Of Treasures and Darkness

Chapters

Vertigo
Trust No Shadow
Light on the Backdrop
Visions

Vertigo

Blake Westerly panted, taking in a deep breath of clear mountain air, unsure of how long it had been since these steppes had seen the presence of a bootprint, or the presence of an actual living being, for that matter. The sharp incline below him ended at a small opening, a small outcropping of rock... one of few signs of actual footing on the side of this accursed mountain.

Figuring that there was nowhere else to go, he merely hopped off the ledge, letting his custom travel boots take the brunt of the friction as he slid his way towards the small jut of rock, avoiding the vines and angled tree roots obstructing his way. The damnable rainforest had been more than humid today, and he would be glad to be rid of this place as soon as possible; as much as he liked treasure hunting, the locales that ancient people liked to hide their shiny trinkets in did nobody any favors.

"Fuckin' rocks," he cursed. He didn't like mountains, and he didn't like rainforests. The fact that his target's residence location had included both only served to irritate him even further. Why couldn't ancient civilizations just bury their treasures under the dirt or water, and mark it with a map, and hide it away in some obscure library? Why build the mother of the Fort Knox Bullion Depository and then put it in the middle of nowhere, and then stick it underground just to be sure? These people and their obsession with shiny objects...

His previous expedition to locate some Spaniard gold had proven to be a good payout with minimal risk due to having a map. Then again, ancient civilizations didn't think like Spaniards did. If only wealthy collectors didn't already own everything that was already a European antique... all the easy stuff had been collected years ago, so he couldn't really fault for not having been born sooner to plunder the ancient wonders of the world so they can sit behind glass on a wooden pedestal in some eccentric old man's mansion.

He fell into a roll, mitigating the force at which he landed, before pulling himself to his feet, noticing several signs of a ruin nearby. There were small inscriptions carved into the rock behind him, obscured by the years of vines that had grown there, and a small clearing at the forest below where the ruins themselves stood. Naturally, the only thing that stood between him and the ruins was a clear staple of the treasure hunting business: the drop that led to nowhere except your own death.

Thankfully, he'd had the sense to bring his climbing gear this time, and quickly prepped a rappel down the rest of the mountain face, ensuring that his hooks were tightened properly before beginning his descent. He'd taken special care to manufacture a special utility harness that allowed his weapons, his trusty Colt M1911 and a Mossberg 500, to be magnetically latched into their holsters. The pull wasn't strong, but it was better than leaving a random jump or fall to chance and end up losing his keepsake weapons, the trusty tools that had seen him through thick and thin and several different species of predators.

"Nice and easy now..." He carefully began to proceed down the mountain face, taking special care to observe that the sun had yet to hit noon. He had been climbing the damnable mountain through the early morning and only realized once he'd hit the other side that he had to descend to get to the ruins. How irksome. Perhaps walking around would have been less strenuous.

Landing with a soft thud, he quickly unequipped the climbing harness, leaving it wound up at the base of the mountain for him to use when he was going to leave. Thankfully, the slide down the mountain hadn't been one-way: he'd noticed a small trail heading off around the side, most likely leading back to where he had come from. If not, well, it certainly did him a favor since he wouldn't have to climb back up.

Making sure that his pack and weapons in place, he proceed towards the outer courtyard of the ruins. The architecture was obviously ancient tribal in nature, with lots of open-air windows and adorned columns detailing rituals of ages long past, involving a lot of iconography regarding equine species, it seemed. A normal person would have been curious, but Blake found it best to leave that sort of inane wonderment to the historians and researchers: his task lay in retrieving an artifact from this place.

His contractor had been anonymous, which wasn't entirely unheard of in the business since a lot of the gigs that treasure hunters dealt with involved taking items from protected territories, something that world governments didn't exactly like. Henceforth, having weapons was a two-fold affair: the first was for predators and other natural dangers... the other was as a last resort against soldiers or guards who may or may not be dispatched to the site of retrieval to "relieve" a treasure hunter of his or her belongings.

This contract in particular was to retrieve a crystal orb roughly around the size of a baseball, he'd been told. The item was said to be obviously noticeable and would reside in an altar. As far as things were concerned, he had been told that there were no traps, and anybody willing to hire a treasure hunter had to have some interest in keeping their investment intact, though that didn't stop some from dying. Blake didn't like being thought of as expendable, but damn his reputation if he didn't deliver: only dedicated and trustworthy treasure hunters got repeat customers, either by word of mouth or from the same client, so he often gave the benefit of the doubt when it came to his own safety towards the details provided.

The temple in which the artifact was located seemed to have an entrance that led underground, opening into a large chamber with an altar sitting in the middle of a giant pool of water... water so dark, it was almost as if it were made of ink. A single stone bridge connected the entering stairs with the altar, and Blake quickly walked over it, looking around the chamber as the sunlight flooded in from various open holes in the roof.

