Nest
Deep in the abandoned mine, Clashing Gale lay in a pool of his own blood, a heavy spear buried in his abdomen. Reef Skimmer, the expedition's hippogriff doctor, was trying to stem the bleeding, with the earth pony explorer Blaze Trails assisting as best she could.
Four more creatures were gathered around - the pegasi Cloud Cutter, Azure Feather and Set Sail, and the griffon Grenelda. The hen stared coldly at their captive: an ungainly looking combination of hairless simian torso and overgrown spider abdomen. All the trouble of capturing this thing and the Captain was seriously suggesting she sacrifice herself to Clashing's unnatural appetite? Grenelda rolled her eyes: sure ponies were kinda squeamish, but... seriously?
"Screw this," she cawed. "If you're not gonna play along, then you'll be the meal." A razor-sharp foreclaw shot out and grabbed the spidrow by the neck; she began dragging the trussed-up caster over to Clashing Gale. "Hey! Got you a meal on legs here! You're hungry for some rejuvenating blood, right?" She cackled, then teased: "Was wondering what they taste like myself, but you deserve first pickings!"
Clashing Gale had been fading away, but Grenelda's words seemed to give him a second wind. Or perhaps it wasn't the words: the griffons talons had drawn blood, red beads of the stuff leaking from the enemy's neck. This time Clashing's true nature was undeniable; everypony was watching as his eyes went wild and his fangs extended. Like a wounded animal, desperate but dangerous, hungry and ready to feast.
The spider-mage struggled futilely against Grenelda's claws. "No... no, wait... argh, my neck! You dare... you dare..." The vampire's gaze locked with her own, and her face became a mask of horror.
“You don’t get it!” Set Sail shouted, slamming a hoof alongside Niqu's face and shocking the creature out of her trance. “We don’t eat magic. We don’t want magic," she explained, "We want. To survive. And if whatever happened to Clashing makes his body fail on its own, then I will find who did it and I will feed them to you, magic and all. But right now...” the mare slowly drew back, “We are going to keep him alive, and we are going to make it through this blasted place, one way or another.” Tossing her mane, she strode away, stating, “So I guess you just volunteered to have him drink her blood and maybe even suck out her soul for all I know!”
Reef Skimmer stared at the struggle for a moment, eagle face unreadable as ever, then nodded. "Indeed. Good of the many and all that." Reef let his form expand back into the tentacled water-beast he'd been supressing. "Chin up Slashing Wail, got a real treat for you to feast on tonight. Need any help there old chap?" A bunch of tentacles cradled Clashing's head as Grenelda forced the spidrow closer...
"Wait!" came Niqu's shriek as the batpony's fangs brushed against her neck. "I'll do it! Take the kin, not me, take them if you must... not like this. I can't go like this!" the spidrow sobbed, will finally broken
Grenelda chortled; this took her waaaay back, to when she'd happily take a clawful of bits to enforce some shady deal in the back alleys of Mareran. She never thought trekking through an old mine would be so much fun. "Oh good," the griffon cawed, "you're a smart one after all." She pulled the spider-creature away and dumped her opposite from Clashing. Her beak dipped down to whisper in the creature's ear: "You get one chance... and don't keep him waiting."
Rage and fear battled for control of Niqu's face as she stared at the griffoness, her eyes closing and her body shuddering as Grenelda's beak brushed her cheek. Her eyes remained closed for perhaps ten seconds, an eternity to the watching ponies, before she said simply "They come." Sure enough the skittering of claws reached the ponies ears as the spiders arrived in twos and threes, bodies the size of a cooking pot, abdomens glowing dimly with elemental energies.
Grenelda beamed proudly, saying "Good choice!" before pushing Niqu roughly to the side. "Alriiight, Clashing! Dinner's here. Eat up!" She nabbed the closest spider and held it up to Clashing's jaws, ready to helping him bite and chew if needed. You know, there was something heart-warming about helping a fellow carnivore in need chow down!
Clashing Gale had no interest in the meat - Grenelda could have that. What interested the vampire was the blood - he drained the spider's fluids with feverish speed, tossing it aside and seeking more as the fire returned to his eyes. Grenelda was kept busy for several minutes as the next few were devoured with equal ferocity. It took six more before he slowly began to regain the semblance of a pony... not that any true pony would act anything like he had...
Set Sail spun about at Clashing’s sudden movement, her first impulse to go for her axe, before realising that it was her friend. She... had no reference for what to do in this kind of situation. Grenelda seemed to know what she was doing, which as a... predator would make sense. Set Sail really couldn’t even imagine how you’d go about eating a... an animal.
Reef Skimmer stared in wonder as the batpony's flesh began to knit itself back together. He quickly ripped off the dressing and removed the clamps before they became stuck in the stallion's body, getting a brief look at the torn kidney sealing itself up before the outer wound closed as well. With the patient seemingly on the road to recovery, the hippogriff attended to the spidrow, bandaging her head wound despite her attempts to flinch away.
Blaze Trails just looked on in awe and disgust... but mostly awe. "Damn, wouldn'a thought a pony could do that? It's unreal!"
Grenelda just gape-grinned back: "Ha! I knew it: just like in the comics. Cooool."
Azure Feather shook her head as she watched the crawling creatures consumed by her squad-mate's new attitudes. Comics... no serious bestiary or encyclopaedia spoke of vampires as anything more than a myth. Indeed since their return the bat ponies had done everything they could to dispel such rumours. Was there a kernel of truth to the legends after all, or was this purely the work of the mysterious forces at work in the Cloudbreaks?
Just a few metres away, Melonwater and Sprocket were huddled in the driver's cab of the mine locomotive. The earth stallion had desperately tried to ignore the angry threats, then the hideous skittering and crunching and slurping... urgh. He felt like he was about to lose his breakfast. Desperately, he focused on the unicorn mare in front of him, an angelic light in the darkness. Say something, Melonwater, say something cool and sophisticated! "So... uh... is it true... that unicorns feel, uh, horny all the time?"
