//------------------------------//
// 5: Castle Twilight 
// Story: What Bound Them 
// by Headless 
//------------------------------//

In a way, stepping into the castle was coming home.

Spike had been right about the vines not being capable of breaching the protective spells around it. The entrance hall was clear of any of Discord's plunder vines, and the resin that the changelings had left outside stopped at the doorway. It was still intact and unspoiled.

In another way, stepping into the castle was a punch in the gut.

Princess Celestia had renamed the Castle of the Two Sisters in Twilight's honor and given it to her to use as her own. Before the last of their friends had passed away, Twilight had stayed there only occasionally, preferring her home in the Ponyville library. After Applejack's funeral, though, and the realization that she and Spike were the only ones from their original circle of friends left, she had moved into the castle full-time.

Spike had only asked her why she chose to move once, when she first announced her intentions. Her expression had told him everything. 

Even if it had been grief that had brought Twilight to her castle, she had turned it into a place of light and happiness. Spike remembered helping their friends to straighten the place up, and how Twilight had taken their efforts as inspiration for the changes she made later. The castle grounds had become an animal sanctuary. The halls had been decorated with extravagant tapestries depicting all of their friends during the most memorable moments of their lives. Every Nightmare Night, the castle played host to the most well-loved "haunted tours" in Equestria. And, of course, there were the weekly concerts performed on the Organ to the Outside, where ponies came not so much to listen to the music as to try and find out exactly what mechanisms were linked to which notes.

Castle Twilight had become one of Equestria's most beloved features. The path Twilight had made through the Everfree Forest had been well-traveled, and Ponyville had thrived with the attention it brought. With the attention he brought, for that matter. Having a dragon living in the castle brought in even more visitors who wanted to see him with their own eyes.

But it wasn't like that any more. Whatever preservation spell Twilight had placed on Carousel Boutique, she hadn't done the same for the castle. The Tangle had been kept outside, but the doors couldn't keep out time.

While Twilight had lived here, the entrance hall had always been kept brightly lit by the ornate crystal chandeliers overhead, and the stone had been kept clean and smooth. Now, the air was musty and dank, and the stink of mold filled Spike's nostrils. The stones underfoot were uneven and cracked, covered in moss and fungus. The chandeliers were unlit, leaving the four of them in the dark. And the tapestries that Twilight had always been so proud of were moth-eaten and unraveling.

Spike felt his grin fading as he walked into the foyer. Some part of him had been expecting this, he knew. But the rest of him had been hoping, and that part was hurting now. 

Behind him, he heard the sound of hoofsteps on stone. Compass Rose was the first of the three ponies to enter, with Tailspin fluttering along behind. The pegasus had an excited, curious look on her face. Compass just gaped.

Her eyes flashed from the marble columns to the chandeliers to the tapestries. She trotted over to the nearest one and stared up at it in amazement. 

"This is unbelievable," she said. "It's got to be at least three yards wide. How high up does it go?" She craned her neck, trying to see into the darkness near the ceiling, where Tailspin's helmet lamp couldn't reach. 

Spike smiled slightly. "All the way," he said, moving over to stand beside her. "This is one of the ones that was here before Twilight moved in. It's Princess Celestia raising the sun. There's one of Princess Luna across the hall."

"It's beautiful," Compass said. She lifted one hoof to touch the very bottom of the tapestry. Spike saw that the intricately-woven border was more than a little frayed, and winced.

"I'll say!" came Tailspin's voice from above. The pegasus was flying in circles around the ceiling now. With her helmet lamp shining on them, the cobwebs and tarnish on the chandeliers were plainly visible, but she didn't seem to care. "This place is incredible." She paused, hovering in midair, and studied the pattern of light refracting through the crystal. "I can't believe all this was in the Tangle."

"Pretty, yeah," came Pith Helmet's voice from behind them. Spike turned. The earth pony was walking up towards the rest of them, still frowning. "But let's not stay long. Find the library, get whatever books we want, check for this Twilight pony, and leave, right?" He cast a glance over his shoulder, towards the open doors. "Hanging out in changeling territory isn't a good idea, even if they don't seem to be here right now."

Spike sighed, then nodded. "Right," he said. "You're right. Let's keep moving." 

"Wait, wait, wait." Compass Rose was withdrawing another scroll from her saddlebags, along with a quill. "While we're walking. Who are the ponies on all these tapestries? They can't all be the same two."

