//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: Overlapping Issues // Story: Rise of Char // by Turtlehaus //------------------------------// General Hearth stood within the dungeon corridor leading into the mines. He wore a nervous expression about him, drawing small circles in the dirt with his hoof and staring down the dark corridor. Morning had come without any news of the Pegasi Flame Ponies that went into the mines to find the Mystery Pony. Furthermore, the identity of the Mystery Pony had been revealed that morning to him as being Princess Sapphire Flurry of the Frozen North. Which made General Hearth fear the worst for the Flame Ponies still in the mine and caused him great anxiety for the safety of his granddaughter. Having sat within the dungeon corridor for over an hour, General Hearth wrestled with the idea of going into the mines himself to look for the missing Flame Ponies. "You're waiting for them too?" Rainbow Dash asked striding up behind him. "Oh, good morning, Rainbow Dash. How did you sleep?" General Hearth replied looking over his shoulder. "Slept like a rock." Rainbow Dash said with a yawn. "You're a poor liar, Rainbow Dash." General Hearth remarked with a grin. "What can I say? I don't like any pony walking into danger while I'm sitting on my flank doing nothing." Rainbow Dash said stretching out her wings and arms. "Should we go look for them?" General Hearth proposed. "I'm not going to lie, I've been thinking about going after them all night." Rainbow Dash replied. "Why didn't you?" General Hearth asked curiously. "Probably for the same reason you're still standing here." Rainbow Dash replied. "Old age?" General Hearth asked with a chuckle. "I believe that whatever they come up against, they'll be able to handle it together." Rainbow Dash said optimistically. "If they're capable of working together." General Hearth mumbled shaking his head. "You'd be surprised with the progress they've made." Rainbow Dash mentioned. "A pony can only hope." General Hearth replied. Rainbow Dash stepped forward abruptly, waving her hoof at General Hearth and pointing down the corridor. A small light in the distance caught General Hearth's eye, the light began to grow in intensity as several pony shapes started to emerge from the darkness. Ray, Solar, Wisp and Flare strode the length of the corridor, their voices echoing off the walls. "Wisp could you just drop it already?" Flare asked sounding annoyed. "No, I will not!" Wisp declared. "No pony cares, Wisp!" Ray whined in annoyance. "No! I want to talk about this!" Wisp shouted insistently. "Sweet Celestia." Solar mumbled under his breath. "Why can't I make a necklace out of this Cave Spider fang?" Wisp asked holding up over his head. "First of all, it might still have venom in it. Second of all, you might get stung from it. Third and finally, it will look stupid." Flare answered him. "Stupid?" Wisp asked sounding offended. "Really stupid." Ray insisted. "Ray!" General Hearth shouted aloud. Ray jumped at the sound of her name being called, as did Wisp, Flare and Solar. General Hearth galloped the length of the hall, scooping Ray up into his arms and embracing her tightly. Ray's mane flared from embarrassment as the other ponies moved away from them. It was rare for Ray to see her grandfather show affection for her in front of the other ponies, but she didn't fight against it; even if it did embarrass her to no end. "How'd it go you guys? Every pony in one piece?" Rainbow Dash asked looking excited and relieved at the same time. "I got scratched by an enormous Cave Spider, almost lost the arm but the venom wasn't strong enough to kill me." Wisp replied throwing out his chest. "Was that before or after you begged me not to cut it off?" Flare asked curiously. "Oh I don't remember Flare Bear, was that before or after we-" Wisp didn't get the words out as Flare jabbed him in the chest with her elbow to silence him; her face turning a slight shade of red. "We were unsuccessful in finding the Mystery Pony, but we've encountered something much more threatening." Solar reported. "What is it? What did you find?' General Hearth asked easing up on his hug on Ray. "We need to speak with King Smolder at once." Flare stated sounding urgent. Outside of 'Stitch Rose Shay' several Royal Guard ponies were making several trips in and out of the shop carrying several bundles of fire resistant cloaks to a stone cart parked out front. It became very apparent that one stone cart wasn't going to be enough, and before long there were four more stones carts lined up; filled to capacity. Argo Fleece presided over the transaction, carefully