//------------------------------//
// Insects In A Jar (XI) 
// Story: Dusk Falls 
// by NorrisThePony 
//------------------------------//


i


We emerged into darkness of the most perfect kind, the darkness which only a complete lack of light can bring about. Darkness so rich I knew we were either in a cave, or floating through the far reaches of space. 

I had actually been fearfully considering the latter moments prior. We were using something which Sombra had seemingly not even fully completed, and as such it was alarmingly likely that whatever lay beyond was in fact something which did not exist, a portal which simply led nowhere. 

“Lanterns.” I ordered, whilst lighting our surroundings with my horn. Behind us the tear looked just as it had from the other side, the whiteness obscuring my kingdom beyond. Even by the light of my horn I could see that we seemed to be surrounded on all sides by rock, and when the lanterns were illuminated moments after I’d asked for them to be I could see that we indeed were in some cavern which stretched on long past the range of our lights. 

Underneath my hooves and in the air I felt moisture and a strange, intrusive scent hung all around. 

I took a brief moment to take stock of our supplies; an earth pony near the back was carrying the majority of it. Everypony except myself had a sabre tucked away in a scabbard on their sides, and two ponies were carrying flintlock rifles.

“Captain Flare, what’s the status on our communication with Lark?” 

Behind me I could hear him furiously scrawling away into the notebook with a quill. After several moments it seemed he was given a response. 

“Seems to be working through the tear," he said. I was left pondering how this could be. It certainly felt quite strange that it seemingly was working between dimensions. To my understanding they only could have worked across one plane of reality. "Where are we, Princess?” 

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said. “These are your soldiers. You can take it from here if you wish, Captain.” 

“Sky Blossom, Blue Nose, take up the front,” I heard hooves shuffle from behind me, and two guards trudged past me a little ways further into the cavern. Sky Blossom was a unicorn and Blue Nose was a pegasus, and both of them were carrying lanterns in their mouths. I was now sandwiched in between the two ponies before me and the two stallions in front. 

“There’s a lot of moisture,” An earth pony named Fox Trot whispered behind me. Despite his quiet voice, it echoed across the claustrophobic area.  

“There is,” I agreed. “Make sure you are guarding your gunpowder. There’s a smell, too. A strange smell.”

“It’s salt.” The last pony in our small party, a pegasus mare named Ilsley, declared. 

“How in Tartarus can you tell that?” Solar Flare scoffed. 

“I’ve been living on some rustbucket schooner for three years. Pretty sure I can recognize salt water when I smell it.” 

“She’s right,” I agreed. It was a scent I myself had been quite familiar with, having lived so close to the ocean as of recently. “It’s saltwater. That’s what the moisture is. I’m willing to bet there’s ocean above us.” 

Like the working journals, this also seemed strange. It was almost as though we had not left the Crimson Coast at all, and had instead teleported into some unplundered undersea caverns. Remembering the odd stone opening, I decided it was not a theory to simply discredit. 

We walked onwards through the cavern. The moisture and scent of salt started to become quite bothersome as time went on, so that it became considerably difficult to breathe. Our situation was further worsened by the heat. One might suspect such a cavern to be nearly freezing, and indeed I would have figured the same, but as it was the cavern was so warm it put the sunniest days of my summers to shame. Or perhaps it was more the fact that it was not a sunny heat at all, but a humid one of the most unpleasant kind, making the air feel as thick as syrup, forever hanging above us as we struggled to move forwards. 

The cavern seemed to have no end as it snaked onwards, although I thought it to be descending into further depths. The walls were a strange ordeal, they were carved nearly perfectly. I suspected the Smooze to be responsible for this, and I echoed this theory to the other five ponies. If they thought anything of my observation, they did not express it. In fact, other than the occasional request from myself for Captain Flare to check with the surface through the journals, we moved on in uncomfortable silence, the only sound that of six sets of hooves sloshing through the moisture filled caves, echoing across the too-perfect walls. 

“Lantern’s almost out,” Blue Nose reported after our descent had crept into it’s first hour. 

“Do we have replacement oil?” I asked. 

“We do.” Fox Trot said. He was the only pony other than myself wearing anything beyond armour, he also was sporting two huge saddlebags filled to the brim with supplies. “A whole night’s worth.” 

“Turn off one lantern anyways,” I ordered when several seconds passed and Captain Flare said nothing. “Private Sky Blossom, give your lantern to Private Blue Nose, and use your horn instead.” 

The cavern fell into slightly richer darkness as the lantern was extinguished. I don’t know if that was the reason for what ensued several minutes later, but I guiltily suspected it was. 

Quite suddenly during our descent, Sky Blossom lost his footing and fell down. His extinguished lantern detached from his armour, but did not immediately strike the floor of the cave. Instead, it continued to fall on and on, the sound of it finally shattering coming a long while after, as if it had fallen a long distance. 

The stallion himself had  been narrowly saved from falling into a sudden, vicious drop into empty blackness, managing to grab onto the side of the random cliff and drag his way back up. We all scrambled a little further back, looking warily at the darkness before us veiling the fall that had nearly rendered us one pony less. 

I was the first to move forwards, my horn still alight. 

It, however, did not seem to light far enough. I could see that the drop off seemed to be quite wide, and my horn’s light showed me that it had some sort of perfect curvature to it, like a mining quarry or sinkhole into the depths of darkness. I leaned over the edge of the precipice, trying to see if there was some way down. Where we immediately were, there was nothing, simply an abrupt fall into pure nothingness, by way of this perfectly carved downwards helix.  At the very bottom in the darkness, I thought I could see an ocean of movement, but I quickly attributed this to my eyes still getting used to the changing lighting. 

“Do we have a spare lantern?” I whispered behind me. In a moment one was lit and passed over to me. I held it over the edge with my magic, which unfortunately meant I had to stop my light spell. I kept it hovering over the edge for almost a full minute, desperately wishing it would suddenly start illuminating some staircase downwards that I had not seen before. Eventually I decided I was being wistfully foolish, and I did what I originally intended by letting my magic end and the lantern fall into the abyss. 

It’s light was never enough to illuminate the full diameter of the abyss, and so I had to settle for watching a small portion of the side closest to us instead of the entire picture. As it fell it illuminated part of the abyss in eerie succession, the darkness giving way and the orb of light growing smaller and smaller as the lantern fell further away from us. 

In the brief second before it struck the floor, I saw it. And I do believe it saw me as well, my wide eyes illuminated like tiny moons by the magic I was casting as I peered into the inky darkness.

It had looked as grotesque as it had in the picture Luna had showed me. An uncountable mass of slithery tendrils, some as large and thick as tree trunks and others as narrow and wispy as a spool of yarn, both with the resemblance of worm’s flesh but the same blackish purple colour as the rest of the monstrous creature’s form. I had seen several huge eyes like those of the grotesque giant squids lurking at the ocean’s unplundered depths, all looking up at the source of the interruption, judging me with its cold, thoughtless glare. 

And the teeth…

In the bestiary picture, it hadn’t had teeth. 

I had only glimpsed one mouth, but then again I had only glimpsed one section for a Manehattan Minute. Its teeth had been narrow and long, arched inwards into this thing’s grotesque midst. It looked perfectly suited in every fashionable sense towards its one instinct, that one terrible instinct. It was not a creature one could plead with, rationalize with, reason with, threaten or sway or outsmart. 

I stumbled backwards, in the direction of the guards who had no knowledge of what I’d just seen. 

“You’re the luckiest pony alive,” I said to Sky Blossom and laughed in mediocrely disguised dread. If he truly would have fallen over that edge...he would have been fortunate if the height had been enough to kill him. 

“What?! Is it down there?” 

“Yes,” I said. I thought of its eyes, how they had locked with mine in that one impossible moment. Swiftly, I decided I wasn’t going to be taking any chances. 

“Another lantern. Now.” I ordered, reaching a hoof behind my whilst still staring straight ahead at the black abyss before me. 

“This is our last one,” Fox Trot reminded me, refilling the near-empty lantern and passing it to me. 

