Chapter 8
My head is throbbing, but I'm definitely still alive. Darn. I must be blindfolded and tied up, but why? They don't keep their prey alive. They likely have a magic nullifying spell on me. What were they planning? Why go through the trouble of keeping me alive? I struggled a bit to try and get free.
"Oh look who is awake" I heard a voice say. I tried to respond but my mouth was taped shut. I felt my blindfold lose up and it fell off my face and I got a clear view of the changeling.
"I would kill you right now, but I got new others from our general" the changeling said with a smirk. The general? Which one? I tried to ask but I could only muffle under the tape.
"Consider yourself lucky, scum. Somehow you've seen our leader so our general wants to meet you personally." It explained. Oh no, how could I have been so stupid? They could see people I've seen before so they would easily know if I've seen HIM before, now he's coming for me. I guess he wants to finish what he started. What I started. I should've put up a fight so he could've killed me in the fight, sure I could easily kill him but that would only attract the attention of officials which would lead them to scout the area, killing off anypony in it including me. I might have strong magic, but they got numbers on their side.
"Maybe I should kill you right now, save our leader the trouble" it taunted as he swung around a knife and smirked. I knew he was bluffing but I still pretended to struggle and he laughed at me. If I acted cocky, he might kill me for real. I looked around a little, we were in a campsite sure, but I saw no tent nor food, only some boxes and a fire pit in the middle. He probably had a base nearby, which meant the rumors were true. I just hope Spike leads them out of Ponyville before they are found.
"Oh, looks like she's here" it said with a smirk. A big portal opened up near the changeling and a green pony with armor emerged from it. The armor had THE symbol, which meant she was with the army. Nopony really knew what the name of the symbol was, many call it the anti-harmony symbol or chaos symbol. I call it 'you're about to die' symbol, most ponies who see it are either WITH or AGAINST the army.
"Ma'am, here's the prisoner I've capture" it said with a bow, the green pony looked at me.
"This is what you wasted my time with? He is nothing but trash waiting to be drown out!" She said harshly as she spit near me.
"I know that ma'am, but-" it tried.
"You should know what happens to scouts who waste my time!" She yelled loudly at the changeling, he bowed lower and was clearly shaking.
"B-But ma'am, he has seen our leader!" it tried. She looked directly at me and arched an eyebrow. Then she walked over and (painfully) ripped off the tape on my mouth.
"How do you know our leader?" She asked me. I turned away from her and didn't respond.
"Our lady has asked you a question!" it yelled at me.
"And I won't answer!" I yelled back, earning a punch in the gut from the green pony.
"You worthless pile of trash! Do not speak back to us! Answer the question!" she yelled. I was still tied up so I couldn't run away, and as I suspected I had a magic nullifying spell on me.
"Go. To. Hell." I huffed, the punch left me breathless.
"You little…" the changeling started but was cut off by the green ponies laugh.
"Report back to base, I'll figure out what to do with him" she said to the changeling.
"Yes ma'am!" it responded as he flew into the portal. She then smiled at me.
"What is your relationship with our leader?" she asked again.
"Nothing, I probably saw him before he became leader, I'm just a regular unicorn on death row" I lied. She shook her head, like my mother did when she knew I was lying.
"Tell you what, I'll make a Pinkie Promise with you, you tell me how you know my leader and I'll make sure your death is quick and painless" she taunted.
"What's a Pinkie Promise?" I asked. Didn't Sweetie Belle know what those where?
"One shall not break a Pinkie Promise or the darkness will annihilate them, it's one of the enacted dark-laws our leader has placed" she explained. Dark-laws where basically spells that HE placed on Equestria, I'm not sure what the rules are for making one but if you break one of said laws, you'll be instantly killed. There had to be rules right? Otherwise why not make a 'you can't rebel against our leader' law? Wait, how did Sweetie Belle know about these then?
"Tempting, but I decline" I responded.
"Do you know what they do to people like you? I'm doing you a favor." She plainly said.
"I know what they'll do, they'll probably torture me until I either confess or I die from the pain" I replied. She looked even more curious now.
"You seem to know a lot for a 'regular unicorn'" she laughed. I'm just digging myself into a deeper hole.
"Look, as much as I love talking to an executioner, can you just kill me please?" I harshly asked. She shook her head.
"You know too much, we need to examine you closer" she plainly said. Great. Maybe I can starve myself before they get anything out of me. She then looked around and leaned near my ear.
