Blackened Night

by ZeirMakavar

8: The Under Dark

Chapter 8
The Under Dark

"No, Below this Crypt, The Maze returns."

"So then... this is just a floor of The Maze then?" Sunny said, blinking a bit softly, as sat down, examining one of the skeletons. "This is what, ten, maybe twelve floors down? So maybe about six or seven feet per floor.... And two feet maybe for the floor it's self... that means where anywhere from 80 to 90 feet below the surface. And seeing as we've yet to find the edges of The Maze... that means the maze could possibly go on for another hundred floors... This place is massive."

"And we have yet to find any indication as to it's purpose." The Geomancer sighed, shaking his head. "I do not think, hiding a Crypt this large, is the Maze's purpose."

"I agree, if it was, then the logical thing would for the Maze to end at The Crypt." Raging said, which caused both Sunny and the Geomancer to nod in agreement. "Then, that means, what ever The Maze is for, is further down."

It had been several weeks since the discovery of the massive crypt on the tenth floor of The Maze, and the diggers and Geomancers had yet to find any indication of a bottom floor. Many of the Geomancers in fact, had gone off, to the rest of the valley, to see if they could find any sort of sign or indication to what the purpose of The Maze was. As of yet, they had found none. And as the days had turned to weeks and months since the discovery of The Maze, with no end of it in sight, has begun to annoy both Raging Night and Sunny Meadow, as it seemed that their task would last till the end of their days.

At the same time, the town had grown to a few thousand Ponies and Griffons, and talks have begun of expanding the Equestrian Rail Network to the town, as a few precious minerals had been found in the Valley, which would help the rest of the Equestrian Empire expand in other areas, such as better infrastructure in border towns. At that moment, Sunny Meadow was looking over slaps of stone that some of the diggers had found around floor 35 in the Maze. "The floor is filled with them Miss." One of the Diggers had said, nodding at her. "Don't know what they for though."

"Yes thank you." Sunny had said as she took the few slabs the worker had brought up using her magic. She sighed softly as she poured over them, examining them to the best of her ability. This started just the previous day, and she was no closer to deciphering the text that seemed to be older then the text from the higher floors. "I don't get it..." She mused, looking over one of them. "Did it take them so long to build The Maze that their language and writing style had changed? How big is it, if something like that could happen..."

"Could it be, that there are two different groups?" A voice said from behind her, causing her to jump out of her seat.

"L-Lord Discord, h-hello..." She said, blushing a bit softly, smiling at him as she shuffled to clean up her desk. "If... If I knew you would be coming yourself, then... I would have cleaned up."

"Oh, it is of no matter." Discord said, smiling. "I only came to give out the Princesses decree, that as of today, The Maze, and the city surrounding the dig-site, will be under the Crystal Fiefdom, and therefore under the protection of Duke Sombra. I figured you got Celestia's letter detailing this, did you not, Sunset Shimmer?"

---

Raging Night sighed softly as he looked around the entrance to the dig-site, and in turn The Maze. Sunny Meadow's diggers had ran into a section of The Maze that had slabs that seemed older then the rest of the maze, which told Raging that there was more at play then a simple crypt or mausoleum. There as something dark and sinister inside the maze. And Raging Night felt it in his bones. A gut instinct that had kept him out of danger most of his life, and a skill that had been in his family since the forming of the Night Guard almost one thousand years ago, in a treaty between Celestia and Luna, to prevent a civil war that would likely have broken out had they not come to a compromise.

This of course didn't sit well with him. He knew something was in the Maze, but he didn't know what, what it's purpose was, or why it needed such a massive network to contain it. And this only made him worry. As he had the feeling ever since he saw The Crypt on the tenth floor. To Sunny Meadow and the Geomancers, it looked like any other Crypt, built to protect the dead. To him? He saw that several of the skeletons had died wielding weapons, and donning armor. To him, it looked like the end result of a massive battle, where thousands had died. To him, it looked like the ponies who made The Maze, were trying to keep something in and failed. To him, it looked like something dangerous enough that it killed the thousands of ponies keeping it in, and others out.

And that only made him worry even more.