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// An Unlikely Escape 
// Story: Terror in Equestria 5:  One Thousand Years Later 
// by StormLuna 
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Three months pass and Twilight and her envoy are still imprisoned in Ridead.  Supper time arrived but it was not the generals that brought them their food.  Instead it was the two majors, Major Deadly Breeze and Major Dark Caves.  Shining Armor saw them come in and asked, "What happened to the generals that usually bring us our food?"

Dark Caves replied, "The generals and colonels are heading off to a meeting with the higher ups of the Equine Empire regarding some damaged fence along the border, so we are the ones who will be bringing you your food."

Deadly Breeze added, "It is so chilly in here.  Isn't there any heating in here for you guys?"

LaurFa replied, "No, there is not.  We have asked about that and Iron Seas yelled at us telling us that we are prisoners and that we should not expect comfortable conditions."

Dark Caves asked, "Where is Twilight Sparkle?  I need to take her meal to her."

Shining Armor replied, "She is down in the dungeon.  Be careful, she is always angry whenever anypony or anychangeling goes down there."

Dark Caves nodded and headed down to the dungeon.  He used his horn to create some light since he had never been down to the dungeon before.  Twilight began to get agitated believing that Iron Seas was coming down to mock her once more before giving her her supper.  She saw that it was a different dark Alicorn.  She asked, "Who are you?  I can tell you aren't Iron Seas."

Dark Caves replied, "I am Major Dark Caves."  He then continued "Why in the world are you covered in green ooze?  You are no threat to anypony.  Let me melt this ooze away."

Dark Caves fired some energy at the ooze covering Twilight and melted it away.  Dark Caves then asked, "Twilight, what would you think about getting out of here?"

Twilight's ears perked up and she replied, "I would love it but how.......wait  a minute, you aren't trying to set us up to get executed are you?"

Dark Caves replied, "No Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, I truly believe that you and your friends need to be freed."

Twilight asked, "How are you going to pull this off?  Won't the generals and colonels catch you?"

Dark Caves replied, "They have just left for the Equine Empire to meet with the higher ups over there.  Tonight when I come to pick up your dishes, that is when I shall free you."

Twilight asked, "Aren't you afraid of being caught by the other officers?"

Major Dark Caves replied, "No, I am not.  I have this all planned out.  Before I make my decision final, there is one condition that I have for your release."

Twilight asked, "What is that?"

Major Dark Caves replied, "You must allow me to come with you guys.  If you guys are gone and I am still here when the generals and colonels return, they will kill me since right now I am the head officer in charge."

Twilight said, "You have yourself a deal.  I think it would be great for you to come with us.  After all, I can sense that you will be loyal to me and our cause."

Dark Caves replied, "Yes your Majesty, I will do anything possible to aid you in any cause you have."

Twilight said, "Well you can start by just calling me Twilight or Twily since you are on my side now.

Twilight asked, "But what about our ship?  There will be no food or water on board."

Dark Caves replied, "Trust me, I have been sneaking food and water on board that ship during the middle of the night for the past four nights.  Nopony else knows that I have been doing this.  Well I must be getting back upstairs so nopony else thinks that something is up."

Twilight nodded as he headed back up to the main jail.  For the first time in months Twilight was able to create some light with her horn to see to eat her meal.  This made her very happy and she finally had hope that she would be free again.

Once he got back up to the main jail Dark Breeze asked, "Dark Caves, what took you so long?  Was she being rather difficult tonight?"

Dark Caves knew that he would have to lie.  He replied, "Yeah, she was being difficult.  You know how prisoners are when they see a lower ranked officer serving them their meals."

Deadly Breeze had a skeptical look on his face but decided to believe his fellow major.  He said, "Come on, we are having a party tonight since the colonels and generals are gone.  You know we don't get to do things like that very often."

Dark Caves nodded and they headed back to the palace.  LaurFa said, "Well it must be nice to be able to have parties while we are stuck down here."

It was around midnight when the party the lower officers were holding ended.   Captain Green Cloud said, "Wow, we haven't had this much fun in ages.  How long will the higher ups be gone?"

Major Deadly Breeze replied, "They will be gone for about another week, so we better enjoy it while they are gone and things are more laid back.  Come on guys, it's time to hit the hay."

They all started to head off to their sleeping quarters.  All of them except Major Dark Caves.  Deadly Breeze looked at him and shouted, "MAJOR DARK CAVES, are you not going to go to sleep tonight?"

Dark Caves shouted back, "Look Deadly Breeze, I am the one that Iron Seas put in charge and I'm not tired yet.  I will hit the hay when I am good and ready."

Deadly Breeze growled, "Whatever."  Deadly Breeze had his suspicions about why Dark Caves was staying up but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  

An hour later when everypony else was asleep Dark Caves headed down to the jail to free the prisoners.  When he finally got down there everypony was sound asleep, except for General Dark Hooves.  He asked, "So, are you here to mock us?"

Dark Caves replied, "No, I am not.  I am here to pick up your dishes.  I must go get Twilight's first."

Dark Caves headed down into the dungeon where he found Twilight tapping her hoof on the bars of her cell.  She growled, "Well it's about time.  I thought perhaps you were lying about setting us free."

Dark Caves replied, "After me melting that ooze away?"  Dark Caves opened the cell and continued, "Alright, let's get your friends freed and then get out of here.  Dawn is six hours away."

As Twilight and Dark Caves headed up into the main jail her friends were stunned.  Shining Armor said, "Twily!  How did you manage to get us free?"

Dark Caves interrupted, "We have no time for playing twenty questions right now.  Let's get going."

