New Magic

by Mercury Zero

Harmony

New Magic

Chapter 1: Harmony

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." – Goethe

Spelunky always felt the same rush of excitement when he found something new in his favorite caves. This time it was slimy rocks that set off his euphoria.

"You see that, Pete?"

His tiny firefly companion didn't have the capacity to fully understand him, let alone respond, but Pete was always listened jovially to Spelunky's monologues.

"There's moss down here."

The pale orange earth pony sat down on his haunches to look at the green goop. Pete flew in closely to hover a little nearer to the patch of plant matter. Being Spelunky's only source of light at this depth meant that Pete always had to be paying attention to Spelunky's field of view, although most of the time he would settle down comfortably near Spelunky's forehead like a miner's lamp.

"There's no way there should be any moss this deep. There's no light to feed it. I wonder how--" His own thoughts interrupted him as his hoof ran across its surface. "It's slick and ... really vibrant. It's definitely still alive."

"Have I ever told you about when I got my cutie mark, Pete?" He had. Many times. And they both knew it.

"Fell into a sink hole. Wasn't much of a drop, but it sure felt like it!

"Worst part was being trapped. I had no idea how to get back to my parents, which is pretty scary for a foal, but Pete, I wish you were there. The whole cave ceiling was covered with more glow worms than you could imagine. It looked like a galaxy of stars on a moonless night."

He loved thinking of that time whenever he made a big find like this. From then on, each of his flanks were emblazoned with the mark of a cave entrance. It was the most formative experience of his life and he had never felt so much awe and wonder to this day.

This was pretty sweet too, though. Slime!

Sure, it wasn't valuable ore or some never-before-seen creature, but that didn't make Spelunky any less giddy. "Come on, Pete. Let's see how far the moss goes."

Spelunky crouched and slipped into a claustrophobic opening in the cave wall, pulling out a piece of his trusty orange chalk to mark his way. The chalk wasn't so much for his use. He knew these caves in particular like the underside of his hoof. They were for any potential rescuers who might need to come get him. Cave exploration is a very dangerous enterprise.

Any number of things could happen on a deep explore like this. He could be wedged, unable to free himself, slowly starving to death, or worse, he could fall and break two or three of his legs. Explorers have even been known to use up all their oxygen and suffocate. They say hypoxia slips up on a pony, and most ponies don't even realize what happened when they regain consciousness; if they ever do.

Spelunky always thought it was better to be safe, than sorry. The chalk was just one of the safety tools he kept in his saddle bags.

"Wow!" Spelunky exclaimed breathlessly as he squeezed his way out of the narrow corridor into an enormous cave opening. His soft, awe inspired voice echoed with the open space of the room. There's no way Pete could light it all up from where they were standing, but Spelunky could see enough to tell that the mossy floor under his hooves was just a rocky ledge, sticking out a few pony lengths from the wall, and ending suddenly with a tremendous drop.

"You hear the water at the bottom, Pete? It's so deep! It must have been cutting this abyss for millions of years. I've never seen a chasm like this." Spelunky squinted into the darkness, laying down on his chest so he can peer vainly into the blackness past the edge of the ridge.

As usual, Pete didn't respond, but he did settle down onto Spelunky's muzzle. "Come on buddy, how about you fly down there a bit and light up the chasm?" Pete slumped over, huffing and rubbing his sore wings with a furrowed brow. Spelunky sighed. He had his answer.

Spelunky reached into his saddle bag and produced a small cup shaped piece of white bakelite with tiny air holes. The plastic was translucent, but cloudy white, designed to diffuse Pete's normally sharp light so it wouldn't cast harsh shadows that could confuse his vision at an inopportune time. He gently coaxed Pete inside, and strapped it to his head in the place where a unicorn's horn would have been.

"Okay, you rest. I want to see if this ridge goes the whole way around."

Spelunky started treading softly around the edge of the chasm. Before long, the ledge started to develop a dangerous slant, growing thinner and thinner, and more slick with moss as he went. Spelunky huffed softly. Normally he would have stopped here, taken a note of this development in his journal, and brought it back to the institute to discuss with his colleagues. This kind of discovery, however, comes once in a dozen trips, and Spelunky was too pumped to stop now.

"Safety first, Pete," came Spelunky's oft-repeated mantra as he took off his heavy saddle bag, laying it down on the slick surface of the rocks. He pulled a rather jagged looking metal spike from his bag, and carefully aligned it to a crack running up the rock wall of the chasm. He hammered it aggressively with his durable hoof. "Got to lay down some spikes and set up the harness."

