//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Holding On // Story: Fallen World // by Final Draft //------------------------------// Cobble Crusher was truly our salvation during the first struggles of our journey. He never tired, never complained, and never ever thought of himself. When I got back to the bottom of the pit, he was chugging right along with his new pickaxe. The rest of the survivors were just trying to make room for all the stone he destroyed. There was no longer any time to bring it up to the surface, so we began pushing it all up against the walls. The storm raged above and we moved as fast as we could, trying to race the first dribbles of lava that were snaking down the sides of the pit. “Fat One! Help me make a barricade!” Candela shouted to Crumpet. Her horn was glowing as she levitated as much of the rubble above us as she could. “What did you just call me, Toothpick?!” Crumpet shouted back angrily. “Not the time!” I shouted, trying to get control of the situation. Crumpet glared at me and turned her nose up. “Just help her or we all die!” “It’s already too late, we’re going to die in this pit, and that’s all there is to it,” Crumpet replied, sitting down and closing her eyes. The fat unicorn’s reluctance didn’t deter the rest of us. Cobble Crusher let out a mighty cry as he swung his pickaxe even harder at the stone beneath him. I could feel the mountain shift and a large crack formed in the stone beneath us. There was a great whooshing noise as the hot air surrounding us was sucked into the ground. “Yes! Yes!” The joyful shouts filled the pit, and we all crowded around for a breath of the cool, damp air that flowed from the crevice. I looked to Candela and saw her struggling to keep the rocks suspended above us. “Okay, Cobble, widen that gap, we have to get down!” I shouted, looking to the others. “We don’t even know what’s down there!” Hailstorm shouted. None us had the time to argue. Cobble worked the pickaxe expertly and managed to widen the crack without collapsing our floor entirely. Elevon was the first to squeeze through, and it was only a moment until her head poked back out. “It’s a bit of a drop, just be careful,” she said. “Let the pregnant one go first, I’ll help her down.” Dandelion nodded and nervously approached the pegasus. She wrapped her forearms around Elevon and the two of them slowly descended into the darkness. I felt something scalding hot drip onto my back and began swatting at it madly with my hoof. The molten rock that had fallen on me left a nasty burn I would feel for the rest of our journey. At that moment in time, I was too frantic to really care. The single drop that had fallen on me was one of dozens leaking through the cracks in the rocks above us. The others had managed to crawl into the darkness and only Candela and I remained. She looked at me though her cracked glasses and I could see tears welling up in her eyes. “Just get the materials on the cart down, I’ll hold this!” she shouted. The rocks above her began to slip as her magic faltered. I had no intention of leaving her to die, so I rolled the cart to the crack and tipped the contents out. They tumbled into the darkness and I cared not if Crumpet had gotten out of the way in time or not. “Come on, we’ll go down together!” I shouted, looking back up at Candela. Her knees were shaking and her magic aura was growing weaker against the strain of keeping the rocks and lava above us. “Can’t…move. Just go!” she shouted. A droplet of lava fell onto her rear end and her muscles tensed. The rocks above us slipped further and I could feel the heat they were holding back. I didn’t want to die, and I most certainly didn’t want to lose one of the biggest assets our team had. I dodged the increasing amounts of lava puddles until I was right next to the unicorn. The only thing I could think to do was crawl under her and lift her onto my back. Perhaps I’d chosen poorly when I decided to do so from behind her without warning. “W-what are you doing?!” she shouted. Her magic intensified from the surprise of being lifted so suddenly, causing the rocks to rise back to their original position. Unicorns are funny like that. She was light, but I was exhausted, and every step I took seemed like a mile. I could see the crevice and trudged to it, avoiding the puddles of lava still glowing all around me. “Almost there!” I shouted, trying to get Candela ready for the drop. Her hooves wrapped around me tightly and I contemplated how to take the plunge. I needed to make sure she came with me when I dropped, and I couldn’t exactly hop in. With my adrenaline surging, I pumped my legs and straddled the crevice. Using every ounce of energy I had, I slid my hooves beneath me and took the fall. Everything was dark…or I closed my eyes. I’m not entirely sure, but I could still feel Candela on my back as we fell into the cavern. You know how ponies describe time slowing down when you’re falling? That’s minotaur shit. I let my hooves slide, fell for a