.
Some interminable dark takes hold of Canterlot castle. Long a safe haven. Cozy. Inviting, friendly. For these two friends wandering the now desolate feeling corridors the atmosphere speaks more to something corrupt and unknowable than comfort and good memories. Invading the senses to leave one glancing in all directions for dancing shadows which are for the briefest moment seen, but a second look finds nothing out of place. Not a book in the great castle library, not a pot mislaid in the kitchen. The kitchen staff as oblivious to encroaching darkness as all others. Unspoken terror begins to take root in their spirit. Even the mighty may feel fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the future, the past and all other manner of things may imbue this.
Heroes they may well be, but knowing nothing of what stands ahead of them allows mounting dread to build and blood run cold. The appointed hour when they must once more approach a dreadful conspiration of malice draws ever closer. The objects of their quest still nowhere to be found. Forcing themselves to take one strained hoofstep after another into an ever increasing miasma of something repugnant. This infringement against the very light pushes back as if alive. Telling them to run away. Leave before it is too late to do so, but nothing is there. It must be an imagined thing. The hallways are no darker than ever. Nothing lurks to leap out upon the unwary and drag them away to some untold fate.
"Twilight, I don't..feel so well. I almost feel like I hurt and ache all over. Every floor down its getting worse." She took a deep breath and huffed, almost wheezing. They were approaching the very lowest levels of the castle. Rarely used halls and rooms mostly. Each and all bereft of whom they sought, an unstirred layer of dust in many from disuse. Full of trinkets and old treasures gathered over a millennia. The castle was truly immense in reality. Able to house far more than were generally present.
"We must have looked into almost every room in the entire castle by now. Where could they be?" Twilight was fast becoming very dejected. Her worry was almost palpable.
"Rainbow, you remember the mines down in the mountain I told you about?" She asked quietly, almost weakly.
"How could I forget? That was the craziest wedding ever!" Dash remembered it mostly as being totally awesome.
"Focus. After all that they were just closed up, but no one really knows how far down they actually went or what else might have been down there. I think this feeling comes from further below." She spoke gravely. Dash groaned.
"Twi, I think it's obvious if I get any closer to whatever it is I'm going to collapse. I'm sorry, I can't. You being an alicorn and all must give you some resistance or something." She was clearly having trouble drawing breath. This was terrible.
"I won't drag you along to something that will hurt you. We have to cut our search short anyway. It's almost time for dinner. We should go to the dining hall. Before we do there is a spell I want to cast on us both and since we are this far down I don't think anyone will sense it if I make it quick. Hold still." Dash gave her a questioning look but did as she was asked and a quick flash of light later felt a slight bit odd.
"What was that?" Dash questioned.
"Just a little insurance policy. Don't worry about it." That was a little odd of her not to fully explain.
"If you say so. I trust you with my life, Twilight." Rainbow Dash moved at pace to get back upstairs, further away from whatever was below. Just moving back up a couple floors let her breathe easier.
"I feel better already. I have never felt like that before. Like something was squeezing the life right out of me." She took a deep breath and looked much better.
"Me either. I know it didn't seem like it, but I was feeling the same way. Just not as much I guess." This was worrisome to Twilight. If she couldn't take others along with her then it might be something she had no choice but to face alone.
This was not something she was entirely unfamiliar with, but facing off with some great unknown by herself was not a thought she relished. She was ever at her best with her friends by her side. There was perhaps one other that could come along, but she was not here and time was potentially running out. Where could Celestia and Luna possibly be? Down in the depths, captive as she once was? It had been proven before to not be impossible to best either of them. They'd even been successfully imprisoned at least twice before. It took savvy planning to take either of them down. Especially together, which alluded to their enemy being very powerful and intelligent. Whatever that enemy might actually be. It clearly intended harm.
What was it really after? There were any number of imagined horrors in the world, but far fewer real ones. This was most definitely real. A possible disaster of untold proportions may await ahead of them if they were unsuccessful in gleaning some useful information. Anything, the slightest hint would be something to go on. As it stood there was only a bad feeling. Who or what stands at the center of all this? Nothing either could recall from books or stories ever mentioned anything of this sort. Soon they would sit down to dine with a thing seeming born of some crazed mind. What machination could possibly have lead to a literal puppet sitting upon the throne? The very seat of power in the safest possible place, proven not so safe.
That soft chill taking hold within the castle walls becoming all the worse as their desperate search is halted. Perhaps dinner will be more telling. The charade of a living thing would be greeting them soon.
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Out of the frying pan..