The graffiti upon the walls was far too grim for Tarnish’s liking. He took a moment to stare, to study, all while thinking about all of the unpleasant implications, and wondering why the ancient pegasus ponies of old would need to have a discussion as to where the soul rested in the body. These words weren’t like the others, and Tarnish, for whatever reason, wasn’t entirely certain that they were scrawled by a pegasus, but he didn’t want to make a tribalist statement, even by accident.

Wh're doest the soul rest? in the brain 'r in the heart? the brain is far too mealy upon the tongue and the heart beest liketh soggy leath'r in the maw.

Then below, in smaller, loopier letters:

Doest eating the jelli'd eyes closeth the window to the soul?

What was Skyreach? A place where things had gone wrong in the worst way possible. Tarnish, staring at the letters scratched into the stone, wondered how ponies reached the conclusion that eating some organ in particular allowed the eater to also consume the soul. It didn’t make sense to him, but he was a modern pony, who was in the process of getting a science education. The soul was not something bound within any particular organ.

Down near the floor, more was carved into the stone, and the very writing itself suggested madness.

thee pockmarked fool! The soul liveth within the liver, thee mush-mouthed clotpole!

“Things went wrong,” Tarnish said to his companions, and he wondered what a clotpole was.

“Gee, ya think, Big Guy?” Rainbow tilted her head to get a better look at the scrawl on the wall. She pointed with her wing, which trembled, and then stood there, shaking her head. “That bit about the eyeballs… I think that’s gonna haunt me forever. There’s no coming back from this, no reclaiming lost innocence. We’re no longer virgins to madness. Well, me, anyhow. I think all of you had your cherries popped quite some time ago.”

It was time to move on and keep looking. Tarnish cast one final glance at the graffiti and suffered a chilling thought. Could this be his fate in the future? Would he succumb to Skyreach? Might he go mad? And if he did, would he have the presence of mind to leave behind graffiti that was both horrifying and inane? It was an awful thought, one that chilled him to the bone.

The locked door seemed promising. It appeared secure, untouched, and was made of the strange green metal that could be found elsewhere on occasion. Tarnish was ready to cut the door open with Flamingo, but Vinyl Scratch popped the lock with relative ease, saving him the trouble. Beyond the first door was a short hallway, followed by a second door, which Vinyl also opened.

A swampy stink hit them, a foul, eye-watering miasma. Beyond the second door was yet another overgrown biome of some sort. A path wove through it from the entrance, but disappeared beneath brackish water. Tarnish heard the sound of frogs, which surprised him, and he wondered if they were real or if they were an illusion.

This place was not a part of the earth pony science wing and the double doors had to be some kind of connector. Stepping through the door, Tarnish found himself in a hot, humid swamp. Overhead, a yellow-orange sun flickered against an odd blue-green sky. Vivid yellow clouds were blown about by a nonexistent illusory wind. The colours were garish, hideous, and caused considerable eyestrain.

There were animals here, real ones, and Tarnish wondered how this was possible. Birds with long stilt-like legs waded through the water, looking for food. Trees grew here, and things that looked like opossums hung from the branches. The stench of hot decay filled Tarnish’s nostrils and left a gag-inducing film in the back of his throat.

Looking into the water, Tarnish could see things swimming just below the surface.

Even more disturbing were the spiderwebs in the distance. They had an unusual shimmer to them, a disturbing gleam, and they were enormous. There was something off about them, something out of place, and to Tarnish’s eyes, they almost looked like the crystalline fibres that were so common in centaur tech.

“How is there still life in this place?” Rainbow asked.

“The ecosystem must have found a balance,” Daring Do replied as what sounded like a bullfrog croaked nearby. The courageous pegasus mare went silent and began to study the swamp around her, the cypress trees in particular.

“We should come back to this.” Tarnish kept a wary eye on the wildlife. “We should turn back and finish having our look around the earth pony science wing. Besides, this place stinks.”

“Agreed.” Rainbow Dash sniffed a few times for emphasis.

Nodding her head, Daring voiced her opinion. “We’ll come back…”

Another green door, free of rust. Tarnish relaxed his guard a little, lowered his shield, and examined the door. Looking at the metal, he thought of Spike the Dragon, who had green metallic scales. The similarities were eerie and once Tarnish had thought about them, he could not push the thoughts from his mind. How hard would it have been for the centaurs to grow metal in much the same way that dragons grow their magical scales? Dragons never suffered rust.

Vinyl pulled the door open and Tarnish peered inside, wondering what might be found. Inside, there was darkness, but it did not last long. Once Tarnish stuck his head through the doorway, overhead lights flickered to life. How long had they been dark? A thousand years? Yet, somehow, they still functioned. This room seemed untouched by violence. No bones. No damage.

The shadowed outlines of ancient hulking machinery came into view as the overhead lights warmed up. Crystal columns grew from bizarre, swoopy housings that looked like they had been poured or shaped, rather than constructed. The stench of ozone tickled the nostrils of the companions as the machinery hummed to life, activating with the lights. It was like a symphony when they first started, so much sound and hope for something greater; but then much to Tarnish’s disappointment, something went wrong. Things popped and sizzled. Smoke rose from the ancient hulks and one by one, the old crystalline machines suffered their long overdue demise.

