POV: Rainbow Dash
It’s been three days since Markus beat the crap out of those Minotaurs. I wanted to go see Twilight since she didn’t take it all too well, when I saw Markus exit the library with a bow in his hands. I flew down to him and asked him what he was doing.
“Oh, I’m going hunting. It has been a while since I went into the Everfree and I desperately need some meat after what happened during the last few days.”
“Cool, can I come too?” I blurted without thinking about it. Markus raised an eyebrow at me, probably being as surprised as I was. Still, just coming along didn’t sound like a bad idea. I mean I knew that he was going to kill animals, but I’m not Fluttershy. I can handle a little blood!
“Sure, I guess? But promise me to stay low, okay? I don’t want you to scare my prey.”
We walked into the everfree - and yes, WALKED, Markus said I couldn’t fly, ‘cause it would catch too much attention. Speaking of attention; one thing that struck me as odd on Markus was that every time I’ve seen him so far, he had at least his knife hanging around his belt, yet today it wasn’t there. I asked him about it and he said that he never took it to a hunt because it was making noise when he was sneaking.
We roamed around for a while until I got bored, so I started asking questions.
“Say, how’s Twilight? Is she alright again?”
“Yes, I talked to her this morning and we managed to set things straight again.” He smiled and stroked his cheek. I don’t know why, but it struck me as odd.
We didn’t find any animals for quite a while. Markus said that this was actually quite normal and that we would find something eventually.
What we did find though, was Fluttershy. Markus and I saw her walking through the Forest on her own and he opted to follow her. We did so for a while, until Markus suddenly pulled me into a bush and clenched my muzzle shut. He then let me look over the bush beside him, hovering a finger before his mouth. I looked over to Fluttershy and saw her enter a cave.
We sat there for a few more seconds until Markus and I followed her. Markus didn’t say a single word during all this and I decided to do likewise. We followed her deep into the cave to a large area in which a good dozen of Ponies in white robes were roaming about and many more were inside some rooms which were dug into the walls. Fluttershy now put on a white robe too and headed straight for somepony that looked like a leader of some sorts.
We too went into there and hid behind some pointy rocks that came from the ground. I think Twilight once told me what they were called, but it doesn’t matter, right?
We watched Fluttershy talking to that other Pony for a while, when suddenly she was engulfed in some kind of magic. I couldn’t believe my eyes, as I saw my childhood friend become a Unicorn! We snuck closer, to hear what they were saying.
“Thanks for your report, Miss Sugarcoat. Your information on the Elements will surely come in handy.” The other Pony, a Stallion with a brown coat, turned around and walked away from the Unicorn mare we were following.
“I thank you, my master. Should I keep monitoring them?” The Unicorn answered. She had a bright yellow coat and an almost white mane which was dangling into her face.
“Yes, please do. We cannot allow them to notice the absence of their friend just yet.” The brown Stallion told her.
“Of course, master. Is she still keeping silent? If you would allow me to torture her a bit…”
I saw red when she said that. I dashed from our hiding spot directly towards her, my front hooves aimed for her face. I heard Markus call out behind me, but I couldn’t hear what he said, because something hit me and I fell unconscious.
“Rainbow? Rainbow! Are you ok?” I heard Fluttershy whisper next to me, as I slowly regained consciousness. I looked around me. I was in a room with two rows of metal bars going from the only door all the way to the back wall. From each of those two main rows there were two more rows of bars going to one of the side walls. I looked further around and saw Fluttershy in the cell next to mine. I wanted to walk over, but my legs were Hogtied and my wings bound against my back.
“Fluttershy!” I exclaimed. “Wait, are you the real one this time?”
“The real one? B-But Rainbow, it’s me, Flu—“ Fluttershy said, but I interrupted her.
“How did you get your Cutie Mark?!” I yelled at her. I had to know if she was the real one before I would talk to her.
