The Council of High Mages are up to something. They are keeping a dark secret down there in the dungeon and Clover must uncover it. Before it's too late.
With rumors rising of multiple break outs in the royal castle's dungeon, Clover takes it on herself to investigate. But she becomes more curious when she realizes the Council of High Mages are keeping something dangerous in the dungeon.
Special thanks to:
The great ZettaiDullahan for the amazing cover he provided for this piece for free.
The guards held formation, their charged horns aiming at the massive metal door. A loud banging could be heard from the other side and with each followed the flinging of bolts from the hinges. Once, twice, every couple of seconds another loud bang would echo through the hallway.
From the group of unicorn guards, a robed red stallion stepped forward. He levitated a silver key, but before sliding it into the keyhole, he glanced back at the guards.
A shivering guard spoke up. “S-should we really do this, sir? Won't he just get tired, e-eventually?”
“No.” The red stallion shook his head. “The beast must be put in its place, otherwise it will find the courage to finally break open that door.”
Three more bangs came right after one another, louder and more furious than before. The front line took a step back, terror crawling up their spines and their legs trembling.
“On my mark!” The red stallion shouted as he slit the silver key into the keyhole.
The door immediately slammed open as the beast let out a blood-chilling scream.
“NOW!”
All the unicorns shot their beams at once. The blinding blast of magical energy illuminated the pitch-black room beyond the threshold. The beast’s tortured screams echoed through the halls and the guards closed their eyes, none daring to look at the horror ahead. But the red stallion faced it with his eyes wide open.
The beams pierced the beast's flesh, vaporising it, only for it to regenerate right before their eyes.
“Know your place, you monstrous abomination!” The red stallion joined the rest and blasted the beast.
After pushing the twitching mass of misshapen flesh back into its cell, the red stallion closed the door and locked it once again.
Sweat dripped from every guard’s face. Their breaths were still labored when suddenly another guard dashed towards them from down the hall. "Prisoners on the loose!" He shouted. "Prisoners on the loose!"
Without hesitation, the red stallion turned back to the exhausted guards. “Count the prisoners! Find those that are missing. They couldn't have gone far.”
The guards galloped away without another word, the red stallion turning back to the giant door.
“And you better save these rampages for later. I have big plans for you.”
The young hooded mare knocked three times on the door, patiently waiting for a response.
“Come in.” A voice from within responded after a few seconds, the door magically inching open.
The snow-white coated mare stepped inside, searching for the resident of the room, wondering where her mentor was. Until she turned upwardsand found him floating above her head.
“Welcome, Clover.” Star Swirl said as he floated away towards his bookshelves. “Need something?”
“Hello, master.” Clover followed her floating mentor around the room. “Have you heard of what happened last night?”
“Hmmm, I don’t believe so.” Star Swirl rubbed his beard with a hoof and dipped a quill in the ink he was levitating with him.
“There has been a breakout attempt in the dungeon.”
Star Swirl stopped and clip-clopped down a flight of seemingly invisible stairs to the floor “What was the outcome?”
“The council reports that they have captured every prisoner.”
“Then there is nothing to worry about.” Star Swirl scanned over his notes to see where he left off.
Clover shook her head and stepped forward. “I’ve realised there has been a pattern in the reports of these breakouts. I was hoping that you’d have more informa—”
“Do not worry about the duties of the council, Clover. They know what they are doing.”
Clover frowned. “But there seems to be something that the Council is hiding from the princess. And it seems even you, a member of the council, wasn't notified of these breakouts, master.”
“Clover!” Star Swirl turned back to face his young pupil. “I don’t have time for your conspiracy theories. I am never informed of what problems they can manage. They know I do not take kindly to my time being wasted. If you have nothing else to ask, you may leave. I’m on the verge of a discovery.” He frowned deeply and pointed his hoof to the door.
Clover nodded, her ears dropped, and she trotted back the way she came. “Yes, master.”
Before Clover could push the door open with her hoof, Star Swirl called her. “Wait.”
Turning back to her master, he asked: “How has your replication spell practice been?”
“I believe I have got it down pretty well now.” Clover nodded.
Star Swirl levitated a book from the top shelf of his room. “Show me.” He commanded as he trotted closer to his pupil.
Clover took the book in her magic. After a glance at the dark leather cover, she took a deep breath and cast the spell. Dim, white light whirred around the levitated book and consumed it for a brief moment, only to disappear soon after with two books dropping to the floor.
Star Swirl levitated the two books and skimmed through their pages. The pages shuffled rapidly, filling the room of the great wizard with the sound of flipping pieces of paper.
“Well done.” Star Swirl said. “They’re identical in every way possible.”
A bright smile formed on Clover’s face. “Thank yo—” But before she could finish, her mentor had already turned back to his notes. The young mare realised it was time to leave the great wizard alone and attend to her other duties. Her head dropped down in disappointment.
Clover left the wizard’s tower and embraced the unexpected cold weather outside. The breeze made the young mare shiver for a second. “It’s usually not cold at this time of the year.” She thought to herself, but didn’t give it any more consideration. Shaking the thoughts from her head, she trotted towards the castle.
The townsfolk were attending their stalls and stores, young unicorns were playing around the town square, and the guards patrolled around the shops as usual. Except, there were more guards around than usual.
“Perhaps there is more truth to the rumours than Star Swirl believes.” Clover mused as she continued her path. She passed the shops and houses of the main square, greeting those she saw on the way but not engaging in conversation as she had to be somewhere important.
“THIEF! THIEF!” A shopkeeper shouted, grabbing the attention of everypony in the town square, including Clover. A hooded figure was dashing away with an apple in their mouth, slipping through the crowd as the council guards set off after them. As the thief glanced back at the guards chasing them, they galloped directly into Clover, sending both of them to the ground.
When Clover opened her eyes again, the guards had caught up. But something more interesting gravitated her eyes. The thief that just hit her. With his hood removed, he was revealed to be an earth pony stallion.
A crowd gathered around them, circling and whispering to one another.
“An earth pony, in here?” “Must be a spy”
“Would make sense that those earth dwellers sent a spy with no supply to sustain himself, the fools.”
A council guard zapped the brown earth pony with their magic. The earth pony let out a grunt and collapsed onto the ground as he was trying to stand up.
“A pesky earth pony thief.” The council guard said as she stepped on the stolen apple. “Nothing to worry about! ” She shouted at the crowd, silencing them. “We’ll put this thief in the dungeons for the rest of his life.”
The crowd cantered and cursed at the earth pony. Clover, however, remained silent. Observing.
“NO!” The earth pony attempted to crawl away as the guards approached him. “NOT THERE AGAIN! I WAS JUST HUNGRY! PLEASE, I WANT TO GO HOME!”
Clover’s eyes widened. But it seemed the rest of the crowd hadn’t noticed what she noticed.
A council guard planted a hoof in the earth pony’s face before he could say anything else. “Shut your mouth!”
A couple of bloody teeth were spat from the earth pony’s mouth onto the ground. But that didn’t stop the earth pony’s pleading.
“H-help. P-ple-ease. I’m innocent. N-not the dun—.” It was then that the guard planted another hoof in his face.
“I said SHUT UP!”
Both guards levitated him and started trotting towards the castle. Meanwhile, the crowd tapped their hooves on the ground and cheered as the thief was brought to justice. Everypony, except Clover, who was staring at the dizzy eyes of the earth pony as the guards took him away. To be thrown in the dungeons for the rest of their lives, only for a single bite of an apple. Was this truly justice?
The guards stood tall next to the princess’ throne, the monarch herself sitting atop it with her hoof under her chin. Letting out a yawn, Princess Platinum levitated her sceptre around.
“Princess?”
Princess Platinum flinched at the voice and lost her concentration, dropping her sceptre onto one of her guard’s heads, the unfortunate guard dropping to the ground.
The princess leaned forward to check on him, but there wasn’t much she could do. “What is it?” She frowned and turned her attention to the guard standing in front of her throne.
The guard gulped before responding. “Clover the Clever wishes to see you, your highness.”
“Oh.” The frown and anger faded away from the princess’ face. “Tell her to come in.”
“Right away, your highness.” The guard bowed briefly before trotting away.
Princess Platinum leaned over again to check up on her guard. It seemed like he was still passed out. She looked around before levitating her sceptre back to her side, covering her tracks. “He’ll be fine.” She told herself.
Within seconds, Clover trotted towards her majesty and bowed down.
“What is it you wish to speak with me about, Clover, my clever advisor.” Princess Platinum inquired.
Clover raised her hooded head, revealing her white face and green mane. “Your highness, our negotiations with the other tribes have been met with difficulties. They are requesting for their prisoners here to be freed and are questioning our system of government. Considering that the leaders of the other tribes are always present in these negotiations, they are starting to lose their trust in us due to your absence.”
Princess Platinum rolled her eyes, disinterested in the matter, turning to examine her reflection in the purple orb of her sceptre.
“I suggest that you attend the next meeting in a couple of days to reassure other tribes of our reputa—”
“WHAT?” Princess Platinum jumped down from her throne, striding up to her advisor. “Why should I waste my time with those wild pegasi and the unmannered earth ponies? I have much more important duties to partake in.” She adjusted her bejewelled crown on top of her mane and continued. “And who would go on such a long trip? It’s exhausting.” The princess turned away and trotted back to her throne.
Clover thought to herself for a few seconds. Princess Platinum's presence was essential to the next meeting of the tribes, and she had to convince her somehow.
“Then, you are admitting you are weak?” Clover hid her face under her cloak and grinned.
“WHAT?” Princess Platinum was on the last step to her throne when she heard this and immediately turned back, frowning at her most loyal advisor. She almost commanded her guard to arrest Clover for daring to say such a thing.
“I think I forgot to mention, the other tribes believe you are too scared and weak to show up to ordinary meetings such as these. We assured them our princess is not such, and that you are the bravest and the most intelligent leader that has ever ruled.”
Princess Platinum’s frown slowly gave its place to a proud smile.
“But…” Clover paused, making sure she still had her Majesty’s attention.
“But?”
“Too bad you can not attend the next meeting to let those uncultured ponies realise your great leadership.” Clover said “It truly is a shame.”
Princess Platinum rubbed her chin, wondering how the other tribes would admire her when they saw her. “They’ll be amazed by my negotiating skills; they wouldn’t dare to speak up.” She thought to herself.
“Wait!” She said, after which, clearing her throat: “I, Princess Platinum, will attend the next tribe meetings to address these issues personally and demonstrate my speaking and negotiation skills to help the ambassadors learn something.”
“It will be an honour to have you with our ambassadors, your highness.” Clovers smiled and bowed down once more.
Just then, a guard entered the throne room and bowed down. “Your highness.”
“Speak up.” Princess Platinum commanded as she sat back on her throne.
“Head Counsellor Crimson Light is here, as you requested.”
“Tell him to come in.”
The guard bowed once more and trotted away to the door.
This seemed like it was Clover's best chance to bring up her findings about the dungeon keeping of the council, as both the head counselor and the princess herself were present.
Moments later, a red stallion in robes trotted inside and bowed before his princess.
“Your highness.” Said the old, bearded stallion.
Clover stepped aside, letting the old counsellor and the princess discuss matters without her presence being noticeable.
“Report of today's activities, counsellor.” Commanded Princess Platinum.
Crimson Light took out a list from his robe and began. “The moon was lowered, and the sun was raised successfully. Peace was kept throughout the city, with no crime taking place. And we have found exceptional talents in a couple of younglings of the academy that hopefully may graduate to be a part of the council in the future.”
The princess smiled at the news and clapped her hooves together. “Great. That is all great. You may now leave, counsellor.”
“WAIT!”
Both the princess and the head counsellor turned their heads to the young hooded mare stepping out of the shadow in the corner of the room.
“Clover!” Princess Platinum's eyes widened. “You’re still here?”
Clover bowed before her princess once again. “My apologies, your highness, but there are things I would like to address, now that the head counsellor is here with us.”
Crimson Light raised an eyebrow and looked Clover up and down. “You’re Star Swirl’s pupil, aren’t you?”
