Folk Tale

by Balkanboy

The Redband Mines

[Sorry to break your concentration. I don't like putting the author's comment at the beginning but this is important. Instead of a lighter he uses his phone. If you want, go back to the previous chapter and read the end (there's also a bit a little earlier where he talks a little about the phone, but that's not as important) to see the updated version. Enjoy!]

As William continued down the tunnel, he noticed something odd: this sewer had doors. At frequent intervals on both sides along the walls, an iron door stood, all of them locked and almost fully submerged in water. They were smaller than him, intended for use by ponies, not a human. He found it too difficult to try and kick them in when he was himself half-submerged in water, so he ignored them, holding the phone above his head to make sure he didn’t splash anything onto it.

He could hear the sound of rushing water further down the passageway and the currents in the water became slightly stronger. Sure enough, after another two minutes of wading he reached an incline where water poured down to his level. He realised they were flowing down stairs. That was odd, sewers didn’t tend to have stairs.

He walked into the current and forced his way up the stairs. It was quite tiring, but he managed to reach the top without losing his footing. The water was lower up here, down to a bit below his knees which he was very grateful for. He looked down the tunnel and noticed that there was a shaft of light shining down from the ceiling. He rushed towards it, thinking it might be an exit.

Unfortunately it wasn’t an exit, just a grating cover. He could see the moon through it, its light casting an eerie silver glow in the room. He looked round to survey his surroundings. He was in a mostly empty small hall. A large chandelier lay on the ground to his left, old and rusted. What kind of sewer was this? A small balcony sat above the only other exit to the room. It was too dark to make out what was beyond the balcony, but he could see a pinprick of light.

Wait, a pinprick of light?

He looked back up but the light was gone.

There was a... there... a... a human...

Folks had told him that the old castle was haunted but he had never believed them. Two years of working in the underground ruins directing the flow of the sewage had told him otherwise. It turned out they were right.

He barely had time to stop his spell when it walked into the room below. He was sure that it had seen his horn glowing, even if it was only for a second.

Aquas slowly trotted away from the balcony and down the hall. The exit was close, but with that monster lurking around he was going to have to be very careful. It didn’t help that the lower floor was flooded... then again, he would be able to hear the monster moving around. It worked both ways, though.

He went down a set of stairs and arriving at a t-section. Was it left or right? The sounds of splashing water from the right told him it was the left and he waded down it as quickly and quietly as possible.

He passed many different intersections, most of them caved in, trying to get away from the monster, but when he stopped to listen for the monster, the distant echo of splashing was still there. Was it following him? He increased his speed a little and stopped again. The splashes were still there. He increased it again and once again the splashes pursued him, in fact they were louder now, as though it was moving faster. He broke into a full on gallop.

With only two hooves, both longer than his, the monster had a big advantage moving through the water. He had to do something soon or it would get him, but what could he do except run and pray for the best?

The stairs to the exit came into sight. He galloped up them into a large rectangular hall, full of overturned rotting tables and chairs. At the end of the hall was a large hole in the ceiling with a rope dangling down attached to a platform on the floor of the hall. The human was close behind him, he could hear it. He’d never be able to get to it in time unless...

He was a unicorn but that didn’t mean he was good at teleporting. He had done it once and had almost killed himself when he appeared just a hair’s breadth away from materialising inside of a wall. Now he had no choice but to do it.

In a flash of blue light, he appeared on the platform dazed and confused. That had been a lot harder to do than he remembered, almost as if somepony was trying to neutralise his magic. It didn’t matter though, he was there now.

He began turning the lever he knew was on the surface, raising the platform. The demon came into sight, sprinting towards him. Hah, it was futile now, he’d had gotten out of its- Hang on.

As it approached he found himself losing his magical grip on the lever. His mind became foggy as he used up more of his energy to try and pull himself up but he had expanded most of his reserves on teleporting. Every muscle in his body ached, the pony desperately trying not to be overcome by fatigue. Soon he was falling back down. Then, darkness.

