//------------------------------// // Trapped // Story: A New Agent // by Just A Random Pegasus //------------------------------// Lyra's eyes opened, her vision blurred. She rubbed her eyes, now able to see her surroundings. Whatever this strange place was, it wasn't her bedroom. She was in a cage. The bars were rusted and dirty, and the ground wasn't any better. She looked to the left to find Sweetie Drops, who was still asleep. The unicorn glanced around the room and saw many other ponies who she had trained with earlier that day. The room, or whatever they were in, was gray and dark and smelled of metal. Lyra stood up and saw a few stallions guarding the entrance. "Hey! Where am I? Why am I here?" She questioned. A stallion turned around, his harsh glare setting on Lyra. "This is a cave outside of Canterlot. You are here because you tried to ruin my master's plan," the stallion informed, turning around to watch the entrance again. By this time, Sweetie Drops had woken up. She was in a confused state as well. She turned to find Lyra standing. "Where are we, Li? And... bleh! Why does it smell like rust in here?" Sweetie Drops remarked, causing Lyra to face her. "We are in a cave, but apparently it's being used as as dungeon," Lyra informed. The stallion turned back around again. "To answer your question, whatever your name is, it smells like rust because these are some old cages that we're using. We had to take them from the Canterlot Castle." Sweetie Drops' eyes widened. "Where are the princesses? They would have stopped you if they were there!" "Oh, we sneaked through the castle. The princesses were too busy defending Canterlot to notice us. Also, Ahuizotl wants to deal with them personally. He gave us instructions to not capture them." "Okay..." Lyra responded, still unsure. "Why are you working for that... thing?" "You mean, Ahuizotl?" "Yeah!" "Well, we work for him because he provides us with bits. And when I say bits, I mean a lot of bits. He also promised we can live here once he takes this place over." "Back up! Why do you want to take over Canterlot?" Lyra questioned, a hint of anger in her orange eyes. "Oh, well, we need someplace to live. We used to travel different places and reside there. For a while, we lived in a temple. It was actually pretty nice. Ahuizotl wanted a certain number of huge rings. If he found them all and set them on a certain pedestal in the temple, he could have sent the world into 800 years of sweltering heat-" "Why would he want to do that? Is he some sort of maniac?" Lyra questioned. "No, he is not a maniac," the stallion responded, a little bit of anger in his voice. "And he never really said why. I, as well as the other stallions that were helping, just had to go with the flow. We figured he had some bad history with Equestria, and he didn't really want to give that information to us. Now, back to the explanation-" "I don't think bad history is a reason to burn up the world, though," Lyra interrupted as the stallion grunted. "Whatever. Just let me finish the explanation, okay!" He snapped. Lyra grew silent. "Thank you. Now, where was I... Oh yeah! We lived in that temple until it was destroyed. And don't ask how, because I really don't feel like explaining much to a prisoner. After-" "What do you mean? I have free will! Just because I messed with your plans, doesn't mean I can't know something!" Lyra burst, causing the stallion to raise his voice. "WILL YOU JUST BE QUIET ALREADY?!" He yelled. Lyra then made a zipper-closing motion across her mouth with her hoof. "Alright. As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, after the temple was destroyed, we had to live in the jungle. We just slept under the trees and stars. Ahuizotl was asking us all if we knew of someplace bigger and better. We then came to the assumption of Canterlot." "Why Canterlot?" Lyra questioned, still thinking it wasn't a valid explanation. "We chose Canterlot because it feels like the top of the world. We can see many jungles, where ancient and powerful artifacts are, and easily reach them. Ahuizotl also had the urge to attack something, since he was angry from the temple being destroyed. We trained a huge army of big cats to attack anypony who got in our way. They obviously did the job!" The stallion concluded, giving a small chuckle. Lyra grunted and turned, seeing everypony else in the room waking up. "Man, when do you think Ahuizotl will let us out of this cave? I mean, I'm starving!" One of the stallions guarding asked the other. "I'm not sure. But I assume he will pay us for standing guard. So, let's just stand and do our jobs! Maybe we can actually buy some real food for once!" The other stallion answered. While they were wrapped up in their own conversation, Lyra walked to the very edge of the cage near Sweetie Drops. "Sweetie Drops!" Lyra whispered, causing her friend to turn. "We need to get out of here." "I know. I was just thinking of a plan," Sweetie Drops responded, keeping her voice to a whisper. "I could probably break the cages with my magic!" "Well, the guards will notice. Maybe..." "Yes?" "You can put a sleeping spell on them!" Lyra blinked a few times. "Really? Bons, you know I can't do that. I fail at spells." Lyra then looked at the other cage next to her to find Minuette sitting there, rolling her hoof in the dirt. "I'll ask her," Lyra suggested, pointing her hoof at Minuette. "Do you think she's a talented unicorn?" "I'll ask. No harm in asking, right?" Lyra responded. She looked back at the guards. They had not heard the two talking, and were still conversing about their payments. Lyra walked over to the other side of the cage. "Hey, Minuette!" "Oh, hey Lyra!" Minuette responded as Lyra put a hoof to her mouth, signaling to be quieter. "Can I ask you something?" Lyra whispered to the blue unicorn. "Sure!" "Can you possibly put a sleep spell on the guards? That way, we can all escape!" "Well... I might be able to..." "Are you skilled in magic?" "Well, I guess you can say that..." "So... will you do it?" Lyra asked, putting on a smile of hope. "Of course. Well, I'll try at least. Anything to get us out of here!" Minuette answered. Lyra turned to Sweetie Drops and nodded her head. "Time to get out of this place!" Lyra remarked, keeping her voice at a low whisper.