Chapter 1: Descent
“This is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash said. Her voice echoed through the cave tunnel everypony was following. She was hovering in the air, her head almost brushing the top.
“Settle down back there.” Daring Doo said, turning and scowling at the rainbow pegasus. “These caverns are ancient and shouting like that could disturb them and bring it all down on us.
“Right, Sorry.” She lowered herself back to the ground.
Daring Doo looked at Rainbow for a moment before turning back and continuing onward, everpony else followed, their hoof steps echoing softly around them.
Five ponies came along for this journey down the tunnel just outside Ponyville three days ago. Two foals playing hide ‘n seek stumbled across the entrance inside a cave that once belonged to an Ursa minor. Immediately afterward they returned to town and bragged to the others about it at school the next day; it wasn’t long before word of the discovery got to Twilight. Curiosity drove her to inspect the newly discovered tunnel and when she saw ancient writings that she’d never seen before in any of her books she sent word to A.K. Yearling; she arrived in Ponyvill the next day in her Daring Doo outfit and started preparing to delve into the tunnel. Daring Doo had invited Rainbow Dash to come along as well as Twilight… and Quibble Pants, for some reason. Rarity overheard what was going on and decided to invite herself to be a part of the expedition claiming that there could be gems down there that she could use for a new dress she’d been working on. So the expedition had to be put on hold so Twilight could fetch Spike and Rarity could dawn some over-the-top explorer’s outfit; totally unlike the outfit Rainbow Dash wore that was more than a little similar to Daring Doo’s. After they were all ready, they began their descent.
The air inside the tunnel went stale almost as soon as Rainbow Dash entered and there was an odd smell that made her wrinkle her nose until she got used to it. Unfortunately, there was enough space for two ponies to walk side-by-side and Quible walked beside her. He grinned at her and said: “Ooo, you got in trouble.”
“Oh, stuff it.”
He smirked and walked on. Rainbow had the idea to pick him up and drop him in the middle of a lake when the expedition was finished.
Behind, Rainbow Dash could hear Rarity check the walls for gems as they descended further. She found some occasionally, collected them, and tossed them in the wooden bucket Spike carried. It wasn’t big, but Twilight had promised to teleport the gems to Carousel Boutique whenever the bucket was full if enough gems were found. In the meantime, Twilight used a spell to produce light from her horn so everypony could see where they were going and revealing more carvings.
Twilight had looked through all the books in her library and found nothing on these symbols, Daring doo hadn’t seen them before either. Whoever had made them was lost to time, until now.
“I wonder what they were like,” Twilight said from behind Rainbow Dash. “Were they equine like us or something totally different?”
“They could’ve been lizard ponies,” Rainbow said, “they could be down here hibernating, waiting for the perfect time to wake up and eat everypony.”
“That’s unlikely. These markings look old, really old, thousands of years old; nothing could hibernate this long.”
“How do you know what lizard ponies can do?”
“Because lizard ponies don’t exist, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow turned to Twilight. “But how do you know?” She said in the spookiest voice she could conjure. “We could’ve woken them up by entering this cavern; they could be listening to us coming to them and licking their lips.…”
“You’re just trying to scare me and it’s not working.”
“Um…” Quibble pants said. The unicorn and pegasus turned to look at him. He was shaking. “It’s working on me.”
Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to her mouth before she could burst out laughing.
“Don’t listen to her. She’s just trying to scare us because she thinks it’s funny.” Twilight flashed a grin at Rainbow. “...or because she’s scared.”
Her laughter died away in an instant. “I’m not scared.”
“Oh? It looks like you're shaking a little yourself.”
“I’m not. It’s just a little chilly in her.” That wasn’t a lie, it was rather cold in here. Sure her heart was racing, but it wasn’t from fear but excitement! She was going on an adventure with Daring Doo! Of course, she’d be shaking with excitement. She explained as such to Twilight.
“Uh-huh,” Twilight said. “Let me know if you need somepony to hold your hoof.”
Rainbow Dash look at Twilight. Hold my hoof? She opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by Daring Doo.
