“Umm, Twilight? Are you sure this is safe to be in here?” Fluttershy asked nervously as her unicorn friend led the way through a crumbling corridor.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy,” Twilight assured her “I came down here a few days ago to research these ruins; they’re perfectly safe.”
“So why are we here?” Rainbow dash asked as she hovered overhead “Last time I checked, you were the expert on all this old stuff, not us.”
“Because of this.” Twilight announced as they entered a huge open chamber.
The ceiling must have been a hundred feet high, the ancient pillars supporting it were carved into the shapes of giant pegasi holding it up with their wings. Most of the floor had collapsed into a cavern deeper underground. Along the paths converging in the center, water trickled down from chutes in the ceiling and into pools along the edges that drained into the chasm below once they overflowed. At the far end of the massive chamber was a gigantic stone monolith with inscriptions on the sides, written in some forgotten language.
“Woah.” Rainbow mouthed as they made their way to the monolith. But then a thought caught her mind and she tapped her chin trying to figure it out. Coming up with nothing, she decided to ask “Hey Twi, this is cool and all, but I still don’t see why you brought us out here.”
Twilight giggled a bit. “Don’t you see the statues, or maybe the carvings on the walls? They’re all depictions of pegasi. This door over here is the same.” she pointed out a pair of giant stone double doors with a carving of a pegasus, wings outstretched to cover both sides “The inscription, which I translated myself, reads that the door is protected by a magic barrier that only a pair of pegasi can open. So what do you say?” she turned to them hopefully “Think you can help me open a door?”
“Pssh, no sweat Twilight. Come on Fluttershy, you get the left side, I’ll get the right.” Rainbow flew over to the right door as Fluttershy cautiously took her place on the left.
“Okay,” Twilight pulled out a book of her notes “now just turn those dials all the way to the left… and then move those sliding blocks to the top… now put your left hoof in… and take your left hoof out… and put your left hoof in and shake it all about…”
Rainbow dash and Fluttershy couldn’t tell if their friend was joking or not, but followed her instructions anyway, and soon the magic field around the door dissipated, the mechanism clicked, and the doors slowly swung open. Twilight was absolutely giddy as she watched. Who knew what ancient secrets had been buried away here. She could have just unearthed some long forgotten piece of Equestria’s past. She anxiously danced in place as the doors finally opened all the way.
On the other side was a tiny lone chamber with… a severed human hand?
“Eew, what is this thing?” Rainbow said as she ironically picked it up.
“I wouldn’t touch that Rainbow,” Twilight cautioned “it might be a valuable part of history, or have some ancient curse, or-
Suddenly the hand sprang to life and latched itself to Rainbow’s face.
“GAH! Get it off. Get it off!” she yelled in panic as she tried to pry it off her face, flying backwards through the chamber as she did so.
“Hold still Rainbow!” Twilight shouted back as she tried to remove the hand with her magic.
Unfortunately, Rainbow didn’t stay still, and ended up flying into Twilight as she tried to help. The hand was dislodged by the impact and sent flying onto Fluttershy’s back, where it held onto her with all its disembodied strength. Fluttershy shrieked as the decaying hand gripped onto her fur.
Rainbow was up in a flash “Get off her you!” she yelled as she tugged on the stump of the hand.
“Ow, my head.” Twilight moaned as she got up.
She was about to help her friends again, but slowed her advance when she noticed a bright light emanating from the hand. Fluttershy didn’t’ notice as her tearstained eyes were squeezed shut. Rainbow’s were also closed as she strained to remove the offending appendage.
Twilight gasped “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, get down!”
But it was too late. A flash of white light enveloped them both, and in a second they were gone, the severed hand left behind where they once stood. Twilight was silent as she picked up the hand with her magic. Coming out of shock, she stared at it intensely. “No no no no no no no no NO!” she repeated over and over as she ran out of the chamber in search for answers.
