Chapters Rapid Violet's green eyes flicked over to the nearby forest, and then back to the pony standing in front of her.
"So a crazy pony lives that forest, huh?" she asked.
"Yes!" said the pony, nodding vigorously, "She lives in a large tree and does crazy magic!"
"Uh-huh."
"Just ask anypony who's gone int that forest, and they'll agree with me! She's completely insane!"
The pony walked off, and Violet rolled her eyes. She had heard several rumors about there being a "crazy pony" living in the forest, but they all had slight variations. Some said that she was a pegasus, others said she was a unicorn. Some said that she would attack anypony she saw, others said she had no control over her actions. However, there was one thing all of the rumors agreed on: she was dangerous, and nopony should ever rick going near her.
Violet gave a small snort of disbelief, and then turned towards the forest. She knew that's where a Star Flower was, and she was going to get it no matter what. As she started into the forest, she heard a pony yell to her from behind.
"You shouldn't go into that forest! There's a crazy pony living in there!"
"I don't believe in that nonsense!" called back Violet, before sprinting into the forest, and leaving the town behind her.
She resumed walking at a normal pace once she could no longer see anything but trees and plants, and kept an eye open for the Star Flower. She just had to find it! Violet began to image what it would be like once she found the flower, and gave it to a museum.
Maybe I would be considered famous... she thought, And I would get an amazing reward!
A loud noise sounded in the distance, and Violet paused in surprise. It sounded similar to that of an explosion, but how and why would something just randomly explode in the forest? She rolled her eyes, and continued walking deeper into the forest. She was going to find that flower!
A bright flash of orange light caught Violet off guard, and she tripped over a root. She tumbled down a hill that she definitely hadn't been in front of her earlier, and crashed into a tree. She gave a small help of pain and the unexpected stop, and carefully stood up. The trees above her were far thicker than they had been moments before, and had thick green vines that looked extremely easy for somepony to get tangled up in.
"Incoming!" cried out a mare's voice.
"Huh?" asked Violet, looking around to see who had yelled.
Her question was answered a moment later when a pegasus crashed into the trees and vines above her, and was quickly tangled up in them. She fell to the ground, and was dangled upside down by the vines above her. Violet turned around just in time for them to meet nose-to-nose, and the pegasus gave an awkward grin.
"Um..." said the pegasus. "Hi?"
Violet blinked, and then took a step back. "I wasn't expecting to see somepony else in this forest."
The pegasus cocked her head in confusion, which seemed rather difficult to do while upside-down. "Nopony told you?"
"Told me what?"
"That I live in here! Yeesh, tell ponies to do one simple thing..."
It was Violet's turn to cock her head in confusion. "You're the crazy pony?"
"I'm not crazy!"
Violet raised her eyebrow. "You're a pegasus, and yet you haven't flow up to get out of these vines."
At this, the pegasus smiled, and then started to laugh. "Hah! You think I know how to fly?"
"You are a pegasus. Most ponies assume that pegasus mares can fly."
The pegasus's laugh died away, and she frowned. "I'm not a pegasus."
"You have wings."
"I'm a unicron."
"I believe you mean unicorn, which you are clearly not."
"A unicron is-" the pegasus was cut off as the vines holding her up snapped, and she was deposited onto the ground. "Ouch..." She quickly stood up, just as there was a flash of orange light. In that instant, the pegasus's wings vanished, and were replaced with an orange unicorn horn. "Aaaaaand that would be what a unicron is."
Violet's eyes widened in surprise. "Um, nice magic trick?"
The pegasus, er, unicorn, sighed. "I don't know how to do magic either. In fact, I'm an Earth pony. Well, I was an Earth pony."
"No, you're a unicorn."
The unicorn gave Violet a sharp glare. "I'm. A. Unicron."
"That still isn't a real th-"
Her horn suddenly flared with orange magic, and there was a flash of light. Violet closed her eyes from the bright flash, and rubbed her eyes in surprise.
"What was that for?" she snapped, opening her eyes.
The unicorn's eyes widened with fear. "Get down, get down!"
"Why do I-"
The unicorn quickly dove forward and knocked Violet onto the ground bride she could finish. At that moment, several vines went zooming out towards they had been standing.
"Sorry." said the unicorn sheepishly. "Stuff like that happens a lot."
Violet simply stood up, and continued walking. "Well, that was a distraction, but I have a flower I need to find."
The unicorn suddenly appeared in front of her. "What kind of flower?"
"I'd tell you, but I don't want to risk competition."
"The Star Flower, huh? Yeah, get several ponies in here every year looking for that flower. Too bad it's super hard to find."
"It glow during the full moon. That's why I came at this time of the year."
The unicorn smirked. "You can only see the glow if you've seen the flower."
Violet stared at her unamusingly. "And how would you know that?"
"'Cause I've seen it before. Duh."
This caused Violet to pause. "You've seen the Star Flower, and you didn't take it or anything?"
"It changes location at midnight. It's a magical flower, after all."
"But you've seen it?"
"Yep! It was midnight, but I saw it for a few seconds!"
Violet gave a sigh. "So you're positive that you saw it?"
The unicorn rolled her eyes. "I'm sure."
"Then can you... help me find it..."
"What was that?"
"CanyouhelpmefindtheStarFlower?"
"I still don't understand what you're saying."
"Help me find the flower!"
The unicorn smiled. "Well, why did you just ask?" Her horn suddenly flared up, and there was a flash of orange light. Violet blinked, and then found herself standing next to the unicorn in a treehouse.
