Fleur de Knot : Part 2
‘Fleur? Is that you?’ Shining Armor asked.
‘Shining Armor?’ came Fleur de Lis’s voice, ‘I can’t see a thing in here.’
‘Me neither,’ Shining Armor replied, ‘hold on, I’ll light up my horn.’
‘Is anypony else here?’ Fleur de Lis inquired.
‘I don’t think so,’ Shining Armor responded, ‘but keep your voice down; we don’t want those creatures to hear us.’ Shining Armor’s horn lit up dark pink which he changed into a clear light.
‘Those holes we went through must have transported us to different places,’ said Fleur de Lis, ‘but why did the holes close . . ?’
‘Never mind that,’ Shining Armor replied hurriedly, ‘we have to find a way out of this place and find the others.’
‘Are you alright?’ Fleur de Lis asked, noticing that Shining Armor was rather breathless.
‘I’m just so worried about Cadence,’ Shining Armor confessed, ‘what if that creep finds her before we do? She could be all alone!’
‘I’m worried too,’ Fleur de Lis admitted, ‘but it is quite likely that she’s with Steamer or Joe, maybe even both of them.’
Shining Armor gave a hopeful smile.
‘Besides,’ Fleur de Lis continued, ‘the hole she went through probably closed like ours did which would make it harder to find her.’
*
‘Joe! Get your horn out of my side!’ muttered Steamer, ‘presuming that it is you, Joe.’
‘Yep,’ Joe mumbled, ‘it’s me. Hey, I can almost see you now! I’ll light up my horn.’
‘That’s better,’ commented Steamer, ‘Hey, Joe, look!’
‘What is it?’ Joe inquired.
‘The hole’s disappeared, Joe! Do you think it means something?’ Steamer exclaimed, ‘I mean, why . . .’
‘Yeah,’ said Joe, ‘it means they can’t follow us! Did you hear the hour strike, or was it just me?’
‘Joe, that’s it! The holes! I reckon they change their outlet location every hour!’ Steamer told him, evidently pleased with himself.
‘I reckon you’re right, Steamer,’ Joe responded, ‘hang on, we shouldn’t be talking about holes! We need to find the others!’
‘Especially Cadence,’ Steamer added, ‘that creature in charge had something against her, I reckon.’
‘More like he had it in for her, but, well, whatever it was,’ Joe said, ‘Shining Armor wasn’t too happy about it!’
‘With any luck,’ Steamer replied, ‘Cadence is with Shining Armor. I’m worried about Fleur myself. What did those creatures want with her in the first place anyway?’
*
‘Next time I see that creep,’ Shining Armor growled, ‘he’s so going to pay!’
Fleur de Lis wasn’t so sure now that it had been such a good idea telling Shining Armor what she knew and what she had seen.
‘Did you say twenty nine?’ Shining Armor asked, ‘Twenty nine! How is that even possible?’
‘The main reason is the length of time each of them lasted . . .’ Fleur de Lis explained.
The two of them increased their speed.
*
‘You don’t think they make pony sacrifices around here, do you?’ Joe asked Steamer.
‘Why?’ Steamer inquired anxiously.
‘Haven’t you noticed there’s a particularly large amount of blood on these walls in this area?’ Joe said nervously.
‘Hey! What’s that!’ Steamer exclaimed.
It looked like there was some kind of monument a little further down the corridor. They hurried over to it. There were twenty nine pictures, five in each row, except the last row which only had four. Each row had five names, under each name, except on, was an inscription saying . . .
‘Lasted four weeks!’ Joe gasped, ‘lasted ten days!’
‘The earlier ones seemed to have lasted longer,’ Steamer pointed out, ‘a few years, for the ones here. The longest lasted four and a half years.’
‘There’s no picture for the thirtieth one,’ said Joe, ‘but there is a name. Move a bit, Steamer, I can’t see.’
Once Steamer had moved, the two of them gasped.
‘Maybe it’s a name coincidence,’ suggested Joe, hopefully. Steamer shook his head. ‘But she’s far too young,’ Joe spluttered, ‘if this is what I think it is, I mean, they’re all female and young. It’s illegal . . !’
‘Maybe by our laws, but theirs?’ replied Steamer, ‘And besides, if he’s the one in charge, he can probably do whatever he wants.’
‘That explains his attitude to Cadence,’ Joe told him, ‘and that also explains why Shining Armor acted the way he did, I mean, you can’t really blame him, can you!’
The two colts turned to see Shining Armor and Fleur de Lis trotting towards them.
‘Oh, great,’ Shining Armor sighed anxiously, ‘she’s not with you two either! Cadence is all on her own!’
‘We’ll find her, Shining Armor,’ said Fleur de Lis reassuringly, ‘don’t worry.’
*
Cadence was very alone, and very frightened, but was determined to find the others and escape. They would surely be worried about her, especially Shining Armor. She was very much aware of each step she took, and every single tiny noise made her feel chilled to the bone with fear. It was very hard to see, and each shadow she came to could belong to Raven Mocker, or, perhaps, he might jump out at her, having been hidden in the shadows.
Cadence wiped a frightened tear from her eye. She wasn’t frightened of him forcing her to give in, because she was determined not to, she was frightened of what he might do to her to try to force her to give in.
