Chapter 14 Lost City
Quizzical Greystone And The Basements Of Doom
Chapter 14 Lost City
“Drago? We can’t go any further.”
“Coming, Miss Derpy.” The dragon made his way to the front of the party. Derpy and the foals had to hug the tunnel walls to let him through.
The tunnel ended with an archway, and this was blocked by a set of huge, steel double doors. The metal looked timeworn, but still sturdy. The doors were sealed with a bolt held in place by an odd cylindrical combination lock. Drago muttered to himself as he set the five tumblers. “One… three… decimal point… five… nine, there we go.”
There was a click, and Drago slid the bolt aside, and pushed open the doors. The old hinges groaned, but the doors swung easily.
“Belch told me that the combination is a ‘magic number’ known only to cashiers and retail clerks. I never did figure out what that meant.” Drago lead the ponies into a huge, empty room. The only features were a stone staircase going up, and an open metal door that was twice the size of the entrance.
“Will that lock keep out the diamond dogs?” asked Derpy.
Drago shook his head. “Nah, anyone or anything that wants to get in can just walk in the front door, in the ruins up on the surface, then come down the stairs. So it’s probably a good idea if we stay together.”
“What is this place, Mr. Drago?” asked Pipsqueak. “Is this a dungeon?”
Drago chuckled. “Sorry, kid, it’s nothing that exciting. This is the cellar of the old city hall. That big door over there is the treasury vault.”
“Really?” gasped Pip, wide eyed. “The old ponies hid their booty there? Is there gold bullion? Or pieces of eight?”
“Lost works of art? Forgotten manuscripts?” added Dinky.
Angel rolled her eyes. “That’s just silly. It’s obviously empty.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid Little Bit here is right.” Drago nodded to Angel. “I figure the old ponies took their treasury with them when they left, along with everything else. You won’t find so much as a box of old tax forms in here. But the vault door is too heavy and too well anchored to move, so they left it.”
Valory peered into the vault. “I apologize for contradicting you, Mr. Drago, but I can see something glittering on the floor in there.”
“What? Well, I’ll be… Doc, let me borrow your torch.” Drago took the light into the vault. “Sure enough, it’s gems. Just a couple of little ones, but that’s more than I ever found. And what’s this? This doesn’t make any sense. ‘Ask Dr. Stalker, Derpy, and Fluttershy to come here.’ What the heck?!”
“What is it, Drago?” asked Fluttershy. Hearing their names, the three adult ponies entered the vault.
“What? Oh, no, I wasn’t calling you. I was just reading this note out loud… Oh, no! Don’t come in here! It’s a trap!”
The vault door swung shut. This revealed the three diamond dogs who had been hiding behind it.
“I can’t believe that worked, Daggett,” said Alpha, as he spun the wheel that locked the vault. “I guess your plan was just too ridiculous to fail.”
“Shut up, Alpha,” snapped Daggett. Then he addressed the room. “Now, children, you are all alone. The older ponies and your dragon cannot help you. Are you finally ready to surrender to me?”
#
“Girls, I’ve found a tunnel on this level,” called Shadow. “We can walk out of here without having to go further down.”
“That is good, Shadow. I look forward to walking… Oh, oh dear.” Quiz had been resting on the ground, and got to her hooves a little too quickly. She stumbled and fell.
Shadow ran to her. “You did hurt yourself when you landed! You shouldn’t fib about things like that.”
“No, no, it was not the crash.” Quiz sat up, but did not try to stand. “It was the spell. My weight limit is sadly low.”
Shadow smirked. “Di might have mentioned something about that.”
“Why would Diamond Tiara know anything about that?”
“Never mind.”
“Well, at any rate, I should not teleport anything I cannot comfortably lift and carry…”
“Something like me?”
Quiz nodded. “Like yourself. But I was feeling super-charged, with all the magic I had absorbed, and with adrenalin. That is… swiftly… wearing off. But I will be… fine.” The last word was garbled by a huge yawn.
“You say that a lot. I don’t think you and I define ‘fine’ the same way.”
“It is a bad habit,” admitted Quiz.
“You’re all in, Quizzie. Let me…”
“Please do not suggest that you carry me again, Shadow. I look forward to... walking...on my own…”
“Quizzie?” Quiz did not stir. She didn’t even wake up when Shadow loaded her onto his back.
