In Reflection, The Same

by Faedelaide

Obstinate

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait. I went on vacation for a week, then I wanted to do some more with my other stories. Chapters will be back and semi consistent, but I'll also be working on my other stories as well, so don't be surprised if the time between chapters is a little longer than before. Anyway, enjoy!

The thick layer of evergreens below them were soaked in the bright oranges rays of the newly risen sun. The beautiful morning sky reminded Twilight of some of the large paintings that were strewn about the Canterlot library. She slightly wished that she had time to enjoy its beauty, but none of them were in any mood to prolong this trip, though weren't excited to fly back to the cabin either. Twilight hazarded a guess that the three of them just wanted to go home, but the importance of this mission demanded otherwise.

Gillian was silent as the trio prepared to finish their journey to the Crystal Empire, but Rainbow seemed to be in higher spirits. Twilight was unsure if Rainbow's renewed energy was real or not, but it was good to see her attempting to be her usual self. With all that happened yesterday, Twilight would have felt incredibly bad if she'd brought all of her friends on a seemingly harmless mission, only to scar them with visions of nightmarish monsters and titanic walls of magical ice. Well, she already felt bad, but it was at least comforting to see that they were trying to move on from what they saw and focus on the mission at hand.

Twilight absentmindedly watched the sun shift in the sky as they flew. They had taken very few breaks along their trip, stopping only when Gillian requested so. Rainbow already didn't like pacing herself to stay with the pack, but she was keeping it together for the griffon's sake as well as her own. Fortunately, Gillian ensured that their breaks were short and out in the open where they could easily keep an eye out for potential dangers. And although Rainbow was keeping pace as best she could, Gillian and Twilight were both trying to make this trip as quick as possible. However, this came with the caveat of them being completely exhausted by the time they reached the crystalline archway that marked the border of the Crystal Empire.

Twilight and Gillian practically melted onto the crystal road when they finally reached the shining city, both of them sinking from the skies like stones in a river. Rainbow Dash zoomed off towards the castle when she saw her friends on the ground, and in a couple minutes, Cadance, Shining Armor and a handful of royal guards had arrived to pick the two up.

Cadance and Shining rushed to help Twilight to her hooves, while the guards assisted Gillian.

"Twilight, are you alright? What happened?" Cadance fretted.

Twilight stood up on her own as her brother directed her towards the castle. "It's alright, We just exerted ourselves a bit too much getting here." She looked at her sister-in-law, who wore a look of disbelief, and added on, "nothing happened, I swear."

Rainbow Dash huffed. "Well, something did happen, but I guess we'll talk about it later."

Cadance sent a quick glance towards Rainbow, but decided to address Twilight first. "Well I didn't expect you to take such an... unorthodox approach. I know your mission is urgent and all, but I didn't expect it to be this important."

"I didn't either, but we've got a serious issue on our hands right now," Twilight sighed.

"Well it can't be that bad, Celestia wouldn't give you a problem you and your friends couldn't solve on your own."

"Of course, but I don't know if even Celestia knows the full details of the mission she set us on."

"How bad is it then?" Cadance asked, worry returning to her face.

Twilight twisted her head back and forth, scanning her surroundings as they all approached the castle doorway. "I think it'd be better if we discussed this somewhere more private."

Cadance nodded. She turned back to the guards who were following behind Gillian, who was now walking on her own unassisted.

"Alright, you are all free to go now, thank you for your help." She waved to the guards, who promptly bowed, then marched off into the halls of the castle.

Once it was just the five of them, Cadance beckoned the trio forth. The group stood in the middle of one of the Crystal Castle's many halls, but Cadance walked over to a nearby wall with utmost confidence. Twilight tilted her head as she watched her sister-in-law walk right up to the empty wall and lay a hoof upon it. For a second, nothing happened, but then a small portion of the wall sank into the floor, exposing a dim, candlelit hallway.

Rainbow's jaw dropped in shock. "Woah, you have secret passages?"

Cadance and Shining Armor laughed, but the princess put her hoof to her mouth. "Shhh, not so loud. There's all sorts of hidden passages in this castle. We can thank the previous crystal princesses for that. It makes travelling around the castle undetected very easy. Me and Shiny use it every so often when we feel the need to, but I think we might need to use it today." She pointed a hoof at Rainbow. "You can keep this a secret, right?"

Rainbow nodded vigorously. "Well what are we waiting for? I wanna see what other secrets this castle's hiding," She whispered as best she could, zooming into the darkened passage before she even finished her sentence.

Cadance giggled again, turning to Twilight and Gillian. "Shall we?"

"I guess we shall. Are you coming, Gillian?" Twilight turned to the griffon. Gillian nodded lightly, but her gaze didn't escape the floor below her.

A feeling of trepidation came over Twilight as she watched the griffon following quietly behind them. Rainbow Dash seemed to be handling the situation well enough, but she'd seen her fair share of monstrous creatures and villainous ponies. Twilight realised that this might have been Gillian's first experience with such dangerous creatures. She was definitely going to have to talk with her later.

Cadance interrupted her thinking with a question. "I know you sent me the arrowhead, but your message didn't really describe what was so important about it, and how did you even find that?" She leaned forward to look into Twilight's tired eyes, "What's really going on out there?"

Twilight took in a deep breath. This was going to take a while.

Comments

[ponepony]

Sorry for the long wait. I went on vacation for a week, then I wanted to do some more with my other stories. Chapters will be back and semi consistent, but I'll also be working on my other stories as well, so don't be surprised if the time between chapters is a little longer than before. Anyway, enjoy!