//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Leaders and Followers, Past and Present // Story: The Elements in Harmony // by No One and Nobody //------------------------------// Chapter 14: Leaders and Followers, Past and Present Mira zipped through the sky following the coastline. Everything around her was blurrier than normal since she couldn't really get a good view through the air around her. Her passage through the sky, though probably long past supersonic, left nothing in her wake. Finding the sea had taken her a little less than five minutes, but she had now been traveling south for almost half an hour. Every now and then she would stop moving to get a lay of the land and make sure she hadn't overshot her goal. After a while she realized that the island was probably a lot further away than she had first assumed, and sped up. After about forty-five minutes of Superman-like exhilaration a small dot of landmass, slightly off the cliffs of land flew by beneath her. Stopping, Mira turned around, even though she could see the island just fine and technically didn't even possess a "forward". Too small, and too close to shore, she said to herself and continued down the coast. After the first spot of land poking through the surface of the ocean grabbed her attention, Mira began noticing more and more, but they were all either too small, too close to land, or too far away. Just as Mira was getting worried that she might have missed the island or that it could have been one she passed by, she caught sight of something on the horizon. Slowing down, she checked it out from a distance. No doubt about it... The Dead Island certainly stood up to its name. Even though Mira could see just as well in pitch black as in direct sunlight, the island seemed black. It was obviously volcanic in nature due to the tall mountain that took up the majority of the island. There were tall, dark trees scattered like patches of mushrooms on the mountain's base, and even though the mountain was actively spouting black smoke, there was an overwhelming silence over the island that seemed to stretch out across the water to Mira. She could swear that the air in the region of her stomach was doing flip-flops as a cold shiver ran up, not where her spine would be but rather, over her entire body. Gilligan's Island it isn't, she said, trying to smile halfheartedly, I'm beginning to understand why Thomas didn't want me coming here... At that, Mira felt her indignation rise just enough to push aside most of her trepidation and start towards the island... slowly. No reason to dart into a bad situation, she said to herself. The sand on the beach that welcomed her was as black as coal. As Mira thought about this she suddenly came to a horrible realization. I can't see light. How do I know what color everything is?! The smoke had been obvious, but the fact that the island itself or the sand actually had a black color frightened her. It's like I'm reading a story from a dog's point of view, and just realized they described the color red... only it's not a mistake and it's creeping the heck out of me. Mira landed on the black sands and almost fell over as she felt her feet sink into the sand, slightly. Wrapping her arms around herself, she discovered that she wasn't solid so much as somewhat less ephemeral; she couldn't quite kick the sand but her feet could create slight indentations in it. Maybe it's the smoke, she said to herself as she looked up to see the dark clouds billowing away far above her, Right... Looking to her right, she saw a steep cliff made up of flat-topped stones interlocking in an almost honeycomb-like pattern. Just like the Giant's Causeway, she thought, Only... not. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about this place was really freaking her out. It's like I'm in a dark alley, at night, in a bad part of town, with someone watching me. Mira spun her gaze around, but even though she saw nothing, she still felt as though eyes were watching her from behind dark corners, and in the shadows of the small forests. Aurgh! screamed Mira to herself, gritting her teach and clenching her hands in anger, and immediately being surprised she could do so, There shouldn't be any shadows in the first place! What is wrong with this crazy island?! Looking around one more time, Mira began to climb the mountain of stair-like rocks. As she stopped to catch her breath after pulling herself up onto another flat-topped stone, she muttered mean things to the mountain under her breath. She hadn't wasn't even questioning why she now seemed heavier and couldn't float above the ground anymore. Something is really messed up with this place. Stepping forward, her foot felt a groove in the rock and, as she looked down, she could see a large circular disc-shaped glyph made up of many different markings. She could tell that some of them were from the Russian alphabet and others she recognized spelled out words in foreign languages. But mostly her eyes were drawn to the letters that spelled out words in English. DANGER WARNING GO BACK BEWARE Mira stepped over the glyph and onto the stone next to it only to discover that the same messages were carved into this stone as well. As she ascended higher she could see that every stone around her had the same markings. This isn't natural, but who would go to these lengths to warn people away? As Mira pulled herself onto another stone she saw that sharpened stones, pointed sticks and thorns that resembled barbed wire had been placed, jammed and hung from every crack and cranny for the next hundred feet or so. Someone really doesn't want someone climbing this cliff. As Mira grabbed onto the lip of the next stone above her one of her feet got caught in some of the thorns. It didn't hurt but as she tried to pull free , she felt the tension wire give way. Looking up Mira watched as one of the stone pillars began to tilt slowly her way. Without thinking, Mira jumped and went sailing over the spikes, thorns and other assorted deterrents to land on another stone as the pillar crashed into where she had just been standing and toppled down the mountain. I don't think that would have killed me, said Mira, breathing hard, But in my current condition it certainly would have hurt. Mira continued bounding up the mountain so as not to set off anymore traps. The only other one she triggered was a purposefully loosed stone that tumbled out from underneath her when she landed on it. Luckily, she managed to grab onto a thorny vine and pulled herself onto another rock next to