"This is our only chance."
Trixie looked at Discord with a wide-eyed expression. "What?!"
Besides her, Starlight started back away slowly out of fear. Her ears lowered and her pupils turned small. "What are you talking about?" she asked Discord.
Discord gazed at the upcoming guards with a concentrated gaze. "You see that guard at the front?" he asked.
Trixie and Starlight looked at the guard. He looked like the other guards, except he was a little bit bigger than his companions. Trixie tilted her head. Why was he so special?
"If you haven't noticed, he has the keys to your magic blockers." Discord hissed silently.
"How do you know? Those keys could be for something else." Trixie rolled her eyes, although on the inside, Trixie hoped that he was right.
"From here, the keys are black and look like its made of stone. Like your blockers." Discord told them.
Before any of them could respond, Discord broke into a run on his fours.
"I'll toss them to you! Just make sure you catch it!" Discord called out to the two.
Then he leapt on the guard with the keys. Him and the guard tussled on the ground. While the guard was an earth pony, Discord had the upper hand thanks to his claws. But he kept getting interrupted by the guard's companions. They didn't even try to go after Trixie and Starlight. All the attention was on him.
"Gah!" Discord gasped. He then held up the keys with his bird claw. He looked directly at the two staring unicorns. "Here!" he said as he threw the keys.
Trixie gasped as she saw the keys fly at them at massive speeds. Who knew Discord had strong throwing skills? Trixie broke into a run until she leapt for the keys. She grabbed them in her mouth and landed on her hooves.
"Got them!" Trixie said with her mouth a little muffled.
Just then two guards quickly headed towards Trixie's direction, with the other two battling Discord. Trixie felt her heart thump even harder. Now the attention was all on her! And normally she likes attention.
"I'm here." Starlight said as she trotted after Trixie. She glared as the guards were about to approach them.
"Where's the stupid keyhole?" Trixie muttered, scanning Starlight's horn. She was now starting to sweat as she heard the guard get closer and closer.
Eventually, she found a hole in the blocker. Trixie gasped in delight.
"Found it!" Trixie exclaimed happily.
She looked at her side. Her heart almost stopped when she saw the guard was a few feet away from her. As quick as lightning, he leapt at Trixie. Trixie closed her eyes, bracing impact. As she did that, she heard bodies land on the ground. She slowly opened her eyes to see what happened; and she was thankful by what she saw.
Starlight had pounced on the guard, knocking him on the ground. They rolled to the side until Starlight kicked the guard off with her hind leg. The guard landed roughly on the ground, then he got up to his feet.
"Unlock Discord's blockers. His magic is ten times stronger than mine." Starlight ordered her friend, while not taking her eyes off the guard.
Trixie nodded. Then she noticed that a guard was also behind her. Trixie dodged the guard and raced straight towards Discord, who had both of the guards laying down near his feet.
Making sure nothing was in her way yet, she looked back and saw Starlight facing the guard. She saw that the guard was trying to get Starlight out of the way by making sharp jumps around her. But she kept blocking him every time.
"What's wrong?" Trixie heard Starlight ask. She also noticed that her friend had a curt smile on her face. "Too scared to fight a unicorn with their magic disabled?"
The guard gave Starlight a cold stare. "I'm not scared of a traitor with no magic." Trixie heard his sneer. Afterwards, Trixie looked at where she was going, to avoid the of missing Discord. But she could hear grunts in the background.
Trixie had now caught up to Discord. After they met, Discord eyed the guard who was chasing her. Before the guard could react, Discord delivered one punch to the side of his face. The guard fell to the ground. But before he could get up, Discord and Trixie pinned him down. With Discord having his claws on his mouth and neck, while Trixie put her hooves on the body.
"Don't fight it. If you know what's good for you." Discord muttered darkly. Trixie looked at Discord in shock. She never expected the goofy but annoying draconequus to mutter something so dark.
Discord turned his attention to Trixie. "Give me the keys. I'll unlock it for you. Keep him pinned." he told her. Doing as she was told, Trixie lowered her head, letting him scan her horn. Discord went through the keys until he found one with a round end. After hearing mechanical sounds, and feeling the block move a bit, she was finally free.
Trixie lit up her horn happily. "It feels so good to use magic again." she told him happily.
Discord rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Trixie noticed his sudden annoyance. "What's wrong? You literally have the keys to your blockers. Can't you unlock them?"
Discord shook his head. "These are the special kinds. No key could unlock them."
Trixie felt more nervous than ever when she heard those words. What if the next time we'll be caught, we'll have the same blockers as he does? she asked nervously in her mind.
Discord peered behind Trixie, then looked back at her. "Can you teleport duct tape here?"
"Uh, I guess?" Trixie said with a bit of nervousness. With a bit of concentration, the duct tape suddenly appeared.
"Good. Tape his mouth, and hooves. So he doesn't escape. Meanwhile, I will help Starlight." he told her. Then he ran off behind her.
Before the guard could have a chance to break free from the grasp, Trixie quickly taped his mouth shut. Then his hooves.
"I'm sorry." Trixie apologized to the guard. "But Trixie doesn't want to face death for the tenth time."
