Equestrian Souls: Fires of War

EQUESTRIAN SOULS
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Chapter five: Corruption

We had finally arrived at our destination. It took us fighting a mess of hollows, and me personally killing a giant rat named Bob to get here. Now I stood at the end of a wooden walkway built into the sides of this large cave. From the end of the tunnel I could see that the cavern opened up into a much larger area, there was some light shining down into the area beyond, but it was still too dark to see properly. Moon Shadow was leading us very cautiously along the wooden walkway. Storm Feather followed at my side, I was holding the torch shining light for my comrades.

The walkways were designed to snake around in a slightly confusing manor, with other levels of wooden walkways both under and above us. There were tunnels dug into the walls leading off to other places, places that I did not want to visit.

The smell here was different than in the sewers but almost as terrible, something keen to the smell of rotting flesh perforated the air, as well as mold, and a heavy smell of unclean animals. I decided to take a whiff of my own fur, maybe that last smell was coming from us instead. I could swear that there were shadows moving in the distance along the walls, but I couldn’t pinpoint them when I looked at them directly.

We approached the exit to the cavern we were in, and the smell was increasing in intensity. I looked up at where the light was pouring in from, and saw a large opening in the roof of this cavern. I suppose that means we were inside of a large chasm. There were spikes along the top ridge of the opening, and along the walls. These spikes looked almost like tree roots, but they looked dead. We had stopped moving, Both Storm and Moon were staring forward in horror at one of the large wooden structures ahead of us.

My vision had to readjust to the darkness, and when it did I really wished it hadn’t. Just ahead of us were crude wooden pikes sticking out from the sides of the walkway, and placed on the pikes were the desecrated bodies of ponies. Some of them were simply heads, others were torso’s with, or without the head. The pikes had been stained red from the blood running down them. Most of these bodies had been up here so long that they were terrible rotten. This explained the smell needless to say I spent the next few seconds vomiting violently off the side of the walkway.

As I regained my composer I heard Moon Shadow saying. “This is not possible. We killed them all…we have to leave.”

I stood up shakily nodding in agreement. Storm Feather turned around first, and pointed behind me saying. “There’s something coming.”

I looked at where he was pointing, and found myself watching as two huge muscle bound black furred creatures walked towards us. They walked on their hind legs, holding crudely made clubs in their strong arm, the weapon was bigger than I was, and was being dragged behind them as they walked. They had dog like heads, with pierced ears.

We backed up towards the structure as they approached us. I began seeing more shadowy figures stepping out of the tunnels on the sides of the walls, a lot of them. “Run” hissed Moon Shadow as he turned around. We followed him into the structure.

There were no doors inside, or even a proper roof, the floors had missing sections forcing us to move along crude paths. After a few moments we came across a ladder leading down, with a tall but skinny dog guarding it. This dog was holding a broad sword his sword had extensive damage done to it. Moon Shadow created another magic shuriken, this time made of red energy and he sent it flying at the creature. The blade got stuck in the dog’s chest, making it wince in pain but not really doing much to it. Storm Feather then shoves the dog off the edge of the ladder with his shoulder. The dog hit the wooden floor below and nearly broke the boards underneath him but not quite, than the red shuriken explodes with enough force to send the dog through the floor, and into the darkness below.

We climb down the ladder as fast as we possibly could. Storm Feather glided down along side us. There was a large hole where the dog had fallen through, and I dared to take a peek down. There was only blackness down below. I really didn’t want to fall.

We moved down what resembled a hallway, half of the walls were missing allowing me to see more of The Mire. There was a giant tree to our left made from what I could tell of petrified wood. I think the tree was at least a few miles from our current position. To our right a mile away was a large white hill with a cave entrance at the top.

The Dogs were still chasing us, and from the sounds of it, they were getting closer too. Another two dogs stood in front of us blocking our exit. Moon Shadow nearly shouted. “We have to get to the bridge, there is an Altar there. It’s our best chance”.

