The Timeless Hollow

The Timeless Hollow

Contrary to her friends scuffle in the darkness Scootaloo found herself in a very different situation, she only wandered the abyss for a few minutes before the area began lighting up slowly from some unseen source. Once it was bright enough she saw that the floor underneath her hooves was made of stone, huge square slabs like that you'd see in a castle. In fact, she could have sworn she was still in the castle itself.
The corridor widened out slightly but seemingly had no end in sight.
"Aw ponyfeathers, I wonder how I ended up getting so lost in here...I swear Sweetie Belle was like, right behind me..."
She stopped her steady trot and glanced behind herself at the long hallway, there was no one, she was quite alone.
"Ugh this place is so... creepy," she sighed and continued walking slowly, keeping an ear open for any sign of her friends.
"It's cool though," she shook her head clear of scary thoughts, "They'd just call me a chicken if I got scared in here, Rainbow would just cruise along without a care in the world!"

Using her newfound determination fueled by her hero she ventured further and further down the hallway, minutes passed and then an entire hour but there was still no end in sight, feeling tired from not sleeping all night she felt her strength flagging slightly and even her wings buzzed more slowly than normal.
"This would be a great time for you guys to actually lift me you know," she glared at her small wings then tried flapping them, the only result she got was the humming noise of them moving but she didn't even lift an inch.
"Stupid wings... You're supposed to make me fly, like a normal Pegasus!"
Before she could start feeling glum there was a loud slamming noise from further down the hallway, out of side but definitively there, it reminded her of a door shutting loudly.
"I bet that's Applebloom and Sweetie Belle now! I wonder how they got so far ahead of me!" She took off running despite her oncoming exhaustion and came to a stop several hundred feet along the way.
In front of her loomed a huge wooden door, it reached all the way up to the ceiling and was incredibly intimidating. It was much taller than she was, and the handle was smack dab in the center of it, far out of her reach unless her wings started lifting her magically.
"Can't even reach the door handle...man, what's gonna happen next, some stupid trap made for catching fillies who wander in here?"
As if on cue the floor below her started rumbling violently, threatening to knock her off balance. The shaking was followed by a loud cracking noise as the huge stone slabs began giving away and falling some distance behind her.
"....aw crab apples."

Glancing up at the handle again she tried flapping her wings but got nowhere fast, it was all she could do to kick up a mini dust storm around her hooves.
"You can push a scooter with my friends on a wagon but you can't lift me a couple feet when I'm about to fall like a billion feet?!" She grimaced and shrugged off her saddle bag quickly, "there'd better be something useful in here or I'll one toast filly."
She shuffled through her old torn crusading cape, a couple apples and a broken handle of an ancient scooter before she stumbled on something that she was sure she had never packed. A small round vial that was about halfway full of a dark blue liquid.
"Huh? Didn't Zecora give this to..." shaking her head quickly she popped the cork off the top and looked at the liquid suspiciously, "who really cares how it got there, I'm a goner if I don't at least try!" She tilted it back and let a few drops fall onto her outstretched tongue then shuddered at its bitter taste.
At first she noticed nothing, it was like she'd bitten into a piece of tree bark, but after a couple seconds she felt her strength surge back, it was a huge rush of energy, like she hadn't even been adventuring all night.
The rumbling grew louder and she could see another slab fall away, just two pieces away from where she was.
Perspiration ran down her forehead and dripped into her eye, stinging it. She ignored the discomfort and set her gaze on the door handle once more.
"Alright door handle, time to meet your maker!" She bit her lip and started revving her wings up quickly.
"If I can't fly, then I'll just jump!"
After taking a couple steps back her wings were in full on scooter propelling mode and it was do or die, quite literally.
"HUP!" She ran at the door as fast and she could and leapt as hard as her legs would allow her. The door closed in quickly and she noticed that she was quite far below the door handle, flapping her wings as fast as possible she closed her eyes and prepared for the worst, but when no thud of hitting the ground came she opened them and looked down.
Much to her surprise and excitement she wasn't getting any closer to the ground, she wasn't getting any further up but that didn't matter right then.
"I'm flying?!" She looked over at her wings which were flapping in overdrive then noticed that while she wasn't quite "flying" she was in fact, hovering a couple feet above the ground.
The door handle was still a while above her and try as she might she couldn't seem to ascend any further, she stretched out a hoof and waved it at the handle, just out of reach.
"Dumb door!" She yelled, smacking the door with her hoof. There was a loud creaking noise and the door shuddered, then the handle fell off, rusty and broken. After a moment the door swung open without protest and Scootaloo fell through it in surprise.

