//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Ruins Secret 
// Story: The Frozen Souls 
// by lightningeyes 
//------------------------------//

	Carrot Top felt wary as she and Derpy Hooves entered the overgrown city, but the grey mare was excited. For Derpy the city represented a chance to learn some ancient history and go sightseeing, things she greatly admired. Carrot interpreted the small city in a different way; something felt wrong, this place was an echo of some sort, of some time. Carrot knew this was likely just instinct or her imagination and she didn’t want to ruin Derpy’s fun.

Derpy gazed in wonder, now that they were closer she could see that the city buildings weren't white, but light grey in color. The pegasus visualized more details, cracks, trees, tumbling bricks, heavily eroded statues and...a helmet.

Carrot’s worry faded a little as she came across an odd realization regarding the trees that were planted amongst the ruins. Upon closer inspection Carrot recognized the tree species, Ashen Oak, the trees all had dark grey bark and clean white leaves. She remembered only ever seeing one on the outskirts of Ponyville, long ago, before Zecora moved into the Everfree. Sought after by doctors and herbalists this species had healing properties and were rare. They were a hard species to grow, Carrot remembered how she once trying to germinate the seeds, Applejack tried it too, but both farmers failed. Carrot couldn't stop beaming with excitement, this place had been abandoned long ago and the trees here were each worth a tiny fortune.

“Halt, who are you? This place is off limits, by order of the princesses!”  

Carrot felt her fur stand on end. The guard behind her came from nowhere! He...Wait, why did his voice sound funny?

Carrot spun around and saw Derpy standing there, wearing a bronze, intricately designed helmet, with a gap that allowed Derpy’s mane through.

“Got ya, admit it, you got scared,” Derpy jested, while taking to the air and hovering, clearly pleased with herself.

“Oh please, your voice gave it away, you sounded silly Derpy,” Carrot retorted in an agitated tone. Seeing the helmet Carrot questioned Derpy. “Where did you get that helmet from anyway?”

“I found it. It was just laying there and I figured I’d keep it. It’s gotta be an antique,” Derpy quickly answered. “Oh and I found an intact statue, all the others are broken.” Derpy blurted as she grabbed Carrot’s hoof and dragged her. “Come on, I'll show you.” 

        Carrot allowed her overly excited friend to guide her to her next destination. So far she liked this trip and only smiled as they reached their destination in front of a statue.

“See, it has a mane like yours,” Derpy declared with a large grin, as she let go of Carrot’s hoof.

“A lot of ponies have curly manes, I’m not the only one Derpy,” Carrot replied, slightly amused. ”But I do find it interesting that all of these pony statues have curly hair,” Carrot uttered, realizing that all the semi-intact statues had remnants of a curly tail or mane.

Derpy didn’t realize it until Carrot mentioned the similarities. “I wonder why, there’s no way they only had curly haired ponies.” The mare knew that each pony was born with their own mane style and coat color. It is what allowed them to find and recognize each other. A society of curly haired ponies made little sense and would decrease recognizability between friends and strangers.

Carrot came to a logical theory and explained to her friend. “Maybe curly manes were a trait belonging to the higher classes, it would explain the statues, they show status.”

“Actually that makes sense, but let’s keep sightseeing, I wanna see m-” Derpy’s speech was cut short by a loud scream. Spinning around and looking behind her she saw Carrot Top turn pale and start shaking while pointing to Derpy’s right. Turning to look the pegasus also turned pale at the sight that utterly terrified Carrot, this city wasn’t unguarded or deserted.

Derpy and Carrot heard rattling from the dreadful beings standing in front of the pair. The creatures were standing in the shadow of a large crumbled building, hidden almost entirely from view. One unnatural monstrosity stepped out of the shadows, Carrot couldn’t take her eyes of it. Its eyes were unnatural, where its true eyes should have been there were only blood red dots of light. The strange thing had no flesh, only aged and cracked light grey bone, it was also wearing an old bronze breastplate. Its skull seemed to wear a permanent grin, despite missing 3 teeth and a crack down the left side of the cranium. It stood straight up on 4 thick legs that ended in hooves, two of which were lightly fractured. It was a reanimated skeletal pony and it wasn’t small, it was slightly larger than Carrot herself.

“Excuse me miss, you-” The skeletal pony was interrupted by Derpy’s scream, who then began fleeing with Carrot.

“Run for it!”  Carrot yelled as she began fleeing from the talking skeleton.

Derpy looked behind her as she ran, the sight only acted as motivation to increased her speed. The previous skeleton began running after the pair, but it wasn’t alone. Other skeletons joined the pursuit, all fifteen after Derpy and Carrot, a couple of smaller ones were ahead of the main group and were quickly catching up.

