Urohringr

by Imploding Colon


A Trip to Thunder Mountain

"Is something wrong, Belle?" Eagle Eye asked.

"Mrmmmf... yes..." Belle tiredly trotted past the stallion in the navigation and approached the hanging curtain to the observation room. "Me."

"What do you mean?" He trotted after her, looking concerned.

"Last night, I..." She sighed. "I sort of blew up at Rainbow Dash."

"Blew up at her?"

"I've been so upset over her health as of late." She gulped. "I-I let it get the better of me."

"Belle..." Eagle Eye smiled. "We're all concerned about Rainbow Dash. She would understand that—"

"It's still no excuse to take it out on her," Belle said with a shudder. "Just because I want what's best for her doesn't mean I do." She clenched her teeth. "She needs us to support her in whatever she's doing more than we need her to make us feel better. It's tough to do when you know deep down inside that you'll always be ten times weaker than the likes of her, even when she's at her worst."

"You gotta admit," Eagle said. "Rainbow Dash is her own worst enemy. Whether it's Amulek or Val Roa, Rainbow Dash is the kind of mare to gladly destroy herself over what she considers right."

"I know, but..." Belle fought tears. "Who are we to stop that?" She gulped. "Even if that's what we want to do?"

Eagle Eye fumbled for words.

Belle sighed. "I-I don't know what to do anymore, Eagle Eye. Except for one thing... apologize." She pivoted towards the observation room. "Ahem..." She raised a hoof and knocked against the doorframe. "Erm... Rainbow?" She gulped. "Rainbow Dash? It's me... Bellesmith. I hope I'm not waking you. I... I-I just wanted to tell you how terribly sorry I am for last night. Pilate and I had a long talk about it. Neither of us may be very fond of the way in which you've been overexerting yourself as of late, but that's no excuse for us to snap at you like the way we did. You were right, Rainbow. We're Eljunbyro. We should have the utmost faith in you at all times. And we do, Rainbow Dash! It's just... it's just so hard when we know that you've got so little left to give and... and..." She fought back the urge to cry. "We love you so very much, Rainbow. We wish things could be better for you at this point in your journey, Austraeoh or not. Would you have it in your heart to forgive me? To forgive us?"

Silence.

Eagle Eye fidgeted awkwardly.

Belle blinked. "Erm... Rainbow?"

More silence.

Belle glanced back at Eagle Eye.

Eagle Eye shrugged.

Pensively, Belle pulled the curtain aside. "Rainbow Dash—?"

Her body froze in place.

In the golden glow of morning, every square inch of the observation room was exposed, and there was not a single hint of blue fuzz to be seen.

"Uhhhhhhhhh..." Eagle Eye stammered.

"She's not here!" Belle stood with her muzzle agape. "But where... h-how...?"

"Whizzball," said Props.

Both ponies jumped—startled—and gawked at her.

"Huh?!" Belle blinked.

Props took another bite of an apple, gulped it down, and said, "Sometime last night. She and Roarke. Together." She smiled. "Ebony's serving breakfast upstairs! Wanna chow down?"

"Props..." Eagle Eye squinted. "How do you know this?"

The mare shrugged. "Sometimes I sleepwalk." She leaned in and whispered, "Did you know that Zaid snores like a sawmill?"

Eagle and Belle simply stared at her.

"Well, I didn't either!" Props leaned back. "The night is a strange and wild place. Woooooooooooo!" A beat. She grinned wide. "Anyhow, Apples! Mrmmmmfff... upstairs!" She trotted off.

Eagle Eye bit his lip. He slowly turned and squinted at Belle.

Belle clenched her teeth. Her body began shaking furiously as her face turned red. "Why... th-that... fuzzheaded suicidal motherb—"


SWOOOOSH! The Lounge sphere rocketed loudly over the forested mountainscape. Fir trees hung in the white mists below while the morning sun pierced the upper altitudes with scattered bands of golden glory.

