It took me a couple of hours to reach the penitentiary. I had considered letting things go and just driving a convertible down the road with my arm hanging out of the side; all the while making it look like there was a pony driving a car. I had a good laugh about that, but decided that would just lead to way too much attention on me. I needed to be unseen until my assault. Acting out like that would be very counterproductive to my efforts.
Of course, when I arrived I realized how glad I was that I had not done that. The place was huge! I remember the assault that Zero had made to rescue Toudoh on this place and I also remember that instead of doing that, they opted for a covert rescue in this timeline since knightmare frames were not working anymore. I just don't think that I realized the scale that this place was on.
The walls seemed over a couple hundred feet high and don't even get me started on how wide it was. And that was just the outer perimeter. The place was double walled and while the second wall was slightly higher than the first, the second wall was where all the knightmare frames were stored. I was just glad that I didn't have to worry about those this time. The place only had one entryway on the perimeter and six access points on the second wall. There weren't any guard towers on the perimeter wall either, but there was one on each corner of the inner wall.
I quickly teleported on top of the entryway on the first wall. Then, I teleported to the top of the entryway just behind that one. While there, I was able to get a view of the inner block.
In a few words, it seemed kinda ridiculous. There were six individual prison blocks each in an asterisk pattern. Each of these blocks had there own guard tower in the center of them where the eight points on the asterisk extended from. The blocks extending from the tower looked to hold the prisoners in each case and ended in an extended wing that just seemed like they were added on later.
Of course, I could also now see one addition that hadn't been in the original design. In the dead center of these blocks was a strange circular area that seemed to be surrounded by a wooden fence. The inside of the area was covered with what I surmised was hay. I couldn't be sure from this distance though. I was too far away to see anything else in specific about the area other than that. However, I wondered as to why it took up such a large area.
I shook off that thought. It wasn't the reason why I was here. I was here to rescue Pinkie Pie and that's what I would do.
I had two options. The first was to use invisibility and move from one place to the other in order to find her. It seemed ideal since I wasn't aware of the layout, but if I ran into areas that were guarded using magic I would end up having to reveal myself to get through them. The other option was to create a diversion and lure out the guards while I checked the prison. The diversion would give me the leeway I needed in case of magic defenses that I would have to break through.
I then thought about something. I've been using my magic over and over again. What would happen if it suddenly gave out while I was in the middle of my covert operation? I would be pretty much defenseless and I would be exposed as a human. A diversion, however, would be good at causing chaos which, in turn, would help recharge my magic.
First things first, though. I decided to teleport to each guard tower to see which block Pinkie was being held in. Getting a general location would help more than wandering aimlessly through all six of them. After a few teleportations, I figured out that she was in the middle block on the right side of the main gate. I then teleported back to the entryway on the second wall and began my diversion.
"First, I'll start off with the most fun aspect of my new illusion spell. Cool music."
I picked a point above the penitentiary and started playing Thunderstruck.It was quite the fun number if I do say so myself. I made it as loud as I possibly could to let all the ponies hear it. Then, every time they used the word 'thunder', I blasted one of the six guard towers, then the circle area, then two of the corner guard towers, then the other two, and finally on the last one I blasted the furthest entryway in the back.
As soon as the diversion was in full swing, I saw many different ponies react all over the grounds. I was happy that the sounds coming from the skies made them leave their guard towers before I blasted them. I'm not a heartless killing machine after all. I took the opportunity to teleport over to the block Pinkie was being held in. I then bonked myself in the head for forgetting to check which of the eight rows she was in. On the third teleport, the coin showed me the right one and I promptly blasted a hole in the roof and went in.
As I got my bearings, I decided to do a little throwing off of my trail and activated my illusion spell again. A whole group of pony doppelgangers appeared beside me and split up to confuse anyone about what was happening. While that was happening, I got a better look at where I was.
