//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Project Ascension // by TheMyth //------------------------------// Rainbow moaned as the world slowly came into focus. She saw... bricks. Bricks in the wall. She mentally cringed. She was in a cell, she knew it, at her mind instantly raced imagining everything somepony like Bloodwing could do to her. She felt something scratchy beneath her, and realized she was laying on hay. She felt a heavy weight on her neck, and two chains on her forelegs. She sighed, knowing better than to expect five star accommodations. “Um, Miss?” a small voice said. “Miss?” Her mind becoming more alert, she sat up. She looked around, and her gaze eventually met another pony’s. It was a colt, no older than Scootaloo at her estimation. He had a white coat that lacked a cutie mark, and a dirty blond mane. He was looking at his new cellmate carefully, as if unsure whether she was friendly. “Who are you?” Rainbow asked immediately. “And where am I?” “I’m Light Stream,” the colt answered. “And you’re at Bloodwing’s place in Canterlot.” Rainbow nodded. She checked herself over real quick. Other than the bruises Yellow had given her, she was still very much intact, so apparently Bloodwing hadn’t had time to operate on her. Her restraints kept her connected to the wall, apparently Bloodwing had no intention of letting her escape. Then a terrifying thought came to her. “Where’s Fluttershy!?” she asked in sudden panic. “I-I think I heard Black mumble something about a pony getting away,” he answered. Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, then we won’t be here long.” She looked back at the colt. “What are you doing here anyway? Are you another experiment?” Light shook his head. “Bloodwing keeps me in here to keep my brother working.” Rainbow Dash blinked. “You mean... your brother is one of the agents?” The colt nodded. “He’s called Red now. Please don’t hate him, he’s a good big brother, he just doesn’t want me getting hurt.” Rainbow’s brain was spiraling. Up until now the agents had been an interchangeable group of obstacles standing in the way of her rescuing Scootaloo. Hearing that one had a life outside of serving Bloodwing was a bit overwhelming. Rainbow Dash shook her head vigorously, “Ok, timeout! How did you and your bro end up with Bloodwing?” she asked him suspiciously, still a little wary of the new pony before her. Light sighed as his ears drooped, “I guess we weren’t born in the right place... we’re orphans. We ran away and did anything for food, mostly steal,” Light answered her hesitantly as he turned his head to the wall. “But we stole from the wrong pony and that cost us, Bloodwing took me as a bargaining chip and said if my brother worked for him for at least three years, he’d let us go.” Rainbow blinked and lowered her head to Light’s level, “When was this?” she asked him curiously. Light’s eyes became slightly moist, “Four years ago now,” he answered her, with his tone becoming sadder by the moment. For a split second, Rainbow was reminded of Scootaloo in her helpless state. This colt had to suffer for so long, and his brother had to do wrong things to keep him from harm’s way. “Why are you here, Miss?” he asked her as he raised his eyebrow in curiosity. Rainbow huffed slightly, “I’m here to get my daughter back from those creeps!” she answered him with a bravado she only displayed in seemingly hopeless situations. Light’s head turned slightly in confusion, “Um, Miss aren’t-” “Please, call me Rainbow Dash or just Rainbow,” Rainbow interrupted him with a smile on her face, not always being called ‘Miss’ by anypony in particular. “Miss Rainbow Dash,” Light corrected himself slightly, with Rainbow only rolling her eyes playfully at the colt’s everlasting politeness. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but aren’t you a little too young to be a mother?” Rainbow’s eyes widened as blood was rushing to her cheeks in that moment. “Um.. Light, how it goes... you see, Scootaloo isn’t my biological daughter but-” “Oh so you adopted her!” Light interrupted her with his answer. “Yeah you could say that.” Light smiled at the mare before him, “You must have a very kind heart to take in a pony as your daughter and get her back when she is kidnapped,” he said to Rainbow, who could not stop blushing at the colt’s words. “Did I say something wrong?” “No... it’s just...” she sighed. “The only reason Scootaloo’s in this mess is because of me. She told me everything that was going on, and I didn’t believe her. I let Black and Blue take her... nevermind. We’ll be free soon enough if Fluttershy got away.” Blue was carefully making his way across Canterlot, making sure not to be seen. It was unlikely the guards would know him on sight, but there was little reason to take