//------------------------------// // The Unknown // Story: To Fill a Void // by Erebus //------------------------------// Time… What does it mean? What purpose does it hold? To the masses of beings that fill this creation…time is everything. They live by it, study it, follow it, and fear it. However…what does time mean to one it has never touched? Nothing… ---------------------------------- Deep beneath the crust of the planet, buried under miles of rock and stone…a lone being knelt, its eyes sealed shut in a dreamless slumber. To any that may have had the rare opportunity to chance upon it, its deathly stillness and grave silence would have no doubt give off the impression of an obscure statue…while its actual visage would easily frighten away most any to see it. The entirety of its body was covered in a long black robe that had withstood the test of time completely unscathed, no distinguishable body parts could be seen through the dark garment, and no face could be made out behind the darkness of the hood that covered it. The entire picture could easily come off as a monument to the reaper himself. This being was less than concerned with its morbid appearance however. The one single thing that it was currently focused on, was something that it could not immediately seem to explain. For the first time in countless millennia, awareness slowly began to fill the mind of the figure as it was slowly drawn from its ancient sleep. Over the course of the past day, it had begun to experience a strange sensation towards the back of its mind, a slight tugging that had slowly grown in intensity as the hours passed. Towards the beginning it had paid the occurrence no mind, dismissing the sensation as a mere trick of the unconscious mind. When the pulling had begun to increase and become more clear however, the being slowly came into realization of a truth it had thought unable to take place since the passing of an age. There was another sapient being present… Painstakingly slowly and deliberately the figure rose, never faltering as it came up to its full height. What seemed to be a lifetime passed by as the cloaked being stood silently, simply gazing off into the darkness of its cavern. Abruptly, an unmistakably male voice cut through the silence…an ancient and empty, yet surprisingly warm tone to it. “How is this possible?” The lone question quickly faded off into the large cave, no response ever carried back to the robed figure. The silence did nothing to unnerve him however, as he quickly continued with his one sided conversation. “I have slept in this cavern for an untold period of time since this world and its inhabitants were sentenced to their all too inevitable death. When last I laid eyes upon it, the surface was scarred and burnt beyond any recovery…so then how can any sentient being yet remain?” Once again the question went unanswered as it fell into the silence. Glancing slowly around the cavern, the being came to rest his gaze upon the ground beneath him, a quizzical look hidden under his hood. “It would seem that if I seek answers, then I will have to attain them through my own means.” Bending down on one knee, he slightly parted his cloak and reached a long slender arm to the floor. As his hand fell upon the stone, a small pooling shadow began to seep its way through his skin and into the earth below. Understanding slowly began fill his mind as he allowed his essence to scan the planet, taking in as much information as he could gather from its roots. “Hmmm…from what I can make out, I have no doubt been down in this pit for the entirety of an eon. The surrounding area still yet bears the marks of the planet as I last saw it, but the rest…feels entirely alien. That is most strange indeed.” He mused, withdrawing his hand and rising again. The entire world felt quite different to him indeed. In truth it was still stagnant as it had been during what he had assumed was its “collapse”, and yet…it was teeming with life. While their nature was yet unknown to him, he could feel each and every one of them pulsing to their own frequency. He couldn’t make sense of it at all, the energy he felt was not stemming directly from the planet itself, it was instead being provided by the inhabitants themselves. “How can it be, that the entire planet is being kept alive by its occupants…no race of sentient beings could hope to sustain both themselves and their world.” He was just about to delve further into the matter in an attempt to make sense of it, when a sudden rumble reverberated throughout the cavern, shaking the ground beneath him. Whipping his head around towards the source of the noise, he was greeted by nothing other the stone wall behind him, a small scowl formed on his face as he stared at the rock formation. “These caverns have gone undisturbed for millions of years; it’s not as if I can be expected to think that tremor was a natural occurrence. What makes it even more unlikely, would be the fact