Frustrated by a lack of leverage in driving the spike, Spelunky twisted his hindquarters, digging his hind hooves into the surface of the ledge below. Casually, he tried throwing another powerful thrust of his hoof against the spike.

His hind hooves slipped first. Sliding straight out into the abyss and sending his entire body sliding backwards to follow them. His chest and lower jaw came down with a pounding smack in short order. Still trapped inside the diffuser, Pete slammed the side making a gentle click. His light sputtered, and faded to blackness.

They were sliding backwards on the moss.

When Spelunky's breath returned to him it came in the form of a sharp, high pitched gasp. His eyes widened futilely in the pitch black as he tried, without success, to feel about for the hoofholds he knew were right in front of him.

He slid back even faster now, and grabbed desperately at the slimy, mossy floor that he was so fascinated with moments ago, back before it betrayed him so spectacularly.

Spelunky knew he needed to see. If he let go one more time to feel around for a hoofhold, he would lose what tenuous purchase he still had on the ridge, and surely fall to his death.

"Pete. Pete! Pete!" he cried. His voice becoming more shrill and undignified with each cry as hystarical fear gripped his chest. "Pete I can't see!" His voice was drenched with terror. It was desperate, high, and sickening to hear, even for himself. "Pete! Pete!" He was screaming now.

Spelunky's remaining life span could be measured in millimeters, but his death was coming a lot slower than he expected. It could even be described as 'slow motion.' Seconds ticked by like lifetimes.

He always knew this would be how it would end. He had come to accept that a long time ago. You can't have a passion for cave exploration and expect to die comfortably in a hospital bed some day. He always looked forward to this experience with composure; with contentment, even. How many ponies get to die in order to do what they were born to do? Not many.

Reality, however, had other plans. When he was finally presented with his destiny, he wasn't filled with peace and contentment. He was screaming as though he was a little filly being eaten by a lion.

"No! I'm not ready!" he cried. His heart was threatening to hammer out of his chest and kill him before he even reached the bottom. His eyes were welling with tears.

Finally, his thoughts turned somewhere he never expected.

Celestia. Sweet Celestia, please. I was wrong. I was wrong. Please save me.

Spelunky was not alone among his scientific peers. He always held the belief that Celestia was not divine. She was just a pony like any other. It's clear that she's very special in her own way, but is she the creator of the universe? Does she hear our prayers and answer them? Nothing could be more absurd to Spelunky. Yet, here he was.

Sweet Celestia. I don't want to die. Please. Please I don't want to die.

Perhaps Celestia was listening.

With a flicker, and the faint tinkle of glass, the light came. It was almost too bright. Spelunky squinted for a moment, and could not contain a slow gasp of awe and shock from rising in his chest. For a moment he wondered if, perhaps, he just let go, and allowed himself to be at peace, Celestia would appear to him, and gently lower him to the bottom.

It was only for a moment, however. His eyes pinned open wide, and he slammed both hooves onto a hoofhold with force. He dragged himself upward for dear life. He was too terrified to think, but if he could he might have wondered how he managed to muster the strength to haul himself so quickly out of the gaping maw that moments earlier threatened to swallow him up.

Trembling violently, Spelunky slumped against the mossy surface of the ledge. He reached up to grab at his light diffuser, and lifted it off his head, peeking inside. His companion seemed a little dazed, but he was still moving.

Spelunky's mind was still swimming with terror, but now it felt like he was being lowered into a pleasant bath of relief. He stared up at the, now plainly visible, cave cieling.

He couldn't help but laugh softly, and heave deep, slow breaths.

"Hey Pete," Spelunky finally said. "I think we're alive."

Glow worms be damned. This is his new happiest moment.

Slipping up to his hooves, he leaned over to peer into the depths of the chasm that almost killed him. He still couldn't see the bottom. The light source must be somewhere up here.

That actually raised a good question.

Pete groggily rose out of his bakelite cup and blinked, rubbing his head, just in time to be asked a question by Spelunky. "Pete, where's that light coming from?"

With his former skepticism slowly returning to him, Spelunky readily concluded that this wasn't, in fact, some holy light of the almighty, so what was it?

"It's white light, but it has a really slight bluish tint. I think it looks like unicorn light. Maybe we have somepony to thank for this. Well, except for Celestia I mean." He coughed into his hoof and rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment. He wondered if he really believed his earlier prayer, or if he was just clutching at hay.

