Two Sides of One Lie

     Twilight suddenly felt her self being dragged into consciousness, flooding her eyes with an intense white glow. Her first instinct was to clench her eyes shut as tightly as she could and bring her fore-hooves up to rub them. She took her time letting them open, going slowly to prevent another rush of pain to her head.

     A soft groan to her left startled her onto her hooves, Rainbow was beginning to wake up, and next to her was Fluttershy. It struck her that Rairty, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie appeared to be absent from the room.

     "Awwww, man... Where are we?" Rainbow said groggily as she stood up. She held her hooves to the sides of her head, unsuccessfully trying to dull the throbbing pain that had taken over her mind.

     "I... I don't know." Twilight responded. "I don't even know how we got here. Quickly, wake up Fluttershy so we can go find the others."

     Rainbow looked to the ground just to her left to see the sleeping little pegasus. Slowly she approached her and tapped her a few times with her hoof. A soft groan indicated her entering the world of the living.

     "H-Huh...?" Was all Fluttershy managed to utter as her eyes lazily opened. She gazed around the ruins that surrounded her.

     "Cmon Fluttershy, we need you to get up. We have to go." Rainbow held out a hoof to help Fluttershy up, and she immediately took it.

     Twilight was looking around the room, but it was rather dark. The only light was pouring in from a large crack in the back wall. Many green vines were reaching through the crack, eager to find more space to grow. Outside the constant chattering of birds could be heard, indicating it was definitely day time. She also noticed that the walls were covered in many strange symbols and writing. Rainbow approached Twilight and stopped just to her left.

     "So, where do you think we are?" Rainbow said as she took false interest in the decrepit carvings.

     "You already asked that, and I told you I don't know." Twilight was puzzled. This was no kind of writing she'd ever seen, and it wasn't something using a system of alphabetical characters. More like a series of symbols and such, similar to the ancient Equigyptians.

     Rainbow sighed in annoyance, "Well we aren't gonna find out here. Cmon let's go!" With that she lifted herself into the air and hovered just a few feet off the ground. She then flew to the entrance off the room's doorway that led to a series of maze-like hallways. Each one just as worse for wear as the room they were in. Small crevices and breakings in the walls gave the sunlight a path to flood in through, which illuminated the halls at least barely. Twilight passed Rainbow with Fluttershy following behind. Rainbow quickly sped up, eager to escape with her firends and get back to Ponyville.

     "Twilight, what happened?" Fluttershy drifted closer to her purple friend the further they advanced down the pathway.

     "I'm not sure, but I know it had something to do with the rock we'd found." Twilight paused and flicked her ear.

     "What is it?" Fluttershy whispered.

     "Hush... Do any of you hear that? It sounds like hoofsteps. That way." Twilight glanced to her left towards a hall that lacked the light the kept the others softly lit.

     Slowly an orange shape began to come into the light. "Girls?"

     "Applejack!" The three mares shouted in unison. They ran up to surround her, and began bombarding her with questions.

     "Girls, take it easy! Ah'm alright. Have you three seen Pinkie or Rarity?" She said with worry evident in her voice. All three girls stopped and the feeling there was mutual between the four of them.

     "We thought they'd be with you." Stated Twilight

     "Yeah." Rainbow agreed.

     Applejack's heart suddenly grew heavy. If they weren't with Twilight like she thought they'd be, then they were still lost and that was bad. Because on her way her she kept hearing noises. Nothing like birdcalls, no. She believed something was following her. Because she'd hear noises like the soft tapping of claws against the stone behind her, and seeing shapes move out of the corner of her eyes. She'd look around to find the source of the noises, but was always met with nothing. One time however, she could have sworn she saw something disappear into another hallway but she wasn't entirely sure.

     "Ah think we'd better find em', and quick. Ah'm not so sure were alone here." She said as she stole a glance to the darkness of the hallway behind her.

