The Road Less Traveled, Page 1

[…]Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost, The road not taken

This is an account of the events which took place after the defeat of the Changeling Army and before the Great Rebirth. I am committing this to print so that the future generations may learn from the mistakes of the past.

This is the story of how Equestria changed.

This is the story of how I learned from my own mistakes.

This is the story of how I walked down the road less traveled.

It was a bright Canterlot day; the Sun shone more brightly than ever, and the summer heat was almost unbearable. The temperature in Canterlot has always had a tendency to the extreme: it's either frozen cold in winter or fiendishly hot in summer, with little or nothing in between.

Princess Celestia often spent her days in the many inner gardens of the castle, in the shadow of the gazebos and besides the beautiful decorated fountains. It was there that I met her that day, in the late morning; she had just finished discussing with a group of magistrates concerning some small legal matter. I didn't pay much attention to it; I was just glad I could have a little of the Princess' time.

She nodded me to come to her table and signaled one of her servants to come pour us some tea.

"Have you been enjoying Canterlot this far?" she asked.

"Of course" I answered "I'm always glad to be back. And so are my friends… even though I think we'll have to be leaving soon."

"I see. I understand that you'll have to be back to your duties. Stay as long as you want. Now, was there an issue you wanted to discuss with me?"

"Yes. You remember how I and Cadence were trapped in the gem caves beneath the castle?"

"Of course. All of Equestria will be talking about it by now."

"Yes… well, I wanted to investigate the caverns further. I have researched their history, and it appears no-one has mapped or fully explored them in centuries, so…"

"That is out of the question" the Princess answered with severity "You have emerged from there once, and that should be sufficient. You shouldn't risk any further by returning in the cave."

I feebly attempted a response, but I stopped immediately. In my years as the Princess' student, I had learned to know her expressions well, and now I was certain she wasn't going to budge on the matter.

"I suppose I'll have to find something else to do."

The Princess smiled again. As she did, the sun itself seemed to shine more brightly.

"Don't think about those caverns anymore" she said "By tomorrow I'll have them sealed and I'll make sure no-one can risk their life down there anymore. Now, if you don't mind, I have matters to attend to…"

"Certainly."

I bowed my head slightly and walked away.

Disappointed as I was, I fully accepted the Princess' decision. I was certain she had good reasons, even more so because of the nagging sensation that in the very moment I mentioned returning to the caves, I had caught a glimpse of fear in her eyes.

As I walked out of the castle and into the bustling streets of the city, I pondered on how to break the news to Spike and Rarity. I had promised them to take them with me in the exploration, and there was no doubt their heart was set on the idea.

I began wondering if it had been a mistake to even tell them. Of course I wanted to share with them the experience, but their interest in the gems wasn't exactly scientific. I doubted they would actually take them, but perhaps it was a risk which was better not to take.

At about noon I arrived at the train station. Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie were already there. We were all going to say goodbye to Applejack and Fluttershy, who were returning to Ponyville already; neither of them could stay away from their duties too much, and in addition to that I was fairly sure they didn't enjoy the crowding and confusion of Canterlot.

I have often pondered if the events that followed would've been different if they had stayed longer. I have concluded that what happened was my doing, and mine only. Their presence might have made my choice a harder one, but I would've ultimately walked the same path.

We chatted for a while, waiting for the rest of our friends. I don't recall exactly what we talked about. It was probably a subject of no consequence-perhaps about the high prices of Canterlot, or our projects for the day, or those rumours floating around about Changeling spies.

Rarity, Spike and Rainbow Dash arrived shortly thereafter; it was normal for Rarity to be fashionably late, and I had stopped hoping to see punctuality in Spike a long time ago; Rainbow's lateness was a recent development however. Since the day after the wedding she had started to disappear most of the time, especially in the evening, and she wouldn't tell us why; we were quite sure it had something to do with the Wonderbolts, but none of us knew what exactly.

The goodbye was quick. We were going to see each other again in a few days anyway. Afterwards, Rainbow tried to run off again, but Pinkie decided to tackle her and we all knew she wouldn't let her get away.

Rarity, Spike and I began walking back to the castle. I explained them the Princess' refusal; needless to say, they didn't take it well.

