Rainbow Dash said she’s going to knock on my door first thing in the morning, and that we’re going to town hall together. Registration for the Summer Sun festivities closes the day after tomorrow. When she says ‘first thing in the morning’, I don’t think she means that, but if she wants to go register tomorrow instead of waiting until the last moment, that means she’s pretty excited.
I’m glad to do it, I think. I just hope I can get past the doorstop. That’s always the hardest part. If I make it to Mayor Mare’s desk, I think I’ll be okay, but just thinking about it now—oh goodness, I don’t know if I can do it after all. Rainbow Dash just left, mayb-
I tried to catch her, but she’s already gone. Okay, Fluttershy. Just… try to think about everyone who needs you. Not just Bluebell and the other birds, but Rainbow Dash probably needs you, too.
I know we’ll be friends forever, but I like to think that she needs me a little bit, too. Someone who can be there for her.
Good night, Diary,
-Fluttershy
The evening settled slowly. With no torch outside the room this time, what little silver spilled down the stone shafts above had at some point become the strongest light in the room. Under moonlight, the difference between Dash’s green-dyed wings and her coat seemed less, but it didn’t change a thing. They were useless to her. Every single muscle of her wings throbbed from her efforts, straining against the bonds even though she knew she’d never break the chains just by pushing against them.
“I don’t know for sure,” said Fluttershy, pushing one of the few remaining bowls of water over to Rarity, who leaned down for a sip.
“You think she’s sincere?” Rarity asked.
“I think she really does mean well for her people,” said Fluttershy, nodding a touch. “Or, she thinks she’s helping. I don’t think everything she said was a lie. That wouldn’t make sense. You can’t say so many things and have nothing be true. Even lies have to come from somewhere true.”
“I suppose,” said Rarity, staring out into the empty room. Both Rarity and Fluttershy spoke in quiet tones despite knowing they were all alone. Despite knowing that whether they whispered or yelled, they were alone, and Rainbow Dash was the most quiet of them all. She pushed against the chains again, her teeth clenched to keep from making sound. Her wings felt hot, singular in the first cool evening since they’d arrived wherever the hay they were.
“I find the idea that she needs to help her people curious by itself,” said Rarity a moment later. She pushed the bowl back to Fluttershy, who nudged it towards Rainbow Dash. The three lay side by side atop their blankets, as they had ever since they were left alone.
“How do you mean?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head.
“Velysra didn’t seem to think they ‘suffered’ at all,” said Rarity, frowning.
“That’s true,” said Fluttershy. “That’s a little strange, but sometimes people disagree on what’s okay. And… I guess other times, someone gets some strange ideas about what’s wrong and right into their head.”
“Only you could be so gentle in suggesting she is crazy, dear,” countered Rarity.
Fluttershy bit her lip. “Or that she made a bad decision or two.”
Vaguely, Rainbow Dash was aware that Fluttershy looked at her, perhaps for comment, but even trying to listen demanded more attention than she wanted to spare. In front of them, bars cut in half the meager space of the room, and all around them, the stone crowded them.
“Would you like some water, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow Dash didn’t usually have an issue with small spaces. Not usually. Sure, put a bag or a bucket over her head for laughs. It wasn’t a problem when Pinkie Pie locked her in the Cakes’ supply closet by ‘accident’ over a heated lunch-related debate, either, because she always knew it would end with Pinkie letting her out.
“There’s still some fruit left,” Rarity added, pushing another bowl over. “Whatever these are, the last ones got brown and spongy when we left them, so you may as well eat them.”
She knew how it ended. In the midst of the muffin-drama, she knew Pinkie would let her out and she’d be free. Now, she couldn’t stop straining against the chains. This time, who could tell? When would they get out? Somehow, she doubted it was a matter of days. Weeks? Months? Years? If they were waiting for this stupid peryton to do whatever she wanted to do, maybe never?
She didn’t know, and usually, that didn’t bother Dash in the least. Not knowing was fine. Not knowing could even be good, sometimes. But not knowing if they’d ever get out? Not knowing if the way her wings hurt was because she kept pushing with them, if it was all in her head or something going seriously wrong? That particular brand of not knowing, she could do without.
“Rainbow Dash?”
Maybe never. Maybe she’d never get to use her wings again. Dash grimaced at the stupid thought. Stupid not just because—well, because it was stupid, but also stupid because it wouldn’t go away. She forced herself to breathe normally.
“Rainbow Dash?”
“What?” Dash snapped, instantly regretting it.
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Fluttershy. No apology needed for Dash’s tone. No ‘are you okay’, because she knew Dash wasn’t. Dash just shook her head. It was that, or a snarky reply, and she didn’t feel like talking at all. She didn’t even know if there was a Rainbow Dash at that moment. She was reduced to a pair of wings jammed against a body, attached to a stupid head that’d gotten them into a mess she couldn’t fix. And now her wings were stuck.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Fluttershy sat up straight, turning to Rarity instead of the unresponsive Dash. “Rarity?” she asked, perfectly innocent, as though it were a complete aside. “I thought I might sing a song. Do you want to sing along? Maybe you can join for the chorus.”
“Of course, dear. I would be delighted,” said Rarity, though Dash barely heard her. Rainbow Dash swallowed and tried to think. She tried to stop pushing against her bonds, but she found that she couldn’t. How would she set everything right if she didn’t have her wings? She had nothing.
Fluttershy shuffled a little closer to Rainbow Dash, warm against her side. She pulled Rarity with her, raising her voice in song even as she moved.
In the cradle of winds
Counting hundred or more
Gamboled pegasi with no end
There sat Star-Seeker Blaze
Who for all love and grace
Found in zephyr and gust no friend
Whatever Rainbow Dash had been thinking about scattered. She looked over at Fluttershy, blinking. She hadn’t known Fluttershy knew the song. She opened her mouth meaning to tell her to stop, that she didn’t have to, that it was lame and a hundred other things besides, but in the end she didn’t. She just stared at her girlfriend as she went on.
Fluttershy didn’t look at her, her eyes closed and her voice soft, warm and soothing all at once as she launched into the refrain.
Feel the wind under wing
Feel the cool breeze’s sting
And know that you’re never alone
When your feathers taste air
When the sunlight is fair
Your every worry is gone
Dash let out a quiet breath and closed her own eyes as well. She tried to let her wings lie still for a second and listen to the words. She knew them all by heart, even though she’d never sung them herself. Fluttershy went on, bolder and a little louder now.
In her love for the air
With her limitless dare
She chased the storm to where it lay
There she fell from the sky
And with nary a cry
Her wings were soon taken away
Feel the wind under wing, Fluttershy sang, and Rarity joined in the chorus this time, her clear and unfaltering voice adding a counterpoint to Fluttershy’s softer tones. Rainbow Dash leaned against Fluttershy as she continued, singing on while she leaned back against Dash, not missing a beat.
On the ground ever more
Wishing she could still soar
From the ground she watched them fly
Then her mournful two eyes
And their sadness turned lies
The pegasi brought her the sky
Feel the wind under wing, sang Rarity and Fluttershy, the chorus again. The tingling, aching pain in Dash’s wings didn’t disappear all at once, but leaving them alone for just a minute, they didn’t hurt any more. They just felt tired and achey. She could pretend, at least for a moment, that she’d just been out flying all day. That she’d chased the storm home.
And so Star-Seeker Blaze
Would spend all of her days
Aloft on the wings of her friends
If her wings would return
This young pony had learned
The horizon goes on without end
Feel the wind under wing, they sang, and Dash’d mouthed the words to the refrain the last time around. She knew that when she opened her eyes, the walls would still be there. So would the bars, the air holes, the empty stone doorway and their saddlebags eternally out of reach. Rainbow Dash’s every worry was definitely not gone, but in the silence that followed, she felt a little more calm, at least.
