Clover opened the door and dropped onto her bed. She couldn’t believe she managed to make it out of the dungeons. And yet, here she was, in her room, staring at the ceiling.
Her mind quickly drifted to what she saw that night. Even though she now knew her suspicion about the breakouts were true, her mind wasn’t at ease. The disfigured tissue that was once the wing of a pegasus, the bruises and scars left all over the body of that earth pony… Both continued to plague her thoughts. Whatever the council was doing was pure cruelty. How can anypony do such things?
And what about the door? What or who is behind there? Even the guards didn’t want to stay near it so it must be something beyond what they can handle. But what?
It seemed her adventure into the darkest depths of the castles brought up more questions than it answered. Clover was curious and determined to find all the answers she sought. But as her eyes slowly closed, so did her thoughts.
The next morning Clover woke up to the freezing winds blowing against her face. With a sneeze, she crawled up and opened her eyes. The window was left open. Wrapping her blanket around her, she got out of bed and closed the window with her magic.
Clover put on her trusty brown cloak and got ready to meet her mentor again. She walked up the stairs of the tower, past the library floor and reached the top. Clover knocked on the door and right away, the door opened.
“Good morning, Clover.” Said the great wizard.
“Good morning, master.”
“Come in!” Star Swirl said. “There is something I want to show you.”
Clover stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“Now, watch closely.” Star Swirl closed his eyes, lit his horn and with a flash, he disappeared.
Clover tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Hadn’t she learned invisibility a long time ago? Why was her mentor showing her that spell again? Had he forgo–
Star Swirl came in from the door that Clover had just closed and interrupted her train of thoughts. But then, it was clear to her that it wasn’t the invisibility spell. It was-
“Teleportation?”
“Yes, Clover.”
“So, this was what you were working on the past few days.”
Star Swirl levitated a sheet of paper from his desk and gave it to Clover. “Now, it’s your turn.”
Clover inspected the instructions she was given and nodded. “Where should I try it though?”
“How about… behind the door?” Star Swirl suggested as he closed it.
Without any more words, Clover closed her eyes, concentrating on visualising her destination. Her horn lit up and–
Nothing.
Clover slowly opened her eyes and found herself still in Star Swirl’s room. She took another look at instructions for the spell and tried one more time.
Her eyes closed, her mind concentrated on the room outside once again. “Behind the door. Behind the door.” She told herself as she lit her horn once again.
Nothing.
“It seems like you need to practise a bit, Clover.” Star Swirl put his hoof on her shoulder. “I’m a bit—” Star Swirl yawned. “Tired. We’ll continue tomorrow. Make sure you’ve got the spell down by then.”
Clover put the spell note in her cloak and nodded.
“Oh, before you leave...”
“Yes, master?”
“Do you know where I put the copy of that book you made yesterday?” Star Swirl looked around his bookshelves. “I thought I put it here but I only have one copy. Not two.”
“I- I don’t know, sir.” Clover shook her head.
“Alright. I have nothing else. You can go now.”
Clover closed the door behind her and walked down the stairs, taking out the spell note to study on the way. Visualisation of the destination, concentration and casting the spell. The three steps seemed simple, but for some reason she couldn’t perform it.
At the same time, she still had duties to attend to. Clover put the spell note back in her cloak and opened the front door of the tower. A burst of freezing wind blasted her cloak off of her and let her green mane flow. Clover quickly closed the door. Her body was shaking. After a few seconds, Clover wrapped her cloak around herself tightly and opened the door once again.
Another burst of cold wind greeted her as she stepped outside. It was snowing. In the middle of summer. The roads, houses, and stands were all covered up in snow. Clover couldn’t believe it. What was happening? Once she looked down, she realised her hooves were half way covered up. She had to go back inside and get dressed properly.
Clover put on her boots and headed back out. She trotted to the town and inspected the situation. No, she wasn’t dreaming, everything was covered in snow. And the snowflakes were still falling down. The wind howled and blew Clover’s cloak but she held onto it, determined to keep on moving.
She bypassed the castle gates and quickly ran to the throne room. As she expected, the princess had requested her presence. Clover stepped inside. All five head counsellors were present before the princess' throne.
“Ah, Clover, there you are!” Princess Platinum said, raising her hoof to Clover.
