The Timeless Hollow

The Pond

"Oh wow! Sweetie! Come and look at this!" Pip stopped abruptly about thirty feet ahead of Sweetie and Diamond as soon as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting in the Hollow and he could make out what lay in the center.
Laid out before the three of them nestled in the green grass was a pond. It's surface was glassy and calm, no wind made it into the Hollow to disturb the near mirror like appearance of the water.
Fireflies glittered around the pond which reflected their cheerful yellow and oranges colors, shimmering beautifully as a result. The bugs parted in their paths as the ponies approached then zoomed around their heads, completely comfortable with the company.
"This is so..." Sweetie walked up to the water and looked down at her reflection then fell silent, speechless at the beauty of the location.
"It's beautiful, simply beautiful," Diamond finished for her as she stood next to the white filly, eyes wide in wonder.
"This place hasn't seen real visitors in over a thousand years, but everything is still growing and thriving, despite how dark it is... totally a magical place!" Pip ran past them again and dipped a hoof into the water then yanked it out quickly, his eyes going wide.
"You ok?" Sweetie belle trotted up to him and gave him a concerned look but he returned the look with a wide grin, "actually... yeah! It's really warm, I just wasn't expecting that! It's like bath water."
Diamond walked around the other side of the pond and looked around, she couldn't really see anything other than the grass and tree's they were completely alone in the Hollow, as far as she could tell.
"Let's just find what it is that Luna wante-" She stopped mid sentence and looked down at the grass she was standing on, it seemed to be glowing brighter than it had been a couple minutes ago.
Both her companions stopped what they were doing and looked at her, then down at their hooves.
"um.... was the grass glowing like this a moment ago?" Sweetie lifted a hoof and shook it nervously.
"I don't.... think so?" Pip looked around at their surroundings quickly and noticed that all the grass was glowing a soft blue color now, the fireflies had vanished leaving them alone with the pond that had taken on a blue-ish hue now, reflecting the grass.

"What in the name of Celestia is going on here?" Sweetie belle scooted closer to Pip while Diamond rejoined them and together they huddled near the waters edge.
"Anyone else feeling sleepy all of a sudden?" Pip rubbed his eyes and yawned widely before his voice trailed off and he looked back at the two of them who gave him concerned looks.
"Not really...why?" Diamond cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at him, Pip just shrugged and yawned again in response then pointed at Sweetie, "your horn is glowing Sweetie."
"So it is!" Diamond exclaimed, looking at Sweetie's forehead as the filly reached a hoof up to touch it, "really? I didn't try to do any magic..."
Before she could say another word Pip yawned for a third time and flopped over on his side.
"Pip?!" Both of them ran to their friend who was now snoring softly in the grass.
"How could he just...fall asleep!?" Diamond poked him a couple of times with a hoof then sat down, looking scared.
"Probably some magical spell in this area, to keep intruders from doing anything Luna didn't want."
"Then how come it didn't affect us?"
Sweetie Belle sat down and tapped a hoof on the ground thoughtfully, "I'm not good at this sorta thing, Twilight would know in an instant, there's probably some weird magic at work or something.
"Like....that?" Diamond pointed back to Sweetie's horn which was still glowing a pale white color."
"Hmm like a natural defense against the magic? That'd explain why I'm not all zonked out now..."
Diamond's eyes caught something in the grass and she looked down at the area surrounding herself and Sweetie Belle, she noticed that the grass in their immediate area wasn't glowing anymore, just all around them, like they were surrounded by an invisible bubble.
"See that?" She pointed so that sweetie could see, "it's like that bubble thing Twilight can bring up to block people out, only yours seems to be protecting us from the magic."
"Poor Pip just couldn't stay next to us though, at least he's only asleep." Sweetie patted the colts head and he grumbled in his sleep before rolling over contently.

