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// Point Me To The Sky Above 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
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"How much lower than this?"
"Another half metre at least."
The faintest hints of raindrops patted the dusty ground around them and the few patches of yellow grass that hadn't fully burnt out in the heat. The sky was cloudy, but proper rain wouldn't come. The air was too hot for it, thick with humidity and suffocating to be in. At least the Sun being covered meant it was slightly less hot than it could have otherwise been, and the two ponies digging were extremely thankful for it given how physically demanding their task was. The earth was so dry it felt more like they were breaking through brittle rock than digging through the soil.
It was surprising, too. It had been just a couple of months since the dirt had been put there, yet it had already grown fully compressed and unified. It wasn't like anyone had been pressing it down with any sort of significant weight, so it was all just a consequence of the heatwave. The only positive was the lack of any roots.
One of the two ponies hit something with his shovel. A dull thud was heard coming out of the hole they were in, taller than them at that point. "I think it's here," he said, twisting his shovel around a little to expose the surface he'd hit.
"Good," the mare outside the hole said. "Make sure you don't accidentally break into it, we'll never get it out properly if you get dirt into it."
"Could you lend us some help?" the second stallion asked as his shovel too hit wood. He huffed, then began to carefully hit shallower thrusts with the tool to ensure he wouldn't go too far.
"But I am helping. I'm offering you direction and moral support," the mare said. "I guess I'll pull it out myself though. I can't trust you two not to mess that up."
"We'd need a hole twice as large to pull this out by hoof," the first stallion said. "I'm not even sure we'd be able to without touching some of the others."
"You say that like it'd be a problem," said the mare.
"It would be," replied the stallion. "I might trust you on what's in this one, that doesn't mean the others are fair game. I'd rather leave those who have nothing to do with this undisturbed."
The mare rolled her eyes, aware that the two couldn't see her do so. "Are you ready there?" she asked, leaning forward over the edge of the hole.
The second stallion threw another shovel of dry dirt skyward. "Looks like it." They could see most of the wooden surface they were standing on at that point, even if it was still rather dusty.
"Good enough." Without warning, the mare lit her horn. The light of her magic enveloped the two ponies and the casket beneath them, and she effortlessly lifted all three upwards, ripping the coffin out of the earth and placing it back on the ground in front of the line of headstones among which they'd found the one they were looking for. "Well, time to see what's really in here," she said, approaching the coffin while the two stallions hopped off from it.