Cadence soldiered on. Hope of being free giving her aching muscles strength. She followed the strange stallion for what seemed like hours, ascending narrow passageways through the dark labyrinth in silence. Soon the faint glow of crystals could be seen as Cadence re-entered where Chrysalis first cast her down and charged her minions with containing her.
"Stop."
The stallion ordered. The urgency in his voice caused Cadence to freeze on the spot. She dared not move as she looked toward her guide. He assumed a strange sort of pose, like a dancer balancing weights on his hooves. After a moment, the stallion in front of her struck his staff to the ground and the sound echoed through the labyrinth.
"We're not alone. Unicorns. At least four. Wait...only one? Nah. Can't be."
He muttered thoughtfully to himself as he tapped the rock again. Before nodding a confirmation to himself. Cadence didn't want to question her rescuers method of navigation, even if she found it quite strange. After all he somehow found her all the way down below the depths of Canterlot mountain.
"Unicorns? If that's the case, were in luck! Maybe they can help us escape?"
The stallion turned to look at her with an odd expression on his face. he let his hoof made staff fall to the ground and dropped to all fours. "by saved you mean...saved, saved? Like they could help us?"
Cadence nodded, more than a little confused. "Yes. If there are other ponies here like you say then they could help us get out of here, or at the very least we can have safety in numbers."
Cadence smiled reassuringly not sure why this stallion was being apprehensive. Was he suspecting changelings disguised as unicorns? Whatever conclusions her speculations could reach had to be set aside. She could clearly see that the stallion in front of her was considering her words carefully.
Then, without warning, he stepped closer almost muzzle to muzzle without breaking eye contact. Cadence held her ground undeterred. She felt, more than saw, a spark of something noble in his soul, it is one of the many powers afforded to her as the princess of love, to gaze into the true nature of a pony. With that one any doubts that she had about this strange stallion melted away. It seemed that the feeling was mutual. He grinned.
"Fair point. Alicorn." He backed away, picked up his staff and resumed his strange upright posture before continuing on his way.
"Please call me Cadence." She said, a little disoriented from the gaze into his soul. "What's your name?"
The stallion placed a hoof on his chest. Opened his mouth and closed it again. He seemed to be deep in thought.
"Are you okay?" Cadence asked with concern.
"The name I have means nothing anymore...need something new..." She heard him mumble. When the stallion looked up at Cadence and found that she was eyeing him. He cleared his throat.
"I'm thinking." He said giving Cadence an awkward smile.
"You need to think, for your name?"
The stallion nudged a small pebble while he walked. He stopped for a moment to consider the small rock. The expression on his face brightened as he turned to face Cadence.
"Rocky. Yeah that sounds good. Please call me Rocky."
There was a moment of silence between them. As Cadence accepted the name offered with a little bit of hesitancy.
"Okay Rocky. I think we should find this unicorn. He or she could be hurt or captured just like me."
The stallion named Rocky nodded. "Of course." He said before turning and resuming their march through the crystal mines.
There was more silence between them, broken every once in a while by the tapping of Rocky's staff. Rocky would stop periodically as if to survey the area before nodding to himself and continuing on. Cadence was sure he knew where he was going and was wondering if he only stopped in consideration of her and her limping. Such a gentlecolt she mused.
"How did you find me?" Cadence asked, hoping to drown her pain in conversation.
"I felt your misery. Hard not to with a broken heart like yours. What happened? I promise you those creatures will have much to answer for."
An empath? Cadence thought to herself. She knew there were more ponies than her that could have a deep resonance to emotion. This was the first time she had met a pony such as herself.
"What happened is a really long story. But those creatures you fought are called changelings. They haven't been seen in Equestria for a hundred years. They can take the shape of anyone they come in contact with."
Rocky Frowned, his confusion on clear display. "Equestria? What are you talking about. Is that an Alicorn city?"
Cadence stopped, and Rocky stopped with her.
"What's wrong?" Rocky asked, feeling the confusion and worry radiating off of Cadence.
"Equestria is a Nation. Our Kingdom. Surely you know what Equestria is? Do you have a concussion. Should we rest a bit?"
Rocky winced and rubbed the back of his neck while Cadence narrowed her eyes and took a step back. Spark of nobility or not, the dread from her experience still threatened to overcome her.
"What are you not telling me?" She asked suspiciously.
Rocky sighed. "You can relax. I mean no harm. But the truth is stranger than any fiction I can conjure I assure you."
Cadence tilted her head, once again making eye contact. "Try me."
Rocky sighed again in resignation and brought a hoof to his muzzle. He thought for a moment trying to find words to describe his predicament in a way that was believable. Just when he thought he had cobbled together some kind of explanation, the tell tale color of unicorn magic enveloped him. His eyes grew wide in shock.
"Oh horse apples."
Rocky found himself launched against a wall, connecting with a solid "Oof!". Before he could recover, sharp crystals dislodged themselves from the ground and impaled the area around him forming a makeshift cell. Cadence reeled back in shock before being tackled by a purple blur.