inspecting the cloaks before allowing the Royal Guards to load them onto the carts. "Ensure that these cloaks are brought to the pink pony and only the pink pony." Argo instructed the guard pony who nodded in compliance. The Royal Guard ponies hooked themselves up to their respective carts before setting off in a convoy towards Castle Char. Rarity stood at the threshold of 'Stitch Rose Shay' wearing a look of pride as the carts rolled away with all of their hard work. Argo made a note on his stone slab before turning to Rarity. "The order was satisfactory." Argo mumbled holding the stone slate out to her. "It has been a pleasure being able to assist with Smolder's Coronation." Rarity replied, using her magic to sign off on the stone slate. "The King sends his regards for your assistance during this occasion." Argo replied, sounding very uninterested. "It was really no trouble at all." Rarity assured him. "In accordance to the contract, one hundred gold trimmed cloaks, twenty silver trimmed cloaks, thirty red trimmed cloaks, twenty blue trimmed cloaks, twelve special ordered custom tailored cloaks, and the Kings garments will be paid in full upon delivery." Argo read off the stone slate. Without looking up, Argo motioned to his left as a Royal Guard pony pulled a stone cart from around the corner. Rarity's eyes lit up seeing that the cart itself was loaded to the brim with gems and coins. "As agreed, the payment has been made out in precious gems and coin as requested by the hired party. This concludes our arrangement, have a nice day." Argo said flatly before motioning to the guard to get a move on. "A very nice day to you as well!" Rarity exclaimed waving goodbye to them. "Stitch! Crow! Rose!" Rarity shouted into the store before rushing over to the cart full of gems. Stitch poked her head out from the store while Rose waltzed out past her looking around for what the commotion was. Stitch and Rose caught sight of the cart full of gems, their jaws dropping at the sight of it. "Is this ours?" Stitch asked leaping onto the back of the cart and scooping up hoof fulls of gems. "You bet your saddle it is. Payment for all your hard work these last few days." Rarity replied. "What are we going to do with all of this money?" Rose asked joining in on the scooping of gems. "Well we'll have to deduct our expenses, place orders to restock our wares, invest in some renovations to the shop, purchase new equipment, and put some money into advertising." Rarity replied, listing off several things at once. "I was leaning towards where we were going to put it." Rose remarked. Rarity realized the sheer amount of gems and coin they had on hoof. Thinking to herself for a few moments, Rarity perked up. "Perhaps we can store these gems in the upstairs room with the secret door switch?" Rarity offered. "Secret door switch?" Rose asked looking confused. "Sure, no pony but us knows where the switch is and the window is too small for any pony to climb through." Stitch agreed. "Alright, then. Let's start by making a couple of sacks so we can store the gems and coin in to make carrying these much easier." Rarity said heading towards the shop door. Crow stepped out from the shop holding an arm full of sacks, smiling at Rarity, having already thought of this issue ahead of time. "You never cease to amaze me, Crow." Rarity said happily taking a sack from him with her magic. It took about an hour of loading up sacks full of gems and coins, lugging them up the stairs and tossing them into the room. The sacks of gems and coin began to pile up in the corner, as every pony started to get rather winded from lugging their payment up the stairs over and over again. Eventually the last bit of coin was scraped from the back of the cart into the last sack, and tossed in with the rest. "My legs are on fire." Stitch whined leaning against the sacks of gems and coin. "You're a Flame Pony, Stitch. You're always on fire." Rose corrected her. "You know what I mean." Stitch whined slowly letting herself slide to the floor. "Alright, the next step is to count up all of the gems and coin." Rarity said cheerfully entering the room followed by Crow. "Do we have to?" Stitch whined rolling over on the stone floor. "Keeping a record of the shop's expenses is part of running a business, Stitch." Rarity explained. Rarity could see that Stitch and Rose were in no mood to do such a tedious task by the looks on their faces. Crow on the other hoof nodded his head in agreement. "How about Crow and I work on counting up the gems and coin while the two of you go down stairs and start making a list of things we can improve