The Day of the Dead

by Bookpony579

Chapter 9

Twilight carefully tavelled down the old stairway, keeping a hand to the wall and taking one step at a time.

After a few minutes of this, the trio finally came upon a stone wall.

"Seriously?" Spike complained. "Again?"

"Shouldn't your Alebrije know what he's doing?" Ursa asked.

"My alebrije?" Twilight asked.

"Your dog. Isn't he your alebrije? Isn't that why he can talk?"

"Oh no! He's not an alebrije, he's just a normal dog-"

"Hey!"

"-and the whole talking thing was another mishap altogether."

"Oh. I was wondering why he looked so dull-"

"Hey!"

"-Well in that case, just push on the wall and it should open up."

Twilight, after pushing around it for a minute, finally got the wall to slide sideway, allowing entrance.

Stepping through, Twilight and Spike found themselves, in a dimly lit room with an old, giant in ground swimming pool in the middle giving off an eerie blue glow.

Ursa gave a small gasp and stumbled back.

"Are you ok?" Twilight asked in concern.

"I'm fine. Just...had a flashback to the last time I was here."

"Oh..."

"It's alright. Now follow me. And be careful, the floor can get slippery when wet. Trust me on that."

Carefully, Twilight and Spike stepped around the pool until they got the end of the room which held old lockers, benches, some cleaning supplies and a large painting of the city.

"This was painted by my great-great grandmother. You can just take it off the wall."

Twilight did just that, revealing a large, old safe built into the wall. What was odd what that there weren't any buttons or dials to put numbers in, just an oddly shaped slot.

"Okay, now put both amulet halves into the slot and turn it."

Twilight followed Ursa instructions. The amulet pieces fit right into the slot and she slowly turned the amulet, allowing some gears to loudly turn until-

*Click*

-the door popped right open.

Twilight opened it and gasped at what she saw.

There, on a stand, was an old sword. The blade was slim yet sharp and the handle had a hear head carved into it. Below it, was the holder for it.

Overall, it looked to be in pretty good shape.

"That is our family's sword." Ursa said proudly. "It's called Bear Claw and it's been in our family since before we even had the Inn."

Leaning against the stand was an envelope, Twilight took it and was about to open it when-

"You let her down here? What were thinking!?"

"She said mom told her to come here! She said she could help!"

"That is utter nonsense! I can't believe you could be so thoughtless!"

Turning around, the trio saw Elinor, Cloud and Lyanna enter.

"I'm sorry Twilight! I tried to stop them!"

"What in the world is going on here!?" Elinor asked as she led her Granddaughters to where Twilight was. "You have no business being-"

Finally, she caught sight of the safe. "Oh my..." She gasped softly as she walked towards the sword. "I thought we lost this long ago."

"That Bear Claw...but why would it be down here?" Cloud asked shakily.

"Because your mother meant for you and Lyanna to find it." Twilight explained.

"But how- unless..."

"See! I told you! She can see ghosts! Mom told her to come here!" Lyanna exclaimed.

"Ursa..." Elinor said softly.

"But...why?" Cloud asked.

"To give you this." Twilight held up the envelope. "Your mother gave you each half an amulet and left a note in the old tree in the hopes that you two would work together to find it."

"Mom...did all that?" Lyanna asked, wide eyed.

"She just wanted you to all get along like a family."

"She-she told you..." Elinor seemed to have a hard time grasping all of this and her face became even paler.

"She wanted me to find this, in the hopes that it would get all of you to stop your fighting and be the family she hoped you could be." She handed it to Lyanna, who carefully opened it and took out an old, slightly yellowed sheet of paper. She gasped when she saw it.

"This-this is mom's handwriting! She really did do all this! Look! See?" She showed it to Cloud, who recognized the handwriting as well. Lyanna glanced at it one more time before handing it back to Twilight.

"Can-can you read it? I don't think we-"

"It's alright." Twilight took it and read aloud the plainly written note.

To my darling daughters.

If you're reading this, that means I am no longer with you, and for that I am truly sorry. I had hoped we would have more time together, but apparently fate had other ideas. I have left you both half of an old family amulet in the hopes that you would look past your differences and become the sisters that you are and find this place, using all the happy memories you had here. Since you're reading this, that means you did it, and I couldn't be prouder of you girls.

Lyanna and Cloud looked away, tears forming at their eyes.

In any case; I know there has some issue of who will someday take over the Inn and as you mother and the current owner, I have decided...that it doesn't matter. The Inn is just a place. What matters are the people running and staying there. My greatest wish is not to see one of you take over the Inn, but to love and accept each other; to be a family. If leaving the Inn behind makes you girls happy, then so be it. If my mother objects, then that's just something she has to learn to live with. Change is a part of life, and we must learn to go along with it, and help shape those changes for the better.

I love your girls so much, and not even death can change that.

With love forever,

Your Mother; Ursa Brown.

Twilight finished and rubbed the tears from her eyes, noticing that Spike was doing the same.

"Oh...mom..." Cloud whimpered.

"I-I can't believe.." Lyanna whispered.

That's when everyone noticed something: Elinor was gone!

"Where's Grandmother?"

"She must have left during the reading."

"I need to talk to her." Twilight declared. "There's still something that doesn't fit right. And I think I know where she went..."

Author's Note:

Alibrije; Animal spirit guides in Mexican lore.

Next chapter: one final confrontation before helping out another friend.

Comments

[Comickook]

Once again, excellent job on this chapter. I absolutely loved how they found Ursa's final note to her family . The exchanges, characterizations and climax set-up are all well done in all the right places. I was MAJORLY crying myself when I read that note too. Truly heart-warming stuff.

Now I'm going to guess that the next chapter is either going to be the last chapter or the second-to-last (possibly even the third-to-last, but I WILL admit that I COULD be wrong.

However, I WILL definitely be looking forward to more regardless.