A Beginner's Guide to Heroism

by LoyalLiar

XIII - The Lübuck Prison Job

XIII
The Lübuck Prison Job

Waking up in a jail cell isn’t something I did with terrible frequency in my youth. In fact, the first time I had the pleasure was at least a month prior to my battle in Lübuck, during a period of strife and political upheaval which you probably remember as ‘Chapter Four’. Comparatively, I dramatically preferred my second experience.

After the throbbing in my forehead from yet another magic-induced slumber finally settled, I opened my eyes to a room with heavy wooden beams supporting a wooden roof overhead and thick stone blocks for walls. Combined with the bars mounted in the openings through the walls and iron-framed oak door, I gathered I was in prison. The weight of a void crystal ring on my horn confirmed the suspicion. My jacket had been taken from me, though that was more a matter of pride than restraint of the tools available to me; even I can’t do much with pocket lint. The total absence of Gale and Graargh was more worrying. Why had I been singled out? Looking for more information, I sat upright on the mat of straw that had been provided for my bed.

“Well, well. Sleeping beauty managed to wake up.”

I jumped at Silhouette’s voice. It was an impressive feat, given that I had been sitting before I leapt. When I landed, I found her staring at me through the bars of a cell opposite mine, separated by a sizeable hallway.

“Silhouette. Since you’re locked up too, I’m guessing this is Lübuck’s city jail?”

The soldier rolled her eyes. “Don’t act so smug; you aren’t clever for figuring that out.”

“You’re right. I’m not clever for that. I’m clever for tricking you into letting me stand underneath an enormous bell, and then using it both to protect my friends and make a noise loud enough that the city guard would come running.”

“Yeah, thanks for that by the way; I think you actually might have cracked my coat with that noise.”

I smiled. “My pleasure.”

Silhouette winked. “I like it when you smile, Coil.”

“Nope. No, we are not doing this. Ask me again when you learn what fundamental equine decency is.” I lay back on my mat again, trying not to let my irritation put permanent wrinkles in my forehead.. “Besides, I’ve been on the road for weeks now; bathing in rivers can only do so much. If you’re honestly looking for a roll in the hay, why not try to seduce one of the guardsponies who locked us up?”

“I doubt they’d go for it; they were real gentlecolts. Not like that filly you’ve been dragging along with you.” Silhouette seemed amused, tapping her chin with a glittering crystalline hoof. “Coil, clue me in. What do you see in her? I know with her tail cut that short, you can literally see into her, but is that it?”

“It’s not so much her as it is not you. How do I put this?” I made a point of lifting a hoof and rapping it against the stone wall beside me. “Once a mineshaft has been tapped dry, the safest thing to do is collapse it. I’m sure you’ve helped plenty of miners strike it rich down there, but the gold rush is over.”

Silhouette winced.

“Let me ask you something more serious, Silhouette. Do you really think I murdered Wintershimmer?”

She snorted. “I haven’t even really thought about it.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Like I said, ‘Morty’, I haven’t thought about it. I really don’t care. Either way, I get you out of my mane, and that’s what really matters to me. Now that the old stallion is dead, Jade needs somepony new to do the thinking in the Union, since she’s a few shards short of a cluster.”

“And chasing after me is just your way of getting on her good side?”

Silhouette suppressed a small laugh. “I think you’re underestimating how pissed she is at you. What Wintershimmer said about poisoning Smart Cookie sent her right over the edge, even by her standards.”

“So I’m just—”

I let the thought die when I heard a door creak open in the hallway outside our cell. It took a few seconds for the audible strikes of hooves to travel down the hall. Not more than a few moments later, a unicorn mare entered my line of sight.

“Good evening,” said the middle-aged mare, clad in a what looked to my eyes like a formal ball gown. Its brilliant white fabric was spotted with tiny amethysts, giving her a scaled appearance that almost resembled a dragon. She spoke with a terse accent, emphasizing a businesslike efficiency in her actions. In a rich purple arcane aura, she held a small stack of parchment and a single white-feathered quill, which she much preferred as an alternative to meeting my gaze. “You may call me Travail. From the report I have here, your name is ‘Morty’.”

