The Apocalypse Ponies: Origins

by PlagenShiki

Act 4: Chapter 16 - The Mines

As our eyes adjust to the dim light of the mines, I begin to make out some glowing green crystals providing some slight light. Other than those crystals the rest of the mine is nothing but rocky walls and some wooden supports as far as we can see. “Well, anyone else think this is somewhat lacking?” Lucky asks. “Yea, not what I was expecting,” Aurora says. “I doubt they would have anything of importance this close to the entrance. We have to explore a bit,” I reply.

We begin walking through the mine. As we do so nothing really changes, and as the minutes go by we begin to notice something. “There is nothing here!” Aurora exclaims. ‘Well, some of us that is,’ I think to myself. “Lucky, you’ve been noticing them as well, right?” I ask. “Yea, those small holes, about half the size of a pony, all over the walls a ceiling, right?” He replies. “Hu?” Aurora says, “What holes?” She looks around and notices the holes. “Eh!?” she exclaims as she turns around to look behind us, noticing all the holes behind us. “Those have been all over!?” She asks. “Yea,” Lucky says with a chuckle.

“They are probably just air holes, though. To keep the air circulating,” I inform them. Lucky nods in agreement but Aurora is still lost in bewilderment and curiousness. We continue to walk through the mines and navigate various branches and different tunnels. We could easily get lost, but thankfully Lucky was keeping track of which paths we went down using some paper he brought along. I just hoped that given his artistic skill, we would be able to read it as we made our way out. Right as I hoped that, I had a sudden realization and stopped walking so I could vocalize my thought.

“Guys, how are we going to get out of the mines?” I ask. Aurora was first to reply with, “The way we came in of course…wait…” She seems to have realized what I did. “Oh no,” Lucky mumbles quietly. “Well, surely they’ll let us out, right?” Asks Aurora. “Think about that for a moment,” I tell her, “If they are hiding something down here, something no one in town should know about, will they just let us out?” Aurora seems at a loss for words for once. “For the first time, I hope our theory of conspiracy turns out to be wrong,” Lucky says with a wry smile.

“True,” I say. “But, we can’t focus on that now since we are here already. We might as well move on.” Lucky nods and Aurora just says, “R-right.” We walk further and further into the mines and the air holes continue to appear where ever we go. After a while, we come to what appears to be a large hole in the tunnel we are currently going down. It stretches from wall to wall and is too far to jump across. “Now that is a hole if I’ve ever seen one,” Lucky says with a whistle. “Yea, it looks like the tunnel continues across it too. Did it cave in or something?” Aurora ponders.

I look down the hole and see that the tunnels continue on down there as well. “Do you want to turn around and take another tunnel?” Asks Lucky. I think about it for a moment before saying, “No. We have already spent a lot of time wondering around down here. We should try going down and exploring deeper. Aurora, you packed some rope, right?” She looks around blankly before answering, “Yea, I think so.” She goes over to the saddlebags Lucky is carrying and searches around in them. A few seconds later, she floats out some rope and gives it to me.

“Perfect! Now then…” I look around for something to tie it to, and spot a rock that should support us as we climb down. I use my magic and begin tying the rope around the rock. Once I am sure it is completely secure I toss the other end of the rope over edge of the hole. “Alright, let’s go. One at a time, no point taking any risks, it is a ways down,” I say.

Aurora and Lucky nod their heads and Lucky starts to climb down first. In a few minutes, he is at the bottom and yells, “Ok, I’m down!” back up to us. Next, Aurora climbs down and then signals me when she is done. I begin to climb down, carefully letting the rope slide through my teeth as I use my legs to keep stability. In a few moments, I am at the bottom of what I estimate to be a 25 foot drop.

“Ok, which way now?” Aurora asks. “Good question,” I say. “Well, we have no idea where we are going. Can’t hurt to just pick one, right?” Lucky proclaims as he begins walking down the tunnel in a random direction. Aurora and I look at each other before we begin to follow him further into the mines.

After a few more hours of wondering around aimlessly, Aurora lets out a grumble as she says, “Gah, this is so boring! I was expecting discovery after discovery, but it’s all just so…so…dull.” Lucky lets out a chuckle while I say, “Yea, yea, of course Aurora. Our mistress of action and adventure has come face to face with her worst fear: Overwhelming boredom!” She rolls her eyes and says, “Seriously you two, how aren’t you bored of this already?” Lucky finishes laughing as he says, “Because, you never know what’s going to be around the next bend or down the next tunnel.” I nod my head in agreement.

