Shadow Grave

by Composer99

Crossings

“Twilight, our situation is grim: despite incoming reinforcements, Shadow Grave’s forces are wearing us down. Not sure your castle will hold through the night. Hoping you are well and making progress. Celestia.”

Starlight looked up from the letter, the worried expression on her face accentuated by the crackling of the fire.

“We don’t know what’s going on down there,” Spike said. “How can we respond to the Princess?”

“Maybe we should go back to Ponyville,” Discord said brightly. “I’m sure we could make short work of whatever they’re facing.”

“No!” Spike shouted. “We can’t leave Twilight and the others here. What if they need our help?”

“Spike’s right,” Starlight said. “We need to give her more time. I don’t know where in Equestria we are: how could we be sure Twilight can get everypony back to Ponyville from here?”

“Besides, I don’t think you’re saying that because you think we can help in Ponyville,” Spike told Discord accusingly. “You just want to get out of here!”

Discord bristled. “Just because I was taken aback by my teleportation not working earlier today, and then unnerved by the-the madness of those ruins over there, doesn’t mean I’m some coward whose only thought is flight!” he huffed.

Discord and Spike turned away from each other with a mutual “hmph!”, sitting cross-legged in the sand.

“It’s all right to be scared,” Starlight said, “and being scared doesn’t make you a coward. I should know,” she said bitterly.

“I was a coward, for a long time. I refused to face my fears and insecurities about friendships and cutie marks for years, and what did it get me? A village where I brainwashed everyone into giving up their special talents and cutie marks, and an attempt to get revenge on Twilight Sparkle.

“Twilight showed me a better way – and so did you, Spike.”

“Huh?”

Starlight smiled. “You and Twilight – I know you were both scared: scared of what would happen when my modified form of Starswirl’s spell sucked you back in time. Scared of the different futures in store for Equestria that you witnessed. Scared that you might never escape. But you kept trying anyway. You faced your fear because you knew Equestria’s fate hung in the balance.

“That’s the difference between being scared and being a coward. It’s okay to avoid the things that frighten you, when it doesn’t matter. You’re only a coward if you refuse to face your fears when it really does matter – like how I refused to face my fears about friendship.

“Besides,” she said to Discord, “anyone who’s willing to take on Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, even if it was over a thousand years ago, can’t be a coward.”

Discord raised an eyebrow and looked at Starlight. She winked.

“Look, Twilight told us to wait here. She didn’t say when we might need to go down after her, or how she would signal us for help. How about this? We wait fifteen minutes, or until we get another letter from Princess Celestia, or we get a signal from Twilight – whichever comes first. Then we head down into the cave and try to either help Twilight and the others, or rescue anypony we can and get back to Ponyville. Deal?”

Spike smiled back. “Deal!”

“How could I possibly say no after such winsome flattery?” Discord said. “You have a deal!”

Starlight concentrated, and her horn glowed. A large hourglass poofed into existence a few feet in the air. Sand began pouring down from its top chamber.

“There’s our timer!” Starlight said.

There was a pause. They looked at each other uncertainly.

“Anyone for Go Fish?” Spike asked, producing a deck of cards.

---

Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy sat uncomfortably on the cold stone, while Rainbow Dash hovered in the air. They were watching Twilight intently as she studied the magical barrier.

They’d entered the chamber with the pond after passing through the archway with the mirrors; the barrier had sprung up just as they were approaching the shore. Twilight had thrown up another magical flare to light the cavern up while she studied it.

Her horn aglow, Twilight walked along the barrier, watching it carefully. After a few more seconds, she turned to her friends and her horn became inert.

“All right, whatever this is, it isn’t one of Shadow Grave’s traps.”

“Well that’s a relief,” Applejack said.

“The problem is, we can’t just walk through it.”

“Couldn’t you just, like, blast it into smithereens with a spell?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oooh – smithereens!” Pinkie Pie said. “I like that word!”

“Maybe, but the barrier looks like it’s designed to drain magic that’s used against it. If I tried to shatter it, either it would suck out my magic – for who knows how long – or it could explode and hurt somepony. I’m not really sure what would happen, and I don't want to chance it.

“But even if we can’t just walk through it, there is a way to get through.”

