The moon shone down upon a party of creatures, next to a large lake. The lake was at the foot of a mountain, only a small road leading to an alcove within the mountain. A stray cloud scuttled across the moon, obscuring the faint light it gave. The creatures reached the edge of the lake, and one of them spoke up in a loud, deep voice.
“Never touch the water, not even a little bit!” Gordon said, gesturing at the large lake. “More than likely there is something in it.”
The ponies behind him nodded, their normally upbeat manners muffled by the eeriness of the area they were in. The two other men just stood by, recognizing the spot they were in from the movies. The group edged around the lake, coming to a rest on the shore in front of the alcove. Gordon walked over towards where he thought the door would be, waiting for the moon to show her face again. Finally, the lazy cloud scuttled away, the light from the moon suffusing the area in s silvery glow. However, what Gordon had been waiting for never happened.
“Shit, what am I forgetting?” He mumbled to himself. He looked around, then suddenly pulled Twilight over. He pointed to a spot on the wall where a small star-shaped groove was. “Put your horn here!” Gordon said, explaining his actions. When she did, a large white border began to spread out from that spot. Soon a large door was visible, it’s outline engraved in a silvery glow. Across the top, a large, swirling sentence was visible.
“Don’t bother translating. Just say the ancient Equestrian word for friend.” Gordon said to Twilight.
“Umm… It’s uh… ‘Verdilea,’ but I doubt that will help.” Twilight replied, but Gordon ignored her after she said it. The door stood stubbornly still. Gordon sighed.
“Alright, it won’t be that easy. So what does it say then?” Gordon said sheepishly.
Twilight rolled her eyes, then looked up. “I think it says… Something along the lines of ‘True friendship is the key.’”
“What the hell does tha—“ Gordon never finished that sentence, being interrupted by a huge splash from behind. He turned to see Pinkie Pie swimming through the water.
“GET BACK HERE BEFORE….” Gordon yelled, paling as three huge tentacles began to rise out of the water. The tentacles were a sickly green, ending in large, black triangular claws. Pinkie noticed, her eyes going the size of dinner plates. She dived, somehow appearing behind a nearby boulder. Gordon just stared as the monster slowly revealed itself.
“Oh, shit” said Barney and Shephard, almost in perfect sync. Gordon just stared, slowly pulling off the rocket launcher from his back.
“I KILLED YOU ALREADY! WHY DO I HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN! WOULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER TASTE OF ROCKET?” Gordon exploded, his rage boiling over. He fired a rocket at one of the tentacles, hitting it just where it came out of the water.
“The rest of you, run! I’ll hold this thing off!.” Gordon shouted at the ponies behind him, dodging one of the tentacles as it came to attack him. He was dismayed to see that the tentacle he hit took no damage. Gordon lent his whole attention to distracting the monster, dodging every blow it gave. He heard a small *zap* sound, followed by the lake filling with blue, arcing energy. After a few more *zap*’s, the monster reared back, writhing at the energy. Gordon spared a moment to see Shephard holding on to the blue cockroach, letting fly with bolts of electrical goo from it. Barney stood on another side, priming a grenade. The ponies stood behind them, determination on their faces. Barney threw the grenade, and a burst of purple magic surrounded the grenade, sending it directly at the monster. Gordon watched as the grenade exploded next to the thing, causing it to writhe again.
The fight continued, none of them able to permanently damage the monster, yet the monster unable to reach them. During a respite, where the monster dived under the surface again, Gordon looked over to the tired group.
“It’s been fun guys!” Gordon said, genuine platonic love filling his words. Shephard spoke up next.
“It’s been an honor serving with you.” The conversation continued like this, until the monster reappeared. Right before the inevitable attack, Twilight said her last piece.
“I’m glad we are friends.”
An audible crack was heard behind them, the doors swinging inwards. Gordon wasted no time, ushering the ponies in as Shephard shot more electricity at the monster. They rushed into the well-lit area, the doors swinging shut behind them.
“Woah, this is certainly different.” Gordon said, staring in awe.
They had entered a large entrance hall, lit torches filling the place with light. A huge staircase led downwards, the torches lighting the whole way. However, there was no pony in sight, and the place had the feel of a well-maintained tomb.
“This is not what I expected,” said Shephard, looking at Twilight. “Which way now?”
“It’s obvious isn’t it? Forward!” Twilight said, starting down the staircase. Soon, the group began to pass smaller corridors, locked doors, and other such areas. Gordon even thought he saw an air vent, and had the sudden urge to explore it. He resisted, though, and continued doggedly forward.
“You know, I have the feeling we are not alone down here,” Barney said, “and not only that, but I have had bad experiences below ground. Well, and above it, but still. This place is too creepy.”
“Well, thank you, Mr. Jinx. Now we are bound to be—“ Gordon was cut off by a huge wad of green, acidic goo hitting his chestplate. His HUD light up with the warning that Hazardous Materials had been detected. “We just had to talk about it.” Gordon muttered under his breath as he shot the offending Cthulu dog. “Alright, things are probably going to start heating up”
“Freeman, take point, Barney, watch our six. I’ll cover both positions. Ponies, stay in the middle.” Shephard said, his soldier’s instincts taking over. Gordon rolled his eyes but did what was asked. They barely traveled another few feet down the corridor before they came to a three-way fork in the tunnel. Gordon went down the middle one without bothering to think. The ponies raised their eyebrows, but followed him nonetheless.
The silence was hardly broken as the group walked through the twisting corridors. The entire place reminded Gordon of a low-tech version of Black Mesa. He even thought he could smell the smell of pizza and dust, but he knew his nose was just lying to him. After a few hours, Barney spoke up from the back.
