Chapter Eight – Message Receiving
At the Brighthouse, the Crystal Chamber looked far more organised than its previous messy and chaotic appearance. Strawberry had worked hard to reorganise the books and after she’d rested Misty assisted. However, it took the rest of that day which annoyed Misty greatly. Mainly as she knew the reason it took so long was her fault.
Fortunately, Alphabittle's presence helped her push past this. Then, the continued encouragement from Pipp and Izzy helped Misty and Strawberry continue their search.
However, as the days passed, Strawberry began to suspect the location spell they were searching for didn’t exist. They’d gone through nearly all the books and still hadn’t found it.
Strawberry let out a groan as she closed a book and put it to one side. “Misty, are you sure this location spell you're talking about is here?”
“Yes, I'm certain,” Misty responded before looking less confident. “A…At least I think so.”
Strawberry frowned and grunted, “You think so?”
“I know Opaline cast this spell,” Misty explained. “She never cast spells without looking them up first. I never saw her just cast spells, apart from if she’d already used them before.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why the spell would be here,” Strawberry scowled.
Misty frowned with frustration, “It’ll be here because these are all the books from Opaline’s castle. It, it has to be here.”
As Misty returned to searching, Strawberry scowled as she looked over the piles of books. The pile they had gone through was far larger than those they had left. However, she also knew the titles of those books didn’t sound promising.
She looked over towards Misty with annoyance. This had to be some sort of initiation test or something. But then she spotted the concern on Misty’s face, the way she was intently searching the books. Then she remembered the emotion Misty had shown when she first arrived. No, this wasn’t a test.
Strawberry’s scowl softened to a look of sorrow, and she let out a deep sigh. “I’m sorry, Misty.”
“What?” Misty blinked, having not quite heard.
“I said, I’m sorry,” Strawberry groaned. “I’m sorry for questioning if the spell we’re searching for is here. I forgot why we were doing it.”
“Which is?” Misty queried.
“To save somepony,” Strawberry responded. “Just like you saved me from that pony-eating flytrap I created. I…I never said thank you for doing that. If anything, I’m sorry for the way I acted. I’d still be trapped if it wasn’t for you.”
Misty let out a sigh as she looked at the dwindling pile of books they still needed to look through.
“You’re welcome,” she said at last. “But I would have done it for anypony.”
Strawberry watched as Misty retrieved another book. She sighed as, for a moment, Misty reminded her of somepony else. “I kind of thought you would. However, that doesn’t make your actions any less noble.”
Misty blinked, she was about to reply but then her eyes went wide, and she gasped.
Strawberry frowned with concern, “Misty? What is it?”
“It’s the messaging spell! It’s Sunny!” Misty said happily. “Quick, go get the others in the living area. I’ll be down shortly to tell them.”
Strawberry blinked, looking confused. “The what spell?”
“GO!” Misty urged, waving a hoof towards the lift. “Get the others downstairs and tell them Sunny is messaging me.”
Despite still looking confused, Strawberry headed towards the lift to carry out Misty’s instructions.
Meanwhile, Misty’s horn glowed and she frowned as she concentrated on the messaging spell. Finally, she heard Sunny’s voice in her mind.
“Misty, are you there? It’s Sunny, can you hear me?”
“Sunny!” Misty replied with relief. “I hear you, are you okay?”
“I am, I’m with the other missing ponies. I’m so sorry, Misty. I know you all will have been worried and I couldn’t message you until now.”
“It’s okay, I’m just over the Luna Moon to hear from you. Don’t worry, wherever you are, we’ll find you."
"I...I know but I should have listened to Hitch and Zipp. This is way, way, way bigger than I expected!"
"We know, Sunny. Please, don't worry about that, we won't give up. Hitch and Zipp most of all. We'll help all of you, give me as many details as you can.”
With that, Misty quickly grabbed a notebook and pencil and began jotting down everything she could.