Storm Feather charged right into the nearest dog bringing his axe down upon its shoulder with great force. The Dog Yelped, and howled in pain as he attempted to beat the griffon back with his damaged sword. The sword bounced off the armor the first couple of times, but as Storm Feather swung his axe towards the dog’s neck. The dog managed to stab the blade upwards in between some of Storm Feather’s armored plates. I heard him yell in pain before taking the dogs head off completely with his axe.

The other dog meanwhile was attempting to strike down Moon Shadow with his own blade. But Moon Shadow was dodging his attacks with practiced ease using his daggers to rip into the dogs flesh at every opportunity. I charged up and using the torch held by my telekinesis I swung at him. The torch smashed into the creature’s side knocking it down to its knees, where Moon Shadow used the opportunity to slash at its throat. Blood began seeping out of its neck, and the dog fell over making a terrifying gurgling noise.

I looked behind us only to see five more dogs behind us, two of them were the big muscle bound kind, the other three skinny and tall, and all of them athletic. The one in the lead though was carrying a spear, which had a pony’s skinned torso stuck on it. The bucking monster was using a pony’s corpse as a weapon!

We continued running for our lives. After exiting the building we could easily see the bridge ahead of us. Moon Shadow yelled to me. “Run Altar Light, you need to Light the Altar before they can surround us.”

I went into a full gallop ahead of the others, I noticed while passing Storm Feather though, that he was moving slower, and with a pained expression. I quickly managed to get onto the old stone worked bridge, seeing a wooden shelter build in the middle of it. the door to the shelter was open and inside was an Altar.

I got inside the shelter, and quickly used my magic to light the Altar. Outside my friends were running after me, with a pack of over a dozen dogs after them. The dogs were chasing after them, but stopped suddenly at the bridge. One of them took a step on the bridge, and screamed in agony as his leg caught on fire, he pulled his leg back quickly. As my two friends entered the shelter with me, I looked at the Lead dog wielding the pony corpse weapon. He pointed a clawed finger at me, and gestured with his thumb pointed downward. I guess he was planning to bring me down. I did not like fighting intelligent enemies.

We sat around the Altar although the warmth of the healing magic did little to sooth my nerves. We were trapped in enemy territory, surrounded by dog people who used weapons, and were smart. I was sure that we still had not seen even a fraction of what they were capable of.

Storm Feather was thankfully healed from his injury, but the fact that these things had managed to hurt my armored friend scared me. We were in some pretty deep trouble here. Moon Shadow was looking both worried, and angry. After a few minutes of dead silence, I was feeling my nerves perk up, and fear beginning to rise in me.

I looked at the Altar’s flame asking. “What were those things?”

Moon Shadow looked through the door of our wooden shelter, through a peek hole built in it. I was sure that he knew that they were out there waiting for us as well. He didn’t look away from his peek hole but he did answer me. “Those are the Black Dogs. They are a tribe of diamond dogs that have been corrupted by the Mire. We fought an army of them for days, we thought them wiped out. I can’t believe that we left so many of them alive.”

He did finally look away when he went to sit down next to the Altar. He then apologized. “I am sorry Altar Light, I have failed you.”

“You have not failed me, you couldn’t have known that they would ambush us like this.” I said in an attempt to consolidate him.

“No Light, I should have known that they would try something like this. I just wanted to help you so much...” he explained.

Storm Feather spoke then. “All that aside, we still need you to guide us to the second bell tower, and then back out of here. You can still redeem yourself.”

I didn’t like the way Storm Feather implied that Moon Shadow had failed me, or done something wrong. But When Moon Shadow smiled and nodded at him, I found myself respecting the griffon for being able to bring our friend out of his stupor.

“So where do we need to go” I asked him trying to change the subject.

He seemed to think for a moment before saying. “There is this hill. It looks like it’s made of white sand from afar, but in reality it’s made of spider webs. The second bell is inside there.”

