The Next Day

Jason grabbed the edge of the rock face and pulled himself up until he could roll over and reach the plateau. He panted for breath from the exertion for a few moments before rolling back over to the edge and offering a helping hand to Eddie as he climbed up below him.

Eddie gratefully took the offered hand and pulled himself up onto the plateau as well. Once they were both together, Jason and Eddie offered their hands to Mike, who quickly pulled himself up as well. Rebecca followed behind, with Sky ferrying Midnight and Tempest up the last bit of height since they couldn't quite maintain a proper grip on the side of the mountain. Once they were all up together, the group took a minute to catch their breath, and take in the surrounding atmosphere.

"Welp... we finally made it." Mike said, eyeing the large cave entrance just ahead.

"Yeah... Now we just need to walk through there for like... twenty miles or some shit... how far was it again, Jay?" Eddie asked, turning to Jason.

"Hell, Ed... I don't remember right now... we're just gonna walk until we get to the end." Jason replied, catching his breath.

"Heh, fair enough." Eddie laughed.

"Well, on the bright side, we know how far it is to Ponpei from the other side of the cave." Midnight chimed in.

"Oh yeah? And how far is that?" Mike rebutted.

"Twenty four miles." Midnight said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay." Mike sarcastically replied.

"We're almost through most of the difficult part... Once we get to Ponpei, it's just sailing a boat for the rest of the journey." Tempest offered.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it smooth sailing from there on out since we're gonna be on a boat for like... three months. Seriously, why couldn't Tia get us an airship?" Sky shook his head.

"There aren't any left in service at the moment. The Storm King's army had the most airships in the entire continent but after he was defeated, crews started abandoning them and letting them rot. It would take months for Equestria to make one and get it over to Ponpei, and taking one from the start would've only taken longer than our original plan." Tempest replied, matter-of-factly.

"Well what about one of those civilian ones? I remember Twilight took one with her family not too long ago." Midnight asked.

"Again, too slow. Those are meant for cruising, not for high speed. Honestly, the actual boat we're supposed to have waiting for us is going to be faster than one of those air ships." Tempest shook her head.

"Well, we're not gonna get anything done by sitting up here talking about air ships all day. Come on guys, let's get inside this cave. I'm freezing my ass off up here." Jason spoke up as he got to his feet.

Mike, Eddie, and Rebecca quickly followed his lead and got to their feet while Sky, Midnight, and Tempest got to their hooves. Once he was sure everyone was ready and good to go, Jason made way for the cave entrance, finding the looming overhang to give off just a tiny bit of an ominous presence as he entered. One by one they followed into the darkness of the cave, finding that despite the ceiling being well over thirty feet high, light barely made it into the dark expanse of the interior, and only darkness lingered as the group proceeded.

"Man... sure is dark in here." Mike said, eyeing the walls as if they were going to close in around him.

Mike stared ahead, and felt his stomach grow hollow at the sight of the blackness in front of him.

“That’s… the least inviting thing I’ve ever seen...” Rebecca announced.

"Midnight, Tempest, can you two get us any light in here?" Jason asked.

"I... can... but it'll be pretty unstable... It'd be more of a sparkly firecracker than a reliable source of light." Tempest admitted.

"That's alright, Tempest. I got this." Midnight replied, igniting her horn and bringing a pale blue light to the cave.

Immediately, the dark rock walls were illuminated, and the way ahead became more and more clear. With a better view ahead, the group proceed forwards through the long expanse of the cave. As they progressed further in however, strange paintings showed up on the walls, and the further inwards they went, the darker and stranger the shapes became. Faded colors mixed and played together clearly displaying that time had taken its toll.

Mike walked over to the nearest wall and eyed it suspiciously. What appeared to be a four legged stick figure equine with a spear in one of its hooves stood tall and proud above dozens more smaller stick figure equines. Behind the tallest one, there was a half crescent circle, although the color had long since faded from the wall, leaving a strange question in his mind as to what exactly it was supposed to represent.

The painted ponies stood in grotesque figures around the standing pony. Further away, the figures twisted and turned, forming irregular, almost unrecognizable shapes. They laughed and played while barring the faces of cruel children. The swirls eventually became unrecognizable as it edged further out, forming shapes and patterns on a purely abstract level - Colors splotched with colors.

“It’s…” Mike trailed off.

“It’s what?” Rebecca asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s… plain straight evil.” Mike muttered, shrugging.

Dark blues spilled from a pale white moon. The colors poured down to fields of fleeing ponies. Looks of terror and grief filled their faded faces. The dark blue viscous color consumed them, leaving the others to run. The color showed no mercy. Children, elderly, earth pony, pegasus, unicorn, alicorn, all of them drowned in it; the rest only ran. Mike's eyes followed their direction, and saw where they led to, and let out a long, low whistle.

A white pony with a rainbow mane and tail awaited them, attempting to hold out her hoof, but she adorned a pained grimace, as though crying out for help to the other ponies doing the same.

Ssenkaew si Ycnedneped

Etulosba si rewop.

The ponies nearest what was clearly Celestia looked up in awe at the figure spearing Celestia through the barrel.

Blue as the color spilling out from the moon, She stood on her hind legs with a smile as wide and as joyful as a shark tearing through its prey. Her wings spread, and the faded feathers molded and twisted into darker shades of blue and black and small hints of orange. It swirled and spread across the remainder of the cave wall. The colors slipped and slid between each other in a dance of chaos and order. The colors spread to drown out everything - all of it culminated to a part of cave wall that held no discernible shape - no recognizable symbol. Colors splashed on colors in swirls and swipes to create a vision, not of an idea, or a message, but an emotion: hatred.

The colors swirled in hateful and angry patterns; all of it faded with time.

"This place is creeping me out..." Mike muttered, turning away from the painting.

“Well we're not gonna get out of here by staring at the wall." Jason said.

"Right... we should keep moving." Tempest mentioned, following behind.

The group gave a unanimous sign of agreement and proceeded onward.

"Hey, uh... Midnight?" Mike asked.

"Yes?"

