The guard led Twilight and her escort through a series of passageways and doors, and as they travelled through the facility Twilight noted that the further they went, the dimmer things were and the more dilapidated things looked. As the guard undogged a hatch Twilight’s curiosity could no longer be contained.

“Excuse me, I’m new here and I couldn’t help but wonder why—” Twilight began.

“The Princess prefers that our limited resources are devoted to the care of her ponies,” interrupted the guard, obviously anticipating the question.

“You’ve been asked this before, haven’t you?” replied Twilight, to see how the guard would respond.

“Every time we get a new pony in,” the guard responded, pushing the heavy hatchway aside. “And personally I’m not too fond of it either. The Princess saved us all, and we’d all love to show her how grateful we are. But instead she keeps herself in the darkest part of the place. Crimminy, she doesn’t even let anyone see her except for a few ponies she really trusts.”

“You think something’s wrong?” Twilight asked as she was waved through, stopping as the guard refused Applejack further entry.

“Sorry Ma’am, this is as far as you can go,” stated the guard, holding up a hoof.

“Well shoot,” responded the earth pony, good naturedly. “You sure?”

“Afraid so,” repeated the guard. “I’ll make sure she gets back to you and your… partner.”

“All right then, Ah’ll let mah Mistress know,” nodded Applejack, taking a step back from the hatchway. “Ah’ll see yah later Princess.”

“Sure thing, Applejack,” agreed Twilight, letting the guard close the hatch behind them before asking, “why couldn’t she come with us?”

“Only ponies specifically invited by the Princess go past this point,” the guard pointedly replied. “Remember how I told you about her not letting anypony close to her? Well, this is part of it.”

“And the other part?” Twilight queried, as they began to lead her down a passageway whose lights were half as strong as those in the already dim areas they had passed through earlier.

“I don’t like it at all ma’am,” stated the guard, pausing to partly turn and lift an eyebrow at Twilight. “Did I hear Applejack right? She called you a princess?”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, at your service,” Twilight responded, inclining her head regally.

“Huh, never met another princess before,” the guard commented, turning into an area where the metal walls and floors ended to reveal hewn stone walls, their smooth surfaces showing that they had either been cut or polished with magic.

Twilight noticed the new architecture as the background it was, as there in front of her was Starlight Glimmer with her own guard escort, and the appearance of her friend took up the lion’s share of her attention.

“Hey Twilight,” Starlight cheerfully chirped. “Good to see you up and around. You doing okay?”

“Just fine, and I’m sorry about what happened earlier,” Twilight replied, somewhat embarrassed. “I kinda lost it there for a bit.”

“You looked a bit like I did in the bad old days,” noted the unicorn, stepping over to draw the Princess of Friendship into a powerful hug. “And I get why. Pulling those eggs out of us was one of the worst things I’ve been through.”

“Well, I’ll try to keep the ‘Alicorn of Rage’ under control from now on,” Twilight said with a smile.

A delicate chime sounded as the mages broke their hug, and Twilight’s eye was drawn to Starlight’s horn. A pair of silver rings sat on the unicorn’s horn, one slightly above the other and linked by a hair thin chain on which were mounted a pair of impossibly delicate looking silver bells.

“Rarity,” Starlight began, frowning slightly as she took in Twilight’s more functional, though much stronger, magical blocker. “The guard insisted my magic be locked down before bringing me here, and Rarity had this. According to her, if my magic had to be sealed off I may as well look good too.”

“Security precaution ladies,” stated Twilight’s guard, interjecting himself into the conversation. “No one gets this close to the Princess unless we can be sure that she will be safe around them. Are you ready, Silk Skies?”

“Almost,” responded an approaching pegasus mare, dressed in a maid’s livery.

Something about the pegasus caught Twilight’s eye and it was all she could do to suppress a gasp of horror as a second look told her that the otherwise beautiful mare had no eyes. In their place were a pair of white orbs that had been clearly shaped to fit into the sockets but otherwise did absolutely nothing to help the maid see.

“Look at her outfit,” whispered Starlight, as an earth pony placed a large engraved silver tray across the maid’s withers, the tops of a pair of leather wingbinders she wore acting as two extra balance points for the tray.

Twilight took a third look as her working mind caught up with that her eyes were telling her. The pegasus maid, whose name was obviously Silk Skies, was wearing binders on her wings. The maid was in bondage, and Twilight took a fourth and closer look to see if the velvet choker on the throat of the mare was or was not a collar.

“I can hear you looking at me,” Silk Skies calmly stated. “You must be new, and it’s okay. I volunteered for this, and I’m completely fine with all the security precautions. I’d do anything for the Princess and this way I get to be with her, even if I am blind.”

