In the sluggish thoughts of waking, Rainbow Dash felt something hard and cold against her back. Whatever she was laying on, it wasn't a cloud.
She rolled over, groaning at the throbbing headache left by the general's punch. Her surface gave way to nothing but air; she dropped down, crying out a woozy "Woah!".
The floor broke her fall, sending jolts of pain through her body. She laid there for a moment, stewing on her predicament before she heard sniffles behind her. Her eyes shot open and she sprung up, ready to confront whatever was near her.
There wasn't much to the new place she found herself in. It was a cell of some kind; white concrete, iron bars, and a single bed. Truth Seeker was in one corner, head buried in her hooves with none of her other friends to be found. She eventually processed Dash had fallen out of the bed and looked up with red, puffy eyes, only able to keep her eyes on Dash for a moment before tears welled back up and she collapsed into a bawling fit.
Dash ran over, trying to comfort Truth Seeker. "Hey! It's gonna be—"
"No it's not!" she wailed, "the general's gonna hurt Starcrash, and we're all gonna be stuck in this jail, and it's all my fault!"
"But why did you—"
"He threatened my mom, Dash! What was I supposed to do?!"
Truth Seeker's ability to speak was lost in the heaves of distraught sobbing.
Dash wished Fluttershy was there, she was much better at stuff like this. "Truth? Where are the others? Where's Starcrash?"
She had to work her way down to sniffles before she could answer. "I don't know. I think the general took Starcrash to that secret base. Wherever we are, it isn't there."
"Scourge? Red? Far Out?"
She tearfully shook her head. "They separated us when we got here. I think they put us all in cells meant to hold us. I saw them put a muzzle on Scourge so he wouldn't breathe fire."
That's when Dash realized the starkness of their own cell. Low ceiling, angular walls, and no window. Barely enough room to get up to a trot, let alone to fly in. Probably designed specifically for pegasi.
A green pony guard in full armor with a straight, clear-cut mane walked past the bars of their cell, stepping in precise motion.
"Hey!" Dash called out to the guard. She flew up to the bars, tugging on them. "Hey! Let us out of here!"
He kept going, marching past their cell.
"I know you heard me! Let us out!"
The guard stopped, turning his head to Dash in one smooth motion. "Prisoners are not to talk until their trial."
"Trial? What are you—"
He ended their exchange, bringing his head forward and resuming his patrol.
A lot of good that did her. Truth Seeker had calmed down a bit, walking over to join Dash at the bars.
"Trial?" she asked.
"I dunno, but I don't like the sound of it. Truth, you think you can use your magnifying glass to find a way out of here?"
Truth Seeker's face scrunched into an almost insulted gawp. "That's...not how that works?"
"Really? Because in Daring Do—"
"They took it from me anyway."
With Truth Seeker unable to deduce a way out of there, Dash took to checking the bars for possible faults. Nothing; the general had apparently spared no expense in the construction of their cell. Even if Dash went to the very back of the room and took off at full speed, she'd only be fast enough to crack her skull without denting the metal.
The guard passed by their cell again, in the opposite direction. This time, without prompting, the guard again turned his head towards them.
"Prisoners are not to talk until their trial."
"Uh, yeah? You already said that," Dash replied.
He stepped in front of the bars with tight lips. "Prisoners! Are not! To Talk! Until! The Trial!"
The guard put a strange emphasis on the word 'trial', and that's when Dash realized a key dangling off the front of his uniform, his eyes nervously darting to them.
Truth Seeker froze. She recognized those eyes.
"Far Out?!"
Clean-shaven and a straight mane, but it was him. He kept repeating the phrase, thrusting his chest forward so the key were pushed beyond the bars.
"Prisoners! Are—"
Dash snatched the key away. "Got it!"
Far Out immediately backed away. His guard persona dropped, and he whispered loudly. "There's a mean guard on the other end of the hall. I'm gonna go make a distraction."
He awkwardly resuming his stoic guard impersonation, marching down the hallway with discipline unnatural to him.
Soon after, they heard his distraction.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH! ALIENS ARE SUCKING OUT MY BRAINS!"
Galloping came from the opposite direction. Another guard soon passed their cell, spear clutched in his teeth.