-William-

Ooh, that fall didn’t look pretty. The unicorn had hit its head against the stone ground. William knelt down to inspect the pony and found nothing immediately wrong with it. The pony’s heart was still beating, and he could see its chest rising and falling as it breathed in the cold, musty air. It had a tattoo on its flank of a wave of water but he ignored it.

He would have prefered if this didn’t happen, but in hindsight he didn’t see any way he could’ve stopped him short of physically assaulting him, an idea he found laughable. He wasn’t proficient in any kind of combat or fighting style. He had been running after him to try and speak to the pony, but...

Anyway, onto the task at hand. How was he going to get up there? He tugged on the rope and found that it was secure enough to carry his weight. Brilliant. He clasped his hands around the rope and began to do something he didn’t think he’d ever do after primary school: climb a rope. He got around halfway before his arms became dangerously close to giving out. His wet clothes were weighing him down heavily and he was out of practice in rope climbing. Not willing to risk it, he slowly slid back down, taking care not burn his palms off, and sat down on a nearby metal stool.

His arms weren’t strong enough to get him all the way up and he couldn’t use his legs on the unknotted rope. There had to be some other way. As he stared at the wall waiting for inspiration, he thought about what he would do up on the surface.

He was much larger than a pony and he smelt worse than a compost dump, which would really be problematic for him while moving through the town. Hopefully the inhabitants would be in their homes rather than wandering the streets. It was the only way he’d be able to go anywhere undetected.

And where was he supposed to go? He didn’t know where they had been taken or if they were still alive. No, they were probably still alive. He wasn’t the expert on anything in this land but he was sure that a queen was a queen wherever you went. If his history lessons in primary school had taught him anything, there had to be some trial, or meeting, or something before they did anything to her.

At least, he hoped so.

Seeing as he didn’t know where the queen was, he decided on the next best thing: the forcefield. It was so big he wouldn’t be able to miss it. Having more changelings would definitely help him find Queen Chrysalis.

He went back to thinking about a way out. Maybe it the answer lay in the environment. He scanned the hall, but found no solutions until he looked back at the wall.

The bricks, he finally realised, in the wall had deteriorated severely. Many of them had fallen out or crumbled. That was it!

He got up and walked over to the wall, trying out the handholds. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. He began to climb, quite slowly, taking care to test the bricks before he put his full weight onto them.

‘Come on man, it’s just like rock climbing. It’s all in the fingers, it’s all in the fingers, it’s all in the-’

Now that he could use his legs, he didn’t tire out as fast.

He looked down. It hadn’t seemed as high when he was still on the ground. Ah well. After a minute or so of climbing, the ceiling was just above him, but the hole was out of reach. There was only one thing left to do and he wasn’t going to like it.

The rope was too far for him to reach, but just close enough to jump to. It was the only way he would be able to get up through the hole in the ceiling. A fall wouldn’t be fatal but he was sure he’d at least sprain something from this height. Then the only way out would be back through the pipes, and he really didn’t want to do that.

He sighed and braced himself. A few seconds later he pushed himself away from the wall and into the rope, his adrenaline levels shooting through the roof, grasping madly at the air until he caught it. After getting ahold of it, he wasted no time in pulling himself the last few feet to the top and lifting himself out of the hole, where he promptly fell over next to it in exhaustion.

He lifted his hands to inspect them and found that they were, aside from being coated in dirt, blood and muck, visibly shaking from the adrenaline rush he had just experienced and his head hurt a lot. Grandad would be proud.

The jump had shaken him badly, so he took a few moments to collect his wits until he felt he was ready to sit up and take a look at where he was, also switching it off and putting the phone back into his pocket.

Now he saw that he was sitting in the centre of a rundown garden surrounded by high fences on three sides with a house on the fourth. The rope had been attached to a winch on a post that had been stuck in the ground next to the hole. Apart from the odd passerby, it was very quiet, so he assumed that most of the ponies were indoors.

He thought briefly about the garden being above a hall but moved on.

