//------------------------------// // Ch 8: Silver // Story: The Trials // by Zee //------------------------------// "If we do become elite guards, what do you think would be in store for us, first?" Echo asked the group. Side by side, she walked with the other two ponies as they trekked through the dark tunnel. "Well, there's initiation," Night Watch suggested, smirking, "That's a myth, and that's false," Mosina retorted from the middle of the three. "I heard one mare couldn't walk for days." "What about the incursions?” Echo asked, ignoring Night Watch's remarks. “The Princesses have been running all around the kingdom taking care of those." "Of course. And that would mean we would have to be by their side," Mosina added. "Feh, you guys are no fun." They all chuckled. As the group walked, the walls continued to gradually fan outwards, slightly. Eventually, the girls found themselves able to outstretch their wings, easily. "How long have we been at it, now?" Night Watch asked. "I'd say a little over an hour and a half, now," Echo guessed. "I wish we had some sort of watch," Mosina said, quietly. They continued to walk in silence, until out of the darkness, strange, stringy-like substances began to hang from the ceiling. The bat ponies kept their gazes upwards as the concentration of the strands of white thickened. Eventually, it became so thick that they stuck together and hugged the walls. "Webs..." Echo whispered, uneasily. She cast a quick glance to the other two, noticing their uncomfortable looks. "Sh-should we turn back? Maybe we aren't ready for this," Mosina suggested. "I say we continue. Didn't come this far for nothing," Night Watch premised, shrugging. "She's right. Let's just continue, and if there's something we can't handle, we'll head back," Echo asserted. The other two nodded, the tension seeming to have been lifted a bit. Mosina gave an abrupt gasp, having stepped on a web. The ceiling, walls and floor were now covered in webs. "Th-this isn't really to capture prey," Mosina stammered, shakily. "It's to help the spiders move around quicker." Night Watch gave a sigh. "I suppose that means we're up for a figh—" She cut off, noticing the hallway finally spanning out into a large room, the light from their crystals bathing its entirety. Every surface was covered with webs. "Should we turn ba—" Mosina was cut off as two large stones, hanging from the ceiling, unfurled several long legs and landed on the ground. Immediately, all three of the bat ponies drew their weapons. Mosina and Night Watch pointed their spears forwards, the silvery blade of Night Watch's reaching out further than Mosina's. Echo couldn't help but pass a glance to the gleaming weapon and its thin, long blade. She snapped to attention after hearing another two thuds. Two more rock spiders joined the firs two, each of them giving out watery hisses. "It's only four of them," Night Watch muttered. "We can take them." "Right," Mosina breathed, mustering fighting stance. Echo cracked her neck and gave a swing of her sword. The four spiders kept their distance, wary of Mosina and Night's spears, who were flanking Echo. "Their skin is made of rock," Echo told the others. "The only soft spot the mouth, between the fangs!" “Yeah!” Night Watch cried, lunging forward. She aimed her thrust towards one of the spiders, but it dodged to the side. She sliced her spear towards another, but that one jumped over the blade and towards her. It collided with her face, but she quickly threw it off and across the room, running to chase after it. Another spider lunged towards Mosina who quickly batted it away with her spear. The two of them circled each other, looking for an opening. The final two spiders quickly skittered towards Echo, who swung her sword to try and dissuade her attackers. One leaped at her, but it smashed into the plate armour of her ride side. It bounced off, but that allowed the other one to come up from her front. “Gah!” She sliced at it, swinging her blade through air before the spider met her face. It wrestled her with its front legs, gripping onto her neck and attempted to pull its fangs towards her. Echo sliced diagonally, hacking off one of its legs. At the other side of the room, Night Watch sliced fiercely at her spider, only for it to hop out of the way. It tried to leap at her, but met the butt end of her spear, sending it sprawling across the floor. “Hrrgh!” Night Watch leaped, giving a loud grunt as she smashed her spear downwards at it. The spider tried to dodge, but couldn't get out of the way fast enough. In a brilliant display of bright blue sparks, the long blade of Night Watch's spear sliced through all four of its right legs. She paused, caught off guard from the bright effect, and at how easily her blade minced through the rocky hide. The spider squirmed, helpless without half of its legs. "Grraah!" Night Watch roared, thrusting her spear through the entire body of the decapitated spider. In another display of blue sparks, the silver blade of the spear pierced the rocky body with ease. Echo continued to wrestle with the spider latching onto her front. She tried to swing her blade, but the tight grip of the spider's front legs prevented her from moving her neck. Placing her front hooves on the spider's body, she tried to pry it off of her, but couldn't. It tried to thrust its fangs forward, but her hooves forced it back. "Echo!" a call came from nearby. Off to the side, Mosina watched Echo through the corner of her eye while keeping her own spider at bay. She tried to make a sprint to help her, but the spider blocked her path. It lunged, but she jabbed back, forcing it to keep its distance. They circled each other, locked in a stalemate. "Haah!" Echo cried, the second spider jumping onto her back. She tried to buck with her hind hooves, but it held tightly. "Help!" she tried to call out, hammering the spider in front of her with her front hooves to no avail. That was until she felt a pair of sharp, wet fangs dig into the back of her neck. "Aaaugh!" Echo screamed, her front hooves relenting a bit. Venomous liquid injected into the back of her neck, and she could feel it burn into her flesh immediately. Her