The Trials of Shmarity: an Ogres and Oubliettes Story

by TheMessenger

45. Oubliette of Fort Iron

45. Oubliette of Fort Iron

Rarity gave it a few more days before letting Elkraps know of her decision just like she had promised her, but her answer remained unchanged from her meeting with the Queen of Fey. If anything, the extra time she had to think ended up yielding more reasons to why taking the direct approach now was better than going at it the safer but longer way. Who knew what the Squid Wizard would end up doing to the bodies of Spike and Discord the longer they stayed in his tentacled clutches? Even if she could successfully gather a large enough force to take on the Squid Wizard and his army in a direct confrontation, it would all be for naught if the remains of her friends were somehow rendered completely lost to her.

And then there was the guilt of having to leave Discord and poor Spikey in that wretched state she had last seen the two in. Rarity had no idea how being dead felt, there weren’t exactly many personal accounts on such an experience, but she couldn’t imagine it‘d be a very pleasant sensation, and the last thing she wanted was to prolong that suffering and extend their time as rotting corpses. No, Rarity really couldn’t afford to dilly-dally anymore than she already had, not when she already had everything she needed to save her friends.

It took Elkraps some time before she expressed the same sort of understanding to Rarity’s final choice that Bluestockings had shown when Rarity told her that she would not be traveling with her and Professor Pedagogue back to Baldursgait, and when the day of her departure finally arrived and she met with Elkraps at the main campus lobby, Rarity could clearly see the reluctance in the unicorn’s smile.

“Hello, Princess,” she said. “I hope you’ve had a good morning so far. All set? Do you have everything?”

Rarity nodded with a quick glance over her shoulder at her saddlebags, having taken inventory right before she had checked out of the Hag’s Haven and said her farewells to the receptionist. The scroll of resurrection, the potions of healing, of invisible, and of strength, were all organized to be easily accessible while the skull that contained the Moonmaiden’s essence had a chunk of a pocket all to itself. In the inner pocket of her old traveler’s cloak, the last of the damage it had sustained from her fight with the troll having been magically mended by a professional, she had her daggers, ready to be drawn at the first sign of battle. The ring from Aibnatu hung from the necklace chain around her neck, tucked into her cloak right beside the Queen‘s symbol. Her fancier robes, a little souvenir for Rarity to take home, laid at the bottom of her bags along with rest of her dungeoneering gear. The rope might possibly come in handy, but she doubted there would be much use for the preserved rations, the box of flint and tinder, or the pitons.

“I’m ready.”

“Alright.” The dean sighed. “Follow me.”

The two mares made their way to a section of the center cathedral that Rarity had not gone through. Similar to the path to the various departments down below, they had to get through a series of twisting and turning corridors before they hit a dead end. The wall right in front of them had a large circle of white runes drawn over the solid stone, and when they had stopped, Elkraps pulled out a small strip of paper that had the same circle upon it from her pocket. She started to step toward the wall with the paper raised but paused and turned to look to Rarity.

“One last time. I need to know. Are you completely sure about this?”

“Without a single shred of doubt,” Rarity responded, meeting those oh so familiar violet eyes with her own sky blue ones.

Elkraps sighed again, and she continued forward. The paper made contact with the wall, and from the symbols there came a flash of blinding light. When Rarity opened her eyes, she discovered that she and Elkraps had been brought to a dark chamber that was barely illuminated by a set of blue flamed torches stuck to the top of poles, one for each corner. The low but constant rumble of activity that echoed through the main campus had been eerily silenced, and the steps of the cloaked figure approaching them resonated loudly throughout the room as their feet tapped against the hard stone floor. Runes in white writing covered the ground, arranged in the same rounded structure that had been on the wall and on Elkraps’s paper so that the mysterious shapes and characters encircled the room’s center.

