Currently Outside the Tree of Mothers
Rainbow Dash whistled. She rolled a roundish rune stone down one front fetlock, bumped it into the air, and juggled it onto the other forward limb—repeating the gesture in reverse. In such a fashion, she dribbled the glinting sample of moonrock back and forth in the starlight.
Seraphimus, Ariel, and Shriike sat in a row—all of them lingering upon the borders of a blood colt encampment within the shadow of the Dark Vigil's enormous Tree. The Imperial clerk in particular blinked through her thick glasses, slitted eyes following the moonrock bouncing back and forth over Rainbow's head.
The petite pegasus persisted in her nimble little game. At one point, she tossed the runestone high up, arched her neck, and caught it upon the bridge of her nose. She smirked at herself, playfully spinning the object on her muzzle's tip. She continued whistling.
“Isn't that...” Shriike squinted. “...a priceless sample of the Mother of Nightmare's sacred satellite? Harnessed and perfected by our distant cousins who are situated on the seared half of the plane?”
“Yuh-huh!”
Shriike fidgeted. The unicorn's saddlebags were bulging with tightly-packed notes and scrolls on either side of her. “Don't you think... youuuuuuuuuu should be a bit more careful with something that sacred and precious?”
“Nuh-uh!”
Ariel and Seraphimus exchanged glances.
Shriike frowned, her velvety cheeks puffing and turning noticeably red. “Aren't you afraid that somepony might randomly shout out one of the arcane commands and accidentally make your head explode?”
“Nahhhhh...” Rainbow bopped the runestone up high and spun around, catching it on her flank—where it proceeded to spin just above her tail.
Ariel watched.
Shriike's fang's glowed. “How can the avatar of Luna possibly be so care-free with something so dangerous?”
“It's easy.” Rainbow's ruby eyes darted over as she bore a devilish smirk. “I'll just bounce it your way and then your head will explode!” A beat. She jerked half-an-inch towards Shriike.
“Gaaa-aaaa-aaaiieee!” Shriike flailed all over, falling down on her back as scrolls and pamphlets spilled loose.
“Pfffft—braaa-hah hah hah!” Rainbow's voice cracked between bellowing chortles.
Ariel blinked. Heavily. “What... are we waiting for again?”
“Jordan,” Seraphimus droned, pointing blindly aside. “He's currently in the process of relie—”
A shrill whistle. The Desperado in question strolled up to the group, adjusting his bandoleer.
“Friggin' finally!” Rainbow tossed the runestone high up, opened a pouch of her saddlebag with her wingfeathers, and expertly caught the moonrock inside the satchel as it fell back down. “Took you long enough!”
Wildcard exhaled heavily through his beak nostrils. He gestured with swift talon-slices.
“Dude... chill!” Rainbow held her forelimbs up. “I get it! Believe me. The Dark Side makes finding the-little-adventurer's-room a billion times harder.” She began trotting towards where Lukaas and other sarosian chaperones waited closer to camp. “Granted, you are half cat, so I understand the whole 'being finicky' part.” She smirked aside at Seraphimus. “Maybe these dudes can make a moondust sandbox.”
“I should have slain you Steamfall.”
“You lose; you snooze.” Rainbow hollered back at Ariel and Shriike. “Get a move on, slowpokes! We've got edgelords to bump elbows with!”
Wildcard gestured something.
Rainbow smiled at him, shaking his head. “Don't you fret that feathery head of yours, dude. Nopony else can compare with you.” She blinked, the threw a strange look over her shoulder. “What are you going on about, Pinkie?” A beat. “Will you chillax, girl?! I'm sure the folks back at Blobstain are doing just fiiiine.”
Meanwhile...
CRACK! The boulder blocking the single entrance to the rocky chamber split in two. Within the same blink, a phalanx of blue bio-luminescent tentacles shot through, armed with razor-teethed maws that snapped in every direction, filling the came from top to bottom. CL-CL-CL-CLAKKKAAA!
“My starrs and garrterrs—!” Kepler went flying.
“Shiiiiiiit!” Logan went rolling.
“I got it!” Having filled the drill with the necessary sample, Flynn spun towards the chaos. “Dudes! I—” His ears drooped. “—awwwwww poop.”
“Brrotherrs! Get down!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!!”
CRUNNNNNCH!
Dust settled...
...and in so doing, the three Heraldites realized that there was still empty space to spare.
They stopped flinching...
...then slowly reopened their eyes. Flynn, Kepler, and Logan wheezed—gathering their collective breaths.
The entire rear half of the cave had collapsed behind them. The boulder, the dais in the center, and any signs of the invading bulbous monstrosities had completely vanished behind a collapsed chunk of rubble. Only after they had been afforded the momentary lapse in chaos did they realize that a resounding thunder was settling through the earth and stone all around them. It resonated from deep within the plateau, roughly in the direction from which they had initially spelunked.
“Did...” Logan kept his voice low and his body locked-still. His eyes wandered left and right across the dusty air of the cramped niche they were now in. “...did you do that, baldy?”
“No way...” Flynn clutched the machine that was still bristling with energy. Between its core and his glowing horn, the three individuals were eerily illuminated in that claustrophobic pocket of earth. “...I wasn't even near that wall.”
“Keps?”
“Ach, no...” The wyvern shook his head, spectacled eyes glued to the collapsed wall of rocks. “Even my finest alchemic concoctions couldn't prroduce rresults this drramatic.” He waved a claw before his tusked face. “And even if I wanted to, the space is too narrrow to afforrd a chance at surrvival!”
“Well something had to have collapsed the entrance on those creeps!” Flynn said.
Logan looked up at the ceiling. Multiple cracks were now birthed in place above them. “Maybe this place just had it coming. In which case—we gotta find a way out of here. And fast.”
“Oh crap!” Flynn's good eye widened. He nearly dropped the drill in sheer horror. “Oh goddess no!”
