//------------------------------// // Tunnels n' Shit Arc - Not Today // Story: What It Means // by Dustchu //------------------------------// ooo000---000ooo Drifting through the darkness was a very unpleasant experience, especially when everything felt numb and the pins and needles overtook anything else. I couldn't move a muscle without feeling weird or uncomfortable, making me grit my teeth. Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump Ow... My heart was too loud. The feeling of pain and I were best friends at this point in time, why wouldn't we be? We were a hatefuck couple with a bad marriage fighting over who gets to keep the trailer and the kids after the divorce, it was just an angsty and sweaty time, and right now? Pain and I were currently in the midst of an orgy alongside our neighbors; Agony and Despair. My back, my legs, my arms; hell, my entire body felt like it was on fire at this point. I couldn't move anything without feeling an intense burning feeling. It felt like acid was moving in and out out of my throat with each breath. I couldn't even open my eyes fully from how heavy they felt. The one I did manage to crack open allowed me to see the faintest hints of light far in front of me, but then it fizzled out like a candle by rainfall. Shit... can't move, am I paralyzed? My thoughts were a jumbled mess floating through an ocean of agony, and I was struggling to stay afloat in my tiny dinghy. I felt weighed down like something was gripping onto my legs and trying to pull me into the deep dark abyss that was death itself, waiting with outstretched hands and eager to suck down my soul. I struggled and struggled against the hold, trying to kick it back, to stay awake and not fall any further, but the creeping feeling coursed throughout my body. I felt disgusting, weak, sickly, and most of all tired as hell. Until a sudden surge of energy filled me and my eyes shot open. I gasped and sucked in air and sat up, my eyes wide and glaring into the darkness. Shit, w-where am I? My line of sight was completely fucked up, and no matter how hard I blinked or rubbed at my eyes I couldn't see a damn thing around me. It was only then I realized how cold it was; the air was deathly chilly from a brief gust of wind coming from somewhere. I was pretty ticked off right now, well, equal parts ticked off and scared shitless. Not a sound could be heard anywhere around me, and it only worried me, where in the fuck was I? Damn. I slowly got back onto my feet, doing my best to combat the stinging and painful throbbing in my back and arm. I glanced upwards and saw a faint white light cutting a jagged line from one end to the other. The memories of what happened earlier came flooding back to me. From Dancer, Sakura, and I running for our lives from what Dancer called the Rotten, the Grom, the rope bridge... Didn't take me long to realize that I had actually fallen from up there and landed down here. That feeling of weightlessness when you were falling was something that was incredibly hard to forget. "How th-the fuck did I survive that?" I couldn't help but wonder. That easily had to have been several hundred feet, there's no damn way in hell I should have survived a fall from that height. Even if I was at the height of human conditioning and reached my peak, I should have been a flattened smear on the rocks and dirt below me. I decided to swallow my stubborn logic on why I shouldn't have lived and instead focused on finding my way out of this trench. Which, hopefully, was nearby, cause I was not happy with how this turned out. I wasn't looking forward to living out the rest of my life in the darkness like a fucking goblin. Not being able to see was going to be my biggest issue here, because save for the light-up above I had no idea where anything was, if there was anything to begin with! I was blind here. Fuck, okay, calm down. Legs shaking, I ended up sitting down on the rocky floor beneath me. A few steady breaths were all it took to keep myself from shaking, Sakura and Dancer are probably still up top, I doubt they fell down below with me, otherwise, I would have heard them calling out for me... if they hadn't died right off the bat Oh wait, I'm a fucking idiot! I took off my backpack and rummaged around inside it, blinding grasping for a familiarly shaped object. My fingers grazed something at the bottom past the Orb and some backup clothes I had. I yanked out my little item with a flourish, swiftly flicking it on, immediately cutting a thick swath through the shadows. My flashlight! A bright beam of light lit up the darkness, and relief spread throughout my body. I angled it to and fro, and I saw the entire ground was nothing but rock and a few dark brown clusters of something. The walls were also angled and jagged, with dozens of little outcroppings I could possibly use to climb back up if I tried, but looking all the way up, I knew that even if I wasn't currently injured, I would never be able to make it up there. Fuck. My side stung, as did my back and legs. I had no idea as to the extent of my injuries, but I had a feeling I sprained or cracked something, I had to have. Hell! I'm shocked I even survived the fall down here. I didn't see anything that stuck out that could have cushioned my fall, so... How? "Ignore that, focus on... f-finding a way out." I muttered and looked around the only two paths I could. One slanted downward further, and somehow that didn't seem like much of a good idea to me. The other path? It just went straight into a darkness