Author's Note

CWs: Claustrophobia, injury.

0210811: Shards

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All is darkness, here. The only things that may be known of this space is the cloying, heavy sense of dust and the spinning machinations of spiders in distant corners, catching the poor unfortunates that squirm and wriggle into their territory. Time has no meaning here. There is only waiting.

Time passes. A spider eats another hapless moth. This may be the most exciting thing that has ever occurred. A theoretical viewer would have little to compare it against.

Even that thrill quickly fades and is relegated to obscurity with the arrival of the sound. A grating, grinding click of metal, and then, at long last --

Light.

Miss Cheerilee coughed and waved a hand to clear away some of the dust. “Good heavens,” she said. “I knew it had been a long time since anyone had used this storage closet, but…”

Sunset Shimmer stepped past the teacher and flicked the switch, illuminating the tiny room. “Wow,” she said, looking around. “When did you say the AV club disbanded again?”

“Before my time,” Miss Cheerilee said, picking up a Polaroid camera and inspecting it. “I assumed it was sometime in the early oughts, but looking at this equipment, it might have been the nineties.”

“Hm,” Sunset said, frowning. “Not… ideal, but I guess this equipment’s as good as any.”

“Assuming any of it still works,” Miss Cheerilee pointed out.

“Ah. Yeah,” Sunset conceded.

Cheerilee glanced at her student. “If I may ask, what made you decide to restart the Audio-Visual Club, anyway?”

“Posterity,” Sunset replied simply. “All of the Equestrian magic that’s been dumped over here is ancient history on the other side of the mirror portal. Princess Twilight wants me to start recording this stuff for her own research.”

“Haven’t you been mainly using your phones for that?”

“Can’t send digital files to Equestria,” Sunset replied. “They haven’t got anything to receive them, and any attempts to take over a computer tend to result in it getting totally fried.”

“I see,” Cheerilee said, nodding slowly. “You think you’ll have better luck with these?”

“I hope so,” Sunset said. “After this, my best bet is wax cylinders and daguerreotypes.”

Cheerilee snorted. “Well, I’m afraid you won’t find any of those in here.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Sunset said. “I’m pretty sure that’s a telegraph machine on that shelf over there.”

Cheerilee clapped her hands. “Right. A full inventory can come later, I’m sure. For now, Sunset, what is that you’re actually looking for?”

Sunset considered that. “A video camera would be the best, but I’ll settle for a good camera and some way to record my voice.”

Cheerilee held out the Polaroid she’d picked up earlier. “Will this work?” There was a dazzling flash that left Sunset blinking.

When the spots finally faded, she saw her teacher gently waving a photograph in the air, watching the image fade into view. “Careful,” Cheerilee warned as she passed it to Sunset. “Those things can be delicate.”

Sunset inspected the photo. “Hm. Looks fine to me,” she decided. “Now, uh… Hey, do you hear that?”

Both women fell silent. There was a clear whirring sound that filled the tiny room. Cheerilee glanced behind Sunset and pointed. “There. You must have jostled it when you came in the room.”

Sunset turned to find a compact tape recorder on a table behind her, merrily whirring away. She picked it up and grinned. “Oh, this looks perfect,” she said.

“Wonderful,” Cheerilee said. “Now, if that’s all, I should really get to class -- and so should you.”

“Sure thing,” Sunset said, taking the camera and the recorder in either hand.

Cheerilee led the way out of the closet and flicked the lights off again. “Now, remember, you’ll need a faculty advisor for the club,” she said, relocking the closet door. “I’ll ask around the English department for you, but you could also see if either of the Tech teachers are available.”

“Right,” Sunset said. “Are there any teachers who don’t have clubs already, or who might be looking for them, or…”

“I believe there’s a new hire this year, as it happens,” Miss Cheerilee said thoughtfully. “I can’t recall his name. I’ll look him up and see if he’s interested.”

“Thank you, Miss Cheerilee,” Sunset said.

