There is still a tale yet to be told
Of several ponies searching for gold

In the land of Equestria there are many ways to live ones life. From being a librarian to a teacher, weather parolee to apple farmer. Maximus Dare, a tan earth pony with a dark brown mane, discovered early in his life that he was to be an adventurer. He had spent his entire life exploring ancient ruins & discovering long lost artifacts. Over the years he had put together a team of ponies he had befriended on his travels. First, & foremost, is Jane Doe, a lean earth pony with pure white fur & a crimson mane, always in a bun, who has never revealed her past & so was given the nickname, then there is Beast, a massive earth pony with dull blue fur & a black-blue mane, next is Inventory, a small unicorn with dull brown fur & a black mane who gladly takes on the job of “pack pony”, & finally the twins Sketch, an artist, & Midas, who has an obsession with gold & a gold tooth, both grey earth ponies with black manes. With his friends at his back Maximus was preparing for his latest expedition into the Everfree forest, known for it’s hidden secrets. One night the six friends were all sitting around a table in “Sugar Cube Corner”.

“Remember,” Maximus laughed, “remember that time you got stuck in a snake pit Sketch.” The group laughed at the memory.

“Yeah,” the artist replied chuckling, “& you guys didn’t do anything to help me!”

“Well it’s not like they were poisonous,” Jane added.

“Besides, you had it handled,” Midas added. The group laughed the whole night away reminiscing over their many memories together. The remainder of the week they spent planning their path through the Everfree.

The night before they were to set out Maximus was writing down his latest findings. He had just finished categorizing the stash of gold coins they had found when there was a knock at his door. “Come in,” he said without looking up from his work.

“Are you too busy?” a feminine voice replied, “I can come back.”

“No please,” he called as Jane turned to leave, “What is it you wanted?”

“I was just wondering if you were still awake.”

“I’m just cataloging our last find for Inventory, I’m almost done.”

The mare moved behind where Maximus was sitting & looked over his shoulder at his work, one of her crimson locks brushing his neck. “Just don’t stay up too late, she whispered, “We have a big day ahead of us.” Jane leaned over & lightly kissed the stallion on his cheek. Maximus moved to return the kiss but as he went to Jane turned her head so the kiss landed on her lips. The two shared the embrace for a few seconds more.

“Maybe...my work can wait.” Maximus said closing the door to his room. The next morning Jane awoke to find Maximus had gone & left a note,

My dear Jane,
I have gone to the Library to find out some information about the Everfree forest. The guys went to Sugar Cube Corner for breakfast. See you when you wake up.
Yours Forever,
Max

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Maximus was sifting through ancient texts with the pony he had come to trust for all of his history needs, a lavender unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. “I’m not sure if you’ll find anything in here, but you’re welcome to try,” Twilight told him.

“Thanks Twi,” Maximus replied, “I can always count on you.” Maximus tossed the pony one of the coins they had recently found & continued to search the books. After some time of hunting Maximus found a scroll pertaining to some lost ruins within the forest, He tucked the scroll into his vest & took off to Sugar Cube Corner.

Upon entering the sweet shop Maximus was greeted by the same friendly face he always was. “Hi there! Your friends are over in the corner booth but I guess you already knew that because you guys always sit in that booth!” the pink earth pony said.

“Thank you Pinkie,” he replied with a small smile on his face, it was always uplifting to see Pinkie Pie with her permanent joy.

“Max!” Midas called to him.

“Well, any news?” Jane questioned.

“I found out that there is, at least, one ruin in the forest, I don’t know where but I’m sure we’ll find it.”

“Well then,” Sketch chimed in, “What are we waiting for?”

“Besides lunch,” Beast mumbled.

“Alright then,” Maximus said, “After lunch we’ll pack our kits & give them to Inventory so that we can get on our way, agreed?” there was a collective response. The troupe ordered their meals & began reminiscing once more. After their meals the ponies went back to their rooms To prepare for their next expedition.

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“Hey Sketch you done packing yet!” Maximus called out.

“Almost!” Sketch replied agitated, “It would go faster if you helped!”

“But if he did help you wouldn’t be working as hard!” Jane replied for Maximus, “& where’s the fun in that?”

“There, done,” Sketch called again finished packing his bag. The earth pony handed his travel pack to Inventory who gladly accepted it & placed it on top of the others he was in charge of.

“Now then, can we proceed?” Maximus asked, motioning toward the edge of Ponyville, “After you milady,” he added bowing his head & allowing Jane to pass.

