Techorse II: Captain Arbiter's Revenge
By Spirals95
Chapter 6
After picking up Spike and getting a good distance from the bar, the friends rested at the base of an oak tree to put together their plan. Applejack finished tying her hair back up and said, "Ok, what did we get out of those guys?"
Techorse answered, "There's a river nearby. If we follow it upstream for a few miles, we'll find one of the fortresses. The gamblers told me it was well-staffed, meaning we're up against plenty of guards. I'm not sure who they're keeping there, but chances are at least one of them is being held captive inside that fortress."
Techorse stopped to breathe and asked lightly, "So what did you find out?"
She replied, "I heard from that guy I was sitting with that there's a tower containing a single unicorn prisoner. He didn't tell me much more before he… made his move on me." Applejack shuddered as she looked at the ground.
Spike pounded his right fist into his hand and said angrily, "That tower must be where Rarity's been locked up!"
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down impatiently, "Let's choose a jail and get going! We can save somepony today if we hurry!"
"Since we don't know where the tower is, let's go for that fortress first!" suggested Spike.
"Good idea." Replied Techorse, letting the dragon climb onto his back. As they galloped towards the location of the river, Techorse made sure Spike could hear him say, "Once we get there, if we get into battle and you want to use your fire breath while mounted, go ahead. I've always wanted a flamethrower."
"Whatever." replied Spike, not really appreciating the joke.
The river was not too far away, so they stopped at the bank and looked down the wandering body of water to see if they could locate the fortress described by the gamblers. While at some point the river must have been clean and inviting, it was now extremely dirty and unsanitary to drink. "The fortress must be located upriver from here." said Techorse.
"How do you know that?" asked Spike. He explained his answer, "The water is polluted from something, probably sewage from upstream." Pinkie Pie was about to dive into the river for a fun swim, but as soon as she heard the word "sewage", she stuck her tongue out and backed off from the bank.
"Ew." She said, "Doesn't Arbiter know not to build toilets over rivers? It scares away all the fish and makes the water all icky."
"I think he could care less about the environment." said Techorse, "That being said, I'm starting to wonder if he's also behind the recent coal production surge."
"We can talk about rocks and toilets after we rescue our friends." urged Spike.
"Alright, let's keep moving then." sighed Applejack. The team turned north and walked along the banks of the adulterated river, looking sadly at the condition the fortress's sewer system had put the work of nature in. Following the winding water north brought them to the fortress at last. The structure was surrounded a small grove of trees, but was tall enough to avoid being completely hidden by them. All in all, it was roughly the size of a football stadium, a decent size for a newly built prison house. It was shaped like one large castle turret, featuring only a few barred windows against the white painted stone. On one side of the building were two large gears, which turned occasionally to open the drawbridge over the moat and let a guard in or out. And as they feared, the moat was connected to the river and contaminated it with sewage from the latrine holes cut in the sides of the building.
The team hid behind some of the trees to discuss how to get inside. "Let's make a plan." said Applejack quietly. Techorse nodded and let the turbofans that let him fly slide out of his saddle. "I'll fly over to those gears and mess with them. Once the front gate is down, get in there. I will try to meet up with you later."
Spike pointed to the two guards standing in front of the moat and asked, "How are we going to get by them? They look tough!" Pinkie Pie was already making a run for the front gate.
"No!" called Applejack, but it was far too late.
Techorse lifted into the air and said, "Let her go, it will distract them and buy me time so I can get the door for you. Just make sure Pinkie doesn't get hurt." Applejack nodded and turned to Spike.
He crossed his arms and said, "She's going to get captured, isn't she?"
"Yup." replied Applejack. Pinkie jumped in front of the guards, who immediately gave her a strange look.
"Hi boys!" she said happily, "how's the night shift going?"
"Who are you?" asked the first guard, "and how did you find this fortress?"
Pinkie said, "I followed the river up here, I wanted to swim in it, but it was too dirty!" The guards looked at each other and didn't really know what to do, she wasn't really any threat, but shouldn't be at the jail either.
The second guard looked back at Pinkie and said, "Uh, maybe you should just go back. There's really nothing to see here." Pinkie Pie tried to raise her head above the guards.
"What don't you want me to see? What don't you want me to see?" she kept asking over and over in a squeaky voice.
Techorse made it to the two gears and landed gently on top of the second one. Working carefully, he switched to his robotic arms and started moving the first gear slowly to the right. As it twisted, he had to step gently to the left to avoid falling off into the moat.
"Look, m'am. Go away!" demanded the first guard.
"But why!" whined Pinkie, "I just wanna see your castle! It looks like fun!"
"No one's allowed inside!" insisted the second guard, "especially not annoying folks like you." Pinkie Pie let tears well up in her eyes.
"Annoying?" she sniffed.
