Velvet Underground

by MagnetBolt

16 - Ashes in Your Mouth

“That’s not the most friendly island I’ve ever seen,” Night Light said, looking across the dark water at the even darker rock ahead, the peak glowing and throwing plumes of smoke into the sky. “I guess the travel guide was exaggerating when it said this was a vacation destination.”

“It’s much better in the spring,” Cadance said. “Everything goes into bloom, and there are wildflowers everywhere. Last year there was a big festival and we brought out a kettle so big four ponies had to carry it to make soup for the whole town!”

Her smile faded.

“There won’t be one next spring, will there?” Cadance asked. “No matter what happens, it’s all going to change.”

“Look on the bright side,” Sunset said. “Maybe the volcano will erupt and kill everypony so you don’t have to keep making up sob stories about how they treat you differently.”

“Sunset!” Velvet snapped.

“What?” The filly turned on her with a glare that was as sharp as Velvet’s tone. “She acts like we should all feel sorry for her because her perfect little life in the middle of nowhere is screwed up. But you know what? I’d love it if my life was messed up because I grew wings! The little perfect pink princess just wants to feel sorry for herself when she can go to Canterlot any time she wants and have a hundred hoof-picked servants brushing her hair every morning!”

“I don’t want ponies serving me!” Cadance yelled. “I just wanted a normal life. A real family.”

“Everypony wants what they can’t have,” Sunset muttered. “How long is it going to take to get this boat to the island?”

“Another hour, maybe,” Cadance said. “I’ve only gone out this way a few times. There aren’t any dangerous shoals, but there are rip currents that could end up carrying us miles out to sea.”

“Would it help if there was more wind?” Sunset asked.

“Yes?” Cadance replied, slowly and carefully. “I haven’t exactly gotten a formal education on the weather, but the hot air from that volcano is probably going to make most of the wind actually push away from the island, slowing us down. There’s this neat trick called tacking that I’ve been using to--”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Sunset said, cutting her off. “I’m sure you know all kind of peasant sailorpony tricks. More wind means more faster, right?”

Cadance sighed, rolling her eyes. “Yes, fine, More wind would make us go faster.”

“Great!” Sunset’s horn started glowing with a worrying amount of magic. The kind of magic that in other circumstances would have made ponies run for cover, not that there was cover anywhere on the tiny boat. “I know a spell that’ll create a gust of wind!”

Velvet had a sudden but very strong premonition. In fact, everypony on board the ship managed to have the same premonition of disaster except the pony that was going to cause it. “Wait, Sunset, I don’t know if that’s a good--”

Sunset completed her spell, and a burst of hurricane-force wind slammed into the sails.

This was not what professional sailors might call, in their quaint nautical terminology, ‘a good thing’.

The mast didn’t break, which was a miracle on its own, and the whole boat jumped forward, throwing everypony back. Sunset fell from her perch on the bow and into Cadance. Velvet grabbed a rope with the few seconds of extra warning that her sight gave her, wincing at the rope burn as she slid back, trying to keep her grip strong.

Night Light got the worst of it, cracking his head against the deck hard enough to bleed.

The boat skipped over the waves, the sail rippling and straining against the force of the wind, slamming down into the water after every launch into the air like a giant wooden hammer that was, unfortunately, full of screaming ponies.

“Look!” Velvet pointed ahead, to where a cluster of ash-covered boats were lined up around foreboding docks. “It’s a town!”

“And we’re going to run into it!” Cadance yelled.

“It’s okay!” Night Light shouted, grabbing the rudder. “I can… I’ll…” He pulled it one way, then the other. The boat kept going as straight as an arrow.

“The rudder isn’t in the water!” Cadance shouted.

Velvet looked up at the sail, tugging at the rigging. Cadance caught what she was doing and helped, working the knots on the other side until the sail tore free, flapping in the wind like a flag.

The boat started to slow, not carried entirely on momentum, the wind whipping past uselessly.

“Brace yourselves!” Cadance yelled, as the dock rushed forward.

Velvet closed her eyes.

The boat slowed and gently bumped against something as it came to a complete halt.

Velvet looked over the side of the boat. They’d come to rest against a half-sunken hulk tied to the dock.

“I think the rudder’s working again,” Night Light reported.

[br]

“You know, I didn’t appreciate your tiny little town before, but now I’m really starting to miss it,” Sunset said. Ash was still falling from the snow, thick enough on the ground that the drifts reached up past their ankles.

The town, or what was left of it, was little more than a burned ruin. Blackened beams rose out of the ashes to mark where buildings had been, though there was so little left that it was difficult to tell where one destroyed shell ended and another began.

“This must be where those burned ponies came from,” Velvet said. She nodded toward a shuffling, scorched pony trotting aimlessly through the ashes. It was drawn and skeletal, like it was halfway dried to jerky while still alive. It wasn’t even possible to tell now if it had been a stallion or mare.

“We shouldn’t have let Sunset come,” Cadance whispered. “A foal shouldn’t have to see this.”

Not quietly enough for Sunset to avoid hearing her. “I’m not just a foal!”

“Careful,” Velvet cautioned. “We don’t want to offend the locals.”

The dried-out thing that used to be a pony turned toward them, blindly stumbling towards the sound. More of them started shuffling slowly closer.

