Lotus trotted along behind Iron, keeping pace with him despite the debris. She kept her horn at a low, constant light, the same as she would've done for a flashlight if she still had batteries.
Even after all this time on four legs, she wasn't quite coordinated enough to trust herself with a gallop, not in such close quarters. The last thing she needed right now was to faceplant her horn into a wall.
"He thinks it's the police?" she prompted. Somehow, she managed to keep from losing her breath. But then she hardly had to exert herself while sitting in a room staring at spell diagrams all day. She had plenty of pent-up energy raging in her chest. "How would they have even found us?"
Iron shook his head once. "Not sure he has any idea who it is. But Gus says it's a van and they're coming, so..."
Down another set of steps, and Gus's head appeared, waving them urgently towards the garage.
Lotus slowed as she approached, checking the spellbook around her shoulder one last time. With her friends around her again, Searing’s whispering voice finally faded into the background.
Not entirely gone, though. A presence remained in the back of her mind, whispering the same few words over and over. The flame is hungry. It must be fed. The flame warms its user in return.
"You're here, perfect. Time for us to bail." He waved her forward, through the already-open door to the parking garage. Down beneath the building, he had ripped away most of the cloth concealing the truck, so the vehicle was free to pull out of their spot.
"I..." She glanced between him and the truck, with its door already open and engine running. A handful of bags still lay in the back, but not many. He hadn't had much more time to prepare than she did, and could only grab whatever was close. "I'm sorry, weren't we gonna hide? We knew people could come here, we prepared for it."
Gus shook his head sharply. "Not now that they're looking for us. They can call in unlimited resources, tear the whole building apart. They'll find our camp, block off the car, and get us trapped. But now—they're parked out front, on the road. Looks like they're going in through the street entrance. I figure—we wait for as many of them as possible to be in here, and..."
This must be what Iron meant when he said it wasn't a great plan. If they were quite lucky, and quite careful, they might get away from one truck. But once they did, the police would be looking for them. How close was backup this time?
"For all we know, they won't be coming in until they have the whole building surrounded," she argued. She followed him to the seat, but didn't get in yet. That meant Iron didn't either. His attention seemed fixed on the empty door into the building.
"More reason to go now," he argued. "Eric—Lotus—if they follow us, it could be now or never. Can you open a Worldgate into Equestria or can't you?"
"Not here. That's not possible, no matter how urgent."
Liar. The lives outside would be enough. They are already thoughtfully traveling this way. If returning to your old species is your desire, you can achieve it easily. But together, we are capable of so much more.
"I know. We can still go to the mine! It's already dark out there, so no one will be working. We can go now. Cross through... if you can do it. If not, we should surrender."
Lotus's ears perked—something creaked in the building, shifting faintly under its own weight. She lit up her horn, a sudden surge of light so blinding that even her own eyes briefly flared with pain.
Iron shielded his own with a wing, and Gus swore loudly. She ignored them both, attention focused into the gloom.
At first, she thought they were riot police standing in the doorway. They had the right look for it—all black gear, dark clothing, tactical attachments on their weapons. But then one of them screamed, dropping their gun completely. It landed with a strange metallic clatter, and something came off the top. Green and purple balls spilled out from within, rolling slowly across the room.
Before she could react, the other two opened fire, filling the hallway with a spray of projectiles that neither her nor Iron could possibly avoid.
They struck against her like a battering hammer. Where they didn't strike her protective scales, they hit with considerable pain, splattering against her. But that wasn't blood—it was green paint, dribbling down to the floor.
"Get behind me, Lotus!" Iron yelled, hefting his spear high. "I'll protect you!" He shoved her back, without a hint of his usual gentleness.
"It talks?" someone asked, indignant.
"Yeah dude, just like Sophie said. Didn't you hear?"
Lotus had only a split-second to decide what to do. They could fight these three, and probably whatever other friends they had in the building. But if they did—she would be out of magic. Unless she intended to do exactly what Searing wanted and start transforming others, Lotus needed every drop of magic she had.
"Get away from here!" Lotus shouted, flaring her horn into another brilliant spotlight. She didn't have a spell to magnify her voice, but she could do other things. She reached out with her magic at random, shoving everything away from her in a sphere. She didn't press hard—just enough to toss garbage and bits of broken wood through the air. Dozens of fallen paintballs bounced harmlessly off their attackers’ legs, unbroken.
Even so, the three took off running. One left their gun where it fell. The other two kept theirs, but didn't so much as look back, sprinting back into the building. "Get the fuck out of here, guys! Everyone, come on! There's a demon in here!"
You're closer than you know, Lotus thought. She didn’t watch them go for long, turning for the open door. "Anything you think we'll need in Equestria, Iron? Should we go back up for our camping gear?"
