//------------------------------// // Deeper Still // Story: Marabian Knights // by silvershad0 //------------------------------// Supplies gathered and bellies full, the group set out on the southward dirt road for Port Sarim near noontime.  Each now wore a heavy robe over their normal attire, courtesy once again of the grateful townsponies. “Ugh, so tell me again why we have to wear these bulky things while traveling through the desert?” Vinyl whined as she tried to readjust the hood so as to not mess up her spiky mane underneath. “They’ll help to shade us from the sun during the day and keep us from freezing during the night,” Redheart answered.  “They may be a little heavy, but as long as we keep a slow, steady pace we should be fine.” “It was really nice of them to custom make one for me, too,” Lyra added.  “Though it took them a couple of tries to get the shape right.” Bon Bon smiled lightly, still not entirely happy about the fact her special somepony was a human for time being, but finally accepting that, deep down, she was still the same old Lyra.  “So how far do you think it’ll be until we reach these caves?” she asked. Redheart laughed a little as she contemplated the answer herself.  “We should be able to make it before nightfall if we keep this pace.  Why?  Don’t tell me you’re already tired?”  She looked to the mare for an answer only to receive a fit of giggles. “No, no, nothing like that, but whenever we start getting close to the area I can use these to help find them a lot quicker.”  She flapped her wings a few times and grinned.  “I just knew being a pegasus would be both fun and helpful.  I think I’m going to miss them when we finally do wake up.”  She frowned for a moment as she lightly massaged the outstretched appendage. “I know exactly how you feel, Bons,” Lyra said, once more putting her hand on the rogue’s shoulder and frowning.  “I’m just sad that I don’t have time to tinker with stuff now that I finally have the hands to do so properly.” Bon Bon sighed before chuckling a bit.  “Now that you mention that, I think I’ll be happy to have the two of us back to normal after all."  The group shared a laugh at Lyra’s expense, conjuring a sour grin on the human’s face. Things remained relatively uneventful for the better part of two hours as the group continued to make their way down the beaten path, the once easily-visible road now hard to differentiate from the surrounding sands.  After a sufficient amount of whining from the group, Redheart decided it was best to break and have some lunch. “Bon Bon, could you do a quick circle around us to make sure there’s nothing nearby while we set up lunch?” Red asked as she began unpacking the curry and bowls she had stored in her saddle bags.  Bon Bon mock-saluted and took off into the air, making a few laps in a wide arc around the group before landing, concern evident on her face. “There isn’t anything moving in the area, but there are these huge hole-like things all over the place.  They look to be about a yard in diameter, though the sand has nearly covered most of them up.” Vinyl sat down and poured herself a bowl of the delicious brew they had received.  “Well I, for one, am not about to skip a meal because of some stupid holes in the ground.  I say we eat.”  With that, she started slurping the curry straight from the bowl as the others watched her with awe. “Vinyl, dear, how you can be so concerned with food when our very lives may be in danger is beyond me.  I vote we keep moving a bit further on before breaking for lunch.” “Aw, Octy, come on.  There’s nothing to worry about.  Just a few holes in the ground.  Maybe somepony was searching for buried treasure or something.”  Vinyl continued eating, with the others soon giving up their argument and deciding to join her while they could. No sooner than they filled their bowls, a deep rumbling shook the earth beneath them.  A trail of sinking sand soon formed nearby and started moving their way, causing them to drop whatever they held in their hooves at the moment and reach for their weapons.  Both the sinking and the rumbling ceased not far from them, everything going quiet and still.  Bon Bon took off into the air and the others formed a tight circle with their backs to each other, each watching for any more signs of movement. “What the buck was that and where did it go?!” Octavia shrieked, cello raised well over her head in anticipation. “I don’t know,” Vinyl said shakily, “but I really wish I had rolled a pegasus like Bon Bon now.  What are we supposed to do in a situation like this?  