Sleeping proved to be the most difficult task to accomplish tonight. No matter how long I stayed still or how long I kept my eyes shut, my body refused to acknowledge the time to rest, my thoughts would always return back to the door. Realizing that any attempt at sleep would be fruitless, I chose to get out of bed. Exiting my tent, I saw that the storm outside of the magical field that finally died down, replaced with the quiet silence of the night. The skies were clear and the stars were out, which made staying out here much more comfortable. I noticed that the campfire that lay in the center of the group of tents had gone out. Though the barrier kept the nasty storm out and placed the area under tolerable temperature, fire certainly helped keep the place warmer. Since I had nothing better to do until I collapse from fatigue, I decided to relight the campfire. I grabbed some wood from our stockpile and used a basic spark spell which was enough to rekindle the bonfire. The effects of it were already starting to kick in and my body felt a bit warmer already.
“Miss Crescent?”
I turned my head to the voice to spot Bronco Mace sticking his head out of his tent. Stepping out of the tent, he smoothed out his mane as best he could with his hoof before walking over to me. He looked at the fire and then up at the sky before turning back to me as if he had come to a conclusion.
“You couldn't sleep?” He deducted just from a simple look around.
I nodded my head silently and sat down near the fire. Bronco did the same and for a moment, both of us were quiet. Aside from being my employee and a dependable worker, Silver was far more superior in social skills than I. My specialty reigned in the more technical aspects of the work where I fully expect others to know exactly what I’m talking about and speak against me when I make a mistake, which has happened over the years. I’m not afraid to admit that I have my flaws, if anything, I’m more proud to have them.
“Silver never mentioned this, but everypony here has had at least one nightmare since we started excavating this site.” Bronco spoke out of the blue, but with purpose. “I've spoken to a few about their dreams and found they've all shared a common theme: Darkness. Every single one of them repeats what another has already told me. They feel themselves engulfed in an endless sea of pitch black and hear something. What that is, I have no idea because that’s as far as my investigation has gone.”
Shivers went down my spine. Why hadn't Silver told me about this when I asked about the status of the crew? Did he feel it was not necessary?
“I’m sure he has his reasons for not telling you,” Bronco said, as if hearing my thoughts, “but let me say in all honesty that I’m afraid of what we’re going to find down there. I know your passion is discovering humanity’s past, Ma’am, but I’m having serious doubts about opening that door. There has to be something evil down there and that magic seal Emery took down only further proves that whoever set that up obviously put it there to ensure that whatever is in there stays in there.”
I never thought I’d see the day that Mace would speak so much, but this much voiced opinion was not without good reason. Before I could give him an answer, our ears perked up at the sound of walking, we both stood up, looking around until we saw a silhouette of another pony walking not too far away, which seemed to be heading-They were going for the entrance!
“Hey!” I called out, hoping to get their attention.
The mystery pony’s reaction was to run, which prompted to Bronco to give pursuit. I followed behind as best I could, but keeping up with a Pegasi in speed was nearly impossible, especially when they’re in flight. By the time I got down to the human entrance, I saw Bronco standing there with shock on his face.
“Boss!” He shouted.
The pony that we had chased turned out to be Silver, who stood in front of the gates. Something about him was…off. He had his back turned to us, completely ignoring our presence. Everything started to rumble around us like a quake as the giant door started to open on its own. The symbols on the walls and floors started to glow brightly and flash violently, some even exploding which made me teleport from one of the tiles I was standing on that did just that.
A long arm surrounded in black mist lashed out from the opening of the doorway and wrapped itself around Silver’s neck and began pulling him in with little resistance. Bronco ran and leaped at Silver, holding onto him tightly, refusing to let whatever that thing was take Silver. I teleported over and focused my energy into a single offensive beam and fired, dismembering the limb. At the same time, Boulder seemed to have come to his senses and looked around, confused and alarmed. A loud monstrous roar of pain and anger came from inside the doorway as several more arms reached out all aiming for me. I didn't have enough time to react and several of them latched onto my hooves and started pulling me in, dragging me along the ground.
“Crescent!”
Both Silver and Bronco grabbed a hold of me and tried pulling me back, but a couple of the arms that weren’t latched onto me smacked them away effortlessly, sending them flying across the room and into the walls. I screamed as loud as I could, trying to focus my magic in an effort to escape, but it wasn’t enough. The doors shut closed and darkness enveloped me. My consciousness started to fade and I feared I would never wake up.
Was this how it was going to end?
No…I…I…I don’t…want…to…die…
“Crescent! Crescent!” Silver shouted, banging on the door several times with his hooves.
“Boss, it’s too late for her! We have to go!” Bronco pleaded, placing his hoof on his shoulder, only for it to be swiftly knocked aside.
“Buck no, we’re not leaving her!” He cursed, glaring back at Mace before returning his attention to the door and tried prying on the giant handles, pulling at it with all his strength.