“Dunno,” Sprocket said carelessly, “I ain’t been anything but a unicorn, but I have been kinda uh... whatever you call it when you want it and can’t get it lately. Why? You telling me that you earth ponies don’t get horny?” She frowned glancing down, muttering to herself, “That’d explain a lot actually...”
Melonwater opened his eyes. Amazingly, he was not on fire. What had she said... "Uh, no, no we get... don't you know, earth pony stamina is legendary! Uh. Heh heh, yeah, just ask Blueb-" His mouth clamped shut - why did this happen every time he tried to talk to a cute mare? "Umm. Sorry, just a- just a bit tense with all that-" the green stallion waved a hoof in the general direction of the carnival of horrors currently performing in the side passage "-going on, you know? Uh." He shot the mare a curious look. "What do you mean, 'explains a lot'?"
“Why do y’think I’m chatting so much? I’m tryin' not to listen to it,” Sprocket said unhappily, her own ears folded away from that direction, “Figure if they need us they’ll come by. And don’t get me wrong, I know earth ponies can ... really work you over, at least the stallions. ...a few of the stallions. ...okay mostly I just been with Gearshift, but he’s... he’s just never in the mood anymore. Can hardly even talk to him. I think something’s wrong, but he won’t open up about it.”
"Uh, that's... that's a shame." Melonwater said. "Maybe I could- oh..."
Blaze Trails, relieved that things were under control (and if she was honest, looking for a distraction from the sight of a pony draining giant spiders of blood), moseyed off to check out front of the train. The dust had pretty much settled, and she couldn't see spidrow nor their little pets out there - seemed like they'd limped off and left the coast clear. She trotted back around the locomotive, interrupting the conversation: "Hey - Sprocket, Melonwater? I think... I think we're ready to go as soon as we unpile some rocks. Clashing's, uh... fine, and seems like the fighting's all done. Come help?"
Melonwater listened to the explorer pony being terribly brave and professional. "S-Sure Blaze Trails! Uh, you're going first right?" Seeing her nod, he trotted after, still looking nervously around for any sign of the spider creatures.
"Sure can," Blaze said, drawing her knife again more to reassure the stallion than for fear of ambush. "Pretty sure they've all learned their lesson, though."
“No wait, I’m goin first!” Sprocket shouted, jumping out of the cab and pushing past Blaze. “I got this light going,” she said, pointing at her glowing horn, “So don’t go into the darkness without me." She called into the darkness: "Matter of fact... we’re gonna clear away these rocks, okay?! Are you two gone?!” The only response was the low moan of air drafting through the tunnels; if the spidrow were still in earshot, they weren't giving it away.
Back in the side tunnel, Clashing Gale was feeling... well, still pretty sore and weak, but vastly better than a few minutes ago. The bloodlust faded away as he drank his fill. "...Remind me not to get hit with one of those again..." he muttered as he slowly rose to his hooves.
Cloud Cutter watched dispassionately as Grenelda made a snack of a dead spider (taking care to choose a brown one). She trotted over to the trussed-up spidrow and sank to the ground nearby. “I’m so sorry,” she said, honestly if not enthusiastically. “I wish we knew more about what we were doing here. Are you going to be short on... 'kin' because of this? Because you are going to live, Niqu. I know you didn’t want to, but... you just saved my friend’s life.”
The spidrow refused to meet the undead beast's gaze, shivering and looking at the abomination out of the corner of her eye. "Don't try to fool me, Empty One," she muttered. "More souls for the hungry nether, that is all you seek. Do you think you will endure where the others come apart, because your element preserves a mockery of life?"
Cloud Cutter's gaze never wavered: she looked evenly at Niqu and stated: “I don’t even know what the nether is.”
"Are you stupid?" Clashing Gale exclaimed. "What we wanted, right this blasted second, was to stay alive. Keep every single one of us standing, because... oh, what the heck. You creatures couldn't understand friendship if it hit you on the head. We don't want souls - we want to stay alive. Same as you, right? And I do have to thank you. I... I had to do what I did there... because if I didn't, one of us wouldn't be here right now... and that's where it starts and ends..." He turned away, going quiet as it sank in just how close he had come to the final voyage to Luna's realm...
"Friendship?" Niqu sounded genuinely stunned, as if she couldn't imagine why a strike party of Eonite war-beasts would mention such a thing. "You lived as serfs of the mabu then? Swallowed their lies, before you were-" a wry smile "chosen to receive the Elements."
Clashing's head snapped back up, clearly confused by the spidrow's babble. "Alright, now I'm convinced you're talking absolute nonsense... I don't know what kind of ideas got into your head when Azure smacked you upside the head - but I've got absolutely no idea what in Luna's stars it is that you're talking about." He sighed. "Look. As far as you, and I mean you specifically and I go? You saved my hide. And I thank you for it. Beyond that?" He shrugged.
Niqu just looked miserably at the vampire beast, then the shrivelled remains of the spidrow archer nearby. She shivered again and held her tongue.
“I don’t know what the 'mabu' are either, I’m sorry,” Cloud Cutter said with a wry grimace, “I may have heard them mentioned before. But you are right that what this element did to me is a mockery of life. Life is a pretty easy target for mockery though. Mostly I just don't like the part about...” she followed Niqu's gaze to the lifeless corpse of her brood-mate “...ending it,” the purple pegasus concluded. “I just don’t know any other way to defend myself. I can’t feel the winds anymore, and... this undead wind that takes their place is not so friendly.”
Medical emergency over, Reef Skimmer took stock of the condition of the crew... one brown pegasus in particular, standing to one side and watching the spooky ponies converse with the spidrow. Stepping close, he placed a claw on her back - she was trembling. "Captain," he said softly. "You saved Splashing Gale. And... kept your griffon fed and happy, it seems. Now... what are you orders? We can't stay here."
Melonwater and Blaze Trails were making short work of the boulder pile. The train would soon be free to move forward, which Set Sail considered a very good idea, before every single spidrow decided to swarm their location. More importantly, Clashing Gale was back on his hooves, his wounds were apparently healed.
“How do you feel?” Set Sail asked, standing uncertainly before the dark-seeing bat pony.
