Splatterpillar
The explorers found themselves trapped in the short tunnel forming the entrance to Catseye Mine. On one side, a decaying industrial building that now swarmed with dog-sized insects, crawling out of their hiding spots and buzzing into the air. Their abdomens glowed bright green and electrical energy crackled around their stingers. On the other side, a gloomy cavern holding a miniature marshalling yard for the mine train. An enormous blue worm with heavy purple horns was squirming its way towards them, bellowing with rage at their intrusion.
Set Sail’s eyes darted around, sizing up the threat. “Nutmeg, you made a little cannon didn’t you?”
“It’s more of a crude rifle that—” the kirin began.
Set Sail cut her off: “Azure! Clashing! Go teach those flying bugs a lesson! Hit any that come at you with your rifle cannon, Nutmeg. Protect CC, while she charges her thing, then she can blast a bunch of ‘em at once! A-and Reef, I need you to drive that big caterpillar back. Blaze and I’ll get on either side of her to make sure she goes back in her hole!”
“I can’t 'ubdu a 'eature like tha—” Blaze said around the grip of her not-subduing knife.
“Then survive now! Subdue later!” Set Sail declared curtly, before charged off to the left.
Blaze hesitated just a moment, then ran for the right, trying to sneak around behind the train to keep the bug’s attention off the others. "This better be a one-off," she muttered to herself, "Don't know if I can deal with 10 kay-em of tunnels all swarming with angry critters..."
Cloud Cutter gave a curt nod: "Got it, Set Sail." She leapt with a quick wingbeat to land behind Nutmeg, feeling her body go cold (colder, anyway) as she began to glow a ghostly purple. "Time for a real test of that gun of yours, Nutmeg - hope you're as good a shot as Abernathy." She cocked her head to the side, unable to do more than patiently charge her attack.
"Roger that, Captain..." Azure acknowledged, eyeing the lightning crackling from the bugs. She saw her ally, the undead pegasus, charging up her strike... it looked like her and Nutmeg would be standing there, sitting ducks if the bugs had a ranged attack. That meant it was up to her to draw them away.
The guardspony charged out of the tunnel, taking flight into the relatively spacious interior of the rock-crushing plant. Channelling the power of Air, her wings glowed blue-green as she began to unleash paired wind blades, looking to pick off the lead bugs and hopefully get them to reconsider their attack. The magical projectiles easily knocked down the oversize glowbugs, slicing apart the buzzing wings and cutting open the soft abdomen, leaving diminished but still active threats as the grounded insects crawled for cover.
Even as Azure took out a second and then a third creature, a dozen others were pointing charged stingers at the ponies. Brilliant balls of crackling electricity streaked through the air, leaving trails of tiny sparks in their wake. Individually, the projectiles moved slow enough that a limber pony could easily dodge them, but the veritable hail of electricity meant dodging one could easily mean moving straight into the path of another.
Back in the tunnel, Reef Skimmer was on the attack. "Aye aye captain. Tally ho!" the hippogriff shouted, raising one claw as the scales melted into blue goo not too different from the body of their foe. He braced himself then let fly with a powerful jet of water, which struck the monstrous worm right in the face. The force of the jet would've knocked a pony off their feet, but barely to budged the multi-tonne bulk of the splatterpillar. It did succeed in blinding, bruising and enraging the creature, which thrashed wildly while releasing more ear-splitting squeals. Chunks fell from the roof of the cavern where the thing's huge purple horns hit rock.
“Rocks!” Set Sail shouted, dodging debris left and right, then jumping in the air to manoeuvre better. Her mouth went to her side as she drew her battle axe from its sheath. Then before the beast's thrashing could impale her on its horns, she smacked the flat of the axe right against its left horn, shouting “Shoo!”
Blaze Trails perked up as pebbles clattered down around her. "Yes, rocks indeed!" There's an idea... trying to slash the thrashing blubbery thing with her knife was a lot of risk for little reward. Maybe instead... The earth mare twisted around, planted her forehooves and bucked a sizable chunk of rock straight at the menace. The rubble broke apart into gravel, spraying into the things face and adding additional pain to the soaking Reef was giving it.
Set Sail's axe attack further added to the mother worm's confusion, though since it's head was the size of a pony there was little chance of concussing it. The combination of veritable firehose from Reef Skimmer and sharp gravel from Blaze Trails added to its torment, doing little damage to the thick rubbery hide but preventing it from focusing on any one assailant. Instead the worm hunkered down as the stubby spines along its side began to glow.
Blaze Trails was all smiles: "I think we've got it on the defensive, Set Sail! I'll keep bashing it with rocks, you keep smashing it with your axe, and it's bound to retreat!" She doesn't take note of the glowing spines - maybe that's just what they do, right?
Reef Skimmer let the water jet peter out; it seemed the thing was too resilient to be cowed by such measures. He'd have to- "Captain! Watch out!" The griff was rather less sanguine about the glowing spikes: he gestured with a tentacle at the beast's flanks, worrying that they were about to see a further escalation of the threat.
Meanwhile Clashing Gale had hung back, assessing how best to help. His first thought was to join Azure Feather in the factory, but without ranged attacks he'd have a harder time avoiding the enemy's fire. Then he spotted movement to the left - a glow coming from the smaller tunnels the conveyor belts ran through. A few silent flaps brought him to intercept... yeah, just as he'd thought, some of the bugs were creeping into the cavern, trying to come to the aid of their queen.