Kepler looked aside. “What is it, brrotherr?”
“It's her! It has to be!” Flynn grimaced. “When she ran out... to d-distract the freakjobs...” He trembled in place. “They must have converged on her all at once!”
“Baldy...” Logan raised a hoof. “Calm down—!”
“She...” Flynn shook and quivered. The light in his horn threatened to go out at any moment. “...sh-she must have attracted a whole bunch of them! All of those creeps burrowing tunnels into the same spot probably brought half the plateau d-down a-a-and—!”
“Flynn!” Logan grasped the unicorn's withers, glaring straight into his face. “Get your shit together! Now! I mean it!”
Flynn merely hyperventilated.
Logan pointed at the drill. “We got what we came for! Now—maybe she kicked the bucket, or maybe she didn't. She's resourceful as Hell, so my money's on the latter!”
“You... do y-you really think—?”
“It doesn't matter what I think!” Logan huffed. “Right now, we're trapped in a tiny pocket of earth, and we gotta figure a way out! That means you've gotta step up to the plate, pal! After all, you're the smartest one here!”
Kepler cleared his throat.
Logan turned and squinted at the wyvern. “No offense, Keps. Your biggest gift is eloquence, not eggheadeness.”
Kepler merely bowed. “I do concede, frriend...”
Breathing calmer, Logan turned towards Flynn. His eyes fell to the drill in his grasp. “Is that thing still functioning?”
“I... uh...” Flynn nervously fumbled with the device, looking it up and down. “...I think it's still good.”
“Do you suppose...” Logan scratched his stubbled chin. “...it can be used for more than just gathering samples?”
Kepler adjusted his glasses. “Do you prropose we use it to drrill ourr way out of herre?”
“Even if I could repurpose it...” Flynn's horn glowed as he struggled to harness the power of the apparatus. “...I really don't think it has enough 'oomf' to get us back to the surface.”
“It doesn't need to get us to the surface.” Logan pointed at the collapsed entrance. “It just has to carve us close enough to one of the nearby tunnels so we can burst through.”
“But what if those grotesque freaks are in the corridors?” Flynn stammered. “Waiting for us? Don't forget this baby runs on chaos energy—”
“We'll deal with that when we have to.” Logan gestured. “Right now, we're stuck in this place and I can't imagine we'll be able to breathe forever.” He exhaled, looking towards the rubble. “We just gotta make it to an open chamber and then we can rush back the way we came.”
“But...” Flynn started panting again. “...what about h-her?! We can't just leave without—”
Logan stared the unicorn down. “Keep your eye on the prize, bucko. One nightmare at a time.” He pointed. “We need you to get us out of here.”
“Okay...” Flynn nevertheless shuddered as he repeated: “Okay... okay okay o-okay...”
“Now... can you re-work the drill or not?”
“I... uh... I-I need a little bit of t-time...” Flynn gulped.
“That's fine, dude. Concentrate as much as you need to.”
“Gotta... uhm... gotta get the sample out. Pr-preserve it.”
“Ach.” Kepler reached into his bags and produced a few containers. “Allow me, brrotherr! I shall keep the rraw materrial forr the varrnish safe!”
“Thanks, Keps...” Flynn knelt low beside the wyvern and the drilling apparatus. Together, they endeavored to open the housing chamber and extract the contents within. “...couldn't do this without you.”
“As ourr beloved Big Show said, eyes frront. Orr—in yourr case—rrighteous monocularr forrwarrd!”
“Yeah... s-sure...”
Logan stood above the other two, keeping a wary gaze on the collapsed entrance to the chamber. The slightest of vibrations rolled through the underground sanctum. The large stallion breathed with steely contemplation.
Some time later...
In a dark patch of air enveloped by even greater darkness... …
… … ...tiny fissures of glowing light appeared, one spider-webbing fracture after another.
They were accompanied by a deep, low vibration, intensifying in volume and resonance.
Until...
CRKKKKK!
A section of wall crumbled to rocky bits, collapsing into the middle of a broad stretching tunnel. Three bodies emerged—Flynn with a glowing horn, Logan sweating and bearing the weight of the drill, and Kepler with his bags full of glittery samples. In the center of the trio, the chaotically-empowered apparatus was smoking and rattling. It was reaching the full extent of its structural integrity, but it had worked.
The Heraldites had emerged from their would-be tomb. And they were in one piece.
For now.
“Shhhhh!” Kepler held a claw before his tusked face. “We could be surrounded!”
“Not seeing any of them poop-bags,” Logan muttered.
“We cannot be too cerrtain!” Kepler gestured towards the drill. “Turrn it off, brrotherrs!” He exclaimed in a hoarse voice. “Quick!”
“It can't shut off immediately!” Flynn hissed back. True to his word, the apparatus held between him and Logan was slowly winding down, its inner chamber glowing less and less. “Besides, if I force it off right away, it might break completely!”
“It got us out of there, didn't it?” Logan huffed, covered in a sweaty sheen.
“Who knows if we might need it again in case of another cave-in or—”
But before Flynn could finish his statement...
...a throng of translucent reptiles flew out of the heart of the machine and slithered down the winding stone corridor, illuminating the twists and turns with their silver-ish glow.
“Harrk!” Kepler pointed after them.
“Shit...!” Logan clenched his teeth. “They must be seeking out the monsters!”
“This is different.” Flynn's good eye narrowed. “The manifestations never sought out the creatures before. Unless...?” His mechanical lens rotated inward as he sucked in a gasping breath. “... … …oh jeez!” He galloped off in a blur.
TH-THUNK! The drill fell to the ground as Flynn's telekinesis stopped upholding his half. Logan grunted, fumbling to counterbalance the entire device's weight. “Dammit, Baldy!”
“I'll stop him!” Kepler scampered off. “Brrotherr, wait—!”
