Setting out as the sky brightened, the party travelled most of the day without incident, still following the narrow, hidden pathway as it led deeper and deeper into the gorge. The river at the bottom of the gorge was a respectable rapid-filled stream by this point, and if it wasn’t for the frequent waterfalls and boat-smashing boulders, it might even have been possible to travel down it.
After hours of travel – exactly how many hours would have been difficult to keep track of, without sight of the sun – Rainbow Dash spotted something moving up ahead, just past a rickety rope bridge, near one of the carved tunnels. Several diamond gnolls had set up an ambush, and were waiting for the ponies in the lead to fall into their trap!
Rarity spotted them as well. She casually reached into her component pouch to cast a spell – only to have a volley of arrows fly towards her from the hidden gnolls, who’d spotted her attempt at spellcasting. Since she was hiding near the back of the party, they didn’t have a very good shot, and one arrow went wide while two more bounced off the armor of her better-protected friends, but one struck true, thudding into her chest just as she started to incant, “Glitter -- *cough*!” Sparkles exploded around her, green dust splattered to the ground as she clutched at the sudden wound, and the spell was lost.
Rainbow shouted “Ambush!” and charged over to kick the gnoll responsible in the face, but the damage was done. Twilight was close behind, charging recklessly across the bridge and splattering a gnoll’s head with her long hammer. That drew fire not only from the second rank of archers, but from another pair hiding farther back in the darkness of the cave – but none of the arrows penetrated her defense.
The remaining gnoll in the front rank shook herself out of her stun just in time to dodge Rainbow Dash’s follow-up attacks, and then the rest of the party finally realized that they were under attack. Sergeant Macintosh threw an enormous javelin, impaling one of the second-rank gnolls but not taking him out of the fight entirely; Applejack darted through the enemy ranks, weaving past them with practiced grace, and was just about to enter the cave when Pinkie Pie – hot on her tail – shouted “Wait!” and tossed a bomb into the cave, filling it with noxious smoke.
“Pinkie, no!” Twilight shouted, clambering over the low cover the first rank had used, and swinging her hammer at the next set of gnolls, slaughtering them both this time, with casual ease. “We can’t let them get away! They’ll raise the alarm!”
“On it,” Rainbow Dash said, effortlessly dodging – “Ow!” Just failing to dodge a vicious stab as the archer she’d wounded pulled out a shortsword, and then gracefully disengaging – “Darn it!” And then taking a deep, jagged slash to her hind leg as she launched herself into the air, swooping in a wide arc around the tunnel, and crying out a victorious screech as she dive-bombed a gnoll who was trying to flee out the back of Pinkie’s cloud.
Applejack leaped on the remaining gnoll on her side of the cloud from behind, raking both claws down her back and then slitting her throat with the magic dagger, finally putting an end to her run of good luck.
When the smoke cleared enough to enter the cave, they saw one of the gnolls from the cave coughing up his lungs and vomiting, and Rainbow Dash standing over the body of the other farther down the path. The dead gnoll was clutching a firework, but hadn’t had time to light it before Rainbow’s pounce.
The ponies dragged the bodies into the cave to strip them of any valuables – of which there were few, chiefly two dozen more fire arrows, and strange but non-magical amulets of blue metal, which each of the gnolls wore – while Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy attended to the wounded, and Twilight tied up the prisoner.
“Um…” Fluttershy said. “Weren’t we supposed to be talking to them first?”
“The arrow wound in my chest says that the time for talking has passed, dear,” Rarity croaked, still poking at the spot where the wound had been until Fluttershy healed it. “And this isn’t the first time they’ve instantly attacked us.”
“Actually…” Fluttershy said, trying to remember if the gnolls had ever actually attacked first, or if they’d just been ready for a fight and responded to the party’s aggression, as they had this time. In the end, she decided that she didn’t want to argue about it, and just said, “nevermind.”
“I’m actually in favor of talking,” Twilight said, using her magic to tighten the last knots around the prisoner’s bonds. “So you, gnoll. Talk.”
“You’re going to kill me anyway,” the gnoll growled. “Just get it over with. All my friends are already dead, I might as well go meet them in the afterlife.”
