Chapter 15:
“The quarry? Now?” Nonplussed, Applejack looked out the window where night had already fallen and blanketed the palace grounds in darkness. “But what about Rarity and Fluttershy? We gotta break them out of the dungeon, don’t we?”
“For now, I think they’re safer where they are,” Linden said, drawing looks of outrage from all the mares. “No doubt they are under guard—if they were brought down by Goldhoof, then I could order their release…but if it my mother had her hoof in their imprisonment, I’m afraid I won’t be able to override her authority.”
“Ain’t it worth a try, though?” Applejack stamped a hoof impatiently on the floor.
“That will let me mother know that I was here and listening in,” Linden pointed out. “Right now, we have an advantage. My mother thinks I’m still sulking in my rooms like some broken-hearted foal and the longer she thinks that, the better off we are. Now, I want to know what’s going on in that quarry but it’s going to take me too long to hoof it there myself.” He glanced at Rainbow Dash, who was nodding at the logic of his statement. “If Rainbow takes me, we can be there and back again before morning.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Twilight conceded, “but you would save even more time if you let me send you both there. Then Rainbow would only have to fly you back.”
Linden blinked at her. “S-send?” he repeated. “Y-you mean by magic?”
The unicorn smiled eagerly. “Of course. I know where the quarry is, so I should have no problem sending you both there telekinetically. It will save time and reduce the risk of you both being seen by Goldhoof’s spies.”
Linden’s ears twitched back against his head as his eyes flickered from Twilight to Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was completely unfazed by her friend’s suggestion—was even nodding in agreement—but she was experienced with Twilight’s spells.
“It’ll be fine, Linden,” Pinkie Pie spoke up. “Twilight’s done it loads of times and the worst that’s happened is the pony ends up a little fried.”
“Fried!”
“I wouldn’t say fried, Pinkie,” Twilight protested. “Maybe singed…but that was before I really got the hang of it.” She gave Linden an even brighter smile. “You’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Yeah, it’s nothing,” Rainbow said, stretching her wings breezily. “As long as you know it’s about to happen. C’mon, we’re wasting time here.”
Before Linden could object, Twilight pointed her horn at the two and a magenta light surrounded them. The colt’s eyes bulged, his mouth open in a silent scream, and then the two were gone.
“Ah sure hope you aimed alright, Twi.” Applejack rubbed one hoof behind her leg worriedly. “Ah don’t think the prince will appreciate it if you land them in the top of a tree or somethin’.”
“He’ll be okay,” Pinkie Pie said assuredly. “He’s got Rainbow Dash with him and she’d never let anypony fall.”
“I’m going to fall!” Linden desperately clung to the tree branch, his hind legs thrashing and dangling fifty feet above the ground.
“Hang on! I’m coming!” Rainbow Dash dove off a bough several feet up and caught the prince, lowering him to the ground. Shaking twigs from her mane, she looked around and nodded. “Okay, not quite the landing we expected, but we made it. There’s the rock pile over there. The quarry’s on the other side.”
“She wasn’t kidding about the singed thing.” Linden looked at the tip of his tail, which was smoking slightly, and gulped. Flicking away the ash, he hurriedly trotted after Rainbow Dash, who was already making her way to the rock pile.
“This is where I did my lookout the first time,” she told him as he reached her side. She crouched down, ears lowered, and crept stealthily forward until she was hidden behind a low stretch of broken slag. The sound of the quarry ringing in his ears, Linden followed suit and peered cautiously around the pile.
“So, what do you think our mode of action shou—hey, where are you going!” Rainbow’s eyes bulged as the prince suddenly stood and stormed around the rock pile, walking straight across the wide yard towards the cliff.
“Come back!” she shouted in a hoarse whisper. “Linden! That’s not how you do reconnaissance!” When the prince ignored her, she sighed and hopped into the air, winging swiftly after him.
“You see,” she griped, hovering over his ears and keeping pace with his determined trot, “I thought we were gonna be stealthy and this is not stealthy.” A cry went up from the ponies on the quarry as they were spotted and the pegasus groaned as several of the guards leapt from the scaffolding to head towards them. “This is kinda the opposite of stealthy. Linden, this is the Pinkie Pie of stealthy!”
Linden flicked his tail, indicating that he had heard her, but continued with his forward trot, heading directly for the forefront of the scowling guards. He stopped with just a couple of yards to spare and stood firm as four colts, each armed with a cudgel or whip, ranged around them.
“It’s that mare from the Big Cave—the one all the guards were talking about!” A pink mare with a short green mane jabbed a hoof at Rainbow Dash.
