Chapter One
The Caged Raven
A rough jostle knocks me into consciousness, and my ears are filled with the creaking and rumbling of a wooden cart rolling across stone. A rough patch of smelly hay is prickling the left side of my body, signifying that I was on my side. A dank smell of wood and off hay fills my sinuses and makes me a little nauseous.
I let out a quiet grunt of discomfort and dare to open my eyes. It's dark, and rather compact. I'm in a cart, for sure.
"Ah, you're finally awake, young mare," A stallion's voice suddenly speaks up, giving me a small jolt. I try to sit up, but the jingling of chains and the limited movements of my legs confirms that I'm wearing shackles. Trying to spread my wings is useless; I can feel something tied around me and keeping them folded down. From the thin but rough feeling, I assume it’s a large piece of rope.
Now things are becoming clear; I've been arrested, and I'm in a prisoner's cart. I'm not surprised, I've gotten captured so many times before that I've become accustomed to the signs. I've never had my wings tied down before, though. They must finally be learning.
"You've been out for some time," the stallion continues, and I shift myself around on my hay pile to catch a look at him. He's difficult to make out in the dark, even with the patch of sunlight coming in from the back door window, but from his silhouette, I guess he might be an earth pony.
I grunt again, smacking my chapped lips. "How... long have I been out?"
"Well, we have all been on this little trip for the better part of a day," the stallion assumes, "That bump on the head really took it out of you. I was beginning to think you'd died from it." He chuckles softly.
I wince and try to reach the back of my head as a pain throbs with my heartbeat. Now that I think of it, I do remember getting hit from behind, but right now, it's all a blur.
I blink slowly, trying to process what he'd said. "What do you mean 'we have all been on this trip'?"
The stallion nods to his left, and my eyes follow. My heart skips a beat as I make out a thick-shouldered figure, clad in a black cloak with their head lowered. I can see a long, protruding lump from their forehead, confirming them to be a unicorn.
"That big guy was thrown in with us," explains the stallion, "He was dressed like this and all. He must be bad news, since they drugged and muzzled him. He's been slumped like that ever since."
I swallow, wondering just what kind of pony could be so dangerous that they'd have to subdue him like that. But with the answers I get, I also get more questions. "Who are 'they'?" I ask.
"The Sunstar," he answers, "Princess Platinum's own unicorn army. They jumped us out of nowhere, and those who fought them either fled or perished. I was taken for questioning, and probably execution."
Why do this pony's answers only give me more questions? How does that even work?!
"Questioning?" I continue, "Who are you?"
Before I can get an answer, a voice barks from outside the cart, "Quiet in there!"
I look to the front of the cart to scowl my annoyance, and then something catches my eye; a chest, strapped to the wall. A familiar giddiness fills my heart at the sight of it, just wanting to pick the lock and help myself to the loot inside. I instinctively go to reach for my lockpicks, but I feel rough leather instead of a pocket.
"Aye, your gear is in that chest," the stallion sighs in a hushed voice, "Mine too. That pony didn't have anything on him, so he came in as is."
I snort in annoyance. These 'Sunstar' are going to get it as soon as I get out of here.
The rest of the journey is spent in silence, I’m contemplating my escape in my head but meeting problems in each situation. This migraine isn't helping much with my concentration either.
Then again, neither is my curiosity. Just who are these two ponies I'm travelling to my supposed execution with?
Suddenly, the soft vibrating stops, as does the creaking of wood.
End of the line.
"Well, here we are," mutters the stallion, rising from his haunches, "Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," I mutter back. As a last minute thought, I consider hiding in the dark corner until one of the dumb ponies walks in to look for me, then I could knock them out and make a run for it. But with these shackles, I can't even stand on my own power.
A few pairs of hooves clop past the walls of the cart and to the back door, and with the familiar clunk of an opened lock, the door swings open, causing me to squint from the sudden attack of sunlight. I make out a pair of silhouetted unicorns.
"Alright, out," one of them orders. The stallion complies right away and shuffles awkwardly to the door, hopping out. The cloaked stallion is next, rising silently and nearly falling out the door. The drugs are still in effect, it seems.
And now it's my turn. I try jerking myself upright, but without proper leg room or my wings, it's next to impossible. At least it gives these unicorns a bit of a laugh. "Let me help you," one of them snickers, and suddenly I'm surrounded by a yellow magical aura and thrust off the hay pile into the light.
I hit the stone ground with such a speed that my shackled hooves trip over themselves and I land on my chin. Another round of laughter from surrounding ponies.
As soon as my eyes adjust to the light and lay on those two ponies, they are going down. At least the other unicorn has the courtesy to lift me to my hooves with a green aura of magic and give me a gentle push next to the stallion I'd been chatting to. He'll get it last.
Once my sight has adjusted, I can get a look at where I am. I seem to be in the square of a town, with a line of ragged ponies of varying species and genders stood before a chopping block. Definitely an execution. Ponies are standing outside their homes and at their windows, watching the show. Foals are ushered inside by their parents, so's not to watch the bloodshed.
There's a break in the line, big enough for three ponies. Guess where me and my new friends are going.
"Getting straight to the damned beheading," the stallion growls next to me, and I turn to look at him. In the light, I can finally see that he is an earth pony, his brown coat and sandy mane and tail rather bedraggled. Like me, he has a ragged grey tunic on. His cutie mark is of an anvil, which makes me assume he must be a blacksmith. The larger stallion in front of me is still cloaked.
"We must be very special," I say, a smirk crossing my muzzle.
The three of us are led to the line and stand still, in complete silence. I'm put in the middle of the stallions, and feel rather small being between the muscular ponies.