He observed the house for a bit in case anyone, or anypony as it was now, was coming, but no ponies came. His next move was to leave the garden and head to the glowing force field.

He scaled the fence and came out onto an empty street. Candle lamp-posts sat on street corners but nowhere else. As a result it was very dark where he was standing, ideal conditions for sneaking around. The buildings all looked like something out of a medieval history book, only the houses had more colour to them: blue, magenta, purple, the colours went on.

He began making his way towards the force-field, taking care to stick to the shadows and using alleyways to bypass lit or more populated areas.

In all his life he’d never felt more alive; blood pumping, adrenaline coursing through his veins and his mind running through all his possible routes and decisions he had to make, and it made him feel like utter garbage.

Every time he tried to take a breath of fresh air, his sinuses were filled with the smell of sewer water, every time he wanted to wipe something off of his face, he just made it dirtier. He wasn’t sure what else could go wrong, but with his luck so far he knew that whatever it was, it was going to.

He just wanted to go home. Back home nothing had tried to kill him or make him crawl through sewers. He may not have been a millionaire, but he'd had a roof over his head, food in the fridge and a TV to watch. Paradise compared to this.

It started to rain. First it was just a little, then a little more, then it poured. Just like home. It showered him, giving him a bit of a cleaning, though not enough to clean all of the muck off of him. It was something, at least.

As he entered an alley, his heart almost burst when he stumbled across a pony dressed in tattered clothing lying on a few newspapers, completely smashed. The stench of alcohol was overwhelming.

“Wuzzat? Who’s there?” the pony said, sticking his head up. “Go away, only room for one pony in this alleyway. I don’t want to have ta hurt ya...”

He tried to get up but fell back down. The pony either didn’t know or didn’t care that William was definitely not a pony. Probably the former.

“Uh, sorry, I'm leaving,” William said quickly and quietly, then made his way to the other end.

He stopped at the end and peeked around the corner. Nopony to the right. He swivelled his head round. Nopony to the... hang on. He spotted two ponies in the gloom walking down the street, a foal and, from what he could hear, a stallion. Panicking, he moved back and hid behind a few metal bins, watching them go by. The stallion was talking, though about what he couldn’t tell.

When they passed the alley, he moved back to his original spot and watched them go. That foal seemed familiar, which was ridiculous because the only foal he knew was that filly who was outside of the town. He chuckled quietly at the thought of her being in town. It was absurd.

The two ponies reached the light of the lamp-post which revealed the stallion to be a red unicorn and the foal to be-

Uh oh.

Earlier...

Where had William gone? The Changelings had told her he had gone to town but they wouldn’t say why. She didn’t like being alone with them, their sharp teeth and big blue eyes were scary, so she decided she would go find him. She just had to wait for the right time.

“Do we need to feed the pony child?” said one of the changelings.

“No, the human brought along food for her. She can feed herself,” said the wounded one.

“What about us? When do we get to feed?”

Bugruff thought about his answer before he spoke.

“Soon but not now. Queen Chrysalis ordered me not to enter the city until we receive the signal.”

“But I’m hungry, I need to eat now!” shouted the healthy one, stamping its hoof.

Bugruff responded without emotion.

“We have our orders scout. We must obey our leader.”

The changeling scoffed, pacing around Bugruff.

“Look where our leader’s orders have gotten us. We’re so scattered and weak that we have to rely on the help of another species. Burtooth was right.”

At the mention of Burtooth, Bugruff was upon the scout, and despite the wound, flooring the changeling in seconds.

“Burtooth? How dare you mention that traitor’s name!”

As they argued the young filly slipped away. Most colts and fillies her age were scared of the dark but not her. She’d always enjoyed it, it let you go places without anypony seeing you. When the shouting was faint she galloped to the town gates on the eastern side at full speed through the rain and mud.

The gates were shut but the guards on the wall saw her and opened them again to let her in. It opened into an almost empty street, save for a few ponies here and there, that looked like it went right through the city. Once inside, she was greeted by a unicorn guard wearing a red cloak and an iron helmet which he took off. She could see his cutie mark was a musical note made of candy canes but he quickly covered it when he readjusted his cloak. He seemed familiar to her.