“Why thank you kind sir,” She answered politely. Max fell in line after her & the rest of the group followed suit. The ponies left the town in their tracks & preceded into the forest beyond, the stench of mold & pine filled their noses as they went deeper into the unforgiving wall of trees. After some time of traveling the group came upon a rope bridge over a deep chasm, one of the lines had been cut & there seemed no way to get across.

“Oh Inventory,” Maximus called to the only unicorn in the group, “If you would be so kind.” The pack pony came to the front of the group & used his magic to raise the broken side of the bridge. Maximus quickly grabbed the loose rope in his mouth & tied it securely to a nearby stone, appearing to have been its original hold. The group quickly crossed the bridge &, as expected, as soon as they were across the line snapped once more leaving them stranded. They ignored the inconvenience & continued along, it didn’t take them long to find a clearing & within it lie the ruins of a grand castle. All of the ponies stood in awe at the aged fortress, its roof had caved in on some parts but all the walls stood intimidatingly.

They went away to hunt for their fortune
Onto the very edge of oblivion

“Jackpot,” Maximus muttered, “Let’s get in there.” The ponies moved into the main hall of the castle, the great room was nearly empty with the exception of several worn tapestries hanging from the ceiling bearing an emblem of the moon.

“Whoa!” Sketch cried, “This is the ancient castle of Princess Luna!”

“So it is,” Maximus answered coming to the same conclusion, “Then there must be some wealth hidden within these walls. Well friends, split up & try to find anything of value.” The group dispersed, each pony going in a separate direction from the main chamber. Continuing down his chosen path Maximus saw a small stair well leading into a black pit below. Drawing an aged torch from one of the walls & lighting it he was about to descend when a crashing sound was heard. He ran back to the main chamber to find everypony else heard it as well & was there, except for Jane. The five stallions galloped down the path they had seen her take to find a gaping hole in the center of the hallway some distance down.

“Jane!” Maximus called down the hole, “Jane are you there!”

“I’m okay,” he was rewarded with her reply, “But you really need to see this.” Inventory presented himself once more & threw a rope down the hole. Once it was secured on a torch stand on the near wall they descended one by one. At the bottom of the hole the five ponies found that Jane had lit several torches & was standing in front of a massive, circular door. The stone was intricately designed with swirls & a fog-like design made of obsidian encircling the edge of the seal.

“That is one BIG door,” Beast said, “How we gonna see what’s behind it?”

“We’ll find out tomorrow,” Maximus replied still dumbfounded, “Come on, let’s get a camp set up in the main chamber.” The group agreed & went searching for a way back up, as the light from their torches faded in the distance a single drop of a thick black liquid fell from the top of the great seal; they found a small set of stairs leading to an upper level. After a short climb they reached the top to find the torch Maximus had left behind when Jane fell. The group moved back into the main hall & Inventory presented six tents from his macabre of travel packs. Each pony set up their own tent & settled down for the night.

Once they found what peaked their interest
They stirred the darkness within the forest

Deep into the night hours Midas heard a faint whisper, he left his tent to investigate the noise. The whisper came again sounding to have come from the nearest hallway; Midas grabbed a torch & followed to find the source of the call. After some time of following the faint whispers Midas met a solid stone wall. Disappointed he turned to leave when a gust of wind blew out his torch. The earth pony frantically tried to relight the wood but was not succeeding. Then, something caught his attention; the whispers were growing in volume, coming from the direction he came. In the pitch black hallway he began to try harder & harder to rekindle the light; the voices continued to steadily grow in volume. Tears welling in his eyes Midas continued to try & spark the torch all the while the voices grew even louder. In his efforts Midas dropped the flint he was using to light the torch & began to quietly cry; the voices now sounded as if they were standing next to him & sounded as if they here humming a tune. As the song ended Midas looked up to find a tall figure standing over him, he attempted to cry out but no sound came. The figure had its eyes closed but Midas felt as if it were staring into his soul. The dark pony raised a hoof veiled in moving shadows & slowly opened its eyes & Midas felt his fear melt away, he was engulfed in the droning sound of the humming voices & soon he was joining in.

Back in the camp all was quiet, the five ponies lie sleeping within their tents. Beast was dreaming of Jane, whom he had been in love with since he had first seen her, when he heard a familiar voice call out.

“What is it?” he replied emerging from his tent. He could see the owner of the voice in the distance, Jane. The slender mare giggled a little & pranced down one of the adjacent hallways. ‘Okay?’ he thought to himself & slowly followed her. He saw her at the opposite end of the hall; she winked at him & took off into the dark once more. Beast was slightly dumbfounded, ‘is it really that obvious that I like her?’ he thought but followed even faster seeing as how she seemed interested in him as well. Continuing his chase Beast found that the mare was faster than she let on; whenever he turned a corner she was already at the opposite end of the hall as him & teased him with a wink. After several repeats of the process Beast began sprinting down the hall into a kitchen-like room to be rewarded with her standing facing a wall.

