Quete

by Comrade Bagel Muffin

Les Chauve-Souris

"Escutcheon wake up." He groaned. "Escutcheon come get up." He opened his eyes. Everything was dark.

"Dusk?" He tried to stand up. His whole body was sore. "Dusk are you okay? What's going on?" He trudged to where he had heard her. He felt her hoof on his chest.

"You're about to walk into the bars." He ran a hoof across the space in front of him, running it across several iron bars. "I don't know what's going on, or why they're doing this I swear. Everything started going crazy after they brought you back here. I'm so sorry their not being themselves. Here." He felt something touch his hooves. "They're letting you have your stuff back." Escutcheon fumbled through his saddle bags, until his hoof finally touched what he was looking for. The cage he was in filled with a dim ambient blue light. Dusk's ears drooped back. "What did they do?"

"We did what we had to do in order to insure our safety." An elder bat pony mare stepped into the glow of the sapphire. "And now that we know that he isn't a threat to us I do regret that we had to do what we did, but I know that we had to do it."

"We never would have done this to the unicorns that lived near our old home."

"The unicorns here are nothing like those unicorns Dusk. They are vicious and cruel. They enslaved us and many others. The only reason we let this one live is because he begged that we help you." She looked down at Escutcheon. "But still we had to make sure he wasn't one of them."

"And now that you know he isn't why is he still in a cage?"

"For his own protection."

"Why do I need to be in a cage?" Escutcheon found the regeneration potion, after a sip the burses and gashes faded away.

"Many ponies here don't feel safe around unicorns. It's taking a while to get the communication across that your from somewhere else. Once they know that then I have no doubt that you'll be safe."

"Council Mare Nightingale, where is my father." Nightingale sighed, and sat down.

"Your father is with the rest of the colony, he was the only council member that chose to stay behind, with our people." Nightingale lowered her head. "I saw that look of hope in your eye. You shouldn't get to hopeful, the conditions of our peoples bondage are terrible. I don't know if he's still alive or not, but I do know he's not the stallion that he once was. That place changes you. The one that interrogated your friend here was Councilor Bright Star." Dusk gasped.

"Bright Star?" Escutcheon looked at the two of them filling like he was being left out of some important information.

"He was once a pacifist and the gentlest stallion that you could ever hope to meet. He lost his gentleness to a task master's whip." Nightingale sighed. "Along with his wife and child."

"And Dusk's Father?" He asked the question that she was to afraid to ask. He put his hoof on her back.

"The last time I saw him he was a broken stallion. The only comfort he had was that you weren't there and didn't have to endure such an evil place." Dusk's eyes teared up.

"My dad was glad I was gone?"

"No, no little one." Nightingale lifted up her head so that she looked her in the eyes. "Your father searched for weeks trying to find you." She wiped the tears away. "He was just glad that you never endured a taskmaster's whip like so many of us had to."

"See Dusk your dad's alive and loves you, and I'm going to get him back to you, just like I promised." Dusk looked at him with a smile.

"We're still friends?"

"Of course we are." He looked at her like she was crazy. "And I Pinkie Pie Promise that I'll get you back to your dad. Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye." Escutcheon smiled at Dusk's giggle. "There now your the Dusk that I know."

"Don't get your hopes up." The gruff voice of Bright Star, called from the other end of the room. "You'll see he's just as much a monster as the unicorns in that hellish place." The door opened and a bat pony guard trotted into the room. His armor was tar black chest piece, with a dark blue helmet.

"Everypony's been told about the unicorn. Not a lot of them were happy about it, but they'll leave him be." Nightingale nodded and the guard pony headed back into the pitch black hall.

"Well then there's no reason to keep you here, is there Escutcheon." Nightingale undid the lock on his cage. "I would suggest that you not go anywhere by yourself, or leave my side, or Dusk's side. Hopefully everypony will be civil though." Escutcheon nodded as he put his saddle bags on and stepped out of the cage. "You can stay at my place for as long as you need." He nodded again as the three of them headed out into the cave.