All Hail The Empress

“Is everypony here?” asked Artemis as she stood at the southwestern edge of the camp. It was early in the morning, the sun just barely peaking over the treetops.

“The three of us are here,” answered a male Unicorn that was standing to the right of Sapphire and Ruby. His coat was a burnt orange while his mane and tail were a dark red. The Unicorn’s Cutie Mark was a rock with a stream of fire surrounding it, which helped to illustrate his prowess with magic involving fire. Ruby yawned as he said that, still groggy from being woken up much earlier than she was used to. The two adults had saddlebags with clips depicting their Cutie Marks, while Ruby had one with the clips on each side depicting her parents’ Cutie Marks.

“Wild Blitz and I are both here as well,” said Sky Blazer, who was standing next to the left of Sapphire with her son to her left. He too yawned after his mother had finished.

“Excellent!” said the Princess happily, “Now, let’s be off!” Artemis turned around and started down the path through the forest. The forest the camp was in was the Everfree Forest, where the main laws of nature that existed in Equestria were somewhat distorted. However, this forest had managed to keep the Rebellion’s main camp hidden for decades, though that was in fact partially due to the fact that a spell had been placed on it to mask its location from the sky and long distances. The other ponies in the group followed suit.

“So, do we have any idea as to what we’ll find when we get to these ruins?” asked the Unicorn who had spoken earlier after a few minutes of walking.

“Not in the slightest, Fire Comet,” replied Artemis, not mincing any words.

“Didn’t think so,” replied the Unicorn as he ducked under a low hanging branch. His daughter couldn’t help but notice.

“You know, daddy, you could have just used magic to move that, right?” asked Ruby as she walked under the branch without even having to move.

“Yes, sweetie,” replied Fire Comet, turning his head to look back at his daughter, “But I would much rather save my energy for when we might need it most.”

“Whatever,” said Ruby, “I still don’t see how moving a branch would be that big of a problem.”

“When you start practicing your magic, you’ll see what he means,” said Sapphire, who was walking behind Ruby. The filly simply grunted with annoyance.

The group continued their journey through the forest for several hours. It was relatively uneventful aside from the occasional glimpse of a native creature to the forest. By the time they reached the edge of the forest, it was very early in the afternoon.

“Whoa,” said Wild Blitz as he looked out at what was in front of him. It was a long, deep canyon with a small river running down the middle, the mouth of which actually started from a different part of the forest not far from where they stood. The right side of the canyon was covered in a dense forest, which was not part of the Everfree Forest, while the left side was a sprawling plain.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” asked Artemis, noticing the stunned look on the young colt, “I’ve only seen this view once or twice of Ghastly Gorge myself, you know.”

“So, what do you think we should do?” asked Sky Blazer, noticing that there were three options for travel: the forest, the plain, or the Gorge itself. Though she did not specifically state it, the Pegasus was hoping for one of the first two.

“Well, based on what the book says,” explained Sapphire, remembering the wording due to how much she’d studied it in the past two days, “We need to cross the Gorge to reach the Desert. And the maps we looked over say that the Castle we need to reach is along the river that we’re looking at now. By all logic, that means we should stick close to it.”

“Of course,” sighed Sky Blazer, “Seems like every quest ponies go on have a flair for doing things the hard way. Why should this one be any different?”

“Relax, Sky Blazer,” advised the Princess, looking back at the Pegasus, “We’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Why am I not reassured?”

“Anyway, let’s start heading down there,” said Fire Comet, motioning towards a path along the side of the canyon that led to the bottom. With Artemis leading the way, the group of ponies started down the path single file as a result of how thin it was. Within a few short minutes, they had reached the bottom.

“Excuse me, Princess Artemis?” asked Ruby once they had all gotten to the river, “What are those up ahead?”

“I’m sorry?” asked Artemis, looking off in the direction the filly was looking. Further down the canyon were a few giant holes in the sides of the canyon wall, “I’m…not sure what those are. Sapphire?”

“If I had to guess, those are the tunnels that the quarray eels make,” replied the Dragon Unicorn, “They’re only found here in the Gorge.”

“So, do we pass by them or do we head back up and go around?” asked Fire Comet once his wife had finished.

“Well, we need to stick close to the river if we want ensure we’ll reach our destination,” explained Sapphire, “So, we’ll, unfortunately, have to go by them.” To both her and Sky Blazer, it was unfortunate because that meant that the two foals in the group would have to go near the eels.

“Look, we’ll make sure that nothing happens to any of us as we travel past the tunnels,” assured Artemis, not deterred by her friends’ worry. Both of the mothers in the group sighed, having learned through one way or another not to argue with the Princess. The Alicorn took the lead as the group began to follow the river and get ever closer to the holes in the canyon wall. Once the group was close enough to see into one of the holes, which was pitch black, the ground started shaking.

“What in the-?!” shouted Fire Comet as the quake grew in strength.

