The Monument to All Your Sins.

When Twilight summoned all the elements of harmony to undertake a strange excursion into the depths of the forest, she received many questions.

Her friends were somewhat uneasy due to the bizarreness of the situation, a couple of days ago they were shocked by the attack against the princess and Twilight herself, only to find themselves now with a nervous and sleepless alicorn asking for help to explore the ancient castle of the two sisters, it was certainly a situation that deserved an explanation, however Twilight managed to dispel the doubts and concerns enough for them to follow her through the village and then on its outskirts to where they were now, walking in silence.

“So...what are we doing?” asked Rainbow Dash breaking the silence as she fluttered absentmindedly around her friends.

“I already told you Rainbow, I need your help to check a deep section of the castle...” replied Twilight without turning to look at the little pegasus.

“Yes you already said that but I mean, why exactly are we doing it...” replied the rainbow haired mare.

Twilight didn't respond, with Rainbow Dash resigned and with silence threatening to take over again Applejack spoke up.

“I...I'm sorry Twilight...” the tall farm pony began to say ”But I think what Rainbow really means is, you've been acting very strange...”

Her comment was followed by Rarity's voice, as if Applejack had given the conversation the green light.

“She's right dear, you do look disheveled and dirty, no offense intended but have you even slept lately?”

“Yes! You look like a melted cupcake that fell on the floor!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she pranced around in front of the alicorn.

Twilight's countenance was serious, keeping her eyes straight ahead with her eyes sunken and full of dark circles under her eyes.

“I'm fine girls...everything will be fine ...when we get this over with” the last she said almost as a whisper, but one that was heard by all present who shared worried looks, pausing for a second before continuing the silent march after their friend.

Finally, after a couple of hours of walking the ponies and the dragon were in front of the ruins of the gigantic castle.

“Well, here we are Now what?” asked Applejack trying to give an air of nonchalance in her voice.

“Follow me” said Twilight dryly heading for the bridge that led to the main entrance.

As she walked Twilight couldn't help but reminisce about the first time she had been in that castle, the night she had joined and meet the ponies who, now, were her best friends, the friends she had gone through a thousand troubles with, the friends she had saved Equestria with, the friends she had come to love and trust like no other pony or non-pony, those friends she was now hiding a possible truth from, possibly the most important truth in the history of Equestria.
Despite these thoughts Twilight stood her ground, she could not tell them, not yet, not without being sure, she had to be sure.

As the six ponies and the dragon entered through the front door a shiver ran down the alicorn's spine, she didn't know if it was due to her lack of sleep or her nervousness, she turned to see her friends, stopped due to Fluttershy standing transfixed right on the threshold.

“Come on Fluttershy you've been here a million times before!” exclaimed Rainbow with a tired face.

“That...that...that...that...that doesn't matter, every time I come near this place I can't help but feel terrified.”

“You do know that the tree of harmony grew here don't you?” asked Pinkie with a smile on her face making Fluttershy relax a little.

“Exactly sweetie!” continued Applejack as she walked towards Twilight ‘The tree, the purest display of Equestria's magical power, germinated right underneath these ruins, from that logic, nothing bad can come from them...’ the muscled pony gave a forced smile to the lanky yellow pegasus as she approached the alicorn and bent down to whisper to her.

“There's nothing wrong here or is there Twilight?”

The alicorn turned to look at her friend with a worried expression.

“You've been very cautious about our reason for being here and I respect that, but if there is something dangerous at the end of this journey we need to know so we can be prepared” Applejack watched as her friend seemed to sink deep in thought, falling silent for a long moment before devoting a response to her, which for the first time all day seemed sincere.

“The truth...I have no idea Applejack...” confessed Twilight ‘I don't know what we're looking for or if it's dangerous, I don't even know if we're looking for something...’ the alicorn's breathing began to get out of control, being noticed by the cowgirl who, making use of her protective side tried to reassure her friend.

“All right, all right, easy Twilight, tell me what do you do know?” the earth pony gave her a smile and a comforting hoof on the shoulder but the alicorn's response did not return the same warmth, she looked at her with her empty eyes, with an expression that could only be described as the beginnings of paranoia.

