//------------------------------//
// Chapter 70: Blake 
// Story: Forbidden Places 
// by Starscribe 
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Blake would never be able to enjoy being underground the way Vesper could. He couldn't quite say what it was—maybe the stone ceilings overhead, maybe the distant sounds he couldn't quite place. Maybe it was the inability to easily flee, or having to trust to stone that might collapse and kill him. It was that same feeling of being unsafe that came from visiting an unfamiliar city. He was out of place, he didn't belong here.

It didn't help that this particular trip was meant intentionally to break the law in a way that might spoil relations with an entire world. Every step he took behind Vesper wasn't just staring at her gently-swaying tail, but remembering just how many ways this could go wrong. Equestria was like a distant rainforest—its people uncontacted and potentially vulnerable, but also dangerous as well. The wildlife was one of a kind, and might carry the cures for numberless rare diseases. If this went badly, if Equestria refused to speak to the humans of Earth again, it would be his fault. He refused to let them have a single pony in payment for passage across the Styx.

He wouldn't change his mind, even now. Kaelynn was one of his crew, and they didn't leave people behind. 

"How's the map look?" he asked, speeding up a few steps so he could lean forward and inspect whatever Vesper was doing. She had the detailed trail-map out beside her, and occasionally looked over to study. She'd been making marks as they went, tracking their path to the underground of House Shimmer.

"Close," she said. "But that's the easy part, right? Find our way to the block, that's only where things start. It doesn't help us if we open the basement in one of the nag's neighbors' houses. We get one shot to get Kaelynn out."

"We've got this," he said, with far more confidence than he actually felt. But that was the only thing a leader could do when he depended on the skills of his subordinates. Express confidence, and act for all the world like it couldn't ever be misplaced. "We'll find it. What about the other end?" He nodded towards the mostly-empty saddlebags. They hadn't made the explosives yet, that would just be a waste of magic and physical strength hauling them all around. The tracker was still in there though, so his question was obvious.

"Still there," she said. "Can't tell you more than that. I can't look through it or anything, that's not how my magic works. He's close, over our heads somewhere probably. That's it."

He fell silent while they walked, navigating the narrow tunnels of a mine cut into the rock. Occasionally they would emerge through one into a vein of crystal as clear as glass, which the unicorns of the past had greedily harvested. But they were meticulous folk, so the tunnels were always well-reinforced. He felt no fear of a cave-in. Unfortunately neither did any of the tours. They weren't trying to cut down to some ancient place—this time they were right on the surface, with groups passing every half hour or so.

It meant they had to keep their voices down, whispering and listening to the caves. But Vesper's huge ears weren't just for display, she could make out even small sounds in the dark. It meant they could use only a faint glow from his horn most of the time, instead of the bright headlamps that would light up the whole cave, but also give them away like a searchlight.

Occasionally he glanced down at his wristwatch, well—legwatch now, dragged out of his backpack for this mission. It counted down not to the moment they should detonate and break in, but the final failsafe—when they should assume Ryan had failed and break in anyway. They still had several hours left.

Finally they stepped into a wide, round cavern, with a set of metal tracks passing through it. The ceiling was nearly five meters up, with walls lined with different crystal shades. Tracks in the rubble suggested they weren't the only ones to pass through recently.

"I think this is it," Vesper said, stopping in the center. She flicked her tail up at the ceiling, and gave him a fanged grin. "It's within fifty meters of here. That means this is the hard part."

She fished around with one hoof and produced the sensor. She held it up, extending long plastic arms to either side. The screen started to flash, and it beeped quietly. Even without having ever seen anything like it, Blake could guess what that meant. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," she agreed. "But that's not too weird. We expected to beat him." She took off into the air, somehow managing to balance the machine without dropping it. Her wings were almost silent as she circled around, the device beeping regularly in her grip. She landed on one side of the room after a few seconds, aiming straight towards a wall. "So he's over this way, I'm pretty sure. But the other side isn't close. It's probably still on the surface."

"Meaning we don't want to do anything yet." Blake followed her. He touched one hoof around her shoulder, on the pretense of looking down at the screen. "We might be in the perfect spot once he gets down to this level."

"Yep." She leaned to one side, meeting his eyes. "Too bad we don't have a phone. No way to know when it could be. Maybe a few hours, maybe a few minutes. We have to stay alert."

He kissed her anyway. Lightly enough that her fangs wouldn't be in the way, or he wouldn't be distracted enough to miss the device if it started going off. "It should not have taken me this long to realize you were traveling with me," Blake said, a few seconds later. "I slept on this for months. Kaelynn and Ryan didn't."

She rolled her eyes, but that was all. Vesper showed no sign of wanting to be away from him. "Poor choice of words, Blake. They slept on it plenty."

