Chapter 9: Surprises and Shadows
***
The dinner had been long since eaten in the royal dining hall of Canterlot palace and they’d since turned to conversation. The royal sisters had asked the fillies how they’d been enjoying Equestria so far, which had gotten Dawn telling them about all the things they’d done, and the games they’d played with their new friends. Luna especially enjoyed hearing about all the things they’d done with the Crusaders in the past week as she’d become close to the three fillies and was glad to hear they were making the sisters feel welcome. She was surprised to hear of the new addition to the group, however.
“This Diamond Tiara; she has been spending time with the Crusaders?” Luna looked up at Twilight. “Is she not the one that used to torment them?”
Twilight nodded. “Until recently; but she had a traumatic experience not long ago that seems to have… Inspired her, I guess, to change for the better. From what I’ve seen she seems happier now than I’ve ever seen her before.”
Luna frowned. “Interesting… I did work with her recently to help with a bout of nightmares. I did suggest she try to make some new friends, but I didn’t suspect she would choose the crusaders considering their history.”
“She’s nice, a little quiet, but nice.” Dawn said looking up at Luna.
Luna smiled. “I am not surprised she is quite; she did have quite a scare. Her father nearly died recently.”
“He did die actually.” Twilight corrected, having asked Apple Bloom for the full story once she’d caught wind of it. “At first, anyway. It was a heart attack and by the time the doctor got there it was already too late. But with Rekaj’s magic, Apple Bloom reversed time and together she and Diamond Tiara managed to get the doctor there in time to save him.”
“Truly!?” Luna looked at her in surprise. “I had not heard that part of the story.”
“Apple Bloom doth have impressive magic.” Winter said, her sister nodding in agreement.
“Speaking of Rekaj,” Celestia cut in, “I’m still looking forward to meeting him when he gets a chance to visit Canterlot.”
Twilight looked at her surprised; with everything that had happened with Apple Bloom, it had completely slipped all their minds that Princess Celestia had invited him to visit. “Oh… well he went back to his home world to take care of some things, but the next time I see him I’ll be sure to remind him.”
“And I’ll remind Twilight.” Spike said with a knowing grin.
“We art looking forward to meeting him as well.” Winter said, with a hesitant smile. “He art one of the few that is our elder.”
“So I’ve heard…” Princess Celestia said then gave Winter a mischievous look. “Grandma.”
Dawn giggled, while her sister just looked surprised, then slowly gave a little more genuine smile.
“It’s okay, you look very good for your age.” Celestia said in a consoling tone.
Winter looked at her sister who looked about ready to fall out of her chair laughing. “Thou didst have to make that joke.” Dawn gave her a sheepish grin but couldn’t stop giggling.
Smiling, Celestia watched the two sisters reminded of when she and Luna were their age. Their physical age anyway. “I am glad you’re both enjoying your new life here in Equestria. You certainly deserve some peace after the hardships you’ve endured.”
Winter looked back at her reminded of what was, for them, all too recent. Looking down, she simply nodded in agreement, while Dawn grew quiet.
Celestia gave them a sympathetic look. “Luna and I were born into very much the same world you endured before your imprisonment. More than a millennia had passed, but the attitude toward alicorns remained mostly the same.”
Luna nodded. “If Discord hadn’t been in power, tormenting ponies with his chaos, I have no doubt that my sister and I would not have lived a day past our births. As it was, we were raised not as foals, but as weapons to be used against Discord…”
Celestia sighed, it was all too true. “We have worked hard to erase that prejudice so that no foal would ever suffer as we did.” She said and it was clear she was including Winter and Dawn in that statement.
Winter looked up at her with a serious expression. “We shall strive to prove thee right to do so.”
Celestia smiled. “You need only live good happy lives, and that will be enough.”
Suddenly Spike snorted as if he were trying not to laugh and as they all looked over at him it was clear that that was exactly what was happening. Celestia simply raised a brow questioningly.
He snorted again struggling to contain his amusement as he explained. “You calling them grandma,” He gestured to Celestia and the fillies. “And talking about struggles of living thousands of years ago; I couldn’t help but think of Twilight as the spoiled foal that had everything hoofed to her on a silver platter.”
