//------------------------------// // Amethyst 3B: Blood Song // Story: Lost Legacies // by AkibaWhite //------------------------------// Edited by Cynewulf It was some time after they'd lost sight of the entrance that Twilight began to grow nervous. The stone staircase underneath Sweet Apple Acres extended into darkness in both directions. Pale light emanated from Twilight’s horn, only bright enough to reveal One Liner to her front, Applejack at the rear, and the crusty walls of packed dirt that seemed to close in all around them. The presence of ancient timber supports every few yards did nothing to assuage the unicorn's trepidation. She could hear the thumping of her own heartbeat even over the clip-clop of their hooves on the roughly-hewn steps. The putrid smell of sulfur that suffused the narrow cavern wasn't helping matters. "So, Miss Twilight," said One Liner, his calm voice reverberating off the walls. "How goes the translation?" "Translation?" Twilight echoed, distracted by an evil-looking snarl of roots. Liner turned his head back for a moment as he continued onward. "You know, the literary pursuits of our good friend Screw Loose? Room 401?" "Ugh," Twilight groaned. "Don't remind me. I consulted every book ever written on the subject of Ancient Equestrian and every other book even marginally related to the first set." She rolled her eyes. "I figured out a few common pronouns and conjugations, but even those didn't make sense in the order they were used. The only thing I learned from that mess is that we're not going to understand it without the exordium. And speaking of things I don't understand . . ." She turned to the orange earth pony behind her. "What the hay is something like this doing under your wheat field?" "I dunno," answered Applejack, her tone quiet and thoughtful. "I feel like I should though, like there's somethin' important that I plum forgot about." Twilight shivered. "Well, it's a crazy thing to forget if you did. I know I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if there were something this creepy underneath the library." Her light flickered briefly. "I mean, who knows what's at the bottom?" Applejack grinned. "Aw shucks. Are you scared, Twi?" "Scared?" Twilight flushed at the accusation. "O-of course not! It's just an underground passageway, after all." She gave a fake laugh. "A pony of science knows that there's no such thing as ghosts or bogeymen." Applejack shook her head. "I didn't say anythin' 'bout ghosts." "And why would you?" babbled Twilight. "The only thing weird about this staircase is where it is, right? I mean, imagine if it were underneath a castle, or some ruins in the Everfree. Why, that would be perfectly— AAH!" The light from her horn flared brilliant white with a shower of magic sparks. Something had scratched at her right shoulder. Twilight yelped, dove for the nearest pony, and latched on with all her might. "Get it away from me! Kill it with fire!" she shouted, eyes screwed shut in fear. A short time passed in silence before a cough issued forth from One Liner. "Miss Twilight?" Twilight recognized the smell of cologne and the smooth feel of the detective's trenchcoat. She opened her eyes and stared right up into One Liner's blue irises. Applejack prodded at a claw-shaped branch and whistled. "I guess ponies o’ science aren’t much for watchin’ where they’re goin’." One Liner offered a nervous smile. "I'm afraid it's going to be pretty hard to protect you with your forelegs wrapped around my neck." Twilight released her stranglehold on the detective, blushing furiously. "Oh goodness! I'm so sorry!" "Not a problem," said One Liner. He nodded toward the descending stairs. "Shall we?" Twilight watched as Liner pressed on and couldn't help but notice a strange movement in the folds of his coat. There was no mistaking it—his tail had to be swishing back and forth underneath. Twilight's face felt very hot. Her thoughts drifted to Applejack's earlier comments. Did that . . . excite him? "Ahem." Twilight turned back to find a smirking Applejack. "What?" she asked. "Nothin'," quipped the highly amused earth pony mare. "Want me to hold your hoof the rest of the way?" Twilight frowned and marched off in a huff. "Huh," Applejack mused with a nudge to her Stetson. "Guess I'm not the one you wanna be holdin' hooves with . . ." Applejack was thankful when the stairs finally ended, but was unimpressed by the view. She trotted forward onto the odd stretch of cobblestone flooring, peering out into the blackness of what must have been a wide-open space. “Hey, Twi?” she called to her unicorn friend. “Mind turnin’ on the lights?” Twilight Sparkle obliged by putting more effort into her illumination spell. The light from her horn spread outward and revealed what lay hidden in the darkness bit by bit. The cavern they’d stepped into rose two stories high and measured several yards