Twilight was in tears as she followed Luna in the path towards the dungeons. The adrenaline from the attack was slowly wearing off, leaving her shivering with fear and confusion. She recognized the symptoms of shock easily as the tears, wanting to flow, stayed in her eyes. She had been in many situations before where the adrenaline rushing through her brain had been the difference between victory and defeat. Today, it had meant the difference between life and death.
Twilight still didn’t understand what had happened entirely. One moment, she had been near the point of hyperventilating due to how nervous she was about being crowned, the next, she had been shooting pegasi out of the sky. Come to think of it, today was the first time she had ever used her magic on another pony passed picking them up. It was also her first time being shot at by another pony, nearly dethroned, and had a full Royal Guard squadron assigned to her. So today was a day of firsts.
She nearly laughed out loud at the absurd thought, instead resolving to chuckle quietly under her breath. It was still enough to get a worried glance from Luna and several of the guards, but she didn’t really mind at the moment. She had nearly died, for Celestia’s sake! She was allowed to have some form of mental breakdown. She paused that line of thought in its path, instead resolving to another altercation.
Yes, she had nearly died, but she was also now the ruler of all of Equestria. She needed to be an example to all, and if she became some sort of psychopath, she doubted her reign would end well. The ponies of Equestria needed to see that their new leader was strong and could take this attempt on her life in stride. They needed to know that she could survive whatever her doubters threw at her, that she was an unbreakable wall protecting them.
At the same time, Equestria’s enemies and allies alike needed to see that Twilight was no soft noble. She knew how to be a leader, she knew how to handle crisis, and she was more than flesh and bone. She had saved Eques more than once with her only her wit and friends more than once before, and she had gained her wings -literally at that- because of her vast knowledge of magic. Slowly, she felt her confidence in herself rising, and her chin along with it. Let Equestria see that she was stronger than her enemies, whoever they were.
She tried to remember the face of the pony that had shot at her first. His face was unforgettable, twisted in anger, though not directly at her. She wondered why briefly, but decided that it might be best to focus on what else she might be able to recognize about him. He was a stallion, she could tell as much even from the distance, but his age was undeterminable. Late twenties, at least, mid thirties at most was her best guess. That still left enough time for him to be five or eleven years older than her. She had been unable to discern his cutie mark well beyond it being red and squiggly. Not the best hint as to what, but she had an idea. She had never seen the spell he had used to kill the two guards before, not even among the darker books in the libraries of the Crystal Empire and Castle of the Royal Sisters. She also guessed it was a self-taught spell, but the thoughts of how he could possibly know how well it would work on a pony made her sick.
They turned down a corridor and a long flight of stairs towards where she knew the dungeons would be. She had never been there personally, but she knew the general gist of where she was going thanks to the guards. However, at the end of the flight of stairs was a solid brick wall. Twilight’s confusion lasted only a second as two of the pegasi pushed at two of the bricks. The wall shuttered as it pulled apart into two passageways that led into the same room. Twilight had seen a spell like this before, but never so intricately and practically put.
The dungeon beyond was nothing like Twilight had expected, and certainly not what was advertised. The dungeon was well lit with not candle light, but glowing lines in the ceiling that flowed around the edges of the walls. She was able to tell that the glowing fluid was bullwater concealed in long tubes, an incredibly common liquid rarely used in more than pain medicines. She had never seen it used in such a manner. It was strange, yet relatively soothing too.
As they continued down the passages, Twilight noticed that the cells were all but empty of inhabitants, and the few that did have them were deep asleep. If it weren’t for the current situation she was in, she would have asked as to the meaning of such things. Instead, she continued to fly softly through the passages beside Luna and the guards. She gave Rarity, who lay on the back of one of the guards, a quick look to see how she was doing.
A large purple bruise had formed on her head, marking where she had been struck on the head. Her eyes were half-closed, but it was obvious that she was still unconscious. She seemed to be almost sleeping, her chest rising and falling slowly. The guard holding her had to have been specially trained for this kind of situation, the way he balanced her so that she rocked only slightly with each turn around a corner.
Another flight of stairs and two lefts found them at the end of a short stone brick hall. Twilight landed, confusion spreading across her features. The wall in front of them was flat and gray with no discernible patterns. She assumed that they were here at the entrance of some secret passage, but there was no clue as to what it might be. The stone brick wall around them was perfectly symmetrical, and left no room for a passage in them. Looking up, she saw that the bullwater tubes circled back around to each other, which meant either there was no room onward or it wasn’t lit by the same line of bullwater.