Storm Feather looked in the direction of the white hill before asking. “What kind of monster could make such a large web?”

Moon Shadow snickered before explaining. “A giant spider of course. Although to my shame we killed it the last time we were here. The giant spider pony known as Quelaag was simply defending her lair, trying to protect her dying sister.”

I felt sorry for Moon Shadow, and the other ponies who had gone with him. I knew that I probably shouldn’t have asked, but I couldn’t help it. “How did Reed handle that?”

Moon Shadow avoided everyponies eyes as he answered. “Reed didn’t handle it very well, and I think that this was the event that changed Valiant Hart. She managed to heal Quelaan, but sadly the damage was already done.”

I didn’t want to know anymore about this, it was sad and depressing. I still wanted to know about a few things, though they may have to wait. I got the feeling that even with the Altar lit up. We could be overrun soon. I had an idea although it was risky I had to voice it. “Could we drop down into the water from up here?” I asked.

Both of my friends looked at me quickly with Moon Shadow explaining. “The water down below is toxic to flesh. Even if we were not shot down by the Dogs we would die in the water. We need to follow the walkways to the bell, with minimal exposure to the water below.”

Storm Feather nodded in agreement, I knew my plan wouldn’t work, darn it. I stood up then and stated. “Okay gang, if we can’t fly down there. Then that means we need to traverse the Black Dogs territory. We need to leave now, before they can impede us any further. It’s going to be hard, but if we keep an eye out for each other than we will be okay.”

I looked at Moon Shadow who was now grinning a little, probably at my somewhat ridiculous speech. He stood up shaking himself before saying. “I’ve missed this side of you Light. I will lead you two safely to through here.”

Storm Feather stood as well, my griffon companion’s height made him imposing compared to both me and Moon Shadow. He gripped his trusty old battle axe saying. “I guess it is the time for adventure, lead on my friends for as we march into hell itself, I shall guard you.”

I could feel my checks heating up as he spoke. As egg headed as it was for him to speak like that, something about his heroics made him very cute. Moon Shadow took the lead as we began our track back out into dog territory.

We left the shelter, and traveled around the side making our way towards the other side of the stone bridge we were resting on. The entire area was far too quiet for my taste. The stone bridge ended at the base of a set of half built structures, either missing walls, roofs, or all of the above.

I wondered how they had gotten there…paws on all this wood. We were at least a couple of miles underground, and in the dark. No trees grew here naturally, and the one that was here was petrified. I guessed that they had imported the wood from elsewhere, or scavenged it from somewhere.

While we walked through the building taking great care to be stealthy, although that was somewhat dispelled by our platemail wearing griffon. I noticed that at the base of another ladder was an old wooden sign. The sign was barely legible but I could make out the words, Equestrian Mining Company. Maybe the Dogs had repurposed the material’s found in the mine. That would explain how they had gotten the wood.

We found ourselves climbing up, and down ladders all over the place, even being forced to leap over a few places where the floors had fallen down into the darkness below. I kept hearing things behind us. I did not like that at all.

Pretty soon we found ourselves entering a tunnel dug out by the dogs, the tunnel was dark and only the light from my torch allowed us to see where we were going. We were heading downward entering a large well. The bottom of the well was not visible, but there was light coming in from far above us at least. The well was probably thirty or forty feet in diameter, and filled with ladders and wooden walkways all leading down into the depths. I looked up again at the light coming down. I wondered what was up there, who had built this well, and why.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something was being dragged behind us, I looked to see what it could be. And I found myself staring at two of tall skinny dogs, one of them was dragging their claws along the side of the tunnel while grinning menacingly at us. I pulled out the crossbow and quickly shot at the one grinning. The bolt lodged itself into its shoulder, and he howled from the pain. The other one bull rushed us, tackling into Storm Feather and the two fell off the ledge we were standing on, into the well below.

