Twilight Daylight: Dawn of Equus

by thedarktome

Chapter 26 - The Wells Pt. 2

Author's Note:

So, this chapter was supposed to premier on Halloween. But, as you can see, I'm quite late. It's not exactly scary, as it is exciting. Anyway, enjoy.

Their searching brought Celestia and Luna to the train station. It was unlikely there would be any form of a clue here, but the risks were too high to negate any location. If need be, they would also search the field of ice beyond the relative warmth of the Crystal Empire.

Stars, even from here, Celestia could feel the wind whipping away at her mane.

Celestia sighed and turned her sight from that field of ice and snow back towards the station, where Luna, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and a team of guards were checking the building itself. Each room was open. The restrooms, the closets, the offices. Nothing was left untouched.

Celestia trotted over to Luna, leaving the lobby. "Anything?"

"Not yet," Luna regretfully answered. She looked to the rest of the guards and two of the elements. "What about them?"

"Nothing. I'm beginning to think we're not doing something right."

"Hmmm, I agree." She looked through past the train station towards the castle. That's where Twilight and Cadance were. Maybe they were having better luck than they were.

"Hey, Princess?" Luna and Celestia turned to Rainbow Dash, floating in front of them. "We found something."

They did? Behind her was a cacophony of guards and soldiers convening on one location. They quickly joined and eyed what seemed to be a blank wall in front of the railroad tracks that lead beyond the Crystal Empire and into the snowstorm surrounding it.

Alas, there was nothing Celestia could see that was any different than the rest.

"What are we all looking at?" She asked.

An Aerial Guard pointed to a small area on the wall, almost unnoticeable to the eye that had a small rune attached to it. Above it, another, and above that another that soon lead their sights to recognize a large ring of runes. Time and weathering faded them away but they were still there.

"What does this mean?" Luna answered.

"I don't know. This is magic even I can't understand." Celestia dragged a hoof down the wall. It's texture was rough with age. "It's old, ancient."

"No offense, Princesses," a Breighton soldier commented. "But what is it with your country always being home to ancient languages and foreign spells?"

"I wish I had an answer for you, soldier," Luna commented. "But even we aren't sure. But I am sure of this. When this is all over, I want to create a community, an organization, a school that can track down any of these spells and harmful magic; and enforce the good of magic once and for all."

"That's exactly what we shall do." Celestia removed her hoof. "This could be what we're looking for. But we need confirmation."

She looked to Rainbow Dash. "Go and grab Twilight."

---

The crystal walls were beginning to turn to rock. Twilight could see it from where she stood. That meant this torch would barely help with visibility. The crystal reflects the light, making it much easier to see. Without it, seeing an inch in front of her face would be nearly impossible.

Alas, she continued down.

"Now what is going on with you two?" Twilight asked through the walls. "It hasn't even been an hour and you're fighting?"

Dawn sat at the piano and answered, "I don't know, we were searching the room and Flurry grew a smart mouth and started talking about you and I."

"Flurry, is this true?" Cadance asked. She pointed to a key over Dawn's shoulder. "Maybe it's this one here?"

Flurry stopped and stomped her hoof in agitation. "I'm sorry, everypony else has said something in the last few months about Queen Twilight 'Arcadia Nova' Sparkle except me. Why am I all of a sudden the bad guy here?"

Dawn jabbed at the key a couple times. Was something supposed to happen? "Flurry, you're supposed to be older than me. Why are you acting like such a foal?"

And the condemnation continues. Twilight sighed and stopped at what appeared to be a hole. Really? Underground? Twilight lifted her torch and shone it over the hole. It didn't seem to end.

Twilight took a deep breath, took a few steps back, and with a running start, jumped and glided over the hole to the other side. Once landing, she glanced back. Maybe it was made to be a trap? Hmm. She'd come back to it later.

"Flurry, I know you have a lot of things you want to express," Twilight replied. "My actions against your home were unforgivable, let alone what I did to your parents."

"Mom, stop apologizing," Dawn said. "That's not what she's upset about." She tapped at another key. Stars, there were seventy-two of these things!

"What?!" Flurry shouted. She whirled around and pointed at the ceiling, as if Dawn was right there. "What do you know?! You're just some spoiled princess!"

"FLURRY!" Cadance berated.

"I don't have to be a princess to know there's more underneath that surface. Calshula meek, Flurry, you never wear your heart on your sleeve; getting a read out of you is almost impossible. I'm certain this isn't normal behavior. What's really going on?"

