The Chasm

by Kragor

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Adventure, Human
Length: 4474

Twilight Sparkle finds a hole, and wants to know what's at the bottom.

Twilight Sparkle finds a hole, and wants to know what's at the bottom.

Darker Themes

Tags & Rating may change over time.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-25 04:23:14 UTC

1: The Fall

Twilight Sparkle stood there at the chasm and looked down. It seemed to go on forever like an Abyss full of darkness and evil.

The Unicorn grasped a small rock in her magic and dropped it down the hole, she waited to hear a sound for hours, or perhaps days, maybe minutes or months or even years. But time didn't matter, nothing mattered but that hole.

Twilight Sparkle did not know where that rock went, there was no noise, and so she decided she needed to know what was down there. "How could this gaping maw be so deep?" Twilight asked herself. She didn't know the answer to that question, and it was driving her mad.

She looked around the edges of the cliff, searching for a way down. She found no such thing though.

Twilight Sparkle didn't know what to do.

She took off her saddlebags and sat down, doing the only thing she knew in this situation. She thought.

What should she do?

She didn't know, but she wanted to explore that hole with all of her being.

But she didn't want to leave, to get proper climbing equipment. She felt as if she may never see this Chasm again if she left, she needed to see what was down there.

The unicorn felt conflicted, should she leave and never see such a mystery again? Or fight logic, fight herself, and take the leap, jump right down that hole.

But now wasn't the time for thinking, she felt the ground shake, and the chasm began to close up through some strange magic.

It was now or never, do or die. Or possibly do and die in this case. But that didn't matter, nothing mattered but that chasm.

Twilight Sparkle grabbed her bags, and jumped into the Chasm, as it closed up once she entered.

She fell.

And fell.

Twilight Sparkle plunged downwards, it felt like years, decades, centuries, passed as she fell.

Eventually the sensation of falling stopped, it felt to Twilight Sparkle like she was simply drifting in various directions in complete darkness. She couldn't even see a hoof in front of her face.

She began to regret her decision, but it was too late to go back, she had only one choice, and that was to go forward, and see what the hole has to offer.

Below, The Unicorn saw a shining light, or perhaps it was up, or left, or right, or forwards. She couldn't really tell.

Twilight guided herself towards the shining light, and what she found when she reached it was quite peculiar.

A small key, with no features shined brightly in The Abyss, and the floating Mare found herself attracted to it.

She grabbed the shining key in her magic, and stowed it away in her bags, it may be useful later.

And so Twilight Sparkle continued to drift around in nowhereland.

Quickly after, or perhaps slowly after; as time in this place seemed to be convoluted and logic-defying. Another light appeared, not as bright as before, but it was something to work with. The Unicorn once again guided herself towards the light, closer, and closer, and closer...

And then she burst out of the water, gasping for breath.

Twilight swam towards the shore, and observed her surroundings.

She was now in a cave, crystals occasionally jutting out of the walls, floor, and ceiling, giving off a dim light.

Even though it suddenly didn't feel like she was floating in that abyss for very long now, Twilight was cold, and wet, and exhausted.

She slowly crawled against a wall, and went into the foetal position, shivering. The young mare slowly drifted to sleep, now terrified of what had just occurred.

That night, Twilight Sparkle dreamed of what horrors she may find within the cave.

Twilight Sparkle awoke in a cold sweat, in her dream she was almost eaten by a grotesque bipedal creature, with a large head, stubby legs, and sharp claws before she woke up.

The Mare shakily rose to her hooves, and went forwards through the cave, the dim lighting of the crystals leading the way.

As she went through the cave, she didn't see very much. Just stone and crystals really.

As Twilight trotted along, she bumped into something while admiring some of the multicoloured crystals.

The Unicorn froze, and slowly looked up.

But before she could see what she ran into, all the crystals stopped emitting light. Twilight was quickly shrouded in darkness, as whatever was in front of her quickly ran off in an indescribable direction.

The Unicorn could hear something scattering around in the darkness, and began to panic. Bringing up her knowledge of spells, she began to launch spell after spell into the darkness, screaming the entire time. However it was no use, something grabbed one of her back hooves, and started to drag her across the floor in some direction. Twilight was terrified, but had exhausted herself too much to cast any more spells. So she did the only other thing she knew to do; play dead.