"What just happened?" asked Violet.
"Hey, we're in my house!" said the unicorn. "Teleportation brought me somewhere I wanted to be for once!"
There was creepy tapping noise on one of the walls of the treehouse, and Violet nervously tapped at the floor.
"Um, what is that sound?" she asked.
"Eh..." the unicorn gave a nervous smile. "Giant spiders..."
A huge spider jumped in through one of the windows, and Violet instantly reacted by freezing up and slowly backing away from it.
"Why did it have to be spiders?" she whispered nervously. "Why couldn't it have been snakes?"
"We should probably run!" said the unicorn nervously.
"Gee, really?"
The spider jumped towards Violet, and the unicorn quickly jumped forward and knocked her out of the way. Unfortunately, this caused both of them to fall out the window and plummet through the trees and vines. Violet was brought to an abrupt stop by her forehooves and tail getting wrapped in the thick vines, and holding her upside-down. The unicorn had wings again, but they were firmly wrapped in vines. She grinned sheepishly at Violet once more.
"Eheheh... Sorry..."
Violet simply groaned.
"Hey, you never told me your name."
"It's Rapid Violet."
"I'm Razor Blade!"
"Great."
"So, anything else you want to do while we're hanging around?"
Violet groaned again.
"Can't you get us down or something?" asked Violet, trying to get the vines off of her limbs.
"Even if I could get these vines off, there's a loooooong drop to the ground." said Razor, not even trying to loosen the vines around her wings. "But maybe if we're lucky my friend Raven will show up!"
"You have a raven for a friend?"
"No, her name is Red Raven! She's a zebra with a red coat and black stripes! She sometimes comes out here to get new ingredients for her potions! She normally visits me and give me some potions so things like spiders don't get me."
"...You live alone in a forest. In a treehouse. With the risk of spiders every day. And you have a friend that is a zebra with a genetic mutation."
"Yep! I also have a friend named Blast Bang, but she's a griffin! She's off in Griffinstone, but she sent me a letter saying that she was going to visit soon!"
Violet stared wordlessly at Razor, who was simply smiling back at her.
"Razor!" called a voice from above. "Razor! Where are you?"
"Down here, Raven!" called Razor. "Stuck in the vines!"
"Again? Okay, I'll be down in a minute!"
"How exactly is she getting down here?" asked Violet with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity.
"She carries ropes made of vine because most of her potion ingredients are in the trees!" said Razor happily. "Plus, I get stuck in high places a lot, so... Yeah."
A rope of braided vines fell down from above and right next to Razor. A zebra with a blue and white mane and red coat, who must have been Raven, slid down it while holding an odd knife in her teeth. She looked at Violet in surprise, and took the knife out and held it in her hoof.
"Razor, when did you make a new friend?" asked Raven.
"I just asked her to help me find something." said Violet, clearly irritated. "But I didn't expect for this to happen whatsoever."
"You looking for the Star Flower, too?" Raven started carefully cutting away the ropes around Razor's wings.
"Do really that many ponies come looking for it that both of you know what I'm looking for?"
"Yep." affirmed Razor and Raven simultaneously.
"I've tried to find it, too." said Raven. "But Razor and I never did. I wanted just one of its petals to use for potions, but... I guess it's just that hard to find."
There was a sudden flash of orange light, and Razor had a horn instead of wings. She instantly reached her hooves up and grabbed the vines that had been wrapped around her wings. Raven glanced down at the trees and vines, and appeared to be thinking.
"Three metres forward and one to the right." she said to Razor. "Make sure it's your forehooves."
"Sure thing!" said Razor, before letting go of the vines and falling.
Violet's eyes widened in surprise. "What just happened?"
"I'm okay!" called Razor from below.
"She normally new up falling so I just direct her to the best place." said Raven with a shrug. "And she always makes it."
"Uh, can you help me down now?" asked Violet.
"Sure thing. I just need to readjust where my rope is. I'll be back in just a minute!"
Raven rather quickly, and very easily, climbed back up her rope, and vanished out of Violet's sight. Violet continued to try and get the vines off of her, when she noticed something directly above descending very slowly. A moment later, one of the giant spiders landed on her, and she completely froze in fear.
"Hey, Violet!" called Razor from below. "You gonna be down soon?"
"Sp-sp-spider..." whispered Violet, her eyes wide.
"What was that?"
"Spider! " she cried as it moved closer to her face.
"Vi? Are you scared of spiders?"
Violet was too scared to respond. The spider seemed to glare at her with all eight of its eyes, before it began to wrap her in silk.
"Vi!" called Razor, sounding concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Spider spider spider spider spider spider..." whispered Violet nervously.
"Vi, you-" Razor cut off as a sudden beam of magic zoomed up and knocked the spider off of Violet. "Sorry! Didn't mean to do that! Are you okay?"
Violet remained silent as Raven's rope was thrown down next to her. Raven quickly descended, looking far less joyful than when she had climbed up it.
"Stupid spiders..." she muttered before noticing the silk around Violet and her completely terrified look. "You okay?"
"F-fine." managed Violet. "Razor hit it with her magic or something."
"On purpose?"
"Nope!" called Razor from below.
"Didn't think it was." She pulled out her knife as started to cut Violet free. "Yeesh, you gotta fear of spiders or something?" Violet's eye twitched. "Ohhhhhh... Then why did you ever come into this forest? There's like, seven billion of them. "
"There's more?" asked Violet nervously.
