Daring Do and the Lost Tome of Shadows

by whiterook6

Chapter 10: The Tome of Shadows

Daring looked around the room, noting several points. First obvious point: aside from the three of them, the chamber was empty. Torches attached to the walls were already lit and, according to Rose and Midnight, had already been lit when they’d arrived—but there was no sign of anypony else having gone through here. Second: there was only the one heavy door to the outside, through which Daring could still hear the enraged howling of Shadow Ponies, though so far nothing had tried to break through. No other way in or out, unless there was a hidden door or secret tunnel. And third: there was no Tome of Shadows.

“Ah thought the Tome would be in here,” Rose said. She was standing to the side, carefully avoiding eye contact with Daring. “Where are we?”

“This is the Sanctum,” Midnight said, sliding herself to a sitting position against one of the walls. “This is where the Priests recorded the ordeals and triumphs of the city.” She waved a hoof at the walls.

Wrapping around the chamber between support columns were carvings that covered the walls from the bare floor to the high, dark ceiling. From the stains and flecks of paint in the corners, Daring guessed that the carvings had once been painted in gorgeous murals; now, without inks or dyes they were visible only from their inset shadows from the torches above. The images themselves were crude, even to somepony as bad at drawing as Daring Do: the ponies were overly simplistic, their proportions were all wrong, and they stood in stiff, unnatural poses. Most art from long gone civilisations looked like this. Unlike more recent art, with its brightly lit illustrations and famous artists, the carvings seemed muted and carelessly made; and time had taken its toll on the artwork as well.

Even so, Daring had to marvel at how the images came to life before her eyes. Any single image looked like a carving from the earliest ponies; but together they told a story. It was that simplicity that drew her in.

Well, maybe. Daring had always been a sucker for a good story, especially if it featured long-gone ponies from a long-gone culture. Or explosions.

Daring followed the carvings, and though she wouldn’t be able to translate the writing until she’d had time to study, she could guess at the pictures. “Their record keeping?” She looked for a starting point, and tried to ignore the static at the edge of her hearing. “It just circles around the chamber. Where’s the beginning?”

Midnight gestured at one of the carvings. “I know what they mean. Let me show you.”

“How?” Rose asked. “You been here before?”

“No, it’s my job. Cairo hired me to interpret and explain carvings and paintings from this tribe.”

Midnight slid across the roughened floor and made herself comfortable. For a few moments her eyes flicked back and forth across the mural. Her lips danced like she was reading snippets in her head. Then she nodded.

Magic erupted from her horn and the mural glowed briefly. A layer of dust shifted loose and settled below, and the carvings on the mural began to move. For a second, Daring tensed, expecting more Shadow Ponies, but the carvings stayed carved, and no purple eyes appeared.

Midnight began her tale.

---

The priests and the ponies they served learned to fear the shadows, even as they sought to survive in the caverns. Driven underground by the hostility of the jungle, or perhaps lured by the promise of abundance, they were hounded, consumed, and nearly driven to madness.

So they defended themselves from the shadows, and learned how to live underground. Their warriors built traps to keep other ponies out, and their farmers cultivated the ground and brought enough harvest to keep them fed. Brave adventurers set out into the wilderness above to forage and scavenge for whatever the caves couldn’t provide, always back inside by nightfall. And their priests kept the fires burning and the lights glowing.

For a time, the ponies didn’t just survive; they thrived. Built at the intersection of ancient leylines, the bedrock provided enough raw magic to keep their city alive, and from their desperation they grew hard and practical. When bandits tried to loot their caves they trapped the intruders and extinguished the lights. When the shadows pushed inside, the ponies fought like savages and hailed their snapstones at the beasts. And over the years the priests learned to control the shadows, briefly, in their times of need.

The nights, oddly, were the safest: without the sun overhead the shadows were free to roam the jungle, but during the day the shadows were forced back underground and up against the defenses of the city. Winter above meant peace below, while summer and its long days brought the city to its knees. During the longest days the inhabitants fled to their fortress, nearly blind with light, and turned to the priests for guidance.

Their artifact, the Tome of Shadows, rich with the very energies that threatened them from the outside, had the power to control and banish the shadow beasts, not just from the city but from the underground and the caves, out into the burning sun. On the longest day, the priests performed a sacrificial ritual to harness the Shadow Magic and rid their city of the shadowed menace for another year.

---

Rose digested Midnight’s story, even as the carvings froze in place.

“They sacrificed a pony to save the city?” Rose asked, not entirely surprised.

Midnight nodded, pointing to the relevant section of the wall. “If these carvings are accurate, then outside the city and down much deeper is the ritual chamber, where the leylines are the strongest, connecting almost directly to the Void. A brave volunteer would accompany the priests down an endless staircase and through heavy stone doors; just before the city could pass into despair the Shadow Ponies would flee the city, and the priests would emerge solemn but victorious.”

Rose ducked her head, unsure how she felt about that.

“So . . . what happened to them?” Daring asked.

“Probably the shadows grew too strong and overpowered them,” Rose suggested.

“Did they?” Daring asked. “They lived here long enough to build this whole city. Banishing the shadows was an annual tradition. They clearly had practice surviving down here.”

Midnight shrugged. “It doesn’t say. There’s nothing here about a slow decline, although they might simply have recorded their last days or years somewhere else. It’s likely that their decline—whatever caused it—was very sudden.”

Rose didn’t like the sound of that. “Sudden enough that they didn’t write any of it down? An accident?”

“Or not.” Daring shrugged. “Somepony screwed up, let the power get to his head, and used the Tome in a way that it wasn’t meant to be used.” She looked at Midnight. “What does the Tome do, anyways?”

“The carvings only say that the Tome used magic from the shadows themselves to gain control over them. Somepony could have used it for evil, I guess, in the same way that somepony could use the weather for evil.”

“Cairo,” Rose whispered, then exclaimed, “That’s why he wants the Tome—he’s trying to get control of the Shadow Ponies.” She gasped. “And it’s almost the solstice! The Summer Sun Celebration is only a couple days away!”

Daring and Midnight stared at her, confused.

“What?” she asked. Don’t they understand?

Midnight shook her head. “Cairo’s not like that,” she insisted. “He doesn’t want an army of Shadow Ponies. The Tome is supposed to be the focal piece of somepony’s collection, kept in a glass case with a velvet rope around it.”

Daring nodded. “And he’ll have bragging rights too. ‘Found the Tome right before the Great Daring Do—stole it right out of her saddlebags.’” She smirked. “He wouldn’t have the magic to actually control the Tome, anyways. He always was more of a midboss.”

“Hey!” Midnight growled. “That’s my boss you’re talking about.”

Rose rounded on her. “Yer boss tried to bury us! And have us eaten! And he angered those Shadow Ponies outside—and he left ya in the dark!” She towered over Midnight. “Why are ya defending him?”

“Hey, yeah!” Daring exclaimed. “We gotcha to safety. Time to start talking! Why’d he leave you out there?”

