Chapter 7: Together in the Dark
The team stared at the platform where their beneficiary had so recently disappeared, dust settling back over the blue surface, the lights of the platform dimming and leaving only the wall-mounted torches in this room to reveal their surroundings. The rest of the strange ruin had not been lit by Helios when he was lighting this room, so to go anywhere else they would have to make their own light once again.
They had no reason to trust him to begin with, and the feeling that he might not intend to come back for them at all only grew as time passed.
“The Chained One left us alone. Trixie is beginning to think she should have remained in the town square; being banished to the Moon would be more pleasant than this,” Trixie stated, less theatrically than usual, actually moving back to sit on her haunches in a corner, wrapping herself more tightly in her cloak.
“It is not a big deal,” Inkie stated calmly, “If there is nothing we can do, there is nothing we can do.”
Pinkie was quiet, her mane having slowly started to deflate again, the squeaking of air prominent in the silence of the room. She certainly had been through a mood-whiplash lately. Taking a deep breath, she murmured, “All I’ve done is make things worse, haven’t I?”
“Don’t worry sis,” Blinkie patted Pinkie on the back with a hoof, “Everyone messes up. I even got my cutie mark by messing up, remember that?”
“I don’t’ think I was there.”
“And that’s a good thing; that’s why you’re still alive,” Blinkie grinned sadistically, then shrugged, “Eh, mining school needed renovating anyway.”
“Yes everypony messes up. That is sort of true,” Inkie shrugged, suddenly growing very quiet and looking around idly. She was hard to read, to be sure, but it was almost as if she were using Blinkie’s vague answer as an excuse not to talk about her own cutie mark story.
“I’m going to be honest here,” Gilda stated, looking up from where she was reading the contents of her stolen saddlebags, “Your cutie marks are crazy weird compared to what I’ve seen, though I guess scaring the lamer ponies could be a good thing.”
Blinkie sneered at Gilda, “Yeah? Well may as well give them something to be afraid of, right? Better ponies are afraid of me with a reason, I say.”
“And how did the Calm One get her cutie mark?” Trixie asked, less curious about a pony other than herself, and more making a smart comment because she was upset at not getting the attention herself.
Inkie sighed, showing just a tiny hint of emotion, “It involved a fit of jealous rage and a collapsing barn and… I do not want to talk about that.” It was hard, knowing her as they now did, to imagine her in a fit of rage, let alone to tell what might have affected her so badly. Or indeed, if it was the memory of that rage now made her so placid.
“I wanna go home,” Ditzy complained, “I sure wish you guys had just taken the letter to begin with; you’d all be a lot happier now.”
“Gah! Listen to you ponies!” Gilda suddenly snapped, slamming her fist down on the brick floor, the dull thumping noise and slight crack of brick drawing all eyes to her. Once she had their attention, her voice echoed through the otherwise silent chamber, “Seriously? Whatever happened to all that friendship baloney of yours? It’s just like I said before, it all goes out the window the first time you get sad. Why don’t you all suck it up and do something constructive!”
“I don’t think there are any windows,” Ditzy looked around, scratching her chin with one hoof.
Gilda huffed, standing up on her haunches, “Frill this! I’m not going to listen to you guys sit around being down on yourselves! It’s even more annoying than the usual pony nonsense!”
Gilda looked about, and then reached up to grab hold of one of the torches, gripping the base where it was attached to the wall. Using all her strength, she yanked at it, twisting slightly to try to pry it free. At first it seemed like it wouldn’t budge, but after a great deal of grunting and muscles straining, Gilda managed to pull it off its mount with a sharp crack of metal and stone. Much to Pinkie’s surprise, it was handed to her.
“Take your sisters and check out the far room,” Gilda told her, “You didn’t get to look at it before he turned the lights off there, and Inkie said she could see… whatever it is she can see.”
“Trixie does not see how this will help,” Trixie began, only to be cut off before she could make her full argument.
“Trixie should be ashamed for moping so much!” Gilda exclaimed, slipping into Trixie’s own way of talking after hearing her do it so much, “This place is full of magic; if you’re so great and powerful why aren’t you figuring out what all this stuff does? Since you were… pretty amazing getting us here, even if it did end up stupid, I trust you could at least do that much?”
