Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Runa sprinkled dust as she walked, causing the ground to transform from tar-like mud to a firm walking surface. Reaching the other side of the area, she called The Pony Trap and met back up with Cozy, who had simply flown over. The pair waited for Zeph, Cedar, and Kira to follow the trail she had made for them. With everypony on the other side, Runa continued to lead them through the now thick forest of black-needled trees.

“These trees are cre—epy,” remarked Zeph.

“It is more than a might be strange. It’s almost like it’s nighttime, but with blue stars twinkling overhead,” replied Cedar.

“Just wait until we reach the falls. That’s where things really start looking weird, at least to me,” remarked Runa as she continued to diligently lead the group, keeping close watch for the many dangers she knew of and guiding the group away from them.

Seeing blue sky in the distance, Runa galloped ahead and stared out over the inky black lake and waterfall in the far distance, both of which seemed to absorb all light that went below the surface of the water, leaving what looked like a glazed portal to an endless void of nothingness.

Cozy flew around for a moment before landing next to Runa.

“What do you think?” asked Runa.

“I’m hoping the crystals we need aren’t underwater.”

“Kind of. We have to go into a cave that has underground streams we have to cross.”

“Perhaps I’ll just fly around and try and find crystals from above while the rest of you go spelunking.”

“I thought you liked caves?”

“I also like not being dyed black.”

“It doesn’t stain. Your fur even feels super soft once you get it washed out.”

Kira ran past the pair and stared off in awe. “So—pretty!”

A moment later, Zeph and Cedar passed the pair too and stood by Kira.

“Pretty weird,” remarked Cedar.

“Why weird?”

“Water just shouldn’t be this color. If you can even call this a color…”

“I think it’s pretty.”

Runa cleared her throat. “Listen up. There are poisonous animals that live around here. Touch—nothing that moves. If you get in the water, try to get out slowly, don’t splash around.”

“I just had a thought,” said Cozy, as she walked over to Kira. “Do you know how to swim?”

Kira looked at Cozy for a moment, then shook her head.

Cozy turned back to look at Runa. “How deep are the streams in the cave?”

“Not too deep, only about halfway up my sides.”

“I’m thinking Zeph, Argon, and Kira stay out of the cave. I fly around and keep an eye on them. You and Cedar go into the cave and collect crystals.”

Runa couldn’t help but feel disappointed as she was enjoying her time with Cozy, but understood Cozy’s concerns, given that Zeph and Kira would need to swim rather than walk through the underground streams.

The group walked together until they reached the cave entrance, a rather unassuming hole in the ground just big enough for Cedar to enter. After wishing Cozy luck and giving a set of warnings to Zeph and Kira, Runa took a beaded glow stone necklace out of her bag and hung it around Cedar’s neck, before pulling out another for herself.

After several tight squeezes, the pair made it to the first underground stream.

“Water’s flowing pretty hard this time. Probably a good thing the others didn’t come with us. They could have gotten swept away.”

“Are you—really sure this is water?”

“Mostly. When you let it evaporate, you get water off it, so it’s certainly not oil or tar, but as for what makes it black? Not sure, but supposedly it’s commonly distilled out and used as fur and mane softener. No pony comes all the way to Shadow Falls to get it, though. You can collect it from—much safer and easier to get to places downstream. Same with these crystals, too. If we traveled a half-week out of our way, we could get them in a quarry.”

“Why didn’t we do that then?”

“Cozy’s in a hurry. She says she’s worried about her friend Flare. To be honest, it sounds like the best option would be for her to just leave you all at the Sparkmaster’s and go look for her, but she’s worried that Zeph wouldn’t stay put, and is unsure she can trust us.”

“Why shouldn’t we trust you?”

“I find it strange you have to ask, but Zeph also seemed shocked at first. The real question is, why would you trust us? We’re ponies you barely know. Cozy doesn’t trust me, and she shouldn’t. I need to prove myself to her and earn her trust. Trust simply isn’t something to be given, it’s something to be earned.”

“Interesting. I guess I just assumed everypony learned to be trustworthy in their youth.”

“Certainly not.”

“Doubly interesting.”

Reaching the other side of the stream, the pair continued making their way through the cave.

“Have any of us earned your trust, or how would we go about earning trust?” asked Cedar.

