Rainbow Dash made her way down the ventilation shaft, the narrow passage forcing her to contort her body into odd angles to make it through. Fortunately, Rainbow was fit and lithe, and she managed to make it inside the mine undetected. Smirking, she brushed herself off, before a lock of her mane falling in front of her face elicited a groan. "Dang it. I swear, the chalk is getting less and less effective at hiding my hair. It's going to stick out like a sore wing in a week or two if I don't do something." Treasure hunting was a largely solitary occupation, and over the years Rainbow had developed a habit of talking to herself. It kept her from losing her wits in the cramped dark spaces she frequented.
Muttering, she started forward slowly, while forcing herself to quiet down. She was on a mission now, and there were eyes and ears hidden in the dark. If she wasn't careful, she'd get caught before she snagged her prize. Even if it was an Imperial witch that could supposedly use magic, she wasn't going to lose to some stupid guards! She had years of practice at her trade, and she wasn't going to let some amateurs beat her to the prize!
She was about to round a corner when she heard the drum of hoofbeats coming from the other direction. Quickly, she took to the air and flew up to the highest part of the cavern, pressing herself against the wall and desperately searching for some outcropping of rock to hang onto. Finally finding a hoofhold, she clung to it for dear life, praying to the Lost Goddesses that the guards wouldn't notice her. Sure enough, because it was a mine shaft, the guards didn't even think about looking up. The cyan pegasus would have been tempted to spit on them to see if they'd notice her, when she heard what they were talking about. Eagerly, she leaned down just a little, cocking her ears around at a better angle to hear them.
"... So how can we be out of rope? We work in a bucking mine for crying out loud! The witch fell down it, and we can't see the bottom, so she's gotta be dead, right? Nopony could survive that fall!"
"Are you kidding me?! She's a bucking evil enchantress! She could probably fall a thousand hooves and still be fine! We've gotta rush down to the lower levels before she can get away!"
"I still don't see why we can't ju-" Rainbow Dash, having heard all she needed, left on silent wings back from where the two bickering guards had come from, hoping to find whatever it was that they had been talking about. Sure enough, after a minute of searching, she found a hole in the floor, supposedly where the Imperial soldier had fallen through.
It was indeed far too dark to see the bottom, but that didn't necessarily mean that it was terribly deep, Dash reminded herself. 'Okay, no problem. I'll just glide straight down then. Without knowing where the bottom is. I can do this. I'm the best flier in the whole world!'
Having spent a moment to gather her courage, she jumped into the darkness, allowing herself to fall for just a moment before a soft foom echoed in the cave, the only sound Dash's wings made as she slowly glided down.
It was a tense moment before she felt herself touch down on the ground gently. She held still for a moment, before her sigh echoed off the walls, releasing the breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding. While she was secretly thrilled that the drop was practically nothing, there was one thing that was confusing her, and she had no idea where to start. "Where did she go?" Rainbow asked aloud.
Sensing that she was alone at the bottom of the pit, she used her teeth to pull a self-lighting torch from her pack and struck it against the nearest stone wall. Once lit, she inserted the stick end into a receptacle sewn into her pack, freeing her mouth once again. If she had to fight, she needed to be able to hold her knife. The torchlight revealed that she was in an enclosed chamber with no exit. But then where was the missing mare?
Rainbow Dash searched the area for a few moments before she found felt some odd grooves in the ground. "Huh... This feels like somepony was dragged."
She blinked for a moment, before flying in a panicked sprint around the enclosed space, her mind racing. "They beat me to her?! That's not possible! I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest treasure hunter of all time! I'll show them! Why, I'll just have... to..."
She slowed down as she traced the marks on the ground right up to the stone wall. "But... the marks go right through! Okay, there has to be some sort of passage here, right? I just have to find it! I wonder if it's like the other one..."
She looked around, before spotting a stone that looked like the pattern of the natural stone-face was disfigured, the coloration a little off compared to its surroundings. Sure enough, it opened a small door in the wall. Grinning at her success, she shot through the entrance, only to pull up short as she was faced with an army of small dragons.
