Chapter 2: An Atypical Canterlot Welcome
A drop of cold water danced on the stone-brick ceiling before falling down.
It landed on Lanky's head, in the very center of the aching patch where he was struck by the guard an indeterminate amount of time ago. The cold drop alleviated a little bit of his pain, but with it, another kind of torment entered his mind.
He squirmed. He wished to open his eyes, but the pain he felt discouraged any attempts of fully waking up. Trying to receive as much information as possible without opening his eyes, he focused all his attention on his ears, listening carefully at the sounds that reached him.
Whenever he was, it was eerily quiet. As his ears got used to the silence, he was able to make out more of the soundscape. There were sounds, distant and dulled out, as if behind heavy, unforgiving walls.
Jail, probably? The cold, damp stone he felt on the side of his body told him it was a possibility.
The events from before – Yesterday, maybe? Or still today? – came back as he tried to re-enumerate and piece together all the things about the camping trip. His mind confused itself when it tried to remember the details of the vision he experienced. As he lied, he relived once again the fear he experienced when the butter-yellow mare begged him for help.
The last word she spoke echoed through his mind. “Accepted.”
Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. The word brought him to the brink of insanity, repeating itself over and over again. Accepted. Accepted. “Accepted for what?!?”, he asked himself in his thoughts, not expecting any answer.
To dismiss the overpowering word, he began thinking about the vision itself, its mechanics. No matter how hard he tried to think how it was created, be it a drug-induced hallucination, or an expensive holo-display put there for nopony-knows what purpose, the train of his thoughts always circled back to one forbidden word – magic.
Something that was told of in tales, the power that existed before the Shift, before the Birthright War that started as a result of a supposedly cataclysmic event. The power universally dismissed as mere tales for foals or conspiracy theorists. As far as he knew, there never was any magic, and the Shift was merely a solar eclipse, a simple thing that superstitious, uneducated, and stupid ponies of antiquity didn’t understand, driving them into madness, and ultimately, war.
He shifted a little on the stone-brick ground, trying to make himself more comfortable. Bit by bit, the pain was leaving his head. He focused on the memory of the teal-colored pony who was found by the group the same time he experienced the vision.
The pendant. He stole it. He must have known what it was. Lanky wished the stranger would be nearby to provide him with answers.
A drop of cold water danced on the stone-brick ceiling before falling down. The quietness made it possible for him to hear the drop all the way through the air, until it landed somewhere else.
The somewhere else made an annoyed grunt. Lanky instantaneously opened his eyes. For a few moments, the world appeared to him as a blur.
The jail cell was damp and dark, a small hole high above him only letting a little light inside. Ominous stonework and strong-looking metal bars gave no hope of escaping. Nothing except him and the teal pony was inside, not even a bunk to sleep on.
In the other corner, the stranger tried to stand up, but the chains that bound him didn't give up, clinking loudly instead. At the same time, Lanky finally felt the metal rings tightly clamped around his hooves. He moved his foreleg a little, only to hear a clink of chains.
Both woke up completely, minds and bodies still tired and aching. Both attempted to say something to each other, but as the words tried to escape their mouths, some unseen force tangled their tongues, leaving both in awkward, heavy silence.
Lanky struggled to break the silence, and after a few tries he managed to break the ice.
“Hi”.
The teal pony, until now actively trying to avoid looking at him, took a quick look , and again turned his head away, ashamed. He mumbled a quiet, barely hearable 'hi', which sounded more like a mouse's squeak than a word.
“Could you please repeat that? I didn't hear anything.” Lanky said.
The teal pony looked back at him, shyly, and spoke softly. “Hi... You're that pony from yesterday... Aren't you?”
“Yes”
“Oh,” the teal pony squeaked back.
“Is that all you'd like to say? Oh? For stealing something that... uhm... probably wasn't yours anyway?” Lanky thought.
As if reading his mind, the stranger quickly gave a response, "Sorry... What's your name?"
"Lanky. And yours?"
Lanky observed as the other pony's eyes wandered around the room, as if the answer was written somewhere there. “So... what's your name?” he repeated the question. He remembered himself asking the question before, but the idea of anypony not knowing his name seemed alien to him.
