Chapters Prologue: Fury of the Storm
“Do you see these ponies?! Look at them, so thou shall not endure their fate!” The alicorn princess bellowed out over the sea of frightened onlookers. Three stallions were tied to large wooden crosses that had been erected in front of Canterlot Castle.
“Your tyranny will come to an end!” one of the stallions shouted. “You’ll meet the same fate as your sister!”
“Death to Celestia!” another of the captives shouted. The others joined in the chant along with a portion of the crowd. A crash of thunder silenced them and Celestia spread her wings in a display of her massive presence. Her horn glowed yellow with magic and she set the three stallions ablaze. The crowd watched in horror as they burned; screaming until their lungs were ash. The alicorn was escorted back into the castle by a dozen of her personal guards.
Members of the crowd pelted the castle walls with garbage and many fought against the guards. The chaos played out under the moonless sky and many died in the confusion.
Celestia and her guards walked the darkened halls in silence until they reached her private chambers. Without a word or single command, she locked the door behind her, leaving the guards to their patrol duty. The chamber had no windows and was only illuminated by a single torch set into the stone wall. In the center was a pile of silk pillows which Celestia plopped down upon and buried her face into. And she wept.
(What would have been) Three days passed and neither sun nor moon graced the dark sky. The overpopulated Equestria writhed and seethed with corruption; thriving in the absence of light. Society had collapsed long before the death of Luna, but now…
Sins were committed without second though, all taboos had been cast away—incest, murder, cannibalism—every soul fighting for their fill. False idols had been constructed of gold and worshipped in place of the alicorn dynasty. The once tame streets of Canterlot ran red with blood and the guards to the castle were becoming outnumbered.
Even in isolation, Celestia was aware of her kingdom crashing down. A knock came at her chamber door and a frantic royal guard member ran in. “Your Highness!” he shouted, tossing aside his dented helmet, “You must do something! We cannot hold off the attacks much longer!”
“What am I to do?” she asked more to herself than the guard.
“Anything! Please!”
Shouting sounded from the hallway and the guard slammed the door shut as he returned to the battle. The alicorn rolled over to stare at the door, anticipating a rebel to run in and bring an end to her suffering. No such relief came and the sound of hoof beats passed right by her chamber.
Hours passed with no more interruptions and the alicorn was left with only her thoughts for company. She tossed and turned uncomfortably as she wrestled with her options.
You know what must be done.
“There must be another way.”
There is not.
“Even I am not powerful enough to do such a thing.”
You know who is.
She turned the idea away immediately. It made her sick to her stomach to think of such things. Surely she could find another way to salvage the kingdom without having to compromise her integrity.
It is already lost. You know what must be done.
Celestia looked to the lone torch in her chamber and watched as it slowly flickered. She stood and approached the light source slowly. Using her magic, she pulled the torch bracket outward and listened as ancient mechanisms began turning. The wall opened revealing one of the many secret passage-ways of the castle. With one last look at the chamber, Celestia levitated the torch and walked into the darkness.
For the first time in a hundred years, light shone over the draconequus. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up, not sure if what he was seeing was to be believed. “Well my dear Celestia, it has been some time, has it not?”
The alicorn only glared at Discord and remained in the doorway to his prison. The Elements of Harmony glowed very dimly from the six pedestals of the chamber, keeping its chaotic inhabitant restrained. He raised his shackled claw to shield his eyes from the torch light.
“You aren’t still upset about the zombies, are you?” Discord questioned, referring to the reason of his latest imprisonment. “You need to lighten up—it was a game! Games are fun!”
Still the princess said nothing.
“What brings you here, hmm? Shouldn’t you be leading your kingdom right now? Or is it night? Oh! How is your sister?”
In the blink of an eye, Celestia was upon him, pushing her horn right up against his throat. For a tense moment, Discord dared not breathe, fearing the wrath of the Sun Goddess. Her eyes were cold, yet tears were welling up in them.
“Oh,” Discord said, rubbing his neck when the horn was removed from it.
“She was struck down while performing her duty,” Celestia said with her back turned to Discord.
“Well, my dear princess, I can raise the dead, as you know, but I fear your sister’s soul is—”
“Bringing her back would solve nothing,” Celestia interrupted. “Our kingdom—it has changed. I feel there is no good left in their hearts. The things I have seen…I long for it to be over.”
“Ohhhh,” Discord said with sudden realization. “Surely you don’t mean—”
“A deluge.” Celestia said, turning back to face Discord. “I alone am unable to bring forth a flood capable of covering this entire planet.”
“I’m truly flattered you come to me, but I seem to be…a bit tied up right now,” Discord said, indicating to the Elements. “And what would be in this for me?”
“I will grant you your freedom once more,” Celestia offered. Discord rolled his yellow eyes upward in consideration.
“I would like to be ruler of this new, wonderfully chaotic Equestria,” he said at last. Celestia looked at him with scrutiny before slamming his cell shut. Alone in the dark once more, Discord shrugged and prepared to resume his nap. Light once again shone over his face and he opened his eyes to look at the alicorn. Without a word, she undid his shackles and turned for him to follow her. “I’m going to need a crown as well, princess.”
Celestia continued walking into the darkness and Discord floated along side her. They continued through the damp tunnels until they reached the spiral staircase to the main tower. Discord continued floating as Celestia climbed the stairs one by one.
“So I was thinking,” Discord started, taking a pen and notepad from thin air, “chocolate milk?”
Celestia kept her head down and focused on the stairs rather than her companion.
“Or what about puppies? Death by puppies! It will be tragically adorable! No? Hmm.” Discord continued to list off different things to flood Equestria with, all the while Celestia knew exactly what to use. After a dozen failed suggestions, Discord’s notepad disappeared and he hopped on Celestia’s back. “Water is boring; we need to make this apocalypse fun!”
“Water will leave too many survivors,” Celestia said as they reached the top of the tower. An unnatural wind was blowing over the balcony and lightning cracked the sky.
“Hmm. The pegasi don’t seem too happy. What do you intend to do about them?” Discord questioned.
“Just give me your assistance and I will show you,” Celestia said, closing her eyes and flaring her wings. Discord hopped off the alicorn’s back and watched as her horn began channeling all the magic in her being. A column of dark clouds began forming in the sky and swirled directly above the castle.
Discord simply snapped his fingers and Celestia was suddenly imbued with all of his chaotic power. Light erupted from her eyes and horn as she cast the most powerful spell in Equestrian history. When it was complete, she collapsed and Discord held her head in his arms.
“Forgive me,” she whispered into his ear. Her breathing slowed as she slipped into unconsciousness. Discord stood up and waited for something to happen. At first it was just a windy, cloudy night with nothing unusual at all. But then, in the thick of the dark clouds, a light appeared. It was followed by another, and another until it appeared tiny stars were trying to puncture the clouds.
Discord’s ears perked up as he heard an odd noise somewhere up above. A single pegasus burst through the clouds and raced across the sky. Two more followed its path, then a dozen, then hundreds; it seemed as if all of Cloudsdale was suddenly in flight—but why?
Little balls of fire began to fall from the clouds as more pegasi swooped down. Discord squinted and realized the balls of fire were in fact pegasi that had been set ablaze. All at once, a column of molten rock poured down from the heavens. The pegasi broke formation as several more pillars of lava punctured the clouds above them.
“I think I would have preferred the puppies,” Discord said, looking out over the balcony as the sky relinquished hundreds of fiery pillars. He snapped his finger and levitated the limp alicorn behind him as he walked back into the tower.
The fighting below the castle ceased as both guards and rebels stopped to watch the pegasi swarm. “What in Celestia’s name—are we under attack from the pegasi now?!” one of the guards asked. A horribly burnt pegasus crashed to the ground in the courtyard and the earth ponies gathered around.
“Fire…From the sky,” the pegasus croaked out. It held out its charred hoof to the sky with the last of its energy. The earth ponies looked up to see the first pillar of lava breaking through and several pegasi catching ablaze and plummeting to the earth.
