The stones continued to morph themselves into the doorway were the eyes of every anthrony peeled upon it. The last thing they wanted, the last thing they needed, was to be left out of the fun once more. Slowly did the morphing stone came to a standstill within their eyes. The doorway was formed, the last leg of their very journey was about to begin. They could almost taste the victory that was within their reach.
There only was one last thing that they had to conquer, and that thing was the mountain itself. Nopony thought about the things that they would be seeing further down there, they just didn’t care about them. They didn’t mind whether or not there would have been some kind of subterranean kind of beings living there. All they cared about, especially within the moment, was that they would be getting through that doorway.
“On the count of three!” Twilight yelled to them. Each of them were more than ready to make their way through.
“Three!” Rainbow Dash shouted before the soothsayer could have said any other number. But upon the calling of that number, all of the mares just rushed themselves towards the doorway. All of the fears for the unknown were left behind them. All they wanted was to get off of the summit and right into the hole with light.
Their shadows danced in the light that was cast into the tunnel as they rushed past the stone entrance way. Their shadows then travelled even further down into the place until they were all out of light. The light that was cast within the tunnel only reached so far before the absolute darkness would be taking over again.
Even the mares would have reached that very point eventually. Whether they would have liked it or not, the lot of them came to a standstill just after the sunlight had stopped casting. All of them were already panting as they never had expected to give that much force before lunch. They had asked the absolute of their bodies by taking the gamble of running in the way they did.
Twilight gasped a little bit for air while her eyes shifted between the light and darker side of the tunnel. It almost had something strangely poetic in her eyes. That they would be leaving the light to wander in the realm of darkness, or something along those lines at least.
“So, what’s the plan now, Twi?” the admiral asked while she leaned against the wall. She was dead curious on the facts as they were and how the unicorn would have been reacting to them. But the light of the sun was constantly inching away from them.
The higher the sun would have been rising, the less light would have entered the tunnel. Yet it was a slow process, one that could be taking just a couple of minutes to finally be fulfilled. Which in return gave the mares plenty of time to think about their next strategy. “I say, we make our own light and follow the path to wherever it is taking us,” said Twilight before she allowed her horn to be coated within the raspberry aura. The mare had called again upon her magic to form some light.
“Rarity, you take the rear guard and charge up your own horn, I shall take the front and pray for the best,” the soothsayer added. The pirate captain herself wanted to argue against the deal being made before her eyes, but then she realized the little fact that she was the other unicorn in the entire group.
“Understood,” the pirate then simply said before her own horn charged up. The sapphire blue aura that was being created then mixed with the other and it created an oddly harmonious mixture of light. The group then formed one massive line in between Twilight and Rarity, for they were ready to tackle whatever else would be thrown at them.
It was only a second or two later that the other unicorn of the company perhaps made a rather shocking realization. “Say, Twilight… You don’t happen to be knowing whatever will be happening when the sunlight has completely faded? Outside of the entrance being hidden again,” said Rarity to the soothsayer in a worried tone. In her ears she heard the stones already shifting back to their original position behind her.
“Actually, I don’t know that little fact,” the soothsayer said just before her eyes went wide and her skin turned pale. She had also heard the stones shifting back and what followed was both a deep gulp from her throat as well as a gruesome realization. “Girls, run. Run as fast as your legs can carry you!” she shouted before the legs were kicked into their highest gear.
Straight away did the remaining mares look at each other before they were pushed into running by Rarity. The last thing that the pirate wanted then was to be crushed by shifting stone. Twilight knew of course that the rocks had to shift back for a long way as she didn’t hear the echo of the hollow space behind them. The only question remained: how far would the rocks be pulled back?
It wasn’t a risk they were willing to find out at all. So they ran and they ran through the tunnel as fast as they could. Seconds seemed to have molten into minutes as the tunnel seemed to have been never ending.
All the while that crushing and crunching sound of the rocks pieced its way right into their very ears. Terrifying it was to say the least, but at least it acted as some sort of massive wake up call for the lot of them.
~~~~
What seemed to have been minutes for them, had in fact only been mere seconds. They had finally reached the end of the tunnel when the sounds of the shifting stone had stopped. The silence that took over as the trembling hooves silenced themselves was one that could be classified as eerie. The entire tunnel was silent, not even their own breathing or the sounds of the charged horns could be actually picked out.
But then it followed were the sound of them all trying to catch their breath again. They were exhausted from the second run of the day. Yet in the back of their heads they all knew it wouldn’t have been the last time that they would have kicked their legs in such a high gear.
