Hearts and Hooves Day

MacIntosh Hills

Chapter 18: MacIntosh Hills

The view above Ponyville from this hot air balloon at 4,000 feet was a sight to behold. I can clearly see some ponies wondering around the streets while fireflies got into position to stimulate light inside the street lamps. As for human residents, I barely saw any. Thankfully for one thing: the Weather Patrol Team made the night skies extremely cloudy, which makes seeing the balloon from below impossible and I don't see my Earth Brothers anywhere, not even standing near the Bowling Alley entrance which Discord and I passed by eight minutes ago. Hopefully, I can get to the place on time right after my trip to MacIntosh Hills.

Once we were out of Ponyville's town limits, the balloon ascended straight into the clouds just to use more camouflage. As this was happening, I began to tell my story to Discord about my encounter with Daryl, Cadance not being helpful, and Twilight taking me to Dodge City. I had to let him know that on what were getting into will probably be enough evidence to make Daryl Blackburn face justice.

“...And then Xavier and the Twins were like 'You better show up' and I was all 'fine'.” I explained to Discord as I concluded my whole exposition of what happened as of late. All Discord did was bring a small folding chair out of nowhere and a bag of stale popcorn.“And here we are traveling to the one place where the answers can be found. You get all that?”

The only kind of response I got from the lord of chaos were his eyes grew wide like dinner plates, follow by a few blinks. “...And...you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes, I do.” I replied as I stood by the edge of the basket, overlooking the skies form below. “I...I mean...we...have to do this before somepony or someone takes note of us missing. My Earth Brothers were freak out once they began to realize that I am not present at the alley and Fluttershy would be so worried about you, which leads to Angel being infatuated that he kick you out of the cottage.”

Discord gets up from his chair and drops his popcorn. Both items disappear in thin air as he crosses his arms in disgust. “I don't care what that rabbit thinks. I know Fluttershy will forgive me if I do turn up missing or end up getting creamed by an Ice Troll.”

I chuckled a bit. “I bet you can make Angel into wabbit stew and gobble him up just to show him who's boss.”

The dracooneques flinched a bit at my response. “That's...disgusting!”

“Just keeping the conversation flow.”

“You know, Frank. I have a question to ask.”

I turned to him while leaving my view of the skies. “What?”

“If we go to MacIntosh Hills and find any evidence that you predict we'll find, how are you sure we are not going to get caught?”

I raised my eyebrow after hearing those words out of his mouth. “...Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Discord went on, “What if we bring our so called discovery to Princess Cadance, Princess Twilight, Shining Armor, and everypony in the Royal Family and the R.A.S; and they ask us on how we got to MacIntosh Hills, how are we going to explain it to them that we didn't get permission?”

...Shit. Discord has a point on that! No written permission from royalty equals severe punishment! What will happen to me...er...to us? A trip to the dungeon? Banishment to Everfree Forest? I just never thought about the Princesses confronting me about this.

“Uhh...”I shrugged. “...we can...ummm...don't wo...look! I...I'll...I'll think of something, okay! Lets just worry about MacIntosh Hills.”

Discord frowned upon response. “Honestly, Frank. Could you be a lot more accurate?”

“I will once we land.” I go back to the edge of the balloon to see the ground below again. “And speaking of that, I think we are approaching our destination.”

Straight down below the clouds, the both of us can see the same exact snowy mountain range that I saw from last night, that being the Ice Troll infested MacIntosh Hills. I instructed Discord to descend the balloon as a I searched for a safe spot for landing. Luckily, I spotted the area on which I thought about landing earlier during the ride: the same spot where Glow Light communicated with Daryl. The spot was covered with 5ft snow and a few jagged rocks forming near the edge of the cliff. I instructed Discord to lower the balloon to middle of said area. However, high winds above the terrain made a bit a difficult for the lord of chaos to maneuver the balloon close to the ground. For that, I held onto the railing of the basket as the both us braced for impact.

“Carefully set her down, Discord,” I instructed. “A little to the left! A little more!”