The teal one visibly struggled with the answer, mumbling something quietly under his nose, before letting out a barely audible squeak. “I... I don’t know.”
“I find it hard to believe,” Lanky said in a harsh tone, “you tried to steal the pendant. You said you’d explain. You knew what it was.”
As the teal stallion struggled to say anything comprehensible. Lanky took a closer look at him. As he breathed, skin moved over the visible ribcage. His medium-lenght curly mane, as teal as the rest of his body, was covered in dirt, caked mud, and tree-sap.
“You managed to live out in Everfree, long time away from the civilization,” Lanky continued, each word in more aggressive tone, “so you know how to survive, and you tell me you don’t remember your name?”
Teal pony cowered, shivering slightly, almost crying. Lanky began apologizing, but in his mind, his thoughts were different. Does he have a low stress threshold or what?
This calmed the other one.
“So,” Lanky continued, “So why did you try to steal from me? Do you know what that crystal was? Was it important? Priceless?”.
The teal pony turned his head away. For a moment he appeared deep in thought, as if waging his words carefully. "I... I don't know. I just had to get my hooves on that pendant... Something was telling me that I should do it. So I was going to take it... Without your acknowledgement, if it was ok with you," he spoke in a meek voice.
That response surprised Lanky. The description was exactly word-for-word how he felt about the whole situation. Touching the crystal again, picking it up for safekeeping, and chasing the thief, ignoring connection attempts, just to get it back. It was not his conscious will. It was an impulse.
For a moment, neither spoke, the silence thick and unbearable. Finally, it was Lanky who broke the silence.
“I've got an idea... You say you don't remember your name, right? So, what about, until you remember, I’ll call you... Teal?”
Teal let out a short, quiet chuckle. “Naming me after my color... Fine by me. Thanks,” he replied, a delicate hint of gratitude in his voice, "So, could you answer my question, pretty please?"
"And that was...?"
"What were you all doing in Everfree?"
Lanky began telling his story, while the teal pony listened quietly, occasionally nodding to what he was saying. He told him everything that happened until he met him. He spoke of his doubts surrounding the trip, about the mysteries and question unasked. He felt a tinge of fear when he mentioned his friends. I really should have had answered the call.
Teal brooded over his words for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said, "but there's a problem with your story."
"And that is?" Lanky asked. He tilted his head.
"Sorry to say, but what you've said makes absolutely no sense. For such a small, casual group, you seemed way too well organized," The teal pony, despite still sounding timid, allowed himself a single smirk, "How did they afford HoofBeat mk.4 Armored Pony Carriers? Yes, they're a little bit outdated, it's possible to buy them decommissioned on the aftermarket, but they would cost a small fortune. About hundred thousand bits, each"
Lanky had nothing to say. He always considered these machines to be cheap enough to be rescued from the scrapyard for a price low enough that even a filly could buy these with some pocket money, so clanky and rundown they were. Yet, Teal sounded more than absolutely certain in his knowledge. Hundred thousand bits was more than enough to buy a brand new carriage in most expensive automobile shops in Manehattan.
They spent the remaining time in silence. An hour later, two guards came to their cell, gave them some surprisingly tasty hay and water, and after both had finished eating, unchained them and told them that their fate was to be decided now.
As they were herded to the courtroom Lanky noticed through a window that they were in Canterlot. Such a majestic view could only be seen from high upon the mountainside, and Canterlot was the only city known to be built in such manner. He had the hunch before, but now, his worst fears were confirmed.
The evening sunlight, filtered through the courtroom's stained glass windows flooded it with a magnitude of colors and hues, casting gentle rainbow tints across the marble floor, uneven after so many years and so many hooves left the floor in a visible state of disrepair.
Teal looked at the windows, more out of boredom than interest in what was happening in the room.
Lanky could not stop staring at other ponies gathered there. He saw pegasus ponies a few times in Manehattan, and only once in his life he saw a unicorn. In Terra, they were so rare that majority of population could live their lives never seeing one. And here, it appeared that the same could be said about earth ponies. On the benches surrounding them, a group of young unicorns and pegasi sat, learning by example the trade of a lawyer.