Rarity for a few seconds stood there with the same disappointed face of a filly who just lost her favourite toy.

"But… but…"

"Yes…?"

"This isn't fair!" Rarity stomped her front hooves on the ground. "Such a cornucopia of gems right under our hooves and we can't even see it?"

"This bites!" commented Spike. "What's so bad about the cave? You and Cadence came out of that all right, didn't you?"

"Yes, Spike, but this doesn't mean they are not dangerous. We survived Discord, but you wouldn't want to meet him again, would you?"

"Oh, come on! What is the worst thing that could happen in there?"

"Well, aside from the obvious danger of a cave-in, the gems are reactive to magic. It's impossible to teleport from inside the caverns, which means that if we remained trapped anywhere in any of the several crevices, we…"

"Twilight, darling, don't get yourself too worried. I understand the Princess has her reasons. We'll just have to come to terms with the fact that the marvelous crystals which are but a step away will be lost forever and we'll never have a chance to discover their certainly incredible properties and value. But, what else could we do? We certainly couldn't disobey the Princess, no matter how fabulous the treasure we are missing is. Isn't that right? There is no contravening a royal order, even for an incommensurably precious…"

"I get the point. We're still not going. I'm as disappointed as you are that we'll never get to study those gems. But Princess Celestia is immovable. There's nothing we can do. "

"I understand fully."

I looked at Rarity's perfect smile. "You're planning to sneak in, aren't you?"

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. "I would never dream of it."

For some reason, I decided to believe that.

I spent the rest of the day in the library, looking to see if there was any more information concerning the Canterlot caves; I was determined to find out more, whether I could verify it by myself or not. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything I didn't already know. The little information there was, was scattered among myriads of volumes, to the point that in days of study all I had gathered was that they had indeed been used as a prison, as Chrysalis had said. It was kept safe by the powers of the gems, which could reflect magic spells and made teleportation from the caves impossible. There were few mentions of notable prisoners, but nothing that was more recent than eight hundred years prior, and none of the names was even remotely familiar. The only thing that struck me, insignificant as it was, was that the one who had studied the magic properties of the gems was Clover the Clever; I smiled thinking of how we seemed to be somewhat interconnected.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I had remained up relatively late revising my meagre findings, but nothing else had emerged. When I finally returned to bed, the many things on my mind assaulted me all at once. The caves, the gems, Clover the Clever, Rarity and Spike, Rainbow's secret, the Changeling conspiracies, Celestia's refusal and above all that nagging sensation that had been riding on my back all day, that glimmer of fear in the Princess' eye at the mention of the cave.

Was she really afraid, or was I just mistaken? And even then, what could she be scared of?

She was a goddess, after all.

Although...

Celestia's defeat at the hoof of Chrysalis had been for me, like for many others, a debilitating blow Even though we ultimately won the battle, and even though we witnessed the might of Shining Armour's and Cadence's love, it was terrible to see the one we thought was the ultimate force of good and Harmony humiliated and captured.

Maybe she was still shaken, I thought. Maybe the reason she was so worried was that she felt vulnerable after such an ordeal and, given some time, she'd come to agree that it was better to explore the danger than to seal it away.

Maybe, I thought, I just had to wait.

Maybe if I asked Luna she would know more, or at least know how to explain her sister's decision. I walked to the window, now quite certain I wasn't going to get any sleep that night; Luna's silhouette was easy to see, standing guard on the tower at the opposite end of the castle.

I could just go ask her.

She would know more.

I picked up my notes and walked out in the corridor. The marble floors and decorated columns had an ominous look at night; the dimly lit archways seemed to lead into realms of shadows where nothing could be seen or heard. I walked by Spike's room and considered waking him up. No use, I resolved; while he was sleeping, not even a Sonic Rainboom could wake him up.

My path towards Luna's guard tower took me right in front of the cellar door which led down towards the opening of the caves.

The term "cellar door" might be misleading; rather than a simple trap door opening in the ground, it was a proper, solid wood door, which lead to one of the many underground storage rooms in the castle. It still bore the signs of having been forced open as Cadence and I were escaping.

While passing, I noticed that the door was slightly open; at first I didn't pay too much attention to it, but then I considered how important that door was. Could the princess, in the wake of an invasion, really leave it unguarded and, above all, open?

