The old hall waiting for them at the end of the stairs was now dimly lit. The torch, still in Climber’s hoof, revealed a white, polished ground and walls painted in the Snowflake family’s colors. In the center stood a single, tall statue of Compassion made of granite, lightly shimmering in the light. Unlike the one on the roof, this one wasn’t painted. Behind the statue were to see the shapes of two doors, each leading further down into the crypt.
Climber just waited long enough for Twilight to catch up before he headed for the left door. With him holding the only light source, Twilight had no choice but to follow. She could create a flickering light herself, but thought better about it. When they passed the statue, she stopped and took a moment to give it a look. The time had left its marks on it, a few little pieces of the stone had been worn away and some spots inevitably crumbled apart. Nothing uncommon. She was already turning back to proceed to the door, when she noticed tiny marks running along the statue’s back. They were different from the ones made by time, instead they looked like something had sat or laid on the statue, something with sharp claws.
Twilight moved her head closer, squinting at the marks in the flickering light. “That was his mother,” the baron's voice interrupted her examination. He stepped back and lifted the torch so Twilight could see better. “She used to lay on the statue after his death for a while,” he gave the marks a look himself, “when the statue stood over his sarcophagus back in the days.”
Now in the light, it was indeed to see that dozens of claw marks of all sizes, from tiny to hoof large were placed all over the statue’s back.
“I wonder why she lay with claws instead of hooves on the statue?” Twilight thought and just nodded to the baron.
“We should trot on, Your Highness,” he said and turned. With a short last look at the marks, Twilight followed.
Behind the door, there was a long stretched hallway of stairs, leading deeper down. The light of the torch was not enough to illuminate it till its end, vanishing into darkness. The flickering light was enough, however, to show an alcove a few steps ahead on the right side, filled with a sarcophagus. When they moved forward, it was revealed that every few steps another sarcophagus was placed in an alcove along the sides.
It was a good thing that Twilight didn’t believe in ghosts. A small smile appeared on her lips, imagining how Spike would have freaked out already. The soft echo of their hoofsteps, the small, eerie dancing light source and the dead ponies were still enough to send a shiver down her spine.
“It must have been a difficult task to move these sarcophagi and the statue down here,” she thought. “How many ponies would be necessary to shift them? And how did they do it?” She followed the baron till they reached the end of the hallway, occupying herself with this question. Another door waited at the end, this time covered with a banner of the Snowflakes. Climber pushed the handle and trotted into another, very large hall behind it. Twilight stopped just behind the doorframe, she could only guess the dimensions of the hall.
The baron also had stopped just a few steps ahead, working on something Twilight wasn’t able to see. She only heard some liquid streaming down and then a loud ‘fluff’ followed by a burst of light that blinded her. Covering her eyes with her foreleg, she groaned, displeased. When she opened her eyes again, the hall was illuminated by the light of a fire pit, set ablaze by Climber’s torch.
She was going to reprove the baron for this painful flash of light, but was taken aback by the sheer appearance of the hall. The walls were black and swallowed a lot of the light, but four pillars of silver color reflected the fire quite well and set sparkles all over the interior. Many stone sarcophagi stood in small alcoves along the walls, each with a small statue of the deceased pony on it. Many epitaphs adorned the stone veneer around the alcoves, but Twilight couldn’t discern the exact words. With her eyes getting used to the light, she was able to see that the walls weren’t all black, there were paintings of events from long time ago all over them.
The whole room was dominated by a huge stone double sarcophagus at the center of the opposite wall. Into it was carved the Snowflake family’s coat of arms, this time the snowflake in its center was underlaid by a red heart, assembled as mosaic of rubies and light sapphires.
“Compassion and Heartwarming Smile,” Climber said, following the princess’ look. “Founders of the House Snowflake and buried peacefully together.” He nodded. “They weren’t separable in life and also not after death.”
Twilight was a bit unsure how to react, she didn’t know what would be the best response. “Should I ask him to tell me more about them? Or better just nod? No, that would be coming over as uninterested. ...Oh! I stayed silent for too long already!”
