The two ponies – one blue pegasus and one blue earth pony – rounded another corner and trotted along the hallway behind it. A few ponies in the cells to each side looked after them with interest but said nothing. They already had been freed once today, but with the dragon guarding the exit and all the other beasts running around, the cells were the only place on this level that was guaranteed to be safe.
“So you’re saying that your whole cell door just fell over because you happened to bump against it?” Sanji asked.
“You’d be surprised how often things like that happen to me,” Clutterstep replied. They kept walking for a while until he spoke up again. “What about you? How did you get out of your cell?”
“I didn’t, actually,” Sanji said. “I’m breaking into this prison to help my captain rescue his brother. That’s why I will be going further down when we reach the stairs. If you want to try and escape the prison, you’re on your own for now.”
“Really? That’s pretty– Whoa!” The two ponies stopped in their tracks. Before them, the hallway led to a huge room, with a pair of stairs leading up and down respectively on the other side. In the center of the room the floor was completely gone and a gaping hole led down to the next level, presumably.
The ponies stepped closer to the edge of the hole to look down into the dark. “Taking that way might actually be safer than going down the stairs.” Sanji stretched his wings and gave them a testing flap. “I guess this is where we part ways again. I’ll be back with Luffy once I’ve found him. Maybe we’ll meet again later.”
Clutterstep looked up at him thoughtfully. “You’re doing a lot for that pony. I’ve met a few ponies like that. Did some really stupid things to help them. It’s… I guess it’s nice to see that I’m not the only pony like that.” He began making his way around the hole, over the parts of the floor that were still intact.
“´Only pony´… Wait! Are you from Equestria?” Sanji shouted after him.
Clutterstep stopped and turned back around to the pegasus. “Are you from Equestria, too? Nopony else I’ve met in this prison seemed to know about it. Not that I managed to talk to many of them… Maybe if we meet up again I can tell y–“ Clutterstep took a step towards Sanji, but for some reason it seemed to sink a little deeper into the floor. All around him the stone burst and stood up at different angles.
The Earth pony looked down at his hooves with wide eyes as the floor dropped another inch. Finally the stone wasn’t able to hold itself up anymore and dropped down into the abyss, taking the earth pony with it.
“Why meeeee…”
“Are you okay up there?” Sanji turned his head to look at the pony that was draped over his back and clinging to his neck.
“Considering that I’m still alive I probably shouldn’t complain. Thanks for that, by the way. You must be one of the fastest pegasi I’ve ever seen.”
“I had a good teacher.” Sanji examined the desert ground rushing past below them. They were still pretty high up, and gliding was a lot faster and easier than walking. “It’s actually not that difficult once you’ve learned the basics. Besides, I only had to drop down. I’ve only been a pegasus for a week, so I couldn’t do any stunts yet.”
“So you didn’t use to be a pony?” Clutterstep asked. “The guy in my cell told me that none of the ponies in this prison are actual ponies. It sounds strange… but on the other hoof it’s not the strangest thing I’ve heard or seen in the last weeks.”
Sanji looked back at the ground that was now coming ever closer and prepared for the landing. To his right he could make out the gate behind which the stairs to the second and first level lay. He slowed down and set his hooves firmly on the ground. He stumbled a little, but otherwise managed a good landing.
“The way back up is over there,” he said, “if you want to try to escape again.”
“Actually, I think I’ll stay with you for a while. Knowing my luck, I’d end up deeper down this place no matter what I do.” Clutterstep extended a hoof towards the pegasus. “If you don’t mind, that is. I know that I come across as a bit clumsy, but nopony has ever gotten hurt because of me. Well, nopony except me, at least…” he muttered.
Sanji bumped the hoof with his own. “I won’t just leave you standing here. Let’s not waste any time then.” He trotted back towards the desert.
“G-g-g-Gah! How did they get the level this cold? Shouldn’t we be right under that sea of lava?” Clutterstep was rapidly shivering as he examined the frozen wasteland in front of him. In the distance a few cell blocks and a group of spruce trees stuck out of the ice and snow.
Sanji seemed unimpressed by the temperature as he stepped next to the earth pony. His breath was clearly visible in the air. “I think Celestia mentioned something about that, but I can’t remember what it was right now. I just hope we’ll find Luffy on this level.”
