The Castle
“Are you sure you want to go with them, sweetie?” Phyllis asked nervously, secretly hoping that her son would give in and decide to stay in Maretime Bay instead of going on this crazy expedition.
Sprout nodded. “It’ll be fine,” he insisted, rolling his eyes at his mother’s worry. “We’re just going to try and find some old castle. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Phyllis sighed. “I just worry about you, is all,” she admitted. “I don’t want you making poor decisions. I mean, you did just get out of jail.”
Sprout winced as she brought it up. “I’m a big stallion, Mommy, I can take care of myself,” he said importantly, throwing out his chest. “Besides, there’s not much that scares me OH MY HOOFNESS THERE’S A SPIDER MOMMY PROTECT ME!!!” He dashed behind his mother as Zipp roared with laughter, dropping the string she was holding. As Sprout realized what was going on, his face turned the same color as his cutie mark.
“That wasn’t funny, Zipp!” He yelled indignantly at the pegasus. He attempted to leap up and grab her, but the former princess soared just out of reach, just to agonize him. Pipp and Izzy snickered and Sunny let a smile slip through. The only one who managed to hide his amusement was Hitch.
Phyllis let a quiet chuckle slip, which her son blessedly didn’t notice. She placed her arm around his shoulder and wrapped him into a hug. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay?” she asked, her voice smothered by Sprout’s mane. He grumbled his promise and glared at Zipp, who was hovering over her sister and talking good spiritedly with her.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Hitch asked Sunny as he packed food into a saddlebag. “Just trotting off to who knows where with a centuries old map to guide us?”
“I just know that there has to be something left,” Sunny insisted. “The Guardians had a castle somewhere near Bridlewood. Castle’s don’t just disappear completely in only a few centuries! There must be something there that can give us a hint.”
“All right. You are kind of the boss on Ancient Equestria,” Hitch conceded, now packing sleeping bags and blankets. Sunny smiled.
“Yeah… I guess I kind of am.”
The six ponies set off just after lunch in virtually high spirits. Sprout was pretty much an exception to this, as he was still really angry at Zipp for her little spider prank. They set off towards Bridlewood at a brisk pace and, before long, the dark trees of Bridlewood were in sight.
“Do you think we have time to stop at my place?” Izzy asked longingly. “I have this super awesome project that I really want to finish, any chance we can spare a few minutes?”
“Sorry, Izzy, but I don’t think it’s on our path,” Sunny said, studying the map she held. “I think we have to go… that way.” Her words caught in her throat as she realized what they would have to do. “Towards Zephyr Heights.”
Her friends exchanged worried glances. “Well… let’s just hope we don’t run into any rebels,” Pipp said, checking her phone. “I don’t think they stray out of the city, so we should be okay.”
They walked for the rest of the day and, after a brief snack break, they reached a canyon with a river, the stone bridge broken, but a large tree trunk was resting next to it, still whole. “Remember who Izzy cut that thing down with her horn?” Zipp whispered to her sister, and they smothered giggles as they remembered.
Sunny froze once she crossed the river and saw what was ahead of them. “This… I’ve been here before,” she realized. “We all have. Well, except for you-”
“I know, I know,” Sprout grumbled, “I was back home building a giant war machine.” Hitch noticed his expression and fell back to trot beside him, but his old deputy didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking.
“Isn’t that the tree that hides the secret passage to Zephyr Heights?” Zipp asked her sister, who nodded.
“I don’t suppose we’re going back there just yet,” Hitch suggested, studying the tall mountain in the distance. “Probably not safe.”
“Agreed,” Pipp said, confirming their suspicions with her cell phone.
“According to this,” Sunny announced, studying her map and the landmarks around her, “this tree used to be the ruins of a castle… Wait, that can’t be right. There used to be the ruins of a castle here, where the tree is now, but the tree couldn’t have possibly been here when the castle was. I wonder what happened to it.”
“Do you think that might be the castle we’re supposed to be looking for?” Izzy asked, studying the ground with an excited look on her face. “Because that might mean we have to do some digging…”
“Hm. I don’t think so,” Sunny concluded, turning towards the mountain and studying the forest there. “I think it’s somewhere… in there.”
“Oh.” Izzy’s cheerful demeanor dampened considerably, and she now looked more afraid than excited. She eyed the dark sea of trees warily and subconsciously took a step back, which didn’t go unnoticed among her friends.
“Uh, Izzy?” Sprout asked uncertainly, remembering what Hitch had told him about the unicorns’ superstitions. “Is there hypothetically anything wrong with that part of the forest?”
“What? Oh, uh… Actually, yes,” she admitted. “They’re supposed to house some kind of ancient magic, and as you know, unicorns used to be very superstitious about magic. And it just felt… off. Also it was the closest place to Zephyr Heights, so we thought that the pegasi might see you there and swoop down and… you know,” she concluded hastily with a quick glance at the two winged ponies. “But, I think there’s nothing to worry about, really… except for the fact that when I went there I heard and saw all kinds of scary things… but that was probably just my imagination acting up, right?”
“O…kay?” Sunny put her journal away and turned away from her friend. “As long as we keep heading west, we should be good,” she explained to the other ponies. “Just keep the mountain to your right, though it may be hard to see it, given how thick the brush looks down there…” She shook herself and started off towards the dark mass of trees. Everypony glanced worriedly at Izzy before following. The unicorn herself hesitated before taking after them, and even then her steps were subdued and nervous.
