Awakening

by punisher143

Cold and Shadow

One thing that can definitely prove to be an advantage to having your own workspace is that nobody would be able to intrude on you. This holds double true when your workspace is the deepest recesses of somepony’s mind. Here, the alter ego of one Twilight Sparkle was checking on her other half.

“She seems to be sleeping soundly enough. There’s some… odd thoughts, but that shouldn’t be of any concern.” She opened her eyes to look at the space she called home. After a second she nodded and stood up. “She should be fine without me for a moment.”

She started walking through the space until she reached an ‘edge’ and, with a small hop, dove into the abyss below her. She closed her eyes and let instinct guide her.

Something that the Element bearers weren’t aware of was that their connection went deeper than the conscious friendship that they all shared, and during this fall she could feel the inherit feelings of those connections. First was something akin to a thrill and a drop in her gut, undoubtedly Rainbow Dash and that adventurous core of hers. Although she wouldn’t admit it the pegasus fascinated her to no end, though she didn’t know why.

After that feeling passed she was overcome with a warm and soothing care, like a mother holding a foal, which was followed by a pleasant burning sensation and then something akin to soothing water wash over her.

Then she felt it, the feeling as if a thousand bubbles were tickling her skin. Once she felt that she imagined a floor underneath her hooves, then just as suddenly she felt the hard surface underneath her and she opened her eyes.

Then she had to work to keep her jaw from dropping at what she found herself in. She stood in front of several shelves holding various items, from cleaning supplies to candy to, of all things, detailed manuals of how to sort items on store shelves. She tapped her hooves against the tiled floor, which alternated between white and black in a checkerboard fashion. All of this added up to one conclusion.

“Why am I in a dollar store?”

“What do you think?” The sudden voice shook her out of her confusion. She started to head in the direction of the voice when another one spoke up.

“I don’t care, that one I guess.” The other voice she definitely recognized. She turned into an aisle and saw two pink ponies next to each other and discussing the advantages over two rolls of paper towels. One of them spots her and immediately gasps.

“Twilight!” she shouted, threw the paper towels in the air for her counterpart to catch, and dove at the purple unicorn to pull her into a crushing hug. “What are the odds that you go to the same dollar store as me?! Isn’t that amazing Pinkamena?!”

“Not really,” Pinkamena replied, “There is only one in all of Ponyville.”

“Oh you’re no fun.”

“Can’t…breathe…” Pinkie looked down at the unicorn in her grasp, who was now grasping at the hooves hugging her throat.

“Oh, sorry,” Pinkie said letting her friend go. While the unicorn caught her breath she noticed her eyes and added, “Wow Twilight, your eyes are really red. You need some eye drops.” The unicorn froze for a minute before smiling the most forced smile she ever gave.

“Yeah, that’s actually why I’m here. You can’t beat the quality of… dollar store eye drops.” She chuckled nervously and glanced at Pinkamena as she added, “So, can I talk to your friend alone for a minute Pinkie?”

“Pinkamena? Sure, go ahead. I still have to decide which paper towels to get anyway.” Pinkie gave a large smile and turned back to the paper towels. Pinkamena sighed and looked at their guest.

“Come on, I know a place we can talk,” Pinkamena said and started leading the way down some of the aisles of the dollar store. Eventually the pair stopped in front of a section of writing quills and faced each other.

“This should be good. Pinkie doesn’t pay attention once we’re away a bit,” Pinkamena explained as she picked up and examined a quill.

“Ok,” Cheshire replied before asking the burning question on her mind. “Why are we in a Dollar Store?!”

In hindsight, she probably could have gone without screaming it.

“Why is that your- oh, never mind. Pinkie just has this dream every now and then; not even she knows why she has it. I think it happens when she’s thinking about buying party supplies so… Dollar store.”

Cheshire remained quiet for a moment, taking in the explanation, before she sighed and said, “Fine. As for why I’m here, I just wanted to see how Pinkie was doing. Her condition is a constant source of worry for Twilight and Rainbow.”

Pinkamena nodded in agreement and looked around her for a moment. “Well, if the Dollar Store is any indication, she’s definitely getting better. Not back to her old self, but better.”

“Any improvement’s good,” Cheshire concluded. Before she could continue a bell rang and a voice shouted to everyone in the store.

“Attention everypony! We are having a brief half off sale on potpourri for only the next half hour!”

“That’s a good deal,” Pinkamena stated and started toward the potpourri section.

“Why would there be half off sales at a dollar store?” Cheshire asked before wisely shaking the question off and turning the pink pony to face her again. “Listen Pinkamena, before I go I need to check something with you.”

“Ok, what is it?”

“You can… travel around like I can, right?”

“You mean can I invade the privacy of our friends? Yes, I can.”

“Don’t be smart. That’s good though, because I need you to spread a message to the others.”

“What, you can’t do it?”

