"I'm booored!" groaned Rainbow Dash, rolling on the floor, her voice echoing through the silent library. Twilight rose her eyes from the book she was reading and glared at her for the other side of a low table where she, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy were calmly reading a group of books. After a couple of minutes of whining, Noxfero had managed to dump the ponies in the library and flee to do whatever he was going to do. Twilight was actually happy to put something apart from the image of the princess being held captive somewhere in her head.
On the other hand, Rainbow and Pinkie, due to their nature, were extremely allergic to books and quiet pasttimes. So, as was easy to predict, they were both bored out of their minds, even if the vampire was still trying to find something for them, without much success: they had already dumped two piles of books.
"We should be trying to save tre princess, not staying here chilling, reading and losing our time!" added Rainbow, sitting and looking at her friends. "It's like you don't care at all!"
"Rainbow!" exclaimed Applejack with a frown. "That's aint true! We all want to save the princess, but Nox told us why we can't do anything for now." The cyan pegasus huffed, crossing her forelegs and pouting. As the Element of Loyalty, staying motionless was as far as she can tell, a treason. She gave only a quick glance to the next book Sasha posed in front of her, before standing on her hooves again and beginning to wander around. She eventually managed to bump into Pinkie Pie, who was tapping a hoof against one of the shelves, bored.
"Hey Pinkie." Muttered Rainbow, sitting at the other mare's side. "Whatcha' doing?"
"Meh." Answered Pinkie, tapping the book. "Nothing. There is nothing to do here."
"Maybe there is something to do outside." Hinted Rainbow, with a little grin on her muzzle. Pinkie tilted her head. "Maybe we should go outside and see." Added the pegasus. The pink mare blinked, before giving an an enomrous grin.
"We could explore around!"
"Heck yeah!" agreed the pegasus, happy to have Pinkie on her side. "We just have to find a way to sneak away from here without the others noticing." she whispererd, before noticing Pinkie pointing to a little purple and scarlet window built over a shelf. The pegasus grinned, before grabbing her friend and silently pulling her over the shelf, opening the window, and crawling outside.
"Here, maybe this book is more of your taste. With battles, blood, orcs, magic, giant eagles and spectral creatures…" stated Sasha, floating down from a high shelf with a big book in her hands, before stopping and looking around. "Where did the rainbow maned one go?" she asked, scanning the table.
"Probably she went off playing the li'l explorer around here somewhere with Pinkie." Stated Applejack, while reading her book on crops and organized culture. "They're not that kind of ponies you'll see behind a table, reading. Not too often anyway."
"Well, as long as they are in the library, it's fine." Commented the vampire, floating over the table, while dusting off her purple gown.
"Is… is it so bad outside…?" asked timidly Fluttershy, daring to look in the vampire's eyes.
"Well…" started Sasha, tapping her long cured nails on the cover of the book she was holding. "Inside the castle it's not realy very safe for you all. It's even less so outside. I thought the master told you."
"Well he did but…" began Fluttershy, cowering a little, uneasy under the gaze of the vampire. "…can't be that bad…right…?" she squeaked. Sasha tapped a nail against her cheek, before answering, measuring her words.
"For a devil it is not quite a dangerous place. For an immortal, like me, it isn't either. For mortals like Esper, it can be a little dangerous, but not too much. For mortals like you, on the other hand, it'll be just a death trap, if you if you wander around alone."
"For real? It's really that bad?" asked Applejack, looking skeptically at the vampire.
"Well yeah. You can easily end up raped, burned, skinned, chopped into pieces, eviscerated and killed. Of course the order can change easily." Stated calmly Sasha, floating again towards the shelf, putting the book in its place. "Do you want some red tea?"
-oOo-
Pinkie and Rainbow observed the environment, stunned: they were posed over an inclined side of a low, black roof, on what seemed to be a wing of an immense and contorted black castle, surrounded by a ditch full of deep dark water. On the other side of the ditch, a large expanse of gray ground and enormous black, spiked rocks similar to hills and high mountains was in full sight before their eyes.
