Band of Five Attributes (Re-Written)

Koto slowly opened her eyes, letting off a weak groan as she did. The world span round in circles, but eventually, it stopped. When the spinning stopped, she winced as she rose her head to look at her surroundings. From what she could see, which was very little thanks to the accursed darkness that surrounded her, she was simply not where she was when she was knocked out.

The floor she lay on felt cold and very hard, and as she moved one of her forelegs to start an attempt to stand, something clinked and rattled very noisily. Her ears twitched to catch the odd rattling sound, and she moved her other foreleg to find that the noise had occurred once more.

Her eyes widened. She tried to cast another illumination spell with her horn, only for a searing hot pain to assault the nerves in her head and cause her to yelp in pain and surprise. She quickly rose into a sitting position, more clinks and rattles resounding as she did.

A masculine groan sounded, and Koto swiveled her head side to side in an attempt to figure out where it was coming from. Then, rattles and clinks came forth once more as another form shifted about, the owner still groaning in pain.

“Who is that?” Koto asked, trying once more to get her horn to light up. All that came to her was another surge of pain, and she grit her teeth as a result.

“Koto...is that you?” Asked the other form. “Damn...it sure is dark here.”

“Rekka?” Koto inquired, her ears falling flat on her skull for a moment.

“Yeah...why?” The other form asked. He moved his head for a bit before he grunted in pain. “Ow...could’ve sworn my horn was working earlier today…”

“Same here…” Koto replied before freezing in place altogether as hooves beating on the cold, hard surface echoed faintly for a second. Then, a chuckle came soon after that, the tone nonchalant but lingering with subtle traces of some withheld emotion.

The hooves echoed again, this time just a little bit louder. They echoed once more, and so too did that unnerving laugh which sent another body-shaking chill down the spines of the two ponies.

A deathly silence overtook the whole area for a minute. Then, the hooves echoed yet again, and this time it sounded like someone had been trotting at a collective pace. A faint orange glow made itself apparent in the darkness, though not enough to show any silhouettes.

Then, the glow brightened, and as it did, it revealed a set of slender, metal bars lined both vertically and horizontally, thus forming a grid of steel that not many could hope to break.

Koto’s pupils instantly shrank at the ghastly sight, and her heart literally skipped a beat. As the glow continued to brighten and the hooves continued to get louder, she looked down at her hooves and grit her teeth in an attempt to choke back a scream of pure terror.

Thick metal bands linked by chains were clamped onto her hooves, and they were just a bit smaller than her forelimbs--meaning it would be a pain to remove them without a key.

The hooves got louder still, and she slowly looked back to the metal bars as the reason why stopped on the other side altogether. Her heart sank at the sight of Maki, whose horn was glowing a bright crimson in hue. He stared back at her with his crimson eyes, something flickering to life within the otherwise-dark voids.

“I see you two are awake.” He said nonchalantly. A grin came on his muzzle, partially obscured thanks to the metal bars he stood behind. He flung open the door and walked in, shutting it behind him soon after. His smile widened when he saw the younger orange unicorn stand up on his four legs with a scowl on his face.

“Why I oughta…!” Rekka hissed, galloping towards the stallion before the chains on his hind legs stopped him on terribly short notice. He did not get much further from the closest wall, and when he turned around, his pupils shrank upon seeing why he was unable to get any closer to Maki.

“Feisty one, and foolish as well. The more, the merrier.” Maki taunted, a sort of sleepy look on his face as he watched the spectacle. He turned his head slowly to Koto, who was now backing away into a corner. From thin air came two things that soon found themselves floating next to him: a switchblade knife, and a baseball bat.

The knife then shot towards the younger stallion like a speeding bullet, impaling itself into his left shoulder with a clean cut. Rekka quickly howled in pain as the knife withdrew from his flesh like it had been butter, and he turned his attention to the twisted elder stallion who was still standing there with a sick grin plastered onto his gold-colored muzzle. The knife plunged itself into flesh once more, this time in the lower half of the flank. The younger unicorn failed to contain another pained cry, rivers of red trickling down his wounded legs as the knife once more slid out.

Maki turned his gaze straight back in Koto’s direction, and he quickly grasped her in his magic and hoisted her in the air and brought her closer to him. As he did, his smile turned into a hideous scowl once the mare began flailing her chained legs about in a vain attempt to break free.

“W...why are you doing this?!” Rekka wailed, his eyes widening as the bat was raised next to Koto, the end next to her cheek in a position to strike. The bat withdrew and then swung, hitting the young mare right in the face as she was then dropped onto the floor. The injury swelled a bit, but not too much, and it began to turn a hue of crimson.

The bat and knife vanished without so much as a trace of them having existed, save for the wounds they had already inflicted, and he got just within hoof's reach of the two. “Why?” Maki repeated, his scowl once more turning into a sinister smile. Both unicorns were then hoisted up once more in his magic, and he dragged their chained forms to him, his smile never once faltering for even a second.