She stopped flailing around, screaming, and she closed her eyes, and slowed her breathing. until it could barely be heard.

Twilight simply did nothing, waiting as her body scraped along the cold stone floor.

And then she stopped moving, whatever had her let go.

Then, silence.

Hours passed, and nothing had happened yet. The unicorn wasn't attacked again, but the lights still hadn't come back on.

It was then that Twilight assumed that maybe the creature had ran off in search of something else, maybe whatever had kidnapped her keeps their prisoners alive.

Twilight Sparkle slowly opened her eyes, and activated a simple low-light spell.

Right in front of her, was a long, pale, hairless, grinning face. It had a long pointed nose, and small, black beady eyes, it's teeth looked razor sharp, and had small bits of raw meat between them.

The Unicorn screamed, charging up raw magic in her horn, she fired it right into the creature's face, and ran. The dim lights slowly began to return as she went, perhaps she was safe now.

"RROOOAAAAAGGGGGGHH!!" She heard a terrifying scream behind her, and quickly decided that thing was probably still alive, and continued running.

As she ran through the tunnels, she spotted something up ahead; a bright light once more.

Twilight picked up the pace, and ran as fast as her legs would take her.

Twilight Sparkle entered the blinding light, as soon as she heard something loud and angry come crashing through the tunnels behind her.

2: Meeting Friends

Twilight Sparkle ran through the bright light and found herself in a large area (still in the caves as well might I add), the source of the light nowhere to be seen. However, up ahead of her were two massive double-doors, they was probably made of iron or some other metal, but other than that it didn't have very many features other than it's amazing size. It had to be at least thirty feet tall!

"REAAAGH!!" Twilight heard behind her.

"That's right," Twilight realized. "I'm was just as safe now as I was before." and so she stopped her admiring and ran for that door even faster than before.

Twilight ran as fast as she could, she ran, and she ran, and she ran, but even still, that monster was right behind her and it was closing the distance fast, she needed to get to that door fast.

Finally, she reached the door, got on her back hooves, and with all of her strength, and all of her magic, she pushed. But despite her efforts, it didn't move, not an inch, not a centimetre, not at all. It was like being stuck between a deadly monster that was probably going to eat her and a giant wall.

It was coming, so close, the monster closed the gap between the two in seconds, and grabbed Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight screamed, she tried to attack, but it had no effect.

"Somepony help me! Please! Somepony, or something or whatever! I don't care, just help me please!" She yelled.

The monster grabbed a nearby rock with it's free hand, and smashed Twilight's head with it, causing her to collapse. The Unicorn's vision began to fade, and she started to lose consciousness.

"Please..." She croaked as she was slowly dragged away. With the last of her magic she pushed the door once more, but it was useless, it didn't move at all.

That time, Twilight Sparkle dreamed of a Stallion in brilliant white armour coming to save her.

A man awoke from his slumber, and opened his eyes, the sunlight from a cave opening above bothering him immediately.

"Mmm... I dreamed of a young woman screaming for help... I don't think..." He thought aloud. "No, wait... Something doesn't seem right." He said.

The man jumped to his feet and looked around the vast cave he was in for some reflective surface.

He eventually found what he was looking for, a small puddle.

The man looked into the reflection, and saw a pristine white skull looking back, he had black, empty eye-sockets and... well that's pretty much it for face features.

"Of course, how could I forget." He said with a monotone voice, his jaw not even moving as he did so. "I'm dead, or at least, I'm pretty sure I'm dead." He said to himself.

The man looked down at his hands, just bones. The same for his feet. He continued to explore his skeleton body for a few minutes.

"Also I guess I'm naked... Well I guess that isn't really a big deal since there's really nothing offensive to see, but it still just really just feels wrong." he said.

So then he spent the next five minutes looking around for something to wear, eventually settling on some old tattered black robes another dead person was wearing. 'Hopefully he isn't still alive too.' he thought as he removed the robes carefully.

Now clothed, the dead man approached what he assumed to be the only way out; two massive iron double doors.

Making a guess based on how the door was designed, he decided that it was probably pull from this side, if he could even get it open that is.

The man stuck his fingers between the doors, and pulled with all his might, and it surprisingly opened, just enough for the man to squeeze through.

