?"

"Agressive tendancies, confused, possible hoarder and/or insane. Check, check and check!"

I stare at the unicorn in disbelief as she jots down observations in her notebook. She gleefully takes a multitude of "scientific" objects out of her desk and places them neatly before her. She then procedes to run various tests on me, each more pointless than the last and several of which involved nothing more than waving probe-like objects harmlessly through my body. Despite my protests she dismisses me every time as though I were little more than a test subject to her.

While I allowed the experimental circus to play out I took time to examine my examiner more closely. I didn't notice them the first time I was here, likely due to the vortex of energy that was surrounding her, but this purple unicorn bears some pretty disfiguring scars on her face and chest. Her right eye is also glassed over, probably blinded by whatever burned her. I imagine it must have been very painful whatever it was. That aside she appears to be an otherwise bubbly, barely legal mare who clearly enjoys her hobby, whatever it is.

>>30032709
"Beginning test number forty-eight: rapid motion induction-o-tron."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Is it about my scars?"

"I..."

"It's always about my scars."

"Yes."

"Summoned a monster as a child, got burned."

"Ah."

"Activating device."

"Oh, COME ON! That's just an egg beater with forks attached to it!"

"The test subject is visibly upset! Perhaps the device struck a weakness in its ectoplasmic makeup? Increasing power! Wooosh! Wooosh! Wooosh!"

"THAT'S IT. WE'RE DONE. I'm gonna go look for my lantern by myself."

I shrug my shoulders and shoot straight up through the ceiling, floating around the house from room to room. I hear the unicorn quickly trotting up the stairs after me. I admit I take ironic pleasure in the turnabout of it all, how I ignore the young mare as I drift about looking things over while she chases me around.

"N-no! Come back downstairs! You can't be up here!"

"Mhmm."

"No! I'm serious! Super serious!"

"Uhuh. Why's that?"

"Because my mom will be home from work soon!"

"That's nice."

"Stop! Please!"

I float through several walls and wind up in a bedroom. Stacks of board games are piled everywhere and shelves filled with dusty toys and figurines line the room. I hear the unicorn rapidly pursue me and fling open the door with panic.

"H-hey! This is MY room! You can't just-! Are you listening?!"

She continues to plead with me to return downstairs but I'm in no mood to endure a moment more of those banal tests. Suddenly a box under her bed catches my eye and I float down to get a better look at it.

"Oooh, what's this?"

"AH! NO! DON'T LOOK AT THAT!"

>>30032716
Using her unicorn telekinesis she snatches the box out from under the bed in an attempt to keep it away from me. But she does so with zero finesse and the only thing she accomplished was scattering the contents everywhere. Adult magazines, a shampoo bottle, a small flask and a hairbrush all tumble to the floor among a shower of homemade doodles of stallions and mares in various sexual positions. The color drains from the unicorn's face as she stands motionless above her shame.

"L-lewd..." is the only word that comes to my mind.

We stand together in mutual silence, the unicorn's face contorted in disbelief as she stares at me, hiccuping on the verge of tears. I tell her I'm sorry, struggling to hold back my laughter when a voice from the other room snaps us both out of the moment.

"Little one, Mama is home now! Are you ready for dinner?"

"CRAP," hisses the unicorn in a hushed tone. "She's back already?!"

"Who?"

"MY MOTHER!"

"Oh. Well maybe I should go meet her and tell h-"

"NO! KEEP IT DOWN! LISTEN! I will do ANYTHING you want. ANYTHING! Just, please, hide in my scrunchie and DON'T SAY ANYTHING until she goes to bed! Alright?!"

"Well..."

"Little one? Are you home?"

"Pleeeeease!"

>>30032725
I can see that she's being sincere so I obey and return to the scrunchie she's wearing in her mane. I feel that strange popping sensation again and find myself staring back out the eye-holes of the little skull bauble it's decorated with. I'd wondered what was actually tethering me to her and why she could see me. Maybe it's even the thing that brought me back to this world. I plan on asking about it once I fulfill my end of the bargain. The mare quickly scoops up the entirety of her secret collection and jams it under her bed just as her mother peeks around the door frame.

"Little one?"

"AHAHAHAHAHA! HI, MOM!"

The unicorn whips around and I see an older mare standing in the doorway. She's wearing makeup and frilly light clothing, possibly a uniform. I'm somewhat surprised to see that she's an earth-type pony an not a unicorn like her daughter. Her father must be a unicorn. I wonder silently where he is.

"Did you not hear Mama come in?"

"Oh! No! I was just tidying up! Sorry!"

"Oh? Well that's okay then. Mama has brought dinner. Will you heat the kettle, please?"

"Yep! The tea will be ready shortly!"