“Mortal Coil is my full name, but I guess you might as well use the nickname.”

Travail slowly raised a single brow. “I see…” Her quill danced, never stopping for want of ink. “And are you the owner of the stolen robes of—”

“Jacket,” I corrected almost on instinct. “And I’ll have you know I earned that jacket, which I trust will be returned undamaged.”

The mood of the mare changed instantly. Her eyes locked firmly onto me, her ears perked up, and the slight swaying of her tail hanging out of the back of her gown ceased completely. “Wintershimmer doesn’t take apprentices…” It sounded to me like she was trying to convince herself. “And he’s the only living member of Order of Unhesitating Force.”

At that observation, I couldn’t help but raise a brow of my own. I sat upright.

To my surprise, Travail shuffled half a step back.

I smiled, calmly resting my forehooves together. “Let’s dispense with dancing around the point. You came here thinking I was a thief or an impostor. Or perhaps somepony with immaculate fashion taste who has no idea what an arcane order is. That was an unfortunate assumption. I am Wintershimmer’s apprentice.”

Travail swallowed heavily. “You c-can’t possibly be Wintershimmer’s student. He doesn’t… I-I’ve heard the stories. Not since what happened in Everfree…”

I quietly pocketed that protest, but unfortunately, I needed to carry momentum in dialogue more than I needed to know exactly what had happened in Everfree City. Intimidation and academic curiosity rarely go hoof-in-hoof. “You’re arguing from a false premise,” I observed. “Ask yourself this: I’m currently imprisoned for fighting with the leader of the Crystal Union military. During that battle, I lifted a bell weighing several tons. You also know that I created a Ouijan learning golem, since I assume you have to have confiscated him.” I held out a hoof, as if proffering a plate of hors d'oeuvres. “That means I’m capable of replicating the thesis of the Father of Necromancy. From that, you can be certain I am a real mage, and not a thief or a fashionably oblivious noblepony.”

Travail took a small step back. I matched it forward.

“I think that’s enough about my achievements, though. Let’s talk about you. Wintershimmer’s predecessor died seventy years ago, and you aren’t old enough to have met her. Since you know that information without having met Archmage Comet, you have to be at least reasonably well-versed in modern magical history. You’re also dressed in formal garb, rather than armor, so I have every reason to assume you’re not a soldier. Putting those pieces together, I presume, would make you Archmage Travail of Lübuck, successor to Grindstone the Short.”

“C-Correct.”

“You had access to all of that information before you came to talk to me. Did you just ignore it? Or did you assume you could try and talk to me as some sort of petty criminal, instead of a peer?”

“I’m n-not afraid of you.”

Rather than call her bluff, I decided to use her position to my advantage. “Good.” I let myself slip into a more comfortable grin. “I’m glad. Generally, I’ve been going out of my way to be a nicer pony than the old stallion, but some ponies just can’t see past the jacket. So let me introduce myself, Archmage: I’m Mortal Coil, until recently the apprentice to the late Wintershimmer the Complacent. That makes me Grandmaster of the Order of Unhesitating Force.”

Travail’s breath caught in her throat. “Wintershimmer the Complacent is dead?”

Silhouette called over through the barred window. “Mortal over there killed him; that’s why I’m here. Queen Jade wants him executed.”

As I watched, Travail’s eyes widened. In that moment, I briefly found myself actually thankful to Silhouette.

“In a strictly technical sense, what Silhouette just told you is true. I am responsible for the death of Wintershimmer the Complacent.” I paused there, giving her a moment to let the words sink in. “As I’m sure you’re aware, wizards killing one another is a proud tradition, especially in my order. However, I’m only here in Lübuck because I’m interested in preserving my own life instead of being executed for murder, which I did not commit.”

I tapped gently on the void crystal ring around my horn. “So that brings us to present circumstances. My friends and I have no intention of hurting any of the citizens of Lübuck. If you need compensation for the bell, we can pay for that. Otherwise, I see no reason for you to continue detaining me. Is there anything else we can do for you?”

“Mortal, you’re being an idiot again,” Silhouette called from her cell. “I bet Queen Jade is on her way here now. They’re not just going to let you walk away.”

