Forbidden Land

LamNil was shaking everywhere with every charging step of the beast, chasing those two down the halls. Mane's adrenaline kicked in allowing him to run for an extended time, always holding Pinkamena's hand guiding her in the dark thanks to the night vision spell, who also caught up with his pace. The mare was still confused by what was chasing them, but at times like those there was no necessity in wasting their breath and energy with questions, but put It to good use on their legs.

Mane's vision started to get all white indicating a source of light, and blurred by the effect he saw the bridge where the magma channel was. He took a turn, and sprinted down the corridors to a place where they could see the rampaging pachyderm and big enough to have a chance of fighting It.

They entered the giant wall where they were before, where the group of skeletons tried to corner them. Pinkamena started to see the magma river in the end of It, and guessed where they were before.

"Are you crazy?!" She screamed. "We are gonna get cornered again!"

"The hall is big enough! We can avoid It." Mane answered, while finishing the night vision spell when the magma's light allowed more light for both of them.

They stopped by the magma forges for a second time, to catch their breath for an instant. The steps of the elephant got louder and louder with every second. The light of the molten rock river started to show the elephant's head, and Pinkamena finally saw what was going after them. But this one was bigger, way bigger than the other's outside. It's tusks were not "medium" sized, they were way longer forwards and It's end pointing up like a hook. The beat kept charging at them without any signs of stopping. It was probably fifty meters away from them.

"He's not stopping!" Pinkamena yelled over the noise.

"We can use It for advantage!" Mane answered while looking behind them. "At my signal, dodge!"

"Dodge?!" She asked confused.

"Just jump or roll to the side, out of his range!" Mane explained.

The giant elephant was now thirty meters from them. They started to see his beady eyes aiming at them, and starting to lower his tusks until It's curves were dragging on the rock floor. A beast that size and weight wouldn't stop a charge that easily.
Ten meters.

"NOOOW!!!" Mane screamed.

The grey stallion gave a quick run and jumped to the left, and the pink mare with a quick run too dodge rolled to the right. The tusks missed them for some centimeters, and instead destroying a magma forge. With a failed attempt of stopping, the elephant fell right into the magma river. The smell of burning meat filled the place, while the magma burned to a crisp the skin and meat of the elephant. Slowly burning down, the pachyderm let out a loud trumpeting echoing through the entire fortress.
Mane and Diane only saw It happen, with nothing to comment and mouths slightly open as if they still had something to say but they weren't sure. She didn't mind the smell of burning meat, but Mane took a hand to his nostrils.

After a bit, the melting elephant lost the energy and let Itself drown in the fire. They took a synchronized deep breath of relief.

"Woa..." Pinkamena sighed with a smile, looking at him.

"Woa..." Mane answered back smiling as well with a small nod. "Let's go."

They started walking away slowly relieved. The magma river started bubbling more than usual. Mane stopped and looked back, the bubbles got more frequent, as if a creature was breathing under It. Pinkamena stopped and noticed the strange phenomenon. A portion of magma started raising, and slowly something white like snow raised. Walking slowly out of the river, menacing two big bones forwards and eyes glowing red with two orbs in the empty eye sockets.

"Noo..." Mane gasped in fear and surprise.

The elephant's skeleton came back to life, with the magma not affecting the bones and just spilling from It's bones.
Those empty eye sockets now filled by two red orbs looked at Mane with unspeakable anger. The elephant charged on his general direction with increased speed, and Mane and Pinkamena dodged again in time, but this time the elephant skeleton made a quick turn and bashed Mane right with the It's tusks but luckily the pointy ends didn't got him.
The hurt stallion flew in an arch, but transformed his body into crystal just in time before the landing. He got up and the monster charged again, Mane grabbed them in time and squeezed them hard, trying to keep the bone weapons down with his weight but the elephant skeleton slowly raised him in the air with effort.
Hanging from them, Mane dropped down and closed a crystal fist, delivering a midair stone hard punch in the skull. He landed, but the skeleton just charged again. Even if they were bones, they weren't affected by the blow of the hammering.

"GIRL!" Mane screamed while wrestling with the tusks. "DO SOMETHING!"

"What the fuck am I supposed to do?!" She yelled while watching the whole fight from behind a stone support.

"Find something! Anything!" Mane begged, losing the grasp. "FUCK!" The elephant charged again, sending Mane flying again a short distance against the floor. "HURRY!" He screamed while getting up and avoiding the tusks again.

"I can't promise anything!" Pinkamena answered. She headed to a nearby door illuminated by the magma river, but the door revealed pitch black dark. There was no way she couldn't see a damn thing and find something to help her friend. "Think, Diane! THINK!" he thought stormed her mind. Mane with his "Crystal Sense" was able to wrestle the monster skeleton but couldn't get a certain victory, probably paying the price of death. "The diaries!" The idea came up.