She immediately tried to remember everything that she had been told about dragons, but she couldn't remember much, not having been the academic type. The dragons in front of her almost came to her height, only having to look up slightly to meet the mare's eyes. They were all different colors, most having three shades of scales, one for their chest, one for their body, and one for the spikes running down their backs, ending in a spiky tail, with matching colored spine-like projections that she could only guess might help with their hearing.
"Buck." Dragons might normally be friendly, she remembered, but she had just invaded their territory, and if she recalled correctly, things just about never went well with trespassers.
Before she could further contemplate her predicament, one of the dragons walked forward. He was barely shorter than she was, his body scales a royal purple, while his spikes were a dark green, his chest a lighter shade of them.
Dash had no idea what customs they might have, so she bobbed her head quickly, before saying in a slightly hesitant voice, "Heh heh... Nice cave you have here. Sorry for intruding like this! I didn't know that you guys lived here, or I would have knocked."
The dragon crossed his arms, before asking slowly, "What are you doing here? You're obviously looking for something, so spit it out. Are you after our treasure? Our gems?! Our eggs?!"
~A fast-talking dragon who speaks the words of ponies, and who can
summon the power of earth though his magical flames...~
Rainbow Dash blinked for a moment, before starting to giggle, shaking her head furiously as she saw the dragon's face start to turn red from anger. "No, no, nothing like that! If I was, then I swear you wouldn't even notice I had been here!" She blinked again, then face-hoofed while muttering, "Gee, because that's going to make me sound better than a common thief."
The dragon continued to stare at her for a moment, before smiling slightly, commanding, "What's your name, and why are you here in Spike's Domain then, if not to steal our eggs or gems?"
"Oh, right. I'm the one, the only, Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier and best Treasure Hunter in the world!" Dash proudly announced, puffing her chest out and flaring her wings. After seeing the dragon's gaze harden, she continued hastily, "Well, I'm looking for a mare, and she... not like that!" she added hastily when she saw his face change expressions to something more disturbed, if not incredulous.
"It's that 'witch' that the guards keep talking about, but I heard that she had no control over what she was doing because of a mechanical dohickey thingamabober. I came to see if that was true, and if it was, I was gonna take her far away from here. If I find out that she really is an Imperial murderer, and had control of herself, then... Then I don't know," she admitted. "I'm no assassin, but if she meant to kill all of those ponies, then what would I do?"
The dragon remained silent for a moment, before saying, "Follow me, then. I've had a couple of my subjects keeping an eye on her. Maybe you should look at her yourself."
As they wandered through the complex cave-system, Dash's eyes roamed the area, seeing all of the gems, gold, and other valuable pieces of jewelry and weaponry. She swallowed hard, forcing her hooves to keep moving forward, and her eyes straight. There was easily enough wealth in the few caves alone she had seen to let an entire town live like kings for the rest of their lives.
Resisting temptation, Rainbow Dash followed the dragon to a small room on the left which contained several beds, the walls a plain white color, the universal color for all hospitals and clinics. On the first bed on the right laid a purple unicorn, resting peacefully. Rainbow knew this had to be the Imperial magic-user.
Rainbow pulled up short, taking stock of the sleeping mare. She had several bandages on, and was curled up like a little filly, clutching her tail to her chest in her sleep. Dash walked up to the mare slowly, before she spotted something odd on the mare's flank. There was some sort of odd magenta tattoo of a six sided star, and Dash couldn't figure out what its purpose served. She poked at it, trying to figure it out, when the mare in question woke up slowly.
.o.O.o.
Twilight yawned widely, her eyes kept closed as she groped at them with a hoof before wincing. Both hooves shot to the sides of her head as it started to throb from the blow she had suffered earlier. After the acute pain faded into a dull throb that she could bear, she slowly opened her eyes to see a purple reptilian creature and a cyan pegasus with a many-colored mane and tail in front of her. Terrified, she froze, her eyes wide open as she waited to see what the strangers would do. Her breaths came sporadically, and she struggled to not hyperventilate. After a moment, the pegasus asked her in a flat voice, "So what's your name? What are you doing here?!"
Twilight jerked back a little, her ears fell backwards, feeling like she had done something wrong, when she had no idea where she was, let alone what she wanted to do. Finally, after a moment, she managed to stutter out in a timid voice, "T-Twilight Sparkle..."
