It had been almost a week since his banishment, Shining Armor’s life had taken a turn for the worst. He was just moments away of getting married to the mare of her dreams. Now he, along with Rarity, were now slaves working in the mines for the diamond dogs. The diamond dogs had him and other unicorns explore the caverns using their magic to detect gems and dig them up. They were also forced to haul wagons to store the gems they found. Guard dogs wielding whips were assigned to supervise the slaves.
“No resting!” the guard dog yelled whipping Shining Armor on the back making him increase his pace while pulling a wagon filled to the brim with gems. “Keep moving!”
As much as Shining wanted to give this guy a piece of his mind, he knew it was useless. So he continued pulling the heavy wagon of gems and joined his fellow slaves. As he followed the other slaves down a mine tunnel, he heard some commotion up ahead. As he proceeded further into the tunnel, the noises were getting louder. Then he saw something in the distance coming his way. A moment later, he saw Rarity hauling a wagon of gems down the tunnel in the opposite direction. She was wearing a strange-looking muzzle over her mouth and she was accompanied by the three diamond dog leaders, who were gleefully taunting her as she walked.
“What’s the matter, pony?” Rover, the head dog, asked in a taunting tone.
“Don’t you want to whine?” Spot, the short dog, tauntingly asked as well.
“Or cry?” Fido, the big dog, added.
“Good thing new pony king gave us special muzzle for you to wear to keep you quiet,” Rover said and then he and the other two dogs burst into taunting laughter at the poor unicorn’s expense.
Shining watched as the young white unicorn walked miserably down the tunnel being teased by her greedy masters. He couldn’t help but feel sorry and responsible for the situation she, him and all the others were in. All he could do now was wonder how the other ponies were doing.
In the Dragon Lands, the new coliseum was huge and filled with all sorts of different dragons cheering and yelling in the audience rows. They were all eager to see the upcoming match.
“Dragons of Equestria,” said a green scaled dragon announcer. “Today is another glorious day to watch more action in our new magnificent gladiator coliseum, given to us by the new ruler of the ponies, Holy King Jewelius I, in accordance with our new treaty.” The crowd hollered and cheered at this. “Our new gladiators today are three young dragons, give them a big warm welcome. Garble, Baff, and Clump.” A gate in the arena opened up and three teenage dragons wearing battle armor entered. The audience cheered loudly when they saw them.
“Oh yeah, this is going to be awesome,” Garble said basking in the crowd’s praising.
“And their opponents today, are those two mischievous, annoying, namby-pamby ponies that Jewelius gave us along with this coliseum,” the announcer said bitterly. The crowd began booing as a gate on the other side of the arena opened. However, no one came out and the booing got even louder.
Inside the gate entrance, Rainbow Dash stood dressed in armor ready to fight for her life. But Fluttershy was hiding in the shadows trembling in fear. It had been almost a week since she and Dash had been banished to the Dragon Lands to serve as slaves to fight the entertainment of the dragons and while she always had a fear of dragons, being here was making her fear of them even worse.
“Come on, Fluttershy,” Rainbow called to her friend. “The crowd is waiting for us.”
“No way!” Fluttershy fearfully refused. “There’s no way I’m going out there. All they do is make us fight for our lives and their entertainment. It’s awful.”
“I know, but if we want to stay alive we have to fight, and look how long we’ve lasted. We can do this. Besides, do you remember what they’ll do to us if we don’t do what they want?”
Fluttershy trembled even more at the thought of the punishment for refusing to fight. She weighed her options, and finally made her decision. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
“That’s the spirit. Now lets do this together.”
Both ponies walked out into the arena, but the crowd still booed at them. Fluttershy shuddered under the gaze of the hundreds of dragons in the audience watching and jeering her. Rainbow payed no attention to the noisy crowd, she knew they all wanted to watch her and her friend go down after nearly a week and she was eager to disappoint them once again.
“Now these ponies have been quiet the little pests but I have a feeling today that our new fighters will be able to crush these little insects once and for all,” the announcer said and the crowd roared in excitement.
