“It's the find of the century!” Twilight trilled, “No, the millennium!!”
“Yes, Twilight, I know, you've been saying that since you got back, now could you please get some rest? You know how you get when you don't sleep...” he looked fearfully down at her hooves which clopped loudly against the wooden floor as she paced back and forth in excitement. He hoped the innkeep’s family wasn't sleeping below them.
“How can I sleep at a time like this?! Spike, do you know what this could mean?”
“Uh... Is it that you should lie down and catch your breath?”
“I already took a nap, after I got away.”
“Yeah, you were kinda vague about that. Did you say she threw you off a cliff? Because that sounds kinda like she's trying to kill you.”
“We don't know that for certain!” Twilight reached, “I mean, I do have wings after all. She could have just been trying to scare me off, or it could just be part some programmed behavior she has to follow! We're treading on some entirely new ground here Spike, there's no way to know exactly why she does anything.” She grinned, prancing a little in place.
Spike frowned at her, “Maybe because she wants to be left alone?”
“Or maybe because she's lonely, but she's afraid that nopony wants to be her friend.”
“You want to befriend a violent ghost.” he deadpanned.
“Why not? I am the princess of friendship, if anypony can make a friend with a ghost, it's gonna be me!”
“Oohhohoho boy,” Spike clutched his temple, “This has gone way off the deep end.”
“Don't worry Spike, I just need to go back and look at that Cliff again."
“You mean the haunted cliff you just investigated. Twice.”
“Yeah, but see, there's this cave, right beneath the cliff. I didn't have time to investigate it last night, but both times I saw her, she disappeared right by that cave. I think there might be something down there...”
“Um, you mean you’re going into a cave with some crazy ghost pony who will probably try to kill you again?”
“Not if I go in the next few minutes. Remember how she only appears at night? I'm going to go investigate it in the morning, when the sun's shining directly on it.”
Spike groaned, “Alright, but I'm coming with you.”
“I thought you were scared?”
“I am scared. For you. Twilight, this is off the deep end. Somepony needs to make sure you don't do something stupid." he pointed a claw at her, then turned away a little, grumbling, "Well, stupider than what you're already doing...”
Twilight rolled her eyes, but smirked, “That's my Spike, always looking out for me. Now come on, the sky's already getting light!”
They watched the sun rise over the distant ocean, severing the world of water from the world of sky like a shining axe as Twilight flew along the cliffside, back to where the ruins of that forgotten lookout stood.
This time, she didn't land in the grass. Instead, she circled around, dipping down below the cliff, rounding back towards the cave far below.
Spike gritted his teeth, holding on tight and trying not to look down as the waves rushed up to meet them, and Twilight slipped between the points of the tallest crags. The rock wall loomed over them as they entered the eroded opening beneath it, slowing as they entered the cave, which, from the angle they could see it at now, looked like a great and terrible mouth, swallowing them as they passed its jagged teeth.
They flew over the darkening water as it rose and fell, deep into the depths of the maw. Her hooves clacked against stone as she set down on the elevated area in the back. Behind them, the yellow light of the morning sun shined in, reflecting against the water.
Twilight looked around in the cave with wide eyes and lowered jaw. “Woow... Spike, do you see the size of this place? This had to have been started by geology, there's no way it could've been made by erosion alone!”
Spike glanced at the piles of torn seaweed and driftwood splinters which littered the ground around them, “uh... Yeah, that's the takeaway I have here.”
“Come on Spike! Let's see what’s over this ridge. There might be an underground tidal pool in here...”
Spike gulped as he followed her up the slope, walking to the crest of it, the ground still damp beneath his feet from the seawater which flooded this place at high tide. At the top, Twilight gasped, walking forward, down into the cave. But when Spike saw what had excited her, he nearly stopped dead in his tracks.
Deeper in the cave was the body of water Twilight had expected, dark with the debris that had made it past the rise. In the center was an arrangement of tall, spearlike rocks, just like the ones outside. The bones of a pony, broken and eroded, as if dashed upon the rocks and left to rot centuries ago, were skewered atop the highest one, hung there with her jaw opened eternally in a lifeless moan of despair.
Around her neck hung a simple pendant, the ancient chain somehow still holding on. It had probably been some kind of silver, from the look of it, but had long since turned black, and it was a wonder that the dark crescent that hung from it in the dim light was still fully intact.
Twilight's eyes sparkled with wonder as she descended into the cold water, ignoring the clouds of dust which swirled around her legs as she waded in, transfixed on the macabre scene before her.
“This...” Twilight said quietly, “This must be Her...”
Spike walked closer to the water, staring beneath its surface with a furrowed brow, trying to make out what was down beneath the murk.
Twilight didn’t notice, walking ever closer to the Mare’s remains, “Sweet Celestia... This has to be centuries old...”
Spike’s leaned in closer as he began to make out the shape beneath the water, his eyes widening as he began to recognize it. “Uh... Twilight?”
She was enraptured, “I’d have to run some tests to really date it, but it looks like a wave knocked it up there and preserved it for all these years...”
“Twilight,” he looked up, horror dawning on his face, “You need to get out of that water.”
“Just a minute Spike!” she called back, leaning in closer, “This is an incredible find!”
“TWILIGHT!!” Spike shouted, stomping his foot, “LOOK AT WHAT YOU'RE STANDING IN!” Angrily, he reached down beneath the surface, barely managing to keep his head above the murky water as he grabbed the thing he'd seen beneath it, yanking it out and holding it in the air for Twilight to see. There, in his hand, was the withered skull of a pony, darkened and worn from centuries in the tidal pool.
