Author's Note

Small chapter for y'all, I plan on writing a longer one over these next few days! Thumbs up if you like it, leave some comments, and give me your suggestions! And any questions!

All He Needed Was A Creepy Van

I left the Mayor's office and decided that I had awhile before I needed to go back to twilights, so I walked around a bit. I ventured back towards the market before I heard some sort of whisper. As soon as I heard it I stopped, searching around for where it came from. I could hear it at the edge of my hearing, and I sat there listening I heard it again, coming from somewhere behind me. I turned and followed the path I just came from, listening for that voice. I kept hearing it, and I was slowly led outside of town near some sort of stream, which flowed towards the forest I had came from when I first arrived here. I found it a little weird that something was telling me to go to the forest, but I decided that whatever it was, I could deal with it. After all, I had spent the last few weeks gathering power, so it wasn't like I was defenseless. Plus, I had been resting the whole time, so I had more than enough energy to see where this went.

I walked along the streams path until it merged in with the tress, where it disappeared beneath the twisted trunks. I listen for the voice, and heard it calling me inside. I searched the tree line for an opening, but it seemed that this whole area was closed off, almost as if nothing was meant to get in or out here. Shaking my head I walked back towards the stream. Bending down, I realized that it had managed to create a small tunnel, just large enough for me to crawl into, underneath the trees. Looking at the water I knew I wasn't getting out of this without being dirty. I shook my head, turned my clothes into what I could only call a wetsuit, and slipped into the tunnel. As soon as I entered the voice got louder, moving into almost recognizable whispers. The voice became harsh, and gravelly. I almost thought about turning around, but I had come too far to go back.

"Even though it would be the smart thing to do, I can tell you won't turn around. So, take some advice: be prepared for anything."

"I was wondering when you'd say something. You've been pretty quiet lately."

"I simply had nothing to offer. After all, you weren't out doing stupid things then."

"Ouch. Warning noted"

I kept crawling down the tunnel, for what seemed like hours. As soon as I got out I took a deep breath, glad to be out of the small space. I changed from the wetsuit into some pants and a shirt, designed to blend in with the forest and still be strong. The voice hadn't grown louder, but it had gotten faster, which meant that I was probably on the right path. The stream continued into the forest, so I decided the quickest, if not the safest, path was to follow it. I kept my eyes peeled, hoping that nothing would creep up on me before I knew it was there.

I had gotten maybe two miles before the voice got louder, and I could make out what it was saying.

".....Darkness.....And in that place I was found...Light!...Darkness shroud me..."

I had no idea what any of it had to do with anything else, but I had come too far to go back, so I kept walking. The stream eventually led to a small clearing covered in grass and what seemed to be apple trees. I reached up and grabbed an apple, inspecting it closely. It looked like the apples I had eaten when I first came here. After hearing about how messed up this forest was, and experiencing it first hand, I decided that a little caution would be a good idea. I took a bite and prepared myself to cleanse any poisons in my body. Thankfully, nothing happened, so I took a few more bites before grabbing a few for the road.

Looking at myself, I realized that I still had Zecora's talisman on my chest, resting against my heart. I remember her warning not to take it off, and I decided to heed her advice. I fingered the talisman for a moment, and decided that I should keep it on for now.

I walked further into the clearing, noticing that the farther I went the less grass and more stone there was. Eventually I reached some sort of courtyard, where pillars of some sort of ash colored stone rose above the ground, broken and covered in vines but still standing. At the far end of the courtyard stood some sort of alter, covered in vines like everything else here. I walked closer to it, and the whispering grew in its intensity. Oddly enough, as soon as I reached the alter it went dead quiet. Tracing my fingers over it, I could make out some sort of inscription on it. Using my powers, I burned away the vines covering it, making sure to not harm the alter in the process. It took a few minutes, but it was soon cleared.

I had no idea what the thing said, because it looked like it was written in some sort of ancient langue. Instead of the usual characters it had strange markings closer to claw marks, and the only reason I didn't think some animal had come through here and messed it up was because it had some uniformity. Symbols repeated themselves across all sides of the alter, and it had clearly all been done at the same time. The more I looked at the thing, the more my head began to reel with what it could mean.

I decided to leave it alone for now though, seeing as there wasn't anything I could do about it, and examine the area around the alter. I circled around it, looking for anything even more out of place. I stopped as soon as I got behind it, and knelt down. It looked like there was some sort of crack in between the alter and the ground, and what seemed like grooves between the alter and the ground, almost as if it was meant to be pushed out of the way. I stood and got behind it, placing my hands on each side, and started to push. And push. And push.
Nothing happened.

