The pony and the griffon stood next to each other at the boarded-up entrance to an old dwarven mine. The journey to this point had been almost completely silent, with Brownie having nothing to say and Shadow being afraid to say anything. Shadow looked at Brownie timidly. “Are you still mad?”
Brownie sighed. “No. It’s forgotten, let’s move on. What do you know about dwarf mines?”
Shadow happily accepted the topic change. “Well the dwarves do a lot of mining, and they’re pretty good at it. The risk of cave-ins is probably lower in a dwarf mine, but that might make it more attractive to monsters that want to make it their lair. Dwarves can see in the dark, so I wouldn’t expect any natural lighting, and I suppose any torches and stuff probably got removed when the mine was abandoned.”
Brownie nodded. “I’ll light a torch. What items are we looking for?”
The griffon rummaged in his pack and produced a crumpled note. “A green amulet with the family crest on it, a book with a red leather cover and no title, a diamond necklace, and a hand mirror,” he read. “There’s also…no wait, that’s crossed out.”
“Hm?” Brownie craned her neck to read over his shoulder.
That weird cursed sword grandpa found Never mind the stupid sword, it’s worthless
“Cursed, huh? We probably don’t want to mess with that.”
Shadow shrugged. “I admit I’m kind of curious now.”
Brownie just rolled her eyes and started trying to light a torch. After a few tries, she got it lit and gave it to Shadow to hold while she put her tinderbox away, then took it back with her mouth and started into the mine.
The mine opening led to a horizontal tunnel which in turn led to a chamber with a safe, several cabinets and an elevator. Shadow inspected the contents of the cabinets while Brownie held the torch. He found the book and the mirror in the second cabinet he opened.
“The jewelry is probably in the safe,” he speculated.
Shadow spent the next half hour trying to open the safe before Brownie finally stopped him.
“Da dorsh will burn oud if we dake doo long”
Shadow looked baffled for a moment. “Oh, the torch. Right. What about the safe though? It probably has what we’re looking for in it.”
“We can ged id on da way back. Oh, look.” Brownie tapped him on the shoulder and pointed into one of the cabinets he had opened.
He turned to see a lantern and supply of oil sitting on a shelf. “Oh, good idea.” Shadow retrieved the lantern and lit it. “This should last longer than the torch. It’s easier to carry too.”
Brownie put out the torch and took the lantern, hanging it on one of her saddlebags. “I might need my mouth free, depending on what else we find.”
“I guess we should see what’s down the elevator then?” He held the elevator door open with one talon and made a sweeping gesture with the other. “Ladies first.”
The elevator was a metal cage that hung from cables. A lever in the cage controlled an enchanted winch that moved the cables. When they were both inside, Shadow closed the safety gate and Brownie pulled the lever down slowly with a foreleg. The elevator began to descend.
“What do you expect to find in an old mine?” she asked Shadow.
“Well, best case scenario would be the key to that safe, but there might be some pick-axes or leftover gold or something useful.”
“Did the client ever say this used to be a gold mine?”
Shadow considered the question for a moment. “You know, I don’t think he did. Maybe it’s a mithral mine, or adamantine, or something really valuable like that.”
“Adamantine comes from space, at least that’s what it says in the pamphlet Mr. Ironbelt gave me. This could just as easily be a lead mine or something.”
“I sure hope it’s not lead, that would be lame.” They were both quiet for a moment, then Shadow said, “Space, huh? Does it make you feel weird, knowing you have star metal in your mouth?”
“No weirder than having a metal mouth in the first place.” Brownie licked her teeth and grimaced. “I forgot to clean these last night; the pamphlet says I have to scrub them every night or they will ‘foster bacteria’, whatever that means.”
“How deep is this shaft?” Shadow tried to peek through the gap between the cage floor and the wall of the shaft, but the light from the lantern did not reach past the cage.
Brownie yawned and her ears popped. “We must be pretty deep already— Oh, here we are.”
The elevator had passed through the ceiling of an enormous cavern. The lantern light did not reach far enough to illuminate the walls. As they neared the ground, Brownie gradually released the winch-control lever. The elevator ground to a halt and bumped the ground gently. There was a set of tracks leading from the elevator into the gloom and next to that was a cable connected to a giant winch.
“Ground floor, everypony out,” Shadow said.
“You can come too,” Brownie countered as she walked into the cavern.
