Rising Star

by Argonaut44

Chapter Twelve: Prison Break

After so many losses, heartaches and struggles, any kind of victory would be a treasure, let alone one of such magnitude. Chrysalis had the Queen’s Jewel stuffed in her satchel, its unexpected heaviness making it difficult for her to balance herself. She tried her best not to focus too much on her excitement while her enemies were still nearby.

Chrysalis was bruised, covered in dirt and dust, and yet, had never felt better in months. She wasn’t quite able to fully comprehend how major this success was, that she now had the means to dominate Equestria with ease. At last, she phased out of her Starlight Glimmer disguise, sighing in relief, her body aching from having to hide her true form for weeks now. She was safe, or at least she thought so, as she leaned up against a rock down one of the steep paths descending from the top of the high mountain peaks. She was still high up, but was confident she had outran Twilight and her pitiful band of ponies. She was out of breath, both from the exhilaration of her victory and the exhaustion of having run down the mountain.

She sauntered down the rocks, nearly slipping a few times on the steep ridge. The sores and bruises she sustained from the battle were beginning to take their tolls, her muscles aching and her head heavy. Luck seemed to be in her favor though, when she came across a small cave leading inside the mountain face. She smirked and staggered inside, collapsing to the ground, weary from scaling down the mountain.

Unable to resist the temptation, she retrieved the jewel from her satchel, examining it in her hooves. She marvelled at it, as it almost seemed to glow brighter than when she had first seen it. Every delicate detail was flawless, it seemed to be so perfectly designed that it could not be of this world at all. Chrysalis found herself unable to tear her eyes away for a while, until she became aware of the effect it had on her. She stuck it back in her satchel, and sighed, content with her triumph. She rested her eyes and drifted off, seeking to regain her strength, dreaming of the ruin she would bring to Equestria.

---

in the dingy hotel room they were staying at, Lance Crestfall, the newest addition to Starlight’s effort to rescue Dust Bunny, volunteered to sleep in the chair that night, while the two mares each took a bed. Starlight had expected him to leave and return to them in the morning, though he happened to trust them so little, that he refused to even let them out of his sight. He barely slept all night, one hoof on the grip of his spear, waiting for one of them to try and escape or attack him. Yet, while he was worrying about an imminent betrayal, the other two slept relatively soundly, neither of them believing the knight would kill them in their sleep or something along those lines. He seemed quite eager to take Starlight in alive, after all.

In the morning, the trio reconvened, checking the map again and loosely putting together a plan.

“There’s some scaffolding between these two buildings last time I checked, right here,” Crestfall said, pointing at the map, “That’s where the main warehouse is...Probably where they’re keeping your friend.”

“So are we just going to break in? They’ll have look-outs all over the place, won’t they?” Elodea asked.

Crestfall shrugged, glancing up at Starlight, who also had no idea.

“Probably. It’s safe to assume,” Starlight said.

“We’ll be discreet. What I’m worried about is navigating through the building.”

“That’s what you’re worried about? Not the ponies we’re going to have to fight?” Elodea asked.

“Why would I be concerned about that? We’ve got a mass-murderer clearing the way for us,” Crestfall said.

“That Ruby Heart, she’s powerful,” Starlight said, recalling Jackpot’s near death-experience at the docks. She quickly thought of other things, to avoid thinking about Jackpot.

“So what? You’re telling me you can’t handle her? You could sure handle all the innocent ponies you slaughtered, couldn’t y-”

“I’m not the one who did all that! Celestia’s sake, would you give it up?! I just want to get my friend out of there, and that’s it!” Starlight yelled, annoyed with Crestfall’s constant jabs.

“Alright, whatever. There’s a backdoor entrance somewhere near that factory, we can get up to the scaffolding, cross, maybe have to climb through some vents, and we’re in.”

Elodea shook her head.

“That’s your plan? ‘Maybe climb through some vents?’ You watch too many movies,” she said, wondering just how she ended up working with these two of all ponies.

“You got anything better then, smart-ass?”

“Are all three of us going to go straight for Dust?” Elodea asked.

“Once we’re inside, and once we’ve found where she is, one of us will probably have to stand watch. We have to try not to trigger any alarms until after we’ve got Dust. Once we have her, they have nothing on us,” Starlight said.

“And then?” Crestfall asked.

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.

“Well they’re not just going to let us walk out with her.”

“Sure they will, Starlight will fry ‘em otherwise, right, Starlight?” Elodea asked.

“Hopefully not,” Starlight said.

Elodea frowned, hoping Starlight’s moral restrictions wouldn’t threaten the success of their mission.

“Now, once we’re out of the building, and clear on our way, I’ll take you three to the station...your friend can stay if she needs protection, while you two will be put under arrest.”

Elodea burst into laughter, though Crestfall was dead serious.

“Think again, pretty boy. The agreement was for her, not me.”

“Thanks for the support, Elodea,” Starlight muttered.

“You’re an accomplice,” Crestfall said.

“Well so are you, aren’t you?” Elodea shot back.

Crestfall shook his head, wagging his hoof at her, laughing.

“I don’t think so,” he said, condescendingly.

“You know what? Starlight? I don’t think we need this guy talking to us like-” Elodea began.

“Guys! Stop! Come on...How about we all just ignore whatever we think about each other...and focus on doing this one thing, and then we can settle everything.”

The other two reluctantly agreed, and together the ponies resumed working out their plan.

---

Twilight Sparkle had given Cadance one last embrace to help with her mental state, before boarding the carriage once more. All of her friends would be heading out of the mountains with her, hoping to revive Twilight of her misery. Two of the soldiers also left to help pull the carriage, and another two were too injured to do much good, leaving Cadance and Shining Armor with just two other soldier ponies, and also the captive Violet.

Cadance watched the carriage disappear around the treacherously steep cliffs and behind rocky ridges, leaving her to lead what remained of the company.

“Let’s go, she couldn’t have gotten far,” Cadance said. She was wearing a few scratches and bruises all over her body, from her near-fatal encounter with Chrysalis.

