It felt colder today. Much like rain brought cool days in the summer, the snow brought a deeper, biting cold that went right through fur and coat to chill Sunset to the bone. The sky was clear despite the cold and the thick blanket of clouds overhead. Snow didn’t fall from the sky, and they still hadn’t seen any sign of hail, thankfully.
Sunset found that she could see up to the very top of Everhoof with the air as cold as it was. She could even almost see the Crystal Empire far to the South behind them.
Flash flew into view, and she watched him smile momentarily as he climbed the mountain. He looked so happy, backpacking through the Equestrian wilderness like he belonged here.
She looked away.
Pausing, she took a second for a deep inhale before she sat down and began to cast her Create Mind spell. Emerald’s Erastz Senses replaced her sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. The world transformed into a parody of itself.
The sky became featureless, the ground became a single tone of brown, and the snow lost all impurities around it. The eagle flying above them was a black line in the sky. The sounds around her became louder or quieter, matching a single decibel level. Her sense of cold was gone, as was her sense of heat. Despite that, she felt the wind slap into her in a gust that blew past her.
Once the spell was entirely in place, she began to look around. While Sunset could have used a more straightforward Perceive Energy spell to look for magic, Emerald’s Erastz held a very special place in her heart. As far as arcane mechanics went, it didn’t destroy her old senses or change them. Instead, she overpowered them with the ones she made.
Emerald’s Erastz specifically let her look for magic, highlight living organisms, listen in on whispered conversations, and more with just one spell. It took more energy to cast than any of them individually, but it gave her all at once in exchange.
Sunset looked around at the cartoon version of the world before landing on a cave not four feet from her. She blinked at it before temporarily dropping her spell to look at the real world.
The cave mouth was hidden by a mound of snow and deep shadows, but now that she knew it was there, she could tell the shadows were making it hard to see.
She raised the spell again, overpowering her senses again. The cave yawned before her, with a faint glow of Octarine deep inside.
Her brow furrowed as she stared into the cave before she dropped Emerald’s Erastz again and turned to her hiking partner. “Hey, Flash.”
“Yeah?” he said, walking up next to her. “What’s going on?”
“I think we’re close.”
“What?”
She pointed with her hoof. “There’s a cave right here,” she said. “And there’s a magical signature inside. It’s a little weak, but without knowing how deep the cave is, I’m not sure if it’s far away or just a weaker signature.”
He blinked. “I thought this worked like radar. Does it not?”
“No, Flash,” she said, suppressing a long-suffering sigh. “It doesn’t work like radar. It’s more like looking at something covered in a safety vest; the more powerful it is, the bigger it appears.”
“Oh. Gotcha,” he said before looking at the mountain wall beside them. “There’s a cave?”
Sunset nodded before reaching out with her magic to grab the snow. She shoved some to the side, revealing the cave beyond.
“Huh. I would have totally missed that.”
She nodded. “Anyway, there’s something in there, and if the tunnel’s deep enough, it could be hiding our crystal.”
Flash nodded before his brow furrowed. “But wouldn’t the spell you cast first have missed it then? I thought you had figured it was probably up here because you saw it, I guess?”
“Sort of,” she said. “But remember, the golems mean that somepony has the crystal. If they have it, they might be moving. I still could have been wrong, and it was just ley lines nearly surfacing.”
Flash stared at her for a long second. “Somepony?”
Sunset blinked.
“Did you just say somepony? Not somebody? Not someone?”
Sunset sighed. “Yes, they say somepony here.”
Flash stared at her as though she had just grown a second head.
“I’m serious Flash. It took me about three weeks to say somebody on your side of the mirror.”
“I’m going to choose not to believe that.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I think you’re trying to prank me.”
She could feel Flash’s look of incredulity being mirrored in her own face. “What? Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. You kind of have a history of gaslighting me.”
She looked at him, blinking.
The smile on his face said he meant it as a joke, but the truth in the comment hurt.
Flash’s smile faltered for a second as she took too long to reply, revealing the pain she tried to smother. “I’m not lying to you, Flash,” she said, trying to push forward and salvage everything.
“Alright,” Flash said.
Sunset looked away from him and stared into the cave instead. She needed something else to take her mind off how much she ruined that conversation. “Let’s see if the crystal’s down here.”
Flash nodded.
And Sunset walked into the abyss.
---♦---
Flash walked behind Sunset as they descended into the depths of the mountain itself, and Flash just felt like he stuck all four hooves into his mouth.
“Why did I think that’d be a funny joke? Why did I think that’d be okay?”
He was trying to show her that he was moving on, that it wasn’t holding her past against her, but Flash had just shot whatever goodwill he’d been building with her all over again.
“Why does that happen every time?”
He let his shoulders slump as he walked, mentally kicking himself again.
Flash let his eyes wander, looking at everything around him except Sunset walking in front of him.
