Thank you all for coming so quickly," Twilight said to the ponies gathered around her. As soon as she had been told she'd given the order to assemble what could loosely be described as the leaders of the rebellion, along with a few others, even sending Fleetfoot to Neigh Orleans to summon Daybreak. At the time it had been a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, because she had to do something after hearing that Fleur had been captured.

"As you've probably heard by now, Fleur's been captured by the Duke's forces in Prance, and I don't intend to let him keep her." Trixie held up a hoof, "Yes Trixie?"

"I know this isn't a huge issue right now, and I know you're all more concerned with other matters, but why is there a zebra here?"

"The filly I helped escape from Prance, since with me she felt she had a better chance," Seeker explained.

"Huh?"

"I asked her to help me escape Prance idiot!" the filly snapped.

"I got the helped you escape part, but the rest... not so much. Is the rhyming totally necessary?"

"To decipher my rhymes you must try, but we have not time so you must learn it on the fly."

"I have no idea what that was even supposed to be."

"She was saying that you'll learn to understand her with time," Octavia told her.

"But I always sucked at poetry!"

"I speak not through poetry, that way is not mine, I speak simply through rhythm and rhyme."

Trixie stared blankly at Seeker, her mouth moving slightly as she tried to work it out. "But aren't those the same thing?"

"Poetry is a story told through rhyme it's true, but this is not a story I am telling you."

Once again Trixie was left staring blankly while the others stood there in embarrassment. "...graagh! Just speak normal to Trixie!" Trixie shouted after a few moments.

"Very well. I shall endeavour to not rhyme for you," Seeker said, albeit it slowly, as though she was having to make effort to not rhyme. Not that Twilight was going to point it out, but she could see several of the other ponies here were trying to hide their relief. "Truth told, it is merely a habit to speak as such. Perhaps now we should focus on more important things, hmm?"

"Yes! Yes we should!" Twilight blurted out before Trixie could waste more time. "As I said, Fleur's been captured and we need to get her out."

"If she's in Prance, that's going to be really hard," Daybreak pointed out. "If there are as many soldiers there as the filly says then they already outnumber us. Not by much mind you, but enough to make it an issue."

"She's not in Prance," said the filly. "She's in High Rock."

"What?" Snowbright shouted out. "You want to break a pony out of High Rock? Are you insane? That place is a fortress!"

"No-where's impenetrable Snowbright," Twilight told him matter-of-factly. "Not even High Rock."

"Says you! Do you even know what High Rock is?"

"The former capital of the unicorns prior to the exodus, I know."

"That's not even half of it! High Rock is the home of the Duke, the base of his military power, as well as the base for the hunters, and is the single best defended place in Mareitania. It has siege weapons, archers, boiling pots of oil, three meter thick stone walls, enchanted doors that are still as solid now as they were the day the unicorns installed them, and the entire place is warded against magic! It. Is. A. Fortress!"

"I thought the Duke didn't know how to reproduce the anti-magic runes used in the armour?" Octavia said confusedly.

"Maybe not for the armour, but they might've found a way to reproduce it for the keep," Twilight reasoned.

"Actually no," Ivory spoke up from the far side of the room. "If the some of the ancient records I read through in High Rock are right, the unicorns copied the runic wards from the armour and used it to protect the castle."

"But why protect their own castle from magic?" asked Octavia.

"You are neither a unicorn, or arrogant enough to work out why they would do that," said Ivory. "The unicorns within the castle never accepted that the pegasi or earth ponies as major threats. To them the biggest threats were-"

"-other unicorns," Twilight finished for her. Pre-exodus ponies really were an insanely paranoid bunch as far as she was concerned. "So blasting our way in with magic isn't an option."

"You'd need siege weapons to bring down the walls of that place," said Snowbright. "Siege weapons we don't have. Are we really doing this for one pony? Sacrificing our own ponies in a pointless battle to save just one unicorn that isn't exactly an important linchpin in our plans? Because that's insane. I mean, I like Fleur, but she isn't worth that."

"No, we're not going to do that, Twilight said slowly.

"What!?" the filly squeaked, her voice breaking in her sudden outrage. "Twilight! We have to get her!"

Twilight held up a hoof and the filly stopped. "And we will. Snowbright isn't wrong though. Throwing our forces at High Rock just to save Fleur is a stupid idea, and would be the end of our rebellion."

"We could go after the Duke while we're there," suggested Trixie. Daybreak laughed at her.