They had spent the last hours searching the third and fourth level for the pony Sanji had come here to find. Avoiding the guards had been easier than expected and so far it didn’t seem like they had been spotted. Clutterstep was more than glad that his bad luck had apparently decided to take a break.
Sanji had taken the time to tell Clutterstep a bit about his own adventures in Equestria; How he had fought a dragon and convinced the two princesses to help him infiltrate the prison. The earth pony was still skeptical about some parts of the story – most parts of the story, actually – but after everything else he had seen in the last days he at least didn’t want to rule out the possibility.
“Aaaaahh!” The two ponies turned their heads to see a cloud of snow rising at the horizon. Three ponies were galloping towards them, a horde of brown figures chasing after them. As they came closer they could see that the figures were actually wolves, build out of sticks and branches.
“Timberwolves!” Clutterstep shouted. “They have those here, too?”
“They’re coming our way,” Sanji said. “Think we should help them?”
“It’s no use! Even if you destroy them, Timberwolves will just resurrect later. We should start running before they get here!” Clutterstep turned around to choose a direction to run to.
“What do I do with an animal that doesn’t have any meat?” Sanji said. Clutterstep stopped and turned his head to look at him. The pegasus stood on his hind legs, forelegs spread out to his sides. His front hooves were glowing bright red. Sanji dropped back to the ground and the snow around his forelegs quickly vaporized. “…At least they’ll make good firewood.”
Clutterstep was able to make out more details now. The pony on the right was a light blue unicorn mare with a silvery-white mane. The one on the left was a pale white earth pony stallion with a slick black mane which formed a large “3” over his head. The stallion in the middle was an earth pony as well. He had orange fur and a blue mane, but all attention was drawn to the big red sphere that seemed to grow out from his muzzle.
“I just wanted to get out of here!” The mare was blindly galloping forward and almost didn’t notice something whisk past her. She turned her head to see a blue pegasus whirling around between the Timberwolves, dishing out hits with his front hooves. His forelegs drew glowing streaks in the air with every movement. Whenever he hit the wooden bodies the wolves yelped in pain. After a short while the Timberwolves began to retreat – the ones that were still standing, at least.
Sanji gathered the wood lying around before it could resurrect and lit a fire with the last of the heat in his hooves. It probably wouldn’t have worked if he hadn’t spent part of the last week learning how to channel it with his pegasus magic.
“That was amazing…” The mare noticed her own jaw hanging down and quickly cleared her throat to cover it up. “I mean… The Great and Powerful Trixie is very grateful for your assistance.” She stepped towards the two new ponies who were throwing the last pieces of wood into the fire. “Trixie must say, she has never seen– YOU!”
Clutterstep looked up at the accusing hoof pointed in his direction. “Oh, Celestia,” he muttered. “Of all the ponies…”
“You know each other?” Sanji asked, stepping up to them.
“Know him?” The unicorn mare roared. “That confounded stallion is the reason Trixie is in this place at all! All Trixie wanted was to settle down in some quiet, far corner of Equestria, until that mess on four legs crossed Trixie’s way.”
“Alright, calm down,” Sanji interrupted. “What exactly happened? From the beginning, please.”
“As you wish.” The unicorns horn lit up and her mane started to shimmer and flow in the air. “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie. You might have heard of me, and let me assure you that only the best things you might have heard are true. Trixie is–“
“She’s a travelling showmare,” Clutterstep interrupted, breaking Trixie’s concentration on the spell. “When I met her, her cart had just lost a wheel. It might or might not have been my fault, I’m not sure actually, but she made me chase after it regardless.”
“Trixie knows that it was your fault and she was entirely justified in demanding your help.” Trixie was still glaring daggers at the earth pony, mostly because he had interrupted her well-practiced speech. “A normal wheel wouldn’t have rolled that far, and definitely not uphill, either. And just when we’d finally found it in that canyon, that… monster appeared out of nowhere!”
“Well, you definitely can’t blame me for that,” Clutterstep shot back. He noticed Sanji’s questioning look and explained, “When we turned around to take the wheel back to her cart some kind of giant three-headed dog was suddenly blocking the way. It chased us the whole way through the canyon, and just when we thought that we had lost him…”
“That idiot ran right into a tree,” Trixie continued. “The first, dried out little tree since we entered that canyon and he runs right into it. For some reason that was enough to have the whole ground crumble away under our hooves and the next thing Trixie knows she is clinging to a piece of wood in water that is for some reason salty.”
