The Elements of Salvation

by Slick Dash

Caged

"Let me out of here! Darn it, let me out!" Rainbow screamed as she slammed herself hard against the cage wall, her shoulder (Battered by the constant assault on the prison) flared in pain once again, begging her to stop.
"Babe, we can't get out, not like that." Reasoned Soarin' sat on the other side of the cage, he looked tired, as though he'd suffered a far older stallion's life. His eyes were beady and focused on the ground that they hung several feet above.
"What am I supposed to do Soarin'! Just sit here and do nothing like you? If you've forgotten Thor's out there alone!" Screamed Rainbow, turning on her husband with wild fury in her eyes.

"You think he doesn't know that?" Shouted a deep male voice from across the dark cavernous room. Rainbow turned and shouted back.
"You can't say a thing Spike! You ran from town as soon as they hit!" Through the gloom, the couple saw a large high cage, it shook slightly as something inside it rushed to the wall angrily. Two green eyes leered out of the gloom, starring Rainbow down.
"I was with Rarity! I wanted to make sure she and the rest of the boutique workers got out safe, then I was gonna come back for the kids!"
"Rainbow, you should just calm down, ok? Your worried, we're all worried, but you can't just start blaming everypony else!" Protested the voice of Twilight, somewhere close to the ground. Rainbow's heart sagged as she realised what she had been saying.

"Spike?" She asked tentatively.
"What?!" He replied angrily, Rainbow leaned close to the wall of her cage, resting her head against the bars.
"I'm sorry big guy." She said quietly. Silence rained for a moment, then.
"It's ok, we're all worried." Rainbow sighed with relief at the forgiveness. She looked to Soarin' who silently nodded, letting her know she hadn't upset him either. Rainbow went over to her spouse and lay down, Soarin' stretched out a foreleg and rested it over her shoulders, bringing her in close. From the comfort of the hold, Rainbow shouted out to the two cages far below the rest. Those who were alone. "Twilight? AJ? You guys ok down there?" Twilight called back immediately.
"Yes Rainbow, I'm ok. What about you Applejack?"

Nothing was said.

In one of the other raised cages, Fluttershy slowly teetered forward, from their angel, her and her husband could see Applejack's cage perfectly. Big Mac came up behind the yellow mare and glanced down. As she had been sense they were imprisoned in this dark little hole, Applejack was lying on the floor, her forelegs stretching between the bars, and dangling towards the ground. She looked completely defeated. "A-Applejack?" Fluttershy whispered, the terror of their capture still obvious in her tone, but in this silent and deadly room, everypony could hear her every syllable. Fluttershy was worried for her sister-in-law, she had barely spoken but even her mostly silent attitude was nothing compared to the pony hanging alone in her cage above the rest. in the centre of the round room, sat Pinkie, her mane as straight as it had ever been.

Her forelegs were wrapped around her hind legs, hugging them tightly to her chest, she sat dead centre of the cage, not allowing any of the surrounding prisoners a glimpse of her through her bars. She hadn't moved, she hadn't spoken, she was lost in the terrified world she had been in since they had seen their attacker and captor.

"I'm fine!" Applejack finally replied, she didn't look it to Big Macintosh. It felt strange to see her wearing her Stetson for such a long time, he'd become so used to her never wearing it, as though her adventurous side had gone forever, but the only hope that the big red stallion had was that she still wore it now, chancing at her still having some fight left in her.
"Are you sure darling?" Rarity asked, coming up to her bars beside Spike. "You, Twilight and..." She looked up at the silent cage above, "P-Pinkie, all have it the worst here." She too had noticed how out of it the country pony had been since they arrived.

Applejack raised her head, staring up at all the cages around the walls. "I'm on my own, I aint got nopony in here with me like most o' yall, in fact I never did! My only reason for livin' is somewhere out there! Possibly..." She gulped unable to say the terrible word. "So... do you really wan' me to answer that question properly?" Nopony answered. "I thought not." Applejack then returned to lying on her cage floor. Rarity watched her friend for a moment, then bit her lips as she felt tears returning for what felt like the thousandth time since Ponyville.

