Author's Note

*chases away the warren of dust bunnies*

Hello, readers. I kind of wanted to do a little writing, so enjoy this chapter I had mostly written forever ago and just finished. I also did a minor retcon in the first chapter. The deep gnomes are now a more Equestrian friendly original race.

Chapter 2: Ilvara

The door to our cell opened with a creaky groan, and an authoritative voice barked a command in the denevér language. We moved at a sluggish and disorderly march, our assorted chains and manacles creating a discordant keen that echoed through the cave. My ears twitched at the awful sound as we shuffled towards the gate.

One by one, the shadows vanished beyond the door and the meager lantern light. Eldeth said we were to be given work assignments, but how did I know if she was right? For all I knew, these thestrals and their strange bear creatures could have been leading us to our doom.

"Watch your step," Jimjar whispered as I exited the door. "Rope bridge ahead."

Darkness engulfed me as I left the safety of the lantern's light. All I heard were the rattling of chains and the roar of a waterfall somewhere off to the left… or was it the front? Behind? Sounds bounced chaotically off the rocky walls of whatever cave we were in. If we were about to cross a rope bridge, then the chamber must have been massive and deep.

The ground changed beneath me, and I stumbled. It was smooth and slick. I pressed my hoof into the strange new texture and discovered it had some give or bounce to it, and when I pulled away there was a subtle peeling sensation. Shivers ran down my back.

"Pony, move it!" growled a voice—Ront, I think—from behind me.

I gulped and stepped forward. The bridge swayed beneath me, and I froze. It was one thing to walk across a rope bridge stretching across an unfathomably deep chasm, but it was another thing entirely to do so completely blind! My breathing grew heavy. I couldn't see. The others were waiting behind me. Were the guards getting impatient? How long could I stall like this?!

I took a long, slow, deep breath. Panic was bad. I needed a clear head to get out of this situation. Slowly, tenderly, I stretched my hoof to the side to find the edge. It was uncomfortably close, but it was manageable. Though there was probably a railing of sorts, and I didn't want to risk leaning too far to find it. Instead, I put one hoof before the other and marched forward.

As we walked—and I shuffled—another light peeked out from behind the silhouette of the person in front of me. I leaned over as far as I could without compromising my balance and saw the vague outline of a wall sloping downward at an angle. Something similar was on the other side. We were walking into an enormous stalactite!

We stepped through an open archway, and my hooves landed on solid ground again. The room was small—too small for all of us to occupy. I glanced to the left and saw our procession passing through another door. Another lantern hung from the ceiling, and I assessed my surroundings before we moved on.

A table sat against the far side of the room opposite the door we entered. Three thestrals rested on stools, chatted with one another in their strange language, and held something in their hooves. One of them slid said object to the center of the table with a clack, and another thestral groaned and spat. Some sort of game, perhaps. The only detail I could make out was their eyes glowing in the lantern light, and they cast periodic glances at us as we passed. One of them met my gaze, and it eyed me curiously. It looked almost… hungry.

I looked away, flattening my ears, and the guard barked with laughter. He jeered something at me, and though I didn't understand him, I'm sure it was unpleasant. Jimjar nudged me. We were about to enter another bridge, and I steeled myself before leaving the light again.

I decided to count my steps to distract myself from the overwhelming blackness and the unnerving sway of the bridge. This bridge was longer than the first one, and it felt like we were ascending. The waterfall's roar was overwhelming, resonating on my left, and I felt mist tingle my coat. Every other sound was muted—even the rattling of my chains—and I contemplated leaping off the edge and into the water below.

Only a thought. Just for a moment. There was no telling how high of a jump it was or if I would even land in water and not dash myself on a pile of rocks. If my wings were free, my chances were less slim… but no magic and no source of light? I'd probably fly straight into a wall.

The bridge ended, and we were on solid ground again. On our right, we passed another chimney-like structure that radiated with a dim glow. Before we moved past it, I could just make out some large object in the center of the room. We entered a courtyard down a flight of steps, hugging a wall on my left.

I loosely used the term 'courtyard' here, as I could hardly see anything in front of my hooves. However, several small beacons of light gave a facsimile of definition to my surroundings. Two other structures—now that I could see they were enormous stalactites—hung from an unseen ceiling to the right over a bottomless chasm. Greenish light glowed from windows and doorways on each tower, identifying the existence of two floors. On the left, light emanated from three separate chambers.