He might not have fancy tricks like Azure, but he was plenty dangerous in his own way: new, predatory instincts were telling him it was time for a meal! With all the commotion he easily ambushed the lead bug. A touch of a hoof was all it took to put an end to the flanking attack. Before it could realise what was happening, the first electric bug was paralysed and shrivelling away, giving only a forlorn final screech before it was reduced to a desiccated husk.
Outside in the rock-crushing plant, Azure Feather was ducking and weaving as balls of plasma sailed through her airspace. The space was filled with sharp cracks as they hit the walls and machinery, followed by sizzles as streamers of charge flew out in all directions. The air elemental dodged for all she was worth, all the while unleashing a barrage of air blades on the attacking insects. "Nutmeg, try take out some of the grounded ones, won't you?" she called down, "Got my hooves full trying to knock down the airborne ones!"
She twisted and turned as more projectiles sailed past her, grounding out on the hulking machinery and rusted support beams of the rock crushing plant. The pegasus mare's fur stood on end as arcs of electricity and showers of sparks played all around her, while the tang of ozone wafting into her nose. Her blood was pumping from the excitement; this was practically a dance in a storm for her. She'd drawn most of the fire, and was steadily whittling down the swarm with her return fire, but one trailing bug had spotted the purple glow in the entrance tunnel and fired a bolt straight at Cloud Cutter.
The purple pegasus had been keeping a close eye on the battlefield, ready to take cover should hostile magic or angry bodies come out of her way. She saw the ball of lightning crackling towards her and...! Stepped to the side, watching it fly past. "I admit, I was expecting a lightning-fast attack." The undead pony was still drawing in unnatural energy, her eerie glow steadily brightening. She looked to her side to see Nutmeg Inferno frantically working on her invention, asking "Can I help?"
The kirin was thinking she really should have prepared this before things went to heck. Gunpowder here, close those pieces together, place the rifle butt against the ground, insert bullet... “Just... one sec!” she fussed.
Sitting on the gun to orient it, Nutmeg finally got it together with the barrel pointed at one of the grounded bugs, and created a spark from her hoof to ignite the powder. Her weapon fired with a bright flash and a resounding boom - without exploding, thankfully. The grounded bug crawling toward her fell to the floor, with a smoking hole passing neatly through its head, thorax, and abdomen.
In the mine cavern Set Sail got in one more good speeding, spinning, smack but all she found herself doing was clutching the resounding axe in her forelegs. Reef Skimmer’s warning drew her attention: she just had time to shout “What? Where?!” Then a flurry of sparks shot out from the creature's spines, saturating the airspace around its flanks and briefly illuminating the whole cavern up in brilliant blue light.
Hovering close by, the unfortunate pegasus was struck by several of the projectiles. She dropped to the stony floor: fur smoking, body bruised and twitching. Her eyes glazed over and her muscles jerked randomly - like running head first into a lightning storm, Set Sail thought. Unfortunately unlike the time she ran head first into a lightning storm, she was far too close to the ground to recover. She plummeted to the ground in an ungraceful arc, landed gasping and dazed with her axe clanged down beside her.
Blaze Trails was standing further back, rear hooves facing the beast as she prepared to buck another rock: the earth mare took a single electric bolt to the rump, crying out in shock. 'Damn that stings!' she thought. Purely on reflex, she dashed for cover, seeking refuge behind a rusting ore cart. Blaze slumped and panting for a moment as she checked herself over: her hind legs were tingling and sore, but she could still move.
"Sails?! Sails!" Reef Skimmer yelled as he charged forward, losing both his composure and his hippogriff shape as he went. Desperate to save the captain, the water elemental threw himself at the beast's neck, wrapping a dozen tentacles around its body. It was feeling real pain now as Reef's unnatural metabolism began to dissolve the thick hide, burning it away like acid. The bloated worm resumed its thrashing and squirming, trying to buck off its assailant.
In the shadows a certain bat-pony continued his assault on the flanking force, as if encouraged by the sight (and taste) of the enemy's blood. Clashing Gale was draining a second bug of its life force when the mother bug unleashed it's lightning; he watched in horror as the captain fell. The final insectoid infiltrator took the opportunity to fly at his back, hairy green legs wrapping around his barrel while sharp mandibles tried to chew off his left wing.
He bucked the brainless bug clean off his back and whirled around. This time he wasn't satisfied with a mere hoof - he lunged forward, catching the flitting bug's thorax in his mouth, his fangs (fangs? where had they come from?) easily piercing through its carapace. The insect turned into a brown husk and then crumbled into dust as the bat pony savagely sucked away its life. Clashing was almost glowing with health and energy as he turned to see the doctor desperately throw himself into close combat.
Blaze hadn't seen the captain get hit, but as Reef called out she realised what must have happened - the pegasus had been a lot closer to the blast. "Set Sail! Are you ok?" She stumbled back to her hooves and stared at the nightmarish grapple between Reef and the towering bug - it was like the hippogriff had unravelling himself into a half-squid creature, enveloping the giant grub from every direction! With the beast distracted she was clear to run to Set Sail, propping the pegasus up as she struggled back to her hooves.
Sparks still flickered in Set Sail's fur as she looking at the thrashing worm, locked in battle with... uhm... yeah that was probably Reef Skimmer. “Everypony fall back!” she shouted frightfully, backing up towards the purple glow of Cloud Cutter's almost-charged bug-zapper-of-doom. “This beast is more than a match for any of us! We need to get out of here, now!”
