Book 2: Equestria Lost
Chapter 2
(Before the fall of Celestia and Luna)
Apollo looked up as he heard the first cracks begin to spread. Little chunks of ice were already trickling down, and cracks across the ceiling were spreading... He kicked his assistant as hard as he could, the betrayed-looking white pegasus sliding backwards as Apollo Dawn was forced forwards, sliding away from each other despite their cleated horseshoes. Both ponies slid to relative safety just in time as a huge chunk of the ice from the ceiling collapsed into the narrow passage, blocking it almost completely, but not crushing the two.
As the noise died down and the snow-dust settled, Apollo rushed to the tiny remaining crack that the passage had been reduced to. His faithful assistant was on the other side, shaken, and electric blue mane frazzled, but otherwise unharmed. “Albie!” He called.
Albatross shook himself, short mane falling back into its accustomed place. He laughed, albeit a little nervously, “Heh, close one, eh?”
Dawn grinned approvingly at his assistant. The colt's talent might simply be flying long distances tirelessly, but though Albie didn't know it, one day he would be Dawn's replacement. “Head on back to camp... there's no more you can do here.”
A slightly worried look crossed Albatross's face, “You'll be okay without me?”
Dawn put on his most dashing face, “Of course. Don't you know who I am?”
Albatross gave a salute, somewhat ruined by the eye-roll that accompanied it, “You're the boss!” With that he turned, carefully ascending back to the entrance.
Apollo Dawn stepped back away from the crack, turning toward the continually descending ice cavern, and his confident look melted into trepidation. Still, he brushed his light grey mane out of his eyes and gazed resolutely down the passage. Now, the only way out – if there was one – was through, not back... And he hadn't become the most famous explorer in recent history by turning back when things turned rough! He moved on, more carefully now, his washed-out blue fur blending with the washed-out blue light filtering in from above through the thick ice.
Before long, he was finding the occasional gem encased in the ice... and the air grew even more frigid. Excellent. He was drawing close to his goal. Tightening his parka against the chill, he continued onward, now paying special attention to staying quiet. This mission would require stealth.
The gems embedded in the floor and walls... and even ceiling now... were becoming even more frequent, nearly to the point of where there were more precious stone than ice. As Apollo rounded yet another bend in the passage, he was confronted with a fearful, yet magnificent sight. Before him lay an enormous cavern in the ice, glittering with an uncountable wealth of gems. The distant walls were vanishingly far, difficult to even distinguish in the vague, shimmering light. The ceiling rose high above, letting in more light than the passage had – the ice in the ceiling must be much thinner.
What truly made the view awe-inspiring, though, was the cavern's inhabitant: resting on her side in the center, the great ice-dragon of the lonely wastes. She was dark blue and purple, according to legend, but she was covered with a thick layer of icy armor – as ice dragons often were – and so looked to be pure white all over... And next to her head glimmered the object Apollo had spent the last three years searching tirelessly for: glinting in the odd light of the cavern, the lost stone of Moonfeather, the largest blue diamond known to pony kind, stolen over eight hundred years ago by this very dragon.
One careful step, one nervous breath at a time, Apollo Dawn crept towards his goal, taking extreme care to be utterly silent, lest he wake the sleeping menace. As he drew closer, the ice dragon began to tower over him, even in her reclined pose. The closer he came, the colder the cavern became. A thin layer of frost began to build up around his face as his own breath froze. He began to shiver, wincing at the slight scratching noises of his cleated shoes on the gems in the floor... Yet he continued on, not the most famous explorer in Equestria for nothing, he reminded himself.
Finally, he reached his goal. Eagerly he grasped the enormous gem... almost the size of his head... But his half-frozen hooves betrayed him, and the gem slipped out of his shaky grip, clattering noisily to the floor. He cringed as he turned around to find himself face-to-face with a truly enormous – and very open – slitted yellow eye.
The eye narrowed, still remaining larger than the terrified pony in front of it. Apollo Dawn put on his best 'nothing to see here' face, quickly grabbing the gem and shoving it securely into his saddlebag. The giant eye widened, pupil contracting, as Apollo's own dark blue eyes darted around looking for an escape route.
With an ice-dragon's enraged roar, Apollo took off across the ice, wings beating furiously to add extra speed to his low-traction escape route... And then furiously backpedaling as a huge ice-studded tail slammed down in front of him, spreading cracks all over the floor. He took to wing, flying for the far wall just as a gout of frost-breath encased everything he had just been standing next to in solid ice. He flitted as fast as he could around the now very confining-feeling cavern, narrowly avoiding strike after strike from the ice dragon's formidable natural armament. He began to grow a little concerned – some might call it terrified. He wasn't the fastest nor the most agile pegasus ever... sooner or later, one of the dragon's attacks would strike home, and he'd be done for... And the only escape route he knew of was blocked!
As he dodged yet another swipe from the huge claws, only to barely avoid the dragon's frigid jaws, he shot upwards, toward the sunlight coming through the thinner ice above... and an idea came to him. He continued on towards the ceiling, only making a slight detour to avoid another blast of frost-breath. Once he reached the ceiling, he turned, expecting to need to taunt the beast.
He seemed to have underestimated the dragon's rage, however. She had already followed him in taking wing, and was only barely behind him as he turned to taunt. Quickly, he pushed off of the ceiling, down into a daring dive straight at the ice dragon. Cleated horseshoes raking along the dragon's iced hide, he barely slipped by along the dragon's back. He continued his dive as the dragon continued her fast upward thrust. As the dragon burst through the ice at the ceiling, he turned, angling along the floor to avoid the huge chunks of ice raining down from above.
