Celestia sat in her cage. She kept her back ramrod straight, she held her head high, and her eyes stared forward with the power of a ruler behind them.
But she felt empty.
Her bravado was skin deep, and inside, she couldn’t help but think about Marble. She couldn’t check up on him now. She couldn’t do anything but sit in the cage. With all of her magic locked away, she might as well have been a filly for all the good she could do. Her strength couldn’t force open the lock, and her wings couldn’t even fully extend in the cramped space. If she were still full-sized, she’d have to bend her neck at very painful angles in here.
And what’s worse, Marble hated her.
Of course, he did. Celestia lied to him, and honestly, it was her fault for allowing a relationship like this to happen. She had been here to have some fun and put her responsibilities aside, not to find a new special somepony. She shouldn’t have let this happen to begin with.
That didn’t stop her heart from aching.
She shoved that aside, only for the pain to creep back into her thoughts as she tried to focus on the far wall, where the ponies surrounding the steel sphere attempted to crack it open while flinching under her gaze.
How did she wind up here? How did she let this happen? She’d somehow let all this happen, she’d let herself fall in love with Marble, Celestia had led him around to fight a bunch of crazy ponies, and she’d let it all fall apart for nothing.
No, not for nothing. Celestia had done what she needed to. She had saved the life of her subject by revealing that she was more valuable to the enemy. She’d done what she needed to as a Princess.
“But you’re not the Princess,” Inner Sunny said.
Celestia ignored the thought.
“You spent ten years getting Twilight ready to rule. She’s the Princess now. You have to let go.”
Celestia frowned but didn’t respond. It didn’t matter if she was ruling or not, Marble was her responsibility, and she had to make the sacrifice for him.
“He’s not your responsibility. You’re just pretending he is, so you don’t get hurt, and it hurt anyway.”
That...that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. No way at all.
Inner Sunny smiled. “Can dish it out but can’t take it, huh?”
Shut up, you. You’re not real.
“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
Celestia didn’t respond. Instead, she sighed and broke her indomitable persona for just a moment.
One of the ponies by the cage glanced at her before looking away nervously.
That’s something I can do, she thought. If I could sway some of her ponies to my side, I might be able to work my way out of this.
“It’s also a convenient distraction, so you can ignore me,” Inner Sunny noted.
That too, but it was secondary, honestly.
The pony that glanced at her turned his head down, and Celestia took a moment to “suddenly” notice him. “Have I done wrong, my little pony? Have I made a mistake coming here?”
The stallion bit his lip and looked between her and the sphere. “I...um…”
Celestia mentally nodded. Yes, with luck, she’d be out of the cage in a few minutes.
---☼---
Marble flew high over the jungle, riding the air currents until he hovered over the pyramid before he dropped like a falcon to the top. He pulled into a dive that would have made a wonderbolt proud, hidden by the darkness of the night.
He pulled up feet above the very top of the temple, but the ruffling of his feathers altered the guards at the door. They glanced around wildly, trying to see where the sound came from, but Marble didn’t want to give them a chance.
Of course, he needed to come up with something to actually keep the guards from investigating him, but all he had was a knife that healed him. Sure he could fight them here and now, but it would only call down the rest of the guards onto him, and he didn’t like his chances in that fight, even with a magical knife.
Was there a limit to the healing? Would it make him invincible as long as there was someone to stab?
He shoved the thoughts aside. He needed to get in, not think about whatever this thing was.
“Check the roof,” one of the guards said. “It’s bad enough two ponies got through already.”
Marble leaped down to the ground behind the building and dived for the floor. He needed to be quick to make this work.
He dropped and began moving around the building. He checked the corner. One of the guards stared at the door. The other flew up to the top of the building and began to search around the edges. He needed to come up with something to do.
He reached into his saddlebag for something and found only a few coconut canteens and a rope.
He pulled one of the canteens and hefted it before he threw it over the edge.