“This whole place is going to Tartarus! Don’t let her sacrifice be for nothing!” Bronco exclaimed.
To emphasize his point, Bronco rolled out of the way from a tile between them that promptly exploded. Silver stopped banging on the door and instead stared at it before lowering his head, shutting his eyes tightly. A small tear trailed down his eye.
“I’m sorry, Crescent…” He whispered before turning around, sighing in defeat. “You’re right, Bronco. Let’s go!”
The two raced towards the exit, but a piece of debris managed to crash on top of Bronco. Silver stopped at the stairway and turned around to see that his wing was caught underneath the rubble. He tried to run over but Bronco’s glare made him hesitate.
“GO! GET OUT OF HERE!”
Larger debris fell in front of Silver, blocking him from Bronco and forcing him to turn around as he raced upstairs, literally feeling the debris falling behind him. Adrenaline pumping through his body gave him the extra speed as the exit to the surface was in sight. He threw himself out at the last minute, just barely making it out. Panting heavily, he slowly rose back up on his hooves and looked at what used to be the entrance to the giant gate. He stomped his hooves into the ground angrily as he knelt down, lowering his head to hide the tears coming from his eyes. Silver didn’t have to look behind to know that the others were awake. He heard a familiar voice speak to him. He looked to his side to see Emery Patchwork looking at him worriedly.
“Silver, what happened?”
In response to the question, he merely looked back at the caved in tunnel.
“Crescent and Bronco…They’re gone.”
Emery’s eyes widened at this and turned to everypony else who showed concern on their faces as well.
“Everyone, grab something to eat and get to work on clearing out that rubble on the double! We've got a rescue mission on our hand!”
They didn't need to be told twice as everypony sped off with vigor. Emery helped up Silver stand on his hooves who held a sorrowful expression on his face.
“Get some rest, Silver. You can tell me everything later.”
“That’ll be harder than you think, Emery…” He shook his head, “I don’t think anyone can sleep well after failing their friends and leaving them to die…”
The unicorn remained silent as she watched her boss walk away with his head down low. She turned back to the caved in entrance.
“Celestia…please let them be okay…”
Bronco groaned loudly as he awoke, pain searing throughout his entire body. Opening his eyes, he looked around. From what he could tell, it looked like he was in a forest, or rather, the remains of one. Everything around him was lifeless and hollow. Trees were either dead or cut down, then there were corpses of what looked to be skeletons belonging to another species entirely, and then there was the blood; there were stains of it everywhere around him. Everything around him seemed relatively old while the debris that was around him and crushing his wing were just recently added.
His heart raced at the sound of growling and he scanned his surroundings as best he could. In the darkness, several menacing predator-like eyes appeared, all fixated on him. They stepped out of the darkness and Bronco could only gape at the monstrosities. Some looked animalistic, moving on all fours while others were biped creatures whose arms came in the appearance of sharp claws. They all appeared deformed in one way or another, showing bones and even what looked to be their organs were in plain view. Their eyes showed only one thing: Hunger. Frantically, he tried pushing off the larger debris. He would have preferred dying in the rubble, but now it seemed a much more gruesome fate was presented to him.
“Somepony! Anyone! Help!” He shouted.
Bronco stopped struggling as one of the bipeds got close enough to him. He shut his eyes and waited for the end to come as it would tear into him and eat him. Opening his eyes, he noticed that the monster was frozen in a lunge position…until half of its body slid forward and hit the ground. Standing in front of him was a creature that wasn’t deformed like all the other monsters around them. It was much like the biped, only it had wings and claws with blades attached to the side of its arms. Its mouth bared razor sharp teeth and its eyes were small compared to his, but it had six eyes along the edges of its head. Whatever it was, it saved him. The creature turned around and screeched loudly, making Bronco wince at the noise. It turned around and charged at the other monsters. What he saw was a massacre of the monsters as his savior glided through the air swiftly, cutting down the other creatures into pieces and even eating some with its mouth. Bronco was absolutely terrified of this beast’s brutality in dealing with the creatures, so much that he puked on the dirt ground next to him. When the deed was done, it turned back to him and he immediately gulped as it landed back in front of him.
The creature’s body began to shake violently as it shrunk in size. It took on the form of a stallion, only a coat was replaced with its dark scaly skins. It had no mane and its tail resembled more of a scorpion. He also had the appropriate two eyes now, but it lacked any pupils at all. Suddenly, it turned and kicked off the debris with its hind legs, sending it soaring into the dark maroon sky. A disturbing maniacal grin stretched across his face as he knelt down to Bronco’s face.
“Welcome to hell on earth…my little pony.”
Well, that escalated rather quickly. In all honesty, I feel like I goofed up this story at this point. Let me know what you think of this story in the comments down below.
There…may or may not be a new installment. I’m starting to have my doubts about this series.