The individual hidden beneath their hood, the only hints of their identity being that they were all some kind of quadruped and that they were close in stature to the two mares, and Elkraps shared a nod before the dean of the school of evocation turned back to Rarity. “Well, I guess this is where we say our goodbyes,” she said with a small, sad smile. She held out her hoof. “If this is truly what you have to do, then all the best of luck, Princess Shmarity, and I hope the time comes when we’ll be able to see each other again.”

Rarity accepted the extended hoof and shook it. Then, after a brief moment of hesitation, she tossed aside all air of dignity and grace and threw her free foreleg over the unicorn’s shoulder, pulling the magician into an embrace. Elkraps stiffened at the sudden contact, but right as the passing seconds were starting to make Rarity question whether her show of affection had been a bit too forward, the unicorn reached over and gave Rarity a pat on the back. It was easily one of the most clumsy hugs Rarity had ever experienced, but the feelings behind the gesture were genuine and could be felt past all that awkwardness, and neither of them made a move to break it until finally the hooded creature impatiently cleared their throat.

Elkraps stepped back and smoothed out her robes as she tried to recover some decorum. “Er, well, thanks for, that, I suppose.” She coughed. “Right, well, we should get started. The scroll of teleportation, if I may?”

Rarity took out the scroll from her bag and gave it up to Elkraps who in turn surrendered it into the custody of the hooded creature. Wordlessly, the stranger directed Rarity to stand in the very middle of the circle, and once she had done so, they and Elkraps stepped outside the white ring of runes. The string around the parchment was removed, and the scroll was opened. As the cloaked being began to speak or perhaps read the contents written in the scroll, their voice barely louder than a mutter and yet still easily heard as it was carried by the acoustics of the room, the torches started to dim, their light replaced by a faint glow that was being emitted by the symbols surrounding Rarity.

Powerful gusts of wind picked up and swirled around her, drowning out the chants of the stranger as the room started to spin. Rarity managed to catch one last wave from Elkraps before she, the hooded figure, and the rest of chamber blurred together in one large mess. Rarity raised her hoof up to shield her face, but no sooner had she done so than the winds began to die down. The room went still, the runes at her feet dimmed and dulled, and both Elkraps and the hooded one had vanished. So had the torches sat upon poles, and instead the room was lit by several bright red flames that bursted forth from the numerous sconces jutting out of the rounded walls that circled around her.

There was barely time for Rarity to note the sudden appearance of the flames or the change in the room’s structure when a piercing blare screeched out. Heavy steps from above could barely be heard past the shrill noise as her ears flattened against her head. “Someone’s coming!” Selune’s voice cried out over the din. “Quick, the potion!”

At the Moonmaiden’s exclamation, Rarity sprung to action and pulled out the seemingly empty vial from her bag. She tore off the glass stopper and brought the vial to her lips. Something cold streamed down her throat, almost causing her to choke in surprise, and the moment she swallowed, Rarity watched as her hooves shimmer and fade right before her eyes until only a faint outline could be detected. A quick glance around her confirmed that the rest the rest of her body and her belongings had followed suit just as the source of the steps swelled, and from the sole hall leading out of this circular chamber rushed in some several guards, a diverse mix of ponies, diamond dogs, and skeletons with glowing green lights coming out of their eye sockets, all clad in the same dull chain mail armor with their rusty blades and spearheads at the ready.

The earth pony stallion at the vanguard slowly lowered his spear and used its shaft to push his dented helmet up over his eyes and scowled. “Shut off that alarm. No creature’s here, never mind the princess.”

The diamond dog next to him snorted. “Uh, wut?”

“I said, shut that alarm off! No need to wake the entire keep over nothing.”

“What?” shouted out another one of his fellows.

“Shut. Off. The. Danged—“

“What?”

With her back pressed against the wall, Rarity slowly made her way around the guards, giving them as wide a berth as possible, and snuck down the way the group had come from while they were all still confused and distracted. The wailing of the alert continued to follow her, but the shouts eventually quieted as the distance between Rarity and the bickering guards grew. The path soon brought her to a stairway that led up to a dark, decorated hall that was buzzing with patrolling sentries. Rarity had to quickly step out of the way of a pair of grumbling guards who unknowingly walked past her as they descended the stairs she had just climbed up.