Now, this was a strange thing. It was a crystal orb, clearer than day and shining with resplendent flair, with what seemed to be a black-ink crescent seemingly inside it. Hefting the small orb, Blake had to admire whoever had made this: it certainly would have taken a huge feat of skill in order to manufacture something as intricate as this crystal orb.

Tossing it between his hands, he noted the strange feel of the object. It was abnormally cold, almost like ice... strange considering the climate and location of the place... though he had to admit that the placement was quite ingenious: the temple complex sat in the middle between two tall mountains, nearly impossible to find unless someone had taken a flight directly over it, which was also nearly impossible because it was located in the middle of nowhere within the rainforest, away from any route towards civilization. Even he had to get a helicopter ride out here on a special basis.

He began to look around for any possible secondary artifacts... usually a collector would pay handsomely if a hunter found something extra than what was expected... and if the offer for the other artifacts wasn't to the hunter's standard, he would be free to sell them off somewhere else. He'd been in a pinch lately, so the extra money would definitely come in handy...

He searched around and under the altar, trying to make sure there hadn't been anything else that he missed. Turning around the chamber, it seemed that the only thing that lined the walls were overgrown vines and crumbled inscriptions. He carefully examined the edge of the altar island... and found a strange button. Whether or not this activated a trap, he didn't know, but if the creators of the temple had truly meant to harm him, they would have done so the minute he grabbed the orb, which was now safely stored away in his pack.

Carefully readying himself to jump back at a moment's notice... he pushed the button. Thankfully, it did not spawn a wall of traps like he had originally thought, but revealed a hidden passageway that led further into the temple, with another stone bridge rising out of the water leading to it.

"Well, ain't that some shit...?" he muttered. Readying his machete, he began to proceed across the bridge, pausing as he looked down the stairway. Would this be the biggest mistake of his career? He'd find out shortly. Taking a single deep breath, he proceed down the stairway.

Torches. There were torches down here. Here he was in a temple supposedly untouched for centuries, and there were still torches here, burning brightly and looking as new as the day they'd been put in. Not willing to spend the battery life on his shoulder-mounted floodlight, he took one of them, and was now holding it before him as he led himself down the stone steps, the smell of a musty enclosed area engulfing his nostrils.

It was a spiral staircase, descending down into... well, wherever he was going. Holding his machete up, primed to strike, he continued down for several minutes, accompanied only by the sound of rushing air and the thumping of his boots. Places like this were always unnerving... something he'd originally chalked up as simple mind games, but this was having a far more profound on him than he previously thought.

The path before him soon smoothed out, no longer stairs, but of tiles cracked with age. He stood before a small hallway, adorned with yet even more torches... an occurrence most strange. Perhaps those strange tales that he'd heard some other hunters speak of had some truth, after all... with any due luck, he wouldn't end up like that Drake fellow in the Amazon and end up fighting some crazed demon freaks.

"One hell of a day..." he said, pushing open the heavy wooden double doors at the end of the hall. It opened up to yet another chamber, but this one far more grand in both intricacy and size. It was a massive underground dome, with a single column of light shining down upon a large altar, which itself had a huge mural of events inscribed into it. The walls, from the bottom up to the top of the dome, shared similar designs.

Sheathing his blade, he walked around the room, noting again the presence of torches that, by all means, should not be there. He observed the murals, not really knowing what to make of them... there was a lot of mention of equine species on it, but strangely enough, no humans whatsoever. Had the place been built as a temple of worship to some horse deity, perhaps?

He focused on a single larger aspect of the mural... a depiction of a large armored horse that had both a horn and a pair of wings, standing above what seemed to be lesser or mortal subjects, also of equine nature. That was certainly a lot stranger than many mythological scriptures he'd come into contact with... just how did these ancient indigenous tribes know of the existence of a unicorn and a pegasus, of all things?

Shaking his preoccupation off of the display, he quickly advanced towards the altar, hoping to find yet another valuable artifact to carry him with him. Unfortunately, the altar held... nothing, and was completely barren save for the extremely intricate carving of a crescent moon built directly into the floor. He began to turn to leave, until he noticed something that seemed to be hidden underneath the altar.

Leaving the torch on the ground, he quickly began to inspect the object... it was some sort of accessory; an adornment, perhaps? Whatever it was, it would most certainly fetch a nice price... an intact specimen usually got him around six month's worth of straight pay, and that was just too good to pass up. He noticed that the thing was seemingly embedded into the altar, most likely having fallen off the table and then just simply whisked away under a pile of dirt.

What he didn't notice, however... was the fact that the room grew slowly darker. The torches were being put out. The column of light slowly dimmed until only the ever-disappearing light of the torches lit the room.

"What the fuck...?" Blake said, pulling the object free and grabbing his torch. Taking a quick glimpse, the object was a light purplish-blue, with a single emblem of a crescent moon embedded upon it. Still intact. He stuffed it into his pack before quickly running down the stairs, now aware that the torches were going out, at a rate steadily advancing towards the exit.