Flurry scoffed and continued walking. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, no," Cadance said. Now that she thought about it, as unbelievable as it sounded, Dawn was right. Flurry always keeps her emotions bottled up. Especially the deep ones. "She's right, what's going on, Flurry?"

"It's nothing," Flurry replied.

"So there is something."

"I just said—!"

Shf shf

What was that? Flurry stopped talking and turned around to face pitch blackness. Stars, it was already silent and dead down here, she didn't need any silent followers. She squinted her eyes.

"Hello?" She called. "Aunt Twilight, is that you?"

Twilight stopped walking down her passage. "Is it me? Do you have a torch?"

"Yeah?"

Twilight look around the cave. "That's not me, Flurry."

If that wasn't Aunt Twilight, then... Flurry's ears folded to the back of her head. "H-Hello?... This isn't funny, whoever you are."

Dawn stopped tapping and looked back to Cadance and the guards. "Flurry?" Cadance asked.

Taking a risk, Flurry raised the torch in front of her and shook it. Small embers broke off and floated through the air, illuminating that which made the noise. She could be seeing things, the stress from being in the dark alone combined with the stress of the mission could be causing her to hallucinate.

However, there was still the matter of there being three cracked stone ponies. They were gray, lifeless, covered in vines. One of them didn't have a head. The moment the embers hit, the one in the middle opened its mouth before the lights went out.

Flurry took a deep breath and screamed as loud as she could. A blood curling scream that echoed through the castle walls and through the tunnels.

"FLURRY!" Cadance shouted. She rushed out the room and flew up the stairs, soon coming back to the room with the broken wall. "Hold on, sweetie! Twilight, where are you?!"

"I'm tracking her now! Flurry! Are you alright?!"

The torch fell from Flurry's hoof and to the stone ground before one of the stone ponies jumped forward and pounced on her.

They fell down with her on her back, but she would not be down so easy. Her family was tough. They were strong.

Flurry used her momentum to keep rolling and vaulted the pony behind her into the air. It arched back down and shattered on impact with the ground.

She scrambled back to her hooves and ducked a swing and jab from the other two before a third and fourth jumped over them. Whirling around, they bucked Flurry back down.

"Ugh!" She cried.

"What's going on?!" Dawn shouted. She pointed to two guards. "You two, help mom find Flurry!"

"Stone ponies!!" Flurry shouted. "They're alive! Stone ponies!!"

Stone?! Cadance ran through the tunnel as fast ashe could. "Hold on, Flurry! We're coming!!"

Good, some backup! Twilight kept running forward before a thought hit her. Gasping, she shouted, "Cadance, be careful, there's a—"

Too late. Cadance's hooves left the ground before she went weightless and slammed face first into a crystal wall. She and her torch fell into the hole before landing on crunchy sticks.

"Ouch!"

"Are you okay?!"

Cadance rose to her hooves and shook her head. Great, that was going to bruise.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm..." Cadance's eyes widened upon recognizing the skull of a pony, illuminated by the nearby torch. No, the skeleton.

"Ahhh!!" Cadance screamed. She turned around and saw another one. Followed by another, then a third. "Twilight! There are skeletons in here!!"

Skeletons? Wait a minute. Stone ponies, dead ponies...

"Then we're on the right track!" Twilight ran back for Cadance. "They're trying to keep us away from the Well! Flurry, talk to us!"

"I can't!" Flurry looked over her shoulder. Those stone ponies were still chasing her. She could hear their trotting, feel their thundering hooves against the ground.

While they were running in circles, Dawn continued jabbing at the keys.

"Flurry, I know we're in a bad spot right now, but this is the time we're supposed to come together. Come on, you stupid piano!"

She jabbed at another key. Suddenly the floor shifted. She bounced from her seat by the time the floor began lowering, and at the moment Rainbow Dash floated in.

"Dawn, where... Did you find one?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Dawn cheered. She threw her hooves in the air. "Good! We found two! We need your help. Flurry is being chased by stone ponies down there!"

"Stone ponies?" The floor dropped down into the tunnel. "That's creepy."

"Tell me about it. We're in!"

"Good! I got Cadance!" Twilight replied. She jumped out of the hole with Cadance in her hooves. Once they landed, they continued running through the tunnel with torches.

"Flurry, how you doin'?" Cadance asked.

"Not so good!" Flurry ducked another swing and backed away. Before attempting to strike, the ground broke beneath her.

