Pandemonia, the Sunken Citadel

Fluttershy groaned in pain as her body ached from head to toe. Every nerve protested whenever she tried to move, warning her about a thousand bruises that required healing. Worse still, her brain was stuck on the last minutes before she fell into that abyss. And no matter how many times she replayed the scene, she could only think of it as a nightmare.

She opened her eyes, letting her pupils adjust to the low light surrounding her. From what she could make out, she was inside of a titanic cathedral, with a ceiling high enough to fit the old Golden Oaks Library. Her surroundings, a near endless sea of wooden benches and cushions with an occasional marbled pillar, were bathed in an arctic light. A shiver crawled through her spine as her eyes met a statue at the end. It was enormous, easily rivaling a dragon with its sheer size, and made of a mix of every stone known to man.

She began walking slowly, keeping her eyes trained on the dark corners around her. On a small patch of broken wood she found the soldier that had helped her stay alive in the skirmish above. He was lying on the ground on his stomach. She could see a deep crack on the helmet. Worried, she began poking him, hoping that he’d show some sign of life. All she got was a simple moan.

She sighed in relief and began walking toward the statue at the end of the Cathedral. Each step began to weigh heavily on her, as if an invisible sack was falling on her. She fell to her knees by the time she was near, as the stone sculpture stared at her. Its eyes were yellow pearls, staring at her with a mischievous glare. The granite base had an iron plaque, the top and bottom sentences had faded beyond recognition, with only a few sentences visible:

Sanity is a lie, there is only Madness

Through madness I gain knowledge,

Through knowledge I gain power,

Power breaks the chains and sets us free

Fluttershy looked around in confusion, unable to process if this piece of information was of any use to her. The sound of heavy footsteps drew her attention behind. Standing in the vast hallway was her savior, the soldier in the cream coat.

The soldier had his helm tied to his waist, revealing a mass of silver hair. His chiseled face was marked by a thin scar that raced from his right cheekbone to his chin. His eyes, a pair of gunmetal blue gems, looked as if he was more dazed and confused than she was. He pulled out a small badge from a pouch from his utility belt. He flashed the iron symbol so she could see the inscription: Lieutenant of the Canterlot Fusiliers, III Platoon IV Company. “My name is Iron Cross ma’am, and I’m here to help you.” he bowed.

Fluttershy took a step back. Why was this soldier treating her like royalty? “A.. A pleasure to meet you… I’m… I’m Fluttershy.” She replied. The stare he produced in response made her squeak in terror, as if  she’d said he had taken the last bag of snacks on a picnic. “So… So… Sorry!” she said, taking a step back in surprise.

“Are you The Fluttershy?, as in Twilight Sparkle’s close friend?” she nodded. His eyes lost focus on her, dropping his backpack in an instant and began rummaging through its contents. A few seconds later he pulled out a small black box. He pulled out a headset and tapped the microphone.

“Mayday mayday! This is Sergeant Iron Cross of the Canterlot Fusiliers ninth company! I have been separated from my platoon and am currently under the Everfree Forest! I need priority extraction for a VIP! Codename Kindness! Please respond!” he repeated the sentence again, then swore. Then he repeated it again, but nothing new happened.

“Does... “ Fluttershy began. “Does this mean that we’re alone?” she asked, setting herself on a bench. The soldier nodded his head. “Is there…” she took a deep breath, fighting back the tears forming on her eyes. “Is there anything we can do?”

This time, it was Iron who took a deep breath. “What can we do?” he asked, chuckling nervously as he joined her. “All I can think of is staying put. They’re bound to notice your absence soon, and they won’t find us if we keep moving.”

“But, do you think this place is safe?” she looked around, almost scared that a zombie would pop out. She knew it was ridiculous, but she was still expecting it.

“Of course not, but what choice do we have? The more we move the more it’ll take for them to find us.” he replied, “And we don’t know what monsters could be outside. There could be a thousand dragons sleeping around this place for all we know.” She squeaked in surprise. “But maybe…” he pulled two flashlights from his bag. “We can get to high ground. From there it's gonna be easy to fire a flare. Maybe we can get a better signal.” She grabbed the bigger lantern, while he fastened the other one to the left of his rifle.