“If I’d known the lot of you would slow me down like this I would’ve left you all behind.”
They nodded and continued following Daring Doo further down the tunnel. They passed three spots where the tunnel curved around before coming to a small cavern, just big enough for the five of them to stand and look around. More carving dotted the walls and Twilight inspected them. Daring Doo waited there for a moment as Twilight looked at each of the carvings, when she was finished she nodded and they continued on their expedition.
Not long after leaving the small cavern, they had to stop again to allow Twilight to teleport the gems Rarity and Spike collected to Carousell Boutique. She had to release her light spell as she did, leaving them submerged in darkness until Rarity activated her own light spell; It wasn’t as bright as Twilights had been, but it would do. Twilight lowered her horn to the bucket there was a flash and the gems were gone. Once that was done they resumed their descent.
The air around them was growing colder, Rainbow Dash could see her breath before her and fought the urge to shiver. Adventurers don’t shiver! She thought to herself, watching to see if Daring Doo did just that. She didn’t. Instead, she stopped and knelt to look at something on the ground. Everypony stopped and waited.
“Be careful when you walk through here, there’s holes in the ground here big enough for you hoof. One missed step and you could risk breaking a leg.”
Everypony nodded their understanding before moving one, placing each hoof carefully before them. After some time passed Daring Doo told them it looked clear ahead, but to keep an eye out for a hole she might have overlooked. Quibble immediately tripped over a rock, landing with a grunt that echoed through the tunnel. A small cloud of rock formed around where his head landed. Rainbow Dash helped him back to his hooves. He shook his head and thanked her.
The tunnel brought them further underground while it continued to get colder. Rainbow Dash could keep herself from shivering now. Even Daring Doo was showing signs of feeling the cold.
“How much farther do you think this tunnel will go?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said, “It feels like we’ve been in here for hours. When will we get to somewhere large enough for me to stretch my wings.”
“It can’t go down that much further.”
“I sure hope not.” Rarity said, “My outfit’s getting dirtier than I would like. Rainbow noted that there was only a small bit of dirt on the hat she wore.
“There are still carvings along the walls. Something is down here; nopony would come this far just to make carvings in a wall that wouldn’t be seen. “
They continued onward in silence. It had been a while since the last time Rarity found a gem on the wall. As they pressed the future into unknown territory the carvings on the wall steadily increased until they were side by side on either side of them.
“If only I’d found something on these markings in one of my books, I’d be able to read what these things were saying.”
Rainbow’s stomach gurgled alerting everypony that she was hungry. “I could go for a hayburger right about now.”
“I could too,” Twilight added. “We should get a bite to eat when we get back to Ponyville.”
“We’ll be starving by then.”
“I’ll teleport us out of here so we won’t have to make the long climb back to the surface.”
“Hayburgers wait for no pony!”
Daring Doo rounded a corner and then she cursed and rocks being kicked could be heard as she backed up.
“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“There’s a drop-off up ahead. It looks like the tunnel opens up ahead. I think we might have found what this tunnel leads to. Twilight, can you take the lead and cast a light ahead of us so we can see.”
Twilight nodded and took the lead, Daring Doo and Rainbow Dash following closely behind her. The tunnel opened to a ledge that overlooked a void ahead of them. The light at the tip of Twilight’s horn brightened before she cast it forward. It grew in size as it flew through the air, as it grew it began to illuminate the large caver they’d found themselves in and they were rendered speechless, the only sound being water from somewhere ahead.
Inside the cavern were numerous stalactites and stalagmites, there looked to be a small pool of water below. A set of stairs led downward from the ledge they stood upon. And there in the center of the massive cavern was a gargantuan black pyramid.
Author's Note
Some friends and I decided it would be fun to write stories with The Flood or inspired by The Flood. Downpour by TheForce has already been published and a third one by Silver Butcher might pop up.
This story will probably divert from what the Flood is like more than the others. It just depends on how the story develops. I don't have any overarching plans with this story, I'm just along for the ride. Though I have a few scenes in mind that will be fun to write.
Writing this was fun and I hope you had fun reading it. Thanks for reading!