“What do I need to know...” was all she said before resuming her march and walking away from Applejack's hoove, she's worried and rethinking about this little excursion she simply sighed and followed her friend.

As the mares made their way through the dark ruined corridors; Pinkie Pie and Rainbow were joking, nudging each other and laughing, Rarity was doing her best not to dirty her fur or mane with the cobwebs and abundant dust, Fluttershy was walking shyly as far away from the walls as possible, remembering the amount of trap doors and secret passages the place had, finally Applejack was walking steadily right behind Twilight who was holding the scroll with the outline of the castle with her magic, modified with Starlight's help to make it less confusing. Every now and then Twilight would glance over her shoulder, meeting Applejack's serious gaze upon her, only to try to ignore it and turn her eyes back to the front.

After turning through many corridors and going down many stairs the surroundings began to darken, to such an extent that both Rarity and Twilight had to light their horns to illuminate their walk without fear of falling through a hole in the floor.

“Iugh!” exclaimed the white unicorn as she noticed she had stepped in a ball of dust and dirt ”Yuck!...I didn't know this castle was so big...and so deep!”

“Me neither” said Pinkie as she walked around with her mane covered in cobwebs.

“This is...a little spookier than I remembered” mentioned Rainbow Dash as she flew carefully avoiding the loose beams in the ceiling.

“I'm sure it's just an excess of dust and spiders Right Twilight?” asked Applejack in a somewhat inquisitive tone to the unicorn leading the walk who, again, offered no answer, causing the farm girl to frown.

Finally, rounding a last corner, the group found themselves in front of a room that, once upon a time, must have been a wine cellar, elongated and with an arched ceiling, some old and rotten barrels still lying inserted in the wall.
The mare and the dragon advanced towards the back of the room as Twilight took one last look at the map, verifying that indeed, they were in the room with the x's.

“Good, we're here!” cried Twilight as she shone her horn brighter, illuminating the room completely.

They all scanned the room from top to bottom, finding the fact that it looked exactly the same as the other rooms they had passed.

“So...is something supposed to happen?” asked Rainbow Dash after a moment of silence.

“Ach I don't know, it looks like the same horribly dirty and stinky picture to me” said rarity with a certain tone of indignation.

“Are you sure you followed that map right Twilight?” exclaimed Applejack looking accusingly at the alicorn who was frantically looking back and forth muttering.

When she received no response again the farm pony became fed up, shouting in a palpable tone of annoyance.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” The shout made everyone startle.

“Can you tell us once and for all! What pens are we doing here!”

Twilight looked at her friends with a dismayed expression stammering before replying.

“N...no..I...this...should be here, should be here...”

“Let me get this straight...” began Rainbow ‘You summoned us for a supposed emergency, begged us for help, dragged us through the forest and into the interior of a ruined castle And you didn't even know if what you were looking for was here?’ the pegasus began to hover over the alicorn.

“Truth be told dear is this so much mystery for this? I'm honestly very disappointed...” began Rarity before denoting her alicorn friend's increasingly less peaceful expression, calming down and trying to approach from a more considerate angle.

“Dear is this because of what happened at your coronation...you've been really weird since then...we're worried about you” the white unicorn stepped forward.

“Being honest...it scares us a little...” finally said Fluttershy, stepping closer as well.

From one moment to the next the room was filled with voices, a barrage of questions and complaints reached Twilight's ears and she was still dismayed and speechless. The voices gradually rose more and more one on top of the other at Twilight's apparent refusal to answer, until suddenly a cheerful voice interrupted all at once.

“Hey Twilight why didn't you tell me that graffiti artists existed in the past, that's super awesome...!”

The comment threw everyone off, everyone turned to see Pinkie in the deepest part of the room, inspecting the wall.

“What Pinkie thing...?” the alicorn finally said.

“Yes! Someone put graffiti on this wall” Pinkie pointed at the wall as the rest of them approached.

It was subtle, barely noticeable, but the pink pony was right, on the back wall of the room was a series of lines that appeared to be painted, the color was off-white and semi-transparent, obviously worn impossibly by time.
Everyone looked at it intently trying to make sense of the lines until Rainbow exclaimed excitedly.

