A speck of candlelight, it was a dark night. Guards of the Cultan were wandering the halls as they always did with their daily shifts around the corridor, making sure no pony was sneaking around during curfew in the city. Ponies of the city were asleep, tucked in warm in their soft beds. With the midnight breeze flowing in, it was peaceful. Not a sound was made, but just the creak of an open bedroom window where the Cultan and his wife slept.

In the dungeon, no one spoke of Thundershine. One of the most famous 3rd generation wonderbolts, and co-captain of the team. She lay still in that cold stoned prison, only mice as companions. Less water to drink and less to eat. Her body was still, showing that she was asleep. When suddenly, the sound of loud galloping hooves came from within the walls of the dungeon. The figure trotted down the stairs quietly, trying to not make a sound. The wonderbolt mare slept peacefully, thinking that she was back at home as a young filly in Cloudsdale.

The mare woke up from her sleep, she shouted,"Get me out of here, somepony help me!"

Thundershine pushed with all of her might to see if the bars would break, but it was no use. The bars were held stiff. What could be a way for her to push that steel gate open? She figured that the only way to escape was by sneaking out the back bars, if only there was a way to break them. She said to herself. " If only I could find something strong enough to break these bars open".

"Wait", she said, as she touched the bars of the cell. She tapped the bars with her hoof, and then the steel pole of the bar fell to the ground. She picked up the broken steel pole from the ground in the inside of her cell and observed it carefully. "Hmmmm........these bars seem pretty old, guess they were never replaced". Thundershine slowly used her hoof to grab another old steel bar, it almost fell out of her hooves, but she caught it just in time. No other prisoner was paying attention, she realized that they were just poor pony folk, she felt sorry for them. Why were they kept in a prison like this? The prisoners she saw, they were all frail and sick. She pitied all of them, the king probably could've imprisoned them because of the crimes they had done in the town marketplace.

"Hey, you. Pssst?" somepony whispered, as she beckoned her hoof to tell her to come closer. Thunder stepped closer, she made a skeptic look at the pony she was approaching.

"Who are you? And why did you call me here?", she whispered. The pony took of the cloak, it revealed that she was a mare. She had red orange mane with yellow highlights, she wore a tore wonderbolt uniform, and she was smiling at Thundershine. Thunder gasped at the pony she was seeing, she recognized her immediately. "Stormy Flare, I thought you were dead". The dark blue maned mare ran up and hugged the fury yellow coated mare, they both cried at the sight of seeing each other again.

Both of the mares jumped up and and did their secret hoof shake, as if they were fillies playing on a day with nice weather. What they didn't realize was, that they were shouting so loud that they both then heard hoof steps coming closer towards the dungeons. The figure had bat wings, Star Fire knew it was a bat pony. Starks Brightstar, one of the officers of the bat pony guards trotted into the dungeon halls loudly.

"What in the name of Equestria?" the two mares said at the time. Stark looked at them, with a displeasing look on her face. The two mares looked at her with shock. What was she thinking about when she was looking at us? Thunder was confused, she knew this pony from somewhere, but where? Why in Equestria would she work for the Cultan?

Stark gave the two mares a dirty look.", When your friends get here in the next week or so, they'll just be a piece of bullshit". Thunder was furious. "You fucking bastard! Don't you dare do that to my nephew and his friends. And don't you dare threatened his brother either. And you better tell me where you trapped my brother, because you'll pay for this!"

"Oh, I don't think so Thundershine. They'll be dead once they get here. Guards, put them back to where they belong". Starks walked away laughing cruelly. She was certain that Saddle Arabia would win the war, if the war was a never war, then she wouldn't be working for the Cultan. Starks had a sensitive side of her, she was only being cruel towards the prisoners because two of the prisoners were her friends. She was ordered to be cruel around prisoners. The bat mare knew the two pegasai for a very long time, and it seemed that Thunder and Stormy Flare didn't remember her at all. The bat pony trotted away sadly. With the rest of their teammates dead, they were extremely sad after the tragic thing that happened to them before after all those years.

"Stark, is that you?" Thundershine asked in confusion. As Stark was about to walk back to the corridor, she stopped and heard Thunder's voice running through her head. "Thundershine, you recognize me?" the bat pony said, and looked at her old friend in front of her. She turned her head and saw her friend trapped in the bars of a dungeon, she also saw her, Stormy Flare, her other long time friend. Stark fell to the ground at the sight of seeing her friends in this much danger, why did she choose to work as a guard in Saddle Arabia? It was the wrong choice. Stormy Flare turned around, she saw her old friend crying hard on the cold ground. The mare immediately went to the poor mare and comforted her.

"Stark, what's wrong?" Stormy Flare asked, concerned. The bat pony didn't pay attention to what the two mares were saying, she was too busy crying as more tears came out of her eyes. The wonderbolt captain comforted the mare with care, she used her wing to dry the bat pony's tears. "Stark listen. We know that you still have that type of good inside of you. Let it out when it's the right time". The bat pony cried even harder. "I was stupid to even work as a guard in Saddle Arabia, what was I thinking?"

At the sudden words Stark spoke, the two former wonderbolts were surprised. At the sudden response, they were eager to help their long time friend get through her sorrow. Thunder put a hoof to her heart. "Hey, I know how it's like to have these type of doubts in your heart. I was like this once, but you helped me get over it. And now it's my turn to help you". Stormy Flare did the same, she put a hoof on the mare's back and gave her back a pat.