Clover turned back at the red stallion who stared into her eyes judgingly. “Yes.”
“Hmph.”
“What is it that you wish to discuss, Clover?” Princess Platinum asked as she held onto her sceptre with her hoof.
Clover took a deep breath and began. “There have been numerous rumours that some prisoners managed to escape in the dungeon’s riot last night. Is that true, Head Counsellor Crimson Light?”
Crimson Light’s eyes narrowed as he frowned. “No. We recaptured all the prisoners before they could sneak out. We counted them all and every single one is currently in their cell. And I find it quite insulting that you believe some baseless rumours and dare to accuse me and the council of such irresponsibility.”
Clover stepped back as Crimson Light towered above her. But she swallowed her fear and continued.
“Counsellor, based on my research, there have been rumours about at least one breakout every month, at the same time, the amount of guards in the city has doubled. May I as—”
“AS I SAID.” Crimson Light cut Clover off. “These rumours are nothing but baseless conspiracy theories made up by those who oppose our princess and our nation, the other tribes. And who are you to dare question me in such a manner, filly?” Crimson Light eyes were boiling with anger as he raised his voice, echoing in the throne room.
“COUNSELLOR!” Princess Platinum warned, grabbing Crimson Light’s attention. “Clover may not be a part of the council, but she is still my most trusted advisor. You will not speak to her in such a manner.”
“Hmph. Apologies, your honour. However, I wouldn’t put much faith in what a weakling proposes.” The old counsellor stepped back and let Clover have more space. “I can assure you that neither did a prisoner escape, nor are any of those rumours true. The reason as to why the guards are sometimes doubled around the town is due to us realising the pegasi are up to shady activities within our sky domain. The council is only doing what we must to keep our nation safe.”
Even though the counsellor’s words sounded convincing at first to Clover, she remembered what she had witnessed earlier, in the town square. She was certain. One prisoner had escaped.
“The—”
“ENOUGH.” Princess Platinum stood up from her throne. “Now that this matter is resolved, you may leave, counsellor.”
But Clover wasn’t finished. “Bu—”
“CLOVER!” Princess Platinum shook her head at Clover, signifying that she had heard enough.
Crimson Light bowed one last time and trotted out of the room.
“Clover?” The princess called again.
“Yes, your highness?”
“I do not want to hear of these speculations again. The council has proven itself to my bloodline countless times. I trust them as much as I trust you. Do you understand?”
Clover wanted to speak up again. Perhaps if she could tell her what she saw and— no. She had lost her chance. “Yes, your highness.”
“Good. Oh, and since you’re still here.” Princess Platinum stepped down from her throne and stood next to Clover. “I had a dream last night about… something. Argh, I can’t quite put my hoof on it. Can you use your memory seeing spell so I can know what it was?”
Clover rubbed her chin and wondered. “You don’t recall the dream yourself?”
“Not quite… clear? I know there's a thing, but I can't recall what.”
Clover pondered for a second. The spell required the host to recall the memory somewhat clearly for it to be seen. Not to mention, she wasn’t certain whether dreams or such counted as one's memories or not.
“I… doubt I can, your highness. That’s not really how the spell works.”
“Hurry up, Clover. I know you can do it. At least try it. It’s been on my mind the whole day.”
Clover looked away under her hood. “As you wish, your highness.”
Princess Platinum sat down and closed her eyes as Clover took off her hood to let out her dizzy green mane. Her horn glowed with a bright light as she cast the spell silently. “Shine bright and illuminate the night to find. In the past, the memories of this mind.”
Clover’s horn touched the princess' forehead, focused on finding the dream in the vast, endless sea of the princess' mind. Through massive waves of memory and strong winds of feelings, she sailed the boat of her spell until she found what she sought.
Clover stepped back and shook her head to make the slight headache fade away.
Princess Platinum opened her eyes, noticing Clover was no longer channelling the spell. “So, did it work? Did you see anything?” She leaped in front of Clover with haste.
“Ah!” Clover almost jumped when she saw her princess right in her face the moment she opened her eyes. “I-I-I... Well- well, I saw… something.” She said as she lowered her hood again.
“But what?” Princess raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side.
“I-I don’t know… All I know is that there were pink clouds and… something. I can’t quite recall.”
“I do remember the pink clouds too, but I wanted to remember what that thing was.” The princess sighed and shook her head. “I suppose if I sleep on it, it will come to me.”
“Perhaps, your highness.”
Even though Clover couldn’t help her princess answer the question that was bothering her, she managed to find an answer to whether her spell could see dreams or not. She wished to share this find with her mentor, but it was rather late. Not to mention, Star Swirl didn’t wish to be disturbed.
Clover started trotting towards the castle gates to return home, as she had completed her duties for the day, had read her daily book in the morning, and had addressed the matte— No, she had not. Clover stopped and pondered the thief she saw earlier that day. Could it be that she was wrong? Could it be that she was overthinking these rumours? Should she have left these thoughts and buried them? No. She was sure. She was certain that something wasn’t lining up, and she had to get to the bottom of it.
“What’s the news, Armored Hoof? Are all the prisoners recaptured?” A mare asked.
Clover halted in place and stuck herself to the corner of the wall, listening to the conversation taking place on the other side.
“Shhh! Quiet! You want to get us into trouble?” A stallion’s voice responded.
Clover carefully peeked around the corner and saw two council guards talking to one another. She quickly stepped back and swivelled her ears to listen carefully. Even though they had started to talk quietly, she could still make out what they were saying.
“C’mon. Nopony is around.”
“If you say so. But I don’t know. I’m positive a few of the prisoners that managed to break out last night were pegasi. I doubt we caught those.”
“I saw Polished Helmet bring in a couple of pegasi though.”
Clover’s eyes widened.
“Huh, I guess we did catch them.”
“So, what are you up to tonight?” The mare whispered.
“I should be keeping watch on the dungeon entrance. What about you, Swift Shot?”
“Well… I’m off tonight, and I was hoping that you’d have some spare time to share.” The mare’s tone changed from friendly to something more than friendly.
After a pause, the stallion responded. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, you know what I mean.”
“Look, I-I should be going to my po—”
“Shhh.” The mare’s voice cut him off softly. “It’ll be quick. Nopony will notice.”
“Look, I woul—” The stallion's voice was cut off, so Clover couldn’t make out what happened.
“How about now?” The mare giggled.
Soon after, Clover heard the sound of hoof steps heading away from her. Peeking around the corner, she saw them both trotting away. And on the stallion's flank, she saw a silver keychain dangling.
A thought crossed her mind. If nopony was going to help her find out what was going on in the dungeon, she simply had to do it herself. So Clover followed the two guards in hopes of finding an opportunity to fetch the key.
After a few minutes of Clover silently stalking the guards, the mare dragged herself and the stallion to a door and opened it. They both stepped in, giggling in the dead of night. Clover stepped closer and realised the door was only half-closed. From the small peep-hole she had, she saw the armor of the guards drop on the floor alongside the keychain. Ignoring the erotic sounds coming from inside, Clover levitated the keychain, slowly dragging it out from under the clothing and armor plates, right out the half-closed door. Desperate to get away and head to the dungeons, Clover turned around but halted soon after.
“What if they notice the keys missing?” She asked herself. Rubbing her chin and pondering the situation for a second, an idea came to her mind. She levitated the keys in front of her and lit up her horn. Dim light enveloped the keys and consumed them for a brief moment. Soon after, Clover was levitating two sets of keys.
She silently trotted back to the door and put back one set of keys. From what she could hear, it sounded as if the guards were going to take a bit longer than they had previously agreed on.
Without any more stumbling blocks, Clover trotted to the dungeon’s entrance on the first floor of the castle. As she expected, the guard was not in front of the giant wooden door. They were busy doing something else.
The door was four times Clover’s size. Two torches hung beside it, granting a weak light, and on the left side was a massive keyhole.
Clover looked around, making sure nopony was nearby, before taking out the keychain from her cloak. There were various keys hanging from the ring that looked rather identical, but one of them stood out, being significantly larger than the rest. She put it in the keyhole and twisted it. After hearing a clank, she took the key out and pulled the door open. The door’s rusted hinges ground and squeaked before it revealed a staircase descending into absolute darkness.
Clover’s fur stood still as she gazed into the abyss at the end of the staircase. She shook it off and, with a deep breath, took the first step. The cold wind whispered around her ears. She already wanted to go back. There was a reason only the council was allowed to go down there, right? She should have just gone back to her room and— No. This wasn’t the time to back out. This was her chance to find out what was down there. She wouldn’t get such an opportunity every day.
Clover lit her horn, closed the door, and continued trotting down the staircase. For a long time, all she could hear was the sound of her heart beating. The absolute silence was driving her crazy, and the stairs didn’t seem to end.
“What if I get caught?” Clover wondered. “What will the Princess think? What will my master think? Will they throw me in here?”
“Stop it, Clover.” She reasoned with herself. “You can’t get caught. Focus on what you’re trying to do here.”
To her surprise, there were no more stairs, but a dark-bricked hallway, lit up by torches on the walls and many cells on each side. This was it. She was here.
Clover turned her light off and stepped forward, looking into the cells. She saw some earth ponies and pegasi, all sleeping. There were no beds; all of them were lying down on the cold floor. As she was looking at each cell, she recognised one of the prisoners. A brown coloured earth pony, lying on the floor. Was it the same pony she saw today?
Clover stepped closer and lit her horn to better see into the dark cell. Hitting the brown earth pony, the light revealed various scars and bruises on his back. His face bore the signs of a brutal beating with all the blood splattered on it.
Clover gasped and took a step back. She couldn’t stare at the earth pony’s state any longer.
“Who are you?”
Clover jumped. She searched everywhere her eyes could see in her magical light. No guards.
“You’re not a guard. What are you doing here?” A yellow pegasus stepped out of the shadows in the cell across from her.
Clover calmed down a little. “Please be quiet,” she whispered and looked around for possible guards patrolling.
The yellow pegasus tilted her head in confusion. “You’re not a prisoner, at least not that I know of.”
“I’m not a prisoner,” Clover whispered and stepped closer. “I'm just looking around.”
A grin formed on the pegasus’ face. “So you’re trespassing, huh?”
“Shhh!” Clover raised her hoof. “Please.”
“Tell you what. You open my cell, and I won’t start shouting.”
Clover’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You have five seconds to decide. Five.”
Clover’s heart started beating louder than ever and her mouth became dry.
“Four.” The pegasus stepped back and continued. “Three.”
Freeing a probably dangerous prisoner was an absolute no. But did she have any other choice?
“Look, can we talk abo—”
“Two.”
Dread overtook her whole body. She had to make a decision.
“On—”
“Fine.” Clover cut the pegasus off.
The yellow pegasus stepped closer to the bars and grabbed them. “That’a girl. Now bust me ou—”
“Shout.”
The pegasus’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”
“I said: shout. I’m not busting you out.”
The pegasus frowned but tried to hide her anger and play cool. “So, I guess you’re gonna join the party.” She took a deep breath and made sure to exaggerate her gesture as much as possible.
“Before you shout,” Clover took out the keyring from under her cloak, “remember that I’m your only chance of getting out of here. If you alert the guards, and they catch me, we both lose.”
The pegasus stopped, and this time didn’t hold her frown back.
“Here’s a deal,” Clover whispered, bringing the keyring closer to the bars, “I’ll ask you some questions, and if you answer me honestly, I’ll consider letting you out?”
The pegasus followed the silver keys levitating in front of her with her eyes. She tried to grab them by sticking her hoof out, but Clover pulled the keys back just in time.
“Agh, why should I even trust you?” The pegasus scoffed. “You’re just another one of them. A unicorn.”
Clover stayed silent for a moment, pondering a response.
“You don’t have to. But, I don’t have a reason to trust you either.”
The pegasus looked back at her cell. “Fine, what do you want?”
Clover stepped back and pointed her hoof at the brown pony in the cell across. “What happened to him?”
“What happens to everypony here once in a while: Torture.”
“Because you attempted to escape?”