The mare steps back from the doorway and sighs deeply as she heads to the bathroom and closes the door. I hear water running and some splashes as the mare freshens up at the sink. The unicorn quietly hustles down the hall and rushes downstairs, yanking off the scrunchy and tossing me and it onto her desk.

"Remember! Quiet! I'll be back down after dinner when my mom goes to bed. We can talk then! Just... just please don't screw this up, alright?!"

"Fine," I agree with a sigh as the unicorn turns to rush back up the stairs. "Hey."

"Rrrr! What?"

"I don't even know your name."

"Cascade Admixture! What's yours?"

"I don't know."

"Well, maybe we can fix that LATER. TONIGHT."

As I hear her scurry up the steps I am once again left alone to reflect on my situation. I wonder if all ghosts have to deal with this kinda crap or if I'm just unlucky...

>>30032734
http://www.strawpoll.me/12912373
http://www.strawpoll.me/12912381

>>30032709
Yaaay Cascade kept the scaring.

Although I think it was far more full body covering the first time around. this works fine to though. I am just glad there is something there.

>>30033111
oops meant to quote
>>30032868

>>30032805
Can we suck dick?

>>30032805
Can possess bodies?

>>30032734
Can we possess inanimated objects?

>>30036572
>>30035376
That will be voted on again later as the story progresses. A previous vote to possess a pony didn't receive enough votes on the poll.

>>30036610
Yus. We will get to do the less.

Hoof holding, mane brushies....BELLY RUBS?! All that depraved shit.

>>30037341
Yes

>>30038123

>>30039171

>>30039973

>>30039973

>>30041171

>>30042117

>>30042970

I'm posting this to bump the thread, but also to help give some publicity to another thread on /mlp/ which can be found here >>30041720 (OP)

The OP of that thread would really appreciate it if you could take a moment check it out and take the poll that they've made. You can find more information about it in the thread itself. Even if you don't want to take the poll, you can help out by using this copypasta whenever you bump a thread on /mlp/ until April 20th, after which point the poll will close. Please only use this copypasta if you were otherwise going to bump a thread without contributing content to prevent spam.

>>30045419

>>30046626

>>30047713

>>30049534

>>30049546

>>30032734
Hours passed. What little daylight remained slowly filtered through the basement window before fading away to nothingness, the job carried on by a solitary salt lamp tethered to an overhead beam. Patiently I keep my word to Cascade without leaving my hiding place, not because I feel obligated to but because I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'll be shortly dragged off to who-knows-where again with no means of escape. I'm afraid I'll have no one "normal" to talk to ever again. I'm afraid of nightmares I've yet to imagine. My very existence terrifies me.

My whirlwind of "what-if" thoughts recede the instant I overhear the young pony say goodnight to her mother, the soft closing of a distant door and excited hooves clip-clopping down the staircase. But I don't release from the scrunchie until I hear Cascade's muffled giggling giving me permission to do so.

"Okay! The coast is clear! You can come out now!"

"Hmph. Took long enough," I chide as I pop back to full size and hover around the room.

"Yeah. Sorry. Mom had a rough day at work today and took a little longer to unwind than usual. And, uh, thanks again for staying down here. Really."

"Yeah, about that. YOU obviously don't have a problem talking to a ghost, what's your mom's deal? Why'd I have to hide?"

"I don't know how long you've been out of the loop, but monsters have been really thriving in the wild in recent years and they tend to scare off travelers. Without anyone to trade with this village can't sustain itself, so, naturally, ponies around here are going to be quite twitchy about monsters within their borders."

"Oh. I guess seeing a ghost suddenly roaming around her house would REALLY set her off then."

"You don't know the half of it. If the sentries sound the alarm the town watch all rally, the elders hold court and so on. Troublemakers don't stay here long, if you know what I mean."

"Wow."

>>30053044
"Wow is right. But my Mom has her own reasons why she doesn't want me summoning monsters," she says as she sadly rubs the scarred side of her face. "Anyway, what she doesn't know won't cause us problems! So, please, can you stay our little secret?"

"I'll keep my end of the bargain as long as you keep yours. Don't forget you promised you'd do anything for me as long as I stayed hidden." Cascade nervously scratches her hind legs together and nods in acceptance. "First things first, I need to know where my lantern went."

"You keep mentioning that thing," replies the young unicorn with a quizzical expression on her face. "What lantern? What are you even talking about?"

"MY lantern! Metal, glass, blue flame, talks to me sometimes, takes me to strange places... I lost it when it brought me to your house the first time! You sucked it up when you were hooked to that machine of yours in the corner!"

