It’s been a week, and I’m sorry I wasn’t writing to you about me and Thirteen much. I’ve been doing my drawing, and Thirteen was just kinda walking behind me, not talking much. I think she’s scared by being away from home for the first time.

Just wait till she sees the surface! She’s going to be so surprised. Well, I mean I haven’t been up there since the apocalypse, but Two’s reports made it sound pretty scary. Oh well, we’ll see. It’s completely possible that we’ll have to stay inside with princess of Food and translate the blueprints all the time.

Anyway, we’re in the Crystal Empire right under the castle, so I gotta stop writing now. We’ll make boss proud, and we’ll help everyone.

“Alright, Thirteen, let me go first,” says Three, pressing his hoof against a seemingly random spot on the crystalline wall of the tunnel, which makes a section of the wall slide away and reveal a winding staircase up.

“Okay,” she nods, “but what if they’re all mad like dad said?”

“Food princess will at least let us explain, and if we have to pay for what boss was forced to do, then so be it. We can’t run from this.”

“Three, I’m not scared, at least not for myself. You are the one important for the hive, not me.”

“Come on, Thirteen...”

“Hey, when we were saying our goodbyes, you can’t have noticed it, but other than dad, no one even looked at me, because they were all crestfalled over losing you and everyone else. So, that’s why I’m asking, Three. If anyone tries to hurt you, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to protect you?”

Three stops and pushes his hoof against Thirteen’s chest.

“Before you do anything, don’t think about me. Think about boss. Promise?”

“He’d be more broken about losing you than me, that’s a fact even you can’t deny.”

Three hugs her.

“Is this helping?”

“Not really, Three.”

The drone’s eyes go wide, and he plops on his butt, staring at his forelegs.

“Huggy? Huggy harder?” he boops his hooves with his nose, “Nope, you’re both okay,” he looks at Thirteen watching him with a puzzled expression, “Are you hugproof. Thirteen?”

“Whuh? That’s… that’s not a thing.”

Three narrows his eyes, and stands up with a pout.

“Hmm...” he turns around, “We’ll see about that,” he taps his hoof against the first step, “Ha, got it! Thirteen, your orders.”

“Something simple, please. You know I trip over my own hooves on daily basis.”

“You’re going to help me figure out how to play a guitar.”

“What?” Thirteen just stands there, completely stunned by Three’s nonsense.

“Come on,” Three starts walking up the steps, “We’re going to have a lot of time to kill while we’re translating the blueprints, and I can’t just go around hugging everyone, but miss Harriet taught me to play a simple guitar-”

“Who is ‘miss Harriet’?”

“-and your voice is so beautiful that if we do it together we can cheer up whole groups at once.”

Thirteen facehoofs, but just follows Three up the long stairs.

“You know what? Sure,” she shrugs in the end, “If you think it helps dad, I’m in.”

The duo walk up the stairs, and in a short tunnel on top, Three presses another section of a wall which once again makes the dead end slide away and reveal a high hallway made of blue crystals which Three recognizes as the inside of the Crystal Castle. Torch-shaped electric lights are lighting the hallway because the outside behind ornate windows lining the walls is dark.

“Wooooow,” Thirteen is looking around, examining for a second her reflection in a crystal pillar, “EEEP!” she jumps backwards when she realizes there’s a second reflextion right next to her which looks like a shiny pony made of crystals. However, when she turns her head there’s no pony there.

“What happened?” Three jumps over to her, “Did you slip? It happens to me here all the time. The castle janitor makes a really good job polishing the floors. I talked to him once. Nice pony.”

“No,” Thirteen shakes her head, “There was a reflection of someone else.”

“Oooh, like me?” Three leans towards the pillar, eyes open like big blue pools.

“No no no, Three,” Thirteen steps next to Three, “A pony made of crystals.”

“Ooh, like that one,” Three spots an amethyst Crystal Guard inside the pillar.

“STOP RIGHT THERE, CHANGELING SCUM!” they hear a furious voice behind them.