“It's a door!” the pegasus flew at the top of the wall realizing that the lines met in a rough arc, being the near perfect silhouette of a huge door.

“Or at least the drawing of one...” said Applejack as she touched the wall pressing lightly.

“And look!” Rarity exclaimed as she pointed at the ground with the light from her horn, revealing a series of marks on the dusty ground that appeared to be a trail of footprints leading to the wall....

“But how is that possible?” said Fluttershy intrigued at the seemingly meaningless scenes.

Twilight approached, examining the footsteps closely, these, seemed to go through the wall and continue on, the alicorn began to press her brain in an attempt to comprehend what she was seeing when a new shrill booming voice manifested.

“Twilight!”

The mare jumped due to Pinkie having yelled almost in her ear.

“What, what's wrong?” she asked in exultation.

“Look!”

Everyone stared in wonder, shocked at the sight, somehow the lines on the door had begun to glow in a golden hue that lit up the room in an instant.
Twilight took a couple of steps back in surprise and the instant she did the glow disappeared.

“What...?” said Twilight in a whisper.

“Come closer again” said Applejack just as impressed.

The alicorn approached the wall again and it glowed again, the closer Twilight got the more the door glowed.

“But what is this?” said Rarity marveling at the beautiful glow.

“I have no idea...” replied the alicorn as her paw touched the stone wall.

In that instant the flash became even more powerful, there was a sound of stone moving and in an instant the wall had become a dark passage plunging into the earth.
Everyone was shocked by the discovery, standing completely still for a long time before reacting.

“I can't believe it...” said Twilight quietly, it was real, it was impossible but it was real, at least the beginning.

“Where does this tunnel lead to?” said Applejack taking a couple of steps and peeking out.

“A super secret passageway, that's twenty percent cooler!” exclaimed Rainbow flying right over Applejack to also peer into the opening.

“And where do you think...what...what does it lead to?” asked Fluttershy with a nervous tone in her voice.

“I don't know...” said Twilight as she moved towards the entrance ‘But that's what we came here to find out’ and without further ado, the alicorn took a step inside.

The moment she crossed the threshold of the entrance, Twilight's whole body shuddered, it felt as if an electric current ran through her entire body from the tips of her paws to her horn, all her fur bristled and she felt a deep shiver that made her nauseous, the impact left her completely transfixed right where she was, completely still until she heard a voice call out to her, the voice sounded distant and muffled.

“Twilight! Twilight! Are you okay?” Applejack was tapping her shoulder from behind trying to wake her up.

The alicorn thought her face must have been all a painting since when she turned to see her companions they all put a frightened expression on their faces, in the end the only thing the purple mare managed to say with her dry throat was.

“Come down.... come down carefully...”

Twilight was sure that all her friends and her dragon brother had felt the shiver as they crossed over the threshold, she could even swear she heard Fluttershy cough.
The small slope curved to the left that extended for a few meters until it gave way to stairs carved into the stone that began to descend even further, the mares cautiously descended the stairs, gradually entering a darkness even worse than that of the castle's corridors.
The passageway widened the further they descended to the point where it ended up dubiously leading to what appeared to be a cavern, something that was only deducible due to the echoing sound and the solid rock wall to which the stairs were attached, which continued to descend further and further. Beyond that any guess as to where they were was impossible, because the darkness was so deep that they couldn't see more than a few steps ahead.

“Hey Twilight...” spoke spike to the alicorn in a low voice as he walked beside her.

“What's up Spike?” she asked back also trying to be quiet.

“I just remembered something else the mare told me when she handed me the scroll...”

Twilight looked at the little dragon who was starting to turn green from nausea and was having a hard time keeping up, seeing this the alicorn flashed her horn and pulled him up onto her back to help him.

“What thing Spike, what thing did he say to you?” she asked still whispering.

“He told me...beware if you wish to know the answers, what dwells there was left for no one to ever know the truth.”

Spike's words made the mare even more nervous who, for the first time since the adventure began, had the idea to consider and give up.