"Assuming we even managed that much, we'd be suffering major losses, and would be in no state to fend off the rest of the Grand Army."

"Oh. Right. Yeah..."

"Instead," Twilight continued, "I'm proposing we take a small group to infiltrate the keep and bust Fleur out."

Snowbright shook his head, "You'd still be throwing lives away on an impossible task. You can't seriously order anypony to do this."

"Alright then, can I have some volunteers please?" The remainder of her friends raised a hoof, along with the three Wonderbolts, Thorn, Mason, and Seeker. Twilight couldn't help but feel a little smugness beneath how pleased she was to have so many volunteers, while Snowbright just seemed disgusted.

"Why are you all so determined to get yourselves killed for her?"

"Because she's our friend," Twilight said, "and she'd do the same for any of us."

Snowbright shook his head, "Madness. So how do you plan on 'infiltrating' a fortress like High Rock? Do you plan on flying in through a window at night?"

"A possibility, but I was hoping you might have a better idea since the ponies that know High Rock best would be you and Ivory, due to your past connections with the place."

"Which is why I know what you're doing is insane. You can't infiltrate High Rock, period. Why do you think that in the last how many hundreds of years no Duke or Duchess has ever been assassinated at home? Because it's impossible, that's why." Snowbright snorted and walked away, "As one of the few ponies with military experience here, I'll be off making sensible plans while you're all off getting yourselves killed." He slammed the door behind him for emphasis.

"I can't help but say that I agree with Snowbright," Daybreak said sadly. "There's too much at risk here to do this for one pony. The Duke is probably well aware of where we are by now, so there's very little information she could give them that could cause a problem for us."

Twilight almost wanted to yell, "This isn't about helping our cause, or stopping Fleur from giving information. This is about saving a friend and a good pony. Your own daughter wants to help us, so why not you?"

"Because I'm in the logistics department, not the unnecessary heroism one, and logistically, there's no sense behind this. But I can see you're determined so I will at least wish you luck."

"There was no sense to you risking your skins helping ponies escape to Equestria either you know," Trixie angrily pointed out.

"All I can say to that is that it was totally different circumstances." Daybreak got up and departed the room.

"Well this is just fucking magical..." Trixie mumbled grumpily. She waved a hoof at Mason, "What's your stake in this?" she asked, then pointed at Thorn and Seeker. "Or yours?"

"I joined Pierre to help ponies," Mason rumbled, "and Fleur needs help."

"And I just wanna see what's in High Rock." Thorn smiled at them, "And, y'know, rescue Fleur too."

"Fleur promised me passage out of this place on one of your ships. I intend for her to make good on that deal, even if I have to help rescue her first."

"We could still give you passage to Equestria without her," said Twilight.

"Well... yes, but I also wish for the young one to have her friend back." Seeker smiled shyly and shrugged.

"Okay then." Twilight breathed, happy that so many wished to help save Fleur, but there was still the problem of getting into High Rock. "Ivory, do you have any ideas? There must be a drainage system or something we could get in through?"

"Well, yes, there is, and it even goes right under the dungeons. The problem is it's only the size of your head."

Twilight frowned, but a faint smile slowly replaced it. "Actually that won't be a problem, but we'll have to limit how many come with us."

Octavia raised an eyebrow, "What are you thinking Twilight?"

"I'm thinking of a way to get us into High Rock, but I can only do it for eight or nine ponies without risking something going wrong." She looked between her volunteers deciding which ones to bring. "Summer, filly, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here."

"What?" the filly screeched. "I can't stay here! I have to get Fleur!"

"I'm sorry filly, but I can't bring that many ponies, and I need to bring ponies that can fight. I hate to say it, but neither you or Summer can fight. Spitfire, Soarin, you're staying here too."

"What about me ma'am?" Fleetfoot asked in confusion, looking back and forth between Twilight and the other Wonderbolts.

"You're the Wonderbolts' field medic right?" Fleetfoot nodded. "Then I'm definitely bringing you."

"Yes ma'am."

"Please Twilight," the filly begged, "please take me with you."

"I'm sorry filly, but the answer's no." The filly groaned and hugged herself. "You'll just have to trust us to bring her back."

"But what if she's dead! Or hurt!"

"If she's hurt, Fleetfoot will take care of her-"

"You bet I will!" Fleetfoot interrupted. "If I can keep Soarin in one piece Fleur should be a doddle!"

"Hey..."