“What!?” Twilight looked at him her jaw agape. Which only had the effect of causing the dragon to fall to the floor in laughter.
Celestia grinned, seeming on the verge of laughter herself as she looked over at her former student. “It’s okay, Twilight. You’re not that spoiled.”
Twilight could only pout in response as Luna and the fillies all giggled at her expense.
“Speaking of Spoiling…” Celestia said suddenly. “I received word that your castle should be finished enough for you to start moving in the week before the running of the leaves.”
Twilights eyes widened; that was only two weeks away. “What!? I thought it wasn’t going to be finished until spring!?”
“Well that was mostly because the work would have almost stopped during the winter months.” Celestia explained. “So I just had them accelerate the work a little bit so they could finish before then. There will be some interior work still being done throughout other parts of the castle into the winter months, but the residence wing should be finished.”
“You didn’t tell me you accelerated the work!”
She shrugged. “I figured you would have checked on the progress yourself, but I suppose you have been busy the past few weeks.”
Twilight just stared at her for a moment. It was true she’d been a lot busier since the fillies had shown up, but that was only the past week. For the castle to be almost done to the point that they could move in, Celestia must have given the order to accelerate the work at least a few weeks before then. She’d had plenty of chances to check on the progress of the castle in those weeks. She just hadn’t… she’d though she had months still before she’d have to move out of the library, but now. “Two weeks…” She said weakly.
“I’m told the barracks and staff quarters will need another few weeks to finish interior work; but once they’re completed, the rest of your guard will be transferred there, and I’ve arranged enough of a castle staff to get you started as well.” Celestia went on, well aware that the younger princess was still in a state of shock. “I understand your old friend Lemon Hearts volunteered to be your event planner; though I made sure she understood she’d likely have to work with Pinkie Pie for any event resembling a party.”
“Two weeks…”
Spike reached out and waved his claw in front of Twilight a couple times to no effect. “I think you broke her.”
Even Winter couldn’t help giggling.
~~~
A chiming sound came from the amplifier Rainbow wore as she flew over one of the small canyons they thought might house the cave they were searching for. In the light of the early morning sun however, it wasn’t proving to be an easy search. Tapping the gem twice she heard the ping indicating they were connected. “Yeah?”
“You there? Is it working?” Daring’s voice came through the amplifier.
“I hear ya, Daring. What’s up?”
“This canyon was even smaller than I thought; I flew up the entire thing but didn’t find any caves or either of the other landmarks.”
“Nothing yet here either, but then these shadows are making it hard to see anything; we may have better luck later in the morning.” Rainbow told her.
“Yeah… I’m going to make another pass on this canyon, see if I missed anything; then head to that one further south.”
“Gotcha.”
“These are pretty convenient. Sometime today we need to test the range, see if mine can reach the princess, and make sure yours can.”
“Yeah, we’ll do that later; don’t know if Twi would even be up yet.” Rainbow agreed. “I’ll finish up this canyon and do a quick pass of the last one; if we don’t spot anything, we can take a closer look later when we have better light.”
“Alright, contact me if you spot anything, or when you finish.”
“Will do.” Rainbow told her and tapped the gem again, disconnecting. Gliding in the morning sun she found herself yawning again. She was used to early hours due to working as a weather pony; but Daring had gotten them up more than an hour before sunrise so that they could get ready and be in the air as soon as it was light out. After doing a high-level survey of the mountains, they’d narrowed their search down to four canyons that were near the first landmark Daring had found. The cave, according to the notes, was supposed to be on a north facing cliffside in a canyon visible to the west of the first landmark. Unfortunately, the notes weren’t very clear which canyon it was; the second landmark that was supposed to be on a ridge above the canyon they needed was nowhere to be found. As Daring had said, it was possible that part of the ridge had collapsed in a landslide in the three thousand years since the prison was made. For that matter, the cave could have been buried by a landslide.
This being a scouting mission, if they couldn’t find each prison within a day or two of searching, the plan was to mark it and come back later with a squad of guards and possibly Twilight as well to do a more in-depth search. Any prisons they did find they were to go ahead and check to see if they were still holding.
