The Heart Thief

by Helrael

Chapter 6

“We oughtta be headin’ north by now,” Applejack murmured uneasily, looking at the murky, reddish spot of light shining through the ash clouds off near the west horizon. It had been dark even in the noonday sun, but dusk in the Graylands was darker still. Dark as night. She pointed a gray hoof at what looked like a break in the peaks off in the distance. “That's gotta be Tangled Pass, right?”

Fluttershy, ashen gray from head to hoof at this point, shook her head. “Sorry.”

Applejack and Pinkie Pie gave a collective sigh.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie Pie had long since stopped bouncing, and she had recently started trailing behind, falling to the back of the group. It was hard to tell if it was the depressing atmosphere of the borderlands, or if it were simply the vast amounts of ash caught in her poofy mane weighing her down. Applejack reckoned it was both. With all three of them wearing their masks, reading her friends' facial expressions had become difficult.

“It should take us longer than a single day to get there,” Fluttershy murmured uncertainly. “I can try to look at the map again if you want.”

Applejack gave shake of the head. “Naw. Sounds about right.”

“Maybe we're lost,” Pinkie Pie offered from behind them.

“We're goin' west, Pinkie.” Applejack nodded her head at the sunset ahead of them. “Plain as day.”

“But we're supposed to have changelings on our left, right?”

Applejack stopped and looked back at Pinkie Pie, then the direction she was pointing.

“Shoot.”

Off to their right, far enough that the dust in the air veiled everything to obscurity, the three ponies could see a bright green light, bobbing up and down as it slowly approached.

“B-but we're in the borderlands!” Fluttershy muttered, eyes full of fear as she looked to Applejack. “What are they doing here?”

“Maybe we are lost.” Applejack gritted her teeth in frustration, looking herself and her friends over. “They musta heard us,” she whispered. “But ain't no way they can see us from here. Not looking like this. C'mon.”

The three ponies dropped into low crouches and scurried across the ground as fast and silently as they could, putting the changelings' searchlight far behind them.

“Ahead of us!” Fluttershy whispered frantically, and Applejack noticed another green light, much fainter and farther away.

A third light sprung up off to their left, and the trio curved north, only to find another two lights ahead of them.

“Surrounded,” Applejack muttered, stopping for a quick moment to look for any way out between the changelings closing in on all sides.

“I don't think we can sneak past them.” Fluttershy pointed to the trail they were leaving in the ankle-deep ashes behind them.

“Ah guess we just punch straight on through, then.”

Behind her, Fluttershy's eyes widened. “W-what?”

“Charge!” Pinkie Pie called out exuberantly, shaking off most of the ashes stuck in her fur before dashing off toward the two groups of changelings ahead of them.

“Or we could try an' surprise 'em!” Applejack gave a groan before setting off after Pinkie, and Fluttershy soon followed.

Shouted commands rang through the air ahead of the three ponies, and the two lights split into four. The shapes of just as many changelings hovered into view before Pinkie Pie fell straight through the ground just in front of Applejack. Instinctively, the farmpony leapt forwards, just barely clearing the cleverly concealed pit the changelings had prepared and landing on the other side. She glanced down the hole, seeing only a huge cloud of ash and dust, but she could hear Pinkie Pie coughing from a few feet below her.

“Fluttershy!” The pegasus had avoided the trap only by a hanging hair, thanks in no small part to her wings. She was hovering above the pit when Applejack called her name. “Get Pinkie outta there! Hurry!”

Fluttershy nodded timidly and vanished into the cloud of ash below. Applejack barely managed to turn back before a changeling crashed into her, throwing her onto her back. Applejack slammed a forehoof against the changeling's chest, pushing it far enough away that her assailant's fangs snapped shut an inch off her own muzzle.

Twisting her body sideways, she threw the changeling off of her, delivering a swift kick with her hind leg to the creature's stomach. She leapt back onto her hooves and bucked a second oncoming changeling in the jaws, turning just in time to dodge a third bug, who stumbled into the pit behind her.

A bright green light erupted from a few feet ahead of her, and Applejack ducked a bolt of energy. Keeping her head low, she charged at the remaining fourth changeling, headbutting him into the ground and pounced on him.

