//------------------------------// // Against the swarm... // Story: Through the Fire and Flames // by DagaYemar //------------------------------// “Do you see her?” Carrot Top asked, trying to peer over Lyra’s shoulder through the small hole the diamond dogs had clawed out of the wall. “Not yet…” Lyra answered, trying to keep her spot as the lookout. “There are more of them than I thought there’d be. And I don’t see that… wait, there she is! I caught sight of her when that big one moved just now!” “Let’s go! Come on!” Carrot Top said, bounding away from the wall. But her energy leaked away when she saw the way the dogs were glaring at her. “More salamanders are coming soon.” The small dog giggled, rocking side to side with excitement. “We wait and catch all salamanders at once.” The big dog nodded and slapped his paws together. “Soon we fight. But only when ready!” “How you holding up?” Raindrops draped a wing over Ditzy’s back and gave her a reassuring squeeze. She could feel the grey pegasus trembling a little. “I just… I just can’t stand this feeling...” Ditzy said softly, squeezing her eyes tight. “This isn’t the same as getting buried in letters or being in a crowded room. There’s nowhere to go if I get trapped down here…” Raindrops nudged her softly and tilted her head up. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, if you promise not to tell the others.” She waited until Ditzy looked her in the eyes to continue. “I’m scared too. We all are, especially after what happened in that crystal cave, but I’ve been nervous every since we first came down here. I’m used to having the sky above me, to be able to fly as high as I wanted whenever I wanted to. “But the trick is not to let the fear stop you. We’ve come so far already and the end is nearly here. Soon we’ll rescue our friend and then we can leave these caves behind forever. You and I just have to hold on a little longer, ok?” Ditzy swallowed and nodded, standing a little straighter than before. “Thanks, Raindrops. I think I can handle it a bit now. After all, Trixie’s waiting for us.” Raindrops frowned and was about to say something when the dog with the red vest suddenly straightened up and tilted his head to the side as if listening to something. After a moment he giggled and clapped his paws together. “Here they come! Let’s go! Time to fight!” … “We’re nearly back where we sstarted!” Ravid complained, staring around at the sloping tunnel with barely contained irritation. Behir glanced at her and bit back the snappish remark that came to mind. “I wass ssure there were other branchess down thiss path…” “Are you ignoring me again?!” Ravid slipped quickly into his path and slithered backwards, keeping in his face as they moved. “I am getting tired of your lack of resspect! Jusst becausse you’re Maralith’ss favorite, you think you’re ssomething sspecial. I’m the one who’ss next in line for… what are you sstaring at?” Ravid glared at him, but he’d stopped paying attention to her when they’d turned the last bend and entered a roughly circular cavern. It was the place where they’d first tunneled into the mountain beneath Canterlot, swimming out from the deep lava flows and began clearing out the tunnels all those months ago. Something about the cave felt off, but Behir couldn’t put a name to what. Ravid sputtered as he brushed past her, but quieted down when she finally noticed what had caught his attention. The center of the cavern was crowded by the rest of the salamander army. Behir could make out the shape of the hourglass and the prisoner near the middle of the group, but only as a passing interest. All his attention was fixed on the slowly approaching form of the High Priestess, who looked like she was preparing to rip bedrock apart by force of will alone. “I will guard the rear, High Priesstesss, you ssaid.” Maralith hissed, venom dripping from her fangs. Behir hadn’t been aware she could do that. “The tunnelss will be ssafe, you ssaid. You can count on me, you ssaid. Where iss the exit, Ravid?!?!” Instinctively Behir slipped quickly out from between the two females and took the time to study the cavern with more care. That’s what’s missing, there’s no glow from the lava flows. There should have been a deep crevasse in the center of the cave leading down to the molten river that had brought them here. But for some reason the crevasse had disappeared, without leaving even an outline in the hard-packed dirt of the floor. “I… I… I…” Ravid sputtered, unable to muster anything in the way of defense in her shock. Any other time Behir might have enjoyed watching her get taken down a peg or three, but something was still nagging at the back of his mind. Hard-packed dirt? Wasn’t the floor mostly clear in here? “I ought to