A split second of silence went by before she closed her eyes tightly and screamed, "WAAAAAHH!" Pinkie let streams of tears fly everywhere as she threw her tantrum.
"Great, you made her bawl you moron." said the first guard as he smacked his imbecile coworker on the chin.
"I don't hardly believe this." Commented Applejack as she and Spike watched the scene from behind the tree. "Pinkie Pie is actually holdin' them off."
"Alright!" shouted the first guard in frustration, "If it makes you stop crying, we'll show you the main lobby. But you can't visit the prisoners."
"Yay!" cheered Pinkie, stopping her crying immediately. The guards threw a lever and the drawbridge began to descend. But Techorse was still on top of the first gear, and he was drawn towards the meshing of the two. Luckily, a quick jump in the air followed by a midair switch to his fans brought him safely to the ground and out of harm's way.
Techorse waved on Applejack and Spike, and they followed him quietly across the drawbridge, making sure the guards couldn't hear or see them. When they got inside, the drawbridge began to rise slowly again behind them. Applejack snuck up behind the first guard, ready to take him out. She turned around and bucked him in the back of the neck, sending him skidding across the floor into a garbage bin. Spike spat a fireball at the second guard and lit his tail. He panicked and ran around the room before finally jumping out a window and into the moat to extinguish the flame.
"Ok, that takes care of those two." said Techorse, "good shooting Spike."
"Thanks" he replied, letting a wisp of smoke escape from his left nostril. Pinkie Pie turned around and said, "Hey, you guys made it! Looks like my plan worked."
"Wait, you mean to tell me that was an elaborate plan to get us inside the fortress?" asked Techorse, "I thought it was just a distraction effort!"
Pinkie said, "No silly! That was my plan, and it worked! What, do you think I'm stupid?"
Techorse looked to the side and said, "Not stupid, just a little too wacky to come up with a great plan like that." Pinkie Pie giggled and took a playful swat at him, which he ducked.
"We're wastin' time." warned Applejack, "We need to find our friends and get out of here before more guards come."
"Let's fan out and try to find them." ordered Techorse, "If we split up, we'll search faster."
"No that's a mistake!" said Spike, "we're all easy targets alone." The green pony swung his tail downwards in frustration, he hated being told his battle plans were a mistake.
"We split up." He said sternly. Applejack put a hoof in front of his face.
"Yoo hoo." She said, "We got friends to rescue. We stick together."
"Oh come on, don't take his side!" said Techorse with great frustration.
"You put me in charge mister, so you follow my orders." Said Applejack proudly, patting Spike on the head.
Techorse hung his head and let his ears droop. "Dang, she's right."
The lobby of the prison building contained very little, just a few torches for light and two staircases leading to separate halves of the cells. Pinkie Pie let an ear perk up as she heard the footsteps of soldiers.
"Take the right one!" she shouted, "they're gonna come through the left!" The team rushed up the right side staircase and up onto a wooden platform suspended over a massive portcullis-like structure below.
"Is that to prevent escape?" asked Spike as he pointed to the mesh. "I think so. Nothing could get out of that cage." replied Applejack. Techorse noticed that the portcullis grid above the cells was almost like a birdcage in appearance. He had a feeling as to which of his friends were trapped here.
"How are we going to get down there without jumping?" asked Pinkie as she looked around for a way down. Spike found a small wooden lever on the platform and pulled it. The platform started to slide down on a set of cables it was hanging from.
"Good thinking Spike." said Techorse, using a robotic hand to punch him gently on the shoulder. The platform made its way down the cable at a 45 degree angle. Below, a section of the cage opened up, and the platform sunk below the portcullis. As soon as they were past the aperture, it closed again to prevent escape. When the platform touched the stone floor, the friends disembarked and began searching the cells together.
"We have to hurry before the patrols return!" shouted Applejack.
"Right." Replied Spike, "Techorse, check the cells on that side of the room." The dragon pointed to the other set of cells.
"You got it." Replied Techorse as he galloped off to the other side of the massive rooms.
Confusion swept them as not a single cell contained any of their friends. "I don't get it!" said Pinkie, "are they hiding in there?"
"Rainbow Dash!" called Spike, "Fluttershy, where are you guys?" Techorse opened up his saddle and two small conic lights emerged, illuminating the last cell. The room was empty. He shut the small lights off and shook his head sadly.
"They're not in any of these cells. Something's wrong here."
"I'll say something's wrong here!" shouted a voice from above.
Looking up, the friends saw a new pony who had come out of nowhere. The unicorn opened a gate on the cage structure over the cells and jumped through, where he landed with a loud thud on the cold stones of the dungeon floor.
He looked up at Spike and said, "I've got uninvited guests in my prison.
Spike recognized the unicorn and pointed at him, "Hey, you're the delivery guy!"