Whatever grand purpose the room had once served was now lost to time. The machines were not eternal, it seemed. But there was a consolation prize. Left sitting on a shelf was an ancient crystal rod, still glowing, and seeing it filled Tarnish with a peculiar sense of mania. He needed to know the secrets of this place. It was better than having to live with harsh reality. Each crystalline rod offered a few precious moments of escape, a much needed distraction, a view into the past that somehow made the suffering of the present hurt a little less.

The voice flickered to life, it crackled and popped a bit, and had so much distortion that it was impossible to tell if it was male or female. Tarnish’s ears strained to listen to the voice from long ago.

“In this very room, I have tampered with the control rods. My brilliance knows no ends.”

The crystal rod did not crumble, but shattered with explosive force in Tarnish’s telekinesis and he let out a startled cry. He wasn’t injured, but his horn ached a bit, like when his shield had been struck by bullets. He backed away from the glittering cloud of flakes as it settled down to the dusty, long-neglected floor.

“What’s a control rod?” Rainbow asked.

“It’s a rod,” Daring replied, “that exerts some means of control over something.”

“What a brilliant, well thought out, on the nose observation.” Rainbow raised her eyebrow at her fellow pegasus pony.

“What a staggering array of syllables you have somehow managed to say.” Daring managed to keep a straight face for all of about five seconds or so, and then began laughing. She pulled Rainbow in with her wing, and the two of them shared a good laugh together, no doubt blowing off a little much-needed steam.

Tarnish looked down at Vinyl and found her looking up at him. He wondered what she might be thinking, and he was curious about whatever secrets this room held, what purpose this room had served. Then, with his eyes still on Vinyl, he suffered a terrible pang of homesickness, which left him longing to hear Maud and Octavia’s voice. He was a pony that needed lectures, he needed them in the same way that grass needed rain. Those he loved and trusted were the ones best suited for keeping his head screwed on straight, and Octavia was good at it.

Looking down, Tarnish saw the faint, almost unnoticeable glow of the artificial ley line in the floor. It formed a circle around the ancient machinery offering both purpose and function, at least when the ancient arcanotech devices still worked. Lifting his head, he wondered, how much smarter his companions were right now? How much faster, both mentally and physically? They were operating at some peak equine efficiency, being smarter, faster, and stronger, but at what cost?

This concerned him, as did his ever-present hunger. Perfection came at a price—of this there could be no doubt—and he was ever-so-curious about what this constant and elevated state of perfection was doing to their bodies… their metabolisms. How much food had the ponies of Skyreach ate? His own hunger was really starting to bother him, and try as he might, he could not avoid thinking about cannibalism. The ley line had to be getting to him, making him too smart for his own good, leading him to unsettling conclusions just to leave him on edge.

And in a flash of brilliance, Tarnish had an inkling as to why.

“This is Grogar’s doing.”

“Say again, Tarnish?” Daring Do stopped laughing with Rainbow Dash to give Tarnish a stern glance.

“The ley lines… Grogar corrupted the magic of the world, and he’s corrupted the artificial ley lines too. He used the centaur’s technology against them, the very thing that made the centaurs and the ponies in their care so strong and so capable. Without the ley lines, ponies must have fallen down quite a bit, becoming stupid, and we know that the entire world collapsed into a sort of dark age from which we are only now starting to recover.”

“That’s an interesting… hypothesis.” Daring Do’s muzzle wrinkled in concentration.

“A hypothesis,” Rainbow Dash said to herself. “An attempt at an explanation constructed on the basis of limited or otherwise restricted evidence which is offered up as a logical starting point and framework for continued investigation and research.”

Daring, Tarnish, and Vinyl all turned to look at Rainbow Dash.

“What?” Rainbow stared back at her companions with wide-eyed defiance. “I listen and pay attention to the things that Twilight says, okay? Don’t judge me!”

“Yes… well… I think we need a break from these ley lines. We should get out of this place for a while so we can rest and recover in a natural environment.” Tarnish looked down at the glowing circle on the floor for a moment, then looked at Rainbow Dash. “We need rest, relaxation, and a real meal or two.”

“That sounds good,” Daring agreed. “I second that motion.”

“Yeah, we should do that.” Rainbow looked at the door, and then back at her companions. “It’ll be a long walk out though, and an even longer walk to the cave. I don’t know if it is day or night outside.”

“We’ll sort that out in the entryway, that place with the apple trees.” Daring Do turned to face the door. “I think I can remember the way out.”

With a shower of glittering sparks, Vinyl’s slate appeared, along with a piece of chalk. She made a hasty effort to scribble some words, then raised her chalkboard so that others might see it, smiling as she did so.

I’ve been mapping our way as we go along. I know the way out.

Author's Notes:

Yes, I know the graffiti is riddled with typos and is messed up.