Quest For Harmony

by destinedjagold

Chapter 7 - Fall

I am starting to think that this unicorn is enjoying the fact that I am so darn exhausted as we are walking up to the castle. We just reached the final steps of the long stairs and I literally dropped myself on the ground, panting and sweating. I was digging earlier, and that did not help me at all, and climbing up to the castle is not fun. It was a good thing there was free bread available while we were digging inside that cave. It didn't really fill my belly, but it was good enough for me at that time.

I'm too exhausted to flash him a glare. Though in honesty, he's looking tired from walking up as well, though only a tiny bit. As he sat and relaxed his muscles a bit, I started remembering the scene I saw as we climbed up earlier. Far away is the tiny white cloud, probably Cloudsdale which is far far away, under the very black and threatening heavy clouds that kept on echoing thunder and flashing lightning. On the far horizon was the orange-red sky. I need to ask why the sky is not changing its color though. But right now, sleep is very very inviting...

"Help us..."

"W-what...? How?"

"T-Twilight..."

"Twilight? I need to go and ask Twilight about how to help you?"

"..."

"...That reminded me... Who are you...?"

"..."

"Are...are you still there?"

"...Don't tell her..."

"Don't tell her? Don't tell who? Twilight? Don't tell her what?"

"..."

"Hey...! You're still there, right?"

Consciousness came back and I slowly worked to open my tired eyes. What I saw startled me a bit. White tiled ceiling. I blinked a few more times, and yes, it did not change. I am back. Or was I? I need to make sure, but I cannot move anything else except for my eyes. What is going on?

---

"Hey!" I felt a hoof rapidly shaking me as I started to recover consciousness once again. "Wake up!"

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the concrete floor, and the unicorn guard was shaking me to wakefulness. "I'm up, I'm up..." I whispered, enough for him to stop from shaking me.

"If you're wondering, you only slept for five minutes or less," he said as I slowly forced my tired limbs to help me stand up. "Let us go," he said and walked onward. I sighed and followed him.

At first, I really thought that we would be in the castle now, but I was wrong. This place is like a city, where concrete houses of two to three storeys stood. Unicorns are walking around though, going to their individual destinations. This is probably the city of the unicorns. The capital of Unicornia? Canterlot? The more I think of it, the more I'm starting to doubt that this place is called Canterlot. I saw unicorn guards training other unicorns in the park meters away. They were levitating spears and swords, practicing their skills in combat, while some are being trained to blast magical beams from their horns. There were also others who were training to control the natural elements, like water and air.

As we continued our walk on the street, I noticed quite a number of eyes staring at me. I payed them no mind and continued, but as we walked on, I'm starting to wonder why they're all looking at us, or me.

"Earth ponies aren't allowed here," I heard my unicorn companion spoke without looking back at me. We turned right in an intersection, and we were now heading straight to the large castle's gates. "I don't know why the princess accepted your request to see her, but I would like you to be at your best behavior."

"Yes sir," I replied as we stopped a few feet in front of the large, tall, silver gate, where armored unicorn guards stood inside and out, standing straight up glancing at the both of us.

"Sir Starfall, sir!" the unicorn guards announced in unison as they saluted the unicorn beside me. Wow, he must be a high-ranking unicorn-thingy. He saluted back and requested for the gates to be opened. The unicorns did as what he asked, and soon, we walked forward, and I followed after him. A light drizzle started to fall though. I looked over my shoulder, and saw the unicorns were still standing there. They don't mind being soaked? Well, it's there problem, and not mine.

The castle ground is full of trimmed green grass, with trees arranged-ly placed here and there. White marble statues of different figures were placed neatly on some parts of the ground, with a large distance in between. Some of the said statues are broken, however. There were small groups of unicorns in different parts of the grounds, and they were busy talking to their groups.

We climbed up the stairway towards the grand double doors of the gigantic castle. Two unicorn guards opened the doors with their magic, and we walked inside, well, he walked inside, while I shook off the water all around me, and rubbed my feet, er, hooves on the dry ground before following him. The unicorns arched me an eyebrow though, but I ignored them.

