Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

36 - Buried Treasure

Nosey sighed wistfully as she stepped back from her camera, smiling at it with an expression of utter contentment on her face. Although she knew it wouldn’t work, she pressed the button on its side again. Sure enough, there was no click of the shutter, nor did the flash bulb go off. She’d taken all of the pictures she could, at least without buying more film.

Still, she couldn’t bring herself to be upset. This was turning out to be the single greatest story of her life by far. An exposé on shady baking practices in Canterlot? Hah! That was nothing, less than nothing, compared to this. Shapeshifting spiders from another world! A rampaging dragon! A unicorn with the powers of King Sombra! This one had it all! And she hadn’t even finished conducting all of her interviews yet! Just the thought of what the mayor would say when her part in all of this was exposed was enough to send shivers of delight down Nosey’s spine.

This is a story on the same level as those ones about Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends saving Equestria! she sang internally. Or at least, mostly on the same level. That dragon might not have been a threat to absolutely everypony the way that Nightmare Moon or Tirek had been, but it was still a big scary monster which had been defeated in a big flashy battle. That was always worth premium column inches.

And she had pictures to boot! Barely noticing as the ponies down below gathered around where Lex had landed, Nosey stood up on her hind legs, wrapping her forehooves around her camera and spinning around with it, as though dancing. She knew that she could paint a captivating tapestry with words, but with these pictures she’d be able to reach heights undreamed of. Being able to actually see the fearsome dragon or Lex’s giant magic-pony armor would ensure that they’d never be able to print enough issues to satisfy the public demand.

In fact…in fact, there was more to this story than any single newspaper article could cover, Nosey realized belatedly, setting her camera down as a new thought occurred to her. This had to be an entire series at the very least. No, wait! Forget the newspapers…this was a book deal waiting to happen!

Flopping onto her back, Nosey’s giggle would have made anypony who heard it think that she’d had too much cider. How had she never thought of this before? This would be a book that would break all sales records! It would be like the Daring Do novels, except real! And with pictures! “Oh, A. K. Yearling eat your heart out,” she purred to nopony in particular.

Finally, she sat up with another wistful sigh. There was still a lot of work to do before she’d be able to spread this story across Equestria. And she should probably at least write something for the papers. After all, her boss back at the Canterlot Chronicle had always been good to her. It wouldn’t be very nice to leave him completely high and dry.

Picking her camera back up, Nosey finally noticed that everypony was crowded around someone, probably Lex. Doubtlessly they were either showering praise on their new hero or peppering him with questions about how he was able to do everything he’d done. Either way, she should get down there and see if he’d give her a proper interview now that he’d won the day.

Smiling, Nosey sauntered towards the crowd, idly wishing that she had one more shot in her camera. From the way that mare, Sonata, had been acting when she ran towards Lex, she was most likely sweet on him. Getting a picture of the victory kisses they were probably having right now would have been the perfect shot to end her book with.

---

As he stumbled toward the cave entrance, Fireflower honestly thought that he was going to throw up. He had been running since earlier that morning, when he and Sonata had woken up in a panic, and the effort of trying to do so again was enough that he honestly thought that his legs were going to fall off. Even changing back to spider-form hadn’t helped very much, though he’d been pleasantly surprised to find that his spinneret was finally starting to heal.

Of course, the nausea might be from coming back here, he thought as he eyed the cave warily. This had been where he and his siblings had stumbled after they’d suddenly found themselves in this strange new world, with these new pony bodies replacing their human ones. At the time they’d just wanted to hole up somewhere while they tried to figure out what had happened, but in hindsight it was the worst decision they had ever made.

Following the stream entrance that trickled into the cave, Fireflower could almost see it all over again. Their screams as the dragon had returned. Their desperate, terrified attempts to flee, scattering in all directions. Lily…

Squeezing his eyes shut, Fireflower took several deep breaths before he moved further in. It’s dead, he reassured himself. Lex killed it. You watched it die. Now you have to get Brightrose out of here and get him to heal Lex.

Steeling his nerves, Fireflower called out. “Brightrose! It’s me, Fireflower! Are you in here?” He stopped walking as he listened for an answer. After several seconds, when none had come, he tried calling out again. Again, there was nothing.

Before he’d been nervous because of what had happened here previously, as well as worried about whether or not they’d be able to get back in time. But now Fireflower felt a different sort of dread creeping up on him. Did they even know for sure that Brightrose was still alive? The others had said that he was being held here, but had they made sure that the dragon hadn’t eaten him or crushed him or melted him with its acid breath-

Stop it! he cried internally, forcing himself to terminate that line of thought. He had to be alive! He just had to be!

