The Strange Tale Of Ezekiel Henderson

"Oh shit!", Henderson recoiled from the water.

He quickly recovered from his initial surprise, then scooped up his rifle and approached the severed limb. He knelt by the water and reached out to pluck it from the water, turning it in his gloved hand.

No, not severed. Torn. He thought as he noticed the jagged edges and snapped bone.

After a minute of scrutiny, Henderson set the appendage on the floor then walked over to Dash, who was still quivering on the other side of the pool.

"Hey, you alright?", he asked as he knelt beside her.

"Y-yeah, it just... it surprised me.", she said as she rose off the floor.

Surprise doesn't make you throw up. He thought.

"Well, come on. Something tells me we're getting close." Close to what, he didn't know.

They continued through the cave for a couple more hours, not finding anything else. Henderson was just about to say they should turn around and head out when he spotted something. The next bend in the natural tunnel didn't look so, natural. He moved closer and peered around.

No, definitely not natural.

The rough, jagged basalt that made up the rest of the cave morphed into smooth stone on the other side of the bend. He came completely around the corner and shown his light down the length of the now synthetic tunnel. His beam was stopped short by a wall and half open door.

"Whoa...", Dash said as she rounded the bend.

Henderson moved closer to look at the wall and its door. The wall, he discovered, was covered in glyphs, similar to the ones that filled the ancient book that started all this. He moved closer still, now examining the door. Made of the same material as the wall, the door was slid to one side, as if resting on some form of internal rollers. It was open just enough to allow an armored stallion entry into whatever lay beyond it. Henderson cautiously reached out to open the door enough for him to enter. It slid silently on its rollers. That's when Henderson saw the blood. It was everywhere, it glistened in Henderson's light. It coated the nearly all of the visible floor, thicker in some places than others.

Henderson felt nauseous, despite this he leaned in the door, more of the room was now visible. Nothing but red from the floor to about half-way up the walls. He stepped in. He motioned for Dash to wait where she was.

There were a lot of doors in the room, all of which were open or crumbled and scattered on the near floor. He shown his light into them, they were just large, featureless rooms. Except for the last one he checked, it had a body in it. It was one of the original group, of that he was sure, but it was hard to tell. It had been mutilated, most of the pieces were missing or scattered about the room. The hair on the back of Henderson's neck stood up, he suddenly felt watched. He twirled to find Rainbow Dash standing in the door of the side room. Her knees were shaking and her eyes were locked on the mangled corpse.

"Dash, I thought I asked you to wait by the other door.", Henderson tried to sound comforting.

Dash's eyes remained locked on the body as she squeaked her reply. "I-I though I heard a n-noise out th-there."

Henderson knelt in front of her, then held her head in between his hands, forcing her to look at him, away from the mess.

"Let's go, we have enough to tell the Princesses that something terrible happened.", he said quietly, trying to comfort the blue pegasus.

Dash's look of utter disgust changed to one of quizzical shock.

"What? Leave now? We've gone this far, why not go a little farther?", she was trying to sound brave, but Henderson could hear the fear in her voice.

Henderson sighed, "Ok, but next time I tell you to wait at a door, wait at the door."

Dash nodded.

Henderson stood up and the looked around the room some more. They discovered that the door at the end of the room opened into a hall way, into which they ventured. Once inside the narrow passage, Henderson noticed a smell. It was a really strong rusty smell mixed with rotting meat and ammonia. Dash apparently smelled it too, she scrunched her snout and started breathing through her mouth.

"Ughh, what's that smell?", she asked. The only effect breathing through her mouth had produced was now she could taste the horrendous odor.

"I don't know, but it's getting stronger, so we're probably going to find out.", Henderson replied as he rounded a corner, rifle raised.

There was another door at the end of this part of the hall, this one closed. He approached it with extreme caution, doors in this place tended to lead him into rather gruesome scenes. To his surprise, it opened when he neared it. He dropped to one knee and prepared to fire at whatever came through.

Nothing did.

The door had opened on its own. Henderson glanced back down the hallway, there, on the floor, a raised panel. He had stepped on it, he was sure.

Dash stood behind him, looking rather confused.

"What?", she whispered.

"Nothing", Henderson mumbled. He stood and proceeded to the now open door. He peered inside, shining his light around the new room. It was a larger space that he was expecting. This room had two floors, the second consisting of a stone pad that circled the room. Henderson peered over the edge of this pad, seeing nothing but the blank, smooth stone of the first floor. He looked around the wall of the second floor, no doors.

"No way to go up here.", he said over his shoulder, "Looks like we're going down." Without waiting for a response, he stepped off the edge, expertly rolling when he hit the stone below. Dash fluttered down beside him.

He turned and swept the underside of the second floor, a lone door, closed. He walked to it. It seemed this door had no operating mechanism, until he found a small panel. He touched this and it opened, revealing a small lever, which he flipped. The door opened, revealing yet another room. This room was small, barely closet size. Another door sat directly opposite the one he stood in. Unlike the other doors, too damn many doors in this place, this door was rather large and imposing. It was at least twice as large, and boasted equally impressive locks, which weren't engaged.

If this was a movie, I'd have a bad feeling about this. Henderson approached the door. He noticed another panel on the wall.

Don't do it, he told himself.

Too late. He pressed the panel, which opened to reveal a rather anti-climactic looking lever. He reached out and flipped it. The large stone door rumbled and slid into it's frame. The unholy smell that came through the now wide open door told him they'd found whatever had produced it. The sound that accompanied the smell made Henderson regret his decision to flip that lever.