Ocellus sat beside Gallus as she ran a hand along his blue and yellow mop of hair. Both his arms were in slings, held up by a support over his hospital bed.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help more…” she said as tears welled in her eyes.

She had to lure the giant monster away from them, which for some reason pursued her for miles. Only when she had passed the edge of Canterlot’s city that the monster mysteriously vanished. It had been the most grotesque thing she had ever seen in her life, something that shouldn’t ever be seen.

Now all her friends were incapacitated, bed-ridden by the one who had birthed her all those years ago, on orders of her princess. Somehow, her friends had managed to get away from Chrysalis before she could kill them, but they were in very bad shape. That figure that helped her, that being clad in white, it was too strong for all of them to handle even as a team, and with the power of friendship.

“But the magic that friendship creates doesn’t seem to exist in this world…” Ocellus sighed. “I should’ve read up more on Princess Celestia’s notes of this world before chasing TWI over here.”

“O-Ocell-Lus…”

Ocellus spun around and spotted Sandbar sitting up in his bed. She rushed over to him and took his hand. “Sandbar, you’re up! You shouldn’t be up. Lie back down.”

“She-she gave us… a good beating. Chrysalis and that thing… with her,” Sandbar croaked as Ocellus got him to lie back down. “It’s some kind of magic Equestria doesn’t have. Ocellus, you’re the only one of us that can finish this mission. You have to… find a way to def-defeat TWI. Make her come to her senses…”

“I-I don’t even know where to start!” Ocellus looked around the clean hospital room. Her friends all lay in beds around the room, some more serious than others. Smolder had just returned from the operating theater for her internal injuries and Yona had only left the battle with bruises. “I can’t do this alone.”

Sandbar grabbed her arm and gave it a squeeze. He didn’t say anything, but Ocellus knew that it was reassurance he was giving her. It was a comforting grasp, to let her know that it wasn’t yet over. Friendship will still triumph over this day and she had to do this for all of them.

“You can do this, Ocellus.” He smiled. “One day, you’ll have to face your mother again. But I’m sure when the time comes, you won’t be alone. You’ll figure out this world and you’ll find the means to win the day. For us. For TWI. For Equestria.”

Ocellus had left the room soon after that, finding herself a place beside the hospital on the road to sit down. This world was still all so new to them and she had only just understood that people traded here with some kind of device that was quite transparent, though it displayed various images on its flat screen. She only had a hundred bits on her when she came over, but she resolved she would find a way to pay for her friends’ hospitalization as soon as she found out how to change her bits into the currency they used here.

“A hundred should cover all five of them for a week, if it’s the same as Equestria…” Ocellus ran her fingers along her curly pink hair.

The humans of this world had most of their hair on the top of their heads, while their bodies were mostly bare. Ocellus found her arms and legs had some hair as well, along with a spot under her belly. Changelings themselves didn’t have much hair, but they didn’t need to worry about getting hot or cold like humans did.

“I’ll have to figure out how to operate in this world and how to get more money…” Ocellus looked to the blue sky. “For my friends. I’d do anything to make sure they’re safe. This is but the beginning of my journey here. I will find out how the magic of this world works and I will harness it. I will succeed.”

The mine entrance was a gaping maw at the rear of the prison, leading further down into the earth. There was a soft breeze from below, almost too soft to notice, but its sound made Subterra think they were going down into the belly of a large sleeping monster.

She had personally never been down the mines, but she had passed the entrance many a time. TWI’s base lay to the west of the mines, sharing the same tunnel that led back to the prison.

“It looks scary,” Josher shuffled his cards from hand to hand. “Not scarier than the catacombs of Paris, I can tell you that. Let’s go.”

“You’ve been there?” Calypso clapped her hands. The sound echoed throughout the cave’s mouth. “Man, I’m jealous. I’ve always wanted to see it. I heard creepy stuff happens down there. People have seen things.”

Josher shrugged. “We didn’t see anything creepier than Stands, right, Shiho?”

