The Dark Heart of Canterlot

The Stone Labyrinth

"The Shadows Stir...

For the third time in as many nights, Shining's dreams were disturbed. It was at four o'clock when the soft tap-tap-tap on the door of his bed chamber roused him from sleep. He rolled over and across the gloomy, yet well furnished room.

"Who is it?" he mumbled sleepily.

The tapping grew louder, more insistent.

"I said, who is it?" Shining called back, louder.

"Shining? Shining Armour, are you in there?" came an urgent, sweetly feminine voice.

"Is-is that you, Your Highness?" said the white unicorn, sitting up. "Come in."

"Shining!" Celestia barked, "I must speak with you!"

"The door isn't locked, Your Highness!"

"Shining!"

"Oh, for Stars' sake" Shining muttered as he climbed out of bed and trotted to the door, the lack of warmth from his covers suddenly making his coat feel very cold. "I said it's not...unkkh!"

As he reached for the handle, the door burst open and sent him sprawling to the floor. The Sun Princess appeared in the doorway, a lantern levitating beside her. Her face was drawn, yet flushed. Her gleaming red rimmed eyes looked feverishly around the room.

"Shining, this is urgent. I need you to come with me. Immediately."

All the young stallion could do at this point was nod and climbed unsteadily to his hooves. The door had dealt him a sharp blow to the side of the head. "Just let me get a few things on. It's cold outside."

"Quite, quite" came the distracted reply and, as Shining got ready, the Princess hung her lantern on the wall and began pacing backwards and forwards around the room. She herself was wrapped in another expensive cloak, made from starsilk and laced with fine thread made from spun gold studded with tiny blaze pearls.

"I haven't been able to sleep all night" she muttered agitatedly. "I doubt I shall ever sleep again, unless...unless I give it one more try."

Her words got faster, louder, and more breathless. She paused and clutched her crown-less head in a forehoof. Shining watched her uneasily out of the corner of his eye as he laced up a thick black cloak around his body. His magenta magical hold tightened all the strings, lace and buckles with skill. There was no way he'd have a repeat of the last time the pair of ponies went outside at night. The venerable Princess was quite clearly at the end of her tether.

"Oh, forgive me for what I have done" she trembled. "For what I have unleashed..."

Shining said nothing. He knew the words were not intended for him. The Princess resumed her pacing back and forwards, her expansive wings snapped in close to her body.

"It's so clever. So cunning. This is my last hope. Stars willing, I'll succeed this time. For if I fail..." She turned to the blue maned colt and focused on his concerned face, as if seeing him for the first time. "I must succeed."

"Your highness?"

The aurora maned alicorn retrieved her lantern. "Come, colt. We have work to do."

It was dark outside, very dark; that darkest hour of the night just before the dawn. Apart from the Princess' tallow lantern, there wasn't a light to be seen. The Palace slept with the rest of Canterlot, and no light came from the Moon due to the black clouds. Shining felt very alone as he and Princess meandered through the winding pathways of the Statue Gardens.

Yet Shining dared a glance up to the sky. It was the first time since his arrival in the Palace that the stars above were not black and cold, and now shone brightly in the vast expansive sky. The entire starry host above the young unicorn as like a sheet of inky blue velvet sprinkled with powder snow and crushed diamonds. It was stunning...and Shining immediately thought of Cadence. There, to the South was the constellation of the Great Whale. And there, the Griffin's Talon. And further to the East was Nightroar the Dragon, with the constant East Star forming his piercing eye.

Shining sighed. When the lights of Canterlot and nearby Ponyville were ablaze, the stars were all but invisible. He had badly missed their reassuringly familiar shapes. Yet now, seeing them once again, he realised that he missed both his parents and his Captain even more.

"Stop dawdling Shining" the Princess snapped from before him. The white unicorn was surprised to see that they had arrived at the imposing statue of the mysterious Princess. Celestia pressed the secret button on the statue's plinth to reveal the hidden staircase that led to the ancient elevator. "We haven't a minute to spare."

Shining trotted to catch up. This was neither the time nor the place for homesickness. His parents were living comfortably in Greater Canterlot with little Twilight Sparkle, and his Captain had left him the Princess, and it was to her that Shining now owed his loyalty - at least for the time being.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness" he said, "it won't happen again."

"I should hope not" Celestia's voice echoed as she strode down the curving stairs into the eerie gloom. After the spiralling descent, both were greeted by the familiar sight of the rickety contraption that was the way into the mysterious tunnel. Celestia stepped boldly onto the elevator and tapped her hoof impatiently as Shining joined her. "If you get me down to the entrance of the tunnel as efficiently as you did last time, we'll say no more about it."

Shining nodded, wishing he had had the time to tell Cadence of this new expedition. He took up his position at the three levers.

