Beneath the Surface

by Racingwolf

Chapter 6 – Risk and Consequence

“How are we going to do that?” asked Fluttershy.

“Hmm…” Pinkie began. “Well, a few minutes before we found you, Twilight, we kinda accidentally stepped in front of a few of those glowing crystal things. You know, the ones Thorax said tell the cave ponies where we are? Well, nothing happened, so the cave ponies have got to be distracted right now. Maybe what we need to get you to that artifact is just a little more distraction.”

It took a moment for the implication of Pinkie’s words to sink in. “Wh-what?” Twilight stammered. “Get me to the artifact? You want to put yourself at risk to-”

“Twilight,” Pinkie interrupted, holding her hoof to Twilight’s mouth. “You’re the one they’re after, but you’re also the one most able to use magic.”

Twilight sighed as Pinkie lowered her hoof. “Maybe, but I can’t do much with this powerful magic suppressing spell here.” She briefly lit her horn to prove it, showing the others that she could only manage a weak glow, rather than an actual spell. “I’m not sure I can do this. And I don’t want anypony else in the hooves of these-”

“Twilight, we’ve got this,” Pinkie interrupted again. “We’ll stay with you as long as possible while you follow that dark magic to the artifact. Once it’s destroyed, none of us will have to worry! So who’s with me?”

“Um…” Fluttershy said in a soft voice. “I…are you sure about this?”

“Oh…” Pinkie’s voice took on an apologetic tone. “Sorry, Fluttershy. If you don’t want to do this, I can go with Twilight alone.”

Fluttershy looked down at the cave floor nervously. “No, I’ll go with you,” she said after a moment. “If Rainbow Dash and the others were brave enough to come to Twilight’s aid, I think I can be too.”

Twilight looked from one pony to the other. “I…you’ve both been in so much danger already.”

“So what’s a bit more, huh?” Pinkie asked with a mischievous grin. “If anypony shows up to harm you, we’ll just get in their way and make it a whole lot more difficult.”

“Pinkie is right,” Fluttershy said, noticing Twilight’s doubtful look. “You still have magic on your side, even if only a little. If you find that artifact and stop it, we can find the others and get out of here.”

Twilight was still doubtful, and still didn’t like the idea of bringing her friends into more peril after everything that had happened, but she had to admit that there wasn’t much else they could do. To get to the artifact, she had to take her chances by going through the well-lit and monitored tunnels the unicorns of the cave used frequently. There wasn’t any way around it.

“All right,” Twilight said, “but let me try to outmaneuver them with flight before either of you risk anything.”

“Fair enough,” Pinkie said with a shrug. “Let’s go! I’m sure the others and everypony back at the Crystal Empire will be dying to hear about this once it’s all over.”

Twilight felt encouraged by Pinkie’s optimism, and as she stepped toward the tunnel with the faint light at the distance, Fluttershy, now holding the lantern again, gave her an encouraging look. Twilight took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

“Now, that’s what I wanted to hear!” Pinkie cheered, charging bravely into the tunnel.

Twilight and Fluttershy quickly caught up with her, racing toward the light in the distance. As it drew closer, Twilight could see for sure that the light was coming from an opening leading into one of the cave unicorns’ well-traveled tunnels. The window to the other tunnel was small, however, and when she and her friends came to a stop in front of it, they found that they had to maneuver themselves in awkward positions to wriggle through. Pinkie insisted on going first, and the other two followed.

Then they were standing in the middle of a long tunnel lined with glowing crystal orbs. Twilight flinched as she watched an image of herself and her friends flash through each orb, but after a few moments of tense waiting, nopony arrived.

“C’mon, let’s go!” Pinkie urged. “Which way is the magic coming from?”

Twilight closed her eyes, trying to pinpoint the source of the dark hints of magic, but before she could confirm anything, Fluttershy spoke up instead.

“This way,” the pegasus stated, pointing a hoof down the right side of the tunnel.