She screamed on her way down before finally landing once more on a stone floor. Stars, how many times did she have to fall to her death?

"Yep! Another freaking tunnel!" She reported. "I fell in another hole!"

"Okay, are you still being chased?"

"I-I don't know!" Flurry turned around and shone her torch. Amazing how it held on for so long. She stepped forward before a ring around her hooves glowing white illuminated. Runes created a pattern.

"Uh oh."

"What?" Rainbow asked.

"Is that Rainbow?" Twilight.

"Yeah. We found something at the train station that could use your help. But you seem busy."

"Help us get to Flurry!"

Flurry took one step forward before something shot out of a wall and speared directly across her line of sight. So close to her head. She gasped, jumping in surprise before even more followed suit. Luckily none of them hit her. She jumped around as fast as she could. Dodging them until eventually she was caught.

Two speared straight through one rear and front hoof.

"Ahhh BUCK!!!" She screamed.

"Flurry, what's wrong?!" Dawn asked. "We're almost there!"

Flurry shifted her left hoof. The cords were thin, cutting through her flesh. No, she would have to stay perfectly still and wait for help. She was surrounded by a thick web of these tiny blades. It she fell out, it'd be in pieces.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Dawn, her guards and Rainbow finally encountered the stone ponies. Wow, there were a lot of them. Nothing they couldn't handle.

Dawn whirled around and slammed her hooves into two ponies at once while her guards slashed and shattered the rest with Rainbow Dash.

"We're taking care of the stone ponies!"

"And we found an out!" Cadance and Twilight trotted through an opening up ahead into a larger space. Their hoofsteps echoed loudly, reverberating deeply. This was certainly a large tunnel. Could this be the well?

"Flurry?" Cadance called, her voice decaying ever so slowly.

They were close. Unfortunately, unless she wanted her head to be cut, she couldn't move.

"Over here! Torch is on the ground!"

Cadance turned her head. There! That flickering white star in the distance! "We see you! Stay where you are, don't move!"

"I couldn't if I wanted to!" Small stones and pebbles pelted her on her head. "Hey, be a little careful up there!"

"Sorry!" Dawn, Rainbow Dash, and five Elite Guards floated down. In a Guard's hoof was the head of one of those stone ponies. "Wow, you're in quite the predicament."

They avoided the webs and landed at the same moment Cadance and Twilight finally arrived. Flurry was surrounded by threads so thin, yet so strong, that even a mere twitch could yield lethal results. The webs themselves block off the entirety of the well. Which means...

"This is a defense mechanism," Twilight announced. "We're on the right track."

"Can somepony just get me out of this?!" Flurry cried. "It really really hurts!"

"Okay, okay!" Cadance followed the lines from where they shot. This would be a tricky situation. Getting Flurry out of this could prove fatal. Stars, it had her baby in a position where a mere pull could rip her apart!

"Twilight, what can we do?" She asked.

All eyes turned to Twilight who stepped forward with the torch. Carefully, she held it beneath the threads. Slowly, gently, they caught fire. One cord snapped, soon followed by another.

"Grab the ones on the outside first," Twilight instructed. Grabbing their torches, they slowly ignited the cords. Flurry tracked a line snap in front of her, followed by a second one.

"You've had quite the day, huh?" Dawn teased.

"Could you not right now?" Flurry asked.

"You know what, now that we got you both here, let's talk about this," Cadance said. She snapped another thread. "What's bugging you, Flurry?"

"Nothing is bugging me," Flurry insisted.

"Flurry..."

"Mom, nothing is bothering me!"

"Flurry, now is not the time to be secretive."

Twilight was more interested in the rune. There was text surrounding it. She leaned in close for a better read.

"This is Old Pseratopian," she disclosed.

A guard protecting Dawn walked over and read the line. "She's right."

""Seriously?!" Flurry bellowed. "Let me guess, you made this?"

Twilight rose back to her hooves. "No, Flurry, I—"

"Oh, save it, just work your magic, like you always do. You're really good at that."

"Flurry, what is going on with you?" Dawn asked. She snapped another cord and walked through the threads to be in Flurry's face. "Why are you being so mean for? Are you worried about the mission?"

"It has nothing to do with the stupid mission."

"Flurry. Be honest with me. Come on, it's me, Dawn. I won't judge you or anything, we're family."

Dawn and Flurry exchanged blinks before Flurry sighed. "...why am I here?" She finally asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why am I needed in this mission? What could I possibly offer that can help?"

