The blank expanse of darkness opened and closed on the vague lane of Shadow’s consciousness. Reality seemed to be moving in and out of the fractured dream that was infinitely more realistic than the abysmally dark cave that was his current existence. It was bizarre to have been aroused this early, particularly from such a calm and peaceful respite, but he was certain nothing had roused him. Even Iris was no longer holding him in a vice grip.
Shadow turned over once, trying in vain to find some form of comfort in the hard dirt floor, but it was unsurprisingly a completely futile effort. He reflected on the wisdom of having Lightning trample down a patch of dirt for him if they ever came across this situation in the future, though he hoped to Celestia they never would.
A dull dripping sound came from somewhere within the cave, reminding his weary mind of their location. When he did manage to open his eyes he was further depressed to discover the absence of the torchlight. It may not have been wise to leave it burning unattended, but it was a stone cave after all, and it had provided the illusion of comfort in the dismal setting. The fact that there was still no other source of light also suggested the need for the flame.
Of course when a young, tired pony, especially a colt is placed in an unusual situation, especially in the dark, imaginations tend to wander. The sage advice of countless internet friends (and one interesting song by Button Masher) warned him not to be in the caves after dark. He fumbled in the darkness for the flint, creepers didn’t like torchlight, he could remember that much at least, though whether or not creatures where a real threat wasn’t a certainty, meaning he didn’t know whether or not it was something to be worried about.
Searching hoof finally connected with rough stone and Shadow released a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t need a diamond sword after all, not that he actually believed for an instant he could get his hooves on one; fire would be more than enough to dispel any night terror. The first strike illuminated the cave for a split second, the perfect roundness of the place contradicting his childish fears of cave monsters. A few more strikes and he was finally able to land a glowing ember on the now long dead torch.
It was a number of seconds before the spark took, the dim glow growing brighter at a snail’s pace. Mesa hadn’t moved an inch from his mass of grass and was snoring like a dragon. Shadow was slightly confused by the fact he hadn’t noticed the tremendous sound sooner, as if the darkness, like a mantle, had muffled both sight and sound. Lightning looked as if she was having a slightly more traumatic dreaming experience as she came into view, tossing and turning in the dirt, her mane absorbing a gritty brown color that made her look almost orange in the flickering light. And Iris… He couldn’t see Iris…
Icy fear snaked around Shadow, its cold hands taking a firm hold of him. Murderer’s cave, creepy carvings, hidden beneath a waterfall, and now Iris had vanished in the night. There wasn’t a chance in Equestria that she had left the cave on her own, and there were no corners or back areas for her to have hidden in. His first thought, one brought about more by hysteria than reason, was that some monster had gotten hold of her, and for that moment there were no saner thoughts to prevail.
“Lightning, wake up!” he shouted, running for the jagged crack in the wall, “We’ve got trouble!”
“What?” Lightning exclaimed, snapping awake as if a thunderbolt had struck right next to her “What sort of trouble? What’s going on?” her senses had returned to her much quicker than Shadow’s had, having never truly vacated her in the first place.
“Iris is gone!” said Shadow. Lightning couldn’t hear his continued speech clearly as he forced his way through the exit.
Lightning turned to Mesa, still snoring like an elephant, and kicked him into a roll. “Wake up you idiot!” she shouted “When the call goes out for an emergency you need to be ready to go!”
Mesa slammed hard into the wall, finally plodding into the waking world. “Oh my God Lightning…” he groaned “That was evil…couldn’t you have just pushed me or something…?”
“We don’t have time for that right now!” Lightning shouted, kicking up a cloud of dirt as she accelerated to follow Shadow “Now get off your sorry flank and get moving!” And just like that she was gone through the gap.
Pain shot through him as he stood up. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to physical abuse, the other buffalo had shown him enough of that to last him a lifetime, but the absolute hatred that Lightning had for him gave him a sense of perverse excitement. It made him want to laugh, especially because unlike the kicks of the stampede Lightning’s blows had resulted in a horrible dull pain with every shot.
“What’s going on?” asked Lightning as she skidded to a halt on the sand “What happened to Iris…? Shadow? Is something wrong…?”
Shadow was standing perfectly still, temporarily paralyzed in fright by the image in front of his eyes. The waterfall had frozen, not into ice, but hung suspended in the air, completely defiant of the force of gravity. Lightning followed his gaze and froze in a similar fashion. Something unnatural was going on, and this time they had no idea what.