Midnight studied the ground in front of her. “I told him to. I’d injured my leg and if he’d tried to help me—We’d already lost some of our team. I knew he’d get us both killed if he stayed to help. I took most of his snapstones and made him leave me. He said he’d come back when he got the Tome, and we’d both get out of there. Together.”

Daring’s jaw hung open. “And you believed him?!”

Midnight nodded. It was hard to tell but Rose thought she might’ve been smiling slightly.

“Midnight,” Rose said slowly. “Yer boss tried to murder us.” She blinked. “Repeatedly. And he left you here to die.”

“He wouldn’t do that!” she insisted. “Not unless you hurt him first!”

Rose groaned. This is getting us nowhere. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t let him get to the Tome, Midnight. When we find him, we’re gonna stop him. You understand?” she asked slowly.

Midnight scoffed. “I’d rather you left me here. I won’t help you kill him!”

“We’re not gonna kill him!” Rose exclaimed.

“And we’re not leaving you,” Daring insisted. “Not down here. It isn’t safe.”

Rose looked at Daring and raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Daring asked. “After that speech you gave me about leaving her when we found her?” She scoffed. “You’re awful.”

Rose rolled her eyes.

Daring turned to Midnight. “Besides, if you do stay put, how’s Cairo gonna find you? You can’t just light a fire or stand outside and wait for him. He’s gonna waltz right past you, bury himself in that labyrinth looking for you, and neither of you will ever make it out again.”

Midnight pursed her lips. “I won’t help you hurt him,” she insisted.

“We ain’t gonna,” Rose said gently. “And you said he won’t try and hurt us. So nothin’ bad’s gonna happen.”

Midnight clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. “No! He’ll find me. I’m a Unicorn, so when he passes the Sanctum he’ll sense my magic and rescue me and—”

“Oh, come on!” Daring roared. “You’re supposed to be smart! If he’s looking for you he’ll teleport directly into whatever back alley he dumped you in. Does that take him past the Sanctum? Better hope it does. Or would you rather help us find him?”

After a few moments, Midnight nodded. “Fine.”

Rose nodded. “Good choice.” She sauntered up to the wall to start inspecting the carvings more closely, but said over her shoulder, “And Ah don’t even mind that yer gonna try and betray us.”

Midnight didn’t say anything.

---

“Now what?” Daring asked. “How do we find Cairo?”

Midnight sighed, clearly resigned to helping them for at least a while longer. “He’ll be heading for the ceremonial chamber, where the Tome is stored. That’s where we need to go. There should be directions in here, somewhere.”

“What are we looking for?”

“Some sort of map, I expect.” Midnight pointed at one section of the wall and said, “That’s the scene where the sacrifice is, well, sacrificed. If they left any hints, they would be near there.”

Daring and Rose approached the wall. Now that it wasn’t moving, the linework itself was hard to see, only visible from the shadows cast upon it from the torches around the room. In some places there were hints of the dyes or paints used originally, and Daring could imaging the Sanctum being full of color and life, but most of the wall was plain, and the carvings were the only details available. Still, Daring could make out some of the pictures.

“It just shows a bunch of stairs, followed by a circle with lots of fancy-looking ponies.” She peered closer. “And one in the middle. The ‘volunteer’. But there’s no map.”

“There’s nowhere else to hide a map in here,” Rose insisted. “It’s gotta be hidden in the walls. These carvings—Ah bet there’s tiny parts of maps hidden in it somehow.” Rose leaned close and peered at the carvings.

Daring backed up to give her more room, caught her hoof on the floor, and stumbled.

“Maybe there’s some sorta landmark we can recognize,” Rose said. “Ah mean, Ah don’t really remember any landmarks, but . . . ”

Daring looked at the offending tile. There was nothing visible for her hoof to scuff, just like the walls. But her hoof had caught something. She dragged her hoof slowly across the floor. It wasn’t cracked or broken or poorly cut—the roughness was almost regular. She looked up at the walls. Shadows from the lights above revealed the detailed stories told over its faces—but the floor was equally lit in all directions.

She touched the floor, then the wall.

Definitely carved.

“Midnight! Can you extinguish half the torches? All on that side?”

Midnight shrugged and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed, and bubbles appeared around half of the torches, depriving them of oxygen. The room darkened as their flames fluttered, burned low, and quickly snuffed out.

Daring leapt into the air and, wary of spoiling her good luck, kept her gaze firmly upwards until she’d nearly reached the ceiling. Then with a deep breath she looked at the floor.

“Ha!” Her breath rushed free as a smile broke out over her face. “Found the map!”

Now visible by their inset shadows, the narrow winding lines chiseled into the floor from wall-to-wall detailed the streets and boulevards that made up the labyrinthian city. In the center was the Sanctum, a small circle surrounded by a large flat square. Dotting one slice of the map were intersections and patterns Daring vaguely recognized from her aerial adventure.

Daring floated down, but just before she touched the ground she hesitated. “I mean . . . we have been walking all over it already, right?”

Rose looked at her, then down at her hooves, casually planted over the centuries-old map. Meanwhile, Midnight had planted her rump in place and hadn’t moved much since. All three of them had left muddy hoofprints across it. Daring sighed and landed on the map.

“Not bad, Daring.” Rose walked up to the center, then followed a set of roads outwards. “That’s where Midnight and Ah came in from. Ah dunno what path you took, Daring.”

Daring pointed. “I was a little to the left of you, I think, which puts me there—Yeah.”

Rose slowly walked backwards, retracing her run through the city. “Midnight and Ah were on the roof here and here,” she said.

“And that’s where—” Daring paused, and managed the decency to at least appear apologetic, though she couldn’t quite hold back a small smile of pride. “That’s where I dropped, like, half a dozen snapstones on you.”

“That was you?” Rose asked. “Shit, mah ears are still ringin’ from that.”

Together Daring and Rose traced their path all the way to the entrance, near the bridge. The map ended there flush against a wall.

“Okay,” Daring said, smiling. “We got the map. Where’s the ceremonial chamber?” she asked, looking at Midnight.

Midnight shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You—you don’t know?” Daring sputtered. “What about, ‘It’s my job to interpret and explain carvings and maps’ or whatever?”

“I can tell what’s going on in those carvings, and I can translate most of their writing. But there’s nothing on this map that says, ‘Sacrifice foolish ponies here.’”

“Well, what is there, then?”

“Beside the map and the carvings, nothing.”

Daring tapped her hoof, then dragged it along a boulevard. “Let’s start with the carvings. What are some of the important ones?”

Rose pointed at the far end. “That’s where they sacrificed their annual volunteer.”

Midnight pointed about a third of the way around. “That’s a scene about farmers and daily life.”

Remembering where Midnight had pointed as she told her story, Daring said, “That’s where they caught and trapped invaders.”

Rose turned around and pointed at the wall right behind her. “And this is where the ponies entered the city for the first time.”

“Hmm . . . ” Daring stroked her chin. “You said farmers? Like, their fields?” She turned to Rose. “Didn’t you say you thought there was soil nearby?”

