The Elements of Chaos

by pixelbit5

Ch 10: Internal conflict

Sunlight's ears perked up. She opened her eyes, her vision foggy. It wasn't like she could see anything anyway, seeing as it was pitch black. She blinked, trying to let her eyes adjust. She had heard something. A voice? Yes. Somepony was out there. Somepony needed her help. She groaned, rolling onto her side. Everything hurt, from the dock of her tail to the tip of her horn.

"Hello?" she heard again, the clarity improving. "Is somepony there?"

She shakily got to her hooves, steadying herself on the nearby wall. "Yeah, I'm here." she called out weakly. "Are you alright?" She tried to light her horn, but however hard she tried, it had seemed that all of the years spent training her magic had suddenly left her.

"Oh great." she heard in the darkness. "It's you."

"Bass?" she called out. There was contempt in his tone. He was definitely still angry about what had happened earlier.

"Of all the ponies," she heard him say, almost shouting. "I had to end up with you."

"Where are you?" she called out. "I'm sorry, okay? It was silly of me not to think ahead like that." She waited quietly, still leaning on the wall for support. Silence. At this moment, she honestly would have preferred furious screaming. Somehow, the silence seemed more piercing. She once again tried to light her horn, but no dice. She lifted a hoof up to her forehead, meeting her horn at the base. Her breath left her. A solid metal ring dug into the base of her horn, stopping the flow of mana from ever leaving her body.

"No…" Her eyes wide, she slumped down to the cold hard ground. She idly kept rubbing her horn with one hoof, while holding her bright pink tail with the other. To be cut off from her magic like this… It was… It was just wrong. It was the worst nightmare to many a unicorn, and that nightmare had just been made a reality. An inhibitor.

The piercing silence, the burning cold, the shame of rejection and the fear of the unknown all forced their way into Sunlight's heart, chilling her soul and breaking her spirit. She had so many questions, where were her friends? Where was she? How long had they been here? And most importantly, would they all be able to get out of this alright? She shivered, hearing nothing but her own racing heartbeat.

She curled up on her side, flopping heavily to the ground. She closed her eyes, holding her tail tight. They were all going to get out of this alright. They had to right? They were chosen! Everything was going to turn out fine in the end, right? It would. It had to. It just had to. Or at least, that's what she kept telling herself. She kept telling herself that it was all going to be alright, but for the first time in forever, the uncertainty that she had kept tucked away in the back of her mind since the start of all of this began to creep out once and for all.

She sniffled, trying to stay strong. There were ponies out there that needed her. Her friends needed her, and she couldn't help anypony if she was a snivelling wreck. She wiped her eyes and stood up shakily, walking a few paces in the darkness, only to be held back by a weight on her neck. A large metal collar. How had she not noticed it before? She sat back down. She was held in place, only being allowed a few paces of leeway in each direction.

She heard Bass shift, his chain clinking out softly, breaking the silence for a brief moment. Sunlight sighed. By now, her eyes had become at least somewhat accustomed to the pitch black cell, and she could make out at least fuzzy pony shapes. She saw Bass, his back to her. "I'm sorry." she said quietly, almost dropping below a whisper. She heard him sigh quietly. He had heard her. He may not admit it, but she was getting through to him. "For everything."

He turned his head to look her in the face. Sunlight's ears perked up. He scowled. "You expect me to forgive you? Just like that?" he growled through his teeth. "I looked like an idiot. I was made a fool of, and now I'm here." He said. "So no, Sunlight Bliss. Not today." He shook his head and turned away again.

Sunlight stepped forward until her chain was pulled taut. "I know that you don't want to forgive me, and I don't expect you to." she said. No reaction. "I just want you to know that I'm sorry, and I wish that I could go back and change things."

