As soon as Ditzy got the news, she took the reserved muffin to Zecora’s hut, and she even took a few extras for the other fillies and the zebra as a thank you token. The muffins were a little old, sure, but they were still good, and were much appreciated.
The next morning, the five pegasi were awake before the sun had even risen in the sky, preparing supplies that they felt would be needed on arrival to Canterlot. They prepared food to give to anypony that they found, and scavenged as many medical supplies they could find.
Rainbow Dash closed her saddlebags, and watched as the other pegasi filled any remaining space in theirs with extra supplies. She cleared her throat.
“Now remember, boring as it may be, we have to wait until we can be sure there’s no corrupted ponies around. The second they’re gone, we’re out of here.” She repeated the plan to them.
“Rainbow,” Cloudkicker looked up, “do you think we’ll be fine?” she asked.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to be there to save you if any of these ‘corrupted’ ponies turn up.” Rainbow replied, holding a hoof to her chest.
The only pony who was truly encouraged for this was Ditzy Doo. To the gray pegasus, the pony who mattered the most was alive and well protected, and she was going to help saving the world for her. Rainbow couldn’t help but envy this position.
--
The route closest to Canterlot took them past the library that had once been Twilight’s home. Rainbow hadn’t seen it yet during the days she had been awake, but she was paralyzed by the sight.
She had always heard Twilight had placed some sort of spell on the library, to prevent it burning down should Spike accidentally breathe fire. But somehow, during the events that set the town on fire, the library too had been set on fire. And it still was as they drew near.
The blaze of this fire was unlike any that she had seen before. It was contained within the walls of the library, by the very spell Twilight had set up to prevent fires, and it was as strong as if it had just begun. Deep within, books crackled and tiny bits of burning paper floated out of the fire and fell like ash to the ground.
‘But how? I thought her spells were supposed to stop this… did some unicorn turn her magic into the way it is?’ Rainbow said to herself, not noticing her backside had fallen to the ground from the despair she felt.
A crash could be heard clearly through the flames, indicating something had fallen down inside. While the fire seemed to gain more strength from this, it stayed within the spell boundaries had cast long ago on the library.
Rainbow continued to stare, wondering whether Spike could survive such heat. A few more tears freshly formed in the corners of her eyes. A hoof nudged her on her side.
“It’s ok. We have to go.” Ditzy encouraged softly. In a way, she felt even more compelled to help Dash now that her biggest worry was no more.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash stood up on her hooves again, and the group walked around the burning library, as the crackling continued and burned bits of paper continued to float out of the windows and to the ground outside.
The edge of Ponyville wasn’t much further away, and Rainbow was slightly thankful that she could stare out across the vast plains, than stare any longer at burning or ruined buildings of the town. From where she sat waiting, she could see corrupted ponies that were within thirty seconds trotting distance from the edge of Ponyville, their coats marked with the same black markings that she had seen on Lyra the day before.
These corrupted ponies walked around in a circular pattern, each one covering a small distance, they were guarding the town. Rainbow remembered back to what Lyra had told her the day before, the corrupted unicorns had set up a barrier over Ponyville. It was clear that the barrier in the air was to prevent attacks from above on those keeping guard on the ground. She kept close watch and waited for the time Lyra had said they would be gone, and they could leave freely.
Dash wondered how much longer until they’d leave as Lyra had said. If there wasn’t so many of them, she’d just fly out and kick them in the face before flying away. It felt like hours were going by.
Oddly, as if on cue, the corrupted ponies all looked up to the sky, remained like that for a minute, then for a few minutes, they sat and simply stared with their blank white eyes at Ponyville, and then simply walked away. Rainbow could only stare.
“Come on, Rainbow Dash, we can’t waste this chance!” Raindrops nudged Rainbow’s side.
“I know, but… it’s almost too easy. I was just wondering how long we’d have to wait, and they suddenly all go. Don’t tell me that isn’t odd.” Rainbow replied, still looking out across the valley.
“It doesn’t matter. Now come on, this could be our only chance!” Raindrops insisted, walking ahead.
Rainbow Dash sighed and begun to follow. It felt way too easy, but what choice did she have?
--
It had been an hour since the five pegasi had left Ponyville, and they had come to rest on the hill that led up to Canterlot. Raindrops, Ditzy, Cloudkicker and Lightning Bolt all sat in silence, eating some food supplies from their saddlebags, while Rainbow looked back across the valley to Ponyville.
Even though it was now a faint sight from the hill near Canterlot, the destruction that had occurred in Ponyville was still clear. Smoke still rose from some places where fires lingered, and the sight on the way of the pets and animals that ponies had cared for, all clearly killed by corrupted ponies, would haunt Rainbow’s mind forever.
‘If Applejack saw what they did to Winona, she’d kill the pony that did it. But then, I haven’t seen Spike. That is, if he wasn’t still in the library…’ she thought to herself, shaking her head clear of the thought of Spike burning in the Ponyville library.
Her attention now drew to her immediate surroundings. She had already seen the day before that Canterlot was in a bad state, but the severity of it hadn’t really become clear until she and the others had gotten closer. Around the hill, parts of the castle that had fallen away were scattered around, blackened by the smoke of fires that had been near before they fell.