In the main building Azure Feather was under relentless attack - far from retreating, the efforts of the smaller bugs had only gotten more frantic as their queen was injured. She managed to fire off a few more shots but most of them went wild, distracted as she was by the constant dodging and the storm of electrical impacts. "Cloud Cutter? I'm in a crossfire here!"
Fur alight with otherworldly purple energy, Cloud Cutter remained patient and serene, looking out over the chaos of the battlefield. "Neeeearly there..."
Azure quickly took stock of her predicament. Stay here and she was bound to get hit... besides, she's seen Cloud Cutter take down the plant-dog; she knew how devastating that attack could be. The last thing she wanted to be was get caught in its effect. From the shouts and screams echoing out of the tunnels it sounded like the fight in the cavern was going even worse; she couldn't risk drawing more enemies into that fray.
Time to break through enemy lines! Azure surged forward, weaving around catwalks and briefly tucking her wings to fly through the barrel of a rock tumbler. The swarm of green bugs milled about, hovering where she'd been and trying to relocate their prey. Their confusion only increased as another resounding boom and flash came from the tunnel mouth - Nutmeg was getting the hang of reloading the rile, picking off a second injured bug before it could approach.
"Ok, ready," Cloud Cutter intoned. The moment had come: she was now the epicentre of a flickering, a violent storm of Unlife energy, her eyes headlamps shining through the gathering fog. It was difficult to hold it inside of her as she leapt forward, wings flaring out to carry her up into the airspace Azure had just vacated. The swarm of flying bugs closed in, eager to tear apart such a co-operative target.
The pegasus's hovered for a second, glowing eyes closed as she waited for them all to get within range, then snaped open. Purple energy burst from her form, lashing out and washed over the insects, ripping away their life force. Buzzing wings turned to drifting dust, glowing green bugs to brown corpses that fell to the ground in a tangle of twitching legs.
Two thirds of the original hive were gone now, with only a few survivors buzzing aimlessly about or trying to crawl into crevices between the machinery. One survivor lay crouched on a catwalk, wings ripped to shreds by an air blade. It couldn't understand what brought doom to its fellows; all it could do was take aim at whatever target it could see, which happened to be the warm-blood making the horrible noise that had blasted away its hive-mates.
“Ha! I got ‘em!” Nutmeg shouted from the dark hallway at the rear, holding up her improvised rifle triumphantly in sparkling magic. “Great work Cloud Cutter? Azure, where’d you go!” she called out, “I’m ready to take out any you missed-” That was when the kirin’s eyes flicked to the crackling ball of lightning currently about 5.73cm from her right cheek. “Oh fu—”
Back in the cavern, things weren't going so well. Blaze Trails stayed close to the captain, retreating as ordered... but the doctor wasn't following, and there was no sign of Clashing Gale. "Is Reef gonna be able to handle this on his own?" she asked.
Reef Skimmer hung on grimly as the enormous worm twisted and thrashed. His blunted beak couldn't cut through its hide, but the dissolving effect of his tentacles had burned through and were beginning to consume the creature's soft interior. Hurt and desperate, the beast leapt into the air, smashing the mutated hippogriff against the roof of the cavern. A sizable stalactite pierced clean through Reef's chest, breaking off from the ceiling as the water elemental fell to the ground in a moaning, slithering heap.
The worm continued to thrash for a few seconds, purple blood streaming from the ring of dissolved flesh around its neck, before turning to face its tormenter, ready to leap again and crush him under its weight. The mutant hippogriff lay twitching on the cavern floor, a massive spike of rock emerging from his chest, the grey feathers around the wound denatured into blue goo. It's clear he won't be going anywhere before the splatterpillar leaped and, well, splattered him.
Blaze Trails could only stare, almost paralysed by fear as the monster made short work of her ally. "...Reef?!" She was hoping he'd just be able to, well, goop out from around the rock and reform, but no such luck, it seemed. Now it was closing in to finish him off, and she couldn't see how her hooves or knife would be enough to stop it.
“What are you doing?? Save him!” Set Sail cried out, charging blindly at the stalactite. She reared up, trying not to step in Reef as she awkwardly pushed at the impaling pillar of stone, wobbling it left and right. The splatterpillar reared up, bunching up in preparation to leap, looming above them in terrible finality as the captain stared into the eyes of inevitable doom for both them.
“Buck this,” Set Sail grumbled, then dashed over to her fallen axe as quick as a wink, her momentum carrying her around behind the creature, when she leapt into the air and shouted, “Over here! You want a piece of this??” It was enough to get the thing's attention, and by now Set Sail had remembered that her axe worked better if it had some momentum behind it. So she began flying around the monster, banking hard to keep away from the rocky walls, swinging the battle-axe to slice at its flesh. Her initial effort did little other than provoke an angry screech, but if she could just keep the thing disoriented until she could get up enough speed...
Alien bloodthirst and exultation coursed through Clashing Gale's brain; seeing the wounded splatterpillar, he didn't even think twice. He'd gone too long without feeding - the bugs had merely been an appetiser. If he could help his allies in the process, well that was a bonus. The bat pony swooped down, almost materialising out of the gloom of the cavern, four hooves smacking into the monster's hide before fanged mouth dipped low to begin draining the beast's life force.
Seriously wounded now, beset from both sides and dripping ichor from the deep wounds in its neck, the splatterpillar could only screech and thrash. The new attacker was latched firmly onto its back and its jaws sent fresh waves of pain into the worm's body, precluding any attempt to leap. The fleshy spikes along the beast's flanks began to glow; its only hope for beating back the warm-bloods was another volley of electricity.
