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// Chapter 27: Dark Recollection 
// Story: Equestria 485,000 
// by Unwhole Hole 
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The pain was steadily increasing. Every step closer to the cursed castle made Twilight’s body burn more and more. She was able to hide it, though. The sickness it brought had still not reached its peak. Her mark remained stable and unchanged, but she could feel the horrible sensation of something about to happen.

            If the others noticed it as well, they did not show it. Their progress was slow but steady. They pushed through the snow and rocky landscape, glancing around in awe about as often as they observed the world around them with fear and apprehension. They would talk, and Pinkie Pie would joke. Rainbow Dash would periodically return, each time looking more and more winded and ill. Twilight had asked her to stop racing ahead, but she had refused to give up her role as the group’s scout.

            Twilight began to fall to the back of the group. It was not because she was tired or weakening- -her immortal body did neither- -but because of the pain.

            “Silken,” she said.

            “It has started,” observed the remnus, speaking quietly enough to be discreet.

            “Yeah.”

            There was no hesitation. Twilight winced as the sharpened point of one of Silken’s hooves was inserted into her neck, and she gritted her teeth as she felt the tip shift and expand, stretching out into her to find a vein. She knew it had when a cold and unpleasant sensation began to wash over her.

            “Better?” said Silken, removing the hypodermic needle and shaking off the coating of gold fluid that covered it before reassembling her normal hoof.

            “I can deal with it,” said Twilight. “Thanks, Silken.”

            Twilight trotted forward to rejoin the group.

            “Everypony okay?” she asked, smiling to mask her ever-increasing pain.

            “This certainly is a pretty landscape,” said Rarity. “If a bit…bleak. But in all honesty I am starting to get just a tiny bit tired. Is there any chance we can stop for a rest?”

            “No,” said Twilight without hesitation. “It’s like walking though the everfree. If you stop…”

            “You get eaten,” said Fluttershy.

            “And I bet we taste realllllly good,” said Pinkie Pie. “Especially you, Fluttershy.”

            “Why me?”

            “All that flutter butter!”

            “But can’t we just have the bus meet us here?” Rarity was almost whining.

            “No,” said Twilight. “The atmosphere of this planet is almost impossible to penetrate, and running a shuttle reactor on this planet would be an extreme challenge. I had to teleport down for that very reason.”

            “So…?”

            “So, they can only navegate to very specific areas.”

            “No sense in complaining,” said Applejack. “It’s just a walk. Besides, Rarity, a little exercise will do you some good.”

            “Excuse me?! I am not fat!”

            “I didn’t say that!” said Applejack, defensively. “But you’re body’s squishier than a fresh marshmallow. You’ve got to firm up!”

            “Oh, like you?”

            “Maybe.”

            “Applejack. I’m a seamstress! My body is made for detail! Not for crushing rocks.”

            “I don’t crush rocks.”

            “I do!” said Pinkie. “That’s what rock candy is made out of!”

            “I don’t think that’s supposed to be the case,” muttered Fluttershy.

            “Hey, it’s better than the alternative.”

            “Which is?” asked Applejack.

            “Well, either we crush rocks…or rocks crush US.”

            “That’s a false equivalency!” shouted Silken from several meters back.

            Before Twilight could stop their squabbling, Rainbow Dash suddenly dashed into view. She dropped to the ground immediately, stumbling slightly as she attempted to hide the fact that she was shaking. She did not look healthy. Her eyes had grown sunken, and her color was graying rapidly.

            “Rainbow,” said Applejack. “You really don’t look good.”

            “I look awesome,” muttered Rainbow Dash as she suppressed a small cough. “But I don’t have time to list the reasons. I found something.”

            “A monster?” cried Fluttershy, softly.

            “No.”

            “Then what?” asked Applejack.

            “You’ve got to see it. Come on!”



            The ponies stopped at the base of one of the carved stones. Those who had not seen them before looked up in amazement while Silken observed passively and Twilight considered the amount of pain she was about to be in. The stones of the ring extended outward in both directions. Many of them had collapsed, shattered by frost and weathering, but many still stood, either alone or overgrown by the roots of the trees that had taken tens of thousands of years to grow but that had only been saplings when these stones were planted alongside them.