She gave a run to Mane's backpack, and grabbed the notebook with the translations. With another run, she went close of the magma river for some light. Pinka started to read the entries with all haste, looking for a clue or anything.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Mane yelled from the corridor., looking back while wrestling the giant skeleton.

"The diaries might have a clue!" Pinkamena answered.

"Then get It done! I don't think I can hold much longer!" Mane requested in anger. "DAMMIT!" Mane released a tusk and pulling a crystal fist back, he threw a mighty punch right in the skull, this time cracking It a bit, and the giant elephant skeleton fell on It's feet and knees showing some weakening. "AND STAY DOWN!" Mane pointed at It. "Find anything, will you?!" He ordered to Pinkamena in fury.

"Hold on! Hold the fuck on!" Pinkamena yelled back. "There must be something here, come on..." She thought while rushing through the pages. She got to the sixth diary, authored by Ale Barrel, the angry sixth overseer, and between the initial text, she read something:

"Further into the fortress, we have a gigantic hallway where the roof is held by fucking sticks, and a slight breeze would make the whole thing collapse. I don't know what suicidal asshole made this, and I'm bot gonna mess with It. But you can bet, I'm not gonna fucking step in that place ever.

Visited what they call a statue garden, or more like a room full of unlabeled levers. I don't know what any of them do and I'm not gonna try find out. The way this place is set up, any of them could make the whole fort collapse like a fucking tower of rocks. Celestia help me..."

Pinkamena thought for a moment, and look at the expansive space where Mane and the elephant skeleton were fighting. The rock supports around the place seemed fragile indeed, and the room with the levers could be place to collapse that place, or the entire StoneHammer fortress.

She grabbed a nearby stick of wood and dipped It into the magma, making a quick torch. With a run, she avoided the fight but not Mane's sight.

"Where the hell are you going?!" Mane screamed while dodging the tusks and bone legs.

"I think I got the solution!" Pinkamena waved a book in a hand while running. It was Mane's notebook. "Keep It busy! I need time!"

"BE FAST THEN!" Mane ordered in rage.

She ran down the giant hall, trying to not let the wind put out the torch which didn't any fuel besides the wood itself. The fight could be heard in the distance, making her run faster.
Pinkamena passed by the magma channel, and further more, the bridge by the underground river. A light in the end of the main hall, the exit showing daytime. The garden statue should be nearby with all the levers.
Checking every door with the torch starting to go out slowly, after some rooms with no interest, she found her destination.
Statues of pony dwarves, animals and other creatures broken in pieces, made of different rocks in white and many grey scales. All of them covered in moss, and the faces of each creature worn out by time and weather factors in the fort from all those years.
Among the ruins, levers and levers. No labels, each task of them (probably) acknowledged by the ancient civilization.
The mare opened the marked pages referring the statue garden, but none of them said which lever, and she was probably running out of time.

On the other side, Mane kept wrestling the elephant skeleton. Holding It's tusks, he took advantage of his grip strength and squeezed the tusks harder and harder. Those crystal hands started to crack the bones of the tusks. The giant bone animal feeling the pain and forcing harder the charge. In a blink, Mane cracked the tusks, shattering bone everywhere and leaving now two pointy ends of tusks in the floor cracked in every side.

The elephant skeleton stepped back in pain, and the two orbs in the eyes became stronger. It started hitting the floor with what was left of It's tusks breaking them piece by piece, leaving Mane confused by what It was doing and planning. Now the skull had no tusks left, and charged Mane who couldn't dodge due to the weight of his crystal body. Instead, he held tight to the head while the animal kept swinging to the sides trying to get ride of the crystal stallion. No use.

The skeleton changed the strategy and pointed to a wall and ran towards It. With a big impact, he squeezed Mane between It's skull and the wall, but he refused to let go. Another It and still the same. Mane started to feel some pain after some hits, and his crystal body wouldn't resist such punishment for so long. His hope and life was on Pinkamena's hands, wherever she was now.

Back in the ~~statue~~ lever room, the pink mare kept looking at them levers, indecisive which one would be the correct one to colapse the "Hall of Suicide" how the sixth overseer called in his diary.
She grabbed a lever, ready to pull but she let It go slowly. Grabbed another one, let It go too. There was no way to tell.
Her chest started to hurt for a bit, and started more as if It was being It by a hammer constantly. Her sixth sense picked the floor trembling for a second, strangely synchronized with the pains. Took her a while to understand, realizing It was like Mane's pain was being shared somehow.
Panicking, she grabbed another lever but unsure if she should pull It.

"No. NO. NO!" She thought. "The whole fort might fall apart with us inside." Pinka took her hands to her face in despair. "How? HOW did this stupid civilization would operate this place?!"

The torch's fire reached her hand, giving a small burn, making her let It fall on the floor and the lights got out, leaving her in the darkness again, with one levers in her hand.
A thought came to her mind, reckless but the only thing she could do in the room and at the moment.

"Pull the damn lever!"