The unicorn turned into her husband, who let her come close immediately, he dropped to his knees and held her close stroking her mane and giving her his shoulder to cry on. The dragon looked around as he did, all of this misery all this suffering, it was all because of one person! He glanced up at the silent cage, swearing yet again he could hear something! He'd tried to bring everyponies attention to it originally, but it seemed it was either his ears playing tricks, or his dragon hearing being better than that of the ponies around him. It sounded like Pinkie, talking.

"Sweety...Sweety...Sweety...my Sweety..." Pinkie went through stages of this, most of the time she would be silent, but in these small spans of sheer worry and grief, she would begin to rock back and forth terrified for the well being of her little baby. She needed her baby, now more than ever, now that she knew what her husband was capable of. These moments were the closest she came to calling out to her friends below, she wanted reassurance like they gave to each other, she wanted help. To be given some love, now that all that she'd received over the years had been proven as lies! But she never called, she never spoke to her friends, she was terrified now, that the betrayal of her beloved, would be repeated by her friends, she trusted them completely, but the blind grief fogged her mind, and grabbed her throat whenever she tried to speak to them. So she stayed silent, whispering her baby's name, hoping she were safe.

As if on cue, the silvery portal floating at the end of the room irrupted into green flame. Everypony bolted towards the closest cage wall, except Pinkie, she knew who it would be, it wouldn't be rescue, only him. Sure enough, a twisted head popped out from the fire, passing through the portal and into the cage room. He stretched after stooping through the small gateway, he leant back and cracked his back, once a few clicks rang out around the silent room, he gave a relieved release of air. Then straightened to look at the six cages.

"Why hello everypony!" The draconequus laughed happily, spreading his arms as though greeting dear friends. Nopony said a word, they all only glared at their twisted traitor! He looked hurt at their attitude. "Such anger! That's no wait to treat your friend Discy!" He laughed, then leant back towards the portal, reaching in with an eagles claw. "Especially when I bring you company!" Even Pinkie's ears twitched at the word. She scurried to the cage wall, praying it wasn't her baby, or any of her friends' children, let it just be another random pony! Please!

The noise of her rattling chains caused everypony to look up. They saw Pinkie's mad, terrified expression. It felt strange to them all, to finally see her after so much silence from her, as though she had never been here. Even the chimera stopped and looked up at her. "Ahhh, My dear Pinkie! Finally up and moving are we?" He taunted his former wife. Rainbow wished she was free, so she could pound that smug smile off of the chimera's face for good, make him pay for torturing Pinkie like this! "I'm sorry my dear, it's not dear Sweetness..." He called to the pink prisoner, who's shoulders dropped slightly in relief, "But..." They were up again in an instant, was it one of the other's children? "You do know them both! Very well might I add!" With that, he pulled hard from the other side of the portal.

Two ponies fell out and to the floor, one a dark blue and the other a pure white. Even without the famous cutiemarks, Twilight only needed to notice both their horns and their wings to know who these alicorns were. "Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" She cried horrified, mirroring all the other prisoners' terror in her voice. The chimera chuckled, satisfied with their reactions. With a click of his fingers, two cages came screaming down o the ground from the high darkened ceiling. The shot past Pinkie, making her jump, she fell back, making her cage swing it clanged against the new chains dangling from the roof, sending ear splitting echoes through the room.

Discord picked up both princesses and threw them unceremoniously into their separate cages, not caring if he hurt them, as they touched the floor of their containers, the doors magically swung shut with a clang, and the two cages shot back up into the air, stopping at different heights, and swaying slowly from the fast actions.