"Maybe someone loosened it up for me? Anyways, only one way to go, and that's forwards." he said to himself.

However...

Almost as soon as he opened the door, he heard a super spooky shrill roar from a passageway up ahead.

He quickly retreated into the room where he woke up and looked around for something to defend himself with.

After hour upon hour of searching, he was just about ready to give up, but far above he heard something... Perhaps it was people talking?

Soon after, something fell down from the opening in the roof of the cavern.

Once it reached the ground with a thud, the Skeleton man went to investigate.

It was a woman's body, she was wearing black robes, similar to what he was already wearing, and a pretty neat wizard hat. Also,  she had a sword pierced through her stomach.

"Hey, I'll take what I can get." The man said, pulling the sword from her body. "Uhh, if you're still alive, no hard feelings?" He asked.

The woman opened her eyes and looked at Mr. Skeleton.

"Oh my, you're quite a wonderful work of necromancy, aren't you?" She said.

"I am? Well, I guess that kinda makes sense." He replied.

"Indeed, although the magic used to revive you is quite peculiar, I've heard of something similar to it, but it's still nothing I've ever sensed." The woman replies.

"Are you, by any chance a Witch?" He asked.

"I am indeed, it's why I was thrown down here." The witch replied.

"Okay then... Uhm, do you think you'll live?" The Skeleton asked.

"Probably not, no magic I've learned of before can fix broken bones, so even if I do mend the hole through my stomach some creature down here will likely finish me off." She responded.

"Alright... Speaking of creatures, do you know anything about these caves?" He asked.

The woman coughed, and then answered. "I know of these caves, it's where a nearby village sends witches and wizards that can't be burned to death, although according to some rumours, some survive the drop and live their lives out down here, continuing their research and searching for a way out as well I would assume."

"Alright then, you've been a great help. Thank you, I only wish there was some way to save you." The man replied.

"Think nothing of it, this is what I deserve for playing around with such dangerous magic, go ahead and do whatever you were doing." She responded.

"Alright... If I don't get the chance to talk to you again, I'd just like to thank you, and say goodbye." The Skeleton said.

The Witch laid her head down on the cold stone floor. "Before you go, I don't believe I was told your name, if you don't mind, would you tell me?" She asked.

"I can't quite remember, my memories are a little hazy, but I believe it was something like Lukas. Could I hear yours? I'd at least like a name to remember you by." he said.

"It's Cecilia." She replied quietly.

"Alright Cecilia, I won't forget what you've done for me." Lukas said.

The Skeleton began to cautiously exit the room he was formerly trapped in. With his new sword in hand, he slowly made his way to a twisting passage that was dimly lit by glowing crystals.

He slowly and cautiously explored the twisting and branching cave, more than once coming to dead ends.

However, he eventually found something interesting to say the least.

Lukas entered a large area, he almost immediately noticed that the floor was covered in bones, rotting bodies, and other disturbing sights, there also weren't very many crystals here as well. There were rotting wooden platforms scattered throughout the room, and there were corpses hanging from some of the higher up platforms with what appeared to be rope. There were more dead things on the floor, and even some that looked to be just barely alive, the stench in the room was almost unbearable, and if he still had the privilege to, Lukas would have emptied his stomach right then and there. Off to the side of the area was a very large pile of belongings; There were bags, various weapons and armours, and tons of gold just to list a few of the things he saw.

But the most interesting thing about the entire room, was what appeared to be a small lavender unicorn that was tied up, gagged, and lying on the floor in the centre of the room, it seemed to still be alive, and it was staring right at him, a very worried look in it's eyes.

The Skeleton began to slowly approach the Unicorn, and it almost instantly started to squirm away from him.

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you." he said.

It seemed surprised hearing him talk, but only for a moment. Perhaps it recognized the language? No, what am I thinking, it's just a horse. Lukas thought.

Lukas continued to approach the Unicorn, and the Unicorn continued to back away, until it ran into the cave wall behind it.

The Skeleton knelt down and took out his sword, the Unicorn closed it's eyes and prepared for the worst.

And then the Skeleton carefully cut her free and removed her gag, it seemed surprised by this.

"Uhm, thank you?" it said with an uncertain feminine voice.