flay you alive.” Maralith continued in her dangerously low tone. “I ought to make an example of you right now, but I sstill need you to sshow the way out. We couldn’t take the lava sstream with the hourglasss anyway, and the tunnel we were ssuppossed to take wass gone.” She paused as she took in the look of terror that flashed through Ravid’s face. “The other tunnel iss sstill ssafe, issn’t it?” Ravid threw herself flat on the ground while pointing an accusing claw at those behind her. “It’ss all Behir’ss fault! The guardss he left with me were usselesss!” This is the same cavern, isn’t it? There should be more exits, but I can only see the one we came through and that one over there. Probably where the others entered from or we’d have seen them before now… and those boulders along the wall are awfully regular… “Behir!” He started and returned his attention to the here and now. The High Priestess had turned her ire towards him and he appeared to have missed hearing a question, judging from the impatient way she was flexing her claws. Ravid had risen to a crouch and while still appearing shaken, she’d gained a predatory gleam in her eyes that suggested she’d diverted at least some of the blame his way. “My apologiess, High Priesstesss.” He said smoothly, casting back over what had been said to try and find what he missed. Something else jumped out and clicked with the puzzle forming in his head. “I’m ssorry, but did you ssay that your tunnel had vanisshed?” “Don’t try to change the ssubject, Behir. Thiss plan hass been falling apart ssince the fight in the library. I want to know why all our planss are failing one after another!” Smooth, dirt-packed floor. The cave-in. Tunnels mysteriously filled up with earth. The missing crevasse. Behir sucked in a quick breath as he realized what was happening too late. “High Priesstesss, we have to get out! We’ve been led into a trap!” “Nonssensse. The only creaturess who could…” Maralith eyes went wide as she trailed off. “Oh no.” … “Why do any of you even listen to her?” Trixie asked as Maralith started shouting at the group of salamanders who’d just entered the cave. “I understand why you’d all be too afraid of her to do anything, but she hasn’t really done much that screams ‘I care for my subjects’, if you catch my meaning.” “Sshe’ss not ussually this bad.” Grick said, crossing his arms. “Ssure, sshe’d throw a tantrum now and then, but sshe’ss alwayss had what’ss best for the colony in mind. Actually, sshe was pretty calm right up until after…” Trixie cocked her head to the side and saw him staring at her thoughtfully in the dim glow of her captors’ scales. “After what?” “…after the raid on the library.” Grick continued, and Trixie had spent enough time talking to him to notice the slight edge of humor in his tone. “Now that I think of it, the High Priesstesss hassn’t ever ussed the pearl on anything other than Queen Medussa’ss sstatue…” Trixie blinked at him a few times, then rocked up as straight as her bonds would allow. “I don’t act like that!” she shouted indignantly. Several of the nearby salamanders looked at her oddly. “I mean, I don’t anymore. I’m getting better. Don’t look at me like that!” Grick’s grin froze as the ground beneath them suddenly rumbled alarmingly. The two of them looked up as a roaring sound poured out of the tunnels, just before a wave of earth that completely filled the two channels from top to bottom. Maralith and the newcomers leapt clear of the entryway just before the wave hit, the dirt slowing to a stop with surprising suddenness at both entryways. They slithered quickly into the larger group, which formed itself into a tight ring with the hourglass in the center. “What’s happening?” Trixie started, but Grick reached down with one arm and pressed her down against the ground. He curled around her several times and leaned protectively over her, creating a near solid reptilian wall for her to hide behind. “We’re under attack! Sstay down, I’ll make ssure none of them get you.” “None of what?!” Trixie asked, rocking back and forth as if trying to see out from between his coils. Actually she was trying to work through the last few strands of her bonds, but he didn’t need to know that. “Who’s attacking?” “Dirt dogss.” Grick spat, and then a lot of things started happening at once. All around the cavern, large boulders nearly the size of good-sized houses which had been lying innocently against the walls suddenly popped out and started rolling towards the huddling salamanders. Each one uncovered a smaller tunnel from which a number of large, brutish shapes emerged. The creatures wielded long wooden spears, which they propped up along the sides of the rolling boulders defensively. Clearly more of the… dirt dogs were