“That’s quite a beautiful song,” Rarity said in a whisper. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before.”
“It’s called the Cradle of Wind,” Fluttershy replied. Dash felt something against the top of her head. Fluttershy’s muzzle. “It’s very old.”
“Thanks,” Dash croaked. She folded her ears, suddenly annoyed at herself for losing her grip for even a second. “You didn’t have to do that,” she added with a grunt. Any other day, she might’ve said that she didn’t need it. Maybe even get up and walk around a little just to show she was fine on her own, but right now, she felt better laying right there.
“Sure,” said Fluttershy. Dash could hear her smile. “No matter what happens, we’re all in this together. Isn’t that right?”
“Even ignoring that we don’t have a choice, what with the whole ‘prison’ thing, of course we are,” said Rarity. Dash felt something bump against her. When she opened her eyes, she found Rarity reaching past Fluttershy’s forelegs to touch one of Dash’s hooves, giving her a lopsided smile.
“And as long as we’re all here, it can’t be that bad,” Fluttershy added. “I just wish there was more I could do to help.”
“Mm, I myself can’t shake the thought that if we’d played our cards differently, perhaps we might have convinced these people to let us go,” said Rarity, shaking her head. “Or perhaps avoided this altogether. Maybe I was wrong to hold us back, and we should have tried escaping before they put us in this crude cell—but then, we couldn’t have known.”
“We really couldn’t,” said Fluttershy, breathing out through her nose.
“Still, I wish I, too, could do more,” Rarity added, lowering her voice a little.
Rainbow Dash said nothing to that, content with the touch, and to listen and soak in the knowledge that they were together. She didn’t know what Rarity or Fluttershy could have said or done to avoid their predicament. She was pretty confident that she herself could have kicked peryton butt if she’d reacted faster when the peryton sprung their trap, though.
Except, they had a point. The song had a point, and its words still lingered. They were in it together. As much as she didn’t like to admit it, whether it was entirely or partially her fault they were in this mess, Rainbow Dash couldn’t get them out of it alone. Sure, she messed up, and yeah, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that Fluttershy shouldn’t even be here. Hadn’t Fluttershy said that she considered not coming along to Perytonia at all? Dash had convinced her to come along, but a pity party wouldn’t fix a thing.
“Oh. Good evening,” said Rarity. “Is Velysra not free?” Dash hadn’t heard that someone had entered, and apparently, neither had any of the others. Koltares stood in the doorway, a few bowls of water on a tray in the grip of his magic.
“Not that we mind,” Fluttershy added, smiling at him. “It’s very kind of you. Thank you,” she said as the stag put the bowls by the bars.
“We’ve been too lax,” said Koltares. “Give me the empty bowls.”
“I see we’ve still not discovered the words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’,” said Rarity. She and Fluttershy got up and pushed the scattered wooden bowls through the bars. Rainbow Dash remained by the blankets, watching and thinking.
They were together. That meant working together. So far, all they’d done was talk, and that’d gotten them nowhere, unless you counted getting into more trouble. These peryton, with one possible exception, were all dumb and grumpy. She stared at Koltares as he stacked the bowls, one by one, from what he must’ve thought a safe distance. He watched the ponies warily all the time, and Dash stared back even though her mind was elsewhere.
They needed to start doing something. Someone needed to speak up. Someone needed to give them a shove, and that someone probably had to be Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy herself had said that Dash was good at ‘encouraging’. Dash kept coming back to that simply because she’d never thought of it that way despite how many times the mantle of flight leader passed to her. She led and she yelled at ponies a lot, but to think she was good at it—that she was good for something that didn’t involve her wings? Nope. Weird. Her faith in any such ability had taken a hit lately, anyway.
What were the odds that Neisos would start flying just because Rainbow Dash said he should? She’d probably ruined everything for the doe at the pier in Vauhorn, and everything kept going wrong with Fluttershy. The only reason she and Fluttershy were okay now was because she couldn’t very well force Fluttershy into something stupid from a cell.
Someone had to do something, though. Rainbow Dash had to give them—not a push, but maybe a nudge? There were a million ways it could all go wrong, and she knew it all too well now. Even forgetting all the times things had gone wrong between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in Perytonia, she didn’t lack for memories. Now that she considered applying even the tiniest little nudge, those memories flooded back to her.
She remembered trying to get Fluttershy to come along for the dragon migration. She remembered trying to get Fluttershy to join in the hurricane effort. She remembered all too well all the pushing, shoving, and dragging that went into getting Fluttershy to sign up for the Summer Sun Celebration two years ago. Applejack had yelled at her that day, and now it was all Dash could think that Applejack was right.
That particular day had been a disaster. One of many disasters of the non-fun kind she couldn’t believe she’d ever forgotten about. How were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash still friends?
Rainbow Dash watched Fluttershy and Rarity nudge the last of their empty food and water bowls through the bars. One of her best friends, and her girlfriend, both whom had just a moment ago complained that they wished there was something they could do to help get them out of this prison.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Koltares grunted. “We’re going to take some steps to make sure everything is safe.”
“Meaning what, exactly?” asked Rarity, arching a brow.
“No questions, no words. You need to talk less,” replied Koltares, disappearing out the door before any of the ponies could mount a reply.
Rainbow Dash got up and stretched her legs and neck out until it hurt just a little. How could she not tell them? How could she not point out that they hadn’t even begun to try to get out of here? She couldn’t afford to let Rarity bring herself down, as she had a habit of doing these days. She couldn’t afford to let Fluttershy sink into the comfort of thinking she was useless, either.
“Um, Rainbow Dash?”
They could do so much more, all of them. Maybe they could try without Rainbow Dash being her absolute best—or was that worst? Maybe Dash could do something without making a huge mess out of it. Without another disaster.
“She’s been doing this an awful lot lately,” said Rarity. “It’s not normal for her. I worry.”
She couldn’t go overboard, and there’d be a time for making things right again, for letting Fluttershy be and to leave alone the things she should leave alone. No matter what happened, she absolutely couldn’t let it get as bad as that one day in front of the town hall, or any of the hundreds of times like it, but she needed to do something. They both—they all—could do so much better than sitting around drinking water and pacing a stupid little cell.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Yes?” said Fluttershy. Ever since Dash got up, both Fluttershy and Rarity had been watching her. Maybe they sensed that she was up to something? Well, they were right.
“Can I borrow one of your wings?” Dash asked.
Fluttershy blinked.
“My wings are tied up,” said Dash, gesturing to her own back with a tilt of her head. “Just give me a wing for a bit.”
“Okay,” said Fluttershy. She simply smiled, nodded, and moved up to Rainbow Dash, spreading a wing. Her right wing waited, spread out in full but resting easily at a natural arc rather than simply hanging or painfully stiff. Dash was glad she’d put her right side to her. She didn’t want to have to look at the scar on her leg.
Rainbow Dash hadn’t thought her appreciation for the feathers on Fluttershy’s wings could get any deeper, but deprived of her own, she needed that wing. She stepped a little closer and nuzzled in between feathers whose details were intimately familiar to her. She was glad Fluttershy had her wings free, and it helped more than it should. If they tried to put chains around her body, too, Dash would chew through iron.
“Would you like some time alone?” Rarity asked, smiling faintly. “I can just… go stare at a wall, or ask them to take me outside, pretend I have to—”
“No,” said Rainbow Dash, reaching out to rub a hoof against Fluttershy’s side, vaguely aware that Fluttershy traded her a smile for the gesture. “We’re gonna get out of here.”
Though it got ever later in the night, what little moonlight lingered reflected in two pairs of curious eyes, brighter than ever.
