Applejack’s hooves splashed into sewer water after she jumped down from above, the dirty water splashing back up against her underbelly, making her wet and uncomfortable right from the start. It was a good thing she was used to dirty, smelly, work or this would be a real pain. Not that she expected anything pleasant from having to make her way through the sewers of Al-Karamaretel.
It was well past midnight at this point, Applejack having purposefully waited until after curfew to discreetly leave the inn on her mission to break into the true Citadel. While it might have been reckless she had been here long enough to know it was the only solution.
It actually wasn’t that difficult to get down here either. Thanks to her Hoof of the Earth abilities, Applejack could “see” any guards in the vicinity. Walls weren’t even a problem thanks to it. She always knew exactly where to go and when to stay hidden to avoid them. And the same ability allowed her to find and map out the sewers beneath the town. She didn’t have the range to see all of it of course, but she was at least able to figure out where there were tunnels and the holes that led down into them. Of course there had been a padlock on the cover she had found but Applejack was able to break it easily enough with a small tremor and head on down.
Right into the unpleasant and cold hoof deep water she was now wading through.
“Aint exactly my idea of a nice night,” Applejack mumbled as she walked through the sewer.
She couldn’t physically see anything with it being pitch black down here but a few tremors sent out at regular intervals gave her everything she needed to know. A bat would be impressed at how easily she traveled through the darkness.
I wonder if there actually are other things blocking off access to the citadel down here? Applejack wondered. The supposed gates and barriers hadn’t been found just yet but she still had a fair distance to make before she was under the citadel building.
At least she could tell that there weren’t any rats down here or guards that patrolled the sewer. It was just her and the water sloshing about her legs. The sewer tunnels, compared to the town above, were made in a much more sensible and easy to follow grid-like pattern. Applejack didn’t have to make any odd turns or get stuck at dead ends as she made her way forward. The water flowed regularly as well, all of it going in the same direction as her. She was pretty sure that all the sewer water, waste, and other garbage went right off the edge of the cliff and into the canyon. She wished it flowed fast enough where she didn’t have to be stuck in it like this but there were simply too many ponies and buildings living in the town over her head. There were a lot of pipes she passed under or by that were pumping out more water and refuse into the sewers.
She still couldn’t go very fast through here though thanks to having to rely on Hoof of the Earth and the water slowing her down and it took her well over an hour before her scouting ability told her she was getting to right underneath the true Citadel. If there was any blockade she figured she’d find it soon.
“Honestly a torch would still be really nice right now...” Applejack sighed and continued on.
Walking straight ahead—the next scouting tremor she shot out brought back an “image” of something in the way. Applejack frowned and picked up her pace through the cold water to get to the first real obstacle she had found. A steel grate. Blocking off the entirety of the tunnel so no pony could simply walk through it anymore. She could feel the water still flowing past it, and knew that it probably didn’t fully go down to the floor but still far enough that it would be impossible to squeeze under it as well. Even if Applejack was willing to dunk her whole body and head underwater.
Applekack stopped right in front of the grate and clicked her tongue. Something like this was much harder to break or get through than a lock, or any kind of wooden or stone obstacle. Hoof of the Earth couldn’t break or warp it nearly as easily and because all the bars of it went into the walls of the tunnel if she wasn’t careful she could accidentally badly damage the sewers—possibly even cause the tunnel to collapse. She needed to be both strong and very precise right now.
“Okay then,” Applejack exhaled and lifted a hoof, putting it on the center of the grate.
The metal groaned while minuscule cracks appeared in the stone around where the bars were planted in and ripples erupted through the sewer water. Applejack bit her lip and focused, really putting her all into it, and with another tremor the bars of the grate were torn inside or snapped in half to create a hole big enough for her to step through.
“Whew...” Applejack almost wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead before stopping herself—the grimy hoof across her face wouldn’t have been nice—and stepped through the hole. “Now let’s see if I can find a way up into the Citadel from here?”
Using more of her tremor scouting after getting through the grate, she knew she was pretty much directly under the main building. There were a lot of pipes she could see coming from above and dropping water into the stream—and directly ahead of her it looked like she was coming to an almost solid wall. When Applejack got closer she felt the water start to flow quicker and realized it was draining down into a deeper tunnel and pipe at the bottom of the wall. It would be impossible for her to swim through there and the pipe might get too narrow later on. Luckily there was something else she found. And it was something she didn’t entirely need her Hoof of the Earth abilities to see.
