Not All Is Set In Stone

by Tails_155

Sweetie Belle's Crystal Maze - The Hope Charge

It sure is a lot scarier being out here alone... maybe Scootaloo was right... The unicorn felt strangely small, wandering her way to the unmaintained castle. She stares at its oppressive, daunting spires, cracked and crumbling, and down to the ground ahead of her. The ground has overtaken ancient stone, cracking the rock and growing grasses and weeds in the tile. She makes it to the entrance and gazes on the spectacle. The pink and white spires are cracked from ice damage, age, and disrepair, gemstones have fallen to the ground and cracked. The place is silent.

"Hello?" She shouts. Who is honestly going to reply? She asks herself shaking her head. She walks around the streets of the town. She digs in her saddle bag for a small snack, taking a rest. She finds her locket and sighs. She looks at the faded picture trapped in crystal, fighting back tears. After staring for a few moments, she puts the locket around her neck.

She sets foot on the entrance to the outer walls, when, from the corner of her eye, she catches sight of an orange stone as it moves. All the crystals lining the roads stretch into towers and block street paths. Sweetie Belle yelps, then sighs. You just gotta deal with it. Find your way through, it looks like a maze. Oh, well. Just stay against the wall.

She wanders the streets, now glowing with varying hues from the gemstone walls reflecting every which way. Normally this colorful light would make me happy... but something feels so... unsettling. She takes left after right after left. Dead end. She turns around, sighs, and heads back to the previous intersection. She slowly makes it further inward, and the walls shift around her. "No!" She shouts, then sighs. This is going to be tougher than I thought... How am I supposed to find my way through if everything keeps changing?

Sweetie Belle makes her way through to dead end after dead end after dead end. Every time she reaches one, the walls around her shift, and she's lost again.

This is hopeless. She slumps over onto her side. Tears well up in her eyes. How am I supposed to save anypony? I don't even have my cutie mark. I don't even know if I have a talent at all. I am going to let everypony down. Celestia trusted me... Why would she trust me? She curls up as the walls shift around her again.

She curls up into a ball of surrender. The walls around her laugh and she begins to cry. She covers her eyes, and feels a tug against her neck. She looks down at her pendant, her locket, with her mother and father, and loving (when not demanding) sister. "She may be hard to live with sometimes, but I didn't want to live without her... She's my sister!"

The word 'sister' echoes off the walls. She opens her eyes wide. I have to do this! For Rarity! For Mom and Dad! She shouts, and the walls echo again 'Mom and Dad'. The locket on her heart feels like it is pulsing to her heartbeat. She looks at the wall, looking to her horn. Her horn begins to glow on its own. Her heart pumps determination through her limbs, giving her strength to topple mountains. She runs through the maze, seeing right through the tricks of the walls. She turns, guided by a force beyond her understanding. She doesn't question it, she just follows her heart and horn. Within a few minutes, she makes it to the center of the town, to the temple. She climbs the steps.

She hears rumbling behind her, the creatures suddenly changing back into their giant, monstrous forms. She runs inside as quick as she can. She heads for the altar at the middle of the area as a crash sounds from the door, knocking the rotted wood to the ground. Rocks fly everywhere. One of the bits of debris from the door frame strikes the small unicorn in the back. "Ouch!" She doesn't break her stride, wincing, sore. She hops onto the altar, clambering to get her back legs onto it. A salmon-red beam rises, blasting the monsters out the door, into the walls and towers, knocking some of the already crumbling structures to the ground. The creatures storm away, scattering in a rage, groaning and roaring.

The locket around her neck glows puce. Sweetie Belle smiles a wide smile and speeds off through the crumbled castle, back to the place where they planned to meet.

She arrives first, sitting at the large, broken table in the structure where they split.