“You never told me about Heartwarming Smile,” she blurted out. “Why not?” She facehoofed in her mind at that question, but it seemed the baron didn’t mind.
Climber put the torch into an holder and explained with a part reproach, part smile on his face “You never asked about Compassion’s wife, you didn’t expected all of us to be adopted, did you?”
“N...no of course not,” Twilight said a bit embarrassed. “I am sorry, I should have asked earlier.”
“Maybe,” Climber said with a nod. “Doesn't matter now, so you don’t have to worry about it, Your Highness. I can tell you about her now.”
He stepped closer to the sarcophagus and after a respectful bow he sat down. After she decided it would be right, Twilight did the same. A shiver ran down her spine at the touch of the cold stones, , but it didn't matter, both ponies sat there in respectful silence, till finally Climber spoke again. What followed was a short story about Heartwarming’s life, after she and Compassion had been married. It was nothing too deep, just enough to show what kind of pony she was, a few happy memories that made it through the time and also a few struggles and problems of her daily life.
It was not like when he told stories in the fireplace room or in the ancestor hall, this time the story wasn’t to impress or to prove something, it was just about a mare, a mother, a wife. By what she heard, Twilight thought she may have liked Heartwarming, have they met each other. This mare had raised a couple of foals, withstood the pressure of her family standing against marriage with the stallion she had chosen and also had to deal with an immortal, very powerful and very protective mother-in-law. All tough tasks.
When Climber had ended, they both felt in silence again. Even if she had nothing to say herself or neither had any connection to Heartwarming, Twilight didn’t mind the silence or the cold and the respect drifting through the air.
After a while Climber rose from his spot and trotted over to another nearby fire pit and ignited it too. Now the hall was well-lit and he offered Twilight to go along with him, showing her each last resting place of the great members of his house. He also said a few words now and then about the ponies they passed, sometimes even a short story, some enlightening, some more of the serious kind.
It was then that Twilight noticed that the hall was originally only nearly half as big. It was clear to see till where the paintings and embellishments on the wall reached originally. From that imaginable line on, the paintings were a bit brighter and the kind of embellishments changed as well. She looked around again to confirm her thoughts. Her gaze went to a small door, painted in black right next to the ‘line’ that was nearly invisible, right at the place Cave Light had told her it would be.
She knew it led to the level below, to another room filled with sarcophagi and next to it another long forgotten room, with a hole in the wall leading to the caves below, that just had the luck to be discovered by two curious foals.
For now, Twilight kept her attention to the ancestors of the baron and his stories about them, showing respect as she had promised.
***
“Unbelievable!” Climber snorted, half angry, half embarrassed. “This should not be!” He stomped with his free hoof in angry disbelief. “In my family’s crypt, found by a guest!” He kicked a small broken stone through the source of his annoyance. What he thought would be a door or something similar, like Twilight told him during tea, turned out to be a hole at the bottom of the wall, granting access to the caves below.
A bit surprised by the heaviness of his outburst, Twilight rubbed her foreleg and stayed silent to not feed his anger. If she had known how he will react, she would thought twice about ‘finding’ the hole. She was aware she had to go here anyway, still the circumstances could have been arranged a little bit differently. But now it had happened and there was no turning back.
The baron had started to trot back and forth in the small room as best as he could, mumbling grumpily, the torch in his hoof throwing its flickering light here and there.
Twilight used the time to give the hole a closer look. Down here, one level below the grave of Compassion and Heartwarming the walls weren’t decorated, sporting only a dirty white layer of smaller stones. Behind them, the stones visible at the edges of the hole were normal grey and much thicker. If she had to guess, Twilight would have said the wall had become porous over time and its own weight had made it collapse. With a heavy sigh, Climber regained a bit of his calmness. “I have to take care of this, it can not be tolerated to have,” he pointed at the hole with a fresh wave of anger, “… this, in my family's crypt!” He took a few slow breaths in and out. “At least,” he said with a mix of diminishing anger and a raising spark of curiosity, “we do have access to the caves below with it and it will take time till tomorrow for the repairs to start anyway, so we can as well take a look, if you wish Your Highness.”
