Pinkie Pie was the last of the company to still be standing outside of the doorway. The lamia was just loving the heat that came from the deeper parts of the cavern. It warmed her cold blood to a temperature that she just enjoyed. She just couldn’t enjoy them to their fullest though. For her own fears were playing with her mind. The lamia constantly looked up and down, left and right to see the mysterious origin of the sounds that was caught within her ears earlier.
Of course had Rarity’s help of giving her comfort, been of aid in one way or the other. But it was far from being all okay with her. She might have said to the pirate captain that she was alright after the whole ordeal, but she was far from it. Her heart was still racing inside of her chest as every last nerve was ready to detect anything.
The flight or fight syndrome of the lamia was at near constant high alert. There wasn’t anything that seemed to have been what it was anymore, in her eyes at least. It was perhaps a good thing that she couldn’t sweat with her body, because otherwise she probably would have been drenched with the body fluids all of the time. She was scared to near death and happened to be the last of the company who needed to make her way through the stone doorway.
There couldn’t have been a more dreaded event happening in her life. The mind of the lamia began to work so hard and so fast, that time seemed to have been slowing down before her. Seconds turned into minutes while she just stood there, her body was coiling around herself at a constant rate, in the hope to not see anything in the empty caverns.
And least of all did she wanted to see, Him.
Pinkie’s bright blue eyes were always looking through the pit and the surrounding cliffs to see if there was anything that wasn’t supposed to be there. Her eyes just caught nothing. There was nothing that could have been with them in the pit or on the edges of the cliffs. Yet that never meant that there wasn’t anything on the other sides of the cliff.
Light was seriously lacking because the horn of the stone statue had discharged itself and the orbs inside of the eyes vanished. The doorway was open and there wouldn’t have been any more need for them. Simple as that. It wreaked havoc inside of the mind of the lamia. The adrenaline began to pump even faster through her body as she only became more and more scared about every- and anything.
But why couldn’t she move? Why did it felt like half of her body had been turned into nothing but stone? Why did it seem that she was glued upon her spot? Why was she unable to just shoot into the doorway and join the rest of the company. Or even better: why didn’t she call out to them?
All of those questions were not being asked by the lamia herself but they were floating around there. Just the mind which was thinking of them remained to be a question in and of itself. What could she have done in the moment?
Pinkie Pie tried everything that she knew to keep herself calm. Thoughts that ranged from the sweet moments with her family through her life up to the meeting of the company of mares. Though every time she thought about the mares, the horrors eventually came. Those cursed spiders that would have been hunting them like there wouldn’t be a tomorrow.
A shudder travelled down the entire spine of the creature. One that was reaching all the way back to the actual tail. Words never seemed to have been able to leave her mouth as her breathing was done via her nose. Constantly was the attention shifted from everything as her eyes gently got used to the natural darkness of the place once more.
An eerie place it was, that much she had to give them all. Never in her life could she have expected to have ended right there. It almost felt like she was just so far from her comfort zone, even after everything she had done already.
Nothing was what it seemed within the darkness and Pinkie Pie was no stranger to that very fact. She was in fact well aware of the things that could be happening right in the darkness. Whether it was good or bad happened to be something that remained to be seen. Though as she knew her luck lately, it probably would have been the latter.
A gulp then came from her mouth when her eyes had fixed themselves upon something. Something that wasn’t there a couple moments ago. Her entire body then just seemed as if it was made out of nothing but stone.
She had been caught by something and she was unable to yell it up to the other mares. It was as dangerous of a combination as it ever could have gotten. The lamia wanted to scream, shout and make as much noise as she possibly could to get the attention of them all.
But there was nothing that would be leaving her mouth and body. Not even a groan was released from her throat to question the thing she saw. Though what was it that she caught inside of her eyes? The lamia wasn’t certain about that herself.
In her eyes it looked like another lamia that just slithered in calm past the edges of the cliff. Not a guard because it lacked any kind of armor. No, the lamia that Pinkie saw was a whole other kind. Then her ears caught that howling sound again. But that time she seemed to be able to actually give the location to the origins.
Where she located the sounds was even more terrifying than anything she had done up to that point in her life. For the sounds came from no place other than the slowly moving body. Her eyes went as wide as they were allowed in the moment and once again wanted to scream.
Yet if she screamed, she would have given away the location of not only herself, but that of the company as well. A gulp was silently being released as her eyes continued to follow the thing for just a little bit longer.
Though it was no use. The lamia on top of the cliff surely must had noticed her. Pinkie then got the whispers of their own language within her ears. But the accent and the dialect in which it spoke were old, ancient even. Fear was injected even further into the lamia as she feared that her worst possible fear had come true.
