The lower cells of Baltimare Prison were just as cold and dark as the heart of the very Unicorn Queen who had Goggles thrown inside one, the only source of light were the dim torches that barely emanated any flame due to the constant damp from the river splashing about outside the windows. As the Gizmonk was carelessly thrown from his birdcage, into the cell furthest away from the door leading to the hallway, he felt a hard impact as he hit the wet stone floor. Picking himself up, he rubbed his aching head as drips of water fell on him from the ceiling.
“Apparently there’s a leak,” he said sarcastically as Tod slammed his cell shut and laughed his way out of the door.
The cell he was in was just as Goggles would have come to expect, bars too narrow for him to slip through, a pile of hay in the corner that was supposed to act as a bed during his stay, and of course a bucket in the other, the use of which Goggles didn’t even care to think about. At this point, Goggles couldn’t believe things could get any worse, suddenly his train of thought was interrupted by another voice.
“Well, look at who we have here,” it said with a smooth tone amongst the darkness.
“Who said that!?!” Goggles asked, panicked by the sudden appearance of the voice.
However the voice only responded with the most unusual of sentences.
“What has a head and a tail, yet has no body?” it said, still keeping the smooth tone.
Goggles raised an eyebrow at that.
“A riddle?” he said confusingly.
“Care to guess, little one?” the voice replied with a slight chuckle.
Suddenly Goggles’ eyes widened with realisation, something about this voice seemed familiar, in fact it was a voice that he hadn’t heard in a long time and yet still remembered the kind face it came with.
“Wait a minute,” he gasped. “I know that smooth tone, the answer is a coin!”
In response the voice laughed and at that moment, Goggles reached for his tail, as it turns out the orb at the end of it didn’t just light up whenever he had an idea. Flicking the orb with his fingers, he made his tail glow like a small torch and pointed it directly towards the cell across from him, what he saw inside made him want to cry with joy.
“Always the perceptive one, eh Goggles?” the voice said again, only this time the Gizmonk saw the face it came with.
“Jinx!” he gasped. “You’re alive!”
Jinx was of course, the friend that Goggles had first revealed his secret to, a friend that helped escape the first time, a friend that he had long thought dead by the paws of Queen Icicle’s gem Foxes. Yet here she stood, living and breathing the same damp air he was just only a single cell away from him. She was exactly how Goggles had remembered her, a young, winged beauty with feathers as pale and soft as cream, however she wasn’t a Pegasus like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy, she was a Sphinx. With the body of a Clouded Leopard with feathered wings that spread the entire length of her back, she looked back at her Gizmonk friend with caring, violet eyes and a smile that shone like the reflections off the pewter pendant around her neck.
“You bet I’m alive G-man,” she said with a smirk. “Turns out that arrow that hit me only had sleeping draught, not poison.”
“You have no idea how great it is to see you,” Goggles exclaimed, beaming up at her with tears of joy forming in his eyes.”
“Same here my friend,” Jinx replied. “But never mind me, what about you? I can’t believe you actually managed to stay on the run for over 5 months! And over-seas of all places, I’m actually impressed.”
Goggles blushed at that, Jinx always did have the strange ability to make one feel better, however his smile faded just as quickly as it appeared the second reality sunk back in.
“Yeah well, so much for staying hidden,” he said, leaning against the bars of the cell. “They’re shipping me back to Kappan on the next ship out of here.”
Jinx frowned at that.
“Yeah, same here,” she replied. “The only reason I’m here now is because the almighty Queen wanted to keep a close eye on the Gizmonk Thief’s accomplice personally. Guess she only puts so much trust in those mangy foxes of hers.”
At those words Goggles couldn’t help but chuckle.
“No arguments there,” he said, recalling every encounter he had ever witnessed between Icicle and her Gem Foxes, specifically the ones who were in the courtroom only an hour ago. “By my count I’d say she brought the entire pack with her.”
Upon hearing that Jinx tapped her chin with thought, Sphinxes may have been good with riddles but Gizmonk were definitely more adapt at memorising numbers, so she had faith that her little friend was indeed right, but if that were the case then Icicle must have been more paranoid that she first believed. Suddenly this lead to another question popping into the Sphinx’s head.
“And your sentence?” she dreadfully asked.
At first Goggles remained silence, slightly taken aback by Jinx’s question, finally he sighed and answered.
