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Pony Fantasy 6

by The Lord Thunder

Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

The sound of a door opening roused the violet unicorn from her deep slumber induced by the frozen esper. A blurred world awaited her when her senses faded in. She found herself warmed by a white wool blanket, lying on her back in a bed. Whose bed, though?

His form was hazy, but the image of an old stallion with a cream colored body and long grey mane came into view beside the unicorn’s bed. She figured she might as well try to stand up. The unicorn swung her hooves over the side of the bed and stood up. Barely able to support her weight, her legs trembled, but she forced herself to remain straight as she tried to rub the sleepiness from her eyes.

“Where am I?”

“Hey! You’re safe for now,” the old stallion replied. “Don’t move around too much. I found you lying face-first on the ground in the mines. You looked like you’d been in a fight or something. My name’s Arvis.”

The unicorn shook her head. Not only was her mind in a fog, it throbbed with a dull ache. Her back hooves collapsed under the weight of her grogginess and sent her to her knees. “My… head hurts.”

Arvis walked over to the corner of the room and knelt down to retrieve a silver metallic object that resembled a circlet and presented it to the glossy-eyed unicorn. “This is a slave crown. I removed it from your head when I found you. The Empire was using it to control you.”

Again, the unicorn shook her head. Lost in a silent struggle to remember what had happened to her, she hardly cared about the slave-whatever. “I can’t remember… anything.”

“Don’t panic, your memory should come back. Just take it easy and give it some time.”

Who am I? What happened to me? My name… what is my name? Sparkle? Light…something “light”.

She took a few more moments to search for the answer until her violet eyes brightened as though she’d flicked a mental light switch. “My name… is Twilight Sparkle.”

Arvis put the slave crown back where he’d gotten it. “Really? You’re recovering faster than normal. You must have a strong mind.”

A loud pounding shook the walls of the house, accompanied by the baying of attack dogs. A panicked look formed on Arvis’ face as he ran for the den of his home. Peering out the front window, his worst suspicions were proven true. The city guards were there. They must have learned he was hiding Twilight.

“Open up! Give us the Pony and the Magitek armor.” With no response, the guards pounded even harder. The pictures hanging on the walls danced with the guards’ wrath. “Open this door! We want that pony, she’s an officer of the empire!”

Twilight stepped into Arvis’ den as best as she could under the grip of her sleepiness and mental fog. “Empire? Magitek armor?”

Still wearing that panicked expression, Arvis placed his hooves on Twilight’s shoulder and turned her back to his bedroom. “Listen, I don’t have time to explain. You need to get out of here!” He guided her to the door in the back of his room. “You can escape through here and into the mines. Don’t worry, I’ll keep the guards busy!”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion, but Arvis had been kind to her in the few minutes she’d known him and decided to trust the old stallion. At the back of the house was a bridge that ran through the mountains in the back of town. The right of the bridge ended at a nearby cliff face. The left side of the bridge must lead to the mines Arvis mentioned. It was the only way to leave, anyway, so Twilight walked down the left. The bridge hung a couple stories above Neighshe; Twilight could see the entire town from that high up. For a moment she marveled at the steam-powered machines that stood next to the houses, but a pair of men dressed in armor caught her attention. Were they the guards Arvis mentioned?

One of the stallions pointed up at her. “There she is, up there!”

Twilight gasped and knew there was no time to marvel at the scenery. She ran down the length of the bridge until it took her to the other side of town where it ended next to a hole in the mountain that lead to the mines.

Flickering lamps on the walls lit the dark caverns, revealing pick axes, mine carts and more of those strange machines with chains and wheels. As Twilight neared one, she held her hoof out to it. They radiated warm air, which gave the confused unicorn a sense of comfort, but she knew she didn’t have time to stay still.

The only noise was the echoing of her hoofsteps against the floor of the caverns. That silence was unsettling, but comforting at the same time. If anypony was coming for her, she’d be able to hear them.

Well, not COMPLETELY alone. The flickering light from the lanterns cast the shadows of armored ponies across the floor behind her. Looking for her. Why HER? She was just one unicorn. Couldn’t they find somepony who still had their memory to pick on?

Odd squeaking noises came from behind her, and Twilight snapped around again. Three monstrous white rats, each two feet tall and nearly as wide as Twilight, had come out from behind a nearby column of rock. They approached the unicorn, showing their long, dirty claws. Drool dripped from their mouths and webbed between vicious teeth.

Twilight was trapped. She glanced around for something to defend herself with. Maybe one of those pickaxes, but could she find one in time? As she glanced down at her waist, a dagger hanging from her belt beckoned for her attention. Where did it come from? Why did she have a knife? She remembered what the guards said about being an officer of some… empire. Whatever the reason, Twilight drew it with her right hoof, putting all her trust in it as if it was her best friend.

The were-rat in the middle leapt at her. Twilight closed her eyes and slashed. She’d cut it clean across the gut and fell dead to the ground. The other two charged at the same time. Twilight readied her dagger and slashed at the one on her right, which screamed and dropped stiff to the ground. A sharp pain on her left arm made Twilight shout. The last rat had latched onto it with its long fangs. Her instinct told Twilight to slash at it, but she didn’t want to cut her arm by accident.

As her frustration grew, Twilight noticed a strange purple glow surround her horn. Shortly after, a ball of fire engulfed the rat and singed all of its hair off. The fried were-rat dropped lifeless along its companions. Twilight trembled. What WAS that? How did she do it? For a moment, she felt more frightened of herself than the soldiers who were pursuing her.

“I heard it come from this way!”

Twilight gasped. The guards. Those were-rats made her forget all about them! Their hoofsteps grew louder, and she ran the other way down the stone corridor, clutching the wound on her left arm. The mine shaft made a sudden left, sandwiching her between the guards and the wall in front of her.

One of the guards pointed his axe at Twilight. “There she is!”

Twilight gasped again and turned down the left. More guards spilled in from that corridor as well. The unicorn backed up, now trapped between a rocky wall on two sides and two troops of city guards on the other sides. Twilight pressed her back against the corner she’d been trapped in. Her heart pounded. Her hooves tingled. All those angry armed ponies, out to get her, carrying axes and swords and other weapons. All she had was a small dagger and the ability to conjure fire which she couldn’t control.

Come on, fire, if you’re going to work again, now would be a good time!

The unicorn’s purple eyes widened with fear at the two platoons of guards. What did they want with her? What were they going to do?

A rumbling beneath her hooves snapped Twilight out of her thoughts. The ground was cracking. Before Twilight had time to panic, the floor underneath her crumbled and opened up like a mouth trying to swallow her hole. The rock floor of the lower level rushed up at her; she had just enough time to brace herself cover her face with her arms before she bounced off the ground.

Racked with pain, but still conscious, Twilight struggled to pick herself up. Her arms and legs were covered in scrapes and cuts and protested with a sharp agony against the movement, but the unicorn forced herself to take a couple wobbly steps. Everything she saw came in blurry, translucent doubles from the dizziness induced by the blow of her landing.

It was no use. The pain was too strong, and she flopped down on her stomach, again overcome by darkness.

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