The air was cold, almost unnaturally so. A thick blanket of snow covered the frozen ground. It was almost funny, in a way, that both nature and the ponies who came before tried to hide the sinister place that lay under your hooves. The only reason one could know it was there at all, was the tunnel which the archaeologists had dug to enter this forsaken tomb.
It's thick, concrete shell was created to keep things out, and perhaps to keep whatever was in there, outside. Religious cults had already claimed it as their messiah, declaring that it was either the doorstep to hell, or the gate to heaven.
Twilight Sparkle didn't know what to think. Her mind was excited, yet she was almost quivering, and not because of the cold. The unnatural, dark maw opened towards her, seemingly wanting to swallow her down into it's giant system of tunnels. Their purpose was unknown, lost in the aisles of years, decades, centuries, and millennium. With this in mind, she started walking into it's foggy darkness.
Lights were placed along the walls of the downright scary tunnel in front of her. They weren't able to light up all of the tunnel, but why was it necessary? Nothing was drawn on the walls. Nothing was meant to be drawn on the walls. The stones bleak features displayed only death, nothing else. It felt as if every outcrop was watching her as she traversed down the darkness.
The gravel floor crunched under her hooves as she watched the darkness in front of her. Ponies say that if you stare into the darkness for too long, the darkness will stare back. This was without a doubt a feeling that the Princess had in mind.
Soon, the lights ended. No pony had been down this far as of yet. At least, no pony in the last hundred thousand years. This felt strange to the young princess. It gave her a feeling of excitement, but also of awareness. If no pony had been here before, then no pony knew the danger ahead, or if there even was a danger at all. But even if there was, what could possibly be dangerous to an alicorn princess?
She lit her horn as she took the first step out of the safety the lights mounted on the walls gave, and into the complete, and utter darkness that soon engulfed her, the light purple glow leading her way. She shivered slightly.
It was hard knowing how far you had gone in these tunnels. There were no landmarks or anything to navigate by. Only dark tunnels that lead downwards. Thankfully, there were only one direction, and no side paths which could lead you astray. Only one direction. Down.
She must have gone down several hundred meters by this point. She was glad that she didn't have to navigate any paths as of yet, but that changed at that very moment. A path went off to the side, again into darkness. Thankfully, Twilight was quick in her thoughts, and drew a large arrow on the floor with her magic, showing the way out. It was her only lifeline, after all. Her dark walk continued, against her better judgement.
Twilight practically felt the voice in her head talk to her. "You don't belong in here. Go back up to the surface. This place shouldn't be disturbed." She ignored her inner voice, and moved on. Little did she know what danger she was in. What form of horror that had begun to surround her. Shine through her. Things she wasn't able to feel. Things that she wasn't able to see. Things that she wasn't able to smell. And if she didn't leave now, she would soon regret it for the rest of her life, even if it were to be as short as this hidden, invisible danger that lured all around her.
She finally reached something. Something that gave her a reason to pause. The tunnel hadn't changed one bit, but there was an addition that she would've missed, if she hadn't felt the difference under her hooves. She halted, the sound of her hooves stopping, and the overwhelming silence spread all around her. She took a cautious step back, and looked down.
A round area of the ground was different. It looked different. It wasn't the gravel that her hooves had become accustomed to during this long walk. It was white, a contrast to the gray gravel and rock around it. She blinked several times, ensuring that she wasn't seeing an hallucination.
Sure enough, however, the area of white was still there. She pawed at it carefully with her hoof. It took a minute or two, and she had gone down almost a foot, but then, her hoof hit something hard. Something that she wasn't meant to find. She looked at the lid of a form of container. A round container, made of copper.
She took another step back, and shone her horn as hard as she could, directing it down the hallway. There she saw it. White spots dotted the ground, organized in lines that seemed to go on for miles on end, until finally her magic could reach no further. There must be hundreds of them.
She lessened her magic power, and the light faded. But the light in her mind was still shining brightly. Why was this organized in such a fashion? Whoever made this must have had a good reason for doing this. This could never be the work of an ancient civilization with primitive technology. Hiding the capsules in the ground, and hiding the entrance. It seems that they were determined to keep these capsules hidden from everything until the end of time.
But why? The voice in her head started to make even louder protests. They wanted to leave. This wasn't a place where they should tread. This place isn't somewhere anypony should tread.
It finally made sense in her head. They weren't hiding some treasure that was waiting to be discovered. They hid something dangerous. More dangerous than she could ever fathom.
She took a few steps back, still having her eyes focused on the canister in the floor.
Time stopped for just a few seconds, before she tore her eyes away from the shiny copper surface, and ran.
She ran til her legs were tired, and then she ran some more. She needed out. Out of this... tomb. This tomb of forbidden and dangerous knowledge that was left to be forgotten. She didn't know exactly why she ran, but she felt it was the right thing to do.
She wanted to the surface. And when she got there, she would seal this tomb once more. She had understood the message that ponies who built these tunnels were trying to tell her, and she knew she had to renew the legend. Their legend. Their way of protecting life.
We need you to know
That this place should not be disturbed
You should stay away from this place
....then you will be safe.
Author's Note
This one-shot was based upon the "Onkalo" spent nuclear fuel repository in Finland. It was inspired by the documentary "Into Eternity" by Michael Madsen, from where some of the quotes have come from.
There's a minor thought that this will raise questions on Onkalo, and on Nuclear Power in general.
Thank you for reading! :)
