Magic of the Earth

“No, that wouldn’t work either, Arcana. I can’t fit down that pipe, and even if I did, I would probably drown,” I said to Arcana, softly enough that only I, and thus she, could hear it.

Maybe you should try slipping through those bars again, they really don’t look that close together at all!

“Come on, this is the sixth time you’ve suggested that! I told you, no matter how many times we try, we won’t be able to fit,”

Well do youhave any brilliant ideas, then? The only idea you’ve had thus far is that we somehow knock out a guard through the bars, and steal the keys from him. Master probably isn’t stupid enough to give the guards the keys unless they need them, anyway!

I sat and thought for a moment. What could I do to get out that we hadn’t thought of yet? Master was too meticulous in his cleaning inspections to leave anything I could use to get out in the cell. The bed was an air bed, the toilet was securely bolted to the ground. The sink was the same, but I could barely even reach it. There was nothing I could use to pick the lock, break the lock, or slip through the bars.

Then it hit me. I was a pony, wasn’t I? But more specifically, I was a unicorn! With magic! Surely he wouldn’t be expecting for me to be able to use magic against his dungeon.

“Hey Arcana, you control my magic, right? Maybe you can try and use that spell you used during on the banana back at home on the bars or something!” I exclaimed as quietly as I could.

Are you sure that’s a good idea? When we did that, the banana got really hot and exploded. I’m pretty sure that very hot metal shards flying everywhere probably hurts a lot more than banana.

“You’re probably right, maybe we should try something else. Maybe we should see if we can trip the lock with levitation,”

Are you sure? We were trying to test levitation with the banana incident. Do we have anything we can test it on that isn’t a banana?

“I don’t know, maybe we can try the lid of the-”

“Sorry to cut your discussion with yourself short, but I think you might want to pay attention to me for a moment, dear,” Master’s voice suddenly came out from the hallway.

I was already in the back of the room, but I backed away anyway. He wasn’t already going to take my horn, was he? I hadn’t even had a chance to escape yet!

“It’s come to my attention that you seem to have a habit of whispering to yourself when you think you are alone. This brought to my attention that you can somehow, despite being a magical green horse, you can talk. This is a problem, you see, for you being able to communicate means that you can cause distraction, which is definitely not something I want during your operation. Not only that, but you could cause for some of my servants morality problems! I just can’t let this go on, you see? I’ll have to just fix your voice, so you sound like you should. Hold still for a moment, please.” He said with a motion of the hand.

Wait, what? He was going to take away my voice? No! I was not going to let that happen!

I shot to my left, dodging a little white ball of magic as it flew from his fist. It hit the toilet instead, and somehow triggered the flusher. However, unlike what anyone would expect, the flush sounded like a horse! A really strange, wet, drowning horse, but a horse! Was that what he was going to do to me?

Laughter burst out from behind me, the same insane laughter that I had heard from Master earlier. I whirled around, just in time to catch a faceful of white magical horse voice.

Idiot! He hit you while you were distracted!

Master was still laughing.

“I can’t believe- Oh that is too- It hit the toilet!”

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a horrendous distortion of my voice!

“What’s the matter? Horse got your tongue?” Master paused his laughter just long enough to let out that taunt.

Unfortunately, I fell for it and tried to retort before I realized what I was doing.

If it were possible to kill someone with laughter, you would certainly have escaped by now.

I held my tongue, settling instead for a glare directly at Master’s mirthful face.

This didn’t have the effect I wanted, though, as instead of his head burning away from eye lasers, he just looked at me, then turned away.

“I’ll let you go and talk to yourself now, little horsie. The rest of the chalice should be ready in a few hours.”

He turned, away, then started walking away. At the last moment, he stopped and turned his head towards me, looking at me for some reason. He didn’t say anything though, and he left after a few seconds.

Well, you got any ideas?

I glared at the air in front of my forehead.

Oh, right. I can still understand you, even if your voice is... Different. It really depends on what you intend to say, not the actual words.

“Wait, so you can understand this?

Loud and clear. If anything, he just did us a favor. Now you can talk to me all you want, and he won’t be able to hear our plans.