Bass scoffed. He stared at the wall, speaking quietly. "Yeah. I wish you could too." Sure it was sarcastic, rude and dismissive, but it was something, and at this point, Sunlight would take what she could get. She opened her mouth to continue, but thought better of it, and sat down. They both sat in silence for who knows how long, neither engaging the other further. Time passed and the cold, dead silence went on, and on, and on. Despite the company, Sunlight had never felt more alone in her life. To not only be disliked, but full on resented? She hated the feeling. It chilled her to her very core.

She laid down, placing her head in her hooves. She was alone. There was nopony there for her. Pixel, Pastel, Ember, Whisper, who knew where they were. For all she knew, they were lying dead at the hooves of Princess Twilight. She forced herself not to linger on that thought. They were fine, she told herself. They were coming for her, she told herself. They were all going to get out of this alive, she told herself.

But was it true?

Sunlight honestly didn't know anymore. Were they fine? Were they coming for her? Were they going to get out of this alive? She started to sob quietly, tears soaking into her fur. Bass' ears swivelled, but otherwise he stayed quiet and unresponsive as ever. She was lost, stumbling in the woods without a light, slowly losing all hope of rescue. She had nothing left to hold on to. Nothing to cling to in the never-ending ocean that she had found herself in. She was alone.

She was alone.

---

Ember lay still, pulling her cloak around her. It wasn't very warm, but it was better than nothing, she guessed. Everything was quiet except for her and Pastel's breathing. It was dark, and neither of them could see very well. Though they both were alone together, neither had said much. Ember honestly didn't mind. Gave her time to think, to pretend that this wasn't happening, to wish that she was back home with her family. Either way, she really didn't want to deal with anypony else right now.

She closed her eyes and focused. It was almost as if she could hear the white noise of the marketplace near her house, or the chirp of sparrows outside her window. Familiar, homey sounds. They made her feel a little more confident.

Of course they had briefly tried to escape, trying with all their earth pony strength to pull the collars off or rip the chains right out of the wall. But their efforts had been, obviously, unfruitful. Pastel had pointed out that the locks had been enchanted, and nothing short of unicorn magic would be able to unlock them.

Ember never had much hope of escape to begin with, but when she realised that her overall pessimistic outlook was most likely correct, she had just started to feel terrible. Heck, not just for herself, but for the group, and for the innocent ponies of Equestria. She wished more than anything now that she could find a way to escape, be everypony's hero, to go down in Equus history as the pony that saved them all.

But she was abruptly awakened from her daze by the sound of metal on metal. A small hatch in the bottom of the door had opened, letting a small amount of light in. Ember stood and curiously trotted towards the door, as far as her chain would manage. The space wasn't too big, surely not enough to crawl through. A few seconds passed before a small metal tray was pushed through the gap on a cloud of magenta magic. Twilight. "A good and merciful queen feeds her prisoners…" Ember heard her mutter before the distinct *ZAP* of a teleportation spell rang through the dungeon.

Ember felt like yelling out, shouting at the top of her lungs to let this 'queen' know just what she thought of her, but at the moment she simply felt too weak. She just felt like closing her eyes and giving in to her new tyrannical overlord. Maybe she was just hungry.

By this time, Pastel had also taken notice of the tray. A small pile of hay, two apples, and a pitcher of water. Just enough to get by, really. But to Ember, it was so much more. Pastel had already grabbed her apple, but before she could do anything, Ember grabbed it right out of her hooves. "Hey!" Pastel protested, but Ember took no notice of the cyan earth pony. Pastel's annoyance at this madmare was quickly dropped however, when she saw exactly what Ember was doing, rather being replaced with sceptical curiosity.

Ember had placed the apples side by side on the tray, and, putting all of her weight onto them, proceeded to crush them to applesauce. Pastel smiled. She was crazy, she had to be! She couldn't see any logic behind this; no rhyme or reason! "Okay, what exactly are you doing?" she asked, moving closer to attempt to try and make sense of his seemingly random act.

"Escaping." Ember answered simply as she focused, pouring all of her earth pony magic into the pile of slush on the tray. "Get over here and help."

