*Back in Israphel's Castle*
Pacing back and forth across this tiny cell. Still shaking from my conversation with The Dark Lord. Lost in a daze of thought and confusion. I'm not entirely sure how much time has gone by, or how long I've been here, but I still can't get my head around how I got here in the first place. It just doesn't make sense. For a start, all Israphel is and ever was, was a virtual character we made for a show on YouTube, sure, who ever was playing on the account could do whatever they wanted as him, but since he was just a Minecraft account, he couldn't do anything for himself. We were never really scared of him, even when he was trying to shoot us down and kill us, he was just pixels on a screen. Or at least, that's what I thought.
I may not of seen his face yet, but I know that when I do, it won't be because we're about to have a friendly chat. He's evil after all. I would like to know where he's put my friends though, but I have an odd feeling that they're not that far away. Every now and then, I hear a faint scream or yell. And they all sound so familiar.. I hope they're ok..
--
I've been hearing almost constant screams and shouts for about 10 minutes now. Small explosions have been set off as well. It's coming from quite far away. I can only just hear it. Something's happening.
A massive explosion that makes the ground shake beneath my feet fills my ears. I stumble back as the blast almost seems to stun me. Through the ringing that's now echoing through my skull I can hear that dark voice yelling and the sound of hooves clattering against the stone floor. Has someone escaped?
As the foot-steps get closer they start to slow down, before eventually stopping, right on the other side of the wall stood in front of me. I hear a voice, a familiar one, and its the complete opposite of Israphel's. Soft and light, though still quite deep. Almost laughing. I know that voice.
Another explosion goes off right outside my cell, shaking the obsidian wall in front of me and causing a few chunks of the rock to crumble and fall away. I peer through the tiny gap, and see a pair of dark grey, almost black eyes staring back at me.
"Duncan?" They mutter before being knocked back by a magic burst. I hear more magic being activated as the ground begins to shake again. Moments after, the wall in front of me almost seems to shatter and falls down into a pile of rubble. I stare at the orangey yellow stallion stood facing his back to me, his hind legs lifted slightly above the ground.
"How did you..?" I stutter, confused about how he just knocked the wall down with such ease. He turns to face me with a grin on his face, and his identity clicks into place, long, glossy dark brown hair slightly covering his eyes, a long black coat with golden-yellow trimming and a loose beige shirt. No doubt about it. That was Ridgedog
"Strength of an Earth Pony with a little Alicorn magic thrown in, easy peasy, now run!" He smirks, glancing at the brick wall he magiced up, blocking the corridor, before running ahead.
I follow behind, only just managing to keep up. It takes me a few minutes to realise what he meant by 'strength of an earth pony with a little alicorn magic thrown in.' A dark glow surrounding the horn on his head, and a pair of large wings sitting, slightly unfolded at his sides. Of course he's a bloody Alicorn..
"Ridge! Where are we going!" I yell at him, not entirely sure on where we're supposed to go and what we're supposed to do.
"Just follow me. I know how we can get out!" He says, oddly cheerfully. I don't speak at first, I have to trust his word, but I can hear people coming up behind us, that brick wall didn't last long, and it didn't give us much of a lead on our captures either. I turn my head and look at what's following, monsters, creepers, skeletons, spiders. And Israphel. Tall and white, blood-red eyes, and an Alicorn. Obviously..
"There's no way we can out run them! Israphel has wings, he'll be able to fly! And if he catches us he'll kill us!" I snap. Starting to panic.
"I have wings too, Duncan." He smirks as he fully unfolds his wings.
"Yes, I know, but I don't!" I can't help but yell at him, I can't quite get my head around what he's trying to do. Which isn't helping. He just smiles, flapping his wings a few times, lifting him off the ground, he moves over top of me, flying very low, before wrapping his front hooves around me and lifting me into the air. A bright spark of magic surrounds his horn and we shoot off at a ridiculous speed. Turning tight corners with ease and eventually coming across a large hall with a glass ceiling.
Ridge doesn't waste a single second to think about what he's about to do. He flies up towards the ceiling, I close my eyes tight and cover my face, petrified. We keep moving, and after only a few seconds, I hear glass shatter. A few moments pass before I open my eyes slowly and look around, we're hovering above a giant desert, below us, a gigantic stone castle. In the middle of no where. But this sudden moment of freedom doesn't last long, Israphel is still following us. Flying up after us, Ridge just smirks, and another bright flash of magic comes from his horn, almost blinding me.
---
I open my eyes again to find myself laying in the grass in the middle of a forest. Ridge sprawled out beside me, chuckling to himself. I sit up quickly and immediately regret it as my head starts spinning.
"Careful. Teleportation can leave you a little light-headed afterwards if you're not used to it." The Alicorn smiles as he sits up.
"How the hell did you pull that off? Or are we dead." I say, slightly annoyed at his recklessness, yet also relieved to be out of that castle.
"We're not dead. As to how I pulled it off. Well. Let's just say Alicorn magic is a powerful thing and leave it at that." He chuckles.
"Yeah about that. How come you get to be an Alicorn, what's with that?" I ask, curious about how Ridge of all people gets all the power.
"Not sure. But I think it might be partly because I'm usually an admin on the Minecraft servers, from what I've seen, we've all been turned into pony equivalents of our Minecraft characters, and our race has been chosen depending on what we do, how he act, or simply because of what they are. Like how Simon's characters is a Dwarf, he's been turned into an Earth Pony. You usually play as the scientist, so you're a Unicorn." He says, staring off into the distance, it's rather dark, and eerily quiet. Which makes me question as to how much time passed during the journey from Israphel's castle to here. I don't say anything about it though.
"I guess that makes sense. Hold on. How do you know what Simon is? From what Israphel told me during our brief chat yesterday or whenever it was, Simon and Lewis aren't in his possession. So how could you know that Simon's an Earth Pony, if you were locked up like I was?" I ask, confused and a little curious.
"Simple. Before Israphel spotted me trying to escape, I had a quick look around and managed to find some things out. He's got pretty much every member of the Yogscast and some of our friends locked up in his castle. The only ones he and his friends didn't manage to capture on arrival were Simon, Lewis and Martyn. So they're out there somewhere. He knows of Simon and Lewis' absence from his little collection and they're the ones he wants to get his hooves on the most. I'd say he was a little obsessed about it actually. I found loads of pictures and scrolls of information on the two of them. Trying to pinpoint they're weaknesses and track them down so that he can finally do what he's wanted to do since the very beginning. He doesn't seem too bothered about Martyn though. Then again, I didn't get a chance to look through it all, so whether he's got stuff on the rest of us I don't know, after a few minutes of looking I was spotted, and had to run for it." Ridge says rather bluntly. I don't reply, I just sit there and think.
We may have gotten away, and we may be safe for now, but eventually we'll be found. Israphel won't give up that easily. Staying in one place probably isn't a good idea. We should really try to find the others, to help us form a stronger group, free our friends and get out of Equestria. Simple enough, but I have a horrible feeling it'll be an absolute nightmare.