How Moonstruck Got Her Groove Back

Finite Sledgehammer

Disclaimer: Hasbro's toybox, I'm just playing in it.

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Chapter 10

They set off just after dawn the next day to continue flying upriver. Signs of long abandoned structures became more frequent as they drew closer to the titanic statues at the far end of the gorge, and the river became narrower, and faster. At noon, they spotted a massive, sprawling city on the east bank of the river. It stretched from the waters edge all the way to the cliffs, and ponies had even carved buildings into the rock faces themselves. Joseph made straight for it, and led her down to land in the very center of town.

"Wow," Moonstruck folded her wings and spun in a slow circle, gaping up at the deceptively delicate spires, and soaring ramparts of the complex city. Most everything had vines growing over it, and weeds were pushing up through the cracks in the pavement. All around her the city was slowly crumbling away, being overtaken by the forest.

"I think... I think this is Pax Rona. It was a huge commerce hub. Goods from all across the world passed through here."

"Makes sense. Some of the houses up in the cliffs are huge." Jospeh nodded.

"Lotta money came through here."

"Alright, this'll be your last chance to gather food for a day or so." Joseph said, trotting towards a large thoroughfare that headed in the general direction of the cliffs. "Going over these mountains takes some careful planning and timing, but going under them is a simple matter of knowing which door to open."

"Under?" Moonstruck pricked her ears up. "There's tunnels?"

"Sorta. All of the crystal mines are still there, and some of the mines connect to the other side. It's considerably easier than trying to get to the few passes that go all the way to the other side." Joseph shrugged.

"Cool," Moonstruck grinned. "I've never been in a crystal mine. We don't have 'em in Trot. In fact, we don't mine anything at all back home."

Joseph led her to a section of the city that sprawled into a narrow side canyon, and to a semi-circular courtyard carved out of the cliffs themselves. A pair of massive double doors stood slightly agape. They lead into the cliff side building, and the mines themselves. Moonstruck noted that the carved outer cliff had a number of extremely sturdy pillars placed strategically around the arena; that the causeway leading out was especially wide, and that the road itself seemed to take a direct route down to the river.

"Bet they had some pretty big cranes up there."

"Probably." Joseph shrugged.

"And they hauled crystals and rocks and stuff down to to the river this way." Moonstruck said, squinting into the distance to see if there was some sort of harbor. There were too many buildings in the way, but she wouldn't be surprised if there were docks at the end of the road.

"Seems logical. Alrighty, it's best to start out first thing in the morning." Joseph said, spinning and heading back the way they'd come. "And it's best to camp a little further into the city. Creatures do come and go from the mines, and not all of 'em are friendly."

Moonstruck trotted after, intrigued. She hadn't encountered much of anything out here, aside from Joseph. Apex predator aside, he was very relaxed out in the foothills, completely unconcerned by the possibility that he might bump into something bigger and meaner than he, which seemed to indicate that he was the biggest, meanest thing out here.

"What kind of creatures?"

He wrinkled his snout as she fell into step beside him. "Some kinda gremlins, I think."

"Gremlins?" Moonstruck furrowed her brow.

"Yeah they're weird little creatures. Kind of like monkeys, but they're green, and they don't have tails. And they walk on two legs. They're very rude. And they stink."

"Weird. Are they dangerous?"

"Eh, only if they catch you on the ground. And only if there's a lot of 'em." He eyed her for a moment. "Rather, only if they catch me on the ground. I dunno about you."

"I am quite capable of defending myself." Moonstruck sniffed haughtily and tossed her mane.

"Just checking. Anyway, I don't think they come to the surface real often, but, better safe than sorry." He shrugged.

"Right." Moonstruck nodded.