"Well, this seems quite boring…" commented Rainbow after a few seconds. Indeed, the air was still, and no sounds could be heard. The couple of mares looked at each other, before the pegasus grabbed the pink mare and flew with her to the ground on the other side of the moat.
"Look Rainbow! There are passages between the spikes! Maybe the fun is on the other side!" chirped Pinkie excitedly, pointing at something similar to a tunnel leading inside one of the enormous rocks.
"Well, I suppose… but it's too quiet." Huffed the cyan pegasus, following the hopping pink mare inside the tunnel. After a few minutes of calm walking, they finally got out of the tunnel, being blinded for a couple of seconds from the intense and sudden light: the red sky played host to a big, yellow blazing sun, that apparently was hidden by the rocks around the castle.
The path they were following continued along the gray ground, while on both sides, there were two deep cracks in the ground, from where streams of flames erupted time to time.
"Well well well… this is far more radical!" exclaimed the pegasus with a smile. "Imagine all the acrobatics I can do here!" she added, looking around. The pink mare nodded, while looking at a little purple flower emerging from the ground.
"This place is strange, but I don't know why Noxy said that it was dangerous…" she commented, before trotting behind Rainbow, missing seeing the flower opening and trying to grab her tail with a long and tough pseudopod.
"Oh yeah, I'll have to say something to that devil! keeping us away from the cool stuff!" grinned Rainbow, twirling in the air, and turning towards Pinkie, flying backwards. "You don't mind, right?" she asked, with a grin. Pinkie blinked.
"Uh?"
"If I scold him a little." Explained Rainbow, still with her grin on her muzzle. Pinkie raised an eyebrow, trying to understand why Rainbow was smirking like that. She opened her mouth to ask for an explanation, but was cut off by a muffled voice, pleading from inside one of the cracks:
"He…lp m…e…"
The two mares jumped, startled, looking around, to try and find the source of the plea. Their eyes eventually ended up at the crack at their side. The two mares trotted towards the edge, looking slowly beneath them: a few feet down from the edge, chained and hooked to the crack's wall with a series of rusty hooks, there was a person.
The two ponies stepped back at first, stunned by the condition of the creature. He was clearly similar to Noxfero in his general structure, even if his hair was blond and his skin was far paler than the devil's. His flesh was gashed, some wounds pouring out little streams of blood and bile. He was completely naked, except for the remains of a pair of shorts around his tights, protecting only a little part of his body from the fire that time to time erupted from below him, scorching his chest and face.
"Oh.. my… Celestia…" finally muttered Rainbow. "Hey… hey you, what's happened?" she cried down, looking at the figure. He raised his head slowly, carefull not to pull on any of the hooks that were holding his neck against the wall, and looked at them with pleading eyes.
"Please…just…please…take…take me out of here…" he gurgled out, as another stream of flame blasted out from below him. The two mares looked at each other, before crouching on the ground.
"We have to help that poor guy!" stated Rainbow. Pinkie nodded, before returning to look at the crack.
"This is what Noxy meant by dangerous…?" she whispered. The pegasus shrugged, before waiting for the next flame. As soon as the stream of fire extinguished, she flew down to the same height as the whimpering creature, and rapidly as she could, she began to remove the rusty hooks.
She had to use her mouth, since her hooves weren't exactly the most accurate of instruments. The taste of the metal and the dried blood was nauseating, but she managed to resist the impulse to gag. Slowly, flying out every time another flame was starting to light the depths of the crack, she managed to free the skinny creature, taking him onto her back and dragging him outside the crack.
With a little thump, she dropped the creature on the ground. He panted, his eyes closed, clearly in pain. But on his face there was the biggest smile the two mares had ever seen.
"I… don't know what you two are… if angels, hallucinations or something…but…but thank you for taking me out of there." He finally managed to say, sitting up.