Silver giggled. “She’s going to be so embarrassed when she wakes up!”
“Good grief, she even snores in a monotone drone!” observed Diamond.
“I think she sounds cute,” said Shadow.
#
“You did have a clever plan, Mr. Diamond Dog, Sir,” said Pipsqueak. “Mostly. But you have made one big mistake.”
“Oh? And what is that?” demanded Daggett.
“You have locked up the only ponies who can stop us from doing what we want to do. Ambush Raiders, Huzzah!” It is a bit unfortunate that this last was slurred, as Pip had stuck his stick between his clenched teeth. But it was clear enough for the other foals to cry back.
“Huzzah!”
Pip charged, and when he reached Daggett he swung his head, and smacked the diamond dog on the shins with the stick. Then he dodged around behind Daggett. Daggett spun in place to try and face Pip and grab him, but the colt was too fast for him. Pip continued to gallop in circles around Daggett, periodically smacking him with the stick again.
“Oww! Stop that! Stop it! Alpha, Digger, help me!”
Digger took one step into the fray, but the first thing he saw was Valory drawing a bead on him with her bow and arrow. He shrieked in terror, turned his back on her, and squatted down to make a little ball of himself with his paws over his face.
This brought Digger down to Angel’s level, and made it impossible for him to see her coming. She ran up to Digger, put her hooves on his shoulders, and pressed her horn against his ear. There was a soft buzz, then Digger shrieked again; this time out of pain and surprise.
“See, that’s how my spell is supposed to work,” said Angel. Then she zapped Digger again.
Now that Digger was no longer a viable target, Valory looked for another victim and found Daggett. She waited for him to swing around and face her again, then scored a perfect hit on the bridge of Daggett’s nose.
“Bullseye!” cried Valory, triumphantly.
“Ouch! That really, really hurts!” yelled Daggett.
“I told you!” wailed Digger.
“Shut up, Digger! Oww! Oww!!!”
“And again! And again! Three in a row!” cheered Valory. Daggett fell to his knees. “And they say rubber safety tips are just harmless foal’s toys. Hah!”
Pip could now almost reach Daggett’s head, and scored some impressive shots to Daggett’s back and chest.
Alpha had been dithering about which foal represented the most immediate threat, and finally decided on Valory. He ran to grab her, which allowed Dinky to get behind him and attempt a body slam. It wasn’t a very impressive body slam, but she did manage to hit Alpha with all her weight right behind his knees. This, and Alpha’s own momentum, sent him falling forward. He landed face first. Before Alpha could recover, Dinky ran up his back and began bouncing up and down between his shoulder blades.
“Stop… that! I… am… not… your… trampoline!” Dinky carried on bouncing.
Digger had by now had enough of being stung on the ear, and swung as hard as he could at Angel. This was a bad idea, as his crouch was an awkward position for such a move. Not only did Digger miss, but he lost his balance and fell over. Angel took her cue from Dinky, and jumped on Digger and began to bounce.
“Oh, good idea!” cried Pip. “Let’s play bouncy castle! Valory, help me knock him over.”
“Please, we surrender!” cried Digger. “Daggett, tell them we surrender!”
“Honest, we will give up, if you children will just stop!” Alpha managed to gasp.
“Never! We will fight until they regret… Oof!” Valory knocked the wind out of Daggett with a head butt to the diaphragm. The diamond dog bent over double, and Pip could finally reach his head. Pip made his next hit count.
Daggett went down and stayed down.
Pip briefly considered jumping on Daggett and bouncing. But he dismissed the idea. Now that Daggett was out cold it just wouldn’t be any fun.
#
“Oh, there is no way the diamond dogs built this,” exclaimed Twilight Sparkle. The red team had entered a passage made of stone blocks that arched over their heads.
“It looks like a storm drain,” said Mustang. “Some of the older sections of Canterlot’s drainage system, down in the lower city, look just like this. I’ve chased criminals through them.”
“What a coincidence,” said one of the Chick brothers.
“We’ve been chased through those storm drains,” finished the other brother.
Twilight paused, made a big show of examining the stone work closely, and let the other ponies pass her. When Big Mac walked by she gave him a nudge. Mac stopped and stood next to her until all the ponies had gone by.
“What is it, Twilight?” asked Mac.