“Well . . . like, at one point. Ah doubt there’s much soil now. But, yeah. Farmlands.”

“There,” Midnight pointed at the floor. Long sections of the floor had been carved smooth and flat, without any roads crisscrossing them. “Those could be fields.”

Daring stepped forward and stood on the center, where the Sanctum had been carved in. She could imagine a very tiny version of herself right under her hooves. Turning in place, she looked at the carvings of farmers. “It almost lines up. Some of the farms are between the sanctum and their carving on the wall.”

Midnight nodded. “That makes sense.” She paused, looking along the floor, and pointed at a spot below the wall. “Then that would be where they imprisoned the intruders—oh. Of course! There’s a walkway that leads right up to the edge.”

Rose nodded, and pointed over her shoulder. “Then this is where we—and the original settlers—entered the city for the first time, which means—”

“That the sacrificial chamber is in the same direction as its carving, relative to the Sanctum,” Daring said, pointing clear across the room at the ominous image.

She and Rose approached the wall. “There’s a path that leads up to the carving, but Ah don’t see no chamber.”

“You wouldn’t. The chamber itself would be buried deep below the city.”

“And it’s clear on the other side,” Daring said, slumping. “We’ve still gotta cross, like, half the city.”

“The quickest way is almost a straight line,” Midnight pointed out. “Once we cross the fields, there’s a little more city, then—well, then the ceremonial chamber.”

“So, what—we just walk?” Rose asked. “No secret passageway? Rail line?”

“Oh. Oh! Maybe an underground sewer system!” Daring suggested.

Rose’s face scrunched up in disgust.

Midnight shrugged. “We could’ve walked here if you hadn’t angered all those Shadow Ponies first.”

“We angered them by having a lantern!” Rose said.

“By having a lit lantern,” Daring corrected her, walking towards the entrance.

“Are you saying we walk there in the dark?”

“There’s some light outside. The ceiling’s got a bit of a blueish glow, I think.”

Midnight nodded. “Fungal growth. And after I turned off the lantern we snuck through the city just fine.”

Rose’s jaw hung open like a mailbox. “Yer serious.”

Daring shrugged. “Unless you wanna just stay in here . . . ” She reached for the door.

“Whoa, now, don’t be too hasty,” Rose said. “You open that door and we’re gonna get a flock of Shadow Ponies rushin’ to get in here.”

Daring paused, hoof on the door, and said, “Well, we can’t just stay here forever.”

Midnight asked, “What about dousing the lights first?”

“What?!” Rose shook her head. “Oh, no. No. We are not turning out the lights. We’ll just have to find another way—”

---

Once her eyes had adjusted to the extreme lack of light, and once she’d calmed down somewhat, Rose shoved open the door and carefully peeked around the corner. The lights in the courtyard had mostly been extinguished, save for one or two off in the distance around which several large Shadow Ponies prowled, keeping the light and heat for themselves. That light stretched thin and weak across the courtyard, until Rose couldn’t separate buildings from ground. The resulting darkness flattened her visibility, so it was hard to tell what was close and what was far. All she could see past the courtyard was a general outline of buildings and streets quickly fading to a dull black.

Along the walls, faintly glittering in the light from the ceiling were dozens of specks of purple stained glass. From her elevated position Rose could see many more in the distance. Closer to the entrance a hoofful of Shadow Ponies ambled aimlessly, howling in hunger and anger and only visible by their glowing eyes.

Rose froze. This close she could hear them breathe, could nearly reach out and touch one. The urge to do so was surprising—a morbid curiosity. She gulped, then quietly stepped outside into the landing. None of them seemed to notice.

Still unconvinced that they couldn’t hear her, she waved Daring and Midnight forward. She helped slide Midnight through the door then slowly eased it shut. At Rose’s request they worked in silence which, combined with the darkness, meant it took several minutes to get Midnight properly settled on Rose’s back and for them to descend into the courtyard.

Rose and Daring hurried into the surrounding city, following Midnight’s whispered directions. Slowly the light from the courtyard disappeared. Daring hung low to the ground, keeping watch. Howls and low whines pierced the quiet, leaving Rose tense and exhausted by the time they could hear the rush of water.

They stepped out onto a boardwalk beside the river. Here the stonework was slick, reflecting sharp highlights from the faint light that still reached them. The waterline was less than a half meter below the boardwalk, and moving slowly away from the Sanctum.

Rose stopped to rest, and tried to relax her tense muscles.

“Keep the river on our left, and follow the current,” Midnight instructed. “About a kilometer ahead we should see farmland.”

Rose held back an impressed whistle as they walked. “Farming,” she muttered, bewildered. “Down here.”

“They scavenged and foraged during the day, of course, but they couldn’t keep crops safe on the surface. Ironically, there isn’t as much arable land up above as there is down here. And it’s not like they farmed in the dark.”

“Ah don’t doubt that they managed,” Rose said, “but’cha can’t grow just any plant in never-ending daylight. Their diet woulda been very restricted.” She thought back to her farming heritage. “Flowers and small vegetables, sure. Cukes and corn don’t really care, just so long as it’s warm. No tomatoes, though, and most seedlings only germinate at night. And ignoring the constant light, without seasons and weather, plants grow crazy. When we plant apple trees, our saplings go in the ice box for weeks beforehoof, just to convince ’em it’s Spring when they come out again.”

Midnight shrugged. “It’s certainly not ideal.”

Rose shook her head. “It’s less than ‘not ideal’.” She looked over her shoulder, though in the darkness she couldn’t really tell Midnight from the blackness behind her. “It plain ain’t worth the hassle.”

“Unless there’s some other reason they chose to live underground,” Midnight muttered.

Daring flapped beside them. “Yeah? Like what?” she asked.

Midnight was silent for a few moments, before admitting, “I don’t know. There are no accounts of treasure ever being brought up to the surface, nor any mention of rare magic or celestial events down here, even if it is closer to the Void. But you’re right,” she said quickly. “It wouldn’t normally be worth the hassle.”

They circled around a tower that stretched up out of sight, and rejoined the river. It looked deeper, the waterline closer to the boardwalk than before; and the current had slowed somewhat. “We’re getting close,” Midnight said.

“Aaaaaand we’re being followed,” Daring said.

Rose stopped and pressed herself against a wall, nearly knocking Midnight from her back. How was she supposed to see anything in this darkness?

There!

A pair of purple eyes blinked back at the them from across the water. Rose froze, unsure if the Shadow Pony had seen them—course it has!—but as soon as she gathered the nerve to get a closer look, the eyes winked out of sight.

“Why ain’t it attackin’ us?” Rose whispered, trying to calm her breathing.

“Unless you anger it, or feed it light, it probably doesn’t care about you,” Midnight said.

“Tell that to the Shadow Pegasi. I couldn’t fly thirty meters without having one of them throw itself at me.”

Rose grunted. “Maybe they were groupies,” she said.

“Hey!”

“You were incinerating them,” Midnight reminded Daring. “C’mon. Worry about them if they get in our way.”