Twilight turned herself around and walked past the rest of the mares with a worried expression upon her face. She then placed a hand upon the shoulder of Rarity who she then gestured to follow her. The pirate could only do what was being asked of her and with their horns fully lit, the mixed light became both wonderful and eerie at the same time.
“How far do you think we have ran and how far the stone has retracted? I did some tests the other day to kinda determine how far it would have gone, but I didn’t have anything to go with,” confessed Twilight before Rarity stroked her chin afterwards.
She then nodded with calm towards the soothsayer before her eyes looked into the far distance. “It’s difficult to tell actually, but I would almost dare to say that we have ran over a hundred yards, but we also have been making a small descend. I mean, look at the path we came from, we didn’t even realize we were going down. I think it has formed some kind of ceiling.” Her arm was raised to point at the ceiling and the way back.
Twilight processed the words and views within her own mind as she saw that Rarity did happen to be having a massive point on the matter. They had indeed been going down as well as the possibility of the rocks having formed some kind of ceiling. “A likely theory indeed, meaning we can’t stay too long here before our oxygen just vanishes.”
“I shouldn’t worry too much, if there was no oxygen in this place, the vacuum should have first struck. And let’s not forget this is a mountain. There are holes literally everywhere if you dare to be looking. The howling winds always find their way. Out-, or inside,” replied Rarity before the two returned back to the group. A group who had done a little bit of investigation themselves.
“Welp, tis a good thing ya didn’t ran much further, Twi,” said Applejack while she fixed her hat. Those words alone caused the soothsayer to give the other mare a raised eyebrow in confusion. “Look just a bit further, ya find the answer there.”
Still not being entirely certain about just what was being said to her, Twilight just did what the admiral said. With her light revealing more and more of the way that laid ahead of them, the realization suddenly kicked in. “Oh my…”
For just a couple yards in front of them laid yet another archway carved within the stone. But that archway was having a little bit of a surprise in store to them. What laid on the other side was nothing but a spiraling staircase. Who knew what would have happened if even one of them had managed to tumble down the thing?
“That’s, that’s something lucky indeed right there,” said Twilight when she shone her light a bit more unto the staircase. “But it seems to be the way that we have to be going if we want to reach out goal. Girls, I think I can say this with safety now. But I welcome you…”
Twilight then turned herself around and cast her light upon each of the anthronies with a massive smile. Even Rarity’s light fell into the near nothingness by comparison. “We’re going to start on the last leg of our journey.” Her tone was a mixture of happiness and sadness. But none captured the sadness that was hidden within her undertone. Not even the soothsayer was aware of it.
All of the mares then gained a massive smile across their faces. They felt like they had finally accomplished the thing they were hungry for so long. Weeks had they been walking through the land of Equestria. From the dreaded forest of Everfree, to the desert where Applejack’s cousin lived. From the icy plains of the Frozen North to the airship of the maddened griffon emperor himself.
Finally could they all be placing those things behind them and do the one thing they had all come together for. To stop the tremors that had been tormenting Equestria for such a long time. “I think it is safe to say, that we’re in the last little stretch here.”
“Ah heard ya, partner,” said Applejack before she gave a calm but respectful nod.
"I have to admit, I never thought we would be making it, but here we are,” replied Rarity before she made a polite and respectful bow for the soothsayer.
“Onwards, and downwards,” added Rainbow. She made a salute before the unicorn.
“Go us! Woohoo!” Fluttershy said before she shied away a bit. For the eyes of the others were turned towards her with a questioning gaze within each of them. “W-Well, a-all the good lines w-were already, t-taken,” she whispered before the other mares just gave a shrug. She did happen to have a point on that little fact actually.
"Alright,” the soothsayer continued as she summoned her staff again. The light of the horn was then channeled into the orb which then would be acting as this massive torch for the lot of them. Twilight then just turned herself around and walked back to the staircase. Only to take the first step down the spiral by herself. The rest would have followed her without a word, yet.
~~~~
Minutes would they have been walking around and about the thing without seeing any kind of platform that would be giving them a bit of rest. The longer they went downwards, the gladder she became about the fact she had stopped just in time.
For if one of them had fallen down, there wouldn’t have been any chance of survival. The sheer length of the staircase plus the increasing velocity of the tumbling anthrony weren’t looking all too good in the result book.
The light of the staff was a powerful one but their fields of view were just so limited. The steep spiral of the staircase prevented them all from watching what could be laying beneath. Not to mention that there was a major lack of windows. What did settle them though was the fact that there weren’t any cobwebs. Which meant that they wouldn’t be walking right into a spider’s den or anything the like.