Scanning the canyon below her, she realized she was running low on cliffsides as she neared the peak of the mountain. There were a lot of shadows from the low angle of the sun, but still she hadn’t seen anything that looked like it could be the cave they were looking for. Hopefully the notes weren’t mistaken, and the cave really was on a north facing cliff. Flying up and over the ridge on the south side of the canyon, she turned and started toward the next canyon over, the last of the four.
As she glided toward the top of the canyon, she paused midair looking back down the ridge along the canyon she’d just left. For a moment she thought she saw movement along the ridge near the valley floor, but now she didn’t see anything. She watched a moment longer, but other than a slight rustling of leaves in the mountain breeze; she didn’t see anything. With a shrug she started down the canyon, carefully scanning the north facing cliffs.
~~~
“I’m surprised by how well the fillies seem to be doing.” Princess Celestia commented as she and Twilight walked through one of the castle gardens. “Considering what I know of the time and what you said they went through as Achlys’ daughters.
“Yes.” Twilight agreed softly. After spending the night at her parents house, she’d wanted to speak with Celestia further concerning her castle as well as the mission Rainbow and Daring were on. As Spike and her parents had occupied the fillies with baking cookies, she’d taken the opportunity to return to the palace. “Although… Winter definitely seems to be more reserved. I get the feeling she’s done what she could to shield Dawn from some of what she endured. She puts on a brave face for her sister, but she still won’t let Dawn out of her sight.”
“I could definitely see that.” Celestia said being the older sister herself. She had indeed tried to shield Luna when she could when they were young. If only she’d kept on doing so when they were older… “The shock and worry on Winter’s face when little Dawn made her joke… She almost looked like she was preparing to defend her sister if necessary.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. It was actually the Crusaders that gave them the idea, but Winter clearly wasn’t going to make such a joke herself. I’m glad Dawn seems to be feeling safe enough to joke in such a manner.” Twilight smiled. “I think they’re really warming up to me. And though they were suspicious of Spike at first, he is familiar to them. So now that they’ve seen how much he’s changed, they seem to feel safer when he’s around. He did often protect them on Achlys’ orders after all.”
“Do you intend to continue watching over them?”
“Yes I do… I haven’t told them yet, but you know where I came from. In a way, it kind of makes me their sister as well.”
“Whether you’re a big sister or little sister is debatable,” Celestia said with a sly smile.
Twilight snorted a laugh. “Big sister; their real age is a technicality. Physically they’re fillies.”
“I do think you should tell them. There’s always a chance that they might figure it out on their own, and if you hid it from them…” Celestia trailed off.
Twilight nodded. “I know. I just want to let them get settled first.”
“And I suppose moving again so soon isn’t going to help in that regard?”
“I don’t think that’s a problem actually; they’re not attached to the library like I am…”
Celestia smiled knowingly and draped a wing over Twilight’s withers. “We did make sure your new castle has quite a large library.”
“The books aren’t the only reason.”
“But they are a reason…”
Twilight gave her an annoyed look.
“I’m only teasing.”
“I just wasn’t expecting to be moving in just a couple weeks.” She sighed, thinking about all that would need to be done. Really she’d have plenty of time; she’d already gotten started organizing her things at the library. She just wasn’t expecting it to be so soon.
“I know… but lately I just can’t stop thinking about what you said, about the tree of harmony only ever giving you what you’ll need. And I can’t shake the feeling that you’ll need your full guard sooner rather than later.”
Twilight nodded slowly. She’d worried about it a bit herself; especially with the purge era prisons coming to light. “I understand. And it will be good to have more space; though I doubt the fillies will want separate rooms just yet.”
“No, probably not.” Celestia agreed and for a moment they walked in silence. “So, you said Rainbow Dash went with Daring Do to check on some of the alicorn prisons?”
“To make sure none have escaped. Though from what we read about most of them, I think we’d know pretty quick if any of them got loose. But there are a few who might be devious enough to bide their time. Hopefully not; but if they find one of the prisons empty, at least we’ll have some warning.”
Celestia frowned. “Do you think you could handle them if any did escape?”