around the shop?" Rarity offered. "Rose… carry me." Stitch mumbled dramatically, rolling over on the floor towards her. "I'd sooner jump in a river." Rose replied walking out the door. "Rose…" Stitch whined dragging herself across the floor towards the door. "I suppose we should get started on this, it is going to take us quite some time to finish." Rarity said to Crow, looking over at the pile of money sacks. Crow nodded in agreement. Crow took charge of the bookkeeping while Rarity separated coin from gems. When Crow finished with the pile of coin large enough to be in its own sack, Rarity would replace the coins into the sack and place it in the opposite corner to avoid any confusion. Rarity hardly spoke, not wanting to indulge too much in conversation to spare Crow from having to speak. She did not mind the silence, it was rather comforting to see Crow so relaxed, how happy he seemed to be about the work he had done and the rewards that came with it. "R-R-R-Rarity?" Crow stammered, still writing out numbers onto the stone slate in front of him. "Am I going too fast for you darling?" Rarity asked curiously, magically holding a sack of coin and gem in the air. "I want to-" Crow struggled to get the word out. "-thank you… for what you've d-d-done… for me." "You are most welcome Crow, but I haven't really done anything then give you the means to express yourself creatively." Rarity replied with a smile. "No-you've g-g-g-" Crow stammered again closing his eyes tightly trying to speak. "-given me hope." "It was your determination that got you here, Crow." Rarity said smiling warmly. "My fa-" Crow struggled to speak. "-father… never liked… me." Rarity remained quiet. "T-T-T-Told me… I… was a n-n-nopony." Crow continued, slowly writing less and less. "What an awful thing for a father to say to his son!" Rarity remarked sounding appalled. "You ma-ma-made me feel... like I could…" Crow paused trying to pronounce the word. "Prove him… wrong." "You most certainly have Crow, you have remarkable talent and incredible perseverance. You're one of the bravest ponies I have had the pleasure of knowing." Rarity said comfortingly. Crow nodded in agreement. Doing his best to steady his shaking and smile in gratitude. "Come now, Crow. Let us finish with this and prepare for ourselves for the Coronation tomorrow." Rarity said warmly motioning to the sacks. Crow nodded in agreement. "Crow! Rose says she's moving my work station outside!" Stitched shouted from the bottom of the staircase. Crow got to his hooves, rolling his eyes and heading towards the stairs to make peace before Stitch did something that would really get on Rose's nerves. Rarity followed him to the door but stopped short a sudden blast of fire surged up from the staircase. Downstairs Rose and Stitch were spraying fire at each other, throwing insults at one another and making quite the commotion. "Stay here." Crow said waving Rarity back with a sigh. "Yes, I think that is best." Rarity agreed stepping away from the door. "I'll b-b-be right b-b-back." Crow said pressing the button on the door to ensure no stray fire would find its way in. The stone door slid shut, the muffled shrieks of Rose and Stitch could still be heard as Rarity rolled her eyes. Taking the opportunity to pick up where Crow had left off, Rarity magically lifted the stone slate and the charcoal with her magic and brought it to her hooves. Her magic lifted several sacks of coin towards her, unraveling itself as the coins came single file out from the bag over her head. "Let's see now, seventeen, twenty-four, thirty-seven…" Rarity mumbled to herself counting the coins magically floating by her. The coins floated back into the same bag, tying itself up once more before Rarity turned her head towards the corner to toss the sack with the rest. Before she focused her magic on the next bag, the scraping of rock filled the room, drawing Rarity's attention away. "Hello?" Rarity asked aloud looking around. Her eyes fell towards the stone door where a single block was left sticking out from the side. Rarity looked at it curiously, placing the stone slate and charcoal on the floor, and heading over to take a look. The block was hollow, containing several bundles of letters, loose parchment and twine. Levitating the pages from the hollow stone block, Rarity discovered a journal at the bottom that had the letters 'GS' embossed into the cover. "I've seem to have found where the previous resident hid her private letters and journal." Rarity said to herself reaching in and picking up the journal. "It would be very inappropriate to read another pony's most inner feelings