//------------------------------// // Echoes in the Dark // Story: Tales of the Battle Foals // by Sirdubya //------------------------------// All was quiet in the caboose. The foals had barely moved at all since they boarded. Storing their gear around the small space they’d made proved to be a little difficult; Spiral Galaxy didn’t even bother taking off her armor. Shadow Shroud hadn’t gone to the dining car to purchase food for the risk of the barista being as paranoid as the last, and she didn’t plan to; the foals had to snack on the wheat jerky that she’d purchased prior along with other little things. What did concern her was where they would jump off. She carefully studied her map, trying to determine a suitable location. However, the map was of all of Equestria, so it wasn’t very detailed when it came to the finer points of a locations geography. She’d remembered her mother telling her of a forgotten cavern of crystals hidden deep beneath the city where their order took its first steps, but she never told her how to access it. Even if they did, could they still access the surface from it? “Everything alright?” Shroud looked up to see Air Slash. “I assume that you don’t quite have a plan seeing as this detour was unintended, yes?” he asked. “I actually may…..but much of it is more or less impromptu. Do you know of the hidden crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot?” Shroud replied. “Is that not where Princess Cadence was held prisoner by the Changelings on the day of her wedding?” Air Slash inquired. Shroud nodded. “It is. It’d be a more than suitable base of operations for our search of the city, but I unfortunately have no way of knowing how to enter it, its layout, or if it even connects to the surface in any way. It might be our only shot, but I’m a bit weary.” “You’re far too clever not to figure out a way to infiltrate even such a place as that. Even if we have to rely on Crazylocks spontaneously sniffing it out, we’ll find it eventually. You need not worry too much.” Air Slash said. He then chuckled. “Wouldn’t it be a twist if we encountered Crazylocks’ family by some prank of Fate?” Shroud giggled. “That would be quite the inconvenience.” She sneered. “Though still…..her exact origins are still a mystery, and she’s not totally capable of telling us directly.” “Yes. Perhaps if we study her behaviors carefully, we’ll begin to see a pattern, a pattern that would tell us something about her.” Air Slash suggested. “That wouldn’t be impossible, but certainly difficult considering just how random she is by nature.” Shroud said. “Indeed.” Air Slash muttered. It was a long rest of the way, but the foals finally began approaching the mountain that cradled Equestria’s capital city. With some difficulty pulling Crazylocks away from a suitcase that she thought was a painting of a cat and a dog having a tea party, they exited through the back door, and onto the balcony. The afternoon sun bathed them in golden light that briefly threatened to blind them, but quickly dissipated as their eyes adjusted. It then disappeared just as quickly when they entered a tunnel that had been dug into the mountain. The series of tunnel lights proved to be a little disorienting, so the foals decided to wait until they exited the tunnel to look for a place to jump, which kinda took a while; they were beginning to fear that they’d come out right at the station. That fear was alleviated when they came out to a relatively lush plateau. “Ok, let’s jump here before we go into another tunnel!” Fire Fight said. They all agreed, but just as they grabbed their gear and readied themselves, Crazylocks intervened. “DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!!” She shouted as she forcefully shoved herself and everypony off of the balcony, and into the grassy plateau below. The foals hit the ground with a considerable thud, and tumbled through the grass. The train had just then entered a tunnel. The foals all staggered to their hooves, and brushed any dirt that might have gotten onto them. They all glared at Crazylocks. “Really, b****!? Really!?” Turf War said angrily. Crazylocks just innocently smiled with her eyes spread apart. “One plus one equals one on a bun!” she sang. Her senseless words just left the ghetto colt stuttering for words, but he just facehooved. “Dis gonna be dat b*******…” he mumbled to himself. “Ugh….Well, Crazylocks nearly killing us aside, we need to find a way into the crystal caves that I mentioned.” Shadow Shroud said. “Ah reckon if we were gonna do that, then we shoulda started at the bottom of the mountain.” Kickback said. He began walking towards the others. “We’ll certainly look around here some, but we really should search down the-” His fore legs suddenly fell into hole hidden beneath the grass. “WHOA NELLY!” The others had to pull him out. They peered down the whole to see a vast assortment of crystals of red and purple hues. “Well, shucks……that uh……that was awful easy….” Kickback said. “Down we go, I guess.” Spiral said. With that, Air Slash hovered downwards into the hole to find a place for the others to safely step onto. The dazzling array of glistening crystals was his only source of light as he carefully scanned his cavernous surroundings. The best thing he could find was a walkway-like plateau about thirty feet away. He’d have to carry each of his comrades one by one over there, though perhaps he could convince Crazylocks to help him. He reemerged, and relayed this information to them. When he asked Crazylocks for her help, she sprouted her wings, and gave him a heartfelt response. “I’ll be your guardian angel in a dark pit of hell!” she innocently sang. The others widened their eyes in shallow horror. “I don’t feel very blessed.” Fire Fight muttered. Nevertheless, the pegasi……er….pegasus and trimorphic pony who had a form that allowed her fly carried the other foals one by one to the little plateau. Turf War went last since he’d be the heaviest, and would require both flying ponies to lift him. As they did, Fire Fight and Spiral Galaxy used their magic to lift Turf War as he and his heavy gear were carried, making Air Slash and Crazylocks’ job a little easier. Once they were all safely underground and on stable footing, they could finally begin spelunking towards