“No.” Cheshire chose to ignore the pointed look that Pinkamena gave her. “Twilight and Rainbow are north of Equestria, looking for something that probably doesn’t even exist. They’ll probably be back down in a couple of weeks.”

“And, you want me to…?”

“Spread the word subtly that they’re fine for now.”

“Along with keeping Pinkie sane?” Cheshire nodded and Pinkamena sighed and asked, “And how am I supposed to do that?”

“I don’t know, think of something. You have full access to her dreams after all.”

“You can’t seriously be asking me to do that. How am I-“

“Pinkamena!” The sound of the other pink pony shouting and running up to them stopped them dead in their tracks. “Potpourri! Did you hear?!”

“I heard!” Pinkamena replied with equal excitement, “That’s a really good deal!”

“It is! We should get some for Sugarcube Corner!”

“That’s an amazing idea! I’ll meet you there!”

“Yay, and Twilight!” Cheshire perked up just in time to catch a small box that Pinkie tossed her way, “There are some eye drops for you. They’re already paid for, so don’t worry about that. You really need them. Goodbye!” And with that Pinkie turned and started trotting away.

“I don’t need eye drops!” Cheshire managed to shout back at her, “The color is inherent and doesn’t affect my sight at all!” Pinkamena stifled a laugh from next to her causing Cheshire to turn to her and exclaim, “And you! I thought you were the serious one here!”

“Hey I can have fun if I want to,” Pinkamena answered with a frown.

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really. And before you say anything, yes I will do what you asked. You’re just going to bother me until I do it anyway right?”

“Right. Well with that done, I should be getting back to Twilight. I’m keeping the eye drops by the way.”

“Sure, go ahead. It is a gift after all. See you whenever.” Cheshire nodded and, with the eye drops trailing behind in a magic aura, started to leave the dollar store. “Oh, and watch out for the mop!”

“What mop?” Cheshire asked glancing back at Pinkamena for a second before looking ahead of her to find a mop head really close to her face. “Uh…”

“I’M A TALKING MOP!”

“AAAAAAA-“

---

“-AAAAAAAAH!”

All in all, Twilight decided, screaming at the top of your lungs and ending up with a face full of snow was not the best way to wake up.

“What’s going on?! Who’s yelling?!” At least Rainbow Dash was up as well, thankfully not swinging something sharp around. When she saw Twilight lying in the snow, she stopped just long enough to process it before falling over laughing.

“Laugh it up Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said bitterly as she pulled herself from the snow and shook off any that stuck to her. After a moment Rainbow Dash managed to regain control of herself.

“Right right. So what was that about?”

“I don’t know, but I’m certain Pinkie Pie has something to do with it.”

“Pinkie Pie? Why?”

“It just feels like something she’d do.” Twilight looked back at Rainbow and, once she saw the strange look she was being given, shook her head and said, “Anyway, we should think about moving again when we’re able.” Thankfully Rainbow only nodded in agreement and the two set about cleaning up their camp site.

“So, what’d you dream of to make you scream like that?” Rainbow Dash asked once everything was settled. Afterwards Twilight gave her the strangest look, almost staring right past her. “Um… are you ok Twilight?”

The shook Twilight out of her stupor and, with a shake of her head, just said, “Let’s just hurry and find that temple ok?”

“Um, ok. I’ll see what I can find from the air ok?” Twilight nodded and watched as Rainbow took off into the air.

“So we never tell her about the mop that may or may not have been behind her?”

‘I think that just means I need more sleep.’

---

Almost half an hour and half a round trip around a mountain later, Rainbow returned to Twilight and landed next to the unicorn who didn’t even break stride.

“There’s not really much around here,” the pegasus said gesturing her head to some nearby mountains, “Just mountains and snow. Are you sure what we’re looking for is around here?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered and looked at her companion. “The three tribes existed thousands of years ago. That along with the constant blizzards from the Windigos would have buried any buildings under snow and ice.” Twilight stopped and pointed at a snowfield at the foot of the mountain and added, “That field right there is the approximate location of the southernmost Earth Tribe settlement.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and asked, “We’re going to have to do a lot of digging aren’t we?”

“Hopefully not,” Twilight answered with giggle before stopping abruptly and looking over her shoulder. Rainbow gave her a look before following her gaze.

“What’s up?”

“I still feel like we’re being watched,” Twilight replied, her eyes carefully going over the ridges behind her.

“Watched? By what?” The question hung in the air between them until Twilight shook her head slightly.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Let’s keep an eye open though, ok?”

“Sure thing. So, want to hop on and look around down there?” Twilight nodded and climbed onto Rainbow Dash’s back and getting a good hold before they started gliding down to the field. They looked around on the way until they reached the bottom and very nearly landed in an ice chasm.

“Whoa, that looks really deep,” Rainbow commented while looking over the edge of the chasm. Her hoof nudged a bit of snow off the edge and it disappeared into the darkness.

