The Temple of Nightfall

It was dark. It was always dark; everywhere she went the darkness seemed to greet her. The light of her lantern barely pierced through the shadows as she made her way through the tomb. Alone, in a horrible tomb filled with Celestia knows what. How did she manage to get herself into this situation? The thought swirled around in her head as she looked around the tomb, the shadows moving across the walls in reaction to her lantern. They had an almost unnatural feeling about them, it wasn’t darkness like you get when the sun goes down. No, the darkness here evoked feelings of dread, her heart thumped in her chest and she found herself breathing heavily as she moved through the hallways leading to the inner chamber. At least, that’s where she hoped they would lead her; she didn’t want to think about being lost. The sandy brown colored pegasus moved ever deeper into the tomb, through one hallway after another, anxiety building every second she was in that place.

After what seemed like an eternity, she reached a large door with a symbol of the moon on it. She looked over it, then at the stone slabs in front of it. She had read about traps being placed to kill grave robbers in university, the thought of her being crushed by a boulder out of the blue made her stomach churn. Besides the moon, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and with a deep breath to calm her nerves, she hesitantly approached the door. Carefully, she inspected the moon on the door. It was a crescent moon, carved into the stone that made the door. She admired the work they put into the carving, the tomb appeared to have been built by earth ponies, so it was no easy feat to create this. “There must be some way to open it, a crescent moon…what does a crescent moon have to do with this?” she sighed in frustration as she scanned the hallway around her leading up to the door. She giggled to herself, “Heh, who am I talking to? There’s nopony here…oh well.” In a moment of pure absent mindedness, she leaned on the door. As her weight was pushed on it, the door simply fell and slammed into the ground shattering with a horribly loud noise. The pegasus cringed as the sound echoed through the tomb. “At least nopony saw that…” she laughed nervously as she looked down at the fragments of the door. Satisfied that no traps were triggered from her carelessness, she started moving down into the room through the doorway.

A dim glow danced across the smooth stone of the tomb from the light of her lantern as she moved into the inner chamber. A feeling of triumph filled her as she entered it, but that feeling was quickly snuffed out as a horrible growl echoed across the walls of the tomb. The pegasus felt her blood run cold at the sound of it, and quickly took her lantern off her vest, and blew it out. The sound of claws scraping against stone filled her mind as she moved with a surreal sense of calm into a corner. She felt her heart pounding again as she heard the sounds coming closer. One thought out of many recurred in her mind as she waited for what seemed to be her inevitable demise. “Daring Do, how did this happen? What did you do to get caught up in this?” As she huddled in the corner, the source of the horrible sounds entered the room. It’s horribly disfigured eyes spotted the pegasus, and it rushed towards her. The only thing Daring could think to do as the creature attacked was to close her eyes and hope that she wouldn’t feel anything.

Suddenly, the sounds were gone, replaced by the light hum of a fan and birds chirping. Daring opened her eyes slowly; sweat covering her face as she looked around. The fan rested on her dresser by her bed as it blew cool air onto her face. The air felt comforting after the horrid dream she just experienced. Sounds of her parents chatting in the living room served to bring her back to reality. “What a dream”, Daring sighed as she got up out of bed and moved across her room, careful to avoid stepping on the plethora of ancient history books and novels that were strewn across the floor. She entered her bathroom and closed the door behind her. Still uneasy from her dream; she trotted over to the shower and turned on the water. After a few seconds to let the water warm up, she entered the shower and pulled the curtain. The hot water pouring over her felt divine and her muscles relaxed as she enjoyed herself. “I’ve never had a dream like that…it felt so real.” Daring frowned at the thought of that, she really felt like she was there in the dream. She shook her head and cleared the thoughts away, “Come on Daring, don’t let a stupid dream get you down, no matter how real it felt, a dream is a dream. It’s not real. You got an important meeting with your professor today.” Feeling like her old self again, she proceeded to finish washing up.

After her shower, she dried off and went to pick out a vest from her closet. As she looked through a wide assortment of clothes, she found several dresses her mom had given her. She was never into dresses; her magenta eyes rolled at the memories of her mom making her wear them to high school dances. They felt cumbersome on her, and were a pain to fly in. Of course her parents wouldn’t know anything about flying, they were earth ponies. She had a lot more in common with her aunt when it came to pegasus things; her aunt was the one to teach her how to fly and she was always there to give advice when Daring needed it. Her father was a lawyer, so he was usually busy and when he wasn’t, he was tired. Her mother was an agent for some DJ, Daring never cared enough to inquire for his or her name. The two of them had very little time for things a young mare was troubled with, even if she was their daughter. Daring came to terms with that long ago, and simply accepted it. She knew her parents loved her, and that was enough. After a short debate between two vests, she settled on a jet black one and slipped into it. The black complimented her grayscale colored mane, and made her eyes stand out as she admired herself in the mirror of her bathroom. With one final stretch to get her ready for the day, she headed out into the living room to greet her parents.

As Daring entered the living room, she heard the sound of her fathers voice speaking quickly to somepony. Daring trotted through the living room and into the kitchen, doing her best not to make any noise just in case her father was on the phone, which turned out to be the case. Her mother smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek as she left for work, Daring returned the smile and went to open the pantry. After a light breakfast of cereal and listening to her father speak to who she presumed to be a client, she set her bowl in the sink and started to head out. As Daring went to leave however, her father motioned for her to wait. Curious, she sat down on one of the three couches they had in the living room as her father finished. Minutes past, and finally her father set down the phone. He then trotted over and sat on a couch across from Daring. She stared at her dad, anxious for him to explain what he wanted. His long black mane and gray coat gave him an imposing presence, but his red eyes sealed the deal. Her father met her gaze, "I was speaking to one of your professors, he said you have some sort of event coming up?" The tone of his voice sounded worried, something Daring did not expect. "Yeah, he said he was going to have me come along for a visit to a site, I am not certain on the exact location but I figure i'll be gone for a month at least." Her father tapped his hoof on the couch for a few moments, then, got up and trotted over to Daring. To her surprise, her father hugged her. "Be careful when you go okay? You will be with the university, so I am sure you are in good hooves, but, don't do anything stupid okay?" Her father pulled away, and Daring could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She choked out the words, her voice shaky, "Ill be careful dad, don't worry about me." Her father smiled at her then looked at the clock, quickly he gathered up his suitcase in his mouth and mumbled "Have a nice day" as he headed out the door.

With a sigh, Daring recomposed herself and headed for the door a few minutes after her father left. With a full  stomach and the affection of her mother and father reinforced in her, she was in good spirits. After exiting the house she stretched quickly and took off into the skies towards the university. As she flew, many thoughts roamed through her head. Her parents, the coming trip, and that horrible dream that still lurked at the back of her mind.