33 - Darkness, Part 1 of 6
So, I was a doofus and posted another story that is an alternate version of Parts 1 & 2 of this chapter (Amethyst Nightmare)! If you haven't read that, don't read it until after you read this. It plays out almost exactly like this does, but with characters names changed and the situation ends differently than this will... Like I said, I'm a doofus and should have posted that later, but hey, I was young and foolish! I'm a victim of circumstance! 
There was a cool dampness. That was the first sensation, or was it the dripping sound? Somewhere, water was dripping occasionally and echoing in the void. Sparklefly didn't know how she’d come to be where she found herself. In fact, she didn't actually know where she was. She felt groggy, almost heavy somehow. Her company had stormed the castle. There was only light resistance from timberwolves. She remembered flashes of green light, and then one of her officers started shouting something. What was it? Everything had gone numb after that.
Panic flooded through her in the darkness.
‘Am I dead? No, that's crazy! If I'm dead, how can I think about being dead.’ Sparklefly slowed her breathing to remain calm.
She opened her eye but couldn’t see anything. Feeling about in the blackness might give some idea as to her location. Stone and rock all around. Cold. A foul smell, like a must latrine. The quiet clinking of metal danced in her ears as she discovered the chain. She followed it up toward an iron band around her throat. So she was a prisoner, but what had become of the others? The air was cool but unmoving. She was likely in a cave or similar underground formation. The moisture in the air made her think it was likely a natural occurrence. Tugging at the chain, the other end was discovered close by, embedded in solid rock.
Somepony coughed, and it echoed through the chamber. Sparklefly's ears perked up and she listened. It could be coming from anywhere the way it bounced about. Gripping tightly, she pulled against the chain, testing its strength. Aside from a slight clinking, it made no sound as she pulled, nor did it budge. She attempted to stand, only to discover that the metal tether was too short to allow it. The links were thick, making it quite heavy in spite of it’s lack of length. There was nothing within reach but hard surfaces.
A wave of frustration overtook her, and Sparklefly pulled against her iron restraint. Then she moved to the other side and tried again. She worked at it one way and then another until she had soaked herself in sweat. Whether minutes or hours had passed was anypony's guess. Exhausted, she laid down on the hard stone floor. Left with only her thoughts, it took a while to catch her breath. Once or twice she found herself lost in a daydream, but she wasn't sure if she had actually been sleeping during those times. The silence was broken once, and Sparklefly could hear, not to mention feel, a rumbling somewhere far away. Whatever it was, the floor of the cave had trembled. Afterward, Sparklefly began counting to try to keep some sense of time. After keeping seconds in her head for what she guessed was about an hour, she started counting out-loud, softly.
The soft clinking of chains made her stop and listen. It sounded as if somepony were nearby and trying to move. Unsure how to feel about this, Sparklefly knew only one thing for certain: she was defenseless.
"Hello?" a thin, weak voice spoke in the darkness; it was a stallion.
Sparklefly thought it sounded familiar somehow, but she couldn't place it.
"That's what I thought," the voice sounded disappointed. "Dreams come, dreams go."
Sparklefly considered her options. There was a strong possibility that the changelings were playing some sort of game to get information from her. That being the case, whatever she said had to stay away from anything sensitive to the war effort. The other had grown silent again.
"Are you still there?" Sparklefly said into the darkness.
A quick movement was betrayed by the noise of the chains.
"Who are you?" the voice called out. "Don't hurt me!"
"I couldn't even if I knew where you were," Sparklefly said, shaking her own chain.
"You're like me?" the voice said, hopefully. It sounded so familiar.
"I'm a prisoner," Sparklefly replied, unsure what else to say. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
"When earlier? How long have you been here? W-What is your name? Have we lost the war?" the stallion spoke quickly.
"Calm down," she replied. "I think it's been a few hours, but I'm not really sure. I was in the middle of a battle and then woke up here."
“What battle?”
Still uncertain, she decided to evade, "It's a small detail; we'll figure a way out of here."