Twilight kept her voice low, as they fell in line, following a few steps behind everypony else. “Our whole team is made up of strangers to me, except for you and Pinkie. I trust your judgement, and I was hoping you could tell me who these ponies are.”
Mac nodded. “You can trust Relic. I’ve known her a long time, and I can tell you she’s a good pony.”
“What about Sky?”
“I don’t know her well, but I think she’s okay. She’s a little cocky, and she gets impatient and restless, which isn’t surprising. She has a little rivalry with Rainbow Dash, naturally. But she’s got a good heart, I think.”
“And Mustang?”
“AJ knows him better than me, but he’s one of the good guys. He’s a local stallion who went off to Canterlot to join the Guards. If anything he’s too serious, but I don’t take that as a fault in anypony.” Twilight failed to notice the irony in Mac’s statement. “Strange thing, though. Mustang’s not a role player, but he joined the AD&D tournament right after the Chicks signed up. He had to borrow dice - what kind of gamer doesn’t have their own dice?”
“I wouldn’t know,” answered Twilight. “I’m more into jigsaw puzzles.”
“Well, Mustang wasn’t doing too badly. It was some of the flattest role playing I’ve ever seen, but at tactics and strategy he’s very clever. Then he just up and quit as soon as the Chick brothers were eliminated.”
Twilight pondered this. “That is strange. That also brings us to the ones I really wanted to ask you about.”
“The Chick brothers?” Mac snorted derisively. He double checked to see if the griffons could hear them before he continued. “Those dumb birds got their characters killed in the fifth room! AD&D is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”
“That’s… interesting.” Twilight resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. “But that’s not really what I want to know about.”
“Oh, right. Well, I don’t know them, they aren’t from around here. But I get the same bad vibe from them that you probably do. When the sheriff says ‘Round up the usual suspects,’ I think he’s talking about the Chicks. But they haven’t done anything wrong, so I try not to be judgy.”
“Everyone deserves a chance, but keep an eye on them?” asked Twilight.
“Exactly.”
At the front of the party, Pinkie and Relic were now leading. Pinkie bounced along with her typical, unbridled excitement. Beside her, Relic did her best to remain stoic, but it wasn’t easy.
“Isn’t this great, Relic?!” enthused Pinkie. “We’re under the streets of a lost city! Did you ever expect to find anything like this?!”
“Not in the least,” admitted Relic. “I’ve lived in the Everfree Forest long enough to know there are always surprises, but I’d seen so much I didn’t believe I could stumble across any big surprises. Well, I’m surprised. Good and surprised. And I can hardly wait to walk into the next surprise we… Holy Moly!”
Relic had walked out of the end of the passage and entered a gigantic room. A walkway ran around the edge, but most of the floor was taken up by a deep pit. Relic had to put a hoof on Pinkie’s chest to keep her from bouncing into the pit.
Dozens of tunnels, each exactly like the one the team had just left, entered the room. One opening, lower than all the others, and ten times as large, occupied an entire wall. What was left of something metal lay across the pit; it was too rusted and damaged to be recognizable.
“Wow!” gasped Pinkie. “What is this place?”
“I have no idea,” said Relic.
“I think it was a water treatment plant,” said Twilight. “All the city’s runoff would have flowed here. That rusted wreckage would have been screens to catch litter and debris. Then the water went out that big opening to… um, someplace else.”
“I have a better question,” said Sky. “Which way do we go?”
All of them scanned the room, and the many identical tunnels.
“I know!” cried one of the Chicks. “We could use our thing-a-ma-bob.”
“Good idea,” said the other Chick. He pulled out a shard of dark stone that dangled from a black cord. The stone slowly spun, then stopped. It pointed to a tunnel on the far side of the room.
“Cool!” exclaimed Pinkie. “So, what is it, and what did it just do?”
“It’s a magic thingy,” said on brother.
“It’s supposed to show you the way to the old castle,” said the other.
“Where did you get that?” demanded Mustang.
The two griffons looked at each other, before one of them finally answered. “We bought it at a grot shop in Lower, Lower Canterlot.”
“I know of those shops,” snapped Mustang. “Most of them deal in the purchase and sale of stolen goods!”
“Really?” said one Chick, innocently.
“You learn something new every day,” said the other.
