CHAPTER 5: Gearing and Endearing
Somehow, Fluttershy had managed to restrain Hailstorm just long enough for Blahsadfeguie and Applejack to get a good start on the tunnel, the earth pony supplying her own iron pickaxe from the barn. As they dug, they stored all of the cleared dirt and stone in Blah's seemingly bottomless backpack, gradually placing torches along the way. There were even a few small veins of copper and iron, which Blah was quick to excavate.
After an hour or two of work, according to some hasty and roundabout math, Blah determined that he should be directly under his original wooden shack. Taking a deep breath, he struck the ceiling, letting in the sunlight for the first time in a while. He popped his head out like a gopher in early February, and when he saw green grass and normal trees all around, he sighed a deep sigh of relief. He climbed out of the hole, followed closely by the ponies. The shack was nowhere to be seen, but neither was the corruption, and that was good enough for all four of them.
Hail quickly took to the sky, getting a pegasus-eye view of the landscape, and identified their location in the wilderness - a quarter mile or so from home. The group gladly made the trip above ground.
As the dinky box came into view, Applejack raised an eyebrow. "This is your place?" she asked incredulously.
"Yep," Blah feigned enthusiasm. "Hey, I never said it was pretty."
"It's okay," Fluttershy consoled the man. "You did your best, given the circumstances."
"Actually, not really," Blah denied. "If I wanted to, I could have made something spectacular even with limited resources, but I was only worried about keeping the zombies out."
Applejack wasn't buying it. "It takes a whole team of ponies just to raise a plain ol' barn," she attested. "I just can't see one guy doin' that kind of work by himself, let alone makin' it nice to look at."
"What she said," agreed Hail, coming in for a landing near the door.
"Oh, yeah?" The human took their disbelief as a challenge. "Give me a little while, I can have a much better shelter up in no time." He started for the door of the shack.
"Um, I'm sure you could, if you put your mind to it," Fluttershy cautiously stated as Blah walked past, "but don't you think we should be focusing on... oh, how did you put it... 'gearing up?'"
Blah decided to pretend that he didn't hear the quiet pegasus and opened the door to the shack. Hailstorm and Applejack exchanged glances.
"I'm curious to see what he's up to," Hail stated.
"Yeah, let's give him a few minutes, anyway," Applejack decided. "This oughta be fun to watch." They followed Blah inside the shack, leaving Fluttershy to silently question why she even bothers.
Inside, Blah was already furiously smelting the stone he had collected from digging the tunnel. Cody leaned back in his crude corner-mounted chair, calmly watching. Both of the mares were caught off-guard by the existence of the second, unmentioned human.
"Oh, this is Cody," Hail introduced dully. "He's our resident killjoy."
"Looks like you gave Blah quite the mission," observed the guide. He didn't seem too interested in the newcomers, either.
"Nice to meet you, Cody," Fluttershy politely greeted, unperturbed by Cody's cold shoulder. "I'm Fluttershy, and this is Applejack."
"I'm sure you are," he shrugged off, not even looking at the yellow pony as Blah retrieved heap after heap of gray stone bricks.
Fluttershy struggled to think of a response. Applejack simply frowned. "Yep," Hail added, "he really isn't worth mentioning. All he's useful for is answering questions about the land, and even then, he doesn't tell you the whole story."
"I know you have a lot of questions, but you can wait." Cody made no effort to dispute Hail's put-downs, instead remaining fixated on Blah, who had begun hastily putting together some wooden furniture. The longer-haired man brushed past everyone, having made all the materials he needed.
Everyone rushed to the window, watching Blah as he picked a suitably clear and level area nearby and laid down some wooden planks, starting a floor.
"He's actually tryin' it," groaned Applejack. "We're gonna be here forever at this rate." She glanced at Cody. "Well, if you're any good at answerin' questions, would you mind explainin' about that 'corruption', in the meantime?"
"There isn't much I can say that Blah hasn't already told you," Cody answered dismissively.
"Not even what causes it and how to stop it?" pressed the earth pony.
"The Corruption is a natural occurence in Terraria," the guide continued. "Much like how corruption is a natural occurence in civilization. Trying to stop either one completely is futile."