Her eyes kept flickering around, trying to keep eye contact with the new mare, but the look on the pegasus' face made her feel guilty, making it hard to keep looking in her direction. She jerked when the cyan pony stomped her hoof, narrowing her eyes as she repeated harshly, "And what are you doing here, huh? Gonna find some weird thing to kill everypony with?!"
"I-I don't know," Twilight whimpered, shrinking back in her bed. "I don't know anything!" she lied. She did have one memory, the horrible murderous memory of carnage and death that gnawed at the base of her skull. "I don't know why I'm here, or how I got here!" That much was the truth. She needed so desperately to say the right thing, so that the pegasus could be happy again, and stop intimidating her.
"She can't remember what happened? She has, um ..." the cyan mare asked, glancing to the small purple lizard-like thing next to her.
"Amnesia," the lizard finished.
"Gesundheit," the pegasus said, before hardening her gaze and turning once more to Twilight. "Yeah, sure... So what do you want to do? What are you trying to do?!"
Trying to do? Twilight thought, confused. What does... "I... I don't know what I want... W-what am I supposed to want?"
"Oh, I don't know," the pegasus retorted. "So you're saying you don't want to hurt anypony?"
Twilight's eyes widened in horror at the thought of hurting anypony else. She fought back the awful memory again. "N-no, of course not! That's horrible! S-stop asking me all of these questions!" she pleaded, becoming even more afraid of the pegasus.
"Then you're not here to kill everypony?!" the cyan mare pressed, shoving her muzzle closer towards Twilight. "Gonna use your magic to go an-"
"NO! S-stop it! I-I won't do it! Y-you can't make me!"
Twilight dissolved into tears as she started to relive her memory from earlier, slaying all of those soldiers in cold blood with fire, ignoring their pleas to spare their lives, guards pleading for her not to hurt their families. Her body rocked back and forth as she fought the memory, trying to force it back, but it seemed to continue on forever, the screams of the tortured echoing in her mind.
.o.O.o.
Rainbow Dash stood there in shock, watching the 'Witch' of the Empire start weeping like a young foal as she begged for something to stop, pleading with the voices in her head to cease. Twilight began to scream and fixed her gaze upon the pegasus begging her again and again to make the bad memories go away. The young Dragon simply looked up to the rainbow mare and asked, "Okay... smooth moves buddy. So what are you going to do now?"
Rainbow had seen enough. Imperial or not, the terrified, sobbing young mare was either the world's greatest actress, or she was nothing like the coldblooded killer she had expected to find here. Rainbow Dash was willing to take a chance on the lavender unicorn. Having no better idea for comforting the hysterical pony, she quickly grabbed a glass of water that was set on a table next to the mare's bed, and splashed it in the unicorn's face. She had to snap the unicorn out of her nightmare for just a moment.
Rainbow clumsily pulled Twilight Sparkle into a tight hug, one foreleg hooked around her body, while the other went to her head, stroking her mane, trying to calm her down. She couldn't think of what to say, however, since mushy stuff was never her forte - at least, it hadn't been in a long, long time. "H-hey, it's okay. You're fine now. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to."
"B-but they... I..." Twilight blubbered, before breaking down entirely, her body shaking from her sobs as she clutched at the bemused pegasus.
"It's not your fault," Dash spoke softly, still stroking Twilight's hair, who was slowly starting to stop crying. "You're safe now. You're safe."
Rainbow Dash had no idea what she was doing, but her efforts seemed to be having at least a slightly ameliorative effect on the unicorn, who was no longer shaking quite so violently. Hoping that one of the diminutive dragons could help her, she looked for them, only to see that she had been left alone in the room with Twilight Sparkle.
"Wha-what happens now?" the unicorn stammered. "There's no place for me. I'm - I'm - I can't go back, and I can't stay here!" She collapsed in tears again. "What do I do?"