            They had all weathered, and in almost every case whatever might once have adorned the markers had long-since eroded into nothingness. By some strange stroke of luck, though, the one that they stood before still showed the shadows of what it had once contained. Why this was the case was unclear: this stone might have been newer, perhaps a replacement, or it could have been carved deeper than the others, or perhaps trapped in ice or even a tree while its siblings had decayed in the elements.

            Whatever shape remained on it, though, was lost on all of the ponies who observed it. The culture that had created these markers had been so different that their symbolism and assumption of form were incomprehensible. Whether they had even possessed the capacity for sight was even debatable. To Twilight, though, the image resembled a highly angular representation of a quadruped surrounded by what had once been a complex circular motif.

            The ponies stared at it for a long time, with Pinkie Pie repeatedly tilting her head from one side to the other.

            “Twilight,” said Applejack, finally breaking the silence and causing all of the others to jump. “Now, I’m an apple farmer, not a mason, but…these aren’t natural rocks, are they?”

            “No,” said Twilight.

            Rainbow Dash gulped. “So…somepony made these?”

            “Not ‘somepony’. Just ‘someone’. I told you. Civilizations have risen and fallen since we’ve been gone. I have no idea what the creatures that built these looked like, or why.”

            “But what happened to them?” asked Fluttershy.

            “On the other side,” said Silken, “there is an abandoned city. Massive. And entirely empty.”

            “What do you mean ‘other side’?” asked Applejack.

            “The stones. They progress in a circle. Look.” Silken pointed. “You can see the curvature. Well, I can see it.”

            “I noticed that too,” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s really obvious from above.”

            “But why build a circle?” asked Applejack. “Now, I don’t know what kind of critters built these things, but those are some BIG pieces of granite. Carving that stuff goes slower than Rainbow Dash the morning after cider day.”

            “Hey!”

            “Darling, it IS true,” whispered Rarity.

            “So why build a big circle?” continued Applejack.

            “It may have had some religious purpose,” said Twilight.

            “Or it was a warning,” suggested Fluttershy.

            “I don’t know,” said Pinkie Pie, now lying on her back and observing the stone completely upside down. “It looks to me more like Starlight Glimmer dancing on a cake. But that’s ridiculous! Cake’s don’t support ponies.” She paused. “I should know. I used to work for them! Teehee!”

            “Is there a way around?” asked Fluttershy.

            “Yes,” said Silken. “There is.”

            “Then can we take that?”

            “Twilight or I could. You would not make it. None of you would.”

            “Oh…”

            “They’re just rocks,” said Rainbow Dash. “I mean, come on! Whoever built these is LONG gone by now.” She paused and rubbed her chin in thought. “But then again…that’s almost always the case in Daring Do, and we all know how THAT usually goes…”

            “I don’t think I want to know,” said Fluttershy.

            “This isn’t Daring Do,” groaned Applejack. She separated from the others and trotted forward. “If this is the way we have to go, then we aren’t going to get anything done just sittin’ here, are we?”

            “I’m standing,” said Pinkie Pie. “But I don’t mind rocks at all! They make a goooood soup!”

            “No they don’t.”

            “Says you!”

            Pinkie Pie hopped forward to join Applejack. Twilight knew what would happen when they crossed the threshold, but she did not know how severe it would be. She had elected not to warn them, in case it turned out that they would experience the same agonizing pain that she did.

            When they passed through, the pair of them immediately shuddered. Twilight thought that there would be screaming, but instead both Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked back at their flanks. Their cutie marks were glowing and undulating.

            “Whoa,” said Applejack. “Would you look at that?”

            “Tingly!” giggled Pinkie Pie.

            “Oh my!” said Rarity. “Your cutie marks!”

            “The Map,” said Applejack. “Do you think it’s really still here?”

            Hesitantly, Rarity stepped past the ring of stones. As she did, she reassembled her skirt into a long dress with a rather substantial side-split that left her flank visible. Her mark began to glow and hum as well.

            “No way!” said Rainbow Dash. “When was the last time it called THREE ponies? Hold on!” She picked up Fluttershy, who released a loud squeak of displeasure. Rainbow Dash then carried her to the others. Both of their marks began to glow as well.

