Crystal White

by Lovinlife

Book 1: Chapter 12: The Many-Crossed Way...No More

Twilight nervously walked down the castle's western hallway, looking behind her every thirty steps she took… she counted each one. She didn't want to be followed. That was, until her hooves tangled together and her muzzle slammed into the carpet. The fibers tasted like floor cleaner and dirt.

A hoof was shoved into her vision. "Need some help there, Miss Sparkle?" The floored unicorn followed the extended leg up to the everyday Solar Guard armor plating, and the smiling face of a guard she had seen every few times she made her way through the tunnels.

"Oh, yeah." She took the offered hoof, and the unnamed guard pulled her up onto her hooves. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome Miss Sparkle." His smile was genuine, but nothing else about it seemed unique about this one guard. He was just like the rest of them.

"Well, I had best be on my way. Got places to go and ponies to see." Twilight gave a little laugh, but she didn't know what was funny about what she had said. He nodded and sidestepped a bit to let her quickly move past him without a second glance.

She could feel his presence still lingering behind her like a ghost haunting her. She turned around to look at him with a frown. "Do you have to follow me?"

"What do you mean, Miss Sparkle? This is my normal patrol route." He stepped back a few paces.

"Oh." She spoke nervously, quite embarrassed by her outburst. "Sorry, about that. I've just been on edge lately."

"Yes, I do know what that feels like." The guard spoke up in conversation. Twilight moved a little faster, but he only kept up with her. Not very many ponies knew about the old tunnels underneath the castle, she couldn't show him where it was.

"Everypony in the castle's been on edge since this afternoon." He continued to Twilight's annoyance. "With Emil being stabbed, we know how far ponies would go. It puts things into a much greater perspective now, knowing the dangers we all face just by being in this castle."

Twilight stopped and looked back at the stallion. He held his head up high and to the left as if he was deep in a thought. His words were true in a way; things had been getting tense in the city as of late. She had felt it strongly as she trotted through the shopping district, where she could feel stares being directed at the back of her head. She shivered, unnerved by the thought.

She stepped over to the thinking stallion. "I do know what you're saying. Everypony watches me whenever I go out, just because I'm Celestia's student. They weren't stares of curiosity or wonder either, they were… angry in a way."

"Well, maybe they're blaming you for Celestia's old rules and traditions." The guard put out.

"What? Celestia's rules and traditions are great." Twilight moved back from him. "Are you really saying that the Princess is the cause of this problem, and maybe even the fight?" No, that could never be true. But… Twilight vigorously shook her head.

"No, no. Celestia is the best thing this country has ever had!" Twilight shouted, as her whole body shook uncontrollably. She glared at him with as much ferocity as she could manage, scrunching up her muzzle and lowering her head so her eyes were beating through her brow.

"Woah Woah Woah. Hold on a minute, Miss Sparkle. I, uh, I didn't mean to offend you. I just…"

Her glare didn't work! Twilight turned tail and ran down the corridor, not thinking about where she was going before she opened her eyes to the castle zooming by her. It was much different than she could ever remember.

"Hey, wait!" She heard him shouting and running behind her.

"Leave me alone!" She didn't want to see him. She didn't want to turn treasonous on her Princess.

"What did I do? Slow down!" Twilight rounded a corner, and spotted a maid with a laundry hamper in her magical glow slowly heading in her direction. She couldn't believe what she was about to do.

She ran up to the shocked maid, giving an apologetic look as she did. "Yes, Miss Twilight, could I… oof!" Twilight slammed her side against the maid, knocking the laundry out of her magic, and everything fell on top of the unfortunate unicorn.

"I'm so sorry!" Twilight's vision blurred from tears starting to develop. she tried to blink these away as she took off, once again, down the hallway.

Twilight pushed her hooves into the stone floor to keep herself from running any further away from the scene she had caused. She looked back to see if the maid was okay. The guard was pulling her out of the mountain of clothes and sheets when he looked at her with a glare of his own that sent shivers down her spine.