It wasn’t long before Misty came hurrying down the ramp and into the living area. Strawberry had done as requested and gathered the others.
“Misty!” Pipp gasped. “Have you really heard from her?”
Misty beamed as she skidded to a stop, “Yes! She’s okay. She’s sorry it took so long to message. She’s maintaining her cover.”
“Sensible,” Zipp smiled. “So, did you get any details of what’s happened to her?”
“Of course,” Misty grinned. “I noted them down too so I wouldn’t forget anything.”
Misty produced her notebook and began flicking through the scribbled pages. Meanwhile, Zipp got her phone ready to record.
“Okay, so she’s been taken to this massive quarry. There’s hundreds of creatures there, all captives like she is.”
“A quarry,” Hitch blinked.
“Details,” Zipp said desperately. “Does she know where?”
Misty sighed and shook her head. “She’s no clue where she is. The creature that took her, it’s called a Nirik. She said they’re the guards in the quarry. But they didn’t teleport her straight there, she woke up on an airship.”
“An airship?” Izzy frowned. “What’s an airship?”
“It’s a flying machine,” Strawberry replied knowingly. “One of the books I have mentions them.”
Zipp sighed, trying not to get too annoyed with the tangents. “Does she know where the airship was when she woke up?”
“Afraid not,” Misty confirmed. “She said she was locked in a cage on-board it for ages. She has no idea how long exactly, just that it transported her and lots of other creatures to the quarry. She said they were all being made to mine something called ‘Arora Ore’. Oh, and the Quarry is the Arora Ridge Quarry.”
“That’s all information we may need but nothing that helps us find her,” Zipp sighed. “Why would these Nirik want the ore?”
“Oh, wait!” Misty gasped. “It’s not the Nirik that wants it. It’s somepony called Allura.”
“Somepony?” Pipp gasped.
“Oh, no! Not somepony,” Misty clarified. “She’s a purple leopard.”
Zipp couldn’t help sighing with disappointment as she tucked her phone away. “Okay, I’m super happy that Sunny’s okay. Apart from that, this isn’t much help finding her.”
“Probably a little optimistic that she’d know her exact location though,” Hitch winked.
“Well, yeah, it’s the biggest flaw with her getting captured plan,” Zipp admitted. “But it’s made more questions than answers. I wish I could have been there to ask things.”
“Well, next time you can,” Misty smiled. “Sunny’s going to message each evening. You can tell me what to ask her.”
Strawberry sniffed arrogantly, “You think Sunny’s going to have all the answers?”
Pipp frowned back at Strawberry with annoyance. “Oh, and have you helped Misty find the location spell yet?”
“No, we’ve not found it yet,” Strawberry admitted.
Misty sighed with resignation. “I’m starting to think the book with it in isn’t there,” she admitted. “We got all the books we could find from Opaline’s but…”
“We could have missed some,” Hitch sighed.
“The titles of those left don’t sound like they’d have that kind of spell in,” Strawberry explained.
The others looked at Misty, her silence and look of sadness were all they needed for confirmation.
“Then our best bet is to capture a Nirik,” Zipp decided.
Izzy gasped and looked worried. “But how are we going to do that? Didn’t Pipp say the one that took Sunny poofed her away and then poofed off itself? How do we know where it’s going to poof next?”
“We know where and when,” Zipp replied. “There’s a pattern, the next disappearance will be from the CanterBlocks Construction Site.”
“And when?” Pipp questioned.
“Tomorrow night,” Zipp replied.
“We’ve got a plan,” Hitch added. “We just need somepony to play bait.”
Pipp frowned, looking concerned. “The Nirik thing that took Sunny was so fast though. How do you plan to capture it before it disappears?”
Zipp let out a sigh of resignation. “That’s another detail I’m kind of still working on,” she confessed.
“We can’t let anypony be taken either,” Hitch revealed before rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “Yeah, there’s some major kinks that need ironing out.”