couple seconds, and then I was wracked with pain on the stones below. The rocks above crashed down and a couple fell down around us. No sooner had we landed, several hooves grabbed hold of us and dragged us to safety. My eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness and I breathed in the cool air. It was silent; a complete change from the chaotic madness I’d endured since leaving the diner. Of course, with the sudden calm, my body became aware of the distress it was in. “Don’t move!” Elevon tried to calm me as I cried out. I was sure my legs were broken; all four of them. As I lay and looked up at her, I saw a steady stream of lava pour down from where we’d entered. I knew if we moved fast, it wouldn’t be a problem. “Where’s Candela? Is she okay?” I asked as Elevon began checking me over. Elevon didn’t say anything at first; instead trying to make sure I wasn’t too badly damaged. “You broke her fall, but she got burned pretty badly. What took you two so long up there?” “She couldn’t move, and I wasn’t leaving her to die,” I replied. My legs throbbed as I struggled to my hooves. Elevon looked at me disapprovingly, but did not stop me. I saw a few of the other survivors crowded around Candela as Zan tried to bandage her up. I only got a glimpse of the poor unicorn, but what I saw made my stomach turn. The entirety of her back was a scalded, bubbling mess of burnt flesh. She writhed weakly as Zan took pieces of torn cloth and dressed her burns to the best of his ability. I realize now that she was the only reason I made it out of the pit relatively unscathed. She had shielded me, and suffered for it. “Dis isn’t good,” Zan said as he finished. “She be lucky if she makes it.” None of us said anything for a little while. The only sound came from the occasional hiss of lava as it dripped onto the cave floor. I wanted to get moving, but I still didn’t even know where to go. The dim glow of the dripping lava only provided so much light to the dark cavern. We’d landed in what I can only describe as a “bubble” in the otherwise solid earth. The only way in or out was the way we’d come through, and we certainly weren’t going back through it. It was just another pit of despair that had prolonged our inevitable death. Well, that’s how Crumpet described it. Dandelion and Toadstool scanned the floor of the cavern for the contents of the cart I’d dumped. Cobble Crusher followed behind the pregnant mare, picking up whatever she pointed out. Both Hailstorm and Crumpet went off to their own corners of the cave to pout while Elevon and Zan continued tending to Candela and I. “You have to get moving, just leave me here,” Candela whimpered as Elevon resorted to using her own feathers to dress the unicorn’s burns. “Storm Rider risked his life for you,” Elevon replied, glancing over at me. “I’d gladly leave you, but I think he needs you.” Need her. Aside from Crumpet, I needed all of them. Candela looked over at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Those words and that look sent a pain through my heart worse than any burn I could have suffered. She whispered it again, but it wasn’t her voice I heard; it was my mother’s. “I’m sorry,” she’d whispered. Tears dripped down her bruised and swollen face. All she had done was try to protect me from my father. It was my fault it had happened. It was my fault he’d gotten so angry. It was all my fault. “Zan, get her on my back, we’re going,” I said to the zebra. His red eyes looked from me to Candela, and he shook his head. “You ain’t got da strength, but if ya want da filly so bad, I’ll carry her.” To the disapproval of Elevon, Zan hoisted the weak unicorn onto his back and looked back at me for instruction. “What now, Mr. Ridah?” I walked up to Candela and could see she was upset, but didn’t have the strength to argue. “Candela,” I whispered. “Can you tell which way it is to Canterlot from here?” Her eyes blinked rapidly from behind her cracked glasses and she slowly lifted her head. She looked around the darkness for a moment, making calculations in her head, or so I assume. After a few moments, she pointed her hoof to the lava dripping to the floor. “Canterlot is to the north. We were facing south when we fell. I can only conclude that way is north.” We had direction, and the others gathered around us. “We’re moving north,” I said, pointing in the direction Candela had indicated. “Cobble, are you rested enough to—” “Where’s Hailstorm?” Elevon interrupted me. I looked around at the faces and only counted seven of the eight I was supposed to see. Something rumbled above us and the trickle of lava from the ceiling intensified. Candela mumbled something that sounded like a warning, but it was lost in the panic. There were too many voices all talking at once, and I tried to concentrate. Crumpet’s screaming made it near impossible and I stepped away from the circle. I knew I’d seen him off in a corner, being as little help as possible. Maybe he’d found a tunnel? The lava pouring into the cavern