Utaan

by Imploding Colon

A Slice of Cave Chapter

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." Pinkie Pie fidgeted in mid-hover. "Are you sure you're supposed to be touching those, Dashie?"

Nevertheless, Rainbow Dash continued examining one of the crystalline cylinders up close. Its pale surface—although rough and porous—still managed to reflect much of the light emanating from Rainbow's pendant.

"It doesn't seem to be sprouting legs anytime soon," Rainbow muttered. "So I doubt I'll have to fight it to a stand-still."

"Even still." Pinkie gulped. "Half of the stuff you touch in this continent explodes. And I'm not talking about the confetti type."

Rainbow snorted. "Since when were you called 'Paranoid Pie?'" She turned the cylinder over. "Is any part of your body twitching?"

"Well... no."

"Then I think I'm good." Still, with a sigh, Rainbow dropped the cylinder back into an abandoned mine cart and continued trotting her way up the vertical, spiraling shaft. "Twilight, you said you figured these... things were 'organic?'"

"They certainly look that way, Rainbow," Twilight said. "Judging from the overall make-up."

"However, I am sensing them on some basic level," Rarity interjected. "Whatever they may have been in the past, my horn is detecting them just like any other gemstone or jewel."

"Maybe they were once some part of an ancient animal," Fluttershy suggested. "But time and pressured turned them into... these?"

"Are we talking about dragon poop here?" Pinkie Pie droned. "Cuz if so, then sign me out."

"I doubt Verlax has gone that mad, Pinkie," Twilight remarked.

"Whatever it is, the whole mine is filled with it," Rarity said, looking up at the distant speck of reflective metal at the top of the shaft. "It must have been incredibly valuable to whoever dug this place out."

"Until it wasn't," Fluttershy said. "They all left in an awful hurry. Just look at all the stuff left behind."

"If so, it was years ago," Twilight added. "Judging from the dust and decay."

Rainbow Dash sniffed. She glanced at the crates full of crystalline matter as she trotted onwards and upwards. "Cylinders... tubes... rods..." Her brow furrowed. "Frost rods..."

"What are you on about, darling?" Rarity saked.

Rainbow cleared her throat. "Remember that stuff that Nana Pearl talked about?"

"'Frost rods?'" Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow nodded. "She said that a bunch of the caves of Dust Prefecture—I think—had 'frost rods,' which were fossils made up of the hearts of dead windigos."

"Well, there you have it!" Twilight said.

"Could it be that simple?" Pinkie blinked.

"Back in Equestria... some creatures are known to leave body parts and waste material that become highly susceptible to enchantment over time," Fluttershy said. "Basilisk eyes are a good example. Oh... and hydra excrement—when heated to a high temperature—becomes very volatile after—"

"We get the picture, Fluttershy," Rarity droned.

"So, Nana Pearl forewarned us about these materials?" Twilight said.

"Not like we've got anything to worry about," Rainbow remarked. She gestured at the crates as she passed by them. "She just said that this stuff is mined a lot here... and that it's used to power up much of the magic that the Rohbreddenites use."

"Sooooooooo... that meansssss..." Pinkie Pie blinked at the walls of the cave. "That this place used to be a major windigo hot spot?"

"Probably," Twilight said. "But we're talking ages ago, Pinkie. We haven't seen a single Windigo since we came here. If there's any truth whatsoever to Rohbredden's Unification Myth, then they may have once roamed the entire continent at one time."

"Now they're likely all relegated to one place," Rarity said. She gulped. "Where Verlax is located. The... the Starfire?"

"Starkiss," Rainbow corrected. "Just southeast of the Frost Plateau."

Rarity blushed. "I knew that..."

"Good memory, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said with a smile. "I'm actually impressed."

"Don't be," the mare droned. "The last year and a half has basically consisted of me listening to all sorts of expositional monologue so I could know in advance which skull to bust-in when I got to it." She shuddered. "I'm... still not looking forward to when cross paths with Tchern."

"Who?" Pinkie squinted.

"Assuming you even have to encounter Queen Chrysalis' sister on the dark side," Twilight said.

"True." Rainbow nodded. "But considering there's a huge friggin' war happening around the Midnight Armory... meh... seems pretty inevitable."