“Well,” he began, “Any particular reason you led me here?” The mare didn’t answer; she began to silently hum a strange melody. Beast couldn’t understand why & moved to see her face. Before he could move an inch the mysterious pony began to turn slowly to face him. Now facing toward him Beast noticed that she seemed different; her normally white fur was now grey, her mane, a deep red, was now jet black & unkempt. Seeing these changes Beast noticed that she was larger than before, her appearance matching that of Midas.

“Midas? Is that you?” Beast asked the strange pony. The earth pony raised its head to reveal a skeletal face, Beast gasped & fell backwards, the pony before him let out a blood-chilling shriek & Beast felt his body grow cold. The easy going earth pony could feel nothing anymore.

Sketch was uneasy, despite being earth ponies he could always feel a magical connection with his twin brother. He exited his tent & went over to his brother’s. “Midas, you in there?” he whispered drawing back the fabric door. Sketch gasped, the tent was empty, and he then went out to look for his brother. He grabbed a torch from one of the walls & took off down the hall he assumed his brother did. Reaching the end he turned down the stairwell leading to the doorway below. Reaching the bottom Sketch could hear familiar grunts; he turned down the hallway & upon reaching the door was greeted with the sight of his brother repeatedly bucking the massive seal. Strangely a small pool of black liquid lie at the base of the door, he was certain that it wasn’t there before.

“You’re not going to open it like that,” Sketch said to his brother relieved, “it’s solid stone, only a massive force could break it open.” His brother stopped, he turned to face Sketch staring blankly at him. “Sorry, but you’re not strong enough,” Sketch said now feeling uneasy. The pony across from him stood motionless; then he began to frantically scrape at his eyes screaming. The sudden change caught Sketch off guard & he jumped back at the sight, regaining himself he rushed over to make his brother stop. In place of blood a thick black liquid similar to that at the base of the door gushed from Midas’ wounds, attempting to stay his brother’s hooves Sketch was covered in the thick ichor. Midas then fell lifeless on the ground & Sketch could hardly believe what had just taken place, but before he could react he felt a tingling from underneath the patches of black liquid across his body. Sketch scraped a small batch off to find it was eating through his flesh; he cried out at the sight & began to quickly try to remove it. Try as he might the Black ichor consumed the pony & all that remained was a hollow skeleton.

One by one they fell to the fright
Until only one was left in the night

Inventory awoke to the faint sound of whispers, he left his tent & the voices grew slightly. He went over to Maximus’ tent & began to tap on the wooden pole keeping it up. “Max? Max you awake?” he whispered, the voices grew again.

“What?” he heard come from within the tent, the voices stopped. Maximus emerged from his tent irritated to find Inventory standing there, a slightly worried expression on his face. “What do you want Inventory?” he said angrily.

“Something isn’t right about this place,” Inventory began, “I heard voices coming from down there,” the short stallion pointed toward a distant hallway. “I don’t know who they were but they seemed to be getting closer.”

“Did you tell anyone else?” Maximus replied.

“No, I thought it better to come to you first.”

“Alright, let’s go check it out,” Maximus said lazily, “Go wake up everypony else.” The two ponies moved to the remaining tents, Maximus woke Jane & was greeted by a canteen to the face.

“Uh, Max,” he heard Inventory call, “Beast’s missing.”

“What do you mean he’s missing?” Maximus answered moving to see for himself; sure enough the tent was empty.

“Midas & Sketch are gone to,” Jane called out.

“Where the hell are they?” Maximus questioned.

“I don’t know but something tells me it has to do with the voices I heard,” Inventory answered staring into a black hallway.

“Well then let’s go see,” Maximus replied walking into the darkness. Inventory & Jane lit two torches & followed him. As they went deeper into the dark halls the trio found no sign of the missing ponies or the source of the voices. After some time traveling the maze of corridors the three ponies found a dead end.

“Well that’s just perfect,” Maximus said irritatedly.

“Dear Princess Celesta,” Jane said quietly, the mare was staring at a pony’s corpse with grey fur & a jet black mane, “it’s Midas.”

The other two found what she was looking at & stared in disbelief at the body of their friend. The corpse was unscathed with the exception of the eyes, they were gone & leaking from their sockets was a thick black liquid.

“Who did this?” Maximus whispered.