“They’re not moving very quickly,” Night Light said. “Well, that or the concussion is getting worse and this is a hallucination.”

“Unfortunately, what you’re seeing is probably real,” Velvet said.

“Even the staircase going up the volcano?” Night Light asked.

Velvet smiled. “Probably not that.”

“Actually, I see that one too,” Cadance said, pointing.

A black staircase shone against the gray landscape, gleaming like a jewel. The ponies walked quickly to it, staying ahead of the increasing mob of slaves.

“This is obsidian,” Sunset said. “It’s a volcanic rock. Technically, volcanic glass.”

“It’s a red carpet up to meet our host, I think,” Velvet said. “Look. The ash isn’t even falling on it.”

“And all the zombies are herding us towards it,” Night Light added.

“I’m not sure they’re actually zombies but…” Velvet looked at the shuffling horde. “Close enough.”

“This might be your last chance to turn back,” Cadance said. “It only wants me.”

“It’d be dumb to turn back now,” Sunset said. “If something goes wrong, all that would happen is we’d be on the ocean too far away to do anything about it, and if everything goes right, we can’t take credit for it!”

“That’s one way to look at it,” Velvet said, with a smile. “I’d rather say we came here to help, and we’re not turning back now.”

“Thank you,” Cadance said, quietly. “I think I’d be too afraid to actually go through with this if I was alone.”

“Come on!” Sunset yelled, hopping up the first few stairs. “And be careful! They’re slippery! What kind of idiot makes stairs out of glass?”

“Don’t mind me,” Night Light said, pushing past Velvet to the stairs. “Those zombies are just getting too close for comfort.”

“He’s right about that,” Velvet agreed. “You go ahead, Cadance. I’ll take up the rear.”

Cadance nodded and skipped up the stairs, Velvet shooting the dried-up slaves one last look before following.

The stairs were rough, just slabs stacked up one on top of another, the glass surface slick and smooth, offering little purchase for hooves, which Night Light quickly found when the volcano rumbled again.

The stallion tripped and fell, his fetlock hitting the edge of the stair.

“I’m bleeding!” Night Light yelled, shocked.

“The edge is like a razor,” Velvet said. “Hold on, I can stop the bleeding.”

“Why do I keep getting hurt today?” Night Light muttered, while Velvet tended to him.

“Because for some reason you decided it would be a good idea to come fight a monster on top of an exploding volcano,” Velvet said. “You’re very brave.” She kissed his hoof like he was a foal. “Does that feel better? I cast a spell to stop the bleeding until we can get a real bandage on it.”

“It’s a little better,” Night Light said.

“Hurry up before he tries to convince you his lips are sore and he needs a kiss there, too,” Sunset called out, from a dozen steps ahead. “We’re sort of on a time limit! I don’t wanna be going up these stairs when the volcano explodes!”

Night Light blushed. “I wasn’t-- I wouldn’t have--”

“If we get out of this safely, Sunset, I’ll even give you a kiss,” Velvet said, rolling her eyes.

“Ew,” Sunset said, sticking out her tongue. “Why would I want a kiss?”

“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Cadance assured her. The mountain rumbled again, harder this time. “If we live long enough to get older!”

There was a crack above them as a boulder finally conceded victory to gravity and fell, more rocks following its example downwards. A fist-sized stone smashed into the stairs between Cadance and Velvet, throwing shards of black glass into the air like shrapnel.

Sunset snapped a spell into the air, trying to blast the falling rubble apart. Some of it scattered away, but the rest rained down around her.

Velvet threw Night Light towards Cadance just as the boulder hit the stairs. The obsidian shattered under her.

Cadance caught Night Light, and Velvet fell after the boulder.

The thing about falling objects is, the average pony can’t possibly predict all the variables that go into knowing where they’re going to go if they bounce and rattle around. You’d have to be able to see the future to predict anything with certainty.

Velvet followed the big boulder down, adjusting her stance and trusting entirely to her ability. She landed in the ashes on a small plateau, something rounded under her hooves. A broken, mostly petrified log.

The boulder that had broken the stairs landed on the other end of the log, catapulting her back into the air.

Velvet caught herself with her aura and drifted down, landing a few steps ahead of Sunset.

“That was--” Sunset blinked. “That was actually pretty impressive. For someone without formal training, I mean. I could do that if I wanted.”

Velvet smiled, her expression strained. “Tell you what, next time I’ll let you be the one to do it.”

“Are you okay?” Cadance asked, rushing to look at her. “I thought you were going to die!”

“That’s what I thought, too,” Velvet said. “I-I’m still shaking a little. I think I need a minute. And maybe a hug.”

“There’s no time for hugs on an adventure,” Sunset admonished. “Now come on! We’ve got a monster to fight!”

Author's Note:

Ashes in Your Mouth

Comments

[Darkstarling]

Before there was Starlight to be the cause and solution to all life's problems, there was Sunset. MAYBE leave the weather magic to the pegasus there sunbutt...

[djthomp]

Man, Sunset just has no patience for any hint of romance.

“There’s no time for hugs on an adventure,” Sunset admonished. “Now come on! We’ve got a monster to fight!”

No hugs! Harsh.