across in all directions. A complex series of aged wooden supports held the uneven ceiling aloft. Both they and the half-finished stonework on some of the walls bore grisly swatches of sloppy crimson writings. Piles of white bones in various corners left little doubt of the scribbler’s choice in art supplies. One Liner grimaced. “This could give me a new appreciation for leaving the lights off.” The dirty, disheveled remains of what had once been a bed adorned one corner while a grouping of empty iron cages adorned the other. Bits and pieces of ruined wooden furniture rested at odd intervals throughout the cavern, and other tunnels and stairways—much like the one they’d descended—branched off in all directions. It was that last detail that finally jogged Applejack’s memory. “I don’t believe it,” gasped the farmpony. She removed her hat and held it to her chest. “Me neither,” Twilight responded as she gazed about. “Who would live in a place like this?” Applejack shook her head. “Ain’t nopony supposed to, Twi. This here’s the Storm Hollow.” One Liner looked up from the rotting form of a half-demolished desk. “Care to elaborate?” Applejack looked up at the ceiling in wide-eyed wonder. “Y’know how the Apple family were the ones who founded Ponyville in the first place? Well, for a long time there was no Ponyville—just my granny and her folks on the border o’ the Everfree, tamin’ the land as best they could. It was ‘round the time o’ the first timber wolf attacks that my great-grandpappy decided that the family needed someplace to run to if they came up against somethin’ they couldn’t handle. So he set every able-bodied pony he could spare from farmwork to diggin’ some great big hole in the ground with lots of narrow ins n’ outs. When it was finished after a few seasons, he took t’ callin’ it the Storm Hollow.” “Why ‘Storm Hollow?’” asked Twilight. Applejack chuckled. “‘Cause he wasn’t too creative. My great-grandpappy figured that the place was a great big hollow space and that it’d be mighty useful if one o’ those tree topplin’ Everfree storm systems came rollin’ through.” One Liner began pulling drawers out of the desk. “And you forgot about this?” Applejack shrugged. “Well, I heard about it when I was a little ‘un, but nopony could remember where it was. Our family never used the place, and there wasn’t much need after other ponies started movin’ here. Once the pegasus ponies got the weather in workin’ order n’ scared off most of the critters, the Hollow just got sorta buried as the years went by. I even went lookin’ for the old entrances once upon a time—never found a darn thing till now.” One Liner stuck a cursory hoof into an open drawer. The sound of rattling glass filled the cavern. “Unless your ancestors were into magic locks and stockpiling drugs from the future, I’d say that this is Screw Loose’s hideout.” “The missing bottles of Ventium?” asked Twilight. Liner nodded. “All but two by my count.” Applejack wandered close to the rusty cages, each big enough to hold a pony inside. “You mean that whacked-out pony was livin’ underneath us?” She paused for a moment to think that through. “That’s why she had to take out Winona—poor puppy-girl woulda sniffed her out in a heartbeat if she hadn't.” Applejack’s eyes widened. “So she’s been under us for two months now?” “Makes sense,” answered One Liner. “The knights must have covered every inch of the countryside by now. This is the only place they might have missed.” Applejack retched in disgust. “And I thought nothin’ would ever make me wanna move out.” A metal engraving on one of the cages caught her eye. “Hey, what is this? Property of . . . Ponyville Memorial?” Twilight walked over to have a look for herself. “Interesting. Cages like these were used for animal test subjects until the practice was outlawed about a hundred years ago. I don’t even know where you’d find these anymore.” She pawed at a clump of dried resin one one of the metal bars. “Was she keeping timber wolves in here?” “The shoe seems to fit,” quipped One Liner as he gazed at the red marks on the wall. “I’m more curious about these scribblings. Is this red paint, or . . .” Applejack spied a familiar-looking set of bones amongst the cages and shivered. “No, I think that’s cow blood.” Twilight flinched. “Are you serious?” Applejack began to sweat, unable to take her eyes off the grisly pile. “I thought we were losin’ a few to timber wolves after Winona died, but . . .” “You may very well have been,” interrupted Liner. “Screw Loose had to feed whatever was in the cages, after all. Looks like she’s the sort of pony who lets nothing go to waste.” Applejack grimaced. “As if I needed another reason to strangle that monster.” One Liner noticed that Twilight had locked her eyes on a particular set of blood smears. “Miss Twilight?” “It’s the exordium,” said Twilight. “I don’t believe it, but Screw Loose wrote the