//------------------------------// // Courage // Story: Warped Mind // by TheUnknownPerson //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle's eyes opened. She rolled onto her side, her eyes were swollen from the long rest. The right side of her mane clung to her ear and cheek, and she had a small glob of droll rolling down her right cheek. "Oh, you're awake." Spike said. He handed her a small towel. Twilight wiped the drool away, tracing over her mouth before she stood. She slid off the bed, trotting over to the table and picking up a cold cup of tea at the middle and gulped it down greedily. "Hey, Spike." Twilight huffed, turning to him. She combed down her mane as best she could, making sure she was at least presentable. "What time is it?" "I think it's like 4:30 in the afternoon." "What?" She questioned. Spike nodded. "I need to get back to my research! I'll see you later, Spike!" Twilight galloped out of the room, rushing down the hallway and turning the corner, into- "Oof!" "Ah! I'm sorry!" Twilight stumbled back, landing on her flank. She rubbed her head and looked up and and saw Fluttershy with her eyes clenched shut. "Are you all right, Fluttershy?" "Huh- oh, yes. Here, let me help." Fluttershy's face was red as a tomato. She trotted over to Twilight and helped her up. "What were you doing over here?" "I was g-going to come wake you up, if that's all right." Fluttershy tapped her hooves against the ground, trying to relieve some of her stress. "Sorry for bumping into you." "It's all right, Fluttershy. I needed to wake up anyways." She giggled. "You can come with me, if you want to." "Sure, if you don't mind." Fluttershy said. She and Twilight began to walk down the hallway. "Has anything happened while I was asleep?" "Rarity sent us a letter." Fluttershy said as they turned right, trotting passed the corner. "Really? What did it say?" "She said that she was sincerely sorry that it'd happen and that she'd try to get here as quickly as she could, with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash." "All right. Good. I hope they get here soon." "Me too." Fluttershy agreed. "Applejack and I have been trying to find out where Queen Chrysalis has been hiding." "What did you find?" "I'm sorry, but we didn't find much. Applejack was out in the village asking ponies if they had seen them, and I was asking the nearby animals if they had seen anything. The ones I asked said th-that they had went for shelter during the snowstorm and didn't see anything. And from what Applejack told me, she didn't have much luck either... sorry." "Oh, it's all right, Fluttershy. I can't expect us to find anything on the first day of searching." "Okay" Fluttershy said. The pair approached the archives. "Here we are. Thanks for trotting with me, Flutters'." Twilight stood at the front door of the archives. "You're welcome, Twilight." Fluttershy took a step forwards. "Do you want me to help? I-I don't mind." "No thanks, Fluttershy. I think I can handle the magical side of this myself." "Oh, okay. Good luck, Twilight." "Thanks." Twilight said as she let go of the door and trotted towards the bookshelves, determined to do the best she could to help Shining Armor. --- "You're sure you didn't see anything up there?" "Definitely. Why?" "Because I see a small building or shed up there." "What? Where?" I pointed to the left, towards the building. It was far away so I couldn't make out any details about it. "C'mon!" Lance took hold of my left fore-hoof, galloping towards it. I barely kept up with her swift pace. Ah- my hoof! "Lance, stop!" I broke away from her a few feet away from the building. My hoof throbbed in unison with my beating heart. She turned back to me, confused and impatient. "What are you waiting for?! That could be somepony!" "It could be a changeling!" "Only one way to find out." Lance turned, trotting towards the building. The outside was made up of old wood, painted red. Being closer to the building, I could tell it was very small, like a shed. The paint had faded and began to peel. "Lance-!" I whispered to her. She continued. Oh- horseapples. I glanced to her, then back to our prior position. Ugh, I can't let her go in alone. I rushed up behind her, stopping as she did at the wall. "Knew you'd see it my way." "More like forced to..." "Never said you had to come with me." Lance chucked. She turned to the right, trotting down the wall. "Now where is it-- ah, there's the door." I followed her as she turned to the left. She trotted up to a small, wooden door at the middle. "Hopefully it's not locked." Lance put her right fore-hoof, turning the knob. The door(thankfully) opened. She carefully stepped up, before backing out, coughing and covering her mouth. "What?" I took a step forward, before I smelled something foul- like old blood- something rotten. "Celestia-- that smell!" I held my breath as I stepped forwards, looking inside the building. There was a spear at the top right corner, a helmet with a large crack running from the middle of the it to the back-right, and a small bag in front of me, at my hooves. The helmet had blood-splattered onto the blue and white bristles, and the spear-tip had been hastily cleaned, smears of blood across the tip. I quickly kicked the helmet out as I grabbed the spear and bag. Lance immediately shut the door as I stepped out of the way. "Horsefeathers, I almost threw up from that smell. This better have been worth it." She said, kneeling down to the bag. I looked over the spear. "Still sharp. We could use this." "Food! Some water too!" Lance opened the bag, showing half a loaf of