//------------------------------//
// The Gates of Darkreach 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

It wasn't long before the group met a wall of stone on the other side.  It was more elevated than they expected, but all it took was a steady flap of their wings and they easily ascended high enough for a soft landing.

Rainbow touched down first.  She placed a shivering Kepler onto the stone earth beside her.

"Whelp... that wasn't so bad."  She looked behind them as Ariel and Wildcard flew in.  "Not exactly the longest bridge in the world."

"Trrue..."  Kepler shivered.  "I-I doubt that they could afforrd much building materrial outside of constrructing Darrkrreach."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, looking at the wyvern.  "Are you okay, buddy?  I didn't mean to shake you up."

"Oh... nothing to worrry about, good frriend."

"Then what's the deal?"

"I'm an avid gliderr..."  He straightened his glasses with a nervous smile.  "Not quite so excelled at speedy flight."

"We'd better work on that, buddy."

"I shudderr to imagine what forr."

"Shhhh.  Don't pretend to be that stupid."  Rainbow Dash paced over to where Wildcard and Ariel stood.  "Well?"

"I can't believe it..."  Ariel looked down at her squirming hooves.  "Are we actually standing on Darkreach?"

"That remains to be seen."  Rainbow pivoted about, squinting into the darkness.  "Rarity?"

"It's... hollow beneath us," Rarity said.

"You sure of that?" Pinkie asked.

"Oh... absolutely!"  Rarity's eyes blinked wide.  "I'm not certain why I couldn't feel it so clearly before, but there is most definitely a hollow construct beneath where we are currently situated."

"Land's sakes..."  Applejack tilted her head back.  She gaped at Rainbow.  "Does she mean to say that them Emeraldinians carved out an entire home from the heart of a mountain?"

"Or maybe Onyxxus did..."  Rainbow paced about.  She reached a hoof up and touched her pendant.  A ruby glow emanated from the Loyalty Element, and it shone a crimson spotlight through the darkness ahead.  "Okay... okay..."

Wildcard cocked his head to the side.

"What are you looking for, Rainbow?" Ariel asked.

"Prresumably an entrrance," Kepler said.  "Darrkrreach—it would seem—is beneath us."

Ariel gulped.  "Must be d-dark down there."

"It's quite heavily shadowed up herre."

"Thanks for proving m-my point."

Rainbow looked left... then right.  All she saw was flat stone.  Even her pendant illuminated nothing but sterile, smooth rock.

"Rarity...?"

"I'm searching!" Rarity's voice cracked as she floated as far as the lavender force field could allow her.  "I'm looking for the entrance!  Honest, I am!"

"Maybe if we ask Twilight to hone in on her magic senses?" Applejack suggested.

"Well... what I'm sensing is below us," Twilight said.  "And... and scattered in multiple places."

Fluttershy looked worriedly at her.  "Scattered?"

"There are much more than one source now," Twilight said.  "If you ask me, the same technology as the sphere that brought us here is incorporated throughout the base."

"Just... how deep and big is this thing?" Rainbow asked.

"Difficult to tell," Rarity murmured.  "But—for the time being..."  She gulped.  "...it's akin to an inside-out Bleak's Plummet."

"Golly..." Applejack bit her lip.  "That's either welcome news or it's a tad bit too forboding."

"If Darkreach is so big..."  Fluttershy blinked innocently at the others.  "...then how do we find the entrance?"

Pinkie's head popped up through the stone.  "It's easy, silly!"

"Eeeeeeek!"  Fluttershy flew into Applejack's arms.

"Pinkie...!"  Rarity frowned.

Pinkie giggle-snorted.  "What?"

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

The party mare stuck her tongue out.  "Looking for the entrance, silly!"

"Uhhhhh..."

"Heeheehee... oh brave new world with such walls in it."  Pinkie "backstroked" through the stone, phasing in and out as she sang:  "Stop being a boring and buoyant and sink into it!  Are we gonna help Dashie or not!"  She took a deep breath for melodramatic flare and backflipped... sinking deep into the rock.

"Huh..."  Twilight rubbed her head.  "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Seriously?" Rainbow droned, smirking slightly.  "Are we actually going to have that conversation?"

