Eyes in the Dark
"You got this, Sunny!" Zipp called out over the intense wind blowing through Maretime Bay.
"It's too dark in there." Izzy said, coming over from the side, carrying Sunny's lantern in her magic. "Take this."
With a thunderous roar of lightening, Izzy's magic fizzled out and the lantern began to drop into the ever expanding hole that had ripped into the little town. With no time for thought, Sunny jumped and caught the lantern in her teeth as she dived into the dark unknown of the void. When she opened her eyes, she felt a power surging through her. She began to feel the presence of wings on her back and a horn on her head. The Alicorn magic. It worked. Moving the lantern to her hoof, she flew deeper into the pitch blackness that now surrounded her.
As she flew, she heard the screaming of two ponies. She was close. She caught sight of them. Two specks of color in the overbearing darkness. She moved closer. She could see them now. Two ponies falling seemingly to no end. Closer she got. Tapping deep into the power within her, she summoned an orb of magic that caught the Earth pony and Pegasus, and immediately began to lift the two up towards the surface.
Seeing her magic succeeding, Sunny turned to follow. Before her ethereal wings could begin to carry her upwards however, she was halted by something. A sound? Or was it a feeling? Sunny couldn't say for certain, but something forced her to turn away from the light to look into the darkness.
Now that she didn't have to lives of other ponies to preoccupy her mind, she could take in the true expanse of what surrounded her. Darkness. Pure, unrelenting darkness all around her. An infinite ocean devoid of light and hope. It was an overwhelming thing to bear witness to. Throughout her entire live, Sunny had never felt so small. So vulnerable. Why did she stop to look? There was the sound again. That feeling that seemed to clutch at Sunny's very soul.
As she floated there, a speck of light in the infinite black ocean, she felt a shudder climb over her spine. She felt her chest clench as she held her breath. She couldn't understand why at the moment. Why she suddenly felt so afraid. Why she felt like she was in grave danger like she never felt before. A speck of light in all consuming darkness. A breath of live in unending stillness.
But it wasn't still, she realized. She could feel something else. An expanding within the void like an intake of breath before release. It was with this realiztion that Sunny knew why she felt so afraid. Why her body became so still. She wasn't alone. There was something there with her. Something old. Something... evil. She could feel it's malice; so pure and relentless.
Then she saw it. Two red lights breaking out of the black. Sunny looked into them and she could feel them looking into her. She could feel the lights peering within her. She suddenly understood as she gazed into them; they were eyes. Eyes that stared into her mind and soul. She felt violated and naked. She felt exposed in a way she couldn't describe; as if everything she ever did in her entire life had been laid before a judge. As if everything she believed in and cherished was challenged by a force of nature. Except it wasn't nature. It wasn't natural at all.
It came forward. So large; so easy to swallow her like she was an insect. Within her own light that she had brought into this pit, she could see it forming around those horrible red eyes. A face; not too far from a pony's. Ancient and crooked, but intelligent, it seemed. Two large horned hang from it's head; almost seeming to frame the monstrosity. It's mouth emerged as a snarl that soon formed into a gaping maw. Then came it's roar.
Sunny felt it revibrate throughout her body; through her very soul. A rumbling screech that rebuked everything that she held within her heart and mind. It was too much. She had to flee. With a start, she turned from the giant horned face and made for the light. The opening seemed so far away. Posey and Windy were nowhere in sight; Sunny could only assume and hope that they were already safe on the other side.
The roaring continued to echo through the endless expanse. It seemed to chase after her, determined to swallow her whole. Faster and faster she flew. The opening seemed to be getting smaller. Closing up, she realized. It seemed so far away. She felt a growing sense of dread within her; it seemed hopeless. Escape was impossible. It would close and she would be trapped her with that thing.
Just give up. It's hopeless.
Were these her thoughts? Was it telling her this? Was it making her think these things? Making her feel these things? It continued to roar; continued to stare within her. She could feel it violating her mind; filling her with despair. No, she couldn't give up. She would make it. She was so close; no matter what it said to her otherwise. She had to cling on to that hope.
She could feel it. A prismatic ray of light pulling her forward; out of the gaping maw. Away from those horrible eyes and soul-shuddering roars. She soon emerged from the void as it closed up behind her and she landed on thankfully solid ground. Catching her breath, she watched the rainbow light extend towards the lighthouse before a burst of powerful magic rooted through the Earth and the skies cleared up from the storm that had previously arouse.
Rejoicing and celebration soon followed, and Sunny took focus on it. Perhaps she felt the need to take her mind off the thing she witnessed or perhaps her mind itself wished to block out the horror that evaded the blank space that no pony was meant to tread. It would soon seem like a bad dream to the optimistic pony. A moment of despair to be forgotten in her escapades to bring new hope to Equestria.
Inside the renewed lighthouse; within the collection of artifacts that Argyle Starshine spent a large portion of his life accumulating; the Bell of Tambelon began to ring.