Lukas' jaw dropped in surprise, literally. It fell onto the floor with a faint rattle.

"I think you dropped something." she said.

The Skeleton tried to respond, but then noticed she was indeed correct, and he couldn't talk. He picked up his jaw and put it back in place.

"You... Talk?" He asked, the very essence of confusion in his tone.

"Well, yes." she replied.

"Okay then. Any reason there's a talking purple unicorn here?" Lukas asked.

"Something kidnapped me, it probably would have eaten me too if it came back before you got here." She replied quickly.

"Alright then, well let's get you out of here before whatever kidnapped you comes back, he doesn't sound like a very likeable fellow." The skeleton said.

"I agree, but first I need to get my bags, he threw them into that pile." she said in response.

"Okay, but make it quick, I really don't feel like meeting this guy." Lukas said.

The unicorn quickly got to her hooves and began rummaging through the pile, looking for her bags.

As she searched, the confused Skeleton noticed something, or two somethings to be precise, on the Unicorn's flank, they appeared to be two identical markings, or tattoos, or something, of a six-pointed star on a map. When I get the opportunity I'll ask. he thought.

"Found them!" The Unicorn exclaimed, quickly equipping them like a saddle.

As the Unicorn turned around though, her face took on a shocked expression.

"B-b-b-b-behind you!" She yelled, fear in her voice.

Lukas quickly turned around, just to see a pale smiling face right before his head was literally punched off.

3: Escape

Twilight Sparkle watched in shock, as the mysterious monster that had kidnapped her quietly came out of the shadows and punched off her savior's head, said strange skeleton's body falling to the ground lifelessly afterwards; his skull rolling beside his now lifeless corpse.

Twilight did the first thing that came to mind, and that was to run. She of course felt terrible for the Skeleton, but he was probably dead, and she didn't really want to take any risks and stick around just in case he was still alive.

However the creature clearly didn't want any of that, and quickly closed the distance between the two as soon as she tried to run, tackling the Unicorn to the ground and pinning her, it's cold pale claws flying down and grasping Twilight's neck.

Twilight Sparkle couldn't breathe. She was slowly but surely suffocating in the monster's grasp, she launched spell after spell at it, but it quickly avoided most of the attacks.

She couldn't do anything, this was it. The end already.

As the life slowly drained from her, she thought back to her life.

She studied hard and did her best to train her magical skills, she never really had any friends; but she was fine with that, she didn't really have much time to be making friends with her job anyway, and she never really cared about making them.

The only thing she really regretted was never making it into Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns.

Regardless of her failing the entrance exam for her dream school, and never making any friends though, Twilight was content with her life. She had a job she loved with a decent income, and she got to travel a lot and learn all sorts of new things about the world.

She tried her best to remember all of the beautiful places she had explored.

As her last sliver of consciousness faded, she thought about her family, and how she would never see them again.

Lukas was in a bit of a pickle.

He couldn't move his head, and he couldn't see a thing, but he could still move his body.

he fumbled around, searching for his head.

Off to the side he heard a crash, the sound of someone being forced onto the cold floor.

'Gods dammit, that Unicorn's probably in deep shit right now.' he thought.

But then he came to a realization.

He couldn't see where his body was, but he could hear.

The Skeleton clapped his hand against the ground, making a loud noise around his five, he slowly figured out where his body was relative to his head, and in what direction his body was facing, he then positioned his body so that it was facing his head, and slowly crawled towards his empty brain bucket, checking where he was very often.

Using this method he quickly found his way to his skull, and picked it up; carefully attaching it to his head.

He then saw what had happened.

The Monster had pinned the Unicorn to the ground, and was now choking the life out of her.

Lukas grabbed his sword off of the floor, and ran towards the monster, as soon as he reached the beast, he sliced right across it's back, but it didn't seem fazed in the lightest.

He struck again, and again, and again, over and over and over, each new cut drawing blood. And yet the monster didn't seem affected at all.

But Lukas persisted, cutting over and over, again and again, until he collapsed from exhaustion, gasping for breath (which seemed a little odd to him, considering the fact that he was undead)

As he crouched there behind the monster, he thought as he regained his breath.

