Zecora’s team descended through several more smoke-choked chambers and shifting mazes of passages over the next three hours, eventually stopping at the edge of another large gap.
The zebra dropped her bags and sat down heavily next to a spring that trickled away over the edge of the chasm. She sniffed and lapped tentatively at the water, then put a drop of deep green liquid from a vial into a small pool at the base of the spring.
She watched the green stain fade to gold then disappear: “Perhaps we should now take a rest / before continuing our quest.”
Shatter stepped over to Zecora: “I take it the water’s clean?”
Zecora nodded as she leaned down to drink deeply.
“Good to know; Stormy’s crew marked it on the map--I think! It’s getting harder to tell by the minute how accurate this map still is! Anyway, they didn’t check the spring for potability.”
She turned back to the others: “Alright, we’ll take a break here for thirty minutes. Keep your eyes peeled, Red Tabs and Smudge. This place is getting weirder by the hour, and I hate surprises.”
Smudge stepped up to the spring and filled a small pan: “Weird I can handle, Ma’am--I’m just glad we haven’t run across any more puke-worthy nastiness!” She moved aside and began splashing water on her face and down her front.
Solar Gleam sat down and looked over the map: “Agreed. I suspect our host is holding its fire until it gets a better feel for us as adversaries or prey.”
Shatter pulled out a high-protein oat cake and a container of sports drink: “‘Better feel?’ Are you telling me you think that thing can think?”
“Not in quite the way you or I do, Captain--more like a timberwolf or windigo. That is, it is imbued with the cunning of a beast that hunts and lays traps. And I believe it learns.”
“So Grey Thorn made this thing capable of thinking and hunting? Why?”
Solar rerolled the map and brought out one of his notebooks: “I doubt Grey Thorn ever expected to part from the Void. I believe he found its genesis down here in these caverns centuries ago, and thought he would always be in control of his creation.”
Smudge toweled-off her face: “But I thought the bone pit where he made this thing was all full of alien what’s-its from other worlds.”
“I have worked extensively with the archaeology and paleontology teams, and it’s clear that though some skeletons are not of this world, others obviously are--though of long-dead species.”
“Why?”
“He had to start somewhere, and he was aware of the ancient catacombs and passages left by long-gone unicorn tribes. That knowledge was not yet embargoed, and Celestia had yet to cast her spells of cloaking and binding deep beneath the castle’s foundations.”
“So he came down here alone? I’m shocked he made it back alive!”
Zecora furrowed her brow and chewed her lip: “No, not alone, I do not think / From such a journey Starswirl would not shrink.”
“That is my assumption. There are shadowy references in some of his later, fragmentary diaries to a ‘stygian lost world of unknowable antiquity.’ I would say this chasm fits that bill nicely.”
Shatter shook her head: “Doesn’t follow. If he knew about this place, wouldn’t he have thoroughly explored it?”
“Not if he was distracted by other work, as was his wont, say by a pair of portal mirrors. In addition, at some point Grey Thorn sealed off the entrance with a ward Starswirl would have been loathe to violate.”
Noble Steel joined the group, now circled around the old unicorn: “Alright, my turn to call horseshit now! No way Starswirl couldn’t get through anything his pupil could throw in his way!”
Solar smiled grimly: “Normally you’d be right, but Starswirl had an aversion to blood magic, especially when it required virgin’s blood. He hated the idea and couldn’t bring himself to seek out the key component.”
Shatter swallowed and tipped her head sideways: “Hang on! You’ve gotten us in and out of that secret entrance in the pit with a vial of…”
She blinked slowly, looked up at the cave roof above them and sighed: “I get it, now. Damn, girl--you need to get out more!”
Zecora shook her head sadly: “A maiden indeed the young Princess may be / This revelation does not surprise me / She spends all her days with her parchments and work / So the practice of love she sadly must shirk!”
Smudge shrugged: “Well, there are options…”
Solar and Zecora looked puzzled as the three soldiers exchanged knowing glances.
Shatter noticed the civilians’ confusion and quickly belched theatrically: “Oh, ‘scuse me! Well, anyway--so the student outwits his master and locks him out. Surely Starswirl must have known something was up.”
“I’m sure he did. By this time Death had visited him once, and in an effort to undo the wrongs he saw arising, he sealed-off the ‘lost’ library and put wards on the passages. Grey Thorn feigned defeat and bided his time until Starswirl finally died, then came back down here to retrieve his embryonic creation.”
Steel nodded: “And take it upstairs. Why?”
“Convenience, I suspect, and a need to contain it in a controlled environment. I have studied the remnants of his wards on the wall between his study and the creation chamber. They are the mightiest collection of interwoven binding spells I’ve ever seen.”