This pony was a mess, Rainbow Dash thought. But what could she do? What was there to say to somepony who had been used by the Empire like this. Twilight Sparkle was right - there was no place for her back in the Empire, or living in civil society in one of the Free Cities like Neighshe. "Um, well, listen, I'll tell you what I do, and then we'll talk more about you." Rainbow Dash had to get the unicorn to focus on something other than her own misery. "I, Rainbow Dash, am the most awesome, coolest, and fastest treasure hunter in the world! I give a lot of the small treasures and knick-knacks I find away to families that can't support themselves because they're not as awesome as I am! Of course, I keep plenty of 'em too. The most important thing I do, though, is work to stop the Empire's march of destruction across the World. There are all sorts of different ponies who are trying to do the same thing. Of course, I'm kind of the most important, because I'm fast, dangerous, and awesome! With Rainbow Dash involved, the Empire never knows what hit 'em! You know, you might thing about becoming a freedom fighter yourself."
"I... I don't know," Twilight Sparkle haltingly replied, mumbling as she stared at the blanket covering the bed.
Frowning, Dash tried again, taking a different line of approach. "Umm, okay, well... What do you like to do? You know, like a hobby or whatever?"
"Erm... H-hobby?" Twilight asked, looking up shyly from her bed. "What's a hobby?"
The cyan pegasus facehoofed, trying to control her short temper, and muttered, "Come on! And ponies say that I'm not very smart." Taking a slow, deep breath to help calm herself, she turned back to the oblivious mare on the bed, saying, "I'll be right back, okay? Here, have a scroll about..." Looking at the scroll, she shrugged, tossing it to the bed-ridden mare, finishing, "Whatever. You probably can't read anyway. At least it has something to look at. I'll be back in a flash, just as soon as I find out where shorty went."
Leaving the lavender mare to her own devices, the rainbow pegasus left the room to locate the amethyst and emerald hued dragon. She had hardly left the room, however, when she spotted him exiting what appeared to be a treasure room, carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle in his arms. "Hey, what's that?"
The dragon ignored her, heading straight for their infirmary, when a white and lavender dragoness rushed forward, holding another bundle that was taller than she was. "Spike, you forgot this!"
The purple dragon stopped, turning around to meet the other dragon halfway. "Oh right, I would have missed that later! Thanks Huffy."
The light dragoness bobbed her head respectfully before running off again. Rainbow Dash could only assume that the dragon had other duties to perform, so she just shrugged and followed the purple dragon once more, inquiring, "So your name is Spike? What's with that huge bundle? What's it for?"
"You'll see," he answered simply, walking into the room.
Rainbow, not satisfied with the dragon's response, followed him inside, and was about to start interrogating him further, when she noticed that the lavender unicorn was deeply engrossed in the scroll, her eyes wide as she moved her head back and forth along the lines. Opening her mouth to ask a question, the pegasus inquired, "Do you think she can actually read that? It didn't seem like she knew anything before."
Walking over to the obliviously reading mare, Dash looked over her shoulder, reading along for a moment, before walking back to Spike. "It's... just a little foal's nursery story. I only grabbed it because I wasn't familiar with it, and thought it might be rare or something. Thought I would give it away to the next..." She stopped, wondering what it was she heard, when she realized that, rather, it was what she was not hearing that gave her pause.
Twilight had reached the end of the parchment, so the dry rustling sounds had disappeared, but what kept Rainbow quiet for just a moment more was the look on the unicorn's face. Her eyes were glimmering with unshed tears, sparkling in the firelight, her mouth quivering slightly as she asked meekly, "H-how is that a happy ending? Their parents were killed, then kidnapped by the monsters that attacked! So what if they managed to kill the monsters later, they're still orphans!"
Rainbow Dash was quiet for a moment, trying to decide how to reply, when Spike interrupted. He whispered quietly, "Not all stories have a happy ending. But most do have a lesson to teach, and this one has a fairly important one: bad things happen, and when they do, we must keep moving forward, and only then look for what we can change."
Twilight was silent for a moment as she digested the answer, her expression one of confusion. She opened her muzzle to inquire further of the purple reptile, but Dash spoke first. "Can you just tell me what's in that bag already? I've been waiting for like, forever!"
"It's been two minutes!" Spike replied. "Fine," he sighed, "since we need to be leaving shortly, let's move this along."
The diminutive lizard set the two bundles down on the ground, unwrapping the first one carefully to reveal a long, beautifully woven calamine pink cape. Dash could practically see the bits that were spent in the making of the cape, and wondered if it wasn't some lost artifact like some rare weapons she had seen. Gaping slightly, she swiftly recovered, asking in what she hoped to be a nonchalant voice, "So who and what is that for?"
