Heavy metal music echoed across the neighborhood, disturbing nearby ponies and angering next-door neighbors. An old stallion from across the street grimaced at a small home in front of him where the loud music was arising from and slammed his window shut, shaking his head and leaving to resume his hobbies downstairs.
Despite the majority despising the disruptive music plaguing their clear morning, the only two who experienced merriment from the blaring tune were the ones creating it. A chalky white unicorn with an even red and milky colored mane concentrated on strumming a bass guitar to a backing track. Her companion, a light blue pegasus with ruffled dark purple hair was seated on a stool at her side, idly tapping her hoof to the beat.
In between the song, the unicorn found herself slowly losing her pace and her hoof began to strum at the strings faster in an attempt to catch up. She gazed upwards at the pony accompanying her and saw her shaking her head and making a hoof motion. She abruptly stopped playing.
“You were playing too slow again. You can’t just cover that up by rushing the notes.” The pegasus said.
“Yeah well, I’ve done this same part about ten times now. I’m trying to get it.” The unicorn scowled down at the guitar in her hooves.
The pegasus laid her wing over her back and smiled in reassurance. “Why don’t we take a break? This way I can go over if the magic method is better or we should just revamp that part.”
“I guess so.”
She gave the other mare a playful shove with her wing and sprung up from the stool. “I’m going to go make a sandwich. Call if you need me.”
The unicorn peered down at the instrument before moving to set it back on the wall. She was presently feeling a bit discouraged that she kept fumbling on the pacing and didn’t exactly feel like practicing anymore today. As much as her marefriend had tried to make her feel better, she somewhat felt that she too was a little irritated that she couldn’t keep up.
“Scarlet, Scarlet!”
Her head perked up and her eyes searched the disordered basement, stacked ceiling-high with old junk, boxes and schoolgirl skirts. The thumping of hooves could be heard from above along with a clattering noise and the shrieking of her partner upstairs.
“What the fuck, there’s a pony in here?! Scarlet, get your ass up here, somepony broke in!”
Scarlet rushed to climb the stairs and was met with the other mare holding a butter knife between her teeth, a dribble of butter remaining on it. A plate smashed to pieces resided next to the fridge and two halves of bread followed by a cheese slice lay on the floor nearby. It appeared she didn’t get the chance to enjoy her sandwich as she intended.
“Chaos, what are you doing?” Scarlet asked.
“I have a knife and I’m not afraid to use it!” Chaos called out to the intruder.
“That’s a butter knife. It’s almost impossible to kill somepony with that.”
“Shh, don’t let them hear that!” Chaos whispered to Scarlet.
Scarlet and Chaos Melody discerned somepony swiftly galloping through the living room and they both rushed to follow the sound. They ceased their movement when the two reached the entrance and Chaos defensively held out her butter knife whilst Scarlet rolled her eyes.
Scarlet carefully trotted her way into the living room, leaning her head left and right to check small crevices and areas the trespasser could be hiding. She paused when she noticed a fluffy dark blue tail poking out from behind a couch pillow and she levitated it out of the way.
“Flusk?” Scarlet’s eyes widened.
Flusk shuddered with her hooves over her face protectively. “Please don’t kill me, I didn’t mean to break in! The front door was open so I thought I’d just come in and announce myself. But then the other pony got scared so I ran around trying to find a way out and-”
“You know her?” Chaos interrupted.
Scarlet sighed. “As much as I don’t mind you coming over, knocking would be nice. You scared the shit out of Chaos.”
“Why are you being nice to someone who just broke into our house?!”
“She’s a close friend of mine, she’s not dangerous. She doesn’t mean any harm.”
“If you say so,” Chaos lowered her butter knife and walked back to the kitchen, muttering angrily. “She made me drop my sandwich…”
Scarlet turned to Flusk as the dark unicorn repositioned herself from previously cowering in fright.
“Seriously though, you need to work on your entrances.” Scarlet furrowed her brow.
“I know, I’m sorry. I came here in a hurry because I wanted to ask you if you would come to Mooncaster with me.”
“Wait, Mooncaster? You mean that giant ass mountain over there?” Scarlet pointed in the general direction she predicted Mooncaster was.
“Yes. I need an answer like…Right now. A simple yes or no suffices.”
“Isn’t that thing like haunted or something? I don’t know if mountains can be haunted but I heard there’s some wild shit going on over there. I don’t think that’s very smart.”
