//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: The Nightmare // by Cirrus Sky //------------------------------// There was no ladder or steps below the lip of the trap door. The shower of sand Twilight had pushed over the edge when kneeling told as much. “Dash, can you fly Pinkie down there? I can levitate myself and Shining can take himself down, but I don’t think I can support two over an unknown distance.” Twilight dipped her hand deeper, trying to catch a sign of the floor. “Sure, she’s not too heavy.” Rainbow stood back to let the mages enter the hole. Shining held his sister back to take the lead down. “I’ll be able to cast the strongest shield if something goes wrong.” He said to prevent her complaints. Twilight wanted to argue but it was the better idea. He lowered himself to the ground and dangled his legs over the edge. “Off I go...” With the slightest spell cast, he slid into the hole and slowly lowered out of sight. Too excited, Twilight grabbed up the torch and jumped into the hole, or seemed too. Her levitation spell halted her at the floor level and she began to sink down. Rainbow’s method was a little different. Using the natural hovering ability of the sky-born, she left the ground and grabbed Pinkie around the shoulders, lifting her under her arms. “Ready to go Pinkie?” “Come on! They’re down already!” She said; eager to take a look. Rainbow chuckled and flew them down to join the others. -*- The trench was nearing a meter deep, the rubble and sand that they had excavated was piled up a little way away. Rarity wanted to look at the larger chunks at least. Jack was scraping up the most sand and throwing it out of the hole. Rarity used her magic to take more and to sweep the deposits back. She also had a low level spell keeping the earth and sand sides shored up. “We’re nearly there.” Jack grunted, pushing the shovel down and hearing a dull thump. “Excellent! I’ll spell it away now.” With a little extra concentration and effort, the archaeologist probed the soil with magic, reaching what was not the same across a flat plane and lifting the covering dirt. In one quick movement, she gestured the detritus away in blocks. “Well, that’s something for sure.” Jack whistled. “What a find....” Rarity gasped, more careful levitation magic surrounded the ornate chest. Her analysis said the entire thing was a block of solid milky white quartz. Decorative sigils of the moon and stars on one half, the sun and weather across the other. It rose from the ground and the trench, Jack clambered up after it. When Rarity had settled it on the ground she made to climb out, a work worn hand helping her up. “Time to see what we found then.” Jack said, holding the rifle again. Rarity nodded. “Moment of truth darling.” Her spellwork unsealed the chestand lifted the lid. -*- The flickering torch and light spells illuminated the buried room. It was more of a chamber. Twilight’s theory had been correct, they had entered a guard room and were now stood at the termination point of a passage. A dark and dank passage from the seems of things. “This is amazing!” Twilight nearly squealed with joy. “It’s a dark room underground.” Rainbow said, examining the walls for rich murals or mosaics, kicking at the ground for any buried gold or valuables. “Yeah, but that leads to something! What are we waiting for?!” Pinkie snatched up the torch and pelted along the corridor. “We should, um, follow I think.” Shining said, tugging at his collar before stepping after her. “Ok, that woman is insane.” Twilight took a last glance about before moving to catch up. Rainbow kicked some more sand but decided against being left alone. She followed the sound of voices. “So, if I am right, we should get some sort of evidence...” Twilight trailed off. They had followed the passage from the guard room. Some quick mental calculations told her she was probably under the main structure by now. Ahead of her stood inarguable evidence that they had reached the flare prison. “Good Grief, Twily... you’ve done it.” Shining looked in awe. It was a statue of the daiarchs. The Princess of the Moon and her elder sister, the Princess of the Sun. One was a little taller than the other, their crowns were depicted as a little different also. The lance of the Night Princess was damaged though, by age or battle. It was the statue of the Sun Princess that was proof though. Both stood on plinths with their regal sigils carved upon them. However the golden, giving sun was marked over by brutal and crude lines. Two circles, rough hewn over the reaches of the symbolic rays and the round sun, intersected by jagged pointed lines. The blazes of Nightmare Flare. There had been many temples and houses dedicated to the ruling sisters, one thousand years ago. They had long since fallen to ruin with no