Chapter 2
She awoke to the coppery taste of her own blood.
Right on the heels of that realization, the rest of reality came crashing back down. She was cold. Freezing. It was the kind of cold she could feel all the way to the bone. She was in pain, but at this point, it was just so much background noise to all the rest. Her undercarriage felt particularly bruised, cold, and wet.
On top of it all, she could feel a hot weight on her outstretched arms, pressing them into the same cold wetness as the rest of her torso was sunk into.
Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes.
Her first impression was a blinding brightness. Whiteness on top of pink. Whiteness… snow...on top of her, on top of everything. Her eyes struggled to focus, mind turning gears over to recall the last few moments. Flying through the air.
They were in danger. Dark magic...arcane power—almost hungry, like I’ve never felt before. No wonder the Princess always warned me to never use it.
They were in the ruins, in the Everfree. The temple of the Sun with the defaced carvings. There was a monster in the darkness. It moved too fast. Impossible speed. It countered everything we threw at it.
Everything went black. I had to save Cadance…
Twilight Sparkle lifted her head, a groan escaping her lips with the movement. Cadance had been fighting the creature…Chrysalis...when the dark magic had enveloped them all.
Twilight forced her eyes to focus, squinting against the blinding glare. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza rested in her arms, sprawled limply. For a heart stopping moment, Twilight thought Cadance was dead, when the alicorn drew a shallow breath. I caught her.
“H-heck yeah...I caught you.” Twilight coughed, smiling weakly for a moment before she turned her head to look around.
Snow covered everything, but only lightly, as if it had just started coming down. She and Cadance lay on the ground in a puddle of quickly recooling snowmelt, large chunks of stone and tile surrounding them on all sides. The air was still, flakes of snow gently wafting down onto what looked like some sort of plain or tundra. It was hard to tell. Where in Equestria are we? It’s the middle of summer!
Twilight narrowed her eyes against the glare and looked up at the sky. Immense storm heads were rolling in above them, dark and ominous enough that she didn’t have to cast any magic to see they were more than natural. Something big was happening to effect the weather so strongly on such a scale. The foreboding cloud front stretched as far as she could see in either direction and were moving fast to swallow the sun.
She grunted with the effort to keep her head up, struggling to tug Cadance closer to herself. Twilight’s body immediately started lecturing her on the many places she didn’t know she could hurt and was now suffering. Cadance took another shuddering, ragged breath, her peytral askew and shoes only holding on loosely. Twilight didn’t see any immediate wounds and she prayed there wasn’t anything broken internally.
Twilight pried one hoof out from under Cadance’s prone form and brushed her mane out of her face, opening her mouth to speak when she heard a wet, scraping noise off to her left. Memories of the fight with the thing that called itself ‘Queen Chrysalis’ flashed through her mind and she was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she didn’t know what had become of the threat. Or what happened to Spike and Zecora, for that matter.
The sound repeated, like metal against stone and something being dragged along the ground.
Twilight eased herself, as quietly as she could manage, into a sitting position and leaned up against a large piece of rubble that blocked whatever was making the sound from her sight. She took a calming breath. The sound continued, but she could tell whatever was making it was starting to move away from her and Cadance’s position. If the creature was still moving, they were in trouble, but then again, if it was Spike or Zecora, she needed to know what condition they were in. It would be a bad idea to get even more separated, if the monster didn’t get them, the temperature would.
Twilight took a risk. She moved slowly, peeking up over the edge of the rubble. Her eyes widened and she ducked back down, clapping a hoof over her mouth to keep from giving away her position. Four ponies—are they even ponies?—were not more than a dozen hoofsteps from her. They—are they made out of crystals?—each had a heavy chain that was wrapped around their necks—golems?—and the other ends were threaded through the open holes in Chrysalis’ legs. They were dragging the seemingly unconscious creature away through the snow.
