Ravid frowned down at the golden armband in her claws. A long crack split the band nearly in half all the way around the center. Grimacing, she applied a little pressure to the fracture and traced it slowly with her foreclaw. Salamanders had the innate magic to mold metal and stone, and the soft gold moved like putty under her attentions. She was almost halfway done repairing the band when it popped, her claw cutting straight through the material stretched thin from too many repairs.
Snarling, she threw the band as hard as she could. It bounced several times over the piles of rock and crystal before smacking into the side of one of her soldiers, who had finally succeeded in digging enough of the debris out of the way for the last soldier to crawl out. He looked up, but one look at her face and he swiveled back to work, trying to avoid her attention.
Ravid rubbed her now bare wrist and glared at the rubble. “Usselesss, worthlesss trassh…”
“You sshouldn’t throw that away, Ravid. It might be a long time before you get another.”
Ravid spun around and glowered. “What are you doing here, Behir?”
“The High Priesstesss ssent me to check on you.” Behir swept his gaze lazily over the ruin that had been the cavern. “It sseemss you couldn’t even handle an empty cave on your own.”
They were down at the bottom of one of the many deep trenches that branched off from the crystal junction. Ruined timbers from the cart track lay scattered around piles of jagged stone and fragments of gems. Ranging all the way up to the ceiling far above them was a loose wall of stones in a steep slope, covering the cavern’s entrance from sight.
“I hardly did thiss mysself!” Ravid spat, rising up and trying to loom over the smug salamander. “Poniess came down from the other sside and ambusshed uss! It wass one of them that caussed the cave-in. I thought dealing with enemiess wass your job!”
“Only thosse who threaten the hourglasss. Thiss iss your messs.” He sidled up to the slope and cautiously tapped it. The gravel shifted alarmingly and several pieces tumbled down, but after a moment the structure settled. “It appearss we can’t go thiss way anymore. It’ss a miracle thiss hassn’t collapssed already. Sstrange, it doessn’t look like thiss fell naturally…”
“Are you lisstening to me?!” She grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around so she could stare him in the eyes. “I ssent thosse worthlesss ssoldierss up along the wallss to check and they didn’t ssmell any blood. The poniess musst have gotten away! The cave-in might be only on thiss sside, and they could be anywhere! You have to-”
“Do nothing.” He interrupted, darting his head forward so sharply that she had to bend almost back over herself to avoid getting hit. “You, however, will have to tell Marilith that the main tunnel we worked sso hard to prepare iss gone.”
Ravid gaped at him for a few moments, and then swallowed around her suddenly dry mouth. “I... I don’t have to tell her right away, do I? There musst be ssome other tunnelss we can find. There’ss no need to take thiss out of proportion…”
“Don’t worry, her pendant appearss to be empty for the time being.” Behir smiled condescendingly at her and slithered along the edge of the cave-in. “Sshe let one of the handlerss get away from punisshment earlier. Marilith won’t be turning anyone to sstone until we return.”
“You could have mentioned that at the beginning…” Ravid hissed, glaring at his back. “Where are you going?”
Behir gave her a look that said he couldn’t believe even she could be this thick and gestured to several small tunnels branching off from the trench. “To find the alternate route, of coursse. Before the entire colony arrivess and findss your failure.” He slipped into one of the tunnels, utterly confident that she’d follow.
Clenching her claws so tight she could feel scales popping, Ravid sat glaring at the tunnel as his glow steadily grew fainter and fainter. But she knew that he was right, melt his scales. Slashing a command to the rest, she slid into the tunnel at a speed to overtake his lead. The rest of the salamanders quickly followed, leaving the trench cloaked in gloom.
…
“Ah, yes! That’s the spot right there!” Trixie sighed.
“That’ss the fourth itch sso far.” The salamander, whose name she had learned was Grick, said as he scrapped lightly at the back of her neck.
“Well, these bonds are making me a bit stiff.” Trixie waved her bound legs to demonstrate. “I’d get the itch myself if you’d just loosen the ropes…”
“A nice try.” Grick chuckled, shifting her to a slightly more comfortable position on his shoulder.
