I'll Do Anything for You

by The Abyss


Prison

One Day Ago...

With snow falling all around him, Brick Lump lay flat upon his cloud, his back partially covered by a growing fluff of snow. The tips of his extremities started to feel numb about an hour ago, especially the tips of his wings, though he patiently waited for his chance to see his wife. His eyes locked on the pair of guards flying their rounds around the dungeons outside on the cliff face. When he’d gotten back to Cloudsdale, their friends had told him how his wife had been the target of a ponyhunt and that she’d been captured by Celestia’s forces and brought to Canterlot for imprisonment.

He’d figured that the only place he’d find his wife would be in Canterlot’s most secure prison, and his assumption had been correct for he had noticed his wife’s mane color through a set of bars set into the side of the mountain. Once he was fairly certain that he’d have roughly four and a half minutes in between patrols, he waited until the two guards flew out of the sight then whipped the snow off his back, shaking himself like a wet dog ridding itself of water.

With a powerful flap of his wings, he darted forward, using the snow and the last few clouds around him for cover. Staying as quiet as he could, he slowed to a hover as he approached his wife’s prison bars, then gently wrapped his hooves around them. He folded his wings and let his forelegs take his weight then cleared his throat. “Hey honey,” he said with a smirk. “Enjoying the five-star accommodations?” he asked, looking around her rather dismal room. It was mostly bare, save for a thin mattress on top of a cot with a blanket. A large wooden door clad with metal with a small barred window stood at the other end of the cell.

“Honey?” he whispered. When she didn’t move, he rolled his eyes, let go of the bars, used his wings to hold himself up, then tapped on the cold steel bar as hard as he dared. Though while he was afraid that the noise would alert other guards to his presence, it was a risk that he had to take. 

Tranquil woke up with a start. She looked around the dark cell until she found the source of the noise that had woken her. “O-Oh!” She whipped the blanket off of her and scrambled out of bed, nearly tripping on the blanket as she made it to the window. “I knew you’d come to rescue me!”

“That’s the plan!” he said with a confident grin. A small part of him had a feeling that it wouldn’t be so easy, but he surely wasn’t going to not give it a go. Planting his back hooves against the side of the mountain, he wrapped his forelegs around two of the three bars, steadied himself, then flapped as hard as he could while pulling on the bars with all his might. After several seconds, he stopped, panting heavily. He locked eyes with his wife and noticed a mixture of anger and sadness building up inside of her. “Maybe this would work better if you helped,” he cautiously ventured, hoping it wouldn’t set her off. 

Tranquil relaxed a little bit. “Oh, right. Good idea. You grab them up top and I’ll grab them on the bottom. Let’s do one at a time instead of two; we’ll be able to put more pressure on them.”

“You always were the smart one.”

“And don’t you ever forget it, my love,” she shot back. “Ready? On three! One... two... three!” 

The bars didn’t budge. 

“Gimme a minute; I need to rest,” Brick said, once again hanging off of the prison bars. Sweat grew on his brow and neck and his wings felt sore from the exertion of trying to move an immovable object. 

“We don’t have time to rest!” Tranquil hissed. “You need to get me out of here; I can’t stand being locked away like some criminal!”

“Well, we wouldn’t be in this situation if you didn’t get caught!” Brick snarled back. “How did you even get caught again? You were hiding on top of a cloud? Why didn’t you just fly away and hide somewhere on the ground?”

“I was scared, okay? I thought I’d get caught if I made a run for it because they had ponies patrolling the skies looking for any pony looking like me within a five mile radius of Cloudsdale. They stopped two other ponies flying around because we shared the same coat color before they found me. I thought my only option was to hide in a cloud.”

“Heard they found your shivering tail sticking out the back of the cloud,” Brick said with a snicker. “You really couldn’t find a bigger cloud to hide in?”

“I couldn’t! I didn’t want to look suspicious! There weren’t that many good clouds out and it was the best one I could find. Not like you could do any better,” she said with a huff. 

“At least I’d be able to hold my tail in!” 

Tranquil simply stared at him. “Whatever. So what are we gonna do about my little situation? These dang bars ain’t budging.”

“I... I don’t know. I think you’re stuck in there for good.”

Tranquil cursed under her breath then started pacing around her cell. “You know whose fault this is, right?” Brick nodded. “She’s the reason why all this bad stuff is happening to us. She doesn’t deserve to live such a great life with a freaking princess while I rot away in this hole and while you’re always looking over your shoulder out there.”

Brick’s eyes widened momentarily. “Oh, you’re talking about... Nevermind. What exactly are you saying?”

“You know exactly what I’m saying. I don’t care how you do it or who does it, but I want her gone. She ruined us. We had a home, a family. Sure, we weren’t the best but we definitely don’t deserve all of this!” Tranquil gestured around her cell. “You agree with me, right?” she tentatively asked, flicking her eyes up to meet his.

“Yeah, I guess...” he said, looking anywhere but at her. 

Tranquil climbed back up and placed her hooves on his. “Look at me,” she said, her voice devoid of emotion. With a blank stare, she waited until his eyes locked with hers. “Promise me you’ll do it,” she said. “And don’t play dumb; you know exactly what I want you to do. Do you really think it’s fair that she lives a life of luxury while I languish away in prison? While you suffer out there without me?”

“No, of course not.” Brick grit his teeth and let his wife’s words steel his heart. He nodded once, his lips firm. “I’ll get it done, my love.” His ears flicked down to lie flat on his head, for while he once held a sliver of affection for his daughter, it no longer existed, replaced by an ever-increasing burning hatred for the loss of his wife’s freedom and their happiness together. Feeling the wind blowing with more strength, he latched onto a small passing cloud and shoved it through the bars. “At least this’ll be more comfortable than that poor excuse for a bed...” he said softly.

“Thank you, my love,” Tranquil said. She pushed her snout through the bars and gently pecked him on the lips, yearning for more than just that simple touch. An overwhelming sense of loneliness crept over her as she knew the time for him to leave had come. “Please come and see me again soon. I hope that you’ll bring back good news.”

“I promise I will, my sweet,” Brick said, letting his hoof rest against his wife’s. He locked eyes with her for a few moments, then flung himself off of the side of the cliff, disappearing into the wintery storm as he flew north.