//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Unfathomable 
// by SirShadestrider 
//------------------------------//

Have you ever wanted to know something, that nopony else knows? Some secret locked away for many years, for reasons long forgotten? 
I have. My name is Rune Shroud, and I have spent the better part of my life looking for those obscure secrets, those hidden pieces of knowledge, in hopes of a better understanding of our world. 
A broadening of my proverbial horizon, and indeed, a certain amount of enlightenment, is what I had hoped to achieve in my quest. Yet, I have not found exactly what I had expected. 
I suppose that is to say that I haven't found the type of enlightenment that I had been hoping for; for you see, I had been hoping to find a truth which would help Equestria, but instead I fear that I have found knowledge that could never help anypony. 
You are by now probably wondering how this all happened, how a pony who dedicated his life to discovering some powerful secret discovered the wrong one. Allow me to tell you how it is that my first, and last big exploit into the great unknown transpired. 


Rune Shroud woke up bleary eyed, it was one of those days that he just wanted to go back to sleep, and promptly ignore Celestia's sunrise. Groaning, he reluctantly crawled out of bed, and on to his hoofs, knowing that "the big find", as he liked to think of it as, wasn't going to find itself. After eating some oatmeal, with all the enthusiasm he could muster, which is to say not much, he donned his saddlebags, and went out to get to work. 
Having moved to a spot in the mountains near his dig-site, had been a great investment. He didn't have to go far to do more research on the spot he had spent the last few months excavating, and he also could make sure that nopony else took this discovery from him. Yesterday, he had finally done it, he had finally dug out the entire entrance. It was larger than what he had originally expected, being about thirty feet tall, by roughly twenty feet wide, but he had persevered, and he was rewarded for his efforts.
It was an odd looking door to be sure, strange carvings of abstract patterns were etched into its surface, and he couldn't help but wonder why he was getting such an unusual feeling about them. It was almost like they were supposed to mean something to him, but of course that was a rather absurd  notion to have, seeing as these carvings weren't symbols he was familiar with.
Shrugging off his mild case of apprehension, he decided to go and talk to his friend, Sharp Sight. Sharp Sight and Rune Shroud were good friends, despite their common disagreements on various subjects. Sharp Sight also wasn't remotely as interested as Rune Shroud in discovering secrets, or indeed history in general, so Rune Shroud didn't feel the need to worry over a great find getting "stolen" from him.
Sharp Sight was a rather gruff, middle-aged unicorn stallion with a slate grey coat, who while not likely to ever give someone a smile, was willing to stand by his friends, even if he didn't completely agree with their "hair-brained exploits". Rune Shroud walked over to the modest cabin of his often slightly-grumpy friend, and knocked on the door.
After a couple seconds, Sharp Sight opened the door, with the slight frown, that was such a common expression on his visage. Sharp Sight looked at Rune Shroud, the younger, dust brown colored, earth pony stallion wearing an expression of ecstatic glee, which at once filled Sharp Sight with a strange combination of happiness and annoyance. 
Happiness, because his friend was there to see him, and annoyance, because Sharp Sight could already tell that he was going to have to hear about another ridiculous voyage, and that he would have to appear as though he were interested.
"Let me guess, you're going out on an "expedition" again aren't you?" Sharp Sight questioned. Rapid nodding of affirmation being his response. "So what do you need from me?" Sharp Sight asked.
"Could you please help open these large, stone, doors I unearthed?" Rune Shroud asked. 
Sharp Sight heaved a heavy sigh, "I guess so, since there's obviously no way I'll convince you that you're wasting your time, with your little voyage." 

"Great! They're a little ways over this way!" Rune Shroud said, practically hopping in excitement, not seemingly bothered with his friend's dismissal. With another exasperated sigh from Sharp Sight, the two friends headed over in the direction of the large, stone, doors.
Upon arrival, Sharp Sight bathed the doors in a pale blue glow, and slowly opened them.

"There you go. Let me know how many different types of dust, mold, and mildew you can find down there. Some of them might even be worth something!" Sharp Sight snarked, before walking back towards his home. Rune Shroud huffed, he knew he was on to something big this time, he could feel it. He'd show Sharp Sight.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he lit his lantern, and headed down into the blackness. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Rune Shroud got that strange feeling again, the feeling that there was some kind of dark meaning hidden where he couldn't see it. This time however, it was a bit harder for him to shrug it off. 