Before the two, five elderly ponies sat on wooden, comfortable-looking chairs. One of them, an old, creamy-red unicorn mare with gray mane and tail, held a metal staff.
Teal did not wait for any questions, and began whispering to Lanky, barely containing excitement. “I remember something, I remember!” The murmur in the courtroom allowed them speaking to pass unnoticed.
“You were there?” Lanky asked.
“I remember I was, I think,” he said, and sensing the question Lanky was going to ask, he continued, “But I don’t remember what for... It’s called the Lesser Gathering. Lowest tier of Luna’s Domain judicial system, for unimportant, civil cases. They’re going to decide what to do with us,” – seeing that the last sentence made Lanky uneasy, he quickly added – “depart us to Terra’s border. It’s a standard procedure, as we broke no other laws.”
“Then,” Lanky said, “why bring us from Ponyville to Canterlot? Why not just kick us out right away? Why all that junk?”
“Bureaucracy. They’re all insufferable bureaucrats,” Teal said. He tried to add something, but the mare struck the floor with the staff. The room fell silent immediately.
And the ceremony began. An old pony, a yellowish unicorn mare, unfolded a scroll on the stone pulpit, and began reading it, loud and slow enough for all the ponies to understand. If it weren’t for that, Lanky could not understand what she was saying, thanks to her thick, alien accent.
"We are gathered here to decide the fate of two earth ponies, by the names of Lanky and Teal, who were found trespassing on the Domain's grounds. These two broke the treaty forbidding unauthorized access through the borders, and could not produce any documents on request, authorizing their visit, and for that, our law is simple: extradition to where they came from, to Terra."
Lanky was too intimidated to point out that those guards that captured them didn't request any documents. Trying to gather some courage, he looked to his right, to see how Teal was coping with the whole situation. He looked completely indifferent to what was happening, and all he was doing was gazing at the floor, lost deep in his thoughts. In the corner of his eye, he noticed that the students were transcribing everything that was happening on their scrolls, eagerly learning the arts.
"Is there anything that the defendants would like to add?" Another one of the judges, a middle-aged cyan pegasus stallion spoke directly to them.
Lanky didn't know how to react. It was so different than what he already knew. He didn't have any problems with the law way back in Manehattan, but he knew well that back there, the judicial system worked on a different set of principles and customs, and there were attorneys who would defend their case. But here, everything was different. He maintained his calm facial expression, but he was feeling lost nonetheless. The culture clash left him in total darkness. All he did was to shake his head to express that there was nothing more to add. He knew that it was the best possible outcome, anyway, and therefore he had no objections.
The five turned around to face each other. They whispered silently amongst each other, and after a consensus had been formed, they turned around, facing Lanky and the teal pony again.
"So the sentence stands," all judges spoke as one, "Lanky and Teal will be deported to Terra as soon as possible.”
Lanky sighed. The weight on his heart was lifted, and he felt safe.
The judge with the rod began striking it on the ground. At the third strike, the decision would be legally binding.
The rod struck once, and the metallic sound reverberated across the room.
The rod struck the marble for the second time, and the ringing noise bounced off the walls and around the room again.
A moment before the rod struck the floor for the third time, the heavy wooden doors to the courtroom swung open violently. The marble near the hinges cracked a little.
A violet unicorn mare entered the room, holding a scroll in her mouth. She wore an old, dirty burlap robe, pockmarked with many small holes. Through one of the holes, Lanky saw a strange discoloration somewhere on her flanks. He instantly began wondering, whether she also had the tattoo.
She walked to the gathering, placed the scroll on the pulpit and turned around, towards the exit. As she walked away, she took a quick look at Lanky. Her green eyes seemed half-curious, half-disappointed.
The mare leading the trial broke the wax seal of the scroll, and unscrolled it on the pulpit of other judges to read. With each word they read, their expressions changed from confusion about the commotion, to astonishment from reading the contents of the scroll. The yellowish unicorn mare couldn't believe what was written there, her eyes moving rapidly through the text, again and again,. Finally, her voice breaking, she gave a verdict.