“Geez, I understand but we have been at this for hours! Just how big is this place!?” Aurora yells out. “I mean seriously, this is just getting…wait, did you two just hear something?” She begins to look around suspiciously, looking for the source of the sound she heard. “I didn’t hear anything, Aurora,” Lucky says. “You must be hearing things.” But Aurora keeps looking around, so much so that she stops moving. As a result, Lucky and I stop as well and turn to face her.

She keeps looking around and moving her ears around to catch any noise. Suddenly I hear something, almost inaudible and I can’t make out exactly what it is. Once again it is quiet for a few moments, but then I hear the sound again, this time a bit louder. I sounds like the sound two rocks make when struck together. Over the course of a few moments it gets louder and louder until I pinpoint the source of the sound. I look down and see a few cracks in the tunnel floor and as I continue to watch them I can see them growing bigger and bigger as the sounds get louder.

“Uh, guys,” I call out, “I think I know what’s causing the sounds, we need to move, right now!” They look around and see the cracks on the floor Lucky comments, “I guess this is what happened in that area we climbed down at,” before we all begin to start running from where we are standing. However, the cracks seem to cover a larger area than I thought and before we can escape their range the ground begins to crack open and fall away. Within moments the ground beneath our hooves crumbles away and we begin to fall helplessly.

I can hear Aurora and Lucky’s screams mixed in with my own as I decent into the newly opened hole. My fall doesn’t last long, however, as I quickly hit the ground and pain shoots through my body. Immediately after my impact more rocks fall and hit me as I attempt to recover. My vision starts to blur but I fight to find Aurora and Lucky through the cloud of dust the collapse caused, “Aurora! Lucky!” I call out, but hear nothing in return. I cough as I breathe in the dust while I attempt to call out again.

Before I am able to call any further the dust clear enough so that I can barely make out Lucky and Aurora, laying a few feet away from me, partial covered in rock. I attempt to shout their names, but a sudden pain shoots through my head and my vison goes blurry once more. I try to move my body but it refuses to move as I want it. ‘No, this isn’t good,’ I think to myself. ‘I need to get up and make sure they are alright.’ Despite thinking this, I am unable to will my body to move and I feel my eyelids growing heavy.

Moments before I lose consciousness I see something moving in the darkness. ‘Aurora? Lucky?’ I guess. However as the seconds go by I notice something off. Whatever it is has two blue, glowing eyes. It moves closer, inch by inch, until I can make out that it has fangs. “W-what are…” is all I can manage to say before I pass out.

============~+~============

Darkness. Everything around me is darkness. It is quiet, almost disturbingly so. I try to move, but am unable to do so. I open my mouth to speak but no sound comes out despite my yelling. Suddenly two blue orbs appear in the darkness. At first they don’t move they just float in the darkness, but after a few moments they start getting bigger and bigger and glowing brighter and brighter. In seconds they are almost upon me and I realize that they are eyes before their glow illuminates the sharp fangs below them. It parts its fangs and jumps at me.

With a start, I wake up breathing heavily. I look around me for the monster I had just seen, only to take in the sight of a hospital room. I look at myself and realize I am laying in a patient’s bed. ‘How did I get here?’ I wonder. I calm down and lay back in the bed, attempting to recall what led up to me being here, when the door opens and the doctor walks in.

“Va, it vould seem zat you are finzally avake. I hope zat all is vell?” He says. “Yea, I think I’m feeling ok. How did I get here, by the way?” I ask him. “Vell, zat is a most curious question, yes, yes. Apparentzy zey vound you in ze mines, trapped under ze rocky valls after ze floor collapsed,” he informs me. “What about my friends? Are they alright?” I ask, hopefully. “Vut of course! Zey are in anozer room, vut pervectzy vine!” he assures me. “Vut I must tell you zat you are very lucky. Ze mines are closed vor zis very veason. Zey are vorribally, vorribally unstable and zey are prone to collapse. Zat is vhy ve close zem off! Zou and your vriends are very lucky to ‘ave survived!” He gives me a concerned look. “Vell, I must be off, ozer patients to attend to.” He turns to leave the room, but looks back at me and says, “Take care, Veld Grau.”

Without another word he leaves the room, leaving me alone with my own thoughts. ‘Thank goodness they are alright,’ I think as I relax in my bed. Now that I am alone, I begin to assess my situation. I move my body and make sure everything is working properly. ‘Good, nothing appears to be broken,’ I discover. However, my body is pretty sore and I can definitely tell I have a lot of cuts and bruises. I shouldn’t be here for too long.