“If that is really alright with you?” she gave him an uncertain look. “Of course I would like to and I don’t think it is your fault this wall collapsed, this stuff happens over time. You should not worry about it too much.”
“I know, this apple had been picked already.” He unhappily shrugged his shoulders and held the torch into the hole. “We should make the best out of the situation.” He crouched down, swinging the torch left and right. “As far as I can see, this leads to a small cave.”
Crouching down next to him, Twilight took a look herself. “Anything else to see?”
“Not from here.” He lifted away the torch again. “If you don’t mind, Your Highness, I should go first and see if the cave is safe, if so, you can follow.”
With a raised eyebrow, Twilight asked, “Are you sure there could be any danger below?” She fixed him with a self-assured gaze. “I am sure I can handle an empty cave, there is no need for you to be the brave stallion here.”
“Of course, Your Highness, of course.” He nodded. “Anyway it is my duty as baron to protect you from any harm, more so in my own home, so I’ll go first.”
Twilight wanted to say more to this but was cut of by Climber’s firm shake of his head. “No, Your Highness, if something happened to you, even if you just got a hoof sprain, Pleasant Smell will be angry with me, and I don’t want to sleep in the guest room again. So if we explore this cave, I go first, or we both head back to the castle and I let this cave be explored by my guards.”
“Oh,” Twilight rubbed her head, “I didn’t think about that.” She rose and stepped by his side, “I am sure your wife wouldn’t blame you for it, but probably it would be best to not risk anything.” She gestured to the hole. “After you.”
With another nod, Climber slipped out of his shoes and moved forward. Slowly hoof by hoof he crept forward till he passed the wall and slid down the short slope that lay behind.
“Are you alright?” Twilight asked, now nearly engulfed by the shadows.
She heard him brush off some dirt off his clothes before he raised the torch again and turned around to look up to her. “Yes, Your Highness, I am fine.”
“What do you see?”
“Well,” he swung the torch around, “a cave obviously.” Giving his surroundings another closer look he added, “Nothing uncommon as far as I can see. Give me a moment, Your Highness, I will scan the surroundings”
The cave wasn’t big enough to let him go out of sight or leave Twilight’s hearing range, so she didn’t have to wait for long before he called her. “You may now come in, Your Highness, it should be safe.” He returned to the opening and illuminated the way for the princess.
Quickly, Twilight crept past the wall and simply jumped down the few hooves to him.
“There are three ways out of his cave, as far as I was able to see. None of them leads towards the place we are looking for though.”
“How can you know?” She gave the surroundings a look herself.
“Excuse me, but I know my home a bit, Your Highness.” He pointed at an, in Twilight's opinion, random wall and said, “There is north, so we want to head in this direction. The only exits I found so far however,” he pointed in the other directions, ”are leading south, west and northwest, we can’t be sure which would lead us towards our destination.”
Remembering what Cave Light had told her, Twilight pointed at the exit to the left, the one leading south, and said confident, “We should try this one, I have the feeling that one might bring us to the source in the end.”
Looking not convinced, Climber replied, “That is nearly the complete opposite direction, it will only lead us further away.” He gestured to the northwest exit. “This way has the highest chance to turn in the right direction a bit ahead.”
“Probably.” She nodded, then motioned to the south exit. “Still, I want to take that one. I feel it will be the right choice.”
Climber shifted his gaze between the two exits in question,” Well, hmm…” He scratched over his cheek.
“I also could try to summon more light, if you don’t think it would be disrespectful? I don’t know how good it will work, it should be enough to get us an overview.”
“Huh?” He looked confused. “I don’t want to offend you, but as far as I remember it didn’t work well in my ancestors’ hall, why should it work here?”
“I don’t think it will work much better and I don’t aim to lighten up the whole area constantly. Instead I want to create a short living, very bright ball of light to illuminate our surroundings for a few seconds only. ”
“Down here outside of the crypt,” his eyes wandered around in the darkness, “it may be helpful and I have no problem with it. Feel free to cast it, Your Highness.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said and immediately cast the spell. A big ball of strong light formed on her horn. Climber turned away to not get blinded by it, totally surprised by the princess suddenly jumping into his forelegs with a loud, “IEK!” He dropped the torch before he could burn her with it. It hit the ground and almost blinked out, leaving only a small flame that didn’t give off any useful light.