Run, or maybe play dead?” The rumbling returned much louder and closer, the sand beneath their hooves sinking in a flash.  Each of them leapt from the spot just in time as a large form erupted from below.  They turned to see a giant worm-like creature with massive pincers covering a gaping maw that could easily swallow the entire group in a single go.  The creature thrashed about, spitting the sand from its mouth once it realized that its prey had eluded it.         “We need to get out of here before we become this thing’s lunch break!” Lyra yelled as she picked herself up and shook the sand from her robes.         “And just where do you think we should run to?” Octavia retorted as the worm burrowed back into the ground.  “In case you’ve somehow forgotten, we’re in the middle of a desert!”         “She’s right,” Redheart yelled over the loud rumbling.  “We’ve no choice but to drive it off if we don’t want to get eaten.”  ‘Why has being eaten become my biggest problem these last two days?  I used to worry about simple things, like keeping my patients from bleeding out or what I should order from that little Chineighse place.”         “Look out, Red!” Octavia screamed, snapping Redheart out of her daze just as the sand below the nurse started sinking in.  She tried to move away, but her hooves were now more than half covered, leaving her totally immobilized.         Without even thinking about it, Octavia dove straight at her, shoving her out of the way just as the creature emerged.  It fully opened its mouth and in an instant the grey mare had vanished into its depths.         Vinyl’s eyes went wide behind her shades and her mouth hung agape as she tried to form the words to call out to her.  Tears flowed down her cheeks, but her sadness quickly turned to anger, and then to rage.  She charged head-on at the worm before Redheart stepped in front of her to block her path.         “Vinyl, I know how you’re feeling right now, but we need to fight this thing rationally and we’re going to need your magic to beat it.”  Redheart tried to give the best sympathetic look she could manage from years of having to deliver bad news to patients and their loved ones.         Vinyl calmly walked up to her, and then around her without saying a word.         “What are you going to do, Vinyl,” she nervously asked.         Vinyl lifted her head a breathed a deep breath of the hot air and turned ever so slightly to answer.  “I’m going to get my marefriend back,” she said with all the cold, calculating malice of a serial killer.                 The others could only watch in awe as Vinyl began her gallop again, picking up speed until she was right next to the beast.  She did a semi-somersault into the air and shot a huge wave of forceful bass straight at the ground, sending her high into the air directly over the worm’s mouth.         “Here’s seconds!” Vinyl screamed as she descended into its depths.           “You crazy fool,” Redheart shouted as she began charging her horn with magic.  “Now we have to rescue both of you with one less pony!”  She shot a ray of light at the worm, slightly searing a small part of its hide, but otherwise having no real effect on the beast.         Lyra tried her hand at playing a song of fascination to keep it from disappearing below, but it seemed to totally ignore her attempts.  Bon Bon made several fly-by attacks with her daggers, but they couldn’t pierce far enough into its hide to do any real damage.         “Nothing’s working,” Lyra said, switching to her song of valor in the hopes that the extra damage might make some kind of difference.  Bon Bon tried again under its influence, but the worm seemed oblivious to her efforts as it slowly wiggled its way back into the earth.         And then it was gone, and with it, Vinyl and Octavia.  The three of them stood there staring at the ground, pleading for it to come back once more so they could try again.  They didn’t know what they could do different, but they just had to try if they got another chance.         The earth trembled once more, each of them preparing for an all-out assault when it surfaced.  Another sound meshed with the low rumblings, even lower in pitch and pulsating loudly.  It grew louder and louder until finally the creature bursted out of the sands, thrashing wildly as its whole body vibrated to the beat of the bass.         It threw open its maw and regurgitated the pair of ponies and several other items that had been lying dormant until now.  A slime-covered Vinyl stood and wiped away the sticky mush from her shades and began charging for another round with the worm, but the creature quickly made its escape from the crazed pony, back into the safety of the earth to later search for a more agreeable meal.           