Overcoming her fears and despair, she grabbed the lever with both hands and pulled It, making the old mossy rock mechanisms come back to life once again. The floor shook for a moment and a noise was heard in the distance echoing through the halls. She grabbed the notebook next to her and started to search for the door in the dark, sometimes tripping in a statue but not falling.

Back in the giant hall, Mane kept being squeezed between the wall and the elephant skeleton's skull. A loud noise was heard in the distance, as if another elephant was running towards them. A rock support in the visible area of the magma's light fell down, along with boulders from the ceiling and the whole place trembling. The unicorn started to loose his strength and the grasp on the skull, expecting to loose grasp of his "Crystal Sense" and be smashed into a paste by the undead pachyderm.

A rock support next to them fell, and the ceiling collapsed and a huge boulder fell right in the skeleton's body, making It go down with the weight and breaking a majority of the skeleton. Mane let the skull go and avoided in time a boulder who smashed the skeleton's head into dust. He looked into It's eyes and the glowing orbs died, showing It has dead for sure this time.
The support behind the corpse collapsed, making Mane end his crystal body and start running with a night vision spell on his eyes. The whole place was going down, with the hurt stallion avoiding rocks and boulders falling from the ceiling.
The hall was almost entirely destroyed and he was still halfway.

In the dark hallways, Pinkamena had memorized her path but not entirely due to the panic. She kept holding the notebook with one hand and touching the walls with the other. The light of the entrance was not enough anymore to the distance she was.

In the depths of the halls, she heard water flowing. It was the underground river telling she was on the right path.

"MANE?!" She called, but no answer. "Where are you?!"

Small puddles of water could be felt in her hooves, the bridge was closer telling by the volume of the water running.

"MANE?!" She called again.

"Pinka?" A voice called.

"Shaker! I'm near the bridge!" She called happily.

"I'm by the bridge! Come here!"

Pinkamena speed up her pace glad Mane was alive and safe. She stepped on the bridge, and stayed in the middle of It. She called him again, but nothing answered. Only sound was the water rushing down the mountain.

"Mane..?" She called. "I'm here, where are you?"

Suddenly in the dark, something grabbed her hands and pulled her to the side of the bridge. She screamed in panic and surprise realizing she was being attacked. Pinka tried to reach her pistols or the knifes, but whatever It was It had her arms locked behind, making It impossible to fight back, besides the darkness not allowing her to see.

"MANE! WHAT THE FUCK!?" She screamed, but a raspy voice laughed evilly back at her. "YOU'RE NOT HIM?! LEAVE ME!"

The mysterious attacker kept pulling her, and she felt the bridge hitting her back. It wanted her to fall on the river and drown, and It was stronger than her, making the resistance even harder.

"HELP!!! SOMEPONY PLEASE!!!" She cried loudly.

One of her hooves was already off the bridge floor and she was losing resistance to the pull. She forced her lower body to the opposite direction buying her some time in hopes something would happen to get her free.

"MANE!!! HELP!!!" She begged, not knowing if he was even alive.

Quick steps from the other side of the bridge were heard, she looked and saw two blue teal orbs in her direction. It was probably another creature coming to help the attacker. She closed her eyes and accepted her fated death.
But a scream made her open them again confused, and the orbs getting closer.

"MANE?!" She dared to call.

"I'm here! Hold on!"

His ended his night vision spell and revealed a magic light from his horn illuminating the whole scene. He gasped in shock seeing now everything more clearly. Pinkamena looked back, and revealed the previous pony dwarf skeleton she found on the deeps of the river pulling her towards It. She screamed in terror seeing the skull up close covered in water plants and all wet growling fiercely, and a body without any muscles or flesh having strength than her.

Mane grabbed the skull with both hands and twisted It to the left and right repeatedly. He putted a hoof in the bridge's wall and pulled the head with all the strength he had left in his body. With effort and anger fueling his mind and body, he pulled the skull out of the body and smashed It into the bridge into a watery dust.

Pinkamena got released of the grip and stepped back while the rest of the skeleton fell on the water, being dragged by the flow along the river. She sat on the bridge in panic and shook, whimpering and almost crying. Mane recovered from his initial fury and knelled next to her hodling her hands.

"I'm here. Everything is alright." Mane comforted.

"I almost died..." Pinkamena cried. "I was gonna drown..."

"You're safe now, sweety." The stallion hugged her. "You're safe now..." He petted her.

"I thought you were dead!"

"I escaped in time, before the whole place collapsed." Mane sighed. "I jumped in time before the whole ceiling could fall on me."

"Seems I got the right lever." Pinkamena smiled with some tears running down her face. "But... I swear I could hear you by the bridge."

"How? I was still on my way looking for you. Until I heard your screams."

"Then... did that skeleton kind of mimicked you?!" She sounded surprised.

"It's the only explanation." Mane looked to the river. "Damn skeletons... Let's go."