Ten Hours After Rainbow Dash and Her Party Left to Rendezvous With Lexxic
She breathed in.
She breathed out.
She breathed in.
She breathed out.
Two hooves moved after two others.
Fluid.
Rhythmic.
Thoughtless... or as close to it as she could manage with all her being.
Slowly—and with methodical breaths—she endured the lengthy trek that took her bleakside beyond the limits of her usual place of dwelling.
As was typical, she performed the entire journey alone. There were few—if any—distractions along the way. Sometimes an audacious specimen of wildlife would attempt to pounce lone Dihmers wandering the wasteland. She was more than capable of evading such predatory attacks, but no such incident transpired at this time.
Which was almost disappointing. A chaotic eventuality—at least—might distract her from the thoughts being attached to the flimsy consciousness within her shell of a being. She tried counting the steps... focusing on the great vastness of the desolation before and behind and around her. But it was far too late. The canvas had been dirtied. Simply being out there in and of itself was a testament to her failure.
And so she lingered...
...between each breath.
… ...between each step.
… … …between each blink.
Until she chanced upon an event—an opportunity to adjust the paradigm and shake her back to a lower place of placid nothingness.
She arrived at her destination...
...but was mildly surprised to see that the three Penumbrans—wagon and all—had somehow beat her to it.
She scuffled to a stop, standing upon the crest of a stone hill. Looking down a dip in the landscape, she saw the plateau and the boulder that lingered in its shadow. The one who rolled his tongue was perched atop the rock while the one that belched and the one that squinted dismounted from the wagon and approached the false entrance to the cave, examining it closely. They were so easily distracted. She imagined that they would never find the hidden passageway, even if they tried.
Perhaps it was better that they remained in the dark.
If she never arrived...
...their weighted egos would be slighted. They would take offense. Furthermore, they would have no logical reason to ever speak to her again. She would be free of them forever—and for what? The sacrifice of further business with the Chrome-Blooders?
She failed. She was too attached to the industry that was placed upon her due to her lingering. But this...
This could have been the beginning of a long-awaited release.
She exhaled, clearing her lungs.
Soon, she cleared her thoughts as well.
She turned about...
Hooves scuffling... ….
… … ...and she made for the path that would eventually take her back to the ocean-side town.
As she trotted away, voices from the Penumbrans below wafted in her direction.
Among them: “Let's stay on topic. How the Hell do we get in?”
It was the voice of the annoying one. The one who squinted. Her ears folded and the lines in her muzzle tightened. But before she could mentally chastise herself for that...
...she sensed a few translucent shapes flitting out of her saddlebag in tiny gray streaks.
She paused in her return trek. She reached into her saddlebag and produced the source of the anomaly. It was the strip that Plato had given her. At her slightest touch, the cut metal object brimmed with chaotic energy—its tiny wyrms fizzling in and out of existence.
Such thoughtless creatures—and yet such purposelessness. Affecting and inviting nothing.
“... … ...” Calmly, she slid the strip back into her saddlebag. A loathesome breath... and she turned back around...
...and headed towards the cave once again.
The Penumbrans came well within earshot.
“Well, looks like we beat her to it,” the one who belched said. “The Hell we do now? Wait here and... watch Keps twiddle his thumbs?”
“We can maybe take a survey of the surrounding areas,” the one who squinted said. “For security's sake. It'll pass the time until you-know-who-arrives.”
The one who rolled his tongue met her eyesight, pointing towards the mare with a claw. “I don't think that will be necessarrry.”
“Why not?” The one who belched asked. “Being aware of our surroundings is super important.”
She spoke calmly as she passed his large figure. “It arrives.”
“GAAAH!” He jumped dramatically. This did not surprise her. “Sh-shit on a stick! Put a frikin' bell on yourself, lady!”
She merely glanced at him. “It breathes.”
Fourteen and a Half Hours After Rainbow Dash and Her Party Left
“Okay...” Logan trotted in front of her, slowly raising his forelimbs as his voice took on a noticeably patronizing tone. “...we're gonna go through this slowly. Bullet point by bullet point.” He pointed down one of the many-many holes surrounding the chamber. “It lashes...”
She stared deadpan at him. “It affirms.”
A roaring sound echoed once more from the narrow passages. Kepler and Flynn squirmed nervously, gazing in all directions.
Logan stood beside the still-humming drill. “It collects.”
“It affirms,” she replied.
The fat stallion's hoof pointed back and forth between the holes and the drill. “Do these two friggin' things conflict with one another or what?!?”
The Dihmer trotted calmly around the humming drill, nodding towards it with her head. “It shimmers which drills.” She turned and pointed towards the many-many holes. “It collects which varnishes.” A swallowing. “It pursues which lashes.”
“How...” Logan fidgeted where he stood. “...do you avoid the shit that 'lashes'?”
She blinked emotionlessly. “It is expedient.”
Another roar. Flynn and Kepler visibly shook, looking all around.
“Pfffft... well! There you have it, dudes!” Logan leaned back on his haunches with forelimbs folded. “She's fast! THAT'S her solution to whatever the buck is growling and spitting up a storm in there!”
“A moment, Big Show, if you shall humorr me.” Kepler cleared his throat and leaned towards the mare. “Whateverr this prresence may be...” The wyvern's eyes narrowed behind his bifocals. “...what prrecisely attrracts them?”
She pointed at the drill. “It pursues that which shimmers falsely.”
“... … ...” Kepler looked left, then right. His eyebrows raised. “The entity orr entities... arre attrracted to chaos enerrgy?”
“It affirms.”
Kepler and Logan looked at Flynn.
The unicorn stallion standing by the drill quietly reached over and switched the mechanism off. After a pronounced whine, the device puttered to dead silence. Still and dormant.
