Beneath the Surface
Chapter 3 – Into the Tunnels
One by one, the ponies, dragon, and changeling crept through the narrow tunnel leading deeper into the earth. The hot, sticky air of the caves made the darkness seem even more sinister, and they only had the light from Thorax’s horn to see by. Twilight and a few of the others were carrying supplies, their saddle bags seeming heavier in the stifling heat. Thorax, disguised as one of the odd pale unicorns with red eyes, was leading the way. He turned his head toward the others.
“The tunnel widens out up ahead, don’t worry,” he tried to reassure them, speaking in his own voice.
“Oh-okay,” Fluttershy whispered nervously from behind Twilight.
Pinkie Pie, right behind her, patted Fluttershy’s back. “Don’t worry, we’re all in this together. Besides, I brought cupcakes!” She pointed a hoof toward the saddle bags she was carrying.
“This place…” Twilight mused as she walked behind Spike and Thorax, “…it feels so oppressive. It’s like I can feel something suppressing my magic. I didn’t really notice it above ground, but here…”
“So you feel that too?” Starlight asked from somewhere behind.
“It feels absolutely dreadful,” Rarity added. “As if walking into some damp, gloomy cave wasn’t bad enough.”
“I don’t feel anythin’,” Applejack commented.
“Me neither,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Did you notice anything weird like that when you were down here alone?” Spike asked Thorax.
“I…didn’t, no,” Thorax replied. “It must only affect those whose magic is blocked.”
“Yes, us unicorns,” Starlight sighed.
“Well, whether we have magic or not, we’ve got to do what Luna sent us here to do,” Twilight said. Truthfully, the foreboding presence of the magic-blocking spell was more than unnerving her, but she tried to focus on the goal, not wanting the others to get any more unnerved.
Up ahead, Thorax stepped out into the wider tunnel, taking note of the pebbles he’d placed earlier. He backed up to allow the others to come into the tunnel after him, and luckily there was enough room so that they didn’t have to walk single file.
“All right, Thorax,” Applejack said once everyone was in the larger tunnel, “where do ya think is the best place for us to start lookin’ for this artifact of theirs?”
“I’m not sure about that,” Thorax replied uneasily. “I know where to find a big cavern with stone buildings. It may be somewhere in there, but…”
“All we have to do is get close and we’ll feel the artifact’s magic energy. That’s what Luna told Twilight right?” Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered near the tunnel ceiling.
“We need to steer clear of the magic crystal orbs they have in the main tunnels,” Starlight pointed out. “At least until we can be somewhat sure of where the artifact is.”
“True, true,” Pinkie replied, nodding her head. “But like Rarity said, they can’t monitor them all at once! I mean, come on, who has the patience for that?”
“It seemed like they’re all linked together,” Thorax replied, nervously shuffling his hooves. “So…be careful.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “Well, from what we now know, a big part of this place is made up of unused tunnels. If we get close enough to wherever they’re keeping the artifact, we’ll be able to feel where the magic is coming from. Then we can make a plan.”
“Sounds good to me,” Pinkie cheerfully replied, trotting forward.
The others followed, Thorax walking ahead to point out the way to the others. Starlight hung back until Twilight started to follow, and kept pace with her. “Twilight,” she said, speaking quietly as if afraid that somepony would overhear her, “do you think that Scarlet Rose herself is guarding the artifact? If it’s powering their magic enough to keep Celestia and Luna at bay, then…”
“I don’t know,” Twilight sighed. “But whatever’s guarding it, we have to try anyway.” Thoughts of being unprepared still nagged at her mind, but she tried to push them away.
As they followed Thorax through the tunnels, they noticed a group of strange plants up ahead. “Ooooh, what’s that?” Pinkie Pie asked, pointing a hoof at them.
“I don’t know,” Thorax answered. “I saw them growing in some of the tunnels earlier.”
Applejack tilted her head. “Now, what kinda plants grow completely underneath the ground?”
Twilight stepped closer, inspecting the twirled vines and odd-shaped leaves. “I guess plants like these must have something to do with the ponies down here and their magic. I’d find this fascinating if there weren’t more…pressing matters at the moment.” She gave a nervous laugh.
Pinkie’s eyes widened as she glimpsed a few fruits hanging from the plant’s branches. She giggled, leaping towards the plant. “This looks tasty!” Before she could bite into the fruit, Applejack pulled her back by the tail.
“How about you don’t, at least until we know what it is?” she said once she’d released the pink pony.
“Agreed. Let’s not rush into anything,” Starlight added. “We don’t really know what is safe and what isn’t down here.”
“Wh-what else?” Fluttershy repeated, shivering. “You mean there could be-”
“Oh, relax, it’s just a plant,” Rainbow Dash said, knocking aside some of its branches with her hooves. “And Thorax said that these tunnels didn’t look like they were being used. They’re not going to worry about us bothering a plant.”