He shook his head vigorously. "Princess Luna will find us as soon as we're across. I'm sure she'll make the two of you her royal guests. We won't have to cower and hide."
Lotus hopped into the open door. She reached out with her foreleg, ready to help Iron inside. To her surprise, he ignored the gesture, fluttering up into the bed instead. "I'll ride back here. I'd rather be able to help when we need it."
She could keep arguing with him. But while she did that, those teenagers were probably already on the phone with the police. "Keep your head down back there!" she yelled. "If we get going, there's gonna be a ton of wind!"
"I know!" he shouted back. "I can fly, remember? Faster than this old hunk of metal can move, that's for sure!"
Lotus moved for the passenger seat, but Gus blocked her with a wing, pointing. "No way! One person has to drive this. That means you."
She groaned, but settled into the driver's seat, propping her forelegs up against the wheel. She slammed the door shut with a little magic, then backed out of the spot, and spun around. There would be no slow running in the dark this time—she flicked on the lights, then approached the still-shut gate. "Did you open that thing?"
Gus nodded weakly. He settled all the way down into his seat, fastening the seatbelt across his chest. But for all his fear, he still had the GoPro camera, this time attached to the end of a large selfie stick. "If you hit into the right side, nothing's holding it down. Should swing all the way out. Do you know the way to the mine?"
Lotus nodded grimly, digging her cloven hooves into the soft wheel. "You should probably be the one to do this. I still have to mentally... prepare for this thing. If I fail, only God knows where that Worldgate will send us."
"I trust you," he said flatly. "By necessity? Maybe a little. But how long have we been friends? You haven't let me down before."
Lotus raised an eyebrow. "What about the whole 'house fire' thing? And your wings?"
He shrugged those same wings, resting both forelegs in front of him in the seat. "If that's reversible, it's fine. It's cool, actually. How many people get to be a majestic mythical creature sometime in their lives?"
He didn't wait for her to finish, turning the camera to face each of them in turn. "That's right, two ba-by! Depending on how cool flying is, I might not even..."
Lotus slammed on the accelerator. The tires squeaked, then they shot forward, smacking directly into one side of the gate. It banged harshly out of the way, digging another deep dent into her bumper. But then they were out, into the unprotected night air.
There was no police line here, no sign of the police at all in fact. The only evidence of other visitors was the distant squeal of tires on the road, rolling away at considerable speed.
Lotus took them down the road as fast as she could. Once they were down the hill, she floored the accelerator. Her old pickup wasn't exactly fast, but it did eventually reach highway speeds. It wouldn’t keep going well beyond that, if she kept pushing it.
This time, she did. She pulled into the center of the road, where her less precise control of the pickup wouldn't send them careening into a ditch.
"You sure this is safe?"
She answered with more laughter, high and wild. "Not even close! But what are the police gonna do, arrest us twice?"
She ran through her memory of the area. The mine was one highway offramp down, but it would be easier to just blaze past the gas station, and continue along the access road instead. Even if the police saw them and somehow recognized who they were, they would have to continue through to an offramp. That might buy them another minute or two, if they were lucky.
They were, in fact, not lucky at all. Seconds later, they blasted past the gas station at eighty miles an hour, so fast its lights turned into faint streaks against her vision.
But despite the speed, another sight plastered itself to her vision—a black and white vehicle, parked in one of the far pumps. She didn't see its lights come on a few seconds later, but she did hear the sirens, far closer than they had been during the supply run.
Lotus felt a surge of adrenaline as the sirens pierced the night, their wails echoing off the metallic surfaces of her pickup. With a pounding heart and heightened senses, she gripped the steering wheel tighter, her horn glowing with an ethereal light. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw the rapidly approaching black and white police vehicle, its flashing lights splitting the darkness.
"No time for detours," she muttered, her cloven hooves clumsily manipulating the wheel. "Hold on, Gus. Iron, be ready to fly."
Gus swung the camera toward the pursuing police car, the lens catching every twist and turn of the chase. "You sure about this, Lotus?" he asked, his voice wavering. She could barely even hear him over the approaching sirens. "I’ve never been a criminal before!"
"Since when do I have a choice?" she replied, squeezing the wheel tighter between her hooves.
Behind them, Iron braced himself in the truck bed, his powerful wings unfurling. Exactly what he hoped to do against a police car racing after them, she couldn’t even guess.
Lotus swerved down the road, her magic compensating for her lack of dexterity. They came upon another car, a single pair of red lights approaching rapidly into the gloom. She swerved around it, tires screeching under them.
The speedometer needle climbed, her old truck protesting with rattling and shaking as it ate the distance. The roar of the engine and the sirens became a deafening symphony of chaos, joined by wind whistling through the cracked windows. And through it all, a faint voice in the background, whispering without a source.
