Southern Sea of Equestria
Restricted Area, Bahamut Prison Island
The massive gates of Ferros Prison rose slowly as the prison wagon approached. Eight hulking, armored dragons pulled a massive steel platform on six huge wheels. It was completely flat and carried five black and brown boxes on top of it, evenly spaced apart.
"Intake team, stand by! Lower the gate!" the guard captain shouted from the side of the entrance.
Slowly, the metal bars of the gate slid down as the end of the cart entered the prison intake yard. The doors to the main prison at the back of the yard opened and a squad of armored dragons armed with spears filed out on either side of the wagon. Of the dozen guards that exited, one of them was distracted with what was going on high above them.
"Lore! Stand by!" the guard captain reiterated, noticing Lore's preoccupied expression.
The sky was dark and not just because the volcano on the island was spewing out smoke. They were far from the mainland; there was no one to manage the weather on the island and it was covered in overcast. The prison was isolated for a reason: only the worst of the worst were sent here, a fact that made Lore cautious of everything around her. The dark clouds overhead made it feel like she was being watched from above.
The guard captain walked around to the front of the wagon as it pulled to a stop. The leader of the intake squad approached him.
"The warden wants this done by the book. Check the registry on the containers and match it with our orders," the captain instructed.
"Crag! Lore! On the cart!" the intake leader barked. Lore collapsed her spear, placed it on the small of her back and mounted the wagon. The dragon facing Lore on the opposite side of the wagon did the same. The large crates were lined up in the center, a few meters between themselves and the edges of the large cart. Chains across the tops of them held them in place. The dark boxes themselves were made from heavy material. It would likely take at least half of the intake team to move one off the wagon. It was going to be a long job but Lore was no less eager to see it over.
The squad leader moved to the side of the wagon with a clipboard in his claws. "Check the registry number on the side. Confirm that it matches our record." The two dragon guards on the wagon moved quickly to check the numbers on the boxes, carefully stepping around the chains to do so.
A tall, unarmored gray dragon stepped into the intake yard from the doors in the back. He took a deep breath and walked over to the guard captain.
"Warden Chimney, sir!" the captain saluted as he approached. Chimney returned the gesture without breaking a stride.
"You checking the registry?" he asked.
"As we speak, sir," the captain reported.
"There can be no risks, no room for error with this one, captain. Orders come from the top: this transferal is done by the book."
"Sir, a word," the guard captain said, leaning in to whisper. "I read the report myself, sir. We're missing two."
"We're missing one, captain," the warden corrected.
"One, sir? Aren't there supposed to be seven?" the captain asked, puzzled.
"One of them was taken care of a long time ago. The other six have been overdue for quite some time. We're still missing one but without the other five, the last one doesn't have many places to hide," the warden said, placing his claws on his hips.
"The last one escaped?"
"It took a joint dragon-griffon battalion to take these monsters down. The operation took months to prepare while the creatures assaulted our borders, ravaged entire towns. But we knew what they needed so we lured them into a town and cut 'em off, laid smoke over the whole thing and hit 'em with everything we had," the warden explained. His voice sounded triumphant and defeated at the same time. The captain could only imagine what the brave dragons on the mainland went through.
"They never surrendered. It took weeks but finally we fought them to a standstill and subdued then. In the confusion, one of the little monsters ran off. It's on the run now so it won't be long before it joins its little friends," the warden finished.
The guard captain hadn't heard about how the creatures were apprehended; only that they were very dangerous. They had attacked villages, destroyed entire towns in the Domain. They wielded fire, ice, lightning, other-worldly powers and illusions that drove sane minds mad. And now those demons were inside the five boxes in front of them.
Lore, Crag and the squad leader walked back to the front of the wagon and saluted the warden.
"Sir, all four registries confirmed to match our records," Crag said.
The warden turned to Crag abruptly. "You mean five, guardsman." Crag looked back at the warden, confusion in his eyes.