“You trust Trixie?” Trixie looked at Gilda as if trying to decide if she was jesting. Even if Gilda had been trying hard not to let on that she was putting her trust in someone, Trixie had picked it up.
As often as she bragged, Trixie had never actually had someone put faith in her for something she had actually done and not just because of some made up story. After a moment of stunned silence, she nodded slowly, rising to her hooves. Her horn shimmered, glowing brighter than previously now that she was properly rested. This made her steelped hat act as a night light as she began to stroll back down the hall on her own.
“Yeah I guess I’m not that useful,” Ditzy landed on the ceiling nearby, “I’m not really a clever pony, whatever Evil Guy said.”
To Ditzy’s surprise, Gilda reached up and took hold of her head. The griffon yanked her rather roughly, plucking her from her spot on the ceiling and turning her to plop her rather forcefully on the floor next to the bags that Gilda had been searching through.
“And you, Derpy, or whatever your name is,” Gilda said, “Quit pretending to be useless so no one expects anything of you; it’s ruffling me worse than the rest of these losers. You’re a mailmare aren’t you? Help me sift through this junk. Pony writing is mostly nonsense to me."
Pinkie found herself smiling, moving to pass the torch over to Blinkie’s mouth before she moved over and hugged Gilda. Now Gilda was the one finding herself stunned, feeling Pinkie’s mane inflate against the side of her head, poofing against her beak slightly and tasting disturbingly like bubblegum.
“I’m glad you’re here Gilda!” Pinkie smiled, then let go of the hug and nodded to Blinkie.
Gilda stared in silence for a moment, then looked as if she might sulk, suddenly realizing that she was caught being nice despite her bluster.
Blinkie hmph’ed in return upon receiving the torch, but all the same propped it upright on her saddle so she could keep her mouth free. Afterwards she turned to lead her two sisters out of the chamber. They moved down the hallway quicker than before, now far more familiar with their surroundings, passing by each room in turn. The halls seemed more alive than before, buzzing slightly as if magical forces were awakened by Helios’ return, the sound hiding the echo of their hoof-steps in the hallway.
Trixie could be seen in one of the rooms, examining some of the magical chains in the cells with interest, prodding one with one hoof, eyes widening at something as she analyzed the magic contained within.
Upon glancing back, the three fillies saw their friend Ditzy smiling as she started to show Gilda how the file-saddle was organized. It didn’t seem to have occurred to Gilda that the bags had been organized and not just placed at random, so perhaps the two were making far better progress seeing if the bag contained anything useful thanks to the mailmare’s input.
“I knew we were a great team,” Pinkie smiled as they entered the far room once again, Blinkie’s torchlight flickering off the consoles and illuminating a segment of the room at a time, “Even when I didn’t, I knew it’d work out!”
“Well I couldn’t be more surprised,” Blinkie commented bitterly, turning to adjust the torch in her saddle once again, making sure it wasn’t going to fall against her saddle full of explosives.
Inkie sighed in response, “I am just glad we are not killing each other anymore. I would have hated to have to pry anypony off of you again.”
Inkie began to search, following the wall and looking up and down the surface slowly. Her eyes picked out each detail that they passed, eyes seeming to pause at times or zigzag around to follow patterns only she could see in the surface of the wall. Her talent wasn’t breaking things as much as spotting exact points of weakness, even in seemingly impervious materials, and she was finding plenty to work with here, or perhaps, as she had warned earlier, rather more than she’d like.
“Too many here,” Inkie stated, “The walls are sturdier here, but I cannot find an area that seems like it would go anywhere. If there is a hidden exit, the weak points around it should be really straight.”
“I don’t see the point of this,” Blinkie grumbled, “Why don’t we just rig the platform with explosives and take him out when he returns, or at least bury him in rock forever.”
“Do we know for certain that he is a bad guy?” Inkie pointed out, “Being sealed away in constant torment like that instead of just locked away? That does not sound like something a good guy would have done to him.”
“I forgave you, Inkie,” Pinkie spoke seemingly at random, smiling to her sister, “You know that right?”
There was an awkward silence, “I do not forgive myself. I blew up at you for no good reason, just because I was angry that you were always happy and I was not, and I hurt you because of it, bad enough for you to leave home.” She shivered, adding, “I was grounded for so long because of that.”