“Execution,” he said sadly.
“Same,” Jinx admitted in response, much to Goggles’ silent mortification, he had hoped that Icicle would show at some form of mercy for one of her own Advisors, but then again even that was asking too much of hope.
“I figured,” he admitted sadly. “At least we had a good run eh?”
“Yeah I suppose,” Jinx sighed in response. “Any regrets I should know about? I suppose you had some sort of good time while you were in this country?”
At those words, Goggles admittedly didn’t know what to say in response, there was only so many words to describe what he felt about the town he left behind, and the ponies he cared about with it.
“More than you can ever know,” he finally answered, leaning so much into the bars of his cell that he collapsed to his knees beneath the weight of his own body. “In my entire life, I never thought I would ever come to call ponies friends, but now I can’t imagine my life without them, especially little Apple Bloom.”
Jinx raised an eyebrow at that.
“Apple Bloom?” she questioned.
“I owe her my life,” Goggles explained. “If it weren’t for her I would never had survived my long journey across the Everfree Forest, nor would I have had any pony friends. Heck, I probably never would have had any real friends at all apart from you.”
With every word Goggles spoke, Jinx became more and more intrigued with his story, even as he turned away and sat with his back towards the bars of his cell, the Sphinx could tell that the Gizmonk was overwhelmed with pure emotion.
“At first I only wanted to somehow return the favour, so I insisted on returning to her home while I healed my leg,” Goggles continued. “I had hoped to find some way to repay her during my stay, but after a while I grew fond of every single member of that family, in time it became MY family.”
Upon hearing that Jinx’s heart wept, never in all the years she had known Goggles had he ever considered anyone family, not even her. And yet here he was, crying silent tears over the fact that he may never see the ponies he met with again.
“You really care about them that much?” she asked gently.
“I do,” Goggles answered. “A small smile appearing on his face amongst the tears as he thought about everyone he had considered his friends while in Ponyville. “I can’t help but think that sweet little filly is waiting for me to come back home, back to the sanctuary of Sweet Apple Acres, although I guess it’s a little late for that now.”
Saying that out loud made Goggles sick to his very stomach, but never the less he had to accept it was the truth, no matter how much he hated it.
“Even if I could somehow find a means of escape and run back to Ponyville, I’d only be putting my family in more danger because that Queen won’t rest until I’m dead,” he continued, slamming his fist against the bars of his cell with anger upon mentioning the Queen, before letting out a deep sigh of depression. “I guess my only true regret is that I never really got to say goodbye to any of them.”
Hearing this, Jinx wanted to cry. This Gizmonk, a creature who had never done any harm to anyone in his life, had a brief moment of happiness in his shell of a life, only to have it stripped away by the very beasts that made his life a living Tartarus in the first place. At this point her eyes narrowed and she looked back at Goggles with a stern gaze.
“Goggles, you must get away from this place,” she said, catching the Gizmonk off-guard as he looked back at her with a confused look. “No creature deserves to be this miserable, especially you.”
As much as he appreciated Jinx’s kind words, he had to admit to himself that they had fallen upon a soul that had already lost all hope. Goggles had his chance of escape once, but now there was no way Icicle would allow such a thing to happen again.
“You have always been a good friend Jinx,” he said quietly, once again turning away. “But simply running away again wouldn’t do me any good. Like I said before, even if I were to escape, my family would only be put into danger, Icicle will make sure of that, she’ll hurt them to get to me, that’s how she thinks. After all, she’s been that way ever since her parents began spoiling her as a filly, she became cruel, self-serving, and if she doesn’t get what she wants then she will do anything to make sure she does eventually. That’s how the whole mess started in the first place.”
Jinx raised an eyebrow at that, what exactly did the Gizmonk mean by that sentence?
“What are you saying, Goggles?” she asked.
“I’ve had my suspicions about the matter ever since I was arrested the first time,” Goggles proceeded to explain, desperately trying not to bite his tongue with anger as he spoke. “It’s no secret that the ponies in Kappan tried to wipe out my species years ago, but what if some are still trying now? But then again what pony would be stupid enough to steal from the Queen much less frame her little pet? It was then I realised just how far one particular pony would go to get what she wants, someone who had as much soul to hate me for what I am as the amount of ice in her heart. And the only one who would be able to pull this off without any suspicion is standing right in the doorway. Isn’t that right, your majesty?”