"Again, who?" Pinkie squinted harder.

"Uhm..." Rarity fidgeted as she followed Rainbow's ascending path. "With all of these 'frost rods' filling this place, you don't suppose there's some residual effect that could be deleterious to Rainbow's health?"

"I think we'd know that by now," Rainbow muttered.

"I wouldn't be too concerned, Rarity," Fluttershy said. "Without unicorn magic to enchant these things, I doubt there's very much they can do."

"But it begs the question," Rarity remarked. "What caused the miners to abandon this place to begin with?"

"I'm guessing economic reasons." Twilight gestured. "Just look at the abundance of this material. Their value must have dropped very low very quickly."

"Yeah!" Pinkie nodded. "Almost like gemstones and rubies back home!"

Rarity shuddered. "I... can't imagine adorning any of these on my ballgowns back at home." She cleared her throat. "Just what part of the windigos were these at one time?"

"Their hearts, I think Nana Pearl said," Rainbow remarked. "Knowing we we know about windigos, they probably shrivel up and become hard-as-stone as soon as those things die."

"Do windigos even kick the bucket?" Pinkie exclaimed, blinking.

"Well, of course, Pinkie," Fluttershy said. "Everything dies."

"Yeah, but... like... do they die harder?"

"You know how the traditional Hearth's Warming songs go!" Rarity managed a smile. "It's the fire of friendship in our ancestor's hearts that drove the monsters away!"

"Huh." Pinkie pouted. "Too bad none of the grandpas and grandmas of Rohbredden knew that trick!"

"It does beg the question," Twilight said. "Just how was Verlax able to intervene and meddle with ancient Rohbredden affairs so that civilization took such a drastic turn here when compared to Equestria?"

"Well..." Rainbow Dash sighed while climbing a wooden ladder. "She... did suggest one time when she spoke to me that she caused the Grand Choke."

"I still find that hard to believe," Rarity droned.

"Yo, these Divines are pretty friggin' powerful, Rares," Rainbow said. "Axan—wherever she is—once leveled an entire civilization without blinking. Silvadel was once a huge, proud empire that spanned one third of a continent. Then one day... boom... instant rubble just so Axan could build her nest."

"Yeesh... how rude." Rarity shuddered.

Rainbow reached another level of the shaft and kept trotting. "So, I'm thinking that way back... like waaaaaaaaaaay back, when even Equestria hadn't unified yet, there were windigos all over the friggin' place. There were six major tribes here in Rohbredden. Seven if you count the sarosians—"

"I think they arrived later, Rainbow," Twilight corrected.

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Anyways... you had a bunch of ponies, griffons, wyverns, sirens... all struggling with one another for resources amidst a huge ice age caused by the windigos. They fought and fought, and their anger and strife made the windigos even stronger. Unlike Equestria, they didn't have a whole bunch of land to explore and settle a new kingdom elsewhere."

"And even if they tried to, there was the Grand Choke acting as a blockade to the west," Fluttershy said. "Verlax could have created the blight just to pen these poor ancestors in so she could have greater control over them."

"Exactly." Rainbow nodded, trotting along. "So, instead of finding out on their own that joy and friendship could stave off the windigos, Verlax threw herself into the mix, drove the windigos away with her own magic, and claimed godesshood."

"Forgive me, Rainbow, but I do believe we've all contemplated this before," Rarity said. "What I want to know is... what came first? Verlax or the windigos?"

"Wuh oh..." Pinkie hissed aside. "Rarity's trying to chicken-and-egg-it."

"It was Verlax, obviously," Rainbow said.

"Are you so certain about that?" Twilight asked.

"Windigos are just as natural as any other creature in Equestria," Fluttershy said. "It's just that... there was an overabundance of them ages ago... f-for some reason."

"And just what brought that on?" Rarity asked. "Could Verlax have been... breeding them somehow?"

"I... I dunno..." Rainbow's muzzle scrunched. "She was never originally the 'Divine of Frost.'"

"According to her?" Pinkie asked.

"And Luna confirms it," Rainbow said with a sigh. She looked aside. "Twi, do you remember what Starswirl wrote about the Windigos?"

