Ever the survivalist, Gambit had an interest in mushrooms especially. They were a great source of sustenance during long bouts of travel, and were relatively accessible; one could find them almost anywhere. Of course, not all of them were edible, which was why the stallion had spent countless hours poring over books and guides, making sure he could differentiate between the ones that were safe and the ones that weren’t.

This particular fungus, however, was not one he could recall coming across before. He’d seen bioluminescent mushrooms, of course, but he’d thought himself familiar with all existing varieties, especially those found among the Overgrown Caverns. Needless to say, his interest was piqued.

He approached the fungi with the same hesitance he’d approach a snake whose venomous status he did not know. The uneven ground was littered with shale, and he bent his head to take a particularly long piece between his teeth, careful not to bite down too hard to avoid shattering the fragile stone. He gave the mushroom a gentle tap with his makeshift tool, and stumbled backwards when it gave a resounding tone in response. He gasped softly, the chunk of shale falling from his mouth and practically disintegrating as it hit the ground.

It wasn’t necessarily that he was surprised that the fungus made noise at all – although it certainly wasn’t anything that he’d encountered before. It was the simple note itself that resounded throughout the cavern’s chamber evoked something visceral deep within him. It was a note he was certain he hadn’t heard in ages, and yet it resonated in a way that made him freeze, took him back to a time he didn’t know he longed for. A simpler time.

He blinked a few times and shook his mane out, grounding himself in the present moment once more and attempting the same thing with another mushroom, using his hoof this time. Just like the first, this fungus responded with another note, slightly different in pitch from the first one. Brow furrowing, he tested several more of the mushrooms, finding that they all emitted slightly different notes, and no two were the same. After he’d hit about ten of them, he returned to the initial fungus and tapped it once more, and it occurred to him suddenly why the pitch had jarred him so.

He recalled a song from his childhood, one his mother used to sing to him, and one he’d taken to singing to himself when he’d first started venturing into the dungeons, hardly more than a colt and often frightened by his own shadow. Oh, how far he’d come.

It took a moment to truly remember how the tune went, but he hummed it to himself, and then tried to match the notes to the many mushrooms spread over the wall before him. Though it took a few attempts – he’d never been very musically inclined – he finally managed to piece together the first verse with the musical fungi, and in response, the chamber rumbled.

Gambit backed away slowly, turning to the back wall of the chamber and finding that… it was no longer a wall. Instead, a massive, circular slab of stone rolled to one side, apparently the source of the tremors underhoof. A dull, green glow spilled from the newfound entryway, and Gambit was certain that whispers filled the cavern now, indiscernible but seeming to beckon to him regardless.

He'd done a lot of dives in the Caverns, but this was certainly a first. That probably should’ve been a red flag, but he’d never been one to balk in the face of the unknown. Great things weren’t done without taking risks. He took a few seconds to gather his wits about him, then powered forward, still quietly humming the nostalgic tune.