“Doesn’t matter. Blue Nose, Ilsley, with me. Unicorns and earth ponies, go back and see if you can find another way down.” 

Nervously, the two pegasi shuffled next to me, the three of us teetering over the edge of the abyss. For the first time, I realized I could hear the Smooze underneath us, even if it was at least three hundred feet down. It was a sound like a snake would make, a high-pitched hiss that rarely deviated in pitch but often did in volume. It sounded not unlike a large insect trapped in a jar, fluttering its wings frantically, beating itself against the side repeatedly as it tried to force its way out. What was causing the sound, I could not say, although the mass of whale-baleen-tentacles seemed the most likely source for the disturbing slithering sound. 

“Captain Flare, pass me the notebook.” 

Swiftly, I wrote down everything I’d seen about the creature and passed it backwards again. 

“Uhh...Princess Celestia?” I heard Fox Trot murmur. I turned around. He was motioning towards something, but it was difficult for me to see by the mere light of Sky’s horn. I moved the lantern in his direction to see further. 

He had found a narrow split in the path, so small we had missed it when we had first passed by. It didn’t look quite large enough for a pony to fit through, it looked more suited to a creature that could actually crawl directly on it’s stomach, but it did look like it widened out almost immediately after the initial entranceway. 

“Do we have pick-axes or chiseling equipment?” I asked. 

“Yeah,” Fox Trot nodded, already undoing the clasp of a pick-axe which he had secured to his back. 

“Good. Please excavate that and carefully work your way down,” I commanded.  “It seems to be the proper way down anyways. Take the lantern with you, and be very careful for sudden drops. Sky, Captain Flare, you go with him. ”

I don’t exactly know when it had been decided that I was now giving the orders, but even the Captain of the Royal Guard obeyed my command without a shadow of hesitation. I turned back to the two pegasi, who were still gazing down into the perfect darkness as if hoping they could see what had instantly intensified the expedition the moment I myself had seen it. 

“Don’t worry. We’re not going down,” I said, noting their mortified looking expressions. They hadn’t even seen the creature, but they’d seen how I had reacted, and that was more than enough. “We’re flying directly upwards instead.” 

There was certainly saltwater above us, which meant that there was ocean. Recalling the blood fog billowing from the waves and the strange stone figure in the sand, I decided it was the best place to investigate. 

“Y...your Majesty…” Ilsley stuttered. From what she had said earlier, she had spent most of her life on the ocean, most likely as part of Equestria’s Navy, and as such she seemed to carry the greatest curiosity and the greatest fear of what we had found in these strange waterless undersea caverns. “What did it...look like?” 

“Like Tartarus incarnate,” came my grim reply. “Take my word, and don’t fly downwards.”

From their fearful expressions, I knew they probably did not need to convincing. 

For the third time over the course of several minutes, my mind was suddenly tormented by the eyes of the Smooze. It had certainly seen me, peering over the precipice at it, of that I had no doubt. Whether or not it would be pursuing us was a matter of more uncertain concern. Without another lantern to throw down, it was difficult for me to know. I could always shoot an energy blast downward, but that in itself would undoubtedly bring us to its attention for certain. And yet I fancied it could see us through the darkness clearly even if we could not see it, much like the monstrous squids at the ocean’s deep depths, whose eyes the Smooze seemed to share. 

In these caverns, if the Smooze gave chase, there would be no defense on our parts. There would only be six swift deaths and so many more with the last of its opposition gone. 

I realized in a moment how stupid it was for us to have come down here. 

“Solar Flare!” I called behind me. 

“Your Majesty?” 

“Write to Private Lark and ask him to tell my sister what is transpiring. Tell her if she does not hear from us, she must assume the worst.” 

“Princess? Are you sure?” 

“Do it.” I said sternly. “I was a fool to come here. If I fall, she needs to know to finish what I’ve started.” 

“Understood.” 

“Do you have a clock, Captain Flare?” I next asked. 

“I do.” 

“Good. If we are not back in two hour’s time, go back to the tear. If we have not emerged before dawn, close it and tell my sister.”

He grumbled a reluctant agreement and said nothing further. The sound of the pick-axe being swung filled the ensuing silence. 

“Okay you two,” I said to the pegasi. “Are you ready?” 

“Yes, Your Majesty.” They said in unison and saluted. 

I unfurled my wings and took off over the cliff. My stomach felt empty at the thought of what I was flying over, but my wings carried me higher and further from what lay in the depths below. By the light of my horn I flew straight up, taking note of how far it stretched in both directions. It was a little difficult flying straight up while keeping the light of my horn trained directly ahead, but I managed to do so without breaking my flight. 

Upward through darkness we flew, when suddenly a mass of teeth and sludgy flesh shifted my flight to a desperate careening barrel roll. It had been clumped on the ceiling of the cavern, too, but this time both myself and the pegasi flying on either side of me got a full, uninterrupted view of it.

And it most certainly got a view of us. 

It was sticking to the roof and the walls, it hadn’t been simply lying on the bottom of the abyss like I’d expected, but rather was coating every surface of it. My lantern must have illuminated the one pathetic path in which it had not yet congregated, everywhere else it populated in a disgusting display of dominance. This cylindrical abyss was no cavern, it was like an oversized jar containing nothing but the vile beast like one might contain strawberry jam. 

Even in the split-second when it had seen us, the sound of its hissing intensified as thin tendrils suddenly stretched downwards, flailing wildly in a vicious attempt to grab us. They were long and they seemed to be aiming for our exposed hindlegs, but we were fast as we angled our snouts straight back down into the abyss we had come from. 

We flew back downwards frantically in the darkness, but it was difficult to gauge where we had entered from, now that the lantern had been taken with the flightless ponies further into the depths. 

We overshot the entrance we had initially taken, but I had no way of knowing that at the time. Instead, I locked onto the first one I saw and desperately twisted my flight into another tight maneuver in order to make it through. I was grateful the two pegasi who were with me were trained as well as they were, for they matched my flight or perhaps even surpassed it, smoothly tearing into the entranceway and landing perfectly on their hooves. 

If they had been frightened before, they were terrified beyond further rationalization now. But they did not lock into motionless fear. They stood beside me as I twisted around to face the entranceway we had just crossed through. 

My horn had extinguished without me noticing it, and quickly I illuminated it again. The cavern mouth before us was empty, but I could hear the fly-in-a-jar siren of the approaching beast. 

“Get back, get behind me!” I screamed, flaring my wings out. “Flee!” 

“Your Majesty, we have orders to keep you safe!” One of them protested. In my panic and fear, I could not care to notice which. 

“Just do as I ask!” I barked, although I remembered they did not have a lantern and had no way of making light of their own. They might have stumbled down another cliff and right into another pile of the eldritch sludge. Reluctantly, I’d decided that for the time being, them behind me was better than them stumbling blindly into possible further danger. 

The wolf was at the door, for the Smooze had slithered its formless self up the walls and found the cavern mouth we had fled through. It was gripping both the ceiling and the floor with its sticky tendrils, while also slithering closer on the thinner ones on its bottom. It had thick tendrils on its bottom that it could use to push itself at a swifter speed through the claustrophobic caverns, but it was not using them as it approached us. Seeing it so close, the true horror of its being sunk in fully for the first time; it was formless, fleshless, meaning it could drag itself through a bed of nails and feel no pain, no desire to deter its carnivorous pursuit.

Even as it approached us, it was constantly shifting, its eyes coming and going into its disgusting midst. 

I kept my wings unfurled and began backing up, twisting my expression into a battle ready snarl. It was not light magic that illuminated the cavern in vivid red bursts, but magic which could have broken solid stone and disintegrated armour like sugar in the rain. And as the Smooze’s multiple eyes focused on my own, and its mouth opened to reveal its blade-like teeth, I let my magic loose with a furious cry. 

It flew forward, striking the substance head-on, and doing absolutely nothing. 