that even my flashlight had difficulty breaking through. Either direction could be a death sentence, I didn't know if any of those Rotten dudes were down here. Another painful throb coursed through my body. I was hopeful none of them were, I wasn't sure I could really fight them in my current state. Shit, and I lost my bow as well. All I had left on me was my knife and the quiver full of arrows, the former I held onto with an ironclad grip. After a few moments of thinking, I settled on heading towards the straight path rather than further downwards, if I needed to find a way up, I should head up, not further down. Ugh... watch it turn out that I'm gonna get stuck down here, I wasn't too keen on finding out if that was going to be the truth or not. Didn't take me long to end up finding a lot of openings in the ground leading up to an even deeper chasm; a massive pitch-black crevice leading further down into a pit of seemingly impenetrable darkness. My flashlight illuminated exactly bumfuck all ahead of me. So with that, I turned and made my way back towards the path heading down. My thoughts kept turning back to Sakura and Dancer; were they okay? If so, where had they gone? The bridge collapsed, so the Grom and other Rotten were stuck on the far side. But I don't know if there was anything on the other side that was just as dangerous, or more dangerous. Gah, who fucking knows, stupid magic pony land. I just had to pray that they were okay and not being eaten alive or whatever. The sting of pain continued throughout my body and my mind wandered... right into dangerous territory. I heard Daring's voice in my head as I walked, heard that confident voice screaming at me. You're no fighter. Daring hissed before we split up from one another near the mountains. And here I thought I was a decent one. She made a half-decent point; I wasn't a fighter, bar brawls? Just drunken retardation. Fights where it was live or die? Not a single one. A hint of self-loathing began to trickle into my mind and heart, but I shook my head and continued down the path. I didn't need this right now, didn't need to focus on that shit. The path continued leading me down until I found myself walking down a small dip that made a sharp left turn... heading even further down, making me all the more nervous. Was this leading down into someplace that would help me? Or fuck me over? Well... only one way to find out I guess. With another hard swallow, I continued down. Even as I tried to get my mind off of things, I was still wondering how in the hell I had survived such a fall. Aside from the stinging sensation filling my body, nothing was hurting majorly - no broken bones, no swelling, no sprains. I was perfectly fine. Maybe if I get out of this mess, I can get looked over at the nearest clinic. Hopefully, the next town wasn't too far, I'd rather get away from this place as soon as possible. Not a big fan of being chased by a bunch of infected undead - especially without any weapons on hand, decent ones anyway. I growled and shook my head, continuing through the tunnel. I wasn't sure if I had enough money left on me to buy any other weapons, I guess I'll see if I make it out of this shit alive. A few rocks tumbled forward when I hit them and my light hit a wall — or what I thought was a wall anyway, I saw it was a doorway blocked off by some large boulders. I frowned and knelt down, looking up under the rock to find some clearance under it to the other side — there was just barely enough crawl space for me. Not too bad... hopefully, there was something on the other side of it though I didn't feel like running into a dead-end and discovering I was ultimately fucked down here. Shoving the butt of the flashlight into my mouth so I could see, I got down onto the ground and shimmied up to the crawlspace, squeezing under it and shining the way under it. From what I could see, the entrance for whatever this was had collapsed, but the rocks were wedged up high enough to leave me enough room to move forward. Good thing I was a small person, otherwise I'd be stuck outside. I took a deep breath and shimmied under the rocks in an attempt to make it to the other side. I already didn't like this - I wasn't claustrophobic by any means and neither was I scared of what might be on the other side, I was more concerned with the rocks suddenly shifting and deciding that today was a good day to crush poor ol' me. I'd much rather survive, escape this whole situation, and sleep for a month straight, preferably surrounded by gorgeous busty girls. Damn those stupid Rotten or whatever, blegh! I get this kind of stuff is supposed to be life-threatening and that was part of the joy, but lord above am I annoyed by this. I'd be less annoyed if I had a decent weapon on hand... a damn shame that dragon ring or whatever doesn't work on me, it could've helped out. That ring I had was little more than a neat little accessory of mine at this point, it didn't really serve much of a purpose to me other than something to look flashy. I kept squeezing under the rocks and shimmying myself forward for some time, I almost thought that it was going to keep getting tighter and tighter up until the rocks gave way to a hallway. "Nng, finally." I pushed forward and finally broke free of the rocks, ending up in the darkened hall of rock and stone. I stood up and took my flashlight, using it to shine on the path in front of me. I didn't see much except a few fallen rocks littering the walkway in front of me, cracked walls spider-webbing up