The beasts beyond the holes roared and sputtered and hissed...
...then were silent.
The entire cave was still once more.
“Hrmmmfff...” Logan huffed. “Buckin' cute.”
“Relax, fatso,” Flynn grunted. “This situation is quite simple, actually.”
“Simple? How in the whorish Hell is it 'simple'?”
Flynn gestured. “If these things are anything like most of the creatures we've encountered on the Dark Side, they'll undoubtedly be freakish, yes, but they're also very likely to be dumb as hell.”
“Yeah? And we're dumb as hell.” Logan snorted. “What's your point?”
“We don't have to have the drill on at all times,” Flynn said. “Only when we're doing the actual—y'know—drilling.” He pointed into the holes. “I'd say we go and find some of the raw material that makes the varnish, set up a defense perimeter, and then do the drilling as quickly as we need to before getting the hell outta Dodge.”
“How do we know that spelunking into all of... … … that...” Logan pointed at all of the holes, holes, holes “...won't just take us deeper into their lair or something?” His brow furrowed. “We could become the Order of the Heraldic Lunch.”
“There's no guarantee of anything, dude,” Flynn said, shaking his head. “But we've come this far... and we gotta figure out a way to give Rainbow and the rest of the gang an easy out. So what's stopping us?”
Logan exhaled slowly, scratching his head in thought.
Kepler stroked his hairy chin. “Ach... they most cerrtainly went silent the moment we switched the apparratus off. Perrhaps we will have morre contrrol overr this than we initially thought.” He smiled slightly behind his tusks. “Afterr all... if she made it thrrough such perrils on herr lonesome, than why can't we expect to fairr any betterr?”
Flynn looked at the Dihmer. “Do you know a good spot in these caves to extract the material for the varnish?”
“It knows,” she replied.
Flynn's good eye narrowed. “Could you... be so kind as to show us? So we can do the drilling?”
“If concurs.” She moved towards the drill, took a deep breath, and started hoisting it over her quivering flank.
Logan blanched. “...the hell are you doing?”
“It conveys that which drills,” she huffed, already sweating profusely. Her legs wobbled. “That which has a false shimmer hides what lingers from that which lashes.”
“Well, that's all good and fine, but...” Flynn clenched his teeth. “You're gonna snap in two at this rate.”
“It s-suffices...”
“Oh, for the love of butts...” Logan rolled his eyes. In one swift motion, the large stallion easily heaved the heavy object over his flank. “Move over, Little Miss Martyr. The least we can do is the gruntwork.”
“Easy with that thing, Big Show,” Flynn said, waving a nervous hoof. “We've no clue how fragile it is!”
“Yeah yeah. Relax, champ. It's not my first time carrying a chaos-powered drill through a cave filled with roaring monstrosities.”
“...really?”
“Hell no! But it helps to pretend!” Logan huffed, sweating as she looked at the Dihmer who brought them there. “Point and click, lady!”
She merely blinked at him.
“Ahem...” Kepler leaned in. “He means forr you to lead us towarrds the prroperr destination, if you would be so kind...”
She nodded at that. “It proceeds.” Without saying anything else, she hurriedly trotted down a passageway.
Hitching his breath, Flynn scampered to follow immediately behind her, glowing his horn to illuminate the path. Logan followed immediately after with the drill, while Kepler grabbed a torch and cautiously took up the rear.
And like that, all four departed from the chamber, and into the dark dark stone bowels of the plateau.
Seventeen Hours After Rainbow Dash and Her Party Left
Flynn foolishly thought that they would immediately chance upon the spot where they needed to be to drill for more varnish. In truth, he vastly underestimated just how far and deep the tunnels stretched. The corridors were long, winding, and claustrophobic. Nevertheless, the Dihmer traversed them at a consistent, thoughtful pace. At no point did her body language suggest that she was forgetful of the paths or getting lost.
This, of course, impressed the three Job Squadders immeasurably, and her concentrated motions was the only thing keeping their anxiety at bay. They had been spelunking deeper and deeper into the earth for hours, and yet there was no stopping to drill. While the paths didn't take them anywhere vastly descending, the journey nevertheless felt like they were sealing themselves away from the surface world forever. It occurred to the group that there'd be a daunting return trip ahead.
“Just how in the blue hell did she dig these paths?” Logan huffed and puffed, sweating up a storm from the weight of the drill he was lugging. “Or any of the friggin' dihmers for that matter?”
“I don't believe they did, old frriend,” Kepler remarked in a low breath. As they followed her, the wyvern gestured at hundreds upon thousands of tiny chisel indentations set within the circular walls of the passageways. “Harrk. Feast yourr eyes.”
Logan squinted through a sheen of sweat. “... … ...teeth marks?”
“Affirmative.”
“Those are some friggin' dentures...”
“No debris,” Flynn managed from ahead of the other two. The light wobbled from his horn as he glanced back over his flank. “No chunks of displaced stone lying around. Not even dust.”
“Then just where did these things dump all the crud?” Logan asked.
“Good question.” Flynn pointed at the smoothness of the walls they passed by. “See the polish? The random off-color splotches.”
“Ach...” Kepler nodded. “Acid burrns.”
“That's what I'm thinking—” Flynn said.
“It silences,” the Dihmer suddenly whispered from up ahead.
The three Heraldites scuffled to a stop behind her, bumping into one another goofily.
“Oomf..” Logan shook it off, squinting at her. “Huh?”
“It silences,” she repeated, still quiet as a mouse. Her body was pressed low to the floor of the cave.
“... … ...I can't tell how serious she is,” Logan muttered. “Would it kill ya to be a bit emphatic, lady?”
“Will you just shut up and get down, Big Show?!” Flynn snapped, already pressing himself to the floor. “She obviously senses something!” he hissed.
