//------------------------------//
// Part 4, part 2: The Tunnel 
// Story: Marepocalypse Now! 
// by Lethally Insane 
//------------------------------//

Part 4, Part 2: In the tunnel.

(Prospective: Iron Ore)

“Oh. Shit. No.” Free Writer muttered.
“What?” I asked.
“We need to leave,” he said, turning to the window. “ this place isn’t secure.”
“Marmalade,” he called. “ can you and Pinkie do us a favor?”
“Sure, what is it?” he asked.
“I need you two to stay here.” he requested. “ You’re permamated, so you’ll be fine when they get in. Can you please stall them? Give us more time to put some distance between us and here?”
“Well, I guess, but are you sure we couldn’t just put the shielding back up?” he asked. “There are two of us, after all.”
“No,” Free replied. “ if we put it back up she’ll just take it down. I’ll take Iron back to work, maybe she won’t check there.”

It sounded to me like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. I grabbed the binoculars and scanned the hill, past the mares. Sure enough,  there were two figures standing behind the crowd. I handed them to Free, who took his respective look and went into the kitchen.Then, to Marmalade.

“Yeah,” he said, looking through them. “ it’s got to be her. Looks like Redheart’s with her.”
“Why is Free freaking out so much?” I asked. “ He usually isn’t like that.”
“It’s complicated,” Marmalade said, stopping his scan to look at me. “ for more than one reason. You see, Iron, that’s-”

More of the bars were collapsing now. Marmalade stood in front of the window, blocking me from the mare’s view.

“Well,” he said. “ you guys should go.”
“Ow,” he shouted as they started pulling him by the mane. “ not sure how long I’m gonna be able to keep this up.”

Free Writer pulled me into the kitchen. He walked over to one of the walls, and started pushing the oven away from it.

“Help me with this.” he said, straining against its weight.
“Sure” I said helping him to push it. “ but why?”
“I have a way out under here.” he said, as the oven shifted to reveal a pony sized trapdoor. “ Follow me.”

He opened it to reveal a ladder going into darkness. He started to climb down, slowly disappearing down into the passage.

“Hey, Pinkie.” he called up.
“Yes?” she asked, appearing next to me.
“Push the oven back over us when we go down.” he told her.
“Okey dokey lokie.” she said, bouncing next to the oven.

Here goes nothing, I thought as I started to descend into the passage. Once I was down, Pinkie shut the trapdoor, and I heard the oven swiftly being pushed back over it.

“Wait,” I said. “ how did she do that so fast?”
“‘Cause she's Pinkie, you should know this, Iron Ore” a different disembodied voice said.
“Yeah,” the one from before said. “ it’s not like a wimp like Marmalade could have done it.”
“Hey,” a third said. “ can we have them buck?”
“No, Aaron,” the second said. “ they’re both straight. I thought we went over this.”
“Asshole,” the voice known as Aaron replied. “ You never let me enact my fantasies.”
“That’s because your fantasies are stupid!” the second said.
“Yeah, Aaron, what the fuck man, they're both straight!” the first voice said before they slowly fade away. 

After a few seconds of descent, we started talking.

“How many times have we seen them now?” I asked Free Writer.
“Three times,” he said. “ apparently, they control what we say.”
“That’s really weird.” I concluded. “ Also, when did you get this made?”

The ladder had ended, and Free Writer made a small light at the tip of his horn.  The small light source revealed a long tunnel leading away from the house and the ladder.

“I had it just after the last mating season.” he explained. “ I finished it just after I started developing the spell with Marmalade. It took a good chunk of my bits, I had to go into the research fund to get it completed.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” I said.
“I prefer to look at it as a failsafe for the spell’s test.” he said. “ Also, no one has to know. It’s going to get us away from the mares, and that makes every bit worth it.”
“Fair enough.” I said, the tunnel was starting to get brighter.

We emerged from the tunnel to into a forest. It was mossy. I turned to face the tunnel’s exit. There was even more moss beginning to grow there. Sunlight filtered through the trees onto the ground below and a small brook flowed near us. I took a deep breath of the crisp clean air. Free Writer had sat down a bigger moss covered rock.

“This is one of my favorite places to come and think.” he said, turning skyward to look at the trees.
“Where are we?” I asked, sitting next to him.
“Oh, this is near the Everfree forest.” he said.
“When did you find this place?” I asked him. “ It looks like not too many ponies know about it.”
“Well, that’s because we’re in the middle of the Everfree forest.” he replied.
“What?!” I turned around. I whispered to him. “ Don’t you know all sorts of nasties live here? Manticores, timber wolves, and maybe even a bat pony or two.”
“Well, let's hurry,” he whispered back. “ the sooner we get to the Castle of the Two Sisters, the better.”
“Fine,” I said. “ one more day to go.”

We started trotting to the castle of the two sisters.