//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Catacomb 
// Story: Golden Ink 
// by Detsella Morningdew 
//------------------------------//

The lush, green forest gave way suddenly to the barren desert of the Badlands. It wasn't the sandy dune kind of desert Dinky often saw in textbooks, but a flat expanse of clay that was riddled with large cracks. Instinctively, Dinky knew they were close.

She looked curiously at Twilight. "Was this an ocean before or something? Or a really big lake?"

Twilight leaned over the edge of the cart. "Definitely an interesting theory. I haven't heard of something like that, but you are definitely on to something. I wouldn't be surprised." She considered the barren landscape again. "It must have happened a long time ago, though." She looked back to the map she was holding in her magic. "We should be getting close."

Her statement was immediately confirmed as the cart angled slightly forwards. Dinky didn't bother asking her mother, as she knew from experience her voice would be lost in the wind. But the strange sights, the scenery around her, and Twilight's odd expression gave her a strange sense of vertigo.

Not to mention the terrifying familiarity despite it all.

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle didn't look too confident, either. They all had been on adventures together, of course. But this felt different. It didn't even feel like the Daring Do book they were all secretly hoping for. The air was too crisp. It smelled like sand and salt. And it was all entirely too real.

The cart touched down roughly.

Well, it was actually rather smooth considering all the bumps and cracks. But it was enough to shake everyone to their senses, and Twilight out of the map she was glued to.

"It should be right around here!" Twilight exclaimed, looking around them. The cart was parked right at the edge of the cracked, flat land they had been flying over. The change in landscape was definitely noticeable, but the only real difference was an increase in actual sand, and some more rock formations. "Where is it?"

Dinky did what most of the residents of Ponyville used to deal with Twilight, and simply ignored her question. "Huh. I thought there would be more cacti in the desert." She hopped off the back of her mother's cart. The heat wasn't actually as bad as she expected, either. "Or any kind of vegetation at all."

Twilight blinked, before her brain switched targets. "Ah, right. The Badlands are a special case, actually. Many scholars have proposed that some sort of magical disaster long ago is the cause of its inability to support life."

Dinky briefly considered the fate of the imaginary sea she had pictured in her mind. "Must have been some disaster."

Twilight gave a noncommittal grunt, staring back at her map.

"Anyway, this kinda looks familiar. Let's look over near these rocks."

Immediately taking the lead, Twilight finally decided to put the map back in her saddlebags. The rest of the Crusaders followed at a slight distance, none of them looking particularly sure of themselves. Even Ditzy seemed serious, which caught Dinky off guard. She had only seen that expression on her mother's face three times before.

It was only when Twilight found a cave entrance that they perked up slightly, Scootaloo looking the most excited out of all of them. Dinky just walked blankly forwards, trying to ignore the overwhelming sense that she had been here before.

Dinky knew that these memories were not hers. The emotions associated with them were all wrong. But they just resonated a bit too deeply, and more than ever, she felt a sense of urgency to make sure there was no changeling in there that needed her help.

Once they were in the cave, Twilight stopped suddenly, lighting her horn to reveal several passages extending downwards. She opened her mouth to speak, then paused, a slightly pained expression on her face.

"What is it, Twilight?"

Ditzy looked at her critically. "You're thinking we should split up, aren't you?"

Twilight winced. "Yeah. I don't much like the idea, but we don't really know where we're going in here." She looked at Dinky. "Unless you know somehow? You said this looked familiar."

"It does. But that's all. I don't really know where anything is. I just hope it isn't that big. Or at least it's arranged logically enough to figure it out."

Scootaloo peeked down one of the holes, grinning at the slightly glowing green stuff on the walls. She turned back to the group. "So... like, three groups, then?"

Apple Bloom grinned. "Yeah. The buddy system, like when Cheerilee took us all camping in the Whitetail Woods."

Twilight frowned. "No. Two groups. I go with you and Dinky, Ditzy goes with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Sweetie, can you light your horn yet?"

She grinned, her horn flickering slightly before shining a steady green. "Yep!"

