The Mare, the Ewe, and the Calamity
Spike the dragon had come down to the farm on the outskirts of Ponyville to gather some helpful ponies to assist an experienced explorer and unique unicorn in their journey to find the city that had been hidden for the past 1000 years.
The leading pair of the adventuring party were the older, grey bearded Earth Pony Explorer, Professor Tully Trotter and his quiet, Unicorn companion Moonbeam. Moonbeam possessed the unique ability to turn creatures to stone and had sealed the residents of Umberfoal in stone during a time of calamity in Equestria before being trapped herself until recently. Just behind the leading pair was Plum Pie, a stout, intelligent, caramel-coated Earth Pony who acted as the de-facto leader of the new explorers. She was a cook in Ponyville but was very good at organization and delegation. Behind Plum Pie was Helena 'Hero' Sheep, who was a very powerful sheep who works around the farm that Plum Pie's family runs. Tempest Sundowner took up the rear. He was a very clumsy orange Pegasus with abnormally large wings. His wings caused him to damage the farm where Plum Pie lived in a weather incident, which led to Sundowner working on the Plum farm.
Exiting the forest, the group came upon a massive set of stone doors almost built into the wall. Plum Pie was tasked with holding the key to open the massive set of doors, but inserting the key failed to open the door. As Sundowner flew around the door, examining where it was connected to the wall he remembered that they needed to use the magic of friendship to open the door. Sundowner flies down to his two companions and wraps his wings around each of them, pulling them close. All three hold the key and turn it, glowing as the magic of friendship flowed between them and into the door. Sundowner was so excited that it worked that he flung his wings out, causing a great gust of wind to topple all of them flank over tea kettle to the ground. Moonbeam helped up the trio before following the professor.
As the group made their way into the mountain and down some dust covered stone stairs, Sundowner felt a tingling on the tips of his wings, similar to the beginning of a storm. Their way down was being lit by glowing crystal imbedded in the wall, possibly created by Pegasus magic. Trying to gather more information from a book on terrible storms doesn't help him but does cause him to drop the book and fall down three or four stairs before catching himself and apologizing to his companions before the group continued down.
At the bottom of the steps, the explorers found a massive underground lake. Four great stone pillars surrounding a great stone plateau that protruded from the lake's surface. Most of the party marveled at the buildings built on the tops of the plateau and surrounding pillars. They had found the city of Umberfoal. Hero, whose wool was sticking out in every direction due to the surrounding static electricity, chose to jump into the lake. Sundowner worriedly stayed by the edge of the lake, but Hero required no help in getting out of the lake. As Hero shook the water from her wool, more crystals within the cavern holding the underground lake began to glow and a staircase of light materialized between the edge of the lake and the edge of the stone plateau. After a little trepidation, the group began walking up the stairs carefully. The only thing that happened on the way up to the plateau was Plum slipping on the light staircase and slipping back down a few steps. In an effort to get out of way, Sundowner fell off the staircase and panicked for a few moments before remembering his could fly.
To avoid his abnormally large wings causing issues for his companions during landing, Sundowner met the others at the top of the staircase. A large building stood at the center of the plateau guarded by two large pony statues holding staves with crystals on the top of them. When the group examined them, Hero recognized them as golems and Plum Pie just saw them as statues. Sundowner saw that the arms of the statues moved. He moved up to one of the crystals on the staff. Thinking it might be operated by a magical spark, Sundowner shocked it with his Pegasus magic, but only succeeded in destroying the crystal. After apologizing furiously, he explained that the statues arms moved. Plum Pie didn't believe him, so Sundowner grabbed the arm of the statue he damaged and pulled down almost effortlessly. There was a dull click but nothing else happened.
Hero moved to the non-damaged one and jumped up to grab the statues arm but failed to pull it down. Sundowner went over to help and when the second statue's arm was pulled down there as a similar click and the door on that side opened up into a large chamber. The chamber was filled with dozens of pony statues surround a large crystal orb in the center of the room. As the group made their way into the room, the orb glowed with an inner light that slowly filled the interior before expanding out quickly as a single pulse before fading. There was a single heartbeat before the stone figures returned to living, breathing ponies. Most of them immediately fell over and the group immediately move forward to aid them and try and fill them in on any information they can.
The exploration group figured out that they were hiding from Discord, who had since been banished by the Princesses. It only took a few moments before the probable leader of the Umberfoal ponies, a white furred Unicorn mare named Evenlight the Wise, began to organize her ponies. After sending a group of cloaked ponies led by a black furred pony names Captain Flashhoof out to something called 'Capstone Fort', Evenlight addressed the group of explorers in an effort to gather what information she could. Though it was clear she had more questions, Evenlight excused herself and told the group to meet her at the Tomevault after they have explored the town. It was obvious that Evenlight had a lot to do, so the group split up. Hero occupied herself by examining some of the glowing fungus covering the walls of the buildings. On a similar thought process, Plum Pie moved over to a shop owner who was starting to clean her business and started asking about what they ate down beneath the earth.