The mares continued to descend for a long long time, Rainbow Dash had even offered to fly down to see where the stairs ended or if they even ended up in one place, but Twilight prevented her, in her opinion, it was safer to stay together.

The further they descended the discomfort they had felt from the doorway intensified, soon they began to feel dizzy and disoriented, their vision became blurred and their legs felt weak. Just as Twilight was about to give up on her descent the light from her horn reached what appeared to be the bottom of the stairs.
Finally taking the last few steps and stepping onto solid ground Twilight turned to check on her friends; Applejack, who was coming right behind her, was the one who seemed to be the least affected, she was steady and standing but the alicorn could have sworn she saw her paws shaking slightly, next Rarity was sweating profusely, with her magic she had materialized a small stool to sit on while trying to arrange her mane so it wouldn't be damaged, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash seemed to be fine, they were holding Fluttershy who seemed about to faint and was leaning against the wall.

After checking that all her friends were well enough Twilight refocused her sight on the dark panorama in front of them, the only thing that could be seen was darkness, the light from the horns only let her see a cold rocky and uneven ground under her legs and the wall behind her back, Twilight considered it, She waited to hear something, any of the usual sounds of a cavern, but there was nothing, it was an absolute silence, finally and after being sure that the alicorn did not hear anything that could be dangerous she shone her horn even more, flashing and finally letting everyone see the place where they were.

The place was, as she had deduced, a huge cavern, the distance covered by the light allowing to see several stalagmites of different sizes protruding from the floor which extended in all directions to beyond the light, the ceiling, was so high that it also escaped any hint of light that the alicorn could generate, giving the impression that the cavern had no end.

It took them all a moment to assimilate the magnitude of the space they were in, until finally the silence was broken.

“What is this place?” asked Applejack approaching Twilight.

“I don't know, I've never seen anything like it...” replied the alicorn unable to stop staring into the void.

“Why is this...under Celestia and Luna's castle?” asked Rarity with an exhausted voice.

“I don't know...” Purple Mare said again.

“What's this strange feeling that's making my tummy churn?” asked Pinkie with a pout, she seemed to be the least affected.

“I don't know either...” she finished saying, in the same emotionless tone.

“Well, then what do you do know?” asked Applejack again.

Twilight looked in all directions, she wasn't sure what the next step was, it wasn't until she found herself looking ahead, along the wall they were on, that she noticed that the ground seemed to sink further ahead.

“I think, I think it's this way....” she mentioned and without waiting for her friends, she started walking.

The others followed, and sure enough, a few meters further along the wall the ground began to slope steeply, taking them even deeper.

Little by little the terrain became rockier and more difficult, with loose stones and a steeper and steeper descent. At one point the advance is interrupted by a call from Rainbow.

“Hey! stop!” everyone stumbles to a halt trying to keep their balance on the sloping ground.

“Fluttershy is not well, we must stop” everyone turned to look at the poor skinny pegasus who could barely stand, sweating profusely and almost crying.

“There's something very wrong with this place, we must go back!” exclaimed the blue pegasus holding her friend so she wouldn't collapse and fall.

They all looked at each other with concern, except Twilight who maintained a stoic look.

“Maybe...maybe you're right Rainbow Dash...” finally said Applejack.

“What!” exclaimed Twilight angrily at her friend's blunt comment.

“Twilight please look at us, this place is hurting us, we should go back and think about it more carefully” said the farm girl as she took a step backwards to go towards Fluttershy.

Twilight looked for support in the eyes of one of her other friends but found the same kind of frightened and uneasy expression on all of them, none of them seemed willing to continue, in a moment of anger the alicorn gritted her teeth and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“OK!!! If you want to run away like cowards do it, I don't care, I came here looking for the truth and I'm going to get it!...I need to know!” said that Twilight turned on herself and with Spike still on her back she continued walking down the slope.

Her friends were stunned at their friend's violent reaction, shocked by the fact that the discomfort and anguish she had been carrying for the past few days had finally exploded, for a moment they watched the alicorn walk away from them at a determined pace, taking the major source of light with her, they all exchanged looks of concern and fear, this time more for their friend than for the place, until they finally nodded to each other with determination, even Fluttershy, at the intense exchange of non-verbal communication, nodded heavily.