The pegasus landed by Linden’s side and grinned. “Really? They must have been talking about my awesome rescue maneuvers.”
A grey colt raised his cudgel threateningly, his orange eyes narrowed. “Freeze! The both of you! This is restricted property—prepare to surrender yourselves for—” He jumped as Linden swatted the baton from his grip, sending it clattering across the ground. The other guards snarled warningly.
“Stand down!” Linden barked, startling Rainbow with the severity of his voice. “Don’t you recognize your prince before you?”
There was a moment of confusion, and then a ripple raced through the gathered ponies, jewel-toned eyes widening as Linden’s words dawned on them and they did recognize him as the heir to the kingdom.
“Y-your Highness!” the grey colt stammered. “Forgive me, I…I…” Lost for words, the pony dropped to his knees, quivering from his head to his mushroom cutie mark as he bowed. The other guard ponies quickly followed suit, though the pink mare continued to glare at Rainbow Dash.
“Sire,” she spoke up, “Forgive me, please, but we have orders to detain that mare at your side. She has caused great disturbances in the tunnels that delayed work and seriously cut productivity.”
Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows. Detain her? She’d like to see them try!
Snorting in amusement, she raised her wings, readying them for flight, but Linden held up a hoof and glared severely at the mare. “I don’t suggest you try that. This mare is Lady Rainbow Dash of Equestria, holder of the Blue Hills, my betrothed, and future princess of Saddellia. You are to give her the same respect and obedience you would give me.”
As the ponies gaped at her, Rainbow smiled archly. “You never would have caught me anyway.”
Considering the matter settled, Linden started trotting towards the cliff, giving a toss of his head to tell the guards to follow him.
“What is your name?” he asked as the grey colt caught up with him.
“I…uh, Slippery Jack, your Highness.”
“Slippery Jack. Would you be so good as to tell me what is the meaning of all this?” The prince waved a hoof at the expanse of cliff front. “What is going on here?”
“It’s the excavation, your Highness,” Slippery Jack said, his eyes rolling in confusion. “We…we’re unearthing the castle.”
Linden had reached the cliff and was walking slowly along the bottom tier, peering at the thin, ragged ponies chipping away at the stone with their hammers and chisels. One young mare couldn’t help pausing to glance at the prince and a nearby guard quickly rushed her, whip raised.
In an instant, Rainbow and Linden were on the scaffold, the pegasus shoving the worker out of the way, while the prince leapt in front of the guard, taking the lash of the whip himself. An angry line of red appeared on his shoulder and, snarling in fury, Linden snatched the weapon from the guard, which would have chipped the guard’s teeth if the colt hadn’t been so started by royal intervention that his mouth had dropped open.
“What in the hay are you doing!” Linden shouted.
The guard backed up a step, looking positively terrified by the fact that he had just struck a member of the royal family. “It’s my d-duty, your Highness!” he stammered. “My job! If you don’t keep on them all the time, they slack off.”
Linden turned to look at the little mare, who was cowering behind Rainbow’s spread wings. Her orchid-colored mane and tail were tangled and bedraggled and her tangerine coat was dulled with dust and crisscrossed with half-healed welts from the whip.
“What’s your name?” he asked her, peeking around the pegasus.
“S-S-Sunglow,” she answered in a whisper, managing a shaky and awkward dip of the knees that Rainbow took for a bow. “Y-your H-H-Highness.”
“Where are you from, Sunglow? How did you come to be here?”
A small whimper escaped the mare. “Witherdown, in the Blue Hills,” she whispered. “S-soldiers came. They took me and my brother and other ponies. S-said we were needed to serve the C-Crown.”
“Nopony will hurt you again,” Linden told her. “You’re under my protection now.” He lifted his eyes to look askance of the surrounding guards, who exchanged perplexed looks before bowing their acknowledgement.
“I…I truly wish to apologize if we have done anything wrong, Your Highness,” Slippery Jack said, rubbing one foreleg nervously against the other. “We were just following the orders we were given.” He looked around at his fellows again, encouraging them to agree, but his relieved smile at their nods quickly turned to a sullen glower at Rainbow Dash’s sarcastic laugh.
“Seems like questionable orders to me!” she exclaimed. “What sort of good ruler orders the beating of his own country ponies? It definitely wasn’t Linden!”
“And I sincerely doubt my father would be bothered to raise a hoof for anything like this,” Linden mused, waving a hoof at the expanse of scaffolding. As he did, he caught sight of the entrance to the Big Cave and his brows furrowed with curiosity. “What’s that over there?”