A few hours go by and my door opens once again showing Hem who says, “Hey Feld, you look like you’re ok.” I wave my hoof at him as I ask, “Hey Hem, good to see you. How did your distraction turn out?” He chuckles a bit as he says, “I managed to lose them in the city and I think they gave up and returned to the mine entrance.” I give him a smile as I say, “Well, it is a good thing you didn’t get into any trouble, since we ended up not finding anything. By the way, have you seen the others yet?”

Hem shook his head and says, “Yea, they were fine. Aurora was upset with the lack of discovery.” I laugh. “Yea, that sounds just like her,” I say. We both share a laugh before Hem asks, “So, what’s next?” I shake my head, “I don’t know. I don’t think we should try going into the mines again, I mean, we almost died. The whole time in there, we never saw one indication anything. It might be a good idea to calm things down a bit and lay low.” Hem nods his head. “Sounds ok to me,” he says. “I’ll tell the others.” He turns and goes to leave the room while saying, “Get well soon.”

Like I told Hem, laying low is a good idea. If there is truly something going on, we just exposed ourselves to those that we are trying to shine light on. We have entered dangerous territory. Besides, we are all getting to the age where we need to find our calling in life and start earning a living. I begin to think about the various things I could try out, things that I would be good at. I used to think becoming a historian would be great for me, however, since this town seems to lack of historical knowledge I don’t think that would be an option for me anymore.

While deep in thought the door opens and the doctor walks in again. “Vell, ‘ello again Veld. I vas vondering how you vere doing?” He asks. “Fine doctor. I checked myself over a bit and nothing seems too serious,” I tell him. “Very good, yes, yes. Vell, I zhink you should ve able to leave ‘ere in a vew days,” he informs me with a smile. “That’s good, I need to start looking into working. How about the others? When will they get out?” I ask. The doctor thinks for a minute then says, “Ze mare, Aurora? Zhe vill be out in about a veek or zo. Zhe had zome vractured vones, nothing too zerious. Vut your ozer friend…” he pauses, “Vell, he has veen zent home already. Lucky vas his name, and he vas lucky indeed. Varely any vounds. A strong vone, he is.”

I sigh with relief. Lucky had always been one to get himself out of risky situations. I notice that the doctor is still focusing his attention on me. “You know, Veld, if you are interested, ve could ‘ave you vork here. Zhings ‘ave been busier as of late and ve could use zhe help,” he offers. I raise my eyebrow at his offer, “Why ask me? I don’t have any training in healing,” I ask him. The doctor gives a slight chuckle and then says, “I know zhat you ‘ave a special ability, zhe ability to learn all kinds of zhings. I ‘ave a feeling you vill pick zhings up quick. Vesides, ve vill start you off vorking reception and helping as need ve. Nothing zhat vill ‘ave zhe potential to harm anyvone. Vell, vhat do you zay?”

I think about it for a few moments. It certainly does sound interesting. Working to heal ponies is always a much needed profession. No matter how things change in the world, this will always be true. It might also provide me with some challenge, given that my previous hobby is now non-existent. “You do not ‘ave to answer immediately, you can let us know vonce you feel vetter,” the doctor tells me. “No, no! That’s fine, I’ll accept your offer. When can I start to help out?” I ask. “Vell, you vill need to get vell, first of all. Ve can’t ‘ave you unvell as you try to help ozers, now can ve?” He says with a smile. I nod my head in confirmation. “Vell, I must take my leave now. Vut, get vell soon,” he says as he walks out of the room.

I lay back into my bed and focus on relaxing. The sooner I can get better, the sooner I will be able to start working and preoccupy myself with other things. Of course, I won’t forget about the goal of the Society of Slumber. We have reached a dead end, but that doesn’t mean we are wrong. We just have to lay low until we find something else to go on. And, if working will raise our reputation while we wait, there isn’t anything wrong with that. Though, I’m sure Aurora won’t be too happy about us sitting around waiting for something to happen. I continue to think about such things until I fall into deep slumber.

Author's Note:

And bam! Another chapter out! Alright, there are hopefully going to be two more, then I can cross this fanfic off my list of things to do. Actually, I have to rework the Prologue and toss it back up, but that's besides the point.

Time is getting down to the wire, I go back to college Monday and will have drastically less time to write. So, i'm hoping to do as much as possible till then.

Hope you all enjoyed, and look forward to the next two chapters!