“Probably; most I think I could handle on their own, but if one of them gets out and tries to release the others… I don’t know. And then I’ve also considered...” Twilight sighed. “There were a couple at least, that didn’t really sound that bad; and the fillies even confirmed that they weren’t nearly as hated as the rest. I can’t help wondering if perhaps, a few of them might deserve another chance.”
“It might be worth more thought,” Celestia agreed even as Twilight’s bracelet started chiming. She raised a brow questioningly.
“That must be Rainbow; I asked her to check in if they found anything.” Twilight tapped the gem on the bracelet twice and they heard a different chime. “Hello?”
“Hey Twi! Sounds like you were right on the range of these things,” Rainbow’s voice came from the bracelet loud and clear. “Anyway, Daring thinks we’ve found the first prison up here; a landslide almost buried the entrance though, so she’s seeing if there’s any openings large enough for us to get in. You at your parents’ place?”
“Uh, no I’m actually at the palace right now with Princess Celestia.”
“Hello, Rainbow Dash!” Princess Celestia said, perhaps a little louder than necessary.
“Oh! Hey princess!”
“Are you sure it’s the prison?” Twilight asked. “If you can’t get in…”
“Nah we’re not certain; but it’s the most promising cave we’ve found; and we were lucky to find it, like I said it's almost completely buried. We also thought that we should test the range for Daring with these things.”
“Test the range?” Celestia questioned, a little confused.
“Oh, this enchantment is the same one I used on the amplifiers so it works off of the bonds of friendship. So Daring probably won’t get as much range since we’re not as close of friends.” Twilight explained quickly and Celestia nodded understanding.
“Yeah, so we wanted to test that while we’re out here.” Rainbow said having heard.
“That’s part of why Rainbow went with this time; we weren’t sure if Daring would get enough range with the enchantment to stay in contact. If she does, then she can go solo for future trips to check the other prisons within Equestria.” Twilight explained.
“I see.” Celestia said with a nod. “Were there many prisons within our borders?”
“Over a dozen of them, not including Achlys or the girls’ prisons; I’ll make a copy of the map for you when I get back to Ponyville.”
“Yeah we’re going to try and find this one and two others on this trip. Oh, here comes Daring… You find a way in!?”
They heard a reply a little too faint to understand, but a moment later there was the sound of wings and hooves hitting the ground. “Yeah, it’s going to be a tight squeeze, but I found an opening. It was dark, but I think I spotted some pony carved walls deeper in. You contact the princess?”
“Yeah, actually talking to them now.”
“Hello, Daring!” Twilight said to let her know they could hear.
“Oh, hey princess. Thought we’d test out the range on these since you wanted us to contact you anyway before we went in.”
“It’s good to hear from you, Daring Do, it’s been some time.” Celestia said by way of announcing herself.
“Princess Celestia!? Uh, hi. Yeah, it’s been a while.”
Celestia giggled softly. “Relax, Daring. Twilight and I just happened to be talking when Rainbow contacted her.”
“Uh, yeah… so that test.”
“Yes, Rainbow, go ahead and disconnect and have Daring try on hers.” Twilight said.
“Will do. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just call you back on mine in a minute or two.” Rainbow said and a moment later there was the descending chimes indicating that she’d disconnected.
“That is quite a useful enchantment; have you considered possibly making it available for the public?” Celestia asked. She’d used the amplifiers before but hadn’t known that the communication enchantment could be used separately.
“I have actually. Now that I’ve got the enchantment so that you can contact specific ponies, it might work; the trouble is right now if you try to contact all it will connect to every enchanted device that anypony is wearing with that enchantment. Maybe if I make them so that they can only make direct pony to pony calls…” Her bracelet chimed again, and she tapped the gem to answer. “I’m here.”
“Oh nice, sounds like it works.” Daring’s voice came over the bracelet, considerably quieter than Rainbow’s had been, but still clearly audible.
“Yes, and it sounds like you should be able to get a good thirty percent more range before the connection will grow too weak.”
“Yeah, you’re quieter than you were on Rainbow’s, but I hear ya just fine.
“Where are they at?” Celestia asked curiously.