As the three ponies raced across the cave floor, which was smoothed down by careful path-making and the hooves of many unicorns, Twilight felt the artifact’s influence growing stronger. She was sure that none of them would need help pointing the way once they reached the next turn. As they ran, all three of them could feel a sense of foreboding coming over them, and even Pinkie’s enthusiasm became subdued. Yet they didn’t slow their pace, and Fluttershy ran onward with determination, despite her fear.

They soon turned onto another tunnel, then another, and by the fourth one, they realized that the tunnels had started to look more recently maintained; the crystal orbs were more polished and brilliant, and there were no loose rocks on the ground. Then, a fifth tunnel they took opened up into what Twilight could only describe as a small stone city.

The three stopped to catch their breath at the tunnel entrance, realizing that they could see a few unicorns wandering around on upper walkways. Twilight couldn’t help but marvel at the structures; they were unlike the buildings she was used to on the surface. Though the buildings were primarily made out of the stones matching the colors of the cave, many were decorated with jewels and crystals. Both the buildings and the cave walls – and even ceilings – around them were covered with lights, both the crystal orbs and other types of lights like lanterns and clusters of glowing crystal formations.

Twilight remembered Thorax mentioning something about a big cavern with stone buildings, and that the artifact may be there. It hadn’t seemed like he’d been able to get very close to the city, however. Twilight could still feel the strong magic emanating from the artifact, but it wasn’t pulling her toward the main cluster of buildings. Instead, it seemed like it was coming from somewhere off to the side of the cavern, where there were a few tunnel entrances at different elevations with stone paths leading up to them.

“There,” she whispered, pointing. She needn’t have bothered, though, because Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were looking in the same direction. It was eerie, the way they could all sense the power of the artifact, getting stronger the closer they got. “Are you ready?”

Pinkie nodded. “Can’t see how else we can get there without making a dash for it. Haha! Rainbow would like that one. Um, yeah, I’m ready.”

“Yeah, me too,” Fluttershy said after setting down the lantern, trying to hide the shake in her voice.

Twilight opened her wings, hoping that if she flew fast enough, her horn wouldn’t be noticed. Of course, that would only help if the unicorns walking about the city hadn’t been given any sort of description of her. She gripped the handle of the lantern in her teeth.

“Ready…” Pinkie began.

Fluttershy took a deep breath and then opened her wings too, ready to launch herself into the air alongside Twilight.

“Set…” Pinkie shuffled her own hooves, looking out into the brightly lit cavern.

“GO!”

The three ponies burst out of their hiding place, Twilight and Fluttershy soaring toward the tunnels, trying to pinpoint which one had the strongest feeling of dark magic. On the ground, Pinkie dashed toward them as well. A unicorn appeared from around a building, lunged at Pinkie, but she leaped away from him at the last moment, causing him to awkwardly skid into some large containers that seemed to serve as garbage cans.

Shouts from some of the upper walkways rang throughout the cavern, more unicorns gathering there and staring down at the three interlopers. Several of them teleported down to the ground and tried to surround Pinkie, who nimbly dodged them.

Or at least, the first few. The three friends were no more than halfway across the cavern when a group of unicorns appeared around Pinkie, firing spells without warning. Though Pinkie was able to avoid most, she was still hit by two of them, and she collapsed motionless to the ground, just as Rainbow Dash had in their first encounter with the unicorns of the cave.

Twilight turned her head toward the sight, stifling a gasp. She could see Pinkie looking up at her from her position on the ground, her eyes telling her to keep going. Twilight forced herself to look away, focusing on the tunnels that were rapidly approaching. She could feel the magical energy emanating from the center one, about halfway up the rock wall.

Bursts of magical energy zipped past her and Fluttershy as they sped through the air, and a few of the unicorns were starting to use their magic to levitate themselves. But it didn’t seem like they could do that and teleport in such a short span of time, so at least Twilight and Fluttershy could put some distance between them. From what she could tell, the only unicorns responding were ones that had happened to be in the city at the time; nopony else was appearing in spite of the crystal orbs placed all over the place. Motioning to Fluttershy with her hoof, Twilight led the pegasus between some of the outlying buildings, hoping for a chance of some cover.