While the others were talking with some of the residents, Sundowner took to the sky again and flew around the city, taking it all in. The city was barely lit by the glowing fungus but as he watched, the city began to glow with dozens and dozens of new lights. The residents of Umberfoal were their own light sources shining with an inner light that only grew as they continued to adjust from their millennium of sleep. Soon the whole city was shining like it was filled with stars. Sundowner was struck for a few minutes before remembering that none of his companions could experience this like he could. He flew down to ask if anypony wanted a fly around the city. Moonbeam looked away when she was address. Sundowner would have pressed the issue with her to help her feel better, she was the pony who trapped the residents in stone for a millennium, but she was acting as shy as she always did. Hero was quick to agree to flying while Plum Pie, knowing the extent of Sundowner's immense clumsiness, tried to talk Hero out of it.
Following a flight around the city which contained Sundowner desperately trying not to drop Hero, Hero happily demanding to go faster, and Plum Pie calling over to them in a panic to make sure they stayed safe, the group reconvened and moved to the Tomevault to wait for Evenlight. The Tomevault was a large library containing a vast quantity of books and a single spectacled mare behind a desk. After not being addressed by the librarian, the group scattered to look at some books while waiting for Evenlight. Sundowner found a large book about the history of Umberfoal, quickly gathering information on the governing bodies and important people. The librarian, who he found was named Alethea, was part of the governing body but some of the other information in the book was more important to Sundowner. Behind Alethea was a powerful magical vessel called 'The Crucible' which was used to read magical crystals called 'Arcasts' which carried the knowledge of over 100 books each that could be absorbed into a user's mind in a matter of moments. The Crucible and the Arcasts were used in a ritual called the Festival of Lights which 'raise the spirits and pushed back the darkness'. Sundowner felt dread flow through him as he realized that they hadn't 'pushed back the darkness' in 1000 years.
Sundowner quickly moved to talk to Alethea, interrupting her conversation with Professor Tully Trotter, in an effort to help perform the Festival as quickly as possible. Upon meeting her cold indifference to his concern, Sundowner moved to get more information on the Umberdark that the Festival is supposed to suppress. The rest of the group looked very concerned but before anypony said anything else, Evenlight entered the Tomevault.
The group was quick to ask if there was anything they could do to help. After a quick interaction between her and Alethea, Evenlight assured them that they are gathering everything they need for the Festival of Light. In response to the explorers' concern, Evenlight brought the Crucible over to the center of the room and placed a large, glowing crystal, an Arcast, into it. She told them to place their hooves on it and open their mind to the knowledge. As they all placed their hooves on the crystal, it glowed with a bright white light and a flood of information shot through their heads. Sundowner was not prepared with for the flood and reflexively recoiled from the information. The recoil hit him with such force that he flew back into a bookshelf, causing a number of tomes to land on him while he attempted to shake out the ringing in his brain. Hero and Plum Pie were also unconnected form the Arcast and were shaking their heads. The Professor and Moonbeam were still connected to the Arcast with Evenlight. Evenlight smiled at the trio and told them that occasionally new users tend to have that reaction. Upon noticing the tears rolling down Moonbeam's face, Evenlight told her that Moonbeam saved them, and they didn't blame her. Sundowner went to wrap his arm around Moonbeam, but stopped when he thought he might accidentally break her from the connection and hurt her.
Soon the light faded and Moonbeam wiped her eyes but before anyone could speak, a pony wearing the same dark cloaks as Captain Flashhoof arrived to inform Evenlight that the scouts sent out to 'Capstone Fort' haven't returned. Evenlight just barely got the request out before Sundowner and Hero agree to help. Evenlight gave the group magical dark cloaks to aid in hiding in the darkness they will be traveling through and the group of explorers began their trip into the tunnels in search of the Capstone Fort, where the darkness was kept at bay.
Plum Pie was leading the way through the tunnels toward where Capstone Fort should have been, when a tidal wave of water flowed suddenly through the tunnel, sending Plum Pie flank of teakettle and forcing Sundowner up into the top of the tunnel with a single flap of his wings. Once the initial deluge ended, the group began wading forward, trying to help anypony that needed it. Sundowner flew ahead to find an alchemist attempting to gather various bottles that were escaping the shop with the water. The alchemist had tried to create a water breathing potion and suddenly created a small lake in potion form. After confirming that no more water is being created, Sundowner empties multiple buckets from his saddlebags and Hero organizes a bailing line to empty the water from the area. After clearing the water from the area, the alchemist gave a number of magical potions to the explorers.
