Equestrylvania

by Brony_Fife

Bloody Tears, Part I

Bloody Tears, Part I

---

The moment she sees it, Twilight Sparkle knows something is very wrong.

Canterlot Castle doesn't carry its usual dignity, grace, and warmth. It's… different, intimidating, standing silently in the mountainside like a giant tombstone. As the moon descends, it looks down at this unfamiliar castle as if perplexed and concerned. The clouds surrounding the castle shudder, afraid to approach it.

When she finally arrives at the Canterlot train station, she is greeted by a few of the Royal Guards, who immediately take her to her brother. The moment she boards the chariot readied for her, Twilight Sparkle looks up and realizes why everything about the castle felt off.

It is not Celestia's castle standing there anymore.

Instead, it is a giant and frightening thing: a monument of terror and oppression standing tall and imposing over a city gripped with fear. As they ride through the streets, Twilight takes note of how many ponies are already up and about, talking to each other in hushed tones, with eyes wide and with faces pale. There are numerous Royal Guards out on patrol, with single guards standing watch at nearly every street corner. High alert.

Something is very wrong in Canterlot, and as the sun finally, reluctantly rises, it brings with it a very hollow morning, devoid of warmth or meaning. Today, Celestia is not here. The sun rises without its mother: it is awake and very, very afraid.

---

The chill morning air is cut by the roasted smell of fresh coffee as Shining Armor brings it to his lips. The castle before him glares down at him as he drinks. He greets its foreboding stare with a suspicious eye of his own. This castle has him marked as an enemy, and he knows it—and he, in his understandable paranoia, returns the favor.

Finally, his sister arrives. They greet each other happily, almost disregarding these unfortunate circumstances. Their conversation goes from pleasantries, to Princess Cadance's well-being, to the Crystal Empire's current status.

“The Crystal Empire’s doing okay,” he says quietly, his eyes once again flicking to the castle. “I was visiting my old squadron here, when this thing suddenly appeared…”

Reluctantly breaking their conversation, Twilight Sparkle looks up to the castle, her jaw steeling uneasily as she drinks in its appearance.

The architecture of the castle sings nocturnes of an alien world: the dark stone frames black windows taller than many of the buildings in Canterlot, long spires that stick out like claws attempting to scratch out the sky. Much of it is gnarled and twisted, yet at the same time rigid and structured. Almost as if it’s something chaotic or unreal wearing a paper-thin disguise that threatens to get taken away by the wind.

But it’s the statues decorating many overhanging platforms that catch her eye. Creatures with fingers and noses and toes; some wearing clothes, some not; some with wings, others with horns and tails; all in various states of torment, humiliation, or domination.

Twilight Sparkle has read about these alien creatures, Homo sapiens. Before, she had only seen ancient artwork depicting them, or clumsy facsimiles built in their image. These seem closer to the real deal. The largest thing that any of these statues share is the overall air of fear, that quality of horror and oppression.

"From those statues," she says quietly, "I'd say this castle isn't from anyplace ruled by ponies..."

A deep voice breaks the morning. "From the statues?" Twilight Sparkle turns to see the speaker: a tall, big, blonde, dark blue unicorn around Shining Armor's age with a voice like thunder rumbling ominously in the distance. "My dear girl, with all due respect, this castle appeared overnight, and you're concerned with statues!" He speaks with an air of authority and deep intelligence beneath his rude exterior.

Twilight Sparkle elects not to pick a fight with a fellow intellectual. Before she says anything, Shining Armor shoots him a glare. "Calm down, Roaring Yawn. She just got here, and she will be working with you and your team." He explains to Roaring that Twilight is the Princess's very own pupil, and is well-versed in nearly every kind of magic. He then introduces the two, telling his sister that Roaring Yawn is—

"A pioneer in the study of cryptology and a leading name in the cataloguing of ancient and forbidden magics, I know," she interrupts, catching her brother unaware. She reaches her hoof out to shake Roaring Yawn's. "I've read all your articles in Cryptology Monthly, including your latest one. I have to say your opinion on Nevermore the Perverse and his role in the Ancient Pony War was very enlightening." For a quiet few seconds, her hoof merely hangs there, unjoined by Roaring's. Awkwardly, she puts her hoof down as Roaring Yawn walks by her to look more closely at the castle.