“What’s all the yelling about?” Mesa grumbled as he followed them outside “I don’t think you guys should be… what the hay?”
“Iris!” Shadow shouted, the realization of danger enough to snap him out of his trance “Iris! Where are you?”
The silent night air carried no reply. The full moon hung perfectly in the center of the suddenly still cascade, throwing a pale ghostly glow over the whole pool. Shadow cursed at the darkness till his lungs hurt, enraged by the hidden attacker he knew was just out of sight. There wasn’t a chance in Tartarus that he was going to let any pony kidnap Iris and think they could get away with it…
“Killing’s too good for him…” he growled after he ran out of air “I’ll have mom burn him at the stake for a whole year while he’s still alive… then freeze him in Ice like King Sombra… then, only then will I kill him…”
“What are you talking about?” asked Lightning.
“Show yourself!” he let out one more shout carry into the still air, tasting blood as he did so “You heard my threat! Come out and we’ll see if you’re man enough to fight me!”
Almost at once dark shapes slunk forward from the stones around them. Shadow leapt into the air, wings instinctively carrying him upward out of sheer terror despite his misplaced bravado. He had barely gotten a glimpse of them, but it had been enough. Blank, pale masks, attached to evil, black furred forms.
Lightning and Mesa had the much more unpleasant experience of seeing these creatures up close and personal. As the black forms were painted into color by the moonlight the masks could be seen as the strange wear of many creatures. There were buffalo, as was natural on the plains, but there were also ponies, deer, zebra, griffons, all in a bizarre number in population, all crawling into the light, unified by the masks.
A heavyset buffalo took hold of Lightning while a nimbus of purple magic froze Mesa in place. The small crowd that had slunk from the deep shadows now encircled the two remaining children, leering silently without a hint of expression.
“What’s going on?” Lightning snapped, kicking at her captor “Let me go you big galoot!”
The buffalo visibly flinched from Lightning’s blows but stayed firm “Wasn’t there another one?” he snorted in a low rumble of a voice “A smaller black one, where’d he go?”
“Must’ve been a shadow,” came a raspy voice from one of the older deer “You just imagined it. Come on now, let’s get climbing, the first sacrifice is going to start without us unless we get moving…”
Lightning did not like the sound of “sacrifice” at all, but “getting started without us” caught the attention of the only one who had kept his wits about him. It was all starting to fall into place now. This group had kidnapped Iris while they had all been asleep, disturbing him as she was detached from her snuggle. By the time he had woken up they had already taken her away and laid an ambush in case they were to notice and leave the cave.
Two things, Shadow figured, were important from what he had listened in on. First, they didn’t know he was there, and second, he knew where they were going. By utilizing the upside-down walk he had mastered at the castle he could scale the mountain like a lizard to the place where this group was conducting the aforementioned sinister ritual. If luck held he would be able to sneak up, rescue Iris, and be gone before any of the dark group was able to step in his way.
All this, was of course, assuming he was capable of getting to this point before Iris ended up as a “sacrifice”. He detached himself from the wall and took to the air. This little operation would require no small amount of haste…
“You will be just perfect…”
Iris, naturally, could see neither her captor nor her surroundings. She was lying on some cold, hard surface and the smell of long dead things hung in the air, paralyzing her with fright. This was, perhaps, a good thing, for it she had the strength to resist the sallow voice may have felt the need to restrain her.
“Thirty years…” the voice continued, not a trace of emotion in the tone “It’s been thirty winters since he took him away from me…” A deep sigh followed this statement “I’m sorry you know… I don’t mean to hurt you…”
When Iris didn’t give any sort of response he continued “My son, Desert Plain, was taken away from me. It was then that he made me the offer to get him back… I knew it was awful, I always have… But you have to understand, I had no choice.”
Iris shifted slightly on the hard surface, trying to get a better sense of her location, but the cold stone really was just cold stone. The voice, however, intrigued her. It was an old voice, a very old voice, laced with a deep pain hidden by the emotionless tone. Just from his tired old voice Iris was able to find pity for the man. Lightning would hate her so much for thinking like that.
“You… you are the fourth child…” said the voice, cracking with what could have been either very great excitement or intensely deep set guilt “You are the last one… He’s coming back tonight… And then he will return my son to me…”
Iris’ blood turned to ice, realizing with a terrified dread that there was nothing she could do about her horrible predicament. Her friends were probably all still asleep down in the cave, they wouldn’t even notice when this pony would end her in the bloody ritual he was talking to himself about. This insane, lonely man was going to end her life on this cold stone.