“Oh, oh no,” Applejack said, slinking into the cave and crawling up the prisoner’s chest until she had him pinned against the wall, tail lashing back and forth behind her. “No no no,” she said. “We’re not going to do this quick.” She traced a claw along the gnoll’s cheek, stopping just sort of his eye. “We’re going to do this nice and slow. I haven’t had a chance to really enjoy mahself in ages.”
“I’ll talk!” the gnoll squeaked, a wet patch spreading down his leggings. “Just keep that crazy cat away from me!”
As it turned out, the gnoll had a lot of information to give about the mine. The diamond gnolls had indeed been mining an old silver mine claimed by Bright Valley, which had been abandoned for decades because it never panned out. Something had drawn the ‘high priest’ to the dusty old cave, and deep inside he’d found the blue mud which, after processing, became the blue metal. They’d been discovered by a zebra patrol, but the priest had paid them off somehow, and since then the zebras had been working with them, even giving them half a dozen tame flame drakes to ride.
He didn’t know why the blue metal was so important, beyond its obvious magical properties like the way it made arrows tipped with it burst into flame in flight. It was very easy to work with, however – as easy to shape as clay, but as strong as metal once fired.
Lastly, he pointed out the secret door in the cave wall, that led to the room where they slept and kept their food and other supplies. “I’ve told you everything I know,” the gnoll says at last. “Now let me go, or kill me quickly.”
“We can’t let him go,” Rainbow Dash said. “Right?”
“Right,” Twilight said, wiping her greatsword off on the gnoll’s fur, then sliding it back into its sheath, as his severed head tumbled to the ground. “Let’s see if their secret cave has anything useful in it.”
Aside from some more fireworks and plenty of mundane supplies, the main attraction in the cave was a map of the mine’s defenses. The fortress they’d passed earlier was the nearest location with a significant number of troops, and it would take them hours to arrive on foot, although there was an elevator to the top of the Zebra side of the gorge right at the mine itself. The map didn’t detail the total number of guards at the mine, although the symbol for the flame drake hangar was very close, possibly part of the same complex.
It also indicated another hidden scouting outpost farther along the trail, maybe a half hour’s walk from the mine itself.
“If it’s set up the same as this one, we should send somepony ahead to block any runners,” Twilight said, sketching out a rough map with six ‘X’s in a line, and sending a dotted line around to the back. “And by somepony, I mean Applejack.”
“Somecat, then,” Pinkie Pie said.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “They’ll hear us coming, but wait in ambush. Rarity opens up with a glitterdust without getting shot this time –“
“I trust you have some plan to ensure that?” Rarity asked.
“We’ll know they’re there, so Rainbow Dash and I can charge them to draw their fire,” Twilight said, drawing an arrow to indicate the charge. “Be ready to fire off the spell when they draw their bows to shoot – you should be able to blind them before they can take proper aim.”
Rainbow Dash stared at the map with her head tilted. “Huh?”
Twilight let out a breath, “Okay, let me explain in detail. We wait for Rarity to ready her spell. Rarity readies the spell to fire when any gnoll takes aim at us, or when we come within ten feet of the barricade. If the gnolls are ready to fire at us when we show any sign of hostility, then her spell should hit them before they can attack.”
“But she started her spell first last time,” Rainbow Dash said, “and they managed to interrupt her before she could finish. If she’s waiting for them to start attacking before she starts casting, won’t it take longer?”
“No,” Twilight said, tapping her hoof on the map. “Readied actions always interrupt the action they were readied to react to. It seems counterintuitive, but I had it drilled into me by the weapon-master who oversaw my training. She gave me many, many practical demonstrations.”
Pinkie Pie nodded sagely. “Time in combat isn’t a matter of one thing happening right after another. It’s all sort of, you know.” She wiggled her wings a bit. “Poofy! Usually you can do a couple things before anypony can really react to you.”
“Don’t worry about it too much, sugarcube,” Applejack said.
“No, I think I’ve got this,” Rainbow Dash said. “If I got ready to fly way out of range of somebody’s sword if they attacked me, it’d be impossible for me to ever get stabbed?”
Twilight shook her head. “You can’t ready a proper withdrawal, so they’d be able to take an attack of opportunity.”
“Yeah, but I can tumble and stuff, and dodge those,” Rainbow Dash said. “And if they’re moving up to hit me, I can get ready to move out of the way if they get in range, instead.”