“Sounds like we’re starting over then, Strawberry,” Misty sighed as she got up.
Strawberry blinked, looking confused, “Wait, what?”
“The Nirik uses some sort of teleportation,” Misty explained. “We need to see if we can find a spell that will stop that. If the books upstairs don’t have anything then we’ll need to look at those in the basement.”
“Basement?” Strawberry blinked.
“The books from the recent expeditions to Canterlot are down there,” Misty sighed. “What we’ve looked at is nothing compared to how many are down there.”
Misty started walking toward the ramp. However, as she passed Izzy a rumbling sound could be heard from her stomach.
Immediately, Izzy sprung up from her seat and grabbed Misty from behind. “Wait! Stop right there! I heard a rumbling tummy. You are not. I repeat, not! Going hunting through books on an empty tummy.”
Misty groaned as she tried to push Izzy off. “Then bring something up to me,” she insisted. “If Sunset and Starlight were here, they’d know exactly what books to look in. But I don’t, I’ve got to look through all of them and I don’t have enough time.”
“You’ve got help though,” Izzy responded, not letting go.
“No, there’s too much relying on me,” Misty argued.
Suddenly, a stern-looking Strawberry stood in Misty’s path. “You sound so much like your mum,” she said sternly. “The number of times I’ve had to stand in her way. To stop her from pushing herself too hard. You are not alone. You’ve got good friends around you who are going to help you.”
“It’s okay, Misty,” Pipp smiled. “We’ll come up and help. Just tell us what to look for like Sunset did when we were in the Canterlot Library with her.”
Misty groaned, looking at the ground with resignation. “Okay, fine. Food first, then we’ll look for a bit tonight before getting some sleep.”
“Good,” Izzy beamed. “Now sit down, one meal coming up!”
“Wait, Iz,” Pipp squeaked. “I’m coming to help you. Maybe then we can avoid another mess!”
Meanwhile in the quarry, Sunny smiled as she ruffled her wings. She couldn’t help feeling happy after finally hearing Misty’s voice. Sprout however looked at her with confusion. “You do realise you were just talking to yourself?”
Sunny laughed and grinned at him. “It’s called a messaging spell, Sprout. I know you couldn’t hear Misty but trust me I was talking with her just now.”
“You were?” Sprout said, looking confused.
“Yes, it’s like using audio messages,” Sunny explained.
Sprout however looked none the wiser, “Whatever you say, Sunny,” he said brightly. “Come on, I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”
Sunny followed Sprout down the line of brown mats, until he stopped at one and sighed. “It’s really basic I’m afraid. It’s even worse than what I had to sleep on at boot camp. No sheets or pillow either.”
“Anything will be better than the floor of that cage,” Sunny admitted. “What’s with the bowls?”
Sunny pointed to the wall above the mat. There were two bowls set into an alcove in the wall. Each mat seemed to have one.
“Well, one is for food and the other for water,” Sprout explained. “We get fed automatically. It’s really, really nothing to write home about either.”
“It’s awful,” Sugar piped up. “Some sort of oatmeal slop. I tried growing something but the floor’s too hard.”
Sunny’s eyes suddenly widened, and she gasped with surprise. “Wait, do the Nirik know about Earth Pony magic?”
Sprout frowned looking thoughtful. “Don’t think so.”
“I told you,” Sugar snorted. “It doesn’t work in here.”
Sunny groaned and looked around at the others. “Has anypony tried using Earth Pony magic outside the hut?”
Ponies looked at each other questioningly. Many shaking their heads, others looking confused. However, nopony confirmed they had.
“There’s no time to grow anything outside the hut,” Sprout said at last. “We’re watched too much. If you slow down or go off course, then the Nirik notice.”
“Okay that’s good,” Sunny smiled. “It means we’ve got an advantage over them. We can use that in any escape plan.”
“Oh, we’re well on our way with an escape plan,” Sprout smirked. “We’ve started a tunnel.”