“What, they couldn’t hold onto one little princess until morning? I thought we supposed to get a heads up so we’d have time to get ready.”

“I know, right? The master’s not going to be happy about this when he gets back.”

So the Squid Wizard himself wasn’t here. How fortunate, but unless she wanted to try testing the extend of her luck, Rarity needed to get moving. More guards were making their way toward here, and Rarity had to dodge past a few more of them as she went down the carpeted hall and found herself a quiet, deserted little corridor, empty save for the squid shaped crests of silver on the walls above and a larger than life portrait of the Squid Wizard himself. The depiction of the magical cephalopod was even more ridiculous than Rarity had remembered him being as the painted squid posed proudly while wearing a stately, old fashioned military uniform that looked even more out of place than his usual magician’s getup.

It took Rarity a little time to find and pull out the invisible skull of Selune’s descendant out of her invisible pack. “Lady Selune?” she whispered once she was certain that the skull was in her hooves. “Which way?”

Silence answered Rarity at first, and her panic swelled with each millisecond that ticked by without a response, but she calmed herself once she felt the skull warm and could just barely catch a glimpse of the alicorn’s faint figure in front of her. “Continue down this hall until you reach a split path. Take the left.”

Following the Moonmaiden’s directions, Rarity hurried through what she assumed was the Squid Wizard’s castle keep based on its appearance and her previous time there, slowing down only to ensure her hooves made as little noise as possible whenever guards were around. It was around this point when the blaring alarm finally became silent, when Selune’s instructions brought her to a passageway blocked by a host of skeletal sentinels and hulking diamond dogs brutes.

“The way to the dungeons is through there,” Rarity heard Selune say and hoped that no creature else could. None of the guards before her seemed to have any reaction to the reverberating voice of the goddess, so she turned her focus to figuring out how she was going to get past all those bodies in her way.

There was no way of knowing for sure if the bodies of her friends were indeed down there. Selune admitted that the body she was currently dwelled in lacked any recollection to where exactly its former master held Spike and Discord, but Rarity had concluded with Selune beforehand that the dungeons would be as good as any place to start. If Spike and Discord weren’t there, then perhaps one of the many prisoners the Squid Wizard was keeping down there might have a clue to their location.

That just left the small matter of getting down to the cells below in the first place. Rarity was invisible, not incorporeal, and there wasn’t enough space for her to squeeze by without accidentally brushing against anyone. Trying to fight her way through all those guards was the endeavor of a fool with a death wish, so if the two most apparent approaches weren’t going to work here, Rarity was going to have to get creative.

She pulled up her necklace, removed Aibnatu’s ring from the chain, and whispered well under her breath a single word: “Luminoso.”

The moment she saw the ring started to shine, Rarity tossed it down the hall. It’s light brightened significantly as it left Rarity’s hoof, drawing the attention of a couple of the diamond dogs while the sharp tap of the metal piece knocking against the stone wall perked the ears of the others.

“What that?” one of the large canines growled. “What noise?”

“Light,” sniffed another, pointing his nose in the direction of the glowing ring. Grabbing their weapons, the diamond dogs abandoned their post to investigate, leaving the literal skeleton crew to continue holding the position. The eerie glow coming from their eye holes appeared to be of little to no help, those sockets might as well have been completely empty, as Rarity, who had room to maneuver now that the bulkiest of the bodies were out of her way, simply walked right by and walked down the steps they were supposed to be guarding.

