Quizzical Greystone And The Basements Of Doom

by JMac

Chapter 8 Getting Deeper

Quizzical Greystone And The Basements Of Doom

Chapter 8 Getting Deeper

“Come in, come in. Just make sure you roll my ‘door’ back over the hole when you’re all inside.” The blue dragon beckoned for the ponies to follow him deeper into the cave. He was bigger than any three ponies, and Shady estimated that he was a young adult, just out of his ‘teens’ (just how this translated into actual years ponies did not know and dragons wouldn’t say). Drago went on, “The little one got a pretty bad zap, huh? Lay her down on my dining room table. It’s slate, the most anti-magic substance there is. That should have her back in balance in no time.”

Shady gently rested Angel on the table, and she immediately perked up and began looking around.

“Um? Shady?” said Fluttershy. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t miss the dragon cave?”

“Well, yeah, out at my front door, back on the other side of the lake,” said Drago. “I’ve got it totally tricked out. It looks like a monster’s face, stalagmite fangs and everything. Er, you came in the back door. I haven’t done anything with it yet. What can I tell you? This is my first pad, it’s a work in progress.”

“We’re going to be out here all night, aren’t we?” asked Angel. She began to pout. “I’m going to miss DaringCon. I bought a hat especially for it.”

“Me, too, Angel,” said Valory. “I wish I had my pith helmet right now.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if I’d have let you in, if it was just you guys,” said Drago, indicating the adult ponies. “You know – dragons and ponies, ponies and dragons, not always the best mixers. But I don’t leave little kids out in storms. So make yourselves at home. I never eat my house guests, I promise.”

“That’s… nice,” whimpered Fluttershy.

#

The weather pegasi made relatively short work of the fire. It helped that as they created little storms on the fire line the wind shifted, and drove the fire back on itself. The fire couldn’t burn the Forest twice, and without much fuel it didn’t last long.

“Way to go, team!” cried Rainbow Dash, and there were high hooves all around. “Now, Sky, tell me about what your Red team discovered. Bet it was pretty dull, huh?”

“Actually, Rainbow, it was kind of exciting.” Sky told her about how Zecora was missing, about the trashed cottage, and misidentifying Relic as the culprit. The more Sky spoke the more agitated Rainbow became. Seeing this, Sky kept adding more and more details.

“I don’t believe this!” Rainbow finally cried out. “You guys got a crime scene, complete with clues and a witness to interview, and all I got was a can of Wham!”

“Sorry, Rainbow,” said Sky, with a smirk. “I can’t help it if in addition to being smart and good looking I’m also lucky. See you later, I’ve got to get back to the others.”

As Sky zoomed away, Rainbow shouted after her, “We’ll still rescue the kids first!”

Rainbow, Navy, and Autumn flew back to the approximate place they had left the rest of their team, and began to circle. Soon, a tree crashed to the ground just behind them. They flew to the sound.

The three pegasi had just landed next to the fallen tree when they could hear Stone Hoof shout in the distance, “Rainbow, that’s the wrong tree!”

An incredibly ugly two headed giant stepped into view. It ripped one of the largest branches off the fallen tree, and began shaking it at the ponies.

“Stupid ponies make it rain. Go 'zoom, zoom, zoom' all over the place! Very annoying! We teach ponies better manners!”

#

Sky was searching for a cluster of brightly glowing ovals. Pinkie had run up a tether of balloons, and they had gathered so much static magic when they rose through the canopy that Twilight didn’t have to use a light spell.

Sky soon spied her target. But something was wrong. It was difficult to tell the scale of anything up on the canopy, but as Sky got closer she became sure that these ovals were much too large.

Soon she arrived, and sure enough, these were not Pinkie’s balloons. The ovals rested in some sort of basket of woven sticks, mounted atop a huge tree.

A bird’s nest. A bird’s nest the size of a house, with eggs as bigger than a pony.

Then the momma bird came home and discovered Sky.

“Rrrrrrrooooooooc!”

#

“Yeow!” cried Navy, just dodging the makeshift club. He’d flown close, trying to distract the giant. The ponies thought they could easily outmaneuver the monster, but with two heads he could see everywhere at once. They weren’t going to fly circles around the giant’s heads.

