Snipit wiped the sweat from his brow. It was really hot in here.
No kidding, he thought to himself.It’s where the Firestone is.
He had followed Nightshade to where he had set up camp, somewhere in the mountains. Nightshade, sitting in front of his tent and staring into the fire, was muttering strange things. Then, Nightshade closed his eyes and went inside.
He didn’t really like caves. He didn’t have great memories of caves. They were dark and filled with evil. This cave was different, though. This cave wasn’t dark. It was bright red, and seemed to be made of flames. The walls were constantly moving, shifting, and they were warm to the touch.
So this is the cave where the Firestone is held. Fitting.
The further he walked, the hotter it became. The heat was pressing on his nerves, and slowly started to make him feel dizzy.
Gosh, I’m thirsty. Why can’t they have any drip of water in here?
He shook his head and continued. He had to get to the Amulet before Nightshade, to keep it safe, out of his grasp. Even though Carbon told him not to, he still thought it was the right thing to do.
He took a few steps forward. The heat was now almost unbearable. He had tried to cool himself down with magic, but that only lasted for a few seconds.
You really had to have a hide of I-don’t-know-what. I wonder if Enerjack or Warpath could enter this. Maybe Swift could, because he’s half-a-bug and has ‘cold blood’ and whatnot.
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
The heat is playing with me, he thought, yeah, that must be it.
He sighed and continued. It was like trotting through mud, the heat was so heavy and so… much. It almost became unbearable.
But I’m close, I’m really, really close. I know it.
He gritted his teeth. He spread his wings and beat them to cool off, but it didn’t help much.
There, to his left, a little dark spot.
It was small, but it was enough to cool down for a second, or so he thought.
The spot was already taken.
He recoiled at the sight. There was a dead pony there! All there was left was a dark-brown half-melted skin. The bright white of the bones sticking out were in a stark contrast. He frowned.
He had seen a frozen body, once. He was found about a decade ago, by a couple who had gone off a glacier trail in the Frozen North. At first they thought he hadn’t been dead for long, but after a few archeologists had taken a look at it, they discovered he had died centuries ago. He looked similar like the body that lied here - except that the skin wasn’t half melted off.
Plus, it is as hot as Tartarus in here. How in Equestria could someone freeze to death?
Then, he saw something odd about the skeleton. It was pointing in a direction towards the dark. He looked closer at the wall behind the skeleton, carefully stepping over it. It was red, but it didn’t move. A small gush of cold wind tickled his nose.
There was a small imprint in the wall, in the form of a bolt of fire, around shards of ice. Within what would be the hottest of the bolt, there was a hole in the wall. It almost looked like, like… a keyhole?
His eyes perked up as he heard hoofsteps approaching.
“I know you’re there, you imbecile!” the stallion said, with a sleek voice. “I know you want the
stone as well, but I’m the one who’s going to go away with it.”
Nightshade!
He tried to find a place to hide, but he found none. When he turned around, he was standing eye-to-eye with the cloaked stallion. He could hear the smirk in his tone.
“Well, well, well. You again.” he said. He huffed.
“So, you’re an Alicorn? Doesn’t surprise me. How else could it take you so long?”
Snipit scowled and pawed his forehoof at the ground. Nightshade only laughed.
“Hah! You think you can stop me? I’m the one with the key.”
With his dark-purple magic, he held up a red-golden key in the form of a bolt of fire. He chuckled as he saw Snipit’s eyes go wide. The Alicorn scowled.
“Oh, come on. You might be an Alicorn, but you can’t stop me!” Nightshade said, laughing. ”Now, enough chat. Let’s go get that stone.”
Before Snipit could do anything, he lifted the key and stuck it into the keyhole. He turned the key, and with a loud, rumbling noise, the door slowly opened.
Snipit knew something was wrong when he felt a sudden and intense cold wash over him. He spread his wings and propelled backwards, into the hotness of the tunnel.
“What?” he heard Nightshade yell. “What is -”
Snipit saw the cold turning the tunnel’s warm, red, moving walls into rigid, blue ice. He turned and ran for the exit.
That must’ve been how that fellow died, he thought. cold, not hot.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw Nightshade’s vibrant, purple eyes looking unpleasantly surprised - almost frightened. Snipit turned back and focused on getting out of here alive. He used his wings to give him a boost.
The ice crept up on the walls next to him. He saw the ice crystals form below his hooves. He gasped as he slipped on the ice and fell down. He felt the ice creep up on his tail. He scrambled to his hooves and tried to fly, but the tunnel was too narrow. He fell again.
Behind him, he heard Nightshade yell in pain, but he didn’t follow Snipit. A purple aura had enveloped Nightshade, keeping his body temperature stable. He stepped into the icy chamber. His eyes fell upon a little shrine, in the center of the room. It was made of pure ice.
Above it, was floating the legendary Firestone.
Nightshade reached out with his hoof to the stone and grabbed it. It glowed a bright yellow. All at once, he felt a burning hot sensation racking his veins. He screamed, but he didn’t let go. Slowly, that pain turned into something… something else. And that was exactly what Nightshade was waiting for.
He started to laugh maniacally. Fire blazed through his eyes.