Twilight sighed... then sank purposefully into the rock below with a lavender splash.

"Hey!"  Rarity "galloped" after her and Pinkie and sank as well.  "Wait for me!"

"Uhhhhh..."  Fluttershy shivered slightly, then hovered close to the farm mare's side.  "I-I'll just float up here and stay with Applejack."

"Ain't nothin' down there that could hurt ya, sugarcube."

Fluttershy merely squeaked and clung to her.

Applejack sighed... then wrapped a forelimb around Fluttershy with a motherly smile.  "Dun ya fret.  They'll be surfacin' in a jiff."

"Sooooooooooo..."  Ariel trotted towards Rainbow Dash, stroking her smoky bangs back.  "What's going on now?"

Rainbow stood in place.  Blinking.

Beneath her, she spotted Twilight's and Rarity's ghostly unicorn horns breaking the stone surface and skittering around like lavender and white dorsal fins.

"Y'know..."  Rainbow exhaled.  "...there are times when I really... really wished you guys could see what I see."

Ariel smirked.  "Must be heartwarming."

"Sure."  Rainbow burped.  "Right now, though, it's really... really stupid."

"Still... heartwarming."

Rainbow nodded.  "Not gonna fight it."

"Dashie!"

Rainbow tilted her head up.

Pinkie surfaced like a fuchsia volcano.  Her muzzle formed a pearly-white grin.  "I found it!  I found it!  I found it!  I found it!  I found it!  I found it!  I found it!"

"Ahem..."  Rarity surfaced beside her.  "Pinkie Pie found it."

Rainbow whistled to the others and glided over.  Kepler and Wildcard followed closely behind.

"What, ho!"  Kepler craned his neck.  "An entrrance?"

"The entrance," Rainbow said, then looked as Twilight surfaced.  "Well?"

"There's... a mechanism beneath where Pinkie's hovering," Twilight explained.  "It's fused to some sort of crystal."

"Is it one of the magical things you've been sensing?"

Twilight nodded.  "Yes.  But the leylines are weak.  Fleeting."

"What's up?" Ariel asked.  "Or... in this case, down?"

"Pinkie found the entrance," Rainbow explained.  "But—as Twilight says—it's fused to some crystal trigger that's lost most of its juice."

"Hrrrmmmm..."  Kepler squatted low and rubbed his claws over the dead stone surface of the mesa.  "No doubt the Emerraldinians constrructed this place so that it would be impossible to open frrom the surrface."

"Then how do we open it?" Ariel asked.

"Therre's one thing the ponies of Emerraldine and Cylindrrimane werre guarranteed to have," Kepler declared.

Ariel blinked.  Then her eyes widened.  "Unicorns!"

Kepler looked at the last Desperado.  "You kow what to do."

Wildcard nodded, saluted, then flew back towards the cliff's edge in a blur.  Fwoooosh!

Rainbow turned towards Twilight.  "Could Flynn open the door from the outside, you think?"

Twilight nodded.  "I don't know.  I'm positively certain I can't."

"Maybe if you concentrate really really hard!" Pinkie squeaked.

"Right..."  Twilight sighed, glaring off along the mesa's surface.  "Help us, Flynn.  You're our only hope."

"Good to know we've got an ace in the hole," Ariel said.

FWOOOOOSH!  The Desperado blurred back, depositing a yelping stallion.

"Gaaaaaaaah—!"  Flynn fell flat on his chest.  "Oomf!"

Wildcard winced and reached an apologetic talon out.

"Eugh..."  Flynn stood up with the griffin's help.  "Now I-I know what an eagle-struck rabbit feels like..."

"Ha-hah!"  Kepler grinned.  "Suddenly I'm not quite so alone!"

"So... uhhhh..."  Flynn squinted his one good eye at the others.  "What exactly did you bring my butt over here for?"

"Flynn, we need your butt to open a door," Ariel said.

"Buh?"

Rainbow pointed ahead.  "Pinkie found an entrance.  Twilight found a crystalline trigger that's holding it shut."