“Well, pretty good... considering.” Clashing said, looking guiltily around at all the drained husks of spider corpses he had fed on. "Physically at least. Hind legs feel kinda sleepy, but I can walk."
“Oh, thank goodness,” Set Sail said in relief, rushing forward to hug the surprised stallion's neck, ignoring the spider’s ichor smeared into his chest. “I don’t care if it’s a stereotype. You have an amazing ability!”
“Aren’t you worried I’m gonna bite you too?” Clashing asked the mare, worried that the prospect actually appealed to him. Set Sail smelled... tasty.
“I’ve been friends with predators before,” Set Sail said, backing up to stand before him with a smile, “And it’s true for every creature, we only need to eat when we’re hungry. Anyway I could probably take you.” The grim amusement drained from his voice as she looked at the scattered spider remains, saying “You... definitely ate a lot of these beasts though. I wish there had been some other way.”
Turning to the tied-up spider lady, Set Sail said: “I know you didn’t want to, but... you saved my friend’s life, so I have to thank you for that, Niqu. You’ve ended any quarrel we might have had with your people, and more than made up for your spear throwing friend; though please tell him to be a little less ...eager next time.” Then she craned her neck down to untie Niqu’s bonds.
The spider-drow stared at the pegasus in total disbelief. "You can't... I won't fall for-" Bewildered, Niqu reflexively moved her arms as if to start casting a spell at the ponies, but then thought better off it and scuttled off into the darkness of the side tunnel. Their last sight of the creature was her bulbous abdomen disappearing into the gloom.
Azure Feather could only shake her head again. Yes, they saved Clashing Gale's life, and maybe, just maybe that warranted rewarding the creature with her freedom, but part of her still wasn't sold on letting the spidrow go. Not like she was actually trustworthy.
With Clashing on the way to recovery, Set Sail gathered everyone together by the train, saying, “Okay the rocks are clear, but I don’t want to run into another ambush like that. If we could just get somepony to scout ahead... but I don’t want them to get caught in an ambush without cover or backup. Any ideas?”
"I suppose a dissection of the slain specimen is out of the question," Reef Skimmer muttered.
“We need to get moving though, like you said,” Set Sail said giving Reef a confused look.
“Maybe he wants something to do on the way,” Cloud Cutter mused.
"Can't you just back up the train if- if they try that again," Melonwater asked Sprocket.
“Uh, yeah,” the cream furred mare said, giving the stallion an odd look, “But why?”
"Oh, I guess you were up front... it was awful in the back, seemed like they were coming from all sides," the stallion said unhappily. "I thought maybe... like if we reversed, at least they'd all be coming from one direction, you know?" He wondered if he was just being stupid; if it was worth saying, surely all these brave fighting-type creatures would have thought of it.
“Up front, they were coming on three sides out of four,” Sprocket said, intrigued, “But yeah you’re right it would have been a good idea if we could’ve backed the whole thing up into the tunnel. Might’ve taken a while to switch it to reverse though...”
“Why don’t we use one of those invisisodas?” Grenelda interrupted.
Set Sail sighed, looking sadly at the hen and saying: “I didn't bring any, Grenelda... after we used four checking in on Summer Scribe yesterday, I thought we should save what's left for-”
“Well, uh, actually I might’ve... brought a couple,” Grenelda interrupted, as she gave a nervous laugh, “Just in case, you know, heh heh?”
“How many of our sodas did you take without asking?” Set Sail asked flatly.
“Just a... clawful,” Grenelda said, eyes darting shiftily, “I wasn’t gonna use them. Just in case we uh, needed them, you know?”
Facehoofing, Set Sail groaned, “How can you be so awful and yet so helpful? Yes, we could... use one of the sodas. Thanks Grennie. It only lasts ten minutes though, and I don’t want Clashing...” Set Sail looked over the batpony, “...putting himself in harm’s way just yet.” Still shaken from his experience, Clashing hardly offered any protest.
“So maybe you could go instead, Cloud Cutter?” Set Sail asked hopefully, giving the blank eyed pony an imploring look. “You can see in the dark, can’t you?”
“It makes no sense that I would, since I can just glow,” Cloud Cutter said, sounding almost grumpy about it, “But... yes. I can see... most things. Walls and... life. Nothing too detailed.”
"That's all we need!" the acting-captain said warmly. "You're the most experienced being invisible anyway."
Without further ado the undead pegasus reached over to take the bottle from Grenelda's outstretched claw. She soon had the top bitten off and the contents drained, quickly becoming translucent before fading from view entirely. "I'll be right back," came her disembodied voice, followed by the sound of wingbeats as she took off down the tunnel, heading deeper into the mine.
It was a very long ten minutes as the explorers waited for their scout to return. Melonwater and Blaze Trails finished clearing the obstruction, while Sprocket kept the boiler hot, ready to move the train at the first sign of trouble. Everyone else hunkered down in the mine carts, watching the side tunnels for any sign that the spidrow were back. Ten minutes became twelve: "It must have run out by now," Set Sail fretted, "I hope she's-"
"There she is!" Sprocket called out. Sure enough Cloud Cutter was flying straight up the tunnel toward them, the last hints of transparency draining away as dropped to her hooves and trotted around the engine.
Azure would soon speak up as the Pegasus landed. "Hopefully the news isn't too bad?" Wishful thinking, for sure, but at least she was trying to look at the bright side... even if that meant more of the accursed drow to take down.
"We have a problem," the purple pegasus said flatly. "The tunnel goes on another two kilometres, then goes into an enormous cavern. Big enough to fit most of Ponyville. The far end is full of pod-shaped structures, hanging from the ceiling and the walls. Webbing everywhere." She glanced at Sprocket: "The tracks seem clear enough, if we're taking the right fork again. There are at least a hundred spidrow in that nest though. And-" she frowned, looking to the captain.
“And... what?” Set Sail asked, leery at the attention and the sudden silence of the purple pegasus, “And what?”
