//------------------------------// // Chapter 103 // Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// They were going down, deeper and deeper into the mountain, round and round a circular ramp into the depths. Sumac was beginning to feel claustrophobic, but he didn’t say anything, as it didn’t feel right to complain. Pebble didn’t seem bothered by it, but she was also an earth pony. The air was stale down here, and something smelled bad. One of the air vents they passed was covered in strange, glowing fungal growths that shone with an unhealthy, diseased looking bioluminescence. Sumac couldn’t help but notice that Twinkleshine’s axe also glowed, it was hard to see in well lit areas, but in dim or darker areas, a faint silvery glow was noticeable and when Sumac focused upon the weapon of almost comical size, it made his magic sense tingle. The double bitted axe was two crescent moons mounted on a haft, with the curved parts of the moon against the shaft and the pointy bits facing outward. It was a terrifying weapon and Sumac hoped that he would never see it in use. Heads would roll in all directions. “Like, I love little ponies, especially the young, they’re all fuzzy and stuff… and I just want to pick them up and squeeze them and hug them and stroke them and squish them ‘till they pop…” Gulping, Sumac tried to pull the reins back on his imagination, but it was too late and his brain treated him to a nighttime horror show review. In the end, when he popped, his head went shooting off like a bottlerocket. The colt shivered and tried not to think about how dark and spooky it was, or that he was trapped underground with a very huggy dragon filled with what was sure to be murderous affection. “Mammals are amazing… they like... have hair… and mammary glands… and they’re like all soft and stuff, and they die if they are dipped into lava. They’re so fragile and weak… and I like feeling all big and protective when I’m around them. Protecting little squishy, hairy things… it’s like, hoarding without all of the greed and unpleasantness and that weird little ache that you get in your soul that makes you mean and what to chomp things. Chomping things is like, so rude and I once had to punch Garble right in the snoot because he chomped my tail.” And now, as they descended down the circular ramp, Sumac imagined himself being boiled alive in lava, which wasn’t very pleasant. He now understood the appeal when other foals played that silly, stupid game, ‘the floor is lava!’ The game didn’t make much sense, as if the floor was lava hot enough to melt a foal, it would also melt couches, tables, chairs, and other things you tried to stand on. The entire game was stupid and meaningless, but he could appreciate the fear of lava. Char exited off of the downward spiraling ramp and into a broad hallway that much to Sumac’s surprise had railroad tracks on one side of it. The tracks came to a stop near the doorway to the ramp and they were about a foot and a half wide. This place had indoor railroads and that blew Sumac’s mind. About a hundred paces down the hallway, they found the railcars, which looked like minecarts, sort of. Sumac, overcome with curiousity and jacked up on zap apple tincture, hurried ahead, breaking away from the group. Twinkleshine matched his pace and Sumac clambered onto the mini train. “Sumac, we’re in a hurry,” Twinkleshine said in a patient voice. “Just a minute,” Sumac replied, “this is neat.” The colt found a panel, basic controls, a few levers, and off to one side, he found a lightning bolt emblem just below a dusty glass compartment. He opened the glass cover, curious, to have a look inside, and found a horn ring connected to a dusty, cobwebby old conduit. It didn’t take him long to figure out that the train had a means for backup power. But would it work? “Get in,” Sumac said to the others. “Sumac, we don’t have time to pretend to ride the train.” Twilight’s expression was one of mild amusement. “Fine, don’t get in, and I’ll take off without you,” Sumac muttered. Pebble was the first to get onto the train, and she climbed into the small car just behind Sumac. Twinkleshine, after looking at Twilight, lept into the car with Pebble and settled in beside the filly. Twinkleshine put her axe into the seats just behind her and Pebble, stowing it away for safety. Char, moving on all fours, was too big to fit into the small seats of the car, so she sprawled over several of the cars, laying atop them. As Sumac began to slip the horn ring over his horn, Twilight, wings fluttering, jumped in just a few cars behind Pebble and Twinkleshine. Sumac looked at the controls, which all had pictographs