//------------------------------// // 9 - Haven's Mission // Story: Haven // by Xplounder //------------------------------// Haven’s Mission Haven and Shimmer slowly made their way down the steps, checking closely for any sign of other ponies. “It looks like the coast is clear to me,” Shimmer said as she double checked around the room. “I think you’re right,” Haven replied, lighting up his horn bright enough to see the entirety of the room clearly. The cellar was a large square room with two doors; one on the left wall, and one on the right. It was relatively empty, aside from a small table, a couple of chairs, and some lanterns on the corner of each wall. The two ponies searched around the room, making very sure they didn’t miss a thing. The table, as well as the chairs, had accumulated a fair amount of dust, indicating that it had been quite some time since its last use. “The doesn’t seem to be anything in this room. Let’s check that room first,” Haven said, pointing toward the door to the left of the table. They approached the door, Haven in front so that he could defend them with his horn in the off-chance that someone was in there. His horn lit up and the flung open. As expected, there was nopony inside. The room was smaller than the one the were entering from and contained a small desk and a couple of chairs. The desk was littered with mostly blank, dusty papers. Sorting through them however, Haven came across a larger paper that appeared to be a map around the mountains. “Shimmer, look at this,” he said, calling her attention from the drawer she was sorting through and to the dusty map. The map looked hand-drawn, as opposed to printed, and on the bottom right corner written in black ink was a signature: “Everfree”. “Whoa...” Shimmer said. “Do you think these guys are searching for the stone too?” “I don’t see what else they could be doing. That must be why Discord did away with Big Mike. It looks to me like after that they must have given up. I figure that’s why this place hasn’t been used in so long.” They continued searching what little of the drawers were left. “I think that’s it,” Shimmer said, wading through the last few pieces of blank parchment from the only remaining drawer. “Yeah, probably. Let’s go check the other room real quick.” He replied. They left the room, and while walking past the hatch leading out into the motel, they heard murmuring. The amount of fear struck into them was beyond words. Unable to speak, Haven simply started to approach the hatch as quietly as possible. “Seriously, how did you forget your bag? I just don’t see how it’s possible to forget mountain climbing gear when you know that the sole purpose of your leaving was to climb a mountain,” He heard one voice calling to another pony. “You didn’t have to come,” another voice called from further away, assumingly in one of the back rooms. “Like hay I didn’t. If I hadn’t brought you, you wouldn’t be at the mountains for another day at least. And don’t you try to tell me for a second that you wouldn’t have been pissed the hay off if that’d happened.” The voice in the back room laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right... Okay, I think I’ve got everything.” “Okay, just-” The voice cut off, and just a second later the hoofsteps of the stallion in the back room stopped. There was silence for several moments. The hatch opened and before Haven could see anything more than a figure, he heard a thump and fell unconscious. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haven’s eyes opened as his mind slowly began to grasp a hold onto what was going on around him. He was out of the cellar, laying on a small table ladened with green felt - it was a poker table from one of the back rooms! Muffled voices were making their way into the room from the lobby/bar area. Turning around, expecting to see shimmer laying next to him, he instead saw a window. It was evening... Or morning? It really didn’t make too much difference, so Haven made his way off of the table as quietly as he could. As he approached the door leading into the lobby, it flung open. Expecting to once again be hurled into a state of unconsciousness, he was all the more surprised to see that it was Shimmer. Looking past her, he could see the stallions whose voices he heard start to stare at him. “It’s okay, Haven,” Shimmer said as he instinctively started backing away from the stallions. “They’re with us.” Noticing Haven’s confusion, Shimmer brought him over to the table with the stallions and sat him down. The stallion sitting in front of him was a large muscular unicorn with very light blonde, almost yellow, fur and brown hair. His cutie mark was covered by his large saddle that was heavy laden with rock climbing equipment. “I can see how this must seem rather odd,” the blonde stallion said. “Your friend told us what you found in Mike’s study down there.” Haven was still too disoriented and confused to fully put together what was going on, so he simply looked to Shimmer, then back the the stallion. “Allow me to explain,” he continued, “I’m Kenny. I, along with Jack over there,” Kenny averted his eyes to the other stallion sitting at the table, “and the rest of the gang who should be here shortly, used to be buddies with Joseph Everfree.” “You knew Everfree?” Haven asked, starting to become more aware of his surroundings. “Yes, we were very close,” Kenny replied with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. “Back when Mike still ran the place, Joseph would come into town to restock his supplies and make frequent stops here. He didn’t like people much, you see. Felt if he got too close to them, he’d end up hurtin’ them with his power. That being said, we were sort of his connection to the rest of the world at the time”. “Wait,” Haven interrupted, “so what’s your connection to the stone?” “Well, Joseph’s original plan was to keep it in the mountain... He assumed that if he left it up to fate, and anybody evil got ahold of the stone, then it wouldn’t be on his conscience. Toward the end of his life when Discord came along, however, he knew that that plan could no longer work. He trusted us to do his will after he passed, so he made it clear that he wanted one of us to take the stone after his death to avoid the likes of Discord getting ahold of it.” “Then why havn’t one of you taken it?” Haven asked. “We tried. It was clear that, out of the group, Joseph trusted Big Mike the most. Mike tried to get the stone when Everfree passed, but when Discord noticed what he was doing he... Well, he put a stop to fast... The rest of us feel like Discord will just pull the same move again, and the further we get to the stone before he kills us, the closer he is to it.” “Where’s the stone now?” Haven asked. “We don’t know. Joseph told Mike, and Mike thought that telling us would put us in danger.” Just as Kenny finished what he was saying, the door was burst open by another stallion. He looked paranoid and he quickly shut the door behind him. “Randy, what’s the matter? Where’s Thunder?” Kenny asked. “Kenny, I- I think we found it.”