“It’s not like I can get away…” she grumbled, studying his expression out of the corner of her eye. She hadn’t really expected that to work, but she knew he’d only grow suspicious of her if she didn’t even try to plead or trick him. The best trick up a magician’s sleeve is the ability to talk the audience into believing anything, that’s what her grandfather had taught her. If this salamander thought that was Trixie’s best, he’d be completely blind-sided when she actually applied herself.
And more importantly, her headache was almost gone. It had been steadily slipping away for a while now, and while she hadn’t dared try anything yet, it shouldn’t be much longer until she felt well enough to try her invisibility spell. Of course, getting away from her captors was only the first part of her problems, but she’d burn those bridges after she got free.
Up ahead, Marilith turned around a bend and suddenly screeched in anger. “Again?!”
The rest of the swarm followed and discovered that yet another tunnel was completely caved in. They had heard a deep rumbling echoing though the tunnels earlier, not long after that smarmy one had been sent off, and since then they had kept running into blocked tunnels.
Marilith glared at the piles of rocks as if they were personally insulting her parents. “We’re going through.”
“What did you ssay, High Priesstesss?” One of the salamanders asked.
“I ssaid, thiss time we’re going through!” Marilith roared, rising up on her tail to tower over the unfortunate speaker. “Carve a hole through thiss NOW!” She jabbed her arms at several salamanders, including Grick surprisingly, and violently gestured them to the rubble.
“Why did she pick you?” Trixie asked as he cautiously set her down on the ground. “Don’t you have to guard the dangerous prisoner?”
Grick grinned again and patted his heavily muscled forearm. “Not many ssalamanderss are built for digging like I am. We may live underground, but we take tunnelss, not make them.”
He turned away and started clawing at the pile of rocks, but Trixie wasn’t paying him any attention anymore. Unless the shooting pain in her back was something completely different, he had actually set her down on a sharp rock! She almost couldn’t believe her luck! Quickly she scanned the others and found that none of them were paying her any attention. Slowly she worked the stone up off the ground and into her hooves. Careful to squirm as little as possible, she began to saw the rock against her bonds.
Apparently she wasn’t still enough, because Marilith, who’d been glaring around at her minions as if hunting for something to chew them out for, suddenly narrowed her eyes at her and slithered over. Trixie went still and gave her best innocent-yet-terrified stare. The second part wasn’t as hard as it should have been.
“Struggling won’t do you any good down here.” She gloated, crossing her arms and showing all her teeth in what might be confused with a smile, if you were sadistic. Or blind.
Desperate to distract the priestess, Trixie’s gaze fell upon the giant hourglass that they had stolen from the library. The four salamanders that’d been carrying it were crawling around it now, making sure the thing was undamaged and brushing loose dirt off it. “What do you want with that?”
Marilith followed her eyes and grinned in pure pleasure at the sight of the artifact. “You poniess never even ssusspected the power of this hourglasss, elsse you’d have never left it in ssuch an unprotected place! The ssandss it containss hold the power to revert anything magically enchanted back to itss original sstate. With thiss mighty magic, our Queen will finally be revived!” Several of the nearby salamanders raised a cheer at that, but warily.
Trixie tried to suppress a grimace. She was monologueing! Again! Still, you never knew what piece of information was the one that you needed the most…
“Your Queen?” she asked, trying to put as much interest into her tone as she could manage.
“The Terror of Queen Medussa!” Marilith cried, spreading her arms wide and clearly striking a pose she must have practiced in a mirror to pull off so confidently.
So, we have a title to the spy novel now. Not that I’d complain if a suave stallion swooped in and took them all out for me… Trixie smiled woodenly and nodded, but Marilith hardly needed the encouragement to continue.
“Centuriess ago, Queen Medussa led our forebearerss in gloriouss conquesst, and the nationss crumbled before her army. But your princesss tricked her, turned the Queen’ss own magic back onto her ssomehow and trapped her in a marble prisson. But we have kept her ssafe and ssecret, hidden through our declining generationss, waiting for this day to arrive. Ssoon we will sset her free, and none will sstand before her gaze!”
“Um… High Priesstesss?”