“That’s one reason, but mostly, they do it for fun or to make sure we stay in our place. And that's not even that bad if you ask me.”
“What do you mean?” Clover turned back to the pegasus and raised her eyebrow.
The pegasus looked down, let go of her cell’s bars, and showed Clover her left side.
Clover held her mouth to deafen the sound of her gasp at the sight of the clumped-up tissue on the side.
“W-where i—”
“My wing?” the pegasus asked sarcastically. “Your kind cut it off!”
“I-I’m sorry,”
“Yeah, shut up.”
Clover looked down. She didn’t know what to say. How could the council do such a thing? How could anypony do this? She tried to wonder how it must have felt, but she soon shook the thought out of her head.
“He managed to escape last night.” The pegasus said, dragging Clover out of her thoughts. “But just like always, they caught him. They caught everypony. And taught them a lesson to never try breaking out again.”
Clover wasn’t sure if she should be celebrating the fact that her suspicion about the previous outbreaks was true, or to be grieving about how these prisoners were treated.
“S-so, there has been other breakou—”
“HEY, WHO’S THERE?” A guard shouted from the staircase.
Without any hesitation, Clover began to run in the opposite direction.
“Hey!” The pegasus shouted. “YOU LITTLE BITCH! DON’T LEAVE ME HERE! WE HAD A DEAL!”
“PRISONER ON THE LOOSE! PRISONER ON THE LOOSE!” The guard shouted before running after Clover. His voice echoed through the dungeon walls, bouncing around and alerting the rest of the guards.
Clover didn’t look back, dousing her horn so the guards couldn’t follow her as easily. But where should she go? She was in a dungeon. There was only one way out, and she was running in the exact opposite direction.
Suddenly, she had to make a turn. Left, or right. After glancing at each hallway and seeing two more guards appear out of the right hallway, she ran left.
As her breaths got more rapid, magical blasts began to be shot in her direction. After seeing one miss right in front of her, she ducked the second shot. She got to a cross-road. Another guard showed up at the end of the middle path and shot a blast at her. Clover stepped left and dodged the shot. The sound of trotting was getting close behind her, and just when she was a few steps down the left path, another guard stepped out of the turn. Clover ground her hooves on the cold bricks of the dungeon and turned the other way.
*Fzz* One of the shots hit right behind her tail. If it continued like this, she was never going to lose them. Not here.
Suddenly, her eyes caught sight of the torches on the walls, and an idea sprang into her mind. Using her magic, Clover blew the torches out and let the darkness devour the hallway. She couldn’t see, but she wasn’t the one shooting magical bolts.
“Don’t lose him!” A shout came from behind as one of the guards lit her horn up to be the guide for the others. The constant firing of magical blasts didn’t stop, but they weren’t hitting anywhere near Clover.
Clover hit a wall full speed and took a second to recover. She ran left once again and didn’t stop. She ran as fast as she could and then *bam.* Another wall. Clover lit up her horn for a second to find her path, but what she saw under the green light of her horn shook her body in terror.
A big metal door and nowhere to go. A dead end. She turned back to run the other way, but it was too late. She could already see the guard’s light reaching the turn she made.
Clover closed her eyes and caught her breath. There was only one way out of this situation.
The guards separated into both pathways. Three went right and two ran left full speed. The guards had their horns lit up to take down the prisoner they thought escaped, but they reached the big iron door and…
Nothing.
“I swear I saw him run this way.” One of the guards said as they inspected the iron door.
“Yeah, sure, I forgot you had dark-vision.”
“Shut up. I saw him with the light from my shot.”
“Whatever you say, but I’m going to help the others.”
“Hey, Blue Glaze, wait. Just give me a se—”
“NO. I’m not listening to your bullshit, Blunt Spear. Besides, don’t you know? This is HIS cell.” The blue stallion guard said as he pointed his hoof at the iron door. “I would rather be anywhere but here.” He said and ran back.
Blunt Spear, however, stayed, narrowing his eyes and scanning around the dead end. But there was nothing. Or at least nothing he could see under the light of his horn.
“You coming?” A shout came from the distance.
Blunt Spear shook his head and trotted back. “I’m coming.”
After a few seconds, once Clover could no longer hear their footsteps nearby, she let out her breath and reappeared in front of the iron door. She was thankful that the guards left since she didn’t know for how much longer she could hold her breath.
“Invisibility cloak, you once again proved why you are my favorite thing in the world,” Clover said to herself in between her breaths.
She stood up and lit her horn. Under her green light, she could see the big iron door, but nothing else, no torches, no other cells. Only a lone door at the end of a hall. Clover stepped closer and inspected the door carefully. A very tiny diamond-shaped keyhole came to her notice. She stepped back and glanced up at the door. “Is this a cell?” She wondered. “Why is it isolated? Why a giant metal door? And most importantly:
Clover opened the door and dropped onto her bed. She couldn’t believe she managed to make it out of the dungeons. And yet, here she was, in her room, staring at the ceiling.
Her mind quickly drifted to what she saw that night. Even though she now knew her suspicion about the breakouts were true, her mind wasn’t at ease. The disfigured tissue that was once the wing of a pegasus, the bruises and scars left all over the body of that earth pony… Both continued to plague her thoughts. Whatever the council was doing was pure cruelty. How can anypony do such things?
And what about the door? What or who is behind there? Even the guards didn’t want to stay near it so it must be something beyond what they can handle. But what?
It seemed her adventure into the darkest depths of the castles brought up more questions than it answered. Clover was curious and determined to find all the answers she sought. But as her eyes slowly closed, so did her thoughts.
The next morning Clover woke up to the freezing winds blowing against her face. With a sneeze, she crawled up and opened her eyes. The window was left open. Wrapping her blanket around her, she got out of bed and closed the window with her magic.
Clover put on her trusty brown cloak and got ready to meet her mentor again. She walked up the stairs of the tower, past the library floor and reached the top. Clover knocked on the door and right away, the door opened.
“Good morning, Clover.” Said the great wizard.
“Good morning, master.”
“Come in!” Star Swirl said. “There is something I want to show you.”
Clover stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“Now, watch closely.” Star Swirl closed his eyes, lit his horn and with a flash, he disappeared.
Clover tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Hadn’t she learned invisibility a long time ago? Why was her mentor showing her that spell again? Had he forgo–
Star Swirl came in from the door that Clover had just closed and interrupted her train of thoughts. But then, it was clear to her that it wasn’t the invisibility spell. It was-
“Teleportation?”
“Yes, Clover.”
“So, this was what you were working on the past few days.”
Star Swirl levitated a sheet of paper from his desk and gave it to Clover. “Now, it’s your turn.”
Clover inspected the instructions she was given and nodded. “Where should I try it though?”
“How about… behind the door?” Star Swirl suggested as he closed it.
Without any more words, Clover closed her eyes, concentrating on visualising her destination. Her horn lit up and–
Nothing.
Clover slowly opened her eyes and found herself still in Star Swirl’s room. She took another look at instructions for the spell and tried one more time.
Her eyes closed, her mind concentrated on the room outside once again. “Behind the door. Behind the door.” She told herself as she lit her horn once again.
Nothing.
“It seems like you need to practise a bit, Clover.” Star Swirl put his hoof on her shoulder. “I’m a bit—” Star Swirl yawned. “Tired. We’ll continue tomorrow. Make sure you’ve got the spell down by then.”
Clover put the spell note in her cloak and nodded.
“Oh, before you leave...”
“Yes, master?”
“Do you know where I put the copy of that book you made yesterday?” Star Swirl looked around his bookshelves. “I thought I put it here but I only have one copy. Not two.”
“I- I don’t know, sir.” Clover shook her head.
“Alright. I have nothing else. You can go now.”
Clover closed the door behind her and walked down the stairs, taking out the spell note to study on the way. Visualisation of the destination, concentration and casting the spell. The three steps seemed simple, but for some reason she couldn’t perform it.
At the same time, she still had duties to attend to. Clover put the spell note back in her cloak and opened the front door of the tower. A burst of freezing wind blasted her cloak off of her and let her green mane flow. Clover quickly closed the door. Her body was shaking. After a few seconds, Clover wrapped her cloak around herself tightly and opened the door once again.
Another burst of cold wind greeted her as she stepped outside. It was snowing. In the middle of summer. The roads, houses, and stands were all covered up in snow. Clover couldn’t believe it. What was happening? Once she looked down, she realised her hooves were half way covered up. She had to go back inside and get dressed properly.
Clover put on her boots and headed back out. She trotted to the town and inspected the situation. No, she wasn’t dreaming, everything was covered in snow. And the snowflakes were still falling down. The wind howled and blew Clover’s cloak but she held onto it, determined to keep on moving.
She bypassed the castle gates and quickly ran to the throne room. As she expected, the princess had requested her presence. Clover stepped inside. All five head counsellors were present before the princess' throne.
“Ah, Clover, there you are!” Princess Platinum said, raising her hoof to Clover.
“You wished to see me, your highness.” Clover bowed down to her princess next to the rest of the head counsellors.
“Yes. Surely you have seen the state of the town.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“Alright, how is this happening?” Princess Platinum stomped her hoof to the floor.
“It has to be the pegasi! This is their plan to weaken us!” One of the counsellors shouted.
“Yes, they’ve been spotted in our skies quite frequently in the past weeks,” The bearded, frail counsellor added.
“Then, they must be punished! Your highness, shall we prepare our troops?” The younger, blue counsellor stepped in.
“Wait!” Clover shouted. Everypony turned their heads and looked at her. “A-Are the earth ponies in the same situation?”
All the counsellors exchanged a glance until one of them spoke up. “How are those uncultured swines relevant to the discussion at hoof?”
“It's important. Do we know if they are having the same issue or not?”
The counsellor rolled his eyes. “Judging by what we can see in the sky, and the fact that we still haven’t received our daily products, I’d guess yes.”
“Then it can’t be the pegasi.” Clover shook her head.
The room filled with the chatter of the counsellors as they disregarded what Clover was saying, but then, Crimson Light spoke up. “What are you trying to get at?”
Clover took a deep breath and responded. “Even if the pegasi would think of attacking us in such a manner, they would never harm the earth ponies. A slight change in weather can ruin their crops for months. Something that both our tribe and theirs desperately require.”
The chatters stopped. The head counsellors only exchanged glances, puzzled as to what to say. Clover had a point, and they all realised it.
“Maybe.” Crimson Light looked away. “But what if they are risking it to manage to best us? What if they have been planning this all along, storing their supply and pulling off this maneuver to weaken both tribes?” Crimson Light stood right in front of Clover, staring her straight in the eyes.
“Counsellors.” Princess Platinum shouted, making all the counsellors turn back to face her. “I believe a meeting with the other tribes should be held about our current state in order to reach a conclusion, and this time, I personally want to participate.”
“What?”
“But your highnes—”
“You shouldn’t be dealing with those savages.”
All the counsellors disagreed but Princess Platinum had already decided.
“Enough! Prepare the carriage for the trip. This is an emergency.”
The guards trotted away the second they heard the order.
“But your highness!” The young counsellor jumped in front of Princess Platinum. “It's too dangerous to travel in this weather. Please reconsider.”
“No, I must deal with this myself. In the meantime, the council runs the nation.”
“Be assured, we’ll keep order in your absence.” Crimson Light smiled and bowed down to his princess. And so did the rest of the head counsellors.
After the meeting, the princess dismissed her subjects. Clover wasn’t sure how to feel about the council taking care of the nation, but she didn’t get a say in that decision. Unfortunately, she also didn’t get to address what she had learned last night with the princess, and probably wouldn’t be getting the opportunity to do so for days.
And what about the current situation? If she was right, and the pegasi weren’t responsible, then who or what was? Only pegasi had weather controlling magic. Or did they?
Clover started to wonder whether there were other creatures capable of controlling weather or not, and there was only one place she could find her answer: the castle's library.
The library was massive. Bookshelves stacked on top of each other almost reached the ceiling and clumped together, forming seemingly endless hallways of countless books. From history and magic to astrology and philosophy. One could only wonder where to even begin. And even though Clover was looking for a very specific subject, she didn’t know which aisle she should’ve been looking in for it.