The vessel dipped low, skimming the forest canopy at a brisk speed. Every now and then, its amber manalight would flicker, and the sphere would dart off in a completely random trajectory, scanning the local topography as an early morning bloomed over the eerie fog.


Inside the transport, Booster Spice sat behind the main seat—wide eyed—glancing every which way as the vessel continued its low flight.

"I just can't get over this feeling of exhilaration!" the blonde stallion exclaimed. A dumb smile crept across his face. "I've drawn hundreds of maps of this region over the years, but if I only had the gift of flight before!"

"We've been over this a dozen times already," Roarke droned, her hooves at the controls. "You're certain that you do know our way around these mountains?"

"Hmmm? Oh, totally!" Booster nodded, his goggles rattling. "Those towards the west are the lower foothills. That peak in the east is Silver Point, the highest spot in this area. Drakshaa's mine camp is directly to the south—whichhhh we are flying over right now."

"For the twentieth time," Roarke groaned.

"Well, no offense, but you've not been entirely clear on just what it is you wish for us to accomplish out here," Booster remarked.

"We're attempting to bait the dragon."

"Right. And I've told you fine ladies..." Booster chuckled to himself. "She only attacks when she wishes to. It's never been something that we could rightly predict."

"Well, you've never had air support before."

"I've never suspected that such a thing would matter." Booster pointed out the cockpit window as they passed over the foggy mountain again. "The only thing that's ever truly prompted her arrival is when we've set out on hoof to the campsite. Y'know... like what happened yesterday!"

"Because the dragon is presumably possessive over the silver mines..."

"Exactly. So... uhm..." He gulped. "If—perchance—we were to touch down and approach the mine entrance naturally..."

"We're not here to recreate yesterday's events," Roarke said. "Nor are we here to repeat any of the incidents that have plagued you and the ponies of Amulek before."

"Then, if I may be so bold, what are we attempting to do?"

Roarke turned and glanced over her shoulder. "Rainbow Dash?"

"Nnnnnnghhhhh..." Rainbow yawned long and hard.

Roarke's lenses pistoned outward. "Rainbow Dash..."

"Mrnnffhh... hmm? What? Huh?"

"Please tell me you're not sleeping."

"It's hard to tell when I'm this insanely bored," Rainbow said, blinking blearily from where she sat behind the cockpit seat. "Please tell me we're not still flying in stupid circles."

"Are you kidding?!" Booster cackled. "Who in the hay could be bored of this?!" He gestured wildly at the cockpit. "This is actual flying!"

"It's a lot more exciting when I'm the one doing the flying," Rainbow said.

Roarke muttered, "You're welcome to open the cockpit door and try it yourself, then."

"Hey!" Rainbow frowned. "If we're doing this, we're doing this together!" She leaned over the seat. "Lemme guess, no sign of the friggin' dragon?"

"Negative."

"Doesn't this thing have missiles or lasers or whatcrap?" Rainbow started flipping instruments at random. "How about—like—we blow up a part of the mountain and wake the darn thing up?"

"We will not be blowing anything up." Roarke slapped Rainbow's hoof away. Whap!

"Eeep!" Rainbow slumped back, rubbing her forelimb with a gawking expression. "Who are you and what have you done with Roarke Most Radical?!"

"I'm serious," Roarke grunted. "I only have a limited supply of weapons on board this craft. Believe you me, I greatly desire to use them, but only when it will be most fortuitous to us."

"When you say missiles, do you mean explosive devices propelled by tightly contained liquid fuel?" Booster Spice asked.

"Indeed," Roarke droned.

"And..." He leaned forward. "By lasers, do you mean—"

"Celestia-damn lasers," Rainbow said.

"So fascinating..." Booster grinned drunkenly. "To think that such technology exists in the far corners of the world!"

"Why do you act so surprised?" Rainbow glanced at him. "Don't the Val Roans have missiles and flying death machines themselves?"

