There were a lot of guards in this one room. Five rows of cheap, wooden, rectangular tables filled up most of the floor space, going from one wall to the other. Dozens of guards sat or milled around them. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, all of them young and in-shape looking stallions. Not a single mare in the whole group. Most were out of their signature blue armor but there were still a few wearing it. Apparently this was their mess hall as a lot had bowls of soup in front of them, there was a big set of double doors at the opposite end of the room that most likely led to their sleeping quarters.
And when Applejack and her group walked into the room all eyes turned to them. There had been no friendly discussion going on that was interrupted, like everypony in the city the guards were depressed with the same empty eyes as any other. But the three unicorns were still a bit unnerved to have all that attention suddenly focused on them from who were basically their enemies.
Applejack on the other hand just smiled and waved.
“Howdy y’all.”
Soup dripped from spoons and the eyes of the guards darted back and forth, none of them quite sure how to take this new development. The two guards who had led Applejack and the others here nervously shuffled around, ever so slightly inching away from their former prisoners.
After another moment of silence a single yellow earth pony still in his armor got up from the center table and walked towards Applejack, stopping in front of her and giving the two guards with her a questioning look. “What’s going on here?”
Found the leader.
“Um, well, they escaped and made us come here to talk to you.” One of the guards replied, sweating more than from just the heat.
The yellow pony looked at Applejack. “You didn’t just try to run away?”
“Nope, cause I’m here to rescue all of you as well.” She replied, still happily smiling at him and making sure to look behind him and smile at the other guards too.
The yellow guard just raised an eyebrow while all the rest seemed completely disinterested. These were not ponies who had much hope left in them.
“I know you’ve had others who said stuff like they’d defeat King Avarice and save you too, some of them may even be in this room right now, but I’m still completely serious. Bet on me.” Applejack spoke plainly, not dressing things up at all.
The yellow guard closed his eyes and shook his head at Applejack. “There’s no point, King Avarice can’t be defeated. Just return to your cell and wait for us to decide what job you’re getting.”
“Not going to happen, pal.” Applejack reached a hoof forward to hold him by his chin and make sure he was looking at her. “I’ve dealt with a lot worse than him, it was never on my own, but I’ve gotten through worse. And I’m not alone here either.” Applejack looked over her shoulder to Daylight. “Daylight, tell them about the crystal.”
Daylight Gleam nervously stepped forward, obviously annoyed at this whole situation. “I can destroy the crystal that keeps the barrier spell up around the city. These bands will go away and everypony will be free to leave.”
Murmurs of shock and surprise rippled through the guards, even the leader Applejack was talking to was taken aback for a second before responding.
“But that doesn’t matter. As long as King Avarice is there he can just eat your magic before you cast any spells, or stop you some other way.”
“And that’s why we’re gonna go in there when he’s gone.” Applejack said matter-of-factly.
The guard gawked at her for a second before realization dawned on him. “Tribute day. You know how it goes?”
“I guessed. Seems I was right? He leaves his room to see everything and then teleports it all back himself doesn’t he?” Applejack questioned.
“Yes.” The yellow guard nodded. “Normally no pony is allowed to touch his treasure or enter his throne room. I was surprised he even called us into it earlier.”
“I figured, walking through the volcano and to his room I realized that there’s no good path or way to transport a bunch of stuff by normal means. And when I saw him open up all those portals for you to come out it all clicked.”
“Well Applejack, now that you’ve dazzled us with your astute mind maybe you can actually tell us your plan?” Daylight Gleam impatiently said.
Applejack grinned back at her. “When we first came to this city and that old stallion told us about how everypony here gives him stuff, I thought it meant they traveled into the volcano to present their stuff directly and if King Avarice didn’t like what he saw he’d punish them right then and there. But that’s not how it goes. King Avarice leaves and takes everything back with him and then if he doesn’t like his new trinkets or whatever he’ll attack his ponies.”
Applejack looked out at all the guards in the room. “What I’m about to suggest is dangerous for all of us. But I want you to sabotage the upcoming tribute, or just get rid of it all. King Avarice needs to be stalled outside while me and my friends here destroy the crystal.”
Instantly there was an uproar as the guards started shouting at her.
“Are you crazy?!”
“No way!”
“He’ll kill us!”
At that last one Applejack held up a hoof. “Nope, you can stop there. I know it’s dangerous, I’m not asking this lightly, it’s risky. But he won’t kill you.” She turned to her two guard “friends”. “Care to tell them what we figured out earlier?”
The two guards did, conveying to the others their belief that it wasn’t as dangerous as they thought. Slowly the rest of the guards started to quiet down, now more willing to listen to Applejack.
“And if all of you are fighting him together you’ll be safer. I can tell you after fighting him that he aint really so tough, he just doesn’t stay down. You can cover each other’s backs.” Applejack’s tried to reassure them.
“It actually isn’t that simple.” The yellow leader guard spoke up again, catching Applejack’s attention. “On tribute day King Avarice will also steal the magic of all the gathered unicorn’s.”