It was as though I had thrown a crumbled up bit of paper at an Ursa Major. It did not even sway the being from its approach, it continued on advancing towards us without a break in urgency. 

I relit my horn and took another step backwards, giving a slight start as my wing struck the poor pegasi who had been too stunned to back up themselves. 

“Sweet Mother Epona,” I heard Blue Nose mutter. 

“Keep backing up,” I whispered. It was advancing on us slowly for some reason I could not tell. If what we had been led to believe up till then was true, this being could not have been analyzing us as threats or weighing any matter of consequences, and yet it seemed to be moving at a rate only slightly swifter than the one we were backing up at. Regardless of the reason, it allowed me a temporary moment to think. Ilsley had been carrying a flintlock rifle, and while perhaps unicorn magic had no significant impact, sheer blunt force perhaps did.  

“The rifle,” I said. “Is it ready to be fired?” 

“No,” she muttered. “You said to keep the gunpowder—” 

“Alright!” I snapped. We didn’t have time to waste then, especially not on useless rationalization. “Fill it now!” 

While the Smooze was not swiftly approaching us, it was still moving at a rate that was always faster than the one we were backing away at, even as I increased the rate it increased its pace to match. There had been at least a hundred feet between us and the Smooze at the cavern mouth initially, but that distance was something like fifty now, and closing fast. Ilsley was fumbling with the rifle, gripping the barrel, doing her best to fill it with the gunpowder while advancing backwards. Not that she had much of a choice, but her grip on the gunpowder keg was clumsy especially with her hooves shaking in fright, and the whole while I was praying she did not drop it onto the water-soaked floor. 

“Is it ready?” I nearly barked. The Smooze’s outstretched tendrils were flailing at us practically at a spitting distance, and I did not like the idea of moving backwards into unknown space any further anyways. 

“I’m trying my best!” she screamed in a panic, assaulting the rifle with her ramrod. 

Even at her urgent pace, I knew the rifle wouldn’t be filled in time. But just as I was about to command them both to turn and sprint, a particularly long tendril outstretched and instantly wrapped around Blue Nose’s leg at least half a dozen times over. The poor pegasus screamed in pain and surprise, and I acted in a moment to save him. 

I unleashed a volley of magic beams at the source of the tendril on the Smooze’s formless body. It put my former assault to shame, as a multitude of blasts of the same magnitude struck this one isolated spot. 

It dealt no visible damage, but the Smooze froze in spot long enough for a loud explosion and bright flash to assault all three of our ears and eyes. The tendril gripping Blue’s leg splattered across the wall of the cave, quickly reforming and returning to the rest of the Smooze’s body. Ilsley was standing with the rifle pointed upwards in her shaking hooves, smoke billowing out from the barrel. 

I did not hesitate as the Smooze had, the moment Blue Nose was no longer being dragged towards the creature’s mouth I let loose with a teleportation spell with no destination in mind. I didn’t particularly care where it took us, so long as it was further on into the cavern and away from the creature. 

The moment the three of us had vanished further on away from the Smooze, I was turning my lit horn towards Blue’s leg. There were many thick red gashes, it had gripped him with no shortage of strength and no concept of mercy. It was a miracle it had not severed his leg off completely. 

“Are you alright?” I asked, looking into his eyes. He nodded quickly and speechlessly, looking traumatized, but otherwise unharmed. I turned to Ilsley and smiled broadly. “Good work, Private Ilsley. You can go home knowing you saved a life today.”

“Was that the Smooze?” she asked. She certainly knew it was, but seemed to be praying my answer would contradict her. 

“That’s it.” Unfortunately for her I nodded solemnly. “As you can see, my magic did little but deter it for a moment.” 

“Yeah, and the rifle didn’t actually hurt it,” she murmured, already emptying the spent gunpower and cleaning it so that it could be used again if need be. “It just broke it up a bit.”

She was, unfortunately, quite right. It seemed it had not been the rifle that had hurt it, but merely the force of the impact that had temporarily broken through its plasma form. In mere moments it had reformed, and had I not been so quick teleporting us out I imagined it would have resumed its grip on poor Blue Nose without hesitation.

And that was to say nothing of the range of the shot. We had already been at a distance I would never have advised as safe, and yet even despite the proximity we had been next to unable to harm it. I was left to wonder how we were expected to damage it from a distance if we could not even damage it at such close range. 

“Where did you teleport us?” Blue asked, his voice wavering.

“I don’t quite know. Are you good to walk?” 

“I am.” 

“Then I propose we continue down this path and attempt to find the others.” I worded it like it was a suggestion, but it was clear to the two pegasi that there was to be no argument on the matter. With the Smooze blocking the only route we could have taken to flee to where we had come from, our only other option was to move on forwards and look for another exit.  

"Ilsley, pass me the rifle for a moment, please," I said. She obeyed, and I held it in my magic whilst feeding a more permanent variation of light magic into my horn. It was a moderately difficult spell, but in a moment a small firefly-like lantern had latched itself onto the front of the rifle, casting light directly forwards more efficiently than my horn alone could have.  

We continued forwards in silence through the twisting tunnels, Ilsley leading about a dozen feet ahead with the rifle pointed forwards, and me trailing at the rear with my ears perked up attentively. Any sense of direction was lost as we trekked on, all I seemed to know was that the path was taking us nowhere close to where we had come. Ilsley was eternally swinging the rifle and my extension our beam of light around, constantly scanning the walls for splits in the path, but alas there was nothing but the route forwards into further unplundered depths. 

The Smooze was still behind us, that I knew, and I frequently commanded us to stop while I turned to listen for its hissing sound. That so far had been the only flaw in its design I had observed, the sound of its rapidly moving tendrils which loudly signaled its approach. 

The fact that its only notable flaw was something so pathetic was...discouraging. 

"Celestia!" Ilsley suddenly broke my somber thoughts as she called out. She was beyond a bend in the path and I could not see her, but her voice carried clearly. "Ahem. Sorry. Princess Celestia." 

"What is it?" I asked, coming to a wary halt. Blue Nose had frozen and turned to look back at me, looking unwilling to move forwards himself. 

"The path opens up," she said, sounding nervous. "Opens to...what exactly, I can't say." 

Curiosity overpowered caution, but I was in no mood to let the Smooze creep up on us. I ordered Blue Nose to keep watching our flank while I moved around the bend also. Ilsley had the rifle pointed directly ahead, revealing not a horrifying sight nor mysterious drop off but instead a fairly ordinary looking, library-like area. Many books lined the shelves, and there was an old wooden table directly in the middle of the room. There was even a fireplace and some rotten wood in one corner of the room. The dampness and humidity of the caves had not done wonders for the room; many of the books were curled with spines that were illegible, and the table looked far too fragile to properly hold any sort of weight. 

"What is this place?" Ilsley pondered. "Looks like some sort of study, but why here?" 

"It's a shelter," I breathed. There were plenty of books, but also on other shelves was canned food and water contained in musty jars. It looked hardly appetizing, but no more than a few months old. I found a candle on the table and several more on the shelves, and I lit one to pass to Blue while stuffing a few more in the space between my stomach and my golden regalia, and with a moment's contemplation I shoved some random books into Ilsley's saddlebags as well. 

"Shelter from what? Maybe the Smooze?" 

"Yes," I agreed. "I think you're right." 

"Princess!" Blue's frantic voice screamed. "We've got company!" 

As it turned out, it did not seem to matter how much guard any of us had raised towards its approach, for if Blue would not have announced it I still would have heard the sound of its hissing approach even though I had not been listening for it. If before it could have been considered creeping up on us, then it seemed it chose to abandon this tact for one of considerably less subtly. 

When I tore around and intensified my light to illuminate the tunnel further, positioning myself between Blue Nose and the dark tunnel ahead, I saw it approaching with its massive tendrils gripping the ceiling, walls, and floor, advancing towards us as fast as a speeding chariot in those races one could bet bits on. Even with its featureless, faceless nature, it looked like it was furious, although I knew this could not have been true, and was instead a projection of my own fearful mind. Its many mouths were open wide with the empty depths of its body clearly exposed, and for the first time I realized there were multiple rows of teeth beyond the initially visible ones, just as sharp and only slightly decreasing in size as they descended. It flung itself effortlessly forwards at terrifying speeds, somehow alarmingly precise in its movements even with the wild manner in which it traveled. 