“Maybe magic?” Clover thought to herself. “Maybe there is a certain spell or something of that nature that has caused this.” And so she confidently went through each book, one by one. She read them and put them aside, slowly getting tired and losing her hope in finding an answer. But she kept on going. There had to be something there, she knew it. The castle’s library had the most complete collection.
“Fire spells. Glyph Wards. Nature's Magic.” She looked through the shelves once more until one of the books caught her attention.
“Claws, Bones and monsters: Encyclopedia of magical beasts.” Clover picked up a book and read its cover. Could this have been what she was looking for?
Without any hesitation, Clover opened the book and went through the pages.
“Timber Wolves, no. Ahuizotl? No. That's a jungle guardian. Bugbear. No. Chimera? No.” Clover kept on going. “Draconequus. Huh? A being of pure chaos? This might be it, but there hasn’t been one seen in ages.” She continued. “Kelpie. Grootslang. No, these aren’t what I’m looking for. Windigo?” The drawing of an elegant horse slowly fading through the wind made her curious to read further about the Windigo. “‘A being that feeds off of fighting and hatred. Stomping their hooves into the clouds, they create blizzards. It is said that the more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become.’”
“Ma’am?”
“Ahh!” Clover jumped and dropped the book.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, but you should leave, ma’am.” A guard stood in front of her.
“Why?”
“Council’s order.”
“What's the exact order?”
“Only guards patrolling the castle at night. Nopony else.”
Clover was so focused on reading books after another she didn’t even notice the sun was brought down.
“Oh. I see. I’ll leave now. Let me just grab my stuff.” Clover picked up the book she dropped but before she could leave—
“Hey, did you see anypony there, Armored Hoof?”
That name rang a bell in Clover's mind.
“It’s just the princess’s advisor. She’ll leave right now.”
“Escort them.”
“Look, it's just th-”
“I said, escort them!”
“FINE.” Armored Hoof turned to face Clover again. “Ma’am, I’m go-”
But nopony was there.
The guard stood there, staring at the empty hallway, wondering where the young hooded mare he saw a second ago went.
“What’s taking so long?”
“The-They’re already gone.”
A sigh was heard in the distance. “You can’t do a single thing right, can you? Come here and help me scout the area.”
Armored Hoof rolled his eyes. “Like you know how to do things.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing, sir. I’m coming.” The guard trotted away. And just then, Clover let out her breath. Something was fishy, and she needed to find out what.
Clover silently followed them with a distance, just enough to let her listen to what they were saying.
“Why are we patrolling the library again?”
“It's the head councillor’s order. We must make sure nopony is trespassing in the night.”
“But why the sudden change? Is it because the princess is gone?”
“Maybe, or maybe it's because somepony managed to sneak through the dungeon last night.”
“Wait, h-how did that happen?”
“I don’t know, you tell me, ex-dungeon guard.”
Armored Hoof did not respond to the question.
“Is that also why they sent more of us down there in the dungeon?”
“Probably? I don’t know. Maybe they need to deal with the thing tonight.”
“But didn’t they do that two days ago?”
“I don’t know. You were a dungeon guard. Not me. Now, let's spread out and do one last sweep of the area.”
Clover slowly trotted away upon hearing them coming closer to her. But she didn’t leave the library yet. Knowing now that she might find more answers in the dungeons tonight, she needed to get back down there once again. However, if there were now more guards and the front door was secured, she needed an alternate route to get there.
“Can I teleport there?” She thought to herself. No, she couldn’t even teleport behind a mere door, how was she going to teleport all the way to the dungeon? But she didn’t have any other ideas. Besides, she needed to practice the spell anyway.
Clover closed her eyes and tried to picture her destination, the dungeon. But not much beside bricked walls came to her mind. She cast the spell anyway.
Once she opened her eyes, she found herself on top of the castle’s walls. The spell had worked! Except, she wasn’t where she wanted to be. Perhaps she didn’t picture her destination vividly enough. Once again, Clover closed her eyes. This time she pictured the dungeon with all the guards patrolling the area, and casted the spell.
Clover opened her eyes to enormous windows and a big throne in front of her. She was in the throne room. Many guards stood at ready but nopony had noticed her yet. With a sigh, Clover, cast the spell once again in hopes of getting her to her destination. “The dungeon! I want to be in the dungeon!” She shouted in her own head.
Clover slowly opened one of her eyes and peeked through the room she was in. A silk red carpet rested under her hooves. A table right in front of her with the sigil of the council, a crescent moon inside a sun strapped onto a shield right behind it, hanging from the wall. Various papers and scrolls were left on the table.
Clover stepped closer and inspected the quill. The ink on it was fresh. She quickly looked around to make sure nopony else was in the room. And thankfully, nopony was. But, she guessed somepony either just left the room, or would be back soon. Judging by the decorations, it had to be one of the head counsellors’ offices. That gave her enough reason to get out of there as soon as she could. If anypony saw her there, she would have been in big trouble.
Clover wanted to try the teleportation spell again, but, uncertain of where exactly in the castle she was and perhaps where else the teleportation spell might take her, she decided that it was better to use her hooves this time.
Clover trotted to the door and twisted the handle, but the door didn’t budge. It was locked. Clover tried to unlock it with her magic, but to no avail. “Enchanted lock. Should've guessed.” She muttered to herself.
It seemed she had to try the teleportation spell again, after all.
Clover repeated the steps of the spells to herself once again, closed her eyes, and was about to cast the spell when suddenly, a loud sound of grinding came from behind. She quickly turned back and saw the wall behind the table was split in half and slowly revealing a passage.
Clover held her breath.
Two ponies walked out of the newly opened passage and stepped into the room. Head Counsellor Crimson Light, and young Head Counsellor Phantom Blast.
“It has gotten more aggressive this past week.” Said the blue unicorn. “Can we really tame it in time?”
“We will. Now’s our best chance. We can not miss it.” Crimson Light said as the passage closed behind him.
“I understand, but with each rampage, we have to deal with more outbreaks and it's getting hard to silence the rumours. We were lucky it was only letting out some rage this time.”
“Don’t worry. Now that we are in charge, we can make sure everything is in order for our plan to take its course.” Crimson Light smiled. “Now, let's not waste anymore time, we should head to the meeting, son. We have a nation to run.”
“Yes, father.”
They both trotted to the door and Crimson Light unlocked it. Right after they left, the key locked the room again with a click.
Clover desperately needed to breathe, and they had just left in time.
After catching her breath, she took a second to think about what she just heard. “What were they talking about?”
Her eyes switched to the wall. She got closer and inspected it. There wasn’t a single crack, peephole, or any unnatural placement of the bricks. If she hadn’t just seen the wall open like a maw to reveal a passage, she would have never been able to tell something was off.
“But how does it open? Where does it lead?” Clover pondered as she rubbed her hoof to her chin. Whatever it was, she had to get to the bottom of this.
Taking a step back, her eyes caught sight of the sigil again. A black crescent moon, inside a golden sun, except Clover couldn’t help but be bothered by the fact that the moon was on the left, not the right.
Was that what she was looking for? There was only one way to find out. She used her magic and tried to see if she could rotate the moon to the right. And swiftly, the moon went back to its place. The wall split in half once again, and the passage was revealed.
Taking a deep breath, Clover stepped inside and lit her horn. And just then, the wall closed behind her. Clover kept pushing forward and soon saw a spiralling staircase heading down before her. Some guesses as to where this would lead had already been forming in her mind.
Clover went down the long staircase which felt like it would last forever only to reach a dead end. But was it really a dead end? The convenient lever hanging on the wall suggested otherwise.
Clover pulled the lever, and the wall in front slowly tilted open like a door. The passage created was not very wide, but it was passable enough. And as she stepped out, her suspicion about where the secret path would lead became true. She was down in the dungeon.
As Clover was checking around to see if any guards were nearby, her eyes caught sight of a familiar scene. A giant iron door, with a diamond shaped keyhole. Of all the places in the dungeon the passage could have led to, this was where it ended. Right in front of that door.
She slowly trotted towards the door. For some reason her heart was beating out of her chest. Something was different. She could feel it down to her bones.
Clover put her ear on the door, in hopes of hearing in over her heartbeat. And to her surprise, breathing.
It wasn’t hers. It was coming from the other side. Faint, but audible. It was tough, dry, like a painful cough was at the end of somepony’s throat and they needed to let it out.
Clover took a quick step back. It felt like the door was dragging her towards itself. It wasn’t calling her, it was pulling her. It was weak, but it was there. She was certain.
Suddenly, a bang came from the other side of the door. Clover jumped and took a few more steps back.
Was that what the head counsellors were talking about?
Guards were everywhere in the dungeon. And Clover could only hold her breath for so long. But somehow, she managed to bypass them, only to meet up with a certain prisoner.
The yellow pegasus was staring at the brown earth pony full of bruises and wounds in the cell across. He was breathing, but that was all she could tell.
Suddenly, Clover let out her breath and appeared in front of the pegasus.
“Aaaah!” She shouted before jumping back from the bars.
“Shhh.” Clover put her hoof on her muzzle. “Be quiet. Otherwise we’re gonna get in trouble again.”
“Y-you?!” The pegasus slowly came closer to the bars again.
“Yes, it's me. Listen, I need to ask some more que—”
The pegasus reached her hooves out and grabbed Clover’s neck, smacking her face to the bars. “Oh, no, we had a deal! And you better give me that key or I will strangle you right here right now.”
Clover struggled to breath. “I-I’m y-your—”
“What? My only chance? Yeah, and I’m your only chance for not dying. Give me that key.”
“E-even if you… get out, t-they’ll catch y-you. Y-you n-need m-my help.”
The pegasus loosened her grip and let Clover go. Clover quickly took a step back and coughed. After the pain in her throat got bearable, she turned back to the one winged pegasus.
“Do you know about the giant door in the dungeon?” Clover rubbed her throat.
“Heh. There are only two doors I know, one which leads to the castle, and the other that leads out.”
“No, those aren't it.” Clover shook her head. It seemed the pegasus didn’t know what she was talking about, but maybe she needed to approach it from a different angle. “Hold on, how did you all get to break out?”
The pegasus looked Clover straight in the eyes. “Every once in a while, all the guards head to a certain part of the dungeon. I don’t know where it is or what it is, but even the guards are terrified each time they deal with it. Whenever that happens, we all break our locks, bend the bars, punch the literal frame out but we’ll get out. Somehow, cuz we know, it might be our last shot. That’s what happens. And they even know it too. But they can’t do anything.” The pegasus turned her face away and showed her missing wing again. “They just make sure we regret trying it.”
“So you don’t know what it is.”
“No, but I’ve heard its screams. It echos through the WHOLE dungeon like an alarm, sinking terror in anypony’s body. It's filled with rage, hate, and a whole lot of pain.”
Clover stayed silent, taking it all in.
“There used to be another earth pony in the cell across. He was an old stallion, but he’d been here longer than anypony. And I can recall that he said as long as he was shackled in that cell, that thing happened.” After a brief silence, the pegasus turned back to Clover. “You got your answers? Now it’s time to do your part.”
Clover took out the keys, but hesitated for a moment.
“What are you waiting for?”
“I-I can’t just bring you out. Guards are everywhere. They’ll catch us both.”
The pegasus frowned. “Are you fucking kidding me? After all of that, you don’t wanna get me out?”
“Well, to be perfectly honest, you just tried to strangle me. And I don’t know why you’re in there to begin with.”
The pegasus’s eyes started to twitch. “A-are you… Fuck it.” She stepped back and sat down, her back to the bars. “You’re just like them. A damned piece of shit.”
“I’m sorry, but don’t expect me to just trust a stranger and bust them out, especially when they attempt to kill me.”
“Look, you don’t trust me? Fine. But at least do something for that guy over there. He’s dying.” the pegasus pointed at the cell across.
Clover looked at the brown earth pony she saw yesterday. The wounds seemed worse than what she recalled. “What have they done to him?”