that it coincides so closely with my recent awakening…” Striding over to the wall, he once again slipped his hand out through the gap in his cloak and placed it upon the cold stone. “Heh…I suppose it would do me well to venture forth into this newly inhabited world, however…the investigation of said tremor is currently a much more easily attained goal.” Letting his eyes slip closed, he pushed his essence deep into the stone, the black shadow slowly encompassing a much larger portion of the wall. He remained perfectly still as the minerals that comprised the rock began dissolve and meld into his being, the structure absorbing into him. After a good ten feet of the wall had been blackened by his touch, he quickly removed his hand and stepped back a meter as the bedrock before him slowly crumbled away into a fine dust upon the ground. “Well, I can’t say that was the most filling meal I’ve had in quite some time…however, it’s not as if I could expect some measly pile of earth to sate me.” Looking up from the dust pile into the passage ahead, he was less than amused to find a series of tunnels laid out before him, each of them blocked by either a pile of boulders or a wall of their own. “Have I ever mentioned how much I despise mazes?” He groaned. He was just about to test his luck with the passage on his left, when suddenly a dull thump issued from the wall to his right, immediately followed by a smaller tremor. “Hmm, I suppose that’s luck of the draw if ever there was any. Judging from the sound of it however, it would probably be best to make my entrance in a rather hasty manner.” Shifting his body into a sideways position, he moved himself a few feet away from the source of the tremor and leveled his left shoulder towards the wall. Immediately a shroud of black fog burst from beneath his cloak and covered his entire body, focusing on his left side. “For my own sake, I can only hope there’s solid ground beyond that wall...anything less would be most unpleasant.” With those words, he worked himself into a headlong sprint straight towards the bedrock. ---------------------------------- Blood and darkness… Two things that immediately greeted Luna as consciousness gradually began to draw itself back into her mind. As she cracked her eyes open, she was quick to notice the entire area around her was pitch-black…not even a single form of light could be made out as she lazily looked out ahead of her. The second thing that registered with her, was the dull throbbing in her forehead. Slowly reaching a hoof up under her mane, she was quickly reprimanded with a sharp stinging sensation that made her wince. Pulling her hoof back, she could feel the texture of caked blood on her fur, along with a small fresh stream flowing down her head. Groaning from the pain, Luna attempted as best she could to pull herself up off of what she could only assume was a stone floor. After stumbling a bit in the process, she soon managed to get herself back up onto all four hooves. Gazing around her, she tried in vain to pierce the darkness before her with her eyes alone, quickly finding it to be a futile gesture. “Not the most pleasant of places we’ve woken, though we suppose we should be lucky to be in one piece…” she whispered to herself. Grumbling slightly at her sore forehead, she quickly gathered enough energy and cast a simple illumination spell, a small orb of light popping into existence at the tip of her horn. However, she immediately stumbled back onto her haunches as she felt the spell drain her of far more magical energy than it should have. Shutting her eyes and taking deep breathes, Luna took a few minutes to recuperate, to avoid passing out once more. She was caught completely off guard by the drain that had been put on her and couldn’t find any explanation as to why it had taxed her so. "Wh-what in the name of Equestria? We have never experienced such negative feedback to such a simple spell...perhaps our injury is somehow hindering our ability?" Shakily rising back to her hooves, the princess opened her eyes once more…and was greeted by a sight she had never before come across. A massive cavern splayed out before her, its walls dimly lit by the small light source. From what she could make out by the light, the stone scaled hundreds of feet upwards before ending in a domed ceiling from which clusters of stalactites hung. Ahead of her the cavern pushed outwards into a large tunnel that pressed forward into the darkness, and behind her…a small chute could barely be made out, most of it covered by a mountain of rock and stone. “By the moon…not in all our many years have we come across a natural formation such as this. It is somewhat reminiscent of the sketches that exist of changeling hives, however it lacks the telltale webbing and tunneling holes.” Glancing behind her again, she was soon reminded of the grimness of the situation. “Truly the circumstances have taken a turn for the worst. Who could possibly know