//------------------------------// // Chapter XVI // Story: Journey to the center of Equestria // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// Finally it came into both of their eyes once more. After another day worth of travel had they finally managed to walk their way back. They had come to the one and only place that they both could be calling nothing else but home. Before them had it become bigger and bigger as time went by. The mountain of Canterlot and the massive castle it bore almost stood directly in front of both Applejack and Twilight Sparkle. It felt good for the two of them to know that they were almost home. It felt good because they knew that they could spend some time with both friends, family and perhaps loved ones. The only downside of the trip had to be the fact that they had to walk up the mountain in order to reach the settlement and the castle. While it was true that a railway was in the make to make it quicker up the mountain, completion of it was still nowhere near in sight. The green rimmed eyes of Applejack were turned away from the mountain and up into the skies. There was one thing she wanted to know more than anything else in that moment of time. She wanted to know just what the weather would become for them. The sun had been burning on their scalps for days with cool breezes, but their terrain of travel had been flat. Climbing the mountain with that kind of weather would have been a massive disaster and the admiral knew that fact perhaps better than anypony else. Her eyes scanned over the skies as if they were looking for a target of any kind. Twilight didn’t actually minded it as it meant that she had a bit of a moment of both calm and peace. A moment that was rather welcome for her mind, if the truth had to be told. Even though she never admitted it to the admiral, Twilight was hesitant about the next location that she would be going to. Not to mention, all the troubles that would be coming with it. “Well,” Applejack’s voice suddenly filled the air. It captured the attention of Twilight with a gentle ‘hm’ to her. “Ah reckon the weather’s gonna stay like this. Clouded skies and breezes from the North. Should be an easy hike up the slopes. Though Ah admit, mah legs were feeling a lot more comfortable on the flat.” The words managed to get a chuckle out of Twilight before she calmly shook her head a couple of times. “The thing not designed to make deep bends?” “What?” the admiral asked with a raised eyebrow. She originally didn’t fully understood what Twilight meant before both of her eyebrows suddenly went up. “Hey! This leg was designed to tackle anything. Hell, Ah climb in the rigging of mah ship at lightning speed if Ah have to. Come on soothsayer, let’s visit home again.” Home, that one little word was something that meant pretty much the world to Twilight. Home, a place where she hadn’t been in so many years. Her actual home was somewhere outside of the castle. The place where both her aged mother and father lived in perfect harmony and were proud that their children had become the mare and stallion they are. Home, a word so little yet with such a big meaning for everypony in the land. A word that can make one lose track of reality for a little while, which was exactly that happened to Twilight. The admiral had to snap her fingers a couple of times in the soothsayer’s face before the head shook itself a couple of times again. “W-What?” Twilight asked in a truly questioning voice. The mare didn’t have even the slightest of clues of what was going on. The eyelids made a couple of blinks before they were turned over to Applejack with a questioning gaze to be found deep within them. “Ah think ya travelled a bit too far back in yar mind partner. Let’s go,” she simply said before taking on the lead for the pair of them. Twilight continued to shake her head a little bit before she just blindly followed the admiral to the path of the mountain. It didn’t really matter to the unicorn what had happened. The troubles that flooded her mind again were a thing more than enough to make her wonder countless things again. Yet first things had to happen first. She needed to get rid of Applejack in a friendly manner before she would have been able to prepare herself for the other part of her trek. The situation wasn’t something where Twilight wanted to be in, but the results were just like that. She couldn’t say against the walls of fate how she wanted to have it and expect it to be that way. Nopony had control over fate, and that was perhaps the best to remain that way. Their trip to both Cloudsdale and the hospital had taken the both of them a couple of days and the city of Canterlot stood never still. Which meant that the both of them had stories to share and to listen to as well. Stories that could be liked or just shrugged off like that. Only once the two of them stood at the top of the mountain, they stood before the actual entrance of the village that was Canterlot’s very own settlement. Applejack and Twilight looked over the main street that was leading to the castle. The admiral placed a hand on the soothsayer’s shoulder and smiled a warm one. “Ah think this is where our ways part for now Twilight. Ah’ll be needing to go down again to the docks to see how mah brother has been holding them lot together.” Twilight released a little giggle in response to the words. Then it was her calm and soothing tone filled the air for a change, “I think that indeed would be a good thing to do yes. They might even have something interesting to tell you.” Though the hardest part still had to come and she wanted to stay ahead of Applejack no matter what. “Hey, uhm, before I forget again. I will be busy for the coming days right here in Canterlot. So it might take a good week before we will be