Whether the company liked it or not, they had to walk down the staircase in order to figure out just what would have been going on with the disappearing light. Whether they liked it or not, they had to scale the treacherous looking steps of the staircase. Deep exhales and groans were released by all of the members. Yet out of everypony was it Twilight who had taken it upon herself to be the first to go.
The unicorn soothsayer would have been the first one of them all to scale the staircase downwards. What she would encounter after every step was unknown to her though. Everything could have happened and she knew that. The words of the ghost continued to race through her mind as she seemed to have been constantly on the watch for the fangs that were mentioned.
But what exactly could have been meant with them? Could it be meant that they had to look out for icicles made out of rock that fell down? Or did they had to look for actual fangs that were placed somewhere inside of the wall as some kind of trap? Twilight couldn’t tell and she didn’t wanted to be doing it either.
Though the thoughts continued to race through her mind.
Every step she took did her hooves felt just how steep and even slippery the stones were. Nopony had been wandering them for so many years, but somehow had water managed to find a way to scale down it. Only one explanation could have been figured out for the fact that there was almost a perfect gullet at each step.
“Rainwater,” mumbled Twilight up. Not loud enough to make the words audible for all of them. But at least Fluttershy heard it who was walking almost straight behind her.
“What do you mean with that?” the doctor whispered in return when her eyes focused upon Twilight. They all had to be careful that they wouldn’t lose their focus as one step placed wrong could have been their very end. Caution was given off by pretty much every last mare of the group.
Twilight turned her head towards Fluttershy before the game began. A game that would give the muscles in her neck a much needed workout. Twilight began to shift her head from back to front within seconds from each other. Her body had turned almost sideways to keep everything under the right checks. The road was slippery but the doctor required some explanation.
Perhaps it was the worst situation where Twilight could have thought about getting in. At least it was better than they had to fight some monsters or creatures along the stairs. Perhaps it didn’t mean all too much to any of them, but the feelings of relief were only greater with each step taken. Each step taken downwards meant they were one step closer.
Either they would have been closer to their goal, or one step closer to an unavoidable roadblock that was the pitch blackness beneath them. The soothsayer had finally given the doctor the time to answer the question that was being asked. “The ray of sunlight has to come from somewhere along the surface, Fluttershy,” she explained before she took another step down.
"So that means that there is some kind of natural cavity inside of the rocks. Which then means that there’s also a way for things on the outside can get in. The water used in rain always wants to travel downwards so…” Twilight continued when she then realized a little fact but lost it almost straight away again. She had almost slipped from the staircase but luckily managed to keep herself together barely.
The doctor eeped just before she reached out for Twilight’s arm and held her tight. It all happened in a split second but the whole company came to a standstill. The soothsayer was brought back up as the fear could still be seen clearly within her eyes. She was breathing a bit faster and heavier as she couldn’t believe it almost had been over for her.
“It, it’s okay… I’m fine, I think,” said Twilight to the rest of the mares while she gasped for breath. It was a terrifying experience for her.
For a couple of minutes did the silence return to the group to them. Fluttershy was sunken in her own thoughts. The spiraling staircase that went around the chasm had finally come to a point where they could see where they had started their descend.
The thing wasn’t the fastest when it came upon the fact of making the incline down, but the steps were just so many. She had even taken the lead from Twilight for a moment, it was her turn to do the little trick of the constant shifting of the head. The pegasus turned her head over to the mulberry skinned soothsayer and asked the question that burned upon her tongue. “When you said, that the light had to enter from somewhere, you mean that there’s an escape route? Like, an actual way out for all of us?”
The question was one that laid heavy in the heart of Twilight. She closed her eyes for just a little moment. Of course she wanted to say that everything would have been getting alright for all of them, that they all would have been able to make the departure from whatever laid beneath. But it was the lamia that bared her the most concern.
Twilight shook her head a bit. She didn’t had the desire to think too much about it all. It all just added upon the massive weight that was already resting upon her shoulders. The last thing she needed was that she would have made her own burden even heavier. So the only answer that could be given to Fluttershy was one that seemed to have been both vague and clear at the same time.
With a deep sigh before her words, she spoke them from the bottom of her soul and with a low tone to her voice. “There might be a pathway to the surface, yes. An escape route for us all to take if we dare to do it. That, is all I can say about it actually.”