It cracked loudly, and both guards turned to the sound. Marble used this as his chance. He doubled back, heading to the opposite side of the building, and looked over the edge as he listened to the pair of guards.
“What was that?” the earth pony of the two asked.
“I have no idea,” said the pegasus, as he dropped beside the other pony and stared over the edge of the temple. “It sounded like bone snapping.”
“It sounded like bare bone snapping,” the earth pony said. “Did someone drop a skull from the sky or something?”
Marble took his chance and slipped through, hearing the pegasus say, “I’ll check it out. You stick by the door.”
Marble didn’t even slow as he hit the long staircase down. He needed to move quickly. He needed to get Celestia and the cloak out of here before Dusk had a chance to start a hurricane that could end the world.
He dropped back down into the labyrinthine levels and began to follow the path his escort led him through before realizing that he’d have to travel through a room filled with ponies.
The pegasus paused for a moment in the hallway and then realized that he might need to go around the room, but that would take time that he might not have, and even then, it wouldn’t guarantee that he’d actually find a way around the room filled with ponies.
Then again, running in the middle of what may as well be a barracks was probably worse.
Or…
Or he could let the temple do the work for him.
None of these ponies knew how to spot the traps as he did. He could lead them through one room and probably cut the number of his pursuers in half.
There’d be a lot of dead ponies left in his wake if he did so.
Sunny once told him that he saved a life once, and there was no evil in that.
He straightened his back and ducked into a room filled with neon flags. All to save a life.
---☼---
Celestia whispered to a few of the ponies around her. “Of course you’re innocent,” she said, “after all, you’re all trapped her like I am. If you even think about leaving, Dusk has the mandrill come after you. You couldn’t possibly be expected to throw your lives away. Of course, I can’t guarantee that you’re going to be safe if you don’t show me that you’re willing to get out.”
The seven ponies around her nodded and shuffled on their hooves.
“How do we do that?” One of the ponies, Aqua Berry, the leader among them, asked.
“Well, if you can get me out of the cage, I can deal with the mandrill. After that, we can work on getting the rest of you out.”
A few of the ponies muttered between themselves while Aqua slowly nodded. “We might be able to do something, but—”
A voice called out from the hallway, and everyone’s eyes glanced over as a voice rang in the room. “Intruder!”
A flood of tougher-looking ponies began to pour into the hall, and Celestia stared at it for a long second. “Marble?” she whispered to herself. He was the only pony for miles that this group, the so-called “Sons of the Storm,” would consider an intruder. By why would he come back?
Inner Sunny felt her heart soar, and Celestia squashed that. She didn’t need to be thinking about such things right now.
Celestia turned to the others. “Quickly, use this as a distraction and—”
“You there!” Dusk yelled from across the room, and the ponies around the cage snapped to attention. “I am not paying you to talk. I want that sphere open.”
They nodded before they turned back to the steel ball that held the cloak, and Aqua whispered. “We’ll work on getting you out, but we need to appear like we’re still working for him if we’re going to live.”
Celestia slowly nodded but stayed silent. She’d have to bide her time.
Yet as she did, all she could think about was Marble.
---☼---
Marble ducked through a hallway and was followed by a herd of ponies chasing him down. His crazy plan to get everyone chasing him worked perfectly, and he ducked into a room where he cleared some of the flags.
He used his wings to fly over a set of hidden pressure plates, dived under an arcane eye, and then jumped back into the air to clear a tripwire.
The first ponies chasing after him stepped onto one of the plates and found himself filled with poison darts.
The rest of the group screeched to a halt. Most of them wound up bumping into each other as they attempted to stop right in front of the traps.
“Stay there,” Marble said, drawing the knife and hoping that he looked intimidating enough to keep them still, “and no one else needs to get hurts.”
A handful of ponies tested the edge of the trapped area, trying to find a safe passage through.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Marble warned. “Those traps will make short work of you.”