able to head out again. I mean, I still have my classes and such,” she added to her words. A thing done in the faint hope to get rid of the admiral. “It’s fine, Twilight, Ah know what yar dealing with. Take yar time and give a call when yar going out again,” the admiral answered. Applejack nodded in a calm manner to the unicorn and then they finally parted their ways. Applejack went into one of the side streets and disappeared out of her field of view. Leaving only Twilight to continue to wonder whether or not she had fallen for the lie that was told. But the time to think long about it wasn’t there. There was another problem that needed to be faced and Twilight needed to get to it as soon as she could. She wanted to get out again as quickly as she possibly could and get the fifth member of the team. But things wouldn’t have becoming any easier for her whatsoever. ~~~~                       "So, Beatrix, your week is up and the commander-in-chief has told me you managed to keep yourself rather, civil, as he put it,” were the words of Shining Armor. The stallion sat in the chair behind his desk as per usual. His eyes looked sternly into those of the mare against him. In a chair of her own sat nopony else but Trixie, who was there for reasons they both knew. Reasons that didn’t needed to be explained but the questions still had to be answered in one form or the other. Yet the battlemage had a massive grin going across her face before she finally replied with her own words. “When one threatens me to expel me of this place, I will be making certain that something like that isn’t going to happen, Shining. You and I both know that. So a word of advice, keep your hands off of me in the future. You can’t make me anything.” “Hmpf, only as long as you keep yours off of my sister,” the captain of the guard replied to her just before he crossed his arms over one another. Trixie only released a chuckle. She laid down a bit more and cross her legs over each other. “So that’s what all of this is about?” she then asked as if he didn’t mean his words, “you did all of that just to make sure I wouldn’t touch your sister again? Oh Shining, it shall be your emotions that will eventually become your own undoing, yet you fail to realize that fact as it is.” Those words were harmful for certain and he wouldn’t let them pass like that, but there wasn’t much else that he would be doing with her. Not anymore. “Go, go and get out of my sights will you? Just having you on my floor makes me want to vomit.” And with those words was the chair glided back before Trixie stood back up and made one last, insulting wave before she vanished out of the office via a teleportation spell. “I hate that mare, so much.” Just when the stallion thought that he would be having a moment of peace for himself, there was another knock on the door. Minutes had already passed since Trixie had made her departure and he was working on some filing of his own cabinets. The knock was a little distracting but he couldn’t ignore it. So with the glasses still standing on his nose, he looked over the door and spoke the magic words, “come in.” Seconds later did the door open. The anthrony that entered it was one that he just couldn’t believe one bit. The entire body turned around in order to get the mare in full view. The glasses were taken off the nose to inspect her even more. “T-Twilight? Looking good, if I may say so.” It was the very first time that he had seen his sister wearing anything else outside of the signature soothsayers outfit she was always seen in. The mare closed the door again. Then she sat down in the chair and allowed a giggle to leave her. “Why thank you. But, I shall be dropping in with the door once more. I need information. And I need it quickly.” “Hey, what’s the rush? It doesn’t happen every day that you stumble in my office, nor that you have been gone for over a week like that or change your wardrobe. Tell me what happened first and after that we’ll be seeing what else I can do for you,” her older brother replied and insisted. He walked over to the desk and sat down on the edge of it. One of his legs was still standing firmly on the ground as the other hung off of the side from the knee down. There really wasn’t any form of escaping for Twilight. Her brother was a firm stallion who would almost always gets his ways with his charms. Not even his own sister or parents were safe from it. Not to mention the fact he had his way with words. Which meant that it was a losing battle from the beginning for the mare. The only thing that she could do was to tell him what happened. Not everything of course. Certain parts were left out for his own best-will. It was better that he didn’t knew that she had been stabbed by something that roamed the woods of Everfree, or that she had stared down the barrel of a flintlock on more than one occasion. Eventually was it Shining’s turn to walk again as he removed himself from the desk with a chuckle. “Well, well, well, looks like my little sister is finally getting to know the world as it is. So, what do you need my help with? I mean, you are having a pretty strong team already. A doctor, an admiral and a major. Including yourself, that equals power,” Shining Armor said to her with a smile. “Well, you see, Shining, that’s the problem. I still need two other beings for this to work and I have only one location left. That pirate port,” replied Twilight to her brother. She would have repositioned herself a bit better in the chair, awaiting the fury of her brother to come. It was at the mere mentioning of the hellish place that Shining Armor’s face turned from happy to sour in a split second. He really wasn’t happy about her even considering to be going to that place, still actually. After everything she had already