"Do, uh... do you know how this cave was made? And why?" He questioned, his gaze still locked on the wall.

"Hmm... If I remember right, this cave was made by the Children of Nightmare over a thousand years ago." Midnight said, tapping her chin in thought.

"The... Children of... Nightmare?" Mike hesitantly asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Basically they were a cult following of Nightmare Moon. Their ideas and philosophy were centered around her being the one true queen of Equestria, and trying to bring an eternal night over the planet. Basically a bunch of psycho cultists." Midnight explained with a shrug.

"Uh huh... and... Nightmare moon is..." Mike said, motioning for her to explain.

"She was Princess Luna... or rather, Princess Luna turned into her over a thousand years ago. Once she came back from her banishment to the moon, Twilight and her friends turned her back into Luna, and she's been ruling by Celestia's side ever since."

"Right, right. So if I'm getting this right, which I'm sure I'm not, she turned evil, was banished to the moon, then came back, and now she's a princess again?" Mike surmised, looking more puzzled than ever.

"I know our willingness to forgive might seem like a weakness, but overall, it's made us stronger as a species." Midnight replied, causing a small blush to form on Tempest's face.

"Well... If you're sure... As for the cultists?" Mike replied.

"No idea. I haven't heard of them doing anything for almost a thousand years, so I imagine they just kinda died off. That's probably why Twilight didn't even mention it. Not many ponies even know they existed." Midnight shrugged.

"And we're just waltzing into their sacred little cave, probably disturbing some ancient ghosts or some shit in the process like the retarded protagonists to some bad horror flick." Mike grumbled as he tightened his grip on his machine gun just a tad.

"Mike, you're being paranoid again. Just relax. No one's lived in this cave for about a thousand years." Eddie chimed in, rolling his eyes.

"Here's hoping you're right." He replied.

The group progressed further into the cave, finding more and more paintings on the wall, causing a pit to slowly form in all of their stomachs. Depictions of the stick figure ponies sacrificing each other to bring back Nightmare moon littered a portion of the wall almost one hundred feet long, and as they went from picture to picture, the sacrifices only grew more and more gruesome.

"I think they straight up ripped this one's head off..." Rebecca said, pointing out a particularly barbaric picture.

"Let's just not get too focused on what's not important. Stop looking at the walls and keep moving forward." Jason ordered, feeling a chill crawl up his spine.

The group walked for what could have been a mile. It was difficult to tell in the darkness of the cave and without any kind of reference, but eventually, they arrived at what appeared to be a large cave-in. Rocks stacked all the way to the ceiling blocked their path and prevented the group from traveling any further.

"Well... this is a predicament." Tempest mused.

"I don't suppose you have enough C4 left over to blow this shit away, Ed?" Jason commented.

"No chance in hell. There's gotta be... fifty tons of rock here. I'd need a thousand pounds of C4 just to make a dent in it." Eddie replied, shaking his head.

"Well... what do we do now? I mean, going around the mountain will set us back days at the least." Sky chimed in.

"Is there a way around it?" Mike asked.

"Not that I'm seeing... Midnight, could you give us a little more light?" Jason inquired.

"Yeah, here." Midnight replied, pushing more magic into her horn and filling the surrounding area with enough light to properly see from one side of the cave to the other.

"You know, for a group of cultists, you have to admire their architecture." Eddie thought aloud as he looked at the arch of the ceiling.

"Not what we're here for, Ed," Jason chuckled, "Alright, look around for a passage around this blockage. If we can't find anything, then we'll have to turn around and figure something out. Going across the mountain on the outside is gonna be a pain in the ass and set us back a while, and that's time we just might not have.

The group spread out over the area and searched for any signs of a passageway through the cave-in. Jason, Tempest, and Eddie took the left side of the cave while Mike, Rebecca, and Sky took the left side. Midnight simply stayed in place, providing much needed light to the rest of the group while they searched their respective areas.

"Hey guys! I think I found something!" Mike called out, getting the groups attention.

Everyone quickly rushed over to Mike's position to find a hole in the wall no taller than three feet high and two feet wide. It appeared to be a small tunnel leading further into the cave.

"Welp... Is now a bad time to mention that I'm claustrophobic?" Sky said, gulping nervously.

"You'll be alright," Jason replied, before addressing the group as a whole, "Alright, here's what we're gonna do: Ed, you'll take point into the cave. Midnight will be right behind you giving us the light we need, and I'll be right behind her. Then Sky, Rebecca, Tempest, and Mike will bring up the rear in that order. We're going to take this slow. Weapons hot." He ordered.

Immediately, Mike unslung his Machine gun and pulled the handle back, charging the weapon and loading a round. Eddie, Rebecca, and Jason all shouldered their rifles and pointed them at the hole.

"Wish my red dot still worked..." Eddie sighed.

"We'll have to go irons for this. I know you can't hit shit with those, but in cave this size? You'll be fine." Jason said, smirking.

"Last time I checked, I had the top shot spot out of basic." Eddie fired back.

"With a red dot and magnifier." Jason shrugged.

Eddie chuckled, "Yeah, well it's not like you were any better. Come on, let's go check this hole."

With that, Eddie crouched down just low enough to fit into the cave and crawled inside. Midnight quickly followed behind him, with Jason coming in a second behind her. The rest of the group hastily followed them inside, and within a minute, they disappeared into the darkness.

Eddie kept his rifle pointed straight ahead in the cave as he crawled through. The light from Midnight's horn was able to light up the surrounding walls easily, however, rocks jutting out on both sides cast shadows that lingered and possibly hid the presence of someone, or something in the recesses of the walls. Keeping all this in mind, Eddie crawled ahead painfully slowly, and whenever he came up to a possible corner, he quickly swept the wall with his rifle, just to be sure. Over and over this continued, until he started to sweat from the effort of crawling for so long.

"Jesus... how fucking long is this thing?" Eddie asked, squinting to see if there was any end in sight.

"No idea, man. Just keep pushing. It can't be too much farther," Jason replied, before turning around to the rest of the group, "Hey guys, how're you holding up?"