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Shadow said as he followed her, “if you know I’m not a pony, and you know ‘everypony’ doesn’t include non-ponies, why do you still use it to mean ‘everyperson’?”
Brownie chuckled. “It’s an old habit. Practically everyone in my hometown was a pony, so as a foal it was hard to understand the difference between ‘everypony’ and ‘everyperson’. Some of the colts liked to make up extra distinctions such as ‘everyfilly’ and ‘everycolt’ to make it easier to exclude the fillies from their secret meetings.”
Shadow looked slightly embarrassed. “Yes, I remember being that age. Um, just to make sure, colts are male and fillies are female, right?”
“Yes, and foals are any non-adult.” She smiled slightly. “One of the colts convinced his friends to make me an honorary colt after I beat up two of them for stealing my hoofball.”
“What was it like being the only girl in a group of boys?”
“That was only a week before the town was destroyed by gem gnolls, so we didn’t play much.”
Shadow slapped himself in the face with a claw. “For goodness sake, Brown! I’m not trying to step on your talons, really!” He hesitantly added, “How old were you?”
“Ten. Don’t worry, I’m pretty much over it.”
“I’m really sorry—“ He broke off as Brownie suddenly stopped walking and gasped. “What’s wrong?”
Brownie turned to face him and held up a bloody right forehoof with a spiked piece of metal buried in it. “Caltrops,” she said through gritted teeth, “Watch where you step.”
Shadow blanched. “Oh my, um, let me help you with that.”
“Let’s move back first.” She hobbled backwards on three legs for a few feet and then sat on her haunches. “I have some bandages and disinfectant in my left saddlebag.” She grabbed the lantern off of said saddlebag and held it up where it illuminated the area in front of her.
Shadow retrieved the first aid supplies from Brownie’s bag and then tried to pull the caltrop out of her hoof, but he was afraid to pull too hard and it didn’t move.
“Yust pull id oud already,” Brownie said around the lantern handle.
Shadow yanked the spike out suddenly and heard a crunch. He looked up at Brownie’s face and saw sweat running down her muzzle. He also noticed that the wooden grip on the wire holding the lantern had been reduced to splinters. “Are you okay?”
Brownie swallowed and nodded.
Shadow finished treating and dressing the wounded hoof, wrapping the bandages as tightly as he could. “There, that’s the best I can do. Do you want to head back? I…could try to carry you.”
Brownie set down the lantern and spit out a few pieces of wood. “No, I’ll be okay. We just need to be really careful going forward. You have wings and claws; you should go first and move any caltrops you find. I’ll stay right behind you.”
“Alright, if you’re sure.” Shadow grabbed the lantern and crept forward slowly, scanning the ground carefully. Every time he found a caltrop, he flapped his wings for balance and picked it up with his free claw. After a few feet, there were no more in sight and they started walking faster, but still more cautiously than before.
Shadow snuck occasional glances at Brownie to see how well she was coping with her wounded foot, but she caught him looking the third time, so he forced himself to look ahead. This was fortunate, as it allowed him to see that the tracks they had been following led up to the edge of an apparently bottomless chasm. “Whoa, end of the road,” he announced.
Brownie sat down next to him. “The cable goes right over the edge,” she observed.
Shadow stood on his hind legs and held the lantern high, shielding his eyes with his other talon. “I can’t see the other side,” he said at last. “I could try flying over, but flying in the dark in a cave over a bottomless pit would be really dangerous. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t carry you and fly at the same time, no offense.”
“None taken. I doubt I could fly while carrying you either,” Brownie replied with a smirk. “I guess this is as far as we go.” She turned back the way they had come, and froze. “Shadow!” she whispered, “Look!”
Shadow turned quickly and looked down the tunnel to see two clusters of dimly-glowing eyes slowly approaching. As he concentrated his senses in that direction, he began to hear the skittering sound of many legs. “Spiders!” he whispered back to Brownie, “Great big spiders!” He set down the lantern and pulled out his bow.
Brownie drew her sword. The noise of the blade scraping against the scabbard seemed to attract the spiders’ attention and they started moving towards her. Shadow quickly nocked an arrow and loosed it at the nearest set of eyes. None of the eyes went out, but an angry hiss told him he had hit something. He reached for another arrow, but the spiders broke into a run and quickly came close.
Brownie jumped in front of the griffon and swung her sword viciously. The sword met with less resistance than she was expecting and her follow-through struck the blade powerfully against the wall, creating a small shower of rock fragments.
