I left the Gala and followed after Crimson Storm, only to lose her within moments. She hadn't looked all that steady on her hooves, but apparently she was well enough to lose a filly in these mostly empty corridors.

Still, something tugged at me about Crimson Storm's condition, and I couldn't help the growing dread forming in my stomach. That ominous feeling was what made me chase after her in the first place, but in doing so, I only found myself lost in an area of the castle I didn't recognize.

I may have been a foal, but I wasn't completely ignorant in what some adults did in their spare time. Everything I saw about Crimson as she stood in the doorway pointed towards the mare being inebriated, and, while that was extremely surprising, that wasn't what worried me—at least, that wasn't the main thing.

What worried me more was why she was drunk, and what her intentions were. Add to that the fact that I hadn't seen her in what felt to me like ages, and there was no way in Tartarus that I wasn't going to check on her.

I wandered the halls, ignoring looks of bemusement and the odd muttering or two from the few ponies trotting about as I searched. I asked a few of the guardsponies I saw if they'd seen Crimson Storm, but as soon as the name left my mouth, they'd get nervous and either deny they'd seen the mare, make some excuse and leave, or completely ignore me outright.

Had I not been so worried about Crimson and frustrated with the stonewalling I was receiving, I probably would've been more suspicious. As it stood however, the attitudes of the ones I asked only made me more determined to find the drunken guard. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I started searching, but even in my single mindedness, I was keenly aware that the Gala was still going on, and that Celestia was most likely going to be wondering where I was soon.

I growled and stomped a hoof in frustration at the thought that'd I'd have to give up the search after I'd come all this way, but it couldn't be helped. I'd already left the party and probably made the Princess worry and realized that, much to my dismay, I should head back, even though I had nothing to show for my efforts.

That was when I truly began to realize just how lost I was.

No matter which way I looked, every passage seemed the same. I saw a couple of stairwells and began to wonder if I'd ascended or descended to another floor in my absentmindedness. Thinking back, it was hard to remember exactly where my hooves had taken me, and as I wandered about, trying to find my way back, I began to panic.

I called out for help—for anypony to come and show me the way back, but the corridors had become terribly empty, with no nobles, castle staff, or guards in sight. Something else I noticed as tears started to stream down my face, was just how shabby this part of the castle looked.

The pristine marble walls had become somewhat greyed and flaky, there were far fewer doors lining the hallways, and the black and white checkered marble floors and lush maroon carpets had given way to hard grey stone. There weren't even any windows that I could see, and the more I saw, the more my frenzied panic gave way to quiet fear.

I stopped shouting, because at that point, I felt I would've stumbled across some kind of monster down here in this place. It was eerily quiet, and I could hear my own tiny hoofsteps echoing in the hall. I remember thinking some bad pony, or worse, would pop out of one of the few closed doors and grab me, and began to hyperventilate.

I was about ready to throw all caution to the wind and charge down the halls screaming for help when a voice somewhere behind me called my name and made me jump and scream anyway. To my own credit, or perhaps stupidity given the situation, I didn't immediately flee for my life.

Rather, I turned with wide fearful eyes to see the owner of the voice and came face to face with none other than Blueblood VII. The colt, against all odds, had somehow found me in this Celestia forsaken corridor. I almost thought he wasn't real, and the fact that he was, should've raised a few questions, but I was too out of it to care at the moment.

All hostility—all suspicion, disapproval, and decency—all of that was shunted aside as I slammed into the teenage colt and wrapped him in a tight, shaky hug. I sobbed and wheezed into his withers, his look of concern turning into one of shock, then cautious reassurance as he uncomfortably patted me on the back. After a moment my sobs became sniffles and I finally managed to take a step back and collect my thoughts another moment after that.

"I apologize if I scared you, that wasn't my intention," Blueblood said with a warm, if apologetic smile, "do you feel any better now?"

I nodded mutely as I sniffed again and wiped my eyes. Now that the fear and panic had abated I was left feeling awkward and embarrassed at my own display. Blueblood just seemed to take my sour silence in stride, his concerned look returning as he spoke again.

"That's good to hear, but if I may ask, what are you doing all the way down here, Miss Sparkle?" he inquired, looking around him, "this is quite a ways from the Gala," he looked back to me with a quizzical expression, "I'd expected you to be by the Princess's side, yet here you are, lost and alone in this dreadful place."

"I... I was... looking for somepony," I muttered, not meeting his eye, "I got lost and ended up here somehow."

