The Few, The Proud

by IC1s5

Chapter 4

Celestia was being sadistic tonight: it didn’t look like the moon had budged an inch since Shining last checked it. The party trudged on in silence, which Shining doubted would give them the element of surprise. Thundering moved with a belligerent purpose, periodically snapping at the other cadets to keep up.

Thundering took point, looking like he was about to murder them. Babysitting first years wasn’t what he had intended. Half the cadets on his floor made it to the Mare almost on a weekly basis: High Tower would have had to throw out half the academy if he seriously wanted to make a difference to discipline! Besides, the twerp wasn’t getting anywhere based on his efforts alone.

Thundering had expected to push as he had been pushed. He had run all kinds of dumb errands to make their seniors who supervised him happy. He snapped a twig under hoof a little louder than it needed to be. From behind Shining kept his head up, away from the dirty looks of Rock and Luminous. Shining kept his head down, glancing left or right to make sure there were no gremlins.

Luminous heard something behind him move. At first he thought it was a raccoon or an owl, but this seemed large and probably less cute.

“I swear something just moved,” Luminous said.

“It was a trick of the light,” Thundering replied, “keep moving.”

Luminous swallowed and pressed on. Maybe Thundering was right. He hoped so, at any rate. He was in charge so he had no choice but to go by his decisions. A side of the guards that he didn’t like.

“We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and gremlins move fast.”

“Not that you’d notice,” Rock muttered. He knew the difference between being genuinely hard and making a show of it to cover for your weaknesses. Thundering here would be chewed up and spat out in thirty seconds in the 36th.

“Sorry?” Thundering asked. Right now it would be highly inadvisable to give him lip. It wasn’t very bright and ponies could be mistaken for gremlins even at close range.

“Nothing,” Rock said, “just making idle chatter.”

“Keep it to yourself. We don’t want to give ourselves away.”

“No, your lordship.”

There was another rustle, followed by another, as if two creatures ran through the same bush within seconds of each other. Neither raccoon nor owl, something larger, which meant something more fearsome.

“I heard something!” protested Luminous.

“For the last time, its your imagination!”

Shining wasn’t so sure: he had heard it himself,and judging by Rock’s posture so had he, and he reacted on instinct. Rock’s eyes were scanning the local vegetation, in a manner that suggested he had done this before. Searching for something with the intention of harming it before it harmed him.

“Maybe we should…”

“No,” Thundering said. “We’re going to keep moving, no ifs, ands or buts.”

“We’re moving too fast to be an effective patrol,” Shining said. “Tramping wildly through the brush is not very efficient.”

“I am in command!” Thundering said. “I know what I’m doing!”

“Could we at least be through about it?” Shining asked.

“We’re completing this detail ahead of schedule.”

“You even know where we’re going?” Rock asked.

“If I didn’t, would we be moving, would we?”

Probably the first words of the hopelessly lost, Shining thought. Thundering grew increasingly vexed at the idiots he was saddled with. High Tower had to get all fire and brimstone: they couldn’t wash halls with toothbrushes or peel potatoes, no, they had to be on gremlin patrol!

After a year of classes and exercises, even if this was a disciplinary action, Thundering was in command for the first time. He wasn’t going to let a couple of know nothing first years get in his way!

“Pick up the pace. We need to complete our circuit and meet the second search party within an hour.”

“If you insist,” Rock muttered under his breath. Shining would have only gotten them stranded up a mountain---Thundering appeared to be thoughtlessly leading them further into the woods. Before this night was over Thundering would probably lead them to Nightmare Moon, not gremlins.

A bush rustled when there was no breeze. That was too much for Luminous: “I keep telling you, I think we’re being followed.”

Thundering turned to face Luminous. Fury was in his eyes.

“For the last time…”

Thwack!

With a jerk he hit the ground, a dazed expression on his face. The three cadets stopped for a moment. “What was that?” Rock asked.

A rock sailed close to his head, hitting a tree behind him. Rock hit the ground. A familiar gibbering filled the air, one they had heard on recordings in class.

“Gremlins!” Shining called.

Four of them: smiling in the dim light, their rotting teeth glimmering. One of the made a war cry and charged at Shining. He dashed to one side, only to narrowly miss his head. The gremlin rammed into a tree, his comrades howling in laughter.

“What was that?” Shining yelped.

“A trap,” Rock replied.

“Gremlins don’t set traps, not this sophisticated I mean.”

They were confused by the tactics---namely the fact the gremlins were using any. Gremlin assaults usually consisted of them running up to you, gibbering and drooling. The level of professionalism displayed was astounding.