"By the decree of Queen Luna, voiced by the Synod of Canterlot, Lanky and Teal have been sentenced to death. Their execution is to be carried out tomorrow at dawn."
Tree Root was in hurry, for she had to get to her residence as soon as possible. But even despite that, there were some things in the world worth stopping for.
She took a deep breath. She let the air stay in her nostrils for a moment, enjoying the fragrances of Canterlot as she trotted nervously through the streets of Canterlot.
She considered herself educated enough to be one of the chosen few who could understand all the subtle details of the city. And for her, the best way to determine the character of the place was to smell it, and the capitol of Luna's Domain proved to be quite a challenge.
What she felt was a paradox, a clash of differences and sharp gradients. Here, at Celestia’s Heights, the richest part of Canterlot, the top tier of society lived, and smells reflected that. The aromas of freshly baked cakes and fragrances of so many varieties of tea and coffee tingled her senses, making her feel a painful craving for a good cappuccino. But it was but an island in the sea of poverty and squalor that Canterlot was, and she couldn’t shake off the memory of odors she smelt when she had to visit other areas of the city. But no matter where she was, her burlap robe always looked in-place. Even the richest wore poor clothing in Canterlot.
There were so many more smells, but a peculiar one amazed her, an ominous, ethereal one. For it wasn't recorded by her nose, but by her brain, being noticeable to her thanks only to her knowledge.
The smell of decay. It wasn't the city that smelt like that, no, the city thrived without any problems, completely ignorant as to what was really going on. But she could tell the source of that odor was somewhere in the castle; she could pinpoint the exact location to be the royal chambers where Princess Celestia and Queen Luna resided. The problem with that odor was that it really was there, inside the Canterlot Palace. In the city, however, the smell still clung to her, and she couldn't shake it off.
“Poor ponies, lied to every day,” she muttered to herself as she saw a group of unicorns and pegasi laughing over something in a cafe. But she was aware that no secret can be hold ad infinitum; she could feel the cold breeze of the winds of change blowing at her. And soon, unless the Synod was to take some preemptive emergency measurements, the same wind would start blowing everywhere.
She desperately wanted her cappuccino. But there was no time for that. Not today, and not in the foreseeable future. There were more important tasks at hoof. Because today was a special day. Something unexpected happened. Something which was in nopony's plans.
And Tree Root needed orders.
As she came closer to her home, she began watching, listening, sensing whether anypony followed her or tried to eavesdrop on her. But she could spot nopony. Or so it seemed, but she was aware of her abilities and therefore was sure that nopony could have followed her without her knowledge.
When she came upon the doors to her apartment, she looked around one more time. She opened the doors, hastily entered her house and locked herself inside.
For a moment she stood silently, listening to sense if somepony was hiding in her home, an eavesdropper or an assassin. But she heard absolutely nothing.
She closed all the curtains, veiling her room in deep shadows. As she took her burlap robe, she noticed a new hole, and she felt herself sweating from terror. Somepony might’ve noticed her cutie mark. “Too late now,” she whispered to herself, an action which didn't calm her down, “what’s done, done.”
After a moment, she opened a hidden cache in her desk, and from it took a small item, a special thing that couldn't be found anywhere else in Canterlot.
A headset.
She donned it, the earpiece snugly fitting in, and pressed the call button. To somepony uninitiated, the silence on the other end would only make them think that the thing was broken, but she knew what to do.
“Two, seven, eight, three, switch to encrypted channel,” she whispered, and waited for a response. Soon enough she heard somepony on the other side of the world talking to her, asking her what the problem was, to which she replied.
“Mission failed. The Synod is aware. The pendant hasn't been intercepted. Both of them have been sentenced to death, I've even personally delivered the writ of execution from Queen Luna. There are no backup plans we can commence. Requesting orders now.”
The voice on the other side began talking to her, relaying the orders. She nodded to each one, understanding the burdens that have been put at her.
The transmission stopped. She brought up her headset’s holographic display, and opened a file with the layouts of Canterlot Palace, all it’s rooms, corridors and secret passages floating before her eyes. She sat, and began planning her movements.