He quickly broke into a sprint as the torches in the chamber and the hallway finally went out, leaving him with only one... the one that he held in his hands. He quickly flicked the switch on his floodlight, only to have it... not work. Giving a groan of frustration, he quickly flicked it several more times as his own torch went out, leaving him in pitch-black darkness.

"Aw, shit."

And then he felt the ground beneath him disappear, and he fell into the gaping void.

Trust No Shadow

Blake opened his eyes, now aware that he was in dire need of an intake of air. He gulped as much of the oxygen as he could, letting his body stabilize itself before turning his attention to where he lay now. He rubbed the back of his head, as it was throbbing intensely, most likely from the tumble he had taken after the lights went out.

"Ugh... son of a bitch..." he said, groggily standing up. He righted his body with a quick support of his arm against the ground when he felt himself lose balance, but he soon regained control of most of his motor functions without the risk of toppling over. His torch had fallen in with him, it seemed, and it now was burning brightly again. He waved his finger around the flame, just to be sure.

His new environment, however, was something completely beyond him. He stood on what seemed to be another stone bridge of some sort... except it felt more like a hallway. There were drops into some endless darkness on either side for some length, and from there, large decorated walls seem to line the entirety of his line of sight for both directions... Blake figured that as much as clues were irrelevant to his task, it would seem to be the only way he got out of it now.

But, first things first: he checked his pack and noticed that the crystal orb was still within. In fact, the orb itself seemed to glow even more in the dark than it did before. Very interesting.

"Where the hell am I...?" he said to no one in particular. A presence of voice, even if it was only your own, served to calm frayed nerves quite well. It was a trick he picked up when roving with a caravan through some north African desert tombs once. He waved the torch around, acutely aware that there was the presence of flowing air that seemed to be almost as cold as the orb itself. It wasn't cold enough to the point where he could see his breath, but he could definitely feel his fingers balk at the temperature. Thank goodness he was wearing gloves, even if they were fingerless.

Looking to his left and right, he simply did an eeny-meeny-miny-moe method of selection: it landed on the hallway to his right, and so he began to proceed down the length of the empty hall. The walls were huge, seemingly stretching up into the sky... or some infinite darkness, if one could call it that. They all seemed to share some repeating pattern of that one armor-wearing pegasus/unicorn mix going to battle against one just like her... except the presence of a sun behind the second one seemed to indicate a different affinity.

Good versus evil. Light versus dark. And he must have been, as much as he didn't like to entertain the thought, sucked into some world or realm where the darkness called home. That meant he was in a bad place. He only had enough mobile rations for at least two weeks' stay, and like hell if he was going to let himself rot in this hole in the ground.

And then there were the tales of monsters... yeah, he wasn't going to let himself get jumped, even if they were imaginary boogeymen that some drunk hunters had dreamed up. He pulled out his Colt, making sure the gun was primed and ready to use. He extended his torch-holding left arm, positioning his gun on top of the left forearm to maintain some aim stability, and cautiously proceeded down the rest of the hall.

The silence was deafening. The only sound accompanying him was his own heavy but calm breathing, and the sound of his boots against the ancient stone as he carefully proceeded, eyes forward. He occasionally risked a look behind him every now and then to make sure he wasn't being followed. There was nothing... but the darkness gave off a bad feeling.

A feeling like he was being watched.

He heard the sound of a tap and wheeled around, aiming his gun down the hall, down the sides, and up the walls. There was nothing there. He was treading into some dangerous Indiana Jones territory... supernatural and evil and all that crazy crap, with some mind games to boot. Though Blake didn't have a whip and a revolver, he had a handgun and a shotgun, and that would hopefully be more than enough to fend off whatever that was stalking him.

His decision to bring extra ammunition had been lucky: he'd known that some cartel groups liked getting the jump on treasure hunters, so he'd brought a lot of extra ammunition this time around, expecting a firefight. He had eight magazines for his handgun, and enough shells to cover his shotgun's five-count load capacity at least eight times over. And then he still had his machete if things truly hit rock bottom.

"Fuck this shit..." he muttered, turning back towards his direction of travel, and began running, torch and gun in hand.

It hadn't taken him long before he exited the hallway, now confirmed to be part of a huge domed building, before he ended up outside. Or at least, what he thought was outside. He stood on one of many walls overlooking a huge city with towering architecture, spires visible even far in the distance. There didn't seem to be any sign of other lights except for the torch he held.

And the sky was purple... a deep, swirling, and really dark purple, like a miasma of some sort.

He looked out across the sky, his mind fumbling to ascertain whether or not the place he stood in now was even real. Had he just taken a fall? Lost his footing in the dark and hit his head? No, if he was perfectly aware of his many fingers were on his hand, and could even see them, then this was definitely not a dream. Dreams didn't fill you in on specific and pointless details like fingers, rather preferring to keep things blurry and vague.