Cautiously, Discord sets the balloon down with the basket landing on cold, soft snowy terrain. The howling sounds of the blistery winds filled my ear drums as the rest of my body tries to stay warm with the jacket, hat, gloves, and boots I brought while fighting the coldness around me. Not to mention, feeling a cold shiver going down my spine as snowflakes shower me from above. Finally, I can even see my breath form a tiny cloud with every exhale from my nose and mouth.

“So this is what E.D.N. III feels like.” I said to myself as I released myself from holding the rails.

I got off the basket first while Discord followed last. I took a quick scan on where we are and was pretty sure that this was the spot where Glow Light was. Straight ahead, over the cliff in the dead of night, I can see a tiny western town with a familiar building that Twilight Sparkle and I had been to.

“This is the spot, Discord!” I told the lord of chaos as he magically whips out a cup of hot cocoa out of nowhere and drinks it. “This is where I saw the glint that Glow Light illuminated last night. Somewhere around this area we can find some form of evidence to back up my claims on Daryl.”

Discord sipped his cup. “Shall we get started before I get a frost bite? Not to mention, get back home to see Fluttershy?”

I go to the basket and pulled out two metal detectors and two shovels. I gave one of each to Discord while I kept the other two. “Alright, I'll search near the ridge while you look that way. Find anything, call me or I'll call if I do the same.”

I pointed at the direction going south beyond the basket where there is more sheets of snow and a wall with rocks that leads to the summit of MacIntosh Hills. The dracooneques shrugs and grabs the items I presented to him. He goes ahead and does his inspection while I go to my direction.

I can feel my feet inside my boots began to crave for warmth as every step I took the sheet of snow sank all the way to my shins. The blistery wind coming from the East smashing my face as I brave the cold temperature that came with it. My right gripped tightly on the foam grip while my arm is strapped tightly on the armrest as I shift left to right with every step, with eyes my glued to the LCD screen sending a few readings on what is buried underneath the snow. I'm just hoping it finds a suitable clue that was left behind by Glow Light.

Unfortunately, after scanning my area for about 10 minutes and coming to a dead stop near the ledge of MacIntosh Hills. In the distance, I can see Jubilee's Cherry Hill Ranch with the lights still on. I can easily guess that Daryl is down there working his night shift but has zero idea about what I'm doing right now.

In response, the skin on my face became all scrunched up as I stared in the distance. My memories from last night resurfaced into my mind as it went into repeat mode like a broken record. “Shake hands? I would rather slap the handcuffs on you.”

Another few minutes of looking and I resumed my search.

Twenty minutes had passed and Discord and I searched our assigned areas. Our metal detectors had found nothing underneath the snow, the rocks and boulders; and the ledges. Not even a hoofprint nor a footprint that could lead us to something that could be reliable evidence. Such a waste of time but I wasn't going to give up this easily.

I walked up towards the parked hot-air balloon where Discord was waiting near the basket, sipping another hot cup of hot chocolate. As for his detector and shovel, they were both placed inside the basket.

“Found anything?” Discord asked me, finishing his sip.

“Nope.” I replied. “Not a damn thing.”

“Good! Now, lets pack up and leave. I have to keep with my schedule.”

“Not yet!” I halted him. “Lets do a double check on each other's paths. Maybe one of us had missed something underneath the snow.”

Discord's eyes grew wide in surprise. So much as so that his cup fell out of his hand and splashed all over the snow between his legs. “OH COME ON! I HAVE ICILES HANGING OFF MY WINGS! I CAN BARELY STAND ON THIS LAND OF ICE AND I MIGHT BE CATCHING A COLD!”

“Just another ten minutes.” I insisted as I passed right by him with my metal detector and shovel still in hand. “After that, we can head back home.”

“NO!” The lord of chaos protested, letting my ears picked up the sound of his foot and hoof stomping the snow underneath him. “We're leaving! I had it!”

My mind clicked in alarm and I spun around to witness the dracooneques grabbing hold of the basket and shoving it freely from the snow. “HEYHEYHEYHEYHEY NO! NO! STOP DISCORD!”

“FORGET IT!” He argued. “We're out of this dump!”

“YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE! WE HADN'T FOU...”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The both of us stopped in our tracks when we heard the sound. My metal detector went off as the LCD screen picked up something underneath the former spot of where the basket was. I looked at the screen and was astonished to read the readings on what it discovered.

“Discord,” I said to him still holding the basket. “Get your shovel. Looks like we found our evidence.”

I freed my arm from the metal detector strap, dropped it onto the icy terrain, and grabbed hold my shovel.

VROOM! VROOM!

The sound of a diesel engine caught my attention. I looked up and saw what appeared to be a red excavator that appeared out of nowhere with Discord, wearing a construction worker outfit, piloting the controls inside the cab.

“Let me handle this,” He informed me while pulling a few levers back and forth. “We'll get the job done quicker.”

I took a few steps back and witness the vehicle's boom lower the arm and stick to dig through the snowy terrain. With the hydraulics adjusting due to Discord's lever pulling, the bucket scooped a huge chunk of the frozen blanket. The dracooneques pulls another lever and activates the excavator's swing drive while carrying the snow. The vehicle shifted to the right and dumps a pile of snow to the ground, near the hot-air balloon. With the same lever being pushed, the excavator went back to dig up some more of the same granular material.

“You know, Frank.” Discord spoke as he continues to dig. “You could've thought of it earlier. We could've made our discovery instead of walking around in circles.”

I looked at him with cocked eyebrow. Then, I looked back at the hole he was digging. I didn't want to reply to him because to me, that was one hell of a smartass statement. Okay, well, he got a point on what would've been done earlier but none of us figured that the actual spot was right under the balloon's basket the whole time and I didn't think that a powerful construction vehicle can get the job done quicker if I asked Discord to do it instead of using shovels. We wasted minutes going around in circles when I would've said to search in the middle and then move out to the edge. So, technically I'm the one to be blamed but I can kick myself later for this.

A lot more digging of snow from the excavator and the site itself became 5ft deep. I believe we're getting close to our evidence. When another scoop of ice and snow came up from the bucket, I saw what appeared to be a small, shiny metal object peeking right through the sheet.

“WHOA! WHOA! WHOA, STOP DISCORD!” I yelled out by raising my right hand in the air. Sure enough, Discord heard me and ceased operating the construction vehicle. “I SEE SOMETHING!”

I jumped into the hole, making a small landing thud on the snowbank that left heavy footprints made on my boots. I made my way towards the shiny object and wiped the flakes off to see what it is. What I discovered was quite possible a breakthrough in this investigation: a small padlock being hooked on a metal chain that's buried beneath the snow. Looks like we're almost close to our goal!

“Discord!” I shouted from above. “Mind coming down here?”

I heard from above the sound of the Excavator's engine shutting off and the sound of Discord's wings flapping towards my direction. I looked up and see the dracoonequs descending to my spot as I held my shovel.

“What is it?” He asked me.

I pointed my right hand towards my discovery. “There's a padlock and chain buried here. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that there could be an entrance underneath.”

Discord nods in approval. “So what's your next plan?”

“We can use our shovels and dig carefully through...”

“I HAVE A BETTER IDEA!” Discord exclaimed with a litted light bulb hovering above his head.

“Uh, what?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow. “What do you have that's better than digging?”

“How about instead of digging...WE MELT IT!” Discord said outloud, appearing in a blink of an eye in a TeamFortress 2 Pyro outfit with his Nostromo Napalmer and MK 50 helmet. “Mind stepping back, Frank? I don't want to melt your face.”

He pulls the valve of his weapon and flames shot out of the nozzle towards the snow wall on his right, melting instantly to water. I took his word and stepped back a few feet away as I witness his ongoing process. Well, he got a point on his idea and bringing the shovels along for the ride were a waste. Though, I might as well just keep them if they do come in handy.

Discord shot more flames from the right, to the middle, and to the left in a repeated fashion. The more snow that melted, the more I can see the chains appear. When the snow around our hotspot dissipated to puddles of liquid, my eyes widen in amazement on what was really buried: a set of huge, wooden double doors that measure 8ft tall and 90ft wide.

