//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Busted // Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning // by Dianabel //------------------------------// “Are you done yet?” Fizzy swung her head from the upper bunk bed. “Not yet.” Buttons replied focused on sewing. “Ok.” Fizzy swung back to her bed. A few seconds later Fizzy asked again. “Are you done yet?” “Not yeeet.” Buttons answered a bit more frustrated. “Alrighty!” But once again, in a matter of seconds, Fizzy came back with her question. “Are you done-” But this time she didn´t finish her question, as Buttons stared angrily at her. “What?” “Will you stop asking? Asking won´t make the job faster. A good result requires patience and not rushing. As they say here, haste makes waste.” Fizzy laughed both excited and apologetically. “Sorry, it´s just I can´t wait to see Gusty´s face when she sees her thanks gift. Is there any way I can help, though?” “By staying quiet and keeping the secret.” Fizzy took a few moments to process Buttons´ words. “Oooh! Right, you mean because of the big emperor´s secret that only Gusty knows!” Quickly, Buttons covered her mouth and shushed her. She looked around, making sure nopony heard about them. As nopony appeared to have noticed, she sighed in relief. “What did I just say?!” Fizzy giggled in embarrassment. “Be careful.” she scolded Fizzy in whispers. “The walls have ears. We could get in deep trouble if they knew that we know more than we should.” “Of course. Sorry.” she apologized. “But now that you say that, what are we going to do with you know who? After what happened I´m pretty sure he´s going to be after our backs too. Buttons stopped sewing. “Oh, you´re right.” she put her hoof on her temple. “I guess the only thing we can do is acting normal. And maybe not interact with Gusty as much.” “But we are friends! She herself said it.” “Of course! And we´ll still be friends. Just that we´ll not interact until nopony is around. But don´t worry, we´ll suggest this to her and I´m pretty sure that she´ll agree. And hopefully, she tells us the whole story.” Buttons smirked “I hope so. I´m dying to know!” “Just one more…” Buttons thought aloud as she did her last stitch. She did a knot to close the stitches and cut the surplus thread. “Done! How does it look like?” she showed her work to Fizzy. “Amazing! I´m pretty sure Gusty will appreciate it.” Buttons chuckled. “I know.” Suddenly, they heard the door opening. Everypony turned their heads and watched how guard thrusted Gusty into the room. The unicorn whimpered as she hit the floor. “Unicorn vermin.” he called her before spitting at her. “Oh yeah? Well, you blind follower.” she clapped back once he left. Then, she noticed every unicorn looking at her. “What are you looking at?” she asked aggressively. After she said that, all the unicorns looked away and pretended to be doing something else. Normally, she would have just blushed but spending entire days locked with almost no food or water exhausted her completely. She sighed. “Gusty!” Gusty´s ears perked up. She noticed Buttons and Fizzy running to her. Her grumpy mood changed to one of surprise. “Oh! Uh… Hi girls. It´s been days, hasn´t it?” she laughed nervously, since she didn´t really know what to say. “How have you been?” “No. How have you been?” Buttons asked back as she and Fizzy helped her up. “You´re the one who´s been in a dungeon not us! Have they whipped your back?” she asked concerned as she looked at her back. “No. They didn´t do anything to me. Just starve me.” “I´m so glad you´re ok!” Fizzy gave her a huge hug. Gusty widened her eyes in surprise. This was the first time in years that a pony who wasn´t her daughters gave her a hug. It felt good but it also felt bad, as she had something to say that wasn´t going to be pretty for none of them, including herself. “Look Fizzy.” she said as she gently undid her hug. “I appreciate your hug but I-” “Oh right! How silly of me. Buttons said that you´re not a touchy pony. Sorry.” “It´s ok. It´s just it took me by surprise, but there´s-” Fizzy gasped. “Talking about surprises, we have one for you!” “You do?” “Yes, come on!” Fizzy exclaimed as she took Gusty´s hooves and took her to Button´s bunk bed. “Don´t forget to have her eyes closed.” Buttons reminded Fizzy by whispering it in her ear. “Oh sure! Do you mind closing your eyes for a few seconds?” Gusty was going to object but seeing how excited Fizzy was, she decided to wait a little until telling them. “Ok.” she smiled lightly. Once Gusty´s eyes were closed, Fizzy nodded at Buttons and she went to take the surprise. Once she was back. “Allez.” she whispered at her. Fizzy giggled. “Vale.” she replied back. “Ok you can now!” Gusty opened her eyes and gasped. Her mother´s dress, which was torn and ruined due to the garden incident was fixed and almost looked like new but still with the same style She covered her mouth with her hooves, almost in tears. “When we first met, I noticed that your dress was torn and I assumed that you didn´t have much, just like the rest of us. And after what you did for us, we thought that we had to repay you somehow. So I remembered your dress and I asked Buttons if she could fix it.” Fizzy explained as Gusty took her dress. “And of course, I said yes.” Buttons followed Fizzy´s