A bird flies down to the bars of a Dungeon window; quietly it sits on the cement opening, staring through the bars into a dark chamber barely lit with the light of the rising sun. There in a still form lay a Pegasus, slowly waking from his nightly slumber. The bird stares at him. Taking no heed to the fact that he is still in a state of sleep, the bird begins to tweet a melody, taking him out of his sleep faster then his natural cycle.
The pegasus begins to stir, taking in a deep breath, and exhaling, then yawning. He realises that he is awake. *Yawn* “Oh… It was just another dream.”
The Pegasus stood up, hearing the sad reality that was the same as every other time he would stand up after having his dreams; the sound of an iron chain rattling around the ring which covered his wings preventing him from flying.
“I guess I shall never again be free. To be stuck in this wretched dungeon for eternity just because I refuse to join the, “Equestrian Liberation Front” or, ”E.L.F” as they prefer to be called. They seized control of my home, my village. They imprisoned all of those who resisted to join their conquest to overthrow the tyrant of Equestria.”
He looked up towards the direction of the window to see the bird that had landed on the window moments ago. He stared at it, and it stared at him. Silently they just stood there, watching one another, the Pegasus; feeling rage and sorrow building inside of him, hearing the deafening sound of silence.
Much time passed as the two stared at each other, until Venture could take it no more and spoke his mind. “Look at you, you’re able to fly freely whenever you please and go wherever your heart desires, able to sing your sweet melodies as loud as you want, whilst I lay here in this dungeon, my wings bound to my body by this cursed metal ring, chained to the floor…” His eyes began to water, and his voice shaky as he starts to shout at the bird, “Day after day I lay here for hours, only leaving for an hour to be escorted to a room to be fed horrible food not fit for anypony to eat! What have I done? All I did was refuse to stand up against the ruler of Equestria! All I…”
“Quiet in there!” Two pegasi walk up to the iron-barred door, both dressed in gleaming steel armour and a beautifully decorated sword hilt strapped to their backs. One begins to open the iron door as the other draws his sword.
“Stand still and don’t move until spoken to. Doing so will forfeit your chance of getting your food for the day!”
The Pegasus walked over to Venture, and began to unlock the metal ring that constrained his wings.
“Now, you know the drill. Follow us quiet-like and we won’t harm you. Make a noise and you will be beaten then thrown back into your cage. Now get moving!”
The captive began to slowly walk towards the door, one of the guards behind him whilst the other waited at the entrance. Slowly they walked out of cell into the long and dimly torch lit hallway, then proceeded towards the eating chamber.
End Pilot Chapter-1
As Venture and his escorts began walking down the dimly lit hallway, he began to notice that something was different from the regular routine. Most of the captives were missing from their cages. He wanted to ask why, but he knew better then to speak whilst on the way to the Food Chamber. After a few minutes of walking down corridors, Venture noticed something else that was amiss. They were not going the same way they always did when going to the Food chamber three levels up, instead they were going towards a spiral stone staircase that seemed to lead down quite a ways. He began to get nervous when they started down the staircase. Looking around, all he could see was the cold stone wall, and the rough-hewn torches that lit it.
Eventually they made it to the bottom of the staircase. All that could be seen in sight was a vast and eerie plot of dirt with a few giant boulders in the walls and a very light fog that hung low. The fog itself did not obscure your vision, but only added to the feeling that this place had not been used in a long stretch of time; even the dirt itself was dry and clumpy for it had not seen the light of day, nor had a drop of water in bygone ages. All Venture could do was stood at the base of the stairs with one of the guards, The site to him startled him and made his legs lock up. As he stood there with one guard, he watched the other walk out in front of him into the darkness. A few moments later, a loud *Click* was heard, followed by a loud rumbling noise and lots of debris flying into the air. Venture felt a heavy shove as he was sent sprawling face first into the dirt.
"Your're probably wondering many things right now, like What's going on? Why am I here, and where am I going?" The guard that was speaking began to curve his lips into a wicked grin as he said, "Heh.. Let's just see ALL of your questions will be answered in due time, but for now, I want you to walk out there and search around for an opening or crevice."
Silently Venture did as he was told, moving forwards through the settling debris, unable to see very far, he only had the sound of his hooves crunching on the dried dirt to tell him that he was still walking. As he kept walking the debris began to settle, and he was able to see farther away, like before. Searching along the walls with his eyes as he roved slowly forward, he noticed one of the rocks were out of place with an indent in the ground beside it signalling that it had moved. Upon walking up to it, he saw that it had infact moved, and revealed an opening. He gazed inside to try and see what the rock was concealing, but was unable to because of the light being blocked off by the rock. He stood still trying to make out anything in the dark when he heard a guard shout at him, telling him to move, lest he feel the sting of his sword. With no other options He began to walk through the opening, and noticed almost immediately that the ground texture had changed from dried and crusty dirt, to cold hard rock. He continued in the same direction for a brief moment until he felt a rumble when the loud rumbling happened again. He had began to panic and turn in the opposite direction, but noticed that the opening was now blocked.
"What... What just happened? What do I do now?" He asked himself those same questions repetitively, whilst putting his hoof to the wall, and slowly following it.
