Legends Never Die

by bookhorse125

Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover

“Woah.” Sunny’s voice was completely awestruck. “I think that might be what we’re looking for. Anypony up for exploring?”

“Won’t that be dangerous?” Sprout asked nervously as he bumped a mailbox, which promptly fell apart upon contact. “I mean, didn’t we literally just agree to not do that? Because this stuff’s been around for so long that literally any contact will essentially kill it?”

“Oh.” Sunny’s cheerful demeanor lessened considerably. Then it brightened again. “Well, this one seems to be made of much more durable stuff than the others. I’m sure it’s fine.” She trotted off towards the castle, holding her flashlight in her mouth and shining the beam at the castle. The exterior was very interesting. It looked as if some bark was growing over the crystals, so that, if it had kept up like this, the castle could have been mistaken for a very oddly shaped tree. The doors were hidden completely behind a wall of bark that Sunny and her friends had to pull away, bit by tiny bit, until at last, a large chunk fell away and crashed at their feet as they hurriedly backed away. This left a sizable hole in which they could see the wooden doors, painted gold with a heart in the middle.

Gingerly reaching out, Sunny pushed the door open. It creaked tremendously, but didn’t break. The sound echoed eerily in the empty building, and the light coming from the door was all that they could see by. Any windows had been concealed by the growing bark, wrapping the palace in a cocoon of wood.

Sunny stepped inside, shining her flashlight around as she went, and her friends followed. She let her heavy pack of supplies drop to the ground as she stared in wonder.

The first room had high ceilings and a dusty carpet that ran for a few meters before dividing into three more: one that went to the left, one that went to the right, and one that kept going straight, up until it met a staircase. Above the staircase was a long balcony. Identical doors made of dusty green glass and golden frames lined the walls. Crystal pillars stabilized the corners, and old tapestries and other decorations hung from the walls.

“This is…” Sunny swallowed, found her voice, and tried again. “This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.” She took a deep breath. “Okay. We need to find a place to camp for the night. As much as I want to start exploring right away, we need some kind of home base. Everypony, keep your eye out for some kind of big room.” She picked up her pack and led the way through the hallways, studying the architecture as she went. The interior of the castle seemed to be spared from the forest’s rampage, the crystal walls holding back the plants. It all seemed very natural, like it was grown into the shape that it was instead of being created by ponies.

Hitch poked his head in a door and said, “Nope. Nothing here except a broom closet.”

“I found a bedroom,” Pipp supplied. “But it looks pretty dirty. This place needs a clean-up - a very thorough clean-up.” She wrinkled her muzzle and shut the door.

“Do you think any of the Guardians lived here?” Zipp asked Sunny nervously as they trekked further and further from the door. She began to feel like she was closed in and trapped, a feeling that she hated, even with the high ceilings and spacious corridors.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle probably did,” Sunny inferenced. “She was a princess, after all, and I doubt she wanted to live very far from her friends. But I think the rest of the Guardians of Harmony lived in Ponyville.” She was itching to pull out her journal and check this fact, but her desire to explore the castle around her was too much to resist.

Izzy opened a door and carefully poked her head inside. “Uh, guys? I think I found something,” she called to her friends’ retreating backs. They turned and hurried back as the unicorn pushed the door open, and they all stepped inside.

The room was empty, for the most part. There were a few tables and cushions, with candleholders sprinkled here and there, their occupants long gone, and a large shelf that took up an entire wall, separated in the middle by what looked like a giant crystal branch. A few books were scattered around the shelf, like somepony was trying to fill it up, but just didn’t have the materials. The whole room had a musty, papery smell to it, even after all these years.

“Woah,” Sunny whispered. “This must have been Princess Twilight’s library. Imagine the books she read in here!”

Hitch and Sprout cleared a space in the middle of the room and pulled out the tents they’d packed. Zipp moved to help them pitch said tents, Pipp moved around the room, the tiny red light on her phone telling that she was recording their newest discovery, and Izzy stayed by Sunny’s side as she recorded what they’d found in her journal, drawing a picture of what the castle looked like from the outside and the inside.