"Ah, you know... shitty." Was Mike's response from the back.

"Good enough for me." Jason replied.

Eddie continued to lead the group onward through the small cave for another hundred feet or so, before he paused, and held up a fist, signaling Jason to hold the group. Jason instantly reacted and halted the group, before leaning over a confused Midnight and whispering.

"What do you see?" He asked.

"It's not what I see... it's what I hear. Listen." Eddie replied.

Jason focused his attention on his ears and listened as intently as he could. Sure enough, after a few seconds, a faint sound reached his ears. He couldn't quite discern what it was, although it sounded almost rhythmic with its cadence.

"Okay... I hear it..." Jason whispered.

"What is that?" Midnight asked, her voice also a whisper.

"I don't know... but I don't like it," Jason replied before looking back up to Eddie, "Alright, take it slow, and be ready."

"Roger that." Eddie replied before turning back around and slowly crawling ahead.

Jason waved the rest of the group forward, and albeit with even more hesitation as before, they proceeded forward. As they covered more and more ground, one thing became apparent, the sounds echoing through the cave were growing louder, and soon enough, the entire group could hear them. Eddie fought the growing pit in his stomach as he progressed, and the unidentifiable noise soon turned into something that made him pause again.

"What's the holdup?" Jason asked, once more leaning over Midnight and eyeing Eddie with concern.

"You hear that?" Eddie asked.

Jason listened closely again, and once more, the sound echoed through his ears.

"Holy shit..." He whispered.

"It... sounds like chanting... Jay, I think that cult might not be as dead as we thought it was..." Eddie replied.

"Okay... okay, okay... Keep going, slowly. Midnight, get behind me, and tell Rebecca to push up one. Ed, keep your gun on the left, I've got the right." Jason instructed.

Midnight quickly backed up and squeezed past Jason until she was in front of Sky. Once there, she whispered into his ear, and he in turn whispered back to Rebecca. She hesitantly scooched past him and took her spot behind Midnight. Once they were all situated, Jason re-shouldered his rifle and took his position just to Eddie's right and slightly behind him.

"Alright, we do this just like that raid on Cliptus." Jason whispered.

"Got it." Eddie replied.

With their security set up, Eddie and Jason crawled forward with the rest of the group closely trailing behind them. Midnight intensified the light of her horn just enough to give them a decent amount of lighting with two humans in front of her instead of just one, and kept her positioning just a foot behind Jason. For a few minutes, they continued onward in silence. The sound of chanting slowly rose and rose as they grew closer, and before long, they were able to make out what was actually being said.

"Ecifircas! Ecifircas! Ecifircas!" The voices chanted.

Jason and Eddie both held up the group once they were close enough to clearly hear them, before turning back to Midnight.

"Midnight, any idea on what they're saying?" Jason asked.

"I... I have no idea. I've never heard that language before... Maybe they made their own after a thousand years of isolation?" She suggested.

"Alright... Pass this down to Sky and Tempest: If things go sideways, cover your ears." Jason instructed.

"What? Why?" Midnight asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Just trust me. We're probably all gonna be deaf if we have to shoot in here, so we're gonna need someone to keep their hearing." Jason explained.

"O-Okay..." Midnight responded, before turning back toward Rebecca and passing the message along.

Once he was sure every pony down the line had received the message, Jason turned back to Eddie and tapped his shoulder. Eddie pressed forward without a word, with Jason retaking his position at his back-right. They progressed further into the cave for another dozen or so feet before a left turn appeared, and the way in front ended with a sharp corner. Eddie held his angle on the corner while Jason slowly crawled around him and pied the corner. Once it was cleared, he motioned for Eddie to move up.

Once they were side by side again, Jason took the lead down another cave, with Eddie coming up on his back-left. They continued like this for a hundred feet before they saw a faint red light at the end of the cave. Jason held up a fist to halt the group once more before turning back around to Midnight and motioning for her to extinguish her horn. She quickly got the message, and cut off the light spell, reducing the back of the group to darkness. Once the light was out, Jason moved forward with Eddie until they reached the end of the cave, finding yet another corner. Just like before, as one held their angle, the other pied the corner, and they moved up together.

They continued forward another few feet until they finally came to the end of the cave, and saw the source of light ahead. Jason's eyes went wide as he looked down on what could only be described as a sacrificial altar, surrounded by flames, and no fewer than three hundred ponies, all bowing and chanting.

"Ecifircas! Ecifircas! Ecifircas!" They cried.

At the top of the altar, stained with blood, stood a taller, pale white pony, with a skull on his head. On his back, was what appeared to be a cape of some sort, only it was covered in depictions of Nightmare Moon savagely murdering Celestia and devouring her corpse. Jason and Eddie both shared a look.

"You know, as far as evil cults go, they're not too far off the mark." Eddie whispered.

Jason leaned forward far enough until he could look straight down, and saw a sight that made him sweat. Bright red lava oozed around the altar, and the surrounding area seemed to be heated from the volcanic heat building up within the mountain.

"Great... This mountain is a god damned volcano..." Jason muttered.

He glanced back up at the pony cultists to find them bringing in a chocolate colored mare from the back of the room. Tear stains were clearly visible on her coat, and she trembled with every step forward. The two cultists poking her with spears to make her move forward did nothing to console her.

"Fucking hell..." Eddie whispered, "Jay... they're gonna kill her."

"Nothing we can do about it. We need to keep moving and get out of here." Jason replied, turning to head back to the rest of the group, only to be stopped by Eddie grabbing his arm.

"Jay, we can't just let her die." Eddie protested.

"I don't want her to die any more than you do, Ed, but we can't take on an entire cult with just the seven of us. Besides, I'm not risking anyone for a random cult pony that just got unlucky today." Jason shrugged off Eddie's hand.

Eddie only forcefully grabbed his arm once more, pulling him back.

"She's not with them. Look at her. The cultists are all wearing some kind of hooded cloaks, and they're all painted black." Eddie pointed out.

Jason slowly looked back at the group of cultists to find that their coats were indeed colored black, and they wore hoods that covered the majority of their faces. As he looked, the voice of the sacrificial mare quickly reached his ears as she cried out.