Now that I was able to think clearly, I remembered my dislike for the colt, and in light of that, I wasn't willing to give him anymore information than that. Of course, there wasn't much more information to give other than that the pony I happened to be searching for was Crimson Storm, but that hardly mattered to me at the time. That aside, the more important questions to be asked were once again at the forefront of my mind, so I asked them.

"What are you doing here?" I replied, my eyes narrowing slightly as I rose my head to face Blueblood, "how did you even find me here?"

"The guards," the colt answered simply, "I'd been meaning to speak with you during the Gala and apologize about our previous altercation, but you were nowhere to be found," he trotted past me and down the hall a bit before stopping and turning back to me with a small smirk, "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Miss Sparkle, but you've gained a reputation for being something of an introvert—a loner if you will, and I simply assumed you decided to return to your room for the night. Imagine my surprise when I checked to find that you weren't there either."

"You went to my room? And what do you mean 'loner'?" I squawked, taken aback, "I mean sure, I like to be left alone sometimes, and I spend a lot of time in my room when I'm not with the Princess, but I don't think I'm a loner."

The argument didn't sound very strong in my own ears and we both knew what he said was the truth. In the days following my declination of Blueblood's offer, I'd usually spend my time alone in my room when I wasn't helping Princess Celestia prepare. Even before that, I'd spent a great deal of time studying alone whenever I could.

"Come now, Miss Sparkle, it's clear for anypony to see that you aren't particularly fond of company," he sighed and bowed his head, "and I'm afraid I have to take some blame for that. I know what you must think of me after our disagreement, and you're right. I was wrong to try and use you for my own gain and I apologize for that. That's what I wanted to tell you during the Gala.

"When I didn't see you at the Gala, I slipped out to look for you, and grew worried when I was informed that you hadn't returned to your chambers either," he explained, his expression turning serious, "I asked around and found out that you'd come this way, so I followed after you, and found you here."

"Oh," I replied, not really knowing what else to say. I eyed the colt, looking for any sign of insincerity, but his words and look seemed earnest enough, so I chose to let bygones be bygones, "well, thanks, I guess—for the apology, and for looking for me. I don't know how long I could've been stuck here, wherever we are," I frowned and scanned the area once again, "...where are we anyway?"

"You don't know?" Blueblood asked, apparently surprised. He chuckled a moment later and trotted ahead, motioning for me to follow, "in that case, let's head back and I'll tell you what I know on the way."

I hesitated for a moment, looking from Blueblood's retreating form to the opposite side of the hall where I'd originally come from. I could've sworn I heard other hoofsteps besides our own, but another nervous look around revealed nothing. After a few seconds, I bit my lip worriedly and moved to catch up with the colt.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" I muttered, glancing behind me, "I'm pretty sure the exit's back that way... at least, I think it is."

"There's another set of stairs closer this way," Blueblood replied with calm confidence, "I wouldn't exactly call it a shortcut per se, but it's close enough. Once we reach the staircase and head straight up, we should end up on the first floor, a little ways from the ballroom."

"A-Alright then, if you say so," I replied, just happy to finally be leaving this horrible place. We trotted along quietly for a moment while Blueblood got his bearings, and, unable to stand the eerie quiet, I spoke first, "so what is this place, and how do you know so much about it?"

"My father brought me here once for something of a... history lesson," Blueblood explained. He turned to look at me from over his shoulder, "are you aware of just how old this castle is, Miss Sparkle?"

"Well," I answered, trying to wrack my brain for the information, "according to Princess Celestia, Canterlot Castle was built a little over nine-hundred and ninety years ago. She told me she herself had a hoof in the design."

"She certainly did," chuckled Blueblood, "but as you know, times change, and often times the past is forgotten and left behind in favor of the future. That's true for a lot of things, including architecture. This place," and he gestured to the dirty, flaking grey walls and cracked stone floor, "happens to be an old abandoned part of the castle—so old, that I doubt even the Princess has even thought about these ancient corridors in ages."

"Wow," I nearly whispered, looking around the hall in wonder. The fact that I was trotting through a piece of ancient history put these unsettling corridors in a new light for me, "so rather than remodel the place, Princess Celestia left it as it was..." a strange decision in my opinion, but I wasn't going to complain, though my curiosity had been piqued, "so... where do these halls lead anyway?"