After subduing the changeling beneath her, Applejack looked to the pit to see how far Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had come. Instead she found herself surrounded by bright green lights. At least thirty changelings had mobilized all around her, too far away for her to reach any of them, but near enough that they would have no trouble hitting her with their spells.

A punch to the chin dazed her, and the changeling underneath her threw her to the ground, readying the magic in his own horn as he regained his footing.

Half a dozen changelings rose from the pit, carrying both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, and a seventh changeling emerged from among the ranks of his own kind. “Well, well...” He gave the ponies a satisfied smirk. “What's three ponies doing so far from home?”

“Ain't nothin' to ya!” Applejack spat, getting to her hooves slowly while eyeing the changeling at her side. “The Graylands are neutral territory!”

The changeling in command chuckled, shaking his head. “I'm afraid you're trespassing on changeling soil.”

Applejack's eyes narrowed. She made to step toward the changeling, but with the way thirty horns around her shifted in response, she thought better of it. “Are not. Yer border's a few miles south o' here. We ain't nowhere near.”

The commander nodded at the changeling beside Applejack, and suddenly she lay sprawled against the ground, the changeling's hooves pushing down on her back. She glared up at the commander as he approached. “What're you three doing here, pony?”

“Nut'n.”

“Sightseeing!”

The commander snarled and looked back at Pinkie Pie. “Is that supposed to be funny?”

The pink pony giggled playfully. “Come on over and I'll tell you!”

The commander raised an eyebrow at Applejack, who only shrugged. “For the last time: Why are you here!?” he demanded, stomping toward Fluttershy, who was visibly trembling. “If I don't get an answer, we're going straight to the queen!” He stopped just inches in front of Fluttershy, who whimpered in fright as the changeling's horn lit up.

Pinkie Pie gave the pegasus beside her a worried look before blurting, “we're on a secret mission!”

Applejack grimaced. They'd never make Tangled Pass at this rate. Still, if they couldn't avoid being brought before Chrysalis, perhaps truth was their best option.

“What mission?” the commander snapped, turning on Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie's gaze shifted left and right conspiratorially, and she gave a devious smile. She whispered something Applejack couldn't hear from where she stood, and the commander approached her cautiously.

The two changelings on either side of Pinkie Pie gripped her forelegs, restraining her movement, and the commander stopped just inches from her face, leaning in to whisper something to her in a menacing tone.

Applejack gave Fluttershy a questioning look, but the frightened pegasus looked just as confused, shaking her head softly.

Without warning, the whispered conversation was interrupted when Pinkie Pie suddenly sneezed. Confetti exploded out her nose and ears, knocking back the commander and the two changelings holding her while cloaking her and Fluttershy in a thick cloud of glitter and streamers.

The moment of stunned confusion lasted longer among the changelings than it did among the ponies, and Applejack used the distraction to throw off the changeling on top of her. A pair of pink hooves wrapped around the changeling restraining Fluttershy and pulled him into the cloud, freeing the pegasus. Applejack charged into the surrounding ranks of changelings, knocking out two of them with swift kicks before being tackled to the ground. She could barely manage to move before the weight of a second and third changeling threw itself upon her, making escape impossible.

She looked toward Pinkie Pie, only to find her similarly bogged down by soldiers. The commander got back onto his hooves, coughing out small pieces of confetti as he did so. He threw a vehement glare at both ponies, before casting his gaze about the area, frowning.

“Where's the pegasus!?” he demanded, eyeing each of his surrounding soldiers in turn. “Where!?”

“Off ta kick yer queen's butt, Ah reckon.”

The commander gave her a scowl before turning to a group of seven changelings. “Find the pegasus. They were going west. She'll be headed for Tangled Pass.” He gestured at another two subordinates near the pit before approaching Applejack. “Send word to Queen Chrysalis.” He stooped down to look the downed Applejack in the eyes, smirking. Using his magic, he pulled off her ash-laden hat and mask, revealing her blond mane and orange muzzle. “Tell her we captured two of the wedding crashers.”

