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// Lost Chapters - #4 "Dear Princess Celestia" 
// Story: Entropy 
// by PseudoBob Delightus 
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Chapter 4:
Dear Princess Celestia


I had brief moments of consciousness while being transported. My eyes would open for seconds at a time, and scenarios flashed before me. I was on a carriage, still being held by the purple glow. Next, I was being carried in the purple glow up a large hill to what I thought looked like a castle. It looked familiar. After blacking out again, I was dropped on a stone floor while the two captors approached the source of two mysterious voices. It seemed like hours of inaudible discussion before I awoke fully and rose to my feet.
“Well, it is awake now. Guards, be wary; we do not know what it is fully capable of.” The first mysterious voice was large and commanding, but yet again, female. I heard some male voices from behind me, probably the guards that were just mentioned. I noticed I wasn’t paying attention to the four voices in front of me and quickly tuned in.
“- even standing on two legs. Could this be another form?”
“Look, it just appeared out of the Everfree and started attacking one of my friends. Applejack and Rainbow Dash…” The voice paused as I started looking around. 
I settled my gaze on the four shapes in front of me. I remembered the smaller pair as Applejack and Twilight, but the other two were massive and looked different. They each had a pair of wings and a horn, like a unicorn and pegasus combined. The larger one on the left had white skin and a flowing, lightly rainbow-coloured mane; the one on the right was smaller, dark blue-skinned and had a flowing mane that looked like a portal into space.
“What are you?” I didn’t answer. “Why are you here? Why did you attack my subjects?”
I grunted in response, shaking the floor and causing dust to fall from the ceiling. I hadn’t intended for such a great first impression.
“What could it be, Celestia?”
“I’m sorry, Luna, but I do not know. Twilight, you said you haven’t heard of anything like this before?”
“Yes, Princess Celestia. You see, the pegasus it was attacking, my friend Fluttershy, described it as looking and sounding like a manticore, but once we saw it up close it didn’t match up. It seems to wear clothes, so we thought it would be intelligent. It actually managed to speak once, but then we realised it was just pulling words from another pony.”
“It pulled words from a pony? How could it have done that?”
“Well, I think it has some sort of magical ability that lets it…” Ok, that was enough of that. Magic? Was that what they thought it was? Obviously, everything they knew about me was, at best, guesswork. I remembered Fluttershy’s last answer in the cave, about not knowing about what brought me here, and started to look around at the room while barely listening to the dialogue ahead of me.
The hall I was standing in was a huge stone archway, like a cathedral. I was standing on a thick red carpet that led up to two thrones, each of which held the larger hybrids, ‘Luna’ and ‘Celestia’. Along both walls were several stained glass windows, and each seemed to depict a historic event, but they were far too flashy and abstract to make out. There were several closer windows without glass, and that provided an opportunity.
Observing the two leaders, and their interactions with each other, I started to form my plan. Cooperativeness was not a trait that I would use to escape out of here. I couldn’t rush this, however; I could exploit my abilities, push them aside with my voice or disable them with a high frequency, but the purple one, I thought it was ‘Twilight’, had power far beyond mine, and I couldn’t imagine what the two larger ones were capable of. Taking it slow would be my only strategy; these things were powerful, but not very clever. I tuned in again.
Twilight started, “We only know for sure that it can make noise-”
“A whole lotta noise!” Applejack corrected.
“Yes, a ‘whole lotta noise’, so we should be able to keep it within an enchanted dungeon cell until we can learn more about it.”
“Why would we need an enchanted cell?” Luna asked and and looked towards Celestia
“Well, it doesn’t just make noise. When we captured it in chains, yesterday, it let out a high pitched scream. Next thing we knew, it was out of the chains and holding Fluttershy. I don’t know what it did, but I’m sure it couldn’t have broken the chains on its own.”
Celestia closed her eyes, deep in thought, “You are correct, Twilight Sparkle. One moment, please.” She turned to her sister and started whispering, but I could still hear them.
“Luna, are you able to enchant a cell for our guest?”
“Of course, but what kind of magic are we dealing with here?”
“Based on the descriptions, I think it uses sound manipulation.”
“What? That died out centuries ago!”