A sliver of light was coming down from above. She could see a circular lid silhouetted at the top of a ladder carved into the wall of the sewer to the right of the wall. Applejack walked over so she could stand beneath it and found that there was a ledge up out of the water, it looked like this was another entrance to the sewers just like the one she had used earlier. Except this one was inside the true Citadel.
Applejack smirked and headed up the ladder—looks like she found her entrance.
Unsurprisingly, the lid to the tunnel was also locked and she had to use her Hoof of the Earth to search out where the lock was on the other side and snap it first. But once that was done she was able to push it off its resting place and pull herself up into the new room. It looked like just a dirty old room whose sole purpose was to provide access for the sewers, Applejack saw nothing inside but an electric lightbulb hanging over her head.
“Well at least I’m inside,” Applejack said. She walked over to the door leading out but before opening it sent another tremor to see if there were any guards outside it. Coming up with nothing she tried to push the door opened but found it was locked—or to be more accurate blocked with a wooden board slid in front of it through some slots on the other side.
That was easy to fix though.
Once the wooden board was blasted into splinters she then opened the door up and walked outside.
“Okay. Now it’s time to figure this place out,” Applejack said as she looked around.
Though there were plenty of lights they didn’t help change the dark look of this place. The floors were brown stone and brick and the walls were made of the same black metal that the outer walls and defensive walls of the entire citadel were made from. The interior looked to be just as unfriendly as the exterior. To her left stretched a long corridor with several doors down it and to her right stretched the exact same thing.
Since she really had absolutely no idea where to start or which way to go in here she closed her eyes and sent out the biggest scouting tremor she could to try and get an image of the Citadel.
When she “saw” more of the Citadel she immediately frowned.
“What the? Now that don’t make no sense...” Applejack muttered and looked down at the floor.
This place was big. It already looked huge from outside but now Applejack realized she was still completely wrong about it. The Citadel of Al-Karamaretel was gargantuan. She was already at ground level and she sensed at least three floors going deeper below her. If they covered the same area as this floor and the rest of the building above them… it was probably at least twice as massive as it looked from outside. And likely more.
“How much of it is built underground?” Applejack wondered and sent out another big tremor, this time more directed at just going below her.
She gawked as she counted at least five more floors going underground and paused when she also felt the outlines of a huge group of ponies down below scattered on a few different floors but always right above or below one another. There were also guards as well, she could tell the difference because the guards were moving around and most were bigger than ponies. Narrowing her eyes, she was pretty sure about just what she was sensing down there, but it still confused her.
“What in the hay? I knew there was a prison or something in here but that big? With that many ponies in it? Something here doesn’t add up,” Applejack scratched her head. She looked to her right and left. “I need to find some stairs now.”
Choosing to go right since neither direction told her anything yet, Applejack kept a steady pace but still constantly sent out waves to make sure she wasn’t going to walk into any guards and to see if she could find a stairwell. Her efforts prevailed when after walking for a bit she did find stairs that went both up and down. Checking down the middle opening between them, she saw that the stairs traveled down so many floors that eventually they disappeared into darkness.
“This is crazy...” Applejack shook her head and started walking down them towards the first floor she saw other ponies on. She made sure to keep every step quiet in case guards were able to hear her from further away than she could sense them. After all the insides of the Citadel were already deathly quiet, the slightest noise could alert them.
Speaking of that—it’s real darn early. Are any of the ponies in that place going to be awake? Applejack wondered.
She’d just have to see, and maybe quietly wake them up herself and hope nopony shouted or nothing.
Getting off at the right floor, Applejack walked through the new set of corridors to what she suspected was the underground prison. The hallways were wider and the ceiling higher—a mess of pipes and vents and gratings that made her feel like she was walking through the bowels of some big machine or factory. Walking into an intersection she heard the sound of a pair of creatures walking around the next corner so Applejack moved to the adjacent corridor and flattened herself against the wall as best she could.
Two armored Minotaurs walked by where she was a moment later and Applejack breathed a sigh of relief that they didn’t bother looking around. Must’ve been on a set path and not interested in checking around. That more than anything at least told Applejack that nobody yet knew she was in here.
After waiting another minute and sending a few more tremors out to check where the nearest guards were—Applejack left her spot and quickly walked to where she saw the other ponies being kept. It looked like there were three total floors of the underground prison and Applejack was at the top one. Figuring out where the entrance to it was, she had to take a left at the next intersection and found herself walking down a darker hallway than normal.