"Set Sail, I couldn't get close; some of them seemed to sense my presence, even if they couldn't see me. But... I spotted another creature, trapped in a coocoon with only her head visible. I would have thought it was a strange tribe of pony, if I hadn't seen a sphinx in person yesterday."
“Only one?” the captain blurted out in surprise, with a very troubled look to her.
"Only one," Cloud Cutter echoed. "There were bones though, scattered below. I couldn't tell what creatures they came from."
“Well I had thought these creatures needed to prey on magical beings to survive,” Set Sail said, rubbing thoughtfully at her chin with a blue foreleg, “But a hundred spidrow with only one sphinx? That sounds more like... opportunity than necessity.”
“What do we do? We can’t just leave her there!” Sprocket blurted out, full of worry, “They just let her die and drop her bones?”
Azure Feather's hope for a clear shot to the pyramid was extinguished by Cloud Cutter's report: she couldn't see any positives in the situation. If they'd caught and cocooned a sphinx, surely they'd have no trouble doing the same to a pony. "Nearly our full squad... and we're still facing ten to one odds... at minimum," she muttered. If it was veteran guard versus militia, that might be manageable, but Reef was the only other military here... and he was a naval doctor. "Unless we can deploy some serious firepower - ideally literally - this sounds like suicide." Like the Changeling Invasion, from the Lieutenant's stories...
Reef Skimmer nodded to Azure "Indeed, just a clawful of the blighters gave us enough trouble. Frontal assault on a sizable settlement, well, one wouldn't fancy our chances."
"At least you can see," Cloud Cutter droned. "There are glowing plants all over the cave. The cables glow as well."
"Cables? Are you saying they have technology in there?" Reef asked cautiously.
"No. Organic: like blood vessels. They join the pod things and lead off into the tunnels." Cloud Cutter explained.
"Ah, I can venture a theory then," the hippogriff mused. "We spotted something like that linking the sac-like structures to the elemental gate - in the sphinx pyramid, before Summer blew them sky high. One would guess they're conduits for the energies these creatures feed on." His gaze went to Set Sail "As such I concur, they must have many sources of energy down here, draining creatures is merely... dessert?" He ducked his head "Supplemental, that is to say!"
Azure could see Set Sail was seriously pondering a rescue attempt; she had to speak up: "Captain, think about this. We ran into an advance force of just six - probably not their best troops, just whoever was closest - and nearly lost Clashing Gale - somepony far stronger and tougher than the average pony."
The batpony stared back at her, but Azure shook her head. "Hear me out, alright? Truth is, Captain, we go hoof-to-hoof with a dozen trained fighters - and I bet there will be a lot more taking pot shots at us if we attack their nest... no way are we getting through that without casualties. It would be pure folly, most likely we'd end up overrun and going straight to Tartarus."
“Yes, I’m aware that spears kill ponies,” Set Sail groaned in response, rubbing at her face with that forehoof. “It was embarrassingly easy to take us down. But we gotta get through that cavern one way or another, and if you haven’t noticed from the dank dark cave that we’re in right now, full of horrible monsters and deadly enemies...” She glared as Azure, saying: “We are in Tartarus right now. So if you have any better ideas that would be less likely to get the whole crew and everypony who’s counting on us killed... I am all ears.”
Azure took a step back from the force of Set Sail's words, nodding quietly in understanding. She really didn't have a better idea, save going back for more reinforcements, so... she knew when she was asked to shut her trap.
Cloud Cutter acted as if she hadn't heard the argument, her empty white eyes settling on Sprocket. "How fast does it go? The train, I mean."
“Oh I dunno, pretty fast I guess?” Sprocket replied, looking nervously at the spooky pegasus. “I'd say... this sorta train can hit about fifty kay-pee-haych, but the state of repair it’s in... I'd be shocked if we made it past forty.”
Cloud Cutter stared blankly for a few seconds, then nodded. "Then we could traverse the cavern in two minutes flat. That would give the creatures only a little time to raise an attack. Assuming the switch is set in the right direction... and we don't give them time to set up another ambush."
What with the dark and the stress, Set Sail didn't register Azure's distress as much as she should have. Turning to Cloud Cutter, she asked: “Are there any more obstacles on the tracks between us and this cavern?”
The other mare shook her head: “It was all clear. Two to three kilometres ahead of us.”
“We have one last invisisoda, thanks to Grenelda,” Set Sail said, giving Cloud Cutter a serious look, “Do you think you could get past the spidrow, and free the sphinx, if you had some sort of... distraction?”
The purple pegasus nodded. "If Clashing returns my wing-blades, so I can cut the cocoon open." She frowned again, "though if she's too weak to fly and I have to try and carry her... probably easier to stay in the cocoon."
Set Sail's eye twitched as her gaze roamed over Azure, Reef Skimmer - no, they were better as magical artillery - Sprocket, Melonwater - no wings - Grenelda, and... “Do you think I could get past the spidrow, and free the sphinx, if the rest of you drew their attention?” Set Sail suggested, “Because I can carry a cart full of rocks.”
"That... would be best," Cloud Cutter reluctantly admitted. "You can see well enough with the glowing plants, and since I changed I don't think I-"
"Captain! We can't risk you caught in the midst of a crowd of hostiles!" Reef Skimmer interrupted. "One volunteers of course. We've established that I can take a fair few of those magic blasts, and the creatures are sure to have a hard time restraining a roc."
“Well thank you for volunteering, Reef. You might have to take a few of those magic blasts, while you’re protecting the others on the train,” Set Sail said, sighing, and adding, “I know you’re worried about me, but that’s even more reason I should do it. They’ll be shooting at you, not me, if I’m the invisible one.”
"One supposes one could fly overwatch, as it were. Though that did not turn out so well with the cats," the hippogriff said unhappily.
"Either ways, can't stand here arguing 'bout it." Blaze chipped in. "If we're gonna' ignore common sense and plough on through this spider pit, not to mention stick our necks out tryin' ta save a sphinx of all creatures, then we don't wanna give 'em any more time to prepare."
"C'mon, Azure," Grenelda chided. "It'll be awesome! You with the tornados, Sprocket with the bombs, the doc with the water cannons, Cutter will do her flashy thing! Spiders won't know what hit 'em. They won't mess with us after this!" she crowed.