In the main building, Cloud Cutter was panting with exertion as the last of the undead energy evaporated, flickering tendrils trailing from her wings as she hovered. She surveyed the ruin around her, confirming that her strange ability had done its grim work. Seeing one grounded bug still twitching and writhing, she swooped down and splattered it with a hoof, putting the creature out of its misery. She turned back to Nutmeg Inferno just in time to see a ball of green lightning smack into her face. The red-ruffed kirin crumpled to the ground - Cloud Cutter dashed over to aid her ally.
For a moment the fallen Nutmeg lay there, still as the grave. Then her whole body jerked and she immediately sat up, looking around in bewilderment, but smiling as her green eyes found her friend beside her. “Oh, Cloud Cutter!” she said happily, “What’s going on—AAA FRIGHTNING BUG RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” The insect in question had lobbed another lightning ball at them to finish the job.
Cloud Cutter turned, squinted and... gently pushed Nutmeg out of the way, stepping aside as the crackling ball of lightning ball floated past. "...These projectiles are very slow. You should have been able to dodge that," she pointed out, too gentle to be a real criticism. Then with a running leap and a couple of flaps, she landed on the offending bug, pounding it flat.
Nutmeg clung to her rifle protectively. “It–it caught me off guard!” she protested to the pegasus, “They come—come at you from all directions if they can. We were getting overwhelmed!"
Watching from above, Azure nodded with approval. She ignoring the few remaining electric bugs, which were scattering and scuttling into every crevice available, and glided down to land next to the others. Peering into the gloom, she got her first look at the desperate battle going on in the rear cavern: something enormous, horned and clearly very angry was squealing and thrashing. Much as she wanted to help, firing air blades into the fray risked hitting Clashing or the captain.
Cloud Cutter was having similar thoughts - hooves would do little against the blubbery beast. Her spooky attack would take an age to recharge, and even then risked friendly fire. For now, all she could do was stand guard over Nutmeg.
Set Sail was still in the air, dodging the beast's wildly swinging horns. Then Clashing was there, plunging in to distract her foe - perhaps it was for the best that she didn't get a good look at what he was doing. The cavern was tight, but the wind was with her as she picked up speed. Around and around she went - just like whipping up a tornado, except for the axe in her grasp.
Finally with the wind howling in her face, the brown-and-blue pegasus stubbornly gripped the axe in her teeth and foreleg and reversed course, heading straight for the beast's neck. Her wings strained as the wind she’d kicked up tried to blow her into the wall. She sank the axe deep into the wound Reef had opened, every ounce of momentum going into that slash, sliced right through the splatterpillar. Hopefully that would buy them enough time for Blaze to get Reef free and get out of there...
The screeching stopped instantly. Set Sail looked back over her shoulder to see the massive horned head fall forwards and splat onto the ground, completely severed from the ponderous body of the worm. The thing was motionless now save for a few dying spasms. The captain's gaze went to the wild demon of a pony standing on its tail; Clashing's head came up, and for a moment she was staring into wild, predatory eyes: crimson eyes that could compel her to do anything.
Then the moment was broken; the stallion was flapping down to the stony floor, fangs gone, eyes downcast. Further back in the cavern, Reef Skimmer had a ringside seat to the whole show. The hippogriff tried to say something, but only gurgling and spluttering sounds emerged from a beak now filled with blue goo.
Azure was already mentally berating herself as she surveyed the scene. She was too late to do anything, and... ugh, she left her allies in the other fight behind to fend for themselves. Damn it, so bloody careless, she cursed herself - maybe splitting into two squads had been the wrong move. At least the hostiles were down and every creature seemed safe - though the doctor was clearly not in a good way.
Blaze Trails unfroze at least, tension draining away as the monster was slain. She galloped over to Reef Skimmer, trying to assesses the stalactite injury. "Damn, that looks bad..." she gruffs - any normal creature would be a gonner with a spear of rock right through their chest. Blaze gritted her teeth and took the spike in her mouth - this would probably hurt, but it's gotta be done. Then she casually tossed the heavy stalagmite over her shoulder as if it was a tent stake: it shattered into fragments on the floor. "You still with us, Reef?"
Reef's reply was just another gurgle, but his chest was starting to flow back together, now the rocky spike was gone.
Set Sail hovered there in the dim mine entrance, her mouth hanging open as the splatterpillar’s entire head crashed ponderously down beside its writhing, twitching body. Her axe clanged to the ground below her, falling from numb forelegs, as she said dazedly, “I—I was just—it was kicking our tails! How did... I didn’t know it would just...”
She stared, even more shaken at Clashing, but the stallion did not lift his eyes to hers again. What was... what? For a moment there, he looked... Set Sail tore her eyes away from the bat pony, gliding uneasily around the worm to where Reef Skimmer lay, finding to her relief that Blaze had saved him after all.
"Oh... oh good, Blaze,” she said in some relief, landing beside the pair and saying, “Is he okay? The—the beast is—I–I guess I bought us some time.” Leaning to Reef’s head, she asked, “Reef, can you speak? How do you feel? I don’t know how to... tell if you’re injured.”
Reef Skimmer struggled into an upright position, not yet able to stand but at least getting his wings folded and his tentacles tucked in. After a few more attempts to speak, he managed "Like Tartarus, Captain..." His voice was still weak and gurgling: "...would be a flatfish though, if you hadn't... hadn't stopped that thing."