The stairs were many, requiring more than a couple of minutes before Rarity reached the bottom and entered the dungeons below. The entire room, barely lit by a couple of braziers with red hot burning coals hanging from the roof, consisted of three massive sets of jail cells, one on each side of the room separated by a single aisle and the third right across from her at the very end of said aisle. All three cells were packed with ponies, some as young as foals and others old enough to be Rarity’s grandparents, and then there was everything in between. Regardless of age, gender, or build, each and every face had on a look of misery, with some barely able to maintain a cover of stoic defiance while others appearing to teeter on the brink of tears or looking as though they had just finished having a breakdown. There were even a few who had on exhausted expressions of defeat that Rarity recalled seeing on many of the former slaves before she, Biala Diyn, and the rest of their companions had put an end to their oppressors and removed their shackles.

The fearful looks of the children as they huddled beside their parents, shivering against the cold stone floor, were especially heartbreaking, but Rarity’s sorrow quickly gave way to rage as she watched a stallion in armor stand before the cells, dangling a ring of jingling keys in front of the prisoners and laughing as he ran a dagger noisily against the bars. His cruel snickering was cut short as something slammed into his side and tackled him to the ground. He heard the prisoners gasp, but the sharp edge of a blade digging into his neck discouraged any exclamation or movement.

“Don’t move a muscle,” Rarity, now visible as she stood on top of the prone stallion with her dagger pressed against him, hissed. She quickly raised her other hoof to her lips to quiet the startled prisoners before turning back to the scumbag on the floor. “Make even the slightest sound and I’ll slash your throat into the finest of ribbons and make myself a lovely little bow out of them. Now nod if I’ve made myself clear.”

It surprised, even frightened her a bit, to hear such a explicit declaration of violence in her own voice, but it did its job as the sufficiently intimated thug nodded his head profusely. “Good. Now tell where you’re keeping Spike, and keep quiet or else...”

The dagger’s curved blade dug in a little deeper as Rarity’s implied threat sunk in as well. “S-S-Spike? Please, I don’t know no Spike. No Spike here, honest, swear on me mother’s ashes.”

Rarity bit back an annoyed groan, and if she hadn’t been so preoccupied keeping this guard pinned down, she’d have brought her hoof to her face. “I mean Garbunkle and Captain Wuzz. Where are their bodies? What did you do to them?”

“Y-you mean, t-those heroes that tried to break in? We ain’t keeping them down here. Really, they ain’t. I mean, yeah, we brought them down to show them off to the prisoners and all, make the more rowdier bunch a little more compliant, but they ain’t here no more.”

“Then where are they now?” Rarity demanded.

“I-I don’t know. They move around a lot, usually with the master or his deputy, that fellow in the black armor.”

Rarity’s face fell at this revelation, but she kept her voice and blade steady. “Are they with the Squid Wizard now?”

“N-no. They’re still in the castle, in the throne room, I think. A-at least, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t really get to go into the throne room much, s-so I’ve haven’t seen them myself.” The trembling stallion shook his head. “A-and that’s all I know, honest. Please don’t hurt me. I’ve help, haven’t I? That has to be worth something to you.”

“Well yes, I suppose it certainly was something,” Rarity said with begrudging reluctance and disappointment, similar to the kind of tone she’d take with Sweetie Belle or Pinkie Pie whenever one of them would misunderstand and follow their assigned instructions a little too literally. “Thank you.”

The stallion let out a sigh of relief. “Then, you’re—“

The butt of her dagger’s hilt bashed into the back of the guard’s head, knocking his head into the ground with a hard thud. Rarity stepped off his body and started to put away her weapon only to drop it as something swept against her legs, tripping her and sending her falling. Now it was the armored stallion standing over her as she laid on the ground, his features twisted with anger and bruised, squished, and flattened from the impact to the floor. His unfocused eyes eventually found her, and his scowl turned to a snarl as he lunged down at her, reaching for Rarity’s neck.

“Think you can humiliate me like that, huh?” he growled, struggling to push past Rarity’s flailing limbs. “You’re going to pay for that. I’ll learn you good, you stupid mare!”