“What are you doing out at this time of night? Are you lost?” He had a concerned look on his face.

Was she lost? She didn’t know where she was, or where she was going so maybe she was.

“I think so.”

“So you don’t have any place to stay? Nopony to look after you?”

“...no.”

He nodded and turned round, beckoning her towards him. She was uncertain at first but followed him anyway.

“I know somewhere you can get a hot meal. Would you like that?” His voice was very soft, almost comforting, and she found herself being drawn to him.

She nodded, a smile forming on her face. Maybe just a little food, then she could keep looking for William. She was sure he wouldn’t mind.

They seemed to be headed towards the large glowing dome that she had seen from outside of the city. Wasn’t that where Queen Chrysalis said they kept all the other changelings?

After some time, having passed house after house and lamp post after lamp post he stopped at one of the entrances to an alleyway.

“After you,” he said, moving aside to let her in.

Without thinking she walked into it only to find that it was a dead end. She turned to see three stallions blocking her only exit. The one that had led her in was at the front.

“Don’t run. It won’t do you any good,” he said, his voice still soft and sweet. They closed in on her, one of his peers levitating a bag along with them. The filly backed away but felt her hindlegs collide with the wall.

“W-what are you going to do to me?”

The guard sighed, droplets of rain dripping down his face.

“You’re going to be a slave, foal. Nothing personal, s’just, a stallion’s gotta eat.”

Then she remembered who he was. He was one of the stallions who had taken her father away.

“Daddy...” she whimpered.

William turned the corner, his fight-or-flight instincts kicking in. Three stallions, two of which he had noticed following the filly earlier on, stood around the filly at the end of the alleyway, their backs turned to him.

“What in tartarus is that smell?” one of them remarked.

“Shut up,” said another.

They were in the process of bringing the bag down over her. He wasn’t quite sure what to say in a situation like this so he approached this like he would any normal situation back on Earth.

“Uh, excuse me, sir, but would you please not touch that child?” he said.

They didn’t even turn to look at him.

“Mind your own business bub, this doesn’t concern you,” said the red one in the centre.

“Actually it does. I’m her...” What would be an appropriate title? “...uncle.”

The red one laughed and his friends followed suit.

“It looks like we’ve got another catch then, boys.” He began to turn. “Do you know wh-”

When he saw the human standing at the end of the alley, he stopped dead. Even in the current lighting, William could see the look on his face, one of pure, unadulterated terror. He found it quite amusing, though he still didn’t feel in control or even remotely safe. If they decided to attack him he had no doubt that they would beat him into the ground, so his tactic for now was to scare them off.

He waited for them to say something but they kept silent. Humans must really be feared in these parts for them to act this way. He walked closer and motioned to the filly to come to him.

“Come on, let’s go,” he said.

She galloped to him, jumping into his stomach, the man barely catching her, and giving him the strongest hug he was sure he’d ever had. A few more of his worries dissolved.

As they were about to go, William received his second almost-a-heart attack for the night when the unicorn fired a few magic bolts at them. He flinched as they dissipated in front of him, then, remembering that he had to keep them scared, gave the pony his best glare. The unicorn fainted.

He turned back round and ushered the filly along.

“Tia, are you sure that is the best course of action?” asked Luna, prying her eyes away from the window to look at her sister.

“Yes, Luna, I do. The situation there has gotten out of hand and I don’t want my ponies to be caught up in a war they don’t need to be a part of. The locals will just have to deal with the monsters themselves.”

“Can we not work something out or...”

“I wish we could, I really do Luna, but you saw how the negotiations went. Now that Eastmarsh isn’t in effect anymore, the Griffins can do anything they want. The Equestrian Royal Guard has to leave Hadrow.” She finished writing up her letter and sent it off. “Now if you’ll excuse me sister, I have other matters to attend to.”

The princess of the sun got up and left the room, leaving a frowning Luna in her wake.