I remembered that behind the door was a narrow stairway leading into the storage room; the caverns themselves were accessible through a wide crack in that room's floor.

I peeked through the opening in the door. For a fleeting second, I caught a glimpse of a cold, white light at the opposite end on the room, which then disappeared.

I considered my options. I was certain there were guards near; I could've gone looking for help.

I could have.

But I also could have gone and checked by myself. By then, I had already faced greater dangers that a few thieves, or changelings, or anything that was there.

But I was never alone when I did. Asking for help was definitely the wisest thing to do.

But maybe it was really nothing. Perhaps the light I had seen was the guards; perhaps it was better to survey the situation further before making a decision.

I cautiously walked down the stairs in the total darkness. When I was closer to the crack, I was able to distinctly see that the light was coming from down there.

At that point I was determined to find out what was going on; the cold breeze coming from the caverns surrounded me when I was a few paces away.

I walked all the way to the crevice and looked down; the white light had moved away from the opening, but its rays were still visible.

I remembered that right below the cellar lied a rocky platform, surrounded on three sides by rock formations and, on the fourth, overlooking a precipice. It was on there that I and Cadence had faced the three possessed bridesmaids. From there to the gem caverns the only way was to fly across the precipice, or to climb to the railway and from there into the cave. I had prepared the equipment to climb safely across, but right then it was all lying inside my room, cleaned, ready and useless.

I tried setting my hoof on the pile of debris leading into the cave. A few pebbles rolled down. I repressed an imprecation and attempted to land the next hoof more softly. Slowly but steadily I made my way down. As I set foot on the solid rock, I looked up across the platform and saw the intruders. There were two of them. The first was a unicorn clad in a black lace dress; the light came from her horn. The second was also dressed in black, but it was smaller. Almost like...

"Spike?"

The two turned around suddenly.

"Twilight?!" they asked in unison.

"Rarity?!"

It was indeed her. Her skill in camouflage was, to say the least, unique. Like spike, she was wearing a black cat-suit, but unlike him she had decided to "improve" it with a skirt, a hat and several tons of lace and tulle. The result was about as subtle as a manticore at a tea party.

For a few seconds I remained dumbfounded, wondering exactly what had possessed them to come down here alone, and, black suits notwithstanding, unequipped.

"You promised not to come down here!" I finally yelled.

"Well" answered Rarity "technically I promised that I wouldn't dream of it, and you have to agree, not sleeping is the only way to be sure... and since I was awake..."

"Yes. Sure. Anything you say." I was quite offended by her puerile excuses. She had promised not to go and blatantly broken her word. Of course she was curious, but so was I, and I didn't...

I suddenly realized that I, indeed, did.

I decided to change tone. "What are you two doing down here by yourselves?" I asked, with a less accusing and more inquisitive tone.

Spike and Rarity looked at each other in the eyes. They then smiled guiltily.

"I see. Well, you won't go far. The walls of this gap are far too steep to climb down, and none of us can fly, as far as I remember.

Spike grinned. "You might want to double-check," he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly; the echo multiplied the sound until all the cavern was filled by distorted, cacophonic whistling.

Shortly after, a faint fiery glow came flying from the other side of the crevice; as it approached closer, I recognized it as Peewee.

The phoenix quietly landed on Spike's shoulder, then chirped as she rubbed her head against his.

Spike grinned so hard his face almost split in two.

"Peewee one, Twilight zero."

"Well. I see you thought ahead. So, do you expect her to...?"

The phoenix suddenly stood up and started chirping. It went on for a while, flying around, tweeting and chirping incessantly and with a semblance of pattern and coherency. Her description was most certainly extensive and informative, if not for the fact that none of us spoke phoenix.

After a few minutes, she was done and sat back on Spike's shoulder with a satisfied expression.

"Was I supposed to be impressed by that?"

"Well, if you..."

Spike stopped suddenly and brought his hands to his belly, groaning.

"Is something wrong...?"

He groaned again. Rarity and I went closer; before we could do anything, a green flame almost blinded us as Spike belched what seemed to be a scroll.

The three of us gathered around it. Perhaps it had been too generous to call it a scroll. It was a small, ruined and torn piece of parchment. On it were three words:

HELP ME

WALK DOWN