“Shhhhh...!” Kepler insisted as he and Logan also squatted low. “I'm feeling vibrrations! Getting strrongerr...”
“Right... got it...” Logan held the drill close, his muscles tensing up against a rock wall. “...quieting down.”
All four spelunkers were silent as the stone around them. Flynn and the Dihmer squatted a few meters forward. Logan—due to having to reposition the drill—hunched over with tunnel space to spare between him and the first two. Kepler nestled close to Logan's side.
The earth was still. The vibrations—which had been intensifying for the past minute or so—had dwindled to a low rustle. Soon, the group could feel nothing. It was almost as if they had all imagined the initial stirring to begin with.
Flynn arched an eyebrow. He lifted up slightly, opening his muzzle—
“It silences,” the mare whispered—barely audible.
Nevertheless, Flynn heard her. And he obeyed. He gazed down the tunnel, his flesh-and-metal eyes making contact with Logan's gaze.
Logan made a face. His muzzle twisted as he mouthed a few confused words. Just then, the wyvern behind him shifted nervously. Logan turned to see the hairs on Kepler's back bristling with sudden anxiety. Kepler's scorpion tail curled tighter as he threw the rest of the Heraldites a worried look.
It was around that time that a crackling sound emanated from one wall of the tunnel. It came from Logan's left, right in the space afforded between himself and Flynn.
As the noise intensified, Logan felt Kepler's claws pressing ardently into his withers. Holding his breath, the large stallion shuffled backwards, dragging the drill along with him. As he and the wyvern retreated, a spot along the wall formed tiny microscopic cracks... then noticeably large fissures. Steam billowed into the room with a pronounced hiss. Shortly thereafter—
CRASSSSH!!!
—a vertical slice of wall broke open, immediately resembling one the many-many holes that surrounded the chamber where the Dihmer's equipment rested far back. More steam gusted through, filling the air of the tunnel with a rancid smell. As the subsequent fog dissipated, a globulous mass of... something birthed its way into the narrow space afforded between the two halves of the group. It undulated and shook, dribbling with reddish-brown moisture that seeped across the floor and devoured the spilled pebbles in acidic toxicity. With mucousy motions, the organic blob pulled its remaining psuedopodia from the adjoining passage that it had evidently made with its caustic discharge. The specimen lingered there, inflating and deflating like a living lung, resembling in no small part a pile of severed lizard tails enmeshed in three-layers of translucent amniotic sacks.
To say that the Job Squadders were grimacing at this would be an understatement. Once it became clear that the thing would be sharing the claustrophobic chamber with the four of them, Kepler worked to extinguish his torch.
Flynn likewise dimmed his horn—
—only for the Dihmer to press a hoof to his shoulder.
The stallion was startled by that—for several reasons. He looked to her to see her gesturing for him to simply remain still.
Kepler froze in place, his spectacled eyes darting between the creature and his torch.
The monstrosity made no notice of the flame—or any light for that matter. It rested there, undulating. Every once in a while, puffs of steam would emanate from where its wet mass met the stone floor. The air rolled once, twice, thrice over with fouler and fouler stenches as the beast burned the remnants of the spilled stone all around it. Consuming.
This continued for the space of five agonizing minutes.
Suddenly, there was an even greater expulsion of gas and steam. The whole tunnel shook like a resonating chamber. A pronounced growl rose from the center of the beast, then shifted and wobbled as if the thing possessed an organic centrifuge. What happened next startled the group in its ferocity. Two or three separate weights shifted from within the beast and—
SPL-SPL-SPLORRRCH!
—three separate tentacles were conjured from within. There were no existing orifices for them. They simply sliced their way out of the creature's outer flesh layer, spilling acid and dirty fluids in the process. The every square inch of the tentacles were covered with what resembled tiny cat mouths—bearing razor sharp teeth. The fibrous tendrils lashed blindly towards nothing and everything.
CL-CLACKKKK!
They landed on the tunnel wall opposite of the fresh hole through pure luck, latching on and pulling the hulking weight of the beast closer. The split group watched as those same razor-toothed mouths vomited viscous dollops of acidic compounds. Then, with nightmarish ease, the beast ate through the rock wall like a hot knife might burn through ice cream. It went about this task with remarkable speed, yet slowly and methodically for some reason. Upon longer observation, the Heraldites realized that the major sack of the beast was somehow reabsorbing the remaining traces of acid, no doubt re-constituting it back into itself... as evidenced at the pearl-smooth burn marks left on the stone in its wake.
The grumbling resounded. The beast birthed newer and newer tentacles, retracting the old ones that had finished their initial tasks. In such a fashion, the creature departed into the womb of stone, carving out a fresh new tunnel with great ease.
The echoes of the creature's digging continued, forcing the group to remain silent and still until it was safe enough—or at least comfortable enough—to move. It was during this point that something shifted around the Dihmer's position. The other three sensed a flicker of pale silver light.
The Dihmer hitched her breath. Two hooves flew to her saddlebag, and she clasped her fetlocks over the shard that Plato had given her. The chaos serpents flowing in and out of them were immediately stifled. The silver glow died out.
But their existence had an effect. The echoes stopped altogether, and all was still from the fresh tunnel being dug.
...until suddenly it wasn't.
Shaking. Quaking. Thundering. Then—in a burst of steam—the nightmarish blob returned to the new hole it had made, settling and bubbling there like fresh pus settling beneath pierced acne.
Logan, Kepler, and Flynn flinched. The mare kept calm, clasping her saddlebag close.
The filthy epidermis of the creature rippled and vibrated. Tiny movements shifted noticeably beneath the pliable flesh, like an eye sweeping left and right, battling with cataracts. At any moment—the group thought—tentacles might lash out and fill the space of the tunnel with teeth and acid. But this did not happen.
