“How's the prisoner doing?” Garath asked, tucking his wings into his side as he returned from his latest patrol. He stretched lazily, groaning as his back popped loudly. He stood tall, relishing the feel of solid ground beneath his hooves after a long day of flying patrols.
“He's fine,” Zeo replied, glancing at the saddlebag hanging from Mordronous's side. His eyes darted to the gray unicorn’s face, wincing slightly at the look of sheer annoyance on it. His voice lowered a bit, glancing at their leader once more before turning his attention back to Garath. “He got a little rowdy while you were gone, though...”
“What do you mean by... rowdy?” Garath asked, turning his eyes toward the bulging saddlebag.
“Well... he...” Zeo started, frowning toward the saddlebag as Spike suddenly cut him off.
“Hey, ummm... sir? I need to use the little dragon's room again,” Spike said, his voice quivering timidly from inside the saddlebag.
“Again?! This will be the seventh time today!” Mordronous exclaimed, gritting his teeth as he glared at the bag on his back. He shook his head, replying with a dangerous edge in his voice. “You can just hold it.”
“Well...” Spike said, hesitating a bit before he continued. “Either I go behind a tree, or in your saddlebag. Your choice!”
Mordronous growled, his horn flaring brightly as he undid the clasp around his belly, quickly flipping the saddlebag upside down. Spike tumbled out of the bag, hitting the ground with a muffled groan.
As Spike picked himself off the ground, Mordronous said, “Alright. Go and do your... business behind those trees,” he directed, pointing to a small outcropping of trees with a raised hoof. “Don't try to escape though; I have several methods of tracking my... prey,” he growled, his eyes narrowing darkly as he shot the baby dragon an evil grin.
With a shiver, Spike jogged behind the trees, his claws held between his legs. “Sheesh.... that guy creeps me out. It's almost as if he WANTS me to try to escape.”
As soon as he was behind the treeline, he pressed himself against a tree, his claws glinting in the fading sunlight as he quietly scratched the letter “S” into the side of the tree, scraping away bark as fast as he could. He grabbed a bundle of leaves, sucking in a deep breath as he blew a light flame over the green plant life. They smoked lightly, curling in on themselves as the edges smoldered. He glanced toward the sun, hoping that Twilight would notice the subtle clues that he had been leaving over the last several stops.
Back on the road, Garath giggled to himself as he slung a wing around Zeo, pulling him off to the side as he whispered into his ear, “Hey, while we wait, I got something to show ya...”
With a curious and excited glint in his eye, Zeo followed Garath, quietly creeping away from Mordronous's scowling form. Once their leader was out of earshot, Garath arched his back and popped open his saddlebags with a wing. His tongue poked out between his lips as he rummaged inside his bags, a grin on his face as he succeeded in pulling out a pair of Twilight's panties; a slim-striped purple and black pair. He lifted them up to his face with a wing and inspected them, admiring his prize with star-struck eyes.
“Gimme some!” Zeo whispered, sticking his snout into Garath's saddlebag. He pulled a pair out of the small side satchel, laying them on the ground with a lecherous grin. He stared at the pair, shooting a sly grin at his companion before speaking. “Wow, these are nice... How many were you able to snatch?”
“Oh... enough.” Garath said, his voice tinted with mystery. “But that's not the best part!”
“Oh?” Zeo asked, cocking his head in confusion.
“You know what I found in her bed?”
“What?”
“Another mare, so you know what that means! She’s a fillyfooler!”
“So? That doesn't mean she's a fillyfooler. They could just be friends having a sleepover!” Zeo said, lifting an eyebrow as Garath shook his head. “What?”
“I don’t know if you saw this, but she had her foreleg draped over her as we opened the door...”
“Ohhh…wow, really?”
“What are you two blabbering about back there?” Mordronous yelled, glaring at the two stallions.
“Nothing!” Garath and Zeo quickly replied, hiding the panties from view.
“Why must I deal with these idiots...” Mordronous thought, his tail twitching as he tapped his foot impatiently.
Garath and Zeo hurriedly trotted back up to him, stowing the stolen panties back in Garath's saddlebag.
“Did you happen to see anypony following us on your patrol, Garath? At least he's good for something. I wonder if Lord Anthautu would notice if Zeo didn't... make it back...” He chuckled darkly, drawing strange looks from his companions.
“Not a soul!” Garath replied, holding his breath as Mordronous stared at him for a moment before turning away. He could have sworn his leader had seen the panties he'd stolen, but thankfully it seemed like he didn’t.
