Knights of Night - Chosen of the Moon

by vadram

Chapter 13: Under Lilyblue

Chapter 13: Under Lilyblue

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Step by step they went deeper down the staircase. To their disappointment there was nothing down there except for stone ceiling, stone walls, and stone flooring, all bathed in a blue light coming from Starry’s horn.

“This is the worst adventure we ever went on,” Foggy complained. “First we waited for you to pick a lock, then we got into an empty room...”

Starry shushed him. “Look,” he said as the tunnel they were walking through seemed to be ended.

“I don’t see...” Petal placed her hoof in his mouth, also shushing him.

“Listen,” she whispered.

Echoing through the tunnel, two voices could be heard. At first they seemed to be so far away that nothing but two mumbling sounds could be heard. The three little ponies listen closely and headed towards the origin of the sounds. They walked through winding passageways, cross deep chasms on narrow stone bridges and continued venturing deeper into the underground.

The voices were getting louder and clearer, but the echo was still preventing them from making out any actual words.

“What is that?” Foggy asked as something caught his eye.

The object that grabbed the colt’s attention was a small blue orchid, similar to the one that grew everywhere in the city above.

“What is this doing down here?” Petal asked as she walked towards the flower.

She reached out to pick it up, but before she could grab the flower the three ponies were startled by a loud, high pitched, shrieking noise that echoed throughout the entire cave. They screamed and placed their hooves on their ears trying to drown out as much as the painful sound as possible. It only lasted for a moment before the shrieking was covered by the another, even louder sound, and this one was getting louder with each passing moment.

Starry and Foggy squinted their eyes trying to get a better look down the tunnel, while Petal had her eyes closed and hooves pressed against her ears.

“What the...” Starry began to say as he saw something moving in the darkness, but was promptly interrupted by Foggy.

“Move!” he yelled as he pushed Petal to the side of the tunnel, slamming the filly against the stone wall. He did the same with Starry, before jumping out of the way of two galloping stallions.

The three watched in horror as two armored stallions unicorns ran past them, screaming as loud as they could. They white coat dyed red.

“We should get out of here,” Foggy quickly said, fearful that whatever the Guards were running for was now far away.

“STARRY!” he yelled as he saw the colt running the opposite direction, before giving chase, with Petal besides him.

They ran after Starry for a good minute or two before they found him staring into a crater.

“We need to get out of here!” Foggy said gasping for breath.

“Look.” Starry pointed down the crater.

Petal and Foggy looked towards where Starry was pointing, and they saw what grabbed the colts attention. The crater was about twenty feet deep and span for a great deal more, and every single inch of it was covered in blue orchids similar to the one Petal almost picked up earlier.

As they stared at the flower bed a creature came into view and was heading towards them. All that the three ponies could do was to stared at it.

Most of it’s body was covered in white fur, from the tip of its snout to the end of its clawed legs. The creatures upper arms were three if not four times larger than its legs, and ended in three equally long digits, with a thin membrane running between them, down the side of its body and ending at the tip of its legs creating two large, membranous wings that if it wasn't for the fact that they reflected the light form Starry’s horn would have been completely invisible to the naked eye. The creature also had huge ears compared to the size of its head, and an equally large nose. It mouth was filled with long sharp fangs and it seemed to be constantly screaming as it flew towards them, but it had no eyes.

It headed straight for Petal, and while the two other ponies were just staring, sunk its claws into the helpless pony’s... ear, the monstrosity being roughly the size of her hoof. Starry and Foggy could not help by laugh as they looked at how much Petal was struggling to get the overgrown mosquitto off her ear.

“Stop laughing,” she snapped at them. “Stop laughing and help me.”

“Can you believe this little thing scared off the guards,” Foggy said drying the tears from his eyes.

“You guys...”

“I don’t know Foggy, they seemed in pretty bad shape,” Starry told him.

“Guys...”

“You would catch me running away from a little bat when I become a Guard.”

“Me neither.”

“GUYS!” Petal yelled at her friends. Her voice echoed through the chamber and was amplified several times, before heading echoing down a tunnel.

“What?!” the two colts asked at once.

“Nothing,” she replied since the little bat had let go of her ear when she yelled.

Before any of them had time to say anything else they heard the same ear-popping high pitched shriek from early, it was coming from above them. Starry put forced more magic in his horn and he managed to light up the entire room.

“Guys,” Petal said as the three of them were looking up and seeing that the ceiling was white, and moving.

“Yes Petal?” the colts asked her, mesmerised by what they saw.

“I think we should get out of here. Now.”

Another shriek came from above and a few small bats flew towards them.

“RUN!” Petal yelled as the rest of the bats detached themselves from the ceiling and were heading towards them, fangs and claws at the ready.

The three ponies screamed all the time the bats were giving chase.

Foggy took the leaded and was the first up the stairs, slamming into the first door, while Starry did the same for the other. As he did so, daylight bursted into the room, and a part of it went down the staircase. The bats shrieked again when the light touched their body, and the ponies took this opportunity to close the floor door.

While Petal stood on the door Starry and Foggy headed outside and searched for something heavy.

“Hurry!” Petal yelled as she tried to calm down. The fact that only a simple door stood between her and countless albino bats was not helping her do so. The colts returned a few minutes later with a barrel filled with rainwater, which they placed on top of the door.

The three of them left the house, closed the door behind them and put the broken lock back.

“I think we shouldn’t tell anypony we were in there,” Starry told the other two as they headed back to the orphanage.

They both agreed and all of them were walking back home as the sun was starting to set.

After their regular scolding from Sister Lovehearth, a cold shower, since the hot water ran out awhile ago, dinner, chickpeas and dill, the three of them went to bed.

“I don’t think I will join,” Petal told them out of nowhere.

“Why not?!” the both of them asked, as they got up from their beds and walked over to Petals.

“Because...” Petal placed her pillow on her face to hide her embarrassment and mumbled the rest.

Starry looked at Foggy, he looked back and they both shrugged.

“Come on Petal,” Starry said, “you can tell us.”

“Because of my...”

“Your what?” Starry asked, before turning to Foggy. “Her what?”

“I think she doesn’t want to join because of her wing.”

“Is that true Petal?” Starry asked her.

“Aha,” they thought that was what she said, it was hard for them to be sure because of the pillow that muffled her voice.

“Well I can see how that would be a problem,” Starry said right as Foggy slapped him over the head.

“But you could always join the infantry just like any earth pony,” Foggy slapped him again.

Petal removed the pillow from her face and she was glad that it was so dark in the room so that they could not see her bloodshot, watery eyes. “Thank you.”