And his torch and gun felt rugged in his hands, heavy with weight. He could even read the model designation on the barrel of the handgun. No, he was definitely here. Now his only problem was trying to get out. Perhaps time didn't flow normally back in his own world... hopefully he wouldn't end up missing his payday after being gone for God knows how long.

The wall that he stood in stretched towards an even larger dome in the distance. If there was something important, like his means of escape... then that was where it would be. He jogged forwards, passing under a number of stone awnings, again noting the architecture relating to equine species. The followers of this strange deity must have built this city as a place of worship... but the scale in which it had been built was breathtaking, easily requiring at least decades to complete.

He heard the sound of footsteps faster than his own, and quickly turned around to see a quadruped being cloaked in black smoke jump at him. Dodging quickly, he waved the torch in front of him, fending off the creature, which was now circling him.

Whatever it was, he couldn't tell: the smoke obscured far too much of the face, but the glowing white eyes on it suggested that Blake was currently holding its attention. It soon stopped, clearing the smoke and revealing a hideous white face, opening its mouth of sharp teeth and roaring at him.

Unflustered, Blake simply put a round through the thing's head with his Colt, earning a yelp as the body stiffly hit the floor.

"Bullets solve lots of things..." he said, tapping the creature again with the lit end of his torch, only to notice the flame quickly wreath the carcass in flames and turning it to ash, not even leaving the bones behind. So this creature of the dark didn't have a proclivity for fire... and where there was one, there was most certainly going to be more.

He heard a howl and noticed a bunch of flying creatures in the distance, circling around one of the larger spires in that direction. Not willing to chance whether or not they were heading his way, he quickly continued down the rest of the wall.

Looking over his shoulder, Blake felt relieved that the winged creatures did not give chase. It certainly would have been a waste of his ammunition, but he preferred to not waste his torch. Heaving against the wall, he quickly collected himself, before heading into the giant dome.

There was a huge statue here, depicting that same armored unicorn/pegasus in a more regal fashion, rearing into the air as he held his torch to get a better look. It was small in comparison to the actual space: it was simply there in the center, roughly around twice as tall as he was, and was surrounded by absolutely nothing for a huge area around. The purple sky was visible through a tiny hole in the roof, and he took special note of how the roof of the temple was built in a similar fashion.

He began to examine the walls again, hoping to find any clues to his whereabouts, or perhaps a map leading to wherever that would take him home. His own torch gave an admirable spread of light as he trailed along the curving walls, flickering a haunting orange glow on the murals as he ran his hand over them.

When he walked around a quarter of the dome's circular walls, he found yet another hallway leading to an exit. It seemed that the dome had an exit going in four directions, and he'd only found another one. Normally, it wouldn't have even been worth mentioning, but there were some details at this second exit that drew his attention.

There was blood on the floor.

Crouching down, he brought his torch closer to examine the small pool of red, only to realize that there were more scattering inwards towards the statue. It was still liquefied, and still very much red... that meant that whatever or whoever was here, had been here recently, and definitely would be nearby somewhere.

Quickly trailing back his steps to the statue, he found a pair of the strange creatures like the one he fought earlier, except their heads and sides were seemingly smashed in, and the black smoke gone, revealing a sickly and disfigured version of what appeared to be a small pony, with sharp teeth. The smell was a bit rank, and he ended up pinching his nose as there was another trail of blood drips leading to an exit, the one opposite he had come in from.

Blake lit the corpses on fire, sending their dust to the winds of this strange world, before following the trail towards the exit. There, he found yet another clue, and one that gave him hope that there was someone else stuck in this damned world like he was: a hat, laying on the ground. A small white-tan hat with a single band of green cloth tied around it. There were holes on either side of the rims, though whether it was for ventilation or some other means was beyond him.

He figured that the original owner would most likely want it back... hats could be precious things to some people, so he tossed it into his pack, making sure his other supplies wouldn't end up crumpling the small object. After taking a quick check on his Colt, he proceeded along the trail, making sure that there weren't any more of those strange beings nearby. Perhaps if they did follow him, they would be more distracted by the sight of their dead brethren instead.

The exit didn't had led to something rather unexpected... a flight of stairs, leading down into the city. On the walls, there was the slightest, but vague trace of light from the midnight purple skies, but down in the city, the shadows of the buildings easily eclipsed any natural light around. His torch would be his only bet... aside from his floodlight, but that was far too concentrated and claustrophobic for his liking.

"Decisions, decisions..." he muttered to himself, trying on whether to descend into the city of darkness.

His decision came easily enough, however, when he heard the sound of some metal clanking followed by the sound of a female screaming from down below. Scrambling down the stairs, he quickly leveled himself into a combat stance, reverting back to his forearm stability with his gun on top to be ready to fire at anything hostile that moved.

Light on the Backdrop

The turns and corners of this damned city were absolutely insane to navigate. Beyond Blake's own torch, it was nearly impossible for him to tell the actual direction he was going, as he was surrounded by vaulting walls wherever he went. The most he had to go on was the sound of the screaming, which he was certain had come from a general direction.

