A demon Lilac had called from beyond the bounds of time and the depths of space pounded on its steel door, clawing to get inside. Its shouts were agony in her ears, not because of any magic, but because she was beginning to understand what it said.
If it caught them here, it would do worse than kill them. Her friends would die, and it would be her fault. Worst of all, she knew it would attack her last. She wouldn't even have the sweet release of death to take away the pain of guilt. It would want her to marinade in it.
River and Risk began retreating towards the way they'd come, one passage among many in Cyan Mine.
We can't run, it's faster than any of us. It can feel us through the walls, we can't hide either. This was the spawn of Abaddon and traffic with forbidden things. It would warp the ground it touched, defiling and ruining as it went. It might not be the civilization-ending kind of horrifying—but it might be town-killing, if it got enough power.
"Think!" Firefly yelled, dragging her away from the door. "Come on Lilac! You're the only pony who knows this stuff. What can you tell us?"
What could she tell them? "Nothing! There's not a damn—" She stopped abruptly, eyes going wide. "Wait. This way, come on!"
She picked another direction, not the one they'd come from, then galloped off. She was an earth pony, with the ground sturdy beneath her. None of them could catch up with her. She slowed enough that Risk could keep pace, and she could use the glow of his horn to see. She would be blind without him otherwise.
"This isn't the way out!" Firefly yelled. She was keeping up better than the others, only a few steps behind. Strange how much better she was at coping with the horrors down here. Was there something that made them uniquely resistant, even to a demon?
She couldn't hear its voice behind them anymore. But Lilac heard when the steel door smashed open, cracking the stone and making the ceiling rumble overhead.
That was enough to make the other ponies speed up, breathing heavily with exhaustion. They couldn't keep this up for very long—but they wouldn't have to.
"I know!" she yelled back. "We can't outrun it! If we made it to the elevator, it would get us in the cage. You two could fly out maybe, but once it got our magic, it would catch you."
"And you'd be dead!" Her friend wasn't running at all. Firefly flew along beside her. Her bright orange under feathers glowed in the dark, leaving a rippling static of energy in the air around her. She wasn't even panting anymore, more coasting through the air, while still swerving and dodging around obstructions as they came. "Give me something better!"
She was almost as coordinated as a bat. Impressive, but it wouldn't help anypony else escape. Even if you fly out, it will come after you next. You have more magic than anyone else in Willowbrook.
"We have to kill it without magic!" she shouted back. "You could call lightning, Risk could fry it, I could punch it through the mountain. It won't work!"
"Okay..." Firefly slowed slightly, biting her lip as she dodged a collapsed section of wooden wall. There was pony writing haphazardly painted onto the rock here, not the elegant sign the cult had used. "DANGER! POWDER ROOM"
"Stop with the electricity!" Lilac yelled. Finally loud enough for Firefly to notice her, because she dropped the few feet to the ground, tucking her legs in close. She skidded along the dirt before coming to a stop. "What is it?"
"Before the damned and their banishment! Before the tolling of the bells! Hear what the dark places whisper!" The demon crashed through the tunnels, smacking up against the walls as it passed. It was so big it would have to stoop and crawl through the tunnels. But when they weren't big enough, it sounded like it was gouging away at the rock as it went, tearing an opening for itself.
It's so close already! she thought, desperate and afraid. But they had a few more seconds. "This way!" She gestured through the open doorway, packed with barrels all close together. Most of them had no lids, and she could see almost nothing inside. They'd been used up and never replaced. But a few near the back still had their lids.
"Help me clear the ground," she said, pointing at a single flat patch of tunnel floor.
They all pushed away at the fallen scraps of wood and cloth, clearing away an opening big enough to see through to the bottom.
"I sure hope you have a reason for this!" River said.
She ignored that, coming up with her chalk from the bag. She drew a circle on the ground, scribbling desperately on its inside.
Magic wouldn't work against this monster, so she didn't even bother trying to block against outside creatures. She focused entirely on heat, pressure, physical obstructions, specifying each in horridly scratched marks around the inside edge of the circle.
Saffron would be proud of how quickly she worked under pressure, without making so much as a single typo.
"You cannot hide the light of a stolen soul!" yelled the demon. "Your name is not enough, Derek Ashsen. I will have the flesh and magic and minds and memories! What was will be!"
It was seconds away now, hideous form visible from down the hall.
"What are we doing?" Risk asked. Not doubtful and indignant like River. His question was entirely genuine. "Are you sure about this?"
"Not really!" she answered. "Everyone get inside! Don't smudge my chalk, or we're dead!"
They obeyed, though Firefly's fear grew by the second, and River didn't hide her doubt. "What difference will this make?"
"As soon as it comes in—" she said. "Risk, light those barrels against the wall. I remember the map—there's an emergency tunnel behind us. We can climb out."
"Bring the ceiling down on it," Risk said. "Will that work?"
"I don't have any better—" She fell silent as the demon stomped its way in, crunching on stone and broken wood as it went.