“You earn trust by being trustworthy. It’s a slow process… At least that’s how it should be. Cozy though, it’s hard not to trust her. She’s so knowledgeable, and her views on things are so candid and raw. She clearly has things she doesn’t want to share, but that makes her feel even more trustworthy since she knows when not to share things. She’s very aware.” Runa felt her heart flutter, causing her to sigh. “She’s just so amazing.”

“I feel that way about Zeph and Kira, too.”

“Let me ask you this. Do you—not feel that way about anypony?”

“I suppose Clef isn’t very impressive. Don’t know much about Blossom, Midnight, Dusty, or yourself. I wouldn’t say I don’t trust you. I just don’t feel like I know you.”

“I noticed Willow was missing from your list.”

“He’s pretty amazing.”

“Suppose one thing I’ll give you, like Cozy you’re certainly candid. I like that. You just earned some trust with me.”

Reaching another stream, the pair began walking upstream a short distance before Runa took an off-path into a small alcove.

“According to my horn, a pocket of the crystals we’re looking for should be about here.” Runa walked towards the wall and used her horn to mark the section with an X. “The ‘normal’ way of doing this for Shardseekers is to combine a couple of stones and basically blow a section of the wall up. However, given that you’re an earth pony—you want to take a kick at it before we resort to that?”

“I can give it a swift kick and see what happens.”

Getting clear of the area, Runa braced her ears a moment before hearing a loud swack followed by the sound of rubble bouncing as dim green light came flooding into the cave. Getting back over to where she had left Cedar, Runa looked through the hole he had kicked into what appeared to be some kind of old ruin with tiny glowing green stones lining the walls.

“This explains the other magic I was sensing… I just figured it was different crystals mixed into the ore.”

“We’re looking for purple crystals like these, right?”

Runa looked over to Cedar, who was pointing to a chunk of the rubble that had several large pieces of the crystals they were looking for.

“That’s what we came here for.”

“Perfect.”

Runa watched as Cedar broke the crystals away from the matrix, then put them into his saddlebag and started to head back the way they came.

“Wait! Don’t you want to check out the ruins?”

“Should we?”

“Aren’t you curious about what’s inside?”

“Not really. I’m more of a wide-open-spaces kind of pony. Looking forward to being out of here.”

“I see… would you mind if I took a quick look, at least?”

“I suppose not too much.”

Runa cautiously made her way into the ruin with Cedar following close behind her. They had seemingly knocked a hole into a hallway. Picking a direction at random, Runa made her way down the hallway until she came to a moderately sized unlit room with symbols carved into the walls, ceiling, and floor. Not feeling any magic, she took a step into the room to allow her glow stone necklace to better illuminate the area. Not wanting to go too far into the room, she stayed towards the doorway and looked around until she heard a sudden slam. Looking back towards the door, she saw Cedar standing in front of their former exit. Embedded in the door that had closed behind him was a large crystal that began filling the symbols along the room with magic.

“C-Can you kick that door down—the one that closed behind you?”

Runa watched as Cedar bucked the door, only to have his hind legs slam against it without so much as a sound. Looking around the room, she saw another door on the opposite side of the room that hadn’t been there before. Just like the one that had closed behind Cedar, it had a large crystal embedded into it.

Running her horn along the walls, Runa frantically tried to figure out what the magic was doing, but found that it was simply too complex for her to follow, let alone understand.

“Not to be a bother, but… I’m feeling a might bit uncomfortable.”

Runa looked back towards Cedar. “So am I. So am I… get away from the door, would ya?”

Once Cedar was far enough away, Runa tossed a mixture of her most corrosive dust at the door along with a pinch of pollen to ignite it. Like Cedar’s kick, it had no visible effect.

“This is officially—really bad…”

“What are we going to do?”

Runa gulped nervously and bit her lip as she thought for several long moments before letting out a raspy sigh. "I don't know…" Runa admitted as a sense of despair greater than she had ever known crept into her mind.

Runa’s ears perked up as a faint haunting melody began to echo through the room. As the melody grew louder, the symbols began to flicker, and in an instant a shimmering swirl of light formed and began to grow in the center of the floor.

"What in the hay is that?" Cedar asked with a crackle in his voice.

Runa shook her head, eyes wide. "I don't know, and I don't want to find out."

Runa tried to step back as she began feeling herself being pulled toward the swirling light. "But I have a feeling we're going to find out…"