Shiho scoffed. “Good grief. Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”

“What are we expecting to see down here?” Leilani asked as she waited for everyone else to follow after Shiho before proceeding. “What if TWI has already cleaned out the mines?”

“We won’t know unless we look.” Shiho flicked on her lightphone to guide the way through the gloom. “Eyes up. We don’t know if this Chrysalis will be here waiting for us.”

Ocellus stepped forward and a small fraction of Forest Rangers crawled along her arm all the way to her wrist. “She’ll be here. The former queen of the Changelings would never pass up a fight.”

“We should bury the mine once we find the geodes.” Shiho swung an arm around its socket. “Get in, get the stuff, get out, if we’re lucky, we can bury any fight we’ll encounter in there.”

“Right. I’ll lead the way, then.” Josher thumbed on his lightphone’s flashlight feature. “Down Under is built to take more hits. And if we find any geodes, it can dig them out with its anchor. I mean, I think it can. Look at the shape of it.”

“Can’t argue with that…” Ocellus shrugged and followed along. “If it’s any consolation, we Changelings can’t shapeshift in this world, since magic works differently.”

“You are all really ponies in this other world?” Leilani asked, curious. “I do not know why God chose to create a world of equines, but I will not question his judgment. He knows better.”

Shiho coughed and groaned. “Good grief…”

Ocellus carried on with the conversation. She figured it was probably nice to talk about something more normal after all the days pushing on with the mission. “Not all of us were ponies. My species, Changelings, are able to take the shape of anything living or not. Why, I’ve even been a rock before. We also have wolves, yaks, even dragons.”

“I remember.” Josher nodded, then looked down as shadows overcast his face. “Spike was a dragon. I never really gave it much thought, but that must be quite cool. To be a giant flying beast that breathes fire.”

Ocellus chuckled. “No, actually, Spike wasn’t all that big. He was smaller than I am. But you’re right on everything else. It’s a shame what happened to him.”

Josher sighed. “I guess in the end, he died doing what he thought was right, protecting TWI.”

The mine tunnel led down into a larger open area complete with carts and what almost resembled tracks that led down three other tunnels. These looked ancient, like they came from the 1800s or earlier, definitely before TWI found this island.

“I guess it made sense that the mine would be here alongside the prison,” Leilani said as she bent down to prod at a broken chain link. “Prisoners were made to work mines in the old days. This must be the fruit of all their work.”

“I wonder what happened to this place.” Calypso kicked one of the carts gently. “Did they all just get up and leave one day? Perhaps there was a rebellion, or maybe an attack by another group?”

Leilani raised both hands. “Hard to say. There are many islands like this all over the world, ancient fortifications and strongholds of long forgotten empires.”

“I wonder what led TWI to this location. Perhaps she can sense magic or something.”

“Stand users attract other Stand users,” Shiho said. “I think it’s safe to say it works that way for magic too. Perhaps Equestrians can sense Equestrian magic manifested in this world.”

They all looked at Ocellus, but the Changeling just gave them a weird look. “I have no idea, don’t look at me. I haven’t been here long.”

Shiho looked at the three separate tunnels and narrowed her eyes in thought. “I don’t know how great of an idea this is, but I think we should split up. We want to be done with this place as quickly as we can. If we take all three tunnels at once, we’ll cover ground much faster. Just head back out of your tunnel if you don’t find any geodes. We should meet back at the entrance.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Josher gave her a thumbs up. “I’ll take Subterra. I think her ability to wield the darkness will come in handy down here.”

“Okay…” Subterra nodded and went to stand beside him.

It was decided that Leilani would go with Calypso down the middle tunnel and Shiho and Ocellus would stick together down the right tunnel.

“Looks like it’s us again, like from the start of our journey through the Polynesian islands.” Ocellus folded her arms as she watched Josher, Subterra, Leilani and Calypso head down their respective tunnels. “It seems almost so long ago, but it’s only been a little more than a week.”

Shiho nodded and spat out her chewing gum onto a rock in the corner. “You tried to attack us.”