whole thing down again!” She extended a hoof toward Liner without looking his way. “Liner, you still have that notebook and pen?” The detective fished the objects out of a coat pocket and tossed them toward the unicorn mare. “Think fast.” “I don’t get it though,” said Applejack as Twilight began copying down the writing on the wall. “Why’s that one wall covered with weird letters? I can read most of everythin’ else in here.” Her eyes scanned the walls and supports. “Not that I really care to.” Liner tipped up the brim of his fedora. “I imagine that’s one of the questions we’ll have to ask Screw Loose herself. Shouldn’t take long to find her now that we’ve uncovered her base of operations.” “Done!” chirped Twilight, happy to have found the key to a frustrating puzzle. She turned to One Liner. “Want me to write down the rest?” “That will do for now,” said Liner. “I’m about to turn this crime scene over to the Sheriff’s Department. Priority one is finding Screw Loose before she has a chance to go to ground, and I have a feeling that Captain Soarin will want me to join the search party.” “Okay, mind if I tag along?” Both Applejack and One Liner simply stared at Twilight for a moment, the detective with a look of uncertainty and the farmpony with a knowing smirk. Liner coughed. “This isn’t a picnic, Miss Twilight. We’ll be in real danger out there.” “Yeah,” Twilight answered at a lower volume, clearly a bit embarrassed by her sudden offer. “But it sounds like just the sort of situation where your favorite unicorn might come in handy.” Applejack’s smile grew wider. “Um, not to rain on your parade, sugarcube, but weren’t you gonna help Spike look after Derpy?” “I was just about to take care of that,” said Twilight. She closed her eyes for a moment, causing the orb of light generated by her horn to rise halfway to the ceiling. It hung there like a lantern, making the cavern visible even without Twilight there to cast it. The unicorn mare smiled. “Somepony owes me a favor, and I can’t think of a safer place for Derpy to be right now than her cottage.” One Liner shook his head. “Looks like I haven’t got much choice in the matter. Can you make it to the knights’ base camp in, say fifteen minutes?” Twilight nodded. “See you there!” As the curiously upbeat unicorn mare trotted off toward the stairs, Applejack placed her Stetson once more atop her head. “Well, I figure I’m not gonna be of much further use ‘round here. Guess I’d best go and tend to the family. Nice meetin’ ya, Detective.” With a courteous nod and a winning smile, she made to follow her friend above ground. “One moment, Miss Applejack.” Applejack stopped and turned about. “Somethin’ I can do for ya?” The expression on Liner’s face and the tone of his voice had become more serious. “I’ve been thinking about the statement you gave regarding your encounter with Screw Loose and I get the impression that you’re . . . holding something back.” Applejack’s smile took on a nervous twitch. “Now why would I—” “Please,” said Liner. “I’m not accusing you of anything in particular. I just want to remind you that every piece of information related to our prime suspect, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is crucial to finding her and establishing guilt.” He stepped forward. “So I’ll ask you this one time, Miss Applejack. Is there anything you’d like to add to your statement before it becomes a matter of public record?” Applejack gulped audibly. “Well . . .” “What did you do?!” yelled Applejack. Magic coursed through every fiber of the farmpony’s body, yet she’d never felt more powerless as she stared at the smoking crater where Derpy and Apple Bloom had been. She whirled on Screw Loose. “How could you?!” Then, before Applejack’s very eyes, her panting and battered opponent began to change. The visible parts of Screw Loose’s coat shifted from cobalt blue to cotton-candy pink. Her mane curled up into brilliant strands of magenta, and her blue eyes regained their familiar round pupils. The cheery voice that said her next words sounded awfully familiar as well. “Party’s just getting started, A.J.” One Liner put a thoughtful hoof to his chin. Applejack laughed nervously. “N-now I wouldn’t put much stock in that. Screw Loose can look like whatever she wants to, right? Maybe she was just screwin’ with me, if you’ll pardon the expression.” She waved a hoof. “I mean, who knows what that crazy pony is thinkin’ anyway?” One Liner looked her dead in the eye. “Work in my profession long enough and you’ll realize that there’s no such thing as crazy. There’s just lines of reasoning that we don’t understand . . .” His eyes drifted up toward the ceiling and read a few curious lines written in blood. I have to tell them! She can’t get away with this! I have to deliver these letters! Liner's eyes narrowed. “And the ones we refuse to consider . . .” NEXT Episode 07: "The Kindness of Others"