//------------------------------// // Chapter Six // Story: Disease of the Soul // by Dilos1 //------------------------------// "Where is she?!" Captain Stalwart shouted, having long since abandoned any semblance of stealth and tact as he came out of yet another empty room after breaking down the door. He knew it was unlikely that Princess Celestia would try to lock herself away, but at this point he was willing to try anything to find her. But still, just the dozens of other rooms and corridors that they had already searched, Celestia was nowhere to be found, and all four of the Royal Guards were on the verge of complete panic at her sudden disappearance. For nearly the past hour they had scoured the entirety of the mall for any sign of her, hoping to stumble upon her in the darkness. Stalwart was beginning to fear that the fate that had befallen Ironheart and Gallant had also happened to Celestia as well. The mere thought of her, torn apart and gutted like an animal was enough to make him feel sick. The only thing that kept him going through it was the fact that they had not yet discovered her corpse. Stalwart knew that until such time as they found their Princess, alive or dead, neither he nor his comrades would stop. They were each relentless in their endeavor. To make matters worse, they could barley see past their own noses. For some reason, the light producing gemstones they had packed were not working. They did not have the time or even the materials necessary to make a torch either, leaving with no other option than grope blindly with their hands in the darkness and hope the Princess could hear them from wherever she was. "Princess?!" Crimson Arrow called out, her voice echoing throughout the halls of the cavernous structure. No reply came, serving only to fill them with even more dread at the possibilities of what became of her. "Princess Celestia!" Crimson called again, unmistakable worry in her voice. Stalwart was doing his best not to let that same worry show in his actions, but so far he was failing in that regard as he frantically checked every room they found. Suddenly a shout from Hammer Hoof and the clang of armor drew attention, and they quickly converged on her position, following their ears to the source of the din. Once there they found her on her knees, brushing herself off. "What happened?" Aegis questioned her. "Nothing, just tripped on something," Hammer replied in an aggravated tone. Having finished getting rid of most of the filth from her armor, she began to stand up. "Don't worry about it. Let's just-" Hammer suddenly froze, her eyes locking onto something in the gloom. "What?" Stalwart said, growing more concerned than he already was as he tried to follow her line of sight, but was unable to pinpoint what she was looking at. "What is it?" Hammer did not reply. Instead out a trembling hand, and faint metallic clink could be heard as she picked something up off the ground. "Oh no," she breathed out as she brought it into view. The moment Stalwart saw what was in her hand he felt the blood in his veins turn to ice, and he suddenly felt weak in the knees as he stared at Celestia's golden crown, caked in dried blood. When Celestia finally came to, she was almost upset to be awake when she found that she had somehow gained a massive headache in addition to a rather sore spot on the top of her skull. Wincing at the pain, her violet eyes fluttered open, and she took in her surroundings, blinking in confusion. She was surrounded by dark shadows made by thin strands of sickly yellow light streaming from some unknown source. After what felt like a few minutes sitting alone and confused in the dark, Celestia's eyes were finally able to adjust to the lighting, and she found that she was in some sort of small room devoid of any kind of furniture. This only further confused her, as she was sure that she had left her bedroom this barren. She knew that she at least had a little reading desk located near the fireplace. But to her confusion it seemed that even her fireplace had mysteriously vanished while she was out. Even her rug was gone, replaced with bare cement. 'Where am I?' she wondered, only to wince again as a spike of pain shot through her skull, like a needle was being driven into her head. She knew the feeling, and quite frankly she was just as surprised as her doctors that there had been no lasting effects, or at least none that she knew of. In an attempt to ward off the discomfort, Celestia brought up a hoof to massage her aching temple. At least she tried to anyway. When she moved her arm, Celestia found it was curiously stopped short, like something was holding her limb in place. Pushing aside her fuzzy thoughts to assess the situation, Celestia turned her head, fighting through waves of intense discomfort as she did so to see what was holding her, and she began to wonder if maybe she and Luna had a bit too much fun raiding the private cellar even though she could not recall doing anything of the sort recently. When she finally looked at her confined hoof however, her eyes shot open to see that it had been replaced by a pale lavender hand with long slender fingers. She also did not fail to notice that it had been bound around the wrist by a length of thin white rope. Her other hand was similarly bound, connected to each other around a rusty metal pipe behind her. It was then that Celestia remembered. She was not in Equestria. She was in the human world, far away from her private chambers, looking for Sunset Shimmer. She had lost her guards, the