and across, and the hallway itself went deep. This wasn't natural either, it was too smooth to be made by nature... plus I could see intricate carvings in the walls that led further in, nothing of any real note but more of a design thing. That one little realization made me freeze where I was. Carved stone... the Road of Avros? I wondered as I started creeping forward. What Dancer had told me came to mind, about the Khorclings infesting the tunnels and areas under the mountain. They were as big as a pony or human, but with thrice the muscle mass and are stupidly strong. That doesn't bode well for my future health, I need to find a weapon or something! No way would I survive down here with those things... if they even existed. Hopefully, for my sake, they died out a long time ago and it was just all myth and legend. I kept walking through the tunnel and kept my ears peeled for any noises, anything that would give away something that should make me feel worried. I wasn't even sure if I was alone down, for all I know there were more of those damn Rotten lurking in the shadows, waiting to get a piece of me. Once again - I had to remind myself - I was without a fucking weapon to defend myself with... least any decent one, my knife would have to do for now. I pulled it out and held its blade down as I ventured further into the hall. Nothing cropped up that I could hear or worry about - there was no wind to speak of, no growls or snarls of the undead bastards, no screaming from other monsters - just my footsteps gently echoing throughout the hall and the crunching of pebbles and such underfoot. My heartbeat had calmed in the darkness despite being a mess earlier - slow steady beats that allowed me to regain my focus and keep my nerves from firing off everywhere. The hall eventually turned and I found myself heading down some stairs further into the darkness, lit up only by my flashlight. Keep going, don't give up. I kept that thought in mind and swallowed hard, limping down the stairs until I arrived in a room where my steps echoed off of the walls. Shining my light around, I didn't see anything except pillars stretching up into pitch blackness that my flashlight couldn't reach, stone flooring that vanished out of my line of vision. I was in a massive chamber, that's what this had to be, it couldn't be anything else. But why was it so fucking empty? I couldn't hear a thing, see anything worth noting. I coughed again and heard it echo throughout the chamber, far louder than I had hoped it would, and I couldn't shake that feeling of unease that something was very wrong here. Those 'Rotten' up above were an issue, and I could only hope they wouldn't find a way down here because all I had was my knife. To top it all off, I was alone, without anyone to watch my back... and it felt like I was being watched. My gamer senses are tingling, something is definitely watching me. I twirled my blade until it faced up and I looked around. I couldn't shake the feeling, that something down here was watching me, waiting... but why? Why not come at me now and end this little gam? Or are they getting a thrill out of watching me panic in the darkness? It had to have been those Khorclings in the shadows, watching me, waiting until I get to a certain part of this place. Damn it, I walked right into a fucking trap. Then my flashlight decided to flicker, causing me to pause. I watched it flicker again before going steady, and then eventually fail on me completely... the light was gone, and I was drowning in the shadows once again. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. A slight ringing noise accompanied it as I realized the predicament I was suddenly in... son of a bitch. Being lifted off the ground while I was lost in thought? I won't lie to you. I screamed. "AhhhhHHHHHHH FUCK!" I thrashed at whatever held me, but I didn't feel anything grabbing me, no hands, no arms, nothing! I just lifted up off the ground. I was thrown through the darkness like a fucking paperweight. The wind blew by me and I panicked, tucking and rolling in the hope it'd cushion my landing somehow. It didn't. I slammed into the hard stone and rolled fast, and it didn't take long for my body to unfurl and flatten out as I ragdolled across it, eventually sliding and ripping up my clothing the further I went. I grunted, gagged, and choked on my own fucking spit before rolling to a stop, weakened and bruised. "F-fuck, s-stay away!" I shouted into the shadows and pulled out my blade as if that would help me in this situation. "Stay the fuck back!" My blade felt odd the more I stared into the dark. Before I knew it, the blade felt light, and something clattered to the floor beneath my feet. I pulled it closer to myself and felt the blade... Or lack thereof. Oh my fucking god, I'm screwed. I felt something impact my side hard, and if something didn't break, I would have been surprised. Again I was sent flying, but this time much lower to the point I skirted the floor. I fell lower until I was skidding across, rolling, and then slammed into one of the columns dominating the empty space of the chamber. My vision had gone white briefly as my back burned, and my bones shook from head to toe. I coughed up something warm, an irony taste, and it felt like something broke loose somewhere. Fucking shadow monster, or something... goddam-. The ability to breathe suddenly became a harrowing task as my throat closed up, and I was lifted off of the ground and into the air. I grabbed at my throat but found only air, and no