During their confrontation, Cadance had noticed a faint hint of familiarity, that made it undeniably clear just who she was dealing with. Queen Chrysalis was powerful indeed, and clever enough to deceive the entirety of Equestria, but still, she was not unstoppable. Though, if what Twilight had said about the jewel that Chrysalis now had a hold of was true, then she very well might be.

Shining Armor had taken the minimal amount of supplies they needed from the carriage before it had left, and distributed an equal share of the load to each pony, with the exception of Cadance. He dumped one bag on each of the soldiers’ backs, one on his own, and two on poor Violet, whose knees immediately gave out as soon as the weight of the second bag fell on her. She collapsed to the floor, still weary from all of the physical pain these ponies had been putting her through all day.

“Get up,” Shining Armor said, pitilessly.

“You treat all your prisoners like this?” she spat, struggling to stand up.

“Like you deserve any better. Selling out your own kind, helping her,” he muttered, disgusted.

“I didn’t-”

“I don’t want to hear it, just get moving,” he said, rushing her along to join the others. She grumbled to herself, bitter and exhausted. With an alicorn nearby, escape seemed impossible.

The ponies maintained a steady silence as they persevered through the narrow paths that slithered down and around the mountains. Cadance, who was in the front of the pack, was constantly scoping the surrounding area for any clues that would signify if Chrysalis had passed through.

Cadance considered Chrysalis to be the complete antithesis to everything she stood for. While Cadance was devoted to love, Chrysalis devoured love. Her heart was twisted with evil, and Cadance saw no redemption for her in any sense of the word. She had never known Starlight Glimmer well, and therefore didn’t struggle as much to accept it was Starlight behind all of the death and destruction that had defiled Equestria. But now that she knew it was Chrysalis for sure, everything began to make sure. Who else but Chrysalis would play with a pony’s emotions the way she did with Twilight? As Cadance saw it, Chrysalis had proved time and time again that she is not only perhaps Equestria’s greatest enemy, but entirely contradictory to the ideals that Cadance herself lived by. It felt personal as well, for all of the heartache Chrysalis caused Cadance, the pain of which still lingered in her mind even then.

At last, in a small, leafless forest growing around the path, Cadance noticed something peculiar on the path, and went to take a closer look.

“Look at this,” she said to the others. All four began to approach her, until she raised a hoof.

“You, stay and watch her,” Cadance commanded to one of the soldiers, Foxtrot. Disgruntled, he hung back from getting to see whatever the new development was. Shining Armor and the other soldier, Hardball, continued up and stood alongside Cadance, all of them peering down at the dirt. A light rain had begun a few moments before, and soon the dirt would turn to mud. But before that could happen, they could all make out what appeared to be several hoofprints, heading down the same path they were travelling on. Cadance saw where the tracks originated from, somewhere off the path, above the ridge and jutting rocks.

“Could it be her?” Hardball asked.

“Who else could it be…” Cadance muttered.

“Well, then she can’t be far…” Shining Armor added.

“The dirt ends just ahead, so do the prints,” Hardball said, after taking a look up ahead. The path would soon be replaced by hard stone, the hoofprints cutting off at the edge of the dirt portion of the path.

“She probably stuck to the path….and if we’re lucky, she probably stopped to rest. She was injured, last time I saw her,” Cadance said.

“She had to be, we were putting her through the ringer,” Shining Armor said, cockily.

“So what, we’re just going to rush her? That didn’t work out last time,” said Hardball.

“How else are we going to do it? She’s wounded, and there’s four of us, ignoring her,” Shining Armor said, nodding back at Violet, “We can handle Chrysalis.”

“We’ve got to have a better plan, because we definitely couldn’t handle her last time,” Hardball said.

“Frankly, I think we should cut our losses and head back,” Foxtrot said from a few yards back. Violet was resting her legs on the ground, listening in.

“She’s got that thing now, right? How the hell are we gonna deal with that?” he continued, referring to the jewel.

“She won’t be able to use it yet, she couldn't possibly contain its power by herself. That’s what Twilight told me,” Cadance said.

Foxtrot shook his head, still wary over going through with this.

“Once we have her, we’ll get that jewel away from her, and bring her back to Canterlot, and we’ll be done with this,” Cadance said, determined to see that plan through.

She began walking off, Shining Armor shrugging to the others as he followed after her.

Foxtrot dragged Violet up to her hooves and forced her along. Her head was hung low and her eyes were droopy. She was tired, for one thing, but aside from that, she was ridden with guilt. She wasn’t usually one for loyalty or kindness, but outright betraying Starlight like that made her doubt herself. And, considering the way the alleged ‘good guys’ were treating her, she wasn’t sure whether either side really had any kind of moral superiority to the other.

---

While Cadance was climbing over rocks in the mountains, Twilight Sparkle was in her carriage, trying to force herself to fall asleep, so that she could escape her dreadful thoughts. Fluttershy and Rarity were inside with her, both exhausted from the tumultuous journey and sour with their defeat at Chrysalis’ hooves. Twilight feared she had made the wrong choice in leaving Chrysalis to Cadance, that Equestria was doomed if she didn’t go back and help.

“I should’ve stayed,” Twilight said out loud, regretfully.

Able to read the pain on Twilight’s face, the other two ponies shared a look of concern before giving their reply.

“You were right to go, Twilight,” said Fluttershy.

“Absolutely,” Rarity added, emphatically.

Twilight seemed unconvinced.

“I let you all down...she got away…”

“Twilight, don’t worry about that. Cadance’s got it. Just wait until we find Starlight, you’ll feel better,” said Fluttershy, trying her best to comfort Twilight.

Twilight sighed, trying to be optimistic, but struggling to see any sort of happy ending. Not as long as Chrysalis was out there with the most powerful object in Equestria.

“I hope you’re right,” Twilight said, glad she still had her friends to keep her from losing her mind.