"What in the hay?! Get offa me you varmit! I'll clobber you good!" A familiar voice caught her attention as she crashed onto something soft and warm.
"Applebloom?" Scootaloo shook her head and gave her eyes a moment to adjust after her crash.
"That's mah name, right under you." Applebloom rolled over and knocked her off quickly, brushing herself off.
"Now where in the name of Celestia did you come from?"
Scootaloo gave her friend a strange look and pointed behind herself, "that ribbon on your head too tight? I fell through that door, good thing too, I was about to fall a lot further!"
"Ah...wut door?"
"The big wooden one obviou- huh?" Scootaloo's eyes widened as she turned and saw that there was no door behind her at all. It didn't even look like she was in the same area even more, below her hooves was grass, and surrounding the two of them was a field. There was no stone floor or door to be seen for miles.
"Well I have no idea how I went from being in a castle to a field of grass, but thank Celestia I did."
They took a couple minutes to explain what exactly had happened to them, apparently Applebloom had just ended up wandering in that same black area for a bit then came out in this field, the strange thing was though, only a few minutes had passed by for her.
"I'm wonderin' though.... Didn't Zecora give that potion thingy to Sweetie Belle? How'd you end up gettin' it?"
"I have no idea, it totally weirded me out too! It was just in my saddle bag, hold on, I'll show ya."
Scootaloo tossed the bag off her shoulders again and dug through it, "huh?" She frowned then bit the bag and dumped its contents out, everything was still in there, except for the Vial.
"I know I didn't leave it behind, where could it have gone..."
"Who really knows with the things Zecora handles. I wouldn't be surprised if she used some sorta magic from her homeland on it or somethin'."
Together they packed up their stuff and started heading in the direction Applebloom was heading before getting landed on.
"I don't suppose you've seen anyone else? We're still short four fillies."
"Nope, just you when you crashed into me, hopefully they're somewhere on this field." Applebloom scanned their surroundings then tapped her hoof on the grass curiously. "Aren't we supposed to be...underground? How in the hay did we end up here of all places? Where is here?!"
"You got me, this whole place is all freaky and lame, I don't even understand what's really going on."
"Well the way I see it, this whole place is set up to be downright annoying, to keep out intruders an' the like."
"There's certainly enough traps and weirdo dimension breaking doors to go around, that's for sure."
"That means we can assume that whatever is at the end of this place, the thing that Luna wants is highly valuable."
"I plan on making it to the end too! I might not be able to fly properly yet but nothing is gonna stop me!"
With that, they picked up the pace with renewed vigor.

As they traveled through the verdant rolling hills of the plain the grass started giving way to larger and larger boulders that were stuck haphazardly in the ground, creating shapes that might have been monuments at one point in time, but years of weather damage had worn them down into indiscernible lumps of rock.
"At least its warm and peaceful here, that's a good sign...right?" Applebloom hopped up on a rock and scanned the horizon for any landmarks or living creature as Scootaloo kept trying her hardest to get her wings to lift her.
"I guess so... it's almost too quiet for me, you'd think we'd be able to hear like....birds or something."
"Pst!" A hiss came out of nowhere startling them both into action, "JUST TRY AND COME AT ME!" Scootaloo shouted putting both her front hooves up, ready for a fight, despite the tremor in her voice.
"Shut up you dork, you're gonna attract them!" They both looked up a tall rock and noticed a small crevice, after a moment a grey hoof poked out of the crevice and gestured for them to climb on up.
Once they reached the top they came face to face with Silver Spoon who was looking haggard and leery.
"You didn't see anything down there...did you?"
"We haven't seen nothing in forever...it's freaky."
"That's probably because there's nothing left here, that's alive that is."
Silver peeked out from the crevice and looked around quickly.
"There's these...things lurking about, I'm not sure what they are but they kind of look like shadows."
She pointed a hoof to a pile of black dust then kicked it angrily, "that was one of them, before I gave it the boot."
"You fought a...shadow?" Scootaloo turned her head and cocked an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Of course I did, I didn't want to die! Or get...shadowed, or whatever it is they wanted to do."
"Huh, I never took you as much of a fighter, way to go."
Silver Spoon blinked, taken aback, then almost smiled at the compliment but caught herself and cleared her throat before cleaning her glasses off distractedly.
"It was nothing, back when we were younger I used to have to defend Diamond from bullies from time to time, it came naturally."
"Bullies? Diamond? Never would've seen that coming." Scootaloo's voice dripped with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes but it was lost on Silver who was still adjusting her glasses.
"Oh you know, silly ponies who wouldn't accept her helpful criticisms, happens all the time."
"Riiiight...."
A sudden low scraping noise caught all three of their attentions and Silver Spoons eyes shot wide open, instantly alert.
She put a hoof to her mouth then peeked over the ledge and pointed at them to look.