“If I were to guess, I’d say it goes down to the original bottom,” Twilight said as she joined Rainbow, “And with blizzards happening all the time, who knows how deep down that is.”

“So don’t fall in. Gotcha.” Rainbow Dash carefully backed away from the edge, stretched her wings out a little, and looked around the valley they found themselves in. “So, which way from here?”

“From what I read, the Southernmost Earth Tribe village, the temple should be to the northwest,” Twilight answered and pointed in a direction. “It should only be a couple day’s hike there and I KNOW I JUST HEARD SOMETHING JUST NOW!” Twilight suddenly shouted and turned around to look behind her.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Rainbow Dash said looking behind her as well. There was nothing but the vast snowfield that was there when they landed.

“Are you sure? I really did hear something just now.”

“Maybe you’re just a little jumpy from earlier? Whatever you dreamed of must have been intense.”

“I hope that’s all it is. Maybe we should get moving again, daylight is burning after all.” Twilight started walking while Rainbow Dash took flight.

“Watch out for chasms Twilight,” Rainbow called to her before flying ahead of her. Twilight nodded to herself and shivered a little when the wind picked up a little.

---

“So, there’s more than one kind of amnesia?” Rainbow Dash asked in continuation of the most recent discussion she was having with Twilight.

“Yes, there are at least two,” Twilight replied with a nod, “I would argue that there’s a good variety of variation, but the two are the most important parts.”

“One of those is not remembering things right? Look out, there’s a chasm.” The duo turned away from the crevice and continued along it. There was an awful lot of them, something not lost on the pair.

“Yes, that would be Retrograde Amnesia. It does happen, but it’s rarer than Anterograde Amnesia.”

“And that’s…?”

“That’s when you are unable to form memories after you hit your head. You’ll still be able to remember everything that happened before the event, you just won’t be able to remember things that happened recently.”

“So… it would be possible to hit your head, get that amnesia, and then wake up in a restaurant with no idea how you got there?”

“Yes, that is one way that could happen. Though from what I read real amnesia isn’t as temporary as books make them seem to be, so it’s more likely you’ll end up living with constant short term memory loss.”

“Man, I can’t even imagine what it’s like living like that. Can you?” Twilight shook her head slightly and, once they reached the end to the chasm they were walking around the pair of them paused for a minute to look around their surroundings. “So… do you know where we are?”

“I… was following you…?” Twilight replied with an awkward smile.

The resulting scream of frustration Rainbow gave off could probably be heard for quite a ways away.

---

About an hour later Twilight and Rainbow were looking over the map of the area. “I think we’re here,” Twilight said pointing to a plain northwest of where they last were.

“You think?” Rainbow asked.

“Honestly I’m still really tired from walking all night and all this snow and mountains are starting to look the same to me.” Twilight sighed and asked, “Aren’t you feeling tired at all Rainbow?”

“Yeah, and a little stressed. There’s nothing around up here and I think your paranoia is starting to get to me because I’m hearing things too.” The wind picked up at that moment and Twilight and Rainbow shivered both from the cold and the sound the wind carried.

“That… was just the wind right?” Twilight asked as she picked up and rolled up the map.

“Yeah… I think,” Rainbow replied. Both ponies exchanged glances and Twilight quickly stashed the map in her bags.

“We should keep moving. We’ll stop to rest after another hour, ok?” Rainbow nodded in agreement and followed behind Twilight. After a couple of steps she looked over her shoulder and, seeing nothing but snow again, decided to take flight and scout again.

---

After a while of following Rainbow Dash, Twilight found herself standing before the connecting valley to where they wanted to go. Before she could go further Rainbow Dash landed in front of her with a sour look.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“There’s a large blizzard ahead,” Rainbow answered gesturing her head behind her. “From what I could see, the whole thing is covering the next plain.”

“Oh that’s great. It could take a while before it clears up.” Twilight looked around and asked, “Do you think we should stop for now?”

“If you think we should. I can keep going for a while, it’s just that blizzard is… not right.” Twilight looked up at the sky and closed her eyes in thought. After a moment she nodded to herself.

“Let’s keep going. If it’s really as bad as you say, we’ll stay the night here and hope it clears up.” Rainbow nodded and the pair started walking through the canyon. Once they got about halfway through they started noticing the wind picking up and it wasn’t much farther that their vision started to degrade from the snow. They tightened their cloaks and pressed on as far as they could before they could barely see a few feet in front of them.

“See what I mean?” Rainbow called out in the direction she thought Twilight was in, “There’s no way we’re getting through this safely. I can barely see in front of me!” Through the whiteout Rainbow saw the purple glow of Twilight’s horn and felt herself getting pulled towards it. Once she could make out Twilight through the snow the glow disappeared and she heard her shout over the wind.

“I think you’re right. I can only imagine what it’s like further in if it’s this bad here. Let’s turn back.” Twilight thought she saw Rainbow nod through the snow and they both started to turn back when they heard that sound again.