“The mountains east of Rainbow Falls,” Daring answered, hearing her.
“It should work just about anywhere in Equestria then; at least to reach here in Canterlot or Ponyville.” Celestia said, knowing her kingdom and the distances involved well enough to make some quick estimates.
“Great! Alright, so Rainbow and I are going to check out this cave, see if I’m right. If it is the prison, we’ll contact you again before attempting to get past the first trap.”
“Alright, we’ll talk to you then.”
“Later Twi.” Rainbow called in the background just before the descending chime of disconnecting.
“So, you were saying you’ve thought about making a version of the enchantment for public use…” Celestia prompted.
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, it would work for direct pony to pony calls, but I’d definitely have to disable open broadcasts for the public version… and you have to include group names in the enchantments, so they probably wouldn’t be able to do group calls. Unless maybe I could include a function to add additional ponies to a call already in progress… I’ll have to work on it. The other problem of course, is finding unicorns skilled enough to make the enchantments; I wouldn’t be able to do them all. I barely found the time to make enough for my guards in Ponyville. I did already find a way to keep groups of enchantments separate; so the ones I made for my guards’ can only contact other guards, and are separate from the ones I made for my friends and the amplifiers. Though mine is connected to both. I’ll make it another group entirely for a public version.”
“Well, if you do come up with a version for public use, I would be glad to help find unicorns skilled enough to begin manufacturing them. This could certainly revolutionize communications in Equestria. Instant communications from almost anywhere in Equestria…” Celestia shook her head, it was almost beyond imagining how such a thing would change the world.
With a frown, Twilight considered the possibility. “Well it would work between friends, and as we found with my guard; comradery works pretty well, but I don’t think you’d be able to contact someone you don’t really know. There has to be some bond there for the enchantment to use.
Celestia wasn’t deterred. “Even so, allowing friends and family members to stay in contact even at great distances; and it may even encourage new friendships and bring Equestria as a whole just that much closer.”
Twilight smiled. “I suppose there’s that. I’ll work on it, but no matter what, it will take quite some time before we can supply enough for everypony in Equestria. I’ll send you the version I made for my guard, for now, with instructions on how to make broadcast groups for the different divisions of the guard.”
“That would be great.”
~~~
“You weren’t kidding.” Rainbow grunted as she crawled through one of the tightest sections of the opening Daring had found feeling her wings pressed against the walls, and her ears brushing the ceiling. If she were even a little heavier built she doubted she’d be able to get through Daring had even taken off her gear.
“It opens up once you get past the collapse.” Daring told her from up ahead. It was fortunate she had her sunstone providing light, because Rainbow was pretty sure almost no light was getting past her at the moment.
She managed to squeeze through the tightest point and to her relief found the tunnel growing wider. A ponylength more and she could actually stand again, though she had to keep her head low. A bit further and she found herself climbing down the back of the collapse that had almost sealed the cave some centuries ago. She shivered slightly before looking around. Pegasi were not meant to be crawling through tiny holes in the ground. It was mostly natural cave, and it appeared a few different animals had made it their home at one point or another judging by the debris. “So, this it?”
Daring was at the base of the pile holding up her sunstone with one wing to illuminate the chamber. “Take a look,” she said gesturing ahead of them. Ahead, around halfway across the chamber, the ceiling dipped down low enough that a pony would have to duck, at least they would if the ceiling hadn’t been carved away at a comfortable height. Not much beyond that it appeared the tunnel became almost entirely pony made.
“Nice!”
“Something was built here anyway, and considering nopony has ever lived in these mountains as long as Equestria has existed, and the age of that landslide, I’d say this almost has to be the prison.”
“So, what are we looking for on the first trap?”
Daring pulled out the page she had tucked under her wing and looked it over. “First trap; a square chamber with a tile floor; large tiles.”
“Let’s go then!”
“Just don’t rush in when we find it.” Daring admonished and started leading the way along the path. As they made their way deeper into the ponymade tunnel, Daring took note of the stonework. It looked like purge era alright. They’d only gone a short way further when they reached the first trap chamber, looking almost exactly like it had been described, confirming it was the prison.
“So… how do we do this.” Rainbow asked, getting a little excited.