“Jackpot!” Discord said as he got rid out of his outfit. “We finally uncovered the truth.”

I approach the lord of chaos and stood next to him. “Great job. Now see if you can unlock the chain and not make it as though there was a break in.”

“Say no more.” Discord replied as he snapped his eagle claw fingers and his index finger magically turned into a key. He inserts the key into the lock and easily unlocks it.

With my help, the both of us took the long chain off the door handles and placed them to the side of the doors with the lock. Discord and I bent our knees and proceed to open the right door from the bottom frame. It was bit heavy but we were able to get it off and we did the same to the left.

With the entrance uncovered, a blast of cold wind that was trapped underneath blew our faces. God, was it freezing! Regaining our senses after the blast, we found a set of spiraling stairs that starts from the middle and twists and turns towards the left and to the right to nothing but sheer darkness at the bottom. Unfortunately, Luna's Moon isn't bright enough for us to see what lies at the bottom. Good thing I had a set of glow sticks in the balloon, which can definitely help us out.

“I'll be back, Discord.” I said as began to make the climb out of the site. “Gotta grab something.”

He nods as I began to depart. I climbed up the steep, snowy hill and made it towards the balloon basket where the rest of my stuff is. I reached inside and pulled out the items for our excavation out of the basket: the bag of glow sticks, the two pick-axes, and the two high power torchlights.

“Alright.” I said to myself while holding the gear in my arms. “Time for the next phase.”

I turn myself around and took a few steps towards the hole...only to stop in my tracks. I turned my head back, staring in the distance at a jagged rock formation yards away. Something inside me was telling me that there is someone or somepony behind that formation but I can't tell due to the darkness. Perhaps whatever it is was watching every move that Discord and I had been doing for the past few minutes Another few seconds and I turned my head...to see Discord appear in front of me again!

“GAH!” I yelped, dropping my gear on the snow.

“What's taking you so long?” Discord asked with his arms folded.

Shaking off my freight, I picked up the stuff from the ground. “Nothing...though...I have a hunch that someone or something could be watching us.” I pointed my right finger at the direction to the formation.

The draconeques squints to the direction. Then, out of his bag tricks like always, summons a pair of binoculars to see what I was pointing it. “I don't see anything!”

“Could it be an ice troll hiding beneath there?” I asked.

Discord's yellow eyes exploded in fear and puts a finger from his eagle claw to his lip. “SSSSHHHHHHH!!!!! Don't say that! I don't want to imagine myself on their dinner plate tonight!”

“Calm down, Discord!” I assured him. “We'll be out of here in the next 10 minutes once we checked the caverns below. However, I need you to get it together. Let's go!”

I jumped back into the hole as Discord followed behind, letting his binoculars disappear into thin air. We approached the entrance way as I dropped the gear on my left side; excluding the bag of glowsticks. I took one green glowstick, bend the plastic until the hydrogen peroxide solution and the pheryl oxalate ester with fluorescent dye solution were mixed to give light; and threw it down in the middle of the spiral staircase. Discord and I braced ourselves as we watched the stick continue and continue and continue to descend to the inner depths of the darkness.

And it kept going...

Then...it reached the bottom with an echoing thud!

The both of us looked at each other and then back at the stick down below.

“That's a far way down!” I exclaimed before turning to Discord. “Any chance of you bringing an elevator to help us get down there without using the stairs?”

In an instant, Discord magically brings a mineshaft elevator with a collapsible gate from out-of-nowhere and has it hovering above the opening to the bottom. He looks at me with an expression of being impressed on what I requested. “Thought you never asked.”

I nodded and the both of us went into the elevator. Discord closes the gate and presses the Down button on the panel to the right of the gate as I stood to the left of him. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, I feel a bit anxious on what we could expect to see down below.

We reached the bottom within 8 minutes. If the temperature above ground wasn't bad enough, then nobody, including myself and Discord, would expect the caverns below to be – 20 Degrees Fahrenheit I should worn an extra sweater.