The black-eye he got when he tried to resist the guard after the sentencing pulsed with pain, in rhythm with the patch on the back on his head where he was struck before. But the mental pain was what hurt most.
Lanky screamed. And again. And again.
"Calm down, calm down... NO! BUCK YOU! How can I calm down,” he shouted at Teal, whose calm, disinterested demeanor only made it worse.
He thought about his two closest friends, Red Snow and Sweet Whisper. He'd kill somepony just to be with them right now, preferably somewhere far, far away.
The guards were listening to the screams from their station, near the heavy wooden doors that divided the dungeon from the rest of the royal palace. The doors were across the long corridor, which carried the screams well.
Back at the cell, Teal decided it was high time to calm Lanky down. And he knew exactly how.
"I can help you," he said, in a calm tone that made Lanky relent just a little.
"How!?!," he screamed in response.
"...Calm down, please, and I will tell," Teal said.
"Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down," Lanky repeated that mantra for some time, until he calmed down enough to concentrate. By that time, the night had fallen, still young.
"...I'm calm... I think," he said, his shaking voice betraying his words.
"Ok, good... Now listen..." the teal pony said, then turned his head to see if there was anypony eavesdropping on them. He asked Lanky, "Do you trust me?"
Lanky lied and nodded in return, fearing that if he was to open his mouth again, his emotions would explode again.
"I was not completely honest with you,” Teal said in a meek, quiet voice which made Lanky prompt him to speak louder, “Although I might’ve traded some of my memories, there are things I remember. I've been here once before, in this very dungeon. And I've escaped. I know how to escape, I know the way around. Want to escape with me? Because I don't really want to die either, you know..." he said, still sounding timid, but with a small tinge of sureness in his voice.
Lanky looked at Teal with eyes wide open. A myriad of questions floated in his mind, each one begging to be asked, but all he wanted the most was not-being-there. He nodded in acknowledgement.
Teal asked, "want to escape right now?"
Lanky nodded again, at the same time distrusting, trusting, doubting and fearing him.
"Ok... Now listen, and listen very carefully. First, don't say what you don't really have to say. Second, act natural, and third, most important, don't look at me when that happens, the spell can misfire... if it’s okay with you, I mean," Teal said, accentuating the whole part of a sentence, "Do you understand?"
Lanky shook his head in disagreement. He understood the words, alone but the context wasn't there.
And did he say 'spell'?
"That's good. You don't have to understand. Just do it. Just yell for help." It didn't sound like an order, more like a request he said in his ever-meek voice. But the words carried a peculiar aura of obedience.
And then Teal fell on the ground. His body jerked, as if twisted by an unbearably painful seizure. His eyes went wide open, wild and unfocused. White foam formed in the corners of his mouth.
For the second time in his life, and in the day, Lanky had been genuinely petrified. Thoughts in his mind raced, unsure what to do. “Act natural,” he thought. It sprang him right into action.
"HELP! HELP! WE NEED HELP!" He yelled, striking his hooves on the metal bars of his cell. It was enough. He heard the gallop of the two guards coming closer to them.
Teal’s words flashed in his mind again, “don’t look at me when that happens.” Lanky instinctively closed his eyes.
A second after he closed his eyes, he heard the guards arrive. Then, all sounds stopped. Teal stopped thrashing. The guards didn't do anything. Lanky heard a sizzling sound, and an unbearably strong odor of ozone hit his nose. When he heard the guards open their cell, he was too terrified to open his eyes. He didn't twitch when he felt his chains move, one of the guards unchaining him.
"It's ok, you can open your eyes now," Teal cooed. Lanky opened his eyes, then blinked a few times. The guards stood above them, unmoving, their bodies stiff, faces expressionless, and their eyes glassy and looking at nothing in particular.
Lanky rose up. His joints cracked, finally having freedom of movement after he was brought back to the cell after the trial. He heard Teal's joints cracking too.
“Are you okay? I hope it didn’t scare you, I’m sorry,” Teal said, a shy smile on his face.