"You know what, let's pretend I didn't say anything!"
Violet glared at Raven, just as her tail was cut free. She swung backwards due to the fact that she was only being held up by her forehooves, before those vines both snapped. Raven quickly tried to reach out and grab her, but Violet fell by her too quickly.
"Why?!?" cried Violet.
Luckily, Violet got tangled up in more vines that stopped her fall. Unluckily, they wrapped tightly around her and left her dangling upside-down. She was brought to a complete halt right before hitting a tree branch, and came nose-to-nose with Razor who was holding onto the branch.
"Hey, this is the opposite of what happened earlier!" said Razor with a grin.
And Violet groaned once more.
As her hooves finally touched solid ground, Violet gave a sigh of relief. She still had the spider silk on her, due to how sticky it was, but Raven told her that she could mix up a potion to safely get it off. The tree of them walked through the forest, looking for any sign of the Star Flower.
"You know," said Raven, "I just noticed that your cutie mark is a shooting star."
"And?" asked Violet.
"I was just wondering it means. After all, my cutie mark is a potion, so that one's easy to figure out. Razor's used to be a leaf and she still loves to garden."
"Used to be?"
"Now it's a flame." said Razor sadly. "It was a pretty green leaf, but it changed after I became a unicron."
"Okay... Well, I have a shooting star because I'm really fast." Raven and Razor stared. "What?"
"It's just because you're fast?" asked Raven. "I thought it was because you were an astronomer or something!"
"An astro-thermometer?"
"Never mind..."
Violet simply nodded. Raven and Razor were really weird.
I just want to find the Star Flower! thought Violet. But instead I have deal with Razor's nutty magic! And Raven kinda creeps me out...
"Hold up." said Raven, throwing a hoof in front of Violet to stop her. "That's quicksand."
Violet glanced down at the grass-covered ground, and then back at Raven. "It looks like normal ground to me."
"It's still quicksand. You don't really think that's there giant pits of easy-to-spot quicksand around, do you? Of course not! It's underneath innocent looking grass and other plants!"
Violet sighed. "Fine. Then which way isn't there quicksand?"
Razor's horn suddenly flared up, and both Raven and Violet automatically ducked. There was a flash of orange light, and Razor reappeared about ten metres away from Raven and Violet.
"...Was that it?" asked Violet.
"Odd." said Raven. "Usually nothing this so low-key happens. Anyways, we can just walk around the quicksand. We can just go back the way we walked in and go around in a ten metres diameter."
Violet nodded, and she and Raven started going back they way they had gone. But after just a few steps, Violet's hoof sank deep into the ground, just as Raven was trying to pull her's out.
"Razor, you changed where the quicksand is!" cried Raven, who stopped trying to pull her hoof out. "Get a rope or something!"
"Got it!" said Razor, turning around and trying to pull a vine off a tree.
"And don't try t o pull your hooves out!" said Raven, looking over at Violet as she sank deeper into the quicksand. "It just makes it pull you faster!"
"But I don't wanna diiiiie!" cried Violet.
"Honestly, did you not do any research on the stuff in this forest?"
"I did! And there was nothing on giant spiders or quicksand!"
A vine was thrown over between the Earth pony and zebra, with the other end tied firmly to a tree. Razor smiled nervously.
"Uh, can you guys grab it all?" she asked.
Raven gave a hard tug on her left forehoof, and it came out of the quicksand, though it did cause her other hooves to sink in deeper.
"Can you get your hoof out?" Raven asked Violet quickly.
Violet tried to yank her hoof out, but only succeeded in sinking deeper into the quicksand. "No!" she cried.
"Here." Raven gave Violet the end of the vine, which she grabbed in her mouth. "Make sure you don't let go of it." Violet nodded. "Alright, Razor, pull us out!"
"On it!" Razor grabbed her end of the vine, and started pulling on it as hard as possible.
Raven was able to pull herself out with Razor's help, but Violet was still just holding onto the vines with her mouth. Raven instantly started helping Razor pull Violet out, before the vine snapped in half, and Violet was yanked into the quicksand.
Violet held her breath and kept her eyes tightly shut, while she frantically tried to get out of the quicksand. She felt something wrap tightly around her right forehoof, and she was yanked out of the quicksand. She landed on the ground, and was quickly wrapped up in a hug by Razor.
"Violet, are you okay?" asked Razor nervously.
"Razor, I can't breathe!" said Violet, and the unicorn, er, unicron released her.
"Sorry! I was just so worried! I'm so sorry that I caused that!"
"It's okay." Violet stood up and shook out as much sand from her coat as possible. "You did say that couldn't control your magic..."
"But she just did." said Raven, who looked rather stunned.
"Huh?" asked Razor.
"Were you not paying attention? You used your magic to grab Violet with the vine and pull her out."
"I did?" asked Razor as Violet asked, "She did?"
Raven nodded. "Yes."
"Yo!" called a voice from above the trees sudden.
"Yo-yo's are fun!" called back Razor.
A few moments later, a griffin with blue-tinged white feathers and amber fur tore down through the trees and vines, and landed safely on the ground. Violet's mouth dropped open in surprise, but Razor and Raven weren't fazed.
"Hi, Blast!" said Razor. "I thought you were going to be in Griffinstone for another week!"
"Eh." said Blast. "I got bored." She noticed Violet staring at her. "What? Never seen a griffin before?"
"Um, no..." said Violet nervously.
"Then don't judge the rest of 'em based off of me."