High above, the foundations of Canterlot itself seemed to be crumbling away, almost as if it could all fall to the ground at any second. They had chosen to walk instead of fly to avoid flying into any magical death trap, so she couldn’t tell from below how bad Canterlot looked exactly.
“Ok, everypony ready? I… I don’t know what we’ll find when we get up there. It… it may be just fires, but it may be worse. If something seems wrong, tell the others, and we’ll get out of there fast.” Rainbow stated, looking at each pegasi in turn.
“What are we looking for, exactly?” Raindrops asked.
“The princesses,” Rainbow replied, “if they’re fine, we can sneak back in and see if they can undo all this. We’ll get this sorted out in no time and everything will be fixed.” Rainbow reassured her team.
Ditzy smiled and closed her eyes, thinking of her filly.
Rainbow, however, started woring about what she just said. ‘It’s wrong to promise such a thing. What if the problem Zecora mentioned was something bad happening to the princesses? What if we can’t undo all of this? I… I can’t even promise if any of us will be alive by the end of the day…’
She looked up and saw the other pegasi all seemed happy, talking to each other.
‘But I have to keep them hopeful. Who knows? Maybe everything could be ok.’
--
As Rainbow had expected, Canterlot from the path leading to it was just the same, if not worse, than its foundations looked. Smoke from fires had blackened the white walls, and the golden roofs of the castle had been exposed to temperatures so high, the gold had simply melted. While most of the buildings looked in good condition despite now being mostly black, every window had broken, roofs had fallen in, and the insides generally were filled with whatever hadn’t burned before the fires went out.
Along the way, trees had been burnt, uprooted or simply chopped down. The fountains sometimes even contained the remains of Celestia’s royal guard in their golden armour, which were now dented and stained with dirt and blood. This proved further to Rainbow that pegasi had largely been unaffected, but provided an excuse for the other pegasi travelling with her to part with what they had eaten before arriving. The five ponies were all unnerved by the sight of the bodies. Cloudkicker almost parted with the contents of her stomach. Rainbow faultered for a moment and reconsidered the plan of being at the castle.
All the way to the main doors of the castle, the sight of killed guards, ruined buildings and trees in various states of damage repeated. As the five pegasi walked near, Rainbow froze, as the doors in to the castle opened. Beyond, hundreds of corrupted earth ponies and unicorns stared back, their eyes blank.
Rainbow stood ahead of the other four, as they all stood and waited to see what would happen next. Several tense minutes passed, and no word was uttered. The fear of the moment was building, as each of them prepared to run for safety, but no hostile action seemed to be coming from the corrupted ponies beyond the door. Looking closer, Rainbow noted they seemed to be lining a path inside the castle itself.
“I… I think they’re inviting us in.” She said to the others, drawing closer.
“Do you think we can trust them?” Cloudkicker asked.
“Obviously not. But what other choice do we have right now? Besides, the windows are broken; we can escape if something goes wrong.” Rainbow answered, walking through the doors.
She didn’t see the others again. As soon as she was clear of the doors, they were slammed shut behind her, causing Rainbow Dash to once again freeze, as frantic banging of hooves against doors could be heard echoing around the entrance hall of the castle.
‘This is bad. Doors locked and corrupted ponies all around. And they have a serious issue with pegasi right now. I’ve never wished to not have wings before…’ she though frantically, looking around at the uncaring faces of the corrupted ponies.
When again, no hostile action seemed to be coming her way, Rainbow Dash dared to look around. The castle itself seemed to have seen very little fire, any that had occurred had clearly been put out as soon as it begun.
Looking ahead, she saw the corrupted ponies seemed to line the path that led directly to the throne room. When she attempted to walk past them, one of the corrupted ponies pushed her back.
There was only one way to progress. Into the throne room. She approached the doors and nervously, fearing what was inside, pushed them open and walked in. Right away, once she was clear of the doors, they slammed shut, only this time, she heard a click. They had locked her in.
The throne room, Rainbow noted, had seen no fires at all. But at the same time, the welcoming sight of Princess Celestia on her throne wasn’t present. Around the room were seven open doors, which seemed to lead to nowhere. Looking more carefully, Rainbow saw something odd in a cage beside one of the doors.
The cage held a small purple and green dragon, who was waking up after the door slam had disturbed him.
“Spike! You’re alive!” Rainbow shouted happily, running towards the cage.
“Rainbow Dash no! You have to get out of here! It’s not safe!” Spike shouted back.
“Well, well. Girls! The princesses have a guest! Let’s keep her entertained while they get ready!” Twilight spoke softly, but menacingly and coldly.
Twilight’s voice had come from one place in the room, but every part of the room at the same time, and Rainbow cowered, as if trying to hide in the big, open throne room.
It was pretty obvious to Rainbow. Twilight wasn’t coming to greet her in a happy, friendly way.
--
Author's notes; sorry for the long delay for this chapter. After efforts to get this story up on Equestria Daily (an effort which has so far failed twice but with positive responce) and my editors seemingly not looking at this chapter at all, I felt delaying part four even further for existing readers was unfair. So hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will notify in comments if changes were made.