Pathfinder Ponies

by terrycloth

Hot Time in the Old Town

The Black River Mine was visible from a distance, as a black patch in the midst of the endless white plains of the salt flats. From the blackness rose a black-walled fort, a few hundred feet across, with crenelated walls and a huge black gate. Nearby was a black lake, its calm surface gleaming in the sun, and a black river that wound its way through the fort itself before running south into Ghastly Gorge.

Behind the black, polluted landscape were the towering trees of the ancient Sleeping Forest, home of the Unicorns and Flutterponies and said to be the birthplace of all ponykind. The Black River Mine was at the very edge of the salt flats, only half a mile or so from the forest, and that only because of the logging they’d done for the wooden support beams that kept the mine from collapsing.

As the party approached, their train of prisoners in tow, several glittering Gem Ponies looked down from the walls, and must have liked what they saw, for the cast iron gates swung open to admit them. Inside the walls was a small town of black-walled buildings, on either side of the Black River. Everything was covered in coal dust, except for the Gem Ponies themselves, whose crystalline coats seemed to shed it naturally. Their equipment was not so blessed.

“Blaze’s fiery mane!” Pinkie Pie squealed, bouncing up and down excitedly as she looked around at the buildings, “This is the best town ever!”

“I don’t know, Pinkie Pie… it’s kind of dingy,” Rarity said, glancing around as they led the prisoners towards the town square, where hopefully an official of some sort would take them off their hooves.

“It’s made out of coal!” Pinkie said, grabbing onto Rarity’s cloak. “The whole town is actually made out of coal!”

The rest of the party stopped short.

“That can’t be safe,” Twilight said. “Doesn’t coal… burn?”

“Ach, that it does, lassie,” said a grizzled old Gem Pony – his crystal coat chipped and weathered – wearing a complicated harness loaded down with well-worn but very high quality mining equipment. “This whole place be a heyoooge fire trap, iffen we don’t keep all use o’ fire under tight wraps. So iffen you have any of the fire magics, we ask that you swap them out as soon as possible, and all fire weapons or other magic items are to be checked in at the armory so we can put them under lock and key. Do any of ye have any fire sources to declare?”

“Er… I have a flint and tinder?” Rainbow Dash said.

“That be fine, ye cannae set coal afire with such tiny sparks,” the pony declared, circling the party to examine each of them in turn with a pronounced limp. “Anypony else?”

“Nope!” Pinkie Pie said. “Not me!”

He froze and looked at her. “Ye look like an alchemist.” He spat the last word, with disgust.

“Haha, that’s a good one,” Pinkie Pie said, nervously tapping her forehooves together as she hovered just off the ground. “Who ever heard of a pegasus alchemist?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight Sparkle said, pushing Pinkie aside and meeting the Gem Pony’s gaze. “We’re official Adventurers, here on Pathfinder Guild business, which makes us exempt from safety regulations in the pursuit of our mission.”

“If ye burn down the town, ye die tew.”

“Nopony’s burning down anything,” Fluttershy said. “I’m sure Pinkie Pie will be very careful about using her flame-based concoctions. Won’t she?” With that, she glared at Pinkie, who shrunk back and nodded quickly.

“Very well, there’s nae help for it,” the Gem Pony said with a sigh. “My name’s Deep Bore, and I’m the forepony of this here mine. Welcome tae Black River – I take it you’re here about those cursed bandits?”

“You think?” Rainbow Dash said, gesturing at the train of prisoners.

Deep Bore nodded. “Let’s get these lot to the dungeon, and see iffen we can get anything of use outta ‘em.”

The interrogation was relatively painless. The Gem Ponies didn’t have the stomach for torture, but in addition to the usual intimidation tactics, they had several adepts capable of casting Charm Person. The bandits spilled everything they knew.

Most of them only knew what the party had already gathered, but one of the goblins had been eavesdropping on their leaders, Wind Seed and her rider, Chatterbomb, who weren’t the leaders of the entire operation but were the leaders of the bandits charged with keeping the road closed. According to Wind Seed, the problems the dwarves had been having probably meant that they’d broken through into the ‘Armory’. Wind Seed seemed to think that this was a disaster in the making, while Chatterbomb was eager to get his hands on the contents. He hadn’t heard what they’d decided, but the next day the bandits had started their attacks on the mine in earnest, rather than just maintaining a blockade.