Spelunky stared back at the way he came. Sadly, that's not where the light is coming from. He knew the smart thing to do would be to head back, and admit to his friends how stupid he was to try to cross the ledge before he could explore more of the local cave system. He would have given everypony a good laugh, and more importantly, they would have dispatched a few more explorers to help him.

He wasn't so sure, though. An old mares tale rang in his head. They said that the when the first great castles were built, they hadn't perfected magical barriers against falling, and the mortality rate was high. Occasionally, one of the masons would have a close call, nearly plunging from his perch. As the story goes, It's said that if you don't get right back up on the top of the wall after you nearly fall, then your career was over. You would never be able to work up the nerve to return to work.

He looked back and forth between his choices, wondering if there was any truth to the old tale. Before long, Spelunky rose to his hooves and stood resolutely. He was never keen on the smart option. He wouldn't have been down here in the first place if he was smart.

Spelunky resumed hammering his safety spikes, but not before stepping back to a less mossy spot on the ledge. He wrapped his harness around himself, and secured it firmly to the rope, and the spikes in turn.

Cautiously, he made his way across the near fatal ledge, and turned to explore the corridor toward the source of the light.

"What in Tartarus is that?"

The corridor was largely tubular, and it wasn't much taller than the top of Spelunky's head. A few meters into the corridor was a bent plate of silvery gray metal. Not some small metal scrap, but a piece that's nearly as big as he was, and thick as his hoof was wide.

It was crinkled up like one of the the hay crisps he packed for his lunch. It glistened in the light, despite being covered with moss, and, somehow, it was completely rust free.

Spelunky could scarcely believe that it was possible for there to be so much metal in one place. He certainly had never seen it before. He stepped cautiously over it, and looked onward.

The cave in front of him seemed to be changing. The walls abruptly turned into that same rustless metal. They developed a flat, polished texture, with sharp, angular corners.

"Is this some kind of metal cave?" Spelunky spoke softly, nearly whispering to his insect companion. "I think this is some kind of pony-made structure. How did they get it so deep?" Pete clung to Spelunky's head, a little frightened.

Before long, the cramped corridors of stone and bent metal had turned into a large rectangular room, big enough to be a comfortable living space, with tall ceilings, and with an adjacent hallway leading to yet more rooms.

Spelunky noticed what seemed to be a small rectangular plaque on one of the walls. Curiously approaching it, he reached out and gently dusted it off with his hoof.

A cave explorer knows gold when he sees it. If Spelunky wasn't so amazed by what he was witnessing he might be jumping for joy right now. The strange plaque was made entirely from gold, and it was inscribed with some language he had never seen before.

The characters were all angular, like they were designed to be cut out of pieces of stone with some sort of chisel. It wasn't though. It appeared to have been carved with incredible precision from the surface of the gold as if by an artisan of unearthly skill. Every shape was flawless. If a character was identical to another one, it was identical in every way. Right down to the finest detail.

The word with the biggest typeface appeared to have seven letters. The first one was two vertical columns, attached to one another with a horizontal stroke in the middle.

"What have we found, Pete?"

Spelunky reached into his bag, pulling out his camera and his journal.

He started by snapping a photo of the plaque.

Comments

[Razalon The Lizardman]

Okay, I've read it now, and it has thoroughly confused me.

[Mercury Zero]

3095179

Details, man!

[Razalon The Lizardman]

3095185 Let me put it like this; my dad is obsessed with caves and spelunking. He's even had a novel in the works centering around them for the past thirty years; only just recently did he find the time to seriously get cracking on it. As such, I've heard as much about caves in the past few years than any human will probably hear throughout their entire lifetime. So reading this was kinda hard on the ol' brain.

The story thus far, however, is okay aside from a few spelling/grammar errors.

[Mercury Zero]

3095229

Ah, so it's not an accurate portrayal?

[Razalon The Lizardman]

3095237 The cave system? As far as those in Equestria are concerned, I see no reason why it wouldn't be.

[Mercury Zero]

3095253

Ah, I see :) I was just wondering why you used the word 'confused'. I'm glad it's nothing serious like 'This is impossible to follow' or something like that.

Also, general message to everyone: If you find a grammar or spelling error, send me a PM and I'll see what I can do to fix it up :)

[Salamore0]

This is amazing man!