Blaze wipes a hoof across her forehead in relief. "Yeah... thanks to y'all for keeping the big bad bug at bay. No way I could have done that on my own." She indicates the wound, already closing up. "Hopefully his amorphous body can recover the rest of the way. Not exactly trained for first aid on goo creatures."
Nutmeg and Cloud Cutter came trotting over to join them; the rifle floating alongside in the kirin's her magic aura, as she declared in excitement, “Oh wow, you actually killed a Splatter— a big thing, whatever it is! Oh no, Reef are you okay?” He seemed the only one seriously injured, amazingly enough.
"It seems one has... no b-blood... to bleed," Reef managed. His eagle head was bobbling around on the four blue tentacles that stood in for his neck - a little comically, to be honest. The griff stared at his chest, where the hole had closed, leaving just a patch of blue goo amid the feathers. "Just as... just as well, that trauma... should've killed me." He looked around uncertainly. "Is anygriff... are you all ok? Some... some action outside as well, I t-take it?"
"Apologies... I thought... I thought the situation here was well in hoof," Azure said unhappily. "Moving to assist the other squad proved to be a poor one, and it's on me... Cloud Cutter and Nutmeg could handle it. Are you okay?" The enemy were down, but... this sure didn't feel like a win.
Cloud Cutter showed as much emotion as usual, which is to say none. "Set Sail. We ended most of the smaller bugs. The rest have fled the scene. A hard fight: Nutmeg received a shock, but no injuries." She gave a nod of approval to Azure Feather. "I wouldn't have stood a chance if not for your cover, keeping the bugs at bay while I... prepared. I see the look on your face. Be proud of yourself: your help was critical to our success."
“The big one shouldn't have gone down that easy,” Set Sail said nervously, glancing with unease at the cooling corpse, “We were barely phasing her, then... I mean Reef weakened the neck, and Clashing... did something, so ...that was ...probably it. I’m just glad you’re okay. We should never have come here. Who knows how many more of those things are down there.”
Blaze Trails took a moment to gather her thoughts. "Keep in mind, Set Sail: we were planning on coming back here anyway, with Melonwater in tow. Like it or not, we were going to stumble into this fight one way or another, so it's good that we resolved it now - without any real problems, assuming Reef gets back to normal," she finished, her tone encouraging as she tried to cheer up the captain.
“Oh, I... I hadn’t thought about that,” Set Sail said, paling as she brought her forehooves to her face, “We need to... to be very careful if we come back here. Definitely need Grenelda and... I don’t know how Gustus feels about bugs. Yeah... at least the entrance is cleared out. Maybe we can set up some sort of... base camp here, and those of us who aren’t fighters can venture further in once we’ve... cleared the way. There are many things here I just know the researchers would love to explore.”
"Mmmm, yeah, we just know so little about what awaits us deeper inside," Blaze Trails pondered. "If this is really our best hope for an alliance, we're risking a lot on unknowns." She tapped a hoof to her snout. "...But, as always, it's up to you. If you wanna push ahead with a new party, then that's what we'll do. I've been thinkin' hard as I can, but not coming up with any better ideas."
Clashing Gale had abandoned the discussion, taking advantage of his newfound night-vision and busying himself with searching around the cavern instead. This hadn't exactly been his finest hour, at least by pony standards. His combat contribution? Terrific, all things considered. Health-wise? Never felt better, even if his appearance was still a bit... wild. Civilian ponies seeing him baring fangs, feasting upon the enemy's blood? Terror upon terror.
“How many bugs did you get, Azure?” Nutmeg asked curiously, “I know the big bug back here has us all beat, but I couldn’t see what you did after those two you took down for me.”
"I couldn't give you a fair number," Azure replied. "The fact is, leaving friendlies behind when you don't know the situation of another squad... is incredibly careless of me. I should know better, and my Lieutenant would have had my head for making such a mistake. I'm just... glad you're all okay..."
"Tricky situation with... with those green insects... coming from behind," Reef mused. "Need to ensure we aren't... aren't flanked again, if... if we go into the tunnels," he added unhappily; this larger cavern was already claustrophobic enough, and unlike the pegasi he was too big to fly in there.
“It’s not right for me to continue here,” Set Sail said, ears dipping, “I have the crew to think about. I’m sure Trade Wind would be a great captain, but I can’t just put myself on the line like that, even if... w-well we need to return to the ship and make plans for a subterranean expedition. We hardly have any light sources with us, as-is. Hopefully those... bugs will ensure that the cats of this island don’t come looking around here. So maybe we can plan a little. We’re just riding on impulse as we are.”
Reef Skimmer struggled shakily to his feet... or at least, tentacles, as he was still in no shape to change form. "Don't say that Sails! We'd have been goners if you hadn't saved the day!" he exclaimed, as forcefully as he could manage, before looking away. "Erm. That is to say, you are the Captain, of course. Certainly we should regroup."
Set Sail blushed at that saying shyly, “Well I do my best. It was just weird though. ...i-it’s probably nothing.”
Blaze nods her head - feeling a bit weary herself. "Yeah, I'm ready to go back, too. I'd love to just collapse on the floor and have nothing to worry about for a bit - that'd be a good change of pace right about now."
Meanwhile Clashing was slipping into the side chamber the worm had emerged from. Finding little there except the rotted and broken remains of bunks and clothing, he moved on to the next chamber. There he found something rather intriguing. "Um, Captain? You may want to come take a look in here," he called out, trotting back to the group. "There's something you may find interesting... could be of use for a future task."