“Ponies, hold still and let Sweven hit you!” demanded one head.

“Wait, Sweven, I forget,” said the other head. “Tell me again, why don’t we like ponies?”

“Don’t be stupid, Neodd! We hate ponies because they are annoying.”

“Yes, but ponies are cute.”

“Shut up and hit ponies, Neodd! And ponies come back here!”

The rest of the Red team arrived, led by Stone Hoof. Stone reared experimentally, and found that the highest he could kick was the giant’s knee.

“Why don’t you take a picture, Madam Mayor?” asked Professor Heart. “You can put him on the front of the tourist brochure.”

“Shut up, Professor!”

“Excuse me, but we are not ‘him,’ we are ‘them,’” said Neodd. “Very sensitive about that.”

“Not me,” said Sweven. “Me happy so long as not called ‘it.’”

“Ok, next swing, before it recovers from the follow through, we charge,” said Rainbow. “Navy, Autumn, take the right head, I’ll hit the left. Buck ‘em hard between the eyes!”

“Wait, let me try something,” cried Infernalo. He drew a painted stoneware water bottle from his bag and offered it to Neodd. “I like you and I want to give you this present. But you must promise not to share it with Sweven.”

“What?” exclaimed Sweven. “But we share everything!”

“Neodd you must not share your gift with Sweven,” said Infernalo. “Because I like you, but I hate him.”

“Stupid pony, we are exactly alike!”

“Yes,” said Infernalo. “That is why I like him, but I hate you.”

Neodd laughed, and reached for the bottle. “Mine! All mine, Sweven!”

Sweven punched him in the nose.

“You are a stupid pony lover, and I will fix you, Neodd! Then I’ll get your little pony friends!”

“No, because I will fix you first!” Neodd cracked a branch over Sweven’s forehead.

While the giant fought with themself, the ponies slipped away.

“I have to show you what I found,” said Stone Hoof, leading them to a fallen tree. “It was growing out of the side of this outcrop, and it wasn’t very healthy. I figured Autumn would approve.”

Autumn frowned, but didn’t comment.

“Anyway, look at this.” Where the tree’s roots had torn away from the stone was the entrance to a cave.

“We aren’t going to go down there, are we?” asked the Mayor, nervously.

“You said it, I didn’t,” said Professor Heart.

“Oogie, oogie, oogie!”

“Oh, brother, these guys again?” gripped Rainbow. “Well, that tears it. There’s going to be another flash, and we have to get the unicorns to safety. Everypony, into the cave.”

#

Sky didn’t zoom away from the roc. She flew away at what she felt was a reasonable speed to lose the bird. With the long walk from Ponyville and the firefighting behind her, and a probably all-nighter ahead of her, Sky thought it made sense to pace herself. She was quite surprised when the roc kept up with her.

Perhaps when a gigantic bird is chasing you it is not the best time to pace yourself.

Sky sped up. She was relieved to look back and see the roc falling behind. Her relief was short lived. When Sky turned back to see where she was going she saw Pinkie’s balloons dead ahead.

“Now I find them?! Oh, Celestia! I’ve led the roc straight to my friends!”

Sky slowed down to let the roc catch up again, then began a gentle turn to the right to get the bird headed away from the other ponies.

She looked back, and found that the roc wasn’t following her. It had apparently forgotten about Sky, and had found something more interesting to investigate. The Roc had landed in the tree above the Red team, and was examining the balloons.

Sky did a 180 degree turn and zoomed back to confront the roc.

“Hey, you! Remember me? Nest trespasser? Don’t you want to chase me away? If you don’t, aren’t you afraid I’ll come back and scare your chicks some day? Hey, I’m talking to you!”

“Rrrroc?” said the roc. Otherwise, it ignored Sky. It seemed both confused and fascinated by the balloons.

“Sky, get away from there!” shouted Big Mac.

“Sky, come down here where we can protect you!” called Mustang.

“Well, she’s dead,” said one of the Chick brothers.

“Yep,” agreed the other.

“Maybe the roc just wants to party,” suggested Pinkie. She began to look through her saddle bag. “I could give her more balloons if she wants them. Oh, do you think she’ll like streamers?”

“Never mind the roc, you guys,” grumbled Relic. “She’ll wander on home after she’s had a bite to eat.”

