Gone in 1800 Seconds

by True Blue Spark

#316. Undiscovered Underground

The Prompt: Two or more characters must accomplish a task while in a pitch-black environment with zero visibility. (Bonus points for writing in first person.)

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My first inkling that anything was the matter came when the light from my horn quite abruptly blinked out. I gasped and stopped dead in my tracks, of course. I certainly didn’t want to walk into any stalagmites or cave walls!

“Rarity! Are you alright? What happened?” Spike was quick to rush to my aid. I could hear his footsteps scratching against the stone until he collided with me. “Oof!”

“I’m fine, darling.” I reached out with a hoof to steady him, and he leaned against me in relief. “My light simply seems to have gone. Just give me a moment...”

I focused on my horn, calling up all the magic within my body, but it stubbornly refused to light up again! And not only that, but when I tried my gem detecting spell, it failed as well. I was even unable to levitate anything! “Oh, dear,” I murmured. “Something seems to be blocking my magic.”

“Really?” Spike gasped. “Is that possible?”

“It appears that way,” I replied. “I can still feel my magic, but the spells aren’t working. Could you possibly light the way for a moment so I can reorient myself?”

“Sure thing!” Spike gathered his breath, then breathed out a jet of flame. For an instant I could see his face, the floor below us, covered in odd geometric carvings... and a glint off in the distance, as if the light from his fire had reflected off something very large. Very large and undoubtedly very valuable.

The flame died out, and Spike pulled in a gasping breath. “Just... Just gimme a second, I can...”

I patted his shoulder. “No, no, Spike, save your breath for now. Before we turn around... I think I saw something in the back of this cave. If we’re very careful, it should be safe.”

“Okay, if you say so...” He sounded uncertain, but he was still willing to come with me, the brave boy.

Very carefully, one step at a time, we walked toward the mysterious object. Spike kept his claw on my side so that we weren’t separated. As we grew closer, I began to notice a strange metallic scent. The air tasted dry, lifeless. From the way Spike leaned closer to me, I could tell that he sensed it too. We’d discovered something strange down there.

Finally my hoof bumped stone. I carefully ran both my hooves over the squared-off surfaces before me. Erosion had softened the corners, but it felt like some kind of altar, with carvings in it similar to the ones I’d glimpsed earlier. And atop the altar, fused to the stone by the drippings of thousands of years...

It was an enormous gemstone, unlike any I’d ever seen before. Not that I was seeing it at the moment, but you know what I mean, don’t you? It was as large as one of my saddlebags, perfectly faceted, an utterly flawless, unmatched thing of beauty.

And yet... As I felt the many facets of the gem, my hooves began to feel numb. And I began to feel slightly weak, legs wobbling under me, as if I had overused my magic and needed to rest.

My magic... “Spike... I believe we’ve found the source of the missing magic. This gemstone seems to have the power to block my spells.”

“Yeah...” The tension in Spike’s voice was plain to hear, and I immediately released the gemstone to place a hoof around his shoulder. Goodness, he was trembling! “I can tell...”

Without a thought, I pulled him closer. “Spike! Darling, whatever is the matter?”

“I can feel it... That thing is trying to suck the magic right out of me.” He felt it even more strongly than me, without even having to touch it. I wondered, for an instant, if perhaps dragons were more inherently magical creatures than ponies are, even unicorns like myself. His voice stumbled over a half-finished word, wobbling, but then I felt him stand up straight in my embrace. “I think we should get out of here, Rarity,” he said more firmly. “It’s not safe.”

Ordinarily I would have agreed with him. It might have been the most beautiful gem in the world, but it wasn’t worth placing him in danger. But then I realized... If we had found this artifact, others could very well do the same. If hooves less trustworthy than ours held the magic-draining gemstone...

“I agree,” I said. “It isn’t safe... But I think it isn’t safe to leave that gemstone here either. What if somepony else were to find it, and use it for evil purposes?”

