Angela's voice echoed from my phone, "I-I am so sorry"
Only silence reigned for a time between the three of us... the victims...
Dale gasped as sobs came rolling with tears trickling down his cheeks, "W-what..." He whispered in a quiet, choked voice, "N-no... no..."
Just after, whether or not it was from the sound of Dale's crying, Fiora slammed her clenched hooves like fist against the ground, "NO! Damn it! I don't want to be like this forever!" Immediately, she dashed to the door, trying to open the locked door with her hooves and mouth, "Come back here! Change us back, you bastard!"
"Fiora," The simple call of her name from me made the mare suddenly stop, but only because my voice lacked anything but murky seriousness, a deep contrast from how I usually sounded.
I gritted my teeth, "I've decided what we're going to do." I glanced down towards the phone, where Angela was still listening, "Angela, we're getting out of here and we're going to stop Taharis. I'll call you back when we know more."
"Wait, Lyle!" Angela's voice cut off as I ended the call and grabbed the phone with my teeth.
Fiora didn't look like she had any complaints, but Dale stared at me aghast, "W-wait, what? But Taharis said he'd kill-"
"If we went for help," I finished, as I spit my phone into my backpack, before turning to retrieve my pile of clothes on the floor, "That's why we're not going to the authorities for help. They wouldn't have any idea of what they're up against, and not to mention any idea of what Taharis would be trying to do in the first place. It'd be up to us to stop him."
"But why us then?" Dale countered, "He'll kill us with magic before we could do anything!"
"What difference would that make?" Fiora snapped at the unicorn, "We're ponies forever now. Do you think we could possible go back to our normal lives like this? Everyone would look at us like we're freaks, or some fanboy's pets. What's the point of living a human life when you'll never be one again?"
Dale flinched from Fiora's rebuke, before collapsing to the ground, his snout wedged between his forelegs as tears trickled from his eyes, "I-I... I'm s-sorry. I'm j-just... scared."
All at once, Fiora's anger seemed to vanish, replaced with a look of guilt, "Dale?" The unicorn gave no reply.
Fiora still persisted, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm..." She sighed as she made her way towards him, laying on her stomach beside him, "Truth is, I'm scared, too."
For a moment, Dale stopped crying, glancing at Fiora in quiet surprise, "You're... scared?"
Fiora glanced away with a humph, "Of course I am. Mostly about what's happening... exactly what you're afraid of right now. But that doesn't make it right for me to yell at you. Sorry about that."
Dale paused for a moment, before putting his forelegs around her in a hug, tears still streaming from his eyes as he sniffled.
"Ack!" Fiora yelped in surprise, but not moving. Eventually, she resigned herself to defeat, sighing, "Fine. But you're always too clingy when you're moody."
"Sorry." Dale apologized quietly, "... thanks."
Despite learning what we just had, the tiniest of smiles came to the corner of my mouth at the sight of Fiora and Dale like that. They looked more like brother and sister, rather than friends. I remembered that the two of them had been friends since they were little kids, so I guess that even remained true all this time later.
With a sigh, my thoughts were drawn back to Angela. With a bit of guilt, I supposed I shouldn't have cut Angela off like that on the phone... that wasn't like me, I realized.
That only raised my anger for Taharis for causing me to act like that. Every second we let pass by in here, the further he could be from being found and stopped.
With all my things packed up, I slung my backpack over my shoulders, before glancing at Fiora and Dale, who were pulling themselves off the ground.
"You alright now?" Fiora asked.
"Yeah." Dale quietly nodded.
"Good."
I glanced between the two of them, "Alright, I heard a car drive off from here not too long ago, and I'm betting it was Taharis'. We need to find out where he's going before he gets too far." I glanced towards the door, a wooden one with a rusted knob; no doubt the deadbolt was in a similar condition. "You guys gather your stuff, and I'll start getting that door open."
"Wait, I-" Dale grimaced, "Well, um... I agree with you guys, Taharis needs to be stopped. But I don't think we should be running straight after him. We need some kind of plan to stop him before he go headlong into whatever he's doing."
I nodded, "I know, but honestly, we don't know what to expect right now. For now, all we should do is tail Taharis and see where he goes, and once it looks like he's about to do something that'll destroy the country, we'll step in and try to stop it in any way we can."