---

In downtown Vanhoover, Crestfall, Elodea, and Starlight were approaching the dreaded Forty-Fifth Street. The other two tried their best to shield Starlight as they went. All it would take was one pony to spot her, and their plan would be thrown out the window.

Crestfall had his spear hidden in a large duffel bag, which contained some other supplies they thought they might need. Elodea couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. They were putting a little too much trust in Crestfall for her taste, though since Starlight had taken the lead of their little trio, she decided to cautiously go along with it.

“Could you walk any slower?” Elodea snapped at Crestfall ahead of her.

“I’m trying to be inconspicuous,” Crestfall said, sighing in annoyance.

“Quit it, you two. That’s the street, right?” Starlight said.

“Forty-Fifth, that’s it,” Crestfall confirmed.

Starlight quickly understood what Crestfall had meant when he called the street in question a ‘miserable’ place. Thick, grey and black buildings, standing over roads littered with potholes filled with grey water and stray garbage. The place smelled more like a city than anywhere Starlight had ever been.

“This way,” Crestfall muttered, leading the trio around a corner down into an alley. Elodea was visibly on edge, constantly checking her shoulder to see if they were being followed or watched.

Inside the dark alley, the ponies gathered beneath a wallbound lamp, Crestfall going over the map once more with them.

“Up there, see? Scaffolding. Still there,” he said, trying to prove himself as reliable to the others, particularly Elodea, who clearly still distrusted him.

“How do we get up?” Starlight asked.

“Well I can get up,” Crestfall said, spreading his wings, “You two can take the fire escape ladder. That, or I can carry you,” he offered, with a fake polite grin.

“I’ll take the fire escape, thanks,” Elodea said, disgusted with the idea. Starlight had already begun climbing up the ladder.

“Suit yourself,” Crestfall said, before taking off up towards the scaffolding, which connected the two buildings together at about the two-story mark.

Starlight and Elodea climbed up the ladder, both making it up to the scaffolding bridge after a few minutes. Crestfall was at the other end of the scaffolding, having already found an air vent in the wall large enough for a pony to fit through.

“Now what?” asked Elodea, from the other end of the bridge.

“Come over here, is what. That’s our entrance,” he said, pointing at the vent.

Elodea sighed, realizing she might be a little scared of heights.

“Go on, Elodea,” Starlight said, beginning to get tired of hanging onto the ladder.

Elodea took a deep breath and began crawling across the flimsy wood sitting atop the metals bars of the scaffolding. Her breath drew short, and she began to perspire, avoiding the undesirable temptation to look down.

“There you go, come on,” Crestfall said, exaggeratedly pitifully.

“Shut up!” Elodea barked, hurrying up across the bridge to where Crestfall was. Starlight was next, and took a substantially less amount of time to cross.

“See, not so hard.” Starlight said.

“Whatever,” Elodea muttered.

Crestfall, who had already pried open the vent with his spear, motioned for one of them to go first.

“Ladies first.”

Starlight rolled her eyes and took the lead, climbing inside the tight-fitting air vent. After a bit of struggling, she made it all the way through, dragging herself forward until she had to round a corner.

Elodea followed, and then Crestfall, both also struggling to get themselves through. Crestfall dragged in his duffel bag behind him.

“Starlight, where do we go?!” Elodea said, grunting in discomfort as she writhed inside the tight vent.

“I only see one way…” Starlight said, beginning to push herself forward, deeper through the vent tunnel.

Crestfall made a mistake when he thought Elodea would start moving forward, and ended up getting a hoof directly to the face.

“Ow!”

“Oh, sorry…” Elodea said, though she clearly hardly meant it, and might have even done it intentionally.

The trio slithered through the vent, none of them entirely sure where they were going.

“Now Lance, say we come across this Ruby Heart pony…” Starlight began.

“It’s possible.”

“She’s a highly sought-after target too, right?” Starlight asked.

“Don’t think you can trade her for you, Starlight Glimmer.”

“No, no, we made a deal, I’ll stick to that deal. But say we come across her...you’re going to have to arrest her, right?”

Crestfall paused, not having thought of that. Having found Starlight was enough of a responsibility already.

“She sounds like more of a match for you than me,” he said, grunting as he pushed himself along through the vent.

“Well... if Dust never has to worry about her again, I’d be a lot happier,” Starlight said.

Crestfall was more concerned about Starlight than anypony else, but couldn’t deny that capturing Ruby Heart would make for a worthy reward too.

“Wait! Stop…” Starlight muttered, having come across a vent in the floor of the shaft that led down into a room below. She pressed her eyes close against it, trying to get a good look at what lay beneath.

“What is it?” Crestfall asked from behind.

“A room...should we get out?” Starlight asked.

“Why now?” Elodea asked.

“Hold on a minute, in case you’ve forgotten-” Crestfall began, before he heard Starlight remove the vent covering with her magic.

“Oh sure, just ignore what I have to say,” Crestfall said, bitterly.

“That’s what I’ve been doing,” Starlight said, smiling, while she gently placed the vent covering down on the floor of the tunnel.

“Starlight, are you sure?” Elodea asked.

“I don’t want to get caught in this tunnel, it’s too tight. We’re defenseless. The sooner we’re out the better.”

Elodea realized she was right, and waited for Starlight to finish climbing out of the vent.

The room below was filled with random cleaning equipment, seemingly a sort of storage closet. Starlight landed on the tile floor, hard, and immediately went on the defensive, checking every corner of the room for threats. Thankfully, it seemed deserted.

“It’s clear!” Starlight whispered, as loudly as she could, up to the others.

The drop from the vent to the ground below was about four yards, and came across as quite intimidating from up above.

“Just jump, Elodea, I’ll catch you!” Starlight said.

Elodea continued hesitating, until she noticed Crestfall impatient, judgemental stare. She scowled and practically threw herself down the vent, Starlight receiving her in a pillow of magic, dropping her lightly on the floor below.

“Thanks,” Elodea said.