He fiddles with his glasses, almost nervously. "At the stroke of midnight last night," he begins, "A bright light flashed for close to a whole minute. When it faded, this… behemoth stood in place of our Princess' castle. Some of my colleagues have theorized this to be some kind of weird mirror-opposite to the Princess' castle, but to be perfectly honest, I don't think that is the case."

"Is the Princess still here?" asks Twilight Sparkle, hopeful that her mentor was safe, at least.

Shining Armor shakes his head. "We lost contact with her after the light went away. I was actually kind of hoping she maybe shot you a letter..."

At this, Twilight considers the possibility. She wishes she had brought Spike along, as he is the only one who can receive the Princess' messages. She'd left as soon as she had received her brother's message (which was sent similarly to how the Princess sends hers), so she hadn't stuck around to receive any others. She shakes her head in response.

Roaring Yawn looks up at the sun. "The Princess is not here, yet the sun has risen. I assume she's still alive at least."

"...But then why hasn't she contacted any of her subjects?" Shining Armor asks.

"Who knows?" Roaring Yawn shrugs. "If either of you trust in our Princess as much as you say, then we'll just have to wait for her to either send us word or return. Either way, in the meantime, we're stuck with this mysterious castle. I say we stop wasting time and investigate."

Even though he is a very brash kind of pony (and the worst kind of that: loud, rude, and in control), Roaring Yawn does have a good point. While everypony else stands around outside, the Princess might be lying inside this tomb of a castle, hurt or scared or...!

Shining Armor nods. He gathers his group together while Roaring Yawn takes Twilight Sparkle aside. "Look," he says, his electric green eyes meeting her dusk purples, "I don't mean to sound pushy, but this is no time for formalities. What we have here is a real anomaly. You and I and my colleagues are all here to investigate this. So no wandering off."

Her patience with his attitude at its end, Twilight Sparkle pushes him away. "I don't know who you think you are, Roaring Yawn, but you don't have the right to treat me like some foal. I do understand what's at stake here. We're about to discover something huge, so I think we should be on more professional terms with each other."

Roaring Yawn's lips purse as he looks at her through his glasses, his face haughty, his green eyes piercing. "We could," he said, his rumbling voice at a very low volume, "and for the time being, we will." He turns to his colleagues as they depart for the castle. As he leaves, his back still to Twilight, he says curtly, "But don't think for a second that you are somehow on our level. You are only here because your brother demanded you to be here. So don't get in the way."

With that, Roaring Yawn leaves Twilight standing there, alone. She shivers with fury over his thoughtless remarks. Suddenly, she feels somepony rest their hoof on her shoulder, diffusing her growing anger. She turns and is met by the friendly face of one of Roaring's colleagues.

"Oh, don't worry about him," he says. "Roaring's not the type to say anything nice about anypony. He just holds everypony to impossible standards: his. Just shrug him off."

Twilight wants very much to take this unicorn's advice to heart. She looks up at the castle again.

It stares back. She is marked as an enemy, but unlike her brother, she does not know it yet.

---

Within these castle walls, unseen eyes grab at the group wandering inside. Even with warm sunlight coming in through the windows, every member of the observation group can feel... something, as if this castle were really a living thing and is aware it has been invaded.

The photojournalists with them take as many pictures as they possibly can: that painting on the wall, those suits of armor that line the halls, the architecture...

The scientists had all brought their equipment, using their magic to scan the various objects around them. They scribble their findings on notepads, taking care to list every detail. Most find that they end each discovery with yet another question.

Meanwhile, Shining Armor had split his men into several groups. While he would stay and guard the observation group with a few of them, the others would search the castle for any signs of the Princesses (or anypony else who lived in the castle for that matter). He walks alongside his sister, observing her body language, taking in all the subtle flinches and near-reluctant hoofsteps.