behind the stones, pushing them forward in an impressive display of strength. “Crussh them!” Maralith snarled, and her army surged forward to intercept the attackers. Trixie would have missed what happened next if the first victim hadn’t been one directly in her line of sight. A large hairy paw broke out of the ground just in front of where she huddled under Grick and grabbed the nearest charging salamander around the end of its tail. The paw pulled sharply back and dragged the tail under the ground, causing the unfortunate salamander to fall flat on its face and half burying it in the ground. It was only a minor inconvenience for the soldier, but all around the cave salamanders were falling victim to the same trick and their advance had stalled. Several tried jabbing their claws down into the holes after their agitators, but the holes were filled back up with dirt almost faster than they’d been made. Meanwhile, the boulders had cleared most of the distance to them and Trixie could tell that the dirt dogs were going try trapping them in a giant ring. At least I hope they’re just going to trap us. They might just roll the things right over us. Worried, she was about to ask Grick if they should try and make a break for it when a flash of magenta caught her eye. Uncaring if Grick noticed her loosened bonds or not, Trixie hopped up and pressed herself against his scales, trying to find that unexpected but extremely welcome sight again. Where did… there! I knew it! Cheeri… wait, what am I looking at? Cheerilee was running around the edge of the cavern, just behind the approaching boulders. And riding on her back was a slimmer version of the dog creatures, wearing a bright red vest and waving around a stalactite like some kind of sword. The creature laughed as Cheerilee reared back and swept its stone sword around, urging the other dogs forward. “FOR PONY!” … You know, this is oddly familiar… Cheerilee mused as she galloped. “I have no idea how you talked me into this.” “Come on, pony. Just let me have this!” the dog cheered, clearly too excited to care about her opinion on the matter. “High ho, pony, away! Launch spears now, Dogs!” “No spears!” Cheerilee shouted, rearing back and nearly throwing the dog off. Around them, the armored dogs who’d been about to attack hesitated and looked between the two of them for orders. “If we don’t attack, salamanders will crawl over rocks and get away!” “You might hit Trixie! You can’t do anything that might hurt her before we get her out!” “Bah” the dog growled, bouncing petulantly on her back. “No crushing them with ceiling. No dropping them in river. No throwing spears at them. What do ponies know about fighting salamanders? Diamond Dogs fight salamanders. If Dogs do not fight, salamanders will win!” Cheerilee was saved from falling back into the argument she’d already gone through with him before when Raindrops swooped down from above. “I’ve found her! This big one has her trapped near the center.” “Then get her out! We can’t hold them back much longer apparently!” Cheerilee shouted, and the pegasus launched off. I really hope this works… … Trixie looked up as she sensed Grick suddenly stiffened around her. “What?! What’s happening now?” “I’m not ssure… ssomething new iss coming…” Grick was interrupted by a jasmine blur that shot past his head, clipping him hard enough to knock his golden cap clear off. He hissed in anger and leaned to track her, when a grey form came at him from the side. Ditzy knocked him with her hooves as she shot past and rose straight up before he could react. He spun his head around like an owl after her, which was when Raindrops came around again and knocked him from behind as she passed. Trixie’s heart leapt into her throat at the sight of her friends at long last, but concern for them quickly outweighed her joy. What are they doing? The two of them swooped in again and again, always coming in from a different direction than before, but they didn’t seem to be trying to accomplish anything. Grick had begun swiveling his body in anticipation of their attacks and was slowly rising up to meet them. Her friends were doing their best to avoid his claws for now, but it seemed like only a matter of time if they didn’t do something different. And something was odd with the way Ditzy was flying… Her train of thought was interrupted by a shifting of the ground beneath her hooves. A large dirt dog with bluish fur popped out from a hole that hadn’t been there a moment before and held a paw over his mouth in the universal sign of be quiet now! Trixie realized that Grick, in his eagerness to catch the two flying aggressors, had all his attention focused in the air and wasn’t watching her at all. The dog grabbed her about the barrel and