     "Agreed. Let's keep moving." Twilight turned around and continued down the hallway. Her eyes always scanning the stone walls.

     Even as she was following the group, Applejack could still feel the gaze of some creatures eyes locked on to her, and unknowingly to them, she was right. They were definitely not alone.

     Many hours had passed as the four of them wandered around the gigantic labyrinth of stone. Eventually they came to a large circular room with ornate carvings on the floor and walls. Twilight's glowing horn lit up the dark room with a faint greenish hue. In the center of the room was a small stone pedestal with something on top of it. There were piles of dust all throughout the room and made it difficult to breath.

     She gently made her way over to the pedestal and stood on her hind legs to reach it, her forelegs resting on top. Sitting on it was some sort of book. It appeared to be ancient, and it was a miracle it hadn't disintegrated by now. Slowly and carefully she picked it up with her magic. She brought it down and blew on the cover, clearing off most of the dust on it. She sat on her haunches and looked over the title. This one was written in Equestrian so she could actually understand it.

Dawn of Salvation

     She wanted to start reading but was stopped when she heard Applejack call her over. "Twilight, Ah think y'all had better come look at this."

     She let out a sigh, closed the book and set it down she then proceeded to trot over to Applejack and Rainbow dash. "Applejack what is it? I'm trying to read something over here!" She was frustrated and was greatly annoyed whenever she had to stop reading.

     "Do ya have any idea what this thing is?" Applejack pointed her hoof to a strange skeleton on the ground. If Twilight's puzzled facial expression was anything to go by, then she had never seen anything like this before in her life.

     It was strangley built, and had two long back legs. Each ended with a sort of flattened and elongated paw that was covered over by an iron boot. It's forelegs were much shorter and ended in flat grippers with multiple little appendages extended from it, one of it's (paws?) gripped tightly around the wooden shaft of a spearlike weapon. She noticed that it's chest had multiple fractured ribs and it was missing it's lower jaw. A strange necklace made of teeth hung around it's neck held together by a sinew like thread that was barely holding together, and a helmet of metal laid next to it on the ground.

     "I-It looks l-like a monkey." Fluttershy said. She wasn't afraid of bones, not at all. It was gore that scared her.

     "Hey look it's got a weapon." Rainbow pointed out.

     "I wonder what did this to it?" Twilight asked nopony in particular. She had knowledge from some medical books that taught how to identify many signs on a pony's body after death, to help determine the cause. From the way it was leaning against the wall she could tell it died slowly. Most likely from internal bleeding caused by the broken ribs. So whatever had killed it, had done the damage and then left it to die. The way the dust around it was just slightly less piled up showed that it had tried to fight off it's attacker, but was unsuccessful. It had remnants of iron plating and rust covering the most of it bones, a sign that it may have been wearing some sort of armor. This along with the spear-like weapon it was holding would mean it's possibly a soldier or warrior of some sort.

     Based on the condition of the bones, she guessed this skeleton to be over 700 years old. So whatever caused this has long since, been dead. But what was this thing, and how did it get here? Was it one of the creatures who built this place?. Many more similar questions went through her head. Yet there still remained the one, most important question there was. Where exactly was she?

      With a place as interesting and as old as this, you'd think there would be at least some reference to it in any history book. But there were no signs of recent activity here, so it could be possible that she and the others were one of the first ponies to set hoof in this place.

     "Alright everypony, I think it's best we just leave it. We still have to find Pinkie Pie and Rarity." Twilight turned around to go back to the book. She lifted it up with her magic and pondered something for a moment. "Does anypony have a saddlebag?"

     "Oh, umm.. I do." Fluttershy walked over to Twilight. "What did you need it for?"

     "Can you carry this book for me please? I think it might help us find out where we are." Twilight held the book in front of Fluttershy who looked over it's cover before turning around to open her saddlebag.

     "Of course." She said as it popped open. Twilight slid it inside and closed it up.