The same two pegasi who had revealed the dungeon passages flew to opposite walls, pushing on a random brick each. Instead of the wall moving, the bricks slid out of their places. The pegasi each reached into the bricks, which were hollow, pulling out separate items. The one to the left pulled out a stone and piece of metal, the other two short, skinny sticks. The former pegasus lit the sticks of the later with the stone and steel, the sound of the scraping rocks the only thing audible in the chamber. A foul smell emitted from the lit sticks as the pegasi set the stone and steel aside and took one of them, holding the orange flame away from her face.
The two went to opposite sides of the wall, raising the flame along the side of the wall. A crackling sound filled the room as a small line of sparks flew up the wall, disappearing before it reached the bullwater tubes. A mechanical clicking filled the air as the wall began to slide down to floor level. Twilight’s jaw dropped slightly at the sight, confusion as to how the strange contraption worked. She would’ve asked if it hadn’t been for the fact that she was being rushed into the room quicker than AJ could’ve come up with a countryism. As soon as they were across, the wall sprung up into place.
She stared at the closing wall in a mixture of confusion and intrigue for a second longer before taking in her surroundings. The guards had all landed now and were setting up a stationary perimeter; for what, she did not know. They stood in a long cavern with smoothed out, ridged walls and a high ceiling. The entire cavern was shaped like a cylinder, the smell of mold and water mixing with the foul odor of the flames. The pegasi extinguished the flames, leaving them in near darkness. A dim gray-blue light lit the majority of the cavern's gray slate walls. Other than the distant sound of what seemed to be rushing water, everypony was silent, watching their surroundings.
Twilight took the pause to trot over to Princess Luna, who was looking back through the wall. As she was about to speak, she held up a hoof, silencing Twilight’s question. She was staring at the ground intently, her brows furrowed as if concerned about something. The image was slightly disturbing, so Twilight looked away towards the other ponies, trying to find solace in the cave. There was nothing here, she was pretty sure at least. No scat, claw marks, or other evidence of dangerous creatures, just a long tube of stone and empty halls.
“What do you need, Twilight,” Luna quietly asked her from the side, startling her with the sudden question. She turned back to the Princess, shaking her head a little.
“I was just wondering, why are we stopping. We could go much further before a break,” she stated, looking around at the guards. She saw the one that had been carrying Rarity gently laying her down on her side. Her eyes were fluttering open even as her carrier carefully pressed a hoof over them, silently urging her to be still. The other guards seemed to be settling down for a while longer than a simple break, sitting down or laying their spears against the walls. After a second of thinking, she sheepishly added, “I also kinda want to know how the wall works.”
“We need a break to allow your friends and the guards protecting them to catch up with us here,” she answered quietly with a smile, trotting towards one of the walls. “The more of us together, the safer we’ll be. I was just in contact with my sister, who informed me that your four friends are in a group currently racing through the palace corridors to reach us. Your and their families are currently being moved to a secretive location in the Crystal Empire, where they’ll be held until proper security measures are placed on their homes.
“The door is actually a contraption of my own design. We light gnarlwood roots lined infused with magnesium and hold the flame to ganatrite lining in the wall. It burns until it sparks on a lever, which triggers two solid stones to be pistoned back. This allows the wall to slide down to where four sets of iron coiled springs wait on top of plated pistons. The springs slow the wall for approximately fifteen point four seconds until they trigger the pistons, which shoot the wall back into place. Another plate above the wall is triggered, which in turn resets the two stone blocks for another go. Since ganatrite only lights with that certain heat with gnarlwood/magnesium flame, nopony else will be able to get in through the wall without having Royal Ops training. The ganatrite is also a self-renewing resource, so the process can be done over and over again, although until now, we’ve only used this place thrice.”
“And where exactly is this place,” Twilight asked.
“You’ll see,” Luna answered with a gentle smile. She breathed in deeply, taking a look around fondly. “This cavern is secured by hexing charms and natural resources from magical and destructive means of entering. There’s no teleporting in or out of here.”