“What happened?” he asked alerted, taking a few unbalanced steps back, trying not to fall over by Twilight’s impact. “Your Highness, what is going on?”
“Something is there!” she screamed, still shocked. “Right over there!”
“Where? I can’t see anything in this darkness!” He set her down gently, but resolutely. “Stay behind me,” he whispered. “Who is there?” he shouted into the darkness. “Reveal yourself.”
“It was over there, a few steps into the northwest tunnel.” Twilight shivered and pressed herself against Climber, pushing his gaze in the right direction. “It wasn’t a pony!”
“Quick, cast that light spell again,” he ordered, taking a defensive stance between Twilight and whatever was there in the darkness.
A burst of light followed. It rushed all over the walls, causing tears in Climber’s eyes. He wasn’t able to see whatever had scared the princess. With a swift move, he grabbed the torch. “Show yourself!” he once again yelled. The light flickered. He threw a look back to Twilight, sweat had formed on her forehead. “Are you sure you saw something?”
The light got a bit less flickering. “Yes,” she said with the effort to keep the light steady clear in her voice. “Something stood there!” She panted and increased the light once more. “Right at the beginning of that tunnel, looking at us!”
Climber shifted his stance, “Whatever you are, show yourself!” He put the torch in his mouth and fumbled in his pocket, bringing another match to see. With much effort, he was able to keep his gaze at the tunnel entrance and ignite it at the same time.
Removing it quickly from his mouth, he raised the now burning torch high in the air. “If you don’t come out, I‘m going to come and get you!”
“I don’t know if that is a good idea!” Twilight panted again. “I am not sure what this thing is. It could be anything!”
The light of her horn started to fade away again.
“Whatever it is,” Climber took a step forward, “I am going to find out. I don’t allow something to lurk in the caves below my ancestors’ last resting place!” He pointed to the opening in the wall with his head. “Maybe, whatever creature is here, made the hole in the wall. I have to stop it if it’s so.”
With her magic light fainting and Climber moving forward, Twilight trotted forward and closed up. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
He snorted. “Good idea or not, I have to take care of this.” Climber looked back at her for a second. “Just stay behind me, Your Highness, I will protect you.”
They carefully moved a bit forward before Climber spoke again. “Down here, without sunlight and barely anything to eat, this creature will be small and harmless anyway,” he said, followed by too quickly added, “I guess.” It didn’t calm down Twilight in the least.
“It wasn’t small,” Twilight said but Climber trotted on nonetheless.
Reaching the northwest tunnel entrance, the baron gestured to Twilight to stop and moved on slowly step by step by himself. The torch caused dancing shadows along the stone. His hoofsteps echoed back from the walls. Worried, Twilight watched him enter the tunnel, swinging his torch from left to right and back.
“Nopony is here,” he shouted from inside the tunnel. “Seems we are alone once more, whatever was here is gone.”
“Where did it go?” A shiver ran down Twilight’s spine suddenly. Her ear flickered back by a nearly unhearable noise, right behind her, a pebble rolled over. Climber said something but she didn’t listen anymore, slowly she turned around her head. She held her horn ready to strike with another ball of light. “B-b-baron…” she said shaky.
“We must have scared it away.” Climber swung his torch one last time. “I told you it would be…” He was interrupted by a flash of light and a scream of fear from Twilight. “Your Highness!” he shouted and started to storm back to her. Before he made the first few steps she already reached him and grabbed him by the hoof.
“Run!” she screamed, dragging him along already.
With trouble he held grip on the torch and also kept his balance, running by her side. “What is going on, what are we running away from?” He glanced over his shoulder, trying to see if something followed them. He freed his hoof from her grip before she made him fall over. “Your Highness, what did you see?”
Twilight didn’t respond, she was too focused on getting away, just pushing forward. Climber had no choice but to stay by her side. They passed by a few other tunnel entrances and also randomly entered some. It took a few minutes till Twilight slowed down and finally come to a halt.
She panted heavily, sweat was on her coat and she threw a worried look at the way they came from.