“What about the gem on your back?,” Starlight asked, making Twilight realize she had been so focused on the pony’s bondage that she had completely missed the orange gem nestled into the small of the mare’s back and fastened to the outside of her outfit.

“It’s an accumulator,” answered the maid, adjusting herself a bit as the tray was laden with a pot of tea, a set of cups and a plate of biscuits. “I can’t fly anymore, and I don’t know how to generate lightning underground either like some of the other pegasi do, so I wear this instead. It drains off bits of my natural magic over the course of a day into itself, and when I’m done with my shift I just drop it off where it adds to our energy system.”

“Did it hurt?” Twilight asked, not referring at all to gems or magic.

“More than almost anything ever,” Silk Skies answered, biting her lip for a moment in memory.

“Almost anything?” Starlight threw her hooves over her mouth a split second after she uttered the reflexive question, already guessing what the horrible answer would be.

“I was a wife,” Skies whispered, and if glass could cry it would have done so in that moment. “And a mother.”

“I’m sorry,” Starlight began, by way of apology. “I didn’t mean to—”

“You didn’t mean any harm,” Silk Skies gently interrupted, turning her blind eyes to Starlight with a smile as brittle as the orbs set in her skull. “As long as somepony remembers them, they’re alive. As long as one pony lives, so does Equestria, along with all the other ponies that we lost during Sunfall.”

“Three steps forward and one left, Skies,” said the guard, his discomfort with the ongoing conversation obvious. In obedience to the command, the pegasus maid took three steps forward and one to the left, where Twilight could see a set of markings laid out on the stone floor and it didn’t take an alicorn to realize that they were starting marks for a pre-planned route for the blind mare.

“If you will follow me please?” Silk Skies asked setting off, the tray she was carrying rock solid in spite of her motion.

For their part, Twilight and Starlight followed closely as they travelled through a series of stone passageways, many of which had openings carved into them which appeared to be comfortably furnished into small nests just large enough for a pony and a few belongings.

“Hey Skies, you on guide duty?” asked a stallion, who was busying himself with something in his own nook.

Starlight gave Twilight a questioning look clearly wondering how the stallion knew who the maid was, seeing as his back was to them. Twilight was trying to figure out how to tell the unicorn with her that the stallion was very likely blind as well, when the male turned and both mares froze in mute horror.

The stallion’s face was simply gone. Eyes, cheeks, and every other facial feature from the top of his muzzle to the bottom of his hairline was nothing but a completely blank stretch of pale skin. Only the shattered hub of what had once been a horn marked that emptied canvas of what had once been a face.

“Yeah, it’s not a pretty look, is it?” added the pony, feeling the gazes on him. “Better than it was though! Thank the Princess for that.”

“I need to keep my timings, Soda Straws,” Silk Skies commented. “The Princess wants to have tea with these newcomers, and told me to do everything I could for them.”

“Right, sorry to keep you,” Soda Straws replied, turning his blank gaze back to what appeared to be some fabric he was working on. “I’d like to talk with you ladies later, if that’s okay. I like hearing what things look like up top.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Twilight replied, her voice warm, and Starlight could hear the tremor in Twilight's speech only because she knew the mare so well.

“Let’s keep moving,” said their guide, stepping forward once again. “We’ll be coming to a dark section soon. Would you rather grab my tail in your mouths, have me put a leash on your collars or put a bridle on each of you and be tugged along by the reins?”

“What's the difference?” Starlight asked, happy for something to take her mind off the maimed pony she just met.

“Holding my tail means you can’t talk while we walk, and if you yawn or something you’ll be in trouble cause there are a few nasty drop offs in the area,” Silk Skies said evenly, fluffing out her tail a bit as she did so. “A leash will let you talk, but some ponies try to fight them. A bridle with reins can be pretty embarrassing, but almost everypony follows one of those instantly.”

“Sounds like the bridle is the safest alternative,” Twilight stated, gaining a nod from Starlight. “Where do we get one?’

“I’ve got a couple on me,” Skies replied, pausing in her forward motion. The passage ahead a tunnel leading into total darkness.

“Of course you do,” Starlight shot back, words heavy with sarcasm.

“It’s not like she can just run back and grab a couple,” Twilight responded. “You’ve been counting your steps and turnings, haven’t you?”

“That and listening to how my hooves sound as we go along,” admitted the mare, standing stock still. “It’s how I navigate.”

“Twilight,” Starlight said, her voice insistent. “Doesn’t this feel just a little bit suspicious? Our magic has been locked off, we’re being led into the dark by a blind mare, and to top it off she wants to put bridles on us. Doesn’t that strike you as the least bit odd?”

“Starlight, what about any this hasn’t been odd?” Twilight laughed in answer. “Think of what we’ve been through just to get here. Has any of it struck you as normal?”