"Oh, really?" Hailstorm replied doubtfully. "Maybe in human society, but Equestria's as pure as it gets."
"What about Nightmare Moon?" Cody smugly fired back. "The co-ruler of Equestria was driven by corruption at one point."
All three of the ponies were taken aback. "How do you know about that?!" demanded Hail.
"Oh look, Blah's finished," the human calmly changed the subject, glancing out of the window again.
The miniature horses figured this was just his way of avoiding revealing his secrets, and that Blah could not possibly be finished with the house already. Sure enough, however, within view of the window was a rigid structure made of stone bricks where an empty clearing had been minutes earlier. Soft, flickering torchlight poured through the open windows. On top was a sloped roof made of logs. The house was still somewhat crude and was too small to fit multiple rooms, but it was certainly a lot better looking than the wooden box.
Applejack stood with her jaw agape, witnessing Blah strolling casually through the doorway as if he did this sort of thing for a living. She rushed out to talk to him as he installed the wooden door to complete the secondary shelter.
"How in tarnation did you build such a big ol' house so quickly?!" she questioned. "Do y'all have a cutie mark in brick layin' or somethin'?"
Blah shuddered internally at the thought of having an image of a trowel, or anything for that matter, on his own upper leg. "No, no, it just comes naturally to Terrarians. I guess." He found himself thankful that some of the more tedious tasks from the original game still retained their mechanics, and he wasn't about to question something that convenient.
Applejack opened the door and walked inside the house. A sawmill and a loom in one corner immediately caught her eye, followed by a bed and dresser on the opposite side of the room. The level of sophistication that Blah had achieved made very little sense, but she couldn't help but admire it in the end.
"Say, Blah..." she began somewhat hesitantly, "mind if I store some of my merchandise in here for safe keepin'? I had to move everything into that one barn, to keep it all from goin' rotten, and it's pretty packed."
"Oh yeah," Blah recalled, "you sell apples and apple accessories, don't you? Having a good supply of food nearby would be extremely useful. Knock yourself out."
"Well, I can't just let y'all dig in for free, of course," protested Applejack. "The profits keep the farm and the family alive. But I might be able to sell it at a discount. You got money, right?"
Blah checked his pockets. He barely noticed, but apparently all those slimes, zombies, and eaters had been carrying copper and silver coins, which gradually wound up in his possession with each kill. "Looks like it," he said, somewhat bewildered.
"Great! I reckon we'll get along just fine, sugarcube." Blah could've sworn he saw her wink just then, but it could have been his imagination.
'Looks like Blahtown just got its merchant,' Blah thought, giving what he felt was an appropriate name to his meager, yet growing community.
With the secondary shelter constructed, it didn't take long for Blah to come up with a plan. While Applejack and Fluttershy carted supplies from the barn, Blah and Hail would branch off from the main tunnel and dig a shaft downward for ores. Blah made sure to pick up a few supplies from Applejack first, including plenty of torches, some rope, the iron pickaxe, and a couple of saddlebags for Hailstorm. He also made sure to pick up a few apple-based snacks for the road. This grand purchase cost him nearly all of the money he had accrued, but money was of no concern to him.
After laying a trail of torches from Blahtown to the tunnel entrance, the four of them descended into it. While the two females continued on to the barn, the males began digging the shaft near the entrance, off to the side a few feet and then straight down. Blah hung the rope off of the top so that he'd be able to climb out later.
"Oh boy, digging," Blah exclaimed sarcastically to his companion. "Isn't this exciting?"
"It's about as exciting as watching grass grow," the pegasus replied, striking the ground awkwardly. "I hope we find something soon."
"I wouldn't mind breaching a cavern myself," concurred Blah as the two swung their picks in tandem.
They continued digging, occasionally pausing to catch their breath. There wasn't much metal to be found by this method, just a handful of copper ore, but they were determined to make this excursion count. One particularly aggressive volley of swings had Blah leaning against the wall of the shaft, and immediately discovering something interesting about it.
"This wall is damp," he announced, placing his hand on the dirt.