“Come on, can you do it or not?” I heard a tinge of laughter in their voices.
“You know I can. It’ll take a while, though.” The princesses turned back to Twilight.
“My sister and I will enchant a cell to make sure our guest does not try to leave. It will take a few hours.”
“What do we do about it until then, Princess?” She started to look crossed between scared and concerned.
“Just a moment…” Celestia closed her eyes again, and her horn began to glow. I felt energy surge through my body, which soon turned into pain. That was enough; I decided to go sooner rather than later. 
My arms were in chains, but they weren’t connected with cuffs. In a swift motion I pulled the left chain, which revealed to be attached to a guard as he was pulled over. I turned to wrestle with the other, before I remembered I could just melt the chains. ‘Thanks for reminding me, Twilight.’ 
After I was out, with the ponies around me doubled over from the noise, I rushed towards the princesses. I didn’t know how they would react to the sound, but I had a good guess of how they would react to a blast of power. I tried to continue towards them, but the pain intensified and I dropped to my knees. 
Celestia’s horn was blindingly bright at this point, and I could barely breathe through the sparks blasting through my body. I exhaled what was left of my power towards them, but it dispersed as Luna’s horn glowed as well. Nearly suffocating and feeling worse than dying, I fell to the ground and blacked out.

After what seemed like minutes, but could have been hours, I woke up in a dark room. There was a thick, glowing door on one side and a hay stack in the other. Everything else was dark cobblestone, and in the boringness of it all I remembered what happened.
I knew I was captured, but I was not sure where. It may have been the large castle I saw on the horizon this morning, but it could also have been on another continent. I also didn’t know if the cell I was in was really enchanted, or what they meant by that. I heard the unicorn mention that I had “magical abilities”, so was it really possible? Could I be in a land of magic? There were manticores, which seemed to increase the evidence, but then I thought about it. 
“It could be a dream,” I said to myself, “after all, I did fall asleep right before arriving here. And there are mythical creatures all over the place, not to mention they speak English. And I have superpowers. That's a doozy, but, then again, when I think about dreams in a dream, I wake up. When I fall asleep in a dream, I wake up. None of that has happened yet, and I've done both several times."
It was then that I made my mind up. Magic or not, I would get out of here. I had to. I got up, collected myself, and blasted the door. As dust settled, I saw that the door didnt move at all. I pressed my hands against the thick metal and tried a high frequency, but nothing happened. Low frequencies, blasting the floor and walls, all of it did nothing. I slumped against the wall, out of ideas.
That meant that I really was in a land of magic, that this was indeed an enchanted cell. They weren’t guessing when they said I had "magical abilities". They were talking ponies, unicorns and pegasi, and those two hybrid things, magic existed, and this was not a dream. I just waited, but soon heard some muffled noises. I focused in and found out the source.
There was talking upstairs, and I could hear them. It seemed that they did not anticipate my enhanced hearing, even though they knew what my powers were. Perhaps it was related to the mention of not hearing about it for centuries. I began to wonder how old the princesses were, but I snapped out of it and focused on their discussion.
"-ord's beasts, coming back to attack us!"
"Please, he was never able to directly control anypony, and he never used demons to do his bidding." Again, with the any/every-pony.
"But what if it's usually peaceful and he just corrupted it? It's happened to the elements before, surely he could do the same to a wild animal, no matter the intelligence!”
“I just don’t like the idea of it, Luna. After all, he shouldn’t be coming back. It’s been, what, three months? I know the elements were inexperienced, but the prophecy did not account for any of these occurrences. We will have to wait and see.”
“But Tia!” Was that a nickname? I knew they were sisters, but it seemed their dynamics may be more complicated than I thought.
“Enough, please, we have visitors. Try to remain calm, and the answers will come, given enough time. They always do.” I struggled to listen to two points at once. The large room from before, with its stone walls and vaulted ceiling, was designed with acoustics in mind, which made it slightly harder to pinpoint locations. Eventually I got the hang of hearing two places at once, and started listening again.
“-ponies are here to see you, Princess Celestia!”
“Speak of the devil. Let them in!” several pairs (quads?) of hoof steps filled the room, and greetings began.