“Not a problem.” Cheerilee paused. “Sunset? Are you going to turn that tape recorder off at any point?”

“Huh? Oh, right!”

Click.

Click.

“-- should be as good a spot as any for recording, as long as I’m not too loud about it. I’ll have to see about getting a proper room for this.”

There came the sound of a bag hitting a table, and then the soft grind of chair legs on a lightly-carpeted floor. Then there came a light rustling.

“Huh,” said Sunset, staring at the tape recorder, already running once again. “Weird. I guess I must’ve… hit ‘record’ by accident. Again.”

There was a brief silence, and then Sunset chuckled. “Guess that’s what I get for keeping you in my bag. Oh, well, what’s a few extra minutes of tape?” She tapped the face of the tape recorder lightly. “Looks like you’ve got plenty.”

Sitting up straight, she cleared her throat. “Alright, that’s enough messing around,” she said. “Uhh, for posterity’s sake I should probably say something here to mark the start… How about…

"Statement of Sunset Shimmer, regarding her search for the origin of the artifacts known as ‘the Geodes of Harmony’. Statement taken direct from subject, August 11th, 2021. Statement begins."

I guess the first thing you should know about me is that I’ve always been kind of a risk-taker. “Incorrigible,” Princess Celestia used to call me. When I snuck into the kitchen to steal out of the cookie jar. When I tricked some noble colts into painting the garden trellises white. When I uncovered an embezzlement scheme that led to the heads of three of the most powerful families in Canterlot being sent to jail. She would always just shake her head at me and murmur, “incorrigible,” and she was always smiling just a little when she said it.

Until, y’know, she wasn’t. But that’s not the point. The point is, treat this recording as a guide for how not to go on expeditions at least as much as you do a report on my investigation of the geodes.

The geodes, I should mention, are the Geodes of Harmony, seven superpower-granting stones with suspected ties to the Elements of Harmony. They were first discovered in a cave on the property known as ‘Camp Everfree,’ located at 22 1250 East Road, outside of Canterlot, Virginia, on the human side of the mirror portal.

It was there that my investigation took place. With the permission of the property’s owners, Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce, I arrived at the cave around midmorning on August 8th, 2021. I came alone. That was my first mistake. Most of my immediate friend group were either on vacation or too busy to come with me, but I should still have brought along someone I could trust in case things went downhill.

I entered the cave, pulling out my flashlight as I went. It was much darker than I would have guessed, as the sun was shining almost directly into the cave’s mouth, and I remembered it as being rather shallow. However, the weak beam of my flashlight didn’t even reach the back wall.

This was my second mistake. I should have left and returned with magical backup as soon as I noticed something odd about the situation. Instead, I chalked it up to my own bad memory, and continued into the cave.

It was much larger than I remembered. Darker too, and filled with cobwebs. I kept having to stop and spit them out on the ground. It was only when I happened to glance back and saw that the entrance to the cave was no longer visible, though, that I really believed that something was wrong.

All in all, I think I kept a pretty cool head. I just turned on my heel and walked back the way that I had come. Or… I thought it was the way I had come. I must have gotten turned around in the darkness, because I think I wound up in a side cavern. The floor was damp with water that dripped irregularly from the ceiling, and when I shone my flashlight on the puddles, they looked completely opaque.

What’s more, the walls of the cave kept getting tighter and tighter. I got nervous when I first brushed against a wall. Then both walls at once. Then I bumped my head on the ceiling, and at that point I realized I must have taken a wrong turn.

I tried very hard not to think about how I hadn’t seen any side tunnels in here the first time I had gone into the cave.

So I turned around again. Technically, this was also a stupid move, given that I had no idea where I was or where I was going, but I also knew that I definitely wasn’t going to get out the way I was going.

I had only gone a few feet back the way I had come when my flashlight gave out completely. I cursed and banged it against my knee, but it didn’t so much as flicker. I pulled out my phone to try and use the light on that, but it was dead, too, even though I was absolutely certain it had been charged when I entered the cave.