“Get back!” I screamed at the guards behind me. 

I cast a magic barrier between us and the creature. Surprisingly, it actually held somewhat, for a brief moment of several precious seconds, but more effective than anything we had attempted before. It quickly shattered through, but I carefully noted how barriers operated differently from direct assaults. As brief as the barrier's life had been, it gave me enough time to tear back around into the study area, cast another barrier at the beginning of the bend, and frantically search for a solution. 

"The entrance!" I barked. Against my instincts, I moved forwards to investigate where the Smooze would soon be emerging from, but my horn was alight with magic and my mind a flurry of determination. I found what I had been searching for in moments, a loose bit of stone that perhaps was supposed to be operated by some mechanism but was malleable enough that I was able to forcibly move it across the entranceway. 

It was a door, a thick one of solid stone, and it was now blocking us from the beast trying to claw its way towards us. 

"That isn't going to last," I gasped, slightly exhausted from the heavy magic I'd just cast. I could still hear the Smooze's hissing, but I could also hear the sizzling sound of something else, too. To my horror, the stone was already starting to chip away as it was beaten mercilessly by the creature. This books in this study could very well have been the final clue we would need to determine who was behind all this, but the Smooze would be through before too long, and I knew better than to put knowledge before the lives of the ponies I should not have dragged with me. 

"Well then you're gonna love this," Ilsley said, too exhausted and terrified to speak with any actual emotion. "We're trapped in here." 

Indeed, she was right. The study was a room with only one entrance, one which I had just been forced to block off. It was only a matter of time before the Smooze was through, and then there would be no stone door to keep it from reaching us. 

"We're dead!" Blue Nose cried in defeat. "I don't want to die! Not to that thing!" 

"Indeed, it's not a very preferable way to go," I agreed, resting a calming wing on the shaking pegasus. "Nor shall it be. Control your prattling, Private. You have a task." 

"What are we supposed to do?" he moaned, shoving my wing away with surprising force. Ilsley tensed at his hostility, but I said nothing. He was having some sort of nervous breakdown and I wasn't about to waste time scolding him for it. But nevertheless it was counter-productive to our cause. 

"We are to survive, and we are to do so by remaining calm," I said firmly. My wing once again made contact with the pegasus, but this time it was to force him back onto his feet and off the wet and cold ground. 

Once he was back up, stunned but seemingly attentive, the stone gave a sudden aggressive crack, and a heavy chunk of it broke away. In a moment the Smooze had already tried forcing its way through the small opening the missing chunk had made. I blasted it with magic, a worthless move fueled by instinct, and swore bitterly as it began flailing its way through the hole, outstretching impossibly long tendrils in an attempt at grasping us. Our backs were against the opposite wall of stone. I grasped the bookshelves and table and toppled them both so that they fell between us, and then whipped around to turn my attention to the wall. I slid my hoof across it, desperately searching for some sort of imperfection in the smooth stone, a straight line which signaled where an entrance was supposed to be. 

I found none. Loudly, the rest of the stone shattered, and the Smooze dragged its way through, the toppled books and other affairs flowing into it and not impeding its movement in the slightest. If in its brain it had the capacity to learn, then it must have realized its mistake prior. It did not simply grab at Ilsley’s leg as it had Blue’s. With several tendrils it wrapped around her entire body. She dropped the flintlock rifle in fright, and it hit the water-covered ground of the study, becoming worthless the moment it did.

Her fearful shout was obscured as it tightly gripped her entire form, hindering her breathing and dragging her towards its open mouths this time without hesitation. 

“Princess!” she managed to scream out. 

I did not wait to approach it safely, instead I leapt forwards with my horn alight with power and determination fueling my loud scream. The impact of my blasts was in no sparse supply, I fired barrage after barrage of the strongest magic I could muster directly at the tendrils pulling the pegasus mare towards it. This creature may have been a powerful eldritch relic, designed with one murderous purpose alone, but I was Princess Celestia, and I wasn’t about to watch it harm one of my loyal subjects. 

Every single one of my blasts impacted it directly, and every single one had virtually no impact beyond the same temporary shock. I had mustered as much offensive energy I could and directed it towards the small patch of tendrils, and the most they had managed to do was detach one of the dozens of wispy tentacles wrapped around Ilsley’s body. When it was destroyed, another replaced it in an instant, even if the necessity was hardly there with so many others presently carrying out the same task. 

All my anger, all my determination, and it had done next to nothing. 

When the initial instinct to attack faded, and with only seconds to think of another, I formed a teleportation spell. I’d warily put it off before, knowing that the tendrils would still be gripping her even if I managed to distance her from the rest of the creature. She would likely still be killed, only she at least would not be literally devoured by the creature itself. 

My teleportation spell sputtered and did nothing. Whatever magic I cast towards her, the Smooze seemed to be effortlessly countering it. I could not impact it, and now that she was in its grasp, I could not impact her.

Before a third solution could reach my mind, I let out a panicked scream as I felt many of its tentacles wrap around my leg also. The leg was flooded with a burning sensation, and I quickly discovered that the Smooze seemed to carry with it some sort of acidic properties that could be felt even by merely coming in contact with it. I fell to the ground, and as I did my horn was plunged almost directly into its midst. I did not realize until that moment how truly close to the creature I was. 

When I next went to cast magic, the sensation was as though I did not have a horn at all. I could not even feel the familiar vibration, it might as well have not been there. 

“Princess!” I heard Ilsley scream out again. She was too close to the creatures acidic midst, if I did not act swiftly, she would fall victim to the grotesque beast. With the desire to feed the only thought on its mind, my final destination seemed to be the same as hers, which meant I was close enough to reach out and grasp the saber still in its scabbard on her side. It was stuck somewhat in place by the sludge coating both of us, but with all my might I pulled it out and brought it down hard onto the tendrils gripping first her, and then myself. It cut through with great effort on my part, and we both fell to the ground and instantly stumbled backwards. The strong, professionally made blade broke in two the moment it hit the ground, the Smooze’s acidic properties tearing through the steel with disturbing ease. If it had such an impact on pure steel, I shuddered to think how a pony would fare against it. 

Ilsley was coughing violently as she tried to force air into her lungs, while I still struggled to feed magic into my horn. It was still covered in the purple sludge, but worst, I could not seem to be able to free it even as I clawed at it with my hooves. It had solidified onto it like cement, and I could feel a strange tingling sensation as if it were corroding. 

I didn’t wait any further to try to dislodge the sludge. Instead I took off in rapid flight as Ilsley and Blue did the same, our flight taking us directly atop the creature for one horrible moment as we fled back through the narrow entrance we had emerged from. It was perhaps fortunate that it had advanced so far into the study to reach us, for if it hadn't we undoubtedly would not have been able to outmaneuver its flailing tentacles. The Smooze was pursuing us in an instant, the sound of its tentacles raising in intensity as it flung itself forwards once more. With no magic at my disposal, I could cast no barriers or teleport us any further, and so we had to rely on speed alone to escape it. Me and Ilsley were both covered in patches of the sludge, and I could feel it burning as it had my horn, but fortunately none of it was on either of our wings impeding our flight. 

With the rifle-light gone and the candles too damp to be lit, we were flying largely in the blind, but the path behind us was lit somewhat by the Smooze’s strange bioluminescence. It was by this light that we caught sight of a sudden deviation in the path, with one section continuing forwards while the other curved downwards. I tore into the latter path, praying to all above that it led back to the main cylindrical room. 

After twenty minutes of exhausting flight, with many a collision with the walls around us that might as well have been invisible because of the darkness, it did. I could see the dancing light of the lantern in an entrance far above, the only light in an ocean of darkness before us. Through open space we flew, twisting into the exposed path and collapsing. Our wings were screaming out abuse at us for pushing them so hard, but I was merely thankful we had made it without anypony getting hurt, not that the corrosive burns coating our bodies could not have been considered painful.