"Quit bitching Soarin, you know it's true."

"And if she is dead?" the filly asked with a sniffle.

Twilight's chest tightened at the thought. "Then we'll bring her back all the same. But I really don't think she's dead. I mean, what's the point in capturing her just to kill her?"

"But what if they do?"

Twilight shook her head. There wasn't much point in trying to convince the filly over something she wasn't entirely sure over herself, so, feeling guilty for doing so, she ignored her. "Ivory, I'll need you to give me a rough plan of the dungeons and the way in. The rest of you, do whatever you need to do, and we'll meet back by the main exit in an hour. Leave your armour and weapons behind."

"What?" Trixie shouted, "Why?"

"Because I don't know if the spell I'm going to use to get us in is going to have any effect on what we're wearing, and I'd rather nopony get hurt if it has no effect."

"You're going to shrink us, aren't you Twilight?"

Twilight shrugged at Octavia, "Something like that."

Fleur had lost count of the days it had been since her very brief fight with the hunter in Prance. Judging from the way her ribs, back, legs, and entire body felt, she was reasonably surprised she was able to think about such things due to not being dead. They had even been gracious enough to stitch her leg up.

What they hadn't been gracious enough to do was give the cart she was in some padding or suspension, and as her legs were shackled together forcing her to lay on her side, she felt every single bump as they took her to wherever they were taking her.

She might've been able to have an idea of where that might be if she could look around, but the sack over her head prevented that, and the cold metal collar it was attached to made removing it an even more unlikely possibility than somepony simply telling her, especially since her horn was inhibited as well. For all she knew the cart she was in mightn't of had any windows anyway.

Of course, none of this was to say she didn't have her suspicions as to where they were taking her. She was a semi-foreign agent playing a role in the overthrow of the government, and was pretty sure that made her a high value prisoner. It didn't take a wild guess on her part to assume she was on her way to High Rock, where they were going to ask her questions at the point of red hot irons.

A shudder of fear shot through her, but she kept quiet, not wanting to give the ponies transporting her the satisfaction of hearing her cry or be afraid. Fleur had no intention of betraying her friends and the rebellion, no matter what they did to her. They could cut her and burn her and torture her without end, and she still wouldn't talk. Even less so if they left her to the soldiers devices, because her mouth would likely be full.

A tear leaked out of her eye and soaked into the hood, adding to the dark wet patch already on it. Fleur whimpered, no more able to convince herself now than she was before that she possessed some level of bravado. She was completely at their mercy, and was probably more afraid now than she had ever been before, and laying here in this cart, waiting for it to happen was almost as bad as the horrors playing out in her mind.

More time slipped by, her fears and fantasies getting progressively worse, when the cart drew to a halt. She waited, listening to the voices outside, cringing at a short burst of laughter from her captors. The cart started moving again, but stopped a minute later, and the voices moved around the back of the cart before the doors opened and somepony jumped up into it with her.

"Ooh, she's nice this one, even with the bag over her head. Is she really the big bad rebel they say she is?"

"Couldn't tell you," said another pony, while the first started unlocking her shackles. "I did hear she's supposed to be close to the leader of the rebels or something. Y'know, that unicorn with the wings."

"Hah! I'll believe that exists when I see it!" He finished taking the shackles off and roughly dragged Fleur to her hooves before pushing her off the cart in a heap, laughing as Fleur cried out in pain. He, or the other pony, got her back up again before attaching something to her collar.

"Seems those downstairs want to see you straight-aways, so I guess I'll spare you the rod for now, bitch." There was a sharp tug on her collar, making Fleur realise they had put her on a leash. "Don't get me wrong though, give us any trouble and I'll make sure we find the time for a little fun. You'll be good, won't you?"

"Yes sir," Fleur said, her voice barely louder than a mouse's.

"You might have to say that a little louder."

"Y-yessir!" she quavered.

"There's my good girl. Come along now." Fleur tucked her tail between her legs and nodded feebly, the pony holding her leash laughing at her discomfort before pulling her along. She stepped slowly, unable to see at all where she was walking. There was only one time before she had ever felt this powerless, and she was almost ready to crack now as memories of that event flooded her mind.

Jeers and taunts filled her ears as she walked, relying on the pony holding her leash to guide her. More than a few times a pony tried to pry her tail out from between her legs, only laughing when she shied away from their touch.

