Tales from an Old Town

The main doors of Canterlot's Castle have been opened. A purple mare were walking sadly through the corridors of the castle, looking for the princess of the sun. It didn't take too long for her to reach the room where the princess was. With a last sigh and a deep sorrow, the purple mare knocked on the door. The guards opened the door and saw her. They recognized that face immediately, but they got surprised by the sorrow that her face was showing all the time. Unfortunately, their job wasn't ask questions about the personal life of the visitors so they informed to the princess about her visit. After that, the purple mare passed into the great hall where the princess of the sun was resting in her red royal seat. The mare stopped some meters in front of the princess, doing a reverence and staying on the red carpet.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student! What can I do for you?" said the princess.

No response. The awkward silence made the smile on the face of the princess fade quickly. Now the princess was looking to her student worried.

"Is there something wrong, dear?" said the princess.

"Princess Celestia..." Twilight looked up to the princess, showing all her sadness. "I'm here because I want to tell you something that happened some days ago. It's something important... Do you have some time to spare with me?"

"Of course, Twilight. Tell me what's wrong," said Celestia.

"Ok..." Twilight took a deep breath. "Everything started two weeks ago. I was studying some new spells when Spike received a letter..."

The burp of Spike echoed through the house meanwhile the green flame was coming out from the dragon's mouth. The green flame started to turn into a tiny green ball that turned quickly into a pink letter with a burst of light. Spike took the letter with curiosity and started reading it.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I need your help little sis, Cadance had been disappeared! We don't know where she can be! I sent some guards to look for her around the Crystal Empire, but we didn't find her. I'm sure you have some spell or something to help us find her, for that reason we need your help sis. Please, come here soon as possible.

Your big brother, Shining Armor."

"Wow, this sounds serious," said Spike.

"Serious?! SERIOUS?! THIS IS MORE THAN SERIOUS!!!" said Twilight with an alarmed face.

Twilight forgot what she was doing and quickly started to prepare her saddlebags with the essential things for going to the Crystal Empire. Spike was surprised for the reaction of his friend, expecting something less louder.

"Sorry Spike, but this is an emergency!! Take care of the house in my absence," said Twilight with hurry.

"Can't I go with you, Twilight? Be in this house all the day is not exactly exciting," said Spike.

"And who's gonna take care of the house?!" said Twilight still with hurry.

"What about Owlowiscious?" said Spike.

"He's just an Owl! How in the world is he supposed to take care of the house by himself?!" said Twilight without patience.

"He can fight against a giant dragon, but he can't take care of a house?" said Spike remembering that day.

"There's no time for this, Spike!!" said Twilight.

"Oh come on, Twilight. I want to go with you!" said Spike a little bit frustrated. Twilight sighed and looked at the little dragon.

"Alright Spike, you can come with me... But just for this time, okay?" said Twilight more relaxed.

"Yes, ma'am!" said Spike.

The train arrived to the train station of the Crystal Empire just in time. Twilight & Spike got out of the train quickly, hurrying up to get to the Crystal Palace. The streets were beautiful and full of energy with the radiant smiles of the crystal ponies, but Twilight wasn't paying attention to that. The disappearance of her sister-in-law was more important in that moment than anything else. They arrived quickly to the entrance of the Crystal Palace, where her brother was waiting for her. Shining Armor was happy to see them, but he knew that there wasn't gonna have a welcoming hug with this emergency.

"Twilight! I'm glad to see you're here," said her brother.

"Yeah, here we are. Sorry for not coming before," said Twilight catching his breath.

"Don't worry sis, I was sure you were going to come here quickly after reading the bad news," said Shining Armor with honesty.

"Yeah, typical of Twilight," said Spike with a smile.

"Something new about Cadance's situation?" said Twilight worried.

"No, nothing. We don't know where Cadance can be. We explored every spot of the Crystal Empire, but nothing. We don't know what to do anymore," said Shining Armor with sadness.

"Don't worry Shining, is our turn now. Come on Twilight, we have to start looking for clues," said Spike with enthusiasm. Twilight smiled at the attitude of the dragon, happy to see Spike with her.

"And where we are supposed to start looking for clues, detective Spike?" said Twilight with a mischievous smile. Spike stopped thinking about it.