"Okay..." Violet looked warily at Blast's talons.
Blast rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna hurt you."
"I know, it just makes me kinda nervous..."
"You know, it would have been very helpful if you had been here earlier." said Raven. "There's more spiders than usual."
Blast smirked. "Well, guess I'll have to deal with those pesky lil' things now."
Almost like it was on cue, another giant spider descended down next to Violet, who instantly moved away from it. Blast spread out her wings, and pounced at the spider, snapping its webbing it had climbed down on. Raven abruptly blocked Violet's view, just as it occurred to the Earth pony what the griffin was going to do. A minute later, Raven lowered her hoof and Violet stared at the space where the no-longer-existing spider had been.
"They still taste good." said Blast with a grin.
Razor nodded, and though she was still smiling, it was a nervous one.
"Honestly, can you please not do that in front of us?" asked Raven, sounding irritated. "I'd prefer if you'd stop scaring Razor. And please don't scar Violet for life, neither physically or mentally."
"Ray, you're such a buzzkill." said Blast.
"And you're such a spiderkill."
Blast rolled her eyes and walked over to Violet. "Anyways, it's nice to meet 'cha. Name's Blast Bang."
"Rapid Violet." she replied nervously.
"So, what're you hanging out with Raze for, V?"
"Trying to find the Star Flower."
"That thing that ponies keep looking for? Yeah, good luck with that."
"Blast, be nice." said Razor firmly.
"Sorrrrry. I happen to live with other griffins. Anyways, were questing for a flower? Sure, sounds cool enough."
Another spider came down in front of Violet, who quickly stepped back from it. Blast pounced it, but another one came down.
"It's a bunch of them!" cried Raven, pulling Violet away from another spider. "Blast, can you get them all?"
"Uh, maybe?" replied the griffin, pouncing at another spider.
Violet nervously stepped back from the descending spiders, until she realized that she had backed right into the quicksand, again. A spider crawled closer to her, and Violet froze in fear. She sank deeper into the quicksand, but Razor and Raven had already gotten out of the way of Blast and the spiders, so they didn't come over.
"Why spiders?" whispered Violet, but as one landed on her face. She frantically shook the creature off, which caused her to sink even deeper into the quicksand. "Why, why spiders?"
Violet suddenly felt a lack of anything underneath her rear hooves, and slipped completely down into the quicksand. She managed to get a breath of air before being pulled completely in, but suddenly fell out of the quicksand and landed on solid, though very sandy, ground.
Violet took in a deep breath of air, and looked around in the inky darkness. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, and she was able to make out stone walls on two sides of her.
Am I in some ruins or something? she thought.
"Violet!" cried Razor's faint voice from above her. "Violet, where did you go?"
"Razor!" yelled Violet. "I'm down here! I got caught in the quicksand!"
"Violet!" Razor couldn't hear her. Violet's ears wilted with worry.
"Razor!" she yelled as loud as possible. "Raven! Blast!"
There was no response. Violet continued to stare up at where she had fallen from, but nothing happened. She sighed sadly, and then started walking down whatever ruins she was in, looking for an exit. The complete silence was starting to creep her out, but Violet tried not to panic.
Just completely and totally alone in some creepy ruins that I entered through quicksand. I just need to stay calm...
Violet abruptly tripped over something, which caused her to flip head-over-hooves. She landed on the ground and felt something tugging on her right hoof, and remembered that the vine was still tied around it.
Either there's something down here that grabbed it, or this vine is really long and Razor or Raven grabbed it. I'm really, really, hoping that it's the second one...
Violet started to stand up when the ground underneath her suddenly fell away. She let out a startled cry, before simply hanging in a dark abyss by the single vine around her hoof.
"Razor, you're going to use your magic if you don't-" came Raven's voice before Violet started falling again, and went out of ear shot.
She managed to grab onto a brick or something that was jutting out, but only managed to hold it for a few seconds before she couldn't grip any longer. Violet started to fall, again, when the vine around her hoof was grabbed in orange magic. She looked up and saw Razor with the other end of the vine wrapped around her hoof, and her horn glowing brightly.
"Vi, are you okay?" called down Razor to her.
"I'm fine!" replied Violet. "Do you think you can pull me up?"
"I'll try..."
Razor closed her eyes tightly and her horn glowed brighter. Violet felt the vine jerk upwards a bit, but barely enough to make a difference of how far down she was. Razor was gritting her teeth and trying as hard as possible to make her magic cooperate, before her horn flickered out. Violet instantly resumed falling, and Razor was yanked down the pit after her. Both ponies cried out as they fell into the dark abyss, and Violet closed her eyes tight with fear.
"...So when do we worry about them being dead?" asked Blast as she and Raven stared at the quicksand.
"Clearly you haven't analyzed Razor's magic as much as I have." said Raven calmly. "You already know that she has extremely minimal control over it-"
"It would be easier if she just let me teach her how to fly!"
"She is literally incapable of moving her wings on her own accord. They move on their own just like how her magic acts on its own. Though, she has shown moments of control. Take what just happened: Razor grabbed the vine in her mouth like she normally does, but she unconsciously used her magic to tie it around her hoof. "
"We're we talking about something else three seconds ago?"
Raven sighed and rolled her eyes. "Just let me finish. See, young unicorns have sparks of magic so it doesn't build up and hurt them. These sparks never actually end up hurting anyone, though, since there's some part of their magic that prevents that from happening. The similar thing happens to Razor when her magic just happens. I've never actually seen Razor's raw magic get anyone hurt before, and it's only things from the surrounding area that ever have a risk of doing harm.