“That’s what we’re afraid of!” exclaimed Twilight.

Right on cue, the roc lost interest in the balloons and began pecking at a nearby evergreen.

“Rocs are vegetarians?” Twilight couldn’t believe it.

“Yep,” said Relic, with a nod. “Steady diet of pine cones. What? Wasn’t that in any of your zoology books?”

“Oogie, oogie, oogie!”

“Oh, great, they’re gathering again. We don’t have much time before the next strike.” Relic looked up and called, “Hey, Sky, do you think you could lead us back to her nest?”

“Sure… but, do you really want to go to her nest? She didn’t like it when I visited.”

“It may be our best hope,” said Relic. “And we have to hurry.”

They hurried. By the time the ponies reached the Roc’s home tree the galumpalumps had begun to call frantically to each other. Twilight began to breath hard as the magic in the air grew.

“Here we go,” said Relic. They had come to a large stone formation, and Relic began to circle it, looking for something. “Rocs like to nest near limestone. They need to eat it, to make their egg shells strong, I think. And where you find limestone deposits out here you usually find… there! Found it.”

Relic pointed to where the roc had pecked away a tremendous gouge in the outcrop. Beneath the stone was a huge hollow. The ponies could not tell how deep it was.

“Quickly now, Dearie, in you go,” Relic told Twilight. “This next flash is going to be a doozy. Sky and her friends really riled things up.”

Twilight climbed down into the cavern. Big Mac and Mustang took up positions at either side of her, to protect her from anything that might be living in the hole.

“I feel better already,” said Twilight. “The air is much clearer down here. And it goes on and on; this cavern is really big.”

“Ah ha!” exclaimed Mustang. “Look. Diamond dog tracks. We’ve found their tunnel network.”

#

“You say many ponies confuse the possessive ‘your’ with the contraction of you are, ‘you’re’?” Quiz and Silver Spoon were discussing contractions as they walked. “Surely, that is not a common error.”

Silver giggled. “You would be surprised, Quiz.”

“I have noticed this, while proofreading essays for Snips and Snails,” said Quiz. “But I thought it was only them. Well, also Scootaloo. Occasionally, also Applebloom. And Sweetie Belle, and Dinky…hmmm. It does seem quite common. You are correct, Silver Spoon. I am surprised.”

Silver laughed, and Shadow and Diamond joined her. “You might want to also cover ‘their,’ ‘there,’ and ‘they’re.’”

“I suppose I should have grown used to being surprised by…,” began Quiz. She suddenly stiffened, then she stumbled and had to lean against the tunnel wall to stand.

“Quizzie, what is it?” cried Shadow.

“Another magic strike, a very powerful one,” gasped Quiz. “It has passed, and I will be well now. But I should not have felt it. Not here, deep underground.”

“Oh, great!” exclaimed Diamond Tiara. “Not only can’t she use any magic, but now she’s going to be falling over every five minutes! You’re useless, Quiz-ik-al! We should just leave you behind.”

“Dia!” Shadow had heard enough. “You haven’t stopped sniping at Quizzie since you joined us. What is with you two?”

“She does not like me,” said Quiz, simply.

“See, now that’s another thing I hate about you, Quiz-ik-al! You’re so bland about everything. It’s like you just don’t care about anything.”

“I reacted very strongly once, Diamond Tiara. If you recall, neither of us enjoyed the outcome.”

“Oh, I recall, alright. I got three weeks detention. Three weeks! It was just a little name calling! That’s just a one week offense. And a verbal apology. But Cheerilee made me give you a written apology, and she posted it on the bulletin board!”

“I remember your apology, Diamond Tiara. You spelled ‘you’re’ Y-O-U-R.”

“Oh, shut up, Quiz.” Diamond pawed despondently at the tunnel floor. “Three weeks of cleaning black boards. And Cheerilee just happened to find a reason to leave the room at the end of every day. And while she was deliberately not watching, your loser friends in the CMC ‘prepared’ the black boards for me! I had to clean chalk dust out of my coat every night. I left colored tracks all the way home.”

“I did not ask them to do this,” said Quiz. “However, I confess knowing that my friends made the gesture for me is a good feeling.”

“The school ran out of colored chalk!”