same ones that had volunteered themselves to help her, and then she had been ambushed by. . . something. The identity of her attacker was not clear, but nevertheless Celestia knew that right now she was in great danger. Ignoring the pain lancing through her skull Celestia tugged and pulled against her restraints with every ounce of strength she could summon forth. The rope remained strong however in spite of her effort. After minutes of trying to free herself, Celestia finally sagged down in exhaustion, regaining her energy as she looked around at her surroundings, hoping that there was something within reach that she could use. As far as she could tell, Celestia was in a concrete with what looked like a water to her left, with pipes running up and down the walls. The only apparent exit was a closed door with yellow, flickering light peeking underneath. Curiously, the entire floor, including the part she was sitting on was covered in a huge dark stain, like somepony had spilled something vile. Celestia's bile rose as she unwillingly thought of the possibilities of what it was. To her dismay, there did not appear to be anything she could use, and she began to hyperventilate as the notion that she would be trapped here until whoever or whatever was keeping her here came back. She started to think of Captain Stalwart, and of Aegis and Hammer and Crimson, of how they must be at this very moment looking for her. Or maybe they had also been captured, tied up just like she was. She also thought of Luna, who was most likely waiting just beyond the mirror for her elder sister to return. What would she think if she never came back? Celestia had complete confidence that Luna would be able to carry on without her, but the mere thought of making her believe that she had possibly been abandoned, never knowing of what became of her sister, was enough to bring tears to Celestia's eyes. She also thought of Sunset Shimmer, the young mare that she had unintentionally driven away, still waiting for her teacher to come and take her away from this place of death. If Celestia failed now, who else would be left that would be willing to cross through the portal and brave this nightmare? Luna and Twilight would be the most likely candidates, but her sister would not be able to come until she had set up a spell to move the sun and moon or find a group of unicorns strong enough to do it, and by then the portal would have already closed, barring access for another thirty moons. And Twilight did not even know of Celestia's plight to begin with, nor did the Solar Princess wish for her to confront the horrors of this place just to rescue one pony who was foolish enough to let these circumstances come about in the first place. Taking all of these things into account, Celestia came to realize that unless she freed herself, then all hope, for both her and Sunset, would be gone. She could stand for it. She would not stand for it. She would not doom herself, Sunset, to perish here. She would not let Luna, Twilight or anypony else she loved go through the heartbreak of knowing that she was not coming back. Once more, Celestia struggled against her bonds, determined to break them. The rope cut into her wrists as she twisted and fought, drawing blood. Eventually she stopped, deciding that she needed a different tactic. But there was nothing in here that she could use, and she cursed in frustration. She immediately quieted down when a sound reached her ears, interrupting her train of thought. Celestia looked to see that a shadow had interrupted the light under the door, accompanied by the din of faint shuffling footsteps. On the verge of absolute panic, Celestia frantically tried to decide what to do. She did not put much faith in the possibility of convincing whoever her captor was to let her go free. What if he, she or it had been the same one that had killed Ironhearty and possibly Gallant? Celestia might have been willing to take that risk in any other situation, but right now she felt her best option would be to pretend to still be unconscious. Letting her head sag down, Celestia kept her eyes closed as she waited and listened, and within moments the creak of the doors hinges reached her ears, accompanied by the sound of. . . humming? There were no lyrics to it, but for some odd reason Celestia could not help but feel that she had heard it somewhere before, though she could not recall where or when. It struck a chord in her memory, but it was annoyingly out of reach at the moment. The song was interrupted by what sounded like wood scraping on the concrete floor, along with metallic clinking. The singing resumed, and a seed of worry that had been steadily growing in Celestia bloomed in fear of what was happening. Unable to stand not knowing any longer, Celestia slowly lifted her head a tiny bit, opening her eyes slightly to catch a glimpse of her captor. It was a human girl, though that was about as much as the Princess was able to discern since her back was turned to her as she fiddled with something on a small fold up table. And then she saw that in her hand was a long, smooth knife. Polished almost to perfection, the blade glistened brightly in the flickering yellow light, and looked sharp enough to carve flesh from bone with no trouble. More knives of various sizes and shapes were on the table. Celestia felt the blood drain from her face as she realized what was happening, or what was going to happen. Her heart started to beat frantically in her chest, and it was all she could do to keep herself