“Unicorns, cast a barrier at the entranceway!” I said, gasping for breath. The first words I’d spoken to them after our rendezvous were urgently barked orders, but Sky Blossom and Captain Flare obeyed without hesitation. 

I stumbled back on shaking hooves to look over the precipice once more, now divided by the shimmering barrier. I could see the dim luminescence of the Smooze on the other side, far below, as it clawed its way back up the wall. Its long tendrils were not long enough to fully reach the other side, but it was rapidly dragging itself around the circumference of the abyss towards us. 

“We’re moving back to the tear. I’m right behind you all, but get going now!” I commanded firmly, indirectly telling them I was willing to drag them there if I had to. “Private Fox Trot, do you still have that pickaxe?” 

Stunned, he passed it towards me. I took it, and gripping it gently began using it to claw away the concrete sludge coating my horn. The entire appendage screamed out like it was a loose tooth as I did, and once it was free from the Smooze I realized in horror that it was loose. Any solid impact and the whole horn could have detached completely. Alicorn horns do indeed grow back, but they take can take months of time I could not spare if the Smooze was this powerful and ready to be unleashed into Equestria. We’d been dreadfully unprepared to descend into these depths, but knowing that the creature was so powerful and that we had so little time to prepare made me grateful we had. It had been stupid and dangerous, but the ignorance we’d have possessed would certainly have been much worst. 

I picked away the last of the sludge and dropped the pickaxe with a clatter. Planting both hooves firmly I stood my ground as the Smooze clawed its way closer and closer, coming into view in the entranceway. It shattered through the barrier and advanced closer. I cast a split-seconds gaze backwards and saw that the rest of the guards had all taken significant steps back, except for Solar Flare.

“Captain Flare, I gave you an order to flee,” I said, casting another barrier slightly closer to us. The Smooze hesitated a moment at this one, taking a full ten seconds to break through it. It was enough time for Solar Flare to give me a response. 

“Promised I would protect you, Your Majesty.” 

“Then get beside me and help me with these barriers. It’s at least a thirty minute sprint back to the tear, and your guards aren’t going to make it unless we can hold this off. You all, move!”

Everypony obeyed me without question, but while everypony else fled and the light from the lantern dimmed and vanished, Solar Flare and Sky Blossom both trotted next to me. 

“I can help with the barriers,” Sky said, his horn already springing to life. 

“Fine. Thank you.” I said. There was no time for me to chastise him for ignoring my orders, and any help truly was appreciated, moral implications aside. 

The Smooze shattered through the next barrier, but I was quick to cast another one. My horn still felt weak and painful from the exposure to the corrosive sludge. If I were to raise a hoof to feel it, I would see that heavy chunks of it had come free, giving it a crude, changeling-like appearance. I knew that to press it any further would cause it to tumble out like the loose tooth it felt like. Every bit of magic I cast further injured my crippled horn. The damage was not merely aesthetic, and I felt it with every ounce of magic I cast. 

And Solar Flare must have seen it in my grimace, because when the Smooze broke through the third barrier he cast another before I had a chance to, Sky instantly helping. Even with both unicorns casting it, the barrier was weaker and dissolved after only five seconds, but it was a precious moment in which I could afford to allow  little more energy to flow into my precariously damaged horn. 

We alternated maintaining barriers, every single one shattering with a loud snapping noise. The only light was produced from our dimly glowing magic barriers, and the phosphorous Smooze slamming itself against them. I had thought we’d found a solid strategy, but my belief was swiftly proved to be overly presumptuous.

The audible noise of the shattering barriers must have gotten the attention of more of the Smooze, because suddenly a larger amount of it slithered its way into our tunnel. It melded with the other clump seamlessly, mouths and eyes flowing between them without it breaking its assault of our barrier even for a second. 

Now, every single barrier we cast broke free in the blink of an eye. It quickly became evident that to keep casting the barriers would only result in us becoming exhausted, me losing my horn, and the Smooze killing us all. If we did not move now, we would never have a chance later.

“We need to move,” I echoed my thoughts out loud. “You two go on ahead.” 

“No, Princess,” Solar Flare shook his head. “Your life is the priority. Not ours.” 

I turned around, looking at the dancing torchlight of the other three fleeing ponies, and then back at the Smooze less than two dozen feet before us. 

“You’re not going to be able to fight that off,” I reminded them, although it seemed like a bland statement of the obvious. “It’s going to kill you both.” 

He nodded. The shield shattered, Sky quickly created another one that Solar Flare strengthened with magic of his own. They were growing exhausted, I could see it, and every moment spent was a moment closer to death. And if I could not be around to protect Dusk Falls, how many others might perish? It was painful to admit, but I could not save these two ponies without possibly sacrificing thousands more. The only other option would have been teleportation, but with my horn hanging on by mere fibers and with the other two stallions next to depleted of magic themselves, that too was an impossibility. Besides, somepony would have had to stay behind to keep the barriers in place to slow down the Smooze anyways. 

“You’re both brave stallions,” I said, swallowing with difficulty. “Equestria will not forget you.” 

Against every moral instinct, I forced myself to turn and flee. The poor ponies were left behind in the darkness to carry out their final stand, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help them. The sounds of the shattering barriers echoed on and on, and I was already dreading when the sound stopped completely. I ran on through the tunnels, breathing shakily from both dread and exhaustion. Before I even caught up with the others I could no longer hear the shattering barriers, but whether or not this was because of distance I did not know, but not long after it had ceased, the cavern walls shook as a much louder explosion echoed through them, coming from a long distance away but carrying well enough that I could still hear it. It took me a moment to recognize it as the sound of the rifle being shot.

There was not another sound after that, but I caught up with the others at where we had entered less than a minute afterwards. 

“Captain Solar Flare and Private Sky Blossom are both dead,” I reported somberly. They had been chattering frantically amongst themselves, but had fallen silent when I’d arrived. Now, they looked at me with pleading disbelief. 

“You were saying about things “getting any worse?” Ilsley eventually snarled at Fox Trot, abruptly breaking the silence. 

“The tear is gone,” he said, hanging his head, as if it were something he could have controlled. “We’re trapped.” 

I twisted my mouth in disbelief and looked at the cavern around us. I’d assumed they had not yet reached the entranceway, but on closer examination I realized this was exactly the spot where the tear had been. It was gone now, and the Smooze was presently tearing through the tunnels towards us. 

All we could do was keep fleeing, but there was no way we could outrun the rapidly approaching sludge forever. 

“Fox Trot, please tell me you have the journal?” I asked, and sighed wearily. Despite the overpowering dread, it was all I could muster. 

He didn’t, but  Blue Nose did. I took it and urgently flipped forwards. I could see in alternating ink patterns our previous messages, my party’s in blue and the writing from the other side in red. 

The last message was in red, and it was scrawled in writing so urgent and swiftly composed it was almost illegible. 

“Tear is closing! Crystals are spent. Cannot reopen until fresh crystals are placed. Estimated twenty minutes.” 

“Those bastards!” Fox Trot snarled, reading over my shoulder. “How are we supposed to last twenty minutes with that abomination on our asses?!” 

The other two ponies instantly exploded in similarly furious, panicked chattering.

“Calm down!” I barked. “Fox Trot, give me all of the spare lantern oil.” 

He obeyed, withdrawing several large jugs of the kerosene. I grabbed one, and carried it with me as I trotted back in the direction we had come, the other three ponies nervously following me. It was quite frightening doing so, knowing I was travelling in the direction where the eldritch beast was presently racing from. At a distance of about six hundred feet I stopped and began emptying the entire jug of kerosene directly in front of us. The thin layer of water below became clouded and murky as I poured it, which was exactly what I was hoping to see. I emptied two entire jugs, leaving us with two more. 