That on top of the cliff was nothing else to be found then the feared and dreaded, Gorgon One. The lamia that slowly slithered past her was nopony else then the dreaded creature she had been sacrificed to. She couldn’t and wouldn’t believe it no matter what. She didn’t wanted to believe it that he finally had come for her flesh.
The syndrome of either fight it or flee from it kicked in and Pinkie may have made the smartest decision yet about the matter. Her entire body felt as if it could be moving again and she just made a run for it.
The lamia was scared pretty much to her death. The desires to have her life ended by the Gorgon One while they were so close by the end goal of the mares weren’t too high either. With one last howl that went through her ears did it marked the spurt of energy that boosted her body. Within the fraction of a second had the lamia gained all control back over her body and she just jumped with all of strength into the doorway.
She was through it though, but not without one last warning from the devil that was at the top of the cliffs. Within her ears she caught the last couple of words that he had to say to her. “Dinner, is, served,” were the words that echoed through her ears. An echo that was low of tone, filled with sinister intentions and overall not pleasant to listen to.
A last shudder of fright was given off by the lamia when she slithered at near top speed towards the rest of the company. A company who were already a little bit further ahead than Pinkie would have liked them to be.
~~~~
But in the end she managed to catch up with the five of them and she panted a little bit. She was safe though. She was once more in the lights of the torches that Twilight Sparkle had summoned for the lot of them. She was safe with them, as they travelled in big numbers. That could have been the thing that scared him off the most. At least she hoped that it did that.
“Pinkie, there you are. Where have you been sitting for the past minutes?” the soothsayer asked of her. Twilight allowed Applejack to lead them for just a moment. The unicorn soothsayer let the other mares pass by before and Pinkie would be walking next to each other.
The lamia did her story of what she had heard and had seen, resulting in a deep concern from Twilight. It actually contradicted the words that Rarity had said to her earlier. Who she could believe and who was actually right on the matter remained to be seen. But from the looks of it, it could have been going two separate ways.
“I don’t think he will be getting you any time soon, Pinkie, I mean, look at us. We’re armed to the teeth with anything ranging from swords to spells. We should be fine if he decides to come after us,” commented Twilight in the hope that it would just reassure the lamia. She had to make sure that Pinkie felt safe by the lot of them. Though deep in her mind was Twilight weighing the odds of against one another. What if Pinkie was right and the Gorgon One was actually waiting for them out there? They would be walking right into his trap and not realize it.
The thoughts were quickly dispatched from again though. The unicorn shook her head a couple of times. She didn’t knew for how long she was awake, or how long the events had been going on down there already, but she felt her mind just drifting off to places unheard and unseen. The problem was actually shared by every last one of them.
The tent had to be set up sooner or later. Otherwise they would be traveling right into the magma stream with a sleepy head. Which meant the risk of falling into it becoming only greater.
Twilight gave a smile to the lamia and a pat upon her shoulder, as if she wanted to say that everything would be turning out alright for the lot of them. Such a wonderful lie that seemed to be. A lie which may actually had some hidden kind of truth to it.
Then the unicorn moved herself back up to the front of the company by passing by the other mares as quickly as she could. The eyes of Rarity, Rainbow and Fluttershy gazed over her for just a moment before they then just shrugged it off and returned to their very own things again.
Applejack on the other end got an eye of the unicorn as Twilight ended up walking next to her. Yet just when the admiral wanted to say something, they caught the sound in their ears they didn’t wanted to hear. That crushing sound of stone being moved over itself once more. It echoed through the whole cavern they were in and it only meant one thing.
“Looks like the entrance way has been sealed off, Applejack, no other way to go then forwards. But, look at the bright side, we’re getting closer and closer to the origin,” said Twilight with a faint smile upon her face. A smile that was meant to be reassuring for the earth anthrony.
Applejack wasn’t from the day before though. She knew when a cause was lost and they were getting dangerously close towards that very fact. “Hate to break it to ya partner,” the mare began in a whisper just before she released a deep exhale. “But Ah think we’ve just gotten out of the frying pan, and further into the fires. Ah mean, we’ll be going up against lava somewhere at the end of all this!”
The whispers of the admiral were taken into a truly careful consideration by the soothsayer, who actually nodded in calm towards them all. “Certainly that you are having a point there. One I do not doubt or judge against it. We’ll indeed be facing the magma of the inner Equestria soon enough. The blood that keeps our land alive, if you like.”
The other mare narrowed her eyes a little bit. She couldn’t really believe the words that Twilight had just said to her. Yet on the other end was the unicorn giving her a right. Which naturally gave a rather odd feeling of satisfaction to her. “All things aside, what’s magma and when, when, when are ya planning to let us sleep again? Ah feel like Ah’ve going around for three days straight.”