illuminated every wall, and it appeared there were no additional ways out of the cave. So where did he go? Dandelion and Toadstool approached me as I searched, and I was barely aware of their presence. “Um, Storm?” The small voice finally made me turn around, and I saw the pregnant mare shifting her hooves nervously. Toadstool stood beside her, trying to provide the emotional support she needed to confront me. I think they were under the impression I didn’t want to hear what they had to say. Admittedly, the incest thing weirded me out, but I didn’t think they’d noticed. “Yeah, what is it, Dandelion?” I asked, trying to stay still long enough to hold a conversation. I looked past her and watched the lava start forming a cone as it cooled on the cave floor. My distraction only furthered the couple’s assumption. “I saw that one wing pegasus over there,” Dandelion said quietly, pointing her hoof to a relatively dark corner of the cave. My gaze followed her hoof all the way to the southern wall, and without thinking, I walked away from the couple to investigate. They remained where they were as I walked away from them without so much as a “thank you”. The sound of Cobble Crusher beginning his assault on the northern wall only added to my distraction. He swung his iron pickaxe at the wall while the others paced nervously. By the southern wall were a few small piles of stones that the pegasus had made. “Hailstorm was here” was scratched into the wall and I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t like any pony would be alive to ever read his stupid final words. And even if this all settled in a thousand years and new life took to Equestria, “Hailstorm was here” would mean nothing to them. Just below his graffiti were three large rocks. I put my hoof on the largest and it shifted beneath my weight. Suddenly, it and the other two rocks disappeared into a small opening in the floor. The bastard had found a way out, and he didn’t say anything. I stuck my head into the darkness and looked around. There was no sign of Hailstorm, but it appeared the opening led to a tunnel. “Over here!” I shouted, raising my head back out of the hole. It was the call the others had been hoping for, and they raced over to me. Elevon flew over the others and didn’t wait before diving into the darkness. Crumpet took it as a sign of anarchy and tried to squeeze into the hole before any pony else could. And guess what; her fat ass got stuck. With her in the way, there was no way Cobble Crusher could safely widen the opening. I contemplated having him try anyway, though. “Dis is da south wall, don’t we want north?” Zan asked as Cobble Crusher and I continued to push against Crumpet’s hindquarters. Candela was motionless on his back as he paced nervously. Two muffled voices came from beneath Crumpet, and I felt additional force pulling on the obese unicorn. Elevon’s voice came through loud and clear as she shouted obscenities at the least helpful member of our group. “It doesn’t matter at this point; we just need to get somewhere safe enough to think!” I shouted as I exerted more force against Crumpet. Finally, she slid through the crack and the shouting match between her and Elevon ceased. Cobble Crusher didn’t wait two seconds before bringing his pickaxe down on the stone. While he worked on widening the gap, Toadstool and I gathered our supplies and got ready to move on. He glanced at me every now and then, as if he wanted to say something. Once his saddlebag was full, however, he trotted off to join his sister. As he and Dandelion carefully dropped down into the new cave, only Cobble Crusher and I remained above. “Is there still more?” he asked, coming over to help me grab some of the coal. “I’ll handle it, just get with the others,” I said, motioning for him to move on. I don’t know why I even tried; that stallion wanted to do nothing but help. He ignored my motion and filled his already sagging saddlebags with more coal. I didn’t complain as he grabbed the last of the coal, leaving me with sticks and apples to carry. I gave one last look at the cavern to make sure we hadn’t left anything before finally joining the others. It was dark and significantly cooler in the new tunnel, but much more compact. The group stood single file and I had to push past them to get to the front. Crumpet was the biggest obstacle, and as I squeezed past her I felt the warm stickiness of blood on her side. She winced in pain, but I had little concern. “Let’s get moving, put some distance between us and the lava, and find Hailstorm,” I said once I got to the front and turned around. There were no objections, so I turned to lead them on. My pupils dilated in an attempt to take in more light, but there wasn’t any. I mean, it was pitch black. I didn’t dare move. What if Hailstorm had gone down here with the full intent of returning, but fallen into a bottomless chasm? I could feel Zan standing right behind me, waiting for me to move. After a few moments of standing there, I