The warm, golden light enveloped each member again, Vinyl and Lyra hoofpumping and fistpumping, respectively.         Octavia stood and shook a small amount of the slime from her coat and mane, visibly shaking and eyes wide.  She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words to describe just how she felt at that very moment, but they would not come.  ‘Maybe such words do not even exist,’ she mused.  She walked over to Vinyl and wrapped herself around the mare in a great big bear hug.  After releasing her grip, Octavia then proceeded to shake and slap the mare silly for a good minute.         “Vinyl, I cannot thank you enough for coming to my rescue again,” she started, “but the next time you put your stomach before our safety, as Celestia as my witness, I will end you.”  She then continued trying to rid herself of the foul-smelling substance covering her entirety.  Vinyl only smiled as she too started to clean herself.   "And thank you, Octavia, for rescuing me while I was busy daydreaming," Redheart said, shame written all over her face. "It won't happen again, I promise."         Lyra walked over to examine the other contents deposited onto the ground, her eyes going wide at all the neat looking stuff.  “Hey guys, it looks like we found our first bit of treasure here,” she yelled as she picked up a curved piece of metal.  She wiped the slime from it and discovered it was a boomerang.         Bon Bon hovered over to take a look herself.  “What are those strange markings on it,” she asked, pointing to some weird looking symbols adorning its center.         “They’re called magic runes,” Lyra answered, not quite sure how she knew that herself.  “They’re used for enchanting magic items to give them their special properties.  Looks like this one ensures that the boomerang always returns to the owner’s grasp after being thrown.”         The others' curiosity was now piqued as well, each making their way over to the pile and picking up a different item.  Redheart grabbed a shiny, metal shield, Bon Bon picked up a curved blade that was similar in size to her dagger, and Vinyl took an amethyst-colored cloak.         “Are any of these items magical,” Red inquired, hoping that Lyra’s bardic knowledge would be sufficient to identify the items.         Lyra looked the three items over carefully before speaking.  “The shield and the kukri aren’t, but the cloak seems to raise the wearer’s defense rating considerably.  So I guess now we have to figure out some sort of system for distributing loot.”         “If our lives weren’t at stake here, I’d say that would be a good idea,” Red said before anypony could start fighting over who got what, “but I think we should give them to the pony that will best benefit us as a group.  Normally, the shield would go to our tank, Octavia, but seeing as she’s using a two-handed weapon and I’m the only other pony who can use shields, I’ll be taking it.  None of us are proficient with the kukri, unless Bon Bon wants to spend her new feat point to use it?”  Red looked to the rogue, curious how spending feats even worked in a situation like this.         Bon Bon closed her eyes and twirled the blade around expertly, showing off in such a way as to make a knife-juggler envious.  “So it seems that you just have to focus on what you want and then it just happens,” Bon Bon explained before Red could even ask.         “That’s awesome,” Vinyl added.  “So, I guess Octy should get the cloak since she’s taking most of the hits?  Not to mention it matches her eyes, so that makes it official.”         Octavia blushed a bit before taking the cape and trying it on.  She immediately felt safer, though she couldn’t figure out how.  ‘Magic, I’ll never understand you, will I?’ she thought to herself.         “So, I’ll hold on to the boomerang, since I don’t currently have another way to deal direct damage,” Lyra said, making sure it was okay with the rest of the group before she put it in her bag.  Each nodded to her in agreement.         “So how about that lunch now?” Vinyl asked as she rubbed her stomach for emphasis.         Octavia blinked a few times before anger took over.  “How can you possibly be hungry after nearly being digested by a GIANT WORM!” she yelled, everypony going silent awaiting Vinyl’s response.  Before the sorceress had a chance to answer, Octavia’s own stomach growled loudly.  Vinyl’s grin widened in direct correlation with the paladin's growing embarrassment before the latter sighed in defeat.         “Lunch sounds lovely,” she quietly admitted.