“Hmhmhm, magma is what you call lava if it hasn’t been erupting yet. What comes out of a volcano is lava. What can be found in here, is called magma. But to the more serious matter we’re having,” commented Twilight. She had one quick glance over the rest of the mares of the company. All of them indeed looked dead tired with the bags clearly visible beneath their eyes.
It was time that they needed to rest and they needed to be doing it quickly if they wanted to be kept on high alert. So the decision was being made actually a whole lot quicker than anypony could have expected it from Twilight. “We set up camp here, or at the next intersection. Nopony wants to walk any further and we’re all dead tired. You know what to do, right?”
The earth anthrony nodded towards the words. Applejack knew exactly what needed to be happening. But the most satisfying thing was that they finally could be taking their rest. Even if the others weren’t aware of that little fact just yet.
For a couple minutes more had the company of mares been walking through the heat of the cave when they finally noticed a little extension of the rocks. A little place where they could be setting their tent and Twilight just nodded. They would be sleeping there for who knew how many hours. All that they knew for certain was that they stayed there for as long as it was required.
They needed their rest and finally was it given to the lot of them. Pinkie was ordered to keep a bit of distance while the rest of the mares went working on the tent itself. Twilight waved around with her staff before she opened portal after portal and the massive tent came out of it. One by one did the rest of the mares all do the things they needed to be doing in order to secure the thing into the solid rock.
A smile came to the face of every last mare once the tent finally stood back up again. It was nicely hidden from the beaten path and with rocks behind them, they weren’t worried about something sneaking up to them from behind. They felt safe and Pinkie was just amazed by the thing.
Though there happened to be just one little question that was surging through her head. The tent was obviously smaller than the six of them. “So, how are all of us going to fit, in there?” she asked as she then pointed to the tent itself.
Twilight couldn’t help herself but to let out a small chuckle from the words spoken. “Pinkie, I’m a unicorn, remember. I can use my magic to do pretty much whatever I want. The tent is enchanted to be bigger on the inside. There’s enough room for all of us. And yes, even you.”
The face of the lamia was then gleaming from happiness. She darted over to Twilight and gave her a tight hug. Where the soothsayer feared that the rest of the body would have followed as well, it actually remained to just the arms going around her. Which was a massive but silent relief.
“Girls, c-come take a look at, this,” the voice of Fluttershy echoed through the cave and caught the attention of all the mares. Even in the dreaded heat they still managed to get over to her location and looked at the exact thing of which she was pointing to.
“This is not good,” said Rainbow while she shook her head already.
“Where there’s one, there’s more,” added Rarity while she stroked her chin.
“All leading up to one big pile,” replied Applejack to the rest of them.
“But where is it?” Twilight asked.
What they had seen, what Fluttershy had pointed out, was something that laid couple dozen hooves in front of the tent. But it could have been the most disastrous thing that they had come across so far. Something that was only meant to destroy everything in its path. Something that didn’t have any mind of mercy and always driven by the currents it carried.
Nopony was happy with the discover but on the other end did they happen to be having some kind of heading. A heading that wasn’t looking pleasant at all to begin with. For the thing that Fluttershy had discovered was nothing else but a small magma current. A little current that seemed to have come from a place higher up.
The eyes of Twilight followed the little stream up into the rocks as the prayers were already made by her. “I just hope so much there isn’t any kind of magma chamber above our heads. Before you ask, I can’t see through solid rock, okay?” she said also to be done before anyone else would have said a single word on the matter.
The company could be understanding the words she said, but it was Pinkie Pie who had remained silent for the whole time. She was looking at the magma stream with both of her hands stuck to her head and the elbows took a rest upon the rocky surface. It almost seemed as if she was captivated by the motions that the boiling magma made before her very eyes.
In the end had the time of sleep to come for each of them. The watches were once more initiated by them. Pinkie Pie was left out of the watches as they all deemed her a little bit too new to be taking on such a heavy responsibility just like that already. The lamia didn’t even argue against it and she went back into the tent with silence around her.
A tent that was a little bit unusual for her though. She couldn’t believe that the space inside of it was in fact bigger than it was on the outside. Unicorns and their magic was not the greatest combination in the world. A thought many actually shared with her all across the land.
The lamia coiled herself up around her body as the rest of the mares all retreated into their beds. Twilight had offered herself to take on the first watch so that the others could be getting their much needed sleep already.
Time and time again did it felt like the unicorn would have been falling asleep during her nightly operations. Though in the end, even Twilight Sparkle couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. Fighting the losing battle was pointless and she just gave into her desires to sleep.