“No! Friggin'—” Logan reached out, barely yanking Kepler back by the scorpion tail. “We can't split up any more than we already have!”
“But Flynn is—”
“On his own!” Logan huffed. “Meanwhile, you've got the makings of the varnish and the whole team can't afford to lose that!”
“Ach!” The wyvern frowned up at the large stallion. “But can we afford to lose Flynn?!”
“I think we already have. Ages ago.” Logan gazed sadly down the tunnel as Flynn's magic light drew further and further away. “Some way, somehow, he's gotta pull himself out of the damnable cave that he's been stuck in for ages” His nostrils flared. “Ever since that job south of Kihutaja...”
Kepler could only fidget and fumble in the darkness. “But... but what do we do?”
“Wait. Pray.” Grunting, Logan heaved the dimming drill over his backside. “And light a damn torch already...”
“Rright away, brrotherr...”
Huffing... puffing...
...Flynn ran down the twisting throat of darkness.
His sweaty muzzle glistened in the light of his horn. Galloping hooves echoed in multiple salvos across the limiting interior. His good eye looked in every direction, but he failed to find signs of the chaos manifestations that eluded him.
Cussing inwardly, he closed his good eye... focusing entirely on the spectral vision of his mechanical lens. The apparatus rotated and re-focused multiple times. Then—at last—he caught faint silver trails in the air. He followed the neck of the tunnel closest to the signature, and in so doing he spotted the tail-ends of the serpentine creatures.
“Thank Goddess...!”
The stallion accelerated, galloping at full speed. He lost traction more than once, bumping into the walls at tight turns, yet somehow never losing his momentum as he barreled forward. Soon, the serpents came into view, distant and flickering, casting a miniature halo of light that slid like dusty ice down the rocky tract.
Then—far ahead along a widening straightaway—the translucent creatures dipped and dissipated at a lone spot in the floor.
Flynn's breath caught in his throat. His hooves stopped moving, and he skidded and slid on locked limbs for several feet. The Heraldite opened his good eye—expecting only darkness. Instead, he found a tiny beacon of silver light strobing in the middle of the chamber.
Despite the adrenaline of the moment, the Job Squadder took a moment to expertly survey the scene. It was a narrow tunnel—just like all the other ones. Or, at least, it once was narrow. At some point—some time recently—it expanded in the center, like a bulge of pressure exploding in the center of a thinly-stretched garden hose. A rough round sphere had formed around a singular spot within the tunnel, indicating that a perfectly spherical explosion had transpired. At the bottom belly of such a sphere, lying limp and dormant beside a fluctuating strip of chaos metal, was the tell-tale body of a certain mare. She looked just as emotionless as ever, capitalized by an alarming lifelessness poured throughout her limp limbs.
“Oh no...” Flynn's one good eye instantly watered. “Oh no no no no no no!” He scampered forward—then felt a seething, burning pain on the tips of his hooves. “Aaaaugh!” He jumped back, shaking his fetlocks. He shone his horn down.
The immediate area surrounding the lip of the fresh spherical space was coated in brown fluid—a viscous muck that steamed visibly. Flynn's two front limbs still burned with low-level pain, suggesting an acidic compound was lining the tunnel interior. If he was smart, he'd call out to his two companions and wait for them to come and help in sweeping the path clean.
But Flynn wasn't feeling particularly smart. He leapt forward over the acid, simultaneously casting a telekinetic spell all around him. It was just enough to send his body into a temporary glide. He descended slowly through the steamy air, lowering like a guided feather into the heart of the spherical impression. When at last he landed beside the mare, he was mildly surprised to find that none of the acid coated the new floor.
Wasting no time, he squatted low and lifted the mare's body, cradling her in his forelimbs.
“Hey! Hey!” He gnashed his teeth, giving her another shake. “Wake up! Wake up, dammit! Speak to me! Please!” He teetered upon the brink of hyperventilation, his good eye filling with tears as he looked all over her features for a single sign of life. “Oh goddess, not you. Not you too! It's all my fault! I should have just dropped the drill and galloped after you! I should have—”
“It f-fails...”
“I know! I failed! And I—” Flynn gasped, his tearful eye locking on her stirring muzzle. “... ...say that again!”
“Mrmmfff...” One purple eye opened, then the other. “It sustains?” A slow blink. She looked emotionlessly at him, then at the warped tunnel above and around them. She exhaled slowly. “It does not sustain.”
“Will you shut up with the Dihmer drivel for once in your life! Oh... bucking goddesses on pogosticks...!” Flynn reached a hand up to rub his eye as he shuddered hard. “Friggin' Hell... you scared the ever-living crap out of me...”
Dazed, she looked up at him. “It squints...”
“It's d-doing a lot m-more than that n-n-now...” He wheezed and sputtered, struggling to keep his emotions grounded. It took some effort, but he kept from outright sobbing. At least for the moment. Summoning a frown, he lifted the mare up into a sitting position and snarled: “Just what were you thinking?! Galloping out like that?!”
“The false glimmer...” She felt around, looking for the strip of metal. “...it eludes...”
“Here you go, dammit!” Flynn angrily shoved the fractured chaos strip into her grasp. He nevertheless continued to gape at her. “How in the Hell did you survive?! The creatures had to have chased you down'n'shit!” He pointed at the edges of the spherical impression. “Just what in Mortuana's name happened to them?!”
The mare looked up. Her ears flicked to a crackling sound. From the combined glow of the stallion's horn and her silver strip, she saw fresh fissures forming in the ceiling directly above. “It squints...”
“I just don't understand...” Flynn wheezed and shivered, shaking his head. “...why do you have to be such a crazy mystery?! Why are you so bent on sacrificing yourself before somepony—anypony—can understand—”
She pointed straight up. “It falters.”
“Huh?” He looked up—just in time for the shadow of the falling ceiling to envelope them both. “Holy shit—!!!”
