Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Undying Greed V

It was hot inside the volcano. Even just walking through the outer layer it was far hotter than Applejack would’ve thought. It felt almost like walking through the desert with the sun bearing down on her. At least they hadn’t had to walk over any pools or rivers of lava.

“Oof, I don’t think I can stand this heat all day.” Star Blaze said from beside her.

“I know what you mean, it’s sapping away all my energy. I don’t even want to bounce off the walls anymore.” Sugar Spirit said, her thick mane drooping over her head.

The hallway they walked through was made of smooth dark stone that strangely made no sound when stepped on, every ten feet or so on the ceiling a glowing light-green crystal was stuck in for illumination. It made for an eerie experience and the heat just added to the uncomfortable atmosphere. After walking through the lion’s mouth of an entrance the party had walked up what must’ve been about ten-thousand stairs that wound around the whole interior of the volcano before stopping and opening up into this hallway. Applejack had no idea how high they were now or how deep in but there hadn’t been any branching paths so far so they must’ve still been going the right way.

“King Avarice must have other ways in and out of this volcano.” Daylight mused out loud to herself. “It would be far too much of a hassle for anything. Maybe he just teleports? Do ponies deliver what they make to him directly?” She started to scratch her chin, lost in her own thoughts.

It wasn’t really anything that Applejack cared to think about, she was focused purely on how they were going to stop King Avarice. To be honest though she wouldn’t really care about the other stuff even if they didn’t have an evil unicorn to stop. Applejack just wasn’t the kind to bother with such things.

“Hey, there’s a light coming from up ahead in the tunnel, and it isn’t green.” Star Blaze said.

He was right, they were coming to the end of this hallway, it must open up into a new chamber soon. They hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any guards or any other ponies so far, it was like the volcano was just for them at the moment. Applejack thought maybe there would be some ponies in here to keep things tidy but maybe King Avarice didn’t want any others in his domain. Maybe the only other ponies in the volcano were in the mines they had heard about. And it wasn’t certain that those entered the main part of the volcano at all.

“Please let there be something up there.” Sugar whined.

“Yeah I’d be fine with pretty much anything except for coming face to face with King Avarice. That I could do without.” Star Blaze said. “In fact thinking about that I kind of want to just run out of here and ditch you three.”

“Shut up.” Daylight scowled at him and slapped him on the back of the head.

“Ow! You didn’t need to do that!” He grumbled at her and rubbed his head while Applejack fought back a giggle.

“We should probably try to be quieter, we don’t know what might be up ahead.” Daylight said to them.

Applejack agreed and nodded along with Daylight’s suggestion. The four continued onward to the light at the end of the tunnel. As they got closer to it Applejack quickly realized that the temperature was rising even more. And this being a volcano she had a good idea about what was coming up ahead.

“It feels like fire is being blown in my face.” Star said as he held a hoof up to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

Once they exited the tunnel into the next chamber it was quite obvious to see why.

It was a huge circular pit, the ceiling was covered in dozens of sharp, hanging, stalactites. Two large stone bridges spanned the pit, both of them meeting at the halfway point and forming a cross over the pit. The tunnel Applejack’s party had just walked out of led right onto one of the bridges. Looking around the chamber Applejack saw three more tunnels, one at each end of the bridges. As Applejack walked onto the bridge she peered over the side to confirm her suspicions.

About a hundred feet below her was a pool of hot, bubbling lava.

“Oh boy, don’t wanna fall in there.” Star Blaze said from next to her as he looked down at the lava pool.

Applejack looked back up around the chamber, it wasn’t just the lava that had been responsible for the extra light but dozens of torches that lined the walls. The place was unsettling, it was like they were in the middle of an inferno already.

“So is this like, the center of the volcano then?” Sugar Spirit asked.

“How could it be the center? The ceiling is enclosed.” Star Blaze responded, giving her an incredulous look.

“Not every volcano is open on top!”

“Oh yeah, like you’re a volcano expert.”

“Can you two be quiet?!” Daylight finally snapped at them. “At least we’re getting somewhere now, the only question is which direction we take.”

“Should we split up?” Star Blaze asked.

“No we’re not going to split up you moron!” Daylight yelled like that was the stupidest thing she ever heard.

“Gotta agree with Daylight on this one, again, I think we should stick together. And let’s just go straight, why not?” Applejack decided to put her two bits in. She wasn’t entirely sure what they should do either but splitting up really sounded like a bad idea. “I think we should put on your camouflage spell again, guards aren’t a problem but we don’t know how close we are to the King or his throne room or whatever. Better safe than sorry.”