“What. The. Buck. Was. That?!?” Lanky stuttered out, “What did you do them?” The smell of ozone still hung in the air. “Was it... magic?”
“I don’t think we have time now to discuss. I’ll explain it to you later.”
Lanky began to walk towards the exit. He almost said, “At last, free--”
"Stop." Teal said, and Lanky obeyed.
He observed with great curiosity what Teal was doing. Teal moved his head closer to the metal bars of the door frame, careful not to put his head through it. A small light appeared on his forehead, and again, there was a sizzling sound, and a strong smell of ozone hit Lanky’s nostrils.
When the spell began to form, the mane on Teal’s forehead began to flow, as if shaken by a strong gust of wind. It was that exact moment when Lanky realized that Teal was a unicorn. His messy, dirty mane was formed in such a way that the stump where his horn was was obscured from view, but now, when the magical energies flowed, Lanky could see everything clear. The pony's horn had been removed, leaving only a small stump, nothing but a mere mark on his head.
In the air, where the doors were, arcane glyphs floated around in circles, forming a transparent barrier. As they moved, they left behind traces of mist that faded away.
The light on Teal’s forehead grew in intensity, and the symbols began to fade. When these disappeared, so did the light. The cell became dark again.
Lanky's mouth was agape. He could not believe what he just saw. He felt dizzy.
"Magic, it’s magic," he stuttered out.
Teal nodded, and then shook violently, as if he was cold.
"...Yes. Yes it was. Don't ask me now, I'll explain it later," he said.
“Buck that, I’ve got to ask!” Lanky thought. Through all his life, he didn't believe in magic, and there it was, witnessed before his very own eyes. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, and so little time. But, there was time for a one, small question. "What was that just now? All these letters, just what was that? Was that magic, too?"
Teal sighed. "Yes. It's magic. It's an enchantment called tripwire. It detects when anypony unauthorized tries to cross it, and if triggered, it fires a quiet alarm that would call to every guard in the vicinity."
"What... How?" Lanky almost yelled that question out, restraining himself in the last possible moment.
Teal stuck his head through the doorway, the metal bars that formed one wall of their cell no longer obstructing his sight. He looked left, he looked right, he looked left again, and then took a first step towards freedom.
Lanky followed, walking out of the jail into the dungeon's corridor. In a low-ceiling tunnel, dim flames of torches cast dancing lights onto the walls made of blocks of stone. Dry and cold air made him shiver.
He and Teal both turned around at the same time. The guards still stood in their cell, blissfully ignoring the rest of the world. Teal closed the cell and turned the key, locking the guards, one green pegasus and one orange unicorn, inside.
"Please forgive me. It's for the best," the stranger cooed to the guards. They didn't even react.
He turned his head to Lanky and said, "Simple mind control spell. Don't worry about them, Lanky, they're safe. They will be like that 'til morning."
It didn't convince Lanky anyway. “Was that supposed to calm me? Just ignore the fact that you're capable of raping somepony's mind just like that?”
Teal didn’t answer.
He looked around. The four of them were alone. All the remaining cells were empty. They were empty when they first arrived there, too.
“Do they execute everypony found guilty of anything in Luna's Domain? I know in Terra almost nothing is known about our brethren except the most basic facts, but that just beats all. What a hayhole this place is. Ugh,” he said.
“No,” answered Teal, “as I said, they usually deport them. I don’t know why they sentenced us.”
Lanky turned to the doors that would lead them outside, into the lowest parts of Canterlot palace. Teal, however, turned back and began walking down the corridor, deeper into the dungeon.
"W... Where are you going? Aren’t we supposed to run away right now?" Lanky asked.
"I've... got one more thing to do. You can come if you like," Teal said, walking down the corridor.
“Okay, I'll come. But quickly, please, I want to get out!” Lanky spoke, but Teal ignored him.
At the end of the corridor, they came upon a stairwell. It winded down, deep into the mountain. Down, there was another corridor like the one where their cell was located. Like in the upper corridor, all cells were empty.