Twilight froze where she stood, the cold water licking against her barrel as she stared. She slowly turned her gaze downwards, suddenly becoming very aware of the strange texture of the ground beneath her hooves. She lit her horn, weaving a very simple spell, and a light grew from it, surrounding her and entering the water, pushing back the swirling clouds of dust in the water, revealing to her the awful floor she stood on.
There had to have been dozens of bodies here, all mangled and crushed, their mouths hung open in despair. Some of them still had their flesh, clinging gently to them like torn cloth, others were little more than a pile of darkened bones.
A thousand years of death...
...A thousand years of corpses.
“Ohh... Aah... I need to get out of this water...” she whimpered, realizing just what all this brown dust, which smelled a bit of copper and brine, must actually be. She started moving slow, but quickened her pace, splashing a little as she tried not to retch on the way out.
Something caught her leg.
She let out a shriek as she fell forward, her whole body coming crashing down into the vile water of the tidal pool. She felt something wrap around her neck, trying to hold her under, and shoved upwards with all of her might against it. She felt a sickening crunch beneath her hoof as her head broke the surface and she gasped for breath, now scrambling in a near panic to get the out of the pit.
She threw herself forward, brown muck dribbling from her fur as she ran from the water, stopping to look back only when she’d made it back to the top of the mound, shivering from cold and shuddering from the ooze which clung to her body.
Behind her, she saw a few rotting hooves slide weakly back beneath the surface, the pool now rippling and bubbling as she felt a tremor move through the floor, as if they were standing upon a the chest of a giant whose breathing had become labored.
All around them, they were hearing the echoing sound of cracking, like the bow of a ship being torn apart. A heavy gust rushed into the cave, blasting all semblance of warmth from them and robbing them of breath, as if winter’s chill had already come and was now baring down upon them like a tidal wave.
“T-Twilight! We’ve gotta get outta here!” Spike was on all fours now, scrambling about on the ground in a blind panic as the entire cave began to shudder and tremble around them.
Twilight didn’t need to be told the first time, “Right! This wa-”
Anything else they might’ve said was cut off as the cave ceiling gave way, a heap of stone crashing down upon them...
.
.
.
.
.
.
...Twilight gasped, eyes darting about. She knew it couldn't've been that long, because sunlight was still flowing through the mouth of the cave. She felt something hard digging into her hindquarters, and her whole body felt like it had been through a blender. She groaned as she reached around her, pushing with all her might to lift the rock from her legs, slipping out and scrambling out of the way before it came back down.
She fell to her chest again, letting out a few yelps of pain, her legs too broken to hold her. She looked back at her hindlegs: one of them was twisted and bloody, the hoof split open. It reminded her of the inkeep’s leg. He'd told her not to come out here, he'd told her not to follow the Mare’s tale into the woods, and yet here she was, in a dark cave, crippled and alone.
But she wasn't alone.
“Spike!” She called out, her voice ragged. She rolled her body a little, trying to move without disturbing the bag of shattered bones her flesh had become.
There, pinned between two giant rocks, she saw the top half of Spike's body hanging limply from the debris where his lower half had been pinned.
“SPIKE!” she screamed, scrambling to get over to him.
She cried out in agony as useless sparks oozed from the bleeding cracks in her horn, every movement causing her wings to twitch, the shattered bones scraping loosely against each other. Exhaustion fighting her every time she lifted her hooves, she dragged her way across the rock, bringing herself to his side, pressing her hoof against his neck. He had a weak pulse and only the shallowest of breathing, a good sign...
...Except she was lying in something wet and sticky.
She lifted her trembling hoof, looking down to see it painted red. Beneath her was a puddle of blood and seawater, a cloud of dark red radiating out from between the rocks.
That pulse wasn't going to last much longer.
“No... Noo... Spike, I’m so sorry,” she began to whimper, leaning her head against his, “This is all my fault... I should’ve never brought you here... I should’ve just left this whole damn place alone!” She closed her eyes, openly weeping at the end before her.
From the back of the cave, she heard a mocking cackle, like the crunching of bones in the rolling surf. “She cries, she cries, but nopony can hear.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she let out another sob as she felt a weight of stone bear down in the pit of her stomach. She let out, not a wail, but a whimper of despair as, from the pool, the Mare in White rose to approach her.
“Weep not Child Princess. You looked, you found, and now you will share my grave.”
“Please... Please...” she tried to beg through the tremors.
“Please, please, sniveling child,
what would you please of I?”
“Please... Don’t hurt him..”
The Mare was silent.
“I don’t care what you do to me, just, please, at least let me save him...”
The Mare spoke again, no longer in anger, but in a sputter of confusion, “Why? Why should I spare your little pet? Why would you beg me for his life and no not your own?”
“Because I love him!”
The Mare paused, staring down at her.
“I know it’s not normal, I know ponies aren’t supposed to care for dragons, but I love him! He’s the brightest light in my life, I just... He’s like a child to me, and I can’t think of how I’d go on living if I lost him...” she sniveled and whimpered, burying her face in her hooves as the end came near, “I know you probably don’t understand, but...”
She stopped, a hoof laid gently on her chin. She opened her eyes, as her gaze was lifted. Above her stood, not the terrifying banshee she wished she’d never found, but a normal pony, a pale, snow white mare, wearing what looked like a wedding gown, softly glowing, as if illuminated only by moonlight, transparent, as if she was half-faded from the world. Those eyes, empty of life, stared sorrowfully down at her, and she spoke in a voice like a gentle breeze, far from the crunching screech she’d had earlier.
“Child... I understand far more than you could ever imagine...”
A deep and soothing cold slid gently through Twilight’s bones as she felt her consciousness slipping away. The last thing her eyes made out was the glowing visage of the Mare in White...