Legends Of Ponyville

by mechafone

21 - Encounters In The Caves Part One

She fled into the darkness. She did not heed the sharp curves and turns of the cave, nor did she seem to be aware of the painful bumps she accrued as she ran. The damage to her pride was all the pain she felt. She had been dealt a most damaging blow, and while she had suffered some physical pain, the real, stinging insult had been to her ego.

Shimmering Oasis was also carrying a new scar, one that trailed under her right eye halfway down to her mouth, still bleeding and cached with dried blood. When the blast that had come from out of nowhere and blew the alicorn off her hooves, she was propelled through the air and landed face-first on a building, knocking her out for a brief moment. When she'd regained her consciousness, Shadow Heart had regained control of his powers, and the block that had been removed from his power had been replaced.

The princess had then fled the scene. She flew faster than she'd ever remembered moving, all the while going over the last few seconds before she'd lost consciousness over and over in her head. She was close. She'd been so damn close. With her goal ripped from her hooves so suddenly and so violently when she'd been so near to liberating herself from that prophesy made hundreds of years ago, to be denied the opportunity to once again change her future, Shimmering Oasis was understandably a little upset.

As the alicorn broke free of the tunnels and ran into a large, dark chamber, she barely felt the dozens of changelings she trampled as she kept running. Her eyes saw not the darkness, nor the dozens of fearful changelings trying to get out of her way. Suddenly she came to a stop in the center of the chamber, skidding loudly on loose stones. She sat down, her breath struggling to keep up as she stared at the ground. Her thoughts ran wild, and her breath began to come in ragged, panicked breaths until she found the memories she was looking for. She'd been so close...

As the panicked princess sat in the dark, panting and attempting to regain what control she felt she had left, her thoughts began to stray backwards, back hundreds of years to the first time she heard the term 'Storm-Bringer'. It was a prophesy that had begun at least a thousand years before her birth, just over nine hundred years ago.

---

Shimmering Oasis, at the tender age of twenty five, followed her father through the bright, sun-kissed halls of her humble home. It was a hallway that opened out into the warm summer air. It was a humble place, and unlike the palaces found far to the west, was constructed using hard clay and brick as opposed to marble and gold. Her father, known to her and their people as the Golden Lord, often told her that the royal family was to serve the common ponies, not lord over them with riches. Thus, the palace was built from the rich soil.

The Golden Lord had shown his daughter the old wooden carvings of prophesies that she had made in the first ten years of her life, prophesies that she never remembered making. She would have them in her sleep or while she was awake, it didn't matter. Every time she'd had a prophesy, she would immediately go to her own private tree garden and begin carving out whatever she saw. Every last one of her carvings had come true, even the ones that took years to happen.

Shimmering Oasis's prophesies seemed to have a limit on how far into the future she could reach. Never further than five years at a time, and the last time she'd made a prophesy that took so long to happen was when she was but a child. Her latest prophesy had been very upsetting to her father, but he hadn't told her why, yet, only that it was a type of prophesy that he'd never seen from her before.

As the two made their way down the hall, something came into Shimmering Oasis' view that eluded her understanding. Along the wall, next to her last prophesy, stood what appeared to be a monolith, at least compared to her other prophetic artworks. Most of the prophesies she created could be framed and hung on the wall like a portrait; this could've decorated a wall.

Shimmering Oasis' eyes opened wide with what she felt could've been awe or terror. Never before had she seen such artistry, and supposedly she had done this last night. The entire marble slab, which she'd carved with what appeared to be soot and ash, depicted a rising storm, born from the back of a single pegasus. Not an alicorn, whose powers would certainly be capable of summoning such a tempest. No, a pegasus. It might not have been so out of the ordinary if it weren't for the fact that this pegasus was not flying, but standing upon the ground while summoning this storm.

The young princess frowned. She never remembered creating her prophesies, but they usually made more sense than this. Often they could be deciphered in moments, sometimes hours, and occasionally days, but this...this was far, far beyond her. She'd never seen anything like this before. She turned to her father, her eyes filled with confusion. "I do not understand, Father. What does this mean?"

The Golden Lord stared at the large marble slab a moment longer, then turned to his young daughter. "This is different, much much different from the ones before, daughter. Your prophesies usually have much less significance."