"Please! Just let me go! I... I don't want to die! Please, I'll do anything!" She cried, before being savagely smacked with the blunt end of a spear.

Jason cringed at the scene before Eddie looked to him again.

"And she speaks English. They don't. Jason... We can't just let her die." Eddie reasoned.

Jason ground his teeth for a moment before sighing.

"We don't even have any ROE for this kind of situation, and Celestia sure as hell didn't give us permission to go shooting ponies the first chance we get." He argued.

"You look at her right now and tell me that you honestly believe Celestia wouldn't give us the green light to save that pony's life without hesitation." Eddie shot back.

Jason glanced back at the chocolate mare in question and frowned. Tears streamed down her cheeks while her entire body trembled in fear. Bluish bruises shown through her coat all along her barrel, and blood dripped from an untended cut just above her eye. Jason bit his lip before turning back around and fixing Eddie with a frustrated look.

"Since when did you become the hero type?" He asked, shaking his head.

"Let's just say that Bellruse did a number on all of us. Come on, we've got maybe two minute before she's getting her heart ripped out and the dude up there eats it." Eddie replied.

Jason sighed again, "I hate when you're right."

He quickly crawled back to the group with Eddie following close behind. Once they found Midnight, Jason whispered for her to get Mike and Rebecca over to him. With some finagling, Mike and Rebecca quickly made their way over to Jason.

"Alright, here's the situation: Evil cultists are about to sacrifice an innocent pony. We're gonna stop it. We've got less than a minute to get this done and there's lava on the ground. Eddie and I will take point and bound up to her position. Mike, you're up on the ledge providing fire support. Rebecca, you're with Midnight, Sky, and Tempest. Protect them at all costs. If things go south, head back out the way you came and don't wait for us." Jason quickly instructed.

"Are you fucking serious?" She questioned.

"Deadly." Was the immediate response she received.

Rebecca hesitantly made her way back over to the ponies while Mike, Eddie, and Jason moved to take their positions.

"What's going on?" Midnight asked.

"They're going to try to save a pony from the cultists. Uh... Just, be ready. We might have to run out the way we came if things go bad." Rebecca replied.

"They're gonna need help." Tempest spoke up.

"No, we need you here watching our backs. Besides us, you're really the only combatant here. If something or someone comes up the rear, we need you protecting it." Rebecca shook her head.

Tempest moved to speak, but bit her tongue, and sighed. Sky placed a comforting hoof on her wither and gave a small smile.

"Hey, don't worry. He'll be fine." He said.

"I hope you're right." Tempest replied.

Jason crawled out from the small cave entrance and into the larger sacrificial cave with Eddie coming up right behind him. Once they both reached the edge of the ledge, Jason glanced down at the pool of lava below once more and shook his head.

"Got any ideas on how to get past the lava?" He whispered.

"Just one." Eddie said before moving back to the entrance to get a running start.

"You've gotta be shitting me..." Jason muttered.

"Wish I was." Eddie shrugged.

Jason shook his head before moving over to Eddie's side.

"Til' Valhalla?" Jason said, holding out a fist.

"Til' Valhalla." Eddie replied, bumping Jason's fist.

Just before they were about to go for it, Mike popped his head out from the cave entrance with his machine gun at the ready.

"Alright, you want me to set up... here?" Mike asked as Jason and Eddie broke into a sprint and jumped off the ledge.

They soared through the air for a good twenty feet before clearing the lava and tumbling down to the ground ten feet below. Jason somersaulted into a kneeling position with his rifle aimed and at the ready while Eddie rolled onto his stomach and took a prone position, his rifle also aimed toward the cultists. To their surprise, none of the pony cultists even spared them a glance. The volume of their chanting was so loud now that they couldn't even here the two humans landing behind them.

"Ecifircas! Ecifircas! Ecifircas!"

Mike facepalmed at the sight in front of him before moving over to the edge of the ledge and taking a prone position with his machine gun. He flipped the bipod open and rested it on the ground while pulling the buttstock into his shoulder and aiming at the group of cultists. He quickly spotted the chocolate coated mare as she was forced onto the alter by her two escorts. A frown quickly formed on his face as he saw the pure horror in her eyes, and he gripped the pistol-grip of his weapon so tightly that his knuckles turned white as the cultist leader ignited his horn and pulled a knife out of a scabbard behind the alter.

"Sarge, whatever you guys are gonna do, you'd better do it fast..." Mike muttered as he aimed at the cultist leader.

Meanwhile, Jason and Eddie moved up one by one, taking full advantage of the cultist's distraction to take the most tactically advantageous positions available. Eddie found a rock just a dozen feet behind the crowd that was barely large enough to hide his body from sight while Jason took his position behind a pillar overlooking the crowd. With their weapons trained on the cultist leader, they both took a deep breath, and flicked their fire selectors from 'safe' to 'semi'.

"P-please! I don't wanna die!" The mare screamed as she was forced onto her back on the alter.

The blade magically levitated over her stomach and came to a perfect hover just above her heart. Her breathing became erratic, and she struggled against the two cultists holding her down, in a vain attempt to free herself as the blade came ever closer.

"Noitavlas fo htap suoethgir eht otno kcab su dael dna ,su ot nruter lliw ehs taht sepoh eht ni nigriv lufituaeb siht ecifircas ew ,Noom Eramthgin ,ytsejam reh fo yrolg eht rof!" The leader shouted, and the chanting stopped.

The blade quickly drew up until it was a foot above her chest, and the chocolate mare let out a terrified whimper as she closed her eyes and looked away. In that split second, a sound akin to lightning ricocheted through the sacrificial chamber, deafening every pony present, and making her gasp and reopen her eyes. The sight of the knife falling from its magical hold and clanging against the table, filled her eyes as the cultist leader fell away, blood spilling from his neck. Before she could even react, another roar of deafening proportions ripped through the air, although rather than a split second, the sound continued on with only a microsecond of a break between deafening roars, and she quickly clamped her hooves over her ears, lest they bleed from the sheer volume of the sound echoing through the air.