"It was a disguise you dope." Replied the unicorn slyly, "and a poor one at that. I'm surprised you and that stupid librarian of yours fell for that." To Applejack's surprise, Techorse did not immediately riddle the unicorn's body with laser bolts for his insult.
"And who might you be?" asked Applejack.
He replied, "I am Sentry, the jailer."
"You work for Arbiter, don't you?" asked Pinkie suspiciously.
"No dip." replied Sentry in a mean tone, "Man, with that comment, I find it amazing that you know how to breathe on your own."
Techorse shouted at him, "That's enough trash talk. After all, you're the moron who let himself get surrounded. There's 4 of us and only 1 of you." Techorse let his laser cannons sprout with a metallic whir and trained them on Sentry.
Sentry pushed a specially marked stone on the floor and jumped in the air to avoid the attacks of the four. Techorse blasted away with his lasers, missing Sentry left and right as he moved quickly around the room.
"Man he's fast!" commented Spike as he prepared to breath flame at the bad guy. Techorse stopped firing to allow a chance for the others to strike without getting them caught in the crossfire. Applejack charged at the enemy and lowered her head for a brutal charging attack. Sentry saw this and fired a bolt of energy from his horn. The projectile struck Applejack's head and sent her into a cartwheel which halted her charge. Spike jumped over Applejack's tangled body and spat a rope of green flames all around Sentry. In response, the unicorn pony rolled to the right and quickly used a magic spell to toss a brick at Spike. The brick impacted Spike on his body, and although his tough scales protected him, the force of the blow knocked the wind out of him and stopped him from breathing any more fire. Pinkie Pie took three skips and bounced high into the air, nearly knocking her head on the portcullis before coming down on Sentry's back. She pushed him to the ground, and then kept bouncing up and down on him like a trampoline to inflict as much damage as possible.
Techorse cheered, "You got him, Pinkie! Keep it up." Sentry spoke between getting hopped on, "You... haven't... won... yet…" Pinkie Pie stopped jumping and pinned the colt to the ground as Techorse walked up to question him.
The laser cannons came back out of the saddle, and pitched down at Sentry's head. "Where are our friends?"
Suddenly, a dozen guards arrived in the room and surrounded them. One of the guards was soaking wet, obviously the one who jumped in the river, and angrily grabbed Pinkie Pie, dragging her kicking and screaming off of Sentry. "Excellent timing troops. Looks like the alarm stone I pushed worked" replied the jailer. Techorse gave the guards a dirty look as he powered down his guns and stowed them again.
"What should we do with them?" asked one of the guards. One of them cruelly suggested, "We could throw them out the windows on the top floor."
"Too messy." replied Sentry, "Just toss them in with the others in the double cell. But first take that weapon off the green one, it nearly fried me!"
The team was taken away up a secret staircase, to the double cell Sentry had mentioned. Once there at the entrance, a small steel grate door with heavy lead locks, Techorse's saddle was removed from him and dropped at the foot of the door. The guards shoved them all inside and closed the door gently, if they slammed it, the locks could have been damaged. A loud click locked the cell doors and sealed them inside. Applejack got a good look around the jail cell. For being part of a prison, it was very well stocked. There were multiple cots, a sink, and a small bathroom. If intimidation and horror was the goal of the cell designer, he had failed his task miserably. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were sleeping on the beds, but woke up as soon as they heard the locking of the door.
"Hey!" said Rainbow as she jumped off her cot, "you made it!"
Fluttershy said softly, "Oh, you're finally here to rescue us. I was getting worried that you'd never show up."
"I couldn't leave you here." Techorse told her, "I have my duties."
"So, did you beat up all the guards and cut us an escape route?" asked Rainbow, sure Techorse had woven a master plan.
"Actually, we just got our sorry behinds captured." Admitted Applejack, "but we're glad you're ok and well taken care of."
Spike walked deeper into the room and said, "Yeah, it's like Arbiter doesn't want you to rot or something. He just wants to keep you here."
"This place isn't creepy at all!" said Pinkie Pie, "I could live here if it wasn't called a jail."
Techorse asked, "Have they tried starving you?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head, "We still get plates of grain every couple hours. They're not trying anything to torture us. Fluttershy's plate of food even had a piece of fruit on it."
"Strange." said Spike.
"Not to me." said Techorse, "Arbiter doesn't really want you to suffer, just me. Normally he's a decent guy, so it only makes sense he'd order his minions to treat you somewhat nicely."
"I still want to get out of here." assured Fluttershy, "it's still a little sad being locked up."
"Imagine how Rarity feels." Mumbled Applejack, certain she was complaining the guards in the other fortress to death.
"How are we going to escape?" asked Rainbow Dash, "they took off your saddle."