“’Least no pony died when you collapsed that storehouse on us,” Blinkie stated bitterly, more at herself than her sisters.
“That’s it,” Pinkie looked back and forth, “Is that why you came to protect me, because you felt bad about things?”
“No,” Inkie tried to respond, but the question distracted her enough that she had to go over that particular section of the wall twice. It was pretty obvious to the other sisters that she wasn’t being entirely honest.
“And you make great ‘splodies Blinkie,” Pinkie smiled to her sister, “But you never do anything but carry them around.” Remembering how they got there, she quickly added, “Well almost nothing.”
“Yeah,” Blinkie stated bitterly, rolling her eyes, “That’s because I’m forbidden from working in any mines by the Equestrian Excavations Board. I’m literally bound by law not to practice my special talent.” That might explain why Blinkie was a borderline psycho.
“I bet you could find something great to do with your talent besides that,” Pinkie smiled to her again. “I saw the rocket you made! So you make fireworks now right? Those are useful!”
Blinkie responded to this by simply pulling the torch off of her back and passing it to Pinkie. Pinkie took it when offered, but looked confused.
“There, nice and quiet now,” Blinkie snapped, turning to walk down the hall, “I don’t have time to stand here and talk about my uselessness.”
Pinkie called out after Blinkie, though the torch in her mouth made it sound like garbles. She started to follow after her, but Inkie calmly reached out a hoof to block her path.
“Let her be, Pinkie,” Inkie stated, calmly, “Help me here while she figures things out.”
Pinkie sighed, but left her other sister alone, instead moving to turn and shed the light on what Inkie was doing. They were working on the second side of the room by now, and moved more quickly for a moment due to their lack of speaking.
“Pinkie?” Inkie glanced back at Pinkie to finally speak again, reaching a hoof to rub at one of her ears and smiling ever so slightly, “Thanks for forgiving me.”
Pinkie answered with a happy noise as if to say ‘no problem’, already back to her gleeful self. She was sure that Blinkie would come around too, hope that things would clear up with her sisters keeping her from despairing even in the dark chamber.
Blinkie didn’t hear much of this exchange before she left the room, wanting to leave quickly so she wouldn’t be tempted to scream things back at them. Once in the dark hallway, she followed the dim light of Trixie’s horn to one of the cells that lined the hallway. She paused, looking at the light further down the hall where Gilda and Ditzy were, and opted instead to head into the room with Trixie.
Trixie looked up from her analysis of a broken chain, blinking slowly at Blinkie, "And what, pray tell, drives you to disturb the delicate work of the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
“Eh,” Blinkie walked into the cell with Trixie, appearing to ignore her monologue, “I think I’m going to stay here for a bit; I don’t think I can resist the temptation to blow things up if I go back to that teleport thing.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not have time to explain the intricacies of her astounding analysis!” Trixie habitually crowed. However, when she looked over to Blinkie and recognized the pony's dejected look, she quickly added, “It was not Trixie’s fault, it was the Mad Bomber who tried to hot dog a festive charge down Her Majesty’s throat!”
“I know,” Blinkie surprised Trixie by not arguing, instead moving to simply sit down next to the unicorn.
In a way, this made Blinkie instantly win the argument, as Trixie had no idea what to retort to a pony that wasn’t retorting. Trixie grew silent, pretending to concentrate greatly as she pulled a loose piece of the chain from the wall, draping it over her back to carry it with her. Trixie then moved across the hall, moving towards the entrance area and to the room with the metal tables in it. She glanced back to check if Blinkie was still following behind her, finding that the dejected looking Pie sister was in fact doing so.
“Trixie is not angry at you,” Trixie finally spoke again, as if becoming somewhat self-conscious at Blinkie's mood, walking past the rolling metal tables towards the back of the room, “Trixie is not afraid of the Mad Bomber either.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Blinkie rolled her eyes, moving to sit back down again near the entrance of the room, “You’re too great and powerful.”