They scouted around the neighborhood below the mine entrance and found a townhouse that was still largely intact. They set up camp before they split up to find their respective meals. Moonstruck was able to cook up a sort of roasted veggie salad in one of the cast iron wood burning stoves in the house, which was the first hot meal she'd eaten in ages. If the plumbing still worked she would have taken a bath, but alas, it did not. It started raining as night settled over the city; Joseph returned soon after. It was kind of strange seeing him inside a house, the dragon seemed terribly out of place, although he was able to navigate doorways well enough, and didn't bump into too many things with his tail.

"Good call on this house." He commented as he settled down next to the fireplace.

"Yeah, the roof doesn't leak, and the chimneys weren't terribly clogged. Got 'em cleaned out pretty easy." Moonstruck nodded. She crawled into her bedroll which was a polite distance from him. She didn't bother with her tent; the house was quite solid, and she was able to move an ancient wardrobe in front of the lone window of this particular room to keep the worst of the drafts out.

She had assumed that it would be easier to sleep in a house than outside, but as the night stretched on, and the fire burned low and hot, she came to the startling and ultimately vexing realization that she had grown quite accustomed to sleeping outside, and that the ancient hardwood floor beneath her bed mat creaked every time either of them moved even a tiny bit, and the roof did indeed leak, just not in this particular room. And there was a musty sort of funk permeating everything and it was giving her a sinus headache as well as some congestion.

And then there was the dust. She'd dusted this room, but it seems the other rooms were determined to keep the entire house in a uniform state, and that state was dusty as buck. Even the slightest breath of air would send it wafting into the room to attach itself to her blankets, so that every time she moved she'd kick up even more.

Every time she was able to drift into a doze, some stray noise would drag her back to awareness. Mice in the walls, the ancient plumbing sighing, occasional thunder that echoed eerily through the gorge, the usual creepy-creaky noise that old houses make as they settle and shift on their foundations; every little stray noise would jolt her to full awareness.

"Can you sleep?" She murmured after several hours of sensory torture.

Joseph didn't even flinch. She lifted her head and squinted at him, envious of his ability to sleep pretty much anywhere - and deeply at that. One would assume he'd be awake at the drop of a pin considering he lived out in the wilderness and had to be alert in case something bigger and scarier than him was roaming around nearby. Heaving a sigh, she used her magic to lift a log off of the pile of firewood resting off to the side of the fireplace and set it on the dying embers. It caught quickly, and the fire flared back to life, greedily consuming the aged wood in a bright, cheery display.

The additional light didn't seem to phase the dragon either. Shrugging, she crossed her hooves in front of her, and rested her chin on one knee. Her eyes slid half shut as she gazed blankly into the fire, hoping the flickering flames could lull her back into a doze. She was well past hoping to sleep at this point, and she was fairly certain the sun would come up soon anyway.

It did not, it seemed she had only made it to midnight. When the sun did finally come up she was more tired than when she'd gone to bed the night before.

"The perfect state to go wandering through an abandoned crystal mine." Moonstruck muttered as she trudged after Joseph through the pouring rain.

"Mmm?" The dragon grunted, turning his head to look at her with one eye.

"Nuthin'." Moonstruck shook her head, almost knocking her hood back. She yawned, then wrinkled her snout as a drop of rain hit it.

The door to the mines was still agape, but Moonstruck was fairly certain it wasn't quite in the same position that it had been yesterday. There was no telling if the wind shifted it, or if some creature had.

Joseph paused and stared at the door, probably thinking the same thing she was. He glanced back at her, made eye contact. She lifted a brow. He gestured for her to stay where she was, then trotted cautiously towards the door, veering out of sight of anyone or anything that might be watching from within. Moonstruck made sure not to look directly at him, kept her eyes on the impenetrable shadow within the building. She didn't feel like they were being watched, but it was best to be cautious. She readied a few combat spells just in case, as Joseph edged towards the open door, nose to the ground.

After a few moments, he lifted his head, then edged it around the thick stone to stare into the gloom. She watched his wings twitch, then his tail flick. When he turned back, he waved her over.

"Well?" She asked as she trotted up, the clip clop of her hooves echoing faintly under the staccato rhythm of rain on stone.

