//------------------------------//
// Book Two: Chapter Two 
// Story: Wishing Well 
// by Nobrains 
//------------------------------//


Book Two: Chapter Two


With a yelp, a frightened steward of the Canterlot castle tumbled out of the wardrobe, sobbing for mercy. You both gave the poor mare a strange look as she groveled on the ground for several moments before actually taking the time to look at the ones that had freed her from her prison.

“D-don't hurt me...” She was looking at you in horror, not even paying attention to Twilight. She was likely dead afraid of anything that didn't look like a pony.

“We're not going to hurt you.” Twilight said in a soothing tone, gently levitating her onto her hooves. She soon noticed that it was only you she was concerned about. “He's harmless enough.”

“T-thank you.” She was shivering something fierce, and you weren't sure how to soothe anyone going through such emotional trauma; you hoped more words of comfort would sustain for now.

“No one's going to hurt you now, we promise.” You nodded at her, making sure you had her attention when saying this.

“I don't want to be taken away...” She gasped out, finally falling back onto the ground on her side.

“Taken away?” You and Twilight looked at each other, wondering what she could have been talking about. “Who was taken away?”

“All of them... every single one. Gone.” That didn't sound good.

“Where did they take them?” Twilight inquired, eager to finally get on the right track.

“Nowhere...” She moaned out, like she was in complete agony. This wasn't getting you anywhere.

“If they were taken away, they had to be taken to some place, not nowhere.” You pointed out to the shaken steward. She didn't seem to hear, however; she was lost in her own world.

“Nowhere, that's all they told when they were asked. That's it... that's all...”

“Well, that could be anywhere...” You sighed. “They didn't say anything else at all?”

“They talked of distant mountains, but only to themselves, and never regarding those taken.” She was beginning to regain composure after the stressful extraction you had made.

You remembered mountains when seeing through the eyes of the hellspawn; they had apparently hidden out somewhere in there, out of the way. You imagined caves full of them, waiting with bloodlust. What if some were still there? They'd be fools to send all of their force to Canterlot at once.

“So there's two possible things that could have happened.” Twilight stated, watching the pitiful pony on the ground. “They've been taken to some other place in the castle, although we have no idea where, or they've been taken to somewhere in the countryside.” She did not sound happy at all, if anything she sounded as if another weight had been added to her burdens. You wanted to help lift that away, but you could only provide so much comfort for a troubled unicorn, hungry for answers as to a sibling's whereabouts.

“Well then.” You began, not particularly sure what you were getting at. “What do we do? Do we stick around here? Do we go off and search the mountains, hoping to find them there?”

“I know it's not that simple. She doesn't even know what she's saying. Maybe we'd be better off trying to ask her again at a later time.” The unicorn was determined to get a definite and absolute answer from this steward, even though she was most likely lost in the doldrums of her mind.

“We should keep looking around then. Do we bring her along with us?”

“We have no choice. She might wander off if we just leave her here. We'll need to take her back down to the city after this is done anyways.”

You nodded and tried to coax the mare up onto her hooves again. You were eventually forced to pull her up, but Twilight took care of that with her magic, making every sort of excuse on why you shouldn't come into contact with the other mare.

Of course, you shrugged and instantly recognized it for the heavy possessive nature that came with the relationship. As much as you weren't concerned with anyone else, Twilight couldn't help but ensure that you weren't going to make contact with any entity she did not approve of. Apparently, this counted as one of them.

You all left the storage room quietly, though you didn't know why, but it felt like a time you would want to be quiet. That wasn't made easy by the fact that the steward was whimpering the whole time she was being shepherded around.

And so the search continued, both of you desperate to find anything that hinted at the past events that had occurred within this castle. You were covered in cobwebs with a dissatisfied look on your face when you returned to the two mares who were situated next to a small outcropping of the hall, where more furniture laid where one could rest their weary bodies.

Twilight giggled slightly at the sight of you and you opened your mouth to say something, but began gagging as one of the cobwebs entered your mouth. There were few grosser things that one could in their life than what you had just done. Now more than ever, you wanted to have anything to take the unsavory taste away.

The steward seemed to be recovering at a steady pace, not laughing at your misfortune but looking around thoughtfully, as if everything was coming back to her. With each memory, however, it seemed like she was growing more and more grim than cheery.