It hurt to look at, far worse than during the scry. She hadn't had eyes then, or a stomach to twist with revulsion at the alien shapes of a dimensionless horror.
River whimpered, dropping to the ground like a sack of produce. Risk's horn glowed a little brighter, aimed squarely at the far end of the room. Then he grunted, muttering something that wasn't quite a spell. He fell limp to the ground, tumbling away from them.
Lilac squealed, catching him with one hoof before he could cross the circle. "Risk!"
He didn't move.
"Speak the night, whisper—scream. Beckon the unknowable, constrained by form. Compassion is freedom from this cycle. They are mad, Derek Ashsen. Or... should not. Not your name anymore. Did you come to be trapped as they are? Confused and confined by arbitrary order."
"There's nothing I can do!" she muttered, terrified. Her circle was ready, waiting for external energy to power it. It wouldn't stop this monster for a second.
Her friend lifted into the air, hovering straight up. Energy hummed and buzzed around her, and all of Lilac's fur instantly lifted on end. The pegasus glowed brighter than any unicorn horn—brighter than the darkness that seeped from the demon's rotting form. A dark cloud gathered between her hooves, rumbling with thunder. Little flashes of light emerged from within, blinding her.
"How about... lightning!" Firefly brought both hooves down on it at the same moment, crushing it just as Lilac had triggered the gemstone. A single bolt lanced across the room, directly into the powder-barrels.
BOOM!
The ground tumbled out from under her as an explosion shook the room, loud and powerful enough to instantly turn all flesh to a fine red mist. A dome of light appeared around them, severing the upper end of Firefly's mane in a silly lopsided cut. Its borders became instantly visible, as blinding white light glowed around it from all sides. A terrible thud of repeated impacts crashed against it again and again, as whole chunks of rock smashed into it.
Cracks formed in that light, letting in a diffuse haze of smoke and dust. She imagined she heard a terrible, inhuman wailing, along with the sound of meat crushed by rock.
But just as quickly as it began, the explosion was over. Firefly was beside her on the stone, her wings still extended to both sides, glowing with energy. She grinned at Lilac, fluffy chest puffed out and all. If the situation wasn't so grim, Lilac would've giggled at her silly lopped-off mane.
"Hope that was okay," she said, her tone almost overly calm. "I know you said no lightning."
In answer, Lilac rushed over, wrapping both forelegs around her and squeezing hard. She whimpered, burying her head in her chest-fluff. "I-I... almost... got us killed..."
Maybe too hard, from the way the pegasus gasped in pain. "A-a little looser, please."
"Right." She let go, looking down weakly. "That wasn't supposed to be... we were just looking! Nothing was supposed to come through!"
"I didn't even look," Firefly said. "When you set off the spell, I just felt so... yucky. I hope it wasn't my fault. I covered my eyes and... I didn't see."
Lilac giggled. "Cause it? No, Firefly. I think you... stopped there from being two of those things."
She looked down at herself, half-expecting to see a gaping, bloody wound in her chest. She felt like something was damaged, somehow. Things were missing that shouldn't be.
But she wouldn't have the chance to figure out what, not that second. At least the shield held, and her friends didn't look injured. The ponies were already stirring in fact. The demon is gone. It isn't attacking their minds anymore.
When they tried to cross for real, Lilac would have to make sure that no Equestrians were around. They just weren't built for this kind of horror.
"Since we’re here, I've been meaning to ask you something," Firefly said. She ran one hoof through her mane, brushing it back into place. It came back short after just a few seconds, and she gasped. Her eyes started watering.
"Yeah?" Lilac asked. "Weird time, but I'm listening. What is it?"
Her friend whimpered, real tears streaming down her face. As real as when the darkest blackness of the unmade was bearing down on them. "M-my mane. What happened... did I burn it off?"
"Indirectly." She dropped down beside Risk, nudging him. "You still alive down there?"
He grunted, accepting her hoof to help him up. "Why do I feel like I got hit by a cart?" His eyes darted around the circle with the speed of real panic this time. "True gods, we're sheltering in a shield spell! What happened?"
River moaned in pain. She said something, but the sound melted between several different things. Only Firefly's name at the end was clear.
Oh buck. I think it scrambled their brains.
Sanity-warping nightmares from beyond time and space weren't exactly fun to be around. Was that why she remembered so little about the night of her arrival? A bunch of cultists did die that night. It would make sense.
"The Fetlock Fete is in three days!" Firefly wailed. "No one's gonna ask me now! It's ruined!"
"We don't even know if we're trapped down here, Firefly. Maybe wait for the smoke to clear before worrying about the dance."
The smoke was already clearing, though. A few more seconds later, and she could see the state of the powder room. Powder crater now, with a huge pile of rubble clogging the far wall. By miracle or magic, their own bubble was unharmed. In its shadow, the passage out the other tunnel was also mostly intact.
She could see no sign of the demon, not out in the mine. She could only feel the hole ripped in her spirit.