//------------------------------//
// Broke: Content Ad-Visory 
// Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) 
// by Barrobroadcaster 
//------------------------------//

The dungeon of Lavertica was a bird-cage like structure, just like much of the city. Unlike the rest of the city, it was far rustier and less-maintained. It seemed to be made of leftover bars and materials that were discarded from other construction. There were still parts of it that were gold, only because they were gold spray-painted. 

The thugs that captured Chrys literally tossed her in a cell.

"Ow! Hey, when my boyfriend here's about this, he's gonna come here and blow up all your bird-asses!" Chrys said. She realized now she had entered the relationship phase where she threatened other people with her boyfriend, a classic, if stereotypical girlfriend move. Still, it was very true in her case as Dan didn't need much of a reason, or any reason at all really to bring harm to others. And revenge was a passion of his, so that worked, too.

"So what'd they throw you in here for?"

"I wasn't supposed to be- Gust???" Chrys turned to find her cell mate was in fact Gust Grasp.

"Sup brosephone. Been a while."

"Yeah, where have you been? I haven't seen you since Ponyville exploded. I mean, the first time."

Gust leaned back, his head resting on his claws. "Well, things were pretty cool for a while. What with me being the hero of the world, and all."

"Hero? Oh wait..."

Gust smiled. "Yeah, can you believe it?"

"No."

"Me, a bigtime hero. I told all the griffons about how I and my crew, cutoff and marooned after the attack on Ponyville had to fend for ourselves and fight back against Rice and his legion of dragons. And just when we were about to beat him at the Equestria Games, he snaps us all to the moon. But, lucky for us, I had the foresight to steal all the treasures from around the globe. To protect them."

"Wait wait wait wait, so he snapped you guys to the moon, too?"

Gust nodded. "Yep. I mean, after the Equestria Games, he didn't really have much of a choice."

"What do you mean "Equestria Games?" There were no games this year. The planet just came back together."

"Before that," Gust got up. "You were there! You and Dan and Twilight and all the ponies." He looked genuinely concerned. And it was the genuine part that started to make Chrys concerned. "Why... why don't you remember?"

"Okay, if this is a scam or something-"

"It's not! For reals, Rice held-

"Real."

"What?"

"Just say "real" please, don't add an "s" to the end of it."

"...Whatever," Gust shook his head. "Look, before he took everybody to the moon and stuff, he had a huge tournament. The Equestria Games, or at least his version of it. There were people there, and he held everyone hostage..." His explanation only left Chrys more and more confused. Her look went from skeptical to completely puzzled.

"You really don't remember, do you?" Gust asked.

"Why... wouldn't I remember being at the games?"

"Because Rice erased your memory," Visor said. Chrys spun around. Behind them, just outside the birdcage-like cell they were trapped in was Visor in his original pony form. Light green stallion with a dark green mane. "Rice actually took quite a while to finally get all of you to the moon. His original plan was just to rule over Equestria and remake it the way he wanted it, starting with the Equestria Games."

Chrys looked even more confused. "But why? All he wanted was his son back. All the revenge crap, that was just to throw us off his trail. At least, I thought it was."

"No, you were right." He looked away for a moment. "Grief does... strange things to people. Loss of more than just someone you love but an entire part of your life. It can be like losing a limb; it takes a while to find a new way to do things. Rice took on the guise of his son whom was killed in order to prevent Luna and others from looking into his dreams and seeing his plans. Eventually, though, he started to believe it, too. At least a little, enough to try making his own games."

She gripped the bars with her hooves and shook her head. "We were AT the Equestria Games?" She turned back to Gust, who nodded. It was still hard to believe. "What... were we in any events?"

"Several of your friends were. Took home quite a few medals, though I think they're being melted down right now."

"Was Dan in anything?"

Visor folded his hooves. "Not in an official capacity. He ran security but... well, you can imagine how that went. At the conclusion, Rice teleported all of you to the moon and Tartarus but he somehow missed Dan."

"Oh... I thought he teleported us all there after the whole attack on Ponyville thing," Chrys said. "I guess it's... possible there could've been a layover. I think. Why did he erase our memories?"

"Because you humiliated him," Gust said, grinning. "I wasn't there personally, but I heard you guys made him look like a total idiot."

"I mean, that's not hard to do. And we're going to do the same to you!" Chrys declared to Visor. "What do you even want with gold and jewels and junk? I thought kidnapping ponies were more valuable to you dudes."

He got closer to the bars, smiling. "What's the rush, Chryssie? Everything has value to the right buyer. One man's trash and all that. We can do both. We can put one off for later."

Chrys folded her own hooves. "Why the griffons, though? And why is HE locked up with me?"

"Umm," Gust raised his claw. "I can answer that. I was gonna tell Dan and you guys. And, well, nobody else liked that idea."

She turned around to him. "You were going to tell us that the griffons were stealing from everyone? Why? You're a pirate. You love stealing things. You stole Dan's wallet like a dozen times. And got shocked for it."

"Y-yeah, I remember. Well uh, I didn't... I didn't like the idea of stealing from you guys. Again. I mean, I tried that already and... you bros are my bros. My... my friends," Gust said, a bit suppressed. He looked up at Chrys, almost meekly. "I didn't wanna upset you guys."

