“We’re almost there.”

Papyrus pointed in the distance at a rocky spire that stood like a strange monument built at nature’s whim, the only remnant of an ancient volcano now collapsed and drowned in the wetlands. The peak was barely covered by vegetation, keeping most of its original black coloration and with the ongoing drizzle, the whole scene looked even drearier than it should.

“Stone Mane dug his tower in this rock. I guess he really was into the gloomy wizard theme.” Papyrus chuckled a little, but his smile disappeared as his laugh quickly turned into a noisy cough. He hacked and wheezed, clutching his chest in pain, making Nuage hurry to support the old pony as he wobbled on three legs, his whole body shaking with each cough.

After almost a whole minute, he calmed a little bit but every breath he took produced a crackling noise that made Nuage frown in worry. After clearing his throat for a long while, he spat a disgusting glob on the ground.

Nuage goaded the panting pony into sitting down, still holding him with her talons.

“Damn it,” he said between breaths. “I’m really falling apart...“ He groaned as he struggled to control his respiration, still enduring the pain in his lungs. “I don’t know how much time I have left, but it can’t be very long.”

After a few minutes, he tried to stand up on shaky legs. Nuage pushed him down.

“Don’t force yourself, master... You shouldn’t have made all this way on hoof in the first place.”

“I’m not dead yet ! I can still...” He tried to stand up. “... walk.” His legs buckled and he would have fallen to the ground if it hadn’t been for Nuage’s quick reflexes.

“Damn it all !”

She held him down and looked softly in his eyes. “Let me carry you, master.”

He watched her with a surprised expression for a few moments but eventually sighed and nodded. Nuage lowered herself on the ground in front of him. Slowly, the old stallion dragged himself and clambered on her back.

Once his front legs were wrapped around her neck, she stood back up and started walking in the direction of the black peak. Nuage could feel his chest slowly going up and down with his ragged breath and Papyrus leaned his head against her neck as he made himself comfortable in her feathers.

She kept staring straight forward to hide her blush.

“Thank you, Nuage.” His voice was a quiet whisper. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

She froze, her eyes widening as his words sunk in.

She was the one in power. She could decide if his plans would fail or not...

“What’s wrong ?” he asked from behind her.

Nuage took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

“Some say that emotions lead to errors in judgement and that focus is achieved by getting rid of them. This is an unfortunate misconception. Emotions are a part of all of us and cannot be truly eliminated. Instead, one should learn to control and use them.

If you love your master, use that affection to push yourself into pleasing him.

If you admire your master, bring yourself to be worthy of serving him.

If you fear your master, let that feeling drive yourself to be irreproachable.

If you hate your master, spite him by being perfect in every way and not giving him any good reason to criticize you.

Your duty should not come at the cost of everything else. Everything else should be used to fulfill your duty.”

Nuage stopped as she finally reached the base of the spire. From up close, it stood like a black, jagged fang in the middle of the land.

“There are lots of entrances,” Papyrus said from his perch on her back. “Lots of tunnels, both natural and artificial, the place is a real maze... The lower levels are not too dangerous as long as you don’t get lost, but higher inside there are some really nasty magical defenses.”

He shifted around a little. “Stone Mane must have been paranoid. He dug dozens of tunnels as emergency exits, oubliettes, dead ends... He set up hundreds of traps and made them so durable that most of those are still working today.”

Nuage craned her head to look at him over her shoulder. “Will you be able to deactivate them ?”

“I’m sure I will. My body may be weak but my magic is still strong. Walk around, we should find a tunnel soon enough.”

Nuage nodded and started moving, looking for an entrance.

The slight slope leading to the peak prevented water from pooling in this place too much and made the terrain less spongy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of an improvement, as it became slippery instead. With careful steps, the gryphoness eventually reached a small opening in the rocky wall, but when she approached the entrance, Nuage realized that it was barely big enough for her to crawl in.

“This passage is too low,” she said. “We should find another one.”

“No, it’s fine. Let me down.”

“You shouldn’t-”

“Let me down. I’m telling you it’s fine.”

“I...” She sighed. “Yes, master.”

Nuage lowered herself to let Papyrus climb down and he walked ahead, using his magic to illuminate the dark tunnel. The old unicorn only needed to lower his head to fit inside, but she had to squeeze herself to follow.

"I can barely fit, master,” she said, exhaling all the air out of her lungs to gain a little extra space around her chest. “If this is a dead end, I'll be stuck in here."