The doctor understood the worry within the tone of Twilight and made the decision to not ask any further thing about it. The last thing she personally wanted as to become the trigger that would have send Twilight on a near unstoppable rampage through the cavern. Or worse, that she would become an emotional wreck.
The eyes of Twilight looked over to the chasm they were walking down and couldn’t take them away from the light that was being cast down. It didn’t matter how or where she looked inside of it, it always stopped at that one point at the bottom of it. The place where the light just ceased to exist and the place where she had lost her little ball of fire.
Sooner or later would they all be knowing exactly what it was and whether or not it was safe enough to continue. Troubles were made before her eyes as they were actually understandable, but at the other end there also was some kind of discomfort inside of the mare.
She released a deep exhale through her nostrils, the eyes were closed for just a moment once more. What could she have expected at the bottom of it? What could she have found there? What final thing was lurking for each of them beneath the black floor, if it was even a floor to begin with.
Not many things seemed to be making sense for the mare right then, but she knew and prayed upon the fact that time itself would give her the answers that she needed. Even if they would have been just as vague as the whispers of the goddesses.
With Fluttershy still leading the company of mares, the steps were taken both light and secure. While it was true and perhaps a little bit annoying, they didn’t make any haste for anything on that staircase. But that way they could all be certain that their footing would have been more secure than if they would just place their hooves down in a hurry.
Every step closer would have brought them over to the black floor like thing and that greatened the worries of the doctor. She was a mare of medicine and not one of arcane arts or anything in that direction. The eyes of the pegasus turned into a worried gaze while she continued to stare down the next step.
Each one taken brought the darkness closer towards her and closer towards the rest them. It worried her to no end as she almost seemed to crumble under the fact of having taken the lead. Yet for Twilight it seemed like a great test to test the self-esteem of the doctor and build further upon it. Even though that was a little something that was perhaps a whole lot easier said than actually done.
Yet the soothsayer was prepared and willing to take the risk. With her mind broken only a couple hours before, there wasn’t really any notice from it visually. Everything just seemed to have returned to the Twilight that they came to both know and love a little bit. The unicorn soothsayer had cried her troubles away and the company didn’t even knew about it.
Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse. Nopony could have truly told that part of the tale that they were writing at that very moment in time. All while they were sunken in thought.
Without a warning was there just a massive eep that came from the doctor. She then placed herself against the wall. Not a single step would have been made by her while she violently shook her head. Whatever had caused her to stop was something that must have spooked her out greatly.
The whole company even came to a screeching hold as they all wondered either in thought or aloud just what happened. The major of the air force was the third mare in line and watched how the doctor just crippled right before her eyes. “And you call yourself a pegasus?” she growled up towards the other mare.
“Rainbow, silent you. Fluttershy doesn’t really mean it. She’s just scared. And did you forget the fact she’s gotten used to a life on the ground?” the soothsayer hissed through her teeth towards the major. The point had been made clear to the rainbow haired pegasus who just released a shrug. “For crying aloud, you are just impossible to work with, aren’t you?”
“Hey, if I could have just flown down there, we wouldn’t have been waiting on miss Scardy-pants over there,” snarled Rainbow in return. She almost pressed her forehead against that of the soothsayer in anger.
“Would the pair of you be quiet now!?” the voice of Rarity echoed over the other mares. She had gotten the attention of the pair of them and they just looked scared. Her voice was dominant enough to make the both of them crawl back in their holes. For a change had the side of Rarity that she used on the high seas revealed itself to them all.
Which naturally caused some suspicion for Applejack to be born. The admiral began to question whether or not the unicorn was actually as forgiving as she claimed to be. But an accusation there and then could have been suicide. The location just wasn’t really favorable when it came down to it and she was highly aware of the facts as they were.
Both Rainbow and Twilight dropped their conversation whereas the pirate captain crossed her arms over each other. The time had come for them all to get to know just what would happen next. The soothsayer nodded one time to herself as she then looked behind her. Her body then followed suit as she took the last couple of steps down.
She walked past Fluttershy and began to realize just what had her so spooked in the first place. A gentle chuckle even came from the throat of the mare before she hunched down. Her arms were placed upon her knees while the eyes were granted a sight further downwards.
Then they traveled over the sides of the chasm and she nodded once more to herself. A deep exhale was given off through her nostrils as she shook her head lightly. It then turned to the best of its abilities to the rest of the company. “Look at the light of the sun, and look before me. The answer can be found right there before any of you start to bicker again.”