“There is? What is it?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight frowned. “As best I could make it out, the barrier demands a sacrifice: something dear to whomever would cross it, soaked in their own blood.”

Fluttershy cringed and shrunk into herself. “Maybe… maybe I’ll just wait out here, then. That sounds unpleasant.”

“Come on, Fluttershy, we’re all in this together,” Applejack said, hauling her to her feet.

Rarity stepped forward, a calculating look on her face. “A sacrifice, you say?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied.

Rarity hefted a small jagged stone from the ground, eyeing it critically. “Twilight, darling, would you be a dear and use your magic to chop off my mane and tail?”

“Are you sure, Rarity?” Twilight asked, dumbfounded.

“You said it yourself – give up something you treasure to cross the barrier. You all know how much my coiffure means to me,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “If this is what it takes to save Equestria – well, I’ll be unhappy about everypony seeing me so, but there are worse things that could happen, and they’ll grow back.”

“That’s the most mature I’ve seen Rarity about being unfashionable since she gave Steven Magnet her tail,” Applejack muttered to Rainbow Dash.

Twilight’s horn lit, and she conjured raspberry shears. With a single clip, Rarity’s tail was a pile on the ground, and with a few snips her mane joined it. Rarity winced as she struck herself in the leg with the stone. Using her magic, she bundled her mane and tail together, then held them under her leg. Blood dripped from the wound onto the bundle.

Rarity approached the barrier. “Well?” she asked, levitating the bundle and pushing it into the barrier. The barrier sparked and crackled, and the mane and tail vanished, but nothing else happened.

Rarity harrumphed. “Well, if that’s the game you’re going to play. My coiffure isn’t dear enough to me to qualify, is it? Then how. About. This!”

“Rarity, no!” Twilight shouted.

Rarity stepped fully into the barrier as Twilight reached for her.

Twilight wasn’t sure what would happen next, but she was not prepared for the room to be suddenly bathed in a deep purple glow.

Rarity stood in the barrier, glowing purple. Her mane and tail had regrown, longer than ever, shot through with colours and diamond shapes. Multi-coloured diamonds decorated her hooves. As Rarity flourished her mane, a pulse of purple magic burst from her, and the barrier dissolved.

The light faded, and Rarity was back to normal. Her mane and tail were uncut, and her cut had healed: it was as if nothing had happened.

“That was amazing!” Pinkie Pie burst out, bouncing up to Rarity. “Do it again!”

Twilight stepped up to her. “You knew that would happen, didn’t you?”

Rarity smiled knowingly. “After what happened with Pinkie Pie and Applejack? I shouldn’t say I knew it would happen, but I did have a strong suspicion that it would.”

They all stepped up to the pond.

Applejack slowly brought her hoof towards the water.

“Don’t touch!” Twilight hissed. Applejack brought her hoof back with a start.

Twilight looked around. “Where did that stone Rarity used go? Ah, here it is.”

She pulled the stone in her magic, then tossed it into the air over the pond.

A tentacle reached up from the dark waters and expertly snatched the stone, pulling it down with a soft splash.

Everypony stared at the spot where the tentacle had appeared.

“Creepy tentacle monster in the water. How cliché,” Pinkie Pie said with a dismissive snort. Then she shivered. “But still creepy!”

“Do you think we could fly across if we went up high enough?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Let’s test with a rock before we try ourselves,” Twilight asked. She glanced around, finding another loose stone. She hurled it with her magic high up into the air over the water.

There was a ripple, and a tentacle emerged, reaching all the way to the stone and grabbing it. There was a hint of mass at the pond’s surface, as if, in order to reach the stone, whatever was in the water had had to bring its bulk almost out into the air.

“Guess not!” Rainbow Dash whispered, her pupils shrunk into pinpricks.

Twilight moved the magical flare hanging over the bank further over the pond, illuminating more of the cavern.

On the far side, where they had seen the statue, a boat was now visible in the brighter light. The statue was sitting on a stone terrace lining the pond, along with a large stone basin on a pedestal and an indistinct lump.

“Should I try to pull that boat here with my magic?” Twilight asked, tapping her teeth with her hoof. “Or would that just provoke whatever’s in the water?”

“T-Twilight?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly.