Travail nodded at the crystal mare’s claim. When she directed her attention back to me, she swallowed once, heavily. It seemed that small motion was enough to steel her nerves. “Her Majesty has been summoned, as well as a representative from the Equestrian Triumvirate. Once they arrive, the three of us will decide your fate.”

Something about the way she delivered that statement left me with an irritated twitch under my right eye. I stood up, walking forward until I was close enough to reach out and touch her through the bars, had I wanted to. “Alright, I tried to be nice. Didn’t work. Let’s try being realistic. I’m not going to sit around her and wait for you to judge me guilty merely because I learned from the ‘evil’ wizard.”

Travail leaned backward. “Y-you’ll only be j-judged on the merit—”

“You lied to me earlier. I know you’re absolutely terrified of me. Do you realize how ridiculous that is? You’re a sixty-something-year-old archmage. I’m a seventeen-year-old journeymage with a void crystal ring on his horn.”

“I’m f-forty-eight!”

That admission momentarily prevented me from thinking. “You’ve aged horribly,” I remarked almost instinctually after regaining my senses, “but that’s beside the point. You ought to have all the power in this discussion, but you don’t. There are only really two possible reasons for that. The first is that you’re terrified of Wintershimmer’s reputation, which, to be fair, would be wise if he were still alive. You’ve heard all the stories about grafting horns onto earth ponies and ripping out souls; why wouldn’t you assume I’m the same sort of pony?”

“I-I n-never s-said—”

“You’ve barely said anything, though if you get any more nervous, you’re going to do a great job teaching foals their ‘ABC’s. What matters is what you’re thinking. And I know that if those thoughts are the reason you’re terrified of me, I’ll never get a fair trial.”

“A-As I was trying t-to say—”

I wasn’t interested in yielding my momentum, so I placed a hoof on the older mare’s shoulder through the bars of the cell. She jumped at the touch, huddling back against Silhouette’s door. I restrained a chuckle. “The second possibility is that on some instinctual level, you recognize the truth. Despite your greater experience, and despite the fact that you hold an archmage seat, you know that I’m the better wizard between the two of us. Maybe my charisma is what’s intimidating you, or maybe it’s the fact that you are actually the party of lesser power, and you’ve put yourself in line of sight of a pony whose power you have absolutely no measure of, who you’re quietly praying isn’t going to take advantage of your fundamentally idiotic decision. Congratulations on winning the lottery, Travail. I like to consider myself a hero.”

“So are you expecting me t-to—”

I offered a broad smile. “Oh, you almost managed a full sentence that time. I’m so proud of the progress you’re making!” I set aside my sarcasm. “If you really have the level-headedness not to judge me for Wintershimmer, you also know that I’m perfectly capable of leaving any time I choose. I’ve only remained here as long as I have because I wanted to show you that I was being cooperative. However, no matter how uncooperative it might look, I’m not putting my life in other ponies’ hooves. You’re welcome to try and kill me now, but you should know that I already walked away from a noose once. I’m called Coil the Immortal for a reason.”

“You called yourself that!” Silhouette unhelpfully interjected.

I ignored her. “So what’s it going to be, Archmage? Should we walk out of here as friends, with appropriate payment for the damage to the bell tower? Or should I blow out the wall to the cell?”

The voice that answered my question wasn’t Travail’s. Instead of a stuttering, gibbering mess it was firm, but at the same time almost lackadaisical. It came from a young stallion, somewhere down the cell block hall. I recognized it instantly. “You really love property damage, don’t you, Morty?”

“Tempest?”

Sure enough, the sky blue soldier made his appearance between my cell and Silhouette’s moments later. I took note of a wide smile on Silhouette’s face as he stepped into view; guessing what was going through her mind was not exactly a difficult task.

Wanting for a better place to start, I coughed into my hoof. “Tempest, for the record, I’m sorry about the eel.”

He twisted up the corner of his lip into a half-hearted grin. “I’ve been in real battle, Morty. The fish was preferable.” He turned to Travail. “Archmage, why don’t you leave this to me. Go home, get some rest. Maybe prepare somewhere for Queen Jade and Grandfather to stay.”