"Release the winch-chain when I say, Your High...aaaagh!" he cried out as the rickety platform abruptly plummeted. Struggling to remain upright, Shining applied the brake lever with his magic while feverishly pushing and pulling the weight levers with his hooves. Nothing happened. Had the elevator broken away from its moorings completely? The chain rattled as it unwound; the framework creaked. Then suddenly, with a loud grinding jangle - the ancient machine gave an almighty lurch and began to slow down.

"Thank the Stars" Shining breathed. "I thought we were in trouble then. You really should consider a new way of getting down here, Your Highness."

With Shining back in full control, the descent had continued smoothly. Once again, the elevator had come down to rest on the ground at the entrance of the tunnel. Once again, the Princess picked up her lantern and started into the darkness. And once again, Shining had been left on his own as the alicorn scrambled into the gloom.

This time however, Shining did not stay at the elevator.

As the oily yellow of Celestia's lantern glow and the tap-tap-tap of her hooves both faded away, he stepped out into the cold, foreboding tunnel and  - a little uneasily - cast a simple illumination spell. The vast cavernous entrance was bathed in a bright magenta glow, revealing to Shining fully the extend of the tunnel's construction. The minute carvings of ponies he had discovered on the walls of the tunnel previously appeared to run all the way round up to the rough ceiling. Four pillars held up the mammoth weight of the ground above.

As the young unicorn trotted hesitantly into the darkness, he noticed that the walls of the underground shaft were not entirely smooth. Dozens - no, hundreds of cracks ran across the rock, small tiny, others large enough for a pony to walk through. An icy breeze from an unknown source murmured and groaned as it passed through, and the tunnel glowed in the bright light of his horn.

Shining shivered uneasily. The mountain of Canterlot seemed almost alive. Silver Star's emphatic words came back to him once more. Any sane pony doesn't go down there.

And neither to trainee Royal Guards, though Shining. At least they shouldn't. Yet here he was standing at the mouth of a treacherous labyrinth of narrow tunnels, any one of which could squeeze him to death or seal him up forever if his luck deserted him inside the magical peak. Heart in his mouth, Shining set off.

He hadn't gone more than a dozen strides when he came not to one, but three narrow passages fanning out in front of him. It was only the faint yellow lamplight glowing from the left hoof one that told him which to take. He hurried along it gratefully, but the incident was unnerving. It brought home to him just how easy it would be to become lost inside the unnatural maze, and he hastily scratched in an arrow into the stone with his magic to mark his route.

Centuries of unchecked and random shifts in the rock had left the tunnel twisting and turning through the great mountain peak of Mount Everwhite like a worm hole in an apple. Deeper and deeper Shining went, pausing every few paces to mark the walls with rough arrows. Each time he stopped, Shining had the horrible feeling that he was being observed - yet when he looked, there was never anything there. Nothing but the hissing and humming of the wind drifting through the dark and porous rock.

Shining tried hard to keep up with the Princess, marking the walls as quickly as he could and hurrying on. But the tunnel was difficult to negotiate. The ceiling was low; the floor was pitted and marked with countless protrusions which tripped him and grazed his coat; while the walls were, in places, so close together that it was only by squeezing sideways on his hind legs that he was able to go on at all.

The Princess, Shining realised, must have removed the worst obstructions on earlier trips, because every so often he would come to sections where the rock was scarred by recent magical blasts and the ground was strewn with rubble and dust. All the while, the stone labyrinth echoed with curious groans and breathy murmurs. Could they really be caused by the wind alone?, Shining found himself wondering as he scratched in another arrow on the uneven surface of the rock.

It was at the end of a relatively clear stretch of tunnel that Shining caught a glimpse of the Princess' flapping gown. He hesitated, fell back and held his breath. He didn't want Celestia to know she was being followed. Above the constant hum and hiss of the breeze came the sound of impatient cursing. The Princess' gown had become snagged on a jagged spur of rock.

"Calm yourself, Celestia" Shining heard the Princess mutter as she tore the material free. "It'll be the worse for you if you arrive with your emotions in turmoil. Control yourself...or it'll control you..."

Shining frowned. What could she mean? There was only one way to find out.

With shivers running up and down his spine, Shining hurried after the Princess. The atmosphere in the tunnels grew warmer, stuffier. The humming grew louder while the hissing faded. The air glowed a deeper, darker reddish colour. All at once Shining rounded a bend to find that the princess had stopped in front of a colossal stone door set into the solid rock, no more than a few strides away. He fell back and waited silently.

The door was round in shape and seemed to have constructed from the outer edge of the Heart of the Mountain itself. If it hadn't been for the innumerable silver creatures carved into its surface the door would not have been visible at all. The Princess approached the door. She removed the great heavy breastplate that usually hung from her neck with her magic and leant towards the carved stone.  As she did s, Shining's view was obstructed by her expansive white wings. The next instant, there was a low, grinding noise followed by a soft click - and the door slid open to reveal a vast, dimly lit cavern.

