//------------------------------// // Cadance // Story: From The Depths // by Pen Stroke //------------------------------// From The Depths By Pen Stroke Preread, Edited, and Reviewed By Illustrious Q, Batty Gloom, El Oso, Alexstrazsa, JustAnotherTimeLord, amacita, Hidden Brony ===================================================================== Chapter 3 Cadance ==================== “Read’em and weep.” Shining Armor smiled, tipping back the hat of his sheriff costume. He spread five cards on the table, an impressive full house comprised of three kings and two nines. Two of the other guards at the table groaned in defeat while the remaining three smiled in their own wisdom to fold early. While the annual Nightmare Night celebration in the castle was a time-honored tradition, another tradition was the party held in the guard barracks. The decorations were simpler, the food was a potluck buffet, and the music came from a vinyl record. It was far from cultured, but it was a tradition many of the guards wouldn’t trade for even the fanciest of castle soirees. Though he was now the prince of the Crystal Empire, Shining was still welcome amongst those that had once been his comrades in arms, even if he was winning at poker. “A prince living in a castle shouldn’t be taking money from hard-working guards like us,” one of the other ponies at the table joked as she took and began to shuffle the cards. “I can’t help it if I keep getting the good hoofs and you aren’t smart enough to fold,” he laughed before the sound of a ringing clock tower bell rose above the clamor of the party. “And it looks like I’m going to be ending tonight with a profit.” Guards around the room put away the unreasonable parts of their costumes, from props to oversized hats, and began to grab their gear. The guards at the poker table got up as well, changing out the money in the pot for what chips they had left. The one that had been dealing left the deck of cards in the center of the table as she chuckled. “Why stop now? Don’t you want to stay and try to take the afternoon shift’s bits too?” Shining shook his head, heading out the door. “No, I promised Cadance I’d come join the castle party when the guards changed shift. Thanks for the game, though. It was an enriching experience.” “That joke hasn’t gotten any funnier since last year,” one of the guards shouted at Shining as he stepped out of the barracks. The night had an invigorating chill to it, and Shining breathed it in with a smile. He then began walking the path that lead from the barracks, which were tucked away next to the exterior wall, to the castle’s main entrance. It was hard to ask for a better night for such spooky festivities. The moon was full. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky to mar the beauty of the stars. It was all made that much sweeter by the jingle of bits in his pocket. Yes, perhaps the winnings were a bit wasted on him. The monetary value, however, couldn’t compare to the simple satisfaction of beating other big-talking soldiers in cards. He had been on the losing end of that very same poker table enough times to appreciate the victory for its sentimental reasons. Shining reached the main gates of the castle, stepping into the warm light spilling from the open doors. He’d tell Cadance about how the poker game went later. At the moment, he turned his head to the right as he reached the top of the front steps, intending to smile and nod to the guard standing watch there. Yet, there was no guard there, and upon looking left, Shining saw that the other guard who was supposed to be stationed at the door was also absent. Knowledge and experience he possessed as previous captain of the guard rushed into Shining's mind. His eyes moved about the room. He looked to each place in the foyer where a guard was supposed to be standing, and each one was empty. The whole room was empty, without a soul to be seen. Breaking his stride, Shining trotted through the castle, heading to the ballroom where the party was being held. With each step he took his concerns only grew. He saw no guards, no party guests, no servants. It was like the whole castle had gone out for ice cream. Such a thing would have usually been ridiculous, but with Discord it was not impossible. Nor was it impossible that Discord had done something at the party to try and begin a new reign of chaos over Equestria. His pace increasing to a gallop, Shining Armor raced through the last few hallways. He built up a burst of magic, holding the power in his horn until he had reached the doors to the ballroom. He then unleashed it, causing the doors to swing open with a clatter before he raced into the room. The ballroom was decorated in the finest fashion. He saw the spider webs on the ceiling for the arachnid servants, and instruments for the band lay waiting to be played. The room was ready and willing to continue the party, but was lacking the living beings to enjoy the festivities. There was no sign of anypony. ~~~ Twilight did not know how long she had been unconscious. It could have been as short as minutes or long as hours. As she came back to the waking world, her head felt like it was filled with bubbles. Her thoughts were light, floating and bumping against one another without rhyme or reason. Still, slowly, her thoughts began to connect as she raised her head from the floor. Twilight remembered the party, the woods, the castle, and then— “Celestia!” Scrambling to her hooves, Twilight stumbled in circles like a dog chasing its tail. She