one to look after them when one princess sealed herself away and the other withdrew. Only the Flare Prison had been altered, mad men drawn by whispering power and crooning summons from their Queen. They had desecrated the signs of the woman who had been before the darkness, hoping to break her power or damage her spirit. While the lesser locations had suffered at their hands, the authorities had taken them down and buried them. None dared or were allowed close to this Prison. They were the first to stand there in decades, centuries. The basking in awe was somewhat disturbed by Corporal Pinkie belting past them from whatever corner she had gone to investigate screaming about “Baaad Ju-ju. Real bad ju-ju.” Her hair was flat but flying about and waving at odds to her movements -*- The lid came off the chest with a little application of Jack’s strength. Both women were left speechless by the sight within. Coins, medallions and bars of gold and silver, marked with the sun or moon. There were hundreds of them. Nestled among them were three scroll tubes. Ivory with gold, the scroll of the sun. Ebony with silver, the scroll of the moon. There was one other, an extra that was not known to the archaeologist or her partner. All the precious metals and invaluable documents they could identify were far too exciting. It was a mottled brown scroll tube tied with an odd almost silken string in a complex pattern and stopped each end with steel caps inlaid with jet and red jasper. “We made a find Jack.” Rarity managed to whisper. “Ah think we surely have.” Jack replied as quietly. Neither wanted to alert the less than trustworthy men in their employ. There was too much gold to do that. Rarity scooped out the scrolls, all three of them, and sealed the lid in place again. “Not a word until we are back in Fort Mage.” She whispered. Jack nodded agreement. With a little magic and strength, the chest was dropped by Rarity’s research desk. The three closed scroll tubes on the workspace. They were too busy concealing the valuable chest to notice the brown tube fall to the ground behind the desk and roll out from the boundary of the tent fabric. In fact, no one noticed for quite a while and when they did it was not part of their group. -*- The Guarding Ones and their princess were riding through the desert to the location of their most sacred task. It was with concern and some shock that they saw their princess falter, only by the fact that Penumbra was well trained was she not pitched from her mount. A’triet and Mēi went to her swiftly. “My lady, are you alright?” The healer asked in her soft sweet voice. “They have found the chest…” Luna whispered urgently, someone has unsealed it!” The sensation of the magic she had long ago laid being undone had sent her reeling. Putting her back to a time of panic, weakness and roiling acrid smoke… -*- The pale skinned princess of the night limped through the ruins of Asa Nemänah Kâx, the former grand palace she shared with her sister. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes as she thought of her elder sibling, trapped now and sealed away for as long as the sun would live. She made her way through smashed doors, useless. Their greatest defence was also useless now, she had destroyed the bond and her sister had finished it by her selfless actions. The younger princess could only pray that no great threat would come. Making her way past wrecked tapestry and smashed furnishings she tried her best to keep moving. Oily smoke from myriad unnatural and natural fires filled the air, thick and cloying. Luna coughed, she ignored the spots of blood that speckled her arm, she was immortal and had pulled through worse. With one eye closed, sealed by blood running from a gash on her forehead, she stumbled her way through the ruins of her old home. The bodies of soldiers in the livery of night and day lay tumbled where they had been thrown after death or twisted as they fell in battle. Luna paused to get a handle on her stomach; she had already emptied it of everything some hours before. Through another doorway she bit back a lance of pain with a hiss. Her foot had impacted with her spear, thought lost hours before. Holding back a grateful sob, she lifted the weapon from the ground, using it as support to drag her injured body out of the dying palace. Her spear had been in the entrance to the grand temple, where in better times the populace had come to speak with the sisters, for boons and blessings or advice and succour. The centrepiece, a chest of precious coins and the scrolls the sister’s held during court. As she picked her way through rubble, Luna felt her injured leg send something skittering across the floor. A scroll bound in arcane hide and sealed with silken hair. Growling in rage she used her magic to pitch the