"Hrmmmm..."  Flynn rubbed his chin as his mechanical eye pistoned in and out.  "Not sensing any mana-residue in the air... what kind of a crystal is it?"

"Probably best if he felt it for himself," Applejack said.

"Rainbow Dash..."  Twilight motioned with her fetlock.  "Bring Flynn closer."

"Over here, dude..."  Rainbow glided a few feet and touched down so that she was phasing through the lavender unicorn in question.  "Twilight?"

She and Rarity pointed through the stone below.

Rainbow gestured, matching their pointing hooves.  "Should be around there-ish..."

"Cool," Flynn muttered, trotting towards the spot.  "I happen to be quite skilled at working with 'there-ish.'"

"Less sass and more mage class," Ariel said.

"Shhhh!"  Kepler insisted, standing beside Wildcard.  "Let ourr brrotherr worrk!"

Flynn stood in place.  He tilted his horn to the left... then to the right.  A pulse of light ran down the narrow extension, then spun its way back up.  Holding his breath, he bent over until his brow grazed the stone floor.  He closed his good eye, concentrating.

Rainbow, Ariel, and Rainbow's ghostly friends watched in tense silence.

"... ... ... ... ... ..."  Flynn's eye reopened.  "I got it."  Another breath.  "Stand back."  He licked his lip, tilted his horn ever so slightly upwards, and channeled a bright pale glow through it.

Flash!

Silence.

Ariel looked left and right.  "Soooooo..."  Her brow furrowed.  "What exacly did that—"

RUMMMMMBLE!

"Fart nuggets!" Ariel leaped into the air, hovering with folded limbs.  Beneath her, a solid line of glowing red light materialized.

The line turned out to be the lip of a wide, rectangular door.  The mouth opened upwards as misty air ventilated into the dim twilight.  There was a metallic grinding sound, and soon the door opened in its entirety.

Crkkkk-Hisssssssssss.

A crimson crystal was pulsating from within—the source of the red light.  Soon, it faded like a candle... and all was pitch black inside.  Rainbow and Wildcard could make out the hint of pale steps—immaculately carved—leading down into the deathly shadows.  An eerie roar of untethered echoes wafted up from the questionable depths of the exposed mesa.

Flynn gulped.  "You're welcome, I think."

"My starrs and garrterrs..."  Kepler grinned through his tusks.  "A rrelic of the past!  And we arre undoubtedly the firrst to venturre in for an epoch!"

"Not exactly joyful news," Ariel muttered.  She turned to look at Rainbow.  "What next?  Do we draw lots or—?"

Clak-clakka!  Wildcard extended Bard's staff, crouched low... and bravely descended into the dark depths to scout it out.

"Hey!"  Flynn reached a hoof out.  "Dammit, dude.  Stop being cool!"  He illuminated his horn and made to go after the Desperado—

"No."  Rainbow blocked him.  "You, Ariel, and the others find a way to get Logan and Seraphimus over here."

"Rainbow!"  Ariel shook her head.  "But we can't just—"

"I want us all on the mesa," Rainbow said.  "The Emeraldinians obviously thought this was a safe, easily-defended spot.  So let's take advantage of that as quickly as we can!"  She pivoted around and peered down the shadowed flight of stone stairs.  "Don't worry about me.  I'll be with Wildcard."

As she descended, her ghostly friends helplessly floated after her—tethered.

"Weeeeeee!"  Pinkie Pie pumped a hoof in the air.  "Blind field trip!  Woohooo!"

"Ohhhhhhhhh..."  Fluttershy shivered, clinging to Applejack.  "Somehow I knew we'd be doing this sooner than later!"

"Dun you worry, sugarcube," Applejack said, holding onto her hat.  "Rainbow knows what she's doin'... I think."

Soon, Rainbow was gone, and Flynn stood alone with Kepler and Ariel.

"Well... this is going to be very, very painful," Flynn muttered.

"Have a little faith," Ariel said, frowning.  "Rainbow and Wildcard can take care of themselves."

"It's not Darkreach I'm worried about."  Flynn turned around with a huff and marched carefully to the mesa's edge.  "It's Big Show's fat ass."