Pastel focused and began to give a little bit of her own magic to… whatever this was. Ember flinched, and quickly threw the pile of apple slush into the pitcher of water, quickly discarding the hay, planting the tray on top, and holding it down. She braced. "Get back if you don't want your coat burned off." she chuckled nonchalantly. Pastel's eyes widened and she backed up against the wall, preferring not to be anywhere near the pitcher, which was now bubbling and shaking violently.

The pitcher, being held closed by Ember, gave off a loud *BANG* before the bubbling died down. Ember carefully lifted the tray, inspecting the contents of the pitcher. She grinned and threw her hooves in the air. "Woo! Science, mother bucker!" she yelled, shoving her hoof in the pitcher, which came out covered in a florescent yellow goop. She smeared the goop on her collar and closed her eyes.

The solid metal collar began to fizz, before falling away completely. Ember hoof pumped before cantering over to the door, smearing a generous helping onto the lock. She once again closed her eyes, focusing, before the lock began to melt away as well, leaving the door free to swing open. She smiled and walked out into the dimly lit corridor. "Hey!" Pastel exclaimed, standing as close to the door as she could with her chain, still attached to the wall. "You can't just leave me here!"

"Psh!" Ember waved a hoof. "Don't worry! I'll be back. I'm not that selfish." She started to trot down the corridor, her voice getting smaller and smaller. "Just gimme a sec.”

“I have to find a certain unicorn."

---

Pixel stared straight ahead into the unending darkness. He was sick of waiting. He was sick of the cold, the dark, and the silence. But most of all, he was sick of just sitting here, helpless, as the world slowly died. He wanted to do something, be of some use. He was chosen for this task for a reason, and he wasn't about to let the good ponies of Equestria down. Elements or no, he was going to do something. He had to. It was his duty.

"I'm getting out of here." he said confidently. It didn't matter how, but he was going to find a way, no matter how long it took him. A pair of bright red eyed began to glow in the dark. Pixel stared back, completely unafraid.

"How?" Whisper enquired, closing the short distance between them. "We're stuck here. We've tried everything." She wasn't wrong. They had tried using one of Pixel's feathers to pick the locks, cutting the chains with Whisper's claws, and even brute forcing the shackles with a rock. "There's no way out!" she said dejectedly.

Pixel ran a hoof through his mane. "I know, I know." he huffed. "I just want to do something!" He stood up and began to pace back and forth as far as his chain would allow.

Whisper sighed. "Eat." she said. "You'll feel better." She slid over a dented metal tray. Pixel stared at the food, but even though he was hungry, he just couldn't find it in himself to eat. Pixel turned away and sat back down against the wall. Whisper sat beside him, her eyes still glowing a frightening red. "Pixel, we've tried everything." she said sorrowfully. "There's no way out."

No sooner had she said that, a striking metallic *THUNK* rung through the quiet cell. The cell door ground open, flooding the small room with blinding light. Whisper hissed and covered her eyes, while Pixel squinted into the light. He could make out a silhouette in the curtain of light currently burning away at his retinas. His blood froze in his veins. Oh crap. Twilight was back. He quivered, trying to make himself as small as possible. He waited or what he hoped would be a quick and painless death.

But nothing came.

He curiously cracked open an eye and stared back at the pony in the doorway. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the bright light. He gasped and broke out in joyous laughter. There in the doorway was Ember, the rest of the group in tow. "Come on airheads." she said confidently, smirking.

"We're getting out of here."

Comments

[pixelbit5]

7754494 Its mostly serious, but it does have its moments of stupidity. Rarely though. Really depends on how I'm feeling and if I can work it organically into the story. If you really want something a bit more lighthearted, you should check out one of my other stories, Torn or 1000 Years.

[pixelbit5]

7755341 Thanks for the kind words! I do try to make chapters at least maybe 1500 words-ish, but I also try to stick to one central event or sequence of events, and that can make it a bit tough. I dunno. Maybe I'm just an okay writer.

[pixelbit5]

7759944 A little bit, now that I think about it, yeah... Just wait until chapter 5. That's when I actually start trying...