It was then that the silence in the room was met with a familiar form of laughter, one that both prisoners were all too familiar with. As expected it was Queen Icicle who spoke as she leaned against the doorway.
“Clever little creature aren’t you?” she said with a mocking tone as she walked further into the room.
“Queen Icicle?” Jinx exclaimed, her eye widening with shock as the sudden realisation began to sink in.
However the Kappanese Queen simply ignored the Sphinx and leaned in towards Goggles’ cell, forcing him to stand up and look her in the eye.
“Come to gloat have you?” Goggle asked sarcastically, knowing full well that was EXACTLY what she was here for.
Icicle chuckled at that.
“It’s funny,” she said. “I has only 6 when you came into my life, and in all the time we’ve known each other you never said a single word. Now it seems that you have a comment for just about anything.”
“Well you know what they say, if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all,” Goggle retorted, earning a small giggle from Jinx in response.
“And smart backchat too hmm?” Icicle replied, still keeping her smirk. “Well, I must admit that I’ve always noticed how intelligent you were Goggles, even right from the very start. Kind of hard not to considering everything you’ve done despite refusing to speak.”
“Well if I was truly that smart, I would have ran away from your clutches a lot sooner,” Goggles replied, although clearly ignored by Icicle’s ego.
“But then I finally discovered what you truly were,” Icicle continued. “And what your mind was capable of, I even discovered the fate of your species, specifically how they were hunted to near extinction.”
Goggles eye twitched at that, Now Icicle was beginning to enter a subject that really etched at his very soul.
“And what would you know about that?” he asked spitefully.
Icicle’s smile widened at that.
“Only that the ponies who hunted them… had the right idea,” she said cruelly.
As she had expected, Goggles didn’t taking hearing that even remotely in a gentle manner.
“What!?!” he snapped, jumping at the bars of his cell like a wild animal, gripping them with both his paws and his feet so that he was eye-level with her.
To Queen Icicle, seeing this display of animalistic behaviour amused her somewhat, even in her youth she had always enjoyed seeing this Gizmonk suffer. But now she felt like pouring even more salt into the wound.
“You see, ponies are the ones who are meant to be the dominant species of this world,” she continued, much to Goggles and Jinx’s dismay. “Granted there are other intelligent creatures such as dragons, griffins, even Diamond Dogs and Gem Foxes have some form of intellect, however not one of them surpassed the constructive and magical mind power that we ponies do. For that I was willing to let them be since they possess no REAL threat, however after discovering YOUR intelligence, I realised that a mind such as yours not only would match that of a ponies, but surpass it greatly. The ponies who hunted your kind all those years ago realised this, they feared that the technology the Gizmonks created would eventually diminish the magic our land is founded upon, so it was understandable that they took action.”
With every word Icicle spoke, Goggles could feel his blood beginning to heat up another bit, soon enough it felt like it was about to boil over.
“By killing innocent creatures!?!” he yelled furiously.
But those words only made Icicle laugh.
“Those Gizmonks were many things but innocent wasn’t one of them,” she said coldly. “They were a threat to pony-kind. Their knowledge of machinery would have toppled our society built upon the foundations of magic. Our ancestors tried to negotiate some assistance of the termination with Celestia herself but she wouldn’t hear of it because of some nauseating thoughts of peace amongst the species. Needless to say, those ponies found the notion just a sickening as I do so they took matters into their own hooves, and frankly, I’m glad they did because if there were any more of you disgusting creatures then I would probably vomit.”
At those words Jinx couldn’t help but growl with the same anger that she shared with goggles
“You’re crazy,” she stated, instantly receiving a playful glare from the Unicorn in response.
“No, spiteful, manipulative, drop-dead gorgeous, but never crazy,” Icicle retorted before turning her attention back towards Goggles. “But perhaps I was also a little foolish in my youth. After all, at first I assumed you were merely a strange breed of animal that my parents bought to amuse me, something that I’m sure the Sphinx would eventually eat once it got too old or boring.”
Jinx snarled at that.
“Bite me Queenie!” she snapped, completely ignored by the Queen.