She gave a shudder. Raven Mocker was so big and strong that she was practically defenseless against him, only somepony like Shining Armor stood a chance. Could she use wit against him? She doubted it, he seemed too clever.
Cadence dared to light up her horn, turned a corner and found herself face to face with Lamia and Arachne. Cadence let out a horrified gasp.
‘Well, well, what do we have here?’ Arachne sneered, ‘A poor, lost, little, princess! Whatever shall we do?’
‘Did you miss us?’ Lamia added nastily, ‘we’ve been looking everywhere for you.’
‘Raven Mocker will be very pleased,’ Arachne continued with a most unpleasant smile, ‘there’s no point in trying to run away!’
‘You’re ours now, princess!’ Lamia said wickedly.
‘You, you don’t have to do this, you know,’ Cadence told them while trying to keep the panic out of her voice as she backed away.
‘We want to!’ came their cruel tones, ‘we’ve got you!’
Cadence desperately tried to think. She suddenly noticed a small rock some distance behind the two creatures in the corridor. She quickly raised it with magic, then let it fall. The noise was distraction enough for Arachne and Lamia to turn their heads for a moment. This allowed enough time for Cadence to run towards them, jump, and, aided by her wings, land a small distance behind them.
Cadence ran, ran blindly, ran as fast as she could.
‘You can’t run forever!’ Cadence heard Lamia shout from not too far away.
Cadence knew that if she didn’t do something, or find somewhere to hide very soon, she would most certainly be caught.
Suddenly, a foreleg was around her middle, a hoof over her mouth. She tried to shout, she tried to struggle.
‘Be quiet and stop struggling unless you want to get us both caught!’ whispered a female voice, ‘I mean you no harm, I’m trying to help you escape from Raven Breath!’
Cadence looked up to see, to her surprise, that she was being held by what seemed to be a turquoise filly not much older, or bigger, than she was. The filly let go of her and Cadence stared. Was this filly a prisoner or something?
‘Follow me,’ the filly, who seemed to be an earth pony without a cutie mark, said hurriedly, ‘quickly as you can and keep quiet!’
Cadence nodded nervously and breathlessly. Cadence followed the mysterious filly down various passages, without meeting anything, until the filly stopped at one of the walls. She pushed at it, revealing a loose panel. Cadence hurried through the gap, into a small chamber. The other filly hurried after her. Cadence had thought the other filly was an earth pony, but now Cadence saw that she had a horn.
‘You’ll be safe here,’ the filly told her, ‘I don’t think even Raven Droppings knows about this chamber.’ Cadence managed a smile.
‘Thank you for saving me,’ Cadence said.
To Cadence’s surprise, the other filly looked at the ground.
‘I don’t normally help ponies,’ the filly admitted, ‘I can’t afford to. But no-pony, no creature, deserves to become one of that creep’s wives.’
‘One of them?’ Cadence asked, slightly alarmed.
‘You didn’t know?’ the filly replied, ‘he’s had twenty nine so far. He must think you’re something pretty special. He’s always been picky, but even more so with the round numbers, but then, I suppose, a very pretty, young alicorn, like yourself, would be quite a gem in his, uh, collection . . .’
‘What happened to them all?’ Cadence inquired, shaking slightly.
‘He killed most of them,’ responded the filly, ‘most of them were beaten to death for one reason or another; he lost interest, he wanted to re-marry, she wouldn’t do as she was told, said anything against him or complained in the slightest way, that kind of thing. Quite a few of them were treated like complete dirt from the beginning, once he had forced them into marriage, often encouraged other to treat them badly too. Some might as well have been his slaves, the way he treated them. Number ten, True Star her name was, pretty tragic. She only married him in order to save her foal after he ponynapped her. She was already engaged, you see, and pregnant. True Star didn’t trust him though. As soon as her little yellow filly could crawl, True Star helped her to escape. No-pony knows what happened to that foal, but what is known to some degree is the terrible treatment True Star received for her actions.’
‘But,’ Cadence stammered, ‘how did he get in power in the first place?’
‘Quite simple,’ the filly began, ‘these creatures, in normal circumstances, have a queen. A queen is born to be the most evil, cleverest and often most intimidating. Due to the mutated state of this particular bunch, they had to break off from their swarm. Raven Mocker possessed, at least, after his mutations, the qualities that a queen would possess. He therefore became the, uh, prince, king, emperor? Whatever he calls himself these days.’
‘Has anypony he pursued ever got away?’ Cadence asked anxiously.
‘No,’ replied the filly, ‘but there’s always a first time.’
‘I suppose,’ Cadence responded sleepily and miserably, ‘and I do have Shining Armor and the others looking for me . . .’
‘Who’s Shining Armor?’ the filly inquired.
‘Well,’ Cadence answered, ‘he’s not my coltfriend, but he almost is.’ Cadence gave a yawn.
‘Maybe you should have a short sleep,’ the filly suggested, ‘I’ll wait outside in case your friends turn up.’
‘Thank you,’ said Cadence, who was exhausted from running and fright, ‘what is your name?’
‘It’s Nova, short for Supernova,’ the filly told her, ‘but don’t tell anypony that I helped you.’
Cadence was too sleepy and too tired to wonder why. Her eyes drooped, and soon she was fast asleep.