Through the Fire and Flames

by DagaYemar

Meetings and partings...

Ditzy ran her hoof along the brim of Trixie’s hat slowly, but otherwise hid her nervousness behind grim determination. “What do you mean, you aren’t going after them?!”

Dapple Cross glared back at her, but quickly discovered why trying to stare down Ditzy Doo was harder than most. He coughed nervously into his hoof and turned away first. “Those things were able to handle all the soldiers in this building with ease. I have no intention of meeting them again without overwhelming odds in my favor.”

“But they’re getting away!” Ditzy yelled, causing the guard to step back a pace in surprise.

“And it will only get harder to track them the longer you wait.” Cheerilee pressed, standing her ground on the unicorn’s other side.

If Dapple was unnerved by the two mares flanking him, he managed to hide it well. “And how do you propose I’m supposed to do that, eh? Dig through the dirt like your friend over there?”

A loud crack split the air as if to punctuate his words as another stone broke under Raindrops’s hooves. Grunting softly to herself, she levered the two halves out of the impression she’d managed to carve out of the rubble. The impression was barely deep enough to reach her wings, and there was no sign of the end yet.

Dapple Cross winced at the noise and turned angrily to the jasmine pegasus. “And will you stop that! There’s no way you can dig through all of that debris…”

The only reply Raindrops gave was another grunt before turning back to her work.

“At least she’s trying.” Ditzy said heatedly. “Why aren’t you helping her with your magic?”

“None of us can use our magic right now.” A grey-coated unicorn with a brown mane tied up in a bun walked over to the group. She adjusted her wide glasses before continuing. “Whatever that creature with the four arms did to us was similar to forcing us to overchannel.”

She stumbled slightly, but caught herself before she hit the ground. “Uhh… I’m alright. The captain here is putting on a brave show, but I doubt he could use magic any more than the rest of us right now.”

Dapple Cross grimaced and stood up straighter. “I thought I told all you civilians to get out of here. Is no one going to pay any attention to what I’m saying? Those creatures might come back here!”

“Why? They got what they were after.” The grey unicorn eyed Ditzy and Cheerilee coolly. “You all are the bearers of the Elements, aren’t you?”

Cheerilee glanced curiously at Ditzy before answering. “That’s right. How did you know that?”

“My name’s Money Penny,” the unicorn answered with a brief nod, “and I’m a secretary in the Royal Castle. I’ve heard all about you. Was that Trixie Lulamoon or Lyra Heartstrings who was taken?”

“It doesn’t matter who she was, because I told you all to leave this building!” Dapple growled, glaring at each of them in turn before turning to stare out the door. “Where is Flash Verse? He couldn’t possibly be taking this long to get to the nearest patrol house…”

“Trixie.” Cheerilee said, completely ignoring the captain. Dapple Cross ground his teeth and stared bloody daggers at the doorway.

Money Penny nodded to herself. “Should have guessed. You’ll need an expert, but in the absence of one… Regal Tome, is that you over there?”

Dapple Cross’s effort to clear out the building hadn’t even succeeded in removing his fellow victims. Several of them were attempting to clean up the worst of the ruin of the library, though they all were a bit out of practice working without their telekinesis. One of them worked apart from the others, searching through the papers scattered all over the floor and occasionally stuffing one into his saddlebag. He looked up sharply when his name was called and hunched defensively over his bags.

“Yes? I was just about to leave as soon as I found the last of my research. I am still allowed to visit the libraries, after all, although after this I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort anymore…”

“You wrote in your last appeal that there were caves beneath the castle you wished to investigate.” Money Penny stated, calmly cutting him off before he could launching into a full tirade. “Do you know how to get into them?”

A sparkle of hope flashed though his eyes before he tempered it down with caution. “I know of a couple entrances, but the Princess has denied all my requests so far. What do you…?”

“You can get us under the castle.” Raindrops said, climbing out of her hole and walking over to the unicorn. Her tone made it clear she hadn’t asked a question.

“Now wait just one minute!” Regal Tome cried, backing away from the advancing pegasus. “I have no desire to get anywhere near those… creatures ever again! Why should I do anything other than leave right now?”