Even the Dihmer flinched from what happened next—but it wasn't the falling rocks. Rather... it was due to the vastly glowing field of magic that was covering them like a dome, pushing back against the collapsing ceiling. In a startled fit, the mare looked at the stallion that was beside her.
Flynn's features were stretched to the snapping point. Rivulets of sweat ran down his body and his horn glowed brighter than most beings on the Dark Side had ever witnessed. All of this because he was consistently performing the phenomenal task of keeping the two of them alive—a feat that required him to be anchored in place with all four limbs spread apart while his horn fought against the untold weight of the plateau's mass above.
The mare merely blinked. “...it struggles—”
“Sh-shut up!!” Flynn sputtered, wheezing his lungs' worth with each shuddering second. “Get out of here already! Go! Gallop to safety!”
Her features shifted—belying the smallest degree of confusion. “It does not suffice—”
“Why won't you save yourself?!” Flynn clenched his teeth. Sweat ran down his muzzle, dribbling through his lips. “Your life is precious, dammit! All of your lives are!” The telekinetic field fluctuated. Chunks of rock shifted, sinking deeper towards his buckling figure and her prone body. “Rnnnggrhh... gnrrkkt...!” His horn pulsated, threatening to dim at any second. “Why act like everypony's gotta be miserable and doomed? Just fight back! You can! You've got to!” His good eye clenched shut. His knees buckled. A whimper came from his lips. “I can't... I-I can't do it f-for you... I can't do it all... goddess help me I-I just can't...”
The mare did not run away, nor did she chide him for his excessive show of passionate heroism.
She merely sighed...
...then stood up.
Flynn sensed her shifting limbs. His eye flew open to see her standing straight and tall, staring emotionlessly into the deathly weight of rocks collapsing above them.
“What are you d-doing?!” Flynn's voice cracked. “Run! I've got this!”
“It fails,” she muttered, and her facial features tightened with concentration.
“No it doesn't! Just g-go already! Who cares what happens to—” Flynn's mechanical eye retracted in alarm at a bright pulse of light. “....me?!?”
FLASSSSH!
An enormous discharge of energy threw him off his fetlocks. His telekinetic field died in a blink, and the rocks above him flew...
Elsewhere...
Logan and Kepler were making swift headway down the winding tunnels of the plateau. Just then, a resounding vibration rolled through the earth, shaking them wildly.
“Guhhh!” Logan teetered hard to his side. He braced himself against the stone wall of the corridor before he risk dropping the drill.
Kepler—a far nimbler creature—managed to brace himself with his tail. Soon, the vibrations subsided. “Ach...” He gaped with wonder in the light of his torch. “...morre of those crreaturres?”
“I sure don't smell any of them,” Logan said. “I think that was something else.”
“The strructurral integrrity of these chamberrs must be collapsing,” Kepler declared. “Goddess help us if we even have an exit available anymore.”
Logan took a deep breath. “Only one way to find out.” He motioned for the wyvern to follow and pressed forward.
“... … ...” Flynn's natural eye blinked open. He felt something thin and soft pelting his nose, and his muzzle wrinkled. Squinting upwards in the dim gray light of chaos metal, he saw a fine “snow” of dust and sediment sprinkling over his figure.
He wasn't alone. The mare stood in the center of an even larger chamber than that which surrounded them previously. Just like the first impression Flynn discovered, this compartment was perphically spherical. His Dihmer acquaintance stood beside him in the bottommost epicenter. The broken ceiling of loose rocks was nowhere to be sound, and Flynn's expert deductions made an immediate connection to the fine layer of dust settling around the two of them.
But surprised him the most, without a shadow of a doubt, was—
“You...” His lips quivered, his flesh-and-mechanical eyes reflecting a bright purple glow.
The mare took deep breaths, recovering from a dizzying output of mana. The tip of her stubby horn glowed with violet intensity, slowly dimming back to the dull nub it had always appeared to be. Despite the monumental effort that had gone into the magical outburst which stayed the complete cave-in, she looked less-than-pleased with herself. Her sighs were heavy things, and she pivoted towards the Heraldite, her downcast eyes locked on the settling dust between them.
“Y-you...” Flynn sat up, shaking all over. “...you did magic!” He gulped hard. “You obliterated all of those rocks...” His good eye twitched. “... … ...just like you must have zapped all the monsters when they attacked you.”
“It fails...”
“Wh-What...?” He blanched.
“It fails,” she repeated, her voice low and humming. It was the faintest hint of an emotion—and an entirely shameful one at that. “As it collects and trades and crafts, it also manifests.” A wave of the hoof between her horn and the higher ceiling. “It expels that which anchors. And for that, it fails.” Another sigh... prolonged this time. “As it also lingers.”
“All this t-time...” Flynn clenched his teeth. “You had so much power... so much strength... and you refused to use it?!?”
“It does not suffice to release—”
“Who the b-buck cares?!” Flynn tried to stand up but only fell back to his haunches. “Mrmmff—Don't you get it?! You're talented as Hell! You could do wonders for everypony in Blobstain! The goblins too! Why hold all of that back?!”
“It fails—”
“No! No!” Flynn punched the stone floor with his hoof. “I'm sick and bucking tired of hearing you sell yourself short! We're put on this plane to do good for each other! Not... n-not linger around in darkness and let everypony kill themselves for no good reason! Don't you get it?! You can do so much good! You can do so much that... that...”
His words cut off. It was a blissful silence at first, but unbecoming of the stallion. Perhaps that—more than anything—caused the mare to turn her head and look curiously at him.