“Yes. Yes Trixie is, but that is not what Trixie means,” Trixie shook her head, then looked over at the empty shelves, horn lighting up through her hat to glow into the room subtly patterning the walls with stars, “Trixie used to have a lot of fireworks and explosives, but most of them were crushed by a mighty Ursa Major during a battle in which she…” Trixie suddenly realized that Blinkie had probably heard this story, so there was no point in making anything up, “Well an Ursa Minor, either way Trixie lost her fireworks, as well as her wagon and most of her possessions.”
“You like fireworks?” Blinkie peered, but remained at the doorway, “But can’t you do magic?”
“Well of course Trixie can ‘do magic’,” the unicorn continued along the shelf, then moved to look at a strange device at the very back of the room, “Trixie combines her magic with fireworks to do even more amazing things. Perhaps if we survive this without being crushed under rocks here, or banished somewhere unpleasant upon our return home, Trixie may want to talk more about fireworks with the Mad Bomber."
“You like my cutie mark…” Blinkie was so stunned that she spent the next few minutes just staring at Trixie as she worked.
Trixie didn't seem to notice how amazed Blinkie was at the concept, too interested in the machine she had found here. It was mostly nothing more than a stylized box with lights and crystals on it, but attached to it were a number of straps, which looked as if they were made to wrap around somepony's limbs. There were six of these, such that a pegasus could have all six limbs held, each strap encrusted with even more magical-looking crystals. There were also two probe-like attachments, though they were broken at the ends so it was difficult to tell what they were for, and what looked like a helmet that could be adjusted to fit any pony's head, complete with a brace for a horn.
"This device makes Trixie feel uncomfortable," was all that the unicorn could think to say about it, placing it back down as it appeared to be non-functional, or at least lacking a source of power for the moment.
Blinkie didn't seem to be paying much attention to that, however, instead moving back to their previous conversation, "If we do get out of this, I'll replace all of your fireworks for free."
Trixie arched an eyebrow, "The Mad Bomber would do this for Trixie?" She slowly put down the last part of the machine, turning back and looking at Blinkie.
"Eh," responded Blinkie matter-of-factly, "It's fine, I'm not technically allowed to sell explosives anyway, but I'm not breaking any laws if I give them away, right?"
Trixie pondered this for a moment, then began to walk back out of the room towards the hallway, proceeding around Blinkie, "Trixie appreciates this, and will find a way to repay the Mad Bomber for her generosity."
Back in the entrance room, Gilda and Ditzy were dutifully going through the papers in the bag. There was a great deal of official paperwork dealing with things they cared little about, and Gilda was having trouble concentrating on it. In the end, she quietly moved the last stack over for Ditzy to deal with and pulled out some of the other objects.
Ditzy wasn’t being her normal, talkative self. When given work like this, it appeared she was as sharp as anything, her concentration near unbreakable. This made her useful in this case, but even less interesting for Gilda to be around. She did notice that Ditzy had separated out several papers from the others, but hadn’t yet asked her what they were.
Gilda pulled a box from the bottom of the bag, labeled simply ‘evidence’, opening it up. She found several more of Rainbow Dash’s blue feathers there, splattered with dry blood, and let out a big sigh of regret for having looked further. She leaned back against the wall, slowly closing the box, then hugging it slowly to her chest, growing still. She smiled slightly, nostalgic of her time growing up with her friend, but this was quickly followed by regret for the way she had tossed away their friendship last they had met.
It took a while for Ditzy to notice that Gilda wasn’t moving, but when she did, she flapped her wings once and flew a loop to get over to her, landing and giving her a gentle hug. She moved a hoof to wipe some wetness from Gilda’s face.
“Aw don’t cry,” Ditzy smiled kindly, “We’ll get out. I think I found what we needed anyway! And when we get back, I’ll make you a griffon sized muffin that we can share!”
Gilda rolled her eyes, more out of habit than anything else. “Yeah thanks,” she murmured, drying her face in embarrassment now, “More thinking about Dash. I had some things I wanted to tell her that I never did so… hope she’s okay.”
Ditzy ear-perked, scratching her own chin with a hoof, then looking slightly concerned, “You got a crush on Miss Dash? Huh.”
“What about it, Derpy?” Gilda sounded somewhat put out at Ditzy’s query.
Ditzy smiled gently, “Oh nothing wrong with it, it’s just well… I’m pretty sure she’s not into fillies, errr, even griffon fillies.”
“And how would you know that?” Gilda arched her eyebrow.