Panting himself, Climber trotted over to one of the walls and leaned against it. He took a few heavy breaths before he spoke, “Your Highness,... may I ask… what have you seen, back there?” He pointed behind them with the torch. “It was very unwise to blindly storm into this tunnels.” He lowered his head and released a heavy breath again.
“I…I think it was a…” Twilight started, but then stopped and shook her head unsure. “I am not sure.”
Climber returned his gaze to her.
“It was some scaled creature,” she explained, “with red eyes.”
“Are you telling me we just ran away from a lizard?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
Twilight shot another look back at the tunnel behind them. “No! Not a lizard, it was far too tall for that, about this height.” She looked back at him, placing her hoof at the beginning of her throat.
“So it was a huge lizard?” Climber left his rest at the wall and stood tall in the tunnel again.
“No, I told you it wasn’t a lizard,” Twilight repeated the confrontation in her head, “it… it… had feathers… and claws.”
“Feathers and claws?” Climber didn’t sound convinced. He threw another look backwards, “Even so, you shouldn’t have been so afraid when you saw it first in the tunnel, Your Highness. A feathered lizard doesn't sound so dangerous.”
Twilight's head turned forward into the darkness before them. She shivered again. “That wasn’t what I saw the first time.” She swallowed. “It was far taller the first time, I think it crouched on the ground and still was bigger than the other… creature.”
Now it was at Climber to show the first sign of fear. “We didn’t just run randomly into this tunnels towards an unknown creature?” He illuminated rotatory both directions of the tunnel. “Did we?”
Twilight shrunk a bit, “I fear we did... I am sorry.”
“We can speak later about that, now we should see that we get out of here.” He gave the torch a look. “This one will last for awhile still, we will have light, but I don’t know if there is another exit besides the crypt.”
“There must be,” Twilight said, half hoping, half guessing. “These creatures have to get in or out of here too and they didn’t go through the crypt for sure.”
“We…” Climber started but fell silent when they both heard the sound of something moving through the tunnel they came from. He raised the torch and placed himself between Twilight and whatever was coming closer.
“Whatever you are,” he shouted, “I warn you! Don’t come any closer!”
The steps stopped for a moment. The tunnel was silent again.
“I have a weapon and I will use it!”
A few seconds passed… then the steps continued, faster, coming closer and closer. Climber and Twilight slowly stepped back without even realizing it.
“Stay away!” Climber shouted once more. This time however, he received an answer, a loud ‘cocka-doodle-doo’ sounded through the tunnel. “What?” Climber pulled back up his head in confusion. “What does a chicken do down here?” he mumbled. “Feathers and scaly claws… Princess,” he said aloud again, “Could it be, you were scared by a chicken?”
“I… I wasn’t.” Twilight shook her head slightly, repeating the encounter in her head again. “A chicken does not have red eyes.” Then the realisation of what the creature must be hit her. “A Cockatrice!” she yelled.
Climber, who had turned his attention back to the tunnel, gave her an alarmed look. “A Cockatrice?”
They started to trot backwards again. “Yes, now I am sure.” Twilight nodded with worry on her face. “I met an Cockatrice back in the days, I never forget how it looks like.”
Another ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ was heard, this time just from the darkness before them.
“We should see that we get out of here,” Climber suggested. “Here, take the torch, I’ll stay between you and this Cockatrice.”
“You don’t have to.” Twilight wanted to deny but he grabbed her hoof and placed the torch in it.
“We don’t have time for this.” He pushed Twilight forward. “Keep going and don’t look back.”
“But…” Twilight started but fell silent when the light of the torch felt upon a little creature behind Climber that had just reached the light. Climber noticed the shock on Twilight's face and turned his gaze backwards.
“Run!” He shouted and pushed Twilight again, forcefully this time. The Cockatrice was faster still, the second time Climber dared to look back it already jumped at him, he was barely able to raise his hooves to catch it. Both fell to the ground.
“Baron!” Twilight shouted and instead of running for her life, she turned around and tried to help. Climber and the Cockatrice were already rolling over the ground. “Don’t look it in the eyes!”
