What's Under the Ground...

by Sorren

Part 3

Daring finished her circle of the chamber for the seventh time. There had to be a secret door somewhere. There’s no way they lifted everypony in and out through the hole in the ceiling. She ran her hoof along the grit wall, nothing. She had gone all the way around a full seven times, and still nothing. She had even tried shifting the piles of treasure to look for a trap door, to no avail.

“There has got to be a way out of here,” she said determinedly. Somepony had to have been down here recently, which meant there had to be a way out. All of the torches were lit and fresh oil still filled the sconces.

Daring was worried for Rivers. She had left the mare. She had left Rivers in the dark when the blue mare was so terrified of it.

She irritably kicked a small pile of golden treasure and sent it asunder. A goblet spiraled away amidst the shower of tinkling coins as they reflected little shimmers of light at her in the sconce-light. One of the golden peaces bounced and fell into a roll. It circled around and rolled back to her, dragging a golden chain behind it, and bumped against her hoof. Curiously, she bent down and lifted it by the chain to dangle the piece in front of her face. It was a necklace, meant to be worn. The decorative piece appeared to be some sort of talisman, but the design had drawn her attention. It was a small, rounded piece of gold, a little larger than a bit. A figure was molded into the front. It stood out away from the metal, making it look three dimensional. It was a pegasus, who sported a hat and shirt similar to hers. One of its wings hung limply by its side and the pony was reared up in the air as if she were fighting off an attacker. The face was contorted with pain, anger, and fear.

The talisman scared her. “That looks like me,” she awed to herself. She looked around the lit chamber nervously before tucking the golden piece into her front shirt pocket, next to the matches. It felt like an incredibly bad idea to keep it, but it felt even worse to leave it here. She had heard of magical powers embedded in objects before. If there was even the tiniest chance that it had something to do with her, she didn’t want anypony to be able to find it. Buttoning the pocket, she tried to clear her mind. There had to be a way out.

Maybe she could try flying up again. There really wasn’t anything else she could do. Daring unfurled her wings and lifted up from the stone floor. She flew cautiously this time, having learned from the previous experience. Last time she had tried flying up, but was sent dashing back for the ground like a scared filly as the walls around her had begun to vibrate.

Daring braced herself for the worst as she reached the spot where it had began last time, but passed clean through it without the tiniest bit of resistance. “What?” She stopped and hovered, unnerved at the lack of resistance. The ascending shaft ahead was too dark to see in. Daring lit the lantern strapped to her flank before continuing upward.

A rock whooshed by, missing her muzzle by mere inches. Daring flew backwards hurriedly and collided with the wall of the shaft. “Horseapples!” she swore. A heavy thud came from below, signifying the rock had landed. She looked up in time to see another, smaller stone barreling towards her. She dodged it easily. “Stop throwing things at me!” she yelled up the shaft.

Bad idea. Volleys of hoof-sized stones rained down on her like hail. She dodged as many as she could. Some still struck her back and wings. A heavy thud and flash of pain in her head told her that a stone had met her skull. The hat may have cushioned the impact slightly, but it was still enough to make her dizzy.

A rock struck her right wing in the middle of its upstroke. She cried out as pain seared through the appendage and up into her spine. Daring quickly hugged the wall as a rock nearly the size of her sailed by. It ricocheted off the narrow walls as it fell, taking whole sections of the upward passage with it.

Daring contemplated going back down when she was forced to dodge another pony sized projectile. “No,” she said. “You made it this far.” She took a deep breath, readying herself. She pushed away from the edge of the chute and beat her wings with as much strength as she could muster. She barreled upwards against the barrage of deadly rain, weaving left and right, several times nearly losing her head.

She could see the top of the passage now, but it wouldn’t be there for long; It was crumbling. A whole section dropped loose and she was forced to hug the wall or be splattered. It brushed the brim of her hat as it passed. Her belly squirmed at the near-death experience. Quickly, she shot the rest of the way up the shaft and landed heavily at the lip near the top.

A passage stretched in either direction from here. She started down the one to the right, but a section of ceiling gave way and the entire route ahead collapsed in a wall of dust and rubble. Daring slid to a stop as the rest of the passage gave way too. The beige rock rained down as she hurriedly turned to run the other way. The wall to her left gave in, sending sections of the roof raining down on her head. A large block struck her side, stumbling her and causing her to roll over onto her back.

Her vision swirled when she bashed her head on the stone floor and it took a short moment for her senses to recover. Daring found herself on her back, staring up at the crumbling ceiling. This whole place was trying to kill her; it was all coming down on top of her. The segment of roof above her gave way and she rolled to the side as a heavy stone crashed to the floor.

Feeling a small amount of triumph, Daring let her guard lower. That’s when part of the wall collapsed, showering her with crumbling stone. A block larger than the rest tipped towards her and she tried to roll away, but wasn’t fast enough. The heavy stone crashed to the ground and landed on her left wing.