Once they flew between the buildings, there were fewer spells getting close to them for a few precious moments. But then there were unicorns teleporting themselves onto the roofs of the buildings and the ground below, launching blasts of magic at them from different directions. Twilight focused on the sight of the tunnel ahead. Not far now, just past a few more buildings.

Twilight sped past the structures, and had almost reached the opening to the tunnel when a beam of light shot past her, slamming into the lantern she was holding and causing it to shatter. With a cry of shock, she drew her head back, fumbling a bit in her flight. There was another burst of light, and for a moment, Twilight was sure she’d been struck just as she’d reached the tunnel entrance. But instead, Fluttershy collapsed onto the walkway beside it, her mane and tail spilling over the edge.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight gasped, dropping the remains of the lantern.

The look in the pegasus’s eyes was one of terror, but also of determination. With great effort, Fluttershy managed to move her head a small fraction, just enough to tell Twilight that she was trying to motion to the tunnel.

Keep going… Just like Pinkie had tried to tell her.

Hating that she was leaving her friends behind, if only until she destroyed the artifact, Twilight tore herself away and ran headlong into the tunnel. Fighting back tears, she tried to focus only on the way ahead. ‘As long as I make it…’ she thought to herself, ‘my friends will be okay.’

A unicorn teleported a few paces behind her, then tried again to teleport in front of her. She dodged around him, her eyes lighting up as she saw that the tunnel opened up into what looked like some sort of natural grand hall, with a very high ceiling.

Spreading her wings, she took to the air and flew into the open area. There were a few more voices from unicorns in the tunnel behind her, but it was nothing like the mob she had encountered before, and in this place, there weren’t any side tunnels for them to split up into and try to cut her off. Just one direction, toward the increasingly overwhelming source of power.

All she had to do was follow it.

Thorax’s hooves shook as he took step after step down the long, foreboding tunnel that Scarlet and the three guard unicorns were leading him down. It seemed that with every step he took, the sickeningly wrong feeling that clung to everything in the tunnel intensified. He kept his wings – his false alicorn wings – tucked tightly against his sides, remembering the warning he’d been given about opening them.

Behind him, he could hear the three guards whispering nervously to each other, occasionally jumping or even crying out at one of the strange shadows the light from their horns showed on the wall, or a distorted reflection in one of the crystals. Only Scarlet remained calm, not showing any signs of fear as she walked carefully at Thorax’s side.

“Something’s not right here,” the stallion guard muttered under his breath. “Should we turn back?”

“Nothing will harm you if you’re careful,” Scarlet told him, and only her voice betrayed the slightest bit of unease.

Thorax jumped as he thought he heard something coming from the other end of the tunnel, wherever its end was. It sounded a bit like voices, though none of it was intelligible. “What was that?” he couldn’t help asking.

Scarlet gave him a look he couldn’t quite read. “It’s nothing.”

The stallion guard shuffled nervously. “You’re an alicorn. You’ve got nothing to worry about in there.”

Thorax glanced at him, and the stallion was giving him what seemed like a sympathetic expression. He looked conflicted.

One of the mares beside him scoffed. “You were just asking if she was powerful enough. Truth is, we don’t know.”

“Yes, I know, but they said an alicorn,” he said, talking like he was trying to convince himself. “It was always about-”

“Quiet,” Scarlet said, and immediately the two stopped talking. “She’ll succeed or she’ll fail. We’ll see what to do then.”

“This needs to work,” the second female guard said, ignoring Scarlet’s request for quiet. “If it does, we can get the others out of Canterlot and won’t have to worry about any of that.”

“Whether it works or not, it won’t be that simple,” Scarlet replied, not looking at her. “Celestia won’t be happy about this, regardless.”