He reared up and slammed down his front hooves down on Rarity’s throat, and though she managed to raise her leg up in time to block and take the blunt of blow, she could still feel her airway constrict as he continued to press down. The simple and natural act of respiration became an arduous endeavor as her breathing gradually turned to choking gasps. The shadows on the edges of her vision slowly expanded. Still pushing back with all the might she could muster against the guard’s attempts to suffocate her, Rarity stuck her free hoof into her cloak and sought desperately for the handle of her other dagger.

Before she could do so and pull the weapon out of its sheath, however, Rarity’s assailant shuddered, and the pressure on her neck drastically reduced. He blinked and left out what sounded like a mix between a cough and a gurgle before collapsing right on top of her. As Rarity struggled to push him off her, she found her first dagger, the one she had threatened the stallion with, buried almost hilt deep into the spot where the neck meets the back of the head, and standing over the both of them was a mare, her powerful, toned body colored ash gray and with a mane that was of a similar shade. Across the bridge of her snout there was a long horizontal scar, and the cold stare the mare was giving with her light blue eyes was oddly familiar to Rarity.

“Huntress?”

“You should have just done that in the first place,” the mare said, scowling. She tore the blade out and pulled the body off Rarity then held out a hoof toward her. As she help Rarity back onto her feet, the hard look on the mare’s face was replaced with surprise and recognition. “Wait, Princess Shmarity?“

Mutters and whispers swept through the cages that gradually grew louder as they spread from prisoner to prisoner, and while most of what was being said was too low for Rarity to hear, she managed to catch several instances of her pseudonym being mentioned in awe, reverence, and incredulity. The space closest to the bars became crowded as those trapped inside pushed forward to look upon Rarity with wide eyes and their mouths gaping.

“What’s going on? Why are you here? No, save it,” Huntress suddenly demanded, holding up a hoof as if to push back any explanation. “There’s no time.” With the guard’s ring of keys in her possession, having been retrieved when their previous owner had dropped to the floor, she walked over to the cell on the other side and unlocked its door. Prisoners from Huntress’s cell were already making their way out through the opened entrance, many of whom surrounded Rarity, thanking her for saving them to the point of being exorbitant and ignoring her attempts to temper their extolment.

More joined their number, some whom she recognized like Elder Woods and Farm Stead as well as several faces from Princess Shmarity’s memories of the palace guards who immediately stood at attention and briefly saluted when her gaze fell over them. The dead thug on the ground was immediately relieved of his weapons, and many of the prisoners, particularly those she saw as former members of Spiketopia’s royal defense force, carried jagged pipes or makeshift shivs out of the cells with them. Those armed quickly made their way to the front, readying their weapons and blocking the stairway downward as Huntress continued opening cells.

“You seem, surprisingly well prepared for this,” Rarity noted aloud to Huntress once she had managed to free herself from the crowd and made it to the mare’s side.

“We had time to prepare,” Huntress said as she unlocked the next cell. “Just had to wait for the right moment to act, and here you are, providing it for us.” Her lips twitched into the smallest hint of a smirk, for about half a second.

The last of the cell doors was swung open as she let out a bemused snort, and looking to Rarity, Huntress held up the dagger she had used on the sadistic guard. “I’ll be borrowing this,” she said, and before Rarity could give either her approval or rejection, she lost Huntress in the growing crowd.

“As charming as ever, that mare,” muttered Rarity, rolling her eyes. She gave the room another quick scan. Some stayed inside the cells, mostly the elderly and the young foals, while the others were slowly organizing themselves into formation at the direction of those at the front. One particular stallion giving commands, a grizzled old earth pony with a large mustache in dire need of maintenance and the posture and physique of a pony half his apparent age, stopped, and after speaking to the pony next to him, he made his way through the crowd to her.

“Princess,” the earth pony said, bowing. His voice was as deep and commanding as Rarity would have expected from the stallion’s appearance and the air of authority he carried with him even in these less than dignified conditions. “Please accept my sincerest apologies for the royal guard’s inability to protect the palace, the kingdom, and you and your family. As captain of the third division, I must bare at least some responsibility for our failure. Rest assured, Princess, that we will regain our lost honor.”