expected to find a horrible bite mark or that she was missing a limb. She went down a mental checklist for ascertaining her level of bodily harm, and did it again to be sure. But with each check off her mental list a small portion of her panic subsided until she was able to breath a sigh of relief. Minus a little dirt here and there on her fur, she was physically unharmed. But this assurance sent Twilight’s mind chugging back down its previous train of thought. She had been saved by Luna, but where was the Princess of the Night? To answer her own question, Twilight began to soak in her surroundings. It was a guest bedroom of a castle, likely the same castle she had been in when she passed out. The room itself was finely furnished. The piece of furniture directly before Twilight was a vanity carved from fine wood and decorated with golden inlays. It was a beautiful piece of craftsponyship, if not for one flaw. The vanity’s mirrors had been destroyed. The trinity of wooden frames before Twilight clung to a few lingering shards of glass, and the top of the vanity was littered with small shards and dust. Where the rest of the mirrors’ pieces had gone, Twilight didn’t know. She began to crane her neck, thinking perhaps some had fallen behind the vanity, but it was then she noticed something. It was a flick of motion reflected in one of the mirror’s remaining shards. Turning around, she expected to see Celestia or some monster standing behind her, ready to pounce. But, instead, what Twilight saw caused a wave of relief to roll over her like cool water on a hot day. Lying on the guest room’s bed, eyes closed and breathing calm, was Luna. “Princess Luna!” Twilight said, rushing to the side of the bed. “I’m so thankful to see you. What’s going on? What happened to Princess Celestia? What is...” Twilight fell quiet, tilting her head to one side as she arched an eyebrow in confusion. “Are you sleeping?” Luna offered no words in reply, her breathing remaining constant. She slept peacefully, as if the dangers and chaos that lived just beyond outside the room were as distant as a nightmare. Twilight shifted anxiously on her hooves, unsure how to proceed. She wanted to wake Princess Luna up, but what if the princess had a good reason for being asleep? What that reason might be escaped her at the moment, but Twilight didn’t have any cause to doubt the princess. But she was worried about Celestia as well. Surely Luna knew what had happened to her sister. Her mind bounced back and forth. Her hoof extended and retracted in time with her thoughts as she debated the wisdom of waking the princess. Each time she reached out, her hoof grew closer to touching Luna’s shoulder, and each time she pulled her hoof back, she did it faster than before. It was an accident that finally made Twilight’s decision for her. As she withdrew her hoof once more, it nicked part of Luna’s foreleg. This caused the princess to stir, and she slowly opened her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle, is that you?” she whispered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know if I should wake you.” “No, it is all right. I just cannot remain awake for long.” “Why? What is going on?” Twilight asked. “What happened to Princess Celestia?” Luna sat up, using a hoof to point. “Look in the vanity’s top drawer. I wrote some quick notes.” The princess winced, as if she had been overcome by a painful headache, and she promptly laid back down. “They aren’t much, but I know you can put a stop to Discord’s game. Just take to heart what I wrote and abide by the rules. That is your only hope.” “What, Discord!? But... But what is going on? Why can’t you just—?” Twilight’s questions came too late. Luna was already back asleep, the lines of pain disappearing from her face as the peace of dreams enveloped her. Twilight watched the princess sleep for a few moments, trying to piece together for herself what was going on. She then turned her head, looking to the vanity. Below its mirrors, the vanity had two drawers on the left, two on the right, and one long drawer in the center. Twilight used her magic to open all three of the top drawers. They were all empty except for a single piece of paper in the center drawer. Twilight recognized Luna’s cursive upon the page, and hastily read the note, soaking in every line. ~~~ The creak of hinges once more broke the silence of the hallway. The darkness beyond slipped back from the glow of the light spell that seeped through the growing crack in the doorway. Twilight peeked through, straining her hearing and sight. Only when she believed the hallway beyond was empty did she dare to open the door further. It was a ten step process she had devised for herself. Step one, crack the door open and check for danger in the next room. Step two, stick her nose through the door and check for danger. Step three, put half her head through and check for danger. Eventually, upon the completion of step ten, Twilight was on the other side of the door, her search through the castle ready to continue. Luna’s note had explained some information in vagaries and rules. It had obviously been written quickly, as if spending a single moment to write something more detailed posed a great risk. A few of the rules certainly gave that impression. Rule two, do not wake the ponies spread through the castle. Rule five, do not wake Princess Luna unless it’s necessary. Twilight’s mind grappled for some reason for these rules, beyond the most obvious that she had already experienced