---

Daring hovered just ahead of Rose and Midnight, fighting the urge to rush ahead and explore. She could feel the purple eyes watching her from very close, and wondered just what would trigger those same howls again. Static made it hard to hear Rose’s hoofsteps or the river they were supposed to be following. Rose had been especially silent, too, and Daring had to keep turning around to check that she and Midnight were still following her.

The darkness she could handle, but she swore she was hearing things. She understood Rose’s fear of being noticed, but she needed some sort of conversation.

“Hey, Rose—”

There was a splashing noise, then Rose shrieked. Daring whirled around, feeling something heavy drop in her gut. Could Shadow Ponies swim? Nothing in the river, but it was so dark. More splashing, then Rose started swearing. Daring scanned the buildings around them for purple glowing eyes, but there was nopony. No howls of anger, except for Rose’s muttered curses.

She flapped over and descended to land. “What’s up—Ahh!” Daring yelped, leaping back into the air. “Sweet fucking Celestia, that’s cold!”

The boardwalk had dropped enough that the frigid water was washing up over the edge. A barely-visible pool of water blocked their way, and Daring couldn’t tell how deep it got or how far the flooding continued.

“Ah’m guessing the waterline ain’t supposed to be this high?” Rose asked, laughing nervously, trying to hide her foalish shriek.

Midnight shook her head. “It’s supposed to flow slightly downhill, towards the fields, and the boardwalk follows that same slope.”

Daring grabbed a stone from the nearby broken wall and threw it ahead. After a few moments they heard a quiet splash.

“We are still going the right direction, right?” Daring asked.

Midnight pointed beside them. “There’s the edge of the boardwalk. You can see stone posts along its edge. We’re still following the river. I think this is just a low point in the walkway—maybe there’s a blockage or something ahead. This place is falling apart.” She looked over her shoulder. “We simply have to find a way around.”

Rose dipped her hoof in the water, hissed, then stepped forward. “Let’s just—Ooh, damn, that’s still cold!—Let’s just see how far it goes. Might not be that bad.”

She walked forward, and even in the darkness with static occasionally rumbling in her ears Daring could see and hear Rose wincing. At least the heat-hungry Shadow Ponies weren’t as likely to follow them now. Daring flew ahead and continued navigating, now keeping an eye on the fetlock-deep walkway as well as their surroundings.

---

From high above, something was casting a faint blue light on their surroundings. The wet stonework shimmered faintly, just enough for Rose to see where the walk ended and the river began. She kept to the inside of the walk as much as she could, but it was uneven and dipped quite low in places. The river itself had slowed to a stagnant crawl, visible only by a thin layer of dirt and wood chunks that floated atop. Something was seriously blocking the river up ahead, but so far they hadn’t found anything. At least the fields themselves would be dry.

On either side of the river buildings shot up towards the sky, humidity and mist coating their surfaces in a shimmer and illuminating the weakening structures. They crept carefully past a Shadow Pony, not yet unpeeled, that was reaching up for the ceiling, desperately slurping down the pathetic light, and it wasn’t until they’d turned a corner that Rose let out a breath that she couldn’t remember holding. Twice more they saw purple eyes watching them from across the river.

A long, low shape emerged from the gloom, reaching across the river, too tall to be a simple bridge; large chunks were missing, leaving giant bite marks across its top. A tower had fallen over.

Daring said, “Oh, hey! I think we found our blockage. If we can get over it, we’re home free!”

Rose lifted her front left hoof and shook it, trying to flick off some water and coax some warmth back in. “Let’s hope so, Sug’.”

Daring flew ahead to check it out.

“Either way, the fields are just ahead, under an archway,” Midnight said. “This river would normally be diverted into channels that would criss cross the fields. Fields this large couldn’t be watered by hoof.”

“Ah know a thing or two ’bout irrigation, thank you,” Rose sniffed, shaking her other hoof.

“Uh, guys?” Daring called out. “Better come take a look at this.”

Rose approached the debris. It looked like a tower had been knocked over, and a pile of bricks lay in the river, though not enough to block it. The fact that Daring hadn’t immediately told them it was clear made her wary. Mindful of Midnight trying to stay balanced, she kept low and scrambled up the pile of stonework, over a mostly-intact wooden floor that had slid out, and around a column of rock that shouldn’t be still balancing to finally join Daring atop the rubble—looking out over what appeared to be a lake.

“Whoa,” Midnight muttered.

The farmlands had been completely flooded; instead of rolling dirt hills, a frozen black floor of glass stretched out into the distance. The surface was still and dead, and without any real light they couldn’t see whether the bottom was a couple meters or a couple kilometers down. The air was still too, and dead silent—even the persistent static seemed muted.

Daring kicked a rock; it sailed silently through the air, its reflection clear and sharp on the water. When it splashed it created a half-dozen perfectly circular waves that slid off into the distance. Rose had never seen single waves before; every other body of water she’d seen had at least a gentle swell, or tiny ripples.

Rose closed her jaw, let her brain catch up, then asked, “Just how far around are these fields?”

“A couple kilometers, tops.”

“And we’re certain Cairo’s that way? That this here is the right river and that the Tome is ahead of us?”

“Assuming Cairo hasn’t already found the Tome and isn’t heading back, then yes, he’s up ahead. According to the map there are only a couple other rivers in the city, and both curve a lot more than this one did.”

Rose rubbed her face and groaned. When she opened her eyes Daring was looking at her, eyes waggling. She grimaced. She knew that look. She knew that idea. “Oh, no. No! Ah’d sooner face down a pair of bucking broncos!”

“We can’t turn back now. You said it yourself: we’ve gotta get to the Tome before Cairo does.”

Rose ignored Midnight’s half-hearted protests. “Then we’re going ’round.”

“Yeah? And spend another couple hours wandering around down here? Or maybe you wanna walk back through the crowds of Shadow Ponies that watched us the whole way?”

“We ain’t doin’ it! Ah ain’t fixin’ to go swimming, and that water’s cold enough we’d freeze to death anyways!”

“Doing what?” Midnight asked.

“It’s the only way across. I can barely carry a single pony in level flight. I’m sure as hay not flying you guys.”

“What’s the only way across?” Midnight asked.

Rose grunted, then explained, “Ya see that shit-eating grin on Daring’s face? One of the floors from this tower’s layin’ behind us. Ah just know Daring’s itchin’ to use it as a raft.”

“C’mon, you gotta admit—it’s a pretty good idea.”

“Yeah, ’cause you can just fly away if it starts sinkin’.”

Midnight spoke up. “Could we see how well it floats?”

They looked at her.

“It’s pretty calm, and you’re right—Daring can fly herself out of danger if it does start to sink. So we have Daring try the raft first.”

“Can you swim?” Rose asked Midnight.

Midnight shrugged. “Dunno. Never tried.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Daring argued. “And it is two against one.”

“Y’all are crazy,” Rose muttered, hanging her head in defeat, and tried to ignore the sudden howls from far too close by.