After what seemed like hours of following the wall with one hoof running along it, and the other 3 on the ground, he noticed a small sliver of sunlight in the distance. The first thing that came to his mind at that very moment was, "No... It can't be what I think it is.. It must be artificial.." Hoping that he was wrong, he put his hoof to the ground, then began to trot at a heavy pace towards the direction of the light. When he made it to the source, he realised it was indeed real sunlight piercing through a whole in the rock wall, which upon further inspection seemed big enough for him to fit through. When he made it up to the hole he climbed through it only to fall a very small height unto a flat rock surface with more rock and dirt scaling behind it to make it seem as though he were standing on a cliff face. He got up and decided to have search his surrounding to find out many things. Within the first few moments of looking around he found out that he was on top of a large cliff face that was a few miles above a forest and a dark object in the far distance. Putting a hoof to the edge he also found out that it the edges of this face could not stand very much pressure.
Another realization had hit him... He was no longer bound to a chain, but even then he still had to question him self, "Have they decided to release me? Am I really.... Free...?" Feeling his lips curve into a smile of joy, and started hopping up and down in enjoyment and anticipation. The feeling of the warmth of the sun on his body coupled with the many nights of sleeplessness had made him happy and tired. He felt as though he was not in any danger and decided that it would be okay to lay down and take a peaceful nap.
Upon awakening from his nap he felt energized and happy. For once his sleep had been restful and undisturbed. As he awoke, he realised he had slept for a good number of hours, as the sun was starting to set. He sat up and watched the sun slowly set, feeling tears course down his face, feeling pure ecstasy. When the sun was half-way done, he thought he had heard a shuffling noise, and that of hooves hitting rocks. Thinking that it wasn't much he didn't take it seriously. Instead He decided that he wanted to do something he hadn't in years... He wanted to fly. He flexed out his wings with an experimental flap to see if they had suffered any damage. Luckily the only damage they had was that of stiffness and would go away after a few minutes of flying. At a full pace he ran towards the edge nearly scaring himself as he was unsure if he was able to fly or not. When he started to beat his wings nothing had happened.., Instead he began to plummet towards the forest. All he could do was continue to flap his wings hoping he would save himself. Quickly the treetops began to get larger and larger.. Then a miracle happened, he managed to catch a thermal with his wings and was sent up into the air. Feeling his heart would burst out of his chest because of the amount of fright he felt he just hovered in the air. When he saw that his wings had moved perfectly, his eyes began to gush forth more tears of happiness.
"This feeling.. I haven't felt what it's like to have my wings open freely without being hit..." He began to flap his wings experimentally. Only feel slight pain from the stiffness of being chained up for years, he decided that it would go away after a few minutes of flying. So with that he ran and jumped, flapping his wings, he soared through the air. The whole time he felt as though he was dreaming.
The sun was just finishing it's cycle of setting when two odd wraith-like shadows flew through the air behind Venture. Unaware he just flew slowly and lazily until... Until it was too late. Two large Griffins flew beside Venture and sunk their talons equipped with obsidian claws into his wings. Stopping instantly in the air and feeling the searing pain in his wings, he wondered what had just happened. Looking to his flanks, he saw the two griffon clad in dark cloaks staring at him, their dark eyes staring back at him down their black-stained beaks. They held him in the air for a few moments, when another griffon flew up to him. He noticed it was staring at his wings, as if he were studying them.
Venture felt extremely nervous, scared of what may happen next. He was about to say something when the griffon in front of him let out a loud screech and slammed its' beak into his left wing, then into his right. The force of the blow was enough to break the bones in his wing, to the point of permanent disability. Letting out a loud cry, he tried to move free from the griffons but doing so only made them dig their claws deeper into his flesh. With his blood flowing out of his body through the holes left by the talons, he was dropped down into a forest below. Upon getting close to it, his life flashed before his eyes, seeing moments of his childhood, his proudest moments and achievements, he remember his parents, family and friends, and of the one he held close to him before the invasion. These visions that flashed before him stopped when he landed head first into a thick tree branch, knocking him unconscious.
He lay on the ground for hours. When he came to, he had no idea as to where he was, what had happened, or why he was lying on the ground floor of a forest. All he knew, was that there was immense pain in his wings. He tried to spread them out, but it only caused him more pain.
"Hnnngrunnhhg! Why do my wings hurt so much and why am I here?" He began to slowly move forwards deeper into the jungle, until he came upon an old run-down log cabin.
"I wonder if there's anypony in there." He walks towards the cabin, only to trip on something that was concealed by the shrubbery, which caused a net to fall on top of him.
"What the hay? No... Not this again.. This can't be happening again.. I don't know how I got out of that dungeon, but I don't want to go back!" He was shouting it loudly as figures began to emerge from behind trees and bushes. Upon spotting them he realised they bore the exact same armour and sword-hilts as the two pegasi from the dungeon.
"Well well well, look at what we have here. A traitor who thought he could escape, well I have news for you bud, you're going to work in the mines were you will never see the light of day again! You will be worked until you die of exhaustion, so I hope you enjoyed your little taste of freedom."
"No.. This can't be happening.. I was so close.. I was so close.. I was.." *Thwock* One of the pegasi had slammed the hilt of his sword upon Venture's skull knocking him out. With his conciousness gone, the pegasi began to place Venture's body onto a wagon, and chain him to it, then proceed to move towards the castle.
It took a half-nights trek, but they made it to the building Venture had seen earlier in the distance. With his conciousness regaining, he tried to look around, but his head was fixed in one position, and that was forwards. He could see the building fairly easily now as his grogginess wore off, and what he saw was black stones and a giant reinforced gate made of wood and various metals. Standing beside the gate were two massive Pegasi wearing a shining gold breastplate, menacing gold full-helms, a long and beautifully made blue cape billowing behind them, and obsidian claws on their hooves. Venture tried to move again but failed as he did before, except this time, one of the ponies following the wagon saw him, and with a swift movement had knocked him out again.
End Chapter 2