“I asked her out!” Ditzy smiled, almost proudly, “So did several other fillies, so it wasn’t just that she didn’t like me. Everypony assumes she likes fillies though, so don’t feel bad!”
“Huh,” Gilda blinked, this information not really helping her mood. Then again, she realized that she probably should have worked up the guts to ask her out earlier, then she would have already known that, “Yeah, well I still want to find her, even if being mushy is out. Whatever! Anyway I don’t want to talk about it!”
“You’ll find her,” Ditzy assured, “But sure, we’ll talk about something else.”
“So what’s with your name, anyway?” Gilda hugged the box tighter, but changed the subject to the most random thing she could think of.
“My name?” Ditzy stared wall-eyed for a few moments, then added after realizing what Gilda meant, “Oh! Derpy’s not my name, it’s just sorta a semi-mean nickname. My name’s Ditzy Doo!”
“Man, and ponies call me mean,” Gilda commented, “Then why do you let ponies call you that?”
“Uh,” Ditzy sat back where she was, prodding at the papers there then picking up the few she had put aside in her mouth, her voice a little muted for speaking around them, “I don’t know! I guess I just got used to it, I don’t want to hurt their feelings either.”
Gilda shook her head, “Ditzy, you got to learn how to stand up for yourself.” Gilda’s eyes then shifted to the papers there, mind latching on to something she had missed before, “Wait, you found something?”
“Yep,” Ditzy smiled again, leaning over to pass the papers towards Gilda, “It’s coordinates for the timey whimey device to be aimed at!”
“How did you-?” Gilda grasped the papers in her claw, staring at them. She had seen this page, but it had just looked to her like an investigation report on Twilight’s library after she had been taken, “I don’t get it.”
“The teleportation stuff, see?” Ditzy smiled, “It says they used the residual magic to find where she teleported to, and were gonna go check out the place later. That’s probably where they took our friends!”
“Well that’s great, but how’s that help us now? The teleport thing’s still busted,” Gilda seemed dubious.
“Nope,” Ditzy nodded, “’Cause this sheet…” she pulled out another, “… says that Princess Celestia wasn’t able to detect Twilight anywhere, and that they have a special bond so she should have been able to. Soooo, they must have taken her to a rift thingy to take her to another world, outside of Celestia’s detecto-sense-stuff.”
“Or she could just be dead,” the incredibly cheery voice was Blinkie’s, who emerged from the hallway aside Trixie.
“Trixie refuses to believe that the Twilight Sparkle is deceased,” Trixie furled her eyebrows, still dragging the spare chain she had acquired behind her, “Only the Great and Powerful Trixie can defeat her!”
Ditzy chuckled, “Nope she’s not dead, trust me! It has to do with wibbley wobbley timey whimey bubbles. I know all about this! These are the coordinates that evil pony needs for the spacio-temporal hole.”
“We found them?” Pinkie’s voice rang out from the hallway shortly after several springing noises from her hopping down the hall, “This is great! And we found something too!”
“Indeed,” Inkie followed a few steps behind so as to not be bounced against, “On the opposite side of the big room there are weak points in the wall that are perfectly square. It is obviously some kind of secret passage. The rock is heavy but shifts slightly. If we all pushed together we could probably move it.”
“But then we couldn’t give the coordinates to He Who Was Recently Chained and go home,” Trixie pointed out, “Aside from that, Trixie wants to run some tests on this chain. Trixie loves ropes and chains and-“
“Yeah I’m going to cut you off right there,” Gilda held out a hand to Trixie, shaking her head.
“I’m curious,” Pinkie smiled, “We could always see what’s in it, then we could just hurry right back!”
Whether they intended to wait or go, it was obvious that Pinkie wasn’t the only one that was at least a little bit curious. Soon the group was moving back towards the wall to see what Inkie had found. To most eyes, it was a wall just like any other in the cavernous room. It was part of the back, dead center so that it was directly opposite the other entrance. If there was a secret entrance here, it would have to be near perfectly fitted to the stone around it.
“The great and powerful Trixie detects nothing,” Trixie complained, her horn’s glow intensifying as she examined the wall, “And if there were any magic at all, the Great and Powerful Trixie would instantly know.”