She gestured behind her. "Aunt Twilight is the definition of magic, you have an affinity to Dark Magic, mom can weaponize love, Grandma Celestia has fighting skills, Great Aunt Luna too, dad is a military colonel, then we have the guards, the Legends of Psera, Creatures of Tartarus, and then, finally..."

She spat, "You have Flurry Heart who can do nothing but watch. So, I ask again, why am I here?"

Dawn shared a look with Twilight who was pulling out a thread through Flurry's rear hoof who exchanged a look with Cadance. The tunnel was silent before a thick round of chuckling attracted attention to Twilight. She had a hoof held in front of her mouth, eyes on Flurry whilst twitching with each breath taken.

"Mom," Dawn warned.

"What is so funny?" Cadance asked.

Twilight waved it off and burned through a few more threads. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just... That's what's been bothering you? Oh, Flurry..."

She walked through to the other side where Dawn was and burned off the last few threads.

She reached down and cupped Flurry's chin. "You're what keep all of us together. I may not have been here during all of this, but I know for a fact, without a single doubt in my mind, that all of these ponies, dragons, all the creatures out there will not work together even if they didn't have a choice. Getting them to cooperate is like trying to get your father to sit down. Very rarely does that happen.

"However, if I'm correct, and I'm certain I am, based off the looks the rest of the hall were giving you, they depend on you to keep the fires at bay, the same flames they themselves kindle; and, since they're still together, I'm guessing you've been doing a good job. Am I wrong?"

Well... Flurry sighed and looked away. "It's not enough," she said. "I need to fight, I want to fight. Like you. Like mom, dad, even Luna."

"Fighting isn't for everyone," Twilight added. "Even the strongest know that their place is delegation. Sometimes, as Queen, even I knew that a swing of the blade wouldn't solve every problem. As you said, Flurry, we already have the muscle. Now, we need to keep the brains. You are part of that brain, as are your cousins Dawn and Light. We need you to keep a strong heart. The rest of us will depend on you."

"No, they depend on you," Flurry corrected. She flinched when the thread in her forehoof was finally yanked out. She plopped on her flank, allowing the medics to tend to her wounds. "You have all the brains, the mind, and all the information. You know how to defeat Narmeelah... Somehow."

She looked up from the wrapping they were applying to her hooves. "How did you figure all of this out, by the way?"

Dawn, Cadance, Rainbow Dash, the guards that were standing around keeping an eye out either glanced or looked in her direction. They too were curious. Out of all this time, no one has bothered to ask that question. How did she know?

Twilight answered, "It's a tale of a lifetime, I'm afraid. A lifetime I won't recall until we see the light again. This well is connected to other passageways in the city."

"We have to locate those passages," a guard commented.

"I can find them," Dawn announced. Attention swiveled on her. "Well, not me exactly, but a part of me."

She looked down to her wing. "Sky. Come."

Sky Blue poked her head out out Dawn's wing and cawed in curiosity before flapping free. She flew up to Twilight and landed on her head, who in turn looked down to her daughter.

"Dawn? What exactly is your plan here?" Twilight asked.

"The remote echolocation spell," Dawn answered.

"We're not supposed to be using magic," Cadance reminded.

"I don't need magic." Dawn pointed up to Sky Blue. "Sky Blue has a part of me in her. I'll have another pair of eyes. It's not like I'm controlling her with a constant spell. As a matter of fact, Sky Blue has been alive this whole time. From us departing Psera to now."

They looked to Twilight for approval. She nodded her head. "Then let's do it."

"What?!" Rainbow bellowed. "Twilight, that's a serious risk!"

"It'll work. I can't even feel Sky Blue in my magical aura. I highly doubt Narmeelah can as well. Do what you have to do, Dawn. But take the way we came; according to Flurry, the other passage automatically closes."

Finally! Dawn whistled, catching Sky Blue's attention who tilted her head to the side. They made eye contact. The buttons acting as Sky Blue's eyes slowly changed to black, just like Dawn's eyes now.

Instantly, Sky Blue's wings snapped open. She took off from Twilight's head and soared back from where Twilight and Cadance appeared from, leaving their sight.

"We're leaving the castle," Dawn explained. "We need a bird's eye view of The Crystal Empire in order for this to work. It may take some time."

"Then we'd better get comfortable then," Rainbow Dash flew towards the wall and leaned back against the stone. She kicked her hooves up and folded the others behind her head. "Not as soft as a cloud, but it'll do."