“Lance, come on down,” Starlight said, turning her back to the vent and approaching the door. She lightly felt the doorknob, and found it was unlocked. She turned around to tell the others the good news, just as Crestfall came crashing down to the floor. He must’ve slipped after jumping out the vent, landing practically right on his face. He fell over on his stomach, his mouth ajar and his eyes shut.

“What the hell?!” Starlight said, rushing over to his motionless body.

“You’ve got to be joking…” Elodea said, staring down at Crestfall.

“Is he dead?!” Starlight asked, shocked.

“No, he’s not dead,” Elodea said, after bending down to check his pulse, “He’s out cold.”

Elodea stared at him, dismayed, before slapping him across the face a few times.

“Hey! Idiot! Wake up!”

Despite Elodea’s vicious slaps, Crestfall was completely unresponsive. She sighed and stood up, while Starlight was stuck in disbelief.

“He tripped and fell, the moron,” Elodea said, trying not to laugh.

“He’s a pegasus!”

“A stupid, clumsy pegasus, apparently.”

“What do we do?” Starlight asked, disappointed with the plan already starting to fall apart.

“We don’t have time to just sit here waiting for him to wake up…” Elodea said.

“Well...let’s at least try and hide him...Damn it!” Starlight muttered, fed up with things constantly going wrong.

Starlight and Elodea dragged Crestfall’s unconscious body to the corner of the room, dumping some nearby boxes of equipment on top of him. They backed away, content with their hiding job.

“Great time to take a rest break, asshole, as soon as we get here,” she said to the unconscious Crestfall. She turned back to Starlight, who was struggling to come up with an emergency contingency plan now that they were down one pony. Elodea meanwhile, was eager to take advantage of their time alone together without Crestfall vigilantly hovering around them.

“Don’t tell me you’re really turning yourself in, Starlight,” Elodea said.

“...I don’t care what happens to me. All I want is for my friends to be safe.”

Elodea said nothing, strangely admiring Starlight’s dedication to Dust.

Starlight began creeping towards the door, wondering what she would find on the other side.

“Here on out, we need to be extra careful,”

“If only you could’ve told that to sleeping beauty over there, before he went lights out,” Elodea said.

Starlight grabbed a hold of the doorknob and twisted it, careful to make as little sound as possible as she pushed it open.

She glanced out the door, and saw it led to some sort of hallway, a dreary shade of grey, lit by dull fluorescent. Better yet, the place appeared to be empty.

“We’re good?” Elodea whispered.

“So far.”

Starlight snuck out the door, Elodea trailing close behind. They darted across to the wall opposite of the door, Starlight’s horn at the ready.

“This way,” Starlight said, though she had no idea where she was going. This place couldn’t be that big, so it would only be a matter of time before they found Dust.

Starlight kept sneaking along the wall, until they made it to a corner.

Starlight popped her head slowly out from around the corner, and then quickly came back, after hearing approaching voices.

“Stand back,” Starlight muttered. Elodea slowly pulled out her knife, preparing herself for a confrontation.

Starlight and Elodea remained at the ready as the voices grew louder, until they were about to round the corner.

There were three ponies in total, two of which immediately caught a blast each to the face from Starlight. Both fell to the floor in a heap, unconscious, Elodea dragging both bodies back to the storage closet they came from, while Starlight held the remaining pony at hornpoint. It was a mare, dark brown in color, wearing a lab jacket. She seemed absolutely terrified of the enraged unicorn standing in front of her.

“You know who I am?” Starlight asked.

The mare said nothing, nervously backing up one hoof at a time.

“Oh no, don’t go anywhere. Take another step, you’re dead,” Starlight threatened, though she had no real intention of killing her.

“You know me, right?” Starlight asked a second time.

“Y-yes,” the mare responded, struggling to make eye contact, as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

“Then you know why I’m here?”

The mare said nothing, too afraid to speak.

“My friend, she’s here!?”

“I-I…” the mare began, though seemed to have little to say.

Elodea had returned, having broken out into a sweat after carrying the other two ponies’ bodies all the way back to the closet, and hiding them not too far from Crestfall, who she had seen was still uselessly unconscious.

“What’s wrong? She won’t talk?”

Starlight said nothing, trying to maintain her hard exterior to frighten the mare into complying. Elodea, however, was in no mood to wait around for security to pounce on them. She marched right up to the pony and tackled her to the floor, her knife dangerously close to the mare’s neck.

“Wait!” the mare screeched.

“Shut the fuck up.”

Starlight checked to make sure nopony was nearby to hear all of this, while Elodea gritted her teeth, teasing the mare with the knife at her neck.

“Where’s my friend? You’ve got five seconds. We don’t care what happens to you,” Elodea said, her voice so cold that the mare could tell she meant it.

The mare hesitated, eyes wide with terror. Elodea, however, was unflinching. Starlight considered intervening, not exactly approving of Elodea’s harsh approach, but withheld herself. Time was of the essence, after all. The mare glanced at Starlight, believing her to be the more morally available one of the two. Her eyes were begging for help, and though Starlight was having a tough time letting this go on, she couldn’t forget what these ponies had done to Jackpot.

“Three...two…”

“Stop! She’s-she’s down that hall, to the right...then on the second door on the left!” the mare said, careful not to be too loud. However, Elodea didn’t remove the knife, instead, she raised the knife up, intending to bring it down right through the mare’s head. But before she could, Starlight blasted the knife out of Elodea’s hooves and then blasted the mare unconscious. Elodea stood up, shocked by Starlight’s intervention.

“Why did you do that?!” she asked, angrily.

“We’re not killing anypony unless we have to, remember?” Starlight said.

“These ponies killed your friend, and they-they kidnapped Dust!”

“You can’t just go around murdering them! Then we’re no better than them!” Starlight said, angrily. Elodea sighed, fearing Starlight's avoidance of the extreme would ruin their chances of success.

“Whatever she told us was probably a trap, you know. You really want to get caught in a trap?”

“Well, of course we’re going to walk into a trap.”