Papyrus went a little further and called back. "Don't worry, the tunnel gets bigger around here."

Trying not to lose all of her feathers on the walls, Nuage followed him and allowed herself a big gulp of air when she reached the wider part of the cave. It wasn't roomy, but enough for her to stand normally. And as much as a tight cave was not ranking high on her list of favorite places to explore, at least they were out of the rain now.

The two walked further in the eerie green light of Papyrus's magic. The cave was mostly silent, only their footsteps resonating on the black stone walls along with the dripping of some rainwater seeping inside. Even with that humidity, the tunnel was surprisingly devoid of life, though : no plants, not even moss or lichen dared to grow inside.

As Nuage lifted her eyes a little, she noticed that the ceiling looked relatively smooth, but not because it had been carved that way. Instead, it seemed that the rock had melted, leaving countless tiny stalactites where the stone had dripped like wax off a candle. She checked the walls and saw similar traces of rock being melted and deformed as if it had been as soft as clay or soap.

“Impressive, isn’t it ?” Papyrus had seen her checking the cave and was watching Nuage with a smirk.

She nodded. “How come this tunnel looks...”

“Melty ?” he finished for her. “It’s a lava tube. An eruption pushed all the magma outside, leaving this section hollow.”

“A volcanic eruption ?”

“Yes, but don’t worry, this volcano has been extinct for eons. You won’t even find a hot spring around here.” Papyrus turned around and resumed walking. “All that’s left of it is that rock spire and all those tunnels.”

The two went through the cool tunnels for a while, until they reached a branch where another tube connected to the first one. Nuage waited while Papyrus seemed to examine them.

“Do you know the way, master ?” she asked after a while.

“Not precisely. I’ve been in these caves a few times before, but there are too many tunnels to remember or even to map. All I know is that we need to go up.”

Nuage approached the fork, checking each tube but finding no signs indicating which one to take over the other. She was about to give up when something caught her attention to the left tunnel. She took a few steps in to make sure.

“Did you find something ?” Papyrus asked from behind her.

Nuage breathed in the air coming from the tunnel. “I smell ponies in that direction,” she said, taking another whiff. “The odor is faint, but I am sure that several ponies have been through that tunnel.”

Papyrus hummed in thought. “I know that some ponies use these tunnels when they need a place to hide. Between the labyrinthine setup and the traps, no one in their right mind would go look for them here.”

“So, do we follow their tracks ?”

He hummed in thought while tapping a hoof to his chin, then nodded.. “With a little luck, they will lead us further inside the spire. Yes, let’s go.”

Nuage took the lead, following her sense of smell through the caves and picking up on more and more scents as they progressed, identifying at least five different ponies. Papyrus and her eventually reached a crude wooden ramp leading to a higher tunnel.

“They’ve been doing construction in here ?” Papyrus wondered aloud. “Whoever is living in these caves is planning to stay.”

“I can smell a lot of different ponies,” Nuage said with a frown. “There might be a whole herd in here.”

Papyrus simply shrugged. “The more, the merrier. Keep going.”

Nuage eyed the rickety ramp. It was made of a couple of slender tree trunks and some branches tied up between them with thin rope. Not willing to try if the thing could hold the weight of a full-grown gryphoness, she hovered above it while Papyrus walked up cautiously. Following the upper tunnel, the two soon spotted some light coming from a cave further down. The old mage let the magic on his horn faze out and nodded forward. Nuage acquiesced and stepped as quietly as she could.

The tunnel led to a small opening on a rather large room below and she crouched on the perch to look down discreetly. Judging by the few pickaxes and scaffoldings laying around, this area had been carved quite recently. A few torches gave a flickering light on crates, barrels and sacks stacked in one corner. In another, a few crude mattresses were set up, along with a table and some seats. The small camp was deserted at the time, though.

“I don’t see anypony, master.”

Papyrus snuck beside her and observed the cave too.

“A whole encampment ? What are those ponies doing in here ?”

“Should we check it out ?”

“Hmmm... Yeah, I don’t want any bad surprises while we’re here. Let’s see who those ponies are.” He gave the small ridge leading to the bottom a wary glance and shook his head. “Carry me down.”

Nuage nodded and flew above Papyrus to take him in her arms until they landed below. While he made his way to the living area and checked a few papers laying about, she headed for the stacks of crates to examine their contents. She opened them one after another, finding nothing but grain in all of them.

