Into the Pit
A staircase descended out of the darkness, seeming endless, as each step formed after the other, in what appeared to be an eternal walk down into the unknown. Each step was seemingly cut out of the grey rock itself, rather than being constructed of any other materials. There was no attempt to make them unique, or to give them an artist’s flair, rather, they were constructed with a single purpose. To do anything further would have been impractical.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Barely ten feet across in width, these steps were the only true defining feature of the vast underground tunnel in which they were built in, sloped to allow the staircase to continue its descent into the dark below.
Dying lights were spread in near perfect alignment along the center of the tunnel’s walls, seated upon small shelves, the candles of ages past continuing to burn, their wax endless in its supply; the magic that continued to keep the candles alight giving the flames a faint green tint, bathing the rock around in an unsettling glow.
Despite the lights ability to illuminate the passageway, it was clear to see that the darkness thrived in this environment, as the light barely managed to touch that of another candle’s shine, only so minimally allowing the steps to be seen, and some of the walls, but that was all.
It was a foreboding environment, the silence unnerving, the only movement the flicker of a candle, its light dimming against the blackness, wavering in its stance against the void.
Then, a sound was heard echoing down the tunnel, its sharp tones that of the strike of metal on stone. It resounded down the steps, continuing forth even after its creator was far behind.
Then, it was heard again. And again.
The sound only increased in its repetition, striking again and again, causing endless echoes into the stairwell and beyond. The light however, could betray nothing, not until the one making the noise was finally able to emerge from the darkness.
Like a beacon, the bipedal form of a pony mare made her way speechlessly down the endless steps, seemingly causing the darkness around her to recede in a haste and the candles around her even seemed to gain new life, growing in strength and power, brightening more then ever before.
The tunnel became much more visible in the area around her, the stairs ahead of the mare easily spot able and she did not waver in her continued pace down the steps.
The mare in question, with an alabaster coat that almost seemed to radiate its own light, was considerably tall, far too tall for that of her relative species. Her long spiraled horn jutted out just below where her ethereal mane weaved across her forehead, only a few feet from touching the tunnel’s rounded roof.
Even her wings, while tucked snuggly against her back, were merely a half-extend away from brushing against each wall. While the small confines might be troublesome to a select few, she was unhindered by the tight space, and had no fear of making contact with any of her surroundings. It was little bother to her in general.
After all, she had the tunnel specifically designed for the cramped quarters, even the placement of the steps only allowing one to pass up or down the steps at a time at only a walk to boot. It would be nearly impossible to move within the confines of the space with a pair, let alone an entire group.
After all, she could not and would not dare risk a massive jailbreak in which the tide could not be halted, and as she walked, a few ideas began to pop into her mind as she examined what little there was to see. Recent events had made her reconsider the jail’s second line of defense, and made her think of adding additional…obstacles for any would be escapees.
Perhaps if we widen the tunnel ever so slightly…we can place a guard on either side, and still have room to spare…
She shook her head, her flowing mane being whipped into the slightest of frenzies before settling once again to its normal movement. No, that wouldn’t do. It would defeat the entire purpose of the tunnel to begin with, and she was thinking of improving security, not diminishing it.
Her magenta eyes quickly drifted down to the package cradled within her arms, finding the brown paper wrapped item to be of some distraction. It was intended to be a gift, whether it was received well was entirely up to the one she was told to give it to.
Letting out a sigh, she continued her decent, noting with a somewhat apologetic smile that her white dress was slightly too long, its ends just barley brushing against each step. She found as well that her golden horseshoes that graced her hooves where managing to catch the ambient dust that lurked along each step, collecting a little bit of dirt with every moment.
While she did not necessarily find the grime an actual problem, she was positive that her maids would find her attires ruined perfection to be a travesty.
She smiled, shaking her head now out of withheld laughter. While she would never force the standards that her staff held for themselves and their work, she could understand their need to please her.
As Equestria’s sole monarch up until just a meager four years ago, Princess Celestia was held with the utmost reverence from her people, the sun alicorn a living goddess of strength and raw power.
Not that she considered herself as such.
She was far from the omnipotent being that many ponies lived their entire lives believing she was, and tried to show that she was just like them, just like anypony else. While she may be immortal, she still had feelings like those of any being bound by the cycle of life.