“Well, we’re dealing with the gifted class then,” Rock yelled back. His training on Poseidon Island came back to him as if he was still on the training ground.

Rock, at least, had some idea of what to do. He’d faced situations like this in the guard, in the Everfree hunting changelings or the like. A gremlin was laughing its head off in front of him. It darted around, taunting him. So he didn’t move. He could take him easily. Nothing he hadn’t faced before.

Of course, there were several other earth ponies with him when that happened. They would have been standing together in pairs to ensure that they couldn‘t teleport too close. There was just one of him. His fellow students were preoccupied. He felt incomplete.

Luminous was scrambling for cover. Two more rocks had rained down on him, and he raced to put a tree behind him and their source. Over his shoulder he fired two blasts of a telekinesis spell.

“Stand back!”

Shining created a bubble around himself. He focused on charging it to its limit. Soon as the gremlins came within range he discharged it. It was the most powerful magical attack he had been taught.

This was an effective technique to combat large groups of enemies with three principal problems: it worked best in cascade sequence if everyone was standing together (they weren’t), burst their shields at the same time (they didn’t) or even had shields up in the first place (just the one). Both sides were scattered to the winds.

“What was that?” Rock yelped. He looked around for the enemy or his compatriots. He saw neither. After a second Shining lurched from the bushes, panting. He was easy prey for a gremlin, who knocked him out cold.

So, yes, it was a bigger challenge than he thought. When the gremlin was too busy laughing its rear off to notice Rock struck. It swung upwards, laughing harder. Rock bounded after it and got knocked back for his trouble.

Everything went black.

From behind the tree Luminous froze. Instantly he dropped down on his stomach. Fortunately, the undisciplined gremlins were more pleased with their new captives than they were at looking for him. There was a small group of them. Just by himself Luminous didn’t feel confident at mounting a rescue attempt.

He hated himself for the thought. He could imagine Rock or Shining give him grief over his cowardice. The gremlins heaved them both onto an improvised litter and began to drag them back, singing a tuneless song of praise. Slowly Luminous crept after them. If he ran now he would have no idea of where they went, rendering him useless to any rescue party.

So like a snake he followed the gremlins. They came to a cavern; Luminous managed to find a hollow to crawl in and watch. There were too many to risk a frontal assault. Getting himself captured or killed would have helped no one. So there was no choice but to play the waiting game.

#

Slowly the world faded into view again. Something skittered into sight and skittered quickly away. Shining shook his head, realizing for the first time he was tied up. Rock was to his left, Thundering to his right. Something was on his horn, arresting his magical talents. It felt like his horn had fallen asleep.

They were in a cavern. It was cold and dark. Shining had no idea how long he was out for. Luminous wasn’t here: hopefully he got away. Shining struggled against the ropes for a moment before giving up.

He realized for the first time he was upside down. To his right was Rock, unconscious but clearly not far behind him in waking up. Thundering was to his left, out cold but still breathing. If Shining hoped to keep it that way he knew that he would have to get Thundering to a doctor very, very quickly.

He was still alive. Maybe the gremlins had a horrible fate in store for them. Gremlins taking pony prisoners had never occurred before in history, but this was a night of many precedents. He breathed slowly, trying to rid himself of the thoughts of possible torture.

Shining heard a thumping. Around the path came the gremlin king. Impossible for anything that big to be anything else. He smiled a rotten smile. “Hello there, my little pony.”

Shining said nothing at first. He wasn’t obligated to give anything more than his name (seeing as how he was a cadet and not in the guard) to a hostile power, though exactly where the gremlins fit into Equestrian protocol was a little confusing.

“Hello,” Shining decided was a neutral thing to say.

The king studied him for a moment. “So, they sent a cadet, and not a senior one. You really think that little about us. I’m insulted.”

“You’re supposed to still be hibernating.”

“It got warm early this year,” the king said. He leaned in close and chuckled. “We‘ve been enjoying it.”

“So what? A small colony of gremlins runs amok---we still have the paralysis spell,” Shining replied. He forced himself to sound righteously angry, afraid what the next twist to the story would be.

The king chuckled. “Another thing we’ve been working on. I think you’re going to be disappointed with what you find.”

He removed the covering from Shining’s horn. It felt good to feel the rippling of magic across his horn.

“Go ahead,” he invited Shining. “Put me to sleep.”

Shining closed his eyes and concentrated. With every drop of strength in his body he tried to create the most powerful spell he had created in his life. The king stood there, not moving, waiting and growing bored.

A bolt of magical energy struck him dead on. He was still standing.

He smiled. “Good try,” he said. “I’m sorry it’s not enough.”