"Alright listen, I'm not actually with the army, I'm a spy and I think I want to help you, but first you need to tell me everything" she whispered. Yeah, like I was going to fall for that.
"Ok, I'm actually a dragon disguised as a pony and I'm trying to steal all of Equestria's gems" I joked. She laughed.
"You're sense of humor won't do much good here. But I am serious." She tried. I had no reason to trust her.
"Seriously, you won't get anything from me" I insisted. She again shook her head. She must love shaking her head.
"Look in about 4 minutes the changeling will come back, if you don't believe me by then I'll need to order him to kill you, tell me now and we can negotiate" she said.
"Only 4 minutes? Can't wait." I plainly said. She sighed.
"I'll be back, hopefully you'll see things my way by then" she said as she walked into the portal. Why would they leave prisoners unguarded? They must have scouts nearby. I guess she wants to see if I talked out loud or if I escaped, but how could I? Wait. The spell wore off! Why? Oh I get it, she's trying to make me escape so I could lead her to somepony, they probably assume I'm part of a rebel alliance.
"Or maybe she's intentionally letting you escape" a voice in my head said. Maybe I would've believed that months ago. Come to think of it, when she wasn't whispering she didn't say out loud that she was helping me. Was somepony listening to us, or to her? But that only supported the theory that there were scouts spying on me nearby. Also she seemed like she was intentionally trying to get me alone, why send the scout away? Man this is confusing, death sure seems appealing right now.
"Frost" I heard a whisper. I looked around, there were a lot of trees so I couldn't see anypony. 'Pssssssssssst!' the voice went. I looked towards the sound and saw a figure standing in the bushes signaling me. Oh no! No! No! No!
"We've come to rescue you" another voice whispered as they looked around cautiously and finally approached me. Sweetie Belle and Spike. No!
"What are you two doing here?" I hissed.
"What are you doing here? Reading more off the book?" I asked Twilight. She didn't look back at me.
"I'm just reading up more spells, this book has an incredible amount of combat spells" Twilight responded.
"Why are you reading combat spells?" I asked.
"I have the feeling me might need them" she responded, still intensely reading the book. I sighed.
"Listen, Twilight, he is going to be fine" I reassured.
"What if he's not? The book could easily corrupt him!" Twilight pointed out, still not turning back to me.
"He has a stubborn head, I don't think the book will influence him easily" I tried. She shook her head.
"By my calculations, he should've returned MONTHS ago!" Twilight yelled. It felt like years have gone by since I've last seen him. I miss him.
"Maybe the book is hidden?" I asked. She finally turned to me, she had an exhausted look in her eyes, how long was she here for?
"Then why didn't he come back and ask for help? Doesn't he know that we could've helped him? I'm just so worried for him." Twilight said, turning back to the book. She wasn't around us very often but she was so attached to us.
"Listen Twilight, if it makes you feel better, why don't you and I go to where the book is, maybe we will find him there" I tried. She turned to me and smiled.
"I'd like that" she brightly said.
"We've come to rescue you" Spike whispered back as he began untying the rope on me.
"No, go away!" I whispered back.
"No way, we need to save you first" Spike responded, not taking his eyes off the rope.
"Yeah, you saved us now we're going to save you" Sweetie Belle (quietly) added. This is bad!
"You both need to run before she comes back" I whispered.
"Relax, she said four minutes" Sweetie Belle pointed out.
"They'll kill you if they see you" I whispered back.
"We would rather die than let you get killed" Spike responded as he undid the last knot. As soon as I was free I quickly stood up.
"You two need to-" I started.
"I need you to make a Pinkie Promise" Sweetie Belle told me. Spike and I turned to her confusingly.
"What?" Spike asked.
"Frost, Pinkie Promise you won't let yourself die because of us again." Sweetie Belle said, looking mad.
"What? Sweetie Belle this isn't the time!" I hissed. Spike looked puzzled.
"I'm not moving from this spot until you do, if you pick me up I'll yell" Sweetie Belle harshly responded. Was she blackmailing me!?
"You can't be serious!" Spike whispered. Sweetie Belle still had that determined look in her eyes. I knew she wasn't going to budge unless I did as she asked.
"Alright fine, I pinky promise!" I whispered. We had about a minute before she returned and I needed to get them out of here!
"No, do the motions too" Sweetie Belle instructed.
"What motions?" I asked. I was starting to panic.
"Like this. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Sweetie Belle demonstrated as she did some weird poses. This is ridiculous! How can I let myself be blackmailed, by a filly!