“You’re right,” he breathed. “I didn’t think of that. Maybe we should take it to Twilight? Or the princesses?”

I chuckled fondly. “You read my mind, my dear. Now, if you would help me lever it away from the altar?”

“You bet!” He wriggled away and dashed toward the gem—

And then I heard a wet hiss and a pained scream.

“Spike!” I shrieked, hooves groping blindly until I found him in the blackness. I pulled him into my embrace, wincing as the horrible scent of singed scales met my nose. “Oh, no, are you hurt?”

The poor little dragon let out a pained hiss. “I-I don’t think I can touch it, Rarity...”

“Oh, darling, I’m so sorry. I’ll just grab that blasted thing myself and we’ll be back to Ponyville as quickly as we can run!”

I reared up onto the altar, wrapping my forelegs around the cold gemstone that had dared to harm my Spikey-Wikey. I yanked with all my might, intent on getting it off the altar and into my bag so we could get back home and the nurses could tend to his poor abused scales. It resisted briefly, but one last yank freed it from the stone.

And then, as I fell back onto my flank and the gemstone fell with me, an ominous rumbling filled the cavern.*

“Oh, dear...”

“Rarity, run! It’s a cave-in!” I heard Spike’s feet patter against the stone, and I rushed to follow him, one leg looped around the gemstone. But where was the exit? I groped at the floor with my hooves, feeling the geometric carvings, and remembering the way they had roughly lined up with the doorway.

I dashed forward, hearing rocks crash and feeling dust fly up against my rear. The rumbling grew louder, and I thought I heard Spike’s voice, but I couldn’t make out the words. I tried to respond, but only succeeded in inhaling a cloud of dust. I coughed, hacked, stumbled blindly forward...

And then something struck me in the head, and the darkness outside my mind rushed in to fill it.

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“Yeah? And then what happened?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

Rarity put on her straightest face and adopted the blandest tone of voice she could. “Why, we both died, of course. Crushed to death in the cave-in. It was the most tragic ending imaginable.” She could feel Spike shaking with suppressed laughter where he leaned against her side.

“Rarity!” five voices yelled—oh goodness, even Fluttershy had joined in.

“Very well, very well, I’m sorry. But my throat is growing a bit sore, I’m afraid. Spike, would you mind continuing from here? You woke up before I did, I believe.”

“Yeah, I think so.” Spike cleared his throat and smiled up at his friends. “So the next thing I knew...”

Author's Note:

I have several ideas for adventure stories set in the MLP world that I haven’t started yet. A madcap adventure featuring Spike and a bunch of background ponies, a Lyra-centric journey with swordplay and magic, a story in which a certain pairing’s child time-travels from the future Trunks-style to prevent a horrible tragedy... So naturally, this prompt gave me an idea for an adventure story that’s completely unconnected to any of the above. Because my brain loves to swamp me with ideas. (Ask me about the size of my Sparity folder in Scrivener some time.)

I do want to add more to this one, as the TMP mod who posted it jokingly demanded, but the problem is that I don’t know anything else yet. Where the gemstone came from, what other things happen to Spike and Rarity on the way back home, all the details that are needed to make an actual satisfying story. I’d have to sit down with this and give it a lot of thought before I could turn it into anything bigger. Still, stranger things have happened. Maybe I can crib some details from an old idea I abandoned, which featured a gemstone that enhanced rather than drained magic. Trixie’s return made that one quite redundant.

Anyway, I’m really pleased with how this turned out. I wish I’d had the time to fit more sensory details into it—I was writing this while cooking some dinner, and at one point I had to rush away from the keyboard to put out a small fire. But it came out great regardless. And I fit in a bit of dragon headcanon and a bit of shipping fuel—what more could I ask for?

Comments

[nemryn]

Oh, Rarity.

[InkFathom]

...Well, what happened?

[Fury of the Tempest]

Damnit this cliffhanger is mean!