The Nameless Horrors That Shouldn't Be (Derpy II)

Don't stop now. Wake up!

The voice rang through her head. That was all it took, and a split second after they landed in the sea of stars, closing their eyes to rest, they immediately threw them open again, because it wasn't over yet. She was beneath the water, this time Octavia helped both her and Twilight up. This was one of those times where she regretted never having learned to swim.

They said after you ate you couldn't do it for an hour and somehow Derpy had always managed to eat something and then after an hour she had eaten another thing and therefore never even touched water deep enough to swim in. Still, she didn't curse her love for food or muffins, because muffins were worth most sacrifices. Though that sentiment appeared to be rather problematic at this very moment, it didn't come to matter much as they emerged from the water. Twilight immediately stated the obvious.

"It's another cave. Look, there's more crystals in the ceiling."

Derpy did as she was told and there really were a lot of crystals up in the sky, glowing in a strange, faint light. There also was a darkness, spreading from the hole they had just jumped through, swallowing one light after the other. They had escaped that thing for now, but it was still coming. Derpy looked at Octavia.

She looked different, not only her eye color but also a tint in her hair and something else. "That's a beautiful necklace," the grey pegasus said with a bit of a grin.

Octavia looked at her friend wondering, before she turned her eyes downwards and stared right at the thing that had appeared around her neck. It was gold with a gem shaped like a treble clef at its front. Really, Derpy found it very beautiful. The earth pony decided to ignore it, though, and looked around. That was when Derpy spotted Raindrops and Lyra, too. There was a quick exchange which ended in them agreeing that everypony was fine.

"We're in the middle of a lake in a cave we don't know the size of, and for some reason I don't think Magia isn't going to give up now," Twilight said, worriedly looking at the eerie blackness that spread out far above them. Derpy looked left and right then, not finding any land in sight.

"We're stuck," she said holding onto her friends so she wouldn't drown. Flying was out of question now with her wings wet, too. Because if everything could go wrong, it would.

"Actually," Lyra corrected her, "Look behind us."

They all turned to find a small patch of land leading to the exit just a few meters away from them.

"How convenient," Octavia quipped.

"Yup, first time I have to congratulate whoever designed this place," Lyra threw back with a laughter as they started moving towards it. Derpy had to agree, especially after that unnecessary long walk by the river. Still, as they reached the ground the ugly cracking began again, far above them, heralding the vile beast's wish to do bad things to them. Derpy understood that much and really, she didn't want to know much more. By this point getting closer to the Lunarium just meant getting closer to home once more. That's what she had to tell herself now.

They didn't waste much time and instead Derpy just helped Twilight out of the water, and they moved into the dark corridors of this hall, Lyra immediately lighting up another orb. Such a simple spell, yet it was probably the most useful thing they had. Derpy found that was only because of a lack of muffins, though. These things made everything easier in her opinion. Still, there wasn't much time to think on that as they hurried through another blackness.

Derpy noted for herself that the only difference between this one and the other had to be that you could actually hear and feel that something bad was happening all around you. All that, despite them being in just a dark corridor with nothing in it. The pegasus still tried to keep her act together. She was utterly terrified of being in the dark. Mainly because the other fillies in the neighbourhood had told her that Madame Hooves had lost her voice in the darkness. Really, she didn't feel like losing her voice. It was a wonderful voice and both her mommy and daddy were proud of it. She was glad to have Twilight by her side, that made everything so much easier.

As they walked through the blackness, though. She felt fear creeping up to her. Derpy needed something to kill the silence with, something good to talk about. "What were those things?" She asked and immediately regretted it.

"Well. . . I read stories about things coming with the Night Terrors. 'The nameless horrors that shouldn't be', they were called in one story and another called them 'shadows of a greater threat'. I think, they're the candy clouds from before," Twilight told her friend between breaths.

Lyra looked over her shoulder. In the light her aquamarine coat looked wonderful and she too had a golden necklace. "I liked them better when they had moustaches. They looked tasty then, now they're just icky." The aquamarine filly with the golden harp on her flank shuddered as she said that. Derpy felt inclined to agree with her, too. They were icky.

Then came the long silence and Twilight looked at Octavia, whose rump presented the same symbol as her necklace. "Tavi?" she asked.

"Yes Twilight?"

"That amulet you have there. . . I think, that's the one that belongs to the Element of Honesty." She said. There was a long pause.

"Well, Lyra and Derpy are wearing those, too." Octavia answered with matter of factly.

"Yeah, I noticed when we were falling," Lyra said. "I mean- Wait, Derpy?"

Everypony stopped and looked at the grey pegasus, who just stared in utter amazement at them. "What?" She asked and Twilight leaned a bit away from her.

"You even got a Cutie Mark. . ." The brown filly said utterly amazed.

"What does that mean?" Raindrops suddenly threw in. It was the one question everypony was asking themselves now.

"It probably means we're getting closer to the Lunarium. I've been hearing a new voice in my head, too." Twilight answered

Lyra threw her hooves in the air,"Uuuh, I heard a voice, too!"

"Me, too," Raindrops said and Derpy just stared in silent confusion, "A nice one, too!"

"That hopefully means we're on the right way. This is going better than I anticipated," Octavia told them and that was when the horrible noise appeared behind them again. A sudden screech, a cry of pain that made everypony yelp and frightened Derpy so much that she immediately sat down, since comfort and feeling safe were pretty close to the same thing to her.

There was a moment of complete silence and then the sound of rock cracking came.

"Did you hear that?" Twilight asked.

"Hear what?" Octavia replied.

Once more.

Everypony stared at Derpy who stood up and looked beneath her and the crack widened.

"What did you do?" Octavia asked terrified, as the crack reached the wall.

"I don't know," was all the answer she got and then the screeching came once more and the crack widened quicker, going up the wall, with small rocks breaking out of it. That was when Twilight's eyes widened in realization.

"Run!" she screamed and suddenly everypony found new, yet unused strength in their legs as they hurried down the corridor with the tunnel collapsing behind them. All but Twilight, who had immediately been grabbed by the pegasus and was carried on the back. Derpy didn't even know what exactly was going on, only that it was bad and that she had to get her friend out of here safely.

"What did you do, Derpy?" Raindrops screamed as they hurried through the darkness, everything falling down behind them.

Derpy only had one answer, the one sure answer. "I just don't know what went wrong!"

The moment she finished that sentence the corridor suddenly became wide as a room and the collapse stopped just with the tunnel, leaving the larger cave. Derpy was breathing heavily, trying to figure out just what had happened and what she had done wrong. She leaned down and Twilight got off her friend's back, shaken but otherwise as well as she was before. Derpy half figured everypony to be mad at her but found herself suddenly hugged by Lyra.

"You brilliant pony," the filly said with bright happiness, "now those things will never get to us."

The grey pegasus with the golden eyes and blonde mane found herself blinking, but the warmth sank in and a smile formed on her face. Bubbles she had for a Cutie Mark and her hooves felt that there was water in this cave once more, but only a little. Still, she had done something right, even though she hadn't intended to do anything. That alone meant the world to her.

As Lyra stopped her hugging Derpy was immediately embraced by Twilight. "Thanks," she said, "I don't think I could've outrun that on my own."

"It's no problem. Anypony would've done the same."

"I don't think so Derpy," Twilight told her, "I think that was very kind of you. Really. Thank you. . . Thank you." She said and was in tears now. Derpy didn't quite get it but decided to hug her back. That was the right thing to do. As long as her friends were happy, she was happy and that was all there was to it.