Chapter 3
Tense silence fell over the cavern as all ten ponies didn’t even dare to breathe. This sudden quietness was soon broken by a zing noise coming from down the tunnel. “You said it’s a whole system of tunnels yeah?” America asked looking over at Ink. She nodded in response. “Then maybe we can lose them in it.” he finished taking off down the tunnel. The others followed closely behind and the group raced down the hallways taking every fork that led them away from the noises of teleportation. The chase went on for a while before America made a sudden turn before they heard a loud crash and he disappeared from sight. The tunnel which he had gone into had been blocked off until he had kicked it in. On either side of the tunnel they currently in were tunnels off in either direction both, at one point, blocked off. “This way!” he called back to them.
“Doesn’t the fact that it’s blocked off mean we shouldn’t go in there?” Ink asked apprehensively.
“Yeah, and it also means that there probably won’t be any torches that way.” Zone answered continuing into the off limits tunnel.
“But what if there’s a dead end, which there probably is?” Kara questioned.
“Then we have more time to come up with a plan.” Germany replied entering it as well.
“It’s better to keep moving than to wait here to be caught.” England agreed following behind them.
Although some slightly begrudgingly soon all of the ponies were on the other side of the now nonexistent block and racing down the tunnel. They were right about there being no torches, the only light illuminating the hallway was coming from the unicorns magic. “So now the only question is about why it was blocked off.” Diplo stated as they ran onwards.
“Hopefully nothing too major, it doesn’t look particularly dangerous.” Astro offered up hopefully.
“That’s what’s worrying me.” he replied gravely. With that silence fell as they all barreled down the tunnel hoping to get as far as they could from their pursuers.
-/|\-
“You think the reason they blocked it off is cause they never found the end of this stupid thing?” America complained. They had been following the same tunnel for what felt like eons with no signs of anything at all, which included no signs of pursuit. The entire group had at that point slowed down to a mild trot.
“You’re the one who led us down here.” England remarked.
“You agreed with me!” he retorted.
“A mistake I’ll try not to make again.” he replied simply.
“Refresh my memory, what did I do?”
“Quite a lot actually.”
“Would you two mind not arguing for once?” Germany interjected.
“Well I agree with the fact that they probably closed off this tunnel because it seems to be going nowhere fast.” Kara commented.
“Still, at least it doesn’t look as though there’s anything dangerous.” Astro replied trying to be optimistic.
“Yeah, that is a plus.” Spot agreed.
“Since it looks like we’ve got time, what’s with this other world business?” Diplo inquired.
“Well where we’re from there aren’t exactly any talking ponies. Unicorns and pegasi are just myths and don’t even exist in real life. Also equines can’t exactly be any color of the rainbow.” England explained.
“So how are you all pegasi then?” Ink questioned.
“I’ve been wondering that myself.” he answered.
“And why can’t you get along at all?” she added.
“Do countries in this world get along?” he asked in turn.
“Whaddaya mean?” Kara replied confused.
“I mean do the different countries in your world get along nicely with each other?” he restated.
“They get along well enough, but the relationships are far from perfect.” Astro answered.
“Exactly.”
“How does that prove anything?” Zone asked.
“In our world we’re all… from… different countries and sometimes that can cause conflict.”
“It looks like it runs deeper than that to me.” Diplo replied simply.
“It does.” America replied receiving a glare from England. He just shrugged and kept talking, “Might as well explain. See, you’ve gotta think of it like this. It’s not just two peo- ponies from different countries, cause that doesn’t really matter too much depending on what two countries you’re talking about, but it’s kinda like their life is tied to the country that they’re from. That’s what causes problem.”
“So you’re telling us that your life is linked to the country that you’re from?” Kara questioned skeptically.
“That would explain their cutie marks.” Ink supplied.
“Cutie Marks!?” he exclaimed before starting to laugh.
“What’s so funny about that?” Kara questioned in annoyance.
“Well… it’s simply that… that title… it sounds slightly… silly.” England replied awkwardly.
“It’s not silly! Everypony has one! Even you four! Although yours are a little strange.” she retorted.
“Did you just say everypony?” America asked still snickering.
“Yes, is there something funny about that too?” she snapped in response.
“In our world the term would be everybody, or everyone.” England answered.
“Back to the point: life force tied to country?” Diplo cut off.
“Not exactly, but a good enough explanation.” Germany deadpanned.
“What, you mean each one of you is a country?” Zone questioned skeptically.
“Yes.” Japan affirmed.
“Right, cause that totally makes sense.” he muttered rolling his eyes.
“If it helps each of our… cutie marks… is an image of our flag.” England offered.
“Sure thing.” he replied still not believing them.
“But countries stick around a lot longer than the average pony. How does that work?” Astro inquired confused.
“That’s a factor as well he’s something on the order of 400 and he’s the youngest one here right now.” England answered gesturing to America.
“406, and celebrating 237 years of independence.” he informed her standing up straighter as he said it.
“And he’s the youngest?” she questioned shocked.
“Not the youngest of all of us, just the youngest one here. Also the most immature.” he added.
“Immature is what boring people call fun people.” he retorted.
“How long did it take you to come up with that?” he asked mockingly.
“At least I know how to have a good time.”
“There’s a difference between being reckless and having a good time.”
“How many times am I going to have to interrupt you?” Germany questioned clearly annoyed.
“I dunno how many times is he going to bait me?” America argued.
“I don’t know how many times is he going to say something stupid?” England retorted.
“If the only way you two can stand each other is silent then shut up.” he cut them off stopping and turning to face them. At that all of the ponies fell silent and halted as well. “Thank you.” he muttered before continuing forward. The ponies started onwards again in silence as the two red pegasi continued to glare at each other.
-/|\-
There was a long and silent walk forwards until they finally reached the end of the tunnel. However, it ended in a dead end. “What the hell!? Why would anypony in their right mind make a tunnel this long that leads to nowhere!?” Zone exclaimed staring at the blank wall before them.
“There’s no way I’m going all that way back. Especially cause there’s ponies there waiting to capture us.” America stated defiantly.
“You can just rot here then I suppose.” England told him with a shrug.
“Not likely.” he retorted glaring.
“We’re not going back. I didn’t come this far to be stopped by some stupid wall!” Kara shouted angrily. “Outta the way.” she ordered. All of the ponies made way for her as she lowered her horn to point at the obstacle preventing them from going any further. A large beam of bright purple light burst from her horn and fired at it. As it collided with the wall there was an explosion and when the smoke cleared there was an opening to the sky and thin shards of rock lay strewn about the stone floor. Kara smirked as she raised her head up, “And that, my friends, is how it’s done.”