//------------------------------//
// Le Premier Nuit 
// Story: Quete 
// by Comrade Bagel Muffin 
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Escutcheon hurried to the slave pins. Hoping that she was still okay, After seeing what he had seen we didn't know if he'd find her safe or not. Something was setting his nerves on end, the streets were vacant, it was only twilight, and not a single soul was outside. He didn't want to stay in the open long enough to find out why nopony was around.
The slave pins were full. Each pin held between fifty to a hundred fifty ponies in each. He was trying to remember which one she was in. "Escutcheon." His ears perked up. "Escutcheon over here." He trotted over to one of the cages where she was at.
"Dusk, are you okay?" Escutcheon looked for the guard that would have the key.
"Why are you here? You need to get out of here."
"What, I was sent by Pythagorean to get you." Escutcheon gave up. "Where is the guard with the key?"
"There isn't a key." A bat pony stallion trotted up to the bars. He glared down at Escutcheon, His eyes were blood shoot, and his body bore the wounds of countless whippings. "You are fool! Why did you bring her here."
"Dad?"
"How could you?"
"I didn't know."
"Dad I came here, I volunteered. I told you that." Dusk stepped between her father and Escutcheon. Her father grit his teeth sighed. "Escutcheon you shouldn't be here the Cholers patrol this place at night they'll soon be on the streets. You need to go."
"Then did Pythagorean send me here?"
"Because I told him to. I wanted to see who brought my daughter to this hellish place." Dusk's father glared down at him. "I was told that you ended that eternal storm, and that you think that you think you can end our oppression here. But what I see. I'm not impressed."
"I'm not here to impress you." Escutcheon glared up at the batpony. "I'm here to set you free either by dealing with what's causing all of this, or if I have to bringing this city down brick by brick." He didn't look away. "Now I just need to what you know and how I'm suppose to do it. I need to know what's going on here." Dusk's father sighed.
"Fine. First get in here we've dug a tunnel from this pin to Pythagorean's estate." He opened the door of the cage and Escutcheon stepped in. Many of the bat ponies glared at him. He thought he was about to be attacked. "Over here colt." A leathery wing guided him over to the center of the pin, where the three of them sat down. "I'm not ungrateful. I thought I had lost my little Song, and here she is. But you shouldn't have brought her here. This place is an evil place."
"I know that know I also know there's some outside force causing it. What ever is responsible for making ponies Choler is causing this, I know it. I just need to know where to go to fix it."
"There is no fixing this."
"You've already given up hope."
"There is no hoping in this place!" Dusk's father jumped to his hooves, one of his wings knocked Escutcheon to the ground. "If you have hope, it'll only break you faster." He stood over Escutcheon breathing heavily trying to regain composure.
"If you give up, you'll never change what's happening." Escutcheon stood up. "You need to have hope, even when things are hopeless. Especially when things  are hopeless." Dusk's father bowed his head.
"I've not hoped in a long time. None of us have."
"And nothing has gotten better."
"You'll need to get into the pyramid, That's were the Choler are. It will be impossible for you to succeed. You should just take Dusk back to the others and leave."
"No. I Pinkie Pie Promised that I was going to get her to you. I'm going to end this. I cut off the eternal storm. I can end this too."
"Please dad."
"Alright do whatever you want. Just promise me that my daughter will be safe."
"Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye." Carried out the motions of the ritual. The batpony sighed and opened a secret door that was in the middle of the pin. "I promise in four days you'll be with you daughter and free. Everypony will be free." He and Dusk crawled down into the hole.
"You almost make me want to hope, colt." Her father said as he closed the hatch. The two of them crawled on there stomachs in absolute darkness and silence, for what felt like an eternity. Until Dusk stopped him from banging his face into ladder. The two of them emerged in the inner courtyard of Pythagorean's home. The sun was just beginning to set.
"You two quickly in here." Pythagorean motioned to the two of them. They ran into the house. No sooner had they rushed through the thresh hold, there was a loud sound of a horn going off in the city. It drowned out everything. "Hey, colt?"
"Escutcheon!" He felt a leathery wing catch him as his vision faded to black, and the world fell away from him.
"So you've come, to me. That I may rip you. That I may tear you. That I may break you." Escutcheon screamed as everything started to hurt. "I will find you. I will break you. I will end you."
"Escutcheon!" He woke up Dusk was holding him. The pain quickly fading away under the moon and stars.