for herself. To wake the ponies in the halls was to begin some form of transformation, but what was the cause of the transformation? Luna’s note had placed blame on Discord for the present situation, that it was one of his games. Luna had even written down a riddle given by Discord, but Twilight still needed a chance to wrap her brain around the twisted rhyme. In meantime, she had Luna’s notes and one goal, which provided her a mental security blanket against the dark unknown of the castle. The rules gave her a way to stay safe. The goal gave her something to do, something to try and complete so she wasn’t just sitting around waiting for a rescue that might not come. The goal was simple. Find the three “lights” placed through the castle and snuff them. That would end Discord’s game. So far, however, Twilight had found nothing she would describe as a “light,” or at least a light unique enough to be in a set of three. Even more unsettling was the castle's lack of even normal lights. She had doubled back along her previous path to resume her systematic search. She should have been greeted by the illumination from the candles, torches, and lanterns she had lit while performing her original search. But no such warm welcome existed. Even when she got back to the foyer, she found it was as dark as the moment she had come inside. As if she had never been through there in the first place. Still, Twilight tried to focus. Keeping the castle well lit was not part of rules for survival Luna had written. Being in the dark also gave her a better chance of seeing the lights. In perfect darkness, it was said a pony could see the glow from a single candle over three miles away. And, after what felt like an hour of searching, Twilight saw such a flicker in the distance. She was in one of the higher floors of the castle, where the guest bedrooms of the lower areas became offices, studies, and other, more personal rooms. It reminded her of Canterlot Castle, in the wings that were Princess Luna's and Princess Celestia’s private quarters. Twilight had to pause. The hallway that stood before her, separating her from the light at its far end, felt far more menacing than any corridor she had ever seen in Canterlot Castle. It was also longer than it should have been when compared to the other corridors. It was all illogical, evidence that she was a player in what was likely the darkest “game” Discord had ever created. Pacing on the threshold of the hallway, Twilight had to shore up her courage. She recited the rules Luna had given her as if they were a protective mantra that would drive away evil. She went through the list of rules twice, and only then did she take her first step. Immediately, the chill in the air of the hallway hit Twilight, making her shiver and ruffle her wings. It was like she had stepped out of her warm, cozy library into the bitter cold of a sub-zero winter storm. Small, cloud-like puffs of hot breath escaped her lips with each exhale. The only mercy she had was the rug that ran the length of the corridor. It provided a barrier between her and the stone floor, which was probably cold enough to freeze her hooves off. Things only grew colder the further she went down the hallway. She began to see frost clinging to the walls, and the chill began to sink deeper into her body. Twilight’s mind began to slip away from her mantra of the rules to everything she would give away to have a scarf and earmuffs. She’d give away her complete collection of Daring Do books. She’d give away the very expensive scientific equipment she kept in the library’s basement. She’d even give away her crown, as long as she got to remove her Element of Harmony beforehoof. Halfway down the hall, the frost on the walls was becoming small, jutting spires of ice. It made the hallway look as if it was lined with teeth and that Twilight was a willing morsel of food heading for the stomach. Her ears and hooves were beginning to grow numb, otherwise she may have noticed the sticky sensation on the rug. Then the silence broke. With little to no warning, the ice around her made cracking sounds. Pops and groans as different spires of ice jostled against one another for dominance. Twilight also heard something else, something that made her glance over her shoulder. It was a tinkling that came and went quickly, like cubes of ice falling into an empty glass. It was a sound that moved behind her, shifting from the floor to the walls to the ceiling and back down. She was almost sure it sounded like the steps of some creature. The urge to turn around was like marionette strings tied to her body and head. Her fear pulled her, trying to get her to go back, but the desire came too late. She had reached the end of the hallway, which had become an icy tunnel from the ceiling to the floor, and just beyond lay a cavern. A cavern marked with the frozen furnishings of a royal bath. All the warmth that the bath chamber might have had was robbed by the chill in the air and the ice. Twilight could see a tub, easily large enough for several ponies, frozen over like a pristine pond. The sink had overflown, creating an icy waterfall that pooled and spread across the floor. The room also looked much larger than it should, the furnishings insufficient for the amount of space. But where the furniture was lacking, spires of ice filled the gaps. On the walls, the ceilings, and the floor, they stood everywhere. To Twilight, it felt like each one was watching her like a silent sentinel. Their shape was uncommon. Ice