In a moment Twilight heard the footsteps of her friends again, but instead of hearing them walking away as she expected, she heard them slowly approaching, her anger was slowly replaced with guilt, thinking that she was forcing her friends to accompany her to a horrible place that they clearly did not want to go to, but this thought dissipated with the idea that finally everything would be solved, if she really discovered what that cavern was hiding she knew that everything would be all right, they were close, she could feel it.

After descending the steep terrain for another long time, the mares finally reached the bottom, an icy floor that made more than one of them shiver.
Ahead of them loomed a huge tunnel which plunged even deeper into the cavern wall.

Twilight's shivers intensified when she saw the entrance of the tunnel, she could feel it, it was as if every fiber of her body was begging her, begging her to turn around and run away, she knew that her friends felt it too, she could hear their hearts racing in the silence of the cave.
Despite this the alicorn did not flinch and forced herself to take a step forward and then another and then another.

Slowly and one by one Twilight's friends followed her along the tunnel, which stretched for a long stretch, keeping its circumference even at all times, something that came as a relief to all of them fearing that at one point it would begin to narrow.

For a moment they lost track of time, it almost seemed as if they were not moving, until finally the tunnel ended.

It was very abrupt, so much so that it even took them a moment to realize that they were indeed no longer in it. The passage had given way to another cavern, which could have been just like the previous one if it weren't for the fact that the floor was completely polished, so much so that even the light from Twilight's horn was reflected in it giving it even more intensity to its light, the wall in which the tunnel was embedded was also polished almost as if it were an opaque mirror, they were all speechless at the spectacle that the place offered before Twilight noticed that, in the distance, there seemed to be irregularities in the floor.

They looked like bulbous and blunt stalagmites which rested in the distance of the enclosure, the alicantina began to walk towards them, curious and intrigued while her friends stood at the entrance of the tunnel cautiously.

The next thing they heard was a scream.

“TWILIGHT!” they all shouted in unison as they ran in the direction of the light emanating from their friend's horns.

The scream made them tremble it was full of panic and dread, it took them no more than a minute to get to where Twilight lay, back against the ground, covering her face with her hooves and with Spike at her side trying to calm her down.

“What's wrong!!! What's wrong!!!” yelled Applejack approaching Twilight who wouldn't stop screaming.

“No!!!NO!!!NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“Twilight please!!! tell us what's wrong!!!” the answer came not from Twilight but from Spike who, with a pale face and tears running down his face pointed his claw forward.

Applejack turned her head slowly as the rest of her friends did too, they all found themselves surrounded by the strange bulging stalagmites, which rose up so high they were lost in the darkness, at first none of them understood anything, it wasn't until Applejack slowly approached that it finally dawned on her the horror.

“What....the fuck ...”

Each and every one of the mounds were composed of thousands of bones, highlighted by hundreds of pony skulls stacked one on top of the other, their empty sockets staring back at the farm pony as the rest of her companions fell to realizing what it was that surrounded them.

“They're...they're...they're...bones...” said Fluttershy with her heart pounding out of her chest and the air in her lungs leaving her.

Rarity was lying there vomiting uncontrollably on the floor, staining her fur and mane.

Pinkie pie stared with contracted pupils completely still, anyone who looked at her at that moment could have noticed how her fur paled and her mane deflated little by little.

Rainbow Dash almost fell to the ground as her wings failed her for a second at the terrible sight, managing to recompose herself just in time as obscenities spilled out of her mouth.

“What the...what the fuck is this!” she exclaimed finally finding her voice.

They all stood like that for a grotesque moment, no matter which way they looked there were endless black eyes meeting them, the first to regain her composure was Applejack, who, fearing the worst, prepared to pull her friends out.

“We must...we must get out of here... “she managed to say as she pulled herself together and began to walk towards Twilight.

“Twilight Twilight, get up, we have to go now...”

The alicorn didn't react, she just lay there on the ground, face covered and muttering to herself.
Applejaack had run out of patience, he held Twilight by the shoulders and shook her violently forcing her to look at her.

