He awoke with what must have been the greatest hangover of the century. That or the hit to the head he had taken had been definitely overpowered. The point was that Prince Blueblood’s head felt like it was going to split open due to the sheer amount of pure pain.
The first sound that escaped his mouth was, fittingly, a disgruntled groan of pain. His whole body seemed to be heavy like wet wool, eyelids included as the stallion remained unable to open his eyes for the longest time.
There was this indistinct rumbling noise that surrounded him and that seemed to overshadow his every thoughts. He could simply not form a coherent evaluation of his situation with the mortal combination of his headache and all that noise.
To make things worse, the ground he was on suddenly jolted upward, making him bump his royal head against it.
However, that unexpected event cleared his head, as if the hit had knocked the stupor out of the prince.
He was in a carriage, bound by ropes and yes, he was clearly suffering from a bad hangover. He would have started cursing right away had it not been for the gag that muted his words.
Suddenly, as if his head had been cleared of all distractions, the reality of his situation came crashing down like a speeding pegasus. He had been kidnapped, him, the heir of the unicorn royal family! Granted, he made an extremely precious hostage, considering how loved and important he was, but this proof of his importance did very little to calm him down.
Oh, he would give them a piece of his mind for incommoding him so! As soon as…
…he managed to take off his gag…
Struggling and squirming seemed to do very little against firmly tied knots and ropes. Even some well applied telekinesis had little effect and with every vain attempt, a little bit of his resolve faltered, slowly making place for a terrible feeling of vulnerability.
The righteous fury was soon replaced with mind numbing panic.
He was prisoner! Prisoner of his aunts-know-what kind of terrible brutish monsters that would subject him to every sort of torture like leaving him in a dirty cell!
The bound prince started thrashing blindly, painfully hitting the walls of his moving prison with his legs, then with his shoulder.
A loud bang inches away from his face made him jump away. “BE STILL!”
He bit down a pathetic whimper and tried to summon his regal persona, with very little success. No, the unicorn was simply too afraid of what was to become of him to dare earn the hire of his kidnappers, whoever they were.
“Let him thrash,” a low, suave, voice captured his attention, and, if the sharp intake of breath was any indication, that of his other kidnappers. “After all, what can he possibly do to escape?”
The reply came, more submissive than the prince had expected. “But all that noise-”
“-Is further proof that he is a healthy and strong specimen, which is perfect for our line of business, don’t you think?” He insisted on this question, which, by the tone used, was no question at all.
Blueblood held his breath, absorbing every single piece of information with the hope it could help him.
“O-of course, sir!” Well, it was not very hard for Blueblood to know who the leader of his captors was. Everypony probably knew the minute they witnessed any interactions at all. “We don’t mean to question you.”
There were no more conversations past this point. It did give him plenty of chilling thoughts to expend on.
Just how many… brutes… had participated in his kidnapping? Probably a dozen or more, he speculated, if only by the ease they had taken him and the boldness of their actions. Though that also led him to wonder why in Tartaros had Captain Cloudy Sky not rescued him already?!
That incompetent, arrogant, disrespectful, unrefined…
He was too mad for words. At least, words that fitted his status and not that of lower soldiers, which he had unfortunately spent too many time with as part of his mandatory military service.
Oh, if he were to get his hooves on any of those incompetent fools, they would regret the day they decided to neglect their duties!
Thoughts of vengeance swirling in his head, the prince paid no mind to the hushed, whispered, conversation between two surly kidnappers. Words were exchanged about loud and useless ponies.
It was lucky Blueblood had not heard it or he might have tried screaming in indignation.
“Ah, excellent,” the kidnappers’ leader said. “I can see our partner is waiting exactly where we agreed to meet.”
Just as the words started to register, his moving prison came to an abrupt stop, throwing him against its walls again.
Strong of his righteous anger, the white stallion started protesting, loudly fighting against his gag. He would not stand for this ignominious treatment any longer! He was a PRINCE!
The door to his prison opened, well, if it could be described as such. In truth, one whole wall fell down to the ground, creating a footbridge of some sort between his kidnappers and himself.
At their appearances, Blueblood’s eyes widened in shock and he felt himself shiver with fear.
Dogs. They were diamond dogs and ugly ones at that. Upon their deformed faces were hateful snarls, showing their unnatural – sharp – teeth.
“Loud pony will SHUT UP!” The smallest one shouted, looking seconds away from throttling him.
Oh yes he would. He had been captured by savage beasts! They probably could not even understand their blasphemous actions of touching a single strand of his mane!
Even worse, this explained why they had been allowed to get away with it. They were underground!
…The pegasi squad would be utterly useless in finding him.
It started to dawn on the noble, how utterly screwed he was, that is.
He was stuck, tied up and gagged, alone with… six… diamond dogs… in a tunnel… where the sun or the moon never shone.
He had to escape! He had to escape right now!
“You,” the same suave voice from before echoed, distinctively not coming from any of the canines. “Take him out of his cage; we need to show off our merchandise.”
M-merchandise?