“It’s, Captain Aegis Fort, isn’t it?” Rarity said, needing a moment to draw the stallion’s identity from her borrowed memories. “I’m glad to see that you’re still alive and well.”

“Indeed.” The stallion Princess Shmarity knew as Aegis Fort raised his head and grinned. “We’ll make that blasted squid regret he ever even thought about sparing us.” He turned back to the front. “Corporal? Is everypony ready?”

“Yes, Captain. On your order.”

He nodded and cleared his throat, getting the attention of all in the dungeon. “Alright fillies and gentlecolts. We’ve gone over the plan a thousand times already. If you need a refresher, ask the pony next to you and hope they’ve paid attention. Remember to stick with your group. I don’t want to see anyone playing hero or rushing forward and getting themselves killed, especially you civilians. Stay calm, stay methodical, understood?”

Aegis Fort got his answer in the form of a collective stomp along with a few cheers that were quickly to be shushed down by their neighbors. He raised his sharpened iron pipe. “Forward!”

The others yelled out as well, and those on the frontline charged up the stairs. The captain turned to a small group of younger ponies, not quite foals but hardly adults either. “Wait until we’ve secured the escape route. Once we give you the signal, start bringing everyone else up and hurry.” The younger recruits nodded, and Aegis Fort turned back to Rarity as the sounds of battle, of shouts and the clanks of metal hitting against metal, could already be heard coming from the floor above. “Princess, I’m not sure how you managed to get here or why you would come back, but we can discuss all that later. In any case, you’ve done enough for us already, and I want you to stay down here with these other villagers where it’s safe. I’ll come down to get you myself once we’re ready.”

“I appreciate your concern, Captain, but I’m afraid I will have to decline,” Rarity said. “I have other business to attend to while I’m in the Squid Wizard’s fortress. Please excuse me.”

She started to move toward the stairs, to where the others had all headed up, but Captain Aegis Fort caught Rarity by the shoulder, stopping her in her tracks with his powerful grip. “Whatever you think you need to do, it can’t be worth the risk of losing you again,” he sternly said. “We can come back and reclaim the capital when we’ve gathered our scattered forces, but right now we need to focus on getting us all out of here in one piece. So I’ll ask you again, Princess, please, stay here with your subjects until it is safe.”

Rarity tried to pull free, but the stallion’s hold on her stayed firm. “What if I were to order you to let me go?”

Aegis chuckled. “Sorry, Princess, but with all due respect, I answer directly to your father, not you, and until we’ve reestablished the chain of command, I’m the one calling the shots here.” His expression turned stern, his eyes narrowing into a cold and steely stare. “I don’t have time for this right now, so you will have to forgive me for my bluntness. For your own good, you are staying here, Princess, end of discussion.“

In response to all her futile struggling, Aegis only tightened his grip. This was getting Rarity nowhere fast, and at this realization, she could only sigh tiredly and let herself go limp. With her limbs loose and relaxed, Rarity could now reach into her saddlebags, and after some quick rummaging, she pulled out the vial with the dirty little piece of keratin floating inside. Snapping the top off with her teeth, Rarity brought the vial up to her lips and choked down its contents, the tannish sliver and all.

Now to see if it was worth the taste of crusty socks that was in her mouth. Rarity gave one last pull, and this time, she ripped herself away from the guard captain with surprising ease, causing the older stallion to stumble forward and nearly fall. Before he could recover, Rarity took off, ignoring his calls after her as she bounded up the stairs and stepped into the chaotic fray.

Teams of prisoners clashed on their former wardens, striking quickly and together and overwhelming the Squid Wizard’s soldiers with their speed, numbers, and sheer determination and or desperation. Cracks and loud smashes filled the hall as the skeletal forces were reduced to broken and separate bones from the multitude of consecutive bludgeons, and while the larger diamond dogs seemed to be a greater challenge, more and more of their bodies were starting to hit the floor as the prisoners piled onto them, holding them down for their comrades to apply the critical blow. The improvised clubs, pikes, and knives were swiftly discarded in favor of the maces, spears, and swords of the fallen oppressors, further swinging the tide of battle in favor of the escaping prisoners even as the shouts and screams brought in reinforcements to quell the rebellion.

