After the Nightmare

by CORACK

Chapter 11

As they hiked down the hill, the sun's last rays faded until the black of night had overtaken the pair. Selene fumbled around in the backpack and produced her helmet. Pulling it over her head she turned on the night vision mode. While she was doing that Luna took a quick flight around until she found the cavern. She circled back and led Selene to the entrance.

"When I first awoke on this world, it was in there," Luna said, pointing into the black depths.

"I've noticed you wearing that before the few times we've been out at night before, why is that?" Luna asked, noticing the helmet.

"I'm using this so I can see, it has built in night vision, but like everything else on the Ascension, it's old and wearing out. The battery only lasts a few hours, which is why I don't go out after dark very often. There's just not enough light at night to get by without it," she said looking up at the dark sky.

Her eyes opened wide as she suddenly thought of something. "What about you? I just thought of it, but I don't have another helmet for you."

"I am fine, I can see in darkness as well as in daylight..." Luna paused to look up. "Still, I do miss Equestria's nights. The lonely moon slowly drifting across the sky, surrounded by the countless stars that filled the night sky."

"Yeah, that's one of the big mysteries of this place. I spent much of my early childhood in space, no matter where I went, looking out of the ship meant I could see billions of stars. Here, I can see maybe a few dozen? I've never been anywhere like that before."

"Let us make our way inside, there I may find answers for us both. But first, let me see your helmet."

Selene pulled the helmet off and walked over to Luna, she tilted it so Luna could look though the visor, the entrance of the cavern lit up in a bright green color.

"Crude, but I think I can do better," Luna said with a smile.

She cast a quick spell, a brilliant glowing globe floated in front of her, illuminating the entrance.

The two climbed down the rocky slope of the interior. The light from Luna's spell lit up a good sized area, shadows flickered around the walls as it followed behind Luna as she went deeper in. Her eyes had regained their ability to see in the dark and beyond the light of the spell, she could see that the cavern extended far deeper than she had originally thought.

Concentrating, she reached out and felt for the remnants of magic from the spell that had brought her here. Though faded from time, it was easy to find, sticking out like the lone hill they were now climbing under on the snowy plain above.

"This will take several hours," Luna said, looking to Selene.

"Alright," Selene said, sitting on the rocky floor.

Luna lay down on the floor, her horn adding a blue tint to the light in the darkness. Selene patiently waited and watched.

Minutes turned into an hour and eventually Selene grew tired of waiting. She had been thinking about a family trip she had gone on with her dad many years ago. They had gone on a tour of cavern and it had been lots of fun, especially at the end of the tour when they got to split off from the main group and go exploring. She pulled her helmet out of her backpack and placed it on her head.

"I'm going to look around," she said to Luna.

Luna nodded and then returned her concentration to the investigation of the magic that brought her to this world.

Selene walked to the entrance and looked outside. It was still quite dark but enough light from Luna's spell spilled out of the cave that she could see small flakes of snow falling from the sky. The beginnings of a storm that had been visible in the distance as they traveled earlier. Instead she turned around, choosing to go deeper into the cave, as she advanced the ceiling dropped downward and she had to crouch to continue forward. Eventually she reached a narrow tunnel that necessitated crawling on her belly to proceed. After about a minute of crawling, the tunnel opened up and she was able to stand up again. She followed the path as it headed deeper underground, and eventually it widened up into a large room. Large stalactites hung from the ceiling, a drastic change from the smooth rock in the outer corridor. She wandered around the room until she came to the far side. An opening in the wall branched out in two directions.

Randomly she picked the left most path. The corridor narrowed considerably until she ended up having to crouch under a low ceiling. The rock floor dropped down about five feet at a steep angle, so she stuck her legs forward and slid down. When she reached the bottom she had crawl on her belly for a few feet before the ceiling started to slope back upwards.

The path opened up into long curving tunnel, tall enough for her to stand. She followed it for a few hundred feet before she reached the end of the tunnel. The ceiling started to drop down again, and the floor angled downward into a cliff. It was deep enough that she couldn't see the bottom, even with the night vision provided by her helmet.

Keeping well away from the edge, she sat down, and rested for a few minutes. When she was ready to go she stood back up and turned to go back the way she had come from. Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from deep in the hole behind her, she spun around so fast she nearly lost her footing. One arm shot upward and grabbed the low ceiling and she steadied herself.

Heart pounding, she listened for anything else but there was nothing but silence, until she heard a low whistling and felt a weak wind coming up from the hole. Slowly she relaxed, figuring the noise was just wind rushing through the caverns from another entrance.

Turning back around, she walked through the tunnel until she came to the rock she had slid down earlier. Reaching up she pushed her rifle up and over the top of the slope. Then she reached up with both arms and tried to pull herself up. She couldn't get a good grip on the rock, it was too smooth and there were no handholds for her to latch on to. Instead she stepped forward up the incline and lifted her back, bracing herself against the low ceiling. Keeping herself braced on one foot, she took another step forward, reached up and pushed against the rock to slide her back forward. One more step got her within reach of piece of rock that jutted out from the otherwise smooth ceiling providing a good handhold. She was then able to pull herself around and shimmy backwards up the rest of the slope, pushing against the ceiling until she reached the top.

