Chapter Seventeen
Up close, the darkness that surrounded Canterlot was rather petty compared to the sight you had seen from Ponyville. The walk up the rest of the mountain's train tracks had been rather helpful in building up your composure again. Of course it didn't help that Twilight had been pushing you on with inspiring and kind words.
Now that you were standing right before the swirling darkness that surrounded the city, you weren't particularly sure as to how you were going to get in, seeing as you weren't sure what would happen if any of you came in contact with the substance and you weren't planning on taking any chances with it. Except for Pinkie, who required supervision after already attempting to hop right into the stuff just to see what it was like.
“So, Twilight,” Applejack began, “any idea on how we're going to get past this here uhh-”
“One second, Applejack.” Twilight was studying the strange thing, mulling over ways to breach through it in her mind. Her eyes lit up and she turned to all of you looking quite confident in what she had to say. “Maybe a barrier spell would protect us while walking through?”
“How thick is this thing, exactly?” Applejack asked, looking the strange darkness up and down.
“It has to be hollow. Otherwise, why would this darkness still be lingering here?”
“I'll take your word for it, sugarcube.” Applejack huffed. “If y’all are up for it, we can try.”
“Of course, we're up for it.” Rainbow Dash stated. “We wouldn't all be here otherwise.”
You felt a magical tug on your hand, and your focus was back on Twilight. She seemed a bit concerned with something, but you weren't entirely sure what that could mean at this point during your campaign against these hellish creatures.
“You trust me on this, right?” She seemed quite concerned with your opinion on this. But why? She knew you did, but she must have been wanting to just hear you say it.
“Uh.. of course.” You returned. What a silly question to ask in a time like this.
“Okay.” She smiled and began to signal for everyone's attention. “I think we're going to take our chances with the barrier spell. It's nothing too hard to handle; I've read up on reflective and protective spells in both of my two advanced-”
“Twilight, you're doing it again.” Rainbow reminded her.
“Oh... yeah. Sorry.” She shook her head and gave the darkness one more look down before nodding and turning to you all again. “I need everypony near me before I attempt this spell.”
“This isn't going to hurt is it...?” Fluttershy asked while edging closer to you all.
Twilight frowned, irritated. “The purpose of this spell is to keep us from getting hurt. You won't feel a thing. I promise.”
“I...I.. okay...” She squeaked out.
Soon you were all around Twilight (she made sure to keep you closer than any of the others) and you swallowed nervously as you waited for her to begin the incantation.
“Come on! We need to get in there!” Rainbow shouted impatiently.
“Stop! I need to concentrate!” Twilight shouted.
“Alright fine... but hurry up..”
Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. You were just waiting to get this over with. At the same time, though, you just wanted to take a 180 and run down the mountain and as far as you could, but those thoughts meant little now, you had practically promised yourself and Twilight you would see this through already and you weren't about to abandon them all.
A bubble formed around you all, distorting the world around you as if you were looking from it all underwater. It sight was almost enthralling and you nearly didn't hear the others that were within the barrier with you.
“You aren't daydreaming are ya, partner?” Applejack called playfully.
“Oh! No, sorry.” You quickly recovered and were brought back into reality.
“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked roughly. “I'm not sure how much strain its going to put on me when I go through the darkness.”
You all nodded in understanding and confirmation. This was going to have to work. You weren't sure what would happen to all of you if it didn't.
Twilight began to step towards the swirling darkness, you all joining her in motion or risk falling outside of her protection. You almost wanted to close your eyes as you got closer and closer to the unnatural substance, but that would only cause you to trip up and risk everyone's life.
“Get ready!” Applejack called out as Twilight's barrier made contact with the darkness. You could already feel the amount of pressure straining upon both the barrier and Twilight as you saw the distortion get worse and worse.
Twilight gritted her teeth and kept forward, looking as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her back. You wanted to help take the load off her back in any way you could, but it wasn't possible. You were just a human with nothing to your name at all anymore.
There was times you thought that the barrier was going to break and you were all going to overrun with the weight of the darkness upon you all, but that moment never came, even when the barrier began to flex and bend under the weight of it all.
“Almost there, Twi!” Applejack announced. “Just a bit further!”
You could almost feel the tension in the air as you closed through to the end of the darkness. You could finally see the outlines of Canterlot's walls through the substance, and eventually the textures that followed them.
You looked at Twilight and noticed something that made your heart almost stop. She was fighting just to stay conscious at this point, her steps becoming shorter and shorter. Urgency began to run through your entire body and suddenly instinct took over.
“Move to the front everyone!” You called out.
“What? Why?” Rainbow asked until she looked at Twilight. Then they all followed your order quickly.
