//------------------------------//
// 11 - To Explore the Darkness 
// Story: Tarnished Silver and Clouded Diamonds 
// by David Silver 
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With the passage sealed, the two celebrated their newfound entry into the adventuring lifestyle with a healthy round of panic. Looking around in the darkness, sealed away from the sun and escape, they trembled in one another's grasp a moment before Diamond Tiara asked, "Can you do some magic? You magicked the lizard thing, right?"

Silver Spoon ceased her trembling, frowning in the dark. "Maybe? G-good idea." She pulled her hooves back and pressed them together. "Luminace, can you hear me? A little light would be nice, please? Like, we can't read without light. That's important, right?" She felt and itchiness in her right hoof and waved it, accidentally bonking Diamond Tiara's currently-tiny tiara, which began to glow with a bright white light.

Diamond Tiara grinned widely. "I knew you could do it." She rose to her hooves as if she had never been frightened, and climbed up along Silver Spoon's hoof to get to her head. "Well, we're not going back, so we should go forward? Yes, we should go forward." She looked around the floor. "Keep your eyes open for more traps though."

Silver Spoon advanced with her Diamond Tiara headdress, looking slowly and carefully for traps, but they seemed to have tapered off as she went, giving way to stones with engravings of griffons in various regal poses. "It's too bad Dark Streak isn't here. I bet she'd recognize some of this stuff."

Diamond Tiara nodded. "Maybe, but she flew off and left us behind, so who cares about her?"

Silver swiveled an ear to face the tiny Diamond. "She did the best she could. I hope she's alright... They were firing a lot of arrows, maybe she got shot down?"

Diamond Tiara bit back her initial urge and pointed ahead instead. "We have to find the way out of here, or we'll never find out, will we?"

Silver nodded quickly and stepped further into the dark, thankful for the light coming from her friend's tiny crown to see by. "At least there aren't monsters in here."

Diamond sank to her belly on Silver's head. "You just jinxed it. I'm calling it here, monster in ten minutes or less. Take this." She held out her eency tiny dagger. Silver accepted it, and when it fell into her hoof it expanded to full size. "Huh. I'd better be careful of that."

Silver waved the dagger around a little before walking with it in hoof, clanging softly against the ground with each step. "I hope I don't have to use this."

Her hopes were dashed a mere few minutes later. The tunnel began to thicken with webs and Silver cut her way through when with her dagger until a spider almost the size of a pony emerged from the dark, fangs dripping with an unknown venom. With Silver's shriek of surprise, a bubble shimmered into existence around her just in time to turn the creature's fangs away, but it was already preparing for a fresh lunge.

Silver Spoon lifted her dagger and thrust it wildly at the thing, making it dance and bob around her blows. Diamond Tiara offered advice from where she sat on Silver's head, despite being swung left and right, holding on tightly as she hollered orders.

The spider ducked under an artless stab and reared up on Silver Spoon, sinking its fangs into her shoulder. She squealed and yanked back away from it as she thrust her dagger forward.  The weapon sank into the creature, punched through its carapace and found the tender meat inside.

The two glared at one another, bloodied but stubborn. Diamond whispered in an ear, "Go for its eyes. If it can't see you, it'll be a lot easier."

Silver thought the idea was far more easily said than accomplished, but steeled herself. Being the aggressor wasn't working, so she shifted to the defense and prayed for her new god to help her, though it seemed it was mostly up to her to defend herself.

The spider circled around her as she turned with it, keeping it in clear view. Her glasses were skewed, making the spider only visible in part of her vision, but she dared not take the time to adjust them with it so close. It attacked, practically leaping at her. She dove forward, Diamond Tiara squealing as she fell to the ground, but Silver had no time to worry about that. She brought up her dagger as she jumped, and cut a new wicked line on the spider's underbelly.

Enraged, the spider wheeled around and attacked without delay, and Silver swatted at its grasping mandibles wildly. Her glasses fell free entirely, clattering to the ground and leaving the battlefield hazy. She could make out the large form of the spider, and that would have to be enough. "Diamond?"

Diamond Tiara had scaled the beast while it was thoroughly engaged with Silver Spoon. Grimacing at the thought of being in contact with the vile creature, she pressed forward anyway, quickly scaling to its head. The spider seemed to notice her in earnest then, looking  up at her with all its eyes. She clenched her teeth and bore down with her hooves, pulverizing several eyes in a gooey spray of viscera.

The spider reared up in shock and pain, legs spasming wildly. Silver charged forward, running right into the beast and not stopping until all three of them crashed into the far wall, driving her dagger deep into the twitching and dying form of the spider.

Diamond Tiara slipped between the spider and the wall to collapse to the ground, panting. "Watch where you're shoving those things around..."