It sounded like the wind that surrounded them, but it also sounded more… animalistic. For the briefest moment she thought she saw something move through the storm.

“Did you see that?” Rainbow asked moving closer to Twilight.

“Yeah, I did. I’m not too keen on meeting whatever that was, so…”

“The blizzard?”

“It does seem like the better option right now.” So, grudgingly, Twilight and Rainbow started walking away from the noise and further into the blizzard. Soon they exited the valley into the snowfield they had been advancing toward and, for the longest while, they stumbled through the snow.

“This isn’t good.” Twilight only had to look slightly to the side to see her doppelganger’s phantom next to her looking around warily.

‘I agree, everything has gone bad really fast,’ Twilight thought just before she had to hold her ground against a strong gust.

“It’s not just that. This storm isn’t natural. It would be for the best if we got out of this as fast as we can.” Twilight moved a little closer to Rainbow and nodded in agreement. It might have been her but it sounded like something was getting closer. “Oh, and watch out for that hole.”

“What ho-AH!” Just then, the ground gave way under Twilight’s hooves and she and Rainbow fell through the ice. She landed side first and felt the air leave her lungs, just the first of several hard knocks she would take on her way down. After a number of these Twilight soon found herself stopped, face first into some snow followed by Rainbow landing on her back.

“Ouch, that was a long fall,” Rainbow commented and sat up, “Are you ok Twilight?”

“Rainbow, get off of me,” Was Twilight’s reply before lifting Rainbow off of her with her magic and pulling herself free of the snow. Once she could see clearly again, Twilight gave a sour look at Rainbow, who rubbed the back of neck and muttered out a sorry. Twilight waved it off before standing up and looking around where they ended up.

The answer was a rather worrying ice cave, with the way they came in a darkened slope above them. The two of them shivered in the cold of the cave and Rainbow had to ruffle her wings to get some heat in them.

“To be fair, I did warn you about the hole,” Cheshire’s voice echoed through Twilight’s head and she couldn’t help the annoyed look she gave herself. Thankfully Rainbow nudged Twilight to grab her attention.

“So, what now?” she asked looking the way they fell. “I think I can get us back up, but I kind of lost track of how far we fell.” Twilight nodded and lit her horn to see in the darkness and saw there was a path through the cave.

“I want to see where this goes. We’ll go back up when we’ve seen, ok?” Rainbow shrugged and started following Twilight as she made her way through the ice cave. Twilight lit her horn to illuminate the passageways they were walking through. It took a few minutes of trudging through the cave to find a split in the path, with them deciding to continue down the right side.

“You should watch out for weak ice and water. The last thing we need is hypothermia down here.”

‘Thanks for the advice. If you had been faster on that earlier, we wouldn’t have fallen down here.’

“Glad to know your friendly outlook is still going strong. Well when you’re done stewing, maybe you can help me with something I’ve been wondering.”

‘And what’s that?’

“Why is there a path here?” The question brought Twilight to a halt, Rainbow Dash stopping to avoid running into her, and took a closer look at the cave.

“Why is it like this?”

“Huh?” Rainbow voiced behind her.

“We landed in a more open area when we came down here right?” Rainbow Dash shrugged in response and Twilight ran a hoof along the wall. “Why did the close off like this and so smoothly too.”

“I think you’re overthinking things again Twilight.”

“I hope so, but… maybe we should go back now. I don’t like this.”

“No problem,” Rainbow agreed with a nod. So the two turned around and started back the way they came until they reached the intersection they came from. Twilight stopped and looked at the path they didn't go down and, after a moment sighed loudly and walked down it.

"Twilight, what's up?" Rainbow asked and followed Twilight.

"Call it curiosity. If there's nothing down there we'll go back, but..."

"OK, I mean it's not like there's anything fun up top." The walk through the second tunnel was about as eventful as the first, though it was shorter when they found a slope going down. "Oh come on, another one?!"

"Not too surprising, this whole cave system must be a maze. I wonder how far down this goes."

"I'm not going down that, not after the last one," Rainbow said.

“I’m not to keen on it either,” Twilight replied with a sigh and looked behind them, “Maybe there’s another way through?”

“The only other ways are the paths we came from.” Rainbow scooted closer to the edge and peered down the slope. “Dang it’s dark down there. Do you know a spell to light it up down there?”

“All the light spells I know are area spells, certainly not enough to light to light all the way down.” Twilight closed her eyes and thought deeply.

“Ugh, this isn’t going to be fun,” Rainbow suddenly said and very carefully started edging down the slope.

“Rainbow, what are you doing?!” Twilight hurried over to Rainbow, intent on pulling her up, but forgot a key part about momentum on ice; it’s hard to stop where you want. This led to her running into Rainbow and knocking them both down the slope.

The second fall of the day wasn’t much better than the first, though at least they were ready for it up until they stopped at the bottom. They took a second to collect themselves. "That wasn't my best idea. Sorry Rainbow," Twilight said.