"Smells like some gremlins came to the surface last night. They're gone now though." He said softly and squinted into the darkness. "They probably came out to see who was making all the racket out here."

"Guess we'd better be quiet then." Moonstruck grunted.

"Yep." Joseph slinked through the door and disappeared into the darkness.

Moonstruck cast a simple light spell that caused the tip of her horn to glow faintly. She was a little hesitant to draw so much attention to herself, but she also knew there'd be no navigating without it. Joseph trotted along without hesitation, although he did wander off course every so often to investigate a stray scent. After roughly ten minutes, they reached the correct doorway. It did not appear to have been disturbed in some time, Moonstruck could even see where Joseph himself had likely come and gone at some point in the past, unless something else around here left bipedal, three-toed tracks. Impossibly, the mines were even darker than the massive, nearly windowless building they'd just traversed. Even the faint light coming off of Moonstrucks horn shined like a beacon. She hoped it didn't act as one as well.

The first leg of their crystal mine adventure was down a very long staircase. She suspected this may have been a worker access way that the miners used when not hauling anything up or down, for it was too tight to fit any heavy equipment. As they descended, she started to get the feeling that her light was insufficient for the job, and amped up the illumination every few hundred yards or so. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, she had her light turned up as bright as she could make it, but it was only letting off a faint, nearly flickering glow.

"Uh... Joseph?" She hissed.

"Mmm?"

"Is it just me, or is it really, really dark down here?"

The dragon stopped and turned around to give her a weird look.

"My light spell is as bright as it can go, and I can still barely see a thing." She clarified.

"You sure? It's pretty dim." He scowled.

"Yeah, magic's working right as near as I can tell." It did feel like everything was functioning normally... aside from the part where she should have blinded them both by now.

"Dunno what to tell ya." He shrugged and started off again.

"Does magic not work right down here?" She asked. It was the only other thing she could think of - even though it went against her gut instinct. She lowered her head so that the light illuminated the ground in front of her a little better.

"Not that I know of."

She scowled. A few yards down the trail the light flickered out entirely, plunging them into complete darkness. She blinked a few times.

"Well, now what?"

"Let your eyes adjust?"

"There's no light down here at all, there's nothing to adjust to." She wondered if her magic would start working again if she backtracked. Not that her magic wasn't working, as near as she could tell. Everything felt absolutely normal. She canceled the spell, and noted that that felt entirely normal as well.

"Are torches a possibility? Can we just go back?"

"Uh... yeah I guess. But there actually is light down here." He shifted slightly. "The crystals glow a little. Kinda forgot about it."

Moonstruck let out an irate sigh. "Fine, gimme a couple of minutes. If they aren't bright enough I vote for going back for torches."

"M'kay."

She stared into the darkness, not expecting much to happen, but after a minute or so, she did start to notice a faint glow. At first it wasn't enough to navigate by, but it gradually increased to the point that she could see fairly well, although everything was a washed out monochrome greenish gray. Except for the crystals.

She whistled softly as she looked around. With her light spell, she couldn't see much beyond a bright circle, but with the ambient light shed by the crystals, she could see much, much further. The crystals themselves were massive, stretching some thirty or forty feet overhead. They seemed to come in every color, and they glistened slightly, though they didn't exactly reflect anything. And there were hundreds - no, thousands of them, she was sure. It was like a forest of crystals everywhere she looked. "I did not expect this at all."

Joseph chuckled. "Yeah, it's pretty cool."

"Are all crystal mines like this?"

"Dunno, these are the only ones I've been in." Joseph shrugged as they started off again. "But they're pretty impressive. We pass through a place where they did some actual mining - these things are too big to mess with, I think." He tapped one of the towering crystals with a talon as he passed it. It made a very strange ringing sound, something felt more than heard. It sent a chill down Moonstrucks spine.