“We need to get to the throne room!” Rarity heard Selune exclaim over the skirmish. “We will not have much time now.” A ghostly foreleg formed before Rarity’s eyes and pointed. “This way, hurry!”

Rarity didn’t get far before one of the Squid Wizard’s minions got in her way, and the swing of his sword forced her to stop and take a step back. With a frustrated groan that transitioned into a savage snarl at its end, Rarity drew her spare dagger and answered the attack by plunging the shorter blade into the stallion’s chest. The dagger stabbed through the chain shirt the guard had on as though it were made of tissue paper, the potion’s strength enhancing effects still coursing through her body. Seeing her foe’s body go slack and his weapon drop, Rarity freed her blade, and the guard crumpled at her feet with Xs over his eyes, adding to the number of casualties that littered the corridor.

She hurried off but only managed a modest distance before a duo of the larger diamond dog imposed themselves before her, their collective mass blocking the path to the throne room. Rarity pawed at the floor and readied her dagger as her newest obstacles lowered their pole-arms at her, but before either party could make a move, there was a low, warbled and yet piercing cry. The carpet beneath the diamond dogs gave way to vibrant green weeds and vines that suddenly sprouted up and wrapped themselves around the dogs’s ankles and beyond, and soon, the explosive growth had entangled the two large canines, leaving the both of them effectively restrained.

Rarity turned to the source of the initial sound and found Elder Woods standing behind her with his one good hoof raised and his cloudy eyes exposed and appearing to glow. The old zebra nodded to Rarity and hobbled off to rejoin the main group. Not having the time to waste, Rarity called out a quick thanks after the retreating zebra then made her way around the grasping greenery and the struggling dogs and charged down the hall ahead. Her hooves thundered against the covered floors as she broke into a full gallop, running as fast as she possibly could away from the sounds of battle and to where Spike and Discord hopefully were being kept.

Portraits of the Squid Wizard hanging from the walls and decorative statues of grotesque multi-headed beasts glared at Rarity as she passed, but she ignored their disapproving looks, focusing instead on Selune’s continued directions. The ruby eyes of the silver squid emblems and their runes of green glistened in the light of the candelabras, and seeing some of the dark and violent paintings that she ran by was starting to jog what few memories she had of this place and its layout.

The hall she had been following down opened up into a grand foyer. Cascading down the side were a number of banners, either orange or violet in color, and in the back of the room, atop a raised platform, there was a golden throne. A massive stained glass depiction of a giant squid that took up a majority of the rear wall stared down at Rarity as she slowly approached the throne. Other than all that, the room was distressingly empty. No Discord. No Spike.

Her heart rate picked up with panic, and Rarity opened her mouth to ask if, and desperately hoping, there might happen to be a second throne room somewhere that the guard was actually referring to when she heard the soft taps of approaching footsteps. Company was coming and fast, and with no hint as to the newcomers might be or time to hide behind the seat of gold or one of the banners, Rarity spun around and drew her dagger as she primed herself for combat.

Three figures came into view. The one taking the lead was the pony in black plate armor and full helm who had brought her before the Squid Wizard that day oh so long ago, the red glow of the runes around his neck clearly visible in the lack of light. Rarity’s grip on her dagger tightened as she saw a great broadsword floating beside him, the blade nearly as tall and wide as she was. An orange aura surrounded the sword’s handle, holding it aloft.

The two at the armored stallion’s sides eventually stepped into her view as well, and what Rarity saw caused her racing heart to go almost completely still. There, walking right towards her, were the bodies of Discord and Spike.

Comments

[Black anchor586]

> There, walking right towards her, were the bodies of Discord and Spike.

And the plot thickens!