He had bent over, shaking all over—on the brink of total collapse. Shuddering breaths rolled through the stallion's figure as he stammered to produce: “... … …so useless. I couldn't do a thing. I gave it my all. I threw in all the t-talent and st-strength and intelligence I had... and st-still it couldn't m-make a difference.” He sniffled, grimacing. “She died. Her d-daughter died. So many friggin' ponies have died and you... I-I can't even save you when I want to!” He hiccuped on the first of many sobs. “You're not the one who lingers! I am! I'm useless! Just a worthless sack of bald-ass meat! I d-don't even know why Rainbow and the others k-keep me around! Everypony is as g-good as dead whether I'm around or not around!”
As he heaved and wheezed...
...the mare stood calmly before him. She looked to the side, spotting the fractured strip of metal that Plato had given her. Its surface was imperfect, and its silver glow was an erratic shimmer at best—but somehow that made it all the more valuable. At least, to goblins, it did. They were just one of many silly creatures, defined by their attachments, culminating in the thinnest inch above nothing.
But an inch, nonetheless.
Deadpan, the mare stepped forward. She knelt before the stallion. She spoke:
“It releases.”
Flynn wheezed and shuddered. Sniffling, he looked up. “Wh-what...?”
She stared the stallion in his face. “It releases.”
“I...” Flynn rubbed his face from fresh tears. “...I-I don't understand...” He swallowed a lump down his throat. “That... st-stupid Dihmer speak.”
“It releases.” She stared intently at him. Solid. Emotionless. “It releases.”
“I-I heard you the first time—”
“It releases.”
“I said—”
She reached out and grasped his shoulders. “It releases—”
“Rnngh!” He batted her arms away. “Don't touch me—!”
“It releases—”
“Stop it with the damned mantra! Stop! Just...” He buckled. He hunched over, clutching his skull. “...stop... please...” He shook his head, whimpering. “Wish I could... j-just stop lying in there... with her little body in my fetlocks...” His breathes grew more and more ragged. “...just... no use... wish... w-wish I could just stop... stop and let her go... just let her g-go you stupid bucking idiot...”
The Dihmer slowly exhaled. Her ears drooped—like mountains shifting. “It fails.”
Somepony broke, and it wasn't her. Flynn's whimpers expanded into full-fledged sobs. He collapsed against the dusty floor of the chamber, wailing a tearful storm with no calm in sight. The spherical shape of the chamber provided ironic acoustics, so that he was assaulted on all sides from the echoes of his own despair. Only this time—layer by weighted layer peeling away—he accepted the baptism it provided. Even if it wasn't a very graceful thing, Flynn lingered there.
She simply sat before him, patient and silent, staring a million miles into the stone that entombed them. Almost as if it was a reflection.
It was a considerable length of time later that Kepler and Logan still found themselves awkwardly traversing the winding corridors of the plateau. With each turn that the pair made, the larger of the two grumbled with tighter and tighter expressions of deep consternation.
“Rnnngggh... Goddess damn it...” Logan huffed, still sweating as he shifted the weight of the drill across his backside. “...she made it look so blasted easy when she led us into these caves.”
“Quite rright, brrotherr...” Kepler lit the third torch since they first set out from the cavern that had caved-in around them. “...if nothing else, this should teach us a thing orr two about prroperrly memorrizing ourr steps.”
“Mrmfff...” Logan made another turn. “...Flynn's the one who's good at that. Sucks that I'm always depending on him for that. I should work my brain bone harder.”
“How farr into the plateau do you suppose he went?” Kepler swallowed a lump down his throat. “Once we find ourr way back to the entrrance, it stands to rreason that we'll have to stage a searrch and rrescue. Perrhaps employing mushrroom crrumbs, seeing how brread is lacking herre...”
“Boy...” Logan shook his head. “...will I hate having to report to Rainbow that we lost track of our smartest Heraldite.” He cussed his his breath as they went down another adjoining corridor. “Even if he was the one who ran off like a sarosian outta Hell.” A shudder. “...I keep hoping that between all our wrong turns and his, we'd eventually run into one another.”
Kepler's torchlight caught a glint of something reflective—a mechanical eye lens. “Ach...!” He smiled through his tusks, raising the torch higher. “And what of a rright turrn, brrotherr?”
“H-huh...?” Logan craned his neck. Instantly, his ears perked. “Shit on a biscuit! Baldy at bitch'o'clock!” He galloped forward with the drill and all. “Keps, you're a life saver!”
“I trry not to brrag...”
On stomping hooves, Logan approached the sight of his fellow Job-Squadder. He skidded to a stop, blanching at the large round chamber that had somehow been forged in the neck of the tunnel. “...the b-buck is all this?”
The dihmer stood up above a dazed and tired Flynn. “It vacates which lashes,” she said in a calm tone. With a simple motion of her hoof, she slid the chaos strip neatly into her saddlebags. “It suffices to bring that which it collects.”
Logan blinked. “Yyyyyyyeah... but even still...” He gestured at the dust and altered stone around them. “...what the buck???”
Flynn stirred. Sensing other bodies nearby, he sat up, rubbing his natural eye for a prolonged period of time. He sniffled audibly more than once.
“Flynn!” Kepler stood beside Logan at the lip of the spherical impression. “A trrue blessing it is to see you both in stable condition!” He shown his torch around, illuminating dark brown patches staining the local stone. “Good heavens!” He looked again at the two ponies in the crater below. “Darre I ask just what trranspirred herre?”
“Yeah, dude...” Logan witnessed. “Looks like a friggin' warzone.” He looked at the mare. “How'd you fend those freaky things off?”
The mare's jaw clenched tightly. Her eyes averted Logan's gaze as her hairless tail went limp.
Flynn blinked up at her. His ears twitched. “Uhm...” Clearing his throat, he turned to gaze up at the other two. “...I showed up just in the nick of time. She was surrounded. And... well...”
“... … ...well what?”
“I took 'em out,” Flynn said hoarsely. He gulped. “N-nearly took us both out in the process. But... hey...” A nervous smirk. “When have I ever done anything smoothly?”
The mare looked up, blinking at Flynn.
Kepler's jaw hung open. “You did all this?”