Set Sail lifted her ears, calling back, “Oh, you found something? Do you need a light? It’s pitch black back there!”
“Yeah. I bet this train would be totally adorable if we had any light,” Nutmeg said, sauntering up to squint at the train in the dimness, “Fresh coat of paint, oil up the gears, looks like a crystal engine so it’s definitely pre-cataclysm tech. Those last forever though!”
Blaze Trails chuckled politely as Nutmeg gushed over trains once more, brutal fight apparently forgotten. She followed along, wishing they could all be so carefree and spirited in a time like this, right? To be fair, it did look like a real beauty, at least once the dust and rust was cleaned off.
Clashing Gale frowned; he could see fine. Oh, right... "Sorry. Bat-pony things..." he muttered. "Saw something back there that might help, if I can find some fuel. Sit tight." The stallion disappeared again, leaving the others to chat nervously for a few minutes, before reappearing with a golden metallic shape hanging on each wing-claw and a oil can in his mouth. The brass safety lanterns were dented and tarnished, but quite functional. "Nutmeg, maybe you could get these going?"
“Oh cool! Oil lamps? These would be perfect for exploring those mine shafts!” Nutmeg said in delighted interest, taking one to cradle in her forelegs. She looked over to the oil can, and tugged it out of his mouth with her magic. “Hmm...” she said in disapproval, “This is lubrication oil, not lamp oil. It might burn kinda smoky. But beggars can’t be choosers I guess!”
Setting both down before her, Nutmeg got to work seeing about filling up the reservoirs of one of the lamps with the oil Clashing had procured from back there. With delicate care, she opened the safety shield and held her hoof over the wick. A spark and a flare of fire from her golden hoof, and soon the wick was lit and brightening. Nutmeg replaced the safety shield and picked up the lantern’s handle in her mouth, as its glow continued to brighten to basic visibility.
“Nice! I wonder what else is back there?” Set Sail said, looking from lantern bearing kirin to the dark room Clashing had emerged from, “They probably had everything you’d need to navigate these dark tunnels.”
"Kind of a kerfuffle that we didn't bring that stuff," Blaze quipped. "Guess those particular crates went over the side in the storm , huh?" Her ears flattened. "Mind if I take that second lantern off of you, Nutmeg? I'll feel more in my element if I could see where I was going."
Nutmeg nodded, then got the second lantern lit for Blaze. She levitated the first lantern over to the captain, saying, “If you wanna go look back there, go ahead!”
Set Sail stared at the lantern a moment, but then took the handle in her teeth so Nutmeg’s magic could release it. Looking over her shoulder at Blaze and the others, she asked, “Oo comin’?”
Blaze Trails, grasping the lantern firmly in her jaws, soundlessly nodded as well, making it rattle and swing.
Now that the creatures who couldn't see in total darkness were accommodated, Clashing Gale lead the group through a short tour of the side chambers. At the far end of the cavern, there was a sizable workshop filled with Molekin tools and spare parts for the train and assorted mining machinery. Nutmeg regarded them eagerly: to be sure they had the crate from the Skylanders, but she never said no to more parts.
Then there was the dormitory-turned-splatterpillar-lair, still filled with the foul smell of its former inhabitant. Connected to that was a room full of sturdy and sadly empty lockers, the locks long ago broken off and contents looted. The final room held piles of props, pick axes, rock drills, hard hats and, in a cobweb-covered chest Clashing had forced open... two dozen brown sticks, sitting next to waxed paper bags full of blasting caps.
Blaze Trails puts down the lantern for a bit to gape, smiling. "Niiiice. Now here's everything we needed. Seeing as we're stopping back anyway, suppose we can leave it all here and come back to supply ourselves before..." Nodding over to Nutmeg, "Taking the train, I suppose, if you can work your magic?"
“I can definitely work my magic!” Nutmeg said, poring over the assorted parts, “And I can probably fix the train too. Might take me a bit, if there’s anything that needs replacing.”
“Dasha gool idea,” Set Sail agreed sagely, “The hrai—...” She put down the lantern. “The train won’t be able to go past the first place the tracks have been damaged, but it could carry stuff in to that point. What’re these sticks in the chest?”
“Oh that’s dynamite,” Nutmeg said distractedly, “Helps you mine through rock, good at causing cave-ins though.”
"Cave-ins?" Reef said in alarm, ear-tufts flicking. "More magic? ...or is it some form of gunpowder? I should think we would want to minimise the risk of collapse."
Nutmeg's ears flicked, then she lifted her head and turning to look at Reef, saying seriously, “Oh no, we probably don’t want to use them. They’re only used safely by trained miners, and they’re kind of tricky to blow up actually, thus the blasting caps.”
She trotting over to join the griff in peering into the chest, saying: “The blasting caps will be gunpowder. The dynamite itself, or gelignite to be specific, is basically cylinders filled with nitro-glycerine mixed with an accelerant, plus cotton and sawdust to stabilize it. Assuming the nitro hasn’t leaked out, you use a blasting cap to trigger the dynamite, which makes a really big boom."
Meanwhile Blaze Trails continued to explores the storage room. Perking her ears, she puts her lantern down and carefully grabs a parchment map off of a table - making sure it's not able to crumble in her hooves. "Looks like this might be a map of the surrounding tunnels - you make of it the same thing I do?"
Set Sail hurried over to Blaze, looking at the fragile paper with wide eyes saying, “I think you might be right! That could make all the difference!”