Techorse looked back at the door and said, "But the guards left it a little too close to the door. I'll have it down in a minute." He walked over to the metal gate and lied down on the cold tile floor of the cell. Making sure his head was as close to the saddle as possible, he issued the mental command to activate the lasers. The guns emerged from the gadget and tilted upwards towards the locks. A few more thoughts activated the steel tubes, and the beams cut right through the lock. Techorse then got back up and casually pushed the door open. "Let's go before Sentry comes back." He said.
They rushed out of the cell and looked around for a way out of the building.
"Rainbow Dash, take Fluttershy and fly out a window." ordered Applejack.
"We can't leave you guys in here." Replied Rainbow Dash, "we stick together and make sure no one gets left behind."
"Fine, but be careful!" she replied.
Techorse found a different staircase headed to another section of the fortress. "Let's go this way." He suggested, "If we go back the way we came, we'll get caught again."
The team moved for the staircase and descended quickly, trying not to make a lot of noise. As they reached the base, they came out into this open area, a platform made of concrete surrounded by very deep chasms.
"Wow, a walkway over a bottomless pit." said Pinkie Pie as she peered over the edge, "how cliché!"
"The walkway's large enough that we shouldn't fall." said Rainbow Dash, "besides, I can just fly down and grab you."
"We have to keep moving!" shouted Techorse, already galloping across the concrete for the rear exit of the prison. The team was stopped as wooden elevators rose from the chasms, on each platform, a dozen guards rushed into the middle to stop them.
"Ambush!" said Spike as he looked around, "that Sentry guy's smarter than we thought!"
"Of course I am you stupid dragon." said Sentry as he entered the room from behind them.
"Let us go. It's not worth keeping us here." said Fluttershy to the jailer.
"You'd think so, being the harmless girls you are." said Sentry, "but my leader's orders are to keep you and Rainbow Dash here, misses Fluttershy. I don't make the rules you see, I just follow them."
The guards snatched them again, and Techorse grunted as he reluctantly surrendered. He just couldn't bring himself to gun down the guards, who were pretty much innocent in his mind because they were only obeying their orders too.
"It doesn't have to be this way Sentry! We've outsmarted your defenses twice now, and we'll do it again." he said. "You won't get the chance." replied Sentry as he got close to Techorse, "I know Arbiter wants to see you personally, Mr. Techorse. So I plan on bolting you up in a special containment unit that will prevent you from using that gadget of yours to escape again."
One of the guards brought out special wooden cuffs and clamped them around Fluttershy's front legs. She screamed loudly, piercing the guard's ears and filling the outside of the fortress with the shrieking sound. A mighty dragon, busy foraging for gems to add to his horde, heard the screams coming from the fortress behind him.
"That screaming sounds familiar." He thought as he turned and spotted the jail. Sentry stuffed a ball of cloth into Fluttershy's mouth to gag her.
"Oh stop it." He said, "You're going back to your cells now."
Rainbow Dash lifted up in the air to avoid getting nabbed by the guards, but one threw a rope around her hind legs and brought her crashing down.
"This one keeps trying to fly away, shall we clip her wings sir?" asked the guard as he held onto Rainbow.
"No." replied Sentry," we need to keep the prisoners in good condition."
Spike said to Sentry with a tough voice, "You think you've beaten us?" Sentry turned to Spike and punched him in the head.
"I think I have, moron." He replied. Spike got up off the ground and shouted at him, "You'll regret that!"
"Oh please." Replied Sentry, "what's one little dragon going to do?" In an act of irony, the 30 foot dragon standing outside burst through the walls of the prison, knocking large stone bricks all over the crowd. One of the bricks broke the cuffs on Fluttershy's legs, and in response she spat out the gag. All the guards panicked and scattered as the stones crashed down, leaving Sentry to face the beast alone. The golden, monstrous reptile roared and breathed flame to chase away the remaining minions out of the building. The heroes bunched together and stepped back from the middle of the platform as they watched the violence. Sentry panicked as the dragon looked directly at him, and fired a bolt from his horn, impacting the gold dragon on the right wing. He screamed in a bit of pain, but then extended his neck and made a lunge at Sentry. The pony ran from the dragon, but the beast kept snapping its jaws at him from behind.
Sentry continued to flee down the large concrete platform; the dragon had smashed his way through part of it and lunged one more time, attempting to catch him. This time, the pony was scooped up in its maw, and he screamed loudly in mortal terror. Unfortunately for him, his sudden movements caused him to fly back a little too far, and he was lodged in the dragon's throat. The monster reared back and started choking, sitting back down at the edge of the platform. Sentry might have saved himself, but his struggling kicked in the muscular reflexes of the dragon, and it swallowed him. Fluttershy watched in horror when the lump in the dragon's throat dropped before hearing a sickening squish as the pony entered the beast's stomach. Most of the team winced, that was not a very pleasant way to go.
"Shoot, I think I swallowed him." said the dragon as he grabbed at his throat. Rainbow Dash recognized the dragon's voice.