“Turn right,” Derpy pushed Carrot in the desired direction, forcing the latter to question the pegasus as she turned with the push.

“Why are we headed right?”

“Out in the open those smaller things are sure to catch us, earlier I saw a large building in this direction, we can lose them inside.” Derpy answered hastily as she kept running, her wings wouldn’t open when she was overcome with fear, running was her only option.

Carrot didn’t have a chance to argue, the building up ahead was a welcome chance to escape. As she and Derpy entered the building the pair stopped abruptly, they realized there was only one exit out of the building. Mentally Derpy cursed herself, why did I pick this building of all the buildings here?

Ahead of the pair there was a large stone staircase, which headed down into an underground tunnel. The pair didn’t know how deep the tunnel went, the darkness within seemed alive, it moved back and forth like a breathing creature. Derpy looked behind her and saw their pursuers. The skeleton ponies chasing them were joined by twenty others of its kind and another smaller but faster one was closer than the main group.

Carrot also looked back, seeing the same sight she held Derpy’s hoof and ran down the staircase, pulling her friend in with her. Derpy followed her earth pony friend, against her better judgement, this tunnel didn’t feel safe. After running for a few minutes Carrot came to a halt, she realized her mistake, underground they were cornered.

Derpy opened her wings and glided past Carrot before turning and shouting to her friend. “Carrot you can’t...No!”

Carrot turned back only to see a skeleton, it wrapped its front legs around the earth pony. It felt hard and unnatural to her, its stench filled the air. Carrot gasped and held her breath, as an intricately designed bronze helmet collided with the Skeletons rib cage. The skeleton yelled as its body disconnected from its head, which fell and began rolling down staircase. Its body flew backwards, taking Carrots saddlebags with it. The remaining white skeleton collided with the tunnel wall, which began showing visible cracks.

Carrot resumed running, she knew that in tunnels cracks were likely a precursor to a large cave in. She sensed the rock and its stress, formed after decades of neglect. Derpy also began fleeing, she didn’t want the skeletons to run into the tunnel and find the pair standing over a dismembered skeleton. However she didn’t expect to feel powerful vibrations, Looking back Derpy saw large sections of the ceiling start to crack, slide out and drop. The cave in had begun and further in the tunnel, it didn’t go unnoticed.

Derpy Hooves didn’t believe what she saw, she dared not. The granite tunnel cracked, shifted and collapsed behind the pegasus as she ran, her heart pumping like a jackhammer. Carrot Top was a little further ahead of Derpy. Neither dared to looked back. The orange mare knew the stone around them was shattering and shifting. She didn’t see it Only felt it. Being an earth pony Carrot could sense the chaos in the earth, new fault lines were forming, leaving the tunnel in ruin. Huge boulders and slabs of black stone fell out of the roof, crushing anything that remained behind in the doomed tunnel.  

Derpy pumped and swung her legs, forcing them to move as fast as possible, she could only hope for a miracle. Lifting her head she looked further down the tunnel and not only saw, but felt something. Behind the pair of fleeing friends there was only crushing death, but further ahead Derpy saw an illuminated opening and felt a small breeze. Carrot Top hadn’t realized Derpy’s finding, she was still running and panicking. The stones began to crack ahead of the pair, the cave in was shifting ahead. 

The grey pegasus unfurled her wings and flapped hard. Carrot had no time to react as grey hooves picked up the orange mare, lifting her off the ground. A streamlined shape, every pegasus knew that shape was necessary for quick acceleration. Derpy used her hind legs and locked them around Carrots hind quarters, forming a compact, roughly streamlined shape. The flier flapped and glided down the tunnel at breakneck speed, her passenger could only hold on for dear life and look ahead pleadingly, unable to shut her eyes.

The tunnel ahead began to collapse, thick suffocating dust and falling rubble filling it, leaving little room. Derpy saw their small opportunity and the source of the breeze, a hole, barely larger than a stallion, with red and orange light filtering through. Instinct overtook her as she flew even faster, intent to win this game of survival. A final boulder closed up the illuminated hole, but not after a grey bullet carrying some orange cargo barely shot through. Only avoiding death by a second’s breath.

The pegasus flew only a short distance further when two stones collided with her left wing and lower back, bruising the mare, causing her to clench her eyes shut and lose her aerial balance. Derpy flipped through the air, causing her and Carrot to hit the ground and tumble, losing the air in their lungs. The orange earth pony stopped tumbling at the foot of a flight of stairs, gasping for air, it was the end of the now caved in tunnel. The grey pegasus tumbled a little further before coming to a stop. The orange pony opened her eyes and examined her surroundings, while breathing heavily.     

