//------------------------------//
// Something in the Basement 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

"Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"

Rainbow, Rarity, and Twilight winced hard.

Pinkie Pie hovered in place, her hooves still cupped around her muzzle.  A blink or two after the massive outburst, she shrugged and said, "What?!  Somepony had to do it—Whoah!"

Applejack shoved her out of the way and floated in Fluttershy's face.  "What in tarnation do ya mean 'somethin' deep in Darkreach has awoken?'"

"You didn't sense anything before, darling!"  Rarity exclaimed.  "Why are you suddenly sensing it now?!"

"I... I-I don't know..."  Fluttershy trembled, receding from the group.

"Fluttershy..."  Applejack rested a gentle hoof on her ghostly shoulder.  "We ain't mad at you.  We're... well... we're just tryin' to understand..."

"Did something climb up from underneath us?" Twilight remarked, eyes wide.  "Perhaps... a hidden tunnel system?  Lying beneath the Darkreach that the Emeraldinians carved?"

Fluttershy shook her head.  "This life that I'm sensing has always been here.  And it's somewhere beneath us.  It always has been.  Unless..."  She cast a worried look towards Rarity.  "...there's another way into the colony than through the top of the mesa?"

Rarity shook her head, muzzle agape.

"Just how far away is it?" Applejack asked.

"Mrmmmm..."  Fluttershy's ears folded.  "About six stories?  Nearly seven?"  She looked at Rainbow.  "It's at the very bottom chambers of the facility."

Wildcard had noticed Rainbow's pale reaction to the news.  He craned his neck with intense concern.

"Rainbow...?"  Ariel stammered.  "Is everything alright over there?"

Rainbow held a hoof up without looking.  "I'll get back to you in a sec!"

"Huh???"  Ariel blinked.

"The Hell is going on?"  Logan asked.

"Fluttershy..."  Rainbow's brow furrowed.  "Are you sure it's not Discord?"

"Is what Discord?" Logan burped.  Flynn lightly smacked him to be quiet.

"If he's anchored to you, Rainbow, then he wouldn't be able to go that far of a distance," Fluttershy said.  "None of us can."

"Well, he's the lord of chaos!"  Applejack spoke with a shrug.  "Who knows what he'd be capable of doing!"

"For that matter, Applejack..."  Twilight drifted closer.  "Who knows what anything on this side of the Plane can be capable of doing."  She looked at Fluttershy.  "Maybe Fluttershy can't sense any living thing on the Dark Side unless it gets within a certain proximity?"

"I... I don't think it's that," Fluttershy said, shaking her head.  "I'm telling you, it's... it's as if something has woken up."  She gulped.  "And it's moving... very very slowly..."

"How big is it?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't know."

"Is it alone?"

"I... I think so..."

"Is it bad?  Is it a meanie head?"

Fluttershy bit her lip.

"I don't think that's Fluttershy's department," Twilight said.  She looked at Applejack.  "AJ?"

"I... I'm plum flabbergasted, Twilight.  Reckon I dun feel a thang."  She looked back at the ghostly unicorn.  "How about you?"

Twilight sighed.  "I'm not sensing anything new on the magical scale."

"What if we got closer to whatever it is?" Pinkie suggested.

"Eeeugh!"  Rarity shivered all over.  "Heaven forbid!  Whatever's sleeping down there—best to let it lie!"

"Rarity..."  Twilight made a face.  "It's closed off.  The only way for it to go out is through us."

"Sooner or later, we're gonna have to bump uglies!" Pinkie said.  A beat.  "Heads!  Ugly heads is wh-what I meant!"  She smiled, blushing.

"Whatever it is... it's not very strong," Fluttershy said.  "I don't know if we should be that concerned—"

"Fluttershy, until just a few seconds ago, you couldn't even sense the thing's existence," Twilight said.  "If it's a creature born on the Dark Side, it's quite possible that chaos has been masking it from you.  Who knows just how strong it could possibly be?"

Fluttershy gulped.

"Flutters..."  Rainbow clenched her teeth.  "Are we sure...?"

Fluttershy nodded her head.  "You're the best Discord-detector we have, Rainbow.  Not me."

Silence.

"Rrainbow One?"  Kepler craned his neck.  "Some clarrification would be parramount."

Rainbow took a deep breath.  She spun to face the Herald.  "Fluttershy senses something beneath us... inside Darkreach."

Ariel's voice cracked.  "What?!"