"Yorgle?" she asked, "Is that you?"
"In the scales." He replied.
Pinkie Pie's mouth was hanging open in horror, "Yorgle, how could you? I thought you were a nice dragon, but you just ate that guy like he was a cookie!"
"I didn't mean too, honest. The simpleton rammed himself down my throat!" explained Yorgle.
Techorse asked, "Never mind that, what are you doing here?"
"Well I heard Fluttershy there screaming her lungs out, and I decided to check it out." continued the dragon in his deep voice. "When I looked in here and saw you in trouble, I knew I had to do something."
Spike couldn't contain his excitement any longer.
"Wow!" he said, "finally, another dragon on our side!" Yorgle brought his head down to Spike's level and asked him, "And who are you? Haven't seen you before."
"I'm Spike." He replied, "Nice to meet you, Yorgle." "Ah, you must be the dragon owned by the purple-coated one that accompanied you that day you broke into my cave." Said Yorgle, "I was hoping she would have let you visit my home so we could meet, but this is just as good I guess."
Techorse explained to the dragon, "We're out here to rescue our team from someone. Spike's friend, the purple-coated one as you called her, was captured too."
Yorgle said, "That's unfortunate, but I'm glad I could help you a little bit tonight."
"Yeah, thanks for busting us out, literally." said Rainbow Dash, observing the completely destroyed wall.
"You're quite welcome." replied the dragon.
Techorse said, "All we have to do now before heading for Arbiter's castle is to rescue Rarity from her tower."
"Where is it?" asked Fluttershy. His smile disappeared as he realized they had no idea where the tower was. "Well, there was one pony who knew where it was, but we can't question him now." He said.
Yorgle sighed, "Look, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to do that, I was just going to stop him from running away, but he struggled."
Applejack was still deeply disturbed by the entire scenario, but said with disgust, "Maybe you can, well, cough 'em up?"
Pinkie Pie shouted, "Yeah, just stick two fingers down your throat and we'll have Sentry back in no time!" Techorse wondered how Pinkie figured out how that works, but decided some things were best left to imagination.
"Alright." said Yorgle, "I'll try." Before he started, he decided to add, "But for the record, I didn't intend to eat him."
"We believe you." Said Applejack, "Now spit him up before it's too late." Yorgle stuck a sharpened claw down his throat and hacked a couple of times before finally regurgitating Sentry onto the remains of the concrete platform. "Gross." said Fluttershy as she looked at the mess.
"Cool!" cheered Pinkie, finding weird bodily functions interesting. Sentry opened his eyes and stood up shaking from the pool of stomach contents, scared out of his wits. Techorse took out his robotic hands and grabbed the acid-soaked Sentry by the horn.
Lifting him up into the air, he pulled the other fist back and said, "Alright, we got you out of there so we could get some information, so spit it out, Sentry."
"What do you want to know?" he asked slowly, trying not to look at Yorgle again.
"Where's the other prison?" asked Techorse angrily as he pulled him closer to his face, "tell me or you're going back in there."
Sentry panicked and screamed, "The other tower's on the other side of the forest! I swear I'm telling the truth!"
"He's lying." said Applejack, "there's nothin' on the other side of that forest."
Techorse picked him up off the ground, "Alright, open wide Yorgle."
"No!" shrieked Sentry. He broke down into tears, "Ok, I'll tell you. The tower is built on the top of the mountain 3 miles in the direction of the arrow sign outside of this fortress. Now please let me go!"
Techorse released his grip on Sentry and watched as he ran from the room crying in psychological terror.
"Now that we know where the tower is, let's go save Rarity!" declared Spike.
"It's night." stated Fluttershy as she looked outside, "Maybe we should think about staying put for now."
"We can use the guard's quarters." Suggested Techorse, "I think every last one of Arbiter's minions fled for his castle."
"Then it's settled." said Applejack, "We'll sleep and head out first thing in the morning." Fluttershy flapped her wings and floated gently into the air in front of Yorgle.
She gave him a hug on the nose and said sweetly, "Thank you so much for helping us."
"Take care, and good luck saving your friends." Said the dragon as he pulled back from Fluttershy and flew off into the night sky.
Chapter 7
Arbiter's castle reflected the moon well. Its white stone bounced the light perfectly for a dazzling effect. The massive home spanned a mile on each side at least and was made entirely out of stone mined directly from the surrounding mountains. Everywhere on the castle were turrets and lookout points to defend it from anyone stupid enough to attack. A large moat filled with ordinary water surrounded the fortress, and the only way in from the ground was across a special drawbridge which oddly slid out from underneath the castle and across the moat, rather than swinging down. This allowed for a more decorative door on the front, which was painted a crimson red color and decorated with gold swirling designs on the front. From many of the castle towers flew flags bearing Arbiter's cutie mark, an executioner's axe. Yet no statues of the stallion or any other images of him appeared on the castle, because although he appreciated the flags which bore his logo, he was simply not that egotistical and found it psychopathic to want a billion self portraits. All in all, the castle was not a creepy place, but its size could definitely cause fear in Arbiter's enemies. Every hour on the hour, a mining probe would pass by the castle, its cargo bays full of the coal which was making the resident of the land very wealthy. The probes never seemed to acknowledge the fortress, instead mindlessly following their programming to sell the coal at the nearest power plants.