Of course were the words of Twilight brought in question before the company did exactly what she said. But they were cautious in doing so. The last thing they wanted was for any of them to have dropped or fallen down into the chasm.
For they had reached the final destination of the sunlight. The anthronies noticed how the light of the sun just seemed to stop existing upon the black floor that blocked their way. Everything began to make sense for the lot of them as they had finally scaled the chasm.
But they were far from done. They were just so far from being done. The unicorn began to charge up her horn lightly as she looked over to the floor. Something didn’t seem to be right about it. The staircase almost seemed to have dropped at half a step before it was consumed by the darkness. No, the floor that they were looking at was hiding some other thing. Yet whatever it was, Twilight was certain that she would discover it one way or the other.
Behind her did the rest of the company whisper about the things that could be laying at it or beneath it. The things that they still would encounter as they would travel onwards. None of the words spoken by the mares could possibly have been right.
They ranged from the rather sane enough stuff to the downright insane spoken by Fluttershy. The doctor seemed to have been able to calm herself down to the best of her abilities, but everything still was one massive panic attack in her eyes.
Whether it was intentional or not, it did create a gentle smile across the lips of Twilight. A little, gentle and genuine smile before she shook her head a little bit from side to side. “You should listen to yourselves. You all speak of riches and wealth from ancient ponytales. Tales that may or may not have actually happened,” she said to each of them.
The unicorn turned her head over to the rest of the group while her legs were a little bit stuck in the hunched position. “We have faced some unbelievable facts, certainly. But that doesn’t mean that it will still be the case. As far as I know, this can be the end of our journey.” She then made the realization of just how discouraging the words sounded that she had spoken.
A little but also embarrassed sounding squee was released by her before she tried to correct her statement. “Basically, what I’m trying to say is, don’t hold up your hopes too much. Alright?” Nopony could actually have been mad at the words that were spoken by Twilight as they were more than true indeed. Her words rung a bell that hadn’t chimed in a long time in any of them. The bells of reality itself kicked back in, and it was hard.
The unicorn soothsayer then returned to her little experiments. She tried her utmost best to figure out just what the stuff happened to be. She had to know out of what exactly the floor was made from before they would even dare to cross it. Safety had been a priority all along the trip, even though it sometimes just wasn’t lived up to. She couldn’t rush or be with haste, not in that moment.
The rest of the company took the chance to make some good use of the time of. Finally could they be taking a bit of rest from the near constant wandering down the staircase. It had been a terrible trouble for their legs. Those had to endure the full weight of the mares every so many seconds. Their knees were burning and their feet felt like broken and blistered.
Only Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to be having the troubles from it. Her snake-like body just slithered down the steps. But even she felt that her body was being sore. The muscles of her body had clamped themselves against the steps all of the time to get a good grip. Which meant that she was clinging at least to three different steps at once and any given time. Luckily she had formed the rearguard as she was the one creature that took the most space to make the descend.
Time would be able to tell them all just what exactly was waiting for them all at the floor. But the first signs already showed them, that there was a whole lot more going on than they originally had thought.
Agonizing minutes had come and gone while Twilight performed every single test that was known to her without having to set up a giant laboratory. Even though she was a mare of spiritual connection to the goddesses themselves, the unicorn also happened to be a mare of science. She needed to have some kind of logical explanation behind everything before she would place the matter before the goddesses.
A great researcher did she happened to have be for certain. Her eyes were never taken away from the glass flask that seemed to be containing a little bit of the floor. Her horn charged up brighter and dimmer every so often as the mental notes were taken by her.
Everypony else just watched in patience as they hoped that the unicorn would have been able to give them an answer quick. Yet with the knowledge they had gathered from Twilight over the course of their journey, it most likely would have been taken a terribly lot of time plus some.
Not only that, but even the whispers that were being made by the unicorn already sounded rather discouraging. Whispers like ‘this can’t be’ and ‘how can something like that be possible’ were just two of the few dozen that the mare managed to say to herself. They didn’t make sense to the company of course.
The question was if they even made some degree of sense to Twilight herself. From the looks and sounds that were given off, they didn’t. But they never underestimated the soothsayer. She always had a little trick up her sleeve that they had to be careful for. A little last ace that she could trump out of her hat and turn the tide of the events.
The company hoped that it would have happened at least once more. And that it would have happened right there, in the moment that they needed it perhaps the most.