“Well, no,” the unicorn admitted, looking askance at the blind mare who was patiently waiting on them. “But she could be leading us into a trap. Anything could happen to us.”

“Anything like being tricked into a magitech symbiotic latex suit designed to break us into slaves, maybe?” Twilight asked, rhetorically. “Or how about finding ourselves at the tail end of a total war between Equestria and the Sombran Empire. Or even discovering that you like being at the complete mercy of a pony you trust and finding ways to put yourself into bondage that only she can free you from.”

Starlight began to blush furiously, and look away until a gentle purple hoof turned her face back towards Twilight. “Or finding out that you love having total power over a pony who trusts you utterly.”

“Twilight, I—” Starlight began, before that same hoof silenced her gently.

“Whatever we were, whatever we are now, and whatever we are going to be in the future,” Twilight said, feeling the heat in her own cheeks rise, “I know that we will always be friends, and that the magic of friendship will always bring us together.”

“That was beautiful,” Silk Skies interrupted, a shy smile on her own face. “But we really shouldn’t keep the Princess waiting, and the tea is getting cold.”

“Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” concluded Twilight, who upon examining the maid’s livery found a pair of integral saddlebags holding a pair of simple bridles that were complete with reins that could be attached via a pair of snap hooks.

Twilight’s experiences over the past few months had made her more adept than usual at working with hooves alone, and so it only took a few moments for first one, then the other bridle to be buckled on with the reins clipped to a ring set near Silk Skies’ accumulator gem.

“Don’t try to use your eyes or think about where you’re supposed to walk,” Silk Skies cautioned, as she led her charges into the Stygian darkness. “Just let the reins guide you, and we’ll get through with no problems.”

“Sorry about earlier,” Starlight said, shuddering a bit as a darkness blacker than the deepest night enveloped the trio.

“It’s okay,” the blind pegasus assured her, “and believe me, yours isn’t the strangest reaction I’ve heard.”

“What happened to Soda Straws?” Twilight asked, changing the subject and letting her hooves react to a tug to the right.

“As far as we know, other than the Princess herself, Soda Straws was the closest pony to Sunfall who survived,” Skies provided, her own steps sounding in a steady cadence. “Rumour has it that the Princess carried him out of the ruins of Canterlot herself.”

“Wow, I’m really amazed by how devoted all of you are to Celestia,” Starlight added, and Twilight’s ears caught a brief stutter in the steps of their guide.

“The Princess,” began Silk Skies, emphasizing the title with more than a little anger in her voice, “saved all of us that day. Every single day, she works herself to exhaustion making sure all of us see tomorrow. I can’t tell you how many times me or one the others have found her passed out after recharging one magical thing or another, or casting some sort of spell to make sure that all of us have another day of life.”

“Sorry,” Starlight muttered.

“All of us owe her our lives,” continued the pegasus, either not hearing or not caring about Starlight’s apology. “And each and every single day she repeats that miracle. She almost never eats, or drinks, or sleeps, or anything. The only time she does anything normal is when we have newcomers and has tea with them, and you two are the first new ponies in ages.”

An uncomfortable silence descended after that and for some time the trio walked along their unseeable path. The darkness was oppressive and Twilight became aware of the literal tons of rock overhead and how reliant her and Starlight were on their guide just then. All it would take is for Silk Skies to unclip the reins from her end and gallop off, leaving the two unicorns behind to flounder away until they perished. Twilight’s mind was just getting into showing her the details of that nightmare scenario when a light appeared up ahead.

“Silk Skies, good to hear you coming, and is that tea I smell?” called out a mare, holding up the stub of a candle in her magic.

“It’s me, Ember,” called back their guide. “I’ve got a couple of newcomers with me.”

“Thought so,” replied the unicorn, and as the two sighted ponies drew near they could tell that the unicorn was yet another maimed and blinded survivor.

“I don’t want to be rude—” said Starlight.

“Again,” Silk Skies chipped in.

“But are all of you… well… blind?” Starlight managed to ask, trying to ignore their guide’s aside.

“The Princess keeps her areas of Bolthole as low-powered as she can,” explained the unicorn. “Lights use a lot of power, and to be honest, I think she feels guilty that all of us lost our sight during Sunfall and she wants to take care of us and make us feel useful.”

“It’s probably just a matter of Ce— the Princess,” Twilight said, correcting herself just in time, “finding the best ponies for the job, and I imagine that with you and Silk Skies here, she can send other ponies to different jobs rather than keeping them here."

“You’re probably right,” declared the mare, and now that they were close Twilight and Starlight could see that the unicorn in front of them was also missing most of her horn above a face covered in burn scars.