"Ah, capital, good show Blaze!" Reef enthused. "Look, the rails run right along the spine of the island, down to that city we saw earlier. Branches here and here... that must be the pyramid. Hmm, one supposes that's how they shipped in all the rock needed to build the thing."
There wasn't much else to see in the little underground complex, so after packing up a few choice tools and parts, the Equestrians headed back out into the rock crushing plant. Azure Feather and Cloud Cutter quickly searched through the side rooms, finding only a few old coins and sheaves of yellowed documents for Blue Type to examine. Then the explorers finally left the dusty mine behind, emerging into the bright sunlight bathing the ruined air dock.
Set Sail looked around, staring longingly at the puffy clouds, just happy to be outside again. Then she got a good look at Clashing Gale: the bat pony's face and chest were soaked with a strange purple fluid. Her green eyes widened in shock as it dawned on her what it was. Set Sail stumbled to a halt next to the stallion, saying nervously: “Oh, uh... Clashing. You p-probably need to get cleaned up or s-something...”
Her wings were unconsciously but warily half spread, which accentuated the fact that the pegasus herself was copiously splattered with the same fluid, raining down on her when she sliced through the large bug’s neck.
There was a certain line to be crossed between 'Bat-pony things' and 'Things ponies just don't normally do'. That line had been crossed a long time ago for Clashing... though he'd hidden it from the others until now. He looked down at his chest and nodded. "Uh, yeah... can't exactly wriggle out of this one, can I..." He gave a soft sigh: "didn't exactly have an opportunity to freshen up, in an abandoned mine full of hostiles. Hmm, maybe..." His eyes went to the water elemental.
Set Sail nodded stiffly in understanding, then went trotting up to Reef Skimmer. The hippogriff was still stuck in his altered form: legs replaced by bundles of blue tentacles, while yet more stood in for his neck and waist. The blood-soaked pegasus mare whined plaintively: “Reef... Clashing has a—a little bit of blood on him that needs cleaning. I don’t suppose you could help him out? I don’t think you can just... leave stuff like that in your fur, even if you are a p-predator, which I suppose Clashing is now.”
"Hmm... indeed. Will never pass inspection like that, never mind predators scenting blood for a kilometre downwind." Reef said stuffily. Ambling over to the stallion, he said "Well sir, we shall have you fixed up in a jiffy. Erm... you might want to close your eyes." Clashing Gale stood there stoically as the tentacled hippogriff blasted him with several jets of warm water, scouring the bug ichor out of his purple coat at the cost of leaving the stallion soaked and dripping. "And there we are."
Huh... for some reason he'd expected it to be ice cold. Sure, Clashing was soaked, but warm sun and a nice relaxing flight would fix that in a hurry. Being washed by a hippogriff water-summoner... strange, but it sure did the job. "Wasn't even thinking of predators... thanks for bringing that up, Doctor, and thanks for the help," he concluded.
"Think nothing of it." Reef waved a claw dismissively. "Your contribution was instrumental in that little scuffle back there." Turning to the mare, he said "And.. erm, Captain, you seem to have... that is to say, shall I wash you off as well?"
Giving him a confused look, Set Sail said, “Me? But I don’t have any...” She looked down at her blood splattered forelegs, then back to her right flank with the delicate mist of blood speckling her fur, and then her left flank where even her cutie mark was partially obscured by the ludicrous mess painting every inch of her with gooey splatterpillar blood, declaring, “Oh Celestia, it's all over me!" She skittered backwards as if to escape herself until she fell butt first over the edge of the sky dock.
Silence.
After more than a few moments of contemplation, Set Sail managed to fly back up to the level of the sky dock, blushing red as she landed and refused to make eye contact, saying to Reef Skimmer, “S-s-so I suppose I could use a little a—a little...”
"Say no more," Reef cooed. The treatment was rather gentler and more intimate than the pressure-washing Clashing had received, as the mutated griff rubbed the bulbous tips of his tentacles through the mare's coat, mane and feathers, gently washing out all the insect fluids, not to mention a fair amount of dust and fluff. The water was hotter than before and quite effective at relaxing her muscles. "I do believe that's all of it," Reef said finally, withdrawing his tentacles and staring at them in embarrassment. "One hopes that was not too unpleasant."
With her soaked hair covering her eyes, it was hard to tell exactly what Set Sail was feeling right now, but she relaxed at the relief of that awful sticky feeling leaving her fur, and outright sighed as her tense muscles relaxed under Reef’s gentle yet firm touch. “Thank you Reef,” she said, sounding a lot calmer than she had for most of today, “I feel much better.”
Then she lifted a hoof to push her bangs out of the way, looking at Clashing sympathetically, adding, “And... I’m sorry, Clashing.”
Clashing Gale chuckled a bit. "No need to apologise, Captain, I'd be freaked out in your position... weird that I'm not more freaked out myself, actually. I guess I'm just trying to fully understand just what I am, you know? Today was the next step and... who knows what's next..." He trailed off from there, looking into the distance. He still felt better than ever, but... maybe not quite like a pony, any more.
“It’s just like Reef,” Set Sail said bemusedly, “It doesn’t matter at all what you are. It’s who you are that matters. Whatever you are, if you are yourself, then you can use your powers to help your friends, and I’m... glad to be on your side. So that's why I apologized. We're all in a strange place right now, whether we're a normal pony or not.”