Hail did the same with a forehoof. "Hey, yeah... should we dig through it?" By the time he asked, Blah had already raised his pickaxe. Hail sighed. "I wanted to make sure we wouldn't flood the shaft or anything... but whatever."
With just a few strikes of their tools, a trickle of muddy water had been drawn. Blah kicked at the dirt, causing it to crumble inward and the dim torchlight of the shaft illuminated just enough of the space behind it that the two of them could identify an elongated chamber.
With a wide, eager grin, Blah waded through the ankle-high water and stuck another torch on the wall, providing ample light. The primarily dirt walls were spotted with patches of stone and a few visible veins of copper and iron. A slight dip in the floor held what was left of the shallow pool. There were three distinct passages leading from the chamber, and a small silvery stream on the ceiling of one of them beckoned the miners to enter.
"Dibs on that branch," Blah pointed out the silver vein and practically jumped at it. "And yes, we're splitting up. We'll cover more ground that way. Meet me back here once you finish exploring your branch!" He carefully struck the silver with his pickaxe, not even waiting for Hail's response. The pegasus grumbled to himself, climbing down into the more open of the two remaining passages.
When Blah finished extracting the silver, he descended into his own tunnel, his pick slung over his shoulder with one hand and a torch lighting the way in the other. The way was narrow and lifeless, perfect for Blah to seek out and extract every trace of ore undisturbed. Partway through, he began to skip over the copper, seeing it as mostly obsolete by this point. He decided that his first set of armor would be iron, if anything.
Blah had just finished happily mining out another vein of silver, thinking about how heavy a full set of armor might be, when he heard a screech eminate from the darkness ahead. Calmly, he stuck his torch to the wall and pulled out his hammer, holding it in front of him with one hand. A bat flew into the light, heading straight for the light-bearing intruder.
'This'll be simple,' resolved Blah confidently. 'A single hit from my hammer should smash it to pieces.'
Blah waited for the small animal to get close and swung his weapon with as much might as he could muster with the one hand. He didn't get the collision that he expected, however. The bat saw the heavy object coming and flew over it easily, biting Blah on the arm.
'Ok, that was a fluke,' Blah thought angrily, flinching. Frustrated, Blah put down his pickaxe and gripped the hammer with his other hand just as another screech signified the arrival of a second bat. He swung again, only for the bat to dodge it just as easily and dive in for another bite. The second bat did the same as Blah attempted to recover his balance, and the screeching intensified while the rest of the flock emerged and swarmed around him.
By the time he finally struck down one bat, a dozen more circled around him, taking turns sinking their teeth into Blah's extremities.
'You can't be serious!' Gritting his teeth to endure the pain, Blah managed to land a hit on another bat. At this rate, there was more bat than empty space around him, so it became more difficult to miss than to hit. However, every time a bat fell out of the air, two more rose in its place. Blah stumbled backwards, frantically swinging back and forth. In the confusion, he hit an unintentional target - the torch on the wall. The light immediately went out, and Blah was blinder than the bats attacking him as he flailed the hammer wildly into the blackness.
"No way... It can't end here..." cried the hammerer, feeling blood trickle down his arms and his sides. He reached for a healing potion that he had smartly tucked away on his belt, wolfing it down, and some of his deeper wounds healed instantly, but he had drunk it too quickly - he was starting to feel a little queasy. He doubled over, finally understanding the mechanic of potion sickness. In his desperation, he resorted to dropping his hammer and swatting at the bats with his bare arms, despite how futile he knew it would be.
He fished out an apple from his pocket and bit into it, hoping that it would have similar effects as a potion with less ill humor, but it only served to further destabilize his stomach. He dropped to one knee, his hammer falling to the floor. This was it, he was done for. Slowly eaten alive by the gnashing of many, many sets of bat teeth, his vision completely impaired from the blinding light.
'...light?'
The light receded as quickly as it had appeared. And then it grew again. Blah squinted, and he could make out a thin shape inside the light, which pounded against a bat and sliced off its wing, sending it to the ground, dead. The shimmering object flew back and forth, like the hand of an angel plucking each bat out of the air around him.
Three more bats fell and the crowd was starting to disperse, repelled by the brightness. Blah panted, looking up to see if he could catch a glimpse of his guardian.