“There have been attacks on the mine?” Twilight asked.

“Aye,” Deep Bore replied. “Strange flying critters with leathery wings tried dropping fire bombs on our heads, although our ballistae saw ‘em off. And just two days past our loggers were ambushed, and lost half their number before they could escape to the safety of our walls.”

“So what do you know about this Armory?” Applejack asked.

“We dinnae know a blasted thing,” Deep Bore said with a scowl. “We’ve been doing naught but following the seam, and a week past we lost contact with the exploratory tunnels. Since then, evil mists, poison butterflies, and the wretched undead remains of our own poor colts and fillies have been crawling the deep tunnels, to the point where our mine is all but shut down – and with a major shipment coming due! We’ll miss the blasted quota.”

“Butterflies?” Rarity asked, curiously.

“Aye, they come out an hour before dusk, and it’s best if ye nae be out with ‘em. Drive ponies mad, they do.” Deep Bore spit. “Our sage says they’re the pets of the Flutterponies from ancient times. If nothing else, surely they’re the work of the bandits.”

“So we just need to clear out the mine, right?” Rainbow Dash said. “Ghouls we can handle, no problem. Evil mist… yeah, whatever. And the butterflies are gone at night. So what’s stopping us from waiting for sundown, and just taking care of everything tonight?”

“Um… I’m really low on magic,” Fluttershy said, looking down and hiding her face with her bangs.

“As am I,” Rarity said. “The bandits we faced on the way here put up quite a fight.”

“I’m good!” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing. “A little low on bombs, but I’ve got plenty of alchemist’s… ice. Lots of cold, cold, freezing potions to throw at ghouls, who aren’t really hurt that badly by cold.” She paused, and turned to the Gem Pony. “Is acid okay?”

Deep Bore shrugged. “Every day ye wait is another day closer to missin’ our quota, but if ye nae think ye can handle it, we can offer a safe enough place to lay yer heads.”

The party were offered quarters in the workers’ barracks, where there were plenty of empty bunks after the losses to the bandits and the monsters in the mine. Twilight and Fluttershy had to put up with some nasty looks from miners who’d lost friends to the Unicorns, but nopony did anything worse than glower in their general direction. The night was spent with the windows shuttered tight – a curfew, to protect everypony from the Gloomwings.

Late at night, everyone awoke to the sound of a huge explosion, coming from the direction of the coal stockpile.

“Is it the bandits?” Rainbow Dash asked, as the party hurriedly grabbed what equipment they could gather up in a few seconds, before rushing outside.

“It has to be,” Twilight replied, as they all stood aghast at the massive pillar of flame. “Pinkie Pie, can you do anything about this?”

“Ice bombs, coming right up,” she said, reaching into her bandolier to grip a white ceramic jar in her teeth. “For what good it’ll do,” she mumbled around it as she took wing.

“You! Adventurers!” shouted Deep Bore, galloping towards them. “Yer strong, aye?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash said. “Where’s the fight?”

“Git to the lake!” When she looked at him blankly, he ran around behind her and pushed with his head against her haunches. “Git! Git along! There’s nae time t’ waste!”

“I’m getting! I’m getting! Don’t get your tail in a twist!”

There was no fight at the lake. What there was, was a bucket line. The bulk of the firefighting was accomplished by ponies using magical rods enchanted to cast Sleet Storm, but the raging coal fire was beyond the ability of the magic to extinguish just like that, so they fell back on brackish water – with the buckets on the return trip full of smoldering coal, which was dumped in the lake where it couldn’t set anything else on fire. Pinkie Pie quickly ran out of ice bombs, but was able to gather the steam into rainclouds which she poured back onto the fire with a quick kick.

By morning, the fire was out, and the stockpiled coal was still mostly intact. As the party collapsed, exhausted, they saw Deep Bore glaring at a heavily armored Gem Pony, the leader of the camp guards.

“How did ye let this happen? We cannae afford this!” the forepony shouted.

“One of them snuck past the wall, and planted bombs. I found my sentries with their throats cut. They defended your coal with their lives, you ungrateful sot.”