“However after some time, after miraculously discovering a certain rare book in my library, I eventually discovered your true species,” she continued. “When I realised what you were and what your powerful mind can do, I decided that I had to get rid of you as soon as possible. However by that time the rest of family, even some of the servants, had grown close to you, therefor I had to construct a plan to make them realise their foolishness and get you out of our lives.”
At those words, Goggles could only rest his head against the bars and slid back down to the floor with a heavy sigh.
“So you WERE the one who framed me,” he said sarcastically “Why am I even surprised?”
Icicle grinned at that, at this point she was so ecstatic that her broach began to pulsate with magic.
“Wasn’t really that hard,” she said smugly. “All it took was to have a few of my foxes steal a few items from my bedroom and plant the evidence that would place you at the scene. The hair and the paw prints were easy enough to replicate through my spells.”
The way that Icicle just blurted everything out like this almost made feel Goggles feel pity for her, either was incredibly stupid, or she was so confident in her success that she was just being cocky.
“And here I thought you and I were friends,” he said, keeping his sarcastic tone.
But Icicle only spat at that.
“Friends!?!” she exclaimed, not picking up on the sarcasm and feeling appalled by the very idea of such a notion. “Do you honestly believe that I, an upstanding pony of royal blood would stoop so low as to even consider a friendship with YOUR kind? Your species has no right to even co-exist with ours!”
Goggles wanted the jump out of his cell and scratch her very eyes out for saying such a thing, dealing with Diamond Tiara was one thing, but Icicle was a whole other level of a bully. As he took in a deep cleansing breath to try and calm himself down, he forced himself to speak without lashing out with a very strong effort given the amount of anger he had for this Unicorn.
“Are you REALLY so shallow as to condemn an entire species just because they use different methods of living!?!” he snapped. “I may use science as my form of trade, but many ponies do to! Not all ponies are as obsessive with magic as you are Icicle, and they are certainly none that are as spoiled! You think the entire world revolves around you and your magic but it doesn’t!”
But those words meant nothing to the Kappanese Queen as she scoffed and turned to leave, believing that she had her fill of gloating for now.
“And what would YOU know about magic hmm?” she snidely remarked, walking closer towards the door, not even bothering to turn her head.
“More than you know,” Goggles retorted. “Like the fact that the Polaris Star around your neck is the only reason you have such power!”
At those words Icicle’s eyes widened with shock and she froze in her tracks before even making it to the door, she then turned her head back towards Goggles’ cell, her face full of terror that she never usually showed.
“H… how did you…?” she stuttered, only to be cut off by more words from the Gizmonk.
“How did I know what it was?” Goggle said, a smirk suddenly appearing upon his face. “As you have so obviously failed to notice over the years I have been your plaything, my species is not only highly intelligent but also very observant. You really think that I never noticed that your magic increased 10-fold after you first put it on when you were a teenager? I may not have known why at the time, but I have been studying many books on gems and artefacts for a while now, and that particular stone had a very informative page on it that I found only a couple of days ago, like the fact that the longer you wear it the more powerful your magic becomes.”
As Goggles continued to speak, Icicle’s eye began to twitch with anger, in all her years no pony that she knew of in Kappan had ever been able to figure out why she was so powerful, and now this Gizmonk, a filthy beast in her eyes, had figured out everything from a book in Equestria. However Goggles wasn’t done speaking yet.
“The only downside, is that it also drains your magic just as much as it increases it as soon as you remove it,” he continued, much to Icicle’s dismay. “But you never remove it do you, not once in your life have you ever taken that stone off, I’ll bet that if you remove it now you wouldn’t have a single ounce of magic left…”
“ENOUGH!!!” Icicle screamed, firing a blast of ice at Goggles’ cell missing him by inches as he dove out of the way, her anger being the only thing with any heat at this point. “You’ve said enough.”
It was then that she walked back to goggles’ cell with a look of disgust upon her face, as she leaned in against the frozen bars, Goggles could see the fur building up on the vein in her forehead.
“You don’t know a thing about magic,” she said, trying desperately to cling onto her own delusions of what she believed about the Gizmonk. “Your retched kind can’t possibly fathom what magic even is. Your minds are too filled up with gears and cogs and all that scientific garbage, this is why you should have died out long ago.”
Satisfied that at least his words had already got under Icicle’s skin, Goggles didn’t say anything in response to that, Jinx on the other hand was not so subtle.
