The sun was setting into the west horizon. Stormy Flare, Thundershine, and Starks Brightstar were still stuck in the now barred cave. They were still served food, but they were given no blankets or pillows to keep warm during the night. The three just lay on the ground in their new cell doing nothing productive at all. There was silence among the three. None of them talked, or made eye contact with one another, they were too tired to speak. But one of them decided to break the silence.

“You sure sending a letter to them by bird was such a good idea, Stormy?” Stark yawned.

“Yes, I'm sure Starks”, Stormy replied, as she yawned as well. “It was the only solution we had. No one is bound to even here us in this hellhole anyway.”

“Watch your language Flare, you’re not a teenager anymore”, Thundershine said to her friend, as she closed her eyes in exhaustion.

Stormy blushed, then closed her eyes. “Sorry Thunder”.

Thunder turns to the side to rest. “Don’t mention it, it’s fine.”

Stark looks at her two friends.“Let’s get some shuteye girls. If we wake up, let’s find a way to escape”.

“Sure”, Thunder and Stormy responded in unison.

The three ponies fell asleep as their talking came to a silence. In their dreams, they hoped that the war between Saddle Arabia and Equestria would be over for good. But, what the three of them didn’t know was that they were going to have a hard time escaping out of confinement.

The Cultan’s dungeon was built by the most skilled pony architects 2,000 years ago, its structure was so complex that no prisoner would’ve been able to escape. The dungeon contained hidden trapdoors, twisted halls, labyrinths, and dangerous traps. Prisoners who had attempted to escape the building either died or disappeared without a trace.

As Thundershine, Stormy Flare, and Stark slept peacefully, you can hear loud yelling from the council of the Cultan’s palace.

“What do you mean we have to hold off the troops?!” Cultan Shira said, as slammed his hoof on the table in frustration.

The Council Leader gulped in fear, he knew how angry Cultan Shira was when he decided to hold off their troops for the next two weeks. “I”m sorry sire, but I’m afraid we have to. The ponies who will be battling our troops haven’t arrived yet.”

Cultan Shira’s face began to fume. “What?!? Why couldn’t you just-”. He paused, and took a breath. “My friend, I’m sorry to have yelled at you. I was just being impatient. You may continue with your speech”.

“As I was saying, we have to hold off our troops due to the long boat journey they’re on. It’s not like they can magically appear before our eyes”.

“You’re right Madel, we’ll hold it off until they arri-”.

Lord Madel’s sentence was interrupted by the Cultan’s stomach grumbling in hunger. Cultan Shira, whose stomach was rumbling like a hungry lion, chuckled at what he heard. “You are dismissed Madel, we will discuss the war plans tomorrow afternoon. You deserve a needed break”.

Lord Madel bowed. “Thank you sire”. With that, the stallion walked in the opposite direction of the Cultan and headed towards his quarters. The Cultan watch the stallion walk in the opposite direction until he was out of sight.

“I must head to the dining hall”, the Cultan said to himself, as he trotted off into the direction of the doors to the dining hall of the castle.

Thundershine, Stormy Flare, and Starks were still fast asleep in their cell by the time Cultan Shira headed to the castle's dining hall to fill up his empty stomach. The three friends were snoring calmly, as they twisted and turned in their sleep. Their ears moved as they could hear the hoofsteps of the castle guards trotting by.

“Look at one of them”, a castle guard whispered outside of their cell. “They sleep like baby foals”.

“They sure do”, a pegasus guard agreed with his friend.

Together, the pegasus guard and his friend walked away from their cell as they headed to other parts of the castle.

Meanwhile in the cell, the three companions were still fast asleep. As they were sleeping calmly, their ears moved to the sound of the castle guards’ hooves trotting by. The hoof steps of the castle guards became fainter once they walked out of the dungeon halls and along every cell.

Thundershine opened one eye as she laid in a resting position. Hearing the sound of the hoof steps in the dungeon's halls woke the mare up from her slumber. She tried to close her eyes again, but her eyes wouldn't budge.'Okay Thundershine, this is what your eyes do for staying open like that', a little voice inside her head said. As much as she wanted to get up from her resting position, her body refused.

"Uh", Thundershine quietly groaned. "My body won't let me get up on my four hooves." The wonderbolt's body suggested that she rest, her body was in no condition to be up and moving at this time.

The sun had completely set by the time Thunder and her friends went to sleep. Cultan Shira was already in the dining room eating dinner, while Thunder's other friends were still fast asleep. Thunder continued to struggle as her body pulled her down with greater force. Her body, from head to hoof, was slit as dried blood can be seen leaking from the mare's body. She was greatly injured due to being cut by the sharp blades of swords years before. The wonderbolt never wiped off the dried blood from her body, the scars still remained.