Dark Caves opened the cell and melted the ooze away from them.  They then headed to the ship with great haste.  Once they reached the ship Shining Armor raised the anchor and they continued their trip south hoping that they would not get re-captured.  

Dawn arrived in Ridead and Captain Ice Wind and Lieutenant Dark Sky headed to the prison to serve their prisoners their breakfast.  When they got there they were stunned to see that the jail was empty and that the door to the dungeon was open.  Ice Wind ran down there to discover that the cell door was open and that Twilight was gone.  Both knew that Dark Caves had stayed up late that night before.

Ice Wind ran back upstairs and shouted, "THAT TREASONOUS RAT!   DARK CAVES WILL SUFFER DEARLY FOR THIS!"

Dark Sky asked, "Let me guess, Twilight is gone too?"

Ice Wind replied, "Yes, she is.  We must re-capture all of them.  Let's go get them!"

Dark Sky asked, "Oh and how are we supposed to know what direction they headed?"

Ice Wind replied, "Well I know they are headed to Neigh Zealand so we need to head south."

The two headed off towards the south at a great rate of speed.  Out at sea Twilight and her envoy were enjoying a northerly breeze that was pushing them right along.

Twilight signaled for Dark Caves to come over to her.  She said, "Dark Caves, I have some very good news for you.  You are being promoted to colonel for aiding us in our escape."

Dark Caves bowed down before Twilight and replied, "Thank you Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle.  I want you to know that I will do anything you ask of me to aid you in any quest you have."

Twilight replied, "Well the first thing I want you to do is just call me Twilight or Twily.  You are part of my forces now.  There is no need for you to be so formal."

LaurFa was looking off to the north and interrupted, "Twilight, I know you and Dark Caves are discussing things right now but you need to come take a look at this.  It doesn't look good."

Twilight saw this and she became very angry.  She shouted, "Damn it, can't we have just one voyage without something going wrong.  It is Ice Wind and Dark Sky.  Get ready to knock them out of the sky everypony!"

Dark Sky and Ice Wind were finally over the ship firing bolts of energy at the ship burning holes in the deck before Dark Caves and Dark Hooves finally shot them from the sky.  They crashed on the deck right in front of Twilight.  They looked up at her in fear knowing that they were in a world of trouble. 

Twilight glared at them and said, "Well, well, well.  What do we have here?"

Ice Wind asked, "Twilight, before you kill us or do whatever you are going to do could you let us explain why we chased after you?"

Twilight looked up for a minute and then looked down at the two dark Alicorns and replied, "You have three minutes to explain yourselves before I punish you, which will most likely result in your deaths."

Ice Wind said, "Well you see, we were the first ones to get up from our night of partying the night before so we were the ones who were going to bring you your breakfast.  When we saw that you guys were gone we panicked."

Dark Sky continued, "The thing is, if the colonels and generals returned and you guys weren't in prison, they would have killed us.  Please let us live, we won't try to re-capture you."

Ice Wind added, "It's not like we could anyway as we are vastly outnumbered."

Twilight shouted, "Then why were you firing energy at us.  I know what you are saying is nothing but lies.  I ought to kill you right now."

Dark Sky begged, "Please Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, there has to be some tenderness in your heart.  Please just let us live."

Twilight realized that she could make the two loyal to her.  She smiled and said, "Alright, I will not kill either of you.  But before you can go there is one thing that I must do."

Ice Wind asked, "What is that?"

Twilight began to glow and her eyes began to shine as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

Twilight fired powerful green energy at them that knocked them backwards.  They looked stunned at first but then they wiped their eyes and in unison they said, "Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, we swear complete and absolute loyalty and allegiance to you.  We will aid you in any quest you have."

Twilight smiled and said, "That is wonderful to hear.  First off, you two are getting promotions.  Ice Wind, you are now a major and Dark Sky, you are now a captain.  Also, I want you two to just call me Twilight or Twily.  You are part of my forces now.  There is no need for this formal stuff."

Major Ice Wind replied, "Thank you so much Twilight.  We promise you that we won't let you down."

Twilight said, "Well that is good to hear.  Now let's enjoy the rest of our voyage to Neigh Zealand."

Colgate saw all of this from Ponyville and went into a rage.  Her screaming and yelling could be heard all over Ponyville.  She started kicking holes in the wall and smashing things when Scootaloo headed up to see what was wrong.

When Scootaloo got up to the doorway Colgate was levitating a night stand and was about to slam it into the doorway when Scootaloo shouted, "Colgate, stop!"

Colgate slammed the nightstand into the wall and growled, "What do you want?  What is so important that you had to come up here now?"

Scootaloo replied, "Well I heard you screaming and I heard you smashing things so I thought I would come up and see if you were ok."

Colgate kicked another hole in the wall and shouted, "Well I am NOT ok.  Some goody-horse shoes dark Alicorn set Twily and her minions free and to make matters worse, the two dark Alicorns who set out to re-capture them have been brainwashed and are now loyal to Twilight."

Scootaloo asked, "Do we need to make any changes to our military exercises?"

Colgate had calmed down a bit and replied, "No, we just keep things going as we normally would."

Scootaloo asked, "So what are they going to do next?"

Colgate was a bit irritated by this question and replied, "Well you will continue to make sure things are running smoothly at the base while I keep an eye on Twilight and her minions along with repairing all the damage I did in here."

Scootaloo said, "Alright, I'm heading back down to the base."

As Scootaloo returned to the base Colgate used her magic to fix all the things she had damaged.  Very soon though repairing damaged walls and furniture would be the least of Colgate's worries and this issue will make Twilight and her envoy being freed seem like small potatoes.