Twilight nodded in understanding, following Luna’s gaze until it fell upon the Royal Guards. They all wore similar expressions as to the one Luna had when she was speaking with Celestia telepathically. Looking from Luna, who still wore a relatively calm face, to the guard’s grim, determined faces, she could tell she wasn’t the one holding the mental conversation. She certainly wasn’t hosting the mental meeting, and there were no unicorns with the magical or mental capacity to host one, only pegasi. Unless...
Lighting her horn, she cast a spell over her eyes to throw off any mental imaging spells cast on her. When that revealed nothing, she cast a spell of disclosure that allowed her to see through common charms that changed appearances to anypony but the user. When that too failed, she cast a full-fledged disillusioning spell, concentrating hard on the twelve pegasi in front of her. The veil finally lifted as she saw that the pegasi that had been carrying Rarity was indeed a unicorn.
Instead of being the same hardened yellow as his illusion counterpart, he was a light teal with a blonde mane. His cutie mark was concealed by his armor, but given as to how he was in the Guard now and magically affiliated too, it would be something like a sparkling spear. He was at least a decade younger than the image, and easily better looking in any regard. He had to be at least five years younger than the youngest of the other guards, which made him maybe two years her senior. This was actually surprising, seeing as how most of the Royal Guard were in their early to late thirties. His eyes were screwed shut in concentration, which must have been hard on him.
He was upholding a strong, complicated spell that many common and magically touched unicorns would be struggling to keep for even a minute whilst hosting a telepathic conversation with eleven other guards. And he wasn’t even breaking a sweat! His magical capacity was almost unbelievable strong -no- solid as he simply stood without any shaking or other show of exertion aside from his clenched eyebrows. Even that could be attributed to being focused on the conversation he was hosting or the subject of said conversation.
The stallion suddenly looked up at her, revealing a pair of sharp, sky blue eyes that looked beyond her eyes. She gulped silently as her heart threatened to skip a beat. Who had trained this one to be so intimidating that even those he was guarding lost their breath? He seemed to realize that he was unnerving his charge, giving her a small nod with a smile of acknowledgement. “Is there something you require, Your Majesty?” Celestia above, he even was calling her by her royal monicker already!
“Your- your a unicorn,” she asked, holding back a cringe at her stammer. He turned his head slightly, as if confused by the question. A flash of realization crossed his face and his smile became more genuine than before.
“Yes, I am,” the stallion answered. “Is there anything you require, Your Majesty?”
“Um, yeah, just real quick, what are you doing?” She could feel Luna’s inquisitive stare on the back of her head, but she had to know. Was this unicorn even more powerful than herself before her transformation to an alicorn? The unicorn’s smile seemed slightly strained as he took a moment to think.
“Well, if Your Majesty must know, I’m hosting a mental conversation with myself and thirty one other of the Royal Guard-” Twilight’s jaw dropped farther than she thought it could “-while simultaneously upholding aa illusionary spell that requires a level three disillusionment spell.” His small smile disappeared as he realized that his tone had been rather passive-aggressive. “You’ll have to forgive me, Your Majesty, for the sharpness, but you’ll have to understand my predicament.”
Twilight’s eyes widened as she realized how invasive she was being, blushing as she nodded. “Oh, yes, of course. Sorry.”
He nodded, returning to closing his eyes as he sat down. Luna strode up to her, smiling slightly at her. “You seem surprised. Not what you expected,” she whispered.
“Very much so,” she muttered as she tore her eyes from the now illusioned pony to look at Luna. “Who is he?”
“That’s Aerius,” she said quietly with a knowing smile. “Quite the catch if I do say so myself.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, before realizing what she’d just agreed to. She sent Luna a withering glare, which only made her giggle. “Oh stop it. I was talking about his magical potential. It’s amazing!”
“Yes, of course you were,” Luna whispered under her breath, just loud enough for Twilight to hear. She felt the heat on her face and on her ears, and she knew she was blushing. Dang it, why did Luna have to know her so well! Luna grew slightly solemn as she muttered, “We found him on the streets with his father. They’re both guards now, but they don’t really have a home outside of the castle. They haven’t had a pleasant life.”
“Oh,” Twilight said, looking back at the hardened yellow pegasus, knowing what lay underneath his disguise. “What about the dead guards? The ones killed by the unicorn that shot at me?”
“Unidentified, as of yet,” she answered slowly, a shake to her head. “The panicked crowd trampled their bodies so identification will have to be done by a specialist.”
“I want to go to their funerals,” Twilight said firmly, looking back at Luna.
