Fact or Fiction

by Mocha Star

29) Broken Chains

Author's Note:

This' the first chapter by Mocha Star in the continued tale of Pea Gravel and Party.

Enjoy.

It had been almost a week since Daring Do had first gone down to the subterranean tunnels where a giant library was hidden. Since then she had ventured back there several times looking for information.

The central tower's gardens were like a maze. Despite being in a city of warriors, the place seemed very calm and organized. The flowers that were in bloom hid thorns behind their bright leaves. Their sweet scent covered the area, following the breeze up to Daring Do and Rainbow Dash’s noses.

They were perched on the railing of the balcony to their room, watching the city from on high, unafraid of the potential of falling even with their wings bound.

“So, Daring Do, what’s the plan to get us outta here?”

“I’ve been in the library a dozen times and besides a ton of lore about Torrent heroes; I found some plans of the city," Daring Do said, "maps, Rainbow Dash,” she clarified before Rainbow could ask, “seeing those gave me some ideas."

"Great," Rainbow Dash sighed, "we now know about a bunch of blueprints and legends. How is this going to help?"

“I have a plan, but the others are gonna be here in a little bit for social time. It was really smart of you,” Daring Do said looking to the pegasus next to her, a length away, “agreeing to give them ‘information’ for knowing our friends are safe.”

“Yeah, I know,” she beamed and puffed her chest, “Rainbow Dash is awesome, you can say it.”

Daring rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Let’s just wait until they get here. I’ll be honest, though,” Daring said looking out over the city, trying to follow Rainbow’s gaze, “this city is really pretty. But I wouldn’t want to even vacation here.”

They shared a laugh and sat in silence like cats, their tails swaying in the breeze as they absorbed the spring sun into their coats.

---

The guards opened the door to the mares’ suite and walked the chained ponies and horse into the room. “You have an hour to reacquaint yourselves,” one of the taller centaurs stated before he left. The chains were heavy and strong but didn’t impede their movement enough to stop them from all embracing each other.

“Wheat Biscuit?! I haven’t seen you in days, how’re you and Cardinal?” Dew asked as she finally had time and energy to react to her family that was recently chained to each other just outside the door.

“Dew, I’ve missed you so much. Never have we been apart so long,” the stallion horse said looking down and nuzzling his mate.

“Momma, you were only gone a little bit. Dad said you were coming back, you’re back, so it’s okay now.”

The mood became more somber as Rainbow and Daring Do approached them.

“Ah, the pegasi,” Dewberry said wiping her eyes clear. “You’re the ones who got us back together? Thank you, but I know that friends of Pea Gravel are more than they seem. What’s the plan?”

"Are you thinking about an escape?" Wheat Biscuit asked with a grimace.

"Exactly,” Daring Do said while waving the group closer, "There're some tunnels that run out like web under the city. If the charts I’ve read are accurate then there's an opening just outside of this center place around the tower to the east. Once I get there I can get-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches and folded her forelegs, tipping and falling over before scrambling to her hooves again. “I meant to do that,” she said fighting a blush by beginning to pace and getting back on track. "You're telling us only you’re escaping? How is that fair!?"

Daring Do sighed heavily. She looked to Rainbow with a soft expression. “If only one of us gets out they can get help, maybe find Pea and the other’s won’t be hurt, just punished. If we all get out and one of us gets caught we'll all get in trouble. Big trouble."

Dew Berry shook her head. "So that's it then? You're just going to run off and 'get help'? What happens if you get caught? What will happen to us when they notice you're gone?"

Daring Do looked up to the sky. “I've been chased before, I'll be fine. I doubt they'll do anything to you. If they wanted information or anything they would've already tried to get it."

Rainbow Dash looked upset. "This is ridiculous. You sound like Pea Gravel and we all know you're not the tank that she is."

Daring Do frowned. "If we all went they’d slow us down," she gestured to the earth ponies, "no offense but it may be near impossible for them to keep up when we fly away from the city."