"Actually, Val Roa isn't all that fond of explosions."

"... ... ..." Rainbow leaned back with a prolonged sigh. "Whelp, for once I'm glad I won't be living long on this continent."

"Rainbow..." Roarke moaned.

"I don't understand..." Booster's eyes thinned beneath his green goggles. "Why so fatalistic—?"

"Grnnngh!" Rainbow pulled at her mane. "There's gotta be a way to pull the creature out!"

"Or creatures," Roarke corrected.

"Ungh... don't even go there, Roarke," Rainbow grunted. "I'm already reeling at the thought of just one Diet Nevlamas, much less a whole friggin' nest of them."

"Nevlamas...?" Booster Spice blinked.

"We can't rule out the possiblity, Rainbow," Roarke said. "That's precisely why we need to preserve this vessel's weapons. If we discover a lair or a hoarde, then we can use the incendiary devices to destroy it from the inside out, much like you did in Silvadel."

"Silvadel...?" Booster Spice blinked again.

"Okay, first thing's first, Roarke, we gotta stop treating this as if history's repeating itself!" Rainbow Dash frowned. "This isn't Silvadel anymore than it's the Xonan Front."

"Xonan... Front...?" Booster was grimacing at this point.

"Don't mind us, dude," Rainbow muttered. "Just sit back and keep being our pocket egghead."

"Nnnngh..." The stallion rubbed his aching head. "Why do I get the unsettling sensation I've inadvertently jumped into the penultimate scene of a sprawling epic?"

"It depends," Rainbow droned. "What's your experience in fixing railroads?"

"Uhhhhhhhh—"

"Let's keep ourselves focused," Roarke insisted. She pointed out the cockpit window with a metal-laced hoof. "This fog... this ever pervasive mist..."

"What about it?" Booster Spice asked.

Roarke glanced back at him with whirring lenses. "Have you ever bothered studying it?"

"Oh, most definitely!" Booster nodded. "It's unlike any fog that's appeared around the mountains in years previous! At first, I figured it was a sign of some sort of prolonged climate change. It started several months ago—but, oddly enough—stuck to the higher altitudes."

"Is that odd?"

"Well, considering the common ebb and flow of condensation and evaporation, one would suspect that the same effects would transpire in the valley where Amulek is located. After all, the temperature in this part of the world is relatively uniform. The same can be said of the humidity. But, for whatever reason, the fog is at its thickest at the higher elevations, and at all times of the day."

"So, in other words, it's unnatural."

"Oh. Very."

"And this hasn't ever alarmed you before?"

"Well..." Booster fidgeted where he sat. "It's hard to be alarmed by uncanny fog when there's a definitively more uncanny and violent dragon attacking you on a weekly basis."

"Do I have to say it out loud?" Rainbow Dash muttered.

"Say what out loud?"

Rainbow sighed. "I've seen this sort of crud before..."

"Really?" Booster glanced at her. "Where?"

Rainbow bit her lip. She leaned in and spoke with her muzzle closer to Roarke. "In Windthrow. A village I visited a very... very long time ago."

"And how exactly is this related to Amulek...?"

Rainbow said, "It had the same sort of unnatural fog."

"Truly?" Booster blinked. "Do you know what caused it?"

"Yeah," Rainbow sighed. "Chaos strips."

"Chaos... strips...?"

"There's a type of metal—a very rare kind of metal—that exhibits pure chaos energy," Rainbow explained. "Chaos, of course, is as old as time. It's the indomitable... uhm... fart gas that curses the cosmos through which this plane drifts."

"Okaaaaay..." Booster slowly nodded. "Not exactly a very scientific explanation, but somewhat plausible." He gulped. "I'm guessing that you refer to some sort of magically malevolent substance that has both a solid and a gaseous form."

"Erm..."

"And wherever there is a gas—as made visually evident in the form of a prevailing fog—it constitutes the presence of the solid form in close proximity."

