Gordon woke suddenly, jerking awake in a huge, gasping breath.
“Not another bat! I hate bats. I’m going to—“ Gordon began, ranting at the air around him. “—Oh.”
“Well, looks like I don’t have to wake everyone up now. Anyway, the last watch just finished. Hope you had a nice nap, Gordon.” Shephard said from his position behind Gordon.
“Yeah. Ugh, my head.” Gordon replied, shaking the aforementioned anatomical structure. “How’s Rainbow?”
“She’s awake, and actually wants a word with you.” Shephard stated, a peculiar tone just at the fringes of his voice. Gordon would have sworn it was amusement, but he pushed the thought to the side, instead getting up and looking about the room.
The room had changed drastically since Gordon had fallen asleep. A few small tents had popped up in the relatively tiny room, taking up most of the floor. Each one reminded Gordon of Rarity’s humungous tent, but in décor only. Upon a closer inspection, it was discovered that it was Rarity’s same tent, just cut into four smaller ones. Signs by entrances told Gordon who slept where. Rarity was with Applejack, Twilight with Fluttershy, Pinkie with Rainbow, and Barney with Shephard.
“How come I was forced to sleep in the cold, eh Shephard?” Gordon mocked, walking towards Rainbow and Pinkie’s tent.
“Only because we couldn’t move your fat ass, Gordon.” Shephard parried.
“Touché.” Gordon said, ending the verbal sparring. He ‘knocked’ on the tent ‘door,’ a motion that consisted of a few slams of his gloved hand against his leg. “Hey, you guys awake?”
“Of course we are, Silly!” a certain fuchsia mare said, bounding out of a small bucket behind Gordon.
“GAAH. Don’t do that. Why don’t you go comfort the laws of physics, crying in the corner? I mean seriously, you’ve broken them so many times, it’s a wonder they haven’t fallen to pieces yet.” Gordon shrieked, before calming down.
“Oh, I hurt somepony? Where are they? Did you guys see them?” Pinkie said, looking at an empty wall of the room.
“Who are you talking too?” Gordon asked, confused.
“You wouldn’t understand. Just go talk to Rainbow.” Pinkie replied.
“No. I want to kn—“ Gordon started, only to be interrupted by a loud chorus of ‘GET ON WITH ITs’ echoing from the gaping maw of Pinkie. Gordon shut up, turned around, and decided to get on with it.
He walked into the surprisingly large tent-space, noticing that this was the ‘room’ he had used when they first slept in the tent. As he looked at the semi-familiar furnishings, he noticed a lump on one of the small couches. Gordon moved closer, having seen the shock of rainbow-colored hair that adorned the right of the blanketed lump.
“How are we feeling this morning?” Gordon asked, trying to adopt the best doctor-y tone he could.
“Like someone shoved a red-hot crowbar into my back!” replied a disgruntled Rainbow Dash.
“Would you rather have bled to death?” Gordon quipped.
“It would have been less painful.”
“If this is the thanks I get for saving your life, I’ll leave you behind, and let whatever alien creatures that comes by take care of you.”
“Whatever. If I didn’t have this wound, I’d totally take on all of those baddies.”
“…” Gordon stopped for a moment, holding back his laughter. “Right.” He said in his best Doctor Evil impersonation.
A pause followed, lengthening into an uncomfortably awkward silence. Finally, Rainbow broke the silence.
“Look, thank you. I still don’t like your methods, but I’m still here. I’m just so frustrated that I’m the weak link here. I’m slowing all of you down. You don’t know how it feels to go from the fast lane to this.” She said, pointing her right fore-hoof at the bandages on her back.
“You’d be surprised.” Gordon replied. The conversation lapsed again, the previous awkwardness disappearing in a puff of good intentions.
Finally, Gordon broke the quiet lull that had crept up on them. “Are you feeling up to moving? We shouldn’t stay in one place for too long.”
“Yeah.”
Gordon exited the tent, soon followed by a slowly limping Rainbow. Her face was screwed up in an expression of pain, although the fiery determination outshone her grimace.
