Whether it had been hours, days or weeks, the time when Covet awoke was unclear. The fresh air of the world around him blew over his body quite graciously. He didn’t notice it at first, but when he opened his eyes, the silhouettes of two other stallions were in view. Both seemingly also waking up, as if the three of them had been unconscious for the same length of time. Around him, the open space of grassy plains stretched around them for some miles; mountains towering in the north with a forebode to their presence. Above them, a blue sky stretched for miles as the sun shone most brilliantly.
Spotting the other two stallions, he got up quickly. He didn’t know them; barely only having known ponies beyond his father and brother. However, they looked familiar. One was orange, clearly a Pegasus from the wings that were sprawled on the ground. His mane and tail matching in leaf green. Like the leaves on an oak tree. The second of the two being green. At first it wasn’t obvious that they were a unicorn, but when they turned to look around he saw the horn. It was curved just like his was; although he hardly ever gave the curvature of his horn any attention. The mane colour of this unicorn was almost identical to the Pegasus as they both shared the same hue of green for their manes and tails.
Once the pair of ponies found out that they were indeed not alone, they stood up as well. All of them taking the time to notice the similarities between the three of them. Whilst the Unicorn looked immensely concerned, the Pegasus looked somewhat happy. Whilst he didn’t feel as if he was either. He was very much in a state of confusion. His mind started bouncing to question after question, before the Unicorn broke the silence with a question. “Who’re you two…?”; the question being laced in tension and hesitation.
“Well I’m…! Actually I don’t know who I am!” the Pegasus replied. The other two began to look at eachother as they took in what the Pegasus had said. That is before, this time, Covet spoke. “Well, to start off I suppose, I’m Prince Covet Dawndrop. Covet for short. Although to commoners such as yourselves I would PREFER ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Highness’ if you wouldn’t mind” he said. In this speech, he had what could only be described as immense arrogance. The other two quickly looked at eachother with confusion and astonishment as the Unicorn spoke.
“But I’M Prince Covet Dawndrop!”
The Pegasus then chimed in.
“No, I AM!”
“Enough of this!” Covet then responded, equally as protesting. “The REAL Prince Covet Dawndrop is an Alicorn! That would be me! See!”.
The other two however, looked at him, up and down. Then, they looked at eachother once again. “But… you’re an Earthpony” the Pegasus then said. At first, Covet got EXTREMELY offended at this remark. “HOW DARE-“ is what he started with. That is until he noticed his evident lack of magic usage. Alongside the fact that, instead of not being able to fly due to the spell cast on him, he was just unable to feel any existence of his wings at all. His offended feelings quickly turned into uncontrollable panicking. His wings and horn gone!? But how?! It was all such a quick realization. The other two also felt a sense of panic within themselves, but managed to hide it when they saw Covet, or rather themselves having an overreaction.
The Unicorn then chimed in, speaking with some reason to his words. “Well the last thing I remember is feeling like I had become three ponies at once. Maybe the spell that blue alicorn cast on us did something to us. Although honestly for me, I’m fine with it. It’s not like it should be a problem for either of you, after all being useless is what Earthponies and Pegasi are for!”. The Unicorn adding an emphasis on the word useless to add sting to his words. Both the Pegasus and the now slightly less panicked Earthpony looked at the Unicorn with very obvious surprise.
“Is that what I sound like?” the duo then responded in unison. Both of them didn’t quite believe what the Unicorn had just said, but the Unicorn simply scoffed. “Oh please! Where’s your sense of pride! I suppose that went with any sense of rational thought as well!” the Unicorn then added at the end; specifically targeting those words at the Earthpony. The Earthpony gave the Unicorn a look of shock as he processed the words that were said. His mind bouncing to a small realization about himself quite quickly.
“Well there’s no use standing here, I propose we follow the path through the mountains. Gives us adventure, eh?” the Pegasus then responded. His words seemed to be an attempt to diffuse the tension that had built up in the conversation. When the Earthpony and Unicorn took a moment to think about what the Pegasus had said, they reluctantly just nodded. Although the Unicorn remarked “It’s not like we have a choice” as he began trotting toward the nearest path that he could find. The Pegasus and Earthpony followed right behind. That being the start of their trail up the mountain and the start of their journey of exploration; however reluctant any of them was about said journey.