Panic ensued, and it became every-pony for themselves in a desperate search for shelter. Both guards and rebels attempted to break the barricades of the castle doors. Some ran, others stood and accepted their fate. As the first pillar touched ground and began spreading out, anything remotely flammable caught fire from the extreme heat.
The lava flowed quickly, engulfing anything in its path. Those unable to outrun the lava were incinerated slowly and painfully. As other pillars touched down there was less and less safe ground to stand on. Those banging on the castle door found themselves cornered, and could only scream as they were slowly enveloped.
-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-
The city ponies all stopped their activities to marvel at the suddenly golden clouds above. What was mistaken as a sign of Celestia’s mercy was in reality a sign of her wrath. As soon as the pegasi bodies began pelting the streets and buildings, realization—and panic—took over. More were killed in the chaos than the purge itself. Ponies climbed over each other to escape the city. Foals were left crying on the ground, chariots were flipped over when there was room for no more, and some simply chose to jump off the tallest building they could find. Few escaped the madness and even fewer made it any further. After several hours, The Storm had wiped out every major city in Equestria. Only the tops of mountains remained as distant islands in the glowing sea. Canterlot Castle, being the highest place in all Equestria, stood as the last thing most of the survivors would see before their islands sunk beneath the fire.
Author's Note
This could easily be a one-and-done fic of its own but I'm setting up the real story to begin with the reader educated as to why there's lava everywhere.
Also, this is pretty much Genesis with ponies and no ark...and lava instead of water.
View Online
Chapter One: Through the Fire and the Flames
It had been three days without the sun and my internal body clock didn’t know what to do. I needed caffeine; just something to keep me awake long enough to get home. I stopped into a place called Shorty’s and slumped over into an empty booth. A few moments passed and the waiter approached me. I ordered my usual black coffee and stared up at the fluorescent light bulbs. The Hoof Beats memorabilia clock above the door struck nine, and one of their hit songs started playing. I couldn’t recognize the song, and I couldn’t tell if it was nine A.M. or nine P.M.
Two burly stallions sat at the counter watching the morning news on a small television set while sipping their coffee. Morning news. It was morning . An aged stallion with a toupe'e faced the screen going over statistics that meant nothing to me. One of the stallions scoffed and the other grunted in agreement.
“Your coffee, sir,” the waiter said, placing my coffee on the table.
“Huh? Oh, thanks.” I rubbed my eyes and took a sip of the hot beverage. An alarm started blaring out in the street and I flinched, nearly spilling my coffee. The stallions at the counter glanced out the window, and when they couldn’t find the source of the alarm, they turned the volume on the television up.
“—and in sports, the Manehatten Manes beat the Red Hooves 6-3. They play again at Manehatten Stadium tonight at seven…Now I’m going to turn it over to Icy Nimbus with the weather forecast—is there any sun in our forecast, Icy?”
“Even if Celestia were to raise the sun, we wouldn’t see it today, Cue Card. Weather Control is moving in a MASSIVE storm front—expect high winds, thunder, lightning, and torrential downpours across most of Equestria.”
I tried to tune out the television, the siren, and just focus on drinking my coffee. The bottom of the cup was nothing but grounds and I swirled the remnants around absentmindedly. The news went to commercial break and the alarm continued blaring. Even with the noise, I found myself nodding off until the short Clydesdale waiter appeared and refilled my cup for me. Now I could see the grounds floating around in the liquid.
“AND THE FIGHTING CONTINUES IN FRONT OF CANTERLOT CASTLE. WE GO TO OUR FIELD REPORTER—”
“Hey! Would you turn that down!” I shouted after one of the stallions decided the television was still not loud enough. He couldn’t hear me so I stood up and approached the counter.
“AS YOU CAN SEE, I’M HERE LIVE IN FRONT OF CANTERLOT CASTLE—”
I grabbed the control away from the preoccupied stallion and smashed down on the volume button. He turned to look at me and stood up—towering a full foot taller than I.
“Wait wait wait! Turn it back up!” the other stallion shouted, still engrossed. I looked at the screen and saw hundreds of pegasi flying across the sky. Small lights were beginning to appear in the clouds above. One of the lights punctured through the cloud and the camera followed it as it crashed to earth. I turned the volume up to a reasonable level and both the stallion and I took a seat.
“—of pegasi appeared out of nowhere and now something has fallen from the sky!” The camera bobbed as the camera pony struggled to keep the lens up and follow the reporter. They approached a group of rebels and Canterlot guards who had gathered around the fallen object.
Live news never gets censored, and what I saw was not meant for the public to see. The ball of light that had fallen from the sky was a pegasus; a horribly burnt and broken pegasus. It lay writhing and smoking as the camera panned over its horrible, warped features. It had no mane and the ears had been melted, literally MELTED, off. The rest was a blurred mess as the camera pony struggled to keep filming. Slowly, the pegasus raised its hoof and a member of the guard leaned in to listen as it spoke.
“Fire…From the sky.”
The camera panned upward in time to see the clouds break open and dozens of pillars of fire began raining down. The signal cut out and went to a Technicolor screen with a high pitched hum.
The noise of the alarm outside was slowly becoming shadowed by something even louder. Both the cook and waiter walked out of the kitchen to listen. I approached the door cautiously while the other four stood back, waiting. I pressed my face against the glass and fought with the glare of the diner lights.
“What is it?” the stallion I’d taken the remote from asked. “Do you see anything?” Before I could answer his question, the power went out and I could see through the glass clearly. Lava was pouring down upon the city, and the citizens were fleeing for their lives. They screamed and cried as they climbed over one another through the crowded streets.
I froze. My legs locked up and my mind came to a screeching halt after being unable to comprehend what I was looking at. Before I knew what was going on, I was being pushed out the door to join the exodus. I eventually came to grips and pulled ahead of the mindless crowd. The last thing I wanted was to get trampled…well… the last thing aside from being incinerated.
I could see hundreds of lava spouts forming in the clouds above. The phenomenon was happening from Manehatten to Canterlot, and likely the rest of Equestria. Running was my only option and I couldn’t help but doubt if it mattered.
The first of the lava flows to touch down began pouring down over the Equestrian State Building. Ponies still inside jumped from the windows and landed on the street below. I imagine they made a sickening thud but there was too much screaming to tell. I could feel the heat of the melting building and tried to run faster.
The streets and buildings were a blur, and I had no idea where I was. The sirens, the screaming, the heat, the sound of my pounding heart—everything made it harder to focus on staying alive.
Other lava flows began engulfing the city, and all too soon the streets became fiery death traps. Twice I turned down an alley only to see a river of molten rock flowing towards me. I watched as helpless ponies were swallowed up and disappeared beneath the fiery surface. I wanted to help them, but I couldn’t risk my own life.
Suddenly, I saw ponies running towards me by the dozen and I knew something was wrong. I screeched to a halt and darted down an alleyway. Two and half ponies managed to follow me in my last second decision. I say half, because the third pony didn’t quite make it into the alley as a wave of lava pooled out over the street. The stallion and the mare that had accompanied me didn’t so much as glance back as they ran past.
“Help me! Please!”
I looked at the torso that was dragging itself towards me and fought the urge to vomit. I could only watch as the lava slowly oozed into the alley and covered the screaming stallion. His eyes were pleading with me, but there was nothing I could do.
Thunder crashed above and even more spouts opened in the clouds. It shook me from my trance and I finally realized where I was. After jumping a couple of chain link fences, I was looking at a clear break from the city. A trickle of survivors galloped out into the country side, and I joined them.
The city behind us burned until not even the tallest sky scraper stood above the glowing glob. It continued expanding as (would we measure lava in tons or gallons? ) more lava poured from the unnatural clouds.
The path in front of us was dismal as well. There was no end to this storm. All I could see for miles were the glowing pillars reaching to the sky. This was the end. I could run all I wanted, there was no where to go. I watched as some of the survivors simply sat down and accepted their fate.
“Mommy,” one filly said to her mother; tears in both their eyes, “I don’t wanna die.” The mare then broke down into hysterical crying as she held her daughter to her chest.