Celestia, so lost in her own thoughts, do not even realize she had begun to near her destination until she found the land-marker she was looking for directly in front of her face. It was unsettling as the large charcoal grey doors loomed over her, almost appearing out of existence in the blink of an eye. One minute, she had been walking in the cramped stairwell, the next; she stood in a small opening that allowed the doors to reach their full height of over two stories.
She glanced over her shoulder, noting of course that the last steps of the stairwell ended just behind her, the same torches that lit the tunnel now lighting this slightly larger opening.
It was no coincidence that she couldn’t even remember reaching the end, but she did not dwell on the matter. Her attention turned to the thick double doors, the strange, unrecognizable carved runes along their expanse emitting a faint golden glow.
Thick chains with links the size of her torso crossed both sections of doors, sealing them together at the middle, where they connected to a small circular protrusion, with three glowing lines along its surface pulsing and humming softly.
She walked directly up to the connecting joint, her armored hoofs making soft crunches in the light gravel of the tunnel as she set down her small package for the moment in order to place her now outstretched palms directly on the door’s surface.
A sharp tingle arched through up her arms at the contact, her fur standing on end for just a moment before returning to normal just as quickly. The material that the doors where built from was…cold…beyond the word. Ignoring the unnatural feeling, Celestia’s horn began to become aglow with her normal golden halo as she slowly worked to form the spell required. The key to unlock the bastion before her.
The only way passed the sealed structure was a unique spell, the doors actually developed around the spell. Known only to as many ponies as Celestia had fingers; few would ever be able to wield the key to this gate.
Finally, the spell work was completed, a small ball of energy forming at the base of her horn before she lightly pressed the tip directly against the circular protrusion, the ball seeming to phase into the door as its glowing lines increasingly brightened at receiving her spell.
With a groan, the whole structure seemed to shudder, small pebbles falling from the ceiling just above before the mighty chains that sealed it suddenly vanished one by one, shattering into wisps of golden specks to fade into dust.
With its links gone, the doors rumbled with movement, gears and cogs at work as it slowly began to creak open, revealing a blackness that only grew as the gate managed to merge into the adjacent supporting walls, leaving the way clear once more.
Picking up her gift from the ground, the solar alicorn continued forward.
As Celestia passed through the gap the doors had created, she was greeted by what appeared to be a void of absolute darkness. With the walls stretching up and below her her only clue, an expansive cavern stretched on all around her, what little light that managed to push out from the tunnel was summarily crushed by the true daunting scale of darkness that managed to stretch for eternity in all directions.
Honestly, she might have assumed at one point that she had stepped into one of Discord’s pocket dimensions, back when the Draconequus favored less…innocent pranks. Thoughts aside, she was unfazed by the expanse of the cavern she found herself in, the ceiling and ground completely disappearing above and below her into darkness, the only actual visible floor was that which she stood on, extending just barely a few feet in each direction, almost having a half-circle shape.
It was akin to if one had closed their eyes, they would see…nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
But this was of no concern for the alicorn as she stood calmly on her only visible ground, her hands still holding onto the brown wrapped package in her arms.
If she wanted to, Celestia could have easily flown to her needed destination, the memories of her countless journeys here centuries before easily brought about forth from her vast library of knowledge. Even her wings had the simply muscle memory to know the adequate distance to stop.
But she did not, and simply bided her time, in what would seem likes minutes of simply standing in the darkness, movement began to form out of the empty void. At first, it was a flicker here, a light flash there, easily noted to be directly in her line of sight, but seemingly appearing at varying distances.
Then, an orb of energy emerged out of the darkness.
Well, emerged may not have been the closest term to the truth, as the ball of light had simply manifested itself into existence, it swirling green power almost giving it a life of its own.
About the size of a small gem, it radiated an unknown power that she still had yet to fully understand, but she did dwell too much on that particular thought. It was a fruitless path. Many had tried to learn, and they paid the price for their pursuit of knowledge. An entire empire was nearly doomed for the very reason. While the power may have once proved worrisome, the fact that it belonged to a relative ally of sound mind brought her some relief.
The swirling energies continued to move along what was the orbs surface, shifting colors from that of a luminescent green to that of a near pure white, then even having flickers of black creep up, but disappear at the blink of an eye. It was a very hypnotic movement in itself, begging for her eyes to catch its dance.
