Gneiss sat down warily in front of the mustached unicorn. He threw a quick look to the stream he had followed in, but quickly deduced that it would not offer him a way out. Both of the ponies who had caught him stood directly in his way, and there were at least two pegasi. ”Now, then,” the other pony said. ”My name is Flam, former slave in this Celestia forsaken place. One might say that we here,” he made a sweeping motion with his hoof, ”got tired of the working conditions and tried to steal back our stolen goods. Griffons did not like that, so we were thrown down here. Big goat attacked us, so we showed him the error of his ways. That was pretty much all; then you came.”
”How could you guys fight Arimaspi?” Gneiss asked with a perplexed stare. ”You don’t even reach like… up to his fetlocks! He should have squished you in one second! ” Gneiss looked a bit disappointed that Arimaspi had not squashed them. ”And who is Celesita? Some pagan god from wherever you are from?”
”She is our Princess, ruler of all Equestria,” Ditzy explained wisely. ”I heard she was the one who invented muffins and thus started the Equestrian calendar. She is awesome!”
”I thought this era began when Discord was turned to stone?” Flam mumbled. Gneiss Pick looked around to see if there was anypony sensible here in here besides him. Who were Celestia and Discord? What was a muffin? Was ”Flam” even a name? There were too many things that did not make any sense with these ponies, even aside from the fact that Arimaspi seemed deathly afraid of them for whatever reason.
”Never mind that,” Flam decided. ”How come you know… Arimaspi?”
”I found the tunnel to this cave ages ago,” Gneiss explained. ”Arimaspi was stuck here then, but didn’t seem to mind my company at all. I hacked out some of the ore here to help fill my quotas, but also began talking a little to him.” He nodded to Arimaspi. ”He says he has been stuck here for a long time, but can’t get out, so we decided to escape.”
”Just like that?” Flam asked dubiously. ”You just decided to help a monster that could accidentally sit on you out of the kindness of your heart?”
Gneiss snorted in dislike. ”If all ponies thought like you, we would not be much better than the griffons.” Flam decided not to press Gneiss any further after that comment. ”Besides, if I need to dig out ore then I might as well try to dig out of here.”
”Straight through the mountainside?” Flam asked, now even more dubious.
”What does this look like to you?” Gneiss asked angrily and more or less pressed his pick-adorned flank into Flam’s face.
”The worst idea I have ever seen,” Flam replied dryly. He grabbed Gneiss with his magic before the colt could reach him with his swinging hooves. ”But fear not. I think we will be able to help one another. As I said, we want the same thing; to get out of this rat hole of a city.”
”Yea? Fine!” Gneiss screamed angrily. ”Then let’s hear it! Let’s hear your super idea! How are you gonna get out of here?! Huh?!”
”Glad you asked,” Flam said without taking note of Gneiss’s tone. ”For I’m going to need your knowledge about this mountain.”
”Uh… you do? Well… okay?” Gneiss stammered lamely. The colt looked like he had expected Flam to yell back at him. This composed request for help made him confused. ”Yea, I know all about this mountain. What do you wanna know?”
”My friends tell me that the cave over there ends in a hole,” Flam nodded to the cave in the back of the room. ”Do you know anything about how it looks down there?”
”Sure do,” Gneiss said smugly. ”I went down once. Sorry to say that it continues… like, forever downwards. And there is not the slightest draft of wind or anything, so that’s no way out. I think it ends in a cave, or something. It’s also where Arimaspi dumps the bodies of his victims.”
”So a cave huh? Interesting,” Flam said curiously. He stroked his chin. One could practically hear the gears turn in his head. ”And what type of stone is there?”
”Marble,” Gneiss answered. ”This whole dungpile of a mountain is made from various kinds of marble.”
”Marble, huh… good…Perfect, actually,” Flam continued. ”Well, then I think I know how to get out of here. It will take some physics labor, and… there are some minor risks, like accidentally being blown sky-high, but nothing we can’t handle, I’m sure.”
”What do you want to do?” Marmalade asked curiously.
”I want to build a bomb,” Flam said calmly. ”A huge one. But I need that water in the pool down in the cave. I’m not sure how strong the blast might be, but some kind of shelter for us might be a good idea…”
”Pff! Shelter?” Gneiss said dismissively. ”Just get Arimaspi out and he can carry us all. Not much can hurt him.”