"It is the first gift we dragons have that we wish to give to you, Twilight Sparkle, which is a cape to simply help keep you warm, and to help make you less noticeable as you escape from here," he explained, carefully standing on the bed to clothe the mare for her. "This cape has been imbued with ancient magic, from before the War of the Magi, that will keep the wearer warm in extreme chill, and cool in blazing deserts and volcanoes."
"F-for me? T-this is for me?" Twilight asked in dumbstruck wonderment, her eyes shimmering, though her face showed that puzzled by the grand gesture.
Spike nodded, hopping off the bed to unwrap the second, slimmer bundle as he answered, "Of course it is. Rainbow Crash here already h-"
"That's Rainbow DASH! D-A-S-H!" the rainbow maned mare corrected swiftly and heatedly, wings and feathers bristling at the insult.
"Eh, I was close," the dragon shrugged, appearing not to care much as he continued explaining to Twilight. "As I was saying, Dash here is already dressed for the extreme cold, but if you stayed outside in what you're wearing, without anything else to protect you, you'd freeze to death in hours! If there's anything that every pony needs, it's some form of clothing should the worst happen. The cape can even be used as bandaging should you get injured, and are left without any medical supplies," he finished.
"Then why don't you have clothes?" Twilight asked innocently, tilting her head to the side.
Rainbow started to laugh, before she shook her head apologizing, though from how her mouth quivered, she was obviously close to succumbing to giggling once more. "Sorry, I didn't think that you wouldn't know anything about dragons! They can live practically anywhere! They can eat just about whatever they want, and as far as temperature? They thrive on heat, but since they make their own internal heat, they can survive easily this far north in the mountains, where it's easier for them to find treasure for them to hoard, eat, whatever it is that they do," she finished lamely, already bored of having to explain something to somepony else.
"That's correct," Spike confirmed. "Dragons are magical creatures. Though, in the days before the war that took so much of this world's magic away we were far grander, with wings that could blot out the sun over an entire village. Now, we are left with the modest forms you see here. It's as if we are no more than baby dragons."
"I think I like you better this size," Twilight Sparkle meekly commented.
"Ugh, is there anything else?" Rainbow Dash interjected. "I'm bored! I need to stretch these babies already! Caves cramp my style!" She stretched her wings out to their impressive full span and beat the air.
Spike retorted, "Keep your pony pants on, Raindbow Dash! Brimming with patience, aren't you? Practically a living embodiment of it," he finished sarcastically, as he unwrapped the second bundle.
Rainbow Dash gasped when she saw the metallic sheen of the contents, her eyes automatically calculating the worth of the contents. "This," Spike explained quietly, showing it with great care to Twilight, "is also for-"
"No!" Twilight interjected, her eyes wide with fright as she backed up against the wall. "I refuse to take up a weapon again! I won't kill! You can't make me! You can't make me!"
"Whoa chill, chill!" Rainbow Dash said quickly, rushing over to the terrified unicorn, and placing herself protectively between Twilight Sparkle and the shining longsword that Spike had revealed. "Nopony's making you do anything! Don't you know what swords are made for?"
"T-to kill, to take away lives," the lavender mare answered softly, her voice trembling. "Just like me."
The pegasus shook her head, explaining, "No, you're wrong. That is what they do in the wrong hooves. A sword, a true sword, is created to protect, not to destroy. That it the first lesson that everypony is supposed to understand when learning how to fight."
As Twilight continued to look at the sword apprehensively, Spike said quietly, but in a commanding tone, "You need to take this, even if you refuse to use it. If you look harmless, then there are those out there that will try to take advantage of you. You'd appear weak and helpless. If you have a sword, even if you never use it, and only wear it, if you scare off even a single enemy or monster by looking like you can and will fight, you're making yourself, not to mention the others with you, safer. Please..."
Twilight regarded the sword hesitantly, and asked "so I... I don't have to use it, just wear it?"
Spike looked grimly at Twilight Sparkle. "I will not lie to you, pony friend. Eventually, there will come a day where nopony else will be around to protect you, and when that happens, you'll have to chose whether or not to fight, or to give up and let yourself, or others who are helpless, be killed. We can protect you for now, but not forever. While you're still learning about the world, and figuring out what you want to do, I'll do my best to protect you." The dragon paused and turned to Rainbow Dash, who was pacing anxiously across the room. "Alright, enough talk. Come on, it's time to get going, and we still need to disguise you guys so we can get out of Neighshe without any problems. Let's see..."
