There was silence in the dungeons. An entire moment dedicated to me trying to not exist, and two sisters boring holes into one another with their eyes. I think the white one was the victor, with how the dark pony (is her name Lulu, I’m still not sure?) lowered her head and looked abashed. Looking sour herself, the pearl pony slumped.

“Well,” she sighed, “I can’t drop it in the badlands now.”

A second passed, then the white pony’s back straightened like a ruler and she rose her head high. I saw her eyes shimmy up and down for a second, as if unused to looking this high up at people.

“Creature, I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. You are already familiar with my sister, Princess Luna.”

Her composure (Princess Celestia’s composure, I mentally corrected myself) had changed in an instant. While maintaining her general matronly air, she had dropped the casual friendliness for a disposition of bland personability. It wasn’t offensive to me in any way, but it was an odd character trait that had been executed with such mechanical precision as to suggest that it was done on an extremely regular basis.

Examining me with that fixed neutral precision, she glanced over my restraints, a claw still lodged in one. Pausing for a moment, I saw her horn light with a brilliant golden hue, and I felt a wave of relief course through my right hand as the index finger was freed from the lock’s opening. Looking into my warped face, she seemed to decide on something.

“I quite dislike keeping sentient beings in chains. However, my dear student Twilight Sparkle has informed me of some of your activities in rather detailed writing. I assure you, I have immense faith in her judgement. As it stands, pending further investigation by the crown,”–she raised an immaculate hoof to my mouth, speaking volumes of unspoken judgement–“the muzzle stays on and the chains remain.”

“Whoo ihh Twhhylah Spahrkrr?” I winced, flinching at the sound of my own voice. If it was half as grating to them as it sounded like to me, it would be a miracle if they could even understand me.

Princess Celestia blinked at the question. “Twilight is the purple unicorn you met in the Everfree Forest. For years, she’s been my personal protégé. She is”–She wavered for a moment, as if losing the words she wanted to say mid-sentence–“a model Equestrian citizen.”

I wanted to say that the purple pony, this Twilight, had attacked me. I wanted to get combative. However, the rational part of my brain reminded me that I was currently chained in the dungeon stronghold, before a pair of diarchs who had proven individually capable of causing me great harm.

Instead, I was silent as Princess Celestia walked right up to me.
“You will, unfortunately, have to remain here for at least the coming day, as I will be out of country and my sister has royal duties to attend to.” Celestia shot a fond glance to her smiling sister, who joined her in front of me. “Now, Luna’s night is deep and I would have gotten to sleep several hours ago, had this incident not occurred. At least”–a faint glimmer of a smile crept across her face–“I will be able to get some rest now that you are not headed to the badlands. Sister, the nation is yours. Could you be a dear and close up the creature’s cell again?” Celestia finished, nodding to her sister. Then, in a brilliant gold flash, the white pony disappeared to who-knows-where. Somehow, this seemed to not surprise Princess Luna. Teleportation, this was something the ponies could do? I grimaced, realising how much I had underestimated their combat potential.

Luna took two steps back, then paused by the cell door, glancing to me and my cosy home on the wall. It was strange, seeing her wide eyes. When she looked at me, I wasn’t sure which one of us was getting left alone. With soft little clip-clops, she pirouetted and turned back towards me.

“Thou art rather dangerous, to have challenged us and fought as thou hast. We should keep thee nearby, for the safety of our ponies, until our sister returns.” She cautiously decided, nodding along with her decision a moment after she had spoken it.

Standing in front of me, her horn erupted into a roaring blaze. I flinched, turning my head away. When, instead of being beamed in the face again, I felt the uncomfortable upwards tug of the cuffs against my hands slip away, I opened my eyes. Tentatively at first, my eyes shot open as I saw the runes on my chains dance and flash, while the physical metal links between the chains melted and severed themselves from their bearings on the wall. Held aloft in Princess Luna’s grip, the two segments of chains melted together, until they were fused into a single set of cuffs. As the metal cooled, new runes wrote themselves onto the metal, lazily drifting across the crude craftsmanship.