“And you’re not concerned about that?”

“What have I got to lose?” Starlight asked, smirking.

Starlight rounded the corner, Elodea following her, not even bothering to hide the mare’s body the same way they had with the others.

They followed the pony’s instructions, heading down the hall, then to the right. They saw the door in question, insignificant among a row of near-identical doors in the dimly-lit empty hallway.

“Uh, you first…” Elodea said, nervously.

“Stay close to me, and don’t try killing anypony, unless you absolutely have to.”
Elodea nodded, still nervous about what they would find behind that door.
Starlight took one last deep breath, before slamming open the door.

“Oh, you’ve finally showed up.”

Starlight and Elodea were standing side by side, horn glowing and knife pointed outwards, both expecting immediate retaliation. Neither were expecting a crowd as large as what awaited them inside. At least thirty ponies, all grizzly and sour-looking, were glaring at them as soon as they entered. They were packed along the sides of the room, and directly in front of them, in the opposite corner of the room, was none other than Dust Bunny, blindfolded, tied down to a chair, and covered in bruises.

“Dust!” Elodea yelled, relieved to see her alive.

Dust lifted her head, shocked and confused.

“El?! Is that you?”

“Yes!”

“Dust...Are you okay?” Starlight asked, nervously eyeing down the crowd of ruffians while she had their conversation.

“Starlight! Oh, thank Celestia, Starlight, you’ve got to get me out of h-”

“Enough,” said the voice who had initially welcomed them. Starlight had been so distracted by getting to see Dust alive again, that she had forgotten that familiar, loathsome voice.

Out from the crowd, right behind a confused Dust Bunny, stepped out the red unicorn, her delightfully malicious eyes dashing back and forth between Starlight and Elodea.

“Let my friend go. Now.” Starlight said, firmly. Dust gulped, nervous over how she would get out of this. She couldn’t see anything with the blindfold on, lost in a sea of darkness and voices.

“Starlight Glimmer...I’ve been waiting for you to come here, I knew it would be just a matter of time. It really is just you that I care about, Starlight...your little maid friend here is more or less...insurance.” the red unicorn said, sending shivers down Dust’s spine at how expendable the unicorn made her sound.

“This could have been so simple, so painless...if you just came quietly...but instead you had to get smart, and try and run, and look at how things have turned out for you...all the pain, and suffering, and death you’ve caused...Starlight Glimmer, you can’t run this time. I’m afraid you’ve reached a dead end.”

“Alright, bigshot, I think we’ve both had enough of you, and your dumb little rehearsed speech. Hand her over, right now,” Elodea said, trying to put on a brave face in front of intimidating odds.

“Gladly. It’s like I said. I hardly care about her, or you, Miss Elodea,” the red unicorn said, leaving Elodea confused over how the pony knew her name.

“All we’ve wanted, all this time, is you, Starlight. We want you to join us, you see.”

Starlight scoffed at the very suggestion.

“I don’t know who you are, or who you think you are! You’re a pack of murdering thugs! I want nothing to do with you! Just give me my friend back!”

“This must be about your other, deceased friend, isn’t it...pity he couldn’t have lived but...we had to show you we’re serious...serious like when I tell you that right now, I am giving you an ultimatum...your friend’s life, for your willing surrender. I don’t want to fight you, Starlight. Not because I’m afraid I’ll lose, but because it would be such a waste of time. So I’m making it easy for you. You’re a reasonable pony, Starlight, and I know you came here just to save your friend. You give yourself up to me, right here, right now...and I let her go, and Miss Elodea there too. Both free to do as they please.”

Elodea knew they couldn’t do that, but under the circumstances, there seemed to be few choices. As much as she’d hate to see Starlight apprehended by these psychopaths, she’d prefer that a thousand times to leaving Dust here instead. They couldn’t possibly fight all these ponies, after all.

Starlight held off from panicking under the pressure, considering her options.

“How am I supposed to trust that you’ll hold to your word?”

“Am I not trustworthy enough?”

“No, not really. Not at all,” Starlight said, dully.

“I promise you they’ll both be allowed to leave here, unharmed. As long as you surrender, completely.”
Elodea said nothing, deciding this was Starlight’s decision and hers alone.

“Starlight, don’t do it…” Dust said, knowing she’d feel guilty if Starlight went through with it. “I’m not worth it, Starlight.”

Starlight sighed, seeing no other option. She could risk fighting the pony, but given how outnumbered they were, it would likely only lead to another of her friends dying unnecessarily.

“Fine,” Starlight said, bitterly.

Elodea seemed just as shocked by the decision as Dust was.

“Starlight...Are you s-” Elodea was going to ask, though the red unicorn cut her off.

“Fantastic….Come on over here then,” the red unicorn said.

Starlight hesitantly approached the red unicorn, and was immediately caught off guard by several of the ponies in the crowd, who stepped out and grabbed a hold of her.

Starlight needed little more to warn her that the red unicorn was playing her for a fool, that the deal was a complete farce and that Dust would likely be killed regardless of what she did. Starlight, eyes flashing with rage, produced a large ring of magical energy, that knocked everypony in the room down to the floor. She rushed for Dust, who was squirming in her chair, confused over what was happening. The red unicorn, however, was quick in her recovery, jumping up to her hooves and blasting Starlight right in the chest before she could make it to the chair-bound Dust, sending her flying back into a wall.

One of the ponies went for Elodea, who stuck a knife up into his neck as she stood up. She stood her ground near the door, slashing at any of the ponies that attempted to get near her. Dust was within her sights, and nothing was going to stop her from getting to her.

Starlight shook her head to shake off the dust and debris that had fallen atop her after her collision with the wall. That unicorn was certainly more powerful than she had expected. Starlight fired back at her, manifesting her burning desire for revenge into her spell. The red unicorn tried to dodge it, but was hit nonetheless, spinning her in the air and sending her crashing into the floor. When she rose back to her hooves, she had blood dripping from her mouth, and a few burn marks along one side of her body. While the red unicorn struggled to get back on her hooves, several of the other ponies came at Starlight, and each one fell within a matter of moments.