She struggled a few more times. During her last try, the high ranking bolt gave up and fell to the ground with a slight THUD. The frightening sound woke up Stormy Flare and Starks, startling them.

"Thundershine, can't you see were trying to sleep here?" Stormy said, still laying on the stone floor.

The female wonderbolt blushed. "Sorry about that guys".

"It's fine Thunder", Starks said tiredly, as she fell back asleep. After Starks was fast asleep, Stormy Flare did the same and went back to sleep as well.

Thundershine's two friends were finally asleep, as she was about to look at the barred exit of their cave prison, she hears a mysterious noise. 'Shhh! Shhh!' 'Who is making such a strange noise?' the wonderbolt wondered, as she hid behind the wall of the cave to listen.

Amongst the voices, there was a conversation between two Saddle Arabian castle guards who were guarding their prison. The guards who worked for Cultan Shira were major chatter boxes, but they really disliked their king. He was cruel, rude, unkind, and selfish and was shown to not treat his fellow Arabian citizens nicely. These two guards, who also happened to know Thunderwing, were talking about their friend in the halls.

From behind the walls of the cave prison, Thundershine moves her ear to hear their conversation more clearly.

“Can’t believe Thunderwing was assigned to keep an eye on the Cultan’s opponents”, the first guard said to his friend, as they were both walking down the hall of cells.

“Who’s Thunderwing?”, the second guard asked his friend.

The first guard snickers.“Thunderwing is his nickname my friend, his real name is Night Flash”.

“Night Flash, is he one of the newest members of the Pegasus Guard? I heard he was the one of the youngest members to join two or three years back.”

“Right again, did you know that he was close friends with a certain filly when he was just a young colt himself?”

“Who would that young filly be? Where is she now?”

“I heard she became a founding member of the Flight and Military team...the Wonderbolts after they went their separate ways”.

“She’s in that cave prison we assembled for her, under Cultan Shira’s orders”.

“I know that. They’re both practically like brother and sister”.

“Moving on from that, remember when Night Flash first joined the guard?”

“Dude, that was 5 years ago. He’s 30 years old now, he’s a successful alumnus of the guard training school in Canterlot.”

“Why would he be working over here?”

The other guard shrugged and continued walking with his friend down the dungeon halls. Their hooves thumped causing an echo in the hall. Once the two guards were out of sight, the noise died down.

In The Cave Dungeon

“Good thing they didn’t spot me, I can’t believe those two guards were so caught up in their own conversation while on duty”, Thundershine said quietly, trying not to wake her two sleeping friends.

The sky was still dark, only the torches hanging across the hall were the very light sources igniting the hallway. The indigo mare slid her back down the wall, breathing slowly in relief. She took a couple more deep breaths and looked at a small opening of the cave that shown a speck of light from Luna’s moon. Thundershine looked up, drawn by the sight of the beautiful night.

‘I overheard them talking about Night Flash, do those guards know him? My guess is yes, they might know him.’

‘Night Flash is a long time friend, I’ve known him for years. He’s only a year younger than me though. We were the best of friends in flight school, along with a few others.’

Still in thought, Thundershine yawned. She hadn’t got much sleep. ‘The conversation might have woken me up from my slumber’, she thought to herself. ‘I’m going back to sleep’. The indigo mare laid her body down and slowly closed her eyes.

‘Good night’ the voice in her head.

Author's Notes:

Note that in this story, Saddle Arabia is 12 hours ahead of Equestria's time zone, making it night time over there. That explains why Thundershine and her friends were so tired. Characters I have featured in this story are some of my OCs. Thundershine, Starks Brightstar, Blue Streak, and Night Flash are OCs I have created for this story and are a part of my personal art sketches that will be converted into digital art eventually.

(Blue Streak is my OC, who is Soarin's father in the story.)

Words: 1,627
The chapter is written in google docs.
Music currently listening to: Various Artists

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Dear readers,

I apologize for such a long delay in updating this story. I'm currently dealing with real life outside Fimfiction. To those who expect a chapter to be updated, my apologies, as an author..I will not allow myself to give the release date of a chapter. Chapters take time and effort to write, so it's best readers to give the author some time to finish writing.

I've realized that you guys are starting to take an interest in this story, considering I wrote this story for a couple personal reasons.

My progress in writing is lacking due to real life. I love writing, but I deserve a break every now and then.

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Next chapter is titled Who Is That Mysterious Stallion Following Us?. The release of chapter 8 has been undecided. But I will publish it when it's ready. Have fun reading and stay creative.

~Sango~