Our procession stopped in this courtyard. The other prisoners and I arranged ourselves into four rows. Shadows flitted to and fro, cutting through the meager light of the towers, and I saw large shapes climbing head-first down the cavern walls. Judging by their stature, I recognized these as the bear creatures from earlier who accompanied the thestral guards.

A litany of growls, screeches, and clanging metal filled the courtyard. The noise reverberated off the cavern walls, echoing and amplifying, and I tried to muffle it by pressing my ears against my skull. Behind the noise was a chant—a single word belted out in their language—as the strange ritual built into a crescendo.

A shadow passed over us, and a large shape landed a few paces before our procession. Four hooves touched the stone with a whisper, and the cavern grew silent. Wings, enormous and batlike, stretched between the two towers. Two slitted eyes glowed sickly green, and my breath hitched as I saw the silhouette of a horn atop this thestral's head. An alicorn… here?!

The horn lit, and motes of light flew out and floated like suspended starlight. For the first time since I woke up in my prison cell, I could see my surroundings. We stood on the precipice of a giant chasm overlooking a bottomless void that the light did not reach. Two stalactite towers stretched down from an unseen ceiling and ended somewhere below the ledge. Thestral guards, garbed in chainmail armor, and their bipedal beasts surrounded us, but the towering figure before me drew my gaze.

A thestral mare, lank and graceful, stood with her chin high and eyes burning into us with contempt. The horn, to my relief and curiosity, was a diadem placed on her brow. It glowed silver like moonlight that contrasted the dark miasma seeping from her eyes. She wore a white silken gown that clung to her flanks and wrapped in a crisscross pattern along her legs and neck. Her lips spread in a wicked sneer, revealing a pair of fangs long enough to pierce flesh.

"Greetings, my beloved guests," she purred as she sauntered past the prisoners. I hope you had a lovely meal. It's time for today's activities…"

There was something off about her voice. It warbled in my ear. Magic was involved, I was sure, and looking to my left and right at my fellow inmates confirmed my suspicions. They could understand her! My eyes were drawn to the artificial horn on her head. Was she, a non-unicorn, somehow casting advanced spells through the object? The implications astounded me, but I stowed the thoughts aside as she started speaking again.

"Ah, but we have some newcomers with us today, including a very special guest. A royal has decided to grace us with her presence, hailing from the halls of the Tyrant Sun herself. Please give her a warm welcome."

Several of the lights floated over my head, ruining any chance I had of being inconspicuous. The guards jeered, and a sharp pain shot through my flank from a thrown rock. I winced and saw the thestral mare grin. She approached, sliding through the prisoners' ranks, and stopped before me. Everyone else gave us a wide berth. Many of the other prisoners eyed me strangely as if noticing me for the first time, but my gaze met the eyes of my captor.

"You are a very long way from home, little pony. So very far from your scalding sun and decadent halls." she said, reaching up to brush a lock of matted mane away from my eye.

I flinched away, glaring at her, and I opened my mouth to—

Crack!

My jaw throbbed with white-hot pain, and a high-pitched whine ran in my ears. I was partially kneeling, knocked down by the mare who struck me across my face with her hoof. Biting back a sob of pain, I turned my face back up to her.

"Now, now… None of that. Here's how it's going to be. Here, princess, you are nothing. You are less than nothing. I am Mistress Ilvara of House Myzzrim, but you shall address me as Mistress, or Lady Myzzrim if I am feeling lenient. Accept your fate, learn to obey, and you may survive. If you disobey…?"

Ilvara levitated a rod that had three writhing tentacles sprouting from one end. She reeled back and, with a sickening crack, lashed Eldeth. All three tentacles struck true, and the diamond dog's eyes went wide as she arched her back. Her mouth hung open in a silent scream for what went like an eternity before she uttered a pained gasp and collapsed to the ground.

"Oh, I will so enjoy breaking you…" Ilvara whispered in my ear as I stared in shock. "Perhaps you will provide some much-needed levity for this wretched place. Your ultimate fate is Menzoberranzan and the Mistress of Nightmares. What state you get there, well, that is very much up to you…"

She sauntered away. Turning to one of the thestral guards, she spoke again.

"Shoor, divvy out today's tasks. Make sure to give our VIP something special."