Thorax’s breath hitched and he froze. Scarlet nudged him with a hoof, and after some hesitation, he took another step.

“Move it along,” growled the first mare guard, a few sparks flying from her horn.

Thorax hurried his pace, trying not to think about whatever lay on the other side of this tunnel, and what he would do once he reached it. As they continued onward, it seemed to him that the light from the unicorns’ horns was having less and less of an effect against the darkness, but he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it.

Suddenly a crystal to his left exploded in a burst of light, and he ducked down with a cry of fear. Scarlet nearly slammed into him as she jumped away from the wall.

“What was that?” Scarlet hissed, turning to the guard whose horn was still sparking.

“Sorry…” she said, lowering her head. “I thought I saw something.”

“And I’ll tell you again,” Scarlet growled. “Nothing is going to harm you. Now calm down. You have a job to do.”

The unicorn muttered something under her breath as they carried on again. Thorax glanced at the broken crystal, wondering if it had simply shattered easily or if the mare had used a particularly powerful spell in her fear.

They walked for a while in silence, Thorax fighting to keep panic at bay as they got closer and closer to their destination. Then, he saw it. Up ahead, the tunnel opened wider and ended in a massive stone wall. The only way to go further was a crawlspace at the base of it, stretching across most of the wall but much shorter than a pony was tall.

Thorax knew that with every fiber of his being, he did not want to enter that crawlspace. Every instinct was screaming at him to turn and run. Yet deep down he knew that if he did, even if he somehow managed to get away, it would put the real Twilight and himself in danger. He couldn’t run. No matter how much he wanted to.

“No magic until you’re inside,” Scarlet hissed close to his ear.

Slowly, Thorax forced himself to walk toward the dark opening. Scarlet stayed beside him, but the guards hung back. Thorax thought he could hear the sounds like voices again, but he couldn’t be sure if his mind was just playing tricks on him after having spent what seemed like ages in near-darkness.

“You can light your horn,” Scarlet, still beside him, whispered once they’d reached the narrow opening.

Thorax did so, his horn lighting up with a teal glow. He crouched down to try to peer into the narrow opening, but all he saw was blackness.

“Hey!” cried the aggressive unicorn guard from a ways behind. “She said no magic!”

Scarlet whirled around with an angry look. “Floral Faire, stop-”

The unicorn leader had spoken a second too late. The unicorn guard caught her words just as she fired a beam of bright light at Thorax, who whirled around only for the beam to strike him in the shoulder.

He dropped to the ground, a wave of pain spreading across his body. It was so sudden that he couldn’t even cry out; couldn’t even breathe. Then it was over. And he was lying on the ground, staring at one of his hole-ridden hooves.

The three guards and the leader were staring at him in shock. Scarlet looked him over, as if unable to comprehend what she was seeing. One of the guards behind her took several large steps backward with a look of disgust.

The guard who’d hit Thorax with the spell walked forward, her fear of the tunnel momentarily forgotten. She stood beside Scarlet, taking in Thorax’s fangs, eyes, and legs. “What…is that?”

“No…” Scarlet just said, her voice barely above a whisper. It seemed she wasn’t even looking at Thorax anymore, but rather right through him.

“Whatever that is, that’s not a unicorn, so our magic wasn’t blocking-”

“No!” Scarlet shouted, rearing up and slamming her hooves into the floor. “We’re going back,” she spat bitterly. She turned to look at Thorax, who was still too stunned by the effect of the spell to stand. “Make a wrong move and you’ll regret it.”

Her horn glowed with a violet light, and suddenly all five of them were transported back into the large cavern where they had begun the journey into the tunnel. Comet was the only one there, going over a book he had taken from one of the rock shelves in the room’s center. He looked up as the group appeared, taking in both Thorax and the shocked expressions of the unicorns.

