Song of the Foals

by dshadow14

Chapter 9

"Alrighty, then." said Applejack, "So this here tree is the last thing ya saw in that filly's mind?"

"Yep." said Mystic, "Right before I was blinded by a flash of light and bombarded with negative emotions."

Twilight examined the tree closely, doing a few magical scans and occasionally flipping through one of the many books she had brought with her.

"There's definitely a door here," she said, "stand back everypony."

"Wait!" cried Fluttershy, "W-what if whatever is on the other side knows we're coming?"

"Seriously?" sighed Rainbow Dash.

"I think she has a point," said Mystic, "We still only have a vague idea of what we're dealing with, so we can't really rule anything out."

"Well, if whatever it is does know," said Applejack, "there ain't much we can do besides keep our guard up and be ready in case it decides to attack."

Everypony nodded and took a step back as Twilight told them. Twilight charged her horn, working to open the hidden entrance. In less than a minute, the was a clack and part of the trunk rose up revealing a winding staircase leading down into darkness.

'Oh, my favorite.' thought Twilight, remembering her first time in the Crystal Empire.

"Alright," said the purple princess turning to her friends, "Everypony ready?" Everypony gave a determined nod in response. "Then lets get moving."

One by one, the seven ponies descended the stairs with Twilight in the lead, followed by Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and finally Mystic Night. The descent was mostly silent, except for Pinkie Pie occasionally ooo-ing or giggling when seeing a shape in the light of the unicorns' magic. Mystic thought about asking her to quiet down, but he couldn't help but feel comforted at seeing how chipper she was being in such a situation, which he reasoned might be why the other mares didn't say anything about it either.

Just as their hooves started to ache, the monotony of the staircase was finally broken as the ponies saw a light coming from further ahead. The three unicorns extinguished the lights from their horns and the group picked up the pace down the rest of the steps.

"Whoa Nellie!" exclaimed Applejack.

At the end of the staircase was a large cavern. The walls, floor and ceiling were almost entirely covered in thick cobwebs. The light the ponies saw was coming from orbs of luminous gel scattered around the room.

"Goodness!" said Rarity, "I expected an inhabited cavern to be in better condition."

"Alright, let's keep moving," said Twilight, "Just tread lightly."

The ponies stepped into the large cavern and made their way forward, their hooves becoming briefly stuck to the surprisingly thick webs with every step.

"Aw, this is nothing." said Pinkie, "The party string I've been saving for Pound and Pumpkin's Sneezaversary is WAAAAY stickier."

The group could see three tunnels branching of from the cavern: one directly in front of them and one on either side.

"Which way should we go?" asked Fluttershy.

"I don't know," answered Twilight, "But I don't want to risk wasting time going the wrong way, we may have to split up."

"Ya sure that's a good idea, Twi?" said Applejack, "This ain't like patrolin' the orchard for an apple thief, we got no way of signalin' each other if we find somethin'"

"Hold on a sec." said Mystic as he opened up his saddlebags and levitated out half a dozen notebooks. "Now let's see," he muttered as he flipped through the scribbled pages, "No. No. Huh, forgot about this one. No. Aha!"

Mystic floated the notebook over to Twilight as he explained, "I've actually been working on a signal spell for a few weeks now. You send out a a magical signal to any unicorn you're thinking about, and they'll receive it in the form of a series of pulses from their horn. It's not as reliable as I would like, but do you think it could work?"

Twilight read through the notes with a hoof to her chin. They were much more legible than the ones taken back in the hospital, and she grasped the concept easily. However, like Mystic said, the spell was flawed. Twilight took a pencil out of her own saddlebag and quickly read through the spell again adding a few notes of her own. Twilight gave a satisfied smile as she gave the notebook back. "I think it could work now."

The stallion read through the notes himself, a wide grin appearing on his face as he read Twilight's additions. The talented alicorn had immediately caught the problems he had missed and knew just how to fix them. He handed the notes over to Rarity to study as well.

"Alright, listen up everypony." said Twilight, "We'll split up and use Mystic's spell to contact each other should we find anything. Rainbow Dash, you're with me. Applejack, you go with Rarity. Pinkie and Fluttershy, you two go with Mystic."

"And I got a feelin' there might be some twists and turns to keep track of," Applejack pointed out, "So I suggest we all think of a way to mark our path so we don't go n' get ourselves lost."

After giving nods of understanding, the group split up down the three tunnels, officially beginning their search for the missing foals.

Author's Note:

A bit short, but I kind of hit a wall and it's been almost a year since I updated update, hopefully I can get more out sooner.