Chapter 3: Tomb of the Cybermen

=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot Mountain, Canterlot, Canterlot Train Station, 1003 C.E. =

The Cyber-Leader, after grabbing the shard of the Entity, simply walked out of the room, making all that had been stopped dead be able to move and think again. Why didn't he just kill them all right then and there? Perhaps he just didn't care. Cybermen don't, by the way. So it didn't even bother to knock down the rocks again as it walked out towards its ship.

Romana, who had never been affected at all, began to look around the awakening crowd. Some were panicking at the sight of yet another dead body that they didn't even remember dying. Others were realizing that the door was now wide open for them to get out, whooped in happiness, and began running, being shocked to find that there were no rescue squads coming anywhere near them. Romana ran over to Daring Do and shook her slightly.

"What happened now?" Daring Do said in a voice like she hadn't gotten any sleep for 24 hours.

"One of the Cybermen came back in and now it's heading back to wherever they took the Doctor." Romana whispered to her. "Come on, quickly." And they began to walk out the door to where the Doctor had been taken: the Cyber-Ship.

Trixie noticed them leaving and decided to see what they were up to. That, and she was also really eager to get out while she still could. So, she followed them, and walked out the door shortly after them.

=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot Mountain, The Scout Cyber-Ship, Telescreen Room, 1003 C.E. =

"The Cyber-Leader is returning. He has found the shard." One of the Cybermen said. "We will prepare to depart."

"Oh really?" The Doctor asked. "Do you even know where the gates are?"

"Indeed." Said the Cyberman.

"Then what do you need me for?" The Doctor asked simply.

"All Cybermen die before they can get near the gates. You will last longer." The Cyberman said.

Outside the ship, Romana and Daring Do followed the Cyber-Leader at a very close pace. They saw as it moved toward the Cyber-Ship, as the door to it opened for him. They walked towards the door but it shut before they could get in.

Inside the ship, The Cyber-Leader simply held up the shard and all the Cybermen near The Doctor and in the ship came in to the room and snapped to attention.

"We will reach the gates and open them immediately." Said the Cyber-Leader.

And they began to march out. Romana and Daring Do, who had been waiting, tried to run in to the room, but quickly found themselves restrained and dragged along with the Cybermen to wherever the gates were.

Trixie was even more surprised at the sight of the Cyber-Ship than the sight of the Cybermen. She watched as the Doctor, Romana, and Daring Do were drug along by the Cybermen and dragged further down the mountain. She began to run down after them, although not really knowing why.

As the Doctor accepted that there was no way he would be able to fight his way out of the Cybermen's grasp, he saw that they were taking them into a rather narrow cave opening. When they shoved them in there, they didn't have any choice but to go forward as they were stuck on both sides by over a hundred Cybermen.

So, as they were pushed down deeper and deeper in to the narrow passageway, eventually, they reached an area of the cave where no light was shining at all, so they were shoved through the cave in absolute darkness, unable to see what was going on around them even one little bit.

But then, light filled the chasm, as they found themselves in the middle of bright crystals that brought light through the passageway, which was beginning to get a bit less narrow than before, ever so gradually. They found however, that the crystals were making them woozy, and they could hardly move forward without the Cybermen, who weren't affected at all, pushing them along further and further down the tunnel. In seemed to go on forever, until they began to see Cybermen go out of the end of the tunnel.

At the beginning of the tunnel, Trixie had reached the pitch-black part of the tunnel. She actually admitted to herself that she was scared. But another urge to keep going no matter what took her, so she continued to go forward regardless of the fact that she didn't know what was at the end of this tunnel.

As the Doctor and his two companions were pushed down the tunnel that led to the gates of Tartarus, they could almost feel the crystals begin to distort reality around them, and it was absolutely nauseating to them. Then the Cybermen shoved out the end of the tunnel, and this was not what any of them were expecting, especially Daring Do, who had read stories about what Tartarus was like, and it was nothing like his at all.

They were in the middle of a large domed room. Looking up to the ceiling, it was decorated like the Sistine Chapel, with very beautiful paintings and colored glass decorations at the top of the dome. The walls were lined with incredibly high shelves with some very old looking books. It looked like this used to be a library, but the gates were moved in here for some kind of reason. Either that, or the library was built around the gates to study them.

And the gates themselves. The looked pretty much like Chinese gates, but they were decorated with enough gold paint, real gold, and gems to make you mistake it for a Faberge egg. There were the large metal rings hanging from the doors and in between them was a large gold circle that the Doctor guessed was where you placed your own shard of the Entity to make the gates open.

Oh, and let's not forget Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates looking at them angrily. But when the Cyber-Leader held up the shard, it seemed to shimmer and disappear like a hard light hologram that was being projected from a small yellow gem at the top of the gate, which it actually was.

If Daring Do knew it was that easy, she would have gone on a quest to find this place ages ago.

"Now, you will place the shard on the golden circle." The Cyber-Leader said as he gave him the shard and pushed him forward.

The Doctor, knowing he didn't have much of a choice, walked forward and placed the gem on the golden circle. The gem was absorbed in to the circle as the gates swung open. The Doctor grabbed on to the side of the gates when he realized he was being sucked in.

Tartarus was a photonegative world. This was all Daring Do saw before she slammed her eyes shut, as looking in to Tartarus was making her go insane. She heard demonic screeching noises coming from the gates.

And then the Cyber-Controller emerged. He had no panel on his body, but he did have the tubes running down the sides of his arms and legs. Instead of the handles on his head, he had a large fogged glass braincase with veins visible in it. His simple rectangular mouth and circular eyes made him look even more terrifying than the rest of the Cybermen as he glowered down at them emotionlessly.