tended to freeze with a unique rhyme and reason, but all the spires she saw were very geometric. They looked like crystals. Fluttering her wings, Twilight tried to warm herself up as she took a few tentative steps into the bath chamber. She looked around anxiously at first, the foreboding feeling in her gut assuring her she’d find something wrong or dangerous. But, as she looked, the tenseness in her breathing began to fade as she took in the beauty of the room. It was the same kind of beauty held by a brisk winter day after a fresh snow, when the world outside is blanketed with snow. It looked pure and pristine. Still, after shivering violently to try and shake off the cold, Twilight tried to find the light she had seen. She retraced her steps to the doorway and looked in. She saw the orange light again, but now saw it was a reflection. A spire of ice, with its flat, crystalline surface, was acting like a mirror. Twilight approached that spire, putting her hoof on the surface. She began to shift around it slowly, trying to figure the angle the light was reflecting from. She stepped to right, making the light disappear from the mirror-like surface. It now reflected the overflowing sinks. Another step, and Twilight was face to face with the mirror, clearly seeing her own reflection. She looked like she was about to freeze over herself, but her own visage wasn't what she was seeking to find in the icy mirror. Another two steps, and finally the image of the entrance doorway came into view. If she could see the doorway in the reflection, that meant she was facing the surface from the same angle the light was. So she turned about, and looked to the far wall of the room. There, resting within a deep, square hole in the wall, was the orange light. Twilight looked to it with a smile, happy to know she could soon depart the frigid chambers. She trotted forward, her magic already reaching out to grasp the light and draw it from its hiding place. However, her concentration broke when she ran into something. It was icy and stringy, and it clung to her. She tossed her head, coughed, shouted, and stumbled back before slipping on the ice near the sinks. She barely managed to catch herself before she tumbled to the floor. Twilight then cast a levitation spell, pulling away what clung to her face and holding it up so she could get a look at it. It was a spider’s web, cold and shimmering as if made of ice. Twilight struggled to calm her breathing, her voice trembling from both the cold and her fear. She began to hear the sounds again, the sound of ice hitting a glass. It came in through the door, and then slipped up above her. She almost didn’t dare to look. She couldn’t bring herself to even glance upward as the sound continued. Then, as abruptly as it had started, the sound stopped, halting directly above Twilight’s head. Twilight’s breathing became more erratic, and her wings fluttered with an overwhelming desire to carry Twilight out the door and away. She shouldn’t look. She should just run. That was Luna’s first rule. If she encountered anything dangerous, she was just supposed to run. But the light was so close. She could levitate it from there. She couldn’t decide whether to go forward or to go back. She knew too little about what was going on. She needed to know more to make a decision, and to know more she had to know what was above her. She had to look. She just had to tilt her head back a little bit and look. She did just that, her heart skipping a beat when she saw what loomed above her. The size of a buffalo at least, it looked to be a creature made of ice. A thick, heavy body with eight, thin, tiny legs that held it against the ceiling. Three body parts, one large abdomen of translucent ice connected to an equally translucent cephalothorax. In all, it was... a frighteningly sized spider. But there was something else. Within the cephalothorax was a large, pink mass. And from the front of the spider, where its eyes and fangs should have been, poked a head. True spiders had no head like ponies, but there was no denying what Twilight saw. The spider had a head, a pink furred head with a long mane comprised of three colors: magenta, purple, and yellow. “C... C-C-C-C-C-C-C-.... C-C-Ca... Cad... Cadance?” That small utterance from Twilight’s lips caused the spider to shift. It raised and lowered a few legs while its head turned slowly, revealing to Twilight the fact she dreadfully feared. The pink mass frozen within the spider was Cadance. It was her head poking out from the front, but not because she was being eaten by the spider. Eight eyes now dotted Cadance’s brow, each looking to Twilight with a primal hunger. Her mouth was filled with long, razor teeth, an eternal, frightening smile in every way like the one on Celestia’s face. Cadance was no victim of the spider. She was the spider. A low hiss was Twilight’s only warning before Cadance dropped from the ceiling, ear splitting roar accompanying her fall. Twilight screamed, magic surging as she teleported away. But it was not far. She reappeared on the surface of the bath chamber’s frozen tub. Her hooves slid, but Twilight made her struggle to stay upright as silent as possible. Cadance was facing the other direction, legs clattering against the floor and hisses escaping her deformed mouth as she looked beneath her. Twilight had seconds before she would be seen, and the doorway out of the room stood unguarded. She could leap for it and run. The door frame was too narrow for Cadance to follow