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

“How-how long has this cave been here?”

Twilight frowned, thinking. “Shadow Grave first attacked Equestria right after Celestia and Luna stopped Discord with the Elements of Harmony. That’s a thousand years ago. This place has got to be older than that. I couldn’t say how much older for certain, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was centuries.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy replied. “Do you think the pond with the creature in it has been here all that time?”

“It just might have.”

“All that time, all by itself? It’s got to be very lonely, then. I think I have an idea.”

With a sweep of her wings, Fluttershy hovered about a foot off the ground.

“Mr Lake Monster?” she called softly. “Mr Lake Monster? My name is Fluttershy. I was wondering if maybe you’d like me to keep you company for a little while.”

She swallowed, then slowly started over the pond. She almost backed off when she noticed she had begun to glow a soft yellow.

“It’s working!” Twilight whispered. “Keep it up!”

“O-okay,” Fluttershy squeaked. She took a deep breath and turned back to face the pond.

“Anyway, I’m sure you must be very lonely, spending all this time in here by yourself, with nothing but… whatever you find in the water to eat. Is the pond fed by a stream? Do you get some nice, tasty fish in here?”

As Fluttershy ventured further over the water, her glow brightened. Her mane and tail grew longer, flowing around her, and seams of violet, cyan and aquamarine shot through them. Butterflies popped onto her legs.

She continued to talk softly and reassuringly to the creature in the pond.

“Here goes nothing,” Twilight whispered. She focused. A raspberry glow enveloped the boat, and it drifted slowly across the water over to the near bank.

“This thing’s made of stone,” Applejack marveled when it ran aground beside them. “How does it even float?”

“If the mass of an object floating in a fluid is sufficiently distributed – ” Twilight began.

“You know what I mean,” Applejack said, cutting her off. “This here boat’s too small to float for how much it weighs.”

Pinkie Pie stepped up to the boat. “I know! Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s M-”

“Shhhh!” Twilight interrupted. “Don’t disturb Fluttershy!”

“-mmmmagic,” Pinkie Pie finished, whispering.

“Okay, everypony in,” Twilight said. “You too, Rainbow. I’m not sure that creature will tolerate anypony but Fluttershy overhead.”

“Fine,” Rainbow Dash flatly acknowledged.

They all clambered into the boat. Twilight concentrated, and the boat glowed with her magic. It shoved off the bank and began to slowly cross the pond once more.

They passed by Fluttershy. “I hope you don’t mind our interrupting too much. We’re on a very important mission, but I’m sure we’re all very sorry for lighting up your cozy dark cave and making all this noise,” she was saying. “We’ll leave you be just as soon as we find what we’re looking for.”

As the boat touched the small outcropping, Twilight and the others began to climb out of it.

“I should get back to my other friends,” Fluttershy concluded. “Now get some rest.”

She flew over to the rocky banks, joining with the others. As she set down on the ground, the yellow glow around her faded, her mane and tail shrank, and she returned to normal.

“That was awesome, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Somehow, she managed to do so quietly.

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I didn’t know I had it in me, but after what everypony else has done, I knew I had to try.”

Now that they had reached the terrace, they could see its features in greater detail. The statue was of an alicorn, with out swept wings. It was otherwise featureless: it had no cutie mark, and was carved from a bland grey rock in a generic pony shape, rather than resembling anypony in specific. Around its neck hung a platinum necklace, on which was fastened a pendant with a pony skull shape made from obsidian, surrounded by amethyst shaped into a spiky starburst.

“That’s Shadow Grave’s cutie mark!” Applejack exclaimed.

The granite basin was filled with a clear liquid. Rainbow Dash stepped up curiously. “There’s another necklace inside!” she announced.

At the back of the terrace was a set of runes carved into the wall, in a style similar those that had covered the archway at the cave’s entrance in the cliff wall. They glowed a soft violet.

What had appeared as an indistinct lump from across the water was, close up, a soft cloak covering –

“It’s a pony!” Rarity gasped, horrified. Everypony stepped back carefully.

Twilight approached the cloaked form carefully. Her horn glowed and she slowly slid back the hood.

There was a chorus of gasps as she revealed a bleached skull. Around the neck of the skeleton was another necklace, identical to the others.