The castle's hallway was empty, except for the unicorn guards standing on the corners. The castle was built on grayish-white marble-concrete. On the center was a red thick carpet, leading from the entrance of the double doors, all the way to the two royal seats.

"The princess is probably in the meeting room," Starfall spoke as he walked pass me. I followed him as we went inside another hallway from the royal seat's left. Unicorn guards stood tall in the hallway. There were occasional wooden doors on the walls as we continued our walk. At the end of the hallway was a door leading to the castle back gardens, and a staircase spiralling up to the next upper floor. He took the stairs, and I followed with an exhausted sigh. Great, more stairs.

We reached the end, and we found ourselves walking on another hallway. The left wall had the occasional wooden doors, while the right wall had tall and wide glass windows, covered by thick maroon and dark-blue curtains. We stopped in front of a large double wooden door. From our standing point, we could faintly hear quarreling voices from inside. This must be the meeting room. He knocked on the door. As we waited for the door to open, I turned around and took a peak through the glass window. The castle is pretty darn high up. And it's also kinda strange why it's facing the far white cloud of Cloudsdale.

"Open the door, now!" We heard Twilight's angry voice from inside. I turned and flashed Starfall a confused look. He carefully took a few steps to the side, away from the door.

"B-but princess," said a strikingly familiar boyish voice from within the room, "th-these books are---"

He was cut off, and Starfall and I jumped in surprise from a loud and powerful explosion from inside, which was quickly followed by the door being shattered, and a powerful pulse of purple beam pulling a purple baby dragon my way. It happened too fast, that I did not even prepared myself to brace for impact. The purple dragon collided on me, the powerful force of the beam even pushed me through the glass window, shattering it in the process. The force of the beam is pushing us both outside in the rain, and just as the beam faded, we started falling diagonally, until gravity properly pulled us directly downward towards the earth pony settlement down on the base of the mountain.

Spike was falling ahead of me, and he was screaming. The cold air and rain were flying up as we fell down. Naturally, I would start to think of how to save myself, but the dragon's screams somehow...

I've seen cartoons and movies, and have read a number of fics where if I need to fall faster to catch someone or something, I need to straighten my body and dive down. Which I did, and it was working, but it also was becoming too difficult to focus my eyes. The loud whistle of the wind is deafening, mixed with the scream of the dragon.

"Grab hold!" I yelled as I wrapped my front limbs around his back.

His screams stopped and he wrapped his arms around my neck, shutting his eyes and dug his face in my chest. "We're gonna die!" He cried, and it looked like we were really going to... We were falling fast, and we were getting close to the ground. If I don't think of something, we're really going to die. The loud whistling wind, the dragon's sobs, and the cold rainwater is not helping at al---water!

I tilted my direction, and my fall started to turn a little bit diagonal. I saw the waterfall meters away. Now, if only I could get there before the ground gets us.

My heart is pounding hard as ever, and I am having a difficult time controlling my nervousness. Who wouldn't when you're about to die? But I was not planning on dying just yet. I needed to go back and see my family.

At this rate, we won't be able to make it to the watering hole, and I was starting to lose hope until Spike's sobs triggered my brain to pop a very random idea. "Spike!" I yelled behind his ears, "Give us a boost!"

I could have taken proper words at that, because he removed his face from my chest, his crying features were mixed with confusion. "Wh-what?"

I groaned, grabbed him, resting my hoof behind his spine and my other hoof on his belly. I lifted him, enough for his head to be over my shoulder, and pressed my hooves, causing him to exhale tiny specks of fire. He got the idea. He tightened his grip around my neck, took a very deep breath, and roared a mighty green burst of fire, boosting us to reach the water in time.

I closed my eyes before we reached the surface of the water. Suddenly, the deafening whistle of the wind stopped, and was quickly replaced by the serene music of the underwater music. I opened my eyes in time to see that I was heading straight to a large rock lying on the water's floor. A powerful shot of pain coursed through my body from my head, and everything became black.