"Five, sir?" Lore asked. "We only counted-"
"Charge and lock, charge and lock!" the guard captain called out. The intake guards at the side of the wagon readied their spears, each rotating the handle in the middle. The tips of the spears folded back to reveal sharpened crystal heads, they glowed and surged with magical energy. Crag, Lore and the intake leader turned around to face the prison wagon.
"Ready weapons!"
"You examined four crates?" the warden asked, his voice stern.
Lore struggled to remember what she and Crag had only done moments ago. She felt like she was on trial for the actions she'd performed only an instant later. She only remembered checking four boxes.
"Sir, we matched registries on four crates," Lore responded.
"I counted five when the gate closed, sir," the guard captain said.
"Around the back! We're going to check each one, now!" the warden declared. The gray dragon led the four others around the side of the cart, passing the lines of guards pointing their spear-weapons at the massive, motionless boxes. The warden looked at each one as he passed, counting them: one, two, three, four as he got to the end.
"We were scheduled to receive five, captain," the warden announced as they reached the end of the cart. All they saw was an empty space behind the fourth massive cube, room enough for a fifth but no chains.
"You're sure you saw five?"
The captain nodded. "Absolutely, sir." The warden climbed up on the platform, the others followed suit. They examined the vacant spot on the cart. The warden noticed the bolt hole for the set of chains to be wrapped around but no chains, no pin to hold them down. Nothing but wrought iron and the slightest rust.
"It couldn't have just disappeared!" the warden said, angrily annoyed. "You there!" he addressed a guard to the side of the cart. "Was there a crate here or not?!"
"You're kinda cute for a big lizard," a voice said. The warden turned around slowly.
"She... she just appeared out of thin air!" Lore said, pointing in front of them. Standing on the other side of the wagon across from them was a cream colored pony, a mare with a red mane and some sort of black covers on her hooves. She smiled and waved at the five perplexed dragons and appeared to be leaning against something.
"Take her down!" the captain ordered
The warden's eyes went wide. "Wait!" Too late.
Crag and Lore took aim and fired. Energized bolts erupted from the ends of their spears and raced right at the small mare. The bolts exploded scarce feet away from the spearheads as if impacting against an invisible wall. The force of the blast knocked the five dragons off the wagon. A fifth massive crate materialized in front of where they'd just stood, as if it'd been there all along and none of them had seen it. The reality was just that simple: they hadn't.
Guards moved to aid their fallen comrades. The surface of the prison crate was scorched and dented. Smoke rose from the side where the bolts hit. The chains holding the fifth box in place had been sliced by the energy blast; they snapped off and fell onto the floor of the platform. The warden looked up through the smoke in time to see the side of the metal box simply slide off.
"Thanks for the help, boys!" the mare waved at them, now on top of the box. "Envy, you awake in there?"
An icy mist poured fourth from the opening of the crate as a light-blue unicorn emerged from the box. His mane was a slightly darker shade of the same ice-blue and it exuded a frosty aura all its own. He looked down at the dragons before him with steel-white eyes.
"What? No friendly greeting for the VIPs?" the unicorn asked in a pretentious voice. "That's just... cold."
"Fire! Fire!" the guard captain shouted. Guards around them took aim at the pony.
"Fire?" the ice pony asked. The dragons launched a barrage of energy bolts at the crate. In an instant, walls of ice shot up from the ground and encircled the end of the prison wagon, blocking and even reflecting the violent volley.
"I think you mean 'ice'." The ice walls crumbled and frozen chunks were scattered everywhere. The pony smiled at the five dragons on the ground in front of him. A white cone of vapor erupted from the unicorn's horn and projected over the warden, squad leader, guard captain and guards. In a second, they were flash-frozen to the floor. Both their bodies and the ground around them was covered in ice.