“I’ve been waiting for a chance to make some ponies pay for what they did to me,” Garble said grabbing a mace while Baff grabbed a warhammer and Clump grabbed a battle axe, then all three teenage dragons advanced towards the two pegasi. “It’s a shame Spike’s not here, otherwise I’d make him pay too.”
“Get ready to eat some dirt, lizard breath,” Rainbow said getting in a battle stance.
Both Rainbow and Garble spread their wings and took to the air.
“I got this one, you two handle the other,” Garble ordered Baff and Clump.
The crowd cheered with excitement as Dash and Garble were locked in an aerial battle above the ground, charging and evading one another. Back on the ground, Fluttershy fled from Baff and Clump as they chased her around the arena.
“Come here, little pony,” Clump demanded.
“Yeah, we won’t hurt you. We just want to show you something,” Baff obviously lied.
“Looks like your friend is doomed,” Garble taunted Dash as he watched his cohorts pursue the yellow pegasus.
“Fluttershy maybe a little timid sometimes, but when she needs to be, she has proven to be one of the bravest ponies I’ve ever met,” Rainbow confidently retorted.
Fluttershy found herself cornered against a wall with Baff and Clump closing in on her chuckling menacingly.
“It’s all over, pony,” Baff sadistically taunted her as he and Clump moved closer laughing.
“It’s all over!”
For a moment, Fluttershy thought she heard Chrysalis’s wicked voice in her head. Then she thought she saw Baff and Clump merge together and transform into an evil laughing Chrysalis before her eyes. At this moment, Fluttershy’s fear began to fade and her rage began to rise. The sight of the thing responsible for ruining her life infuriated her to the point where she disregarded her shy and gentle nature.
“Ready for pain, little pon-” But before Clump could finish his sadistic question, one moment he was approaching the yellow pegasus and the next moment he was flying twenty backwards with two hoofprints on his cheeks. Baff stared dumbstruck at his friend lying unconscious on the ground before turning back to what was once a frightened but now enraged little pony. Realizing how much trouble he was in now, Baff decided to flee but Fluttershy gave chase. She eventually caught up to him and grabbed his tail. She slammed him against the ground three times before spinning him around in the air and throwing him on top of his unconscious partner.
“Sorry, but you two reminded me of somepony I hate,” Fluttershy said to the two beaten dragons.
Garble stared wide-eyed and jaw-dropped at what Fluttershy had just done to his comrades.
“See, I told you,” Rainbow proudly mocked him. “Now let me show you something really cool.”
Garble gulped at what was about to happen to him. Suddenly, Rainbow, at supersonic speed, tackled him and flew downward toward the arena floor carrying her opponent with her. Then a huge sonic rainboom erupted a second before they made contact with the ground and spread across the coliseum. Once the colorful spectrum had cleared, Garble was lying in a heap of broken and dented armor moaning painfully and Rainbow Dash was hovering victoriously in the air. The cyan pegasus reveled in the boos and angry yells from the audience.
“Well, it appears fellow dragons that the ponies have once again triumphed over dragonkind,” the announcer said in disappointment. “Perhaps tomorrow another contestant will be able to show them the true strength of dragons.”
“Alright, out of the arena,” an armored dragon guard commanded the two pegasi and led them through an open gate.
“See, I told ya we’d make it through this,” Rainbow said to Fluttershy.
“Yeah, but you have to admit, they’re getting better,” Fluttershy replied. “How long do you think we can keep this up?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. We have to keep this up as long as we can.”
“Oh. I just hope the others are doing okay.”
Deep below the deck of a galley ship, tons of galley slaves were rowing the huge oars back and forth constantly. It was hard and merciless work and a coxswain beat a big drum and produced a steady rhythm for the slaves to follow. A brutish unicorn slave driver walked up and down the walkway with a whip making sure not a single slave was out of sync with the drumming.