“Be that as it may, we should get this fixed as soon as possible. It’s humiliating!” I paused for a moment, before continuing, “Speaking of plans, what should we do about getting out?”

I think that the levitation idea is a good one. Maybe we should try a different way about getting things to move.

“What do you think went wrong with the banana?”

I think that the push I gave the banana caused for it to become excited, and thus hot, to the point where the water inside evaporated and tried to escape. We may want to go about a less direct way about it instead.

A less direct way to move an object? That could work.

“Maybe instead of trying to push it, we could try pushing air into a sort of platter and use that!”

The air would probably become immensely hot, to the point where trying to get it to hold a shape would melt the walls.

Okay, maybe not that then.

“Perhaps we could somehow get whatever force caused the heat to hold a shape and surround the object with that.”

I have no idea if that’s even possible, and it would take far too long to figure it out.

“In that case, why don’t we just try breaking the lock?” I grumbled, irritated that none of my ideas were working.

That might work, actually. Horses have really strong kicks, right? Try that.

Well, it was worth a shot. I doubt Master would leave me in a room with a weak lock, but it was entirely possible. I walked across the cell, then aimed myself at the little metal box, then turned my head. Was this really a good idea? What if I hurt myself or something?

If you don’t try, then I’ll be dead, and possibly you as well. Do it!

Arcana was right, Master probably wouldn’t keep me alive after he got his immortality. I steadied myself, took a deep breath, then bucked.

The effect was immediate, in two ways. First, I heard a loud clang, then a creak, so I assumed the door was open now. The second was that the hoof that hit the metal hurt a lot now.

“Ow ow ow ow ow...” I let out, hopping around on three legs like a trio of clowns trapped in an extra large straightjacket on pogo sticks. Then I realized that I should probably be making a break for it now, and ignored the pain while I shot out of the cell.

Once I was out of the cage, I looked around, looking for the best means of escape. To my left was a long hallway with bizarre blue torches that shed watery light, leading to a stairway down. Probably not where I wanted to be, as from what I could tell, the prison was underground. I swung my head the other way, eyes focusing on anything that moved. There didn’t seem to be any guards at the moment, which meant that Master had probably taken whoever was assigned to me somewhere. Maybe to try and figure out what it was I was plotting against him, though that would probably be unneeded after the bang of the lock’s destruction. That brought me back to the world, and reminded me to look for a way out.

The other way down the hall was lit by the same torches, but led instead to a soft curve that passed beyond my view. A curve that, most importantly, had rapid footsteps rushing down it.

They’re coming! Hurry down the other way!

WIth that I shot down the other way, clattering hoofsteps noisily echoing down the tunnel. When I reached the stairs, though, I uselessly tried to stop and avoid falling. I tumbled down for a few seconds, before coming out of it rolling onto my hooves. I stumbled a bit, but continued running.

The torches on the walls seemed to be of a different color now, more a sinister purple than a cool blue. Perhaps this was merely an indicator of depth, perhaps it meant something more significant. This tunnel seemed much longer, and I let my mind slip into the rhythm of running. On and on I went, the bricks of the walls blurring into grey lines as I ran past them. I kept running until I could no longer bear the pain in my hoof. After a second or so of failure to decelerate properly, I crashed into the ground, tumbling over and over until finally I stopped, panting wildly and feeling my legs shake with pain as I lay there. I could afford to rest for a minute, I must have been running pretty fast; it would take them a little while to catch up.

What are you doing? They will catch up in moments! Get off of the floor!

I groaned, then tried to lift myself up. Unfortunately, trying does not equal succeeding, as I discovered in this case. My legs felt like they were made of lead, hot, hot lead that hurt. I tried again; no such luck. I tried again, harder this time. My legs twitched a little.

This is bad, really bad. It looks like you’ve worn yourself out completely. We need to find some way to hide so you can recuperate or something.

