There had been several times in their journey deep below the surface of the earth that it had been very hot. The poison forest was one example of that, where it was very hot and humid. And ever since meeting Earth Miser and leaving his domain things had been steadily increasing in heat. But that still wasn’t enough to prepare the ponies for the sheer boiling heat of where they were traveling now. Sweat? What was sweat? They didn’t have any more liquid in their bodies to sweat out anymore. It was a painfully dry heat all around them that left them parched and desiccated. It was good they had gotten water not too long ago from Earth Miser or they’d likely be completely dehydrated and unable to move on.
The caves they were traveling through were black craggy rock all around them. No pathway was straight or even, they traveled down jagged tunnels full of stalactites, stalagmites, arches, pillars, ledges, pits, and every other geological feature. Some were big enough for them to easily trot through together, others they had to squeeze through one by one. And all were hot, hot, hot. The black rock seemed to absorb the light from Daylight’s horn, making things darker than they should be, while also burning hot under their hooves and making travel over them painful at this point. Fluttershy knew that if she looked at the bottom of her hooves they’d be red.
And still they trudged on through this boiling oven of a cave. Through this inferno that baked their bodies. Fluttershy remembered the time she and her friends walked through the desert to Klugetown. How she wished she could be back in that desert right now. Amethyst Star, Daylight Gleam, and Angel Bunny were feeling the heat just as much as her, their dried out bodies moving like zombies through the caves. Their mouths hung open with their tongues hanging down out of them, too tired to pant. Maud, to Fluttershy’s astonishment and worry, was still wearing her frock despite the fact she was obviously feeling the effects of the heat as well. She must have been burning up inside it but refused to take it off.
Just another Maud mystery.
“I-I don’t know about you guys, but I’m about to collapse,” Amethyst Star said.
“Do that and you’ll… you’ll become a cooked pony in an hour,” Daylight Gleam said.
“That’s… already… happening,” Amethyst Star struggled with each breath.
“S-Serious though… lying down on this hot rock… you’ll get burned up,” Daylight Gleam said. “I-It’s already happening with our hooves… if we stood in one place too long… the rock would cook them.”
“I think… mine are already steaming,” Amethyst Star said.
Angel Bunny squeaked out an uncomfortable groan from where he was on Fluttershy’s back. As soon as the rock started getting hot to the touch he had jumped on her. No way was he walking his sensitive feet over these rocks. It still didn’t help him much though as he boiled and overheated just as bad from lying on her.
“We have to keep going,” Fluttershy said. “I-I’m hot too, very hot, and lightheaded, but we need to go deeper.”
“This heat is a good thing,” Maud said. Somehow she only seemed slightly strained. “It means we’re getting closer to the lava that pooled below Earth Miser’s home. Probably.”
Daylight Gleam rolled her eyes. “Probably she says...”
“I think it’s the case too,” Fluttershy said.
“W-What else could it be? We have to be getting close to the lava or whatever. What else could be heating the caves up like this?” Amethyst Star said.
“I just wish we knew how much deeper we had to go...” Fluttershy said, the burning sensation on her hooves actually starting to make them go numb.
Maybe numb was the wrong word. It was more like they had been burned enough that she lost feeling in them. Fluttershy wondered if it was just semantics, but numb made her think of cold things. This was like frequent pain that burned away her nerves or had finally made her gotten used to it after walking over the rocks for so long. Fluttershy winced, she made that sound a little more gruesome than she wanted.
The group found their way to a pit that snaked down into the darkness at not quite a vertical drop but it would be troublesome to go down it regardless. Daylight’s light shown in and at least revealed a number of ledges and places to put their hooves but the heat coming up from the pit was nearly unbearable. Fluttershy was almost surprised that steam wasn’t billowing up from it. The girls all stared down into it together and winced.
“A-Are we going to be able to make it through this?” Amethyst Star asked. “We’re not going to burn up or spontaneously combust?”
“I uh… I’m also worried about our ability to make it through here without collapsing for good,” Daylight Gleam said.
Fluttershy looked around the rough and broken crag they were in. “Is there any other way to go?”
“Not that I’ve seen,” Maud said. “Not that goes where we need to go.”
“You ever have grilled pineapple? I could grill pineapple on the rocks down here,” Amethyst Star said.
“Or fry an egg on them,” Daylight winced.
Fluttershy frowned, knowing that they were only barely able to deal with the heat now. If it got worse then they would likely pass out from heat stroke and exhaustion. And then probably not wake up. What could they do to deal with the heat? It was practically overpowering just standing here and Fluttershy’s mind was starting to melt.
She put a burnt up hoof on her forehead and tried to think.
Her forehead…
Fluttershy blinked and looked over at Daylight Gleam and Amethyst Star. More specifically the two horns on their heads.
“Um, Amethyst? Miss Daylight? I know this might be a lot to ask but… can you make a bubble with your magic that blocks the heat?” She immediately blushed. “Um, sorry if that’s just silly and it doesn’t work that way, I-I know must unicorns can only really do magic relating to their special talent and some things, but I’ve just been around Twilight and Starlight so long that-”
“Whoa, you can stop right there!” Daylight Gleam said and tried to offer a weak smile to her. “Unicorns can move stuff with our magic and create fields around it to do that, but yeah, actually blocking heat with a magic shield is a little different.”
