//------------------------------// // Recovery // Story: Death Be Not Proud // by ShinigamiDad //------------------------------// Luna nodded to the guard ponies standing watch over the hole at the base of the High Tower, and stepped gingerly into the opening, ducking her head, and slightly unfolding her wings in anticipation of a possible fall. But the scaffolding held, and she stepped firmly down a series of planks until she was clear of the excavations, then she jumped off and glided to the floor below. “Can we help you, Princess?” asked a startled guard, as her companion stepped forward from the shadows. “No, thank you,” Luna replied to the two unicorns, one in black livery, one in white and gold. “I have come to retrace my steps from a few days ago and see if I can find something that was lost.” The guard lifted her chin high: “I’d be glad to accompany you--you know, in case of any trouble!” Luna smiled indulgently: “I doubt that will be necessary, Sergeant. It is most unlikely that I will find myself in need of assistance. Please continue your vigil. Unlike me, there are many ponies who might find themselves in dire straits if they were to wander too deeply into these passages.” She turned away without waiting for an answer, illuminated her horn, and began to walk down the long passageway toward Grey Thorn’s lair. She approached the now-open doorway to the scorched and empty study, and encountered a third guard pony who blocked her path. “I’m sorry,” said the stern, older pegasus, “I have received explicit instructions from Her Highness not to allow you or Princess Twilight into this room!” A thin smile flickered across Luna’s lips as she arched an eyebrow: “I understand completely. How long have you been down here, Captain? When do you expect relief?” The dark grey stallion sighed: “Not for at least another two hours. Nopony’s eager to take this duty on account of the awful stories of hauntings and bones and everything. I’m starting to get creeped-out just thinking about it!” He glanced around nervously, and when he looked back at Luna, she had leaned in slightly, and locked her eyes on his: “You do seem rather sleepy, Captain. It would be a shame if fatigue overcame you!” The guard’s left eye flickered as his jaw went slack, and his legs buckled underneath him. Luna guided him gently through the doorway, and down to the floor. His eyes glazed over and closed slowly, as his breathing deepened. He tucked his head under his left wing and began to snore softly. Luna smiled and stepped back from the guard’s slumbering form: “I will see to it that no ill befalls you, Captain. I simply require a bit of “alone time” in order to investigate these rooms unimpeded.” She stepped quickly and quietly to the back of the room, and through the entrance to the battle-scarred chamber beyond, glancing at the stains on the floor where she and Twilight had met their temporary end, five days earlier. Luna shuddered as she recalled the terrible pain and tension in her neck and shoulders, followed by a sickening crunch, then nothingness. She shook her head to clear the memory, and proceeded toward the back of the chamber. She paused for a moment at the perfectly round hole in the floor left by the descent of the Void. She tipped her head down and increased the power of her horn, throwing a piercing blue-white beam of light down the hole. “Where did it go?” she pondered as she strained to see further down than the 80 feet or so of smooth shaft that were illuminated. Luna straightened and shrugged: “As Reaper said, a problem for another day.” She walked to the back wall, and discovered that the Archivist and Archaeologist's teams had removed many of the bones from the pit that ran along the wall. They were organized according to a preliminary sorting based on the researchers’ best guesses as to the bones’ origins. Luna stepped to the edge of the trench and saw what appeared to be a bit of loose stonework--possibly jarred free during the attack. She glanced around to ensure nopony else was present, then hopped down into the pit, bringing her horn close to the suspect stones. She shifted her horn’s output from a bright illumination to a deep purplish-black dark magic. Runes of various types began to glow and shimmer as she swept her head back and forth, looking for one of several tell-tale glyphs. She finally spotted a good candidate, and summoned another bead of shiny, reddish-brown liquid from behind her breastplate. “My apologies for this violation, Twilight,” Luna murmured under her breath, “but I suspect it will be needed again, here.” She dipped the tip of her horn in the reconstituted blood, and traced over the golden glyph just to the right of the suspicious stones. The stone shuddered and slipped back into the wall a few inches. Luna pressed her horn against it and felt a section of the pit’s retaining wall give way, exposing a dark, steep, narrow stairway descending to an unknown depth. She returned her horn to its illuminated state, and squeezed through the opening, careful to keep her balance on the cracked, slick stones. As her tail cleared the entry, the stones slid back into position with a soft grinding noise. Blackness and silence returned to the chamber as though Luna had never been there. Luna emerged after a minute or two of careful descent into a low, rough chamber, more natural cave than pony-hewn in appearance. She stood still and listened to the distant trickle of water. “Let us see what a little more light reveals,” she said, intensifying the light from her horn, flooding the space with bright, bluish-white light. The light showed a low, narrow passage winding away to her left, apparently running back underneath the large main room above. She ducked down, tucked her wings in tightly, and began to work her way through the tunnel. Luna squeezed and squirmed her way along some 40 feet of passage, dropping