Guilt scraped away at her resolve for resolution. To start what she wished to everything good that she hadn't, but she had to for that resolution in the greater guilt that had been eating her away for the past year since her parents had died and she had become Celestia's student. The guilt of attraction that had come afterwards would be the icing on the top of the cake for Twilight to not go back and face the consequences for her actions. It served that guard right for talking bad about the good Princess anyway. Twilight turned tail once again, and continued to run down the hallway, trying hard not to look back a second time.

She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her head, as her lungs fought to take in breath. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for the perfect place to hide. She came up on a large bust of Princess Celestia with an embroidered tapestry behind it. She dove behind it and pressed her hooves to her mouth to silence her breathlessness. She rubbed at her wet eyes, trying to force herself to stop crying. It worked somewhat.

An immense window spread out before her to the sun that sat on the far off horizon, waiting for the Princess to lower it into the last bit of life for the day before the moon was raised in its place. The sky was lit with color that reflected up in the purple clouds that hung over the valley the castle stood high above. Twilight could see the green rolling hill rise and fall gently and slowly.

It was a pure peace Twilight felt. A peace that was given freely by Princess Celestia. Was it really worth going against her wishes only to see a personal goal be fulfilled when all Celestia wanted was peace…most of the time. What had she done to contribute to this peace? She shook her head: there was nothing. If anything, especially now, she took the peace away. Shining never showed enthusiasm for her plan and openly worried about her following it. Maybe his worrying for her was a cause for the fight. That was impossible! The ponies attacked first, what was she thinking? That she was the cause?

But like she had said herself not two minutes ago, she needed to know if everything could be resolved. That her life's wants were okay, and along the lines of the words of writer Hannus Rabwing before he was executed for murdering his wife, "Everypony is entitled to at least one selfish act." Of course, she would never go as far as to end another pony's life, especially one she loved. But this was her selfish act.

Twilight let her breath ease out. The guilt infested unicorn dragged herself from behind the tapestry. She dusted herself off, making a mental note to tell the cleaning pony not to be shirking her work.

Twilight slowly made her way down the hall, constantly looking over her shoulder every few seconds, but no pony was ever there. Not much further ahead, she stopped and looked at a plain wall with no decorations around it. Twilight looked around, counting the elaborate busts until she counted five she could see without moving a step in either direction. Yes, this was the secret spot hidden in the history of this timeless building.

The stones at the base of the wall had their mortar chipped away. Twilight smiled and nodded to nothing as she went to work. She concentrated her levitation spell on the stone blocks and gently slid the two pieces out. The unicorn grunted a bit, as this took more force than she remembered. The resonating scraping of the stone on stone rumbled until a small hole was opened up in the wall. She glanced back down the hallway to make sure it was clear, and then she got down on her stomach and carefully crawled through.

Hidden behind the castle wall was a deep and dark tunnel that stretched off into nothingness. Picking herself up, Twilight used her magic once again to pull the stone blocks behind her. The light from the hallway shrunk into a smaller and smaller beam until the blocks were into place. The light was blocked, and the tunnel was drenched in the inevitable darkness.

With practiced ease, Twilight lit her horn to dispel the claustrophobic black. Everywhere she could see was rock, uncut; this was a naturally formed cave system from eons ago. As much as Twilight always wanted to stay and study this place more than she had in the past, she had a mission to complete.

Water dripped far through the cavernous tunnels, as Twilight's hooves crunched on the dirty, rocky ground. She reached the top of a set of stairs that had been carved from the rocky walls. A river roared its passage and journey far below.

The flights of stairs were at random angles every time Twilight stepped on a new set. They looped around the tube walls, leading Twilight further down into the depths of Canterlot Mountain.

The river eventually came into view like a hulking dragon bellowing out a titanic war cry. Twilight's magic illuminated the rushing water as it raced by. The path continued along the river's edge and behind a massive waterfall. Twilight always stared in awe that such a wonder could only be found underground. It made a significant wall at it crashed atop the river below, and made intricate shapes and designs of purple that danced and vanished in the ripples of its continued flow.

The path went down the opposite side of the river. Twilight felt the water drops spray like tiny kisses all over her body. Though she had never been kissed by anypony other than her parents…It was not the time or place to think about things like that. This mission, if it succeeded, would fix that problem.