and personal thoughts." Rarity said slowly staring hard at the journal. "Although, to return these to the rightful owner… one must take liberties and find a name." Rarity said quickly opening the journal. Rarity's eyes scanned over the journal pages, the letters, and loose parchment that floated around her; beforeeverything came to an abrupt halt. Recoiling, Rarity gasped loudly, placing her hoof over her mouth looking very shocked. "I do not believe this! I have to see Smolder right away!" Rarity exclaimed; magically pulling all the letters and loose parchment into a stack. Placing the journal on the top of the stack, using some of the old twine to bunch it all together, Rarity shoved the hollow block back into the wall as the door slid open. "Crow! Rose! Stitch!" Rarity shouted racing down the staircase. Applejack and Tiff Pitchstone stood at the base of the Moonstone Dam, the Obelisk still spearing through the stone block, acting like makeshift cork. Applejack scratched her head, unsure of what it even was or how they were going to get it out of there. Tiff on the other hoof was staring at it quizzically, pondering his options as Applejack took notice of his sudden grin. "No! No more thermite!" Applejack stated right away. "But we could simply-" Tiff began to plead his case. "Mr. Papyrus has asked us to remove it in the safest way possible and I'm not going to be the pony to explain to him why this here Obelisk is melted in two." Applejack continued, cutting him short. Tiff looked grumbled, looking rather annoyed that his idea was so quickly shot down. "Where did Roman take off to?" Applejack asked curiously looking around. "He went to carve up another block to replace the one the Obelisk pierced. Perhaps thinking of a way to remove it without letting a torrent of water coming blasting through as well." Tiff replied looking back up at the Obelisk. "You ever seen anything like that before?" Applejack asked curiously. "No, never. I mostly stick to plants and foliage but I'd sure remember seeing something like this." Tiff answered. "Whatever pony made this, they did one hay of a job. It pierced that block like it was a hot knife through butter." Applejack commented tipping her hat to it. "It looks rather heavy, doesn't it?" Tiff asked tilting his head to change his view of it. "It would probably take a couple of strong ponies to lift that thing off the ground." Applejack replied, trying to judge it merely on looks. "I'm just wondering how this thing got through the canyon." Tiff said looking at her seeming puzzled. "What do you mean?" Applejack asked curiously. "We've walked down that canyon few times before, it had several twists and turns that would make anything with that size and length rather difficult to navigate through without getting stuck." Tiff explained. "Seeing as it went through solid stone, perhaps it just smashed through parts of the canyon and got stuck here?" Applejack suggested. "Have you ever used a planting stick before, Applejack?" Tiff asked curiously. "Sure, whenever a little tree or shrub is having a hard time standing up, we'll tie it to a stick to help it along." Applejack replied nodding her head. "If you were a pony who wanted to hide this where no Flame Pony could get to it, where would you put it?" Tiff asked curiously. "I reckon I'd throw it in some water, seeing as you Flame Ponies are fans of swimming." Applejack answered. "You saw how rusted that metal dam was, you remember how it held back hundreds and thousands of gallons of water and didn't budge an inch?" Tiff asked rubbing his chin. "What are you getting at?" Applejack asked looking over at him. "I think that this is what kept that metal dam from buckling all these years, the Obelisk was used as the main support to keep the dam from moving." Tiff explained glancing over at her. "It would be rather hard for a Flame Pony to try and get to it if it meant having all that water fall right on your head." Applejack said in agreement. "So I'm guessing that it was put there on purpose." Tiff said slamming his hoof into his other hoof. "Why?" Applejack asked curiously. "Beats the hay out of me. I just want to get it out of my dam." Tiff replied as Applejack rolled her eyes. From the distance, Roman returned strolling back with two worker ponies magically lifting the replacement block up the rampart. Tiff and Applejack approached him, hoping he had a plan that didn't involve thermite; at least Applejack did. "What do you know, what do you say, Roman?" Tiff asked patting him on the shoulder. "I say you owe me some overtime, Tiff." Roman replied as Tiff nervously laughed it off. "Have you