“That’s just one of the tunnel entrances, your Highness,” Slippery Jack said miserably. “It leads down to the tunnel network and the Big Cave.”
“And the castle,” Linden filled in on his own. “That’s where they took you, Rainbow?” At her nod, he broke into a swift trot. “Then let’s see this castle. Come on, Slippery Jack…you can have the honor of being the royal escort.”
The gray pony gulped and lurched after the prince, his ears flattening onto his head. “Th-thank you, sire. I-it’s an honor.”
They were nearly to the tunnel entrance when Rainbow realized she was being closely flanked by Sunglow, the slave pony. The tangerine mare’s eyes were wide and bulging and she was staying as close to the pegasus as possible without actually hugging her.
“You don’t have to come,” Rainbow told her. “I’ve been in there and trust me, it’s not fun.”
“I know,” Sunglow whispered, her voice barely audible. “They made my brother go in there two moons ago. I-I have to find him.” She paused long enough to look over her whip-scarred shoulder at the other slaves and guards still watching them from the scaffolding. “Besides, I’d much rather stay with the prince than them if it is all the same to you.”
Rainbow nodded, though she didn’t hold out much hope for finding Sunglow’s brother down below. Finding one pony in the network of tunnels and side caves and massive scaffolding within would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
She hesitated briefly at the mouth of the tunnel, remembering too well the stale, dusty taste of the air inside and the claustrophobic pressure of being underground with thousands of tons of dirt and rock between her and the sky. Spreading her wings wide, she quickly pulled in a deep breath of fresh air and followed Linden down into the darkness.
The damp stone walls flared with a brilliant flash of yellow light as a distinctly unladylike stream of curses echoed up and down the empty corridor.
“Oh my! A-are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you? Oh dear, I…oh, I’m not even sure what that means…uh, maybe you should cover your ears, Gumdrop. Oh! Maybe I should cover my ears.”
Rarity backed away from the bars at the front of their cell and gingerly rubbed the tip of her horn, which was now scorched black. Her lip quivered.
“I’m sorry, Darling…that just took me completely by surprise. Ooh, I do hope this washes out.” Seeing that her efforts were only smudging her horn further, she dropped her hoof and sighed heavily. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help in getting us out of her. I have no idea how, but that beastly Nightfire has put some sort of spell on these bars that blocks all of my magic. I can’t fetch the keys or pick the lock.”
“That’s okay; you tried your best.” Fluttershy gave her friend a gentle nuzzle.
Rarity nodded and sighed heavily. “But we still have to get out of here and warn the others about Nightfire. Who knows what other tricks that colt has hidden in his mane?” She gave Fluttershy a frank look. “It’s time we use the trick hidden in our mane…or, rather, yours.”
Gumdrop poked his head out of Fluttershy’s mane and squeaked eagerly, scampering down to the floor and through the bars of the cell.
“Oh, be careful!” Fluttershy called after him, worried. She and Rarity crowded against the bars, watching as the tiny mouse pressed himself against the wall, looking up and down the stone corridor, before scampering to the other side. He ducked into a crevice between the stones of the wall, only his twitching whiskers sticking out to reveal his presence. A moment passed before he slid back into view, standing on his hind legs with his back pressed against the stones. Rarity rolled her eyes as he inched away from the cell in this dramatic manner.
“Hurry!” she hissed. “We don’t have time to fool around.”
Gumdrop’s ears drooped, but he obediently dropped back to all fours and raced down the hall, stopping beneath the hook and keyring, which dangled far over his miniscule head. The mouse scratched his chin thoughtfully and looked around, then brightened and scrabbled out of sight.
“Where did he go?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. She went into a series of awkward contortions, trying to get a better vantage point against the unyielding bars, and bumped Rarity back into the cell when she overbalanced and ended up on her face with her rump in the air. She blushed as Rarity tugged on her tail, righting her, then promptly knocked her friend over again when Gumdrop reappeared.
The mouse was moving slowly, straining as he pushed a slatted wooden crate across the floor. The crate was empty, but still far outweighed the miniscule rodent, who barely managed to move it forward six inches before he was forced to stop and gasp for breath.
“Good boy, Gumdrop!” Fluttershy called encouragingly. “You can do it!”
The mouse nodded and pressed his forehead to the crate again. There was a piercing screech as the wood scraped over the stone floor until the crate was positioned beneath the dangling keys. Turning to the waiting ponies, Gumdrop pointed to the crate, then at the keys, his ears perked. Fluttershy and Rarity nodded enthusiastically.