"OH WOW LOOK AT THAT!" A familiar hoarse voice interrupted the peaceful quiet of the Hollow causing both fillies to jerk with surprise and twist around to look in the direction of the noise.
"Scootaloo!" Sweetie belle leapt up from her sitting position and dashed over to her friend forcing Diamond to stumble awkwardly towards them in an attempt to not get left out of the bubble.
"I'm so glad that you're alright!" The white filly hugged her orange companion tightly and refused to let go even when Scoots groaned loudly in fake pain.
"oh man, you sap! lemme go, I wanna look around!"
"You can't!" Sweetie exclaimed, her voice cracking loudly, Scootaloo gave her a weird look then tried prying away from her again but Sweetie wouldn't budge.
"There's some weird spell in this place, if you don't stay near me then it'll put you to sleep, it already got Pip."
"Then what about Applebloom and Silver?" Scootaloo looked behind herself at the two other fillies who were following her more slowly.
"I don't know what's come over me, so...sleepy." Applebloom blinked slowly then looked over at Silver who had already laid down, "Agreed, it's so warm and nice here, perfect for a nap..."
Applebloom plopped down sleepily, put her head on Silvers back and that was that. Two more fillies fast asleep.
"Aww horsefeathers!" Scootaloo took a step back from Diamond and Sweetie but was careful about not leaving the bubble.
"What happened to you three? Boy do I have some stories to tell you guys what we've been up to!"
The three of them sat close to each other in the grass and began going over each of their adventures through the magical areas until all the stories had been told.
Scootaloo stood up and moved to the pond, looking down into the glassy water she said,
"So this must be the Hollow then....so, where's the treasure?"
"We don't know, we've only been here a couple of minutes ourselves, I haven't seen anything that looks like a treasure though, just this pond here."
Scootaloo continued to look into the water blankly, her eyes reflecting the beautiful blue water, "how can we be sure that the treasure isn't...in the water? like at the bottom."
Diamond and Sweetie looked at each other then moved to stand next to Scootaloo who pointed a hoof at the water, gesturing deeper.
The water was clear enough that they could kind of see the bottom of the pond, it was covered in brightly colored flowers and sand, nestled in the middle of it all was a shape, one that they couldn't quite make out.
"Think that's it?"
"It could be"
The two of them took off their saddlebags and placed them on the ground carefully as Diamond back off slightly,
"I don't know about you two dorks but I'm not one to go swimming in strange magical ponds that're probably hundreds of miles under the ruins of a creepy old castle."
Diamond Tiara wrinkled her nose at the very thought of diving into the water.
"We're gonna have to if we wanna find this object Luna wants, and you're gonna have to follow us, unless you wanna fall asleep for some shadow thing to find." Scootaloo smirked as the filly paled suddenly.
"No choice, for any of us. This is the last stop." Sweetie Belle took a deep breath then let one hoof sink into the lukewarm waters of the pond.

Pip wasn't exaggerating when he said the water was a lot like bath water, it was warm to the touch and had the slightest scent of lavender, the lapping noises it made as they waded through the shallow end was peaceful and lulling, had this place been anywhere else less dangerous it'd have been a great napping spot.
"Let's be careful now, we don't wanna just fall in or get attacked by some weirdo fish monster!" Scootaloo took the lead immediately, eager to appear brave.
"Don't get too far ahead of us Scoots," Sweetie warned nervously, "who knows what's out there."
"Psh, nothing we can't handle! I dare some fish monster to come at m- whoa!"
No sooner had she said that did she fall face first into the pond, with a loud sputter and the kicking of hooves she yanked her head up out of the water and gasped then looked around curiously, like something had surprised her.
"Scoots?" there was no response as the pegasus plunged her head into the water again and held it down there for a moment then lifted it slowly.
"WHOA! I can breathe underwater!"
"You feeling ok there dork?" Diamond furrowed her brow and bonked her on the head with a hoof. Scootaloo shook some water from her ears then pointed down at the water, "just try it! It's like Sweetie's little magic bubble let's us breathe underwater, I totally just did it when i fell in, took a big gulp but nothing happened, it was like breathing."
Without letting the other two test it out first Scootaloo grabbed both of them and went dead weight, dragging them underwater, into the deeper end of the pond.
"S-scootaloo!" Sweetie yelled loudly, struggling to escape her grip, "why'd you do that- hey! I can talk...underwater!"
Her eyes widened in amazement as Scootaloo grinned widely and let go, "I told ya!" This is so awesome!"