"More'n a few ponies 'ere are upset at you and your bunch for what you did in those caverns, and more'n a few of them'd like to throw something down your dark 'ole I imagine. It were bad enough just to find that place had existed under our noses all this time without you killin' a load of our finest." The fact that most soldiers didn't know about Caverndown until it was being attacked by them was an interesting tidbit of news, or would've been to anypony that wasn't in the position Fleur was in right now.

There was a nip at her rear, and Fleur jumped away from it with a shriek, tripping over own hooves and falling. The pony holding her leash didn't stop though, and she fought to get back to her hooves as he dragged her by the neck. At this rate she was going to break before they even got her anywhere.

After another minute the jeers thinned out, and they were left with the sound of her and her guide's hooves. "Careful now, there's some stairs here," he said. "Don't want no broken bones before we get down there to the dungeon, do we?" Fleur felt ahead with her hooves, wholly unappreciative of his sense of humour as she tried to find the edge over the steps before she fell over them. Thankfully her guide seemed content to let her take her time as she carefully descended step by step, and it wasn't much longer before they were walking on the flat again.

There were some more stairs that she had to traverse, and Fleur had no idea how far they had gone down as the temperature fell the further they descended into the depths of wherever they were. Eventually they came to a stop, and Fleur heard the sound of a door being opened before being led into the room. Fleur's nose scrunched up and she cringed in disgust at the smell of the room, which had clearly never been cleaned out in its entire history if she were to guess.

The smell of shit, piss, blood, and death permeated the air as she was forced to back up until her rear bumped into a wall. She stood there, nauseated, while the pony with her locked shackles around each of her hooves. Then he removed the collar, allowing her a brief moment to roll her neck before she felt her forehooves being pulled out from under her, being wrenched upward until she was standing on the tips of her rear hooves in an unnatural Y-shaped position.

Her legs screamed at her with pain as the chains pulled them, or that might've been her, she wasn't sure at this point, and was barely able to make out the pony when he spoke to her. "Now you just wait right here and somepony'll be along to... take care of you." He laughed harshly, and Fleur flinched as he slammed the door of her cell shut.

Time passed slowly, minutes stretching out into hours, with the only sounds she could hear being the rattle of the chains holding her, and her own pain filled sobs. The one thing she could find to be thankful for was that with her rear end pushed up against the wall in this position, there was no way anypony could take advantage of her. Not a huge alleviation to her worries, but it did at least give her a chance to pull herself together without the constant fear of being made into a stallions plaything preying on her mind.

"Okay Fleur, you're okay," she said, repeating it in the hopes that she might believe it at some point. She tried to distract herself by listening intently to her surroundings, but could hear nothing. Hopefully that meant there was nopony else down here, sharing the same fate as her, which was at least a small comfort.

"Hello?" she called out, "Is there anypony there?" Silence met her, reassuring her that she was alone. Part of her wished she could remain alone, left here to die of thirst and starvation rather than be 'taken care of.'

The quiet continued, and Fleur found herself thinking back to Prance, trying to work out what she could've done to avoid this. The answer she kept coming back to was nothing. Whether it was in one night, two days, a week or more, they would've been caught, and Fleur knew she was being arrogant to think they wouldn't. She knew she was guilty of thinking of their enemy as unsubtle and stupid, and a very small part of her thought she deserved at least a small reminder that they weren't. At the very least she could hold onto the idea that the filly was safe. If she was then any and all of what they could do to her was worth it.

Hoof beats echoed off the walls of the cells around her, a clear indicator that her host was finally putting in an appearance. The door to her cell opened and the hoof-steps stopped in front of her, only to have one of those hooves press into her stomach as whoever it was reached up and pulled her hood off.

Fleur grunted and blinked her eyes as even the dull lamp-lit interior of her cell seemed bright to her. Her eyes wandered around the rooms, taking in its contents of a bed, bucket, solid walls that appeared to be carved out of solid rock, and a beige coloured mare with brown hair and sparkling blue eyes.

"Hello dear," said the mare. "Did you enjoy the little show upstairs?"

"Show? Fleur croaked, "What show? You mean all those stallions?"

"Indeed. They do seem to enjoy putting a mare at their ease when they get brought here."

"So you don't let them have the prisoners?"

"Well, I didn't say that now, did I?" The mare sat on the edge of the bed, her hooves playing out over the rough blanket. "We do let those inclined have their fun, but only when they have our explicit permission, and luckily for you, you're off limits for now." Much to Fleur's shame she actually felt thankful. "So, I bet you're wondering where you are?"