After a few more minutes of searching the tunnels, the group found their way to the doors leading to the entrance to the fort. Hero and Sundowner tried to open the door. Hero rushed her door and knocked it open while Sundowner over rotated while trying to rear back and hit the door and ended up landing on his flank ineffectually. The group moved in and began following obvious drag marks deeper into the fort. The explorers walk down one corridor and find themselves before a slowly growing fire. After swiftly extinguishing the fire, they began to worry about what happened. The fire was very recent and there was obvious evidence of a scuffle. The main hallway out of the area they were in had two side rooms, but the group ignored them and charged strait at the closed door where the drag marks led. All five of them prepared to open the massive door, but Sundowner tripped over his own feet and knocked the whole group down.
Sundowner stood up to see the look of disappointment in his companions' eyes and the idea that he may be causing them precious seconds to save somepony ate at him. He spread his massive wings in front of the door and told the rest to get back. Sundowner knew his wings could cause severe damage, but at that moment his guild was overriding his fear. He felt Hero's forelegs wrap around his waist to keep him grounded and he flapped his wings. The door crashed open and everyone froze. Behind the door was an empty, circular room with a hatch on the ground in the center of the room. Sundowner takes flight up above the trap door while the others open and look down into it. There was no light coming from within the hole, so Hero drank a potion to see in the dark and took a rope down into the pit. Finding no pony in need of help and nor obvious enemies, Hero told the rest to come down. Moonbeam lit her horn to allow the rest of them to look around. Sundowner found another Crucible along with a number of scattered crystals that looked to be knocked out of alignment. As Sundowner went to go speak with their more knowledgeable companions, he noticed Hero prod a spider nest with a pole.
A giant spider appeared from above them and started skittering down toward Hero. Sundowner quickly put himself between Hero and the giant red and black spider apologizing profusely for any damage they did to its home. The spider shot some webbing at Sundowner but after the pegasus dodged, it skittered back up to the ceiling. After the group checked that everyone was okay, they looked back down the large cave they had ended up in to find dozens and dozens of individual spider webs. Four figures were just visible to the group webbed up and moving around occasionally. Sundowner quickly put himself between everyone else and the webs. He hadn't had the best luck with crystals during their journey and didn't want to risk damaging something critical. Sundowner spread his wings to make himself look as large as possible as he told the others about his idea of realigning the crystals. Hero wanted to go save the ponies immediately but Hero told her to focus on fixing the crystals because Hero wasn't the best at math but there were a lot of spiders and any help they could gather themselves would be invaluable.
Hero didn't argue the point and started following Plum Pies directions to arrange the crystals, using Moonbeams horn for a light source. Sundowner was straight as a board, eyes wide as he could get them staring at the hundreds of red eyes opening in the darkness. Down in corner of the cave was a massive collection of webbing in which sat a spider that could take up a normal sized family home easily back in Ponyville. Sundowner assumed that it was the queen and as quietly as possible told the others to hurry. Once the crystals were realigned, a door they hadn't noticed to their right opened and Captain Flashhoof and his scouts ran in. Hero told them of the captured ponies and Flashhoof told the explorers that they would hold off the spiders.
Hero took off at a sprint with Sundowner flying right behind her, dodging spiderwebs as he went. Hero made it to the captured foursome first and began trying to cut them down with some shears she carried in her saddlebags. Sundowner caught up quickly and cut the thinner court holding the cocoons up off the ground. Hero and Plum Pie moved to catch the falling cocoons and they all began cutting out the occupants. The occupants turned out to be Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Applejack. Sundowners haste and clumsiness led to him causing a nasty wound to Rarity before she could be extricated from her prison. Stopping for a moment to apply some salve to Rarity's side, the group of explorers made their way back to the trap door and started heading up. Hero and Sundowner were the last ponies up the shaft and locked the trap door behind them. They realized that the queen spider wasn't involved in the skirmish in the cave and quickly returned to Umberfoal.