“You wished to see me, your highness.” Clover bowed down to her princess next to the rest of the head counsellors.
“Yes. Surely you have seen the state of the town.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“Alright, how is this happening?” Princess Platinum stomped her hoof to the floor.
“It has to be the pegasi! This is their plan to weaken us!” One of the counsellors shouted.
“Yes, they’ve been spotted in our skies quite frequently in the past weeks,” The bearded, frail counsellor added.
“Then, they must be punished! Your highness, shall we prepare our troops?” The younger, blue counsellor stepped in.
“Wait!” Clover shouted. Everypony turned their heads and looked at her. “A-Are the earth ponies in the same situation?”
All the counsellors exchanged a glance until one of them spoke up. “How are those uncultured swines relevant to the discussion at hoof?”
“It's important. Do we know if they are having the same issue or not?”
The counsellor rolled his eyes. “Judging by what we can see in the sky, and the fact that we still haven’t received our daily products, I’d guess yes.”
“Then it can’t be the pegasi.” Clover shook her head.
The room filled with the chatter of the counsellors as they disregarded what Clover was saying, but then, Crimson Light spoke up. “What are you trying to get at?”
Clover took a deep breath and responded. “Even if the pegasi would think of attacking us in such a manner, they would never harm the earth ponies. A slight change in weather can ruin their crops for months. Something that both our tribe and theirs desperately require.”
The chatters stopped. The head counsellors only exchanged glances, puzzled as to what to say. Clover had a point, and they all realised it.
“Maybe.” Crimson Light looked away. “But what if they are risking it to manage to best us? What if they have been planning this all along, storing their supply and pulling off this maneuver to weaken both tribes?” Crimson Light stood right in front of Clover, staring her straight in the eyes.
“Counsellors.” Princess Platinum shouted, making all the counsellors turn back to face her. “I believe a meeting with the other tribes should be held about our current state in order to reach a conclusion, and this time, I personally want to participate.”
“What?”
“But your highnes—”
“You shouldn’t be dealing with those savages.”
All the counsellors disagreed but Princess Platinum had already decided.
“Enough! Prepare the carriage for the trip. This is an emergency.”
The guards trotted away the second they heard the order.
“But your highness!” The young counsellor jumped in front of Princess Platinum. “It's too dangerous to travel in this weather. Please reconsider.”
“No, I must deal with this myself. In the meantime, the council runs the nation.”
“Be assured, we’ll keep order in your absence.” Crimson Light smiled and bowed down to his princess. And so did the rest of the head counsellors.
After the meeting, the princess dismissed her subjects. Clover wasn’t sure how to feel about the council taking care of the nation, but she didn’t get a say in that decision. Unfortunately, she also didn’t get to address what she had learned last night with the princess, and probably wouldn’t be getting the opportunity to do so for days.
And what about the current situation? If she was right, and the pegasi weren’t responsible, then who or what was? Only pegasi had weather controlling magic. Or did they?
Clover started to wonder whether there were other creatures capable of controlling weather or not, and there was only one place she could find her answer: the castle's library.
The library was massive. Bookshelves stacked on top of each other almost reached the ceiling and clumped together, forming seemingly endless hallways of countless books. From history and magic to astrology and philosophy. One could only wonder where to even begin. And even though Clover was looking for a very specific subject, she didn’t know which aisle she should’ve been looking in for it.
“Maybe magic?” Clover thought to herself. “Maybe there is a certain spell or something of that nature that has caused this.” And so she confidently went through each book, one by one. She read them and put them aside, slowly getting tired and losing her hope in finding an answer. But she kept on going. There had to be something there, she knew it. The castle’s library had the most complete collection.
“Fire spells. Glyph Wards. Nature's Magic.” She looked through the shelves once more until one of the books caught her attention.
“Claws, Bones and monsters: Encyclopedia of magical beasts.” Clover picked up a book and read its cover. Could this have been what she was looking for?
Without any hesitation, Clover opened the book and went through the pages.