"High Rock," Fleur said, not bothering to humour the mare with hopeless guessing.

"That's right, and do you know who I am?"

"You're one of those hunters that caught me."

"Hunters huh?" the mare said, like she was tasting the word. "As good a name for us as any I suppose. As for me, my name is Pearl, and I'll be looking after you during your stay here."

"How come only you're here? Where's the other one that was with you?"

"Breaker? He's spending a little quality time with the kids."

Fleur almost laughed, "You? You have kids?"

"Certainly. Would you like to meet them?"

"You'd bring your kids to a torture chamber!?"

"But of course! How else are they going to learn the family business? Don't worry though, I wouldn't let them do anything to you as they have a bad habit of killing their victims too quickly. After all, they are only learning."

Fleur gawped at Pearl, unable to express her horror. "You're... You're a monster! How could you do that to your own kids?"

"Am I though? I'm not the one trying to uproot all they know Fleur, killing their friends, and trying to hurt Uncle D. If asked the same question I'm sure they'd think of you as the monsters."

"And we both know they'd be wrong."

Pearl laughed lightly, "Perhaps, but who's to argue with a child over such things? Especially when one's convinced a rebel's going to burst out of the toilet and steal her away if she uses it at night." Pearl snorted and rolled her eyes, "I think even Breaker regrets telling her that one now."

"Who's Uncle D?"

"Why his Grace the Duke of course. Not even we call him by his name."

"Where's the filly?"

Pearl frowned, caught off-guard by the question. "You mean the one with you? Or some other filly?"

"The one with me!"

"Ah, you mean Swift Wings then. Such an unfortunate name."

"Don't call her that!" Fleur bared her teeth with anger, but Pearl seemed completely nonplussed, and with good reason.

"Fine, whatever you want to call her, is in our capable hooves." Fleur's heart felt like it'd been crushed, and she sagged in her chains as the will to fight abandoned her. "Don't worry though, she'll be fine. Not even we stoop so low as to torture a child who knows nothing."

"She's more capable than you think."

"I don't doubt it, although I find it odd that you might suggest interrogating her could be worth it." Fleur shut her mouth tight, regretting her words. "I'm also curious, was it her capable hiding, or yours that made her so easy to find? Hiding behind the wall was hardly the most inspired idea anypony's ever come up with. Maybe you could have thought of something better?"

Fleur closed her eyes and turned her head away. She'd got the filly captured with her stupid mistakes and her stupid hiding place. She'd failed. She opened her eyes again, seeing Pearl looking at her with amusement. "What do you want with me?" she asked.

"You're probably going to find this funny, but the answer is nothing much. You're just a bit player in this rebellion, and the information you have probably isn't anything we don't already know, or need to know. Honestly I'm curious why his Grace hasn't eradicated your base at Puddingarde already, but who am I to question his motives?"

"Then why am I here?"

"Because we need you to be here, that's why. We might've let slip that we've taken you prisoner, and Twilight cares too much about her friends to let you languish here. The funny part is that we never even mentioned you were brought here, so she's probably going to assault Prance, desperately trying to get you back."

"She wouldn't do something so stupid," Fleur said half-heartedly. She fully suspected Twilight might do such a thing.

"No? Maybe not. We'll have to see won't we." Pearl pushed herself off the bed and stood in front of Fleur, "You want to know the best part? We don't even need you alive... As long as Twilight thinks you're alive, that's all we need. That isn't to say we're going to kill you, oh no, but if Twilight does rescue you somehow, she'll only be able to rescue what's left of you."

Pearl's hoof flashed over Fleur's head, and all Fleur felt was a tugging sensation on her horn. It wasn't until her severed horn fell past her eyes and the first wave of pain tore through her head that she realised what had happened, and she screamed in agony before her horn had even hit the floor.

She kept screaming, blood pouring down her face to mix with tears. She screamed until she was hoarse and the pain ebbed slightly. Her mouth hung locked open, contorted with pain as she panted harshly, and her eyes blurred with tears and blood.

She looked down to see her severed horn on the ground before her, blood oozing out of the clean cut the blade had left, and she flinched back as a hoof came up to her face and tapped her on the cheek a couple of times. Her eyes locked with Pearl's, seeing for the first time the manic gleam they held.

"We're going to have such fun, you and I."

Author's Notes:

Just a short chapter this time, because reasons. I'm not going to deny how much fun I had writing the second half of this chapter. I am an awful human being.