Daring screamed as an excruciating wave of pain shot through her wing and up her spine. Worse still, the tunnel around her was still crumbling. Ignoring the pain, Daring stood, but had to crouch, for her wing stayed pinned under the heavy stone. There were only seconds before the entire passage gave way all together, and those seconds were ticking away. Daring knew what she had to do, but she didn’t like it one bit. She silently cursed herself, seeing no other option.

She braced her hooves against the stone and pulled, letting out an anguished cry of pain as she strained against her pinned wing. After a moment she gave up, panting. “One more time,” she reassured herself. She tugged again, feeling the muscles stretch and the tendons creak. There was a deep pop and a crack and Daring came free of the stone’s grasp. She stumbled backwards and collided with the wall of the passage.

She couldn’t think of anything other than the pain. Her entire body was on fire. The pain spread to her spine and from there, to every other part of her body. Mind clouded in agony, she ran. The yellow light of her lantern only reached ten or so feet down the tunnel; everything else was complete black. She ran. Not knowing where, as long as she was away from the deadly shower of stones. And she ran some more even after the rockfall had stopped.

Eventually, she reached a small room. A single lit torch hung from the wall. This room was empty apart from a pile of insignificant stones in one corner. There were two more routes that could be taken from here. Daring turned out her lantern, now relying on the torch for light.

There was really nothing to think of but the pain. She didn’t feel she could even look at her wing. The way it hurt, something was very wrong. The sound it made when she pulled free reinforced that thought. But she still had to bandage it. She took a deep breath and looked back to her left. Her wing was what one could call, broken. It hung limply at her side, the broken bones just below the joint jabbing painfully at the skin, causing a sharp protrusion. Many of the feathers had been pulled free and a gash bled heavily.

“That isn’t good,” she said to herself. “You’ve really done it this time.” She reached back and pulled a rolled bandage from her saddlebags. She wrapped the wounded area, being careful not to put strain on the already stretched skin and muscles. Pulling out another bandage, she wrapped her injured wing tight to her flank. If it was left dangling at her side, she would most likely trip on it and hurt it more.

It seemed to hurt even more now that it was bandaged, but Daring bit her tongue and tried to ignore it.

With the issue of her wing temporarily dealt with, there was a new matter to address. She had to decide what to do next.

“There goes any chances of me flying for the next few months,” she groaned. After a break like that, she’d be in a splint for months, a couple more just for rehabilitation. If she didn’t get it set soon, it could be a lot worse. Her head throbbed painfully, nerve endings shooting angry messages to her brain. If she could read them, she bet they would be saying, “Hey! Hey! This hurts! Fix your wing! It’s Broken!”

“I know that,” she told her crying nerves. Daring checked the lantern on her side. Miraculously, it had not been damaged in the whole ordeal. She looked around her room with two exits. Two exits… hadn’t there been three? “Of course there were three,” she scolded herself. “It’s just this place messing with you again.”

She got up and trotted over to the spot on the wall where the third passage had been and rapped on the stone, the sound echoing around her little room. “Open up!” she demanded. “I know there’s a tunnel here! Now open it!” To her surprise, the wall in front seemed to disintegrate. The stone crumbled and fell away to nothing but dust. A dark passage leered ahead. “Um, thanks,” she said awkwardly.

More tunnels, more passages. When would it ever end? She could only take so much of this. Pretty soon, she was either going to run out of food or oil... or sanity. And that would be the end.

The passage took a steep upward curve. Daring glanced hopefully ahead, quickly quelled any hopeful thoughts. This place seemed to feed off hope. The more you had the less your chances of escape seemed. But she couldn’t stop a fluttering in her stomach as the passage continued to ascend.

Her wing was hurting her more than ever now. Any movement of her spine sent jolts of pain throughout her entire body. Why did her wings have to connect to the spine? It hurt so bad to break one. This wasn’t the first time she had experienced wing troubles, but last time it had only been a fracture. This time her wing was flat out broken. Too bad she hadn’t broken the nerves too.

Despite the constant upward travel, Daring found herself beginning to panic. Something wasn’t right. There was no way this place would just let her go. She was going to see a flash of light only to have it snuffed out--see a door, only to have it poof into the never-been. She couldn’t be this lucky. Rivers had been down here for almost a week. Daring had been here less than a day.

Daring froze. Rivers. Rivers was still in here. She had lost the mare back in some other tunnel. Rivers was still here. How had she forgotten about something that important?

“No,” Daring said flatly. “She isn’t real.” Rivers had been a conjuration of her imagination, something for her mind to work with while all alone. “Yeah,” she said reassuringly. “Rivers isn’t real. Stop being crazy.”

Daring trekked on. Her hoofsteps echoed loudly around her. Several times she stopped, thinking that she had heard something. “It’s just in your head Daring,” she said insistently. Her own brain was annoying her. Hallucinations were not a good thing to be having right now.

A low moan echoed from the tunnel behind her. The ground shook as the sound slowly grew into a deafening howl.