Shatter emptied her sports drink and stood to stretch: “So maybe Starswirl wasn’t quite all he was cracked up to be. Sounds like his protégé was a cut above after all.”
Zecora shook her head: “All is not as simple as it seems / The pupil oft builds on their Master’s dreams.”
Solar nodded: “Precisely. I suspect that those last twenty years Starswirl stole from Death were used by Grey Thorn to extract anything he could from the tired, frustrated old wizard, under the guise of helping his (that is Starswirl’s) research.”
Smudge spit out an apple core: “And his own, to boot!”
“Yes. They were likely becoming one and the same by then. Grey Thorn had no qualms about acquiring and using virgin’s blood, and Starswirl likely looked the other way toward the end, until he just couldn’t justify it anymore, and blocked-up passages, cast wards, burned materials.”
Steel shrugged: “But to no avail, it appears.”
“No. It was too late by then--the die had been cast, and Grey Thorn was likely content to just let the old stallion ‘run out the clock.’”
Shatter turned away and walked back toward the upward-bending, return passage: “Yeah--a luxury we don’t have. Time to hit the road, kids. Take a leak and fill your bottles one last time; I’d like to make it to the end of the good Major’s map tonight.”
She backed into the shadows and lifted her tail as the others began repacking and drinking their fill at the spring. She stepped back into the midst of the team a minute later, flicking her tail and arching her wings: “So where’s our next big gap? The walls are so narrow here I think I could just jump over this one! I could really use even a minute of proper air time!”
Smudge stepped beside Noble Steel, who was unrolling the map: “I hear that, Ma’am! I’m getting a kink in my withers from all the tension!”
The unicorn peered closely at the map: “Looks like we descend one more big switchback, then come to...what? The note here refers to a ‘cataract.’ That can’t be right. There’s no real water down here--certainly not enough for a huge waterfall!”
Shatter and Zecora moved alongside Steel: “Let me see that.”
Shatter pored over the notes for a moment: “That’s what it says: ‘cataract.’ Misused word? Metaphor? Spelling error?”
Zecora pondered for a moment and squinted into the gloom leading down the passage, away from the spring: “Please observe how crude is the Major’s map / once they journeyed beyond this cryptic gap.”
Solar Gleam nodded: “Almost as though they could no longer accurately perceive their surroundings.”
Shatter chewed her lip: “Or were too freaked-out to care. You recall Stormy’s comment about one of her crew shitting himself, yes?”
Steel nodded and glanced at Smudge, who shifted her hooves nervously: “What?”
Shatter spread a wing across her fellow pegasus’ shoulder: “It’s fine, Lieutenant. The Major was down here with mapmakers and archeology types, not hardened soldiers. I have complete faith in everypony here.”
Zecora nodded: “The Major’s team was skilled, no doubt / but we are all more bold and stout!”
Shatter adjusted her shoulder bag and tipped her chin up: “Damn straight! Let’s move out! Red Tabs, you’re on point!”
Steel shifted his load and sighed and sighed as he teleported: “As always…”
The Captain grinned: “That’s the spirit!”
It took the team three exhausting, nerve-wracking hours and several false dead-ends before the team arrived at the bottom of the passage, and the edge of the chasm. They stood inside a large amphitheater-like cave which opened out into the bigger cavern. The far landing and its equivalent chamber was shrouded in a thick river of fog that poured over the ledge, and swirled in eddies and whirlpools kicked-up by strong, chaotic winds.
Shatter stopped and glared across the gap: “Well, that explains ‘cataract’ then, doesn’t it?”
Smudge stepped up next to her fellow pegasus: “And I sure don’t like the look of those cross-currents and downdrafts!”
“Yeah--where’s Blackout when we need her?”
“No kidding! She’d love this shit!”
Solar Gleam joined the pegasi and furrowed his brow: “You raise an interesting point. We are not yet down a thousand yards, are we?”
Shatter glanced at the map: “No, it looks like the mapping team sounded this point at around 340 yards. Why?”
“Should not your gifted friend have remarked on something this odd on her way to and from a thousand yards down?”
The Captain cocked an eyebrow: “You’re right--no way Blackout would have missed anything this obvious. The cross-currents, the eddies, the change in moisture and pressure all would have been red flags.”
Zecora nodded: “Yet again we must contend / with a realm our foe can bend.”
Solar stepped toward the edge and cast a bright beam, illuminating the fog, but showing no detail: “Agreed. The Void is now twisting everything in an effort to block us. I am sure it was not this bad when Blackout performed her reconnaissance some two days ago.”
Shatter sighed: “True. And a single pegasus zipping down then back up would hardly have registered as much of a risk. If you’re right, and this thing is perceiving us as a hunted predator would, then our merry little band is a whole lot bigger threat!”
A gust of wind hit the team, and Smudge fanned her wings: “That’s some nasty air out there! What’s the plan?”