Umberfoal was already under attack by the spiders by the time the group arrived. The Mane Four quickly went on the offensive while the explorers moved to find Evenlight. They found the leader of Umberfoal exhausted outside the Tomevault. She was quick to tell them that the queen of spiders, Insindia, was inside trying to do something to the Arcast. Professor Tully Trotter and Moonbeam said that they would protect Evenlight while the other three went in to capture the Arcast. As the trio entered the library, Alethea was standing before the spider chanting some magical spells to aid her in whatever she was doing to the Arcast. Sundowner flew straight at Alethea, tackling her into her bookcases and ending her chanting. Hero kicked one of Insindia's legs to distract her from the Arcast. Insindia attacked Hero, but Hero dodged and locked her down with a powerful stare. While Hero attempted to figure out why the spiders were attacking Umberfoal, Plum Pie snuck past and stole the Arcast, taking it back outside. Sundowner flew out the door to defend the Arcast, which was glowing with an eldritch red light. Evenlight cut through Sundowner's pondering on how to fix it by telling them that the Arcast can be fixed in the hidden forest of Agaricus by the Capstone Fort. Sundowner moved back into the library to assist Hero, whose stare was broken by Alethea's magic. Sundowner tried to tackle Alethea again but she dodged, and he ended up crashing into a bookshelf. Hero held her own against the spider and the mage to make sure that Sundowner could escape first, to which Sundowner exasperatedly reminded Hero that he can fly. Hero ran out the doorway, barely dodging some of Insindia's legs. Sundowner wasn't as lucky and was grabbed by one of Insindia's legs. Thinking quickly, Sundowner put his abnormally large wings to work and created a storm in the library. The sudden rush of wind forced the spider queen to release him. Once Sundowner was out the door, Professor Trotter slammed the door closed and Moonbeam turned the library into stone to hold the spider back.
Sundowner, Hero, and Plum Pie made their way back to the fort as quickly as they could, dodging spiders as they went. They checked the side room they ignored on the way to the trap door in an effort to find the way to the hidden forest. They found nothing save a magic roll of rope that can tie itself as its wielder commands. As they continued to check around the fort, they found a collapsed section of hallway with a hole in the wall at the edge of the collapse. After helping Plum Pie through the gap, the trio found a giant flower growing out of the stone and almost covering another trap door. The door is hiding a large body of water that was lit by the same glowing fungus that grew on the walls of Umberfoal. Sundowner drank a potion of water breathing and dove in to look around. Inside the underground lake he found a wall of force that seems to be stopping the water from passing through it. On the other side of the wall was a large tunnel covered in plants without the need for light. Sundowner marveled for a moment before he saw a large butterfly like creature flying around and helping the plants grow. He tried to interact with it, but it just stared at him.
Sundowner rubbed his hoof on the back of his head a moment before diving back through the wall and into the water. He gathered his friends and tied them too him before moving as quickly as possible back through the wall of force so that they could breath. Much to Sundowner's chagrin, the butterfly creature responded to Plum Pies question and began leading them back into the tunnel. Upon asking about Agaricus, they are led to a pool at the end of the tunnel from which three pony/snake creatures created out of smoke rose. The creatures spoke with one voice and asked the trio a riddle, which was answered almost immediately by all three. Upon receiving their answer, the creatures lifted themselves up and from the center of them grew a crystal. Magical energy flew from the trio and the cavern around them into the new Arcast, which glowed with a bright white light. As the creatures took the tainted Arcast and destroyed it, the trio touched the new one and learned what it was. It was designed as a gilded prison, where whatever was trapped there would be content with the knowledge sealed within it for as long as it was trapped. The trio knew that with this crystal, they could capture the spider and save Umberfoal.
The trip back to Umberfoal was stressful as they tried to move as quickly as they possibly could. They knew they were to capture the spider, they just hoped it was still with the Crucible when they got there. When they arrived, Professor Tully Trotter was protecting Evenlight from the spiders closing in and Moonbeam was panting, her horn still glowing as the stone around the Tomevault cracked. The trio spend a moment to come up with a plan. They would disable Alethea and hold Insindia so that she could be sealed. Sundowner wrapped a wing around Moonbeam, thanking and praising her efforts before giving her the cue to drop her spell.
As soon as the door stopped being stone, Hero barreled through it and slammed Insindia into a bookcase. As Alethea moved to cast a spell at Hero, Sundowner tackled her again sick of her magic. Plum Pie ran right to the Cruisible and trying to socket the Arcast as quickly as possible. As Hero struggled against the spider queen, Plum Pie asked for help. Sundowner bucked Alethea in the side of the head and ran over to help her. Hero gained her second wind and pinned Insindia down while Sundowner helped Plum Pie aim the sealing Arcast at her. Plum focused her mind on Insindia, focusing the trust her friends had in her into sealing the great spider away. Hero barreled into a book case at the sudden loss of the spider and Sundowner and Plum Pie both crumpled to the ground from the effort for a moment. They had done it. They saved Umberfoal. Alethea was taken away to see whatever judgement Evenlight saw fit for her and Umberfoal would have their Festival and start to thrive again for the first time in 1000 years.