They kept conversation to a minimum for the most part, Joseph would occasionally point out interesting things, and every so often they would pause to listen for any signs of gremlins. Moonstruck spent much of her time trying to puzzle out the magical disturbance. There was an abundance of magic, of this she was sure; when she went into a semi-trance to feel out the ambient energy she was bombarded with an especially heavy magical field thrumming through the crystals, but even the simplest spells failed to work. It was possible that there was actually so much stray magic flying around that the spells simply got lost in the shuffle, but she was fairly certain that the circumstances were not right for such a phenomenon. She recalled that an abundance of wild, uncontrolled magic would cause spells to misfire, but while there was an amazing magical field down here, none of it seemed out of control. It was just overwhelming.

She didn't realize how overwhelming until some hours later, when they encountered a massive crystal that had fallen across the path. Joseph did a lazy leap-and-flutter to reach the top of the crystal, then hopped down to the other side. Moonstruck had every intention doing the same, but had surprising difficulty getting off the ground. She scowled at the crystal for a moment, then back at her wings.

"Oh c'mon, I've only been on the ground for half a day, you can't have lost it this badly already." She grumbled to herself. She backed up a few paces, lowered her head, fanned her wings, then sprang forward, taking a few bounding leaps while flapping as hard as she could. She smacked into the crystal hard somewhere near the half-way point, and slid down to land roughly on her rump.

"Aw, c'mon!" She snarled.

Joseph appeared on the top of the crystal, amused. "Smooth."

"I can't seem to get airborne." Moonstruck grumbled. She stood up, shook off, then paused. "Wait... wait... I feel fine but..." She jumped straight up as high as she could and buzzed her wings like a hummingbird, but she could not gain any lift whatsoever. She landed roughly, then spun around. "I don't think I can fly down here."

"Um..."

"Is that going to be a problem?" She asked, folding her wings.

"It'll just take longer." Joseph said slowly, scratching the back of his head. "Why can't you fly?"

"Ponies aren't really built to fly," Moonstruck sighed, trotting to where the crystal had originally stood to see if there was a way around the monolith. Thankfully there was. "Our wings are too small, and our bodies are too heavy. But with magic, we can."

"Huh." Joseph grunted, hopping down off the crystal and taking the lead again. "I always did wonder how ya'll could get off the ground with such little wings."

"The thing is," She murmured, pulling her ears back "it's a deeply ingrained type of magic, it's in our bones. It isn't something that can be negated without removing our wings entirely. Which means whatever is going on down here is... " she shook her head. "I just hope it's temporary."

Joseph scowled into the distance. "Maybe I shoulda tried taking you through the passes after all."

She frowned. She wasn't sure if he was right or not. She was sorely tempted to take a long break to meditate and follow the magic to see if she could figure out what in blazes was going on down here, but she also didn't want to spend any more time than she absolutely had to within the disturbance. High level unicorns could go into a heightened state that she liked to refer to as "god mode" to access their full magical powers. This also allowed them to see magic, and weave intricate spells in moments that would normally take hours and perhaps a small team of spellcasters. As an alicorn, she was quite capable of entering such a state, however, she had never been particularly good at it. It took her a good fifteen minutes to achieve it, and she could only maintain it for a minute or so, which likely wasn't long enough to figure out what was happening. She couldn't do it at all if she was under pressure.

Her frown turned into a scowl as she made up her mind. She opened her mouth to suggest they take a break, when a few pebbles clattered to the floor a dozen or so yards away. She froze, staring into the darkness beyond the glowing crystals, her ears swiveling forward to pinpoint the sound.

Joseph came to a stop a few steps away, glanced at her, then to where she was staring. Something scrabbled along about the same distance away in the opposite direction, prompting Moonstruck to flick an ear back to keep track of it. Joseph stood up tall and sniffed at the stale air. She had the stronger hearing, they had discovered; Joseph had the market cornered on sense of smell, and low light vision. Between the two of them not much could go undetected. To the untrained ear, the cavern had fallen silent, but Moonstruck could faintly hear breathing on either side of them; the quick, hurried breath of something relatively small, and nervous.