“No, I just need,” I paused, trying to push myself up once more, “to get off of the ground. We gotta get away from Master,” I said, strained from trying to mentally beat my legs into working with insults. Why wouldn’t these stupid things work? I needed something to help me get out of this mess, anything! Heck, if my obnoxious neighbor with his constant yardwork showed up, I would be more than pleased. I’d never judge him for his skirting the line of noise pollution laws again.

It looks like there is some sort of branching hallway to your right, a ways up the path you’re on. See if you can get up, then head for it.

“That can wait a little, I think my legs are feeling a little better. Maybe I can stand if I wait a while longer,” I reasoned, hoping to whatever deities that may or may not exist that Master wouldn’t catch up very soon. He wasn’t an athletic man, so running as fast as I did would be very hard for him to pull off, and he certainly could not for as long. At least, I hoped so. It seemed that he had been hiding a lot of stuff from me. I had never seen that disturbing, evil side of him before, who knows what he could have been capable of? I had to get away from him as soon as possible, even if it meant making my legs hurt even further by walking on them more. It would have been helpful if the ground wasn’t the same hard brick the walls were, though. Ponies were certainly not built for running on stone.

        After a minute or so of laying on the ground, I decided to try again. It seemed that at least a minimal level of energy in my legs had been restored, for I was actually able to get off to a slightly shaky standing stance.

Are you feeling better now? We should really get moving.I didn’t respond, I didn’t need to.I took a shaky step forward. My hooves still hurt, but they were usable now. As soon as I could confirm I hadn’t ruined my ability to make coordinated movement due to overusage of my brand new limbs, I started moving. The little opening in the otherwise flat wall was close now, so I could see that the inside of it was just as strangely lit as the light outside of it. The light was a peculiar shade of pink this time, instead of the violet of the magical torches outside of it. I wondered briefly as to why he used torches in the first place, as most of Master’s castle was lit using industrial lamps set into the ceiling.When I peeked into the branching hallway, I could see that it didn’t go too far. It was significantly tighter than the passage I had been running through, but not small enough to induce claustrophobia. The fact that I was several feet shorter now probably helped with that.When I had gone a little ways into the hallway, I realized that the torches were getting fewer and farther between. This, logically, was causing for the light to get worse and worse. As a responsible person, I promptly sat down to consider the possible dangers that may have been down there.Fortunately, I couldn’t think of any. Shrugging weirdly as a result of being a quadruped, I stood up once more to continue walking. After a few seconds of walking only slightly slowly, I came across a dead end. A slight display of despair crossed my mind and face, for I feared that I would not be able to find another possible escape route in time. However, Arcana had other ideas.Wait. He wouldn’t have created this hallway for nothing, would he? There may be something concealed here. Can you reach one of the torches? We should shed some light on this matter.I could not, in fact, reach any of the torches, as was revealed by several attempts to jump up and grab it. Defeated once more by my short stature, I went back to the dead end, in hopes of finding another way of possibly identifying a way through. Perhaps there would be a hidden door? Even if there was seemingly nothing to be found there, I would have to keep trying at it. I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Something did seem a little off about the wall at the dead end, though. Perhaps this wouldn’t be the end for me.Kick it.“What?” I asked in surprise, not sure of what Arcana was talking about.Kick the dead end. Not too hard, in case it really is a dead end, but I suspect it might be a false wall. See where the walls meet? You can see the slight difference in texture. Now that Arcana had said that, the difference in the walls became obvious. there was a faint white undertone to the whole thing, and it looked as if it were dustier than the rest. Whatever it was made from, it was not the same as the walls around it, despite looking so similar.Stop thinking about it and just kick it already. We’re wasting time here.“Are you sure? I don’t think my hoof has recovered yet,” I said, grimacing at the thought of another hard collision with a solid object.After a strangely long pause, Arcana replied, her voice quiet.Do you want to escape or not? I can understand that you might be reluctant to get away from your master, but there isn’t anything left for you there. He’s different from before, he’s no longer a friend. Even if you have lingering feelings, we need to save ourselves before we can do anything else. We need to live, if only to warn others of his treachery. Come on, kick the wall. We’re going to have to take a few chances if we’re going to get out of here.“Arcana, I-”Save it. We can discuss it when we’re safe. For now, kick the wall.I kicked the wall. The wall, which was now revealed to be made of plaster, now had a pony-sized hole in it. Unlike the hall behind me, the area behind the wall didn’t have any of the fancy magical pink torches in it. It was totally dark, aside from the light that got in around me. After being momentarily stumped my my predicament, I had a small stroke of genius. I pulled my head back out of the hole, then reared up and performed a strange sort of punch at the wall. This was actually effective, and another hole appeared above the one I had already made. The light that came in through it was brighter, so I could actually slightly see the room beyond a little. It was much bigger than the hallway, but not too big for me to see the other side. The walls, the flooring, and the ceiling were all the same well sealed stone bricks that the rest of the dungeons were made of. It was difficult to see anything on the other side, though, so I punched the plaster a few more times.Across the large, circular room, which was entirely empty aside from dust and a small pedestal in the center, a smallish hole was dug. It looked like it would have been uncomfortable to go through for my old stature, but perfectly fine for me as I was now.However, my attention was not long on the hole in the wall, for the pedestal in the center drew my attention. It wasn’t made of the same stone as the floor it stood on, it looked more akin to rusty steel. The light was still too dim to make out the details, so I walked into the room and approached the center.Upon closer inspection, the rusty platform was just a rusty platform. However, there was a couple of tools on it. One was a telescope, one was an old oil lantern, and the other was a short spear. I didn’t have any use for the telescope or spear, so I pushed them aside to inspect the lantern. It obviously hadn’t been used in years, it looked ancient. However, I could still see the wick intact inside, and the oil was probably still there too. It would be perfect for exploring that hole in the back of the room, but I didn’t have any matches or anything I could use for it.However, I did have a smarter mind inside of my less smart one, who I could consult for matters like these.“Hey Arcana, can you think of any way to light this?” I asked.I don’t see how you don’t. Here, I’ll do it now.Suddenly, my horn was aglow with yellow light. I felt a gentle pushing sensation, and the wick started glowing red. Within seconds, it burst into flame, flooding the room with yellow light. With a nod of gratitude for Arcana’s help, I got a little closer to the lantern, then picked it up with my mouth.With that, I got down from the platform and made my way to the hole in the wall. Upon close inspection, it appeared to have been dug using a drill from the other direction. This was most likely a good thing, for that would mean there was an entry point for the driller, and an escape route for me. With my hopes high and a light to guide my way there, I walked into the tunnel.

