//------------------------------// // Lolcano Pt. 3 // Story: An Iron Pawn // by Eathlome //------------------------------// An Iron Pawn Lolcano Pt. 3 We began our trek into the rugged rocky terrain. I strode over the jagged stones and pointed rocks that littered the ground, Cora riding on my shoulder. Scribe flew slightly behind us, and I could notice his eyes darting around, as he nervously scanned the sky. There was very little wildlife in this desolate area, aside from some small snakes and scorpions, which made me wonder what could have him so concerned. I soon found out. As we crested a ridge, a loud shriek halted us. In the distant sky there were several dark figures, which were quickly closing in on us. Scribe was staring at them, a look of horror on his face. "Not again..." he groaned. 'What now?' "Every single time! It never fails!" Scribe ranted, "Celestia and Luna twice damn it to Tartarus!" Cora cleared her throat with a slight Ahem. "It couldn't have not happened just this once! I can't just have a nice trip to the Volcanic Wastes without them showing up! Noooooo, of course they just have to be out and about when ever I come here!" Cora tapped the side of my head, and gave a nod at Scribe. I shrugged, nearly toppling Cora off, then reached up and yanked the pegasus down by his back leg. I quickly flipped him around, and grabbed him with both hands, so he was facing me and Cora. 'Explain. Now.' My blunt demand was punctuated by another shriek, this one much closer. "Harpies." he mumbled. Cora leaned forward. "Could speak a bit louder? Pleeeeease?" "Harpies." he said again, just barely a whisper. 'OUT WITH IT!' "HARPIES!" he screamed, "Every single time I ever come to the Volcanic Wastes, I'm attacked by harpies! I have no idea how they know I'm coming, but they never fail to show!" "Why would harpies be interested in you?" Cora asked, scratching her head in confusion, causing small sparks to leap from her fingertips. Scribe blushed, and looked down to the side. "Er... Well... The thing about harpies... is that... well, they don't have any males, so- " 'OOOOOKAY! That's enough explaining for now! We have bigger problems.' I gestured to the six harpies who had come close enough to see properly. They were wretched creatures. Oversized wings, sharp talons, and the crusty red coating of dried blood covering their bodies. I thought back to the last time I had fought harpies... I had died. I let go of Scribe and he flew back a bit. "Alright, these harpies are after me. So I'm going to fly as fast as I can, to keep them from you." He pointed a hoof at me, "Make sure you protect her with your life." I would have been a very dramatic and beautiful scene, except Cora burst into laughter. After her giggles had subsided, Cora waved a hand at Scribe. "No. You're going to stay right here with us, and Adam will take care of everything, understand?" "B-but-" "Understand?" Cora repeated, in a slightly more forceful tone. Scribe opened his mouth slightly, but quickly closed it with a glare from Cora. He slowly nodded, and Cora's cheery demeanor quickly returned. "Great!" Cora slid off me, with a smile. When she landed, several small spurts of lava shot up out of some of the cracks in the ground. 'Showoff.' Cora stuck her tongue out at me, and motioned for Scribe to hover beside her. "Now all we have to do is let Ada-" Cora was cut off by another loud screech, this one nearly right above us. Glancing up I saw that the harpies were very close now, and the one which had screeched was already in a steep dive. I bent my knees slightly , and spread my arms out wide. The harpy, almost upon us, prepared to let out another cry, but it was cut short when I slammed my arm into it like a metal club. The blow caused several things to go snap, and I spun around, following up with my momentum, and slammed the harpy to the ground. The harpy shrieked in pain and a dark smoke started to fill the air. The harpy had landed in one of the small pools of lava Cora had made. I quickly stomped down on the harpy, caving in it's chest. Cora had started up a chant in the background, "Adam, Adam, he's the guy! He can wipe out these small fry!" I turned my attention towards the remaining harpies, three of which had already began their dives. Their dive was in a tight formation, and perfectly synchronized. Unfortunately for them, that would only help me. I leaped into the air, and grabbed the harpies in a bear hug. I landed a few feet away from Cora and Scribe, and began to squeeze. The harpies thrashed and shrieked, desperately trying to break my hold. The quickly lashed out at me with their talons. These ineffective attacks soon fell of after several crunches, after which the screeches increased in volume. With a final strain I swept my arms past each other, effectively crushing the harpies in half. As I let the mass of gore fall to the ground I looked up at the remaining two harpies, who were circling warily. They made several moves to dive, but withdrew as I moved to intercept. Suddenly they both dived, from opposite directions. I knew that I couldn't block from both sides, one would knock me away and the other would grab Scribe, so I let my instincts take over. I reached down and scooped up a mix of ash, burning flesh and magma from the first harpy, and launched at one of the other ones diving. As I turned to face the other assailant, I could see out of the corner of my eye, that the flaming molten mass had struck the harpy on the wing, and it was rapidly falling. I turned my attention to the last attacker, and launched a sledgehammer like punch, caving in the harpy's head, and splattering brain everywhere. 