The last of the bats flew up a narrow corridor as the thin object returned to an equine silhouette. As the light faded for a final time, the pony replaced the torch on the wall, providing stable light. While Blah's eyes readjusted, he discerned a pair of wings setting his rescuer on the ground.
His eyesight finally restored, allowing him to see who had saved him. "...Hailstorm?!" Blah exclaimed in awe.
"Who did you expect, Fluttershy?" joked Hail, putting away the boomerang into a saddlebag.
"I kinda figured you were too busy with your branch to even pay attention to mine," Blah chuckled nervously, picking up his hammer.
"It was actually really short," Hail explained. "I did find a couple of golden chests in there, though. That boomerang was in one of them."
"And the other?" Blah prompted, straightening his torn and bloodstained clothes.
Hail looked away. "I'll show you when we get back," he said hesitantly.
"Sure thing. I'll be happy to leave this cave..." His stomach having calmed down, Blah carefully drank another potion. "Thanks for the save, bro... er, brony?" Blah attempted, deciding that Hail and his mannerisms deserved a little bit of respect for once.
Hailstorm gave Blah a weird look. "You should probably just leave the pony stuff to the ponies." He turned and started back up the passage. Blah followed, silently heeding his advice.
Blahsadfeguie and Hailstorm returned to the wooden house to find Applejack and Fluttershy sitting around the raging furnace, indulging in some apple pie and cider. Cody had a slice of pie for himself as well, though he seemed to prefer his chair.
As the mares turned to greet the spelunkers, they couldn't help but gasp at the state of Blah's attire.
"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Fluttershy, immediately getting up to check his health. "Are you okay? You look like you've been attacked..."
"I'm fine," Blah reassured her. "I just ran into a huge flock of bats, but thankfully Hail came along just in time and k-"
"-scared them off," Hail interrupted, softening the impact a bit for her sake.
"Yeah. Let's go with that." Blah didn't much see the point in sugarcoating it, since it was either him or them, but he didn't feel like arguing. The apple pie's tantalizing aroma reminded him that he hadn't eaten in a long time. "Hope you don't mind if I dig in," he warned as he hungrily grabbed a slice.
"Aw, shucks, help yourself," allowed Applejack. "I'm just glad you're both all right. Did y'all find anything down there?"
"Oh, hail yes," affirmed Hail enthusiastically, emptying his saddlebags onto the wooden floor.
'Why is it okay for him to say that kind of stuff?' Blah thought jealously as he emptied his backpack as well. Between the two of them, they had created a sizable pile of ore, mostly iron, though there was a fair amount of silver and a few ingots' worth of gold.
"It's so shiny..." said Fluttershy after a while. "...but what do we do with it?"
Blah took a huge bite of the sweet, delicious pie. "Pddnfrn," he muttered with his mouth full, knowing perfectly well that nobody could understand him. After having his moment to savor the expertly-prepared dish, he washed it down with a swig of cider and cleared his throat. "First," he clarified, "we throw it in the furnace!" With the pie in one hand and the glass of cider in the other, Blah gestured at Hail. The pegasus eagerly complied, throwing all of their irons in the fire.
"We... burn it?" questioned the yellow pegasus. "I'm sorry, but do you maybe think we should try to use it instead of throwing it away...?" A confused look from Blah caused her to become quieter. "I mean, it took so long to get and all... you know... eep." She trailed off clumsily while Blah finished his current mouthful.
"It's called 'smelting', you silly foal," Blah said matter-of-factly, internally cringing upon realizing his own casual use of pony terms. "Aren't there any pony miners in Ponyville? Blacksmiths?" Fluttershy shook her head ever-so-slightly, such that Blah almost didn't notice it at first. "Well, you have to separate the usable ore from the useless rock and form it into ingots, so you can work it at an anvil. The only real way to do that is with heat." Setting down his meal for a second, Blah carefully removed the iron bars and showed them to Fluttershy, who leaned back instinctively. "See? Delicious hot metal!" She nodded, and Blah continued with his pie, shaking his head.
Hailstorm silently returned to the smelting, moving on to the silver ore. The luster of the metal reminded Blah of the boomerang that his companion found.