So, this insane mission would be going ahead, Azure realised. Her opinion was given, and overruled. She was a guard, and orders were orders. If the Captain told her to protect these ponies... she would, even if it amounted to a suicide mission. Grenelda's overconfidence drew no more than a frown from the blue pegasus. Yes, the squad had serious offensive capabilities, surely they could take out a good number of enemies... but Cloud Cutter had said at least a hundred drow. What if it was two, three, or more?
On defence they were sorely lacking: a simple spear had almost killed one of their toughest fighters. What if an arrow found the Captain? What if Grenelda was caught a magic bolt? In her opinion, this was an insane mission, but... orders are orders. Her spirits low, the air elemental could only try and steel herself for the battle ahead, trying to supress the thought that it would likely be her last.
"Now Grenelda, we aren't here as exterminators!" Reef was saying angrily. "Rescue a possible ally, certainly. Suppress the enemy, absolutely. Damage their structures, well, that seems unavoidable. But I will not participate in wanton slaughter!"
“The sphinxes amazingly enough are the only creatures on this entire island to demonstrate basic courtesy and kindness,” Set Sail said wearily to Blaze, “If it were one of the two legged cats, I... I don’t know. It’s just not right to leave her there, if they don’t need her.”
Heading over from where she had been rummaging around in their stuff, Sprocket said "Hey, captain, one thing.”
Set Sail looked her way, and Sprocket said, “I just checked the map for this thing and... there are two track switches. They both need to be pulled to the left if we want to go to the northwest. Wouldn't want to take a wrong turn and end up at the sphinx’s temple ha-ha!" The unicorn's nervous laugh did little to mask her fear, but if Set Sail said they were doing it...
“They just need to be pulled left, right?” Set Sail asked cautiously.
“Right,” Sprocket said, “Left.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Set Sail replied with a curt nod.
“Well okay then,” Sprocket said with leg shakingly nervous but growing enthusiasm, “Train’s ready, track’s clear. Let’s do this!”
Reef Skimmer climbed into the first cart, right behind the engine. Seeing the blue pegasus flap up unhappily to land in the cart behind, he whispered "Chin up Azure. Clashing got the worst of it because the blighters jumped us in the dark, but this time we'll have the element of surprise, not to mention room enough for your weather workings."
Blaze Trails winked to Melonwater. "Now you just sit here with in me and we'll let those flashy magic types do their thing. If any spider beasts see fit to hitch a ride without a ticket, we'll buck 'em back to Canterlot, alright?"
The green-furred stallion gulped and nodded, pressing himself down into the rusted steel hopper of the ore truck.
Deep below the island of Fellis, a ball of light moved swiftly down the tunnel that formed the spine of Catseye Mine. Set Sail had quaffed the magical soda she'd confiscated from Grenelda, and taken flight as soon as she'd faded to transparency. Feeling her way through the pitch black was out of the question, not to mention the possibility of lurking spidrow being drawn to her hooves clopping on the stone, so she had to fly - which meant she had to take one of their lamps.
She felt horribly vulnerable and claustrophobic, flapping along on her own through the narrow space, waiting for something horrible to jump out of a side tunnel. For the sake of her crew she pushed on, clamping her teeth down on firmly the lamp's handle. Fortunately there were no further ambushes or obstructions between her and the central cavern.
The pegasus emerged into a vast cave, perhaps 400 metres across, lit by carpets of bioluminescent mushrooms and magic that pulsed through veins, twinkled from crystals and pooled in spidrow's pods. Both floor and ceiling were forests of stone spikes, the largest of them fused into natural columns that supported the roof.
The tracks for the mine train crossed the huge space on trestles of rickety wood, branching several times to reach branch lines to the north and south, and to provide loops for turning and passing trains. Everywhere were enormous webs, stretched between the rock pillars, providing bridges and platforms for creatures that crawled and scuttled on eight legs. Pods the size of houses were suspended from the roof and walls on cables of silk, growing larger and denser towards the far side of the cavern, where a veritable spider village was located.
Set Sail stared in shock, letting the lamp slip from her mouth; it tumbled down into the gloom below, shattering on a rock and instantly going out. She squeaked in fear and flapped upward... fortunately no creatures were close enough to notice. She'd planned to ditch the lamp anyway, as it would no doubt have given her away when she got closer to the spider creatures - just not in such a careless manner.
Quiet as a passing breeze, Set Sail still felt horribly exposed like this. Azure was right. This was a terrible idea, they were all going to die, and it was all the fault of the pony who made them do it, the pony who Azure refused to disobey. She was stunned by the size and the scale of this place. Just how outmatched they were was finally starting to dawn on her. Still, at least she could see, and she could move freely, after such a terrible hair–raising underground trek.
It seemed unreal, that she could fly among this giant complex, with spidrow scuttling to and fro on that silklike webbing. In her mind she saw herself becoming visible after waiting too long, just in time for her body to become impaled by a thicket of arrows - and unlike Clashing, Set Sail had no alien powers to defend herself. Granted she could repel any incoming projectiles the normal way, with a strong beat of her wings, but that wouldn't be much good against the spellcasters.
It was peaceful in a way, giving herself up for dead - she had nothing to lose anymore. They were an insignificant stain on the history books, unnoticed and unremembered as the Cloudbreaks continued the way they'd always been. So it couldn’t hurt to check the train switches. If they could pull this off... it probably would have terrible unforeseen consequences, but somewhere in there was the undying hope that maybe just maybe they could pull through.
She glided out into the cavern, following the tracks. First switch... ok. Second switch... she cringed as she back-beat to a stop. It was still set on the main line, leading to the sky docks far to the west. She couldn’t see her own forelegs as she reached out, wincing at the feel of the rusted metal against her fur. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling so much as- clank.
The pegasus skittered away from the switch, looking around frantically. No... no spidrow had noticed. Maybe it had sounded louder to her than it actually was. She breathed a sigh of relief: now the train would turn onto the northern branch. Counting down the time remaining before she was made into a pincushion, she headed for the heart of the spidrow nest, where Cloud Cutter had said the prisoner was being... drained...