“We were floating there for hours until we saw a ship. The things on that ship weren’t ponies, though. They barely had any fur, were walking on two legs and it seemed that all of them were wearing the same kind of outfit. As soon as they saw us they decided to lock us up below deck and brought us here. They didn’t even tell us why.” Clutterstep looked back from Sanji to Trixie. “That was the last I’ve seen of her since then. I did try to apologize to her, several times, but that boasting plotface would have none of it, even though we were clearly in the same situation.”
“Hey, unicorn…”
“Do you really think a simple apology is going to make up for this? Because Trixie certainly doesn’t think so!”
“Do you know why…”
“What else am I supposed to do, then? I can’t just teleport us out of here, can I?”
“Candle Muzzle!”
The wax appearing over the two ponies’ muzzles wasn’t held in place by anything and slid right off, but it was enough to divert their attention to the other two earth ponies standing nearby. The white stallion with the weird manestyle spoke up first, “Does anyone have any idea why our big fire just went out like a candle?”
The three ponies hadn’t even noticed, but the fire was indeed gone. The wood was still lying on the ground and looked suitably burned, but somehow it was already frozen over. Trixie tried to step closer, only to find that she couldn’t. She looked down at her legs to see that they were frozen to the ground. She looked back up to see Clutterstep in the same predicament, ice quickly spreading up his legs.
“What the… What is happening?” Clutterstep tried to break free from the ice, but to no avail.
“Celestia told me about that,” Sanji said. “I think she called them ´Winterghosts´?” He examined the snowstorm raging around the group and the shapes of icy-white horses that flashed up for seconds inside it.
“Windigos?” Trixie screamed. She noticed the four ponies giving her odd looks. “What? I’ve taken parts in many Hearth’s Warming… Look that’s not important. If those are really Windigos…” She paused and turned her head to face Clutterstep again. She grimaced in hesitation, until she finally released an exasperated sigh and said, “I’m sorry.”
Clutterstep just stared at her. “…What was that?”
“I’m sorry, okay?” She shouted. “Trix– I apologize for being rude, bragging, and whatever else you want to hear! Listen, those Windigos are drawn to hatred and disharmony. It makes them stronger! I’m sure you’ve seen the Hearth’s Warming Play at least once.” She raised an unfrozen hoof for emphasis. “If we want to get out of here, we’ll have to end this argument now – or at least postpone it until we’re somewhere warmer,” she added.
Clutterstep sighed. “You’re right. I’m very sorry for getting you into this situation and I think we can agree that we both want to get out of here as soon as possible.” He raised his own unfrozen hoof towards the unicorn. “So… Truce?”
Trixie took the offered hoof and shook it once. “Truce.”
“Well, that’s great, really.” The earth pony with the strange nose stepped up to them. “But it doesn’t seem to impress them very much.” He pointed at the snow storm around them. It seemed to have retreated a bit, but the Windigos were still as agitated as before. “What are we going to do about those things?”
“It must be this place,” Trixie said. “With to a whole prison full of criminals behind them, five ponies in begrudging cooperation won’t really be enough to scare them of.”
“I don’t think normal attacks will do anything against them.” Sanji spread his wings to reveal a small pouch, strapped to his body and previously hidden by his wing. “So I better use everything I have right from the start.” He opened the pouch with his mouth and took out a cigarette and used his wings to take a small set of matches out of it as well. He paused for a moment and put the matches back into the pouch, unused, and closed it again.
The other ponies watched him as he rose to his hind legs with both forelegs stretched out to the sides, using his wings to keep the balance and flapping them until he started spinning. When he stopped his front hooves were glowing the same way they had when he had fought the Timberwolves. He raised one hoof to his muzzle and pressed it against the tip of the cigarette to light it up, then took a first breath of the smoke. “I wonder what’s going to happen this time,” he mumbled.