"Such as when Razor teleports, she ends up in perfectly safe locations. She lands on solid ground or gets tangled in vines that prevent her from crashing into the ground. But often she will teleport somewhere in the forest, and end up running into some spiders. I make a lot fo those repelling potions for a reason."
"So Razor's definitely not dead?"
"Definitely not. I'm more worried about Violet." Raven looked closely at the quicksand pit. "She had a rather long vine tied to her, but a quicksand pit shouldn't be deep enough for it to have been pulled in that far. Therefore she somehow ended up some place else, and Razor is most likely with her."
"Then why exactly are you worried? She's with Razor, she'll be fine."
Raven sighed for a second time. "Blast, how many friends does Razor have?"
Blast raised her eyebrow in confusion. "You, me, and her brother and sister."
"And how long have we all know her for?"
"Several years."
"And how long has Violet known her for?"
"I don't know. I just met her today."
"She just met Razor!" cried Raven. "Violet barely knows anything about Razor! You and I both know the types of things that can happen when we're with her, but Violet has no clue! Do you remember how panicked we got when we met Razor? But at least we also met her siblings who could help us calm down! And who's going to calm down Violet?!?"
Blast winced from Raven's yell. "Okay, okay, I get it! So what do we do now?"
"Right now, we just go do something else while we wait for them to both come back." Raven paused ans mused out loud. "Maybe if we found someone with magic complementary to Razor's she could use it as a stabilizer..."
Blast grinned as Raven turned away from the quicksand and started to walk away. "Or we could do something cooler."
"What do you-" Raven was cut off as Blast grabbed her hoof and yanked her into the quicksand pit, before jumping in after her. "Blast! What the hay?!?"
"We're doing something cooler!"
"Blast, I can't believe you-" Raven was cut off for a second time as Blast gave her a sharp tug, and yanked her down into the quicksand.
When are we going to stop falling?!? thought Violet as she continued to fall in the darkness. Are we caught in an endless loop or is this pit just so deep?!?
"Violet, try to grab onto that bar!" cried Razor from above her.
Violet's eyes flicked open, and the first thing she noticed was that it had gotten much brighter. The second thing she noticed was some sort of bar in the middle of the narrow pit she and Razor were falling down just ahead of her. She quickly moved to the side of it and reached out her hoof to grab it, and actually managed to. But like before, she only managed to hold it for a few seconds before her hoof slipped and gravity took over once more.
She glanced up to see Razor move to the other side of the bar, and also grab onto it. Violet was brought to another abrupt stop, before Razor also lost her grip and fell. But since they had each gone onto a different side of the bar, the vine was caught on it and both ponies were brought to a halt. Razor crashed into Violet due to the fact that they were both swinging back and forth, and both of them winced from the impact.
"Sorry!" said Razor.
"It's fine..." said Violet, nervously glancing down at the seemingly unending abyss.
"But I should have seen you get stuck in the quicksand and gone over to help you... I'm so sorry!"
"Why are you sorry?" asked Violet. "You just risked your life to save me, and it's my fault for not trying to get anypony's attention."
"But it's still my fault that you're in this mess..."
"Hey, I'm the one who asked you for help finding the Star Flower. Plus... this has actually been really fun. You want to know why I didn't come into this forest with any equipment? I was just planning on walking around and looking for the flower until I got tired of it or it got dark."
"You're not upset?"
Violet gave a nervous smile. "Not a bit. I am scared right now, but I'm not mad you at all, Razor."
A small snapping sound caught their attention, and they looked up to see the vine starting to rip. Violet's ears flattened with nervousness, and she looked away from the vine.
"Can you use your magic or something to stop it from breaking?" asked Violet nervously.
"If we're lucky it might..." said Razor.
"Just try and make it work yourself! There's no harm in an attempt!"
The vine snapped more, and Razor's horn flickered with magic. She closed her eyes and her magic made it to a normal level. The vine nearly broke, but it was grabbed in Razor's orange magic before it could. Violet smiled, but remained silent so she wouldn't distract Razor.
"Is it working?" asked Razor nervously.
"Yes!" said Violet. "Just keep doing whatever it is you're doing."
Razor managed a nod, when her magic suddenly ripped the vine apart. Violet stared up nervously at the two ends were brought back together, and tied tightly together. She gave a sigh of relief as the vine was placed back down on the bar, but didn't come apart.
"Blast, I swear I'm going to turn your feathers pink!" yelled Raven angrily from above.
"Yeesh, Raven!" Blast replied. "Calm down! It's not like we're going to die or something!"
"You don't know that for sure!"
"Raven! Blast!" yelled Razor. "Need some assistance!"
"Razor?"
"We fell in a pit!" Razor's horn finally flickered out. "And I don't know how long this vine is going to hold!"
"On it!" replied Blast.
"Blast, what do you think you're-" started Raven before letting out a cry of surprise. "Blast! You know I don't like flying!!!"
"Um, what are they doing?" whispered Violet to Razor.
"I think that Blast is flying down here with Raven." said Razor. "Or she's just messing around with Raven, which could be just as likely."
Razor's vine suddenly snapped, and her horn flared up. Violet's vine was tied tightly to the bar, but Razor didn't start falling. Violet realized that Razor had gotten stuck on the spider silk around her, and started worrying that Razor wasn't going to stay on very long due to all of the sand on the silk. Razor quickly swung her broken vine over Violet's, and grabbed the other end in her free hoof.
