“There is so much magic here,” Maud said as her husband recovered. “I can feel it… I’ve been different since the volcano and absorbing all of the magical radiation. I can’t explain it, but my earth pony senses have been forever altered.” She looked down at the display on the thaumaton reader, then looked over at Vinyl and Octavia. “You aren’t in danger, but Vinyl, I would stay close to Tarnish or your magic might become a little unpredictable.”

The albino unicorn nodded in understanding.

“The magic is stronger that way.” Maud, turning her head, peered off into the darkness. “It’s like knowing which way is north or south just by feel. The Scariest Cave in Equestria is off in that direction as well. Feel any fear, Octavia?”

“Nope.” Octavia reached over and patted Tarnish on the neck as she replied.

“An underground river flowed along this passage and now it flows in the passage below us. It will flow until it finds a drain, go down, make the drain bigger with erosion, and given enough time, an underground river vanishes and moves to another cavern below, where the process repeats itself. Or, sometimes, it just wears away the ground until it forms a drain. The water here is only a few inches deep, but as you can see, the water from above pours down here.” Maud gestured to the waterfall and the new hole she had bashed open in the ceiling to save Tarnish from drowning. “I hastened thousands of years of erosion to save my husband. I don’t feel bad about it.”

“My fuzzy brown kiwis,” Tarnish moaned.

“We should try going in that direction for a while and see if our canary responds. I’m curious if this cavern connects to the scary one. We’re below that one by a fair bit. We’ll need to leave markers so we can return to this place and climb back up, so we can get out of here later.” Maud stared off into the darkness, trying to see what she could see.

“It’s dark!” Flamingo cried as she hovered near Maud’s head. “Scary dark. And somewhere in the darkness is a fuzzy kiwi smasher waiting to devour us all.”

Maud blinked, a response if ever there was one.

“Well, I should create a checklist.” Octavia cleared her throat and then continued, “I’ve had my dignity completely shredded and destroyed by being scared to death and widdling everywhere, Vinyl got the goathead thorn in her frog, Tarnish was almost drowned and now his kiwis hurt, and poor Maud is no doubt suffering a great deal from almost losing her soulmate. I do believe that we have all suffered our fair portions of abuse and trauma. Shall we continue?”

“We shall,” Maud replied.

Tarnish, walking bowlegged, tried to keep his balls from swinging and tugging on his tender, throbbing groin muscle. With each step, his eyelids twitched, as did his ears, and his lips moved in crazy ways as he tried to endure the pain. In a way, it was comforting. His two friends, ponies who were very dear to him, they were two mares capable of looking after themselves. There was a perverse sense of satisfaction in knowing that the pair of them were tough customers.

He was a lucky stallion to be in the company of three smart, tough, and capable mares. They were his friends, his companions, and one of them was so much more. He glanced over at Vinyl, who limped along beside him, her hooves splashing in the shallow water, and he smiled through his pain. Several glowing light orbs orbited above Vinyl’s head, illuminating the way for all of them. Flamingo, terrified of the dark, was secured back in her sheath.

“Stop.”

The group did as Maud commanded and she broke away. She went over to a crack in the wall, then gestured for Vinyl to bring the light closer. Tarnish followed, curious, with Octavia just behind him. Maud broke away several stones that would have crumbled away with a bit more time, then poked her head into the crack.

There was a gasp. Coming from Maud, that was a big deal.

Pulling her head out, Maud widened the crack, smashing some of the stone away, and then, saying nothing, she slipped through the widened gap and vanished. Vinyl followed, then Octavia, and with a grunt of pain, Tarnish followed as well, ducking his head and bending his legs, as he was a whole lot taller than the others.

There were lights ahead and the silhouette of… a city? Tarnish stared, not believing what he was seeing. There was a moat here, intentional or accidental, it was impossible to tell, and then a sharp incline going up. There were streetlights here, still burning. Square stone buildings, all perfectly preserved. Tarnish’s skin felt electrified and all of his hairs were standing up.

Standing on the edge of this place, Tarnish knew that he had seen cities like this one. The buildings were all familiar. He made his way up the ramp, his hooves clicking on stone, the pain in his fuzzy brown kiwis forgotten. Everything was in a perfect state of preservation. The glass was still in the windows. Doors were still in doorways. Everything was still and quiet.

“Holy alicorn shit,” Maud gasped.

“Maud…” Octavia raised an eyebrow at her friend.

“This city was buried by lava.” Maud pointed up above her where a dome could be seen. “Look how uniform everything is… a shield was raised over the city and then the lava flowed over, encasing the city in a tomb.”

“How… could you know that?” Octavia asked as she looked around. In the dim city lights, she too, saw the perfect dome shape, the smooth stone, the flowing archway that was too perfect for nature to create on her own.

“Magic feels funny here… stay very close to Tarnish. Everything is very raw.” Maud walked over to a streetlamp and touched it. “I don’t even know what sort of metal this is. I’ve never seen it before.” She rapped her hoof against the orange, coppery looking metal and shook her head. “And these stones in the street… what are these? These are unknown to me.”

“Why would a city need to be buried beneath lava?” Tarnish asked as he too, examined a lamp post. The streets held crystal conduits that lead from lamp post to lamp post, no doubt providing magical power to the lights. The streets were empty, barren, and bleak looking with no ponies or carts.

“Be careful.”

Hearing Maledico’s voice, Tarnish turned his head around. He saw a faint glowing projection of the centaur rising up from out of his saddlebags. Using his magic, Tarnish pulled out the orb and held it up near his face.