“You smart mousie! I knew you would figure it out!” Flutter told him proudly.
“Hurry, Darling!” Rarity prompted. “We have to get out of here and warn the others.”
Gumdrop rolled his eyes at this obvious statement, but nodded purposefully. He had just bent down, muscles bunched to leap onto the crate, when a shadow fell across the path, plunging him into greater gloom. His whiskers drooping, Gumdrop turned slowly, expecting to see one of the palace guards…but the glittering eyes that glared into his own were far too low to belong to a pony.
The giant, black rat squealed and launched itself at the mouse, who dodged its attack only by sheer instinct. Gumdrop dropped to the ground as the rat sailed over his head and hit the crate with a resounding crash. The thin slats shattered beneath its momentum, but the splinters slowed it for barely a second. Screeching, the huge rodent whirled around, eyes red with rage.
Gumdrop managed a single, terrified squeak before turning to run. The rat fought free of the crate and leapt into pursuit. The little mouse streaked across the floor in a tiny, grey blur, but the rat’s much larger size and stride narrowed the gap between them with dangerous speed.
“Oh no! What are you doing? Stop! Mr. Rat, stop please!” Fluttershy’s frantic, pleading voice rang out from the cell as Gumdrop sped down the hall. The rat paused for the barest of instances and looked towards the yellow pony, then hissed and resumed its chase. Gumdrop took advantage of the lead and ran for the guard’s station, darting nimbly around the wooden legs of an old chair. The rat blundered after him, knocking into the furniture with reckless abandon.
“Stop it!” Fluttershy cried, her voice taking on a harder note. “You stop it right now, Mr. Rat! Leave him alone!” Trapped behind the bars, the pegasus was helpless to do anything but watch as Gumdrop desperately zigged and zagged across the dungeon floor, keeping only a whisker’s length ahead of his pursuer. He darted under boxes, around the table again, skittered under a frayed and threadbare rug, jump-turned against the stone wall, and finally made a headlong flight down the corridor to the cells.
“Here! Here!” Rarity shouted as Fluttershy threw herself to the ground and thrust her hooves through the bars, beckoning her tiny friend. “You can make it!”
Gumdrop scampered towards her outstretched hoof, but squeaked in sudden agony, his left flank searing with pain from the deep scratches left by the rat’s raking talons. He stumbled, the leg unable to carry even his scant weight, crashing helplessly to the floor. The rat, taking advantage of the pause, swiped at Gumdrop again, hitting the mouse with enough force to send him cartwheeling across the corridor to smash into the bottom of the stone wall. The mouse tried to get back onto his paws, but his legs wobbled dangerously beneath him. Eyes spinning, he collapsed in a tiny heap, squeaking as his sides heaved with exertion.
The rat chittered with triumph, serpentine tail flailing from side to side in eager bloodlust. Crouching, it bunched its haunches, readying itself for the final, fatal pounce—then leapt into the air with a bloodcurdling screech of pain as a not-quite-pristine-white hoof flashed through the bars of the cell and clopped down onto the tip of the tail.
“Take that, you ruffian!” Rarity declared, dragging her hoof and the agonized rat back to the bars. As soon as the rat’s tail tip passed into the cell, she used her magic to envelop the rodent, lifting it into the air in a small sphere of glowing blue light. The rat squeaked and chittered furiously at the unicorn, who merely sniffed and raised it higher off the ground. “Struggle all you want, you fiend. I once had to carry Rainbow Dash all the way across my house when she was sick and needed a bath, and she certainly put up more of a fight than you.”
“Serves you right,” Fluttershy added, unmoved by the rat’s angry entreaties. Leaving the large rodent to Rarity, the little pegasus ducked down by the bars and held her hooves out to the mouse. “It’s alright now, Gumdrop. Come here, hurry!”
Gumdrop tried once again, pulling his paws beneath him and standing unsteadily, his left hind leg held gingerly off the ground. His long whiskers twitched toward the pony as he gave her a quick glance, then he turned and ran away.
“Gumdrop! No! Come back!” Fluttershy cried.
The mouse ignored her, streaking along the dungeon wall until he came to a deep crack in the stones. The last the ponies saw of him was his long tail, vanishing into the dark.
“Ah tell you, Twi, Ah sure do hate playin’ this waitin’ game.” Applejack joined Twilight and Pinkie Pie by one of the suite windows and slumped to her haunches, resting her chin on the wide sill. “Ah feel useless just sittin’ here not knowin’ what’s goin’ on with the others.”
“So do I,” Twilight said mournfully, “but what else can we do?”
