As Daring and I made our way deeper into the bowels of the temple ruins, I began to realize the full meaning of Daring Do's words—what she'd warned me about as we trekked across the desert.
There was a certain otherworldliness to the temple that made my hair stand on end. Wandering these time-worn halls was an almost dream-like experience, and I strongly felt that it was no mere coincidence given my most recent nightmare. Upon first entering the ruins I could already feel that something was off, but what I'd seen at that point was not completely outside of my expectations. It was as we traveled further down that I truly began to understand.
It wasn't long after we had left our entry point that the sun's light began to fade. It took me some time to realize just how dark the temple had gotten, and I hadn't even noticed until Daring Do stopped to pull an unlit torch and some matches from her saddlebags. She pulled another torch from her bag and offered to do the same for me, but I declined, perfectly capable of making my way without one. With that done, we pushed deeper into the ruins, barely uttering a word between the two of us. Nerves, wonder, and my own thoughts had rendered me silent for the most part.
Many of the rooms that dotted the ancient halls were lost to us, buried entirely beneath the stony debris of the floor or ceiling that had collapsed within. Pitfalls were common and for one without wings or the ability to teleport, a single misstep would certainly be fatal. With many of the windows still intact, very little sand had made its way into the ruins, but much like the room we'd used to enter the ruins, the air was choked with dust and ash. Of the chambers we were actually able to enter, most of them held nothing of interest. As more time passed we did finally make our way to the hall Daring Do had spoken of—the hall whose walls painted a dark and terrible history the likes of which I was sure not even Celestia or Luna knew about.
I took some time to pour over the work, marveling at just how images so crude could be so detailed and intricate all at once. The wall upon which the paintings were done, was far different from the dark grey stone that made up the rest of the old temple. It was made of a grey stone much lighter in color and smooth all the way across the hall; the wall was completely seamless in a way that should've been impossible given the length of the hall and how primitive the ponies who'd built this temple must've been—if ponies they were. Upon the smooth stone, the images displayed in black paint took up the entirety of the wall from top to bottom, spreading across from the beginning of the hall to the other side.
Granted, the other end of the hall was blocked off by a particularly severe cave-in just as Daring had mentioned previously, but it was clear that the paintings continued on past the rubble. The paint itself was just as mysterious as the artwork; a quick thaumic scan indicated that it was made from an as of yet unknown substance. In seeking an answer from Daring Do, she explained that whatever was used as the pigment, binder, and solvent for the paint were all far removed from anything that had been used in the last few millennia to date. It was a fascinating revelation to be sure, but I soon turned my attention back to the painting as a whole, looking over the crudely made equines and paradoxically detailed yet simplistic scenery.
It truly was painted in such a way that a clear story was being told, one that could be easily understood without words. Without realizing it, I'd made my way across the hall until I reached the debris blocking off what remained at the other end of the hall. The stones that made up the debris were fairly large, and looking above me I could see that the cave-in continued up past the ceiling. There was no way to accurately gauge just how bad the cave-in really was, but based on sight alone it may have been more than I could handle on my own, even with my prodigious magical strength. I could perhaps transmogrify the grey stone into sand to make it easier to move, but that would present problems of its own. Accounting for factors such as mass and volume and without knowing just how much debris there really was, it may have even made matters worse—perhaps even fatal.
To my shame and frustration, and despite how I had assured Daring Do of the contrary, I could not clear the debris from the hall—not without risk of worsening the cave-in as a result. Daring Do was understanding of our plight if a touch disappointed. Dispirited and more than a little upset with the situation, I gave the wall one last look before Daring and I moved on. I didn't let the development keep my spirits down for long, as there was far more to see of the temple than this, and something told me I would have my answers either way... more answers than I could've ever wanted to know.
Though we'd stumbled across more remains along the way—more signs of some great struggle that had occurred—many of the rooms were either almost completely empty or the objects and furniture therein falling apart with age or reduced to burnt, blackened rubble. Many times my curiosity threatened to get the better of me, but Daring was always there to pull me back to my senses. Again I found her behavior rather odd given that our purpose was to investigate the ruins. It was almost as though she was pushing me towards some unknown destination within the temple... or perhaps trying to stop me from looking too deeply into any one clue into the past. It may have been that I was reading too much into her actions, but another part of me believed I wasn't too far off the mark.
