Chapter 21
Answers
As I walked up the prisoner hold, Silver Thorn finally spoke up so suddenly I almost forgot that he was on my back.
“Shadow, how exactly do you intend to get him to cooperate. I doubt he would be willing to give you any information after what you've told me you did to him”.
“I'll get this bastard to talk somehow. Besides, I know a couple tricks regarding interrogation,” I said as I pushed open the doors to the prisoner hold.
Iron Spear was on the floor, chains restraining the three limbs he had left. There was also a special restraint placed on his horn so he couldn't use his magic to escape. Apparently he had woken up, because he looked up at me with utter disgust.
“Well, nice to see you've woken up. That ought to make things go a little smoother,” I said as I removed my cloak. I walked up to him and released him from his chains save the one on his horn. As he rubbed the stump of his lost limb, he looked up at me confused.
“Why'd you release me from these chains?” he asked.
“I thought it would be better if we did this little exchange on a little more equal ground,” I said as I transmuted some of the chains into a makeshift table and a couple chairs. I grabbed Iron Spear and placed him in one of the chairs as I sat in the opposite one. Iron Spear didn't say a word.
“I'm choosing to be civil here Iron Spear, I could just as easily beat the information I need out of you. If you cooperate with me, this whole process will go a lot quicker,” I said. He leaned forward and sneered at me.
“Why in Tartarus should I help you? Especially after you ruined my lucrative business and had that weird other version of you tear off my leg,” he said spitting at me.
“Need I remind you that you not only kidnapped my friends with the intention to sell them into slavery, and have done so to no doubt more ponies than were reported, but that you also impaled me three times. I survived as you can plainly see, but that still doesn't excuse it. You are on thin ice Iron Spear. Just now my crew were voting to execute you, but I stopped them,” I said as my anger steadily rose.
“Why would you do that. By all rights you should kill me”.
“Because I still need you for something Iron Spear. If you cooperate with me, I can make sure your stay as my prisoner is more comfortable than your current condition,” I said motioning back to his chains. Iron Spear was silent for a moment before he looked back at me with utter disdain.
“Not gonna happen you freak. You might as well just kill me right here,” he said staring daggers at me. I sighed and walked up behind him.
“Looks like the good cop approach isn't work. Seems I'll have to switch gears a bit,” I said as I grabbed his head and smashed it against the table.
I lifted his head back up, blood now trickling from his forehead “You'll tell me what I want to know and you'll tell me now!” I said as I threw him to the ground.
“Eat shit freak,” he said leering at me. I grabbed by his collar and pushed him against the wall of the hold.
“Where are you sending the captives, and who are you selling them to?” I said as I kicked him in the stomach, making sure to control my strength so I didn't crush any of his organs.
He laughed and looked up at me with a smile on his face “It wouldn't matter if I told you. You can't stop my business partner,” he said coughing up some blood. I grabbed my sword and stuck it against his throat.
I pushed my sword harder against his throat, drawing some blood “Who are you working with?”
His response was to simply laugh at. I finally lost my patience and punched him in the gut. As he doubled over in pain, I put him back into his chains. As I gathered my cloak and re-sheathed Silver Thorn, he spoke in my mind.
“What will you do now Shadow? How will you find out where the captives are now?”
“I don't know, I'll figure something out. First thing I've gotta do is send a letter to the Princesses and let them know what's going on. Maybe I can get them to send me some reinforcements,” I said. As I was about to walk out the door, I heard Iron Spear laughing again.
“You're nothing but a fool!” he said through his laughter.
“Really, 'cause I'm not the one laughing like the Joker in chains”.
“Even if you do manage to find out where I've been sending the slaves to, it won't do you any good. The Princesses wouldn't send their troops out for something like this. They'd be upset about it, but in the end they'd just let it happen,” he said with a cackle.
“Celestia and Luna would never let that happen. Besides, they sent me out didn't they?”
“This happens all the time kid. Contrary to what you might think, I'm not the only one in this game. Sure I got caught, not the first one to have that happen to them. Ponies go missing all the time. There ain't nothing you or the Princesses can do to stop it”.
“That's not true! I stopped you and I can stop others like you,” I said as I got up in his face. He just kept laughing at me.