Thanks to the protective nature of Sweetie Belle's magic bubble not only could the three of them breath normally underwater but they could also speak normally, swimming was as easy as walking and thankfully there didn't seem to be any creatures living in the pond.
The underwater world was surreal though, sounds didn't travel all that well, in fact they couldn't hear much of anything outside of their own voices, everything looked a bit fuzzy and almost like it was blending in with the surroundings, like a painting that had gotten splashed with water before it was dry, everything blended together in a mishmash of colors.
Before long they reached the bottom of the pond and walked through the sand as they would dry land up above.
"Applebloom is gonna be so jealous of us! I can't wait to tell her about this." Scootaloo giggled excitedly as she kicked up sand and watched it spread out in the water instead of just dropped back down.
"Speaking of which, we should hurry, the last thing we want is for more of those horrible shadow things to show up while those three are sleeping up there." Diamond looked up at the surface nervously, obviously feeling a bit worried about Silver Spoon.
As they approached the strange object that they'd seen up above it revealed itself to be a statue that was mostly buried under the sad, only the head was visible and it showed that the statue was of Luna.
"Well....that's not treasure, it's a statue." Scootaloo floated up to the top of it and stood on top then shrugged.
"Astute observation there doofus, really helpful." Diamond snorted as she rolled her eyes.
"Hey! Don't call me that! What does that even mean?"
"She was being sarcastic Scoots, we can all see that it's a statue, but where's this thing we're supposed to be getting? I don't see anywhere else to go down here."
Sweetie Belle tried looking out further but the water made it really hard to see all that far, judging from the size of the pond from the surface though, there wasn't much else to explore.
As the other two looked around for clues Scootaloo sat down on Luna's stone head and kicked her hooves around in the water, enjoying how warm it was, she shifted her weight and felt something shift with her.
"Wuzzat?" She hopped off and floated above the statue looking down at where she had been sitting. After a moment she noticed something that didn't look stone.
The crown that was resting on the princess didn't appear to be made of stone at all, it was black and shiny. Like metal or something similar.
"Hrmmm" After a quick glance around Scootaloo reached down and grabbed the crown, with a bit of resistance the metal object struggled against her then popped off of the statue so suddenly that Scootaloo flew back in an underwater back flip.

The ground underneath Diamond and Sweetie rumbled softly causing them to stop their investigation and look around nervously.
"What'd you touch Scootaloo?"
Their friend stopped herself in mid flip and frowned, "what makes you think I had anything to do with...what wait?"
"The ground just shook, what'd you touch?"
"Probably whatever she's got in her nosy hooves there." Diamond pointed at the crown and Scootaloo held it out to them, "this was on the statue, it was shiny so i grabbed it."
"How...typical..."
Before they could say anything else the ground shook again and a torrent of bubbles flew up from the ground as the sand started shifting from the rumbling.
"Uh oh, this could possibly be my fault." Scootaloo grinned cheekily then ducked away from Diamond who swung at her.
"Of course its your fault you dunce!"
"Girls! Not now!" Sweetie Belle grabbed Scootaloo tightly then gestured for Diamond to joined them, "lets get out of the water before.... whatever is happening happens!"
More bubbles burst from the ground and the shaking continued making them swim as fast as their hooves would let them go.
Below them the sand started shifting and falling away from whatever was underneath it which was soon revealed to be stone. Large stone blocks started raising up through the water and as the three of them burst from the water with loud shouts of glee the entire pond erupted loudly with splashes and a huge wave of water rolled over them.

The ground kept shaking as the stone blocks broke the surface of the water along with the now crownless statue of Luna revealing a small little temple in the middle of the pond. In front of the small building was where the statue stood, Luna was standing on one leg with her other three raised in a pose befitting a regal princess.
One by one smaller stones floated to the top, creating a bridge from where the fillies had clambered out of the water back to the building.
Scootaloo shook herself off then looked over the crown to make sure it wasn't damaged then laughed happily, "maybe I helped this time! I mean, I got...whatever that is to come up right?! I bet there's treasure in there!"
She waited a moment then when here friends didn't respond she turned around slowly to look at them, "guys?"
Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara were behind her still but they were facing outwards, away from the pond, at the large number of shadow creatures who had began oozing out of the ground forming a large ring around the three fillies and their three sleeping friends.
"Aww ponyfeathers."