“R-Rainbow, p-please don’t yell…” Fluttershy dug her head into her hooves, which were not hogtied, contrary to mine…
“ANSWER!” I yelled again.
“F-Fine. So, um, you had this race against those colts who bullied me and you accidentally kicked me off the cloud when you started and I fell down. I was caught by some Butterflies which were flying down there so I wasn’t h-hurt. But then you made that Sonic Rainboom and scared the animals. I felt sorry for them, so I calmed them down and got my Cutie Mark…” Fluttershy whispered through the bars.
I sighed in relief. That was the real Fluttershy.
“So, um, Rainbow, what’s that creature that was brought here with you?”
My eyes narrowed. I had completely forgotten about Markus. I looked to the wall where Fluttershy pointed at and was relieved to see him leaning against it.
“Markus! Thank Celestia, you are okay.” I shouted to him. He turned his head to me, then looked up to his Hands which were clamped to the wall.
“Well, >>ok<< certainly is one way to put it. I must say though, I’d rather have my hands not clutched to a wall. Feeling the blood run down out of my arms is actually not all too comfortable.” He said, as if he was rating a hotel room.
These clamps on the wall were usually used to keep a Pony standing and in control at the same time. However Markus stood two Ponies tall. Because of that the contraption that would have a Pony stand on its hind legs was actually mounted barely high enough for Markus to sit under it with his Hands held upwards.
“Rainbow? Do you know him?” Fluttershy asked me as if she’d never seen him before.
“What are you talking about? He’s been here for a month now, you were there when we found him!”
“No, she wasn’t.” Markus said, “By that time she was already replaced by that Unicorn we saw outside. I have to admit I’m glad about this, as it means that, if my being here is related to them in any way, it’s not that they’re here because I got transported here, but rather the other way around.”
I looked at Fluttershy in disbelief. “Wait, does this mean you’ve been here for one whole month already?!” Fluttershy nodded slowly and I felt rage fill my head again, but this time at myself because I didn’t notice that my friend Fluttershy was replaced by someone else and kidnapped.
Suddenly the door swung open and that Unicorn that was posing as Fluttershy entered the room. She went straight for Markus and didn’t even bother to look at me.
“Say, what are you? I’ve never seen something like you before.” She said while she stood before Markus’s cell.
Markus looked at her for a while, before he answered.
“It doesn’t surprise that you’ve never happened upon my race before, seeing how you live under the earth like this. I’m a human. If I remember correctly, your name was Sugarcoat, wasn’t it? Say, what’s the name of this cult you have here? And more importantly: what do you worship?”
>>Sugarcoat<< chuckled and rose her head. “We are the Bloodmoon cult. Never heard of us? Thought so. Nopony knows us. We keep in the shadows, recruit those who are worthy and never show ourselves to anyone who is not part of our plans.”
“So that means I’m part of your plan now, am I?” Markus smirked and looked at Sugarcoat. An evil grin slid over her face, as she opened the cell door and slowly paced closer to him.
“No… We’ve just decided that keeping you for now is better than setting you free again. But don’t worry: we won’t harm you… all too bad.” She turned around and bucked Markus straight to the face. I wanted to fly up to her and give her a taste of my hooves, but those ties were too tight for me to move at all.
She started to laugh and left his cell, closing it behind her.
“I’ll have to go now. But don’t worry: we will meet again.” With that, she left the room and I heard Markus mutter:
“Indeed we will. And it might be sooner than you’d wish for…”
He folded his legs together and slanted his upper body against the wall. He then propelled himself upward and hooked his left foot against the clutches. He rose his right foot up to his hands and pulled on his pants, revealing his knife attached around his heels. He unsheathed it and started fiddling with the clamps.
I tried to wiggle myself out of my ties, but it was no use. I kept trying anyways, until I heard a metallic pinging from the ground in Markus’s cell, followed by metallic screeching. I looked at him and saw that he had managed to free one of his arms and was now trying to break the lock that was holding his other arm.