“Well, it was either the poop monsters or us.”
“Ach... a most marrvelous show of forrce, my frriend.” Kepler chuckled. Ha-HAH! I did not know you had it in you!”
“Yeah well...” Flynn battled a crooked smile, gazing aside at the mare. “Neither did I.”
The mare was silent.
Logan looked at her, at the crater, then at Flynn. “... … …that's one Hell of a job, bud.”
Flynn shrugged. “At least we're alive'n'shiet.”
“Yup. And shiet.” Logan exhaled long and hard. He stood tall, more relaxed. “Well. We've got the drill and the crap for the varnish.” He looked at the Dihmer. “Now we just need a way back to the entrance.”
“It acknowledges.” She trotted towards the edge of the spherical impression. “It directs.”
“Yeah,” Logan muttered, backing up to give her room. “I thought as much.”
The mare slipped and slid back down the crater. But before she could attempt the climb again—
“H-here...” Flynn trotted closer, summoning a telekinetic field. “Allow me to assist you.”
She opened her muzzle. “... … …” An exhale, then a nod. “It suffices.”
He smiled slightly. A tranquil thing. All it took was a slight pulse of mana, and she was easily boosted up to a spot where she could trot evenly down the remaining tunnel.
“Once morre, we arre at the merrcy of yourr grracious rresourrces, madame,” Kepler said. “Would you be so kind as to point the way?”
She pointed and made for a particular junction. “It traverses.”
“Affirrmative! Come along, frriends!”
Flynn paused in the crater to rub his good eye dry. He took a meditative breath, then finally found the strength to climb out—where he found Logan waiting for him. Together, they followed the mare for the long trek to the surface.
Hours later...
“Ach...” Kepler perched on the back of the wagon, gazing straight up at the glimmering constellations and nebulaic cosmos lingering beyond comprehension. “It all seems so much brighterr now.”
“Yeah, well...” Logan grunted, heaving the drill onto the back of the vehicle and sliding it safely into place. “...hours spent pent-up in the belly of a plateau will do that to ya.”
“And perrhaps we arre all the betterr forr it!” Kepler grinned, adjusting his spectacles. “Suddenly, the Darrk Side isn't quite so damnably darrk.”
“Hey. Whatever floats your butt.” Logan walked around to the front of the vehicle and attached himself to the riggings. “I... for one... am happy for plenty of air to breathe.”
“Not to mention a healthy reprrieve from those lashing abominations of purre defecation!”
“Now, I wouldn't be so sure of that, Keps. You're talking to one.” Logan turned to holler over his flank. “Hey! Baldy! We're taking off soon! Wrap things up, will ya?!”
Several meters away, Flynn stood beside the Dihmer in the shadow of the plateau.
“Have some patience!” Flynn shouted back. “I'll join you in a sec!”
“You'd better!”
The Dihmer exhaled heavily. She was busy covering the hidden entrance to the underground chamber with a fine layer of sediment. “It yells,” she muttered.
“Yeah, well, only when it's not belching.” Flynn looked at her with a smile. “I'm wondering if it's even worth it at this point.”
“It wonders...”
Flynn arched an eyebrow for emphasis. “Worth it to thank you, I mean.”
She looked up from her work, gazing at him with a deadpan expression. Yet—locked within was the barest ounce of curiosity. Flynn wondered why he couldn't see things like that in her before.
“You saved me back there...” His tongue lingered in his mouth. “...and not just in the way that's obvious.” He coughed sideways, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess... I... uh...” A sigh. “...I've had a lot inside of me that I've been needing to get outside for a long... long time...”
She blinked. “It releases.”
“Maybe...” Flynn slowly exhaled. “...although I don't think I'll ever finish. Not completely.”
She returned to covering the entrance with dust. “It suffices for that which has a false glimmer.”
“Sure. Maybe.” Flynn shrugged. “Who knows. But... if nothing else... I'm starting to get an idea for... for what you're all about.” He looked at her with a sincere expression. “The Dihmers, I mean.”
She looked at the stallion again.
“But it can't all be about releasing... and emptying yourself...” Flynn bit his lip. “There's gotta be something you hold onto... or else... y-you're not you!” His ears drooped. “...or maybe that's the whole point. And... just because I don't understand that doesn't mean... I shouldn't respect it.” He gulped. “I'm sorry for all of the times I've bothered you and followed you around and was just an annoying pain in the flank. It really wasn't cool of me.” He pointed at the entrance. “I just hope—in some way or another—we did something to help you... to truly help you... just like you've been keen on helping me... er... us.”
She merely nodded. Deadpan. “It suffices.”
Flynn smiled gently.
She finished her job, brushed off her hooves, and trotted past the stallion in the vague direction of Blobstain.
“There's one thing that I'm hung up on, though...” He pivoted to face her. “...if your horn could do magic all this time—why even ask a bunch of Penumbrans like us to assist you in fixing the drill?”
She scuffled to a stop, but for the first time ever Flynn noticed a distinct sign of awkwardness in her facial features. Like she was struggling to drum up an explanation, but simultaneously needed to.
He cocked his head curiously to the side. “There's so much power at your disposal—why couldn't you take care of the drill on your lonesome?”
At last, she faced him. There was a noticeable fidget. A squirming. “It...” She breathed. “...fluctuates.”
Flynn blinked. “It fluctuates?”
She nodded.
“... … ...what do you mean 'it fluctuates?'”
Wordlessly, she pivoted, aimed her forehead at a patch of rock, and—
POWWWWW!!!
—blasted a crater into existence with a solid beam of purple energy.
Flynn jumped back five feet, his eye wide and his mechanical lens rotating wildly.
As the thunder and dust settled, the mare icily pivoted towards Flynn yet again and spoke with the slightest touch of exasperation: “It fluctuates.”
Flynn wheezed, waving the dust away from his muzzle. “It sure d-does.”