“O-oh. Are you sure, Centurion?”

“Absolutely.”

I watched Travail leave, at least as far as the layout of my cell would allow. Once she was properly out of view, I turned my back to Tempest and returned to my seat on the sorry excuse for my bed, took a single deep breath, and let my aggression settle. The back of my mind quietly replayed Tempest’s short directions to the Archmage. At the very last few seconds, I entered what I can only really describe as a state of perfect panic.

“Your Grandfather… is coming here?” I asked, hesitantly.

Tempest nodded, though he waited for the creak of the door at the end of the hall before he actually opened his mouth. “Yeah…” Sky blue feathers ran their way through the stallion’s pale mane. “I thought Gale was making my life a huge pain.”

“Yeah… about that.” I scratched the back of my own neck. “At the time, I didn’t know you were after her over Commander Hurricane’s sword—”

“What?!” Silhouette shrieked. “You mean that crazy sword was Commander Hurricane’s?”

Tempest responded by lifting his left wing, where we could both see the legendary weapon hanging. “Procellarum. You’re lucky Gale’s a unicorn, miss; if a pegasus were using it, you’d probably be dead.”

At that revelation, I couldn’t help but cock my head. “It seemed perfectly effective to me.”

I suspect that in sighing so heavily, Tempest actually shed a small portion of his soul. “It’s a sword of pure skysteel, so it has a little built-in magic. But if you’re a pegasus, you can send your magic through it. If I put any of my wind magic into it, it gets lighter in my grip, but it doesn’t actually lose any of its weight behind a swing.”

“So you’re chasing Gale because you’re worried something that powerful would fall into the wrong hooves?”

For that observation, I got a shrug. “I probably would have been after her even if she didn’t have the sword. Grandpa mostly just wanted to make sure she didn’t get herself killed using it to fight something stupid.” As I watched, Tempest’s shoulders sagged low. “So much rushing around. And you certainly didn’t help. I flew all the way to Platinum’s Landing and back. You know how far that is?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “Six hundred miles.”

“...Sorry?”

“That’s a start.” Tempest leaned on the bars of my cell. “What I’d really like is for you to stop making extra work for me.”

“Well, I’m sitting in a prison cell now.”

Tempest sighed again. “And that’s the real problem here.”

Silhouette decided that was the moment to interject. “Did I just hear you right?”

“Look, miss crystal, I think my job would be a whole lot easier if Morty just sat down in jail for a few weeks. Unfortunately, that’s not how the politicians feel.”

“You’re going to let him go?”

Tempest frowned as he turned around. “It’s Silhouette, right?”

“Depends. Is this professional? Or are you asking personally?” The falling pitch of Silhouette’s voice made her intentions perfectly obvious, though what she saw in Tempest’s scruffy jawline and mediocre grooming, I couldn’t tell.

“You’re in a jail cell,” he observed flatly. “Doesn’t that make it obvious?”

“Some ponies are into that…”

I coughed heavily. “Tempest, let me help you out here. That particular claim has already been prospected dry. You’re better off getting to your point.”

“I don’t need your advice dealing with mares, Morty,” the pegasus replied flatly as he turned back to me.

The absolute, unshakeable, and perfectly emotionless confidence with which Tempest delivered that simple sentence was stunning. Literally. I can think of dozens of fantastic replies to a line that open, but in that moment in the Lübuck jail, my mind failed to deliver even a juvenile quip.

Then he turned around to Silhouette again (somehow avoiding becoming dizzy from what was quickly becoming a very rapid process of turning back and forth). “That’s not my preference, Silhouette. I especially don’t want to be here in about twenty minutes.” I quirked a brow. “But I’m sure we can figure something out once I’m off duty and you’re out of here.”

“Wait, you’re letting both of us go?” I asked.

“Of course not.” Tempest rolled his eyes as he turned to me. From inside the breast of his leather armor, he produced a small folded letter. “You want to see it, or—?”

“Just read it,” I told him.

