I woke up in chains. Not the most agreeable start to a day, but I had recently grown accustomed to worse beginnings. Blearily, I’d opened my eyes and lifted my head, only to find myself already on my feet. Albeit, midway between falling and standing, I was being lifted by two chains, each affixed to a wrist. I blinked at the metal cuffs, experimentally giving one a tug. The metal gave a ‘clink’, like a string of wind chimes, but didn’t budge. Squinting, I saw the miniature outlines of some kind of glowing runic writing imprinted on each link of the chain I could see. More glowy magic, cool.

My breaths came loudly, filtered through a rough leather muzzle that had been affixed to my head. I felt like Hannibal Lecter, only more monster outside than inside. The leather was tough, but not terribly uncomfortable. It did, however, stop me from nibbling at my chains. Hardly my first choice, when I was fairly sure my claws could scratch at their own cuffs, but it was affixed to my face nonetheless.

I panned my eyes across the rest of my surroundings. It was dungeon-ey, but in a tiny ponies sort of way. The ceiling was far too low. A short table with a long stool sat outside my cell, as if for a guard to more comfortably sit, upon which a singular candle lazily burned, providing the space with a warm orange glow. The bars of my unit were worn and roughly cast, the black metal warped and dented from the memory of hammer strikes. It was a far cry from the sterile industrial cell doors and fluorescent lights of a human prison. And, above all else, what stood out to me was the layer of dust covering every surface. No occupants cried from their own cages, no rotation of guards patrolled the cells. The only thing that moved in the entire dungeon was a solitary drip of wax, slowly making its way down the room’s candle into its holder’s flat dish. By the table’s edge, I could faintly see a circle, about the size of the candle dish, where a layer of dust hadn’t accumulated and the table’s reflective polish still shone.

I continued looking around for a few minutes, so this was ponyland, huh? I had to say, I’d seen worse. They had a cool aesthetic going on here. I might have even enjoyed looking around these cells, were I not currently the attraction chained up. I stretched out my claws. Maybe there was something I could do about that. Shaking around my right arm a bit, I felt around with the claw of my index finger. After a bit of scratching and prodding, I felt it sink into a cavity. Success. I didn’t know anything about lockpicking, but I knew you had to stick a wire or a pin into them to open them up. A claw could do the job just fine, I was certain.

In the distance, I heard the ‘thump’ of a heavy door opening up. Soft clip-clops echoed down the hall, out of sight. My eyes shot wide. Desperately, I tried retracting my index finger, chains rattling softly as I shook about my right arm. Through the dungeon halls, I heard voices in conversation.

“-sure it turned into a windigo? When I found you, passed out with that”–the voice paused, stumbling over words–”that still in your grip, it looked just as both young Rainbow Dash and yourself said it originally looked.”

The clip-clops loudened and the voices got closer.

Credit: fuyugi

“We are certain, sister! It turned back into its current shape as our own magic surged.” I pursed my lips, as if having bit a lemon. I recognized that voice. A familiar looking unicorn-pegasus pony thing walked in front of my cell, with a remarkably tall pure white pony in tow. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to her. I didn’t know what hair-products she used, but there was not a drop of light being absorbed by her coat, it was all reflected right back to my eyes. And she was big, horse big. In stark contrast to the dark pony’s mane which twinkled and seemed to consume light around it, as if hovering in the void of space, her mane sparkled and flowed in a bright, almost heavenly pink, green, and blue. So there was some colour coordination between the two. I filed that information away for later, desperately trying to free my compromised claw from its predicament as the two ponies were entirely consumed by their conversation with one another, not even sparing a glance in my direction.

“It is not like it was we who froze those strange magi in a block of ice, punishment though they might have deserved for attacking us so unprovoked.” The dark pony bobbed her head back and forth as she walked closer to my cell, as if imitating someone else talking, “We have listened tirelessly to your explanations that we are ‘to try and make friends first’ with strangers,”–shooting a deadpan stare behind herself–“though it would have been nice if they had tried the same with us when we met. If the creature had been a pony instead of a ravenous beast, I might have owed it thanks for defeating them while they struck at me.”

The blue pony perked up, as if remembering something.

“Oh, and we must remember to send a squadron of guards down to the Everfree to investigate the camp of those bizarre purple bipeds. We do not think they were dragons. There were bright lights and vents that were similar to the air-of-conditioning that you introduced me to yesterday, it all looked like powerful magic! I am certain it is related to these ‘holes’ you mentioned before.” The dark pony beamed at her idea, seemingly thrilled at being able to help out her sister’s work. The white pony nodded absentmindedly, but looked distracted, furrowing her brow.

“Yes, that. My faithful student had informed me of how dangerous the beast seemed. And, now, it has apparently killed an entire squadron of hostile war-mages.”

“Yes! It was spectacular in doing battle, sister. Verily, it did real battle with us! I hope we keep it! Perhaps outside, in the guard’s training yards? If I am to be given a real sparring partner that can last for more than a few seconds, it will free up an entire troop of extra soldiers for our military to fight with on the front lines.”

“As I told you yesterday and the day before, sister. There are no frontlines, we have been at peace with the gryphons and the dragons for hundreds of years now. Having you rough the guardsponies up every now and then is”–the white pony waved a hoof around for a second, searching for a word, before settling and placing her hoof on her sister’s shoulder–“good practice! Let’s keep your practice-buddies in place for now.” The blue pony slumped a little, but gave no complaint.

“Perhaps we can just leave it in the badlands.” The white pony continued, while I wrestled with my stuck claw as quietly as I could. “It is clearly not a native creature to the Everfree Forest, afterall. I have far too much on my plate right now to deal with this. My schedule has me meeting with Dragon Lord Torch in the dragonlands tomorrow morning and you know how he can get. I should have just enough time to teleport it out into the wastes and come back in time to make it to the dragon throne.” At this, the dark pony perked up again.

“Oh, would you like me to join you, sister? The dragons may look tough, but you know they’ve never scared me.” At this, the dark pony put on a smirk, looking up to her older sister. She, in turn, looked conflicted for a moment, before shaking her head.

“No, Lulu, it is best to keep one of us in Canterlot, in case of an emergency. Besides, Torch mellowed out considerably these last two centuries. Mostly, he’s just loud these days. How about you use today as an opportunity to meet some more ponies in the capital? Network a bit as a princess?” Despite nodding, her sister seemed dejected. I was amazed by how expressive these ponies’ faces were, especially since we weren’t even of the same species. And, Lulu, was it? Did I finally have a name to put to the pony?

“If you say so, sister. At least let me”–the dark pony’s horn glowed and a set of keys flew to her side as she walked to my cell–“escort you and the creature to the castle’s entrance.” Finally, the two ponies were looking at me. Me, with the claw of my right hand still firmly wedged in the chain’s locking mechanism. I froze up, tensing. Not good, not good.

“He-loh” I rasped, rotating my left hand in the approximation of a wave.

The blue pony was frozen mid-motion, a look of shock on its face.

“Sister.” The snow white pony’s gaze was bearing through her sister’s skull, right into me.

“Tia, there was no indication that-”

“Sister!”

The dark pony gave her sister a wide-eyed stare. Reflected through the long muzzle of a pony, the white sister gave her sister possibly the most exasperated stare I had ever seen before. After a moment of unanswered silence, she pointed her hoof at me.

“It can talk!?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 5: Ward Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 11 Minutes