“More like what,” Inventory replied reaching out toward the corpse. As his hoof touched the ichor dripping from Midas’ eye sockets it suddenly began to pour from the wounds & engulf the small unicorn. The others gasped in shock as he struggled to remove the thick liquid. Before Maximus could react his companion melted into the black ichor releasing one last shriek of pain as he faded away. The remaining ponies were stunned & instantly, from the pool that was once Inventory, rose a dark, shadowy figure of a pony. Maximus & Jane galloped from the horror down one of the adjacent halls & not long after came upon a large room. As soon as the duo entered the fireplace ignited lighting the terrors it held. The room looked as though it were a kitchen & on the table at its center lay the mutilated corpse of Beast. He was lying on his back with his stomach torn open & all his organs were missing. His face was the most horrific of all, his cheeks were carved in the shape of a smile from ear to ear & his eyes were missing just as Midas’ were. In the doorway behind them the two ponies could see tendrils of the black ichor appear from the shadows. Maximus surveyed his surroundings to find an escape route & found a garbage chute in one corner. Motioning to it Maximus led Jane over & climbed in, he stopped himself a short distance down to see if Jane had made it in yet. She was about halfway into the chute when several tendrils grabbed her & began to force her out.

“Jane!” Maximus cried trying desperately to save her.

“Max!” she replied as she was pulled free of the opening & screamed in agony at what Maximus could only imagine.

“Nooooooooooo!” he cried out as he fell down the tunnel.

All alone under the moonlit sky
The last bits of light fled from his eye

Falling on a pile of rotting food Maximus lit the only torch he had, he took a brief moment to lament the loss of his dear friend. Attempting to find an exit he realized that some of the “food” was Beast’s missing organs. He crawled through the mess & found a tunnel leading into the darkness & ventured into the shadows. Not long after starting down the path Maximus began to hear faint voices humming a simple melody, among the voices were familiar ones, & his own, repeating phrases he remembered fondly, “I’m going to call you Beast,” he heard himself say, the memory of his & Beast’s first meeting passing by.

“I’ve got whatever you need stranger, for a price,” came Inventory’s voice.

“How’d you like to join me & find your fortune in gold?” answered his own, the memory of his first meeting with Inventory flashed across his mind taking part of his sanity with it as it went.

“Call me Sketch; this is my brother Midas,” Maximus was beginning to lose track of where he was headed. Then, the voice of a young filly rang through his mind.

“Please don’t hurt me,” it begged.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” A youthful colt answered, “What’s your name? Mine is Maximus Dare.” The filly whimpered in response. “Well if you aren’t going to tell me your name I’ll just have to give you one. How about Jane, Jane Doe,” he said laughingly.

“Okay,” she replied. Maximus had had as much as he could, the last of his memories were being stripped away from him. Just as he was about to give up one last memory surfaced that drove him over the edge.

“I need to tell you something,” a younger Jane’s voice whispered.

“You know you can tell me anything,” a young his voice replied.

“I love you Max.”

“I love you too.”

The Stallion’s final trace of sanity was torn free from his body; he jumped back thinking he saw a shadow move. Maximus began to laugh hysterically at his fate, the irony of spending his entire life scouring ruins to die within one. He began to scream at the shadows.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?!” he cried into the darkness tears welling in his eyes. The crazed pony began to laugh again imagining how whatever murdered his friends would end his life. His laughter was cut short by a low rumble in the distance. The stallion stared silently into the blackness. As he stood mesmerized the ground began to collapse around him. Maximus galloped as fast as he could from the growing abyss, he came up short & fell spiralling into the black pit. Believing that this was his fate Maximus slowly closed his eyes & said a silent prayer to Princess Celestia. He felt a sharp pain in his left cheek & opened his eyes to see himself within a dark corridor. The stallion turned to find himself face to face with the great door, a large pool of ichor lie at its base.

“What do you want from me!” he screamed, the pony was now beginning to cry. The massive door began to slowly open, revealing a blackness that seemed to span forever.

“You want me!?!” he cried into the darkness, “TAKE ME!!!” & as the words left his mouth several tendrils sprang from the doorway & wrapped around the tortured stallion. Two thick tendrils came loose from his body & drove deep within his retina, the black liquid spread across his eyes until they were completely engulfed in the thick ichor. Once the pony was completely coated in the liquid the tendrils suspending him slithered back into the doorway & it shut once again. As the sun rose over the Everfree a quiet sound rose above the morning fog a low tune rang through the dense trees & faded into forgotten legend once again.

Author's Notes:
I have to give a shout out to my favorite horror fic writers: Sgt. Sprinkles (I think we all know why), The guys who made Le Petit Four (congratulations, you are the only guys to make me cringe), & the genius who wrote Rainbow Factory. I love all your guys' work!