Celestia Goes West

by DungeonMiner


Chapter 17

Caramel groaned as the door to his small home closed behind him. The past week had been Tartarus. In the past five days since Luna had asked for his help, his boss had him unload and pack cups and plasticware for four of them. Usually, that wouldn’t be an issue, except for it being at least a four-pony job dropped squarely and solely on his shoulders.

On the fifth day, he walked in for a closing shift to find the last bit of work already done, completed in half an hour by everypony else in the coffee shop.

There was some annoyance at how efficiently everyone could complete the job he slaved over, but it was overshadowed by the incredible sense of relief that came with the job done.

Then his boss had him restack the napkins in the dispenser.

He insisted that a call came down from corporate stating that all napkins needed to be checked to ensure they were staked emblem-side up. So, even though Caramel knew that the order had to be a lie, he spent the rest of the day with mind-numbing work that served no purpose.

The stallion was holding a grudge. That much was obvious.

Caramel wandered down the house’s only hallway, which only sat a grand total of four feet long before he pushed his way into the bedroom. He dropped down onto his twin-sized bed and sighed as he felt his mattress try to engulf him.

Hopefully, this was it. Hopefully, Mr. Thistle got it out of his system, and he’d be able to finally relax a little bit more.

He pushed the thought from his mind. Right now, he didn’t need to worry about it. Right now, all he needed to worry about was O&O night happening tomorrow, and right now, he just needed to get some sleep.

Besides, if he couldn’t get some rest, then he’d have a hard time being Shadesong.

---☼---

“And how pray tell, does a swamp exist inside a dungeon?” Luna asked as they gathered around the table.

“It could theoretically happen,” Sundance said. “It would start with some water buildup in a cavern that brought some sediment and seedlings from the surface. Provided the crystals give up some kind of ultraviolet light, or magical equivalent, it wouldn’t be out of the question for some kind of ecosystem to form, although probably a minimal one.”

“I grant thee,” Luna continued, “that a river can form around dirt. I grant thee that grass could grow in that dirt. I would even agree that enough grass and enough dirt could make something that resembles a swamp, but we have actual trees, actual bulrushes, and Sky above, actual alligators living in an actual swamp.”

“You do have to take magic into account, Luna,” Ivory said.

“Magic can’t do this!” Luna cried. “There is no spell in the book that can do this except for the wish spell, which should be cheating as far as I am concerned! And if we art talking of actual magic, this sort of setup would take eight different ponies to power for the rest of their lives!”

“Ah, but you’re forgetting Game Master Magic,” Platinum said. “The most powerful of cheating magic!”

“Hey,” Rolling said, “it’s not cheating. It’s ancient and powerful magics long forgotten by mortal-kind.”

Platinum nodded. “Like I said, cheating.”

“You are on thin ice, sir,” Rolling warned.

Luna smirked before she glanced over at Caramel. “Art thee well, Caramel? Thou art a bit quieter than usual.”

He nodded before he cracked open another can of a drink that smelled like it had far too much sugar in it. “I’ll be fine. Once the Taurine kicks in, I’ll be ready to go.”

“And what is this thing that is named after bovines?”

“It helps mental performance,” Caramel muttered. “Either that, or it ruins my liver. I don’t remember.”

“And for what reason dost thou need something that hurts thy own body?”

“Work was a little tough this week,” he replied before lifting the can. “This will help me stay awake.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to speak with somepony?”

“No, no,” he replied. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

Luna continued to keep her eyebrow up. “Art thou sure?”

He nodded. “It’s fine.”

Luna glanced at him for a moment more before she frowned. “So be it, but if thou needs to speak with thy boss, please, let me know.”

Caramel smirked. “Sure, sounds like a plan.”

---☼---

The mare, whose companion was Death, walked forward into the mud.

It slowed Dreadmane down severely, nearly to the point she wished she were a pegasus. Hercule and Shadesong hovered over the muck around them while herself, Brightflame, and Luckstep all trudged forward.