As one of the mining probes drove by, rumbling the foundations of that side of the castle, Twilight Sparkle looked out her prison window at the massive machine.
"That looks like a giant version of Techorse's mining probes." She thought as she stared at the worm-like behemoth.
Twilight cast a light spell to provide a beam to see the probe more clearly. From the outside of the castle, a soft cone of lavender colored light illuminated the probe. The cutting head of the machine kept turning slowly as the machine crawled forward, cutting small grooves to run on. As she looked down the body of the probe, Twilight spotted its cargo bay and noticed the vast amounts of coal behind the plexiglass pane. As the probes cut into the surrounding mountains, any captured materials were sucked into the plastic containment unit located midsection on the probe. By finding the massive amounts of coal in the cargo bay, Twilight immediately knew who was behind the amounts of coal being burned. She kept staring at the machine until a moment came when the robot realized it was being watched. It stopped and scared Twilight back into her room by sounding a loud blast on its horn. She ducked back into the room and breathed heavily for a minute before calming down. After recovering from the shock of the blast, Twilight went back into her room. Like the rooms at Sentry's fortress, it was rather accommodating for a prison cell. Not only was she given a bathroom and a bed, Twilight also had a desk to right on, as well as some parchment and a quill. Writing was the only thing keeping her from going insane while under Arbiter's captivity. Twilight sighed, walked over to the desk, and wrote a new message.
"If you have found this, I am being held captive in the horseshoe mountains. The rouge Arbiter has locked me up in his castle. Contact princess Celestia immediately. – Twilight Sparkle."
Arbiter's unicorns had put a spell on the castle which prevented her from using any teleportation spells to escape, and that included teleporting the message to Celestia. However, Techorse had taught her on one of their dates how to make a paper airplane, and that was going to come in handy. Twilight used her magic to fold the parchment into a plane carefully, making sure not to crease the paper too hard in any one direction. Then, she walked over to the window again and peeked out carefully to make sure the mining probe had left. Noticing the metallic giant had moved away and was now in the distance Twilight checked the wind flow, letting the breeze drift gently over her dark purple straight hair. A telekinetic toss sent the message plane out the window and far away from the castle, where it disappeared into the night.
The door to her room was beginning to unlock. Twilight turned around to face the door as it opened with a slam. At the door were two light yellow unicorns, who stepped aside to let their master enter the room. Arbiter entered slowly and walked up to Twilight without saying a word initially. He was a white Pegasus pony, slightly larger than most, with a short gray mane that was well groomed. But his tail looked almost like a rope that had seen better days. What was most prominent about Arbiter was his eyes, although his right one was a beautiful brown, his left eye was damaged. Arbiter had a scar across his left eye at a 30 degree angle downwards, a claw or some other object had scratched the eye out. To hide the ugly injury, he wore an eye patch over it.
Arbiter looked at the saddened Twilight and said to her, "Good evening miss Sparkle. I see you're adjusting to your room quite nicely."
"Can it Arbiter." Replied Twilight sharply, "when Techorse gets here, you're going to wish you hadn't locked me up."
Arbiter laughed and said, "I know he'll be quite angry. But he doesn't really scare me, for you see, I have you. If he does so much as lift a single hoof, I'll simply have to do you in. You've already lost a little hair for his arrogance."
Twilight looked back at her tail. Arbiter had cut off a small piece of the hair to send in the ransom package, and she was a little upset about it.
"It will grow back." said Twilight as she looked back to him. The stallion smiled and made sure he was standing taller than Twilight when he said, "Do you know why I'm doing this whole thing?"
"My coltfriend got you fired and you want revenge?" asked Twilight rhetorically, she was sure that was the right answer. "
On the contrary." Replied Arbiter, "I merely wish to rid the planet of the last threat to its safety, the half-human, half-pony. I could care less about my old job, because I made this land rich by stealing those machines and mining up all this coal."
Twilight said to him with anger, "I knew you were behind the coal. You do know that burning the coal is going to damage the environment forever, right?"
Arbiter shook his head and said, "Twilight, Twilight, you foolish little mare. I have plenty of pegasi who would be happy to clean up the pollution if need be. They'll be paid top money for their efforts."
"But those fumes could give them wing cancer!" protested Twilight, "you monster!"