"What am I getting so worked up over," Rune Shroud asked himself, "This is the biggest event of my life, I can't get cold hooves now!"
Going deeper in, he started seeing more and more strange carvings on the walls. As Rune studied them, he noticed that some symbols repeated, as did some patterns, though the repetition was few and far between. 

"The consistency of these glyphs surely means some sort of language, but it's like nothing I've seen in any of my books on ancient dialects. Never seen these inscribed on any of the artifacts either."
Rune decided to continue, he could probably learn a lot more by exploring further on, language wasn't the only way to learn about an ancient culture, pictographs, artifacts and burial rights could sometimes tell a researcher just as much. He could decipher the language later, it wasn't going anywhere, after all. It wasn't long before the stone halls led the adventurous stallion to a chamber. This wasn't surprising, what he found etched into the wall however, surprised him.
new carvings, and engravings that seemed to tell a story, some kind of horrid message about something that he couldn't identify.
"No hope", "Never safe again", "Never rest", "They will find you", "You can't run", "We all know them", "They can hear you breath", "They were always there. They watch us from the shadows."
Rune Shroud felt a dread like he had never known before surge through him, this place was somehow familiar to him in some way that he couldn't understand. He didn't know where the end of the ruin was, but he knew there was something there, something something that had been waiting for him all his life. 


It had been about twenty-four hours since Rune Shroud went on his "voyage", and Sharp Sight grew worried for the well-being of his friend.
"I'd better go check on him." Sharp Sight sighed. With that, he began the roughly thirty minute walk to the doors, confident that that's where his friend would still probably be.
Upon arriving at his destination, he found Rune Shroud outside the ruin, whimpering, and muttering to himself. The poor stallion wasn't even aware of his friend's presence. Sharp Sight had expected to find his friend disappointed, but not rambling to himself. Concerned, he walked over to his troubled friend, "Rune, are you okay?" Sharp Sight asked carefully. Rune Shroud noticed his friend's presence and looked up. 
"I never imagined it..." Rune Shroud started, as if Sharp Sight had never even made an inquiry, "I never thought that something like that could exist." Rune Shroud stated, his voice disturbingly bereft of emotion.
"Never thought that what could exist?" Sharp Sight asked, wondering about his friend's coherence.
"The horrors, you know which ones I mean." Rune Shroud replied.
"No I don't think that I do!" Sharp Sight said, "What are you even talking about!?" Rune Shroud let out a humorless chuckle,
"No, you do know them, you just don't remember them!" Sharp Sight was about to cut him off, but Rune Shroud continued,
"We all knew they where there at one point, but our subconscious mind blocks the memories out to protect us! when we're very young though, our minds haven't learned how to block them out. But they're still there though. They're always there."
"What, pray tell, are they?" Sharp Sight asked.
"They come in all kinds of forms." was Rune Shroud's reply, "But all of them are unimaginably horrifying to bare witness to. Something else they all have in common, is that they are like chameleons, they can, to a good extent, change color, to blend in with their environment. We're surrounded by them all the time, and most of us don't even realize it! Once you see one though, your subconscious mind starts to recognize the shapes. You start seeing them elsewhere. Very soon you start realizing that they aren't alone, there are other kinds of things out there, different horrors with different shapes. Then you see those shapes elsewhere too. No, not elsewhere, everywhere.
Sharp Sight didn't know how to take this information, regardless of whether his friend was correct, or if he was simply rambling didn't matter much. Either way there was something very wrong in those ruins, Rune Shroud was a perfectly sane stallion yesterday. Perhaps a bit eccentric, but not crazy.
"Maybe you should get some rest, Rune, Maybe you'll feel better tomorrow..." Sharp Sight suggested.
"How can it possibly get better? It's not like you can hide from them. Like I said, they're all around us. They hold very still whenever they think we might see them. Than, when the time is right, they take us. Take us back to their horrific domain. In fact, there's one on your saddlebags right now."