hands, no arms, nothing, but it felt like something was gripping it! Whoever or whatever was doing this was beyond my ability to fight off. F-fuck. I felt eyes staring at me; one, two, two dozen? I couldn't keep count, it felt like hundreds were staring at me, it felt as if a thousand hungry maws were eager to consume me, consume my soul. "F-fuck off, you c-cunt." I growled through my teeth. My lungs burned and I probably shouldn't have wasted precious oxygen cursing, but if this is how it was going to end, then so be it! "Grk!" No replies? Typical of shadow creatures. Hot breath washed over my face, and in the darkness, I saw a single pair of purple eyes glaring at me. My heart was thumping faster than before as the eyes closed in, buzzing around like two fireflies in sync as they closed in. Before I knew it they were face to face with me. "You dare intrude upon our home." I couldn't reply. How was I supposed to? 'Why yes, I most certainly am, don't mind me.' The fuck kind of question is that? I tried to grab onto something, anything, but there wasn't anything. Whatever was grabbing me didn't have a physical body, or was using magic to hold me in place and I just couldn't see it. Fucking magic-using headass. "You are not welcome here." "D-didn't mean to-" I almost felt my eyes try to pop out of my skull once the grip tightened even more, and I lost any ability to breathe. This bitch was choking me! Fuck! I probably would have died down here, and yes... you read that right. Probably would have. A light came out of nowhere and nearly blinded me, and for a brief moment, I thought I finally kicked the bucket and was taken before the pearly gates for judgment. No, it was a light from somewhere in the chamber that was so fucking bright, it caused whatever creature was holding me to suddenly let go. I fell to the ground hard, landing on my back and sucking in as much oxygen as my feeble lungs could. "Fuck!" I cried out as I managed to breathe again, but it was by no means an easy feat. The light continued to shine and I could see more of the chamber, not that I gave a fuck about it, to begin with, I was wanting to get out of here. The light stopped being so bright and instead focused itself into an almost orb-like shape, and fluttered down closer to my level. It hovered above my body as I slowly tried to stand, but even that was a chore. I couldn't see who or what was casting the light, but it was bright enough that I couldn't make out what it was... I guess it was some light spell, but who cast it? I could see the floor around me, a dark marble. The columns were a lighter color and stretched all the way into a ceiling I could not make out, even with this powerful light. I couldn't see any monsters, no ponies, not even bodies, only bits of rubble here and some crates there, just stuff I couldn't use to help me out. "Don't know who did this, b-but... thanks." I coughed out and limped my way forward, where I was going? I had no fucking idea. I just wanted to leave this chamber and find somewhere else to go, preferably an exit, or a fucking... something! So I walked... Some Time Later The light continued with me and led me along, acting as a sort of guiding lantern. I found it weird, but as long as it helped me see in this darkness, I wasn't going to complain at all, in fact, I was grateful, but goddamn it if I wasn't pissed off. I lost my only weapon to a fucking shadow monster, turning it to dust and crumbling it into pieces leaving me with little to no way to defend myself. Even my quiver of arrows was missing in action, I had literally nothing on me to help me fight should I run across any enemies. I was at a disadvantage and it irked the prepper in me. Of course I'm without anything, it's always fucking something going on! I cursed endlessly, but contained it to my thoughts for fear of speaking, I still didn't know if there was anything out there watching me, waiting for me to slip up. For all I knew, this light was attracting even deadlier threats to me, acting like a beacon to whatever was hiding down here. That was another thing; Avros, what happened to it? Whatever it was, it couldn't have been good. The entire mountain is fucking abandoned, not a single soul in sight, no guards, no people, nothing anywhere, not even torches, it was a tomb and I was trapped in it. I don't know why I was so worried about this now when I should be focused on trying to find a way out of here and back to Sakura and Dancer. Fucking swell, watch there be thousands of undead monsters down here somewhere, waiting for me to make a noise and draw them all to me. That would be my luck. I kept walking for what honestly felt like miles, legs burning and my eyes struggling to get used to the shadows before arriving at an archway, a large one. The light bobbled around as I approached the archway, discovering a long stone passage stretching across a deeper and darker chasm. Further ahead, even in this inky darkness, I could make out structures... Another light shone in the shadows across the bridge, a dimmer ball of light that hovered closer to the bridge from the buildings. Soon, I saw more lights appearing in the windows, the doorways, from underneath piles of rubble and hidden alleys between the buildings. The combined lights made it easier to see it was the beginnings of some kind of district belonging to this huge underground city, long abandoned except for these lights. I remained speechless before finding it in my heart to cross the bridge, carefully guided by the light next to