Echoes of hoofbeats reverberated through a cavern lit only by the light of bioluminescent flora, a blue glow scattering shadows of ferns and vines across pillars of stone. These shadows snarled across the coat of a young mare, conversating with the dapples of her scorched seal bay coat. Her trot met their snarls with a confident indifference, an unrelenting barrage of sound that percussively kept the monsters of the dark at bay.

The shadows fled from her fire, it seemed.

Despite the strength her gait exuded, the mare was terrified. All she wished for was the comfortable blanket that the walls of her past provided, the painted red doors of her foalhood, the alluring grace of her mother, the Queen. All gone. Extinguished with the arc of a greatsword. But the world didn’t allow her a moment to reflect, mobs of the usurper’s supporters flooding her once-great kingdom with their lust for blood and vengeance. Her queen’s dying efforts were allowing the young princess to escape through the world beneath, returning to the source of the courser’s legacy. Princess Reina Raymere now wandered those overgrown dungeons of courser’s past, the light of the creeping vines illuminating an uncertain path ahead for the young exile.

She trotted on, observing as the rocks around her formed twisted shapes of beasts and blighted figures of nightmare. She allowed her mind to wander at what is possible in the world beneath, what mysteries lay dormant in waiting. What riches, treasures, or potential adventures? Old mare’s tales spoke of the legendary quests of courser’s past. One of those quests lead to the founding of her kin’s dynasty, of her former kingdom. Would she similarly find her purpose, her destiny? Or would she meld into the dust of a tome? She couldn’t say.

A rockfall’s crack against the cold stone floor reverberated throughout the cavern. Her ears pricked, her eyes not adjusted to the expansive darkness. She approached the sound’s location, nostrils flaring at the scent. An exasperated snort left the mare. She was puzzled, fore she was met with not the scent of rock alone… but of glowshrooms? Reina surveyed the darkness, the fungi garnering their characteristic fluorescent glow due to her proximity.

When her eyes drank in the glow, her fate’s thirst became quenched.

A courser stood unrelentingly in front of her, backlit in blue and green. But this was no normal steed, its sinewy body and muscles made of interconnected webs of glowshrooms and vineage, though the only shrooms yielding their light were where its eyes would be. Those ghastly eyes blinked, the connected body matching her every movement, down to the flexing of her tendons.

Reina knickered lowly towards her shadow, the sound pulsating and conquering throughout the silence of the cavern… but the mare got no response. Was this life? Was this sorcery? Or was this something else? She slowly backed away, fearing that her movement would startle this amalgamation. The shadow met her movements in response, its gaze unrelenting and its gait matching hers. Was this a test?

Her head faced towards the chasm in front of her, the only way forward. The guardian of this overgrown cavern blocked her path, and she had to think quickly. Tales of animated plant life were not new to her, as monsters of the dark forests haunted her bedside through the tongues of her kin every night. She had loved to hear stories of the magic and wonder of the world beneath, but from the safety of her home, the safety of her family. She took a step backwards, overcome and attempting to steady herself. A rock thwarted that attempt at reassurance, and she faltered as her hooves scraped it across the floor.

Strangely, the shape in front of her mirrored the dancing stumble of her fault. The mare slowly blinked, stepping to the side… as did it. She remembered her sire, his training of her in the craft of swordsmanship with parry and deflection. She had an idea. Reina continued to step to her foreside in a perfect circle, the ebb and flow of each hoofbeat being matched with precision by the union until she had reversed their positions, the cavern’s open maw at her back. Reina blinked, the glowshrooms her echo. She stepped backwards, the shadow’s rear now flirting with the walls of the cave. As she took one more step, her reflection met her, collapsing into a heap of flora and decay. The glowshrooms dimmed.

I passed, she thought to herself. Reina continued forward.