“Nothing. Just left him there to die. Just like how they did with the last one.”
Clover wondered what did the pony do that would make them leave him in that state? Her curiosity got the better of her and she opened the cell, and went inside.
She was not a doctor, but she could tell that the wounds were infected. The pegasus was right, he was dying. There had to be a reason why the guards did this to him. They wouldn’t just let him die. He probably did something to deserve this.
Clover closed her eyes, whispered the memory-seeing spell and touched the earth pony’s forehead with her horn.
A brown earth pony and his father were delivering bread to a unicorn guard post. Everything seemed in order until—
“Where are the rest?” A guard asked.
“These are all the things we had. That's the whole load.” The older Earth pony responded.
“Don’t play with us, you muddy pigs, where are the rest of the supplies?” The guard trotted forward.
“I-I, I swear this is all we have. That's what we were sent to bring.”
The guard suddenly blasts the old pony with a magical bolt and drops him onto the ground.
The brown earth pony ran to the guard, fueled with rage, he planted his hoof on the guard's face.
The guard took a few steps back, but with a tilt of his head, his friends blasted the brown pony down like his father.
The guards then proceeded to torture them with their mgical blasts till their eyes faded to black.
The only thing he saw when he opened his eyes were the bars of the cell, and the pegasus in the cell across.
“Psst.” The pegasus whispered and interrupted Clover’s concentration. “The guards are coming.” They pointed at the open door of the cell.
There was no time. Clover closed the door with her magic while she was inside and held her breath.
A guard lit his horn and inspected both cells. “What is this noise you’re making?” The guard asked, looking at the pegasus.
“Sorry, just trying to make sure my buddy stays awake. Cuz y’know, you seemed to give him quite the massage.”
“Keep it down or I’ll make sure you also end up like him.” The guard warned before walking away.
Clover let her breath out.
“How’d you do that?” The pegasus asked.
“Magic cloak. It’s…complicated how I got that to work.”
“So, will you help him?”
Clover hesitated before answering. “Yes. But first—” She took out the keys and put them inside the cell’s keyhole. But then, right before she could turn it, the keys ceased to exist. Poofed.
Clover stared in shock. Puzzled as to what just happened. She looked around the cell that maybe she dropped it and she wasn’t seeing it in the dim light of the torches. But no, the keys were gone. And she was in the cell.
“What are you doing? Just, get out.”
Clover didn’t pay attention to what the pegasus said. She only tried to make sense of what just happened. Until it hit her.
The duplication spell was faulty. That's why Star Swirl couldn’t find the duplicated copy. It wasn’t lost, it vanished.
“Hey, you there?” The pegasus called again.
“I need you to shout.”
“What?”
“I need you to distract the guard.”
The pegasus narrowed her. She didn’t know why Clover was suggesting this, but she decided to do it anyway.
“Hey, you shithead! Come here.”
The guard trotted furiously to the cell. “What did you just call me?”
“Shithead! What? You wanna cry?”
“I think you’ll be the one crying.” The guard blasted the pegasus with a magic beam.
“Aaaaaaagh!” The yellow pegasus shrieked as the pain surged through her whole body. Meanwhile, Clover levitated the keys from the guard’s flank.
The guard then blasted the wound where the wing once was.
“Aaaaargh, stop it, stop it you piece of shit. Pleeeeeease!”
The guard stopped. “Know your place.” He warned her and walked away.
The yellow pegasus was shaking and trembling with sheer pain. So much so that Clover could see it even in the dim light of the torches.
“A-are you alright?”
The yellow pegasus used all of her strength and stood back on her legs again. “I’m fine.” She said, yet she was still shaking.
Clover used the key and opened the cell she was trapped in and right after that opened the pegasus’s cell.
The yellow pegasus’s eyes widened as she looked at the open door and Clover outside. “Y-you, actually, di—”
“Listen, it's not easy getting out of here. Do you think you can carry him?” Clover pointed at the brown earth pony.
The pegasus shook off the pain. “Yeah, I got him.”
“Good, now also take this.” Clover took off her cloak and gave it to the pegasus. Revealing her dizzy green mane. “When you have this on, as long as you hold your breath, you’ll be invisible.”
“What are you going to do?”
Clover levitated the keys in front of the pegasus. “I’ll cause a distraction and lure the guards to myself. Meanwhile, you sneak out and head to the wizards tower, and head to the third floor. I’ll meet you there.”
“Wait.” The pegasus whispered before Clover wandered off. “I never caught your name.”
“Clover. Clover the Clever. You?”
“Thunder Feathers.”
Clover nodded and trotted away. She grabbed the key and opened every cell she saw.
“WAKE UP. WAKE UP. IT'S TIME TO CLAIM YOUR FREEDOM! HURRY UP!”
Every prisoner in their cells, earth pony, pegasus, unicorn, all joined her, running through the dungeon halls. But it didn’t take long for the guards to appear from every corner. Even though the prisoners tried to fight, the guards' magic and numbers were simply superior.
All scattered through the paths of the dungeon and so did the guards. Clover opened more and more cells but the guards kept coming non-stop.
One by one, prisoners were caught and their numbers dwindled. Clover knew she couldn’t keep it up for much longer. She closed her eyes, and thought of her room. Her small yet comfy bed. Her selective collection of cloaks, the window to the side, and every single book in her bookshelf that Star Swirl personally gifted her. Even though magical bolts and screams of pain and agony were surrounding her, she could feel being in her room.
Silence. There was no longer the sound of magical bolts piercing the air or hooves stomping on the dry stone floor through a narrow hallway. No more screams of agony and sorrow. No more cries for help. Just… Silence.
Clover slowly opened her eyes. She saw wooden planks, various robes and cloaks hung on the wall, and a small window that had frosting on the other side, clouding the outdoors from view.
She was here. She was in her room. The spell worked. She had done it!
But before she could celebrate her success, she quickly noticed the yellow pegasus staring at her.
“H-how d-did you… do that?” Thunder Feathers asked.
“Teleportation spell.”
“You unicorns can do that?”
“Well, I suppose if you knew the spell—” She shook her head. “Er, that’s not important right now. Did you manage to get here safely? Did anypony notice you?”
“I don’t think so, but there were a lot of guards in the streets. How are they even standing in that weather?”
The snow-furred mare walked up to her window and opened it ajar. A burst of freezing weather blasted through, but Clover managed to take a peek. Groups of council guards patrolled the streets. Was it because Clover started another breakout? No, there were too many this time. This wasn’t because of the breakout. Was this a coup d’etat?
The snow had gotten more aggressive too. The weather was getting less survivable by the minute.
“Are pegasi even capable of creating such freezing weather?” Clover turned to Thunder Feathers.
“This? Heh, no, definitely not. We can’t make a tenth of whatever is going on out there happen, even if we really wanted to. Are you crazy?”
Could that mean that her suspicion was true?
“Hey, I know I’m not good at maths, but I thought it should’ve been summer right now.” The pegasus moved up next to her.
“It is, and that’s why this storm doesn’t make any sense!”
Thunder Feathers looked outside the window and shook her head. The disbelief in her face told Clover she wasn’t lying.
Clover took notice of the bruised earth pony occupying her bed and trotted over to him. “How’s he doing?”
“Do I look like a doctor to you?”
Clover gave Thunder Feathers a disappointed look and raised an eyebrow.
“What? I guess he’s breathing, for now.”
There was no way Clover would be able to find a doctor at this time. Nevermind trying to convince them to treat an escaped prisoner. It wasn’t gonna work. Though, the wounds could be patched up to give him some time.
“We need to cauterise the wounds. At least that way he won’t bleed out.”
“That I can do.”
Clover looked at Thunder Feathers again, this time in confusion. “Thought you said you weren't a doctor.”
“No, but I know my way around wounds. Otherwise I wouldn’t even be here right now.” The yellow pegasus glanced at her missing wing, wincing at the memory of the day she lost it.
Clover stayed silent and looked down at the floor. She was deep in thought when her eyes suddenly caught sight of her cloak, which was thrown on the floor. Clover picked it up and put it on again, covering her dishevelled messy green mane.
*knock knock knock*
Both mares followed the sound and shifted their gaze toward the door.
“Clover! Are you there?”
Clover quickly turned around and mouthed “hide” to Thunder Feathers.
She nodded.
“I’m coming, Master!” Clover trotted towards the door but before she opened it, she took another glance back to find that Thunder Feathers was nowhere to be seen. Knowing she was wearing her invisibility cloak reassured Clover that her pegasus companion was properly hidden.
The young hooded mare pulled the door open halfway to greet her mentor.
“What is it, Master?”
Star Swirl took a quick look at his student before responding, “I’ll be heading to the Everfree Forest for the monthly clean up. Inform the council and the princess of my absence.”
“Wait!” Star Swirl was about to trot away but Clover ran out the room after him. “H-Have you seen the situation outside, sir?”
Star Swirl paused for a moment, closed his eyes, and sighed. “Yes, but I do not see how this is related to me. I must make sure the Everfree Forest won’t devour us all.”
“I-I-I…” Clover stuttered. “What do you mean by that?”
“This seems to be an issue caused by the pegasi, for some reason. It’s the council’s job to resolve the tribal conflicts.”
“But what if it isn't the pegasi that are causing this?”
Star Swirl paused for a second and gazed back at his student.
Clover levitated the book she borrowed from the royal library and opened chapter seven; Windigos.
“What if these are the creatures that are causing this? It’s not unlikely, considering how the tribe’s attit–”
“Nonsense,” Star Swirl interrupted.
“B-but, Maste–”
“Clover! I, Star Swirl, the greatest unicorn mage after Gusty the Great can assure you beyond a shadow of a doubt that those beasts were wiped out of existence years ago, just like most of the creatures mentioned in this book.” He shook his head and continued, “I have to go. Instead of coming up with these theories, I would suggest you put more effort inpracticing your spells. Maybe that way you will not cast them incorrectly.”
Clover realized what her mentor was referring to. “A-About that, I think the sp—”
“And I think it’s clear that you aren’t focusing on the teachings I’m giving you. You better have figured out how to cast the duplication spell properly, once I return.”
Clover ran after her mentor down the stairs. “But, Master. There’s no way that the pega-”
“Silence!” Star Swirl turned back and stomped his hoof. “As I said before, I do not have time for your conspiracy theories.” Star swirl paused for a second. “I can not believe you can be this reckless and stubborn. Perhaps the council was right. I shouldn’t have had high expectations for a filly from the streets,” Star Swirl said, disappointed in his pupil.
Clover froze in place. No more words escaped her mouth. The sound of Star Swirl’s hoofsteps echoed loudly through the tower’s staircase, but all Clover could hear were the last words of her mentor.
The council was right…shouldn’t have had high expectations for a filly from the streets.
Tears began to form. The mare’s body started to shake, but not because of any wind or chill in the air, no. It was the bitter cold words of the only pony she thought believed in her that had pierced her heart and sent waves of emotions through her mind. Tears flowed freely from her eyes and her throat tightened.
“H-hey. Are you alright?”
Clover quickly rubbed her tears away with her hoof and sniffed away the last bit of sorrow. “I-I’m fine. I-It’s nothing.”
“I heard everything.” The pegasus trotted closer. “A-Are you… apprentice of the great Star Swirl?”
Clover took a deep breath. “Not just an apprentice.”
“H-Hey, uh…” Thunder Feathers tried to think of words to comfort the snow-furred unicorn but nothing came to her mind. She decided to go with her gut anyway. “Look, I don’t care what that old stallion says. I’ve been down in the dungeon long enough to see what type of ponies the council members are. And I know that whatever in Tartarus is happening out there ain’t my tribe’s doing. So, you shouldn’t be sad that a grumpy, egotistical stallion doesn’t see the truth.”
Clover pondered over Thunder Feathers’ words. Somehow, it made her feel a bit better. She stood up and turned back to the one-winged pegasus. “Y-You’re right.”
She couldn’t give up now. This wasn’t the time for crying. She had seen it. She heard it. With the princess and Star Swirl gone, the council would take control of the nation quickly and who knows what they would do.