---

The raft dipped alarmly when Daring put her weight on it, but to Daring’s relief (and Rose’s obvious disappointment) it didn’t sink. It tipped again when Rose and Midnight joined her. Waves slid out from the wobbly raft, breaking the mirror finish on the lake’s surface. They shuffled around until the raft was mostly balanced; then Daring dug her hooves into the decking, opened her wings, and carefully pushed them out. Slowly the raft pushed away from the boardwalk and out onto the lake proper.

Daring was unsteady at first, only getting into a rhythm after a few minutes of flapping. It was much harder than flying: her wings were practiced at flapping quickly, not slowly, and Daring didn’t want to risk pushing the raft too quickly and submerging the front, an outcome with which she had much first-hoof experience.

The city fell away behind them, silently fading into the darkness. Last to disappear were several pairs of glowing purple eyes, reminding Daring of locals waving goodbye to departing tourists. What few torches that had remained lit during their skulk had been extinguished, leaving only a haunting, pale light from high above and a faint glow from the other side of the lake. The sound quieted until all she could hear was the cold air washing over her wings, water splashing out of the way of their raft, and the breathing from all three of them.

Her muscles ached already: her wings couldn’t flap to their full extent without knocking one of the others overboard, and to keep from tipping herself over she had to keep her hooves spread into a large square, leaving very little room for the others. The raft never really stilled; instead it bobbed and tilted and leaned, leaving her stressed from concentration. Water lapped over the edges of their wooden platform, and up between the planks themselves; and, as Daring found by accident, if she concentrated she could tilt the raft just so—

Rose shrieked like a filly and jumped to her hooves, nearly knocking Daring over. “Land’s sakes!” she swore, her rear end and tail soaked. She glared at Daring. “Yer doin’ that on purpose!”

Daring sniggered. “Totally an accident.”

Rose continued, with a sneer, “Ah’ll remind you that while Earth Ponies are generally great swimmers, Pegasi are not.”

“Ha!” Daring grinned. “We Pegasi must be terrible, then, if you’re better.” She gave the raft an extra firm shove.

“Hay!” Rose hollered, kicking at Daring’s legs. “Knock it off!”

Daring hopped from hoof to hoof, laughing and dodging Rose. “You’ll be the one tipping us over if you don’t stop!”

One of her kicks connected and Rose swiped Daring’s legs out from under her. She crashed onto her back, nearly knocking Midnight off the side with her wings. Water pushed up over the edge and splashed up her barrel.

Daring hollered, jerking straight like she’d been hit by lightning and nearly falling into the murky water before catching herself. Hovering over the water, she glared at Rose, who was roaring with laughter and barely balancing. Beside her, Midnight lay flat on her stomach, eyes wide and limbs reaching wider to keep from sliding off. Patches of her coat were slick and shiny.

“Uh, guys?” she asked, trembling. “Can you not capsize our boat?!”

It occurred to Daring that Midnight definitely couldn’t swim. Daring gulped, and gently landed on the raft, making room for Rose to settle as well.

“Sorry,” she said, trying not to smirk. And she was, really, but something about the familiarity of roughhousing pushed against the strangeness of the black lake.

“Hey, how come Ah can see y’all?” Rose asked Midnight. “Not that Ah’m complainin’, but Ah thought it was gonna be pitch black.”

“Yeah,” Daring agreed. “What’s with the glow?” she asked, pointed towards the ceiling.

“There’s a natural bioluminescence in the cavern, resulting from a fungal growth covering the ceiling. From what we could tell, it was the natural diet of the Shadow Beasts that lived here originally.”

“Uh, you mean Shadow Ponies,” Daring corrected.

“No, I don’t. There weren’t any ponies at first.”

It took a beat for Daring to process that. Daring opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

Rose was slightly more successful. “Huh? Whaddya mean, at first? Where’d they come from?”

Midnight cleared her throat. “At first, the only inhabitants down here were the shadows. They slid over the walls and ceiling of the cave system and soaked up the fungal glow. When the first settlers came they didn’t see any creatures beside their own shadows and decided the caves were safe. The sudden explosion of light and heat created by their settlement changed the shadows.”

“Into Shadow Ponies?” Daring asked, feeling a shiver that wasn’t entirely from the chill in the air.

“Maybe,” Midnight said. Daring waited. Midnight finally admitted, “We don’t know. You saw the mural; eventually they were being constantly hounded by Shadow Ponies.”

“Land sakes,” Rose breathed. “They did this. The settlers.”

“Probably. The Shadow Ponies aren’t violent when they aren’t gorging on light and heat that they weren’t designed to experience. It’s a like salt to them. Once they started fighting the violence only escalated.”

The three watched the ceiling in silence as silhouettes flitted across, circling the brightest glows.

Daring grunted. “You know, just once I’d like to face a monster I can beat up without feeling guilty about it.”

A dark shape passed between them and the ceiling. Daring looked down from the ceiling and jerked back with a yelp. Looming suddenly and racing for them was a solid wall of stone. She flared her wings and shoved the raft out of the way. The shiny wet stonework came within centimeters of her face.

“What was that?” she asked, looking back and forth for anything else in their path.

“Some sort of lighthouse, Ah reckon,” Rose said, clearly shaken. “Ah was wonderin’ how they kept the fields lit.”

The lighthouse rose sharply from the water, racing up towards the ceiling. It was as wide around as their raft and almost perfectly round, judging by the reflecting edges of its stonework. It was dark enough that the surrounding lake looked brighter, reflecting more of the faint blue glow from far above.

Daring looked up. It was tall, but it should’ve been taller. Coming into view as they floated silently around its base was a pile of rubble that sank down into the depths. The destroyed sections were still a fair ways up; the tower looked like somepony had taken a dried twig and snapped it at its midpoint, leaving claws of rock still reaching towards the ceiling.

A pair of purple eyes emerged from the exposed rim, looking down at them. Daring waited, breath held, but the eyes stayed put, content to sit and watch.

“Ya think it’s trapped?” Rose wondered. “Maybe it can’t swim either. How long do ya reckon it’s been there?”

Daring just shrugged. “Driven up there by the lake when it flooded?”

The eyes wavered for a second before flicking out of sight behind the rough stonework. Daring could feel a chill in the air around the tower, could feel a wall of static trapped just outside her hearing.

Midnight whispered, “There’s more.”

Daring and Rose turned and looked ahead. Out of the distance more of the spires were appearing, spaced regularly and far apart. None were in their path. They passed by a second, and a third. Daring looked up and felt a rush of something like vertigo, as if she were looking downwards into a deep, dark crevasse, and the closest lighthouse was the steep cliff dropping off into nowhere, and if she slid forward just far enough she might fall . . .

There was just enough of a current to pull them along. They passed alongside more towers. Some had Shadow Ponies inside them; Daring didn’t need to see them, anymore: she could feel when one was near. From the way the others tensed then exhaled she figured they could too.

The last lighthouse fell away behind them. Daring watched it fade into darkness.

---

Waves from their raft were reflecting back at them, rocking their raft. Out of the blackness emerged stone walls and buildings, waves splashing against their foundations.