the empty spot. As she stood there, hunched over, panting for breath, wondering why it was so tiring to breath now, she spotted a hole in the mountain about fifty feet above her. I know I'm probably just giving in to a cliched old horror movie stereotype, thought Mira, looking at the mouth of the cave, But then again this whole island feels like a stereotypical mad scientist's castle. As she entered the cave she noticed that the area outside the entrance had been trodden many times by lots of heavy hooves. Or... feet? she said, noting something that very much resembled the elongated, webbed foot of a frog in the sand-like pulverized stone. The gloom of the cave engulfed her as Mira tip-toed into the cave, not wanting her footsteps to alert anyone. What am I thinking? Why would anyone in their right mind live in this place? she thought to herself. If it weren't for the fact that she could feel motion through the air rather than see it, Mira would have never seen the shadow detach itself silently from the wall behind her and rear up almost to Thomas's size before slamming a giant stone into place, blocking the way out. Mira screamed as the cave went pitch black. Michael awoke to the curtains being drawn and morning light flooding the room. The servant pony then trotted over to the bed and tapped Thomas several times carefully. As he stretched the servant moved towards Michael. "I'm up!" he said, grumpily, and the servant quickly withdrew her hoof. As the servant pony backed quickly out of the room, Thomas picked up his board and wrote, RUDE MUCH? Michael just snorted and said, "I don't need some mamby-pamby pony waking me up in the morning." NO HELP AT ALL? "No. I'm fine." FINE. BYE. And with that Thomas walked quickly out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Michael yelling for help. "You blumin' dirt-bag! Come back here, how am I supposed to get downstairs? MIRA!" After a minute or so, Michael stopped yelling and glared at the door, but Thomas was nowhere to be seen. A couple seconds later another pony, this time carrying some folded towels, came walking by. Michael groaned and then coughed, trying to get her attention, "Excuse me... pony." The maid stopped and backed up to stare curiously into the room. "Hello... Is somepony in here?" she asked, looking left and right. "Yeah, over by the lamp." The pony trotted in and made the bed with her magic before setting down the clean linens on the sheets. She stared at the lamp for a few second and then looked under the table before doing a full 360 and checking out the entire room. "Did you hear about us elementals?" asked Michael, somewhat enjoying the pony's confusion. "Not really. I did hear some important guests were supposed to be staying the night, but I just clean and fold the linens," she continued, still trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. "Fine. Then just take the lamp downstairs." The pony shrugged and picked up the lamp and folded linens in her magic before walking out the door and down the stairs. As Michael floated in the levitation field he considered saying something to the pony about keeping him upright and level, but decided against it. When they reached the bottom of the stairs Michael saw the orange pony with the cowboy hat walking down the hallway. The maid bowed to her and said, "Greetings." "Howdy," said the cowgirl-pony, tipping her hat, "We're all meetin' in the dinin' hall. Ya'll want me to take Michael off yer hooves?" The maid looked around confused before saying, "Umm, who?" Cowgirl-pony grinned and pointed at Michael, "The tough-talkin' guy in the lamp." The maid's eyes darted to the lamp and then nervously back to the mare in the Stetson. "Umm... OK," she said, floating Michael closer. The orange pony grabbed Michael in her teeth and continued down the hallway as the confused maid stared after her. "Thanks ... um," said Michael, forgetting the pony's name. "Ay-jay," said the pony, through the lamp in her mouth. "Right. What time is it?" continued Michael. "A little ahter day dreak," mumbled AJ, opening a door and depositing Michael on a long table. A blue field enveloped him and he slid down the table to where Thomas was sitting with the white unicorn, the pink one (who was eating far too many pancakes) and the purple one who looked tired and was drinking a steaming cup of what looked like coffee. Michael saw Thomas hold up his board. MIRA? AJ turned to look at the blue-rainbow pony and said, "Ya mean ya didn't tell 'em?" Rainbow pony looked up, her cheeks bulging with pancakes, and shrugged before swallowing, "I figured you would. Besides I was eating." "She left, didn't she?" said Twilight, yawning. Thomas flicked the board onto the table and rested his face in his right hand. While Michael started yelling. "What?! Why? We decided that was a bad idea. Is she trying to kill herself? What am I supposed to tell Mom?" A thin stream of water shot out of the top of a nearby urn and sputtered on Michael's flames. "Shaddup jack. Let her do her thing." "First of all, my name isn't jack, it's Michael. Second, she's my sister, I'm supposed to look out for her." "Ja right. Jacks kinda like dude, and your sister's been doing a lot more looking out for you than you have for her. Sheesh, your sister was probably the most mature one in the room last night." Before Michael could retort, Thomas smacked his hand on the table causing everyone to jump. Picking up Lucas he reached his hand into the urn and let him translate. "Tom says we don't have time to do anything about Mira. If she makes it back she knows where to find us." "But-" Thomas picked up Michael in his other hand and started towards the door. Rainbow pony groaned and stuffed about four pancakes into her mouth before following. Meanwhile the pink one picked up a fork, a knife, a plate with about ten pancakes on it, a jug of milk and a bottle of syrup and stuffed them into the pink poof of her mane before hopping after them. As they headed down the hallway Michael saw the yellow pegasus talking to a small bunny with a disgruntled look on its face. "Now you stay here till I get back, OK?" she said, before looking up, "Oh, we're leaving already?" "Don't worry Fluttershy," said the pink one in a singsong, "I've got pancakes." As Michael watched he could have sworn he saw the bunny give him the 'I've got my eyes on you' sign with a very dark look. "Don't worry," he snorted to the little creature, "I'm not laying a hand on your stupid pony friend." At least with Mira gone I don't have to keep up the facade as much.