me. More and more of this district was lit up as the orbs hovered into view, like little sprites from a game, acting as a light source for me to see the area. I saw a lot of buildings carved out of stone, homes, shops, and storage for the people who used to live here ages ago. Windows had been blocked off and doors locked up tight against whatever calamity had befallen them, and my interest only grew the further I ventured. The ruins spoke of war to me, the aged and broken stone walls, busted-in windows, the shattered remnants of what used to b a peaceful life destroyed by war. That's what I imagined, a war against an enemy force, or some kind of monster attack? It was difficult to really tell. My curiosity got the better of me and I approached one of the homes down the path I was going down, just a random one I spotted and decided to enter. The door had been broken down and lay in splintered remains on the floor, opening up into a small living room filled with rotted furniture broken down over time, covered in cobwebs and dust that lingered. The shattered remnants of a broken home made my skin crawl. A ghastly feeling crawled up my spine as I saw the faded paint of symbols upon the walls, a faded red X overtop a long moose-like skull, or a caribou skull now that I thought about it. It was circled by red paint and had run down the wall alongside dozens of other symbols, all of them being large Xs and slashes, looking like claw marks or something. A lot of these led into the different rooms. Guess the Caribou had their way with this mountain... but how could they have? This place is massive, how big were their forces? I glanced off towards some stone stairs leading up to the next level and saw a light. A few moments passed before another one of those orbs hovered from above, floating down from the stairs and next to me and the other orb. The combined light made it easier to see the symbols and devastation, and I felt a pang of something in my chest. "What are yo-" I couldn't finish before the orb of light shot toward me, and my vision went white. I lost my balance as everything around me changed, rapidly warping until I was back inside of the home. Except there was light, there were no symbols, and I heard voices. A hazy outline around my vision made me dizzy, but I was still able to focus on what was happening around me. I saw three ponies standing in the main room I was in, windows blocked and the door shut tight with a bar over it. The two adults were sitting next to the smaller pony, a filly? The one thing I noticed off the bat was... well, they were bat ponies, dressed in simple yet fine clothing. "The guard shall not let them win." The stallion spoke to the mare and filly, his family? "Luna's Moon will protect us from these barbarians." "But father-" the filly shivered as the sounds of screaming reached my ears- our ears, actually. "-w-what if they fall? W-what if the guard l-lose?" "Don't speak such nonsense, my child." The mother reassured the filly, pulling her close to her as a loud explosion went off, and I shivered. "We have the finest guards in the Mountain Kingdoms." The moment she said that someone started banging on the door and screaming and shouting, I heard them laughing and hollering as the window barricades shook, and someone cried: "THEY'VE BROKEN THROUGH!" The door gave way, and the family screamed. I felt a stab of pain in my chest and fell to my knees as a voice reached my ears, "Upstairs! Run my child! RU-AAAAAAAH!" My vision warped and changed as I found myself thrown back into reality, back underground inside of that same house, only in the present. I felt nausea rise up in my stomach and shook. I trembled from the cold feeling washing over me before looking up at the orbs hovering near me. "W-what the fuck..." I swallowed as my eyes drifted past the floaty orbs and to the stairs, and I felt my legs starting to move toward them. I passed by the crumbled furniture that made up some pisspoor barricade and up the stairs, passing bone dusty old bones littering the steps before arriving at the second floor, where a couple of rooms greeted me. The one on my right had caved in entirely, blocking it off when stone rubble and the one to my left was wide open. I approached the door and peeked inside, seeing a broken bed against the corner of the wall, destroyed like the rest of the furniture. The window was broken wide open by something that crashed into the room, tearing the stone apart, almost like something heavy hit it head-on. What was on the floor was what grabbed my attention: a few skeletons on a dusty old carpet. Two adults and one smaller child, and my mind filled with the images I had seen previously of the family of batponies before more of those sprites appeared, lighting up the room and showing me more of the chaos that had happened here: the markings on the wall from weapons, the faded burn marks, the symbols carved and painted onto the walls. I looked down at the bodies and the tattered clothing they wore and let out a small breath. I turned to the sprites behind me, the three hovering and... watching me. "You guys aren't just lights... are you?" No random light would just show me visions of the past, no... these weren't lights, these were spirits, those who died here. I turned back to the bodies and stared hard at the symbols, the bodies, and the memories as they bled back into my mind, trickling in and filling me with this realization of what happened here. The Caribou took out Avros, and I was seeing the memories of the dead.