By the time they had reached the beginning of the mountain path, it had been well over what any of them could’ve presumed to be the afternoon; the sun moving accordingly. The path, from the appearance alone, looked rough and unmaintained. Although when they gazed at how far it went, they could see that the fact it jutted out from the mountains itself showed it didn’t really need to become pretty. “Shame, it could use a touch up” the Unicorn commented. The two others simply rolled their eyes. “The vanity clearly went to this one” the Earthpony smirked to himself.
The trio started their journey along the mountain path, taking care to stay away from the edges of the path. None of them talked for a little while. Their hooves kicking rocks down the cliffs of the path to just test how high in altitude they were going. At one point, the Unicorn kicked a rock down the cliff to watch it roll down. When he did, he tried to use his own magic to levitate the rock back down; wanting to keep it for himself as a reusable rolling rock. However, he couldn’t do it. No matter what he tried, his magic wouldn’t activate. “Come on!” the Pegasus then shouted as both the Pegasus and Earthpony focused on trotting ahead, much to the Unicorn’s shock at not noticing.
Eventually, after trotting around the first few mountains that were connected by the path, they noticed a diversion in the road. The left part of the path winded up the mountain until it couldn’t be seen, whilst the right path ended up winding down and under the left part of the path that was presumed to eventually have winded around to a bridge far above the right side of the path. This path seemed to then lead to an old cave that was held up by aged wood from a faraway glance. “I vote the left” the Pegasus instantly said as he waited for the other two to give their input on the situation. “Well, I pick right” the Unicorn then responded. “Oh, so you want to sit there and go into a cave that could be home to a beast do you?” the Pegasus then asked.
The unicorn then got defensive about his position. “It’s better than chancing it on that old bridge! Look at it! It’s… Almost coming apart!”. The Pegasus rolled his eyes, and then simply turned to look at the Earthpony, who seemed to be raising an eyebrow. “What do you think then? Left, or right?”. “Excuse me?” the Earthpony then asked the Pegasus in response. “Oh don’t tell me you tuned out! You clearly heard my question!” the Pegasus then snapped back, clearly getting agitated. The Earthpony was about to argue back, when he looked upward after a snowflake touched his muzzle.
The other two looked up as well, noticing that a snowstorm had brewed above them. Before any of them could question the presence of a snowstorm however, a familiar bolt of ice magic hit the ground between the three of them. They all jumped backwards as a voice spoke; one they all remembered all too well from the coronation.
“Ah, there’re my three targets”.
Instantly, the three of them looked in the direction of the voice, and saw him. The blue alicorn that had crashed the coronation had come back for them. Instantly, the Earthpony felt an extreme fear taking over himself, and shouted “RUN!” before galloping up the left path, the other two swiftly following him in a mad dash to get away from the blue alicorn. Behind them they heard a repeating shout of “ICICLIUS!” which hurled numerous spiked icicle shards toward the three of them. The force of the icicles hitting the ground almost causing miniature earthquakes in their wake.
The Unicorn took a moment for himself whilst galloping. He looked around and, to his delight, he saw boulders on a higher cliff; above the path. “Oi! Flappy! Fly up there and push those boulders down!” he then shouted at the Pegasus as he and the Earthpony continued galloping. The Pegasus looked up and, after seeing the boulders, began flapping his wings. To his amazement, his wings worked and quickly he flew up to the cliff. Once he landed on the cliff above the path, he pushed himself against the boulders. They were big, but slowly moved the more strength he used. With a final big push after a moment of struggling, the boulders fell. Crashing into the path below and creating a wall that the icicles then hit. The Pegasus sighed in relief as he flew back down to the other two, who cheered to themselves in triumph.
That triumph ended however, when the ground behind them rained a violent and bitter blue storm of frost. The air around the spot being frozen completely from the cold the blue brung. Before they could rightly guess that it was the blue alicorn again, the three made a run for it to the bridge. One by one they galloped across to the halfway point, when flames suddenly circled the other side. “You aren’t going anywhere” another familiar voice then echoed from the flames. As if a nightmare had come true for the three on the bridge, it was the purple alicorn who then stepped out of the flames.
“Why’re you two trying to kill us!? What did WE do?!” the Earthpony asked in protest. “SILENCE!” the blue alicorn roared as rage seemed to fill both alicorns. “You couldn’t even put up a fight in that throne room, it’s sad! You had ALL this time to learn magic in a safe and encouraging environment, yet you didn’t! It’s a waste of Time, Bounded Time!” the blue alicorn then added on. The three of them looked shocked. They knew they had a conversation with Stardew before the coronation about their lack of studying magic, but how did the alicorns know about that?
