The Search For The Everglade

by Colt_Flick

A Meeting With Royalty

The Search for The Everglade

"What has he told you?"

"Nothing, your highness."

"Nothing? You've been in here for three hours!"

The regally dressed Unicorn stamped her hoof on the ground angrily, glaring at her royal torturer before turning her attention to the one tied up in the seat, a Pegasus scout they had shot down just outside the city.

"Are you planning some sort of invasion?" The princess asked seriously, leaning in towards the Pegasus and glaring into his eyes, "You're miles from home with trail rations and a map, where were you going?"

"I'm not telling you anything." he replies, not moving from his seat, "...You think you can scare me with your magic and your crown, but I know the unicorns aren't doing any better off than we are."

Princess Platinum took a step back, just listening to what the scout had to say.

"You can torture me and you can break my wings, and you can throw me to the griffins for all I care... but you are not going to find out why I'm here, I swore an oath."

The Pegasus fell quiet, his short, dirty black mane barely covering his eyes as he waited to hear his fate.

"Oh you Pegasi... if there's one thing you can count on it's your loyalty to your arrogant commander." Princess Platinum chuckled, causing the Pegasus to look up at her with a confused expression. "Do you really think we are so brutish and barbaric? We are unicorns, my feathered friend... you'll find we have better ways to get our prisoners to talk than by beating them within an inch of their lives."

Princess Platinum gracefully lowered her hoof to the ground and tapped it twice on the stone floor, causing the Pegasus to flinch and turn his attention to the torturer. The torturer returned his gaze from behind the black mask he wore, but made no movements. Instead the door at the end of the room opened and a pony came in with a large tray of various fruit cut up into slices, the Pegasus stared in awe.

"It's all seed and hay up in your cloud towns, isn't it Pegasus? No where you can plant trees," The princess began with a sly smile, taking an apple segment with her magic and hovering it just in front of his face. "Tell us all you know... and you'll eat like a king."

"It's poisoned!" The Pegasus replied quickly, trying to convince himself of this, "You wouldn't just give me food, not with the famine plaguing every race... your mind games will not-"

But before he could continue, Princess Platinum shoved the apple segment into her mouth, chewing it a few times before swallow, she gave a smug smile over at the scout, "...Delicious... perhaps I'll have another."

"Wait." The Pegasus spoke up. Princess Platinum turned her attention to him as he gave a defeated sigh. "We recently raided a griffin settlement that had been causing us trouble. We burned a lot of the nests, but it's reported that some of the nests still had green leaves in them, as well as food. Those weren't Evergreen leaves either, those were from apple trees, or oak trees."

Princess Platinum's eyes widened as she heard the news, dropping the banana segment she was holding and instead using her magic to choke the scout, lifting him out of his seat and into the air. The torturer moved to intervene but stopped the moment the Princess raised her hoof to him. "Talk!" she hissed angrily.

The scout struggled in the air, as the ropes binding him came lose his gripped his neck, "I was told to fly south-west! that was the direction of their hunting grounds, I was to find the land and map it out! Commander Hurricane calls it the Everglade!" he explained between gasps, kicking his hooves around as the world began to seem distant.

Princess Platinum watched as the Pegasus' face began to turn blue, waiting for just the right moment before dropping him. "Good... torturer, lock him away, he may have more information for us. Give him the hay from his bag... that is all."
The scout landed with a crash on his chair, rolling around for a moment before pushing himself up to his feet, "W-wait... you said I'd eat like a king if I told you my mission."

"So I did..." the Princess replied with a smile, "...but there is no king here, you featherbrained fool. It's only by my generosity that you're eating at all." she paused for a moment, "Aren't you going to thank me for my generosity, you cowardly, snivelling worm?"

The scout glared at her, opening his mouth to speak his mind only for the torturer to give him a swift buck to the side to knock him down. The scout let out a pained cough and looked up at the Princess weakly, a mixture of hatred and fear in his eyes.

"Well? ...Thank me!"

"...Thank you... your majesty."

"Hmph... there's just no pleasing some ponies." the Princess remarked, leaving the scout to the hooves of the torturer, the light fading from the room as she slammed the door behind her.