"Alright. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I whispered and did the motions. Just as I did it I felt a small surge of magic hit me. For a moment I thought I was being attacked but then I realized something, this was dark-magic! Did Sweetie Belle know I couldn't break this promise now?
"Alright good, now we can leave" Sweetie Belle said with a smile.
"Let's go!" I whispered. If I was going to die, I wasn't going to die in front of them. "Follow me!" I whispered loudly as I ran into the woods.
We've been running for a few minutes, but I didn't sense any changeling following us. Why didn't they chase us? After a while of running Sweetie Belle ran in front of me and signaled me to follow her instead. She must be leading us to the others.
"Phew that was close" Spike sighed as we continued running.
"No it wasn't, I'm sure they'll eventually follow our trail" I pointed out.
"Don't worry, they can't follow us when I use my dragon fire" Spike responded.
"Dragon fire?" I asked.
"Yeah, it can teleport us" Spike responded as he jumped on my back.
"Fire away!" Sweetie Belle chimed as she also jumped on my back. Good thing I wasn't old.
"Hang on!" Spike said as he took a deep breath.
"Why?" I asked, then I saw nothing but green.
"Woah!" I yelled as I landed on my feet.
"Ya'll are back!" I heard a familiar voice say. I felt Spike and Sweetie Belle hop off.
"Yup, operation 'rescue our friend' was a success" Spike proudly said. I looked around confused, we weren't in Ponyville anymore and both Scootaloo and Applebloom were here.
"Good, I was worried we'd need to save you all" Scootaloo laughed as they high-hoofed each other. Spike really did teleport us.
"That's good, I was really worried for ya'll" Applebloom said, weakly getting up. Dragon magic wasn't trackable by spell, they didn't know enough about dragons to figure that out. Spike really did get us out of there, there was no track to follow. We really were safe!
"Spike you really amazed me, there is no way they can find us now" I said with a smile. Spike scratched the back of his head.
"Aww c'mon, it wasn't that impressive" Spike embarrassingly said.
"You kidding? That was AMAZING! You were so calm when we were sneaking around! You're a good leader Spike!" Sweetie Belle brightly said. Both Applebloom and Scootaloo chuckled.
"Thanks" Spike said with a smile. By the look in Scootaloo and Applebloom's eyes, I knew that they knew about Spike and Sweetie Belle's small romance.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Like heck we know, we just kept running" Scootaloo plainly said. I sighed.
"All my supplies were back at camp and there's no way we're going back to Ponyville, looks like we will need to start fresh" I disappointingly said, which means I will need to draw out a new map.
I was tired by the end of the day, good thing Sweetie Belle fell asleep easier with the others around because I wasn't in the mood to think of another story. I'm not sure why, but I just couldn't sleep, maybe it was the fact that I was laying on grass and twigs instead of my old mat. Or maybe it was because of Spike's snoring.
"W… Wait… What if…. What if…" Spike said in his sleep then went back to snoring. He kept repeating phrases like that, stuff like 'don't leave' and 'don't die', at first I thought he was talking about me, until I heard him say 'Twilight, please'. I really need to ask him how he knows her, then again he might ask me how I know her, which I didn't want to answer.
"Ehehehe…" Sweetie Belle chuckled in her sleep, at least she was having a good dream. I can't stop thinking about our escape, I once again managed to run from a scout, that is quiet the accomplishment. Except this time, no one sacrificed themselves for me.
"Oh my, what a downgrade from your old campsite huh?" I heard a voice say. I froze, it sounded very close. "Slowly get up and nopony will get hurt… a lot." The same voice said, it sounded like that green pony from before. I did rose slowly, maybe she didn't see the others, they were using leafs as blankets.
"How did you find me?" I asked. She laughed, loudly. Please don't wake the others up.
"I'll admit it was hard, but you all didn't travel very far, I just flew around until I saw you" she responded with a smile, like she figured out a puzzle. She said 'you all', which meant she knew I wasn't alone.
"Well…" I started, I couldn't think what to say. She found me, she found the others, and now she will take me to HIM to kill me. I lost, completely.
"Don't finish that, just hold still" she responded with a smile as her horn glew and quickly launched a beam at me.
"Wait!" I yelled without thinking. What is this spell? I felt myself going num. Is she putting me to sleep? I feel dizzy. Don't hurt them! Please don't hurt them! It can't end like this!
Still isn't the end, I'll make it clear if this story is ending. Sorry for the long wait, got caught up in my other stories and real life stuff. Hope this chapter left you at a cliff hanger, I love doing that. :)