“Yes, there is some wild shit going on over there!” Flusk shouted impatiently. “But you know what, I don’t care. I’m sick of other ponies determining whether I should or shouldn’t do something! I’m going to do it whether you come with me or not!”
Flusk panted from her outrage as Scarlet simply stared at her in surprise. Once she came to her senses, she exhaled and pushed her mane out of her eyes shyly.
“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to yell at you like that.”
“I take it that others have been telling you the same thing, huh?”
Flusk nodded and gazed down at the floor embarrassed.
“Well, if it means that much to you I’ll go. But don’t expect me to know anything about hiking and mountains or whatever. I wouldn’t choose to go to Mooncaster if it were up to me.”
“Really?” Flusk grinned widely. “Thank you, I’m glad somepony believes in me.”
“I’ll go tell Chaos and we can leave right after.”
Unfortunately, it took a bit more than just telling to get Chaos to budge on allowing Scarlet to follow Flusk to the mountain. Chaos was well aware of how illegal it was to be in Mooncaster’s vicinity and warned Scarlet to stay away, absolutely refusing her from getting herself into trouble.
Nevertheless, Scarlet was far too stubborn to listen to her cries of caution and only replied that she was familiar with treacherous climates and areas, especially in the sense of war. She had been on the battleground many times and although Mooncaster was not in any sort of conflict between ponies, she used the fact that she was a war-hardened pony to get away with doing something highly illegal. It wasn’t a reliable explanation but it worked long enough for her and Flusk to dart out the door.
By now, Flusk and Scarlet had made their way into River Breeze square and spotted Drizzle seated on the ground near the watermelon stand. The watermelon he purchased sat in a bag this time at his side while he gaped at Mount Mooncaster in the distance, seeming to be contemplating the trot up the mountain.
“Drizzle, I’m back,” Flusk called. “And I brought somepony with me!”
Drizzled rotated his head around and his expression immediately changed to repugnance when he realized who was with her.
“You brought her along?” Drizzle said in disappointment.
“Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine,” Scarlet answered sarcastically.
“I don’t even know why you don’t like Scarlet. She didn’t even do anything to you.” Flusk responded.
“You want to know what she did to me? She’s talked smack about me behind my back, she says the rudest shit to your face and she’s quite possibly the most self-centred and uncaring pony I’ve ever met.”
“To me, it sounds like you described everything you are to a tee,” Scarlet replied sharply.
Scarlet and Drizzle bore into each other, looking like they were about to throw hooves with one another when Flusk stood in between them.
“This is ridiculous. You two fighting each other isn’t going to get us any closer to investigating Mooncaster. I’d appreciate it if you both learned to tolerate each other for the journey so we don’t run into any unnecessary problems.”
“I never even said I wanted to go! You just ran off and decided everything for me after I explicitly said I wasn’t going!” Drizzle complained.
“Come on, we’re already here. Just this once, please?”
Flusk pouted and gazed innocently at him, hoping to persuade him to agree. Drizzle leered at her momentarily before he sighed and gave up.
“Fine.”
“Yay!” Flusk cheered.
The excited unicorn cantered toward the direction of Mooncaster and Scarlet followed shortly after. Feeling like he had no choice in the matter, Drizzle continued along with them as they began their adventure to the mountain.
“Wait, no one even thought to bring any supplies with them? Are you insane?!” Drizzle yelled.
The sun was lower in the sky as Flusk, Scarlet and Drizzle hiked down a rocky trail that for the most part was deserted. They trotted past a few sight-seekers who wore cameras around their necks and conversed excitedly about the view behind them. This could only mean that the group had reached as close to Mooncaster as was legally allowed by the princesses.
Flusk galloped up to a crowd of ponies overlooking a cliff above a large ravine. Beyond it was the massive mountain of Mount Mooncaster. Thick clouds hung aloft on the summit while small birds in the distance glided overhead, swooping in and out of the fluffy exterior. And just as she recalled from the book, a faint but evident green aura illuminated the outlines of the trees residing on the mountain. This aura would become stronger and more visible at night time once the moon rose in the sky.
Drizzle stood at Flusk’s side. “Well, we’re here. Why don’t we just have a quick look around and then head back home? I was going to order a pizza and-”
“No,” Flusk interrupted. “We came here to climb Mooncaster. I’m not going home just yet.”