The minutes continued to crawl by at perhaps the slowest pace they had been going since they began their whole ordeal through the land. Nopony was certain of anything as Twilight never told them directly what she was either working on or what she had discovered.
The unicorn would have needed a solid confirmation first before she would be doing anything else. A smart decision that they all could agree upon, even though it was never spoken. None of the mares dared to make a conversation with the others outside of whispers. They were scared to death to what would have happened if they had taken Twilight out of her concentration.
But the time to make the revelation to them all had to be there at one point or another, right? Nopony could have been researching the same thing forever and ever more, right? At one point there just had to be enough evidence gathered to make a conclusion, unless that conclusion seemed to have been madness itself to begin with.
The eyes of Rarity had turned over to the rays of light that were shone down into the chasm and noticed they had been turned orange. It didn’t make sense to her as it didn’t seemed to have been that long since they were stopped. Perhaps the hole laid at a place that had a shorter day cycle then that they were used to.
Anywho, the light of the sun was running out and that was all that she knew for certain. Anything else remained just a massive gaping hole that only could have been filled up with the answers of Twilight. The other mares had actually taken the opportunity to crash themselves down against the rocks and gain some rest to refuel their engines. Something to which Rarity would also return to.
Finally there was something happening inside of the body of Twilight. The unicorn came out of her hunched position and allowed the bones to be snapped in their rightful places. The mare then turned to face the others. She held the glass flask in her hand. The magical energy just left the horn and gave them all an expression of worry. An expression of not believing what she had discovered.
The silent news already brought the rest of the mares down to the ground in a figurative manner. They could understand that whatever the words of the mare would have been, they wouldn’t have been the most pleasant ones to listen to.
A deep exhale was released by the unicorn. Twilight got all of the eyes aimed directly at her. Five pairs of eyes were resting upon her as she had to share the news with every one of them. The news that shocked her very foundations of believes. Not a word had yet been spoken as the tension only rose higher.
“Come on, speak what’s on your mind,” taunted Rarity. She tried to pry the soothsayer open just a little bit. She was curious and actually witty enough to make the comment that was on everypony’s mind. A thing that was both a blessing and a curse to say the least.
The soothsayer released another exhale when she realized that she had to tell them all that there was something she had to say. So she went with the most logical thing. “You, might not believe any of my words, as even I have a hard time to believe them. But one thing is for certain,” said Twilight before as she looked back towards the floor.
“That floor, is not solid. It’s some kind of smoke from a creature thought to have been last seen almost a millennia ago. What I’m having in this flask is exactly the right composition for something powerful enough to block out the sun as it does,” the soothsayer added to her words.
Curiosity and fear had both been raised inside of each of the mares. Their curiosities were all spiked because they wanted to know just what it was that the floor was made of. The fear which was born out of the tone that Twilight was speaking in. Never during their journey did the mare seemed to have been so afraid with the truth.
There had been facts where it already seemed unbelievable, but that time was unlike any other. She had seen that something she believed in holy was just smashed against the rocks and shattered in a zillion little pieces.
“The smoke that this floor has been constructed of, the smoke that I’m holding in the flask right here, is of something that I can’t even properly name,” spoke Twilight before she took a deep inhale. She had to get the name of the thing out in the group to watch the responses that would have gotten out of each of them. So there was no other way than to actually tell them. “Before you all erupt out, I will tell you what it is from. The smoke comes from nothing else, than a frightful dragon.”
Within an instant had the eyes of each of the mares filled themselves with the greatest amount of fear. There was still a dragon living among them? There actually was a dragon living near the center of Equestria? It kinda made some sense in the mind of Twilight. She could finally have placed the words of the ghost into the rightful place.
The fangs that they needed to worry about had been the fangs of the dreaded dragon. However, they had been rampaging through the cavern dozens of years or centuries before. Perhaps the dragon who had created the smoke had died of a natural cause. Dragon’s smoke was known for its ability to keep lingering in a place for a terrible long time.
It almost never seemed to disappear or vanish out of an area unless blown away by another force. Twilight was familiar with the stuff as there used to be entire farms for it. All because of the given the fact that it would be used in many remedies and spells. Even her own staff was created with a little bit of dragon’s smoke to enhance the elemental abilities that it carried.
But some years ago had all of the dragon’s smoke been farmed and did the rush for the good stuff came to an rather abrupt end. For years they had been able to mine it before everything had ran dry.