Shatter chewed her lip and squinted into the wind: “OK, so it’s going to be tricky enough for Smudge and me to get across without getting tossed into all those low-hanging outcroppings, and I don’t like the thought of teleporting blind into a six-foot-thick river of fog. Suggestions?”
Zecora took a step forward and stared intently across the chasm: “Send me over first as a guide / I can then hold the other side!”
Solar stepped up beside Zecora and nodded: “Yes--I should be able to levitate you across with less interference than our flying friends will encounter. And if you drop onto a rough or uneven patch, it’s not nearly as bad as teleporting blind into a chunk of stone!”
Zecora and Solar took a final tentative step to the lip of the chasm, and the unicorn peered at the far ledge, judging the final distance: “I have the range--are you ready?”
Zecora nodded and was wrapped in a pale violet glow. Solar lifted her off the floor several feet and sent her skimming across the fog toward the opposite rim.
The zebra had just cleared the edge when a sudden blast and shriek filled the air, and a blood-red glow filled the passageway behind the remaining four ponies.
Shatter snapped her head around and flared her wings: “What the fuck?!”
Solar started and dropped Zecora the last few feet toward the distant ledge. Her eyes popped wide as the solid surface below her dissolved away, and she fell with a scream through the swirling fog.
Noble Steel had been watching Solar ferry Zecora, and he leaped forward, sparks flying from his shoes: “Shit! You dropped her! Solar--tether me!” He dashed toward the chasm and jumped off just as Solar threw a band of magic around the leaping unicorn’s rear ankle.
Steel squeezed his eyes shut and knit his brows, hastily probing the area for Zecora’s mass and form, sending out a wave of magic, catching her as she plummeted downward. There was a pale blue flash in the fog on the far side of the gap, followed by a heavy thud. A few moments later Zecora could be heard coughing weakly and retching.
Steel hung still, head down in the fog for a few moments, catching his breath and regaining his bearings. Solar Gleam began reeling his fellow unicorn back in.
Smudge and Shatter had turned away from the unicorns to face whatever was coming at them from behind as the red glow intensified, and a heavy rumble began to fill the air.
Shatter glanced briefly over her shoulder: “Did you get her? We have to move, NOW!”
Solar deposited Steel next to him and took a deep, shuddering breath: “Yes--she’s on the other side now. The far rim is an illusion! It’s actually a good twenty feet further back than it appears!”
“Great! Let’s get the fuck out of here! Red Tabs--do you have a good bead on Zecora?”
“Yes Ma’am--I can sense the spot where she dropped, and can hear her, well, puking.”
The pegasi were backpedaling slowly as the red glow advanced, and the shrieking became a howl: “Flash-bang the gear over and you two follow! I want a horn-shaped landing beacon over there in ten seconds! Understood?”
Solar and Steel turned to the pile of gear and bags and teleported them moments later in a pair of matching flashes, followed by Steel disappearing with a bright blue ‘pop.’ Solar stood for a moment and chewed his lip uncertainly.
The pegasi backed into the unicorn, causing to Smudge to startle and turn around: “Holy shit, Old Timer! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
Shatter pivoted and shouldered past the unicorn: “Go, Solar! Smudge and I dusting-off now!” The pegasi turned fully against the gusting air, rose and took off, diving and swooping, beating their wings furiously as the wind surged to gale force.
Solar stared at the advancing crimson wall for a few moments, swallowed heavily and disappeared in a purple flash.
Steel appeared next to Zecora who had settled on her knees and was spitting vomit and bile as she shakily removed the stopper from a vial.
“You OK, Ma’am?”
Zecora nodded weakly as she quaffed a mouthful of potion and re-stopped the vial.
Steel turned back toward the chasm and gingerly picked his way forward, feeling for the real edge. His horn glowed with a white-hot intensity.
He cleared his throat and lifted his head high: “Alright, Captain! This is the edge, best as I can tell, and Zecora is roughly fifteen feet directly behind me!”
Shatter was buffeted and nearly driven into a wall. She squinted at the bright, glowing nimbus ahead and below: “Roger that, Lieutenant--coming in! Follow me, Smudge!”
Her wingpony drove hard against the gale, staying mere feet behind the Captain: “Trying, Ma’am! This wind is freaky!”
As they swooped low over the glow from Steel’s horn, the pegasi snapped their wings tight against their sides and dropped hard to the floor below, digging their hooves in and skidding to a stop.
Shatter sat down with an awkward ‘thud’: “What in Tartarus is the ground made of over here? It doesn’t feel like rock…”
Steel walked back from the rim of the chasm through the fog toward the pegasi: “I don’t know. It’s slippery, but it’s not ice, and it’s a little spongy. I can’t get real good purchase on it.”
Solar Gleam appeared suddenly with a ‘pop.’
