The next morning saw Twilight putting a more solid plan into place. Sure, she didn’t have the general knowledge that she was hoping to go into this with, but she had a list of ponies to ask for details, and once she’d bought a recent and accurate map of the area, she was ready to begin her intensive study.
She asked pony after pony about their experiences with the Mare in White, numbering each location on the map as Spike made notes as to the time and circumstances of every one of them. To say getting these details was an uphill process might’ve been an understatement: she’d had to use her leverage as princess just to get some of the townsponies to talk. Obviously, there’d been one or two who’d looked into her at some point, but they’d burned any notes they had, and were just as hesitant to speak about it. Supposedly the few the ponies who she hadn’t terrified enough had vanished on their excursions and been found washed up on the rocks, or crushed under a fallen tree. Even talking about her was enough, in the mind of the town, to bring about her ire. Twilight wasn’t about to be scared away by a few accidents attributed to an urban legend, but all throughout town, she was met with ponies telling her to turn back...
“Princess, with all due respect, this really isn’t something you want to look into...”
“Princess, please, just... take my word, you don’t want to follow this path...”
“Don’t worry about Her. We do well enough leaving her alone.”
“Stop asking about Her, it’s not safe.”
“Stop looking. Go home.”
Go home... Of course she wouldn’t go home! This was science! Science was her life! Besides, the Mare in White wasn’t real, the whole idea was preposterous: just an old mare’s take from sometime in the town’s history. Even if it was a spell by some ancient “Night Witch”, a spell like that couldn’t possibly last hundreds of years without its caster.
Back at the Inn, Twilight spread her map out on the wall with a grin. Just as she’d predicted, all of the marks she’d made created a definite heat map. It was almost a perfect circle, which got more intense towards the center: the cliff from the night before.
“I told you, Spike! All it needed was a little bit of research, and there it is: this is where the stories are coming from!”
“I dunno Twilight,” Spike munched a potato he’d brought up from dinner with a furrowed brow, “didn’t you say there wasn’t anything there?”
“I said there was a cliff and a ruin, and that I didn’t see anything worth looking into. That doesn’t mean I didn’t miss anything!”
Spike shrugged, “Right, well, I guess you’re headed back there?”
Twilight nodded, “Yep, and I’ve got just enough time before sundown.” she pointed a hoof at the list, “All of the encounters with her happened at night. If I leave now, I’ve got just enough time to watch the sunset from there.” She grinned, walking over to the window. She glanced back at Spike, “You coming?” she gestured to the empty spot on her back.
“I’d rather not.” he said, then yawned as if on command, “iiiit’s been a long day, and to be honest, I’m getting a little creeped out by it all... would it be ok if I just stayed back here?”
Twilight shrugged, “Sure, it’s probably nothing I can’t handle alone. Besides, almost all of those encounters with her were by ponies who were alone, so it might even help. I’ll try to be back around midnight if I don’t find anything.” She thought for a moment, “You know what though? Just to be safe, if I’m not back by sunraise, send a letter to Princess Celestia and have her send some guards, and see if you can get the townsfolk to come looking, alright?” She reached up to unlatch the window, pushing it open.
“Uh... yeah...” Spike played with his claws nervously, “You’re sure it’s safe though?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine! Like I said, just in case, right?”
The shadows of the pine trees crept like a wall of spears over the grassy cliffside, their dark points reaching towards the ocean, driving the last bits of light over the edge. Far below, another set of spears, these made of stone, reached out of the crashing waves. The grass rippled in the salted breeze as she touched down, the ground still warm from the afternoon sun beneath her hooves. She glanced at the treetops. The last rays of the sun were still breaking through from the mountaintop, but out at sea, the sky was starting to turn. She didn’t have long to wait.
She knew there had to be something here. This was the epicenter, the place where the stories of the Mare in White were coming from, on top of being the place where the apparition had disappeared the previous night. And tonight, she would get an answer: if the ponies in town were correct, the Mare would appear again, beckoned forth by her inquiry, and she’d be here when that happened.
She glanced around at the area while she still had light. The lush treeline loomed as it had over the town, though she wasn’t sure why it hadn’t grown into this one area. At first it occurred to her that something might have been done to keep it from overtaking the building, but she quickly dismissed the idea: the building had been abandoned centuries ago, and all upkeep along with it. That meant something had been keeping the brush back recently, who was cutting it back was something she hoped to discover.