Twilight rubbed her head, squinting. "He... never could come up with an origin of them." She cleared her throat. "Clover the Clever—shortly after the founding of Equestria—tried to put together an expedition to pursue the remaining herd of wraiths into the frozen north and study them. However, she needed a band of strong pegasi to make such a venture possible and... well... we all know what became of Commander Hurricane."

"Things are different here in Rohbredden, though," Rarity said. "I mean... not all of the windigos are completely gone, correct? I do believe I recall that from Nana Pearl's forewarnings."

Rainbow exhaled out her nostrils. "It freaks me out to think what's locked away beyond the Starkiss."

"You're thinking that maybe the windigos are all there?" Pinkie blinked, eyes wide. "Basically, Verlax has a bunch of pocket ghosts?"

"Why not?" Fluttershy smiled. "Rainbow does."

"Heh..." Rainbow smirked. "As awesome as that sounds... I doubt any of you could kick windigo butts in your condition."

"Don't even entertain the idea," Twilight said with a shudder. "Windigos are no laughing matter." She gulped. "Less than a dozen instances of encountering windigos have been chronicled since the days of Starswirl the Bearded." She gravely shook her head. "Very few survive to share the account. And the ones that do usually lose limbs due to frostbite and... other conditions."

"Yeeesh..." Pinkie shook. "Talk about a cold reception!"

"I wonder how much the Desperadoes know about the windigos," Rainbow said.

"Bard and Wildcard?" Rarity blinked. "Well, wouldn't that be convenient."

"They probably don't." Pinkie glanced back and forth. "But the wyverns?"

"Pinkie makes a good point." Twilight nodded. "The wyverns have been described as a reclusive, intellectual bunch."

"Yeah!" Pinkie hopped in midair. "They hide out in their sanctuary and pour over a bunch of ancient archives'n'stuff!"

"Sounds like a dream come true for Twilight," Rainbow said.

"Mmmmmm..." Twilight pouted.

"Maybe that's how they're helping us," Fluttershy said. "After years and years of isolation and study, perhaps the wyverns have figured out a way to get past windigos that doesn't depend on the 'power of Verlaxion.'"

"I... think there's more to the Desperadoes' plan than that," Rainbow said. "Why else would they be throwing Remna and this 'job squad' into the mix?"

"An escort?" Rarity suggested. "You must admit, Rainbow, you sorely need one."

"And with the Talon off your back, it's a perfect time for Jogging Season!" Pinkie chirped.

"We have no guarantee that the Talon is off our back, Pinkie," Twilight said.

"Uhm... actually..." Fluttershy spoke up. "I-I haven't sensed them in proximity since Rainbow Dash had her dizzy spell."

"Well, we do have a mountain around us, darling," Rarity said.

"Even still, they're nowhere within range." Fluttershy shook her head. "In fact, the only life-forms I detect are three ponies up above us."

The others did a double-take.

"Ponies up above us?!" Twilight remarked.

"How and since when?!" Rarity exhaled.

"Oh... erm... s-sorry..." Fluttershy sank a little bit into the floor. "I-I was distracted by our windigo conversation."

"When you say up above..." Rainbow pointed. "...you mean past that reflective metal panel?"

"I do believe that's a door, Rainbow," Rarity said. "Perhaps meant to seal off this abandoned mine."

"Have any idea where three living ponies might be parked in the nearest vicinity?"

Rarity squinted. Hard. "I... I can't tell for sure. It's a bit fuzzy." She winced. "Too much detritus in the way. But..." She looked up. "...I-I think I detect something wooden."

"Well, my 'inexplicable wooden shack containing ponies' senses isn't twitching," Pinkie said. "So I guess we're just gonna have to trust Rare-Rare!"

"Want us to fly up there and check, Rainbow?" Twilight remarked.

Rainbow looked up at the metal lid. It was so close that she could almost see her reflection in the glossy surface.

"This is our only way out of the mines," Rainbow said. "So, if you ask me, seems like we're going to make this discovery together."

"Be very careful, Rainbow," Rarity said. "I'm detecting an open cavern. Whatever's beyond that seal, it's exposed to the elements."

"So... a cave opening?"

"Something to that extent. Odds are, you'll be exposed to light."

"Assuming it's daytime," Pinkie said. "Being in the Vanilla Zone sorta throws your breakfast and supper centers off."