Some of the less morally upright chose to indulge in a few final sins before their time was up. I tried to not to look at the fornicating couples that couldn’t even be bothered to use the privacy of a bush.
The further we walked, the more apparent it became that there was no “promised land” waiting in the distance. There was only more fire. There was a hill we climbed that allowed us to see all the way to Canterlot without any visual obstructions. The valley below had become a bubbling lake that was threatening to burst its banks.
I watched as a few survivors broke from the group and simply walked into the lake of fire. They didn’t utter so much as a whimper as their fur and manes caught fire, and they slowly sunk beneath the surface. No way could I do that.
To my left and right were some pretty steep mountains and I tried to judge which was taller. They went pretty far up, but there wasn’t enough light to see the tops of either. So I just picked one and began climbing. I set my hooves into whatever cracks or hold places I could find. Several of the ponies followed my example; other’s walked the base of the mountains looking for an easier way up. With the lake at its bursting point, I wasn’t sure there was time for such a thing.
Below me, I heard screaming as the lake burst its bank and lava began flowing freely up the path. The ponies below gathered around the mountain bases like ants to sugar cubes. I climbed faster, determined not to be swallowed up. I felt a tug on my tail and nearly lost my holds as the survivor below me attempted to pull me off. I reacted by kicking him in the face. He released my tail and fell backward, taking out two mares as he fell into the pool below.
I just ended three lives. I put the thought out of my head and continued climbing. A pillar of lava began descending dangerously close to my mountain, and I shuffled as far away from it as I could. I thought my fur might catch fire from the heat of the molten rock as it poured past me. More screams came from below as those under the pillar were burnt off of the mountainside.
After hours of nerve wracking climbing, I reached the top of the mountain and found I had chosen the taller of the two. The peak was quite large and even had a few fruit trees growing from it. A couple of the other survivors climbed their way up behind me and a few more crossed from the opposite side of the peak. We looked around at each other nervously before deciding, “This is it. Better make the best of it.”
Chapter Two: Soldiers of the Wasteland
“You’re gonna go blind if you keep staring out there,” a voice from behind me said. I jumped as a cart load of rocks was dumped next to me. A few rolled down the mountainside and splashed into the lava with a hiss. I turned to see a massive red earth pony looking down at me. Sweat was pouring down from his black mane, and he took a seat next to me.
“I won’t go blind,” I replied.
He laughed and picked up a rock with one of his massive hooves. “That’s good; because we already have to make sure the old stallion doesn’t go falling in.”
I looked behind me to the other six survivors. At the edge of the group was a very old stallion, just staring out at the lava not unlike how I had been. “How did he even get up here?” I asked. The stallion was likely a hundred years old and there was no way he had the strength to climb a mountain.
“There was a path on the other side of where you and I climbed up. He, the fat one, and the pregnant couple came up that way.” The red pony gestured to the others of the group. “The zebra and the unicorn climbed up with us. You nearly took out that poor mare with the stallion you kicked down.”
The unicorn mare sat off to the side, drawing small circles on the ground with a stick. Both lenses in her glasses had been cracked, but she wore them regardless. After a moment, she sighed and stared out toward Canterlot.
“Hey,” the red stallion said, holding out his hoof in front of me. “Name’s Cobble Crusher.”
I looked at it for a moment, then up to his face. He had kind, blue eyes that seemed out of place on his rough exterior. “Storm Rider,” I said, bringing my hoof up to his. “So, what are you doing with all these rocks?”
“Well, I was gonna build a wall,” he answered before throwing the rock he’d been holding, “but I don’t have enough rocks.”
“I don’t think a wall would do us much good,” I said bluntly. The rock that Cobble Crusher had thrown burst into flames as it hit the lava far out in the distance.
“Still, building a wall beats sitting around arguing like the rest of them,” Cobble said, standing up. He hitched up to his now empty cart and trotted off to wherever he’d gotten the rocks.
Of all the companions I had on my journey, I think I liked Cobble Crusher the most…and Crumpet the least. Shortly after Cobble went back to work, Crumpet had another fit of hysterical crying. The fat brown unicorn mare had been nothing but an emotional wreck since she’d arrived.
“Why?! Why does this have to happen to ME?!” she wailed. The folds of her chin rippled as she sobbed, and tears poured down from her beady, black eyes. At this point, everypony else had learned to ignore her. She’d stop eventually and go back to stuffing her face with the fruits we’d harvested.
“Hey!” a voice shouted. I turned to see the zebra of our group smacking the fruit from Crumpet’s hoof. I’d never considered myself racist, but zebras always gave me a bad vibe; this one especially. Well, at first anyway. He had a very offsetting exterior; I couldn’t even decipher his cutie mark from the tattoos and scars that covered his body. And his eyes? Completely red; like a friggin’ demon.
“You been tinkin’ only ‘bout yourself dis entire time!” he said with a thick Zebronian accent. Ignoring Crumpet’s continuing sobs, he picked the fruit off the ground and carried it over to a pregnant earth pony. “Dere be others in dis group too, ya know!”
I watched as he gave the pregnant mare the fruit and asked the stallion with her if he needed anything. The stallion only smiled and shook his head in objection, choosing to make sure the mare was fed before he was. The zebra nodded and then looked around, his eyes eventually stopping on me.
I turned back around quickly, hoping he wouldn’t approach me, but sure enough—
“You hungry?” He stood right behind me, holding out one of the strange apples that grew upon the mountain.
“Uh, not really,” I replied. In actuality, I was starving. The coffee I’d drank at the diner was the only thing I’d had in almost a day. My stomach growled loudly and I heard the zebra laugh.
“You’re hungry. Here, eat dis before da fat one does,” he said, prodding me in the back with the apple. Reluctantly, I turned to accept the apple, and as soon as it was in my hooves, I turned back around.
“Thank you,” I said quietly. The rocks next to me shuffled and I turned to see the zebra making room to sit. His black and white striped mane blew wildly in the unnatural wind. Before I had to talk to him one on one, Cobble Crusher came by with another load of rocks.
“Cobble, take a break, go grab some food,” the zebra said as Cobble emptied the cart.
He wiped the sweat from his face and looked back toward the group. “Has Dandelion eaten yet? We need to make sure she’s kept healthy, for the foal’s sake.”
Dandelion, the pregnant mare, had finished her apple and curled up with, what I had assumed was her husband. She closed her eyes and smiled as the stallion rubbed her swollen abdomen. Occasionally, they would open their eyes in surprise after feeling a kick. They would then smile at each other, kiss, and resume feeling for the foal.
“She’s fine, but we runnin’ outta food fast,” the zebra replied. He looked over at me as if I could offer some sort of solution to our problem. All I could do was shrug and look down at the apple in my hoof.
“I’ll see if Candela has come up with anything,” Cobble said, walking off toward the unicorn mare.
Unlike Crumpet, Candela was very thin, and very intelligent. The light blue mare looked like she’d stuck her hoof in an electrical socket, because her white mane and tail were perpetually frizzed. If I remember right, that’s actually how she said she got her cutie mark; a light bulb.
Left alone with the zebra, I took a bite out of the apple he’d given me. He watched as I ate, and for a minute, I thought he was checking me out. His gaze eventually went down to my flank, and remained fixed there until I turned to look at him.
“Don’t mind me askin’, but what are ya good at?” He pointed to my thundercloud cutie mark and I realized he wasn’t checking me out, he was sizing me up.
“Riding out storms,” I replied. I didn’t want to go into detail about how the storms I’d ridden were mostly metaphoric. The worst of which was my parent’s divorce.
A smile formed on the zebra’s face. “You’re gonna help us ride out dis storm, right?” Before I could say anything, the zebra wrapped his forearm around my shoulders and squeezed. “Ahh, look at you! You already workin’ on a plan!”
Candela and Cobble Crusher walked over to us with curiosity. “What’s going on Zan?” the unicorn mare asked, addressing the zebra. Zan smiled and prodded me in the chest proudly, like he was displaying a prize he’d won. I did not like being the center of attention, but suddenly everypony else in the camp started to gather around.