“I want you to take this.” he reached to his belt and unfastened one of the straps. It was pistol holster. “I don’t want you to use it,” he said in response to her horrified expression “But I need to know that you have some sort defence in case something goes wrong.” she hesitated for a second, but still grabbed the holstered weapon. The nylon straps were too loose for her, so it took her a few seconds to tighten her new belt around her green skirt.

“You know how to use it?” she shook her head. “Let me give you a quick rundown,” he asked her to take it out. The weapon felt heavier than she thought it should be, and warmer than the opaque steel made it look. He extended his hand, gesturing that she hand it over. She gladly released it, and Iron began: “The glowing red button is the safety” he motioned to the light in front of the trigger. He pressed it and it turned green. “Then just point at the bad guys and pull the trigger.”

He fired the weapon down the hallway, letting the roar fill the vast space between them. “And don’t worry about ammunition, the clip automatically regenerates a bullet every five seconds.” He locked the gun and returned it. “Remember to only fire if you’re in danger, and always shoot to kill. Understood?” she nodded, more out of fear of looking useless than of actually understanding. “Good, now let’s see if we can get to high ground.” he said as he gestured to a spiral staircase near them.

A low moan rang across the building, shortly followed by a dozen more. They looked at each other in confusion, unable to properly tell where they came from. At the distance, near the massive oak doors that marked the entrance, came a lone corpse. The charred body staggered drunkenly through the benches, apparently immune to the pain from its constant blunders.

Several more bodies rose to its call, at least fifty of them were a few meters from the humans. Iron Cross raised his rifle in response. “Get behind me!” he barked. Fluttershy obeyed, scanning to the sides. A few more animated corpses rose from the benches. A loud moan to her right forced her to duck a weak punch. It never landed, as Iron swiftly smacked its head with the rifle’s stock.

The body reeled from the strike, gesturing that it was preparing for a second attack. Iron denied its chance with three bullets to the chest. The corpse fell to the floor and growled one last time before turning to ash. Immediately, the zombies’ walk turned into a frenzied sprint. The soldier turned and began delivering controlled volleys against the crowd. The loud roars began to flood the cathedral, and more groans were added to the cacophony.

“RUN!” Iron barked as he stabbed a nearing shambler. She obeyed, heading for the steel structure. He followed in a slower pace, blasting anything that came across their path. Fluttershy vaulted over the railing and began climbing as fast as she could, raising her feet over threes steps at a time. She glimpsed back down to Iron and sighed when he began climbing. On the stairs he stopped firing, instead activating a small cylinder. He dropped it and rushed to her. “Hold on!”

Fluttershy felt something pull her down, like a massive hand was trying to slam her to the floor. A brief moment later the tension was released, followed by a deafening pop. She looked down and noticed that the bottom was now a dry crater. There wasn’t any trace that the base of the stairs even existed.

She continued her ascent, swallowing hard as the sound of collapsing doors reached her ears. Immediately, the cathedral exploded with hollow screams. They were unable to see the chaos below because of the wall tightening around them. But the echoes bounced around them, haunting them as they reached a wooden floor. Fluttershy fell on the ground, heaving as her legs protested the burden, and extended her arms.

Iron Cross merely sat down and toyed with the black box. A few seconds later, he unslung his bag and imitated the pink-haired dame. “It’s no good, I’m still not getting a signal.” He sighed, glancing at the screen. “Come one,” he said as he got up “let’s check the place around. Maybe we’ll find some beds and a window. Or at least a look at the church.” She got up, ignoring the protests of her pulsing legs.

Before they did anything, Iron clapped his hands. The leather gloves began glowing with a grey aura, before turning into white. He gripped the handrails of the spiral staircase and squeezed hard. The metal turned to molten slag on his touch, breaking away from the posts that nailed it to the wooden boards. He continued by tearing out the metal step. The stairway fell, crashing and clanging as gravity reclaimed it.

“Now we can be sure that those creeps can’t follow us.” he said, clapping his hands to dissipate the melting glow. “C’mon, we still have to check the place out.” He said, heading to a small door. He opened it, bathing both of them in a frigid light. Fluttershy felt something crawl under her skin as  she gazed at the polar citadel before them.

