//------------------------------// // Book 3 - Chapter XXXVIII // Story: The Sunset Trilogy // by ocalhoun //------------------------------// Book 3: Equestria Abides Chapter 4 “Are you coming?” Twilight asked, turning back to Sunny Daze. The ponies of Apollo's crew were almost finished unpacking already, thanks to a little magical help from Twilight, though most of it was still scattered haphazardly around the main entrance hall. She had found it strangely difficult to manage unloading the wagon... it would normally be trivial to her magical skill. She just put it down to distraction. The entrance hall was a wonderful thing, long and broad, and with a high vaulted ceiling. Doors to other rooms branched off either side, with the bigger main doors to the stairwell all the way at the other end. The whole place was decorated with the most amazing – and historically important! – carvings in the stone on the side, and Twilight had already taken an opportunity to appreciate the delicately carved wood of the stairwell door, decorated with a larger-than-life griffon, and carved so well that the details of every feather could be picked out. Sunny still hadn't answered... where had she gotten to? “Sunny! Apollo and I are going to go explore the castle, are you coming?” “No,” Sunny replied, simply. Twilight shook her head. What was up with that little filly now? She had been looking forward to this for days, and now she didn't want to go. Apollo was already walking toward the big stairwell doors at the end of the hall, and he looked back at her, waving a hoof. Shrugging off the perplexities of the capricious little filly, Twilight trotted away to catch up with Apollo. * * * “Look at those two,” Albatross grumbled, “running off to explore and leaving us to do all the work.” Shimmer Spell put down the box she had been levitating. “What, just like a certain somepony used to do?” “Hey, I was Apollo's number one assistant! We were off doing important stuff!” She came over and nuzzled up against her special somepony. “Shimmer sees what's wrong.” “You do?” Albatross asked. Shimmer Spell giggled. “Indeed. You're jealous.” “Jealous!?” Albatross recoiled. “I'm not, I'm...” Shimmer shut him up with a hoof placed lightly over his mouth. “You said it yourself... you said you were his number one assistant... like you're not anymore.” “I'm his best friend!” he insisted, “We did everything together... and now this mare's come along and–” “Oh, silly, you don't see it do you?” Shimmer laughed, “Well don't worry about it then, and just look at the bright side, Albie.” “Oh, and what's that?” He sat, seething. “You get to spend more time with Shimmer Spell!” She said, surprising him with a quick kiss and a long hug. * * * “So,” Apollo said, standing at the beginning of the broad, curving stairwell, “Down or up?” Twilight Sparkle unfurled her checklist, examining it. “Item one, water supply.” She rolled it back up, putting it away again. Apollo looked at her a little confusedly. Where had she gotten that checklist from? Where had she put it? He shook his head... unicorns. “Well, alright then,” he said with a little shiver. Despite his long experience with caves and dungeons and all manner of places, he still felt a pegasus's instinctual fear of enclosed places... especially dark underground enclosed places. Just unnatural. With practiced ease though, he shoved the feeling aside and began his way down. Despite his aversion to being underground, Apollo found himself a little excited. The stairway spiraled down through half a circle, ending quickly as it opened up into the fortress's basement. He could hardly see anything ahead, until a pale violet light sprang up from next to him, illuminating a wide circle around. A cool, dim and narrow corridor was revealed in the light, and he had to admit, purple wasn't exactly the most flattering color for the already dark place. He began walking confidently ahead, but the corridor became darker as he went along. He turned around, to see Twilight Sparkle still hesitating at the entrance. “Trust me?” He said, holding out a hoof. Twilight blinked for a moment, seemingly startled by his question. “Oh, ah, right...” She walked down next to him. “Don't worry,” He said, “There shouldn't be anything down here.” He gestured towards the first of many side-doors in the long corridor. “Let's get started looking for that water.” * * * “You're sure there's supposed to be a well in here?” Apollo asked. Twilight sighed. They had been wandering through the basement for over an hour now, and still no sign of the well... Just lots of empty storerooms, one after another. “Albatross said there should be... and from what I remember of the history books there should be.” She opened another door, peeking inside to find yet another empty room, except for a couple equally empty, half-rotten crates. “And the history books agree. From what I remember, this fortress only survived the siege of Stormcloud because they had their own internal water supply... but where is it?” The two ponies had worked their way to the far corner of the basement by now. “Who knows?” Apollo sighed. “This is the last room we haven't been to. The well should be obvious! How could we have missed it?” Twilight looked over at him dejectedly. She was sure there should be one in here somewhere... She couldn't see part of the room because of a massive round pillar in the middle, so she walked around it, shining her light as she went. ... Still nothing. She sat back leaning against the cool pillar, defeated. Apollo came over, joining her in sitting against the pillar. “Was it outside in the courtyard maybe?” he asked. Twilight shook her head and stood up. This didn't make any sense; it should have been right here! She began to pace, as was her habit when something was bothering her, but was stopped short by a tug on her tail. “Apollo!” She yelped, “Let me go!” “Not me,” he said, rising up, “Look.” She did, turning around... to see her tail caught on some kind of valve sticking out of the pillar near the floor. She brooded in annoyance for a moment before it hit her... With a little burst of magic, she freed her tail from the valve and dropped down to inspect it. “You thinking what I'm thinking?” Apollo prompted. Twilight only