The dark trees were overgrown with vines and other plants and seemed to smother all light. They wrapped around the ponies as they pushed through the brush blindly, trying to keep going straight. Izzy eventually got enough control over her nerves to shakily light the tip of her horn, and the flickering light allowed them to see their surroundings more clearly.
Sunny jumped backwards with a yelp, and her friends froze where they stood, wondering what had frightened her. Izzy ducked behind Hitch.
Pushing some brush aside, Sunny saw what had alarmed her in more clarity. It was what looked like a building, but the features had been distorted over time. Even so, Sunny could tell it was a tall structure with a dome at the top, and a spire on top of that. Wraparound porches connected to pillars running the entire height of the circular building, and windows lined the walls. Sunny could see that, if it had been in better condition, it must have been a very important building.
“Wait,” Zipp reasoned, stepping forward, “if that building’s here, then that means…” She squinted through the dark with Sunny, and their eyes widened in unison. “Izzy,” Sunny said slowly, “come here, please?”
The unicorn shakily stepped towards them, eyeing the ruins of the building with apprehension. Grateful for the light that the purple pony’s horn offered, Zipp and Sunny peered into the darkness once again, as did the rest of their friends. Slowly they were able to pick out bits of irregular shapes that didn’t belong to the forest. Strange shapes that were clearly hoofmade instead of natural. There was an entire village hidden in the forest.
Sunny pulled out her journal and studied the map. “This must be Ponyville,” she said, awe and wonder in her voice. “Look, on the map it has a picture of a big building in the center of town that looks just like this one.”
“Isn’t Ponyville the place where the Guardians of Harmony were from?” The bright white flashes of Pipp’s phone paused as she asked the question, then resumed as she waited for a response.
“Yes,” Sunny whispered, still unable to completely wrap her head around what she was seeing. “This is… incredible. Imagine what we could find here.”
“I’m guessing a whole lot of green stuff,” Hitch said as he pulled a large vine away from a door. He reached to push the door open, and it crumbled to dust. Quickly withdrawing his hoof and glancing around, looking to see if anypony had seen him, he added hastily, “And maybe we shouldn’t touch it because it has clearly been here a while, and we aren’t exactly experts on this stuff.”
“I guess,” Sunny said sadly, looking around her with obvious disappointment written all over her face. “It just seems like a shame to discover this place and then not be able to explore it a little.”
They were silent for a while until Sprout came to a conclusion. “Hey, maybe we can just walk around,” he suggested, “clear away some of this brush, just try not to touch anything. Then we can get a better idea of what it must’ve looked like, at least.”
The hope and happiness on Sunny’s face couldn’t have been more clear if the words I AM SO HAPPY!!! had been written across her forehead in pink sparkly letters. “Yes, yes, let’s do that!” she enthusiastically agreed, reaching for a bush and pushing it out of the way of a staircase. She delicately tested it before scrambling up to peer through a window and see what Ancient Equestrian homes looked like. Apparently, a lot like hers, just with less technology.
“None of them have roofs,” Sprout commented as he walked through the town. “Maybe they rotted away?”
“This one has a roof,” Izzy supplied helpfully, gesturing to a building that looked like it was made of candy. The slight gesture sent a small breeze through the air that was enough to make the whole building shudder and crack. A look of alarm flashed across Izzy’s face. “Uh, maybe we should keep it that way.”
“This is so cool,” Pipp whispered, aiming her cell phone flashlight at a building like the one in the center of town, only this one had more blues and purples and was a bit shorter. Peering inside, she could see what looked like the remains of a fashion shop, clearly abandoned. The last owner had clearly tried to grab whatever they could, but something must have prevented them from packing up everything. The floor was littered with tipped-over carts with hangers and dresses and suits sprawled all across the floor, with bolts of fabric draped over the furniture in a way that was clearly unintentional. Despite the destruction and obvious age, Pipp could imagine what it must have looked like when it wasn’t so messy. “If I had lived in this town, I would have definitely lived here.”
“Oh, really?” Zipp asked in a teasing voice. “What about… there?”
She pointed through the dark trees at something in the distance, a dark shape that was a towering figure even though it was surrounded by brush and tall trees. There was an air of authority and magic that surrounded it and seemed to keep the worst of it at bay. The six ponies diverted their attention to it and aimed their flashlights that they had packed (Pipp continued to use her cell phone and Izzy her horn) at the dark figure.
The light caught on the grimy crystals that hadn’t seen daylight in years, and slowly the shape became clear. Wide at the bottom, then narrow, before widening and once again narrowing to a tip at a large star. A balcony stuck out from the side, and the whole place was made of crystals.
In the middle of the forest, at the head of a village completely destroyed by time and nature, there was a castle.
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Added to my read list! Enjoying the story.
It's Twilight's Castle it's really sad to see it so broken down
Could that be sugarcube corner
Well it looks like Sprouts wants to come along which that's pretty cool probably they should be good for him what it looks like after walking through the forest that is he talked about they finally found Ponyville and it's really sad to see the town so in bad shape like the sugarcube corner Rarity's Boutique Twilight's Castle and I wonder if the friendship school is still around and I wonder if they discover other creatures as well