"Oh, hey Hail," Blah called, "what was that other thing you found?"
Hail stopped with a sigh. Reluctantly, he reached into one of his saddlebags. A long, translucent polearm clattered on the floor in front of him.
Blah quickly stuffed the rest of his pie into his mouth before picking up the new weapon, lightly gripping the handle. It was a beautiful, white crystalline lance, about 6 feet long. "This looks like quartz..." said Blah. "You got this from a chest?"
"Yeah," answered Hail. "Same as the boomerang. I figured it would be a great weapon to use from the back of your 'trusty steed'." He still didn't like the sound of that.
"I've never seen this kind of thing in Terraria before..." Blah looked up at Cody. "...is it any good?"
"Find out for yourself," shrugged the guide, resulting in a sour expression from Blah.
He turned the lance around, examining it. He didn't know much about minerals, aside from metals, in the context of Terraria, but he figured that it should hold its own at least.
"Well, it better be good, I almost got crushed by a boulder trying to get to it," Hail said. "Anyway, can we finish making our gear or what?"
"Oh, right, sorry," Blah apologized, turning back to the bar pile. There were only 4 bars of gold, but a decent amount of silver and plenty of iron. "Not much we can do with this gold," Blah explained. "We should save up for a gold pickaxe. We'll make a silver warhammer and crossbow, and some iron armor for the both of us. That should suffice for this quest, anyway. We should also probably give Fluttershy your old copper armor. Applejack can hold her own in a pinch, but Fluttershy could use a bit of extra protection. No offense."
"Oh, none taken," replied Fluttershy gratefully.
Hail muttered something under his breath as he began to take off his armor. He wasn't very fond of Blah, but he did respect the human's wisdom and compassion, as sparse as it was.
"What about me?" asked Cody with that perpetual smirk of his.
"Why should I give you anything?" Blah replied dully, lowering his eyes at him. "You're just going to sit around here and do nothing. Uselessly."
"Good point," agreed Cody with a shrug.
Hail finished removing his copper barding and stretched his limbs and wings, preparing himself for the heavier metal. He handed the helmet to Fluttershy. "Here you go," he offered. "This stuff's not as uncomfortable as it looks, once you get used to it."
"Oh..." Fluttershy's eyes shifted around the room. "Do I have to put it on now...?"
"Might as well," Blah said, looking away from his smithing for a second.
"Let me help you with that, sugarcube," volunteered Applejack, rushing over to her friend. Fluttershy felt a bit better about putting on the gear with her help, and in no time, the yellow pony had on a full suit of orange, slightly oversized armor.
Blah turned around with a newly-forged silver warhammer and crossbow in his hands, and couldn't help but laugh upon seeing Fluttershy. "Hah, that looks silly on you," he chuckled. Fluttershy shrank away with a slight blush, suddenly feeling rather claustrophobic. "But hey, nothing wrong with a bit of silly every now and then," Blah retried. "We gotta keep our morale up for the impending battle. Speaking of which..." He placed the crossbow down next to the iron pony armor. "Have at, Hailstorm!"
Eagerly, yet anxiously, Hail gathered the tougher armor and slipped into it. He could already feel the weight, but as an added test, he started flapping his wings. Achieving a foot or two of height, though not without some difficulty, he loosed a sigh of relief.
"Hope you're ready!" announced Blah, fully armored as well, before immediately hopping onto Hail's back. Caught off guard, Hail collapsed to the ground. The combined weight of all of that metal, plus Blahsadfeguie, kept him pinned to the floor with his legs spread in all directions.
"Ow..." moaned Hail as he struggled to get out from under the human. "If you want to have any chance of riding me back into Ponyville, you'll get off of me right now."
Blah complied, laughing some more. On the other hand, Fluttershy seemed concerned. "Um... do you think you can carry Blah with all of that armor?" she asked. "It looks awfully heavy, on both of you."
"Not if he jumps on me like that," Hail scorned, giving the still-guffawing Blah an unforgiving look. "As long as we're careful and take things slow, I'll be fine." He rolled his eyes, the laughter only now dying down. "I can't really speak for Blah, though..."