//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Two pegasi and a unicorn talk // Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning // by Dianabel //------------------------------// Though she had been told that she was not to be freed today, Gusty still hoped for a miracle that would allow her to go. She fidgeted with anything that was within her reach such as stones or even chains of the shackles. Rather than sad or scared, she was bored and frustrated. She snarled. “I get it! I know you´re doing this as a warning!” she yelled as if she was talking to Grogar. “I got it! Can I go now?!” “I can´t believe you´re asking that.” a troggle near her told her. “It was a rhetoric question.” “Oh.” Gusty laid her head on the bars. “Or at least make anything interesting happen.” she muttered. Suddenly, she heard the rattle of keys opening the door. Various troggles entered. “Don´t resist you vermin!” one yelled as he pulled a chain. Soon Gusty discovered who he was talking to. When her vision allowed her, she noticed two pegasi, a male and a female, with their wings tied up and their necks enchained. She gasped softly. She hasn´t seen a pegasus since Night Eye´s death. More shockingly, he was the only pegasus she ever talked to. She´d love to talk to more but would any be willing to talk to her ? After struggling some time to make them move, they managed to throw the two pegasi into a dungeon next to Gusty´s. “Tomorrow you´ll see the fate that the emperor has in store for you.” a troggle said cockily as his workmates chained their necks to the wall.” The pegasus stallion sighed. “I know, I know, we´re going to die tomorrow.” The troggle raised his eyebrow. “You don´t seem very scared.” “Because I know that we´ll get out of here!” he exclaimed confidently. The troggles winked and burst out laughing. “You, getting out… Oh! And Grogar thought… Ha! Ah…. The only way you´re getting out of here is by dying.” “Technically until you carry us to the scaffold, we´re still breathing, so no, we´re not getting out of here dead.” he smirked. The pegasus mare rolled her eyes. “Shut up Rain Cloud.” she told him. “You´re only making things worse.” The pegasus widened his eyes. “Did you just-” “Yes. Yes I did.” “You should listen to your girlfriend, you know.” a troggle advised him. “Girlfriend?!” the two pegasi asked upset in chorus. “Why in the world would I date my sister?” Rain Cloud asked disgusted. “And even if she wasn´t, I wouldn´t date her still. She´s too serious to have a good time around her.” “Yeah? Well you´re not a delight to be around either.” she mumbled. “I heard you!” “Silence!” the troggle yelled. “Although now that I think about it, maybe you should talk now before you become silent forever tomorrow.” he and his workmates laughed as they left. Once there weren´t troggles around, Gusty stared curiously at the two pegasi without them noticing and heard their conversation. “So, what´s the plan?” Rain Cloud asked his sister. The pegasus shook her head. “For now, there is no plan.” He widened his eyes. “You don´t have a plan?” he asked shocked. “Look around you! The only thing around us stones, the window´s bars are too together, plus it´s too small for us to get out, and there´s no guard around from whom we can take a key. How in the world do you expect us to get out?” “You tell me. You´re the ones with the ideas!” “You could help me from time to time with the ideas you know.” “Hey. I do the action and you come up with the ideas. That´s how we agreed, didn´t we?” “No, we didn´t. We might do that because they are our strengths but we never said we could not help each other in our strengths.” Rain Cloud opened his mouth to reply but found no argument to refute his sister´s. “So what you´re saying is to wait to be executed. And you´re accepting that fate? Without fighting?” “I never said that I accepted it. I meant that I don´t have a plan to execute now.” Rain Cloud widened his eyes. “You mean to wait to the last moment? Isn´t that too risky?” “Says the one who loves taking risks.” “I know but you´re not the type that loves taking risks.” “I don´t like it but sometimes I must. After all