            “Oh wow,” said Rainbow Dash. “I almost forgot what that feels like! It kind of feels good…”

            They looked up at Twilight, who was still on the outside with Silken.

            “Darling?” said Rarity, sounding concerned. “Aren’t you coming?”

            “I don’t know if I can,” said Twilight.

            “What do you  mean by that?”

            “I passed this area when I came through the first time. I had a really bad reaction.”

            “How bad is bad?” asked Applejack.

            “Bad.”

            “But we’re not having any problems right now.”

            “Speak for yourself!” laughed Pinkie Pie. She had fallen to the ground and was rolling on the floor. “I can’t stop giggling! It tickles! It tickles SO BAD!”

            “But that doesn’t make sense!” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s fine for us!”

            “Trust me. I already tried. I think it’s because the Map has been trying to reach me for so long. Centuries, millennia, I don’t know. It’s weak. The signal can’t get off the planet.” Twilight pointed at the stone ring. “The most intense part of its range is in there. Whoever built this probably sensed it. My castle is at the exact center of this ring.”

            The other ponies looked at each other, concerned. Even Pinkie Pie stopped giggling.

            “We can’t leave you here,” said Rarity. “That simply would not do.”

            “You can take Silken.”

            Silken smiled and stepped past the rocks. As a remnus, she did not have a cutie mark. Even if she had, there was no way that the Map would be summoning her. “I am not sensitive to magic,” she explained. “And I am capable of leading you to the extraction point.”

            “No,” said Applejack.

            “No,” said Silken, “I certainly am- -”

            “It’s not what she means,” said Rainbow Dash. “We’re not leaving Twilight behind.”

            “You have to,” said Twilight. “I just told you. I can’t go on.”

            “Well, then, it looks like we’re living right here,” said Applejack. “I bet bits to biscuits I can build us a nice house out of all the fallen wood around here.” She looked at the others.

            Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I needed to rest anyway. I haven’t had a nap in, like, four hours. Except for the one or two I took when was scouting.”

            “I don’t really want to leave anyway,” said Fluttershy. “Space travel just sounds so very stressful. And there’s so many animals! Even if there are…monsters…”

            “Yeah,” said Pinkie Pie, still giggling a little from her tickling mark. “I can’t leave you either. I already lost everything.” Her expression grew a bit darker. “I don’t have a lot of ponies left. I can’t just leave one.”

            They all looked at Rarity. Rarity looked a bit more distressed than the others, but quickly regained her composure. “I very dearly want to enter society,” she said. “I need to. The idea of living in a forest eating roots and…crabapples…is certainly tantalizing, but I…I just…”

            “You can’t be left alone with your thoughts,” said Twilight.

            Rarity looked at her, and then at the others. “There’s a whole world out there. New fasion, new ponies, so much beauty.”

            “You can go if you want,” said Applejack.

            “I do want to,” said Rarity. “But I can’t leave Twilight here.”

            Twilight blinked, feeling tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “Rarity, you can’t! You can’t give all that up for me!”

            “Tut-tut! I can do whatever I please! After all, I am the very last unicorn in existence! That puts me at the very top of our hierarchy! My decision is final, don’t try to change it!”

            “Silken,” said Twilight. “Remove them.”

            “Denied,” said Silken.

            “Wh- -what did you just say to me?!”

            “Request denied.”

            “I gave you an order! You have to do it!”

            “I cannot force ponies to do something they do not want to. Well, I could, but it would be unfortunate. And they would hate me. I must acquiesce to the current consensus.”

            “You would be defying both me and the captain! You’re a remnus, you exist to do what you’re told!”

            “Unless I have been lying to you.”

            Twilight groaned loudly.

            “We’re not leaving without you,” said Applejack.

            “Yeah!” said Pinkie. The others agreed heartily.

            “You know what?” said Twilight, angrily. “Fine! Fine! I’ll show you what happens when I get close to the castle! THEN let’s see how you feel!”

            She charged her horn and cast a shield spell around herself. It was the best she could do, even if it was profoundly weak compared to what she could normally conjure. Then she stepped through.

            The reaction was immediate. She felt it in her horn. The shield spell began to compress, and then buckle. Twilight’s friends watched in fear and shock as Twilight tried to maintain the strength of the spell, but the pink sphere around her began to collapse.