After what must have been hours of walking through the long, twisty tunnel, I finally reached what was either an abnormally flat dead end, or an exit sealed off with plaster. After a couple of headbutts, which managed to poke a nice hole to see through in the wall, I found that the tunnel lead directly to the storage facility of Master’s castle.I was behind a couple of boxes, with a couple of yards to spare. Were I still human, I would have scolded myself for leaving so much wasted space behind the boxes. As it was, though, I was quite thankful for my own oversight.That didn’t mean I had any idea as to how to escape from the prison of boxes I was in, though. The boxes were stacked high, and were probably full of dangerous, volatile magical materials. I never really asked what Master stored in the boxes. He always told me when to be careful with them, and that was all I needed.Look, over to your right. you might be able to squeeze out from between those two boxes.I nodded, then walked over to it. She was right, there was a nice, narrow passage that I could fit through. The warning signs were a little worrying, but I fit down it just fine. Once outside of the second secret passageway, I found myself in the main hallway of the storage facility. The lighting was back to the familiar industrial fluorescent lights that I had spent the past twelve years of my life working under. I had no time to bask in their brilliance, though, because now that I knew where I was, I needed to formulate a plan to get out of Master’s castle.The most obvious route would be through the work area that was just a couple hundred feet away, because the entry hall and gate tunnel was just past it. For that matter, the only way to get to the main entrance from here was through the work area. However, if Master wasn’t already sending guards to chase me through the tunnel, then he would have them on alert throughout the castle. I would have to be careful, and not let any of them see me. If they did, I could count on having dozens of darts in my rear and a place in the dungeons again.With that in mind, I slowly, sneakily walked towards the way into the workroom, only to stop after a few steps. I had forgotten, stealth would be impossible on the concrete floors of the castle.“Well, in that case,” I murmured to myself, then took off at speeds that would make an elephant proud. Moving stealthily was impossible because of the loud noise my hooves made on the concrete, but moving quickly was certainly within my grasp. I shot through the workroom, alarming several assistants that were preparing a table for something.“Stop that horse!” one of them cried out, before realizing that neither he nor his colleagues could catch me, stopping, and running off while screaming, “I’ll get the guards! Keep it here until then!”Unfortunately for him, I barreled right through the skinny other two like they were nothing. I laughed as I ran for a moment, though it was hard to breathe and laugh at the same time. I kept moving anyway, even when I felt a weird stinging pain in my leg as I left the room.Now I was in the entry hall, the only room in the work area of the castle that used prettier lighting than the industrial lamps. There were three golden chandeliers here, illuminating everything with fake green candles. The entry hall was long and straight, the only object in the way of my gallop was the unmanned receptionist’s desk at the front. I ran around it easily, now the only thing between me and freedom was the gate tunnel.The gate tunnel was a hundred foot long tunnel occupied by three state-of-the-art gates. The first one I had to go through was the safe gate, a massive, 3 foot thick metal door that would normally be used to guard a bank. Fortunately, it was designed to keep things out, not in. I just had to pull the giant level and it opened.The second gate was a little more complicated. It was less of a gate and more of a giant doorway. Once I went through that, the whole facility would know where I was, if they didn’t already. It didn’t matter, I went through it anyway. Air raid alarms immediately started blaring, letting the whole castle know that there was an ‘intruder’ that got past the second gate.The third gate was a massive, heavy door that was very well disguised from the outside. I would have to open it from the control box on the side.The controls were simple, two buttons, one for open, one for close, and the key was already in the lock. I pushed the green open button, and the huge door started creaking open.Suddenly, the door past the first gate slammed open. Eight guards, all armed with tranquilizer guns streamed in, followed by Master, who was red in the face and looking terribly out of breath. I had to hesitate for a moment before I could push the ingrained impulse to help him away.A second later, after Master had caught his breath, he yelled out to his guards.