“Finally!” Rose cheered. Her smile turned into a frown as the stonework came into focus: instead of small homes and workshops, this part of the city was surrounded by enormous walls. Holes and fractures marked the walls, though none of which were at the water lever. As they approached, Rose had to keep readjusting her sense of scale as the wall kept growing and growing. By the time Daring had navigated them to an entrance under an archway Rose felt tiny as a pup.

“This must be it,” Rose muttered, craning her head back. “If they were gonna keep ponies safe during the summer solstice, they’d do it here.”

The current pulled them inside. The walls were deep as well as tall; their whole raft fit comfortably under the archway. As they passed inside, the light and sound from the lake dropped away, leaving only an oppressive weight from the closeness.

The inside was flooded, too. There were no sidewalks, or streets, or even any piers. The first floors were all submerged around them, many filled with rubble, and it was impossible to tell how far down the buildings went; even so, there were few roofs or openings at their height: the buildings immediately around them all reached towards the ceiling and were adorned with large windows, spanning archways that defied gravity, and spires that stabbed the darkness.

The water seemed to dampen what little sound there was, and having no echo was disorienting. There was no more light in the cavernous streets than there was above the flooded fields, but the reflections were more scattered around them, giving at least a sense of depth and speed. Looking far enough down a street, the city looked like a bunch of bumpy faint lines fading into the distance; but close up it could easily have been lit by a crescent moon.

They left the outer wall and passed down what might’ve been a street, down below. The current was slowly pulling them on a tour of this part of the city.

“What was this place?” Daring asked, eyes wide and darting back and forth as she drank in the sight, a look of awe painted over her face. “Some sort of fortress?”

“It was a church,” Midnight muttered, her attention clearly divided among all the sights. “We’re near where the priests would’ve performed their craft and kept their citizens safe during times of conflict. It looks like every wall is covered in torch-holders, keeping out Shadow Ponies and trapping any that made it in.”

“And just think—hundreds of years ago, on this very day, they’d’ve been huddled inside here, waiting out the last few days before the priests could banish the Shadow Ponies and make their city safe again.”

In her mind’s eye Rose saw dozens and dozens of helpless Earth Ponies crowded together for safety. If the whole fortress were as tall as the buildings surrounding them then maybe the whole city could’ve fit in here.

“How long did it take to build this?” Rose wondered. “It must’ve taken years. Decades!”

Midnight nodded. “From the first inhabitants to the last, we’ve found records of at least four generations. If you look you can see where the church wall was expanded over the years.”

“Four!?” Rose exclaimed. Her hometown was only into its third.

Daring broke out of her archaeological trance to say, “What kept them down here for a century? Surely they had plenty of reasons to abandon the place after only a couple years of survival.”

“Treasure?” Rose guessed hesitantly.

“Gotta be,” Daring agreed, her grin unmistakable, even in the dark.

“Just don’t forget why we’re here,” she warned Daring.

The current steered them down an alleyway. Rose carefully stood beside Daring and stretched her aching muscles. Immediately her limbs started tingling from inactivity. “Ooh, my legs are asleep,” she groaned.

“No, they’re not,” Midnight said, looking around. She leaned onto her side for a better view, still unable to stand on her own, and yelled, “Cairo! Where are you?”

“Shut up!” Daring hissed. “He’ll see us!”

“Ain’t no way he doesn’t know we’re here,” Rose said, feeling a dead weight settle in her gut. This was no place to be stuck on a raft. She glanced from window to window, roof to roof. Too many hiding places.

Cairo’s voice shattered the quiet of the fortress.

“Miss Do! Miss Gambit!” His voice seemed to come from all directions at once. “You survived! But of course you did; how could I expect anything less from the Great Daring Do?”

“Quit hiding, ya coward!” Rose yelled. “Show yerself!”

“I thought you liked hide-and-seek. You’ve been skulking through the city for hours now, right?

Rose leaned close to Daring and whispered, “Get us off this raft. Ah don’t care if it’s into the waitin’ mouth of a Shadow Pony, just find us a place to land.”

Daring nodded, eyeing the walls and archways around them, then whispered, “Keep him talking.” She flared her wings and started pushing them faster.

“Cairo!” Rose yelled. “Ya haven’t found the Tome yet, right? Ah’m surprised. A cunning Unicorn like yerself—why are ya still down here? Surely you’re not trapped by a couple flimsy Shadow Ponies.”

“I assure you, I’m not trapped. While the lake was an unexpected obstacle, it’s easy enough to travel under the cover of darkness.”

“Is that so? ’Cause we’ve been fightin’ our way past all sorts of torches and bonfires. Seemed like you’ve been lightin’ the way for us. Mighty kind of ya,” she sneered.

“Of course! Shadows are excellent hiding places, but not without light.” A pause. “On the topic of hiding places, how did you find Miss Oil? I was very careful to ensure she wouldn’t get herself caught.”

“You broke her leg?” Rose gasped. “How am Ah not surprised, ya filthy inbred swine!”

“No, he didn’t hurt me! Please, believe me!” Midnight promised them. “It was an accident! I told them, Cairo!”

They passed under an archway between two towers. Cairo’s voice followed them down the river. “You shouldn’t have left with them, Miss Oil. I told you I’d come back for you. What if something had happened to you?”

“I’m sorry! I panicked!” Midnight yelled. “They thought I wasn’t safe there.”

Daring prodded Rose and pointed ahead. A narrow staircase rose up from the water and clawed up towards a roof. From her view Rose couldn’t tell where it led, and she could see at least one Shadow Pony waiting for them, but it was solid ground that would lead to cover, and that was good enough. Rose nodded.

Cairo said, “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. I care very deeply, you know.”

“Yes, I know you do! Please! Get me out of here!”

“Cairo! You take off whatever spell ya got her under right now!” Rose yelled, nostrils flaring. She looked back and forth over the ledges and windows, looking for any sign of him.

“She’s not under any spell, Miss Gambit. She matters a great deal to me. All three of you do.”

“Some way of showing it. You keep trying to kill us!”

“Kill you?” He laughed. “I’m trying to save you—even though you keep throwing yourselves into such dangerous situations. Look at you, taking poor Miss Oil on an unsteady raft over deep waters with no idea what awaits you. No food, no light, no fire. She’s freezing! Please.”

The tingling over Rose’s coat grew more intense.

“Let me warm you up!”

A line of torches on the rooftop burst into flames, bathing the whole area in warmth and light. Suddenly Rose could see the buildings crowding around them, and could count just how many places there were for Cairo to hide.

Hungry howls that Rose was all too familiar with echoed around them, and she could see Shadow Pegasi diving fast. Daring flared her wings and flapped back, hard, nearly tipping their raft and tossing them overboard. As they backed up into the river, their staircase landing was swarmed with Shadow Ponies, some still barely peeled from their walls. The noise was awful.

“Cairo! Ah’ll kill you!” Rose hollered, as Daring tried to steady their raft and put distance between themselves and the violence erupting around the torches.