“Matches!” I commanded. I took one and stepped backwards, doing my best to keep it from falling out of my dodgy magic aura. The walls of the cave seemed too wet to be able to light the match on, but fortunately there was a striker on the box of matches itself. 

“Back up, you three,” I said. “Pour a jug of the kerosene, twice at two-hundred feet intervals, and then wait for me. Leave one jug full but use all of the other.” 

“Careful you don’t burn yourself, Your Majesty…” Blue Nose warned. I was practically standing in the puddle of kerosene.

“I'm the bloody Princess of the Sun,” I replied with an air of humor, earning a giggle from all three of the terrified ponies. 

“Do you know if fire affects it?” Ilsley asked. 

“No. For all our sakes, let’s hope it does. Now get moving, you three. Two hundred feet intervals. Use it sparingly. ” 

I listened to their hooves sloshing onwards through the cave, locking my eyes straight ahead and lighting my horn. Even the weak spell hurt immensely. I kept the entirety of my attention focused straight ahead, my eyes wide open and my ears straining for the slightest sound. 

After a minute, it came. The same terrible hissing sound, as the Smooze tore forwards. I bared my teeth when I saw a chunk of the Royal Guard’s armour still embedded in its midst, already starting to corrode like everything else seemingly had. I remembered the bones in my dream, and wondered if I would see them if I were to retrace my steps back towards where Sky and Solar Flare had made their last stand. In my mind I had no desire to find out. 

When it was a dozen feet in front of me, I struck the match and tossed it forwards. I didn’t see the kerosene light as I whipped around, but I certainly felt its heat even as the distance between me and the puddle increased. 

A terrible screeching resounded behind me, and I afforded myself a quick backwards glance to see how the Smooze had reacted to the fire. The meaning of the sound quickly became clear, and I realized what it meant as I saw the Smooze began to reform itself out of the pieces that had splattered into the water below. 

It had screamed out in pain. 

A short distance down the path I caught sight of a small orb of orange light. It was a match, somehow still lit despite the shaking hoof of the pony holding it. 

“Ilsley,” I said, panting. “Fire slows it.”

“Nice. Good call, Princess,” she breathed a sigh of relief. 

“When you see it, light the kerosene,” I told her. I could still see the kerosene I had lit, but it had diluted with the salt water and wouldn’t last much longer than a few minutes. Even more discouraging was the Smooze, which was passing through the fire now. Either its flesh had built a tolerance to the fire, or the initial heat of the flames had died enough for it to creep through. I remembered how the sudden, unexpected impact from the rifle blast had similarly affected it, and decided it was likely the latter. 

The Smooze was advancing on us again, but it was doing so at a slower pace, either injured from the flames or proceeding forth with increased caution. We would have five minutes at best before it reached us. Precious time, but still not enough for the tear to reopen. 

I trotted forwards the rest of the distance to the other two guards, who were illuminated by the lantern. 

“The fire slows it,” I repeated. 

“Where are you going?” Blue Nose asked, as I brushed past them and kept heading down the path.

“Past where we entered. The path continued onwards. If I’m not back when the tear reopens, and the Smooze is right behind you, light the rest of the kerosene and go through, alright? Close the tear once you’re through and I’ll contact you with the journal so you can reopen it.”

“And if the Smooze is behind us before the tear opens?” 

“Burn the kerosene and keep running.” 

"Need a helping hoof, Princess?" Fox Trot asked, trotting after me. I thanked him, and the two of us both turned and carried onwards at a steady sprint.  Soon we came to the opening where the tear had been, but we did not stop, instead keeping our run centered on the path which continued onwards. The path continued on much the same as it did in the other direction, and I didn’t want to leave the others too far behind. Then again, we were likely not going to get another chance to investigate this place, for I doubted our little incursion would go completely unnoticed by something more than the Smooze. 

And frankly, I wanted it to be noticed. Two ponies I’d liked had died today and I wanted to meet whatever had taken them from me. Not the Smooze, but whatever beast could possibly find moral justification in creating something so grotesque. 

Behind me I saw a sudden flash of light as the second puddle of kerosene was lit. Mentally I calculated the time it would burn, and how long it would take for the Smooze to once again clear the distance. It had taken shy of five minutes for it to reach the first one, and assuming it took the same amount of time we had another ten minutes before we were completely out of time. We were cutting things close, but it seemed like with a bit of luck we might actually make it. 

Suddenly, far ahead, I caught a glimpse of light of an odd colour. It was not orange like fire nor was it the black-light colour of the Smooze. It was a neon green that I was quite certain I’d seen before in Dusk Falls. 

It took me and Fox Trot about three minutes to finally reach it, but eventually we emerged into a wide opening of glowing crystals. It was easily the brightest area of the caverns, but even it was not without its lurking dark corners. There was no immediate drop off (I took care to check this instead of falling as Sky Blossom had almost) instead this clearing was the same level as the rest of the cavern but much wider. It was covered in glowing crystals that I once again thought were most certainly familiar. I racked my brain for the source, and eventually it came to me. They were the same colour as the phosphorous stones in the cove where Orange Blossom’s son had first gone missing. It had seemed like so long ago since I’d first investigated that cave for clues of what had happened to him, and I never would have guessed the beautifully eerie luminescent crystals would turn up again, much less in a place like this.

I ordered Fox Trot to keep an eye at the path we had come from while I headed into the clearing further. Cautiously, I approached one of the crystals, because I thought I could see something else other than the glowing light. I nearly stumbled back in surprise when I inspected it closer. 

Encased in the crystal was a grotesquely decomposed pony. 

The last keg of kerosene had lit in that time, but I was too shocked to notice even if it would have been close enough for me to hear. I inched closer to analyze the pony...its eyes were still open, but its pupils looked lifeless. The crystal tinted everything green, even the terrible gashes and abrasions in the poor pony’s fur. Not only did it look severely injured, it looked criminally malnourished. My thoughts were nothing but a mix of fury and fear as I forced myself to keep looking at the pony. My gaze seemed to be eternally drawn to its face, locked forever in a state of pleading fear and desperation, as if it were trying to reach through the barrier of death to beg for me to save it, as if its eyes could—

Suddenly, its pupil shifted. 

I let out an audible gasp of surprise, although whether the surprise was of relief or of terror I do not know. I continued staring, wondering if what I had seen was a simple trick of the mind, the light of my horn dancing off it in a particular way that seemed to make it look as though…

No, once again its pupil shifted, and then locked with mine. Focused. And then its eye blinked. Shakily the pony opened its mouth and raised a hoof, but the gesture seemed to be beyond it and took a great deal of effort.

I do not fully know why, but I was filled with an unshakable instinct to speak to it. 

“Can you...can you hear me?” I asked. The injuries it had sustained were so severe that I didn’t know what gender this pony was, and I was left swamped on what pronoun to address it by. “You can, can’t you. Don’t worry, I’m here. I’ll get you out…” 

Fox Trot must have turned to see what I was talking to, because the sound of his voice nearly caused me to leap up in fright.

"Shit!" he had exclaimed when he saw the deteriorated hoof reaching out, trying to touch me from beyond the crystal. "What in Tartarus..." 

"It's a pony," I stated the obvious. Clearly not what he was asking, but the answer he received regardless. "Come help me free it from the crystal. Do you still have the pickaxe?" 

"I've got a smaller chiseling kit for excavation," he said, joining me in front of the pony. "It should work better." 

"Perfect. Please be careful not to hurt the pony." 

Fox Trot nodded zealously and wordlessly set to work with the chiseling kit. The pony blinked several more times at the loud noise of the crystal chipping away, and its eyes became more and more alive with fright as it seemed to be clawing its way into further consciousness.

"Everything is going to be fine," I told it, pressing my hoof to its own which could not make contact through the crystal. A heavy chunk fell and it started in fright. Even with its eyes wide open it seemed as though it could not actually see or hear us too well. 