In the light, she could see that the old post was a bit larger than it had seemed. She could make out a circular mound of stone where the lighthouse must’ve collapsed in on itself, and the outline of a larger structure around the remaining stone foundation. She flipped through her memory, and vaguely recalled that this region had been of strategic importance in a war, but that conflict had been well over a thousand years ago: it was remarkable to think that anything at all might’ve survived that long, but then again, it was apparent where the wind and rain had taken its toll on the primitive masonry. The only walls that remained of the fort were those of this ruined bunker...
This outcropping was beautiful though, perhaps even romantic. The grass was green, and shimmered in the pleasant breeze, which made its way to the lush, evergreen treeline. She turned and walked out towards the edge, and wondered if any of the soldiers at this post had taken the time to appreciate it. The sea looked beautiful from here, and as the light drained from the sky, it was as if the horizon was blurring away. It was the perfect view of the ocean, with the sound of waves crashing beneath her, almost making a music of their own.
She looked over the edge of the cliff, studying it as the last rays of the sun lifted themselves from the errant clouds in the sky. Those jagged rocks still looked deadly, but were smooth polished, just like the cliff they’d fallen from, and the water made a glistening foam as it worked against them. In the fading light she could just make out an indentation. A dark area near the water’s surface, towering above the high-tide mark. A cave?
She had been craning her head forward to see a bit better when up from the rocks she felt a cold wind rush over her, and she had to close her eyes as it chilled her to the very marrow of her bones, as if, for a few moments, she had been plunged into that black ocean.
She shuddered, stepping back. It wasn't that cold a night: the ocean breeze had been pleasantly warm up to this point, and it still was, but somehow, that chill had taken hold, and was now stubborn to leave.
She turned around, considering flying down to where the cave was, when something entirely new caught her eye. Where, when she'd last checked, there had been nothing but rubble, now, it was as if a structure had been conjured on the ancient foundation. A soft glow shown through the windows of the forgotten guard post, the light flickering a sickly blue, and a strange whistling of wind, reminiscent of music, could be heard wafting from within.
“What in the world?” Twilight breathed, taken aback by the sudden sight. She hadn't felt an illusion being cast, but she couldn't think of any other way such a structure could simply appear in the brief time since she'd last looked.
“Hello?” She called out, the slightest waver in her voice as she stepped towards it. “Is anypony there?”
Only the ocean breeze responded.
Curious, with calm, yet cautious hoofsteps, she approached the wide door. From beyond, she could make out an eerie shuffling noise, almost like that of hooves on dusty ground. Carefully, she planted her hooves on the steps, quietly climbing towards that door, reaching out with a trembling, yet determined hoof, towards the handle.
“I'm coming in!” She called, though it felt as if she was speaking into the mouth of an empty cave, the feeling almost as if she should hear an echo.
There was none, only the a natural sounds from within, crashing of the waves far below.
Hoof on the handle now, she steeled herself. Something deep within her gut, perhaps an ancient instinct, told her she should go no further, that she should return to the inn, spend the rest of the night beneath the covers, and leave the next morning. Something told her to stop, but her insatiable need for answers bid her continue. She reached down within herself, to that core of logic: there was no such thing as ghosts, and they certainly didn’t make buildings appear out of thin air. Whatever was happening was only an illusion.
She pressed her hoof down on the cold metal of the handle, feeling it slowly give, too perfectly, as if it were sliding on oil, the latch muffled as it came away. Silently, the door swung slowly open, the light of the Moon creeping across the floor. She felt a waft of air on her face, and it carried with it the smell of ice and ozone, like the calm hours after a thunderous blizzard.
Around the room, strange ponylike figures danced and mingled, silhouettes of partygoers like shadows on the walls of reality. Around the room, ghostly blue flames hovered above the melted remains of black candles. Desiccated lavender bouquets hung around the small gathering room of the guard station.
At the back of the room, on a raised dais, stood two figures in front of a marble statue of Celestia... One was tall and slender, perhaps a stallion, dressed in dark, ceremonial military garb, of which she barely recognized the style as being from a long bygone era. The other was a thin Mare, dressed In the Whitest, softest gown she had ever seen, like powdery snow that had just alighted on the ground.
Twilight approached the couple, but above the sound of her hooves on the stone, she heard the wind make a sound which was almost deliberate, as if it were whispering a word...
“...no...”
Twilight continued forward, ears twitching. She wasn’t sure if she’d heard a word or not, but she could see that only one pony in this room looked like it was actually breathing, and that was the bride.
“Not you... Not here...”