I screamed in horror as I watched the two falling into the darkness below, and turned my attention towards the dog that was left. The dog was running towards me with his arms extended ready to swipe at me, but I didn’t care. I was too angry at this monster for taking my friend away. I barely even noticed that Moon Shadow had vanished from my side as well, I didn’t care. Storm was gone and it was my fault for dragging him down here.

I roared in anger as I charged the dog in front of me, the dog swiped at me, hitting my cloak. I on the other hand stabbed my horn inside the dog’s soft belly, and focused all of my new found anger into a ball. The dog exploded with blood and gore flying everywhere. I was now covered in red meaty chunks.

I turned around looking towards the hole that Storm had fallen down. There was no bottom to this hole, only blackness. Where did Moon Shadow go off to, there weren’t any more dogs here, were there? I really hoped that Moon Shadow in the least was still here, I couldn’t do this alone. I sat down hard with my eyes beginning to water, making my vision blurry. I cringed trying my hardest not to cry, but the tears began to flow anyway.

I felt a gentle hoof on my shoulder; I looked to my side to see Moon Shadow looking very concerned. I looked toward the well again, then back to him. I tried to tell him what happened but my words were caught in my throat, and all I could do was whimper.

I heard a hard thump from behind me, along with the familiar sound of metal clinking together. Turning my head I found myself frozen in shock for a few seconds. Storm Feather was standing right behind me, he looked a little tired, but unharmed. “But but…you fell.” I managed to say.

He smiled gently at me before saying. “Griffons can fly so falling’s not such a big deal to us.”

I jumped up wrapping my legs around his neck. I didn’t allow myself time to cry into his shoulder like I had in the past, but I did make sure to give him the biggest hug I possibly could. I was so happy that he was a flyer, I wasn’t sure I could handle losing him. After I was done hugging him, I noticed that he was blushing. I made the mental note that he had a cute blush, and it would be a shame if that was taken from this world.

We climbed down some ladders following the advice of Moon Shadow, who had apparently been scouting out the next area for us. Luckily for me no pony asked me about why I was covered in blood, and kibbles of dog. I felt like I had done something barbaric, something that no unicorn should ever do. I used my horn like as a weapon, like some kind of animal. The fact that I proceeded to blow the monster up from the inside with magic didn’t help.

We had gone down a few levels, before hearing some dogs above us. They must have been moving after us now, and that means we needed to hurry. We began descending faster until we got to a point where there was another tunnel leading out of the well.

We had begun moving up the tunnel before seeing a familiar face, along with his giant dog companion. The Dog who used a pony shish kabob for a weapon was standing in front of the tunnels exit blocking it. I noticed some minor details about this dog then. Some of his ear was missing, almost as though it had been chewed off, and his left eye had a patch of fur that was white. It almost looked like a white spot on the Black Dogs fur. I would call him Spot from now on or at least until I learned his real name.

Spot stood in front of his bulky companion, the fact that they stood on their hind legs in such a natural fashion bothered me. Spot looked at the three of us actually Moon Shadow had run off again so it was only the two of us. He then began chanting in a low growly voice. “Little pony, Little pony, has entered dogs home. Little pony, Little pony, made a no no. Little pony, Little pony, should’ve learned. Little pony, Little pony, now has to burn.”

I could feel goose bumps rising on my legs, all four of them. It felt like my mane was standing on end, and worse yet Spot was walking away from us now. He had left his big bulky friend to deal with us, and the big one was now advancing towards us.

We had no choice but to retreat back into the well, where the sounds from above were getting closer. There was a platform on the other side of the well but no bridge connected to it. There was a small ledge that rung around the side of the well which would lead to the platform, but I had a way to cheat.

“Storm, fly us over to there.” I commanded as I pointed with a hoof to the small platform.

Storm embraced me tightly, and quickly took us across the pit to the other side. After he landed I looked back at the muscular dog, who was now attempting to inch his way around the well towards us. His chest was hugging the wall as he scooted along. I wasn’t going to give him the chance to get to us.

