//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Plan For Escape // Story: My Little Pony - An Equestrian Emergency - // by IceStorm //------------------------------// Celestia and Chrysalis both started walking towards the sounds of the running water. Celestia soon found the moist ground underneath her signaling that they were close, and that sound of the creak was now clear as day. She extended a wing out to stop Chrysalis from walking any farther. “Let’s stay next to the creek rather than walking in it to follow it. We don’t know what Deadly has done to taint the water so I’d rather not take any chances.” “What way is it flowing? Can you tell by the sound?” “Hmm, no I can’t. Celestia reached a hoof out and cautiously and lightly put her hoof in the underground spring. “It’s flowing to our left. So that’s the direction we should go.” “Right,” Chrysalis agreed. The royal pair stayed right next to one another, staying within a wing’s touch of each other to make sure they hadn’t lost each other. “Anything yet?” Celestia asked Chrysalis after a failed attempt to activate her own magic. A few sparks of green came off of the horn, but just like with Celestia’s her magic also faltered. “Hmm, we must be getting close to the outer limits of at least your containment field. That’s more than what I was able to spark up.” “We can only hope. It would be nice if we could actually see where we are going. All of this darkness has me more than just a bit worried.” “You aren’t the only one…” Celestia admitted as she felt the ground give beneath her and she instinctively spread her wings. “Watch out, there’s a cliff.” “That’s really odd… you would have thought we would have heard the roar of a waterfall if we were that close to one.” “Perhaps it’s not that large of a drop. Either way, without being able to see that’s a risk I think neither of us want to take at the moment.” Celestia said as she started to descend a bit. She tried her magic once more and got a glimmer, which was more than she had gotten any other attempt so far. “Chrysalis, try it now. I got a little bit of a response from my magic. Yours might work now.” “Without any hesitation Chrysalis started to activate her horn expecting it to fizzle out just like it had the last three times she had tried it. This time, however, it didn’t. Her magic was back and she was able to illuminate the area with her green radiance. “Thank the heavens it works,” she said the both of them looking around. The caves that they were in were very dull. There were some crystals forming on some of the cave walls, but other than that it was completely barren of anything. There weren’t even any fish living in the stream. “Well at the very least we can see the path to follow now, even if there isn’t anything else to look at.” “We better hurry though, I don’t know if he could feel us leave the containment fields or not. So we can’t afford to stay here and talk about what we can see…” Chrysalis pointed out. Celestia nodded in agreement and they both started, once again, following the river. “I wonder how long this goes, and if this is actually leading us out of the caves rather than deeper into them.” “At the very least you can use your magic now, so we should be getting close to some sort of exit.” “How does that mean we’re getting closer to anything? It just means one of us can use magic!” “Well it means we’re out of your containment field and that by that logic closer to at least some sort of exit. If nothing else being able to teleport out of the mountain.” “Um, Celestia I can’t teleport,” Chrysalis admitted. “But I can.” “How does that help us!? You can’t use your horn yet!” “It will help us once I can.” “If you even can…” “I’ll be able to soon. Every time I try I can feel it getting a bit stronger so we’re approaching the range on the containment field for my magic.” Chrysalis sighed. “How can you be so calm when we could be killed by this thing at any moment.” “If Deadly revenge wanted us both dead neither of us would be alive right now. He could have killed us both while we were unconscious.” “You make a point… On that point then though, why has he kept us alive? What could he possibly want to gain?” “If anything I’d have to say we’re bait… which is why I want to get out of here soon and get back to Canterlot so that we can plan a counter attack.” “Are you kidding? We can’t plan a counter attack! He’s with revenge like we are with love. He gets stronger by consuming it.” Celestia sighed. “Then what’s the point? No matter what we do he gets more powerful…” “Well, hatred makes us weaker, which is the opposite of love. Perhaps if we used friendship and Kindness… which are the opposites of Revenge, it would make him weaker. Then those…. Element things you have should be even better. Revenger is a form of Chaos. Harmony is the opposite of Chaos.” “It sounds like it could work,” Celestia said catching a glimmer out of the corner of her eye. “Hey, what’s that over there? I thought I saw a light!” “Let’s not waste any time then,” they both said as the started running towards the light. There was another drop in the cave floor, but this time Celestia and Chrysalis could see it and instead staying on the ground, they spread their wings now that they had enough height to do so and flew towards the light. “Almost…. There…” Celestia said as the cave exit was starting to get closer and closer. Soon they could actually see the sky. Celestia landed just before the cave exit. “Hold on, we don’t want to go straight out… Deadly could very easily just be waiting for us on the other side. Let me see if…” she said as her horn lit up without any problems. “Aha! Get close to me! I’ll get us both out of here!” She said Chrysalis getting as close as she could to the white Alicorn. With a yellow flicker around her horn and the glowing seeping from the bottom of the horn to the top, Celestia activated her teleportation spell. When they two came out of it, they were facing the mountain that they had just been imprisoned in. “Thank the ancestors that’s over. “ They both said turning around only to find deadly revenge right behind them. “What was that? I don’t think I heard you correctly…” he said through maniacal laughter. Celestia and Chrysalis look to each other stricken with fear.