It burned almost like fire, its circular shape sometimes forming into that of peak of a flame, reaching up just inches above its surface to lick at the darkness around it.
Then, just as it had appeared, another orb spawned into existence, and seemingly spurred on by its new brethren, the original ball of energy grew slightly, its flame becoming somewhat larger.
As if in a pattern, orbs began to appear quicker and quicker, either ahead or behind those that had been born before them. Each addition only added to the power of the originals, the balls now the size of large melons, rather then the small stones they started out as.
And as they appeared, and the sickly light they emitted grew, it would come to a point where Celestia could easily identify all fourteen orbs that had gathered themselves in the dark, floating what would be appear to be just around her shoulder height, or rather, six feet off the ‘ground’.
All the while, she calmly stood where she was, allowing the orbs to go about their process. And go about it they did. When the last ball of energy was collected, each suddenly began to glow even brighter, the energies that swirled within them increasing to a near feverish pace. As this occurred, a slow, creeping tendril began to snake its way out of the bottom of each orb, the energy choosing to move on its own path toward the darkness beneath it.
Then, the tendrils hit something. The energy that they carried seemed to flow across an outline of a surface that was not there, waves of energy crashing along this invisible structure to continue to illuminate a shape unknown.
In simplicity, it was a bridge. The light that washed along its surface seemed to actually construct the onyx black creation, reminiscent of the doors before and seemingly a straight path forward into the darkness. She didn’t so much as flinch as the bridge began to form her way, its construction reaching to perfectly connect with the platform she stood on.
In a flash of light that may have blinded those of lesser strength, the bridge all but appeared in totality, fully constructed of some unknown black material and having runic markings running all along its course, though it left its pathway clear. The stretch of material extended without any support out into the darkness, ending in a circle that was just a slightly larger width then the rest of the bridge.
The most interesting development however, was the strange statues that now lined the sides of the bridge, their prostrated forms unnerving in the quiet of the cavern. There were fourteen in total, each identical construct bowed before a relative orb, their arms raised with their four fingered hands cupped under each ball of energy, appearing to almost worship each light. With the bridge extending out just enough to hold a statue without blocking the path, each kneeling figure was placed directly facing their companion on the opposite side.
Now was the time for her to move, as she did, taking confident steps across the structure that just moments ago, did not exist.
The pathway was wide enough that two or possibly three ponies could have walked shoulder to shoulder unhindered, and as Celestia was alone, she had plenty of breathing room to stay far away from the edge.
Not that falling was a worry though.
No, there was only one thing to fear here.
The Equestrian diarch let her magenta eyes glance at each statue as she passed, noting with calm indifference that these were not constructed to mirror anything that was native to Albion’s soil. With a stature that managed to meet her impressive height if standing, the large figures appeared to be made of a perfect bust of…something, as the bipedal body style could be hinted out beneath what appeared to be armor, though with how close it was attached to the ‘skin’ of the creature and its uneven ‘plating’, it was fair to assume that this was not the type that was forged. Rather, this was its natural defense, its natural form.
A reinforced hide as armor.
She found the thought just a hair unsettling. But only for a moment.
Even its spiked head seemed to reflect a malicious intent, multiple bony protrusions emerging atop its rounded head, its sloped face with the only defining features to be three holes, which one could assume their eyes once went.
As she walked, she could notice out of the corner of her vision that each orb she passed would detach itself from its position above the kneeling creature’s hands, moving to float directly behind her. The abandoned statues, left without their light source, receded back into the darkness with each orb removal. It was ominous that each orb seemed to move with a life of its own, casually swirling along with her movements.
Soon, it was just a few statues to remain within the now bright green light of the orbs gathered around Celestia, as she neared the end of the bridge, reaching the circular platform.
There was a smaller circle of runic markings embedded in the center of the end, and she effortlessly moved to stand in its center, the last orbs moving away from their holders to join the floating procession.
Then, in perfect sync to the last orb joining its brothers around her, they instantaneously disappeared as quickly as they came, leaving her in nigh impotent light, the runes still glowing at her hoofs the only tide against the dark. Such a drastic change may have frightened some, as was its intent, but Celestia was far from afraid of such tricks.