A thestral stallion in studded black armor swaggered forward and held a small scroll. He looked very young, based on the few thestrals I'd encountered in service to Princess Luna, and was probably not any older than I was. A small black wand hung on one side, while a blade and a long, thin wooden pipe hung on the other. The thestral, Shoor, gave Ilvara a smirk as she turned away before unrolling the scroll. He cleared his throat and started barking words I didn't understand.

—

I gagged, my eyes watering, as I carefully picked the chamber pot up with my mouth. There was, fortunately, a handle to grab, so I didn't need to place my lips directly on the rim, but the smell. Oh, Celestia, the scent! The mushroom broth they were feeding us wasn't doing us any favors, and I was experiencing the results of our meager rations. If my fellow prisoners were faring any better or worse, they weren't showing it.

We were back in the dark, and I was shuffling my hooves across the floor. Though the dim lanterns gave off enough light to avoid running into a wall or walking off the ledge, it was still difficult to see what I was doing. The other two prisoners I was with were some sort of scrawny hairless diamond dog with abnormally large eyes, and the other was what I could only describe as a walking mushroom that came up to my withers.

The diamond dog muttered incessantly when our assigned guards were too far away to hear him. He dragged the chamber pot across the ground, its contents sloshing onto the stone, before tipping it over the edge to wherever it went below. His gaze landed on me frequently, and I recognized a studious look when I saw one. Our guards—more of the bear creatures—kept one eye on us as we worked.

The fungal creature, however, was having a hard time with it. It didn't seem to have any grasping appendages, only four stubby stalks for legs, so it had devised a clever method of pushing a pot up against the wall and leveraging it onto its back. The process was slow-going and messy, and more than once, it got a sharp rebuttal from the guards after taking too long or spilling.

I set my latest pot into the cleaning pile and shuffled over to the fungal creature as it struggled with its next one.

"Here," I whispered. "Let me help."

I nudged the handle up with my hoof and then, holding my breath, picked it up with my teeth. Careful not to spill, I gingerly set it on the creature's head, but as I pulled away, I heard a spritz like a discharge of compressed air, and a cloud of dust filled my nose and mouth. My throat seized, and I stumbled backward in a coughing fit that ended with a sneeze.

"Oh, sorry," a small voice whispered from nowhere. "I just wanted to say 'thank you' for the help."

"W-what?" I gasped, looking around before my gaze settled on the creature. "Was that you?"

"Yep! Sorry again. I forget that mammals aren't used to my rapport spores. Anyway, thank you for that. The bats like to give me jobs they know are hard for me."

"That doesn't seem very… efficient."

I blinked. This mushroom was speaking to me, and I was responding—the experience ranked in at least the top ten of the strangest things that have happened to me. My attention turned back to the fungus.

"No," it sighed. "No, it's not, but they're just bullies. They don't really care if it's done fast or good. They just want to laugh at me."

"Well I think you're doing a good job. What's your name? And, if I can be so blunt, what exactly are you? I've never seen anything like you before."

"Really? I thought everyone knew what myconids were! Oh, but the bad mare said you were from the surface, and I don't think there are many of us up there. What's it like up there? Is everything on fire? How do you not melt under the sun? Right, my name… Mammals apparently have a hard time saying our names, so you can call me Stool."

"No, nothing's on fire." I laughed. "Well, not always. At least not any more than usual, and the sun is only out about half the time. If it was, then everything probably would catch on fire, but Princess Celestia and Princess Luna keep the day and night on a regular schedule so that doesn't happen."

"Who are they?"

"Celestia is the one who raises and lowers the sun each day, and Luna, her younger sister, does the same with the moon. They rule Equestria together, though that hasn't always been the case."

Stool was very inquisitive for something I wouldn't expect to have a central nervous system, but that might have been my prejudices coming into play. It—or he, I wasn't sure—bombarded me with questions about me, the surface, and anything else he could think of. We passed the rest of the work shift like this. Stool and I assisted each other as best as we could without rousing the ire of the guards, and the diamond dog skulked and mumbled on the other side of the room.

We carried the chamber pots out of our pen, up to the edge, and emptied them. A water basin with thick-bristled brushes sat by the ledge for our use. It was disgusting work, and more than once, the guards shouted something at me before toppling the basin over, splashing filthy water over my hooves, and forcing me to go fill it up again. Once or twice, I had to heave over the ledge because of the stench.

By the time we finished, all three of us were filthy. I tried scrubbing the filth from my fur, but the guard knocked the basin over and took it away. A growl silenced my protests, and we were escorted back to the pen, still reeking of our labor.