With no means of defense, Daring ran. It was always running. A sound of what she could only assume was anger reverberated off the narrow walls. The entire tunnel shook, silt raining from the ceiling. A block rattled itself free of the wall and clattered to the ground.

“Leave me alone!” she bellowed. Daring couldn’t even hear her own words over the sound. Daring could have portrayed it as pure evil. It was angry. But there was something else to it. Was it triumph?

“Shut up!” she insisted. “What do you want!?”

All at once, the noise stopped. “Thank you!” she bellowed down the tunnel. “Now I’m going to walk this way! And if you mess with me again I’m going to find a way out! And I’ll come back! And when I do I’ll bring enough explosives with me to blow this place to the moon!” She stood her ground, glaring down the dark tunnel. “Do you understand!?”

The only reply was a wisp of hot air. She raised her nose and set off up the tunnel again, feeling rather proud of herself.

Her mind resumed its frantic ramblings. “You’ll never get out,” Daring heard her own mouth say. She froze.

“What was that?” she asked herself.

Her mouth replied again. “I said you’ll never make it.”

If she could have glared at herself, she would have. “I will make it. You just watch.”

“You’re gonna’ be sorry,” Daring giggled.

“No,” she replied like a scolding mother. “I’m going to be sane. I won’t let this place get to me.”

The other Daring scrunched her face. “You’re already talking to yourself. And you say you’re sane?”

Daring tried to ignore herself. “Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Fine,” she replied. “But now you aren’t going to have anypony to talk to.”

Daring continued on down the tunnel. She was no longer bothering herself; so she assumed she was okay. “Any minute now,” she murmured. “Any minute now I’m either going to see sunlight, or a giant boulder rolling towards me.” She chuckled. “I’m betting on the boulder.”

She turned a corner in the passage and was immediately blinded by a flash of light. Instinctively, she reached back and turned off the lantern. “Sunlight,” she laughed happily. “Sunlight!” She broke into a gallop. “I made it! I made it!”

Daring emerged into a bright room. In front of her was a large opening. Sunlight shone in through a small doorway and green trees could be seen beyond. She started forward.

“Wait,” she told herself. “Once you leave you can’t get back in.”

Daring scoffed. “Why the hay would I want to get back in? I’m not crazy you know.”

A roll of parchment fell from her saddlebags and landed on the ground by her side. Daring stared at it for a moment. Then slowly, she bent down and picked it up. She unrolled it on the stone floor, aided in vision by the pure-white sunlight.

Scrawled across the whole page was a picture drawn with inexperienced hooves, possibly a foal. It was a picture of two mares. One was a yellow pegasus, the other a blue earth pony. The two mares were clasped in a hug, the blue one crying into the flank of the yellow.

Daring reached out a hoof and touched the drawing. “Rivers?” she murmured. Daring stumbled backwards. There before her eyes. The picture began to move. The yellow pegasus pulled out of the hug and turned her back on the blue mare. The earth pony wore a sad face as the pegasus left her behind. What happened next was the most confusing. The pegasus was consumed by bright light, while the earth pony was consumed by darkness. One side of the parchment was now pure white, the other solid black, then the light side faded to dark as well. The word ‘lost’ scratched itself in red on the parchment, the big, loopy letters morphing like oil on water.

Daring cried out. She lunged forward and tore the parchment in two. The yellow pegasus looked up from her from the left piece, shaking her head in disapproval. The earth pony on the right hung her head, tears streaming down her face. “Rivers isn’t real!” Daring bellowed at the paper. She looked back the way she had come, then to the exit. Sunlight, or darkness?

She had to go back and get Rivers. She was real. Daring had given her some of her food for Celestia’s sake. She had touched her.

Daring clasped her head in her hooves. “Are you insane?” she asked herself. “There’s no way you’re actually considering going back down there.” She examined her hooves. If she went back down, she may never come up again. She thought about going to get help. But nopony up there would help her. They were all terrified of this place, and for good reason. And as she had warned herself, if she left, she wouldn’t be able to find her way back.

She sat up tall. Rivers was real. “I can’t leave her.” She stood up and started determinedly down the tunnel, her back to the sunlight.

“I’m coming River’s,” she whispered. “Hang in there.”

Comments

[shadow hunter]

Well, as the first comment on ch. 4, I gotta say that your "not doing your best" is still quite good! This chapter certainly cemented the element of insanity that this place holds. I await more... keep on writing

[Sypher]

Her wing was what one could call, broken.

Pretty sure that comma is not supposed to be there.

“I’m coming River’s,” she whispered. “Hang in there.”

No apostrophe.

It's probably because I believe Rivers is a figment of Daring's imagination, but pretty much all of the creepy vibe I was getting in earlier chapters is gone now that she decided to go back in. I also found her talking to herself to be more comical than creepy.

[King of Kings]

“You’ll never get out,” Daring heard her own mouth say.

Hey lookie! It's Evil Dead 2!