“Hold on a second, you never said we were going to climb it.” Scarlet showed a bit of concern on her face.
“Don’t say that so loud! There are ponies everywhere here and they might hear you.” Drizzle cautioned.
“I’m sorry, I guess I should have explained better but I felt like if I did, you’d never be on board.” Flusk frowned.
“I mean, I’m not just going to gallop off now that we’re here but I definitely wouldn’t have come if I knew that.”
“It probably wouldn’t have even mattered, she’d just drag you here no matter what. I still don’t want to be here yet I’m here!” Drizzle protested.
“You followed us, you had every chance to walk away but you didn’t. Don’t act like you were brought here against your will.”
“But I was! Did you not hear her earlier begging me to go?”
Their discussion faded to silence within her mind as Flusk had her eye on two security guards standing on duty. They stood in front of a barbed-wire fence that lined the edge of the cliff with neutral expressions. She took note of the fact they were both pegasi, purposely chosen in case another pegasus decided to fly right over the fence or even a unicorn used teleportation to get to the other side. They would be able to chase them down through the air and promptly arrest them. She could tell they were skilled fliers and it wouldn’t take much effort either.
“Hey Drizzle, would you mind lending me a hoof? Or rather, a horn?”
The grin on her face said it all and Drizzle immediately dreaded whatever she had in mind for him.
Scarlet and Flusk concealed themselves behind a bush a short distance away from the barbed wire fence. A security guard stood on their side, oblivious to the two mares plan as they focused on monitoring the crowd.
“Alright, so Drizzle is going to use a flashbang spell on the guards to disorient them. While they’re stunned, I and you are going to climb that fence and dive over into the ravine. If we’re all fast enough, they won’t even be able to see us once they regain their senses.” Flusk explained, keeping a hushed tone.
“Do you understand how crazy that sounds?” Scarlet asked quietly. “We’re diving into a ravine from the air.”
“There’s water below, I checked.”
“Is Drizzle even okay with that either? He’s a prick but even he shouldn’t be forced to do something this extreme.” Scarlet glanced over to her left, searching for Drizzle on the other side.
“I mean he didn’t say he wanted to but he’s over there preparing his spell. I’d say he’s already agreed to it.”
“What happened to you? You would never do this normally. Especially something to this extent.”
“There’s something important about Mooncaster and I have to find it. If I walk away now, I’ll never know what’s calling me here.”
“Well, fine, but you’re going to a mage after this so I can make sure there’s no foreign magic luring you to your death or something equally threatening.”
Flusk observed as Drizzle squeezed himself through the crowd to get in closer range with the security guards. He crouched down, his legs noticeably shaking in fear as he utilized the tightly knit ponies around him for shielding the brightness of the glow of his horn. A few of them looked at him once or twice with confused expressions before turning their attention back to the breathtaking view in front of them.
His horn smoldered with bright violet magic as he aimed carefully. The bright aura was the agreed-upon signal for Scarlet and Flusk to ready themselves and once the flashbang was released, it would be on them to get across.
Drizzle lunged forward and a loud explosion and blinding luminosity followed as screams and yells emanated amongst the area. Flusk could hear the bewildered shouts of the security guards while she and Scarlet shielded their eyes and galloped toward the fence.
Flusk strained, using her magic to boost herself up the fence and threw herself over. The crunch of grass beside her indicated that Scarlet got over it as well. She reached her hoof ahead and found that there was no land to support it.
“Are you sure you still want to do this?” Scarlet’s voice spoke beside her.
“We’re going to be arrested if we don’t!”
Scarlet took that as yes as she dived off the cliff, followed by Flusk. A rush of air consumed them, aggressively throwing their manes behind them and forcing them to shut their eyes. Flusk felt the urge to scream inside but it never escaped her mouth as she fell through the air, feeling like her entire world had stopped. Eventually, she found her limbs limply following the violent nature of the wind rushing past her and surrendered to it.
Shortly after doing so, she and Scarlet dropped into the cold ravine water below and liquid began to fill her lungs. She fought with her arms to swim to the surface and gasped once she reached the top. She broke into a coughing fit, expelling water from her throat.
“Flusk, are you okay?” Scarlet asked, drifting towards her.
She wanted to respond but she was too busy trying to stay afloat while her body forced her to hack up all the water she inhaled. Scarlet carefully lifted Flusk onto her back and proceeded to doggy paddle to the nearest piece of land. Once she pulled herself up onto the ground, she gently helped Flusk off.
