//------------------------------//
// 12: An Unsettling Reveal 
// Story: Blackened Night 
// by ZeirMakavar 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 12
An Unsettling Reveal


	"High... but they went extinct centuries ago." Sunny Meadow said, a  shocked look on her face. "Maybe even around the fall of the Ravenwood  Empire!"
"And that was more then 20 thousand years ago." Raging  said, looking at the force-field. "Placing them at before The Crypt was built."
"But... why would a Highland Pixie place such an  enchantment in the area? What is in The Crypt that would cause them to  seal this place off with magic that not even Luna can dispel?"
"I do not know." Princess Luna said softly, a clear worried tone in her voice as she looked at the force field that covered the entrance to the crypt. "As young Raging has said, the highland pixies should have died out twenty-thousand years ago. It is possible however, that this wasn't done recently however."
"What do you mean?" Sunny Meadow said, a look of confusing on her face, before a shocked look of realization flashed over her face. "Are you... Are you saying that this might be something they did before dying out? That it's some last defense to keep what ever is in there, well... in there?" she asked, a look of both interest, and glee on her face as she once again, looked back at the entrance, before returning to looking at Luna.
"It wasn't!" A new voice screamed out, startling the group, causing them to turn and see the source. And when they did, they saw something that should have been impossible. Floating above the ground on, was a small humanoid creature, that could only be one thing. A Highland Pixie. "I made that barrier! My mother showed me how to! You... You shouldn't be going into The Temple! It's forbidden!"
"Impossible...." was all Sunny Meadow was able to say, as the others looked at the pixie with a confused look on their faces. They all stood in shock at the pixie, but it was Sunny who recovered the quickest. "Wait... you said Temple? Forbidden?" She said, looking at the pixie, a confused look still on her face, one that was slowly being replaced with a curious one. "We saw no signs of either of those things when studying the ruins of the maze, or the crypt level."
"Indeed little pixie." Luna said, the second one to recover, as she looked over the pixie with a scrutinizing eye. "Neither the maze itself, nor the things found with in, showed any evidence of either." She continued, her glare causing the pixie to shrink away a bit. "And you appear to be a Highland Pixie, which according to all records, has been extinct, for twenty thousand years. Care to explain this?"
"You..." the pixie began, before landing atop Sunny's back, who she had hid behind. "I... extinct? Twenty thous... but... But I only entered the Temple yesterday... I... I thought that you... You're not here to punish me?"
"Why would we be here to punish you young pixie?" Luna then asked, a soft smile on her face as she spoke. "Until now, we did not know that any of your kind still were alive. Though, I knew from the stories that your kind were long lived, I did not think that it was as long as this."
"We're not allowed in The Temple." The pixie then said, frowning a bit. "I... I was sneaking into it one day. I got passed the guards and was exploring it. I got lost when suddenly my... my wings stopped working and... And something found me." The pixie continued, shivering in fear. Something that Sunny felt, due to the Pixie sitting on her. "I... I ran out as soon as I saw it. Then... Then I saw you ponies, and I panicked... I thought that you were here for me, cause you found out... How could so much time pass with out me knowing?"
"Did you say your wings stopped working?" Sunny asked, blinking a bit, as she looked back, at the pixie.
"Y-yes... why?"
"Well, I don't know exactly... so it's just a theory right now..." Sunny said, before laying on the ground, smiling. "But, if your wings are anything like a Pegasus's wings, and function on ambient magic... then you must have ran into the Soul Eater that was trapped under the crypt."
"What's a crypt?"
"It's a large, artificially made cavern, that houses a populations dead." Raging answered, sitting down next to Sunny, as Luna watched, smiling. "There is one on what we call floor 10 of the maze."
"There wasn't anything like that back when I was exploring it..."







Sunny Meadow sighed softly, as she sat in her office in the town hall. She was looking over the notes she had gathered, after observing the pixie's shield. She and Luna had continued talking with the pixie, who she had learned was named Sylph, for a few more hours after Raging Night had to leave. Though he was no longer in charge of the town, as that was Green Hunter's job now as Representative of Duke Sombra, he was still the sheriff of the town, a job he preferred to ignore in favor of the dig.
Since Sylph had sealed it off, and was refusing to open it up again, this meant that the dig was halted. For now, he had to delegate the miners and geomancers who were on the dig, to other areas, namely the few areas of the valley that had proven to house minerals that the rest of Equestria needed desperately. The area around the dig seemed to be abundant in minerals that before, were thought to be scares.
Sunny Meadow smiled softly now, as she looked out the window in her office, seeing Sylph playing with a few of the young fillies and colts who lived in the town. A couple of them were pegasi, which meant that they'd be able to catch her more easily. This fleeting happiness only lasted but a few seconds however, as she returned to her notes. In particular, she was looking over the notes pertaining to the Soul Eater that Sylph had ran into deep in The Maze. The description she gave, was eerily similar to somepony that Raging had described.
A cerulean coated Pegasus mare, that seemed to have mutated into some bizarre half pony half reptile thing. This worried Sunny, on levels she never thought possible. If these two beings were one and the same, then that meant that the Soul Eater was not only still alive, but had broken free. The army that tried stopping it all those years ago, had completely failed.