Mordronous eyed the setting sun, shaking his head slightly. “Alright, since we've put a... reasonable distance between ourselves and Ponyville, we should make camp for the night.” His horn flared and a tiny voice suddenly shrieked in surprise from behind the trees. A small purple dragon flew through the air, coming to a stop in the air beside the three.
Spike levitated beside Mordronous as he led the group off the road, heading deeper and deeper into the forest. Coming upon a small clearing, Mordronous spoke, “Here is where we will make camp for the night. Zeo, go gather some firewood. Garath, dig us a fire pit. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a cold night tonight.”
With Garath and Zeo busying themselves with their tasks, Mordronous dealt with their prisoner. He roughly shoved Spike against the base of a tree, holding him in place with his magic. Mordronous dug around in his bag for some rope, a dark smile on his face as he tightly bound the young dragon to the tree. He turned away from Spike, turning just in time to see Garath finishing the fire pit. He stepped towards the newly-constructed pit, stretching his hooves out before him as he laid down. He relaxed on his belly, his head lying across his outstretched forelegs. He closed his eyes, reviewing their plan in his head.
So far their mission was a success. They had to make it all the way back to the Crystal Empire though, and that was still several hundreds of miles away; at least a several week journey on hoof. Thankfully, they didn't have to hoof it all the way back to the cult's place of gathering.
The original plan was for them to snag Spike, cast a sleeping spell on him, and make it out of the town without being discovered. With the dragon asleep, they would conceal him inside a saddlebag and hop on a train to the Crystal Empire the next morning. However, their discovery had thrown a wrench in their plans. Since they had been discovered, everypony would be on the lookout for the three of them, which meant that taking the train was simply out of the question.
As much as he didn't want to, he knew he would have to make use of the long-range teleportation spell Lord Anthautu had taught him. He had practiced the spell enough to be able to cast the spell in a moment's notice, but he had never attempted to bring anypony else with him, let alone two full-grown stallions and a baby dragon.
The normal teleportation spell called on his own internal magic, as most spells did. However, with the others added into the spell, he would have to harness their life force to be able to pull the spell off correctly. He had to be careful though. For the spell to work correctly, he had to draw on the exact amount of energy from the others, taking care not to take too much of it. If he did, they would die... slowly and painfully. If he took too little energy, the spell would send them off course, leaving him too tired to reattempt the spell, and most likely too lost to make it back to the cult's headquarters before the eve of the summer solstice.
Spells that drew energy from others had long since been banned by Princess Celestia, due to the obvious danger of death. The princess had spent years destroying the existence of any spells that ran along these lines, due to the fact that it was essentially black magic in inexperienced hooves.
He opened his eyes, scratching at the dirt before him with a hoof as he calculated the distance and energy needed to move them from hills outside Ponyville to the Crystal Empire. Teleportation was a tricky branch of magic to deal with, especially long-range teleportation. The caster would have to have intimate knowledge of their destination, along with unwavering focus. He would have to charge just the right amount of energy into his horn for the spell to work, with very little room for error. Too little energy, and they would never make it to their destination, too much... and they might never reappear.
His mind wandered as he scratched details into the dirt, thinking back to his attempts to master teleportation spells when he had just joined the cult. Lord Anthautu had warned him of the dangers of practicing indoors, and he forbade him and anypony else from practicing in the caves. He had practiced in a large field, mastering the ability to gauge how much magic would be needed to move from one spot to another. You could easily miscalculate the distance needed, causing you to mistakenly reappear inside walls or in between floors. It usually resulted in a quick death, and it definitely was not painless.
The sounds of twigs snapping broke him out of his thoughts. He jumped to his hooves, his horn alight with a gray aura as the noises grew closer and closer. Knowing that it was only Zeo returning with firewood, Mordronous grit his teeth as his horn flared brighter, pointing his horn directly at the source of the noise. If he was quick, he could probably make this look like an accident.
As Zeo neared the campsite, Mordronous took aim, his horn crackling with a bolt of lethal magic. Garath sprang in front of him, waving his forelegs as he yelled, “No, wait! That's just Zeo!”
“Your point?” Mordronous asked, his voice heavy with disdain. He released his magic, letting it fade away. He laid down with a groan as Zeo trotted past him, dumping the a good amount of the wood into the dug-out fire pit.
With a quick flash, Mordronous lit the wood, shaking his mane as the fire roared to life, its warmth spreading to the three of them. Within seconds they had a full fire going, providing a small measure of warmth against the chilly night.