“I –“ Twilight furrowed her brow. “I guess that might work, for a while. I’m sure there’s a counter. If nothing else, you won’t be doing any attacking of your own.”
“Bullfightin’,” Applejack said. “That’s what she’s talkin’ about. Get a critter nice and mad and get her to charge ya, then leap to the side so she can’t hit ya. Works like a charm, since ya can’t turn in the middle of a charge.”
“Huh,” Twilight said. “I’ll have to keep that one in mind.”
After leaving the hidden cave, it didn’t take long for them to approach the second scout outpost. By this point, the trail was only a few dozen feet above the base of the canyon, which was filled with a narrow, rushing river, whose water was pitch black. As they approached the last bit of cover before being in view of the enemy, Applejack left the trail and managed to vanish into the shadows, staying out of line of sight by hugging the wall below the trail. They gave her a minute or two to get into position, and then stepped out into the open to execute their plan.
Rarity took a deep breath to steady herself, while her friends tried to act casual, waiting for her to be ready before starting their charge. Once she was calm, she quietly reached into her pouch to ready the spell components. But before she could even start to cast, six arrows arced towards her from the gnollish ranks. As before, several of them were blocked by party members, or went awry due to the gnolls’ less than stellar marksmanship, but three flaming arrows struck true. There was a flash of pain, and then nothing.
“Oh come on!” Twilight shouted, as she and Rainbow Dash made their charge. This outpost was set up a bit differently, on a wide platform-like ledge that let the gnolls spread out in a proper firing line, behind a spiked wooden barrier that would probably do something nasty to anypony trying to charge through it. Luckily for the fey, Twilight’s weapon had enough reach to hit the gnolls from beyond the spikes, and Rainbow Dash had wings. She was too flustered to get a good swing in, though, and it whipped harmlessly over the archers’ heads. Rainbow did manage to punch one of them in the face, at least.
“Um… girls?” Fluttershy said, hovering over Rarity and triggering her wand. The arrow-studded zebra didn’t move. As usual, no one listened to her.
“I guess readying a spell counts as a hostile action?” Pinkie Pie suggested, flying in behind a fearsome lance charge by Sergeant Macintosh. Since there was room for him to get into the fight this time, he’d crashed right through the barricade, letting its spikes shatter against his armor, and impaled a hapless gnoll, killing her instantly. Pinkie stopped a ways behind him and tossed one of her typical bombs, minus the smoke cloud this time. It smashed into the same gnoll Rainbow had wounded, finishing it off and splashing two more gnolls – and Rainbow Dash herself – with burning goop. Rainbow squawked in surprise, but didn’t otherwise complain.
The surviving gnolls drew swords, and three of them engaged each of the party members one on one as the fourth withdrew, undoubtedly planning to send up a flare and then run to report in person. Applejack was waiting, of course – in just the right place to step out of the shadows and tear out his guts before he even knew he was under attack.
“I think Rarity’s dead!” Fluttershy said, trying her wand again, with no more luck this time.
“So heal her already!” Rainbow Dash said, as the three of them continued their struggle against the gnolls, she and Twilight getting hits in but failing to take anygnoll down. “Isn’t that what you do?”
Pinkie Pie and Applejack joined in, pouncing on the gnolls from behind. It wasn’t any surprise to see Applejack’s target go down, spurting blood from a sudden dagger in the back, but Pinkie Pie’s pathetic ‘hi-ya!’ kick to the back of the gnoll Rainbow was fighting somehow knocked him unconscious.
The last gnoll tried desperately to pull out a firework to send up an alarm, but while she was distracted with that, Twilight’s hammer took her right under the chin, removing not only her muzzle but her entire face.
“One of the arrows is in her eye, Twilight! It’s sitting right in her brain… and another is in her chest again, and I think it hit her heart, and – and –“ Fluttershy babbled, as the rest of the party let themselves relax, with the fighting over.
“What are you saying?” Twilight asked, turning to head back towards the panicking flutterpony.
“She’s dead,” Futtershy said, wings drooping as she let herself land.
“That’s… not good,” Rainbow Dash said, hovering nearby.
“I know!” Pinkie Pie said, eyes wide in a panic. “If she’s dead, who’s controlling Sparky?”
