A Canterlot Disaster

by Elusive

Part 2: Escape

A Canterlot Disaster: Part 2

Shining Armor awoke to a very loud noise.

After he regained consciousness, he noticed that his cell door had been thrown open and one of the prison guard-ponies was walking into his cell with what appeared to be two sets of four-place hoofshackles. Shining Armor and Harmony were quickly shackled and taken out of their cell. What they saw next totally took them by surprise.

As they were led out of their cell, they were greeted by the sight of dozens of field-working slave-ponies being led through the prison halls in front of them. All of the slave-ponies looked pretty much the same. Most of them had an extremely ragged appearance, as if they hadn't seen a shower or bath in months, possibly years. The ponies in front of them were sorting themselves into various groups.

“Where do we go?” Shining Armor whispered to Harmony, who obviously had no idea.

“I have no clue,” Harmony replied.

After wandering the room aimlessly for a minute or so (and tripping a few times due to the hoofshackles) Shining Armor and Harmony were seized by separate guard-ponies and shoved towards a group of not-so-ragged ponies that obviously hadn't been imprisoned for long.

“Newbies go in this group. Stay with them.” the guardpony practically growled at Shining Armor and Harmony.

Shining Armor got some very strange and quizzical looks as he joined the group of slave-ponies. News had spread quick about the escaped groom-to-be from Canterlot, along with his not-too-successful encounter with the Royal Canterlot Guard. Nopony knew who Harmony was, but frankly, they didn't really care.

Shining Armor, deep in thought, suddenly found himself being pushed into a line with the other newcomers. He heard a couple of loud clangs as he was chained into a line with the other ponies.

“Here we go,” Shining Armor said to nopony in particular.

“No talking!” One of the guard-ponies snapped at him.

Humph! If they only respected my royal past! Shining Armor thought.

At this point the other groups had already left the chamber. One of the guard-ponies walked to the front of the chamber and began to speak to the group of newbies.

“Welcome new slave-ponies...”

That's all that Shining Armor heard. He couldn't even pay attention to what the guardpony was saying. He had already begun to form a plan. They can't keep me in here forever, he thought.

The new slave-ponies, including Shining Armor and Harmony, were assigned to one of the hardest tasks that slaves did at the palace: Tree harvesting. This job wasn't easy, but it played right by Shining Armor's plan. Perfect.

* * *

The slave work for the next few days wasn't very hard, mostly just tedious and rough. The hardest part for Shining Armor, being of a royal background, was learning how to use basic farm equipment such as axes and wheelbarrows. Harmony already was extremely proficient at doing those sorts of things because she had to run her farm at home, so farming was an everyday exercise for her. When she could get away with talking on the job, she would constantly tease Shining Armor about the fact that he was horrible with farm equipment and tools.

But among all of the teasing and joking that the ponies did, they were both trying to come up with a way out. Escape via anywhere near the castle was definitely out of the question. Guard posts ever since the infamous escape at the royal wedding had been increased twofold. New sentry positions had been established around the castle walls and the city of Canterlot now had regular guard patrols in the streets. So escape by those routes couldn't be done. There must be a way out, Shining Armor thought. Prison breaks had been done before...

* * *

Shining Armor groggily opened his eyes, but just couldn't find the motivation to get out of bed.

With much fatigue, he fell back asleep. As a slave, sleep was scarce.

He quickly figured out that every morning it was the guards' favorite task to make the waking of the slaves as miserable and forceful as ponily possible. Their favorite method was to shake the doors of all of the cells at once. This caused all of the ponies to suddenly jump out of their beds at once, and most would fall to their metal cell's floor, causing great pain. This morning the guards did just that.

“Ah!”

Shining Armor practically jumped out of his bed at the loud crashing of the metal-on-metal clang that filled the prison chamber with an unbearable torrent of noise.

As predicted by the guards, he fell right to the floor of his cell.

This is how most of the days began. And the rest of the day wasn't too great either. His schedule was devastatingly boring and empty. Every day looked a lot like the last. Wake up. Eat. Work. Eat. Work. Sleep. Repeat. Forever. Two meals a day, everyday, except for Saturdays. But regardless, the life as a slave was a fate worse than death. The only thing driving Shining Armor on was that he would escape Canterlot palace; he would escape the clutches of Cadence -his ex-fiance and Princess of the esteemed Crystal Kingdom- and he would return to his true love, Harmony. This was his driving force. Nothing could tear him from his dream. Oh Celestia, I hope I'm right,

* * *

One day while stacking logs, it finally occurred to Shining Armor.

He had finally come up with his plan to escape this living hell.

Being from Canterlot and having an exceptional knowledge of the landscape around him, he remembered that a stream -the Neighal River- ran not even half a mile from where the slave-ponies were working. The river was fast-moving, and ran conveniently down and away from the majority of Canterlot. The guard-ponies practically ignored the river. It was only patrolled by one guard, who -after further investigation- looked like he was sleeping on the job. It was the perfect escape route.