A rather clean unicorn stallion struts up the line, wearing a dung-eating smirk that could rival the one I'd make if I could pilfer that fancy silver armour of his.
“Well, well,” he says, his deep, high-society accented voice carrying the kind of cockiness that makes you want to cut his tongue out, or perhaps that’s just me, “Some more rebels for the chopping block? Let’s have a look at you.”
He struts up to the blacksmith, getting right in his face. “And you are, earther?” He asks, a condescending press on the last word. Typical unicorns.
“Copper Alloy,” the stallion answers, sounding confident even when staring death in the face. Commendable, in my eyes. “I am from Ponyville.”
“Ponyville?” The unicorn commander repeats, then lets out a mocking chuckle, “Oh yes, that little dirt town that popped up in the middle of nowhere. I’ll be visiting your friends there soon enough, and perhaps they’ll meet you where you’re going if they don’t behave.”
I nicker my annoyance, which seems to attract his attention. He takes a few steps, and that smug smirk is right in my face. By the Gods, if I wasn’t shackled…
“Well, it seems somepony is not happy with how I do things,” he says, making me feel the sarcasm, “And what might your name be, little mare?”
“Whisper Wing,” I say bluntly, “And where I’m from is none of your business.”
“Oh, where you live doesn’t matter to me,” he purrs, “One of my stallions told me you were wearing Nightwind armour when you were brought in. All I need to find out is where your hideout is… which is the kind of information I could exchange for your freedom.” His perfect white teeth bare and a strand of blond mane is poking out between his emerald-green eyes.
My response comes in the form of a shot of saliva onto his cheek.
He merely closes his mouth, smirk unwavering, and stands up straight, using his magic to reveal a white cloth from under his armour to wipe my spit off his face. “An uncouth response for a mare, but I suppose it’s befitting for a winged rodent who can’t fly.”
If my wings weren’t tied down, they would be ruffling with anger, befitting the scowl on my face. And then I would charge on top of him and start driving my forehooves into that pretty little face of his.
“You probably look like you have some lovely wings, though,” he continues, his pearly whites returning as the cloth is put away, “Perhaps, instead of your head, I might take those as a trophy.”
My muzzle scrunches up as my scowl intensifies. “Just try.”
“I don’t need to try,” his smirk grows wider and more sinister, “I will.”
A new pair of armoured unicorns approach him, one of them holding the chest from the cart in his magic. The chest with my stuff in it. “Sir, what shall we do with this?”
“You’ll give it back!” I snap out of nowhere, catching everypony’s attention. The commanding unicorn just looks amused.
“Oh, I take it this is the fabled Nightwind armour inside this chest?” He asks, his smirk growing more obnoxious as I bite my lip, “Take it down to the keep’s cells, I want to have a look through it while I get some answers from this little filly. It seems she likes to talk.”
If my hooves were free, one of them would be pressed against my forehead right now. I watch helplessly as my gear is hovered off toward one of the towers surrounding the town.
As soon as I get free, I know what my next stop is.
----
The armoured stallion takes a few steps to the right, and is confronted with the larger, hooded unicorn. I assume he’s still subdued, since he hasn’t done a thing aside from walk into line.
“My, my, I was told we’d captured quite a prize,” he snickers, and his magic engulfs the hood, “But I wasn’t told what you look like. A shame you had to be a unicorn. Let me just have a look he--”
I swear the orange in his coat nearly turns ghostly white as his pupils turn into tiny ebony pebbles, and he puts on a face like he had just been caught defecating in Princess Platinum’s bed.
The orange aura drops from the cloak to reveal a handsome, silver coated stallion, with a short and messy jet-black mane. His blue eyes show a hint of anger beneath the sluggishness from the drugs, though he seems to be slowly recovering.
“C-Captain Glory…?!” The orange stallion wheezes, a shiver running down his body. He quickly uses his magic to remove the muzzle.
“Aye,” the large unicorn speaks at last, his voice deep and authoritative, and not at all pleased, “And I will be having words with the Princess regarding you and your soldiers’ conduct, Lieutenant.”
The Lieutenant swallows as his dilated pupils drift over to his stallions like plywood lost in the treacherous sea. He adds anger to his fearful face. “You idiots! You arrested the Captain?!”
“S-sorry, sir,” whimpers the one who shot me out of the prisoner cart, “We never thought to check--”
“Just shut up and remove his shackles, for Phauste’s sake!”
The two rush to the Captain and quickly unlock his chains, while Copper and I watch with smug satisfaction as the orange commander, once haughty and full of himself, now shuffles uncomfortably on his hooves, trying to avoid eye contact with his superior.
I also make a mental note that that stallion is carrying the keys to the shackles. I’ll need to keep an eye on him.
Captain Glory lets out a sigh of relief as he stretches out his legs one by one. “Ahh, much better. Now, Lieutenant Flash, I trust there are no problems with me taking over the proceedings of this trial?” He asks, putting on a smirk reflecting the one that was staring me in the face minutes before.
Lieutenant Flash looks down at his hooves, eyes narrowed with frustration and defeat. “Yes, sir…”
“Very good,” The silver unicorn nods, and walks out from the line to face the prisoners, “Ahem, now, there might have been a misunderstanding regarding our ‘captives’ here. You will all remain here until things are worked out, and will be dealt with accordingly.”
I groan quietly. Given my past, I don’t think I’m exactly going to get away with a slap on the knee and a stern telling off. I’d heard of Captain Valiant Glory during my… escapades in Equestria.
The huge, imposing stallion in the black hood by the chopping block, with the large axe strewn on his back, isn’t filling me with much hope either.
Phauste have mercy on this unfortunate little mare...