“We are thankful for your time, Princess. My friends and I would like to see your new captive; we think we have a few ideas about getting information from it.” I thought I recognised that voice…
“It is a pleasure to see you, my faithful student, but I am afraid I cannot allow that. There are still many unknowns, and while you have been able to overpower it before, I would not advise you to take such risks.”
A few shuffled steps later, and the six were whispering amongst themselves. It did nothing to stop me from hearing, but they didn’t know that.
“So, Fluttershy, what did you have in mind? I sure wont get anywhere with “a few ideas”.” 
So it was that group. I tested the ground around them with subtle steps and cracks as they talked. I couldn’t let Fluttershy tell them anything, and there was only one way to prevent it; I would have to talk to her.
“Well, you see, yesterday morning, I was just-” I got her location. I needed to act fast.
“Fluttershy…” I masked the sound of my voice from the others.
“Hmm? What were you doing?” Twilight was trying to get answers. I needed to try harder.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I... I was saying that-”  
“Don’t tell them.”
“What was that?” She seemed unwilling to accept my presence.
“Fluttershy, nopony said anything.”  
“They can’t find out… please.”
“Oh, umm… I suppose it was just the… the wind. That’s it!”
“Sure. You were saying?”
“Yes, I, uh… never mind, Twilight. I don’t… remember.”  
“Thank you.” 
They said their goodbyes, dragging their hooves in shame as they moved out. I heard them pestering Fluttershy for chickening out, but even if they managed to get answers, the Princess would hesitate to have another audience with them after today. 
I felt bad, but also relieved, because I would be put on trial if anyone else knew I could talk. They would ask why I was here, why I attacked somebody, what my powers were, and probably something about this ‘prophecy’ mentioned earlier; if that happened, my only answers would be “I didn’t do that,” or, “I don’t know.” That wouldn’t be very convincing.
“Celestia, what was that about?”
“I do not know, Luna, but I believe you may be right.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Something strange is going on here, and those six ponies…”
“Aren’t they the Elements of Harmony?”
“Yes. Those ponies, the elements of harmony, mainly the element of kindness, are withholding information. Since you are the one who suggested these connections, however…”
“Are you suggesting I go out to do your dirty work, Tia?” The levels of sarcasm surprised me.
“Yes, I suppose I am. Have fun. And, sister…” 
“Yes?”
“Be careful. I believe you remember what happened last time you went out on your own?” Celestia was stifling a laugh, but it didn’t hold very well.
“You mean on Nightmare Night? When half the town was running away and the other half was begging me not to eat them?”
Both of them were leaking with laughter, but Celestia managed to pull off a serious tone for a few seconds, “I trust you won’t let that happen again, hmm?”
“You don’t give me enough credit, Tia. I will, however, give you a royal promise that I will not eat anypony.” There were slight scuffs on the floor, from Luna’s area, and the two burst out laughing. I gathered that she didn’t actually perform a royal promise. After the two stopped laughing, they said their goodbyes and parted in opposite directions. Celestia was walking up a spiral staircase, and Luna walked to the far end of the room, through the doors, and flew off. I made out one last line before the door to the upper rooms closed.
“I wish she would stop calling me that…”
I didn’t know what to think. On one hand, one of the princesses was going to be gone, so I would have an easier time escaping. Not that I had any idea of just how I would actually do it.
On the other hand, Luna ate ponies. That was… weird, to say the least. I accidentally let my mind wander too far, and began imagining what they tasted like…
It was right then that some food dropped into the cell, from a slot in the door that phased out as soon as it had appeared. I hadn’t realised that I was so hungry, but the appearance of food does wonders to an appetite. I dropped the idea of eating equines, quickly ate the five apples, almost inhaled the bread, and was about to finish the last dish when I saw what it was made of.
Hay. These creatures ate hay. Not meat and potatoes, but dried grass. I was originally put off by the idea, but I decided I shouldn’t pass up the chance, so I chewed on a few of the strands. It reminded my of celery veins, and thus was far too hard to break down, so I spat it out. After finishing the other courses, I pushed the tray into a similar looking slot and laid down again. I looked at my watch, and saw that it was 8:32 PM. Time flies when you have fun. 
