The Kingdom of Darkness

by abcd_z

Chapter 2

As I ran for my life I mentally reviewed my options.

• Go back and try to convince Twilight and Celestia that they were mistaken about me.

Hah! Fat chance of that. Twilight had a nervous breakdown and Celestia wasn't giving me anything to work with.

• Escape from the castle and head back home.

No good, either. That's the first place they'd be expecting me.

• Find Luna and have her help me.

Too risky. With everything that's happened, I don't know how Luna feels about me. She may be able to help, but she may also side with her sister and have me locked up. If that happens, I don't like my chances of being able to escape again.

• Go someplace nopony would ever follow me.

I didn't like it, but it seemed to be my best choice. And there was only one place I could think of that nopony in their right mind would go: the Everfree Forest.

Unfortunately, there was a castle full of guards trying to capture me. I still needed to figure out a way to get out of the castle and all the way to Everfree Forest without being caught.

As I turned a corner I saw two guards standing watch: a white pegasus and a grey unicorn. A plan hatched in my mind, developing as I talked.

"You, there!" I said, pointing to one. "And you!" I said, pointing at the other. "This is a royal emergency. Under the orders of Princess Celestia, I'm commandeering your services. There's been a break-in. An enemy magic-user has cast a spell to brainwash the Royal Guard. Celestia tasked me with a top-secret mission that requires me to get to the Everfree Forest, and I'm tasking you two with getting me there safely. I take it you know where the Everfree Forest is?"

Both guards nodded once, sharply.

"Excellent. I believe the brainwashing spell is transmitted through words, so if you hear another guard trying to tell you something, ignore it. Do your best to block it out. Plug your ears if you have to. The mission is of the utmost priority, so under no circumstances are you to allow me to become detained. Do you understand?"

The guards nodded again.

"Good. Now tell me, what would be the fastest route to the Everfree that would avoid as many guards as we can?"

The guards paused and looked at each other. Finally the pegasus spoke up, "I suppose that would be the service tunnels. It'll be a little cramped, but from there you can get to the outskirts of Canterlot. Then we can commandeer a train under Her Majesty's Order, which should bring us to Ponyville in a matter of hours."

"Which way are the tunnels from here?" I asked.

The pegasus pointed down a hallway. "We go that way until we hit-"

At this point several other guards ran into view. "There he is!" One of them yelled. "Stop him!"

"Whoops, running now!" I yelled and ran in the direction the pegasus guard had indicated, followed shortly by the two guards. There was a bright flash behind me, and a chorus of yells and groans went up behind me.

"What was that?" I asked, not daring to look back.

"A flashbang spell," the unicorn guard running beside me said. "That should buy us enough time to get to the service tunnels."

I grinned and said to the unicorn guard, "Dude, you rock."

------------------------------------------------------------------

We walked down the service tunnels for what felt like hours. It was probably closer to a half-hour, but it felt like hours. My feet ached, my muscles burnt from all the sprinting I had done, and the guards were absolutely no help when it came to distracting myself with conversation. If I asked either one of them a direct question they would answer it, but any attempts to strike up a conversation was met with stony silence.

After a few attempts I gave up and we walked in silence.

Occasionally we would come to an intersection. Whenever this happened the guards would inspect the arrows painted on the walls, then walk in the direction indicated by at least one of the arrows.

Eventually we reached the exit: an unmarked door set into the wall at the end of the tunnel. We walked through it, emerging about half a mile from the castle. Then we walked to the Canterlot trainyard and commandeered a train and a conductor to drive it. The train dropped me off in Ponyville, then the guards took the same train back to Canterlot while I walked to my place to load up on supplies. I felt bad for the lambasting those two guards were sure to get for aiding a fugitive, but my survival took priority over everything else.

Twilight and Celestia were both in Canterlot, so I should have had some time to grab some supplies from my place. On the other hand, I wasn't sure what sort of magic or technology the princesses had at their disposal. What was the maximum range on teleportation, for example? If Celestia was strong enough, could she teleport all the way to Ponyville? At times like that I wished I'd paid more attention to Twilight Sparkle's rambles about magic.

Then I snorted. No, even knowing my life could depend on that knowledge I still wouldn't have paid attention. Those monologues were boring!

But the point remained: I had no idea when or if the princesses would be arriving here in Ponyville. That meant I had to gather as many supplies as I could as quickly as I could, then get the hell out of town.

I grabbed my backpack and stuffed it full of food and whatever gear might be appropriate for a survival situation. I was going to be in the Everfree Forest for an indeterminate amount of time, so I had to make sure I took anything I couldn't easily make on my own.

By the time I finished, my backpack was stuffed with food and survival supplies. I locked the door and left the house, only to bump straight into Rarity.

I meant that literally, by the way. I turned a corner and collided with her, knocking both of us over. I picked myself back up and offered her a hand.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Rarity's eyes widened in terror and she turned around and bolted back the direction she'd come.

Great. Whatever was going on, it was spreading. I needed to get out of here as quickly as I could.

I started jogging towards the Everfree Forest.

Comments

[Tyber Zannex]

I like where this is going, keep it up.

[leafz pegasus]

yay

[Iron Sky]

Has potential, but the beginning seems a little contrived.

They've fought enough villains that they should know by now not to prejudge an entire species, and they've had plenty of time to get to know the guy.

Will the ponies be calming down, at some point, for long enough to figure out that they dun goofed?

[abcd_z]

5190667
I agree, the characters do act a little OOC here in order to move the story in the right direction. Celestia probably won't see the error of her ways for a while (if ever), since she's a designated antagonist in this story. Beyond that, I have no idea.

[guang]

5190690
It makes sense to me honestly. I see ponies as having a mostly black and white view on morality, so when twilight sees such horror come from a single species it makes sense she'd only be able to label them evil in their entirety. To admit a species capable of such evils could be good as well would challenge her sense of morality at its very core, and when a belief so deep and precious as that is challenged one can't help but vehemently defend it.

As for Celestia its just a matter of Twilight's word against his. Would she side with her trusted and likely visibly shaken student or one from the species that so upset Twilight, one that is a veritable smorgasbord of unknowns?