Tempest shrugged. “‘It is the official stance of the Triumvirate of Equestria that the unidentified rogue mage and the Crystal Union military officer detained in the city of Lübuck, as reported by Archmage Travail of the same city, be held until such a time as a representative of our government can meet with a representative from the Union to discuss their fates. This discussion will include a trial for the aforementioned mage, as well as compensation for the property damage inflicted during his time on Equestrian soil.

“‘Under the advisement of Commander Typhoon, in light of both his personal investment in other parties to the reported rampage in Lübuck and his capability to disarm the potential for a tense situation, it is the decision of this council that Commander Emeritus Hurricane ‘Storm Blade’ be dispatched as our representative.’”

“What about Gale?” I asked, shortly after Tempest tucked the letter into his armor.

In reply, the stallion waved a wing. “She’s an Equestrian. Not really your concern. I’m sure Grandpa will have something strong to say to her.” As he spoke, Tempest’s wing moved to the neck of his armor. With surprising dexterity, his feathers seemed to pinch around a thin chain, and when he pulled it up, he revealed a half-dozen keys. “There’s more, but it isn’t written down. Gods, I hate politics.”

He coughed to clear his throat, and then subtly tweaked his pitch. I got the sense he was trying to emulate a more formal voice, though who the original speaker had been, I couldn’t say. “Equestria has to send a significant military officer to make it clear to Jade that her choice of sending a clandestine agent instead of contacting us directly is unacceptable. However, Jade’s psyche is fragile on a good day, and we believe it would be better if she was never actually in the same room as Hurricane. Especially since he killed her father. As a consequence, several days before Jade’s arrival Lübuck, both of the prisoners will conspire to escape.”

Tempest paused to drop the keys through the bars of my cell. “It seems likely the rogue mage already had contacts in Lübuck, as he was able to book passage aboard the Little Conqueror bound for Neighvgorod, continuing on his route to River Rock. By the time we realize his absence, he will already be well out to sea and beyond any practical ability to track. Meanwhile, it seems that the Union military agent will take her knowledge of the mage’s new destination to her queen, and the two will redirect their course. Once the crystal ponies pass the Equestrian border and reach the former Compact Lands, the legality, and consequences, of their actions will be Cyclone’s problem.”

Finally, Tempest looked at me pointedly. “The mage should be aware that he is no longer welcome on Equestrian soil. Should he be detained again, he will be summarily handed over to Jade, rather than given a trial under our supervision, as the benefits of improving relations with the Crystal Union will then outweigh the value of his life.” Tempest coughed into his hoof again, and let his voice return to his usual lackadaisical tempo and pitch. “Queen Platinum also said to wish you ‘good luck.’”

I stared down at the keys for a second, and then looked up at Tempest. “Okay. So where are Gale and Graargh? And for that matter, where’s my jacket?”

Tempest rolled his eyes. “Gale is going to wait here until Grandpa gets here, and then the three of us are going to walk back to Everfree City. I guess the idea is to save us dedicating even more soldiers to watching her, but it’s going to be... awkward.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Graargh is the little colt, right? Is he yours?”

“What? No! He’s an orphan or something. All I know is that he’s a lycanthrope.”

“A what?”

I caught myself grinding my teeth. “He turns into a bear, sometimes. Full moons, if you piss him off… It’s a magical disease, is the point. He needs a wizard to watch over him.”

“I’ll bring him to Star Swirl, then.” Tempest frowned. “And I’m not giving you your jacket back. I can’t let it look like I’m helping you escape. And it’s not thick enough to keep you warm in Neighvgorod anyway.” He awkwardly forced another cough into his hoof, this time obviously for dramatic effect. “In casual conversation, I guess I accidentally mentioned that the Little Conqueror is docked until dawn on the Antler Pier. If you happened to blow up the back wall of your cell, you’d need to turn left on the first street, go down that until you see a sort of street market, and then turn right and go down the hill until you reach the sea. Then the ship should be in sight on your left.”

I chuckled. “You might be the worst spy ever, Tempest.”

He snorted, flaring his nostrils. “Like I said, I hate politics. I’m just a scout.” He turned toward the door. “Silhouette, I’m staying at a little tavern outside the north gate of the city. If you happened to drop by after your unexpected escape, I just might be able to provide a warm meal, and a bed more comfortable than that prison mat.”