Except one. One particular cell was different, much bigger, the inside veiled in impenetrable darkness. And there was something inside. A gargantuan entity, lying down quietly in the shadow. Something that wasn't a pony. Something that couldn't be seen, something that made Lanky shiver just by being there. His heartbeat intensified, and he could hear it beating. He felt his throat and mouth getting dry just by looking into the abyss.
When the Teal began to speak, Lanky jumped in place, already scared out of his mind.
"I'm sorry... Please, forgive me... I still can't help you. Wait a little bit longer for me, I'll find a way to get you out of there... I'll find a way to end your pain. I still can't find it. Wait for me a little bit longer, please?" Teal said in a motherly tone, trying to calm whatever was inside.
The thing grunted, the sound only an unearthly creature in a world of pain could make.
Lanky barely held on the last thread of his sanity. The suffocating atmosphere of the place, dim lights of the torches and the impenetrable darkness of the big holding cell kicked his flee instinct into overdrive. But he stood unable to move, hooves glued firmly to the ground.
Near the cell, there was a small cabinet with a red cross and four hearts in the corner, a universally recognized symbol of first aid, a mark which eerily reminded him of Healer. Teal opened it, and took a metal vial from there, which he promptly threw into the darkness, through the metal-bar wall.
"Here, have some more painkillers. I know you need these. I'll see you later... Sorry," he said to the darkness, and walked back to the stairwell. Lanky followed eagerly. When they went back upstairs, his instincts finally kicked in, and galloped for a moment, as fast from the stairwell as his tired hooves could carry him. Teal instead gaited slowly, not afraid of what was imprisoned down there. When they were halfway through the upper corridor, Lanky stopped running.
"What... What the buck was that," Lanky asked, speaking every word in between gasps.
"He's... a friend of mine. Yes, you could say he's my friend. Name's Discord."
The contrast between what he felt staring at the abyss and such a silly name made him smirk, the laughter breaking down the tension. "Discord," he muttered, almost laughing, "What an appropriate name!"
Teal's expression went somber. "It's far more appropriate than you would ever know."
Lanky didn't ignore that comment, but decided not to ask any more than he had to. He wished to know what did Teal mean by ‘friend’, but there was still a string of pure, primeval fear when he thought about what was inside that cell, about what he couldn't see through the darkness.
Near the doors leading outside, there was a metal chest. He opened it, and to his surprise, he found his backpack. Teal explained that, as everypony expected them to be deported to Terra, they left their belongings there for convenience. He opened a canteen and drank half of it, the liquid barely quenching his thirst. He shared the remaining half with Teal, who gladly accepted. Even his headset was there, but all Lanky heard was a static, the phone and radio too far away from any public network.
One thing wasn’t there. The pendant he found disappeared, taken away. He felt a pang of guilt. His instinct told him to protect it, and he failed.
He looked at Teal disengaging another tripwire enchantment, that would've activated if they were to open the doors and rush headlong outside. The magical show amazed him even more than before.
Teal began to shiver. He barely held his mouth shut, hissing from pain. Lanky held him as he almost fell down on the floor.
“What the hay was that? What’s wrong? Does using magic hurts you?” Lanky asked.
Teal stood silent for a moment, regaining the balance.
“No,” he said, his words barely hearable, “it hurts to use magic, it always hurt us unicorns since the Shift, but that was something else. We’re not alone.”
Lanky stuttered. “D-did they notice we’re trying to escape?” He began to look left and right, but there was no other way out. He felt trapped.
“It wasn’t the guard, nor the princesses,” he said meekly, “somepony else, from outside, entered the castle and began casting spells like crazy. Unicorns can sense other unicorns using magic, and in large quantities, it hurts. What that pony did... I don’t know, but it targeted everypony except us.”
“Maybe,” Lanky said, “it created enough distraction to let us escape! We have to run, now!”
Teal nodded in agreement.
Hinges creaked as Lanky opened the doors, and a cold, refreshing draft wafted in. He peeked through. Outside, he saw Canterlot castle from the inside. Moonlight lit up the place, casting colors from the stained glass windows onto walls. It took a moment for his eyes to adapt to the darkness.
After confirming that there were no guards outside, Lanky took a deep breath, and stepped outside, right into the unknown.
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