“It was a fake,” Scarlet snarled, pushing Thorax forward with her magic. He still hadn’t recovered enough to support himself and he stumbled to the ground, crying out. “It’s some kind of shapeshifter. This could all be a trick Celestia’s pulling on us to-”

Comet’s wide eyes looked over the changeling before he shook his head at Scarlet. “No. No, it can’t be. The real alicorn is still here. Unicorns I’d trust with my life told me that her friends informed them of her under a truth potion. The real ‘Twilight’ is here somewhere.”

“And why didn’t the truth potion get them to talk about this?” She waved her hoof toward Thorax.

“Ponies under truth potion answer questions,” Comet replied. “But that’s not important. We need to regroup. If that alicorn is still here, and we need to find her.”

Scarlet turned toward the three guards. “Spread the word. Get everypony watching and searching the tunnels.”

“Yes, Scarlet,” the stallion said, and the three of them teleported from sight.

Scarlet approached Thorax, who was finally steady enough to scramble awkwardly to his hooves. “Where is the real one?” she asked, but was met with silence. “I know you can talk. Answer me.”

“I don’t know,” Thorax whimpered in terror, taking an unsteady step backwards. Whatever hope he’d had was gone now, and he and the real Twilight were both in grave danger.

Scarlet gave him a disgusted look, then turned to Comet. “Can you have somepony bring more truth potion?”

“There’s no point,” Comet replied. “The real princess could be anywhere by now.”

“See if you can find her,” Scarlet ordered, still carefully watching Thorax.

Comet huffed and walked toward the large crystal orb that rested in the center of the cluster of shelves. Different tunnels appeared in rapid succession as he watched the images closely. “I don’t see anypony,” he began, frustrated. “If any of them were here, those working in the crystal room should have seen-” He broke off, staring at an image of a group of unicorns leading an earth pony and a pegasus down a tunnel. The image changed every few seconds, showing them progressing further.

Thorax’s eyes widened; it was Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

Comet shifted through more images, but found the tunnels empty. He turned around, looking genuinely alarmed. “That tunnel they were taking those ponies through was leading away from our city,” he said. “If they got that far…” More images flashed across the surface of the orb, including one that showed the cursed artifact sitting on top of a stone pillar in another cavern. From his position, Thorax could just barely glimpse it.

Comet walked away from the crystal orb, at least satisfied that the artifact was still in its rightful position. But he was still clearly worried. “If this whole thing was a diversion…” He gave Thorax a brief glance and then turned to Scarlet with a serious expression. “…If they somehow manage to destroy our artifact…” He took a deep breath. “You won’t ever be able to fix this.”

For a moment, a look of horror crossed Scarlet’s face. Then she turned back to face Thorax, the look almost immediately replaced by rage. Realizing that all her fury was directed at him, Thorax shakily backed up as she approached, her horn taking on a bluish-purple glow.

Scarlet’s voice was eerily calm. “You just made your worst mistake.”

In that moment, Thorax forced himself to move despite his lingering weakness. He took to the air, darting to the side as Scarlet fired a spell brighter than any of the others he’d seen the unicorns use. At first, he felt the wave of magical power surge beneath his hooves, but he barely had time to register that before Scarlet redirected, not even briefly stopping the stream of magical energy, and aimed it upwards, where it struck him across his side.

Unlike the last spell, which had seemed to affect every part of him at once, he only felt pain where it had struck across his right side and foreleg. The pain reached deeper than just the surface; it seemed as if the spell had gone partially through him and was tearing at him.

His vision went black and he fell to the ground.

From partway across the cavern, Spike watched from his hiding place. After most of the unicorns had left the cavern earlier, he had been slowly trying to sneak his way around toward the set of doors they’d taken Thorax to. Before he’d gotten there, however, they had teleported back with Thorax in his true form. And now Thorax had been attacked.

In that moment, Spike forgot about the need for secrecy, or his own safety. Abandoning his hiding place, he ran across the rocky ground toward him. Comet and Scarlet turned away from Thorax and stared at the dragon, but he barely noticed. He reached Thorax’s side, and immediately the smell of burned chitin made him want to gag. He could see burn marks on the changeling’s right side and front leg, and there were a few cracks in his carapace. He was lying completely still, his eyes closed. Spike knelt down beside him, fearing the worst.