“Leaving this prison has always been the goal, dear,” said Rarity, frowning ever so slightly. “Darling, I worry about you if you think either of us are planning on staying here.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “You don’t get it. We’re gonna escape.”
Fluttershy did not protest. Her head nodded so slightly that it seemed an unconscious gesture rather than agreement.
“How?” asked Rarity. One word, infinite doubt.
“I dunno,” said Dash, shrugging. “But we’re gonna do it. Listen, guys. We’ve been playing nice. I know we talked about this before, and yeah, I used to think we could just talk our way out of this too, but it’s not working. At all.”
“Nice is good,” said Fluttershy, scuffing the ground. “But Caldesseia was pretty clear in saying she didn’t want to let us go.”
“Yeah, exactly!” said Dash. “And it’s not about being not nice. It’s about getting out of a sticky situation, and we’ve been in tons of those.”
“That still doesn’t answer how—” Rarity began.
“I know I don’t know how,” said Dash, throwing her head back. “But come on, we’re better than this! We defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord and a bunch of other creeps. Now we’re gonna sit back and stay in this stupid jail until they get bored and let us out, or maybe forever? We’re acting like we’ve given up, except we never did. We haven’t tried.”
This time, Fluttershy nodded her head quickly, her wings shifting on her back. “I think Rainbow Dash is right,” she said, looking over at Rarity. “I think it’d be nice if we could get out of here without being horrible to the peryton, because I still believe they’re not bad people—”
“Sure, if we can,” Dash added.
“—but I don’t feel… um, no I know it’s not right for them to keep us here,” Fluttershy finished. “I agree. We need to leave.”
Rarity pursed her lips and glanced towards the open doorway on the other side of the bars. For a moment, Rainbow Dash wondered if she was about to disagree, or speak in favour of simply staying in jail and hoping for the best, but at length, the unicorn nodded before she spoke.
“You’re right. I have no intention of missing the contract of fall season clothes Hoity Toity spoke about before we left, and we have work to do here in Perytonia, too. Besides, I am not one for prison, and this place is as dreary as it is uncomfortable. Where do we start?”
“Wow,” said Dash, grinning. “You make it sound like you’ve sprung from jail before.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “You’ve known me since—”
“Nope!” said Dash, holding up a hoof for silence. “Just let me dream, okay? I wanna pretend you’ve escaped from Ponyville Jail to make dresses. Or something less lame.”
Fluttershy cleared her throat. “Um, Rainbow Dash? We don’t have a jail in P—”
“Not listening!” said Dash, shaking her head briskly. “Anyway! Escaping. From this place.”
“Yes. Quite,” said Rarity. “You have a plan?”
“I could kick the door really hard.”
“Wonderful. I see you’ve given this much thought,” said Rarity, deadpan.
“That would probably make a lot of noise,” said Fluttershy, grimacing.
“Hey, I’m serious,” said Dash. “Not saying that’s all, I’m just saying that it’s a door with a lock, and we’ll kick it down if we work it. Probably. But yeah, of course they’re not gonna let us do that. We’re gonna need a plan. What else have we got? Talk to me!”
“Or, maybe whisper,” said Fluttershy, lowering her voice. “You know, to keep our plans a little more secret in case anyone is listening.”
“Right, good point,” Dash allowed. She glanced towards the door, but there was no sound, no movement. All was dark and quiet. “Seriously though, what do we know? Besides that they’re afraid of us.”
“I don’t know that there is too much we can do with that,” said Rarity. “At least not until we are out, but it’s worth keeping in mind. I am fairly sure they keep the keys on a hook just around the corner. I’ve heard them hang something there.”
“Not the keys to Dash’s chains, though. Velysra said she didn’t have those,” said Fluttershy.
“Are we gonna trust her on that?” asked Rainbow Dash, flicking her ears.
“I think so,” said Fluttershy. “If she could get the keys but didn’t want to, I think she would rather say it. I don’t understand why she’d lie about something like that. She’s a doctor, and she really seems to care. ”
“Fine,” said Dash, nodding quickly. “What else? We know they’re terrible fliers.”
“By your measure, at least,” Rarity countered with a smile.
“No, really bad! I mean, if we get out of here, you hop on my back, and we’re outta here,” said Dash. “They can’t make sharp turns or anything.”
“We don’t even know where we are though. There are trees, so maybe we can fly low, like canopy birds trying to avoid predators,” said Fluttershy, nibbling her lower lip.
Rarity shook her head. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We know that Rainbow Dash is a better flier than they are,” she said. “Let’s remember that.”
“Not just me,” said Dash, pulling back and frowning deeply. “Fluttershy is ten times better in the air than they are!”
“I don’t know about that,” said Fluttershy, her cheeks tinted a faint red.
“Well, I do,” said Dash with a snort.
“I’ve also noticed quite a few things about their magic,” Rarity continued. “They don’t seem to be able to use magic very far away from their antlers. Their range seems limited—and while I don’t wish to be rude, it’s not quite as strong as your average unicorn, either.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. For all of Rarity’s complaints about how she was not Twilight, the way she went on certainly reminded Dash a little of her. Maybe there was a rule saying at least one unicorn in any room has to analyse everything.
“If you recall, they handled these awful stones that ruin my unicorn magic just fine, but I also don’t remember any peryton using… let us call it precision magic, either,” the unicorn said. “I think their magic is less personal than unicorn magic, perhaps? While we’ve only had two peryton bring us food, Velysra and Koltares seem to have the exact same range, and no peryton we’ve ever met has done anything another peryton cannot do. I’ve never seen them levitate multiple objects at the same time very well either.”
Or maybe Rainbow Dash didn’t give Rarity nearly enough credit. This was another reason why Rarity was awesome. She noticed stuff.
“That’s very impressive,” said Fluttershy, smiling at Rarity. “That means we probably won’t have to worry about anyone suddenly casting a spell that surprises us.”
“And all I’m hearing is that your magic is better than theirs,” Dash added, grinning.
“Hardly,” said Rarity with a snort. “I expect Twilight likely has a spell that turns iron bars into—oh, I haven’t a clue, paper or oranges or something. Even if I had my magic back, I doubt I could do much.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. She did not have the time or inclination to soothe a whining unicorn. “Okay, you have got to stop saying that kinda stuff,” she said. “Rarity, you can do some seriously awesome stuff with your magic! How the hay did you stop that stupid stag’s spell when he tried to grab you, huh? I’ve never seen Twilight do anything like that!”
Rarity licked her lips. “That… was curious. I don’t know how to explain it. I recalled what Khyrast told me about how peryton antlers have more… points. They are like an elegant lattice of magical nodes, compared to the set in a unicorn’s horn. It’s the difference between a weave and a steel wire, I suppose, and I know how to work a pair of scissors, if not wire cutters.”
“I think it was very impressive,” said Fluttershy, reaching out to touch a hoof to Rarity’s side. “Rainbow Dash is right—and even if she wasn’t, even if there weren’t things you could do that Twilight couldn’t, it’s not fair to compare yourself to someone else, especially when you have your own special talents.”
Rarity held her silence for a few breaths, looking between Rainbow Dash—who still glared at the obstinate and self-deprecating unicorn—and Fluttershy who smiled at her. At last, she let out a breath and nodded.
“Yes, well, I suppose you are right. Both of you.” She smiled and leaned forward to nuzzle Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash each in turn. “Thank you. It’s easy to forget oneself when things are … difficult, but I absolutely do have talent that is very much my own. It doesn’t matter much so long as I don’t have access to my magic, of course, but I am sure there are other things I can do.”
“But if you did have your magic,” said Rainbow Dash, tilting her head. “There are all kinds of things you could do, right?” She’d taken for granted how useful it was to have someone around who could do magical stuff.