“Pretty amazing how all this has been under our muzzles the whole time,” Izzy said cheerfully, shrugging off her heavy gear. “I mean, if we had found this before, we wouldn’t have known what it was. But now we’re all friends again… for the most part,” she amended, glancing north towards the mountain she knew was there. “Now that we’re all friends again, we can work together to figure these kinds of things out.”

Once their camp was set up, Sunny began rallying instructions to her friends. “Zipp and Pipp, I need you to go upstairs and map out the upper floors. Be careful. I don’t know how solid this place is, but hopefully your wings can help if a floor gives out from under you.” The two sisters nodded, and Pipp checked to make sure that she had enough battery left on her phone. She’d charged it before they left Maretime Bay, but this castle didn’t seem to have electricity, so she wanted to save it. “Sprout and Hitch, you take the left corridor; Izzy and I will take the right.”

The ponies nodded and split up in their separate directions. Sunny and Izzy trotted down the hallway, Izzy’s horn alight, illuminating the dark corridor. Sunny pushed open a door and peered inside. “Another bedroom…” she sighed. “Nothing special.”

“How many bedrooms does this place have?” Izzy asked skeptically. “Did Princess Twilight have everypony live here?”

Sunny laughed. “No, I think they all lived in the town… Maybe she just got a lot of guests or something.” She pushed open another door and peeked inside. “Storage closet.” She shut the door again.

“This place sure has a lot of doors,” Izzy commented, and Sunny laughed.

The rest of the day passed without much new discovery. Hitch and Sprout found the dining hall, and Zipp and Pipp managed to see how many floors were in this place, along with a map of the twisting hallways on each one.

“Four levels,” Pipp exclaimed at dinner, grabbing another slice of cold pizza that Sprout had brought along. “Four! And one of them goes into the towers, but we didn’t even get up there yet.”

Zipp rolled her eyes. “You’re telling me. These hallways are all so alike we got lost about a million times! The only reason we knew we were lost is because our trail on the map kept going in circles and loop-dee-loops, and we were like, hey, that can’t be right…”

Sunny looked over at the rough map the two pegasi had drawn. It still went in plenty of circles and loop-dee-loops.

“Anyway, so we got back on the right path… we think,” Pipp said, finishing the last of her pizza. “It’ll be so much better once we can all go through on foot and mark it down in more detail, but we’ve got some sort of sketch going on here, which is better than nothing, right?”

Afterwards, the ponies decided to hit the hay, and Sunny settled into her tent that she shared with Izzy. Her friends fell asleep relatively quickly, but Sunny tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She was in the former home of some of the greatest heroes in Equestrian history - she didn’t have time to sleep! She eventually sat up and slouched outside her tent, pulling out her journal to read by the dim light leaking in through the dusty windows.

“Sunny?”

The mare jumped and spun around to see Izzy in the mouth of their tent, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Oh, Izzy, it’s just you,” Sunny breathed, trying to calm her racing heart. “What are you doing up?”

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Izzy said cheerfully yet tiredly, slipping beside her friend and glancing at the journal open on the ground in front of her.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Sunny sighed and stared around their feeble campsite. “It’s just… There’s something about this place. Something… magical, I guess. Can’t you feel it?”

Izzy looked at her, startled. “Yeah, couldn’t you? I mean, can’t you see it?”

Sunny looked around once more, but didn’t see anything that the purple unicorn might be referring to. “See what?”

“Well, no, I guess you couldn’t,” Izzy said reasonably. “Sunny, this place… it has a sparkle.”

Author's Note:

I've decided to organize my chaotic release schedule. I will be releasing a new chapter every Friday. This should hopefully give me more time to work on other stuff, to, because this is not the only story I am working on.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Comments

[Block]

Pipp checked to make sure that she had enough battery left on her phone. She’d charged it before they left Maretime Bay, but this castle didn’t seem to have electricity, so she wanted to save it.

It seems Pipp's never heard of a powerbank.

[Yoshifan30]

So they went inside to Twilight's Castle and basically Explorer around the castle hopefully finding something interesting and so far nothing but I hope maybe Harmony will come around so they decided to stay there for now until they Explorer around more hopefully they can find more information