Dale slowly nodded, "That... sounds pretty safe." He paused, "But what if we can't do it alone?"
A frown came to my mouth as I went silent. Grimly, I replied, "I'm not sure. We'll just have to figure something out.
Fiora shared my expression as she moved to reclaim her bag and pack it up, "Okay... but how're you going to get the door open? I tried already and it was locked tight."
I chuckled as I made my way over to the door, "Well, personally I think Taharis made a huge mistake turning us into ponies. We should be able to do a bunch of things we weren't able to before. For example," I turned my hind legs towards the door, leaning forwards. I raised my hind legs, aiming them towards the door's hinges, before kicking them back in a powerful buck.
The part of the door I hit shattered into splintered wood, and the rest of the door was torn away from its hinges, hitting the wall of a hallway on the other side with a slam like thunder. The dust of molted wood danced in the air for a moment, before settling over the remains of the door.
Even I grimaced at that. I never had tested my strength as an earth pony before, so I surprised myself. Guess an earth pony's natural strength is nothing to sneeze at. Speaking of sneezing, the dust from the door went up my nose and- well, you get the joke.
I glanced back at Fiora and Dale to see them staring back at me with wide eyes. I chuckled sheepishly, "For example... that?" I wiped the smile off my face, "Grab your stuff. We need to see where Taharis could've gone to, before he gets too far."
A few moments later, the three of us stepped out of the room into the dusty hallway outside, our belongings strapped to our backs. The hallway we trotted down was musty and smelled slightly of mold, but mostly of rust and sawdust. The only source of light guiding us were windows up against the ceiling, shedding the light of a orange sunset into the building. From the looks of weeds growing around the base of the windows, we were definitely in a basement, and a staircase we found around the next corner only confirmed it even more.
"Let's see where we are," I muttered as we turned towards the stairs, but suddenly we stopped as a loud series of barks came from behind us.
All eyes turned towards another door directly behind us. It was wooden just like the one from the room we were locked in, but there was no mistake that the barking came from the other side of it.
"Is that a dog?" Fiora asked.
Dale looked slightly disgusted, "Taharis keeps a dog locked up in his basement? That's terrible!"
Before either I or Fiora could speak out, or even if we even would considering we were both as curious, Dale galloped to the door and grabbed the knob in his mouth. Surprisingly, the door opened, apparently unlocked as he twisted the knob. The door swung open, and behind it stood a large, black and white dog, standing just about as tall as the three of us were.
The dog's long fur looked frazzled, and it stared at us wide-eyed, without even barking. It just stood there confused, restricted in movement by the collar and leash around its neck tied to a radiator. Overall, it didn't even look hostile towards us, just confused.
Fiora and I gathered around the doorway, peering in as Dale cautiously made his way towards the dog. I muttered, "That's weird. What's a dog doing down here?"
"I don't know," Dale answered, reaching the dog. He looked at the dog's face, and the dog looked cautiously back.
"Why are you down here?" Dale whispered, rhetorically.
To Dale's surprise, the dog let out a low whine. It sounded dry and hoarse, as if it hadn't had a drink in days. And upon closer, Dale noticed the dog looked a bit thin as well, underfed.
"You look like you haven't eaten in a while. Who left you down here? Was it Taharis?"
Surprisingly, the dog nodded in earnest, growling slightly in his throat. Dale only stared back at the dog in shock, "You can... understand me?"
Again, the dog nodded.
Then it was my turn to gasp, making my way farther into the room, "Don't tell me... did you used to be human, too?"
Another nod.
Dale and Fiora glanced towards me, confused. "But I thought the transformation ritual turned people into ponies, not dogs," Dale wondered, before undoing the clip on the dog's collar with his teeth.
"No, it doesn't always have to be ponies," I replied, "What the target turns into is something that can be modified when making the circle."
Fiora grumbled under her breath, "So he's in the same boat as us."
Grimly, I nodded, knowing what she meant by that, "Probably."
Dale glanced towards the dog, the former human, "Well, if that's the case, why don't you come with us? We're..." He grimaced, "We're going after Taharis to stop him from destroying the country, and we'll need all the help we can get."
