Spotted great cats lunged from the dense underbrush, silent in their motions. Bright jumped back, dropping Rarity in the way.

The cat's arc carried it in the narrow space between them as Rarity began to fall, just to be caught by Bright before she got far. "Darling! Really, give me a bit of warning."

Sweetie lashed out a hoof, catching a cat across the snout in a punishing blow. "I already gave the warning. We're on duty."

The cats perked at once, ears turned off into the jungle. They dashed off as once, summoned by some unseen force.

Bright set Rarity down carefully. "Sweetie is right, no playing."

Rarity pouted a moment, but turned to where the cats had fled. "Darling, we do need to focus." She let her wings erupt from her back, assuming her full vampony guise. "We are being hunted, and I should imagine not just by cats."

Rarity's fangs glinted as she scanned the shadowy foliage intently. More snarls and snapping twigs echoed from all around them. The big cats had them surrounded.

Bright lifted Rarity again, freeing her to focus fully on their predicament. "I don't get it, didn't you say we were avoiding predator territory?" he asked Sweetie Drops nervously.

Sweetie Drops frowned, checking her tracking equipment. "We are! Something lured them here intentionally..." She pulled a flare gun from her supplies, firing it straight up with a thunderous boom.

The stalking cats shrieked, fleeing from the momentary firework burst. But the relief was short-lived. A far more blood-chilling howl rolled across the jungle from deeper within.

Rarity's ears flattened. "That sounded like no equestrian creature..." She bared her own fangs, hissing. "We may have escaped the frying pan only to face the fire, darlings!"

The very trees around them suddenly seemed to twist, shedding their mundane appearance. The shadows writhed with forms undefined...encroaching from every side.

Sweetie Drops racked the flare gun. "Stay together and keep moving! We'll outrun whatever has us in its sights..." But her voice lacked full conviction. What had they stumbled into? She glimpsed true fear in Rarity's glowing eyes. "Onwards! Don't look back!"

But that wasn't fear in Rarity's eyes. She leaped out of Bright's grasp, her wings carrying her aloft as she raised, rapidly lost to sight.

"Rares?" Bright was still running along as quickly as he could, scrambling over and through the thick plants all around them. "Where are we even going?!"

"Would that I--" Sweetie skidded to a stop, stones falling off the cliff ahead of her into the yawning valley before them. "--Nowhere..." She whirled away from the cliff, scowling. "We fight, or we lose, and I don't like what losing sounds like right now."

Dozens on dozens of baleful glowing eyes opened in the inky darkness, each a different color but unified in their hatred. The largest of them stepped from the deep blackness into dim view, bipedal, female, with rippling muscles on her feline form. "You hurt one of them... You have to pay for that."

Sweetie Drops gulped but stood her ground, flare gun aimed unwaveringly at the feline beast. "I acted in self-defense against one of your kind's unprovoked ambush."

The creature snarled, fangs glistening. More eyes and rumbling growls surrounded them as the pack moved in. Sweetie's mind raced - no way she and Bright could fight them all. Where was Rarity?

As if in answer, a piercing shriek suddenly split the air from above. Rarity dove swiftly, landing gracefully between Sweetie and the lead beast, wings flared dramatically.

"How dare you threaten my dear friends and try to make them your next meal!" Rarity declared. Her horn flashed, robes billowing as she manifested elegant but strong armor on Sweetie and Bright.

The alpha creature laughed coldly. "You side with these trespassers? Against your own kind?" It gestured to Rarity's fangs and bat wings. "You cannot deny your monstrous nature."

Rarity stood tall. "I side with those who show compassion and friendship - traits most 'civilized' beings sorely lack compared to my companions." She lit her horn, magical energy swirling. "I suggest you retreat respectfully before we all do something...regrettable.”

The pack leader hesitated, seeing Rarity unflinching. It growled reluctantly. "This place shall still be the death of you outsiders..." In a ripple of fur and claws, the creatures withdrew back into the darkness.

The trees around them slowly stopped writhing. Bright exhaled in relief. "Woah...Rares, you saved us! What now? Where'd you even go?!"

Rarity pointed upwards. "I could feel the real heart of things." She licked over a fang. "Hearts, darling, call to me... Call it an occupational 'thing'." She snorted as she approached the cliffside. "That kittty is menacing, but hardly the real threat. She just lives here." She pointed down into the void. "What we want is down there. I can smell it."

Sweetie closed in aside Rarity. "Why did you fly up just to point us down there? Where did you go? Be flat with me."

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Darling, I am beyond hungry. This kind of hunger, dear Bright couldn't help with. I want what this is. I could... I could smell it. Part of me wanted to leave you all behind and go after it."

Bright brought a hoof down on Rarity's withers, petting her from there down her back. "You stopped yourself and came back for us."

Rarity brightened at that. "Exactly, dear. I couldn't just leave you behind, darling thing..."

Sweetie stepped between them. "I'm glad you two are getting along, but let's keep our heads in the game, hm?"

Rarity cleared her throat, composing herself. "Quite right, we mustn't lose focus." She peered over the cliff's edge, eyes glowing faintly. "I sensed something...primal calling to me from the shadows in this valley. Whatever lured those creatures and twisted the land - it lies below."

Her horn lit up as she wove an illumination spell over the expanse. An immense ancient structure became visible, carved stones and pillars half-buried by earth and winding tree roots. The openings resembled gaping maws in a massive bestial face.