“Yeahhh, I thought you were with TWI.” Ocellus smiled. “I was looking for Subterra to take me to her base of operations. How things have worked since then. Here we are, at the edge of the precipice. I can’t thank you enough, Shiho, for seeing me all the way here.”

“It’s not over yet. TWI still has minions after us. Including your mother.”

Ocellus frowned at her feet as they moved in and out of her view. “My mother nearly killed my friends. She’s not going to get away with this, Shiho. I’m making this right for them before we face TWI.”

“So long as we manage to stop TWI, I don’t much care who we have to go through,” Shiho declared. “Good grief. I've read about mines like this having pockets of gas in them. If the air starts to smell funny, we're going back out the way we came.”

“What about the others?” Ocellus pointed back down the tunnel they were walking through. “If the mine blows, they might get trapped down here.”

Shiho shrugged. “The others are smart. I'm sure they won't hang around to choke to death on poisonous gasses. And if not, well…” Shiho didn't finish the sentence, but kept walking, stepping over small holes and rocks on the ground.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Ocellus pressed her teeth together. “You know, since coming to this world, you all have been good friends to me. It’s nice to know that humans here still believe in friendship. If we can help it, I’d like us all to get out of here alive.”

“Don’t we all,” Shiho said. “I’d like to get my grandmother back too. My mother misses her terribly.”

They walked a bit more without speaking before they arrived at a set of what looked like narrow train tracks on the ground in an intersecting tunnel. Shiho shone her lightphone on the tracks and held up one hand.

“More mine cart tracks,” she said aloud. “What’s more, they've been recently used. See how the rust is worn away on that part? Someone's been down here before us. They might still be down here, waiting to ambush us.”

“That means she’s here. She has to be.” Ocellus clenched her fists. “She knew we’d come into the mines. That’s just like her… She was always good at planning. She almost took over Equestria a few times, even besting the princesses and TWI on multiple occasions. It’s hard to imagine her working for TWI now.”

She had taken only one more step when all the hairs on her arms stood up, like they had suddenly lost the ability to bend. Something was wrong in the air and her instincts were picking up on it. Danger was close.

She held out a hand in front of Shiho and stood still, eyes darting around the tunnel. That’s when she picked out the shape of something round, crouched behind the mine cart. It made no sound, and it was too dark to see what it was without light.

“There,” Ocellus pointed and whispered. “Behind the cart. What’s that?”

“Hmm?” Shiho waved her light over it. “I don’t see anything.”

“Y-You don’t see that?” Ocellus hissed and pointed harder. The light had illuminated a portion of whatever it was and she spotted a gnarly foot with three talons. “That’s no Stand.”

“What do you see?” Shiho pushed her arm aside and stepped forward. She walked around the mine cart as Curtain Call got ready, fists raised.

When she shone her light beyond the cart, Ocellus spotted the clawed feet turning and a rat-like face appeared past the cart, looking at Shiho. It had what looked like a growth on its head, almost like its brain was outside its body and it sniffed at the air and grabbed the edge of the cart with a clawed hand. However, Shiho didn’t even react and she began moving the light around and down the path.

“It’s right in front of you, Shiho!” Ocellus warned, darting forward with Forest Rangers.

Shiho shook her head. “I don’t see anything. There’s nothing here.”

Ocellus began panting, her heart beating against her chest, threatening to break out. Why couldn’t Shiho see it? It was right there and its incisors jutted out of its mouth, dangerously close to Shiho’s legs. Then she remembered the fight with her mother. There had been creatures there too, creatures of unspeakable dimensions, beings her friends couldn’t see.

“She’s here…” Ocellus breathed as she tried to calm herself.

But it was too late. The rat-thing noticed her presence and turned to her. As soon as it locked eyes with Ocellus, it shrieked and ran around the corner in a blink. It had spidery legs coming out of its ribs and where instead of one tail, this thing had three. It ran at her faster than she could react and it leapt right for her as it brandished the claws on both hands.

• To be Continued...-

Author's Note

Sorry, Nightshroud. I had nothing planned for Smolder, so this is the best it'll get for part 4. Here's to future parts.