explanation. Gusty stroked the dress softly, with a small, nostalgic smile on her face. Then, she looked at Buttons and Fizzy. She was about to thank them but suddenly remembered what she had to tell them. Her smile vanished and looked down. The two noticed that sudden change in her mood. “Oh, you don´t like it?” Fizzy asked a bit disappointed. “I could make it again if you want to.” Buttons suggested. “In that way you can tell me the way you want it.” “No, it´s not that. It´s really beautiful and perfect the way you made it. And I´m really grateful that you fixed it. It´s not about the dress.” “Then what is it about?” Fizzy asked. “You know that Bray´s always after me. Both he and Grogar have their eye on me and are willing to do anything to me if they want to. I wouldn´t want the same to happen to you. So it´s better if we take distance.” “Of course! I was going to suggest you to interact less when working and for meals. But at night, when nopony else is watching, is a different story!” “Even at night, it´s better if we don´t talk at each other at all.” Buttons´ and Fizzy´s ears dropped. “Wait. What?” Buttons asked. “It´s not that I don´t like you but… the only thing that you get by being around me is trouble.” “That´s not true! We promise that none of us will get in trouble. We´re very good at keeping secrets, so yours is safe with us.” Fizzy said. Buttons glared at her. “What secret?” Gusty said both scared and mad. Buttons looked around before replying Gusty. “I know this sounds crazy, but after seeing Bray´s behaviour with you during the incident, we think that you´re involved in something that the emperor doesn´t want us to know.” Gusty widened her eyes. They had found out! What was she going to do now? The only thing that came to her mind was denying it. “What?” she scoffed as she smiled nervously. “That´s ridiculous! How am I going to be part of something that the emperor is hiding?.” “It´s ok if you are.” Buttons told her. “We´re not going to tell anypony. And you don´t have to tell us what it is if you don´t want.” “Seriously, I´m not. Stop saying I am!” Gusty said upset. “Then we can still be friends, right?” Fizzy asked excited. “No we can´t!” The two mares widened their eyes at those words. “But why?” “Because we weren´t friends in the first place.” That answer left Buttons and Fizzy with their mouths wide open. “But you said that when you were defending us!” Fizzy insisted. “If that isn´t true, why did you say that?” “I-” Gusty sighed defeated. “We´ve known each other for a few days. You can´t be calling me friend already.” “Yes I can!” she replied angrily. “Our souls connected. I felt it!” “I´m sorry. But you´re wrong.” Gusty replied bluntly. “You can´t be everypony´s friend. Accept that. It will bring you less pain in the future.” From the tone she was using, Buttons could tell that Gusty was also hurt by her own words. “Gusty, please. Don´t push us away. And I´m not saying this for us, we´re saying this for your own good.” “I´m not pushing you away.” “Yes, you are!” Fizzy answered back. “You´re basically sending us mixed signs all the time! You like being with us, you call us your friends but then you try to avoid us.” Gusty wanted to replicate but she didn´t know what to say. “Look. Let´s just.” she sighed frustrated. “I need a walk.” she said as she walked to the door. “You can´t walk on the castle at this time. You´ve literally been in a dungeon for days! Do you want to go through that again? Or through worse?” Buttons asked her. “Leave me alone please.” “You´re being impulsive.” “I said I wanted to be alone.” Gusty said more firmly. “Gusty please.” Fizzy begged her. “We´re worried about you.” “Then don´t be. I don´t care so much about me.” “Because that´s what friends do.” “I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND!” Gusty screamed as she smacked her hooves on the floor. Accidentally, she left out a huge gust of wind that made Fizzy and Buttons fall on her backs, as well as the ponies that were sitting on the lower bunk beds, as they fell on domino effect. Had it not been that they held on to the bed´s bars, the ponies on the upper beds would have fallen too. She covered her mouth when she realized what she had done. Everypony looked at her, either scared or confused. She hyperventilated as her eyes met with theirs. Wind started forming around her when she, Buttons and Fizzy stared at each other. “OI!” Gusty froze when she heard Bray´s voice. Just the moment she least needed it, he appeared at the door along some troggles. “Could one of you explain whaaat happened?” his tone quickly changed from angry to one of surprise and shoch when he saw the mess. He glanced around to look for the responsible. And unsurprisingly, everything seemed to indicate that Gusty was guilty. Noticing their stares, she laughed nervously. “Surpriise.” “You. Of course you! Tell me you just did not commit the maximum offense!” “Which is…” “Using magic!” “I did not use magic I swear!” “Then how do you explain this?” he pointed at behind her. Realizing that she could not lie any longer, Gusty decided to speak for herself. “I can explain.” “Oh, you will, trust me. Guards! Take her! I need to talk to her.” Without thinking it, Gusty kicked a guard on his stomach once she felt his touch upon her. She rushed