4: Ancient History
A lone deer crept over the blackness, careful to place its hooves on the few scraps of safe ground he could find. He was injured, Twilight thought, something sickly oozing from his eyes. Still the buck staggered on, hoping for a way out.
Another step, a quick jump. A pause to catch his breath, a glance at the undulating ground. Quickly, a dodge to the side. Not quick enough. He fell. He struggled. He succumbed. Black vines reached for him.
Twilight put down the spyglass before she saw what happened next. Wordless, she passed it back to the captain. He was unfazed by the experience, taking advantage of the lull in conversation to light a pipe.
“We call it the Wilder.” Twilight barely heard him, her mind still somewhere down below, in that blackness. Her head shook.
“Huh? The wilderness?”
“No, just Wilder.”
She felt the floor move underneath her. It could be the airship changing course, or it could be her own nausea. It could be her memories of the living dirt that ate the deer. She needed someone to talk to, someone real, not another pony from the mad world she’d stepped into. She needed…
“I want my dragon.”
“Spike, you mean? That little beastie… I used to hear stories about him, the great worm of the—”
“He’s not a beastie.”
Flash coughed out a stream of smoke as Twilight glared at him. He knew the ring on her horn would block her magic, but still, he could swear something sparked in the air.
“And he’s not a story, either. He’s my friend. They all are.” She took a deep breath, and the air cleared. Of course there were no sparks. No one could defeat a magic suppressor, could they?
“Where are they?” she asked, purple eyes watching the drifting airships.
“They’ve not been harmed, if that’s what you want to know. My troops escorted them to the brig.” One of the guards in the room stepped closer to the captain and muttered something. “… though it seems your orange friend was a bit reluctant to go. We had to restrain her.”
Twilight’s jaw clenched, spitting out one word at a time. “Her name. Is Applejack.”
Muzzle Flash wasn’t intimidated. “Yes, yes, Applejack. I think I remember that name from history class, way back when. Saw her on a stained-glass window when my class took a field trip. She’s Loyalty, right?”
“Honesty.” Another word spat out.
“Apologies. It’s been awhile since we used the Elements. Most of our problems are solved with artillery now.”
Twilight didn’t try to hide her snort. And I see that’s been working well for you. “So you forget the saviors of Equestria?”
He paused to adjust his pipe, concealing his sigh as he did so. “Look. Do you recall who built the Saddle Arabian pyramids?”
Twilight sat down on her haunches. “Of course. Amenhaytep II laid the foundation, and his successor Amen…”
The captain chuckled and breathed out smoke. “Forgot you were a bookworm. Point is, your girls are as far back in our past as the pyramids were in yours when you were a filly. They’re ancient history—” He caught the rising ire in her eyes “—and they’re important, but you can’t expect an Armada flyboy just out of military school to recognize them.”
Another smoke ring spun from his mouth. “Some of these colts are just kids to me. Princess knows they shouldn’t be here, but they are. That’s what war does, Twilight.”
His grip tightened on his pipe till Twilight thought he’d snap it. Then as quick as it came, it stopped.
“As I was saying, Spike’s the only one who lived into our present epoch, and even he spent all of his time in that castle of yours, doing Harmony knows what.”
Twilight’s face flinched. Yes, she’d kept him there so she could cure him, but surely he’d had some sort of life outside of her attempts to prolong it. Didn’t he?
“Well.” She wasn’t looking at him now, instead staring out the window, watching the Wilder wave its branches. Maybe somewhere down there the deer had risen to its feet and bounded away in time. Maybe.
She’d done this, hadn’t she? You can’t take someone back from death without something else following.
“Be that as it may, I still want my dragon.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He turned to the guard. “Tell the troops Thunderchild is returning to Canterlot a hair ahead of schedule.”
Rarity did not know exactly what to expect after her… return. Perhaps the old princesses would invite her to the castle for a grand party to celebrate? Certainly they would get Pinkie to plan it, she had supposed on the march out of the forest.
Or perhaps, she imagined, she would walk out of the woods into a strange and wonderful world, so different than before. Perhaps she would go on adventures with her old friends, just like they used to.
Not that she particularly enjoyed those adventures, mind. Too much camping, and too few chances to restock her makeup supplies. Once, she had to use regular dirt and water to make her mud facial. The horror.
No, Rarity truly did not know where her new life would take her.
She did not expect it to take her behind bars in an airship brig, however. And in solitary, no less!
The floors were solid concrete; everything was solid here, except for the ragged-looking scrap of cloud that served as a bed. A few lamps hung from the ceiling, flickering in rhythm with the humming of the engines. If Pinkie were here, she’d certainly find some way to turn it into a song.