---

Rarity woke to numbness. She couldn't feel her legs, and her chest and face felt like rubber, leaving her helplessly stranded in whatever dark corner of the world she now found herself in.

It was only later she had the sense to open her eyes, though that didn't help her much at all. There was a faint sliver of a semblance of light somewhere ahead of her, but the rest of her surroundings were almost pitch black.

She could see the white of her fur, at the very least. She looked down and found her body sprawled across some large piece of wood, no doubt off the S.S. Sunrise. Her left foreleg was securely hooked around a nook in the wood, but refused to budge no matter how much she tried moving it. Though she couldn't quite feel it, she could see and hear water lapping at her hind legs, washing in under her piece of flotsam and dragging it backwards across a smooth stone floor, inch by inch.

She blinked her eyes a few times, allowing them to adjust to the darkness, and her surroundings became clearer. She was inside a small cavern, perhaps the size of her workroom back in Ponyville. Any cranny, crack, or crevice in the floor or along the walls had long since been worn away by the passage of time and tides. Behind her, most of the cavern was underwater. Gurgles and vacuous sloshes emanated from somewhere in the back, sounding most of all like the empty stomach of some great beast.

She tried wriggling her limbs again, and this time she felt a gradual coldness spreading from inside out, replacing the complete numbness.

Directly ahead of her, the slick, wet, stone floor curved upwards at a gentle incline. A tiny stream of water was trickling down the floor, running past her and into the pool behind her. Following the stream to its source, Rarity found that the cavern was more of a tunnel, extending farther than she could possibly see from where she lay. But the faint light she had seen before lay at its end, meaning that was where she would have to go.

Inch by inch, she managed to uncurl her left foreleg, releasing her death grip on the piece of flotsam. She reached out to the stone floor, but it was too smooth and slippery for her to gain any purchase on. Sensation had returned to her limbs by now, bringing with it an unbearable, searing cold. It took her a few minutes, but eventually she wriggled her way off the slab of wood and into the shallow, icy water.

The sudden spike of cold spurred her into action, and she managed to pull herself up the slippery surface and out of the water. She used her tongue to pry open her dry lips and dipped her mouth to the small stream running through the cavern.

She tasted salt, but she assumed that was either her own lips or the rocks beneath. In any case, she hardly cared. The water, although a tad cold, was refreshing, and the promise of more beyond the tunnel ahead of her was enough to keep her going.

The struggle continued for what felt like hours. Slowly but surely, she made her way up through the tunnel, past slimy, fungus-riddled rocks and smooth, polished pebbles, through twists and turns and dips and rises, across great pools of icy water, and through narrow passageways half her own size.

At first she crawled, but as her legs gradually limbered up, she began walking and stumbling through the darkness, seeking out the elusive light ahead, brightening with every step she took.

It was night by the time she could see the sky, though truth be told, that could mean any number of things. Whether it was still the same night she had been thrown overboard or if it was the night that followed, she had no idea.

After overcoming a final steep incline, the tight, rocky walls around her opened up into an old, overgrown forest. The trees all around her were many feet across and positively dwarfed her with their immense height, their vast canopies stretching out a hundred feet in each direction. The forest was situated on a steep slope, and past the trees, Rarity saw mountains and valleys all around her.

“The Dragon Territories,” Rarity whispered, surprising herself with the hoarseness of her voice. It was only now that the hopelessness of her situation dawned on her. She had no idea where the coast was. The chances of anypony from the S.S. Sunrise finding the route she had taken were miniscule at best. She didn't even know it herself. As far as Applejack and the others knew, she might as well have drowned.

The coastline could be in any direction from where Rarity stood, perhaps just behind the mountain she stood on, or miles and miles away. Without it to guide her, she had no idea where in The Dragon Territories she was.

Her stomach rumbled, cramping with pain, and Rarity sighed. She grimaced, but eventually bent down to take a bite out of the knee-high grass growing all around her. It was as bitter and bland as the grass back in Equestria, which was strangely comforting, she supposed, gagging several times before swallowing.

Her best bet would be to wait out the night inside the cover of the forest, she figured. Once she could see the sun, she'd know where to find the coast. Hopefully, she could follow that north to Equestria and be back in Ponyville before the others made it back with Spike.