"We're all in this together," Wheat Biscuit added in a gruff tone, “since winter is over we will have a better chance back out there. Splitting up is out of the question." He looked down to his family. "We can't do that, not again."

The Adventuress reared and folded her forelegs and winked at Rainbow Dash when she didn’t fall over. “In that case, I may have to change the plan a little..."

They huddled closer while Daring Do whispered her plan to them. The equines believed their words wouldn't be heard in such a quiet place.

The guards took and separated them again, leaving the earth ponies as a group and taking the pegasi to their meal room.

They each stole a bit of food as rations for their escape, hiding what they could, where they could.

---

Over the next four days they hid all they food they could. Daring Do scouted the potential path out while Dew Berry and Wheat learned the patrols and routs of the guards.

The final evening their plan was ready. They waited until the moon was waxing in the sky, Daring Do stood out on the balcony. Warm updrafts of spring air blew around the open space. Rainbow Dash walked up beside her and looked out as well. The city stretched out below them, now menacing instead of mysterious.

The two mares were silent for several moments, the daunting future loomed ahead of them. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak but stopped as Daring Do inhaled sharply.

"I've had lots of adventures, seen lots of ponies," Daring Do said staring into the horizon, “but before we go, I need to say something."

Rainbow Dash held her breath. "Yeah? What’s on your mind?"

"Do you remember the night we were captured? In the snow?"

Rainbow winced. “Yeah, not the most awesome moment of my life, but, what can ya do?” she shrugged, nervously glancing at her idol.

Daring Do looked over and softened her expression. Rainbow Dash, promise me you'll never, no matter what, kill. Please."

Rainbow gulped. She crossed her forelegs and lowered her chin. “The day I do that is the day I stop being me, and that’d hurt the world more than Discord ever could,” she said calmly.

An air of confidence filled the area as they looked to each other and nodded. Spreading their wings they hovered in the air, grinned, and took off, flapping several times and coasting down the spire they were roomed in. “Let’s find some earth ponies and get traveling,” Daring Do whispered loudly to a grinning Rainbow Dash.

The rendezvous spot was a grouping of lavender bushes to the south east of the gardens, praying silently to Celestia that the others would meet them, the pegasi flew low, landing and running between bushes and hedges as they made their way.

With a momentary feeling of fear the mares both spotted a pony’s tail near the bushes, however the mare it belonged to took a step out and her cutie mark shown who she was. With a relieved sigh the pegasi snuck to the bushes.

“We’re all here?” Daring asked as she rounded the bushes and took count.

“Yeah, seems so. I have all the food I could grab and sneak, plus what my family has,” Wheat Biscuit stated quietly and moving his hips and the saddle bags he had fashioned and tied to himself.

“Well, let’s blow this haysicle stand,” Rainbow said cracking her neck and looking to the heavy metal grate that led to their exit via sewer.

She flew to it, gripped it with her ankles, and tugged several times. She tried flapping heavily and, as a last resort in her frustration, biting the bars.

“Miss Dash,” Wheat said as he turned around, “move.”

With a swift kick from his left leg the grate creaked and rusty dust rained from the piping.

Rainbow frowned as she pushed the grate open and gestured for the others to enter. She gave Wheat a slap on his flank when he passed her.

“Miss Dash!?” Dew hissed.

“What? It means good job.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your hooves away from my stallion’s flank.”

“Rainbow,” Daring whispered as she passed, “keep it under your tail.”

“Mommy,” Cardinal asked, “what’s that mean?”

Dew narrowed her eyes, glancing between the pegasi. “I’ll tell you while we escape.”

Inside the tunnel was dark, wet, and dank. As they trotted ahead in silence they passed under rain grates that cast broken moonlight onto their bodies. The sound of water dripping was the only other constant in their trek.

"So, are there any turns we have to worry about or is it a straight shot?" Rainbow asked

"For a bit it'll be easy," Daring Do replied, “once we get under the Main District it'll get… messy."