“Yeah, hold onto that dream. Face it kid, no matter what you do, you're on you're own on this little adventure. Ain't nothing you're precious Princesses can do to help you,” he said as he continued his wicked laughter. I grabbed my sword and smacked him with the flat of the blade, knocking him out. I sheathed my blade and walked out of the prisoner hold.
As I walked back up the bridge, I saw that Nebula had rejoined the group. Everyone looked at me expectantly. I sat in a chair and sighed.
“Well, how did it go? Did you get him to talk?” Nova asked.
“No. I didn't get any good information out of him,” I said as I rested my head in my hooves.
“Well that's great. What are we supposed to do now?” Scarlet said as she fiddled with her bow.
“I don't know Scarlet. I do however know one thing”.
“Well spill Stripes, what is it?”
“We're on our own on this one. We can't ask the Princesses for help,” I said slumping in my chair. This caused my friends to voice their protests.
“What do you mean Shadow? Of course the Princesses would help us,” Scarlet said.
“I thought the same thing, but after giving it some thought it makes sense that they wouldn't help us”.
“How do you figure that? The Princesses would do anything to protect Equestria. Tartarus, Celestia banished her own sister to save Equestria, so what makes you think she wouldn't send out a few guards to help us?”
“For one thing, the Nightmare Moon incident was a wide spread threat, something that would've affected the entire country, whereas our situation is more of an isolated incident. I agree that they do want to protect Equestria, but they can't be everywhere at once, even if they are goddesses. Plus, even if we do manage to track down where Iron Spear is sending his captives, we won't be able to get help from the Royal Guard. They are meant to handle wide spread threats, not isolated incidents. That's why Celestia sent us here in the first place, because she couldn't spare any of the guards. Sure, she sent guards here before, but even then it was more of an investigation than putting a stop to it. We could ask for help, but it's doubtful we would get any. Face it guys, we're on our own,” I said as laid my head down on the table and slammed my hoof against it in frustration.
My friends were quiet for a good few minutes before Nova said “Well, so what!?” This caused me to look up.
“Come again?”
“So what if we don't have the Royal Guard backing us up, we're plenty tough on our own. We took down Iron Spears soldiers in the alleyway pretty easily. Plus, we've got a bad flank airship now! Who says we can't take on these guys,” the excitable blue stallion said.
Scarlet got up with equal excitement “Yeah, if we come across anypony I'll just shoot them down in a second”.
“I agree, we can do this,” Nebula said.
“Yes. Jade help friends, not want anyone else go through that sort of pain,” said Jade. My friends turned to me with smiles on their faces and a fire in their eyes. They put their hooves and paw in the middle of the table, with space left for me.
“What's it gonna be Stripes? You're the leader here,” Scarlet said. I looked at the faces of my friends. Their determination, their bravery, it moved me to my core.
“What kind of leader would I be if I said no to that,” I said putting my hoof in the circle with the rest of my friends.
“Guys, lets make a promise right now. No matter what, we stick together. Agreed?”
“Of course!”
“No question about it”.
“Yes”.
“I ain't gonna say no now Stripes!”
“I will help as well,” Silver Thorn said.
I smiled at all my friends as we all bumped our hooves and paw together in unison.
“Well this is awesome and all Shadow, but we still have a major problem. We still don't know where the captives are,” Scarlet said, completely ruining the mood. She was right, but it just killed the whole happy mood.
I waved off the mood killing and said “That's true, we need to find where they're being taken before we can make our move”. I put my hoof to my chin, everyone else mimicking the motion.
“Um, excuse me,” a voice said. We all turned to see that Lily, still looking gaunt. Her black and gold mane was in knots and her ribs were showing through her skin. She also looked to be missing a few of her feathers. Nebula saw this and quickly ran up to her.
“Lily, what are you doing out of bed? You should be resting,” she said trying to push her back to the medical wing.
Lily rebuffed Nebula's efforts “I'm fine Miss Nebula, really. Setting that aside, I know where Iron Spear is selling his captives,” she said. I stood up and walked over to her.
“And how, if I may ask, did you come by this information?”