steeply as she went, until she came to a fissure running across her path. She looked up and down, horn flaring brightly, and could just make out a perfectly-circular hole in the roof of the fissure. She cocked an eyebrow, and stared intently down into the chasm below. She shook her head: “Later, Luna. You have other business to attend.” Luna focused on the far side of the fissure, and being careful not to hit her head on the low roof, took a gliding leap across. She landed firmly, but felt the loose stony surface give way slightly, and hopped forward as a patch of fractured rock broke free and slid off the edge, into the chasm. She took a step forward, then stopped and furrowed her brow. She looked back over her shoulder and noticed heavy scuff marks in the dust and across the remaining stone. Looking forward she couldn’t discern any hoofprints. Her ears drooped. Luna turned back and gingerly stepped to the edge of the chasm, throwing off as much light as she could muster, leaning forward and peering down into the darkness, looking for a ledge or passage. She spotted an outcropping about 25 feet below, and levitated herself carefully down to it, brushing aside loose dirt and rock as she lit on the irregular ledge. Looking about, Luna noticed an opening or small cave along the back edge of the shelf, tucked into the wall of the chasm. She knelt down, stuck her head into the opening and squinted, adjusting her horn’s intensity. She held her breath and listened for anything other than dripping water or falling stones. “Reaper? Are you in here?” she called out. A low moan was her reward: “I’m stuck a bit further in. There was a collapse, and any attempt on my part to levitate this damn loose rock just causes more to fall in.” Luna reached out with her magic and began to pull stones free, dumping them off the ledge as she went. She heard a low rumble and a kind of dry slithering sound, and the air was suddenly filled with dust. She heard Reaper’s heavy, choked cough: “Yeah--just like that!” Luna chewed her lip for a moment: “How far in do you estimate you are? More than a body length?” “At least three,” came Reaper’s weak, muffled response. “Let me fire up my horn and see if any light leaks through to you.” Luna extinguished her own illumination, and let her preternatural night vision adjust to the darkness. She saw a few faint threads of light dancing among the dust, back-lighting cracks and gaps in the rock-fall blocking the tunnel. “Please hold that light, precisely like that,” she said, gauging the distance to Reaper’s horn. “Are you sitting or lying flat? Are you trapped?” “I’m lying on my side. I’m injured from the collapse, but am not trapped, beyond being stuck in this damnable pocket!” Luna narrowed her eyes and prepared a series of magical maneuvers. She leaned forward and planted her front hooves firmly. Suddenly a dark blue energy bubble formed around Reaper, swelling rapidly, pushing against the weakened cave walls, which began to collapse immediately. Luna jerked backwards, flaring her wings, pulling against the magic shield bubble, and stepping off the crumbling ledge. The whole rock face gave way, sloughing off into the chasm, carrying Reaper with it, ensconced in Luna’s force field. Luna took flight, escaping the falling stones, and teleported Reaper from the bubble to the path above, joining him moments later. Reaper lay crumpled on the tunnel floor, coughing: “Thanks for that, Princess! I’m sorry you felt you had to come looking for me.” Luna sat down next to him: “We have been looking for you for four days, now! Why would you think otherwise?” “I wouldn’t have looked for me,” Reaper replied. Luna arched an eyebrow: “Do you mean to tell me that in similar circumstances you would not have searched for me or for Twilight?” “That’s different,” he answered. “You two are important to Equestria, and are entirely worth the effort and risk of a search. I am literally a non-entity!” Luna shook her head: “I, too, believed as you do. But I was wrong then, and you are wrong now. Everypony has worth, no matter what their power or position.” Reaper closed his eyes: “In any event, I thank you for finding me. Now I can get back on-task.” “Which is?” “Two-fold, actually,” he responded. “I need to find that accursed Void, which seems to have fallen down onto the depths of this cavern, and I need to determine if there’s any way to recover my power.” “Are the two connected?” Luna asked. Reaper shrugged, then winced: “I don’t know. But I know I have to start somewhere.” Luna stood: “Well, you will have to start again after returning to the castle for treatment and recuperation.” Reaper sighed: “Yeah, you’re probably right. There’s nothing more I can do down here in my current condition.” He sat up, then looked at the indigo alicorn quizzically: “Speaking of “down here,” how did you get down here?” Luna looked down at her breastplate: “I still have a small cache of Twilight’s blood. I was loathe to use it, but felt the need was too great.” She tipped her head and furrowed her brow: “But how did you get down here? Were you also able to secure a sample of Twilight’s blood?” Reaper grinned: “No--I, too, am technically a virgin. It’s the one advantage of starting out a fresh existence with a brand-new, actual pony body!” Luna smiled and nodded: “Clever. And the dark magic…?” Reaper rolled his eyes: “Come now--I am a unicorn, and I’ve been observing dark magic wielders off and on for millennia!” “True enough,” Luna concurred, looking up at the roof of the chasm, estimating the distance to the floor of Grey Thorn’s great chamber above. “Now let us leave this place. Twilight will be relieved to see you--Celestia too!” “Really? Enough to finally get that hug?” Luna sighed, and teleported herself and Reaper, leaving behind a flash and a ‘pop’, which were quickly swallowed by the cold, silent, dark of the chasm.