Sweetie Drops' eyes widened. "Is that what we're looking for? The map showed ruined cave tunnels, not a full temple..." She checked the prophecy text from the archives about a hidden magical relic guarded by beasts. "Perhaps the cave simply served as the lost entrance until vegetation buried it over generations..."

She secured a spike deep in the stone wall and tossed down a thick rope, lashed the other end around a tree. "This is our most direct path down. Unless you flyer feel like carrying us?"

Rarity re-manifested elegant gowns for the occasion on each of them. "While you more spelunker-ish types descend, we shall play welcoming party from on high to focus on a graceful landing." Her horn flashed, conjuring a glittering force bubble around herself and Bright. "Do take care, darling!"

Sweetie blinked as the two began descending magically. "I was... asking for myself." Grumbling, she grabbed the rope in a hug and her teeth, rappelling down the cliff side bounce by bounce.

"I swear to Celestia, she is playing favorites." But, then, it was hardly a mystery why she might do that. "We're on the same team... She could at least pretend." She landed on a small outcropping and heaved for breath. "I'd shout, but not in this place."

It was still light enough to see by so she did just that, leaning over the side. Far below, she could see ponies of stone and glowing runes, marching about for reasons unknown. "Right, great..." She slid down a bit further, continuing her descent. "We have a vampire, but she only really likes one of us. Lovely."

"Don't be like that." Rarity swooped in, curling her wings and legs around Sweetie in a fond, if uninvited, embrace. "My magic works easier on him, dear. We've shared blood, no few times. We are bound. You and I, dear, we have no such connection."

Somehow, the weight of Rarity didn't feel like it actually slow her down, so Sweetie Drop kept right on bounding down the cliff. "Where is he? You left him?"

"Somewhere safe." She pressed her cheek to Sweetie's. "We could become connected, you know. You have all that blood... All I need is a little sip... it didn't slow Bright down, you've seen it."

Sweetie Drops shuddered, shrinking from Rarity's too-close fangs. "Yeah...I'll pass hard on that kind of 'connection', thanks." She put on an extra burst of speed, hooves skidding down the rope.

Rarity kept pace easily, wisps of mist swirling around her graceful form. "Come now darling, no need to be shy," she cajoled. "Just one tiny nibble and you'll have all my magical defenses at your disposal!"

She waved a hoof idly. "Though I understand if you lack dear Bright's sense of whimsy and daring..." Rarity sighed theatrically. "Alas, not every pony can match that bold trust and thirst for excitement..."

Sweetie snorted, touching down on the gnarled roots snaking around the ancient structure's crumbling facade. "Yeah he's a real wild one - did you leave him napping in that bubble or something?"

She shook her head and clopped toward the dark entrance framed by twisting stone beasts. "Nevermind. We're on site now regardless..." She turned to Rarity, smirking. "Unless you and your human pet need more playtime first?"

Rarity huffed, landing gracefully beside her. "Such an uncouth implication! Bright knows my heart belongs first and foremost to fashion." She posed dramatically, a hoof to her brow. "But a lady vampire does have certain...appetites as well, after all."

With a wink, Rarity lit her horn to reveal the shadowy passage. "Shall we proceed at last to unearth these enticing secrets? I confess this ancient power does still...allure from below." Licking her fangs subtly, she strode fearlessly onward into the darkness.

Sweetie kept up easily. "I really do need to know where Bright is. We're a team, all three of us."

Rarity bumped sidelong into Sweetie. "Very well." Her horn glimmered as the bubbled Bright appeared. "Here he is. Bright, doing alright in there, darling?"

"That was dark." Bright looked a bit confused, but not upset. "Are we where we needed to go?"

Rarity willed the bubble away, leaving Bright to land on wobbly feet. "We're here, wherever 'here' happens to be."

"Dangerous." Sweetie tossed her head towards where she had seen the constructs roaming. "Don't go that way, guards. Rarity, can you smell which way we need to be?"

"This way," Rarity sang as she trotted forward, her wings giving a little flap as if cheerful. "We're getting closer. Whatever they're guarding, it isn't what I want."

Bright shrugged, walking between the ponies. "Might be worth checking out, you know, after this big thing?"

"Perhaps." Sweetie glanced away before refocusing on the path ahead of them. "One thing at a time. Whatever's ahead of us is setting off every alarm I know of."

The passage sloped ever downward, roots hanging through cracks overhead, stone walls carved with strange markings and gouges that spoke of beasts both mundane and magical. Their hoofsteps and footsteps echoed strangely as they descended single file down the crumbling stone steps.

Finally the passage opened up into an immense chamber, glints of treasure visible piled around the edges. But all other details faded to insignificance compared to what dominated the center.

There loomed a swirling vortex of unearthly energies, bound inside a towering ring of intricately carved obsidian. Glyphs and runes of eldritch purpose covered the surface, glowing with hungry menace. The very air thrummed with ancient power both wondrous and terrible...

Sweetie's jaw dropped in awe and alarm. She had come prepared for monsters or clashing magics, but nothing like this elder vortex now meter's away, flickering hungrily even contained. This 'relic' was no mere trinket but a still-burning ember straight from the earliest fiery forge of reality itself. Its potential stilled even Rarity's breath...

"What in Equestria is that?" Sweetie finally managed. She glanced to her companions uneasily. Would even Princess Luna or Celestia know what primordial forces slumbered in this lost abyssal prison? One wrong step could unleash literal hell...

Author's Note

Cats and golems and runes, oh my! Day 3/28

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