quickly. But, in the periphery of her vision, Twilight also saw the light. It was her goal, the thing that would put an end to Discord’s game. If she left without snuffing it, then she would have to come back and face Cadance again. Escape for the moment or act to end Discord’s game. The two choices each pulled and called to Twilight, the pros and cons of each decision waging war in her mind. She raised a hoof to take a step, still unsure what her decision was but knowing she had to start moving nonetheless. She placed the hoof on the edge of the tub, but it slipped away. She stumbled. She yelped, and it was all over. In a moment Cadance attacked, raising her abdomen and launching a surge of icy, silken threads. Twilight was soon wrapped in the webs, yelps of panic escaping her throat as she struggled to free herself. She broke some of the threads, but for each one she snapped Cadance replaced it with ten more. She was losing sight of the bath chamber, becoming wrapped entirely in the webs. The darkness began to close in, familiar darkness. It was so close. The walls... she couldn’t breathe. It was like a tomb, like a coffin. The threads were getting tighter. They were crushing the life from her. She struggled, but couldn’t get free. The walls were closing in. She had to get away. She wouldn’t be buried and forgotten. She wouldn't be left alone to die! “NO!” In a single, desperate act of magic, Twilight unleashed a heat spell. She could feel her horn scorching the fringes of her mane. But the heat she unleashed was salvation. The webbing melted away while Cadance hissed and stumbled back from the heat. Gasping and fighting free of the cocoon, Twilight clamored back to her hooves. She kept the heat spell up, spreading it further. Cadance continued to hiss and wave her legs, some of which were beginning to melt. “Get back!” Twilight shouted, seeing not her sister-in-law and foalsitter but just the icy spider that had tried to cocoon her alive. She got down from the tub, and Cadance scrambled up onto the wall, hissing and roaring from a corner. She threw some more webbing at Twilight, but it all melted in the waves of heat coming from Twilight’s spell. But the heat was beginning to get to Twilight as well. She was feeling lightheaded, her body struggling with the sudden change from hot to cold. She had to act before the spell made her pass out, and there was only one thing she could think to do. Turning her head, she looked to the orange light. She needed to snuff it, and so she did. Levitating some of the melted snow and ice from the floor, Twilight threw a bucket’s worth of water into the hole where the light had been hidden. The light went out, and then came the scream. It wasn’t Cadance screaming, nor was it Twilight. The castle itself sounded as if it was screaming. Every wall, every brick, every grain of dust was screaming a mind-numbing chorus of pain and agony. It was all too much. ~~~ Twilight awoke with a start later, unsure of how much time had passed. She got to her hooves and looked around for Cadance, but found the bath chamber had changed. The ice was gone, and the lights were lit. The bath chamber had regained what Twilight could only guess was its original splendor. More importantly, it was warm. The tub was filled with water, from which trails of steam curled into the air. The faucets on the sink were running as well, pouring hot water and steam. The whole room had a gentle, warm haze to it, and Twilight couldn’t help but stretch her wings and smile. After being so cold, the warmth felt good. The only thing out of place was a single candle, which lay on the floor near the far wall. Twilight picked it up with a spell, and turned it over. A single candle? Had that been the source of the orange light? It was hard to think the candle alone could be so special, but putting it out had worked. The ice was gone, and so was Cadance. Had Cadance’s spider body melted away or did she flee? Twilight didn’t know, but she had to hope everything went back to normal once she beat Discord’s game, got back to her friends, and they used the Elements of Harmony. Yes, she could beat Discord. She was already one step closer. One light down, two to go. Setting the candle on the edge of a sink, Twilight stood in front of it a moment to draw the warm steam into her lungs. She must not have been asleep long if the warmth still felt so good. She let her eyes slide closed. The warmth, it was like being wrapped in a nice, safe blanket. She was safe here. She had broken Discord’s hold on this part of the castle. She was safe. Or so she thought. Opening her eyes, Twilight felt a pang of panic shoot through her body. She stepped back, eyes fixed on the mirror above the sink. In the thick layer of steam, words had been written. Do not snuff the lights, Twilight! Twilight stared at the words, then furrowed her brow. She lifted the mirror off the wall and then dropped it to the ground, causing it to shatter into a thousand pieces. She stared at the shards for a moment, then turned and trotted from the room. As she left, she spoke aloud, as if snapping at a spirit of chaos that might be listening in. “Rule three, smash any mirrors I find.” ===================================================================== Questions, Comments, Concerns? pen.stroke.pony@gmail.com My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic © Hasbro I do not own the intellectual properties this fan-fiction is based on. =====================================================================