pulled her down into the hole it had popped out from. Or at least it tried to. At the last second Grick’s tail lashed out and wrapped around her back legs tighter than a vise. For a painful few seconds Trixie was pulled in both directions like the rope in a terrible tug of war, and then Grick’s claw shot past her face and grabbed a handful of the dog’s fur just behind its head. Grick pulled the big dog out of the hole like it weighed nothing and tossed it out and away with the same motion. “That’s not going to work!” Grick roared, clutching Trixie tight to his chest and slithering away from the dog. Several of the nearby salamanders turned and lashed out at the dirt dog, but it quickly disappeared straight down into the earth in a cloud of grit. Grick held her close and swung his head in every direction, looking for more threats. “Don’t worry, I won’t let thosse creaturess get their filthy pawss on you. Sslaverss and worsse, the whole lot of them.” “Thanks for caring,” Trixie said, “but my friends seem to be with them, so I think I’ll be joining their side anyway.” The salamander paused at her tone and looked down at her, which was when Trixie reached up with her unbound hooves, gripped him tightly, and slammed her forehead into his. Grick reared back, dropping the blue unicorn from his senseless claws. Trixie landed hard, cradling her own head tightly and peering up at him between her clenched eyelids. He wavered for a few seconds, then slowly collapsed backwards over himself and lay still. Trixie rose unsteadily, her cramped limbs barely supporting her as she pressed one hoof over the bruise she could already feel forming on her temple. “Nobody wins with a head butt…” she muttered, then shook her head to clear most of the pain and galloped towards the nearest boulder. … Carrot Top bucked the nearest salamander as hard as she could; catching it under the chin and lifting it clear off the ground and into the air. The creature sailed back over the top of the boulder and landed back in the middle of the swarm. She paused to catch her breath, but two more salamanders were already clawing their way up the boulder. From her spot she could see the snakes were nearly to the top of all the rocks, although the diamond dogs’ spears had so far managed to keep them from escaping the circle just yet. “Now, Lyra! Give the signal to roll!” Carrot Top shouted down at her friend. Lyra nodded and plucked out a simple string of notes on her lyre. The music echoed around the cavern and at the sound the dogs bracing the boulders dropped down and grabbed the rocks near the bottom. At the same time, all the boulders were spun in place, pressing against each other to keep from rolling any further forward. Carrot Top kept her place by running backwards, but the two salamanders crawling up towards her weren’t prepared for the sudden motion. They barely managed to leap clear before they got carried under the heavy stones. Carrot Top scanned the mess of confusion below her, finally catching sight of what she’d been desperately hoping to see. “Trixie, this way!” she shouted, trying to catch the unicorn’s attention. Seeing her friend turn towards her, she hoped down from the boulder and shook the nearest dog she could find. “Pull out a path! Our friend is coming this way!” The dogs shrugged and gripped the two nearest boulders, pulling them back just enough for a pony to slip in between. A salamander tried to take advantage of the gap, but the dogs’ spears kept the thing at bay. Then Trixie was in the gap, squeezing past the salamander and ducking under the spears. She slammed into Carrot Top and Lyra and the three of them hugged each other tightly for a moment, just glad to be together again. “Thank you.” Trixie said simply, squeezing them tightly. “Don’t mention it.” Carrot Top replied, tears of relief in her eyes. “We’re not out of the frying pan yet!” Lyra said, pulling back from them. Dispite her words she just couldn’t wipe the huge grin from her face. She lifted her lyre and played out the signal that Trixie was clear. But just as the notes faded away, the two nearest boulders were enveloped in a blue aura and lifted clear off the ground. “Trixie? What are you doing?” Carrot Top asked, pulling her friend away from the rising boulders. For the first time she noticed that Trixie was barely standing on her own and she lifted her halfway onto her back to carry her better. “That’s not me. It’s…” Trixie was interrupted at the two rocks suddenly were hurled away from the stone circle. Dogs scattered everywhere to get out from their path as they slammed into the caverns walls hard enough to shatter the boulders into fragments. From the sudden gap in the walls slithered a large salamander covered in golden jewelry. One