She shut her eyes in fear as shouting and even more lightning danced around the room in a deafening display of volume so loud, she thought an explosion was going off in her ear every hundredth of a second. Tears streaked from her now tightly shut eyes as the horrible sounds only grew louder, and closer, and even with her hooves tightly clamping her ears back against her skull, the sheer volume was enough that she was sure her ears were bleeding. Over and over again, the catastrophic roar of thunderous explosions ripped though the air and echoed throughout the room, turning her legs to jelly and forcing her to scream out, just to hear something other than that painful cacophony of horrible sound.

Then, without warning, it stopped. Her body still shaking from the onslaught of decibels, she held her position, with her ears covered, and her eyes tightly shut while the tears continued to stream out.

"Hey! Are you okay?!"

She blinked.

"Hey!"

With painful hesitation, she opened her eyes. She was laying on her side, still shaking, but the noise was gone, and she couldn't see any more cultists. Then, just as her wits came back to her, a foreign feeling gripped at her wither and shook her. She immediately closed her eyes and tried to stay as motionless as possible.

Just play dead. Just play dead. They might go away... Please, Celestia let them go away! She thought to herself.

Still, the shaking continued, until eventually, she was roughly yanked over onto her back. She let out a fearful yelp, before shaking like a leaf and fearfully opening her eyes once more.

Jason looked down at the petrified mare with his rifle pointed toward the ceiling in his free hand, the suppressor still smoking from the sheer volume of round he'd fired.

"Hey! Look at me! We're gonna get you out of here, but you need to stay with us! Can you walk!?" He shouted, his hearing long since reduced to a painful ringing sensation.

"Uh..." Was all she managed to say before Eddie ran up the altar. She went rigid at his appearance before he patted Jason on the shoulder.

"Hey! We gotta go! Mike's getting the rest of the group now!" Eddie shouted, his hearing also gone.

"Right!" Jason replied before shaking the mare again, "Look! If you don't wanna die, then follow us! And whatever you do, don't fall behind!"

The mare shook violently from the yelling and overall stress of the situation, before giving a hesitant nod and getting to her hooves. She immediately gasped and shrunk away in fear as she saw the scene of carnage below.

"Hey!" Jason shouted again, getting her eyes on him once more, "You don't look at them, alright! You look at me, and you stay close!"

She quickly nodded and kept her gaze pointed at him as he stepped down from the alter. She quickly followed behind, nearly tripping on the bodies of the cultists strewn about all over the room. Eddie took up his spot behind her, and kept his rifle pointed up as he scanned for any more of the cultist ponies. Soon enough, they were just outside the sacrificial ground littered with dead bodies and standing in what appeared to be some kind of entrance way into the rest of the cave system.

"Sarge!" Mike shouted, getting the mare to yelp in surprise and wrap her hooves around Jason's leg in a panic.

Jason glanced down at her before looking toward Mike and the rest of the group as they quickly made their way over to meet up with them.

"You weren't kidding when you said to cover our ears." Midnight said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"What!?" Jason shouted.

"Oh, right. You're good!" Midnight shouted back, before looking down at the terrified mare with her eyes tightly closed, "Hey, you're okay now. What's your name?"

Midnight walked up to the chocolate mare and placed a hoof on her wither. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the graphite mare, before a wide smile broke out on her face, and she threw her hooves around Midnight's withers, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Oh thank Celestia! I-I'm Melody..." She cried, more tears spilling out as she hugged Midnight as tightly as she could.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you at all?" Sky asked, taking his place at her side.

Melody released her death hug on Midnight to look up at the crimson stallion for a moment before pulling him into a hug too.

"N-not too bad... these... these creatures saved me..." She said, looking up at Jason and Eddie while they continued to aim their rifles at the doorway.

"They're humans. They're friends, and they're all here to help." Tempest spoke up, giving a friendly smile.

Melody seemed to relax some at Tempest's words, before Rebecca stepped forward and spoke up.

"We can't stay here. We need to keep moving," She said, getting most of the groups attention.

"Hold on, I think they missed one." Sky replied, glancing at the alter.

At the alter in question, the cultist leader slowly crawled toward the lava, blood spilling from the hole in his neck, before reaching the edge of the drop off, and reaching into his robe.

"What's he doing?" Rebecca asked, aiming her rifle at the pony.

He pulled a strange, glowing red orb out of his robe and held it out over the lava, his foreleg fur singeing in the process.

"Oh no, don't let him drop that into the lava!" Midnight shouted, her eyes widening.

Rebecca immediately pulled the trigger, and once more, a deafening sound of pure lightning filled the cave, making every pony cover their ears and wince. Melody shrieked and squeezed a hold of Jason's leg again while he looked back at what Rebecca was shooting at.

"Fuck me! That's loud as fuck!" Sky cried, his ears flattened back against his skull.

Midnight quickly looked to the cultist leader to find his body laying lifelessly by the edge, and the red orb falling into the lava. With a quiet splash, it hit the super heated material, and disappeared.

"We need to get out of here, right now!" Midnight cried.

"Why? What was that!?" Rebecca shouted back.

"That was a mana battery! A red one! It has enough magic energy in it to blow up a city!" Midnight replied.

Rebecca felt a pit immediately form in her stomach, and she quickly turned to Jason before grabbing his shoulder to get his attention.

"We need to go, now!" She shouted.

Jason nodded before holding his hand up and waving forward,

"Mike, Ed, you're with me! Ponies in the middle! Rebecca bring up the rear! Let's move!" He shouted, and everyone quickly assumed their positions in the group.

Jason, Mike, and Eddie pushed forward into the cave, finding a left turn almost immediately. They hastily pied the corner and proceeded forward when they saw no signs of any more cultists. Sky, Midnight, Tempest, and Melody quickly followed behind, with Rebecca coming in close behind them, her rifle pointed rearwards the whole time.

"How much time do we have?" Sky asked, eyeing Midnight.

"I don't know, maybe a few minutes? Maybe more?" Midnight replied.

