Consequences

by GJT_Productions

The Herd

"Does this tunnel go much further down?"

"I don't know, but that stench of death is getting stronger. We must be getting closer to the..."

"Sir, look out!"

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One of the Guard Upper Class pegasus escorts grabs a tight hold on Captain Gibraltar before the older unicorn steps right off a steep drop in front of him! Both stallions fall back briefly, sending loose bits of gravel down the shaft that echo as they rebound off the sides of the shaft.

The drop off marks the end of the tunnel they had been exploring, following their investigations of the "office" and "trophy room" of the defeat Agents of Chaos hidden in Canterlot's mountainside tunnels. Since there was no other obvious place to investigate in searching for Agents of Chaos operations, the temptation was simply to turn around and report what they had already found once back on the surface. But the strong stench drew them on, and Gibraltar approaches the edge of the shaft cautiously.

The unicorn can feel a gentle breeze rising from lower in the shaft, doubtless drawing up the smell into the tunnel in the process, and determines that the shaft could be descended and ascended safely with the two pegasi carrying him, and he turns to face his escorts. Both pegasi were scrunching snouts at the smell that now saturated the air around them.

"Whew, did they throw their garbage down this shaft?" one of the escorts asks, trying to fan the foul air away from him with his wings.

"Or at least something they considered garbage." Gibraltar answers, the subtext quickly being picked up by the pair of escorts with him. "And I want to find out what exactly what that 'something' is."

"Sir, I seriously hope you're not going to have us carry you down there, are you?!" one of the escorts replies in surprise, the expression on the other escort's face showing he shared this surprise.

"Indeed I am, Guard." Gibraltar replies with an amused look. "The current is strong enough that by holding your wings open, you should be able to gently lower me down the shaft without crashing. The shaft is just wide enough for the two of you, so I want you to hold at the top opening and help me on, then lower me down the shaft."

The two escorts look at each other with looks of disbelief, but one shrugs shoulders at the other and the two decide it's better not to object to the Captain of the Guard's bizarre plan...

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The low ceiling of the rocky tunnel did not help in setting up the descent, but once the awkward manevuers had been performed to get Captain Gibraltar on the backs of his pegasi escorts the descent itself was without incident, all three stallions ominously aware that they could well be dropping right into a trap, or at least something very unpleasant. The smell of decay and death was growing stronger as they descended, and now it was obvious what they were heading down was something more than a garbage pit.

Visibility was very limited due to the escorts needing to hold their lanterns by clamping down on the handle with their teeth, but the squishing they heard upon touchdown told them their fears were confirmed, and Gibraltar's expression - illuminated by the lantern he was hovering with unicorn magic - was for the first time phased. He worked his way off the backs of the escorts, the squishing sounds underhoof adding to the queasiness of the atmosphere around them.

"One of you two remind me we all need to go through decontamination procedure once we get back to the surface." Gibraltar says to his escort, the disgust in his expression quite visible on his lit-up face (although the same was not true for what he had stepped in).

"Yes sir. Shall we investigate further?" one of the escorts replied, hoping against hope the answer would be no.

"Indeed, Guard. This chamber goes into further into the mountain, and the source of that smell must be that way, so we need to find it." Gibraltar answers, already beginning an unpleasently squishy walk away from the bottom of the shaft. He was pushing against a steady air current, the same one that had allowed the descent in the first place, and the guards reluctantly followed him.

It was then that the real horror began to emerge again. Following the path of the air current, the party was lead into a short passage that emerged directly into a heart-stopping sight: pony corpses, pegasi mares and unicorn mares and earth pony mares alike, piled upon each other in varying states of decay! Most of them weren't identifiable, but all three stallions knew that those mares had to have suffered intensely before they died and heaped up in a rocky nook like a bunch of garbage. Once again, the stallions were astounded at the savagery they were seeing with their own eyes - there were at least a half-dozen corpses visible in the pile, and there was no doubt more they couldn't see, the source of the intense decay smell.

The three horror-struck stallions heard a whispered shuffle off to the left, and turned to notice a sloping down continuation of the passage. The party cautiously descended this ramp, and again there was another heart-stopping sight: mares of the three different main Equestrian races, looking up with darkness-enlarged eyes, coats matted and manes tangled with their own filth and half-decayed scraps of food, the mares having been starved enough where the ribs could be counted and wounds would fester without healing. Mares trapped in a living nightmare, to satisfy the perverse and monstrous desires of one arrogant stallion.

"Celestia have mercy...!" one of the escorts breathlessly gasps out, eyes wide in shock and horror.

"The 'herd' Agent Snake kept, this must be it. Only he knows how many have lived and died down here, denied the light of Celestia's sun and Luna's moon." Gibraltar sadly concludes.

"What do we do, sir? How will we get them out of here?" the other escorting Guard asks his commanding officer.

"We'll have to carry them up the shaft, one at a time. Regardless of how long it takes." Gibraltar states firmly, determination rising within him as he realizes he finally has some way to at least try to mitigate the effects of the Agents of Chaos...

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It took the rest of the morning and about half the afternoon to accomplish the feat, but in the end all the survivors of Aten's "herd" were carried to the surface and taken to Canterlot hospitals. Some would not make it even after the rescue, but some would recover enough to tell of the blood-chilling horrors they experienced in that darkness, testimony enough worthy for confining the criminal in Tartarus for what he had done.

Captain of the Guard Gibraltar was tired, dirty and in sheer disbelief when he finally was able to get his report into Princess Celestia. The scope of the report, detailing the hidden mine shaft and the horrors contained within, was one of the few in recent memory able to shake the usually unflappable princess of the sun.

"So we'll have to add all the unfortunates caught in his 'herd' to the crimes against him." Celestia firmly states, giving an annoyed snort afterward. "I knew what he was all about chaos, but trapping innocent mares and treating them like garbage... good thing the Elements of Harmony make all the difference..."

"The Elements of Harmony? What do they have to do with this situation? And do they have anything to do with that statue you keep obsessing over?" Gibraltar asks of the princess rapid-fire.

Princess Celestia gives a very stern look over the top of the scroll she is reading and gives her reply in a tone of stern warning: "Captain, you are asking questions it is not your business to be asking. The statue is intact, the Elements of Harmony are locked away safely just in case we need them, and that is all that is important to the situation right now. Do we have an understanding, Captain?"

"Yes, Your Highness." the Captain of the Guard replies, too confused and a little mortified by the stern response.

"Good, you are dismissed. And please take a shower before you visit again, you reek very badly right now." Celestia comments.

"Yes, Your Highness." Gibraltar responds, now flushing a bit of red as he turns and leaves. The nagging curiousity about the statue and the Elements of Harmony still remained, however, and he kept turning theories over in his head the rest of the day about what the connection could be between those two and the Agents of Chaos.

Princess Celestia knew the connections, of course, and also knew that curiousity would draw unwanted attention to the "Statue of Discord". Gibraltar and the rest of the Royal Guard were, and had to be kept, clueless about the truth, and Captain of the Guard Gibraltar would live to regret his curiousity later on...

Comments

[diablo4000]

Hope the the horrors that manic commited reaches the Wodner bolts, will make Spitfire regert all the more how she helped that manic even if accidently or was tricked into it, she still screwed up out of ehr own free will.

Oooh and that one traitor Misty Flys, want to hear how she reacts, she helped that monster willingly!