I'll be waiting...

by Zweiterversuch


Sleeping Canterlot


As I mentioned before, every inch of that passage was decorated with one of Spike's carvings. They showed images, scenes or even complete stories of all the sleeping inhabitants of Canterlot and apparently other smaller towns.
It was like talking a walk through Spike's deepest thoughts and memories. Thought's he'd surely not tell me right off the bat, but he assumed I'd see in my trip to the castle.
He was present in every carving, and although some depicted an older, some others a younger version of himself, his personality seemed to remain the same.
On some of the carvings were even words scratched on the rocks' surface, revealing Spike's thoughts at the time of the carving's completion.

"Princess Celestia really likes cakes. I wonder if she has ever baked one though."

"Trixie likes to brag, but she's really nice when you come to know her.
I wonder why she didn't come."

The carving showed many different ponies, realizing many different activities. There was one of them playing in autumn as the leaves fell off the trees. One that showed Spike and the others clearing the fields from the snow of winter. Many of them showed parties where everypony was dancing and Pinkie pie, the random, seemed to have the most fun. Competitions, events, marriages and adventures the ponies had, all of them were there, forever captured in stone.

As I made my way deeper inside I noticed that Spike's carvings began to turn more and more imaginative. In the carvings he had grown in size, but the ponies around him remained the same. His notations had changed also.

"Snip and snails will surely be surprised at how big I have become when they see me!"

"When we meet again will Peewee recognize me?"

"I don't think I can fit through the library's door anymore."

Spike showed scenes that surely had never taken place. His older self ran against Rainbow Dash the loyal. He also lifted several ponies off the ground while from above they celebrated his strength.
Some carvings showed even his romantic side. He looked at a unicorn's shape carved in the moon. Mountains and clouds seemed to have that shape also in some of his other carvings.
In many of his notations he wondered if a certain pony, he cared not to mention, would like his appearance.
In some of them he was sure she would, while in others he admitted there was no way that could happen.

At some point as I made my way down the corridor, the light of Spike's flames seemed to be unable to reach any deeper down and so that part of the corridor was submerged in shadows. I recall being upset by it, for there was one of the most beautiful carvings of a mare suffering under the poor lightning. Curious about it, I slid my hoof across the surface of the wall hoping to make out the shapes of the characters depicted. But the carving was completely destroyed.
Here and there I could feel shapes I assumed were from Spike and the mare he so often depicted, but at the same time I felt long and deep dents caused by claws and fangs. Spike himself had surely destroyed them. It was a dream of his that he simply couldn't stand seeing anymore. He never told me, but I think I knew why.

Light returned once more to the corridor and I could see again Spike's carving and notations.
These were more childish, surely the first ones he had done after he realized he was trapped down here.
I continued peeking at Spike's mind, this time under a blue glow that seemed to come from the other exit of the corridor.
Spike's art here felt stiffer. Also it weren't carvings, but drawings of chalk and scratched stone.
Many of the ponies depicted had large X´s over them. Some of the ponies had their eyes or lips misplaced, or their position was odd. Some even seemed to have broken bones in my opinion. Right next to those ponies were other drawings that showed a clear sign of improvement, but that Spike still marked with an X.
I guessed that part of the corridor was where Spike practiced. He had surely drawn something, compared it with his model and scratched it when he judged the drawing did no justice.
All the ponies and other species depicted here had the same expression. Their eyes and mouth were closed and they all seemed to be sleeping soundly while sitting on their behinds. Their forelegs were stretched out to the sides as if they were trying to touch something at their sides. Immediately I thought about a chain, a chain all these ponies and beings were a link of. It reminded me a lot also of that foal's game one played in school, but unlike that one there was some solemnity to the one Spike showed me.
I finally exited the corridor and understood the meaning behind Spike's drawings.

The castle's yard was filled with many different ponies, young dragons, buffaloes, Zebras, horses, all of them holding each other's forelegs in an apparently unending chain around the castle.
The world was submerged in a pale blue light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
I made my way through the chain as I promised Spike, without making the slightest sound, which was quite hard keeping in mind that I very much wanted to express my awe in some kind of way.

Everypony was somehow frozen in time and that I mean literally. They surely looked the same as they did thousands of years ago. The scratches in their armor were as fresh as the day they were made and the grass under my hooves was still green and undisturbed.
The birds in their nests still fed their little ones. And as I made my way through the kitchen I noticed there was still spilled coffee that had not touched any surface.
The chain of ponies went around the castle several times like a spiral and entered through the main doors towards the royal hall.
Despite the lack of sound, there was still a muted whisper in the air, the particular sounds of thousands of sleeping ponies breathing softly. No matter where I went I could still hear it. It was almost as if the castle itself dreamed as well.

I followed the chain of ponies, not remembering exactly what I was supposed to do in the castle. They all converged into a massive hall in the very heart of the castle.
At the sight I found there I almost broke my promise to Spike, but with a little bit of luck was able to keep it.