“I’m getting really sick of sliding down ice now,” Rainbow said as she started rubbing a particularly sore wing.

“Well, if it happens once it won’t happen again, but if it happens twice there will be a third time,” Twilight said getting up on her hooves, barely noticing the echoes around her. She redid her light spell and looked around asking, “So, do you any idea where we are now?”

“It’s really dark in here. Do you know anything brighter than that?”

“Yes, just one second.” Twilight closed her eyes in concentration and built up magic power. With the momentary brightness Rainbow Dash saw they weren’t in an ice cave anymore. She was about to say something when Twilight finished her spell and launched an orb of light into the air. Then they got a better look at the area they found themselves in.

The slope had deposited them in a chamber made of stone, covered in centuries worth of ice. Long burned out torches lined the walls to the sides, the closest one Rainbow Dash went over to examine. Twilight slowly moved through the hall looking at the walls. All along them were depressions that probably would have been some kind of engravings a long time ago. Twilight felt a smile creep on her face as she thought about what this place could be.

“I don’t think we can get a fire started here,” Rainbow said walking over to Twilight. “If the wood isn't just gone it’s frozen over.”

“That’s ok, I don’t think we’ll be here for much longer,” Twilight replied turning to the pegasus.

“Are you serious?! Why don’t we rest up a little before doing anything else?”

“I didn’t mean like that. Don’t you know where we might be?”

“Nope.” Twilight, caught off guard by her friend’s blunt answer, stared for a minute before clearing her throat.

“Right, well. I think we might have found what we were looking for.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked looking around the room. “That’d be really convenient if it were.”

“Oh, like we’re strangers to finding very important things by pure coincidence,” Twilight said and started walking deeper into the room, Rainbow following behind at a slight hover.

“Guess you have a point. So what now?”

“That depends on where we are. There should be a room with an altar somewhere in here, so that should be what to look for.”

“And… what makes you think something like that will be here?” Rainbow asked. Twilight stopped walking and scrapped at the floor in embarrassment.

“…Daring Do,” she finally answered.

“…Sure, good enough for me. Want me to fly ahead?”

“No, I think we should stay together. Who knows how big this place could be.”

And so, they continued their trek in silence. It didn’t take long before they found a door into a hallway which Twilight, Rainbow, and their light source had to fit into. Twilight’s gaze constantly fell on the walls around them as they went. Occasionally they would find a room that may have served any number of purposes before the ages got to them. After a while they stopped to eat in one of these rooms. Twilight finished eating first and spent some time looking around the room.

“This is amazing, don’t you think Rainbow?” Twilight asked running a hoof across a counter set into the wall. “This place could be over a thousand years old and we’re the first ponies to find it! I have to remember to write down everything about this when I get the chance.”

“That’s great Twilight, but I’m really more concerned about the cold right now,” Rainbow said before sneezing. She got up and started moving around a little more to warm up and said, “Being this cold when it’s not even winter just isn’t right.”

“I’m sorry Rainbow. I could start a fire if we had the wood for it, but…”

“Yeah, I know.” Rainbow returned to where she left her food and finishing what she had left. “So, what do you think we’ll find in here, or is this a ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ thing?”

“The latter most likely,” Twilight said giving the room one last glance before turning to Rainbow. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” she answered having cleaned up whatever mess she had made and moving to the door with Twilight. Just before they left Twilight looked behind her and stared at a wall for a few moments before Rainbow shook her a little.

“Sorry, I thought I saw something,” was all she said before they continued on their way.

---

“Well, that isn’t good,” Rainbow Dash said pushing against the door. Despite looking like a normal wooden door, it had proven to be incredibly hard to open. Twilight and Rainbow had spent a minute trying to open the door before they gave up and rested against it. “It figures the one door we find would be locked huh?”

“Locked, frozen over probably, and I wouldn’t discount magically sealed given how elaborate this place has been so far. I would say at least that finding something like this is progress at least.” Twilight noticed the look Rainbow was giving her and asked, “What?”

“Magically sealed?” Twilight could only shrug in response, which Rainbow only sighed at before standing up and looking at the door again. “So, do you have any ideas on how to get past this that doesn’t involve backtracking?”

“Well, we could do the slow and methodical way where I melt the ice enough to open the door. That might take an hour or so.”

“Ugh, I don’t want to wait around in this cold!”

“Or we could do it your way and just knock the door down.”

“…How?”

“Well, with your speed and my magic, it should be enough to break through. Only one way to find out.”

“…I would have thought you’d be the first mare to want to leave this stuff alone.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll be sure to tell the monster chasing us to be careful with the building if it ever catches up with us. Do you want to knock down the door or not?”

“…Sure, why not.”

---

A couple of minutes later Rainbow and Twilight had successfully broken through their nemesis of the day, with Twilight on Rainbow’s back providing a shield while Rainbow rammed the door as hard as she could. When it gave they weren’t really ready for it and found themselves sprawled on the floor on the other side.