Swinging the torch at the Cockatrice wasn’t an option. The two moved too fast and were too close. Twilight lay the torch down, that way it couldn’t burn out, and tried to kick the Cockatrice off the baron. Placing herself in a good position and keeping an eye on the two wasn’t easy. She tried it several times, every time they just moved right before she was ready to kick.
“Hold still!” she commanded.
“That sounds far easier that it is!” he yelled back.
Finally there was a chance for her to hit the Cockatrice. She aimed and raised her rear-hooves. Unfortunately in that moment the creature stared at her and in her panic she turned away her face and kicked blindly backwards, hitting the baron instead.
Climber rolled over, taking the Cockatrice with him. They tumbled around until they collided with the next wall. The Cockatrice stood on top of his chest, staring right at him.
“No!” he yelled and unwisely looked it right in the eyes.
Surprisingly, he didn’t turn into stone, nor did the Cockatrice attack him. It made a ‘coo’ and shifted so it lay comfortable on him. Coming to his senses, Climber raised his hooves to protect his face and looked away. “Get off of me!”
Another ‘coo’ and the Cockatrice rubbed his head against his chest and throat.
After a moment of stillness, Climber blinked between his hooves. “What is going on here?” This, the Cockatrice took as invitation to push its head against his hoof, cooing even louder.
Climber was baffled. “I don’t know what I shall think of this…”
Keeping its head rubbing against his hoof, the Cockatrice made it really clear what it wanted. Very unsure, Climber carefully moved his hoof to pet the creature’s head.
Twilight, who had quickly galloped over to him, was confused too. Her jaw dropped. “I don’t want to complain,” she said, still a bit on her nerves, “but is this supposed to be so? I don’t expect you to have any special talents for handling Cockatrices?”
“If so, I didn’t know till now.” Climber used his other hoof to softly grab the creature’s middle, lifting it up slowly. “I never met a Cockatrice before.”
“The only one I ever met turned me into stone at once.” Twilight took a small step back again. “We should be careful, we don’t know if it will stay friendly,” she warned.
The Cockatrice didn’t seem to be happy, being held with one hoof. It began to fidget and squirm. After Climber let it go, it just waited long enough for him to stand up, then jumped on his back.
“I am not sure if I am fine with that.” Climber scratched his chin. “On the other hoof, it is far better than it would be chasing us through the tunnels again.”
“Hmm, I wonder if it lives down here,” Twilight thought out loud, “or if it has come through another entry.”
“I don’t know, but I guess,” Climber gave him a look over his shoulder, “it will be helpful if we run into whatever else you saw earlier.” Their new ‘friend’ had made itself a comfortable spot on his back. “If it is in the mood to help us.”
Seeing the creature stay calm and quietly on Climber’s back, Twilight picked up the torch again and dared to come closer. It was a good opportunity to learn more about this species, even if the moment was not the best to do so. She took a moment to give its body a closer look. It had the head and claws of a rooster, including the cockscomb, green scales, two legs and wings with little red spikes along its lower back and tail tip.
“Interesting.” She got a little closer again. This time however, the Cockatrice reacted, sending a loud ‘hishh’ to her.
Twilight pushed back her head quickly and took a step back. “Uhh, whatever made him like you, didn’t count for me apparently.”
“I don’t know how to help that,” Climber raised his hooves, “I still have not even a clue why he likes me at all.” He inspected his chest to see if the short fight had done any harm and patted off some dust from his tuxedo. With a sigh he stopped, the tuxedo didn’t make it through, also his bowtie lay a few steps away on the ground, torn. Returning his gaze to Twilight, he said, “It would be the best if we find the answer later and went back to the crypt.”
“You are right,” Twilight offered him the torch, “it surely is the best if you lead us back to the crypt.”
“I was hoping you could,” he smiled sheeply, “to be honest I lost track while I followed you on our escape run.”
The face the princess gave him was enough of an answer, “You didn’t notice the way either, did you?”
***
“We crossed this way three times already, we are running in circles.” The frustration in Twilight's voice was clear to hear.
The mark they made on the wall made it obvious that Twilight was right.