“I’m not very good with using my magic for anything other than rudimentary stuff...” Amethyst Star said, looking at the ground with downcast eyes.
“So we can’t do it?” Fluttershy asked.
“I could… try. But I’ll have to exert myself for it. I’m decent enough when it comes to making your ordinary magic shields, but one that’s specifically made to block out heat will be tougher to concentrate on,” Daylight said.
“Speaking from experience as a fellow unicorn, she could accidentally knock herself out what with how hot it is already down here. The heat and strain might make her pass out,” Amethyst said.
Fluttershy grimaced. “Then I don’t think we should-”
“I’ll do it,” Daylight said.
The others looked at her, Fluttershy shook her head a few times. “No, it sounds too dangerous. I don’t want you to do something like that to yourself.”
“Fluttershy, what other options do we have? We have to go down here. We have to figure out where the lava is. And we have to figure out why its become so active lately,” Daylight said with a serious look etched on her face. “So the way I see it, it’s this or nothing. We’d either have to get through this hot zone and have our bodies acclimate to the heat or use a magic spell to try and negate or weaken the heat’s effect on us. It’s clear we can’t force our way further naturally so option number two is what we have to work with.”
“But-” Fluttershy tried to say but found herself cut off by Angel this time. The tiny bunny tugging on her mane and frowning at her, telling her to just let the unicorn do what she wanted to do.
“It’s not something just Daylight has to do either,” Amethyst Star said. “I uh, I don’t have a lot of power and there’s no way I have the finesse or skills to perform the spell myself or anything, but I’ve still got some power in this horn. I can pour what I’ve got into Daylight and give her a boost.”
“And I’ll carry you,” Maud said.
Daylight’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you don’t need to do anything like that, you’re already hotter than any of us thanks to your clothes.”
“I want to be able to help too. And I’m strong, it won’t be much more effort to have a pony on my back. That way you can completely focus on your spell and magic. It will be good for all of us,” Maud said.
Daylight Gleam smiled at her and nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “Heh, alright, thanks Maud.”
“And I’ll be moral support!” Fluttershy cheered, to her own degree.
“Then we better get this started before we lose even more energy,” Daylight said as she stared down at the pit and then to the others. “Okay, I’m going to cover all of us in a field of magic first. Just to get used to the effort it takes to make sure all of us are covered. And then I’ll actually turn it all into protective shielding… and who knows? Light and heat go together so maybe I’ll find it easier than I think.”
“I guess I’ll give you some extra juice right from the start,” Amethyst Star said and walked up to Daylight. She lit her horn up till it was pulsing magenta magic and then tapped the tip of her horn to Daylight’s. “Hng!” Amethyst Star grunted and transferred the magical energy straight into Daylight Gleam.
Daylight squeezed her eyes shut as the magic flowed into her, feeling like she had just gotten a big recharge in her horn. Taking a deep breath she then put as much power as she could into her horn, creating a strong powder blue glow from it. She kept her eyes shut and didn’t say or do anything else to ruin her concentration as the blue glow expanded out like a bubble and enveloped the other ponies and rabbit. At first it was just a big sphere around them but then it contracted, shrinking down and conforming to just their shapes until it was more like a skintight suit each one of them wore. Daylight winced as she tried to keep the shield’s form, tried to get used to the effort it took. Fluttershy and the others stayed still to make it as easy as possible for her.
Speaking of them, they didn’t really feel any change so far. Maybe a strange sensation of something rubbing them but the heat wasn’t blocked out yet at all.
“I… I think I have the form down,” Daylight Gleam panted after a minute and opened her eyes. “M-Maud… can you come over here so I can lean on you?”
Wordlessly, Maud stepped right beside Daylight Gleam and helped the white unicorn drape herself over her body.
“T-Thanks… okay… now I’m going to activate the second part of the spell and see if the heat lets up a little bit,” Daylight closed her eyes again and put more power into her horn, grunting in exertion and biting her lip. The powder blue aura from her horn turned into a bright white—as did the magic all around the others.
Fluttershy had to close her eyes from the powerful shine, spots showing behind her eyelids when she did so. After a second she was able to blearily open them back up and see clearly again after some blinking. Everypony was now encased in just the slightest of shimmering auras that were only barely visible. In fact they probably wouldn’t be visible at all if it wasn’t for how they contrasted with the darkness around them.
And the heat… it was still really bad but it didn’t feel like they were about to walk into a bonfire either. It actually felt like they might be able to manage it.
“T-There… that should do it,” Daylight said in her slumped over form on Maud’s back, her eyes were bloodshot and the tip of her horn glowed with a powerful white light.
“A-Are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked, running up to her.
Daylight weakly nodded. “Yes… just can’t really move. And I can’t keep this up for long. We need to get out of here and solve this lava problem quickly.”
“Yeah I’m a little beat from pumping that magic into her too,” Amethyst Star said, holding a hoof to her forehead.
“T-Then let’s go on...” Fluttershy gulped down a worried breath and walked back to the pit. It was hot staring into it and they would still practically melt going down it. But they could do it now. And the lava that had brought them here couldn’t be much further on. Fluttershy was sure that was what this inferno meant.