“Well, let’s hope so,” Starlight replied. She then motioned for Thorax to take the lead again.
After a while of walking through near-darkness, Thorax stopped the others. “Up ahead is a place where a bunch of the tunnels connect. There are tons of those round crystals around, but the artifact may be near there. I’ll check it out.” Dimming the light from his horn, Thorax turned around a corner in the tunnel up ahead and disappeared, leaving the others in blackness.
“He’s…not going to be gone long, is he?” Fluttershy whispered.
Spike blew a small stream of flame into the air, giving the others a brief source of light. “He’s just going to see if there’s-”
Before Spike’s light faded, the head of a pale unicorn with red eyes appeared around the corner. Fluttershy stifled a shriek, and Twilight tensed up before she realized that it was simply the transformed Thorax.
“We can’t go that way,” the changeling said, with obvious worry. He lit his horn again, illuminating the tunnel. “There’s a whole group of them in there. I don’t know if they saw me. We should try another path.”
“Into all the…dark, unknown tunnels?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t see any way around it,” Twilight said grimly. “I can’t feel any source of magic that would tell me if the artifact was near. We’ll just have to keep track of where we’ve been.”
“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie jumped up and down in excitement. “We could pluck some of our mane hairs and make a trail.”
Rarity gave her a look of disgust. “Ugh, never!”
“Wouldn’t that just lead anypony who was following right to us?” Spike asked.
Pinkie considered this. “Hmm. Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She gave a shrug.
“I’ve just been using pebbles,” Thorax explained, pushing a few into a rough circle with his hoof. “I don’t think it’s that noticeable.”
“Good enough for me,” Rainbow said, flying off toward one of the side tunnels they’d passed while following Thorax. “Looks like this tunnel’s as good as any other. Let’s go!”
“Wait a minute,” Starlight interjected. “Thorax should still go first. If he sees any of those crystal orbs these ponies have, at least it won’t be suspicious if he’s detected while he’s transformed.”
The others agreed and Thorax took the lead again. They went through several tunnels, some of them untouched natural cave tunnels, and others that had been mined at some point long ago. The cave air was so hot and stifling that they were quickly growing tired and thirsty. They had to stop to rest a few times so they could each take a drink from the supplies they’d brought. During their journey, Thorax saw a few well-used tunnels lit with the round crystals but felt it was too risky to try to sneak past them. Instead, they stuck to the abandoned tunnels, waiting for any sign that they were closer to the artifact.
“Okay,” Twilight mused as she walked behind Thorax, squinting at a small notebook she held in her hoof, “if I’ve been keeping track of things right, the big cavern with the buildings that Thorax saw earlier seems to be in this direction-” She pointed her hoof toward the wall. “-So that should tell us where to turn next in order to get closer to the inhabited areas. Or at least…a general idea. Some of these tunnels make so many turns. And we don’t want to get too close.”
“I think we’re going to have to,” Starlight said, clear reluctance in her voice. “No matter how powerful this artifact is, we haven’t been able to feel any of its magical influence just wandering these abandoned paths.”
“You’re right,” Twilight said. “I’m just wondering what the best way to-”
“This way’s no good,” Thorax called out to the others, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts. The disguised changeling appeared from the tunnel up ahead, shaking his head at the others.
Rarity heaved a sigh and sat down, too exhausted to care about the dust and grime. “Well, we might as well just walk into one of their main tunnels, because we certainly aren’t getting anywhere at this rate.”
Spike turned to Thorax. “Do you think there’s any way we can disable those crystals in the tunnels?”
“I…I don’t know,” Thorax replied. “I was afraid to try in case they noticed…”
“Ugh, well, like we’ve said before, they can’t monitor every tunnel at once,” Rainbow said. “Let’s just take our chances with one of their main paths. It’s the only way we’re going to get close enough.”
“Hang on a second,” Applejack responded. “Let’s see if Thorax can check it out first and see if there’s anythin’ he can do about the crystals.”
The others looked at Thorax, who looked nervous, but he nodded. “I can try that. But not up there.” He motioned toward the tunnel he’d just come from. “It looks like they’re patrolling it, or something. But let’s find another tunnel. All the ones with lights probably lead back to that big cavern with the buildings.”
“Good idea,” Twilight said. “There was one back that way.”
They backtracked quickly, passing the smiley face that Pinkie had made with pebbles which marked another tunnel that sloped downwards. Thorax crept into it while the others waited, following the light until he reached the point where the tunnel met a much wider, well-lit one. There was nopony else there at the moment. Quickly he retreated and relayed the news to the others.
“I’ll see what I can do, and I’ll try to be back soon,” he promised, before turning around and heading back down the tunnel toward the faint glow of the crystals.