of the creature’s claws was buried in her necklaces and the other three were held out to the sides, glowing with cackling blue auras. “… trouble.” Trixie finished, and then Maralith attacked. … “The wall'ss down! Presss forward!” Behir shouted, urging the soldiers to swarm the gap the High Priestess had created. He didn’t know what those musical notes had been, but they must have been a signal for something. This trap was already more than anything the filthy dogs had ever tried before and it disturbed him greatly that they’d been caught in it so easily. The sooner he was out of this stone ring, the easier he’d breathe. With the ring breached, they could… His plans were interrupted as the ground beneath his coils suddenly dropped away. Acting on instinct more than thought, he launched himself at the nearest boulder and sank his claws into the stone. Fortunately the boulders had stopped rolling, and Behir looked back at what was happening in the center of the ring. The dogs must have been lying in wait under the ground because the crevasse had suddenly been reopened, dropping the trapped salamanders back down into the waiting lava below. So they don’t plan to fight us after all, just toss us out of the caves. Behir’s revelation was interrupted by the sight of a familiar crystal object slipping down the side of the crevasse, the four salamanders who’d been in charge of it having been swept away and already fallen into the river. “NO!” Behir screamed, diving from his perch in a panic. He collided with the hourglass in midair and twisted, wrapping his tail tightly around the artifact. He stretched as far as he could and dug his claws into the rock wall, barely slowing his descent. The hourglass swung in his grip only a few feet above the lava. “I won’t accept failure!” Behir gasped through his clenched teeth, the strain of holding onto the heavy artifact nearly too much to bear. Slowly, ever so slowly, he started to inch his way back up the cliff wall. … “That’s the signal. Come on!” Raindrops shouted, flying straight up. Ditzy nodded and looked one last time at the chaos around them. Those last few notes meant that Trixie was safe and it was time to push the salamanders back into the underground lava. Ditzy knew that their part was to fly up and start breaking apart the stalactites to drop on them, but she just had to see Trixie first. The stress was really starting to break through her resolve, but seeing her friend would help tremendously. She gasped as she finally spotted Trixie, with the leader of the salamanders bearing down on her. “No, Trixie! I’m coming!” she shouted, not noticing that Raindrops had already vanished into the stalactites above. Ditzy dived down towards the gap, hoping to come at the big salamander from behind and distract her somehow. If Ditzy had been thinking more clearly, she’d have remembered that this same tactic hadn’t worked before. If she’d been paying closer attention to what was happening around her, she might have noticed that the salamander was all alone and that Trixie wasn’t. But Ditzy wasn’t thinking very clearly at the moment. Her fear had transformed into tunnel vision, narrowing down her focus into what was right in front of her. And so she didn’t even notice that she was flying too close to the ground until the scaled arms reached up and dragged her out of the air. Ditzy screamed in panic as the salamander’s tail wrapped round her wings and pinned them to her sides. The creature pulled her up against the wall where she was hiding and clamped a claw over her mouth, silencing her before she could draw any more attention. The serpent leaned forward and grinned evilly at her captive. “I guesss one hosstage iss much like another.” Ravid whispered. “Anything to get me out of here ssafely…” … “You won’t escape me!” Maralith shouted, swinging her arms around in a wide arc. All around her, dogs were lifted up in blue auras and tosses every which way, landing in growing heaps against the walls. Trixie didn’t think she’d noticed yet that nearly all of her army had fallen into the crevasse behind her, but Maralith was proving to be too much of an opponent for the dirt digs on her own. “Since when could she do that?” Lyra shouted, backing up so that she was next to her friends. “Don’t let her touch you!” Trixie warned, groaning as she pushed away from Carrot Top and tried to stand straight. “She can steal your magic right out of you with a pendant around her neck. Fortunately for us, she doesn’t have a lot of self-control and she’ll probably just attack head on.” “Predictable, am I?” Maralith hissed, locking her eyes on the three of them and smiling widely. Her claws glowed brightly and she faded from sight. Trixie gasped, instantly recognizing her