It took a whole of three minutes for the first chunk of crystal to come loose but progress swiftly sped up afterwards. Fox Trot was nothing if not a hard and precise worker, and he made quick work of the rest of the crystal afterwards. Both of us helped lift the pony from the rest of the crystal still clinging onto her with odd persistence. The pony flinched greatly as our hooves made contact with its injured flesh, but it was an unfortunate necessity to keep it from tumbling to the ground and shattering its fragile bones. 

"My name is Celestia," I said, as its eyes blinked to adjust to the light no longer tinted green. "And this is Private Fox Trot. He's going to take you home, alright?" 

The pony was, impressively, standing on its own, although it was doing so on hooves which were shaking viciously, as if it were about to collapse at any moment. For the first time I noticed a stub of marrow on its forehead, a unicorn horn dissolved nearly into nothingness. The pony was standing, but if we were to get it back to the tear then it would need to walk, too. 

"Fox Trot, you need to help this pony walk, understood? Take her back to the tear and go through," I told him. "You need to hurry before the tear closes, so move as fast as you can manage." 

"And you, Princess?" 

"I'll signal you with the journal so that you can open it again," I replied. I needed to stay a few more minutes to see how many more ponies were encased in these terrible prisons. I would have to send in more guards to free them, but whether or not I would once again accompany them I had not then decided. "Get moving, Private." 

He saluted and kicked off his heavy gear, saddlebags, and saber. He was a strong pony, and even with the entirety of the ponies weight resting on him he made quick progress as he disappeared back where we had come. 

I turned to the crystals once more when he was gone, inching forwards in fearful anticipation of what I would once again see within the next crystal. It was impossible to tell whether or not the pony we had just saved had been there for a single day or a hundred years with the sad bit of evidence we presently had, but perhaps with another crystallized pony to use as evidence I could know for certain how many needed to be saved if I indeed was going to send more guards in to help them. 

As it was now, I had to be leaving soon, even if the desire to investigate the crystals was as overpowering as it was terrifying. I was just about to take a look at another when I was greeted from one of the dark corners of the crystal chamber. 

“Just saving the one, Princess?” A voice as familiar as that of a friend addressed me. “Bit cruel to the other ponies here, don’t you say?”

Without having to look, I knew that if I were to inspect the other crystals, what I would see would be quite the same. And in a moment of revelation I knew exactly what these ponies were, why they were here. I bet if I looked at every single crystal I would see Morning Glory’s poor son here, too. The ocean far above us...the blood fog seeping from underneath the waves, it all made an alarming amount of sense. But this time….

“This time,” I said it aloud, needing to hear the words beyond my own muddled brain.  “I’m not dreaming.” 

“Which means we can finally meet formally,” she said from the darkness. 

“You’re a sick monster,” I growled, a blunt, obvious statement, but the only one I could think of through my clouded mind. Truly I was afraid. In my current state, with my horn hanging by a few easily breakable fibers and with thick holes in it, could I truly fight her off long enough to get to safety? 

“Guilty, as charged.” she stepped forward into the light cast by the crystal before me. She looked exactly as she had in my dreams, this time with both her wings and horn. She was wearing a barbaric crown with sharp looking spikes that seemed to circle it all around. 

“You killed two more ponies today,” I said acidly. “If you think you’re standing on safe ground—” 

“If I threw a rock at your horn I could tear it off, Princess Celestia. If you think you’re standing on safe ground I invite you to try your best.” 

I said nothing, and across the bridge of silence she approached me further. 

“You have two choices, Princess. Fight me here, lose your horn, and become lunch to a mess of sludge, or flee like a coward, with your colourful tail tucked between your legs.” 

“What’s your name?” I asked. An unfitting response, and hardly a question that mattered at the moment, but a question I’d wanted the answer to for almost nine months unending. 

And, as if it did not matter, she casually told me. 

“Hydia. Pleased to meet you formally, Princess Celestia,” she held a hoof, as if I were expected to shake it. I took a single step back and let the name reverberate through my head. 

“Hydia…” I said aloud. “Hydia the Witch. I...I read a fairy tale about you to...to my younger sister.” 

“Oh, you did? How flattering!” 

I twisted my shocked expression into a smug, close-lipped smile.

“You lost,” I recounted, and my smile grew further. I was still terrified, but I truly did find it humorous. “You lost to breezies.” 

She did not respond, nor did she break her contempt expression, but I had the impression I had stricken a nerve regardless.

“And you were hideous,” I carried on, nearly chuckling aloud. I felt as mad as Discord and did not seem to care. It had been a long night.“No wonder you take the form of an alicorn. You were a hideous, stout little—”

“Enough!” she snapped. For the first time, I heard anger in her voice. “You think you’re a goddess yourself?”

I had a sharp, witty response, and then I realized she was not talking about appearance, but about power. The last thing I was going to do was flaunt my abilities in order to prove my worth. 

“You saw the Smooze, Princess. And you were powerless. You nearly became a pile of bones yourself.” 

She wasn’t wrong. I stayed my tongue and let her continue. 

“When I release it onto the surface, what exactly are you going to do to stop it? Burn Equestria?” 

“You’re from our fairy tales…” I repeated dumbly, choosing to ignore her question since I had no response. “How can that be?” 

She shrugged. 

“How many of your adventures shall fall into legend and myth when you’re gone? Which by the way, is soon. How much of history can be purged when one attempts to raze the world of life?” 

“That’s not an answer.” 

“Isn’t it? Tell me, Celestia, what came before Discord? Do you remember?” 

Discord had already been in power for a thousand years when Luna and I were born. I had always assumed there had been nothing. Ancient history...if it had existed at all, had been eradicated by time he had fallen. And it would be again, if the Smooze was allowed to carry out Hydia’s murderous ‘raze.’

“But the mirror,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re not from this world, not originally. Did you die in yours?” 

“Dying’s complicated when you’ve cast spells on yourself to prevent it from happening.” 

“You’re skilled with magic,” I nodded. “A witch. I never knew your species actually existed. You cheated death. But it’s not that easy, is it?” 

“I was weak. Defeated twice too many. My power was in shambles, my body broken. I was no more than a disembodied consciousness, but there was a thread...an opening…” 

“Sombra’s Mirror,” I nodded again. “That was your ‘opening.’ And you took it. But you still didn’t gain any power. Not the power you have now. You shapeshift, you alter dreams. It’s not magic of your realm, it’s magic of mine.” 

Smiling, Hydia used her magic to remove the crown from her head. Her pupils vanished and her eyes flashed red for a moment as she did, but swiftly returned to normal as if it had not happened at all. She floated the crown closer so that I could get a closer look at it, while taking care to actually keep it out of my grasp. 

I’d thought it to be a crown of spikes. I’d been wrong. It was a crown circled all around by the severed horns of too many varying creatures. Unicorn. Changeling. Minotaur. And...a blue horn that I’d seen so many times…

Luna’s. 

She’d lost it in a vicious battle from a time long passed, not dissimilar to how close I was to losing my own currently. She had been forced to flee, and the horn had never been seen again. Like the wares in the Manehattan Curio Shop I had visited, it was a highly sought after magic relic like the Alicorn Amulet or the Crystal Heart. The power of an alicorn. 

Of course, nothing was that simple. Severing a pony from their horn was the magical equivalent of trying to make tea without flames. You could produce a shadow of it, surely, but nothing even resembling the intended product. It took a great deal of research,  effort, and dark magic to breathe light into something whose power source had been severed, but once one did…

The fire was lit, and the water would boil. 

It explained the dream magic. It explained the shapeshifting. Her magical nature was impossible to trace because it was all of it at once. I’d literally said it to Luna and not realized the implication. 

“You’re a being of recycled power,” I said with disgust. “Even the Smooze isn’t powered by yourself. It’s powered by…” 

I looked at the ponies trapped in the crystals, being kept alive for such a terrifying purpose. There were hundreds of crystals, hundreds of ponies who had gone missing through the years. Would they all be alive, even the one’s whose ages had perhaps approached the triple digits? Would the crystals keep them alive while sucking away at their power, a sick paradox of an innocent ponies hellish fate? 