“Because I can make sure the Princess will at least consider your appeal if you help.” Money Penny said, leading the others over to the unicorn. Regal looked around the slowly closing circle of mares around him, but before he could respond three ponies burst into the room at a gallop.

“What happened? We heard Trixie was in danger!” Lyra shouted, Carrot Top and Bon Bon right behind her. The three of them met the rest of the group in the middle of the room and cast worried looks around at the destruction.

“I found them in the gardens coming to find us.” Carrot Top explained.

“YOU!” Bon Bon and Regal Tome shouted at the same time, and then looked surprised they had copied each other. Bon Bon recovered first and growled at the surrounded stallion. “What are you doing here?”

Cheerilee cut him off before he could defend himself. “He knows how to get into some caves beneath the castle. From there, we might be able to track the creatures that took Trixie.”

“Now stop right this minute!” Dapple Cross barked, stomping his hooves hard on the stone floor and looming over them with all the height at his disposal. “This foolishness has gone on long enough! I don’t care how worried you are about your friend; this is an attack and will be treated as such! I demand that all you civilians clear out!”

Huffing slightly from the outburst, he glared around the room, daring anypony to challenge him again. Several of the scholars in the back dropped what they were cleaning and made for the door without a backward glance. Regal Tome looked like he wanted to join them, but he was trapped in the circle of suddenly angry mares. The others all bristled, Lyra even drawing herself dangerously, but before any of them could respond Money Penny stalked forward and planted herself right in front of the soldier.

“How quickly you forget that if it weren’t for these civilians, all of us would be down in those tunnels instead of their friend. Or worse…” Her eyes flicked momentarily to the petrified soldier in the center of the room, but flashed back quickly to Dapple’s own. “They have already proven themselves better than you against those creatures, so I don’t see you have any call to demand of them anything! The way I see it, we all owe them our lives and I for one intend to repay that debt.

“Besides,” she turned and calmly surveyed the group one at a time as she continued, “they’ve already faced down the Tyrant Sun before. I hardly think anypony in the castle is better equipped to handle this crisis. But if you still intend to try and stop them, may I remind you that there’s only one unicorn in this room that can use her magic right now and she’s firmly for the rescue mission.”

Dapple Cross ground his teeth hard enough to crack a tooth, but he could clearly see when he was beat. Stepping back, he glowered down at the secretary. “The Princess will hear of this.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” Money Penny responded and turned her back on him.

“You are just a secretary?” Cheerilee asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Well… perhaps not just…” Money Penny smiled. “Now that’s all settled, you should get going.”

Dapple held out a hoof to stop the group and pointed to the statue. “What about that? You’ll just end up like that if you go down there. Or do you have some kind of protection that we didn’t?”

“The Elements!” Carrot Top said. “They protected us against Corona’s magic, so they should be able to stop this spell easily.”

“The Elements are kept in a vault up in the castle. I know where it is.” Money Penny started for the door, but her legs gave again and she almost fell. Surprisingly, Dapple caught her before she hit the floor and held her up until her legs steadied again.

“We don’t have much time…” Ditzy said worriedly, “They’ve already got a huge lead.”

“Then you go ahead.” Bon Bon said with a determined expression. “I’ll get the Elements from the vault and bring them to you. This way you won’t lose any time.” She walked over to Lyra and touched their foreheads together. “You’ll be careful until I get there, won’t you?”

Lyra smiled and gave her a quick kiss. “Of course.” She turned back to the group, practically bouncing on her hooves in anticipation. “Well, we’ve got a plan. Let’s go!”

Regal Tome snapped out of a thoughtful silence and cleared his throat. “What? Oh… um, let’s see. The closest way into the cavern is on the other side of the gardens…”

Stumbling only occasionally, he led them out of the building and into the night air.

…

The first thing Trixie was aware of was a dull pounding in her head. After that, a number of sores and aches assaulted her senses as if they’d been waiting for the perfect chance to strike. Her bed, though warm and a bit lumpy, felt like it was swaying back and forth. Groaning, Trixie tried shifting to a less painful position and discovered that her legs wouldn’t respond like she wanted them to.

“I don’t know what I drank last night,” she mumbled, “but whatever it was, there had better be more of it left…” Her bed jostled her and she lapsed into silence. Quiet was better for her aching head anyway. There was a bad itch along the back of her neck, but she couldn’t get a hoof up to scratch it. It was as if… her hooves were tied.