“BRIGHTROSE! Come on, answer me! Where are you?!” He trailed off, hearing his voice echo as he went further back into the cave. It had quickly gotten pitch black, but that presented no hindrance to Fireflower. Like all of his kind, he could see in the dark, although doing so presented a washed-out, black-and-white world devoid of color.

Finally, he stopped, still hearing no reply. “Come on,” Fireflower whispered to himself in desperation. “Do something to let me know you’re still alive. Make a light or call out or-”

Tap.

Fireflower’s head snapped up, listening intently. What had that been?

Tap.

Spinning around, he tried to follow the source of the sound, but it was tricky with how the cave walls were making everything echo.

Tap.

Finally, he managed to find what sounded like the source of the tapping. It was coming from…part of the cave wall? Except, he realized, it wasn’t part of the wall. It was a large boulder set into an opening. He could even see the small gaps around the edges where it didn’t quite fit. Skittering closer to it, Fireflower put one of his eyes up to those holes, but the position was one that didn’t let him see very far inside. “Brightrose? Are you in there?”

Tap. Tap tap.

Now convinced that it was his brother trying to signal him, Fireflower felt his spirits buoy. “Hang on! I’m going to get you out of there!” But as he backed away from the boulder to look it over, he realized that that was going to be easier said than done. It looked like it was firmly wedged in there.

Biting his lip, Fireflower reared up and wrapped most of his legs around the boulder as best he could before pulling with all of his might. Groaning with effort, he strained as much as he could, but the giant stone didn’t move even a fraction of an inch. Releasing it, he fell back, panting.

Okay, that hadn’t worked. What else? Some sort of lever to wedge it out? He swept his eyes back and forth around the floor of the cave, but there was nothing there that looked remotely suitable for such a task. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t have come this far just to fail now! “I’m going to go try and find something to get that boulder out of the way. I’ll be right back!” he called out, not waiting for an answer before he went deeper into the cave.

It didn’t extend back much further, and he was able to reach the end in less than a minute…and it was completely empty. Feeling his frustration building as he looked at the bare walls, Fireflower almost missed the folded piece of cloth in a corner alcove, doing a double-take as he noticed the incongruous sight.

Picking it up more out of a desperate desire to do something rather than curiosity, he nevertheless couldn’t help but wonder what it was doing there. Did the dragon bring this here? Why would it care about a piece of fabric? As far as Fireflower knew, dragons were supposed to hoard gold and jewels. Was it a map? He unfolded it, and seeing that it made a large circle, laid it out on the cave floor.

And very nearly fell into the hole that was there.

Jumping back in surprise, Fireflower tried to figure out what had just happened. Where he’d laid down the scrap of cloth, there was now a large hole in the middle of the cave floor, one that hadn’t been there before. Edging closer to it nervously, Fireflower peeked over the edge…and stopped in shock at the sight.

It was full of coins.

He couldn’t even begin to count the number of them. There had to be thousands at the very least! There were also two long tubes in the middle that he realized were scroll cases. And near the edge, there was a small statuette. It was of a pony, of all things, one that had wings and a horn. Although Fireflower had no experience with art, he could tell by how intricately it had been carved that it had to be valuable.

It’s the dragon’s hoard, he realized numbly, unable to stop staring at the sight. It was keeping it in this, this…whatever this is. It took another few seconds for him to come back to himself. He couldn’t afford to be mesmerized by this right now, he had to find a way to get Brightrose out of there!

Scratching at the edge of the hole, he caught what felt like a seam and pulled upward. Sure enough, the edge of it lifted up, and suddenly the hold was gone, a round piece of cloth in its place. Folding it up, Fireflower carried it in one leg as he hurried back to where Brightrose was.

“Brightrose!” he called. “I can’t figure out a way to get that rock out of there! Can you…I don’t know, can you push or something from your side?”

There was no answer, and Fireflower felt himself getting angry. This wasn’t fair. There had to be some way to get this thing to move! If only he had some other sort of magic besides fire spells! It wasn’t like he could melt the rock or…or…

Stopping as an idea came to him, Fireflower studied the giant boulder more closely. It looked like it had most of its bulk outside of the entrance, which meant that if it was going to roll one way it would be toward him. That’s good. If it’s going to move, I don’t want it to roll inward and crush Brightrose.

“I’ve got an idea!” Fireflower called out again. “Just hang on!”