Another rumble...
...and the creature returned back into the tunnel, like a water balloon filled with mud that drooped into a concrete recess. The echoes were softer this time, and the puffs of steam intermittent and timely. Within ten minutes, it had carved its way far enough for the group to feel more than safe.
“My starrs and garrterrs...” Kepler sweated beside the torch in his clawed grasp. “Does everrything on the darrkside rrequirre such a detestable aesthetic??”
Flynn reached out and gingerly touched the stone surface where the creature had passed. He exhaled with relief. “Guess it really does suck everything up.” His mechanical eye trained on the others. “Should be safe for us to traverse.”
“Hey...!” Logan hissed, dragging the drill with him as he approached the mare he was frowning at. “...lady! When were you gonna tell us about the demon cat nip you've got stowed away in your bag?”
Flynn's brow furrowed. “The Hell you on about, Big Show?”
“Don't play stupid, dude!” Logan pointed at her saddlebag. “The thing only came back cuz of her chaos lizards doing the loopty-loopty!”
“It supplies,” the mare said without an ounce of ego.
Logan grunted. “The hell does that even mean?! The hell does any of the stuff you say even mean?!?”
“It's rratherr self-explanatorry, frriend,” Kepler said in an emphatically hushed tone—as if suggesting Logan maintain the same. “The drrill rrequirres chaos metals to prroperrly operrate. It stands to rreason that she would need to carrry rreserrves with herr when collecting the varrnish.”
“A bit of forewarning would have been really friggin' nice!” Logan hissed, his “quiet” whispers nonetheless sounding like playground grunts. “I mean... like... before we even signed up for this whole mess! It would have been nice to know that we'd be dealing with zombie acid poop monsters from beyond the grave!”
“You gotta read between the lines with her kind, Big Show,” Flynn said. “It's the only way to make it work.”
“Besides...!” Kepler managed a hopeful smile. “She's evidently done this countless times without ourr chivalrrous assistance! It stands to rreason she's managed swimmingly despite what she's forrced to carrry in herr bags!”
“Yeah, but it's different now! She's got us!” Logan huffed. “And we've seen enough from these ponies to know that they only care about Light Siders as far as they can throw them off their tail! They don't even care about their own lives!” He swung an angry hoof. “I, for one, wanna live as long as I can to actually witness the Austraeoh fixing shit in this broken world! I dun wanna become living-poop-food needlessly because our guide can't be assed to think twice about common safety!”
“Dude...” Flynn's good eye narrowed. “...she told us to stay silent and keep low. She just now saved our skins. What's your friggin' deal?”
“What's your deal??” Logan gestured. “Doesn't it bother you in the slightest that she hasn't been fully complicit with us about the crap we're facing in these caves?! Facing a challenge is one thing. I'm no coward—but I hate being forced to be an idiot against my choice!”
“Come on...” Flynn shook his head, chuckling. “Aren't you being kinda ridiculous?”
“Ach...” Kepler fidgeted guiltily. “Logan makes a good point, frriend. Ourr Dihmerr guide has not been verry communicative with us. And it's morre than just a merre consequence of herr culturre. We—as the Herraldic Seven—function best when we have prroperr inforrmation at ourr disposal. If we werre still converrsing casually back in herr shack, it would be one thing. But we arre now in the thick of it—and therre is no turrning back.”
“Okay... okay...” Flynn sighed, waving his hooves. “...yeah, you're right. She should have told us these things way earlier. Or at least tried. But let's not jump to conclusions. She's not trying to maliciously use us as sacrificial bait or some shit.”
“I'm not saying that she's malicious, dude,” Logan said. “But rather that she simply doesn't care.” His eyes narrowed. “Do you remember anything back on the Light Side more dangerous than apathy?”
Flynn bit his lip. He hung his head with drooping ears.
“The next best thing, perrhaps...” Kepler spoke. “...is to addrress ourr concerrns to ourr guide.”
“Yeah. I'll start.” Flynn turned around. “Hey... uhm... sorry about all the noise, but could we chat for a sec—” His good eye blinked.
The Dihmer was meters upon meters ahead, traversing the long tunnel on her own, slowly creeping towards their intended destination.
“There...!” Logan gestured. “See what I mean?!”
“Ach...” Kepler rubbed his head. “Habits arre harrd to brreak when you'rre rraised without believing in them.”
“Or ambition.” Logan huffed, shouldering the weight of the drill once again. “Or a conscience.”
“Can we can it with the Judgement 101 and just get this over with?!” Flynn hissed.
“Hey...” Logan cracked his joints and moved ahead. “...I can get behind that. Light us up, dude.”
Flynn sighed. Nevertheless, he summoned more glow into his horn, trotting up behind Logan as the group attempted to catch up with the mare.
“Rrelax, brrotherr...” Kepler patted Flynn's side with his scorpion tail before moving ahead with the torch in one claw. “I, forr one, believe we arre making grreat strrides in communicating with herr.”
Flynn looked sadly ahead at the mare—a mere dot beyond the form of Logan at this point. “Or maybe... we're just fools for even trying.”
Eighteen Hours After Rainbow Dash and Her Party Left
A dark passage...
Leading to an even darker hovel... …
...the shape of a mare's shaven head leaned into the narrow space, peering within. The cave system behind her lit up as Flynn trotted up. Her silhouette increased in size and detail as she moved through the narrow passage, entering the larger hollow. Flynn followed, and soon his horn illuminated the full length of the chamber... which was indeed quite fully and lengthy.
That particular cavern stretched for about ten square meters—almost perfectly circular. In the dead center of the chamber was a boulder surrounded by a pile of rocks. The ground upon which the debris rested was slightly raised above the surrounding surfaces, resembling a dais of sorts.