how far we have fallen, it could easily be hundreds, or maybe thousands of feet?” Taking a few deep breaths, Luna began to play through the possible solutions to the predicament. “Quite obviously teleportation is beyond a viable option to us, as without a proper estimate of our depth…we could come up miles short of our target. Also, with even the simplest of spells exhausting us in such a manner, such a hefty use of mana could prove to be extremely dangerous.” The alicorn furrowed her brow in frustration as she attempted to reach her sister’s mind through their link…only to find that like her magic, it was dampened as well. Fear began to settle over her as she desperately searched through her mind, not finding any plausible solutions to her issue. She was just resolving how long it might take to lift the boulders one by one to clear her path, when a sudden sensation brushed past her cheek. Turning her head in the direction from which she had felt it, Luna stayed perfectly still, allowing it to gently push past her fur. It was a breeze… Craning her neck down the tunnel ahead of her, Luna stared intently out into the darkened pathway, trying her hardest to make out any form of natural light further down. For all the time she spent desperately hoping however, nothing but the black abyss remained before her. Forcing back a shudder, the princess reluctantly began to steel herself for the path she knew she must take. “Never before have we had any reason to fear the dark, not once in our entire lifetime.” She stated. “No matter how unnatural this darkness may be, we must face it as best we can…no regret…no fear.” As reluctant as she was, Luna soon began to trudge forward into the tunnel, her hooves echoing solemnly against the cold floor. The darkness began to close in around her, almost with a mind of its own as she made her way down the path, seemingly pushing against the small bubble of light she was surrounded by. The princess continued to press onward however, never breaking her stride as she went further in. As she slowly made her way down the stone corridor, she could not help but notice a certain oddity about the terrain. The walls and roof the tunnel were rough and jagged, easily denoting them as natural. Yet, the floor of the tunnel was absolutely different, as it was almost completely flat and smooth. The princess raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Natural formations are never built in such a manner, so then what could have done something such as this?” She had been walking the passage for a good fifteen minutes now, contemplating how long the tunnels had stood, when Luna slowly began to notice a rotting stench permeating the air around her. It had started subtly and was almost barely noticeable; however by the time she had gone another thirty feet, it was completely overwhelming. Stopping to shield her nose with her hoof, she gagged a few times as she attempted to force the rotten air from her lungs. “What in the name of Equestria is that horrible stench?!” She choked out. That question was answered all too soon though, as she raised her head to continue down the path…and spotted the cause. “Oh Dear Celestia…” Corpses…at least ten of them, strewn about the tunnel’s floor. Luna’s gag-reflex kicked in once again, as tried her hardest not to lose her lunch. The stench coming off the bodies, coupled with their ghastly appearance was enough to make even Discord retch. Vigorously pumping her wings to clear the air around her and taking in a good measure of it, Luna stared wide-eyed at the bodies below her. The corpses had obviously been down here for a good measure of time, the skin having been completely stripped from their bones and what little clothing they had in complete tatters. The anatomy of the skeletons was unlike anything the alicorn had seen before. Glancing at one that was splayed out completely, she could tell that most of them were easily over five feet in height, with what she could only assume was a bipedal stature. They had no tails to speak of, their hind legs ended in oddly flattened elongated paws, and their forelegs ended in what Luna could only relate to as a Minotaur’s hands. The skulls of the creatures were by far the most grotesque, each having a flattened muzzle that allowed full view of a decayed smile with a few canines jutting out, the small empty eye sockets seeming to bore holes into her very being. As Luna gazed down at the corpses, she could only begin to imagine what kind of creatures these could have been before their deaths. She could only guess from the clothing they wore that they were most likely sentient beings, but everything else about them seemed so foreign and alien. After a few moments though, she decided to continue along the path, not only to escape the horrid smell but also to leave the fallen in peace. She had just begun to continue down the tunnel, taking great care not to step on any of the bodies, when a strange noise