“I could do something,” said Rarity, her smile slowly transforming into something between a smirk and a grin, confidence radiating from her in a way that felt more Rarity than anything else the unicorn had done in a long while. She nodded her head towards the far wall, past the bars. “I could easily grab our saddlebags with all our effects, placed outside what they think is magical range.”
“Do you think you could… grab the keys?” asked Fluttershy. She smiled and gestured towards the doorway. “If you’re right, and they’re just around the corner, that is.”
“I don’t know,” said Rarity, frowning. “Fetching something out of sight? I don’t know if it can be done—or how hard it is—but I could give it a try. I wish I could try it this very moment, but again, this is very much academic. They won’t let my magic return.” She huffed. “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone, isn’t that how the saying goes?”
Rainbow Dash scratched at her own snout. She felt a grin coming as she thought. “Oh, they’ll try to keep you from getting your magic back, but we can fix that.”
“I don’t see how I’ll have a choice,” said Rarity, tilting her head. “That brute of a stag has all but declared that he’s not above denying us food or water if we don’t listen, and even if Velysra disagrees, they’ll look for alternatives. We’re in no position to fight—”
“Fight? We’re gonna cheat,” said Dash with a low snicker.
Fluttershy blinked. “How, um… does one cheat at something like this?”
“Easy!” said Dash. “When they bring those stupid stones around, all they want you to do is touch them, right? And you didn’t faint or anything the second time around?”
“Yes?” said Rarity.
“And they don’t actually have a way of telling if you have magic or not,” said Dash.
“Not as far as we know,” said Rarity, nodding along. “But once it’s been a day or two, they’ll understand we’re lying if I say I don’t have my magic, and it’s easy to tell when I use the stones.”
“I think they’re smart enough to know,” said Fluttershy, sighing. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You don’t get it. Next time they bring the stones, you just, I dunno, maybe touch one of them or make it look like you’re gonna do the thing, and then you make a really bright flash! Like, the brightest you can make it! They won’t be able to tell the difference!”
“Oh,” said Rarity, one brow quirked. “That… may actually work. As long as there is an effect, I don’t see how they would tell the difference, especially when we’ve given them cause to believe we’re cooperating. Huh.”
“And besides,” said Fluttershy. “I don’t think they know how the stones work, anyway. If what we heard is right, they got them from the people the Guide talked to last night. You were knocked unconscious the first time, but they didn’t think it was strange that you were fine the second time.”
“Fine is perhaps overstating it,” said Rarity, her snout creased for a moment. “But yes. That may in fact work. Once I have my magic back, I might be able to get the key, but failing that, at the very least I can make our escape a little easier. It may not be a plan, but that is helpful, even if a little… under-hooved.”
“It’s something.” Dash grinned. “Besides, it’s not cheating if you win.”
“It’s… actually still cheating, I think, not that it matters—” Fluttershy said, tilting her head until it lay nearly perfectly horizontal.
“Okay, scratch that,” said Dash. “How about, it’s still cheating, but I don’t care as long as we win?”
Fluttershy giggled at that. “I think that’s better. Is there anything I can do? I have my wings free except when I go outside. Does that help?”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “I dunno. Can you smuggle a cloud in here, you think? Nah. Hey, what about your animal friends? Seen anything here?”
“I don’t see much at all,” said Fluttershy. “You know that. They blindfold us when we go out. I don’t even know where we go.”
“Yeah, sure, but you hear stuff, right?” Dash pressed.
Fluttershy nodded. “There are some very beautiful songs. Parakeets, songbirds and parrots.” She sighed. “I’d love to see them.”
“How about talk to them?” asked Dash. “Can’t you tell them to go get help? Ask them where exactly we are?”
“Darling, when we go to visit the ‘bathroom’ they have here, there are no less than six of the peryton,” said Rarity. “The most privacy we ever get is when there’s just one of the does with us, and we have to take their word for there not being an audience.” The unicorn shuddered.
“I wouldn’t want to get any of the birds into trouble,” Fluttershy added, scuffing the ground with a forehoof.
“You’re not gonna get a bird into trouble,” said Dash, rolling her eyes. “Come on. They probably don’t even know you can talk to animals!”
“Well, they’ll figure that out if I start asking a parrot where we are, and then tell it to fly and get help,” said Fluttershy with a cross look.
“I—okay, that’s a good point,” said Dash, sighing.
“It’s a question of language,” said Rarity, shaking her head briskly. “You can say much by saying little, you know. If they understand your words—”
“My meaning, really,” said Fluttershy.
“—well, still,” Rarity said. “If you told them that you’d love if one of them visited, or that you feel very lonely in this… cave? Wherever we are, perhaps one of them would find these air-holes?”
“Then we could have a long chat. Figure out where we are, get some help.” Dash grinned. “That’d be awesome!”
“Birds understand things differently, that’s all,” said Fluttershy, studiously avoiding their eyes. “They don’t know how to read maps, so I don’t know if they could tell us where we are, and they can’t really get help if no one else can understand them.”
Rainbow Dash slumped. “Fluttershy.”
“And I don’t know, what if I get caught? What if they start asking ‘why are you talking to the birds, they can’t understand you’, and I forget to lie? What if I don’t forget to lie? It’s very rude—”
“Fluttershy!” Dash said, cutting her off. She brought a hoof up to the other pegasus’ snout. “We already talked about this! Yeah, we’re gonna have to lie a bit and be a little sneaky, but you can totally do this! And yeah, I get it, we’re not exactly getting the Wonderbolts here, but even a parrot or whatever can probably do something.”
“That’s what we’re doing, after all,” said Rarity, smiling at them. “Gathering our ‘somethings’, the things we know and can do, and making a way out of here. A quilt of little scraps. I like that.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Dash, cocking a brow. “You can be in charge of making the poem or whatever, too.” She let her hoof slide down to rest against Fluttershy’s chest. “Come on. All we’re asking, all I’m asking, is that you give it a go. Just try. I know you can pull it off. If you have to go tomorrow morning, get a badger to follow you, convince a bird to visit—whatever. It doesn’t matter if the peryton think you’re a little crazy as long as they don’t catch on, and as long as whatever animal you find can help at all, that’s a win!”
Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a long look, and Dash, for her part, simply held her smile. Finally, Fluttershy puffed out her cheeks and nodded. “I can try, at least. I did say I wanted to help. I just don’t like getting animals involved. This isn’t their fault.”
Dash nodded. “Sure, but that’s what friends are for, right? We need all the help we can get. We’re in this together, even if it’s not their fault.” Or your fault. She flicked an ear to get rid of an itch. “We’ll repay favours and worry about that stuff later. Right now, we need to get out of here.”
Rarity covered a yawn with a hoof. “We have time, and nothing but, I think.” She gestured to their blankets. “How about we go over some things you might say that will seem… let us say inconspicuous? Just in case an opportunity arises soon. After that, we’ll have to see what else we have to work with.”
“Awesome,” said Rainbow Dash, trotting over to their bed for comfort only. All the talk, the ideas, and the vague notion of a plan had her more awake than she’d felt in weeks. Never mind that it was the middle of the night, she was ready to go, whatever “go” meant.
The way Rainbow Dash woke up felt decidedly familiar, if only for a second. A languid stretch in an errant shaft of sunlight hitting her body, a yawn to acknowledge that she’d gone to bed dead tired, and a grin knowing that there was no way she’d actually get up right now. She’d just roll out of the sun’s way and keep sleeping. Rinse and repeat another two or three times, and then she’d consider getting up.