"They're not," said Spike, as he turned to lead the way into the castle's halls. "There are a couple of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and a few of Twilight as well. There's also one of Princess Cadence, and one of, uh, what I guess the artist thought Starswirl the Bearded looked like. The rest are of... well, of our friends."

Pith's helmet lamp swung around, illuminating another of the tapestries. This one was a brilliant blue, and featured a pegasus mare with a rainbow mane flying through the clouds, a stylized lightning bolt behind her. It was, Pith realized, one of the ponies from the photograph on Spike's bedside table.

"Your friends?" Compass sounded confused. "So she just put pictures of her friends all over her castle?"

Spike laughed and twisted his neck around to grin at the unicorn over his shoulder. "Yep," he said brightly. "But it helps that they saved the world a couple times."

Compass blinked at him. "Saved the world?"

"Yeah." Spike turned back and led the way further into the hall, towards one of the large archways leading into the other wings of the castle. His talons clicked audibly on the stone floor with each step. "They were great friends. The best anypony could ever ask for. But they also had some special... talents..." 

He trailed off, standing just a few yards away from the archway, and felt his jaw drop open. The rest drew up next to him. Through the haze of shock that was filling his brain, he heard Pith say, "I'm guessing this one was added after you went to sleep," and he nodded mutely in answer.

Over the archway was another tapestry, large and intricate even by the standards of the rest. It would have stood out even if it weren't for its size, though, due to the image upon it. The rest featured their subjects in poses of triumph and happiness. This one did not.

On this tapestry, the dominant colors were red, black, and a sickly, acidic green. A huge, twisting cloud of them filled the edges of the image, with thick, ropy tendrils of them reaching inward, as if grasping for the center - or, rather, reaching for the white-coated unicorn featured in the center of it. She was standing on her hind legs, eyes shut, and horn shining with power. Above her, a gem cut in the shape of a heart floated, blazing with brilliant light.

She looked... strong. Beautiful. Dignified. But the image also featured her weeping, and something about the tendrils of violent colors closing in about her made it clear that this was not a happy story.

"Isn't that... Rarity?" It was Tailspin's voice. The pegasus had taken off again, and was flapping her way up towards the tapestry. "But this looks like..."

Spike shook his head vigorously, forcing himself to come back to reality. "Yes," he said, unable to keep his voice from becoming clipped and cold. "That's Rarity. I told you, she saved Equestria." Then, abruptly, he dropped his gaze to the hallway ahead, hunched his shoulders slightly, and set off again. "Come on," he called over his shoulder. "The library's this way."





The library was as dusty and cobwebbed as Spike had expected. The old wooden shelves had started to rot away, and many of them had toppled over as the stones in the floor through the years. Most of the books had started to wear away as well. But it had distracted Compass Rose and Tailspin from asking any questions about Rarity, at least. It wasn't something he liked to talk about. Even if there was no sign of Twilight yet, knowing that the two mares were preoccupied with digging through the old tomes was a weight off his mind.

Pith didn't seem to be particularly eager to start questioning him as they wandered deeper into the library. Or, to be more accurate, Pith didn't seem particularly eager to start questioning him about Rainbow Dash and Rarity and the rest. He was more concerned with the details of the castle.

"So there's an organ in the basement that controls the secret passages," the pony was saying now. "And a hidden reading room. Anything else?"

Spike stopped as he reached a small metal chair sitting in the middle of an intersection. The table was gone, and the chair was rusted and tarnished, but at least it was still here. He extended one claw and tilted it back delicately. A moment later, he was rewarded by the sound of grinding stone as two of the remaining intact bookcases slid aside, revealing the door to Twilight's reading room.

"There's a lot of stuff," Spike answered. "But I don't remember all of it. Twilight kept a copy of the full castle map in here somewhere, though, in case she ever needed it." He strode in, squinting in the dim light from Pith's helmet lamp. In the distance, he could hear Compass calling out to Tailspin - something about no, not that one, the other one, the big one on the top shelf.  

Pith stepped in after him, filling the room with just enough light to see by. Like the rest of the castle, the reading room had fallen victim to dust and wood rot. In the past, Twilight and Spike had spent countless nights in here, reading through reports and books and cataloguing and, ha, triple-checking checklists to make sure that they hadn't missed anything when double-checking. That memory brought a bit of a smile to his face, but only for a moment.

