The Mines
"Why are you doing this?" Twilight managed to say, the black aura stiffening her jaw as she did so. "Where are you taking me?!"
Scorpan did not reply or slow down, but turned down a hallway and led her down a set of steep steps. She noticed that he was able to walk on his hind legs alone when he did, using his tail for balance. The bristles of his partial mane stuck out as he went deeper; Twilight couldn't tell if it was to keep him from bumping into the tight walls, or if he was scared. Soon enough, they reached level ground, and Scorpan dropped back to all fours.
He halted in front of a small chamber, stepping aside to allow Twilight to enter. She stumbled past, feeling the dark grip on her body fade as she did. Her legs gave out, exhausted, and she could only watch as Scorpan pulled down a heavy gate and slammed it into the rock below.
"Lead door," he said after a pause. "Don't bite. Get sick."
Twilight nodded. He gave her a strange look, ears twitching, before turning and stalking away down the dark hall.
Twilight took a deep breath and looked around the cell. It was carved straight out of the mountain stone, smooth enough that it could have been natural. There was a small pool in the back corner that was being fed by a steady trail of water from the ceiling above. Twilight opened her mouth to try and scent it for danger, but aside from the metallic reek that coated the rest of the place, it seemed clean. She couldn't see how it was draining from where she was, but she doubted it was a big enough space to escape. There was a ditch in the back, too, that smelled disgusting but seemed to at some point open into fresh air, but she didn't want to think about what that was for, or even consider trying to fit down it.
Turning her senses outward, she could hear the muffled growling and grating of workers below, punctuated by roars and crackling bursts of fire. There was no sound of breathing or movement in any of the cells around her, and her only source of light was a dim torch at the end of the hall. She was almost happy for the sound of workers through the stone, even though it was proof of the enemy preparing for battle. The silence she would have faced otherwise would have driven her mad.
"I can't give up," she breathed, getting as comfortable as she could. "My friends and my allies need me. I am going to find them, and rescue them. But I need to sleep. They'll be safe, I just know it."
Muttering encouragement to herself, and lulled by the warmth of the stone, she soon drifted off to sleep.
-----
Twilight woke up to the smell of hot food. As she sat up, she saw that Scorpan was sitting outside of the gate, his tail coiled around his feet. He was watching her, but only vaguely. As she watched, he focused at a point on the gate and ran his claw down it.
"Is the food safe?" She said, breaking off into coughs as she realized how raw her throat was.
Scorpan flinched, his fur spiking again as he jerked his attention back to her. "Yes. Food good."
She wobbled over to it, still feeling weak from Grogar's possession. She sat down quickly, feeling a headache coming on, and tentatively sniffed it. "Hay fries and vegetables? This is a bit luxurious, don't you think?"
"Many dragon. Few ponies." Scorpan halted, thinking. "You prisoner. Not criminal."
"And the water? Is it safe?"
"From rainwater on cliff. Cleaned by fire. Safe."
Twilight nodded again, stumbling over to the pool of water and taking a deep drink. Scorpan watched her for a moment, but soon turned his focus to the sash his bell was hung on. Twilight ate her food quickly, listening to the soft jingling it made as he flicked it.
"Work mine today," he said when she was done. "Mine for gem."
Twilight got up, instinctively trying to use her magic to lift the plate up with her. A slicing pain shot through her horn, and she stumbled.
Scorpan looked at her, alarmed by her sudden movement. "No magic! No magic here. Block - blocked."
Twilight steadied herself, taking deep breaths as the pain faded. She tentatively reached out with a hoof and pulled the plate closer until she could take it in her mouth. Head bowed from the abnormal weight, she walked past Scorpan and out into the hall.
"Leave it." He said gesturing to the plate. "Other will clean."
Twilight set it down near the door, watching him warily. "Who are the others?"
"Dragon." Scorpan replied, head tilted. "Pony. Many kind."
Without waiting to see if she accepted this answer, he turned and began walking away. Twilight noticed that the hall was much brighter than it had been when she first entered. "Is it bright from magic, or sunlight?"
"Both."
Twilight nodded, momentarily forgetting about her situation as she tried to find skylights or feel the familiar aura of magic. Instead, there was nothing but an blankness; not really the lack of an enchantment, but as if the magic had been slowed in place. She felt the hairs on her neck rise as she realized how much dead space was in the air around her.
"Not think about," Scorpan said unexpectedly. "Less odd."
Twilight found herself stepping closer to him, as if he could protect her, and immediately halted and waited for him to draw ahead. She was able to see him much better now too; he was lean but large, and his fur that she had assumed to be solid tan was mottled with smaller dark spots. His wings were covered at the base by short fur, but as they continued outward the coating changed to scarlet, leathery skin. The longer hair around his neck and down his shoulders was a darker brown, as was the fur around his wrists and ankles. His tail, something she had found herself rather unconcerned about before, had the same red color of his wings and was covered in slick scales. The tip was a long, curved blade of sorts, with a small bulb at the base.