Twilight glanced around as she continued on, her breath hanging like fog in the wintery air. She noticed, oddly, that the shadows weren’t coming from the candles, but from the bride, who seemed to glow, almost as if she was a beam of moonlight casting itself upon the room.
“Get... Out...” The sound was like bones grating against the rock.
Twilight's step slowed, and she noticed that the shadowy figures had come to a halt and were now staring at her, watching as she climbed the dias. Hesitantly, she took another step, closer, closer, closer to the couple, “I... I'm sorry to intrude, I'm just trying to understand...”
“Get... Out...” The bride was heaving in her dress - Twilight could hear the wet hissing of her breath - her shoulders shuddering upwards and downwards like a branch shaking in the surf.
“Please,” Twilight's voice was creaking, her hoof shaking in the air as it neared that gossamer gown, which she could now see was decaying, fraying around the edges into nothing, “I... I just want to know... I have to know...”
The moment her hoof made contact, she felt a bitter cold, as of death, shoot up her leg, biting into her like a thousand needles before she lost all feeling in it.
She gasped as she yanked it back, only to have it nearly torn from the socket as the dark bride grabbed it, her veil exploding in tatters as she turned swiftly on Twilight, who was momentarily frozen as she beheld the full sight of a face, pale white, rotting skin pulled over the bone like rags, seaweed and brine oozing from the empty sockets of her eyes which penetrated twilight as if her very soul was naked in the frigid wind, rotten seawater gushing from her carnivorous mouth as she let out a shriek like a thousand pieces of glass shredding through Twilight's body like it was made of paper.
GET
OUT
!!!
Twilight didn't even have time to think. Before she even realized her wings were pounding she was bursting through the door, which exploded in a white mist, like seafoam, as she barreled across half the length of the outcropping. She rolled against the ground, scrambling with flailing hooves as she tried to right herself.
The pale bride yanked herself through the doorway as the whole structure collapsed like a wave along the rocks. Twilight could hear her gasping with rage, like tides rushing through the crags, her entire body lurching from side to side as her hooves dashed themselves against the ground.
“Couldst not leave well alone, foolish child princess!
Why dost thou perform this trespass?” Her voice boomed like thunder, brackish water spitting from between her wicked, thornlike teeth with every loathing word.
Twilight shook on her hooves like a leaf in the howling wind. She took another step back, her hind Hoof slipping a little, the ground threatening to give way. She looked back, seeing of the sheer drop off of the cliff, through the darkness, down to the churning waves and thorny rocks below. She had no room left to retreat. “Please!” She called to the apparition, “I have to understand you!”
“Pleases she can understand. Understand I? No. Never will you understand.” The Night Witch mocked, shambling ever closer, closer to Twilight’s fleeting zone of safety.
“Please! I have to try!” Twilight cried, tears building in her eyes as she clutched against the perilous ground.
“Try? She must try??
NO. SHE MUST DIE!!!”
Twilight only had time to toss her hooves in front of her face as the Mare surged forward, slamming into her body, filling it with the cold of a deep-sea death and soaking her flesh in frigid salt water. Twilight was swept away, falling straight over the edge of the cliff. She shrieked as they tumbled through the rushing air, the Mare in White howling in her face as her ragged dress whipped around her, driving Twilight, down, down, through the darkness and despair, down to the vicious rocks below, down to where she knew her body would be speared straight through, her insides spewed into the ocean like the cargo of an exploded skiff.
At the last moment, Twilight managed to break away, flapping her wings mightily, propelling herself away from the cliff, barely managing to miss the rocks as her attacker smashed against them, exploding into more seafoam. She felt droplets of seawater lash against her hide as she spun out above the churning see, struggling to right herself before she hit the turbulent water. The crests of the waves bit into her hide as they threatened to pull her under and make themselves her grave.
Her every muscle burned and shivered, but she managed to pull herself away, circling back to a nearby cliff. She slammed into the edge, skidding to a halt against the treacherous ground, which threatened to let go again, abandoning her to slide back into those horrible waves. Desperately, she clawed her way up the cliff, fighting with the last of her strength until she finally found that safe haven.
She fell upon the solid ground, the grass shoved up against her mouth as she panted, thirsty and starving for oxygen. She shook violently as her dripping body struggled to regain some semblance of normal temperature. She thought she might vomit, pass out, or perhaps simply die here, splayed upon the ground. One thought gave her comfort, one sliver of light within her, a moment of triumph that gave her the will to burn away the cold...
SHE was REAL.
Twilight had SEEN Her, and SHE WAS REAL.
The Mare in White was REAL.