under the dust. One lever had an arrow facing forwards or backwards, which Sumac assumed controlled which direction the train went on the tracks. One lever had a smiling centaur face at the top and a frowning centaur face at the bottom, and it seemed reasonable to assume that was the throttle; why else would a centaur be smiling? “I need more go juice.” Sumac paused in what he was doing, turned his head, and looked at Twilight. He waited, then the bottle of glorious tincture was pulled out and passed to him. He pulled out the stopper, sniffed it, and then drank perhaps a little more than he needed, before he stoppered it up again and passed it back to Twilight. Jittering, his mind racing, a manic grin on his muzzle, Sumac slipped the horn ring on. The smell of ozone filled the air and Twilight let out a whinny of alarm. The scent of electricity and hot, burning dust threatened to make everypony (and one dragon) sneeze. Sumac jammed the lever to determine direction forwards and then hit the lever with the smiling centaur, moving it about a third of the way up. Nothing happened. There was a hot smell and the screech of machinery, but other than that, nothing else happened. The tiny train thrummed with power, vibrating, and Sumac could feel his brain bouncing inside of his skull as his intelligence went into overdrive. “Hold on,” Char said and she stuck one leg out of the train. With her claws, she dug into the floor and pushed forwards on the train. There was a screech, the ringing sound of metal scraping against metal, and then with a lurch, the train began moving after thousands of years of sitting in the same spot. “How is this even possible?” Twilight asked in disbelief as they began to pick up speed. “Well, the automatons continued to work and the factories below continued to work and the air ventilation system is still pumping in air, all of that still works, so it was a reasonable assumption.” Sumac marvelled at how smart his own voice sounded. The train, free again to move, began to shake off the misuse of ages, it shook off dust, it self lubricated with oil still left in the reserves, and the ancient arcano-electrical motors sorted themselves out little by little, until… there was a roaring whoosh and the train took off like a bullet down the dim, dark corridor. Twilight’s screams echoed through the hallway, Char bellowed with laughter as she clung to the train for dear life, Twinkleshine grabbed Pebble in a protective embrace, Pebble held on to Twinkleshine, and Sumac… mad laughter poured out of Sumac’s mouth and terrified his companions. Jacked up on zap apple tincture, the colt was now a high voltage battery with a crazed intellect immune to fear. This was bad. Grinning, Sumac slammed the lever towards the smiling centaur, setting it to run at full-tilt-boogie. The sudden acceleration peeled his lips back from his mouth and his muzzle flapped like a windsock in a hurricane as Princess Twilight Sparkle became the Queen of Screams. “We’re all going to die,” Pebble announced in what sounded like a rather worried deadpan. “And if we live, Sumac is going to die, because I’m going to kill him. I am positive that nopony will object.” “Never, ever again is Sumac allowed around machinery!” Twinkleshine shouted as she gripped Pebble and squeezed. “NEVER EVER AGAIN!” The train went around a banked curve and Char let out a delighted squeal, then shrieked in glee. The corridor was a blur, a smear of colour and dim lights as they zoomed forth into the darkness, and Twilight’s screams were never ending. Twilight, who liked being in control, had none of it at the moment, and this was worse than going off on some adventure with Rainbow Dash, Tarnish, and Daring Do. His vision blurry, Sumac saw a button above what appeared to be a horn or a trumpet, and he jammed it down with his hoof. A siren began to blare, and a flashing, flickering yellow light flashed around him as they continued to rocket down the hall. Twilight’s screams and the siren made a rather discordant sound that added to the atmosphere of insanity that Sumac had brought about in the deep dark. Sumac wondered if the zap apple tincture could cause hallucinations, because the smiling centaur on the acceleration lever now looked worried, scared even. Something about the eyes—the smile was still there, but it was a rictus of fear, or so Sumac thought. His magic attuned to the machine he was connected to and he began to have a basic understanding of how it all worked. “We need to stop,” Char announced as she giggled. Disappointed, Sumac threw the lever down to the frowning centaur and there was a screech of metal. The train jerked