“You tend to the earth pony. I have to go. Don’t come out of the tower. Don’t let anypony inside.”
Thunder Feathers nodded.
Clover turned back to take her leave, but before that, she glanced back at Thunder Feathers. “And, thank you.”
“I owed you one.” The yellow pegasus smiled. “But, where are you going?”
Clover didn’t look back and simply said, “There is a meeting I have to attend.”
The wind had gotten colder. The streets, misty. Stars in the sky were no longer visible. Despite all that, the guards patrolled the city and forced anypony they caught to go back to their homes.
There was no way she could get into the castle like that, so she closed her eyes, visualised the castle gates, the large windows, the long, endless hallways and cast the teleportation spell.
Upon opening her eyes, she found herself inside the castle. It didn’t take her much time to realise that guards were everywhere. With a little delicacy and the aid of her cloak, Clover managed to get to the courtroom, only to find the door was being guarded as well.
Clover had to get rid of the guard's pony somehow. Having no knowledge of offensive magic wasn’t gonna make that easy, especially against a well-trained unicorn. There was no way she could teleport inside the courtroom and, certainly, a secret passage wasn’t going to appear before her. Her only option was to distract him and get him away from the door.
“Hey! Over here!” Clover called, waving her hoof to the Guard.
“W-What are you doing here? Leave this area immediately.”
“And if I don’t?”
The guard's eyes narrowed as he charged down the hallway after Clover.
The snow-furred mare simply turned and started running. The guard was not far behind her, which was exactly what she wanted.
Clover turned around a corner and held her breath. Once the guard had caught up, he was left clueless as to where Clover had gone. Confused, the guard ran off in a random direction, looking for the hooded trespasser. Little did he know, Clover had been right next to him, cloaked by an invisibility cloak.
Clover trotted back to the courtroom door silently and put her ear against the keyhole.
The voices were faint, but she could make out what they were saying.
“So, you are proposing that you should be the new ruler?”
“I am proposing that WE become the rulers. The queen is gone. The nation is desperate. It’s the perfect time.”
“The perfect time for what?”
“For expansion!”
“What?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you lost your mind, Crimson Light?”
“NO! But it seems you all have! We have been serving the royal family for long enough. We have been putting up with those filthy earth ponies and wild pegasi for long enough. It is time to show that we are the superior race.”
“You are suggesting we wage war? Crimson Light, this cold weather has made your brain freeze to a point yo— AAAAGH!”
The sound of a magical blast reverberated through the chamber.
“You fool! The war had already been waged by the pegasi. Do you not see the weather? Do you not see how quickly it is escalating?”
“He has a point.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“You can not be serious! We can not just go to war with the other tribes!”
“Oh do not worry, Emerald Blast. My son and I have been preparing something special for this moment. We plan to utilise IT to guarantee our victory.”
“...the beast?”
“T-That… T-Thing?”
“No, it is uncontrollable!”
“I beg to differ. I’ve been studying it for decades. I made sure every time it dared to fight, it would be crushed by our might. It wouldn’t dare to stand up to us.”
“Heh, then why is a break-out happening every month? It does not sound so tame to me.”
“It seems you have all forgotten that it was ME who captured that thing in the first place. Ever since then, I have been preparing it for this very moment. Now come on, brothers. Let us break these chains that the royal family has put on us. Let us show those pesky earth ponies and pegasi that they have no chance against us. Let us build Unitopia!”
It seemed what Clover had feared was coming true. The council wanted to take over. But not only that, they wanted to wage war! The council’s plans felt like madness to Clover.
Suddenly, Clover felt a hoof on her shoulder, which startled her.
“Found ya!”
The guard blasted Clover with a magical beam. Caught by surprise, she could do nothing to defend herself and her vision slowly faded to black.
There was a mind-breaking headache beneath her temples. Her vision was blurry. A ringing sound echoed through her ears.
“Wake up!”
Clover shook her head, a moment for her vision to slowly clear.
“WAKE UP!” The council guard slapped a hoof against Clover’s face. With that, the young mare’s senses were truly back. With a quick scan, she realised she was in the courtroom, tied up, her horn sealed, and surrounded by the head counsellors.
“She’s awake, sir.” The guard reported to a stallion standing in the shadows..
“I will take it from here.” The red stallion stepped closer, revealing his long, white beard and red-coated fur.
“Counsellor Crimson Light.” Clover said with a bitter tone.
“If it isn’t Star Swirl’s noisy prodigy.” Crimson Light held Clover’s face with his hoof but she pulled back. “I should have known it was you when the guards reported an intruder in the dungeon last night. And it seems you made another attempt tonight as well. Pushing your limits, filly?”
Clover stayed silent and frowned.
“Maybe you got away once, twice, but eventually, your curiosity spelled your demise. You should have known when to stop.”
“Stop? Stop for what? So that you can take over the nation? So that you can torture more ponies to death? So that you could keep cove— AAAAUGH!”
Crimson Light zapped her with a magial spark. “Silence! Know your place, weakling.”
Clover clenched her teeth and sucked up the pain.
“But what else should I have expected? You are nothing but a filthy weakling from the streets. Your destiny was to perish then and there.”
Clover’s blood began to boil, but she was helpless in this situation and simply couldn’t do much.
“Princess’s best advisor? Heh. Of course you would act like this after everything that has been gifted to you. So, allow me to remind you.” he sent another spark through Clover’s body.
“AAAAugh!”
“You are a weak unicorn, incapable of casting strong spells, incapable of raising the sun and moon. In other words, you are inferior. You were meant to serve. But, for some reason, Star Swirl decided to take you in.”
“Master believed in my abilities despite my magical incapabilities.”
“Oh, but did he?”
Clover wanted to answer back, but quickly remembered her last conversation with Star Swirl.
“The truth is, he pitied you. He decided to grant you a home, and teach you, because he was too weak to let nature take its course. Ever wondered why he is no longer a head counsellor?”
Clover wanted to retort. She wanted to say something. Anything. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bear to open up her heart.
“And the princess? The royal family has long since overstayed their welcome. The princess is clumsy, uncharismatic, and ineligible for the responsibility passed on to her. Of course she would consider you her most trusted advisor, just like any incompetent leader would.”
Tears were starting to form in Clover’s eyes, but she couldn’t show weakness, not now.
“A-And what about you?” Clover pulled herself together and looked Crimson Light in the eyes. “Are you a competent leader? No. You’re just a monster that takes joy in torturing innocent souls. A monster who stomps others down just so he can get to the top.” Clover looked around the room, at the other head counsellors. “Can’t you all see? It’ll only be a matter of time till he gets rid of you all too— Auuuagh!”
Crimson Light’s horn sparked once again and silenced the hooded mare. But Clover shook off the pain and continued, “At least the prisoners know the truth. That you are the true monster, not whatever that is behind that giant door.”
Crimson Light’s eyes widened, as the head counsellors started to whisper to one another.
“You have no idea what is behind that door.”
Clover stayed silent.
“It is unlike anything you can ever imagine. A monstrous being that feeds on souls. It is unkillable. No matter what you do, it will put itself back together. Burn it, blast it, crush it, dismember it. In the end, it’ll be a matter of time till it is the same as it was before.”
“If that’s the c-case. I think it says a lot about what those poor souls in the dungeon believe about the council.” Clover glared straight at Crimson Light. No hesitation or fear was present in her features, only unflinching determination.
The red stallion clenched his teeth and charged his horn to take one final shot at the young mare. But instead of immediately spelling the mare’s demise, a much more sinister thought sparked within him. His angry expression turned into a devilish grin as his aura slowly faded away from his horn.
“Perhaps witnessing IT with your own eyes might knock some sense into that tiny head of yours.” Crimson Light turned to his guard. “Bring her.”
The council guard grabbed Clover’s tied hooves and pulled her up from the ground, taking her with him. It was clear to Clover where they were going.
Her thoughts, her memories, Crimson Light’s words, all the spells she had learned up until that point, everything stormed through her mind as she was being dragged down to the dungeon. Her heart ached. She couldn’t help it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t convince herself that Crimson Light was wrong about her.
It wasn’t the duplication spell that was faulty. It was her.
It wasn’t the council’s academy that didn’t see her potential. She never had any.
It was because of her suggestion that Princess Platinum decided to leave the nation.
It was because of her that Star Swirl was no longer a head counsellor.
It was her fault. Everything was her fault.
And she was powerless to change it.
Before she knew it, they were before the giant metal door. With a gentle motion of his head, Crimson Light commanded all the guards to take formation.
“It has gone on a rampage once before. It shouldn’t be very hostile but still, be prepared.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You, get her closer.” Crimson Light pointed at the guard that was carrying Clover.
“B-Bu—”
“NOW!”
The guard swallowed his fear and slowly dragged Clover closer to the door.
The red stallion levitated the crystal-shaped key from around his neck and brought it close to the keyhole. But just before putting the key inside…
“Untie her. Take off the horn lock too.”
The guard glanced back at his superior in shock. “Sir, are you sure?”
“Do. As. I. Say or you'll be thrown in there with her too. Let us give her a fighting chance.”
The guard quickly untied Clover and opened her horn lock. As he did that, Crimson Light inserted the key and twisted it. The giant door was then pulled open just a crack.
“Goodbye, Princess’ most trusted advisor.”
The guard threw Clover inside the chamber and the door closed immediately afterwards with a loud clank.
Everything was pitch black; a void so dark that Clover couldn’t even see her own hooves right in front of her. Her eyes were useless. Her ears, however, were not.
That breathing. She was hearing it again. Much closer. Much louder. Her body froze in terror.
Clover’s body froze in place and her fur stood up straight. She could hear the slow steps getting closer and closer. She quickly closed her eyes and tried her best to picture her bedroom.
*Ba-bump Ba-bump*
The sound of her heartbeat was pounding in her head so loudly she couldn’t think straight. Her whole body was shaking in terror.
*Grrrrrrr*
It was too late.
In her desperation, the brightest idea ever sparked in Clover’s mind and she instantly activated her horn.
She turned back, closed her eyes, and conjured the brightest light she had ever lit. The beast screamed in agony as it was blinded, letting its terrifying roar of pain echo through the whole cell.
Clover stepped back until she hit the wall. Having just possibly avoided certain death, her breath was as rapid as the raindrops from the storm outside.
*Ba-bump Ba-bump Ba-bump Ba-bump*
Clover couldn’t think straight. Her heart, her breaths, whatever that was with her in that cell, all of it fogged her mind to the point that she couldn’t even remember what the teleportation spell was!
Muttering words and phrases in hopes of the spell coming back to her, she realised it was useless. SHE was useless. There was no hope, no hope at all.
The beast let out another roar and charged towards Clover. Even though Clover couldn’t see anything, she could feel her end was drawing near. She held her breath and embraced her fate.
Just when she thought it was all over for her, the beast stepped back and let out more screams of pain and agony.
Clover, having lost her patience, realised she was still alive.
Was it her cloak? No, even if she was invisible, the beast probably knew where she was. If she could hear it, so could it.
Then, what happened?
Clover lit a dim light from her horn. She couldn’t tell whether it was curiosity or a death wish, but she stepped forward and observed the creature in the middle of the cell.
It had long grey fur on its body and a messy black tail. The creature was covering its face with…hooves?
But hooves don’t have sharp black claws coming out of them. Were those claws? No. Clover could see the hoof bone there. Was this a manticore? No, they’re not this small. This creature was about as big as an adult pony.
It was then that she noticed it, a long, elegant horn. The “hooves” hadn’t covered it.
Was this… a unicorn?
The creature suddenly twitched in place, its hooves were getting tense.
Clover quickly stepped back before the creature roared in her face, revealing its sharp maw. Its eyes were pitch black, as if nothing were in those sockets. A long, dizzy black mane surrounded its face and neck.
The creature started slowly getting closer to Clover and as it did, its head twisted in place and gnashed its teeth. The creature’s maw was now above its eyes.
A mixture of feelings filled Clover. Fear, confusion, dread, curiosity, and anxiety, it all piled up within her as she gulped.