“Maybe that’s the point!” Ditzy slowly let herself drift in loops, head over hoof, mid-air behind the group, “He’d never think to look for a completely non-magic door!”
"Or maybe he knew about it, and it just doesn't go anywhere useful," Blinkie suggested, as if attempting to drain the excess cheer out of the room.
“It’s heavy,” Inkie stated, “We will have to all push on it at once. I think this is only meant to be opened from the other side.” She pointed to one part of the wall, placing her hoof against it, “This is the end that pushes open, because the other end,” she walked down a few steps and placed her hoof again, “seems to be shaped different. Well anyway, we should push on that end.”
Gilda moved to the end that Inkie claimed would open, and pushed hard against it, digging her foot-claws into the ground beneath her. Her muscled clenched, the wall shifted, but nothing budged for long, shifting right back as soon as she released.
“Yeah, I know this isn’t exactly like me,” Gilda looked back at the others, sighing, “But we’re all gonna need to do this together.”
Apparently all in agreement for once, the group moved to position themselves together against the wall. The earth ponies helped Gilda on the ground and Ditzy braced herself against the wall to the side of the secret door to push from above. Trixie’s horn glowed as she forced against the wall with her magic at the same time, an aura spreading out from her as she strained.
Each heave brought the wall outward slightly, but pushed back against them upon release. Finally there was a single loud click, sounding as if they had forced a large, rusty gear to turn back a single notch. This brought a moment of hope, but after a great deal of effort, it was only open mere inches, painstakingly moving a single click at a time. At this rate, it could take all day to get it open, and that was only if they had enough energy to manage it.
“This isn’t working,” complained Blinkie, stating the obvious, and predictably being the first to give up.
“It’s open just a little,” Pinkie grabbed their torch once again, waving it at the bare crack, trying to shed some light on the other side, “Hey Trixie!”
“Trixie is, as usual, far, FAR ahead of the Pink One,” Trixie smirked, never losing her charm despite being part of a team.
Trixie moved up behind Gilda, without really asking, and started to climb up onto her back in order to get a better view of the other side of the crack. This elicited a squawk from the griffon, but all the same she grudgingly allowed Trixie to be there for the time being.
Gilda lowered her head slightly as Trixie propped her fore-hooves there, “Hey watch it missy, you’re hooves aren’t exactly comfortable.”
Trixie appeared to ignore the complaint, instead concentrating on what she could see of the other side through the crack. Her horn glowed, and there was a sharp breaking noise from the other side. With a loud grinding and a cloud of dust, the door suddenly slid open, loud clicks signaling that the gear that they had heard earlier had been released. The disguised door sank into the wall to reveal what was beyond.
“Aha!” Trixie gloated, “The Great and Powerful Trixie… mph!”
“Yeah yeah,” Gilda snorted, moving a wing to casually take one of Trixie’s hind legs out from under her, causing the unicorn to slide down the griffon’s back and onto the floor with a thump.
Trixie glowered, though found herself smirking again. Gilda smiled back to her, apparently having meant the movement more in fun than spite for once.
“We did it!” Pinkie squealed, springing ahead of the others into the hallway beyond. “Yay! See how well we’re working together now? Everyone here has gotten to do something neat now!”
The hallway beyond was every bit as deserted as the caverns from before. If there was any respite, it was that it didn’t smell quite as badly due to the lack of rotting supplies or burning dust from newly lit torches. There was, in fact, a switch on the other side that had controlled the wall, which was now broken-looking as its last pulling was too much for the rotting contraption to take.
Trixie’s horn lit the way in front of the group as they walked, Blinkie taking up the rear with the torch, once again balancing it into her saddlebag. With these combined, they were able to see quite well; not that there was much to see.
After perhaps fifty feet, there was a spiral staircase that went upwards, still contained within the stone walls. It was every bit as wide as the hall, braced with a solid column in the middle, which was no less than ten feet in diameter. The whole thing looked as if it had been carved directly into the bedrock. The walls, both in the staircase and in the hall beneath it, were completely bare, with no sign of the symbols and writing from the rooms below.
It made the walk a rather quiet one, giving them plenty of time to think.