In a flash her memories of the last few hours returned and Trixie opened her eyes wide. She immediately closed them again, trying to block out the light from her sensitive eyes. Then she opened her eyes, realizing that the light wasn’t as painful as she expected it to be. Cautiously, she took in her surroundings.

She was underground, in some kind of huge tunnel. Enormous purple crystals lined the every wall she could see, and she could see, and that was because the snake things were glowing. Trixie blinked several times at that, but the soft yellow glow emanating from their scales didn’t suddenly come from a more reasonable source.

There were about eight or so of the creatures in a clump around the one holding her. Trixie tried to look at that one without moving her head to much, just in case it didn’t know she was awake yet. She was trussed up and thrown over its shoulder like a sack of grain. It looked a bit taller and more heavily muscled than the others, but that might have just been because of how close she was to it. Its arm felt… warm to the touch. Dimly Trixie thought that snakes shouldn’t feel warm, but the crack of something getting slapped hard interrupted her train of thought.

In front of the group, the snake thing with four arms was looming over another snake thing, which was rubbing the side of its face. “Why would you take it back to the lava flowss?” the four armed one hissed in anger. “Did you think we could return the ssame way we arrived? Did you think you could protect the artifact like we protect gold? Are you really sso sstupid you couldn’t remember the ssingle part of the plan you were a part of?” One of the creatures hands dipped menacingly into the swath of jewelry about her neck.

The snake on the ground hissed fearfully and prostrated itself in panic. “Pleasse no, Priesstesss Marilith! I beg you, mercy! Not the sstone!”

“High Priesstesss,” another snake interrupted, slithering out of an opening in the wall behind her. “I’ve sstopped the workerss from taking it any farther. It will be back with uss sshortly.”

Trixie shook her head, which was still feeling a little thick, thank you for asking, and tried to get her thoughts back on track. She shouldn’t be gaping like a filly seeing Canterlot for the first time; she needed to work out some way to escape. She looked to the side and stared into the eyes of the snake thing holding her. It smiled widely, revealing rows of very pointy teeth.

Ok. No need to panic. Just act normal…

“Hi.”

The snake thing grinned wider. “Hi!”

…it won’t go down in history among the great exchanges, but first contact has been achieved. Now to keep it talking, perhaps get it to lower its guard…

“Could you loosen these ropes for a second? There’s an itch on my neck that’s just-”

The snake thing ignored her and turned back to the front. “The pony iss awake!”

Merde…

Marilith jerked her attention away from her cowering minion and dropped her arm from her necklaces, much to the relief of said minion. She slithered slowly over to them, the rest of the snake things making a path.

“Thiss one recovered fasster than the otherss.” She hissed, tilting Trixie’s chin up to stare her in the eyes. “Sshe either has more magic than I ssusspect, or sshe’ss ussed to having no magic…”

“Why don’t you just devour her and get it over with.” The snake thing that had interrupted earlier said in a bored tone, sidling up to them in a manner that even for a snake was unmistakably a swagger.

“I might, Behir,” Marilith said softly, acid dripping from each word, “if ssomeone hadn’t been ressponssible for lossing the resst of the captivess. Thiss one hass to lasst now.” If Behir was intimidated by the menace in her tone, he didn’t show it.

Deeply concerned with the direction of this conversation, Trixe racked her brain for anything to say. “You won’t get away with this!”

The snake things stared at her with varying degrees of surprise and irritation. Trixie felt her face growing red by the second. The first thing to pop out of her mouth and it sounded like a line from a bad Con Mane book…

Marilith smiled and leaned in close enough for Trixie to feel the heat from her face. “Get away? We already have! And there’ss nothing you or any of thosse pathetic ponies up above can do about it!”

…alright, apparently spy action thriller was the theme today. Perhaps she and Marilith could exchange favorite titles over tea later. Trixie shook her head and tried to get something a bit more dignified though the muddle that was her thoughts.

“What are you?” What are you?! That was the best she could come up with? What had these things done to her mind to make it so stupid!

“Ssalamanderss.” The High Priestess said with a grin that showed far, far too many teeth for comfort before turning sharply away. “We’re moving on. Backwardss, thankss to all your sstupidity!”