been through, it was difficult for her older brother to just let her go. He really didn’t wanted to see her ending up in a place like that. “I just hope that your are wise enough not to go along and take any of your teammates with you. For I tell you, that place is dangerous.” “That, that’s the problem really. I do plan to go alone,” commented Twilight and she prepared herself for the heap of trouble that would be coming in for real. There was no way around it in the mind of Twilight and the only thing that she could do was to prepare for the words of her brother. Though her decision stood firm and she was confident that it would work. Yet if that was enough to actually survive in a place like that, was something that had to be seen first in order to be believed. Shining Armor’s face slowly turned from white into angry red. Most of the veins in his forehead almost seemed to pop. He was angry at her. Really, really angry at her for making the decision. Furious was the feeling that just surged straight through him. One more word and the whole ticking time bomb that was her brother could have been set off just like that. So the silence between the two of them was kept while the stallion began to pace up and down. He walked all over his office in order to just lower the anger he had stored inside of him. The last thing he wanted to do, was to hurt his own flesh and blood in a manner that he would really come to regret it. Not to mention, the realization had to be made that it wasn’t his quest. All of that never changed the fact that Twilight was how own little and beloved sister. He would be going through Tartarus and back in order to bring her back, if it was needed. So for minutes he simply kept on walking around in circles. All while trying to control his anger. And then, finally, after about fifteen minutes of complete and utter silence that made it seem like fifteen hours, Shining Armor spoke the words that came to his mind. “And why, exactly, do you plan to go alone?” It wasn’t a series of words that were expected by the unicorn as she actually blinked a couple of times towards them. Had her own brother just said them to her, in a calm and ordered fashion? Or did she just hear them wrong? No, that couldn’t have been. She had heard them perfectly. Which led to only one possible answer to come from the unicorn. An answer that was reasonable enough, whether the stallion wanted to believe it or not. There was a deep exhale that was released from Twilight’s nostrils. She finally gathered the actual guts to speak up against her older brother in an impossible way. “Look, don’t get me wrong here, but it is a pirate town. If I take Applejack with me –an admiral of the navy with a steam powered leg nonetheless– I think she will be standing out there like a sore thumb and you know it,” countered Twilight straight away. The words that she said were more than true, she thought. Applejack –especially with her leg–  would be an easy to spot prey for any anthrony who wanted to do her harm. Not to forget the fact that the anthrony they needed perhaps wouldn’t even show up as soon as her presence was made known. “No Shining, taking either Applejack, Rainbow or Fluttershy with me is out of the question on this one. And don’t even think about saddling me up with one of your guards. Remember the last time?” “You mean, when he got ‘accidentally’ incinerated? Yeah, not a smart move on your department,” replied Shining Armor to her with a stern set of eyes. Though he began to saw the truth in his sister’s words. There just wasn’t a good way to go into that town the way he wanted her to go. The stallion just dropped himself back in his chair while he rubbed his face from pretty much all possible angles before there was a deep sighing groan released from the very core of his body. “You really aren’t happy about this, are you?” Twilight asked with a careful tone. The strain was obvious to see in both his eyes and on his face. The stallion simply gave a nod at first before he leaned backwards and took the time to think of an answer. “It,” he then began after a silent minute. “It indeed is a difficult matter, sis. I mean, it isn’t every single day that one wishes to travel up to the hellhole of the land. What would mom and dad say when they figured it out. Or even more discouraging, they begin to realize that you were found dead in the place. I mean, a soothsayer in that place?” “Shining, you’re seeing ghosts!” Twilight all of the sudden had interrupted him. The stallion was literally baffled by the fact that she even managed to speak such words up against him. But it did make him a little bit more aware of the situation as a whole. She had been through the hospital, Cloudsdale and Canterlot harbor without much of a problem. At least in the story that she told him. So perhaps was he indeed seeing a bit of a ghost left and right. “Alright, perhaps you’re right. But I still hold the right to keep my worries about you. Don’t you ever forget that, Twilight. So I will tell you this and I sincerely hope that you are going to live up to the promise I want you to make,” the stallion said to her in an even more serious voice. One of the mare’s eyebrows rose itself up. It did manage to get the attention of the mare more than any other of his words. She was becoming curious as to what he would be saying to her and both of her ears perked themselves up just that extra little bit. She wanted to hear all the words, word for word, imprinted in her mind if they were important. The stallion let out a sigh. “I’m not going to make you promise to come back without a scratch. But for the love of the goddesses, wear a disguise in the least. Something long and closed, dark of nature. Like a trench coat and matching little hat or something. The less they see