“We should have found the exit by happenstance already,” Climber rubbed over his head, “this caves can’t be so spacious.”
“If we don’t find it soon,” she gave the torch an unhappy look, “we’ll run out of light and have to find our way out blind.”
“I still have the box of matches, with,” he pulled it out and counted them, “six matches left and you have your magic, which can get us some light every now and then, so the situation isn’t as bad as it seems.”
Twilight took a deep breath and released it along with a push of her hoof through the air. “You are right, still I would prefer if we find the exit before we have to get to those options.”
“Considering we passed by three times and there are only four ways to go from here, well, at least it isn't hard to decide where to go next.”
“True,” she looked down the last tunnel for a moment, then returned her attention to him. “How is the Cockatrice doing?”
“Still taking a nap.”
“At least one of us isn’t worried at all,” Twilight shook her head slightly. “Well, let us try the fourth way, we won’t get out by just standing here.”
“I agree.”
Making another mark on the wall, Twilight took the lead again.
***
Both ponies stood dead still, listening to the darkness. A few seconds ago a roar had echoed through the tunnels.
“Did you hear that?” Climber looked over to Twilight, who nodded.
Another roar echoed past them.
“Whatever you saw earlier wants to make itself known.”
Peaking her ears up, Twilight concentrated on the sound. “That sounds different from the usual angry roars of creatures that lurk in the dark. If I don’t misinterpret it, it is more like…” she felt silent, thinking for a moment. “I can’t name it but it sounds odd.”
“You can differ these sounds?” Climber asked more than a bit surprised.
“Well,” Twilight rubbed her head, “the girls and I had the pleasure with that kind of creature a few times already.”
A ‘coo’ drew their attention to the Cockatrice, the little one had woken up by the sound and was listening too. When the third roar came, it jumped down from Climber’s back and before they could stop him, he made a loud ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’, bursting straight into the darkness before them.
“Hey wait!” Climber shouted, but it was too late, he was already gone.
***
“It gets better and better,” Twilight complained, giving the flickering torch a last look. “Here goes our light source.”
And with a last sizzle the torch extinguished.
“We are running out of luck it seems. So much is true,” Climber answered.
With a little effort Twilight summoned a little bit of light again. “We should be vigilant with what we have left, it is kind of exhausting to get even this small light shining.”
“We should also not forget we are not alone here, I think it would be a good idea to spare the matches for the moment we may really need them, if that is okay with you, Your Highness?”
“We don’t really have a choice, do we?” she thought the situation over for a moment. “Alright, I have an idea.”
“I am all ears.” Involuntarily, Climber had stepped closer to the princess.
“You go along the left wall, keeping a hoof on it, while I do the same on the right side. This way we don't need light to find other tunnel entrances.” She moved over to the right wall, “When we reach a crossing, I cast some light again so we can see if we marked it already.”
“I am not happy about walking down here in the dark, but sadly, it sounds reasonable.” He picked up the remainings of the torch. “We will still need this for making marks.”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that,” Twilight confessed.
After the baron had reached his side of the tunnel she let the light fade away and darkness surrounded them again.
After a short moment of acclimation, it worked out somehow. A few misstepped hooves, one or two hits by a protruding stone, nothing unexpectable. Still the nightmarish surroundings and the silence was hard to handle. It was Climber who suggested to keep talking, even if there was a chance that something heard them, they were both more than happy to not stay in silence.
“What shall we talk about?” Climber politely let the princess choose. “Anything besides our situation will be okay with me.”
“I agree, something to distract us should be good. Hmm…” She stopped when her hoof plunged into nothing. “Wait, we reached a crossway.” Lighting up the tip of her horn, she gave the connecting tunnel a look.
“No marks at this one,” Climber said. “Which way shall we take?”
“Let’s go straight this time, it is as good as the other way.”
“As you wish,” he marked the tunnel they choose with a little arrow. “Done.”
Twilight let the light vanish again and they continued their move forward.
“You said anything would be okay?” she asked a few moment later.
“Indeed,” he paused for a second, “as long as it doesn’t remind me of our situation it will be fine.”
“So, you and Pencake? What happened that you had to sleep in the guest room?”