“I suspected you would,” Luna responded with another small smile. “We’ll have to leave it up to their families, but I suspect that they won’t refuse.”
“Why,” she asked her, slightly confused.
“You’re the ruler of Equestria,” she answered with a sideways glance. “Get used to ponies agreeing with whatever you say.”
“Oh, right. Should’ve thought of that.”
Silence fell once again as Luna walked away, towards where no guards were standing vigil. She lay down on her side, her thinking face back on again. Twilight sat down, looking from the mentally conversing Royal Guards to the form of Luna lying on her side. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath for herself as she did so. Her mind was actually surprisingly empty. Hadn’t she just been attacked and nearly killed? Checking herself, she could see she was no longer shaking, and the sweat from the event had dried.
She continued to contemplate the strange course of events that had brought her to this point. The insurrectionists seemed to want her off the throne, begging the question as to if it was because they wanted one of the Princesses on the throne, or to impose a new leader completely on the citizens of Equestria. Twilight found that she didn’t want to know the answer. If ponies already doubted her potential as Ruler of Equestria, how many would come to? And if they thought that the Princesses who had reigned for millennia were still more suitable for them, who was Twilight to refuse. She hadn’t been elected as monarch over Equestria, only brought before them and announced as the replacement for the exhausted rulers before her. How many of those cheers she had heard change to boos over the years?
The disturbing line of thought was abruptly interrupted by an earsplitting screeching that came from behind her. She shot up from her sitting position, looking at the moving wall behind her, lighting her horn just in case. However, upon its full retreat into the ground, she extinguished it, seeing her friends and their guards rushing across into the room. She rushed to hug the closest two, Fluttershy and AJ, and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie quickly joined.
The Royal Guards broke apart their group hug, ushering them further away from the door as it snapped into place. Once they were deep enough into the cavern for the guard’s appeasement, they resumed their embrace. Fluttershy began crying quietly, and the whole group focused on trying to quietly calm her.
“I was so scared, Twilight,” she whispered as she continued to cry. “They tried to kill you! Why would they do that?”
“Because the anarchists do not approve of her,” another voice said, this one well recognizable. Turning to the voice, Twilight found Celestia retreating from an embrace with her sister. “They feel that you are unfit to rule, and wish to depose you. That is all we got from one of the traitors before he killed himself.”
“K-killed himself,” Rainbow questioned.
Celestia nodded grimly. “Snapped his own neck. These insurrectionists are a deadly group, willing to die for their cause.”
“Or they're too afraid of failure,” Luna interjected with a knowing look. “Sister, what did bring you here? I believe we agreed on having you head the operations of investigating and interrogating while I protected Twilight and her friends.”
A frown filled Celestia’s face, one of concern and sadness. “There is no interrogation. Captain Shining Armor, with assistance from Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer, are investigating the spells used. The two pegasi sent to retrieve the unicorn are also dead. The one Twilight shot down died from the blunt force head trauma caused by her crash, and the other one was hit by no less than six stunning charms, shutting her body down completely.”
Twilight could feel her stomach rolling at the news. She had killed somepony no less than a minute into her reign. What kind of tyrant was she? She hadn’t meant to kill the pegasus, only disarm her so they wouldn’t be able to hurt anypony. Instead, she had killed them. Done. Up and ended another’s life. She swallowed down the bile, trying to stay strong in the eyes of her peers.
“Twilight,” Applejack spoke up. “If you’re gonna lose yer lunch, please attempt not to do it on anypony’s hooves.”
Twilight nodded, looking into the face of her mentor. “That can’t be the only reason. You would be heading the search investigating the spells unless something else more important were to present itself,” she pointed out. Celestia’s frown deepened as her eyes flickered over the Royal Guards.
“Twilight is correct, sister,” Luna agreed, stepping in closer to her sister. “What brings you here?”
Before Celestia could answer, one of the guards called out, “It’s time, Your Majesties.” Celestia looked over to the guard, a cyan pegasus like Rainbow, but the bit of mane visible under his helmet was blonde, nodding in acknowledgement.
“Come, my little ponies, we have ground to cover,” Luna spoke as she turned to follow Celestia. Twilight and the others nodded as they began following her. However, Fluttershy suddenly cried, “Wait! What about Rarity.”