"We can't negotiate these caves and hope to find a way out of here. We need an actual concrete way out of here." Tempest chimed in.

"Well it's not like any of us made any schematics of the cave while we were coming in." Rebecca chimed in.

"I-I can get us out." Melody spoke up, redirecting all eyes to her.

"You can!?" Sky asked.

"Yeah. My special talent is navigating. I was making an expedition from Ponpei to the Badlands when these cultists abducted me." She replied, sparing a glance to her map and compass cutie mark.

"No shit!? Melody, you are taking us straight to Ponpei once we get out of here," Rebecca said before looking up at Jason, "Guys! Melody can get us out of here!"

Enough of Jason's hearing had returned by this point to where he could barely make out what Rebecca was saying.

"She can!?" He stopped and turned around.

"I-yes. Just give me a moment." Melody replied, bringing a faint orange light to her horn.

A few tense seconds passed in utter silence before an orange light shot out from the tip of her horn and darted forward through the hallway, taking a right further down.

"There! That should be the fastest way out!" She said.

"Alright, double time! Move!" Jason shouted, breaking into a fast run with the rest of the group following quickly behind.

They rounded the corner, only to run into another group of cultists. They were armed with spears and other blades in their magical grasp. Immediately, Jason smacked Mike's shoulder and turned to the rest of the group.

"Cover your ears!" He shouted.

Everyone behind him hastily clamped their hooves or hands over their ears and closed their eyes just as Mike squeezed the trigger on his machine gun. Bullets darted through the air and the flashes of white light illuminated the dark corridor, casting shadows all along the walls as the cultists were cut down. The fire lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity to Melody as she clenched her eyes shut.

Mike released the trigger on his gun and looked back at the group behind him.

"Alright, let's move!" He shouted.

Jason nodded and tapped Sky on the back, getting his attention and opening his eyes.

"Keep her focused!" He shouted, pointing at the chocolate coated mare still trembling in place, "We need to get the fuck out of here now!" He ordered.

"Melody! We need you to keep that spell up!" Midnight exclaimed.

Melody meekly nodded and intensified her magic, making the line of orange light shine brighter in the air.

"Let's go!" Jason shouted.

The group continued forward at a quick pace, finding more hallways and dead ends in the labyrinth of caves. The occasional cultist appeared with a spear or sword in their magic, but were quickly dispatched by Jason and Eddie as they progressed through the maze of tunnels. Soon enough, the group found themselves ascending a steeply ramped cave, and quickly arrived at what they assumed was the next level.

Just as the group reached the plateau of the next floor, a terrible sound filled the air, and shook the very ground they stood on. Once more, an explosion akin to the sound of pure thunder split through the air, forcing everyone in the room to be jolted by the sudden force that drove cracks through the walls and split the floor in half down the middle. Red hot light shone through the cracks, and before anyone could react, another forceful blast sent lava spewing out through the cracks as the walls crumbled and massive rocks fell into the now pooling lava.

"Fucking shit!" Jason shouted as he fell on his back from the force.

Scorching hot lava sprinkled all over the ground, forcing him to scurry back, lest he be burned alive. Tempest bit down on his collar and dragged him back to the relative safety of the doorway as the lava filled the room in front of them. Once he was out of the frying pan, she helped him to his feet, finding the rest of the group similarly huddled together in the doorway.

"What do we do!?" Sky shouted.

"Can we go another way!?" Eddie questioned.

"The way back is blocked by more lava!" Rebecca shouted, looking fearfully at the pooling lava as it slowly flooded the ramp behind them.

"Was that the mana battery?!" Melody fearfully shouted.

"Yeah! It's setting off the volcano!" Midnight replied, her own fear finding its way into her voice.

"We need another way out of here!" Mike exclaimed, eyeing the rising lava in the room in front of them.

"Can we use the rocks to climb out?!" Jason responded.

"No chance in hell! The walls are too steep and it's at least another hundred feet up before any kind of ledge to rest on! This whole place could come down on top of us!" Eddie shook his head.

Jason frantically looked for any way for the group to escape the room, before his eyes fell on the orange beam of light trailing out of Melody's horn. He followed the stream of magic with his eyes, until it reached a smallish cutout of rock just below the ceiling of the room.

Fuckin' hell...

He looked back down at a large pillar of rock, standing high enough to reach the ceiling, and furrowed his brow in thought. At its base, it was a solid twenty feet thick, however, there was a large crack splitting through the middle and filling with lava as the room flooded. Jason glanced up at the ceiling to find that the pillar tapered off and became much more narrow at the top. An idea popped into his mind, and he quickly turned back to Eddie.

"Ed! How much more C4 do you have!?" He shouted.

"C4!? Uh... Maybe ten pounds or so! Why!?" Eddie responded.

"Give me all your C4 and grenades! Mike, you too!" Jason shouted as he dropped his pack to the ground and ripped out three grenades.

Eddie and Mike hastily pulled out their grenades and C4 from their own packs and sat them on the ground beside Jason's. Once they were all laid out, Jason grabbed the explosives in his arms and hurriedly walked over to Sky.

"You see that pillar over there!" Jason shouted, dropping the explosives in front of the crimson pegasus.

"Y-yeah!" Sky replied, eyeing the lone pillar.

"I need you to fly these explosives into the crack at the base! Once you do that, fly back here as fast as you can!" Jason explained.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Sky whined, grabbing up the explosives with his hooves. He mushed the grenades into the C4 until they all formed one large blob of terrible explosives, and he hesitantly stepped toward the doorway once more.

"You can do this!" Jason encouraged, patting Sky's back.

Sky gave a shaky nod before turning to Midnight and wrapping her in a tight hug.

"You come back here as soon as you're done, okay!? You come back to me!" She demanded.

"I promise!" Sky replied before releasing the hug and unfurling his wings.

He gave a few good flaps to prep his wings before breaking into a gallop and leaping into the air with the explosives in his hooves. His wings flapped hard against the scalding air just above the lava, and he quickly ascended to a more comfortable height thirty feet in the air. Just as he reached the half-way point to the pillar, another explosion rippled through the mountain, causing a bubble of super-heated rock to blow out of the pool directly in his path. He deftly dodged to the side and rolled to avoid the particles of white hot magma as they soared through the air.