of you, the better it is for your own health. Promise me, you will be going in there with a disguise, Twilight.” Once more was it a series of words that went rather unexpected for the unicorn. Yet she could still understand them with every fabric of her mind. Not to mention the little fact that it wasn’t something truly unreasonable. She eventually gave a nod to the request of her brother. “Alright, that should be easy actually. Trying to not jump out of the crowd like that. Yes, that should help a great deal as well actually.” “Thank you,” replied Shining Armor with gratitude. No words could describe the massive worry that had fallen off of his shoulders. The two of them continued to talk about the town for a bit more. Twilight needed to know every last bit that was known about the place before she would be making her departure. She wanted to know what kind of anthronies were hiding there. Not to mention as to why it was as rough and brutal as her brother pictured it. Yet the tale that she got instead wasn’t something for the faint of heart. For her brother explained that the place was home of deserters from all kinds of wars. Griffons, zebra’s and all three of their races were all dumped on one spot that was meant to be a prison for them after they were caught again. But they managed to break out and turn the prison inside out, literally. The prison was run by the prisoners and to that very day still was. Its harbor hidden away in a series of caves and caverns that changes with every tide. No naval ship had ever managed to anchor inside of it which led to believe that that an assault on the place was impossible. Which was even made stronger by the rather gruesome replies they sometimes had gotten from there. “Sounds, nice,” replied Twilight in a near sarcastic tone. There was a shudder that went all over her spine. It wasn’t a pretty feeling that she would be walking into a place where violence was on the order of the day. Though the world rarely was actually all about moonshine and rose scent. “And, any locations of the latest tremors as well as their intensities?” the unicorn asked as she was getting a bit more curious. It was her field project after all to say the least. She was curious as to how many tremors there had been in her absence and how strong they were. If there was any pattern to be discovered within them, they might have been able to calculate both its strength and location which could result in a full on evacuation of the area. “Actually, there have been some guards that came to me with messages about them, yes. They were coded for you but since you were absent, well, I kinda opened them and filled in the blanks. The map is brought to your room after each new location. Three tremors, all different parts of the land. I can’t make anything out of it really. But if you can, go right ahead,” explained Shining Armor to her. He was actually a little bit ashamed and embarrassed by the fact he had gone through his sister’s mail the way he did. Which was a good thing in her eyes, it would be teaching him not to do it again. Though on the other end it did save her a lot of work of filling in the blanks herself. “Thanks Shining. I will be having a look over it while packing again and, we’ll see from there. Thanks for everything brother,” she said to him before she got out of the chair. Without any form of hesitation she walked over to the chair the stallion sat in and gave him a firm and tight hug. The hug was returned by her brother as he didn’t actually wanted to let her go, but realized that even little fillies eventually had to grow up in mares. “Stay safe out there Twilight, just stay safe.” “I will big brother, I will.” ~~~~                       With the four walls of her room finally having enclosed her once more, Twilight Sparkle was glancing over the map that she had been using since day one. A map that showed each location of the tremor and the strength it carried. Not to mention the lines faintly drawn from place to place. There was simply no pattern to be found as it varied literally every single time. Even calculating the distance between each tremor up to the most recent one to see some kind of chain like effect to start wasn’t there. “Either we haven’t reached the end of the chain yet, missing shackles or just not having a pattern at all,” mumbled Twilight to herself. The quill got laid down after she had gone through the calculations once again. It could be driving her to utter madness and she would be looking up strange if it actually would be doing it. There was no pattern or effect to be found within the markings on the map. Frustration continued to lead her on as the mare folded the map up again and she continued packing her bags with the needed stuff. Of course they would be saved in her personal void stage, but she still wanted everything in bags just to be sure. “I hope that once we find the answer, it’s going to be a good one,” she said aloud. There was another travel bag made ready by tightening the rope of the opening. “And not a half assed one.” But whichever would be giving her the truth remained to be seen as a realization went through her entire body. The pirate town was the farthest place she would have travelled to in all of her life. Cloudsdale already looked pretty far, especially given its floating nature. Yet it was the town of pirates that still laid even further north than any visited place before. If Twilight didn’t know any better, the mare would have been able to go to the Frozen North itself and visit another soothsayer who lived there on its own. One that she only remembered vague in her memories. The times were strange and it was something that the unicorn could feel too deep within her very own soul. Changes in the wind that hadn’t been felt for years