Another scream rang down to his left, yet another dark alley, but this one more narrow than the rest he'd been running through. He quickly ran down, going past various ancient doors and several darkened windows, waving his torch ahead of himself to try to shine light on the next turn so he didn't end up running into walls.

"H-help!" the voice shouted. So whoever she was, she could speak English. With any due luck, it would be another human like himself, and maybe together they would be able to find some way out of this hellhole.

"Hey!" he shouted back. "Where the hell are you?!"

"H-hello?" the voice shouted back. "P-please, I'm... I don't know where I am! Y-you have to... agh! No!" There was the sound of growling, and the following sound of a scuffle could be heard.

He flicked on his floodlight, turning down the alley, seeing several of those strange black smoke creatures run past his alley. One, however, stopped, and turned to bear its fangs towards him. Carefully aiming down his sights, he quickly found a bead on the sprinting creature, and planted a round straight between its eyes. "Son of a bitch..." he muttered to himself. "Hold on, lady, I'm coming!"

There was no response as he continued down the path that the creatures had charged down. There was the presence of another light near the end of the same hall, so he assumed it was most likely the female's light source. The sound of yelps and more grunting meant that she was most likely trying to fend them off. He had to get to her, and quick.

"Any... day... now! Agh!" she shouted.

"Hold on!" he repeated, turning a corner. There were a number of the quadrupeds there, and he aimed and fired again, taking special care to dispatch of three of the creatures before aiming at a new one... but this one was different. It had a tannish-yellow fur, with black hair, and it slumped against the wall, heaving for breath. It also appeared to be wearing green clothing and had the mark of a compass on its butt.

The new creature opened up its eyes as Blake walked over, revealing her dark pink eyes. "Th--" She was cut off as he planted the barrel of his Colt against her head. "W-wait! Please, wait!" she heaved. "I-I'm not here to hurt you...! I--agh..." She looked down, at her clothes, now barely beginning to wisp with tints of red.

Blake drew his gun away, eyeing the creature slowly as she tried to pull out some gauze from her bag, fumbling with it. Quickly holstering his gun, he quickly grabbed the gauze from her hands and pulled up her garments, revealing a bite wound underneath. With adept work from his hands, he quickly bandaged the wound before it got worse.

"Whew, I... thank you, uh... strange being..." she said. "Thank you for saving me, I'm not sure what I would have done if you hadn't shown up."

"Just... what the hell are you?" he asked.

"I... I'm a pony... and I'm an explorer. A treasure hunter, to be exact. My name's Daring. Daring Do. Who... or what... are you?" Daring asked.

"I'm a human," Blake responded. "And I'm also a treasure hunter. Name's Blake Westerly, but I go by just Blake."

"How fortunate to run into another treasure hunter here..." she laughed nervously.

Blake pulled out the small white hat from his pack. "Is this yours? I found it in that... dome thingy up there."

"Yeah! That's my hat!" She happily took it, and smiled when her keepsake was back on her head. "You're all right, Blake."

"So... you know anything about this place? How you got here, or how to get out?"

"Not that I can tell..." She walked over to examine the bodies of the creatures. "Their smoke... it's gone."

"Yeah, I sort of learned that when I killed one of them just a while ago," Blake said. "Ugly things, aren't they?"

"They're... they used to be ponies."

"Like you?" He walked over and examined the bodies with them. "Mind if I get rid of these?"

"Yeah... go ahead," she said, grimacing. "I don't think I can stand to look at them any longer..." Blake nodded, lowering his torch and setting the bodies on fire, then watching as their dust faded into the darkness beyond. "So... how'd you get here?"

"I found an orb. A real shiny one with--"

"With a crescent in it?" she finished for him. Blake raised an eyebrow at her deduction. "Oh, don't worry, I found one just like it, too. If only Ahuizotl wasn't there..."

"An ahuizotl?" Blake said, having heard the name of the mythological Aztec creature before.

"No, the Ahuizotl. He's my nemesis, and he's always trying to steal artifacts before me, but I usually get the drop on him." She looked around. "Doesn't look like that this time, though... I wonder if he's even here. We both grabbed the orb at the same time."

"So the orb brought you here?"

"Yeah. Didn't it do the same for you?"

"No, I found a secret chamber, and then all the space turned to darkness, and then I fell, and then I ended up here."

"Interesting... but it's kind of hard to say that it wasn't the influence of the orb."

"Do you still have your orb with you?" he asked.

Daring shook her head. "No... it must have gotten stuck with Ahuizotl. Great, now he's going to try to unlock the secret of the orb and try to attain ultimate power and all that..."

"I doubt it." Blake looked up around the small courtyard they were standing in. The purple skies still swirled above them, as if it were some sort of living thing, watching over all in this damned city. "If he even lives long enough, all that power isn't going to save him from... this place."