            “Twilight, stop!” cried Rarity. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”

            “This is the only way I can get through,” said Twilight, taking a deep breath and trying to regain her control over the magical shield. “If I can keep this up, I can- -”

            The bubble popped. Even at full power, Twilight would not have been able to maintain it for more than a few minutes. The effect on her was something like a crushing impact, as though she were in the center of an explosion coming from all sides. The pain was even worse than she had imagined it would be.

            Twilight screamed and collapsed on the ground. Her cutie mark was glowing and pulsating, and every slight motion it made was agonizing.

            “Twilight!” cried Rainbow Dash. She and the other ponies raced toward the injured alicorn, even though there was nothing that they could do- -except that when they drew closer, the intensity of the pain changed. For a moment, it lessened.

            Then, suddenly, there was a feeling as though the pressure was lifted. It produced an almost audible boom, and Twilight gasped from the sudden shock. Her cutie mark stopped glowing, as did those of the ponies around her. She was left lying in the snow, shaking and sweating.

            “Twilight! Twilight!” Rainbow Dash helped pick her up, but for some reason she was far weaker than Twilight had remembered.

            “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” cried Applejack. “I didn’t know! Twilight, I promise, I didn’t know!”

            “It’s alright,” said Twilight, gasping for breath. “It…it’s gone.” She looked around at them. Five pairs of concerned pony eyes stared back at her. “Something about all of you being here. I think…” She paused, trying to consider the implications through her still reeling mind. “That it wanted us all here.”

            “Then we have to go find it,” said Fluttershy.

            The others all looked at her. “I agree,” said Applejack. “If the map called us, we need to see why.”

            “No,” said Twilight. “We can’t go there. We need to go straight through, and get to the extraction point.”

            Even as Rainbow Dash helped her up, though, she knew that there was no hope of convincing them otherwise. The Map had called them all, just like it had so long ago. They would go, and Twilight could not stop them. Twilight herself was curious as well, and she would follow them if they so chose- -even if it meant facing her darkest fears.



            It did not take them long to reach it. In fact, it took far shorter than Twilight would have thought possible. Though her friends were tiring, they seemed to be moving faster; she felt herself moving more rapidly as well. It was as though it were drawing them in. Silken did not even need to show them the path toward it: they all already knew.

            Then, at last, they reached the clearing. It was still just as it had been: the enormous, tree-like crystal castle emerging from a space of land that instead of bearing ice and strange moss was still covered in ancient grass and flowers. The trees overhead still formed the same canopy as before, but since by this time the day was growing darker, the light primarily came from long, luminescent, winged worms that swam slowly through the air overhead.

            “It’s still here,” said Applejack in awe. “Well, I’ll be bucked ‘till my apples fall off…”

            Pinkie Pie looked behind them. “That’s the front of the castle,” she said, her voice holding no hint of humor. That means…that’s Ponyville. Over there.”

            They all looked in the direction she was pointing. Nothing about it was recognizable. The land had shifted and been overgrown by trees; where the trees did not stand, there were jagged rocks that had been placed there by receding glaciers. Still, Twilight felt herself remembering. She recalled the buildings that had once stood there, and the good times she had had amongst them.

            “I don’t like this,” said Twilight.

            “But it’s your home,” said Fluttershy.

            “It was once. It isn’t anymore. I don’t have a home. I have an Empire.”

            “Well, it’s getting dark,” said Applejack, “and Rainbow Dash isn’t looking so good.”

            “For the last time, I look- -” She started coughing. When she finished, she wiped something yellow away from the corner of her mouth, “- -awesome.”

            “Darling, you just need to rest,” said Rarity. “I certainly need to. Ideally in a bed. Assuming those survived as well as the castle itself.”

            They started to approach, but Twilight remained behind for a moment. Silken tapped her shoulder.

            “Are you sure you are going to be okay?”

            “No,” said Twilight. “There’s a reason I abandoned this castle. And If I’m right…”

            “About what?”

            “Nothing,” said Twilight, following her friends. “If anything, you were right.”

            “I am always right.” Silken paused. “About what in this particular sense, though?”

            “The Map. We can use it to find Cadence.”

            “I thought you were going to stay with your friends.”

            “If we can recover the remains quickly, I won’t need to make that choice.”