Even though they were all rough and tough mares from either their past or the journey, they were still greatly afraid of creepy crawlers. Perhaps certain things just wouldn’t be going away at all. Then again, some of them preferred to have it that way. Especially Fluttershy was one who couldn’t handle change very well.
“How long is this bloody thing to begin with?” Rarity muttered a little bit too loud as they all continued walking down. Yet her words were caught in all of their ears. They wanted to stop, but Twilight just kept on walking step for step.
“Taking into account we went in at the summit, take off probably thirty yards for our initial descend, that’s the height of the mountain we still have to be going. My best guess is that this staircase runs the entire height of the mountain. After that, we’ll probably be stuck in a massive cavern system,” returned Twilight calm to her after some calculations in her mind.
“Your words, not mine,” added Rarity then in a whisper. One that wasn’t caught by any other being. It all had just gotten a little bit too much on her nerves. She wasn’t used to such a confinement of space. She was a mare of the sea who was used to lots and lots of freedom and ways to go around.
But down there, there she was just stuck by doing one thing and could only go in two directions. She could be going back up, or stick with the company and continue downwards. Her head had turned to her back and there where he light ended, the eternal darkness began again.
She wasn’t a mare who was scared of the dark, but she was scared to death for the things that could be lying within it. So the decision to stick it out with the company was being made quickly. A decision she didn’t seem to have any regrets from, yet.
“Hey girls,” said Twilight after many more minutes of silence. The unicorn had stopped her pace and she stood just there. She just stood still upon two of the near countless steps that they had walked already. “I think, I think we’re at the bottom.”
“What makes ya think that?” Applejack groaned up as her steam powered leg needed some constant adjusting thanks to the constant pounding it received from descending upon the rock solid stone.
“Big stone archway, dark massive room behind it, you know, those kind of things kinda give it away,” commented Twilight to the admiral. Then she took a couple more steps forward. Much to Rainbow’s surprise, she didn’t seem to be descending downwards anymore. But in fact was she almost walking straight, or at least on a flat surface.
“The hell..?” the major whispered before she followed quickly. After her did the rest of the company follow almost like they were blind sheep. For they couldn’t believe that they had finally reached the bottom of the seemingly never-ending staircase. Rarity was relieved, it meant that she could finally just leave the dreaded thing behind her and begin to worry about the next problem.
A problem that perhaps was a little bit too much of the good stuff, or at least when it came down to the shift of scenery. For when the company was through the stone archway did they had indeed reached the end of the staircase. But they were standing in a massive, massive room that was covered in darkness.
Only the lights of Rarity and Twilight were shining and that troubled the soothsayer. They were literal bait there and then. Then again, anything that would be living in the darkness would have had eyes developed for it. Which meant that anything most likely couldn’t handle the light too well. Which was a relieving thought, for the time being.
“How big do ya think this room is?” Applejack questioned a little bit too loud for their liking. Her voice was just send over all the walls of the room and the echo’s that were given off bounced all over the place. Until finally everything calmed down again.
Their attention all shifted over to the admiral with a glare that wasn’t kind to say the least. The admiral herself gulped a little bit as she knew that the beings that didn’t know they were there, knew it then.
Silence took over once more when everypony kept themselves quiet. All of their ears were perked in order to hear whether or not there would have been something, anything, heading straight into their direction. But all of them also knew that if they wanted to communicate, they had to do it in whispers.
The loud echoes were literally the last thing they needed in the dark room they found themselves in. Seconds did the silence stay until Twilight was having more than enough of it all. She needed to know everything about that very room. So the orb on top of the staff charged itself up even further.
Before anypony could say it was either a good or a bad idea had the unicorn fired an arcane flare right into the skies. She had expected it to it the ceiling within at least three seconds. There was the first major mistake she had made. For instead of three, it took the flare six seconds to reach the top of the chamber.
It already revealed it massive height to each of them but the fun didn’t end there at all. When it slowly came back to the ground, the revelation of a giant chasm was revealed before them. All the mares their eyes just went wide when the enormous gap in the ground was revealed to them.
Not only was the mountain incredibly long when it came to its depth, it was literally formed over some kind of enormous crater. The anthronies were smacked in the face from one miracle with the next, while none of them could even believe the facts as they were revealed before them.
“Now that’s something big indeed,” said Rarity after she had approached the edge of the chasm. She even dared to be looking over the edge and into the dark abyss. With the flare still sailing down towards the bottom of it, it became apparent that it was not only massive, but massively deep as well. A gulp came from the pirate as she returned to the rest of the group.