"So... I think we should start looking for clues, first," Daring suggested. "From the inscriptions that I saw, and from the beings living here, this is a pony city. We should look for their archives and see if there's anything related to the orbs that can help us get out of here."

So Daring was one of the eggheaded types of treasure hunters. Not normally the kind that Blake stayed around, but extremely helpful to have when in a pinch, much like now. "Sure. You're going to have to fill me in on the details along the way... this place is really damn strange."

"I'm not entirely sure what this place is myself, actually..." she said. "It's definitely pony related, but I can't seem to recall reading any sort of text about... about a place with a purple sky."

Blake pulled out his gun again. "So let's get started..."

"Where the hell are we fuckin' going?" Blake whined.

"I don't know already, we're just searching! Celestia take me, you're so annoying!" Daring griped.

"That's because I don't exactly have a penchant for getting nowhere. And what's this Celestia thing you keep talking about?"

"Celestia's a Royal Princess of Equestria, and she's the one who raises the sun! She's an alicorn, a mix of a pegasus and a unicorn, and holds immense power."

Blake stopped, as did Daring when she noticed the light of his torch no longer mingling with her lightstone. "Wait... a pegasus and a unicorn?" he asked.

"Yeah. Something wrong about that?"

"I saw something like that on the mural back in the temple I was in before I got... thrown here. It featured one, wearing armor that had a crescent on it..."

"That's Nightmare Moon..."

"Excuse me?"

"Nightmare Moon... she was originally Princess Luna, Celestia's sister, before her disdain for the ponies' love for her sister's sun and rule overpowered her desires to be recognized, and she sort of went on a whole rampage and war against Celestia before she was banished to the moon."

Blake shook his head, trying to comprehend everything she had just said. He understood it, he just didn't really comprehend all of it, it seemed. "Right..." He nodded slowly. "Let's just... keep going... maybe it'll sink in with time. Seriously, you ponies do some crazy shit... powerful alicorns... going to war... and building all of this."

"Yeah, it's strange. Usually all of that old-time stuff ends up totally smashed, but this place is perfectly intact. It's definitely not anywhere in Equestria, from what I can tell so far. This place is an anomaly."

To Blake, everything, including Daring, was an anomaly. "Yeah, well... the sooner we get out, the better..."

There was the sound of another roar... or at least it sounded like one, until it devolved into something akin to a scream. It was vaguely male, and stopped shortly after a few moments.

"What the hell was that?" Blake asked, turning his head to view the darkness surrounding them.

"Maybe that was Ahuizotl..." Daring whispered. "...he probably has that crystal orb with him... but if he's dealing with those creatures, best of luck to him. Come on, let's keep moving."

"I think this is the place." Daring and Blake stood before a large ornate building, sitting in the center of a larger courtyard and surrounded with what seemed to be residences on all sides. They had luckily not run into any more of the shadow creatures on their way here, though the lack of ambient noises unnerved Daring, causing her to jump at shadows on more than one occasion.

"What makes you so sure?" Blake waved his torch around the stone arch over the door, trying to see if there was anything that could tell them what the building was used for.

"Well, it looks important." She gave a shrug before fidgeting with her wings some more. Her decision to avoid flying was obvious when Blake had told her about the winged shadow creatures lurking in the nearby spires in the distance.

"Yeah, and in our line of work, 'important' also means 'dangerous'. Best let me take this one." He leaned against the side of the door, with his Colt ready, as Daring quickly huddled behind him. "Ready?" He received a nod as Daring nervously darted her eyes around the courtyard.

Pushing the door back with the butt of his torch, Blake slowly peered inside. The torchlight didn't reveal much aside from more ornate carved tiling with moon iconography, so he pointed the torch further inside, slowly bringing himself in and checking the premises with his gun. The area seemed to indicate that the square building was a single room, and the air hung with a damp premonition of death.

"Stay back," Blake said. "I don't like this."

"Yeah, I... what's that smell?"

"That's why I'm telling you to stay back. Watch the courtyard."

"...okay..." Daring shrunk back outside, her lightstone providing a bright yellow glow outside the contours of the doorway. Blake continued forward, unsure of what exactly lay before him within the shrouded darkness. The stench of death grew stronger as he proceeded in, until his foot bumped into something that his eyesight hadn't caught, making a small thump in the permeating silence.

"...Blake? Is everything okay in there?" Daring called.

He peered down at the floor, and noticed a small piece of... something, on the ground. It was pale white, small, but almost as if it should have been part of something greater, and the stump at the end looked like--

Blake quickly looked around, now intensely aware of every single factor in the environment around him. The clue was there, but he wasn't entirely sure; he was, however, entirely sure that this place was most certainly not a library nor a public service location of any kind.

"Yeah, Daring... I'm pretty sure this isn't a library..."

"I... I thought so... oh, goodness, that smell..."

