//------------------------------// // Chapter Three - Into the Darkness // Story: Origins // by websterhamster //------------------------------// Chapter Three – Into the Darkness As Midnight Shadow entered the utter darkness of the cave, he used a werelight spell to light his way. With the faint blue gleam helping him see where he was going, he followed the three-toed trail. After a few hundred yards, the dirt floor gave way to solid grey stone, leaving no visible marks to show the foal-napping monster's path. “What a fool I was! I should have been more aware, I should have protected her!” He berated himself silently for allowing this to happen. Breathing deeply and slowly, he calmed down. “I have to find her, and I can't do that if I'm distraught.” He cast his finding spell again, and following the light from his horn, he continued walking, crossing a crevasse on a stone bridge, and coming finally to a junction. Here, he had to decide whether to turn left, right, or continue straight ahead. After turning from one passage to another, he chose one randomly, hoping it was the right one. After winding his way through the tunnel for another ten minutes, Midnight crossed a small underground stream, after which the path began to go up again. He continued up the grey trail, dim shadows cast by the light of his horn making the very air seem alive with malicious demons. However, he feared them not, as the nighttime was his domain, and he was quite in his element, even in this deep underground fastness of unknown dimensions. Suddenly he ground to a halt, his hooves slipping and grasping for traction desperately. He had come to a cliff, at the bottom of which he could hear a raging, roaring underground river. This time, however, there was no bridge for him to cross; he would have to somehow ford the river or find a way around it. Casting his eyes about, he saw no way to go, either to the right or the left, as the tunnel wall ended right at the rim of the cliff, and he couldn't see far enough in the darkness to determine if there was a shore beside the water. He couldn't teleport across, as he would need to be able to visualize his destination in his mind, something impossible without being able to see the other side of the canyon. “Come on, Midnight Shadow,” he thought to himself. “You aren't going to find Forest unless you can think creatively!” Thus motivated, he again analyzed the terrain before him. All shadow and darkness, with a canyon, heavens knew how deep or wide, graced with a raging torrent at the bottom. No ways around, no obvious ways over, and once again only the heavens could tell what it would be like crossing in the water. He sighed, and sat down to think through this puzzle. He couldn't teleport, that was completely out of the question; without the ability to see his target, he could accidentally beam himself into solid rock, or perhaps even worse things (he shuddered to think of the possibilities). If only he could see more... Standing up, he pointed his horn at where he guessed the ceiling was above the ravine, and shot a glowing orb of dark blue magical light, which flew up and adhered to the roof of the cavern. Midnight then turned his attention to the darkness that still pervaded the cavern, feeling his magical essence taking control of the shadows and darkness, prying them from their places of rest, and binding them to his will. This was Midnight Shadow's special talent: manipulating the shadows of night to do his bidding, allowing him to accomplish tasks that would normally require many more ponies to complete. In this instance, however, he was not enthralling the shadows, instead merely moving them out of the way. In the absence of darkness, there must be light, so he could now see everything very clearly, although since the shadows were gone, the scene before him had a very flat, single-dimensional appearance. Midnight was now able to see something on the very edge of the cliff that he had failed to notice before, even though it had been literally right under his hooves. Several stone bricks had been placed at the brink, with strange runes engraved in them. Midnight look down at them, pressed them to see if they would give, and tried various spells to determine their purpose, all to no avail. However, he was sure this was the answer to the puzzle, so he looked down towards the foot of the cliff, seeing the river distantly rushing by, and noticed something amazingly obvious, yet simultaneously so subtle as to avoid all but the most minute of glances. Approximately three meters below the edge of the cliff was a flight of stairs, leading down and to the right, to a landing about halfway up from the water below. Before rushing ahead, he inspected the other side of the ravine. Indeed, the trail seemed to continue there, but he couldn't see any way to cross except for flying or teleporting. Another thought also crossed his mind; what if that trail wasn't the way his assistant had been taken? “Argh, another crossroads to figure out!” Midnight thought, irritated at the necessity of yet another brainstorming session. “I could flash myself across, or go down those steps, but