The Timeless Hollow

The Timeless Hollow

Despite the sunlight that had been filling the garden for several minutes there was no seeing what lie beyond the doorway they had just revealed.
Past its stone frame was just the inky blackness that came with an area covered in shadow. Naturally this made all six of the foals very reluctant to move forwards.
"It can't be that dangerous if Luna wants us to go in there right?" Sweetie Belle poked her head into the doorway and ignited her horn, trying to see anything but the darkness persevered and the light was cut off barely inches from her head.
"I don't think she'd let us get into any sort of harm, but then again we're dealing with something Luna said was incredibly powerful, who knows what to expect." Diamond Tiara stepped backwards and let Sweetie retreat from the tunnel then turned to Silver Spoon and rubbed her eyes wearily, "either way I'm exhausted...let's just get this over with."
"You're finally speaking my language!" Scootaloo cheered and had already started making a beeline for the doorway when Applebloom caught her tail in her teeth and stopped her.
"Hold up now, we're all going together, We don't want you jus' runnin' in there and doing Celestia knows what."
Pip reached down to his belt and drew his small wooden sword with much flair, "should anything go wrong, I'll be sure to defend you ladies!"
"Psh, please." Scootaloo stuck her tongue out and grimaced, "like I need protection."
She lead the way and took two steps into the doorway then turned and gestured for them to follow. One at a time they all entered the Timeless Hollow.

Diamond Tiara was the last pony to enter the doorway as she was loathe to travel through dark areas, it wasn't that she was scared of the dark but it was not a situation she wanted to be in.
"I don't even want to be here at all," she muttered grumpily, her mouth twisting into a petulant frown as she followed Silver Spoon through the blackness, she took one look back and saw the light of the sun getting weaker and weaker as they traveled down what looked like a tunnel. No one could see the walls on either side but because of the claustrophobic blackness it felt like they didn't have a lot of room to maneuver.
"If it weren't for those dorks I wouldn't even have to be here, I'd be at home sleeping." She sighed and hung her head sleepily, she'd been up all night and was severely lacking in beauty sleep now, her eyes drooped low as she tried keeping up with Silver who she could barely see through the shadows now.
"Silver? Wait up, I don't want to walk that fast," she snapped her head up from her sleepy stupor and realized that Silver Spoon was no where to be seen. "Silver?"
She stopped walking and looked to her sides but it was impossible to see anything, her friend could be feet from her and she wouldn't know, but then again wouldn't Silver respond to her calls?
"S-silver?" Diamond felt her ears droop and she came to a halt, completely alone.
"No use in standing around...I guess..." she gave her sides another leery look then kept walking forwards slowly, alert and uneasy.
She continued simply walking forwards for a couple minutes and wasn't able to hear anything, not her group, her friend or even her own footsteps, it was like she'd sunk into a well of solitude that was slowly trying to swallow her forever.
After another ten minutes she came to a stop and scanned her surroundings, not that it helped much, even if she squinted her eyes.
As she stood there looking around carefully she slowly became aware of an actual noise, just barely she heard something making a low scraping noise but she couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"S-silver?" She turned around quickly and the noise stopped but she still couldn't see anything at all.
"Applebloom?" she began walking unsteadily, a sense of dread growing her chest, as she moved the noise started up again but this time a bit closer.
"Is that you Pip? dragging your sword on the ground or something?" There was no response and she felt her pace quicken, along with her heart rate.
"This isn't funny at all Scootaloo," she began running now but the noise persisted behind her, managing to keep pace with her, "I'll tell my father on you! Rainbow Dash too, you don't want to get scolded by her!"
Panic was slowly creeping its way into her voice, latching itself to her chest and restricting her breathing as she fought to keep running blindly forwards with no particular destination in sight.

She lasted a couple more minutes before exhaustion started taking in and she was panting, she still managed to run though however, until she turned around to look behind her and her face was hit by a gust of icy wind that startled her so badly she tripped and fell with a thud on the ground, her legs tangled up underneath her.
"S-stay back!" She gasped, trying to get her balance back but already she could hear the rustling noise get louder and closer until it was like someone was dragging something inches from her face.
A cold sensation pricked her shoulder and she shuddered violently at the freezing nature of the touch, it vanished for a moment then came back on her hoof which she kicked out in protest.
"What is this?!" She stood up sluggishly, unable to call forth any energy, it was like whatever was near her was sapping what strength she still had left.
The touch came back, this time on her ribs and with a twitch she fell over, losing the power to stand anymore.
"Get...back," her hoof kicked out in defense one last time before she was unable to move and felt her eyes drooping despite her best efforts to stay awake.
As her eyes were closing for what she thought was the last time there was a loud ringing noise accompanied by a brilliant white light that flashed under her eyelids right before she passed out.

