“Princess Celestia,” Twilight asked concerned.
“Hmm,” Celestia grunted in question.
“Are you alright sugar cube?” AJ asked.
“Yes, I’m fine.” Celestia said with a new energy in her voice, “I just overheard the conversation of those three stallions, it turns out they had Luna, or one of them did.”
“What did you hear,” Rarity asked.
“From what I gathered, those stallions are slave traders. When one of them described Luna perfectly. They said to some king of Sparta. Which I’m guessing is a kingdom or group.”
“Well how do we get there?” Spike asked in his new deep as hell voice. “We don’t know where it is or even what they are like. We need to be careful.”
“I think we can corner one of the slave traders and make them tell us how to get there, if we are lucky we could... eh convince one of them to take us there. But we need to get one of them alone.”
“Honestly if these guys sell and capture slaves then we may need to rely on some more physical ‘convincing’.” Spike said.
Celestia chuckled darkly, “My how this brings back memories.”
“You’ve been in a situation like this Celestia?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
“Many times,” Celestia replied, “Me and Luna have been on countless adventures together. Especially in the elder days, Luna and I weren’t always rulers, no that happened when the tribes were united. Luna and I were actually nomadic warriors for a time. Well Luna was the warrior, I was more a battlemage. Anyway, we’re getting off topic, Luna as it happens was taken into slavery to this Spartan King. We need to find those Slavers and get the truth from them.”
“Well lets go get them.” Rainbow said.
“Not so fast rainbow, we are still in a tavern, if we try to get it from them now it wont work with ponies around. We need to get them alone.” Celestia sighed, “Before we do this I need to tell you all, you are likely to see a side of me no one knows about. It may, and probably will, scare you, just please don’t be too harsh when that pony comes out.”
“Celestia,” Fluttershy said soothingly, “We all hide something, even me, but with your position you have to hide a lot of things. Nopony is perfect, we all know that, believe me when I say that we won’t think any less of you if we see a side of you we don’t expect.”
The seven others nodded in agreement.
“You don’t fully understand what I’m telling you. I have been a violent mare in the past and I still can be, with Sombra all those years ago I killed all of his soldiers without mercy. With Discord I hacked all of his limbs off before we found the elements. Luna bore kindness, loyalty and laughter, I bore magic, generosity and honesty. I was a cruel mare once, and she still exists, instead of save my sister from the demon that possessed her I let her rot on the moon for a full millennium. I will likely show violence here, as once Luna held me back she isn’t here and still I have not been able to completely control my anger.”
“Celestia,” Fluttershy said calmly, “This place will likely bring out the worst in us. All of us. We wont judge you for how you get things done. Haven’t you seen all the soldiers around? It seems as though this world is in a violent age, honestly we may need to get violent ourselves.”
“Mhmmm” agreed the group.
Then Spike looked up to see one of the slavers get up and leave the tavern. He pointed this out and they followed him. They moved through crowded streets following the slaver, eventually he went into a back alley and found it was a dead end. He moved to remove his hoplite sword from its sheath, then it was wrenched from his grasp by yellow light. He turned to face the group following him.
“What do you want,” He growled.
“Information.” Celestia replied calmly.
“What kind of information?” The slaver asked.
“Only of where you took a certain mare.” Celestia told him.
“I cant remember every slave I catch and sell.”
“But you remembered this one perfectly. I heard you talking to your friends in that tavern, you described the mare perfectly.” Celestia said without emotion in her voice. “That blue mare with a mane mimicking the night sky blowing in a wind that isn’t there.”
“Oh that one, yes i remember her. Honestly she was a little too easy to break for my taste, but having no memory besides your name would probably do that to even a spartan.”
“Where did you take her, and how do we get there?” Spike growled at him.
“I took her to the kingdom of Sparta, their king Leonidas, paid me well. Normally I would brand a slave, but if it is a mare like that then I collar them instead. She was probably the most desirable slave I had ever seen.”
“And how do we get there?” Twilight asked without her normal gentle voice.
“There is a ship headed that way in tha harbor...” He stopped, looked at them surprise written on his face, “You wish to free her.”It wasn’t a question.
They said nothing.
“But... that’s MADNESS!!! The Spartans are balls out mental! They throw disabled babies off a mountain! They hunt their own male slaves to keep them in line! And to top it off they subject each and every one of their male citizens to the most brutal military training at the age of seven! You would be insane or scuicidal to try and get her out of there!”
“Well then you should have no trouble getting us there if this will kill us.” AJ said threateningly.
The stallion thought for a minute then smiled, “Well if it involves killing stalkers then what the heck. I can take you to Sparta.”
“Good,” Celestia said, “But before you think to double cross us.” Celestia removed her disguise along with spikes.
The slaver yelped in fright at Spikes monstrous appearance.
“What the Hades!” He exclaimed.
Spike folded his arms, he stood five times as tall as Celestia, and he looked carved from rock with all of his muscle.
“Has this secured your loyalty?” Spike boomed.
The slaver nodded up and down hastily. “Yes, yes it has.”
“Good,” Celestia said before returning the disguise to herself and Spike.
So the slaver lead them to a merchant ship, or rather a slavers ship, and brought them onboard. They sailed southward toward this place called Sparta. Celestia was worried about how the sun would raise and lower in her absence.