The dog stood up, happy to be free from his collar after so long. With a slight growl in his throat, he nodded, pawing his front leg against the concrete floor, anxious to go.
Dale smiled, relieved, "Thanks."
"What's his name though?" Fiora asked.
I shrugged my shoulders, "No idea, and there's no way he could speak it to us right now."
Dale bit his top lip in thought, "Then for now, how about we call you 'Max'?"
Fiora raised an eyebrow, "Wasn't that the name of your last dog?"
Dale only smiled sheepishly. But as for the dog, now dubbed Max, just stared at the unicorn with wide eyes, even more surprised than when he had first seen us cartoon ponies. Dale glanced back at Max, "You like the name?"
Max nodded, vigorously. His tail wagged for the first time.
"You're kidding me," I deadpanned, "That's your real name, Max?"
Max merely gave me a dog's version of a toothy grin.
Dale managed a laugh himself, "Well, I guess that settles that."
"I'll say," Fiora agreed, "Let's get out of here."
So, the four of us headed upstairs, only to find ourselves in a place I expected us to be the least. It looked like an abandoned mechanic's shop, an auto shop for fixing up cars. The windows were boarded up, some even broken, only streams of sunlight dimly illuminating the room. Rusted tools and metal plating covered in dust littered the corners and shelves on the walls from years without use. But yet, there were several signs of use throughout the room, like a table with a brand-new welder on it, meaning Taharis or even someone else had been using it recently.
As the four of us wandered around the shop, I stared in wonder at the rundown shop, "What is this place?"
Dale and Fiora took looks around the room, but there didn't seem to be anywhere else in the building to go, besides the basement. The only doors were the broken garage doors and the front and back doors. Gingerly, I made my way to the front door, finding it was shut with thankfully a handle, making it easier to open with hooves.
I glanced outside, Max slipping out of the door past me as he ran out of the building. From the cover of the door, I could see the cracked pavement of a road less traveled running beside the building, the grass and beside it completely unkept and most likely abandoned. In the distance, I could hear to rumble of cars driving on a road, but far away. From what I could tell, we were at the edge of some city or town, but where in particular, I couldn't tell.
Seeing there was no one about, I stepped outside, feeling the warm air of a Summer day's end breeze through my fur. It felt great compared to the stuffy basement dungeon.
Dale and Fiora eventually joined me outside with Max, but they both had frowns on their faces.
Fiora mumbled, "I remember Taharis transformed the guard, and then that lady back at the museum. But Dale and I looked everywhere; there's nobody else in there."
Dale scratched the back of his head, "I guess Taharis didn't take them like he dragged us away. In hindsight, it would be hard to carry five ponies with you. I don't even know how he brought us three here."
"Then here's to hoping those other two are okay," I added, "But right now we need to find where Taharis has gone. We need to find some kind of clue to whe-"
Max interrupted me with a gruff bark. All eyes turned towards the collie as he gestured towards the street with a shake of his head.
"What?" Dale inquired.
Again, Max, gestured towards the road, before tapping his snout with a paw.
I frowned, "I think I get what he's saying. Taharis left by car; I heard him pull out when we were locked in that room... I think Max says he's got his scent."
Max nodded, tapping his nose with a paw again for emphasis.
"Can you even follow that scent?" Fiora asked. "You're not exactly a true hunting dog."
Max paused, seemingly unsure. But eventually, he nodded. The dog turned around, sniffing the ground once more, before pointing his nose in the right direction down the street. With a shake of his head, he motioned for us to follow. Shakily, he started to lope, before breaking into a run, with the rest of us galloping after him, hoping Max could really bring us to Taharis.
But as we ran, I glanced back over my shoulder at the abandoned auto-shop, seeing for the first time a worn sign nailed on its tallest wall. Even through its faded colors, I could read: "Parkway Auto"
Why on earth would Taharis have locked us up there? Was it just the first abandoned building he could find... or was it something else.
I don't know what it was, but for some reason, a feeling built up in my gut, one that I couldn't ignore. There was some kind of history between this place and Taharis, something important that happened here. I could feel it.
Little did I know, that if I had been looking at my flanks, I would have seen my cutie mark glow slightly, a book marked SPQR enlightened by the hidden history waiting to be uncovered.