During their second meal that day, Shining Armor did his best to explain his plan to the rest of the slaves in his group, and he had spread the word to other slave groups while working that very same day. One particularly bright mind in his group came up with the idea of building rafts to float down the river with. It sounded like the best idea, so Shining Armor went along with it. The hardest part would be storing pieces of wood to form the rafts. The guard-ponies in charge of the slaves would certainly know if any of the wood was missing. Shining Armor didn't know how they did it, but they just seemed to have a sixth sense. Shining Armor made it his job to figure out the solution to that problem.

* * *

As the days went on, Shining Armor noticed he hadn't been seeing Harmony enter the slave sleeping quarters every night. He later found out that she had been transferred to a completely separate section of the slave's quarters due to an act of rebellion; she had tried to escape while working by running toward the outskirts of Canterlot, but was tranquilized before she had run even 100 yards. She now resided in a solitary confinement cell. Twelve inch thick steel walls, reinforced steel door, and absolutely no light could enter the cell when the door was closed. Her cell was patrolled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by two guards. The Palace does not negotiate with rebellions. Regardless, Shining Armor went along with producing the final idea for his escape.
* * *

“Hey,” Shining Armor whispered to the prisoner across the hall from him.

Every night the Palace changed out the guard rotations once. This process forced the current guard to leave the prison hall for approximately 30 seconds. During this time, Shining Armor would communicate brief pieces of his plan to the other slave-ponies. Last night, he had told the last pony the last of the plan, so everypony in the prison hall knew. Tonight, he was giving the orders for the plan to commence the next day.

“Tomorrow we begin collecting. Everypony ready?” Shining Armor whispered to the dozen or so other ponies in the chamber.

A dozen heads nodded in his direction.

“Good, get some sleep. We'll need it. And another thing-”

Shining Armor dashed back to his cot as he heard the new guard reporting to his guard post. Everypony else did the same. They all had a hard day ahead of them. Shining Armor smiled to himself in his sleep. We're going to do this. We'll all be free from this hell...

* * *

The plan was fairly simple: everyday, a very small amount of wood would be saved out of what all of the slave-ponies harvested during the day. The one big problem with this plan was that the slave-ponies were fed a certain amount based on the amount of wood they collected. Even a small amount of missing wood would constitute an extreme loss of food for the slave-ponies. Shining Armor thought of this and tried his best to convince the ponies that it wouldn't take long for the plan to all work out. At the risk of starving to death, all of the slave-ponies decided to go through with the escape plan.

The following day, the slave-ponies started to smuggle wood down to the riverbank to build rafts. They could only take wood down to the river when the guard-ponies rotated stations, which happened once a day during lunch. Therefore everyday, somepony had to go without lunch just to continue with the plan. This ended up being a different pony every day. Their main job was to lug a small amount of wood down to the riverbank, as well as (every few days) sneak behind the guard-ponies' supply shack and steal a bit of rope. This would be used later to lash the raft together. Only the smallest and stealthiest ponies were picked to steal rope, for obvious reasons. The goal was to build two rafts because of the sheer size of the group. But one member still remained uninformed of the slave-ponies' plan: Harmony, who still was held up in solitary confinement. The question forever lingered in Shining Armor's mind: How do we get her out of here? The problem with Harmony learning the slave-ponies' plan was that she had no contact with the slave-ponies whatsoever. The only way that the slave-ponies could free her was if they managed to get her cell unguarded, and had enough time to find a key and open the lock. How hard could it be? Shining Armor thought to himself sarcastically.

* * *

The day had finally come. After the longest month of Shining Armor's life, the day had finally come.

During lunch the previous day, the last slave-pony brought the last bundle of needed wood down to the riverbank. As the slave-ponies lay awake in their cells that morning, Shining Armor asked the wood carrier from the day before.

“How much wood do we have at the riverbank?” Shining Armor whispered across the chamber.

“Enough. I've already lashed the rafts together. They're ready to go.”

Shining Armor could barely contain himself.

“Perfect.” he whispered.

It was time to go over the next phase of the plan. The next part of the plan was to find a way to get Harmony out of her cell. This would not be easy, considering the amount of precautions that had been put in place to keep her in. There was only one possibility as far as Shining Armor was concerned: Cause such a ruckus running away from Canterlot that all of the guards would become preoccupied with the slave-ponies and not notice that he had been inside the castle the entire time. He would find a key, release Harmony, and bring her with him to the rafts. Therefore, all of the slave-ponies would leave via the river, and he and Harmony would be back together after a long separation -again. Tomorrow, thought Shining Armor. Tomorrow I escape from Canterlot -again.

* * *

During lunch that day. That's when everything would fall into place. Everypony knew what their role was, when to do it, and how to do it.

Shining Armor currently was the only one left in his cell. That morning when the guards led the slave-ponies out of their cells, Shining Armor had followed them, but as they left the chamber, he had quietly slipped out of line and returned to his cell, where he knew he would not be spotted. All he could do from then on was wait for the guards to sound the alarm when the escape began. The waiting was dreadful. Hours passed. He feared that the slaves had abandoned the plan.