I pulled out my crossbow. Reloaded, and fired. The bolt flew true into the monsters muscles, but only the tip penetrated. The beast of a dog was still advancing towards us, I wasn’t even sure he felt the bolt hit him.

I then took a throwing dagger from the belt wrapped around my chest. I aimed it tip pointing at the dog. I flung the dagger with my magic at high a high speed. The tip of the dagger got through the dogs muscle but then it bounced off of him.

The dog was getting to close for comfort, and I only had one ranged option left. I aimed a fireball at its back, and shot it at him. It exploded on the creature’s skin, causing it to yelp in pain. But other than a few burns on its back and arm, it was still advancing unhindered.

Storm Feather then flew into the air, axe in hand. He came back down with increased momentum, and with a mighty swing attacked the giant dog. The axe got stuck inside the dogs back, but with Storm Feather’s momentum added, the axe worked its way down the dogs back, knocking it off balance. Storm pulled his axe free just in time to dodge the dog, as the dog fell backwards into the well, nearly taking Storm Feather down with him.

Storm Feather landed down next to me. That’s when the noises from above became loud and furious howls. I looked up to see at least seven of the dogs, climbing down the ladders with great ease. All of them wielding some sort of weapon, and looking enraged.

“Hey you two, come down here.”Moon Shadow shouted from below us.

I looked down to see Moon Shadow standing on a stone walkway, that looked as old as the well, it also looked like it was build into the well as a part of its design. I don’t know how he got down there, but there was another tunnel next to him. This one was part of the well itself. I had Storm Feather fly me down there, since there was no other obvious means to this location.

Once down there the dogs began throwing rocks at us, we scurried down the tunnel before any of them could hit us. The tunnel lead back out into the Mire, only we were now much lower. I could see the brown water below us, and various torches were lit along the wooden half structure accompanied to this tunnel.

I could see the white hill out in the Mire, it was an awful lot closer now, and as being such it offered me a view of the black twisting spires that stretched out from it. There was also something else out in the Mire, in the water it looked like a giant mound of brown mud. I could make out boats with lanterns equipped surrounding the mound of mud, dogs were stationed on the boats, and I believed that they were wielding weapons. I didn’t know why they would be gathering around a giant mud pile, but maybe they had some kind of fetish for mud.

We walked around this structure for a bit, before we found some ramps leading down. It looked like a series of ramps that lead right to a small harbor, we could steal one of their boats and run off. Then I noticed Moon Shadows horn glowing, I looked to my left and found a small black dart floating next to me with a viridian glow surrounding the object. Moon Shadow had just stopped a dart probably laced with poison from hitting me.

We tried then to go down the ramp only to see a pack of Black Dogs coming up the ramp at the same time. They saw us, and the chase was on. We ran back to where we had entered but the tunnel was also filled with the dogs, it wouldn’t have allowed us to escape anyway.

We continued running until we reached the edge of the walkway. I could hear the dogs approaching us from behind, we could not stand and fight that many. Moon Shadow was staring down into the dark bellow for several seconds before pointing a hoof at the darkness and saying. “Storm Feather, I need you to take us down there. It’s our only escape, we don’t have to land softly we just need to get there, right now.”

I trusted in Moon Shadows judgment, and I could tell that Storm Feather did as well. He grabbed us, one arm wrapped around each of us. He spread his powerful wings behind himself before saying. “This is going to be a rough landing. Try to roll if you can.” Then he jumped off the edge, and together, all three of us fell down into the darkness below.

We landed inside of a dark room, okay it was more of a soft fall. This room was another one of these half built structures, although it looked like it was in far worse condition than the others had been. There were no lights in here, not even unlit torches, and I had left my torch up their when we jumped.

I guess the dogs didn’t need the torch light, but still it was dark. If not for me summoning a fireball I would not have even realized that we were inside a building that was only a few feet above water level.