"Pip, take the one on the left! Don't let it touch you though, you don't want them sapping your energy!" Sweetie Belle ducked away from her assailant which was being revealed by the bright light emanating from her horn, it had no actual form, instead looking like a huge mass of constantly contorting shadow with tendrils that snaked off of it like arms.
She leapt away from one of the shadow creatures lunges then fired off a short round of magical energy from her horn into its center of mass. The white light hit the creature with such a force that it was torn into pieces which fell to the ground and faded away like dust in a breeze.
"Get outta here!" Pip growled as he swung his sword at another one of the creatures, it backed away from him, confused by the sudden light from Sweetie Belle, it had obviously never seen anything like that before. When Sweetie turned to face it as well the beast cringed away from her giving Pip his chance to leap into the air and slash at it with his sword which, despite being wooden seemed effective against it. The creature shuddered as his sword rent it in two and it poofed away in a cloud of shadow.
"Diamond!" Sweetie closed her eyes tight and forced her horn to glow brighter so that she could see the pink filly who was still collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily.
"I think one of them got her a few times."
"More than once?" Pip put his sword away and joined her, " It was bad enough when I got jabbed on the leg, felt like I was gonna pass out right there, I can't imagine getting hit more times."
Sweetie Belle put a hoof on Diamonds cheek and a worried expression took over, "she's very cold, and she's not breathing right."
With a single motion the white filly flipped her saddlebag off of her back and started rummaging through it.
"Will she be ok?" Pip's voice got very quiet all of a sudden and he knelt down by Diamond who hadn't responded to them at all.
"I'm gonna use that potion Zecora gave me, it made my horn stronger so maybe it'll be able to warm her up from whatever those things were."
Sweetie Belle held the bottle of dark blue liquid in her mouth and popped the cork carefully, she moved over to Diamond and tipped it ever so slightly so that a couple drops fell into her open mouth.
"She did say to use it when we were in need of help." Pip bit his lip and watched Diamond closely.
It took a couple tense minutes but eventually Diamond coughed loudly and stirred, much to their glee. A couple minutes after that her breathing regulated and she opened her eyes blearily.
"D-daddy?" She whispered in a raspy voice, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"Not even close girl," Sweetie giggled as she put the potion away in her bag again.
Diamond stood up slowly, her legs wobbly and shook her head. "Sweet...ie? What happened?"
"You were attacked by some weird shadow...things, Sweetie Belle shot one of them with magic and I stopped the other one, it was close but I think we're safe, for now." Pip filled her in and Diamond made a strange frown as she listened, not liking the explanation.
"Shadow creatures? I got saved? Well that's just wonderful, I suppose you're expecting a thank you?"
"Not really, just hoping you don't scare me like that again." Sweetie Belle shrugged her small shoulders then looked around them now that she could see slightly thanks to her horn.
Diamond seemed taken aback by her response but still managed to blush and stutter out a "thank you" without looking at either of them which made both Pip and Sweetie smile warmly.
Not even a couple seconds later she shook her head and tried to cover her embarrassment by asking, "so...where are the other three?"
"We don't know actually," Pip shrugged then pointed off into the blackness, "I was just walking for a while then I realized that I was all alone, then one of those...things poked me and Sweetie came outta no where with her horn magics! She saved me."
"I had a similar experience," Sweetie explained, sitting down. "I was walking behind Scootaloo for a while then I noticed I was all alone and my horn wasn't helping at all. So I remembered Zecora's potion she gave us, thought I'd try it out and voila! My horns magic got way stronger, the moment I turned the light on I saw Pip getting attacked and the rest is history now."
"Do you think that your magic is what broke the....spell I guess you could say, we were all lost in our own personal wells of darkness...but then your magic banished it?"
"Could be, that's what I was thinking. Whatever it is Zecora gave us, its powerful stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew what we'd be going up against in here and readied that potion just for this place.

Their next course of action was figuring out where to go next, they were together in part now but it was still pitch black all around them, although bright Sweetie horn only lit up the immediate surroundings, a few feet at best.
"Our only option is to press forwards I think, it's not like the direction really matters at this point, we'll end up somewhere." Pip was still unusually happy, as if the idea of being lost down there didn't worry him at all, truth be told it probably didn't.
"I agree, we're bound to find the others or our way out of here eventually." Sweetie Belle nodded then stood up, the two others quickly followed suit and they were off.
It was eerily silent again, which they took as a good sign that the shadow creatures weren't coming back.
After about ten minutes Diamond was the first to spot something ahead of them, she gestured with her hoof but it was still too far away to see, the only thing they could make out was that it was lit up and pierced the darkness.
As they got closer they saw that it was a tree, or a multitude of trees, all sitting in a large circle.
"Could this be that Hollow then?" Pip asked as he picked up the pace, eager to reach the spot and explore. "Probably, a huge black area is certainly hollow but its not "a" hollow." Diamond noticed that the tree's were wide enough apart in one area to make a sort of entrance and veered towards it, as did Sweetie and Pip.
The trees grew taller and taller until they came right up to the location, it was there that they noticed the tree's themselves weren't shining, it was whatever was in the center of the circle that was giving off such a powerful light.
"No guts, no glory!" Pip cheered dashing into the Hollow of trees without a seconds thought.
"Oh c'mon!" Diamond shouted in an exhausted voice as she dashed after him, the two of them didn't notice the trees shift to block off the entrance once they got in but Sweetie Belle did.
"Looks like this is the Timeless Hollow then," she whispered as she dulled her horn out completely and let out a relieved sigh.
"Oh wow!" Pip shouted, some distance from her, "Sweetie! Come look at this!"
"I hope the others manage to get here safely."