Craning his neck, Shining caught a glimpse of the curious sight within. There were countless gleaming flagons and glass spheres, all swaying at the ends of long, glowing stem-like tubes that protruded from the curved walls, and at the very centre of the chamber, a huge glistening sphere, seemingly woven from light, hovered in mid air.

"What in Goddess' name...?" Shining breathed, crouching down and edging forwards for a closer look.

And then he heard it: a low pitiful sound that sent shivers scampering up his spine, like the sobbing of a foal in pain. He shifted forwards, but the Princess was still blocking his view. Whatever was in there sounded small, vulnerable.

"Be still you evil creature" the Princess snapped.

As if in response, the plaintive cries turned into a hysterical high pitched wail. And through the obvious distress, Shining thought he could hear words. Pleading. Imploring.

"No more" it howled. "I beg you, no more..."

Shining scrambled back to all four hooves and was about to take a step forward when the door abruptly slammed shut. The unhappy voice was instantly silenced and Shining was left staring at the circular design on the rock once more. He crept towards the door and pressed his ear against it, but the rock was too thick for any but the most muffled of sounds to penetrate.

The white stallion turned away. The Princess had something - or somepony - locked up in this underground chamber. It was the last thing he'd expected and he shuddered uneasily, his head in a whirl. He had trusted Princess Celestia, admired her even. Now he was unsure of what to think. What had the Princess got imprisoned inside the chamber? And what terrible terrible things could she have done for it to cry out so desperately? And what, it occurred to him with a jolt, was he going to tell Cadence - that her aunt was a mad pony who tormented luckless creatures in an underground torture chamber?

One thing was certain. He had to get back to the elevator before the Princess. On no account must the Sun Goddess discover, or even suspect that he had followed her. Turning his back on the sealed chamber, Shining set off back along the corridor, vowing to return as soon as he could.

He took turning after turning, sweating with a mixture of exertion and nerves. The rocks hummed all round him as he followed the scratched arrows down the endless passages until...

"Oh, horseshit!" the young stallion cursed as the familiar carved door in the rock face loomed up in front of him. "How did that happen?"

Somewhere, somehow, he'd gone wrong and ended up back where he started. It was his own fault, he told himself angrily. He'd been so wrapped up in his thoughts of what was going on inside the chamber that he hadn't been paying proper attention to the trail he'd laid out. He set off once more. This time he'd have to concentrate. The Princess could appear at any moment. He could not afford to mess up twice.

Shining's heart began to race as he discovered how he'd gone wrong. Although he thought he'd marked the entire route from the entrance of the tunnel to the door of the chamber with small etched arrows, in his haste and nervousness, he'd drawn some so haphazardly that they hardly looked like arrows at all, while some others were so faint that he could barely make them out. Moreover, in places the labyrinth was covered with marks of its own; dark stains, blots and smudges, black sooty blotches...

Which were the marks he made? Which were there before?

"Which way do I go?" he whispered, his voice low and tremulous as he came to a fork in the tunnel with identical black smudges apparently singling out both of them as the correct way to proceed. "I can only was drawn one of you..." he groaned.

He reached across, rubbed his forehoof over the first of the scratches. It was fresh, that was for sure, and Shining judged that as the way to go. But then he tried the second mark as well, just to be sure. It felt identical.

"No!" he cried out, and the explosion of fear and frustration echoed down the intricate catacomb of tubes, tunnels and galleries all around him - No No No No - before fading away, only to be replaced a moment later by a different sound entirely. It was the sound of scratching and scurrying.

And it was coming closer.

For a moment, Shining thought it must be Celestia hurrying back to the elevator. But only for a moment. The noise wasn't coming from behind him at all, but from one of the two tunnels in front of him. Which one though? The echoing acoustics were so confusing.

He stepped into the first tunnel, cocked his head to one side and listened. He frowned. It was impossible to be sure. He stepped back and was just about to inspect the left hoof tunnel when he saw a light approaching from the other end. The unicorn's heart missed a beat. Bright green and pulsating rhythmically, the light was speeding down the tunnel towards him. The sniffing and snuffling grew louder and louder.

Without a second thought, Shining turned tail and dashed down the right hoof tunnel. The scurrying quickened and the air echoed with slobbery snuffling and leathery flapping. The creature - whatever it was - was giving chase. Glancing back over his shoulder, Shining stumbled, fell and gashed his right foreleg on a jagged rock where he landed. Thankfully, his fall did not break his magical illumination spell. The noises got closer still. The light behind him had intensified.

Heart in his mouth Shining scrambled to his hooves and, despite the searing pain in his leg, dashed off once more.