Time for action. As soon as the guard was past them, Dash took the key into her mouth, just barely able to position it out the side. She brought her head out between the bars, craning her head just so to fit the key inside. After a quick bit of fumbling, a loud *click* sounded on the lock, and the door unlatched.
She kicked the door open, grabbing it as it swung towards the bars. Using the momentum, she threw herself forward, arcing high into the air and then landing on the guard's back. He collapsed, the wind knocked out of him.
Seeing the guard defeated, Far Out ceased his screaming, and clapped at Dash's acrobatic takedown.
Truth Seeker ran out of the cell as well, coming up to the guard and touching her eye to his. "Where are the others?!"
"Ughhhh..."
Dash tapped his head. "C'mon, we don't have all day."
The guard rolled his eyes and huffed. "Whatever. Watcher's gone nuts and I don't get paid enough anyway. The dragon's one cell block over. They put the changeling in some kind of special containment room. I don't know where it is. Can I go now?"
Dash jumped off his back. "Nah, can't let you wandering around letting everypony know we escaped."
She dragged him back to their open cell, making sure to take his keys and lock the door. The guard seemed mostly resigned to his capture; what interested Dash more was how the heck Far Out managed to impersonate a guard.
When she ran over to the far side of the hall to thank him, he was already in an embrace with Truth Seeker.
"Far Out!" Dash cried. "How the hay did you escape?"
He patted Truth Seeker on the back as he answered her question. "Oh, it was real easy. They locked me in some weird cell where I couldn't use my magic, but I just kept talking and eventually the guard came in to beat me up. Then I took his uniform!"
Dash sighed. "I hate that I believe you. When did you learn to act?"
Far Out laughed. He suddenly went stuff, springing into a salute. "Ph.D. in Applied Theater, ma'am! Now follow me, we have comrades to liberate!"
He ran off to the end of the hallway, turning right. Both pegasi followed, helping him open a heavy door that led to the next cell block. They crept into the next row of cells, Dash and Truth Seeker lurking behind as Far Out kept up the facade of a very serious guard or a pony with responsibilities.
Barely able to peek around the corner, Dash saw what had to be Scourge's cell; a thick hatch with a single viewing port inside. Frost covered the steel, with fog pouring in from the tiny crack at the bottom. A guard stood on each side of the hatch, eyes forward.
This time Far Out didn't yell a distraction. He instead walked over to the two guards, saluting them.
"Men. I'm Lt. Flank. I have orders to...take care of our dragon guest."
One of the guards eyed him suspiciously. "We weren't told about any disposals."
"Of course you weren't. Can't risk letting the prisoner know what we're doing. Your key, please."
The other guard leaned in. "Who did you say you were, again?"
"The aide of a pegasus general with a very bad temper. Now open the door."
Both recoiled, sharply saluting Far Out. "Sorry, sir! We didn't know!"
One of the guards took out a key, slotting it into the large lock in the center. He turned it, releasing the hatch to a blast of cold fog.
Far Out walked halfway in, then looked over his shoulder. "No matter what you hear, don't look inside the cell. You'll get nightmares."
The guards saluted him again, and Far Out walked inside the frigid jail. Flashes of magical light sparked from the door's frame for a while, finally prompting one of the guards to get fidgety.
"Sir? Are you almost done? General doesn't like us keeping the door open."
"Oh yeah, man! Just about through the cuffs!"
"Cuffs?"
The guards looked to each other. "Wait a minute!" they exclaimed together, but their realization came too late. When they went to run inside, two claws grabbed them by the tops of their helmets. Out of the chill air stepped a very angry, muzzled Scourge.
Far Out's green aura unfastened the muzzle around Scourge's maw, and he brought the two guards closer to his face, making sure they saw his sharp teeth.
"Where is my radio?"
"Your...your what?" one of the guards quivered.
Far Out stepped out the cell. "Man, these are just grunts. They don't know anything."
"Wait!" one of the guards gasped, "Storage! Down the hall, up the stairs! Anything any of you had when you came in had to be taken there!"
Scourge nodded, then threw both of them inside the cell, slamming the hatch shut.
Far Out stood up, looking at the two shaking guards through the window. "You sure they'll be alright in there?"
Scourge thought for a moment, then walked over, pushing Far Out from the porthole. He turned his attention to a knob on the side, connected to a snaking line of tubes that went into the wall. He turned the knob ever so slightly, bringing the indicator just an inch to the right of the cold strip of paint.