However surprising it was to me, it seemed to be of no concern to Princess Luna, who had already begun walking away, beckoning me to follow her. I gave pursuit, eagerly stretching my legs as I walked by her side. Princess Luna smelled like cinnamon, I realised, detecting something other than candle smoke for the first time since I’d woken up. Making our way to the small dungeon’s exit, Luna led the two of us out, ducking her head as she made her way out of the narrow-exit. As I followed, I realised that there was a guard on the other side of the door, standing stock-still in their guarding. Upon seeing me, they gave a rigid salute to Princess Luna.

Credit: theparagon

“Your Highness,”–the pony entered a deep bow, their trojan looking helmet nearly sweeping the ground–“would you like the prisoner to be escorted to a new location?”

“That will not be necessary, good guardspony. The prisoner is perfectly safe with us.” She shook her head, sending waves through her flowing mane.

Waiting for her to move on, I watched as Princess Luna stood awkwardly for a moment.

“Tis- tis a beauteous night, tis it not?” She asked, lifting a silver-tipped hoof to the full moon.

“Of course, your Highness.” The pony answered bluntly, before then sparing a brief glance at the night sky.

Silence again.

“Will thee be spending time out of the castle this evening with thine friends or family?”

The guard looked confused, then gave Princess Luna a salute.

“No, your Highness. I am on guard at this location until noon tomorrow.” After a second of thought, the guard looked at the princess again. “Did your Highness want to reassign me to a different position?”

Luna seemed to shrink in on herself, stammering that it was fine, then speed-trotting away as quickly as she could while maintaining some semblance of respectability. I winced, that was rough. Doing a little long-legged skip, I chased after the pony who was supposed to be keeping watch over me. Even if I wanted to escape, which I was fairly sure at this point would actually be counterproductive, I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I’d hurt her self-esteem any more than she’d just hurt it herself.

I found her around a corner in a long empty hallway, having folded her little legs under herself once she was out of sight, just living on the ground now. She seemed out of it, not even noticing me as I walked up behind her. Smiling, I leaned in until I was practically breathing down her neck.

“So, Phrincess”–I voice growled from just behind her head–“I was hhophing to spend the rhest of this evehn-ning with my newh pohneh fhrend?” That was almost intelligible, I was getting better at controlling these vocal cords.

Jumping to her feet without a lick of coordination, Luna’s wings shot wide in surprise at the intrusion into her personal space. Hitting my abdomen like a punch, I was caught off guard and winded by the peculiar appendage, which toppled me off my feet and caused me to land on my ass beside Luna. Those feathery things were stronger than they looked.

Looking down at me, Luna shot me an annoyed glare, until my words seemed to register with her.

“Huh, spend the evening with-? Right, yes. Of course, prisoner,”–she seemed to tack on that last word only as an afterthought–“keep up with me.” Forcing her head high, as if she hadn’t just been a loaf of bread on the ground, she marched off down the long corridor. Smiling, I followed. After a few seconds, I noticed her glancing behind herself, towards me, every now and then. She seemed to be making sure I was still with her.

With a few minutes of walking in relative silence, besides the occasional clank of metal as a guard saluted, we reached a room with a tall, grainy door. It was dark oakwood with a crescent moon motif on it. Placing a hoof on the wood, the door was still for a moment. Then, a thick web of glowing lines spread out across the door’s surface. After some rumbling, the lines faded and an audible ‘click’ could be heard. Giving the door a light tap, Luna entered the room as the door swung seamlessly in, almost impossibly well oiled.

Horn glowing, a book levitated to Luna’s side, alongside an honest-to-gods quill and ink. I couldn’t even mock the technology, it looked really cool. Settling in on a comfortable looking seat, Luna turned her attention to me.

“Alright, creature, we have some work we need to finish right now. It should not take too long, so please let us finish it uninterrupted.” I just gave her a nod.

Glancing at what she was actually looking at, I managed to get a good look at the title, illuminated in candlelight. Embossed in golden letters, it read: Modern History of Equestria, Vol. 1. She was, as far as I could see, just scribbling notes into the margins.

Artist: yakovlev-vad

I shrugged off the peculiarity. More importantly, there was a pony seat across the room. Shaped for a pony, it was more like a long ottoman, or a couch. Sinking in, I smiled. It was comfortable too. Warm candles lit the room, the scritch-scratch of Luna’s writing filled the silence, and ornate windows were a portal to the sprawling landscape outside and the full-moon. Pulling my cuffs into a more comfortable position, I sank in.

This was nice.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6: Divine Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 3 Minutes