Twilight uses her horn to scan a nearby statue. Her body tenses suddenly.

"Something wrong?" asks Shining Armor.

For a moment, it had felt as if the statue had scanned her instead of the other way around—like it could see into her soul, her memories, everything about her. She looks up at the statue, its white marble Homo sapien face, its unseeing, invasive eyes staring into her.

Twilight shakes her head.

"No," she lies, "Nothing. It's just, this place..."

"I’ve explored many a mysterious crypt," says Roaring Yawn nearby. His deep voice words his sentences quietly and carefully, like a cat gingerly approaching a waterfall. He too seems afraid of this place. "I’m familiar with the natural sense of unease that comes with investigating the burial place of ponies long dead. But this castle... there's something... different about it. There’s something about it I just can't put my hoof on..."

"You feel it too, don't you?" asks Twilight. "This place isn't just a castle." Her eyes dart about, alert for any suspicious movement, as her voice's volume drops to almost a whisper. "It's alive."

Roaring Yawn says nothing, but the look on his face agrees. Shining Armor looks about uncomfortably, his weight shifting from one side to the other while the others are bustling about in their investigation. Inwardly, he hopes to hear back from his men as soon as possible.

---

Twilight's ears are ringing. They are calling for her to wake up. Her senses return to her, one by one, as if they had lost her somewhere down the road and doubled back for her. Her hearing returns with the ringing in her ears, her taste returns with sourness of the mouth. Her sight and feeling are more reluctant however, but she does smell something fetid, something ancient.

What happened?

She remembers shouting voices. Large, black wings. A scream that caused the glass windows to explode. The window pieces stopped midflight.

She remembers a Homo sapien. He wears white from head to foot. Carries around a big black sword, or something similar to one—it was too elaborate in its design to tell what it was exactly. He says something to a white rabbit in dapper clothing, but it sounds as if he is saying it backwards. The white rabbit says something in return, something that makes no sense.

Last thing she remembers, she was running for the door. She had to find the passage back to the place she was before. But there was a fall. She fell somewhere, and now she's lost.

Twilight climbs up to her hooves, shaking. She feels damp on one side. Her nostrils inhale dust and mildew, perhaps generations’ worth of the stuff. She coughs. Cold as a tomb in here.

She takes another few sniffs. It is a tomb.

Knowing exactly what she might see if she does so, Twilight casts a Spell of Light upon her horn, spreading sweet visibility across the room. She is greeted by precisely what she expected, and holds her screams.

There are empty eyes set in empty skulls, empty Homo sapien skulls. They all stare at her, from above, and below, and from all sides, staring with both vacancy and hatred. There are empty, grinning mouths with missing teeth; there are limbs and torsos and feet and hands and arms and legs scattered about the floor.

There is a head, blue and rotted, resting atop an otherwise empty suit of armor. The head's mouth is a deep crimson red, along with its listless, worthless eyes. The suit of armor sits atop a mound of bodies.

There are bodies. Mounds and mounds of bodies in every corner.

Finally, Twilight's voice returns to her, only to escape again in a scream.

Comments

[Xandrah]

I started reading this, and I really wanted to like it, but I just can't continue overlooking the constant tense swapping. If not for that, I probably would enjoy this a lot.

[link4588]

It's Dullahan isn't it? And i bet i know what the rabbit is...

[Mic Check]

"Last thing she remembers, she was running for the door. She had to find the passage back to the place she was before."
I see what you did there. Hotel castlevania

[Clocklike]

"I’ve explored many a mysterious crypt,"

I think you meant: I've explored many mysterious crypts.

[Forderz]

Not a fan of the present-tense narration, and I'd like a character-narrator with limited knowledge rather than an omnipresent one with sporadic knowledge dumps, but...

Setting aside the technical bits, it seems alright.

[EtherealAcclaim]

Did you just put a line, from. "Hotel California," In this chapter?

[EtherealAcclaim]

3806573 It can be said, either way.