“Please, don’t erupt out in a massive yell against me. I’m only saying that this stuff is dragon’s smoke. Whether or not there is an actual dragon still walking around beneath it is something I do not know. But all that I know is that we need to continue our path down and just finish this once and for all!” Twilight spoke while she rose an arm into the air.
She wanted boost not only the morale of the mares, but also the confidence. Even she knew that they were all close to reaching their final destination. If the truth had to be told, Twilight was silently done with the quest. She hungered for a return to the surface and enjoy once more the wonderful lights of the sun and moon as they were supposed to be.
For the time being though, they could only done one thing. Take the steps once more. Take them further downwards and into the abyss of darkness.
“Just how much is there of this stuff?!” Applejack exclaimed while she waved the smoke out of her eyes. The company didn’t keep track of the time, but they were certain that they had been walking through it for at least five long minutes. Nopony was certain how thick the layer was but they knew that the temperature increased.
The heat that was getting to each of them caused their shards of ice to grow only further inside of their chests. The shards became thicker and thicker as they tightened only more around their hearts. They needed to keep their cores cooled down otherwise they would have been cooked alive. Which was a thing that none of them were waiting on to happen.
Twilight had taken a small sprint down the steps and was nowhere to be found after the first minute that they had been walking through the stuff. Nopony was certain of just where the mare had been gone off to. Which meant that they could only hope that she would have returned safely to them. Even though that very thing seemed to have been a high hope for them all.
~~~~
In the end there was the light again. The light of the magma that was flowing beneath the crust of the earth they walked upon. They all noticed it and increased their pacing just a little bit. Soon enough would the whole of the company have found itself standing upon a small platform. A small platform in the middle of the chasm.
Coughs were released by every last being as they all saw black from the smoke. Each of them noticed just how black the face of the mare in front of her was, but also just how black the clothing had all gotten. They all just appeared like dirty and worn out rags that were only good for either burning or just throwing away.
“It’s soot,” the soothsayer spoke before she had placed her hands behind her back. “One of the most common ingredients of dragon’s smoke. But come, take a look for yourself and see, where we have ended up, this time.”
Everypony gained a curious look upon their faces. None actually dared to believe the words of Twilight as they were said to them. Eyebrows were raised before they all made the steps forward. Each of them made them carefully until they stood next to the unicorn and gave their eyes the time to look at the view.
A view that would be giving Tartarus a run for its bits. The company was staring down at a hellish plane that seemed to be stretching out all over the place. A hellish plane that looked like the inner circle of the place that they called hell. They seemed to have walked down to the very and literal version of hell of their land.
“But, that isn’t possible. Nopony can just walk into Tartarus, right Twilight?” Rarity dared to ask. The pirate captain was just as confused as everypony else.
The soothsayer confirmed the thoughts that the pirate captain had as nopony could just barge into Tartarus, not like the way they were doing at least. “No, this isn’t Tartarus. Ladies, I welcome thy at the place we have been hunting for, for so long.”
A deep inhale was done by the unicorn before she placed her arms just next to her body. “We’re at the center, of Equestria.”
In their eyes they caught the pillars of magma just shooting up as if they were waters from a fountain. The liquid rocks were boiling at temperatures that they had never encountered before in their lives as the steam travelled up via various cavities. Icicles of stone hung from the ceiling and some were as long as Pinkie Pie when she would stretched herself completely.
Not to mention as thick as when she laid curled up. Their tips looked like daggers and would crush anything that even thought about getting under them. No, the place may not have been the inner circle of Tartarus, but it perhaps was the closest visual representation that the company ever would have gotten for it.
Geysers of magma and molten rock spewed their cargo up towards the ceiling which then seemed to be melting as if there was nothing holding them back at all. All in all did the terrain just appear to be inaccessible and inhospitable. If anything lived down there, it would have perished a long, long time ago.
They had crossed a lake of magma before in a diamond, ice cooled longboat and already having some troubles. They were then faced with what could have been standing equal to an ocean of the stuff.
The admiral looked over the scene with her eyes and released a deep gulp at first, before the most obvious but unbelievable question was being asked. “Do we, do we have, to cross it?” Her tone was filled with fear, she wasn’t certain about anything. Once again was the whole company just go smacked about the facts as they were.
Once again were they treated with a sight that was as beautiful as it was dangerous. One that would remaining haunting their minds for ages to come because of just that.