'Why am I fighting this thing? I'm clearly way out of it's league, so why don't I just run while it's distracted? It's the perfect opportunity to save myself.' He thought.

The Skeleton searched for an answer, but didn't find one. He couldn't think of a single reason to save this Unicorn.

And so he decided to leave while he can, to save himself, to prolong his unlife.

However, as he began to leave the area his head began to hurt, he felt something coming; some sort of memory.

It was a promise.

He didn't remember it word for word, and he definitely didn't remember who he promised it to, but either way, he remembered it just barely.

He remembered promising that he would protect those in need of help, no matter how one sided the odds were.

And that got the Skeleton thinking.

Should he really just abandon that Unicorn? Just because he would survive?

The answer he came up with to that question was a simple "No."

He turned around, it didn't look like there was much more time left before she was done for.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!" With the voice of a small child, Lukas let out a battle cry, and ran back towards the monster, his sword readied.

The monster was probably pretty fucking surprised by the high-pitched battle cry too, because it turned it's head and looked at the source of the noise, a look of confusion on it's face.

Lukas ran right up to the ugly fiend, and began to swing his sword, aiming right for it's neck.

Right as the sword was about to connect, the blade briefly emitted a dark orange glow, and a dangerous amount of raw magical power leaked out, sharpening the sword beyond belief for a short five seconds; it turned what would have been a pathetic attempt of an attack into a fatal blow, cutting through flesh and bone like a warm knife through butter.

As soon as the monster's head was severed, it's body went limp, the new wound now leaking and spraying gratuitous amounts of blood as he fell off of the Unicorn.

Lukas was so surprised that his jaw almost fell off again.

But he didn't have time to be surprised, he had to make sure the Unicorn was okay.

He dropped to his knees and lowered his head around the area he assumed where her heart and lungs would be, listening for anything at all.

For a minute he sat there in total silence, the suspense in the room heavy enough to crush a solid block of metal with east.

*thum thum, thum thum*

The Skeleton sighed in relief, as he heard a heartbeat, and saw the Unicorn's chest rise and fall.

Lukas picked up the Unicorn's bags, and lifted her up; carrying her back.

The walk out of the cave was silent. A little too silent. The Skeleton spent the entire trek back on edge, just waiting for some eldritch horror to jump out of nowhere. Luckily though, no such thing happened, and Lukas found himself back at the massive double doors soon enough.

As he entered again, he noticed two things.

First of all, it appeared to be getting dark up above, the only light source in the area was soon to be gone.

Second, the Witch Cecelia was still alive, and she was now propped up against a boulder, laying down on some old clothes she probably took off some corpses. She seemed quite content just sitting there and not moving at all.

"Oh, welcome back. I didn't think I would see you again." The Witch said.

"How are you still alive?" Lukas asked.

"I really haven't a clue, I healed that nasty wound I had, although as I said, I was unable to mend my broken bones. The only real reason I'm not alive yet is because no monsters have come around here." She said.

"Oh, I see." Lukas replied.

Lukas gathered some more rags and clothes and laid the Unicorn down in them, deciding that it wouldn't be good if anything were to show up he walked over to the massive doors and somehow slowly closed them.

"I see you've used my little enchantment on that sword." Cecelia said.

"So that was you?" Lukas asked.

"Indeed." She responded.

"Well thank you then, I probably would have died if you didn't." The Skeleton said.

"You're welcome." The Witch replied.

Once again realizing that it was getting dark, Lukas started looking around for anything that could be used to make a fire.

He found several dead twigs and branches that probably fell down, and once again grabbed more clothing from the many skeletons around.

He then got to work on making a fire, due to the limited resources though it took quite a long time.

By the time all light had disappeared, he had finally got the fire going.

"Great job, you gonna cook up that little Horse?" Cecelia asked.

"Unfortunately, no. She seems to be intelligent, and she even knows English, just barely saved her from some beast." Lukas replied.

"What a shame, well then, I'm going to sleep, you should try to get some sleep too, that is, if you can." Cecelia said.

"Alright." The Skeleton responded, as the Witch covered herself up. He did the same for the Unicorn as well so she wouldn't  freeze to death.

Lukas tried to sleep all night, but he wasn't able to for some reason. He just stared ino the fire all night, and when the fire died he watched the stars far above.