"Stay out there, I'll be out in a moment." He bounded forward, waving his torch in front of him for the sight that would soon come before his eyes. The presence of blood on the floor became quickly known, as he walked to the end of the room, holding his breath and bearing a hardened gaze on his eyes. It could have been that because he'd been in the treasure business for so long, the smell of ancient death had dulled the part of him that would had his body running for the hills, but the sight he held before him only produced the slight feeling of angry butterflies in his stomach.

Strewn before him was a pair of horribly mutilated white ponies, their golden armor still mostly untarnished in the unknown amount of time they'd spent here since their deaths. Their torsos were torn out, savagely so, leaving their entrails and body parts strewn about the room. Small traces of dark smoke lapped at their open wounds, which Blake burned away with his torch, igniting the wisps with a loud hiss.

"Daring... I think you should come see this..."

"Is... is it bad? Can you just describe it to me?" Though her upbeat attitude had held for most of the trek, none of it was present here.

"It's... bad. I'm looking at the corpses of two white ponies decked out in golden armor. Who are they?"

"Th--those are... those are... Celestia's royal guards..."

Visions

Daring immediately ran to a corner and vacated her stomach's contents, heaving quietly in the corner to as to avoid drawing attention to them. Blake grimaced and kneeled down, holding his torch closer to the corpses to gain a better look at what they had once been.

"Wait..." he said, a glint of metal flashing as his torch floated over it. "There's something here..." Pausing for a moment at the sight of all the blood, he dove his hand in quickly and retrieved the object. It was a small golden amulet with a blue gem encrusted in the center. "Daring... what's this?"

Steadying herself as she leaned against the wall, Daring turned her head to look at the object he was holding. "That... uh... I don't know what that is..." She turned around and continued her retching.

Not satisfied with the answer, Blake looked back at the spot where he had picked up the amulet, only to see something that was actually hidden underneath it. The object appeared to be an envelope made of paper, and he stuffed the amulet into his bag before retrieving it.

"Daring, there's something else here." The continued sound of coughing meant that as long as Daring stayed within this room, he wouldn't get any answers. "Uh, come on, let's just head outside, get you some fresh air..." Letter still in hand, he slowly guided her outside, where she took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Don't you raid catacombs and ancient tombs for a living?" Blake asked her. "You'd think the sight of some bodies wouldn't put you off."

"Yeah, well, most of those buddies are usually mummified, not all fresh and bloody and... ugh, I feel like I'm going to throw up again just thinking about it," she said. "Enough of that, I don't want to talk about it. What's that letter you have there?"

He looked at the front and back of the letter. "Well, it seems like it's already been opened." He pulled out the paper within and tried to read it. "Um... yeah, I can't read this. It's from one of your own kind, maybe you'll have better luck with it." Daring took the paper from him and read it aloud:

(===)

To the brave ponies of the royal Equestrian task force,

I have entrusted your teams all with a single amulet, to be arranged and used in the center of Nightmare Moon's capital city of Nightfall. These amulets hold aspects of my own pure magic, which I hope will rehabilitate my sister into the alicorn she once was. To reiterate, they are as follows:

-Vision of Temperance (Yellow)

-Vision of Humility (Green)

-Vision of Trust (Blue)

-Vision of Love (Red)

If all else should fail, and Nightmare Moon's armies march upon Canterlot, I will be forced to fall back upon my last resort: the Elements of Harmony. For all of Equestria, do not fail in your mission.

-Princess Celestia

(===)

"...and this letter is ancient... this must have been written a millenia ago," Daring said. "But that's impossible. Those... bodies... that we saw inside were still fresh! The guards can't have lived for this long, so something must be going on around here after they died... probably magic."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Blake said. "Maybe there's some sort of... thing in the air that prevents the bodies from decomposing?"

"It makes even more sense considering that they probably use bodies to turn them into those monsters that we fought a while back. To think that they marched against the ponies during the Celestial War..."

Another howl pierced the air as Blake held his torch closer to himself. "Let's not stay here for too long. Still got any idea where the library is?"

"No idea. But let's keep looking... I think I've had enough of this place as it is." She turned away, coughing several more times as she struggled to bring fresh air into her lungs again. "Was there... anything else inside the envelope?"

"I don't think there is, but..." He reached inside and pulled out a cloth map. "Well, there you go." He rotated it several times, trying to get an idea on where they stood, but nothing on the map was marked save for the center of the city. "Ugh, I can't get anything from this. The only thing that's marked on here is the center, which is where they were probably supposed to take these 'visions' to."

Daring took it, eyeing it herself. "Well, there's the problem: the words on this are written in Ancient Equestrian... I didn't think I'd ever have a huge use for it. Nice to see that it comes in handy now. But, it's like you said: none of the service buildings are marked, only the locations of four towards at each corner of the city, and the center of the city itself."

"You think this 'Nightmare Moon' might still be around?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know... magic's a powerful thing in Equestria."

"I also have a bad feeling about this place."

"What else could possibly be worse than knowing that we're trapped in some sort of nightmare city?"

"Something tells me that I'm not the first human that's been here before... and that's really bad."