Walking over to the nearby fireplace, he waved the two ponies over, only to find them struggling to to attach the sword under Twilight's new cape. Tapping his foot on the floor impatiently, he picked up some coal, easily grinding it down to dust with his claws. Walking over to the still-struggling mare, he coated the unicorn's mane and tail black with the powder, ignoring her protests as he made sure her mane was completely black, before checking that the cape covered her cutie mark.
Once he was completed, he turned to get to work on the pegasus, but found her already dusting herself with ash, turning her normally chromatically bright mane and tail grey. "Heh, you catch on quicker than I would have guessed," Spike said.
"Have you not heard of me? I'm Rainbow Dash! I'm the definition of quick! If you looked in a dictionary for the definition, all you'd see is a picture of yours truly!" she finished, puffing her chest out proudly.
"Yeah yeah, let's just get moving already. We'll need a story to tell your guardponies if we're stopped for questioning."
"Already got one," Rainbow replied smugly. "We're escorting you to Fillygaro Castle to talk about the possible opening of a trade route between the dragons and the Kingdom of Fillygaro. Simple."
"Alright, but why Fillygaro?" Spike inquired as he led the way through his caves, taking side passages to avoid attention.
"Because it's the closest city around, and any trade route further out would have to go through them, so it wouldn't be as believable," the pegasus answered as they exited the dragon caves and re-entered the mining complex through an abandoned mining tunnel. "More importantly, I have friends there."
They walked in silence for a moment, when Dash realized that they hadn't heard from the unicorn in awhile. Turning back to check on the mare, she saw that she was silently trailing behind, keeping her head down. She glanced to Spike, who gave her a look telling her that the 'newbie' wasn't going to be looking for monsters, so she needed to take rear guard, so that they wouldn't get back atta-
~EEK!~
Spike and Dash whipped around to see Twilight Sparkle, 'witch' of the Empire, scourge of freedom, killer of hundreds of soldiers in mere minutes, screaming her head off at... A bat. And not just any huge, terrifying, poisonous, blood-sucking bat, but a bat that, Rainbow Dash would have sworn, wasn't even three months old.
"BAT!" Twilight Sparkle screeched at the top of her lungs, leaping so high that her horn almost got stuck in the ceiling.
Before Rainbow Dash could pull her dirk out, Twilight had already levitated her newly acquired sword out of its sheath, flailing it about wildly in the general vicinity of the 'monstrous' bat, shrieking all the while with her eyes screwed shut. Apparently her fear of bats won out over her fear of the weapon. Dash rolled her eyes.
While the lavender mare in front of it freaked out, the small, innocent bat proceeded to fly away slowly, using its echolocation to dodge the inept swings of the unicorn that couldn't be bothered to look where she was swinging. It probably didn't even realize the pony was trying to hit it. Once it was out of sight, Rainbow Dash sighed, and facehoofed as she announced in a monotoned voice, "Twilight, you got it. No more bat. You can stop swinging now..."
Panting for breath, her eyes still wide from the adrenaline rush her body experienced from the fright, Twilight stood still for a moment, making sure there were no more bats in the area before she slumped to the ground, her body completely limp, her limbs sprawled to both sides of her stomach. Before the pegasus could berate or complain about the unicorn, however, several guards rushed into the area, their weapons held at the ready as the leader's voice boomed in the tunnel. "Is everypony alright?! We heard a scream and..."
The lead guard's voice trailed off as he saw the two ponies and dragon, staring at them for just a moment before he took his own weapon out and held it at the ready in his mouth. He had to speak around the handle of the weapon. "Ith tha th With?! Freeth! Domph moof!"
Twilight froze up, the pupils of her eyes shrinking to pinpoints as she looked at the head-guard in terror. Spike glanced to the pegasus for just a second, hoping to catch a clue as to how she wanted the situation handled, but all the cyan mare had only one word to say to him, and it wasn't exactly something that could be called 'advice', or an order.
"Horsefeathers..."