"Hey, don't mention it pal. Anyone would have taken you out of there." Exclaimed Rainbow, puffing out her chest.
"Who did that to you?" asked Pinkie worriedly. "Maybe Noxy can beat him for what he did!"
"I… the devils…they did that… I have to get out of…here…" managed to say the man, trying to stand on his feet. Pinkie trotted over, helping him to stand. "We have to go…before they catch us…"
"Maybe we can bring him to the castle! Nox might protect him from all the other nasty devils!" exclaimed Pinkie, smiling. Rainbow huffed, flapping her wings.
"I say we carry him out of here the fastest possible way. Who knows how many problems Nox could have trying to protect him."
"Hey, what are you three doing?" asked a cold voice behind them, making them turn: a two meters tall, slim creature was looking at them. Its body was extremely geometrical and featureless, its chest, arms and legs similar to sticks. Its head was a big purple fireball, with a couple of yellow dots inside it.
"It's one of them!" screamed the man, as he grabbed Pinkie's mane in fear. "Let's get out of here!"
"Holy cow, you are escaping!" screamed the creature, an instant before Rainbow charged into its chest, pushing him easily to the ground.
"Run Pinkie!" cried out the pegasus mare, turning and flapping her wings, as the creature on the ground groaned. Pinkie immediately turned and started to gallop away, following the path. She continued to run, even when from behind them came a horrible screech, emitted by the creature.
"More of those things ahead!" cried out Dash, lowering her head and hitting at full speed another creature that had just emerged from behind a spiky hill, sending him to the ground. The pink mare just easily dodjed the silly attempts of the creatures to catch her. It wasn't even really funny, since they seemed to be unable to bend their legs and arms, giving them quite a not scary appearence while trying to grab the mare with their little fingers. After a few minutes of being chased, Pinkie just stopped running and proceeded with her usual hopping along the way.
"Hay… stop right there Pinkie!" ordered suddenly the pegasus, glaring ahead. "There is a large field, but… that's crazy, it's covered in glass shards! We have to go around it."
"But… but if we do it, they'll catch us!" screamed the man. "You have to go through! You have to!" screamed the man, tugging the mare's mane. Pinkie nodded, still hopping.
"He's right Dashie. We have to stay ahead!" she shouted at the pegasus, before arriving at the field. Indeed, it was a large field, made of white, thin sand, where glass shards emerged, shining under the sun. The mare put a hoof in the sand and tasted a couple of grains: salt. She breathed heavily, and started to gallop. After a few seconds, she was already screaming in pain: her hooves sank into the salt at every step, getting cuts on her underhooves and lower leg area from the glass, with the salt adding even more pain.
"This is nuts! We have to turn back!" cried out Rainbow. This was indeed nuts! She just wanted to explore!
"I… I can take this Dash… but… when we are going to get out of here, mister?" managed to say the pink mare. The man on her back blinked.
"I don't have the slightest idea."
"What?!" snapped Dash, flying down and glaring at the man. "You mean you don't know where we are?!" she growled, planting her magenta eyes on the man.
"Well… since you came to save me, I tought you knew where to go!" yelled the man. Rainbow was about to retort, but at that point, one of Pinkie's forelegs gave out, and the mare fell to the ground, wounding her flank and sending the man to the desert floor. The scream of pain from Pinkie sent a cold chill down Rainbow's spine.
"Buck… come here, Pinkie, we are getting out of here…" panted the cyan pegasus. How was possible things had worsened so fast? Was this what Noxfero meant by dangerous? Of course it was! Why hadn't they done as he'd said?
"Here they are!" cried out one of the creatures, running towards them with his ridiculous shamble, followed by a big group of other creatures. Rainbow growled and charged one of them, sending it to the ground. A couple fo them flanked her and grabbed her wings, forcing her to fall down.