Or without.

Her heart clenched up painfully just at the thought, and Rarity gave a worried sigh, looking out upon the mountain ranges far away.

Her breath caught in her throat when she spotted a glint of color between two of the peaks in the distance. She squinted and ducked to look past the branches blocking her view, and she caught sight of a distinct rainbow trail tracing a straight path across the night sky. As soon as it had appeared, it was gone again, vanishing behind another mountain.

Rarity stood stock still for several long moments as she contemplated what she'd just seen. Nothing she could think of made sense, however. Rainbow Dash was supposed to be following Tangled Pass. Either Rarity had traveled a hundred miles inland through the underwater caverns somehow, or Rainbow Dash was horribly off course.

As much as she wanted to believe the former, she knew there was no way Rainbow Dash would be flying at such an altitude if she was above the pass. Something had gone wrong.

Before she could continue the thought, she was distracted when the trees around her caught a flash of fire from somewhere behind her. A few hundred feet or so up the slope from where she stood, the steep cliffs rising up out of the ground on either side of her converged, forming a large cavern opening where they met. From where she stood, the entrance was partially obscured by the forest, but even as Rarity looked, it was impossible to miss the second bloom of fire from within.

Rarity ducked behind a tree as quickly as she could, creeping around its base to the other side in order to get a better view of the cavern. Ahead of her, the forest ended abruptly in a charred field, littered with the burnt stumps of the same colossal trees that surrounded Rarity. A single tree was still blocking her view of the entrance itself, however, so Rarity felt compelled to venture closer.

She stepped in something soft, and she looked down to see most of her hoof submerged in a thick layer of damp moss. It caught the light of a third blast of fire from within the cavern, allowing Rarity to notice another set of footprints running across the patch of moss.

She had seen those before. Recently. In the Everfree Forest.

Rarity was running before she could even wonder what was happening, and by then, she could only wonder why on earth she was running toward the dragon's cave instead of far away. She could find no answer to either question, yet the compulsion that had set her running in the first place was too strong too simply ignore.

“Begone!”

The roar was loud enough to snap Rarity out of whatever madness had drawn her to the cave. She winced at the ground-shuddering volume, stopping dead in her tracks just a few feet outside the opening in the cliffs.

Fire flashed again, much closer to the entrance, and a small, black form sailed through the air from deeper within the cavern. It hit the wall near the opening before dropping to the ground, and Rarity felt the madness that had just left her return. There was no doubt about it: It was Spike lying there before her, stained black from head to toe with soot.

Before she knew it, she was beside the small dragon, gazing into a large cavern filled with more treasures than she could ever dream of ‒ and a dragon a hundred times her own size, scarlet scales glowing in the vermillion fire leaking from between its fearsome teeth. Its eyes, the color of burning coals, settled on the pony, and with a snap of its jaws, the dragon extinguished the fire it had been ready to unleash.

“L-leave him alone, you... you ruffian!” Rarity shouted hoarsely, stepping in front of Spike protectively. “I don't know who you think you are, but ‒”

“Is this your work, pony?” the dragon demanded of her hotly, growling as he lowered his head to Rarity's level.

Rarity took a step back as the head of the dragon approached. She shook her head. “This is my friend! I will not have y‒” A vivid, excruciating pain suddenly seized her left hind leg, and with a piercing scream, Rarity collapsed, twisting around in a futile attempt at escaping whatever was happening to her. With her eyes shut tight against the pain, she could only register the sound of her own blood pounding against her eardrums and the dragon in front of her snarling.

The pain only grew more unbearable by the second, and Rarity opened her eyes to look back at her leg. She saw Spike, a strange, vacant look in his eyes as his teeth sank into her thigh. Instinctively, her free right hind leg coiled back and kicked Spike in the face. The little dragon seemed undeterred, and Rarity kicked out at him again with all the strength she could muster, loosening his hold on her leg.