“Timber Wolves, no. Ahuizotl? No. That's a jungle guardian. Bugbear. No. Chimera? No.” Clover kept on going. “Draconequus. Huh? A being of pure chaos? This might be it, but there hasn’t been one seen in ages.” She continued. “Kelpie. Grootslang. No, these aren’t what I’m looking for. Windigo?” The drawing of an elegant horse slowly fading through the wind made her curious to read further about the Windigo. “‘A being that feeds off of fighting and hatred. Stomping their hooves into the clouds, they create blizzards. It is said that the more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become.’”
“Ma’am?”
“Ahh!” Clover jumped and dropped the book.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, but you should leave, ma’am.” A guard stood in front of her.
“Why?”
“Council’s order.”
“What's the exact order?”
“Only guards patrolling the castle at night. Nopony else.”
Clover was so focused on reading books after another she didn’t even notice the sun was brought down.
“Oh. I see. I’ll leave now. Let me just grab my stuff.” Clover picked up the book she dropped but before she could leave—
“Hey, did you see anypony there, Armored Hoof?”
That name rang a bell in Clover's mind.
“It’s just the princess’s advisor. She’ll leave right now.”
“Escort them.”
“Look, it's just th-”
“I said, escort them!”
“FINE.” Armored Hoof turned to face Clover again. “Ma’am, I’m go-”
But nopony was there.
The guard stood there, staring at the empty hallway, wondering where the young hooded mare he saw a second ago went.
“What’s taking so long?”
“The-They’re already gone.”
A sigh was heard in the distance. “You can’t do a single thing right, can you? Come here and help me scout the area.”
Armored Hoof rolled his eyes. “Like you know how to do things.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing, sir. I’m coming.” The guard trotted away. And just then, Clover let out her breath. Something was fishy, and she needed to find out what.
Clover silently followed them with a distance, just enough to let her listen to what they were saying.
“Why are we patrolling the library again?”
“It's the head councillor’s order. We must make sure nopony is trespassing in the night.”
“But why the sudden change? Is it because the princess is gone?”
“Maybe, or maybe it's because somepony managed to sneak through the dungeon last night.”
“Wait, h-how did that happen?”
“I don’t know, you tell me, ex-dungeon guard.”
Armored Hoof did not respond to the question.
“Is that also why they sent more of us down there in the dungeon?”
“Probably? I don’t know. Maybe they need to deal with the thing tonight.”
“But didn’t they do that two days ago?”
“I don’t know. You were a dungeon guard. Not me. Now, let's spread out and do one last sweep of the area.”
Clover slowly trotted away upon hearing them coming closer to her. But she didn’t leave the library yet. Knowing now that she might find more answers in the dungeons tonight, she needed to get back down there once again. However, if there were now more guards and the front door was secured, she needed an alternate route to get there.
“Can I teleport there?” She thought to herself. No, she couldn’t even teleport behind a mere door, how was she going to teleport all the way to the dungeon? But she didn’t have any other ideas. Besides, she needed to practice the spell anyway.
Clover closed her eyes and tried to picture her destination, the dungeon. But not much beside bricked walls came to her mind. She cast the spell anyway.
Once she opened her eyes, she found herself on top of the castle’s walls. The spell had worked! Except, she wasn’t where she wanted to be. Perhaps she didn’t picture her destination vividly enough. Once again, Clover closed her eyes. This time she pictured the dungeon with all the guards patrolling the area, and casted the spell.
Clover opened her eyes to enormous windows and a big throne in front of her. She was in the throne room. Many guards stood at ready but nopony had noticed her yet. With a sigh, Clover, cast the spell once again in hopes of getting her to her destination. “The dungeon! I want to be in the dungeon!” She shouted in her own head.
Clover slowly opened one of her eyes and peeked through the room she was in. A silk red carpet rested under her hooves. A table right in front of her with the sigil of the council, a crescent moon inside a sun strapped onto a shield right behind it, hanging from the wall. Various papers and scrolls were left on the table.
Clover stepped closer and inspected the quill. The ink on it was fresh. She quickly looked around to make sure nopony else was in the room. And thankfully, nopony was. But, she guessed somepony either just left the room, or would be back soon. Judging by the decorations, it had to be one of the head counsellors’ offices. That gave her enough reason to get out of there as soon as she could. If anypony saw her there, she would have been in big trouble.