At the annoyed look on Shimmering's face, a hint of amusement washed over the older alicorn's face. "All your prophesies are significant, my dear," he assured her. A moment later, his face became grave as he once again laid eyes on the marble. "But this...this is something I had not showed you yet and would not have for at least a hundred more years. This, my daughter, is the Storm-Bringer."

Having spent her first twenty five years in ignorance of this term, Shimmering Oasis made a face at her father. "The what? It's just a pegasus and a storm. It sounds significant, but the symbolism doesn't seem so. So why is this important?"

The Golden Lord frowned thoughtfully as he put his words to be said together. Finally he raised his head and told her, "Daughter, the Storm Bringer is a prophesy that is older even than your parents. It is said that one day the world will be at war with itself, ravaged by hate, greed and chaos. The Storm Bringer will then summon a storm that will be seen the world over, bringing a cleansing of the evil that has gripped the entire planet, and bring peace."

The princess shuddered, a feeling of utter terror creeping into her bones. If this prophesy was accurate (and they always were) then war was coming, a terrible war that would wash over the entire planet, and soon. Her visions always came true, and in a matter of a few short years. Still, something else was bothering her. Of all the times she'd made a prophesy, they had been her own. Never before now had she made a prophesy of a pre-existing one. So why now?

She turned to her father, who seemed to be asking himself the same question. She received her answer when he finally spoke: "I cannot be sure, my daughter, but I believe that you will be directly affected by this coming storm."

---

Shimmering Oasis was shaken back to the present, quite literally as she felt a hard hoof pressed on her back, shaking her, as well as a rough voice yelling at her. "Pay attention! What in Tartarus is wrong with you?!"

The princess turned slowly, her wings still shaking with adrenaline to face the smaller Nuzo, glaring at the alicorn furiously. "What is your problem?!" he demanded, sweeping back the way she'd come in a granduous gesture. "Your arrival just now was completely inappropriate! I don't care how well known you are back in the east, but-"

Nuzo's lecture was brought to an abrupt halt. The look of terror on his face was very clear as light from the alicorn's eyes shone upon him. He did not speak, or rather, he could not as Shimmering Oasis' gaze bore deep into his mind. He would have screamed from the pain as pressure mounted tighter and tighter somewhere in his skull, and somehow everywhere else as well. The changeling began to tremble, and a trickle of greenish blood began to ooze from his nose. An instant later and he might have met his death, but the alicorn released him as Chrysalis approached.

"What happened?" the Queen demanded, nearly stepping on her commanding officer as she stood over the two. Nuzo had fallen onto his back, panting and coughing and twisting in pain now that he was free from the angered alicorn. "And not that I care significantly, but where is the colt you so charitably invited into my home?"

As Nuzo got to his hooves to silently crawl back into the darkness, Shimmering Oasis turned to look up and face Chrysalis, perhaps the first time she'd made eye contact with the changeling queen since their first encounter three days ago. "I was...so close," she murmured. Upon closer examination, the Queen realized that the alicorn was in fact not looking at her, but beyond her, not really seeing the changeling. Chrysalis made a face and waved a hoof in front of the princess' face.

Shimmering Oasis blinked, then turned around and began walking off once more into the darkness of the caverns. Chrysalis had had enough. From being ignored to being told she was no more than a servant, the changeling's wings raised and her horn lit up as she prepared to attack the alicorn. "Enough! I will be ignored no longer! Your blatant disrespect has continued long enough!"

The alicorn froze in her tracks, and the room became silent. Even Chrysalis, in her anger, noticed the change. She had to shield her eyes as a light came from around the room. It came from everywhere, from every direction. Chrysalis's eyes widened in horror as she realized that the light came from her minions. Every last one of them in the large chamber, their eyes a whitish gold. And then they spoke.

"He is here. He will fall. He and all his friends will die, and so will you if you get in my way. I will not warn you again."