'Damn. Where am I going to find a place to wash off here?' Scribe was staring at me open mouthed, his left eye twitching slightly. Cora giggled and clapped her hands. "Don't worry about that. Let's get back on track." Cora reached her arms towards me, waiting to be picked up. I reached down and swept her up onto my shoulder. She pointed towards a large mountain. "There it is!" We started off, and walked for a few minutes, before we noticed that Scribe wasn't with us. We hurried back and found his still staring at the remains of the harpies. I grabbed him, and began to tow him a little bit behind me, as he hovered just off the ground. By the time he had gotten over his shock we had arrived at the base of the volcano. To my surprise there appeared to be something like a rough path leading up it. "Is this where we are heading?" I glanced over at Scribe, as Cora nodded. "Yep." Scribes eyes brightened. "I see. Is it because of the gems?" After a moment of silence from both of us Scribe continued on. "Because many of the gems here have strange properties. Rumor has it that every single gem produces a unique effect when magic is applied to them. I'm not sure if that's true, but gems from this area are very easy to imbue with magic, and that makes them quite valuable. In fact there are a few small mining camps nearby which rely on them as their primary source of income." I decided to answer his original question, else we would probably end up hearing about the last few hundred years of this place. 'No. Were not here about the gems... It's more about what causes the gems to act like that, if I'm not mistaken.' This caught Scribe's attention right away "You know what causes the gems to act this way? You must tell me! This could be the find of the century!" If I were still flesh and blood, or at the very least had a working respiratory system, I probably would have groaned, or given a regretful sigh. As neither of those two options were available to me, I resigned myself to raising my head to the sky and looking around for more harpies to kill. Unfortunately there were none. By the time we had crested the last ridge on the path, Scribe had filled up three small notebooks, which he had taken from his bags, with what I had told him about Ley lines, Ley Nexi, and their effects on the surrounding area. "Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" The shout had come from a small barricade, made from some of the larger boulders in the area. Peering over top of the short wall was a rather large earth pony. He was wearing some old plate armor, and had a crossbow, which had somehow been mounted on his hooves. The pony called out again. "We are heavily armed, and will not hesitate to shoot, should you come any closer. We took out the last group of dogs that came here, and no matter how much armor you pile on, we’ll still wipe out you mutts!" I glanced at Cora and shrugged. ‘Well, we tried. Let’s go home.’ Smack! Cora wasn’t amused. I shook my head,in a vain attempt to stop the ringing. ‘I’m not sure I really deserved that.’ After that Scribe decided to take the diplomacy into his own hooves. He flew to the front of our small group, so that he was visible to the guard. The guard started at the appearance of the pegasus,but didn’t lower his weapon. “Clearly there has been some sort of mistake. You seem to be under the impression that we are... diamond dogs? I’d like to personally assure that none of us are.” The guard seemed a bit hesitant, but was no longer aiming directly at us. After a few moments deliberation, he lowered his weapon. “I’m willing to admit that I may have been a bit hasty in labeling you like that. But that still doesn’t mean I can trust you. Why are you heading to The Camp?” Scribe seemed a bit puzzled. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Cora and I were fairly confused as well. “What’s The Camp?” The guard looked at us for a moment, then slowly started to nod. “You’re not from around here.” It was a statement, not a question. The guard continued with his explanation. “The Camp is sort of like a small town that was set up by the miners. You claim whatever house is available when you get there, and you keep it in repair until you leave. Then it’s free for the next pony who comes along.