“Arcane. if I recall, he said he only needed a levitation spell. Isn’t that a lovely delusion?” the purple alicorn then responding with a surprising cold to his words; given his usage of fire. “Arcane and… Dallasite was it?” the Earthpony then asked. The other two looked at the Earthpony as if it was alien to ask about names of all things in the situation they were in, however the two alicorns humored him. The blue alicorn responded “Oh look at that! Someone was paying attention!” in a snide tone.
“I doubt knowing our names will help you now, after all death is knocking on your doorstep. The path below, if you hit it, is certain to break every bone in your bodies upon impact for an instant death” Dallasite then responded. “Oh you’re highly mistaken! We’re not dying!” the Pegasus then retaliated. “Dallasite, demonstrate that new spell you learned from him from the tome he gave you” Arcane the interjected. As if rhythmically timed, Dallasite then uttered a single incantation.
“Disapperium”
Within an instant, the bridge as if by complete erasure, vanished. Making the trio fall into the supposed abyss. The two alicorns looked down as they fell into a newly formed fog. “Was that fog always there?” Dallasite asked Arcane in a curious tone. “When I used my teleportation spell in anger the cold magic must’ve naturally formed a fog. My magic is powerful after all" Arcane the responded. After a moment of seeing no movement, the two alicorns headed off, presumably back from where they came.
Meanwhile, down below, the three were lying on the floor. In the nick of time, the Unicorn had managed to gather enough magic to perform a spell that stopped their momentum before they hit the ground. The three of them waited as they heard the two alicorns teleporting away. Slowly, the fog lifted enough for them to see the entrance to the cave that the right path wound up to.
“How did I pull that off…” the Unicorn asked himself as he got up. “Probably something to do with Magical Theory. I remember us reading about intense emotions unlocking magic or something along those lines…” The Pegasus then responded. “Well let’s get in there and see where it leads before those two come back. Last thing we need is to die before we even know where we are.” The Earthpony then chimed in; trotting into the cave. With a slight struggle, the Unicorn was able to illuminate his horn enough to light the way as the other two entered the cave.
To the Unicorns surprise, the cave was not a dead end. The path within the cave continued for a long time, unlit torches and wooden pillars stretched across the roof of the cave. Most likely for cave-in prevention. It was unnaturally warm for somewhere so high up. It didn’t appear as if the path they were following was sloping downwards, although they caught a glimpse of the eventual inside of the caverns as it opened up. The wind couldn’t reach this place so far in, so the torches within were lit. However, unlike the warmth of the red flames of a fireplace, a flame akin to aqua blue flickered patiently. Minecarts seemed scattered about within the open space; strewn from the minecart tracks from where they were once situated upon.
“Pretty big for a shoddy mine” The Unicorn spoke in surprise.
“But it’s so stuffy in here!” The Pegasus remarked.
“Let’s focus on finding a way out you two” the Earthpony then responded. The Earthpony noticing that the open area also held a second floor, as well as a path that definitely led downwards from the look of the torches descending downwards. However, he saw no immediate path up to the second floor. “Maybe you could fly up there? Hey, pompous arrogant unicorn, you take the lower route, I’ll check around here” the Earthpony proposed; with a joke tone to the part targeted at the Unicorn. The Unicorn seemed to take offense to this however, responding to the Earthpony with “As if I wanted to hang around with the mud lover and the airhead anyway” before storming off, little static bits of magic surrounding his horn as he went off down to the lower level.
“Was that the best thing to add on?” The Pegasus asked, some concern in his voice. “It’s not my fault he’s acting like he is!” The Earthpony chimed in. However, before he could continue, the Pegasus responded quickly. “That doesn’t mean we have to stoop to his level. We’re all worried, and to be honest seeing him is a bit of an eye opener. I assume you already know that”. The Earthpony took a moment to roll his eyes as he took a heavy sigh. “Look, I’m not saying you meant to do damage with what you said, even I could tell you were joking. But he’s going to take time to receive his wakeup call. He’ll come through… I hope” the Pegasus then added on.
“Do you really believe that?” The Earthpony responded, immediately catching onto the tone of doubt in his voice. “Well, I…” However the Pegasus couldn’t think of a response. It was true, he didn’t know if that was actually something that would happen. Still, he had some hope. If he could receive that wakeup call, what’s was stopping him from receiving it too?