“Because I used to be Iron Spears marefriend,” she said with obvious malice and shame. The room fell silent. Iron Spear's marefriend!? How could anyone date that psychotic bastard.
Sadly, Nova spoke first “Hold up a second, you're Iron Spear's marefriend!?” he said. Lily's eyes filled with anger as she advanced on Nova.
“Ex-marefriend you stupid colt! Never forget that!” she said, falling over and going into a fit of coughing. Nebula ran to her side as Scarlet smacked Nova on the head.
“Okay then Lily, moving from that obvious sore subject”.
“Can you blame the poor mare Shadow?”
“Shh! Anyway, what can you tell us Lily? Anything would be a great help,” I said helping the mare to her hooves.
“I'll tell you whatever you want, but I have one condition”.
“Name it”.
“I'm the one who gets to kill Iron Spear,” she said with pure malice. I thought about this for a moment. I could tell from the look in her eyes and the venom in her voice that Iron Spear had done something to her. I didn't know what, but it must've been something horrible.
“Fine, Iron Spear is yours. For now lets get you back to the medical ward, you need rest,” I said. She protested despite coughing like a chain smoker. She looked up at me with a grateful smile on her face.
“Thank you,” she said as Nebula led her back to the medical ward.
After Lily was rested and given enough food to feed a small army, she told us about iron Spear's practices. My friends and I sat around her bed in the medical ward to listen to her information.
“So Lily, what can you tell us about Iron Spear?” I asked.
“What do you want to know?”
“We need to know where he's sending his captives, who his boss is, and anything you can tell us about the layout of his boss' hideout,” I said as everyone else nodded. Lily sighed and tapped her chin.
“Well, to start with he's sending them to a small warren about a hundred miles north of here called Crushing Stone. The Alpha of the warren is a dog named Strax. He's civil, but he's also very strong and has a short fuse. I can't tell you much about the layout of the warren. I was only there once, and the memory of it still haunts my nightmares,” she said as she shuddered. We all looked at each other a bit nervous. Not surprising. From the way things were looking, we were outnumbered and dealing with a volatile enemy.
“What else can you tell us? How many warriors does the Alpha have?”
“I can't really remember. If I had to guess around five hundred. But from what I can remember his numbers were growing. The number of slaves he had gotten from Iron Spear have been slowly increasing, but I guess that's stopped thanks to you guys,” she said. Lily looked down, a sad look on her face. I could tell there were things Lily wasn't telling us, important things. I was willing to let these things slide, but there was one thing that kept bugging me.
“Lily I have one other question”.
“Yes?”
“If you were Iron Spear's marefriend, then why were you in that crate?” I said with a serious but compassionate look on my face. The room fell silent instantly. Lily looked at me with a shocked expression, but with a deep pain behind her eyes.
“Shadow, I don't think that's something we need to know right now,” Nebula chided me before Lily raised her hoof to stop her.
“It's alright Miss Nebula, I don't mind telling you. It is a rather strange way to find somepony”.
“You wanna talk about strange, ask Shadow sometime about the Ursa Major he's got running around inside his head and the talking sword he has,” Nova said.
“What?” Scarlet and Nebula smacked him upside the head. Seriously, the kid needs to learn when to keep quiet or else he's gonna get brain damage from all the head slaps.
“Never mind that now, back to the issue at hand. Why did Iron Spear put you in that crate?” I asked. Lily sighed and looked at me with sad eyes.
“Okay, here's the story. As you know by now, I used to be Iron Spear's marefriend, and for a while we were happy. We were both members of the Royal Guard. We were recruits in the same training group, and over the course of training we got to know each other. After we graduated basic training, he asked me to be his marefriend. For a while things were pretty good, but over time I noticed that he began to change. He started talking about how the Princesses were becoming sloppy and weak. He got especially mad when the Princess knighted that pirate Griffin. After that he became distant, always either going off on his own or going on simple missions. Finally, I confronted him about it and he told me he was taking me on a trip. I think you can guess to where,” She said as a tear slowly fell from her eye.
“Lily, that's enough. You don't have to tell us anymore,” I said.
“No, I'm fine. I want you to know the full story,” she said wiping the tear from her eye.
“Okay”.