chances, especially considering how far south things had gone since they had arrived in Canterlot. As he saw another platoon come, he ducked into an alley and waited for it to pass. “...Do they have any idea where she came from?” “No clue, though I hear Celestia had ponies doing research.” “Really? I’d have thought Sparkle would have figured things out by now.” “She’s going off to find the filly who was kidnapped. Refused to slow down for it.” “Hope nothin’ happens to her, she’s pretty cute.” “Better not let Captain Armor catch you saying that. The last pony that talked about what he wanted to do to her got KP for a year.” “Too bad, she’s one...” “Anyway, Captain Armor is going to interrogate her soon, thinks it’ll give them some idea on what to do when they storm...” They trotted away, and Blue’s hoof hit her head. It looked like a rescue mission was in order. Yellow was not having the best day. Being chained up and interrogated by the captain of the guards tended to do that to you. “How many agents are there? What are their powers?” “Well, my power is telling you to go buck your...” “Twilight?” Shining asked, turning to his sister. The lavender unicorn’s horn lit up, shooting a beam at their captive. Yellow felt light headed as the magic stopped. “It’s my wit dampening spell. It makes it impossible to concentrate. You’ll spill soon enough,” Twilight boasted. “Why did you want Spike?” Yellow started giggling uncontrollably at this question, “Celestia didn’t even tell you? Whoa, you really are her little lapdog. Did she get bored with you by any chance?” she asked her, though Twilight’s face reddened in anger at of this mare’s words. Shining trotted up to Yellow with glaring eyes that could petrify a hydra, “I suggest you answer the questions correctly,” he said to her in a hushed threatening whisper. Yellow just smiled playfully at him like a drunken mare, “You’ll just have me alone? I don’t wanna a bug-bucker like you!” she screamed as she rocked in the chair, but stopped as she shot her head upwards with her eyes wide open. “But your wife is more than welcome especially since her husband left her to rot all alone in those caves,” she answered him as she giggled further at Shining’s eyes that were now showing utmost fury. Shining’s hoof rose as he scowled at the mare before him, “Why you little-!” “Shining don’t!” Twilight yelled to him as her magic encased his hoof in place. “We need her to talk and she won’t if she is unconscious.” Yellow whistled at Twilight. “Wow you really are smart, aren’t you? Just a shame you don’t know what’s the deal with that made-up-dragon.” Twilight’s ears perked up at this, “What do you mean ‘made-up-dragon’?” she asked Yellow. “Oh come on!” Yellow exclaimed, “Are you really smart or just stupid in disguise?” she asked. “Look, remember that dragon hatching test you performed to get into that nice little school?” she asked her. “Of course I do! But Princess Celestia gave me a real egg to prove my magic,” Twilight answered her immediately. A snort leaked out of Yellow’s mouth that turned into hysterical laughter. Twilight frowned at the mare’s antics and her horn glowed slightly, “What’s so funny?” “You’re so gullible it’s unbelievable! You’ll believe anything that old hag says to you?! Wow! Do I have something to tell the others when I get out of here!” “Look, you, I want answers...” “And I’d like you to fall over dead. The difference between us is that I’m going to live long enough to get what I want.” Twilight’s horn lit up and struck Yellow again. The mare groaned as her world spun once more. “Where did Spike come from?” “...the whelp’s egg,” Yellow groaned, “was...” At that moment, Twilight was struck from behind by a blast of ice, knocking her into a wall and holding her in place. Panicking, Shining turned around, having just enough time to get a shield up before the beam hit him. “What the...” was Shining’s initial reaction. This was understandable, because the attack was coming from a member of the royal guard. It was even less understandable as the attacker was an earth pony. “Soldier, what are you...” At that point, his armor froze over, becoming brittle to the sudden drop in temperature. The image spell that the armor came with flickered out, revealing Blue, looking as stoic as ever. “...Agent Blue, I presume?” “You’ve heard of me? I'm flattered." “Don’t be, nothing I heard was good.” With another glow of his horn, a second shield formed around the agent, trapping him. “Two at once...” Blue muttered, a faint tinge of approval in his voice. “And your first shield doesn’t look any worse for the wear.” “Well, I didn’t get this cutie mark for nothing” Shining Armor said proudly. “Your buddy White was at least smart enough to keep moving, but you tried to stand still. Big mistake.” “Indeed,” Blue nodded. At that point, he let loose his powers. The previously transparent shield became opaque with frost and ice. “And you made it.” Shining didn’t have to ask why. The sheer amount of cold his magic was exposed to hurt. It was chilling beyond belief. He had never felt anything like it. It shouldn’t have been this bad. Finally, he couldn’t concentrate anymore. He dropped both shields, but shot forward, jumping slightly to the side to avoid the expected projectile of ice. Unfortunately, Blue was a tactician. He instead iced over the floor, seemingly by willing the ice into existence. With no traction, Shining slid right past him, slamming against a wall. He him letting out a groan as pain coursed through his body. He began to lose balance, and then he felt an even greater chill spreading over him. He saw that he was stuck against the wall in a block of ice, which he could not escape from no matter how much he tried. Before he could use his magic to thaw himself out, his horn froze over. When the ice encased his muzzle, Shining looked at Blue with absolute anger as he saw Blue walking up to him and had the look of satisfaction in his eyes, “That should hold you for a while. As for you...” he said as he turned to Twilight, who was filled with boiling rage at what she just saw. “You’re not getting away from here!” she yelled as she broke free of her icy restraints. She charged towards Blue, with her horn glowing dangerously. She shot a few beams at Blue, who simply dodged them as he looked on with boredom at the mare coming towards him. She came closer to him as he summoned more ice, attempting to both ice over the floors and coat himself in his element, almost like a suit of armor. Twilight wasn’t slowed, she leapt and levitated herself up, then charged her magic and shot him with her petrification spell. Her aim was true, it hit him on the chest and he was frozen in place. The mare grinned as she moved forward to Blue, who stood stock still in place. “That’s another agent we have for questioning,” she said as she turned to her brother, who strangely tried to shout at her with his pupils shrunk to the size of pins. Twilight was confused by this and decided to move closer to her brother. “I will leave you with nothing!” As soon as these words spoken, Twilight was hit with an ice ball that hit her hard against her frame and the ice started to spread across her body, as she looked down in terror at what was happening to her. Her horn was also not working, as she desperately tried to thaw herself out of this ice. She had never felt so cold in her life, and the ice continued to spread until it covered her whole body. Only her eyes and ears were left unfrozen as she could hear Yellow cackling, Twilight’s body refused to move. “So much for the Element of Magic, eh?” Blue simply trotted towards Yellow and stood in front of her chair with him generating a small ice pike. The ice impacted the locks of Yellow’s shackles, releasing her legs from their hold. When the final shackle fell to the floor, Yellow rubbed her legs with her hoof tenderly as she got up from her chair. “You’re lucky Bloodwing thinks you’re worth saving,” the earth pony muttered. “Aww, don’t be like that, Bluey,” she cooed, “rescuing me means we get to destroy...” They were cut off by a heavy blast of purple magic, which hit Blue in the back and sent him to the ground. Jumping high into the air, Yellow saw something amazing. Twilight had escaped, the ice melted around her hooves. She lit up her horn, firing another blast, but Yellow managed to dodge again. Blue looked at Twilight from the floor, showing an expression for the first time, one of utter shock. “H...how...” Twilight offered no answer, she simply fired once again.This time, the earth pony dodged. He turned to his partner, “Go.” Yellow shrugged. “If you insist,” she said as she flew out the door. “Stop!” Twilight yelled, turning to fire a blast at her. Blue took advantage of the distraction to use his power and launch an ice spear to Twilight. However, at that moment, Shining Armor broke free from his icy prison as he was motivated by both not letting his prisoner’s escape and by protecting his little sister. With a glow from his horn a shield formed around her, absorbing the attack. It pained the captain of the guard, but he held his ground. Blue looked enraged. “You got out... you...” He turned to fire at Shining. Twilight tried to take the opportunity, but as soon as the last attack was over Blue turned and fired at her. He kept going back and forth, attempting to break one of the two shields. “You can’t keep that up forever,” Shining told White as he keep his shield up. “I can keep these up longer than you can keep firing.” Blue suddenly stopped attacking and closed his eyes as he stood still. He started to breath slowly, with each breath frosting as though the atmosphere started freezing. Shining raised an eyebrow at what Blue was doing, but Twilight simply shot a beam at him with the opening he gave. When the beam was about to collide with Blue, it froze in the air and fell to the floor emitting a clink sound. Twilight looked on in fear at what just happened, “T-that’s impossible!” she shouted at Blue, who opened his eyes. His eyes were now glowing pure white and he let out a roar as ice started shooting out from his body to every space in the room. “BEGONE!” As lances of ice were being sent towards Twilight, she had to use every bit of her magic to block the oncoming ice. She was starting to get exhausted from her use of magic as her breathing became hoarse and her vision started to blur. Another piece of ice came towards her that she tried to block, but her magic would not work to stop it. As it came by a hair’s length away from her face, she could see the twisted smile forming on Blue’s face. “Now, you die.” The ice particle landed on the ground, immediately melting into water. “What?!” Blue shouted out as his ice attacks had no further effect on Twilight. Twilight’s fur began to sizzle slightly, until finally she burst into flames and became a living inferno. The flames were dancing off her, vaporizing all the ice around her and leaving scorch marks on the floor. Twilight looked up with nothing but absolute anger in her eyes to Blue, who only glared at her he sent more ice towards her. Twilight simply melted each one of them and shot more of her magic at Blue. Blue however was quick in dodging them and just continued attacking Twilight. She turned to him as he decided to slide behind her and attack from her rear. She vanished and he looked frantically around him, trying to located his target. He felt a nudged at his side and saw Twilight standing there, looking grimly at him. “Dodge this.” Before Blue could react, he was met with an intense heat coming from Twilight’s horn as it shot a beam of magic to him. He let out a sharp cry as he felt the intense heat of Twilight’s magic, it was the power of the sun itself. He flew backwards to the wall. He got up slowly and started huffing at the mare before him, who was no longer burning. “So even your magic is amplified by rage?” he remarked to Twilight, who slumped to the ground as her magic was near depletion. Blue started to walk towards her but stopped when his hoof shattered like ice itself. He looked down in horror as the rest of his body was turning to ice and started to break with even the slightest of movements he performed. Twilight and Shining looked at him with both wonder, disgust and fear at what was happening to his body. Blue tried to call out to them, but his head along with his body was now ice itself. It tilted and with it crashed to the floor, shattering to a million pieces. Twilight looked, carefully nudging the ice on the floor with her hoof. “Looks like he overextended his energy,” she noted. “Just like White, it was too much for him. That’s one less to worry about.” Shining nodded. “We need to catch up to Yellow. She’s our last lead in dealing with the rest of Bloodwing’s agents.” Much to Shining’s surprise, Twilight slumped to the floor. “You... you better go on without me. I’m tired, I used up too much energy. I’d be no good to you right now.” Shining nodded. “Don’t worry, I think my soldiers must have gotten her by now. She’s in a palace filled with guards and she’s not exactly a master of subtlety.” Shining Armor’s statement was half correct. Yellow was not a stealth expert, but that was because she didn’t need to be. At her highest speed, she went far too fast for any of the guards to catch up to her. An ever-growing squadron was chasing her down the halls, always just a step behind her. Yellow’s excellent banking was not helping, which let her turn corners tightly while leaving her pursuers tripping over themselves. “Come on, boys, you can do better than that.” “Stop this. Even if we can’t catch you, the Princesses are alerted to your presence, they will be here soon.” Yellow didn’t show it, but that made her nervous. Still, she couldn’t leave yet. She had to compensate her loss to be in Bloodwing’s good graces again, and she had the perfect idea. She turned another corner and picked up speed. Again, and again, she banked and turned until finally she came to the wing of the castle she had been looking for, the guest wing. She burst into the first room and found it empty. Not slowing down, she flew straight through the window, which, luckily for her, had been made out of safety glass and hadn’t cut her to ribbons. She banked around and flew into the room next to it. The guards who followed her out were lost