The swarm moved at her gesture, making impressive speed over the uneven ground. Trixie lay her head against her captor’s shoulder and sighed. First step, recovering her scattered wits. Second, figure out some way to escape this insane situation before she was eaten like a box of chocolates on Hearts and Hooves Day.

She sucked in a sharp breath and gritted her teeth. Scratch that, step one is to deal with this sun blighted itch, then heal, then escape…

Comments

[DagaYemar]

I promised I wouldn't make you all wait a month for another chapter, and what do I do? I make you wait a month for a new chapter...

I'm not going to promise that the next one won't be faster, since I apparently can't promise anything, but I am determined to see this trough with more professionalism. I know what I did wrong with the last chapter and I intend to fix Trixie and Luna's personalities, but I think I need to focus on finishing before clean-up...

[RainbowDoubleDash]

And now to ruin everything for you by providing...a visual reference for the monsters!

i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/5690152/2/stock-illustration-5690152-salamander-cartoon.jpg
Behold the dread salamander!

...

Yeah, I know you meant this:

wizards.com/dnd/images/eo_0611_salamander_med.jpg

[Blue_Paladin42]

1615308
I am hurt and betrayed! Only another chapter will satisfy!

Um, if that's ok with you that is...

[vazak]

All right new chapter, already eagerly awaiting the next one!

Dapple Cross is kind of a tool, I was desperately hoping Raindrops would either smash something or threaten him to stop being so unpleasant, but seeing secretary, who I'm thourally convinced is more than she lets on (yes i know she said that, but I suspecting it before she said it, ) slap him down was also awesome.

Anyway good writing in that scene, I felt awful for Raindrops trying to dig up the floor to save Trixie, sweet scene and bring back Regal Tomes hah, he just has no luck.

I like the plan to go get the elements and find Trixie, interesting to see the Canterlot caves being brought in.
Heh loved Trixie’s awakening and assuming she had a hangover.

She was underground, in some kind of huge tunnel. Enormous purple crystals lined the every wall she could see, and she could see,

Sorry this sentence is kinda confusing.

Trixies’s observation of the snakes was a little convoluted that could have been because she’s recovering form a concussion though, I still found it tricky to understand in parts.

Loved Trixie’s little “Hi” exchange with the snake.

“Thiss one recovered fasster than the otherss.” She hissed, tilting Trixie’s chin up to stare her in the eyes. “Sshe either has more magic than I ssusspect, or sshe’ss ussed to having no magic…”

While Trixie is now Twilight she’s not exactly weak as far as unicorn go, unless you were talking about energy “production” over power then who knows.

alright, apparently spy action thriller was the theme today. Perhaps she and Marilith could exchange favorite titles over tea later.

I loved that line, Trixie has a really amusing thought process in this fic.
Anyway this was a good solid chapter overall, very entertaining and it helped move the fic along very well, some small part of me is expecting betrayal form within to happen with the salamanders if only cos of how rude the boss is. Anyway as I said very entertaining, looking forward to the next one.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Loved the 'hi' bit. T^hat got a laugh out of me. Good chapter, moved things into the next phase well.

[ColdGoldLazarus]

The whole 'Hi' bit was probably my favorite. And poor Raindrops...

[Emeral Bookwise]

Solid chapter with no complaints to be made and a whole lot of stuff I absolutely loved. I'd give specific examples, but that would pretty much just be everything. Seriously, just keep writing like this and I will be all over the place.

[CrystalWaters]

I'm imagining Trixie struggling to scratch her itch until the salamandar who was carrying her ends up scratches her neck for her just to stop her from wriggling.

And Trixie just loving it because as great as hooves are for a massage they just can't compare to claws (or talons) when you've got an itch.

[ThatBadGuy]

“Now stop right this minute!” Dapple Cross barked, stomping his hooves hard on the stone floor and looming over them with all the height at his disposal. “This foolishness has gone on long enough! I don’t care how worried you are about your friend; this is an attack and will be treated as such! I demandthat all you civilians clear out!”

“Now stop right this minute!”

O-Oh! It seem like you've made a grammatical error!

cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/433/1*Mb-da6xAdWblMnlyd4WBDg.jpeg
Here! Let me fix this for you!

"Stop right there, criminal scum!"