Home Sweet Home

by Wheller

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Corporal Elliot Southerland dropped Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell of in front of Carousel Boutique, He popped his head out of the tank to wave the children goodbye, giving them a “yar!” as he drove the VC Firefly back to where he was supposed to be parked. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell waved back. It had been the most fun that they’d had in a very long time.

Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom stepped inside, giggling loudly.

“Sweetie Bell? Is that you?” Rarity called out from another room.

“Yeah! Apple Bloom is here too!” Sweetie Bell said, she crossed over to the kitchen sink and got herself a glass of water. “You want some water Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“Yes please!” Apple Bloom said. Sweetie Bell got her friend one too.

Sweetie Bell picked up a small plastic bottle and unscrewed the lid, dumping a single pill out and popping it into her mouth when Apple Bloom had her head turned, followed by a drink of water, when she quickly tucked the bottle away. A bright smile formed on Sweetie Bells face as she went over and gave Apple Bloom a hug.

“I missed spending time with you and Scootaloo when I was in the hospital,” Sweetie Bell said. “Promise me we’re gonna be best friends forever?”

“Uh duh!” Apple Bloom said hugging her friend back. “‘Course we are! Well ah gotta go home befer Applejack gets mad at me fer bein’ out late. Ah’ll see ya tomorrow.”

“Bye bye Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Bell called out as Apple Bloom went out the front door.

Rarity walked into the room and smiled at her younger sister. “How was your day today Sweetie?” she asked.

“It was super! I had so much fun!” Sweetie Bell called out.

“I’m so glad to hear it!” Rarity said. “See? I told you that you would be fine without your medicine.”

“Yeah... you were right!” Sweetie Bell said with a grin.

“Well, I’m glad you had fun, but I need to get back to work, there are leftovers in the refrigerator if you get hungry,” Rarity said as she went back into the other room.

Sweetie Bell had been lying through her teeth.

...

Clink!

Princess Luna opened her eyes, and was somewhat surprised to find that it was dark. Dark as in the absence of light, not dark as in night time, worse still, when she tried to move, she discovered that she couldn’t move more than a metre from her position. She was chained to a wall.

Chains? Really? She thought to herself as she used her magic to bust the shackles open. They popped off without effort.

Well, problem solved. Now onto the next one, why was she here?

And then she remembered.

Tia!

Luna snorted in anger. How dare her sister try and lock her up! Celestia had been acting like a selfish little filly when Luna defied her, allowing the kangaroo XX Corps to retreat into Equestria rather than face utter annihilation. Luna’s horn lit up the room; she was definitely in the dungeons of the Canterlot palace.

Something was wrong though. Celestia knew that these dungeons couldn’t hold her. There were no magic dampening fields to keep her in, and even then, Luna had other tricks that she could try to get out. Clearly, Celestia wasn’t concerned with keeping her in here.

Luna burst through the door into a torch lit hallway. No guards, clearly not trying to keep her in... unless of course, that nopony had to try and keep her in.

Luna knew that the dungeon complex of the castle was extremely large, and the exits were not marked, a pony could spend a very long time trying to get out. She was worried about the others. Particularly Ambassador Goyle, Luna assumed that Celestia would leave him alone, harming him would bring the full wraith of South Island down upon them, which was exactly the opposite of what Celestia wanted, but then again, that was assuming that Celestia would be acting rationally.

Luna decided that she wasn’t going to worry about it right now. Her primary focus was escaping. She cast a compass spell, which pointed north out to her, she turned to the north and ran along the corridors, hoping that if she could maintain a northerly direction, she would eventually find an exit. This however proved to be difficult, as there were many forking hallways, many of them dead ended abruptly, whoever had designed this place had wanted to make escape a futile attempt.

Luna continued to run down hallways, and startled herself upon tripping over the skeletal remains of a prisoner who had escaped his cell, only to be lost in the endless maze until he or she starved to death.

Luna examined the skeleton closely. It had been here for a very, very long time as all the flesh had been stripped away. Around the skeletons neck was a pendant. Luna removed it from their neck and looked at it closely. It was incredibly dusty, but after wiping the dust off, it revealed an inscription.

Long Live Cromwell!

Cromwell... Luna had heard that name before, but she wasn’t sure where.

Not important right now. Escape.

Luna turned down the hallway and continued along the path, she was moving in a westerly direction, and hoped that she’d find a pathway that would take her to the north.

She rounded the corner, only to find a dead end.

Now she was getting angry. This was ridiculous and she’d had enough of it. Luna let out a scream in frustration and found herself unlocking a special ability that she’d forgotten that she had.

Anypony locked in the dungeons would have heard a loud howl and an angry clicking noise.

Tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka!

A cloud of purple smoke funnelled itself through the cracks between bricks flowing upwards through levels of the dungeon.

The purple smoke found itself in hallway in the castle proper, and it soon reformed into Princess Luna, dropping her down onto the floor, she was exhausted, panting heavily as she lay on the floor.

No, couldn’t afford to stop now, had to keep going. Luna forced herself to her hooves and dashed along the hallway for an open window. With a strong leap, she dived out the window and opened her wings. Luna was flying out above Canterlot. She pointed herself towards Ponyville and hoped she had the energy to make it there.

She was halfway through Whitetail Wood when she couldn’t go any further. She lost consciousness and fell.

...

Rainbow Dash was flying several hundred metres above town, with a pair of binoculars, looking to the northwest. Making sure that nothing was on its way here that they didn’t want.

“Rainbow Dash?!” called a voice from down below. Rainbow Dash looked to see Sergeant Percy Tebbs, the tank commander of the M3 Light Tank, Lord Stuart. Sergeant Tebbs was practically their closest kangaroo friend. Rainbow Dash flew to the ground to meet the kangaroo.

“Sup Perce?” Rainbow Dash asked him.

“Got a present for ya!” Tebbs said. He produced a pistol out from behind him. Rainbow Dash recognised it immediately. It was the 10mm Pistol that she’d carried during her flash forwards, but had never actually fired.

“Thank you!” Rainbow Dash said accepting the pistol, biting down on the hand grip and taking it in her teeth.

“You’re welcome!” Tebbs said. “Took a bit of work getting that for you, Revolvers are standard issue for the South Island Army, but I figured you’d appreciate something with a higher ammunition capacity.”

Rainbow Dash smiled at the kangaroo for the gift, nearly dropping the pistol in the process.

That was when they heard a loud crash from the direction of Whitetail Wood. Sound carried very well from that forest, as they had found out before.

Rainbow Dash leapt into the air to investigate.

“Wait! Rainbow! We’ll come with you!” Tebbs called out after her, but Rainbow hadn’t heard.

Rainbow flew at high speed towards the source of the crash, it had been easy to find from the air, and Rainbow had good eyes. She dived down towards the source and landed softly on the ground.

“Prinphses Loorah?” Rainbow Dash said with a mouth full of gun. Indeed, lying before her was the unconscious form of Equestria’s younger princess. Rainbow Dash slipped her 10mm pistol into her saddlebag and picked up the princess and put her on her back and turned to walk back towards Ponyville.

A few minutes later, the Lord Stuart rolled up along the path; Tebbs had his head out of the hatch, looking at her. “Crazy pony! Haven’t you learned not to run off anywhere without support?”

Rainbow shrugged, and Tebbs hopped out of the tank to help load the unconscious princess onto the back of the tank. Rainbow Dash crawled up with her and set in for the ride back to Ponyville.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

So that is how Celestia 'dealt' with Cromwell, is it? Her negotiating style leaves something to be desired.