The reflections of the crystalline cave matched the color of Rainbow's eyes. Her vision darted left and right, and as the light grew darker in her descent, she brought a hoof up to her pendant and rubbed it with a few light circles. The Element of Loyalty lit up, casting a glittering red haze across the claustrophobic environment floating past all sides of her. It was a tighter squeeze than most caves that she had been familiar with, and yet its path did not wind like so many labyrinthine passages she had navigated in the past. It was almost as if some bizarre phenomenon had perfectly carved a tunnel forty-five degrees down from the earth's surface, and at some point in the past innumerable rubies had formed along the cylindrical walls of the cavern.
The gems were jagged, long, and gathered in thick clusters. They all reflected the light from Rainbow Dash's pendant evenly, but she was at a lostt to figure out which of them where innately enchanted. After all, she was after a stone capable of harnessing magic, not simply reflecting luminescence.
With an epiphanous plan, Rainbow Dash beat her wings faster and sped down the throat of the cave. She flew until the sunlit mouth of the cave was a distant speck. Once she was satisfied that she had flown deep enough, she paused in a gentle hover and covered the lightning bolt of her element with two forelimbs. Shutting out the light, she cast herself into inky-black darkness. Squinting, she pivoted about, looking around the body of the claustrophobic interior.
Finally, something sparked in her peripheral vision. She spun to the side, squinting, and focused on a tiny shred of light just in front of her. Floating over—she bumped her head on a cluster of rocks. Wincing, she rubbed her skull and lowered just a tad, gazing at the source of the light.
In the midst of so many long, jutting rubies, she found a tiny cluster of even thinner gems. These were crystaline rods, almost resembling door handles. They shimmered with a bright blue aura which intensified the closer her living flesh got to it.
"Hmmm..." Her voice echoed in the deep, thin cavern. "This had better do the trick."
Reaching forward, Rainbow gripped a stalk of the blue rods with two hooves. She pulled, twisted, and yanked with all her strength.
"Nnnngh!"
Finally, she wrenched a cluster of blue gems free. Three fell into her capable grasp. One, however, fell loose and clattered down into a deeper part of the dimly-lit cave below.
"Awwww poop..."
Rainbow Dash frowned, glanced up towards the mouth of the cave, then sighed. Angling her wings, she dove even further for the fallen shard. She squinted her eyes, looking for the source of the blue rod. She must have dropped for another minute and a half before she stumbled upon a bright bed of rubies, and all of them glowing blue and green.
"Ah... well here's where the party's at," she said, her lips twisted in an aquamarine grin.
The rock had evened out to allow for a plateau full of these glowing shards. She touched her hooves down—careful not to cut her fetlocks on the jagged bits of stone. Stepping cautiously through the spaces, she approached a tall cluster of rocks and gripped them. These very easily snapped off to her touch, and soon she had a veritable bundle of natural, mana-charged stones.
"Whew. At this rate, he'll be the only zebra in the world with his own power bill."
She turned to leave when something familiar struck her vision. The fact that it was something "familiar" deep down in the stomach of a Ledomaritan cave is what startled her. Doing a double-take, Rainbow Dash pivoted about and squinted at a wall.
There was a space of solid stone amidst the forest of glowing gems. From the looks of things, the wall was once covered by gems in the past, but something... or someone had hacked them all away. In its place was an elaborate set of carvings, all in a language that Rainbow Dash could not understand, all save for one pair of words.
"Windthrow..." Rainbow Dash thought aloud. She winced and smacked her skull with a clump of glowing gems. "No, not 'Windthrow,' you featherbrain!" She grimaced, gawking at the omega symbol that was eclipsing a solar crest. "'Austraeoh.'"
Her eyes lingered on the symbols, then on the pairs of cryptic carvings next to it.
"But... when... how...?"
She took a step forward, and her hoof bumped into something. Rainbow Dash looked down to see a long machete, worn by time and ancient use. Curious, she reached down and pulled it up by the handle... only to see that somepony else was gripping to the same instrument.
The skeleton of a long-diceased pony clung to the dull-edged tool. Its gaping skull dangled, pivoting beneath Rainbow's grasp.
"Oh... Hello..." Rainbow winced and dropped the whole machete altogether. "And... uh... ew, much?" She squinted at the dusty, crumbling skeleton before her. The pony's body was surrounded by discarded tools, moth-eaten satchels, and the tattered remnants of what must have been a well-laced robe in its time. "What the heck brought you way down here?" She glanced at the carvings on the wall, and back at the pony. Her eyes stumbled upon the remains of a dozen time-decayed feathers. "Heh. Hunting pheasant? Heheheh—Whoah, wait a second..."
Rainbow Dash knelt down low, her eyes wide. She reached a hoof out and traced the length of the skeletal wing. Sure enough, the avian bones were attached to the spine of the pony itself.
"A pegasus..." Rainbow Dash gulped. "Well if that isn't nifty." Rubbing her chin, she glanced across the dust-laden possessions of the ill-fated soul. She saw what looked like a bundle of wool in the corner, right where the smoothe stone and jagged gems converged. Curious, she reached towards it and turned it over. "Well, okay then."
Beneath where the wool was, a book was lying, an ancient tome that was thicker than any book Rainbow Dash had ever seen. There was no title on the cover of it, only two symbols... the only symbols that could have mattered.
"This just keeps on getting better and better..."