”If any of us are at the wrong place at the wrong time, I think we will be grateful for shelter,” Flam said gravely. ”But we will need some pickaxes before anything else. Gneiss, you will have to get those.” Flam turned to the others. ”And with them we need to hack a chute from the underground pool to the hole, as wide as possible. Make sure to start by the hole. We don’t want any water to run down the chute before everything is ready. Understood?”
”I understand what to do,” Flim said. ”No clue how it will help us though.”
”Just trust me,” Flam said. ”Can you get those picks, Gneiss?”
”In a second,” the colt said smugly. ”Or… actually not until tomorrow. It’s already nighttime and the griffons don’t want us in the mines after sunset.” He got up and started crawling through the stream.
Filthy looked after him. ”Now what?” He asked. ”Anything else to do now?”
”Marmalade,” Flim asked. ”You have been here longer than any of us. Do you know anything useful about this city’s layout?”
Flam did not say that if his plan worked like it said in that book on ancient Roaman mining techniques, then there would not be much of a city layout left, or city for that matter. He glanced over to Topsy.
*****
Suri laid on the cold stone floor, staring up at what little of the starry sky she could see through the grated hole they had been thrown down. She had always been pretty good with constellations, but now it looked like somepony had overthrown the entire sky; she could not recognize even a part of any constellation. She sighed. The alien night sky made her more depressed than she already was, for it served as yet another reminder of how far from home she was. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
A new surge of self-pity grabbed her heart. The earlier haunts of her own mortality returned with a vengeance, dashing all hops for rest. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the memory of Arimaspi towering over her yet again.
She reopened her eyes and rolled over to the side. She saw Filthy Rich. He slept on his stomach with his head on a flat rock. Suri really had hoped he was awake, so that maybe they could talk a little bit more. Not because he was cute or anything, she told herself, but because he had gone through the exact same thing as she. If there was anypony who understood her, it was him. And maybe he needed some consolation too.
Apparently not.
Just as she was about to try his sleeping position, she could see Filthy shift restlessly. Then he opened his eyes with an annoyed grimace. Suri’s heart leaped with joy, and she only partially managed to convince herself that it was because she now had somepony to talk too. There was no romance involved. Of course not.
”Hey, you asleep yet?” she mumbled.
”No,” Filthy said with a sigh. ”Whenever I close my eyes I’m worried that cyclops will come and crush me.”
”Me too,” Suri whispered truthfully.
They were silent for a little while, listening to the breathing of their friends.
”What do you think Flam is planning?” Filthy asked suddenly. ”Do you have any idea how you can make a bomb with water?”
”No clue,” Suri whispered back. ”Sounds impossible to me, m’kay. Water is used to disarm gunpowder and stuff, right?”
”It is,” Filthy said. ”So how will he get it to detonate? And as powerful as he seems to think… I don’t get it.”
”Maybe there is some mineral that does stuff with the water down in that cave?” Suri suggested, happy to speak about this. It kept her worries away. Filthy evidently liked it as well. ”His magnesium flashes when it’s heated. You think maybe something down there explodes in contact with water?”
”I doubt it,” Filthy said. ”Flam has read a lot, but to just recognize something like that… he is not a geologist or a pyrotechnist. I just don’t know.”
”Me neither,” Suri said. ”But I asked him to trust me once, so it is only fair that I repay him in kind. If he says that he can get us out, then we should try to believe in him, m’kay? He is clever, he has shown that before.”
Filthy was silent. She could feel her earlier haunts linger in the edges of her mind.
Suri looked at him, his face illuminated by the stars. ”Hey?” she began silently, shy for her question. ”My mother used to let me hold her hoof when I was filly and couldn’t sleep.” She paused. ”Would you…” she felt her face blushing profoundly.
Filthy looked over her with a new, searching kind of expression. Then his face softened. ”Sure, Suri.” He scooted a little closer and held his hoof over towards her.
She took it in hers and eventually found her way to a deep, dreamless sleep with a curious smile on her lips.
*****
”Topsy?”
The midnight blue pegasus stirred from his sleep at once, flapped up into the air and listened to his surroundings. While his eyes needed time to adjust to the darkness, his ears almost immediately gave him a clear understanding of his situation. He heard his friends breathe calmly below him; five distinctive sounds and the cyclops’s powerful snores. Concealed behind the soothing sounds of his peacefully sleeping friends were also the omnipresent ripples of something much greater, something much, much more powerful: the winds.