Come on, Blast! thought Violet as she felt Razor slowly be pulled away by gravity. How long does it take to fly down here and get us?
She got her answer when moments later Blast appeared above them with Raven on her back. Raven quickly got off the griffin and stood on the bar, and both of them grabbed the vine that Violet was attached to.
"Are you okay?" asked Raven nervously.
"We're-" started Violet before Razor lost her grip on her vine and came unstuck from the spider silk. She instantly started falling, but there wasn't enough room for Blast to fly down after her.
All three stared down wordlessly for a moment.
"...I was going to say fine, but I guess-" Violet cut off as her vine snapped, and she also plummeted.
Violet resumed falling for whatever number time it was by this point, and tried to look for Razor falling below her. The pit was she falling down suddenly was split in the middle by something semi-transparent, and Violet moved to the right side so she wouldn't hit it. An orange light flashed on the other side of the divider, and Violet realized that she had gone down the opposite side of Razor.
Wait, no! I don't feel safe falling like this without Razor's magic!
Violet fell back into darkness, and she let out a cry of fear. Now she was scared.
Razor was falling. She was still falling. She was falling and falling and falling. She wasn't even bothering to look down at what was coming up anymore.
Am I stuck in some sort of loop or something? thought Razor. And if I am, how does that even work?
Razor sighed, and closed her eyes. Her magic would do something soon enough to get her out of here.
I hope Blast and Raven got Violet out safely...
Blast landed on the block-off passageways that, unbeknownst to her and Raven, Violet and Razor had each fallen through on each side. Raven quickly jumped off the griffin's back, and examined the two passages.
"Well clearly they had to have gone down at least one direction." said Raven. "But they could have both fallen on the same side, or they could have fallen on opposite sides. I really hope that it's the first one..."
"Why?" asked Blast.
"Razor's magic, though it can be very annoying at times, keeps those within her vicinity safe (usually). Razor will almost always be safe. But if they've fallen down different ways, that means that Violet is no longer in the 'protection field', and she's in far more danger than Razor."
"So how can we tell which way to go?"
"Raven! Blast!" yelled Violet from the right passageway. Help!"
"That would be how." said Raven. "Now, you go after Violet, and I'll wait up here."
"Why are you waiting here?" asked Blast, giving the barrier to the passage a sharp punch.
"For when Razor most likely teleports back here."
"Eh. Okay."
"Would you please just hurry up? Violet very clearly needs help!"
"Yeesh, I'm hurrying!"
Violet could currently be panicking and completely freaking out, but she had been oh-so-lucky enough to have stopped falling. Unluckily, she had landed in a gigantic spider web , but at least she was dangling underneath it by one hoof suck to the webbing.
Spiders spiders spiders spiders... it was as if Violet had gone into a loop of panic. Spiders spiders spiders spiders...
"Pony?" asked an eerie voice from behind her. "Ponies are not supposed to be brought back..."
A spider crawled upside down on the web in front of Violet, who looked at it in pure terror.
"Pony, how did you come to here? asked the spider, coming closer to Violet.
"I f-fell down h-here." managed Violet, trying to lean away from the spider.
"Fell down from where? Ponies should not be able to find out web."
"I j-just fell down a p-pit."
"Pony, you are foolish. We are the spiders of this cavern. We spiders do not like it when ponies come in. That is because ponies don't come in." Violet leaned back farther as the spider came right up to her face. "But you are lucky, pony. We do not allow spiders to have ponies. Once they have one, they aren't going to stop."
The spider moved back, and Violet gave a small sigh of relief.
"Pony you must leave."
"I w-would but I'm st-stuck." said Violet nervously.
"Oh, yes. You are on the web. Wait just a moment, pony. I'll see if the queen can help you get free. After all, we don't normally take things off the web without eating it."
Violet managed a nod, and the spider crawled away on the web. She felt something tap her shoulder, and another spider appeared in front of her.
"Pony?" said the spider. "I do greatly like pony..."
The spider reached over to bite Violet, who reacted by hitting it away with her free hoof. The spider made an awful sound that implied anger, and crawled towards her again.
"D-don't eat me!" cried Violet, too scared to try and be quiet.
"You may not be the orange pony, the stripey pony, or the feathery pony, but I will still see this as revenge."
"Just what are you doing?" asked the spider from earlier, crawling over. "You know the rules: no ponies."
"And how are you going to prevent me? She is in the web."
"Queen Saenathra said that I was to have this pony safely removed from the web."
"And how are you going to do that? Things are not removed from our web like that for a reason."
"She said that I just needed to remove her. I do not need to take the silk."
"We are not letting a pony have our silk!"
"Then how come she already has some?"
Both spiders looked over at the silk still stuck around Violet. Her ears nervously flattened down, and she shook nervously.
"She cannot have our silk." said the second spider angrily.
"I-I could return it t-to you." said Violet. "My friend s-said that she could get it off s-safely, and I can g-give it back to you a-after she does that."
"Pony, you lie!" snapped the second spider, before quickly cutting one of the ends of the web that Violet was on.
"Stop it!" cried the first spider. "The pony has done nothing wrong. It is the fault of whoever tried to capture her earlier that she has the silk. Queen Saenathra said for her to released, and so she shall."
"Fine." replied the second spider angrily. "She can be released."
The second spider quickly cut the other end of the web that Violet was on, and she fell once more. Just as she neared the ground, she was surrounded in an orange glow, and brought to a halt.