Her wings felt like they wanted to freeze up, but somehow she made herself approach the heart of the nest. Close up the structures were akin to enormous wasp nests, globes formed of some resin-like material with large holes providing access to the spidrow. The thick veins linking the structures and snaking off into the distance seemed alive, glistening and pulsing as they transported some unnatural ichor. Dozens of spidrow were dashing about, some shouting orders to the others to prepare for "Eonites attacking the nest!", others shepherding hosts of regular spiders or preparing spells, their abdomens glowing with traceries of power.
Desperately the pegasus searched through the frantic activity and nightmarish scenery for the prisoner. After a minute's search she found... she couldn't help gasping at the sight of a pony head sticking out of a bundle of spider silk. Almost pony, at least - the feline tail protruding from the other end confirmed it was the sphinx. Her eyes were closed, as if sleeping, though the branching black veins crawling over the coccoon suggested something far less benign.
Set Sail hovered there for a moment, wondering how she could possibly... then nearly froze as she realised a spidrow was staring right at her. With rising panic, she backed off... the creature had summoned another, they were whispering and pointing, they knew, they knew she was there
The whoop of a steam whistle rang out through the cavern, followed by the hiss of steam and clattering of wheels as the mine train barrelled out of the tunnel at full speed. Every spidrow's head snapped around to see the steel invader snaking into their stronghold. Something was rising from the centre of the train, huge wings unfurling. "A thunderbird?!" the nearest drow shouted, "how did that even get in-"
They were cut off by a piercing screech that echoed through the cavern as the enormous avian took flight, followed by another blast of the steam whistle. The host of spidrow immediately rushed to firing positions ready to defend their nest, many making their way to the blockade they'd set up on the central track.
Azure Feather had trained to suppress her fear - but part of her couldn't help but be afraid when the train steamed out into the enormous cave. She braced for incoming fire, but with all eyes focused on Reef Skimmer... that left her with two options. Either play it safe, stay in her mine cart and hope the train wouldn't be targeted, or... no. Not an option. She had to help the doctor - he'd attracted at least two dozen drow and more were spilling out of their nest-structures.
She'd go on the offence, give the spidrow something else to worry about - maybe even catch them in a crossfire. Grenelda and Clashing would defend the train. Blue pinions unfurled and Azure leapt into the air, scanning the nightmarish scene for targets. She began raining down wind blades with wild abandon, slicing through webbing and sending spidrow ducking for cover.
Sprocket was pretty sure they were all gonna die. So she was kind of glad she and Melonwater hadn’t got caught up in all that messy vampire junk, and had spent their time in a different way. It was a good way to go out. The train was achingly slow to her. She had every valve open, every lever pulled, and she would’ve been impressed if speed wasn’t so very important right now. For her part she was hurling flaming explosives: a pair of bombs arced out, boosted by her horn field. She aimed at the gross webby ball things that... huh, the spheres didn't stick like she expected, instead bouncing right off the webbing around the pods. They dropped down to the cave floor below, lying in the wake of the train as the fuses burned down.
Blaze Trails wasn't sure quite what to expect as the cave became wider, distant sounds echoing off the far walls, and what sounds like noises of... chittering, creeping, crawling on a massive scale. It was enough to put her fur on end - a spiders, no problem, but now she wsa an uninvited guest in the Kingdom of Spiders. Grasping her knife in her mouth and looking out the side of the train, she saw what looked like a clear path ahead, even if those trestles supporting the track looked mighty rickety. Even at full speed they'd have company for sure, so she braced herself on the squealing, speeding mine trucks, ready anything...
Reef Skimmer sailed towards the hive like a harbinger of watery apocalypse. With all the pillars and spikes of rock it was difficult to manoeuvre with his wings, but his feet had reverted to blue tentacles and he was half-hovering on the torrents of water they were blasting out. Structures of webbing and resin that had never before seen weather were suddenly treated to tonnes of water crashing down on them. Walkways collapsed and pods squirmed and split under the onslaught. As the shock worse off every spidrow in the nest who could hold a bow or cast a spell began to fire desperately at the oncoming avian, while the rest ran for their lives.
The arrows merely lodged in his body while the magic did little better, punching steaming holes through his flight feathers that did nothing to stop his advance. The roc swept over the heart of the nest, soaking and shaking everything and flying off into the gloom. Set Sail was buffeted by his wingbeats, then watched in horror as the cocooned prisoner began to slide... fortunately snagging on a strand of web before it could fall into the pile of bones far below. The nest was an utter chaos of dripping and splashing and screaming and scuttling.
“I’m going to kill him,” a dripping but thankfully invisible Set Sail thought calmly, “We’re going to survive, because I’m going to need to kill him after this.” Luckily her strategy didn’t rely on the web being dry... assuming Reef's barrage hadn't turned it to solid glue. Blaze Trails had been kind enough to loan her a wickedly sharp serrated knife; carefully pulling it from her makeshift sheath, she was relieved to find it made short work of the stringy stuff. The webbing was strong, to be sure, but no match for the sawing action of the knife. Strands snapped, pulled apart by their own tension and the weight of the prisoner.
As the webbing tore apart, it revealed more of the unconscious sphinx trapped within, no mask on her ponylike face to speak of, she had burnt orange fur from her head to her tail, with a set of golden spots on her shoulders that reminded Set Sail of dappling. Far too slowly, Set Sail cut her free, until the sphinx slumped bodily over her shoulder, making Set Sail flap frantically to account for the extra weight. The pegasus dipped dangerously downward, then rose again, pulling the limp creature free at last.
The sphinx was lighter than Set Sail had figured actually. The others had been griffon-sized, but this one was only as big as she was, and lighter built. Almost like carrying a foal rather than a grown mare. Just the thought that a foal would go through this... it didn’t matter now. Biting down on the knife in her teeth, it was time for Set Sail to enact the second phase of her rescue plan: fly for the train as fast as she bucking could.