“T-Thank you…” Flusk panted, letting out a few coughs.
“I can’t believe you jumped in there without knowing how to swim first,” Scarlet said sternly.
“It was…The only way.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t. You just didn’t want to think of another plan in a short amount of time.”
The rustling of trees nearby alerted Scarlet and she whipped her head around, rotating herself so that she faced the evergreen behind them. There was an audible poof noise as Drizzle came bursting out of some tree branches and fell right on his flank.
Drizzle groaned and massaged his flank with his hoof. “Ughhh…I’m never doing that again.”
He turned his gaze to Scarlet and Flusk who were sopping wet from head to hoof, Flusk looking worse for wear and Scarlet having her usual scowl at him.
“Uh, what happened to you two? You both look like shit.”
“We took a dip in the ravine and Flusk ended up almost dying,” Scarlet responded bluntly.
“I didn’t almost die! I was just struggling.”
“You could barely keep your head above water, you weren’t just struggling.”
“This whole thing is a suicide attempt,” Drizzle said, ringing his mane of twigs and stray leaves. “I don’t even know if those guards saw me, never mind the rash and short thinking on Flusk’s part.”
“Would you stop hating everything I do? I’m trying my best and you’re not making me feel any better about it!” Flusk snapped.
“Good, you shouldn’t feel good about it! You dragged us all the way here, evading the law and almost killing yourself in the process. If Scarlet weren’t here I don’t know what would have happened to you.”
“Is that a compliment or?...” Scarlet trailed off.
Tears stung the corners of Flusk’s eyes and she glowered as she pulled herself up from the ground. Her head raised to gaze up at the rocky peaks of Mount Mooncaster, large rocks jutting out of its surface down. They appeared to be stable enough to climb, perhaps even hold a pony.
She huffed angrily and fought back her tears as she placed a hoof on a slab and strived to climb the mountain by herself. She breathed hard and grit her teeth, one of her back hooves slipping off a stone.
“What are you doing now?” Drizzle asked angrily.
“Just forget it, I don’t want to bother you anymore. I’ll just go by myself.”
“Hey, I’m still here, you know. I want to go too.” Scarlet replied.
The unicorn trotted a few short steps from where Flusk ventured up the steep climb. A rock suddenly gave out underneath her hoof and she went descending through the air screaming. Luckily, Scarlet’s horn glimmered to life and she was able to break Flusk’s fall and seize her from striking the ground.
“And I would prefer I join you as well. You have no sense of safety for yourself.” Scarlet commented, grimacing as she softly set Flusk down.
Flusk laughed awkwardly. “Yeah…I think it would be best if you came too. This is the second time you’ve saved me today.”
“It certainly won’t be the last.”
The two ponies proceeded to ascend the mountain together, Scarlet using her magic to assist Flusk where she could and pointing out stable rocks that would be safe enough to hold their weight. While they were halfway upwards, Drizzle simply stood there, utterly dumbfounded that they were both continuing with this appalling plan. He hadn’t even got the chance yet to castigate Flusk for compelling him to possibly put his entire future on the line for one measly mission. And for what, a trailblazer job? He was outraged at what he had been previously subjected to.
Whilst climbing, Scarlet paused on a large rock and turned her head around to stare down at Drizzle below her.
“Are you coming or what?” Scarlet asked with an attitude.
“I don’t know, am I?” He returned it. “I’m being used as a fucking scapegoat left and right so what’s the point.”
Scarlet glanced up to see Flusk farther upwards than her and decided to take this rare chance to give that stallion down there a piece of her mind.
“Look, asshole, I’m not going to pretend and say I like you but you’re Flusk’s best friend. I’ll never understand why or what she sees in you but what I do understand is that you’ve not been a very good friend to her as of late. The least you could do is get your lazy ass up here and help her.”
Scarlet rotated back around and carried on with her climbing. Not even a few moments after her speech, she could hear the rolling of small rocks and Drizzle straining below her to catch up with them.
It wasn’t before long that the three ponies paused to take a rest on a protruding cliffside elevated off the mountain. By now, the air had become much chillier and the swarming clouds above were not far off from their current destination. Accompanying the frigid atmosphere was an unusual feeling that was almost indescribable. It was foreign and unknown yet not particularly frightful or menacing. It was like energy from an outworld that possibly shouldn’t belong here but remained all the same.
