Author's Note

Sorry about the long wait, lots of stuff has been going on. From school, to work, to family everything has kept me busy, and I had to put this on the backburner for a little while.

But enough about all that jazz.

Yes, I know this chapter is shorter than the others. So, just a heads up, there may or may not be more chapters like this in the future. Really they'll just be however long I feel like them to be.

But you don't care about my ranting, you just want to read right? So with that, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 4: The Cavern

It was dark; the sunlight peering in from the top of the hole rendered useless some time ago.

All around Twilight was just pitch black darkness. Her face could be inches away from a wall and she wouldn't even realize it, but what she was a little apprehensive about in this whole situation was the ground. There was no way to know just how far down it was. It could be a couple of minutes until it shows itself or it might even appear at this exact moment. And Twilight knew that if she wasn't prepared the outcome would be grim.

So with no way to precisely deduce how far down the oncoming ground was, Twilight didn't waste any time preparing for the landing.

With the chilly air of the underground breezing across Twilight's body she deftly magicked thin dense purple shoes to the bottom of each of her hooves. And as it would have it, that was a smart move. The exact second after she equipped the magical constructions, the ground made its abrupt, but grand, appearance.

Landing hard against the stone flooring the magical shoes lived up to their purpose flawlessly, allowing Twilight to land unharmed. But the same couldn't be said for the stone floor. The force of her impact crushing a shallow crater into the ground as cracks webbed out around it.

Not taking a moment to ponder how she just cheated death Twilight lit her horn in hopes to get a sense of her surroundings.

As the cave was illuminated in a magenta glow she instantly noticed three things. A passage directly ahead of her extending farther into the cave; the stalagmites and stalactites— which were dripping droplets of water onto the ground every now and then— infesting said passage; and how silent and barren the place was. No living thing, be it pony or monster, anywhere in sight. Meaning the two senseless ponies that jumped down in here before she did continued on ahead without her.

'Their spontaneity is going to be the death of them someday, which would probably be for the better anyway.' Twilight cruelly thought while weaving her way around the stalagmites, beginning her trek through the ominously silent cave.

During the trek, nothing of interest presented itself apart from the occasional ore deposits. Unfortunately, for Twilight, those ore deposits weren't the designated tungsten she was scouting for. Most of them were just basic iron ores with the occasional copper ore.

The boring walk lasted a bit longer before Twilight encountered her first obstacle. Well, not really an obstacle but more of an annoyance because the passage she was in suddenly sloped downwards at a sixty-degree decline. Even more annoying was the water droplets from the stalactites dripping onto the slope making what would've been a dry surface, slick.

Grunting, Twilight trotted to the edge of the drop-off and hopped onto the slippery slope. With a balance akin to a zebra meditating on water upside down with one hoof, the unicorn expertly slid down the slope slowly gaining speed as she went.

Having to keep her keen eye focused on the ground for any irregularities and adjusting her hoofing wherever needed Twilight didn't pay any mind to the ceiling. That was until she unexpectedly felt something grazing against the tip of her horn. Glancing her eye upwards she discovered that the roof of the cave was gradually descending upon her.

Being forced to crouch down low as the pressure doubled-over against her horn the resulting change of posture increased her acceleration even more than before. Not knowing if the roof was going to stops its compression any time soon Twilight took it upon herself to take a few precautionary measures.

She nimbly slid her forelegs forward and her hind legs backward allowing her stomach to come into contact with the ground. Now sliding on her stomach with her body as slimed out as it could get, Twilight now had a separate issue to deal with; her head or more specifically, her horn. If something wasn't done with it soon, the ceiling would certainly take care of it by filing it down to a nub.

Unsatisfied with such a fate and to prevent it from coming to fruition she lowered her head until it looked to be touching the ground, but not quite there. Tilting her head to the side, she moved her protruding extremity out of harm's way.

Coming up on the narrowest portion of the slope with the roof still not halting its decline Twilight snuffed out the magenta light emitting from her horn. She then relit her horn but this time it was the effect from weaving a specific spell that would teleport herself out of the cave and back onto greener lands. Not taking long to finish and with her body now outlined in a magenta glow, she went to release the spell... and the floor promptly disappeared out from under her.