Sugar snorted, “Oh please, it’s not a tunnel. It’s a few scratches on the floor.”
“Show me,” Sunny responded.
Sprout shot Sugar an annoyed look before leading Sunny towards the mat in the furthest corner from the door. He pulled it to one side and pointed proudly at what was revealed. A series of scratches in the concrete which formed a square.
“It’s going to take some time to cut through but once we do, we’ll have ourselves an escape tunnel,” Sprout grinned.
“And how are we going to get rid of the dirt?” Sugar groaned. “The Nirik come in every morning and inspect us. They’ll notice a sudden pile of dirt.”
“We’ll worry about that later,” Sunny smiled as she fluttered her wings. “Do we need the concrete?”
Sprout gasped, suddenly realising what Sunny was about to do. “Yes, yes we do. As Sugar says, it’s got to go back in so the Nirik won’t find the tunnel.”
“Okay, stand back everypony,” Sunny grinned.
Sunny studied the marks on the floor, walking around and seemingly forming a plan. Then, she angled her head, aiming her horn at an angle to the floor.
She fired a fine-cutting beam and carefully traced around the marks that were already there. By holding the beam at an angle, she created a socket that the floor would return into.
When she was finished, Sunny beamed with delight as she used her magic to effortlessly lift the piece of floor from the hole, revealing a patch of dark grey earth. She placed the floor down and then looked triumphantly at the others who were all looking impressed.
Lifting a forehoof, Sunny smiled towards Sugar as it began to glow green, and she tapped it on the now-revealed earth. A green aura grew through the ground before a small apple tree started to grow. It quickly grew to full maturity, the golden red apples rapidly ripening and looked ready to be picked. Everypony looked at each other with excitement as Sunny started picking the apples with her levitation.
“Okay, quietly form a line everypony,” Sprout instructed. “I’m sure there’ll be plenty for everypony. We don’t want to share this with our Nirik friends.”
“But we will with the other creatures,” Sunny winked. “A tunnel is a good idea but we can’t escape on our own. We need help.”
“Okay, the problem will be communicating with them,” Sprout sighed.
“We’ll work on that tomorrow,” Sunny smiled.
As Sprout continued to hand out apples, Sunny made her way towards a surprised and confused-looking Sugar and held an apple out for her.
“Sugar, I know Miss Butterscotch put you next to me in class, but we got on so well,” Sunny smiled. “I know that we’ve not really been friends since but don’t worry. When we get out of this, whatever’s happened to you, I’ll help. I promise.”
Sugar frowned as she took the apple. “Okay, whatever, Sunny.” She paused as she looked at the apple. “Thanks.”
Sunny smiled in response before she headed back to the tree to grow more apples. Meanwhile, Sugar headed back to her mat, sitting down on it she looked thoughtfully at the apple. Studying it for a moment before tucking into it.
As she ate, she couldn’t help feeling she had a lot to think about.
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An excellent job on the dialogue, characterizations, (limited) action and future chapter set-up. REALLY liked Misty getting into contact with Sunny and Sunny sharing as much detail as she was able too, as well as the chats Misty had with Strawberry, the discussion of the plan to capture a Nirik and Sunny finding out that the prisoners have already started work on an escape plan AND that Allura and the Nirik have made no indications of knowing about Earth Pony magic. Sunny showing enough control over her alicorn magic to fire off a precision cutting beam was another beautiful touch, as was Sunny's chat with Sugar at the end of the chapter.
I am REALLY going to be looking forward to more of this.
Misty got Sunny's message and I hope they'll find her along with Sunny getting everybody out of the quarry.
11916445
They'll need to capture a Nirik first and hopefully extract it's secrets.
11916429
That was actually very challenging. First drafts I felt Sugar was out of character. It was too easy to make her warm up to Sunny too quickly.
My take on Sugar here comes from one line Sunny says to her in Ali-conned.
11916447
Okay that works too