Movement behind her caused a glance over her shoulder, allowing her to identify the fourteen glowing bipedal figures now standing along where the bridge would be, their bodies consumed in a green flame as their glowing eyes were locked onto her. Each stood ready, their stances indicating they could charge her position at any moment, and with the large two-handed swords now within their grasp, she knew their intent.
The blades were designed to be that of a cleaver, as their tips did not end in points, but rather a flat top. They relied on swings and slashes to achieve their blows, and as Celestia had seen in action, they could easily crush bone with but a single strike.
Each imbued with the same energies as the orbs, their bodies radiated it from whatever gaps in their armor it did not cover, mostly just above their neck area, giving each head an almost flaming appearance. Guttural animalistic growls sounded from some of the creatures, their threatening tones echoing in the expanse, promising harm to those that trespassed.
Undaunted by the sudden animation of the statues, Celestia contently waited as the one closest to her moved what she knew to be its mouth, its jaw moving but failing to match with the words her ears picked up.
“What does one call something so dark and twisted, so vile and cruel, yet despises those that call themselves evil?” It slowly asked, its voice something akin to two sharpened panes of glass scraping against each other.
Celestia couldn’t help but smile softly at the inquiry. While not extremely difficult, its vague question could have millions of different answers and a single incorrect response would earn her a terrible fate.
Yet, she was still collected as ever, as she knew the answer to the given riddle. After all, she was there to hear it told and be recited by its creator.
“Evil,” she responded offhandedly over her shoulder, noting that the creature seemed to growl quietly in response to her answer. Then, the creature relaxed its posture, before slowly kneeling with its sword pointed into the ground, both hands resting on its pommel.
As it bowed before her, so did the others, each one no longer aggressively waiting to attack, now returning to the positions they held before.
“You, may, passsss,” The one that had spoken to her continued, and if simply waiting for the words of the creature, the orbs appeared instantly once more, still surrounding her in the positions they had been in just as they left, each one now slowly beginning to move around her. Their pace picked up continuously, going faster and faster until they were nearly spinning in a blur.
Yet no wind could be felt being generated by their movement, despite seemingly tangible. Celestia did not dare to move, remaining perfectly still even as she began to feel like her body was being tugged in multiple directions, the cause no doubt coming from the now band of green energy surrounding her, its internal energy now that of a bright neon green.
She kept her breathing calm and steeled, her now tense nerves demanding action as the band began to hum ominously. It was low at first, but soon became deafening within just a few seconds.
Her wings twitched in reaction and her brow furrowed. While she had done this many times before, she could never accept how…wrong this feeling felt. Just another difference between Albion’s magic and the Wardens’…
Just as one might assume that the hum would shatter the eardrums of a normal pony, the vast echoes playing into this as well, there was a flash of light, and instantly, the diarch of Equestira was gone, the band around her dissipating into specks of green light.
The statues, still kneeling, lost their own glow as well, allowing the cavern to be swallowed by the darkness once more.
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Ugh. Another Displaced Fic? Go home drunk, you're Shocks.
Needs juuuust a little bit of copyediting.
This is quite an interesting fic so far. But as was said before, this needs a bit of editing. Here are a few of the things I caught:
Missing apostrophe. Depending on whether you are referring to a singular light or to multiple lights, the apostrophe should be before or after the S.
The word you're looking for is "descent".
You misspelled "Equestria".
Also, you repeatedly have "hoofs". The plural of "hoof," however, is "hooves".
Celestia has arms?
6413498 Well I would hope so since it's an anthro fic...
hmmmmmm are they the Hive from Destiny??? seems like it to me at least.
6397762 Hey could you help point me to any information you know about Displaced I tried looking it up, but I didn't find anything such as this?
And if you could that would be great.
Actually, what you normally do is place niches on the sides of the tunnel - whether they're a simple widening of it, or outright rooms built straight into the walls, is entirely up to you - to form guard posts without defeating the purpose of the tunnel's narrowness.
If you go one step further, you can put guarded gates: reinforced booths which overlap the tunnel's exits, thereby making the connection narrower still by only allowing a single being to pass, while having the benefit of unobstructed line-of-sight down the tunnel - making suppressive spell fire a simple affair.
I'd be more worried as to where I'd source the guards with the necessary strength and mental fortitude to serve in such a prison... ;)
Hmm? Interesting. I was suspicious with the first door, specifically its chains, but further details cemented this Displaced is Hive.