Pinkie always did brighten up a room. And if Rainbow were here, she’d be digging through the concrete, already scheming up an escape plan.
Rarity suppressed a chortle. More likely, Rainbow would try to copy an escape plan from one of those prison movies she always watched—that or ask herself “What would Daring Do do?”
She’d missed them, wherever she was. Rarity still wasn’t sure what had happened to her, exactly. A hospital, a room with too many pillows, some frankly abominable food… It was all a blur.
Then a flash, and then Twilight. What happened in between was anypony’s guess.
Then the airship, and now this. The brig. Everypony seemed to assume she should know why she was in here. Rarity remembered being disciplined as a foal, then being asked what she had done wrong. She certainly didn’t know!
Well. Whatever was going on, she was quite sure she didn’t like it. Any escape plan would go better if she could establish a rapport with the guard…
“Excuse me, darling, do you know how long this will be?”
The guard outside, Windlass if Rarity recalled correctly, shrugged her shoulders. “Not really sure. Muzzle…” She stopped herself and stood up straighter. Rarity could hear her trying to deepen her voice, trying to sound like a soldier. “No, ma’am. The Captain will take all the time he needs.”
“Any idea where this fine ship is headed?”
“A soldier does not discuss troop movements with captives, ma’am.”
Right out of a drill manual. Rarity sighed and slumped back, letting the cloud bed support her. The copper coil on her hoof sparked a little.
The mare outside her door wasn’t always so gruff. Before, she had been almost excited, like a… like a filly eager to please her parents. How old was Windlass, anyway?
Now, she was trying to be a soldier. Was that the term? A skymare? A marine?
The light was dim, but bright enough for Rarity to see a black insignia on Windlass’s flak jacket. Think, Rarity, think! Is that a skymare rank badge? Ensign, maybe? Oh, if only you had finished reading Sailor’s Succor, you would know this!
Rarity half-blushed as she recalled that particular romance series. It was literary trash, but at least it involved sailors, and it seemed like the Royal Armada had the same rank system.
“Excuse me, again?”
Windlass didn’t react.
“I just wanted to know, what should I call you?”
Her response was curt. “Skymare Windlass of the HMS Thunderchild, serial number 6780132.”
Rarity had seen that face before on performers and actors in a play. It was the face of a mare wearing a mask.
She had made it for herself, Rarity guessed, and it had served her well. The mask covered her youthful face with a frown, obscured her trembling upper lip with its heavy layer of military routine.
It was ugly mask, and not a mask any young mare should wear.
“Skymare Windlass, do you know where…”
She cut her off. “Why are you with her?”
“Say again, darling?”
Windlass clenched her jaw. If she called her darling one more time… “With the Princess. The Lost Princess, not the real princesses in Canterlot.”
“I beg your pardon? Whatever do you mean, ‘real princesses?’ I know it’s been awhile, but surely Equestria has not forgotten Twilight’s accomplishments…”
“Yeah. It hasn’t.” The mask slipped a little, but Rarity didn’t see an eager filly underneath—she saw anger. “I don’t know what she did in that forest, but ever since she disappeared things have been creeping out. There’s magic in the earth now, bad magic.”
Shadows cut her face into slices as she stepped closer to the prison bars. “She went in, the Wilder came out. It’s growing over towns and villages and hospitals…” Windlass tried to hide the tremors in her voice, but Rarity could see her shaking knees, could see the mask begin to fall away.
“And when the Wilder hits a graveyard…”
This was the real Windlass. Just a young mare, little older than Sweetie Belle used to be when she was gallivanting about on her little ‘crusades.’
Windlass was on a real crusade. More than anything Rarity wanted to reach out a comforting hoof and stop the tears she could see forming in the young mare’s eyes. She raised her leg…
Windlass knocked it away. “Don’t try to reach outside the bars.”
She fixed her mask, strapped it on tighter. Facial features forced themselves back into place behind it.
A faint growl emanated from the voicepipe outside the cell. Windlass heard it and fumbled with her keys, almost dropping them on the floor.
“Oops, sorry…” She stopped herself, snapping up the keys in her wing. “Orders from the captain. I’m to take you to the other captives.
Twilight tried to memorize the layout of the airship, but the ring on her horn muddled with her thoughts. She trotted through cloudy corridors, a bit of fog drifting in from where gunfire had damaged them. It looked like they were in a loading area, judging from the pallets of grenades and supplies.