Silver Spoon pulled her dagger back, still not able to accurately see what she was doing. "Diamond Tiara? Can you find my glasses please? I don't want to, like, step on them."

"Yeah yeah... here they are." She picked up the glasses far too large to wear herself. "Follow my voice. So, hey, you alright? You got bit by that thing."

Silver approached the blob that appeared to be Diamond and settled in front of her. "It hurts where it bit me, but I'm fine otherwise. Did we win?"

Diamond laughed a little. "We wouldn't be having this conversation if it was still ready to eat us." She tilted her head before moving to clamber up Silver Spoon. "Stay still a moment..." Soon she dropped the glasses into place, restoring Silver's vision.

She smiled gratefully. "Thanks! Gosh, I was so scared. What happened?"

Diamond waved one of her gorey hooves. "I did what I said to do, mashed its eyes. Serves it right for trying to eat my right-hoof mare. Do you have any water? We're both icky to the max."

Silver frowned, and put her hooves together. "Luminace? I'm sorry for bothering you so much today, but if you could, like, some water? Just a little would be nice, thanks!" Her spell complete, water began to rain down on them in a gentle mist, but did little to clean them.

Diamond Tiara blinked. "I think you need some practice with that. Maybe make the water in a specific place?"

Silver spotted a clay bowl and brought it over before trying again, focusing on the inside of the bowl. A little raincloud appeared over the bowl and began to rain into it. She washed her hooves in the rain, then dipped it into the bowl and got to cleaning, with Diamond quickly joining her. "Great job, Silver Spoon. Maybe this, uh, what's it called? Whatever it is, it's useful."

Silver Spoon shook her hooves dry and nudged the bowl to the side. "When do you think that'll wear off?"

Her ability to predict the future remained as keen as ever as Diamond Tiara rapidly expanded to her usual height. "Now is good." She looked herself over for anything missing, then held out her hoof. "I'll take the dagger back."

Silver offered the gore encrusted dagger and Diamond pointed at the bowl. "Clean it first." After some scrubbing, the dagger was clean enough for her to slip away for later use. "So how do I do that? I want magic too."

Silver shrugged softly. "I have to pray and mean it." She glanced away then back at Diamond Tiara. "I don't think it's your kind of magic."

Diamond frowned, but the logic of it was not wasted on her. "Yeah... I want magic I control, not somepony else. Who is this Luminace anyway?"

Silver dug out her book and pointed to the illustration. "Her, remember?"

Diamond leaned in and peered. "Pfft, I'm not bowing to any princess."

Silver put her hooves at her hips as she stood up. "This princess saved your life, remember. You can at least be grateful."

Diamond rolled her eyes. "You saved my life, Silver Spoon. She just helped you do that. I won't give her credit for what my wingmare did. Was she there running from crazy lizard people with us? No? Exactly."

Silver frowned a little. "Well I'm giving her some credit. She's been really nice to me." She looked around the web-filled corridor and pointed forward. "Should we keep going?"

They advanced side-by-side, leaving the dead spider behind and soon all its webbing as well. They arrived in what appeared to be a foyer, with very fancy, but not very comfortable-looking, benches of stone and iron set up along the periphery, leading to double doors.

Diamond approached the doors, squinting. "Is that gold?"

Silver looked with her, nodding as she reached out a hoof and traced the delicate lines of gold that ran through the double stone doors. "Whoever owned this place must have been rich."

Diamond clapped Silver on the shoulder. "That's us, now! We just have to find a way out of here."

There was a heavy iron ring on either door, and they grabbed one each and pulled the door open with the dull rumble of stone against stone. Ancient air escaped from deeper within, and the only light remained the one that they brought with them.

Diamond pointed up at her tiara. "Why don't you use that spell again and make more light?"

Silver blinked. "Oh yeah." She looked around, then settled on her bow, touching it as she prayed for light. The bow began to glow brightly as the tiara snuffed out, going dark. "Aw..."

Diamond huffed. "Figures. Oh well, we'll have to work with what we have. What I wouldn't pay for a real flashlight right about now." She began to trot into the recently exposed tunnel, looking around the hallway as she went. "Come on, Silver Spoon! The faster we find the exit, the better."

Silver Spoon scurried after Diamond, and soon they reached a door to the left, a basic-looking wooden door. Time hadn't been kind to it, half hanging free of its ancient hinges. Silver gave a soft nudge, and it simply fell inwards, striking the ground with a loud slap. "Hello?"

A soft moan was her reply, and something moved in the darkness. Silver Spoon drew her bow free as Diamond Tiara pulled out her dagger. Shambling to greet them was the form of a griffon, long dead and far decayed, reaching for them with dried but still-rotting talons.