There were many problems with this. One was that when she tried to roll over on her side, she bumped into Fluttershy. Gently, barely more than a nudge, but in the morning haze, it was unexpected until she remembered that this was normal. Had been normal for a while now, actually. This wasn’t a problem. In fact, that particular detail was a lot more than just “okay”, well into the territory of “amazing”.
Less okay was her inability to stretch her wings, the warmth turning oppressive, the floor that was not a cloud, the sunlight coming from a narrow shaft rather than an open window carrying a pleasant breeze—there were a host of problems, all brought on by the whole “in prison” thing.
“Great,” Dash murmured to herself. She tried to close her eyes again and go back to sleep, but yet again, she found that she was up. Whether it was because she was thinking of all the stuff they’d discussed last night, or because she wasn’t half as comfortable as she’d be in a proper bed, there was no more sleep for her. Also, judging by the sunlight, it was well past anything even she would call ‘morning’.
If I get back home and can’t snooze through the mornings any more, I’m gonna be really, really mad, she thought. Discoloured wings? Fine. She would dye her butt red and her hooves purple if she had to, but she refused to lose lazy mornings.
Getting back home. At least they were moving towards that. In more ways than one. Rainbow Dash slipped out from between the other two ponies and stood, yawning again. Fluttershy and Rarity slept on. It’d gotten really late last night before they slept. Sure, they didn’t have a clear plan just yet, but they’d get there. Dash had broached the idea of just muscling through the peryton when they came to let one of them out to go to the bathroom, but Fluttershy’d had a point: they never came alone when they opened the door.
Barreling through a half-dozen peryton clustered around a narrow doorway didn’t seem all that likely. Not that Rainbow Dash wasn’t eager to try, of course, but it’d be a last resort or something.
Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side and perked an ear. Had she really woken up to the uncomfortable feeling of sunlight hot against her side, or was it because of the distant voices? Probably the sun and the stale air. She’d never been a light sleeper. Not until recently, anyway. She heard someone talking down the hall, but couldn’t make out the words. Dash moved up to the bars and strained to hear.
Too much echo. Too far away—until it wasn’t any more. Now she heard steps. More than one person. The entire peryton posse, probably, and a faint clink of metal. Rainbow Dash frowned, staring at the doorway until peryton entered, one by one, with Koltares in front. Behind him followed three peryton who together carried a length of chain, and the final two brought a few bowls of fruit and water.
“Good morning?” Dash asked, shifting her weight and leaning against the side wall as casually as she could. “Nice chains you’ve got. What’s the matter? Afraid I’ll bust these?” She grinned.
Koltares did not seem similarly amused. He stopped a little closer to the bars than usual. Maybe he was emboldened by their numbers. He always acted tougher when he wasn’t alone. The stag stared at Dash, his eyes roving from her and over to Rarity and Fluttershy, who stirred at all the noise. Rainbow Dash stepped in front of them. If they had any plans on trying to put chains around Fluttershy, too, there’d be a problem.
“Come closer to the bars,” Koltares said, first pointing to Rainbow Dash, then motioning for the three peryton with the chains to come forth.
“Why?” Dash demanded.
“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, rubbing at her eyes.
“I mentioned increased safety measures. These are those,” said Koltares, indicating the chains with a flick of his head. “Come closer to the bars so we can secure you to them.”
“Right. Two questions. First: is this a joke?” asked Rainbow Dash, looking at the chains they carried. They looked every bit as solid as the ones around her body, and Koltares fished two crude padlocks out from his bags by way of reply.
“You can’t be serious,” said Rarity, touching her mane. She stepped up closer to Rainbow Dash. “This is entirely unnecessary.”
“What is the second question?” asked Koltares, his face blank and empty.
“Or else?” said Dash.
Koltares tilted his head ever so slightly.
“You want me to step up to the bars so you can put more chains on me like you’re playing some creepy kind of dress-up. You want me to step closer, or else what?” asked Rainbow, tapping a hoof on the ground.
“Or else you will not drink or eat,” said Koltares with a shrug.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Rarity gasped.
“Where is Velysra?” asked Fluttershy, her brows knit with worry. “Could we maybe talk to her?”
“Velysra is busy,” said Koltares. “Step up to the bars, or—”
“Sure,” said Rainbow Dash, cutting him off and stepping up to the bars. Koltares did not hesitate in the least. The peryton with the chains stepped forward, but no closer than they had to, and before anypony could protest any further, Koltares secured one end of the long chain to one of the links around Dash’s body, and the other in a simple padlocked loop around one of the iron bars. Click, click, and Dash was on a leash.
“You done?” asked Dash, raising a brow. She faked a yawn.
“See this flippancy?” asked Koltares, frowning ever so slightly. “This one is dangerous, and her mannerisms prove it! Those wings spell trouble for all of us if we are not careful. We don’t know what dark strength their false patrons have given them.”
“Should we find another length of chain for the other winged one?” asked one of the does. “I think Alessus said he could spare some chain from the mill—”
“No.” Koltares sneered. “Snaring one snares them all, and besides, the other one is harmless and meek.”
Rainbow Dash heard the creak of her own teeth grinding together. She looked to Fluttershy, but predictably, the other pegasus didn’t look offended in the least.
“Give them the food and water,” Koltares said with a wave of a hoof. He took another step closer to the bars, staring straight at Rainbow Dash. “If you are truly sent by the Goddess, if you do not come here serving lies and madness, how come they have not freed you from this prison?” he asked.
“We were not to speak—” one of the stags said, but Koltares went on, ignoring him utterly.
“How come you are still here, behind these bars,” Koltares asked in a hiss. “How can you still lie with such confidence?”
Rarity cleared her throat. “If you think we’re innocent, and that the Princesses—oh, pardon, if the Goddesses didn’t send us, why are we in here? That’s a wonderful question,” she said with a smile. “You should probably ask your ‘Guide’ about that, if you think it’s wrong that we’re kept here just for a difference in... opinion?”
“Koltares, we are not to speak to them,” the same stag said, a little louder. “We will leave, now.”
“Um, actually,” said Fluttershy. She locked eyes with Rainbow Dash for a moment, her face carefully neutral. “I drank a lot of water last night. Do you think you could take me outside? I really have to go.”
“Fine,” said Koltares with a grunt. “The rest of you, stand away from the door.”
“Yeah, like I have a choice,” said Dash with a snort.
With ropes procured for Fluttershy’s wings, and a final, nervous little smile from Fluttershy before she disappeared around the corner, the morning chaos finally lost its momentum. Rainbow Dash tugged at the chain and moved around a little. She could reach their beds, but half of the cell was off limits now. She couldn’t get to the door. If taking her outside to do her business was a hassle before, this would be ten times worse. Part of Dash wanted to laugh at that. They made a lot of work for themselves.
“You’re certainly taking this all in stride,” said Rarity. The unicorn had watched as Dash tested the length and the strength of the chain, all while sitting on the softest part of their bed. “I personally find it perfectly horrid.”
“Yeah?” said Dash. She couldn’t not smile at that. “Sure. It’s not great, but we were already locked up here. I don’t even understand what the point of this is.”
“To make themselves feel more safe, I suppose,” said Rarity. “I mean no offence dear, but they seem disproportionately afraid of you because of all those wings.”
Dash nodded. “Guess so. They don’t like the Ephydoerans at all. Works for me. I don’t care. They don’t know anything about us, they’re just guessing.”
“As is evidenced by their clumsy handling of me and my magic,” said Rarity with a huff. “And saying such awful things about Fluttershy to her face, too.”
Rainbow Dash felt a stab of annoyance at that, but she chose to laugh at it instead. “Heh, yeah. They’re gonna regret that. I feel sorry for them if they don’t know how awesome Fluttershy is. That’s gonna be their problem.”