Cairo’s laughter echoed through the cavernous streets, mixing with snarls and snorts that were growing desperate. Rose looked at Midnight. She was laying flat on the deck, hooves over her head, shaking and muttering.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Rose assured her, trying to mask her own uncertainty. “We won’t let him getcha.”

Midnight just shook her head.

Daring shivered and looked ahead. “He’s close.”

The current pulled them around a corner, and Daring only had to keep them balanced at this point. Ahead the river widened like a delta, with rivers merging in from other sides. The fortress walls appeared out of the darkness on the far side, and in the middle of them was a large archway, blocked by a massive pile of boulders, bricks, and driftwood that rose from the water like an iceberg. The rest of the delta was surrounded by fortified buildings and tall walls. Rose suspected somewhere deep below were the ruins of an elaborate entryway and courtyard.

On the far side, on top of the debris blocking the archway, stood Cairo. They could barely see him; only his horn gave away his presence, smoldering a dull purple and illuminating his face, the surrounding walls, and the placid water.

“Finally we are reunited!” he yelled. Rose winced, certain that his boisterousness would finally anger the Shadow Pegasi into attacking them. “And you have delivered Miss Oil to me, safely and unharmed.” A pause. “More or less.”

“Cairo!” Rose said. “You end this right now! Midnight’s injured. She needs a doctor!”

“I assure you, she will be just fine. So long as Miss Do keeps those awful Shadow Pegasi off us, of course.”

“Hey!” Daring yelled. “They only attack you if you anger them. Turn off your horn!”

Rose ignored their argument. What’s he planning? The current was pulling them towards the archway, so water must be flowing through it underneath. It looked flimsy, but Cairo seemed unconcerned with his position.

But why was he just waiting there? He had a plain line of sight to their raft; all it would take would be one well-aimed spell to capsize their raft, or knock her and Daring off, or even just hold them in place and ignite their lantern and wait.

Rose looked back at Daring, who was tensed and yelling at Cairo so loudly and so animatedly Rose could barely make out the words. Eventually they’d get close enough that Daring could launch herself at Cairo and reach him before he could react. She figured Daring was buying time to do just that, and clearly Cairo would think that, too.

So . . . what was Cairo waiting for?

“It’s Midnight,” Rose muttered.

“Huh?” Daring paused her tirade and looked at Rose. “What about Midnight?” she asked quietly.

“Cairo won’t attack us with Midnight here. Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”

“Maybe . . . but eventually he’ll get close enough to grab Midnight himself. Then he can just leave us.” She tilted her head slightly and gestured ahead and to the right. “There’s a window we can use. It’s not pretty, and we’ll be exposed, but it’ll be solid ground. It’s the only chance we’ve got.”

“There’s no way he’ll let us get away. We need a distraction.”

“The Shadow Ponies,” Daring blurted out. “We can use them to occupy Cairo. He won’t be able to focus on us if he’s fighting off that horde.” She pursed her lips and frowned. “At least, I hope he can’t.”

Rose nodded. A terrible idea was forming. “Whelp . . . the sparkstone’s in my right bag. Ah need you to grab it and the lantern and hold them up.”

Daring eyes went wide, followed by her grin. “You’re a genius!”

“Ah’m an idiot for even considerin’ this.” She turned around, and Daring flicked her wings to line them up.

“Won’t he just grab it mid-air?” Daring asked.

“Sure, he’ll grab the lantern. He might not think to grab the rest.” She gulped and turned away from Cairo. “This is so fuckin’ stupid. Ya ready?”

Daring crouched low behind her, holding the lantern steady behind Rose’s hindlegs and the sparkstone right beside it. “On three? One. Two—”

“Wait!” Rose yelped. “Like, Ah kick it on three? Or, ‘One, two, three, kick’?”

“On three!” Daring hissed. “I just said—”

“Yeah, yeah. Just—try not to light mah tail on fire.”

“Try not to fart in my face,” Daring muttered. “One.”

Rose checked over her shoulder, lining herself up. Aim a little high . . .

“Two.”

A flash of light from somewhere close behind her. Don’t choke.

“Three!”

A wave of heat under her rump. Shrieks from high above, and from all around them.

Kick!

Rose kicked, trusting instinct and years of experience to send the lantern flying right at Cairo’s stupid head without shattering right then and there under her hooves. A solid impact. No flames licking at her legs. Rose whipped around to watch. The lantern sailed through the air on a high arc, taking its time. She could see dark masses in the sky rushing down towards it.

“Nice try,” Cairo laughed, his horn flashing.

A sheet of purple appeared between him and the lantern, and the lantern crashed against it, shattering. Lantern oil sprayed out, igniting in furious trails of gold and orange, continuing with most of the momentum Rose’s kick had delivered. Cairo’s gloating smile faded and his eyes went wide.

Fire splashed all around Cairo, and a mass of Shadow Ponies descended on his perch. Violence erupted in a blur of black, purple, and gold. Rose couldn’t watch, but she couldn’t look away. The Shadow Ponies were running him into the ground. Even if he was a sociopathic monster, he didn’t deserve to get torn to shreds—

“Land sakes,” she muttered.

The first to reach him were the Shadow Pegasi, a pair of them dive bombing from up high. Cairo leapt to the side and slammed a sheet of magic at them from either side. They crashed together and plummeted into the water. Several Shadow Ponies leapt towards Cairo, slashing and kicking and biting. Barriers flashed in and out of existence, deflecting their attacks while slowing their approach. He barked out a wordless cry and propelled one of the Shadow Ponies into the others, knocking them into a pile. His horn flared and a bolt of bright purple stabbed out, disintegrating the Shadow Ponies like a sparkstone would.

Cairo wasn’t getting torn to shreds. He was kicking ass. Rose gawked. No way we could’ve taken him head-on.

A Shadow Pony leapt on to Cairo’s back and clamped its jaw around his neck. He yelped and his horn flared, and the Shadow Pony sliced in half before evaporating. Rose just caught the flash of a purple barrier inside the wisps of smoke.

“C’mon!” Daring said, almost unheard under the violence, her wings pumping hard. “He’s not gonna be distracted for long.”

Rose looked. They were slipping sideways across the current and nearing the window. It was higher than Rose had expected; she’d need Daring’s help to get Midnight up there, and then getting herself up as well. And the raft wasn’t gonna just wait for them; they had to be quick.

“Daring, Ah ain’t sure Ah can make it that high.”

“We gotta try. I can lift you up. You’re not that heavy, right?”

Rose was about to yell something clever back at Daring when she felt a chill cover the surface of the water, and something like a cramp in her gut. Daring’s sudden wince suggested she’d felt it too.

Cairo! He was surrounded by a pile of wasted Shadow Ponies, panting and favoring his left foreleg. Most of the fire had been snuffed out, but not all, and there were still a few Shadow Ponies fighting for heat and light. His usual dismissive demeanor was replaced with raw anger. He looked straight at them. Their distraction hadn’t been enough.