"Well, I'm not sure that I follow. So we run into a few of your kind that turned into... uh, those things. What next?" The rather casual reaction Daring had towards Blake's kind indicated to him that she'd never seen them wearing more fearsome weapons than what he had at the moment.

He pulled out his Colt, holding it in the air in front of her. "Any treasure hunter worth their salt in my world never goes anywhere without bringing a gun along, for wild animals, or nosy government soldiers. Imagine if we run into a whole group of them with these things, other treasure hunters sent in here before me or you."

"Oh..." Daring said, distinctly remembering the feel of a barrel pressed against her head.

"On the bright side, if they use common ammunition, I don't think we'll have a problem dealing with them in the long run, so long as I'm around." Except the part where we get shot at, he left out.

"There's a general residential quarter here laid out, I can see," Daring said, pointing at a spot in the southeast of the city. "The tightly-packed buildings seem to indicate so, since most ancient Equestrian building layouts tend to follow the same pattern. Chances are, the library will either be there, or..." she trailed off.

"Or? Or what?" Blake asked. "It can't be that bad, right?"

"Well, you see, academics in the ancient times was something usually reserved for those of high birth, like unicorns. If the library isn't in the residential quarter, than that means it'll most likely be located within the nobles' district or some seat of bureaucratic power."

"And how is that bad?"

"Because usually, those areas are accompanied with a higher guard presence. As much as I'd like to just hop on down there and dig up some treasures that these ponies don't need any longer, the idea of running into things that are more capable of killing me than Ahuizotl can isn't a real big thing with me."

Another screech in the air gave them pause. "We'd best keep moving along. We can look at the map while we're moving," Blake said.

"I... do you think we're safe here?" Daring asked. Blake fortified the door with various furnishings, lighting the torches inside the room.

"Well, I don't know. We'll just to sleep with an eye open and hope nothing comes knocking. Speaking of which, how are your rations?"

"My rations? Well, I still have some stuff leftover, but most of it was left at my base camp... before I ended up here, of course." She shifted uncomfortably as she sat down: the thought of being without food in such a forsaken place wasn't very comforting.

"I still have some dried stuff I picked up for this one," Blake said. "But it's not a lot. Just some dried fruit and baked goods from the local populace before I headed up here. I didn't plan on staying long."

"I... well, I just have some dried stuff, too. Mostly just fruits, though." They pooled together their rations and eyed the meager amount before them. "Well, I guess it'll have to do."

"Then I guess it's kind of obvious," he said, taking a bit of dried apricot. "We have to finish what these guards came here to do, and try to get back home somehow. It's not like we have anything else to do, and trying to survive here in the long run is out of the question since we'll be without any food."

Daring nodded. "Yeah, I guess it would be easier if we could find a way back home, but not with these things breathing down our necks. I hope those amulets work, though, otherwise we'll be in a world of trouble."

"You and me both," he laughed, taking another bite. They were in this together, for better or for worse. "So I guess the first order of business is figuring out where to set this damn thing up." He pulled the blue-jeweled amulet out of his bag, flipping it around as he examined the inscriptions. "There's something inscribed on the back of this."

"Let me see it." He tossed the amulet to her, and her eyes scrolled over the blocky ancient Equestrian text on the back. "It says: 'to my dearest Luna, for responsibility cannot be given without trust'. I'm not really sure what that means, but there was a lot of falling out between the two Princesses during the Celestial War. I wonder if Celestia was trying to show Luna the error of her ways using these."

"Well, what is it, exactly?" Blake asked. After all, the usage of magical amulets back on Earth wasn't entirely common, and so were talking ponies.

"It's a cleansing gem, but from the looks of it... a very powerful one, since it comes straight from Princess Celestia herself. Gems like these were used back in the day for all sorts of ailments. She called them 'visions', so I guess they were meant to illuminate something to the recipient. Stuff like this was the rarest, since they involved directly interacting with the mind."

"So I guess we collect all of them and put them in the towers, and hope for the best?" Like many things, it sounded simple, but the execution was in the difficulty.

"Well, it looks like it. We should probably head to high ground tomorrow to try to get our bearings," Daring said. "Until then, we should probably try to get some sleep."

"Yeah, it's been a long day... night, or whatever. The purple sky of this place really freaks me out."

Pulling out a blanket from her bag, Daring wrapped herself and laid her head on the ground. "Well, that makes two of us... this whole place just gives me the creeps."

"Don't worry about anything sneaking up on us..." Blake said, tapping the Colt in its holster. "I'll make short work of them."

"Judging by how you handled my rescue - minus the gun pointing at me, that is - I think I'll be safe," Daring said. "Well, Blake... good night."

He grunted his affirmation, taking no comfort in knowing that he didn't have his own sleeping bag with him. There were some incredibly ancient floor cushions around him, though, and despite the years, they showed no further wear and tear than the day the city was sealed. He sat on one in front of a wall and leaned against it, closing his eyes and nodding off to sleep.