we´re in a rebellion, which is already very risky.” “You´re part of the pegasi rebellion?” Gusty asked shocked. The two pegasi widened their eyes. “Are you too?” Rain Cloud asked. “I am part of one. But not yours.” Rain Cloud gasped. “We need to attack Wind!” he whispered in her ear. His sister shushed him and raised her hoof. “Why are you talking to us?” “What do you mean?” Gusty asked. “I don´t know what you are exactly, but we know you´re not a pegasus like us. Don´t you know we´re not supposed to talk to each other?” “Who says that? Grogar? I thought you were revolting against him.” “But you don´t like us! And we don´t like anypony who´s not a pegasus!” Rain Cloud exclaimed. “May I ask why?” “Let me ask you first, what are you exactly?” Rain Cloud´s sister asked. “A unicorn.” “You have a great advantage. You have magic so you have it much easier than us for defending yourselves. And Grogar doesn´t mistreat you as much. He respects you more because of yhat.” “How do you know that? We also suffer under his rule. Just like you.” “Oh really? As much as us? Did Grogar command his troggles to kill every unicorn they saw and to burn down their homes?” “I don´t know. He could have before I was born.” “No it hasn´t! Both earth ponies and unicorns are more numerous than us. Why do you think that is, huh?” Gusty widened her eyes. “What?” “You don´t know? How could you not know? There were thousands of pegasi corpses throughout the whole empire! And we also saw how your kind and earth ponies gave us in whenever you found us hiding in your territories because ours were completely destroyed!” “When did this happen?” “Very few years ago! Three more or less.” Rain Cloud replied. Gusty´s gasped and covered her mouth. That´s when Night Eye died! Her breath fastened. “I thought it was just some troggles…” she mumbled in shock. Rain Cloud´s ear twitched. “What?” “He´s dead because of him…” “Wait. Who are you talking about?” Rain Cloud´s sister asked. Gusty did not answer. Shock didn´t let her speak nor move. She was completely unaware of her surroundings and paralyzed. However, her magic wasn´t. Suddenly, small gusts of wind formed. “Wind, stop moving your wings.” “I´m not moving my wings. What makes you think that I am?” “Because there´s wind?” “Just because my name is Wind Whistler doesn´t mean that I always make wind you idiot. It could be coming from outside.” Slowly, Gusty´s wind became stronger, and their manes moved faster and faster. “Is it me or has it turned stronger?” Rain Cloud asked. Some mane got out of Wind Whistler´s long braid. She spat them out. “You think?” The wind was so strong, that it carried both Rain Cloud and Wind Whistler away. Had it not been for them to the wall, they would have slammed against the other. However, as it was chained around their necks, it choked them somewhat. Luckily, they didn´t have to struggle much to hold on to their dungeon´s bars. “Where is so much wind coming from?” Wind Whistler asked. “Judging from the direction, I think it comes from there!” he pointed to the right, where Gusty´s cell was. “But I don´t understand, the door is closed!” His ears perked up when he heard heavy breathing. “I think I know the source now. Listen.” After paying attention for a while, Wind heard the breathing. “You´re right.” she said to her brother. She approached to the right end of the dungeon. “Unicorn! Hey! Unicorn, can you hear me?” she asked Gusty. She made no response. “I don´t think she can hear you.” Rain Cloud told her. “Unicorn! UNICORN!” Her yell made Gusty come back to reality. She gasped and her wind stopped abruptly. Wind Whistler and Rain Cloud moaned as they hit the floor. Many emotions were inside her heart and none of them were pretty. Confusion, sadness, anger… She buried her head on her knees as she sobbed. The pegasi siblings looked at each other, feeling sympathy for Gusty´s loss. And the fact that they bashed her out didn´t help in the least, which made them feel guilty. “So, who was that important pegasus? A good friend?” Rain Cloud asked her. Gusty was still crying. “Leave it.” Wind Whistler put her hoof on her brother´s shoulder. “She´s not talking