The sudden drop didn't faze Twilight in the slightest, minor problems like that never did anymore. What did faze her though, was the harsh collision of her muzzle smashing against a rock wall. As it turns out, the drop she found herself unexpectedly thrust into was very narrow.

Disoriented and with two streams of blood now gushing out of her bruised nose, the spell she was so close to casting dissipated. And before she was able to reorient her dazed self her body rebounded off the ragged walls multiple times: her cloak becoming useless shredded fabric while jutting rocks shallowly lacerated her body.

Recovering from her disorientation Twilight promptly pushed off the walls until she was safely falling down the center of the hole. The width of it wasn't allowing for any excess maneuverability, so she was stuck nosediving straight down. Just in case, she stuck her forelegs out in front of her and encased her hooves in the same magical shoes as before.

With the air whipping past her face and the remnants of her cloak flailing crazily behind her Twilight never expected that the narrow hole would all too suddenly open up into a massive cavern. Still hurtling straight down she forewent the idea to peer around the cavern and quickly looked up at the incoming ground. Only instead of seeing the ground, she saw the glistening reflection of water from what appeared to be an enormous underground lake.

Dissipating the magicked shoes Twilight kept her forelegs stretched out in front her and breathed in one last large breath, then braced herself for the oncoming dive.

Breaking through the surface with a resounding splash, the momentum from the drop propelled her deep into the depths of the murky waters.

The water was surprisingly luke-warm and besides the reverberating sound of liquid in her flooded ear canals, everything was silent. Casting a single hemisphere shaped shield over her right eye and expelling all the water from it Twilight created a makeshift goggle. Opening her eye, she peered into the murky depths.

They were endless. A dreary never-ending black abyss coupled with her coagulated blood— produced from her nose bleed and lacerations— was the sole view below Twilight Sparkle at this very moment. An abyss like this could be considered a horrifying nightmare to some, but to Twilight it was a sight just like any other.

Ignoring the ominous void beneath her, Twilight glanced up to see the surface of the water was a little ways above her; her dive sending her deeper than she thought. Luckily, the arduous training she endured in the past increased her lung capacity, allowing her to hold her breath many times longer than a normal pony. Swishing her legs through the water she began wading her way to the surface.

Not even halfway up yet, her swimming was cut short when a cool slimy sensation wrapped itself around her left hind leg. In the split-second Twilight felt the chill course through her leg she jolted her head down and fired a concentrated beam of magic straight towards it. The impact was instantaneous and removed the cool threat binding her leg. Now free, Twilight whipped her body around and, with narrowed eyes, peered back down.

What was mere moments ago a barren black abyss was now overrun with a tangled mass of tentacles. Peering through the entanglements Twilight was able to faintly spot a single pitch black eye; an eye whose size could rival that of a full moon viewed on a clear night's sky.

'What is a Kraken doing dow—' Was all Twilight was able to think before she caught movement in the corner of her eye.

Reflexively conjuring up a spherical shield around her body she protected herself just in time. Three tentacles with blurring speeds slammed into her. With a grunt and a frustrated look in her eye, Twilight's shield held strong but she was pushed back from the force of the blow.

The Kraken didn't hesitate before shooting its tentacles forward once more. With her movability hindered underwater, there was no way for Twilight to dodge the attack in time. Wrapping themselves multiple times around her shield they squeezed with a force that could easily pop any living creature. Forced to seep more magic into her shield to keep it, thus herself, alive, Twilight calmed her mind and expertly thought up a means to escape.

Looking around from the inside of her shield she found exactly what she was searching for; a portion of it that wasn't smothered in tentacles. Swimming over and not wasting any time she sliced open a hole in her shield. The small bit of magical backlash from such an action having no effect on herself. Deftly swimming out she made sure to avoid any contact with the tentacles.

Now free and a good distance away Twilight dropped the shield spell. The tentacles that were trying to crush her flailed about wildly, seemingly confused about what just happened.

With her magical prowess still in pristine condition, Twilight recast another shield. What was different about this one though was that it was more akin to body armor than it was a shield. It rested a few centimeters above her fur on all parts of her body causing a magenta glow to outline her frame.

Twilight glared down at the offending appendages, annoyed at them for wasting her time. And even though the fight just began, it was time to end it.

The Kraken noticed the magenta glow outlining his prey that somehow got away. It shot tentacles after tentacles at them, in an attempt to wrap them up again and kill the menace once and for all.