Outside, the group had packed up the other tents, and were sitting in a circle, chatting. In the center, a small plate of cupcakes sat, with a punchbowl next to it, filled almost to the brim.
Pinkie jumped up from the circle, running over to them. She bucked the tent, causing it to collapse into a small square, and then bounced in front of Rainbow and Gordon.
“Yippee! We can start now. I got a small party together for a ‘Get Well, and Raise our Spirits’ fiesta!” Pinkie said, barely containing her excitement.
Gordon grinned, a bemused glint entering his eyes. Rainbow rolled her eyes, before letting Pinkie gingerly drag her towards the circle. Gordon walked over and sat down next to Shephard and Barney.
The whole group slowly began to eat the cupcakes, some with smiles, others with frowns, and all of them filled with internal worry.
Rainbow ate her cupcake slowly, biting off small pieces before swallowing them painfully. After each bite, she took a drag from her cup of punch.
Gordon cast a worried glance across at her, before shaking his head and looking down at his own punch. He took a sip, before practically chugging the cup. Whatever was in it, it made Gordon feel suddenly awake and energetic.
“What is this stuff?” Gordon asked Pinkie.
“Well, I had originally wanted to get some Jugger-Nog, but the recipe required some things that I didn’t have. So I just made some Invigor-Aid, a concoction I mixed myself.” Pinkie said.
“… Right.” Gordon replied, trying not to think about what may be in the punch.
After the group finally finished the small pile of cupcakes and the newly-dubbed Invigor-Aid, Gordon urged them to their feet, packing up the last of their supplies into the saddlebags of the ponies.
“Right. This is how this will play out.” Shephard said, falling back on his training. “Me, Gordon and Barney will go through that door and clear the area. Then you will follow, with Rainbow in the mid—“
He was interrupted by the creaking of the door, and a mysterious lack of a certain orange-suited man.
“Nothing’s here!” Gordon shouted back, having become impatient with Shephard’s mission plan.
“Damnit Gordon. How did you manage to defeat most of the army when you do stupid things like that?” Shephard complained.
“Luck. And skill. Pure badass skill.” Gordon quipped back.
Shephard rolled his eyes, visible from the green backlight of his newly-donned mask. “Whatever.”
The group continued forward into the next area, reaching a fork in the tunnel. Shephard argued with Gordon about which way to go, until it was decided to take the right fork.
Just as they were about to go forward, however, Rainbow suddenly cried out. They rushed to her side, but were persuaded to go forward while she recovered. Pinkie opted to stay with her while the group scouted ahead.
“Pinkie, you know how to use a knife, right?” Shephard asked her before they set out.
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” She replied.
Stepping forward, Shephard slid his knife from its sheath. “It’s dangerous to stay alone. Take this. Use it to defend yourself if anything pops out of the darkness. We will be right back.”
“O-ok. Pinkie replied, eyeing the combat knife with a strange expression.
The group continued forward, searching through the right hallway. However, a huge CRACK split the air, followed by resounding thuds. The ceiling caved in, cutting the group off from Pinkie and Rainbow.
“Omygoshomygoshohmygosh!” Rainbow said, dragging herself to her feet and stumbling over to the freshly created wall. The lights overhead flickered, most of them going out in a flash of sparks.
“It looks like we’re on our own, Rainbow Dasssshhh.” Pinkie said, a weird lilt entering her voice. Rainbow turned around, eyes straining to peer through the darkness.
“Pinkie, are you ok?” She asked, concern in her voice.
“Yeah, I’m fine Dashie,” Pinkie said in that same tone, “I’m just so glad we can play!”
“Pinkie, your scaring me,” Rainbow said, backing into the circle cast by the remaining light source in the small T-junction, “It’s, haha, it’s a good prank, you got me.”
“There is no prank,” Pinkie said, stepping into the light, “I just want to play.” Her hair had fallen down straight, instead of its normal poofyness. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, and a gigantic, creepy smile covered her muzzle. The combat knife was in her hooves.
“Pinkie?” Rainbow said, her voice small with fear.