"There," he went, "that'll warm it up a bit."
Dash and Truth Seeker came out from the corner, catching Scourge's attention. "Hey."
Truth Seeker ran over, nuzzling him as she had Far Out. "Scourge! I'm so glad you're okay!"
"I am. My good radio isn't. I'm getting mad just thinking about what he did to my equipment."
"How mad?"
He held up a claw. "Livid. Let me show you."
Scourge puffed out his chest, a low billowing sound coming from deep in his belly. The bloated scales worked their way up his throat, and he opened his maw. Instead of a plume of fire, only a small puff of smoke erupted out from his mouth.
He coughed, clearing his throat while tapping his chest with a fist. "Hm. Cold took a lot out of me. Guess burning a shortcut out of here isn't happening yet."
"Not that it'd matter! We still have to get Red!" Truth Seeker stressed.
"Why don't we ask our friends?" Scourge suggested.
He went back over to the hatch, forcing it open and peeking his head inside to the two guards inside, holding each other for warmth. "If you tell me where the changeling is, I'll set this thing to room temperature."
"C-c-cell block below us!" one of the guards chattered. "B-b-but you c-c-can't get in w-without radio clearance!"
"That so? Guess I'm going to Storage, then."
Scourge slammed the hatch shut, then walked over to the knob, fulfilling his promise by turning it to the middle. He turned to the rest of the gang. "Let's go."
They took off, ignoring the two guards in the cell arguing over where Scourge set the thermostat.
The door swung open, its lock melting off the hinges.
Scourge coughed, patting down his chest again as the rest scrambled inside. "Getting better."
Stepping inside, they saw the full display of the store room's bounty. Scourge's equipment was piled into one room, and he immediately spotted it and ran over to check their viability.
Other than that, the room seemed to be chock full of confiscated equipment the general's ponies had been taking over the years. Busted protest signs, posters about aliens, an entire printing press...and Truth Seeker's magnifying glass. She quickly ran over and snatched it up.
"Welp."
They all turned to see Scourge hunched over a large radio, the one he usually wore on his back. Carrying the scar from the earlier attack at the soda shop, it had a black hole drilled neatly through the back, where the magic bolt had gone through.
He looked over the group with a frown. "Gonna have to cannibalize everything I have, but I can get it working."
Rainbow Dash pointed to one of the smaller radios. "Couldn't you just use one of those?"
"I'd give up a pile ten times this size to keep this one. Now let me work."
He quickly tore up the rest of the radios with his claws, salvaging tiny crystals or transistors to stuff into the hole of the broken one, using his fire breath to spot-weld the parts he needed to.
He worked with surprising speed, and soon enough he brought the radio upright, flipping a switch on the side. It came to life with a loud hum, and Scourge grinned. The repairs complete, he brought up the headphones to the side of his head and began to fiddle with the various dials, listening intently.
"Now if I was an insane general with a massive ego, what frequency would I put my prison on?" he asked aloud, continuing to dig through the spectrum.
Scourge's searching finally landed him on a channel of actual sound.
A pony's voice came through the clearing static. "Hello? Who is this?"
Without prompting, Far Out ran up to the radio, shouting into the receiver. "We need to inspect the shapeshifting prisoner!"
"Jeez!" the voice on the other end shouted. "Could you be any louder?!"
"Yes!" Far Out shouted, louder.
"Look, if you need the cell block unlocked, just say so. You don't have to yell."
"Really?"
"Really. Get up here in the next five minutes or I'm not opening it again."
"Right! Uh. Where is it, again?"
"Ugh. Follow the signs, you buck private dingus."
The sound of someone getting up from a chair came over the radio, with the guard on the other end muttering as he walked away. "Celestia-danged boots..."
Scourge cut the line, looking over to Far Out. "I hate that that worked."
Far Out grinned "Hey, most of these guys hate it here as much as we do."
"Whatever. We gotta get to that door and—"
They both turned to Truth Seeker.
"Where's Rainbow Dash?" Scourge asked.
Truth Seeker looked over where the pegasus had been and only saw empty air. She shrugged, as clueless as they were.
After a moment, Scourge pointed towards the open door. "I think I know where she went."