“Baldy?! The Hell is going on back there?!” Logan's voice echoed through the dwindling tumult.
Flynn hollered back: “J-just displaying a little bit of Light Side magic! No biggie!”
“Well, stop showing off and hop aboard already! We gotta make time!”
Flynn huffed. “Guess there's no stopping the belches.” He smirked at her. “You're welcome to hitch a ride, of course.”
“It trots.”
Flynn waved. “That's fine too.” He gulped. “Will... uh...” Flynn squinted. “...will we ever see each other again?”
“It trades with practices of chrome and water,” she declared. “It squints and it belches that collects sources of the false glimmer.”
“Right.” Flynn nodded. “Guess we'll meet you in town, then.” Flynn winked with a smile. “We'll get plenty of strips from Plato for you.”
She nodded. “It suffices.”
“You're... way smarter and more mature than you'll ever give yourself credit for,” Flynn said. “I know that may not matter to the likes of you, but it does to me... to us... and it'd be really swell if we had a name to refer you by.” He gestured. “It'd make things simpler. Y'know... in case we end up trading and collecting together again.”
“It fails.”
“Yeah. I know. But that doesn't mean we can't try.” Flynn rubbed his chin. He looked off towards the dim horizon. He pondered. Then—with a humble smile—he faced her again. “What about Aegis? Would you be cool with me calling you that?”
She blinked, eyes narrow and inquisitive. “It... ages...?”
Flynn opened his muzzle—but paused. A slow sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, sure...”
“It ages.”
He nodded. “It ages.” A salute. “Far beyond my years, for sure.”
She blinked. “It departs which squints.”
He waved. “So long to you too.”
And both left the plateau on separate paths.
“Ace! Ace, mate!” Plato collected the jars full of glittery material. He slid them towards himself across a counter within the guild-house of the Chrome-Blooders. “Buggah all! If thees ain't heaps more than the sheilah normally gets for us!”
Flynn nodded, standing under lit metal branches and glowing bulbs built into the side of the lobby. “Believe me. It's all her. We just did the gruntwork in between.”
“Well, good onya for findin' a way to reach through to the glue stick!” Plato smirked from ear to pointy ear. “And heah I thought I was the only lucky cobbah who could strike up a conversation!” He rubbed his palms together. “Right! A deal's a deal. I've got plenty of streeps for you and her! And I reckon we should be talkin' about fetchin' you a skiff for crossin' the almighty Blob.”
“I think my good friend Kepler can talk over the specifics with you concerning that,” Flynn said.
“Aye...” Plato leaned casually on the counter. “And which of yer mates is that'n?”
“Furry dude. Big tusks. Scorpion tail.”
“Bloody 'ell. They build yous drongos out of every zoo ovah in Penumbra, don't they?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, I look forward to makin' an acquaintance.” Plato winked. “Especially if eet means gettin' an edge over them Smelt-Bloodahs.”
“Sure. Whatever, buddy.” Flynn's good eye narrowed. “Just make sure our female friend gets the strips that are coming to her.”
Plato held a hand over his heart, smiling. “As Peetra is my life. I swear by eet, mate.”
“You do that.” A pause. Flynn weathered a contemplative breath, then looked sincerely at the imp. “She's... nothing like the other ponies. The Dihmers—I mean.” His jaw tightened. “She's a cut above the rest, with talent and abilities beyond compare. You do realize that...?”
Plato nodded slowly. “I have for a long time, mate. I swear—it's more than the tradie life that keeps me comin' back to her. In some ways, I hoped a bunch of colahful glue sticks from dan undah might convince her to pop out of that shell so she can really stoke Peetra's flame. But...”
“But she's herself,” Flynn sighed. “She lingers.”
“Reckon that's her right, cobbah,” Plato said in a tone of defeat. He nevertheless smiled. “Makes you question just what it ees that keeps her goin'.”
Flynn took one breath. “It wonders.”
Silence.
“Ain't thet the truth,” Plato said, and reached under the counter to start dispensing strips.
Flynn stepped out of the Chrome-Blooder building and into the streets of Blobstain. There, he found Logan lingering against a decrepit stack of bricks, waiting patiently.
Upon seeing Flynn, the larger stallion stood at attention. “How'd it go down?”
“Swimmingly.” Flynn levitated a stack of strips. “I think we found ourselves the nicest goblin in the entire Dark Side.”
“So... basically the same as any junk-trader back in the Seven Seas.”
“At least he smells better.” Flynn pocketed the strips into a saddlebag. “He promises to give It Ages her cut.”
“Who?”
Flynn blew out the side of his muzzle. “Our Dihmer friend.”
“... … …riiight.”
“And... uh...” Flynn coughed and turned to gesture at the Chrome-Blood headquarters. “When Keps gets back, I'll introduce the two of them together. Plato has connections—it seems. Something about Water-Blooders. Together, with Keps' negotiating skills at the forefront, we should have a boat varnished in no time.”
“Sounds great.”
“Plato and his fellow guilds are competing against the top dog—Smelt Blood. So it's not just their hearts that are in it. But their pocketbooks as well.”
“So we know for a fact that they're earnest.”
“Right.”
“Well, hell-to-the-yes, Baldy.” Logan slapped a hoof on Flynn's withers. “Sounds like a job well done! Rainbow should be proud.”
“Yeah...” Flynn shuddered, nodding. “...guess we've got everything going right as rain.”
Logan's hoof remained there on Flynn's side. “No,” he said in a low tone. “We don't.”
“???” Flynn looked at Logan's hoof, then up at the larger stallion.
He leaned forward to look earnestly in Flynn's face. “I owe you an apology.”
“Pffft... for what?” Flynn casually shook off Logan's grip. “You're not the one who ran off in the middle of an underground labyrinth on some hysterical search-and-rescue mission.”
“Yeah, well, I'm responsible for bringing you to that point, buddy.”