thought of a way to dislodge that thing?" Applejack asked curiously looking back at it. "I've got an idea, it isn't the best idea but it might just work." Roman replied scratching his head. "Does it involve thermite?" Applejack asked quickly. "No." Roman replied. "Alright, let's hear it." Applejack asked watching Tiff pout some more. "The way the block is shaped, it isn't coming out through the front." Roman began drawing a crude diagram in the dirt in front of them. "We got that much." Tiff said. "Unless we break up the block, let it crumble and have that poker thing come sliding through. We have some unicorn ponies with the new block in position behind the tower, once it's through, they put the cork on it and we have… what… a little flooding?" Roman asked shrugging his shoulders. "Sounds simple enough." Applejack said nodding in agreement. "You think you can break up that block without getting any Flame Ponies too close?" Tiff asked sounding somewhat concerned about it. "My guys can just shoot a couple of stone cutting spells at it, from the front, off to the side, weaken it. Should slip right through and the other ponies will have the new block all set to go." Roman reassured him. "The Obelisk is going to take a nasty fall." Applejack pointed out. "If it can withstand hitting solid rock, it can take a fall to the ground." Roman said not seeming to care. "You make a solid point there." Applejack said nodding. "If you're ready to do this, I'll have my guys clear the area and get started with plan 'Get'em out of here'." Roman said making his way up the rampart. "Get'em what?" Tiff asked looking confused. "I didn't have time to come up with a name for it, just move your flanks." Roman called, back motioning for them to follow. Applejack and Tiff stood off to the side as several unicorn worker ponies positioned themselves halfway down the rampart, their horns glowing, listening to the call out from Roman who signaled to them to fire their shots. A blast here, a shot there, the block was slowly breaking away, unfortunately for Applejack, Flame Pony engineering was made to last and it was a whole hour of tedious spell shooting. Tiff seemed equally as bored, falling asleep where he stood several times before a sudden wind would almost blow him over and his sudden start was enough to make Applejack laugh under her breath at him. "Alright! Get that block ready!" Roman shouted holding his hoof high over his head to signal to the ponies behind him. One unicorn pony on each side of the canyon magically lifted the replacement block from the top of the dam and slowly lowered it into the water with their magic; positioning it behind the base of the Obelisk. The front of the block was now trickling with water, the water streaming faster and faster as if it was about to give way. Applejack and Tiff were now very much interested in seeing how this was going to play out. "Applejack?" Tiff asked suddenly glancing over at her. "Yeah?" Applejack asked looking back. "What if this doesn't work?" Tiff asked. "Well we'll…" Applejack trailed off for a moment. "Get ready!" Roman shouted aloud, still holding his hoof high in the air. Without much warning the Obelisk shot out from the rock like an arrow slicing through the air. Roman fell backwards in surprise; the dam had sprung a leak, the block crumbling away with rushing water as the unicorn workers carefully positioned the new block. The current sucked the block into place, the unicorn ponies put great effort in to making sure the block was all the way in as Applejack and Tiff ran out onto the dam to see where the Obelisk had gone. Catching a glimpse of a thin black line sailing through the air, the Obelisk suddenly dipped low, spinning over and under before striking itself into the ground; perfectly planted onto the ground as if had always been there. Tiff was at Roman's side who seemed rather bewildered by the Obelisk's sudden departure, but was fine all the same. "What in the hay just happened?" Applejack asked looking very confused. "That thing just went soaring through the air!" Roman shouted in disbelief. "Where did it land?" Tiff asked trying to get a better look at it. "It planted itself in that clearing over there, a ways out from the Castle." Applejack said pointing it out to him. "Someone needs to tell the King about this." Roman said getting to his hooves. "Leave it to us; you just make sure this here dam isn't going to spring anymore leaks. Come on, Tiff, let's go tell Ash about this." Applejack said galloping from the top of the dam towards the rampart. "Ash? Aren't we going to see the King?" Tiff shouted galloping after her.