“Dis is Storm Ridah! He’s gonna get us through dis!” Zan shouted. Some of the ponies looked at me skeptically, and others like some sort of messiah, as if I could bring them to a promised land.
“Now hold on,” I intervened. “I, uh, I never—”
“You have a plan? Please, tell us what to do!” Dandelion’s lover shouted. The green earth pony stallion stared at me, his brown eyes pleading for direction. I looked around nervously, trying to think my way out of this awkward situation.
“We’re going to have to get to Canterlot,” I said at last.
“Surely you aren’t serious?” Crumpet asked in her shrill voice.
“Look, if we can just get in contact with Celestia, maybe she’ll—”
“If Celestia has not stopped this, then she is either dead or the one who caused it.” The old stallion made his way to the front of the group and looked up at me with foggy blue eyes. “This is not a storm we can ride out.” He wrapped his beard around his neck and trod off back to his spot overlooking the lava.
His words seemed to have completely demotivated the others, and they went back to moping. Candela and Zan stayed next to me, hoping I would still offer up a solution. When I had nothing to say, they too wandered off. I set my apple on the ground and walked over to the old stallion. He couldn’t see me, but he knew it was me when I stood next to him.
“I’m sorry about that,” the old stallion said, continuing to stare blindly out at the lava. “I am simply a forecaster of doom.”
I looked at the old white stallion’s cutie mark and saw it was a clock with the hands stopped two minutes before twelve o’clock. “So this was fated to happen?” I asked.
He nodded and turned to look at me. “I have seen it coming for quite some time. Equestria needed to be purged of the criminals ,” He looked from Zan and then to Crumpet, “and the sinners ,” Finally, his gaze turned to Dandelion and her lover, “and the products of incest .”
“That’s her brother?” I asked quietly. The old stallion nodded and I felt foolish for not noticing sooner. They both had green fur and yellow manes, the only difference was Dandelion had blue eyes and her brother had brown.
“Toadstool and Dandelion; they’re nothing more than weeds upon this earth.” He turned to look at me, and likely tell me how I’d also had a hoof in bringing the apocalypse, but his ears perked up. “Something’s coming,” he muttered.
Zan took notice of the stallion’s behavior and shouted, “You got sometin’ Fin?”
“You will call me Final Hour, and nothing less!” he shouted back. Suddenly, the stallion turned and stared up at the sky. The rest of us looked up as well and watched as a small formation of pegasi swooped out of the clouds.
“Hey! Down here! Help us!” we shouted, waving our hooves in the air for attention. The pegasi took no notice of us as they flew past, weaving in and out of the lava pillars. A bright light came from above as a new pillar punctured through the clouds. One of the unlucky pegasi clipped its wing on the lava as it tried to get out of the way. We all watched as the pegasus spiraled out of control, trailing dark smoke behind it as it struggled to maintain flight.
One of the other pegasi suddenly changed direction to go back for its injured brethren. The wounded pegasus finally gave up the fight and allowed itself to fall toward the lava. Its comrade however dove in for a heroic rescue, catching the pegasus in mid-fall.
“Everypony down!” Cobble Crusher shouted as the laden pegasus targeted our island for a crash landing. I ducked and waited for the crunching noise of bones breaking. A black pegasus mare hit the ground and dropped the blue pegasus stallion she’d caught. Both tumbled painfully across the ground, eventually coming to a stop after hitting Cobble Crusher’s wall. Several rocks were dislodged and fell into the lava below.
“Why did you do that?!” the pegasus stallion asked, standing up. His remaining wing flared as he approached the pegasus mare. Before she could get up, he pressed his hoof on her throat. “I WANTED to die! Look at me! What good am I now?!”
I was overcome with a strange anger and galloped toward the pegasi. I’m not a large stallion by any means, but I put all my weight into slamming that pegasus. He was knocked to the ground and I put my hoof on HIS throat. “Calm down!” I shouted as authoritatively as I could.
He looked up at me angrily with his piercing yellow eyes. “Do it!” he shouted, pulling my hoof harder into his neck. “End it! I want you to!” Suddenly his eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp. I looked around nervously at the others.
“He went into shock, that’s all,” the pegasus mare said, standing up and brushing off her wings. “I’m gonna have to bandage him up now…He won’t let me when he wakes up.”
I looked at the steaming nub on the unconscious pegasus’ back. The lava had cauterized it, but there was still risk for infection. “What about you,” I asked, turning to the mare. “Are you okay?”
She smiled at me and brushed a strand of her black mane out of her face. Her purple eyes were, well, definitely checking me out. “I’m fine, thanks to you,” she said, planting a kiss on my cheek. Hell, if I’d had wings, they woulda been flared out several feet on each side.
“So even the pegasi can’t escape from The Storm?” Crumpet asked. The pegasus nodded. “DOOMED! We’re all DOOMED!” Crumpet cried out in her obnoxious voice.
“Cloudsdale has fallen,” the pegasus explained. “Hailstorm and I were lucky enough to make it this far…even if he didn’t want to.” She began bandaging the unconscious pegasus with amazing skill. “We’re all scared and don’t know where to go.”
“Have you tried Canterlot?” Candela asked.
“That’s where this all started, it’d be suicide to try and get near it. So…none of you have come up with a plan?”
“Well, we have da Storm Ridah, he’s done dis like fifty times,” Zan said, once again putting me on the spot. I have no idea where he kept getting such ridiculous notions.
“Storm Rider, hmm?” the pegasus asked, getting REALLY close to my face. “It rain lava often where you’re from?”
“No, it’s just, uh…damn it …” I looked around at the anxious stares from my audience. They wanted, NEEDED, to hear something, ANYTHING, to let them know we’d be alright. And then I saw where Cobble Crusher had been getting his rocks from.
He’d been digging a pit in the center of the mountaintop, and it hit me. “We’re going to tunnel to Canterlot.” They looked at me in confusion, trying to judge if I was being serious or not. But slowly, one by one they started nodding and agreeing with each other.
“There is no reason to go to Canterlot!” Final Hour objected over the noise. “Luna is dead! Celestia is dead! There is nothing left we can do!”
Suddenly the ideas came to me. I could get us to weather this storm . “We have two unicorns, do we not? Surely in the Canterlot Library there is a spell that can undo this.”
Candela tapped me on the shoulder nervously and pulled me away from the crowd. “There’s a reason I haven’t suggested tunneling,” she said, taking me to the circles she’d been drawing earlier. She’d drawn the mountaintop and had measurements and calculations that meant nothing to me. “If we don’t tunnel down at the perfect spot, the walls may not be able to hold back the force of the lava.”
“Can you find the perfect spot?” I asked.
Chapter Three: Operation Ground and Pound
After taking several measurements and soil samples, Candela was able to locate the most stable spot for us to begin our excavations. She was confident in her abilities, but still worry was etched across her face. While the most capable of us dug, she glanced nervously out over the lava.
The pegasus mare, whose name I’d found out was Elevon, flew small circles around our island, almost like a vulture waiting for its prey to die. She brought news of survivors that had climbed the other mountain peak, and how they were close to being swallowed up.
There was nothing we could do for them, and I kept my head down, trying to ignore the anguished cries for help. My hooves were killing me, so I decided to take a break. Candela approached me as I sat under one of the wilting apple trees.
“You must keep working, there’s only so much time,” she said, trying to push me back onto my hooves. I was far too exhausted to move, and she wasn’t nearly strong enough to make me.
“Look, my hooves are literally bleeding,” I said, holding up my cracked hooves. “We need some tools or something, or some MORE HELP.” I raised my voice in hopes that Crumpet or Hailstorm might hear me. Since Hailstorm had awoken, he’d done nothing but mope about the loss of his wing. And Crumpet was just being Crumpet.
“Tools? You mean, like, a pickaxe?” Candela asked.
“Uh, yeah,” I said impatiently. I thought that a pony as smart as her would have realized this, and maybe even built us a few by now.