“We can go try to find Rarity and Fluttershy, that’s what!” Applejack huffed out an angry breath and flicked her tail from side to side with obvious impatience.
The purple unicorn sighed. “You heard what Prince Linden said. We don’t want to cause anymore trouble that could possibly let the queen or Goldhoof know Rainbow and the prince have gone to the quarry. What would happen if somepony came to check on us and we were all missing?”
As if to test her scenario, there was the sound of raised voices at the door, which opened to reveal two rather flustered guards trying desperately to hold back a trio of colts.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Nightfire was saying to the two stallions as Tiny glared menacingly over the orange colt’s shoulder, daring the guards to come closer, “We are only here on the request of our friend. Perhaps you’d like to take this up with him? Hmm? No? Well, then, may we get on with our business?”
Without waiting for an answer, the noble pony trotted past them, Fletcher at his side. Tiny glowered at the guards for a few seconds longer until they pointedly returned to their posts and pointedly stared at the wall across the corridor, to let him know that they were pointedly forgetting that he and his friends were there. Satisfied, he followed the others into the room and favored the Equestrians with a friendly smile. “Ladies,” he greeted, dipping his head, only to be attacked by an excited pink blur, who rushed from the window to throw her hooves around him. “Tiny! I’m so happy to see you!”
“Well, um, that sure was an interesting meal, wasn’t it?” Edging away from Pinkie and Tiny, Fletcher favored Twilight and Applejack with a rueful smile. “Never a dull affair with you girls around.”
“To put it mildly,” Twilight murmured with a sigh. “Confusing, difficult, and aggravating would be more appropriate words, if you ask me. You saw it—that was a complete disaster.”
Nightfire sat on his haunches, looking at her sadly. “Actually, I didn’t—I had duties elsewhere that I really needed to attend to. But Fletcher and Tiny have told me everything, including how they, well, convinced Linden to come talk to Rainbow Dash.”
“Literally knocked some sense into that thick head of his,” Fletcher admitted, lifting a hoof and admiring it.
“Then we figured we’d better come along to make sure he doesn’t shove his hoof in his mouth and make things worse,” Tiny added, stepping up to join the conversation, Pinkie Pie perched on his back. He looked around the room, frowning slightly. “He did come here, didn’t he?”
Applejack nodded, glad that she could give their friends that good news at least. “He did. Linden was here when we got back from the dinner—gave poor Rainbow Dash a bit of a scare, actually—then he and Rainbow had themselves a nice, needed talk.”
“Oh. that’s good.” Nightfire rubbed a hoof through his mane, mussing it, his eyes wandering back and forth between Twilight and Applejack. “So, uh…this is sort of weird, but, what is all this talk about slaves from Equestria being held in the quarry? Is this really true?”
“It sure is!” Applejack declared. “Twi and Rainbow have both been there and seen it with their own eyes—Rainbow’s been twice now.”
“Three times,” Pinkie amended.
“King Oak Bough may be wearing blinkers, but there is a castle buried out in that quarry, and Goldhoof is using pony slaves to unearth it. He’s after something in that castle and it must be something very important to go through so much trouble.” Twilight frowned, tapping a hoof on the carpet, and fixed Nightfire with a searching look that had the colt laying his ears back against his head nervously. “Nightfire, you’ve gone through more of those old books in the library than I have—have you ever read of anything in Saddellia’s history that could be so important it would lead to ponynapping and slavery?”
“Me? Well, I don’t know…I don’t think…” The orange colt bit his lip, his eyes drifting upwards as he searched his memory. After a moment, he shook his head. “No. No, I’m sorry, Twilight. I’ve never read anything about it—that’s why it seems so unbelievable. A castle? How did it get there? How long has it been there? What caused it to become buried and hidden?”
“Those are the same questions I’ve been asking. It’s obvious that the castle is made from a different stone that the type covering it, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to study it closely, take measurements or samples of the rock. Knowing the origin of the castle stone could give us a big clue into where it came from and maybe even tell us which ponies built it.”
“You should have asked Dashie or Linden to bring some back,” Pinkie Pie quipped, prompting Tiny to snort in confusion and ask her what she meant.
“Oh, just that Rainbow Dash and Linden are there now,” the pink pony replied. “They went to the quarry because Linden wanted to see for himself how the ponies are being treated.”
This announcement was met with stunned silence, until the shock melted off Fletcher’s face. His eye twitched and his lip curled upward. His snicker quickly turned into a guffaw that had him falling backwards on the floor, hooves in the air.
