I found the prison alive with the noises of activity as I awoke well into the next day. Looking around, I found the guards were more abundant than before, even with a few non-crystalline horses on patrol in the halls. My only guess was that something had them spooked and they were doing what they could to accommodate the situation.
Since I didn't seem to get any sense of immediate alarm when I saw the third distinct non-crystalline guard move by, I dragged myself out of bed and took my newly acquired blanket with me to the bars of my cell to maybe get a better idea of what was going on. Sadly, other than a little more overall noise, I couldn't notice anything more than that they were in a cheerful mood. I could swear the guards that were the regulars were wearing their scowls almost as if they wanted to smile.
Usually more guards posted somewhere would mean more trouble, or that they were enjoying the suffering, but they didn't exactly strike me as the savage, torturing type. Ultimately, I gave up and sat back down on my bed, wondering if they were even going to do anything with me that day, whether the hustle and bustle was something that involved me, or if they just were changing the guards or something of the like.
About an hour later, I heard an explosion from far away, causing even my cell to shake slightly. Immediately, all but two of the guards left to investigate. The guard that was ordered to stay behind with the higher ranking guard stomped the butt end of his spear to the ground to activate its magic and the other soon had a genuine scowl on his face again. With the sudden bitter cold feeling in the air, both figuratively and literally with the spear's presence, it was pretty clear that the two winged crystalline horses that stayed behind were authorized to use deadly force to keep order while the others were away.
Minutes passed by like hours as my mind went wild trying to think of what was going on. So many crazy ideas went through my mind that I had to ultimately tell my brain to shut up and just work with what it could see. Anything else would just get me more on edge than I already was. I had to actually let go of the blanket and let the chill of the cell calm me down again.
The guard with the frost spear would periodically make a brisk walk through the hall that my cell could see, then a short while later he'd walk back the other way. The higher ranking guard would eventually do the same, but from the other direction.
After a while, I heard the scuttering of a creature other than a horse coming from the direction that guard with the spear would come from.
The odd little lanky dog creature that was making the noise came into view with a small, frilly satchel around his shoulder. Stopping in its tracks, it perked its ears up and did a low growl.
I was tempted to use my good luck charm to see what was going on, but I wasn't willing to burn it out quite yet. My practices that I had done each time I woke up the week prior had helped me get a good insight on how to feel it before it was used. I could tell I had one shot of mild bad luck and one shot of really good luck with me that day and I decided I needed to save the good shot for when it would really count.
Regardless, It didn't take me burning a use of my good fortune ability to see that satchel didn't belong to him. It didn't even fit around his shoulder right. The thing was clearly intended for one of the horse creatures.
A moment after he stopped and growled, he looked at the cell that was across from me and a little ways up, then back at my cell. He gave me and my blanket a solid look and grinned. "Yua puv e qupy. Yue jimq Tdseq jofi," he called just loud enough for me to hear, but not carry down the hall.
With a mild but creepy laugh, he reached into the satchel, grabbed what looked like a sowing needle and a bobby pin and set himself to picking the lock of my cell. I half expected the bobby pin to break, and it nearly did, with a loud noise of metal scraping on metal, but he managed to get the lock picked. Quickly, he opened the cell door, came in, and then carefully closed it with a barely audible click of the locking mechanism automatically going back into place.
He then approached my bed cautiously, keeping his eyes fixed on me, and eventually slid underneath to hide behind the bit of blanket that was dangling over the edge just seconds before the guard came into view.
The little bugger was using my cell to hide in and get around the guards!
...Well to be realistic, it was kinda cool. But I wasn't about to risk getting in trouble for aiding a prison break. The moment he came into my cell he had forced me to pick between him or the guards.
'Sorry little guy, but I don't know you,' was all I could think as I sneezed as loud as I could and still make it sound real. As soon as the guard turned his head, I knew I needed to get him to notice the little critter fast. If he just moved on past us, the little guy under my bed would slip through the cell door again and I'd be an accomplice.
It was now or never. I used my good luck charm on the guard and felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I could see his eyes practically get dragged right down to my bed as he turned. But it wasn't at all quite like I imagined it would be when I used it to look around myself.
Instead, the way his muscles moved were so fluid and quick that he narrowly managed to dodge to the side as what looked like a taped off salt shaker with a liquid inside getting flung from under the bed. It hit the wall right behind where the guard's head had been a moment before and broke into a cloud of smoke. The guard gave a cough as the thick smell of pepper came from the cloud just to his side.
With the guard now close to the bars of my cell and disoriented from the pepper cloud, I saw the dog like creature lunge out from under the bed and go for the guard.
To my surprise, the other use of my good luck charm brought tingles to the back of my neck just as soon as the other tingle had ended. The claws of the creature fell just shy of the horse's exposed throat and scraped the area of armor I could only describe as the horse equivalent of a breastplate.
