Chapter Twenty-Three
Hallowed Halls

	The rest of the building was as clean and sterile as the railway manager's office. The tile floor freshly polished, the windows crystal clear. There was even a hint of cleaning solution in the air. If it hadn't been so cold an barren inside the terminal, it might be comfortable. Twilight moved quietly, keeping her self as low as she could as to not draw attention to herself. A glimmer of pride wore on her face, Applejack would be so proud of her. Even the mention of her name in her mind, made Twilight work harder to keep from being heard.
	Twilight went as far as she could down a winding hallway. It lead past a ticket counter, a lounge area for overnight hold overs, and a vending machine that some vandalized her journey stopped abruptly at a gate. What lay beyond was something Twilight didn't want to contend with. She heard somewhere in that part of the building were more infected, a lot more from what she could tell. They were shuffling around, meandering, unaware of her existence. Their raspy breathing echoed from all different directions. It slowed Twilight's progress as she backtracked in the hopes of finding the secret door. Again being absolutely quiet, if she made too much noise, she would be done for.
	When Twilight started her search, the image of the map was so fresh in her mind, but that was an hour ago and now it was fading from her weary mind. The fact that she'd retraced her steps a few times and even got turned around more than once, didn't help at all. Just as she was about to give up and go back to the maintenance room for another look at the map something caught her eye. A beautiful feather lay on the floor half trapped under the molding of the wall. There was something familiar about it. Upon closer inspection Twilight nearly laughed out loud, it was one of Cadence's wing feathers. With a little force she was able to pull the feather out from under the wall molding. The soft pink shimmered with the colors of the rainbow. It must have fallen out when she...went through the hidden door.
	Twilight curved her tongue out the corner of her mouth and tied the feather in her hair, before searching the wall up and down. The door looked like it was part of the marble wall, indiscernible to the naked eye. The keyhole, hidden in one of the natural dark marks on the marble. It was a genius way to hide a door in plain sight. Twilight pulled the keys out and unlocked it. It took some doing, but she managed to push the door open. The grinding sound echoed throughout the entire train station. There was no doubt in Twilight mind that every infected in the building would be onto her. When she was through, she quickly worked to pull the door closed once again.
	Twilight grimaced as she tried to take a few steps away from the door, one of her primary wing feathers was pinch. “Well at least I know how it happened to Cadence.” Twilight gritted her teeth and pulled away feeling the feather pop free, it felt like a lightening bolt climbing her wing striking her heart, she stifled her cry but the pain induced tears crept into her eyes.
	Fortunately the infected would be hard pressed to find her, but that was least of her concerns now. The infected were riled up now and looking for the pony that made all the noise. Would they be able to find Scootaloo, would she still be safe? Twilight sighed  and shook the thoughts from her head. “You can't worry about that now, Twilight.” She whispered to herself, trying to stay as calm as she could.
	Twilight took in her surroundings as she started walking. Before her lay a long hallway with the same tiled floor and marble walls as the rest of the terminal. Decorative display cases lined both walls, each packed with unique knickknacks. The normal florescent light's over head were replaced with crystal chandeliers, casting shimmering rainbow shapes all along both walls. It was swanky to say the least and why shouldn't it be, she mused. After all it was a princess's escape route.
	Just as she'd thought, there wasn't anything to worry about in the hall. It was relatively peaceful despite being cold. When she made it to the other side of the hall, the door wasn't locked. It slid open much easier than the first door and luckily didn't make a sound.
	The room was filled with the sound of banging coming from somewhere in the room. When Twilight stepped out of the hallway onto the lower landing of the staircase leading up to the throne room door. A large mutated infected banged on the door ferociously. The scraps of armor clinging to his lanky body revealed he use to be one of Celestia's bodyguards, but no more.
	It left one glaring problem, how was she going to get past the creature to get into the throne room. If only she had some kind of weapon, Twilight chewed her bottom lip. That was when she remembered the Tazer in her pocket, she pulled it out giving it a once over. It didn't look like it was too complicated to work.
	Something shrieked from somewhere at the bottom of the stairs. Twilight hadn't noticed the large infected down the stairs, how could she so easily forget that Celestia always kept two bodyguards.  Twilight fell backwards through the door she'd come through in just enough time to miss being hit. She  crawled backwards as fast as she could, a large hand reached down the corridor to grab her, then another one gangling hand clawed at the tiles where she'd just been.
	Twilight got up on her feet staring hopelessly at the pair of infected fighting to get into the hallway after her. The doorway wasn't big enough for both of them to get through, but with enough effort they could flood the corridor one after another. In the scuffle she'd dropped her Tazer, now she didn't know where it was. Twilight could go back, but there wasn't another way into the throne room that she knew of. The two infected were much larger than the others and definitely stronger. There was nothing she could do, nothing rational anyway. Which may just be what she needed.
	Twilight struggled to rip one of the wooden doors from the cabinets. With the handle made the way it was, the door made a fairly good shield, even if the wood wasn't the sturdiest. From another display case she picked up a heavy metal candle stick, with a firm enough hit she could knock them out. At least that's what she hoped would happen. Twilight took a deep breath, there was no other way.
	Twilight stepped closer to the door, one of the infected took a lazy swing at her splintering the display case near the door. Something surged inside of her, driving her to move forward. With the cabinet shield raised high she put all of her weight behind it, pinning one of the infected against the door frame. Quickly she landed three hard hits to the side of it's head with the candlestick, the force behind her swing sent it to the floor, but also opening up the door for the other to slip in. It launched through the door hammering the wooden shield into splinters sending her flailing across the tile floor.
	It was coming for her and she was out of time. Quickly she got to her feet, sprinting away from her pursuer. The thing behind her was chasing her on all fours, for each of her steps she took the creature covered three. It would be on her in seconds and that would be the end of her. There was one more plan in the works, one more thing she could do. Hopefully it would work, was the last thing she thought as she dropped to the floor sliding under one of the display cases. The infected sailed right by her, slipping on the tile floor as it struggled to regain it's footing.
	Twilight was up and running back towards the throne room as quickly as she could. The few seconds it took for the infected to regain control was like a god sent. It gave her the time she needed to get away. Twilight leaned down grabbing the candlestick as she passed by. It only slowed her down for half a second and then she was back to full sprint.
	She was through the door and slipped to the right of it, pressing her back against the wall. The creature was coming fast, Twilight was timing it's steps. If she was off by just one little second it would be all for not. Now! Her heart screamed as the infected's head appeared through the door. She brought down the candlestick with every ounce of strength she had left, hitting it in the back of the head. The hit was so solid it vibrated through the candlestick into her very bones. The candlestick broke, pieces flying all over the place. The force of the hit was so strong that the infected's head bounced off the floor with the same velocity. It slide to a halt on the staircase landing unconscious.
	Twilight shook the feeling back into her arm, looking over the two infected. “That wasn't too hard.” Twilight faked a smirk and started up the stairs to the throne room door. It was finally time to end this, once and for all.