“Starlight, Starlight, enough…” the red unicorn said, after Starlight had finished off another pony. She had managed to avoid killing anypony, to her relief. But now, she found herself staring down the red unicorn, who had a ring of magical aura around Dust’s neck. Dust wasn’t completely sure what was happening, due to her being blindfolded, but knew she was in trouble.

“St-Starlight?”

“Hold on, Dust,” Starlight said, her voice wavering.

“Now we’ve had our fun, Starlight. But I’m not playing games anymore. On your knees, now. Or she dies.”

Starlight hesitated, as one would naturally do in such a situation. She looked over at Elodea, who was still standing, though had taken several hard hits all over her body. She was out of breath too, from having to fight off seemingly endless waves of ponies.

Starlight sighed bitterly, knowing if she made any other move than what the red unicorn had asked of her, she’d have to bear the weight of another friend’s death.

Out of options, she fell to her knees.

Elodea felt her heart sink the moment Starlight crashed to the floor. Without the Starlight's magic, her chances of escaping this place were small.

They ponies that were still alive and able surrounded Starlight, sticking a new metal ring around her horn, locking her in tight chains, and dragging her towards the red unicorn, after being smacked around a few times for resisting.

“You’re mine now, Starlight Glimmer.”

Starlight grimaced, finding herself once again unable to use her magic, and completely at the mercy of the pony who was beginning to top even Queen Chrysalis as her most despised enemy. Elodea was still hopeful that the red unicorn would honor the original agreement, waiting for Dust to be released, and yet, none of the ponies showed any signs of going through with that.

“Hey, you said-”

Before Elodea could finish her sentence, she found herself hovering in the air in a large cloud of red magic, unable to move any of her limbs. Starlight turned her head and saw what the red unicorn was doing, and was shocked.

“I surrendered! Now let them go!”

“Unfortunately, I think I might have to hold onto them for a little while...make sure you don’t try any tricks,” the red unicorn said, grinning.

“You broke the deal!”

“I changed the deal. Which I might not have done, had you not tried to fight back. And you, Starlight, are in no position to argue with me...Take her away,” the red unicorn commanded.

Starlight resorted to flailing kicks and relentless struggling as the ponies dragged her out of the room. Elodea, still hovering in the air, was terrified, as without Starlight, she was completely helpless against the red unicorn.

“And these two, take them to a cell down below…” the unicorn ordered, dropping Elodea to the ground, and walking out the door, carefree and victorious. Before Elodea could recuperate from the hard fall, she was surrounded by ponies, picking her up and beating her down into submission.

“Let go of me! You worthless beasts! Let go!” Elodea yelled, occasionally managing to fend them off for a few moments, but she was far too outnumbered to stop them for long. Eventually they had a hold of her, draping her in chains, kicking her in the gut until she stopped fighting back.

While the ponies began picking her up and dragging her out, she saw one of them pick up her knife from the floor, examine it, and stick it in his satchel. Elodea couldn’t believe what was happening, as she was dragged across the filthy floor, beaten to a pulp.

---

Chrysalis woke up from her nap, which had lasted a few hours, after picking up the distant sound of voices. At first she thought it was just her imagination, though the longer she listened, the more real it became.

They had found her.

Springing to her hooves, she made sure she still had the jewel, and then threw the satchel back to the cave floor.

She phased back into her Starlight Glimmer disguise, and decided to wait behind the wall of the cave. She was too injured and tired to try and outrun them. She’d have to fight them, and the best way to do that would be to get the jump on them. Her eyes narrowed with anger. Not when she was so close to victory, would she let it be snubbed by these pests.

Cadance wasn’t sure what it was, but she could sense something was off. The others were confused, every time she stopped and started looking around for Chrysalis hiding behind some rocks or something. It began to get tedious, to the point when an argument was about the spill.

“We’ve been going all day, Princess,” said Foxtrot.

“Suck it up,” muttered Hardball, who had been forced to listen to his partner’s whining for the entirety of the trip.

Cadance stopped once more, though this time she was certain they were in danger. Shining Armor, who was right behind her, noticed her distressed demeanor.

“What is it?” he asked, slightly skeptical of its significance but going along with it anyway.

“She’s close…”

The soldiers glanced at each other, both reaching for their weapons tucked in their bags.

“How close?”

Right after Shining Armor asked, a pink unicorn jumped out from ahead on the trail, her face twisted with anger. Cadance, who had been constantly expecting an attack for the past thirty minutes, was well-prepared, grabbing Shining Armor and pulling him out of the way, just as a fiery blast of magic sprang from Chrysalis’ horn. It zoomed past where Cadance had been standing, heading instead for the two soldiers, who were barely able to comprehend what was happening. Hardball, and Violet behind him, had successfully managed to dodge the blast, throwing themselves to the gravelly ground nearby. Foxtrot however, wasn’t as quick-witted, receiving the blast head on, burnt to a crisp in an instant. He remained standing in place for a few moments, before toppling off of the cliff. Hardball looked up in horror and reached for his spear once more, while Cadance and Shining Armor stood in front of him.

“You certainly just can’t get enough of me, can yo-” Chrysalis began, when Cadance interrupted her with an aggressive blast of magic of her own. Chrysalis blocked it, though was clearly weaker than she was earlier that day. Shining Armor joined the effort, doubling the pressure put up against Chrysalis.

Chrysalis’ rage gave her strength, though it could only last so long, as she felt herself lose traction against her enemies. Their combined energy was just too much for her to handle, especially in her weakened state.

Cadance saw this, and, realizing this was their chance, tripled her effort, putting absolutely everything she had into taking this despicable long-time enemy of hers down. Behind this chaotic battle of magic, Hardball and Violet stood, watching in awe, unsure who would come out on top.

