The Sunset Trilogy

by ocalhoun

Prologue

The Sunset Trilogy

Prologue

Apollo Dawn steadied himself with his wings as he brought the ice pick down yet again, breaking off a sizable chunk this time. The darkened shape was directly in front of him, just inches away now, really. It tantalized him with its mystery and with its proximity... they would be only moments away from finding out just what this was! As of yet, it was just a dark, indistinct shape in the ice... what could it be, embedded down here at the bottom of an ice cave? He was sure it would be a clue leading his crew closer to their eventual goal: the legendary largest blue diamond known to pony kind, Moonfeather's gem, stolen by an ice-dragon over eight hundred years ago!

With another swing at the ice, the pick struck home, getting stuck in the ice this time but creating a large crack. The reverberations from the impact stung Apollo's hooves, but he ignored it, looking instead at the large crack that had opened up... it wouldn't be long now!

“Do you know what this means?” He said excitedly back to his crew.

“We finally get a lunch break?” Pebble's reply came, despite the heavy load of ice chunks on her back.

“We can pack up and go back someplace warm?” Splints wasn't about to be outdone in rhetoric.

Apollo brought a hoof to his face... As wonderful as his crew was, they could be difficult to live with sometimes. “No, it means–”

His reply was cut off by a loud crack resounding through the icy walls around him. He whirled around to look at the work site as the ice cracked again, his ice pick falling free and clanging to the floor. Ice creaked and groaned as Apollo and his crew members slowly backed towards the entrance of the cavern... it didn't look like a cave-in; only the spot they had been working on was cracking, but nopony wanted to be buried in ice!

Their nervous backing quickly turned into an all-out dash for the exit as small bits of ice crystal began to rain down from the ceiling. Apollo dashed as fast as his hooves could carry him.

He skidded to a halt just outside the ice cavern, his spiked horseshoes scoring lines in the frost as he came to a stop and spun to look back into the hole. Slowly, the sounds of cracking and groaning ice stopped, replaced by the sounds of the last few free chunks rolling to the floor of the cave. He leaned forward, curiosity piqued yet again – Apollo was an explorer after all, and no danger could keep him away for long.

Before anypony worked up enough courage to venture back into the cavern though, a strange shape came rushing out. It was long and sinuous, and seemed to be made of an amalgamation of many different creatures... Apollo had never seen anything like it in his life. He and his crew looked on in stunned astonishment.

“Oh my, it feels just wonderful to finally be out of there,” The creature hissed out, turning her attention to the ponies in front of her, “And since you were so thoughtful in freeing me, I think I'll give you a little gift.” Apollo's attention focused on that! Did this creature perhaps have the gemstone he was looking for? Could it really be that easy? “I will allow you to live,” she said, “to live and experience my lovely new world... at least for a while.” She stretched lasciviously before continuing, “Hm... and speaking of which, I really should get started on that, don't you think?” With a disturbingly coquettish giggle, the creature flew away southwards, quickly vanishing over the horizon.

“What was that​​?” his team navigator asked shakily from behind him.

“Sure didn't look like a big blue gemstone.” Pebbles answered laconically.

Before Apollo could reply, Splints's Trottingham-accented voice cut in, “Hooray! Our glorious leader has brought us to yet another fabulous discovery!”

Apollo only groaned. Not only had this lead turned out to be a dud, not only was his crew acting particularly insufferable today, but he couldn't shake the feeling that freeing that... whatever it was... from the ice had been a very, very bad idea. Still, there were plenty more ice caverns around this glacier – surely the prize he was after would be in one of them.