“Huh...” Flynn's mechanical eye rotated in and out at the sights. “...that's... different.”
“What's d-different??” Logan huffed and puffed. The large stallion was strong, but this extensive underground trek put more than a bit of strain on his usual endurance. He sweated profusely, heaving the drill into the chamber through the narrow entrance. Once inside, he landed the mechanism—(CLUNK!)—on the ground and leaned against it, panting. He squinted through a curtain of perspiration. “It's just...” A gesturing hoof. “...j-j-just another dung hole.”
“Ach...” Kepler adjusted his spectacles, staring at the circular chamber. “I feel something is quite peculiarr about this place.” He pointed at the boulders and rocks in the dead-center. “It looks to me as though this was all carrved with specific purrpose.”
“Like... what?” Logan gulped, and panted some more. “Some other Dihmers dug this place out before us?”
“Not Dihmerrs, frriend.” Kepler ran his claws along the smooth floor surrounding the centermost rise. “These arre the same acid burrns that were used to forrge the tunnels that brrought us herre.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “You mean the poop-balloons made this place?!”
“Affirrmative.”
“What in balls for?”
“It nests,” the mare calmly stated, currently in the process of scouring the walls.
“It nests?!” Logan blanched. “You mean this is home-sweet-home for those living-breathing colostomy bags?!”
“I don't see... uhhhhh...” Flynn stood close to the center, scratching his head. “...any poop 'eggs'.”
“I doubt they've begun breeding yet,” Kepler said. “Although I doubt that they'rre capable of laying eggs. I have my perrsonal bet on defecational asexual budding! Ha-HAH!” When nopony laughed at his “joke,” the wyvern chose to clear his throat and speak on, gesturing towards the boulder and neighboring rocks in the room's center. “Those rock samples arre undoubtedly sourrces of nourrishment to ween the newly-birrthed younglings.”
“Well, buck all that noise,” Logan grunted, moving to hoist the drill over his haunches again. “Rnnngh... we gotta g-get out of this forsaken place before the toilet orgy begins!”
“It remains,” the Dihmer immediately retorted.
“H-huh?!”
As the group looked at her, she gestured to the wall. “It varnishes.”
“What?” Flynn squinted his good eye.
She looked at him, pointing calmly to the wall. “It varnishes.”
When there was no response, she exhaled through her nostrils and motioned him closer. Flynn approached, and as the stallion unicorn's horn glowed closer to the wall...
“Whoah...” Logan stammered.
“My starrs and garrterrs...” Kepler mouthed.
Flynn blinked in surprise. His light spell reflected a full wall of glittery material. The rough surface was comprised of a completely different substance than the rest of the cave. It was as if naturally-made sparkly studs were mixed evenly with the craggy, uneven rock.
“It varnishes,” the mare said again.
“Yeah yeah... we get it. Finally.” Flynn gulped, waving his horn left and right, catching more and more glitter. “Is it... some kind of node?”
“Rresembles pyrrite,” Kepler remarked, holding his torch close. “Orr something of similar texturral composition. Therre's an abundance of deposits much akin to it in Dust Prrefecturre back on the Light Side.”
“Foal's gold,” Logan remarked. “Lots of dumbasses in Rohbredden died over that shit.,”
“Hah!” Kepler turned to grin at his companion. “You and I come frrom vastly differrent upbrringings, frriend!”
Flynn whistled. “The here and now, guys.” He looked towards the Dihmer. “Is this the stuff we gotta drill for the varnish?”
“It collects,” the mare said. “It collects and trades for that which sustains.”
“Riiiiight...” Flynn nodded. “So I guess we're on the right track. What happens next?”
The mare turned towards the drill. Her eyes lifted, making contact with Logan. “It belches.”
“... … ...” Logan gave her a blank stare. “I'm sorry...?”
“It belches.” She pointed at the drill. “It brings that which drills to collect.”
“I dun get it... what's belching?”
“I believe she's addressing you, Big Show,” Flynn muttered, eye rolling.
“Affirrmative.”
Logan's jaw dropped. “Awwww come on now! What, did you ponies burn all your dictionaries and snort up the ashes?! Can't you at least pronounce a two-syllable name—?!”
“Just bring the drill closer to the wall, dude, yeesh,” Flynn said, struggling not to face-hoof.
“One must admit...” Kepler smirked through his tusks. “It is quite accurrate.”
“Hrmmfff...” Logan huffed and puffed, dragging the drill over to the wall. “...I'll show you what's 'accurate',” he mumbled under his breath. “'It pisses out its mouth.' How's that for an accurate depiction of somepony?”
“It suffices.”
“Awwwwwwwww shuddup.” Logan grunted, heaving the drill until it pointed its large bit towards the glittery wall. “There. How's that?”
“It drills.” The mare slid in, gripping the controls with her hooves. She hissed under her breath, straining slightly as she pivoted the drill towards the midsection of the wall. “It collects—”
“Wait.” Flynn held a hoof up. A breath, and he looked at her. “...let me be the one who operates it.”
“Flynn, now's not the time to white-knight-it,” Logan said.
“I'm serious,” Flynn said. He faced the mare. “This isn't the same circumstances by which you've operated this thing before.” He pointed at the drill. “I've had to jury-rig a bunch of shit to it... to get it to operate off of a hybrid of chaos energy and traditional unicorn enchantment.”
“So...” Logan frowned. “...even you don't know how to operate it.”
“Dude! I more or less re-built this damned thing!” Flynn said. “What I'm saying is that I'm the only one who can properly work the drill at this point!” He looked at Kepler. “We've spent hours trotting deep into these friggin' caves. Do we really wanna risk the machine breaking and wasting all that precious time?”
“... … ...” The mare looked aside, then back at the drill. “It is a false glimmer.”