Chrysalis stared, open-mouthed, as the echo of the voices of her minions slowly died down. The Queen abruptly sat down, speechless, as Shimmering Oasis and the Queen's entire brood slowly exited the chamber. It took a few moments for every last one of them to exit, leaving the Queen alone in the large chamber. Finally, she remembered that she needed to breathe and took in a few hungry breathes. It was in this moment that she finally realized why her lord Discord had chosen the alicorn to be in charge and not her, and the fear that she should have shown for the alicorn from the beginning finally set in.

---

Spark Storm lead the way into the darkness, his wings quietly alight with electrical currents that provided just enough light to see a few meters ahead of him. Spark was first, followed by Kecnik and Madalah. Laser Reflex and Emerald Skies came next, followed by Rarity, who provided light for the middle. Behind her followed Orea, Ampelus and Anorax, with Sohl bringing up the rear, who had to duck to follow the shorter ponies.

The going was slow and unnervingly quiet. The only noise to be heard were hoofsteps, the crackling from Spark's wings, and the occassional misstep on loose stones on the cavern floor. After a moment, a collective gasp issued from behind Spark Storm. He turned to face a grave-faced Kecnik and a horrified Madalah. They seemed to stare off beyond Spark, unnerving the pegasus enough to look behind him to make sure they hadn't seen something he'd missed.

When he saw nothing behind him, he turned back to the two changelings and cautiously poked at Kecnik. When he received no response, he reached forward and put a hoof on the tall changeling's shoulder, finally breaking him from his trance. "Uh...you ok there? What's going on?" Spark asked.

"...Something terrible has happened," Kecnik murmured, turning to look down at Madalah, who simply nodded and stared at the ground. "Before, even after we broke free from the hive, we were still connected to them. We could receive messages from them via telepathy, even feel their proximity. Just seconds ago I could feel them, all of them, and then suddenly they...they just disappeared. All of them at the same time, from not far from here."

Spark's group exchanged glances that mixed between weirded out and worried until Ampelus spoke up with a roll of her eyes. "Don't be absurd. I can sense every last one of them still inside." The entire group turned to the nymph, who returned their gaze with a shrug. "Honestly, is telepathy your only means of keeping track of each other? Small wonder they lost you two," she said, inclining her muzzle to Kecnik and Madalah.

"Hey, back off," Anorax nearly snarled as he pushed his way through the group to stand nearly muzzle-to-muzzle with the nymph, who found herself looking down at not one, but two of the group as Madalah joined Anorax' side in glaring at her.

"Enough!" Rarity hissed quietly, but loud enough to get the trio's attention. "Please. We are here to retrieve Russet Hearts. Once we begin fighting amongst ourselves, we open ourselves to weakness, and then we shall be in trouble. If you must instigate infighting, save it for after we're all safely outside, please!"

As Ampelus, Anorax and Madalah slowly backed away from each other, Spark Storm sighed and nodded to Kecnik. "We need to keep moving. Lead the way, please, before we're all stuck down here arguing."

The tall changeling made a muffled sound that might've been amusement before he continued down the dark tunnel. When Anorax turned to follow, he paused as he made eye contact with Madalah. Her eyes brightened and a small, hopeful smile broke over her face. Anorax looked like he had something to say, but after a moment he turned wordlessly and followed the others, leaving Madalah to mope and follow him.

As Sohl, the last in line, disappeared around the corner, Orea poked her head out from behind a large rock lining the wall and frowned. The whole group was so on edge, with so many things on their minds, that none of the changelings nor Ampelus noticed the two new energies that had entered the cave some ways back, and she knew who it was. This will not end well...she thought as she turned and headed back towards the entrance to the cave.

---

Chrome Spectrum trotted along the cave floor, every now and then tripping as he stepped on loose stones. Lyra followed him, her horn lit up to light the way. She moved slower, finding the younger pony's energy to be vexing. "Chrome, slow down, colt! I don't want you to get lost in the darkness!"

Chrome scoffed as he took flight, turning a quick, tight circle between the tunnel walls. "Oh, please, stop worrying about me, I can take care of myself!" With that, he came down to the ground and immediately lost hoofing and fell to the cave floor and slid further into the darkness, beyond Lyra's light.

"Chrome! W-wait!" Lyra cried as she ran after him, herself tripping and falling to her rump as she slid down the tunnel. Finally she came to a stop when she connected with Chrome and fell over his back. "Oww..." the unicorn whined, reaching back to rub her sore behind. "Are you all right, Chrome?"