“This one has a magical trigger, so we can’t just fly across, and there’s no obvious loose tiles. But according to the notes Starswirl left, if we stay on the row of tiles, three from the left wall, we should be fine,” Daring told her.
“Alright! Let’s go then!”
“Hold it!” Daring said firmly, stalling her. “Aren’t you supposed to call somepony?”
Rainbow blinked. “Oh right,” she said and tapped the gem on her amplifier twice. “Twilight.”
A moment later it chimed that it was connected. “You find it?” Twilight asked.
“Yep, Daring was right. Took a bit to squeeze through the entrance; it was probably dug out by some animal after the landslide. Definitely not pony sized.”
“We’re at the first trap now, princess.” Daring put in. “Dropping ceiling like the one on the fillies’ prison, but without the obvious out.”
“Alright… I wish I’d thought to give Apple Bloom a bracelet so I could just call her if something goes wrong.”
“Nothing’s going to go wrong, Twi.”
“Rainbow…”
“It’s fine Princess, we know how to avoid the trigger, and how to deactivate it once we get to the other side.”
“Yes, go ahead and deactivate all the traps that you can; we know they won’t stop an alicorn anyway and I won’t have innocent ponies wandering into them… stars, I hope you don’t find any dead ponies in these prisons… We’ll find some other way of making sure ponies don’t disturb them.”
“Alright, we’re going to cross the room now, might as well stay connected.” Daring told her, then turned to Rainbow. “Follow me, stay on the first row of tiles.” She said and
The tiles weren’t much wider than a pony, so she kept right up against the wall as they made their way to the left from the door. Reaching the third tile from the wall, she carefully turned, trying to stay as close as possible to the center of the tiles.
“No telling how precise their trigger is so keep as centered as possible.” Daring advised around the sunstone, keeping her head forward. “Let me cross, then I’ll give you light to cross as well.”
“Gotcha.” Rainbow said, stopping where she was along the wall.
With a deep breath, Daring started across the room following the row of tiles designated in the notes.
“You make it?” Twilight’s voice came from the amplifier anxiously.
“Halfway, Twi, we’re being careful.” Rainbow said with a slight eyeroll.
Daring just kept going, carefully keeping herself in the center of the tiles. Finally, she reached the far side of the chamber and turned, again following the row of tiles right along the wall to the door. Once she was in the doorway, she took the sunstone in her wing again and held it just inside the door for Rainbow. “Okay, just stay in the center of the tiles.
“Okay.” Rainbow said and very carefully followed in Daring’s hoofsteps, managing to reach the far side without incident.
“Alright, we’re through the first trap.” She said for Twilight’s benefit as she stepped through the doorway out of the chamber.
“Oh good…”
“Can kind of tell they didn’t intend ponies to get through these traps, they didn’t even provide lighting like in the fillies’ prison.” Daring said holding the sunstone up and examining the wall. Unlike the previous tunnel this one had been built with cut stones rather than carved out of solid rock.
“Yeah, nothing says ‘you’re not welcome,’ like leaving the lights off.” Rainbow agreed.
“Now let’s see… left wall, three up two over.” She pushed on one of the bricks with her hoof. At first it wouldn’t budge, but then it turned inward almost like a lever. There was a loud crack and grinding of heavy stones moving, followed by a loud thud from the room behind them. Looking back they saw the upper part of the walls to either side had tilted inward, and the ceiling had dropped down, now resting on the new supports.
“Trap deactivated.” Rainbow said with a satisfied grin. “Alright Twi, I’ll call you once we’ve gotten through the rest. Try not to worry for an hour at least.”
Twilight sighed. “Alright, be safe. If you don’t call within two hours, I’ll get Apple Bloom to turn back time.”
“Two hours, got it.”
“Shouldn’t take that long; there’s only two more traps according to the notes,” Daring added.
“Talk to you later.” Rainbow said and ended the call. She smirked and looked up at Daring. “She is definitely going to get more and more worried for every minute we don’t call.”
“Well let’s get to it then.” Daring said turning and heading deeper into the darkness of the prison. “We shouldn’t make the princess worry longer than we have to.”