"Like what kind of 'something?'"  Logan raised an eyebrow.  "An animal?  A monster?  Soap scum?  What?"

"She isn't certain," Rainbow said.  "She only knows that it's... 'woken up' just now and it's slowly wandering about the corridors about seven stories beneath us."

Ariel jerked away from the ground.  With squirming hooves, she flapped her wings and hovered in the center of the common room.

"This place has been closed up forr untold yearrs," Kepler murmured.  "If something's down therre... still alive... then it must have a most peculiarr metabolism."

"Could..."  Ariel turned to look at the others.  "...could it be one of the surviving Emeraldinians?"

"Pffft.  I doubt it.  But perhaps..."  Flynn's eye-lense rotated as he said, "...whatever is responsible for the colonists having disappeared?"

A cold shudder ran through the group.  The manalights flickered as Onyxxus kept speaking to the walls.

"Do you truly... honestly believe this mare...?"

The group turned towards the cold voice.

Seraphimus sat with as much dignity as she could muster while manacled to the pipework at the far end of the chamber.  "She speaks to shadows and empty air.  Her mind is a fractured mess that she shares with unseen phantoms."  Her hawkeyes narrowed.  "And you put your trust in her wild delusions?"

"You shut up," Logan said, pointing.  "If Rainbow says there's something down below us, lurking about—"

"—you will be consumed," Seraphimus hissed.  "And not by her."

"You don't know anything," Ariel grumbled.

"I know that each and every one of us is dead," Seraphimus calmly replied.  She glared.  "And following her lead will only quicken such doom."

"And I'd bet you'd sign up for that, huh?!"  Ariel frowned, planting her hooves on her hips.  "You think you're so smart—how about we toss you down seven stories and see if whatever's down there thinks you're such a deliciously funny chicken!"

"Ariel, shut up," Rainbow said.

"Yes, Dash," Ariel squeaked, hugging herself.

Rainbow marched firmly through the group.  "Whatever's down there, it's something we gotta deal with.  I'm not about to play it off.  Let's root it out now.  Get it over with."  She looked across the way.  "Flynn?"

"Yo."

"You spent all of eternity getting the manabatteries of this place to sing again.  Stay here and look after the leylines.  Go no deeper than the generator room one floor below.  We're going to need the lights on if we're gonna flush this hobbling crudsicle out."

"Uhhhhhhhh—sure!"  Flynn gulped and nodded.  "Sure thing!"

Rainbow swiveled about.  "Kepler."

"Sisterr?"

"Stay here with Flynn.  But—more importantly—I want you guarding her."  Rainbow turned to point at Seraphimus.  "Can't afford to keep our eyes on the true prize."

"Arre you cerrtain you do not wish me to venturre downstairrs?"  Kepler gestured with his wings.  "I've got claws!"

"Yeah, but your brain bone's sharper.  Stay here with Flynn and the chicken."

"Ach!  Rright you arre."

"Now for the rest of us..."  Rainbow turned to face the remainder.  "Let's form up.  Mmmmmmm... two pairs."

With a scraaaaaaaaaaaping sound, Wildcard siftly strafed until he stood resolutely at Rainbow's side.

"... ... ..."  Rainbow blinked.  "Whelp.  That's decided."

Chiiiiiiing!  Logan was already brandishing his axe as he stood next to Ariel.  "Didn't you say that there were at least three sets of descending stairwells?"

"True.  We'll take the opposite ones."  Rainbow looked at Flynn.  "Can you and Keps keep an eye on the center path?"

"Totally."

"Good.  We could descend in three groups, but I sure as heck aren't about to split us up individually."

Logan shrugged.  "Might be the only way track this bugger down."

"Not unless we absolutely have to."  Rainbow pointed at Ariel and Logan.  "Stay.  Together."  She looked over her shoulder.  "Double-yoo?"

Wildcard nodded.  Cl-Clakkka!  With Bard's staff extended, he made swiftly for the furthest stairwell.

"How... uh..."  Ariel called out as Rainbow and the Desperado scampered off.  "...how will we communicate?"

"Very very stupidly!" Rainbow hollered back.  "Or not at all!"

Ariel nodded back.  "Okay.  Okay, good!"  She grimaced as she looked to Logan.  "Sooooooooooo... 'we made it alive as far as Darkreach,' huh?"

"Girl, if you're keeping tabs of this shit, you won't last another second."

"Jee, thanks for the confidence, partner."

"Anytime."  Logan marched down the nearby steps.  "Now keep your girly butt behind me."