~~~~
Once she woke up again, the mare did look to both left and right. Twilight thought that she had forgotten something, or that something else had happened. Her mind went straight into the natural overdrive just before she began to inspect the place inch by inch.
Both the in- and the outsides of the tent were searched thoroughly to see whether or not there had something been snooping around. Luckily for her didn’t that seemed to have been the case. Her body on the other end felt like it had gotten more than enough sleep to carry her on for who knew how long.
But the changing of the guard wasn’t something that she was looking forward to. So instead of waking up another mare to have her be taken over, she just returned to the little magma stream and watched over it with a pair of calm eyes.
Its gentle but boiling hot currents were a thing that she had to keep in mind. The deeper they would have been going, the more heat there would be given off by it. And that was just one little stream. As there was said before, it would eventually all just come together. And if she knew the luck of the company, all of the streams of magma would have gotten together right at the place where they needed to be.
A deep exhale was being released by the mare. she turned herself around and returned to her original position. Then just continued to wait for the rest of the mares to come out of their sleep.
Eventually could they have been trekking again. After the tent was folded up and stored away, and everyone had their breakfast was the company once more ready to hit the road. Twilight looked over each and every one of them before a faint smile managed to grew upon her face. They were ready, ready to do whatever was being asked of them.
They had been going on for a couple of minutes already and the intense heat of the cave became only worse and worse. Pieces of clothing were already removed from their bodies in order to compensate from the intense heat that was plaguing them. But the worst thing had yet to come. For as Twilight turned into the next curve, she came to a sudden and abrupt standstill.
“What’s going on now?!” Rainbow exclaimed while she was getting a little bit more annoyed on the matter to say the least. The unicorn soothsayer pointed forwards and with the light of their torches and the magma stream they noticed that there was a cave in right in front of them.
The natural path was blocked off at first glance. The closer the unicorn walked up to it, the more it seemed that there was a doorway. A small one, one that came dangerously close to the magma stream. But it was their only shot of getting past it.
“Okay girls,” the soothsayer said after she had returned her attention back to the group. “From the looks of it are we having a small window of opportunity. But it is dangerous as your head will get dangerously close to the magma. Meaning, I want you to stick your head above a pot of boiling water that’s about ten thousand times worse.”
“Are you crazy?!” Fluttershy exclaimed straight away. She had noticed just how absurd that whole plan of hers happened to be. For one of the few times it was actually the doctor who opened the argument and she hoped that Twilight was only joking on the matter.
But the unicorn was not, sadly enough. Neither was she crazy nor was she joking. She shook her head as the words left through her mouth. “No Fluttershy, I’m not joking. I can conjure up a shield that can protect you all from getting burned. You might feel the heat, but you won’t burn. So my question is, who dares to go first?”
Silence came forth. Nopony dared to be moving up first towards the magma currents. Nopony was in the mood to have their heads almost being burned off by the countless amounts of magma that were flowing through the place.
Rainbow’s eye however shifted from right to left and back as she almost felt mandatory that she should have been the first one to cross the lines. Which then happened to be the thing she did. She was a pegasus after all, their whole city was built upon pride and slight bits of honor. Thankfully did the mare possess both in great amounts and didn’t wanted to lose either.
The pegasus was ready to hit it after a small talk of encouragement from Twilight and a massive arcane shield being strapped to her back. The mare had to bend her back in such a way that she would have been able to walk through the one open crack.
Nopony dared to be saying a single word upon the matter. They all were scared for their lives that Rainbow would be starting to scream the lungs out of her body as she caught fire. Twilight’s magic intensified itself to make the shield even thicker just to be safe.
Nothing came from the pegasus. Not even her hooves made a sound when they were setting themselves against the ground. Not for a couple of tedious, agonizing and devastating seconds. Nails could have been bitten off there and then as the mares were becoming more and more anxious about everything. Silence never was a good thing. They needed to know whether or not Rainbow had actually made it. Out of them all did Twilight seemed to worry the most.
“I’m okay!” was then spoken from the other side of the stones. “Just watch out in the middle, it gets really, really tight. Twilight, amp your shield up a little bit, you owe me some hairs.”
A massive relief came from the rest of the mares as they knew that the pegasus had finally gotten safely on the other side. Which meant that it was time for the rest of them to follow. Whether they wanted or not.
Twilight would have been the last of the mares to have made her way through the cave in and once she was on the other side, she noticed a sight she didn’t wanted to see. As all of the mares were practically standing in their underwear. The eyes went wide before they were turned away from the scene. She didn’t wanted to see who was wearing what underneath their clothing.