After a few moments of silence, Spike nervously turned to Twilight. “You don’t think they’ll…realize what he’s doing and get mad, right?”
“If anything goes wrong, we’ll be right there,” Twilight reassured him.
More minutes of silence passed while they waited in near-darkness, before Fluttershy quietly asked, “What is that?”
The others paused, listening, until they heard what were clearly hoof-beats down one of the other dark tunnels.
“They’ve found us,” whispered Fluttershy, backing up toward Twilight.
“Wait. This place echoes. We don’t know for sure where that came from,” Applejack said, trying to sound reassuring.
Spike remained silent, noting that the sound of the approaching stranger was growing steadily louder. From somewhere down one of the connecting tunnels they’d explored previously, he heard rocks shifting. He edged his way toward the tunnel leading to the lit passage, where Thorax had gone. Spike stuck his head inside. “Thorax?” he said, as loudly as he dared. “Thorax?”
Stones shifted from the tunnel behind them, and they heard somepony step out into the open. Spike felt something rush past him, causing him to lose his balance. Before he could register what happened, a gust of wind blew overhead, and he heard Rainbow Dash shout, “Wait!”
Without thinking, he ran after the shapes of two ponies and down into the tunnel leading toward the light. Now, he could see the silhouettes of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rainbow was halfway down the tunnel, holding the terrified Fluttershy back. Spike came to a stop, wondering if he should stay to help them or run back up to the others.
Fluttershy gave a shout as she suddenly found herself slipping on the loose rocks. Before Rainbow Dash could lift Fluttershy into the air, her momentum pulled Rainbow forward and they were both sent tumbling down the slope into the crystal-lit tunnel.
“Are you okay?” Spike called down to them, grimacing.
Rainbow winced as she rolled from her side back onto all fours, glancing over at Fluttershy, who seemed momentarily stunned. Shaking her head to get her mane out of her eyes, she looked across the tunnel at the rows of crystal orbs lining the walls. She quickly noticed the transformed Thorax up ahead, on his hind legs with one of his front hooves on the thin bit of metal that held the crystal to the cave wall as he examined it.
He turned to look at them in surprise. “What are you-”
Several flashes of light appeared in the tunnel, replaced almost instantaneously by the forms of pale unicorns. Three stallions, two mares. Each of them looked furiously at the forms of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They did not speak, they did not even approach before firing spells at the two pegasi.
“Wait! Stop!” Thorax cried.
Rainbow Dash gripped Fluttershy and sped sideways through the air, feeling the bursts of energy behind her as the spells struck the cave floor. Almost immediately, more were being fired their way, and Dash zipped through the air, avoiding the bright streaks that lit up the cave like fireworks.
Twilight and the others suddenly burst through the tunnel that Rainbow and Fluttershy had tumbled from. The cave-dwelling unicorns were momentarily startled, a few of them even backing away, until one of them shouted, “They have an alicorn with them!” At once, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were forgotten as all five of the pale unicorns rushed toward Twilight, sending their spells straight at her.
Twilight took to the air as bursts of magic collided with the floor and cave walls. Starlight and the others moved to stand in front of the enemies, trying to shield Twilight from their attacks.
“Please,” Fluttershy, now flying on her own, pleaded. “Can we just-” She was interrupted by a stray spell that flew close by, sending her retreating to the ground with a shriek.
A sixth unicorn, which had to be the one they had heard approaching in the dark tunnels, appeared from where the main group had just come from, looking just as surprised as the others. Seeing Twilight, however, he quickly jumped into action along with the rest of them.
“Stop! Please stop!” Thorax shouted in a panic, running up to the nearest stallion, who was lighting his horn for another spell. Thorax pushed him aside and the spell was fired into the ceiling.
“Get out of the way,” the unicorn hissed at the changeling, roughly shoving him. “If we capture this one, we won’t need to bother with Canterlot.”
“…What?”
“They’re probably here because of Celestia!” one of the mares shouted at Thorax, who just looked horrified. “Don’t you get it? Help us!”
As her friends began having trouble keeping the unicorns at bay, Twilight kept near the ceiling, using her flight to her advantage. There were fewer spells being fired directly at her; her companions were doing a good job of keeping the unicorns distracted. She wanted to help them, but every time she tried to get close, their enemies would focus their efforts on her.
She heard a harsh kick and a cry of pain from one of the stallions, and through the chaos, she saw Applejack racing away from a unicorn that was crumpled on the cave floor in pain. “Twilight, get outta here!” Applejack shouted.
Twilight was too busy trying to keep out of range of the spells to shout a reply. She couldn’t get a close view of what was happening, but her friends were clearly putting themselves in danger trying to protect her, and she wasn’t sure if she could do anything to help. At least the cave guards were outnumbered, but that wasn’t a very reassuring thought, knowing the power of the magic they possessed. She could feel the start of a panic rising inside her; they hadn’t even been in the cave for more than a couple hours and things had already gone horribly wrong.