Clover wanted to try the teleportation spell again, but, uncertain of where exactly in the castle she was and perhaps where else the teleportation spell might take her, she decided that it was better to use her hooves this time.
Clover trotted to the door and twisted the handle, but the door didn’t budge. It was locked. Clover tried to unlock it with her magic, but to no avail. “Enchanted lock. Should've guessed.” She muttered to herself.
It seemed she had to try the teleportation spell again, after all.
Clover repeated the steps of the spells to herself once again, closed her eyes, and was about to cast the spell when suddenly, a loud sound of grinding came from behind. She quickly turned back and saw the wall behind the table was split in half and slowly revealing a passage.
Clover held her breath.
Two ponies walked out of the newly opened passage and stepped into the room. Head Counsellor Crimson Light, and young Head Counsellor Phantom Blast.
“It has gotten more aggressive this past week.” Said the blue unicorn. “Can we really tame it in time?”
“We will. Now’s our best chance. We can not miss it.” Crimson Light said as the passage closed behind him.
“I understand, but with each rampage, we have to deal with more outbreaks and it's getting hard to silence the rumours. We were lucky it was only letting out some rage this time.”
“Don’t worry. Now that we are in charge, we can make sure everything is in order for our plan to take its course.” Crimson Light smiled. “Now, let's not waste anymore time, we should head to the meeting, son. We have a nation to run.”
“Yes, father.”
They both trotted to the door and Crimson Light unlocked it. Right after they left, the key locked the room again with a click.
Clover desperately needed to breathe, and they had just left in time.
After catching her breath, she took a second to think about what she just heard. “What were they talking about?”
Her eyes switched to the wall. She got closer and inspected it. There wasn’t a single crack, peephole, or any unnatural placement of the bricks. If she hadn’t just seen the wall open like a maw to reveal a passage, she would have never been able to tell something was off.
“But how does it open? Where does it lead?” Clover pondered as she rubbed her hoof to her chin. Whatever it was, she had to get to the bottom of this.
Taking a step back, her eyes caught sight of the sigil again. A black crescent moon, inside a golden sun, except Clover couldn’t help but be bothered by the fact that the moon was on the left, not the right.
Was that what she was looking for? There was only one way to find out. She used her magic and tried to see if she could rotate the moon to the right. And swiftly, the moon went back to its place. The wall split in half once again, and the passage was revealed.
Taking a deep breath, Clover stepped inside and lit her horn. And just then, the wall closed behind her. Clover kept pushing forward and soon saw a spiralling staircase heading down before her. Some guesses as to where this would lead had already been forming in her mind.
Clover went down the long staircase which felt like it would last forever only to reach a dead end. But was it really a dead end? The convenient lever hanging on the wall suggested otherwise.
Clover pulled the lever, and the wall in front slowly tilted open like a door. The passage created was not very wide, but it was passable enough. And as she stepped out, her suspicion about where the secret path would lead became true. She was down in the dungeon.
As Clover was checking around to see if any guards were nearby, her eyes caught sight of a familiar scene. A giant iron door, with a diamond shaped keyhole. Of all the places in the dungeon the passage could have led to, this was where it ended. Right in front of that door.
She slowly trotted towards the door. For some reason her heart was beating out of her chest. Something was different. She could feel it down to her bones.
Clover put her ear on the door, in hopes of hearing in over her heartbeat. And to her surprise, breathing.
It wasn’t hers. It was coming from the other side. Faint, but audible. It was tough, dry, like a painful cough was at the end of somepony’s throat and they needed to let it out.
Clover took a quick step back. It felt like the door was dragging her towards itself. It wasn’t calling her, it was pulling her. It was weak, but it was there. She was certain.
Suddenly, a bang came from the other side of the door. Clover jumped and took a few more steps back.
Was that what the head counsellors were talking about?
Guards were everywhere in the dungeon. And Clover could only hold her breath for so long. But somehow, she managed to bypass them, only to meet up with a certain prisoner.
The yellow pegasus was staring at the brown earth pony full of bruises and wounds in the cell across. He was breathing, but that was all she could tell.
Suddenly, Clover let out her breath and appeared in front of the pegasus.
“Aaaah!” She shouted before jumping back from the bars.
“Shhh.” Clover put her hoof on her muzzle. “Be quiet. Otherwise we’re gonna get in trouble again.”