“After her! Catch that unicorn!”I, of course, did not hesitate to spin around and shove myself through the hole that was barely tall enough for me to fit through. If I had been any larger, they would have caught me before I could squeeze through.Outside of the castle was a forest of giant redwoods, with little in the way of smaller trees and bushes. Master had always loved the way that he loved the way that California’s redwood forests looked, so he built his base of operations in the middle of a State park. When I asked him about the issue of park rangers and hikers discovering the castle, he simply laughed and explained that the way he kept the base hidden was by a combination of excellent camouflage, video cameras, and the fact that nobody would be looking for a secret magical underground castle in the middle of the forest’s most traversed area. Hiding in plain sight, he called it.However, this also gave rise to another problem. Because I didn’t have access to the camera sentries he had set up in a six mile area around the entrance, there was no way for me to know when an early morning tourist, hiker, park ranger, or worst of all, hunter, would be near me. I would have to get away from the camera-covered are as fast as I could, while also avoiding detection by any other people walking by.It wouldn’t be an easy task, but I had Arcana on my side. If I needed, I could try picking up a log or something and set it on fire to deter pursuers. Besides, it would be good for the forest, right? I had read somewhere that redwoods can only reproduce when they are set on fire. Maybe they only scattered their seeds when they knew it was the last hope for their kind?I turned around. The giant First Gate was still slowly opening, the stone and dirt camouflage was incredibly heavy. I had a good half a minute before it would be large enough for them to get through.That meant I had to get going. I quickly scanned the area in front of me, before determining that it wouldn’t matter because of the lack of smaller vegetation anyway. I took off at a run, moving as fast as I could. The ground was less even here than the stone corridor, but it was also softer and nicer on my sore hooves. In the early morning’s darkness, I couldn’t see very much at all. The best I could do was avoid the redwoods and any strange rises or falls in the terrain. I ran and ran, not knowing how far I would need to move to escape the six mile radius area of detection. They would know where I was until I got out, and they would be able to catch up quickly. They didn’t have to run nearly as haphazardly as I was, they could just take the straight path, guided by the technicians in the castle that were following my every step with their cameras. I would have to keep moving and keep moving fast.As I ran, I was startled out of my determined trace by a shout behind me. A quick look over my shoulder blinded me, because of the headlights that were shining in my direction from the Jeep that the guards were chasing me in. A couple of darts whizzed by my head as I looked onwards, revealing that they were also trying to gun me down with tranquilizers. I picked up my speed in response, hoping to reduce their chances of hitting me.This wasn’t enough, though, because they were still gaining on me.As I blasted past a stream, I took a moment to have a sudden, genius idea. If I could cross the stream, they wouldn’t be able to follow me in their jeep. More importantly, though, I would be out of range of the cameras. The six mile area was bordered by several creeks, so if I crossed one I would be free of the guards’ rather unfair advantage.Obviously, I went down to the creek at the nearest opportunity. The stream was deep, but it wasn’t wide. There was a tiny beach on the other side, with an animal trail leading up the steep hill. I wasted no time in leaping into the water, which I quickly came to realize was cold. I could barely move, but the adrenaline going through my system was enough to keep me going.The water at the center of the creek was the deepest, and the fastest. I had to swim hard against the current just to make it to the other side.It was over soon, though, and a few seconds after getting through it I was out of the water and on the other side. I had barely started to climb the trail when I heard a roar, and looked to my side to see the jeep fly over the riverbank and straight into the water. The guards were still shooting at me, and still missing. To my left, I saw a curious skunk suddenly fall over, as a dart hit it in the side. The jeep was in the water and sinking, as the guards scrambled to save themselves from the powerful current, their target forgotten in the blur of self-preservation. I was alright with that.I kept moving, and eventually reached the top of the hill. It was just starting to become daytime, the first streaks of color reaching into the sky, barely visible through the thick leaf cover of the redwoods. I sighed, and started walking. I had a long day ahead of me.