“I don’t see what’s so funny about this.” Tiny poked the green colt on the belly with his hoof. When Fletcher continued to chortle, he pressed harder, turning the chortle into an oomph as he pressed the air out of the smaller pony. “That’s our prince who has left the palace and gone into a potentially dangerous situation on his own.”
“Not…on…his…own,” Fletcher gasped, shoving at Tiny’s hoof and failing miserably in his attempts to free himself. “He’s got Rainbow Dash with him. Woe be to any pony who messes with that mare.”
Tiny snorted and shook his shaggy forelock. “He still should have told us—I don’t like that he went without us, even with Lady Dash.”
“I agree. What was he hoping to accomplish?” Nightfire wanted to know.
“He wanted to see for himself what was goin’ on over there. Especially after the queen stopped by and pretty much confirmed everything ‘bout Saddellia takin’ Equestrian ponies as quarry slaves.” Applejack’s brows furrowed angrily as she remembered the betrayal and confusion in Linden’s eyes after Queen Bright Song had left the chamber. “Poor Linden was sure upset when he heard her tellin’ Dash to lie to him about everythin’…and threatenin’ Rarity and Fluttershy to do so.”
Tiny abruptly staggered backwards, falling onto his haunches and sending Pinkie into a slide onto the floor, as Fletcher grabbed the huge colt’s hoof and shoved it from his stomach with a startling show of strength. “What’s that about Rarity?” he demanded, rolling to his hooves, all humor gone from his green eyes.
Pinkie Pie answered him, her voice close to breaking. “That big mean meanie Goldhoof and the queen have her and Fluttershy locked up somewhere.”
“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Twilight filled in. “They were both gone when we got back from the banquet, but Queen Bright Song herself told us that they were being kept somewhere in the castle to assure our good behavior.”
Fletcher blew a breath from his nose in an angry snort and whipped his tail back and forth, his eyes darkening with fury. He pawed at the floor with a hoof, looking ready to race out the doors and tear the castle apart to find the two missing mares. Nightfire gave a small whinny of distress and tentatively touched his shoulder with a hoof.
“Calm down, Fletch,” he said in a serious and level voice. “Flying off the hoof right now isn’t going to help anypony, least of all Miss Rarity and Fluttershy.”
“We can’t just leave them!” Fletcher protested.
“And we can’t rescue them at the moment,” Nightfire countered, his tone unusually sharp. “If Her Majesty is aware of their imprisonment and had a hoof in it, then there is nothing we can do about it. We can’t go against the word of the queen. If you go rushing out of here and try to tear down the castle to reach them, you’re only going to get yourself arrested—and then you won’t be any help to anypony, including Linden if he returns and needs us.”
Fletcher looked around at the group, noting Tiny nodding in agreement, and wilted slightly. “You’re right,” he huffed, “but it feels wrong not to do anything.”
“We can wait here for Linden and Rainbow Dash to come back,” Tiny told him. “And be ready to help him in whatever he needs. Like we’ve always done.”
“Right.” Fletcher nodded, shaking out his green mane and flicking his tail again, still clearly agitated. “Fine. I’m good. I’m calm.” His ears drooped and he sat down in a sulk. “I hate waiting.”
“Ah agree with you there,” Applejack murmured, sidling up beside him and giving him an affectionate bump with her shoulder. As he leaned back against her, Nightfire stood and trotted towards the door.
“Where you goin’, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked him.
“Library,” the orange-coated colt told them. “If there’s any information to be had about this castle and what’s inside it, it’ll most likely be there. Twilight can’t go, but I can. I’ll find some books and bring them back.”
Twilight immediately brightened and she bobbed her head in a nod. “Yes! Nightfire, that’s a wonderful idea! If we can find out about the castle’s history, we may be able to figure out what we’re up against.”
The colt met her eyes and he smiled warmly. “I’ll be back soon,” he told them, and slipped through the doors.
The stale, unmoving air within the cave surrounded Rainbow Dash like a blanket, the dust stinging her eyes and making her throat itch for a cough. She raised a wing and fanned it lightly, her feathers stirring the dead air around herself, Linden, and Sunglow.
Feeling the slight breeze, Linden turned to her and gave a small, uneasy smile. He had been silent for several long minutes, his handsome face drawn and angry, his eyes taking in each injustice and act of cruelty. Though he held himself carefully in check, Rainbow could practically feel the rage emanating from him, and Sunglow looked like she was regretting her decision to follow the prince into the tunnels.