The room shook violently again, and more loose rocks fell from the walls, splashing into the lava and causing even more hazards for the crimson pegasus while he struggled in the heated air. Sweat poured from his body, just barely keeping his fur from being singed by the blistering heat emanating from the pool of lava beneath him, but he pressed on, determined to at least make it to the other side.

Finally, he reached the pillar and grabbed a hold of the top of the crevice Jason had indicated. Boiling hot air singed at his coat, and burned his skin while he attempted to throw the explosives inside, forcing him to pull back and fly higher to avoid the heat.

"What's wrong!?" Jason shouted.

"It's too hot! I can't get close enough!" Sky shouted back.

"You have to! If you can't, we all die!" Jason exclaimed.

Sky glanced back and forth between the group and the crevice, finding an increasingly tight knot forming in his throat. He bit his lip and looked at Midnight one more time.

You come back to me... Her words danced through his mind, and he shakily sighed to himself.

Sky grabbed the explosives with both hooves and flapped his wings hard to gain altitude. He quickly soared up to the ceiling and looked back down at the crevice in question. It barely appeared larger than a tiny crack from his newfound elevation.

"What's he doing!?" Mike shouted.

"I don't know!" Eddie replied.

Sky took a deep breath and closed his wings, allowing gravity to take full effect, and he dropped like a stone. He angled himself downward and focused on the crack that slowly grew larger and larger with each passing microsecond. Adrenaline pumped through his veins while he readied his wings for the perfect moment.

Three... Two... One!

Just like a parachute, Sky's wings unfurled and he quickly caught the scalding air, singeing his feathers and coat in the process. He winced from the pain of his skin quickly burning, but managed to keep his focus on the crevice quickly approaching at high speed. He waited for just the right moment before aggressively flaring his wings, bringing him to a complete stop directly in front of the large crack. The air burned his skin with each passing nanosecond, and tears quickly formed in the corners of his eyes as he felt his coat catching fire.

In one swift motion, he threw the explosives into the crack, finding his aim to be true and accurate, before powerfully flapping his wings once more and gaining altitude. Once he was out of the scalding heat once more, he banked back to the doorway and flew in for a landing.

He came to a screeching halt against the rocks, his hooves skidding some dirt and pebbles away while he flared his wings and exhaled fully. Sweat dripped off his brow, and painful burns all along his legs and barrel quickly set in and stung. Immediately, he was grabbed by Midnight, who levitated a water-lodged rag over his charred legs and wrapped them together. The moisture immediately sunk into his blackened coat, easing the swelling and burning sensation, and making him relax slightly. Mike and Rebecca also quickly placed water-lodged rags over the other burnt sections of his barrel and forelegs.

"You did good, big guy! I'm so proud of you!" Midnight exclaimed, tears pouring out of her eyes.

Sky managed a shaky nod before resting his head against the ground and wincing slightly as Mike readjusted his rag.

"Sky!" Jason shouted, getting the crimson pegasus to open an eye and look over to him, "Thank you..."

With that, Jason grabbed the detonator from the ground and pulled the trigger. Immediately, there was an explosion so loud that the walls shook, and rock fragments flew all over the room, sprinkling the rising lava with even more sustenance. The pillar's base was completely destroyed, leaving the towering rock structure with only the ceiling to hold it steady. Luckily, the ceiling quickly began to crack and fragment from the sudden weight, and soon enough, the pillar broke away, taking a large portion of the ceiling with it. Massive piles of rock fell from the great height, smashing into the walls and opening new rooms in the process. The pillar broke up into several segments, each one diving into the lava and leaving a long wall of rock for the group to climb.

However, what caught everyone's eyes, was not the rocks piling up in the lava in like a jungle gym, instead, it was the light that poured in from the ceiling, and spilling into the room below.

"Looks like we have our exit!" Jason cheered.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" Eddie replied.

"Wait, we can't! Sky's hurt too badly to move right now!" Midnight shouted.

"I can get biofoam on him, but we've only got a few minutes before this lava floods our little level here!" Mike replied, glancing back at the still rising pool of lava in front and behind them.

"Eddie, can you carry him!?" Jason questioned.

"Yeah!" Eddie immediately replied.

He crouched down to Sky's level and tried to grab his foreleg to help him up, but a sudden yelp of pain from the crimson pegasus made him pause.

"Here, I can at least knock him out so he doesn't have to be in pain." Mike said, pulling his pack off and digging through it for a second.

He quickly pulled out a capped needle and removed the cap, before squeezing some of the blue material out to check for any air in the needle.

"What is that!?" Midnight questioned.

"It's a sedative! It'll knock him out for the next few hours so we can move him without hurting him. He'll be alright, I promise!" Mike replied.

Midnight looked down at Sky as he shook slightly from the pain, before more tears split from her eyes and she gave a quick nod. Mike hastily brought the needle up to Sky's foreleg and searched for a vein. After a moment, he found a strong pulse and a vein underneath. He effortlessly slid the needle into Sky's limb, and injected the blue material inside. A few seconds passed before Sky's eyelids fluttered shut, and he stopped shaking. Midnight quickly pressed her ear against his neck, and insured his heart was still beating strong. Only when she was satisfied, did she let Eddie step in a pick his unconscious body up.

Eddie hastily shuffled Sky into a fireman's carry and made way for the exit. Once he was at the edge, he stepped out onto a large slab of rock. With the rest of the group behind him, he led the way up the piled debris and ascended the rocks. Soon enough, he reached the first of the large pillars and clambered onto it. The rest of the group followed close behind, and they continued to ascend the pillar until they arrived at the next one.

The next pillar was laid out horizontally, having been stopped mid way down by the walls of the room. Eddie managed to climb onto it was a magical push from Midnight and Melody, before helping both mares climb up beside him. Jason, Mike, Tempest, and Rebecca clambered up after them, and the group made their way from one side of the room to the other on the horizontal pillar.