        “Johnson, what’s the status on the hunting party?”“They lost it, Master. She escaped through cunning use of a creek.”“That’s a problem... I expected them to catch her easily. It doesn’t matter, though, she’s possibly the most predictable person on the planet. We should have no problem tracking her down again. Is the Jeep alright?”“Ah, well, if we can get it out of the water, it will be.”“Don’t tell me they tried to pursue her through a stream in a Jeep.”“According to this report, sir, that’s not quite what happened. Apparently they didn’t see the stream until it was too late to keep it from flying into it.”“Bah! Tell them they’re on recovery duty. I will not have my favorite car ruined by such idiocy.”“Right away, sir.”The wizard was angry. Not only had his only known path to eternal life been snatched out from underneath of him, but he had lost his Jeep, too. If he had been born a more spiteful man, he would have ordered the teams to find the unicorn and torture her for this. The Master, though, was not a spiteful man. He always had a backup plan, made just for instances like these. Besides, eternal life could always wait a few weeks. After all, the wizard was not an old man. he still had a good sixty years left on him. Instead, he could go through with the plan he had originally had. Only two newbies had been stripped of their power, but that would be enough to initiate the second phase.The Master stopped walking. He had arrived where he needed to. The hallway had originally been blocked up by plaster, but the idiot unicorn had seen fit to change that. It was alright, though. The platform hadn’t been damaged, and that was the only part that mattered. The wizard reached over to the platform, stopping only inches from the old steel. A horrible grin adorned his face, the grin found on all evil men when the ultimate power is within their reach.He touched the steel, then muttered something under his breath. The metal started to glow red.“Let today be remembered,”The platform started to fold into itself.“As the day that Naster Smith,”The platform was now in the shape of a giant drill.“Changed the world.”The drill plunged into the stone below it, sending sparks flying and causing a powerful, terrible sound that was not quite strong enough to drown out the maniacal laughter coming from the man standing before the glowing hole.