Stopping back in Ponyville for just a moment, dear reader, we'll check in on the others before we continue. The disappearances of children seemed to have temporarily ceased as the kidnapper in question found himself relentlessly pursued by a very angry alicorn. Rarity remained ever watchful over Sweetie Belle, never leaving her alone for a moment much to the young child's annoyance. The younger sister was overcome with worry over the disappearance of her country friend, and only wanted to be left alone. Heck, left to her own devices, she would have gone charging out into the night to look for her, and Rarity absolutely wasn't having that.
Scootaloo was worried as well, and remained under the watchful eye of Applejack, who had come over hoping that having Scoots around would take her mind off the worry of her own missing sister. She wanted to go out and look, she would turn the whole town upside down given the chance, but with Scootaloo's parents out of town that would have left the child unguarded and easy prey.
Derpy had perhaps taken it the hardest, and had busied herself by hiring Pinkie Pie to throw a 'welcome home safe' party for her favorite and only daughter. The party composed of a cake, at Pinkie's insistence, and trays of ten different flavors of muffins, Dinky's favorite. The house had been decorated with bubbles and balloons and streamers, and the two sat together, playing checkers, trying to pass the time while they waited for any sign of the children being returned. Twilight had commanded them to wait, and wait they did.
Back at the hole, the final group, composed of Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Courage and Don, stood over the dark hole that led back down into what had been Smooze's lair for decades. Perhaps for centuries. Banished to a spirit form, he presumably had spent his time possessing small digging animals such as moles and the occasional passing diamond dog, in order to form this long network of tunnels. They might not ever know for sure, but what they did know was that it was creepy and none of them wanted to go down there.
"Do we have to?" Courage whined. He was all about saving the kids, sure, but wanted nothing to do with a darkened labyrinth.
"Yes," Twilight said firmly. "Come on." She led the way into the darkness, with Dash behind her, and the unlikely pair of donkey and pup behind Dash. They followed the pathway as best they could, taking a reverse course to the one which Don had taken to escape. Instead of looking for paths which elevated upwards, however, they took the paths that sloped downwards.
They followed this path for well close to an hour, even with Don leaving the occasional stamped hoofprint near intersections so they could tell which way they went if they happened to double back by accident, which they did indeed do several times. In the very near distance, the crying of children grew louder. Twilight guessed there was perhaps 20 of them down here. There weren't that many children in Ponyville, and judging by Don's presence, Smooze had started expanding to other towns.
When they reached the bottom, or what Twilight assumed was the bottom, the alicorn's horn blazed to life. The spell she cast was one that Batman would have been familiar with, had she even known who Batman was. It was a scrying spell, which allowed her to see through walls as if she'd placed a high-tech visor over her eyes. The x-rayed skeletons of working children appeared visible through the walls, very close by in fact. After a moment of hesitation, she'd counted nearly 30 of them.
"Come on," Twilight whispered, and she turned off the heightened vision, leaving only solid walls in its place. They moved further outward until they came to the base of the quarry, where all the children were working. There was no sign of Spike. Only minecarts on rusted wheels, most of them filled partway with gems and valuable rocks. Every now and then a crying, sniffling child would bring over a bag full of gems, and dump it into a cart with a clattering sound.
Twilight actually growled. "Let's finish this," she said, and stepped out into the clearing.
Youthful laughter from above met her almost instantly, and Twilight snapped her head up see Spike looking down at her. Despite being nearly three stories up, Spike stepped right off the balcony, and plummeted downwards. Twilight shrieked with horror, and instinctively rushed forward, but slammed into an invisible wall with such force that she tasted blood in her mouth. Spike laughed as whatever had been in front of her dissolved, its only purpose to stop her from approaching.
Spike's descent was met with thick purple fog that rose up out of the ground, catching him like a cloud and lowering him down the rest of the way. He stepped easily from the violet mist like an elevator.
Face to face, Twilight stared at Spike, and Spike glared back.
"Oh, NOW you remember me," Spike spat. "Well it's too late. You had your chance, and I'm taking over now!"
"Not if I can help it!"
Both parties charged forward, and the most emotional fight of Twilight's young life began.