Fluttershy awoke to the sound of crickets chirping in the distance. Surrounded by the tall dark figures of trees, the moonlight shining down through the canopy of leaves overhead told her that it was definitely night time. Looking around in the dark, she found Rainbow laying unconscious in a bush a few feet away. Immediately, she rushed over, and checked to make sure she was alright.
“Rainbow, Rainbow please be okay.” she gently shook the blue pegasus and breathed a sigh of relief as Rainbow stirred.
“Ugh, five more minutes.” Rainbow groaned before her surroundings hit her “Fluttershy? Where are we?”
“I don’t know, but I really don’t like it here.” she replied, her voice quivering slightly and she listened to a shuffling in the distance.
On that queue, a monstrous howl came from deeper in to woods. Hundreds of screeches and yells sounded at once to form a noise like all the wicked souls had escaped from Tartarus.
“Yipe!” Rainbow shouted as her mane stood on end. She scooped up Fluttershy and flew as fast as she could in the opposite direction. With Rainbow’s speed, they made it a good distance from the source of the noise.
Rainbow didn’t slow down for a second, continuing to make a beeline for whichever way was out of there. But as she flew, another howl sounded off; this one was singular, but no less terrifying.
Like a bat uses echolocation to find its prey, a snarling creature in a blue hoodie pounced on them from the trees as they passed by, clawing at Rainbow’s face as she desperately tried to stay airborne with the added weight. Thinking quickly, Rainbow held Fluttershy closer to her and pressed Z or R twice to do an aileron roll as she weaved through a dense cluster of trees, sending her aggressive hitchhiker into one of them.
Although they had quite literally made it out of the woods, they weren’t out of danger yet. And this became blatantly obvious when they were lassoed mid-air by a slimy vine-like appendage.
Looking below, they saw a tall, spindly creature with a deformed face trying to pull them from the sky with…
“This is its tongue? Gross!” Rainbow shivered as she and Fluttershy tried to free themselves to no avail as the creature kept reeling them in. “Alright, if that’s how you want it, then I’m coming at you bro!”
The Smoker’s remaining eye widened as the two pegasi dived straight towards it, one screaming in anger, the other in terror. The collision sent Rainbow and Fluttershy sprawling across the ground as the Smoker was sent over the edge of a nearby cliff. It wasn’t about to give up though, as it dangled there with Rainbow Dash still ensnared in its tongue, it tried to either pull itself back up, or her down with it.
“Oh no, no no no!” Rainbow panicked as she dug her hooves into the ground to gain some traction.
“Dashie!” Fluttershy grabbed hold of her.
“Fluttershy hold on, don’t let go!”
“I’m trying.” she said as she strained against the Smoker’s pull to keep her friend from plummeting off the cliff.
But luck was on their side at last. The Smoker’s tongue broke, sending it falling to the bottom of the chasm, a cloud of spores erupting upon its death.
…
Fluttershy and Rainbow breathed heavily as they sat on the edge of the cliff.
“What were those things?” Rainbow said in both confusion and fear as she pulled the remains of the Smoker’s tongue off.
“I just want to go home.” Fluttershy whimpered.
“Hey,” Rainbow said as a thought occurred “do you think Twilight knew this would happen?”
Fluttershy gasped “Rainbow, that’s a terrible thing to say,” she scolded “Twilight would never do something like that.”
Rainbow had to admit it sounded pretty bad when she said it out loud, and pretty stupid. “Yeah, you’re right. If anything she’s running around trying to find a way to get us back right now.”
“I hope she isn’t blaming herself too much. She never takes these things well.”
“I just hope she gets us out of here soon.” Rainbow said as she touched the cuts across her forehead. Her ears perked up at a plethora of muffled howls and screams sounded far in the distance.
“We really shouldn’t stay here.” Fluttershy said as she heard it too.
With that they picked the first direction that seemed like it would lead to safety, and that kind of feeling didn’t come quickly as they marched off in the direction the of searchlights in the distance, not knowing the challenges they were about to face.