The cave’s stone walls were smooth and curved, and the tunnel wasn’t terribly big. It was maybe a foot taller than himself and maybe just as wide. Thinking about it, he realized that the tunnel was actually perfectly circular.
Was that normal? He was in a magical land of ponies, which could change things, but that didn’t mean this was what usually happened. Maybe this was a sign of a giant creature or something?
He spoke up. “Sunset. Is it normal in Equestria for caves to be so…circular?”
She slowed before glancing around the tunnel as though suddenly registering something bothered her. “No. That’s not normal at all.”
Flash grimaced. “So what are we looking at? A large worm? Pony-made? A troll? Giant moles? Should we retreat?”
Sunset didn’t reply for a long second. “It could be a lot of those,” she said. “Any of them, really. Well, not the troll. They don’t dig their own holes.”
“Okay,” Flash said, sure that the Giant moles would be the breaking point, but he continued anyway. “And the retreat?”
“No, not yet. Because this could be pony-made, and the crystal could be at the end of it.”
“So how do we play this?”
“Carefully,” Sunset said as her horn began to glow with magical power. Flash, meanwhile, reached for the hatchet strapped to his bag.
Clutching the ax in one leg, Flash followed behind Sunset as they moved further and further down the cave.
Flash watched the cave walls, keeping his guard up in case a giant worm decided to break through the walls like the Kool-Aid man. However, now that he thought of it, he wasn’t sure that his little hatchet blade would be able to stop whatever dug this tunnel.
The tunnel was cold.
Much like on the surface, the stone had a snowy chill from the winter. His breath still came out in a wispy cloud, and he resisted the urge to lick his lips.
They went further and further down the tunnel, keeping close and quiet.
Sunset slowed, and Flash filled the distance, getting up right behind her.
He looked over her shoulder, trying to see what was beyond her, and saw a large room. It had been carved with perfect right angles in a cube that said it had to be cut by some force.
Inside that room sat another one of the golems.
It sat, hunched over a mass of rags stained brown with old blood. “What is that?” Flash whispered as quietly as he dared.
Sunset kicked at him, urging him to silence as quickly as possible. She stared at him momentarily before her horn flashed with a spell. A moment later, he heard her voice in his head. “That’s a diamond dog,” she said without moving her mouth. “They’re notorious for hoarding gemstones. And, personal opinion, they stink.”
Flash blinked before he tried thinking a response to her. Was that how this spell worked? Did it connect two minds so they could communicate without speaking?
She smirked. “You look like you’re constipated.” Her voice echoed. “It’s one-way, Flash. I can’t read your thoughts. Well, I can, but that’d take a different spell.”
Ah. That made more sense. Still, that meant he didn’t really understand what a Diamond Dog actually was, nor could he ask. Even though Sunset continued lecturing, she wasn’t going in the direction he wanted.
“The dog must’ve sniffed out the golem with all the gems in it, but he wasn’t expecting the fight. At least this time, we haven’t gotten the golem’s attention.”
Flash tried to get her attention, but she began to back up.
Sunset glanced over at the golem. “We can probably just back away slowly. We can leave it if it doesn’t notice that we’re here.”
Leave it? Leave it so that it could sneak up behind them later. Flash shook his head.
Sunset hadn’t noticed.
“What did you expect?” The bitter part of his mind said. “It’s not like she ever actually listened to your opinion on anything.”
He ignored the thought and whispered. “Sunset.”
“Quiet,” Sunset said in his head. “We need to get going.”
“Sunset!” Flash hissed, trying to stay quiet.
She spun and glared at him. “We need to be quiet!” she said. “If that thing hears us, then we’re both going to be crushed.”
Flash tried to draw what he meant, but scratching his hoof into the stone only caused more scratches, and he didn’t have anything like paint with him.
“What?” she asked him.
Flash glanced back at the golem behind him. “We shouldn’t let this thing get behind us.” He whispered. He wanted to say more, but she was right about getting it’s attention.
Sunset glanced back into the monster’s room. “Okay,” she said. “You might have a point.”
Sighing, Sunset nodded. “Alright,” she said, still speaking directly to his mind, “I’ll try to think of something, but we need to be quick and get rid of it quickly. In the meantime, watch our backs for signs of something coming down the tunnel. Getting caught between two golems down here would be worse than getting caught out there.”
She had a point on that one. All the more reason not to let this one stay behind them.
---♦---
Sunset stared at the golem that continued staring down at the Diamond Dog’s body, trying to figure out how to play this situation. She had two tools in her metaphorical spellbook to make short work of the golem, but they both had problems.
The first was a Destroy Mind spell. Maple’s Mind Wipe would destroy the artificial intellect on each crystal, turning the golem into just a bunch of rocks. However, as she mentioned to Flash, the golems had multiple gems, and the spell would need to be cast for each. Worse, she’d have to locate all the jewels in the first place, which would require another spell.