“I need materials,” she said, looking around the mountaintop. “I’ll need a workbench, and wood, sticks, anything you can find!”
“Cobble!” I shouted for the large stallion. He poked his head out of the pit and looked around until he saw me beckoning to him. His fur was matted with filth and his mane was drenched with sweat, but he didn’t seem tired at all.
“Yes boss?” he asked as he approached me.
“Don’t call me boss,” I said, not wanting the title. “Candela needs you to get her some things, can you help?”
“Sure can, boss!” Cobble Crusher replied happily. “What do you need first?”
“Knock this tree down,” Candela replied, indicating to the tree I was leaning against. I barely had time to move before Cobble Crusher obeyed the order, bringing the tree down with one kick from his powerful hind legs. Using her magic, Candela constructed herself a modest workbench with some of the wood. “Now until we find more suitable materials, the picks will be made out of stone. I calculate you can get roughly 132 swings from each.”
132 sounded like more than enough swings, so I brought her three of the largest chunks of rock I could find. I watched as she meticulously shaped the rocks into one pickaxe head and secured it to a handle using her magic. While the others waited for theirs to be made, I set to mining.
Grasping the pickaxe with my front hooves and balancing on my rear hooves, I was able to bring the pick axe down hard enough to make a sizable crack in the ground. One by one, the others joined me, and together we started making considerable progress. Hell, even Crumpet tried to help out.
“Step out of the way, you dirty earth ponies, and behold the power of a unicorn.” Crumpet levitated a pickaxe in her cream colored aura and swung it at the ground. It buried deep into the rock and refused to budge when she tried to bring it back up. She strained her magic as hard she could, but simply couldn’t dislodge the pickaxe.
“If you can’t bring dat pick up, how you gonna stop dis storm?” Zan asked. Crumpet ignored him and trotted out of the pit with her nose in the air.
“She’s something, ain’t she?” Toadstool asked, approaching the pickaxe. He grabbed it with his hooves and pulled back with all his might. Slowly, the head of the pickaxe wedged free, and we got our first bit of luck. “Hey, what’s this orange-ish stuff?”
The rest of us gathered around and watched as Toadstool scraped up large deposits of the orange-red material. “Candela!” I shouted out of the pit. “We’ve got something!”
The unicorn jumped down into the pit and pushed through the others. “Excellent, you’ve found some iron!” She squinted through her broken glasses at the ores and grinned. “And it’s high in hematite! This is perfect! Get me all of it!”
We worked to ensure not an ounce of the iron was left behind, and were left with a sizeable pile of the ore. “So how are you going to make this into pickaxes?” I asked.
“I’ll need a crude blast furnace and a fuel source,” she said, looking around at the makeshift workshop Cobble Crusher had constructed her. “We have to conserve what little wood we have, just keep digging until you find some coal.”
“You can’t just use the lava?” Toadstool asked. “I mean, there’s plenty of it.”
“Right, am I supposed to just go get a bucket of it?” The unicorn’s annoyed sarcasm really hurt Toadstool’s ego, and he returned back to the pit. “You know what coal is, right?” she shouted after him. “It’s black and lumpy!”
“I think he knows,” I said, putting my hoof on the mare’s shoulder.
Elevon swooped down to join the group and she hung her head low with her ears back. “The other island is sinking,” she said. The cries that we’d been ignoring were suddenly blood curdling. Crumpet and Dandelion moved to the other side of our island so they wouldn’t have to watch. Hailstorm remained where he was though, watching with some sort of sick pleasure as the helpless ponies circled around their shrinking island. Final Hour hadn’t budged since my conversation with him. Though he could not see, he stared out for the duration of the ponies’ incineration.
“You couldn’t have brought them here?” I asked.
“It’s better that she didn’t,” Final Hour stated. “At least for them, it’s over now.”
The old stallion’s pessimistic comment put me into a rage and I grabbed a new pickaxe. I jumped into the pit with Zan, Cobble Crusher, and Toadstool, and together we mined in silence.
Cobble Crusher flew through pickaxes faster than me, Zan, and Toadstool combined. On top of that, he brought the wagon of rocks up and down the spiral ramp we’d carved along the sides. I just didn’t have the endurance, and finally sat to rest.
“Hey! I’ve got some coal over here!” Toadstool shouted as he unearthed some of the black gold. We excitedly went to help him, but noticed something bad almost immediately; the wall he’d been mining near was radiating heat.
“Stop!” I shouted, holding his pickaxe back. “We’re too close to the wall!” You could literally hear the lava bubbling on the other side of the rock. Toadstool lowered his pickaxe and stared at the coal longingly.
“Just one piece,” he begged. “Just one piece to show I’m not useless.”
“We know you ain’t useless,” Zan said, patting Toadstool on the shoulder. “Take a break and check up on dat sistah of yours.”
Toadstool wiped the sweat from his forehead and dropped his pickaxe to the ground. Zan and I watched as he slowly trudged up the ramp, passing Cobble Crusher on the way.
The three of us continued mining and were quite surprised when Hailstorm and Elevon came down with their own pickaxes. The pegasi watched us work for several moments before actually raising their pickaxes. It was apparent they knew nothing about mining, what with spending most of their lives up in the clouds.
“So is this something you earth ponies do for fun?” Hailstorm asked, stopping to rest after a couple minutes of labor. None of us answered him, so he leaned on the handle of his pickaxe and began sizing us up.
I tried to ignore him as I mined, focusing on the swings of my pickaxe. One twenty-nine, one thirty, one thirty-one, one thirty— The head of the pickaxe crumbled to dust on my one hundred thirty second swing, just as Candela said it would. I looked up to see Hailstorm leaning on his pickaxe, looking over at me.
“You want this?” he asked. Had he not brought it over to me, I would have likely just walked up to the surface for a new one. Besides, it was hotter than Hell down in that hole. We’d dug a good couple hundred feet, and could hear the lava bubbling on all sides.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the pickaxe from him. He stood over me as I began counting my swings again.
“Word from the others is you’re a storm rider,” he said.
“I’m THE Storm Rider, yes” I replied. Thunder rumbled from above and I nearly had a heart attack, thinking it was the walls about to cave in. Crumpet’s shrill voice traveled to the bottom of the pit and she came waddling down the walkway.
“The lava is getting higher! You must hurry!” she shouted to us. Candela was the next to appear, and she shared in Crumpet’s urgency.
“Several more lava spouts just appeared, putting a major strain on our timeline!” she shouted.
“Well then why aren’t you two down here helping us then?!” Hailstorm shouted up angrily. “You’re more useless than the earth ponies!”
“Let’s not go makin’ dis about race,” Zan said, turning to look at Hailstorm with his piercing red eyes. The pegasus instantly shut up and pretended to work. Toadstool returned with a new pickaxe and jumped in to help. We were breaking up so much stone that Cobble Crusher had to devote himself to bringing it up to the surface.
We sweat and moaned as we worked in the inferno, but at long last the temperature started to drop. “I think we’re below the base now!” I shouted over the clanking of pickaxes.
“No, no!” Candela shouted. “The mountain is simply widening, we have to go deeper!”
I swung my pickaxe as hard as I could and the stone at my hooves broke open, revealing a deposit of coal. Using the head of my pickaxe, I scraped out a few lumps of the black substance. “Candela, take these!” I shouted. She galloped over to me and her eyes lit up when she eyed the coal.
“Mine it all and help me get it to the surface!” She threw a burlap bag on the ground and began levitating the lumps through the opening. I furiously worked away at the vein until the bag could hold no more. “Now quickly, come with me!” She levitated the bag and ran for the ramp.
“Shouldn’t I be down here mining?” I asked, still swinging my pickaxe.
“I need your assistance!” she shouted down. She’d already made it a quarter of the way out of the pit, and I dropped my pickaxe to follow her. Hailstorm took my spot and began mining the rest of the coal from the vein.
The first thing I did after climbing out of the pit was take a deep breath of what I hoped would be fresh air. The smell of stone dust and body odor from the pit had been absolutely nauseating, but the air above ground was thick with smog. I coughed and hacked before I could catch my breath.