Ever since he came here they had been whispering to him, their voices shifting in and out of his mind like shadows of a flickering candle. Sometimes Topsy could not quite tell whether a thought was his or if the winds had just whispered again. Even now they were here, here in this cave, whispering.
”Good, you are up.”
Topsy recognized Flam’s voice. His was a bit more refined and elegant than his brother’s. That was the easiest way to tell them apart. The scanned the room with his ears and located Flam’s slightly faster breathing behind him, nearby the cool, lapping sounds of tiny waves. Topsy flapped his wings decisively and landed just in front of the unicorn. Beside him laid the pool, black and smooth like glass.
”I need to talk to you,” Flam began calmly. ”And nopony else must know. Alright?”
Topsy understood that Flam actually meant with the last word. ”Alright,” as in ”if it is not alright, tell me now and we will forget the whole thing.”
Topsy nodded. He did not want to make a sound that could wake Ditzy up. Poor mare should sleep now and forget all horrors in this world for a few hours.
”I look out very carefully for my brother, you know,” Flam began. ”Even if he does not care much for the dangers he might put himself in, I very much do. I would… go to great lengths to keep him out of trouble, pay the ultimate price for him, so to say. I… imagine you understand me? That you have felt the same?”
”I h-have. I d-do every day with her,” Topsy said and shifted his ears to where Ditzy laid. Only her peaceful breathing was enough to make the winds he kept hearing a little quieter.
”I thought so,” Flam said with a nod. ”I… think I can understand what you felt when they put their claws on her. When we were captured, I mean.”
”You c-cannot,” Topsy said quickly.
”I can,” Flam replied with ice cold conviction. Something about his tone gave Topsy pause. He could not put a hoof on it, but Flam’s tone had changed when he spoke those two words. It was cold, devoid of emotion save for a pure type of rage. Topsy knew it well. When Ditzy was threatened, then that rage consumed him, then he welcomed the winds.
Topsy understood. When Flim was threatened, even though Flam’s own rage was mixed with a paralyzing fear, it was the same kind of anger. An anger directed to those who would dare to touch his friends. ”You can understand,” Topsy agreed.
”My plan…” Flam said and threw a worried glance at their sleeping friends. ”Is not only meant to break us out. It is also my vendetta against those who harmed my brother. But I need your help.”
”W-will you… h-hurt them? The g-griffons?” Topsy asked. He felt his heart hammer wonderfully strong in his chest. He felt the powerful rush of adrenaline coursing through him at the thought.
”Hurt them, hurt them, hurt them,” the winds whispered hungrily.
”I want to,” Flam said which a sigh. ”I know my brother… all of our friends really, don’t want me to, but they don’t understand. Only you do. Don’t you?”
Topsy nodded. He understood. He too wanted to hurt those who hurt Ditzy. He really did. ”What do you need?”
Flam visibly relaxed. ”We are a bit alike, you and me. Thanks Topsy, for listening.” Flam patted Topsy once on his back. ”If my stratagem can work in the first place, then the result will depend on how much water I have. That birdbath lake we saw should be right above us, and I want to break its bottom so that all of that water flows down into the cave. I’m not sure how strong the explosion will be, but I think both this pool and the water in the birdbath will make sufficient revenge. They hurt our dearest friends; so we take their entire culture, their way of life, away and they might just call me the Element of Generosity himself.” Flam paused for a moment. ”Will you help me?”
Topsy did not need to think. ”D-done.”
Flam nodded. ”I will reduce this place to a pile of ash and dust, see if I don’t. Now then, here is how what you need to do…”
*****
As the sun touched Flim’s face, the unicorn looked up. He groaned when he realized that the only reason he had woken was because he had managed to place himself right where the sun struck the cave floor. All of his friends were still asleep. Flim sighed and got up, knowing well that he never could fall asleep once he had woken up in the morning.
He silently went up to the pool and looked down.It would have to suffice as mirror. He winced when he saw his wounds. Ditzy’s cleaning had probably helped, but it still did not look good. Luckily his coat would soon grow back and cover the scars, but until then he should probably have to clean his face carefully every day. He trotted around the pool and looked over the place where he would have to hack. He noted that it was the same soft marble as the rest of this mountain, so this would not be so bad.