“It’s not dead,” a voice said behind him.

Spike whirled around to see Scarlet Rose approaching him, her horn glowing. The dragon tensed as she walked towards him, but did not leave Thorax’s side.

Scarlet didn’t attack, but merely watched him. “If I’d wanted to make it lethal, it would have been.” The glow from her horn intensified enough that it gave off heat. “Were you in on this too? Was this your plan all along? To use that creature to deceive us?”

“He’s a changeling,” Spike said, not entirely sure why he was responding. Scarlet had him trapped, and she knew it. He was powerless to stop her, and at that point he didn’t have it in him to try. He turned away from her, back to Thorax again, and in that moment his friend began to wake up.

The changeling only moved a bit at first, his eyes barely opening. “Thorax?” Spike asked, moving around to crouch down by the changeling’s head. He paid no attention to Scarlet, who still stood there, watching them.

Thorax’s eyes opened wider, a look of recognition coming over them after a few moments. “Spike?” Thorax rasped weakly. “What…are you doing here?”

Another unicorn appeared in a flash of light, not far from where Scarlet was standing. Spike instinctively turned to look, and realized with a jolt that the new unicorn matched Thorax’s disguise from earlier. It was the stallion they had seen at the cave entrance that morning.

The stallion looked disheveled and tired. “I’m here with a message,” he blurted out, briefly looking over Spike and Thorax in surprise before focusing his full attention on Scarlet. “With everything that happened, there weren’t many left to monitor the caves, and somehow the intruders slipped past. I’d just left the workshop when-”

“Slipped past where?” Comet snapped before Scarlet could reply, glaring at the smaller stallion.

“The tunnels…the tunnels they were usually monitoring. It was the princess, the alicorn. Everypony was scrambling…they didn’t know until…you see, most of the best magic users are at Canterlot…”

Comet ignored his ramblings, racing toward the large crystal orb in the center of the cavern. With his horn lit, he stared at it as images flashed through it again at a rapid pace. Then he stopped on the picture of a long tunnel. One of his loyal unicorns was racing down it, away from where he knew it led. Then he switched to another image that showed Twilight on the other end, pursued by a group of tired unicorns, almost to the entrance to the cavern that housed their artifact. “What…” he gasped, his expression genuinely shocked.

“I’m sorry,” the other stallion said, still sounding shaken. “With the protection spells around the artifact, nopony can teleport directly there-”

“We can get close,” Comet interrupted. “Who was left guarding that cavern?”

Scarlet looked uncertain, even afraid. “I let most of the guards search for the alicorn because I knew it was safe with me, and then you told me they found her, and-” She broke off suddenly, firing a beam of energy similar to the one she had struck Thorax with straight into the ground, making Spike flinch back in fear. “It’s your fault,” she hissed, looking toward Thorax.

Spike stood in front of Thorax protectively, but luckily Comet took her attention away from them.

“We need to go. Now,” he said to Scarlet as he levitated two short chains from one of the shelves. “We’ll keep them here. We need to stop the real alicorn.”

Spike felt one of the chains lock around his leg by magic, shrinking to fit tightly around it. The other end of the chain buried itself in the rocky ground. He glanced over at Thorax, seeing that the other chain had locked around one of his back legs. The changeling was pulled away from Spike until he was some distance away before the end of his chain forced itself into the ground. “Stop! Leave him alone!” Spike cried. His shouts went ignored.

“You,” Scarlet said to the nervous stallion, who had watched the scene with wide eyes, “find any other skilled magic users that you can. Even if you have to get Jade River and her group.”

With that, Scarlet and Comet teleported away. The remaining stallion glanced uncertainly from Spike to Thorax before doing the same.