Silhouette responded by wolf-whistling.

I slapped a hoof against my brow, but didn’t bother to say anything.

“Now, I’m gonna start walking that way. If there’s going to be a violent explosion blowing out the wall of a prison cell, I certainly hope it happens before I manage to get comfortable in bed, since I will have to get up and respond to it.”

I tried to picked up the keys that had been inadvertently dropped as Tempest let the distant door swing shut. Unfortunately, as a unicorn, my hooves tended to be pretty much the last things I used for picking up objects. It took me no less than three minutes to get the keys pinned between my hooves and up to my horn. Once they were steady, I needed a bit of fiddling and a mild headache from going crosseyed trying to look up at the ring on my horn before I finally found the right key on the ring and managed to get my magic released. Once that was done, I sat back against the wall and closed my eyes.

“Hey! Coil!” Silhouette rattled a hoof on the bars of her cage. The sound was… irritating. “You gonna toss me those keys, or what?”

“Shut up, Silhouette. I’m thinking.”

“What in Tartarus is there worth thinking about? He spelled it out for you completely.”

I did my best to ignore her, placing a forehoof on my temple.

“Coil! Don’t be an idiot! The plan he laid out is great! Look, I won’t even follow you immediately! I’m gonna go find Jade and make sure she doesn’t completely lose it. All you’ve gotta do is—”

“I’m not leaving Gale,” I growled. In the ensuing silence, I made a point of looking up at Silhouette, watching the walls of her cell glisten in the starlight that refracted through her body from the cell window. “She doesn’t deserve to get dragged back and tossed in jail for this.”

“Oh, come on! You just want to be storybook hero and go save the princess, don’t you?” Silhouette growled in her throat and smacked her forehead on the bars of her cell. “She’s not special! You heard the way she talks; you’ve seen the way she dresses. She’s just some hooker!”

I offered Silhouette a cold glare. “You asked earlier what I saw in her. Let me explain. Gale ran off with Hurricane’s sword because she had decided she wanted to kill the last windigo. It was probably a stupid goal, but I admire it anyway.”

“So you like that she’s a dumb would-be-hero too?”

“Your level of incomprehension is truly breathtaking.” I slumped back against the wall.

The prison was quiet. For almost ten seconds, I tried to force myself to think of where Gale might be. My thoughts always turned to Gale. More in the interest of clearing my focus than actually enlightening Silhouette, I spoke up again. “When I was competing to be Wintershimmer’s apprentice, my father told me that I’d never be able to be a wizard with my horn the way it is. He refused to even talk to me about telekinesis. With his horn split, he couldn’t do magic on his own, and he didn’t think it was worth the pain of trying to teach me. Wintershimmer had to walk me through it during the first trial.” I dragged a hoof along the grout between the flagstones that made up the cell’s floor. “Everything about where I came from said I’d never be a wizard. My horn. My family. Being born in the Crystal Union instead of literally anywhere in Equestria, where there are tons of mages looking for apprentices.

“I fought past that. I worked my flanks off for fifteen years. And through all that, I didn’t really care about all that crap I mentioned. It felt great to shove it in my father’s face when I won the apprenticeship. All the stupid crystals who hated me for not being a rock got what was coming to them. No, what pissed me off were the nicer ponies. The unicorns who understood how hard it was for me. All that… cheap pity. Because at the end of the day, they’re making the same assumption: that I could never be a wizard. But instead of challenging me, and letting me prove them wrong, they’d say ‘it’s okay’. ‘You don’t have to be a real wizard.’ They encouraged me to give up. They tried to make it easier.”

Silhouette was totally silent. I glanced over, and noticed just how closely she was watching me.

“Gale’s like that. I don’t even know what it is that’s holding her back. I mean, I can guess. But I don’t want to know. I don’t want to be one of those ponies. I don’t want to tell her she can’t do what she wants or give her that cheap pity.”