"There's dozens of them." Joseph murmured under his breath. "We're all but surrounded."

"What do they want?" Moonstruck muttered.

"Dunno. Haven't run into this many at once before." He swept his gaze around the path, focusing on the spaces between crystals. "We should pick up the pace."

"Yeah."

They started off again at a trot, their senses focused on the small horde of creatures flanking them to either side. Moonstruck scowled and did her best to eliminate any and all spells from her usual self defense plan, focusing instead on un-arcane combat. Luckily, as a pony, she was naturally very strong, and even more so after running around out in the wilderness for so long.

They rounded a bend in the trail, then slid to a halt as a very large group of gremlins emerged from the gaps between towering crystals, all jabbering among themselves in what she assumed was their own language. Moonstruck spun around as scrabbling alerted her to the emergence of the groups that had been shadowing them. She took a few steps back so that she and Joseph were standing flank to flank. They were surrounded, and there were even more of them than she'd thought.

"I don't suppose they speak common?" She muttered.

"If they do they've never bothered around me." Joseph grunted.

They slowly spun in a circle, keeping flank to flank, sizing up the gremlins. They were not large creatures, most didn't even come up to Moonstruck's shoulder, but there were dozens - possibly even hundreds of them; their beady eyes darted between she and Joseph, and their strange, monkey like mouth's gaped open to reveal long, glistening fangs. She momentarily wished that she could challenge them to a round of poker, but shoved the thought aside to focus on their every last little twitch. She needed to figure out what they wanted, and/or how to scare them off quickly, with a minimum of fuss.

The gremlins shuffled around and chattered, never taking their eyes off of she and the dragon. They reeked of decay, and the mud one finds at the bottom of stagnant ponds, and there seemed to be a fine layer of dust wafting off of them. She hoped they didn't have mites that also liked to munch on ponies. Their body language wasn't terribly foreign, but it also wasn't helpful; they were generally excited, some were nervous, and many sat very still and focused, but their eyes seemed to pulse with an intense need. She strongly suspected that need was food; Moonstruck did not know how gremlins were generally supposed to look, but the bulk of them seemed gaunt, underfed.

"I don't suppose you know what they eat?" She asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.

"Anything and everything." Joseph growled.

"Figured as much." Moonstruck sighed. "Any bright ideas?"

"I think..." he paused to let out a low growl that rattled the stone beneath them, puffing up his scales and fanning his wings, causing some of the gremlins to back up a few paces.

"I think if we can herd them into a tight area I can take out enough of them at once that they'll decide we're not worth the trouble."

Moonstruck fanned her wings as well, and stomped her hooves warningly.

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"You set 'em up, I knock 'em down. I'll clear a path for you, and you make a break for it. There's a narrow spot about a mile down the trail where they'll be packed in so tight they'll have to slow to a crawl to get through. I can swoop in and scorch 'em."

Moonstruck grimaced. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"They're fast over short distances but burn out for the long haul - you can out-pace them easy."

"Seriously, have you lost it?"

"Well, do you have any better ideas!?" He huffed.

"Not really." She lowered her head and glowered at a gremlin who edged out of the pack. "Where do I go after the trap?"

"Keep running, the trail will take you to an old bridge that crosses a chasm. I'll meet up with you there."

Moonstruck nodded, even though he couldn't see. "Right."

"Ready?"

"Sure, why not?" She snorted.

Joseph whirled and spat a bright white fireball into the group of gremlins blocking the trail ahead. Some scattered, while others were incinerated on the spot. Moonstruck broke into a gallop as soon as the flame dissipated, crunching mightily over the scorched rocks, ashes and bones of a few of the less fortunate gremlins. She was dimly aware of the dragon taking off behind her to head down-trail to the narrow spot, and of the gremlins scrambling around in a panic. She hoped that perhaps the fireball was enough to scare them off, but they were upon her soon enough; surging behind her in a putrid green wave of matted fur, and high pitched squeals, their stench mingling with the smell of burnt flesh. She had forgotten, in their peaceful time in the hills, that she was traveling with not only a carnivore, but a fire breathing carnivore. A fire breathing carnivore that didn't hesitate to kill if the situation called for it.