In the Earthpony’s mind however, he counted the Pegasus’ failure to finish his sentence as him being right. He trotted off, simply muttering “Just find a way out of here”. The Pegasus took a moment to himself as he flapped his wings and made his way to the second floor. Once he landed, his gaze was immediately drawn to a plaque on the wall, reflecting the light from the blue torches around them. When he got closer, he noticed that it read:
WHISTLEHEIGHT MINES WEST BRANCH
“Whistleheight Mines…? Never heard of it before” the Pegasus said to himself. In Manestralia, the three main islands that made up the continent were fully explored. Ponies on the islands were content with their lives. There was little of value in regard to exploring the wider world. However in this new land, the ponies seemed to have abandoned this place altogether. Was it a result of getting what they wanted from it? He didn’t know.
He took a further look around on this second floor. The Pegasus seeing that there were indeed other pathways. He flew quickly through each one only to be disappointed by cave-ins and dead ends. What he did find however, at the end of his third pathway, was a filled minecart. This minecart held raw gemstones in the dozens easily; all in different colours. Reds, yellows, blues, purples, pinks and the occasional white. He didn’t know how he was going to show the others, but he took a few to show the other two so they knew he was telling the truth.
Meanwhile, the Earthpony was on the ground floor. He had found some old bags lying around and figured they would come in useful if they needed to travel constantly, finding some leftover things in the bags. These bags containing things like money pouches, with a few gold coins in each of them. He counted a total of twenty-seven gold coins in total as he sorted the silver coins and bronze coins out that were also in the money pouches. It was hard to see because of the blue, but he counted roughly sixty-four silver coins and thirty-nine bronze coins in total. Another thing that the Earthpony found was a mirror. Whilst cracked, he was finally able to get a look at himself. From what he could make out, he was pale yellow in coat colour. His mane matching the others in green, albeit in a more dull shade. It sort of reminded him of a lemon.
Which is when he got an idea. He didn’t know what to call himself in this Earthpony body. He couldn’t waltz around as Prince Covet Dawndrop. He’d probably be looked at like some crazy individual. He realized the other two resembled fruit in their colours too. The Pegasus as an Orange, whilst the Unicorn a Lime. It was his little way of at least trying to see if he could adjust to the body he was in. So, he opted for his own name of Sour Lemon, Whilst he kept the names Sweet Lime and Acidic Citrus in his head; noticing that the Pegasus could’ve easily also resembled a Clementine or a Mandarin. All fruits that still counted as Citrus fruits.
At the same time, the Unicorn had found his way down to a dead end. A door stood in his way that was made of stone. Adorned with a heart shaped gem in the center of the door. The Unicorn looked around, trying to see if there was a clue as to how to open the door. That’s when he caught the sight of a sign he had missed on his way in. He quickly trotted over to the sign and read it to himself. The sign reading:
Only one with the mastery of Body and Mind can tame the door to the Mountain Soul
The Unicorn thought about this for a moment. “Mastery of the Body and Mind…?” he frowned to himself as he couldn’t work his way around opening the door. After a few moments of failing to open the door, the Unicorn just dismissed his attempts. Realizing that, for what he saw, he had indeed reached a dead end. He then began trotting back. He was still angered by the Earthpony’s comment about his pompousness. He couldn’t be pompous! Or Arrogant! He couldn’t possibly be wrong about what he said! To him, he was very much in the right, admiring that he still had access to his magic.
When the Unicorn got back, he saw the Pegasus and Earthpony together. “Just sat here talking like old grannies did you?” the Unicorn chimed in as he cut their conversation short. “As if you don’t belong in a retirement home yourself” the Earthpony began to respond. However the Pegasus decided to cut that conversation short with a slight hit to the Earthpony. No matter how right he thought the Earthpony was they needed to stay together. If they all believed they were the same pony and had the same memories, then they all must’ve shared the same body.
“Right, so in terms of exploration, I found a whole bunch of gemstones we could take with us. If we could sell them I reckon they’d be worth a FORTUNE! As for Sour-“
“Sour?” The Unicorn asked, with confusion.
“Oh, right, Sour here decided to give us names! Since we’re technically different ponies right now, Sour thought it was best to give us names! My name is Acidic Citrus, and provided you’re okay with it you have the name Sweet Lime!” The Pegasus responded as he looked at the Unicorn with eager anticipation of acceptance to the new name. “Sweet Lime? What is this, a supermarket??? Surely something like Mint uh…” But before the Unicorn could finish that, he was interrupted.