“Yeah. I know,” Flynn said, facing her. “You've worked with chaos metal before, but this is different. The only way I could have fixed it was doing it my way. You've done your job of bringing us here, but... I really really think I should be the one to do the drilling. Only because it makes sense, with all the alterations I've made.” He swallowed, holding both hooves out. “But not if you won't permit me.”
The mare looked at him, then at the drill, then at the stallion once more. “It squints...”
“...yes?”
She held her breath, then leaned the heavy machine over towards him. “It drills.”
Flynn exhaled with relief. With the aid of telekinesis, he hoisted the drill into his own grip. “I-I promise to be careful with it.” A goofy smile. “Won't break on my watch.”
The mare merely huffed. “It attempts.”
Flynn's ears instantly drooped.
“Hah...” Logan smirked. “It pisses through its eyes is harsh, bro. I take everything back. I kinda like it.”
“Mrmmff...” Flynn pivoted the drill towards the wall. “...you would.”
“Don't starrt just quite yet.” Holding the torch, Kepler marched towards the mare. “Just how much of the materrial shall suffice forr the varrnish?”
“It collects enough to fill that which drills,” she said.
“So... all the way to the indicated meter...” Flynn gestured at the translucent display with the dormant arrow set at its minimal level. “That should fill its entire chamber.”
Kepler squinted at the mare. “Just one rraw collection?”
“It is enough,” she said. “It trades with those that refine.”
“The goblins...”
She continued: “Those that refine provide more of the false glimmer for that which lingers.” She looked at Flynn. “And that which aspires to float.”
“Cool...” Flynn nodded. “Varnish get!”
“What about the poopinators?” Logan asked. He gestured towards the narrow entrance to that closed-off chamber. “Once the chaos energy in the drill starts... chaosing... won't those monsters catch wind?”
“It lashes for that which has a false glimmer.” She turned to look deadpan at Flynn. “It is expedient that squints.”
“So that's it?!” Logan wheezed, gesturing madly. “We just... gotta do it fast and pray for the best?!”
“I can do the 'fast' part,” Flynn declared.
“Heh...” Logan nodded towards him. “You'd better.”
“Ach...” Kepler shrugged. “Leave the prraying to me, I suppose.”
“It is expedient as it collects,” the mare said. She pointed at the chamber. “And it falls short that lashes.”
“What...” Logan scratched his head. “...do you suppose that means?”
“Well, in theorry, the beasts that populate these chamberrs are decently sprread out... what—with theirr passive attempts at carrving out morre tunnels. It stands to rreason that—in prrevious attempts—she's allowed time forr the crretins to achieve such a distance that—once she does the drrilling—she finishes beforre they manage to apprroach herr position.”
“Yeah...!” Flynn nodded. “The drill might be huge, but not so much its inner chamber! We can totally fill the thing with the substance needed for the varnish and be out of here in time to juke-out those blind blobby bastards!”
“I dunno...” Logan weathered an anxious sigh. “...it was a long... long passage that brought us here. It'll make one hell of a sprint if those things end up chasing us.”
The mare appeared to put some thought into what she said next: “It... suffices which squints and which rolls its tongue.”
“I do believe we have a majorrity vote,” Kepler declared.
“Unanimous!” Logan barked at him, then looked down at the mare as he held his hoof up. “I'm believing in you here, it pisses.” His eyes narrowed. “Karma can't be that big of a bitch that I die to cesspool spawn all because of somepony with no ego.”
“It manages which belches,” she replied.
“Couldn't have said it better myself!” Flynn said with a smirk.
“And I'm believing in you too!” Logan grumbled. “Let's get this over with, already.”
“I shall keep an ear and eye on the passageway,” Kepler declared, standing next to the corridor.
“I'll try not to... suck up all the oxygen,” Logan said.
“Good to know we all have our stations.” Flynn looked at the mare. “So... we ready?”
She exhaled. “It drills.”
With a flicker of his horn, Flynn lifted the drill upwards, levitating the heavy machine perpendicular to the glittery wall. “Hold onto your flanks!” A grunt, another strobe of his horn, and—
VRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYKKKKKK!!!
The bit spun. The chassis flickered with silver light from within. Half of the room fluctuated with a hazy gray aura.
“Whew...!” Flynn's mechanical eye rotated. Amidst his strain, he managed a sweaty smile. “Got a nice smell, doesn't it?!?”
“Just friggin' drill the wall!” Logan hollered over the noise. “Damn!”
“Drilling—!” Clenching his teeth, Flynn floated the apparatus into the wall.
CRKKKKKKKKKTTTTT!!!
Almost immediately, pebbles and flecks of dust spilled out everywhere in a cone from the point of impact. As smoke rose, it looked as though a miniature cloud was raining sparkles over the far end of the cavern.
“Ach!” Kepler grimaced, holding his torch away from the constant spillage. “Is it supposed to be making such a spectacularr display?!”
“Gotta hoof it to Keps, dude!” Logan shouted above the tumult. “It seems to be spilling everywhere!”
“Just... wait... for... it...!” Flynn hissed.
The silver light within the chassis flickered brighter. The others watched as a noticeable stream of motion drifted into being. Strands of the glittery dust were being sucked into two distinctly different sections of the machine.
“Brrilliant!” Kepler beamed into the torchlight. “It worrks!” A spectacled blink. “...it does worrk, yes?”
Flynn panted. His natural eye darted down towards the apparatus in his magical grip. He looked at the translucent meter set within the center of the control panel. It was subtle at first, but—sure enough—there was a noticeable wobble to the little arrow. Centimeter by centimeter, it began rising up the measured line. If he refocused his gaze, he could look through the meter and see the actual raw material gathering in all its glittery glory within the hollow of the machine's housing chamber, reflecting the aura of the chaos energy with a silver sheen.