“I’m not going to lie, I could have thought that one through better,” Twilight said as she slowly sat up.

“Eh, if you don’t take a couple of knocks every now and then you can’t really call it living, right?” Rainbow said having already on her hooves and helping Twilight up. “Still haven’t gotten used to all that huh?”

“I guess not.” Twilight focused a little of her magic to keep the light orb bright while they looked around the new room. Just as Twilight had hoped, it was much larger than any of the rooms they had been in before. Rainbow Dash glided around the perimeter of the room while Twilight went to the center of the room. She smiled at what looked like an old bench of some kind; slightly frozen but not enough to be unusable. Rainbow will get her fire soon.

Rainbow landed next to her and motioned behind her. “There’s giant door not too far from here. It’s… glowing a little.”

“Glowing? How so?”

“I don’t know, it’s just glowing. I’ll show it to you.” Twilight nodded and followed Rainbow through the hall to the door. It was really more of a set of double doors that reached to the ceiling and, like Rainbow said, was glowing softly in along the edges and in toward the center. Twilight’s eyes ran over the door’s surface and tried her hardest to suppress her excitement.

“It’s magically sealed!” she exclaimed and looked at Rainbow, “I told you it’s possible.”

“Yeah, alright Twilight,” Rainbow said and started reaching for the door. “So how is it sealed?” she asked and got her answer when a small bolt of magic hit her hoof and knocked her on her back ten feet away. Twilight yelled out her name and hurried to her friend’s side, sighing in relief when she saw Rainbow was still breathing.

“I’m fine,” Rainbow replied as she sat up and started rubbing her leg, “My leg’s a little numb, but I’m fine.”

“That’s good. It could have been worse,” Twilight said and glanced back at the door. “They really didn’t want that door opened.”

“I could tell. So, what now?” Rainbow shook her leg a little and watched Twilight bite her lip in thought.

“Well, depending on what the seal is, I could undo it if I’m careful. It depends on what the seal actually is, how old it is, the skill of the caster, and-”

“So if you could do it, how long would it take,” Rainbow interrupted.

“A couple of hours, at best, if I can open it at all.” Rainbow looked annoyed at the answer, which Twilight could sympathize with. “I’ll see if I can get a fire going before that though. Don’t move and just baby your leg until it feels better.”

“No need to tell me twice,” Rainbow replied as Twilight walked off. “At least it wasn’t a wing.”

---

With a decent enough fire going, Rainbow couldn’t help the nap she must have taken while Twilight worked on the door. She woke up when Twilight gave a frustrated yell and joined Rainbow in sitting next to the fire. Rainbow yawned a little and asked, “Not going well?”

“I’m starting to think it’d be easier to dig through the walls around the door,” Twilight replied warming herself up.

“…But, wouldn’t the walls be-“

“YES THE WALLS WOULD BE AFFECTED TOO!” Twilight flopped on her side and felt content to stare at the flames in frustration.

“Maybe you need a break,” Rainbow said and looked around, “I mean, it’s hard to tell down here, but it feels like we’ve been up all day.”

“We probably have, and that is a good idea.” Twilight lifted her head enough to magically grab her saddlebags and position them to act as a pillow for her. After a moment of getting as comfortable as she could, Twilight said, “Wake me in the morning, ok Rainbow?”

“I… I’ll wake you up when I wake up.” Rainbow then lay back down and fell back to sleep. Twilight soon followed, with the crackle of the fire and Rainbow’s oddly loud snores to lull her.

---

A few hours later Twilight’s woke up, though her eyes were a vibrant orange rather than her normal violet. She looked over at Rainbow, who was still snoring away in her sleep, before standing up and feeding some wood into the dying fire.

‘I won’t have very long. I might as well see what we’re up against here.’ Twilight walked over to the door and looked over the seal as well as the work she had already got done. ‘A quad seal? That’s interesting for a structure this age. Wait, what’s that?’ She looked closer to a particular line that shouldn’t have been there, that connected the two sides of the seal to each other.

‘Why are you here? Maybe…’ She looked a little closer to the seal and smiled a little. ‘This is two double seals feeding into each other. Not as strong as a quad but easier to implement. So that means…’ She planted her hooves and let her horn up as she started working at the seal. The connector was more difficult to get a hold of than she thought, so the process of dispelling it took longer than she would have wanted. Even then, bit by bit, she was making progress.

After half an hour of work, the line had been completely dispelled and Twilight let out a breath. She looked at the remaining seals and nodded. ‘Those should be easier to get rid of. No time like the present.’ Just as she was about to, she heard a shuffling behind her. She turned around as soon as she heard it to find nothing but the fire and Rainbow Dash.

‘I think I’m done for now,’ she thought as she walked back to the fire, keeping both her eyes and ears open for anything that wasn’t her or Rainbow Dash.