There was silence for a moment, and then the stallion said, "Sparklefly?"
She wasn't sure how to respond, and she hesitated. How had he known her name? Was he one of her captors?
"It's me, Nitro," he said.
"Nitro," Sparklefly said blankly into the darkness. She hadn't thought of him in months. They hadn't even known where to look for him when they realized he'd been replaced.
"There's changelings in Cloudsdale!" Nitro said frantically, "We have to warn everypony."
"They know," she replied. Surely it was safe enough to talk about this much. "Don't worry, they were found out months ago."
"What about Nimba, have you seen her? Is she well?"
Sparklefly took a breath, feeling uneasy, "I'm sorry... your sister was killed in action."
He let out a sound of despair, somewhere between a groan and a sigh. He choked a moment before clearing his throat and asking, "How?"
"The changeling that replaced you came with us on our mission into the Everfree Forest. It led us into an ambush where she was killed.”
The chain fell and rested, and Nitro let out a sigh of desperate exasperation. Unsure what to say further, they sat there in silence for a while.
"Please tell me," Nitro said. "Tell me everything."
Although she didn't believe it was a trick, there still might be enemies listening. The fact that Nitro was still alive meant that they'd been feeding him, and that meant that they were likely to return. Beginning when she had last seen him in Cloudsdale, Sparklefly relayed everything that didn't seem sensitive information. Telling the story made her appreciate just how much they'd all been through since winter had given way to spring. They'd found the secret of the timberwolves in the forest, survived a siege in Ponyville, helped Applejack become mayor, trained a new group of cadets, tried to stop a coup, hunted Queen Chrysalis, and launched an attack to retake Canterlot. All in all, a busy spring and summer.
“Two months...” he sounded somewhat in shock.
"What about you?" Sparklefly asked.
"I don't know," he replied. "I mean, there isn't much to tell. I woke up once on the flight here, wherever here is. That's when I saw the changelings were behind it, but they knocked me out. When I came to, I was chained up in the dark, and I've been here ever since. They bring food and water, usually when I'm sleeping. I see them sometimes, if I lay very still. They use magic to light the way. We're in a cave."
That wasn't any new information. The cool dampness of the air had already told her as much.
"Did you see any of the cave?" she asked.
"Yes," he answered. "It's really big; more like a cavern. I've never seen anything like it."
Sparklefly tried to think where there might be a large cavern that the changelings could be using. There were the caves in Smokey Mountain, but she didn't think any of them were as deep as this. Maybe Foal Mountain had some caves. Those two ranges were the closest, but either would have likely been seen by EUP forces. But then again, the ranges are large, and it would probably be easy to dodge any patrols.
The mare by habit tried to scratch at her eye patch, only to discover that it was missing. Somehow, that made her feel more vulnerable than being chained up in the dark.
"Please don't stop talking," Nitro said, sounding a little frantic.
"Sorry," Sparklefly replied, "I was thinking."
He sighed with relief, "It's okay. I was just afraid I'd been dreaming and you weren't really there."
"Believe me, I'm here," she replied.
There had to be some way to get free, but she had to keep Nitro occupied so she could think.
"Tell me more about you," she said.
"I've been here. I thought I was finally going crazy when you arrived."
"No, I mean, tell me about before you signed up. Where are you from?"
"Oh, that," Nitro answered. "We grew up in Cloudsdale, Nimba and me. We always loved flying, but I think my real gift was for getting into trouble. Our mother died giving birth to us, so it was just the two of us and dad. He worked at the weather factory. He would always come home sweaty and exhausted, so when we were big enough, Nimba and I pretty much took care of the house and meals and that stuff."
He kept talking and Sparklefly tried to think while still listening. This proved as difficult as one would expect. She ended up only catching most of what he said. Whenever he paused, she made sure to make some kind of sound so he'd know she was still there. He seemed comforted by this.