I could see the sense of betrayal in his eyes as he turned towards me with a snarl, guarding the satchel like it were a baby and readying for another pounce. This was so not a good time to be on the same side of the bars as him.
I had no good luck charm left and I was literally naked against an angry, snarling, clawed and fanged creature. There wasn't much I could do.
With a quick shout of "Damn it!" I converted into my bear form, reared up on my hind paws with the ceiling of the cell pressing against my shoulders, never mind my head, and roared the little guy into submission.
'I really didn't want to let them know I could do that!'
Only a few seconds of cowering occurred as the flat of the spear's head smacked the little guy square on the back. Quickly, ice grew out from where he was struck and encased his torso and enough of his limbs to trap him. Not that he really minded at that point. He just whined and whimpered, calling to the guards—likely asking to be let out of the cell.
The incident ended with me transforming back, collapsing on the bed and pretending to be exhausted from the ordeal. I kinda hoped I could trick them into thinking it was a last resort method, not my go to.
The guards returned, escorted by a white mare with a purple main and a horn that was clearly a civilian, not a guard. The guards dragged the ice encased trespasser out of my cell and returned the satchel to the white mare, who wasn't to happy to see the state of the bobby pin and needle from it.
A quick conversation between the white mare, the guards and the ice encased prisoner took place, ending with the white mare taking what looked to be a golden brooch of a bird's head from the cover of her satchel and placing it in the paw of the prisoner before he was carried away.
I could tell by how she was well groomed, and by how the guards couldn't manage to frown around her that she was the reason why the guards were so cheerful before the attack. Even through the language barrier, I could recognize the grace in her voice as she spoke to the guards. I could tell this pony had some real skill in tact and grace... and possibly other, more adult, charms. Regardless, what a civilian like her was doing here was beyond me.
The white mare seemed to take an interest in me as we waited for whatever they were waiting on, but the guards made an uneasy point to have her leave.
I doubt the guard that I saved didn't tell them about my shape shifting. Even then, I don't doubt the dog like creature had at least tipped them off as they had talked. He still looked pretty steamed at me after they got him out of my cell. I'd just have to cross that bridge when I got there.
A little while later, the scholar that had been trying to communicate with me and my interrogator with the broken horn came to my cell with the white mare, still toting her satchel with sowing equipment. At this point I think I started to understand why she was there, and why there were so many guards.
A defensive circle was formed around the civilian mare, just within sight from my position on my mattress in the back of my cell. Meanwhile, the scholar pony came forward and tossed the amulet that let me hear them towards me.
The moment I had slipped it on, the interrogator spoke firmly.
"I am obligated to formally apologize for the humility we have put you through," She spoke with forced words and a twitch to her cheek, "While I did not initially believe your story about clothes being a standard dignity within your civilization, I have confirmed with..."
She broke off and looked notably away from the scholar "...some of my sources that some cultures we have come across on rare occasion do indeed have this. Therefore, in the desire to foster some level of trust, I have been ordered by my superiors to have the local tailor take your measurements and fit you with something basic as a sign of good faith."
Her eyes quickly went right to mine as she gave me the same glare as the day before when she had spears pointed at about every part of me and lit up her horn.
"But know that she has signed a non-negotiation waver before coming here. If you capture her, we will not negotiate for her release. And furthermore, do not ask for your old garments. We will not run the risk of delivering anything to you that could aid in an escape. Do you understand!?" She was practically fuming with me by the end, complete with pulsing vein on her forehead.
All I could do was press down on the gem and look at the scholar in hopes of getting a little talk time.
She smiled and responded with "It's charged. You should have activated it just now when you pressed on it."
With that in mind, I got up off the bed with my sheet around me, turned back to the interrogator and answered, "Understood loud and clear. I'll behave myself, miss leader horse lady."
As soon as I finished my last syllable, everybody—and I mean everybody, including me—took a reflexive step back from my interrogator as the air around her became deathly thick. The sparks in her horn had fluttered out, but it looked like she had the flames of hell in her eyes.
She paced slowly right up to the bars, causing me to back right up onto my bed to keep what distance I could.
"You've made your point on demeaning actions and gave us a chance to rectify them. So I think it's only fair that I take my turn." Her head twitched slightly as she reached the bars.
"Let's get one thing clear right now: I may be a fair bit on the taller side than most-" at that point I noticed she was indeed a solid two or three notches taller than the next tallest guard in the room "-but I am still a pony. If I ever hear you calling me a horse again I will kill you on the spot-"
Her horn shot out a fully fledged lighting bolt and scarred the cell wall to my left. "-my job be damned!"
The funny thing is, while I had grown to have an odd mixture of trust and distrust of these... "ponies" and their motives, I wholeheartedly believed her just then. That's about the only thing I could think about as more lightning bolts continued to travel from her horn to the exact same spot without divergence for several moments, despite the fact that she had long turned around and was walking away.