Rainbow stared at him, blinking. "Uh... yeah. Sure." She scratched her head and smirked at Roarke. "Sheesh, Roarke. Where was this dude when I was in Darkstine?"

"I think I understand where you both are going with this," Roarke said while flying the ship over the mountain again. "But if you recall, Rainbow Dash, Nevlamas was polluted with these chaos strips."

"Right..."

"The Xonans, under Chrysalis' influence, harvested chaotic abominations by infusing the Dark Divine with the strips."

"Right right."

"So, could it be possible that—if Nevlamas had a brood—they would be born with this chaotic essence built inside of them?"

"Brbrbrbrrrr..." Rainbow Dash shivered. "I don't wanna think about it."

"Well, you're going to have to," Roarke said. "We all have to, especially if this mist could somehow be leading us to them."

"I know that." Rainbow turned towards Booster. "Hey. Goldilocks."

"Dark... Stine...?"

"Yoohoo! Austraeoh to Booster!"

"Huh?" He snapped out of it and glanced at her. "I-I'm sorry. You were saying?"

"Is there—like—a part of the mountain where this steam collects the most."

"Heh... that's something I've always wondered myself."

"You mean you don't know?"

"What I mean, Miss Dash, is that none of us have been able to scale completely around the mountain to find out for sure. Especially in these last few months when the dragon has plagued us senseless." He suddenly blinked, then tilted his head up while scratching his chin. "However..."

"Hmmm? Is that a good 'however' or a bad 'however?'"

"There was one expedition... a group of Val Roans who traveled to Amulek from the north." Booster gulped. "This was right when the situation first turned sour and Drakshaa's workers were driven out of the mines."

"Yeah... and...?"

"Well, needless to say, these poor merchants were frightened out of their wits. However, they did claim to have seen a great deal of smoke rolling out of the mountain peak from its north end."

"Smoke?"

"Well, we now realize that it's this fog. But, at the time—when it was all starting—they swore that Silver Point looked like a veritable volcano! I've always wondered what it looks like there today."

"There? Booster, where is there?"

"Uhm... the northwest end, about two hundred and fifty feet down from the actual summit. My great-great grandfather was the first to survey it. Much of the mountainface there is pure stone at that point, and the earth is too hard to bother drilling for silver pockets."

"Hmmm..." Rainbow Dash turned towards Roarke. "What do you think, Roarkey?"

"Please don't call me that."

"C'monnnnn..." Rainbow Dash grinned. "We gotta come up with a nick-name for you at some point."

"Just because we've bonded doesn't make me your pet."

"Coulda fooled me with the way your prosthetic tail was wagging the other night."

"Hrmmmph..." Roarke suddenly accelerated the ship, coasting over the fog and towards the northern edge of the mountain. "Let's just go and check out this 'Silver Point' already."

"Pffft. Fine." Rainbow Dash leaned back, forelimbs folded in a pout. "...Doarke most Dorkly..."

"So, I'm confused..." Booster scratched his blonde head and pointed. "You two are or aren't sisters...?"

"Euhhghhhh... Roarke, please tell me there's a vomit bag somewhere in here."


With a loud bass hum, the black sphere soared through the fog, barely parting the mists as it dropped sharply along the mountain's edge. Finally, it slowed, a quartet of bright floodlamps flickering to life along the unmarked bow.

The round vessel twirled around, descending like a black bathosphere through the murky air. In front of it, a layered spotlight illuminated craggy rock as it rolled upwards like a granite curtain.


Inside the sphere, all three ponies leaned forward. Roarke's lenses pistoned out while Rainbow squinted and Booster blinked through his green goggles.

Outside the cockpit, the mountainside loomed incredibly close. The floodlamps illuminated every feature beyond the trailing mists. At last, something dark appeared through the perpetual miasma. It consumed the floodlights in impenetrable darkness.