"I am not the monster!" shouted Arbiter, "It's that stupid Techorse, he's a human, and I must make him pay for what his people did to this world!"
Twilight slapped Arbiter in the head and said to him, "Hypocrite, stealing the human machines and then saying Techorse is the bad guy!"
Arbiter stuck his leg out and kept his guards from rushing to defend him. He shook the slap off and monologued in a sinister tone, "I have made my life the best it's ever been by salvaging the alien technology and employing it to serve ponykind. The ponies from this country of Mineland have had their lives improved too. Until I came here, they were poor coal miners, nothing, dirt beneath Celestia's hooves. She didn't care for them at all, and their towns aren't even on the maps. But I did what was noble and brought them out of the dirt, the money from this extra coal will make them loved for once in their lives!"
"You can't buy love." said Twilight softly. Arbiter threw his black cape around him as he turned to leave.
Before he exited the cell, he said to her, "I want you to know something. No matter how much you annoy me and say I'm in the wrong, I'm not going to hurt you. But if Techorse doesn't show up and meet his rightful fate, I will not hold back. He has two days."
Arbiter stormed out of the room. As the unicorns following him left, one of them turned around to shut the door behind them. Twilight's ears drooped when she saw the last guard draw a hoof across his neck to make the universal symbol for death. He then shut the door with a slam, leaving her all alone again.
Chapter 8
The morning sun had finally risen over the remains of the first fortress. Yorgle's smashing had destroyed roughly half of the structure and the drawbridge was permanently lowered due to the damage. The friends woke up from inside the barracks and proceeded out of the fortress immediately, as time was of the essence. They knew the longer they took to rescue Rarity, the more she would complain about how late they were in achieving it. As they stepped outside into the sunlight, Techorse took a deep breath in of the warm air.
"Let's get moving." He said, looking at all his team members, "we don't want to keep her waiting in that tower."
Applejack said to him, "I'll say. Miss pretty is going to be awful cranky when we get there."
"Hey, maybe all the guards will have passed out from her whining! We might not need to rescue her at all." joked Pinkie Pie.
"Would you guys stop slamming Rarity?" asked Spike angrily. Techorse told Spike, "We're just trying to make a dangerous mission a little comical, ok?"
"Yeah." agreed Rainbow Dash, "Everypony needs a little humor."
"Ok, but stop the insults." said Spike grudgingly. "You got it, lover boy." teased Rainbow Dash, using her flight skills to draw a small heart in the air. Spike groaned and jumped off of Techorse's back, "I'm walking on my own."
"You sure?" he asked, swinging his tail over the dragon's head. "Positive."
Replied Spike with a grumpy tone.
"Hey Techorse, I've noticed you've been using your tail a lot more lately." said Pinkie Pie, taking note of the swing.
He replied, "I never thought about it before, but it's actually pretty neat having one."
"You bet it is!" continued Pinkie Pie, "in fact, I wrote a song about having a tail!"
"Oh no, here it comes." said Applejack mournfully, shutting her eyes in preparation for the agony.
Pinkie Pie started singing, "The best thing about having a tail, is it acts like a safety rail! It keeps you from falling over when you stumble around!"
Techorse chuckled and shook his head gently. He was always amused by Pinkie's singing. The others were very annoyed by the pink pony's tunes though.
"It keeps the bugs from biting! It's your rear-end's silver lining!"
"Make her stop!" said Spike, covering his scaly ears.
"Why?" laughed Techorse, "her positive attitude makes me happy."
Fluttershy quietly said to Techorse, "I agree. Without her, we'd all be very sad."
"And that's why it's so great to have a tail!" finished Pinkie Pie, who bent over on her front legs and gave her fluffy tail a couple of swings through the air, tickling Applejack's nose.
"Enough nonsense!" she said as she pushed Pinkie Pie's rump out of the way of her path.
"Grumpy." mumbled Pinkie Pie as she fell behind the rest of the group. "Don't let them get to you." whispered Fluttershy, "I liked your song."
"Thanks!" she said as she gave Fluttershy a smile. Techorse noticed that Rainbow Dash was way ahead of the group, her flight was allowing her to move much faster than the others. He thought of a trick he could play to deal with his boredom and brought out the turbofans. He lifted off the ground gently and inverted himself in the air, then flew underneath of Rainbow Dash and looked up at her.
Techorse matched Rainbow's flying speed and made sure he was directly beneath her when he shouted, "How's it going?" Rainbow Dash halted in midair before shouting in surprise and looked down at him.
"You scared me!" she said.
"Stop getting ahead of us then." said Techorse. "How are you even flying upside down like that?" asked Rainbow Dash, "that saddle of yours can't really be as good as a pair of wings."
"That's right, they're not as powerful as your wings." explained Techorse, "but I put a gyroscope in the saddle that lets me fly inverted like this without crashing." Rainbow shook her head and fell back to rejoin the others. Techorse flipped himself over and landed on the ground gently, then with a robotic clang, the fans slipped back into the saddle and the panels closed up over them.