Storm Feather was lying on his side in the corner, while Moon Shadow was just beginning to use his telekinesis to create some light. I was now painfully aware that leaving my torch behind had left me without any decent melee weapons. Ever since I lost my sword I had been feeling a little naked, and now that feeling was complete. The ranged weapons on my person did not help me feel better, and my throwing daggers had proven to not be as useful as first hoped.

“Hey Moon Shadow, are we close?” I asked quietly.

He was quiet for a second as he poked his head out of the doorway of our little building. He then said. “Yeah, we are. And we are on the other side now, so we have a boardwalk here. It looks like it leads all the way to the hive.”

That made me feel a little better, or at least until he said the words “the hive”. I didn’t know what it was exactly, but that sounded like a terrible place to go to. “the Hive, that’s the where the second bell is, right?” I asked a little nervous.

Moon Shadow simply nodded. Of course the bell would be in a place called the Hive, this was going to be fun. I could quit now, but we were so close, I had to ring the bell.

We stepped out onto the boardwalk, and I realized that it wasn’t just dark inside that building; it was dark everywhere down here. I could see the dog’s boats, surrounding the mass of mud. As we walked a little bit I kept looking at the mud, and I think I saw the mud move.

Ahead of us on the board walk we noticed there was pony standing still with his head hung low. He stood between us and The Hive. The pony began walking toward us, but something was strange about its movement. Its legs seemed to jiggle as it walked; in fact its whole body was jiggling. When it finally got within our light, we saw it for what it really was.

The pony or at least what used to be a pony was now a monster. Its legs, although holding it up right, were moving almost as though they were rubber. Its entire body was covered in puss sores which were continuously oozing out black goo. This pony had an expression of pure agony as well.

It tried to jump on Storm Feather, but he dodged out of its reach just in time. Its entire body for a second became black liquid ooze. This thing was attempting to grab any creature it could, and then it would become ooze while had them grabbed. This thing was probably poisonous or far worse.

Moon Shadow sent a few magic red shuriken into its body; it exploded a few seconds later. It splattered black ooze all over the boardwalk, but thankfully none of us were hit by it. We continued onward, past the now dead slime pony.

As we got closer to the hive, we began seeing dead dogs, in the water below. I guess they might have been busy with something else while we were running inside their territory. I wondered if these slime ponies were causing them a lot of trouble.

I looked back at the mound of mud, and that’s when I realized what they were focusing on. The mud began taking the shape of a pony’s upper torso, head, and forelegs. The dogs were throwing spears into it, and tossing small things that exploded on contact with the mud. But the mud pony didn’t react to their attacks. Instead it simply swept its large foreleg across the water taking down three of the dogs’ boats in one fell swoop. This mud pony’s hoof was larger than any of the row boats being employed by the dogs.

We ran as quickly as possible to the hive. Despite the fact that it was made out of webs, it was actually pretty easy to climb up it. We reached the cave near its top as quickly as possible. Inside we made our way past several pony skeletons, and into a vast chamber of web. Inside the middle of this chamber was the skeleton of a giant spider, but instead of a head, there was the top half of a pony’s torso.

Moon Shadow took a few steps forward before saying somberly. “Quelaag…I’m sorry.”

“So this is the body of Quelaag.” I wondered aloud.

Moon Shadow looked back at me. His eyes were watering up as he said. “She was just trying to save her dying sister. If we had known, we could have helped them both. But instead, we came in here headstrong and we mur- we killed her”.

My heart ached for him killing Quelaag was weighing heavily on his heart, and I don’t think there was anything I could properly do to help him. All I could do was give him a hug and say. “You saved her sister, I am sure that she would have given her life for that.”

He sniffled; I could feel him beginning to shake in my legs. He was on the verge of breaking down, and it was because I brought him here, to this place where he had committed his worse sin. I would do anything to get him out of here, and help him recover from this wound of his heart.