The answer was given, when Chrysalis finally lost her strength, taking the full heat of Cadance and Shining Armor’s blasts, knocking her back into a nearby wall of rock. The impact was so strong that she left a dent, half-alive as she fell to the ground, face-first.

“Hardball, find the jewel,” Shining Armor ordered, while he and Cadance caught their breath.

“Magic restrictor?” Cadance demanded, wasting no time to celebrate their victory.

Shining Armor reached in his satchel and handed her a shiny golden ring. Cadance rushed over to Chrysalis, and picked her up by the head. As she did, Chrysalis’ changeling disguise flickered on and off, until it finally disappeared, revealing the changeling queen that was hiding beneath. Cadance stuck the ring on Chrysalis’ horn, and backed away, shocked by their success. She seemed to be completely unconscious, for now.

Hardball returned from around the corner where Chrysalis had come, and revealed a tattered satchel, in which he showed the miraculous green jewel inside. Cadence received it with caution, mesmerized by its beauty just as Chrysalis had been.

“This will be locked in the deepest vault in Canterlot we can find…” she said, in awe of the jewel’s beauty. Shining Armor took it from her and dumped the jewel in his own bag. Hardball had already begun chaining up Chrysalis, nervous about her suddenly awakening and murdering him just as she had to poor Foxtrot.

“Where’s Foxtrot?” Shining Armor asked, realizing they were one pony short.

“He took a tumble down the cliff,” Violet said, irreverently.

Shining Armor glared at her before hanging his head in grief.

Violet was slightly shocked by the revelation that the pony she knew as Starlight Glimmer really wasn’t Starlight Glimmer, rather a changeling. Without a doubt, this changes her state of mind regarding her previous betrayal.

Cadance smiled to herself, as Shining Armor and Hardball helped each other carry Chrysalis over to the others. They had the jewel, and for now, Equestria was safe from its greatest menace of late, Queen Chrysalis.

---

When Starlight awoke after having been knocked unconscious for an unknown period of time, she found herself strapped down to a chair, her horn still locked up. She struggled against the chains around her ankles and the leather straps around her chest. In front of her was the red unicorn, sitting in a chair facing her. Her face was half hidden by shadow, but what she could see, she hated. This pony, Starlight had figured, was really the one responsible for all of this. Driving her from her home, forcing her to risk her own life, her friends’ lives...and of course, murdering Jackpot.

“Starlight, it’s come as a shock to me that we’ve never been formally introduced.”

Starlight said nothing, protesting as much as she could.

“I’m Ruby Heart...and I already know you, very well...Months ago, it became my job to find you, in fact. This required my utmost dedication, to learn everything I could about you. Who your friends were, your past incidents, what movies you like...everything from the crucial to the very benign. Essentially, you became my obsession. Not by my own choice. My employer-that is, a pony who you have somewhat of a minor history with-made you into the ultimate target. Whoever could find you, and bring you back in alive, would gain fortune and favor of an untold quantity in our organization. That weasel Counterfeit was more or less a stepping stone to getting close to you. You’re powerful, so I hear. Truthfully, your resume doesn’t quite impress me, but it’s not me you need to impress.”

“I’m not going to do anything for you, or your employer, or anypony, until my friends are released. You gave me your word.”

“What do you think my priorities are, Starlight Glimmer? To live an honorable and just life? Oh, how little is there to gain from that? I should ask you directly, since you got one of your friends killed already. Keep up that attitude, Starlight, let’s see how many friends I have to kill before you understand.”

Starlight sighed, extremely unhappy with her current predicament.

“I admire you, Starlight, despite how exaggerated your reputation is. You just...don’t give up...I respect a pony who doesn’t give up. My own philosophy is one where the strongest survive, and to do so, one must never give up. Perhaps that’s what makes you so valuable to so many ponies...Your strength is an asset. That’s what you are, an asset. And hopefully, you will learn to cooperate with us, because the longer you resist, the worse your life will become.”

Starlight shook her head, vehemently against ever consciously siding with these ponies.

“You murdered a pony who meant everything to me...You beat him, like a dog in the street...like you didn’t even care that it was a living, breathing, thinking thing you were killing. Like he was an object that you had to destroy, just to make me more vulnerable...You’re sick, for what you did. It’s unforgivable. You think you’ve got me here at your mercy? You’re wrong. This isn’t going to last. I’m going to get out of here eventually. It may take months, or years...but I’ll make you a promise, a real promise, that unlike you, I will abide to...you’re going to pay for what you did. You can kill Dust and Elodea, I still won’t give in. I don’t know much about you, but I do know that you’re a liar. Any promise you make me, you won’t keep. So I won’t agree to it. What happens after you kill them? You’ll torture me? Go ahead and try. You don’t deserve my help. Plain and simple. What you all deserve, is to rot in jail for the rest of your lives. And if that’s too good for you, six feet under the ground would suit you even better.”

For the first time, Ruby Heart’s sinister, carefree demeanor had dropped. She seemed perturbed, dissatisfied with Starlight’s unbreakable defiance. She rose from her seat, shrugging.

“‘What happens after you kill them’...” Ruby Heart said, quietly, but loud enough for Starlight to hear.

“Why don’t we find out?”

---

Elodea was dragged through the maze-like hallways by her hooves, six ponies all helping to pull her along as she fought the whole time.

“Rats! Let go of me!”

They took her down a staircase into the first story of the complex, not bothering to spare her from the pain of her head slamming against each stair as they went down. By the time they reached the bottom, she thought she might’ve received brain damage. She stopped protesting, her mind too boggy to put a sentence together.

They dragged her down yet another long, dimly lit hallway, until they stopped in front of a door. Elodea slowly tilted her head to see one of them jangle some keys inside the door to unlock it, swinging it open, for the other ponies to toss her inside. She landed hard on the ground, sliding a few inches forward. She lifted her head, radiating anger, as they slammed the door close.

She was in some sort of prison cell, where there was absolutely no source of light. She couldn’t even make out how large the room was, nor could she seen her own hoof in front of her face.

“Who-Who’s there?”