It was obvious that Twilight, wherever she was now, hadn't been here in decades. Possibly centuries. As he surveyed the dilapidated bookshelves, he suddenly felt very alone.

Then his gaze alighted upon something sitting on a small table by the side of the couch, and he found himself grinning uncontrollably. "Yes!" he exclaimed, leaping forward. "Perfect! I didn't expect her to leave this here. This is perfect."

He held it up triumphantly. It was a small, blue book, shut with an ornate clasp and lock. Pith eyed it blankly for a moment.

"It's our old journal," Spike explained, catching sight of his expression. He lowered the book and clutched it to his chest protectively. "Twilight and the rest wrote down everything important that happened to them in here. I even wrote a few entries myself. If there's any clue as to where Twilight is, it's probably in here." He barely restrained himself from laughing.

Pith just nodded slowly. "Right," he said. "That's great. Now, that map you were talking about? I don't want to be wandering around a castle full of trap doors and secret passages that I don't know anything about."

Spike blinked. "Oh, right." He strolled over to one of the bookshelves and pulled a thin book off of it. It wasn't a book, exactly - it was more a collection of sheets that had been bound together with string, obviously hand-drawn and -written. "This is it," he said, offering it to Pith. "All the stuff Twilight found out about this castle, she wrote down here. There's maps, notes, everything."

Pith nodded again, then moved forward to accept it silently. "Is that all you want from here, then?" he asked. 

Spike's grin faded again, and he shook his head slowly. "Not exactly," he said. "So long as we're here, I want to check Twilight's quarters. There might be something else there." He inclined his head towards the doorway. "You can stay with Tailspin and Compass, though. They'd be calmer if they knew you were in the area."

Pith grunted. "If you say so," he answered. He lifted a hoof and withdrew something from his saddlebag - a torch, Spike realized after a moment. "You'll need this."

Spike accepted it with his free hand, grinned again, and nodded. "Thanks." He took a deep breath, lifted the torch up to his mouth, and let out a small burst of flame that set it alight. Then he nodded, looking satisfied. "I shouldn't take long. I'll be back in less than an hour."

"If you say so," Pith repeated. He paused for a moment, looking as though he was going to say something else, but didn't. Instead, he just said, "We'll be waiting for you."





We held Applejack's funeral today.

Spike held the torch in his tail as he walked along the hallways of the castle. His hands were occupied with the journal as he flipped rapidly through its pages, looking for the last entry. He had started by looking at the last page in the book, but it was blank. So were the twenty before that, and several more before that. Twilight had never filled out the remaining space. That worried him.

I don't even really know what to write here. Or who I'm writing it to. First Rarity, then Fluttershy. Rainbow. Pinkie. And now Applejack. It hasn't even been a week and already I feel like I can't take it any more.

He turned the page, blinking rapidly. He'd read it before, but the words still hurt. 

I've moved into the castle in the Everfree-

Celestia has asked me to-

A swarm of parasprites-

Spike wants to go to sleep.

He stopped on that last entry, staring. Those were the only words on the page.

It took him a long time to turn to the next.

Celestia is dead. Luna followed her shortly after.

Spike felt as though his spine had turned to ice. He felt his heart beating faster, felt his breath start to come in short gasps. Dead? How? He stared at the empty whiteness that followed that sentence, willing an explanation to appear, but it didn't. And, in the back of his head, he heard Twilight saying "I promise."

Why didn't you wake me?

He turned the page again, slowly, dreading what he would find, but unable and unwilling to stop.

This will be the last entry I ever make into this journal.

My name is Twilight Sparkle. As of one year ago this day, I am sole ruler and protector of the land of Equestria. Princesses Celestia and Luna left the care of its citizens in my hooves. 

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I became truly alone.

My entire life has been a series of funerals. I have watched as, one by one, my friends have left me. First was Rarity, who gave her life so that others might live. The rest came later, but I lost them all the same. Even though I had the opportunity to say my goodbyes, the pain remains. Even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna eventually fell to Nightmare Moon's return.

Spike looked up from the page, scanning the darkness around him. The shadows suddenly seemed deeper, the air a little cooler. He hunched his shoulders, causing the scales on his back to scrape together lightly, and shivered before turning his eyes back to the page.