“Bad news, it goes on for probably a quarter the size of the mountain. We’re going in deep, literally. We’re going deep into the soils of Equestria,” she said as the grand scale of their expedition suddenly fell into sheer nothingness. Everything that they had done so far fell into the nothingness compared to the treks that still seemed to lay ahead.
Twilight then darted forward with the hope to find the flare still sailing down. She could only hope that Rarity’s assuming were right. As she stood near the edge, her eyes looked over a indeed still falling flare. But where Rarity only looked towards the flare, Twilight gave her eyes the time to inspect the surrounding of the walls.
There! She saw something that perhaps could be of help to them. Something the in face of the cliff that they had to walk down it laid. It rested there as if nopony had walked over it for so many years. But the light she had was facing away. The flare was getting too far away from her to see anything.
So the staff was charged up again in order to make a new flare. One that was fired at a different angle. It’s bright and powerful lights shone down the sides of the cliff and it was revealed to her once again. “Oh now that’s just clever. Very, very clever indeed,” said Twilight said to herself with a grin. She had noticed the strange deformations within the rocks.
And it were those strange deformations within the rock that possibly would be giving not only her, but the whole of the company a bit safer means of getting to the bottom of the chasm. With a smile on her face she returned to the rest of the group.
A group that was looking at her with a rather strange expression as they didn’t really knew what they needed to be expecting from the soothsayer. Rainbow and Rarity decided from the beginning not to speak a word while Applejack wanted to take the word. But she was actually cut off by the most unlikely being of the who trip.
Fluttershy was the only one who spoke up the question that they all had going through their minds. “What are you so happy about?” she asked in a whisper. Her own natural curiosity as well as her fear for everything that could possibly be dwelling within the darkness had caused her to be highly alert.
“I think, I found us a way down the chasm, all the way down to the bottom of it. There’s only, one little problem we might be having with it though,” replied Twilight. Her eyes shifted to everypony’s. She knew that one of them could already have been guessing just what it was that was standing in their way.
“Let me guess,” the pirate captain spoke while she crossed her arms over each other, “more stairs?”
Rarity couldn’t have been more right on the matter. In order for them to descend, they had to scale down the dozens of staircases that were embedded within the very rocks at the side. “I’m afraid we have to. From my second flare I saw how there’s a series of staircases just caved right inside of the rocks themselves. Who has made them, or how they have come there is unknown to me,” the soothsayer spoke up as she looked to all of them.
“Well it beats drilling through the chasm if you ask me,” muttered Rarity before she closed her eyes for a moment. “Can’t you just teleport us all down there, Twilight?” It was a rather legitimate question to be asked. As well as one where Twilight was getting unwanted attention for.
But the unicorn knew the dangers of doing such a thing more than anypony else in the company. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils before she shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t do such a thing, I don’t know what is actually down there. For all I know it is riddled with spikes or razorsharp rocks. Or even worse, golems from era’s gone by. Last thing we need is us all teleporting to our doom.”
The methods might have been a little bit farfetched for the let of them but they knew that Twilight was actually right about the matter. If she didn’t knew where they would be ending up after a teleport, the consequences that followed could have been disastrous.
“Looks like we have to scale the stairs then, again,” muttered Rarity in disgust. She was getting a growing hatred to those things. “I heard stories of a wizard of old who liked stairs, you think he might have been something to do with it?”
“You mean the dark entity known as Sombra? It could be entirely possible. Dark Witches never really die nor are they specified as to be only females. Their body gets consumed by the earth but their souls are sent back to Nightmare Moon. Who keeps them nicely stored until they are needed again. Or until they dare to bargain again with her,” explained Twilight almost right away.
Even though she never had been a fan of the darker arcane arts, ever since the original sighting of the demoness that was once her friend had Twilight forced herself to learn as much as she could about them. Revelations best left untold were made before her eyes, stories surfaced that were best left on the bottom of the ocean floor. Wounds were opened, that laid too close to her.
“You name a male Dark Witch, a Dark Wizard?” Rainbow then asked. Strange as it was. she had gotten a genuine curiosity towards the subject.
“You do, Rainbow. But please, can you all shut up about it? The matter isn’t something that I like to be talking about at all. Especially in a place like this.” Twilight then asked of the group as her horn and staff charged themselves up.
The anthronies all nodded towards her. Which then resulted in a thankful smile coming to her face. “And now, for something different.”
The company just waited for the events to come while Twilight summoned five wooden sticks from an arcane portal that formed itself next to her. All of them wondered just what on earth she tried to do as nothing about it actually seemed to have been making any kind of sense.