stopped her dead. Raising her ears, she remained perfectly still as the sound slowly became easier to make out…it was a slow rhythmic creaking. Almost immediately Luna’s fight-or-flight instinct kicked up to its highest level. Tensing her entire body, she slowly and deliberately began to turn her head backwards, her only hope being that she would see nothing besides the dead. As her gaze came to rest behind her, she let out a sigh of relief at the pile of skeletons still unmoving and silent. “Oh…thank the stars above.” The princess sighed and turned back to continue towards the source of the breeze. Only to be met by a gleaming skull staring intently four feet away… A horrified gasp escaped the princess’s mouth as the gaunt creature reached out a bony arm while it began to lurch forward, its jaw slightly unhinged and hanging down at a sickening angle. Quickly backpedaling to put distance between the corpse and herself, she immediately dropped into a defensive stance, her horn lowered threateningly. “Thou shall come no closer foul creature. Know that thou stands before Princess Luna of Equestria, and no being, living…or dead shall bring harm upon us!” Luna stated as venomously as she could. The only response was a terrifying bestial shriek that issued forth from the skull, followed by a wild swing at the alicorn’s face. Jumping back to avoid the strike, Luna quietly calmed her fear as she thought of a way to deal with the nightmare before her. “The drain put upon our magical reserves is far too much of a hindrance at the moment…even a single failed spell could allow this monster to have its way with us. The only viable option currently is to use our flight and superior reach to overpower it.” Hastily dodging another hit thrown at her, Luna pressed her wings as hard as she could and shot forward, slamming into the corpse’s ribcage before doubling back to her original position. Staggering back a few good meters and falling over itself, the creature soon shambled back to its feet, a low distorted growl sliding through its broken jaw. A deep hatred settled in what was left of its broken shell as it stared emptily at the winged creature before it. Letting loose a vengeful shriek, it charged forward with arms outstretched, hoping only to tear the thing to shreds. Luna stared intently at the raged filled corpse that charged towards her, her back now turned and her forelegs planted firmly beneath her on the ground. Just as the creature came within three feet of her, she pulled back her hind legs as close to herself as she could, and let loose a buck to its skull that would make even Applejack’s jaw drop. The crunching of bone tore through the silence as the face of the corpse exploded inwards, the force sending it flying back into the cavern wall with an audible thump. The alicorn didn’t even have time to catch her breath before a torrent of loose stone dislodged from the ceiling and buried the skeleton underneath, the ground shaking from the impact of the cave-in. Looking up from the settling dust, the princess could see no trace whatsoever of the reanimated corpse within the rubble. “Let us hope that we never have to go through an experience like that one ever again.” She whispered. Giving a small sigh of relief that she had gotten through the whole ordeal unscathed, she was about to sit back for a moment to catch her breath before moving on…when her legs were grabbed by two bony claws. Letting loose a terrified shriek at the touch and immediately stumbling forwards, Luna quickly broke free of the creature’s grasp, a bloody gash torn on her right hind leg. Falling to the ground with a cry of pain, Luna whipped her head up to the spot where she had been attacked. A fresh wave of fear and nausea settled over her as she gazed at the sight before her, as the entire band of corpses were rising up from their prone positions to look down upon her. Her mind screamed at her to run as quickly as she could, however a fiery pain lanced through her body as she attempted to rise and flee from the band of undead nightmares, her wound tearing open all the more. Her eyes slowly shrank to the size of marbles as the grotesque horde closed in on her, the one in lead reaching out its arms toward her. When suddenly…the cavern wall behind them exploded outwards. A dense black fog began to slowly pool out from the hole and fill the area behind the corpses, obscuring everything from view. The head skeleton turned back to gaze at the strange occurrence, its head slightly cocked to the side. Suddenly and without warning, it was swiftly pulled into the fog by some unknown force, the body quickly disappearing from view. The immediate sound of breaking bone could be heard from within, followed by a sickening snap. Not but two seconds later, the now mutilated corpse came flying out the fog and landed at the feet of the others, it’s detached skull following closely behind. One of the group looked down upon its now fallen brethren, and