Shatter looked over and squinted through the haze: “Took you long enough! What was the hold-up?”
Solar furrowed his brow: “My apologies. After nearly killing Zecora I was a bit concerned that my own teleport might go awry. This whole area is awash in magical interference!”
Zecora stood shakily and coughed: “You are not to blame, my unicorn friend / this entire place now thirsts for our end!”
Steel stamped a hoof: “I’ll vouch for that! Solar--do you think you and I can do something about this fog now that we’re on this side?”
Solar nodded as his horn began to glow a rich, deep green: “Yes--let’s get a better look at things, shall we?”
The two unicorns’ green magical fields grew together and spread, pushing the fog aside and back, exposing a low, dark opening beyond the narrow ledge where they all stood.
Suddenly a loud ‘boom’ exploded behind them, and they turned to see the red glow on the far side of the chasm coalesce into a shimmering crimson pool, which flowed over the edge like syrup, mixing with the fog, forming a towering, red-streaked cloud pillar, like a blood-soaked thunderhead.
Shatter’s eyes went wide: “Now what?!”
Solar stared at the growing cloud: “That’s the other reason I delayed--I was trying to perceive any intelligence or direction to that red whatever-it-is! I can’t tell if it’s real or illusory or a phantasm or what!”
Steel pivoted and began to trot toward the nearby opening: “Let’s figure it out when we have a defensible position!” He skidded to a sudden stop as a figure emerged from the deep shadows beyond the opening.
Steel’s ears and tail drooped instinctively, and the other ponies took a reflexive step back as a tan unicorn with an unkempt grey-and-brown-streaked mane entered the landing, his eyes glowing white, a sword hovering before him, a tattered cloak flapping in the winds that swirled through the chasm.
The young officer began to pant: “Wha-what the fuck is he doing here?! I thought he and Princess Luna were off on some other world or something!”
Shatter furrowed her brow and dropped into a defensive posture: “They are! At least that’s the last intel I had! Could they be back?”
Solar shook his head: “I have no idea! I would assume they’d both arrive to assist us in that case!”
Smudge began to tremble and glance nervously at the growing cloud rising from the chasm: “Bu-but what if she’s dead? What if he’s back and--and I don’t know! What if this is all going sideways and we’re supposed to die, too?”
The figure suddenly turned its head and locked its eyes on Noble Steel’s. It raised its sword and advanced as the ponies fought their rising panic.
Steel stumbled backwards and bounced off Shatter’s shoulder as the figure’s sword began to glow a pale gold and move swiftly toward the terrified unicorn.
He glanced wildly behind him and turned a circle as his ears were filled with a roaring, and his vision was overwhelmed with images of sword and cloud and blood and death. His bowels spasmed and emptied, splattering his legs and tail as he staggered backwards toward the abyss. The other ponies were rooted to the ground in horror.
Zecora’s eyebrows jumped suddenly and she reached into her bag, retrieving the pouch of blue tracking powder. She hastily poured out a measure into her hoof and cast it on the ground before her. It slithered forward like a glittering rivulet, directly under, through and past the hooves of the advancing figure, disappearing into the gloom beyond.
Zecora bit her lip, closed her eyes and moved into the path of the figure, taking two tentative steps forward. The chamber fell silent and all five ponies held their collective breaths as Zecora’s chest met the glowing blade.
The figure continued to move forward, passing like smoke around Zecora as the sword emerged behind her. She opened her eyes and blinked: “It is but a ruse, a mere shadow of Death! / Still now your tremblings and take a deep breath!”
Shatter shook her head clear, jumped backwards and threw a wing behind Noble Steel, pulling him away from the brink: “Come on Red Tabs, I’ve never lost anypony before, and I’m not starting with you!”
Steel shuddered violently and rubbed the back of a hoof across his eyes: “Tha-thanks, Captain! S-Sorry for the mess!”
Shatter glanced at the greenish-brown muck smeared across her wing and trampled underhoof, and grinned nervously: “Hey, somepony had to do it--I’m just glad it was you! In about another two seconds it was gonna be me!”
Solar Gleam threw a levitation bubble around the bags and equipment Steel had dropped and began trotting toward the opening: “I suggest we make haste before that cloud finishes forming and causes even more trouble for us!”
Shatter nodded and all five ponies dashed into the dark passageway. Zecora entered last, stopped and tossed down a pile of pink dust at the entrance.
“My compound will act when the cloud moves in / and seal this entrance with a durable skin.”
Shatter glanced back over her shoulder: “Nice! That should at least buy us some time. And we’re going to need it now that we’re officially off the map. Let's get some distance between us and that cloud, folks!”
Steel moved to the head of the line and illuminated his horn to its maximum, as all five ponies cantered along quickly, single-file down the steep, narrow passage.