Every shift of Spike's teeth sent fresh, nauseating waves of pain crashing against every fiber of her leg, inducing a surge of adrenaline in her other leg. After a fourth, desperate kick, Spike finally blinked, looking Rarity in the eyes. A small flicker of recognition ‒ and perhaps surprise ‒ passed across his features, and he opened his mouth slowly, releasing Rarity. With a frightened, teary-eyed whimper, Rarity withdrew the leg gingerly, scooting a few feet away from the small dragon staring at her blankly.

“He is cursed,” the larger dragon rumbled from behind her. “An unliving husk. I would be doing him a favor.”

“No!” Rarity winced at the intense pain pulsing all throughout her leg, drawing her breath in short, shallow gasps. With a series of grunts and whimpers, she pulled herself up to stand on three hooves, taking a few more steps away from Spike. She glanced back at him, shaking as a hundred different emotions clashed within her. “I‒ We'll... I'll take him with me,” she breathed, looking back up at the scarlet dragon. “We'll be out of your hair.”

The dragon hesitated, narrowing his eyes at her. After only a short moment, however, he sniffed, turning and heading back into his cave without a word.

“I-I don't suppose you have any medical... supplies?” Rarity called out after the dragon haltingly, realizing quickly that she was being ignored. “Or bandages?” She winced again and looked back at her leg, keeping an eye on Spike as well. A red, swollen crescent had swallowed her cutie mark, and she could feel a warmth running down both sides of her thigh, already pooling around her hoof.

She cast a furtive glance at the dragon's hoard, and ‒ not far from where she stood ‒ found a red tablecloth of embroidered silk half-buried beneath a stack of gold and silver trinkets. Gulping nervously, she eyed the larger dragon further within the cavern, his back turned to her for the moment. Using her magic, she made a neat incision through the silk, cutting out the exposed part of the fabric without making a single sound. She rolled the cloth up quickly and hurled it outside the cavern out of the dragon's sight.

When the dragon didn't react, she turned back to Spike, nodding her head at the cavern exit. “Go.”

The dragon obeyed wordlessly, innocently, turning towards the cavern exit and walking stiffly out. Rarity frowned at him as he went. Of all the emotions roiling within her, confusion and anger seemed paramount at this point.

“Spike.”

Spike didn't react. He stopped in front of the rolled up piece of silk, making to grab it before Rarity pulled it away with her magic.

“Why did you bite me, Spike?” Rarity demanded, holding the roll of silk near her head in order to hold the dragon's attention.

Spike shrugged. “Trouble why it soot... pie is... kiss empty,” he muttered nonsensically, frowning in confusion as he stumbled over his words.

Rarity's own frown melted away as worry quelled her anger. Biting her lip, she looked toward the distant mountain peaks where she had seen Rainbow Dash. There was a great many miles between those peaks and the mountain Rarity and Spike were standing upon. Fortunately, only a single, large valley lay ahead of them, densely forested as far as Rarity could see in the moonlight, but relatively flat. Traversing it shouldn't require much climbing, though she figured it would take them at least half a day.

“Your birthday all over again,” Rarity sighed, grimacing at the climb they'd have to make to reach the valley below. “Only worse.” A coldness was gripping her back leg. She hoped it was simply the nip of mountain air, but her mind quickly wandered to grimmer scenarios. “Much worse.”

She rolled out the piece of silk she was holding, measuring its width and length roughly by eye. She might have enough fabric for five, maybe six bandages. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Rarity sighed again, turning back to Spike. She nodded her head down the slope, back the way she'd come and toward the cavern she'd first emerged from. There was a large pool of water not far underground, and it was most likely her best bet at cleaning her wound.

“Come along now, Spike.” Rarity's eyes bulged in pain as she shifted her weight forwards to walk. “I‒! I-I suppose we could both do... with a bath.”

Comments

[Hillbe]

poor Rarity bit on the diamonds
why!
hungry?

pre07.deviantart.net/dff1/th/pre/i/2014/346/d/f/socks___by_hillbe-d89mbtw.jpg

quick updates are nice thank you

[Swashbucklist]

Rarity crawled out of her hole and into a pretty busy part of the forest. First she sights Rainbow Dash, then she finds a cave, then Spike's footprints, then stumbles upon a confrontation. Shit's happenin' 'round there!