“I’m not liking the frequencies I’m getting here. It feels very off and ancient.” Drizzle said, rubbing his hooves together to warm them.
“You feel that too? I thought that was just me.” Flusk replied.
“It’s f-fucking freezing here…” Scarlet stuttered, her teeth chattering from the cold.
“I do remember that book saying there’s some strange magic here on the mountain. Maybe it’s affecting the atmosphere here.”
“That’s great and all but can we find shelter? I can’t take this.” Scarlet complained.
“Where are we supposed to find shelter on a mountain? It’s all rock and more rock.” Drizzle retorted.
“We could try there!”
Flusk motioned to a dingy cave that was boarded up with signs and cautionary warnings, explaining that if anypony set hoof in, the legal authority would have full consent to punish that pony. Along with mentioning there was a high-level magical force field placed around the mouth of the cave, making it strenuous to get in. But not exactly impossible.
“Uhh…Are you blind?” Drizzle asked genuinely. “Do you see all that stuff on the outside of it?”
“Holy shit, it’s extremely illegal to go in there,” Scarlet paused. “I’m doing it.”
“You both are beyond help.”
Scarlet and Flusk approached the cave but were abruptly stopped as they slammed into an invisible wall that prevented them from getting in. Scarlet began punching it with her hoof, making the force field sparkle and reflect light but it wasn’t exactly beneficial to their ultimate goal of getting in. Drizzle was only counting down the seconds before they requested his help considering his magic level and understanding.
“Drizzle, can you destroy this force field for us?” Flusk smiled at him.
He sighed. “Don’t you think we’ve gone far enough today?”
“Don’t you realize that we’re so close to figuring out the secrets of Mooncaster? We can’t stop now!”
“I know that you’ll never listen to me but that doesn’t mean I have to listen to you.”
After stating that, he seated himself on the cold floor stubbornly and watched them expressionlessly.
“Drizzzleeee…Are you kidding me? You’re the only one who can break it!” Flusk whined.
“Exactly, you can’t go any further without my assistance. I’m stopping you both from continuing on this pointless pantomime.”
“I don’t even know what the fuck a pantomime is.” Scarlet chimed in.
“You’re not going in that cave whether you like it or not. I refuse to let you two endlessly throw yourselves into danger and drag me with it. I’m done with this.” He responded indignantly.
Displeased with his answer, Flusk galloped at the barrier and hammered at it with her hooves. Her breath hitched as her anger and frustration raised in her chest, enraged that they had come all this way for Drizzle to deny them access to the one place nopony dared to go. They were on to something that could change the whole of Ifera ByFlame forever but he was holding them back for his egocentric feelings. It was insufferable.
In a fury, she let out a scream and forced herself against the force field, her constant pace of hitting it beginning to slow. With every impact and strike, the magic flickered and rebuilt itself to replace the damage she had caused, making her efforts futile.
She exhaled loudly and collapsed against the impressive spell, her chest rising and falling as she caught her breath. She wanted to keep going but without the capacity to cast something more than levitation or teleportation, her strength and undying determination to see the other side were in vain. Not without that ignorant unicorn’s help.
Before relinquishing her courage to pursue this, a glint of green magic suddenly caught her eyes towards the force field in front of her. The barrier had become luminescent with the unknown aura, startling Flusk.
“What is that?” Drizzle’s eyes widened.
“Touch it…”
A whispery voice invaded her consciousness, persuading her to interact with the barrier. Her hoof slowly lifted in the air, feeling an electric connection of tendrils in between the space of her hoof and the force field. It was unlike anything she had experienced before and she could have sworn she felt a few strands of her mane float into the air.
“Touch it…”
She hesitated before taking a deep breath and closing the distance between her and the mysterious power. The moment her hoof rested on the surface, an exhilarating reaction traveled through her arm and she heard the crackling and sparking of the barrier. The green aura began to attack the ancient spell with her influence and reduce it to but a simple luster that her hoof passed through effortlessly.
“It…It’s gone?” Flusk inspected her hoof, a small sheen being left from the spell.
“How did you do that?” Drizzle stood up from the ground, perplexed. “That’s not even physically possible.”
“It’s possible for Flusk. Maybe not you.” Scarlet replied snidely.
Excitement and adrenaline overwhelmed Flusk and she sprinted inside the cave, giggling in elation from successfully finding a way inside.