which way will lead me to Forest?” Finally, the frustration mounting heavily, he performed a most simple spell, which caused a thin thread of light to flow from his horn in a bee-line towards Forest. The slender tendril of magic showed that he had quite a long ways to go, so he decided to move quickly. The magic pointed across the ravine, so his mind was made up for him. Concentrating, he teleported across the canyon with a flash and a loud bang. Well, if being stealthy was important, then he was in serious trouble, as the sound of his spell reverberated throughout the cave system. And so he continued to make his way towards his apprentice. His concentration was enough that he didn't notice the pair of glowing red eyes observing him from the coalescing shadows behind him. After another half hour of galloping along the path, a side-passage opened on his left. Peering through the opening, Midnight saw that stairs led up to the level he was on now. He guessed that this must be where the stairs he had seen at the ravine led to. “That path must cross under the river and lead back to here.” he thought. All in all, this would be an interesting place to explore after he had completed his quest of knowledge. Apparently, the foal-nappers had come this way, as the three-toed tracks continued past the side-passage. With a fresh trail to follow, Midnight once again began to hurry along, watching the ground for any sign of his quarry deviating from the current path. There were now many openings and side-passages leading from the trail he was following; as he walked he also (carefully) passed through several gigantic caverns with stone pillars. Eventually, he realized he was in a part of the cave system that was inhabited. The tracks he was following were still fresh, but there were many other footprints in the dust now, leading to and from various openings in the side of the tunnel. Midnight began to move more carefully now, as quietly as he could, to avoid alerting the cave-dwellers to his presence. His intention was not to wage war with these things, whatever they were, but to rescue Forest and get them both out of there. After several minutes of walking, the side-passages began to have intricate metal doors on them, made of some golden alloy that Midnight didn't recognize. Next to each door was an alcove, a stone oil-lamp (most of which were not burning, but a few were lit) and a square, in which several runes were engraved. He assumed these were dwellings, underground houses of some sort. He did not wish to disturb them. Midnight could now see well enough by the lamplight; as he had no further use of his magic, he turned his attention to the shadows, and gathered them up. With these shadows, he fashioned a cloak, which he covered himself with so he could walk unseen. He needed to get to Forest without notifying the creatures. He had gotten comfortable in his subterranean solitude, so he was taken by surprise when a door opened just as he was passing. He pressed himself close against the side of the tunnel, watching over his back as he saw one of the strange creatures for the first time. As he had already observed, the creature had three clawed toes on each of it's two feet. A long, feathery tail stretched out behind it, while at it's other extremity a dangerous-looking head with a large snout rested on a rather graceful and fluid neck. It had large, sharp teeth in it's jaws, which gave away it's carnivorous tendencies. It's small arms also had razor claws, and had those fascinating opposable digits that would allow it to pick things up easily, without magic. A dark grey in color, with brown spots of a slightly lighter shade sprinkled liberally, it was very intimidating indeed. Or at least it would have been intimidating if it had been a foot or so taller. Standing at full height, it only came to Midnight's chin. He was amazed that Forest hadn't been able to defend herself against a creature like this, as she was not significantly smaller than it, and in addition had magic at her dispense. After a little contemplation, however, Midnight decided that this one might be an adolescent, and perhaps hadn't reached its full height yet. Midnight held his breath as the strange creature loped by, small puffs of dust rising from it's... feet as they impacted the powdery trail. Stepping away from the wall, he followed the creature closely, all the while keeping as silent as possible – hopefully the biped would lead him closer to Forest. Although he tried to walk quietly, a very soft clip-clop came from his hooves, so he fell back a few paces from the giant lizard to avoid giving himself away. Finally, they came into a large, circular, hall. Torches burned in sconces along its outer wall, while on the central columns wall-braziers smoldered. The ceiling was slightly domed, and the smoke from the lights gathered there thickly, before being sucked through a series of small holes to another location, possibly to the surface. Shadows lay thick between the flickering lights. The far wall of this chamber was squared, and in the center of this area, atop a dais was a large wooden throne, upon which was seated