What was being referred to here? The ‘cage’, as they had so elegantly put it, was bare of any goods. He was the only…
‘Oh Celestia!’ The prince thought, a cold nausea threatening to overwhelm him.
And things got worse.
From the front of the metallic carriage moved a brutish, thick, muscle only, guard-like dog. It seemed that not even the slightest bit of decency would be offered, as the thing got closer to him, both arms extended toward his tied up form. At that distance, especially as it was shrinking with every passing second, its foul odor was such a crime against aristocracy that no noble stallion would ever contemplate sharing a court room with it.
Blueblood’s reaction was as instinctive as it was blindly fast.
‘Don’t touch me, you filthy beast!’ He screamed mentally, while his telekinesis sent the dog hurling.
It knocked three diamond dogs straight off their feet, making the remaining three yelp in surprise.
A savage satisfaction, very unbecoming of a unicorn of his refinement, washed over him and he fought through his bindings with renewed strength.
Ah! Those stupid dogs may have gotten the upper hooves on him once, while he was in a weakened state, but this would not happen again!
His horn shone with blue light again, a perfect replica of the aura that picked up another dog to throw him out of his royal field of vision.
Hardiness bubbled inside him, as his ego eagerly accepted this enormous boost. Viper tongues be damned, Prince Blueblood was no fool and no useless idiot heir!
One of the remaining dog leaped toward him at full speed, yelling with a grating voice. The sight made him jump and he barely remembered to use his magic in time to-
“NO MAGIC!” The beast screamed, digging his claw into the prince’s royal cheeks.
The pain, so unusual to the noble, distracted him and made the flow of his magic flicker.
“WHITE PONY WILL GO QUIETLY!” The dog practically spat into the unicorn’s face.
Blueblood recoiled, equal part from the pain, the disgust and the fear.
He heard a ripping noise – that of fabric being torn apart – and his gag fell off, right as searing pain spread through his royal face.
Without thinking, the unicorn directed his magic toward his throat. “LET ME GO!” He yelled with the Traditional Canterlot Voice.
It was so powerful that the tunnel even gave a slight tremor from the shockwave. His aunt Luna would have been proud, if she did not have utter contempt for him…
The dogs, on the other hoof, fell face first into the ground, whimpering and covering their sensitive ears with their paws.
“STOP! TOO LOUD!” They all begged him.
Blinking, the noble finally saw the chance to be freed. A grin found its way to his lips and he mentally recovered the noble’s mindset, that of a pony that get what he wants when he wants it.
Before he could speak the smallest word though, a brown and white figure jumped him.
In a second, his face was against the metallic floor, with a heavy weight on his back and some sharp claws against his throat. He fought very hard against the reflex to gulp, fearing the cut that might end his life.
He barely registered that his assailant had the mixed features of a lion and an eagle, as the military had suspected.
“Well well well,” the griffon spoke, his voice identifying him as the leader of this brutish gang. “I must admit that you have more fight in you than I thought possible. You ponies are always so… peace loving.” He spat those last words as if they were a bitter meal, but none of that mattered to the bound stallion.
“Y-you…” Blueblood said slowly, trying not to cut himself. “D-d-do you know w-w-who I a-am?”
It would have been much more impressive had he not been shaking like a leaf.
“No. I do know what kind of pony you are though.” He leaned closer, to the point that the stallion could feel his breath on his neck. “You are a pathetic little noble born into a world of luxury, none of which you earned, with your every whims answered without question. I would bet my dogs that this was the first hardship you ever went through.”
P-pathetic?! HIM?! He was not just a little noble! He was the nephew of Princess Celestia AND Princess Luna, the Royal Pony Sisters, the alicorns that raised the sun and the moon over the world! Of course he was entitled to a little luxury; he was related to the greatest mare ever!
And hardships? Oh, he would like to see that insolent griffon try to survive Canterlot’s court and its population of cutthroat vultures. That ruffian would not last a DAY trying to fit in!
He kept his thought to himself, barely, because his first intake of breath had sent a quick flare of pain at the level of his throat. However, the fire that burned through the prince did not escape the griffon’s attention.
“My, I hit a nerve, didn’t I?” He chuckled. “How amusing. Ponies’ arrogance truly knows no bound. Is your little pride wounded?”
Blueblood did not know he could hate anyone more than that mare, but he was forced to recognized that this new humiliation called for blood!
“I think this is what I like best about this job: the disgrace.” His grip tightened, preventing the prince from moving any further, though he very dearly wanted to. “It’s almost poetic that I, a lowly griffon, gets to take you ponies down from your mighty pedestal, but really, the reality is so much more beautiful…”
Before Blueblood had the time to ponder his words, the griffon placed a blindfold over his eyes.
“I know your race well, pony,” he whispered. “You cannot use magic without at least some visual cues. Or spatial ones, if that blind unicorn was anything like the rest of you.”
A hit of incredible violence made his head spin the very next instant.
“You, get the other grunt. Our partner should not wait any longer.”
There was a brief moment, though, while Blueblood could not gather either his sense of balance or his resistance to pain, that his kidnapper took to gloat some more.
“I think they’ll like you.”
And the prince was visited by an overpowering feeling of dread.