Sanji stared at his hooves. One moment they were glowing red with the heat of his special technique, the next moment they looked just like before, just a pair of powder blue hooves. From a corner of his eye he saw the blue smoke of his cigarette. Maybe he had the wrong expectations. From what Twilight told him, contact with Poison Joke always had completely random and usually bad consequences. Expecting the burnt plant to have only good results seemed almost naïve in hindsight.
Suddenly the heat was back, snapping him out of his thoughts. Sanji looked back at his hooves.
His forelegs were glowing red.
His hind legs were glowing red.
His chest was glowing, too, as were his wings, and he could only imagine what his head looked like. It didn’t feel like they were burning, either, they just felt… warm. Around him the snow had already melted to reveal a small spot of frozen ground.
Sanji thought back to the pegasus who had made the cigarettes for him, and her friends. Once he found Luffy they could make their way out of this prison and gather the rest of their crew, especially Nami and Robin…
He was still staring at the snow storm in front of him. Or rather, he was staring through the storm at the horses galloping around them. Those things didn’t like good emotions like friendship and Love? They really hadn’t made a good choice picking their prey.
He was slowly stepping up to the storm now. One of the horses seemed to notice him and broke out of the circle, galloping right towards him. Sanji didn’t flinch as it reared up right before. The Windigo let out a whinny and brought his front hooves down onto the frozen ground that the pegasus had just been standing on. Instead, Sanji was now right beside him and whirling around to get into the best position for a good buck. The Windigo howled in pain as the hit sent it flying into the wall of the snowstorm and right out on the other side. Sanji was already back on all four hooves, wings spread and ready to jump into the snowstorm himself.
“For the ladies of this world!”
The other four ponies watched as the snowstorm around them was destroyed by another storm. Sanji was whirling around and dishing out hits to the Windigos, but it seemed like just the storm of heat, going out from his body with every movement, would be enough to scare them away. In fact, more than once Sanji used only that heat to attack; beating his wings to unleash a torrent of heat, slicing through the snow like a desert wind, and using his weather magic for control.
Within minutes the last of the Windigos galloped away towards the horizon and the ground around their fireplace was almost devoid of snow. Sanji trotted back towards the group to light the fire once more, before spitting out the stump of the cigarette and turning to the other ponies.
Clutterstep and Trixie were still doing nothing but staring at the pegasus, while the other two earth ponies tried to take the wood from the side of the fire that wasn’t burning yet.
“That was… How did you do that?” the unicorn asked, still in a state of shock.
“He’s probably a Devil’s Fruit user or something,” the orange stallion with the strange nose shouted at them from the fire. “Now stop standing there and help us get this wood out of the fire. We’ll want to have some spare firewood if we want to stay here, and I don’t think that stuff is going to put itself back together anymore.” He pointed at a few logs lying next to the fire.
“And why would we want to stay here?” Trixie said, nonetheless stepping up to the fire and levitating a few logs that the fire hadn’t reached yet. “Trixie thought that we wanted to get away from this place.”
“After the ruckus earlier we should lay low for a while,” the stallion explained. “We’ll make another attempt to escape later, but until then we have a nice fire going down here and everything that wanted to eat us wants to avoid us now.” The stallion let out a laugh. “Gyahahah, things are finally starting to look up, don’t you think?”
Clutterstep turned to face Sanji, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “Uhm, listen… If you don’t mind, I’m going to stay with these ponies here. I mean, they want to go up and you want to go… Yeah…” he let his voice trail of.
“It’s a reasonable decision,” Sanji replied. “If you’re going to wait for a while we’ll probably meet again on the way up. Either way, good luck.” He turned around and wandered off in a random direction, away from the fire and the group of ponies.
“What is that guy doing?” the stallion with the weird nose asked. “If we want to get out of here we should try to stick together!”
“Apparently he’s not trying to escape the prison, or at least not yet,” Clutterstep replied. “He told me that he actually broke into the prison to help his captain. Apparently he’s a pirate or something like that.” He put a hoof to his chin. “I think his captain’s name is ´Luffy´, if I remember that right.”
“Straw Hat?” The weird-nosed stallion shrugged his shoulders and turned back towards the fire. “That boy must be attracting that kind of idiots.”
He blinked.
His head detached and turned back around – now floating at the side of his neck – to look after the pony in the distance. His eyes popped out and his lower jaw dropped to the frozen ground, no longer connected to the head.
“EEEHHHHHH?”