“Finally! FINALLY!”
Snipit jumped when he saw the icy cold turn into fire again. Out of the chamber came a silhouette on fire. It was Nightshade.
“UNLIMITED POWER!”
He summoned fire from his horn and lashed it like a flaming whip. Snipit ducked and quickly turned a corner.
“YOU CAN’T RUN FROM ME!”
Next to him, Snipit fazed out of the fiery wall. A tongue of fire lashed at him, burning his left wing. He yelled out of pain.
“I AM FIRE!”
Finally, there’s the exit! Snipit sprinted towards the sunlight. He panted and dropped on the rocks. He looked back to the exit, where he saw Nightshade step out in the sunlight, the Firestone now around his neck. He grinned as he spread his wings of fire and hovered above him.
“You lose, Alicorn!” he spat. “Hah!”
~0~
Snipit sat down and stared into the sky. The hot, scorching sun was on its way down. It was cooling off very quickly; it would be dark soon as well, too dark to travel.
He knew that he shouldn’t be sitting around and doing nothing like he’s doing now; he should be out there, following Nightshade. He has the Firestone! But there’s no way he could get him on alone. He couldn’t go back, though. He had to prove he could be trusted, he should at least track down Nightshade to where he is headed. Maybe leave a message for Carbon, so he knows which way I went… he could trust him too, right? He wasn’t afraid of him to turn against him, right?
He sighed. Maybe he should get up.
Behind him, he heard hoofsteps. And claws, and… buzzing? He turned around to see his friends approach him, Carbon in front.
“Carbon? How did you find me?”
He smiled. “We had a little help from Shadowflame. He was so kind to pinpoint your location with a tracking spell. He’s pretty good with that kind of spells, apparently; he gave us an enchanted map to go, because he couldn’t come with us.”
Swift flew up, his wings buzzing enthusiastic. “So where’s that Nightshade? I wanna punch him in the face!”
Snipit winced. “I… eh…” He sighed and hung his head. ”He has the stone.”
Warpath stepped forward. “Do you know where he is headed?”
Snipit looked at Warpath for a moment. “He went towards Equestria.” He pointed his hoof towards the green fields in the distance. “He… I don’t know what he’ll do.”
Warpath hummed. “Well… Then we should follow him, shouldn’t we?”
“How are we going to get there faster than Nightshade?” Enerjack said.
“Just like the way we came.” Swift said, grinning. “We take the enchanted map.”
~0~
‘Taking the Enchanted Map’ turned out to be a really, really bumpy ride. Because the others had done it before, they were a bit more used to it, but Snipit hadn’t. Basically, ‘Taking the Enchanted Map’ was a modified transportation spell. Not teleportation, transportation. Way too fast transportation.
They had landed on a hill, looking over a forest. Next to the forest was a small village, with a train station and a library.
Snipit had to sit on the ground, a bit dizzy. “Woah… that is one map you’ve got there…” He sniffed the air, when he smelled something… off. Was that… smoke?
A huge column of smoke came from a forest near a small village. The village was in turmoil.
“Wait a sec… is that Leading Trot?” Swift said, worried.
“I’m afraid so.” Warpath said, eyeing the town. “We need to do something now, or the town will be ruined.”
He walked a few steps forwards and stood tall.
“Swift, Carbon, I want you to find Aile and ask what has caused the fire. I hope it’s not what I think it is.”
They nodded and took off.
“Enerjack, Snipit, we will go to the fire directly. I need you to cover me for whomever will attack us.”
Enerjack looked to the town in doubt, but he nodded. Snipit looked at Warpath, amazed, realizing he had been given a second chance.
Together, they galloped towards the fire.
~0~
Swift had changed into his ‘normal’ pegasus form, to keep the attention to a minimum. He was flying next to Carbon, gliding off the hill.
“I just hope Civviq and Noir are okay.” Swift said.
“Do you know where they live?” Carbon answered.
“I think I do,” Swift replied. “The town isn’t that big. The question is, are they still at home?”
Finally, they reached the town’s borders. They crossed the railroad, running past the main road, and entered town. It was still chaos here, everypony is trying to shield themselves from the fire.
Swift flew towards the library where Civviq lives with her adoptive parents. It was closed because of the fire, so Swift flew up and looked through the window to see if anypony was home. This wasn’t the case.
“Ugh, where are they?” Swift said. He flew off towards another spot in town. Carbon struggled to keep up with him. Swift didn’t pay any heed, though, and searched the clouds for any signs of his friends.
“Swift! Is that you?”
Swift turned around and faced the grey stallion. Swift gasped. “Aile!”
He flew over towards him. “What are you doing here, Swift?” Aile said.
“We came to investigate the fire. Do you know what caused it?”
“Actually, I don’t know… but I don’t think it’s natural. The forest is way too moist this time of year to just catch fire.”
“I don’t think it is natural either. There is this guy who can control fire with a stone, I think he did it…” Before Swift could explain further, something else came to his mind. “Where are Civviq and Wing?”
Aile frowned. “They’re in the library, why?”
“There was nopony at the library.” Swift said slowly.
Aile’s eyes went wide. “Horseapples.”
~0~