from panicking. As she looked at the knives, Celestia realized that there might still be a way for her to escape. She just needed to somehow get a hold of one of those blades to cut the rope holding her wrists together. That required the girl either leave getting close enough for Celestia to hopefully subdue using only her legs. She did not put too much faith in either of those possibilities, but still Celestia knew it was her only hope. The girl continued to sort through the knives until she gasped, startling Celestia a little bit as she said quietly to herself, "Shoot! Forgot the bucket." The girl turned her head to look at Celestia, and the Princess quickly let her head drop back down, hoping her ruse would work as the girl added, "Hmm, I might need two for you. You're a big one after all." Celestia did not like the sound of that all, but at the moment all she could really think about was the girls voice. Like the unnamed song she was humming just a moment ago, there was something so familiar about it. She put it out of her mind for the time being as the sound of the girls footsteps began to recede in the distance, and the girl said in a joking tone, "Don't go anywhere!" before shutting the door behind her, leaving Celestia in dim solitude once more. Once again, all was quiet. Feeling it was safe for the time being, Celestia almost could not even believe her luck as she looked at the tray of knives and other cutting tools. Oddly enough she even saw what looked like an ice cream scooper as well. Pulling against her restraints, making them go as far as they would allow her to, Celestia reached as far as she could with her foot to try and loop it around the table. It felt like her wrists were about to break as Celestia as the rope dug into her skin, but she refused to let a little discomfort get the best of her. Her pain was finally rewarded when her foot gained purchase on the table. Careful to keep an ear out for the girls eventual return, Celestia proceeded to pull the table towards her. She winced and froze when it produced a harsh wooden screech on the concrete floor. Celestia waited for a very brief moment to see if she had been found out, and breathed a sigh of relief when she did not hear the sound of approaching footsteps. Finally the table was close enough for Celestia to reach up with her leg, and before long she was able to make one of the knives slide off, where it fell to the floor with a sharp clang that Celestia quickly silenced by stamping her foot on it, allowing her to slide it over to her bound hands. Freedom was now only a matter of cutting through the rope without injuring herself. Knowing that her captor could return at any moment, Celestia set to work. As she was carefully cutting them, made all the more difficult since they were behind her, Celestia was startled when a distant noise reached her ears, causing her to drop the knife. Frantically Celestia pulled on the now weakened rope as hard as she could, her adrenaline fueled fear adding to her effort until finally, with a snap, her arms were free. Sparing only a second to rub her sore wrists, Celestia quickly snatched up the blade and darted over to the door. As she reached for the door knob she detected the sound of footsteps approaching. Pulling her hand back, Celestia moved to the side of the door. Her fingers clenched around the knifes handle, and she could feel her heart racing rapidly as the footsteps drew closer and closer, until finally the door opened and the girl stepped inside. Hidden just behind the open door, Celestia heard the girl say, "Okay! I'm back! Here to-" Her sentence was cut short when she finally saw that Celestia was no longer tied to the water heater, and the two orange plastic buckets she was carrying fell from her grip. Seeing an opportunity, Celestia slowly inched out of hiding, blade raised as she prepared to plunge into the girls back. She would have preferred not to have resort to this, but she knew that she simply could not take the risk. Unfortunately Celestia failed to notice the shadow she was casting from the light outside. The girl however immediately took notice of it, and she whirled around to face Celestia, allowing the Princess to see her face for the first time. When their eyes made contact, Celestia frozen to the spot as she looked into the girls large blue eyes, filled with surprise and an almost manic hunger. It was then that Celestia realized why this individual seemed so familiar to her, when she knew for a fact that she had never met this person before. "Pinkie?" Celestia had much difficulty associating that name with the girl before. She looked very much like a skeleton with faded pink skin stretched over her bones. Her hair had grown into wiry mess, filthy and unkempt for what must have weeks or even months. Her eyes however still possessed the same intensity that Celestia had seen in the mare of the same name. There was no joy in them however. They had become a twisted parody of what they were before, filled with hunger and blood lust, and that frightened Celestia in a way that she had never felt before. When she spoke her name Pinkie suddenly stiffened and her breath caught in her throat, as though the word itself had been a physical blow to her. The change in her demeanor did not last however, and the girls face morphed into an expression of rage and anger as she lunged at Celestia. The Princess was caught off guard by the sudden attack, and she found herself knocked onto her back while Pinkie repeatedly struck with balled fists, which