But then he heard the tell-tale sound.

The one he had been waiting for. One long blast from the kingdom's warning horn. Followed by another.

Shining Armor's heart raced. Escape time!

He carefully left his cell and started walking toward the area where he knew that the guards had been keeping Harmony. He had studied this walk many times, and knew that he would have a clear path to the cell. He found the cell, but was faced with one of the biggest padlocks he had ever seen. He dumbly looked around for a key, and found that the guards just left it hanging right next to the cell. Well that's a bad idea, Shining Armor thought. He grabbed the key and opened the lock to find Harmony sleeping on the floor. He walked up and shook her firmly.

“Don't hurt me!” Harmony screamed, expecting another visit from the guard-ponies.

“Shh! Don't let the guards hear you!” Shining Armor whispered to Harmony. “We need to leave now!”

Upon realizing it was Shining Armor, Harmony relaxed.

“What's going on?” Harmony questioned, bewildered.

“No time to explain. Just follow me. Quietly.”

Shining Armor practically dragged Harmony out of the cell and into the halls of the castle. All of the guards must be outside, Shining Armor thought. The empty halls made it easy for the two of them to make it to one of the doors leading outside.

Shining Armor stopped Harmony in front of the door.

“As soon as I open this door, I want you to run right behind me. Don't slow down. Okay?”

“Okay. I still want an explanation later, though.”

“Everything will make sense once you start running. Ready?”

Harmony nodded back at him.

Shining Armor threw open the door and instantly started to run toward the river. Harmony was right behind him. What they saw next totally took them by surprise.

Guard-ponies were every where, but they were too focused on the other escaping slave-ponies that they didn't pay enough attention to Shining Armor and Harmony until it was too late. The run from the door to the rafts was just too short for the guards to catch them. The other slave-ponies had already pushed the rafts into the water

“Hey,” one of the slave-ponies screamed “it's Shining Armor! And his friend too!”

“Run!”

They all started yelling at him as the raft was beginning to float downriver. Shining Armor was running as fast as his legs could take him. He was almost at the raft. He looked back and his worst nightmare was coming true in front of his very eyes.

Harmony had stumbled and broken an ankle when she fell.

The guard-ponies were on her instantly.

They had no mercy. They ran up and drove a pike.

Straight through her heart.

She was dead instantly.

“No!” Shining Armor spun around and tried to run back to save her, but he was restrained by one of the slave-ponies.

“If you want to stay alive, you'll stay with us. Come on!”

The slave-pony practically threw Shining Armor onto the raft and pushed the raft away from the riverbank. Shining Armor was being pinned to the raft by three other ponies. There was no going back.

Shining Armor instantly broke down. Why? Why couldn't it have been me? He knew that he couldn't save her, and yet he felt as if it was his fault. In reality, it was his fault for her being dragged into this whole mess in the first place. If Harmony had never followed him into the Everfree Forest, she would still be back at her farm in Ponyville, and he would still have a chance to see her again. But not anymore. Shining Armor felt as destroyed as Harmony's mutilated heart. He felt guilty for matters that he could not even control. If only she would be able to relish in the victory of escape as I will.

Shining Armor just cried silently on the raft. Why did it have to be her? Let it be any of the slave-ponies, or even me! Hell, you could kill Princess Celestia! I'll get back at that bitch Cadence. Just wait. Shining Armor will be back...

With new motivation, Shining Armor got up and recollected himself. He would be back in Canterlot soon. With some new friends. Shining Armor grinned to himself. I'll be back alright. Back to get revenge.

Comments

[Elusive]

Here you go! *squee*

[BoundlessImagination]

Oh my, evil Cadence!

[Madeline L-Equine]

Just... no.

This contradicts canon in SO many ways that you need the Alternate Universe tag if you want this to be taken seriously.
1. Shining Armor and Cadence were sweethearts for a long time, stemming from when she was Twilight's foalsitter.
2. There is no slavery in Equestria. Absolutely none.

Also, Harmony is a throwaway character that gets fridged in the second chapter, just to provide a motive for the male main character to want revenge? <sarcasm>That's not extremely cliche at all.</sarcasm>

[Elusive]

1357204 Oh well. Ever heard of imagination? I thought that's what fanfiction was all about!

[Elusive]

1357204 I challenge you to write a better version.

[Madeline L-Equine]

1360010
All I said was that if you're going to slap Canon in the face, add the Alternate Universe tag. That's what it's for.

And including a female OC with zero personality who only contributes her death to the story as a revenge motif for the strong male main character IS cliche. It's as cliche as it gets. Don't believe me? Here's a website devoted to exactly that: Women in Refrigerators.

Give Harmony some personality and time to be developed. Let the audience grow to care about her before you kill her off. As it stands, it's not even sad when she dies, just extremely predictable.