After pushing for what felt like hours with no results, I decided that I'd keep looking around, seeing if there was anything else out of the norm. Casting my gaze around the courtyard, I couldn't find anything that didn't belong. I walked all over the damn place, making sure to step on each stone just in case it triggered something. Either the mechanisms for moving the thing were broken, there wasn't anything to move, or I had missed it, because nothing happened. Shaking my head I went back to the altar. I took a closer look, but I still didn't notice anything besides the grooves, and the alter definitely would have had to been pushed from the back. Looking around to see if anyone was there, I released some of my power into my arms, causing them to grow larger and larger, until I was sure I could push the thing. I set my feet, grabbed it and shoved.

Only to find myself slamming against it, my magic disappearing as soon as I tried to move the damn thing. Clearly, it didn't want to be moved. I walked backwards a bit, before deciding that kicking it would clearly move it. Sadly for me all it did was break a toe or two and make me hop up and down like an idiot cursing. Limping back to the front, I noticed that one of the letters had been lit up. Some sort of black liquid seemed to have come out of the stone and filled up the marking. Looking at my hands, I channeled more power into them, and set them against the stone. As soon as I did it disappeared, but I kept channeling into the stone. Soon more of the words were lit up, until they were all covered in the liquid. I heard some sort of click and backed up, not wanting to be anywhere near the thing just in case.

The altar slowly moved towards me, along the grooves that had been set there God knows how long ago. As soon as it moved some sort of wind erupted from within the hole it left, having been trapped there who knows how long ago as well. It stank like Hell, but I knew that whatever was in there was going to be interesting.

"Maybe you should just figure out how to cover the hole up again and leave, before things get out of hand? After all, you've already had to use magic quite a bit since you've been here, and I can't imagine that anything sealed away with demonic power would be a good thing to run into.

"You're assuming it's still alive. After all, it's clearly been a long time since anyone has been out here, much less opened this thing. Whatever is down there is probably long dead."

"Except if that were true, then why would you be hearing whispers? Better question: if whatever is down there would have died without food or water, then why would they have locked it up somewhere ponies weren't going to go? And with a type of energy that most ponies can't and won't use?

As much as I wanted to give him an asshole answer, I knew he was right. Still, I had come too far to just turn around. "Look, I'll be careful but we've come too far to turn back now. Besides, if something dangerous is down there, I should take care of it and then seal it back up, just to be sure."

I heard him mutter something in my mind before he went quiet, and I decided that I didn't want to hear whatever he had to say. Looking down into the hole, I realized that it was actually another tunnel. Shrugging, I lowered myself to the ground, and began rubbing the wall in order to find some stairs, but there didn't seem to be any. Even better, I couldn't see anything. I knew that if I went down there like this it would be suicide, so I channeled even more magic into me, sending it straight to my eyes. I closed and opened my eyes a few times until I got it right, but finally I could look down into the hole. I noticed that it was harder to get magic into me lately, and I decided that taking off the talisman that Zecora gave me might be a good idea if I planned on using it on myself. Of course, the flip side was that it probably gave me some protection in return, and it made me harder to detect. I decided that I'd keep it on for now, but if I needed to use some serious magic it was coming off.

Using my new vision I looked back into the strange tunnel. It shot straight down, but was wide enough for me to drop through. It wasn't wide enough for me to get wings and fly down, but I had an idea. I imagined power sliding into my hands, giving me sharp and durable claws. As I watched bright red claws began to grow, my hand becoming some sort of twisted mockery of Freddy's claw. Stabbing one hand into the stone wall, I dropped into the tunnel, my other hand slamming into the other side, holding me up. I pulled my claws out until I began to slide down the tunnel, trying keep even and see where I was going. Before I knew it the tunnel began to turn, and I ripped my claws out to avoid getting hurt. I sped up, shooting through the tunnels too fast for me to stop myself, until finally I shot out and flew a ways before sliding across a floor to stop a ways ahead of the tunnel. Sitting up, I shook the dirt off my face and shrunk my hands down again. That was really not any fun.

Looking around, I realized that the tunnel must have went a long ways down, because there was no way this giant chamber was near the ground. The ceiling seemed to go up beyond my vision, being held up by pillars. It was also incredibly wide and long, as I couldn't see very far into the darkness either in front of me or to my sides. The tunnel stood behind me, a testament to my fall. I decided that I'd just walk forward until the voice yelled at me again or something happened. I really hoped that neither of those would happen, however, because I had no desire to face whatever came because of it.