And then I realized just how close to annihilation we were. The lava was now less than two feet from the crest of the mountain. If Cobble Crusher’s wall actually held, we had an additional three feet. Dandelion, not wanting to feel useless, had been carefully moving the piles of rocks Cobble Crusher brought out of the pit.
Final Hour still stared out at the lava, his beard blowing wildly in the wind. One of the most haunting images I still hold from the whole experience is him, just staring calmly out into that fiery ocean. I ran to Candela’s “laboratory” and watched as she dumped the coal into a crudely constructed blast furnace.
“We only have enough iron to make one pickaxe, so we can’t mess this up,” she said, using her magic to light the coal. Electrical sparks flew her horn and eventually the coal began glowing and giving off heat. She tossed in the chunks of iron we’d mined earlier and we waited for it to melt. Slowly, the orange-ish lumps began to melt into a shiny, silver liquid. In total, the lumps filled the tray three times, and it took three trays to fill the pickaxe head mould.
Once it was cooled, Candela took the pickaxe head and attached it carefully to a handle she’d specially prepared. “Get this to Cobble Crusher,” Candela said, passing me the pickaxe. I took it in my teeth and turned just in time to see the red stallion making his way out of the pit with a cartload of rocks.
I galloped up to him with the new tool and set it at his hooves. He looked down at it and smiled. “That’s more like it,” he said, dumping his load of rocks. Another crash of thunder rumbled across the landscape and several more pillars of lava started pouring down.
“We’ve got to go!” Candela shouted. She levitated her workbench and all her materials into Cobble’s cart and looked around to see if she’d forgotten anything. “Storm! Get Dandelion and Final Hour, we’ll meet you down there!”
The pregnant mare made her way slowly over to me, but the old stallion didn’t budge. “You hear that Fin? We’re going!” I shouted, using his abbreviated name. A wave of lava crashed up against the wall and small little embers rained down around the stallion. He may have been dead before I left him there; he just might have died and forgotten to fall down. I shielded my eyes against the wind and ash as I led Dandelion to the pit. I glanced back one more time at Final Hour, forever burning the image in my memory.
Author's Note
Please be sure to point out all my typos, I am without an editor on this one. Also, now you see why this is a minecraft crossover...wait 'till i introduce the mobs.
Cobble Crusher was truly our salvation during the first struggles of our journey. He never tired, never complained, and never ever thought of himself. When I got back to the bottom of the pit, he was chugging right along with his new pickaxe. The rest of the survivors were just trying to make room for all the stone he destroyed.
There was no longer any time to bring it up to the surface, so we began pushing it all up against the walls. The storm raged above and we moved as fast as we could, trying to race the first dribbles of lava that were snaking down the sides of the pit.
“Fat One! Help me make a barricade!” Candela shouted to Crumpet. Her horn was glowing as she levitated as much of the rubble above us as she could.
“What did you just call me, Toothpick ?!” Crumpet shouted back angrily.
“Not the time!” I shouted, trying to get control of the situation. Crumpet glared at me and turned her nose up. “Just help her or we all die!”
“It’s already too late, we’re going to die in this pit, and that’s all there is to it,” Crumpet replied, sitting down and closing her eyes. The fat unicorn’s reluctance didn’t deter the rest of us.
Cobble Crusher let out a mighty cry as he swung his pickaxe even harder at the stone beneath him. I could feel the mountain shift and a large crack formed in the stone beneath us. There was a great whooshing noise as the hot air surrounding us was sucked into the ground.
“Yes! Yes!”
The joyful shouts filled the pit, and we all crowded around for a breath of the cool, damp air that flowed from the crevice. I looked to Candela and saw her struggling to keep the rocks suspended above us.
“Okay, Cobble, widen that gap, we have to get down!” I shouted, looking to the others.
“We don’t even know what’s down there!” Hailstorm shouted.
None us had the time to argue. Cobble worked the pickaxe expertly and managed to widen the crack without collapsing our floor entirely. Elevon was the first to squeeze through, and it was only a moment until her head poked back out.
“It’s a bit of a drop, just be careful,” she said. “Let the pregnant one go first, I’ll help her down.”
Dandelion nodded and nervously approached the pegasus. She wrapped her forearms around Elevon and the two of them slowly descended into the darkness. I felt something scalding hot drip onto my back and began swatting at it madly with my hoof. The molten rock that had fallen on me left a nasty burn I would feel for the rest of our journey. At that moment in time, I was too frantic to really care. The single drop that had fallen on me was one of dozens leaking through the cracks in the rocks above us.
The others had managed to crawl into the darkness and only Candela and I remained. She looked at me though her cracked glasses and I could see tears welling up in her eyes. “Just get the materials on the cart down, I’ll hold this!” she shouted. The rocks above her began to slip as her magic faltered.
I had no intention of leaving her to die, so I rolled the cart to the crack and tipped the contents out. They tumbled into the darkness and I cared not if Crumpet had gotten out of the way in time or not.
“Come on, we’ll go down together!” I shouted, looking back up at Candela.
Her knees were shaking and her magic aura was growing weaker against the strain of keeping the rocks and lava above us. “Can’t…move. Just go!” she shouted. A droplet of lava fell onto her rear end and her muscles tensed. The rocks above us slipped further and I could feel the heat they were holding back.
I didn’t want to die, and I most certainly didn’t want to lose one of the biggest assets our team had. I dodged the increasing amounts of lava puddles until I was right next to the unicorn. The only thing I could think to do was crawl under her and lift her onto my back. Perhaps I’d chosen poorly when I decided to do so from behind her without warning.
“W-what are you doing?!” she shouted. Her magic intensified from the surprise of being lifted so suddenly, causing the rocks to rise back to their original position. Unicorns are funny like that.
She was light, but I was exhausted, and every step I took seemed like a mile. I could see the crevice and trudged to it, avoiding the puddles of lava still glowing all around me. “Almost there!” I shouted, trying to get Candela ready for the drop.
Her hooves wrapped around me tightly and I contemplated how to take the plunge. I needed to make sure she came with me when I dropped, and I couldn’t exactly hop in. With my adrenaline surging, I pumped my legs and straddled the crevice. Using every ounce of energy I had, I slid my hooves beneath me and took the fall.
Everything was dark…or I closed my eyes. I’m not entirely sure, but I could still feel Candela on my back as we fell into the cavern. You know how ponies describe time slowing down when you’re falling? That’s minotaur shit. I let my hooves slide, fell for a couple seconds, and then I was wracked with pain on the stones below.
The rocks above crashed down and a couple fell down around us. No sooner had we landed, several hooves grabbed hold of us and dragged us to safety. My eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness and I breathed in the cool air. It was silent; a complete change from the chaotic madness I’d endured since leaving the diner. Of course, with the sudden calm, my body became aware of the distress it was in.
“Don’t move!” Elevon tried to calm me as I cried out. I was sure my legs were broken; all four of them. As I lay and looked up at her, I saw a steady stream of lava pour down from where we’d entered. I knew if we moved fast, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Where’s Candela? Is she okay?” I asked as Elevon began checking me over. Elevon didn’t say anything at first; instead trying to make sure I wasn’t too badly damaged.
“You broke her fall, but she got burned pretty badly. What took you two so long up there?”
“She couldn’t move, and I wasn’t leaving her to die,” I replied. My legs throbbed as I struggled to my hooves. Elevon looked at me disapprovingly, but did not stop me. I saw a few of the other survivors crowded around Candela as Zan tried to bandage her up. I only got a glimpse of the poor unicorn, but what I saw made my stomach turn.
The entirety of her back was a scalded, bubbling mess of burnt flesh. She writhed weakly as Zan took pieces of torn cloth and dressed her burns to the best of his ability. I realize now that she was the only reason I made it out of the pit relatively unscathed. She had shielded me, and suffered for it.
“Dis isn’t good,” Zan said as he finished. “She be lucky if she makes it.”