filthy object into the chest, the only sealable container she could find, and magic the box closed. With a final push, her glowing eye belying it as magic from the moon itself, she drove the chest down through the alter and deep into the ground. Sweeping and compacting rubble and earth over it, in hope that it would never be found. Weaker still now, Luna made her way to the gateway of the temple; she had to escape the airless smoke filled buildings and reach the open sky. Bodily she opened the door a crack and slipped through. Only to stumble and fall painfully down the steps. Her tumble was halted by a strong caring arm. A tall figure lifted Luna and held her up. Looking up before the blackness claimed her, Luna saw a familiar dark haired person. “Sorani…” she breathed before pitching forward, headfirst into unconsciousness. -*- In the present, Luna slipped, “Sorani…” whispered under her breath. A’triet and Mēi caught her before any of the others could see. “Princess, are you alright?” Daringly, the healer wrapped an arm about her shoulders, surprisingly small despite their strength. “I am fine Mēi-Ombao. Just, lost in memory.” Luna smiled weakly, despite the centuries passed her loyal friends remained. The healer did not know just how much she resembled the matriarch of her line, Sorani of the Lunar Echelon. “Come; let us make haste before some misguided fool unseals something dangerous.” She sat up straight on her horse, noticing that the pair had kept them moving despite their princess’s being indisposed. Once more grateful for them, she nodded to each and urged her mount faster. -*- Pinkie had ceased hurtling about and was now sat twitching in place, her hair was still flat and her pupils were virtually pinpricks, but she had at was at least mostly still. “Bad things... really bad things are down here... All around us.” She whispered in a voice that was all the more disconcerting because of what she was saying. Shining had taken a revolver offered by Rainbow, who was holding her shotgun up and ready. Twilight was trying her best to illuminate the whole area, with little success. “We should get out from underground.” Rainbow said, “She was ok on the surface and even at the start of the tunnel.” “Can we get her to walk through the passage again?” Shining asked, still scanning the room for immediate trouble. “I don’t feel happy with all the turns in that tunnel.” “We could find another way out.” Twilight offered. “The whole complex would be linked and all the buildings have a way into it, ergo an exit.” She expanded her light spell another few inches. “A building like this would have a grand gateway somewhere too.” “Ok, how do we find it?” Shining swapped seeking danger to assessing an exit. “Fresh air...” Rainbow said, her sky-born abilities allowing her to sense the airflow. She pointed to a darker side, “There is a breeze from over there.” She stuck the shotgun under her arm and hoisted Pinkie to her feet. “Come on Pinkie.” “The Monster is chained, waiting to escape. Someone has the key and once turned only Harmony... Only Harmony will close the lock.” Pinkie muttered, swaying on her feet. “Let’s get her out of here.” Twilight held a hand to the taller woman’s forehead. “She’s feverish, I want to get her to some water and a bed.” Taking the other side of the Corporal, Twilight followed Rainbow’s lead. The sky-woman traced the breeze deeper into the structure, glad that the building wasn’t getting narrower. Shining took to the rear, still poised with a revolver. He didn’t know how well it would hold out against what they could face, but it made him feel better anyway. Eventually they reached a wide passage, Moonlight reached them. “Fresh air and open sky. Come on Twilight, let’s get to the camp.” Rainbow took the weight of Pinkie who was now near catatonic and left the building. Twilight paused to take a look at the building they had left. It wasn’t the temple, it wasn’t a house. It looked a little more like a fort or gaol. They were two hundred yards or so from the tower they had entered via. “Fascinating,” she muttered. “Come on Twily, let’s get to camp. It’s getting late.” Shining shoved the gun into his belt and led his sister to the camp. The darkness had fallen in earnest now and the moon was high and milk white. Rainbow had settled Pinkie into her tent. Her mumbling was still audible. “Honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity and loyalty... The sixth is a mystery we have to solve, to seal Her away again...” “This place is really affecting her isn’t it?” Twilight said, worried. She moved to the Corporal’s bags, “Maybe there is some medication she’s on?” She opened the large sack, only to find a bottle of brandy. “Or, she self medicates?” “Ooh, don’t mind if I do.” Shining grabbed at the bottle to take a look.