Flynn squinted. “Is this the dreaded talk you foreshadowed back at the drilling?”
“I told Keps you were the smartest of us for a reason.”
“Yeah, well...” Flynn kicked at the dusty “road” of Blobstain. “...fine way I have of showing it.”
“Ain't your job to show. It's ours. Chiefly—mine.”
Flynn merely blinked at him.
“I've taken for granted... just how hard you've been taking things, Flynn.”
“We all gotta pull our own weight, Big Show,” Flynn muttered. “Let me deal with mine, okay? You don't have to apologize—”
“Yes, I do.” Logan leaned back on his haunches. A solemn sigh later: “I've been a lazy flankhole... ignorant and complacent...” A wave of the hoof. “More than happy to let you be by yourself... dealing with whatever... as if it's your burden and your burden alone.”
“What—you think I'm the only one with baggage?” Flynn rolled his good eye. “Ariel lost her mom. Kepler—nearly his entire species. And where do I even begin with you and Luram—?”
“The only reason I don't go off about my long lost daughter is that I beat the shit out of anyone who casually brings her up,” Logan said, muscles tightening... but soon relaxing. “And that ain't the half of it. I've allowed my casual depravity to become the entire shield to my axe. I treat you and Wildcard and the rest like shit to keep from owning up to how responsible I am for your well-being at any given time. Hell, I haven't properly mourned Bard cuz of how hard I've programmed myself to laugh at his stupidly epic exit from this world...”
“Is there a reason why you're opening up like an ancient clam in Shoggoth—?”
“It's all an act, Flynn,” Logan muttered. “A lame... stupid... pointless act. And it threatens to drag everypony down around me. Hell, it almost killed you.”
Flynn said nothing.
“You've... needed help for a long time.” Logan exhaled hard through his nostrils. “Hell... we all need help... but this crazy-ass quest keeps us from getting it from the source. So the key—the only key—is to rely on each other. And... I-I haven't been there for you. I haven't made myself available. Not in the way that I sh-should have and...” His breath tightened. He winced visibly. “... … ...it's already too late for my wife and daughter. I... don't want it to be too late for my friends too.” A gulp. “You're all that this dumb fatass has left, and I'm sorry... I'm sorry for letting you go alone for so long. You deserve more. You deserve respect. And... I want to change things... for us... for the better.”
Flynn kicked at the earth some more, pondering his best friend's words. A slow inhale, and his eye filled up starlight. “That shit doesn't happen overnight, dude.”
“Well... just our luck...” Logan threw on a bitter smirk. “We've got plenty of night to work with.”
“For a start...” Flynn murmured, not making eye contact. “...could you can it with the whole 'Baldy' schtick? For real?”
Logan nodded. “For real.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.” Logan stood up tall. “Cross my heart, Flynn.”
Flynn nodded. “And... uh... I'll stop calling you Big Show—”
“Nah.” Logan shook his head, gazing down the streets populated by occasional Dihmers. “I'm far too attached. I'm like the inverse of these ascetic chant-jobs.”
“Logan...”
“But if you want to really trot in the right direction...” Logan's gaze narrowed on the smaller pony. “You can hold back on running off on suicidal white-knight-crusades in the middle of a mission.” He swallowed. “I don't know how much you meant to recreate the Aegis Archipelago job back there... underground... but you d-damn near came close.”
“I'm sorry, Logan—”
“Just... talk to us, Flynn.” Logan repeated. “Talk to us, buddy. From here on out... I promise... I'll listen.” A nod. “You'll find that the others will too. You're not alone in this. Okay?”
Silence.
“Okay,” Flynn managed.
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Okay...”
The two stood awkwardly, their shadows brushing slightly together, but very little else.
“Kepler will be here any minute now,” Flynn said. “We'll have work to do.”
“And I have... uhm... weight to lose,” Logan muttered, fidgeting awkardly.
“Heh... held it in for a long time down in those caves, huh?”
“Doesn't mean I wasn't tempted.” Logan snickered. “Considering what we were up against, I could have made us plenty of camouflage.”
“How quaint. Go and do your business.”
“Right on it.”
“Far... far away.”
“A dude can take a hint, Flynn...” And Logan walked off.
Flynn stared after him. He breathed easily—as if his body was lighter than it was when they first arrived in Blobstain.
Not long after, the air whistled from the sound of tell-tale wings gliding in.
“Httt!” Kepler landed close to Flynn. “Ach! The wagon has been rreturrned! And I was able to talk the imps into rrefunding us a porrtion of the insurrance on such shorrt notice!” He beamed through his tusks. “Irronic—seeing as we neverr trruly put the wagon in dangerr! Ha-HA!”
“No, Keps...” Flynn slowly shook his head. “...we didn't have much to fret about, did we?”
“Some of us, perrhaps. You—on the otherr hand—put us thrrough quite the scarre!”
“I did.” Flynn nodded. “And I'm sorry, Keps. I won't do anything to freak you out like that again. I promise.” The unicorn's gaze trailed off, following the dark line between the bleak earth and the cosmos. Searching, seeking, but never quite landing on something.
Kepler squinted at him. “Flynn...?” He leaned his head to the side. “Arre you going to be alrright, brrotherr?”
A soft exhale. Flynn looked back at the wyvern. “No,” he said. “I'm not.” His muzzle lingered in a calm smile. “Are you ready to do some more work with the imps?”
“Ach...” Kepler nodded. “But of courrse.”
“Then let's get going.” Flynn led Kepler into the entrance of the Chrome-Blooder's guild. “Can't cross the blob on nothing but a dream, can we?”
“No, I suppose not.”
As the two ducked in...
...across the street, a figure shifted. Two eyes blinked—purple and expressionless, save for the slightest reflection of the lights surrounding, with a shine that wasn't there previous.
And then she turned, trotted, and disappeared.