The guards around the wagon backed away; some fired again only to see their shots miss the agile ponies. The red-maned mare hopped from the top of the crate to another, only staying long enough for an energy bolt to miss her and hit the box underneath her. She giggled gleefully as she did so. Finally reaching the front of the cart, she hopped to the ground and vanished from sight.
The ice pony moved slowly around the wagon, blasting the dragons that faced him and turning them to ice. The guards panicked, scattered and ran for their lives back into the prison.
The middle crate shook violently and turned a bright red. The air around it wavered with a growing heat. The chains holding it down sizzled and broke, finally melting. A hole soon grew in the side of the box as the metal around it peeled, burned and melted into an ooze of ore. A red earth pony stepped out of the hole and onto the platform, smoke rising from his red hooves, blood-red mane and tail.
"Where does Pride sleep?" the colt asked with a fiery voice. He walked up to the edge of the wagon as the ice pony and red-maned earth pony approached him.
"Searched the place top-to-bottom waiting for you guys to show up," the red-maned mare said. "He ain't here, Wrath."
Flames erupted from the red stallion's hooves and mane. He stomped the metal wagon with both of his front hooves, scattering embers into the air. The other two ponies didn't flinch at the display of anger as if it wasn't anything they hadn't seen before.
"Free the others," he instructed. The two moved quickly and soon the other three boxes were opened and their occupants were unleashed.
"Nice place here," a green Pegasus said, examining her new surroundings. "I'll take it." Electricity surged between her emerald wings and static sparked as the surface of her hooves touched the metal beneath her.
A gray unicorn colt looked around himself. "There'd better be something to eat around here," he commented. The colt was slightly larger than the others and his barrel stuck further out. The ground practically shook when he walked though as if he was carrying something heavier than just a few extra pounds.
"They couldn't have carried us all the way inside?" an orange Pegasus mare asked. "Breaking out was just so much work."
"Enough," Wrath said. "This isn't a vacation. Lust says Pride isn't here so this whole thing has been a complete waste of time."
"I could've told you that," the orange Pegasus said.
"Oh, shut up, Sloth," the green Pegasus said back to her. It wasn't an insult; it was her name. The orange mare rolled her eyes in response.
"Ha, Greed's just mad there's nothing to steal here," the hefty gray unicorn remarked. "You think they have any food though?"
"Can you think of something other than your stomach for five minutes, Gluttony?" the ice unicorn asked. "It wasn't my idea to allow ourselves to get captured anyway; it was yours, Wrath," he said, almost scoffing.
The red stallion flared up again and the dissention stopped. The six were quiet for a moment.
"So, what do we do now? Stay and enjoy island life?" Sloth asked.
Envy put a hoof to his chin, icy vapor escaped in puffs as he tapped. "It's a shame we can't salvage anything from the situation."
"Maybe we can," Wrath said. He jumped off the platform and walked over to one of the frozen guards. He placed a hoof on the iced dragon and he slowly began to defrost. The dragon gasped and shivered as the ice melted around him. The other five ponies gathered around them.
"I will ask you once." The red colt's voice almost dripped with venom. "Where is Pride?"
"I d-d-d-don't kn-n-nowww," the guard said, his voice quivering.
"Is he telling the truth?" he asked over his shoulder, keeping his eyes locked on the guard.
Lust shrugged. "How should I know? What do I look like- the Element of Honesty?"
"What reason would he have to lie to us? It's not like it's going to save him anyway," Greed said, hovering nearby.
"I-I am t-t-telling the t-truth!" the dragon said, the statement more of a plead than information.
"If you don't know where Pride is, who does?" Wrath asked.
"The warden! The warden would know!" the dragon told them.
"And where is the warden?" the red colt continued. The dragon said nothing but pointed a shaking claw to their left where a cluster of five dragons were frozen to the ground and each other in an icy mass.
Wrath smiled. Cowards were so easy to work with. "You see? That wasn't that hard," he turned to Envy. "Put him on ice again."