their destination. Fire Fight just so happened to look down into the endless abyss below them. He quivered a little, but regained his composure for his team. “Be really careful, guys. I don’t about you, but I’m not the biggest fan of falling to my death.” He said. “Me neither. Let us tread lightly. I’d suggest we have Air Slash and Crazylocks scout around. We obviously need to explore upwards towards the city, so we need look for any ascending routes.” Shadow Shroud said. “Let Crazylocks and I guide you to better ground. This little walkway is narrow, and I worry that you’ll slip.” Air Slash said. “Don’t worry though! When you’re screaming and flailing, I’ll swoop down and scream and flail with you! It’ll be a falling party! I’ll be sure to bring popcorn.” Crazylocks said. The others just eyed her with both annoyance, and worry. “Note to self: don’t fall.” Spiral commented. With some minor difficulty, the non-flyers shimmied carefully along the walkway that they’d been brought to with the flyers making sure that they didn’t slip. Eventually, they came to a much larger plateau that was more than big enough to hold all seven of them. They all convened onto it to look around. The plateau itself stretched out towards a huge open void in the cave. Some crystals could be seen sparkling in the darkness beyond, but it was gaping maw of pitch-black otherwise. “This…..could take a while….” Shadow Shroud said. “You said that the Shadewalkers used to live here, right? Maybe they left markers, or…..something that helped them navigate around here.” Fire Fight said. Shroud shook her head. “No. Once we leave a place, we leave no trace of our presence. In a sense, we completely vanish…..as if we were never there.” She explained. “D’hen how da hell we s’posed to figure out where we gotta go?” Turf War said. Crazylocks cackled a little bit. The others looked at her. “Oh, don’t you guys worry at all! I got this.” She said casually. She walked up to the tip of the plateau. She began slowly inhaling. After a moment, she let loose. “ECHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The others covered their ears as she bellowed her lungs out. Her echo rang out for a good few minutes before slowing petering out. During that time, Crazylocks seemed to listen intently to it. When it quieted, she turned to her comrades, and pointed out to the right of the plateau. “This way!” she said. She hovered out towards the direction that she pointed while the others just either facehooved, or gave frazzled expressions. “Crazylocks, get back here!” Fire Fight called out, but she paid him no heed. “Ugh…..Air Slash, go get her, would you?” The young samurai rolled his eyes as he begrudgingly had to fly out there. When he finally reached her, he was surprised to see her waving at him while hovering next to an uphill pathway with a series of platforms that were close enough to one another to jump to. “Well I’ll be….” He thought to himself. “C’mon, Hair Flash! Let’s get the others over here!” Crazylocks called out. Air Slash scowled at her. “I am called ‘Air Slash’, you mutant maniac!.......and…..yes…..let us.” He said. They returned to the rest of the foals where Air Slash relayed the surprising turn of events. “You serious, son? How da hell…..Dang! Homegirl over here know wassup d’ho!” Turf War commented. “Did she……Did she do that echo-whatsit thingamabob that Ms. Shadow Shroud mentioned?” Kickback asked. “So it would seem……Perhaps she learned it from her…er……brethren? They seemed to be using echolocation to track us in the dark.” Shroud theorized. “Uhh……very impressive, Crazylocks…..” Fire Fight awkwardly praised. Crazylocks lowered herself to the ground, and saluted to him in a very militant manner. “SIR, YES SIR!!!” she shouted. She immediately eased up, and ascended again. Fire Fight just gave her an annoyed stare. “Kill me, please…” he mumbled to himself. He suddenly heard a small sound of a knife being drawn. He moved his eyes towards Shadow Shroud, who had her kunai in her hoof, and was smiling deviously. Fire Fight’s expression didn’t change. “You’re not funny…” he muttered. Shroud giggled nonetheless. Crazylocks and Air Slash prepared to carry the others towards the pathway that she had discovered. They decided to both carry each foal one by one so that there was a safe grip either way. They started with Spiral Galaxy. “Are you ready? This’ll be quite a ways.” Air Slash asked her. Spiral nodded. “I sure am…..Hair Flash!” she sneered. She giggled as the others snickered. Air Slash was both surprised, and frustrated that they’d heard that prior, and leered at them. “I reserve the right to drop you.” He growled. After their little banter, they got a move on with navigating the caverns. Crazylocks’……unique form of echolocation was helpful indeed despite the foals having to cover their ears every time. Even Kickback was beginning to lose his patience. The foals were in good enough shape to ascend the caverns whenever an upward path was found; Kickback’s whip came in handy as a nice substitute for a climbing rope just to make things even a little bit easier. Along the way, they harvested some mushrooms that could found fairly commonly throughout the caves. Shadow Shroud knew that weren’t poisonous, and theorized that perhaps the Shadewalkers of old that were once here lived off of them. Apart from roughing the rocky terrain, the environment itself was a sight to behold. The many shapes that time had carved the stones into were strangely beautiful, and the vast array of crystals protruding from the walls, floors and ceilings were breath-taking. Nevertheless, the foals didn’t allow sightseeing to distract them from their mission. After a good few hours of Crazylocks shouting like an overexcited cheerleader for the sake of navigation later, the foals saw a little sliver of light snaking through a hole in a nearby wall next to another huge plateau. They peered through it, and lo and behold, there was the grand capital city itself just a couple hundred yards away bathed in golden sunset. Turf War, Fire Fight and Crazylocks smashed through the wall to make the hole just big enough for them to slip through. The foals settled into their new hiding spot as they looked on towards their next big search that would take place tomorrow afternoon.