Koltares unwrapped the blindfold, locked the door after Fluttershy, and, as an afterthought, untied the ropes as well. Maybe he finally acknowledged it’d be a waste of rope to leave Fluttershy tied up. Dash was glad. Rope didn’t taste good at all.
“We will bring water this evening. Don’t waste what you have.” Koltares grunted and turned, the stag and the other peryton leaving the ponies alone. Again three sets of ears perked and listened, waiting for the sounds of the peryton to fade. Fluttershy’d stood unmoving just inside the cell door, her face carefully neutral ever since she’d returned.
“How’d it go?” Dash asked. She stood as close as the chain would let her. “C’mon, spill!”
Fluttershy broke into a wide smile and trotted up to Rainbow Dash, giving her a light squeeze. “I think I did it,” she said in an urgent, excited whisper. “I don’t think they understood anything! I heard a lorikeet nearby when it was just me and a doe, and I talked to him like some ponies talk to their plants, and I think it worked!” She turned around looking towards the air shafts so quickly her mane whipped Rainbow Dash in the face, making Dash giggle.
“Easy, girl,” said Dash. “What’d he say?”
“Oh, I said it was very lonely down in the cave, and I’d love a visit. I think the doe thought I was talking to her,” said Fluttershy. The lorikeet didn’t say much because I couldn’t really talk to him, but he said he didn’t like being alone either and I tried to smile at him, but, um, well, I had the blindfold. I think he understood. I hope he did,” she said, biting her lower lip. She turned to Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “Do you think it worked? Finding these little air-holes might be a little hard, but he sounded really clever. I’m sure he followed me until we went inside.”
“Relax,” Dash laughed. She nuzzled up under Fluttershy’s jaw. “You did great, Fluttershy. Awesome work.”
“If it worked, then that’s wonderful, and if it didn’t, we can simply try again,” said Rarity, smiling.
Fluttershy nodded at that, her cheeks still flushed with excitement. “I guess you’re right,” she said, letting out a deep breath. “I think I’d be happy if it was just this once, though.”
Dash looked up at a bird’s call from above, loud and sharp. Cheet. Cheet-cheet. At the end of the too-bright shaft, a dark blue head turned black backlit by the sun cocked left, then right, impossibly fast, its features lost in the glare.
“There you are!” said Fluttershy, beaming. “Hello! My name’s Fluttershy. Would you like to come down here and have a little chat?”
Cheet. Cheet.
“Oh. I guess you’re right,” said Fluttershy, frowning. She looked around the cell, then up at the shafts again. “Well, you can probably get down here safely, and if you just hop out of here, I’m sure they’ll let you out. They’re not bad people—the peryton who live here don’t give you any trouble, do they?”
Another series of cheeps and little noises. Rainbow Dash sat. Idly, she wondered if other ponies ever got used to this. Fluttershy often traded words with the animals that lived around her cottage—or anywhere else—but long conversations were always a little weird.
“Oh, that’s good,” said Fluttershy, nodding. “Well, um. If you want to sit up there, that’s fine too, but I’m a little scared they’ll hear us talking. We need to be a little quiet. I’d really appreciate—oh goodness!”
Fluttershy hurried forwards to stand under one of the holes in the ceiling, and a second later, a multi-coloured little ball of feathers landed on top of her head, cushioned by her mane. The blue, orange and green bird hopped upright and let out another little cheet.
“Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy, her voice full of concern.
Cheet.
“Mm, no, he says that all he knows is that there are tall rocks around everywhere, but he’s never flown very far beyond them. He’s a little afraid of heights,” said Fluttershy.
“Of course he is,” said Dash, her voice flat.
“But there’s a forest… which way?” asked Rarity.
“Where was the forest, again?” asked Fluttershy, smiling at the spot right above Dash’s eyes. “The one you heard had the different fruits, below.”
Cheet.
“Seriously though, he’s gonna tell me if he needs to go, right?” asked Dash. “Because my mane is not a toilet.”
“I’m not even going to tell him you asked,” said Fluttershy, huffing. “That’s very rude, Rainbow Dash. Sunny Tails would never do that! And besides, he really likes your mane. That’s a compliment.”
“Good taste there, at least. That’s something,” Dash muttered, tilting her head slightly. She felt the bird atop hop around in response.
“And, he says the forest is really all around, in, um. Well, he just pointed. With his beak.”
“Right. I can’t see that, you know,” said Dash.
Rarity waved towards the far wall. “There. Ish.”
“He pointed east, south-east, north-east and north,” Fluttershy provided. “I think that means we’re right. We’re really in the Bow. Or, in a rainforest somewhere in between the mountains. The forest around the base of the mountains is the Khosta, it has to be. On the map of Perytonia, it follows the mountains all the way.”
“Yeah,” said Dash, sighing. “It makes sense. I was awake for a bit when we were going up that freaky river, and we were going, uh, I don’t remember exactly, but it was south by south-westish.”
“That makes sense, too,” said Fluttershy, nodding sharply. “There isn’t a lot of land here that isn’t Perytonia or the Bow. If we’re not in Perytonia, we have to be in the Bow or beyond it. It’s a little hard to tell exactly how high above the waterline we are, too, because the air is so strange.” She shook her head. “Sunny doesn’t really know either. He doesn’t… really count distance in paces or hooves, so...” Fluttershy rubbed one foreleg against another.
“Well, what really matters is what we do with—or, rather,” Rarity interrupted herself, frowning. “My apologies, what we ask your friend here to do. What he can do to help.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Fluttershy licking her lips. “We’ve already asked so much. Um. I guess maybe—could you take a message to somewhere else? To the forest?”
More cheeps and peeps. Fluttershy nodded.
“He’s really afraid of travelling outside of the rainforest,” said Fluttershy. “He only really flew up high once.”
“But?” asked Dash, raising a brow. She heard the smile in her voice before the other pegasus’ lips curved upwards.
“But he has a brother who he is sure would love to help,” Fluttershy said.
“Awesome, we’re in business,” said Dash, grinning. “Do you think he could tell someone where we are?”
“Willingness to take a message is wonderful,” said Rarity, “but I don’t understand how we will get a message to any of the very few peryton we know, much less communicate it when others don’t have your gift for communicating with animals.” She shook her head. “You’ve also admitted that they don’t have a good grasp on where we are, in terms we use.”
Fluttershy nodded very slowly, smiling still as Rarity made each of her points, patiently waiting for the unicorn to finish. “I hope it’s not too rude to say, but… I think you’re underestimating birds, Rarity. Lorikeets have an amazing talent for making sounds. They can mimic anything they hear, and they’re really good at it.”
“Mimic,” Sunny croaked, followed by a cheep right into Dash’s ear that made her giggle.
“Uh. I’m thinking... awesome?” said Dash. She tilted her head up, and the lorikeet hopped forwards to match. A blue-capped head peered down at her from her forehead, tilted sideways.
“Awe. Awesome!” said the bird, making Dash laugh.
“We could tell Sunny Tails to take a message to his brother, and then he could fly to the Khosta,” said Fluttershy. “If he can ask around and find Scarlett, she should be able to take him to Phoreni. Red Wibblers have a great memory, so she should be able to recognise Phoreni since she knows where the Grove is. Sunny’ brother can give the message, and then show Phoreni where we are. Hopefully she remembers Scarlett and understands.”
Rarity stared. Rainbow Dash blinked.
“I—I mean, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. I don’t know if the birds in the Khosta understand lorikeets, and we know that the Ephydoerans don’t like it when birds fly into the Grove, so they might get chased away, maybe Phoreni doesn’t understand—”
“Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash. “That is amazing.”
“Darling, I retract my concerns, and my doubts about your wonderful friend here,” said Rarity, touching a hoof to her own chest.
