Evading the Inevitable

Lyra carefully felt her way around the passage until she saw the faintest glow of light. The sight was welcoming to Lyra, and she headed straight toward it in hope of finding the source. She was steps away when she slowed to a stop.

Hanging above her was a torch mounted to the wall, but this was not what caught Lyra’s eye. The flames of the torch were black, and rather than giving off light, it sucked it in, growing larger by the second. It was very suspicious to Lyra, that somepony would have the light sucked away rather than having it give sight. She noted it mentally as the last of the light was inhaled by the torch and the room once more became pitch-black. Lyra sighed and continued to hold her hoof against the wall as a guide.

She could swear that laughter was echoing seemingly through the wall, surrounding her with a cheerful, yet terrifying noise. As she clumsily followed the wall, her eyesight adjusted to the darkness after a long period of time, and she released her hold on the passage’s rough walls. The passage was very cave-like, but with a carved path with occasional bumps obviously meant for walking on. It was like somepony wanted her to travel down this path. She shivered at the thought of what could be at the end of this path. Her traveling quickened now that she could see slightly. The path seemed to go on forever, and Lyra’s legs were tiring from the distance she had traveled.

She sat down to take a quick rest before she would resume her chase for her friend. As she sat, she thought of the past events of the day. “Our friendship... Was it all just a ruse? A trick to hide something? Is it... Real?” Lyra thought aloud. She shed a tear at the thought. As her tear landed on the cave floor, it sank straight in.

The ground suddenly shook beneath Lyra, and an opening appeared to her immediate left. Lyra was awestruck. She quickly looked at the ground where the tear had landed. A very small indentation could be seen on the ground, looking like just wide enough to hold a quill in place. Nopony would have batted an eye at it, especially if you were in a dark cave, rushing through to find someone important. The opening was hardly noticeable as well. The rock blended in perfectly in with the cover, seeming like no more than cracks in the wall.

Lyra hesitantly entered the new opening, all the while wondering how huge this secret must be to be hidden this well. Her eyes had nearly completely adjusted by this point. She was able to see clearly enough to notice small markings on the wall, carved in a foreign language she didn’t understand. It looked fairly new as well, meaning that this had been recently engraved.

Her long trek continued as she scanned the walls full of markings and symbols. After a few minutes, she began to notice a surprising amount of left turns. Was she traveling in a circle? Lyra memorized a line of symbols before continuing on. After a while, she spotted the exact pattern again. “Then that means there has to be something hidden around here.” Lyra suspected.

She felt around the wall and floor with her hooves for a moment, and then she saw it. A simple square carved in the wall. Lyra hadn’t seen another one like it, and decided it was as good a lead as any. Upon applying pressure to the square, it sank into the wall, and another passage appeared. This time, however, it was directly underneath her feet. She barely had time to register the movement underneath her before she fell into the hole beneath her.

She fell into another passage, and at the end, she could clearly see a metal door. As she moved across the passage to the door, she thought about what had occurred. “I was never this good with puzzles... What changed? My desire to find my friend? A wish to discover the secrets of this maze? Or something deeper?” She reached the door. Her first instinct was to reach for a handle, but there was not one on the door. She scanned around before finding a lever Lyra gulped as she rested her hoof on the lever.

Her mind repeated what it thought before entering the cave system. She wished she could turn back, but there was no visible exit besides the one directly in front of her. She took a deep breath, pulled the level, and watched as the door began to creak and screech as is slowly opened. Nothing, however, could have prepared Lyra for what she saw on the other side.

Before her was a dome-shaped room, the perimeter made completely of metal. A large assortment of metal trays and machines were scattered throughout the inside of the dome, a majority of which were operating. Several tools and weapons adorned the interior, all different, most of them stained red. The floor, too was stained this color. This was not what drew Lyra’s attention, though. In the center of the room, Lyra watched horrified as she saw Bon Bon covered in blood, holding a sharp knife just above a terrified mare.

Time seemed to slow down to nearly a stop for Lyra. She wanted to call out. She wanted to save the mare. She wanted to scream for Bon Bon to stop. No words came, however. The knife was plunged right into the frightened mare’s heart. Blood splattered all across the room. The mare’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. Bon Bon quickly withdrew the knife, causing more blood to trickle to the floor. “Celestia killed my kind,” Bon Bon stated with no remorse. “So I’ll kill her beloved subjects, one by one.” A sneer adorned the face of Bon Bon, unbeknownst to one who had found her out.

(Exactly 1000 words.)