Pinkie -still laying on the floor of her cage from her surprise- looked down from her new vantage point, and spotted something in a corner of the room, the glint of metal. Was it just more chains? Or a spare cage? "AND FINALLY SHE SPOTS IT!" Discord cried with joy! The others all jumped, and stared at the creature, glancing to each other to see who he was speaking of, the all eventually looked up to see Pinkie staring into the gloom. They all looked in her gaze's direction, and spotted the little chink of metal just protruding from the shadows. "I was wondering how long it would be until you realised you weren't alone." Discord purred, making everypony stare incredulously at him. "He's been here for a while longer than all of you."

"It's a trick!" Soarin' shouted suddenly, "If there was actually somepony there, they'd have said something by now!" the captured ponies all voiced their agreement, but Discord only chuckled, shaking his head.
"Not if there's somepony in here that he doesn't want to know he's here." A sudden clink came from the corner, as though moving chains. Discord looked into the shadows, apparently the only one able to peer through them, and smiled at the mysterious prisoner. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was I not supposed to guess that?" Another few furiously loud clinks, Twilight guessed the captor was the only one of them not in a cage, and was chained to a wall or something similar, and was now stretching to reach his captor from the gloomy corner. She saw the little piece of metal they could see twitch, it must be a bracket that the chain was set into, meaning there may be no chance that the stranger could come into their view.

After a moment they heard the chains relax and jangle to the floor, and for the first time they heard a sigh escape the corner. "That's what I thought..." The chimera chortled. "Well, I let him have his mystery, I won't say who it is, but here's a hint." He locked gazes with Twilight from across the room, the purple unicorn frowned, why was he looking at her. "He's had a very large influence on your life in the past, dear Twilight." Twilight looked from the draconequus to the shadow wall, trying to see the other captor, but nothing sprang out at her. 'He's had an influence on my life?' Twilight thought, trying to understand who it may be. She stared into the gloom as though if she looked long enough, the answer would come to her.

"Well," Discord said loudly, clapping his hands together, the loud noise made Fluttershy jump, Mac held her close while still staring down. "Now that everypony KNOWS that they're here..." He shot a devilish wink to the prisoner in the shadows, "I'll leave you..." He stepped back through portal, but froze as his head was about to pass through. He glanced up at the second highest cage, the one that housed Big Macintosh and Fluttershy. He locked gazes with the large red male, and smiled. "You'd be amazed what your daughter gets up to when you're not around, all sorts of naughty things!"

He let out a terrible laugh as he passed through the portal, Big Mac let out a sudden and uncharacteristic scream, slamming his hooves suddenly against the cage, enraged by the sudden chance of his daughter being alive. Even Applejack was on her hooves, pushing hard against her cage wall, her niece was alive? The fire surrounding the portal ebbed away quickly, returning the room to its pervious darkness. Mac reached out beyond his bars, as though his foreleg could stretch to the portal and stop it from closing, his voice was dying fast, making the scream turn into a cry of misery. Suddenly, his strength left him and he buckled. Falling to the floor with a loud clang. Fluttershy rushed to him, not even slightly afraid after his loud and angry cry, she fell next to him, holding him tightly, breaking into tears as she did. Why couldn't he have just left them guessing, instead of taunting them with the chance of her being alive? Because though that was good, if the chimera knew of her, and what she was doing, she was no way near safety!

Pinkie watched from above, watched her friend and her husband crying, because of what her own husband had done. This was her fault, though not directly, she had made them all trust him all those years ago, eighteen years worth of trust they'd built towards Discord, because of their friendship with her, and now, now they were all suffering because of it. She felt sick, dirty, wrong, undeserving to be in the same room as the ponies' who's lives she had destroyed.

Amazingly, though she was the furthest away, she was the first to hear the voice from the shadows. "Don't listen to what it says! That's what it needs, it needs you with chaos in your heart!" The voice was gruff and pained, as though damaged from screaming for too long, it very possibly was, who knew how long the owner had been here for. The others heard the speaker at different points, but all were listening by the time it was finished. Even Mac and Fluttershy had quietened at the voice. Mac swallowed, and cried out to their other fellow prisoner, his voice was shaky and lacked the usual authority his deep voice commanded. "W-who are you?"
"Yes..." Twilight agreed, "Who are you?"