Twilight led the way down several halls, a severe draft suddenly cause chills throughout all your bodies, making you remember the broken windows, but this was much worse. You wondered where it came from, but weren't too eager to find out. Lucky for you, Twilight had enough eagerness for the both of you.

The longest hallway in the wing so far led to a lone balcony, the glass doors before it thrown open and broken. Twilight cautiously stepped outside into the light, shielding her eyes momentarily. She beckoned for you and the steward to join her.

What you found wasn't a pretty sight. What was a balcony was just a lone platform jutting out of the castle now, the safety rail bent too far down or broken off to protect anyone from falling. You sure hoped no one ever had to jump from here. The lake was below, but even that was stretching anyone's chances of survival that weren't pegasi.

Your tag-along suddenly began to lapse back into her past state, something about the area made her uneasy. You wanted to take her away now, but were shrugged off, she looked around frantically, speaking hoarsely.

“Nowhere... nowhere.. this is nowhere... everywhere... everywhere... but its nowhere... that's what they told them...”

“I-what?” You weren't getting the gist of anything she was getting at. This was nowhere? How could this be the place she had spoken of? Unless...

You got as close as you could to the edge of the balcony, and with a gulp you looked over the edge, the realization hitting you like a bat. Oh god, you hoped she was wrong about this whole thing.

Twilight had watched you perform the act, a look of perplexity until she locked eyes with your troubled and strange gaze. “Oh no...” She trotted over to the edge herself and looked over. “Oh no... that can't be it... they couldn't have...” You pulled her back, making sure there was no chance she could fall forward... to her death.

“How could they? Why? Why would they?” She began asking these questions to no one in particularly. She wasn't expecting an answer anyways. “We... we need to get down there.”

“How?”

“I'm sure.. there's some spell I can use to soften our descent.” Despite that, she didn't look all that very sure.

“Did I ever tell you I don't like heights?” You grumbled.

She ignored you, racking her brain for a spell that would aid you both in your current plight. You hoped she didn't find one, you'd rather take the long way down than doing something skeptical; you were tired of always going out on a whim.

“Well, I got something.” She finally declared.

“Oh, great.” You said unhappily. “What about her?” You gestured towards the panicking tag along you both had, who was whispering nothings into the ground in the matter you had both become familiar with.

She sucked in a breath and looked at her. “I don't know. We should get her back but-” She looked back at edge of the balcony, worryingly. “-I can't just wait anymore.”

“I could.. take her back, if you want.” You suggested, trying to look as innocent as possible.

She nearly looked like she had just been stabbed, her eyes giving a faint shimmer of a pain of separation. “You can, I mean... if you want to.”

“I don't, but what other choice do we have? You want to go down there, and we can't just have some-” The sound of something hard cracking suddenly overtook your voice. Oh, shit.

You felt the small amount of foundation under you begin to shake violently. You quickly grabbed Twilight and pulled her to the ground, instantly cursing yourself for not helping the steward as well, but when you did make the effort to go get her, you were already falling.

The balcony broke apart from the castle, smaller pieces falling apart and eventually whizzing by you all upwards as you were falling at a faster pace. Your bodies eventually left the ground of the platform to lightly levitate above it.

You were panicking, knowing that hovering above this solid ground would spell your deaths if you hit the lake with it right below you. Twilight was already thinking ahead, but not in the way you thought she would.

Instead of some sort of barrier forming around you, like you were anticipating after noticing her horn glowing, she simply fired off a jolt of magic, slightly pushing you back and modifying your trajectory, sending you both away from the balcony. You could see the waters again rushing towards you both and you called out for Twilight to do something about the steward as well, but it was too late.

You were nearly upon the water, trying your best to narrow yourself inwards, but that wasn't too easy with a unicorn in your arms. You held your one arm forward trying to bring your legs behind you from top to bottom. You knew this wasn't going to work, you knew that you were dead. Hitting water like this was like hitting a cemented ground.

The balcony crashed into the lake, sending a huge shock wave all throughout the waters, huge waves coming from the epicenter of the impact. You and Twilight fell into one of the occurring waves, the impact being reduced greatly as you were both trying to stay above the water, but it was hard when you were being forced under and carried to shore.