At the other end of the cavern, the mine train thundered forward, wheels squealing and kicking up sparks as they ground over the rusted, long-abandoned tracks. Spidrow were arrayed in vantage points along the webbing to the side of the track and clustered near the blockade in the centre of the cavern; the bulk of them unleashed a hail of arrows and magic that streaked towards the train. At this range the accuracy was still poor, but the train was quickly closing the gap. A few spidrow hung on silk threads directly above the tracks - the first dropped as it passed underneath, landing on one of the ore carts towards the rear.
Blaze Trails wasted no time. She clambered out of her cart and skulked forward, knife in maw and body held low as she steadied herself against the bucking train. As much as Blaze wanted to use the element of surprise and knock the Spidrow out in one blow - he was on the ball, spotting her approach and brandishing his spear expertly. Probably a trained warrior, not just a miner caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. So Blaze kept her distance, cursing her lack of options: the spider-taur had the range advantage, and the train pretty much represents a straight line in terms of tactics.
Arrows or not, Grenelda wasn't gonna cower in the train when the ponies were having fun. She spread her wings and sailed into the air, soaring up to Azure Feather. "Yo! All good? This place is really somethin', huh?" She readied her rifle, keen eyes searching a target - then something else drew her eye. Slapped across the train tracks like glowing molten vines the size of tree trunks, pulsing and engorged with fire energy. "Shit - I don't think the train can plough through that, not without comin' off the tracks."
The hen clicked her beak, in frustration - then quickly realised this was a problem solvable by violence. She reached into her pouch, drawing out the last bottle of contraband magical soda - this one with a fiery red branding. The griffoness cackled as she gulped it down...
Azure followed Grenelda's gaze, taking not of the fiery veins. Damn it... she hoped the griffon could deal with it, because she had more pressing problems. The train was steaming into a hailstorm of arrows and magic bolts; cover or not, some were sure to find their mark. Unless... her feathers glowed brightly as she focused her power. Hail was at the mercy of the wind after all. With a few swift motions of her wings, Azure Feather summoned a roaring gale, blasting back the oncoming arrows to clatter harmlessly in the darkness. The hanging spidrow spun helplessly on their threads, shrieking as the storm tore at their webs.
The magic bolts were not so easily dealt with, arcing down to burst in sparks around and among the train casts. One bolt broke on the rim of the cart holding Melonwater, spraying both him and Cloud Cutter with the sizzling sparks. Azure saw the hit and flew grimly forward, somehow unaffected by her own gale as she struck at the enemy casters with precision wind blades.
A blast echoed through the cavern, followed quickly by another as Sprocket's bombs went off. Dust and shards of rock rained down from above as the shockwaves spread out. The ancient rotted wood of the trestles supporting the track creaked and groaned, under the sudden weight of the train and impact of the blast. Iron wheels screamed and shot sparks as the track began to buckle. Some of the spidrow began to retreat, but most held their ground, intent to defending the nest and not yet realising that the ponies meant to escape.
Grenelda gulped down the soda as she makes a beeline for the energy pipeline, folding her wings to stoop on the target. Fortunately she'd ignored Set Sail and got in some covert practice with the potions, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy to summon the flaming aura. She relished the feeling of heat, focusing it onto her beak and claws as she slashed the tree-trunk-sized vein. It was burning hot, but with this new magic she was temporarily fireproof. A few more pecks and slashes, biting and gouging at the thing - it ripped open, Grenelda squawking with feral glee as she rent it asunder.
...only for burning ichor to spurt out from the severed ends as it detaches! "Shit!" She squawked in a panic, instinctively summoning the flaming aura to envelop her whole body. It can just in time to prevent serious burns; relief washed over the griffon as she rose up from the track. Crap, she'd nearly been burned to a crisp - and Set Sail had told her not to bring the soda! She flapped higher to admire her handiwork - but not for too long! She saw a second vein up ahead that needed her attentions - before the fire soda wore off.
Set Sail flapped desperately through the gloom, weaving around obstructions and aiming to intercept the train near the northern exit, her brain struggling to process the flashes and screams. To her left, Reef Skimmer had slowed to a near hover, trapped in a dead end of heavily webbed pillars. Deafening screeches filled the air as the bolts of drow magic increased in number and accuracy, sizzling into his body. He responded with concentrated blasts of water that pummelled the surrounding structures, but the cavern was getting darker as light sources were put out or washed away, and most of the spidrow were avoiding his attacks.
To her right, she saw the train reach the second switch and veer sharply away from the main track, much to the surprise of the spidrow gathered at their central blockade. A bright flare from further up the tracks - the two severed ends of the vein spraying glowing ichor over the trestles, flames blossoming out - that was Grenelda! She was on fire, her feathers ablaze... Set Sail shuddered in sympathy at the pain the griffoness must be feeling. Then the train itself thundered over the burning trestles, globs of the napalm-like substance sticking to the front of the engine
Grenelda had indeed summoned a dramatic shroud of flame as she soaring in a high arc towards the next vein, filling the air with the shrill cackling of wild avian laughter! How was she feeling? Bucking great! On fire and tearing shit up! She focused the fire back to her claws and beak as she dove towards her target. Uh oh... kinda felt like... there was little less fire than before. Gotta finish up quick!
Riding in her ore cart, Cloud Cutter was in disbelief. She didn’t think anypony would ever show her affection the way she was now, and yet as she hunkered down in the train car, here was Melonwater, hugging her tightly and crying like a baby. “We’re safe in here,” she assured the poor colt, unable to comprehend how the teenage stallion had agreed to come on a mission like this at all. Bravado? Underestimation? He was probably braver than he himself thought he was, but all she could do was shield him with a wing saying, “Don’t worry. I’ll bear the brunt of any attacks. We’re almost there.”
She couldn’t leave the train car, to get riddled with arrows as she charged up her uselessly slow ability. She couldn’t send her shadow down the side of the train bridge, not for any actual use at least. She couldn’t charge up in here, because if she let it loose with ponies like Melonwater so close by... Cloud Cutter wished she could still cry too.