“Right. So Iron Spear took me here and showed me the airship. He said we were going to see a friend of his. Under normal circumstances, I would've questioned him, but it was just so glad to see him being his old self that I just went along with it. When we got to the warren, I was horrified. I went along with things out of fear, but inside I was screaming. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen in my life. Ponies, griffins, and diamond dogs in chains being forced to mine for gems. If they didn't work, they were whipped and beaten relentlessly. It took all of my will power to not step in and stop them. I knew if I did, I was a dead mare,” she said as stray tears escaped her eyes. I heard a soft sound of crying and turned to find Jade with tears in her eyes as well. Not hard to see why. All this talk must've been bringing up painful memories. Scarlet put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her. She looked at Scarlet and smiled as lily continued her story.
“So we met with Strax. They were apparently meeting to discuss Iron Spear's sick slave dealings. I couldn't take anymore. I pleaded with Iron Spear to stop what he was doing, I tried to convince to go back to being the stallion I once knew”.
“He looked at me with pure disgust, calling me a traitor. He started beating me, but I managed to fight him off. That is until Strax came up behind me and hit me over the head. After that I blacked out, the next thing I knew I was in chains in the ship. Iron Spear visited me and told me that he could no longer love me, that I had betrayed. Then he...” she began to shudder as her tears came down more.
“Lily..”
“He told his crew they could have their way with me! For weeks I had to deal with stallion after stallion, constantly using me like some common whore. I felt like I was in a living Tartarus that I couldn't escape from. After a while, they got bored of me and put me in that crate. I thought I was going to die in that crate. Cold, alone, and defiled. But then, you all showed up. For once, I felt like there was a small ray of hope,” she said as the tears fell ever more freely from her eyes. You could feel the anger of everyone in the room. Scarlet looked like she was gonna strangle someone, Jade and Nebula looked like they were about to vomit, and Nova looked about ready to blow up like one of his dynamite sticks.
I was thankfully able to swallow my rage, saving it for a time when I would need it. I walked up to Lily and gave her hug. This took her by surprise but she slowly hugged me back.
“You're safe here with us Lily, we won't let anyone else hurt you,” I said as the rest of my friends joined in the hug. After a few moments, we broke the hug and Lily smiled at us.
“Thank you all. But I have a question of my own. What are you all gonna do?” she said.
“Isn't it obvious? We're gonna go to Crushing Stone, free the slaves, kill the alpha, and smack down anyone who gets in our way,” I turned to my friends “Any objections!?” I said.
They all gave a resounding “None”.
“Well alright then, first things first, let's start getting this ship ready to fly,” that's when a thought struck me.
“Um...does anyone know how to fly this thing?” I asked. A look of realization dawned on the faces of my friends as we all collectively face-hoofed.
“Well that's just great. How are we supposed to get to Crushing Stone?” Scarlet said annoyed. We all wracked our heads for the answer before Lily spoke up “I know how to fly it,” she said as she slowly got out her bed and tied her mane into a pony tail. A bit ironic I you ask me.
“You can fly this thing?” I asked. She nodded.
“It's the same type of model we use in the Royal Guard. With a little bit of work, I can get this thing airborne,” she said with a smile on her face. I looked to my friends, who all gave me their approval. I turned to Lily and smiled.
“Alright Lily, you're officially our navigator. But on one condition,” I said as I picked her up and placed her back into her bed and put the covers back over her.
“You stay here until you're fully recovered. Once Scarlet gives you the okay, you can fly the ship. Not a second earlier. Understood?” I said. She nodded. I gave her a nod back and turned to my friends.
“Alright guys, lets get to work. We need to think of a plan. Let's go,” I said as my friends all went to think of the best way to attack the warren and Lily proceeded to go back to sleep. I knew attacking a whole warren full of armed diamond dogs was risky, but I had to do it. However, one thing kept tugging at my mind.
“Would the Princesses really just let something like this happen?” I thought to myself. I shook my head to clear it of that thought. Whether they would or not didn't matter. What did matter was finding a way to fight against an army.
That's when it struck me “Maybe we don't have to fight them,” I said as the gears began turning in my head and formulated a plan.
“This just might work”.