“We’re getting close,” Dash said after another few minutes, her ears picking up the sounds from the Big Cave. Linden’s own ears were swiveled forward and he nodded grimly, breaking into a trot despite the treacherous footing. Moments later, they breached the tunnel and stepped out into the immense cavern amidst the constant sounds of ponies chipping away at the stubborn rock.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Linden breathed, stopping in his tracks to stare up at scaffolding-covered castle slowly emerging from the surrounding cliff. He shook his head in amazement and looked at Dash, aghast. “I believed you…but somehow I didn’t really believe you. It’s…it really is here! How can it be here?”
The pegasus shrugged and quickly stepped aside as Sunglow pushed past her, rushing into the cave at a canter and looking around her with wide, frantic eyes.
“Rain Shadow!” she called, her voice raised above the cacophony of picks and hammers. “Where is he?”
Her sudden appearance and frantic voice alerted several of the guards, who immediately rushed over, shouting and raising cudgels threateningly. Sunglow dropped to the ground, cowering and covering her face with her hooves, as Rainbow Dash and Linden leapt to shield her and Slippery Jack hurriedly interposed himself between the guards and the prince, holding up a hoof and bringing them to a screeching, confused halt. Opening eyes she had squeezed shut in anticipation, Rainbow recognized Shale among them, the overseer pony who had attempted to murder her and Hickory by throwing them off the scaffolding. He caught her gaze, his own going wide and round as he recognized her as well, and he dropped his cudgel and took a step back, looking uncertain.
“I am Linden, crown prince and heir to the thrown of Saddelia,” Linden announced, helping Sunglow back to her hooves before turning slightly so his royal cutie mark was clearly in view. “I demand to know what is going on here.”
The mare named Skipper stepped forward, though her demeanor had changed from the last time Rainbow had seen her. Now she bowed to the prince, her eyes lowered, her ears pressed against her skull as she told him that they were excavating the castle, as they had been ordered.
“And just who gave these orders?” Linden wanted to know. He looked around at the lower levels of scaffold and cliff, where a number of ponies, slaves and guards alike, had paused in their work to watch the commotion. “Who is in charge here?”
“We…we thought it was you, your Highness,” Skipper said, looking confused. “The unicorns told us—”
“Unicorns?” Linden glanced at Rainbow Dash, who shrugged.
“Twilight and I thought the same thing,” she said, reading the question on his face. “We thought Goldhoof was the only unicorn in Saddelia until we got here. Seems like somepony is hiding more than a massive castle.”
“What do these unicorns look like?” Linden asked, turning back to Skipper. “One is black, with a single gold-colored hoof, yes? What about the other?”
Skipper swallowed hard and shook her mane. “The other one…well, he was…I mean…um…I’m sorry, but I guess I can’t remember.” She looked at her fellow guards for support, but none of them could add anything except that the unicorn was a colt—nopony could say what he had looked like definitively, no matter how they tried to recall his face.
“He must be doing something to hide what he looks like, or erase their memories of him,” Linden mused, then asked Rainbow Dash, “Can unicorns do that?”
Dash frowned, uncertain. “No clue. Twilight’s never done it that I know of, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t.”
“Hmm.” Looking troubled, Linden trotted across the floor to the exposed base of the castle, followed by the confused and worried guards. While he inspected the silvery sheen of the wall, Rainbow felt a nudge against her flank and turned to the mare who had followed them inside. Sunglow’s lip was quivering and her eyes were wet with tears.
“I don’t see him, my lady” she whimpered. “He has to be here…but I don’t see him. Where is he? Please…please help me find him.”
Rainbow Dash swallowed hard and pawed the floor with a hoof, thinking about what happened to ponies in this cave who caused any inconvenience to their guards. If Rain Shadow had fallen foul of Skipper or Shale in a bad mood…?
“What’s he look like?” she asked the tangerine mare.
“He’s pale gray,” Sunglow said, blinking away her tears. “With a dark gray and white mane and tail. His eyes are blue and his cutie mark is a storm cloud.”
“Got it.” Before Sunglow could say anything more, the pegasus was in the air, spiraling upward and skimming close to the scaffolding. Ponies turned to gape at her, slaves dropping their tools, while their overseers briefly forgot that they were supposed to be keeping them in line. As she passed by each of the levels, Dash called out for Rain Shadow by name, searching for a glimpse of gray among ponies covered in dust and dirt, and moving higher through the levels, her heart sinking as each pass of the structure brought no results.
She made a last, slow loop back to the floor, before landing by Sunglow, who had been joined again by Linden. The colt looked at her questioningly and she lowered her eyes, shaking her head. Sunglow whimpered and the prince gave her a comforting nudge.