The city was huge, easily twice the size of Canterlot, with only a few pyres to break the monotonous white. Towers decorated the landscape, each a beacon that showered everything with the pale light. At the center, Fluttershy could see the most magnanimous building of all. It looked like a church made of silver, with a tower that rose far above the rest and glowed the brightest. And above everything was pitch blackness, only broken by a small hole, their hole no doubt, in the sky.

“Now this is something I didn’t know existed.” Iron murmured, letting his rifle hang by its sling. “There’s no way this is true!”

“Ho ho ho!” rang an eerily merry voice. “Is that fresh meat I see?!” Iron quickly turned to the source and aimed his rifle. The voice was above them, standing over a petrified gargoyle. The figure jumped from its perch, spinning like a yo-yo as he fell, and landed on the clay tiles before them. These broke under the titanic weight of the masculine figure.

The figure was about three meters tall, with a golden mask covering his head and a gothic spear on his left hand. At first Fluttershy though he was naked due to the detail on his breastplate, save for the red loincloth tied to his waist, but that could not be farther from the truth. He wore golden armor, tailored to replicate what she was sure was his actual muscular body. The main giveaway was the white gem, shaped like a sun, resting in between his pectorals.

“Greetings poor souls! Might I ask what brings two of Arion’s children to this accursed place?” His face frozen with a smile enhancing his light attitude. Both Iron and Fluttershy remained paralyzed. “Oh my, I seemed to have lost my manners!” He slammed his weapon on the ground and knelt. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sunlight Spear, a Custodian of The Sun.” Fluttershy raised a dubious eyebrow in response, while Iron lowered his rifle.

“I see that you do not recognize me, but I work for the great Princess Celestia.” he bowed. “And have been for a very long time. I have been tasked with keeping the denizens of this poor city under control.”

“So do you know anything about the mass of zombies that live down there?” Iron asked, a hand pointing to the cathedral. “Or are they something new?”

Sunlight chuckled, letting his hands clutch his strong stomach. “Of course I do! They are the husks of what once were proud citizens of Pandemonia!” he laughed slapping the air as if it were his friend. Fluttershy widened her eyes in horror. To think that those things below probably never died and that this man, who worked for Princess Celestia of all people, could make light of such a horrible situation.

Iron furrowed his eyes in thought. “So this place is called Pandemonia?”

“That is correct child!” Sunlight twirled the massive spear as if it were a wooden cane. He pointed at the pearlescent city. “This is decrepit place was once considered the bastion of knowledge, a beacon of faith and even the home of the greatest deity in this world.” he chuckled some more. “Now look at it, buried, desolate, a mausoleum to the greatest failure known to us.”

“But what happened? Because I’ve never heard of a city built under Equestria.” Iron protested. “Whatever happened here must have been greater than The Lunar Rebellion, Sombra’s Crusade or even Discord’s Reign of Chaos”

The golden mask tilted sideways. “Now it is my turn to be perplexed.” Sunlight Spear leaned pensively on his weapon. “The city was not built underground, but close to the city of Canterlot. It was after the riots that the city was sunken by my great Princess and her sister!”

Iron took a step back. “So that means that there’s no way back up?!”

“Of course not! You silly kitten! The point was to avoid the corruption that infests this place to remain here. Why would my beloved muse allow it to escape?!” the Custodian broke into laughter. “But fret not! For I may have a solution. After all, it was within the plan that some poor souls could find their way inside.”

“Great!” Iron responded, letting a smile paint his face. “What is it?”

“Sadly, I do not possess the answer to this conundrum. But I know someone who does.” he pointed to a building on the distance. “In the confines of the Celestial Archives lives a wizard known as The Red Cyclops. If there is someone who knows an answer to this plight, it is him.”

“And am I right in assuming you will take us there?” Iron asked, crossing his arms. “Or will you leave us to our fate?”

The giant produced a confident chuckle. “As a Custodian, it is my most sacred duty to take you to see the great Cyclops!” he looked around. “Follow me!” he replied, jumping off the roof with a frenzied cry.