//------------------------------//
// The Escape Plan 
// Story: The Mystifying Adventures of Occult Readings and Gallant Knight 
// by Giftmak3r 
//------------------------------//

After the reveal he spent most of the night being grilled by Occult Reading about being a human and what a life without magic was like. Not only that, but he also grilled him about the day he got turned into a horse. It's obvious that Occult was trying to figure out what happened but there was nothing that stood out about what happened that day.

Sighing he told Occult he was going to sleep and lied down in the corner waiting for the older stallion to fall asleep. After waiting for some time and being confident Occult fell asleep he looked over to the pony studying him. He still couldn't get over the fact that he was looking at a real unicorn. What was even weirder was his coat, pelt, hair or whatever it was called. It was a yellowish coat with brown hair, or no, it's called a mane. The most peculiar part was the mark on occults thigh. It was a book with tenticals coming out of it. Oddly fitting givin his name. 

Finally lying down to rest he contemplated his situation. He hated everything about it. He hated being a slave to those momgrels, he hated the absurd stallion that was his cell mate but most of all he hated what happened to him. It's hard enough dealing with a new alien body, but what's worse is that he was pretty sure his mind was being affected to. Thinking back to earlier he realized just how big of a deal him crying was. He hadn't cried in over fifteen years, and he certainly wasn't always that bad of a liar. The worst part was when he thought of where the body came from. Was it new, or... or did he steal it? 

Huffing Gabe closed his eyes. Getting upset isn't going to fix anything and tomorrow he needs to plan for an escape. 

---

"WAKE UP PONIES!" The annoying red coated one screeched in that greeting voice of his.

Stirring in his sleep Gabe slowly began to rise. If at least one thing was still the same about him it was that he was not a morning person. After yawning loudly and beginning to stretch he heard the chipper voice of Occult. And the sliding of two trays.

"Good morning little Gabe, are you ready for breakfast!?" Occult asked in almost a sing-song voice irritating Gabe to his core. 

"How can you be so chipper? We're slaves, and on top of that it's the morning." he groaned much to the amusement of Occult. 

"Well that's what happens when you stay up all night stalking somepony." Occult cheered causing him to make a doubletake. How could he have known? He made sure that Occult was well asleep before checking out that mark. 

"Well that's simple my bo-"

"LESS TALK MORE EAT!" The annoying red coated dog bellowed clearly about to blow a fuse, "lots to dig today so hurry up!"

Gabe couldn't help but groan at the mongrel. He needed to get out of this place and it needs to happen yesterday. Since he was just going to be mindlessly drawing a cart today he was going to try to be more observant on how the dog gaurds moved about and which tunnel leads where. So silently he ate, scrutinizing the dog as he did. As he was finishing his second apple Occult piped up. 

"Young colt, I've noticed you haven't touched your hay. Do your kind not eat hay?" he said with the addition of an obnoxiously noticeable wink which the red coated dog either didn't care about or somehow didn't notice. 

"Um no, my family didn't feed me hay." he responded putting a slight emphasis on family. It shouldn't have surprised him that Occult was still asking questions about his past. It was a surprise however when Occult gave him his apple while taking the hay. It was kinda nice of him.

After he finished up the last apple the dog which Occult referred to as 'Rover' lead the two of them down a mineshaft where he put a the carts harness on and shoved a pick in Occult's muzzle. One thing he made sure to take note of was where Rover put the key after he let them out. He set it in one of the higher pockets in his jacket. Considering Rover was almost three times his hight, sneaking that out of his pocket simply isn't an option. Or is it? He thought looking to Occult levitating the pickaxe.

Keeping his options open he made sure to take note of where all the dog gaurds moved and where all the tunnels went. It seemed like there was always at least two dogs watching him as Occult digged. Running away now would certainly be possible, maybe even easy depending on if Occults magic could stall them, but that depends on how the dogs react. If one dog tries to stop them while the other gets backup then they may be able to get out of the caves before the backup comes, if they both chase then that would be harder to deal with.

The last thing that he thought was important was that the guards change once every fourish hours. It was hard to tell cause there was no way to determine the time down here, but what was most peculiar is that the third time the gaurds changed one of the dogs with clothes showed up. This one was much, much shorter, and had a set of keys. 

Trying to make it not obvious that he was interested in the small one he fiddled with his cart. After about two hours of silently waiting he tossed a pebble at Occult to grab his attention. As the older stallion glanced at him he mouthed distract them

It seemed Occult got the message and in the next moment his hoof 'slipped' and hit a rock, causing him to drop his pick and howl in pain. Honestly it seemed way too overacted but the dogs were stupid enough to fall for it anyways. The little dog with the key walked past Gabe completely unsuspecting of what was about to happen. 

"What is pony doing? Stop being such a pup and dig!" the little one yapped at Occult as Gabe slowly made his way to his back. Slowly and carefully he grabbed the key with his mouth not even daring to breath. Seeing what he was doing Occult made more of a fuss to hide any noise.

"Oohhhh my poor hoof. I smashed it against this rock. The pain! The agony! How will I go on? Surely I can't dig in such a condition." Occult wailed as Gabe swiftly grabbed the keys and hid them under his tounge. After silently moving back to his original spot Occult ceased his theatrics. "Actually you know what? My hoof is fine, sorry for the trouble sir."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say as the dwarf dog exploded in anger. "How dare you waste time! No food for yellow pony tomorrow!" The midget screeched striking Occult as he did. For the rest of the workday the little dog hollered and snarled at Occult and occasionally sent evil glares his way. But even if Occult got nagged at, this was gonna be worth it. They were getting out tonight.