"You said this was going to be an irrigation tunnel," Dew Berry asked disgusted, “why would rain water get messy?"

"From what I could find, it looked like the city grew faster than the architects could build in advance for," Daring shrugged, “I'm just assuming that it's going to get difficult to navigate as well as walk through."

"So most of these tunnels may be abandoned?" Wheat Biscuit asked, ducking his head under a pipe that the ponies didn’t notice.

"Doesn't it sound exciting?" Daring asked with sarcasm.

As they moved in further they could see what Daring had meant. The smooth stonework was slowly replaced with more spotty stones until it became slip-shot brick and mortar.

Daring's mental map guided them through the more worn down tunnels with relative ease until they began seeing tributary tunnels that had caved in ages ago and were under poor repair; mostly to keep them functioning at a minimum.

The walkway began to degrade every several steps until the equines were fetlock deep in chilly water.

Daring Do sheepishly shrugged at the frustrated glares from the rest. “I thought it’d be warmer, at least.”

As the group moved on the water level rose up to their knees.

Cardinal had been put on his father's back earlier and now sat proudly like a ship's captain overlooking troubled waters as they descended into the waters and central city.

"So, this is it..." Daring said almost under her breath.

"What is it?" Rainbow Dash asked, “Are we close to the exit?"

"No, but I remember a route from here," the adventuress said with a glimmer in her eye; as if she was in the light of discovery.

"Well where have you been leading us then?" Dew Berry asked impatiently after nearly slipping under the foul smelling water.

"When I was looking through those records and maps I saw this anomaly in the tunnels," Daring Do replied with confidence, “it looked like an amphitheater or something."

The rest were about to ask but what she was talking about before they stopped before what they saw. The tunnel they exited opened into a grand room on par with a palace throne room in size; The ceiling rose to a great height, arcing like a dome with a grate at the top that let a slow and steady flow of water into the chamber.

The sound of the water cascaded around the room, reverberating into a cacophony of relaxing waves and ripples.

. Daring Do fluttered her wings and hovered over the water like a butterfly, skimming the surface ahead of the others and looked at the walls and the spaced out torches that lined them.

She went up higher and felt around on the walls. She laughed and grabbed something from the wall and flew low, holding it between her muzzle and a torch.

With a soft blow a magic crystal sparkled to life and sent a small wave of fire into the torch, igniting it with a large flash and sending a magic flame between all the torches in the lower room.

“Well, I didn’t expect that,” Daring mumbled as she rejoined the others.

The fire shed light on the grand room. What was shown was nothing less than disturbing.

From corner to corner, piled up on each other were statues. Each one was a gargoyle, chiseled into horrified, agonizing positions with expressions that danced in the shadows of the fire.

The equines shrank away from the scene. "Daring Do? What is this place?"Dew Berry asked breathlessly.

"I didn't believe it when I read it,” Daring said as she flew towards a statue by the group, “I only thought gargoyles were a myth since there were none in Equestria,” she told them as she caressed the grim face of a stature, “but now I know I was wrong," she looked back to the rest.

"We're looking at one of the modification rooms; where gargoyles were pumped full of raw mana, by the hundreds. It was so long ago that the legend of gargoyles turning into stone in the sunlight was made… but it wasn't sunlight that did this to them.”

"It was magic, wasn't it?" Dew Berry asked, “just like how the centaurs can eat magic, they forced these poor creatures to do the same?"

"Yes,” Daring said as she turned to another stone creature, “we need to get moving though, I'll explain everything else I uncovered on the way."

The others followed Daring Do around the chamber on a risen stone walkway and down another tunnel; away from the haunting place.

Rainbow Dash was right behind the adventuress as they returned to darker tunnels with a burning question she had wanted to ask.

"Daring Do, that thing you saw in the cave under the tower, was it-"

"Yes," Daring Do said with a shiver, “it was a Gargoyle. I found only one record of him and he's the only one that survived."

Comments

[Gobeman]

sooo new writer huh... i wonder how thing will go