"Faster" he urged himself as he squeezed through a long, narrow stretch of tunnel and hobbled on. "Faster!"

Behind him, the creature had paused. The blue maned pony heard sniffing, followed by a loud slurping. He shuddered with disgust. It had found the place where he had cut his leg.

Whiii-whiii-whiiiii!

The excited high pitched squeal resounded down the passage, filling the young stallion with absolute terror. Not only had the creature tasted his blood, but it had liked it! Shining tore his cloak from his shoulders and, wincing with pain, tied it tightly round his shin with his magic to staunch the blood. He had to stop the trail of tell-tale red drops that he was leaving behind him, leading the creature on.

Straightening up again, he limped off as fast as he could. His blood thudded in his temples. His heart hammered in his ribcage. All around him, above the sound of the mysteriously humming mountain, came the hissing of the wind once more. It was only now that it had returned that Shining realised it had been absent before. Something else was different too. The atmosphere was freshening, cooling. It could only mean one thing: he must be nearing the surface of the labyrinth.

"Goddess protect me" he murmured. "Please, please, please guide me to the entrance and not some dead end."

A moment later, he saw it.

At first, his brain refused to accept what his eyes were telling him. He leant forwards and nudged the scrap of tattered material clinging to the jagged piece of rock with a hoof. There was no doubt. This was where the Princess had snagged her gown. Only starsilk could shimmer like that in the light of his horn. He was following the right path. it was the first piece of good news Shining had had since entering the terrible dark, claustrophobic system of tunnels.

What was more, behind him the throbbing green light and the disgusting slurping noises both seemed to be fading away. Had he given the creature the slip? The next moment he saw the light glowing ahead of him - and froze. Of course he hadn't! How could he have even considered it? Somehow, the fearsome creature had managed to get ahead of him. Staring fearfully at the light, he stepped slowly backwards. Noises behind him stopped in his tracks.

Flapping, snuffling, groaning...he spun round to see a second light, brighter than before. There must be two of them!

"Trapped" Shining breathed. His coat was clammy with sweat, and his breath came out in ragged gasps. Should he go forwards? Should he go back? The flapping grew louder. He had to go forwards. Brow furrowed, Shining channelled his magical power into a charged force at the end of his long horn, and then continued. He remembered the lessons Captain Stormswirl had given him in self defence.

"In such a situation, attack can be the best, if not the  only means of self defence."

At the first sign of movement, he would lunge and fire a highly charged energy blast. Shining approached a narrow bend in the tunnel. He hesitated and listened before going any further. Behind him, the snuffling was getting louder again. The creature was so close. With his heart pounding and his muscles tensed, Shining edged forwards. The light seemed brighter than ever. He took a deep breath, turned the corner and...

"Thank Celestia!" he murmured.

The sickly green glow suddenly melted away. The light that stood in it's place was neither green nor pulsing. It was the intense pink'blue brightness of the new morning, a single shaft of light streaming down through the elevator shaft. Almost sobbing with relief and delight, Shining limped those last few strides towards the glittering circle and stepped onto the platform. At last, he was free of the terrifying stone labyrinth.

As he stepped onto the ancient wood, the hinges creaked and the chains screamed in protest.

"Do you think I'm afraid of you - after I've been chased by...things?" he roared at the elevator. Shining laughed and sat himself down on his haunches until he heard another sound coming from the tunnel. He look round, and gasped.

"Princess!" he cried. "But what...what's happened to you now?"

As he helped the white alicorn onto the wooden platform, Shining's gaze fell upon the bright gold breastplate of high office which hung round the Sun Goddess' neck. The violet diamond encrusted in its centre shone in the early dawn light. The bright sunlight glinted upon the floral filigree on it, throwing the beautiful design into sharp relief. A thoughtful look played over the young unicorn's face.

"Shining Armour..." the stricken Princess groaned.

The unicorn dragged himself from his reveries.

"Sorry, Your Highness" he said, "hold tight now. We'll you back in no time."

As the two ponies hobbled from the hidden passage in the Statue Gardens, a single pony looked down from the West Promenade. The old earth pony frowned. The Princess and her assistant had survived. No, no, that would not do at all.

For Thorn Sprout was ready and more than willing to tamper with the elevator mechanism to bring about the death of Equestria's Ruling Monarch - but it to be soon. He had to have received payment for his task before the next full moon - for that was when his contact had given the deadline, lest he find somepony else to slay the Princess. Two hundred thousand gold bits he'd mentioned, and though the hooded character with the silver muzzle mask had not exactly agreed, neither had he refused.

It wouldn't do for the Princess to survive after the deadline. No, that way would not do at all. Otherwise he would end up with nothing. He peered down as the stone pathway sealed itself up as the two ponies departed. The elevator was so old, so fragile. Chuckling unpleasantly, Thorn Sprout turned and strode away. He had important business to attend to.