---

Rainbow Dash woke up a little while later feeling about as well as one could after sleeping on stone. She rolled onto her stomach and stretched out any kinks she may have gotten while sleeping. With that done, she looked over at a still sleeping Twilight and started to nudge her awake. It only took two nudges before Twilight stirred awake with a groan.

“What time is it?” She asked getting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“I don’t know,” Rainbow replied and tried to get some warmth out of the dying fire, “I just woke up after all.”

“Right.” Twilight stood up and cast another light orb spell before turning to Rainbow. “Can you do me a favor and check the room one more time?”

“Sure, no problem.” Twilight nodded and, with a flick of her horn, tied the orb to Rainbow so it would follow her. “Why, you think that ghost from earlier is still around?”

“I don’t know. Just… make sure we’re alone, please?” Rainbow nodded and took off. Twilight meanwhile walked over to the door.

“Just so you know, I did some work on the door while you slept. It was-“

‘I know, I saw. Why do you think I’m having Rainbow check the room?’

“Prudent as always. Still, we should make sure she’s with us when we open the door.” The voice fell silent as Twilight looked up at the door and started working on the seals again.

“Please let this be worth it.”

Without the seals feeding into each other, it was much easier work to dispel them than before. By the time Rainbow Dash rejoined her she was almost done with the second one. The pegasus sat down and very slowly started drifting off while Twilight worked until she heard a massive clunk that made her jump.

“Yes, I did it!” Twilight shouted while hopping up and down in joy.

“What, what happened?!”

“The door’s open. Don’t tell me you fell asleep after all the sleep you’ve already had?”

“No! I… alright, maybe a little, but I’m awake now.”

“Sure Rainbow Dash, just don’t fall asleep any time soon.” She then grabbed the door in her magic and, with a little effort, the door slowly opened into the room. Rainbow was the first into the room once she could fit through.

“Whoa, this is different.”

“Rainbow, don’t run ahead!” Twilight called out and followed her into the room. “What if the room is… trapped…”

As Twilight looked around the room she found herself enamored by the pure history that she was surrounded by. The ages were much kinder to this room and Twilight found herself drawn to the large mural in the center of the room.

“That’s them,” Twilight said as she stared up at the two most prominent figures; two alicorns going up almost the entire length of the wall with their respective cutie marks etched above them, a quill and a paintbrush respectively. “I can’t believe we actually found it!”

“Big,” was Rainbow’s response before she asking, “So what are we looking for now?”

“Anything that looks important. If you think it is then let me know. I’m going to take a closer look at this in the meantime.” The two mares nodded and started looking around the room with Twilight moving closer to the main mural. “Wow, this must all be written in old Equestrian. I wish it was in good enough condition to read.”

“You can read this stuff?!” Rainbow asked gesturing to a part of the wall above Twilight.

“It’s only old Equestrian. Princess Celestia taught me enough so I can ask where the restroom is.” When Rainbow Dash didn’t laugh and only gave Twilight an annoyed look, Twilight said, “Yes, I know enough. Can’t take a joke at all.”

“I understood the joke Twilight. It just wasn’t funny.”

And so, with an awkward silence between them, Twilight and Rainbow continued searching for anything useful. Twilight took her journal out and started copying down anything that she found interesting. After a couple of minutes Rainbow Dash called out, “Hey, I think I found something!”

“Really?! What did you find?” Twilight asked as she walked over to Rainbow Dash, who wasn’t very far from the central mural.

“Guess who,” was all she said as she pointed to the wall. Once Twilight got to the wall she stopped short at the mural Rainbow found. On it was smaller etchings of Zacherle and Faust opposite a creature very similar to Carver. It was standing on two legs, but it was definitely Carver.

“What? But… how is it…?”

“Almost identical, don’t you think?” Rainbow asked tapping Twilight on the side. “So… were Zacherle and Faust actually real?”

“Rainbow, that doesn’t matter! This building is over a thousand years old and the legend of Zacherle and Faust is even older than that! Who knows how old this thing actually is!”

“…Wow. So… do you want to see the other thing I found?” Rainbow moved over and pointed at another section of the wall. “Do these things look familiar?” The ‘things’ were three figures that were similar to what they saw in the painting that started all of this. Below the etchings were three words that were legible enough to read.

“What are these words?” Twilight asked out loud as she pulled out her journal and copied the words down.

“I thought you could read this?”

“I’m not fully linguistic in this, so some words will inevitably escape me. I’m going to have to look these up later.” Once the words were copied down Twilight put the journal away and looked further up the wall. “Did you find anything else like this?”

“Nah, nothing like this. But wouldn’t this be enough for us?”

“For now. At the very least, we now know that Carver is connected to Zacherle and Faust somehow. And this race that keeps showing up too, we need to know more about them.”

“Right, so does that mean we can finally get out of here?” Rainbow looked around a little, her wings twitching nervously, and added, “I keep feeling like we’re being watched.”

