The Wishing Well [Open :D]

Knick cast a worried glance over at Aero, still surrounded by the purple cloud, before turning back to the newest arrival. "Chaos magic..." She said in a low, almost awed tone. "Not good... I've only ever dealt with little things, cursed bracelets, joke artefacts, that kind of thing– and nothing of the strong stuff, but even that was enough to cause a fair bit of trouble... Even if it is... quite fascinating– Sorry, pardon me, could we go back to when you said you helped build it? The rest of that sounds believable enough- terrifying, though logical. But..." she stared for a moment at the armoured pony.

Crouching low in a defensive stance, Aero tried to remain calm as the world of purple haze around him shifted and twirled. He could feel tingles throughout his body, disorientating him and leaving him stunned.

The smoke started to clear and as soon as he spotted the blue sky above him, Aero leapt into the air to fly clear of the smoke. Or he tried to at least. Instead of flying, he ended up falling flat on his face.

"Ow," he groaned into the dirt in a deadpan manner.

He shifted his head to look behind him before stiffened sharply. He could see the reason he wasn't able to fly. He no longer had his wings.

Standing to his hooves, Aero turned back to look at the others before noticing something in his upper peripheral vision. Going crosseyed, he tried to focus on it. It looked like a...horn. He raised a hoof to poke at it and was shocked to feel his own hoof on a new, alien part of his body.

"Am I...a unicorn?"

Switch groans, putting a hoof to her face {I wish I could say something. But he would know who I am if I did that. No amount of hiding appearances will make a difference if I admit to knowing things only I will know. Best act a fool as well.} "That does sound rather unlikely, you certainly don't look old." She nods to Aero "Yep, you appear to be."

(A note to those active in this thread! The pony before you is not, in fact, Just Heart. It is Revenant disguised as Just Heart, so he may pass unseen and unhindered.) The armoured pony sighed and pulled his helmet off, revealing his face for the first time. The features of his face betrayed his noble lineage, for his face was angular and defined, and looked as though it had been carved from stone because of his deep grey fur. His eyes were crimson in colour and blue-ish purple smoke seeped out of them, his horn was two tone and had a wicked curve to it. As he began to speak, long fangs could be seen in his mouth. "Yes, I helped build this wishing well. It's around a thousand years old now, and I am not sure if any amount of my ancient knowledge and magick can shut down this well."

Knick Knack's eyes widened and she fell back a step in shock as the pony beside her revealed the dangerously sharp horn and eyes smoking at the edges with some kind of old magic. Powerful magic.
"Y- you... are... a thou..." She paused. "I wish I could have been-" Every eye in the clearing snapped to her and she closed her mouth hurriedly, realising just in time. Maybe it was best to just watch, for now, things were getting quickly out of her depth.

Having stared at the new grey horn sticking from his head, Aero realised he felt oddly naked without his wings. He felt so bare and restricted with not being able to fly. Even the prospect of using magic didn't seem like a fair trade to him. How do earth ponies and unicorns cope?

Aero finally began to become aware of those around him again after Furtive confirmed for him that he was indeed a unicorn and not imagining it. But his attention was soon taken by the armoured stallion. Aero couldn't help but feel disturbed by his appearance under the helmet. It was...unnatural. Accompanied by his claims, Aero was beginning to feel uneasy around him. The fact that he was now disadvantaged by his lack of wings made him feel vulnerable.

Knick Knack snapped him out of his paranoia when he heard her begin a wish. A shout almost escaped his lips before she seemed to catch herself.

"Let's all please be extra careful with our words," Aero stated flatly, not wanting to transform any more today. He looked to the armoured pony, his suspicion raised.

"Who are you exactly? And if you know so much about this well, how do we undo it's effects?"

"Best you not finish that thought dear." He said as Knick nearly made a wish, he then turned to face the stallion speaking to him. "Who I am doesn't matter right now, as it is not important. As for reversing the well's effects, I would need to climb down the well, and manually cut it off from the ley line fueling it." As he spoke he slowly moved closer to Knick for she seemed curious and willing to learn, and seemed somewhat schooled in the arts of magic.