"I'm so glad you asked," Blueblood answered as he pushed open a heavy looking wooden door with his magic, "you see, the reason these halls were abandoned was because the Princess had no more use for them after the war against the minotaurs."

We stepped through the creaky door and I froze, my eyes wide with shock and confusion. Before me was a set of steep cobblestone steps leading down into a thick, musky darkness. I couldn't see anything below, but as I stared down into that darkness, my mind wandered elsewhere.

"Equestria was a very different place back then, or so my father tells me," I heard Blueblood say from somewhere distant, "back in the war, we would capture and interrogate prisoners until they spilled their secrets, and these halls led to the very place where captured prisoners would be held."

It happened in an instant.

I'd been so distracted by a memory that had been trying to push itself to the surface that I was completely caught off guard when I felt something shove me forward. A cry of surprise became loud sharp yelps of agony as I stumbled, tripped, and rolled head over hoof down the steps. I felt something catch and tug at my dress a moment before a terrible ripping sound reached my ears. I gave a pained grunt as I hit the cold hard ground below.

I groaned and whimpered at the sharp pain shooting up one of my back legs, and winced at the overall soreness beginning to spread throughout the rest of my body. I'd definitely hit my head at some point during the fall, and it pounded incessantly, though thankfully my horn hadn't gotten caught, but even in my addled state I knew it wasn't a good idea to try and use magic. I tried to rise to my hooves, but cried out and fell back down into a heap as another stab of pain buckled my leg.

I'd been knocked senseless by the tumble and found it incredibly hard to concentrate on any one thing. My vision was hazy with tears and spots of black, making it even harder to see anything in the gloom around me. I coughed a pain-filled cough, grunted and winced as I shifted my weight, and craned my neck up towards the top of the steps.

My eyes widened as I saw not only Blueblood's outline, but two others as well peering down at me from just beyond the doorway. My mind worked furiously to figure out just what was going on, but the pain in my leg overrode any kind of rational thought for the moment, and I could only whimper helplessly.

"A bit much, don't you think, Winter Chime?" came the familiar, and slightly irritated voice of Blueblood, "if she suffers any sort of permanent injury, things are not going to go well for us," there was a beat of silence and the shadow of the colt leaned in close to the other silhouetted pony and hissed, "and if things don't go well for us, I'll make sure that they go much worse for you, got it?"

"Y-Yeah, I got it, Blueblood, s-sorry," another familiar voice squeaked, "it won't happen again, I promise!"

"You better make sure it doesn't... now then," there was clearing of the throat and the largest silhouette began to make its way down the steps, "I apologize on behalf of Winter Chime, Miss Sparkle. I assure you I had every intention of having this chat of ours peacefully and without anypony getting hurt, but... well..." I could see the outline of Blueblood shrug, "there's nothing for it now, I guess."

As I listened to the colt, my eyes flicked over to the other two still standing at the top of the steps. There was no doubt about it—the friends Blueblood had ditched before were back, and they'd all been working together to... what? Why were they doing this, I wondered.

I had gotten the feeling Winter Chime didn't like me very much for some reason—that had been evident from the moment I met her. That she was apparently the one who'd pushed me down the steps didn't surprise me at all, but what about Greedy Gut?

I could tell he was the other pony in the doorway, but he hadn't said anything about what was going on, and I couldn't make out his face from here. He simply looked on from above as Blueblood continued to casually make his way down the steps towards me.

Then the door slammed shut, leaving Blueblood and I completely alone.

I yelped at the noise and tried to scramble to my hooves again, only to be painfully reminded of my current condition. I wasn't sure if my leg was broken, and now I couldn't see if it was, but it certainly felt like it. For a few moments, everything was suddenly bathed in complete darkness, then a bright blue light from somewhere above me lit up the area.

I looked back up to see Blueblood's horn aglow, the light casting unnerving shadows over his features and the walls around us. He looked down at me, wearing that pleasant, charming grin, as though he was taking a leisurely stroll in the castle gardens, but I could see something else in his eyes that made me shiver.

Maybe I'd just been imagining it due to the light, but somehow I doubted that.

"Now I realize how this all seems, but it was only my intention to talk, nothing more than that," he sighed and shook his head as he reached the bottom of the staircase, "honestly I'd meant to bring you somewhere more..." he looked around him with a disgusted grimace, "...aesthetically pleasing than this, but it serves my purposes well enough."