“Hey, don’t run off in there!” Drizzle shouted.
She slowed her run once the path she followed started to dim and the light from the outside world was beginning to not affect the cavern from within. Instead, she softly cantered over small rocks and propelled dust behind her while she examined the cave. It was a tiny bit warmer here but the primeval environment of this cave felt lifeless and icy so it wasn’t much of a difference as she had thought.
“Ow!”
Pain tinged through her right hoof as she gazed downwards to see she had stubbed her hoof on a midsized crystal sprouting from the floor. It was a vibrant blue color that was quite similar to Drizzle’s coat.
“Hey, I found a crystal in here!” Flusk hollered, her voice bouncing off the walls of the cave.
It wasn’t long before Scarlet and Drizzle showed up, Drizzle looking distinctly anxious.
“Did you touch it? Please don’t tell me you touched it…” He asked, deliberately standing a distance away from the crystal.
“I stumbled upon it while exploring the cave so I guess I did touch it, yeah.”
“Ugh, I didn’t study enough curse banishing spells to properly deal with this.” He lowered his head shamefully.
“Wait, why would you need a curse banishing spell? It’s just a crystal.”
“Are you serious? Crystals are used to contain incantations and all sorts of banes. This thing is highly evil.” He scowled at the crystal.
“Does that mean all of them are evil then?” Scarlet asked.
“What do you mean by all of them?”
It was then the stallion noticed that this tiny blue crystal on the floor was only the introduction to the hundreds of other gems hanging off the ceiling and walls of the cavern. They illuminated the path forward the more adjacent they were to each other and provided a natural light source.
“Oh, this is not good.” Drizzle’s ears flattened to his head.
“Woah, it’s so pretty! I knew there was something special about this cave.” Flusk grinned.
“I kind of want to just take some home for myself. You don’t think that’s going to disrupt anything in this cave, right?” Scarlet queried.
“Just don’t touch any of it, not a single speck. As long as Flusk doesn’t touch any more of them she should be fine.” Drizzle responded sternly.
But just as expected, Flusk was already ahead of him and stepping two and fro on the crystals lining the floor. Drizzle was practically choking himself from his frustration as she trod over each one, her hooves barely touching their sharp edges before leaving.
“She looks fine to me,” Scarlet remarked. “You just seem paranoid.”
Seeing as it was safe, Scarlet followed her approach and strode over the crystals, careful not to stand on them for too long. Again, nothing special happened and there appeared to be no curses released or any sort of troublesome magic. Drizzle’s magic classes he attended way back when proved to be useless in this regard and he was quite ticked off about that. So much so, he rejected their technique and resorted to just drifting over the crystal clusters with his magic.
Luckily, the rampant amount of crystals dwindled and they found themselves trotting over sand and tiny rocks. Flusk halted the group abruptly when she saw something ahead of them blocking their path. A large lump of dirt lay ahead of them, noticeable traces of sparkly magic being mixed in with the sand and muck.
“What is that?” Scarlet squinted in front of them.
“It looks like somepony buried something there. I wonder what.” Flusk rubbed her chin in thought.
“Probably the corpse of somepony’s dead wife or something. They needed a place to hide her so they chose the most awful place in all of Ifera.” Drizzle replied sarcastically.
“You mean the best place to hide a body in all of Ifera!” Flusk smirked.
“The fact that you’re smiling about that terrifies me…” Drizzle mumbled.
“I don’t think anypony could trek up here with a dead body and not get caught or drop it on the way here. I think we’re safe.” Scarlet replied.
“I guess it’s safe to dig it up then!”
Flusk began running her hooves through the clod and tossing it behind her, forming a new pile of dirt at her back hooves. Scarlet conjured up a shovel and dug it through the earth more efficiently, hurling it at her little pile. They plowed through pounds and pounds of the soil before Scarlet’s shovel collided with something solid underneath the dirt.
“My shovel just hit something.”
“Oooohh, let me see!”
Flusk used her hooves to clear away the small layer of dust left to reveal a hardcover book underneath. One that had most likely not seen the light of day in centuries. Flusk gasped and turned to Drizzle.
“There’s an old book in here, come see!”
Regrettably, Drizzle made his way over but his whole demeanor seemed to change once the book was in his field of vision. Interest and wonderment at the enigma of a book buried for who knows how long lifted his mood. The desire to know if there were any undisclosed spells or information tucked away inside not known by the regular unicorn drove his mind mad, overthrowing his once cautious nature of this place.