“She was a bad pony,” Moon Shadow begun saying in a near whisper, “she killed ponies, in her attempt to help her sister. I just feel so badly about this, in the old days we could’ve saved her but now.”

I held him in my legs for a few more moments before he pushed me away, he wiped his eyes clean with his hoof saying. “I’m sorry, I can’t break down here. We need to continue moving forward. When we get out of here and get somewhere safe, then I can do this, but not now.”

He stood up straight and was the first one of us to begin walking forward. I looked past the body, and saw a small stone archway at the far end of the vast chamber. I could glimpse the bell through the opening. We were so close to reaching the second bell.

I walked over to the skeleton of the fallen Quelaag, the creature before me was huge, I wondered how they had defeated her. While I examined the skeleton, both Storm Feather, and Moon Shadow walked around her. That’s when I heard something moving from behind the skeleton.

Suddenly a Zebra mare with a black leather jacket, and a curly black mane jumped over the skeleton’s body, and kicks me in the face with her rear hoof. I found myself reeling back from the blow while she prepared for another strike.

Void Runner had come at me when we arrived at the first bell, and now she was at the second one as well. I was seeing a trend, and I was getting sick of dealing with this crap. I couldn’t see a reason not to treat her like I would any other enemy, or any other dog.

I charged up another fireball as she closed in to hit me again, and I shot her square in the chest. The explosion sends her flying backwards into the skeleton! I was deafened by the sound of the blast.

Her back slammed hard into it crunching the old Quelaag’s skeleton. She fell to the ground, and I prepared another fireball with ease. She tried to get up, and I shot her with another one. The explosion sent her rolling over a few times onto her side. I walked over after creating yet another fireball, and then my ears began to clear so I could hear her.

Void Runner was pleading with me. “I’m sorry, please don’t kill me. I don’t want to die.”

It was the same plea everypony said just before their death. But unlike the dogs, and unlike the rats, or even the slime ponies, she valued her life enough to plead for it. I lost my concentration, and the fireball vanished. I sighed then, I couldn’t kill her, not like this.

I noticed Moon Shadow moving in on her with his daggers drawn, and I instantly shouted. “NO.”

He stopped looking confused. I looked at her and said. “I won’t kill you like this, I won’t sink that low. But should you ever involve my friends in this stupid thing again, I won’t hesitate to finish you.”

She tried to stand up, but couldn’t due to the injuries on her side and back. I looked at her jackets side pocket, and could see a healing flask. I took it out of her pocket, and levitated it too her mouth. She took a drink and the injuries began healing.

I took one hard look at her, as she lay there shaking a little. I noticed that she was a little smaller than me, and her eyes were closed tight. She sounded a little younger than me, which made me wonder.

She began speaking again. “I just wanted to make Silver proud. I didn’t think you would be this strong.”

“How old are you?” I asked her.

“Fifteen, I am still in my training.” She said fearfully.

‘Great job Light, you nearly killed a teenage girl who is weaker then you.’ I thought at myself. I shook my head at myself. I can’t believe I was so willing to kill her. Maybe I was no better than Moon Shadow was when he killed Quelaag.
I then say to her gently. “You can go now, but please don’t try and attack us again. It won’t end well for you if you do.”

Her voice was shaking as she asked me. “Am I really free to go, just like that?”

“Yes you are, go on kid. And don’t do anything stupid. This place is dangerous after all.” I told her.

She stood up very slowly and very carefully before nodding. When Moon Shadow took a step forward she jumped away from him, and ran off in a full fledged four legged gallop. She was terrified now, and hopefully that would make her think twice before trying this again. I also found myself hoping that she would make it back to safety.

We continued to the bell itself now. The bell was located inside of a small stone room with carvings on the wall. There was a window that showed a view of something quite new to me. Beyond the window was a huge underground cavern filled with lava, stone buildings, bridges, and even a huge metal building. The building was shaped like a sphere. The metal Sphere had breaches in its sides however where something had destroyed it. Gouts of Fire were repeatedly coming out of the buildings holes.

