Search For The Spires

by Emperor123456

Chapter 2: Unending Hills

Twilight had never been so alone in her entire life. Sure, she had locked herself inside her study and sat there entire days and nights, even staying there for an entire week one time. But through all of those times she knew that someone was a call away. And the five hours of painstaking walking through the cold wilderness with the nearest sign of civilization being miles away, had left her in a state she couldn’t even describe.

She stopped her trek through the neverending hills and valleys to take a short rest so her feet could recover. By now the sun had travelled across the entire sky, and was on its way below the horizon.

‘I hope the girls managed to find the elements and defeat Nightmare Moon’ And while she hoped that was the case, she had an increasing worry that that sunset would be her last.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t be sure of that until the next day came, and she needed to try to get back to civilization so she could make a difference if worst came to worst.

Sitting under the great grey sky, and looking out at the rolling yellow landscape in front of her was strangely soothing. Observing all of the details of each hill and outcropping that made this landscape and then cataloging them brought a sense of peace to Twilight. Reminding her of the work she and Spike used to do back in Canterlot.

But as the sun fell further and further down she was forced forward by the sinking temperatures. If she wanted to make it to civilization she would have to find some shelter for the night. And while her feet were still aching, knowing that there wasn’t any kind of cave, tree or settlement anywhere near her made her press on. If she was lucky she would reach the lower dragon's plateau before midnight, and shelter would be easy to find amongst the trees there.

Movement, that was another mystery she hadn’t been able to solve. Despite fear that she would first have to learn walking in her new body, after the first step it was as if she had lived her whole life in that form. And if her whole situation was caused by a spell, it would have been impossible to do all of this without brainwashing a new movement pattern into her brain.

‘But if she already had me under a mind control spell why didn’t she just use that to defeat me?’ Back when she arrived she had assumed that Nightmare moon could be the only one that had sent her here. But the longer she thought about it she realized that while she could, there was no way she would. But this again only created more questions than it answered.

She chuckled, taking a moment to once again rest her sore feet. “Here I am, in the middle of the wilderness without food, water and shelter and I’m thinking about the motivations of Nightmare Moon.” However, she knew she couldn’t stop for long, as night was fast approaching.

At that moment she noticed something, the screams of seagulls. Quickly focusing back into reality she once again put out her ear, and sure enough the seagulls were screaming just beyond the hills in front of her.

“Ocean? It can’t be, there isn’t supposed to be ocean for another 1000 kilometers, have I been going in circles?” But that possibility was quickly discarded, as she always kept an eye on the position of the sun.

She ran towards the screams, hoping that beyond the hill she would find anything except of an ocean, hoping that she was mistaking the cries for something else, but yet the cries of seagulls got louder and louder. And after Twilight crested the hill she was struck still, because the thing she had found beyond it was much worse than any ocean.

A bridge. A massive bridge stood before her and over the ocean, a sheer monument of stone and brick compare to the decorative stream crossers that were everywhere in Canterlot. Being thick enough to have at least 100 ponies lined across its width and not have them touch each other. This monstrosity was held up by equally impressive columns that seemed to be mountains that had risen from the depths of the ocean to hold it up, the only place it wasn’t held up by one of the columns was a small part of it that was built directly on the landmass she was standing on.

And even from her distant spot on the hill Twilight saw that the bridge was richly adorned with statues and engravings. But for all of its splendor, that bridge should not have been there or anywhere else on the planet.

x

She was stunned into silence as she went down the mountain slope towards the bridge. Slowly approaching it she felt the crushing realization that she wasn’t on her planet anymore. The bridge was of such a scale that it wouldn’t have been possible to keep it hidden.

When she finally reached it and walked over a collapsed section of wall, she went to the centre of the road, marked by a line of scratched black stone, and looked into both ways on the bridge, but she didn't see any kind of structure on either end, only the road slowly disappearing into the fog.

“Spike...” She whispered, realizing that she may never see her loved ones again. A sob escaped her, followed by another until it turned into full blown crying. All of the stress from the summer celebration and the subsequent trip through the wilderness spilling out onto the cold hard brick in the form of a growing puddle of tears.

x

The sun had fallen below the line of hills and the world was bathed in the muted orange colors of the sunset, filtering past the clouds. Meanwhile Twilight had once again pieced herself back together and started moving east, picking a direction at random. Her mind was completely silent while she slogged her feet along the cold brick.

For what felt like the first time in her life, she was truly lost. No plan, no list and Spike, Celestia and her entire family were on another planet. But yet she didn’t give up and sulk forever on that bridge. If there was a bridge it meant civilization, and that meant a chance to get back to Equestria, her magic was maybe blocked but the people here might have mages that could help her.

Even as the darkness of night completely overtook the landscape, she pushed on, casting away any tiredness from herself with fickle hopes of a city appearing through the fog. And as the clouds parted above her, and the bright shine of the moon lit up the landscape she saw a silhouette ahead of her. She rushed towards it, having to almost drag her entire body in the process to keep it from collapsing.

The silhouette turned out to be an overturned cart, with mud and dirt splattered all over it, and one wheel having been broken in half.

“Hello! Anypony?” She shouted as she appraoched, but nobody answered. Coming closer to investigate, she found that a rusty smell permeated the air around the cart. At first Twilight didn’t realize what the smell was, but upon finding that red was one of the colors splattered on the cart she almost puked. Thankfully no bodies were in the cart, though if it wouldn’t have been for her not having any dinner, she still would have emptied it on the floor.

Twilight felt overwhelmed, there was too much to process for her. Twilight felt her muscles crying, and the world outside seeming scarier than ever. She considered walking a while longer, but the growing wind outside made her reconsider.

She looked around for anything soft in the cart but found none, and resigned herself to sleeping on a wooden panel with not too many splinters. At least it wasn’t as cold as the road.

Even though a storm of emotions raged on inside her and the cold wind whipped her body through the many cracks in the cart, she forced herself to fall asleep. She counted the waves splashing against the columns of the bridge far below her one after another, and eventually her senses faded and sleep overtook her. Thankfully no dreams came that night.

Author's Note:

With this chapter done, i'm finally finished on the intro of the story. Expect some action to come soon.