“Twilight for Celestia's sake react at once!!!” the purple mare at last seemed to come to her senses, looking straight into the farmer's eyes.

“We have to get out of here, we have to help the others and go....” suddenly, in the impenetrable silence of the cavern, a noise was heard.

It was massive, guttural, at first none could discern what it was, it sounded as if thousands of drums were beating against a flat surface generating an avalanche of consecutive dull noises, all the mares woke up from their collective terror and tried to look for the source of the sound, but due to the immensity of the cavern and the echo it created it was impossible to know its exact origin.
The sound was getting louder and louder, seemingly getting closer to them, they were all alert, looking in all directions waiting for whatever it was to enter Twilight's light range, there came a point where the sound was so loud that the ponies stopped being able to hear their own breathing and their ears were ringing, and suddenly, the noise stopped.

Silence reigned again and they all looked at each other without blinking, the next thing they heard was a scream.

The most horrible scream any of them had ever heard, one full of anguish and pain, it only took them a second to realize that they knew the sound of that voice.

For everyone to appreciate the scene was slow motion, the image was so horrible that it almost caused a collective fainting spell in everyone, a colossal hand that had grabbed Fluttershy by the leg, this one was like a dragon's but without scales, skeletal, smooth, of a pale white hue and with extremely long black claws, the hand was raised in the air and in an instant Fluttershy was carried towards the darkness of the cavern's ceiling, screaming horribly for help.

“FLUTTERSHY!!!” Rainbow shouted shooting out like lightning in the direction where her friend had disappeared, following her screams.

“RAINBOW DASH NO!!!” shouted Applejack futilely as the blue pegasus disappeared into the shadows.

Suddenly the drumming resumed, even louder this time, rumbling the entire cavern and knocking over some of the bone mounds.

“TWILIGHT HAS SOMETHING!!!” the alicorn managed to hear, looking at her farmer friend who was crying uncontrollably pleading.

Twilight had no time to think, in a single moment she gathered all the magical force she could and fired a powerful beam in the direction of the ceiling, the spell took two long seconds before it impacted in a powerful explosion that illuminated, for the first time in who knows how long, the entire chamber.

As expected the entire chamber was polished, the ceiling was carved in the shape of a dome creating a perfect hemisphere that shone brightly, but whatever hung from the ceiling, that broke something inside Twilight, broke something inside all the mares and the poor baby dragon, something the alicorn knew well, they could never get back.

It was colossal, spanning almost the entire ceiling of the chamber, for an instant none of them understood well what they were seeing, it looked like a centipede but this one was completely white, its entire body was covered by that pale and whitish membrane, each of its limbs stretched beyond the six joints and ended in those grotesque and long clawed hands, it was curled on itself creating a spiral pattern that twisted and crawled.
And although they couldn't see its face, they did hear its scream when the powerful spell hit it, it sounded as if a thousand newborn foals had been screaming non-stop for days, their throats torn apart from doing so, combined with the sound of a huge animal choking to death, the sound was so high pitched and piercing that it made everyone's ears bleed.

Just before the flash of magical light was completely extinguished Twilight could see a blue flash swoop down swiftly and stop in front of them.

One of Rainbow's wings was on fire, possibly from the explosion, her face was frozen in a grimace of lost determination and on her back she was carrying Fluttershy.
Twilight only had a moment to make sure, but she was sure she saw blood gushing from the yellow pegasus and dripping down Rainbow's side.

Without waiting a single second or saying a word, the element of loyalty shot off in the direction of the exit tunnel, followed by Pinkie and Rarity, but Twilight didn't move, she just couldn't, her legs wouldn't answer her “How could this happen?” she wondered “What have I done? ”, she thought she would die, she could see Spike in her blurred vision shouting something she couldn't hear “We never should have come” she could have stayed there petrified forever if it wasn't for Applejack ramming her pushing her, the blow was so forceful that her legs regained the feeling of shock, almost without thinking and with nothing else on her mind other than the thought of escape, Twilight finally started to run.