Little did she know that her best hope of rescue was galloping full tilt up the mountain path. Shadow had considered flying straight up and trying to locate her from above but felt the risk of being seen outweighed that of not getting there fast enough. He wasn’t a slow runner after all, and he still had the ability to vibrate his wings into a hover, so he felt fairly confident that he would be able to reach her.
The first problem, that of not knowing where Iris had gone, was still an issue. The mountain path had many branching trails that could result in going back down rather than up, and Iris could be down any of them. More than once Shadow had panicked down one path, turned around, and taken the other. It was steadily becoming slow going, and his fear was beginning to mount.
“I swear, when I find you…” he grumbled as he ran “I’m going to… I don’t know what I’m gonna do…”
Just as he had determined that this was taking too long he noticed a fluttering out of the corner of his eye. He turned sharply to see a leaf of yellowed paper flapping freely against the rock face. Curiosity, as well as a vague hope of direction, compelled him to check.
Finding it hard to get a decisive look at the page as it fluttered in the breeze he tore it down for analysis. It had a crude drawing, a group of standing trees, probably a forest. At first it seemed insignificant, until he spotted the figure in the center. Blending in with the trees, as if it didn’t exist at all, was another image. The same image of a human from the cave.
Shadow felt a mixture of fear and relief at the sight. It meant, at least, that he was going the right direction, as the pictures matched the carvings. But for some reason the human figure gave him a sense of dread, aside from the fact it was looking more and more like a psycho was leading them to their deaths. A cold seemed to settle over him as he cast a cursory glance about the gray stone. His ears twitched as a thumping sound came from what seemed to be all around him, but his tired brain could very well be registering the sound of the fluttering paper wrong.
He forced himself to ignore the pounding and cast his gaze along the path, elated to see another page taped hastily to the rock face. This was sure to mean that he was on the right track, and he was willing to ignore the creepy aspect of that for awhile. This page had a more curious inscription, the two words “Help Me” lending him to believe that Iris may have left it for him to follow. Of course if he had given two seconds of thought to it, rather than hastily grabbing the note and continuing on, the realization that Iris couldn’t possibly write a note may have been better impressed upon him.
The pounding sound, which had seemed to be constantly behind him no matter which way he turned his head, seemed to be growing louder. It wasn’t a great stretch of the imagination to form that pounding sound into hoof steps, as if some pony was following him. His pace had fallen to a steady trot, his stamina no longer allowing him to gallop.
Mist began to coalesce around the mountain, promising a deep fog tomorrow, as well as intensifying the deep feeling of dread Shadow felt was crushing him into a compact sphere. The feeling that he was being watched seemed to take over his mind suddenly as he followed the sight of another page down the right fork in the path. There was someone else out here, he couldn’t deny that gut instinct for a second. His wings were extended at either side now, ready to fly at the sight of danger.
Pounding steps, sudden mist, the darkness that didn’t even seem to slightly abate. Shadow’s tail was puffed out as big as he was in fear, his muscles tense as stone. Once or twice he had to stop as his shaking legs forced him to stand still. Whatever this thing was it was, it was right behind him, he could feel it. ‘Come on,’ he thought to himself, ‘if worst comes to worst you can definitely fly faster than this thing… No one can go as high…’
If his body had believed a word his brain was telling it, he may not have been so dismally frightened, not quite such a coiled spring of tension and uncertainty. If he had even for a moment believed his own thoughts his next moment would not have been nearly so spectacular.
That’s when he saw it, and for a moment that seemed to last an eternity “it” was all he was able to comprehend. It had appeared as suddenly as if it had been waiting for him, directly in front of him, both there and not there in the fraction of a second it took for him to comprehend it. Shadow’s eyes ventured to the high face, no, there was no face! The tall creature with the long deformed legs and grotesque appendages was standing before him in all its wretched glory. All he could comprehend was bright white terror.
By the time his brain forced its way back in control of the body it was in his vision had started to go fuzzy. His first instinct was to fly, and fly hard, but his wings had locked solid against his back. With the last rational thought he could muster he turned and galloped back the way he had come with all the speed he could force into his legs.