None of us said anything for a little while. The only sound came from the occasional hiss of lava as it dripped onto the cave floor. I wanted to get moving, but I still didn’t even know where to go. The dim glow of the dripping lava only provided so much light to the dark cavern.
We’d landed in what I can only describe as a “bubble” in the otherwise solid earth. The only way in or out was the way we’d come through, and we certainly weren’t going back through it. It was just another pit of despair that had prolonged our inevitable death. Well, that’s how Crumpet described it.
Dandelion and Toadstool scanned the floor of the cavern for the contents of the cart I’d dumped. Cobble Crusher followed behind the pregnant mare, picking up whatever she pointed out. Both Hailstorm and Crumpet went off to their own corners of the cave to pout while Elevon and Zan continued tending to Candela and I.
“You have to get moving, just leave me here,” Candela whimpered as Elevon resorted to using her own feathers to dress the unicorn’s burns.
“Storm Rider risked his life for you,” Elevon replied, glancing over at me. “I’d gladly leave you, but I think he needs you.”
Need her . Aside from Crumpet, I needed all of them.
Candela looked over at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Those words and that look sent a pain through my heart worse than any burn I could have suffered. She whispered it again, but it wasn’t her voice I heard; it was my mother’s.
“I’m sorry,” she’d whispered. Tears dripped down her bruised and swollen face. All she had done was try to protect me from my father. It was my fault it had happened. It was my fault he’d gotten so angry. It was all my fault.
“Zan, get her on my back, we’re going,” I said to the zebra.
His red eyes looked from me to Candela, and he shook his head. “You ain’t got da strength, but if ya want da filly so bad, I’ll carry her.” To the disapproval of Elevon, Zan hoisted the weak unicorn onto his back and looked back at me for instruction. “What now, Mr. Ridah?”
I walked up to Candela and could see she was upset, but didn’t have the strength to argue. “Candela,” I whispered. “Can you tell which way it is to Canterlot from here?”
Her eyes blinked rapidly from behind her cracked glasses and she slowly lifted her head. She looked around the darkness for a moment, making calculations in her head, or so I assume. After a few moments, she pointed her hoof to the lava dripping to the floor. “Canterlot is to the north. We were facing south when we fell. I can only conclude that way is north.”
We had direction, and the others gathered around us. “We’re moving north,” I said, pointing in the direction Candela had indicated. “Cobble, are you rested enough to—”
“Where’s Hailstorm?” Elevon interrupted me. I looked around at the faces and only counted seven of the eight I was supposed to see. Something rumbled above us and the trickle of lava from the ceiling intensified.
Candela mumbled something that sounded like a warning, but it was lost in the panic. There were too many voices all talking at once, and I tried to concentrate. Crumpet’s screaming made it near impossible and I stepped away from the circle.
I knew I’d seen him off in a corner, being as little help as possible. Maybe he’d found a tunnel? The lava pouring into the cavern illuminated every wall, and it appeared there were no additional ways out of the cave. So where did he go? Dandelion and Toadstool approached me as I searched, and I was barely aware of their presence.
“Um, Storm?”
The small voice finally made me turn around, and I saw the pregnant mare shifting her hooves nervously. Toadstool stood beside her, trying to provide the emotional support she needed to confront me. I think they were under the impression I didn’t want to hear what they had to say. Admittedly, the incest thing weirded me out, but I didn’t think they’d noticed.
“Yeah, what is it, Dandelion?” I asked, trying to stay still long enough to hold a conversation. I looked past her and watched the lava start forming a cone as it cooled on the cave floor. My distraction only furthered the couple’s assumption.
“I saw that one wing pegasus over there,” Dandelion said quietly, pointing her hoof to a relatively dark corner of the cave. My gaze followed her hoof all the way to the southern wall, and without thinking, I walked away from the couple to investigate.
They remained where they were as I walked away from them without so much as a “thank you”. The sound of Cobble Crusher beginning his assault on the northern wall only added to my distraction. He swung his iron pickaxe at the wall while the others paced nervously.
By the southern wall were a few small piles of stones that the pegasus had made. “Hailstorm was here” was scratched into the wall and I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t like any pony would be alive to ever read his stupid final words. And even if this all settled in a thousand years and new life took to Equestria, “Hailstorm was here” would mean nothing to them.
Just below his graffiti were three large rocks. I put my hoof on the largest and it shifted beneath my weight. Suddenly, it and the other two rocks disappeared into a small opening in the floor. The bastard had found a way out, and he didn’t say anything.
I stuck my head into the darkness and looked around. There was no sign of Hailstorm, but it appeared the opening led to a tunnel. “Over here!” I shouted, raising my head back out of the hole. It was the call the others had been hoping for, and they raced over to me.
Elevon flew over the others and didn’t wait before diving into the darkness. Crumpet took it as a sign of anarchy and tried to squeeze into the hole before any pony else could. And guess what; her fat ass got stuck. With her in the way, there was no way Cobble Crusher could safely widen the opening. I contemplated having him try anyway, though.
“Dis is da south wall, don’t we want north?” Zan asked as Cobble Crusher and I continued to push against Crumpet’s hindquarters. Candela was motionless on his back as he paced nervously.
Two muffled voices came from beneath Crumpet, and I felt additional force pulling on the obese unicorn. Elevon’s voice came through loud and clear as she shouted obscenities at the least helpful member of our group.
“It doesn’t matter at this point; we just need to get somewhere safe enough to think!” I shouted as I exerted more force against Crumpet. Finally, she slid through the crack and the shouting match between her and Elevon ceased.
Cobble Crusher didn’t wait two seconds before bringing his pickaxe down on the stone. While he worked on widening the gap, Toadstool and I gathered our supplies and got ready to move on. He glanced at me every now and then, as if he wanted to say something. Once his saddlebag was full, however, he trotted off to join his sister.
As he and Dandelion carefully dropped down into the new cave, only Cobble Crusher and I remained above. “Is there still more?” he asked, coming over to help me grab some of the coal.
“I’ll handle it, just get with the others,” I said, motioning for him to move on. I don’t know why I even tried; that stallion wanted to do nothing but help. He ignored my motion and filled his already sagging saddlebags with more coal. I didn’t complain as he grabbed the last of the coal, leaving me with sticks and apples to carry.
I gave one last look at the cavern to make sure we hadn’t left anything before finally joining the others. It was dark and significantly cooler in the new tunnel, but much more compact. The group stood single file and I had to push past them to get to the front. Crumpet was the biggest obstacle, and as I squeezed past her I felt the warm stickiness of blood on her side. She winced in pain, but I had little concern.
“Let’s get moving, put some distance between us and the lava, and find Hailstorm,” I said once I got to the front and turned around. There were no objections, so I turned to lead them on. My pupils dilated in an attempt to take in more light, but there wasn’t any. I mean, it was pitch black.
I didn’t dare move. What if Hailstorm had gone down here with the full intent of returning, but fallen into a bottomless chasm? I could feel Zan standing right behind me, waiting for me to move. After a few moments of standing there, I felt a hoof prod into my flank.
“Storm.” The voice was gentle, and definitely not that of Zan. I turned and saw Zan’s red eyes looking back at me, but a pair of blue eyes opened next to his face, and I could make out the outline of Candela.
I was relieved she was still alive, but her voice sounded so weak, I didn’t think she would be with us for much longer. Zan stepped forward more so I could hear her better.
“Did you grab everything from the cart?” she asked. I nodded, though she probably couldn’t see me. “Give me a stick, and a piece of coal,” she replied after what seemed like an eternity.
I didn’t know what she needed them for, but if it was going to be her dying wish, I wasn’t going to deny her. I clumsily took a stick out of my saddlebag with my teeth and passed it to her. It slipped from her grasp and Zan bent down to retrieve it. I then (stupidly) grabbed a piece of coal, and my tongue brushed against the black chunk of carbon.
Not a pleasant taste, in case you were wondering. As soon as I was done showing my disgust, Candela’s horn lit up and the coal left my mouth. Both the coal and stick were encompassed in her aura and they floated together. There was a small flash, and four crude torches fell to the floor. Candela let out a small sigh, and rested her head on Zan’s neck.