"The...the princesses..."

Those words never left my mouth. Instead they floated in my head with the ones that followed them.

"Princess Twilight, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadence."

I was already overwhelmed by the sight, but they were not the only ones in the room.

"The...the elements of harmony..."

All of them were breathing softly, sleeping, dreaming and alive.
I saw them with my own eyes. The ones I had only read about in books stood before me, still trying to get rid of that evil that once almost destroyed us.
The little strength I had threatened to leave me. But still I managed to keep standing.

Princess Twilight was surely beautiful. Even more so than I had ever imagined. I could say the same about the other princesses and the elements of harmony. Their beauty was out of this world.

Carefully I walked around the room looking at all the princess from every angle I was allowed to. It was then that I noticed scribbles on the wall again. It was Spike's writing.

"Twilight and Spike"

Beneath Twilight's name was a single horizontal line. Under Spike's name though were several lines one placed higher above the other.
It was a growth chart. Spike had come here at some point and had kept track the height difference between the princess and himself.
I imagined a small Spike sitting exactly where I was standing while looking for who knows how many hours at their friends, without being able to talk or touch them, despite being that close.

Suddenly I remembered my objective. And after bowing down before the princesses I went into one of the rooms of the castle looking for a piece of cloth long and strong as Spike had told me.

I left the castle and its sleeping ponies behind and went into the passage with Spike's carvings once more.
This time the greenish light from Spike's flame had disappeared and the darkness of the passage seemed to be infinite.
Worried I hurried up towards the exit with the piece of cloth in my mouth.

"SPIKE!!"

As soon as I was out of the passage I called Spike's name loudly. For some reason I was afraid something might have happened to him.

"Shhhhhh...
You took longer than expected, Tome.
I fell asleep for a moment there."

Again with a small spark of his fire breath, the walls of the cave were lit with green flames.
I apologized and showed Spike the cloth I had brought with me. He took me and the cloth in his hand and brought me closer to the crack through which the sunlight came.

"Ah! I almost forgot."

With his free hand Spike reached for one of the corners of the cave. I saw then a mountain of gems and gold, more than enough to buy a country.
With care he placed five of the biggest gems I ever saw and a dozen of old equestrian bits in his palm and told me to take them.

"I don't think you have a single bit left on you and giving food for free is something not many do."


I saw him smile once more. After all I had witnessed in those carvings and inside the castle, I could not easily part with him. But by the looks of it this was already our good-bye. Acknowledging that moment as such, there was only one thing I felt like saying.

"I'll come back to visit, Spike! I swear!"

He laughed softly, but quickly moved his head from side to side, telling me not to do so.

"You better don't. Now there's a way out, but who knows if that hole will be here tomorrow."

I tried to explain to him that I could not leave him there alone.

"I...I can't leave knowing you will be here, Spike!
I'll go and buy some food. Enough to be here for years!"

Again he laughed, but this time a little louder than before.

"Stop being stupid, Tome. You're leaving and that's final."

He enveloped me, the gems and the coins forcibly with the cloth I had brought and stuffed me in the crack like a bullet.

"Spike what are you doing!?"

Spike just spoke for the last time before I left the cave.

"These rocky walls are not natural, Tome. They still exist because the Evil has not been totally defeated. But this crack, like the one that brought you down here, are a clear sign that it is getting weaker.
Some day these walls will fall completely, the kingdom will rise from underground and all the citizens of Canterlot and Ponyville will awake from their slumber.
When that time comes, Tome. Come visit me. I'll surely have a place near a small town you have surely heard nothing about.
I am sure you won't miss it. It has a fashion store shaped like a carousel and a bakery that looks like a cake. It also has a large oak three that serves as a library and huge fields of apple trees."

"SPIKE, WAIT!!!!!!!"

From beneath me came an unbelievable pressure that pushed me upwards, towards the exit.

"SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!"

The next thing I saw when I was able to free myself from the grasp of the cloth was the blue sky and a flying bird.
The mountain was several meters under me and in the distance I could make the yellowish ceilings of the houses in Märisch.
To be outside again was an indescribable feeling. To feel the warmth of the sun against my fur once more almost made me ignore the fact that I was really high up in the air, without a single mean to slow down my fall.
Quickly, and in mid-air, I managed to grab the gems and bits Spike had given me.

The fall was not a pretty one. I tumbled and rolled down the side of the mountain breaking several bones. Luckily the cloth had got stuck several times, slowing me down enough to survive the fall. I ended up right next to the bifurcation of the road that leads to Märisch.
Understanding the irony I laughed, causing me to hurt all over.

The next traveler brought me to the hospital of the small farmer town after I had mentioned that her service would be handsomely rewarded.
The one that picked me up was a mare covered with scars, with an eye patch on her left eye and a brown and wavy mane.

"Hmph! Be honored that the great Wild Rose has decided to help you in your time of need."

I think I fainted after hearing her words.