I walked for a little ways when I realized that I would need to leave some sort of magical beacon behind me to remind me which way I came. Looking at the ground, I imagined an arrow of fire pointing the way I walked. I checked to make sure that what I was doing hadn't begun to wear me out. I was a little tired, but the apples had helped. I knew that I would need to be careful with how much power I used here, because I didn't want to pass out. I kept walking forward, every hundred yards creating a new glyph. I must have done that twenty times before I reached another altar with a door behind it. Only this altar was a little different.

It was covered in glyphs of carnage and destruction. One side showed an entire town being crushed by some sort of monster. The other side's showed ponies and other creatures being tortured by some sort of creature. The final picture showed them fighting the thing, and being victorious. Even more ominous, there was some sort of black orb on the altar.

The door behind it wasn't any better. Some sort of screaming, demonic face was plastered over the door, and giant hinges, old and covered what looked like rust kept the thing in place. I was a little scared, to be honest. This whole room screamed "Don't touch anything!"

"Maybe next time you'll listen to me and ignore the weird voices?"

"How was I suppose to do that? And how was I suppose to know that this is what I'd find?"

"Common sense dictates that you ignore the weird voices that speak to you, just as it would tell you that something bad would happen by following them into the forest."

I wanted to say something, but he was right. I have no idea why the heck I followed the creepy voice all the way here. All I knew was that I had, so I would just deal with whatever happened.

I walked closer to the altar, feeling something familiar about it the closer I got. As soon as I stood a few feet in front of it I realized that it felt the same as when I channeled my power. So maybe this was also full of shadow magic? I wanted to touch it, but that seemed like a horrible idea.

"Now you use your brain. So, what are you going to do with it?"

Looking closer into the orb, I decided that terrible idea or not, I was going to pick it up. There didn't seem to be anything else that I could do with it. As soon as I started walking towards it Griffith decided he needed to make a running commentary.

"This is how people in movies die, just saying ]. I mean really, walk towards the creepy shadow orb? Can you think of a worse idea? Maybe you should just turn around!"

”Just shut up and let me see what happens!"

”Don't say I didn't warn you..."

I took the final few steps and placed my hand on the orb. The moment that I touched it, I felt electricity travel between me and it. I felt like it was draining me of energy, and as the shadows swirled beneath it I found that I couldn't pull my hand back. I began to panic, and tried to hit it with a blast of fire, but it just absorbed it.

"Calm down! And stop using magic for a minute!"

I took his advice and closed myself off from my source, and the shadows beneath the orb became even more agitated, before slowing down and letting me pull my hand back. That wasn't the end however, as the orb began to pulse with a murky light. I stepped back just as it exploded into shadows, and the whispers began to pick up again.

Just as quickly as it started it stopped, but the room itself was different. A dark light suffused the room, letting me see that the room extended massively in all directions. The altar was glowing, and the door behind it seemed to be restored, the rusty hinges changed into steel bands. I walked towards the altar slowly, hoping that nothing else would explode. As soon as I stepped onto it light up even more, reacting to me. I tried to walk back, but I felt some sort of barrier appear that separated me and the way back. I couldn't get off the platform.

"After so long...Why have you come to disturb my slumber?" a voice from the darkness called out.

"Uh, I didn't really mean to. In fact, if you let me go I'll let you get right back to sleep! And no one will bother you again!"

The thick voice laughed, which sounded like two knives scraping together. "You misunderstand! I'm not angry, but grateful. After being stuck here for long, I've longed for the outside. For fresh air. For Freedom!"

I really wanted to leave, but seeing as I couldn't, I decided that I'd just ride it out. "Well, I'm glad I helped then...Any chance you can let me go so I can be free too?"

"Surely I can get my savior's name before I release him? After all, I'd like to know what I owe it to."

"I'm Connor." I told the voice.

"Thank you then, Connor, for freeing me from my slumber. As a reward, I shall spare your life.”

Great, so I woke up something evil. "That's nice....But can I get your name before you go? I'd like to know who I woke up."

"I have many names. Before I was imprisoned here I resided in a being called Sombra. However, I cannot feel him nearby. Am I still within the bounds of Sul-Ñalor?"

"Uh, where the hell is that?"

"It became known as the Crystal Empire, I believe."

"Then no."

"I see...I have much to attend to. I shall leave you a parting gift and be on my way. Thank you for freeing me mortal. I must find my host and attend to my own issues. Enjoy my gift."

As soon as he finished his speech the shadows erupted, and the room become light, like someone lit a candle. The door behind the altar opened slowly, and a bright red light began to emerge. Before long, the snout of something came out, along with a set of glowing red eyes.
Shit.