“So, what did you find?” was what Sour decided to ask. Emphasizing the use of the word ‘you’ as he asked his question. “Well, for one thing there was this weird message about a Body, Mind and a Mountain Soul as well as a door. With a big gem to boot” the Unicorn responded. Acidic then cut in, “I think I saw an exit outside of this place on the second floor? But how are you two supposed to get up there?” he asked to himself, not realizing he was speaking aloud.
“Oh honestly, don’t you remember, we know- or rather I know levitation spells. Let’s see… Ah, these minecarts could be a staircase!” The Unicorn responded. However, Acidic and Sour were focused on something else. Something that had emerged from where Sweet had emerged. When Sweet turned around, he was overwhelmed by the blue light coming from the area. What they were seeing were the spirits of the Mines. “S-spirits…?” Sour asked himself with a very slight chill of fear creeping up the back of his spine like a spider to a web.
“S-Sweet… Get those Minecarts in order… I-I’ll wait on the second floor…” Acidic said to himself as he flew up quickly; but not before taking a bag that Sour had left next to him. Without hesitation, Acidic reached the minecart he had seen before and filled the bag up. Slowly, the bag bloated in size and, whilst it was slow to carry, the Pegasus was able to lift it.
By the time he got back to the other two, a Minecart staircase had already been built. Sweet was already up on the second floor, Sour was struggling to get up as he stumbled his way on upward. What the Earthpony didn’t see, was that the spirits had started moving at a quick pace. Sweet was just able to pull Sour up as the spirits narrowly missed grabbing him. Swiping their hooves at them fiercely.
“Let’s go- What’s in that?” Sour asked as he gazed at the bag that Acidic had. “Our ticket to being rich! To having limitless money so we don’t have to worry! These gems are probably worth a whole fortune!” Acidic responded. Sweet and Sour looked at eachother with a look of concern. Without talking any further, the three of them began heading towards the last tunnel; leaving the spirits behind for the time being.
The tunnel was long and narrow. Torches being unlit as they could start to feel a wind coming from what they hoped was the exit. All three of them galloping toward the direction they were going. That all stopped however as they noticed that the path was broken up ahead. Sweet looked Acidic, and then the gap before speaking. “Lift us over” is what Sweet ended up saying. “Lift you both over!?” Acidic then protested. Sour however noticed the spirits approaching. They had apparently caught up to them as they floated closer and closer. “We don’t have time for an argument they’re right behind us!” Sour then shrieked. “But the gems-“ but before Acidic could respond, Sour interjected.
“FORGET ABOUT YOUR STUPID GEMS WE’RE ABOUT TO DIE!”
“What he said!” Sweet added on.
In Acidic’s mind, carrying the gems was something that was good. It was sustainable and prevented them from going money-less. Still, threat of death was imminent if the spirits caught up to them. He debated in his mind for a couple of seconds, before Acidic snapped back to reality. He needed the other two ponies more than he needed gemstones. If there was any chance of them all becoming one being again, he’d need the other two. “Fine, but you levitate yourself over” he said to Sweet.
“That’s fine with me!” Sweet responded as he used his own magic to bring himself across. He had a hunch about the gems that he had managed to get Acidic to leave behind, but needed to test it. He could’ve probably used his own magic to bring it across and could’ve used his magic to get all three of them across, but decided to relent on that option out of uncertainty as to whether or not it would work. After touching down on the other side, Acidic and Sour floated on over; Sour being carried by Acidic.
“Now then, let’s see if I was right” Sweet said to himself as he watched the spirits. When the spirits got to the bag, they stopped. Simply staring as they all surrounded it. They didn’t seem aggravated by the three ponies anymore, which made Sweet grin to himself. “They wanted the gems. That’s why they were after us. I thought it was odd that they didn’t appear until you had those gemstones and mentioned the rest of them” Sweet explained.
“Before they decide to prove you wrong, let’s get out of here” Sour then responded as he galloped ahead, the other two following. Acidic was upset to have left a fortunes worth of gems behind, but he had to accept the fact that if he hadn’t let go of the gems, they’d all probably be dead. Probably. It took another minute or so to reach the outside, but when they did, they could see the sunlight and could see that they were now near a coast. Not too far off, they saw a city. Which is where the three of them decided to head to now that they were out of the mines.