• Published 15th Apr 2021
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The Fall of the Anoian - bookhorse125



Equestria is not the only land full of magical creatures. Welcome to Anoia.

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Chapter Three - Sweetie

The dark, dank dungeons of Celestia-knows-where were not the most wonderful place to be kept captive, as Sweetie Drops quickly found out on her first day here.

Her prison was just a long hallway full of cells on both sides. Each cell had one wall made of bars, which faced the hallway, and three other walls made of dark, gray, rough stone. A pile of hay was in the corner, along with two buckets; one which held water, and one that contained food whenever Sweetie Drops’ kidnappers decided to feed the prisoners. About three dozen cells were on each side of the hall, and at each end of the hall, there was a large gray door. Her kidnappers always came through one of the doors, but the other door had never been opened. Sweetie Drops had no idea what was behind it.

All of the cages were full, but there were at least five more floors above this one, or so Sweetie had heard from eavesdropping on her captors, full of more cages and more innocent ponies and creatures that had been stolen from their homes and taken to this place. Sweetie was sad to say that ponies were not the only ones getting snatched. On her floor alone there were about seven dragons, ten or so yaks, fifteen changelings, a few hippogriffs, and even a griffon. The rest of the cages were full of ponies.

Sweetie had been here for three weeks, but many of the others had been here for months. Sweetie Drops had been doing a mission for S.M.I.L.E. when she had been kidnapped. S.M.I.L.E. had wanted her to try and find out what she could about the missing ponies, but she’d been taken before she could relay any good information. Her best friend, Lyra Heartstrings, was probably tearing apart the continent looking for her. Sweetie Drops knew they weren’t in Equestria. She’d seen way too many ponies with both wings and a horn. But none of them were alicorns. When their wings were unfolded, they were the wings of a pegasus.

Oh, and yes, her kidnappers were ponies.

Sweetie Drops hadn’t seen anything like it. These ponies looked just like Equestrians did, except for the fake alicorns, but they didn’t seem to act like them. For instance, when they dragged in the griffon, who said her name was Gilda, and she knew Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and that they were going to come and pound them unless they let her go, the ponies acted like they didn’t even know who Twilight Sparkle was. That was the big red flag. Every creature knew who Twilight Sparkle and her friends were. They had saved Equestria, and just about everywhere else, on more than one occasion.

Sweetie paced her cell. It wasn’t very big, so she could only go about five steps before she had to turn around and go in the other direction. She was thinking about all the fun ways she would decapitate her captors when they came for feeding time next. Ooo, yes, that was fun to think about. First, she would gouge out their eyeballs and stuff them into their ears. Then she would dig into their brains and tear them apart. Then she would rip out all their guts and feed them to the pigs at Applejack’s farm and take a giant rock and ground their body into tiny bits of dust that she would throw into the sea and watch them get washed away to all the four corners of the earth. Then she would celebrate by having tea with Lyra. Ah, that was the life. It made Sweetie Drops feel better just thinking about it.

The large iron door clanged open. Several ponies came in, pushing carts loaded with buckets full of kitchen scraps. Seriously, that was what they fed them. Sweetie had been too squeamish to eat them at first, but after a few days, she had given in. But it was still gross. The ponies each went to separate cells and opened the door, sliding in a full bucket while grabbing the empty food bucket. Then they closed the door and continued to the next cell. Sweetie Drops was down towards the end of the room with the unopened door, so she had to wait. When a lime green unicorn with straight brown hair arrived in front of her cell with the cutie mark of a mixing machine, Sweetie prepared herself to bust out of this place for good. Her plan was flawless. There were no problems. Not a single one. Nadda.

The unicorn used her magic to open the door and turned away for a split second to grab a bucket. Big mistake. When she turned around again, she found an empty cell.

“What?” she cried. She whirled around again, only to see Sweetie Drops sitting on top of her cart, holding a bucket of scraps. Sweetie slammed the bucket on the unicorn’s head, splattering scraps all over her head.

“Escape!” The unicorn pointed blindly at Sweetie Drops, who leaped off the cart and ran for the door. The three other ponies who were in the room at the time chased after her. Unfortunately, one of them was one of those fake alicorns, and he teleported right in front of Sweetie Drops, his chestnut-colored wings spread defiantly. Sweetie skidded to a stop. She tried to swerve around him, but the two other ponies leaped on top of her, pinning her to the ground. The unicorn who had a bucket on her head used her magic to lift it off her head. Scraps slid off her flattened mane and her glaring face. Juice covered her face and dripped onto the floor. Her eyes were so brown they almost appeared brown.

“HOW DARE YOU?!?” she screamed at Sweetie Drops, who figured she could be heard back home. “HOW DARE YOU! I want this one to be locked in its cage with no food or water for three days. That should teach it to appreciate what it’s got.” The unicorn leaned into Sweetie’s face. Sweetie wrinkled her nose. The putrid smell leaking off her was too much. The other ponies slammed Sweetie back in her cage. One of them grabbed the handle to her water bucket in his mouth, and his buddy copied him. Trash-Unicorn slammed the door and gave Sweetie one last loathing look before stalking off. Once the door closed, the other prisoners started shouting at Sweetie.

“What were you thinking?”

“What, you were gonna fly out of here back to Equestria?”

“You could never have taken on all of them at once!”

What were you thinking?!?”

Sweetie curled up on her pile of hay and buried her face in the straw. She just wanted to get out of here. Didn’t they? Or did they think that Twilight Sparkle and her friends were coming to rescue them? They’d been here for months. Twilight Sparkle never took that long to come to the rescue. No, they weren’t getting rescued. They weren’t getting out of here. They would be stuck here forever.

Sweetie Drops wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, the door clunked open again. Feeding time again. And this time, Sweetie Drops would be left out. However, she didn’t hear the usual opening and closing of the cage doors. Only the squeaking wheels of one cart, not four. Curiosity overtook Sweetie, and she stood up and walked to the door of her cell. Two ponies, both fake alicorns, were pushing a cart with only one shelf, which was close to the ground. A handle rose high enough for them to push. On the cart was an unconscious young filly with purple and pink curls streaked with blue. Her face was turned away from Sweetie Drops, but she could see the foal’s cutie mark: a light blue heart with two golden swirls under it with a shield behind it. A horn was just barely visible above the filly’s curls, and her wings were partially spread out. Sweetie Drops would have assumed that it was one of those fake alicorns, a pony from this place, but the wings weren’t pegasus wings. They were much larger. Anger boiled inside Sweetie Drops as she recognized the foal. It was Princess Flurry Heart. How dare these despicable ponies take innocent foals! Not only that, but they stole a princess! It’s like they were asking for Equestria to go to war with them. On Flurry Heart’s left rear leg was a thick iron band. Sweetie’s glance shifted to her own back hoof. All the prisoners had a cuff around one of their legs. Sweetie wasn’t sure what they did, and she didn’t want to find out.

“Boss says he wants this one in the room,” the fake alicorn said to his mate.

“Why?” the other one replied. His voice was deep and gravelly. “It’s no different from the others.”

“I don’t know, but just do it, Rick. You don’t want Boss on your bad side.” The first fake alicorn stopped, turned around, and headed back the way he had come.

“Sure, Brad,” the one called Rick muttered to himself. He used his magic to open the door with a squeak and a clunk before rolling the cart inside. He disappeared into the dark interior for a few moments before coming out with the empty cart. Slamming the door behind him, Rick trotted out of the room. Sweetie dragged herself to the back of her cell and plopped down on her hay.

“Please, Twilight,” she whispered to herself. “Hurry.”

Author's Note:

Constructive criticism is appreciated.