The man tried to crawl away, before one of the creatures grabbed him by the neck, raising him into the air, as well as Pinkie, who faintly wiggled her hooves in the air, trying to free herself, spraying a shower of tiny scarlet drops over the white salt.
"We should bring them to the master. They do not seem to be angels. But they are not devils either." Commented one of the creatures, sniffing Dash's mane, as she tried to bite her captor's arm.
"Agreed!" cried in chorus the other creatures, before starting to march calmly away from the field, back down the path that the three escapees had left behind them. Rainbow continued to wiggle, trying to get free from the grip of steel that the creatures had on her. She continued in her attempts, failing to notice what was happening around them, until a surprised voice caught her attention.
"What the…?"
She raised her eyes, and noticed that the environment had changed: they were on the edge of a cliff, and far below them was an endless expanse of bloodied metallic spikes, where a series of tiny bodies were impaled. On the edge of the cliff, Noxfero, who apparently had been reading a bunch of papers that were held in his hand, had raised his eyes and widened them, looking at the scene in front of him. Jaco was at his feet, looking surprised as well, ignoring the flaming arrow sticking out of his forehead. Behind them, a stoic bulky creature with the head of a rhino was looking at them, impassible.
"These two creatures helped this soul to escape, boss." Stated one of the thin creatures, pointing his arm first at Pinkie, then at the human. Noxfero turned, raising an eyebrow. "We thought they were strange creatures, even for angels, so we thought to bring them here. The soul as well, since the punishment is as you will."
"Where did you get them?" he asked in a neutral, cold voice, examining the three as if they were objects of low interest, his eyes stopping for a second more on the bloodied side and hooves of the pink earth pony.
"In the plain of salt, boss."
"Well then. First, the soul…" ordered the devil, taking a step towards them. "Send him back to his place. Shove a blazing poker in his mouth, and put salt and lemon juice on his cuts. I'll come to cut him later." He ordered, impassible.
"What? You can't do that Nox! He didn't do anything wrong!" screamed Rainbow. Noxfero just ignored her, gesturing to one of the creatures, who took the soul and walked away.
"Now... these two are indeed neither angels nor devils. They are just an experiment of my scientist. They are fine specimens, so don't hurt them further. Just bring them to the castle again. Jaco, go with them." ordered the devil. His minion nodded, and joined the two tall creatures that were holding the ponies. They turned, and started to walk slowly down the path.
"Why does everything have to be so difficult?"
-oOo-
Celestia opened her eyes slowly, and the first thing she noticed, even before the pain, was the color: red. It was red everywhere. The walls, the ceiling, the windows. Even the table where she was bound down was red. Then came the pain.
The alicorn emitted an acute scream, due to the pain she hadn't felt in the past thousand years. It came from every inch of her body, from her skin, muscles and bones. She screamed, as she tried to free herself from the metallic bindings holding her down, her wings flapping crazily.
"Back to the living, I see." Commented a cold voice that thrusted inside her mind like a nail. "So, what can you tell me about her?"
"Well master… sacred energy, as I assumed in that… dreadful place. A very large amount, it'll take rather long to extract it all. But now that she's awake, at least it'll be entertaining."
"I never needed to ask why you chose to work for the nazis, when you were alive: you gave me the answer every time I saw your work."
"Danke, master. Now, as you can see, the nails in her spine and wingbones, apart from inflicting pain, serve as extractors. It'll be slow, drop after drop. But we should do it."
"About the statue?"
"That's longer. We are still working on that."
"Well, for now, suck her dry. After that, kill her and store her soul somewhere. She'll be an exotic toy."
Celestia cringed in pain, trying to give an order to her thoughts. But that was impossible. The pain was too much. There was also this strange feeling, inside of her. So strange, so unnatural…
Fear. She hadn't felt fear in years. Not even when Nightmare Moon menaced the world to try and make the night last forever a second time had she feared: she had known Twilight would restore the Elements. But now she was feeling fear.
And for the first time after her sister's return, she cried.