The Shadows' Wrath

The Shadows' Wrath

Prologue

(The prologue is probably going to be boring, but that‘s what prologues are, boring first segments that start the wheels of motion that lead to something better)

(I'm going to finish the story before coming back to re-edit grammatical errors so bear with me, and try to ignore the mistakes)

Warning: There is no gore in this chapter!

"Did you get rid of it?"

The miner looked at the foreman, watching his workers mine rock and dig into dirt to find metal or minerals. "Yes, but-"

"But what?" The foreman interrupted.

"The boulder, it didn't crack open, it fell?" The miner pointed to a hole in the excavated cave.

"You know what that means then don't ya?!" The foreman eyes lit almost wanting to kiss his worker.

"No..."

"It means we found a cavern; and when there's a cavern there's treasure to be found!"

These miner ponies worked for a rather ignorant and arrogant boss. Thinking that whatever they found would make him rich. If a worker didn't mine the way he thought was the proper way he'd lecture them on how to use a pick-axe properly, often doing worse than the pony he was correcting. Whatever this cavern was, it made the foreman see bits being showered over him, and seeing himself get a raise from the CEO of the company. Strange how the company is called the 'Silver Stall' yet no one has  found silver, just some other metal or gems.

“Well, what are you waiting for!? Get down there and start excavating!”

Thinking back, the miner remembered his father telling him that mining would lead him to riches beyond his dreams, of course it was because he said that that he wanted to be a miner too, instead of following his own goals. Hoping to find priceless gem stones or discover a cave of  gold, not being bossed around by some idiot foreman, he regret listening to his father’s words.

“Yes sir.” The miner grabbed a  rope and tied it to a near stalagmite. He dropped a torch down the hole just to see how deep it really was. 1-2-3-4-5.……14-15-16-17. The well was deeper than he anticipated. Seventeen seconds deep!? That’s a long way down!

He attached himself to the rope with a clip and descended down the hole. He turned on the flashlight attached to his helmet just to see how big the cavern was. “By Celestia…” His mouth agape at the sight. The cavern was enormous, much bigger then he thought as well. It was well large enough to hold a small community, just like back home at the ‘Trade Corral’. Very wide and open, only thing missing was a spring. There was no way he could get to the bottom, the ground below had to be at least a thousand feet deep. Looking around to see if there was anything else he found a large ledge that could support him, and a whole team of miners. Yanking the rope, he was pulled up back through the hole to give his analysis.

“Well, how big is it?”

“It’s massive sir. I don’t think I’ve seen a cavern so big before.

“Then what are doing up here then!? Get down there and start mining!”

“Yes sir.”

-

A team of miners went down the hole, all attached to the same rope. The miner before them pointed to the ledge that would be safe enough for them to start their operation.

Detaching themselves from their support they all stood in awe at this natural monument. Though not being able to see all the cavern with just flashlights, the size still took them.

“Hey uh fellas, ya’ll might wanna look at this.” Another miner said. “There’s a pathway leading into the rock.” He said while the other miners pointed their helmet lights to him.

“A pathway?”

“Yeah, it descends too, look.” He was mentioning how the path went downward. Shining a few more lights they could see the ledge was actually the beginning of a stairwell. “What is this? Some kind of underground city?”

“Yeah a city, I’m pretty sure that’s why there’s no buildings.” One the miners shot a smartass comment.

The other gave him an annoyed look and went for the rope and yanked it, then attached himself to it.

-

“Find anything?” The foreman asked  surprised to see one of his miners coming up.

“There’s a stairwell that descends downward, I think it might lead to the bottom.”

“Then get to it, the sooner you reach the bottom, the better.”

-

Once back down onto the ledge, the miner team descended into darkness as the stairwell lead deeper into the cavern. “Hey, ya’ll think there were ponies here before and built these stairs.”

“Maybe, but why down here?”

“Maybe they didn’t like to go outside.”

“Doubt it, c’mon lets keep moving.”

Each step they took was with caution, the steps were narrow and not very wide, one wrong move and one could fall down. The stair case just lead to another ledge but again there was another stairwell leading deeper. “One of us go back up to the first ledge, just to see how far we got.”

