//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Locked Up // Story: The Ghost of Chicken Scootaloo // by Betty_Starlight //------------------------------// Sunny read the manifesto very carefully, as she sat there on the floor on her haunches, while Izzy used her magic to manipulate a green tennis ball in the air as she stared at it floating there, around in circles at first, and then, she started to move it back and forth, side to side, as Sunny eyed the ancient words with diligence… Sunny finally raises her head to speak, “Huh? Well, it says here that cutie marks lead to specialdifferences between ponies, and that these differences only cause problems. The truth is, we can only be actually happy and have true friendship if we’re all equal?” Izzy watched the tennis ball floating in the air while she manipulated it with her magic as she mumbled, “Oh? That’s nice!” Sunny looks back down at the book before her, “Yeah, but here’s the weird thing! It never mentions curse marks, and so I guess Augusta just added that part?” Izzy smiles while continuing to stare up at the ball, floating diagonally now and says, “Oh! Like she wanted to get in on it and made some adjustments of her own, to the philosophy! Yeah! Makes sense!” while never taking her eyes off the ball… Sunny stares forward with wide eyes, “Wow! Uh, yeah, Izzy! That’s probably what happened!” Izzy starts to move the ball up and down while her eyes continue to follow it, “Right! So, all we gotta do is just wait for Scootaloo to get back and she can help us escape!” Sunny nods, “Well, right! She knows where our room is, and she’ll eventually wonder why we never came out! Good thinking Izzy! Uh, how exactly can she help us escape?” Izzy throws her forehooves up to her sides while moving the ball in a vertical circle, “I have no idea!” and then, lowering them back to her sides, all the while continuing to stare at the tennis ball. Sunny narrows her eyes and groans, “UGH! This is so frustrating! If only we had some way of talking to other ponies outside of this room!” Izzy starts moving the ball in horizontal circles and spinning it as fast as her magic can make it, so it forms a shaped blur of sorts in the air, “Yeah! Like an intercom system so our Dark Master can talk to her new recruits and see how they’re doing!” “Izzy, uhh…” Izzy nods her head and continues, “Right! And whenever it’s not being used for communication, it could play funky brainwashing recordings and stuff like that!” Sunny snaps the unicorn back to reality, “Izzy! Don’t give them any ideas!” Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door when it opens to reveal a smiling orange earth mare with freckles and a reddish mane and tail with two burly earth stallions on either side, the one to the left is green with a black mane and the one to the right is red with a tan mane. She cheerfully raises her chin to speak, “Hello, you two! Sorry for locking you in like that, but we need to be safe and to protect you!” Izzy starts to slow the ball down as she begins to move it in a more vertical circle and smiles as she exclaims, “Oh, thanks so much for protecting us mayor!” Sunny is now gazing her head turned right with her wide green eyes as she inquisitively asks, “Protect us? Protect us from what?” “Why, the Evil Pony, of course!” Sunny frowns, “Evil Pony?” Augusta nods her head, “Mhm! I read about him in another ancient manuscript! His name used to be Stygius before his hatred overtook him and then he became a pony of shadows! We just call him the Evil Pony and know not to be out during certain times!” “Uh, what happens during those times?” “The Evil Pony will lurk our very city streets, hunting for prey to transform into a pony of shadows, like him!” Izzy quickly floats her ball down to the floor and turns her head turned left at the mayor and frowns, “Oh? Well, what would be so bad about that?” Sunny widens her eyes as she turns her head slightly to the right towards the unicorn, “Izzy!” Izzy blinks, “No, I mean, just think about it! You’d get to be a Pony of Shadows and could probably do neat stuff, like go through walls, invade ponies’ dreams, and shapeshift! I’m not sure how that would be bad exactly?” Augusta frowns at the unicorn, “Well, I can assure you that it would be very bad!” she smiles again, “Now, we’ll just lock you back up here to keep you safe! We wouldn’t want him to catch you!” The door abruptly shuts after she raises her right hoof to the edge, and both ponies soon hear the telltale click of the lock from the outside. Izzy sighs and says, “I’m so glad she’s protecting us!” Sunny lowly says, “You know there’s no Evil Pony, right?” Izzy giggles slightly, “Well, duh! He only comes out every 666th full moon to feast upon the flesh of the living! But not a moment sooner!” Sunny widens her eyes, “What?” “What?” Sunny lowers her brows, “Izzy, stop it! We need a plan to get out of here!” Izzy turns her head to face forward, towards her side of the room when she says, “Scoots! She’s gone! You can come out now!” Scootaloo suddenly materializes right in front of Sunny, startling the young alicorn, “ACK!” and causing her to jolt back and knocking Izzy forward somewhat as the unicorn giggles. She widens her eyes and says to the orange mare while smiling, “Hiya Sunny! There’re freedom fighters in the next building! You’re gonna be okay!” Sunny narrows her eyes and mutters to herself, “One more! Just one more surprise today, and OH! They’ll be sorry!” Scootaloo leans forward as she asks inquisitively, “Uh, what was that Sunny?” Sunny looks up at Scootaloo, “Uh, nothing! Anyway, what’s this about freedom fighters?” Scootaloo nods her head, “Uh, right! Izzy!” Izzy