The elevator stopped in the middle of the spiral staircase and in front of the glowstick with it's illuminated light still glowing. The elevator gate opened automatically as the two of us stepped out. Once out of the elevator, I activated my torchlight and scanned the area around us.

“Got nothing but ice walls...” I spoke softly, making sure that I don't raise voice higher for any unexpected surprise within the caverns. I moved my right hand that's carrying the only source of light to the middle after seeing the sparkling, ice walls around the staircase. “However, there's a path straight ahead.”

“Are you sure you want to do this, Frank?” Discord asked, feeling a bit frightened that we were about to explore the unknown.

“I'm not leaving until my theory is correct. Once we have the evidence, then we can head back to Ponyville but that's after we go to Canterlot. Now come on, lets go.”

I lead the way as Discord decided on his own to levitate over the sub-zero floor. Wish I can do that since my feet below were begging for more extra warmth. I said to myself internally that once this is done, I can go to the bowling game where its nice and warm and order hot food as I watch my Earth Brothers play. Just hold on body, this would be over soon.

We made our way to the opening where my torchlight casted an ice covered hallway filled with ice crystals embedded on walls. Perhaps these were the same ice crystals that Glowlight was talking about. However, while investigating this narrow hall, I don't see any sign of digging through the shards of ice for any crystals. How did he get them? Was there another set of doors buried underneath the snow above ground or did the so called Ice Trolls lend it to him? Already, a few minutes into this cavern and I have stumbled upon something that makes no sense.

Discord and I reached the end where we found a wooden double door. I signaled the dracooneques to open it since my hands are occupied. Cautiously, his lion paw reaches for the handle on the left and opens it. Tiny chunks of ice that covered the frame on top fell to the floor making little dinging sounds on frozen floor, follow by another gust of wind that blew in our faces once we got another opening.

With the doors opened, my torchlight casted forward to unveil...a narrow, icy walkway that leads to another set of double doors straight ahead that's 77 feet away. Down below the walkway was nothing more but sheer darkness that can lead to our...er...I mean...my imminent death if I fell off.

“Well...this brings shivers down my spine.” I said to Discord as I try not to get afraid of taking the first few steps on the walkway. “Promise me you'll catch me if I fall.”

“You know me.” Discord replied by placing his eagle claw on his heart. “I will never let any my friends get hurt.”

I nodded as I took a few baby steps on the walkway, hoping that the ice beneath me supports my weight. I kept my eyes looking forward with the torchlight locking onto the wooden frames and keeping an eye on a levitating Discord on my left.

You can do it, Frank. I thought to myself. Just keep your eyes forward and don't look down. Just keep going! Keep going! You're almost there!

Finally, what seemed like almost a decade, we finally reached the other side and approached the doors. I put my light down and reached for the handle. I pushed it down but the door won't budge. I tried again but came to no avail.

“It's locked.” I told Discord. “Any chance of you going to the other side and unlocking it?”

“Of course, I can.” The lord of chaos replied.

The dracooneques materialized into a puddle of liquid and slips underneath the bottom door frame while braving the freezing floor. Once he was out of sight, I waited for him to see if he can unlock the door behind.

“Psst, Frank!” Discord whispered from the other side. “Are you there?”

I pressed my left ear to the door to listen. “Yeah, what's going on?”

“You gotta take a look at this! It's...it's...just bizarre...and...er...uh...I'm lost of words!”

“Well, open up and let me see.”

A few clicks and clacks from behind and the door swung from the inside, revealing Discord holding his torchlight. I stepped inside to see what Discord had discovered and my casted my torchlight to see his discovery.

What I saw in front of me was something I had never seen before. What it look liked was from a popular science fiction move or horror movie or both for that matter. It was covered in green slime from the inside and out with an outer shell cracked on top like something crawled out of it while leaving a slime trail to the darkness beyond. It was almost the size of a Galapagos Tortoise that I remembered seeing at the local zoo in Washington, D.C. More so, it feels like the only thing that could fit inside this thing would probably be a pony or three fillies/foals. To sum it up: it looks like an egg – or better yet – a cocoon.

“What the hell is this?” I muttered.

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