She gritted her teeth as another band of gremlins sprang into view ahead of her, and she realized she was making a hypocrite of herself. She'd killed before. Twice. And now she'd have to do it again, likely many times over. With magic she could easily stun the bulk of them and move them out of the way. Without magic, she didn't have the luxury of mercy. Then again, with magic, she wouldn't have to bother with any of this at all.

The first wave of gremlins surged towards her with reckless abandon, blissfully unaware of the danger a charging alicorn posed. Moonstruck lowered her head slightly and barreled into them, sending them flying to the sides. She didn't use her horn to impale them - this was actually entirely counter-productive; it would at least momentarily blind her, and if she was unable to remove the creature from her horn with a quick toss of her head, her vision would be impeded until the corpse finally fell off. On top of that there was the extra weight, the possibility that she'd be hauling something that might be riddled with parasites and disease around; the slim chance that being impaled didn't immediately kill the creature which would leave her with an enemy attached to her face, and the part where it was just plain gross. Ramming them with her chest and shoulders - which were well muscled - was far better.

The next wave of gremlins were more cautious, swerving out of her direct path to attack her from the sides. She broke stride to kick out with a hind leg to warn three of them away, but as she did so, three more attacked from the opposite flank. She snapped that wing open and struck one neatly in the neck with the leading, bony edge of her wing. It snapped back with a sickening crack and slammed limply into a few of its fellows. The other two were further back on her flank, and were only pushed back by the less deadly part of her wing. A pair that tried to jump onto her back from behind were met with two hard hooves that sent them flying back along the trail.

She let out a startled yelp as at least four of the little buggers latched onto her flanks and wings. She opened her wings violently to shake two of them off, but the other two were on her back, digging their claws into her heaving shoulders, and clinging to her mane. Gritting her teeth, she closed her wings again, and flung herself forward, rotated mid air to land on her right shoulder, and rolled into a somersault, crushing them before she snapped her wings open vertically to propel herself off the ground and complete her roll mid air. Hooves on the ground once again, she kicked a few times for good measure, shook off, then resumed her low flight.

Moonstruck dodged to the side to avoid a half dozen gremlins, leaped nimbly over another half dozen, then slid as tightly around a corner as she could to cut off several more from advancing on her opposite flank. The next section of trail was narrower than the last, and was a good straight away into what looked like another sharp turn a few hundred yards away. Moonstruck put her head down and willed her lungs to take in more air as she pushed herself to maximum speed, ever grateful that she'd had to conduct so much of this journey on hoof.

The cries of the gremlins started to fade into the distance, as the speedier ones grew tired and fell behind, and the rest, perhaps, changed their minds about trying to make a meal out of a pony. Moonstruck grinned to herself as she thundered down the trail, glad that she'd made it out of all of that with only a few minor flesh wounds, and a low kill-count. She reached the next bend in the trail, slowed to take it at a less risky pace, and immediately regretted it. She could see the narrow part of the trail where Joseph was waiting, but she had to race across an open, gremlin infested section, and a series of hairpin turns to get to it.

Cursing somewhat louder than under her breath, Moonstruck dove into the fray, hoping that their numbers worked against them as the little creatures closed in from all sides. She barely had time to think; kick here, stomp there, open wings, dodge one way, roll, dodge another, run, smash, kill, run, run, run! By the time she made it to the other side, she was scraped and bruised, drenched in sweat, and covered in gremlin drool and blood and goodness knows what else. The gremlins were not put off by all of this, if anything it made them run faster. Or perhaps she was tired, and wasn't galloping as fast as she was before.

