//------------------------------//
// Chapter 96 
// Story: The Darkness in our Souls 
// by Black Light 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 96

The Temple was a fair distance away. It took us around three days to even get in the general vicinity of it. Daring hadn't marked down the exact point, so it took another day and a half before we actually found the temple.

I was currently walking around the exterior of the ruin. 'Does this seem familiar at all?'

'Nothing is coming to mind right now. Could be an ancient group that worshiped me. Maybe the original Shadow Servers?' The darkness suggested.

'I certainly hope not. I've had enough of them.' I responded.

It's hard to say. The memories from earlier incarnations are hazy at best, especially when we get in to the first few, and the very first. I hardly have anything from that one.'

'Maybe it doesn't even have anything to do with you or your previous incarnations.'

'I highly doubt it. I can't think of anything else those marking could represent.'

I sighed. "Find anything?!" I called out behind me.

"Nothing of interest!" Daring answered. "When you're finished meet Skies and Me at the front, Okay?"

"Got it!" I responded continuing my walk along the side. The ruin's surroundings were crumbling to dust, but the main body of it looked intact. I sighed and turned around heading back to the entrance.

"Anything?" Daring asked as I landed next to Skies.

I shook my head. "I can't find anything, and the darkness doesn't have any memories of this place."

Daring sighed. "Well there's got to be someway into it. We found the front door even, but there's no way to open it." She said looking over at the large sealed doorway. We had tried different ways to open the door, but nothing worked on it. Brute force, looked for hidden switches, I used any and every type of magic I knew...Actually, I didn't use every type.

I looked up to the door. "Hold on, I have something I want to try." I started walking towards the door.

'Might need some help with this.'

'How so?'

'It's difficult for me to access dark magic on my own.' I told him.

I felt the darkness move around in my mind. Then slowly I felt my insides become slightly colder as my magic became linked with the darkness. I began to push the magic through my horn. I felt my horn's aura materialize and I noticed a slight black aura forming around my eyes. I projected my magic to the door and it was engulfed in an aura of dark magic.

Then, they moved.

The doors began to open slowly, a loud grinding sound accompanying them. When they were around halfway open I cut my magic. I felt my magic return to normal. I looked over to Daring.

"Haven't seen that trick before." She said looking at me with some surprise.

"Dark magic, I've only known a few others who have been able to use it. Only ponies who have an amazing amount of magic...and those who've been a bearer of the darkness." I told her.

"So somepony who was possessed by the darkness made this?" Daring asked.

"I don't know. Whoever built it could use dark magic, but I don't know if it was a darkness or not. There's still no memories surfacing."

"Well we got it open, let's see what's inside." Daring said as she took a torch from her bag and lit it. The three of us walked into the ruins. 

The entrance was pretty straight forward. We just had a stairwell that was going deep underground. Daring went and lit a torch that was hanging on the wall. Suddenly rows upon rows of torches lit in the hallway stretching down farther than we could see.

"...Well, that's ominous." I said.

"Getting scared Shadow?" Daring asked with a small chuckle.

"You do realize who you're asking that to right?" I responded.

She just rolled her eyes and continued down the stairs extinguishing her torch.

The stairway had no end in sight it just seemed to keep going. After five minutes of straight walking we came to a stop. The end was still nowhere to be seen.

"Are we sure this isn't an enchanted stairway to go on forever?" Daring asked me.

I used my magic and sent out a small pulse that enveloped the part of the stairway we were in. "No magic whatsoever, It's just really long." I told her. She sighed and we began our descent again.

'Are you sure Sombra didn't make this?' I asked the darkness.

'I know you're asking me that as a joke, but I'm still going to answer. Yes, I'm sure. Now just be quiet and keep walking.'

'Somepony's in a bad mood.'

'You don't say.' The darkness responded. I'm very annoyed by this place. It seems like it was built for or by a darkness, but I don't have any memories of it all. I mean I should have something, shouldn't I?'

'Who knows? Maybe it really is not related after all?' I told him.

"There I think I see the bottom." Daring said. And indeed she was right. Skies and Daring were the first to step onto the flat floor with me following behind.

As soon as I set one hoof down off of the stairs my body froze. My head whipped up and stared into the darkness of the ruins. My entire body felt like it was being overwhelmed.

"Shadow? What is it?" Daring asked with some concern when she noticed that I was frozen.

"There's some powerful magic down here. It's stronger than anything I've felt before. It must be warded if I only just now was able to sense it." I shook my head in disbelief. "For somepony to have this strong of an aura, and the power it must've taken to conceal it. I think we're dealing with something on a completely different level than anything we've dealt with before." I told them.

"Even stronger than the princesses?" Skies asked me.

I nodded.

"Okay, I know it's not the best time to ask this, but how do you know how strong the princesses' are?" Daring asked.

"They're kind of two of the ponies who know about my power and I've befriended." I told her.

At this point Daring was the one who was frozen in surprise. "You're friends with the princesses?"

I smiled. "Sorry, but I guess you're not the most famous pony I'm friends with." I told her.

"I'd like to think that's debatable." She responded with a smirk.

I looked back into the darkness of the ruin. Daring took out her torch again. "Any idea how deep the magic power is coming from?" She asked.

"Considering it's strength, I can't imaging it's too much further away...I sure hope it isn't." I answered.

We walked down the hallway the torch lighting our way. Then we came to two different paths.

"Which way do we go?" Skies asked.

Daring and I compared the two paths. There was no real difference between them.

"I'm not sure, I think that-" I was cut off as a ball of pure magic energy flew past my head. It glowed brightly as it hovered a moment at the fork and then flew down the left path. "...What was that?!" I asked in surprise.

"What was what?" Daring asked.

I looked at her with complete confusion. "How did you not see it?"

"Brother, what are you talking about?" Skies asked.

I looked between the two of them. "...You really didn't see anything?"

"No." Daring answered.

"How? It was...and it-but I-" I stopped myself and took a few deep breaths.

'Please tell me you at least saw it.'

'Yeah...I did, and I have absolutely no idea what it was.'

'That's comforting.'

I looked at the left hallway. "I'm following it." I said.

"You can't be serious." Daring told me. "It could be a trick."

"I'm pretty sure if it was a trick they would go for something a little subtler." I told her. "Whatever's in here, I don't think it's bad, just powerful." I began walking after the magic ball and took the left path. Daring and Skies followed reluctantly behind me. The ball of magic continued to lead me through a maze of twists and turns always staying out of reach, but keeping in sight.

"Now I think this maze is definitely magical." Daring said behind me.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"We just took five right turns and we most certainly haven't been through here before." She told me.

"So either the ball is leading me to the exit, or-"

"Or it's leading us so deep that it is impossible to find our way back out." Daring finished for me.

"That's comforting."

I continued to run after the ball until we came to a turn. When I followed the ball around the turn I slid to a halt as I found a massive doorway. The magic ball flew through the doorway and waited a moment on the other side before fizzling out into nothing. Daring came to a stop next to me.

"Well...it's certainly better than being lost in a maze." She said.

The three of us began walking towards the doorway. I stepped through first, and then I heard a loud crash from behind me. I spun around and saw Daring and Skies banging their hooves on an invisible magic wall. Suddenly the two large doors next to me slammed shut. Blocking my view of them. I ran over and tried to pry the doors open, but to no avail.

Then I heard something behind me.

"Hello, Young one."