     "Thanks Fluttershy." Twilight said with a smile.

     "Oh, it's no problem at all." Fluttershy smiled back.

     "Uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but I think we should go find Pinkie and Rarity. The sooner we find them, the sooner we get outta here." Rainbow returned their attention to the task at hoof.

     "Alright everpony, let's go, and stick together. It's too easy to get lost in these halls." She turned to the doorway and trotted through. Taking a left as she exited. She had made a mental map of the building and what general areas they'd covered, but it still didn't stop her from occasionally losing track. With a place as large as this, getting lost was almost an inevitability. It was worse than the Canterlot Castle, and she thought that was bad.

     Moving through the halls also proved difficult in itself. For starters, it was very dark, save for the areas that had windows. Not pitch black, but just dark. There were also roots and vines growing on the walls and floor, and she sometimes found herself and the others tripping over them. And she wasn't sure... But she thought that every now and then she could hear scratching. As if something were dragging it's claws across the stone, and it was often accompanied by vague, dark shapes moving out of the corner of her eyes. They were never there when she looked at them, they were always mocking her. She didn't tell any of the others about it because she was sure it was just her imagination playing tricks on her. But she had her doubts.

     As the four friends roamed the halls, they were each mystified by the unique and unusual carvings. It wasn't like anything back at Ponyville, heck Equestria even. Everything had beautiful designs upon it, and it must have looked glorious a long time ago. The walls were mainly made up of limestone, the floors were made out of some kind of gray rock, shaped into bricks.

     They were each instantly drawn out of their thought by a loud scream. It echoed through the halls which only seemed to magnify the volume. But there was no way any of the four could mistake that scream. It had to have been Rarity.

     "Hey, that was Rarity!" Applejack shouted, bringing the group out of their shock.

     "Yeah, but where did it come from?!" Rainbow said as she glanced down each hallway more than once. Her eyes were straining to see anything, but everything faded into shadows after thirty or so feet infront of her.

     "I think it came from over there!" Twilight exclaimed and pointed a hoof towards the hallway just to their left. "Cmon everypony follow me!" She galloped down the hallway at full speed, kicking up the dust upon the ground as she sped by. Her hooves carried her as fast as they could go, her mind set on finding her friend.

     She did a sharp left turn, with the others following behind. she could see a doorway at the end of the hall, she picked up her speed in determination to reach Rarity before it was too late. Her mind was almost blank, focusing on one primary objective. Her system screamed at her to move faster, but she was already at her limit. She broke through the old wooden door and sent it flying open.

     Her eyes darted around the room until they settled on the red mottled, pink mass laying in a heap on the floor. She bolted forward and kneeled down next to her friend looking over her body. "Pinkie Pie?!"

     The others halted and came to their friend's assistance as soon as they came through the door. Fluttershy landed next to Pinkie and gasped. What kind of monster would do something like this? Fluttershy quickly opened her right saddle bag and took out a large white towel. She unfolded it and wrapped it around Pinkie's biggest wound, which was a large gash across her chest that was easily a foot long and a quarter an inch deep. Pinkie was absolutely motionless, and Twilight was holding back tears. Fluttershy let them flow freely across her cheeks.

     "Pinkie, c-can you hear us?" Twilight said as she leaned in closer to her friend. A soft mumble could be heard from Pinkie as she layed there. "W-What was that?"

     "I.. s-said y-y-you have t-to help R-Rarity." Her mane was deflated and her face was scrunched up in pain.

     "Where is she sugarcube?" Applejack asked. She too leaned in close to be able to hear Pinkie's response.

     "I-In there." she said as she steadily lifted a hoof up to a large tunnel that curved around. She dropped her hoof again because it hurt too much to move.

     "Don't worry Pinkie." Twilight whispered as she stood up. She turned to the rest of the group. "Fluttershy, stay here and watch Pinkie. Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Follow me!" As she finished she turned to the tunnel and broke into a gallop.