He looked back at the dragon, now crawling back through the hole she had just made in the ceiling... and through the hole he could see sunlight! Real, unfiltered sunlight, and real clouds! He began working his way back towards the hole, enraged ice dragon still hot – or cold, rather – on his tail.
* * *
Albatross was looking forward to the hot cocoa that would be waiting for him in camp... That cave was so cold he was sure his beautiful feathers were frozen solid. As he reached the edge of the rough camp, a few other ponies peeked out of their tents. Most of them didn't seem concerned at him coming back alone. They trusted Apollo to always make it back. He smiled, looking forward to telling them what happened over a warm mug inside a (relatively) warm tent.
He looked back over the ice field, wondering how Apollo was doing, only to be surprised at actually getting an answer. A light blue blur that could only be the famous explorer shot straight up out of the ice at top speed, curving quickly toward camp, filling Albatross with relief... which was quickly replaced by fear as a truly enormous ice dragon followed, shooting up out of the ice, glistening in the wan sunlight for the first time in ages.
Thoughts of warm mugs abandoned, Albatross shouted to the crew, “The toboggans, get 'em out and get 'em going!”
Most of the others had also seen the dragon erupting from the ice, and needed no further urging. Albatross thanked his lucky stars that Quartermaster had packed the silly things. He had laughed at the time, but he should have known by now to trust the old goat. As the first few slid out, carrying his teammates to safety down the glacier, he cast a nervous glance backward. He couldn't make out Apollo anymore, not against the background of the massive dragon closing in fast... which was bad, because this would require split-second timing... all the others were already on their way down, but he had to get his last toboggan moving at just the right time and speed to match up with Apollo's approach... He placed himself in position, looking back with intense care.
“Okay,” He said to himself, “Five... Four... Three... Aurgh!” A huge weight slammed into his back sending the sled careening forward.
“Perfect timing, as usual, Albie!” Apollo shouted as the sled accelerated downward.
Albatross took one glance backward at the still gaining ice dragon before turning his complete attention to steering across the treacherous glacier, “Yeah, heh, perfect, of course!”
They skidded together dangerously fast across the rough ice, narrowly avoided crevasses and outcroppings, and narrowly outrunning the approaching dragon. Luckily, her ice armor was designed for brawling, not for speed. It was holding her back just enough for them to outrun her.
Apollo laughed at the impotent rage of the dragon as the slid even further away from her... but his laugher was cut off suddenly as their toboggan hit the tree line. It continued to slide on the soft covering of pine needles, but the forest floor was no substitute for snow when it came to steering. As both ponies braced for impact, the sled struck a tree root, sending them both flying deeper into the forest.
The two wasted little time picking themselves back up, of course. There was still an enraged ice dragon to be concerned about. They ran on as fast as they could, using the forest as cover. As they passed a massive rock outcropping, a massive pair of pale green hooves grabbed them both, hurling them around and behind the rock.
Albatross's pleased outburst of “Pebbles!” Was muffled by yet another pair of hooves, bright pink this time. Shimmer Spell motioned for them to be quiet, and engaged an invisibility spell before peeking over the top of the outcropping again.
He shoved the pink hooves out of his mouth, with a look of mixed resentfulness and thankfulness at Splints, and whispered up to Shimmer Spell, “What's going on?”
With her invisibility spell active, he couldn't see it of course, but he felt the annoyed eye roll in the tone of her voice just the same: “Shimmer Spell can see the dragon. It stopped at the tree line and seems like it doesn't want to pass... but it's blasting the nearby trees with ice for all it's worth.”
Albatross heard the unicorn drop down next to him, as her spell started to, well, shimmer, letting her become visible again.
“And that's why I'm glad we added you to the team, Shimmer,” Apollo said. “You really are the best magical unicorn ever!”
Shimmer looked coy for a moment, batting her light blue mane out of the way, but it was obvious to everypony present that she simply melted in the warm glow of Apollo's praise. Unable to resist that adorable look on his favorite unicorn, Albatross gave his fiancé a quick kiss, which she returned enthusiastically.
“Come on now, everypony,” Apollo continued with a sharp glance at the love birds, “Even if the dragon stops pursuing us, we're stranded far from the nearest town, and we've lost all our supplies. We'd best get moving.”
“Did you at least get the goods this time?” Splints asked, her Trottingham accent coming through thickly, “I'd really like to get paid this time...” She leveled a withering look, not at Apollo, oddly, but at Quartermaster, who had been in charge of team payroll.
“Did I ever!” Apollo proclaimed, drawing the magnificent gem from his bag. For a moment, all seven pairs of eyes reflected only the amazing, glittering gem held in Apollo's hooves, each widening in amazement. Quickly though, he shoved it back into the bag, “this is no place for celebrating though... let's get back to town!” As he began to walk, he looked sidelong at his crew... they deserved it. “And when we get there, first round's on me!”
Trailed by a now more enthusiastic crew, Apollo began the trek back to town. It had taken eight days to reach their camp, but two of those had been ascending the glacier, and they had just bypassed that bit of arduous tundra by their hectic sleigh ride... and the return trip would be mostly downhill. Albatross hoped to see the lights of the town within five days: they would be hungry, but they'd make it. They always did when Apollo was in charge.
* * *
Albatross looked over at his team leader. The blue pegasus's cutie mark was a new moon, only showing the slightest sliver of white, which he always said represented him shining the light of knowledge to the darkest parts of the world... but the way albatross saw it, Apollo's true talent was in inspiring his team and keeping them together against all odds and against all adversity.
* * *