            “And if you can’t?”

            “Twilight!” called Pinkie. “Hurry up! We’ve already come to the conclusion that the last pony there is a rotten egg! And you don’t want to be a rotten egg!”

            “Do not be the egg,” said Silken, drifting forward toward the ponies. “Go with them. Enjoy what time you have with them, before I take them back to the Empire.”

            Twilight paused, allowing Silken to move forward a few steps, and then spread her wings. She flew with no joy and no exceptional speed, but quickly reached the castle. She was the first one there, which surprised her. She had expected Rainbow Dash to be the first.

            The others arrived in a few seconds. Rainbow Dash, it seemed, was the rotten egg. She was breathing hard, and had not been able to fly.

            “Rainbow,” said Twilight. “You’re sick.”

            “Yeah,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “I feel…really weird. Really…cold.”

            “I have drugs that may help,” said Silken. The others jumped and cried out; Silken had approached them in absolute silence.

            “Gah!” cried Applejack. “Where did you come from?!”

            “Twilight’s niece,” said Silken. “But, drugs!”

            “What kind of drugs?”

            “Helpful ones.” She produced a small pellet for Rainbow Dash.

            “Oh,” said Rainbow Dash, taking the pellet and putting it in her mouth. “Thanthakta”

            “What did you just say?” asked Twilight.

            “I said thanks,” said Rainbow Dash, looking confused and vaguely concerned. “I mean, I’m supposed to be polite, right?”

            Something high above them seemed to make a sound. It was long and low, but it was impossible to tell how far away it had been. It seemed far, and because of that, Twilight could not decide if it was just some normal sound inherent to this forest, or if it was something far worse.

            “We should probably go inside,” said Fluttershy.

            “But how are we supposed to get in?” asked Rainbow Dash.

            “Oh, that’s not a problem!” Pinkie bounced forward toward the door, pushing away the vines that had overgrown it. “Twilight never locks her door! See?” She gave the large crystal door a push, and with a long creak it swung open.

            “What?” said Twilight. “I do too lock my doors!”

            “Well, obviously,” said Pinkie Pie, stepping slowly and obviously through the now quite open door. “I mean, you’re a Princess! It just wouldn’t make ANY sense for you to let it stay unlocked, so that, you know, random evil ponies can just wander in and touch your stuff.”

            “Oh yeah! Well, I’ll- -I’ll touch your stuff!”

            “Don’t make this weird, Twilight,” said Applejack as she stepped into the dark castle.

            Twilight was about to retort, but then suddenly blushed and fell silent. The group of them then entered, with Silken having to duck slightly to avoid hitting her head on the upper frame.

            Inside, the conditions were exactly what Twilight had imagined, even though they should have been impossible. The castle had stood longer than any building should have been able to, and the hallways within had not changed in the slightest since then. Neither the wars of ancient time nor the apocalyptic shifting of the earth in more recent ages had altered it in the slightest. All that had changed was the fact that it was dark and cold, and extremely dusty.

            “Oh my,” said Rarity, pulling her hoof back from a small pile of dirt.

            “No pony has cleaned it in a very long time,” said Twilight. “You’ll have to make do for now.”

            “It’s not what she means,” said Applejack.

            “No,” admitted Rarity. “It’s just that…I was just here, Twilight. Two days ago. Well, not really…but to me. I had brought you a set of dresses for your upcoming diplomatic visit to Saddle Arabia. It was clean, and shiny, and simply spectacular! But now…”

            “I guess Spike took a loooong vacation,” said Pinkie Pie.

            “Dragons went extinct long before the Exodus,” said Twilight. “By the time I left this planet, none were alive.”

            The others fell silent, except for Rarity. “Not…not Spike…”

            “Even dragons are not immortal. Only alicorns are. Only we have to live forever.” Twilight sighed. “I have not been in this castle for a great deal of time. More than you could imagine. I abandoned it after what happened to Starlight. I just…I couldn’t bear to bring myself back here.”

            “It’s okay,” said Fluttershy. “We won’t stay long.”

            “I need to see the Map,” said Twilight. “But I don’t remember the way.”

            “S…sure,” said Applejack, attempting to regain her composure. “We can show you. It’s this way.”