bread, a bottle 3/4ths of the way full with water, and some paper. "Nice. Definitely worth the smell. I could probably use the helmet too." I sat the spear to the side, leaning down and picking up the helmet. The helmet was still intact, despite the crack, and felt stable still. I slipped it onto my head, fitting perfectly. "You sure you should be wearing that while we're running away from those changelings?" "Yeah..." I lifted it up off my head. "It'd just make me more noticeable. I'll keep it in case we have to fight them." "All right. Let's get moving." --- Shining Armor and Taltra trotted up the staircase. He made sure to keep his distance. "Thank you." Shining became confused. "For what?" "Hitting me. I cannot be incompetent without her- especially in running her kingdom. I've been here for years, I should've known what to do." Shining stared at her, confused. "How can you just let me do that? I mean, I don't want to disobey Queen Chrysalis, but I couldn't have sat there and took it like that." "I just do, otherwise I get hurt. Always have..." Her voice trailed away as she took on an almost saddened, remorseful tone. "Your new residence is just up here. Please hurry so I may get back to my duties." Taltra quickened her pace. Shining looked up, seeing they were nearing the top floor. "Of course." Shining said. They stepped up off of the stairs and into a narrow hallway with one door at the end, one at the middle of the wall on the right, and one at the left right beside the door at the right. "Your room is the one on the left." Taltra trotted towards the door on the left. She stopped once she reached the door and looked back. "Come on. I have nothing to gain by hurting you." Taltra said. Shining cautiously trotted towards her. She magically opened the door and motioned for Shining to enter. "Go inside." Shining entered cautiously, awaiting for a changeling or something to jump out at him. Nothing came. There was a queen-sized bed at the middle of the room, with old sheets folded at the bottom of the bed, a wooden nightstand to the right of the bed, and a bookshelf at the wall to Shining's left. "Now, before you get too comfortable, I need to explain a couple of things, all right?" Taltra said. Shining nodded. "First, if you did not hear from Queen Chrysalis, my name is Taltra, and I am the royal queen's adviser. If you need to ask me a question, just come to me. Do you understand?" She questioned. Shining nodded. "Good. Now that it's out of the way, I need to inform you of a few rules set up by her royal highness, Queen Chrysalis." "Okay." "Rule one: do not disrespect her royal highness or her subjects. Rule two: you have a set curfew. If you are not inside of this room by 8:00 P.M, we will have our best guards find you and, if needed, forcefully take you back to the room and lock the door until 6:00 A.M. Rule three: two guards are going to be posted at your door twenty-four hours a day. Rule four: you are not to leave the palace without the supervision of a guard, her royal highness, or I. Breaking any of these rules will result in a harsh punishment. Follow these rules and your safety will not be a concern." "What about Cadance?" "I cannot speak of that." "Why?" "It is best that you should not ask so many questions. For your safety. Please." Taltra said. Shining remained silent. "I have other duties to attend to." Taltra turned. "It was nice to meet you Shining Armor. If you have any questions, just ask." She said genuinely with a warm smile as she trotted away "Oh, and Shining?" Taltra stopped, glancing back to him. "Yes?" "You'll get used to the screaming after a while. A few weeks'll do it." Taltra stepped out into the hall and shut the door. Shining trotted over to the bed and fell onto the bed, his thoughts jumbled and his eyelids heavy. --- "Okay... come on, Twi'." Twilight Sparkle sat the quill on the table in front of her. Just remember the formula in the book. She repeated to herself, reading over the magical elements in her head. If this magical combination is correct... I could finally start my work on the counter-spell. Twilight began to concentrate the magic to her horn. She pointed her horn at the feather and released the magic. Bbrrip Twilight looked up at the table, surprised by the noise. She looked up and saw that the feather had been burnt to ashes. "Experiment one; failed." Twilight sighed. Experiment one is an utter failure. The feather failed to transform and was burnt to a crisp. Twilight sat the quill down. She looked at the window at the middle of the library and looked at Celestia's setting Sun. "I'll figure this out and begin on the counter-spell, Shining. We'll get you and Cadance back to normal life. Just hold on a little longer." --- Finally at the end of this forest. We've reached a clearing. Celestia's Sun shined brightly upon us, the small snow cry "Well, at least we're farther away from the changelings now, even though I have no clue where the hay we are..." I muttered. Lance nodded. "We'll find our way back to the Crystal Empire. I know we will." "Yeah..." I wasn't as nearly as confident as Lance. "How's Blooming? Shouldn't we be waking her up by now?" "Yeah, you get out the food and water and we'll go ahead and eat before we find someplace to sleep for the night." Lance tossed me the brown bag. I took out the pulled out the bread, sitting it atop the bag, before sitting the water beside it. Lance unfurled the blanket around Blooming. Her right fore-hoof laid atop her chest, and her red mane had fallen. She had dark bags under her eyes. "Blooming-" Lance gently shook Blooming. "C'mon, we're