“I’m Ember Dawn, by the way,” said the mare, as the travelling trio crossed the threshold into the entrance of what looked like a carved out set of rooms. “Pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, and with me is Starlight Glimmer,” Twilight enunciated carefully, making sure to pronounce both names clearly.

“Great! Always good to meet new ponies,” Ember replied, before commenting to Silk Skies with, “go on through. I’ll keep watch here.”

“Sure thing, Ember,” Silk replied, adding, “if you ladies want to take those bridles off before you get to the Princess now’s the time. Unless you would rather keep them on, that is. The Princess wouldn’t mind, she’s seen worse.”

“Oh sweet Harmony,” laughed Ember. “Like the time Rarity tried to make us new work harnesses?”

"Ha!" laughed Skies, rattling her cargo. "Anyway, go ahead and take those off. The lights will come on in this section specifically for visitors."

“Thanks,” Starlight responded, once the two of them had shed their bridles and Twilight had placed them back into Silk Skies’ saddlebag; “and thank you for all your help.”

As the trio walked into the built up area, lights began to flicker on revealing carved stone passageways with side corridors branching off. Other ponies became visible in the light. Some cleaning, others moving foodstuffs along with other domestic tasks. The normalcy of what they were seeing emboldened Starlight with enough confidence to ask a question.

“Rarity tried to make you work harnesses?” Starlight wondered out loud, trying to imagine what the Fashionista of Restraint had come up with.

“You should have seen them!” Silk chortled, the motion setting the china on her back clattering. “They were belled, so that supposedly we could hear each other coming. She even promised to set up different types of bells for each of us so we could tell who was who. We didn’t need that, and we still don’t.”

“Any um… extra features?” Starlight inquired, nudging Twilight to point out that the ceiling was dotted with literally dozens of the orange accumulator gems.

“Spent some time with her, did you?” Skies questioned with a more delicate laugh. “You don’t have to answer, because just asking that tells me you’ve been in her hooves. And yes, there were a few straps that well… went where a mare either really doesn’t or really does want something like that.”

All three ponies giggled a bit at that, lifting the sour taste that had been in their mouths since their time in darkness and the trio chatted amiably for a few minutes until Twilight felt the floor change under her hooves. Looking down, she could see that the floor was covered in a series of grooves that were laid out perpendicular to the direction of travel.

“We’re here,” said the pegasus, before calling out. “Princess! It’s Silk Skies. I’ve brought the newcomers, and some tea.”

“Thank you, Silk,” came a familiar voice from beyond a pair of apple wood doors. The voice was Celestia’s, but with a weak and ragged edge to it. “Please bring our new ponies in.”

The door opened from within, wrapped in an aura of golden magic and the trio of ponies stepped inside a large combined bedroom and work area. The outline of a large pony could be seen lying on a canopied bed, the drawn drapes obscuring her form. Pinned to the walls were floor plans of various areas of Bolthole, along with a series of astronomical charts.

The desk itself was covered with a plethora of writing materials, books, and scrolls in various degrees of quality. Some were pristine and new looking, others with scorched covers and pages, having barely survived some conflagration. Twilight again felt a nudge from her unicorn friend whose upward flick of the eyes drew Twilight’s own gaze upward.

Twilight was barely able to restrain her gasp of astonishment as she saw that the entire ceiling was a single massive gem that almost pulsed with magical power.

“Can I bring you anything else?” Skies asked, bowing gracefully toward the bed once she had set the tea onto a side table.

“I think I will be fine, thank you,” Celestia demurred from behind the curtain.

“Are you sure?” Skies insisted again, impressing Twilight with the care and devotion in her voice. “It’s no trouble.”

“Well, perhaps our guests would like something,” Celestia said. “Why don’t you ask Crokinole if he could put together some of those little tea cakes of his?”

“Of course!” chirped the pegasus, practically bouncing up to her hooves. “Right away!”

“They are so devoted to me,” Celestia commented, after the maid had scurried out of the room and Celestia had closed the door behind her. “It would break their hearts if they ever knew how terribly I’ve betrayed their faith in me.”

“Are you really sure you should be saying that to us?” Starlight asked, fidgeting a bit. “I mean, we are strangers and all.”

The drapes were drawn aside, and this time Twilight couldn’t keep the gasp of shock and horror from escaping her as both she and Starlight beheld the wreck of the pony that had once been Princess Celestia, Sol Invictus.

“It’s important that you know everything that has happened here and why,” responded the voice from behind a shattered, unhealed jaw. “After all, once you kill me and put me out of my misery, I won’t be around for you to ask questions anymore.”

A very middling chapter, I know. But I felt it was important to get the feel of how Celestia lives and how her ponies feel about her. One chapter left before Twilight leaves, The Blasted Lands.