to us.” “He was more than that.” Gusty replied finally. “He was my long-life partner and the father of my foals.” “What?” the two asked estranged. Normally, if a unicorn told them that, they would take it as a joke. But after seeing Gusty´s reaction of what happened to the pegasi, they knew that was the truth. Wind Whistler sighed. “Listen. We´re sorry for bashing you like that. We… We also failed to protect friends and loved ones.” Rain Cloud pulled her earring. “Ouch!” “What she means is that she, as well as I, understands your pain. And she feels some guilt for what happened, even though I continuously remind her that it´s not. If we didn´t trust you it was because of what my sister said before. Not to mention that our species have never got along. But now we see you´re not like that.” Gusty sniffed. “I´m so sorry for Grogar made you go through. Losing my husband was really rough for me. I can´t imagine what it must have been for you.” For a time, none of them spoke a word, as they weren´t sure what to say, specially Rain Cloud and Wind Whistler, since this was the first time they ever spoke to a unicorn. They knew Gusty wasn´t against them, but it still felt scary and weird interacting with her. Gusty, however, felt no fear. “So, how did you end up here?” she asked curiously. “Would you mind explaining, brother?” Wind Whistler smirked angrily at Rain Cloud. “Hey! It wasn´t my fault.” This time, it was her turn to pull his earring. “Ow ow! Ok, ok it kind of was.” “Kind of?” “Completely.” he admitted reluctantly. “But what happened?” Gusty asked. “I threw an arrow before I was supposed to.” Rain Cloud explained. “Oh. And what´s going to happen to you?” “What do you think?” Wind Whistler asked sarcastically. “We´ll be executed of course! Burnt,” she pointed at herself. “and hanged.” she pointed at her brother. “Wait what?” Rain Cloud widened his eyes. “For some reason, Grogar gives the harshest punishment to mares. I guess he´ll be doing that to you.” “What? But he said he would let me here for four days with few water and food.” “Wait. You weren´t discovered?” “No.” “Then why are you here?” “For defending my friends.” “Ah, that makes more sense. Still, it was a reckless thing to do considering that you´re also part of a rebellion. Remember this: when one falls, everypony falls.” Gusty bit her lip. “But I´ll give you credit for your reason. At least it wasn´t stupid. Not like anypony else´s.” “Ok, I get it, you´re mad at me. But we already have a plan, ok? Quit it out please!” “What is your plan?” Gusty asked them. “We´ll have to wait and attack right when they take us. It´s our only chance.” Wind Whistler claimed. “I can help!” Gusty offered herself. The two pegasi raised their eyebrows. “I just said because I thought some magic would be of help. Besides, I have fulfilled my punishment. In any moment, a guard will come here, so you won´t have to wait until tomorrow.” “You mean freaky spells? Like the ones you casted on pegasi and earth ponies?” “That´s probably something that Grogar made up. And we don´t know many spells, magic is forbidden to us unless for work purposes. However, I know one that might be of help to you.” The pegasi siblings shared doubtful glances. “Could you excuse us for a few minutes?” Wind Whistler asked. “Yes, whatever time you need.” Gusty accepted. The pegasi did a circle with their wings. “Do you trust her?” Wind asked her brother. “Of course not! I know she´s no harm but… she´s still a unicorn.” “I know, that´s why I ask.” “Yet at the same time, I think that some of her freaky magic could be of help.” Wind Whistler bit her lip. “This isn´t like a mission. If we were, we could fail and still solve it afterwards. But in this case… We fail, we die.” she sighed. “You´re right. It´s better if we have backup.” Once the decision, was made they undid the circle and talked to Gusty. “Ok, you may help us.” Gusty´s eyes brightened. “I won´t fail you. Trust me.” “Let´s hope so…” Rain Cloud whispered in his sister´s ear, to which she nodded. A troggle walked to Gusty´s cell. “Well, it seems your punishment´s over. Four days in here. Pity, I would have loved to see you suffer