“It collects!” The mare could barely be heard above the cacophony of everything.
“Yes! Yes—we're in business! Woohooo!” Flynn beamed.
“It's filling up??” Logan asked.
“Sure is!” Flynn nodded, sweating. Smiling. Sweating and smiling. “Quick, too!”
“Well done, brrotherr!”
“Reaching twenty percent! Twenty-five! Thirty—!”
Just then...
FL-FLASSSSH!
...a pair of translucent serpents leapt out of the machine, circled Flynn's body, then flew right back in with tiny otherworldly hisses.
Everyone was silent.
“... … ...” Flynn's good eye blinked. The drill was vibrating now at an alarming frequency. “Uhm...”
Then—from a distance—loud roars echoed. Kepler and Logan spun towards the passage that led into the cavern, hearing the gargling growls intensifying wildly by the second.
“It's... uh...” Flynn gulped. “...it's not filling quite so quickly anymore.”
Logan threw him a double-take. “What do you friggin' mean?!”
“It lashes,” the mare said. “It comes to consume the false glimmer.”
“Yeah yeah—I get that.” Logan looked past her at Flynn. “But why's it slowing?”
“I... I-I don't know...” Flynn winced. “It's climbing past thirty percent still... but at a snail's pace.”
“Yeah, but why, egghead! Why?!”
“I-I'm not sure! I fixed this thing before I knew that there would be gross-out creatures that fed on the energy source!” He threw a sweaty glance at the others. “In the past—when she worked this thing until it broke—it probably worked like greased lightning! But... s-something must be slowing my alterations now that there's... some k-kind of f-feedback between the energy core and the creatures!”
The roars doubled... tripled. Vibrations began rolling through the outer walls of the cavern.
“Well... shut it off!” Logan exclaimed.
“But the varnish—!”
“We can kiss this cave goodbye and find other spots to drill!” Logan stomped a hoof. “Just shut it off before they get here!”
“... … ...” Flynn's horn flickered and flickered. “... … …!” His face paled over with panic.
“What's the matterr?” Kepler asked.
“I... I can't get it to switch off!” Flynn's voice cracked. “The chaos fluctuations must have overloaded its inner wiring!”
“Then just smash it! Force it to shut down!” Logan's nostrils flared. “Better yet...” Schiiiing! He unsheathed his axe and marched over. “I'll do it—!”
“No, dumbass!” Flynn hollered above the collective noise, moving his body to block him. “Stay where you are!”
“We'll become poop-mod-poop if we don't stop—!”
“I don't know if I can get this thing operating again if we physically force a shut down!”
The mare raised her voice, if only to be heard: “It must finish which drills or it will not collect!”
“This may be our only ticket to cross the blob!” Flynn exclaimed. “Rainbow Dash's only ticket!”
“Betterr make a decision, brrotherrs!” Kepler hollered from the chamber's entrance. The ground beneath him was shaking now. “They shall surrely be upon us within minutes!”
“I'm tellin' ya...” Flynn pointed at the meter. “It's barely at forty percent! We don't have minutes!”
“Bro...” Logan brandished the axe. “None of us will be having necks, soon enough. We'll just have to find Rainbow Dash another way!”
“But—”
“You've got any better ideas?!”
Meanwhile...
...the mare had been reaching into her satchel. She pulled out Plato's strip of metal; already it was swimming with tiny, hissing chaos creatures. They glowed the brightest since the goblin had handed it to her. Her ears twitched—once or twice—but that was the closest thing resembling emotion.
Within the next second, she was looking up at the others, gripping the strip to herself.
“It distracts,” she said.
Flynn and Logan threw her surprised looks.
“H-huh?!” Flynn sputtered.
“It distracts!” she said louder, already moving towards the passage. “It distracts that which lashes! It is expedient!”
“No! Wait...!” Flynn tried reaching a hoof out, but his concentration on the drill threatened to wane. He channeled more energy into his horn, stuck there by the vibrating machine. “Dammit! Keps, stop her!”
“My dearr...!” Kepler grasped her fetlock with an ardent expression. “...such is verry noble of you, but no life is worrth rrisking unnecessarrily, not even y—”
FLAAAASSSH!
Both the drill and her strip of metal simultaneously billowed with dizzying energy. Kepler fell back on his haunches, momentarily blinded. Even Logan—situated across the chamber—reeled physically from the outburst. It took all of Flynn's strength to keep the drill from falling.
By the time the unicorn stallion could look back at the entrance, the mare was already marching out into the passageways beyond.
“It distracts that which lashes!” She waved the brightly-glowing strip. Translucent serpents and insects and other indistinct manifestations swirled in orbit around her resolute figure. “It drills that squints! It collects and trades for that which varnishes!”
“Don't...!” Flynn hissed through clenched teeth as his fellow Heraldites stumbled back to their hooves. “...please! For all that's good and harmonic—don't just throw your life away!”
“It does not live.” Her nostrils flared. “It lingers.” Like that, she turned and galloped away.
“No!” Flynn snarled, struggling with the drill. “Rrnnngh... goddess damn it!”
Kepler stood up, bracing himself against the wall. “Damnation...!” He picked his torch back up and made for the tunnel. “Worrry not, brrotherrs! I shall endeavorr to stop herr—”
“No you won't.” THUD! A heavy boulder slammed into the mouth of the exit, blocking it entirely.
Kepler jumped back, gasping.
Flynn threw a shocked look over his flank. “Big Show! What the Hell do you think you're doing?!”
“What's it look like?!” Logan rammed his shoulder into the boulder, shoving it even tighter against the passage. “Mrmmfff... last line of defense, dude!”
“But she just ran out there—!”