about to eat. It's time to get up." "Huh..." Blooming leaned up, yawning. She leaned up, wiping her eyes. "I'm up." Blooming sluggishly picked herself up from the ground on the blanket. She glanced up to me, then immediately back down. "Good morning." I said with a smile. Blooming muttered a quiet "thank you" and hiding behind Lance. "All right. Here, I'll sit this down so we can sit." Lance pulled out the blanket, laying it out beside the bag. Blooming sat down beside Lance. I stood, breaking off a few pieces, the biggest for Blooming and the smallest for myself. There was a fourth of the bread left. I sat down across from them. "Here's yours-" I handed Blooming her piece, then Lance hers, and chewed on mine. "We have some water, but not much, so be cautious with how much you drink." Crack Wait- what was that? I looked around, for any changelings or animals, but there was nothing. "What?" "Did you hear that?" "Hear what?" "Nothing. Never mind." I took a bite out of the bread. Craaack My left hind-hoof slid down, pulling the blanket with it. It was sticking down into the ground- oh horseapples! The ground's hollow! "Blooming, I need you to carefully stand." "What?" She questioned, standing quickly. Another crack escaped the snow and ice. I lifted her, putting her behind me. "I need everypony to stay as still as they can. The ground is hollow." "What the hay do you mean?" "My hind-hoof is through it- I can feel it." I kept still, trying to control my breath as best I could. "Blooming, I need you to slowly back away from us. We'll be fine, all right?" I glanced back to her. Blooming nodded, carefully trotting back. "Okay..." I huffed. "How the hay're we going to get out?" "I could fly out." "What about me?" Lance sat, staring at me for a moment. "Horsefeathers..." "I-I could try to pull my hoof out the way it came in, but it could crack it." I sighed. Guess there's only one way to find out... "Go ahead and fly up Lance... I'll try this." "You sure?" I nodded. Lance flapped her wings, hovering over the ice. I gently pulled my hoof up, breaking away some pieces of ice. Oh horseapples... More cracking broke through as I stood, both my hooves and the ice unsteady. My right fore-hoof broke through as the ice broke. Oh horse-- Lance grunted, grabbing me by my coat. She pulled me to the side, before she fell beside Blooming. I quickly grabbed onto the ledge, clinging onto whatever I could find. Two small pairs of hooves took hold of my left fore-hoof, pulling me up. "Come on!" Another hoof took hold of my right. Lance and Blooming pulled me up, onto my stomach. "Thanks." I huffed. Lance helped me to my hooves. "Celestia, that was too close for comfort." "Yeah, really. You could've broken your..." Lance's voice trailed away as she turned back to the pit. "What?" I trotted to her side, looking down into the pit. Three rows of spears that lined the pit, each placed in the middle. "Celestia... to think that Blooming could've been down there..." Lance turned away. "Bucking changelings. No wonder they siphon love, they'd be cold-blooded otherwise." She trotted to Blooming, picking her up and pulling her into a hug. "Come on, let's get out of here. The changelings are nearby if they had time to set this up." Lance nodded as she released Blooming, sitting her on the ground. She trailed behind us two. "Oh, and Rocky?" Lance leaned in close. What's she doing?" "Yes?" She planted a quick peck on my cheek with grin. I grinned with her. I didn't even know she liked me that much! "You're quick on your hooves, y'know that?" Lance playfully punched my shoulder as we stepped passed the pit. "Saved us Blooming and I. Thank you." "It was nothing." I brushed it away. "Happens all the time in the mines after winter." Okay, maybe I inflated that statistic a little. "Not to me, it wasn't." --- Shining trotted back and forward in front of the exit to his room, awaiting Queen Chrysalis. I have to remain calm. He told himself, slowing to a stop as he took a breath. Queen Chrysalis needs Cadance. She can't just drain her love then get rid of her- she needs the leverage for Princess Celestia. Shining tried to convince himself. Creeeeeak Queen Chrysalis stepped into the room, closing the door. "Good to see that my adviser has learned from her mistakes." She stood in front of Shining. "How are you feeling, my subject?" "Fine here, my queen." "Good. Now, if I have been told correctly, you had some questions, yes?" "Yes, my queen." Shining cleared his throat. "I was just wondering, how is Cadance going to be treated here, my queen?" "Like any other pony, only she'll be alone. She'll be fed once every two days, her love will be drained every week, and she'll be disposed of after she's fulfilled her use." "But-" "Something you'd like to add? Perhaps I should only give her fresh food and water once a week?" She questioned, almost threatening Shining. "No, of course not, my queen. Your judgement is best." "Good. Wouldn't want to have to waste her to teach a certain unwieldy changeling is getting in my way." "Apologies, my queen." Queen Chrysalis sighed. "Get some sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow. And don't try to sneak out; the door is locked after I exit." Queen Chrysalis turned away from him. She trotted out of the room, leaving him alone. Shining turned to the bed, immediately punching the foot board. I-I can't- He groaned. Her love'll be drained?! I have to get to her! He rushed towards the door, pushing against it. The door refused to budge. "Horseapples!" Shining sighed. Forgive me Cadance. Hang in there a little longer... ---