"YOU!" This purple blur exclaimed standing over her, horn alight with dangerous magic.
Cadence's face lit up as she recognized the unicorn on top of her. "Twilight!?"
Before either of them could say or do anymore, Rocky's staff came flying in like a javelin, striking the attacking unicorn in the flank. Twilight squeaked and rolled over in pain, the offending staff clattering loudly against more stone from the impact.
"Don't touch her you Platinum Dog! I'm the one you want!" Rocky roared as he slowly started to pry his crystal prison apart with sheer force and earth pony strength. Wisps of smoke curled around Twilights mane as she turned her attention to the offending stallion. With a burst of light the surrounding crystals began to slowly close in on Rocky who increased his efforts against the crystals imbued with magic.
"Twilight stop! Please STOP!" Cadence pleaded limping her way between Twilight and her rescuer.
"Sunshine. Sunshine. Lady Bug's awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"
Everything stopped.
"Pardon?" Croaked a stunned Rocky.
Cadence repeated the nursery rhyme but this time did what Rocky could only call a "Jig." She repeated it a third time and this time unicorn called Twilight joined in and when they finished embraced each other in laughter and tears.
"Cadence I can't believe it! It's really you!"
"Oh Twilight it's so good to see you!"
The two sat there exchanging their stories. How Twilight found out that the Cadence on the surface was a fake and how her friends, brother and even Celestia had turned against her. Cadence described her terrible ordeal before Rocky came to her rescue. For Rocky's part, he listened intently, catching himself up on events that were previously unknown to him. When he thought he had gathered all the relevant information he could he cleared his throat.
"Really nice. I'm so happy that you found a friend. Would it be possible to let me out of this? We have bigger problems to deal with."
"Before I let you go. Prove to me you aren't a changeling. Who are you really and what are you doing here?" asked Twilight cautiously approaching the cell. A faint glow betraying a magic spell of dubious intent charged on her horn.
Rocky cleared his throat. "Me? I'm just an earth pony farmer. Just passing through. I'd really rather leave it at that for now." It was the truth. Not the whole truth, but definitely the truth. He could explain himself later. Twilight remained unconvinced until an encouraging look from Cadence softened her guard.
"Ugh. Fine. You seem fishy to me, but if Cadence vouches for you I have no choice but to trust you."
Rocky was about to let out a sigh of relief but Twilight's shoved a hoof onto his snout and pressed hard. "If you ever touch my flank again, I will explode you so hard they'll find pieces of you on the moon. ARE WE CLEAR!" She practically yelled in his face.
Rocky nodded an affirmative looking exasperated. One of the Crystals dislodged themselves leaving just enough room for Rocky to squeeze through. He dusted himself off and recovered his staff.
"Save your threats Twilight the unicorn. We have more important things to worry about now. Like why is everypony screaming above us?"
"Screaming?" Twilight asked confused.
"It's really more distress and cowering in fear, small pockets of courage here and there, mostly fear. But yes, screaming." He looked over at Cadence.
"You can't feel that?"
Cadence shook her head. "No, I can't." She admitted dejectedly. While normally attuned to the emotions around her, her own distress had dulled her abilities. Rocky seemed to have similar thoughts.
"I thought you might have been an empath." Rocky asked looking at the wounded Alicorn. His eyes widened and he lowered his head ashamed. "Forgive me. I forgot your suffering. How can you hear the babbling of a brook when you are underneath a waterfall." He muttered as if quoting somepony important, raising his hoof and bowing respectfully to Twilight and Cadence.
Cadence and Twilight looked at each other quizzically, then back at the strange stallion. Twilight was the first to seek action.
"Okay. We can do this. Just gotta solve one problem at a time. First we find a way out of here, then we rescue my brother and beat the evil changeling Queen. Sound good?" She didn't wait for a response from the other two and continued. "We need a plan. First we escape, I saw some mine carts back there maybe we can..." Rocky raised his hoof and practically stopped Twilight's Rant.
"Won't need them, or whatever it is your planning. This is close enough to the surface for us to escape."
Twilight fumed as her stream of thought was so rudely interrupted. She batted his hoof away before she yelled into his face. "Look buddy, do you have a horn under that bedhead of yours? Because if not I don't see a way for you to magically break through all this rock and reach the surface." For some reason, Rocky grinned at this, which only goaded Twilight on. "Normally I would teleport us, but all this crystal is messing with my magic, so if you would be so kind as to NOT RUDELY INTERRUPT..."
This time it was Cadence's hoof to fall on Twilight. It was a gently pat on the back. Something Cadence had done long ago when Twilight was young.
"Please, lets just hear him out." Cadence said and again Twilight relented.
Rocky motioned for the two mares to get clear. A trusting Cadence and a skeptical Twilight backed away.
Rocky took several breaths and assumed a strange pose on his hind legs. For the first few seconds it looked nothing was happening, but then Twilight felt it beneath her hooves. Vibrations. She looked up at Rocky and gasped in surprise. He was shaking, vibrating. Pebbles bounced and skipped across the cave surface. Stalactite began to fall around him.
"Behold the first gate."