personal invisibility spell. “Did you think that all I could do wass take power?” the High Priestess’s mocked, her voice seeming to come from everywhere. “My pendant givess me accesss to all your pretty little sspellss. And you have quite a few interessting oness, don’t you? You musst have sspent yearss learning them all and now you will ssee each and every one of them ussed againsst you! I can’t wait to ssee the terror on you face…” “Lyra, she’s right over there.” Trixie said, pointing just a little to the side of the mint unicorn. Lyra immediately spun and bucked the indicated spot and Maralith reappeared, landing solidly on her back and clutching her midriff in pain. “H-how…” she managed. “First, I can see through my own invisibility spell.” Trixie said. “Second, if you are invisible, you shouldn’t talk so much!” Lyra continued, sounding like she was implying something else. Trixie graciously ignored the imagined subtext. “Get the pendent away from her, before she-” There was a blinding flash of light and Trixie reeled back, shielding her eyes. Gah! Should have expected that… Now, she isn’t smart enough to be very clever, so she’s coming up behind me right… now! Trixie spun around and squinted, meeting the surprised salamander’s charge with her horn right as Marilith dove upon her. The pain of the impact drove both of them to the ground, Trixie just barely doing better than her opponent. Carrot Top took the opportunity to slam Marilith in the head, driving her away from the two of them. In a flash there were half a dozen copies of the High Priestess spreading out in every direction, but Trixie just sighed and blearily tracked the one which kept looking over her shoulder at the others. Clearly merely have access to her spells didn’t translate into knowing how to use them properly. Fortunately for her splitting head, she wasn’t the only one who’d spotted the real one. “There! That one!” Cheerilee shouted, leaping over the nearest prone and groaning dog. The dirt dog in the red vest leapt off her back and swung his stone weapon, catching Marilith across the chest. More than a few of the delicate golden chains about her neck snapped as she flopped hard onto her back with a strangled scream. “WHY!” Marilith choked out, scrambling back and letting the illusions fade. “WHY DOESN’T ANYTHING WORK?!” “Because you’re not actually very good at this.” Trixie said, as her friends and the dogs closed in on the Priestess. “And no hack could ever match the original!” Marilith swiveled, realizing for the first time how outnumbered she actually was. She waved her arms and the air was suddenly filled with a rain of falling rocks, but the illusion was barely half-formed and easily seen through. Whatever power she had drained was clearly running out. But the illusion lasted just long enough for Marilith to slip out from the closing circle of enemies and slither at top speed back towards the crevasse and escape. … No! Ditzy thought as the salamander dragged her towards the crevasse in the ground. This can’t be happening! It can’t! “Sstop sstrugling!” Ravid hissed as they reached the edge of the pit. “If you attract the attention of thosse creaturess I sswear… hello, what’ss thisss?” She stopped as a scaled arm pulled up over the lip in front of her, straining to find purchase. She leaned over the side and stared right into Behir’s face as he clung to the wall, fighting to hold up the weight of the hourglass on his own. “Ravid?” he wheezed, nearly out of breath. “Hurry, give me a hand here. I don’t know where all the other ssoldierss are, but I can’t hold it much longer…” “Oh? But what will you give me for my help?” Ravid cooed, holding tightly to the thrashing pegasus and making no move to her comrade. “What?!” Behir spat. “You’re being like that now?! We’re under attack, you fool! Everything we’ve done sso far will be for nothing if you don’t HELP ME-” “Let go of her!” Both salamanders looked up at the shout to see Raindrops descending upon them from above, riding down an enormous stalactite she’d broken off the ceiling. She slammed the stone pillar into the ground between them, smashing it into a thousand pieces flying in every direction. Ravid launched herself backwards at the last moment, avoiding the worst of it but still taking plenty of stone slivers across the face and arms. Behir roared in panic and scrambled to find purchase as the ground crumbled beneath him. With a burst of strength he hefted his arm up and snagged Raindrops’s hind leg as she shot past in pursuit of Ditzy’s captor. Raindrops struggled in his grip, unable to escape his tight grip and losing the battle to remain airborne. Slowly the two of them fell back down over the edge towards the waiting lava below. Seeing her friend dragged