Shining’s eyes widened. Even the most gifted gremlin trailed behind the most weakest unicorn. As turns of fate went, this was devastating.

“Once we spread this to the other gremlin hordes, then I hope you’re prepared for a lot of fun every ten years.” He glanced back at the gremlins behind him. “We’re moving out.”

The king walked off, laughing. Behind him the other gremlins followed, giggling. Shining wrestled against the ropes for a moment before giving up. He just hung there, waiting for whatever came next. Rock woke up. Rock glanced around the cavern, struggling against the ropes for a second before giving up.

“So,” he said, “we’re in deeper trouble than we thought, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” Shining admitted.

“Where’s Luminous?”

“I don’t know,” Shining replied. “Not here. I hope he got away.”

Rock grunted in approval. If he was captured separately, well, the poor fool probably got treated a little differently than them. Nopony had been taken captive by the gremlins before, and if tonight was any indication he doubted that they had suddenly grown hospitable.

“I have to admit,” Rock said, “I almost expected this.”

“Let’s not start that now,” Shining said. He tried to move his head to see if he could tease apart the ropes with his horn…no. He would have to have been a master contortionist, and his horn had been
blunted anyway.

“Why not? We’ve got the time on our hooves.”

Shining strained to hear something smaller and definitely different than Rock’s voice.

“Do you hear that?”

Rock shut up for a moment. “Yeah,” he said.

Shining tried to tell where the sound had come from. It didn’t sound like a gremlin was walking in but something smaller. A familiar voice called from down the tunnel.

“Shining?”

“Luminous? We’re here!”

“Shining?” Luminous yelled. “Where are you? Are you alright?”

“At the end of the tunnel is a cavern. That’s where we are.”

Luminous rounded the corner. He gasped.

“You’re upside down!”

“You haven’t gone blind. I’m so proud of you,” Rock replied.

“Do you want me to cut you down?”

“No,” Rock replied, “we want you to join us! Get us down, you idiot!”

Luminous found the rope and managed to lower them onto the cavern floor. Within seconds he had freed them.

“What happened?” Luminous asked. “I ran when I saw the gremlins.”

“Our hero, fillies and gentlecolts,” Rock murmured. No less than he expected, really.

“I saw them drag you off,” Luminous continued, his voice growing noticeably strained. “I hid and watched them take you down. I followed them to the cave and waited for them to go.”

“How many were there?” Shining asked.

“At least fifteen, twenty at most. Their king was with them.”

“I’ve made his acquaintance,” Shining said. “He said they were immune to the paralysis spell.”

“You’re taking that at face value?” Rock asked.

“He let me test that proposition. It doesn’t look like they’re lying.”

Rock cursed. Nothing he didn’t think was impossible, but at the same time unwelcome.

“So what are we going to do?” Luminous asked.

“Get help,” Shining said. “Get back to the academy.”

“If they’re immune to magic, what good will that do?” Rock asked.

“Do we have a choice? We can‘t go all the way to Canterlot to get the princess, now can we?” Shining asked. “Luminous, how do we get out of here?”

Luminous nodded. “You can find your way by the construction of the tunnel: if it looks like it was scrapped rather than dug you’re close to the surface. There‘s only a couple of branches and two smaller chambers.”

“How deep are we?”

“Not very,” Luminous said. “I think most the gremlins have gone, though they may have left sentries or some may have returned. I think they dug this place fairly recently.”

Luminous studied the cavern some more. This was identical to shallow depth mining in reasonably loose soil, worthless for serious gemstone mining, but he could tell that the gremlins would find it useful. Though it did look like there was something here they were looking for.

“Fine: take point. Rock, follow him. I don’t know how much magic they’re still susceptible to. Telekinesis definitely, but be careful of using any other spells.”

“What about Thundering?” Luminous asked.

Shining manipulated Thundering onto his back with his horn. He strained under his weight. Thundering groaned slightly: hopefully he could keep it down until they were safe.

“I’ll handle him. Let’s move.”

The first chamber they found was full of mead and other accoutrements stolen from Hidalgo Springs. The gremlins were setting in for the long haul, and they were preparing for numbers. A few of the walls looked like a half hearted attempt at expanding them had been undertaken and abandoned. If word didn’t get out, fast, the gremlins would cease to be a minor nuisance.

A few clumps of Fool’s Iron were scattered throughout the cavern floor. Shining kicked one out of the way. Fool’s Iron was notoriously commonplace, but it felt like the information needed to connect to something, like half a sentence in his mind. The group quickly sped through the tunnels. The reached the surface, stood for a moment to decide where they would go, and ran off.