Closer to the bottom of the path the masked ponies were still leading Mesa and Lightning up toward the peak. Having abandoned the extra energy of magic they had trussed the prisoners up with thick cords and tied them on the backs of two of the stronger buffalo. The procession was tense and quiet, ritualistic even, seeming to be in anticipation of some coming event. The mist, which had coalesced thickly on top of the mountain, was beginning to pour slowly downward, bathing the black parade in a veil of vapor.
“Psst, Light!” Mesa hissed at Lightning as the fog divided her from sight “Where do you think they’re taking us?”
Lightning glowered, despite the fact she knew Mesa couldn’t see her. This idiot didn’t know her nearly well enough to call her “Light”. “You’re an idiot!” she said, despite the clear redundancy “They are literally carrying us and you think they can’t hear you?”
“I don’t care if they hear us,” said Mesa “They’re all weird and stony, like zombies or something. I’m not sure even they know what they’re doing…”
“Then why are you whispering?” asked Lightning.
Mesa didn’t answer for a moment “I’m not sure…” he finally said ‘I guess it’s just kind of the vibe of this place you know? I feel like it would be somehow… wrong to talk… you’re whispering too didn’t you notice?”
Lightning had a moment’s pause at this. She had been whispering, but it hadn’t entirely registered in her conscious mind. Some force did seem to be pressing around them beyond the roiling fog. A dreadful feeling had settled on her like a swallowed stone. Perhaps there was something deeper in this kidnapping than a bunch of rogues looking for ransom, (or as she was afraid of letting the possibility of into her mind, food). She was suddenly afraid beyond belief of monsters that could be around every corner.
“You don’t think…” she said slowly “That maybe that crazy pony was right? That there may be something else on the mountain? Like…”
“What else?” said Mesa “Anything dangerous the tribe would’ve noticed a long time ago, these idiots aren’t going to be around much longer before they’re hunted down.”
“Then how do you explain the weird trance?” asked Lightning.
Mesa took another cursory glance around, hearing far more than seeing the continued uniformity of the upward march. “I have no idea…” he conceded.
The group suddenly ceased their steady march all at once, seeming suddenly confused by something. A voice from the front of the procession suddenly spoke “Well that can’t be right… it was a half hour yet to the master’s cave last time I checked…”
Moving out of the consistent lines, the two buffalo holding Lightning and Mesa shuffled forward. The mist suddenly parted as they entered what seemed to be a dimly lit cave. The light of two lanterns danced off the moisture in the air as the two foals absorbed the horrific sight before their eyes.
“I see you’ve already brought yours up here,” said the buffalo holding Lightning “Made damn good time of it too, good work. We’ve rounded up the others and we’re ready to begin.”
There was no reply from the person Lightning and Mesa were unable to see, but the high pitched sound of a deer’s voice came from behind them “Are you sure we got them all sir?”
Mesa felt the muscled body he was strapped to suddenly go tense “Of course we are,” he said “What would make you ask such a ludicrous question?”
“Well you see sir…” said the deer, Lightning detecting the sound of shuffling hooves “Many of us can hear the sound of the master out…hunting… we’re very afraid we may have missed one of their number…”
“I was brought up the mountain quickly by the master,” came a gruff old voice suddenly, Mesa guessed it was the one the buffalo had been talking to when they entered the cave “I would suppose he may have found another young…victim… and wishes to toy with this one himself…”
“I hear hoof steps…” came a pony’s voice from outside the cave “Small hoof steps… it sounds like they’re approaching!”
“Don’t move…” came the old voice again “The master appears to be leading his prey directly into our clutches. Behold! Now he appears before us to claim our sacrifice!”
Any pony of even slightly weaker willpower would’ve gone insane, of this much Shadow was absolutely certain. That damned tall monster had frightened him into retreat so many times he suspected he had been completely turned around several times. His legs were shaking violently from fear, and his eyes were blurry from exhaustion, his wings still heavy stone against his sides. The way things were going now he would be easy prey if the monster attacked again. Blinded by fog and blurred vision, tired from constant galloping, he was afraid if the thing appeared again he would willingly give himself up.
But underlying all of this was a little feeling of hope. He had collected six or seven of the guiding pages and was still holding on to them tightly. Somehow they felt safe to hold, like the situation may resolve itself if he managed to collect all of them. Of course for all he knew there could be thousands, but he felt that whatever the end destination was, it was very, very close.
The sight of one last crinkled page turned the spark of hope into a blazing inferno. Some reflective light from within the fog illuminated the word “Follows” next to yet another image of what he was sure was the creature stalking him in the dark. The light, while more than a bit suspicious, was a welcome sight and he headed toward it hastily, all eight pages bunched together in his mouth.