He groaned, letting go. He needed to move away from her, or he'd want to do more. This was the wrong time for the beginning of a new relationship. He needed to focus on his mission, or they might never see Kaelynn again. "Okay fine, yes. They did. But they didn't know what would happen. Could you imagine how much more awkward this all gets if someone got pregnant? You want to have someone on the Daily Show asking you about how you got a horse pregnant while you were over here?"

She shrugged. "No, obviously. But I think you're being a little too optimistic. We might not get to be part of all those documentaries... we might not be rich and famous. If you had to trade all that for getting everyone home, would you?"

"It's not even a question," he whispered back. "We're here, aren't we? The safe play would just be marching right up to Canterlot Castle and telling the locals about Kaelynn and begging them to help. It's smart, it's legal..."

"And it warns the mark that we're onto them. I can think of a half-dozen countries with names I can't pronounce where that would probably just make them kill Kaelynn. Maybe throw us in prison too for trying to destabilize the state. Whatever charges they can come up with."

He sat down on his haunches, with a clear view of the path leading in and out in both directions. "I'm sure Equestria isn't that way. It seems high trust, low corruption. You heard what the changeling said, they don't even know how to handle real crime in their capital it's so rare. We just have to hope that means they don't know how to react to us either."

"Former Princess Luna knows," Vesper said. "I think she's on our side, but I don't know how much of a difference that makes. Princess Twilight rules the whole country herself now. It was peaceful... Luna wanted to retire I'm pretty sure. But the new princess probably has more to deal with than this. She probably wouldn't have time to listen to us."

The bat nudged her tracker again with one hoof, holding it up into the air overhead. The beeping got louder, and she turned off to one side. "Hmm. I think he's moving down. Progress!"

Together they followed the tracker, walking sideways along the cavern and then sharply into the nearest tunnel.

Around the corner, a light shone so brightly they were nearly blinded by it. Vesper stopped in her tracks, so suddenly that Blake smacked into her behind. She squeaked at the pressure, opening both wings, but didn't budge.

Whatever objection he might've made was silenced in a mouthful of tail, albeit only for a few seconds. Soon he could see past her, though his own eyes burned with the sudden intensity of the light.

There was no need to blow a hole in the wall—there was already a stairwell and loading ramp leading down. A single crystal hung from the ceiling high above an expansive chamber, glowing with the yellow light that had drawn their attention. A heavy wooden door covered the opening, and a single bored-looking pony glared out into the cavern with the expression of an annoyed bouncer at a particularly dull club.

Vesper backed away slowly and silently, pushing him backward with one leg. They retreated around the corner again, as quietly as they possibly could. They made it back into the cavern a few seconds later, with the little tracker still beeping. 

"Well that's... not great," Vesper whispered, glancing back the way they'd come. Her ears still pointed towards the hallway, her attention fixed on the black space. "You think he saw us?"

"No," Blake whispered. "He's standing in the light, his night vision is all gone to shit. He'd be vanishing into his post to yell for backup if he saw us." He spoke with total confidence, though of course he couldn't know for sure. "We can't know if it's the right place, though. There could be other reasons to keep an open tunnel leading down here."

Vesper chuckled softly. "Sensor sure as hell points down that way. We know House Shimmer is breaking the law already, we don't know if any of the neighbors are. I say it’s the place."

He settled onto his haunches. Any relaxation was gone. Halfhearted plans for how they could wait for Ryan to be ready dissolved in the blink of an eye in the face of something so much more important. Now his body was tense, and he touched the dagger stashed away on the strap of his saddlebags, just in case. They had the makeshift gun too, though that would be worse. Like an explosive, a firearm would alert everyone underground to their presence, even if the echo would probably conceal their position.

"Then our plan is completely shot. We can't blow a hole in the ceiling, there's a guard. I didn't see a booth, so they're probably on a rotation. Damn, if Ryan smacks into that guy without realizing what's going on, he is so screwed."

"It's not the end of the world," Vesper whispered back, grinning slyly at him. She turned a little dial on the tracker until it stopped beeping, though it was still flashing. Then she offered it to him. He took it in his magic, holding it there. "We just need to improvise. One guard, sitting out all by himself. No radio to call, and I'm not seeing any weapons either." She looked back at him, fangs bared. "Remember what Janet's friend told us? There are bats living in these caves." She opened and closed her wings once, demonstratively. "What if one got lost?"

He shook his head once. "That's a gamble, Vesper. I saw wings on him—he could be fast with those things—maybe he flies for help. Or maybe there's a dozen soldiers through the doors. We don't know."

"It's a risk, I get that," she said. "But I don't mind. Blowing a hole in the ceiling was gonna be a risk too. This feels... simpler." Before he could react, she slipped back down the hall and out of sight.