That alone was not the extent of her strange behavior. There were moments where she had much more to say about the ruins—musings on the overall architecture or thoughts on the origin of the rusted armor seen on many of the skeletal remains and the like. There were some areas, at least in the beginning, where she was content to take her time and thoroughly explore what the ruins had to offer. There were other times, however, where a brief once over was all she gave before quickly moving on, her face grim or unreadable. The latter seemed to be the case more and more with each descent we made further down. When she finally fell completely silent and her expression grew troubled, I couldn't blame her.
I'd seen much of what Daring Do had told me about by now—chambers that were filled with all manner of lethal tools, destroyed altars, mummified bodies strung up in ways that showed clear signs of intentional mutilation, and a marked increased in the body count as we went on, from both what I surmised were knights and cultists of some kind. It was becoming more and more apparent that a large scale battle had taken place, and the outcome hadn't been pleasant for either side. The increasing amount of withered corpses displayed suggested the worst of the fighting had occurred somewhere within the lower levels of the temple. We both did our best to ignore the remains with middling success and proceeded down yet more staircases.
I was unsure of just how much time had passed since we entered the temple, and my sense of time felt skewed, but I knew it had to have been a few hours at the least. It had most likely grown dark outside the ruins, but that meant little to me. I suspected we'd almost, if not already, made our way below the sands outside. We'd gone down several staircases throughout our exploration; there were some points where I'd had to make use of my magic to clear a path, but many times the cave-ins were so severe that we'd had to double back and find different paths altogether. All the while I could feel a subtle but noticeable change in the atmosphere.
Eventually, it began to feel as if the temple was alive—as if it was breathing. The once featureless and mostly uniform halls began to twist and turn in ways that made no sense. The dark grey walls grew darker and had gained a slight sheen, as though covered in some kind of shiny viscous slime. A foul stench rose up seemingly from the depths below, the odor almost enough to make me gag in disgust. Each winding hallway began to make me feel as if Daring and I were wandering the slowly rotting intestines of some colossal creature on the verge of death. Our journey thus far had been relatively benign but it's here at this point that Daring Do's troubling recount of her previous exploration became my reality.
The ambient howl of distant wind had long since faded and both the silence and darkness had grown far too heavy and oppressive. The only sound to be heard was the oddly muted clop of our hooves against the cobbled stone floors. The shadows around us felt like a physical force, doing its best to snuff out any source of light that fell upon it. Daring Do had procured several torches for the expedition, and each one lit was expended more quickly than the last until there were no more, leaving me to light our way with my magic on her behalf. The spell was incredibly simple and required little energy on my part, but even then I could feel some unseen force pressing down upon my horn, trying to choke the magenta glow out of existence.
I wasn't sure if Daring Do could see it the same as I could, but the many halls and chambers we wandered into had grown massive in size—far larger than would be needed for any creature; large enough for a well-aged dragon to make its home. The deeper we went, the more cyclopean and unnervingly unorthodox the architecture became. The walls no longer seemed to be made of uniformly placed grey stone, but of some kind of smooth blackened rock; something that looked like obsidian, but had the properties of diamond. I had never seen nor heard of any such stone, yet something about it, and the rest of my surroundings felt... welcoming—familiar in a way that felt like home; familiar in the same way I felt as I wandered these black halls a mere two nights ago in my mind.
Yes, this was without a doubt the same temple from my dream, I was certain of that now. Unfortunately, that realization and the queer sense of nostalgia I felt did nothing to staunch the sickening unease I felt as we moved ever forward towards an unknown destination. It was also around this time that I began to notice a distinct lack of skeletal remains and dried out corpses scattered about the ruins. I'd gotten so used to the sight of them by now that the abrupt absence of any bodies left me on edge. Already unnerved, I was starting to wonder if we'd somehow moved beyond the ruins and stepped right into another world entirely somewhere along the way. The air had become cold and stagnant and heavy with a foreboding presence that pressed upon my mind like an iron vice, making my head throb painfully.
It was all I could do to keep my simple light spell going... but I had to. I knew that if I let go of this spell for even an instant, something would come for us. Struck by a sudden and horrifying realization, I knew now why no remains littered the floors like we'd seen above. There were monsters in this darkness, shadows creeping within shadows—one of the oldest and most primal fears made real. I remembered them, those silent, wretched, winged things. Down here I could remember their hunger... remember the madness. I recalled how they had devoured that poor mare bones and all, feasting until there was nothing left on that bloody altar. I may not have known exactly what transpired in the depths of this nightmarish place, but one thing I understood with complete clarity was that those creatures never left.