one of the lizards, this one being slightly larger than the rest, and also a different color, if the dim lighting wasn't affecting Midnight's sight too much. This lizard, “a King,” Midnight thought, was a very dark green, with yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the firelight. On his head was a cement crown, with various crystals embedded in it. There were other lizard-folk in the room as well, which Midnight assumed must be courtiers and attendants. They were all in the attitude of mingling with each other, speaking in low voices as the figure on the throne spoke in regal tones to a smaller group that was clustered around him. To Midnight's surprise, the lizard-king seemed to be speaking Equestrian, and was perfectly understandable, if a bit guttural. The lizard Midnight had been following marched up to one of the guards who was stationed behind the throne, and quietly relieved him. Midnight, who had followed along the wall, was close enough to hear them exchange a few words. “At this hour of darkness, I relieve you of your duty here, shield-brother. Commander Shaktas has ordered you to attend to the prisoner; your skills of interrogation are greater than hers, and she wishes for your assistance,” the first lizard, the one Midnight had been following, said. “At this hour of darkness, I am relieved. I will report to Commander Shaktas immediately, Sergeant.” The second lizard, who was completely black with a grey belly and light blue stripes down his back, handed his shield and spear to the Sergeant, who took his place behind the throne. The guard quickly marched (if you could call that kind of movement marching) to the hallway, and turned left, walking away from the throne room and further into the underground city. Midnight allowed him to go several meters before following, his cloak of shadows billowing behind him as he struggled to keep up with the guard without making too much noise. However, he needn't have worried, as the lizard he followed was making enough racket to drown out Midnight's hoofsteps. Reaching a four-way crossroads, the lizard guard stopped and waited for other traffic. They had gotten to the busy part of the city, with lizard-folk bustling around on various errands. There were plenty of armed guards as well, obviously there to keep order and protect the citizenry from crime; although Midnight guessed it might be possible they had a more military purpose as well. “If only I had known a trail to an underground city was within a day's hike of my little cottage, I might have made regular journeys here to purchase supplies and speak with the inhabitants, assuming they'd be welcoming to an outsider,” Midnight thought. He was amazed by what he saw when he looked at the path going to his left at the crossroads; a few hundred meters down, he could see it opened up in an enormous cavern, filled with stone buildings of various sizes. Hundreds of the lizard-folk were there, going about the business of their night. Midnight hoped that he could resolve the situation with Forest Treasure without angering or crossing these people, as they seemed peaceful enough, and had many guards. He wasn't sure he could escape if they tried to stop him. The guard turned right, into the main flow of traffic. The tunnel had become much wider since the throne room, which was very good since there were a lot of people to avoid bumping into here. Midnight pressed himself against the side of the tunnel, ducking under the lights to avoid being seen, all the while straining his eyes to keep sight of the guard. He didn't want to lose him! A few times Midnight almost got caught, since there were so many of the lizards here that he couldn't help but brush against them occasionally, or even step on their tails once or twice. He was quite frazzled by now, and thought the sun must be close to rising, and he should have been warm and comfortable in his bed, with Forest safely nearby. But, alas! such was not to be, and he needed to persevere in his rescue.. “How could this have happened to me?” He asked himself miserably for the millionth time. “How could I have allowed this to happen?” He took the responsibility of caring for Forest very seriously, and when he made mistakes, was usually rather severe with himself. He decided that he would have to make it up to her somehow. He owed her that, as her teacher and guardian. Finally, the crowd thinned, and eventually the lizard and unicorn were alone in the tunnel. After walking for a time in said solitude, they came to a small circular area in the middle of the path, with a very large metal door in the wall. Here, the guard stopped, and taking the brass key that hung about his neck, unlocked the portal. Slowly, with a grinding of gears and other mechanisms, the door opened, showing a dimly lit stone brick passageway. This tunnel wasn't merely carved out of the rock, but was lined with basalt bricks, with torch sconces every dozen meters. From a basket on the floor near the alloy gate, the guard picked up a fresh torch, and lighting it on the lamp near the door, proceeded into the penumbral dungeon, with Midnight Shadow following silently.