"Whoah whoah whoah...!" Rainbow gripped Roarke's shoulder. "Hold her steady!"

Roarke yanked a lever. The ship jolted, then hovered dead in place.

The ponies were staring down a deep, round hole in the side of the mountain.

"That..." Booster grimaced. "...was not there before."

"You're certain of that?" Roarke droned.

"If a giant pit of grisly death appeared in the side of your home's signature mountain, wouldn't you notice?"

"Lemme guess..." Rainbow stared wide-eyed down the cave from where they hovered. "...you couldn't see it all this time because of the fog."

"Whenever we lifted our heads to the sky, it was to combat the dragon."

"It would have taken a lot of might and energy to have made this," Roarke muttered. "One would imagine the undertaking would be unbelievably loud."

"I swear, the ponies of Amulek have heard nothing!" Booster exclaimed. "Even the dragon's attacks are swift and silent! You know this for yourselves!"

"You're right," Rainbow nodded with a gulp. "We do."

"I don't see any noticeable claw marks," Roarke said. "If Nevlamas created this hole, it must have been through sheer heat... or perhaps chaos magic."

"But—think about it! How would that be possible?" Rainbow frowned. "Chrysalis kept Nevlamas cooped up in that floating Sacred Hold for so long!"

"Meaning...?"

"When would she have found the time to get out from under all that chaos experimentation and lay her eggs here?!"

"That depends..."

"You don't need to tell me twice, girl!" Rainbow turned towards the stallion. "Hey, Booster Gold."

"Booster Spice."

"Whatever. Just about how long ago did all this crap start?"

"You mean the fog?"

"Yeah. That crap."

He gulped and said, "About five months ago. Maybe six."

"Well, there you have it." Roarke said. "That would give Nevlamas plenty of time."

"Something just doesn't add up, though..." Rainbow leaned forward. "Let's get a little closer..."

"Uhhh..." Booster gulped. "You mean you wish to enter the looming death hole in the side of our mountain?"

"Don't be stupid. I just want a clearer look at the tunnel entrance."

"Don't we all..." Roarke gently tilted the controls forward. The ship drifted and drifted. The mountain now loomed just a few feet away.

Rainbow squinted hard, holding her breath.

"What is it that you're looking for?" Booster asked.

"Look..." Rainbow pointed at the outer lid of the hole. "...see how smoothe it all is? There's no scorch marks. Not even any claw scrapes or signs of carving."

"Almost like..." Roarke's lenses pistoned out. "...like."

"Acid burns," Rainbow murmured. "Since when did Nevlamas ever spit acid on anything?"

Roarke's jaw tightened. "Need I remind of you of the horrific deaths I witnessed while sneaking around the Sacred Hold?"

"Yeah, but it's not like the Divine was leaking chaotic doom juices wherever she went!"

"She was a corrupted dying chaos dragon, Rainbow. Who knows what she could have been leaking."

"Even still, would it have been enough to systematically burn a hole into a mountain this—"

FWOOOSH! Two menacing jaws lunged out of the hole, followed by a pair if crystalline antlers.

"Whoah damn!" Roarke hollered, yanking at the controls.

"It's over!" Booster yelped, pouncing on Rainbow Dash as he whimpered in terror. "We're dragon food!"

"Augh! Darn it! Get off! I can't see us get raked to death!"

CLANK! The scales of the leaping creature collided with the sphere, sending it spiraling off into the mists.

"Aaaaaugh!" Booster yelped as the three ponies rolled and toppled inside the cockpit.

Roarke somehow maintained her grip on the controls. "Everypony! Hold onto something!"

A loud beeping sound filled the flickering compartment. Steam and manalight vented from various consoles as the ship took a massive dive. Outside, the razor-sharp tips of countless fir trees suddenly flew into view.

Rainbow untangled from Booster long enough to spot their plummeting doom. Her pupils shrank. "Oboy..."