We heard Somepony from the corner of the room cough just then. We all looked over with sudden interest. In the corner of the room stood a blue mare, she looked like an earth pony, only she was made completely of slimy transparent goo. She looked scared of us, as she continued trying to back away from us squishing her hind quarters against the wall.

She then began speaking surprising us. “Um, please don’t hurt me.”

I was not really sure what to do here. I didn’t expect anypony to be in here let alone a slime pony who was scared of us. I decided to try diplomacy. “Hello there, my name is Altar Light. Were only here to ring the bell, we won’t hurt you. Promise.”

She calmed down a little bit, and said in a soft voice. “My brother won’t like it if you do that. He doesn’t like the sound the bell makes, although I really like it.”

“Where is your brother?” I asked her.

“His name is, uh Pestilence. And he is outside, he is fighting the dogs, he doesn’t like them because they can’t be fixed.” She explained.

“Fixed? Fixed how?” I asked her with some concern.

“Um, he says that all ponies and life is normally broken, or not complete. He tries to fix it by making them into us. But it hurts them to be like us, so I try to fix it. I can heal ponies.” She explained timidly.

I guess that means her brother was the giant mud monster outside killing all the dogs, and I really hoped that the thing we fought earlier was not the result of her trying to fix their pain. I didn’t really have a choice about the bell however. “Everypony, were going to need a new exit.” I said to them.

Moon Shadow then explained. “We can take the lifts and leave that way, should be easier to escape that way anyway.”

I didn’t remember seeing any lifts, but then again this place was so dark that it was hard to see in most of it, even with a light source. I grabbed the clapper with my magic, and said. “Happy birthday, girl.” To the mare in the corner than I rang the bell as loudly as I could several times before letting go. She bounced with glee as I did so causing her entire body to jiggle in a sorta cute way. We ran out of there after that.

On our way out I saw the giant mud monster looking towards us, the dogs seemed to be cradling their heads while howling in pain. The Giant mud monster known as Pestilence took the time now to slowly crush individual dogs, but he never stopped looking at us the whole time, I felt as though he was only looking at me.

We made our way across the boardwalk and towards a cavern wall where an old wooden elevator was sitting, we stepped onto it. Moon Shadow pushed the lever up, and we ascended. After what felt like forever we made it to the top. On this side of the cavern wall was a cave with some train rails leading down it, and I could see light coming from down that way.

We made our way down the cave, and found ourselves exiting into a long valley. There was grass growing all around us, and the sun was never as beautiful to me as it was right then. There was also a river running nearby. I sat there basking in the sunlight for several minutes before I took a better look at each of us. Now that we were in good lighting I could see how much blood, and gore was on us. The exception of course seemed to be Moon Shadow who was fairly clean compared to me and Storm Feather.

“Now what do we do” I asked before taking a mouthful of grass and chewing on its delicious goodness.

Moon Shadow smiled at me and explained. “We need to go through the Everfree woods. And walk around back to the Clippers side of the mountain, it will take some time but we will make our way back up to Clippers, and then we can get into the Grays.”

I swallowed my mouthful of grass before saying. “Actually before we do that, we need to stock up. I don’t have a proper weapon, and neither of us have real armor. We could also use some food.”

Storm Feather spoke then. “We could head to Ashwood, it’s only about a day’s journey from here, and the Crusaders have an outpost where we can get some of that stuff.”

I grinned as I said. “Alright, we have a plan. First we head to Ashwood and get resupplied, when we are ready, and not a moment before, we can go into the Grays and find Reed.”

Everypony nodded in agreement. I really enjoyed the idea of getting supplies, and maybe some down time as well. A rest is something that we all desperately needed after this. I laid my head down on the soft and warm grass before saying to myself. “Were another step closer to finding you Reed.”