One volunteered and headed back up the stairs to the first ledge and waved his helmet light. To the rest of the miners surprise they actually went down a lot deeper than they thought. A good three-hundred feet maybe. That wasn’t important to them though, reaching the bottom was what they wanted.

-

Several ledges later they eventually arrived at he bottom, looking up they saw their colleague’s light, but very faint.

Scattering, the miners wanted to move around and explore.

After a couple minutes they all met back at the stairwell to start discussing where to start mining.

“Okay any pony have any ideas where to start?”

“I don’t think we need to mine.” One the miners said pulling out something form behind him. “Check out what I found!” The miner pulled out a crystal from hiding behind him.

“Where’d you find that?!” One of others demanded.

“I just found it, it was sitting on a stand or something, just sitting there as if some pony forgot it.”

“And you just so happened to stumble across it?” A miner asked suspiciously.

“Yup, pretty much.”

“Wait a minute, am I the only one noticing this, that crystal’s glowing.” One of them pointed out.

“Hmm, oh yeah I thought that was weird when I found it, but didn’t think much because of all the other ones that were glowing.”

“There’s more!?”

“Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of them, over in a cave over here.” The miner began walking toward where he found the first crystal.

Following the other miner they saw that he wasn’t bluffing or telling a story when he said there were a bunch of them, but a bunch was probably a small term compared to the amount they saw. In the cave there were hundreds maybe thousands of these crystals. What took them by surprise was the fact that every crystal was sitting on a stand. Gruesome looking stands actually, each one was jagged and at the very tip where the crystal sat there were stone talons that kept the gem in place.

“I thought you said you just picked it up as if someone forgot it.”

“I did, it was sitting on a stand and I just, well not pick up, but plucked it out of the stand.” He said still admiring the crystal he held.

“Some pony go tell the foreman that we found something, and don’t start taking the crystals I don’t think that’s a good idea, this place might be booby trapped.”

One of the pony miners left and headed back up the stairwell to report their findings.

-

“You found what?!”

“Glowing crystals. There’s a cave down in cavern that’s filled with them!”

“What are we waiting for then, set up operations down there and start hauling them up! I’ll send another team down with yours to help out.”

-

Several days had passed, making the stairwell more safe to travel by setting up small wooden fences to prevent some clumsy pony from falling. The crystals were being plucked from their stands, some harder to pull out than others because the talons had a good grip on them. The miners started to figure the crystal’s true color too, when light hit the gem it stopped glowing, of course, but the color was a dark purple. Each gem had been cut too,  making them all perfect prisms. Some of the miner’s were a little superstitious though, saying that taking the gems is a bad omen, but the foreman just yelled at them for that, saying that this place was just another mine that needed to be cleansed of its treasures. Whatever the case maybe, they all knew that when they got home at the ‘Trade Corral’ these crystals were going to sell fast, it’s not everyday a pony gets their hooves on a glowing gem stone.

-

The cavern didn’t just have the crystals though there were other treasures in there. One of the miners found a massive geode, and another found a large outcrop of topaz. The more they found the more happy the foreman was,…that was until they came across the metal door. Engraved with old runes and markings they figured that they were actually in some kind of safe, considering they sort of cheated their way in and took everything. The door made the miners shudder, not by it’s large size but because the runes weren’t all that was engraved in the alloy. There were claw marks, lots of them. Thinking that something was trying to get out, the superstition tensed. Many of the miners had spent enough time in the cavern and wanted to go home and sell what they found, or they wanted to just leave because of paranoia caused by the marks.

-

It wasn’t until half a week later when they were returning home to deliver what was found.

The Trade Corral was rather a small business town that had several different shops and general stores. A lot hikers and travelers came though to buy supplies or just get a souvenir. After delivering the crystals however, that’s what ponies wanted, it was new and interesting. But selling their product would have to wait, they had to conclude a price. !50 bits a piece seemed reasonable, considering that these crystals might be the only in existence. When finally they could be sold, the news of the new gem hit all around Equestria and many were ordered due to the fact the ‘Trade Corral’ was an isolated settlement in the mountains, so getting there was difficult, unless one was a pegasus. There first order came form a unicorn by the name of… “Rarity?”