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” said Twilight. “We now have an idea of how to proceed. But please tell me how it works! What enchantment does it use? Is it sympathetic magic? Does it get stronger as we get closer?”
Twilight had many, many more questions.
“Um, it just kinda points to the castle,” was the Chicks’ only answer.
#
The tunnel took Shadow and the fillies upward, and would have taken them all the way to the surface had they not taken a side tunnel. They had left the diamond dog’s excavations behind. These tunnels were obviously the work of ponies.
They passed ramps and stairways leading up, many with still readable inscriptions over them.
“‘Faust and 14th’?” asked Shadow. “What does that mean?”
Silver pointed to another stairway. “This one says ‘16th and Zacherle.’ I think they’re street addresses.”
The came to a wide door in the side of the tunnel. The words ‘Gaze Manor - Deliveries’ over the door glowed with bioluminescence. The ponies could make out the glow over several more doorways further up the tunnel.
Shadow tried the door. “Locked. I wonder why.”
“Privacy, obviously,” said Diamond. “This tunnel was open to the public, and you don’t want just anypony wandering around your downstairs. But common ponies could deliver goods down here without bothering the family. They’d just need a servant to let them in.”
Silver nodded. “This used to be an upscale neighborhood.”
“Our kind of ponies,” agreed Diamond. “Still, if it’s important enough to lock, then I want to see what’s inside.”
Holding her tiara in her mouth, Diamond inserted one tip into the keyhole and began to play with the lock.
“You can pick locks?” exclaimed Shadow.
Silver nodded. “She taught herself how to do it. Her dad keeps everything in the house locked up.”
While Diamond worked Quiz opened her eyes and looked up. “Oh, dear. Have I been asleep?”
Shadow laughed. “No, you were just resting your eyes. Don’t you remember, you were just telling us all about the stonework in this tunnel.”
“I was… talking to you?”
“I particularly liked your social commentary,” said Shadow. “You were observing how the city didn’t use the glowy lichens for the public signs, but the rich showoffs used them over all their doors.”
“Hay!” cried Silver. “I want a glowy sign over my door.”
“I remember nothing of… oh. You are teasing me, Shadow.”
“I would never tease you, Quizzie,” said Shadow. “I think you were entitled to the rest. You should always give yourself a little break after every time you save everypony’s lives.”
“I often have difficulty taking you seriously, Shadow.” Quiz let herself slid off Shadow’s back. She’d finally decided this was easier than waiting for him to agree to let her down.
There was a click, and Diamond triumphantly cried, “Viola!” She opened the door and entered, and immediately began to complain.
“Oh, man! It’s empty. This place is so boring.”
“There’s something in the corner,” said Silver, as she followed Diamond inside. She went to examine it. “It’s wood, some kind of cover… uh oh.”
Silver had stepped onto the wooden disc, and it began to creak and sag.
“Silvy, very carefully retrace your steps and back off of that thing,” said Shadow. He crouched and spread his wings, ready to leap out and catch her. It wasn’t necessary. The wood held. Shadow folded his wings again, and tried not to let the fillies see him wince.
“What is that?” gasped Silver. “What did I almost fall into?”
“I think it is a well cover,” said Quiz.
“And we don’t have any rope to fish you out, so watch your step next time!” cried Diamond, indignantly. She trotted over to give Silver a poke on the shoulder. “With our luck that hole is bottomless. Anyway, this place is dullsville. Let’s get out of here.”
There was a wooden staircase going up, but it looked even less sturdy than the well cover. The only other exit, besides the way they had come in, was a rectangular hole in the floor. There was a tunnel below it.
“This looks interesting,” said Shadow, hopping down the hole. “There’s another sign. And some arrows. One way goes to ‘Darkstone Manor’ and the other goes to ‘physical plant.’”
“What’s a physical plant?” asked Silver.
“Well, we can either go that way and find out, or go the other way and see another empty basement,” said Diamond. “Sounds like a no-brainer to me.”
Shadow helped the three fillies down, and they set off to find the physical plant. Some way down the tunnel it occurred to Shadow that they could have locked the delivery door behind them to throw the diamond dogs off their trail. By then they had gone too far to backtrack.
#
Daggett woke up with a splitting headache. This did not surprise him; he’d had the headache since Bowser had sent him on this mission, and that was only partially because it all began with Bowser punching him in the face. If the headache had gone away, now that would have been surprising.