“She is safe with me,” Aerius spoke, lifting the unconscious form of Rarity onto his back. Upon seeing her friend’s worried faces, he added, “She will be fine. I gave her a sedative-” A lie for sure, it must’ve been a charm “-so she won’t awaken during the journey, though she might mumble. The concussion is only minor, but it would affect her walking and slow us down.”
They began moving down the cavern, the guards forming a circle around the three Princesses, five Element Bearers, and Aerius. They turned left with the wide tunnel, revealing a near infinitely long tunnel that seemed to have no end. They walked for hours in a constant straight pattern, taking their time as they moved down the ridged walls. More than once, Rainbow and AJ offered to run or fly down the length to see where it led. However, every time they did, they were met with a quick rebuttal from the cyan pegasus, who seemed to be commander of the guard here.
The large company moved in silence from then, nopony wishing to disturb the eerie silence of the cave. Twilight found solace in admiring the ridges in the wall, their wavy patterns sure to have earned a compliment on natural beauty from Rarity if she were conscious. They were all near identical, but as the minutes ticked by, she realized they were each different in very minute ways. Maybe because of how large the ridge was to how long it seemed to go before it faded into the wall. She also noticed that the stone was always the same, no new element of stone tainting the slate gray walls.
There was a certain uneasiness to the group that put Twilight on edge, as if the guards were expecting something to pop out of the walls at any moment. Initially, it had been unnoticed by the young Princess, but as silence continued and her thoughts became more prominent and movements more mechanical, she felt it. The way the muscles on the guards were tense as if they were marching into the battle, the way they shot a look at any sound made, it wasn’t encouraging. She knew her friends also noticed, the way their eyes were widened more than usual and darting over every surface in sight. Even the Princesses seemed ready for a fight at any moment, which led to Twilight mentally preparing a list of spells to use on ponies, beasts, changelings, and griffons, if the situation presented itself.
Twilight found herself looking back the way they came, surprised at how far away it seemed compared to how far away they still were to the end of this tunnel. Both sides were now shrouded in a kind of thin mist, likely from the humidity that filled the air. Everyponies hair had become rather frazzled due to it, to which she had no doubt Rarity would have complaints about. The distant rumbling continued to sound louder and louder as they continued to get closer to it, and the dank smell of wet fur began permeating the air.
Finally, after hours of walking, the end of the tunnel appeared in the distance. Twilight felt like yelling with joy at the sight, fighting the urge to race to the end to see if it really ended, or went on in another near infinite tunnel. The roaring had grown to be tremendously loud, so much so that she doubted the others would hear her yell of joy. As they got closer and closer to the end, she could see that all of her friends but Rarity, who had begun softly snoring, were excited to see what was around the corner. Rainbow’s wings were buzzing, AJ’s muscles tense, Fluttershy’s lip was quivering, and Pinkie was literally buzzing with excitement, her hair once again poofy.
Smiling, she turned the corner with the forefront of the guards, a gasp escaping her lips as she viewed the scenery. Rushing water fell in a large foaming blue wall, the sound crashing echoing through the cavern it concealed. Twilight could see the muddled night sky beyond, the dark light shining through the waterfall. The others also appreciated the sight while the guards, remaining stoic in the face of such majesty, settled down once again. Spray from the water crashing against the overhang wet Twilight’s face, but she welcomed the cool sensation. Puddles had formed around the area closest to the falling water and more water dripped from the overhang they stood under, giving the impression that it was raining.
Aerius lay Rarity down gently, far enough away from the rushing water that she wouldn’t be wet. Her eyes fluttered open as he removed the sleeping charm from her and she looked around in confusion. She tried to say something, but the sound of rushing water drowned it out. Fluttershy rushed to her side, an unheard conversation starting between them as she cradled Rarity’s head. AJ noticed and went to her friend’s side, entering the conversation too as she helped lift the unicorn to her hooves. Twilight went to Celestia’s side, seeing that her friend was now being well tended to by the others.
“What are we doing here,” she practically yelled over the din. Celestia turned to her, pointing to a shadow in the corner of the chamber. The only corner in the chamber, as it happened.
“It’s about time to meet an old friend,” she yelled back.
Twilight was about to ask what she meant, when something in the shadows moved, or rather, the shadows moved. They combined together in a large blob on the floor before raising itself into a massive shape. It stood on two legs, its oily black skin shining from the light of the moon through the waterfall. Arms and a head formed shortly afterward, but the head remained faceless as it spoke.
“Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you. Please don’t die under my care.”