Just a few metres back, Blaze faced the spear-wielding spidrow. She'd finally realised what she had to do - a quiet sigh coming to her lips as she accepted the sacrifice. She charges at the Spidrow, yelling and feinting at a thrust - hoping the Spidrow would commit to a spear thrust in turn. Sure enough he fell for the ruse, stabbing forward at where Blaze would have been if she hadn't stopped short. With her foe over-extended and distracted, she hurled her knife, twirling it on a perfect arc towards the spidrow's face.
The spidrow ducked just in time - this one had clearly seen plenty of combat. Blaze's thrown knife scored a bleeding line along his skull, slicing off most of an absurdly-pointed ear before spinning away into the cave. His eight hairy legs kept him from falling from the speeding, shaking train, but his spear went wild, giving the earth pony the opening she needed to close to point blank range. Mouth now free, she yelled out a battle-cry: "Sorry - you don't have a ticket to ride!" Silly or not, it was all she could think of in the heat of the moment. "Hrrargh!" She lept forward, body-checking the spider-taur, then following up with a series of swift kicks.
Now he was armed and she wasn't, and she had to end this fight before her foe could regain his position. The spidrow clung on for dear life, tarsal claws scraping along the rim of the ore cart, but the punishing blows knocked his legs away along one side. With his footing lost, the creature toppled and fell into the darkness behind the train. 'Whew', Blaze thought; put one hoof wrong and she'd be the one hurtling into the abyss. Not to mention... looking down she realised where she'd been fighting. The last mine cart... the one full of possibly-unstable high explosives. Shaking with relief, the explorer crept back towards her own cart, silently mourning the loss of her favourite knife.
Azure Feather flew above the train, darting and dodging around bolts of magic, suppressing the remaining spidrow snipers with quick volleys of air blades. She nodded in approval as Blaze dispatched the boarder. The brilliance of the captain's plan was finally evident: the train was both distraction and feint. The spidrow assumed that they'd head straight for the nest, just like Azure had assumed they'd be fighting their way to the prisoner - but no, they'd veered north and headed for an alternate exist. No need to hold ground, just sow fear and confusion, buy time for Set Sail to complete the rescue.
She'd never done anything like this, but she vaguely recalled hearing Wonderbolts talk of 'thunder runs'. The odds were looking much better than she'd thought possible; most of the spidrow forces were out of position, ready to defend the nest, and she'd managed to suppress those who could fire on the train. She watched with admiration as the veritable phoenix of a griffon removed the obstructions. Now it was just a question of whether the Captain and the Doctor would make it out of the nest. In truth she wouldn't mind if he washed away the whole damn settlement, but that wasn't what they were here for...
Set Sail hated this nest, this twisty-turny spider webby maze of murderousness. She had her cargo in all four hooves, but they could see her now. They could see her, and who she carried, and she saw them stare at her in her peripheral vision, one, two, five spidrow! Shouting and pointing at her, and aiming arrows at her heart, when Set Sail couldn’t speed up because she didn’t have a straight shot. Then... gale force wind howled through the cave, blowing away webbing and arrows alike. The pegasus struggled to stay airborne, pushing into the wind... What—? She had a straight shot!
Flapping forward, she burst out of the tangle. The chugging train was right there before her, but it seemed so small, all the way across the cavern. With an aileron roll to stabilize the turbulence of her escape, the blue and brown pegasus mare shot forward, still holding onto her charge for dear life. To say nothing of Blaze’s knife - it wouldn’t do to make it out alive and then have to explain that she'd lost her knife.
In the driver's cab Sprocket was torn between staring in awe at her griffon friend who was taking out those hot spider cables, catching on fire, and not giving one single fuck about it, and crying out in fear at the train tracks straining under the weight of their passage and the consequences of the explosions. They had to make it. They had to—yes! The griffon got the second cable! She was burning on fire from head to toe. How the heck was she still flying?!
“Get us outta here!” Grenelda commanded, swooping down to land behind the cab where Sprocket was hiding. The creamy-pink mare looked back in confusion at the still-burning angry griffon and stammered: “How the—who—what the—” Realisation dawned on her as her ears flattened, and she said, “That fire’s magic, innit.”
“What are you blabbering on about?” Grenelda protested, “Go faster!”
“I’m goin’ as fast as I can!”
“Holy shit, here comes the captain!”
Azure's summoned gale began to dissipate, so the ersatz captain poured on as much speed as she could. Now arrows were whizzing by her, but it was too late. They scattered in the dense cone of air forming around her as she fought the remaining wind for every bit of speed she could... wait was she really...? Set Sail’s eyes widened just for a moment at the nature of her flight, before the iron train zoomed up entirely too quickly.
Her wings stretched out, back-winging like crazy as she skidding sideways through the air, saved in part by the extra weight of her unknowing passenger. Set Sail tumbled into the train car ahead of Cloud Cutter and Melonwater, yelping in alarm as she clattered in, head over heels. The cart itself rocked dangerously, squealing onto two wheels before the couplings pulled it straight again.
Reef Skimmer wasn't so fortunate. Unable to navigate the winding path through the webs Set Sail had employed, the hippogriff-turned-roc was still stuck at the east end of the cave, fighting a losing battle against the spidrow casters. Out of options, he turned his water jets backwards and shot forward directly into the thicket of pods and webbing, drawing his wings back in an attempt to ram through it.
The enormous grey eagle smashed into the webs, which tore apart under his assault. Unfortunately for the griff, hidden in the mass was a vein carrying energy from magic-charged crystals in a nearby cave. The conduit ripped open, electrifying the webs with eldritch lightning, which crackled and crawled over Reef's form. Stunned and half-paralysed, the roc fell like a stone and crashed into the floor of the cave, ending up in a twisted, thrashing heap of blue goo, grey feathers and white webbing.
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10811069
The gillmen were pretty friendly and good-natured, and Set Sail was... okay with them. With the cat people, she just couldn't get some space when she needed it, right when the head catguy was trying to show how tough he was by locking horns with her. She thought it'd make them look guilty if she flew away. Anxiety gets a lot worse when you don't have a way to get away from the source of it.