"Hang on, you were here for that experiment?!" Cascade rushes over to a pile of ledgers on her floor, snags out a notebook and starts flipping through the pages. "I DID experience a power surge in the middle of using it a few months back. Yup. It's written right here."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! MONTHS?!"

"Shhh! Keep it down, remember! Yeah, months. Two months, nine days to be exact. Haha! It threw off my magical equilibrium for weeks!"

"But I was only in the Umbral Valley for a day or two tops! R-right?" I must have fished for a reassuring answer a little harder than I intended because Cascade took a few cautious steps backward.

"Okay. Easy now. I've never heard of the Umbral Valley, but wherever it is maybe time, you know, flows differently there or something. Maybe an hour there is like weeks here."

>>30053060
Hours. Weeks. Months. I've been separated from the lantern for far too long now. Maybe it left somewhere without me? Its voice was very weak the last time it spoke, maybe it just died and didn't relight? Ha. Died. What a twist that would be, huh? I'm overwhelmed by a crushing sense of defeat and float listlessly in midair. Cascade becomes concerned for my welfare and tries retrieving my attention with large gesturing waves.

"Hey! Hey! Are you alright?"

"No," I reply mournfully.

"What's wrong? Are you sick? Or hungry? Do... ponies in your condition GET sick or hungry? Just tell me! Tell me EVERYTHING!"

Everything. Heh. Why not. If I'm going to spend all of eternity like this I might as well get in as many conversations as I can while there's still ponies to talk to. I sigh heavilly and reorient myself. I tell Cascade everything I've been through up until this moment as she meticulously jots it all down. The sphere, the lantern, the visions, everything. Her expression never deviates from that of an eager student drinking in a fascinating lecture.

"...And that's when I appeared back here."

"Wow! That's... that's so COOL," chirps the young mare. "I mean, uh, I know this is really hard on you and if I were in your horseshoes I know I'd... I'd be... really upset." Cascade's voice crackles as she clutches her notebook to her chest with a tight hug. A few wet droplets roll down the cover.

"Cascade?"

>>30053069
Cascade turns her back to me and sniffles a little while fighting back tears. "I-I'm fine. It's just... Besides Mom, you're the only pony I've had an actual conversation with in a long, long time. I'm... actually happier right now than I've ever been in my entire life." Cascade plops down on the floor holding her hooves over her eyes, her chest heaving deeply as she considerately muffles the sound of her bawling so as not to alert her mother. I can't help but feel a pang of guilt for misjudging her character earlier. She's not the childish would-be-mad-scientist I mistook her for, rather a very lonely little pony mentally escaping her social isolation by any means neccissary.

"Uh, hey, Cascade?"

"What," she replies in between choked sobs.

"It's, you know, okay. We don't need to find my lantern right off. It can wait a little while longer." Cascade just sniffs and sits silently. "I, ah, told you all about me, so now how about you? Tell me everything! Well, everything you feel comfortable telling me about. Please? I'd really like to hear it." The unicorn slowly pushes herself up and wipes her eyes with her hooves, turning back to face me and smiling awkwardly.

"Do... do you really mean that? REALLY, really mean that," she asks genuinely. I nod. Her face lights up, her legs tremble and her tail twitches slightly with excitement, her heart clearly overflowing with joy. "This really IS the best day, er, night ever!" She lunges forward to give me a hug and I instinctively respond in kind, both of us temporarilly forgetting my incorporeal state as we pass through each other. We share a delayed realization and a chuckle.

Come on! I got plenty of stuff to show you!"

As I follow Cascade around her makeshift laboratory seeing all of her contraptions and gadgets and notes, my mind wanders and I replay our missed hug over and over. How simple and reassuring a gesture is a hug. I sure could have used it...

File: Sassy, Magnus and Juniper.png (121KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

121KB, 800x800px

>>30053091
http://www.strawpoll.me/12932918

>>30053163
I thought sassy was firery?

>>30053173
She was a steam elemental in the original story. It's kinda hard to consider keeping her around if she's going to scald everything that walks within ten feet of her, so now she only breathes scalding steam when she talks (which you'll see in the next update that her collar prevents that).

>>30053182
Ah ok.

bep

>>30054027

>>30053182
If I recall correctly In planeswalker it was her foolishness at summoning in an enclosed room that burnt her. I guess you cannot really say that now as she would have been burnt anywhere

>>30055425
This game is going to loosely use characters and places from Planeswalker. Also this game will only hint around M:tG spells and stuff whereas Planeswalker tried to base the game on them. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable all around.

>>30055799
>Hopefully it will be more enjoyable all around.
Well this is enjoyable but I preferred planeswalker more. I am in the minority there though and at least here I don't have that constant gnawing what if he had not pulled that was a dream bullshit that people forced him into.

>>30058827

>>30060476

>>30061522

>>30062360