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// 21 - Lift Together 
// Story: Velvet Underground 
// by MagnetBolt 
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“Keep away from the window,” Velvet warned. “The last thing we want is for them to spot us.”
The loft in the barn wasn’t the most comfortable place in town, but there hadn’t been anypony inside and they’d only had a few minutes of sunlight to find a hiding spot. They’d piled the bales of hay to give themselves some cover against prying eyes, the single window looking down over the town square letting them keep watch for stray threats.
It was easier to just think about them as threats than about the fact they were ponies. If Velvet thought too long about that she’d start wondering what would happen if they couldn’t escape and ended up joining the shambling horde.
“They’re not gonna see me,” Sunset said.
“This whole town is gray and black and you’re the brightest-colored thing for miles,” Velvet countered. “We can’t risk it.”
“Well, Cadance is brightly colored too!” Sunset parried.
“That’s why I’m not near the window,” Cadance said, from where she sat against the back wall.
“I don’t think anypony was using this barn even before the pookas took over the town,” Night Light said, pulling a tarp off another crate. He’d been busying himself with inventory since they took shelter. It was easier than thinking about what had happened. “These have all been here for a long time. I think they’re rails for a train.”
Sunset sighed and stepped back from the window. “No, the gauge is wrong. They’re for minecarts. They probably had extra track and left it here.”
“Nothing we can use, though,” Night Light said.
“We can’t stay here, either,” Velvet said.
“We wouldn’t have to stay here if you’d just let me set the town hall on fire,” Sunset muttered. “That’s where all the crazy ponies are.”
“That’s why we’re not burning it down,” Cadance said, sounding exhausted. They’d had the same argument several times already. They’d nearly broken their previous record of sixty seconds without talking about it. “They’re innocent ponies.”
“Innocent ponies don’t do what those ponies did to the guards,” Sunset said, huffing and sitting down heavily on a pile of loose hay.
Cadance looked down. “If they’re lucky, they won’t remember they did it.”
Outside, the bell tower rang.
“This is it,” Velvet said, taking cover near the window, peeking out from the shadows. Everypony went silent, waiting and watching. The Sun's passage through the narrow slot of sky above ended, the light fading as it slid behind another mountain peak, still far from true sunset but ending the brief moment of direct sunlight they’d had.
The door to the town hall opened. The ponies that had shuffled in started lumbering out.
“Are they going to start looking for us?” Night Light whispered.
“Maybe we’ll be lucky and they’ll forget we were here,” Sunset said. “Like how goldfish forget everything.”
“They’re all going somewhere,” Velvet said. “Look. They’re not coming this way.”
The townsponies outside were shambling in rough single file out along one of the more well-trodden paths.
“Where are they going?” Velvet whispered.
“If you really want to know, you could ask them,” Sunset suggested, rolling her eyes.
“We should follow them,” Velvet said, turning to the others. “It’s dangerous, but it’s the only way we’ll figure out what’s going on. Sitting here is just wasting time. They’re not on the alert, so we have a chance.”
“If they see us, they’re just going to attack,” Night Light said.
“That goes double for me,” Cadance sighed. “I sort of stand out in a crowd.”
“Most of them are wearing rags,” Velvet said. “I’ve got an idea.”





“This is dumb,” Sunset hissed through her teeth. “We’re gonna get caught!”
“Stay quiet and pull your hood down lower,” Velvet whispered, adjusting her own improvised cloak. While little else from the barn had been useful, the tarps and sheets that had been left there had been easy to turn into disguises, the dry-rot only making them fit in more with the ponies they were following.
The herd of sleepwalking slaves had walked right out of town and to one of the nearby cliff faces. They were shuffling into a tunnel, grabbing tools at random from the piles around the camp surrounding the mine entrance.
“Look at this,” Night Light said, picking up a shiny black stone. “I think it’s coal.”
“Therituminous coal,” Sunset said. “You can tell because of the sheen. I’ve read about it. Apparently a long, long time ago some kind of disaster almost wiped out all life on the planet. There were huge monsters that got buried alive and slowly turned to stone over time.”
“And now we burn what’s left of them,” Night Light sighed, tossing the stone away. “They’re not going to wake up or anything, right? The last thing we need is more monsters.”
“Why, are you afraid you’ll be marching right into its mouth?” Sunset asked. “If you’re really scared you could wait out here.”