“Hey, I can hear footsteps behind us!” Barney shouted. The humans turned around, aiming their weapons at the sounds echoing behind them. Panting was heard, and the noise was getting louder. Then, all of a sudden, a small purple mass darted around the corner, a scroll in its hand. Spike the dragon ran up to the group, clutching his sides as he brought in huge gasps of air.
“Glad.. Y-you could… wait.. .for m-me…” he said before collapsing on the ground and falling asleep. Twilight facehoofed, smacking herself in the head. The other ponies were aghast that they had forgotten Spike. Twilight turned to Gordon, worry filling her eyes.
“Can we set up camp here?” She asked, gesturing around them. Gordon thought for a second, before moving the sleeping spike to a small niche in the wall. The rest of the group moved over to them.
“That’s a good idea. We’ll need to set up two guards, so we will all share the duty this time. After two hours, wake up the next person. Rarity, Dash, you two take first watch, Then Shephard and Fluttershy, then Barney and Pinkie, then myself and Twilight. Applejack, you’ll be the reserve tonight, If anyone HAS to have a break, or can’t stay awake, we will wake you, and then that person, or pony, will take your spot. So on and so forth. Also, me, Shephard, and Barney are the first people you wake if something goes wrong, ok? Whichever of us are asleep, you wake us up. It doesn’t matter what happened.” The group nodded to Gordon, then took up positions. Twilight pulled out the princess’s letter and began to read.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I regret not responding to your letter sooner, and I hope this gets to you before you reach Mareia. I have had these aliens appearing throughout Canterlot, and have been busy getting the guard roused and on alert. Mareia is a very dangerous place, and even you and your friends should never see the horrors housed there. If this letter was too late, look at the back.
Your Mentor,
Princess Celestia”
Twilight raised her eyebrows, a scared look covering her equine face. She flipped the paper in her telekinesis, noticing a shimmering font written upon the back. Twilight waited for a second, before reading this aloud too.
“Twilight, if you are reading this, then I am sorry. These words have been enchanted so that they can only be read within Mareia. Inside that ancient mine, many horrors are housed. The ‘ancient evil’ that the legends speak of was vanquished long ago, but my sister and I began to re-circulate the legends after realizing we needed a place to store… creatures …of strange or anomalous origin. We started with artifacts from this human world, which we gathered from the building I found in the Desert. Then we tried our own forms of dimensional travel. We came up with some interesting results. We found a third world, different from both the human’s and ours. We abandoned the project after losing many ponies. Mareia has been sealed off since, only the entrances in the Vault and the Lake of Souls being left intact. If you somehow made it inside, I fear you may come face to face with some of the more, unpleasant, experiments that escaped. I cannot hide this from you any longer. I was forced to do some unpleasant things in order to keep the lands safe. I beg you, do not judge me on what you see. Times were different, Nightmare Moon had just been defeated, and more dangers had arisen from the shadows. Be careful Twilight.”
Twilight gulped, looking at the faces surrounding her. Gordon and Barney’s faces were impassive, having recently ‘escaped’ from a very similar area a few ours previously. The faces of the other ponies, however, were aghast at the news. Shephard’s expression was hidden by his mask.
“Well, that sounds eerily familiar.” Gordon broke the silence. “It be best if we got some sleep. Just, don’t react to the normal shadows. Only wake us when needed.” Saying thus, Gordon splayed out on the floor, quickly falling asleep. The other ponies followed suit, Rarity and Dash staying awake for the guard.
The night, or at least, what they thought of as night, passed quietly for the group. At one point, Dash had sworn a small pegasus statue had appeared, but she left it to a trick of the light. No other shifts saw anything unusual, and they all woke up relatively well-rested.
Twilight, the first to fully wake up, shook Spike with her magic gently. “Spike, it’s time to get up,” she crooned, still feeling guilty over leaving him. Spike woke up slowly, with many grumbles. Eventually, he woke up, and blearily stared at the ponies surrounding him. It took him a second, then he raised an accusatory claw at Twilight.
“You forgot about me Twilight!” He said, indignation filling his words. “After the house, when we were stopped at that ambush, you guys kinda just stood there. I went to find some berries or something, as you were too busy examining the aliens to pay attention to me. When I got Celestia’s answer, I ran back to you guys, but you had already left. Do you know how hard it was to dodge that thing at the gate? Especially when trying to figure out how to open it?”
The ponies let out guilty expressions of sympathy. Spike’s pity party didn’t last long though, Gordon pulling the group along. They continued down the corridors, until entering a large, circular chamber. Two equally large tunnels led off in two areas, while a window was placed halfway up one wall and a regular sized corridor led somewhere, placed next to the window at ground level. Gordon instantly had deja-vu.
“Let’s turn around and go some other way.”
“Nonsense” Twilight said, “Let’s go this way.” She led into the larger of the two tunnels leading away. Gordon’s sense of foreboding grew, constantly looking behind him to see if he was being followed. They soon reached an area surrounded by large, wooden doors. They continued down slowly. All of a sudden, a loud bashing sound was heard behind them.
“RUN!” Gordon cried, seeing the massive cracks appearing in the door behind them. The group didn’t hesitate, running as fast as they could down the corridor. Behind them, the thing that was trying to escape burst through its door, revealing a hulking mass of armored flesh. Its red eye sought out the group, and it bellowed a challenge before chasing after them.
The group turned into one of the massive doors, slamming the metal-reinforced door behind them. They began barricading the door with anything they could find. Finally, that done, they turned around to see the area they entered, only to have their hearts drop into their stomachs. It was a dead end. A resounding boom echoed throughout the room, the door shaking.
“Guys, bad news,” said Shephard, “They’ve got a cave troll.”
The clunk of a crowbar against a military-grade Kevlar helmet joined the booms filling the room.