“It is true that you were treated unfairly, Diamond Tiara; perhaps out of sympathy for my plight. I do not blame you for what happened to me when I ran away. But it is also unfair to blame me. I assure you, it was not intentional.”

Diamond just snorted with disgust.

“Oh, look, an airshaft,” said Quiz, enthusiastic to change the subject. “That explains why I felt the last flare.”

“Quizzie, stay away from that,” warned Shadow.

“It is safe, Shadow. I can feel it,” said Quiz, staring up the shaft. “The air is clear. I believe the last flash dissipated the magic; I have a brief window of opportunity before it builds up again.”

“Quiz, what are you doing?” asked Silver, nervously.

“I am sending a message back to Ponyville.” Quiz’s horn began to glow. This time it wasn’t sickly green, but her normal beige aura. “It is outside the range of the Notes spell, but if I execute several teleport object spells between the shelves and my desk….” She trailed off as she began to concentrate on the magic.

Quiz was focusing so intently on her spells that she did not notice the dead leaves drifting down the shaft.

#

Spike had just made his sixty-fourth attempt to send a letter to Princess Luna, and he was reaching for his broom and dust pan. He stopped suddenly. Unlike the previous sixty-three efforts, there was no paper ash to sweep up.

The letter had gone through!

“Yippee!” cried Spike, swinging his broom around like a dance partner. “Now I just have to…um…now what am I supposed to do?”

He sat down to wait for something to happen. Spike only then saw the tower of books stacked on Quiz’s desk.

He might have convinced himself that he had gone all day without noticing a stack of books twice his height. But he could never believe that Quiz would leave for school with so many books left unshelved. Further, if Quiz stacked books, she stacked them in descending order of size for stability (with groups of book of the same size in alphabetical order). This was a complete jumble. And this was definitely not Twilight’s work. If Twilight had stacked the books they wouldn’t be on Quiz’s desk, they would be on the floor.

“Ah, Ha!” declared Spike. “I’ve found a clue!” He stared at the books. “Er…hmm…”

It didn’t make any sense. “’Kangaroo Tribes of Canterberra and the Eastern Territories’? ‘Indigenous Mollusks of the Everfree Forest’? ‘Diseases of the Tail and Flank’? Huh? Quiz, you’re killing me here! C’mon, Girl, what are you trying to tell me?”

Then it clicked. Spike began writing down the first letter of each title. “K-I-D-N-A-P-P-E-D-B-Y-D-D…’D-D’?” Spike reread those titles. One was ‘Diamonds – Equestria’s Wonder Mineral’ and the other was ‘Dog Training for Dimwits.’ “Diamonds and dogs? Oh, diamond dogs! Great, it’s those jerks again! Wow, that’s got to be the first time Quiz ever used an abbreviation. The poor kid must be under a lot of pressure.” Spike took down the rest of Quiz’s message. “T-H-I-N-K-G-O-I-N-G-C-A-S-T-L-E…,that’s not a complete sentence! Poor, Quiz, I bet it hurt to write that!” Spike finished the message, then sat down to consider his next move. He did not like the conclusion he reached.

“Well, at least now I know what I’m supposed to do.”

#

“Old Belch established this lair way back, I don’t know, back before forever I guess,” Drago explained. He was clearly enjoying having an audience. “A few seasons ago he finally got sick of the wet winters, packed up his hoard, and flew north to find some good sleeping weather. That’s when Iceflame - n – Drago moved in. Um, that’s me. Sorry, I don’t usually speak in third person.”

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Drago,” said Shady. “But I have to confess, I was expecting someone a little more imposing.”

“You mean you were expecting someone taller? Yeah, I haven’t spread it around that Belch isn’t here anymore. It helps me keep my privacy.”

“I think you’re very imposing, Drago,” said Fluttershy. “I can easily imagine being terrified of you.”

“Why, thank you, Miss,” said Drago, preening. “I’ve been working on my fearsome skills. I think I have the scary voice down, and I’ve got a pretty good snarl. My roar still needs work though.”

“It must be terribly exciting to be a dragon, Mr. Drago,” exclaimed Valory. “Do you know many other dragons?”

“Not really. I’ve done the Dragon Migration, of course, but I don’t hang out with my own kind very often. I’m afraid dragons around my age can be real jerks.”