You hoped that this wouldn't get you killed, but it had to be done. You quickly picked up Twilight and ran forward as fast as you could, praying that she wouldn't lose her concentration from your sudden move.
Luckily, it didn't seem like she really noticed and you dove forward along with the others. The shield surrounding you all finally receded and you were all relieved to find that you had crossed the darkness.
You stood up, gently pulling Twilight up with you, who didn't seem to be all with you just yet.
You were before the drawbridge. The waters that ran under it were as dark as the void itself and you couldn't help but feel like everywhere around you was dead in some way. All this happened so quickly... it seemed impossible, but here you were, staring right into it.
“How... bland.” Rarity stated, walking over to the waters and turning her head away in disgust.
“Needs more sunshine and less dark stuff...” Pinkie tapped her cheek thoughtfully as she watched Rarity continue to reject the sights before her.
Twilight had recovered and thanked you heartily before directing both of you to the point of the group once more. Everyone noticed this and returned to following your lead.
“It seems like nopony had time to pull the drawbridge back up before this all started.. Everypony be careful when we enter the city, there's no idea what could be in those walls.” Twilight's face was shadowing the very caution she commanded.
Rainbow didn't seem too happy about being forced to remain grounded during the incursion. You guessed it was like a bird having its wings clipped, but she couldn't risk herself on the possibility of accidentally making contact with the darkness around Canterlot. For now, she was stuck with the rest of you.
It was a surprise that Fluttershy was still with you all at this point, but for that, you were all grateful. You couldn't help but feel a bit of admiration for pushing herself this far through such dark obstacles.
You began to cross the drawbridge, you couldn't help but feel like you actually walking through a horror game or something like it. Everything just seemed so... unnatural from what you had seen previously of Canterlot. You knew that it shouldn't be like this, that it shouldn't be so.. admonishing.
You all took one step inside Canterlot and were suddenly met by a series of spears and halberds. It all happened so quick that you almost cried out until you noticed who was commanding the weapons.
From out of the alleys of the street, royal guards clad in armor stepped out with relieved looks on their faces. Some kept their eye on you but turned to focus primarily on Twilight.
“What is all this?” She asked, looking around at all the guards that seemed to come out of nowhere.
One guard stepped in front of the others, his look showing clear age and experience above the majority of the others. “We've been holding out here, those... creatures have been wrecking havoc in the castle and on the rooftops.”
“How have you managed to stay hidden?” Twilight asked in bewilderment.
“Easy when you stick to the minor alleys and not linger around on the streets like right now.” The pony began to gesture everyone back to their previous positions out of sight. “Rather than tell you, why don't we use one to keep our hides still on us, huh?”
You followed the seasoned stallion into one of the alleyways, the other soldiers gesturing their salute to Twilight and her companions. You could tell some weren't happy with your presence here, but others nodded towards your direction, showing their acceptance.
The stallion stopped and leaned against the side of a building, sighing and levitating his helmet off of his head with his horn, revealing a long gray mane. He gave you all a glance and sighed deeply.
“So why, in Celestia's name, are you all here?”
“You should know me, I'm Celestia's-”
“I know you. Who doesn't?” The captain grumbled and waved a dismissing hoof. “You shouldn't have come here. There's nothing left but pain and suffering out in the open.”
“Because, we need to get to the elements of harmony and end all of this.” Twilight said duteously.
The captain laughed. “Yeah, sure. The castle's been barred shut by those things. Anypony that was inside there that isn't one of the princesses is a goner, that's for sure.”
Twilight frowned. “Is this all that's left in this city?”
“Yeah. The majority of our forces were sent to the borders to deal with this threat, but they were right in the heart of Equestria by then. Too little, too late.” The captain suddenly flung his helmet further down the alley in a fit of anger.
“We can still do this!” Twilight assured him.
“Yeah, because the elements of harmony are going to save us from some murderous creatures.” The captain huffed and slammed a hoof into the wall. “This isn't like the childish junk of the past. The evil here is more potent than any of you could imagine.”
Fluttershy gulped and looked around nervously, not taking the captain's words very well. Fortunately, Rainbow was there to keep her in check at the moment and you kept your focus on the guard captain that was having a mental breakdown.
“There's just nothing we can do... nothing.”
“Don't say that! There's always a-”
“You don't get it! Shining Armor was in the castle when this all went down! We have no higher command then my word right now! We're stretched thin and our full force isn't even present to aid us in going on the offensive! We're out of luck! We're through!” The captain threw his head back in defeat, hope draining from him.
“Wh-what?” Twilight asked, her eyes beginning to dim ever so slightly.
“You heard me! He's stuck in Canterlot castle! There's nothing we can do...”
“Forget him then!” Rainbow called out. “If he wants to give up then go ahead, you wuss!”