Applejack narrowed her eyes as she came to a large steel door with a simple deadbolt lock so whoever was on the other side wouldn’t be able to open it up. She turned it and pulled open the big doors before walking into the next chamber.
It was as she expected—Applejack had found a prison.
Cells lined both walls in the large room, only broken up at the midway point where it looked like a pair of stairwells and ladders went down into the other sections of the prison. But the cells were huge, each one packed crowded with multiple ponies, and their adjoining walls were all just bars so they could see each other and all the rest of the prisoners on their floor. Applejack was shocked as she walked in, seeing only a few ponies awake or even stirring, there were far more prisoners than she expected. She couldn’t wrap her mind around this at all.
As she stood there, a few ponies actually started to notice her and more of the early risers were waking up. Applejack frowned and walked over to the nearest cell, worried that she was going to start a commotion. Most of the ponies didn’t really seem to think anything special of her though—or couldn’t bring themselves to care.
Applejack looked in the cell and saw a large, and seemingly random, group of ponies stirring. There were stallions, mares, and even colts and fillies. Some of them were huddled up like families or individual groups and there were a few loners off in their own spots. A quick glance down told her that each cell was like this. The imprisoned ponies also looked messy and malnourished—most of them did at least, there were still a few that looked normal. Some might have been down here a lot longer than others.
One of the ponies near her woke up and saw Applejack standing there outside the bars. He in turn woke up the other ponies around him and they regarded Applejack suspiciously.
Standing up, the stallion put on a brave face as he looked at Applejack. “Who are you? You don’t look like a guard.”
“I aint a guard,” Applejack shook her head. “I broke in here this morning—who are all of you and why are you being kept here?”
The stallion’s eyes widened as Applejack spoke and he grasped the bars of the cell, pushing right up against them. “You’re from outside? Please, help us get out of here!”
Applejack blinked as sudden recognition clicked in her head now that she saw him up close. She hadn’t noticed at first since he was no longer wearing his monocle, but Applejack knew this pony and some of the ones with him. “I know you… you had your number called just two nights ago! What happened? What’s going on with this crazy place?”
At this point most of the ponies in this cell had woken up and were paying attention—and so were a lot in the cells nearby as well. A lot of murmuring was going on…
“It’s all a trap! Everything about the Citadel is a lie!” The stallion cried. “As soon as we entered it yesterday morning we were surrounded by guards. All of our valuables, everything we owned, was taken from us and we were brought here!” He gestured around him to the other ponies. “All of us had the same thing happen, the Citadel isn’t actually letting anypony to the bridge at all!” He pointed across the way at the other wall of cells. “And them! They’re from the other side of the canyon! They’re ones who tried to get past the Citadel from the other way—but they were all taken prisoner too just like us! It’s what’s been happening since the beginning!”
“What?!” Applejack shouted before she remembered not to. She looked over at the cells on the other side of the prison. “Is that true? Are y’all from the other side?”
One old mare who had clearly seen better days walked up to the bars and nodded. “It’s true, I brought my family here from the Kingdom of Diamonds after it started to fall apart… we thought we could make a new life in the east but as soon as we reached the Citadel we were thrown in here by the guards. Everypony else suffered the same fate.”
“Are you here to get us out? Please, you have to get us out of here!” The stallion said, reaching to Applejack and shaking her shoulder.
“I-I am, but I can’t just yet! There’s too much that could go wrong and I don’t even know how many guards there are or where the Warden is to stop him. Do you know about the Warden? Did the guards tell you just why you’ve all been imprisoned?” Applejack asked.
“The guards never mentioned anything about that,” the stallion shook his head. “And nopony knows about the Warden. We’ve even heard the guards talking to each other about how nopony has ever seen his face or even knows what he is.”
“Eugh… making my job tougher,” Applejack dragged a hoof down her face and furrowed her brow. “Okay then. I’m curious but… is this the only prison here? Is this the only place ponies are being kept or are there others in here that I need to find too?”
“There’s also the detention center,” the stallion said.
“Detention center?” Applejack raised an eyebrow.
“The guards have mentioned it, and taken a few ponies from here to there. It’s for ponies that have caused trouble here, or ones that tried breaking in or did anything out in the town,” the stallion explained.
A smirk lifted up one side of Applejack’s mouth. “So it’s where I’d get taken if I was caught? That’s where all the rowdy troublemakers are, huh?”
“Well… yes, I believe so,” the stallion nodded. “But why-”
His words were cut off as the whine of an incredibly loud siren rang throughout the prison and the rest of the Citadel building.