To his very great surprise, the mist was now beginning to thin very rapidly, revealing the light he was staring toward to be coming from some kind of cave. He continued on toward the glow until, at the mouth of the cavern, the mist faded completely to reveal the space inside.
Papers fluttered to the ground with a rustling sound as his jaw dropped. The entire group which had ganged up on them at the mountain’s base was gathered around on either side of the cave, backs to the wall. Lightning and Mesa could be recognized among them, tied up and forced to stand. For a moment he couldn’t take in any more than this, the instinct to turn and flee again snaking its way into his mind. But he resisted this time, he had come too far to go chicken on his friends now.
It took a moment to register the fact that he wasn’t being attacked. To his very great surprise the mobs on either side stood perfectly still, like statues carved from the gray cavern’s rock, not interested in the slightest in moving, let alone toward him. Mesa and Lightning were moth flapping their lips furiously at him, apparently expecting him to lip read. It was either that or something was blocking him from hearing the words that were being spoken. With a sinking feeling he began to realize it was probably the latter.
His gaze travelled forward now, finding the presence of a series of stone steps in the center of the cave. The perfect symmetry of the cavern perplexed him, as the cavern at the base had been perfectly round, this one was a perfect cube, the only imperfection being the immaculately carved stone steps leading up to…
Air left his lungs all over again at the sight of the stone platform. Iris was laying on a carved stone table, shivering in silent terror as another masked buffalo stood menacingly over her. This one was not huge and evil looking however, this one was hunched over and looked very, very old.
“Master!” the ancient buffalo called suddenly, confirming that Shadow was indeed not deaf “I bring you the last of the four! Come to me so that you may pour your blessings onto me in return!”
So this was what it was, this sacrifice, the old buffalo was going to murder Iris in the name of some archaic deity. He moved to leap up and strike the old man, but suddenly found his hooves rooted to the spot. This geezer didn’t seem to have any sort of weapon on him, how was he supposed to sacrifice Iris? He was very ancient as well, suggesting that even if he had the tools to go through with it he might not have the strength.
Then it was there. Shadow couldn’t hold back a scream as he saw the thing once again, clearer than ever now, floating in the space above the table. Tall, with horribly mismatched appendages, and gross pale hands on the ends of its elongated front legs, the monster had returned. It was wearing clothes, a black suit that hid any real details of its body, as well as deep black shoes on only its hind legs. Bizarre waving appendages came out of its back, twisting slowly downward to the gathered crowd, who moved from being stony to shivering in disgust and fear.
And that face… That horrible face! But no, there was no face! What was he seeing? This nightmare had come to accept them all as some sort of grisly offering and there was nothing he could do about it. His vision flashed, colors fading from the world around him as static began to spark in his mind.
Iris screamed, and Shadow snapped awake, his mind clearing the static as sun rays piercing clouds. He could see Iris, rising slowly into the air in the grip of the monster’s tentacles. She was writhing and crying, begging for mercy that the beast either would not, or could not give. Any moment now Iris would be in reach of its arms and she would be at its mercy, doomed to the terrifying fate that awaited the victims of this slender man.
And there was no way in Tartarus Shadow was going to let that happen…
As if in a dream his stone wings became light again, and he flew forward toward the attacker with fire in his eyes and a violent exclamation on his lips. He cleared the old buffalo easily, careening toward the spot where the creature had almost wrapped its horrible arms around Iris. His hooves connected with silky fur as he wrapped his forelegs tightly around Iris, his head connecting with the monster’s black suit.
There was a terrifying exclamation from the beast, a sound like white noise turned into a scream. It drowned out Iris’ cries and Shadow’s curses, echoing around the room like the verse of a demonic chorus. The proxies fled, hooves over their ears as dust rained down from the ceiling.
Mesa was paralyzed in terror, his face scrunched up in pain as he struggled to escape the bonds still holding him. Lightning, however, seemed untouched by the sound. She stared straight into the void opening up around the monster, not a black space, not even some sort of hole, but a status of pure nothing, somehow forced into existence and visibility. The void swelled, seeming to devour every color within the cavern as it fell over the monster and the two foals, engulfing them in an invisible cloak, causing them to disappear before their startled eyes.
“Shadow no!” Lightning screamed, inchworming forward against her bonds, but it was far too late. Shadow and Iris were gone, dragged backwards into whatever hell the monster had retreated to…