Before anypony else could, he levitated the book out of the pit and gently blew away some of the dust. It was a book with no title and no author, a plain piece of junk is what he predicted Flusk or Scarlet would say about it. But he didn’t exactly believe in precious knowledge being presented so easily to the naked eye. After all, power was earned, not given.
His horn glowed brightly and he shot a small beam of magic at the book’s cover. He waited for any results to arise and found his suspicions correct as the book responded to it by opening its pages and flipping through them drastically without his help. By now, the blank sheets of paper had begun to turn into but a blur at the rate they were turning by themselves.
“Uh…Is that normal?” Flusk asked worriedly.
“For the creators of magic, it’s only a precaution added to prevent those who aren’t as interested in working for knowledge from taking a peek at their secrets.” Drizzle explained.
“I don’t even know what that means,” Scarlet replied after.
The pages abruptly ceased there movement and remained open for Drizzle to see. There was nothing written on either side, leaving Flusk and Scarlet muddled with his words.
“I don’t see anything. I think this book is just a trick.” Flusk said.
“Uh, is he okay?”
Scarlet gestured to the side of her where Drizzle stood motionless, the book balancing on his forehoof. His green eyes were glossy and reflectionless and his mouth agape whilst he peered down at the book in his clutch. It was almost as if he wasn’t there and it was just his body standing there with no control of itself.
“Drizzle?” Flusk called his name anxiously.
The book slipped off his hoof, thumping to the ground on its spine and tumbling flat as he doubled over, arching his back. Drizzle let out a horrifying scream of agony as his entire body shuddered and he held his forehead firmly, his breath short and rapid.
“Drizzle, what's wrong?!” Flusk practically shouted over his screaming.
“M-My head…My b-body…I can’t.” He muttered.
“Scarlet, what’s happening to him? I don't know what to do!” She panicked.
The normally slackened mare wore a look of unease as Drizzle endured his torturous pain, his legs and back twisted in unnatural positions while he tried to fight it. Tears stained his eyes as he hopelessly stared up at the ceiling, praying that some sort of god would end his suffering and banish these intense sensations.
“We need to take him to the hospital.” Scarlet finally said.
“The hospital? But we’re up in Mooncaster! There’s no way we can carry him to a hospital from here.”
“I know, but we have no choice. He might die if we don’t try.”
Flusk was astounded at the level of empathy Scarlet was currently showing towards Drizzle’s difficulty to bear. She and Drizzle were always at each other’s throats and she had very little regard for his opinions and feelings no matter what it was. The very joy of getting to roast him or make him feel like shit for the way he behaved towards her was what she strived for most.
Regardless, here she was now taking the situation with unrivaled maturity and assuring they would undertake the journey back down the mountain with Drizzle no matter if it was possible or not. Even if there was no mutual liking between either of them, Scarlet had put that behind her to save somepony. This was certainly something Flusk would characterize as out of the ordinary for her.
“Lift him, would you? I have an idea.” Scarlet gestured to Drizzle.
Flusk slid her arms underneath Drizzle and began to hoist him up onto her back. His mass on top of her small frame made her legs bend a little to compensate for the weight and she exhaled out of fatigue.
“Please don’t touch me, please don’t touch me…Stop!”
He repeated over and over, his tone weary but high as he begged Flusk to stop. She could imagine moving his torso and limbs around would only heighten the aching he was feeling but she had no choice. It was the only way to transport him for medical attention.
“I’m sorry, I have to. But don’t worry, we’ll get you to River Breeze and find a doctor that can help. Just try and take deep breaths if you can.” Flusk tried to reassure him.
She finally had him adjusted onto her back and he limply rested there with his head overhanging her side, attempting to get through this. She glanced at Scarlet for further instruction.
“I’m not sure if this is going to work or even improve the current situation but it’s better than not trying,” Scarlet waved her over. “Come stand by my side.”
She positioned herself next to Scarlet’s shoulder, watching to make sure she didn’t bump Drizzle into Scarlet by accident. A dark-ish gold aura began whirling around her horn as she shut her eyes and concentrated. Flusk could feel Drizzle tensing and straining on her back with every moment and all she could do was yearn for a cure for his agony.
With a poof, the three disappeared and Scarlet teleported them to what she anticipated would be the tall bridge in the center square of River Breeze.