Finally able to put a little distance between herself and the throng of screeching, stinky creatures, she entered the part of the trail where the walls began to close together. The straightaway was shorter this time, and the turn was a switchback that sent her down a winding section of trail that seemed tedious from a distance, but was even more so in person. Here, the gremlins had a slight advantage, since they were smaller, and could corner faster than she could, but she was able to keep ahead of them just enough.

She reached the end of the switchbacks, and raced into the narrow canyon formed by especially tall and tightly packed crystals; the opening she needed to make it through looked to be barely wider than herself. The gremlins were close behind but now, finally, she knew she could out-run them. Pouring on one final burst of speed, she kept her focus on that void between the crystals and listened intently for anything other than the sound of her hooves on the crushed stone, and the quickly fading scrabbles of her pursuers. Thirty seconds stretched on to eternity, then she was galloping past the crystals into a wide, open space and deliciously cool air.

Moonstruck pulled her head up and gradually slowed into a trot, the sound of a roaring dragon and the screams of his victims providing a surprisingly soothing soundtrack. She maintained her trot for a while, keenly aware that if she stopped too soon, she wouldn't be able to manage anything more than a slow walk for quite a while. She made a mental note to ask Joseph if there was a spring down here, for she was in sore need of a bath after all of that.

"Speak of the devil," she coughed as he winged overhead. She hadn't expected to meet up with him for a few more minutes, at least. "Was just thinking of asking you something."

"Uh, two problems," Joseph grimaced down at her as he matched her pace, gliding above her, "whatever's messing up your magic seems to be messing up mine too, so I -er... wasn't exactly able to roast very many gremlins. And now they're mostly just mad and singed."

Moonstruck stared up at him. His magic wasn't working now? Could he not breathe fire? He did before! Did he use up what magic he had left on that first fireball?

"The other problem is that the bridge is gone." His grimace melted into a concerned scowl.

"There's alternate routes, but those will add a few days to our trek, and the gremlins probably aren't going to leave us alone."

She stared straight ahead for a few moments, ears pulled back partially in irritation, and partially to listen for the advance of the gremlins.

"Are there more gremlins out there?"

"Probably."

"Do they have rival clans or anything?"

"Not that I know of. They fight over food, but they have to actually secure food first."

Moonstruck scowled. They couldn't get the gremlins fighting one another while she was still alive. She struck that off her mental list of Possible Ways To Distract The Gremlins. "Is there anything bigger and meaner in here?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno, a balrog or something."

"A what?"

"Nevermind." She shut her eyes and shifted her jaw around. "Lets go for the bridge then."

"It's a pretty big gap, I don't know how you can jump it without wings."

She nodded grimly. "There's still something I haven't tried yet."

Joseph circled back around to check on the horde's progress as Moonstruck made her way to the bridge, glad that she could trot for very long distances even after running so hard for so long. The trail wound its way around a rocky tor, and passed under a section of the bridge that was still intact. When she reached the top, she made her way out to the edge of the bridge to test its strength, and stare across the fifty foot gap between this side, and the other. It was a stone bridge likely carved out of the living rock, and it spanned a gorge that was only two hundred feet wide, but incredibly deep as near as she could tell. She swished her tail in irritation as Joseph landed behind her a short distance away.

"They're about five minutes behind. Maybe seven - the grade's pretty steep back there."

"I'm gonna need ten." Moonstruck grunted, spinning and heading across the carved stone platform to the opposite edge. She was going to need as much running room as possible.

"I... guess I could keep them busy that long." Joseph grimaced, trotting after her. "I think the main reason they were afraid of me is they were afraid of my fire breath Without that... well, guess it's a good thing I usually just flew most of the way through here..."

Moonstruck grunted and nodded. Reaching the edge, she spun around to face the broken bridge, and let out a shaky breath. She planted her hooves and tilted her head down, closing her eyes.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna fly across that gap."