"I don't think we have much to be afraid about," Fluttershy said.

"Really?" Twilight blinked.

Fluttershy nodded. "All three ponies aren't moving very much. And... uhm..." Her brow furrowed. "... ... ...one of them is curiously faint."

"Faint?" Rainbow remarked.

"Yes. It's hard to explain. But... but I'm a bit worried." Fluttershy blinked. "For them, I mean."

Rarity chewed on her bottom lip. "Well, that's a bit disconcerting."

"Guess we'll have to see for ourselves." Rainbow reached the topmost level of the shaft. Once she was within forelimb's reach of the seal, she took a deep breath. "I wonder just how cold it's going to be outside."

"We've done an awful lot of climbing," Twilight said. "Which means we're at a high altitude. So... I suspect pretty cold."

"Oye." Rainbow pressed against the door and grunted. "Never thought I'd be reluctant to actually leave a cave. Mrmmffff!"

Comments

[8542Madness]

"Sooooooooo... that meansssss..." Pinkie Pie blinked at the walls of the cave. "That this place used to be a major windigo hot spot?"

More like a cold spot, amirite

[Cynderfall]

These are just theories. Pone theories. Thanks for watching.

Who's more evil? Verlax The Manipulator or Axon The Destroyer?

[Tchernobog]

"Who?" Pinkie squinted.

Me!

"Again, who?" Pinkie squinted harder.

Meeee!

[RoboRed]

Oh, so those are frost rods. Defintely a lot more interesting than what my brain was first imagining what they would be.

Speaking of the Wyverns, we've heard of them but definitely haven't seen any of them yet, iirc.
...What was the description Wildcard/Bard gave of Renma again? I don't remember.

"Basically, Verlax has a bunch of pocket ghosts?"

This term doesn't get old.

[IceKitsune]

I'm thinking it's hikers/explorers that got lost or are tending to someone who is injured. Also with this Verlax seem to be even more evil than before.

[Emotional Flight]

The last year and a half has basically consisted of me listening to all sorts of expositional monologue so I could know in advance which skull to bust-in when I got to it.

Villains are so silly, telling you all their evil plans, amirite?

[Nephilinae]

Annnd i betcha none of those theories are correct because that is NOT how IC rolls...

[**Beert]

An afternoon chapter, what is this madness

These three ponies... travelers? Workers of the mine?

[Phoenix Kitten]

Pretty much midnight this chapter happened for me.

Thanks for the exposition dump girls, sometimes it helps to take a moment and get things straightened out.
...I say as I'm about to enter my 5th day straight of playing nothing but Danganronpa.

"Back in Equestria... some creatures are known to leave body parts and waste material that become highly susceptible to enchantment over time," Fluttershy said. "Basilisk eyes are a good example. Oh... and hydra excrement—when heated to a high temperature—becomes very volatile after—"
"We get the picture, Fluttershy," Rarity droned.

Eww.. interesting but eww..
Also, now we know how squidgy happened.
is Shy an Alchemist of some kind?

-Companions have returned, inner darkness spurned. Utaan.

[tana1100]

Hmmm maybe Verlax drives the windigo away from their home and keeps them out with a magic less waste land. The windigos than went to the equestrians old home and than chased them to equestria. Only the fires of friendship happened and no more windigos? So Verlax is responsible for the windigos attacking equestria?

[YoshiFawful64]

So, wait... we really did just go through a cave without encountering a single monster?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/1/23/221538__safe_solo_spoilered+image+joke_mr-dot-+waddle_blasphemy.png

[The 24th Pegasus]

Suddenly spooky early morning chapter.

Well, I've got my own crackpot theory now. Verlax is going to force Rainbow to choose between continuing her journey and destroying Rohbredden, which is no different from what I've suggested in the past, but now I see how. Verlax is the only thing keeping the windigoes at bay (if I interpreted that correctly), so what happens if Rainbow has to remove her to go through the next seed? It'll be like the Quade, except infinitely worse (and much colder).

[Super Trampoline]

I kept expecting something bad to happen. I have to imagine those windigo hearts are a macguffin of some sort.