Sure, Shale’s Simple Gem Finder would do it, but if the golem saw her while she was casting it, she might not have the time to destroy enough gems for it to become defunct.
The other option was to collapse the room.
This would take far less time; it would only be one spell, but the cons were more dangerous. Bringing the roof down while you’re under that roof was unsafe. If the room wasn’t built correctly—and Sunset doubted that the Intellect Crystal put the knowledge of architecture in them—then the room and the tunnel could come down all at once. It’d stop the monster, of course, but it might just as quickly kill her and Flash in the same way.
They’d have to try something else if those wouldn’t do it.
They could try dismantling the golem again like she had backed up on the surface, but that did mean she’d be putting herself in harm’s way just to try and take it down rather than attack from stealth.
She frowned, trying to puzzle this all out when she heard stone grinding behind her.
Her head spun, and she looked back to see Flash staring up the passageway, where a massive stone foot stepped into view.
The only thing that went through Sunset’s head as she watched a second golem come down the tunnel was a long string of obscenities that combined everything she had learned from both the human and pony worlds.
Flash was backpedaling, trying to stay out of arm’s reach of the massive thing, when they both heard the golem in the room begin to move.
She glanced behind, and the first golem was on its feet, its crystalline cyclopean eye locked on them both. Both of the stone, gem-powered creatures knew Sunset and Flash were there, and they both began raising their fists in answer.
“Scatter!” Flash yelled, even though he didn’t need to.
Sunset launched herself sideways, diving into the large room, as a pair of fists slammed into the ground. She rolled to the side and got her hooves under her just in time to see the golem’s second arm raised to crush her.
She leaped back, her mind registering that both golems were synchronized. They were linked somehow, performing the same movements in the exact timing and motions.
She began casting Shadow’s Earthen Spires, and the pillars she used to fight the last golem shot out from the ground. The golems answered by completely stopping to chase Flash and herself and smashing the earthen posts.
Flash ran up next to her. “What are they doing?”
Sunset glanced at the two golems smashing the area apart before she looked at Flash, horror in her voice. “They’ve learned.”
“What?”
“They’re connected,” she said. “They’re learning from each other. These ones learned from the other one. They’re learning every time we stop one.”
Flash blinked.
Then he swore.
“What do we do?” Flash asked as the golems kept smashing the pillars to dust.
Sunset tried to answer before one of the golems picked up a chunk of a pillar and threw it at the pair.
They dived away from each other, and the rubble smashed into the wall, kicking up dust.
She couldn’t use the pillars again. They learned. They probably knew about Flash’s rock-dropping method. Whatever method she came up with now could only be used one more time unless she somehow disguised her attack.
The two golems moved toward them, lumbering toward Flash and Sunset with fists raised.
With both golems here, her problem was even worse. One might see the trickery she pulled on the other if they were linked. She needed to deal with both of them quickly in one single move.
“Okay, Flash…” she said. “I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Just stay close,” she said. “And be ready to run for your life.”
She pulled the rope out first and tossed Flash an end as the two golems moved toward them faster.
Her horn flashed, and she cast Misty’s Marvelous Mist.
The world’s least-creatively-named spell took hold, flooding the room in a thick fog that hid everything from view.
She couldn’t count on the golems being blinded. In fact, it made more sense to have multiple gems that could perceive Body, Matter, and Energy all separately. This would let them see across numerous spectrums, and they’d be able to see Flash and herself through the fog. But if she were right, it would hide her next spell.
Sunset knew maybe five ponies besides herself that could cast two spells at once, and three of them were Princesses, and one was Starswirl the Bearded. Casting two spells simultaneously, and even just casting a new one while maintaining another, were rare skills that unlocked a lot of magic’s true potential. An Intellect Crystal, by itself, couldn’t do that, so it opened up the only chance she got.
“Open your mouth!”
A second spell caused her horn to flash brighter as she Transformed a small chunk of the wall beside the golems into the air. The pressure difference of ten kilos of solid stone expanding into ten kilos of air was like a grenade going off, pushing out a shockwave of energy that pounded on Sunset’s ears.
“Go!” she yelled.
She ran, tugging on the rope as she ran for the tunnel. The explosion echoed in the room, ringing in her ears, as stone cracked and the walls groaned. Sunset nearly ran straight into the wall and barely managed to avoid ramming it head-first before she pulled Flash into the tunnel with her. “Keep running!”
Flash moved up the tunnel, and Sunset turned back into the fog as the golems recovered from the air pressure explosion. She cast her spell again, and the room exploded again.
Sunset didn’t wait to see what happened; she just ran. Up the tunnel and after Flash.
Stone crumbled and cracked. Dust flew up behind her, and she ran.
Sunset saw the light at the end of the tunnel and knew she had to get out before everything came down around her.
Her face landed in something cold.
“Sunset? Sunset?”
She looked up, picking her head from the snow, and glanced at Flash.
“I think you got them.”