out the room. “Don´t let her escape!” he ordered the guards as they stood up. “As for you, none of you gets out of here, understood?” Every unicorn nodded scared. Bray closed the door on a blow and locked it before joining Gusty´s chase. As soon as he was gone, they talked among themselves, trying to find an explanation of what happened and wondering what was next. Naturally, the one who were the most worried were Fizzy and Buttons. “What is going to happen to her now?” Fizzy asked Buttons. The unicorn shook her head, trying to process the incident. “I. I don´t know.” she replied as scared as her friend. However, there was also another group of ponies who also had a reason to be worried. “Wasn´t she the new recruit, Glory?” Glory nodded her head. “I think so.” “Did you finally talk to her again?” “Naw. I haven´t had the chance. I was going to a few days ago but she was punished in the dungeons.” A unicorn gasped. “Do you think she got discovered?” “Naw. If she did, I´m pretty sure she wouldn´t be alive. And Grogar would be interrogating all of us.” “What do we do? Should we help her?” Glory looked on the floor, as she was unsure of what to answer. Gusty ran through the corridors, looking for a corner free of guards. Hiding was getting harder and harder, as the more she ran the more guards Bray recruited in the chase. There came a moment where her way was blocked by the guards from the other side of the corridor. Gusty walked back until she felt the point of the spear on her back. “Leave us alone.” Bray ordered them. “It will just be a few moments.” The guards nodded. Gusty looked terrified at Bray who dragged her to a corner where the two of them could be alone, which surprised her, as she was a hundred percent convinced that he was taking her to Grogar. “I know that you´re quite a stubborn, argumentative and rebellious pony. But to the point of using magic? Are you seriously that reckless?” “Wait. You´re giving me the chance to explain myself?” He nodded. “If you ask me why, I´ll take you to the emperor.” Gusty nodded. “My magic is connected to my emotions, which gives me lots of trouble to control it. I was feeling very overwhelmed, and it went away.” “Why were you feeling overwhelmed?” “You ask me why? You, who put me in a dungeon with almost no water or food and took the chance of seeing my daughters for no reason?” “For no reason? It was for your rebellious behaviour!” “I was just defending a unicorn whose leg was hurt and you wanted to make her walk.” “I was just doing my job.” “Your job is to watch over everything not mistreat ponies.” “I´m sorry, but that´s part of my job. Whether you like it or not.” Gusty scoffed. “Do you ever not feel remorse?” “Please, I just insult you and that´s it. It´s not that bad.” “Alright, that might be true. But wiping out an entire species of ponies isn´t that bad?!” Bray widened his eyes. He looked away and sighed. “I did not take part on it. I don´t know why you frame me for it.” “Because I know that you´re going to say that what he did was justified and that it was for the sake of earth ponies and unicorns, but you can´t lie to me. What he did was wrong, and you know it! I don´t understand why you´re his complicit.” “His most loyal servant not complicit. I am helping to maintain the greatest empire ever.” he defended but Gusty did not listen. “Oh wait, I think know why you always follow Grogar without hesitation. Because you´re afraid of him.” Bray gasped. Then, he scowled, which scared Gusty as this was the angriest she had ever seen him. “How dare you? How dare you?!” he yelled at her “I am not Grogar´s puppet, or blind follower, or complicit, or whatever you want to call it. I´m his right hoof donkey! Grogar gave me that position because he saw the potential in me! I´m the only one who he sees as his equal.” “You and I both know that´s not true.” “Silence!” he exclaimed as he grabbed Gusty´s foreleg. “I can´t believe that I was going to give you a chance because you felt pity for me. I don´t need your pity! You hear me?! Guards!” “Sir?” the troggles raise their hands to their forehead. “Bring her to the emperor!” he ordered as he dragged her to the guards. Gusty gasped horrified. She couldn´t escape by kicking the guards like she did before, there were too many. The only way of getting out was by trespassing Bray. But how? She looked at her horn, which gave her an idea. It was something that she had never tried before but she had no other choice. She breathed out while closing her eyes and ignited her horn. Suddenly, a bright yellow aura appeared around Bray and made him float. “What the? What are you doing?! Let go of me!” he ordered her. As Bray complained, Gusty moved him towards her and the guards, though she struggled a lot, as this was the heaviest burden she had ever lifted. Sometimes her magic went out but she caught him on time. “Do something!” he ordered the troggles. “What do we exactly do, sir?” “I don´t know! Put her an anti magic ring or cut her horn, I don´t care!” Just when he was beneath all of them, Gusty dropped him, making fall on the guards. “OUCH!” they all yelled. Now that she was free, Gusty ran away. “What are you doing you idiots? We need to get her!” Bray ordered them at first, but then started complaining in pain. “Sir, I think I broke some