The pathway rounded a bend and Twilight halted her walking past the point, as her light illuminated the edge of a calm pool off to the side of the careening river. There was nowhere for her to go on walking.

Twilight turned her attention over to the rocky wall that towered over the light. Right at the base of it was an old, rusted device of some kind from an era so long ago even Twilight couldn't figure out its age. The metal had definitely been casted in an early iron period, when earth ponies had first learned to cast and mold iron into usable objects, but the workings and details that Twilight observed working the whole contraption were far too advanced for such an infantile period of history. Another mystery that ran through Twilight's head. A chain wormed its way out of the end of the machine and though a tiny hole in the wall.

A rusted piece of metal jutted out of the main box body. Twilight pulled the metal piece until it stuck straight up, and a loud click echoed off the walls around.

Moving to where she could see the water, Twilight watched as a large, long metal strip opened up out of the rock and out into the rushing currents. Beneath her hooves, she felt a small vibration, as if something underneath was beginning to move and groan as the water was directed to it from the river by the metal gate. The chain on the box began to rattle behind her.

Twilight counted in her head. 5.4.3.2.1. Right on time, a sort of ancient lift hanging from the old chain came into the light from above. She sighed when it stopped in front of her. Her hooves didn't want to move: she had to force herself to move onto the overly dangerous thing. Her hooves shook as she held her breath as calmly as she could keep it. When she finally go on the lift, her hoof immediately went for the closest clamp that held the bottom of the lift to the chain above. Steeling herself, Twilight pulled the lever with her magic and rose up into the cold cavern of the old mountain.

She didn't want to know how old this thing was or how high it went. Twilight kept her hooves wrapped around the clamp, and her horn glowed all the way up.

It wasn't long before the lift jerked to a stop. Twilight gasped in surprise and held on tighter, as the lift swung ominously back and forth. "Okay. Okay. Not what I had planned, but you can get out of this, Twilight." She talked to herself, hoping it would calm herself down. It didn't work. "I just have to think clearly. You can do that." She looked at the walls around her, trying to see anything that could give her a clue.

"This shaft couldn't have been completely naturally made to get these walls as smooth as they are. Hmm. Canterlot Mountain is an extinct volcano. Magma only follows the path of least resistance, some carving had to have been done to accomplish a straight vertical. In theory, the carvers had to get out somehow, there has to be some sort of alternate exit for them to get out when they were this far down from any of the obvious exits. I need to see what's around and hope this holds long enough that I don't fall to my doom." She gulped at the possibility that this could be the reason for her death.

Trying to concentrate on her magic once again, Twilight flicked flares out in different directions, trying to see what there was to see past the light of her glow. The first showed only wall. The second, the same. The third was only the same thing, but with an old cave painting Twilight couldn't make out. The forth try illuminated a ledge off to the side, slightly higher up. Twilight nodded. "Okay, there it is, glad that worked out. Now I just need to figure out how to get up there...And how am I going to do that?" Princess Celestia says that I can't learn the teleporting spell until I've learned how to clear my mind of all distractions, when I tell her I can. It would really be nice to have so I wouldn't be in danger of falling to my death! Ooo, what am I going to do? Calm down Twilight, there is no need to panic. You got this, you just need to think clearly."

Twilight paced around, looking for anything that maybe she could use on the lift. There was obviously nothing. She groaned. "I should've known this thing would stop working eventually."

That far-off wall wasn't easily reachable by any means. Twilight had to figure out how to get over there on top of everything else. Flinging another magical flare up there revealed a wooden post sticking up out of rock. "Yes! I could use that to get over there. Okay good, what could I use to grab it with? Nothing in the lift except..." She looked up at the chain that suspended the lift above the surely lethal drop. "That might work."

With no other plan in her mind, Twilight began to rock her weight back and forth. The lift began to follow her movements. Slowly at first, she began to throw herself onto one side of hooves and then to the other for added momentum. Over and over, the lift swung slightly closer each time. "Almost there Twilight." She puffed, covered in sweat, but she pushed her body into the last sets of heaves. The chain just barely touched the "hook". "Now!" She gave herself the signal. At the last second, Twilight blindly fired a desperate levitation spell on the chain to push it just behind the post to get it caught.