“Alright, just get close to me again then.” Daylight Gleam concentrated and her horn glowed as the others stood close around her, the dome of magic camouflage flowered over and covered up the party. “Let’s get going, it’s hot enough in here.”

They easily walked across the intersecting bridges under her camouflage. Applejack could feel the waves of heat rolling up to them from the lava, it still wasn’t the hottest she’d ever been but she’d be glad to get out of this pit. The four of them walked straight on past where the bridges intersected in the middle to make it to the other side and over the pit. The new tunnel they found themselves in was of a gray stone archway, the ceiling vaulting high over their heads with torches lining the walls for light and pairs of columns every ten feet for support.

“Getting fancier in here.” Star said.

It was a little bit, making Applejack think this direction was the right choice.

The hall they had been walking down soon opened up into another large chamber, the walls, ceiling, and floor made up of an unusual light-red stone. Two huge carriage-sized chandeliers hung from overhead, made of either gold or brass with thousands of shiny translucent crystals dotting and hanging from them. On the far end of the chamber was a wooden door inlaid with black steel, white spikes that pointed out from every piece of steel and flanked by two large torches, a foreboding doorway if there ever was one.

“I’m just gonna take a guess but that’s probably the door we’re gonna go through next, right?” Sugar Spirit “asked” the others.

“You know it.” Applejack replied.

But aside from that door there were eight other paths leading away from this central chamber, four on each side but all blocked by heavy iron bars with only small gates on the bottom that clearly needed keys to open. Not like that would stop Applejack if she really wanted to get through them but for now they were heading to that spiked door. The other tunnels must just lead to random parts of the volcano.

“You know if these other gates in here are locked then you’d figure that big door is gonna be locked too.” Daylight said, snapping Applejack out of her thoughts.

“Or maybe the king isn’t worried about any ponies that are dumb enough to come right to him.” Star Blaze ventured, pessimistically.

Daylight glowered at him before turning her eyes back to the door ahead. “Possibly.”

The four walked down the length of the chamber, under the chandeliers that wouldn’t look out of place in the fanciest Canterlot mansion, and made their way to the spiked door. There were two large golden door knockers, one for each side, that could be used to pull open the door.

None of them were sure they wanted to open it.

Applejack finally wiped the last bit of sweat off her brow, from the heat she’d stubbornly insist, before clasping one of the rings.

“Alright, let’s do this.” She pulled open the door.

And looked down another hallway.

Sighs of relief broke out from the ponies. Applejack still frowned that they had more to go through, she was a little worried but she still wanted to find King Avarice already and put a stop to him. Daylight Gleam was also annoyed and wondering if they were going the right way.

“Guess we just keep going down here?” Star Blaze asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Applejack answered.

The new hallway felt more like a dungeon than anything, the ceiling was lower and it was nothing but cold stone with very few torches lighting it up the whole way through. Applejack could see it opening up into another chamber in the distance but that was it.

It was strange though as she gazed down to the end of the hallway, she saw something red but it clearly wasn’t lava, it was standing up straight and there was no extra heat. It almost looked like part of the back wall had been painted a deep blood red.

“Y’all see that too?” She asked her companions.

“Yes, what is it?” Daylight Gleam said.

“We’ll find out.”

Applejack kept walking with them as the red… thing… grew bigger in their vision. When they had finally gotten to the end of the hallway and were about to walk into the new room Applejack finally realized that they were looking at yet another door.

An immense door on the back wall of the chamber, it looked like solid metal and was painted a vibrant red. If the last door was foreboding then so was this one. It was so eye-catching that Applejack almost missed the two dark tunnels on the right and left walls of this chamber that led who knows where. The only source of light for them now was a large metal bowl suspended by chains from the ceiling with a blazing fire burning from in it.

“I think we may have reached the end.” Daylight Gleam said nervously as she walked up to the red door, the others following quickly behind her so as not to leave the camouflage dome.

“I think you may be right.” Applejack agreed as she looked over the door. There were two large silver bars at pony height on the door. Just like the wooden door it seemed like they could easily pull this one open. “We doing this?”

Daylight reached a hoof around one of the bars. “Yep,”

Applejack grabbed the other and nodded at Daylight. “Count of three. One… two… three.”