“It means nothing—we passed many tunnels on the way here and he could have been placed in any one of them.” He turned to one of the guard ponies standing nearby and pointed at him. “You!”
The colt gulped and quickly stood at attention. “Yes, your Highness?”
“A slave pony named Rain Shadow. Seek him out and bring him here. Nicely!” he added as the colt raced off to obey. Rounding back to Rainbow Dash, he gave her a small shrug. “This is…this is very strange, I must say. How could I not know about this? It’s a castle!” He waved a hoof up at the massive building. “A castle! I have explored all over this country and I never had a clue—all this time, I just thought it was a quarry.” His eyes narrowed angrily. “How could I not know?” he repeated.
Rainbow didn’t have an answer. It seemed that mystery was piling onto mystery onto mystery in a way that would have stumped even Daring Do. The castle, where it had come from and why it was buried, the mysterious unicorn that nopony could seem to remember, the queen’s involvement in the whole mess. It all made her head spin.
“Maybe we should—” she began, but was cut off by a brilliant flash of red light and a loud snap that drew a shriek from Sunglow and sent the guard ponies and other slaves to their knees. Rainbow blinked rapidly, her vision clearing to find that Linden had instinctively stepped in front of her, blocking her and Sunglow from a shadowy figure that had appeared in the center of the flash. Slowly, the cloud of dust raised by the figure’s arrival disappeared, leaving a tall, orange-red pony in its wake.
“Nightfire!” Linden exclaimed.
The lanky colt turned towards them, his eyes widening. “Whoa! Now that’s what I call aim!” He trotted towards them, smiling broadly. “It’s like she knew exactly where you would be.”
“She?” Linden queried, looking utterly bewildered to see one of his friends suddenly standing before him in the cave. “What are you talking about?”
“Twilight Sparkle, of course,” Nightfire explained. “She thought you might need some help to examine the castle, and since she couldn’t risk coming herself, she used her teleportation spell to bring me here.” His eyes drifted past them to the castle, his mouth dropping open. “By the Savvy Stallion, look at that!” he breathed. “It’s enormous!” Oblivious to the look of stunned confusion on his friend’s face, he pushed past Linden to the base of the castle, peering at it closely as the prince had only a few moments before. “Amazing! It’s completely different from the surrounding strata…”
Recovering from her initial shock, Rainbow Dash trotted after him, Linden following closely at her heels, and stood beside him at the wall.
“Twilight sent you?” she asked, trying to piece together the strange development.
Nightfire nodded, continuing to study the castle wall. “We went to the Emerald rooms looking for you and found that you two had come here. Twilight thinks we can figure out what’s going on here if we know more about the history of the castle, like where the stone came from and how it got buried in the first place. But she didn’t think it would be safe coming here herself, in case the guards checked the room.”
Linden blew out a snort, eyes narrowed with annoyance as he nodded. “The girls told you, then?”
“They filled us in, yes.” Concern and sympathy came to the colt’s bright eyes. “I’m sorry, Linden. I never would have guessed the queen…”
“I don’t know what Mother has to do with all of this,” Linden lifted his eyes to the scaffolding and castle, his ears ringing with the sound of hammers and chisels as the overseers, not sure of what to make of the new developments, prodded the slaves back into work, “but I’ve got quite a few questions for her when we get back…and I’m going to expect answers.”
Nightfire opened his mouth to reply, but his words were drowned out by an abrupt clatter and shocked shout from one of the levels above. Hooves thundered over the wooden planks of the scaffolding, more voices were raised in alarm and amazement, and the homely face of an overseer colt appeared over the ledge, shouting something down to them that was lost in the distance and noise.
“What in the…” Linden peered up at the structure, frowning, and flicked his tail against Rainbow’s flank. “My lady,” he said, pointing a hoof skyward.
“Gotcha.” Needing no further prompting, Rainbow jumped and spread her wings, flapping up to the high, rickety level far above. The overseer backed away from the edge as she approached, giving her space to land on the planking. She started to ask him what he had been shouting about, but stopped when she saw the answer for herself. “Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed, cantering to the wall and nudging aside several slave ponies before wheeling in a loop that took her up and over the startled overseer’s head. Arcing over the edge of the scaffolding, she plummeted straight down to the cavern floor, braking only at the last instant in a flurry of feathers to land before the startled Linden and Nightfire.
“What is it?” the prince asked, eyes wide.
“The castle!” Rainbow gasped, her heart pounding excitedly. “They found a way into the castle!”