Upon reaching the next slab of rock leading to the next pillar, Eddie stepped onto the material, breaking away a section of it in the process. He hastily changed his footing, so as not to fall, before looking back at the rest of the group.

"I think this one is kinda loose. We should probably only go one at a time." He said.

"Alright, everyone stay back!" Jason ordered.

Eddie gave a quick nod before stepping back onto the ledge and quickly running up the rest of the section. Once he was at the other side, he gave a thumbs up, and Midnight hastily followed behind. Next was Rebecca, then Melody. Finally it was Mike's turn. Just as he stepped onto the slab, a boulder broke free from the ceiling, and fell straight down to the rock he was standing on. Jason glanced up just in time to see the falling rock, and sprinted forward, grabbing Mike by the collar and yanking him back onto the pillar. Just as he cleared the slab, the boulder slammed into it, breaking it apart and dislodging the pillar they stood on from its position jammed in the walls.

For a split, horrifying second, Jason, Tempest, and Mike felt weightless as the ground beneath their feet and hooves fell from them, and they fell for a dozen feet, before the pillar found a new position, lodged in the walls. Jason slammed into the rock, forcing all the air out of his lungs, and making him gasp as he reeled from the sudden pain in his back. Tempest fared no better, hitting the pillar with enough force to crack her armor all along her collar. The force of the impact was enough to completely knock her unconscious, and her body slid toward the rounded edge of the pillar.

Mike landed on his stomach, and felt the full force of the impact knock the wind out of his lungs while his elbow slammed into the rocks immediately after. A sharp crack and stabbing pain in his arm painted a clear image of a broken elbow, and he hissed in pain while struggling into a prone position. He fought to get some air in his lungs, before he looked up to see Tempest's unconscious form slowly slipping away toward the edge.

"Jason! Tempest!" He shouted, pointing a finger at the mulberry unicorn while he struggled to breathe.

Jason coughed as he got air into his lungs, and wearily followed Mike's finger as he pointed. His gaze slowly trailed over until he saw Tempest's body at the edge, slipping away. He forcefully rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, forcing a dead sprint from his battered body. Just as she reached the edge, he dove to the side and reached out, grabbing her by the cracked collar as she slipped off the edge. Her dead weight pulled at his body, forcing him to dig the tips of his boots into the tiny rock crevices he was laying on to keep his balance.

"Gah! Mike! Help me out man!" He shouted as her weight strained at his arm.

"I'm coming... I'm coming!" Mike breathed, getting to his feet and stumbling over. He coughed hard from the sudden intake of air, and a stabbing pain immediately shot through his lungs. He gasped for breath as the sharp pain forced him to cough again.

Mike quickly brought his hand up to his mouth to wipe the bile away, but upon pulling his hand from his face, he saw blood coating the glove. A sickly feeling roused in his gut, and he quickly shook his head before walking over to Jason.

"Are you guys okay!?" Eddie shouted from way above.

"We're good, Ed! Get out of here! We'll meet you guys on the outside!" Jason shouted back, his voice filled with the strain of holding Tempest.

"What!? We're not leaving you!" Eddie shouted.

"Ed, for once in your life just do what I fucking say and get the fuck out of here!" Jason vehemently shouted back.

"Fucking... You'd better meet us on the outside!" Eddie replied before disappearing with the rest of the group with him.

"Sarge..." *cough* *cough*" I don't... I think I'm fucked up..." Mike admitted, stepping over to Jason.

"Just... help me get her up and then we'll fix you!" Jason grunted.

Mike leaned over to help, but just as he reached down to grab the mulberry unicorn, another boulder fell from the ceiling, slamming into the pillar and jolting Mike off his feet. He fell forwards and gasped as he completely lost his footing. Jason immediately shot his free hand forward and grabbed Mike's forearm, bringing him to an immediate stop with a sickening pop.

"ARGGH!" Jason shouted as his shoulder dislocated and his face distorted into a grimace of pain.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" He cried, tears forming in his vision as the sickening pain stabbed at his shoulder.

Mike grunted in pain as his weight was held up by nothing more than Jason's hand. He felt the strain on his own arm causing a sharp pain to form in his shoulder, but he couldn't bring himself to complain about it as he looked up at Jason's pained grimace.

For a few horrible seconds, Jason held the two of them there, one shoulder dislocated, and the other straining with each passing second. He fought to pull Tempest back up, but the combined weight of both her and Mike was making him unbalanced, almost pulling him off the edge as well.

"Mike... you gotta... pull yourself up, man!" Jason grunted through the pain.

"I can't..." Mike coughed, "My elbow's broke..." He trailed off, the severity of the situation donning on him fully.

Mike glanced over to Tempest to find her unconscious form still being held by Jason's other arm. His grip on her was beginning to loosen, and it was only a matter of time before he wouldn't be able to hold her weight anymore.

Mike slowly looked back up to Jason and gave him a solemn nod.

"You gotta drop me, boss." He said, almost a whisper.

"What the fuck... are you... talking about!?" Jason grunted, gritting his teeth in pain.

"Sarge... You can't hold me... you're losing your grip on her... I'm fucked anyways... You gotta drop me." Mike replied.

"I'm not... dropping anyone... Come on, man! Pull yourself up! Come on!" Jason cried.

"Jason..." Mike coughed up more blood, "I'm fucked man... You can still save her... Besides... somebody's gotta meet Johnny at the bar." He said, his eyes softening some.

Jason, grunted in pain as tears slowly streamed from his eyes.

"I'm... not... losing anyone else..." He whispered through grit teeth.

"It's not your call... See you on the other side, boss." Mike replied, releasing his grip completely.

"Mike! MIKE! STOP! DON'T YOU FUCKING LET GO!" Jason cried.

Jason's grip slipped up Mike's forearm down to his hand, and then to just his fingers.

"MIKE!"

Jason's grip failed, and Mike fell from view.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXESYfjMGqc

Require the strongest wills...

Hey guys. This was a big chapter and I don't even know what to put down here... I hope you enjoyed.