Deciding that an early bedtime was for the best, partly because I had nothing to do, I tried my best to go to sleep. My eyes remained shut, but my mind repeatedly wandered to today's incident, beginning with Fluttershy and ending with capture... or was that yesterday? Fluttershy was talking about yesterday morning before I spoke to her from the cell, and I wondered if she meant when she was attacked by a manticore, or when she was kidnapped.
I continued those thoughts unwillingly, looking for a way out. I kept replaying the last few days in my head, trying to find answers that would put me at ease. I settled on only being here for two days, but I still didn’t find any sleep.
Maybe it was withdrawal from the games and computers in my house? That would be an easy answer, but incorrect as I only got into it when I was bored, and this trip was far from boring. Perhaps my mind was dwelling on my new powers, but if that was the case, then what put me to sleep on the first night?
I settled on the explanation that this was the first time I was put in jail, and I was angry at the beings that put me here. Of course, I was a powerful being myself, so it was really an ‘us against them’ sort of thing. That train of thought made me anxious about my future in this place. Was I to be just ‘that creature in the dungeons’ forever? 
I looked at my watch, and thought about how it was the only thing I had left. It was the last thing my parents had given me, almost fifteen years ago, and the last reminder of everything in my previous life. My mind was going all over the place, but I managed to slow down and everything was quiet. As I was staring at the watch and seeing a cut and bruised face of sadness and despair reflect back to me, I quietly drifted off.

I was awoken by another tray sliding into my cell. Crawling over to it, I saw that it had eggs, toast, more apples and hay, and some sort of pastry. It was odd to see such food being served in what I assumed acted like a jail, but I couldn’t complain, with the exception of the hay. After finishing and sliding the tray back, I finally got an idea on how to escape. It would need practice, so I practiced.
At first, I was attempting to simulate and throw sound like I had done the second day. I would throw my own voice around, simulate the voices of Luna and Celestia in different places, and start up heated conversations. I originally thought that it would both strengthen my powers and keep me sane, but then thought about how I was essentially talking with imaginary friends and stopped quickly. Next up was the noise blocking ability that was essential to getting this far. 
I figured out that once I had a mental map of the room’s acoustics, I could replicate sounds, noise and vibrations in certain patterns to form a field of silence, or block sounds from outside the field. Moving it around the room, I was dumbstruck at how easily I could manipulate- oh, yeah. Magic. I had to get used to thinking of it that way. With a specific goal in mind, I focused my hearing up to the large room from last night. 
“-estia, I must inform you that the location of your sister, Princess Luna, is not known to…”
“What? Are you saying you just lost an alicorn? How is that even possible?”
“Well, you see, we were, umm…”
“Never mind what you were doing. I’ll send a letter.”
“A letter? To who?”
“My student, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends. They know something about this, and even if they didn’t, they would be the right mares for the job.”
“Twilight, and her friends? Aren’t they the elements…?”
“Yes, the elements of harmony. Now go, you must keep looking. While I have no faith that you will succeed, given the recent events, I must keep you busy with something.”
I heard hooves scuffing, and some sort of whooshing flame noise. I didn’t want to assume what it was, though I was curious. I should have more time for that, later. After a few minutes of silence, some sort of ceremonial horns blew and dozens of hooves lined into the room. 
“There are citizens here for royal requests, Princess!”
“Send them in, I have time!”
I lost patience with the requests after some time, but I did learn a few things. The weather didn’t move by itself; pegasi used magic to move clouds and adjust temperatures. The sun and moon were lifted by the two princesses, though Celestia did both, most of the time. Among all these voices, shouts and whispers, I would sometimes hear Celestia mutter things about her sister under her breath, and once again, my ‘magical’ abilities allowed me to hear them perfectly. She was worried for her sister, and didn’t know what to do. I would take advantage of that tonight.

After two more trays of somewhat repetitive food passed through my cell, I was anticipating the night’s events. ‘This is it,’ I thought, ‘it’s all or nothing, now.’ I was fairly certain that nobody would come to help me, and all this talk about me being involved with some sort of evil plan made it seem like I would be prisoner there until the answers were found. I was not going to rot down here, so the final preparations were made. I would distract Celestia, get her to open my door, and slip by unnoticed. I looked at my watch, and saw that it was 11:25 PM. 