"Scorpan," she said softly. "Scorpion."
"Yes," he grumbled, moving his tail away. "Not touch."
She stayed quiet after that, as Scorpan led her deeper into the mountain. The light changed from a pale glow to that of fires far below, the air heavy with smoke and heat. Scorpan stopped suddenly and moved to the side of the tunnel.
"I not go in." He said, explaining. "Too hot. Kirin survive."
Twilight took a few cautious steps past him, checking to make sure she was doing the right thing. He waved her on impatiently, looking visibly uncomfortable in the extreme heat. "How will I know what to do?"
"Not kill dragon," he grumbled, turning around, "and dig."
Twilight watched him go back up the hall before turning her attention the way she was supposed to be heading. She stretched her senses as far as she could, trying to see if there was a guard ahead, or some kind of surveillance, but found nothing. Despite that, she still had the overwhelming feeling that if she tried to flee up the corridor, she wouldn't get very far.
"And what if my friends are in there?" She whispered to herself. "We need to stick together."
She took a deep breath and took a few more steps, stopping as her hoof fell through open air. She froze, staring in bewilderment at the scene below.
The cave was full of dragons. Huge ones, too old and large to join any of the migrations in the past, with tattered wings and dull scales. None paid her any heed as she stared down from the platform of sorts. She could see now that she was rather close to the top of the massive cavern, just below the mantle of roiling smoke that cloaked the ceiling. The walls were smooth and banded with age, and the floor was pitted with deep, bubbling pools of lava. She could feel their heat from here, and was thankful for the protection her dragon abilities gave her.
Slowly, more hovering than flying, she began the descent to the floor. She felt incredibly small among the dragons; while she could have taken up the eye of one of the ones that lived closer to her home, she was barely as long as their pupils were wide. They barely stilled when they did notice her, anyway, just continued on their way and expected her to move. She did, of course; even clipping a wing on their rough scales had the potential to kill her at this height.
"We've got a flier!" A voice shouted from below. Twilight barely had time to look before a heavy net slammed into her side, wrapping her wings up and forcing her to drop.
She hit the ground hard, feeling a wing snap under her side, and barely held in a scream of pain and fury. She heard hooves nearby and struggled to get up, teeth bared and growling.
"Feisty one," A hoof pressed into the back of her head, forcing her back down to the ground. She squirmed under the weight, trying to see who had her pinned. "Anyone know which group she's from?"
"Is that a horn?"
"Shit, Ironhoof, I think you just shot down Grogar's little princess."
"I'm nopony's princess!" Twilight hissed, rolling on to her back despite the stab of pain from her wing, and struck out with her hind claws. She felt them hit flesh and pushed out, unbalancing her assailant, and heaved herself up onto her feet. "My wing's probably broken now, because of you! Did I look like I was trying to escape, flying down?"
"She has a point, Ironhoof."
"Silence, slave!" The pony snorted. "Your wing will mend. Stop complaining."
"Oh, yeah? Are you sure your face will mend once I'm done with it?" She growled.
He snorted, tossing his head. "I don't have time for this. Get to work."
"That's what I was trying to do before you shot me."
He stared her down for a few moments before turning and walking away. Twilight glared after him until a dragon moved in front of him, blocking her view.
"What's his problem?" She asked to nopony in particular.
"He always acts like someone stuffed one of Grogar's bells where the sun doesn't shine," a second pony piped up from behind her.
The voice that had identified her before giggled. "That's not the only thing of Grogar's that gets stuffed in him."
Twilight turned, easily able to spot the two ponies that were talking through the smoke. One was a bit shorter than her, gray-coated with a close-cropped black mane and tail. His companion was closer to her height, white-coated and looking generally unsuited to mine work. As she looked closer, she saw that the gray-coated stallion had a foreleg that was much shorter than his others, and he was holding it up against his chest. The mare had two reptilian wings folded neatly on her back, and a stripe of golden scales running from her forehead to the base of her tail.
"Ironhoof is a kirin too," the stallion said abruptly. "Almost everyone here is. You can see it in his eyes."
"My name is Spirit," the mare added with a smile. "This is Perrs."
"I'm Twilight. Are we supposed to be working...?"
Spirit shrugged. "The dragons do most of it themselves, and honestly nobody here really cares if you work. Well, except for Ironhoof, but he's basically a nobody."
"As long as you have some rocks at the end of the day, they'll feed you. Even all of us working together wouldn't be able to move as much stone in one day as one of the dragons bumping a wingtip against the wall," Perrs blew a heavy sigh, and Twilight saw a glimpse of fangs. "We're really just regular prisoners, we just get to walk around."
"Have you seen any other new ponies?" Twilight interrupted, looking around again. "Two of them have wings, one has a horn, and the other two have back claws. They'd all look kind of like me...?"
The two kirins glanced at each other before shaking their heads. "You're the first new face in weeks," Spirit said gently. "If your friends are here, they're probably still in a calming cell, or just somewhere else in the mines."