Stepping back, he chanted a spell, pointing one leg at the rocky ground beneath the boulder. A moment later, a red beam shot from his outstretched leg, striking the ground. It winked out after a moment, leaving a scorch mark but otherwise having no effect. Undeterred, Fireflower cast the spell again. And then a third time.

By now the ground was sizzling, and Fireflower could see the stone starting to bubble slightly, heating up enough that it was actually beginning to illuminate the cave a little bit. He cast the spell again, and could see the ground starting to melt. It was working!

There was a loud rumble as the boulder suddenly moved, and Fireflower jumped back as it rolled out of the entrance, crashing to rest several feet away. It hadn’t fully stopped when Fireflower ran to the entrance, taking care to step past the bubbling patch as he looked inside. “Brightrose?”

There, lying on the ground, was a pony. He looked stark white in Fireflower’s darkvision, though he knew that the mane and tail were actually bright pink. A picture of a rose with a heart-shaped bloom was on his flank. It was him.

“Brightrose!” Fireflower rushed over to his brother. “Are you okay?!”

He knew it was a stupid question, knew that his brother couldn’t possibly be okay after being sealed in here for what had to have been days, probably with no food or water. Nevertheless, Brightrose managed to turn his head toward Fireflower and gave him a weak smile.

“Hey, little brother,” he rasped, his voice barely a whisper. “What took you so long?”

Author's Note:

Fireflower finds something incredibly valuable, and the dragon's treasure as well!

Will they make it back in time to save Lex?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Why do I feel like Nosey is going to tag along with Lex and Sonata after they're done in that town? Whether they like it or not?

[Alzrius]

7717254 You thought that too, huh?

[David Silver]

Phew, caught up. You do good action scenes.

[Alzrius]

7717669 Thanks!

[Spiritus Arcane]

A portable hole full of treasure! That's at least as good as a portable hole full of beer.

[Alzrius]

7718678 I see what you did there.

[James Fire]

Ya know what, I'm running out of ammo, so I'm just gonna show these ones to you.

She’d taken all of the pictures she could, at least without buying more film.

You can remove the "of" there. Not sure if you should, but it feels better without it to me.

And she hadn’t even finished conducting all of her interviews yet!

Same here.

Just the thought of what the mayor would say when her part in all of this was exposed was enough to send shivers of delight down Nosey’s spine.

And here.

This is a story on the same level as those ones about Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends saving Equestria!

I think this story is on the same level.

He swept his eyes back and forth around the floor of the cave, but there was nothing there that looked remotely suitable for such a task.

I have a feeling that there should be an "even" before that "remotely".

It hadn’t fully stopped when Fireflower ran to the entrance, taking care to step past the bubbling patch as he looked inside. “Brightrose?”

I think he stepped over or around the bubbling patch.

Flopping onto her back, Nosey’s giggle would have made anypony who heard it think that she’d had too much cider.

Or she's just crazy.

Author's Note:
Fireflower finds something incredibly valuable, and the dragon's treasure as well!
Will they make it back in time to save Lex?

That treasure is fairly valuable, and that dragon won't be needing it, right?
And Lex will DIE. He seems like the type to just die. Although, he may stubbornly hold on to life, just to be with Sonata.

[Alzrius]

7720713 I did some checking, and it's not grammatically incorrect to have "all of" instead of "all" where "all" is being used as a distributive to refer to an uncountable number of nouns (or pronouns), presuming that there's a possessive element being referred to them. Since it sounds alright to me, I'm going to leave those there.

I think this story is on the same level.

Thanks! Or at least, I think you're making a statement of quality, and not reporting a typo.

I have a feeling that there should be an "even" before that "remotely".

There can be, but there doesn't need to be.

I think he stepped over or around the bubbling patch.

Strictly speaking, "step past" means to move beyond something. In this case, that he's taking care to move beyond (rather than through) the patch of rock that he melted.

Or she's just crazy.

Well, only the ponies who really know her would think that.

That treasure is fairly valuable, and that dragon won't be needing it, right?

That does seem to be the implication, at least as of right now.

And Lex will DIE. He seems like the type to just die. Although, he may stubbornly hold on to life, just to be with Sonata.

Will he or won't he? Keep reading to find out!

[James Fire]

7721324

Thanks! Or at least, I think you're making a statement of quality, and not reporting a typo.

I was saying that that could be worded differently, and think it should.

This is a story on the

I think this should be worded as "This story is on the". It just seems to flow better to me.

But yes, this story is good. Please continue.