felt a hoof prod into my flank. “Storm.” The voice was gentle, and definitely not that of Zan. I turned and saw Zan’s red eyes looking back at me, but a pair of blue eyes opened next to his face, and I could make out the outline of Candela. I was relieved she was still alive, but her voice sounded so weak, I didn’t think she would be with us for much longer. Zan stepped forward more so I could hear her better. “Did you grab everything from the cart?” she asked. I nodded, though she probably couldn’t see me. “Give me a stick, and a piece of coal,” she replied after what seemed like an eternity. I didn’t know what she needed them for, but if it was going to be her dying wish, I wasn’t going to deny her. I clumsily took a stick out of my saddlebag with my teeth and passed it to her. It slipped from her grasp and Zan bent down to retrieve it. I then (stupidly) grabbed a piece of coal, and my tongue brushed against the black chunk of carbon. Not a pleasant taste, in case you were wondering. As soon as I was done showing my disgust, Candela’s horn lit up and the coal left my mouth. Both the coal and stick were encompassed in her aura and they floated together. There was a small flash, and four crude torches fell to the floor. Candela let out a small sigh, and rested her head on Zan’s neck. “She’s still breathin’,” he said, reassuring me. I let out my own sigh of relief, and bent down to retrieve the torches. “Just stick them on the walls…and they…light up,” Candela whispered. “Why not just light one up and we carry it?” I asked, still looking in the darkness for the torches. Candela mumbled something I couldn’t quite understand, but I wasn’t going to ask her to repeat herself. I finally found the torches and picked all four up in my teeth. Without wasting any time, I brought my head to the wall and attempted to find a crack to stick the torch in. After a moment, I found a suitable spot and stuck the torch in it. The flash of light that accompanied my action blinded me for a few moments. I heard the others “ooooh” while I rubbed my eyes, trying to regain my vision. Once I could see again, I began inspecting the tunnel we stood in. It wasn’t very large, but it appeared to extend further into the earth. “She’s nearly dead and she’s still more useful than you,” Elevon said right to Crumpet’s face. Before Crumpet could respond to the insensitive comment, Zan glared back at both of them. Candela continued breathing ragged breaths from the zebra’s back, and the sight of her alone silenced the two mares. Just outside the torch’s glow I could see a deposit of reddish brown rock. I knew if we could get more iron for more pickaxes, we’d stand a better chance, but I wasn’t so sure Candela would be up for smelting it. And our other unicorn, as Elevon bluntly stated, was useless. “Cobble, we’re going to be passing some iron, can you mine it?” I asked to the back of the group. Instead of the stallion’s voice, I got Elevon’s as a response. “There’s no time, we have to go find Hailstorm.” We didn’t have to find him, but I knew the longer we stood around, the greater danger we were in. “Okay, never mind, let’s just keep going,” I said, trotting into the darkness and placing another torch. When I got to my last torch, I tried to walk as far as I could before placing it. I wasn’t sure if Candela would be able to make more, and I didn’t really want to ask her. Zan kept her carefully balanced on his back as he followed behind me. Finally, it got to the point where I could no longer see, and I had to ask. Shockingly enough, Crumpet stepped forward at my request. “It’s a simple spell, just let me do it,” Crumpet said angrily. I held the stick in my mouth and thought of several ways the unicorn could screw us over. I only had another stick in my saddlebag, I wasn’t sure if any of the others had grabbed any, and I wasn’t sure just how much further this tunnel went on for. I reluctantly passed her the materials and waited. “Don’t screw this up, or I’ll—” “Elevon. Please, just let her work,” I said, interrupting the pegasus mare. “Hmph. Fine, Stormy,” Elevon replied, using the pet name I had always detested. On top of that, her tone was sultry. I could just picture her in the darkness with a smile on her face as she licked her lips. Crumpet groaned as she strained to cast the simple spell, almost like she was struggling to digest something that didn’t agree with her. I almost didn’t believe my ears when I heard the pop of her successfully replicating Candela’s spell. “Hah! There!” Crumpet shouted, levitating the torches in front of Elevon’s face. Elevon swiped at them with her hoof and they scattered onto the cave floor. While they continued exchanging insults again, I got down and recovered all but one of the torches. A scream echoed out of the darkness, and I stood up as fast I could. Crumpet and Elevon stopped bickering to listen. “That sounded like Hailstorm!” Elevon shouted, flapping her wings and soaring over my head. She flew into the darkness and I galloped