"I know! Let's start looking for evidences at Cadance's room!" Spike pointed at the big stairs leading to the rooms.

"Alright then, lead the way," said Twilight.

"Yeah, emm... Where is Cadance's room?" said Spike. Twilight and Shining Armor giggled.

"This way Spike. Follow me," said Shining Armor leading the way.

The room was quiet and clean. Everything was perfectly organized so it was difficult to look for clues, but Spike started to inspect the room with determination. Twilight took a look at Cadance's bed, which was perfectly made. Twilight remembered the day when Cadance arrived to the Crystal Empire, after the attack of King Sombra. It wasn't technically a happy day, but it was something. That memory made Twilight a little bit sad, thinking that her sister-in-law was probably in danger right now. Twilight got out of her thoughts when Spike called her because he found a strange letter in one of the drawers. Twilight picked up the letter and started reading.

"I need to escape from my routine. Something is telling me that I need to return to my birth place. This strange feeling can't be a coincidence. I will go during night, so my husband will not know anything."

"Why Cadance wrote this? She knew someone was going to read it?" said Spike with curiosity.

"I don't know Spike, but this is very suspicious. Cadance went to her birth place because she felt that something is going wrong with that place, but how is even that possible? How she can get a bad feeling about the situation of a town that she abandoned years ago?" Twilight rubbed her chin trying to think about it.

"I don't know Twilight, but at least we know where she is now. Now we have to know what and where is her birth place," said Spike.

"I know what and where is her birth place," said Shining Armor with severity. Twilight and Spike looked at him surprised for his sudden seriousness.

"Where is it, brother?" said Twilight.

"It's in a hidden spot near the White Tail Woods, and the name of the town is Foalmond. It's actually an abandoned town because... Well... It's a long story," Shining walked to a window near of Cadance's bed. His eyes were reflecting seriousness and sadness at the same time. Twilight looked worried at his brother, expecting a sad story about the town.

"W-what happened to that town, brother?" said Twilight with fear. Shining sighed and took a deep breath before starting to tell his story.

"I'm sure you remember the day that Nightmare Moon returned from the moon, right? Well, five days before that incident, somepony launched a curse to Foalmond creating the chaos in there. A lot of ponies died that day by the curse, but after that the town was completely desert. The town is filled with strange grates that makes the new visitors of the town be trapped there forever. The only way to escape from that town is flying, for that reason only pegasus and alicorns can escape from that town. In other words, the town have life and can do things by it's own." Shining turned to look at Twilight and Spike, "Cadance never knew about this for some reason, and I never wanted her to know it because I knew that Cadance will want to do something to save the town from the curse... And I'm sure that's the reason because she went to that town, because she wants to find the source of the curse and save her birth place." Shining took a sigh after finishing his story. Twilight and Spike looked at each other, surprised about the story.

"Wow, Shining... I never knew about the story of that town. It's sad as hell!" said Spike surprised. Twilight was looking at the floor thoughtful. Then, Twilight took the decision and looked at her brother.

"Shining, count on us to go to that town and look for Cadance." Shining and Spike turned to Twilight.

"Wait, wait, wait... We're going to go to a cursed town where we can got trapped there forever? Are you crazy?!" said Spike unbelieving.

"But we can't be here doing nothing meanwhile Cadance is in danger! We have to go to that town and save her!" said Twilight.

"I'm afraid she's right, Spike. Even if you got trapped on the town, you could escape thanks to Cadance because she's an alicorn. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to send you two to that cursed town but there's no other choice right now." said Shining Armor with frankness. Twilight looked at her brother with determination.

"It's decided then. We'll go to that town and look for Cadance. She needs our help more than never... I hope she's okay."

"Ugh, fine... but you will be the responsible if something bad happens to me!" said Spike pointing at Twilight with the finger. Twilight rolled her eyes and walked to the door.

"It's okay, Spike. It's okay..."

Twilight opened the door and started to cross the corridor. Spike ran trying to catch Twilight. Shining Armor looked one more time to the bed of her wife with sadness. The pony closed the door with a sigh, praying for the safety of his wife.

"Don't worry my love... Twilight is on the way."