The quartet stared at the doe, examining her closely before all giving a simple wave and a smile. Suddenly, Fluttershy as well as the other ponies jumped, trembling slightly. Looking to each other, Arctic and Glacier realized why.
“I’m sorry.” Said Arctic as he quickly stopped smiling
“Same here.” Said Glacier doing the same.
The two brothers had forgotten that they both had rather big and sharp teeth. Their smiling revealed this to others making them jump.
”oh, um, it’s okay. I know you didn’t mean too.” Said Fluttershy in a quiet tone.
The two smiled as Tundra began to speak up.
“So, what happens next? We can’t just stay trapped down here forever.”
“We’ve tried escaping, but we can’t break through the chains.” Said Princess Cadence.
“But you’re an Alicorn, Princess. Can’t you break them?” Asked Glacier, eliciting a nod from his siblings.
They all had heard that Alicorn were the strongest ponies in all of Equestria. None of the guards back in the Blizzard Kingdom could touch Queen Snowblossom whenever she decided to train them up. They were surprised to hear Queen Snowblossom would help train the guard, but to hear that not a single one of them has ever touched her, let alone last even 3 minutes against her, told them that she was very powerful.
“I could, unfortunately, Sombra managed to clamp this onto me.” Cadence said using her hoof to point to her horn.
Looking up at it, the quartet could not only finally see that sitting upon Cadence’s horn was a ring. She point to all of the other unicorns and they could see that they also had these rings on. Looking at her own horn, Tundra could see she had one on as well.
“What are these things?” Tundra asked.
“Magic Dampening Rings.” Replied Cadence. “These rings keep an and all unicorns from being able to use magic.”
“What!?” Tundra shrieked. All of the ponies jumped in surprise. Even Fluttershy jumped at the yell and quickly ducked behind Cadence.
Trying to cast any kind of spell she could, Tundra strained in a futile attempt to cast something. Eventually with a groan, Tundra eventually gave up and plopped to the ground with a “thud”.
“So how are we going to get out of here now?” Winter asked. After the battle with Sombra’s little squadron, she was still to tired to really do much to try anything.
“I suppose I could try melting the chains.” Glacier suggested.
“A..are you sure?” Came a timid voice.
Looking over he saw Fluttershy.
“With your injury, are you sure you can do it?” Fluttershy asked?
Glacier had to admit, with his injury it could hinder him. Plus, he was still in some pain because of and with most of his energy going towards helping that heal up, he doubted he could melt the chains but he wanted to try. So, grabbing onto his chains, he began to breath out his blue flames. The flames licked and lashed at the chains for a moment before he began to splutter and cough.
“I guess I can’t do it.” He said with a sigh before looking to Arctic. “What about you? Think you could do something?” He asked.
“Still to weak. Maybe I could if I was back up to full health and my energy was a little restored I could.” Arctic replied looking to his hand.
Soon, Sunstone chimed in.
“I beg your pardon, but what are you intending to do if you manage to escape? There are guards everywhere. And I don’t think you can take them on your own.”
He was right. The siblings were strong yes, but not strong enough to challenge all of the guards. They may be able to handle themselves for a while, but once they get tired, they’ll be back where they started only under heavy watch.
“Maybe you could fight with us.” Arctic suggested.
Sunstone just spluttered and shook his head.
“Us? Fight them? We couldn’t stand a chance young Arctic.”
“We could teach you how to fight.” Winter said some enthusiasm edging its way into her voice. She even began pouncing slightly.
Fluttershy giggled at this. It reminded her of Pinkie Pie in a way.
“Teach us?” Said a Pegasus stallion. “How are you going to teach us how to fight.”
After some thinking, Glacier asked a question.
“Princess, how often do the guards come here?”
Cadence thought about it before responding.
“Well, they arrive to give us breakfast, lunch and dinner, other then that, one may come by to check on us, but otherwise we’re left to ourselves.”
Arctic began to smile.
“So we can teach you in between and try not to get caught by the guard that comes by.”
Cadence took a moment to mull over the suggestion. While she wouldn’t want to see her little ponies end up injured or worse, she knew that they’d be needing all the help they could get in this war with Sombra. And having them attack while Sombra’s army is in the midst of battle could turn the tides in their favor. So, with a nod Cadence had come to a conclusion.