after her. The others were right behind me, and I attempted to place torches strategically. Because of the echoes, I couldn’t determine just how far the scream had come from. Suddenly, there was a light in the distance, and the cave began to widen. I placed down my last torch and ran through the last patch of darkness, finding myself in a massive cavern. Our tunnel was one of many that all conjoined in a massive, high ceiling room. The tunnels came out of the walls, some formed holes in the floor, and some even let out in the ceiling. At the center of it all was Elevon and Hailstorm, sitting next to a single torch: the missing fourth torch. “Get it out of me!” Hailstorm screamed. Elevon ignored him and frantically looked in each of the surrounding tunnels. “Where did it come from?!” she asked. “Hell if I know! It was dark!” Hailstorm replied. Once I was close enough, I saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out of Hailstorm’s shoulder. Blood was seeping from his wound as he tugged on it helplessly. The others soon caught up to me, and I held them from entering the room. “Just get me out of here!” Hailstorm shouted, reaching out toward Elevon. Just as she turned to help him, an arrow flew from a tunnel on the ceiling. I couldn’t even shout a warning before the arrow soared inches from her ears. The arrow stuck into the ground and Elevon froze up in fear. I wanted to help them, but when the thing that was shooting at them fell from the tunnel, I found myself frozen in fear as well. It hit the cave floor with a clatter, but remained on its hooves. It was a skeleton of a long dead unicorn; no flesh, no muscles, no organs; just a walking collection of bones with a horn. It levitated a bow and drew an arrow back while taking aim at Elevon again. I was suddenly pushed aside and a red blur galloped past me. To my surprise, Cobble Crusher had rushed out into the cavern, wielding his pickaxe in his mouth. Just as the skeleton went to release the bow’s string, Cobble Crusher slammed into the monster. The stallion wedged the pickaxe’s head into the skeleton’s ribcage and pulled with all his might. Ribs and vertebrae scattered across the cave floor and the skeleton fell into pieces. The skull continued chattering until Cobble brought his heavy hoof down upon it. There was a satisfying pop as the skull crumbled under the pressure. “That was a skeleton!” Hailstorm said in disbelief. “Like, a legit, walking—AHHH!” Elevon ripped the arrow from Hailstorm’s shoulder in one swift movement. The head of the arrow dripped with blood, and she brought it closer to her eyes. “I don’t think it was poisoned, you should be fine,” she said after a moment. “Yeah! Thanks! I’ll be fine, all right!” Hailstorm continued screaming as Elevon tossed the arrow aside and looked at his wound. “You’ll wait up for us next time, won’t you?” she asked. Hailstorm grumbled as the rest of us cautiously entered the chamber. We eyed the dark tunnels suspiciously as we approached the two pegasi, expecting more skeletons to jump out. I felt exposed—vulnerable—and didn’t want to just sit there in the open. Every little noise put me on edge, and I tried to filter out everything that was being made by us. I could hear water. Not just a trickle, no; actual flowing water. It didn’t necessarily mean safety, but at that moment, I realized just how thirsty I was. I paced the cavern, glancing around at every dark corner as I searched for the source of the sound. “Let’s get out of here already,” Crumpet said, still visibly shaken from just seeing an undead creature. “Choose a tunnel, I don’t care which!” “Just make me some more torches and I will,” I said, tossing a stick and some coal onto the floor in front of her. I was focused on two things: finding the water, and contemplating the existence of animated skeletons. Crumpet’s concerns came last. The skeleton’s bones still sat where they’d landed after Cobble’s assault, but I kept my eye on them to be sure. I’d heard of necromancy, but never imagined I’d come face to face with a product of it. How many more are there? Is it only skeletons? Are there other things down here? The thoughts weren’t helping my concentration. Another thing that bothered me was Cobble Crusher’s reaction. He didn’t hesitate to rush that skeleton, and he knew exactly how to take it down efficiently. Had he dealt with them before? No, that’s impossible. Crumpet presented the torches to me the same way I’d given her the materials; tossing them on the floor right in front of me. She trotted away with her head held high, like she was proud of herself or something. Whatever. After what seemed like an eternity of pacing and listening, I finally found a tunnel that echoed with the sound of flowing water. “Let’s move, stay together, and keep quiet,” I commanded. They all gave me different signs of compliance, be it reluctant or otherwise, but I was in control. Was it because of what Zan had said, or did they legitimately think I would help them weather The Storm?