The Collapse

by Lightwavers

Chapter 21

Tears streamed down Twilight’s face. This was bad. None of this ever should have happened. She should have expected this. But no, she’d thought they could just waltz into the place that held the Everfree’s mind and remove it without much difficulty.

“Down the stairs. Down!” Rainbow said, her gaze darting all over the place. She would have looked crazy if her movements weren’t so calculated.

They all crowded together, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow going first while Twilight and Pinkie went behind. Everyone was silent. Being in such a vulnerable position lent to the tense atmosphere, making the strain almost unbearable to Twilight.

“I don’t much like bringing this up, but I’ve got to say, what if only one of us reaches the Everfree’s crystal thing?” Applejack said when they left the stairs.

“Please don’t say that,” Fluttershy whispered.

Twilight took a deep breath. She didn’t like contemplating the thought either, but they needed to know. “First try the anti-magic field. If that doesn’t work, buck it as hard as you can. It probably won’t work, but the crystal might be flawed, so it’s worth a try.”

“So I’m pretty much useless?” Rainbow Dash said.

“No, of course not! You’ve been a huge help, and without you coordinating, we would’ve—”

“Save it. I’m not going for pity. You guys are more important right now. I just needed to know that.”

“Rainbow, you know that’s not tr—”

“I said save it.” They walked in silence for a bit. “Rarity’s gone, so we need another way to find the Everfree’s crystal thing. Got any spells for that?”

“Well, yes, but Radiance would need to drop his shield. Runes have their own source of magic, but we—”

Rainbow Dash interrupted again. “So the best thing to do is just wander around until we find something. Gotcha.”

“Er. Yes?”

“Guys? Any of you know why them vines ain’t throwing down a bunch of rocks on us right now?” Applejack said, craning her neck as she studied the top of the gorge.

Fear flooded Twilight’s body. “Oh. Oh no. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, how easy would it be for them to bury us down here?”

“No idea,” Pinkie Pie said, moving with a strange floaty gait halfway between walking and bouncing. “But I could check!”

“Judging by how they flung stuff at us earlier, I’d say...we need to find shelter, now.” Applejack’s eyes moved wildly from side to side. “If this is just a circular moat sort of thing, we’re done for. The stairs ain’t safe. We have to hope there’s something around the bend. If worst comes to worst, Pinkie and I will turn off our anti-magic things and hope Twilight can save us with a spell.”

“Um. I was in the middle of rebuilding my teleport spell, and I can’t take other ponies with me. Maybe I could...” Twilight lapsed into silence, trying to think of a spell she could use to get them all out of here. Levitation could only do so much…

“Twi. You don’t need to start freaking out about it. It’s a last resort, and if we have to drop our shields it probably won’t even matter what you do,” Applejack said absentmindedly as she continued looking up.

No! She would think of something. She just needed to think unconventionally.

...It’s a lot easier to think about thinking unconventionally than to actually do it.

“Right gang, this way. Full gallop until you see something,” Rainbow Dash said, then darted to the front of the group and led the way around the chasm.

---

Twilight panted. She wasn’t athletically gifted, and every book she’d read about running advised that you should slow down and pace yourself. But the first clumps of dirt had started to fall about a minute ago and if they stopped they’d be buried.

She bent her head down and charged forward. Tears blurred her vision, brought by exertion and not knowing what the Everfree had done to the rest of her friends.

“Tunnel!” Rainbow shouted.

Twilight looked up. The chasm narrowed ahead, eventually leading into a cave with atrophied versions of the vines that had been chasing them hanging over the entrance.

“Applejack, lower your field for one second! I’m going to get rid of those vines,” she shouted, then attempted to channel magic. It didn’t work. She kept at it with a continuous pull.

The field flickered and fell away. She could see magic again, and it was everywhere, packed even denser than the magic in the actual forest. The familiar sight of the swirling threads of power all around her would have calmed her, if she hadn’t been galloping at top speed. She pulled on her magic and threaded it through a specific thought pattern with all the speed and skill of a master weaver.

A bolt of pure, refined magic burst out of her horn and zipped through the air. It hit the tangle of vines covering the cave opening with a hiss, then started spreading.

Pure magic not in a solid form was extremely dangerous. It’s inimical to regular matter at high enough levels of concentration and will convert said matter to magic. And since there’s no way to completely immerse someone in magic all at once, it will always kill them. The part that makes it truly dangerous though, more than a fireball or cannon, is the way it spreads to matter similar to the stuff that it initially lands on until it runs out of energy.

And Twilight had put a lot of energy into that blast.

The result was that the cave entrance was completely exposed. And it was dark.

Then the anti-magic field flickered back on. Twilight would’ve expressed her relief in some way if she wasn’t too busy galloping toward the...safety?

It was a cave entrance so completely dark that she could see nothing beyond the entrance.

A large boulder crashed into the ground next to her.

But they had no choice.

Discord?

No. They’d already discussed that, and he hadn’t promised to help, but only to make things ‘interesting,’ whatever that meant. It was too risky to involve the creature, since he either didn’t want to help, or was behind this entire thing.

Twilight wished she’d prepared a better plan.

Then they charged through the entrance.

Twilight stopped her charge and collapsed to the floor, panting. They were safe. Even if the vines kept piling rocks down, Applejack and Pinkie Pie could just lower their shields for a split second and she could levitate them away. After a few seconds of laying down in a heap, she raised her head. The darkness had dissolved. An illusion? Instead, all around her was the inside of a large cave, a huge crystalline tree in the middle lighting the cavern in a cold glow. Scattered around its base were six large stone orbs, each of a different color.

“What is this place?” Rainbow Dash said.

“I reckon it’s the Everfree. Pinkie, with me. Get as close as you can to that there tree and turn your Talent thing on full blast,” Applejack said.

That was smart. Twilight turned around and faced the cave, ready to fire several spells at any intruding vines that might somehow manage to overcome the earth ponies’ anti-magic fields.

She smiled. This was it. They were done. The captured ponies would be free, the sun would come up, and Celestia would come back.

“Twilight?” Pinkie said, sounding uncertain.

“Yes?”

“It’s not working.”

No.

Twilight took in a deep breath.

“Get ready to lower your fields, both of you. I’m going to try something stupid.”