“Being stuck here alone is even scarier than that,” Night Light said.
“Grab a pick and try to look like you’re a zombie,” Velvet whispered, picking up a tool. “Nopony here is using magic, so hooves only.”
The others nodded, grabbing shovels and following, keeping to the back of the line as the townsponies lurched into the mine, the dark-walled shaft lit only intermittently by flickering lanterns. Half of them had already gone out, leaving long stretches in near-total darkness.
Thankfully, the townsponies seemed to know where they were going, and they were moving slowly enough that following them wasn’t an issue. The mineshaft descended down in a twisting path like they were following the curve of some gigantic tail. After what felt like an hour and miles of slow walking, the path opened up and one wall fell away, the funnel turning into a path carved into the face of a cliff on one side of a huge space, falling away on one side. Huge plumes of strange plants or fungi clung to pillars reaching all the way from the bottom of the chamber to the top, providing dim illumination across the whole space.
“My word,” Night Light breathed, the group stopping to take in the massive hall.
“An underground sea,” Velvet said, looking down. “Water must have seeped through the coal and carved this out. But why didn’t it collapse?”
“Those are holding it up,” Sunset said, pointing with the small trowel she’d been carrying. “Those aren’t stone. Those are ribs. If I know my monster anatomy, and I do because I was taught by Princess Celestia herself and I know more about monsters than anypony alive who isn’t immortal, those are from a dragon.”
“The dragon would have to be as big as Canterlot,” Night Light said.
“Yep, just about,” Sunset agreed. “I told you, the monsters that got buried were giants. There aren’t any dragons that size now, but I’ve seen skulls big enough to use as a house.”
“I bet that’s not originally part of the mine,” Velvet said, nodding ahead of them.
Nestled in the ribcage right where a heart should have been, a knot of coal hung down from the roof like a stalactite, the tip halfway between the surface of the underground sea and the roof overhead.
The coal stalactite was being worked on by the townsponies, the dazed miners and fisherponies slowly carving it into a familiar shape that Night Light couldn’t quite place right away.
“Look at the reflection in the water,” Velvet whispered.
The mirror image in the dark sea was almost identical to Canterlot Castle, at least in shape. The castle’s reflection vanished into ripples, something hitting the water hard right below the seam of black stone.
“I think that was a pony falling in!” Cadance gasped.
“I don’t think the pookas care much about safe working conditions,” Velvet said.
“Come on,” Sunset said, tossing the trowel aside and walking confidently to the front doors. “We’re here to fight monsters, not stand around.”
The path wound its way to the castle, the stumbling slaves ignoring the four ponies, all of the townsponies busy muttering to themselves and carving the stone, working in an obsessive, directionless way. Some of them worked on tiny details, chipping abstract art into the rock, while only a few paces away ponies tried to rough out whole chambers from the coal. Some parts of the castle looked almost finished, others hadn’t even been started yet, and there was no rhyme or reason to the pattern at all.
A voice rang out, echoing through the vast space. “Welcome. It’s been a while. Why don’t you come inside?”
Behind the group, the townsponies closed ranks, blocking off the only way out.
“So much for going undetected,” Sunset muttered.
“I thought you wanted to fight them?” Velvet asked, calculating their chances of getting back to the tunnel and not liking the odds.
“I wanted to get the drop on them,” Sunset said. “I can’t believe I was dumb enough to think one of your plans would work when literally every single one has failed! It’s like your stupidity is contagious!”
Cadance tried to whisper something encouraging but Sunset ignored her and stomped inside, following the path through the only finished hallway to the one place the slaves had been forced to finish first.
The throne room.
Two black thrones loomed over the room. On the right, Coldplay lounged, looking triumphant. On the left, Breathless stood next to her throne, detached and obviously not invested in the pomp and circumstance.
“You know, I was upset before when you tried to burn me alive,” Coldplay said. “But you just keep playing into my hooves. You killed my most dangerous rival, Danger Zone, you find the alicorn we’ve been looking for, and you come into my house and deliver her to my door. If you weren’t my enemy, I’d almost call you my dearest friends.”
“Let my people go!” Cadance demanded, tearing off her cloak.
“I think, instead, you’ll all be staying here,” Coldplay said. It raised its chin, and the doorway behind them froze over, a solid wall of ice forming in a heartbeat, the temperature of the room falling to arctic winter. “Probably for the rest of your lives, not that it will be very long.”