As the three of them gathered around the fire, Mordronous pulled out a few loaves of bread, his horn flaring as he passed them around. Not having eaten the whole day, Zeo quickly dug into the bread, scattering crumbs all over the ground as he chowed down.
Garath took a few bites from his bread, his ears twitching as a low growl sounded from behind him. He dropped his bread, leaping into the air as he spun around, his eyes searching for the source of the sound, but all he saw was the tiny dragon sitting tied to the tree.
“Hehe... sorry about that. I haven't eaten anything since last night...” Spike said, wincing as his stomach let loose another deep rumble.
“Ha! Sounds like the little guy's a little hungry,” Zeo laughed, poking a hoof at the dragon. “Too bad there isn't any food for him!”
As Spike's stomach grumbled again, he clenched his fist as hunger pangs bit at the bottom of his stomach. “Please! I'll do anything, just give me a little food!” Spike begged, blinking back tears. He had never experienced hunger pangs like these before, since Twilight had always made sure that he was very well fed.
Garath frowned as he looked at the hungry dragon, pity welling up inside him. As a young colt, life had been hard for him and his younger sister. His parents had died when he was young, and he had been forced to grow up a lot quicker than all of the other colts his age. He stared at Spike, his eyes glazing over as he seemingly looked through the baby dragon.
He had to stop going to school to be able to raise his sister, which meant he had to find a job. Thankfully, somepony hired him at a small general store; a gentle mare with a tender heart. She wasn't able to pay him much, but it was just enough for him and his sister to get by. There were several occasions where he went hungry, just so his sister could eat. He knew the pains of hunger, but he gladly endured them so his sister wouldn't have to.
Garath grinned lightly, stepping forward to give Spike half of his bread. He broke off a chunk of it, and held it out to the baby dragon, but just as he was about to hand it over, the bread was knocked from his hoof by a gray aura. He stared at the fallen bread in shock, and turned to face Mordronous with a frown.
“Hey, what gives?!? He’s hungry!” Garath said indignantly.
“The prisoner gets no food. Besides, he’s going to be sacrificed in a couple of days; he doesn’t need food where he’s going...” Mordronous responded ominously.
“SACRIFICED!?!?!?” Spike yelled, hyperventilating. “What the hay do you mean SACRIFICED?!?!?!”
“Ohhh, you are going to be offered to the old gods in a blood ritual that might bring back our king, the beloved King Sombra,” Zeo said, licking his hoof nonchalantly as he spoke.
“You better watch your tongue, Zeo, lest I cut it out for speaking such blasphemy. Our king WILL return once we perform the sacrifice, and he will reward us, his ever-faithful servants,” Mordronous said, glaring at Zeo. Turning his attention back to Garath, he said, “Sit down Garath, and let our prisoner rot in his misery.”
Grumbling to himself, Garath picked his bread up off the ground, brushed the dirt off of it with a wing, and rejoined the other two around the fire. As he sat there feeling sorry for their prisoner, an idea slowly formed in his mind.
“Wait, did something just move there?” Garath hesitantly asked, pointing into the forest with a hoof behind Mordronous.
“What?” Mordronous’s head spun around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. His eyes narrowed as he stared into the darkness. “Where?”
“There!” Garath yelled, shaking his hoof at some invisible object.
Jumping to his hooves, Mordronous lit his horn to use as a light and plunged into the forest to investigate. As soon as his leader stepped out of the small clearing, Garath quickly flew over to Spike and placed what was left of his bread in his claws.
Looking up at him with curious eyes, Spike gratefully mouthed the words, “Thank you,” and wolfed down the bread, scattering crumbs all over the place.
“Garath! What do you think you’re doing?!?” Mordronous barked, quickly returning from his brief search. He stomped towards Garath, poking the pegasus in the chest with his hoof.
Thinking quickly, Garath brushed the bread crumbs away with his back hoof, and he hurriedly replied, “Ummm... making sure the prisoner is secure, sir! I figured you would want us to watch him while you went off.” He glanced around uneasily and continued. “So, uhhh... did you find whatever it was out there?”
Mordronous stared at him suspiciously for a few moments before sighing. “Ugh... I have no idea what you saw, but whatever it was, it's long gone.” He fought back a yawn as he wondered if Garath was messing around with him. “Alright everypony, time to get some shut-eye. Zeo, I’ll wake you up in a few hours, so get some rest and wake up Garath when your shift is over.”
He returned to his place next to the fire, its flames holding the night’s cold embrace at bay. Mordronous glanced up and watched the moon slowly make its way across the night sky, its pale light dancing through the treetops, knowing that it was going to be a long night.