//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: An Element of Bravery // Story: The Seventh Element. // by masorin //------------------------------// Shining Armor let out a loud groan, the wind was still strong as ever and he was still shivering as it made contact with his exposed body. At first, he thought he was numb completely but soon realized that he was just extremely cold and wet. The raging storm continued to beat down upon him, the terrible conditions making it near impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him. Trying to search for his men by hoof was out of the question a she could wander further away from them by mistake, so he stood up and yelled as loud as he could, "Attention!" To his relief, he got a response in the form of his men slowly walking toward him. They were all as shaken and bruised as he was, though considering the conditions they were in, a few scrapes were the least of their problems. In their desperation, they’d quickly started searching for some sort of shelter that could protect them from the intense cold and hadn’t taken too long to spot a nearby cave that would grant them some safety. After quickly gathering what they could find of their lost supplies, they rushed to the cave. Once inside, Shining Armor could finally hear himself think. The howling seemed much more distant once they’d entered the cave and the small group huddled up together to warm themselves up as much as they could. Shining could still see his own breath every time he exhaled and the lack of a the cold, he could start to feel his bruises all over his body, mainly, a soreness in his backside after falling on it. All in all though, everyone had survived without any major injuries and that was the important part. Deciding that huddling up wasn’t going to do much for long, he spoke, “Try and get a fire going, we’re going to need one if we want to stay warm.” They’d come up here to see what had been causing the earthquakes, but that seemed to be a more difficult task than he’d originally thought. He reached for where his saddlebags would be, but then remembered that he couldn’t find his amongst the snow. A wave of uneasiness washed over him as he thought of this, it wasn’t the loss of the compass or map he’d packed that bothered him so much, those were easily replaceable and all his men had a set. It was more that he’d had a picture of Cadance in there that wasn’t as replaceable. So much for comforting thoughts of home, he thought. Shaking his head to rid himself of the sour thoughts, he turned to one closest to him, "Hand me a map and a compass, I need see if i can figure out just where we are." "Uhm... Sir?" Right Hook had been fiddling with his own compass while the others were trying to start a fire with what dry wood they could find. "We have a problem." "Oh what is it now?" Shining groaned and rolled his eyes. As if they didn’t have enough to worry about at the moment. Right Hook held out the compass he was holding and sure enough, they did have a problem. It’s needle was spinning continuously, unable to settle on a single direction to point towards. Compass in Equestria had special enchantments placed on them, this made sure they pointed to the North no matter what. Nothing was supposed to be able to mess with it, no mineral reserves, no magnets, nothing. After all, this was Unicorn magic we were talking about. "What the..." Shining bit his lip, not wanting to curse or show anger in front of his men. He had never seen an enchantment as refined as this ever break, before. Without the compass and with the storm, it was impossible for them to tell their direction. They had nothing they could use, no sunlight, no stars, nothing. Looking around the cave, there was a darkness that went off into the mountain. Ignoring that for now, Shining set the map down and began looking through it, barely able to see by the light of the fire. "Alright, we have three options right now." He muttered under his breath. Option one had them sitting on their flanks, doing nothing but hope that the seemingly never ending storm outside would die down before they ran through their already small amount of supplies. Option two would be going out and trying to brave the storm which would most likely end with them getting lost and slowly dying and option three... "Okay everypony listen up, ten minutes to get warm up and then we’re off through the caves." ---- A dull light emitted from Shining’s horn, flickering like the flames of a torch lit their way as they walked through the tunnel. The caves were dark and slightly damp in places, they looked as if they’d been carved by something ages ago. The only sound they heard was that of their own breathing and the echoes of their hoofsteps, with the occasional droplets of water falling from somewhere they couldn’t see. The more they progressed, the more twisted and confusing the layout seemed to become. Though they’d marked every tunnel they went through and made sure to stick together, Shining wasn’t sure in which direction they were even going anymore. The only thing he was sure of, was that they were going deeper into the ground. Every step he took, he could feel the inclination of the floor and that made him all the more nervous, but he wasn't going to let that show. The longer the group walked, the more Shining could tell that this hadn’t been the best of ideas. 'Just about as bad as every other idea you have had today, Shining.' He thought, with some rather strong contempt for himself. Suddenly, there was a loud splashing sound that broke the silence they’d gotten used to that echoed off the walls and all the ponies behind him - though being trained, professional guards- shrank a little bit and took slight steps back. He turned to his group, astonished that his entire group had been fazed by a mere sound as that. "Stand!" He said, resorting to the voice he usually reserved for training. The Earth Ponies around him quickly came to attention. "Sorry, sir... Permission to speak?" Right Hook stumbled through his words for a moment, addressing his already distressed captain trying to keep his men together. "Granted, soldier." Shining said through grit teeth. "Sir... the air here feels... wrong, and the ground is... Well, I keep getting the feeling these caves don’t quite want us here..." As he spoke, the uneasiness on his face was plain as day for his captain to see. Shining Armor nodded, considering his words. It was common knowledge that Earth Ponies had a much stronger, more natural connection to the earth than other races and that very fact had saved his life more than once. He nodded and walked back toward his group, "Very well, then. Back the way we came, maybe we’ll have more luck waiting out the storm if it hasn’t died down already.” He’d barely gotten two steps toward his group when an ear shattering screech echoed through the cavern, causing them to all cover their ears in slight pain. Whatever it was, it was a savage, mindless screech and was all the more mortifying for it. Following the screech, they heard something smack hard