"W-Why?" I mewled weakly, "Blueblood... I..." I sucked in a breath and whimpered again as I accidentally put weight on my bad leg, "m-my leg... Blueblood, I n-need help, please!"

I wanted to cry in earnest.

I wanted to scream and and wail and bawl my eyes out, I should've—and I think I normally would've, but somehow I managed to hold it back. My amethyst eyes, wet with tears and wide with pain and pleading, met Blueblood's calm, almost impassive blue orbs. After a long, tense moment of silence save for my ragged breathing, Blueblood trotted past me and further into the darkness beyond the stairs.

"Honestly I'm not sure how father can stand to see ponies like this," he mused aloud as he moved further and further away, "I've always preferred words over hooves when it came to getting what I want personally. I've tried to see it his way, but this just isn't doing it for me."

He stopped a short distance away and turned back to me, looking me over with a deep frown. I matched his frown with a pathetic whine and another wince of pain, and he snorted before turning away and speaking again.

"Lucky for you, my mother had the sense to teach me some minor healing magic before she betrayed my father and disgraced our family, but we'll have to hold off on that, I think. Though I dislike seeing you in such pain, this also suits my needs... at least, for the moment."

His voice echoed off the walls ominously and I couldn't help but shiver again.

"Blueblood?" I asked, struggling to turn so that I faced the colt. I chanced a glance behind me and in the dim light of Blueblood's horn, it didn't look like anything was broken, but there had probably been a sprain at least, and the fancy white dress I wore was ruined, practically in tatters at the bottom. I clenched my teeth against the spike of pain and turned back to Blueblood, "w-what are you talking about? W-Why did you—"

"As I said before, I wanted us to be able to talk in private, you and I," Blueblood interjected, "to be completely candid, Miss Sparkle, I haven't quite given up on this deal of ours just yet, and I wanted to..." he had his back turned to me, but I could him roll a hoof around in the air, as he searched for the right words to say, "...rework the conditions of the offer. Before that though, I believe you wanted to know where these halls lead, correct? Well, I was going to tell you before I was so rudely interrupted. Again, I'm sorry about that."

He paused a moment and looked up, his head moving back and forth as he searched for something I couldn't see. Another second later the light surrounding his horn went out and the room was pitch black once again. It didn't last long before Blueblood's horn lit up again, this time only flashing once.

There was a soft fwoosh, followed by several more as sconces previously unseen, began to blaze one by one along one wall. In the soft orange glow I thought we'd wound up in some kind of hallway made of dark grey flatstone, but that wasn't the case.

On one side of the room, across from the lit sconces, I could see rows of cells with thick iron bars, some open, some shut tight, and others with the bars snapped off in places. There was a barred door at the end of the room far behind Blueblood, leading deeper into the dark stony room. The memory that had been gnawing at me since I first saw the stone steps suddenly came rushing back to me with the intensity of a hurricane.

A dark room at the bottom of a stone staircase... Crimson Storm laughing... Captain Blueblood... battered and broken and ripped apart... blood... dark and sticky... on the ground, the walls... stuck to her hooves... in her fur... her mane... her teeth...

"Or was that... me?" I muttered, my eyes losing focus as I tried to remember, "was Crimson Storm really there, or was that me? I can't..." my unfocused gaze returned to the older colt making his way back over to me, all confident smiles, "was it... Blueblood?"

A pleasant thrill coursed through my entire body as the images warped and twisted in my mind. I watched, as though I was outside looking in, as the madly laughing red mare became a giggling lavender filly. I watched as the bloodied white stallion became a mangled and mutilated white colt.

What's... what is this? Is that the dream I had?

The thoughts swirled together in my mind until I could no longer discern the difference between the actual dream and what my mind had only just conjured up. Somewhere deep down I could feel the sharp pain in my leg and the lesser pain in my other extremities, but that and the growing confusion and disorientation was becoming drowned out by the oddly pleasant tingle coursing through my body.

It was almost enough to make me laugh aloud, despite the pain.

"There we go!" came Blueblood's voice, finally snapping me out of whatever reverie I'd been in, "that's much better!" he stopped in front of me and looked around again, his smile falling into another sour grimace, "well, maybe not. This place is rather filthy, but that's to be expected after hundreds of years of neglect."

He shook his head and tutted in mock disappointment before turning back to me, his smile once more back in place. He raised a hoof and swept it across the room in a grand gesture.

"In any case, Twilight Sparkle, allow me to welcome you to the abandoned dungeons beneath Canterlot Castle."