But as soon as the tops of the sticks were lit on fire, they all understood right away what the point of them was. “Torches, finally we can see where we’re going.” Rainbow chuckled up before Twilight handed them all one of the torches.
“Going with Rarity’s logic here, that the mountain is riddled with holes and the wind blows in fresh oxygen, we should be having enough to breath as well as to keep the torches burning. Sure, arcane light is a bit more safer when you start to think about it, but our magical reservoirs are depleted at one point. Refilling them requires a lot of time so, this is the best solution for the time being,” said Twilight before she pointed to Rarity.
The pirate captain nodded and she discharged her own horn. With all of them having some form of light, they could all decide the way they would be traveling down the stairs. Twilight used her staff as some kind of walking cane as she was the first one to make her way over to the place.
Within the lights of the torch it appeared, that one hole in a seemingly perfect straight line. “Well, here’s to going down to Tartarus,” spoke Rarity to herself before she blinked. “Never thought I would say that.” The longer the unicorn stood before the staircase, the more she began to lose her faith in the fact that it would have been a two way trip.
They were still one being short to have the group actually complete and they were in their last leg. The eyes of the unicorn were shut forcefully as she began to fight back the tears. In her eyes it seemed that whatever they would be doing next, they would have already failed no matter what.
“So close, but so far away still,” she whispered quietly to herself just before the eyes were opened again. The raging fires crisped within her ears as she turned her head over to the rest of them. “I have to get going, they trust me, they have followed me after everything we have done so far.”
The bunch of strange mares just stood there, they were waiting for Twilight to take the first steps downwards. Waiting in anticipation of what laid in fact at the bottom of the very chasm. But Twilight still wasn’t done with her thoughts. She was in fact far from done with them. “They aren’t just some random beings picked from all over the land. No, they are something far more precious to me now. They aren’t just a doctor, a major, an admiral and a pirate. No, they are…my friends,” the soothsayer whispered up.
Only then did her head turn itself forwards again and she looked down the steps of the staircase. One last deep inhale was taken by the unicorn before she finally dared to take the first step. The step was being set, the anthronies were on their way to reach the bottom of the chasm. One single step at a time.
But as they were wandering downwards could Twilight actually hear the mares talking about the way back. The adventures they would be having and would have been able to share among friends and family. It only strengthened the sad feeling that she was having.
She couldn’t believe that she had failed at one little point that was actually that crucial for their entire trip. Though there was one little fact that Twilight had forgotten. The fact that even in their darkest hour, there would always have been a light shining somewhere. The only question that remained was whether or not she could actually see that very light.
Staircase after staircase was being wandered down by the mares. The minutes just crawled by like they were nothing at all. All of their legs were pretty much busted because of the very bouncing that they did. Any cartilage in their legs surely must have been gone by then. Not only did they seem to be walking straight down for a quarter of the mountain, they actually seemed to be walking the whole of the mountain once again.
Naturally did everypony just wanted to complain about the facts as they were, but all of them surprisingly held their mouths for whatever reason. Something that caused a major relief for Twilight once they had finally reached the bottom of it.
The soothsayer was the first to stand on the solid ground again and her eyes looked over a massive plain. Nothing could be seen as far as their eyes could see. Then again, they couldn’t be seeing that much to begin with.
The lights of the torches shone down to the greatest of their abilities in the faint little hope that they would have been able to see something, anything, to place them on the right track. For the last leg of their journey also seemed to have become the most difficult one.
They all had to navigate through the darkness of the caverns and straight into the deeper levels of the system. Troubles would arise without a single doubt, they only wondered when they would be coming.
For everything that possibly was hidden among the darkness terrified them. They weren’t scared for the darkness itself. But they were scared to their soul about what could have laid inside of it. What kind of terrible creatures they could possibly encounter. A fear that started deep within the soul of Rarity before it spread over to the rest of the mares.
Minutes later where they just wandering through yet another series of caverns. A series of caverns that laid on the far side of the chasm. The light of the torches burned vivid as it caught the attention of another being. A being who didn’t seem to be any of the mares. Its body hidden in the darkness, propelling itself forward like a snake and was as silent as a mice. Not a single sound was being released from the creature.
But it knew they were there. It was looking at them with a set of vivid blue eyes. They almost reflected every part of the light but none of the mares seemed to be noticing it. The pinkish looking scales that covered the area next to the white of the eyes could also be seen from time to time.
Only for the creature to eventually dive behind a series of rocks. It would be lying in wait. Waiting for the mares to make a precious little mistake. A mistake that could change the whole course of their journey either for the better, or the worse.