remains silent and motionless as she stares at the wall in a sort of trance. Scootaloo repeats herself, “Izzy!” Izzy says robotically, “There’s a loose slat on that wall there. Inside is something that will help us escape!” Scootaloo stands there on her hooves, wide-eyed and stunned, “H-how did you know?” Izzy smiles, “Well, if you look at the gaps between the wooden slats, they’re all spaced the same distance apart, except, “she points at one slat with her right forehoof, “that one right there!” she frowns, “The only real problem is, we need something to wedge it apart, so the slat moves out of our way!” Sunny stares ahead blankly, “Like the doorstopper that’s sitting on the far corner from me?” Izzy normalizes her mouth while continuing to speak mechanically, “Yeah! That would probably work! We should at least give that a shot, I would think?” “Well, right! So, we’re going to give that a try!” Izzy nods her head, “Indeed! We’re going to try to push the slat off the wall using the doorstopper!” “Right!” Sunny nods, “So, you’ll do it?” Izzy blinks, “Well, you also have magic, Miss Alicorn! I mean, you could try, if you want?” Sunny then gives a small smile of frustration as she calmly says, “Izzy! Would you please try to use the doorstopper to force the slat off the wall, so we can see what’s inside?” Izzy widens her eyes, “Oh! Well, why didn’t you just say so?” before getting to her hooves and turning her body right to turn her head further that way and force the dark gray wedge-shaped door stopper there to glow blue and float across the room, right to left of Izzy. Izzy turns her body left to stare at the wall there and she squints her eyes as she forces the door stopper to go end first on its side, into the slightly wider crack between two slats, and then, she starts moving the glowing stopper left and right to see if either slat will move. Soon, the slat to the left starts to give way and open out before falling to the floor with a loud clack. Izzy looks up at her handiwork, “Got it!” Sunny is staring at the open hole from behind Izzy when she says, “Well, what’s in there?” Izzy stares wide-eyed, “I don’t know? I can’t really see from this distance! Uh, let me walk to it and find out!” before trotting that direction as her fluffy mane moves back and forth with her body. She leans her face close to the hole and sees the other building across the street from the house when suddenly a familiar violet eye stares back at her while the owner says calmly to her, “This is Snow! Uh, remember how we met the other day?” Izzy widens her eyes, “Oh, hi Snow! I always wanted to know! Why aren’t you named Snowy?” The purple eye enlarges itself, “W-what?” Izzy raises her head, “Well, I was thinking about it and your sisters' names are Cloudy, Stormy, and Rainy! Why doesn’t your name also end with a y? And also, shouldn’t there be another weather sister named Sunny?” “I’m Sunny!” Says the orange alicorn behind her as she ruffles her wings, “And who are you talking to?” Izzy turns her head to the right to talk to Sunny as she smiles, “Oh, it’s Snow from the Weather Sisters! She’s about to blast open the wall of this house and we really need to stand on the other side of the room now, so we don’t get hurt!” The purple eye is super wide as the voice from outside asks, “H-how did you know?” Izzy stares back, “Simple, Snow Sama! You see, if you intended to rescue us covertly, there would be no reason to speak with us first! However, since you are talking to me now, that must mean you need to tell us something. Now since you’re revolutionaries, that would imply that you need to make a statement or a point.” She smiles, “You gotta admit, explosives would be a loud and expressive way to do that!” The purple eye moves left and right as Snow shakes her head outside, “Right! Well, listen Izzy! I’m going to set the timer for two minutes! You and Sunny need to be on the other side of the room, with your ears down to your heads and your eyes closed, so you don’t get hurt when the bomb goes off. After it blasts, you two need to high-tail it east to our campsite in the forest that way! We have a lookout to signal you out there, already, so if you just run out that way, she’ll see you coming!” She narrows her eyes, “We have plans, but we need you two to pull it off!” Izzy nods, “Of course, Snow Sama! Otherwise, you’d have no reason to rescue us!” Sunny is now standing to the right of Scootaloo near the opposite wall with her body turned Izzy’s direction as she says, “Izzy, we need to talk to you about breaking the fourth wall later, but right now, you need to be on this side of the room!” Izzy widens her eyes, “Oh, right! There’s a big bomb on this end!” before turning her body and trotting over next to Sunny while playfully giggling to herself. They both hear Snow on the other side of the wall, “Okay, two minutes girls! Close your ears and eyes so you don’t get hurt! Then, run as fast as you can to the east!” Izzy exclaims, “Right!” as Sunny already cowers low to the other direction, with her wings covering up her back and her ears closed on her head while Scootaloo simply disappears through the wall there. Izzy crouches next to Sunny and brings her own ears in and closes her eyes while happily singing, “Waiting for the bomb to go off! Not much longer now! It’s gonna make a big boom! We need to start running after the big kapow! Yay!” Sunny can only crouch there with her eyes closed as she tries not to giggle at the absurd lyrics she can barely hear through her overlapped ears. Suddenly, both ponies begin to hear a louder and more reverberating tick tick tick, noise, while they wait for what will happen next… (To be continued…)