A handful still tried to poke their way forward until a pendulum swung down from the ceiling and nearly cut a pony in two.
Marble shook his head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said before he rushed down the next hallway.
He entered another room that he cleared and then flew up and pressed himself up onto the door lintel.
This was the part of his plan that he hated the most. Forcing himself to wait as the ponies in the previous room made their way in. With luck, they’d get through the last room, begin working on this one, and he’d have a chance to double back just in time for them to be working their way through this room.
Staying on the very edge of the lintel stone, maybe half-an-inch wide was proving difficult. His legs began to burn as they held their position for a few seconds that dragged on for several long minutes.
Finally, some ponies began making their way into the room.
“Oh, Luna’s breath,” one of the ponies said. “He cleared the flags in here too.”
“Alright, we work this carefully, just like the other one.”
“Do we have to?” one of the other ponies asked. “What’s wrong with letting the pegasus go? The way down is behind us anyway.”
“And let him do whatever he wants down here?” the first pony asked. “That stallion came in with the Princess and—”
“She’s technically Her Royal Highness the Duchess of—”
“Shut up. The point is, who knows what he’s doing down here! We can’t just let him do what he wants.”
The ponies muttered and began filling the room, checking for traps, and Marble decided to make his move. He dropped, spreading his wings and landing softly on the stones, only for him to come face to face with another black-vested mare.
“He’s coming ba—!”
Marble slammed his hooves into the side of her head, dropping her like a rock before he ran back down the hallway.
“Get him!”
Marble ran, doubling back through the hallways and rushing down the barracks and down the stairs. He dived through the halls and finally burst out through the other side and entered the vault room once more.
Dusk stood in front of the doors, with Zalxayl the mandrill standing just behind her.
“You’re back,” she said. “I’m surprised.”
“I’m not going to let you kill Celestia,” he said.
Dusk sighed. “Apparently, I can not only trust my employees to fail at killing someone, but I can’t trust them to keep their mouths shut either. Zalxayl, when you’re done with him, make sure to purge the ponies that failed me.”
“Of course, Lady Dusk,” the mandrill replied. “I shall deal with them presently.”
“No, no, I don’t think you will,” another voice said, and everyone turned to see Celestia walking out of the cage, which now hung open.
“How did you get out?” Dusk demanded.
“I didn’t rule Equestria for a few thousand years without learning a few things,” she said before glancing at Marble for a moment before looking away.
Dusk growled. “Zalxayl, take care of the Princess. I’ll deal with the pegasus.”
The mandrill nodded and turned to Celestia.
The alicorn stepped forward, and her horn lit up. The mandrill charged her before Zalxayl slowed in the air. In fact, he began to spin as he slowly lifted up a foot off the ground. “If you think he’s going to be enough for me, then I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” Celestia said before she casually tossed the mandrill to the side.
He slammed into the wall hard before Celestia tossed him again.
As he flew across the room, though, the mandrill grabbed a nearby stone and adjusted his trajectory. He spun in the air, flying closer to the cage and slamming into the ground beside it.
Celestia turned, but even Marble knew that she couldn’t use her magic to get at the monkey as long as he was in the range of the thronestone.
Then mandrill stood up and grabbed some of the bars of the cage, snapped them off, and held them in his hands like a pair of makeshift daggers.
Celestia sighed.
Marble ground his teeth and pulled out the dagger before he slipped up next to the alicorn. “Do you think you’ll need help?” he asked.
Celestia waited a moment before responding. “I’d appreciate it.”
He nodded, and they stood together to deal with the monster.
Only for a body to slam into him.
“How dare you ignore me!” Dusk roared. “Do you think I can do nothing?” she asked as her wing spread, revealing a knife-edge in her feathers, along with the sky-blue of the coatl feather, which she drew and held in her teeth. “I won’t let you ignore me.”
Marble turned to face her and growled, keeping his dagger out in front of him. He’d have to help Celestia later. For now, he had to deal with a maniac.