"Razor?" asked Violet softly, to which she didn't receive a reply.
"Safely!" yelled the first spider from above her. "The Queen said to release her safely!"
"Oops." said the second spider gleefully. "Guess we can't undo that."
The magic around Violet dissipated, and she landed gently on the ground. A larger spider than the two previous ones crawled over to her, and that sent Violet's fear into overdrive. It slowly approached her, but Violet turned away and ran from it as fast as she could. The area was dark, but she could still see a exit, and sprinted right to it. She quickly turned the corner, and went back into a darker area. Violet nervously walked down the dark passageway, listening for any sign of spiders.
Why does it have to be spiders?!? thought Violet.
She continued walking, before tripping over something that was stretched across the ground. Violet tumbled forward and crashed into another spider web (that was significantly smaller than the giant web but still far larger than an average web), which easily ripped off the rocky walls and wrapped around her. Violet struggled to get the web off of her, to no avail.
"Now what did I catch?" asked a spider, descending down from the ceiling and in front of Violet. "Something good?" the spider stared at Violet with all eight of its eyes. "Hmph. You are a pony. We do not take ponies as prey. My trap has been wasted on you..." it snipped at the web until Violet could actually move. "I'll be taking back this web, but I think you'd prefer to not have it on you."
Violet managed a nod as the spider carefully took the silk and webbing off of her. She really didn't like all of these spiders being so close to her, but at least she would be able to move.
Razor sighed as she continued falling. Her horn had glowed for a moment or two, but then flickered out with nothing happening.
Really? she thought. Nothing? Come on, magic! I prepare for more than this!
"Blast, you really need to learn how to dive faster!" cried Raven from above her.
"I thought you had your rope!" yelled Blast in reply.
"It's an endless loop!" called up Razor to her friends. "There's no bottom! Blast, catch me when I come back around!"
"Sure thing, Raze-" Blast cut off abruptly. "Whoa!"
"Blast, how are you falling?!?" yelled Raven. "You have wings!"
"There's something wrong with gravity!"
"Gravity can't be 'wrong'!"
"Unless this loop works based on gravity spells!" called Razor.
"That would actually explain it!"
"So how do we stop falling?" asked Blast. "I'm not used to not being able to fly!"
"The spell either has to be overloaded or deactivated!"
"How do we overload it?" asked Razor. "Because we definitely can't count on my magic!"
"Um..." Raven paused. "We probably need to add someone else to the loop, and then the spell wouldn't be able to handle all of us."
"I bet that Razor's magic is going to activate before Violet shows up!" called Blast. "What'd you think?"
"Blast, we're not just joking around!"
"Yeah, but we are falling around!"
Blast couldn't see it, but Raven facehooved.
Violet trudged through the dark passageways of who-knows-what-this-place-was, looking around for any sign of Razor, Raven, or Blast. She only had a few stray bits of spider silk left on her, which, though it had taken a spider of all things to help, made everything just a little bit better.
"Why can't anything be easy?" she muttered to herself.
Violet turned a corner and found a bright torch on the wall. She happily grabbed it and held it in her hoof, gleeful that she could finally see. She continued walking until one of the spots she stepped on sank into the ground a bit, and another pit opened underneath her. Fortunately, Violet managed to move out of the way before she fell it, and breathed a sigh of relief.
What is with this place and having so many traps?
Violet was suddenly grabbed in an orange field on magic, that floated her about a metre above the ground.
"Razor?" she asked, but again recieved no response.
"I don't know why it's lighting up! Nothing's happening!"
That sounded like Razor, but Violet couldn't figure out what direction it was coming from. So she simply asked once more.
"Razor, is that you?"
"Violet?"
"Raze, V isn't here!" That sounded like Blast.
"But I just heard her talk!"
"Maybe it's what your magic is doing!" And that was Raven. "Can she hear all of us?"
"Yes." affirmed Violet before Razor could ask her. "But they can't hear me?"
"Are you guys sure you can't hear her?"
"Positive."
"Well, your magic isn't connecting us, so no."
Violet was abruptly dropped on the ground, but Razor's magic still remained around her. She stood up, and made sure she was still holding the torch.
"Where are you?" asked Violet. "I can't find any of you anywhere."
"A bottomless pit. It just keeps looping around and around from gravity spells, and we can't make it stop."
"It sounds really weird for you just talk out loud like that when we can't hear you talking to someone else."
"Blast, please not right now."
"So... How do I get to it?"
"Well, we all fell in at the split that you went down the other side of... Can you get back up it?"
Violet completely froze. "Spiders."
"The giant ones?"
"So many of them..."
"Okay, after this we are going to cure her arachnaphobia."
"Wait, I thought you couldn't-"
"I just used context."
There was a flash of orange light, and Violet found herself standing in a different location in whatever-this-place-was. The orange glow around her suddenly vanished, and her torch went out.
"Razor?" she asked. "Are you still there?"
She was met with no response. Violet sighed and leaned back up against the side of whatever pathway she was in by this point. One of the stones sank into the wall, and Violet abruptly fell onto the ceiling.
"What the hay?" asked Violet in surprise, as she didn't feel like she was upside down.
She looked at the wall she had been leaning on, just as it crumbles away and fell in the same direction as gravity currently felt to her. She walked over to the opening and peeked out, just as she suddenly fell back towards the floor. She fell into the opening and down a pit, before sliding against the side wall and crashing into Razor at the bottom.