You wanted to scream as the distorted image of a clearing above grew before your eyes. The wave you were both in was so large, you were going to smash down upon it. This wasn't going to end well.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

You crashed down upon it, you felt your body being crushed down by the wave that had slammed you there for what felt like the longest moment of your life before you eventually dragged a bit back, the wave receding and letting go of you.

No way you were going to fall unconscious again, you were tired of it all. You swore to yourself as you slowly got off the ground and onto your knees, looking around. You could see the lake to your side still churning from the impact, but the waves had lessened dramatically already, so there was little fear for a wave to come and try to snatch you back into its grips.

Part of the balcony could be seen breaking gently from the line of water that was the base of the lake. It was momentarily obscured and then visible once again as the waters shifted about above it. You felt like you really should have died that last time; what was it with you and surviving this kind of shit?

Twilight was laying a few feet ahead of you, unmoving. You quickly threw yourself up and scurried over to her, falling right before you reached her. You crawled to her side, wondering what you were suppose to do. She just looked like she was sleeping, but you knew better.

She wasn't breathing and you panicked at first looking around for someone that wasn't there. You were going to have to do this on your own. You put your hands on her chest, the feeling of going over any boundary rendered null by the severity of the situation.

You pushed lightly again and again, hoping she would cough up anything. No luck so far. What else was there? You suddenly remembered all those dumb CPR stuff you saw in movies and other sources of entertainment for you. You didn't know how to really, but there wasn't much choice at this point.

You leaned over Twilight's unmoving body, still unsure about it all. You pushed lightly onto her back, holding her there, her limbs drooping in front of her, making it hard for you to maneuver yourself into a good position. You tried several more chest compressions to be sure this would be really necessary.

To your dread, it was. You gave a nervous sigh and hovered your face above hers. You inhaled deeply as you closed in, wishing this wasn't happening right now while you were alone. You lowered your lips onto hers and breathed, trying to force anything out of her lungs.

It was actually very different from a kiss and you weren't thinking too much about it as you got into the motions. Only the feeling of anxiety bothered you as you did several chest compressions again before returning to her lips. You were looking for any sort of sign... anything that would show you that she was still...

She hacked up a lungful of water all over you, nearly causing you to retract and fall back, disgusted. Her chest rose and fell, and she moaned, shaking her head.

“Where...? Help... help.. I need you..”

You came back to her, telling her you were there for her. She smiled at the sound of your voice, rolling onto her side and shaking her head slightly. “I knew you'd keep me okay.”

“I didn't.” You replied honestly, putting a gentle hand on her side.

“Well let me believe, at least.” She joked. It was the best thing you could have done at the moment, but Twilight wasn't looking at the same sight you were.

You saw the steward you both had rescued. She laid near the mouth of the lake, below the clearing you and Twilight were situated on. She had taken the impact of the fall, and you knew she was no longer with you. She looked... broken, and you eventually turned away, sick.

Twilight sensed your uneasiness, eventually opening her eyes. “Is everything... okay?”

“No.” You said, harrowed. “It's not.”

She looked behind her, trying to see just what had shaken you. When she finally did, she reacted the same as you had. She began to cry softly, the shock what had happened finally getting to her.

“We... it could have been...”

Dammit. You weren't ready for this. You weren't ready for any of this to happen. You pulled Twilight into your arms and alleviated her the best you could, whispering sweet words to her in an attempt to dull the pain. You weren't sure it was working, though.

“She's gone... my brother's gone.. even Celestia... they're all gone...”

“I'm here... I'm here..” You reminded her, softly sedating her. “I'm still here for you...”

“But for how long? How long before I lose you, too?! How long before I lose everything I care about!” She began to rise and break from your grip, leaving you aggrieved.

“Twilight, I'm not going anywhere...”

“You can't promise me something you have no power over!” She slumped and began to shuffle off, down the clearing at the mouth of the lake.

“W-wait!” You called out, rushing after her. When you did catch up to her, all the words in your mouth were too jumbled to say anything, and you sulked alongside Twilight as you came up to the steward.

You knew it was customary to give her at least some sort of burial, but it wasn't like you had some a shovel or anything of the like on your person, and Twilight admitted after a few moments of silent contemplation that she had no spells that could really alter the earth at such a dramatic level.