Apple Bloom looked up at the two adults. "Right, that makes a mite more sense."

"And remember, we're not here to explore, or look for treasure... or even study any of the changeling architecture. Yet. Foals' lives could be at stake here." She looked particularly hard at the Crusaders, who much to Dinky's relief, seemed to be taking this seriously. While Scootaloo's eyes still wandered to the tunnel walls, all three of their expressions were of hard determination.

She shook her head. Despite some of their more crazy adventures, all of them were her friends.

When did I get so cynical about everything?

Twilight turned to her one last time. "Dinky, I know you said you didn't know the layout or anything like that, but do you have any useful information? Like about where a nursery would be, or any memories about changeling foals?"

"Nymphs. Not really. Nothing clear, at least. My gut feeling tells me that if I made a nursery or something like that, I'd make it as far underground as possible. Safer that way."

Ditzy made sure Scootaloo and Sweetie were still near her (and not already in the tunnel) before looking to Twilight. "So, you check the lower areas, and we check... uh... somewhere else?"

Twilight chuckled. "I guess? I usually like to have a better plan than this, but we don't really know much about this place."

"So..." Scootaloo started. "How do we let each other know when we found something?"

Everypony glanced in her direction with some varying degree of shock.

"What? I read more than just Daring Do."

Dinky shook her head again, berating herself silently for once again assuming things about her friend. "Anyway, she brings up a good point. I'm sure Twilight has some sort of spell we could use as a signal, but I don't even know how to use my horn anymore. And Sweetie..."

"I just managed light spells last week. I don't think anypony in class got anything really advanced. Even you, Dinky."

"Yeah, I had some kind of sonic spells, but I think even just shouting would be more effective than that."

Apple Bloom looked up at Twilight. "So... what's the plan, then?"

"I think the best idea is to just meet back here in... let's say... thirty minutes or so. In the unlikely event that the other group is missing, then we mount a rescue party. Call the guards. Something like that." Twilight sighed. "The more I plan, the worse this idea sounds. But we can't wait much longer on this, and as much as I disagree with sending fillies into a dangerous cave... we really need all the hooves we can get on this one."

Ditzy nodded. "All right. Everypony ready?"

There were nods all around.

"Then let's get going!"





Twilight, Apple Bloom, and Dinky made their way down their tunnel. The situation was definitely urgent, but none of them galloped down the incline. The floor of the cavern was rough, and the steep incline was definitely not designed for a speedy descent. And as they got farther and farther down the tunnel, the natural light streaming in from the cave entrance was slowly swallowed up into the blackness, leaving only a small chunk of cave illuminated by Twilight's horn.

Suddenly, Apple Bloom paused, almost causing Dinky to trip over her. Twilight glanced back.

"What are you doing?"

Apple Bloom tapped her hoof on one of the green protrusions on the cave wall. "Weren't these glowing before?"

Dinky nodded. "Yeah, but they were really dim. Maybe changelings have night vision or something, but that wouldn't help you or Twilight."

"So why aren't they glowing now?"

Twilight smiled. "They most likely are still glowing, Apple Bloom. My horn light is simply too bright for us to see the small amount of light that they give off."

"Right, of course." She sped up a bit, navigating over the rocky floor back to the rest of the group, and they started moving once again.

It was only a few minutes later before she stubbed her hoof on a rock once again, this time from walking too far ahead of the group.

She looked at the green things on the wall again. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Hm?"

"If these things can't be seen when your horn light is on them, and are really dim when the sun light was on them, what happens if we just... um... don't shine light on them at all?"

"Well, they are still a bit too dim-"

Twilight paused suddenly. "Huh. You might be right, actually. We haven't seen them in absolute darkness." She looked at Dinky, a slightly strained smile on her face. "Are you up for this? I really don't like losing our only source of light. Even for a moment. But I guess we can find out if you have night vision, right?"

Dinky nodded, glancing down the passage one more time and failing to see past the edge of the light circle. "We can't see anything past a few hooves. And if anything is down here that's dangerous, it could see us way sooner than we would."

