Griffinstone United

Awaken.

She awoke to pitch black.

Rising unsteadily, she placed a hand on the damp, uneven stone wall for support. She couldn't see her own claws in front of her face, but that could easily be fixed. Digging into her pouch, she grabbed three of the small pearls and drained them.

She tossed the colorless balls away and held out her hand. Quickly, a brilliant light shone from it, bathing the area in a yellow light. While the magic didn't have any target to heal, it still shone light, slowly burning away her magical reserves.

She inspected her surroundings. A steep wall of stone that was slightly slanted stood in front of her, leading to a darkness above. The tunnel continued behind her, jagged rocks protruding from the uneven ground.

How did I end up here-?

All too soon, the memories came flooding back, along with a horrible, thumping pain. The cart being destroyed, the ponies falling into the chasm, her diving after them, then everything going to black.

Ellie smacked her dry beak, only then realizing how thirsty she was. Her head throbbed heavily, and she bore many scrapes, cuts, and gashes, but she worked through the pain, searching for her canteen of water, hopefully not spilled. While some might be cursing in anger or stifling a cry of agony from the sheer amount of pain that she felt, she was fine with it. Pain was the only thing that quelled the voices.

Once she found it, she eagerly uncapped the bottle and relished the water that flooded her mouth. In the distance she could see another canteen. Curious, she walked over and stared at it, her sluggish, throbbing mind slowly processing what it meant. Once she did, her eyes widened.

The others!

Her hand shone brighter and she could see red splatters in the ground, a sniff confirming her assumptions. She followed the trail and found a large red stallion in a ripped coat, and she cringed at his leg. The bone was showing, a large chunk of flesh ripped free from his leg. Blood had been flowing freely from the wound for a while, for there he was lying in a small dried puddle of it. A rucksack full of apples lay nearby, spilling its contents out onto the ground, away from the crimson pool.

She stifled a yelp, instead focusing her healing magic on the giant buck. The tissue started to reform excruciatingly slow, showing that the injury would take weeks, maybe even a month, to heal fully even with all of her magic.

Well, healing magic, that is.

"Come on, come on," she mumbled to herself, putting her head down and listening for a pulse. It was slow, but there was a steady thumping by his hoof. Ellie sighed in relief, opening her own sack that was still strapped to her cloak and pulling out bandages, thinking of what she could do. She might be able to mend his leg enough to where the flesh was back and the skin had reformed, but he'd still have a sore hoof for a long, long time. Big Mac wasn't going to be able to buck anything for a while, apple tree or otherwise.

About thirty minutes later, Ellie tore off the end of the gauze with her beak, leaving it be once she was done wrapping his leg. She began to talk to herself as she broke out in a sweat. "He'll be okay, it's okay, everything's okay." I hope, she thought, biting the lip of her beak. But what of Amethyst and Benedict? They could be dead! Or worse, they might be lying in pieces, making it impossible for her to fix. No, she had to stay optimistic, though. She always did.

She easily found the purple unicorn lying face down, much less wounded. The entire side of her body had turned a sickly yellow, a giant bruise. Okay, so a bruise wasn't that bad. But... What if she had some internal damage. Ellie fretted, considering what she could do. The rock had slammed into her pretty hard, and she was sure that there was some sort of cracking sounds. Maybe just a few broken ribs, hopefully.

She quivered, unsure of what to do. She didn't want to use it, not on her new friends, but it was the only option to make sure that her insides were intact or not.

Wincing, she raised her shining hand while she lowered the other, a dark sphere slowly forming in the palm of her hand. It sucked away the aimless light from her other hand, creating strange shadows in her hand. Hesitating, she raised it towards the fallen unicorn, tapping into the other side of her magic.

Ellie cringed as she could see the insides of Amethyst's body in her mind, every small detail. The lungs were working properly, the heart was beating, but two ribs had been cracked. No big deal.

Immediately extinguishing her ball of shadow, she started to work her good magic, her healing magic, on the broken rib, putting it back in place. Ellie wouldn't be able to do much for the cracks, they would heal slowly on their own, but she could stop the broken piece from traveling anywhere and sticking it back in the right place.