Dash had zoomed out of the room as soon as the guard has said he was unlocking the door. One floor below where they'd liberated Scourge, she made it to the heavy locked entrance of the sealed cell block, banging her hoof against the iron door.
An annoyed voice came through on the other end. "Alright, alright. Hold your saddle."
The sound of a dozen different locks being unfastened sounded and the iron door budged. The guard hadn't even bothered to see who it was, already walking away back to his post as the door slowly swung open.
"I don't know why you need to see the prisoner. She isn't going anywhere," he mumbled.
Dash tiptoed inside, leaving the door open for the others to follow when they caught up. When she was comfortably inside the cell block, she ran over behind the guard, sweeping his legs and pinning him down.
"Where's Red?" she demanded.
The guard crossed his front hooves. "Oh no. I know what this is. The general's doing some kind of test to see if I'll crack under interrogation."
"What? No! I escaped with—"
"You're obviously not the real Rainbow Dash. Just look at that mane! It isn't a rainbow! It's just segmented iridescence."
"What does that even mean?!"
"And the real Dash is more of a light teal. You're cyan. Anyway, I'm not falling for whatever this is. Who are you, anyway?"
"I'm—"
"Bet you're that recruit that got her head stuck in the radiator. Hoping this'll make up for that stunt, huh?"
"I AM RAINBOW DASH!"
The guard rolled his eyes. "Sure you are."
The door to the cell block creaked, and they both looked over to see the rest of the escapees standing there.
"Oh. Well, mistakes have been made."
"So now will you tell me?"
"Now I'm definitely not telling you. I am eighty percent sure you don't tell prisoners classified information. Seventy."
Scourge pointed over to the other side of the room. Dash looked up to see Red sitting in a large cell with a thick glass wall, magical restraints holding her in place.
The guard attempted to look lost. "That's another changeling."
Red's muffled voice came through the glass. "No it's not."
"And even if it was, I don't have the key. I kind of lost it."
Scourge grumbled, walking over to the glass and tapping it.
He nodded, then began to suck in air. His chest expanded like a balloon, puffing out his lungs until he seemed ready to pop. But instead of unleashing a messy stream of flames, he pursed his scaly lips and a small, blue stream of fire erupted from in front of it.
Scourge went to work, guiding the torch from the bottom of the glass, his chest slowly shrinking back down in size. He ran out of steam just as he was about to complete the arc, and used his strength to snap the loose, melted glass free from the rest of the wall.
He stepped inside, Truth Seeker right on his heels. Together they worked to break Red free from her restraints, and once the final lock clattered to the ground in a melted heap, Truth Seeker grabbed her changeling friend and brought her into a suffocating hug.
"Red! I'm so sorry! The general—"
Red said nothing, simply returning the hug, tears of her own welling in her eyes. After a moment, Red finally let go.
"Thanks."
Truth Seeker pulled away, wiping a stray tear. "It's not really me you should thank. Far Out was the first one to escape. If it weren't for him, we'd still be locked up."
Red saw Far Out happily waving at her from the cell block door.
"Right now I'm choosing to believe you're exaggerating for my own sanity. So, what do we do now?"
"Quietly return to your cells?" the guard suggested.
"I have a better idea," Dash announced. "We break out of here, get to that secret base, and rescue Starcrash!"
"And then quietly return to your cells!" the guard added.
"Yeah, we're not doing that. Scourge?"
The dragon walked over, grabbing the guard and throwing him into Red's former cell. Picking up the melted sheet of glass, he set it back in place behind him and used another round of fire to weld it shut, sealing the guard inside.
Dash gave the dragon a quick salute. "Thanks, Scourge. Now, how do we actually get out of this jail?"
The guard pointed at his workstation from behind the glass. "See that red button? That opens the doors to the outside."
"That's obviously the alarm button."
"Well, I tried. White button, three rows down."
Dash scanned the station until she found it, and lightly pressed it. Almost instantly, the crude lights in the prison turned dark red as bells started ringing on every wall of the cell block.
"Wait, what?!"
"Ha!" the guard exclaimed. "I tricked you! They're all alarm buttons!"
A stampede of hooves thundered in the cell above them. Sounded like the entire prison force was coming to deal with them.
Dash looked up to Scourge. "So, wanna make that shortcut now?"