“You and me both. I think I remember the way back, so you’ll just have to fly us back up. Does that sound alright?”

“Yeah yeah, let’s just hurry up already!” Rainbow started walking to the main door, Twilight not too far behind her, and from there to the corridor they came out of. Despite the occasional sound from somewhere in the temple, the trip through was uneventful.

“You know Rainbow,” Twilight said suddenly, “Despite everything bad that’s happened, I’m kind of glad to be able to do this.”

“What, this temple hunt?” Rainbow asked, which Twilight nodded in reply. “Eh, I’ve never really been into history stuff.”

“Maybe not, but you have to admit finding something like this will be a huge boon for you when we get done with this.” Twilight laughed a little and added, “Who knows, it might help you with the Wonderbolts.”

“Ha, did you forget who you’re talking to Twilight?” Rainbow asked and took off in a small hover and added, “But yeah, I might mention this when it happens.”

“Glad you agree with me on this.” They fell silent as they continued their walk through the temple until they reached the ice slope that they fell down. “Ok, this is the first of two at least,” Twilight said and climbed on top of Rainbow’s back, “I don’t remember it being that long of a fall.”

“Well as long as you light the way and we don’t run into that ghost again, it shouldn’t take that long.”

“Rainbow, she wasn’t a- oh, never mind.” Twilight shook her head and cast a light spell for Rainbow to see where she was going. The flight up wasn’t much longer than the trip down and the duo were soon back in the ice tunnels. “I don’t remember it being much farther, so the real trouble would be getting back to the surface.”

“Right,” Rainbow answered while looking behind them. Twilight couldn’t help the annoyed sigh when she saw this, which Rainbow responded with, “Hey, there could be something behind us!”

“But there isn’t, because ghosts don’t exist.”

“Really, after all the weird stuff that’s happened to us?” Twilight started to open her mouth when Rainbow added, “Not just this. From Nightmare Moon all the way to now, with everything that’s happened, you can say ghosts don’t exist?”

“…Fine, there isn’t absolute evidence that ghosts do exist, and that’s not good enough for me one way or the other. Is that better?”

“Yep. Oh, there’s our way out.” The two of them stopped at the slope and Rainbow lowered herself so Twilight could get on again. “Same as the last one right?” Rainbow asked looking back at Twilight.

“Yes, and I can’t wait to get some fresh air again.” After checking her grip on Rainbow, they were in the air and making their way up. The tunnel was a lot more twisting than they remembered, with the tunnel at one point going at almost a ninety degree angle. So despite it taking a little longer than the last climb, they were at the surface in a few minutes and with one last burst of speed they were free of the cave and flew into the dark snowfield.

Right before an errant gust of wind blew them of kilter and right into the snow. After the fall they both slowly stood up and shook snow out of their manes.

“There always has to be something huh?” Rainbow asked as she pulled her hood up and walked over to Twilight.

“I suppose I did forget about the blizzard,” Twilight replied and looked around the white surrounding them. “I wish we knew where we came from.”

“I’m sure we’ll find our way through.” The two of them started to trudge through the snow field and Rainbow asked, “So, where do we go after we get out of here?”

“Well, there are still three temples to go to, so I’d guess the closest of the three.”

“And which one would that be?”

“I’ll have to check the map again, but I think it was-“ just then Twilight stepped into a much deeper part of the snowfield that swallowed her leg.

“You okay?!” Rainbow asked and started to help her pull her leg out.

“I’m fine. Stupid snow, why is it so deep here?” Twilight froze once she felt something shift underneath her. “Rainbow, I think something is under-“

Suddenly something shot out of the snow and wrapped around Twilight’s throat, causing Rainbow to jump back in surprise. Once they saw that the thing was black, they realized just what happened before another tentacle shot out and grabbed Rainbow’s rear leg. The snow rose until Carver broke through, holding both ponies up as he shook any snow off of it before looking at Twilight as she struggled in its grip.

“Twilight! Hold on, I’ll be there in a second!” Rainbow yelled out as she tried to regain her balance.

"Rummaging through the garbage of the past?”Both Twilight and Rainbow froze at the voice and stared at Carver, who grinned at Twilight. “It won’t buy your future back Ender.”

“W-what?” Twilight managed to gasp out.

“Though if you wanted to know of the past, you need only ask.” Another tendril formed from Carver’s back and shot into Twilight’s mouth. She struggled even harder as the tentacle wormed it’s way down her throat and her vision started to darken. She felt something creep into her mind just before she lost consciousness.

Comments

[Commander Darklight]

its alive

[TwilightXLuna]

OMG OMG This is the best chapter can't wait for more 10 out of 10

[kenny26]

I just reread this entire thing after I'd seen the update a while back. Love the story's random elements and the typos can easily be forgiven for the sake of keeping the story going. I also think the writing has improved as the story progresses through the chapters.

And ending it with a cliffhanger. Oh poor Twilight.