“Very well. You can teach those who wish to help in this upcoming battle. The rest find somewhere to keep hidden for safety.” She said looking to the siblings.
They all gave a nod and soon began their training.
Over the next few weeks, the siblings had fully recovered and were well into training the ponies. Only half of the ponies were interested and wanted to train while the other half watched. In the beginning, it was a bit difficult keeping it all under wraps. In fact, they had almost been caught a number of times, but were able to keep it all together. For the training, the quartet had been teaching the ponies how to use ki and the different ways it can be used in battle.
Surprisingly, Fluttershy also wanted to train. While she wasn’t all that into it, she did enjoy learning to use ki. While she had no plans of using it to fight others, she did figure it could be useful in order to protect her self from harm, as well as protect her animals and friends should the need arise.
When not training, they all would chat. Telling each other stories of their past and plans for what to do when this war was all said and done. Surpsingly, Arctic found himself talking with a young Unicorn filly. She was quite interested in him. She thought he was cool and wanted to learn about him and the saiyans. He couldn’t tell her much, seeing as he never really got to be around other saiyans, though he could tell her what he remembered his father telling him when he was younger. Those memories were a bit fuzzy, but he could remember them.
After the weeks had turned into near two months, they all felt that they were ready and were being to make a plan to break out.
After discussing things, they all nod and get ready to set their plan into motion.
After hours had passed, the guards bringing in dinner had unlocked the gates and walked in dragging carts full of food behind them. But before they could leave, they were blindsided. Arctic and Glacier struck the guards in the back of their necks, knocking them out. Then, digging around in one of the guards saddlebags, Arctic found a key to unlock the chains and began freeing himself and the others, even removing the Magic Dampening Rings from the unicorns.
“Good work.” Said Cadence, “Now the next step.”
The quartet, the Princess, and the ponies who wanted to help fight, all began making their way out. Even Fluttershy was going, although she wasn’t planning on fighting, mainly helping any injured ponies who’ll need help. As for the other ponies who didn’t want to fight, they stayed behind as to not get in the way or get hurt.
Making their way along, they encountered more guards, but were able to take them out. Soon they reached the door leading outside. As quietly as they could, the peeked out. Seeing nopony around, they fully exited only to be stopped in their tracks by what they saw.
The Empire looked Miserable.
Everything looked destroyed. The sky looked dark and dismal. All of the ponies had varying emotions, ranging from, sad, to surprised, to angered.
“The Empire looks awful.” Said Cadence.
As she looked around, she wanted to cry in shame and scream from anger.
“To think I was sent here to protect and guide the Crystal Empire, only to fall from grace and let it be destroyed like this.” She said as she walked around looked at the tattered and destroyed Empire.
“Princess, don’t worry.” Said Fluttershy. She too was saddened by this but she wanted to put up as brave a face as she could. “I’m sure we could get the Empire looking wonderful again.”
Cadence smiled a bit at this. She really hoped Fluttershy was right.
“Well, look who it is?” Came a voice.
Looking over, they saw that it was one of Sombra’s squadrons. The siblings glared and growled. It was the same squad they fought before.
“Looks like you managed to escape, well done. Not like it’ll do much. You’ll only end up right back.” Said the Pegasus mare.
While she was surprised to see that they had escaped, she was also glad they had. It meant she could have another go at the squadron, especially Winter, whom she glared at with hatred.
Cadence stepped up to them, anger in her eyes.
“Where is Sombra.”
Raising an eyebrow, the mare replied.
“Our Majesty, King Sombra, is our leading the charge in another battle against Celestia. He left us and a few others behind to make sure nothing happens here.” She said as more ponies appeared.
Good. Cadence thought. We don’t have to worry about him and can focus on taking out these ponies first.
“Well, I hope you’re all ready to be sent back to the dungeon again. I know I’ll be happy to send your miserable flanks back.” Called the Pegasus. She had been aching to have a go at the siblings again and was glad to have her chance.
“You will not beat us this time. Today marks the beginning of the end for this war, and we will be the ones to come out on top.” Cadence said, flaring out her wings and charging her magic.
“We’ll see about that Princess.” Said the mare as she got ready to fight.
The siblings and the other ponies also gotten ready fight. With an intense battle cry, both sides leaped into action, prepared to fight in a battle of their lives.