The Legend of the Sapphire Cave

I levitated my map out where I could get another look at it. It wasn't the best – I had to piece together clues from an atlas and a lot of mythology and obscure research notes – but it had brought me here, so it was close enough. Looking down from the jagged ridge, I could easily spot the shimmering entrance of the fabled Sapphire Cave in the lush valley below.

Tucking the map back in my saddlebags, I had to smile to myself. It had been Spike who found the last missing piece of the academic puzzle I had to solve to find this place, a short scribble on a scrap of paper between the pages of a completely unrelated book. He had always been a great assistant, but that might've been the second most important thing he'd ever done.

I was going to miss the little guy. I'd left him back in Ponyville with the rest of my friends, sharing the treebrary with a substitute librarian from Canterlot. I hated to leave them all like this – especially him. He'd been a friend, companion and assistant for most of my life – I just couldn't do it anymore. I love them all dearly, but I couldn't deal with how things kept happening in Equestria.

It had been going on ever since I was sent to Ponyville. First, I had to face down Nightmare Moon with five mares I'd barely met, dragging us all through exhausting tests of skill and character in the depths of the Everfree Forest to fight a goddess-like alicorn of purely malicious intent. Then Discord had awakened to terrorize Ponyville and half the surrounding country, and I nearly lost myself and all of my friends trying to stop him. Not long after, it was left to me to expose the changeling plot against Canterlot at my brother's wedding, when even Celestia – my own mentor! – had turned against me. Then there was the incident with the Crystal Empire, where I was confronted with my own nightmares before having to trust Spike to save the Empire and, likely, all of Equestria.

And that's just the world-threatening incidents everypony knows about. The endless problems caused by Applejack's stubbornness, Pinkie Pie's psychotic episodes, Fluttershy's terror of everything, Rarity's vanity, and Rainbow Dash's arrogance could fill a whole shelf in the library, and that's with what has happened in the past six months alone. Even Spike caused a few problems of his own while chasing Rarity's tail.

So I withdrew to the library and my studies as much as possible. I knew I was neglecting my friends, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Monsters from the Everfree Forest, ancient black magic seeping into somepony's basement again, my friends fighting over something petty again, whatever. I stopped getting involved.

It was, once again, Spike who found the Legend of the Sapphire Cave. It was a children's story, an adaptation of an old mare's tale. Of course, he was enraptured immediately. “We've got to find this place, Twilight!” He said the same thing every time. “It's a cave where the walls are lined with sapphires as big as your head!” And I knew exactly what he wanted from it. He actually drooled over the gems every time he talked about the place, which was a little gross, to be honest.

He was easy enough to distract, of course. A snack or an extra dessert always did the trick. The frequency with which he brought up the story again, though, eventually brought me to promise to do some reading on it. I became fascinated by the topic myself when I discovered an old myth that some sort of ancient creature was responsible for the formation of the gem-lined cave, and that led me to field research. I left my friends behind and followed the map I'd made into the wilds beyond Equestria's borders, into an endless forest that rolled over plains, hills, and even some mountains like a carpet.

I almost wished I could have brought Spike with me. Sure, my friends are the other Elements of Harmony, but to be honest, I'd be a disaster without him. I'd probably spend so much time organizing my checklists, my books, and my mail (not to mention that I'd have to dispatch my letters by pegasus express!), that I'd never get anything done! Still, he was just a baby dragon. He wasn't made for the kind of treks, not to mention minor dangers (well, minor to a grown unicorn and Element of Magic, anyway – certainly not minor for Spike), involved with searching for mythical caves outside of Equestria.

Still, I probably should have left him with Fluttershy, not at the library. She'd proven herself as good at managing foals as she was with her animals, Spike would probably drive the new librarian crazy, and -

I shook my head; worrying about that kind of petty thing was exactly what I was trying to get away from. I'd spent too long staring and thinking, and Celestia had guided the sun close to the horizon by the time I pulled myself together and headed for the cave.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The sun was halfway set by the time I reached the cave entrance, panting and sweating. It wasn't exactly dark, but I'd read that night comes on fast in a deep valley, so once I'd reached the bottom of the series of hills and ridges I had set my pace to a brisk trot.

After a swig of water from one of my canteens, I looked up at the myth standing in front of me, and was simply awestruck. The cave had been lovely at a distance, but standing in its open mouth gave me a whole new definition of natural beauty (which I was quick to write down – I'd brought a heavy travel journal that I didn't feel like calling a diary, along with plenty of quills, for notes). The entrance was about four ponies high and topped with a beautiful arch ceiling, but the more-or-less straight walls were close enough that only two ponies could walk in side-by-side. Or one Big Macintosh. Though the cavern floor itself seemed to be no more than dusty rock, on every other surface the fading daylight was reflected and refracted by thousands of sapphire gemstones, most of them about the size of a hoof.

After several minutes of staring, it was suddenly night. I smiled up at the sky, thinking briefly of Princess Luna. Her nights were beautiful, and only became more so as she got back in practice.

The howling of timber wolves nearby told me it was also time to set up camp. Probably inside the cave – I knew they weren't afraid of light, or ponies. After listening to make sure none of the howls were coming from the cave itself, I quickly trotted into the darkness, using a simple spell on my horn to make it glow like a torch so I could see.

The inside of the cave was much like the entrance for the first hundred steps, and it struck me that this area may have been built, rather than naturally formed. It opened up, however, to a quite natural-looking cavern, so I watched my step carefully. A spelunker's guide had suggested maintaining at least three points of contact with the floor at all times, and there were certainly a few places where it would've been easy to break an ankle because of deformities in the rock if one wasn't careful.

After surveying the cavern, I determined there were two exits: one, the way I came; the other, a more naturally-shaped tunnel, almost directly across from the entrance. I got out my bedroll and laid it down in a slight depression in the rock far to the side of either path. Then I threw a ward over the cave entrance, just in case somepony or some thing decided to come through during the night - anything bigger than a mouse passing through it would cause it to shatter explosively, filling the area with the sound of a hundred glass windows breaking at once. That would be more than enough to wake me, should something come wandering in, and I could easily defend myself from there. I still decided not to risk a fire – it had been a hot day, and the coolness of the cave and its drafts was not unwelcome at all, so there was no need to draw further attention to myself.

I extinguished my light spell and went to sleep.