“Amazing, darling,” said Sunny Tails, and Dash heard Rarity’s star-struck intake of breath.
Fluttershy giggled and shook her head, blushing. “It’s worth a try, at least.”
“Oh, no,” said Fluttershy. “It was wonderful, it sounded beautiful, but could you maybe do it one more time?”
“Ponies in trouble. Fol-low, follow!” said Sunny. He cocked his head left, then right, and let out a little peep.
“That’s very good,” said Fluttershy, nodding. “Now, you remember what to—”
Cheeps, peeps and an almost indignant trill at the end.
“Yes, I know I’m repeating myself, I’m very sorry. Thank you so much,” said Fluttershy. She reached out, and the bird hopped down from Dash’s mane, perching on Fluttershy’s hoof instead. Fluttershy gently nuzzled his chest-feathers, while Rainbow Dash tousled her own mane so it’d lie right again.
“Well, there we have it,” said Rarity, nodding appreciatively. “Now, as to how to get this poor bird out of here…” She stared up at the shafts in the ceiling.
“Yes, those are far too small to fly through safely,” said Fluttershy, frowning. “We’ll have to find another way.”
“We’re done? Ready to go?” Dash asked.
“I suppose so,” said Fluttershy, taking a deep breath. Sunny cheeped cheerily.
“Hey!” Dash yelled. Rarity winced, and Fluttershy ducked her head as Sunny took off and flew in a little circle around her head. “Hey! Guards!”
“Sometimes,” said Rarity, frowning at her, “I suspect you just don’t want anyone to have a sense of hearing.”
“Quick! Act natural!” said Dash.
“I am acting natural, your shouting hurt my ears,” Rarity snapped as steps echoed down the hall.
“Oh. Oh dear. Sunny, quick,” said Fluttershy. “Act like you don’t know me!”
Cheep.
“Well, I like to think we’re friends, too,” said Fluttershy, smiling at the bird who’d landed on the ground in front of her. “That’s why we’re pretend—”
“What?” Koltares asked, stepping inside the room.
“A bird got in here,” said Dash. She pointed to the little bird that cheeped merrily away at Fluttershy. ”It’s your dumb air shafts! Can you get it out of here? It’s making a bunch of noise, and we tried getting it out, but it doesn’t wanna leave.”
“Of all the idiotic issues,” said Koltares with a grunt. “I will get a net and try to catch—” he began to say, pausing when Sunny hopped through the bars and towards the door, flapping his little wings with each bounce. The peryton stared in silence as the lorikeet paused underneath him to look both ways down the hall, hopping along the floor to his left after a moment’s deliberation.
“Wow, that’s weird, huh?” said Dash. “I guess it changed its mind.”
“Oh, Birds can tell which way is out by the wind, just like pegasi,” said Fluttershy, smiling.
“Good for him,” Rarity agreed with a nod. “If it’s a him. I wouldn’t know, of course. As it’s just a bird we just met.”
The stag closed his eyes and shook his head. “Less talk. I will see it out,” he said, disappearing down the hall, following the bird.
“Alright. That’s that done. If we don’t figure another way out of here, the bird’s a good backup plan,” said Dash, chuckling to herself. She stretched out her legs. Half of the annoyance of this new chain was that it was hard to pace around the cell properly.
“Backup?” asked Rarity, arching a brow.
“Hey, I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t feel like sitting around doing nothing, and yeah, that’s some awesome bird-work—” she paused to grin at Fluttershy, holding out a hoof. Fluttershy giggled and gave her a little hoof-bump. “—but if Sunny Tails’ brother gets bored, or if something comes up, I don’t wanna sit around for weeks waiting for something that could go wrong. That’s dumb and boring.”
“We don’t even know if Phoreni wants to help,” Fluttershy added.
“I should think she would if she knew the full story,” Rarity retorted. “What happened in the Grove wasn’t our fault at all, and she was the one who suspected foul play. It’s a shame we couldn’t send a proper letter with this bird-friend of yours, explaining everything.” The unicorn paused for a moment, her snout crinkling ever so slightly as she turned to Rainbow Dash. “Then again, it might not have mattered. The Ephydoerans all seemed very bull-headed about the mishap with your wings.”
“Whatever, I’m over it if Fluttershy is,” said Rainbow Dash with a shrug. She spared Fluttershy a glance, and the other pegasus nodded.
“I try not to think about it too much,” said the other pegasus with a little smile.
“They seem terrified of the Ephydoerans at any rate,” said Rarity. “And if these people stole from them, Perytonia should probably know what’s going on here.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah. Anyway, if Velysra is gone, and Caldesseia thinks she’s done with us, we need something else to do. Even if Phoreni comes to help us, I don’t wanna sit around waiting. It’s gonna take them forever to get here.”
“Maybe,” said Fluttershy. She looked towards their saddlebags. “We don’t know exactly where we are, but I remember the map pretty well. Even if we don’t know how the Ephydoerans travel, it’s probably going to take them a while. Days or weeks even if they leave right away.”
Rarity huffed. “Weeks? In here? I think I will give that a miss, thank you.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I’m sorry. I hope that Sunny’ brother and Scarlett will help, but it’s far away.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Like I said, great plan, but a great backup plan, I guess.” She rolled her shoulders and pawed at the ground. “What else have we got?”
Silence.
“Um. I… still have my wings,” said Fluttershy, after a moment. “Because they don’t seem to think it matters.”
“Yeah,” said Dash, grimacing. The idea that they didn’t think Fluttershy was a threat still annoyed her. “Okay—”
“They’re right, really,” said Fluttershy, splaying her ears. “Even your wings wouldn’t really make a difference in here, so I don’t think I have anything else I can do. Not that I can think of.”
“And I myself am without my magic for another day or two, until we can enact this little trick you suggested,” said Rarity. “We have to find a way to get you free from those chains as well. If you only had the chains around your body, well, that’s awful enough, but now, should we manage to open the door, we still have to get you loose. All my tools are over there—” She gestured to their saddlebags. “—so I don’t know how much more we can do right now.”
“Right, yeah,” Dash grunted. “Koltares probably has the keys on him. He’s the one who carries around all these stupid locks. Who does that? Does he have like… a creepy padlock collection?”
Fluttershy eyed the cell door with open skepticism, and then turned her eyes on Dash’s chains. “I don’t know how you’re going to break down the door if you can’t reach it, either, and even if you could, we’d need some kind of distraction so they don’t hear us. If they notice what we’re doing, they’ll try to stop us.”
“There’s that as well,” said Rarity. She walked up to the bars and began collecting the food and water that the peryton had left, pulling them through one by one. “Again we have nothing but time. Let us eat while we think, at least.”
“Sure,” said Dash. “Until they decide that they wanna chain everyone to everything.” She made no move towards either food or drink, watching while Fluttershy dragged the blankets a little closer, and Rarity arranged their bowls with clumsy hoof-work.
“I’m sure they won’t,” said Fluttershy, smiling. She gestured to a spot near where she sat. “You should probably drink something. Do you want to sit? Are the chains uncomfortable?” Her smile faded a bit as her eyes drifted to the iron securing Rainbow Dash to the bars, but Dash was only vaguely aware.
They probably wouldn’t bring along more chains, but what else would they do? What would the ponies themselves do? Without Caldesseia or Velysra, and with all the other guards stubbornly refusing conversation, nothing would happen unless the ponies made it happen. The wind stood still but for her wings.
Except she didn’t have her wings, of course, so that metaphor was going nowhere fast.
“Rainbow Dash? Please?” asked Fluttershy.
“Yeah, okay,” said Dash. She plopped her butt down next to Fluttershy and leaned down to grab a drink.