She picked up her gun and slung it back over her shoulder. Then she continued back until she got to the large room with the two branching paths. Looking at her watch she realized she had been gone longer than she thought. It had been a little over an hour since she had left Luna. Still, Luna had said hours and there was one tunnel left unexplored.

Unlike her first choice, the right branch was fairly easy going. The ground sloped down gently and except for the narrow entrance, the top of the tunnel was at high enough that even Luna would be able to stand with ease. This path twisted and turned as it led Selene deeper under the surface. Eventually the smooth rock transitioned into a jagged surface. Large spikes jutted out of the floor and down from the top of the tunnel.

Selene walked over to one of the spikes to get a closer look. The surface of the spike was smooth, but unlike the stalactites and stalagmites of she had seen earlier, this spike had hard angles, it looked almost crystalline. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small flashlight. Then she turned off her visor's night vision and turned on the flashlight.

Without the green hue of the night vision, she was able to tell that the spike was in fact a large crystal. It was dark, almost black but she could just make out a bit of light shining through the partiality translucent crystal. She put the flash light away and turned her helmet back on.

As she went farther down the path, she could see more and more of the crystals, until they covered every surface of the tunnel. The tunnel itself had also started to widen and she could make out what looked like a large room ahead.

The way forward was no long as easy going as it had been. Instead of smooth rock, the floor was now littered with crystals of all shape and sizes. Many of them were loose and she had nearly slipped when they shifted under her step. Jagged spires stuck up in all directions, a fall in this room would risk impalement.

Selene took one look at the room before her, the closer she got to the center the farther down the room dropped. She had already climbed down at least 20 feet and from her current position, it appeared that there was a pit in the middle of the room. She couldn't see down pit but she quickly realized that proceeding any further would be dangerous. She had already nearly fallen twice on her climb down and didn't want to risk injury.

She turned around back towards the path that had led her here. Reaching up, she grabbed hunk of crystal jutting from the wall. As she pulled herself upwards, the section of the floor that her foot was on gave way. She immediately strengthened her grip as she found herself hanging. She shifted her feet around until she was able to find another foothold.

The crystal she had been standing on bounced further into the room, down the slope and into the pit. Meanwhile she pulled herself up and continued to climb out of the room. She reached the top level of the room and started to make her way over to the tunnel when she heard a large cracking noise behind her.

She turned around and screamed. In the center of the pit, something was pulling itself up out of the hole. The creature, whatever it was, appeared to be made of the same crystals that filled the room. Apparently reacting to her scream, it turned toward her and broke a section of the wall and reached back, preparing to throw it at the terrified girl.

Selene quickly turned back around, moving as fast as she could she scampered towards the tunnel. A large chunk of crystal landed a few feet to her left, it plowed past her, shattering everything in its path, and sent shards of crystal flying in all directions. One jagged piece hit Selene and embedded itself in her side.

The pain was intense, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins gave her enough energy to keep going. She made it to the tunnel and quickly glanced over her shoulder. The creature was climbing up out of the room in pursuit. Moving as fast as she could, she headed back up the tunnel.

#####

Luna's horn darkened, she opened her eyes and smiled.

"I have good news," she said, looking around.

Selene wasn't anywhere to be seen. Luna vaguely remembered Selene said something about looking around, but she had no idea how long ago that was.

"Selene?" she called out, but all she heard was a bit of an echo off the cave walls.

Standing up, she turned towards the cavern entrance. The light flurries of earlier had turned into a heavy and thick snowfall, it was unlikely Selene would be out in that.

"She must have gone deeper into the cavern," she thought to herself.

Luna headed towards the back of the entrance where she found a pathway heading deeper underground. The roof of the cave dropped down as she walked along, until she reached a point where she could no longer stand. She crouched as low as she could and crawled until she reached a narrow tunnel.

She tried to squeeze into the tunnel but her horn scraped against the rock. Looking again, she realized that there was no way she was going to fit through. She peered through the tunnel and it looked like it widened up ahead. She hadn't seen any other pathways and while she was unable to fit herself, she was confident that Selene would have been able to squeeze though.

Luna teleported herself ahead about 50 feet, where the tunnel had widened enough for her to stand up.

She started walking forward when she heard a loud noise coming from farther down the path. It sounded like rocks crashing down, realizing it may have been a cave in and Selene could be hurt, she started galloping down the path as fast as she could.

Over the sound of her hooves thundering down the rocky floor, she could hear Selene screaming, and more crashing sounds. She rounded a corner and ran into a large room.

Luna immediately spotted Selene on the far side, running toward her. Just a short distance behind her, some sort crystalline construct was smashing its way through a small tunnel. With a mighty crash, huge chunks of the wall exploded outwards. The entire room shook, Selene lost her footing and went tumbling down.

Luna teleported to where she saw Selene go down, as the construct lumbered in. It immediately picked up a large boulder and threw it at the pony. A dark blue shield flared into existence around both Luna and Selene, the boulder struck the shield and skittered off, small chips of stone flying in all directions.