“Y-you?!” The pegasus slowly came closer to the bars again.
“Yes, it's me. Listen, I need to ask some more que—”
The pegasus reached her hooves out and grabbed Clover’s neck, smacking her face to the bars. “Oh, no, we had a deal! And you better give me that key or I will strangle you right here right now.”
Clover struggled to breath. “I-I’m y-your—”
“What? My only chance? Yeah, and I’m your only chance for not dying. Give me that key.”
“E-even if you… get out, t-they’ll catch y-you. Y-you n-need m-my help.”
The pegasus loosened her grip and let Clover go. Clover quickly took a step back and coughed. After the pain in her throat got bearable, she turned back to the one winged pegasus.
“Do you know about the giant door in the dungeon?” Clover rubbed her throat.
“Heh. There are only two doors I know, one which leads to the castle, and the other that leads out.”
“No, those aren't it.” Clover shook her head. It seemed the pegasus didn’t know what she was talking about, but maybe she needed to approach it from a different angle. “Hold on, how did you all get to break out?”
The pegasus looked Clover straight in the eyes. “Every once in a while, all the guards head to a certain part of the dungeon. I don’t know where it is or what it is, but even the guards are terrified each time they deal with it. Whenever that happens, we all break our locks, bend the bars, punch the literal frame out but we’ll get out. Somehow, cuz we know, it might be our last shot. That’s what happens. And they even know it too. But they can’t do anything.” The pegasus turned her face away and showed her missing wing again. “They just make sure we regret trying it.”
“So you don’t know what it is.”
“No, but I’ve heard its screams. It echos through the WHOLE dungeon like an alarm, sinking terror in anypony’s body. It's filled with rage, hate, and a whole lot of pain.”
Clover stayed silent, taking it all in.
“There used to be another earth pony in the cell across. He was an old stallion, but he’d been here longer than anypony. And I can recall that he said as long as he was shackled in that cell, that thing happened.” After a brief silence, the pegasus turned back to Clover. “You got your answers? Now it’s time to do your part.”
Clover took out the keys, but hesitated for a moment.
“What are you waiting for?”
“I-I can’t just bring you out. Guards are everywhere. They’ll catch us both.”
The pegasus frowned. “Are you fucking kidding me? After all of that, you don’t wanna get me out?”
“Well, to be perfectly honest, you just tried to strangle me. And I don’t know why you’re in there to begin with.”
The pegasus’s eyes started to twitch. “A-are you… Fuck it.” She stepped back and sat down, her back to the bars. “You’re just like them. A damned piece of shit.”
“I’m sorry, but don’t expect me to just trust a stranger and bust them out, especially when they attempt to kill me.”
“Look, you don’t trust me? Fine. But at least do something for that guy over there. He’s dying.” the pegasus pointed at the cell across.
Clover looked at the brown earth pony she saw yesterday. The wounds seemed worse than what she recalled. “What have they done to him?”
“Nothing. Just left him there to die. Just like how they did with the last one.”
Clover wondered what did the pony do that would make them leave him in that state? Her curiosity got the better of her and she opened the cell, and went inside.
She was not a doctor, but she could tell that the wounds were infected. The pegasus was right, he was dying. There had to be a reason why the guards did this to him. They wouldn’t just let him die. He probably did something to deserve this.
Clover closed her eyes, whispered the memory-seeing spell and touched the earth pony’s forehead with her horn.
A brown earth pony and his father were delivering bread to a unicorn guard post. Everything seemed in order until—
“Where are the rest?” A guard asked.
“These are all the things we had. That's the whole load.” The older Earth pony responded.
“Don’t play with us, you muddy pigs, where are the rest of the supplies?” The guard trotted forward.
“I-I, I swear this is all we have. That's what we were sent to bring.”
The guard suddenly blasts the old pony with a magical bolt and drops him onto the ground.
The brown earth pony ran to the guard, fueled with rage, he planted his hoof on the guard's face.
The guard took a few steps back, but with a tilt of his head, his friends blasted the brown pony down like his father.
The guards then proceeded to torture them with their mgical blasts till their eyes faded to black.
The only thing he saw when he opened his eyes were the bars of the cell, and the pegasus in the cell across.