"When do we get to the tower?" asked Pinkie Pie, looking at the surrounding terrain.
"Soon enough" replied Applejack.
"There's gotta be a way we can make this go faster!" grumbled Pinkie.
"We can, by staying really quiet!" encouraged Fluttershy.
Techorse sighed heavily due to his frustration with his team's lack of tolerance for Pinkie's antics.
"The tower should be on top of that mountain up ahead." He said to his friends. "It's obscured right now by the fog up there, but once we get up, we'll be able to see it."
Applejack asked Techorse calmly, "When we get to Arbiter's castle, Techorse, will you, ya know, have to…"
"Go ahead and ask whatever it is you want to, Applejack." said Techorse as he looked at her.
Rainbow Dash flew beside Techorse and said, "I think she wants to know if you're gonna shoot him."
The pegasus went off topic immediately, "Oh! Last night, I had this awesome dream where we stormed into Arbiter's castle, and you guys were all tied up by him! So I swooped in and saved the day, pounding that evil stallion without stopping! He begged for mercy, but I wouldn't let him have any. I was given a medal at his funeral."
Techorse glared at Rainbow Dash and said sternly, "I hope you understand that this is not a mission to get rid of him!"
"But he locked us up, and might hurt Twilight!" said Rainbow Dash, "that doesn't make you mad?"
"It does." He replied bitterly, "but that's no reason to hurt him. I'm really ashamed of you, Rainbow Dash, having fun with a dream like that. Because despite his kidnapping and threats, Arbiter is only doing what he thinks is right. I plan on settling this issue peacefully by proving his suspicions of me wrong."
"What if you can't?" asked Rainbow, "Huh?"
Techorse said sadly, "Then I'll have to let him do what he wants to me. I won't let Twilight get hurt." He sighed and let a tear hit the ground. "Maybe it seems like this is an adventure where a guy goes and rescues his girl. But very likely, Twilight's going to have to rescue me in the end. If Arbiter won't let her go without me kicking the bucket first, I have no choice but to do that."
Techorse kept letting the tears flow, he was losing manliness by the second, but he could care less.
"He's really breaking down." said Fluttershy. She stroked the mane on his neck to comfort him, "there there, we won't let him hurt you."
"I don't see why he's so upset." said Spike. "Same reason you're upset."
Applejack told him, "The girl he loves is in danger, and he feels bad about it."
Spike nervously asked, "How did you know about me and Rarity?"
"We all know you have feelings for her, silly!" giggled Pinkie Pie, "we just don't say much because there's no chance you'll…"
"Shut up!" shouted Techorse angrily, shocking them all into stopping their walk. "Don't you talk like that!" he demanded, shoving a robotic hand into Pinkie Pie's face.
"I once thought I'd never find love when I was Wizard's slave." He said, rage venting, "Don't you dare tell anyone they can't do the same, no matter what the odds are."
Pinkie let her mouth open in surprise at his sudden wrath, and backed off, showing no sadness whatsoever. "Spike, get up on my back, we're going ahead of the group and talking alone." He ordered. The dragon climbed up onto him, and they pulled at least 200 feet in front of the others before Techorse let his anger dissipate.
"Thanks for standing up for me." said the young dragon. He then sighed and said with despair, "but I guess they're right. What chance do I have with Rarity?" Techorse said, "Wizard turned me into a pony, and as a result, I found it easy to fall in love with Twilight. Trust me when I say this Spike, if that's possible, then there's got to be a way for you to become a pony as well."
"Yeah, but your change is forever." He said, "Those 'scales of justice' granted your wish. It was your choice."
"Maybe the scales did grant me the favor." Argued Techorse, "but that doesn't mean your dream of starting a relationship with Rarity is doomed. I have faith that things will turn out for you, Spike." Spike crossed his arms and turned around on the saddle, saying sadly, "Thanks bro, but you're an element holder, and I'm just a small dragon with no future."
"You have a future too Spike, but you don't see it right now, just like I couldn't when I was human. I know you'll have a good future." "How do you know?" he asked miserably. "There wouldn't be any justice if the kindest dragon I know never finds love. And I know justice personally, he's a good friend."
Spike smiled and knew Techorse was telling the truth. "You know, why do you love Twilight so much?" he asked after a short pause, hoping to gain some romance tips.
"She saved my life." He replied, "And for that I owe her everything I am. She's also the most beautiful pony I know, with the best personality ever. That's why I'm going on this mission, despite knowing what Arbiter will do to me. I couldn't live without her, so if I can't live, maybe at least she can." Spike nodded and thought on the pony's words. He felt good inside from the encouragement he had received, and decided to nap on the saddle as the team headed up the mountain for the tower.