"Gladly," Envy replied. Before the guard could beg again, he was hit with a blast of frigid energy from the ice pony's horn. Instantly, the dragon was frozen again though in a different position that time. Like a living ice sculpture, now his expression was one of horror instead of defiance.
The six ponies walked over to the five dragons. Wrath noticed one wasn't wearing armor. He put a hoof next to the unarmored dragon's neck and slowly the ice began to shrink around it. When the dragon's head was fully exposed and he was able to speak, Wrath lowered his hoof and let the rest of the dragon's body stay frozen.
"Tell me where Pride is," Wrath said to the dragon. "or we tie your men together, throw them in the ocean and see if they float."
The dragon just stared back at the red stallion. "You don't scare me." The warden's voice was trembling; he knew he was helpless. He could breath fire himself but what good would it do? He couldn't take on all five of them. No, there was no escaping his fate. All he could do was endure for as long as he could. Now began the hardest and most important battle of his life. The warden knew it was the most important because he knew it was going to be his last.
"Oooh, looks like he's not buying it, Wrath," Greed said.
"Where do you keep the food in this place?" Gluttony asked. Wrath cast him a furious glance and the fat unicorn snorted in response.
Wrath turned back to the ice-encased dragon. "You will tell me where Pride is or I will melt your face off while the rest of you is still frozen," he said, his voice practically on fire.
The colt's breath was searing and slowly melted the ice at his neck. But for that moment, strangely, the warden didn't feel hot or cold. He was staring a fiery death in the face; what did it matter if he felt anything? He couldn't feel his heart beat or his lungs slowly expand and contract. He didn't blink at the pony's violent declaration, didn't flinch at the threat of destruction. The warden didn't feel fear or anything else because he knew what he had to do. He had to deny the demons this bit of information to buy someone else one moment of time in the future. Even if it was a moment he would never see.
The warden gritted his teeth. "You're not going to get anything out of me."
Wrath's eyes narrowed at the dragon while the four others made snide comments about his reaction.
"I understand. We're going to have to do this the hard way," the red pony smiled.
The warden felt his lips tremble. "Please..." he begged.
The red colt stood on his back hooves. "You don't want to see me kill your men, do you?"
"Please, forgive me." Tears formed in the dragon's eyes.
"That's okay. I can fix that."
"FORGIVE ME, SPIKE!"
His left hoof smoldering, Wrath pressed it into the dragon's left eye socket. The warden's scream pierced the walls of the prison and carried into the surrounding jungle. Still standing, Wrath cradled the dragon's head with his left hoof and jabbed his right hoof in the other eye socket. Smoke rose from the dragon's face as his eyes burned.
The ice encasing the warden's body melted as his screams died.
"Sick burn, Wrath," Greed remarked as the body collapsed to the floor. "So, what's the plan now?"
Wrath turned to the others. "They don't have Pride here... so we make them bring him to us."
"Good idea," Sloth yawned. "Them bringing him to us."
Lust nibbled on the edge of one of her black boots. "How do we get them to bring him here?"
"We're standing in the middle of a prison. Behind those doors is an army. We bust them out and we take over the Dragon Domain! We'll raze the whole country until they deliver us both Pride and the Elements of Harmony!!"
The group rejoiced at the idea, happy that more mayhem was in the future for them. Smoke slowly rose from the prison island and was quickly lost in the dark skies above.
Within sight of the shore, a group of eyes took notice of the smoke.
"Biggs... Biggs?"
The other sea pony popped his head up out of the water. "Yeah, Wedge?"
"You know we're going to have to report this, right?"
"Why?" Biggs asked. "It's not an SOS."
Wedge frowned. "Really...? The fire isn't an indication that something might not be right?"
"What!" the first sea pony asked defensively. "You've never been on land. How do you know they're not having a barbeque?"
"Let's go," Wedge replied, descending beneath the waves.
"Well, shoo-be-doo..." Biggs said, following hid partner underwater.