as it slowed, and Sumac had to hold on to keep from smacking face-first into the controls. The smell of superheated metal made his nose tingle, and the stench of ozone oversaturated the air. As the train came to a screeching halt, showers of sparks flew out from around the wheels and Sumac turned off the siren. The train slid to a halt with a squeal of cherry red metal on cherry red metal. Smoke curled up from beneath the train and there was an unpleasant, acrid burning smell that made Char sneeze out a shower of glowing sparks. Twilight let out one final scream of terror, then covering her mouth with her hoof, she hiccuped. Panting in fright, Twinkleshine lept out of the train, carrying Pebble with her and she grabbed her axe. She moved away from the hot, smoking metal, her eyes on Sumac, and she said, “You awful, awful little scapegrace! You just wait till I tell your mother!” “No use,” Twilight wheezed, “she’ll just be proud of him.” Twilight, soaked with sweat, flung herself from the train and then moved to stand beside Twinkleshine, who had set a panting Pebble upon the ground. “Sumac… you and I… we’re going to have a long talk when we get home. As your aunt, it falls upon me to set you straight—” Twilight paused as Pebble spewed on the floor. “Pebble, honey, are you okay?” Twinkleshine asked as she patted Pebble’s back. Wiping her mouth, Pebble shuddered, belched, and then looking up at Twinkleshine, she replied, “Can we do that again?” Jerking about, Sumac Apple was tweaked on zap apple tincture. He understood so much now as he walked down the hallway just behind Twilight, watching as her tail swished from side to side like a pendulum. So many things made sense and his brain was abuzz with new understandings… understandings that would all fade away soon enough. That particular bit of knowledge troubled him. “Hey, Twilight, you know how I went off with Big Mac the other day and I helped out on Sweet Apple Acres?” Sumac did not wait for a reply, he just kept going, blurting out everything in his mind. “I got to thinking… I was thinking… I was thinking about how Tarnish and his family is, all of them, and how they’ve made something together, and I kept thinking, why can’t Trixie and I do the same with the Apples? We could all live together and Big Mac could be my role model… like a dad… and we could all be happy together. I guess it would mean having to deal with Ambrosia and Hidden Rose, they’re bratty, but I think I could manage… I think if I had some help, we could make the pieces fit together… make them… yeah make all of the pieces fit together… if the pieces didn’t want to fit, we could get Cadance to make us all love one another and then the pieces would fit and everything will be fine… fine...” Twinkleshine gave Twilight a worried look as she scooped up Sumac’s twitchy little body and held him in her magic. Now silent, Sumac continued to babble inside of a soundproofed bubble, but nopony could hear him. Pebble, walking beside Twilight, looked up at the alicorn in alarm. An intense look of concentration was on Twinkleshine’s face as she worked to keep her magic smoothed out. “It’s amazing that you have this much control, Twinkleshine,” Twilight said to her friend. “I’ve always been prone to surging,” Twinkleshine replied. “It was you that taught me how to control my magic when it is on the bleeding edge. I never would have graduated school otherwise. My parents were so worried that they would have to have me nullified somehow.” “I didn’t know…” Twilight’s eyes flashed with sympathy and she continued, “I just wanted to help you, I didn’t know it was that bad.” “Well, it’s not the sort of thing anypony talks about… I had to wear a magic throttler just to go to bed and not set my room on fire or have a surge while I slept. You gave me control, Twilight, and you pretty much saved me as a unicorn.” Twinkleshine smiled and looked at Sumac, who was still babbling inside of his bubble, his eyes gleaming with manic intensity. “My father gets surges sometimes,” Pebble said, interjecting herself into the very adult conversation. “Sometimes, it’s not so bad, and everything is fine, but sometimes… poison joke explodes everywhere and weird stuff happens, trees get up and go running off, and entirely new types of plants spontaneously manifest. When this happens, we all have to pitch in and nurse him back to health. It’s scary, watching a unicorn surge.” “My aunt, she like, gets like, hay fever, and then she can’t stop sneezing.” Char paused outside of a door and looked at the others. “We’re here. The vault is in a research lab through this door. Mind the mess, I think something bad happened…”