"Though I found they weren't very calming," Perrs added, nodding sagely, "Grogar needs to work on his alliteration. Cramped cell? Confusing cell? Crusty crummy conformist cell?"
As Perrs babbled on, Spirit walked over to stand beside Twilight, wrapping her pale wing around Twilight's shoulders. Twilight noticed it was much narrower than her own, and the membrane had gone translucent where it was stretched. It was doubtful the kirin could even fly.
"We'll help you find your friends, okay?" Spirit said, snapping Twilight back into focus. "I'm sure everything's going to be fine."
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- canonkiller · 21k words · 1,287 80 · 16k views
- devil001 · 25k words · 268 10 · 9.8k views
- cloudedguardian · 72k words · 1,136 34 · 12k views
- Dexter Helix · 42k words · 230 15 · 5.5k views
- Alexander Bolt · 6.8k words · 13 3 · 622 views
- MLP Vicer · 7.2k words · 10 1 · 1.3k views
- xFluffers · 2.1k words · 21 3 · 809 views
Stats
Page generated in 0.246 seconds
Total duration
1,043 users online
2,000,619 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
It's Back
It has been a while. I will have to read this again from the start.
am very glad to see this story continued. ^_^ wish i could thumbs up it again for how happy i am to see this revived. ^_^ keep up the good work. ^_^
looks at feed
" a true true friend has updated?
I don't remember favoriting thi- oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
(troll 2) oh my goooooood! it fucking updated, I don't even remember whats been going on!"
The first thing I yelled when I saw the update was "ITS BACK B
HES!"
I'm happy, you've made my day!
oh thought this was cancelled hmm well anyway good chapter though
5530301
Conversely, I do remember favoriting it, but for the life of me, I can't remember what happened in this story or the original.
...well, aside from the Mane Six being Kirin now. And they were captured by a Goat Necromancer last chapter? One who apparently turned Scorpan into his mindless thrall. And now that I'm typing this out, I think the first story was about Twi about to become an Alicorn, only Spike screwed it up, Twi became a Kirin Alicorn, and nearly everypony became a Drama Llama for a while.
...ok, maybe I remember more than I thought I did. On to reading.
5535020
Same here, when I read the new chapter I was like "I'm so lost now, its not even funny. Stupid Hiatus!"
at least scorpan doesn't seem happy with the idea of slaves.
It's back?
5529499
5530301
5532143
5535844
5543910
5535020
Yeah, sorry about the time difference. Hopefully the next chapters will be a bit closer together!
5530163
I'm glad you're enjoying it!
5532244
A hiatus, not a cancellation - but it was pretty long, so the confusion is understandable.
MOAR!
5558275
I only just posted this, chill. Yelling at the author is a terrible way to get someone to keep going. Why not try posting things you liked, or plot points you're curious about? After all, unless you're paying me for it (which would be nice) there's no reason for you demanding me to move faster. I write at my own pace because I do it for fun; not so I can satisfy the people who respond to a 2379-word chapter with a 1-word comment.
UPDATE!
5560220 how about this excellent job on the chapter IceOfWaterflock, it's wonderful to see you're still paying attention to this wonderful story. You have my thanks for another chapter, and don't let simple things as mir comments bother you. :-)
Are you still intending to work on this?
5560220
more
*stares at the canceld lable and grumbles* all the good ones...
9198336
well the overwhelming support makes it so rewarding to write novel-length original stories for free, yknow? all of the encouraging comments and caring feedback.
human, not story machine.
9201526
if you were doing this for attention, then maybe its for the best that you stoped.
you should never preform any form of art for any reason other then for the sake of the art itself, becuase you enjoy doing it, if your doing it cause you want people to recognize you for it, then thats going to taint your work.
so yeah if you wernt enjoying doing this, then its for the best you stoped cause the work would have suffered for it along with you.
9201908
the point of the comment was 'be nice to people'
9202184
i've explained this to others in the past and ill drop it here too.
nice doesn't get listened to, nice gets ignored.
blunt is better if you want to get your point across.
if you think of being blunt as being mean that's fine everyone is allowed there own opinions and feelings after all, but i will never sugarcoat my statements.
9202228
so you would rather get a reply by being a jerk than not get a reply by being like. a normal human person. bronies.
9203272
actualy i don't even really care if i get a reply or not, just that my view gets noticed
i don't even really care if the person im talking to agrees or disagrees with it
you could forget everything i've said in an hour..just the fact you knew it long enough to think about it for a minute is enough for me.
and yes im aware how pathetic that sounds...we all have our little things, this is mine, its wierd and so am i *shrugs*
9203310
but you're assuming your view isn't being noticed when you're nice. which, presumably, is because the author didn't reply to it. like damn dude we all have our little things but thats like, liking to dip french fries in ice cream or having a weird flavor of toothpaste. this isn't 'a little weird thing of yours' it's just being a dick on the internet to people who are making free content for you for nothing. being mean isn't a personality quirk it's just... being mean because you don't care enough about anyone other than yourself to bother changing it.