//------------------------------// // Into the Earth // Story: Marabian Knights // by silvershad0 //------------------------------//         “So, does anypony else think we’re in way over our heads here?”  Octavia asked, never looking away from the multitudes of holes in front of her.  “I mean, to dig that many tunnels...”         “There must be dozens, if not hundreds of them,” Lyra grimly finished her sentence for her.  “But with so many tunnels, it’s very likely that they’ll be split up pretty bad in there!” she said, her normal enthusiasm returning.         “Yeah!  We can pick them off one by one until none are left,” Vinyl said, striking a pose.            Redheart shook her head and held up a hoof to cut her off. “But what if one of them manages to alert the rest of them to us.  We’d likely be overrun before we could escape.”  Vinyl dropped from her pose and shot a sour glance at Red, a little upset with her negative comments.         “Well, we can’t just do nothing after coming all this way.  Not to mention, we still have ponies counting on us,” Vinyl responded as calmly as she could manage.  She was trying not to get angry at her friends for all the delays when she knew they were just trying to be careful, but with no kobolds in sight to vent her frustrations on she could feel it slipping.         Octavia caught the irritation in her marefriend’s tone and decided to speak up before she said something she regretted.  “Vinyl’s right.  We’ve come all this way and the least we can do is look around.”  ‘Besides, if they could have felt what I did when our auras clashed in that last battle...’ she shuddered a bit as she remembered all of the vile feelings radiating from the red devils.         “So should we split up into groups to search the place faster or stay together for safety?”  Bon Bon inquired, not exactly happy about going underground so soon after discovering the wonders of flying like a pegasus.         “Splitting up is a very bad idea at low levels,” Redheart said with absolution.  “Right now we’re relying on teamwork to cover our weak points, such as low quality gear and only a handful of hitpoints.”         “Stick together it is.  Now I say we pick one of these and get started before nightfall.” Lyra held her hands over her brow as she searched for the current position of the sun.  “Which, from the look of things, will be in less than four hours,” she added.         The group nodded and they slowly descended into the nearest den with great caution.  It was easily wide enough for two ponies to walk side-by-side comfortably and nearly the same height.  The slope was angled just right so that they could walk without fear of slipping while still going as deep as possible.  Octavia and Bon Bon took the front, Vinyl the middle, and Redheart and Lyra brought up the rear, as suggested by their healer. The first thing they noticed as they entered were the glowing green specks covering the majority of the top of the tunnels.  They gave off just enough light to make out the passage, but not enough to notice any details.           “The kobolds must have millions of these green crystals to use as a light source,” Lyra said, amazed by just how many of them there were.         “It’s quite beautiful, and just a tad eerie at the same time,” said Octavia.  She focused her aura and tried to stretch it outward as much as possible.  She couldn’t sense any evil nearby, but she was still a little lax to trust in her new powers so quickly.         “Let me help ya out there, Tav,” Vinyl said as she began charging her horn once again.  Everypony looked to her and immediately ducked to the ground.  Vinyl finished the spell and a small ball of bright, white light hovered over herself, following her as she moved back and forth.  “You guys need to have a little more faith,” she giggled as they picked themselves back up from the cool ground beneath them..         They continued at a slow, steady pace for a few moments before the path split three ways ahead of them.  Two smaller paths veered off to their right and the one they were currently on continued straight.         “Great, so now which way do we go?”  Vinyl huffed angrily.         “Well it’s not like we have a map, so I guess we just pick one and go with it?  Lyra looked between the three possible directions, noticing there were no signs of which way they should go.         “Speaking of that, where exactly are we trying to get to anyway?” Bon Bon asked.  “And what are we even looking for, other than kobolds?”         Redheart cleared her voice and spoke up.  “There’s usually a leader of some sort that’s holding the minions’ focus.  If we can find and dispatch him, the others will likely fall apart.  At least until a new leader is chosen,” she laughed a bit nervously.         “So we just keep looking until we find this guy then,” Vinyl said adamantly and started nudging Octavia towards the larger path.         They pressed on for another few minutes until Octavia suddenly stopped and closed her eyes.  She could feel a dark presence up ahead, but she couldn’t tell what it was or just how far ahead it was yet.         What’s up, Tav?” Lyra asked looking around curiously.         Octavia’s eye twitched a bit at hearing her hated nickname, but she decided that it could wait until the danger had passed.  “There’s something up ahead,” she calmly stated as the group squinted to make out any details in the distance.  “I can’t actually see anything, per se, but I feel it all the same,” she corrected.         “Oh, I get it.  Paladins can sense the auras from nearby evil creatures,” Redheart informed the group.  “So there must be more enemies up ahead then.”         The group again readied themselves for combat, recalling the previous instructions Red had given them, and slowly pressed forward in formation.  It wasn’t long before they could make out another two kobolds a good ways down the tunnel facing the other direction.         “K, I guess I’ll take out one with my magic from here like last time then we can deal with the other when it gets closer?”  Vinyl suggested, knowing better than to just blast away again without consulting the group.         “That’ll make too much noise in these narrow tunnels, I’m afraid,” Redheart said much to Vinyl’s chagrin.  “Stealth is the better option in a situation like this.  Bon Bon, you take the one on the left.  Octavia, sneak as close as you can without alerting them and charge the right one after Bon Bon makes her move. Both mares nodded and slowly crept forward as quietly as they could manage.  It was quite the task for Octavia in her heavier gear, but it seemed to be working as she made it into a position where she could lunge when the time came.  Sweat was dripping from Bon Bon’s muzzle as she crept closer and closer until she was almost within striking distance. One of the creatures reached up to scratch its head as it turned to the other and started conversing in their still indiscernible language, sending her nerves on end as she tensed up like a clam.  She turned to look at Octavia, who reassured her with a nod.   Bon Bon returned the nod, refocused herself, and took the final step needed to strike out at the red-scaled menace in front of her, only to find her hooves sinking into the collapsing ground beneath her.  She screamed as she quickly began falling until a grey hoof took hold of her own, keeping her from the darkness of the pit below.  Bon Bon looked up to see Octavia holding her with all she had until the ground beneath the grey mare herself started cracking under the strain.  It finally gave way and both mares were sent screaming down into the darkness. Lyra and Vinyl both looked on in horror as they each saw the love of their life swallowed by the earth itself.  Vinyl started to run for the opening, screaming Octavia’s name over and over again, but was quickly stopped by Redheart who was yelling something at her, though she couldn’t make out any words from the loud ringing pounding in her head.  Lyra collapsed to her knees and began sobbing as she heard Redheart yelling at Vinyl that they had to get out of there right now before more guards showed up.   Red smacked them both in the face with a hoof in an attempt to shake them out of their current state.  “We can’t do anything from here,” she yelled.  “We’ll come back, I promise, but we can’t help them if we get caught here.”  The two nodded and quickly followed Red back out the way they had come as the sounds of many footsteps could be heard coming their way from behind. As Octavia and Bon Bon were swiftly falling to what would surely be their doom, realization struck Bon Bon.  She grabbed onto Octavia and spread her wings out, flapping them furiously with all her might.  The overbearing weight was straining every muscle in her body, but she had managed to slow their descent considerably until they finally crashed into a dirt floor. Octavia had taken most of the forced landing upon herself, with Bon Bon merely bouncing off of her after their collision and rolling a few feet to her side.  Octavia huffed quietly as she lie on her side, running a hoof over her body to check for any serious injuries.  After finding that she was mostly alright, she tried lifting herself from the ground, but found standing to be painful.  She slowly inched her way over to Bon Bon to make sure she wasn’t seriously injured, running her hoof over the pegasus in the same manner she had checked herself.  When she touched one of her wings, Bon Bon immediately cried out in pain, causing Octavia to wince herself as she withdrew her hoof.   Bon Bon stood up herself and carefully folded her wings onto her back, cringing in agony.  “I don’t think I’ll be flying again anytime soon,” she said with a half smile, a small trail of tears running down her cheeks from the intense pain. “Don’t worry too much about it right now, okay?”  Octavia said gently, trying to stay strong herself.  “Once we regroup with the others, Redheart will take care of these nasty injuries.” “The others!”  Bon Bon’s eyes immediately shot open.  “They’re still up there with those kobolds!  We need to get back up there and help them!” she tried unfurling her wings at once, only to be met with sharp pain coursing through her entire being.  She fell to the ground as her wings returned back to her sides, her body visibly shaking from the intense pain. “Don’t overdo it!” Octavia snapped at her.  “They’re smart ponies.  And they have Redheart with them.  I’m sure they all got out just fine and are working out a plan to come back for us even as we speak.  She reached down to put her hoof on the cream mare’s shoulder when the ground beneath them began to rumble slightly.  They both looked up to see a large metal gate to one side of the room slowly raising up and something large behind it patiently waiting for the barrier to disappear.  They immediately scanned the large, circular room for an exit to find the only way out was through whatever was about to confront them.