Though, I use that term in the loosest way possible. After all, it was just a corridor with a few torch lights along one side of the wall. The other side had the actual cells to hold prisoners in. They weren't exactly big. Luckily, I didn't see any of them in use. On the other hand, I worried a little about the lack of use.
I didn't have the time to think about it, though. The diversion was past halfway over. I looked at which way the coin was pointed and ran off in that direction. I only got about fifty feet before the coin reversed direction. I looked around quickly and then realized she was below me. I blasted a hole in the floor and jumped through it again. I looked around to see if she was on that floor.
No dice. Oddly enough, one of the doppelgangers ran past me as well. There must not be anyone on the top floor at all for that to happen. A good sign that either my diversion was working perfectly or there just isn't any use for the upper floors. I blasted the floor again and dropped through.
I looked around again for Pinkie Pie. This time, I found her in one of the cells. Well, it was more or less her.
I noticed a very unamused Pinkamena staring straight at me through the weird square bars of the cell. Not a good sign. I decided to try some humor to get her back.
"Hey there Pinkie! Guess who?"
"Hello Seth," she said in a low tone.
"What? How'd ya know it was me?"
"The music. It's like the kind you played when you fought Discord."
Not good. She's in pretty deep right now. I need to get her out of there and out of this place. Not to mention the song was almost over and with it my diversion.
"Come on Pinkie. We'll talk about this when we get you back home."
"What's the point?"
"Say what?"
"Why should I? It's been nearly a month since I got here. You guys obviously don't care about me that much if it took you this long to come get me."
Damn it. I knew this temporal alignment crap would bite me in the ass. She thinks we took our time to get her. I responded by snapping my fingers and turning her cell door into jello. After the mass of jello fell to the ground, I stepped inside and did the first thing I could think of to help.
I wrapped her up in a hug.
"Pinkamena Diane Pie you should know better than this. Your friends care deeply about you. The problem here is that they can't come to get you. Only I can. Plus, I've been trying to get you guys for three days not a month. Time passes differently here. I'm sorry you had to deal with a world where Nightmare Moon is in charge. She'll get what's coming to her in time. For now, let's get you out of here and back to your friends."
I felt her mane poof out in my arms and I let out a breath that I didn't even know that I had been holding.
"Okie dokie lokie!" I heard her say in her usual cheerful voice.
I set her back down and quickly teleported the both of us outside of our cell.
"And where do you think that the two of you are going?"
I whipped my head around and saw exactly who I thought it would be.
Nightmare Moon.
She stood down the hall about twenty feet away with two guard ponies flanking her on either side. I looked behind us for a second and noticed that there were another dozen or so guards blocking off that direction. Things weren't looking that well.
"So you are the ignorant foal who thinks that he can stand up to me!"
"Yeah, that sounds like me alright. My name is- oh my god is that Discord!?!" I said pointing my illusion's hoof behind her.
"What!?!" she yelled and whirled around.
"Sucker!!!" the two of us yelled.
I then teleported us out of there and back to the entryway on the outer wall.
"Nice one Seth! Did you see the look on her face?"
"You bet I did! She was all 'What' and we were both like 'sucker' and I bet she is really angry confused right now!"
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"It certainly sounds like she is! Now, let's get out of here!"
"One last thing before I go."
I then projected my illusion into a ten story version of myself.
"DOWN WITH TYRANNY!!! END THE NIGHTMARE!!!"
I then let my illusion shrink back down to normal size.
"Alright, let's go now. Touch the coin and we can head on home."
"Wow! That was really cool! Can you get it to do other things?"
"Later, when we get back alright?"
"Oh come on."
"Tell that to her," I said and pointed to the prison block.
Pinkie looked over to where I was pointing and saw a dark mist swirling on the roof. The mist started to grow larger and larger. I could feel the air getting colder as well.
"You win, let's go," said Pinkie.
I held my coin out just beyond the illusion so that she could see it. She then placed her hoof on it and we were out of there with a flash.