The Menace was already prepared.

Tentacles wrapped around her once more and squeezed with the same vice-like grip as before. Unfazed and unfaltering, Twilight's horn was set aglow with an eerie shade of crimson red.

Even as her legs, head, and barrel became fully enveloped in slimy tentacles out to crush her, she never quit casting. The bloody red light from her horn glowing brighter and brighter.

Almost every single portion of Twilight's body was enshrouded in tentacles at this point, but there was one single anatomy that continued to stubbornly stick out; her horn.

Sensing that the spell she has been charging this entire time was finally complete, she released it.

'Die.'

With that as her last thought, everything went red.

The cavern the purple unicorn wound up falling into was very expansive with varying sizes of pitch black fungi that established a kind of mushroom forest. With some mushrooms being so minuscule that if somepony stepped on it they would be oblivious to it ever happening, while others were so tremendous that small houses could be constructed on top of them and they wouldn't falter under the weight. A distinctive feature of these black mushrooms was the faint grey glow they emitted, illuminating the cave in a soft grey atmosphere. And through the fungi forest, there appeared to be a vague semblance of a paved out path leading somewhere further into the cavern.

In the cavern as well, was the giant underground lake Twilight fell into. The surface of it was tranquil, oblivious to the altercation taking place inside of it. And around the lake were a sparse few black fungi as well: it was like an underground oasis but instead of sand there was cold hard stone and replacing the palm trees were overgrown mushrooms.

All too suddenly the peaceful atmosphere of the cavern was interrupted as a dark red glow began emanating from the center of the drab lake, with it rapidly expanding until the entire surface was aglow. Ripples also began to sporadically spread across the expanse of the lake as a light tremble overtook the cave. As the quake grew significantly stronger random spurts of water began to shoot up as well.

And just like that, everything stopped. No more trembling, no more rippling or spurts of water, and no more crimson glow. Silence reigned over the cavern once more as it basked in the grey glow.

...

...

...

...

...

*SRRCRK*

A sickening crack echoed throughout the cavern as the lake spontaneously erupted. The strength of the blast sending the waters so high they almost reached the roof of the cavern. A small tsunami of waves was also shot out and crashed against the standing mushrooms surrounding the lake, breaking many of their stems and sending them toppling to the ground.

Chunks of Kraken meat could also be seen flying across the cavern. From tentacle chunks to chunks from its head, and even pieces from its enormous eyes were flung about the place. A very gruesome bloody rain shower overtaking parts of the cavern.

As for the purple unicorn responsible for this entire mess, she was tossed from the lake as well.

Flying through the air Twilight examined all the havoc with a bored eye. Glancing down to see the ground coming closer she nimbly flipped herself around until her hooves were aimed towards it. Hitting the ground, she rolled with her landing to avoid injuring herself. Coming to a stop, she pushed herself up and brushed herself off. With everything calmed down by this point she looked back over her shoulder at the lake.

Giant fallen mushrooms were spread out around the lake while some were even in it, floating on the surface. As for the color of the lake itself, it went from a black and brown murky substance to a bloody red soup; drifting Kraken chunks amplifying the effect.

Content with seeing that there was no way the Kraken could've survived, and having only drained a small portion mana, Twilight turned around and set off down the path through the forest of fungi.

Keeping her eye peeled for any semblance of tungsten, as it would have it, made the trek through the mushrooms as boring and bland as all the other treks before. After a while, and not even finding any tungsten, Twilight broke through the fungi into a large circular clearing.

The first thing to greet her entrance was the back forms of the two idiotic ponies who ditched her earlier on.

Walking up until she was directly behind them she called out to them, a little miffed. "Hey!" They responded in kind by slowly turning around until they were face to face with the unicorn. The words she was planning to yell at the two promptly died in her throat when she caught sight of their eyes.

Their iris' and pupils were completely gone, leaving the sclera of their eyes to flood them entirely.

'Great. Just what I need. More fucking trouble.' She thought while jumping back away from the two. Getting into a battle ready position she kept her eye focused on them, prepared for whatever they might do.

Rainbow, with her wing blades still equipped, flexed her wings and crouched down while staring emotionlessly at Twilight. And Pinkie, with the same blank look on her face, held her steel pickaxe in her teeth. For a few tense moments, Rainbow and Pinkie did nothing. Until... they attacked.