Chapter 2: Scratching the Surface
The four prisoners walked down the dimly lit cobblestone hallway, guided by Big Macintosh's torch, in near total silence. Only ambient dungeon sounds could be heard: the dripping of water, the faint scurry of rodents, and a distant sloshing noise that they couldn't identify.
“Maybe... it's the zombies scratching at the walls, trying to get to first fresh meat they've seen in ages...” Spike mumbled.
Twilight was too exasperated to argue with him. “Yeah sure, zombies totally sound like that... While you're at it, maybe they brought their mummy friends to join in the walking buffet.”
Spike was not amused. “Come on Twilight, this isn't a pyramid! There are no mummies here! Besides, mummies don't eat you, they just steal your body parts.”
Iron Will grasped his aching ears with both hands. The constant bickering was giving him a headache.
Big Macintosh finally interrupted the two. “Uh, guys... there's a gate up ahead.”
They had already passed two gates, not counting the first. This one was different, however, because there was no chain hanging next to it for them to pull. A sign next to the metal grating said, in the same old-style Equestrian, “Loose rock”.
Spike looked down into his left claw. He attempted to put two and two together, and threw his rock at the iron bars with all his strength. Which didn't amount to much. The stone bounced harmlessly off of the metal with a clang, and clattered to the floor.
Twilight Sparkle thought about the problem too, coming with several possibilities. She voiced the most logical one. “Everypony, maybe it means there's a button hidden under a rock somewhere. Let's take a better look around.”
As the four turned around in the narrow hallway, Spike's spade-shaped tail brushed against the wall. In the near-silence of the dungeon, they all heard the clicking sound.
The door began to open, the iron gate retracting into the ceiling with a loud clank.
Spike, being the closest to the sudden noise, shrieked, before regaining his composure. “Eh... I mean... Look! I found a secret button and opened the door! I knew it was there all along!”
The four of them took a closer look at the small bump in the wall. It looked like one of the cobblestones had broken and a piece was jutting out, almost as if it was about to fall out.
Twilight smacked her head with her hoof. “Of course! Loose rock! Good job, Spike! My number one assistant!”
Spike beamed at Twilight. His smile could have lit up the dungeon. Even in their horrible predicament, he just couldn't feel bad knowing he had Twilight's approval.
Unfortunately, the sloshing was getting louder.
“Uh... Twi? What's that thing?” Big Macintosh pointed at the slowly approaching shape with a hoof.
“I'm not sure... it's too far away,” Twilight responded, squinting at the blurry blob. As it drew closer, however, they saw details... eyestalks, a big green shell, a trail of slime...
It didn't take a lifetime of studying to know that it was a snail. However, snails weren't normally the size of a full grown pony!
Twilight tried to calm the group by assuring them that snails were completely vegetarian.
“Uh, Twi, I dunno much about dungeons... but I know that growing apple trees takes sunlight. And in case you haven't noticed... there ain't any down here.”
Twilight gulped. Big Mac was right of course... Still... maybe it ate fungus? Or cave moss?
The oversized mollusk reared back, exposing a wide mouth filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.
The four got ready for the fight. Spike had reaquired his rock, and aimed it carefully. Twilight got a spell ready: a burst of fire hot enough to burn the creature enough to send it slithering back where it came from. Iron Will and Big Macintosh braced themselves for the monster's charge.
The creature did indeed charge the group... though at a rather snail-like speed. Big Mac pummeled it with his hooves while Iron Will attempted to hold its head down, preventing it from using its teeth. The snail writhed violently while Big Mac delivered blow after blow to its rock-hard shell.
Spike threw his rock at the snail, hitting one of the eyes. The eye burst, splattering the two fighters with vitreous humor.
Twilight was horrified by the violence. It was just a poor snail and they were all ganging up on it. It hadn't even hurt them at all...
Almost as if on cue, the slippery snail wiggled right out of Iron Will's grip, biting his forearm with its terrible teeth. He yowled in pain and yanked his arm back. A small chunk of flesh was missing, the surrounding area ripped and torn by the monster's teeth. Blood dripped from the huge mollusk's mouth; it was hungry for more. It lunged at them, its destroyed eyestalk hanging limply as it bared its maw. They stepped backward as a group, dodging the attack.
That was all Twilight needed to see. Her doubts about the creature's intentions removed, her horn sparked violently as fire engulfed the snail. It shrieked in pain as its flesh slowly cooked with a sickening crackling sound.
Big Macintosh delivered the coup de grâce directly to the creature's back. The shell finally broke, a long fissure forming from head to tail. Slime poured out of the exposed innards as the creature fell dead.
Twilight couldn't take her eyes off the smoldering mess. She... had just killed a living creature. Well, technically, Big Macintosh did... But she was an accomplice to this... murder.
Her guilt quickly turned to outrage as Iron Will bent down to rip pieces off of the monster corpse.
“WHAT IN EQUESTRIA ARE YOU DOING???” she screamed at the hunched minotaur.
His reply came calmly. “It smells good, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather not starve to death in this place.”
He handed a slice of roasted snail to each of them. Spike wasn't fussy about it (dragons are omnivores after all), but Big Mac and Twilight just stared at him in disbelief.
Iron Will sighed. “If the going gets tough, you gotta live rough.”
Twilight changed the topic. “Let me see your arm.” Iron Will did so.
“Oh... that's... um... not so bad...” she gagged, giving away the already thinly veiled lie. The wound wasn't bleeding, but was oozing some sort of yellow fluid. The area around the bite was covered in tiny cuts and what appeared to be burns.
“Apparently their bite is acidic,” Twilight remarked. She gained a new respect for Iron Will, being able to lecture them through that amount of pain as if nothing was wrong.
She pointed her horn at Iron Will's arm. It was slowly enveloped in a purple glow which spread to the wound. “It's a healing spell,” she explained. “It will heal most forms of injuries, even critical ones. However,” she noted, “it takes time to work. If any of us get injured, we will need to take a rest for a while to heal up. I'm going to cast the spell on the rest of us as a preventative measure.”
Twilight spent the next few minutes doing so, her purple magic field encompassing Big Macintosh, Spike, and herself.
Iron Will looked at his arm when they had finished. Already the burns had healed, the cuts closing up before his eyes. The main bite site was no longer oozing, and it didn't hurt anymore. It just itched. A lot.
The four ventured further into the dungeon. They encountered three more snails along the way. They dealt with them much the same as before; Iron Will held them down while Big Mac punched it, Twilight burned them, and Spike pelted them with rocks (he had picked up several more). They harvested the meat from each snail they killed, storing the slimy steaks for later. With more combat experience under their belts, the prisoners' skills improved. Like they were ready to take on greater challenges.
They found themselves standing in front of a staircase, the bottom of the steps still dark as the light from Big Macintosh's torch was unable to reach the bottom. Before descending to the next level, however, Iron Will reached into a nearby alcove and grabbed the prize within: a rock tied to a stick. A crude club, perhaps. Still, a crude weapon was better than no weapon: the cudgel was harder than his fists.
The group took a deep breath as they went down the stairs.