Marilith hissed in irritation at being interrupted and spun around to face the unfortunate salamander. He swallowed reflexively and gestured in a rush behind him. “Th-the tunnel iss packed with hard ssoil behind the rockss, High Priesstesss. It will take hourss, if not dayss, to clear it. We don’t know how deep… it’ss... packed…”
The salamander faltered as Marilith slid closer, her face growing darker with every word. One of her claws searched through the necklaces around her neck, and by stretching her neck Trixie could just make out what looked like a large pearl hanging from a delicate gold chain before the priestess’s claw closed over it.
Suddenly, Marilith thrust another claw out at the unfortunate messenger and a familiar blue nimbus surrounded her talons. An identical aura wrapped around the male’s neck and lifted him into the air. He clawed at his neck, choking as the magic clenched his throat tight. Marilith slashed savagely, and the salamander was thrown the length of the tunnel to crash into the wall on the other side. He slumped to the ground, but no one made a move to help him. Every one of the salamanders was lying belly down on the ground with their eyes averted.
Marilith surveyed them for several moments, then nodded and snapped her claws, signaling them to rise. “That wass a very good point. We will have to find a new path.” she said as if nothing had happened. “There wass another branch a wayss back that wassn’t blocked. We’ll move out in five minutess.”
Feeling sick to her stomach, Trixie tried several times to get around the shock locking up her tongue. “That… that was my magic!”
Smiling with unmistakable glee, Marilith leaned in close until she was almost nose to nose with the unicorn. “My ancesstor disscovered the pearl not long after our Queen wass imprissoned, but I wass the firsst to learn it could be ussed for more than gaining Medussa’ss Blesssing.”
One of her claws closed around Trixie’s horn and the world seemed to twist. For a moment a round shape among Marilith’s necklaces glowed blue, but then the return of the headache blotted out Trixie’s ability to concentrate. The priestess might have said something, but whatever it was was lost on her. Then Grick was there, lifting her up onto his shoulders and carting her off like a limp sack of grain.
Escape seemed more distant than ever, but Trixie gritted her teeth in determination. Somehow, magic or no magic, she would get away from that maniac! Shifting slightly, she felt the half cut bonds that Grick had forgotten to check and plotted.
…
Cheerilee grunted and stepped back warily, careful for the loose chips and shards that slid under her hooves. “There’s a little bit of a gap up here, but I don’t think we could fit through it.” Truthfully, she didn't think there was anything on the other side anyway, but there was no reason to bring that to attention.
Carefully, she walked around their clear space and frowned thoughtfully. From what she could make out, they were in a rough oval about twenty five paces wide and maybe half that tall. Probably less than that in places, but there was no way for them to tell. The ceiling appeared to be one huge unbroken crystal that had gotten wedged against one side of the tunnel they had fled through. From what she could feel of the jagged piles of rocks comprising nearly all of the walls around them, it was the only thing preventing them from being buried alive. The last bit of wall was smooth stone, without even a single crevasse to offer escape. For the time being the entire structure felt stable, but there was no telling how long that would last.
But the worst part was how dark it was. Because it wasn’t just dark; it was the oppressive kind of dark you can only find in the deepest parts of the world, where light has never fallen naturally. It seemed a solid thing, and Cheerilee had to fight against the need to push through it with her hooves like water. It was a constant weight on her eyes as well, a dull ache that spread from the back of the eye and throbbed with the need to see.
Realizing she had lost herself in gloomy thoughts again, she trotted to where she last remembered her friend had been. “Hey, Ditzy? How are you holding up? You haven’t said anything for a while now…”
“It’s all my fault…” Ditzy said softly from somewhere in the darkness.
“Oh, Ditzy…” Cheerilee said soothingly, “Of course it isn’t. Anypony would have panicked back there with everything collapsing like that.”
“It’s not just that!” Ditzy cried suddenly, surprisingly loud in the stillness. “I-I tried. I was actually trying…”
Cheerilee quickly crossed the distance to where she had left the pegasus, but found the spot vacant. Where had she gotten to? “Don’t worry about it. I understand. You don’t like enclosed spaces do you?”
She froze as a soft sound reached her ears. The sound of a pony trying her best not to cry and barely succeeding.
The darkness made Ditzy’s voice even smaller and more hopeless. “I thought… that I could do it f-for Trixie. She needed us. And as long as I didn’t think about it… b-but it’s worst for me. Because of my… my… and then rocks were f-falling everywhere and I couldn’t think. I just ran and… now we’re trapped. We-we’re never getting out of here.”