The voice stayed silent for a moment, then.
"I'm a friend, who can help you survive whatever this thing says to you, I've had it for years!" Everypony glanced at each other, than Rainbow spoke up.
"What's wrong with your voice? It sounds screwed up." a cough escaped the shadow.
"I have a chain around my neck, it's too tight, I can't breath properly." the grim description left everypony silent. Then clicking from above caught all their attention. They looked up to see Pinkie, moving away from the wall and back to the centre of her cage.
"Pinkie wait!" Twilight cried, trying to stop her vanishing friend. too late. The magenta pony turned to the shadows once again.
"You say you want to help, help her then, make her feel better, get her to talk to us!" Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow all cried their agreement, Applejack had already returned to gloomily looking at the ground below her.

"I can't," The prisoner explained. "Not her, or Applejack..." Twilight logged that it knew her friends, so it must be somepony from ponyville! "It's what the draconequus has DONE that's affected them, not what he's said. I can't help fight what's actually happened." they heard the chains move as the prisoner shifted his weight. "I wish I could..." It sad slowly and sorrowfully.

"Who are you?" Twilight asked again, dying to know who lay just beyond the shadows, there was a nagging suspicion, somepony who knew her, her friends, who had a large influence on her life... who wishes he could change the past... She didn't voice her thoughts, but she gave a quick breath as she realised who that could describe.

In the dark, surrounded by the ponies he'd left behind, and the one who he'd abandoned with a child. Twilight was sure that the one in the chains, was the long lost stallion who stole her heart eighteen years ago...

Noteworthy.

Comments

[Fierce Feline]

Wow! So exciting! I can't wait for another chapter!

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So THAT'S why Noteworthy has been absent all these years, Discord kidnapped him!

[kanothepegasus44]

Damn it discord how could u screw with pinkies emotions like that u sick fuck but i love the story so far so keep up the good work

[Reyce]

Damn cliff hangers! I need more!!!

[starshine_dash]

DISCORD! I KILL YOU.

[White Wolf]

Prophecy's warning to Discord.
_______________________________________

No war may stop thee.
Princesses and Queens are powerless against thee.
Harmony is useless against thee.
Fear for thy life and that of your allies when The Elements of Salvation come for thee, oh lord of Chaos.

[Slick Dash]

1214271Wow... that was... AWESOME!

[White Wolf]

1214344

Welcome.

You can use that in your story if you want. Kind of give hope to the Mane 6.

The Allies part refer to Queen Chrysalis and her Brood as well as Dying Armor.

[Alondro]

1214344 One more thing, can I kick Discord's ass a few times when all is said and done?

[Slick Dash]

1214803 If you so wish. But please don't until the end of the story, I kind of need him alive for this story!

[Alondro]

1215359 *punches Discord in the face a few times and tears his mismatched fang out by the roots from his jawbone, leaving the god of chaos whimpering and bleeding in a corner. Alondro glances darkly at you.* He's still alive... *leans over the simpering draconequus and smiles like the Joker* Until the end of the story...

[Slick Dash]

1215442Oh my god, i actually can't stop laughing right now!

[Alondro]

1215609 A perfect representation of Alondro's smile:

desktopwallpapers4.me/wallpapers/games/1024x1024/1/2254-joker-1024x1024-game-wallpaper.jpg

[reader238]

discord is a bucking a-hole

[Corundum]

>>slickdash I was able to tell whos kids were whos and their names from the pic as well as fluttermac and rarityspike and there were a few hints to soarindash I noticed as well

[Slick Dash]

1236963I'm hoping that's a good thing! Hope you're enjoying the story so far! :)

[Prisoner 24601]

Meh

Saw it coming.