"Hey, Vi..." said Razor rather dizzily. "Guess you overloaded the gravity spell, huh?"
Before Violet could respond, Raven came sliding down the other side of the pot and crashed into both her and Razor. Blast flew down, and landed completely safely.
"Heh, sorry." said Blast. "Probably should've tried to catch you, huh?"
"I can't even..." muttered Raven.
Razor's horn suddenly blinked once with magic, and Blast and Raven disappeared in a flash of orange light.
"What just happened?" asked Violet.
"Uh, I think I teleported them." said Razor. "But normally my magic doesn't go that quickly..."
Then yet again, the floor suddenly opened up underneath Violet (and Razor) and they both fell into another pit. However, this pit was much shorter than any of the previous ones, and led to a brightly lit area with a lake at the bottom. And both ponies landed in the cold water before they could react.
Violet was complete fine with falling in water, even if it was rather cold. You couldn't really fall into a pit in a lake, and there were no spiders. Granted, when she hit the water she hadn't gotten the chance to hold her breath, and had to quickly swim to the surface to get air. Violet broke the top of the water, and took in a deep breath, not just of air, but of relief. Razor broke the surface, and Violet noticed that her horn had turned back into orange wings.
"Huh." said Razor. "I was not expecting an underground lake."
"It's better then spiders." said Violet with a shudder.
"Well, unless there's something else here that-" Razor was cut off as she was abruptly yanked underwater.
"Razor!" cried Violet in surprise, before she was also yanked underwater by something wrapping around her hoof.
She frantically tried to kick away from whatever was pulling her down, to no avail. The water was too murky for her to see anything, but she still tried to grab onto something. Violet's hoof was suddenly grabbed by someone else's, and she was yanked away from what was pulling her down. She broke surface just as Razor's wings changed back into her horn, and she splashed down in the water next to Violet. Before either of them could speak, Razor's horn flared up, and there was a flash of light. The two were suddenly in an orange orb of magic, which was suddenly wrapped in a thick strip of what looked like seaweed that yanked them down into the water once more.
"We'll be okay, Vi." said Razor, gently placing her foreleg around Violet's shoulder. "I'll end up teleporting us out of here at sooner or later."
"Y-yeah." said Violet, leaning closer to her as the orb was wrapped in more seaweed.
They were both silent for a bit as the orb was completely wrapped, leaving them blind to what was happening outside of it. The only light was coming from the orb itself, as it was made of magic.
"Ack-kay!" cried a muted voice from outside suddenly. "Eck-kee-ya!"
"Did you understand any of that?" whispered Razor.
"Nope." replied Violet quietly.
"Well, I hope that-" she cut off as her horn glowed once again, before flickering out. "Uh, I think I did some sort of spell..."
"Is anyone trapped in there?" cried the same voice outside.
"I think you just did some sort of translation spell." said Violet softly, before raising her voice so whoever outside could hear. "Uh, who are you?"
"Oh!" Whoever it was sounded surprised. "I wasn't expecting anypony to be in there! Are you alright?"
"Why wouldn't we be?" asked Razor.
"Do you not realize what you've been ensnared by? It's a pololi meakanu!"
"What's that?" asked Violet.
"My goodness, do you know nothing? It will eat you if you don't break free!"
"What?!?" cried both Razor and Violet in shock.
"You two hang on for a moment, I can help you!"
Something slammed into the side of the orb, knocking both ponies to the side. It was slammed into several more times, before the seaweed around it tore, and they broke free and floated a distance away. Oddly enough, the orb then remained in place, neither sinking down or floating towards the top. The water was much clearer down deeper.
"You... you are from the surface?" asked the voice.
A young unicorn mare was just outside of the orb, but she wasn't just a normal pony. She had a blue coat, a pink mane, seafoam green eyes, and a fish-like tail of the same color. She was staring at Razor and Violet with the equal interest that they were staring back at her.
"Are you a seapony?" asked Razor, breaking the shocked silence.
"I'm a merpony, actually." she replied. "Seaponies have fins instead of hooves. And what are you two? I've never seen your kind before."
"I'm an Earth pony and she's a unicron." said Violet.
"What were you doing in the lake? Nothing ever comes down here expect for spider silk."
"We fell down from above. We didn't mean to end up down here."
She nodded. "You ended up in the temple. I've never seen that either, but I've been told many stories about it." She paused. "I'm sorry, I haven't even asked for your names yet."
"Rapid Violet."
"Razor Blade."
"And my name is Silver Melody." The merpony paused once again. "Do you need me to bring you back to the surface?"
"Well..." said Razor. "Even if you did, we wouldn't have anywhere to go. It's not like we could go back up into the temple, since I saw the pit we fell down close up, so..."
"I can bring you back to my kingdom while you try to find a way back to where you were. It's much safer than just staying here."
Razor smiled. "That would be great!"
Melody nodded. "Alright then. I can cast a spell so you can temporarily breathe underwater, so you won't need to worry about using that bubble."
"You can do that?" asked Violet.
"Most merponies can. Now just hold on a second..."
Melody's horn lit up seafoam green, and a thin layer of magic covered both Razor and Violet's noses and mouths. Razor's horn lit up, and the orb of magic around them dissipated. Violet took in a nervous breath of air, and was surprised to find that she was breathing perfectly fine. Melody smiled, and gestured to them to follow her.
"This way." she said. "I'll swim slower so you can keep up."
Author's Note
Here's a picture of Silver Melody:
