//------------------------------// // A Way Out // Story: Some Redemption // by Cupzy //------------------------------// "Twilight dear. We're at the castle." A voice said. Twilight opened her eyes, allowing a long yawn to escape her throat. She looked over to Rarity's side, noticing that she was nudging Twilight gently. "Ah, You're awake! We've arrived at the castle, Twilight." Rarity said. Twilight raised her head to look out of the chariot, sure enough, the enormous castle was staring her straight in the face. "Thank you for telling me Rarity." Twilight said groggily. Rarity let out a small giggle at Twilight's sleepiness and proceeded to exit the chariot, making sure to help Twilight down in case she accidentally fell out. Luna had just raised the moon, and several stars adorned the night sky. Twilight smiled at the sight before walking to the castle doors along with the rest of her friends. The guards that were stationed on each side of the large doors that led into the castle stood aside, where the doors were thrown open dramatically, revealing none other than Princess Celestia. Twilight, still on the sleepy side, rushed up to Celestia and gave her a hug. "It's good to see you again, Princess!" Twilight exclaimed, happy to see her mentor. Celestia returned the hug with great enthusiasm, giving Twilight and the rest of the Elements Of Harmony a warm smile. "I'm so glad you could all make it on such short notice. But I'm afraid there isn't any time for pleasantries, a huge threat looms over Equestria as we speak. Come inside, we can talk more in the throne room." Celestia announced. The element bearers nodded and followed Celestia into the castle. Meanwhile, back in the dungeons, Storm was beginning to regain consciousness. He had trouble remembering how many times he had been knocked unconscious in the same day. He tossed the thought aside, saving it for another day. The same guards were stationed outside of the cell, one of them was holding a plate in their hoof. "The Queen don't want you to die just yet. So she told us to feed you every day or so. Don't blame us if we forget, though." One of the guards explained, letting out a slight snicker at the end of his sentence. The guard unlocked the door quickly and threw the plate inside, locking the door again all within a second. Storm stared at the substance that rested on the plate, it was the grey mush that he had been forced to eat when he was still with the Banished. Storm decided out of pure will to ignore the food, he was sure that the mush actually caused more diseases than it helped prevent, And the taste leaves much to the imagination. He pushed the plate away and stood up, brushing off whatever filth that dirtied his coat. Now that he was fully awake, it gave him a better chance to explore the cell, and hopefully find a way to escape. The only thing that served to intrigue him were the signs written on the walls, which comprised mainly of the words "HELP ME" or "LET ME OUT" one in particular that said "IF YOU WON'T END IT, I WILL" seemed to unnerve Storm. His stomach growled, but he didn't want to eat the food, paranoid that it might contain some sort of weakening poison. "If you're wondering about those sentences on the walls, they were actually written by another pony who tried to betray us. As a matter of fact, I don't think I ever saw him die, one day he was writing those messages on the walls, and the next day he was gone. Must've died from blood loss, considerin' all those messages he wrote." The guard chipped in. Storm's ears perked up at this, did that pony find a way out of the cell? Considering how these dungeons were almost never cleaned, his decaying corpse should be in the cell if he had died in it. Storm walked up to a wall, and, on a whim, started pushing randomly at the cobblestone walls, hoping that a loose brick would help him on his way. "You know, you could probably use the energy in that food if you're planning to escape." The guard shouted. Storm slowly drew his hoof away from the wall, shooting a menacing glance at the guard as he did so. The guard simply shrugged his shoulders and went back to his duties. Storm went back to pushing randomly at the bricks, praying to Celestia that at least one brick would be loose. After several minutes of searching, he was about to give up when a random brick gave way to Storm's hoof, making a large grinding noise as it moved backwards. Storm couldn't believe his luck, he quickly backed away from the brick, afraid that the guards would notice it. Surely they had to have some kind of break from their guard duties, which would be the perfect opportunity to see what was behind the brick. Storm went back to investigating the rest of the cell for about an hour, when he eventually heard one of the guards speak up. "Hey. You want to go take a lunch break?" One of the guards said. The other responded with a nod, they both started to walk away, Storm peered out of the bars that held him in the cell until he was sure the guards were far away. He quickly pulled himself away from the bars, rushing over to where he found the loose brick. He pushed the side of the brick, turning it around to face him. He used his good hoof to grab the side of the brick, pulling it as hard as it could go. He dashed away just in time before the brick made contact with the ground, denying any future incidents with heavy bricks landing on his hoof. He walked up to the hole that the brick had left, an extremely dark tunnel led to Celestia knows-where, but it was Storm's only chance at escape. He used his good hoof to grab the ledge to the hole, putting his broken hoof on the other side of the ledge, putting extremely small pressure on it. He caught the rest of his leg on the ledge using his good hoof and pulled himself up. He scrambled to fit the rest of his body into the extremely small hole. Once he had gotten into a crawling position. He started using his good hoof to drag him along the hole. "What is that awful smell?" Storm thought to himself, his nostrils being filled with a pungent stench. His broken hoof was constantly in pain, being dragged along the large majority of his bulk as he used his good hoof to drag himself along. The smell became more apparent as Storm continued deeper into the hole, he eventually felt his hoof touch something soft and cold. He concentrated for a small moment, before he conjured a small fire in between him and the obstacle. He almost gagged at what he saw once his eyes had adjusted to the light; A dead pony, male, from what Storm could tell, his flesh was decayed and rotten, and some small rats were scurrying around the corpse. Storm looked away from the repulsive sight, before noticing something else. There was more writing on the wall, but it was a small paragraph written over the large majority of the wall that Storm was looking at. I thought I had found a way out... But I'm too tired to continue... I can't see any sign of me ever getting out of here... The blood loss from me writing this will surely be enough to end my life... If anypony is reading this... Then you've probably been imprisoned as well and managed to find your way in here somehow... But... I'm not sure if there's an ending... Please... If you're well fed, and are still up to the task, considering you had the strength to move the brick that led in here, surely you must have enough strength to push my probably decaying corpse away... I can feel my vision fading... I can only hope Celestia will forgive my sins in the afterlife... Goodbye, whoever you are... I'll probably see you soon... The last letter of the paragraph drew a long blood line down to where the stallion's hoof was. Storm had no other choice but to try and squeeze past the stallion. And in a confined space like this, he didn't have much maneuvering space... Back at the castle, Twilight, Celestia and Redblade had just finished explaining the entire story to Twilight's friends, taking up a good couple of hours. "So... That's how Storm and I met. And that's why we need to make a plan of action." Twilight explained. Twilight's friends took in the story with every breath, and she had started to sound like Rarity when she was in one of her romantic moments with Storm. "Yeah! Let's go kick that Queen's flank!" Rainbow shouted enthusiastically, doing a quick hoof-pump in midair. "Yes, but we should devise a plan for this situation. Who knows when The Queen intends to begin her attack? We must act quickly." Celestia announced. "What do you suggest, Princess? We can't simply stroll into the forest by ourselves." Twilight replied. "Well of course not Twilight, I would be more than obliged to send a large portion of the Equestrian royal guard along with Redblade to assure your safety." Celestia explained. "If my memory serves me correctly, I should be able to lead us to the mansion that The Queen somehow managed to convert into a castle." Redblade said. "If this all goes according to plan, we should be able to drive the Banished from Equestria, and return home with Storm in one piece." Celestia continued. The plan was perfect, the Banished could never overpower the Equestrian royal guard, and they had the elements of harmony to stop The Queen. "Speaking of which... Princess? Where exactly are the elements of harmony." Twilight asked. Just then, the doors to the throne room were thrown open, and an extremely upper-crust looking butler who was carrying a golden box on a garnished red pillow started to make his way towards Twilight and her friends. He bowed his head once he had reached a respective distance, and presented the golden box to Celestia. Due to her pregnancy, Celestia had trouble lifting the small box with her magic. "Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of the element bearers. I present to you, the elements of harmony." Celestia announced, the lid of the box was magically opened, revealing several regal-looking pieces of jeweler that bore each of the element bearer's cutie marks. Twilight felt herself being filled with good memories when she lifted the necklaces out of the box. She deposited the necklaces to each of her friends, who promptly fitted them over their necks. All that was left in the end was a golden tiara with Twilight's cutie mark embedded on it. She smiled as she fitted the tiara onto her head. "It's been a while since we wore these..." Rainbow said, fiddling with her element with a smile on her face. "Now that you all have your respective elements, we can finally move into the Everfree Forest." Celestia announced. The plan was all coming together, Twilight and her friends were once again called upon to decide the fate of