She could feel his gaze on her. “Seriously?”
“You said anything and I don’t think it is a good time for a long story about Burning Snowflake at the moment.”
He sighed. “As you wish, Your Highness.” Even if she couldn’t see it, she knew he shook his head. “The short version will do of course. Pencake was sort of a little rascal when she arrived at my Castle, no manners, no special talent that would be of use for us and no good recommendation of any kind, but it was kind of cold outside, she had no place to go and also had a young foal on her back. So naturally she was allowed to stay.” He grumbled. “That was the day the problems began.”
“How so?” Twilight asked, curious, “What ha…” a loud smack was heard, it wasn’t actually very loud but in the silence of the tunnels it occurred so. “Ouch!”
“Your Highness? Are you alright?”
“Yes,” she groaned, “I just found another protruding stone.” She reached for her head with a hoof. “But I am fine, go on with you story please, what happened?”
“Well, she was a troublemaker from the first moment. Mostly the reason was her son.”
“Colorful Wings?”
“Indeed.” He snorted. “Oh this mare and her son. They drove me crazy for sure, nothing was good enough for her little one, nor was she easy to satisfy too. I gave her some work to do, nothing too hard or difficult, but she refused to not keep an eye on him, always carried him around on her back those days. Made it impossible to fulfill some of the tasks. I was forbearing with her, most of the time, but one day she overstepped the line, immensely.”
“What did she do?”
Now it was at him to grumble, the anger was clear to hear in his following sentence, “She slapped my wife!”
Twilight gasped. “No way!”
“It is true.” The next placement of his hoof was a bit louder than before. “I still get angry by thinking of that.” He snorted again. “But that was long time ago.” He took a few slowly breaths. “Anyway, my reaction was to throw her out of the Castle immediately. Nopony slaps my wife and stays in my castle, or better that was what I thought. Pleasant Smell had a different opinion.”
Climber sorted the events in his mind before he carried on, “Well, when she found out a few hours later that I had thrown Pencake out, she rushed into me like a creature from Tartarus. She was standing there with a blue eye, yelling at me, I guess she was to hear till Canterlot. How dare I throw out a young mother, a helpless young mare with a little foal. It was in front of nearly every servant of our Castle and who wasn’t there from the beginning, shortly gathered up around us.”
He shivered under a mix of feelings, part shame, part anger. “I never knew my wife could get so angry, I felt like a little colt getting the rebuke of his life. I didn’t dare to say anything at first and when I did, she cut me off at once. ‘Watch what you say!’ were her words. I closed my mouth, the best thing I could do in that moment. She told me I had to bring her back and till I do so, I will sleep in one of the guest rooms. Unwisely I disagreed.”
Unnoticed by Twilight, he made a face. “Not one of my best ideas. I was never aware how much influence my wife had on the castle staff, it took my guards three days to find Pencake and convince her to come back. Three days I had to endure the anger of my wife and also the disrespect of my servants. When she came back, Pencake acted exactly like before, she wasn’t even sorry about slapping my wife! Can you imagine that? My wife told me how it happened though, she had tried to lift Colorful Wings from Pencake’s back, without asking for permission or giving a warning. So Pencake turned around and punched her straight in the face.”
He stomped his hoof. “Pleasant Smell said it was her own fault, underestimated a mother's protective instincts. Even if she already was a mother herself for some years, she said it could be different from mare to mare. I don’t know exactly what happened between Pencake and her former special somepony, but so much is true, it didn’t increase her trust in other ponies when it comes to her son.”
Climber stopped. “What do you think, Your Highness? Would you have acted differently than me?”
He didn’t got a response.
“Your Highness?” he asked, a bit uncertain. “What do you think? Your Highness?”
He stretched his hoof out to touch her but grabbed into nothing. “Your Highness, are you there?” Worry crawled into his voice, “Princess, can you hear me?”
“Answer me,” he shouted a bit louder than he normally would have dared. “Princess?”
Rummaging in his pocket, he pulled out the matchbox and with shivering hooves he ignited one. The light didn’t reach wide. “Your Highness?” he whispered and swung the match to his front and backwards, but Twilight was gone...