Nuage stopped in front of the fourth opened crate and scratched her head, wondering why anypony would go to the trouble of settling this hiding spot, only to store regular corn inside. She dug her talon in the grain absentmindedly, enjoying the feeling of the grain sliding between her digits.

She frowned as she felt something soft and furry against her hand. After a little digging, Nuage pulled out a pelt, then another and another... She recognized snow-white ermine fur, mink, foxes and a few others that she wasn’t familiar with.

“What did you find ?” Papyrus asked her from the other side of the cave.

“Fur. Lots of fur.”

“Really ? Let me see that.”

Nuage stepped aside to let him check out the crate’s contents. He levitated a few pelts in front of him, giving them a curious look. “Those look genuine.”

“Why are those here ? Gryphons often wear fur, but I’ve never seen a pony do.”

“That’s because it costs a fortune. Hunting animals for fur is illegal in Equestria so it has to come from overseas. Then, the huge taxes make the prices go sky-high.” Papyrus went to another crate, digging in with his hooves. “The ponies living here are certainly smugglers. There’s a good profit to make with those skins, if you have the right contacts.”

Nuage walked to another box, plunging her talons inside. This time, she felt something hard under the grain and grinned when a bottle came out in her hand.

“Look, master !” She showed her catch proudly. “Aiglevin !”

“Is that gryphon alcohol ? Yeah, that costs a fortune too.”

“In Equestria, yes,” Nuage answered. “Back home it’s not that expensive. It’s been years since I’ve had some,” she said, already salivating and watching the liquor with gleaming eyes.

If those ponies were smugglers, Nuage reasoned that taking a bottle from them wouldn’t be a problem... “Stealing from a thief is not stealing.”

With her sharp talons, she quickly cut the wax sealing at the top of the bottle to reveal the cork. She pinched it in her beak while she held the bottle with her hands and with practiced ease opened the bottle with a familiar “pop”.

“Do you want some, master ?”

Papyrus approached the opened bottle and grimaced. “That thing smells weird.”

Nuage brought the bottle near her beak. She smelled the familiar scent of strong alcohol, mixed with the sickly sweet smell of dozens of mountain herbs and flowers. “It smells good,” she finally said. “I mean, it’s supposed to smell like that.”

“I don’t know, it’s like... medicine.”

“Maybe, but it tastes good. Are you sure you don’t want to try ?”

“I’ll pass,” Papyrus answered while waving a hoof and left to check another crate.

Nuage shrugged and lifted the bottle in the air. “À votre santé !”

She took a quick sip, enjoying the sweet herbal taste and the strong burn of the alcohol, then plugged the cork back in and tied the bottle to her belt. After all, who knew when she would have a chance to get another one ?

“Alright I’ve seen enough,” Papyrus declared after a few more minutes of searching. “These smugglers don’t seem to have anything magic-related, so they must stay away from the higher levels.” He craned his neck to look around the cave until he spotted a tunnel going up. “Let’s move, these ponies are of no importance to us.”

Nuage nodded and flew him up to the next tunnel.

Nuage and Papyrus progressed slowly through the complex of caves. Having no real direction to follow except “up”, half of the time the tunnels they chose were dead ends, forcing them to go back and try new ones.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Papyrus froze and held a hoof to stop Nuage. She watched him for a moment, but since he gave no explanation, asked him what was wrong.

“We’re getting closer,” he said. “I can sense some magic traps around. Stay behind me and watched where you put your hooves. Claws.”

“Yes, master.”

“This should be easy now. We just have to head for where the defenses are the tightest.” Papyrus checked that the device on his head was properly in place. His horn glowed brighter for a few seconds and he walked ahead.

They kept advancing like this for a while, Papyrus stopping here and there to detect and disarm traps, Nuage simply following obediently while the old unicorn chose which way to follow thanks to his magic.

She frowned when they reached another dead end.

“Did you pick the wrong tunnel, master ?”

“You know, I thought a gryphon would be able to think in three dimensions...” He pointed up with a hoof and Nuage followed it with her eyes to find an opening in the ceiling.

“I’m a gryphon, not a bat,” she said under her breath while he snickered softly. “I’m not used to caves.”

After a quick flight, they continued their journey on the upper level. Papyrus had to stop more often, most likely to disarm the traps, although all Nuage could see was his horn shining brighter from time to time.