The lift stopped with a savage jerk. Twilight was thrown off her hooves from the jolt, and struck her side against the boards on the fall. An ear-shattering crunch shook inside her as a pain pierced her ribs, as it felt harder for her to breath. Twilight rolled onto her back, grasping her shocked insides that bit back, and she failed to hold back a wail of paroxysm.

The wood beneath Twilight cut her off when it snapped and caved in. With speed she never knew she had, Twilight threw herself onto a more stable piece. Her ribs screamed their misery as she gasped for breath. "No...Please don't be broken. Please." Twilight never had a broken bone in her life. She held back the tears she wanted to cry. "No more crying. I've got to get out of here."

She looked down through the hole in the floor at the open maw of the nothingness below. "I knew this was idiotic. Eat your own words Twilight, but I can't believe that worked. Mostly." She gently rubbed her side and winced when the sting worsened.

The post the lift's chain was wrapped around creaked a bit, forcing Twilight to silence her groaning to listen to it. It was the scariest sound she had ever heard. Her heart could just stop right there and she would be happy just to never hear that sound again. When it stopped, Twilight let out a breath of relief, only moaning out, "Gotta get off of this death trap."

The ledge was still too far for her to reach. Twilight only stumbled up to her hooves, ignoring her ribs as she lunged for the chain above. She wrapped her forelegs around the chain and tried pulling herself up, but she couldn't lift herself up all the way. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and she bit into the old chain, tasting rust and iron. Ignoring it, Twilight used her hooves to pull herself up and use her smarting jaw to hold herself there to allow her hooves to pull herself up again, moaning under the strain.

She didn't stop until she was eye level with the creaking post. She poured the last bit of strength she never knew she had into letting go of the chain and flinging herself helplessly out to the ledge. Her belly slammed onto the rocky ground. She cried out as tears rolled down her cheeks when her side roared with fire. But at least it told her that she was alive.

She shifted her body to get more comfortable, and something crumpled underneath her hoof. It sounded like paper. She inspected the torn piece as she lit her horn once again to see what was on it. It was a note or an unfinished letter of some kind. The scratchy writing was frantic and all over the place, making it very difficult to read, but she tried her best:

"This whole trip was nothing but bad juju from the start. The rats in the larder, the wagon's wheel breaking. Everything! I say witches from Tartarus and the swamps south have cursed us, blocking us from the glow of Faust and her creation, Celestia. Muscovite is everywhere, the witch's brewing cauldrons that eat anypony unlucky enough to happen to step on it. We lost Newt earlier today. I can't remember if it was today or yesterday, no way for knowing the days down here. I can still hear that pony's vanishing scream echoing down to silence. We all thought with trip was a dangerous one when we signed up for it, but now the situation has gone far beyond that. The food is almost up, and my friends are starting to look appetizing. It's that or suicide..."

The words after this were so scribbled up that Twilight couldn't even read them, but the message was painfully clear. Why else would it be on the edge of a drop off? The pain in her side brought on tears, and Twilight wailed out a cry of pitiful disparity. "Somepony! Please, help me!"

A voice called out, far in the darkness. "Twilight, where are you!?"

The fallen unicorn's heart skipped as loving thoughts entered her mind. It was a voice she loved. It was a voice she adored. It was something she needed to hear. "Rose! Rose! Please find me! PLEASE!"

"I will, just keep yelling! Keep calling me, and don't you dare ever stop repeating yourself!" The harsh and lovely reply came.

All Twilight did was call out the mare's name. That sweet, ever rich name. She never stopped once. Her throat dried up, but she still continued calling.

A beam of light came around an unseen corner. The beam of a headlamp. "Rose!"

"I'm here, don't worry. I'm here for you, beautiful. You beautifully, stupid mare."

The pink earth pony in all of her beauty appeared at the end of the headlamp's beam. The light turned on Twilight, and she was blinded by its power. "I'm here. I'm here. I'm here." Twilight repeated herself.

"Twilight! Don't go to sleep! Oh dang it Celestia! I'll get you out of here, and then, you're so going to marry me! Hang in there..."