“AAAH!” Thirteen turns around and drops on the floor as a Crystal Guard’s spear sweeps her forelegs.

“Wait, we’re not bad guys-” Three sits down on his haunches and raises his forelegs. Unfortunately, all that means is that he can’t cover his muzzle when a second crystal pony’s left hook makes him roll on the floor. A moment later there’s a guard standing on his chest with the tip of a spear uncomfortably close to his eye while another one fastens a suppressor ring on Three’s stubby short horn, and follows it with putting shackles on all his four legs.

“You couldn’t really think we wouldn’t secure your secret entrance to the castle after what you did!” growls a faintly familiar stallions’s voice. When a crystal guard pulls Three back on all fours, the drone looks up into the furious light blue eyes of a white unicorn with two-tone blue mane wearing a Crystal Guard breastplate.

“Mister Shiny Armor, I can explain everything if you let us see princess Candy.”

“I’m not letting you anywhere near my wife. Not executing you on the spot is already more mercy than you deserve.”

“We’re here to help!” pleads Three, sniffling out a stream of blood from his muzzle, “Two told us how bad it was on the outside and boss gave us some blueprints for food machines that work even in the darkness which can help you feed ponies. He also said we had to find someone who can spread them to ponies all over Equestria and maybe even further.”

“Where are those?” asks Shining Armor.

“My backpack. Inside those tube thingies. We made you print-outs, but they are in dwa- they aren’t in ponish,” says Three, “I need to translate them for you.”

“What’s in the rest?” Shining Armor points at the saddlebags the guards took from Thirteen.

“Just love crystals and some camping gear for the trip here,” squeaks Thirteen.

“Please, be careful with those,” Three raises his voice as Shining Armor levitates the scroll cases and unrolls the first out of many blueprints hidden in them. The unicorn furrows his brows and frowns.

“And now you think I’ll believe that you couldn’t have drawn those and added notes in ponish?” Shining Armor leans down to Three, “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Just give those to an engineer, please!” Three gives Shining Armor his best wibbling lip and round, upwards-looking eyes, “Boss really wants to help, to atone for what he caused, at least a little.”

Shining Armor rolls the blueprints up again, and shoves them into the scroll cases.

“Guards, take them away into the maximum security prison. And be careful, king Beard’s changelings are excellent infiltrators. We’ll decide whether you’re going to face execution or something else.”

“No no no no no!” Thirteen backpedals on the smooth floor, her suppressor and the shackles lying in a pile in front of her.

“What?” Shining Armor’s eyes open wide in horror, “Get her! GET HER!” he immediately shoots out a bolt of magic which hits Thirteen and makes her do a backflip in the air.

She lands perfectly on all fours like a cat, already running away while mumbling:

“...they can’t execute Three, they need him. They don’t need me, they’ll kill me. I need to get Three out of prison once they decide they don’t need him anymore...”

Four Crystal Guards appear as reflections on the walls next to the castle gate, step out of them into the real world, and Thirteen drifts to the side to dodge a barrage of magic bolts. As more and more ponies gather, walking into the walls and appearing ahead of Thirteen, she clumsily jumps over a spear attempting to trip her up. With the only way now being another set of stairs up, she up and runs into a long hallway lined with doors.

She runs and runs and runs, at least until a door right in front of her opens, shimmering with a pink telekinetic glow.

*Crunch!*

Princess Cadance leans out of her room, blinking in surprise at a changeling mare bouncing away in a splatter of blood, and a crowd of Crystal Guards who swarm her and put so many shackles and suppressors on her that she looks like a zebra shaman with an unhealthy bondage fetish.

Thirteen opens her eyes with moan, sits up as the last moments before she passed out rush into her mind, and whimpers when she notices the bars of what is doubtlessly a cell. She buries her face into her hooves.

“I panicked the first second we got into trouble, ran away, and left Three alone. I’m so sorry, dad.”

Author's Notes:

And with this, chapter 1 is finished.
As always, comments, criticism, death threats, wishes, or any other form of involvement are all appreciated.