"Was afraid you were gonna say that." She could practically hear him frown.

"It takes me ten minutes to enter a trance and access all of my powers. If I can do that, I might be able to blast through whatever's screwing up magic down here just long enough to make it across." Normally it took fifteen, but she didn't have time for that.

"And if you don't...?"

"I'll fall to my death, of course." Moonstruck sighed. "I'm dead either way, may as well go out doing something really stupid."

"Right. I'll uh, try to keep that from happening." She heard him shuffle awkwardly. "Well, good luck then. I'll see what I can do to keep those guys busy."

As soon as he was away she shut out the world; ignored the sounds of the advancing gremlin horde, let the cool subterranean air soothe her wounds to numbness. She needed complete concentration to reach deep down inside herself to pull her full abilities to the surface, and for once, she was able to do it quickly. As before, she discovered that her magic was there, ready to use, but it didn't seem to be able to manifest itself. One way or another, she was about to discover why. Glad to see that her personal magic field was unharmed, she plunged deeper, into her own heart and mind for the path to the core of her being, where her very essence thrummed with near cosmic power. This was the gift to alicorns, a power present in all ponies, but expanded infinitely in their near-immortal brethren. She feared it may take all of it to pull of this simple trick. She reached towards the proverbial box that held that power and opened the lid.

"Mooney! Whatever you're gonna do, do it now!"

She opened her eyes as awareness returned, realizing that Joseph had been shouting at her for a few minutes, and that the gremlins were practically up to the top of the tor. It didn't matter now though, she could see everything, the way magic twisted through this place, how it didn't seem to flow in any logical way, and that it seemed to be trying to leach every last ounce of stray power off of her. It was the crystals - the crystals were absorbing all of the magic, but it couldn't drain her of magic if she didn't use magic, which was why spells would be whisked away as soon as she cast them, but her energy was unharmed, safely contained within her personal magical field.

Moonstruck sprang into a dead run, keeping her eyes focused on her goal and her mind on task. Flight. She needed to use her wings for just a few seconds, just long enough to get her across that gap. It wasn't spell magic, it was enhancing an inborn ability that had been overwhelmed by the amount of chaotic power surging through the mines. It should work - it had to work. There was no turning back, she could only go forward now.

She reached the end of the broken bridge and threw herself over the canyon, flexing her wings downward, and pumping all of her magic into them, willing them to carry her over the gap and to the other side. Time slowed like she'd never experienced it before. It seemed to take ages to push her wings downward, then partially fold them as she pulled them back; opened them at the top of their arc, only to push them down again. She could feel every last little vortice of air as it whirled past her feathers, and the magical extensions she was using to lengthen and broaden her wingspan. She could see the magic seeping off of her, being sucked towards the various crystals in the area, but there was too much for them to absorb quickly, leaving her with enough magic to inch across the void with glacial determination.

Everything sped up as she reached the other side and promptly lost control of her spell. She flailed, dropped out of the air, and rolled down the steeply sloping span of broken bridge to the space below where a dozen tall crystals greedily lapped up her magic. Moonstruck gasped and tried to cancel her spell and clamp down on her power, but the dam was broken, and nothing could stop the magic from leaking out in violent spasms. She was letting out more power than she knew she even had; her vision flickering between normal, and being able to see every last strand of magic in the cave. Pain exploded behind her eyes, reverberating back and forth between her ears and echoing down her spine which made her twist, and contort, and kick out in a purely instinctual attempt to do something - anything about the pain.

Joseph landed nearby, but she shouted at him to stay back as a bolt of raw magic arced off of her and struck a crystal. The crystals flared especially bright, her vision lingered in the magical realm for a good thirty seconds where she was able to see Josephs very magical make-up, and the way it interacted with the energy surrounding him. It would have been fascinating, if she could think.

Her vision flickered again, the crystals around her flared especially bright, then there was no light at all.

---

A/N: Always a mistake to cut through the mines.