Behind her, Big Mac began to stir, muttering things. Ellie immediately rushed over, hushing him.

"Shush, it will be fine," she said, masking her fright with a nervous smile. His eyes began to dart all over the place before calming, staring directly at her. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

"What was that?" she asked, leaning closer.

"Water," he croaked.

Of course! She'd been parched, so why wouldn't they all be? As she walked back to the other fallen canteen, she could feel her pearl reserves getting low. Pouting, she reached into her pouch and grasped several more, draining them and then tossing them to the ground before grabbing the canteen. They rolled around on the floor behind her as she returned, uncapping it and putting up to his mouth, his face easing with comfort. He began to move his legs to get up, but she stopped him.

"No, don't." He looked up at her questioningly. "Your leg, it's horribly wounded. I'll help you up later, but just stay here for now, I'm going to find Benedict." He silently nodded in response, shifting to a more comfortable position before she left. As she left them in the darkness, she could hear Amethyst begin to move.

It's all going to be fine, Ellie continued to tell herself. Everything will be just fine-

She stopped, aghast, beak dropped at what she saw. Just in the far corner, her light shone what looked like a wing. A bloodied, bent wing...

"Benedict!" she loudly whispered, gripped with panic. She let out a whoosh of air when she saw that the wing was still attached, and was just sticking out from behind a rock barrier, hiding Benedict. Then again, it being bent at a horribly unnatural angle wasn't all that better.

Ellie was already unpacking her bandages and gauze, magically mending his horribly broken wing. It had nearly been torn in half somehow, and the other wing was almost twisted all the way around. She had to use her other magic to manipulate the flesh and bone, twisting it back to its original position. She wouldn't dare do it on the other mangled wing however; the last thing she wanted to do was fall in the habit of using that magic, and his other wing could be fixed without it.

She lightly shoved him into a sitting position, propping him up against the large mass of stone that he'd been behind. There weren't many other wounds, besides a couple more cuts and gashes, but everyone had that. She seemed to have the most, but that was a good thing. More pain to suppress him, at least.

A light came from the distance, making her tense, but she quickly calmed. It's probably Amethyst, she thought.

Just as she'd guessed, the purple unicorn slowly approached, a ball of fire above her to light her path. She stopped in front of Ellie, and both of them met one another's eyes.

"I see that you've been working," Amethyst noted. "I saw Big Macintosh's leg, and I went ahead and gathered the remaining canteens; I saw the one you left by him."

"Oh, that's good," she said, walking away from Benedict.

"Beyond," she stated, keeping a flat face. "All of our supplies were destroyed or lost back there. I'm grateful that you've seen to our health, Ellie."

Rather than responding with a 'thank you,' Ellie just frowned. "How are you so calm during all this?"

"One must always keep a cool head," she replied simply. And not have voices in their heads, she added silently, frown deepening. Amethyst walked past her and stared at Benedict for a moment before turning to her. "He won't be rousing for a while, will he?"

She sighed, sitting down beside the sleeping griffon. "No, probably not. His wings are pretty messed up."

Amethyst slowly sat down next to Ellie, wincing slightly as her bruised left flank touched the cold stone ground. "So now we are two."

"Huh?"

"Our squad of seven has turned to two separate groups. It seems that the Red Gear soldiers are not with us.

"Oh." The two sat with each other for a while silently, Ellie shooting looks at Benedict every now and then.

"You care for him, do you not?" Amethyst asked, surprising Ellie. She didn't expect her to spring a question like this on her.

"Well, I, uh..." She couldn't find the right words to say, tongue tangled.

For the first time that Ellie had seen, Amethyst smirked. "I'm guessing that's a yes."

"Yeah," she said, breathing out.

"As soon as we are all ready, we should find a way out immediately."

"I don't think that Big Macintosh will be ready to walk."