------------------------
Helios’ mind swam as he hit the ground at his new location. He barely remembered how he had gotten from where he was before to where he was now. The energy from the sun on the surface had been a surge of power for him, but he had barely been able to use the energy, the strain of absorbing so much so quickly far more than he had expected. If he wanted to keep exerting himself in his newly awakened state, he would need to get used to this feeling, he decided.
For a moment, he had thought that he really didn’t want to continue. Perhaps it would be best, he had considered, if he just lay down and died with the world he had lost. His mind however, had reached out, trying to find some sign of life elsewhere on the planet. The spark had hit him close by, and he had latched onto it, taking in the surge of energy and using it to teleport himself downward toward the source.
He found himself in cooler air, his body catching up to the damage and immediately beginning to heal more rapidly. Flesh knitted itself back together again, muscles becoming stronger again as they hardened together. His skin grew back into place, his tattered mane and flowing tail extending out in a shimmering wave of golden energy. He took a deep breath, healthy lungs filling with fresh air as his rotten insides began to reshape. His eyes slowly opened as he let the breath out, finally examining his new location.
He was underground again, perhaps deep below where the sun had beaten the surface of the planet to death. There was light here, surprisingly natural light in fact, that shone down from a series of glowing orbs located across a high ceiling perhaps ten stories above him. A moment later, he realized that he was actually standing in grass as well, lifting one hoof as he looked down at the ground in surprise.
His eyes moved upwards again, looking down through the cavern to find that there was, in fact, a small settlement here. Houses had been built up on both sides, mostly either from scrap and wood that had been dragged from the surface before it got too bad to gather there. Houses were constructed out of everything from old signs to mismatched bricks and even piles of what would be considered trash anywhere else. Other abodes had been carved directly into the rock, decorated with what little the residents could find.
The streets were not busy here in what he assumed was the residential segment of the town, but there was activity further down in what looked like it might be a makeshift market. There were stalls set up out of the same type of trash that houses were built of here, ponies, unicorns, and pegasi moving from place to place as they bartered for meager supplies. Further still, well-lit, artificial farmland had been painstakingly formed into the dirt here in the caverns.
Helios watched from afar as the ponies interacted. A merchant argued with a shopper over something in a small bowl, another tried futilely to bring order to a crowd of ponies trying to get what looked like water rations, and in another corner two unicorns had to be broken up, fighting over what appeared to be a misshapen loaf of bread.
His eyes adjusted to the new light, finally focusing directly in front of him. There was something he hadn’t noticed before; it was a single thin and frightened-looking unicorn staring at him with large eyes. The pinkish unicorn, a cutie mark of half a dozen bright stars on her flank, looked up from the book she had evidently been reading here in the grass, her whole body shivering at what she had just witnessed, no doubt shocked at seeing a corpse suddenly appear in the grass and rapidly regenerate.
“P-Prince! You’ve come to save us!” the unicorn rose to her hooves, shaking in a mix of joy and fear at his presence, “I didn’t give up wishing! I never did!”
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Chapter 7 is meant to be more character developing, both for the heroes and then for the villains, so I hope it came out good :)
It's beginning to sound like someone and Helios had a fight, with Helios as the loser. But instead of keeping his worlds day/night cycle going, left them to die.
And with the vehemence the nappers have, it has something to do with Equestria. Possibly the Princess?
Great work on the new chapter, great read all the way through. I never expected blinkie and trixie to bond together but you made it believable. Can't wait for more updates!
Character development, my favorite! Well done.
Not only are the substitutes starting to gel as a team, we're getting to why Helios is doing all this: someone came in and blasted the niblets out of his dimension. One wonders what would happen if someone with a gift for random comments that seem to not make sense (Ditzy, as a for instance) were to ask why he didn't simply take himself and the unfortunates living in a post-apocalyptic world to Equestria and save himself a lot of bother.
Hooray for stable time loops!
OMG YES, the Pie sisters aren't actually totally crazy! Best ever!
9288
Personally, I suspect there was a Sun vs Moon fight, like the first fight between Celestia and Nightmare Moon. In this case the Sun lost to the Moon and Helios was imprisoned by his world's Luna-equivalent, who then later was either unable or unwilling to lower the Sun and continue the day-night cycle on his/her own.
The question is whether the as-yet-unnamed Moon alicorn let their world be devastated out of neglect, or spite, or if he/she was physically unable to lower the Sun.