“Ń̸̢̖̦̳͓̻̱͚O̵͖͚̩̻̒̅”
The creature shouted and its head twisted back into its original place. It then sat down and smacked its head with its hooves.
The creature shouted once again and then stepped back into the shadows.
After a moment, various coughs and growls came from the dark corner that the beast had hid itself in.
Clover raised her hoof to take a step forward.
“Don’t…”
A rough voice came from the dark corner.
“Don’t come close. Stay back. It’s for your own good.”
Clover listened. “Y-you… W-what are you?”
No responses came from the creature.
Clover was once again left with no answers. She quickly realised, now was her chance to leave. She took out the spell note from her cloak but…
She needed answers. She needed to know what it was that Crimson Light wanted to unleash upon the other tribes. She had to find out. So, she took a step forward and shined her light brighter.
“Ś̴̖̰̯̈̉͊̀̄̄͗̕͜ͅT̴͓̰̠͙̀̍̂̓͋͌O̷̢̞̜̰̗̐̐́́̌͋͑͛͝P̵͋́̉ ̷͕̥̮̩͈̲͍͍͈͂̄͂IT̴̳͉̔̋” The creature shouted, but Clover didn’t mind. Because what she saw shocked her.
It was a unicorn. There were no claws, no sharp teeth, no pitch black eyes… it was… just… a stallion.
Suddenly, the stallion’s eyes turned pitch black. S̵͍͙̱̻̞̰͖̗̮̄̀̀͜Ḣ̴̨͎͉̞̯̬̊͒̎͑Ü̵̡̫̺͔̭̭̽Ṯ̷͍͖̝̖̟͚̗̿̒͆̋͠͝ ̴̧̪͎̥̾̈́͊̇͒͜I̸̡̝̦̯̹̼͚̬̐́̑̓͐̓̎͘ͅͅṮ̴͉̝̬͉̗̘̭̎͑͂̚͜
Clover quickly extinguished her light after seeing the sight. Doubts began to fill up her mind once again. She should have just teleported out of there. No, she had to stay and find her answers. But she might die. She had already almost died once.
However, she took another step forward.
“I said, stand BACK!, Do- ugh, aaaaugh.” The coughs and growls began once again.
“Please… I… don’t want to, but… I’m… Ḥ̶̖͔͉̠̗̃͑̓͋͒Ǔ̸̧̫̲̝̼N̷̙̰̭̭̹̅́̀͐̈̏̌̌̏G̴̣̳͈̈͝R̴̬͖͍̖͉̎͗͗͂̑̕͠Ỷ̷̲̍̓̑.”
“Hungry?” Clover asked, but no response came.
Afraid of what might occur, Clover didn’t light her horn and only stared at the void where the voice, or perhaps, voices were coming from. With a deep breath, Clover took one more step forward.
“Don’t,” the voice said once again, weaker than before.
But Clover wasn’t turning back now. She hadn’t done all this just to turn back now. If she wanted to stop Crimson Light from taking over, from starting a war, from hurting so many other ponies like Thunder Feathers, she had to unravel what he kept in here and she just knew how to do it.
She dashed forward, lit up her horn, and chanted the memory seeing spell as fast as she could. She didn’t pay attention to the unicorn anymore. It was all or nothing. She only chanted the spell and put her horn on the unicorn’s forehead.
The moment she did so, excruciating pain surged through her head as a burst of dark memories flowed down her mind.
Torture! All, torture. Burned alive, sawed limbs, blasted to bits, starvation, electrified, whipped, stabbed, but no matter how extreme it went, death did not relieve the pain. No, the body lived. The pain piled up. Burned tissue healed, sawed limbs became whole again, blasted bits merged together. No, neither starvation, being electrified, nor being stabbed a thousand times brought it down. It came back. It stayed alive, but the sorrow remained.
And behind all those dark pictures was only one face.
Crimson Light.
Clover was right. HE was the true monster. HE was the true beast. And yet, this pony and many others were chained up here, suffering their entire life, dying, and rotting away.
But this one, this one couldn’t be relieved.
“You’re a monster. An abomination! This is your place.”
What went on in Clover’s mind only took a few seconds and, once she came back to her senses, she was faced with a familiar maw. A sharp claw was about to meet her face.
Clover ducked, but the unicorn, now turned beast, grabbed her neck with his other hoof. Before she knew it, Clover was lifted up and choking.
Clover threw her hooves around in hopes of freeing herself from the creature’s grasp but to no avail. It was now or never. And so, she closed her eyes and cast the teleportation spell.
When Clover opened her eyes, the pressure on her neck was no more. She found herself in some sort of cellar. It couldn’t have been the castle's cellar. It was too small for that. As far she knew, the mage tower did not have a cellar. Deducing from that, she probably wasn’t in either of those places.
After taking a minute to recover, she closed her eyes once again and pictured her room. Her small window, now with frost forming outside of it, her bed, occupied by the wounded earth pony, and her wooden door, that was watched closely by Thunder Feathers so no one could enter. And then, she cast the teleportation spell once more.
As she opened her eyes, she was greeted with a yellow pegasus face right in front of her.
“AAAAAAAAH!”
“AAAAAH!”
Clover and Thunder Feathers both screamed.
Thunder, understandably disturbed, held her hoof to her chest and wheezed, “Jeez, girl, you almost gave me a heart attack.”
Clover, however, let out a sigh of relief. She was terrified, yes, but she was more glad to see the council hadn’t come after them after she was caught. “You can not stay here for much longer. They’ll probably search here soon.”
Thunder nervously glanced back at the bed, worried for her earth pony companion. “But where do we go? He still needs to recover and it's a blizzard out there.”
“I don’t know.” Clover walked to the earth pony lying on the bed. “And I’m afraid the situation has gotten much worse too.”
“What do you mean?”
Clover turned back and faced Thunder Feathers. “The council wants to take over and wage war with the other tribes.”
“What?!”
Clover only nodded.
“Those sick bastards!” Thunder Feathers stumped her hoof to the floor. “But if it’s a fight they’re looking for, I’m sure Commander Hurricane will give it to them.”
Clover shook her head. “It’s not about that. Can you imagine how many will perish for pursuing the council’s wild dreams? And that's not even considering that the odds aren’t in your favour.”
“What do you mean?” Thunder Feathers jumped in front of Clover and raised her voice.
“They want to release the beast into the war.”
The yellow pegasus’s eyes widened. She tried to hold the terror inside her, but Clover noticed her trembling.
“Th-this is not good.”
“But I think I know how to stop them,” Clover said, feeling determined in her words and knowledge.
Thunder Feathers looked up at her, desperate for answers. “What?”
“Everything is orchestrated by head counsellor Crimson Light. He is probably organising some sort of public announcement in the town square to inform everypony that now they are in charge and feed their propaganda against the pegasi to the ponies.”
“But, what should we do?”
Clover glanced back at Thunder Feathers. “We make sure no pony will trust his words, not even the other head counsellors. And to do that, we have to release his most valuable prisoner.”
Thunder Feathers narrowed her eyes. “You don’t me–”
“The beast.”
Thunder Feathers couldn't help but scoff in disbelief. “Are you out of your mind? Your best units can barely hold that thing and you want to release it on civilians just to prove a point?”
“The thing is…” Clover paused for a moment. “I saw him. I- they caught me and threw me in his cell, hoping he’d devour me.”
Thunder Feathers eyes widened, but Clover couldn't quite tell whether it was out of surprise or terror.
“A-and I believe, he certainly has a bone to pick with Crimson Light, the real monster.”
“I-I…” Thunder Feathers shook her head. “But how did you survive?”
“He’s just another prisoner, just like you. Tortured. Perhaps I survived him just like I survived you.”
Thunder Feathers wanted to say something, but decided against it.
Clover walked to her door but she was stopped by Thunder Feathers.
“You don’t think I’d let you do this alone, do ya?”
“I have to. Besides, he needs you here.” Clover pointed at the brown earth pony.
“He’s fine for now. But if that Crimson Light is behind all the suffering that happened down there in the dungeon, I think it’s only fair I come along to say hi as well.”
“It's too dangerous, there are guards everywhere.”
“If it's dangerous for me, it has to be dangerous for you too.”
Clover stayed silent, trying to think of a reason to convince Thunder Feathers to stay. Nothing came to her mind.
“Look,” Thunder Feathers said, “This is serious. We have to stop Crimson Light or all the tribes will be in war. We can’t play it safe anymore.”
Clover sighed and, eventually, gave up. “Fine, but at least take my cloak.”
The blizzard was swirling through the air like a screaming ghost. The guards knocked on each door and escorted all the residents of each house to the castle. Although confused, they followed orders, and those who didn’t were brought by force.
An announcement by the head council, many assumed. But what could have been so urgent that they required all the capital's citizens to attend in this fire-freezing weather? All ponies from young fillies to elders, from stallions to mares, all asked the same question in their head. All except two.
Both cloaked and among the masses, hiding their faces and identities behind their hoods, the two mares stood in front of the castle with the rest of the crowd, waiting for the seven head counsellors to speak up. Every second, the cold withered away the crowd's patience.
“Citizens of Everlight!” The counsellor finally spoke up, “We have gathered all of you here so that we can inform you of the tragic news we have recently received.”
The whispers began as Crimson Light finished his sentence. Confused, Thunder Feathers looked at Clover.
With a nod of her head, Clover informed her new ally that she wasn’t aware of what Crimson Light was speaking of.
“It is with utmost sorrow that we must announce that Princess Platinum is... dead!”
The counsellor’s acting, while not perfect, seemed to be enough to convince a lot of the ponies in the courtyard. The whispers grew louder and louder, until they became screams.
“Oh, no!”
“This can not be.”
“But… how?”
“Was she assassinated?”
“Did she freeze to death?”
“Who will be leading us now?”
Clover, on the other hand, was uncertain. Was this a lie? Or was this, for once, the truth? Afterall, she'd been standing outside for only a few minutes, and she had almost lost all warmth in her body. How could Princess Platinum survive this?
“It is a very painful loss to take in, we know. But, sadly, our current state doesn’t allow us to have a proper ceremony for the loss of our dear Princess. We are almost out of food. This weather is crippling us. And most important of all–” Crimson Light paused and made sure he had the full attention of the crowd. “We must take our revenge!”
The crowd was silent. All eyes were locked on the red bearded unicorn in robes.
“Those filthy pegasi are responsible for the loss we have to endure! They are responsible for this current state!”
“LIAR!”
All eyes turned and looked at Thunder Feathers, who had just shouted and drawn all the attention to Clover and herself.
Clover realised she had to execute her plan right then and there.
She pulled Thunder Feathers closer to herself and whispered in her ear, “Look, the guards are on their way to us and the crowd will certainly not take your side when they realise you’re a pegasus. I’ll buy you some time and gather their attention.”
“What do you want me to do?” Thunder Feathers whispered back while carefully eyeing her surroundings.
“Sneak up on Crimson Light. He has a key around his neck that we need.”
“But how do– Oh… right.”
Clover took off her hood and teleported herself onto the scaffold.
“Citizens of Everlight! I am Clover the Clever, Princess Platinum’s most trusted advisor. I am here to expose the council’s lies they’ve been telling you all!”
Clover seemed to have the crowd's attention. On top of that, she had given the council a real shock. All the head counsellors couldn’t believe that they were seeing Clover herself, alive and well.
“The current state isn’t the pegasi’s doing. They’re not capable of creating such weather. And have we forgotten that they need our magic to raise the sun in order for the earth ponies to harvest food and grant it to both us and them? And about our Princess–” Clover looked at Crimson Light who was still baffled that Clover was still breathing. “The council wants to take over! All of this is a lie so they can govern the nation themselves!”
The crowd’s whispers began once again, questioning the reliability of the council. Until…
“Nonsense!” Crimson Light shouted. “Dear citizens of Everlight, do not believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of that pesky traitor!”