“I hope it isn’t what I think it is!” replied Sapphire as she grabbed her daughter with her magic. As soon as she finished, giant creatures shot forth from several of the holes and the shaking stopped. The creatures were burgundy with purple underbellies and spikes on their backs. They had razor sharp fangs and large jaws that looked as though they could swallow any of the ponies in the group whole, “Quarray eels! Ruby, Wild Blitz get out of here!” The Dragon Unicorn gave the two foals no chance to react before using her magic to float them away from the group and the eels.

“Well, there’s no other way to do this,” said Fire Comet as his horn took on a yellow aura. A meteor fell from the sky within a second and landed on one of the eels, knocking its head to the ground. The other eels, eight in all, responded by turning their heads toward the group and lashing out. After a second, the first eel recovered from the hit it had taken and joined the others.

“Well, you sort of just made it that way!” shouted Artemis as her horn took on its aura. As she charged her spell, Sapphire opened her mouth and shot out a stream of blue fire at the eels. Only one of them got burned before they managed to react and avoid it. A burst of white energy burst from Artemis’s horn and blasted three of the eels, knocking them to the ground.

While this was going on, Sky Blazer had taken to the sky. As fast as she could, the Pegasus flew high into the clouds. After a second or two to determine a path, the mare began a dive bomb with her front legs sticking straight out in front of her. Spiraling through the air, Sky Blazer rammed into the eel that was the furthest away from the rest of the group, sending it into two of its friends.

“Nice one, mom!” called Wild Blitz from where Sapphire had dropped him and Ruby. Although she heard it, Sky Blazer was too focused to give a reaction. Meanwhile, Fire Comet was sending more meteors raining down upon the eels. Unfortunately for him, the eels had started to dodge them more and more. Thinking quickly, he began to charge up his magic. It did not take long for a stream of yellow fire to spiral from the base of his horn and drill into the eel he had originally hit. The eel in question had apparently had enough and slithered back into its hole permanently.

“Well, that’s one down,” muttered the Unicorn as he began to charge the spell again. While he was doing this, Artemis was firing her spell at the eels from every direction except underneath them, flying as needed.  After a few hits on a single eel, it slinked back into the hole it was sticking out of. Using her previously used tactic, Sky Blazer had been attacking the eels simultaneously. When the eel that Artemis had been attacking slinked back into its cavern, so did the one that the Pegasus had been assaulting. Despite the fact that they were currently fighting for their lives, the Alicorn and Pegasus did bump their front left hooves together midair before switching the side of the eels they were on.

Sapphire, meanwhile, was busy using a combination of her fire and a spell to create large fireballs. Once she had six in all floating above her, the Dragon Unicorn used her magic to launch them at a blinding speed at the eels. While making sure she didn’t accidentally hit one of the two ponies who were currently flying around the eels, Sapphire managed to hit three of the eels simultaneously with the fireballs. The size of the fireballs as well as the force of the impact was enough to make the eels retreat into their holes, leaving three of them that were growing increasingly violent.

“Whoa there!” shouted Sky Blazer as an eel just barely missed clipping her wing, though she did end up with a couple of lost feathers. Artemis blasted the eel before it could lower its head, momentarily stunning it before having it lunge at her. A swift kick from Sky Blazer allowed her to return the favor as well as cause the eel to slink back into its hole in defeat.

Fire Comet and Sapphire both moved to where they stood next to each other as fast as possible. Within a second of their movement, twin streams of fire shot out of his horn and her mouth respectively. The streams spiraled around each other as they traveled towards their targets. The eel closest to the husband and wife team was caught off guard by the fire drilling into its cheek and was knocked into its remaining comrade, sending both to the ground. For good measure, Sky Blazer and Artemis both stomped down on the eels’ jaws. Defeated with a few teeth knocked loose, the final two eels slithered back into the holes they were sticking out of. The two ponies who had been flying landed next to the two ponies who had remained on the ground just as the two foals that had been watching ran up to their sides.

“Okay,” panted Artemis, “That was fun, wasn’t it?”

“If it’s any consolation,” answered Sapphire, also panting, “It sure beats studying books and maps all the time.”

“That…was…AWESOME!” exclaimed Wild Blitz, ignoring the fact that the adults were clearly exhausted from the fight. His mother gave him a smile as a response despite panting herself.

“Wow, mom! I didn’t know you could breathe fire!” shouted Ruby, her eyes practically sparkling with admiration and excitement.

“Well, it isn’t exactly something that comes up a whole lot,” stated her mother, “I have your grandpa to thank for this little trick.”

Due to the majority of the group being tired from the fight they had been through, it was decided that they would rest for the next hour or so. The Quarray eels had apparently been crushed to the point that they didn’t even make any sort of noise while the ponies waited. In fact, once the group set out to travel again, the eels still remained missing, much to the group’s delight. The ponies traveled for the rest of the afternoon, which was a few hours at best. Deciding that traveling at night would be a death wish at best, the group set up a small camp and the adults took turns watching for trouble until the morning.

From a perch at the top of the canyon, a pair of ponies watched the group. One was light gray with a dark purple mane while the other was dark gray with a lavender mane, and both were clearly Bat Ponies.

“Send word to Canterlot,” said the dark gray Bat Pony, “The Crystal Heiress is on the move with a small group of rebels.”

“As you command, Commander Umbra,” replied the light gray one before flying off to the north.