grinned, and went at the valve's handle with her magic. It was difficult to turn, very rusty, and Twilight felt a twinge of headache as she strained to turn it... Why was it so difficult? It shouldn't have been that hard... With a groan, the valve opened, releasing a violent spray of water. Quickly closing it, she beamed back at Apollo. “Found it!” “This is amazing!” He said. “They built the well up higher to get water to the upper floors!” “Let's find out how high it goes!” Twilight said in excitement, “Ready?” “Of course!” Apollo replied, already turning back towards the stairwell. With a flash of light, the two ponies vanished. They reappeared on the very top deck of the fortress, large scorch marks around them. Apollo staggered around dizzily for a moment, tips of his hair and feathers smoking. “Whoa... warn me next time, okay?” Twilight didn't seem to be doing much better. She sat down, a little dazed, and winced as another pain shot through her head. She had teleported all over Equestria with Sunny... Apollo was a little bigger, sure, but not that much, and the distance was much shorter... it shouldn't have been that difficult. “Wha?” She said, still a little stunned. “But, it shouldn't have been like that... I've had practice... it should have been nice and smooth.” She covered her head with a hoof as another twinge of pain shot through. * * * Apollo looked down at the purple unicorn and shook the soot off of his fur. Maybe he had been leery of unicorn magic his whole life for good reason! “Ah... let's just take the stairs next time,” he said. Twilight looked even worse than he did though... and hadn't she supposedly teleported all over Equestria? Had it been this bad each time? He thought back, remembering her strained look as she had helped unload the wagon, something Shimmer Spell could do easily enough, and wasn't Twilight supposedly a lot more powerful than Shimmer? He shrugged. Unicorn magic had always been a bit of a mystery... Maybe Twilight was just worn out or something? Putting that aside, he looked up and around. Comforting blue skies were overhead, a nice change from the gloomy basement. A stiff wind was blowing from offshore, and as he looked out, he could see the fog beginning to clear from around Las Pegasus. The sun was just beginning to set in the north now, but with no clouds in that direction, the sky didn't change color much. The two ponies were near the corner of the building, just above where the well had been in the basement, and Apollo stepped over to the edge of the flight deck. The edge had no railing, but Apollo stepped right up to it, looking down unafraid. Being a pegasus might make him leery of basements, but it paid off now in the complete absence of any fear of heights. They were indeed very high, and he could see a few ponies moving around in the courtyard far below, barely recognizable at this distance, but he knew they must be a few of his crew members. Good... if they were wandering around the courtyard they must be finished unpacking already. He looked over at Twilight, who was just now beginning to take stock of her surroundings... that teleport must have really put a strain on her. She was staring up at the two towers rising from the deck. These were the famous 'gates' that gave the castle it's name. Apollo was on the 'pony side' of the deck right now. Half way to the other side, the deck was divided in two, with fences, gates, and what looked to be ticket booths forming a line across the middle. This must have been where griffons and ponies lined up to process through the border, he supposed. At the end of the dividing line on either side, towers rose up above the deck, still bristling with sharp protrusions and empty holes for anti-air weapons... a reminder of this castle's original purpose of defending from an aerial attack. He wondered if the harpoon launchers Twilight had mentioned at the top of the two towers were still around somewhere... They might come in handy sometime, he thought grimly. “Pretty amazing, huh?” Twilight said from behind him as he stared up at the towers. “Heh, yeah. How'd they ever manage to build so high without using clouds?” “Magic, of course,” Twilight said with a wink. “But I don't see the well anywhere up here. Guess they didn't bring it up this high... Next level down?” “Yes, but not by teleport!” He insisted. “Let's just take the stairs.” He trotted off towards one of the towers, Twilight following. They were the only protrusions on the roof... they must be the stairwells down. * * * “I really can't believe it,” Twilight said, looking at the round pool of water in front of her. Just one level down from the top, they had found it, the very top of the well... and it was impressive. A wide circular pool of water dominated the room in front of her. Once again lit with the pale violet glow of her magic, most of the pool took on the violet tone, reflecting from the magically fused stone beneath... but one small circle in the middle remained dark, almost black... the shaft of water going all the way down to – and below – the ground... from way up here! “This place really is amazing,” Apollo agreed, running a hoof along the many water pipes branching off from the cistern. “This might be the last place in Equestria that still has working running water!” “Okay,” Twilight said, “So we found the well... and the day's almost over... should we go back down?” Apollo looked over at her, “Sure... but...” Twilight's horn began to glow, but she stopped as she felt a hoof on her nose. “No, no teleporting until you figure out what's wrong with your magic, okay?” “Wrong!?!” Twilight said suddenly defensive, “Who said there's anything wrong? I can do just fine if I can...” She stopped, seeing the way Apollo was looking at her, and gave a sigh. “Okay... stairs it is...” “Oh, I don't know about that... there is another shortcut...” Apollo said, suggestively. “Huh?” She was genuinely confused as to what he was getting at. He flapped his wings a couple times, and Twilight's face lit up with shock, “Oh, no... no way!” “You took me out of my comfort zone with that teleporting,” he said, drawing close, “Now it's my turn.” “Ooh, I'm going to regret this,” Twilight moaned, following him back up the stairs to the flight deck. * * *