Twilight ran her tongue over her teeth, tasting blood again. She took another deep breath of chill air, running her mind over her options. Cadance was still out cold, Spike and Zecora were unaccounted for. She was in a lot of pain. The one monster had been replaced by four new creatures that looked like ponies made out of gemstone. She would be one pony against four unknown enemies. Those were bad odds, and even if she won, there was no guarantee that she could get Cadance and herself into shelter soon enough to beat exposure from ending them.
Celestia...Princess, what would you do? Back in the Everfree, Cadance had told Chrysalis that the Princess’ teachings showed them those that dare prevail. But a daring stand now looked more and more like a last stand. Follow the mission, Twilight. Cadance is the most important thing. You are her guardian. Guard her. Protect her. Keep her safe no matter what.
Twilight held her breath, listening to the four pony-things dragging Chrysalis away, and made her call. She was a Battle Mage, but battle was not all her magic was good for. She wished that she’d had the forethought to pay more attention in the emergency medical classes, but she could at least make sure that she and Cadance were in good enough condition to move. She willed her horn to charge with arcane energies, shaping the spell into a basic scanning function that would assess her body’s physical integrity. It wouldn’t fix anything, but at least then she’d know if she had any internal injuries that weren’t outwardly obvious. She didn’t start breathing again until the spell reported back that her bones and organs were where they were supposed to be and functioning at a reasonable capacity.
Twilight slumped in relief and then recast the spell, aiming it Cadance. Her breathing remained slow and shallow, but the scan reported that her heart was still beating strong and her bones were fine. The Princess was bruised, but not broken. The diagnosis gave Twilight hope and her she intended to not let it go to waste. Quietly, she eased down against Cadance, and scooted them deeper into the lee of the large stone that shielded them. She had to get them both warm, then wake Cadance up.
Cadance awoke to warm arms holding her from behind.
The world creeped back into her senses slowly. She was cold, she ached, she was laying on something hard and wet. But she was also being held tenderly, the body pressed into her back a warm shield against the elements.
She remembered the temple, the traps, the flashes of blade and spell before Tartarus opened up under her hooves and Twilight rushed toward her from the side.
Twilight. Cadance opened her eyes and looked up against a bright glare. Open sky spread out above her. She heard a noise and turned her head slightly until she could see the silhouette of her Battle Mage above her.
“Twily?” She flinched at the croak in her voice.
“Yeah, Cady. It’s me.”
“You caught me.” Cadance smiled weakly, shifting her sore back into Twilight’s warm body. “I’m in safe hooves.”
“Yeah, Cady.” Twilight repeated herself. The unicorn leaned down, her bloodied muzzle swimming into view. “You can’t go to sleep, Cady. We’ll die out here if you do that. Can you stay awake?”
Cadance groaned. She might have just woken up, but her body wanted to rest. But for her Twily, she’d move mountains. She nodded. “I can do that.”
“Good.” Twilight sighed and Cadance could feel the relief in her voice. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Promise.” Cadance groaned again, but she smiled weakly. “Speaking of...where the hay are we? Where is Spike and Zecora?”
Twilight patted Cadance’s side gently, shushing the Princess. “Keep your voice down. There are...things...ponies maybe, nearby. They probably aren’t the friendly type, Princess, but they’re leaving with Chrysalis’ body.”
“Body?” Cadance hissed, pressing herself harder into Twilight. “What’s going on? I thought she cast that spell?”
“I haven’t figured it out either.” Twilight lowered her head, her ears alert and tracking the retreating pony-things. She worked her jaw, trying to keep her mouth from going dry. “I have no idea where we are, what those things are, or where our friends are. But I promise you, we’ll get through this, Cadance.”
The Princess nodded tiredly, biting down on all the questions that were bubbling up. There would be time for that later, if they didn’t freeze. Her body was already starting to shiver, and she could feel Twilight’s doing the same. She lowered her head, resting it on Twilight’s arm and prayed that her guardian was right about getting them out of this alive.