The captain's eyes flickered with heat for an instant, and he suddenly shot up and push right by you all to get to the pegasus that had insulted him. “Don't talk like you could handle them any better than a trained soldier could, pegasus. You'll soon find that your life isn't all that hard to snuff out when you go around saying stuff like that.”
“Oh is that so? You'd rather sit and wallow instead of getting anything done around here.” Rainbow was right up in his face now as well. Both staring each other down with venom and spite.
“Whoa, there.” Applejack suddenly stepped in between the two, breaking the tension slightly. “What good is fighting against ourselves gonna do? That's probably what they're wantin'.”
“Applejack's right.” Twilight said, stepping over to her side. “Instead of this bickering, we should be focusing on devising a plan to get into Canterlot castle.”
The captain finally broke his gaze from Rainbow and nodded his head roughly. “Alright. I get it.”
Twilight smiled in triumph at the captain's change in heart, but her face soon returned to one of determination and cold resolve. “If what he says about the streets is true, then we're going to need a plan to get anywhere close to the castle. Does anypony have any ideas?”
Everyone present just looked at each other with blank looks, obviously nothing of a tactical nature forming in their minds. A thought suddenly popped into your mind and the words were already leaving your lips before you could even help it.
“What if we cut through buildings to keep hidden from those things?” You suggested.
Twilight began to smile as she heard the sound of your voice, and her smile only grew larger as she began to take a liking to your idea. “That's actually quite ingenious.”
“I could have thought of that...” The captain griped.
“Well then why didn't you?” Rainbow called out.
The captain gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Keep calm, Static Ward, don't let words bother you...” He muttered to himself.
“Anypony have a better idea then?” Twilight asked after a moment.
No answer came, and the ponies all shifted nervously except for Pinkie Pie, who was busy bothering the other guards in the alley.
“Well, alright then.” She turned to the captain, Static. “You and your men will be assisting us, right?”
“Yes.” He grunted out.
The guards all shook their heads at the news.
“Oh, suck it up you big babies! Get your asses in order so that we can make this thing possible!” He turned back to Twilight, his face growing grimmer. “We're here to help you, I just pray that we don't end up dying for you either.”
She nodded meaningfully. “I won’t squander your trust; I promise.”
“See that you don't. I'll meet you ponies and the...”
“Human.” You chimed in.
“Yeah.... the human... We'll meet you at the end of the alley. Be ready.”
“We will.” Twilight promised.
After that little encounter, you all headed towards the end of the alley in question. You were looking out onto the streets nervously with Twilight when Static and his men rejoined you.
“Alright.” Static said with authority and now with his helmet back on. “Me and my stallions here will take point, but you all keep behind us. We're looking for any door that can take us inside a building. As clever as the human's plan is, yeah right, there's going to be times when we're still out in the open moving from house to house.”
He and his men went by you all and stuck to the sides of the street, motioning for your group to follow after him. You followed and took turns pushing open doors along the streets to see if any were open.
There didn't seem to be any open and you went back down the street again just to check once more. Everyone's eyes were darting upwards in fear that the hellspawns would pounce down upon one of you.
After a long moment of searching again, you were met with the same result. Some of the guards with him suggested that a retreat back to the alleyways was in order. Static dismissed that thought and came up to the door of a rather regal looking home.
“I don't have time for this...” He charged right into the home's front door, knocking it in. You all looked in to see the captain looking around angrily as a mare that was hiding within her home was screaming.
“Shut up! You're going to get us all killed if you keep that up!” Static hissed at her.
She ran up the stairs in her home to the upper floors, not to be seen again. “Some ponies...” The captain muttered as he looked around the innards of the upscale home. “Looks like there's a way out back. You coming, or you going to just wait out there until you get killed?”
The guards quickly hurried in and you scurried in yourself, followed by the mares. You had never seen the inside of a house in Canterlot before. It was quite remarkable for the most part compared to your own home back on earth or anything in Ponyville.
The sheer amount of unused space within the home was astounding, and you were sure that it could have made a good use if it had been used by a more sentimental individual, but alas, the rich were the rich, and the rest were... well, not so endowed.
The captain opened the back door and smiled triumphantly. “Looks like a smaller street to the back of this set of homes. We just need to cross the street and go through another row of homes until we close in on the castle.”
Some guards sighed in relief, thinking that they were in the clear now if they stuck to the this low profile approach. Static kept his gaze on the outside while the guards shuffled by him to get back out of the home.
A scratching sound could be heard from upstairs now, stopping you and the mares from following the guards out of the home.
Static's ears perked at that and his eyes grew narrow. “It seems we've been discovered.”
“Oh, you couldn't be more right.” A devilish voice called down from up the stairs.