bones.” a troggle complained. “Urgh, me too.” another troggle. “Unfortunately, I´m in the same situation as all of you.” Bray lamented. “But I´m afraid we´ll have to get up fast!” “Fast? With our broken bones?” a troggle asked fearful. “Ok, slowly but fast. Is that better?” All the troggles agreed. “I hope Grogar doesn´t find out about this.” Bray muttered to himself. Once she was far away enough from Bray and the guards, Gusty hid behind a corner. She panted heavily. “I can´t go on like this. If I do, sooner or later, they´ll find me.” she thought aloud as she looked back. “I need to hide somewhere! But where?” She looked around. She noticed several doors but all of them were closed, probably locked up. All but two big gates. Gusty remembered Bray´s tour and figured out that those gates were the library, one of the forbidden rooms of the castle. “You´ve gotta be kidding me.” she said to herself. But at this point, Gusty had broken so many rules that it wasn´t worth doubting about going into the library. So, with the least noise as possible, Gusty walked and gently pushed the door to enter. Gusty was left in awe. It was full of huge bookshelves with thousands of archives, there were also statues made of marble and also many stares. This was such an easy way to collect so much information for Majesty. Maybe she could find in there the reason why Grogar ordered to kill the pegasi. She walked to a bookshelf too see what kind of books or archives were in there. They were mostly subject books, such as history, science, especially books about magic. However, she remembered the reason why she was there when she heard hoof steps. She gasped softly. She breathed slowly to calm herself down and think on how to get out of the library. Luckily, she noticed a sliding door. She walked to it and slowly opened it. It led to some stairs. She wasn´t sure if those stairs led to a safe place to hide in but it was better than nothing. So, after closing the door she went upstairs. Unfortunately, Gusty didn´t notice something very important. Those hoof steps that she heard before didn´t come from any guard or Bray. They came from Grogar himself. Just when she went in, Grogar was reading something. He had heard her enter and walked towards her direction, which is the reason why he gave those hoof steps. And worst of all, he saw her going up those stairs. “You´ve practically revealed yourself, mare.” he chuckled evilly. After some time of going up stairs, Gusty finally opened a door. With just a few glance, Gusty realized where she had ended up. There was a desk, many papers, and bookshelves with books and archives. This could be none other than Grogar´s study! The place where she could find better information for Majesty, as Gusty thought that would be the place where he made his strategic plans. And if that were the case, hopefully she could find the reason behind the pegasi massacre. “I can´t believe I´m doing this.” she said before gulping. Then, she took a deep breath in and out, frowned determined and finally entered. She walked to the desk, giving a glance on the many papers. “Let´s see, this is a map.” she set aside the other papers. Perhaps of the territories he plans to reconquer, which is in Majesty´s interests.” She took other papers and read them one at a time. Many of them had pictures of a strange object. “What is this? A weapon? Maybe this could be important for Majesty. What else do we have here?” She found a paper with a picture of what resembled a pegasus wing. She gasped. “There it is!” she exclaimed as she took the paper. Although she didn´t read much, she knew some of the basics, like everypony else. Reading aloud always helped her. So, that´s what she did. “You, who were destined to be leader turned out to be a tyrant with no love nor compassion in his heart. Should you follow this path and you will be defeated by a Wind Warrior.” she looked up in thought. “Is this some kind of a prophecy? If so, who predicted it? And was a pegasus destined to be that Wind Warrior?” Suddenly, she noticed a chest with a key. Gusty walked to it, moved the key and opened it. What she saw was the same object she saw on those papers. But looking it in flesh, it was easier to deduce which object was. “It´s his bell!” she exclaimed. All the stories she heard since she was a filly mentioned Grogar wearing a powerful bell on his collar. It was said to be a diabolical object of suffering, torture, destruction yet also of creation, but whatever could come from that bell, it was definitely not good. However, whenever she and Grogar spoke, he was never wearing a bell. But after seeing that he kept it under lock and key, Gusty deduced it was because that´s what he most valued. Not his empire, not his position, but his bell. It could even be the reason why he´s emperor! “What do you have that everypony fears and the emperor appreciates so much?” she asked the bell. Suddenly, the bell started to flicker, which confused her. “Why is it flickering?” she wondered aloud. “Do you want to find out why?” a deep voice asked. Gusty froze when she heard the voice. Slowly, she turned around and saw Grogar´s angry smirk when the bell´s light showed his face. If not, Gusty would only see his eyes shining in the dark. “There´s your answer.” he cruelly replied.