A thick clump of bulrushes stood in front of them and, according to Shadesong’s scouting, an actual hill of dry ground. Pushing through the plants, Dreadmane felt real solid dirt beneath her hooves for the first time, and she pulled herself up before she found the first dry patch of land to sit down on.

She groaned as the other three joined her on the hill before the two flyers landed beside them.

“I do say that this is perhaps the best place to set up camp,” Hercule said.

“At least until we get to the structure in the middle of there,” Shadesong added.

The “structure” towered over them as it sat in the center of the swamp. Its massive, minotaur-cut stone walls stood like a monolith of black stone. The thin mist that blanketed these rooms left the massive form glaring down at them like a phantom, whose features were hidden but whose suggestion hung there like a panther, waiting to pounce.

Dreadmane sighed. “Have any of you tried to get closer to it? Tried to figure out what it is?”

“It might be a temple of some kind?” Shadesong asked. “I don’t know. This whole place is weird.”

“Why would anyone want a temple in the middle of a swamp, in a mountain?”

“Why is there a swamp in a mountain to begin with?” Dreadmane asked.

“No idea,” Luckstep said, “I’m not even sure how this happened.”

“So what now?” Brightflame asked.

“We might as well set up a camp here,” Shadesong said.

“Here?” Luckstep asked.

“There’s not much that can sneak up on us,” Shadesong said. “At least, not without seeing it come from nearly across the entire swamp. Besides, we have the only solid ground here in this...room, I guess. If anything is going to fight us, this is where we’ll want to fight it. Fighting out there with the mud would be a bloodbath.”

Hercule nodded. “Well, I say, he might be right about that.”

Brightflame nodded. “I did just learn the tiny hut spell. I could cast it for added protection.”

Dreadmane nodded. “Then this might be the best move. However, I will say this: Shadesong, can thee fly to yonder structure and get a good look at it before we bed down. There might not be anything for us there, or worse yet, a door we cannot open without further exploration elsewhere.”

That last statement got nods from around the party. Every other step they took since getting inside the dungeon was met with finding some sort of door that they could not pass through. Whether it was a magical wall that kept them out, a door locked by a magic key, or a twisting tunnel that led up to a level unknown to them but was far too dangerous for just two of them to explore.

In fact, they only just recently found a magical item that let them breathe underwater, which allowed them to access a set of flooded hallways that opened up into this swamp room, and a handful of other corridors that they had yet to explore.

“That sounds fair,” Shadesong said. “I’ll be back soon. Start getting things set up, and I’ll be back to let you know what I find.”

Shadesong disappeared into the mists, flying away into the swamp while the others began working with the set of camping supplies while Brightflame prepared his materials for his ritual.

It took ten minutes before a shimmering wall of magic appeared, encasing them in a perfect hemisphere that did not seem to hinder any of the party from passing through, though Dreadmane did know that the wall would keep them safe somehow.

As they finished laying out their bedrolls for the night, Shadesong returned. “Well, you’re not going to believe it.”

“What?” Luckstep asked.

“It’s Orithians. Every single statue in there is some kind of Ornithian god or goddess.”

Dreadmane frowned. Why were the minotaurs building statues and temples for the avian race of Equestria? According to every story she ever heard about them, the two races hated each other with a passion that fueled several wars. There should be no way that they would ever work together.

Yet, that temple was unquestionably minotaur-cut stone. Dreadmane and the others had run into enough the architecture, spread through the whole dungeon now, that everyone in the party could all recognize minotaur work by sight. However, they still ran into constant Ornithian symbology, statues, and figures. Ornithian script decorated the walls and told Ornithian sagas.

This entire dungeon shouldn’t exist.

The mare whose mane hung like a ghost shook her head. “More of this infernal puzzle.”

Shadesong dropped into the bubble. “I know, but the good news is, it looks like we can try getting in there. I didn’t see anything that would keep us out that I could see. We can try to explore that in the morning.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

---☼---

“Alright,” Rolling said, “so you’ve begun your long rest. Who’s taking the first watch?”

“It’s my turn to have a full night,” Caramel said before he drank more of his energy drink.

“I’ll gladly take the first,” Luna said before smiling. “Though I will try praying to Luna for guidance.”