Celestia tried to block. Shoving Pinkie off of her, causing her to fall on her back, Celestia tried to get away. Before she could go more than a few feet she felt bony fingers wrap around her ankles, causing her to fall back down again and the knife to be knocked from her hand. Celestia felt herself being tugged and pulled backwards across the concrete floor, and she kicked and thrashed wildly in a desperate attempt to free herself from Pinkies vice like grip. Her foot connected with what she guessed was the girls face, and she felt the pressure on her ankles disappear. Celestia dared not look back as she stood up, retrieved her weapon, and ran as fast as she could down the hall. The whole time Celestia was trying to navigate her way out of strange building she found herself inside of, constantly on the look out for any sort of exit, all she could really think about at the moment was Pinkie,or at least some twisted version of her, and the more she thought about it, the more it terrified her that the human equivalent of one the happiest mares she knew was trying to kill her. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible, but at the moment she was lost in a maze of high shelves with numerous cardboard boxes stacked on them. She had almost no sense of direction in this place with a deranged human girl on her tail. Celestia's heart felt like it was actively trying to break its way out of her chest as she sprinted, glancing behind her every so often to make sure that Pinkie was not immediately behind her, almost expecting to see the pink face of her pursuer at any moment. As she turned a corner Celestia saw a shaft of light, indicating either a door or a window. She dashed for, and when she reached it she found it was a dirty window. When she looked at what was outside however, she felt her hopes sink when she saw that it was high above the pavement below, possibly three whole floors, with nothing to break her descent should she choose to use it, and she doubted being able to walk away from a fall like that in the body she was in. Just then Celestia heard the sound of bare footsteps rapidly approaching her position. Moving as quickly as she could while making as little noise as possible, Celestia hurried away to find an alternate means of escape that did not involve breaking every bone in her body. However the sound continued to draw closer and closer no matter how swiftly she moved. Unsure what else to do, Celestia laid down on the floor and rolled underneath one of the shelves, making sure nothing was sticking out as she waited with her heart lodged in her throat, beating so loud in her ears she thought it would give her away. Seconds passed in this manner, when Celestia finally caught sight of the bare feet of Pinkie pass by, mere inches away from where she was hiding. In spite of her terror, Celestia could not help but notice that the skin around her ankles was covered in various scars indicated she had been confined by rope, possibly shackles in the past, and she felt a small amount of pity as she imagined all of the things she had endured. Eventually the girls feet passed out of her sight, yet Celestia still waited a little bit bit before she dared to move out of her hiding spot. Careful to make as little noise as possible, Celestia slid out from underneath the shelves, keeping a vigilant eye pointed in the direction Pinkie went in case she decided to come back. Realizing that her hand was cramping from how tightly she was holding the knife, Celestia loosened her grip slightly and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself before resuming her search for an exit. It did not long however for Celestia to realize that she was hopelessly lost in this labyrinth of shelves and boxes. No matter where she went or which direction she picked she would find that she had somehow found a dead end or gone in a complete circle. Every time this happened she always expected to find Pinkie standing there waiting for her. This thankfully had not happened yet, but Many times Celestia swore she could someone rummaging around near by. After entire minutes without making any headway, Celestia forced herself to stop before she started to panic and any sense of rational thought abandoned her completely, and she was able to calm down enough for her to try to think of an alternate strategy. It was then that she realized that this place was organized, perhaps purposefully by Pinkie herself, like a maze. To solve it she needed to get a birds eye view of it. A course of action decided upon, Celestia began to scale the side of the shelves while holding the knife between her teeth. Within moments Celestia found herself at the top, where she stood precariously between two twelve twenty foot drops on either side as she quickly scanned for an exit. Within moments, the Princess caught sight of a sign hanging from the ceiling that said in green lettering "EXIT", and to her immense relief the the path to it did appear to be too complicated. Just as she was about to climb down a disturbance reached her ears, and she turned around to see what it was. Alarm immediately shot through her when she saw that Pinkie had also gotten the idea to climb on the shelves, and was now leaping over the gaps between them to get to her. Panicking, Celestia threw her weapon at Pinkie in an attempt to slow. It was only after it missed her target cmpletely did Celestia realize that she had just deprived herself of her only weapon. If Luna were here, she would have been giving Celestia quite the earful