Starks immediately dried her tears with her hoofs, she immediately felt better after the reassuring comfort. "Say Stark, what do you wanna talk about, cause I'm bored", the two formal wonderbolts asked her. "Really, I don't have anything to talk about. But right now let's just focus on escaping the the dungeon, we don't want Cultan finding about this; now would we?" Thunder and Solar Flare nodded their heads. "We agree with you". The bat pony grabbed the keys she kept from her hoof, then used the same hoof she held the key with to open the dungeon's door. The two once imprisoned mares ran out of cell quickly as their hooves could take them.

Stark was worried."Girls, we need to find a way out. But first, we need to find a way to get out of the underground dungeon". The mares found it hard to get out of the castle's underground dungeon, there were so many twist and turns upon the stairs, that it was almost impossible to find a door that could lead them elsewhere.

"Stormy, Thunder. The castle' s towers are very vast. So it will be much more difficult to find a way out, only the stairs will help". The two wonderbolts nodded. "Of course". They then followed her along as they were running down the tower's stairs, even while trying to avoid spiderwebs along the way. "If this keeps up, we won't even be able to find the right door if this keeps happening".

~The Last Diary Entry of Lucena~

The Discoveries of Saddle Arabia #2:

Thus the castles towers are absolutely, thou I cannot head anywhere if I stayed as a prisoner in this dreadful dump. My life would be ruined after the king's henchmen would come here and behead me just like they did with my niece, she was accused of a crime that she'd not commit. If history were to be rewritten, then nothing should stand in my way while I am at it. Even before Tia and Luna were born, we were the first alicorns that ever roamed. My name's Lucena, I was given this diary for my birthday by my oldest daughter Tia (Celestia). It was nice of her to.

From what I discover about Saddle Arabia, that no good Cultan is no good at all. They promise that they would make peace between Equestria, but they broke their promise. We gave them our best goods that we could give to them, they betrayed us and pained us with misery. It had to be hidden somewhere in the city, the gold, I tried finding it myself....but it was no use, there was nothing. We just couldn't end our search.

~Lucena~

The sound of hoof steps thundered in the distance, the three companions knew that sound. With the noise growing louder, it was harder to find the right door. Their hoofs were growing tired, they wouldn't even stop to catch their breath or anything. All they could do for now was just run...........and run down the stairs as if it would take forever for the three to escape the vast dungeon tower outside of the Cultan's palace. Nothing was going to be easy for them, all the memories, those good memories were now taken away from them. Still, could they still remember the good old times they had as fillies?

Thundershine's P.O.V

Foalhood times can never be over, no pony could ever forget the friendship that happened between me and my group of friends. Our group may have been a small group, but two friends is better than one. It's good to meet a new pony, being eager to shake their hand, like the opposite of a gaining nothing. But the truest treasure to gain, is to always have friends that you can depend on, and that's always possible; even for three group of friends.

Oh no, the tower dungeon may be vast, but there is no way we would ever find the right door that was our way out. On some days me and my friends would be caught, and on some days we wouldn't because we were a clever group of mares. Mares that had the knowledge of finding their way out of a horrible prison, no walls or windows to show no light, just pure darkness. Almost everything we did was just sit and sit, there was nothing any of us could do.

The sound of Stark's voice grew from being glad to a complaint, what was wrong with that mare sometimes? "We'll never find our way out of this tower! It's like a big maze as always since the last year we were here. I looked with a concerned face. "I'm sure the three of us can find a way out of here, only as long as we stick together no matter how many steps it takes".

Stark just looked at me as if I were saying something that confused her. "What are you saying Thunder?" I knew that expression she always made as a filly, now that's the real Stark I know. As a filly, she was always serious whenever it came to a scary task or situation, but on the inside she was an extreme scaredy-cat.

Okay, back to the sad part-----everything was taken away from me, no matter how many times I try to fight back I get pushed back by an object, a heavy object. If only I knew who would treat me this way, then I would've have to go after him/her, whoever it is then I'm not in any part of it. If my mind was clouded with such thoughts, then I'll surely regret it whenever I'm around my nephew. I never talk about my issues because it's something very personal, and I just don't wanna share it with anyone at all; not even anypony.

With the tower closing in on them, they realized that if they kept on running, the three companions would eventually get arrested for escaping. If the Cultan found out, he was going to be furious. He would definitely have them hanged. Execution like this is now illegal in Equestria, Commander Hurricane had banned this type of cruelty and violence towards anypony during the founding of Equestria. It was decided by the entire pony council. Could this be the end of Thundershine and her companions?

Thunder realized something as she was running the stairs.

'Saddle Arabian's plan of invasion was to take Equestria's goods and destroy all ponykind. Why didn't I hear of this before?'

The three kept running until they made it to a door that led to a secret cave. Stark opened the door to see that the cave was already lit up with oil lanterns. They continued walking down the cave for the next few minutes, until they finally made it to the exit. Relieved, the three were finally out of the underground dungeon. Once they exited the cave, they realized that they were stuck in the cave exit. The Cultan, who had installed the bars to block the cave exit, was alerted by his council to build the bars if anypony were to ever escape.

To be continued.

Author's Notes:

I knew I shouldn't have updated this chapter so soon, I was too lazy to even unpublished it to finish writing it. But my progress on updating my written stories is lacking, I barely have time to write because I'm too lazy and busy doing other things. Since I don't make promises on updates, I expect a deadline into publishing the written chapter. Some readers are just too impatient to even wait, story writing just takes time to perfect. But anyway, that means that they're just dying to read more.

Note: Story is still in progress. trying the best I can to complete it. Stay tuned to see what happens as Thunder, Stormy Flare, and Stark try to escape the tower now that Stark has a change in heart.