Elodea hadn’t realized she wasn’t alone, and jumped in fright, until she realized whose voice it was.

“Dust! It’s me!”

“El?! You’re alright?”

They found each other in the dark and embraced, tightly, providing each other with warmth in such a cold dark place.

“Where’s Starlight? Is she with you?”

“We got separated…”

“Is there a way out of here?”

“The door’s locked, and I can’t make anything else out…Dust, are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

“They…” she paused to sniffle, “They roughed me up a bit, but nothing too bad...I’m ok, really...You came back?”

“Of course I came back, kid, I couldn’t leave you, could I? Now we got to find a way out of here, ok?”

“Ok…” Dust said, nervously feeling her way around the prison cell. Her dress was covered in grey dust from crawling around the filthy floor of the prison, which was rough and freezing cold.

Elodea vaguely remembered which direction the door to the cell was, crawling her way towards it.

She paused as she got closer to the door, when she heard the distinct sound of ponies grunting and crashing into things.

“Dust, get over here..”

Dust crawled over towards where Elodea was, and heard the same strange noises.

Both of them jumped back, when the doorknob began violently shaking.

“Dust, stay behind me,”

The doorknob continued to shake, until a distinct “click” noise could be heard.

The door to the prison cell creaked open, revealing Crestfall, half of his face covered in blood. It took Elodea a second to recognize him, her eyes struggling to adjust to the light after being immersed in complete darkness.

“Never thought I’d be glad to see your face,” she said.

“The feeling is mutual.”

He reached down to help her up, and then Dust, who was noticeably nervous with this bloody stranger.

“You must be the friend,” he said.

Dust glanced at Elodea, unsure what to think of this unfamiliar pegasus covered in other ponies' blood.

“He’s on our side...I think,” Elodea said.

“I woke up in a storage closet with two other random ponies, I figured I must’ve been incapacitated in the heat of battle,” he said, half-jokingly. He really had no memory of how he ended up there.

“I’ll let you keep thinking that, for getting us out of there,” Elodea said, smirking.

“I found you two, but I don’t know where Starlight is.”

“They’ve got her…”

“Oh, great then. Nice going. So what’s left of our deal?”

“Let’s worry about that once we're long gone from here, why don’t we?” Elodea suggested.

“What deal? Who is this guy?” Dust asked, not in the loop. She was still a little dazed and weary from the harsh treatment she had endured for the past day and a half.

“What, you want to leave her behind?” Crestfall asked.

“We can’t fight them all…” Elodea said.

Crestfall glanced down at the six ponies he had managed to take care of, strewn on the ground around them.

“We can’t?”

“That unicorn’s a different story...we’ve got to go while we can,” Elodea said.

“El, we can’t leave Starlight,” Dust said, distraught.

“There isn't time! We have to get out of here!”

“There he is!” cried out a pony from down the hall, leading a group of at least ten ponies.

“For once, you might be right, let’s scram,” Crestfall said, grabbing Elodea by the hoof and running down the hall. Dust was extremely opposed to leaving Starlight behind, though there clearly wasn’t much time to argue. Before they started running off, Elodea found the pony who had robbed her of her knife, stole it back for herself, and spat at the pony’s corpse, gleeful to have her prized weapon back in her possession.

The trio ran through the halls like mad, while the ponies behind them were in hot pursuit.

“There’s an exit over there, keep going!” Crestfall yelled, knocking over every trash can and table they passed, trying to slow down their pursuers.

Elodea reached the aforementioned door first, though found it to be locked. Dust, who had her head turned behind her to see how close the ponies behind them were, unintentionally ran straight into Elodea into the door, forcing it wide open.

Elodea and Dust stumbled out into an alleyway, Crestfall right behind them, slamming the door close behind them and trying to block it with a nearby dumpster. He smiled wide at his success, and ran off, while the ponies struggled to push the door open.

He caught up with the other two, who had already begun running off back into the city to safety. Elodea wondered if Starlight would’ve left her behind if she was the one who got caught, and for a second, she regretted her actions. But she had Dust back, which was all that she really wanted. Though, despite her hesitations about Starlight, she felt the sting of remorse at the thought that they left her to die.

Comments

[Pete100]

“I don’t want to hear it, just get moving,” he said, rushing her along to join the others. She grumbled to herself, bitter and exhausted. With an alicorn nearby, escape seemed impossible.

They would have me f*cked up.

“She won’t be able to use it yet, she couldn't possibly contain its power by herself. That’s what Twilight told me,” Cadance said.

She couldn’t?

Starlight quickly understood what Crestfall had meant when he called the street in question a ‘miserable’ place. Thick, grey and black buildings, standing over roads littered with potholes filled with grey water and stray garbage. The place smelled more like a city than anywhere Starlight had ever been.

Is that what a city usually smells like?

Crestfall made a mistake when he thought Elodea would start moving forward, and ended up getting a hoof directly to the face.

“Ow!”

“Oh, sorry…” Elodea said, though she clearly hardly meant it, and might have even done it intentionally.

Just hit her when you get out.

“Where’s my friend? You’ve got five seconds. We don’t care what happens to you,” Elodea said, her voice so cold that the mare coil tell she meant it.

I thought they were cousins.

Starlight sighed bitterly, knowing if she made any other move than what the red unicorn had asked of her, she’d have to bear the weight of another friend’s death.

Out of options, she fell to her knees.

Why would she even trust her?

[the book keeper]

The only thing I can say is that the gates of Tartarus are going to open soon and the wrath of Starlight Glimmer will be unleashed upon those that have done her wrong. I do still hope that in the end Starlight gets her wings and becomes an Alicorn. Keep up the great work I look foward to the next chapter I hope you will be able to update again soon.

[titanhades70]

Hmm. Where is Discord in all this? Couldn't Fluttershy ask him to take them to Starlight?

[Xp45]

Geez, when is Starlight ever going to get a break? Friends dying, constantly being captured and beat up... at least everypony else is Doing aight