Equestria. Twilight was about to use her magic to pull her and her friends into a group hug when a loud *CRASH* was heard in the throne room. The aura around Twilight's horn faded as she looked behind her to see what the cause of the noise was. One of the stained glass windows in the throne room had been shattered, countless pieces of broken glass collided with the floor. The glass wasn't the only problem that had just arose, however. Around ten ponies stood in a V shape where the window was shattered, wearing tinted red armor with a small black pentagram etched onto the side of the flank. The collection of ponies were all Pegasi, with the exception of the pony in the middle, who was a Unicorn, and was significantly more armor-clad than the rest of his brethren. Redblade wasted no time in identifying the culprits, a large battle axe materialized into his hooves. The Banished Unicorn smiled weakly at the sight of Redblade. "The rumors were true... *Ahem* I am the captain of the Banished warriors, a race of ponies superior than those of Equestrian birth. We serve none other than our glorious Queen, who has decided that tonight, we shall rise from our homes and take our rightful place in royalty." The captain announced. "You shall do no such thing!" Celestia boomed, a small fraction of her Equestrian royal voice coming back. "I suppose you leave me with no other choice, Princess. If you do not comply, then we will simply have to use force to aid us in our crusade. My fellow warriors, seize the Princess. And leave no trace of that traitor, Redblade. The "elements of harmony" could also do with being erased from this planet." The captain ordered. The warriors surrounding the captain spread their wings, taking off and immediately dashing towards Celestia. Redblade was the first to react, jumping in front of Celestia and using his battle axe to chop down any Pegasi who tried to reach her. Twilight and her friends had also started fighting against the Pegasi warriors, with the exception of Fluttershy and Rarity, who rushed to the nearest corner and hugged each other in frightened terror. Celestia herself couldn't do anything, with her pregnancy nearly disabling her use of magic. Luna was likely out cold, having to deal with raising the sun AND moon everyday. One of the Pegasi warriors managed to land a lucky shot, hitting Redblade in his front hoof, causing him to drop his battle axe. The elements of harmony were also getting rather tired, Rainbow and Applejack's punches and kicks weakened, Twilight was getting exhausted from using so much magic. And Pinkie's party cannon had ran out of... Well... Party. With the elements and Redblade distracted, the captain ran towards Celestia, his horn emitting a black aura as he did so. After a few seconds of Redblade recovering his battle axe, he looked back to see both Celestia and the captain being engulfed in a bright light. The light was bright enough to draw the attention of everypony in the room, even the ponies that were fighting stopped to see what was going on. After a few seconds, the light faded away, and neither the captain nor Princess Celestia could be seen. The Pegasi warriors took their chance and started to retreat, one of them taking the liberty of shattering another stained glass window on his way out. Everpony was left speechless, the event happened almost as quickly as it had begun. The first sign of any kind of reaction was Redblade slamming his hoof against the floor angrily. "Celestia... No..." He muttered under his breath. A small tear managed to escape from his eye, once again tinted red from the reflection of his own mane. He took action almost immediately, galloping towards the throne room exit, but he was stopped by Twilight jumping in front of him. "Where are you going?! The Princess had just been ponynapped!" Twilight shouted. "I'm going to gather up the royal guard, we're going to the Everfree forest to save Celestia!" Redblade retorted. Twilight let out a small "oh" before Redblade barged past her, shouting throughout the hallways of the castle for the royal guard to assemble outside of the castle. Twilight was still confused by the whole situation, and it took her a few moments to piece together the events in her mind. "Alright, Storm's dream was accurate, the Banished just barged into the castle along with their captain and somehow managed to capture Celestia... Calm down Twilight, calm down. We still have the plan, we still have the plan. All we have to do is get to the Everfree Forest and stop The Queen before she can launch an attack on Canterlot!" Twilight thought to herself, formulating a plan in her head. They had to get to the Everfree Forest quickly, it wasn't just for Storm now, the entire fate of Equestria was now on the line. The elements of harmony trotted up to Twilight, all with bewildered expressions on their faces. "What just happened?!" Rainbow shouted. At that moment, Redblade came galloping back into the throne room, panting heavily. "I've... Warned the royal guard... We should head to the front of the castle and... Explain the situation." Redblade said in between pants of breath. "Come on girls! We need to get to the Everfree Forest, and fast!" Twilight said before galloping towards the entrance to the castle, leaving the mares behind, still bewildered by the situation at hand.