Her eyes caught the flared nostrils of one guard, a subtle tightening of the jaw from another. She was never as gifted a diplomat as Princess Celestia, but she’d read the books and studied the art, and she knew enough to pick up signs of anger. They hated her. If what Muzzle Flash said was true, they had good reason to.
Again, she felt the floor move. Somewhere below her, black branches waved in still air.
Her friends must be terrified in that brig. She had to be strong, had to be the princess she thought was. Be strong for them. They needed her. They—
“Spike!”
She tried to leap for him, but the shackles on her hooves hobbled her. Another indignity, but one she had to suffer for the captain to let her be with her friends again.
“Mhmmh,” he mumbled through a thick sheet of flame-retardant fabric swaddled over his mouth.
The others came single-file behind him, each with their own restraints—Applejack’s looking the least comfortable. Rainbow and Fluttershy both chafed at the chains locked around their wings.
Guards surrounded the seven companions, and Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that there were snipers aimed at them.
“What’s going on? Where have you taken us?”
Muzzle Flash answered. “It’s a cargo hold. Normally this would be full of explosives, but we’ve been dropping those on the Wilder for a while now. Thunderchild’s heading back to Canterlot now.” He relit his pipe. “I assume there’s a princess there who’s quite interested in hearing you explain yourself.”
The girls felt a shudder as engines burned harder. The ship was moving, not just hovering.
“I thought I should give you girls a quick lesson on what’s happened since you left, maybe make you understand why my guards give you all the stinkeye.”
Muzzle Flash motioned to a unicorn wearing a skymare’s uniform and a copper coil on her hooves. Her horn buzzed with magic, and a holographic map blazed to life near her.
It was Equestria, but creeping swathes of slime green, moldy gray, and pitch black spread outward from near the Everfree, stopped only by the golden circle around Canterlot.
He stabbed a hoof at the capital. “Gold zones are under the direct protection of the Sisters.” His hoof traced outward to the surrounding fields. “Green zones—a few Wilder attacks, but safe enough for farming. Further out, and you enter the Gray zones; Armada ships can fly over, but the ground is too dangerous.”
“And the black zones?” Twilight asked.
“Nopony’s gone that far.”
Another voice spoke from the shadows. “… and returned in one piece.”
“Stop scaring the prisoners, Grape Shot. But yes, he’s right. Black zones are off-limits for good reason.”
Another voice butted in. “Should we really be explaining this to wanted criminals?”
“Keelhaul, this is all printed on one of the posters outside. It’s not exactly a state secret.” He didn’t turn to face her, but Twilight could tell he was addressing her now. “You’ll have to forgive the guards. Not all of them are old enough to remember what you were before.”
Twilight normally didn’t like ponies treating her different just because she was a princess, but it seemed like that earned her at least a morsel of respect.
The captain continued, still gesturing at the glowing map. “Now as you can see, those black zones cover an awful lot of Equestrian land. Some of that land used to be villages and hospitals. I don’t know what you did or how you did it, but almost everypony on this ship blames you for it, Twilight. Keep that in mind when you talk to Celestia.”
Another gesture, and the unicorn assistant shut off the hologram.
“I’ve decided to allow you girls to stay together, since technically, only one of you is a criminal.” He glanced at Applejack. “Actually, only two of you. Either way, it would be better to keep you in one place.”
Twilight remembered the bombs that fell from here a moment ago. “And I’m sure this has nothing to do with the fact that the floor in this room can be dissolved at will, dropping all of us to certain death?”
Flash smiled. “Of course not. We have had to take several precautions, though.”
Spike gave an angry mmhhmm as he tugged on Twilight’s mane.
“Such as preventing your pet dragon from breathing fire.”
“He’s not a pet!”
Muzzle Flash turned and walked off. “Whatever you say, princess.”
The guards shepherded the girls into a tight ring as the airship built up speed.
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I guess the specific charges for why they've been arrested are state secrets, though. Right?
That's what folks arrested for unknown charges usually ask for first, even before a lawyer.
At least Twilight should have responded to "what Spike was doing out there, as you put it, was dying!"
7241838 It always cracks me up that we get five or so emotes per Mane 6 character, but all Spike gets is a single mustachioed emote. Glad you liked the story!
7241896
Air Ships Baby! Air Ships! 
Spikey dearest did we have any draconies? pongongs?
A thousand years could the mane six meet their offspring???
7241925 Well, not all of them lived long enough to have any offspring. Let's just say that Fluttershy was lucky to die of old age. And Rarity... was not (there's a clue to her demise in this chapter. It's not pretty.).
7241933 ouch (makes for an easier story to write)