“Oh, no no no. I’m not Pinkie. Or rather, I am, but She doesn’t know about me. It’s kind of ironic, really. It was you and the rest of my friends who dragged me out. My name’s Pinkemena.” She said, tilting her head to an impossible angle. “I’ve waited so long for this moment.”
She suddenly lunged forward, the knife going from a loose hold to an offensive position. Rainbow dodged to the left, crying out and collapsing when she landed on her injured side. Pinkemena stepped forward, her free hoof seeking out Rainbow’s wing.
She roughly grabbed it, twisting in a painful manner, almost to the breaking point.
“It would be such a shame if some monster came from the depths, killing you before I could react. Your mutilated body will have disappeared, and I will have some more materials for my Invigor-Aid. It’s too bad that Trixie and Derpy didn’t have enough in them to make more than a punchbowl of it.”
“Pinkie, AAHHHH, please. Stop.” Rainbow said, her high-pitched speech interrupted by her sobs and cries of pain. Mercifully, Pinkemena let go, taking a step back from Rainbow. Then, she raised the knife in a high, two-hoof overhanded position.
“It’s going to be such a pleasure to cut you…” Pinkemena began, while Rainbow closed her eyes. She braced for the end, wishing for the pain to stop.
“… a piece of cupcake!” Pinkie said, her voice its normal, bubbly self. Rainbow shot up and backed away quickly, her injured back slamming into the wall behind her. As her eyes watered with pain, she saw that the lights had come back on, and that the rest of the group was coming around the uncollapsed corner. Pinkie sat in the middle of the junction, a confused, hurt expression on her face as she held the combat knife over a cupcake on a plate. Her hair was poofy, and her face lacked any of the crazed, bloodshot look of Pinkemena.
“Am I going insane?” Rainbow asked herself as the group fully entered the area.
“We got the power back on!” Gordon announced, “And I think we found the exit.”
“YAY!” Pinkie shouted, dropping the knife and bouncing over to the group. “I don’t like these dark tunnels full of meanie-pants.”
“Well, he meant the exit of this area. I’m not so sure about the mines themselves,” Twilight said.
“Oh,” Pinkie’s face fell, her hair dropping to its straight position and causing Rainbow to hold her breath, before it popped back into its poofyness once more. “Well, I guess we can hold an extra-special party when we get out of here!”
“Okay, Rainbow, okay. If there is no proof of the hallucination, then that’s all it is. Right? Don’t fool yourself. Shut up. No, you shut up. Wait. Didn’t Twilight say answering yourself is the first step to insanity? Breathe, Rainbow. You’re okay.” Rainbow said, muttering to herself and trying not to hyperventilate.
Gordon, oblivious to Rainbow’s troubles, urged the group forward and into the only open tunnel. It led into a small corridor, with locked doors along each side. Eventually, they passed an open door, which led into an electrical/magical fuse and generator room, although Gordon and Barney only understood the electrical part.
They passed that room, continuing on to the end of the hallway, which opened up into a small area with a red ladder leading upwards.
“This may seem like an obvious question,” Barney said suddenly, “But how the hell are these ponies going to climb up the ladder? Hell, why are there even ladders in a pony-built area?”
“Well,” Twilight said, “We can climb ladders, it’s just not as easy for us. I don’t know about Rainbow, though.”
“Hey, I can climb this. It’s E Z.” Rainbow retorted, and began to climb the ladder. Only to fall back down and into Gordon’s waiting arms.
“Owww….” She moaned into his armored pauldron.
“I’ll carry her.” Gordon said to the group. They nodded, at which point Gordon began to swing up the ladder one-armed. He was followed by Barney, then the ponies, and finally Shephard.
The next area they entered had a long hallway, which led to a closed double door. The group rushed forward, eager to escape the hellhole called Mareia. However, the three humans suddenly stopped, completely and utterly frozen. The ponies turned back in confusion, wondering what was wrong.
Unbeknownst to them, and soon to be forgotten by the humans, a ‘Loading…’ Icon appeared in the center of each of their visions.
“What’s wrong now?” Twilight asked the ether. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t answer back.