Luckily, muddy earth was not in short supply, and you were able to build a sort of mound to cover the poor thing. It was better than nothing and the mound sat upon the clearing you both had washed up on. You sighed and went back down to the lake to wash your hands, Twilight staying up on the clearing, remaining silent.

As you knelt down and dipped your hands into the once again peaceful waters, the balcony a blemish upon the lake's surface still sitting about ahead. A gleam caught in the corner of your eye as you stood up to return to the turmoil that was your current situation. You followed the corner of your eye, afraid that if you looked directly at it, it would disappear in your principal vision.

When you were close enough, you finally turned your gaze to it and found a piece of a chest plate jutting out of the mud. You pulled it out and examined it, the look of a magenta colored star was adorned in the center spot, not all too different from Twilight's cutie mark. You pulled your gaze from it just for a second to find several half indented hoofprints leading from the muddy ground and eventually ending altogether and suddenly.

You knew this had belonged to Shining Armor, but why would his prints end so suddenly? Unless... the other princess... Cadence. That was right! They couldn't force anyone with wings to their deaths! She must have saved Shining Armor, but from the looks of the hoofprints, he was staggering until she met up with him. Not all too surprising, with the way the balcony was breaking the surface, it didn't seem that deep, which meant that there was a fairly big chance that anyone falling in could have hit the lake bed or the rocks that were surely lining it. You had to get this to Twilight.

You carried the chest plate up, shouting out the unicorn's name. She lightened up when she saw you, and even more when she saw what was in your hands. As you closed in upon, her, she snatched the plate from your hands with her magic and looked it over, finally putting it down to the ground with a skeptical look upon her face.

“Where did you find this?”

“Over by the mouth of the lake in the mud. There was hoofprints leading from it, and then they just stopped like he was carried off by-”

“Cadence.” She stated. “Can you show me where exactly you found it?”

You led her to the place you remembered pulling it out, the indent in the ground still there along with the prints. She followed them up like you had, and finally ceased the investigation when they ended abruptly.

For the first time since she had recovered, she seemed optimistic. “You know what this means, don't you?”

“Maybe, but I'd still like to hear your take on it.” You said cleverly.

“It means, they're still out there! That Cadence must have taken him to someplace safe! There's still a chance! We need to start heading in this direction right now!” She pointed towards the way the hoofprints had ended at.

“What about the others?” You asked, worried.

“They'll be fine. It's best that they don't know.” She was already starting to head off, exiting the muddied grounds that was the mouth of the lake.

“They can help us thou-”

“They would just slow us down.” She said firmly, not stopping and forcing you to catch up to her. “All I need is you. All I'll ever need is you.”

“But what about... Spike?”

She faltered, your words seeming to have gotten to her. “He's fine, like you said.” She seemed much more distant now.

“It's been a long time since then.”

“I know, but he's smart enough to handle himself.”

“He's probably scared and worried.” You thought you were finally getting to her. To stop this before it got out of hand, before you both ended up doing something you'd regret.

“Please... stop.” She whispered after a moment.

“Stop... what?”

“Stop trying to make me feel bad!” She shouted angrily, hurt eyes sparkling with the hint of tears again.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...” You put a hand up defensively.

It was at that instant that she realized what she had done. “No, no, no, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have acted like that... you just want me... to be safe.”

“Yes, exactly.” You were rolling with it as best as you could.

“I'm sorry, but... I can't, I need to do this, and I want you with me on this. Not anypony else, just you.” She seemed satisfied with her explanation, and smiled encouragingly to you, waiting for your answer.

Damn. You had been so close, but you weren't going to walk away from her. You knew wherever she went, you would tag along, you both knew that in the bottom of your hands. The chains of love were as binding as they were choking. You had no choice anymore.

“I'll be with you.” You smiled. You smiled a forced smile, a smile that covered a world of worry. She was throwing everything else away besides you to go after her brother, not even worried about any of the other ponies that might have been lost.

She softly pulled you towards her magically, your feet catching on the grass every second, whispering how happy she was with your choice and brushing up against you lightly. You returned her affection with a hug and continued to use your mask of a smile.

The smile did not break until you were off again, in the direction Twilight suspected Shining and Cadence had went off in. You were her shield against all of this, all the pain in this world, but how long until you would buckle under all the weight?