She nodded, and the light winked out. Everypony came to a halt, and the sudden lack of hoofsteps was strange in a way that Dinky couldn't quite describe.

In Ponyville, nothing was ever completely quiet, even at night. Faint sounds of creatures of the forest, or even just the wind outside were just things in the background, never really noticeable until they were gone.

But here in the dark, they were absent, and despite how unnerving it was, it also was oddly comforting when combined with the faint warmth of the earth.

The silence and dark were not to last. As Apple Bloom had suggested, their eyes pretty quickly adjusted, and the once faint green glow of the luminescent orbs was enough to see the tunnel and the ponies around them.

A loud sigh from Apple Bloom reminded Twilight that she was holding her breath as well, and the spell of silence was thoroughly broken.

The light from the orbs lit up the path quite adequately, but the spacing all around the tunnel gave the protruding rocks an almost unnatural look, as it eliminated almost all shadows. No one light source was powerful to give even the walking ponies (or changeling) a defined shadow.

The alien experience was just strange enough that none of them spoke, the only sounds coming from their hoofsteps and two sets of breathing that almost seemed too loud. Occasionally, one of them would look at Dinky strangely, but none of the three were willing to break the strange stillness of the world around them any more than they already were.

And then they hit a dead end.





Sweetie's energy had already died out for her light spell for quite a while, but the eerie atmosphere only seemed to make Scootaloo more excited than usual.

That in combination with Dinky's mom returning to her usual cheer meant that it was pretty hard for Sweetie to feel too bad about her failure. Or get nervous about the mission they were on.

The pace that Ditzy was setting was a bit too fast for her taste (she was never really a fan of long walks), but it at least was slow enough that she wasn't nervous about tripping.

She had actually gotten into a pretty nice routine about things. Look ahead for a second, take note of all the rocks, then jump between them until--

Sweetie got yanked back by her tail.

"Ow! What was that for?" She turned around, expecting one of Scootaloo's pranks, but it was Ditzy instead.

Confused, she looked ahead again, and gasped quietly. There was a big oval in the floor. Or rather, the cave went sharply downwards, but downwards was into a really big cave.

She peered over the edge to get a better look, and the others followed suit.

It was quite apparent that this was the changeling Queen's throne room, from the looks of things. It was very different than Celestia's throne room in Canterlot, though. While definitely bright by the standards of the passage they were traveling through, the dim green luminescence was a far cry from the sun streaming through stained glass to make multicolored patterns on the white marble floor. Not to mention the countless holes in the walls. And apparently the ceiling, if their own tunnel was something to go by.

The floor didn't even seem to be made of anything particularly special - it just seemed to be a more smooth and polished version of the cave walls. And while the dark stone throne was indeed impressive, it definitely didn't improve the general mood of the place.

But more importantly, in Sweetie's mind, was the part where it was about thirty hooves straight down, and only one pony in the group could fly.

Ditzy stood up again. "Right, we'll go down in two different trips. Who wants to go first?"

Right, she's a mail mare. She's the kind of pegasus that can carry stuff.

Sweetie started to raise a hoof, but Scootaloo had started before Ditzy could finish.

"Sorry, that was the wrong question." She looked at Sweetie. "Are you okay with staying here while I get Scootaloo down there?"

Sweetie glanced back up the tunnel with a hint of fear. "I guess so. We've already been up that way, so I think I'd be more nervous staying down there while you make the next trip."

Ditzy nodded, and in one (almost) fluid motion, she scooped Scootaloo up and dove unsteadily into the cave. Her flight pattern wasn't exactly the envy of most pegasi, but she had a lot of practice with dropping off packages, and dropped Scootaloo about half an inch off the throne room floor, swooping back up to Sweetie.

Sweetie felt her heart go up into her throat before she even walked over to Ditzy, and the effect wasn't exactly lessened when she dived. But it was over quickly, and she rapidly got her breath back when she was safely on the ground.

She didn't exactly have much time to be relieved though. Almost as soon as Ditzy landed, a loud hissing sound split through the silence, and a changeling stepped out of the relative darkness of a side tunnel.