“Mmhmm, she’ll be the first to receive one these treasures.” The Silver Stall CEO informed the foreman of their first buyer. “Get a crystal and send it to her, I would love to see what our first consumer of this gem thinks.”

“Right away sir.” The foreman immediately went to the Silver Stall general good store and wrapped up a gem, then sent the package to the pony express.

Going back to the Silver Stall he stopped to admire the crystals as they continued to glow. “You’re going to make us rich.” He cooed to the other gems piled up in a vault before heading home.

-

Though the miners went home, some of the others had to stay behind and watch over the mine.

“Hey I’m going to go take another look in the cave just to see if we missed anything.” The miners were sitting by a campfire at the bottom of the cavern.

“Okay, but don’t take too long, this place creeps me out.” The other pony shivered.

“Fine, I’ll bring back anything that I find okay.” He went off to the direction of the cave.

The miner pony that was left by the campfire just pondered, being superstitious his thoughts lead him to the recalling of the giant metal door. “What’s up with the claw marks? Where does the door lead to?” These questions kept his mind flowing, but before he knew it he was drifting off and didn’t notice his fellow miner did not come back.

-

Searching the cave for anything the miners missed he came across one of the crystals lying down by its stand. At least he wasn’t going to go back empty hooved, might give it to the Mrs.  as a gift. “This thing sure is pretty, I’d like to see the look on her face when I put you in her hooves.” He said to the gem.

The crystal didn’t respond, of course, but it did do something out of the ordinary,…it stopped glowing.

-

Back at the vault in the silver stall, all the crystals started to glow faintly until they were just nothing but a dark purple crystals.

The foreman was back at home asleep in his bed. The CEO allowed him to keep a gem at no charge because he led the teams that found them. What would seem to be a good night light would actually turn into something horrifying.

-

“Sheesh it’s been over two hours now. Where is he?” The miner tapped his hoof in frustration. Tapping his hoof like an angry mare wasn’t going to do any good though, he was just going to have to look for him; it’s a small cave so it shouldn’t take him too long.

After entering where all the plundered stands stood he could see his fellow miner’s helmet on the ground. “Hey, why’d you take your helmet off, you’re going to get hit on the head by something if you don’t put it back on!”

There was no reply, and he figured that his colleague just wanted to spook him. “C’mon this isn’t funny, come out.” He would think that his fellow miner would be more mature than play these childish games but he guessed he was wrong. He didn’t like what he was about to do, going to have to drag the other out like a child but at a consequence of being scared senseless.

Hearing a noise to his right he pointed his helmet light toward the source and saw his colleague trying to hide.

“Aww c’mon,  I was gunna get you good too.” The miner whined like a foal.

“If you would’ve I’d probably kill you.”

“Pfft, no you wouldn’t.” He said putting his helmet back on. “But why’d you leave earlier. I was all set to scare you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You came in here about thirty minutes ago right.”

“No…”

The miner‘s childish smile turned serious and alert, someone else was in here with them.

“Then that means some pony else is-” He stopped and his mouth started to gape at the red eyes forming behind his co-miner. Before he could tell his fellow miner what he was seeing, he as forcefully pulled to the ground and dragged off in the darkness, screaming as he went, leaving behind his helmet. The other miner panicked and headed for the stairwell only to meet the same eyes on the floor that he saw drag off his partner. Glaring at the eyes was all he could do, they had him petrified with fear. But if fear wasn’t enough, the eyes started to rise from the cold floor and a smoky black shape started to appear before him. The sight looked like it crawled right out of a nightmare and into reality. Though standing still did nothing but prove that he was an easy target, so he bolted again for the stairwell. Before he reached the steps the last thing he saw were four black jagged claws reaching out and engulfing his head.

-

All was quiet, the cavern was dead, but had an additional two bodies to be added for its collection, and many more to come. There would be no warning for the ponies back home, just hope that they would soon figure out what was coming to them; but why hope and figure out what was going on when the town was already being plagued. What was thought to lead them to wealth would bring destruction and sorrow for the rest of land. The crypt , not being disturbed for thousands of years because of being shut away. The miners opened it. The crystals, once serving as their prisons.They’ve been unleashed. They want revenge. The land of Equestria will now suffer ‘The Shadows' Wrath‘.