proceeded to charge wildly at the wall of vapor, only to be stopped short by something unseen and promptly shattered violently against the adjacent wall. By this point the other corpses had begun to realize that the black mass was more than capable of destroying them one by one, and had slowly started to coalesce into a crude formation that cautiously began to shamble towards the newfound enemy. Luna stared on in grim fascination as a dark blur sped its way past the cloud and proceeded to clothesline two of the closest undead. The other five had little time to comprehend what was happening before the two skulls went flying off the necks of their allies, nor did they manage to see the dark robed figure come up directly behind them, sweeping the legs out from two more and simultaneously crushing both their faces. When the remaining three finally managed to spot their attacker, they all immediately charged him, hoping to drag him down with their sheer dead weight. They all however, passed harmlessly through his body, two continuing onward into the cavern wall. The third was quickly grabbed by a hand at the back of its spine, and shortly pulled backwards into a fist that went straight through the base of its skull and out the other side. The final two corpses soon recovered from their session with the wall and hastily spun around…only to be greeted by the flying bones of their ally. One of the two went stumbling back from the force of the limp body, falling over itself and letting out shrieks of rage. The other however, was lucky enough to be able to dodge the shower of bones, and leapt forward onto the unknown assailant. A surprised grunt issued from the dark figure as it attempted to fling the corpse off itself. The undead however, wasn't about to have any of that, and deftly swung itself onto the figure's back, clawing and scrabbling with as much energy as it could muster. While doing so however, the corpse failed to notice its attacker quickly backpedaling towards the wall behind them... earning only a glance before it was shattered against the cold stone. Rising from the floor, the final corpse was given a clear line of sight as its foe stood on the bones of its brethren, a mocking silence issuing forth from the recesses of the hood. With complete abandon, the skeleton sprinted forward with an almost unnatural speed. As it closed its grasp around its enemy however, it found nothing to grab. A low huff came from behind the skeleton’s back as a swift kick to its spine sent it flying against the wall once more. Before it had time to recover, an invisible force slowly dragged it back into the waiting grasp of its enemy. Gazing down into the darkness of its enemy’s face, a single feeling wormed its way into what little consciousness the creature had left. All the hatred that had recently flowed out was slowly replaced by something it had not felt in centuries…fear. A bone-chilling scream of terror broke the silence as the corpse tried desperately to attempt to free itself, clawing wildly at the arm of its assailant. The swift response to this was an even tighter grip against its neck, followed by three solemn words that rang out. “Be at peace…” A suffocating presence immediately engulfed the entirety of the corpse, cutting short its shrieks of fear as its bones turned a deep black, and quickly started to dissolve into the air. The space where the skeleton was held soon became coated in a dark vapor, not all dissimilar from the wall behind them. As the black cloud was gradually sucked into the hand of the tall entity, silence began to descend upon the cavern one more. The air lay tense and still, as a full minute of dead silence passed by… Luna lay back in the same position she had been when she fell. Her mouth slightly hung open, quick shallow breaths issuing from it. She had been in a slight state of shock for the past eight minutes now, from her near-death experience…to the display of violence she had just witnessed. She was so caught up in her mind, trying to comprehend exactly what had transpired, that she had completely forgotten about the dark figure that had happened to save her…until he was standing little more than a meter away. Gazing up at the being in front of her, Luna began to hyperventilate as fresh memories of the recent violence resurfaced. Her eyes darted between the carnage laid out before her, and the single entity that had caused it. Luna’s vision swam as she noticed a small step had been taken towards her. The strain on her mind increased twofold while every sense in her body screamed at her to flee as fast as she could, despite her now useless leg. In a struggle to block out everything that she could, Luna squeezed her eyes shut, simply wishing for the whole experience to end. A soft voice echoed out into the silence, serving to cast the princess out of her grim musings. Her ears perked up quizzically at the source of the noise. “Excuse me young one…are you alright?”