“ It seemed like an interesting setup, and if we weren't most likely going to level the place, it would probably be very interesting to see how it worked in more depth. Unfortunately that probably wouldn’t be an option. The guard looked at us again and cleared his throat. “So if you weren’t heading to the camp, why were you coming up here?” Scribe opened his mouth, then paused. A confused look flitted across his features, and he turned to look at us. “Your greatest magnificence, I’m afraid that I was never informed of the reason we have brought you most hallowed being here. I know that he,” Scribe gestured at me, “gave an explanation of the ambient magical properties of Ley energy, but it was never tied in with your grand plan.” Cora waved a hand at his ridiculous amount of flattery, and let out a small giggle. ‘Careful Scribbles, if you keep that up, her huge head will make it much harder to balance up here.’ Smack! ‘Now, I might have deserved that one.’ The guard let out a rough chuckle. “I might not be too sure what you are, but you don’t seem to be dangerous. I’ll let you pass, but if I get word about any trouble, you can be sure you’ll be going off the side faster that you can say “It wasn’t me!”, got it?” ‘Yep.’ “Understood.” Cora blew a raspberry. After the guard had let us pass the wall, I turned to ask him a very important question. ‘Do you have any plans in case the volcano, you know, erupts?’ He barked out a harsh laugh. “This place has been dormant for hundreds of years! We don’t need to worry about that.” I gave a slow nod. ‘Alright then. ’ The pony had less than a second before my fist gently smashed into the side of his head. And by gently, I mean that his head wasn’t turned into jelly, and that he would merely be asleep for a couple of hours... or days. “What did you do that for!? He was perfectly willing to help us, you didn’t ha- URK!” Scribe choked off and his eyes bulged slightly, so I lessened my grip on his throat, just enough so that he could breath. ‘Listen Scribe, I’ve lived for a very long time. Debts, boons, owing and repaying what is owed. These are what I have come to value over my many lifes. Yes, this guard was willing to help us, so I’m going to help him.” I released my grip on him completely, before continuing. ‘What we’re going to be doing here is incredibly dangerous. If we try to convince the miners to leave, they’ll just think that we’re trying to steal their gems. If I have to be the “bad guy” in order to save the ponies in The Camp and repay my debt this guard, then by Coralis, Skadi, Odin, Ra, Poseidon, Osiris, Artemis, Hel, Set, and Eric, I’ll do it!’ Scribe looked at me with rapt attention, then he slowly nodded in acceptance. “Yes... I suppose you are correct.” Scribe looked at the unconscious guardspony and gave a sigh, before glancing at Cora and nodding again. “Alright. So what’s the plan?” I thought for a moment. ‘You and Cora stay out of sight-’ “HEY!” Cora let out an indignant shout. “Why do I have to stay behind?” I would have raised an eyebrow, if I had any. ‘Cora, you already interfered during our last fight, even if it was by accident. But if you do it again, I’m pretty sure the others won’t appreciate it.’ Cora struggled for a moment, before deciding to cross her arms and scowl at me. “Fine.” Scribe had a combination of irritation, probably because of how I rebuked Cora, and interest across his face. “What oth-?” ‘Not now. Back to the plan, you two stay hidden while go into The Camp, terrorize everyone there, get them to leave, then you two can come in and we’ll blow up the volcano.’ “Wait!” Scribe shouted frantically, “What was that about blowing up the volcano?” ‘Ask Cora. Now shoo.’ As Cora and Scribe moved away to hunker down, I thought about how I was going to approach the situation with The Camp. ‘Well I suppose I could always use subterfuge, and surprise them from within... nah.’ ‘RRRHHHAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!!’ I telepathically roared, ‘FOOLISH PONIES. DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD HIDE YOUR BOUNTY FROM ME!?’ The Camp was in complete chaos, and not the funny cotton candy cloud type. It was closer to sheer pandemonium. Most of the ponies there were running around in mass panic. A few of the guards had managed to load their hoof-mounted crossbows and began firing at me, mostly missing, but a few blots glancing off of me every few shots. One of the miners even managed to muster up enough courage to charge me with his pick. So I naturally responded in the most reasonable way. ‘BWAHAHAHAHAH.’ I grabbed the offending pony and hurled him at the guards, who tried to scatter, but still got hit by the living ballistic. ‘YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?! I HAVE FACED FAR WORSE THREATS THAN YOU! I AM THE DESTROYER OF ATLANTIS, THE SINKER OF MU, THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD OF THE GODS!’ I decided to show some humility, by not reciting all of the titles I had amassed over previous games. If I had we probably would have been their for the better part of a week. I also internally winced as I brought up the titles I had earned in the last two games, not that it would really matter since none of the ponies here would know anything about them. ‘I COULD DESTROY ALL OF YOU WITH EASE... BUT I WILL SHOW MERCY. ALL OF YOU LEAVE NOW! OR YOUR LIVES ARE FORFEIT!’ It was a literal stampede. The mob of ponies frantically rush passed me, fleeing with reckless abandon. A few grabbed the guards, tossed them onto some wagons, and pulled them along, but other then that, no other item were taken. I looked around at the town, aside from some damage caused by my initial rush, everything was in excellent condition. I had to agree with the first guard, the system did work. I did a quick look into the mines. All the crystal lamps were off, so I assumed that nobody was in there. After the check on the mine I stood in the center of the deserted town, when a thought suddenly occurred to me. How was I going to let Cora know that we were ready to go? I started walking back to the entrance, only to find Cora and Scribe already coming towards me. ‘How did you know I had cleared out the place?’ Scribe raised an eyebrow. “The horde of screaming ponies was more than enough of a sign.” I paused for a moment, then shrugged. ‘Good enough for me. Cora, lead the way.’ Cora took several slow steps forward, a very concentrated look on her face. I reached down, and swept her up onto my shoulder. She gave me a slightly surprised, yet smug look. ‘I’m only doing this because it takes you too long to walk without melting the ground out from under your feet.’ Cora let out a giggle, and gestured towards the summit of the volcano. “This way.” Once we had trekked up the last part of the volcano we had an excellent view of the surrounding area. Including a large group of ponies who were nowhere near far enough away. I looked between Cora and Scribe. ‘So... do you want to play twenty questions?’ “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” ‘No. Seven.’ “Is it smaller than a breadbox?” ‘No. Eight.’ “Hmmmm... Is it a breadbox?” ‘No. Nine.’ “I spy with my little eye, something that is... brownish grey.” ‘...Is it a rock?’ “Yes! How did you know?” “Apple.” ‘Eggplant.’ “Tomato.” “Orange.” ‘Etrog.’ “What in the name of Celestia is an Etrog?” ‘It’s a real fruit, Scribe.’ “It’s true.” “Fine... Ginger.” I looked down from the summit, at the distant group of ponies. ‘They should be far enough away by now.’ Scribe raised a hoof to shield his eyes, and squinted towards the distant herd. “I’d say you’re probably right.” He turned to Cora. “Now what?” “Well, I have to get to the middle of the volcano’s mouth, so-” ‘Easy enough.’ I reached over, picked up Cora, and tossed her into the volcano. Scribe stared at me, one of his eyes twitching. Cora had her arms crossed, and was glaring at me, as she floated midair. I held up my hands innocently. ‘What? It got the job done.’ Whatever Cora’s response would have been, was lost when the volcano erupted. But this wasn’t a normal eruption. This was a magically over charged, goddess induced eruption. As I looked at the giant pillar of molten rock, metal, and energy, I could only think of one thing to say. ‘Per Vulcani irrumabo.’ The majestic beauty of the raw untamed natural power of it was captivating. I have no idea how long I stood there, only partially aware of Scribe just beside me, watching with an awestruck expression. The divine, magical, and natural energies mixed together, creating an intricate tapestry of arcane might and beauty. It easily made it into my top ten list of most amazing things I’ve seen a deity do. My amazement only faded once the lava fell back down into the volcano, and Cora came drifting forward. She landed just beside the opening, and launched herself up onto my shoulder giggling madly. ‘Well that wasn’t so bad...’ “Yeah! Now all we have to worry about is the actual eruption.” The ground started to rumble, then shake violently. ‘Scribe. Fly. Now.’ I began to dash down the side of the volcano as fast as I could, the grund cracking around my feet, and spewing forth lava. Cora was laughing like mad. 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!' "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!' "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" 'CORA! THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!' "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" 'YOU JUST HAD TO MAKE IT ERUPT, DIDN'T YOU?! OY, FEATHERBRAINS! FLY FASTER!' "I'm going as fast as I can!" 'GO FASTER OR ROAST ALIVE! IT'S YOUR CHOICE!' "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" A/N Ha-ha! I have finally completed this chapter! It took me many long hours, and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, yeah I finished it. Hope you all like it, and sorry for taking so long. Interesting Facts About This Chapter: 1. I had originally planned to have this done near the end of September, then stuff happened. 2. I had rewritten the guard scene at least eight times. 3. The first draft had Adam listing off more than thirty deities during his ‘by Coralis...’ speech. I looked at it after I had finished and then began removing them until the list was a bit more manageable. I also had another twenty or so that I could have added in, but didn’t. 4. I thinking about lampshading this by having Scribe remark upon how long a list Adam used, and Adam replying that he was trying to keep it short. And as always and comments, corrections and questions are welcome. ~Eathlome