against a wall that caused the ground and everything around them to shake enough to almost throw them off balance. As he heard the rocks above them dislodge themselves from the roof, Shining acted on reflex as he got as close to his men as he could and cast a shield around him with what energy he had. The roof had caved in on them and once it had settled down, the only light left was the soft purple glow radiating off his shield. In the blink of an eye, the way they’d come -and their only way back- was now covered with a large wall of rocks and the crushed corpses of over half of the ponies he’d brought into this. ~~~ Clover walked on silently with her two friends beside her. Their travel from the Tree to these Badlands had been a long one. Considering the fact that the Pegasi had only started drawing the maps of these areas not too long ago, there was some pride in the three’s steps as they ventured far beyond the borders of their new land and into dragon territory. She told them that their journey was to an old friend of Starswirl’s, one who would make sure the item she held would never be used again. Private Pansy looked at Clover, cautiously looking around every once in a while, "Uhm... What are we doing out here, again?" Clover shot a glare over at the yellow pegasus which was all she needed to silence herself. As they came through the Badlands, Smart Cookie hung back with Pansy, watching her old friend with some suspicion. Cookie then spoke, her voice soft and low, “Pansy, I know you’re a little worried right now but this isn’t the time to be asking questions.” The smell of smoke was heavy in the air and as they walked, she watched the skies. Clover turned to her friends and hushed them, "Both of you be quiet." Ironically, almost yelling at them herself. She breathed heavily for a moment, glaring at both her friends while she gestured to the area around them. They were in dragon territory, everything in these parts was dangerous. They were dealing with creatures who could breath fire and eat meat. They grew massive based on selfish and destructive desires and have, in the past, destroyed entire towns just because something pretty caught their eyes. Those were the kind of creatures that currently surrounded them in every crag and cave and her friends seemed rather intent on being eaten, given how loud they were being. For the rest of their journey, they walked in silence, finally reaching a cave that had been Clover’s destination. Smart Cookie blinked, "I thought you said you had a friend that we were going to go see?" Clover rolled her eyes, levitating the wand she created out, still keeping it concealed in it’s rags. "I am, but... well she's not my friend and this could get a little rough, we haven't talked in a long time. Could you please wait out here? Smart Cookie and Pansy gave a small nod as Clover walked inside, disappearing into the dark shadows. "What kind of friend did Starswirl have that chose to live all the way out here?" Smart Cookie could already guess the answer but as she sat down, Pansy just shivered. The cave was dark and wet, the sound of dripping water was everywhere. Clover shivered as she felt her hooves travel over the uneven, slippery terrain. There were sounds of something shifting in the darkness accompanied by heavy breathing and sounds of items moving. Once she’d calmed herself enough to realize she’d been spotted, she swallowed lightly as she caught the outline of something massive moving around in the shadows. Clover bowed as the creature in the shadows moved it’s long neck toward her and took a sniff. It took all of her courage to keep herself from shaking in fear. "Clover... Clover the Clever." The voice was like poison, the hot breath of the massive dragon almost making her sweat, "I thought I was clear when I told Starswirl that I was not to be bothered by his kind anymore." "He did mention something of that kind, but it is not by my teacher’s will that I come here." Clover said, bowing deeper still, "It is nice to see you again, Pepper." There was a burst of bright green fire that illuminated the entire cave, the dragon was a massive black creature with it's wings tucked close to it's side, it had long, green spines that ran from it’s head all the way to the tip of it’s tail and glaring green eyes. It's feminine features were lost on the already scared Clover as the darkness returned to surround it. "Do not call me by that name!" Pepper’s scream echoed throughout the cave and exited on the other side. "For years I worked as that blasted stallion’s assistant, and for what? What did I have to myself, kept a child and told I was but a monster! Yet still I tried to be one of your kind." The dragon moved, encircling Clover and showing off just how massive a creature it was to behold. Pepper’s body was ripped with muscles and had a strong sense of grace around her, "I tried your society, acted as a loyal assistant and what did I ever get in return? My feelings twisted and roiled because of that stallion and now his favorite student comes to my cave. If it weren't for the fact that I hate the smell of burning hair I would roast you alive just so I could drop you on his doorstep and watch him cringe." "Actually Starswirl is... dead." The words seemed to give a pause to both Clover and Pepper, both looking at each other and just for a moment, though her face was mostly obscured in darkness, Clover could have sworn she saw a flash of regret in the eyes of the dragon. "Then why are you here?" Pepper asked. Clover pushed the walking stick towards the dragon, allowing it to unwrap and reveal the elegant staff she had made. "This is the item that killed Starswirl, it's a magical element and part of a set. I wish only for you to take it so that it may never be used with the others again." Pepper looked the stick over, greed over taking her as she grabbed it out of the unicorn’s magic, examining it. "And the magic it holds, is it inert?" She asked, regarding it like one would regard a diseased or cursed item, holding as far from her as she could. Wanting it, but at the same time deciding that if it had been dangerous to one of the most powerful Unicorns in the world, there was a chance that it was dangerous to her. "It is. As I said, it's part of a set and I think it requires six other pieces for that one to work. I plan on studying the others and their effects as soon as I can get back." "Then... I suppose in the memory of one old friend I can... let you go. You did bring me a rather shiny gift, after all." She said, putting the stick down to rest among her other hoarded items, “Now I suggest you leave before I change my mind. ~~~ It was quite late at night when Twilight and Spike finally left the library to return to their home. The good news was that the two of them knew where the last element was, but the bad news was that it rested among a very old dragon’s hoard. "At least Smart Cookie was smart enough to make a map." Spike commented dryly as he looked over at Twilight. Spike just let out a long sigh, of all the creatures it just had to be dragons...