Of Law and Betrayal

The Unveiling

Slowly limping through the darkness, Twilight Sparkle was trying her best to stay conscious and ignore the pain.  Then she made the mistake of  looking at her swollen right foreleg, she cringed noticing the swelling happening just above her fetlock. She tried to keep her focus on finding out where she was. Looking up at the sky she saw Cloudsdale and put it roughly north west. She was too weak and too tired to recall  images from the "Detailed Atlas of Central Equestria", her memory was too blurry for that.

Shaking her head she looked around, finally noticing something, she slowly walked up to one of the old oak trees. As she hobbled around it and found something helpful she smiled.

"Judging from growth of  the Polytrichum commune and the relative positions of Cloudsdale and  Canterlot, I should be.... somewhere north of Ponyville."

At the thought of her hometown her head dropped, she couldn't go back there, not now and probably never again. 'Celestia knows' what lies that witch told the ponies of Equestria, and she did not want to drag her friends into this.

She decided to take a break in the shade, she certainly was worn out from running and all the injuries. Slowly lowering herself to the ground she gingerly places the injured foreleg on the ground to better examine it.

Sitting  in the shade of the great oak trees she tried to recall what happened back in the dungeon after she passed out, but all she could remember was her waking up lying next to that... Monster. Her first reaction was trying to jump backwards, trying, because of the pain that she then felt  in her foreleg, it certainly wasn't there before her talk with Celestia.

Thinking about the Princess just brought out the anger in her, she was probably angry at herself more then the Princess. It was foalish of her to even consider that Celestia came there to save her. If she really wanted to do that she would have done so before that monster...

She shook her, "Keep your focus Twilight, you need to decide what to do next"

Still, thinking back to the last night, after the initial shock it took her a few moments to realize that the princess hadn't moved at all, and that there was a red puddle under her.  Moving around the body Twilight  faced the princess and saw the blank expression on her face, her tongue lolling out. Something was sticking out of her chest, aghast Twilight saw that it was her own horn that pierced the chest. She saw that the door was ajar and she quickly opened it and ran.

Slowly navigating through the empty corridors Twilight tried to remain in the shadows, the wretched moon illuminating parts of the hallways through the windows. Luckily the Window Arches themselves provide a good cover to sneak below. A few times she had to pass between covers, a few times she had to hide to avoid detection by some of the castle night staff.