I leaned forward, stood up on my hooves, and picked up the keys in my telekinesis. Then, using my hooves, I placed my discarded horn ring into the crook of my shoulder. I felt the sting of it eating my magic, but the drain was minimal as long as it wasn’t near my horn. Without further word, my arcane grip guided my ‘stolen’ keys into the keyhole on the outside of the cell. Once I’d stepped out fully, I shut and locked the door.

“You’re not just going to be able to walk out the front door, you know.”

“Really? Watch me.” Finally able to get a good look down the hall in both directions, I took notice that the only exit to the cell block was the door Tempest had left through, off to my right side. The other end of the hallway terminated in the same stout brick wall that had made up my cell. Given that the four other cells between me and the wall had their doors open, I confirmed my suspicion that Tempest hadn’t shared Equestria’s political secrets with the ears of random criminals.

With that matter settled, I turned around and pointed my horn at the back wall of my own cell, just below the window.

The explosion was quite loud, and a huge cloud of dust expanded around the hole. Inside the prison, I heard ponies shouting. Without wasting a second, I sprinted down the hall, ducking inside the farthest cell and leaning against the inside wall. Moments later, I heard voices shouting, and the door into the rest of the prison slammed against its wall.

“What was that?” Tempest shouted, sounding dramatically more convincing than his feigned ignorance had earlier.

“I-I think Morty escaped.”

“I figured that much out.” Tempest made a show of growling. “Alright, he’s out in the city somewhere. You see if you can track him with magic or something. I’ll rally the guard and start searching the city.”

Heavy wingflaps told me Tempest had left. I didn’t wait any longer.

Travail had her horn lit, fiddling with the cell door I’d locked. Slowly, her magic was bending the iron bars. By the standards of the average unicorn, she had power, even if I hesitated to say she was worthy of being called an archmage.

“Hello, Travail.”

“W-W-What?!” The middle aged mare spun and let off a stunning bolt in the same fluid motion. I didn’t even bother jumping to the side; her surprise had ruined her aim. I took notice that her horn was lit with magic, readying another spell. Exactly as planned.

With my hoof, rather than my magic, I hurled the void crystal ring toward her head. Hungry for her power, it corrected for my less-than-perfect throw. With a sudden spark and then a drawn out fizzle, the magic around her horn faded away. Rather than horror, her face simply spasmed, twitching near the eye and at the corner of her slightly-open jaw as she struggled and utterly failed to justify the complete shift in power between us. With a slight push of telekinesis, I helped the squeaky door at the other end of the hallway slide shut. An audible click I hadn’t been completely expecting lent the motion a surprising finality. The message seemed to get across clear enough, if the shuddering of Travail’s shoulders was anything to go by.

I tossed the keys into Silhouette’s cell. “You’d be surprised how easy those were to steal,” I lied, looking Travail square in the eye Then, to clarify her position, I stepped forward until I was looming over the older mare. “Where’s Gale?”

Travail stumbled backward. “W-Who?”

“Gale,” I told her calmly. “The unicorn who was with me earlier.”

Travail stumbled backward, though I quickly closed the distance. “Y-Y-You mean Her Highness? What do you want with her?”

Comments

[RoboRed]

Aaaaaaaand bombshell dropped.

[Dr Induction]

I really love this story. Like alot.

[djthomp]

At that observation, I couldn’t help but raise a brow of my own. I sat upright.

To my surprise, Travail shuffled half a step back.

Morty really has a way with the ladies.

That admission momentarily prevented me from thinking. “You’ve aged horribly ,” I remarked almost instinctually after regaining my senses,

Same.

Poor Tempest, having to be political.

“Oh, come on! You just want to be storybook hero and go save the princess, don’t you?” Silhouette growled in her throat and smacked her forehead on the bars of her cell. “She’s not special! You heard the way she talks; you’ve seen the way she dresses. She’s just some hooker!”

So close and yet so far.

Travail stumbled backward, though I quickly closed the distance. “Y-Y-You mean Her Highness? What do you want with her?”

Hah, there it is.

[RexDraconum]

Travail stumbled backward, though I quickly closed the distance. “Y-Y-You mean Her Highness? What do you want with her?”

So she is an actual princess after all.
Well, this just got interesting.