The ponies and the dragon ran and flew faster than they had ever thought possible in their widows, as they went through the tunnel to the other cavern they heard a colossal roar behind them followed by the rumbling of thousands of drums which, they now knew, was the sound of the thing's claws scraping the rock of the cavern.
As they exited the tunnel they quickly began to climb, Rainbow Dash carrying Rarity while Twilight put all her strength into carrying Applejack, all the while Pinkie made huge leaps from rock to rock.
Halfway through they heard a thud and a rubbing motion, followed by more impossibly loud squealing, no one dared to turn around but Twilight was sure that whatever it was that thing had gotten stuck at the tunnel exit, still the resolution didn't last long as in a moment they heard the rock crunch and then a great pressure being released, the creature had made it out and was now starting to climb up the walls.

They all tried to push away their panicked thoughts at the thought of the monster blocking their way up the stairs, luckily they managed to split them without any trace of the beast, starting to climb them quickly.

They could all hear her, moving from side to side with her hundreds of paws, at one point the climb was too strenuous for Rarity, who stumbled and almost fell into the void, luckily Pinkie managed to grab her with her tail, throwing her on her back and resuming her run, boasting a strength that no one knew she had.
On the other hand, Twilight was starting to fall behind, the exhaustion after casting the spell from before and the general malaise of the cavern had finally taken its toll, she felt herself fading for a moment until she felt a powerful kick that held her and carried her, Applejack used all her strength not to collapse or freeze in fear and ran down the steps taking powerful strides.

The group finally made it to the top of the stairs, entering the passage to the exit and up the ledge to the door, all seemed soon to be over but suddenly the deepest despair filled Twilight's ears.

“THE DOOR IS GONE!!!THE FUCKING DOOR IS GONE!!!”

Twilight looked weakly over Applejack's shoulder to realize that it was true, the door, the magical entrance through which they had entered that nightmare had disappeared Rainbow and Pinkie was frantically pounding on the wall while Fluttershy and Rarity lay motionless on the floor.

Suddenly a great force threw Twilight forward barely giving her time to break her fall.

“OPEN THE DOOR TWILIGHT OPEN IT!!!” shouted Applejack at it as, in the distance they heard the screeching of the thing approaching.

Twilight staggered towards the door trying to focus and placed a hoove on the wall, nothing happened.

Everything became a tangle of desperate screams and pleading towards Twilight who could barely stand and didn't understand why it wasn't working, as the beast's screams grew louder and now they could hear it crashing again and again into the tunnel entrance, slowly they could hear something crawling along the ledge towards them as Rainbow and Pinkie burst into tears and Applejack completely lost her composure, grabbing Twilight again by her shoulders and screaming at her.

“WHY DID YOU BRING US HERE?!!!!WHY DID YOU CONDEMN US?!!!!”

Twilight could barely hear her, her own thoughts overpowering the avalanche of the moment Why had she done it, because she wanted to know the answers, because she wanted to know if it was true, no, the reason was much simpler than that, she just wanted to prove, she wanted to prove that that pony was wrong, she wanted to prove that what she was saying was pure lies, even now, that she had seen the truth head on, she couldn't believe it, it was just...impossible.

Just as the thing's fingers peeked around the corner slowly stretching out to reach them a greenish light illuminated the tunnel, they all turned immediately and found the passage open and right at the entrance a familiar face.

Starlight Glimmer couldn't process what she was seeing, not the secret passage, not the faces of her friends, not the hellish shrieks coming from the bottom of that tunnel, she just stood still as they all passed her in a frenzy of fear, she only reacted when Applejack's thick voice shouted behind her back.

“CLOSE THE DOOR CLOSE IT!!!” Starlight shone her horn brightly as a huge pale hand crawled what would be the last few feet before it could reach her, in an instant the entire wall shook and the passageway closed leaving the monster on the other side, as its shrieks slowly began to grow more distant, until it disappeared completely.

The lilac unicorn turned to see her friends, they all looked horrible, their faces, inexpressive, their fur, dirty, their looks, full of fear, but she felt more fear when she saw how Fluttershy was missing the whole lower part of her left hind leg, it seemed to have been torn off and the poor pegasus was unconscious, while Rainbow Dash was tying a tourniquet made with Applejack's hair ribbon, who was hugging herself, Rarity was also unconscious and above her was crying a Pinkie Pie with a smooth mane and gray fur.
Finally Twilight, for a moment Starlight thought she was dead, her face was that of a corpse, pale and haggard and with her eyes sunken into her skull, her eyes stared into absolute nothingness.