Applejack frowned. “Okay, that does cause a few more problems.”
He wasn’t finished yet either. “And there’s the fact that the door to his throne room automatically locks when he leaves.”
“Well that’s not a problem for me, I can definitely force any door open. And if it’s something magical I’m sure Daylight can help with it.” Applejack smiled at the white unicorn.
Daylight just rolled her eyes at Applejack’s optimism.
“But look, let me lay out my whole idea for all of ya.” Applejack walked around the yellow guard so she could speak to the whole room. “In three days King Avarice will leave his room to go get his new tribute. I want you to fight him there and stall him until we can destroy the crystal, once he sees that the barrier has fallen I’m sure he’ll teleport right back into his throne room. He’ll think somepony is trying to steal his treasure or something. After that you don’t have to do anything, in fact, once those bands around your neck disappear I’d prefer it if you all ran off. You’re free, you won’t have to stay here anymore.”
A lot of the guards pinched at the black bands on their neck, some looked about morosely, afraid to become hopeful.
“I’m not some general or anything but I’m thinking now that maybe you could get all the civilian ponies to stay away from wherever the tribute is gathered?” Applejack asked.
“The regular city ponies are too terrified of King Avarice to agree to something like this.” The lead guard said to her. “We may be the guards but they won’t listen to us about something as drastic as this. And they’ll know we’re lying if we try to tell them that King Avarice has changed the way he’s doing things this time.”
“Then let me talk to them, we’ve still got three days. That’s plenty of time for me to go through the city and spread the word to other ponies. I know I can convince them to resist King Avarice. They all want to be free too.” Applejack said to him.
“You say you can convince them but you haven’t even really convinced me.” The yellow pony skeptically looked at Applejack. “What you’re saying may work but King Avarice can still never be defeated, he’s too powerful, too horrible. I’ve had to listen to so many ponies like you saying they’ll free us… you were right about all that, I don’t feel like listening to the same spiel again.” He shook his head.
“But what do you really have to lose?” Applejack pleaded with him.
“It hurts. It hurts to have your hopes dashed again and again.” He looked at her with those sad empty eyes that the rest of the guards in the room shared.
“But there’s so much for you to get back. Don’t you really want to live again, to be free?” She addressed the rest of the guards in the room. “Don’t you all want to live your own lives again? He even took your names from you, don’t you want them back too?” She turned back to face the yellow guard. “What’s your name?”
He hesitated, fear and sorrow written on his face. “I… I don’t have one anymore.”
Applejack grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved her face into his. “What’s. Your. Name?”
Tears started to well up in his eyes. “Sunflower...”
Applejack leaned back and smiled. “Feels good to say that don’t it?”
Sunflower could only nod.
The rest of the guards were reacting similarly. Applejack and the unicorns could see the fire slowly start to return to their eyes. They did want everything back that King Avarice stole. They wanted to believe in Applejack, believe that they could stop King Avarice’s reign of terror.
“Guess they just needed a strong voice.” Star Blaze said.
Applejack heard him and glanced back. “You know I never really considered myself the type for this kind of thing, it all just sort of came out. Guess Twilight is rubbing off on me.”
“Who?” Daylight asked.
“A friend.” Applejack winked at her.
After that it was more or less just time to wait. Daylight’s magic still hadn’t returned to its remotely normal levels and the guards told them that it was well into the middle of the night anyways so it would be better if everypony got some sleep before they started work on getting the rebellion in the city ready for tribute day.
Now Applejack was resting on a ratty old cot in the middle of a volcano. Weird way to cap off a weird day. But it still made for a good enough rest for her, she was still feeling a bit sore from being smacked into a really hard pile of treasure earlier so a pillow and thin bedding did wonders.
Sugar Spirit was enjoying her rest as well, she had finally gotten back a little bit of her bounce and energy after their talk with the guards. Star Blaze was the same as usual and Daylight Gleam was being grumpy and kept trying to draw up some magic even after Applejack and the others told her to just get some sleep already.
Applejack was right to assume, and had the guards confirm, that King Avarice didn’t really pay any attention to how things were run or what became of his latest prisoners as long as he got all the treasure he wanted. So she didn’t need to worry about the king suddenly finding out about them escaping, she wondered if King Avarice even really remembered what happened earlier or if his mind had discarded it as being unimportant.
Applejack frowned as she turned over in bed. It bothered her that the king was apparently at one point just an ordinary unicorn, evil sure, but still a unicorn like any other. But now he was so corrupted by his own greed and his mind so shot she didn’t think she could reason with him at all. And Hoof of the Earth did nothing and he can just absorb any magic that Daylight might use against him. She didn’t want to make her worries known to the others, especially the guards, but she honestly was a bit concerned over how she was gonna deal with King Avarice.
Cause he’s gonna know the moment that crystal is destroyed and he’s gonna teleport right back into his room, and we’re the ponies he’s gonna find...