Spike looked around, relieved that they had somehow been left alone, although the cavern seemed strangely sinister now that it was empty. Spike glanced over at Thorax before he picked up his own chain, breathing flames onto the shackle around his leg to heat it up until it melted enough for him to break free. “Guess they didn't think about dragon fire.” Throwing the broken chain aside, he ran over to his friend.

Thorax’s eyes were open, but he was still very dazed. He hadn’t moved from the position he’d landed in, still lying on his uninjured side even after having been dragged, which made Spike’s concern grow.

“Don’t worry, we’re getting out of here,” Spike said, picking up the chain tethering Thorax to the cave floor. Carefully choosing a segment well away from where it attached to Thorax’s leg, Spike melted through it like he’d done with his own. Once that was done, he let it drop and moved to Thorax’s side again.

“What happened?” Thorax asked, his words sounding slurred. “Where are the others? You shouldn’t be here…Scarlet will…”

“She’s gone,” Spike said, distressed that Thorax hadn’t even seemed to have noticed. “Scarlet hit you with a spell but they’re all gone. We can get out of here.” He looked at the changeling’s wounds, knowing they had to be painful but at least they didn’t seem incapacitating. There were small amounts of blood coming from the cracks in Thorax’s chitin, but it didn’t look like anything too serious. “What did she do to you? Can you get up?”

“I think so,” Thorax replied with a groan. “Ugh, everything hurts…”

“Okay, we probably don’t have much time,” Spike said, trying to help Thorax stand up, worriedly noticing that he didn’t have much strength. “Twilight’s gotta make it to the artifact, and then we can find the others and get out of here.” He hoped he sounded more convincing than he felt. If they caught Twilight…

Spike kept supporting Thorax as he shakily tried to get his footing, the changeling crying out when Spike accidentally touched a burned area on his side. “Sorry, sorry!” Spike quickly exclaimed, making sure Thorax was steady before he walked on ahead. “Look, I followed the unicorns all the way here. I think I can remember the way back, and we can find Starlight and that’ll be-”

He broke off, realizing that while he’d walked ahead, Thorax was struggling just to take a few steps forward. He couldn’t put any weight on his injured foreleg, but even that didn’t fully explain why his movements were so slow or difficult. Spike moved to go to his side and help steady him again, but before he reached him, Thorax collapsed onto the rocky floor.

“Thorax!” Spike shouted, at his side almost immediately. “What’s wrong? What did they do to you? Did you hit your head?”

“No, it’s not that,” Thorax gasped, gritting his teeth as he doubled over. “It hurts on the inside real bad. It’s hard to move.”

The dragon watched helplessly as Thorax tried to stand, noticing that he cringed in pain with every small movement. Spike realized that Thorax’s injuries were a lot worse than they seemed. However, his wings looked undamaged. “Can you use your wings?”

Thorax managed to get to his hooves, keeping his injured leg off the ground. He tried moving his wings. His left wing fluttered normally, but the right moved a lot slower and Thorax cried out in pain, stopping the movement quickly.

“What’s wrong with your wing?” Spike asked, alarmed that flight now wouldn’t be an option.

“I think the wing itself is fine,” Thorax gasped. “I don’t think the muscles that attach to it are, though.”

“Can you…transform?” Spike asked, wondering if pegasus wings worked differently enough to allow for flight.

“It wouldn’t make a difference,” Thorax said, sinking back to the ground. “If I can’t use my wings now…I can’t in any form.”

As the minutes passed, Thorax’s pain intensified, Spike realizing that the shock was wearing off. He had no idea what to do; he couldn’t get Thorax out of the cavern by himself, and it was obvious Thorax couldn’t walk there. The escape that had seemed so close was now out of reach.

Spike wondered if he should try to find the others, or even if he could, but he quickly realized there was no way he was going to leave Thorax alone. He walked over and sat down next to the changeling. “Don’t try to move,” Spike told him, trying to keep his voice steady. He hoped that if he kept talking, Thorax would be able to focus on him. However, Spike was inwardly panicking, realizing how dire their situation had suddenly become. They were trapped.