It felt like they had been wandering in those dark tunnels for hours, but the gryphoness could do nothing except trust her master to find the right way in there. They stopped again at a sort of crossroads where several tunnels met. Papyrus seemed to check each one, pointing his horn in their directions before picking one.

His face suddenly contorted in a grimace as he clutched his chest. He fell to his knees and the light flickered on his horn while he was shaken by a new coughing fit.

Before Nuage had time to react, a set of glyphs shone in bright green on the walls. She heard a sound like a small detonation in one tunnel, followed by a similarly green cloud rolling towards them.

“What is-”

“Acid !” Papyrus managed to shout between coughs. “Run !”

A flash of green magical light. Everything went dark.

“Master ?”

No answer. Despite her best efforts, Nuage couldn’t see anything in the pitch-black cave.

“Master !”

Still nothing. She activated her enchanted gauntlet, the shield spell giving her a faint light.

A wall of sickly green vapour was ready to swallow her.

Nuage screeched and turned around to run. Papyrus had teleported himself somewhere and hopefully he was safe but for now, she had to take care of her own safety. She jumped in the air and flapped her wings, keeping her shield spell active to give herself a little light. Nuage flew almost at random : between the darkness and the acid cloud flowing behind her, she had no time to plan her path carefully. Luck alone kept her in the tunnels Papyrus had already cleared out.

Her luck eventually ran out when Nuage found herself dodging a fireball, flying dangerously close to the ceiling. She realized that she was going in the wrong direction and turned around. The cloud had slowed down, simply because the volume of the caves was more than it could fill, but it wasn’t stopping yet. Worse, it was too late to turn back.

With muttered curses, Nuage headed straight into the trapped tunnel, hoping that fate would let her keep her life. The traps activated one after another as she sped through. Maybe because they hadn’t been designed to stop a gryphon barrelling down the cave, they missed her. Bolts of magic and balls of fire flew wide around her, only a few requiring Nuage to deflect them with her shield.

At this rate, the cloud of acid would be easy to outrun, then she could wait until it finally dissipated.

A group of glyphs glowed white on the walls as yet another defense activated. Nuage raised her shield in front of her face.

She found herself tetanized, her whole body painfully stiff when lightning hit her.

Nuage crashed on the ground, unable to move and struggling to catch her breath. Thankfully, the electrical shock didn’t last, but her muscles remained unresponsive for a few seconds. She flopped like a fish on the ground, trying to get back to her feet.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw the green cloud still approaching, rolling on the ground like sentient smoke pursuing her. Her legs still refused to answer her commands.

The cloud reached a feather she had lost on the ground a few meters back. Nuage saw it liquefy and boil in the acid, making her eyes widen in fear. She may have been prepared for death, but the agony that was awaiting her in that cloud was another thing...

Nuage forced her limbs to respond. Twitching and shaking, she managed to stand up and crawl away.

Her shield illuminated the cloud gaining on her. She forced her legs to work, not trusting her stiff wings yet.

With a faint hissing sound, the tuft of hair at the tip of her tail was attacked by the acid. She screamed in fright and picked up the pace.

A black rocky wall stood in front of her. Her heart was beating like a drum. Did she run out of tunnel ?

In the ground, she saw an opening to a lower level.

With a final heave, she dragged herself to the edge and let herself fall down, spreading her wings to glide in the darkness. A whole minute passed before she touched down.

There didn’t seem to be any traps on this level and the acid cloud would take a while to catch up. She let out a long, shuddering breath as she found herself safe for now.

Nuage sat down and checked herself out. Except for a few hairs lost, she was unscathed.

“Safe,” she thought.

Nuage was alone, in a dark complex of tunnels riddled with deadly traps and no idea on how to get out.

Definitely safe...

Nuage took the amulet Papyrus used as a beacon for teleportation and activated it. After five minutes of watching the metallic disk on the ground in front of her remaining stubbornly inert, she sighed, grabbed it and stood up.

She looked around her, seeing nothing but identical tunnels everywhere. Nothing but darkness and shadows, no indication as to where she should go...

Nuage snorted and plucked one of feathers. She placed it on the ground to mark the direction of a tunnel she had picked randomly and walked ahead with a determined scowl.

“Il en faudra plus pour m’arrêter.”

Author's Note

-_- One week to write under 4k words...

I blame Steam sales !