//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: To Each Their Own // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 7 Morning... or at least, that’s what it should be. Vinyl Scratch opened her eyes to find that it was still dark. She lit her horn brightly, causing everypony to wake. Willoughby was already up, standing near the entrance of the cave, holding his submachine gun towards the opening, shining the torchlight that he’d attached to it. In place of entrance, there now sat a thick white wall, Trixie and Lyra lit their horns as well, fully illuminating the cave as if it were daytime. “I don’t suppose anypony bright a shovel?” Willoughby asked. No such luck, most ponies weren’t exactly built to use one. They were snowed in, hail had turned out to be the least of their problems, there had been a blizzard last night, and now here they were trapped in a cave with no way out. Fortunately, no one panicked. Much. “What are we going to do!?” Lyra said, her voice becoming hysterical, “We can’t melt that! There isn’t enough magic between the three of us for this!” “Chill out everypony! We’re going to be fine!” Vinyl said cheerfully, Willoughby would notice that she was struggling to maintain a positive demeanour, but he didn’t think any of the other ponies noticed. “I got a plan!” Vinyl divided the ponies into three groups, group one, consisting of Lyra, Bon Bon, and Derpy would explore the cave system, looking for any alternate exits, group two of Trixie, Big Macintosh, and Braeburn would take to another direction and look for anything they could use to aid in their escape, while group three, consisting of Vinyl and Trooper Willoughby would stay here, and organise their things to see if they couldn’t make something to help them. The ponies split off, each of the groups unicorn’s lighting the cavern as they made their way into their search. “You don’t actually have a plan do you?” Willoughby asked. “Not a single idea,” Vinyl said frowning. “Lyra’s right about one thing, we don’t have enough magic to melt this much snow... and even if we did, we’d drown ourselves in the process. At least this way, we can keep everypony calm and focused on prospects other than dying of suffocation, starvation, or freezing to death.” ... Vinyl Scratch had been right about one thing, these caves were not natural. Trixie, Big Macintosh, and Braeburn had discovered another section of tunnels that someone... or something, had taken desperate measures to keep hidden. Tunnels that Trooper Willoughby had not been able to search the night before, simply due to the fact that there was a giant boulder blocking it, Trixie had noticed the slight gap between boulder and the subsequent tunnel, and attempted to push the boulder out of the way. It did not budge, were she not suffering from Lighthorn’s, she might have been able to move it by herself, but in the advanced stages, she was lucky to be able to life half her own mass. Likewise, Big Macintosh and Braeburn were strong ponies, but even the three of them working together was still not enough. If they had any chance of moving the boulder at all, the entire group would have to try. ... “I don’t think we should open it.” Everyone looked at Derpy, who stated it again, her voice not wavering. “Everypony does remember the last time we opened up something we shouldn’t have, right?” “I would ordinarily agree...” Vinyl said calmly. “That it was a rash decision to open the crate, and I certainly wouldn’t want to make the same mistake again, however, in this case I don’t think we have much of a choice. It’s either this, or we starve, suffocate, or freeze, to death.” Derpy tried to remain adamant, but she quickly gave in, she didn’t want any of these things to happen to anyone, they were her friends, and while she was still mad at them for opening the crate, she couldn’t just deny them her help because she was mad... could she? No, that wouldn’t be right. Derpy agreed to help. The three unicorns reached out and grabbed the boulder with their magic, and at the same time, the others pushed on it, they all struggled to move the boulder away from the blocked tunnel, they all pushed as hard as they could, and finally it budged. They rolled it over and blocked one of the other passage ways with it. Now they could all go into the new tunnel. Vinyl lead the way, the magic from her horn glowing and illuminating the tunnel, it was much smaller than the other passage ways, Willoughby had difficulty manoeuvring in it, but the ponies were just small enough not to be hindered. They reached the bottom of the tunnel, and it levelled out into a new, wide open room that was naturally lit. Snow piled up in various corners underneath holes in the ceiling, and to their delight, they discovered at the other end of the large room was an opening to the outside. To their horror, a faint warbling noise and a light ticking noise filled the quiet air. Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka! A plume of thick black smoke rolled into the cave. Everyone froze in fear. However the Black Smoke did not approach them. It didn’t get out of their way either. It just held there, unwilling, or maybe even unable to move closer. Vinyl tried advancing towards it, and for her effort, the Black Smoke roared at her. Vinyl quickly stepped back, not wanting to agitate the creature any further. “Look!” Lyra said, pointing a hoof at the floor near the exit. A line of grey powder spanned the opening, touching both walls; the black smoke was seemingly unable to cross it. “We’re not getting out this way,” Willoughby said plainly. “And I’m not particularly interested in letting that in here.” Derpy however didn’t listen and stepped forward, the Black Smoke did not roar at her like it did with Vinyl. “Hi there!” Derpy said cheerfully. “Do you remember me?” The ponies gasped at Derpy, quietly shouting for her to come back. The Black Smoke merely warbled at her. “I remember you, you helped me,” Derpy said. “You helped Pinkie Pie, she was sick and you made her better.” It continued to warble. “So... if it’s okay with you, we’d really, really like to leave. This is the only way out. Could you move aside? Please?” Derpy asked, smiling at the Black Smoke. It let out a howl and flew away from the cave opening at high speed. Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka! The ticking noise became fainter and fainter, until they could no longer hear it. Derpy turned around and smiled at her companions, who were all looking at her, mouths wide open in shock. “We can go now!” ... “How the hell did you know that would work?” Willoughby asked. “I didn’t!” Derpy said cheerfully. “But I had to try.” They were back on course, they had looped around and were now heading northwest on a course that would take them around the Everfree Forest and on the westward towards Manehattan. Derpy told the rest of the group what she knew about the Black Smoke, which was still very little, casually leaving out the parts about the Doctor. She explained visiting Pinkie Pie when the pink party pony was in a coma, and that she became brain dead, but that the Black Smoke had come to heal her. She explained, mostly to the naturally suspicious kangaroo that she so happened to be travelling with, that she’d not brought up the Black Smoke before because she really didn’t know anything about it. Something that was not a lie in the slightest, Willoughby eventually accepted the pegasi’s explanation, and they spoke on the matter no further. Despite the rough week and a half opener into their journey to Manehattan, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. Crossing open countryside had yielded no problems; they had not been attacked by rampaging gryphons, or smoke monsters, or encountered any real difficult obstacles along the way. They had advanced to about a day away from Manehattan when Vinyl Scratch began joking that they were due to be attacked by a dragon or something. Spirits had been kept up, and despite getting every possible delay that they could hit in the first week and a half of their journey, they had arrived in Manehattan not only on time, but actually half a day ahead of schedule. The caravaneers had made it. They had planned to spend the next week in Manehattan, resting up and accomplishing the things they had set out to do. Even Big Macintosh, the rugged draught pony, was excited for a chance to sleep in a real bed. Business first, Vinyl Scratch lead Trooper Willoughby to her friend’s radio tower, while Derpy, Big Macintosh, and Braeburn reported the destruction of the package they were meant to be carrying to the main post office (casually leaving out that they had opened it.) Vinyl Scratch and Trooper Willoughby rode the elevator to the top of the Imperial Tower, the tallest building in all of Equestria at nearly 500 metres tall. Not counting the Royal Castle in Canterlot, this was taller by the simple fact that it was on a higher elevation. “You know, I should have probably warned you of this before.. I haven’t exactly been on the best of terms with this friend. We had kind of a falling out a while back... I was coming to this city because I owe her an apology.” Willoughby looked at her. “You’re not telling me this until right now? What is wrong with you?” “I get asked that question every single day!” Vinyl said, grinning at the kangaroo. “Every. Single. Day.” They exited the elevator, walked across the room, and knocked on the only door on the floor. A dark grey coloured earth pony opened the door and popped her head out, looking over the grinning unicorn, and uneasy kangaroo standing in front of her. “Vinyl Scratch?” Octavia said, her voice filled with confusion. “Hey! How ya doing O?” Vinyl said grinning at her. “What do you want Vinyl?” Octavia frowned at the unicorn, giving her a deadpan look of annoyance. Vinyl’s grin faded, and she donned a more serious expression. “I know you’re still mad at me, and I’ve come to apologise to you, I’m off the drugs, been clean for four months, would have come by sooner, but I wanted to be able to prove to you that I could stay off them.” Octavia smiled. “Please, come in.”