Luna looked down, Selene's pants and shirt were covered in blood and her leg was twisted at an unnatural angle. She was trying to stand back up, but Luna gently lay her wing on the girl.

"Be still Selene, I will handle this."

Luna turned to face the attacker. She could immediately sense that this thing before her was no natural creature, it was a magical construct animated with a dark energy. This was the first time she had detected any magic other than her own the whole time she had been here.

She focused a concentrated beam of energy in her horn and fired it directly at the monster. The beam struck the monster in the large rocky core that formed its body. It stumbled back, but there was no apparent damage. It responded by stepping forward and smashing down on Luna's barrier with a massive rocky fist.

Luna grunted but her shield held. She dumped even more magic into another beam. The second beam hit the construct right in the shoulder, it pierced through and the construct's arm landed on the ground with a thud. The area next to where the beam had struck lit up with a glow. Lines of magic lit up inside the construct's crystal core, they flowed from the point of impact and into its head. Luna's smile turned into a frown as the glow brightened, and the monster seemed to grow stronger.

The monster stepped back and then turned towards the arm. It was then that she noticed that its other arm wasn't actually attached to the core. Instead it was held in a magical field, just barely touching the construct's side. The monster leaned down and picked up the severed arm. It held it up to its side which glowed brightly for a moment, when the light faded, the arm was once again held in place next to the central core.

Its head began to glow and a beam, identical to the one she had cast earlier, crashed into her shield. She shuddered as the shield began to turn black before it cracked and faded away. The monster was no longer glowing with power, but magical attacks were clearly out. Somehow it had absorbed a large portion of the attack and redirected it at her.

She picked up Selene and teleported to the other side of the room to give her a moment to think. Selene meanwhile had shifted to a sitting position, she pulled the rifle off of her back and clicked the safety off. She took aim at the large head and fired. The bullet impacted and shards of crystal flew off in all directions and a high pitched whine emanated from the monster.

"Damn it," Selene swore. "I don't think I'm going to be much help."

Luna however had noticed a tiny, almost insubstantial drop in the magic that powered the construct.

"More than you realize, you have given me an idea."

She levitated the boulder that the monster had flung at her earlier, whipping it around at high speed, she smashed it into the construct. The boulder exploded pieces, and a large chunk of crystal broke off the construct's body.

"Physical attacks damage it, but do not provide it with any energy to repair its form," Luna said her smile returning.

Her horn glowed brightly and every single loose chunk of rock in the room floated upwards. The monster shift its arm to protect itself from the attack it sensed was coming. Thousands of pounds of rock and debris accelerated and smashed into the construct from all directions. It stumbled back and forth, large chunks breaking off in the assault.

Finally it fell, landing in the middle of the room with a loud crash. The floor shook again and there was a cracking sound as the entire center of the room collapsed. Large clouds of dust shot up into the air darkening even the magical light that had followed Luna into the depths.

"Is it dead?" Selene said, coughing as the dust started to settle.

Luna concentrated for a moment, trying to detect anymore magical energies from the monster.

"It is indeed dead, though it was never alive to begin with."

"What the hell was that thing?" Selene asked.

"It was a crystal golem, a form of magical construct, as for who created it or where it came from, I do not know," Luna said.

"Someone created it?"

"Yes, although I have not seen a golem exactly like that before, I could tell the magic that animated it were most certainly not natural."

As the shock of the attack wore off, the pain of her injuries started to make themselves known. She looked down at her leg and winced.

"Luna, I don't think I'm going to be able to walk out of here."

Luna leaned down to get a closer look at Selene's injuries. Her skin was starting to turn pale and her clothes were drenched in blood. A blue field of magic surrounded Selene for a moment before disappearing.

"The leg is broken, I will have to set it, before it can be healed."

Then she turned to hole in Selene's shirt. A large crystal shard was sticking out of her side, blood flowing freely.

"This is more serious, I can remove the shard and likely stop the bleeding, but it has punctured an internal organ. I do not know human physiology, so I do not know the true extent of the damage."

"I think it's probably my liver," Selene said, followed by a scream of pain. "Damn it, I only know basic first aid, there is a medical database on the ship's computer, it should have information on this, but we're too far away, I'd never make it back."

Luna looked at Selene, mouth turning down into a frown.

"I can teleport us back, but the distance is near the limits of my current abilities, the teleport will be rough, it may worsen your injuries."

The pain was growing and Selene cried out again.

"I'll risk it, better a chance than dying out here."

"I need to pick you up, I will support your leg as best as I am able, but this will hurt."

Selene felt her body rise and there was a sharp jolt of pain. Luna moved Selene to her back and gently lowered the girl down. Selene turned to look at the hole in the center of the room.

"Holy shit."

"Sorry Selene, I tried to keep your leg as motionless as possible."

"No, not that, look."

The entire middle of the room had collapsed, exposing an even larger room below it. Built into the far wall of the lower room was a massive metal door.

Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Dark crystal... Is this relates to Sombre somehow? Otherwise, I think they are going to finally get some answers.