for a moment, expecting to find her flying away. But Yellow knew it wouldn’t be for too much longer. They’d notice the second broken window soon, so she had to act fast. She flew back into the hallways, opening each door and looking inside. The first three she found empty, but in the fourth she found what she had been looking for. A small baby dragon was looking at her with wide terrified eyes, as were an earth pony and unicorn foal. Their playing cards they had been using had been forgotten upon hearing the ruckus in the hallway, and at this point it was clear their game would never be finished. “Perfect,” she said sultry as she approached the three youths, with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom standing behind Spike as he held his arms wide and acted as a shield for the filles. Smoke came out of his nose he glared at the threat before him, “What are you doing here?!” he demanded to know, as Yellow just came to a stop before him. Yellow chuckled wickedly as she saw the little whelp in defense before her, “I just let myself out, as my partner was dealing with the Element of Magic. Can’t say she will be looking pretty from now on, though,” she remarked as she looked on with pleasure at Spike’s growing anger. “If you’ve hurt my mom you’re gonna-” “Shut up!” In a flash she flew up to Spike and gave him a swift swipe with her hoof, hitting him in the side of the head and sending him to the floor. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell squealed in terror as they ran to hide under the bed, but she just rolled her eyes as she saw them, “Tell the others this: If they follow me, they’re dead,” she said blankly as she scooped up the stunned dragon and flew out the window just as the royal guards reached the room. When they arrived, they were met by the crying of two fillies by their feet. They were shouting at the same time with tears of fear rolling down their eyes and panic etched to their faces. The guards tried to calm them down as best as they could, but with no success at all. “What in tarnation is going on ‘ere?!” Applejack came pushing from behind the guards and Apple Bloom immediately ran to her. With Applejack instinctively scooping her up and tending to her frightened little sister. She was surprised by this, since Apple Bloom was always a difficult one to scare, even on NightMare Night. Rarity was right behind her, with Sweetie Belle whimper in her sister’s embrace as Rarity nuzzled her little sister to calm her down. Both Applejack and Rarity looked at each other with worried eyes and frowned slightly before they turned their attention to their little sisters. “What happened? Are you two alright?” Sweetie shivered for a moment before looking up at her older sister. “Y-Yellow was here.” “Oh goodness, are you okay? She didn’t hurt you, did she? I swear, if she did, I’ll...” “We’re fine,” Apple Bloom said. “But Spike ain’t. That Yellow took ‘em!” Both Rarity and Applejack tensed at this news. The guards exchanged worried murmurs. There was an uneasy shifting. Somepony was going to have to go tell the most powerful unicorn in existence that her son was just kidnapped. It was not going to be pleasant. Red triple-checked to make sure Bloodwing or Black weren’t still around. Then, he took the key and unlocked the cell door. Light and Rainbow Dash both looked at him with wide eyes. “Bro! You came! What’s going on?” “This has gone on long enough,” the pegasus said, walking over to his brother. He started to undo his bonds. “Bloodwing’s close to winning. Fortunately, everypony except him and Black are out. This will be our only chance to escape.” “Hold on,” Rainbow said. “After all that, you’re just turning around and running now? Where was this attitude before?” “Bloodwing had my bro captive. Luckily, he’s so near victory he’s gotten sloppy.”, he said as he unlocked his little brother’s final lock. Light then wrapped his forelegs around his brother’s neck in a hug. Red’s simply smiled as he patted his little brother’s back. After the hug, he moved over to Rainbow Dash and repeated the process. “We need to take this opportunity.” “We’re getting Scootaloo too,” Rainbow Dash said, as if she were stating a completely objective fact. “We might not have time...” “I’m not leaving without her,” Rainbow Dash snapped. “You two can go on if you want, but I’m not leaving without my daughter.” There was a moment of silence before Red sighed. “Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?” he asked himself before looking at Rainbow Dash, who looked sternly at him. “I guess I owe you that much...” “You owe me much more,” she said bluntly, “but rescuing Scoots will be a good start.” As Red undid the last bond, he nodded. “We better get going then, before the others realize something’s wrong.”