Knick Knack, who was fairly sure that the chaos magic had lost any interest it may have had in her half-completed wish, judged that it was safe to resume talking.
"Go down the well?" She blurted out quickly, breaking back into the conversation in a hurry. "Even if that weren't a hugely difficult idea in itself – which it is – we have no idea what that would do Furtive, or Aero!" She took a few steps and gestured broadly with one hoof to the two ponies who had already been transformed by the effects of the well. "This is chaos magic, we don't even know how much of them it affected – whether Aero can do magic with the horn that took the place of his wings, for example... Regardless of how tempting diving into a crack of untempered, ancient magic might be..." Her steps had devolved into pacing as she went a little closer to the well, thought better of it, and turned around without breaking pace in words or movement. That last part, which had been delivered in a mutter as she looked back towards the well, had at first only been a thought, but she quickly realised she'd said it out aloud and that the tall, grey stallion who had proposed the idea in the first place was looking down at her with a deliberately thoughtful but unreadable expression as she came face to face with him.

((Reading back on this I realised we skipped Switch's turn– oops– so I guess Fire can post and we'll do the loop again or Switch can post and we'll just default back to normal after that.))

[[sorrysorrysorry, been really busy with everything, I'll just wait for my turn again

(Okie dokie then)

The prospect of not getting his wings back at all hit Aero like a bucket of freezing cold water. He felt numb at the idea that he'd never be able to fly again. Nope, nope, nope, that wasn't happening.

"If our mysterious friend here says the only way to reverse the effects are to go down the well, then that's what we're doing," Aero stated flatly, in a tone that made it clear he was not wanting to consider other options. "As absolutely fascinating as it would be to test my new magic, I don't fancy staying as a unicorn."

As an after thought, Aero glanced around at the three unicorns around him and grimaced. "No offence."

Furtive groans, this was starting to just take too long, she knew it was obviously all for theatrics, anything to do with ancient magic was always to do with the whole 'I know more than you' game, she had even dabbled in that game a few times when annoyed but this was just ridiculous, it was then she thought of something, looking down to waist height on 'Just' remembering her blade that she gave and how it may look like it wasn't on him? She carefully glances to make sure she is not noticed too much, though right now he was hopefully concerned with other matters rather than herself.

As he neared the well Revenant paused for a moment, and glanced to the side before smirking a little, and continuing to the well. As he began to pull climbing gear from his bag, he started to speak once more. "Hmm, no. Shutting down the well would end the effects. They haven't actually been altered at all, just enchanted. Saying the 'key-words' seems to activate the wall, which causes it to place an enchantment on the speaker of the words, generally after they speak the words in a certain pattern. The effects of the enchantment are then prolonged by a magical tether between to well, and the speaker of the 'Key-Word', and this tether would be broken by separating the well from the leyline, thus breaking the enchantment. In this case, the 'Key-Words' are 'I wish'."

As Revenant finished his lecture, he turned to face the other ponies as he had also finished setting up the climbing gear. "So, who will to accompany me into the well?"

"I will," Knick said impulsively. She couldn't help but feel that all of this was somehow her fault, which meant she should be responsible for trying to fix the problem. She forced her feelings of (quickly sobering) excitement aside... though it was difficult. She was somewhat reassured by the tall pony's words, though still trepidatious as she stepped forward to his side.

((3 day skip rule))

Aero considered his options carefully. He wasn't in the best state to help, what with losing his wings and having an alien appendage on his head. The horn protruding into his peripheral vision was still freaking him out a bit.

On the other hoof, he was not a pony to simply sit back and watch the action. If he could be doing anything, he'd rather do that than nothing. Especially in a situation where he was directly effected by the outcome. When Aero thought about it in that regard, there was no way he was trusting anyone else with the future of this flying.

"I'll go with you," he answered, stepping forward.

"Now, please brace yourselves. This will not be pleasant." As he spoke, he finished casting a spell on Aero, Knick, and himself. As he finished the spell, he grabbed hold of the rope. The spell caused them all to temporarily turn into beams of energy which spiraled down the rope, before exiting and reforming into themselves when the reached the end of the rope. Now with in the dark depths of the Well, Revenant lit his horn with a deep purple flame before speaking. "Are you two okay.."

Knick laughed giddily as she felt herself go from energy back into a solid form. "Okay?!" She asked incredulously, waiting for her vision to clear. She stared up at the armoured stranger, eyes bright in the low purple light of the flame. "I'm better than okay! Goodness me! How long did it take you to learn that little trick?" She felt her mind clearing more and more by increments, and her loud voice decreased in volume as she became steadier on her feet. "Maybe warn us next time before you pull something like that though, friend. Couldn't we just have used a levitation spell? Teleportation perhaps? Even a bubble charm would have done the trick... Not that I'm ever one to complain about magic like that but it's got a kick to it... Something of an aftertaste..." Realising once more that they were not the only two ponies present, she turned back to Aero Dynamic with concern.
"Are you alright? This day just keeps getting more and more chaotic. Did you see what happened to Furtive?"