Great work on the new chapter,
...am I the only one here thinking that there is probbably another antagonist waiting in the wings somewhere? Perhaps on the "Night Side" of the planet in a castle made from Ice and the bodies of slain ponies? One also wonders when this whole "End of the World" thing went down. Say, two years ago, coinsiding with the Summer Sun Festiville, and the freeing of Luna from the grips of Nightmare Moon?
OMG OMG OMG this chapter is awsome. Great character development and I cant wait to see more. Oh I wonder if are heros are going to use the elements of harmony to defeat helios only one way to find out is to keep waiting for the next chapter
I got lazy and replied in groups :P
9288 9307 9329 9348 It's flattering that people are taking the time to theorize what is happening, so I hope everyone likes it when it arrives XD There are still a few things that I think will come as a twist.
9297 Explosives bring everyone closer together (except when they are blowing them to bits)
9300 9343 9423 9430 I'm glad people liked it, I was really worried it wouldn't come off right :p
9308 They are their own worst enemy.
9327 Well, not totally crazy without reason at least :P
Aw yeah, somepony wrote cool adventures of Pie sisters, Gilda and Trixie and Derpy! Badass team! Glad to see that same temper that makes Gilda mean also makes her shake everypony from depression))
um i think people missed celly calling someone her brother that will probly be important
'Said it before, but just to be public about it:
Twilight Wish's closing line here, was adorable and made me squee so much I repeatedly missed a (long-since remedied) typo.
9543 People seem to enjoy the Pie sisters a lot, I think I'll have to write further adventures or at least some silly short stories after this one is done.
9571 Yes, that could be significant :P
9768 I really appreciate all the good editing/feedback you've given ^_^
How you've written them is just fun. You've taken truly blank slates and made characters that are believable and loveable.
Definitely interesting in what's with Helios' imprisonment. Whoever would do that condemn a world to death is a sick motherbucker.
10310 Inkie and Blinkie are roughly based on how they are role-played by their players on the "Equestria Dawn" RP mush, where I also RP Pinkie. I tend to get a lot of writing ideas from various RPs that I've done.
10371 Mwahahaha
I have so much difficulty deciding if Helios is evil or not. On one hand, he's "conditioning" his subjects to violently attack and kidnap the ponies of Celestia's dimension, and attempting to use the power of the Elements of Harmony for his own purposes, on the other, those purposes involve restoring his own world to it's former state, and he said himself that he doesn't want anypony to die. Perhaps he's actually a good guy, but is just executing his plans in an innappropriate manner. Or maybe his own anger has corrupted his mind and he's now intent on getting revenge against who he believes caused all of his problems (Celestia).
Oh, I love trying to figure out vaguely defined characters.
By the way, I love this story. I had my doubts when you turned most of the G1 ponies into murderous thugs, but this story is shaping out quite nicely.
9288 I figured that out the instant Tia said "Brother."
great story!
(insert no existant blinkie, inkie gilda icons
^-^)
This is great, and I know its been out for ages but still.
Also, just at a guess:
Trixe - Magic
PInkie - Laughter
Gilda - Loyalty
Derpy - Kindness
Inkie - Honesty
Blinkie - Generosity
Just a guess if they are all supposed to represent the old elements. BY the way, love your interpretation of Gilda.
Sorry, the sympathy train left the station long ago. Especially since you're antagonists now. (You thought I didn't mean it, didn't you? You thought I'd forget.) Antagonists shouldn't even bother boarding the sympathy train unless they're trying to explain why they're evil.
"But Borg," I hear you say, "how can you be rooting for Helios when you hate all his subordinates, with the possible exception of Posey?" For you do not understand that I don't have to like his methods, and that his subordinates are included therein. I certainly didn't like many members of Red Eye's organization, but I still insist he is the tragic hero of Fallout: Equestria. So, yes, I can pick Helios.
Welp by now im quite confused.
Oh my God! I understand what happened!
So awesome!
Anyone who wants a explanation, it can be summed up like this: Has,is,and will.
The events have already happened, ergo the situation is a past experience.
The events are happening, they are occurring right now.
The events are going to happen.
This is getting really amazing!
I love it!
Welp, and the loop closes.