The two ponies pulled the large red doors open.

“Wow.” Was the only thing Sugar Spirit could say as she looked into the room. The other three ponies completely silent at the sight.

It was a truly gargantuan room, Applejack couldn’t even see how far back it extended into the volcano. But that was hardly what made it special.

Mountains and mountains of gold, jewels and other treasure filled the room. Applejack saw enough gems to feed Spike for a hundred years, more jewelry than all of Canterlot could wear, silver and gold coins that if piled up would overflow out of Ghastly Gorge. Besides that there were all sorts of fancy clothes too, the most ornate, puffy, and flowing dresses she had ever seen. Fancy hats and impeccable suits hanging on racks lined up with the mountains of treasure. There were beautiful hoof carved chairs and tables made from the finest lacquered wood. Applejack saw piles of ancient looking scrolls and tomes, enough that would even satisfy Twilight for a while. There were crowns and scepters, fancy silverware, goblets, tiaras, necklaces, and earrings, paintings and sculptures and other miraculous works of art. Applejack had never seen such opulence, such treasure.

Front and center of the magnificent chamber, only a few dozen feet from the door, stood a golden throne lined with all manner of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires. And a strange pile of bones on the seat and lying around it. Next to the throne stood a pedestal with a large dark green crystal floating over it and a golden crown at its feet.

“Hold on a second.” Daylight said, words finally coming back to her as she walked into the room and undid her camouflage spell while charging up her horn for some new spell.

“What are you doing?” Applejack asked her, following her in with the other two close behind.

“I’m getting a weird feeling from that crystal.” Daylight pointed her horn at it and gritted her teeth, her horn glowed brighter before calming down. “Yes, I’m sure of it. That crystal has something to do with these bands and the barrier around town.” She pointed at the black band on her neck. “I knew it couldn’t be such a simple spell, that crystal must be some sort of artifact or magical amplifier. We need to destroy it.”

“Well let’s smash it then already.” Star Blaze said, walking towards it with a big smile. “And look at all this treasure, we can grab all that we can carry and run out of here right after. This is amazing!”

“You cannot take my treasure. Everything belongs to me!”

The bellowing voice made Applejack and the others stop in shock. It seemed to come from all around them. But that wasn’t it, with an ethereal glow the bones around the throne all floated together, connecting and forming up into the skeleton of a pony with the skull being the final piece to snap into place.

A low growl seemed to come from the skeleton as Star Blaze ran back to Daylight Gleam’s side in fear and a bright white light came from the formerly dark eye holes of the skull. The unicorn king’s horn lit up with a sparkly silver color and the golden crown at the bottom of the pedestal was levitated up and landed on the skeleton’s skull. The bones stopped glowing and King Avarice sat upon his throne, unnatural radiant eyes staring down his intruders.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

They easily walked across the intersecting bridges under her camouflage. Applejack could feel the waves of heat rolling up to them from the lava, it still wasn’t the hottest she’d ever been but she’d be glad to get out of this pit. The four of them walked straight on past where the bridges intersected in the middle to make it to the other side and over the pit. The new tunnel they found themselves in was of a gray stone archway, the ceiling vaulting high over their heads with torches lining the walls for light and pairs of columns every teen (ten) feet for support.

Applejack kept walking with them as the red… thing… grew bigger in their vision. When they had finally gotten to the end of the hallway and were about to walk into the new room Applejack finally realized that they were looking at yet another door.

I see a red door and I want it painted black
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+paint+it+black&&view=detail&mid=DDA085726B06395D3380DDA085726B06395D3380&&FORM=VRDGAR
One of The Rolling Stone's breakthrough hits, back in the 60s. IMO, vastly overrated

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Well, that's not good. That genuinely scared me, well done.

[redmar]

It's hardly surprising that Avarice is inside the vault that contains his treasure he would never let it out of his sight. Also it's not going to be easy to destroy the crystal now that Avarice has noticed them.

[RoboRed]

And a strange pile of bones on the seat and lying around it. Next to the throne stood a pedestal with a large dark green crystal floating over it and a golden crown at its feet.

“You cannot take my treasure. Everything belongs to me!”

The bellowing voice made Applejack and the others stop in shock. It seemed to come from all around them. But that wasn’t it, with an ethereal glow the bones around the throne all floated together, connecting and forming up into the skeleton of a pony with the skull being the final piece to snap into place.

Yup. There it is. Called it.