A distraction. They’d need a distraction, and a way to kick down the door. Distraction, door, and keys to her chains. Once they were out of the cell, Dash wouldn’t let anyone cage her ever again, and once they got out under the open air, she’d spread her wings and fly, never to land. Goodbye, stupid Morrowsworn. Eyes on the prize. They had a plan for Rarity, Fluttershy had already helped—and what could Rainbow Dash do? She had done, and could do nothing.
That wasn’t entirely true. She’d started it all. She’d convinced them—encouraged them, she thought, but it still didn’t feel right. She was Rainbow Dash. Whatever she had said in one of her friendship lesson letters to Princess Celestia, and even if she was fine with leaning on her friends for support, it felt dumb not to have anything to offer herself.
“Would you like some fruit, dear?” asked Rarity. “There’s a new fruit here, something purple—well, lavender, strictly speaking—and it’s really quite good.”
“Sure,” said Dash, accepting a slice, chewing without tasting it. For a moment she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing herself to think, to dream of having her wings back so she could play a part in their plan, so she could help bust them out of here, but she knew that wasn’t happening.
“Dreams,” said Dash, blinking.
“Pardon?” said Rarity.
Rainbow Dash still thought it weird to think that just remembering her dreams was some sort of special power—or at least not normal. Dash could talk to Princess Luna in a way the others couldn’t. It was easier for her, anyway. Or, it had been. Dash frowned.
“Rainbow Dash?” asked Fluttershy, her head tilted. “What are you thinking about?”
“I’m—yeah,” said Dash, snorting. “I’m just thinking. They’re so afraid of us because they think we’re lying about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and they think that the evil, scary, spooky Luna is on our side and somehow… gives us powers or whatever?”
Rarity glanced towards the doorway. “Don’t give them more ideas, dear.”
“That’s what they think, yes,” said Fluttershy with a nod. She nudged a water bowl a little closer to Rainbow Dash.
“Yeah, well, they’re right, aren’t they?” asked Dash. “Kinda. If Princess Luna knows we’re here, I’m sure she can help. She’s a princess. That’s gotta count for something.”
“Maybe?” said Fluttershy, indicating the water bowl with a nod of her head.
“I don’t see how that helps, I’m sorry,” said Rarity, shaking her head. “We want to let people know we’re here so they can come rescue us. That was always the case. Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, the Perytonian peryton, anyone, really.”
“Yeah, but I can talk to Luna in my dreams, remember?” said Dash.
Fluttershy pushed the water bowl closer still.
“And I still believe you when you say you’ve done so before, but if you could do it now, why haven’t you already?” asked Rarity, raising a brow. “It all seems awfully erratic.”
“It didn’t—” Rainbow Dash paused, sighing and leaning down to grab a mouthful of water when the water bowl nudged against her leg at Fluttershy’s insistence. “It didn’t use to be. Or, I mean, it kinda was, but kinda not. Something’s been extra weird with my dreams lately.” She schooled her face, hiding her frown.
She knew what she had been dreaming about, lately. She had no control over her dreams, the same vague scenes partially dissolving, partially sticking around every morning, but none of that explained why Luna didn’t come by. She seemed to have no issues sticking her snout into Dash’s dreams, usually.
Rarity gave Dash an expectant nod, as though she wanted her to go on. Rainbow Dash drew breath as though she, too, expected herself to go on, but that was all she had. She had the knowledge that she’d had some dreams where she’d talked to Luna, and the hope that maybe it could help.
She had nothing. Dash slumped. There had to be something—
“Okay,” said Fluttershy, smiling as though it were the simplest thing in the world. “Maybe we can find out what’s changed?”
Rainbow Dash tilted her head and bent an ear. “What’d you mean?”
Fluttershy shrugged. “If you used to dream about something, and now you don’t—if she used to see you in your dreams but stopped—then something’s different. I’m sure it’s nothing dangerous or scary, or, I hope not, but maybe there’s a reason?” She leaned forward, grabbing another one of the curious purple fruits.
“Nothing happens without a reason, is it?” asked Rarity. “Twilight would say something like that. When did you have these dreams of Princess Luna, at any rate?”’
“Uh, jeez, don’t ask any easy questions, right,” said Dash, scrunching up her snout. “The first time was the night after we left Orto, I guess, and then… once on the road to Ephydoera?” She scratched her head. “The night after we left the Grove, aaand… the night I found the fancy statue in the Splitwood.”
“Goodness, you spoke to Princess Luna four times?” asked Fluttershy, her eyes widening slightly. “I don’t think you ever mentioned all those. Was that why you asked me about dreams?”
“I guess?” said Dash. “I don’t remember. I didn’t think it was all that special.”
“Four exclusive little tete-a-tete’s with a princess?” asked Rarity with a little huff. “By all means, nothing special about that at all.”
“Yeah, okay, I get it now, it is kinda a big deal,” said Dash, shrugging. “I didn’t know how real it was at first, but now I know it is, and that’s why I think she can help.” She sighed. “Or I thought she could—”
“The statues,” said Rarity.
“I’m sorry?” said Fluttershy.
“The statues. Every single time you say you’ve spoken to Luna, we’ve camped under one of the statues,” said Rarity. She pulled one of the remaining fruit-bowls a little closer to herself, picking at the fruit while she spoke. “It’s common to all those nights, and lately, we haven’t seen any statues such as those.”
“We slept under a statue the night before we got ambushed,” said Dash, frowning. “That doesn’t add up. Why didn’t I see her then?”
“That was a statue that I now realise is clearly made in Celestia’s image,” said Rarity, smiling. “Sunlight and all. This does in fact add up if you suppose the statues of Selyria do this.”
“Because Selyria is Luna,” Fluttershy agreed, her ears halfway to a wilt. “If you had a dream of Luna after we left the Grove, does that mean the terrifying statue we found there is meant to be Luna, too? I guess they do have some strange ideas about the Princesses, but… okay.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Wow. If that’s really what’s doing this—wait, you think so? Hang on, the statues weren’t magical, right?” She looked to Rarity. “Did you check?”
Rarity wiped her muzzle with the nook of a leg, swallowing before she replied. “I am fairly sure I checked at least some of the times we bedded down under those statues, though I may have missed one or two that looked the same, the ones along the road and such. They weren’t magical in any way I recognise as such, but that doesn’t have to mean anything if they’re having an effect. Why?”
“Nothing,” said Rainbow Dash, shaking her head briskly. “Or, well, I guess Luna asked me about it. Something about being pulled in, I didn’t really pay attention.”
Fluttershy blinked, speaking very slowly. “Princess Luna’s being… pulled in?”
Dash blew her mane out of her face. “You’re making it sound way more serious than she did. She just said something was weird. That’s how we… met, sort of. Anyway!” Dash held up a hoof. “Doesn’t matter. If that happened because of the statues, then yeah, I got nothing. I don’t see any statues of Selyria here in no-Aspect-ville.” She snorted.
The unicorn shook her head. “Not entirely true, I don’t believe. You have the statue you found in the Splitwood, the one that you left in my room when we visited Vauhorn. It’s in your bags, is it not?”
“You really think that’ll work?” asked Dash. She didn’t know whether to laugh at the idea or not, but she heard the hope in her own voice.
“If it’s in your bags, then, um, well, it’s still in your bags,” said Fluttershy, chewing on her lip. She didn’t need to point to the saddlebags that lay arranged along the far wall. All heads turned to look at them anyway.
“And until I get my magic back, I suppose that is where they’ll stay,” said Rarity, frowning.
“Sure. Until we trick them and get your magic back, or figure something else out,” said Rainbow Dash, grinning at Rarity and Fluttershy. They’d be out of here in no time, and so far, she’d managed to avoid pushing Fluttershy too far. So far, she’d avoided causing any more disasters to add to the already long list.