He was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, with his arms tied behind his back, and his back to his two companions. He tried to move, and found that he was bound at the wrists to Alpha and Digger. Any movement would require the three of them to work with a reasonable amount of coordination. Daggett knew this was expecting much too much.
Daggett sat facing the vault door. The dragon trapped inside roared, then a layer of frost grew across the door. Then something very angry slammed against the door. From the sound of the impact Daggett expected the crash to shake the door, the wall, and the rest of the room. It didn’t.
“I think my cold breath is making the metal brittle,” called Drago. “Hang on, kids. I’ll be able to smash my way out soon. Well, soon-ish, I think.”
“Take your time, Mr. Drago,” Pip called back. “We have everything under control out here.”
“Well, who would have guessed it?” commented Shady. “It looks like we could have saved ourselves a whole lot of trouble if we’d just let the children beat up the diamond dogs hours ago.”
“Shhhh!” hissed Fluttershy. “We still shouldn’t be encouraging this, Shady.”
There was another roar, and more frost, and another crash, and no shaking whatsoever.
Dinky stepped close to the diamond dogs, and spoke softly. “He will get out, eventually. And you probably don’t want to be still sitting here, all tied up, when the angry dragon gets loose.”
Daggett gulped. Alpha and Digger began to whimper.
“What was that, Muffin?” shouted Derpy. “I can’t hear you. Are those rotten dogs trying something?! If they do anything I’ll tear them to pieces!!!”
“It’s okay, Momma. They’re behaving themselves,” called Dinky. Then she whispered to the diamond dogs, “Oh, and if you somehow think you can reason with the dragon, remember that you’ll also have to deal with my mother.”
The diamond dogs shuddered.
“But you do have a choice,” continued Dinky. “We could let you go. You would just have to do a little favor for us first.”
Dinky tried to give Daggett her most adorable smile, but she just wasn’t feeling adorable at that moment and it came off as a malicious leer.
#
Reader crept quietly into the Gaze Manor cellar, and waited for the sound of the little ponies walking away to fade before entering the tunnel to follow them. Scud and Corso followed.
“The foolish ponies left the door unlocked behind them,” chortled Reader. “Better yet, they are headed for the physical plant. They are going right where I want them!”
Scud scratched his head. “Reader, I don’t think this is the first time you have said the ponies were right where you wanted them.”
“But this time will be different. We have them now!”
“You have said that before, too,” said Corso.
“Oh, shut up, both of you!”
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For some reason this update didn't cause a notification to appear in my library, only saw that it was updated because it was in the feature box.
6095677
Same here. This is the second time that's happened for a chapter of this story, too. At least for me. I'm just glad it was in the feature box.
6095677 6095917
1) Did you get an update in your feed, at least?
2) Try unfaving it, then faving it again.
6096003
1) Yes, it did show up in my feed, so that means I won't miss it completely. Thanks for pointing that out
2) I'll untrack and then track it again, if that's what you mean, but I did that last time too.
Haha. Angry dragon indeed. And Dinkymomma.
Fluttershy doesn't sound particularly upset right now, but if any of the kids had actually been hurt...
The really picked the wrong group to pick on.
6095917
For some reason, the notifications just seem to hate JMac.
This is why following him is such a good idea.
6096003
Yup, this seems to be a general problem as I've had this happen with other stories. Faving and unfaving and tracking and untracking make the chapter show up, but I've had the problem show up again in the future.
6096582
Already following, silly
move?
Shadow you big mouth xD you'll ruin a potentially adorable future prank if you say too much! ;P
Those Chick Brothers. Wonder what you got planned with those two. Twilight needs to learn the magic of Dungeons and Dragons, then again her whole life plays out like an adventure so lol I can see why she'd not want to spend time RPing such things in her free time.
I'm still trying to picture what monotone snoring would look and sound like with Quizzical. I'd so love to see that scene drawn out. Would be most cute.
Dinky is quite the pony. Such a nice, adorable, and deviously manipulative little she-devil. She has big plans for those guys.
I don't get 13.59?
Unsympathetic bitch to sympathetic bitch is one of my favorite character development tropes, and one that is greatly under-utilized. Bravo.
... Well then, that's an interesting unexpected development.
Which is probably vaguely terrifying.