Celestia began to walk up the staircase. I was losing time.  
“Hello, Celestia, are you down here?” The fake Luna sounded like she was down here, in the dungeon cells.
“Luna! Where are you? What happened?”
“I figured it out!” 
“Oh really? Care to explain to me why you are in the castle dungeons?” Doubt was in Celestia’s voice. It wasn’t easy.
“Our guest, the sound manipulator, it knows what all of this is about!”
“Really? It can talk?” She was roped in, and began descending to my dungeon.
“Oh, yes. It knows all about the prophecy, all about the elements, everything! It was actually just scared the first time, it isn’t dangerous!” I was just making stuff up as I went; if Celestia asked what I knew I would have no backup. She arrived near the door.
“Where are you?”
“In here!” It sounded like she was in my cell.
“Why?” Damn, she’s good.
“It didn’t want any of the guards to get in after me! They hold grudges, you know.”
“Hmm… Tell me, why hasn’t this loose-lipped captive said anything to me yet?” I only had one chance left to convince her.
“He’s just shy! Come on!”
No answer. Last shot.
“Tia, come on!” The whiny voice carried that blasted nickname. I crossed my fingers, standing next to the door, hoping it would take. Luckily for me that last line seemed to be enough, and a glowing blue light triggered several locks in the thick portal. As the last deadbolt slid down, a similar blue aura surrounded the door and it opened to reveal the white princess. 
She looked around my empty room, scanning with some sort of night vision, oblivious to the dark silence rolling over the halls, up the stairs, and into the main room. As I looked around to make my exit, the great and powerful sun ruler caught on and charged towards the stairs.
I was now in the main room, my senses and abilities heightened in the heat of the moment. I scanned the carpeted great hall, and my memories pointed me to one of the open windows behind the throne. With Celestia only steps away from my level, I quietly sprinted to the sill and dived out the opening. That was a move that I regretted instantly. I did not take into account that this castle was on a mountain, suspended over an ocean.
Now falling, I had to think of something. I didn’t come all this way to die a watery death, so I spread my arms and legs to slow the drop. I spurred my mind along, avoiding the fear of freefall while thinking of a solution. I flashed back to the last time I had blasted while aiming down; the dirt under my feet became a crater, but I thought I lifted up slightly. Not willing to take anything off the table, I breathed in, approaching the water. At the last second, I released the building energy towards the surface of the water, only meters above it. It was effective, to say the least.
My descent was slowed to a quarter speed, making it seem like I just stopped and hovered above the water, which was pushed down in another crater. After what seemed like minutes of no movement, I gently dropped in, shivering as the cold surrounded me. I was only a few meters from the shore, so I quickly swam up and sat on the sand. Sitting in the darkness, my mind, and hearing, could only wander back to the castle. 
“GUARDS!”
“What is it, princess-”
“The prisoner has escaped!”
“What? Where is it going?”
“Check the forest.”
“Whitetail woods?”
“No; it’s going to the Everfree.”
“The royal guard is on it, your majesty!” The male voice started to bark commands as it disappeared out of the room. Celestia walked towards the windows, and I backed into a deep shadow. I saw a white blur pop stick out of the window I used to escape, and looked around a few times before going back in. I heard the princess walking up her staircase, muttering again.
“What is happening to this place?” 
I knew what she meant. I had no idea either.
As far as my last thoughts on the matter went, I was deciding what I would do in the Everfree forest. The guards were looking for me, but the leader sounded apprehensive when he heard where I was going. That would buy me some time, but in order to stay on the lamb, I made myself promise something.
I would not be able to trust Fluttershy any more, and I could not go back to her for help. It was hard to accept at first, but if any of the other ponies found me near her house, or worse, talking to her, the punishment would be terrible for both of us. I would have no other chances to escape, since they already knew of my tricks, and Fluttershy would probably be executed for treason. I couldn’t afford to go back, I was already in a corner.
I would have to go to my cave, collect what was left, and move further into the forest. With that in mind, I began to walk towards the tree line.
My feet hurt.