had all of the sudden returned to them. Time as they knew it would perhaps be coming to an end and it all rested upon her shoulders. No pressure there, at all. “It’s going to be, curious, to see how they live up there. Well, best to be going off now, before Applejack knocks at my door again,” said Twilight to herself when she stored the last bag in the storage compartment and closed the hole of distorted reality. There was nothing else that she could be doing, outside of hoping for the best to happen to her and her plan. Time came and went as Twilight sat in her chair. She pondered whether or not she had actually missed a pattern of any kind in the maps she had made. But every single time that she went over them in her head, the same results always managed to return to her. She had made the right calculations and there wasn’t any equal to be found within them. Whatever caused them truly did it at random times, locations and strengths. No two tremors were ever the same. Perhaps they were close to some, though never enough for Twilight to call them a match. It was even impossible to match them. For when one match was found, the other two usually didn’t hold up and didn’t increase or decrease with a steady amount. So in the far end of things and with the moon standing high in the skies, Twilight found that it was time for her to just leave. Leave off in the middle of the night without saying a single word to any other being. Not even the lunar guardian bat anthronies that stood guard. Almost like a phantom had she walked through the castle with her leather boots. Quick and silent, sometimes not even the guards heard her coming with their highly sensitive ears. Yet when they would be asking the question of where she would be off to, they would always be ignored by her. No straight answer, or any answer at all, was given off by the mare. They wanted to go after the soothsayer of course, but something inside of them told them that it was for the better if they didn’t. Her worries shouldn’t have become theirs. That was the mentality in which the bat-anthronies worked and they had all peace with it. Eventually there was the gate again. The gate that was the entrance of Canterlot castle itself. The unicorn never stopped in her tracks or slowed down to admire the scenery that was being created with help of the moon itself. She had a heading and she was determined to go as quick as she could. ~~~~                       Somewhere back inside of the castle, through its darkened hallways walked a figure in a black coat. Its body covered up from all of the sides as one of the hooves made a rather signature and ominous stomping against the floor. It was uncertain what the desires of the mysterious anthrony were but the guards never actually stopped it. Something about the entire posture made it look like it was actually a familiar being to them. Which in and of itself was already something unusual. Yet the being had been haunted with both thoughts and dreams about the adventures the unicorn had embarked on. It was unusual to visit somepony deep in the night, but it was universally known that Twilight Sparkle was a hard worker and wouldn’t have backed down that easily from something. When the being turned into the hallway of the unicorn’s bedroom, it was caught as a bit of a surprise that there wasn’t any light coming from under the door. Though it didn’t scare the being off at all. Instead it walked up closer towards door before being in the range to knock at it. When the first knock fell upon the wood of the door came the realization that shocked through the being. It wasn’t even locked! With the creaking wood and hinges had it just moved right out of the way. Curiosity had taken over as the door was pushed open even further before the darkness of the room engulfed the entire place. Only then did the being took a step or two inside of the room and a couple sniffs of air were taken. Almost as if it wanted to smell whether or not there were magically placed traps somewhere. It literally wanted to sniff out the magic of the place. Though much to its luck, there wasn’t anything that could be found in that sense. So the search continued inside of the room. Perhaps the most obvious place to start was with the drawers of the desk. Something of interest had to be kept in there that could be helping with the ‘investigations.’ With a couple of quick steps had the being managed to walk over to the desk and opened the lowest drawer it could find. Yet what it found was seemingly empty, weren’t it for four arcane pictures that were almost just flung in there. The levels of curiosity only managed to rise as the moonlight cast its shadow into the room. All four of the pictures were taken out and spread over the desk. It were the four pictures of the locations that Twilight had to visit in order to find a being for her quest of madness. Each one was noticed and tabbed with a finger of the being while the breathing only became shocked by one. It was by the last picture that the hand of the being began to shake as if it had seen a ghost. “The Vengeful Belle,” was whispered all of the sudden. A name that was followed by a shiver of freezing cold went over the spine of the being. “Impossible.” And then it just turned itself back around, changing the pace into a higher gear as it left the room of Twilight and looked from right to left before taking a turn to the right. Nothing in the world could have been sure about whom the being was. Though it obviously knew a lot more about vessels then Twilight would ever have been able to. One name and one word was enough to drive every sailor on the seas crazy and lose hope. If what the being thought was going to happen was about to happen. Big mistakes would be made by all parties that would be present.