Reef Skimmer was still feeling too sore to change into his roc form, so he flew back as he was, water jets blasting from his tentacle tips to force him through the air. Set Sail and Cloud Cutter carried earth pony and kirin alike, while Azure and Clashing flew overwatch, ready to pounce on any aerial predator that might harass their squad. No further threats appeared, and the group made it back to their hidden copter without incident.
As Nutmeg went to reinstall the thermal crystals and the others set about stowing their gear, Reef finally managed to force himself back into hippogriff shape, then drew a certain brown pegasus aside. "I just wanted to say, Sails... you're doing a fine job out here. Stellar, really, given the circumstances." Tentatively, he reached down with claw and wing to draw the pony mare into a tight hug.
Set Sail would have liked to disagree with him, to argue with him in any number of times she wasn’t doing a fine job, and any of the many ways she wasn’t okay, but it was just impossible to deny that he cared for her, as she lifted a foreleg and extended a wing to hug him back as best she could. “We’ll get through this somehow, Reef,” she said quietly, “We just have to. You all did better than I could have hoped. I just hope...”
She didn’t seem fit to finish that sentence, leaning into her friend’s comforting embrace.
Soon enough the Second Chance was ready for take-off. Set Sail took the helm once more, guiding the whirring copter away from Fellis, heading north to throw any feline eyes that might be watching off their trail before wheeling around in a lazy circle to head south. All the buzzing about had drained the thermal crystals enough that Nutmeg insisted on a pit stop; they alighted briefly on an outlying islet of Triskellion Mine. Blaze Trails quickly gathered shrubs and built a bonfire that Nutmeg eagerly to ignited, baking the crystals while the ponies looked on.
Blaze Trails closed her eyes and reflected as they waited for the fire to do its work. She wasn't quite yet certain if she wanted to go spelunking in that mine - she'd felt outclassed in the fight, and all this monster slaying and mining wasn't exactly her wheelhouse. But... she did still contribute, she's fine and healthy, and if she wasn't there to help when she was needed - well, if they lost the whole party in the mines they might as well be done for. Her mind wandered, and she thought about her poor expedition tent, no doubt now repurposed as an all-feline enclosure. Damn, how's she ever going to get another tent that good? Poor thing!
Nutmeg left the crystals to warm, indulging in her other reason to make a pit stop here. With the sun low in the sky, you could really see the sunset painting the clouds all sorts of colours, from where she stood on the edge of this island here, gazing out there and just taking it all in. Dark smoke trailed into the sky, contrasting against the orange and pink clouds, and drawing a shark airship to check for intruders. They waved and turned away at the sight of the Second Chance's painted hull, apparently willing to waive the parking fees as long as the Equestrians were under contract.
Finally the sun was gone and the crystals recharged; the copter rose into the air once more, making the final leg back to Blissful Pastures. There they found things quiet and peaceful for once, though much of the crew had stayed up waiting anxiously for the explorer's return. Their craft settled to a landing next to the much larger EAS Harmony and the tired crew tumbled out, heading in for a much-deserved rest.
This story is a collaboration between myself (playing Reef Skimmer), Ferret (playing Set Sail and Nutmeg Inferno), Patashu (playing Blaze Trails and Cloud Cutter) and Spearmint (playing Azure Feather and Clashing Gale), based on an online RP.
This chapter is based on the 51st and 52nd sessions, with me as the GM - we don't normally break in the middle of combat, but Ferret's motherboard died just as the Splatterpillar was about to splatter Reef Skimmer. Apologies for the crudity of the diagrams - maybe I should learn to use one of those virtual tabletop mapping programs.
Illustration by Calena, who did a great job on a complicated action scene.
This is published on April 20th 2021, exactly one year since the first chapter was published, and it's based on the session exactly one year from when we started playing. The game has certainly exceeded my expectations - we haven't missed a single session, producing 61 story chapters, 436,311 words and 20 illustrations (plus several in progress), in 12 months. It's certainly been fun to play and I hope enjoyable (or at least interesting 
) to read.
In terms of where we're going, the next sequence will complete the pony's adventure on Fellis. After that there's the dramatic showdown with the drow air pirates. The number and quality of allies the ponies can recruit will determine whether that's a grim battle for survival in which secondary characters drop like flies, or a triumphant smackdown in which the drow don't know what hit them. Any similarities to the ending of Mass Effect 3 are purely coincidental. 😀
After that Patashu will be taking the helm as we move into a new phase of the story. The global airship will be repaired (or replaced), the stage will be expanded and we'll start looking at the state of Skylands proper, following leads to specific destinations instead of just exploring islands near where the ponies crashed. We'll pick up that thread on the mysterious machine and perhaps discover what happened to the lead airship.
Thanks for reading! P.S. We seem to have 83 subscribers but only 47 ratings - if you've read this far please do rate the story, unless of course you're waiting to see how it ends first. 😄 Also do feel free to make suggestions in the comments, GMs are always looking for ideas to torment the players develop the setting.
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Hey, have you though about having a chart showing the crew of the Harmony on the left side and the names, status, element they are lending towards, and element they are aligned to on the top? I feel like people would like to know how many of the crew are elemental currently and the possibility of seeing which elements we might be seeing among the crew later on in the story.
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There's this cast page, but yeah something more condensed would be nice. For now here's the summary:
We have some other undead background ponies, several background engineers but no one else showing potential for alignment. Dark and Light are less common than the other elements, as they only appeared in the later games, although they sometimes show up as powers that other elementals have e.g. Whirlwind's dual-purpose healing/harming rainbow is an air-themed light power.
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Ok. Nice to see what you have so far.