“Do you have your own hoard, Mr. Drago?” asked Pipsqueak.

“Well, it’s more of a starter hoard, really. I’ve got a sack, actually.”

All of the children were excited to be visiting a real dragon’s lair. All save one. Angel had made a complete recovery, but her spirits remained low.

“It isn’t fair. We can’t leave until this dumb storm is over. While we sit here safe and comfortable our friends are being taken deeper and deeper into the Forest.” Angel began to weep. “It isn’t fair.”

This deflated everypony’s enthusiasm.

“Hey, I can help with that,” said Drago.

“No, that won’t be necessary, really…” began Fluttershy.

“It would be best if the children just stayed here,” tried Shady.

“I don’t think we want to encourage this,” muttered Derpy.

Drago was already pushing aside a large rock. Under it was a ramp leading down to a tunnel.

“There used to be a pony city out in the deep forest,” said Drago. “It stayed around for a while, after the princesses abandoned their castle. The legend is that Old Belch cut a deal with the ponies that still lived there. For a modest annual tribute he promised never to rampage in the city. The terms were supposedly very reasonable. I believe it. Belch hated rampaging. He’d do anything to get out of it. Anyway, this tunnel was built to let the ponies deliver the gems without having to trek through the forest.”

“Wow!” gasped Pip, peering into the tunnel. “How far does this go, Mr. Drago?”

“All the way to the old city’s center. Oh, and I’ve found some new side tunnels, so I think the diamond dogs have found it and are using it.”

Angel’s eyes went wide with excitement. “We could use this to find our friends!”

Her excitement was contagious. “We could rescue them!” cried Valory.

“And we could teach those mean old diamond dogs a lesson!” Pip began to leap around, waving his stick. “Aarh!”

“Let’s go!” Dinky shined light from her horn down the tunnel. She was pleased to see magic was working properly down in the cavern.

“Now, kids, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Shady, effecting his most reasonable tone. “Kids? Kids!”

They had already run so far down the tunnel that all the adults could see were the lights of Dinky and Angel’s horns. Their shouts echoed through the tunnel.

“Ambush Raiders! Yay!!!”

#

As Quiz completed her spells the aura around her horn began to take on a green halo.

“Time’s up, Quizzie. Ready or not, you get away from there!” ordered Shadow.

“Yes, Shadow, I am ready… Ow!” Quiz was struck between the eyes by a clot of sodden leaves. Alarmed, Quiz leapt as far to the side as she could.

Far above, the pool of magic saturated water broke free and poured down the shaft. Quiz just barely escaped the shower.

Water is excellent at containing magic, it holds it like a storage battery. But Magic wants to be used, and will always try flow to anything or anyone that can use it. While Quiz was not soaked by the falling magic water, she was still standing in the puddle it formed when it landed.

There was a dull flash from a small discharge. All the rest of the magic went into Quiz.

“Quizzie!”

Comments

[Georg]

I hope nopony is standing near the other end of the spell she's trying, or they're going to get a horrible zap.

[Chojomeka]

Dang cliffhangers! Huh now the story's going into Mystara style.

[Geoduck]

Did I spy a Tom Holt reference?

[Blue_Paladin42]

ZOT

Well, that can't be good for the poor girl.

[Nyerguds]

“Sorry, Rainbow,” said Sky, with a Smirk.

Haha. That definitely deserved a Smirk, with capital 'S'

More overpowered magic shenanigans! Woo!

[Dozy Dreamer]

They had already run so far down the tunnel that all the adults could see were the lights of Dinky and Angel’s horns.

Okay, that's, what, the third time that the children's shenanigans have made things worse? I mean, for God's sake, they were at the edge of the forest, and the kids _ran back in_. That makes Angel's predicament at least partially her own fault.
And at this point, I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to keep from telling them that as a means of getting the kids to _stop being blithering idiots_.

Also, who is this Angel girl that's popped up? You speak of her as though we're expected to know who she is, so I assume she's cropped up somewhere previously, but I don't remember her, so... have I missed something?

[ShadowLDrago]

“Yep,” said Relic, with a nod. “Steady diet of pine cones. What? Wasn’t that in any of your zoology books?”

Oh. That's reassuring.