“How...how did you know where we were?” asked Applejack almost as a whisper.

“Zecora...” said Starlight pointing to the entrance of the room where a petrified Zecora stood at the scene.

“She came to warn me and we followed the original map to find you...”

“Warn you that...?” said the farmer with heavy breathing.

“The text that accompanied the outline...” then Zecora interrupted, for the first time not speaking in rhymes.

“Beware those who venture into the darkness, for this despite being forgotten is never destroyed, beware those who wish to know the truth for a life full of pain and agony awaits them, whoever ventures must be aware and eternally remember the words of the great tyranny of the sun and the moon...” Zecora paused before finishing “When evil reaches certain dimensions, blessings are of no use.”

Hearing this all Applejack could do was cry.

Twilight was sitting in her chair in the friendship map room, her gaze was lost among the magical holograms projected by the artifact, waiting patiently, next to her was Spike, who could do nothing but look worriedly at his greatest friend, who seemed completely lost.

Suddenly the door opened with a bang, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash entered the room, Applejack walked firmly in Twilight's direction, barely did the alicorn have time to turn around when she received a powerful blow right in the face, a blow that sent her crashing to the floor and which made Spike get up in a fury.

“Applejack what the hell...!”

“SHUT UP SPIKE!!!” the shout intimidated the little dragon who instinctively backed away.

The huge earth pony grabbed Twilight and pulled her up roughly forcing her to face her.

“WHAT THE FUCK TWILIGHT, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU TAKE US?!!!”

Twilight's face was bruised from the blow, her nose was bleeding profusely and her eyes had regained some of their lost luster, still she didn't respond which infuriated Applejack even more.

“FUCKING TWILIGHT FUCKING RESPONDS!!!FLUTTERSHY LOST A FUCKING LEG!!!”

Applejack was about to unleash another punch to Twilight's face when something stopped her, out of nowhere Twilight started sobbing, her face filled with tears and her voice cracked as she finally issues a response.

“I...I...I...I...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...” she cried uncontrollably unable to contain herself.

“I...I didn't know...but...but...but...I wanted to know...and I almost got them all killed...I'm sorry.....”

Applejack couldn't continue her assault, she let go of Twilight letting Twilight collapse to the ground, hugging herself as she continued to cry.

The scene was heartbreaking, even so, none of her friends approached to comfort her, they all had annoyed looks, although Pinkie, who still had smooth hair, could not help but let out a few tears.
Only Spike jumped in giving the alicorn a tight hug as she struggled to pull herself together, something she finally managed to do after a few more moments, stopping the sobs but not getting up.

“Alright Twilight...” said Applejack with a calmer but still stern tone ”No more lies, you will tell us what the hell is going on and how the hell you knew about that place.”
It took Twilight a few more moments to finally be able to answer.

“Yes....” she started to say raising her voice.

“It's okay...I'll tell you all about it.”

The moment was suddenly interrupted when Spike, with a belch of fire, filled the room with green sparks for a second, before anyone could recover from the surprise a rolled and sealed scroll fell to the floor among those present.

Twilight paled even more when she saw the seal that adorned the scroll, still she used her magic to lift it, open it and place it in front of her, a moment passed before Twilight dropped the scroll to the floor, her eyes had lost their sparkle again and her gaze was lost in nothingness again.

“Twilight? What's wrong?” asked Applejack, there was no answer.

“Twilight?!”

As her friends surrounded and tried to help the catatonic mare the message on the scroll was perfectly visible.

“Dear Twilight

I am writing to give you good news, you will be happy to know that, after several days of arduous search, the dangerous unicorn that attempted against our lives during the day of your coronation, has been captured and handed over to the relevant authorities who will take care of her, this means that the danger is over and we can resume the matter of your coronation immediately, soon I will ask you to return to Canterlot to reorganize the event and finally put everything in order to carry it out, I send you cordial greetings and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love, Princess Celestia”.