And then another Shadow Pony leapt from the nearest roof onto the landing. Its landing caused the debris to groan and the surrounding buildings to shudder. Aches spread through Rose’s body and she stumbled, only just able to keep her balance and keep this newest Shadow Pony in view. It was taller than the others, and Rose had trouble focusing on it, but she recognized a third purple light in addition to its eyes, the only parts Rose could easily see. Atop its head sat a glowing, painful-looking horn. The other silhouettes hunched low and backed up, realising they were in the presence of something rare and terrifying.

Focused on Rose and Daring and likely preparing to pull them limbs-from-limbs, Cairo barely acknowledged the Shadow Unicorn, summoning a barrier to sweep it into the water. It ducked its head and pushed through. Cairo froze, and slowly turned to gaze into the billowing darkness.

The Shadow Unicorn’s horn seemed to suck the light out of the air around it. Nearby fires snuffed out as it approached. It walked slowly and gracefully, unlike the vicious, savage Shadow Ponies now struggling to get out of its way.

Rose’s jaw hung open, her hoof gripping at her chest. She could feel every step it took. Beside her, Daring cursed. Midnight was weeping softly.

Cairo’s horn flared and he shot a bolt of magic at the Shadow Unicorn, and more when the first didn’t work—each more powerful and longer, but they bounced off the monster and splashed over the debris pile.

Cairo grunted and dug more barriers deep into the ground around him, trying to slow the Shadow Unicorn’s approach. It shrugged past Cairo’s barriers and bolts and flicked its head up, launching Cairo into the air and holding him there. Cairo reached for his neck, gurgling and kicking, trying to loosen the magical grip holding him in place, but there was nothing for him to grab.

The Shadow Unicorn casually tilted his head and tossed Cairo clear across the debris pile, near the water’s edge. He landed in a heap and crumpled. The Shadow Unicorn tilted its head, then started walking towards him. Cairo coughed, shook his head, and watched the Unicorn approach. The ground around it started rumbling.

He tilted to look at the heroes, just as their raft was passing right under the window. His horn flashed, and with a bang he disappeared. Rose had only a moment to gasp before Cairo reappeared, just centimeters from her face, dangerously unbalancing their little raft. Clutching Midnight in his grasp Cairo blinked away again.

The Shadow Unicorn whipped its head back and forth, trying to find its prey, then roared in fury. Rose froze, praying that it wouldn’t notice them. How could it not? And if Cairo couldn’t defeat it . . .

It leapt onto a nearby roof and disappeared.

Rose stood silent as she processed what had just happened. After a few moments of relative silence Rose finally got her brain working enough to mutter, “What the fuck just happened?”

“Midnight! He took Midnight!” Daring said.

It had all happened so fast. Rose was only just noticing the smell of ozone. She scanned the buildings nearby but there was no sign of Cairo, and she could barely feel the tingling of magic on her coat. He was gone, leaving behind a charred and cratered debris pile. The fires had been extinguished, and huge piles of rubble had been blasted clear.

“Yeah . . . ” Rose muttered, and tried to clear her throat. Her mouth was parched. “Yeah. We gotta rescue . . . hold on. Ya hear that?”

The debris hadn’t stopped rumbling. “Whoa!” Rose felt a lurch beneath her hooves and found that they were moving again, being dragged towards the archway faster than before. Water was flowing through the wreckage, having finally found a weakness somewhere down below, and it was speeding up. They were about to beach their raft and get thrown violently overboard—

Oh, horseapples. Rose realized what was more likely. “Ah told ya this was a stupid idea!”

A roar of water joined the rumbling, and Rose could see larger sections of collapsed wall shifting and shoving out of place. She dropped to her gut and grabbed the raft.

“Hold on!” Daring yelled, right before the dam burst.

Author's Note:

Author’s notes are available here. The next chapter, titled either Infernal Blast or The Drowned Catacombs, will be posted in two weeks. Got a guess?

With assistance from Daetrin. Cover art by Foxinshadow. Alternate cover art by Diremuffin.

-wr

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

...How did you afford that cover art?

[Matthewl419]

“What just f*ck just happened?”

I believe you meant 'What the f*ck just happened?' (No salt, just trying to be helpful).

Also, could you maybe try to get the chapters a little shorter, I mean sure it is sometimes unavoidable, but upwards of 7/8k words just feels long. Except for that, I am liking this so far .

[grumpyoldpony]

The next chapter, titled either Infernal Blast or The Drowned Catacombs

Why not both?

[Laluzi]

Uh-oh. Seems like Twilight's creations have gotten out of control... again.

Have the feeling we're going to see a shadow alicorn before this mess is over. And I've noticed the steadily increasing headache... have to wonder if at some point, her magic gives out.

[Trowa]

This is an excellent read and it really is a pity it hasn't gotten more notice. Please keep up the outstanding work!

[whiterook6]

7741601
Thank you! I plan on it.

7741540
A Shadow Alicorn? It's a good guess. But don't forget -- there are many fewer Shadow Pegasi than there are Shadow Ponies, and there's only one Shadow Unicorn. At this rate there would be only a fraction of a Shadow Alicorn.

What would happen if there were a Shadow Alicorn?

7741308
Brilliant! New title, everyone: The Infernally Drowned Catacombs of Blast!

7739969
Thanks for the catch! Just for you, the next chapter will be 4450 words. Is that short enough?

7739789
Thanks for the compliment! You guys are making me blush.

7739722
I have a full-time job. This means I can afford to pay for cover art, but it also means I'll never be one of those prolific authors that pumps out a chapter a day. This has taken so, so long.

[Laluzi]

7751280 Only one? Hm, I had assumed that it was the only one they'd met - that the shadow creatures were still evolving, and that more of them could potentially be waiting in the woodworks. It's still a very fearsome foe, if the way it no-sold Cairo is anything to go by; that, and the obvious intelligence.

What would happen? I really hadn't thought too deeply on that, but I would imagine Twilight would try to stop it alone and fail, and something something inadvertently revealing herself something something teamwork. Really didn't consider the ramifications beyond 'oh dear.'

...Though a fraction of a shadow alicorn might be amusing.

[Matthewl419]

7751280

That would be perfect.

[WorldWalker128]

I should have been in bed over an hour ago as this week I work 11 hour shifts until saturday. Amazon during the last two or three months can be pretty frigging exhausting , but my bank account loves it! Worth it??
Still, this my current most-favorite fic still active. If this keeps being as good as it's been so far I'm going to be sorely tempted to hire a deviantart artist to comic-fy it. Probably won't happen since I can be cheap...

[Maran]

I don't know why it's so hard for Dash to believe that Cairo would want to control the Shadow Ponies after he already tried to kill her and Rose (in-character, at least). It would be best for his own safety to control the Shadow Ponies, as well.

The part where the adventurers wondered what happened to the ponies of the ancient city seems authentic. It's similar to what I've read about cities of the ancient Americas that lost their populations with no record of a reason. The most boring theory is overpopulation: they simply grew too dense for them to feed everyone, so the people moved out.

It seems a Bigger Bad just revealed itself. Maybe Cairo will team up with our heroes to defeat it, or even Twilight could reveal herself and team up with them, if the Shadow Unicorn has broken from her control.