“You’ll never get away with this Icicle!” she snapped.
At those words, Icicle’s anger faded slightly and she once again turned to leave.
“Oh simple minded fool,” she said calmly, reaching the door with a small smile on her face. “I already have.”
With that, Queen Icicle left the room, slamming the door shut behind her and leaving both Jinx and Goggles alone once again. Needless to say both of them had a few things to say about Icicle’s revelation.
“I should have known that was a Polaris Star around her neck!” Jinx snapped angrily, driving her claws into the stone floor with fury. “I mean I was one of her advisers for 10 years for Celestia’s sake!”
“Like she would have listened to your advice about it regardless,” Goggles replied. “But that does explain something else.”
Jinx raised an eyebrow at that.
“What?” she asked.
“Those Gem Foxes of hers,” Goggles explained. “Didn’t it ever strike you as odd that a bunch of greedy mongrels would willingly serve Icicle without getting something in return?”
Goggles did have a point, Gem Foxes may have been a slightly different species but they were still in the same family group as Diamond Dogs, and since that was the case then they should also share the some of the same traits.
“Well yes but…” Jinx replied, her eyes suddenly going wide from the sudden realisation. “Wait, you don’t mean…?”
But a single nod from the Gizmonk confirmed her suspicion.
“Yes,” he said. “It would seem that Tod and his pack NEED to serve the Queen because it’s the only means of keeping the thing they care about most undamaged.”
“That does all make sense,” Jinx replied. “So what do we do now?”
Goggles sighed at that.
“Nothing,” he said, slowly walking toward the pile of hay in the corner and sitting down upon it.
However those words only shocked Jinx.
“What?” she gasped, surely she must have misheard.
But she didn’t.
“You heard me,” Goggles said sadly, wrapping his tail around himself like a comforting blanket. “There’s nothing we can do, Icicle holds all the cards now. Let’s face it Jinx, sooner or later the Queen always gets what she wants.”
Jinx couldn’t believe what she was hearing, even after what Icicle had said, there was still no hope left in the little Gizmonk’s heart.
“And what about what YOU want?” she argued, hoping to spark something, anything that would make the little Gizmonk see sense. “You can just let her win.”
“You heard her Jinx,” Goggles retorted miserably, turning to face the opposite wall. “She already has.”
This had to be the lowest point Jinx had ever seen Goggles at, there was no light in his tail, no quips, nothing. For once in his life, Goggles had given up.
#
Meanwhile, as Queen Icicle walked upstairs to her chambers that she used while her ship prepared at the docks, the spoiled Queen soon found herself laughing to herself with the thoughts of her apparent victory. In 2 days, when Princess Luna brings the moon to its fullest and the tide is high, she shall set sail back to Japan with the Gizmonk and her traitorous advisor in tow, soon enough she will have both their heads. As soon as she entered her chambers, locking the door behind her, she couldn’t help but sing:
I get a certain thrill from every magic sparkle,
Or a potion that makes results either light or dark-le.
I get a happy chill from the casting of spells and hexes,
But then he came along with ideas that just perplexes.
Because he crossed my path,
He’ll feel Icicle's wrath.
A crime I did create,
Now it’s him that they shall hate,
His gizmos have no place here,
It’s my magic he must face here,
And it's because…
I HATE ALL GIZMONKS!
THOSE FILTHY ANIMALS!
They abandoned magic, instead choose science,
I will not stand for such a defiance!
I HATE ALL GIZMONKS!
YES, I HATE ALL GIZMONKS!
As Icicle continued to sing, she found herself dancing amongst the furniture with glee, her every thought filled with what she can possibly do to Goggles before his execution.
What's with all that tea?
And that machine fascination?
Tools and gears, giving our foals fear,
Magic is what made our nation!
Soon he’ll be no more, and I can rest at last,
Pretty soon his head will roll, and I’ll forget this dreary past.
Because he crossed my path,
He’ll feel Icicle's wrath.
A crime I did create,
Now it’s him that they shall hate,
His gizmos have no place here,
It’s my magic he must face here,
And it's because…
I HATE ALL GIZMONKS!
THOSE FILTHY ANIMALS!
I HATE ALL GIZMONKS!
I HATE THEM!
With that final note, Icicle found herself once again laughing her head off, her victory drawing ever near.