“Psst.” The pegasus whispered and interrupted Clover’s concentration. “The guards are coming.” They pointed at the open door of the cell.
There was no time. Clover closed the door with her magic while she was inside and held her breath.
A guard lit his horn and inspected both cells. “What is this noise you’re making?” The guard asked, looking at the pegasus.
“Sorry, just trying to make sure my buddy stays awake. Cuz y’know, you seemed to give him quite the massage.”
“Keep it down or I’ll make sure you also end up like him.” The guard warned before walking away.
Clover let her breath out.
“How’d you do that?” The pegasus asked.
“Magic cloak. It’s…complicated how I got that to work.”
“So, will you help him?”
Clover hesitated before answering. “Yes. But first—” She took out the keys and put them inside the cell’s keyhole. But then, right before she could turn it, the keys ceased to exist. Poofed.
Clover stared in shock. Puzzled as to what just happened. She looked around the cell that maybe she dropped it and she wasn’t seeing it in the dim light of the torches. But no, the keys were gone. And she was in the cell.
“What are you doing? Just, get out.”
Clover didn’t pay attention to what the pegasus said. She only tried to make sense of what just happened. Until it hit her.
The duplication spell was faulty. That's why Star Swirl couldn’t find the duplicated copy. It wasn’t lost, it vanished.
“Hey, you there?” The pegasus called again.
“I need you to shout.”
“What?”
“I need you to distract the guard.”
The pegasus narrowed her. She didn’t know why Clover was suggesting this, but she decided to do it anyway.
“Hey, you shithead! Come here.”
The guard trotted furiously to the cell. “What did you just call me?”
“Shithead! What? You wanna cry?”
“I think you’ll be the one crying.” The guard blasted the pegasus with a magic beam.
“Aaaaaaagh!” The yellow pegasus shrieked as the pain surged through her whole body. Meanwhile, Clover levitated the keys from the guard’s flank.
The guard then blasted the wound where the wing once was.
“Aaaaargh, stop it, stop it you piece of shit. Pleeeeeease!”
The guard stopped. “Know your place.” He warned her and walked away.
The yellow pegasus was shaking and trembling with sheer pain. So much so that Clover could see it even in the dim light of the torches.
“A-are you alright?”
The yellow pegasus used all of her strength and stood back on her legs again. “I’m fine.” She said, yet she was still shaking.
Clover used the key and opened the cell she was trapped in and right after that opened the pegasus’s cell.
The yellow pegasus’s eyes widened as she looked at the open door and Clover outside. “Y-you, actually, di—”
“Listen, it's not easy getting out of here. Do you think you can carry him?” Clover pointed at the brown earth pony.
The pegasus shook off the pain. “Yeah, I got him.”
“Good, now also take this.” Clover took off her cloak and gave it to the pegasus. Revealing her dizzy green mane. “When you have this on, as long as you hold your breath, you’ll be invisible.”
“What are you going to do?”
Clover levitated the keys in front of the pegasus. “I’ll cause a distraction and lure the guards to myself. Meanwhile, you sneak out and head to the wizards tower, and head to the third floor. I’ll meet you there.”
“Wait.” The pegasus whispered before Clover wandered off. “I never caught your name.”
“Clover. Clover the Clever. You?”
“Thunder Feathers.”
Clover nodded and trotted away. She grabbed the key and opened every cell she saw.
“WAKE UP. WAKE UP. IT'S TIME TO CLAIM YOUR FREEDOM! HURRY UP!”
Every prisoner in their cells, earth pony, pegasus, unicorn, all joined her, running through the dungeon halls. But it didn’t take long for the guards to appear from every corner. Even though the prisoners tried to fight, the guards' magic and numbers were simply superior.
All scattered through the paths of the dungeon and so did the guards. Clover opened more and more cells but the guards kept coming non-stop.
One by one, prisoners were caught and their numbers dwindled. Clover knew she couldn’t keep it up for much longer. She closed her eyes, and thought of her room. Her small yet comfy bed. Her selective collection of cloaks, the window to the side, and every single book in her bookshelf that Star Swirl personally gifted her. Even though magical bolts and screams of pain and agony were surrounding her, she could feel being in her room.
Clover casted the teleportation spell.