"M'fine," he muttered under the older unicorn's head. "No need to worry about me, I'm juuuust fine..." The pegasi's wings flapped once, indicating his desire to get out from under the bigger pony.

"Oh who cares about you?" Lyra said, resting against the pegasus and propping her head up on a hoof. "I just didn't want to be left in the dark."

"What?!"

Lyra laughed and hugged the younger pegasus, eliciting a blush that could barely be seen from the light emitted from Lyra's horn. "I'm just kidding. Come on." After removing herself from Chrome's back, she helped him to his hooves and stared further into the darkness, an excited grin on her face. "This is so cool. A rescue mission, deep underground, and two of the toughest ponies in Ponyville to rescue everypony's butts!"

Chrome's wings twitched with equal excitement as he opened and closed them hard enough to blow Lyra's mane to the side. "Yeah! They'll never see us coming...Deep in the dark, we wait..." he said, creeping forward in a crouched position. "They never did see them coming," he said, beginning a dramatic narration. "They were the dark. They were the night. They were...ninja ponies!"

Lyra chuckled as she followed Chrome a few meters into the tunnel. They hadn't gone far when a small, dark form with gleaming eyes jumped into their path from the darkness. Both pegasus and unicorn leapt into each other's arms and shrieked. Orea stepped closer into Lyra's light, a concerned frown on her face. "You two shouldn't have followed us. Something is terribly wrong, you have to go back!"

"Oh geez, it's just Orea," Lyra said with relief. She released Chrome and stepped closer to the nymph. "Don't scare us like that, kiddo. Now what's wrong? I mean, besides the fact that we're all on a rescue mission?" She reached up and patted Orea's head condescendingly, though it probably wasn't meant to be taken that way.

Orea flinched, not from the patting of her head, but in reaction to something unseen and unfelt by the other two. She looked up at the ceiling in wild fright, then lurched forward against Lyra and started pushing her back towards the exit. "You have to go! Get out, go, run!" she yelled. Lyra and Chrome both stared at her incredulously, but a new sound erupted from above them, a terrible grinding, shuffling sound. Immediately, the three began making their way back up the tunnel, running full speed.

Whatever had been happening though was too late to escape. The entrance caved in, resulting in large, dangerous boulder sized rocks to come tumbling down the tunnel. Lyra and Chrome both screamed in terror as they tried to turn and escape the incoming landslide. Both pegasus and unicorn felt something thin wrap around their waists, and they were pulled backwards away from the falling debris. The air was filled with terrible sound as the rocks fell and settled, then silence in the darkness.

After a few moments after the dust settled (not that one could tell in complete blackness) a single point of light shone in the darkness. Lyra and Chrome, huddled together on the cave floor and covered in dust, rose to their hooves, somehow both unscathed. Lyra approached the tunnel that used to lead up back to the surface, now covered in rocks and boulders, the once live-giving air completely blocked off, and Orea was nowhere to be seen.

Chrome stepped up to stand beside Lyra, a look of terror and dismay on his face matching how the unicorn felt. Tears began to slide down Lyra's face, leaving trails of wetness as her tears washed lines down her face. "Oh, Orea, I...what have I done?" Chrome's eyes began to water as well as he rested his head against Lyra's. He hadn't gotten to know the nymph at all in the last few days, but he knew that she meant a lot to his brother.

The two sat there quietly weeping for their comrade when a noise caught their attention. Lyra gasped and turned around, thinking the sound had originated behind them. Seeing nothing, the unicorn looked all around, even at the ceiling. Feeling a hoof poking her side, she looked down at Chrome to see the pegasus staring, slack-jawed, at the rubble before them. Several rocks and boulders fell over, then a large rock fell down towards the two.

Neither had time to react when a long, thick vine, decorated with beautiful orange flowers, gripped the boulder and set it safely aside. Lyra and Chrome continued to stare in disbelief as Orea extracted herself from the rubble with virtually no damage to her whatsoever, save for the crushed tip of her left ear.