At this point, it was obvious that something magical was happening, but there wasn’t a whole lot I could actually do about it. So I just stumbled along as best I could, always keeping my left hand to the wall. Not that it mattered. No matter how I moved, I was constantly scraping against some wall or another, the ceiling always getting lower and lower until I was on my hands and knees, crawling through the dark, the puddles on the ground freezing against my skin. I thought about trying to turn around yet again, but I couldn’t even begin to guess at where the entrance to the cave might now be. The desperation was nearly as stifling as the scraping of my skin against the rock as it hemmed me in, tighter and tighter.

I crawled. Then I slithered. Then I stopped, unable to go forwards. I tried to push myself backward, but my foot hit a solid wall, leaving my leg jammed at a painful angle. Desperate, I tried to force myself forward again, reaching out an arm as far as I could, crushing my face against the rock as I reached out, grasping and desperate. I could feel cool air moving through the hole in front of me, and as I waved my arm around as best I could, I realized the room before me was open and free.

I strained against my prison, pushing and clawing at the rocks that surrounded me, trying to shove my head through the hole in front of me. I can’t even guess at how long I was there, struggling and flailing in my impossible prison, when I heard something move.

“Hey!” I yelled “HEY! HELP! ANYONE?”

The shadows shifted, and I felt my blood run cold. I could see only darkness. But I was certain, absolutely positive, that I should not have drawn more attention to myself. The shadows rippled, like a pond disturbed by a swimmer. I tried to draw back, back into the prison that now seemed so secure, but I couldn’t pull back my arm. Somehow, the hole in the rock had fallen around it, crushing my shoulder like a boa constrictor as the thing in the dark drew slowly nearer.

That’s when I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, a gleam of orange in the darkness, the only light I’d seen since I lost my flashlight. Shards of crystal stuck out of the rock at odd angles, glowing in the darkness. It was the exact same shade as my geode.

Here’s one last lesson for you, listener. If you see a light in the dark, don’t just fucking grab it with your bare, bloody hand.

I screamed once again as jagged crystal cut into my much-tormented hand, my world lighting up with pain.

When the pain subsided, I was sitting outside the cave again, scuffed and bruised and bloody, but alive.

When I tell you that I ran away from that place as fast as my legs could carry me, you had better believe it. I ran all the way back to camp, where Timber and Gloriosa quite understandably freaked out over my condition, and cleaned me up with rubbing alcohol and bandages. Eventually, they had to call an ambulance when Timber recognized the pale, swollen skin on my fingers as frostbite. Luckily, it was only first-degree.

Something happened in that cave. I don’t know what magic could have caused it -- it was like nothing I’ve ever heard of in any of my studies. I do, however, find one thing in particular especially odd about the encounter. I can account for every injury I received over the course of my misadventure. I seem, however, to be missing one.

When I grabbed that glowing crystal, I was positive that it sliced my hand open. Yet, the palm of my hand was about the only place I wasn’t totally scraped up. Something in those crystals counteracted my experience in the cave. What that means -- what any of it means -- I can’t say. If it means repeating the experience, I can’t say I’m eager to find out.

Statement ends.

Sunset took a deep breath, blinking several times. “Wow. That, uh, wound up being a lot more… more intense than I was expecting. Maybe I should see about getting therapy for this.”

She chuckled, resting her chin on her hand. “Yeah, that’d go great. ‘Oh, yes, doctor, I’m a magical talking horse from another dimension, but that’s not actually why I’m here…’”

Shaking her head, Sunset let out a soft sigh. “My final thoughts on this incident… I really hope that removing the geodes from that cave didn’t cause all of that to happen, but I certainly can’t rule it out as a possibility. Aside from that, I’m afraid the investigation was a total dead end, and as I said, I’m not about to go back there again.”

She was silent for a long moment, then reached over for the tape recorder.

Click.