Down below them they could see the creature that Silver had been speaking of. If they had to guess they thing was about as tall as Applebloom's older brother big Mac, completely black with no actual facial features, it walked on all fours like a pony but its front legs were far longer than its back ones, making it walk in a strange lurching fashion that oozed abnormal.
"Do not let it touch you, it has some weird magic that will sap your strength instantly. They're fragile though, any tough impact should shatter them."
"I got this" Applebloom winked then hopped down to the ledge below them, but still above the creature.
It stopped its slow walk and looked up at her right as she leapt from the ledge and her hoof outstretched in a judo kick "HIYAH!" Her hoof made contact with what would've been its face and the creature instantly exploded into a cloud of black dust.
"You ain't so tough!" The filly stomped her hoof in the dust pile then kicked it over.
"Look out Applebloom!" Scootaloo shouted from above, she pointed behind her friend where another creature was making its way slowly over to her. Without thinking she jumped from the high ledge and landed unsteadily then lowered her head and snorted loudly.
"Back off you creepy freaky thing!" She growled, narrowing her eyes. The creature stopped for a moment and she could have sworn she felt its eyes sizing her up, if it had any.
"Get outta here freak!" She closed her eyes then ran at it full speed, headbutting the thing as hard as she could, it exploded without resistance and she had to screech to a halt to keep from crashing headfirst into a wall.
Silver Spoon shouted loudly behind them and they turned to see another shadow monster bearing down on her, Silver was on the ground and the thing had its shifting shadowy claw on her side, draining her of what it could get. In an attempt to escape she rolled to the side, away from her assailant, and right off the ledge.
"Yikes!" Applebloom dashed forwards and caught the small filly on her back safely as Scootaloo bounded up the rocks and delivered a mighty kick to the creatures side, exploding it instantly.
"Here you go," She picked up Silvers glasses that had fallen off with her mouth and handed them over.
"T-thank you, both of you." Silver blushed and put her glasses on then looked down at the ground, "I guess i was more tired than i thought, one of them had already gotten me, I didn't even hear it coming."
"It was nothin' Just happy to help!" Applebloom beamed brightly then plopped herself down and sighed, "I do feel mighty tired though, who even knows how long its been since last night. I can't make head or hoof of this place."
As the three of them rested quietly a warm breeze picked up around them, tousling their manes and stirring up the remains of the strange creatures.
The wind seemed to draw in the dust and gather it, once they noticed what was happening they all turned to watch as the breeze carried the dust over to a wall, it spread it over the rock surface making the shape of a rounded entrance and with a loud crumbling noise the rock fell away revealing exactly that, an entrance.

"I reckon that was another one of them tests we've been doing." Applebloom bit into one of the apples Scootaloo had been carrying then poked her head into the entrance but didn't see anything. She walked around the rock and noticed that it was only about three feet wide, there was no way there could be a pathway past the entrance, but who knew what could happen where they were.
"Judging from what you two told me, it does seem that way. I guess we passed. Hopefully we can find the other three soon. I'm sure your friends aren't appreciating Diamonds company as much as they should be." Silver finished her apple and tossed the core aside then stood quickly.
"Ugh, I could just fall asleep right now and sleep for a week!" Scootaloo rolled over on her back and groaned, stretching her legs out sleepily.
"If we guess that the other three have all met up just like we did then chances are we're gunna be able to find them soon too. Then we'll all be together, we can't be too far from the end now." Applebloom nudged her friend roughly with a hoof making Scootaloo groan and stand up slowly.
"I guess, I still wanna sleep though."
Together they packed up their things into the saddlebags and entered the small cave that had opened.
The cave immediately went on further than the rock would normally allow but after all the strange things they had seen it didn't cause them to bat an eye.
It only took about five minutes of walking at a steady pace for some light to shine through ahead of them, an exit.
As they approached the other side they caught a glimpse of some tree's and grass.
"Looks like a clearing you would see inside of a forest." Silver Spoon stopped at the exit and looked around.
It was indeed a rather large clearing, the trees lined the grassy cove in a circle, blocking off entrance to the area, making it a Hollow.
"Oh wow! Look at that!" Scootaloo's eyes shot wide open and she dashed past them, eager to get closer to what she saw.
"Looks like we found the actual Hollow....finally. I hope the others are here already." Applebloom sighed happily and trotted after her friend.
"Indeed..." Silver Spoon kept looking around, an uneasy expression stuck on her face.
"I guess we have..."