Velvet backed away, her eyes darting around the ceiling while looking for the source of the strange sound. The sensation of something rocky connecting with her leg, followed by a crumbling sound, caused Velvet to turn around.

She’d chipped one of the earth pony statues they passed by earlier.

Something glowed from inside the statue. Velvet galloped towards Daring as the entire statue began to crumble. Multicolored sparks arced all over its surface, while a bright white light with a tinge of yellow billowed out of the growing cracks. One of the sparks burst from the earth pony’s chest and struck the statue of a pegasus, then a bison, then a second pegasus. An unholy snarling noise echoed through the cave as a webwork of etheric electricity blocked the way back to the entrance.

Velvet and Daring crept backwards. The latter bit her lip.

“That’s probably bad…”

A blue arc slammed the rock above, showering the ponies with stones. The ponies flinched. A bolt of electricity came hurtling towards them, prompting Daring to take to the air and fly deeper into the tunnel.

“Run!”

The sound of crumbling rocks caused Velvet to scamper forward. She’d only gotten a few feet forward when the sound of an arc crackling behind her reached her ears. Something snagged her tail. Velvet rolled on her back to focus on the offending weight.

A white glow seared through Velvet’s retinas, covering an increasingly larger area of her tail. In their wake, soft, white and purple fibers solidified into hardened, gnarled masses of brown rock.

“Wha… Ahhh! Holy shit!”

Velvet tried to back away, but her tail seemed to fuse with the floor. Her horn glowed. She grit her teeth and held back a scream as she tried to pull the hairs out with her telekinesis.

Her hair held together. This wasn’t going to cut it.

“Damn it! Where’s a barber when you need one?!”

Velvet looked up. Give or take a few sparks, the pile of rocks she’d vaulted over seemed to impede most of the thunderous cascade of lightning. With every earth-shaking roar and flash, however, the collective blizzard of sparks made its murderous intentions known. There wasn’t much time.

She used a heating spell to separate herself from her rapidly petrifying tail. It worked…too slowly. A quarter of her once long flowing tail had now been turned to stone, and the heating spell hadn’t even transected half that distance. Such magic needed to be slow going, as much as it pained Velvet. Too fast, and it would just set her entire tail on fire.

A bolt of lightning shattered a rock, the rubble showering the ground beside Velvet.

“Oh crap! Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!”

Dust kicked itself up at Velvet’s right. Shielding her eyes momentarily, Velvet looked up.

“Velvet, get back!”

“Daring?” Velvet could barely keep herself from hyperventilating. “For Celestia’s sake, where were you, taking a bathroom break?! Stop leaving me behind!”

“I told you to lay off the eclairs!”

“Just shut up and GET ME OUTTA HERE!!”

The Canterlot unicorn watched the master’s trowel make short work of her tail. Each blow sliced off several hairs, the blade grinding on the ground all the while. A lightning bolt shattered another rock. A piece struck Daring in the ribs, but she barely flinched. Was it adrenaline? Experience? Velvet didn’t know.