“Sure,” Rolling said, rolling her eyes.

“I’ll watch next,” Platinum said.

“I’ll take the darkest shift,” Sundance said.

“And I’ll take the last one,” Ivory said.

“Alright, let’s have some perception checks!” Rolling said before Luna heard her roll her own dice.

Luna rolled her dice and thanked the Sky above that she had “expertise” in perception. “That would be a 13,” she replied.

Rolling nodded. “Then your watch goes by quietly,” she said. “Though there is something odd about the swamp, and now that you’re sitting still without walking through the mud and muck, you’re beginning to realize it.”

Rolling paused and looked Luna in the eye with a smirk. “There’s no sound. Other than the breathing and snoring of your comrades, there are no birds, no fish, no vermin, not even the buzzing of bugs catches your ear. It is silent.”

The mare smiled again. “Until you hear the sound of the water slapping against the shore. You look around but don’t see anything, and time passes by.”

The others held their breath for a long second before Rolling turned to Platinum. “Brightflame, let’s have your roll.”

“Oh good,” he said before rolling his dice. “That’s a 5.”

“Why are your rolls always so bad?” Ivory asked him.

“Why do you think I play wizards?” Platinum asked. “It’s so I can make everyone else roll against me!”

“Your watch goes quietly,” Rolling said, “I assume you crack open your book for a bit of study cause you see and hear nothing.”

“Great.”

“Luckstep,” Rolling called.

Sundance rolled. “Ooh, natural twenty.”

“Ooh,” Rolling cooed before she said. “You also have a quiet watch, but as you look out into the swamp, you think you see something.”

“What?” Sundance asked after a second.

“Well, you can try looking for it, but if you do, it might realize you’re looking for it.”

Caramel sucked in air through his clenched teeth.

“Can I make a stealth check?” Sundance offered.

“You may certainly try.”

Sundance nodded before rolling. He visibly winced. “12?”

“Noted,” Rolling said, with a face that would make a poker player sweat. “You look around a little harder, searching for the thing you think you saw before you see them.”

She went quiet, and after a long second, Sundance spoke again. “See what?”

“A pair of yellow eyes, glinting in the darkness.”

---☼---

The mare who held a blade before she held another pony walked into the temple.

The night went by quietly, with only Luckstep reporting a set of eyes watching them in the distance, but no attack came. The five of them managed to sleep until morning without being disturbed in any way.

Still, the eyes unnerved the party, and they pushed through the swamp carefully, watching for any sign of something attacking them. Yet nothing had. They managed to get all the way to the base of the temple, whose buttresses soared above them at incredible heights while decorated with wings.

The door opened without any resistance, and they walked into the darkness of the ancient, towering temple. The antechamber seemed untouched, as though it had been sealed for centuries, with only a layer of undisturbed dust covering the furniture.

Or at least, that’s how it seemed.

As Dreadmane looked closer, she noticed that the dust wasn’t as undisturbed as she first thought. Yes, the dust on the ancient stone pews and kneelers hadn’t been touched, but a swarth of clean stone slithered down the middle of the room, and while it let her know something had come this way, she wasn’t sure what.

“Something large has been through here,” she warned the others in a whisper.

“How large?” Shadesong whispered back.

“Several feet wide,” she whispered back. “I’m not sure how long.”

The mare, as wild as the north wind, followed the path until she finally came to the pair of wooden doors that lay open, revealing a massive pile of coins.

The five of them stared into the room that glimmered with golden, silver, and copper light as a literal dune of coins sat before them.

“Oh, horseapples,” Shadesong said as he stared at the treasure before him. “That’s a... dragon’s hoard.”

“How perceptive,” a deep voice rumbled behind them before they turned to see a black dragon towering ten feet above them. Its teeth glistened with an acidic liquid, and its yellow eyes shone with cruelty.

The party had just enough time to blink before the dragon unleashed its breath.

They tried to scatter, but Dreadmane and Hercule were caught in the attack and felt the acid burn their faces and backs.