Afterwards, she ran after Discord. As she got closer, she saw Discord running up to Starlight and the guard. As she walked up to the fight, she now had a closer look at the two ponies. The two of them were deeply bruised, especially Starlight. They were both panting, and they gave each other intense glares.
"Do you give up now?" It was the guard's turn to sneer.
Starlight opened her mouth to say a reply, but then her attention was on Discord. Confused, the guard looked behind him. Before he could react, Discord forcefully punched him to the side, making him unconscious.
"That's the last of the four." Discord told her.
"Thank goodness." Starlight panted. "I don't know if I could take on another guard after that. Stupid armor they have." she said in between her panting.
Discord walked up to Starlight with the key in his hand. He messed with her blocker, until it broke free.
"That better be the last time you have those stupid things." Discord told her.
Starlight looked puzzled. "Why do you have your blockers on still?"
"I got the special edition." Discord said in a sarcastic tone. His ears perked up. Trixie's ears perked up too. She heard more guards coming.
"They're coming." Discord hissed bitterly.
"So what now? We got our magic back." Trixie asked the two.
"We find Twilight." Starlight told them. She lit up her horn and she closed her eyes. "I'm not letting her get away with this."
The three were now teleported inside a room filled with magical artifacts. The three looked around the room, looking content.
"Ok, this room fits Twilight. Maybe we can find her in here." Trixie said.
"Yeah, we all know she is a die-hard fan of artifacts." Discord agreed. He turned to Starlight. "Now what?"
"We cast an invisibility spell, and a spell that makes our hoofsteps silent. As we have learned from last time." She explained. Then she looked around the room, until we stopped.
"Ok so do we sneak up on her, then you can do a teleportation spell?" Trixie snickered.
"Perfect! We'll catch her by surprise." Discord snickered too. "She won't expect it! We'll be as sly as a fox."
"I like this plan already." Trixie agreed, then she felt a bit surprised. Are me and Discord getting along? But she shook the thought away. "Ok, Starlight, let's get on with the brilliant plan." she said with a wide smile.
Trixie looked. Her smile faded away when she found out Starlight wasn't there. But instead, she was standing over a glass case. Curious, she walked over to her; meanwhile, Discord stayed behind. Trixie walked up to Starlight, who had her ears lowered and her expression was sad.
"What's wrong?" Trixie asked her. She looked down to see what she was sad about. It was an empty case that said:
Starswirl's Ancient Time Travel Spell
Trixie looked at Starlight. Realization hit her like a brick.
"That was all in the past." Trixie comforted her friend. "You've changed. Despite what this stupid spell thinks."
"I know I have." Starlight told her friend, still looking down at the case. "But this just brings... bad memories."
Trixie looked solemnly at Starlight, feeling bad for her friend.
After looking at the case, Starlight turned back. "Let's get this over with."
With the silent hoofstep spell in place, instead of walking, they ran around the castle, searching for the princess. Occasionally they stopped for breaths a few times, but only when other ponies were not around. So they ran, and ran. Soon they were doubting that Twilight was even in the castle at all. Making this seem like it was for nothing.
But eventually they found the purple princess. She was calmly sipping tea while she was reading a book.
How dare she? Drinking tea while she thinks we are down there, suffering! Trixie though angrily. And from the faint, angry looks of Discord and Starlight, their thoughts were probably the same.
Afterwards, Twilight closed the book, and headed out of the room. The others quickly followed.
Twilight went down corridors, and corridors of the castle, until she eventually came across a dark room downstairs, not even noticing that her "enemies" were right behind her.
As she went down the stairs, with the others close behind her, she came across a candle-lit room. Twilight scanned the bookshelves, finding a spot to put the book back. Trixie looked at Starlight, and Discord. The three then nodded at each other. They all crouched and stalked up to Twilight. Then, as they got close to her, Starlight walked up to the alicorn, and stood on all fours, ready to punch Twilight as hard as she could, hoping she would pass out by the attack.
But as she was about to do that, Twilight dropped the book and immediately looked behind her. She activated her magic, and suddenly had Starlight in her aura. Due to the shock, Starlight stopped the magic; making them visible again. Discord and Trixie gasped in horror when they realized that Twilight was actually choking Starlight in her aura.
"You never give up, do you?" Twilight smirked as the struggling unicorn. She then threw Starlight at the side of the room, making her crash onto one of the bookshelves.
"Starlight!" Trixie and Discord exclaimed. They quickly rushed over to the unicorn. Twilight looked at them in an amusing look, as if she was enjoying this.
"Starlight, are you ok?" Trixie frantically asked. She looked around Starlight's body, searching for any guides or deep marks.
"I'm... I'm fine." Starlight groaned as she got to all fours. She then gave Twilight a shocked but cold stare. "She found us."
"I knew you were coming the moment I heard you outside the door." Twilight sneered. "All of you are really dumb when it comes to hiding."
"How is that possible? We—" Discord exclaimed in shock, but was interrupted by Twilight.
"I have my ways." Twilight told him curtly. She then cleared her throat. "Now then."
In the distance, they heard the basement door slam shut, and the rest of the candles in the room had lit up in a light purplish color, surrounding the room.
"I feel that the dungeon wasn't the greatest punishment in the world. So I might as well give you guys a punishment that would finish you all off." Twilight told them, before saying in a sadistic tone: "A punishment called death."