Deep Bore shoved him. “Excuses willnae keep the auditors off our backs!” He took a few deep breaths, and pointed to the nearest ponies, who happened to be Twilight and Pinkie Pie. “You! Set up stakes outside the camp. You!” he pointed to the guard. “Bring out the prisoners! Iffen they like fire so much, let’s see how filled with joy they be when their brothers burn at the stake!”

Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked at each other.

Pinkie grinned. “This should be fun to watch.”

Twilight groaned as she got to her hooves. “It’s not like they don’t deserve it. The traditional punishment is hanging, though.” She looked around. “Where do they keep the wood?”

Before they could find the supplies, let alone set up the stakes, the guards returned from the prison. “The prisoners – they’re gone! And all the guards dead!”

“Oh,” Twilight said. “Right. It was a distraction. They started a coal fire as a distraction.”

Pinkie giggled. “I like the way they think.”

With their rest interrupted, and the hours of grueling work putting out the fire, it took until around noon for the party to be fully rested, with all their spells prepared for the new day. As they put on their armor and gathered up their things, Pebble – the guard captain – came to inform them that funeral services for the guards killed in the attack were to be held shortly, and that if they could say a few words about how they were the Empire’s agents there to wipe out the bandit scourge, it might help morale.

“Wait just a second,” Rainbow Dash said. “You’re going to bury them? Just like that?”

“Of course,” Pebble replied. “We return our fallen to the earth, so that far in the future, they might grow into a new vein of precious minerals for our foals’ foals to dig up.”

“But what if they come back?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Rainbow, stop,” Twilight said.

“I mean, I’m not saying that everyone who dies comes back as undead or anything –“

“Rainbow?” Fluttershy said. “You remember, um, the thing?”

Rainbow ignored her. “But if they did, you’d want to be able to check if they were still, you know, them. Right?”

Pebble frowned. “The miners lost to the mists rise again, but these brave souls died a clean death, if not so much of an honorable one. And none of the undead we’ve seen have been anything but wild, hungry beasts, without even the smallest shard of mercy or sanity.”

“You could try feeding them,” Pinkie Pie suggested. “Although you’d have to feed them rotten meat and the only rotten meat around is them, and it’s hard to feed somepony to herself. I guess you could try to trick them into eating each other, but then they’d be all eaten so it wouldn’t matter if they calmed down.” She pouted. “This is hard.”

“If they’ve gone feral, it’s unlikely that they can be saved,” Rarity replied. “Perhaps we could destroy some of the mindless undead from the mine, and feed them to the miners? If they rise as ghouls or the like, of course.”

“Everypony, please stop talking,” Twilight Sparkle said, prancing in place nervously.

“We do need to destroy the ghouls anyhow,” Applejack said. “Might as well keep the bodies where we can keep an eye on ‘em. You know, in case they got back up or something.”

“Really,” Twilight said. “Stop.”

“So, put the dead guards in one cell, and the dead miners in another cell –“ Rainbow Dash started, only to be interrupted by Fluttershy’s hoof being shoved into her beak. She put her taloned hand against Fluttershy’s chest, and gently pushed her back. “But I want to see if Twilight will really try to kill me.”

“No you don’t!” Fluttershy said. “She’s stronger than you!”

“How else are we going to break the charm?” Applejack asked.

“It’ll wear off!” Twilight said, stomping a hoof. “The blue-metal curse wasn’t permanent, so I wasn’t ordered to go back and get it refreshed!”

Pebble stared at the adventurers. “Is there something going on that you need to explain? I’m a bit lost.”

“No!” Twilight said, glowering at him.

“Just hold off on the funeral for a few days, could you please?” Rarity asked. “I’m something of a professional in these matters. If there’s still call for a funeral, I promise to make it one to remember.”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Pinkie grinned. “This should be fun to watch.”

Pinkie confirmed for chaotic neutral. Or chaotic pyromaniacal. So, chaotic.

You seem to have crystal ponies as pony-dwarves. I like it. Especially since that means that Spike's doing his best Durkon Thundershield impression at the table, which is a fantastic mental image.

And really, in an entire town made of coal, how can you tell which bit's the stockpile? I understand not wanting to use wood for fear of even worse reprisals from the rebels, but this just seems ludicrous.

The logistics of spontaneous undeath are confusing, aren't they? Still, while it's good to be prepared, it's probably best to decide such plans away from the deceased's loved ones.

Looking forward to more.