They still wandered these black halls, alive, ageless and eager for the flesh they'd long been denied by time; it was more than a feeling, more than some hunch or supposition... it was an absolute, immutable fact. If we continued on this path without my mage light to guide us, our demise would be assured as certain as the sunrise Celestia brought forth each and every day.
Matters were only made worse when Daring Do began to scratch at her eyes. It was an occasional gesture at first, something done so irregularly that it could've been mistaken for simple irritation due to the dust in the air. Now, however, the scratching was almost constant, and though the mare gave no vocal complaints, I could tell it was getting to her. I saw her ears twitch nervously and her wary eyes dart this way and that in the darkness. After a few moments, she stopped moving altogether; she turned to me and spoke in a harsh but quiet whisper. Her wide eyes were already red from having scratched at them non-stop and her face had become suddenly fearful and even a little desperate.
"You can hear them, can't you? The whispers? The voices? I can't understand what they're saying, but they're so loud... I-It's not my imagination... I knew it wasn't my imagination. We shouldn't be here... I shouldn't have come back... we've gone so much further than I ever dared to go alone. I-It's like a nightmare I can't escape... by Celestia's shining grace my eyes burn... a-and those sun forsaken voices! We... W-We should leave now while you still have some magic left... never should have come back..."
The mare was growing hysterical, becoming far more terrified than I'd ever seen her before. It was like I'd braved the depths with an entirely different pony altogether... but I couldn't blame her for her fear. She didn't know what was down here like I did, but she could feel it. Aside from when we'd first left the room at the very top of the ruins, I hadn't fallen prey to any such malevolent whispers, nor did I feel the same horror—unease and foreboding certainly, but the raw, mind-bending fear just wasn't there. Still firm and resolute in my mind was my desire to find out what secrets were hiding in the darkness. I was close—so very close... but Daring Do was proving to be a problem, a liability now that we'd come this far.
Together we stood, surrounded on all sides by shadow with only my light to shield us from the horrors lurking not so far away. I wracked my brain, trying to find a solution to my predicament... when I heard it. A voice—not like the malicious whispers that plagued Daring Do, but something else. It could barely even be called a voice in fact; it was more a series of thoughts, ideas filling my mind that I knew were not my own. Under normal circumstances, I would never think these types of thoughts, never consider them as any sort of viable option... and yet, with my answers so close I found myself... sorely tempted by these thoughts.
These thoughts and ideas promised a simple solution to my problem, they promised me safe passage to my destination, they promised a deeper understanding of my plight. I was 'chosen', I was 'faithful', I would come to no harm so long as I abandoned the false 'light'. To walk in darkness was to know the truth. Only blind can the faithful See.
Only blind can the faithful See.
Only blind... can the faithful See...
Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Daring Do's voice, but it was far away... so very far away. I could still hear the fear in her voice, but that fear was tinged with worry and confusion. She was baffled by my silence, put off by my expression. She called my name, but I failed to heed her call, there was no need. I'd finally found a solution, one that had been staring me in the face ever since we reached these hallowed halls—no, ever since I had that dream back in the hotel. I had already known what to do, the clues were already there, hidden in plain sight. My dream, the tome, this place... all of it made one thing very clear to me. It made clear that there would be no moving forward without a sacrifice of some kind. If I wanted answers, I would need to cast away the light and in doing so, open up a new path.
Daring Do called my name again with more urgency, and this time I gave a response, a quiet and heartfelt apology—the last words she would ever hear. I wanted to weep and beg for forgiveness as I let the light from my horn die out, but the tears wouldn't come. Upon the release of my spell, the shadows came rushing back in to swallow everything, and with them came a numbing chill cold enough to freeze my blood. There was a heartbeat or two of silence before Daring Do's bloodcurdling scream echoed through the gargantuan hall. The sound carried on ceaselessly, high in pitch and gut-wrenchingly tragic, and I stood there, my eyes shut tight and my entire frame shaking from both the cold and the horrible weight of what I'd just done.
It wasn't long before I heard the scream begin to fade into the distance, accompanied by the sound of flailing hooves sliding against stone, and it was only another few seconds later that the sound of Daring's screams cut out entirely, leaving only the quiet sound of something quickly being dragged across the floor away from me, the noise unbroken by any kind of struggle whatsoever. After what felt like an age, all returned once more to silence, and in that moment, as I opened my eyes, something fundamental to my very being was ripped from me—something I would never get back. I had said before that there was no going back, but that had never been as true as it was now. The only thing I could do now was continue my journey alone, and perhaps that was for the best.
I'd found another guide, after all... something else to light the way forward on my path to the truth.