Everypony slowly turned to look at the hulking skeletal drake.
“Wouldn’t worry too much,” Sergeant Macintosh said. “Skeletons don’t think. If they’re not controlled, they just do what they did in life.”
“You mean, try to kill us?” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “He was on their side.”
Sparky roared in rage, and pounced on Fluttershy, snapping her up in his jaws and mangling her badly, dropping her unmoving form at his feet and advancing on the others. Pinkie Pie squealed in terror, and flung a bomb in the skeleton’s face, splashing Rarity and Fluttershy’s bodies with fire, but barely slowing it down. Applejack and Rainbow Dash moved to attack it from the air, although with the canyon wall to one side they couldn’t flank – it took a snap at the purrsian rogue as she closed in, but didn’t catch her. Unfortunately, their claws and fists did little against the slime-covered bones.
“Pinkie, get out of the way!” Twilight shouted, charging for the skeleton standing over the bodies of her friends, and bringing her hammer down on its head, where it bounced harmlessly off the thick, reinforced bone.
That at least got Sparky’s attention, and Twilight, in her thick armor, was a lot harder to hurt than poor Fluttershy. She parried his jaws with her shield, while his flailing tail bounced harmlessly off her side.
“This is not workin’,” Applejack said, getting in a solid hit on the bony creature and failing to do much more than scrape off a bit of slime.
“We don’t need to kill it!” Rainbow Dash said. “If I can just cripple it –“ but she couldn’t even get in a good hit, as she dodged around looking for an opening.
“We can’t kill it, but we need to take it down,” Twilight said, finally crunching her hammer into a vulnerable spot. “We need Rarity’s body if we’re going to raise her, and Fluttershy might still be alive!”
Applejack tumbled through the air, landing on the path behind the drake to flank with Twilight, as its teeth closed around the unicorn’s leg, bloodying and burning her before she could pull it free. “Okay, sugarcube,” Applejack said, swiping with her dagger at the tail which danced maddeningly out of reach. “But there’s a sayin’, don’t throw good money after bad.”
“We can do this!” Pinkie Pie said, tossing another bomb smack in the middle of the drake’s back. This one was focused, by her targeted admixture, and clung to the skeleton and burned it horribly instead of splashing on everypony.
Twilight dodged a few more of the drake’s attacks, before landing a solid hit on its sternum – and without any fanfare, Sparky collapsed into a pile of slime-covered bones.
Fluttershy was indeed still alive, and Pinkie Pie was able to heal her with half a dozen charges from her wand. Rarity, however, was very very dead. Not as dead as the badly wounded gnoll survivors after Rainbow Dash was done taking out her frustration on them, but quite dead nonetheless.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Fluttershy said, pouting over the zebra corpse. “I was supposed to be the first to die, to protect those stronger than me.”
“Honestly… she was kind of a weakling,” Twilight said. “She also had that strange fascination with the undead. We should replace her with a more traditional wizard, with fireballs and things. Maybe a sorcerer.”
“Stop talking about her in the past tense!” Rainbow Dash said. “We need to go back and get her raised from the dead, right now!”
“Are you sure?” Twilight asked. “I mean, she was always so obsessed with death. Maybe she’s happier now.”
“I’m sure,” Pinkie Pie said. “She’s my friend. Since, like, ever!”
Twilight shrugged. “Okay. Macintosh can carry her body, so it won’t slow us down very much. We can have her raised first thing when we report back from the mine.”
“No, we need to go now,” Rainbow said.
Twilight gave the griffon a look. “Rainbow, we’re a half hour from the mine, and three days from Crossroads. Unless you want her raised as an undead, that’s the nearest place.”
“Sparky gets back up in an hour,” Rainbow said, pointing at the pile of bones. “Half hour there, half hour back, and we’re fighting it again.”
Twilight responded by taking her hammer and sweeping the slime-covered bones off the trail, into the river.
“Fine, but – what if we lose? Then who’s going to raise her?”
Twilight just stared at her.
“Poprocket… how are you planning on paying to raise her anyhow?” Applejack asked. “We haven’t got much in the way of treasure yet, and giant shiny diamonds don’t come cheap.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Fine. Fine! You win. But I’m not going to be the one to explain to her why she missed the whole fight at the mine.”