The Reception's Back On

by sister_mike

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Rarity

"Where... where did they all go? What happened?" Rarity asked.

She and the others had followed Twilight out of the cave once the bright light had vanished. There was no trace of the changelings or Zecora, and no sign that any sort of struggle had happened there at all. All was peaceful. It was spooky.

"I... I have no idea..." Twilight said, her mouth hanging open, her eyes in shock.

"Zecora... just saved us all," Pinkie said quietly.

"What did she do? I've never seen magic like that," Applejack said.

"That's the thing... Zecora's essentially like an earth pony... she can't do magic," Twilight said.

"Maybe it was an illusion; maybe she's in front of us right now fighting them all off," Inkie said quietly.

"I hope not," Rarity said.

"She just... sacrificed herself for us," Twilight said, still in shock. Trixie walked up and put her hoof around Twilight's shoulders for a moment, almost sympathetically. Then she noticed a pinecone near Twilight's foot and picked it up gleefully, and began to twirl about.

"Maybe there's more to zebras than you think," Rarity said. She put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Well... she... she did say that it wasn't the end for her," Twilight said slowly, still staring off into nothing.

"You see? She must be alright then," Rarity said comfortingly.

"Come on Twilight; we're so close to Canterlot. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will meet us there and everything will work out in the end, you'll see," Pinkie said, smiling.

"We need to find the princess," Applejack said, "Both of them."

"And figure out what Chrysalis is doing with Discord," Rarity said.

Twilight slowly shook her head.

"You're right everypony; I just can't believe that Zecora could do that... would do that," Twilight said. Twilight sighed and turned back towards the cave. "Come on; let's get to Canterlot."

With the loss of the cannon, Twilight talked some strategy as they walked through the caves. They walked in formation so that Twilight was in the front, Rarity in the middle, and Flam at the end, so that all the (functioning) unicorns could light the path.

The caves were dark and vast. The path and quickly narrowed and turned steep was they walked up the mountain, a plunging edge soon appearing on one side of the path.

Rarity walked quietly as Twilight talked. She knew that the talking was really just a way for Twilight to calm herself down. She's reiterate a real plan once they met up with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and had all of the Elements together again.

Rarity thought about Sweetie Belle. Once they defeated Chrysalis, she was the first pony she was going to save. Her frozen horror face was instilled in Rarity's mind. She knew that even after she freed Sweetie Belle, the vision would haunt her forever. She felt so cowardly and terrible that she wasn't able to free her sister. But she knew it was for good reasons. Sweetie Belle would have just been extra liability.

Twilight suddenly stopped walking. Rarity bumped into Applejack in front of her.

"Look," Twilight whispered, horrified. She pointed her hoof ahead of them.

Ahead was an opening into another portion of the cave. Inside, everywhere, it was green. Thousands of cocoons hung from the ceiling, the energy thickly streaming out of them and flowing through an opening in the middle. The cocoons seemed to glimmer, reflecting off of the crystals that were inside of the cave.

"This is the cave part that I remember, from my dream within the cocoon," Twilight whispered. "I bet you anything that hole in the ceiling where the energy is going through is the main chamber, where we were imprisoned."

"What do you propose we do?" Applejack asked.

Rarity looked through the hole. Faint outlines of more cocoons could be seen. They looked so far away. Sweetie Belle was up there somewhere.

"We can't just go climbing through that hole," Pinkie said, "that'd be crazy. Just crawl back into the ballroom where we were held in the first place? Where that creepy ponyquin is lying, probably watching us? It's too dangerous."

The ponyquin. Rarity had forgotten about it. It was so lifelike, so creepy looking... smiling, absorbing all of the energy.

"Pinkie's right; if that's their main power source, walking straight into there would just be asking for trouble," Applejack said.

"Right, but that's most likely where Chrysalis is going to be. Surely she'd want to guard that ponyquin-thing heavily. She'd probably want to guard it herself. We're going to have to go in there to fight her eventually," Twilight said. "I had forgotten about that thing."

"But it doesn't make sense to barrel in there now when we only have four of the Elements," Rarity said, "Plus, Chrysalis could be dealing with Princess Luna or Celestia or Discord or something."

"Where did you intend on meeting the others in Canterlot? We never set a meeting place," Inkie said.

Twilight began to pace.

"Maybe we should go to the labyrinth and meet them there? It's close enough to the palace that we won't have far to go once we have a plan of attack, plus it's a good place to try and hide from the changelings," Pinkie said.

"That's an excellent idea Pinkie Pie; I'm sure that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will have enough sense to meet us there," Twilight said. "Come on, this way."

They began to walk again. Rarity kept glancing up at the pods. She didn't realize that so many ponies lived in Canterlot. Though I'm sure some of these ponies were just tourists... In Canterlot at the wrong time... though I guess they would have been attacked in their homes anyways...

Rarity shuddered. She was glad she couldn't remember being put into the pod, because the very idea made her sick. She only hoped that Sweetie Belle wouldn't remember the experience either and be scarred for life.

"Just don't look at them," Flam said quietly, stepping into line with Rarity. With the cocoons around them and the reflection off of the crystals, the unicorns didn't need to illuminate any more.

"It's hard; my little sister is up in that ballroom in one of them" Rarity said quietly, tears coming to her eyes. She brushed them away.

"And soon she'll be free," Flam said. He gave Rarity a small smile. She tried to smile back, but failed.

Twilight led them through the caves. Flam walked quietly beside Rarity. Pinkie and Inkie talked to each other quietly. Applejack helped Twilight keep Trixie in line.

Twilight put a hoof up and the group stopped. In front of them were a set of tracks and a mine car stuck in between some rocks.

"I don't think we'll all fit in that," Applejack said.

"I think I remember something about the tracks suddenly giving out at the point anyways..." Twilight said.

"Then what do we do?" Inkie asked.

"Unfortunately, we need to go this way to get to the exit. I say, we walk the tracks and then I can teleport you all one by one across the gap at the end. I want to try and conserve my energy for when we fight Chrysalis," Twilight said.

The tracks grew very steep at a rapid pace. More than once, somepony or another was almost falling off and another one was pulling them back up. Rarity tripped and stumbled more times than she'd like to admit. There was just something about the caves that was getting to her. Visions of Rover coming at her in the caves were flooding back, and she couldn't get Sweetie Belle's face out of her mind. Flam was always there to help her when she stumbled.

"You ok Rarity?" Applejack asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry. Just... just having a hard time being in here," Rarity said, slipping once again. She was sure that Applejack was having a hard time too; the tracks were teetering high, and it probably reminded her of the tracks breaking and Big Mac falling down the cliff.

"It's ok; we're at the end," Twilight said.

The ponies stopped. Rarity could barely see the edge across the gap.

"Didn't realize it was going to be this wide of a gap Twilight; you sure you'll be able to bring us all across?" Applejack asked.

"Yes..." Twilight said, though Rarity wasn't so sure if she was convinced. Twilight didn't sound so sure.

"Wait; I see something over there," Flam said.

Rarity squinted across. Sure enough, there was something over there, a figure or two... or three?

"Twilight!"

A voice floated across the wide gap. The dark figure began to fly closer and closer. Rarity couldn't believe it; it was the Shadowbolt.

Comments

[Cynderfall]

There are no comments here so i shall change that.

Reunion!