//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Stone 
// Story: Egress 
// by Grey Vicar 
//------------------------------//

The foot of the mountains.

Twilight Sparkle looked up. She'd imagined it would look majestic somehow, that it would be a solemn moment, but the air was frigid, the wind unnaturally still, and she was thirsty. Her right eye twitched anxiously.

Grey, bare stone. That was all those mountains were. Grass poked out of the desolate ground here and there, and she could make out the shape of pines on their flanks, but looking at them, she could only feel as if she was staring at a blank wall. A blank wall with a gaping, darkened opening where the mountain seemed to split at the base. The halfheartedly-built fence serving as a makeshift threshold looked more lively than them. There was a pony huddled in blankets a few feet away from the threshold, trying to shield himself from a nonexistent wind by curling up behind a large boulder. His hair was gone in places, his coat patchy. Ribs pressed against his skin. He blinked and looked up at her, passing a dry tongue over dry lips.

"I couldn't do it... I couldn't..." Shaky hooves, begging, grasping at air. "Please... water..."

She left the pony with a full waterskin and marched onward, past the threshold, looking defiantly up at the mountains. Then, a few steps later, she stopped and turned. She had dried rations, and he had looked famished, she probably could—

There was no one.

She looked back to the mountains and passed a dry tongue on her lips. She took a swig out of her waterskin, and stepped into the darkness of the stone.