Chapter 43 – The Chase is On
"What am I seeing?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked to the wall. A statue was carved from the very rock that it was embedded into, though the statue itself was defiled, crumbled in such a way that most of it was unrecognizable.
"Looks like whatever lived here before didn't like whatever this was." Syls said, "Everything else looks like it was taken pristine care of, but this…" she glanced back at the statue, "…This looks like malice."
"You think somepony did it on purpose?" the pegasus asked.
"Most definitely." Honor said, "Meltackians are highly sensitive to emotional states, especially when we have made a connection similar to what allows us to commune with others."
Chivalry pitched in with her own thoughts, "The raw emotion coming from the rubble of whatever that was is so suffocating, even you must feel unease from its presence." she said.
Rainbow Dash couldn't deny it, there was something about that broken statue that unsettled her, a primal fear that told her not to look at it, but she just couldn't look away for fear that it may strike. She looked down at the corner of her console, spying Syls and Tris both shudder in unease. "We should go…" Breeze started to say.
"Yeah," Rainbow agreed, and the three of them turned away from the rubble, and each cautiously made their way to the new gate that had begun to form.
Up top, the other racers made their way through another turn, the large Sunik ship in the lead as they rounded another bend, passing through another of the gates, "I don't understand it." the large Sunik pilot said as he gritted his teeth, "I feel like we're going in circles." He then turned his head to look behind him, "Krisskkil!" he called out, and got his gunner to turn to him, "What's going on?"
The same Sunik that had stolen from Rainbow Dash and Syls, the one willing to risk getting caught just to protect a pack of children, turned, his cloak no longer on his shoulders, and a very timid and worried look on his face, "You might be right Sselekk." he said and quickly returned fire on a few of the more aggressive ships, "From the readings I've been taking, the track just loops back around in a way that it's hard to keep track of normally."
"Then, where…" the pilot was about to ask, and turned his head just right to find the very entrance they had taken to avoid the same pit that he had witnessed the three others fall into, "By Egas…" he growled, "…there's no way."
"No way for what?" Krisskkil asked.
"That blasted creature!" Sselekk announced as he prepared for another loop, "Trying to make a fool out of me?!" he gritted his teeth and focused his eyes, "I'll destroy you!"
'He's gone mad!' the gunner thought in fear, and instantly a thought flashed through his mind, a vision of the children being forcefully removed from their ruins as Sselekk looked on in madness. 'Oh Egas, protect the children.' he prayed.
Twilight gleefully examined each detail of the pictures as she documented everything, "This could be an interpretation, or maybe something literal…" she said to herself as she grinned from ear to ear. Pilit right next to her as she too grinned in the exact same fashion.
"But what if this means…" that was the point most others stopped listening.
"Ugh…" Applejack groaned as she watched the two of them bond over a few pictures, "It's like watching Twilight talk to her own reflection."
Blade huffed in agreement. "Still nothing on the scanners. You sure you checked every possible thing?" they heard Writch ask. They turned to see the two Treeopon's frantically pressing buttons on the console.
"I've checked every possible damper frequency I can {snort} think of." Tusks said, and patted the top of his own head, "What else could it possibly be?"
"What if it's the composition of the soil?" Uza suddenly asked, catching everyone's attention…well everyone except Twilight and Pilit at least. "Yeah, I remember doing a bit on the Terronet that had me doing some soil research, there are placed on Bacromus that have such a high composition of Calurio Silver that it distorts all kinds of frequencies and radio."
"What kind of places had that much Calurio Silver?" Twiggs asked.
"What's Calurio Silver?" Applejack asked.
"Calurio Silver is an exquisite metal, shines like moonlight and accents almost every kind of cool color scheme available, I could use it in some of my ensembles but it's rather rare now without destroying some monumental structures." Rarity suddenly piped in.
"It was discovered by Calurio, a famous explorer some three hundred Cycles ago." Writch explained, "It is found on all four planets in our solar system, and nowhere else. The richest deposits were found on Dryskis."
"Yeah, and it was heavily used in structures all around all four planets, it's great at transforming light into heat." Uza explained.
"Let me guess, it also messes with tracking and communication equipment." Applejack asked.
"In high enough concentrations…yes." Uza explained, and then it hit all of them at once, "The pit they fell in was a structure from ancient times, and the walls must have been built with Calurio Silver laced stone!"
"That's why we can't get in touch with them, the {snort} silver concentration is enough to block the communication {snort} frequencies." Tusks said.
Writch turned back to the screen, "What could be so important that they laced their building with so much rare metal?" she asked.
Deep into the tunnel, Rainbow Dash and the others zoomed through the open halls with several tidbits lining the walls. Things that didn't even look like anything zipped by at lightning speeds as they chased the gate as it faded in and out of what might have been reality. "What's up with these gates?" Syls asked.
"Interesting query." Honor said, "But I can now think of a better one."
"And what's that?" Tris asked.
"WHAT are the gates?" he asked, and suddenly the gate stopped, stabilized itself, and grew to allow both Honor and Syls to pass through near side by side, with Rainbow Dash following close behind. The group turned each way, spying nothing but darkness as they did. No one daring to speak a word, until the ceiling lit up.
"Whoa!" the six of them said in unison. The ceiling had turned into the night sky, the stars racing across their vision with shooting stars and moons flying by.
"Are you seeing this?" Rainbow asked in awe.
"Oh yeah." Breeze said with shock, his camera now pointed up to capture the spectacle.
Next, the light danced again, showing a serpentine creature with rings around its neck and tail fly through the sky. It seemed to have been playing in the sky and eventually looked down. The six visitors followed its line of sight and saw a great big pair of eyes in the darkness of the floor, a very audible growl vibrated through the entire room as the eyes quickly came closer. Rainbow Dash and Syls both gritted their teeth, and with a reverse thrust of their ships, allowed the darkened shadow to pass by, Honor and Chivalry surprised as they were caught in the shadow, only to remain unharmed. "It is like the theater, but using light and darkness to tell the story." Chivalry said as she gasped for air after her initial shock of fear.
The six of them turned to the ceiling again, spying the shadow as it entered the light of the other serpent, and then struck, with fangs that looked as if they were made from the midnight darkness itself. The light serpent fell, the light going out as the darker serpent dragged it to the ground, and suddenly, the night sky darkened, even more, the ground turning a red color and revealing what could only be considered as a hellish landscape. "This is…" Honor said in shock.
"Is this Tartarus?" Rainbow asked.
"More like the hellscape." Breeze said.
"I assume this is what would have happened if the light had fallen to the darkness?" Tris asked.
"I honestly don't want to find out." Syls said in response.
They were interrupted when the lights all when out, and they heard the rumble of stone being moved, light pouring in from a door as it moved to reveal an exit.
"Wait." Rainbow said, "What just happened? Was this door here the whole time?"
"I didn't see it, and I had my lights on this whole time." Syls said.
"I care not, this is the way out, and I assume it is also the way to the end of the race track." Honor replied. Just as he said this, his sister turned to the ground, spying nothing that would have given off light at all, just simple stone.
"Well, if that's the case…" Rainbow said, and let the others read her actions, a quick rev of her engine and they were ready, "Let's see who's faster."