Needless. Destroy that vehicle. They could offer no resistance.
"Almost there," Lotus murmured, recognizing the familiar landmarks. The looming silhouette of the mine entrance appeared ahead, a razor-wire fence separating them from gigantic, looming machinery. "Brace yourselves!"
With a surge of magic, Lotus swerved off the road, the truck’s tires skidding on loose gravel. The police were close on their tail, but they were committed now. Lotus steered directly towards the fence, her horn glowing brighter as she focused her energy. The truck crashed through the fence, sending twisted metal and splintered wood flying. Alarm bells rang out from the security checkpoint, adding another layer to the chaos.
They sped through the entrance into the mine, lifting a cloud of dust into the air. Behind them, the police car skidded to a halt, officers pouring out with weapons drawn. Another car zipped past them, close on their tail. When had a second sheriff joined the chase?
The dirt road continued past rows of dormant equipment, past the empty work trailers that would’ve buzzed with activity during the day. Beyond it all loomed the mountainside, cut away in block after regular block.
"Any particular destination in here?" Gus yelled, voice growing more urgent. "Would be nice to stop somewhere they can’t shoot us!"
They weren’t shooting, thankfully. But with another car close behind them, it might only be a matter of time. She swerved sharply to the left, driving along the rock wall. The car bumped and shuddered under her, its old suspension protesting the abuse.
It wasn’t the only one. Iron yelped, then took off into the air, soaring up and out of sight. She couldn’t watch where he went, only hope the police didn’t either.
"Only one spot is good enough!" she yelled, her voice growing louder. "That’s why we came out here!"
Something else drew her attention, a flash of motion under her headlights. Just ahead, the stone wall split open. The deafening sound of stone grating against stone echoed through the pit. She pressed her magic to the accelerator, but that did little good, throwing clouds of thick dust out from beneath them. Their destination was still ahead, not quite within reach. Her vision was so clear—they needed to get to the center.
The mine's wall shuddered with a deep, seismic trembling before it ruptured open, shedding shards of rock in an echoing avalanche. From this breach emerged a figure terrifying in its proportions.
Lotus slowed, mouth falling open as shock and horror overwhelmed her. A monstrous shape emerged from within. Her mind instantly jumped to the wooden monsters that attacked them during her last magical practice. It was the same power, but on a far larger scale.
The golem, carved from the same granite as its surroundings, was a monstrous equanoid, a hulking embodiment of the mountain’s wrath. Its body was a grotesque tapestry of stone, streaked with veins of silver and copper, and every movement showcased its raw, elemental power.
Incandescent eyes glowed from the stony face of the creature, twin beacons casting an eerie light across the debris. They hinted at a dreadful consciousness within the monolithic brute. Silent save for the bone-chilling grind of stone against stone, each deliberate movement of the golem sent waves of dread rippling through the air.
It towered over the scene, a horrifying spectacle that seemed to suck the air from the open pit mine.
Lotus swerved around it, narrowly avoiding a rapid, rocky stop. One of the police-cars wasn’t so lucky. A terrible crash echoed through the air behind them, of crunching metal and shattering glass. Maybe that would kill it?
"Shit!" Gus yelled, camera now turned completely around. "Lotus, I think there’s… it’s gaining!"
"I have to open the Worldgate now!" Lotus shouted. She veered the truck left and right, making their advance as chaotic and difficult to match as possible. Maybe that would be enough.
Just as Lotus was beginning to regain control of the truck, a monstrous shadow fell across the vehicle. She saw the golem’s massive hoof descending, the roar of its wrath echoing in her ears. Lotus's heart slammed against her ribs, and she felt a primal surge of fear that locked her gaze onto the looming threat.
Then the golem’s hoof smashed into her pickup. Metal crumpled under the onslaught, the world spinning as the truck rolled. Lotus caught Gus’s terrified scream, a dreadful counterpoint to the golem’s roar.
Lotus spun about within the confines of the truck. Each jarring impact drove shards of agony through her, the world a disorienting blur of light and shadow. She felt her magic falter, her grip on the steering wheel loosening as her concentration shattered under the brutal assault. The truck’s world-weary protests filled her senses, a mechanical death rattle that finally fell still.
When the truck skidded to a stop, Lotus was left dazed and gasping. The taste of blood was sharp in her mouth, and the flickering lights of the pursuing police cars painted her vision in haphazard strobes. She could hear the golem’s rumbling growls, the terrified shouts of the police, and beneath it all, her own painful heartbeat.
The golem advanced on her, massive stone hooves shaking the ground with every step. She could barely move, barely think—she’d not escape the wreck in time. This was how she died.