The two friends had entered an underground cavern, narrowly avoiding the cave in. But inside the open space lay more potential threats. The subterranean area was massive, the other side of the cavern couldn’t be seen through a strange white fog. Torches were installed in the walls, illuminating the immediate area in an eerie flickering red light. The underground space was structurally sound, mostly due to large jagged pillars holding up the roof. Long sharp stalactites and stalagmites hung from above and below, like dragons teeth, ready to feast on its victims. 

As Carrot looked at the way she tumbled down she saw a skull, the same skull that nearly caught her earlier. With a start she realised the skull had 2 small red lights where its eyes should have been, it was staring back at her. The mare and the skull locked eyes with one another for what seemed like an eternity, Carrot paralysed with fear, unsure if it was even alive anymore. The skull simply froze, unsure of what to do. 

“Um...Hello,” began the skull, attempting not to frighten the earth pony.

At the same moment Derpy shifted her eyes, she saw a huge eight legged, eight eyed spider. The arachnid was twice the size of a full grown minotaur, it wore an large white cloak which had a black cross on it. Three smaller spiderlings stood under the larger one, sheltered and safe from danger. 

Derpy and Carrot both panicked and screamed, accidently scaring the spider. Which also screamed in surprise, a high pitched sound, similar to the ponies’ screams. The skull saw the screaming spider and shouted in fright, unintentionally scaring Carrot Top even more. Hearing four screams in unison the three spiderlings screamed as well, mostly for fun and genuine surprise. This only scared Derpy even further who screamed a second time and then spun around and grabbed her orange companion.



The skull stopped screaming, finally coming to its senses and began yelling at the spider.

“Anara! Don’t let them go any further, stop them!”

The spider heard the skull and snapped its gruesome head towards the pair, it saw that one was a pegasus and the other was a regular earth pony. The spider saw Derpy turn and run after helping the orange mare up. The orange pony turned, saw the spider, turned pale and screamed. Judging from both of their yelps of terror, the spider guessed both of the equines were young females. The spider began to approach Carrot Top, taking a step forward.The young spiders beneath her quickly climbed and remained on the back of the larger spider, under the white fabric of the cape. 

Derpy pulled her friend onto her feet and ran. She then stopped in her tracks, coming to a realization, where was she going to run, there was no exit. Turning around the mare looked at the predator, but saw something else. The spider’s massive size had obscured the mare’s vision until now, behind the spider there was a clear pathway to what looked like a stone castle. The castle’s doorway and windows were open and spilling an orange light. A potential exit and shelter, there was only one obvious choice. 

Derpy refocused her attention on the spider, which was now standing over Carrot, reaching for her with its long, hairy, clawed, segmented legs. 

Carrot couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. Fear now gripped her in an iron grasp. The spider opened its jaws. She clenched her eyes shut. Unable to look. 

“Do not worry, you are safe little one.”

Carrot opened her eyes in surprise, who, or what said that? 

Before the mare could comprehend what she heard any further, she felt something grip her underbelly and push her under the giant spider, between the four hairy pairs of spider legs. She was now flying above the ground at great speed, grey hooves gripping around her barrel. Carrot twisted her head and saw a familiar equine face. 

“Derpy? What are you doing?” the mare called out in surprise.

The grey pegasus looked down and shouted in surprise. The giant spider was now chasing the flying pair, its legs working in quick unison, its cape flapping about as it got buffeted with air.

“I’m saving us, hold on!” Derpy aimed her body at the stone castle and retracted her wings into her sides. 

Carrot realized the instant change, gravity had now taken hold and the pair were diving, head-first, straight towards a stone structure of some sort. The orange mare couldn’t see any further, the air shooting past her was causing her eyes to water. She was completely blind.

“Derpy! What are you doing? Flap your wings!” Carrot could only yell and hope. She couldn’t blink the tears away.

“Trust me!” Derpy sky dived for a further minute before spreading her feathered wings. Under her normal weight the wings of the grey pegasus would stop the dive, but the extra cargo wasn’t making this easy. Grey wings extended to their full length, taking as much air as possible and straining the muscles and bones. The owner of the wings screamed as she pushed her wings to their limit.

Carrot Top felt the force of gravity take hold when Derpy finally spread her wings, the grip on the orange mare was shifted to her underarms. She heard a strained scream from her friend, before feeling something scrape against her hoof. Carrot blinked away her tears and looked around to see that they had just flown through a doorway between large chains which secured the opening. 

Derpy looked back, over her shoulder, the giant spider, wearing the cape, was still a short distance from the doorway. Derpy assumed it couldn’t enter because of the chains. 

Carrot was looking ahead, right there in front of her stood a tall, regal, third pony.

“Come with me.” She said.