When she had turned herself away was there yet another realization that came to her. It was hot as hell itself down there. Perhaps the collapsed cave had blocked a whole lot of the heat that was stored inside of the cavern. She could have been both right and wrong on the matter.
It didn’t matter though as she had to find a way to cool the lot of them down and not have them walking around in their underwear. “Suit up would you all? I think I might be having something that can cool you down.”
“But I just had pulled everything out!” Rarity exclaimed as she then grumbled to herself.
“Quiet drama queen!” Twilight snarled towards her. “Just do as I say!” The heat was even getting to her already and that was never a good thing. A mind that was in overdrive and a near unbeatable heat always added up in trouble.
“Good lord, sorry,” replied Rarity when she began to place her clothing back on her body.
A few minutes later had everyone their clothes back on and they all looked at Twilight. With her horn charged and the hand stuck out, they could only guess what would happen next. The eyes of the unicorn went from both left and right as she looked over each of the mares with great care. “A couple of days ago, hypothermia was our greatest enemy. Now it’s the exact opposite. If we aren’t careful enough, we might be overheating ourselves to an extent unseen. So there’s only one thing that I can do in an attempt to lower the core body temperature. And that is to cover it in ice.”
“Ya ain’t planning on freezing us to death in this place, right?” Applejack asked before she crossed her arms over one another. She was in fact a little bit skeptical about the whole thing. Yes it sounded like a wonderful thing, but on the other end would then have ended up with shards of ice coating their hearts.
“No Applejack, I do not plan on freezing you all. It works a bit strange, but the warmer it gets, the more ice is being made. The colder it gets, the less ice. A bit of, reverse nature, shall we say. Now, if you all want to just stand still for a moment,” said Twilight while six little shards of ice had formed themselves in her hand.
Five shards danced at the tips of her fingers while the sixth one remained right in the middle of her palm. Most likely was the one in her palm for herself. The rest be getting those upon her fingers. Pinkie Pie looked a little bit uncomfortable towards the shard before she just gave in.
It was true that the lamia’s needed heat in order to thrive given her semi cold blooded nature. But too much heat would also have been the death of them. So she allowed Twilight to shoot the shard straight for her heart.
Which was exactly the thing that happened. All six of the shards were sent through the room and found their ways into the bodies of the company’s members. There they would have been travelling all the way to the hearts and began to cover it within their icy grasp.
The saying of a heart that was as cold as ice was perhaps never getting more literal for the six of them. But it worked, it actually worked. For as soon as the ice shards had covered their hearts could, they feel the heat around them dropping. Their blood was being cooled down to degrees previously unseen and Rainbow even exhaled vaporized water for a second or two.
All of them got a massive shock from the cold. Each of them made a small little dance upon the spot. They were ready to hit the next part for the caverns. With their hearts cooled down and their engines running smoothing was there no other way than going forwards.
But even with their hearts covered in ice was the problem of the heat a near constant recurring one. The thing that would have caused it was soon enough revealed to their very eyes. For after a couple more turns and twists along the way, they all finally got to the one place where they couldn’t be believing their very eyes.
The source of all the heat inside of the caverns was nothing else but a giant or enormous lake of magma. Twilight’s fear of sleeping under a magma chamber was thrown away as they were standing right inside of one.
They were standing right inside of the magma chamber of some sort of volcano. The assuming that it would have been leading up to a volcano was made and given off by the fact that the ceiling of the place reached high. Really, really high.
The major of the air force had her eyes firmly peeled upon that very ceiling as she couldn’t believe the facts as they were. Something about it had gotten her attention and she wasn’t happy about it. “I think, I think this is the Volcano of Solitude,” she said to the group.
Nopony understood where she was talking about with the exception of Twilight. The unicorn rose an eyebrow towards the pegasus as she said her own words. “You mean the volcano that wiped away nearly everything in the neighborhood and created a massive desert, just, of the… Oh my goodness, she’s right.”
Still didn’t understand anypony what the two were talking about, at all. “Long story short, massive eruption, cities in the nearby area got wiped of the face of the land, everything turned into a black desert.”
“Ah,” the pirate captain only said when she finally got it. “Question though, how do we cross it? For I see an entrance way on the opposing side. I take it that swimming is excluded from it all?”
And once more were they thrown from one hurdle into the next. If one didn’t know any better, it would have been said that everything was trying to stop them from what they were doing. Almost as if they weren’t allowed to move themselves over into the center of their land and stop whatever had caused the tremors.
Twilight and the rest looked over the massive lake of magma and she nodded towards the unicorn. “Yes, we have to cross it, problem is indeed how.”