In the midst of the chaos, where all of Twilights friends were either trying to fight off the unicorns or protect others, Twilight saw Rainbow dive down toward a stallion that had Fluttershy pinned beneath his hooves. Before she could strike him, she was hit by a spell coming from her left and tumbled to the ground. There she lay unable to move, her eyes looking frantic as they darted from side to side.
“Twilight, go!” Rarity shouted.
Twilight couldn’t even see Rarity among the confusion, but she heard some of the others shout in agreement. The realization that the unicorns of the caves wanted her for their gruesome task, possibly even in place of Celestia, fully sank into her frantic mind. If she stayed there, more of her friends could be harmed, but if she led the unicorns away, then maybe the others would have a chance to escape. And she knew she couldn’t help Rainbow Dash – or anyone else – if she was captured.
Still reluctantly, she turned away from her friends and flew off down the tunnel. Seeing that she was escaping, several of the unicorns sent spells shooting her way. One of them hit her saddle bag and sent it flying against the wall, but Twilight managed to steady her flight and dart into a dark side tunnel. Three of the six unicorns forced their way past the others and followed the alicorn.
A fourth tried to chase after Twilight as well, but Rarity noticed and stuck out her hooves as he rushed past, tripping him. As he struggled to his feet, Rarity tried to launch another kick at him, but was pulled away by magic toward a furious unicorn mare. The unicorn fired another spell at Rarity, leaving her lying unmoving on the ground just like Rainbow Dash was.
The mare stepped closer to Rarity, only to leap with a cry of shock and whirl around to see the small dragon, obviously the culprit behind the painful burn on her leg.
Spike backed away as the unicorn walked toward him, clearly having momentarily forgotten Rarity and the struggles of her two remaining companions. Out of the corner of his eye, Spike saw the unicorn who he recognized as Thorax. The changeling seemed to have been all but ignored by the other unicorns during the struggle, unable to do much to help the others without revealing himself as an imposter. At the moment, Thorax’s eyes were wide with fear as he glanced from Rarity to Spike; he seemed frozen.
“You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that,” the unicorn mare told Spike in an eerily calm voice as she lit her horn again.
At the edge of his vision, Spike saw Thorax shake off his fear and run toward them. Spike wanted to scream at him to stop, to not give himself up, but before Thorax reached them and before the unicorn’s spell fired, somepony else got there instead.
Starlight slammed into the unicorn threatening Spike, sending her spell shooting off into the ceiling, where it broke apart pieces of the rock and left a hole in the ceiling. Starlight glanced at the smoking remains as small pieces of rock fell down into the tunnel. “Spike, get out of here!”
“But-” Spike began, and a shout from further down the tunnel interrupted him. Fluttershy and Pinkie were trying to lead one of the remaining unicorns away from a fallen Applejack, though it didn’t seem to be working. As much as she could while being frozen from the spell, Applejack tried to urge them to run. Fluttershy’s eyes brimmed with tears, and she and Pinkie hesitated a moment before running off. Spike realized the whole effort of fighting these unicorns was fruitless; the only reason they’d lasted so long was because of surprise and numbers. Now they had neither.
“Come on,” Starlight said, pushing Spike toward a side path up ahead with her hoof. “If we let them pick us off, we can’t help the others!”
Deep down, Spike knew she was right, but he hated to turn away from the three friends who had been struck down with spells. At least they seemed physically unharmed; perhaps these unicorns wouldn’t be as quick to hurt a pony as the furious mare had been to try to hurt him. He climbed on Starlight’s back, knowing she could run much faster, and she galloped toward the relative safety of the nearest dark tunnel.
Thorax watched them leave, his breath coming in gasps as he fought back an increasing feeling of panic. Then one of the cave unicorns, no longer having any moving targets, turned to him angrily.
“Don’t just stand there! Follow them! We’ll deal with these ones.” The stallion motioned toward the three ponies lying still on the cave floor.
“But I- What are you going to-”
“If you have a problem with any of this, you can take it up with Scarlet.” the unicorn shouted. “Now go bring some of the others back. You have a job to do.”
Fear, as well as knowing that giving away his true intentions would not help his friends, made Thorax turn away from the unicorns and run down the tunnel, heading into the gloomy side path that Starlight and Spike had disappeared into.
Once he was gone, the three remaining unicorns turned their red eyes to their captives. “How in Equestria did they get in?” one muttered.
“I think the more important question is why – and how – they brought an alicorn with them,” another said.
“This changes everything,” the third added.
The three unicorns lit their horns and teleported themselves and the three captives away, leaving the tunnel empty.