"Oh, he will. You underestimate the power of Geomancy greatly. It will dampen the pain, strengthening his muscles. The only food we have is Benedict's purchases at Craggle Creag and the apples Big Macintosh got there. Our canteens are the only sources of water, but I'm sure that we can try to eat the snow, if we find any of it that's clean.

"I'd rather not admit this, but I have actually been quite eager to go through Thunder Gate since the start, regardless of our current failure. There is so much we don't know about the north, lost by time, and these recent events have only sparked my interest. If I can, I'd love to log everything that happens so that I can share my findings when or if we get back."

Ellie paused. "If?"

"Of course," Amethyst said in a matter-of-fact tone. "You must have realized that this could be a one way trip, correct? I see no feasible way to get back home, besides perhaps venturing further north to investigate why this cold weather has spread southwards and then there afterwards finding a way back through Thunder Gate, or another cross way."

"Oh." Ellie stared at the ground, moving her talon in circles. Amethyst looked at her, leaning her head back.

"You've focused so much on our well-being, but you are bleeding from numerous scrapes and cuts. Perhaps it'd be best if you-"

"I'm fine," she cut her off quickly. They sat in silence for a while more, the ball of fire crackling in the air. Ellie came to a start when Benedict jerked upwards beside her, eyes twitching open as he came to a coughing fit. She immediately rose, as did Amethyst.

"Hey," he croaked, turning his head, "can I get a drink of water?"

Amethyst beat her to it, floating one of the bottles to his beak for him to start swallowing. He nodded his thanks and rose unsteadily, Ellie putting a hand on his shoulder, worried.

"Can you-?"

"Walk?" he finished. "Yeah, but my wings hurt like a bitch. What happened-" His beak immediately went open and his eyes went wide, obviously telling her that the memories were coming back for him now. Amethyst trotted away from the two, flaming ball above her to light the way.

He stumbled, leaning on the rock that he had earlier sat against. "Oh, good God, I'm going to be sick," he muttered. Ellie hurried to his side once more, giving him her shoulder to steady himself, even if he did have the rock.

"Amethyst thinks that we should leave here as soon as possible, search this cave for a way out," Ellie told him, who nodded absentmindedly. Looking past him, Ellie noticed Amethyst standing where Ellie had woken up, leafing through a book. She then realized that she'd left her rucksack full of books...

Her mind put the dots together all too quickly. She rushed over, Benedict raising an eyebrow, snatching it from her telekinetic grip like a madman. She wasn't far from one, honestly. Amethyst just stared at her with her flat expression before turning around and trotting towards Big Mac, albeit at a much slower pace than before.

What'd she read!? Ellie thought frantically, flipping through the pages while one hand still glowed so that she could read the page numbers. She looked to her side and saw that she had caught Benedict's attention, who was slowly approaching. Immediately, she shut the dark leather tome and stuffed it in her sack, the golden word Ray glittering from her light before being crammed into the cloth bag.

She grinned sheepishly as he stopped in front of her, beads of sweat dripping down her head. Please don't say anything, please don't say anything, please don't say anything...

Benedict frowned, eyebrow raising even further skeptically before shutting his eyes tight and sighing. It was evident that he was too worn out to question her. Next to Big Mac, he had been injured the worst. He began to walk towards Big Mac and Amethyst, both wings covered in gauze and bandages like a mummy. She caught Amethyst's eye, and she silently begged her to tell her what she now knew through the eye contact, but she remained solemnly silent, turning when Benedict asked her a question.

Better off to kill them, God whispered as her multiple pains were subsiding completely.

No! She reached into her dirtied white cloak and pulled out a small blade from a pocket, running it down her arm, away from the others' sight. The pain caused God's voice to vanish, if only for a while. She slumped against the wall where she had woken up, slowly sliding down, clutching the rucksack close to her. Blood dropped freely from the wound, dripping onto the brown sack. It wasn't a deep wound, it never was, but it was enough to silence him for a little while.

She couldn't deal with him right now, she wouldn't. Her friends needed her, and she needed them. Besides, the voice was always telling her to kill the people she met. It was almost never that it actually spoke truth or helpfulness.

Almost.