"Ponies! Leave this place!"

If Sweetie had thought of a worst-case scenario, this would have been it. There weren't supposed to be changelings down here in the first place. And if there were, Dinky should have been there to help out. Maybe make friends with them. This one was shouting for them to leave.

Ditzy straightened up from her landing point on the ground. "I'm sorry, miss... uh..."

The changeling stayed silent.

"Um, miss changeling, but the Canterlot thing didn't really go that well."

She gave the ponies a deadpan look. "I kinda guessed that, based on the fact that you aren't Chrysalis."

"Uh, well, anyway... we wanted to check to see if there were any eggs left here-"

The changeling's stance abruptly widened, and she grit her teeth. An action Sweetie noted looked a lot more menacing when you had fangs.

Ditzy raised both her hooves in the air, steadying herself with her wings. "To make sure they wouldn't die without somepony to take care of them," she quickly amended.

The changeling relaxed slightly, now looking more curious than angry. "I'm not exactly inclined to believe you, but a single pegasus and two foals are certainly an odd force to bring rather than, say, a trained squad of soldiers."

Sweetie raised a hoof. "Um, I'd like to point out that we have a friend who's kinda, like, a changeling, too. She met Queen Chrysalis at the Canterlot... thing."

If anything, the changeling looked more confused. "That makes even less sense. I'd say you were most certainly lying, but you are either the best liar I've seen, ponies lie differently than changelings do, or you really do believe that what you are saying is true."

"If it helps, she wasn't a changeling at the time."

"...Okay, that makes an odd, twisted sort of sense, I suppose. Fortunately, it's the odd, twisted, unbelievable sort of sense that probably means it's true. How did your friend survive the transformation, though?"

"Uh-"

A loud thud shook the floor behind them.

"Ow..."

By the time that the four of them had registered the newcomer, Dinky was already on her hooves. "Wait, these are my friends!"

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Dinky realized that the changeling in front of her was not exactly hostile.

"Wow, okay. I was actually leaning more on the 'insane ponies' theory, but you were actually right."

There was a pop of magic, and two more ponies appeared behind Dinky.

The changeling looked directly at Dinky. "So... Queen Chrysalis actually passed on her power? To a pony?"

Dinky nodded grimly. "She didn't have much of an option. Only, like, a minuscule part of me was a changeling at that point, but she used what she had to work with."

"No, no. That's not what I meant. I mean, I've been part of the hive for a long time. More than most, in fact. But I always thought that the Queen would take that title to the grave. She absolutely refused to even make a Princess, let alone name a successor."

"Wait, so Princess is an actual title, and not just something Celestia made up for me?"

The changeling smiled. "Indeed. Now, what should I call you... your highness?"

Briefly flustered by the title, Dinky took a few seconds to answer. "Well, my friends call me Dinky, but Celestia kinda introduced me to everyone by my legal name, Golden Ink..."

"My name is Elytra. Still..." She sighed. "...the game really is up, isn't it? Stealth is ruined?"

Twilight cleared her throat. "That incident at my brother's wedding kinda ruined that."

Elytra grimaced. "Right. I would have told her how risky that plan was, but... I was quite clearly in the minority."

Dinky looked at her a bit more closely. "Um, I'm sorry, but we honestly didn't expect anyone to be here. Chrysalis... well, she told me that I was her only hope. That everyone else was gone. But... here you are."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course the Queen would forget I exist. Or... maybe she knew I was here. Regardless, she was thinking of us as a species. I can't be a queen. Not only was I hundreds of miles away, but... I'm old enough where the change probably wouldn't go all that smoothly. And the changeling race cannot exist without a queen."

"So, um... why didn't you go to Canterlot, then?"

"To take care of the eggs, of course. As much as I love criticizing her, Chrysalis wasn't completely stupid. Of course, she still took all my staff, but... at least she cared about the nymphs."

Dinky's face brightened. "So there are some eggs left?"

"Heh." Elytra chuckled with amusement. "So you are a queen."