I crinkled my nose at Hydia and took a step back. The Smooze would surely have made it past the flames now, meaning the tear was surely closed. My mind was already preparing to flee, for if I did not act quickly I would never make it home. Hydia seemed preoccupied with taunting me anyways, and if any moment would have been ideal for me to suddenly turn tail and run it was swiftly slipping. Still, I needed answers and could not think of when else I would be able to get them. 

"Why are you doing this? Us ponies have no qualm with you, we would even have forgiven your crimes and helped you if you simply would have approached us. Why would destroying all life be an ideal goal?" 

"Ah, Celestia, you have no creativity. And your ideal little utopia, as you see it, sickens me. I'd much prefer to rule over a world as I see fit." 

"A world where everything is dead," I said levelly. 

"A chance to start again," she matched my tone exactly. "Just like you and Luna did with Discord." 

"We salvaged the remains of a world he had nearly destroyed. That's entirely different from wiping it of life so that you can start over as the goddess you pretend you are." 

"Your assumption runs on the logic that I am completely alone."

My questioning response was lost to a sudden, terrible screeching sound that resonated through the tunnels, so high-pitched that a splitting headache instantly tore across my skull. I don't fully know how, but I knew that what I was hearing was the Smooze, for the first time making some strange vocal noise. It did not sound like it had emanated from where I had come, instead it sounded as though it was coming from further beyond the crystal room that I had not explored. It hadn't even occurred to me until then that there were several of the cylindrical caverns housing the vile substance. From the grin on Hydia's face, I knew the reason it had screeched, and magic glowing not from her horn but from Luna's on her crown confirmed that she had willingly summoned it. 

Our confrontation had been brief, and anticlimactic, considering how long I had been anticipating it. Somewhat guiltily, I considered what I had been expecting; some epic battle, perhaps with the fate of innocent ponies at stake. I don't know if it was because of tradition that I thought of this, but more often than not it truly had been the case. The enemies I had faced were not stupid, and they knew that the best way to gain leverage over me was to put themselves between me and my subjects. Hydia undoubtedly knew this too, but in my present state there would and could be nothing at all resembling a show of power nor battle of wits. I had one option and one option alone, and it was to flee. But I knew that this meeting in the caverns was no true confrontation, nor did it represent either of us at the potential we would both soon be at. I had seen with my own eyes the Smooze, and not even a large amount of it had driven us all back. And she had so much more in wait, soon to be released to devour life on Equestria as I knew it. The worst was quite evidently still to come, and it would not be in these dingy caverns that I faced it. 

It had perhaps been the most cowardly thing I’d ever done, but at the moment the fate of my nation mattered more than my personal pride. I turned tail and sprinted back where I had come, whipping the journal open as I ran. It was difficult writing while sprinting, especially by the uneven, flickering light of my horn, but thankfully my request to “openheportalp lease” was understood by whoever was presently staring at the journal. The sprint back felt too long, I couldn’t fly from exhaustion and my horn had started to pulsate in a rhythmic fashion, most of my energy seeming like it was being sucked away simply to keep the infernal thing on my head. 

A unicorn's horn is directly linked to the conscious mind. When one casts magic, it requires thought and focus. As such, when the horn is in the process of coming off, the impact on the mind is substantial, if not temporary. The gradual weakening of a horn brings about exhaustion, extreme pain, and eventually loss of consciousness. I was urgently trying to make it out before the latter happened, especially with the Smooze undoubtedly still lurking within the claustrophobic walls of the maze-like cavern. 

I somehow made it back to the tear and tore through, back onto the front yard of Pink Sunset, landing in an ungraceful lump with my snout in the mud and snow. 

I groggily rose to my feet, every muscle in my body screaming and my horn throbbing viciously. My appearance was met with gasps of horror, and although I could not see myself at the time, if I could have I would have understood why. My sides were covered in thick, deep looking burn marks and abrasions where the Smooze had touched, and besides my horn my regalia was also covered in holes and looked about ready to come undone. My mane, caked with dirt and cemented bits of the Smooze, had fallen away in clumps, again thanks to the seemingly corrosive nature of the substance. 

And my horn. Its throbbing was hypnotically painful, seeming to course through every part in my body. My vision made it look like I was underwater, and it was difficult to maintain focus on anything. 

“Did everypony make it through?” I asked, although my voice was perhaps difficult to hear as I gasped for breath, my throat feeling like I’d just swallowed a dozen nails. I coughed and repeated it, but looking up I could see the three ponies (and the two who had been keeping the tear open) looking at me with concern from the sidelines. 

And standing alone on the porch, I thought I could see my sister, but my vision had already started to swim as the throbbing in my horn became unbearable, like something was trying to use it to rip free from my own mind. I thought of the Smooze that had come in contact with it, wondering with horror if it had somehow managed to seep into my magic flow or perform some other horror my sane mind had not then considered. I managed to stumble into a laying position on the ground as the last of my consciousness faded. 


ii


When my eyes next fluttered open, I was greeted not to the harsh sight of the dirt my snout was laying in, but the floral pattern of the wallpaper in my bedroom, illuminated solely by a lone torch far off in the corner, giving the entire room an unpleasantly dim feeling too evocative of the caverns for my liking. Somewhere in the room a nurse was reading a book by the torchlight, but she flung it aside the moment she saw me trying to rise. 

“Princess Celestia! Oh thank the stars above!” 

“Luna…” I said, smiling wearily. “Where is that damn pony?” 

The nurse looked at me expectantly, prompting me to continue further.

“Guess it takes me escaping death just to see her nowadays. Where is she now?” 

“Well, Your Majesty...I imagine Princess Luna is in the Everfree Forest.” 

I groaned in frustration. A wishful vision of my deliriously fading consciousness. To think Luna had somehow known what had happened was a silly thought. 

“How long have I been out?” I asked. My horn still felt sore, but when I felt something gripping onto it I flung a hoof up to it in panic half expecting to find more of the purple sludge. Instead, I simply felt bandages and gauze. 

“Almost eight hours, Princess.” 

“The Sun?” I asked. 

“I suppose Princess Luna rose it.

Regardless, it was night again, a night one day further into the future. One day further in which Hydia had already been more than prepared to unleash her genocidal raze, and by some fortunate twist of logic I did not understand, she had not yet. I pushed the blankets away, and when the nurse attempted to stop me I pushed her away, too, all the while apologizing profusely. The moment I was on my feet, wandering into my living room, I was casting healing magic which coursed, strangely, out of my horn and back into my horn once again. Without the need to flee or cast light or defend my subjects, I instead was able to snap the appendage back into place. It took the duration of twenty minutes, but soon it was no longer a loose tooth, once again the sturdy and proud appendage I’d grown accustomed to. 

It was pouring rain again and most of the snow was gone. The weather was as far removed from the picturesque postcard as it could have been. The rain did nothing for my broken mood, so I made my way into the kitchen instead, making breakfast or supper or whatever the hell that meal could have been considered. All I knew for certain was that it would be amongst the last ones I would be eating in Pink Sunset. Perhaps I would visit Dusk Falls again to see how the town had changed, but after what had happened, and what I now knew of what was lying in wait below the ocean waves...

I could certainly pass on that thought.

My next destination was the one I’d been dreading; the bathroom mirror. I fixed my mane the best I could, but I couldn’t grow false hair the way I had fixed the link between my horn and my consciousness. My regalia and crown was lying in a pile in my bedroom, riddled with cracks and holes. My only other option was the much grander mirror-like ceremonial regalia and crown and I slipped it on instead. I had little doubt in my mind that Hydia would be waiting any longer. I had a week’s time at best.

I smiled at the nurse, apologized again for pushing her, and then kindly asked her to leave. Then, I located the journal amongst my fallen regalia, ripping out what I had written about the Smooze and read it over and over again, trying to force into my mind some weakness that did not ask me to burn Equestria in order exploit it. 

The words could not lie or give me false evidence, they simply echoed what I already knew, and that was certainly far from comforting.