One of the spiders lurched forward into the lantern light and tried to grab Brownie in its mandibles, but they scraped harmlessly against her armor. She swung her sword around again and chopped off two of its legs. Shadow stepped up next to her and shot an arrow point-blank into its face. The spider screeched and fell to the ground, thrashing reflexively.
“That’s what you—“ Shadow began, but stopped in mid-sentence as the second spider sank its fangs into his back. “Argh!”
Brownie spun around and stabbed her sword into the second spider’s mouth, trying to pry it off of Shadow. When that didn’t work, she let go of the sword and kicked the hilt with both forehooves, driving it in up to the crossbar. The spider stiffened and started to fall. Brownie grabbed Shadow’s pack in her teeth and dragged him out from under the spider before he could be crushed.
“Shadow! Is it poisonous?” When she got no response, she grabbed his face between her front hooves and forced him to look at her. “Shadow! Shadow, can you hear me?”
The griffon was breathing rapidly and starting to foam at the mouth. Brownie dropped him, pulled off her saddlebags and began rummaging through them quickly. She found a vial full of colorful liquid and pulled the cork out with her teeth, then she poured the contents into Shadow’s mouth and held his beak shut with her hooves until he swallowed. Brownie watched him to make sure he was still breathing, while listening for any sounds of other spiders nearby.
After a few minutes, he seemed to be breathing easier, so she went to retrieve her sword. The hilt had been thoroughly covered with the spider’s various bodily fluids, and Brownie was loath to put that in her mouth, so she hooked her uninjured forehoof around one of the cross bars and dragged it back to where she had left her saddlebags.
Now she had to think. The first option that presented itself to her was that she could carry Shadow back to the entrance. However, he was just as big as she was and she would also need to carry the lantern. If she had the lantern in her mouth and the griffon on her back, she would be helpless if they were attacked by spiders, or worse. When her injured hoof was taken into consideration, the plan seemed downright foolish.
She tried again. Continuing forward was impossible. What if she left him here? Brownie mentally scolded herself for even acknowledging that possibility; she wouldn’t do that to an enemy, much less the only friend she had. She hesitated a moment as she realized that she did consider him a friend. It hadn’t been intentional—she didn’t even like him sometimes—but there was no doubt that she was, in fact, emotionally invested in this griffon. So much for promises; ‘never again’ had lasted just under a year.
Brownie brought her thoughts back to looking for a solution. She had several days’ food and water; maybe she could just stay here and guard Shadow until he woke up, then he could haul his own sorry rump out of this hole. Yes, that could work. With a working plan, Brownie busied herself collecting and cleaning her gear.
* * *
After a few hours, Brownie saw a light coming down the tunnel towards her. She called out, “Hello? We’re not hostile, can you help us?” She picked up the lantern and swung it back and forth a few times. A few minutes later, a trio of adventurers came into view: A dwarf, an elf and a wolf with an orange and red coat. As they came closer, Brownie thought she could see tiny flames inside the wolf’s mouth.
“What are you doing here?” the dwarf asked, “This mine is supposed to be abandoned.” He reached back to put one hand on a large and complicated crossbow that hung at his back.
“We were hired by the current owner of the mine to retrieve some of his valuables,” Brownie responded. “What are you doing here?”
“We were hired for the same job. We already have two of the items, so you should probably leave this to us.”
“As it happens, we also have two of the items. Perhaps we could cooperate. My associate was bitten by a spider. If you help me get him out of the mine, I could sell you our two items and you can claim the whole reward.”
The dwarf looked thoughtful. “An interesting suggestion.” He paused as the elf whispered in his ear. “How do we know you have the other items?”
Brownie pulled the mirror and book out of Shadow’s pack and held them up.
“Very well, we have a deal.”
Brownie smiled and turned to put the items back in Shadow’s pack. She heard a scramble behind her, then she felt the dwarf’s armored shoulder strike her in the ribs. She looked back in surprise, just in time for the elf to snatch the items from her mouth. The wolf had joined the dwarf in his charge and was pushing Shadow.
For a split second Brownie didn’t understand what they were trying to do, then, with terror, she remembered the chasm. “Wait, stop!” she shouted and grabbed onto Shadow with her forelegs. With a grunt, the dwarf and wolf shoved the pony and griffon over the edge of the chasm.