The others leaped into action, with Brightflame casting a spell that broke against the dragon’s scales like a stiff wind. The dragon answered with a powerful bite attack that threatened to tear Luckstep in half.

Dreadmane finally recovered and acted. Her vision went red, and she raised her greatsword as she felt the fury of Luna herself burn in her as her blade began to glow white.

She struck with the fury of an avenging angel, and the dragon roared in pain as light and steel tore into it.

The dragon spread its wings and took off. The force of the wind coming off of the leathery limbs sent Brightflame to the ground. The large wings slapped at Dreadmane as the dragon took to the air to fly across the sanctuary. It landed and began reeling back to spew acid once again.

“Spread out!” Hercule yelled before he took to the air himself and charged the dragon with his own burning blade of holy light.

Dreadmane felt the acid burn into her skin, but she welcomed that pain and let it fuel her rage even further. She grabbed her blade and charged again, eager to end the fight.

Spells began to fill the air as both Brightflame and Luckstep started to using their powers to distract the beast, while Shadesong appeared from seemingly nowhere to strike deep into the gap in his scales between the creature’s chest and its arm.

Still, Dreadmane and Hercule dominated the frontline even as powerful claws raked them and jaws that dripped with acidic spit bit deep. The party kept attacking, but each blow from the monster ripped into them. Claws tore deep gashes, and teeth shredded skin as the head of the beast rolled like a crocodile.

Hercule went down after taking another blow that dented armor and sent the griffon spinning. Luckstep rushed to him, a healing spell ready in her paws before the dragon’s tail whipped around and slapped him down.

Shadesong stabbed deep into the dragon again, dragging his knife back and forth into the wound to try and open the cut more before the dragon’s claws slammed into him with the force of a charging bull. He slammed against the opposite wall and lay still.

Dreadmane still stood before it, her coat usually an ebony black now stained and colored with her own blood, and took the attacks of the dragon with grinding teeth and endless fury. She brought her greatsword down and drove it into the beast’s neck, forcing the dragon to roar as it finally confessed its pain.

Then the massive wings spread again, and it took off, putting distance between itself and the raging barbarian.

Brightflame cast another spell, and a bolt of lightning streaked through the sky to strike the dragon, and the bolt struck true, forcing the dragon to drop as its wings locked up.

It glared at them all for another long second, with fury in the monster’s glaring, yellow eyes, before it turned and dove into the swamp.

It slipped away, entirely hidden by the water, and left the party in the sanctuary, alone.

Breathing heavy, Dreadmane felt her rage falter, and she staggered for a moment as she felt the weight of injuries. “Brightflame,” she said, as she made her way to Shadesong, “can thou get us out of here?”

“No,” the minotaur said with a shaking breath. “I’m nearly spent magically.”

“Luckstep?” Dreadmane called.

“I can get us healed up, not much more than that,” she replied.

Dreadmane reached into her bag and pulled out a potion that she force-fed to the pegasus. He coughed as he came back to consciousness and glanced about wildly.

“Can thou get thy bubble spell back up?” Dreadmane asked.

“It’ll take time, but I can,” the minotaur replied as he tried to help the griffon back to his feet.

“Then plant it right on top of the hoard,” Dreadmane said with a smile. “We may have fought to a draw, but we’ll make it cost that dragon.”

“He’ll come after us for it,” Luckstep warned.

“I’m counting on it.”

The party gathered on the mound of coins, and Brightflame began to cast his spell. He weaved magic slowly, and after eleven minutes, the tiny hut spell reformed, and they were officially safe.

“So, what’s the plan?” Luckstep asked.

“Nothing can pierce this bubble, can they?” Dreadmane asked.

“No, nothing,” Brightflame confirmed.

“Then we rest. In the morning, Brightflame, thou shalt teleport us back to the camp.”

“We’ve only been up for a few hours,” Shadesong said. “We won’t be able to rest.”

“No, but,” Brightflame began, “I might be able to recover enough energy to complete the spell. As long as the wizard we’ve hired has written the circle this morning, we can teleport.”

“Then we rest while we can,” Dreadmane said, “and take as many coins as we can carry.”