And now Princess Cadence, my last remaining friend, has been slain. King Sombra has returned, and the Crystal Empire has been conquered. 

I am writing this as I prepare to remove the Elements of Harmony from their resting place in the Tree of Harmony. I wish that there were another way, but I will need their power if I am to defend Equestria. I have placed spells around Spike to ensure that he will not be harmed, at least, and Ponyville has been evacuated.

Spike, if you ever read this, I love you. And I am sorry that I did not wake you. Please, forgive me. At least I know that, as long as you are asleep, you are safe. 

As long as you sleep, I won't have to lose you, too.

Spike blinked rapidly, fighting to keep back a sob. He snapped the journal shut and clutched it to his chest again, then leaned against the wall and struggled for control of himself. 

But I didn't want to lose you either, Twilight.

His breath came in ragged, uneven gasps now, and he could feel tears streaming down his cheeks despite himself. He wiped them off with one claw, straightened up, and forced his breathing to return to normal.

Wherever you are now, I'll find you. I promise.

Spike shifted the journal to hold it under one arm and set off into the castle again. He had spent decades there before falling asleep, and he knew the place inside and out, aside from the traps. Nobody had ever tried to use them on him after he started to grow, and he was too big to fit through most of the secret passages. But he knew enough to be able to find Twilight's living quarters, even when navigating by the flickering, unsteady light of his torch.

His mind was already flickering through possibilities. Nightmare Moon had come back, though Twilight hadn't given left any hints about when on that score. Presumably Twilight had... defeated her after Celestia failed to do so, and that was why Luna wasn't around any more, either. If Twilight had somehow managed to banish Nightmare Moon like Celestia had done before, that would explain why the ponies now still had legends about the Mare in the Moon. 

But then... Sombra. Spike shuddered again, and tried to fight off the sudden swell of memories that rose up in the darkness. He had seen the Dark King twice before. The first time, he had just been a baby. The second...

He shook his head rapidly, forcing the thought out of his mind. That wasn't what was important. If Sombra had returned for a third attack on Equestria, and Twilight had taken the Elements of Harmony from the Tree to face him... well, it explained a lot.

It just didn't do so in a way that he liked.

If Twilight had been victorious, she would have returned the Elements of Harmony to the Tree, and the Tangle would never have grown. If Twilight had still been around when the changelings returned, she would have forced them out before they ever became a threat. If Twilight had remained as ruler of Equestria, everypony would know her name.

If she had tried to fight King Sombra and lost...

Don't think of that, he told himself sharply. She's okay. She's got to be okay.

Or maybe you're just not ready to admit that you've lost another friend.

"No," he snarled. He hadn't meant to actually say it out loud, but the word escaped him in an angry hiss, accompanied by a flare of green flame.

In the brief flash of light, something glistened on the walls.

He blinked. No, it couldn't be. Not changelings, here. They couldn't have gotten inside. 

But there it was. He moved forward, and the light of his torch illuminated the same resin coating that he had seen before. As he watched, some of it oozed slightly downward on the stone.

The dragon hesitated. Part of him wanted to keep moving forward. Twilight's quarters were just up ahead. Even though he knew the danger, he couldn't stop a large part of himself from wanting to try and find anything else to hint about where she was before turning back. But there was more at stake here than his own safety. Pith Helmet, Compass Rose, and Tailspin were all back in the library, unaware of any danger. They needed to be warned. 

He turned.





The Organ to the Outside was massive, almost the size of a house, with huge, twisting brass pipes that reached almost to the ceiling of the cavernous hall in which it was kept. Pith Helmet approached it slowly, casting aside his hat as he did so. It hit the stone floor with a sharp crack, and the light flickered out.

In the darkness, he smiled and approached the keys. As he mounted the staircase leading up to the organ, he twisted his back, letting his too-heavy saddlebags fall to the floor. With each step he took, a little something changed about his appearance. His smile vanished, replaced by a wicked, fanged grin. His mane retracted into his flesh as his fur faded, replaced by beetle-black chitin. A pair of insectile wings sprouted from his shoulder blades. His brown eyes were replaced with glittering, acid-green orbs.

The changeling placed the notes that Spike had given to it on the music stand, stretched its scarred legs once, then began to play.

Above, in the hallway leading to Twilight Sparkle's old quarters, a wall shifted to close the path in front of Spike.