An Unwanted Past

by WhovianPony

Chapter 3

Without really thinking, I followed them as closely as I dared. Back in the throne room, champagne was being opened and ponies bursted out into their songs of war. Whether the soldiers were aware of my pursuit, I never knew but I followed them all the way to the dungeons, to the one place in the castle that I had never been to. I never so much as dared to go down into that horrible place, but at that moment I suppose I was more worried about the colt than myself.

The king did not often keep prisoners. All the ponies under his care were so in love with their king that they didn't dare to do anything that might disappoint him or make him ashamed. Crime simply didn't happen. When there were prisoners down there, they were only horrible, evil ponies that did things like murdering ponies.

The soldiers dragged him to one of the cells and tossed him roughly inside. The laughed and jeered at the colt in his misery, and continued laughing as they walked away. When I was sure that the coast was clear, I snuck over to his cell. When he saw me, he panicked and tried to back away. I didn't blame him for not trusting ponies, after what they did to him.

"It's okay! It's okay!" I whispered.

He sat up taller and glared daggers at me. Somewhere in the castle I could hear the songs being sung and unfortunately he heard them too. I saw him shiver as bar after bar of their horrible song echoed off the stone walls.

"I don't like them either." I said it more to myself than the colt. "I think they're absolutely horrible and disgusting."

The colt grunted in agreement but continued to study me closely.

"I think what they did to you was horrible and disgusting, too. I'm not even sure if you speak common, but I want you to know that I'll do anything I can to help you." There was only silence still. "If you slide over here a bit, I'll even take the gag off for you."

After some hesitation he slid over to me and I reached through the bars and removed the sash from his mouth. "I'll go ahead and let you rest now. To say that you've had a rough day would be a severe understatement." I said. Slowly, so as not to make a sound, I made my way back to the entrance to the dungeon.

"Hey," a voice said behind me, "My name is Neo."

"Mine is Rose!" I called back. "I'll come back soon, don't worry."

I thought that I would be able to get back to my room unnoticed, but as soon as my hoof reached for the handle on the dungeon door somepony else pulled it open instead. I jumped back in surprise as the king himself descended the steps in front of me. He did not seem altogether surprised to find me there.

"I figured somepony would sneak down here and try to take a closer look." He laughed, "Not to worry, my dear. It's normal that you would be curious about it."

"Actually your highness, I was just leaving."

The king looked down into my eyes, "You look familiar to me, young one. Do you perhaps work at the castle?"

"Y-yes sir." I stammered, "I work down in the kitchens with Pastry Dough. I'm Rose Everfree."

The king put his hoof on my shoulder and led me back to the cell. "Tell me what you see there." He said gravely.

I looked into Neo's yellow eyes. I'm not the kind of pony that can easily lie about my opinion, even in situations where it would be beneficial to my health to say what ponies want to hear.

"In all honesty, your majesty, what I see in that cell is a colt no older than me, who has been treated horribly and punished for something he had no hoof in."

A growl built in the back of the kings throat, but he managed to turn it into a chuckle at the last moment. His hoof gripped my shoulder tighter so that I was sure it would leave a bruise.

"That is not what I see. You are young and naive, such opinions are only to be expected from little fillies such as yourself." The king sighed to calm himself. "No, let me tell you what is really in there. Sitting right before you is the very spawn of Tartarus. That creature there was born of evil. His purpose is to destroy the order we have tried to hard to establish. His kind have been planning to ruin us.They want to end the alicorn reign, to spread the insanity and anarchy of their kind. How it has been treated is no less than what it deserves."

I whispered something under my breath.

"Come again, dear? I'm old and I can't understand you when you're muttering."

I ducked quickly out from under his hoof and faced away from Neo to be able too look the king in the eyes.

"I said you're wrong! I have heard and grown up with the same stories as everypony else, but I don't believe that he's evil at all. How he's being treated isn't even remotely fair! And by the way, his name is 'Neo' not 'It'!"

The king brought his hoof down hard on my cheek and I stumbled back in shock. "You will not question me! You are a servant, and I am your king!" He struck me again and raised his hoof for a third.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Neo cried out.

"AND YOU! You will get your dues, demon!" The king huffed angrily and got his temper back under control. "Fine. I will leave this foalish servant alone. However as punishment for your insolence, Miss Everfree, he is your responsibility. On top of your work in the kitchen, you will see that he is fed enough to stay alive, and clean enough to not stink up my castle. You will sleep in the next cell over. You will change his bandages as necessary. And you will mind curfew. Do you understand?"

I could only nod my head in response since the sting from his first blow had still not faded from my cheek and my mind was too foggy for more.

"Very well. You will stay here tonight until somepony collects you in the morning and escorts you to the kitchens. And Miss Everfree?"

"Sir?"

"If he escapes, you will be put to death for high treason."

With that, the king stormed out of the dungeon and returned to the festivities above. The door slammed behind him and Neo and I were left alone once again in the dark of the dungeon.

"You didn't have to protect me like that. You could have lied. Then you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Neo said apologetically. His eyes seemed to glow softly in the darkness.

"But you would have, and you've been hurt enough." I felt along the wall for the bars of his cell and reached my hoof through them. I felt my hoof brush the fur on his shoulder and hugged him carefully. "What I said is true. Never in my whole life has the king ever been this cruel. Not to anypony. Besides, you need somepony down here to keep you company anyway."

I settled down in the next cell over and despite the coldness of the stone floor and the lump on my head, I felt myself being pulled to sleep.

"Rose?"

"Yes, Neo?

"Thank you."

Comments

[Ulti Shadow Lord]

Dawwww...