“I do not know this place, but it was buried for a reason,” Maledico said in a fearful sounding voice. “This place is thousands of years old. It is from my time. The druids did this… they sealed this place away and buried it beneath a sea of lava.”

“Why?” Tarnish asked.

“I don’t know, but I can still feel their magic. It calls to me…” The blue orb flashed and for a moment, it was like having a bright blue sun underground. “My student, you and I are needed here, but I cannot say why or how. The ground—”

“Is crying out from wrongness,” Maud finished.

“Yes.” The centaur’s projected image nodded its head.

“I don’t feel much of anything.” Octavia looked a little sad as she made her admission. She sidled over a few steps and leaned up against Vinyl. “I fear I’m not much of an earth pony.”

“Your talents lie elsewhere, bard,” Maledico said as his projection grew larger. “You repair the senses of others.”

“I don’t understand.” Octavia’s eyes narrowed and she gave the projected centaur a suspicious glare. “What are you saying? Tell me… I would very much like to know what you mean.”

“I cannot tell you more than I already have.” Maledico began to look around the city. “We must find a Hall of Memories. Centaur cities are all similar. This city will have records in the form of pictographs for others to puzzle out, in the event of written language changing over time.”

“Any idea where to start looking?” Maud asked.

“In the middle of the city, probably near catacombs. We centaurs keep our memories in one general location. Libraries, mausoleums, catacombs, ossuaries, and the Hall of Memories. Come my student… we were brought here with a purpose. Let us see if we can find out what happened.”

“What are these streetlamps made from?” Maud banged her hoof against them. “I must know, please tell me.”

“Centaur steel.” Maledico focused his gaze upon Maud. “I am not a metallurgist, I cannot tell you much more. Once created and given shape, it is nigh indestructible. It resists magical manipulation and cannot be melted down once it has been given shape and set.”

Wide eyed, Maud rubbed her cheek against the strange metal, and her ears quivered with some unknown emotional reaction. A strange muted moan escaped her open mouth, and only Tarnish recognised it for what it was—arousal. Maud continued to rub her cheek against the unknown metal, oblivious to those around her, letting out little lusty moans and groans.

Tarnish recognised them for what they were because he had heard them often enough.

When Vinyl looked at him, he said, “She likes rocks, okay? And metal too it seems.”

“She is a stone pony,” Maledico said in a very matter-of-fact voice. “Now, we should be going.”

Holding the orb near his head, Tarnish wondered how Maledico was able to manifest himself. He supposed it had something to do with the magic here in the centaur city. Tarnish’s own magical sense was very strong here, as if he had been supercharged, but it wasn’t his unicorn magic that felt stronger. All he could think about was that the druids had buried a city in lava, preserving it like a tomb. It was a dead city and it had been lain to rest.

Each of the square, cubical buildings appealed to a perfect sense of order. The streets were aligned in a perfect grid, with perfect right angles. The centaurs sought perfection and order, it seemed. Something had happened to them though, and Tarnish wanted to know what.

“This way,” Maledico commanded, and there was a sense of urgency in his voice.

Ahead was a large building, tall, and it reminded Tarnish of the Arcanarium he had seen while peeping into the orb a while back. He picked up the pace, hurrying along, and his companions followed. Centaur cities were arranged like libraries, with perfect rows of shelves, and everything following a logical, well thought out arrangement and placement.

“I am starting to sense the memories of this place,” Maledico said, puzzling the four ponies present. “Earth ponies have an earth pony sense, that comes from us centaurs. Pegasi have a danger sense, that comes from us as well, and unicorns have a magical sense, also a gift from us centaurs. I have all of these senses and more. I have a sense of past and present, something we centaurs passed along to the alicorns.”

“I don’t understand any of that,” Octavia replied in a prim voice.

“Stones have memories.” Maud trotted beside her husband, looking around and trying to take everything in.

“Only centaurs, alicorns, and stone ponies know that.” Maledico’s projection turned to look at Maud. “The stones remember much. Given the right magic, a stone pony could give them voice.”

“But Maud is an earth pony.” Octavia looked up at the glowing blue projection and narrowed her eyes. “She is like me, an earth pony mare.”

“My beautiful bard, you are like the soft, fertile soil that begs for seed and sweet rain.” Maledico grinned and made a gesture with his hand. “Maud is more like the stone, hard, unyielding, enduring. Both soil and stone are part of the earth.”

“Crystal too,” Maud added, thinking of crystal ponies.

Tarnish came to a halt when he saw a large stone skull mounted on top of a pillar. It looked like a centaur skull might look, but he couldn’t quite be certain. There were words here, but he couldn’t read them. Beside the skull and pillar was an arch that opened up a new section of the city.

“We’re here,” Maledico announced. “Memories. Headspace. Go through the arch, Tarnish. Do not be afraid. Lead us and know this. By walking through that arch, you take your first steps as a druid. Not an acolyte, not some neophyte, but a druid. I fear that only a druid can solve the issue we face. There is something bad here. If left to fester, it will sicken the whole of the world.”

“What?” Tarnish asked, the hairs along his spine beginning to rise.

“I sense that Grogar’s shadow is here,” Maledico replied in a soft whisper. “This city was buried to turn it into a prison, a place of confinement. An oubliette. ”

“But the wall was cracked.” Octavia’s voice sounded panicked.

Maledico nodded. “Yes, and some of the prisoner has escaped.”

Author's Notes:

Welp, time for a hiatus.