There had to be something she could do to escape, but as long as she remained chained, she wasn't going anywhere. She had nothing to pick the lock with, and even if she did, the skill eluded her. The chains were thick, but there might be a chance of wearing them away against the rock. This didn't seem likely, but without another plan, she decided to try it. Taking the middle of the chain, she began slowly grinding it against the stone floor, pressing down on it as hard as she could. It made a quiet scraping sound.
"One time, while dad was at work, Nimba wanted to see the edge of the city. So, we went toward the east side of town, and on our way, we found a group of kids that were also skipping school. They came with us, and one of them had this rainbow ball that they were playing with. Nimba wanted it, and I tried to get them to give it to us, but they wouldn't, so I kicked it off the edge of the city. None of us were big enough to fly down after it, and they got so mad at us! They chased us almost all the way back home before they caught us. We ended up in a brawl, the two of us against five of them, mind you, and none of us were older than ten. Anyway, the fight happened to start in a market by a tomato vendor. I don't even know how many tomatoes we ended up smashing before the air marshals got there and broke up the fight. We got in so much trouble!"
Sparklefly laughed quietly at this. Her own childhood hadn't really seen that kind of excitement. A grumbling stomach, ignored by Nitro as he kept talking, signaled the passage of time, but just how much would have been anypony's guess. Sparklefly decided that it must be near evening now. It was a comforting thought, even though it probably shouldn't have been. The longer they spent down here, the less likely it would be that they'd be rescued.
That, of course, followed the assumption that her absence had been noticed. If she'd been replaced by a changeling... she shook her head and continued scraping the chosen link of the chain against the stone floor of the cave. Those kinds of thoughts would only distract her. There was nothing she could do about an if. The chain was in front of her, so that is what she needed to focus on. Sparklefly hadn't noticed at first when Nitro stopped speaking, but she now realized that the dull sound of metal on stone was the only noise heard. It sounded loud, causing her to pause.
"You don't have to stop," Nitro said. "But I should tell you; they'll just replace it when you're sleeping."
"Maybe," Sparklefly replied as she continued, "but at the moment, I don't have any other ideas."
"How far have you ground it down?"
Sparklefly lifted her chain and felt the piece she'd been working on. There were some light scratches in it, but it felt mostly intact still.
"Nowhere yet," she replied, a little despondently.
"Keep at it; if nothing else, it'll make you feel better."
Sparklefly did keep working on it in the silence that followed. She got a rhythm going that seemed to lull Nitro to sleep. After what must have been an hour or two, Sparklefly's front legs were aching, forcing her to rest. She didn't realize how tired she had become, but sleep took her before long.
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Nitro's alive!!! Didn't think I'd see him.
8513047
Haha, yep! He’d been known missing for like 25 chapters, so I thought it’d be fun to revisit his fate.
I guessed it was sparklefly when I read Amythist Nightmare
Since I cannot confirm it as I did not post it their I give myself a cookie🥗🍪🍪🍪
For some reason the cookie emoji thing isn't working on my tablet
I guess only you have the power to distribute them
Oh him
He's back
Uhhh buddy
You kinda killed your sister
Well not you
The changeling that brought you here
If you'd of been stronger you would not have been caught and torture plus your sister would be alive so you can blame yourself a little but not totaly
8746300
1) Haha! Three of them came through as cookies... and a salad...
Side note (which I think i mentioned over there) this scene is... mostly the same... it will play out a little different.
2) Wow that's harsh. Why all the Nitro-hate?
Well, if Nitro's still alive even after his doppelganger was found out two months ago, that speaks decently for Sparklefly's luck to not get killed even after the 'lings figure out that she's been discovered to have been captured as well. So there is that. Still, Chrysalis seems to love ironies, as I'm guessing they're both under the mountain that Canterlot is on.
Beigh's going to have a lot of competition though if Sparklefly and Nitro aren't discovered soon, cuz they're going to have lots of time and nothing to do to pass it except to talk to one another.
8782335
That was a great prediction for their location. You get a cookie for that. 🍪
As for competition... I don't think Sparklefly's that easy.