for making such a mistake. Quickly memorizing the path she needed to take, Celestia clambered down as quickly as she could, almost losing her grip along the way. As soon as she was on solid ground again she broke into a full on sprint, her heart racing in anticipation of being caught, until at last she rounded the final corner. But instead of an exit, all she found was a dead end. However. A quick glance above confirmed this, as Celestia could not see the exit sign anywhere, and she realized that she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. However Celestia noticed that along the wall to her left was a double door that was blocked off by a collection of cardboard boxes. Knowing that she had no other option except to turn back, Celestia began to remove them, either by shoving or throwing them to the side. Just when she had removed enough of them to allow her entry, the sound of bare feet slapping on the concrete floor drew her attention, and she saw Pinkie skid around the corner, holding a rusty axe in her hands. Celestia noticed that her eyes were wild and frenzied when their gazes locked, like those of a rabid animal. Their eyes remained locked on each other for barely a moment before Celestia forced her way through the door just as Pinkie bolted towards her, axe raised as she uttered a hellish, high pitched scream that turned the Princess' blood to ice. Celestia was just barely able to squeeze through before the blade nearly decapitated her. From there she frantically pushed the locks at the top of the door in the slots just as a loud bang echoed from the other side, accompanied by enraged incoherent screaming. Hoping the door would hold long enough for her to find another escape, Celestia turned away from the door, only to be greeted by a gruesome sight as an invisible wall of death assaulted her nose so hard that it was like she had been struck in the face by a hammer. Unable to cover her nose quickly enough, Celestia looked around with wide eyes at the cafeteria filled with corpses. There were easily more than a few dozen, probably a hundred, each one arranged to sit upright at the tables, positioned in such ways that it looked like they were having a casual conversation with each other. Were it not for their appearance, Celestia would have thought that they were still alive. The fact that dead rotting bodies, some with a little bit of flesh left on their skeletons, had been arranged in such a way created an extremely uneasy feeling in Celestia that she had never experienced before, like the people here never really died, instead leaving their remains to carry on for them. Finding it incredibly difficult to resist the immense urge to vomit, Celestia forced herself to walk forward through the suffocating miasma of death, trying not to notice how each rotting figure seemed to be smiling at her as she passed by, like they were beckoning for her to join them in their festivities. Before she had gone more than a few feet, the clamor of doors slamming open made her turn to see that Pinkie had finally broken through, her right arm covered in fresh blood and broken glass. The girl was now glaring at Celestia with such hatred and fury that the Princess felt she would have perished on the spot. There was nothing left for her to do Celestia realized as she backed away while Pinkie stalked towards her. There was no way she would survive this encounter. With nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide, Celestia was trapped with nothing left to do but try to put as much distance between her and Pinkie before the axe buried itself in her neck. As she backed away, Celestia she accidentally bumped into one of the sitting corpses, causing it to fall over onto the floor. That seemed to cause Pinkie to completely lose it as she screamed at the top of her lungs, "No! Stop that! Don't you dare hurt them!" Fearing the girls' wrath, Celestia quickly skirted around the body and continued to back away, until she felt her hands brush against the opposite wall, expecting to feel axe blade any moment now. She was caught off guard by what she saw instead. Instead of finishing her off, Pinkie was trying to make the corpse that Celestia had knocked over sit up again. Her blue eyes were wide with concern, and she seemed to be on the the verge of panic as she muttered to herself over and over, "It's okay, I can fix. Please don't sad, I can fix it." The corpse was of course in no state to cooperate, and every time Pinkie released her hold of it it would start to topple over again. Celestia could only look on with morbid curiosity as Pinkie futilely attempted to prop the body into a sitting position, not even noticing the filth accumulating on her hands. In her efforts to help her "friend", Pinkie unintentionally knocked over another corpse with her elbow, causing it to fall over as well. Unable to catch it in time, it landed on the floor with a sickening wet crunch, and Pinkie was beginning to hyperventilate as she scrambled to correct her error. As she watched, an idea popped into Celestia's head. Pinkie seemed to be ignoring the Princess entirely as she quietly shuffled over to one of the tables. Grabbing onto the edge, while trying to ignore the fact that she had to push past the sitting corpses to do so, Celestia lofted the table, flipping it over and sending multiple bodies to the floor. The commotion did not go unnoticed by Pinkie, and she shrieked as she rushed over. She was so focused on trying to fix the mess that she did not even notice Celestia until she had