Without a pickaxe he could not start working yet though, so he continued walking around the pool, trying to stretch his legs a little. ”Prankster?” He asked up to the grating. He was not sure if he expected the parrot to hear him, but it did. The black bird looked in between the bars and flew lazily down to him. ”Hello,” Flim said with a warm smile. ”I was worried about you, buddy. Good to see that you are alright.” He gently stroked the bird over the wings, earning him a satisfied flutter.
”RRRRAK!” Prankster croaked and affectionately bit his partner-in-crime’s ear before he perched himself on Flim’s back.
”Sorry for leaving you behind…” Flim said earnestly. ”But our plan did not quite work out the way we wanted to, and believe me I’d would have wanted to have you here with me if I could, but the underground is no place for you. However… I’d be very grateful to have you out there once we break out… you have saved us more than once before.”
Prankster seemed to contemplate whether his devotion stretched far enough to oblige Flim with yet another of his asinine plans, especially since his last idea had left him high and dry. ”KRRRAK!” he rasped and bent his head in a little nod.
”Thank you, my friend,” Flim said. ”I won’t forget it. I will buy you the best seeds I can get my hooves on once we are back, okay? Even a whole coconut, just for you. Promise.”
Something in the glint of Prankster’s eye told him that the parrot would hold him to that promise.
*****
The eight ponies and the cyclops were working hard. They had decided to work in shifts, four by four while the others were resting, as it soon became apparent that too many ponies at the same time became a hazard with the abyssal hole so close. As such, Gneiss, Flam, Topsy and Filthy took the first pass, while the others rested. Flim had argued to do his share, but was stopped by his brother, who plainly refused that Flim should extort himself in any way with his wounds still prone to infection.
In the end, Flim resigned to his brother, and instead looked about the shoreline to collect some waterweed for their food. Marmalade sat together with Suri by the shore and had her hoof in the cold water. The two mares had, apparently, decided to give one another a new chance and they were now trying to get a grasp on one another. Ditzy was flying by a hesitant Arimaspi, trying to convey friendliness. Now that she knew the cyclops at least had a rudimentary grasp on language, she had wasted no time in trying to befriend it.
The only visible effect so far was that the cyclops kept throwing worried glances up at the pegasus.
The second shift started well into the afternoon, as both Flam and Topsy only hesitantly let the others work instead. Indeed, once Topsy had rested just a little, he asked to work even more. Flim quickly agreed, exchanging him for Marmalade, as she had the most trouble with her injured hoof.
All the while, Topsy was deep in thought, often peering up to the roof. He saw small droplets of water coming down from a tiny crevice, so he assumed that was were he wanted to break open the roof. How to do so, however, he was still not sure.
He had a rudimentary idea. Gneiss Pick had brought, along with the pickaxes, a lantern too, and Topsy realized that it was not filled with fireflies as was the custom in Equestria, but rather equipped with a bottle to feed gas for burning. Topsy thought about trying to heat the bottle with a lightning bolt. Maybe the explosion would be powerful enough to blast open the roof? Or at least enough for him to break the rest on his own?
Problem was that he would have to involve Gneiss to fetch him the lanterns, and Topsy did not trust him to be secretive. But again, judging from their progress today, they might complete the chute tomorrow. He did not have long to make up his mind, as he would have to tell Gneiss that he needed lanterns before the colt left them for the night.
Topsy made up his mind over the course of the day. He had no other ideas, and Flam counted on him to do his part. ”Gneiss-s?” Topsy asked with his typical hiss, causing the colt to jump and turn around. He took a few trots back from Topsy, with an anxious look on his face. ”I am going to need your help-p.”
Topsy flicked his wing in and out rapidly. He knew that most ponies were unsettled by his stammer and twitches, something he was not shy of using in situations like this. Based on Gneiss look, it worked once again.
”What?” Gneiss asked loudly, challengingly.
”You will bring me all l-lanterns you can get your hooves on… t-tomorrow, y-yes?” Topsy stalked closer with feline like movements. Gneiss stumbled backwards.
”Lanterns coming up, Mr. Pegasus, sir!” he said loudly, turned around and dashed for the stream where he entered the cave. Aramaspi rumbled unhappily behind him, wanting to help his distressed friend, but still afraid of Ditzy, who was yet again flying circles around his head.