and rot.” “Really? Wow. I´ve heard so many mean things said since I first arrived here, but yours is the meanest I´ve heard so far.” Gusty said sarcastically as the guard unlocked the door. “Why, thank you.” he said honoured. “Now, GET OUT OF HERE!” he yelled as he opened the door. “Gladly.” she said with a smile. Suddenly, Rain Cloud threw him a stone. “Ouch! What the?” “Pegasi! Pegasi!” Rain Cloud cheered “Uh…” he scratched his chin in thought. Wind Whistler massaged her forehead as she clenched her teeth. “You can´t bring us down!” he continued. “Uh, you think you´re so great, huh? Well, let´s see who laughs when you´re at the scaffold!” As he talked to them, Gusty ignited her horn and caught the keys. As she was a bit nervous, she accidentally let go of the keys, but she quickly caught them with her hooves on time. She quickly hid the keys behind her back just before the troggle turned his head to her. “Am I right?” he asked Gusty. “Yeah! Yeah! Of course.” she falsely agreed. “Psst! Come here, let me tell you something.” Rain Cloud said to the troggle. “What?” he approached his head. He punched the troggle´s nose. “OUCH! That hurts!” Taking the advantage that his eyes were closed, in a few seconds, Gusty passed the keys to Wind Whistler. She hid them with her tail When he opened them, he grabbed Rain Cloud and slammed him against the bars. “Are you playing with me?!” “D´uh! Isn´t it obvious?” he asked back with a smirk. Seeing that the guard was getting angrier with his brother, Wind Whistler decided to intervene. “Little brother! What are you doing? Don´t you know it´s not a good idea to mess with the guards?” “Exactly!” the troggle agreed with her. “But he´s so mean!” he exaggeratedly complained. “He deserved that punch!” Wind Whistler growled. “Fine, big sister.” The troggle rolled his eyes. He grabbed Gusty´s foreleg and pulled her out. “Let´s go!” he told Gusty. As he dragged Gusty out of the dungeon´s corridor, she winked her eye at Wind Whistler and Rain Cloud. “Huh. It actually worked.” said Wind Whistler. “I almost have some broken bones, but yup! It worked.” Rain Cloud replied. “You have the keys?” Wind Whistler moved her tail and showed him the keys. He laughed victoriously. “He fell for it like a fool!” he said as he took the keys. He opened the door. “Come out sis, now all we have to do is wa-” He noticed that Wind Whistler did not speak nor was happy. Instead, she was reflexive. “Hey, are you alright?” Wind Whistler looked at her brother. “Huh? Oh! Yes, yes I´m fine. I was thinking about the unicorn.” she explained as they walked to the prison´s door. “What about her? “What she just did was very dangerous, and she could have easily been discovered. I´m pretty sure she almost spilt her little secret when they sent her here! I never thought I´d say this about a unicorn, but I´m worried about her. Especially with her magic. From what I´ve seen it´s attached to her emotions, and she feels strongly. That will lead her to much trouble.” “Oof! Tell me about that! Did she realize what she did? Because it looks like she didn´t.” “I don´t know but the poor mare was in shock after learning what happened to us. I guess her surroundings would be the least of her concerns at that moment.” “That would make sense.” “This is the first time we´ve ever talked to a unicorn. Can you believe it?” “No. It was just too weird to be real.” “This unicorn was so kind to us. She even risked herself for us, two ponies of a different kind that she just met. And she married a pegasus! I thought all of them hated us.” “She´s nice but I still have to meet more unicorns like that to change my mind about them.” Rain Cloud said. “Yeah, me too. But I´ll remember her. I wish we could have thanked her, though.” “Maybe we will, if we see her again.” “You think we will?” Rain Cloud shrugged. “Who knows? But the future is for later. Right now, let´s just focus on waiting for that door to open.” Suddenly, they noticed the knob moving. “Prepare yourself!” Wind Whistler told him. When the guard opened the door, he widened his eyes. “What the-” “Surprise…” Rain Cloud smirked before he punched the guard´s face hard.