“You think I don't know that?!” Logan frowned, looking at Kepler. “And if Keps goes out there, he may be done for too!”
“We can't just feed her to the shit-wolves, bro!”
“She already made her decision!” Logan frowned back at Flynn. “You feel those vibrations?! Those gross freaks are rolling up here at any second! We split the party up any more and there'll be nopony coming back to Blobstain!”
“Dammit, Big Show! Do you even hear yourself—?”
“Do you?!” Logan had to shout above the surmounting noise as the entire earth shook around them. “I may not be the biggest fan of Little Miss Sunshine—but ages ago I took an oath! The same oath you took—to help out the Austraeoh at all costs! You ever wondered what it's like to struggle the way Rainbow Dash struggles? Well this is it, bucko! We can't afford to lose sight of the big picture! Nopony can!”
“I... I...” Flynn grimaced through his sweat. “I... I-I can't...”
“I know, bro...” Logan said. His ears drooped, but the lines in his muzzle remained hard. “And I think a lot of that is my fault.” He gulped. “We can hash it out another time—but for right now...” He pointed at the glowing machine. “You deadass stick to that drilling! How's that for a little picture?”
Flynn tore his gaze away from the other two. He leaned towards the machine, absorbing himself in the deafening noise. The meter was rising ever so slowly, but he didn't bother looking at it. His natural eye clenched tightly shut... but the mechanical one stayed open. He was powerless to change that.
“She...” Kepler panted, steadying himself against a wall as the torch billowed from the resounding roars beyond. “...she is gifted with mimetic knowledge of this inferrnal place.” The wyvern nevertheless gulped. “Surrely she will find a way to evade those beasts...”
Logan glared into the narrow space afforded between the boulder and the tunnels beyond. “Yeah, sure.” He breathed tightly. Standing still. Sweating.
Eighteen and a Half Hours After Rainbow Dash and Her Party Left
She panted.
She panted more.
In her desperate hyperventilation, the mare's throat produced occasional squeaks that almost resembled emotion.
With the fluctuating strip of metal acting as her unexpected beacon, she lit the path ahead of her, galloping as evenly as she could upon wobbly ground.
As the roars echoed from multiple directions, vast tremors rippled through the tunnels in waves. Several of them nearly threw her off balance. Then—despite the ground that she covered—a final overwhelming quake knocked her onto her belly.
“Nnnfff!” The mare slid painfully across the ground. Her strip slid a few paces away from her.
Wincing, she squinted one purple eye open... then the other.
The strip rattled in the center of a dark, dark passageway. Serpents leapt left and right, vanishing with the same speed with which they had been conjured. The mare rested just beyond the umbral reach of the anomalous illumination.
With a burst of strength, she kicked back up onto all fours. She trotted forward, reached down, and grasped the strip.
Hissing...
Steam... …
The air filled with a rancid smell... … …
She hoisted the strip up. The passage had a dead end now—only it wasn't a wall of stone, but rather a rippling mass of flesh and mucous.
“... … ...” The mare stared at the unsightly beast in front of her.
It stood its ground, barely wobbling towards the source of the chaotic light.
Calmly... barely even breathing...
...the mare backed up. She turned around, hoisting the strip in her hoof as well.
A swath of silver light swam across the tunnel—revealing another wall of brownish, bulbous flesh. Past it, even more beasts were rolling in.
Surrounding her.
She closed her eyes. A meditative pose. Something hummed from deep within—low and bass and hymnal.
HRESSSSSSHHHHHH!
All at once, forks of branching tentacles burst out from the creatures and converged on the light source.
Now
“Push!” Flynn's voice cracked, his horn glowing as he forced the drill to chisel more and more at the wall of glitter. “Dammit, Big Show, PUSH!”
“I... am... friggin' pushing!” Logan force his weight against the boulder, which was now struggling to contain an indomitable force from the other side. “What's taking you so damned long, baldy?!”
“I've almost got a full sample!” Flynn's mechanical eye was locked on the meter of the device. “Just a few more minutes!”
“M-minutes?!?!” Logan groaned. Cracks and fissures formed in the boulder. The air filled with a meathane-like scent as flashes of bio-luminescence intensified from beyond the fragile barrier. “Dammit, Flynn! Don't you think we've got enough of that crap?!”
“Not until the meter is completely full!” Flynn panted. “If we return to Blobstain with any less, we won't have enough for the varnish! And her deal with the goblins won't pull through!”
The veritable earthquake had thrown Kepler to the floor. His torch went out, and he winced. He heard the other two Heraldites arguing, but could scarcely make out their words from the roaring noises beyond the barricade. “Th-they've arrrived,” he stammerred under his breath. His wings drooped. “My starrs... she m-must have not have made it! They'rre no longerr distrracted!”
In a panic, Kepler glided up and perched atop the boulder Logan was shouldering.
“Frriends!” The wyvern adjusted his spectacles and sputtered: “I brring discourraging news! The beast's mates appearr to have answerred its call! We arre soon to be outnumberred—”
“Keps!” Logan hollered, buckling under the strain. “You stupid diet manticore! Get your paws off the boulder before—”
It was too late. CRACK! The boulder split in two.
Milliseconds later—
P-POWWWWW!
—a phalanx of blue bio-luminescent tentacles birthed through, each accompanied by razor-teethed maws that snapped and bit in every direction, filling the cave from top to bottom.
CL-CL-CL-CLAKKKAAA!
“My starrs and garrterrs—!” Kepler went flying in one direction.
“Shiiiiiiit!” Logan went rolling in another.
“I got it!” Flynn beamed at the glowing drill now filled with the glittery material. “Dudes! I—” He turned around, his ears drooping as he faced a wall of incoming jaws. “—awwwwww poop.”
“Brrotherrs! Get down!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!!”
CRUNNNNNCH!