"Awwwwww," Chrys felt her changeling heart melt a little. She spread her forelegs out to hug him. "Our little pirate buddy!"

"They also weren't going to give me a cut, so-"

"Shut up and hug me, you idiot." She hugged him tight. He hugged her back as much as he could with his arms pinned to his sides.

"Th-the primary reason was friendshipfff, I meaff, if Danff anf youf wannaf gif me a awad-" Gust's beak was muffled by Chrys' affection. She was a tall, thin, changeling bug-mare but was also very cuddly when she wanted to be. Probably came from Fluffle Puff being her unofficial daughter/private snuggle monster.

"It's not complicated, sweetheart. Our organization controls things from the shadows. We kill, we steal, we manipulate but we prefer pulling the little strings rather than the big ones. We leave it to fools like your boyfriend to make all the noise," Visor said. He stepped into the shadow, the shade cast by one of the larger bars. "Dan passed on our generous offer... but the griffon royal family was far more receptive. Former Marshal Gust was one of the few who wanted to blow the whistle. So we locked him up here."

"Where's the stuff from our treasury? Why do you even need a Magical Griffon Gear-thingamabob if you control so much? And why do you steal Barro's fighters?

Visor sighed. He stepped out of the shadows, now as someone more familiar. And in a familiar voice, he said, "We still need materials. Can't do a job without the proper tools. The griffons were already building their own Magic Gear after they saw yours in action. Of course, they wanted theirs to be more about theft than destruction. As far as Barro's gunships are concerned, he actually stole the designs from a CIA project in the 80s called "Crossbow." Well,  actually, he modified them and returned them to their original space-based platform, but we were pissed off enough at Val Kilmer ruining our demonstration. Still pissed off about that."

"I think you're all dumb," Chrys said. "And what happens when there's nothing left to steal? Then you go back to abducting and selling ponies?"

"See? That wasn't hard to figure out, was it? We have spies, sure but we still need manual labor. Grunts to do grunt work. Team Rocket would've been happy to provide, but Dan has proven far less-tolerant than we anticipated. So we're using the griffons now," Visor explained in her own voice. "All very simple. The simplest plans work best. Like a disguise."

Chrys looked up and down the disguise. It was good. Very good. "That won't work. Dan will see through your disguise."

Visor had somehow transformed himself into a copy of Chrys. "Oh, he probably will. But not from afar. The griffons will call the ponies and tell them we have you locked up in prison, which we do. And when you get your one free phone call, they'll hear everything we want them to hear. From me. Meanwhile, you'll be hear accruing more value until we're ready to sell you."

"You're an asshole!"

Pause. "Really? That language? And that's it?"

"Go to hell. You and all your shadow-spy-assassin-whatever dudes."

He smiled. It was weird watching her own face smile maliciously. "You know, we DID offer our services to Dan. Honestly, given the background of his friend's wife on Earth, it was surprising he wasn't of interest to the intelligence community before. But he turned us down. A pity."

She turned away from 'her.' "You're nothing like me. Don't try to sound like me. You just screw that up, too. So don't try to act ladylike; you just come off as a sleaze."

"I've been men and women of all ages for years. Kids, adults, elders. I was once the wife of a prime minister for more than a decade."

"I said LADYlike. There's more to being a lady than just being female," Chrys said. "Guess they didn't teach that at assassin elementary school."

Visor walked towards the cage. He put his changeling-disguise hooves on the bars. "They taught us about leverage. Knowing how far people are willing to go... what they will and won't do. That's invaluable. Secrets, affairs, limitations, requirements. That's the kind of information that's worth money to us. A lot of money. So... would you like to know where the rest of your changelings are?"

Chrys' eyes popped open. She couldn't hide her astonishment, the shock. Or maybe the fact she'd somewhat forgotten about the changeling horde she'd been separated from after the Canterlot wedding. So much had changed. The last changeling she'd seen was Shifty and he'd said,

"You're not our mother," Visor said.

Chrys turned to him. "You're a changeling?"

He didn't answer. He stared at her for a long time before finally saying, "I was. Just another drone. I would've been relegated to the background, forgotten after the attack, or lost in a pointless battle, just another random-"

*BRANG*

"Oh gawd, that took you long enough."

"I'm sorry, but, he WAS looking right at us the whole time," Gust said. While Visor, whoever and whatever he/she was had been explaining, about to go into a sad backstory monologue, Gust had pickpocketed the cell key from him. After that, he opened the door and slammed it into Visor's head, knocking him out.

"So much for him selling us. I wonder how much I would've gone for..."

"I'm sure you're worth your weight in feathers," Chrys said. "Now c'mon. Let's get back to Dan and the others." She threw Visor in the cell and locked it behind her.

"Wait!" Gust said. "What about my crew?"

Chrys rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll free them, too. THEN we get back to Dan."

"Wait!"

She grabbed him by the wrist. "Stop doing that. We're going."

"So we're not going to sabotage their griffy gear? And the crossbow gunships?"

Chrys smiled. "If we did that, Dan would complain we were robbing him of all the fun. And there's been enough theft for one day."