The crowd let out a loud gasp and Crimson Light continued. “This so-called 'most trusted advisor' has been caught in the dungeon, trying to bail out some of the most dangerous prisoners there! You think she is worthy of being among the royal ranks? Let alone accusing the council of such treachery? Guards! Arrest her.”
Just like that, Crimson Light swayed the crowd back to his side. The guards stepped forward to arrest Clover and she knew if she fled now, that meant accepting the accusations against her.
“The council is keeping a monster in the dungeon! And they are planning to release it to massacre the other tribes! A monster they can’t even control!”
“That's enough! Get h–” Crimson Light’s words were cut short as something hit him out of nowhere and knocked him onto the ground.
“Shut up you old jerk!” Thunder Feathers yelled as she let out her breath and appeared on the scaffold next to Crimson Light.
The guards quickly charged at her and without hesitation, she quickly snatched the key from around Crimson Light’s neck. However, she got zapped right after and two guards were right on top of her before long. Her cloak had fallen off and now the whole crowd could see she was not a unicorn. She punched one of the guards and threw the key to the air.
“Clover! Catch!”
Clover jumped and caught the key in her teeth. She couldn’t stay nor could she flee from there anymore. She was surrounded by guards. So, she closed her eyes and cast the teleportation spell, disappearing before everypony’s eyes.
“Where did that brat go?” Crimson stood back up.
“She went to free your beast,” Thunder Feathers, who was now held down by two guards, responded, “To show it to everyone.”
All the head counsellors' eyes widened and stared at each other clueless of what to do.
“Hurry up! After her!” Crimson Light shouted, his eyes filled with rage. “And you,” he said, charging up his horn and stepping closer to Thunder Feathers. “I thought maybe after I took your wing, you’d know your place. But it seems, I should have taken something else instead.”
He then zapped her with the utmost power, causingThunder Feathers to experience excruciating pain. Despite her cries, he did not stop. He kept it up. He let his magical electricity surge through the pegasus’ body until no more screams of pain exited the pegasus’ mouth.
Once Clover opened her eyes, she found herself in the west wing hallway of the castle and the key was still in her teeth.
“She’s there!” A guard from the other end of the hallway shouted and started running towards Clover.
Clover’s hooves took off as well and she ran through the hallways and corridors. The dungeon door was on the east wing, first floor. There was a long way there and, sadly, she didn’t have her invisibility cloak with her.
Suddenly, two guards appeared from around a corner and blocked her path.
Clover pushed her hooves against the carpet and changed her route. The two guards chased after her, shooting magical blasts at her.
Now that her path to the east wing was blocked, she had to take the stairs down to the first floor and hope she’d have better luck there. So, she took a turn and headed for the staircase. Taking a glance down the staircase, she saw more guards coming up to cover that area.
Two more blasts missed her head and hit the wall. Clover understood that she couldn't linger and had to move her hooves.
“Stop her!”
Where could she go now? Should she have used the teleportation spell?
It was at that moment she recalled that the main entrance wasn’t the only way to get into the dungeons. There was a heavily guarded back door outside the castle; there was also the secret passage in counsellor Crimson Light's room that led exactly to where she wanted to be.
So, she took a turn and headed for the north wing of the castle. More guards were on her tail and they kept on shooting their magical blasts at her. She had to do something, and it had to be quick.
She spotted a set of decorative armor as she was running. She levitated it, duplicated it, and threw it towards the guards, the segments scattered and hit them on their faces. It wasn't enough to stop them, but it was enough to slow them down.
Finally, Clover got to the door and turned the handle. But the door was locked.
More guards appeared from the other side of the hallway and the rest that were chasing Clover were closing in as well. She was surrounded.
“Get her! She has nowhere to go now.”
“It’s over!”
But perhaps, there was one way out. Clover only had to get inside the room. That was all she needed. So she closed her eyes and pictured the room behind the door as perfectly as her memory could. Red walls, the council’s symbol, the large desk with various scrolls and papers, and the passage that opened in the wall. As the blasts were about to hit her, she vanished from everpony’s view. Confused, the guards separated again in hopes of finding the hooded mare. Little did they know, she was right behind the door they last saw her.
After letting out a sigh of relief, the young mare put the symbol in the right position and entered the secret passageway.
As she stepped down the stairs, she couldn’t help but worry about Thunder Feathers. Was she going to be alright? What were they doing to her now that they caught her assaulting a head counsellor? Were they going to–
No. Clover stopped her thoughts right there. She reminded herself that Thunder Feathers was a strong mare. She could take it. Or, at least, Clover hoped she would.
Once Clover made it down the stairs, she pulled the lever and stepped inside the dungeon. Once again, her fur stood up, but not just from fear of what was behind the giant metal door. She also felt doubt of whether what she was doing was right.
She then remembered the images she saw upon looking through the beast’s memories. The sensations, the pain, it all came flowing back.
It was right. She was certain.
Clover levitated the key and put it inside. Once it clicked, the door opened ajar. She pulled the door wide open and lit up her horn to gaze through the never-ending darkness of the cell.
*Grrrrr*
The claws stepped into the dim light and soon after, the creature’s spiked teeth came into Clover’s view. It was clear to Clover that it had gone into another rampage.
Clover turned back and started running. The beast chased after her. Clover had to get him outside the castle and show him to everyone. But first, she had to get there in one piece. And the beast was fast. Clover took a glance from over her shoulder and saw the beast closing in.
She couldn’t outrun it and she certainly couldn’t stop it. Could she perhaps teleport it? It seemed simple enough. She just had to cast the spell on the beast instead of herself. But, was it going to work? There was only one way to find out.
Clover turned back, closed her eyes, pictured the scaffold the counsellors set up, and shot a beam at the beast.
The beast appeared on the scaffold, among the head counsellors and the guards. Right in front of all the ponies.
It let out its blood-chilling roar and revealed its maw to the crowd.
The guards on the scaffold were frightened and frozen in place and the crowd started screaming at the sight.
“How did this thing come here?” One of the head counsellors looked at Crimson Light, desperate for an answer.
But he too seeked the answer to that question.
“Attack! Hold it off!” Crimson Light commanded the guards around him. They all charged up their horns and shot at it. The creature growled in pain for a second, but then charged at the ponies that attacked him and, with a swipe, tossed them into the crowd.
The civilians scattered away in fear, screaming.
“Clover was right! There is a monster!”
“The council was lying to us?”
“What is that thing?”
“Run! Everpony! Run!”
More guards blasted their magical bolts at the beast, but it shook them off and slashed each one with his claw.
“I thought you said you had it tamed, Crimson Light!” Counsellor Emerald Blast shouted as he too shot a magic beam toward the beast.
The other counsellors joined in and held the beast down to the best of their ability. Screaming in pain, the creature ignored the beams burning its flesh away and charged at the counsellors. It grabbed one and smacked them onto the scaffold, breaking it.
The rest of the counsellors’ eyes widened in shock and and their bodies filled with terror. They realised they couldn’t stop it.
Then, the creature caught sight of a very familiar face, Crimson Light. It gnashed its teeth together and ran towards him. Before Crimson Light could charge his horn, the beast grabbed his neck and raised him up.
“Y-You…were… s-supposed to obey…me!”
Just then, Clover teleported back onto the scaffold. With a quick look around, she realised her magic trick worked. But then, she caught sight of the beast and Crimson Light.
Suddenly, a shimmering light floated out of Crimson Light’s eyes and mouth and entered the beast’s. Meanwhile, the rest of the head counsellors gathered the rest of the guards and held their formation to hold off the beast.
After a moment, the light faded and the beast let go of Crimson Light. The body of the red stallion fell to the ground like a lifeless doll.
The beast turned back and roared at the remaining guards. It took a step forward, but then held its head in its claws and rolled around in the snow. The claws shrunk and disappeared. What remained was only hooves.
The beast was now only a normal unicorn. The rampage was over. The stallion stepped back and ran off into the horizon.
Clover did not try to stop him. The beast was now free and it seemed to have also gotten its revenge. Instead, Clover looked around in hopes of finding Thunder Feathers. And there she was, lying on the broken scaffold, with snow covering her. Clover quickly ran up to her and brushed the snow off.
“Thunder Feathers? Thunder Feathers, can you hear me?”
She received no response. It didn’t take Clover much time to realise, no fog was forming around Thunder Feather’s muzzle. She was gone.
Clover sank her head in sorrow. “Don’t worry, HE got what he deserved.”
The town was buried in silence.
Suddenly, the sound of royal horns were heard in the distance. On the horizon, the royal carriage emerged from the blizzard. The carriage stopped right at the castle gates and Princess Platinum peered outside.
She took a glance around and approached the scaffold. There, she found her advisor.
“Clover? What happened here?”
Mares and stallions, fillies and elders, all were gathered in the throne room. In front of the princess, stood the rest of the head counsellors. Whispers could be heard all around until the princess gave a signal to her guard and he hit his spear to the ground to silence the crowd.
“Citizens of Everlight!” The princess spoke up, “Once I left the capital to attend the tribal negotiations, I decided to leave the nation to the council’s hooves temporarily, believing they were trustworthy to maintain order, just like they did in the past, and serve as humbly as they did to my father. But now that I’ve returned, thanks to my trusted advisor–” Princess pointed her hoof at Clover who was standing next to the throne. “I’ve been informed of the mischievousness and dishonesty of the council. After further inspection, it was clear that the head counsellors have been abusing their powers for quite some time. And sadly, even I was too blinded by the trust and respect I had for them to realise this truth.”
The crowd started whispering again but the guard’s spear hit the floor once more, so they remained silent.
“And hence, I hereby announce that the head counsellors are stripped of their powers and titles! And I will manage our nation from now on!”
The crowd gasped but three more spear hits stopped the crowd from delving into chaos.
“That is all, you are all dismissed!”
The crowd stepped out of the throne room one by one and the guards guided them outside the castle. The head counsellors decided to come closer to the princess, but the guards held them back and pushed them outside the throne room as well.
In a few minutes, the room was emptied of all citizens and Princess Platinum was left alone with her advisor.
“Clover?”
“Yes, your highness?”
“There is something I wish to discuss with you. In the tribal negotiations, it seemed that you were right. The other tribes are dealing with this blizzard as well and the pegasi are not the ones to blame. But..”
“But what, your highness?”
“The state of this storm is getting worse by the second and our food supplies are dwindling. What is your suggestion, my clever advisor?”
Clover pondered for a few seconds before giving an answer. “I… I think our tribe must set out on a journey.”
Princess turned back and glanced at her advisor. “What do you mean by that, Clover?”
“The land is becoming inhabitable, your highness. I doubt this storm will ever stop. We have no other choice. We must leave.”
“You mean–”
“Yes… we must leave the nation, and find a new land free from this storm.”
Princess Platinum looked around her throne room, the castle of her ancestors and her heritage. She had to leave all these behind?
“Alright, then we shall prepare for our trip.”
“Your highness?”
“Yes, Clover?”
Clover hesitated. “Since we are going to leave our city, I think it would be wise to free the prisoners in the dungeons.”
“What?” The princess’s eyes widened.
“Your highness, once we leave, all those who are in there will either starve to death to succumb to the wounds that have been caused during their torture.”
The princess looked down for a few seconds.
“Please, your highness.”
The princess let out a sigh. “Alright. Once we are all ready to move, I’ll order the guards to set them free with some rations.”
“One more thing, your highness. There is one severely injured prisoner that I have in my room. He desperately needs medical attention.”
The princess stared at the young mare for a few seconds. “I hope you have a good explanation for it, Clover. I’ll send a couple of guards to take him to the infirmary.”
“Thank you, your highness.”
“You’re dismissed now. You may leave.”
Even though Clover had managed to uncover the secret the council had been keeping away in the dungeon, managed to stop Crimson Light’s takeover, and made sure nopony else would ever go through the suffering the council had inflicted on the innocent souls in the dungeon, she still felt unfulfilled.
Was it because she couldn’t save Thunder Feathers or was it because she still didn’t quite know how the beast in the dungeon came to be? Would Starswirl finally be proud of her?
Still many questions remained. Perhaps in another tale, she would find the answers. In another time and in another place.