flipped another table. At this point Pinkie was shaking and shivering so much she was rendered almost immobile, and Celestia stopped to see that she was now crying loudly as tears streamed out of her bloodshot eyes. Grabbing onto one of the corpses by the shoulders, Pinkie seemed to be trying to smile as she looked into its decayed face. "S-see?" she cried. "I-it's okay!I can still fix it! I can-" Pinkie stopped when the corpses head suddenly tilted backward, and and audible snap could be heard as the flesh holding it in place gave way, and the head fell to the ground with a hollow thud. Pinkie was frozen to the spot as she looked blankly at the stump of the neck. Eventually the body itself slid out of her grip, falling backward onto the head it once possessed. A tense silence ensued, in which Celestia found herself caught between her desire to run and her own curiosity. At last Pinkie moved, looking around slowly at her surroundings as though noticing it for the first time. Her eyes were no longer filled with malice or hunger. Instead Celestia saw in them pure terror. "I. . . I just. . . " she said, her voice sounding hollow and empty. "I just didn't want you to be sad anymore." Deciding that she had stuck around long enough, Celestia slowly inched away towards the door, keeping a careful eye on Pinkie. The girl made no move to pursue her. She did not even seem to notice as Celestia exited the room and closed the door, once again resuming her search for the exit. She frequently checked behind her to make sure she was not being followed, all the while wondering what had happened to make that poor girl act the way she did. What had broken her so much that it would drive her to kill others. Celestia could only guess, but deep down she was not sure she really wanted to know. Suddenly a loud sound, unlike anything Celestia had ever heard before, tore through the air, shattering the silence completely, causing her to jump in alarm. To her it was almost like a cannon had gone off somewhere. For minutes Celestia completely still, waiting for something else to happen. After the crack nothing else happened however, and Celestia moved on, all the while wondering what in the world it had been. As she walked she finally came across what she had been looking for. The door was here, with the exit sign hanging above. With some effort Celestia was able to force the door open, overcoming the rusted hinges, ad stepped out into the open. She was outside. Celestia almost felt like crying at the fact that she had finally managed to escape, and she took in a deep, shuddering breath as she gripped the dust covered rails of the fire escape balcony. It did not matter that the scenery was still as bleak as it was when she first arrived. All that mattered to her i this moment was that she was finally free. It was long however before she was eventually reminded of the reason she had even come here , and it came crashing down upon her like a weighted stone on her heart and mind. "Sunset." Celestia still had not found her. Celestia did not even know where she even was in relation to the portal. A wave of hopelessness began to descend on Celestia at this realization, along with thoughts of Sunset being somewhere out there, scared and alone and still waiting for her. A little while ago Celestia had a direction, but back then she still had her guards with her. Now she did not have the luxary of relying on them anymore, thanks to her own actions. Not to mention she also had no idea how much time had passed while she had been held captive. For all she knew the portal could have already closed, trapping her here for another thirty moons. All of this combined was enough to make Celestia fall to her knees, her earlier feeling of relief vanishing completely to be replaced by despair. Resting her forehead on the rail, Celestia began to weep as tears streamed out of her eyes before falling through the grates to the ash covered ground three stories below. She then looked upward, staring at the grey sky with bloodshot eyes. "Please," she whispered quietly in a pleading voice. "I. . . I can't do this anymore. . . I want to, but I. . . I just can't." Letting her gaze drift down again, Celestia inhaled deeply as she glared forlornly at the buildings in the distance. She saw that a number of them appeared to have been torched, while others had just collapsed completely, leaving little more than great piles of rubble where they had once stood. As she looked out onto the bleak city, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Squinting to get a better look, Celestia tried to make out what it was. There was something on the side of one of the buildings in the distance, although it was initially hard to make out through her bleary eyes. Wiping at them with her sleeve, Celestia looked again, and saw that what she was looking at was a six pointed star, designed to look as though it were flying with white streaks trailing behind. With a jolt, Celestia realized exactly what she was looking, and felt a small bit of hope return to her as she stood up, not caring about the dust that had accumulated on her body when he was sitting down. She quickly memorized the general layout of the city as best as she could from her vantage point, and then began to climb her way down the ladder attached to the balcony as quickly as she possible. In her haste she almost fell down a number of times, until finally her foot touched the pavement. Choosing her direction, Celestia sped off, the prospect of finding Sunset spurring her onward.