"O...Orea?" Lyra managed through her shock, and stepped forward to rest a hoof on the nymph's shoulder. "A-are you all right, sweetie?" The unicorn gasped and pulled her hoof away when she received an electric shock from Orea's shoulder. Orea's eyes widened in fear and quickly stepped away from Lyra down the tunnel and past Chrome. Lyra was sure she saw something on Orea's flanks as she hurried down the tunnel.

Lyra and Chrome shared a look. Hadn't the nymph just been through a near-death experience? Why was she rushing off without them? Something was amiss - well, this whole situation was amiss. Lyra frowned and nudged Chrome to follow Orea into the darkness. "Uh...what just happened?" Chrome asked. He looked as confused as Lyra felt.

Lyra didn't have an answer for her partner in crime, but she did have a suspicion. She hurried on ahead, taking the light with her, an encouragement for the pegasus to keep up with her. Soon enough they caught up with the spooked nymph. She'd been too invested in sensing life forms around her to notice Lyra catching up, thus she didn't have time to hide the new decoration on her flanks.

When Orea noticed the light from Lyra's horn, she turned to face the unicorn too late for her not to notice what appeared to be a cutie mark: It appeared to be one of Spark Storm's feathers, in fact it was nearly identical to Spark Storm's cutie mark, but there was a lack of electricity, and in it's place appeared a line vine that entwined around the feather. Several of Orea's orange blossoms decorated the vines, making a complete cutie mark.

Orea stared up at the two with utter fear and dismay in her eyes. Tears began to fall from her face, leaving a slowly growing pile of fresh moss at her hooves. The look of fear and pain in the nymph's eyes actually brought a tight pain in Lyra's chest. Was the nymph worried about her appearance? Were nymphs not supposed to have cutie marks? She didn't know what to do or say, so she reached forward and pulled Orea into a hug, which she readily accepted.

The nymph buried her face into Lyra's chest, her shoulders heaving as she wept silently. Chrome looked up at Lyra, a look of sad confusion on his face. Feeling helpless to help, he wrapped his arms around Orea as well. Finally, Orea lifted her head to look into Lyra's eyes, and plaintively begged, "Please don't hate me..."

Lyra frowned. This was familiar. Something that she'd heard Spark and Sohl speaking about once, some time ago. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but the last few days had seen Lyra spending much of her time at the library. It wasn't her fault that Spark and his friends liked to talk there. "Sweetheart, you're not..." she paused, wondering for a brief moment if this was really the right thing to say, but she couldn't think of anything else that might help. "You're not a monster."

This seemed to be what Orea wanted to hear. She stopped sniffling, but she clung closer to Lyra. The three remained huddled there together, in the dark, and in the quiet.

---

Spark Storm and his team, minus one nymph, had just begun to notice they were short one member when Sohl, taking a break from her brooding, finally noticed the nymph's feelings. "Everybody just stop, right now!" she demanded loudly. The entire group turned to face the harpy, who was craning her neck, as if trying to hear something off in the distance.

A look of realization came over the harpy's face, and without a word to the others, took off into the air and shot through the air the direction they'd come. "Whoa, Sohl, what - " Spark started, then trailed off with a groan as the harpy was gone in an instant. In the next instant, the ground trembled, and the tunnel collapsed in the direction they'd come, cutting off any chance of Sohl returning from that direction.

The group began to panic until Laser Reflex put a hoof in his mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle. At the collective but silent glares, the pegasus let out a sigh of relief. "All right, guys...I know this doesn't look good, but it's not going to do us any good to panic. Let's all just gather our wits, and...uh..." Laser trailed off as dozens of pairs of lights lit up the chamber they'd just stepped into. They were completely surrounded by dozens and dozens of changelings.

Kecnik, Madalah and Anorax stared in horror. All three of them knew that something was off, something was very, very unnatural about these changelings. For one, none of them had been able to sense their approach. It was as if their very minds were shut off while their bodies continued to operate. The normal telepathy that ran between the changeling race was completely cut off.

Spark Storm, however, had a completely different view. At the very back from the center, her eyes ablaze with the same color in the changelings' eyes, was Shimmering Oasis, a mad grin on her face. Spark's wings came to life, the bright blue electricity in his feathers raging. It was time for some payback.

Comments

[Melody Brush]

Soul Of Songs,it's payback time!