After what seemed like an hour of work the lock finally gave in and broke open with a crack. Markus pulled his other hand out of the clutches and approached the door. He opened his uniform jacket and took two pieces of metal from it, which he stuck into the lock of the cell door.
After a short series of clicks and scratches, his cell door opened and he began to work on our cells. He cut open my ties and I couldn’t help but hug him the instant I was free again. I was just too relieved that he was okay and didn’t hate me, even after the situation I brought us into. Hey, even I can be soft sometimes!
Markus placed himself toward the door, pressing his ear onto it and listening outside. He then opened one of the pockets in his jacket and produced two hand-shaped objects from it, which he pulled over his own hands.
“All right, this is how we will do this: I will open a path for you two. Rainbow, you keep Fluttershy safe. Stay behind me and watch our backs. If I miss anyone try to handle it if you can. If you can’t then yell for help, I will protect you as good as possible.” He readied himself, gripping his knife tighter, but hesitated for a moment. He looked back at Fluttershy, who was cowering behind me. “Though, I think I should opt for non-lethal takedowns given the personality of our dear Fluttershy here.”
He sheathed his knife and looked down to me. I nodded at him and he rammed the door open. I followed close as he started running through the caverns. We actually managed to run for a good bit without getting noticed, but then a guard saw us and sounded the alarm. Markus rounded a corner and we followed shortly after. That’s when I saw him going up against a thousand guards! Well, ok, maybe not a thousand, but ten at least!
It seemed like he was dancing, as he brought down one after another with well-aimed punches and kicks. It. Was. AWESOME! Soon we were back in that large room again, but something was odd. There was a large red circle on the ground with something that looked like a star, made from the same red stuff, inside. Beside the circle were Ponies just lying on the ground and not moving. In the middle of the circle stood that brown stallion and this Sugarcoat bitch. The stallion was mumbling something and the unicorn lit her horn. Suddenly EVERYTHING was so bright that I couldn’t see anymore. Markus grabbed me and Fluttershy and placed himself before us.
When the light was gone, I looked to where those two were standing and just barely caught a glimpse of them moving through something that looked like a portal, before said portal closed behind them. Markus stood up again and we continued to the exit. At least we wanted to, but suddenly we found ourselves cornered against a wall by A LOT of those robe-wearing mother-buckers.
Markus looked around at the mass of Ponies, then looked down to Fluttershy.
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy…” He grabbed the hilt of his knife, “It seems, non-lethal has become impossible without risking getting ourselves hurt.”
Fluttershy whimped, but then looked up at Markus and nodded at him. Markus fully unsheathed his knife and stood ready to fight. I made myself ready too and waited for Markus to give me a sign or something.
He darted into the crowd, taking down two Ponies –or maybe I should call them cultists? Anyways; he took down one cultist after another, evading their attacks, while stabbing and slicing them and never letting anyone come even close to us. I only had to help one or two times when Pegasi-cultists tried to take him from above. I darted towards them and brought them down with a single blast of my hooves.
We kept slowly making our way to the exit, until Markus managed to break through their lines and we started running as fast as we could. We exited the cave and ran for a good bit into the Everfree, until we were sure that cultists had lost track of us.
We rested for a bit and drew our breaths. Markus then stood beside me and started stroking my mane.
“You did well in there, Rainbow. Especially considering that you lack combat experience.” He smiled at me. I started to blush and turned my head away from him. I suddenly felt this tickling sensation in my belly… I mean, I like him really much, but… I mean he’s a really good friend, yeah, a very good friend, nothing more… right?
A-Anyways, when we calmed ourselves, we went back to the Library and told Twilight everything from the false Fluttershy to this Cult.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve never heard of a cult called >>Bloodmoon<<.” She sat there a while in silence and looked at us. “However, I don’t claim to know everything. Maybe the Princesses know something? I guess I should write them a letter.”
Suddenly Spike entered the room, with a letter from Princess Celestia…