away flipped Ditzy over the edge into blind panic. She writhed like a wild pony, thrashing against Ravid’s clutched with strength born of pure terror. First one, then two of her legs slipped out and wailed upon the salamander, who couldn’t keep up with her wild attacks. “Why you, sstop that! Do you know who I-” She was interrupted as one of Ditzy’s hooves caught her in the mouth hard enough to smash several of her teeth clear out. Ravid screamed and threw the pegasus away, clutching her mouth and rolling on the ground in pain. Ditzy didn’t even spare her a backwards glance as flew out and over the edge of the crevasse. The only thoughts filling her head were ‘get away’ and ‘my friend is in danger’. She shot straight down and dived towards her friend, who was straining to remain aloft with all that extra weight. Raindrops only had time to gasp in surprise as Ditzy grabbed her about the forelegs and arced back up, the speed she had come in at temporarily swinging the three of them up easily against gravity like a pendulum. Even still, Ditzy only barely managed to get herself and Raindrops high enough to clear the far edge of the pit when they reached it. Behir wasn’t so lucky. Holding tight onto Raindrops’s legs, he slammed back first into the stone wall hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs. He managed to let go of her legs and grab weakly at the stone as the feeling left his extremities, barely holding himself up in the tiny crater his impact had created. Released of the weight, the two ponies spun end over end and crashed against the nearest boulder in a heap. “What the… Ditzy! Are you alright?!” Raindrops exclaimed, rolling out onto her hooves and checking over her friend for injuries. “Just… tired…” Ditzy gasped, blinking through the sweat and dirt half covering her face. “I’m glad… you’re… safe…” Raindrops grinned from ear to ear, but a bloodcurdling scream cut her off before she could answer. She turned to see the big salamander with four arms screaming in fury as she sped up to the crevasse and launched herself over the side as fast as she was able. Wondering what was happening now, Raindrops lifted Ditzy onto her shoulder and stepped up to the ledge. The shock of the impact had finally caused Behir to lose his grip on the hourglass. It tumbled end over end against the wall, bouncing out into the air over the flowing lava below. Marilith screamed as she fell towards it, straining to reach it with every fiber of her being. She almost made it too. Mere seconds before her outstretched talon was going to touch the artifact, it splashing into the molten lava. Cracks spider-webbed all over the glass surface from the heat and impact, and the wooden casing went up like a torch. Marilith slammed into it a moment later and the entire structure of the hourglass bent and broke open, exposing the sands inside. There was a blinding flash of light and a scream like the winds roaring over an endless desert, and suddenly a swirling vortex shot up out of the crevasse. The golden tornado spun like a chaotic top, seeming to pull at everything around it without generating any wind at all. The top of it slammed into the ceiling of the cavern and started ripping bits of it apart. Stones and other debris that were unfortunate enough to get caught in the vortex vanished immediately to… somewhere. They just suddenly weren’t there anymore, though Raindrops couldn’t see anyplace they could have gone. Just as Raindrops was about to move back from the pit to a safer place, the tornado vanished as if it had never been there. The entire cavern seemed to hold its breath in the sudden stillness, as if waiting for the tempest to return again. Straight down, right where the vortex had been centered, a clean hole cut straight down through the lava to the bottom of the river bed below. A single bright pearl attached to a charred cord lay in the middle of the circle. Of Marilith and the hourglass, there was no other sign. Then time seemed to reset itself and the lava flowed forward again, closing in the circle and burying the pearl from sight. Behir blinked and seemed to come to his senses all at once, looking around at the scattered forces around him. “Retreat!” He leaped off the edge and all around the cavern the other salamanders followed suit, diving down into the molten river below. Ravid glared pure hatred at the two ponies from across the gap before following the others. The salamanders submerged and the lava swelled a little as they swam away against the current, disappearing through a cliff in the stone wall. Raindrops dropped tiredly to her haunches and breathed a deep sigh of relief, too exhausted by events to do more at the moment. “It’s over.” She said, and for the moment, it was.