“Follow the rhythm!” the slave driver yelled as he cracked his whip at a pair of young earth pony mares. One had an orange coat with a light yellow mane and tail and the other one had a pink coat with a very light red mane and tail.
“Sheesh, somepony’s a little angrier than usual today,” the orange pony angrily muttered to the pink pony. “Right, Pinkie?” But Pinkie Pie didn’t answer and just continued rowing with a very sad expression on her face. “You okay, Pinkie?”
“This is no fun at all,” Pinkie glumly said.
“Tell me about it.”
“I’m just thinking about how all this could’ve been avoided, Applejack.”
“Me too,” Applejack replied in the same glum tone. “Ah can’t stop thinkin’ about mah family. Because of that disastrous wedding, ah’m never gonna see Granny Smith, Big Mac, or Apple Bloom ever again.”
“I can’t believe Twilight was right all along about the bride,” Pinkie said in a mixture of disbelief and sorrow. “I just wish I could’ve thrown her a big apology party, but it looks like that’s never going to happen.”
AJ put a comforting hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder as she shed a tear. But their tender moment was interrupted by the cracking of a whip on their backs.
“Hey, no lollygagging! Get back to work!” the slave driver commanded.
“Hey, can ya give us a break?” AJ asked angrily. “Mah friend is feelin’ bad enough as it is.”
“Trust me, this is mercy compared to what you two really deserve,” the slave driver said threateningly staring into the orange cowpony’s eyes. “Many of these ponies here are convicted criminals who’ve done some pretty horrible things, but they are nothing compared to what you have done.”
“Selling out all of Equestria for a wedding?!” remarked an angry galley slave. “And I thought I was bad.”
“Now you two get this through your thick heads,” the slave driver threatened. “You may have been great heroes and celebrities in Equestria, but here you’re nothing but scum without a single prayer or hope. Now get back to rowing!”
With their spirits more or less crushed by the slave driver’s harsh words and resentful glares from a few fellow slaves, AJ and Pinkie sadly continued rowing.
“I just the others are doing better than us,” Pinkie said concerned thinking about how the rest of their friends and the princesses were holding up in the places they were banished to.
A Week Earlier…
A prison wagon stopped at the end of dark, dank forest that looked just as creepy as the Everfree Forest. The guards opened the wagon’s door and with their magic, tossed a small purple dragon out and into a muddy puddle. Spike, the young dragon, lifted his face out of the mud to view his new surroundings, and needless to say, he wasn’t very comfortable with it.
“Welcome to your new home, little dragon,” Commander Hildread taunted him. “Remember, don’t ever set foot in Equestria again or the king will have your head.”
“Please, what happened to Twilight? Is she okay?” Spike pleadingly asked with worried eyes.
“Why do you care?” Hildread unfeelingly asked.
“Because I’m her number one assistant, and… and…” he stammered as a look of regret formed on his face. “I made a mistake, and I need her to know-”
“Twilight Sparkle is no longer your concern!” Hildread viciously yelled at the tiny dragon frightening him. “Let’s go, we’re done here.” She commanded her guards. “Oh, just one more thing,” she took out a small bag from under her cape and dropped it at Spike’s feet. “The king told me to give these to you after dropping you off. He said they’re ‘things you really seemed to enjoy’,” she said with a sly, sadistic grin on her face and a sinister chuckle. After that, she, the guards, and the wagon rode out of the forest leaving Spike all alone with the mysterious bag.
Spike stared nervously and curiously at the bag. Then he slowly started opening it to see what was inside. Once it was open, his eyes went wide and started filling with heartbroken tears. Inside the bag were the two wedding cake toppers of Shining Armor and Cadance. Spike understood what these things were for. Jewelius had given them to him to serve as a reminder of his greatest mistake. Spike had already felt bad before, but this was rubbing salt in the wounds. Spike collapsed into the mud and sobbed into his folded arms. He freed his right arm to pound the ground in frustration as he wallowed in a puddle of mud and self-pity, all alone.