            Twilight followed them. As they left the dim light cast through the door, the halls began to grow increasingly dark. Rarity and Twilight both lit their horns, and Silken activated her lights. The crystal of the walls shimmered in the light, even if it was covered in ages of grime and dust. As they walked, the ponies left hoofprints in the thick dust.

            All around them was silence, save for the distant sound of wind as it passed over the structure. None of them talked. This place felt strange, and although it had called them they still disliked it in unison. It had grown old, and although it still stood its power was fading as it grew more and more decrepit. They were not afraid when they saw it, but instead, it made them sad.

            The silence was only interrupted by a small, thin snap. The others looked confused, but Twilight instantly knew what it was. She closed her eyes, because she had been right.

            “Bones,” said Applejack as Rarity pointed her horn light toward the skeletons that lay across the floor. “These- -these are bones!”

            All of the ponies suddenly became agitated, especially Fluttershy. Several skeletons sat before them, still wearing the long-decayed remnants of metal and stone armor. They were quite clearly the bones of ponies.

            “Oh my,” said Rarity as she started to swoon. “What…what happened here?”

            “What is this?!” demanded Applejack, turning sharply to Twilight. “What happened here?”

            “Yeah,” said Pinkie Pie, forcing a laugh even though she looked terrified. “These- -these should be in a closet, Twilight. N…not on the floor…”

            Twilight opened her eyes and sighed. “I predicted that this might have happened.”

            “Have happened? Twilight, those are ponies!”

            “They were ponies. Once.” Twilight picked up a femur, and gave it to Pinkie Pie. She initially resisted, backing away. “Pinkie,” said Twilight. “You’re an expert in rocks and fossils. What can you tell me about this?”

            “I’m- -I’m not that much of an expert. M- -Maud was always better at that sort of thing- -”

            “How old would you say this is?”

            “I- -I don’t know! But there are signs of fossilization, so…”

            Twilight dropped the bone. “These were ponies who did not escape during the Exodus. Ones I left behind.”

            “Left behind!” Applejack seemed intensely offended by this. “You left ponies BEHIND? Twilight, you said that the world was just about burnt up!”

            “Yeah!” said Rainbow Dash. “Twilight, no, you’re joking! You would never do that! You just couldn’t!”

            “What was I supposed to do?” said Twilight calmly. She stared back at her friends with a neutral expression. “This planet had burned up all of its resources. It took everything we had to build the original arks. At that time, Equestria’s population was ten billion. I only had enough ships to take one hundred million.”

            “But that means…”

            “It means that I had to choose. Luna was comatose, and Celestia would not leave her side. It would have destroyed Flurry Heart. The responsibility fell to me. And I did what I had to. I chose which one percent of the population got to live, and which ones had to stay behind.”

            “Twilight…”

            “You have no idea what that was like.” She pointed at the bones. “These ponies, they must have come here. The planet was freezing, toxic, this was the only place they could find safety. They might have survived one, maybe two generations. And the whole time, they would have cursed my name. They hated me more than any pony has ever been hated.”

            “My father was descended from those you saved,” said Silken. “As was my daughter. They would not have existed if you had not rescued our ancestors.”

            “But I couldn’t do enough,” said Twilight. She looked down at one of the skeletons. Its front leg was wrapped around a skeleton with a much smaller skull. “And that’s something I have to live with. Forever.” She looked up at her friends. “This whole planet is a cemetery. You could dig anywhere in the ground, and you would find the ponies I couldn’t save.”

            “That’s all in the past,” said Fluttershy. “Please, Twilight, please don’t blame yourself!”

            “Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash. “Don’t beat yourself up about it! If you tried your absolute hardest and did your very best, you don’t need to have any regrets.”

            “Immortality is nothing but regret,” said Twilight. She stepped gingerly around the bones of the ponies who had come to her castle seeking the shelter that she had not given them. “Please, let’s just make this quick. This place has a lot of bad memories for me.”

            The others followed her, and they were sure to stay close. Twilight wondered if they would have been so accommodating if they knew that leaving nine point nine billion ponies behind during the Exodus was only the second worst thing she had ever done.

            None of them noticed the tall, dark figure that moved silently through a perpendicular hallway, pausing only for a moment to watch them as they passed.