[The Whiskey Spirit]

6928041 I agree. This is the east horse we speak of. There is no cave in her path that is harmless. Stay on your guard!

[Tim the Planes-pony]

Well, the exposition sure was nice. I have my doubts that Verlax is telling the whole truth (subterfuge remember) about the grand choke. Now let us see who these poor souls are, I bet one of them is having trouble living.

[Codaulux]

Oh... and hydra excrement—when heated to a high temperature—becomes very volatile after—"

—Hitting a spinning blade.

Now they're likely all relegated to one place," Rarity said. She gulped. "Where Verlax is located.

Makes sense if they need to be in Verlax's presence for her to channel their essence into frost vessels. What purpose they serve now beyond acting as way to form a mouth and visage outside her residence is anyone's guess. Same goes for how many living examples remain.

[Booster Spice]

So the Month of Thawing is the one month of the year when Verlax calls the flock of Wendigulls back, the mine is a breeding ground, and Dash hasnt had any problems yet because she hasnt broken the seal thats keeping all the eggs in stasis?

Prometheus brought Fire and Xenomorphs, what would be this place called? Certainly not Mr Freeze or Frozone.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Hmm....

[Enix]

"Yeah!" Pinkie hopped in midair. "They hide out in their sanctuary and pour over a bunch of ancient archives'n'stuff!"

"Sounds like a dream come true for Twilight," Rainbow said.

"Mmmmmm..." Twilight pouted.

Translation: I want to argue, but can't deny your statement. Instead I'll make a thoughtful humming sound and a cute pouty face.
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/thumb/mlfw7667.png

[Bread Lord - Galloran]

This is the part where Seraphimus somehow walks out from an alcove to confront her.

[Revan]

Watch the three ponies be Pilate, Belle and Kera.

[Elsaack]

6928079
Well, considering these frost hearts were a power source in the past, what is used now? Dredge coal. Who has a monopoly on that stuff? The Consortium. I suspect they did something to curb use of a competitive product. Thus why this stuff is just sitting. Chekovs gun noted.

[Zeno]

6928041
We're not out of the cave just yet...

[Staxon Braxon]

I'm getting some Nevlamas vibes from that windigo discussion. Does anyone else think Verlax might be making them the same way Nev made her chaos monsters? If I remember correctly, the monsters Rainbow trapped in the machine world way back in book 1 were ugly, leather-skinned things, but Nevlamas's were wildly different in appearance and composition, perhaps because they are artificial. If that's the case, the windigoes could be imbued with Verlax's frost magic, assuming she made them after she became the Divine of Frost.

Austraeoh Fact Checker, could you remind us of the descriptions of both the minotaurs' and xonans' chaos monsters?

[Windburst]

I half expected wendigos to appear then and there

[mastermenthe]

Bigger question: How did thousands of windigo corpses end up buried under and inside a mountain to be mined as resources?

[Lazy_]

6929308
The same way all other resources do. Most things found underground in mountains are there due to continental drift, if IC's world has that. Two continents moving into each-other causes the ground to buckle and reform. My guess is they may have crawled underground to die or escape Verlaxion, before geographical processes created mountains right on top of them years later.

[AppleTank]

6927950
Pocket Ghosts, gotta catch em all.

[ConsciousHaze196]

Battle with a dragon of frost without any frost used would be interesting.

[krakentoa]

The ghosts can phase through doors. No suspense with "what's behind the seal" moments.

[Lightning Bearer]

Most uneventful cave passage ever. I kept thinking that there was some creature down there, and that's what drove the miners away.

I suppose it would be too convenient for one of those three ponies to be Remna?

[thatguyvex]

6928055
I think it may turn out to be something like that as well, that getting past the edge of the world is somehow designed to totally screw over Rohbredden and plunge it back into an ice age, either via the windigos or some other magic. My hope is that the counter to this is going to somehow involve Axan, who's been mysterious absent this whole arc, and honestly still has a long way to go to earning redemption for destroying Silvadel. Saving Rohbredden would be a pretty good start in that department.

[Sir Mediocre]

6927984 Well, of COURSE not!
The truth is obvious. Mr. Colon trawls the comments section for the most devious and sinister theories, subtracts the least plausible parts, multiplies the remainder by drama, raises it to the Nth power of literary gobsmackery, and adds a of stupid to the final product.
From this, East Horse is born.

[Nephilinae]

6930463 ... Why do i feel like that's EXACTLY what happens?