“She’s still breathin’,” he said, reassuring me. I let out my own sigh of relief, and bent down to retrieve the torches.
“Just stick them on the walls…and they…light up,” Candela whispered.
“Why not just light one up and we carry it?” I asked, still looking in the darkness for the torches. Candela mumbled something I couldn’t quite understand, but I wasn’t going to ask her to repeat herself.
I finally found the torches and picked all four up in my teeth. Without wasting any time, I brought my head to the wall and attempted to find a crack to stick the torch in. After a moment, I found a suitable spot and stuck the torch in it.
The flash of light that accompanied my action blinded me for a few moments. I heard the others “ooooh ” while I rubbed my eyes, trying to regain my vision. Once I could see again, I began inspecting the tunnel we stood in. It wasn’t very large, but it appeared to extend further into the earth.
“She’s nearly dead and she’s still more useful than you,” Elevon said right to Crumpet’s face.
Before Crumpet could respond to the insensitive comment, Zan glared back at both of them. Candela continued breathing ragged breaths from the zebra’s back, and the sight of her alone silenced the two mares.
Just outside the torch’s glow I could see a deposit of reddish brown rock. I knew if we could get more iron for more pickaxes, we’d stand a better chance, but I wasn’t so sure Candela would be up for smelting it. And our other unicorn, as Elevon bluntly stated, was useless.
“Cobble, we’re going to be passing some iron, can you mine it?” I asked to the back of the group.
Instead of the stallion’s voice, I got Elevon’s as a response. “There’s no time, we have to go find Hailstorm.”
We didn’t have to find him, but I knew the longer we stood around, the greater danger we were in. “Okay, never mind, let’s just keep going,” I said, trotting into the darkness and placing another torch.
When I got to my last torch, I tried to walk as far as I could before placing it. I wasn’t sure if Candela would be able to make more, and I didn’t really want to ask her. Zan kept her carefully balanced on his back as he followed behind me.
Finally, it got to the point where I could no longer see, and I had to ask. Shockingly enough, Crumpet stepped forward at my request.
“It’s a simple spell, just let me do it,” Crumpet said angrily. I held the stick in my mouth and thought of several ways the unicorn could screw us over. I only had another stick in my saddlebag, I wasn’t sure if any of the others had grabbed any, and I wasn’t sure just how much further this tunnel went on for. I reluctantly passed her the materials and waited.
“Don’t screw this up, or I’ll—”
“Elevon. Please, just let her work,” I said, interrupting the pegasus mare.
“Hmph . Fine, Stormy ,” Elevon replied, using the pet name I had always detested. On top of that, her tone was sultry. I could just picture her in the darkness with a smile on her face as she licked her lips.
Crumpet groaned as she strained to cast the simple spell, almost like she was struggling to digest something that didn’t agree with her. I almost didn’t believe my ears when I heard the pop of her successfully replicating Candela’s spell.
“Hah! There!” Crumpet shouted, levitating the torches in front of Elevon’s face. Elevon swiped at them with her hoof and they scattered onto the cave floor. While they continued exchanging insults again, I got down and recovered all but one of the torches.
A scream echoed out of the darkness, and I stood up as fast I could. Crumpet and Elevon stopped bickering to listen.
“That sounded like Hailstorm!” Elevon shouted, flapping her wings and soaring over my head. She flew into the darkness and I galloped after her.
The others were right behind me, and I attempted to place torches strategically. Because of the echoes, I couldn’t determine just how far the scream had come from. Suddenly, there was a light in the distance, and the cave began to widen. I placed down my last torch and ran through the last patch of darkness, finding myself in a massive cavern.
Our tunnel was one of many that all conjoined in a massive, high ceiling room. The tunnels came out of the walls, some formed holes in the floor, and some even let out in the ceiling. At the center of it all was Elevon and Hailstorm, sitting next to a single torch: the missing fourth torch.
“Get it out of me!” Hailstorm screamed.
Elevon ignored him and frantically looked in each of the surrounding tunnels. “Where did it come from?!” she asked.
“Hell if I know! It was dark!” Hailstorm replied.
Once I was close enough, I saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out of Hailstorm’s shoulder. Blood was seeping from his wound as he tugged on it helplessly. The others soon caught up to me, and I held them from entering the room.
“Just get me out of here!” Hailstorm shouted, reaching out toward Elevon. Just as she turned to help him, an arrow flew from a tunnel on the ceiling. I couldn’t even shout a warning before the arrow soared inches from her ears. The arrow stuck into the ground and Elevon froze up in fear.
I wanted to help them, but when the thing that was shooting at them fell from the tunnel, I found myself frozen in fear as well. It hit the cave floor with a clatter, but remained on its hooves. It was a skeleton of a long dead unicorn; no flesh, no muscles, no organs; just a walking collection of bones with a horn.
It levitated a bow and drew an arrow back while taking aim at Elevon again. I was suddenly pushed aside and a red blur galloped past me. To my surprise, Cobble Crusher had rushed out into the cavern, wielding his pickaxe in his mouth. Just as the skeleton went to release the bow’s string, Cobble Crusher slammed into the monster.
The stallion wedged the pickaxe’s head into the skeleton’s ribcage and pulled with all his might. Ribs and vertebrae scattered across the cave floor and the skeleton fell into pieces. The skull continued chattering until Cobble brought his heavy hoof down upon it. There was a satisfying pop as the skull crumbled under the pressure.
“That was a skeleton!” Hailstorm said in disbelief. “Like, a legit, walking—AHHH !”
Elevon ripped the arrow from Hailstorm’s shoulder in one swift movement. The head of the arrow dripped with blood, and she brought it closer to her eyes. “I don’t think it was poisoned, you should be fine,” she said after a moment.
“Yeah! Thanks! I’ll be fine, all right!” Hailstorm continued screaming as Elevon tossed the arrow aside and looked at his wound.
“You’ll wait up for us next time, won’t you?” she asked.
Hailstorm grumbled as the rest of us cautiously entered the chamber. We eyed the dark tunnels suspiciously as we approached the two pegasi, expecting more skeletons to jump out. I felt exposed—vulnerable—and didn’t want to just sit there in the open. Every little noise put me on edge, and I tried to filter out everything that was being made by us.
I could hear water. Not just a trickle, no; actual flowing water. It didn’t necessarily mean safety, but at that moment, I realized just how thirsty I was. I paced the cavern, glancing around at every dark corner as I searched for the source of the sound.
“Let’s get out of here already,” Crumpet said, still visibly shaken from just seeing an undead creature. “Choose a tunnel, I don’t care which!”
“Just make me some more torches and I will,” I said, tossing a stick and some coal onto the floor in front of her. I was focused on two things: finding the water, and contemplating the existence of animated skeletons. Crumpet’s concerns came last.
The skeleton’s bones still sat where they’d landed after Cobble’s assault, but I kept my eye on them to be sure. I’d heard of necromancy, but never imagined I’d come face to face with a product of it. How many more are there? Is it only skeletons? Are there other things down here?
The thoughts weren’t helping my concentration. Another thing that bothered me was Cobble Crusher’s reaction. He didn’t hesitate to rush that skeleton, and he knew exactly how to take it down efficiently. Had he dealt with them before? No, that’s impossible.
Crumpet presented the torches to me the same way I’d given her the materials; tossing them on the floor right in front of me. She trotted away with her head held high, like she was proud of herself or something. Whatever .
After what seemed like an eternity of pacing and listening, I finally found a tunnel that echoed with the sound of flowing water. “Let’s move, stay together, and keep quiet,” I commanded. They all gave me different signs of compliance, be it reluctant or otherwise, but I was in control.
Was it because of what Zan had said, or did they legitimately think I would help them weather The Storm?
Author's Note
More Minecraft elements in this chapter, and lots more to follow. I apologize if there are spelling and grammar issues present, I'll touch them up as you or I find them.