A sob racked her frame as her voice raised an octave in despair. “I’m never going to see my-!”
Ditzy cut off with a gasp as Cheerilee suddenly wrapped her forelegs around her in a crushing hug. She held on all the tighter as tears spilled onto her shoulders and the pegasus collapsed into her embrace. The two of them sat together for a few minutes, and then Ditzy realized Cheerilee was humming something softly. And then she started to sing .
“Little foal, be not afraid
The darkness presses on all sides
Like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger
I am here tonight.
“Little foal, be not afraid
Though falling stones and crystals crash
Hides away, your tear stained face
I am here tonight
“And someday you’ll know
That nature is so
The same stone that draws you near me
Holds the rivers and land, and forest and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning.”
Ditzy’s sobs slowed as the lullaby washed over her. Encouraged, Cheerilee raised her voice and held on all the tighter.
“Little foal, be not afraid
Though stone walls mask your beloved moon
And its candlelight beams, still keep pleasant dreams
I am here tonight
“Little foal, be not afraid
The dark makes creatures of our fears
All that terror demands
Is not real, understand
And I am here tonight
“And someday you’ll know
That nature is so
The same stone that draws you near me
Holds the rivers and land, and forest and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning.”
Ditzy’s cries were almost gone by now, though tears still fell slowly. Cheerilee swallowed softly and lowered her voice to a near whisper. This next part almost always choked her up whenever she heard it.
“For you know…
Once even I… was a little foal
And I was afraid
But a gentle somepony always came
To dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep the fears
And to give a kiss goodnight
“Well now I am grown
And these days have shown
Fear’s a part of how life goes
But it’s dark and it’s late
So I’ll hold you and wait
‘til your frightened eyes do close.”
Launching into the last chorus, Ditzy surprised her by joining in. Their voices seemed to push the oppressive atmosphere far, far away.
“And I hope that you’ll know
That nature is so
The same stone that draws you near me
Holds the rivers and land, the forests and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning
“Everything’s fine in the morning
The dark will be gone in the morning
But I’ll still be here… in the morning.”
The last notes of the song faded into the air around them as they sat together. After a while Ditzy leaned back and wiped at her nose. “How did you know?”
“Hmm?” Cheerilee blinked, waiting for her to explain.
“That song.” Ditzy sighed, emotion heavy in her voice. “My mother used to sing it to me every night.”
Cheerilee smiled. “Mine as well. It never failed to make me feel better, no matter how scared I was.”
Ditzy giggled, the sound wonderful in Cherrilee’s ears. “But I remember it being about rainstorms when my mother sang it.”
“I didn’t think that rain was the problem.” Cheerilee said offhandedly, and the two of them broke off into giggles again. It felt good to laugh, and every peal made the darkness less and less scary.
Out of nowhere there was a crack of breaking stone and the rubble around them seemed to shift alarmingly. Ditzy clutched her friend tight again. “Is… is it coming down?”
“Shh…” Cheerilee whispered, but before she could say anything more there was a great whoosh of dust and suddenly there was light!
Pouring out from a large crack that had appeared in the smooth stone wall, the flickering light of a large torch lit up their little cave. A creature poked its head into the crack and stared at the two of them. It was covered in dark gray fur and its face was oddly scrunched. It wore a studded collar around its neck and a red vest, whose pockets seemed to be filled with gems of various colors. Its two large paws gripped either end of the crack and pushed it a little wider, allowing the creature to pass through.
“You ponies are so noisy!” The creature said in a gravelly voice, its green eyes glowing slightly in the gloom.
…
Luna banked a little to adjust her path more to the north. At these speeds, even the simplest of turns could slam a pegasus into what would feel like a solid wall of air, if one was not careful. But fortunately she didn’t have to change her course very far. Up ahead, a rolling black cloud covered the sky in a great sweeping mass. The whole thing had an evil air about it that she instinctively shied away from as she crossed under it, not wanting the smog to touch her if she could help it. Right under the center of the cloud she could make out a mountain rising high into the skyline, and the thick stream of black smoke spilling out from its peak.
The whole cloud was much larger than she had feared, and she strained to catch a little extra speed. The sooner she dealt with this dragon, the sooner the cloud could be dealt with. Something about it just felt… ominous.