“Three of ‘em?” Applejack asked. “What in tarnation could that mean?”

Rainbow Dash lowered her hoof towards the basin.

“Nopony. Touch. Anything!” Twilight barked. “There’s magic all over this place.”

Rainbow slowly and delicately raised her hoof away from the basin.

“You don’t suppose that is… was Constellation, do you?” Fluttershy asked, pointing a hoof at the pony skeleton.

“How would she possibly be up and running around threatening Equestria, then?” Applejack asked.

“Oooh, I know, I know!” Pinkie Pie zipped over. She bounced into the air. “Iiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s Mmmmm-”

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight snapped.

Pinkie Pie deflated with a sheepish grin. “-mmmagic,” she finished quietly. “Heh heh.”

Twilight began to examine the statue, horn glowing.

“I suppose we had best make ourselves comfortable,” Rarity said with a sigh.

---

Princess Celestia and the Wonderbolts stood on the central balcony of the Castle of Friendship. Celestia fired blasts of magic at skeletal ponies, shattering them and forcing them to break up flying formations. Every so often, she shot at Shadow Grave, but her shield remained intact.

Blaze ran out onto the balcony, sporting bandages around her head.

“Doc said I was barely good to go, but here I am ready for action!” she shouted smartly to Spitfire. She looked around. “Uh, ma’am, why are we standing here?”

“Princess’ orders,” Spitfire replied, gesturing to Celestia. “Now that the reinforcements from Canterlot are here, we’re staying in reserve in case we need to hustle over to the ruins in the Everfree Forest.”

“Surely, you must tire of this, Shadow Grave,” Celestia called down. “We’ll have reinforcements coming from all across Equestria before long.”

“A valiant attempt at bluffing,” Shadow Grave responded. “Canterlot is close by. Anypony else will take too long to get here. I still have the upper hand.”

Her glowing yellow eyes narrowed.

“I think I’ve wasted enough time here. I’ve got more important things to do than to watch you desperately hold off my skeletons, Celestia. But, before I leave, here’s a parting gift with which to redecorate the castle doors.”

The glow of her horn brightened, and a beam of yellow light shot down into the ground in front of her. The ground trembled, and heaved up as a large black rocky shape dug its way out. It was vaguely pony-shaped, and made out of obsidian. It stood as tall as the great double doors into the castle. Where its face would be, two large eyes gleamed with the yellow of Shadow Grave’s magic.

There were cries of shock and dismay from balconies and windows as the stone giant stamped over to the castle gates. Celestia and other unicorns fired bolts of magical energy at it, but they deflected harmlessly off it. It turned, brought up its rear legs, and bucked the doors. They vibrated hard, but held.

“Good luck!” Shadow Grave taunted. “My spare legion’s been marching through the Everfree Forest this whole time. Hope you remembered to bring spares, too.”

With a flutter of her skeletal wings, she took off, making for the Everfree Forest.

“Luna,” Celestia breathed. “Cadance, Sunset Shimmer!” she called.

Cadance flew over from the balcony she had been defending. With a flash of light, Sunset teleported over from her balcony.

“Come with me,” Celestia said. “We must go join Luna at once.”

The castle shuddered as the giant bucked the door again.

“But what about that thing?” Cadance asked. “How can Shining Armor hold the door for long against it?”

“I do not know,” Celestia replied. “But Shadow Grave means to attack the Tree of Harmony. If it falls, nothing else matters: her triumph will be complete.”

Celestia and Cadance turned to the Royal Guard pegasus who had been flying around the castle delivering messages.

“Tell Mayor Mare she must evacuate the castle, if she can, of anypony not involved in its defence,” Celestia instructed.

“And tell my husband I love him,” Cadance said sadly.

“Yes, your Highnesses,” the pegasus replied, his own eyes brimming with tears as he bolted into the castle.

Celestia focused, and her horn glowed. There was a flash, and she, Cadance, Sunset Shimmer, and the Wonderbolts had vanished.

They left behind them the ongoing chaos of battle.

The doors groaned as the stone giant bucked them again.

Author's Note:

Some of the sequences in the cave are homages to other visits to unpleasant subterranean environments in young-adult and high fantasy fiction.