[Sir Mediocre]

6930596 If you muddy the issue enough with fancy mathematics, then apply sufficient heat and pressure to the mud, it may become crystal clear.

The answer? ):( channels

[Austraeoh Fact Checker]

6928703
Austraeoh, "Creatures"

"Upon landing, she was looking up into a flat, angular face with no eyes and a horizontal slit of a mouth full of serrated biscupids. Long, spidery limbs stuck out of the thin body of the ray-like monstrosity."
"[Its] thin, razor sharp teeth..."

Odrsjot, "The Army of Serpents"

"At first, they looked like serpents. But the more the creatures spread apart and split up, they resembled giant floating manta-rays with extra-long tails twirling like the ends of living kites. Each abomination had six slitted eyes and two separate mouths with razor sharp teeth. They chirped with otherworldly resonance, twirling about like coordinated swimmers as they suddenly all dove at once, gliding like gray reapers towards the Lightning Bearer below."

There's also the beasts in the Amulek mine, but I couldn't really find anything more descriptive than "serpents" and "beasts"

[Typoglyphic]

6928356 I am genuinely unsure how I would feel about that.

[Velvet]

Cool chapters

[Luminard]

She is gonna open that door and get knocked out and kidnapped by another small village getting pushed around by the Constortium.

[Nevlamas]

The seal of Starkiss - Verlaxion's final challenge to Rainbow being to kill her now makes more sense than ever. Verlax' death would not only plunge the faith into chaos - it would once more release the blight of the windigoes onto the entire continent.

Giving Rainbow a way to actually combat Verlax' plan this time, a way to employ the Fires of Friendship and lead Rohbredden to its happy end.

6928703 For the record, I she didn't make them, she summoned them.

[Hazard]

The three are obviously starving and in their hallucinations, believe the world has been bathed in balefire and that's a stable door they must escape into.

Or something. Probably not.

[Staxon Braxon]

6930775
6931099
Huh, I guess my long-term memory isn't as good as I thought it was. Oh well. However Verlax and the windigoes may be connected, we'll probably find out further down the line. Onward and eastward; exposition awaits!

[Moonlit Oasis]

I just realized; once Rainbow grows her mane out a little and gets cuts a cut across her eye, all she needs is some metal wing armour for her injured wing and we could have this. pre12.deviantart.net/a05f/th/pre/f/2015/334/c/d/rainbow_dash_is_prepared_for_the_war___by_flutter525-d9imus1.png

After all, it was her left wing wasn't it?

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

The cave is a lie.

[arancaytar]

They all left in an awful hurry.

Maybe they dug too greedily... and too deep.

[arancaytar]

"I'm... still not looking forward to when cross paths with Tchern."
"Who?" Pinkie squinted.
"Assuming you even have to encounter Queen Chrysalis' sister on the dark side," Twilight said.

See, it's not expository monologue, it's expository dialogue.

[arancaytar]

6932622

Also the torn ear.

That timeline's is the most badass RD.

[Zecoro]

"Pinkie makes a good point." Twilight nodded. "The wyverns have been described as a reclusive, intellectual bunch."

"Yeah!" Pinkie hopped in midair. "They hide out in their sanctuary and pour over a bunch of ancient archives'n'stuff!"
So...the Greybeards?

[Alchemik]

Die Harder: A Hearth's Warming Movie.

[hypervelocity]

"Back in Equestria... some creatures are known to leave body parts and waste material that become highly susceptible to enchantment over time," Fluttershy said. "Basilisk eyes are a good example. Oh... and hydra excrement—when heated to a high temperature—becomes very volatile after—"

Hmmmm...

"And even if they tried to, there was the Grand Choke acting as a blockade to the west," Fluttershy said. "Verlax could have created the blight just to pen these poor ancestors in so she could have greater control over them."

Knowing Verlax, yeah, sounds about right.

"Even still, they're nowhere within range." Fluttershy shook her head. "In fact, the only life-forms I detect are three ponies up above us."

You didn't mention this why?!

"Oye." Rainbow pressed against the door and grunted. "Never thought I'd be reluctant to actually leave a cave. Mrmmffff!"

Caves are the Greatest Foe of the Austraeoh series, after all.