Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Journey Through the Dark - Part 3

She did not particularly wish to pass by the throne room. She knew she at least didn't have to get inside it, but having to pass in front of it was still an unsettling thought. She had been at the presence of a Nightmare Moon in her own castle before, true, but the one there seemed, well, different somehow. Just a little more off than the one she was familiar with.

Admittedly it was quite surprising that anything at all was similar to what she was familiar with, there. She could probably learn exactly how much history was different there if she took a detour to the library, but that would have been using time they didn't have for things they didn't need as much, not to mention how heavily secured the place would probably be. Any mention of Celestia could be locked up in the archives for all she knew, if those books hadn't been burned outright.

Burning books was never a good thing to think about for her. But it was less bad than thinking about ponies being experimented on. At least, she reasoned it was supposed to be that way. She wasn't sure if her own emotions actually lined up when thinking about it, but she knew it was most likely a mixture of the tense state the situation put her in and her instinctive refusal to properly process what was being done to ponies there. Maybe it was just so bad her brain didn't want to think about it.

Or maybe she was utterly desensitised to the painful, brutal and needless deaths of innocent ponies, and far more caring for the preservation of books instead. She knew herself enough to tell that though she could be a little out of touch at times, she wasn't that far gone yet, so it more likely was her first outlined possibility that she was to look at for explanations.

None of that made it easier to actually walk past the throne room's doors when she got there, though her mental wanderings did mean the walk to get there felt shorter than it had been. She waited a bit, sitting at one end of the hallway, ensuring no guards were nearby or about to walk out. Then she made her move. It wasn't a sprint, or even a quasi-run, but it was definitely with hurried steps that she walked past those doors, staying as far away as she could from them and without looking at them.

She didn't know why she felt the way she did. Maybe it was just the knowledge of what Nightmare Moon had done and ordered there. But it felt deeper, more primal even. A gut feeling of wrongness she couldn't rationally explain. Not the kind she got from sensing dark magic, it felt closer to an animal instinct instead. Something she could only ever remember feeling in her nightmares, the only thing she could remember of them. She did not want to be anywhere close to the mare behind those doors, she knew that for certain.