//------------------------------//
// CH9: Trapped! 
// Story: The journey 
// by Dashed_Brony 
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	"So... Uhm... Why were you crying?" Toby asked teasingly.

"Oh mind your own business you fuzzball" Laxed replied sarcasticly.

They had just barely made it off the mountain before the unicorn had started rambling on and on about one thing or another. And then the occasional tease of a question.

This was going to be a long journey. A looooong journey. He almost enjoyed seeing Toby asleep. At least then he was quiet. But he couldn't contain the little smile he had when he looked down at the once more lively colt, but it faded as Toby questioned it.

"I told you to mind your own business already!" He nearly shouted, his head turned in the opposite direction as he faintly blushed, knowing how god-awfully stupid his smile had been. He had seen photos of it before, and he was hardly proud of it. Not that he ever took pride in anything he did.

But then the adventure came. He actually had storied to tell. His own! He had fought timber wolves, he had crossed the Ice valley, and he had met the type of ponies more considered a myth or a legend than truth. 

However, he had forgotten to ask them all the questions he had, so he'd have to wait for another day to perhaps come and revisit them and ask them all the things both him, and many others wondered about.

For now, he had to make sure to do greater deeds. So great that everypony in Equestria would remember it. Possibly even rise a statue of him! 

His thoughts were so in the sky that he only returned when Toby bit him right in the front right hoove.

"OUCH!" He bursted out and directed anger towards Toby. "The hay was that fo-"

He stopped mid-sentence, and had barely halted in front of a cliff. Who knows, he might not have realised he was falling in all his day-dreaming. This time, Toby had more so saved his life. Not a direct life or death situation, but it could have been.

"Ehehe..." He rubbed the back of his head with his right front hoove. It didn't tempt much to try and stand on the bit one, as much as it wasn't a deep or dangerous bite. It still stung him lightly, but the feeling would pass as time did.

They walked around the giant hole. It was as big as all of Ponyville, if not possibly even bigger. Temptation struck them. There was no direct path down, but there were plenty of rocks sticking out of the walls in the formidable hole, and they had no problem making it down, Laxed with his wings, Toby with his enhancement spell, allowing for further jumps, the boots he had gotten, allowing him to land softer than needed be.

They truly were marvelous. He hadn't even felt himself walking through the journey since they first left the village of overly large, and mysterious ponies.

He would have to ask Twilight about them when, or rather, IF he returned. For now, they were focusing at the task of hand. It went down for an eternity and beyond. They had almost given up hope when it went so pitch-black, they literally couldn't even see their nose before their own eyes.

That was when they finally arrived. There wasn't any light. No torches. No anything. It was pitch black. More dark than the skies at night. Even as Toby tried to light up the place with his horn, it hit no walls, or anything. They could only see the ground before them. It was better than nothing though, at least now they wouldn't walk into some sort of hidden hole. What was strange though, was that the wall Toby had come down alongst, wasn't lit up either. No. It wasn't even there anymore!

They were looking in each their direction, hoping to see anything. Anything at all.

Nothing. They tried looking up from where they had once came. Nothing.

It was as pitchblack as the rest of the place. They were trapped. 

Once they came to the conclussion, with their eyes in different directions, they backed off, right into one another. The unicorn, who was already at the brink of crying, ran off without stopping for a second, and Laxed, who was no closer to staying calm, jumped into the air, and landed straight on the ground with a 'Tud'. Turning around, he saw the light of Toby's horn disappear in the pitch black darkness.

Now they were not only trapped, but also split up. The news only kept getting worse. That meant that there was probably something down here as well, because it didn't seem like their luck was going anywhere but down. Down to the rock-bottom level they were at. At least with the boots, he wasn't in danger of being heard. Neither him, nor Toby.

'Takkatakkatakka'

The sound of massive steps approached. 8 of them at a time, to be precise. The ground practically rumbled with each step, and it sounded like a pickaxe constantly slamming into the ground. The feet were in other words very thin, and strong.

He felt his entire body sink. Sink into depression and fear. There was no doubt about it when he saw something light up in the darkness like a magma ball.

He immediately flew off, away from it, but he could hear one approaching in the direction he flew. And so, to the west, south, and every other direction. They came, one after another, and there was no telling how many they were at this point.

Tartarellas.

There was a crowd of them. More than he could count. They had all circles around him. He had hoped they couldn't see or hear him, but those purely white eyes in the middle of their face obviously proved him wrong. They had some form of nightvision, and everyone of them had seen him.

He flew into the air, barely avoiding one fireball after another. They were shooting them from his body, and each was bigger than him in his entirety. He flew over the crowd, hoping Toby hadn't ran into one of them.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"

He had...

The sound didn't echo. There was no walls to bounce off. That made it very easy to pinpoint the location of the poor colt, and a second shout only reassured it.

Toby stood before a rather small Tartarella. It was probably not fully grown. With that in mind, he rammed into the foot furhtest back, and like dominos, the other feet fell, and the fireball with feet fell straight onto its back. Even better, it seemed to lack being able to get up.

He grabbed Toby without giving him a chance to say 'Thanks' or anything past the 'Ooof' from suddenly being lifted into the air. He tried flying up into the air, as high as he could, but no matter how much he seemed to fly upwards, he only reached a certain point where the ground no longer seemed to move further away from them.

They were stuck, without an escape, and an army of one of the deadliest creatures out there shook the ground below them. They were all making their way for the two ponies who only became more frightened by the second. He kept flying about, not letting go of Toby, hoping that they would tire at some point, but to no avail. He had to fly, they only had to walk. He also carried someone with him, they didn't.

It was futile. His energy would run out before this. That didn't stop him from trying to outfly them, one way or another. He wasn't about to give up, just because the odds were against him. There was no way. He had beaten them before, TWICE! He could definitely beat them again.

The question was just... How? There were more of them than he could count. He couldn't even bring down a single one, aside from the smaller version of them, that he had knocked over. Then it struck him. He had the rope. It was sturdy. There was a chance he could knock them over with it. It was their last, and only hope.

He dropped Toby, and removed the rope.

"Hold onto this" He mumbled through a muffled mouth, handing one end to Toby while biting on the other.

The little unicorn did as ordered, but with his magic. It was a stronger grip than he could do with his mouth, so Laxed nodded. He would've even praised Toby if it hadn't been for their current situation.

Laxed flew off, in the direction of the minion sun in the darkness. He targetted the feet of them, and managed to knock over one after another. The rope was both long and durable enough to get them, and they looked like tortoises while on their back. It was a laugh-worthy moment, considering how dangerous these were.

That's when it went down-hill. One of the Tarta's in the back had seen it, and spit a fireball right at the rope. It was toast. It was long enough originally, but split at the middle, and still burning, their hopes were toasted, literally.

Laxed flew over to the unicorn, grabbing hold of him and flying away once more.

Their last resource was gone, and they could only hope that there would be an opportunity to escape this place before he tired out, and the glowballs behind them caught up.

- End -