strength weakened severely, and the spider in front of her took the opportunity to overpower her. However, before it could sink its fangs into her front, it exploded in a flash of blue sparks. The blade of Night Watch's spear decapitated its head, nearly missing Echo's own. The mangled spider fell to the ground, limp. Twirling her spear above her, Night Watch brought it down for another angled slice towards the spider on Echo's back. It sliced it in half with another explosion of blue sparks, sending it flying across the room in pieces. Mosina looked up from the spider underneath her hooves, her own spear impaling it through the mouth. She pulled her weapon out and rushed over to Echo quickly. The venom quickly overtook her body, and Echo slumped to the floor in a twitching mess. "G... gah..." she muttered, her lungs out of breath. Her eyes were clenched tight while she fought the pain. Two large holes were embedded into the back of her neck, and her coat was slick with sweat. "Echo!" Mosina screamed, landing beside her on the floor. "Quick, her saddlebags!" Night Watch demanded. Mosina quickly undid Echo's left saddlebag, pulling out one of the glass flasks. She unscrewed the cap and forced the flask into Echo's mouth, who just continued to twitch. "Tilt her head back, she's in shock!" Night Watch ordered. Mosina promptly did so, forcing the red liquid down Echo's throat. Echo gagged, but accepted the healing potion willingly. Almost immediately, her eyes shot open, and her twitching lessened. Eventually, she accepted the flask into her own hooves and drank it eagerly. Her breathing steadied and the twitching slowed to a stop, until she finished the potion entirely. Mosina and Night Watch stared, their eyes full of concern. "Echo, are you alright?” Mosina asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Can you talk?" "Y... yeah... guh..." Echo breathed, wiping her sweaty brow with a hoof. "I think I need to rest a bit..." Mosina nodded, smiling. "We can rest. We've had a long walk, anyways." "I'm exhausted... I think the pain is almost completely gone.” Echo sighed. “Those potions work fast." Night Watch dropped her spear and sat, pulling her weapon close. "You gave us a scare," she said, simply. "Yeah, well, it was really painful. I couldn't do anything—not even breathe, or open my eyes." "It's alright, now. Just rest," Mosina reassured. "I think that was the half-empty flask." She confirmed by searching through Echo's bags and pulling out the full flask. "I guess that means a half-potion can heal most wounds," Night Watch chimed in. "I guess so. Though, I don't like that you had to be the guinea pig, sort of," Mosina ponited out. Echo laughed. Night Watch examined her spear, showing a particular fascination to the blade. "This isn't ordinary steel," she mused, earning a glance from the other two. "What do you mean?" Mosina asked with a curious expression. Night Watch stood up on her hind legs, taking the spear in her front hooves. "It sliced through those spiders like butter when it shouldn't have," she said, casting a glance to one of the corpses. "And when it came into contact with them, I could feel it almost drive itself through." "Magic?" Mosina guessed. "Probably. I guess this spear has some sort of special power," Night Watch agreed. Suddenly, she raised her spear and sliced at a nearby spider corpse. Mosina and Echo watched in awe as blue sparks erupted from the blade on contact with the corpse. After the sparks died out, the corpse was in half with Night Watch's spear in the middle. "Very interesting. And the blade isn't wearing?" Mosina suggested. Night Watch brought the blade in close to examine it. "No, nothing. Though, this was only our first fight with it." "Well, with rocks for targets, you'd expect some damage," Mosina said. She stood up and walked towards Night Watch, the two of them examining every inch of the weapon. Echo felt weak and unable to move; the powerful venom probably cancelled out the energy boost that the healing potion gave. Giving a deep sigh, she scanned the room, only to see nothing but white spider webs covering every surface. Curiously, there were some protrusions in the webs that could have been hidden objects or rocks, underneath. "Hey, guys. Maybe there is loot in the room?" she asked. Mosina and Night Watch looked up at Echo. "Maybe a chest was buried under the webs, somewhere." The other two then curiously scanned the room. "Huh. Perhaps," Night Watch said, suddenly interested. Mosina and her picked up their spears and began to walk around the room, looking for large protrusions in the webs. Night Watch stopped before an oval shape as large as her and sliced through its webs, only to find a large rock underneath. Mosina did the same to another, only to come to another rock. Echo watched the two intently, too tired to get up, herself. For several minutes, they continued to cut through webs until Mosina's spear hit something that sounded like metal. "Here! I think I found something!" she called out. She pulled away the webs while Night Watch rushed over to help, their efforts revealing a dull, metal surface. They hacked away at the remaining webs until the form of a large, metal chest revealed. It seemed to be nearly as large as the two bat ponies, combined. "What is it?" Echo called out. Mosina walked in front of the chest, putting her hooves beneath the heavy lid. After a little struggle, Night Watch came in and helped her shove it off of the chest. It slid to the floor with a loud clang, but the two bat ponies stared wide eyed at the chest's contents. Resting flat on top of what seemed to be a black leather cuirass was a long, silver straight sword. Its hilt was decorated with ornate embroidery, which extended with a wavy, silver vine down the blade. Underneath Night Watch's light crystal, it shone brilliantly into their awe-struck faces. "Wow... that's beautiful..." Mosina said, quietly. "I think it's similar to my spear," Night Watch said, holding up her weapon to compare. Side by side, the two blades seemed to be made out of the same silvery metal, and had the same style of embroidery. "Echo, I think we've found you a new weapon."