The Society of Shepherds

They had escaped the citadel at last. Though they may have escaped the citadel they were still trapped inside the dungeon. Twilight felt hopeless now as her and Rainbow quickly darted through corridors. Escape seemed impossible but they kept running. The two ponies saw a guard rounding the corner ahead of them and quickly but quietly ducked into a nearby room. Guards were everywhere, crawling around like ants in their hill. Moments later the alarm bell rang echoing their fate. “They know we are missing, come this way.” Twilight whispered to Rainbow, tugging on her tail. They sank into the shadows as several guards trotted by.

When the guards’ footsteps had faded off into the abyss Twilight flexed forward a bit around the table from which they had hidden behind. She could see nothing through the door from the angle she was in. She gulped heavily and leaned closer to the door to find another possible route. When she had stretched to her limits she dared to take her hoof from the corner to slide further along the table towards the door. A quick sigh of relief could barely be heard when she made it without a sound. She miscalculated however that the door was propped fully against the wall, it wasn't.

The door slammed violently causing a booming sound to echo through the fortress. Twilight’s sinuses cleared into the back of her throat. They were captured for sure. If the guards could bleed through walls they would have had them within seconds. “Move away from the door!” Rainbow screamed.

Twilight instantly threw herself against the wall next to Rainbow hiding in the corner. ‘Is this really how it ends?’ She thought desperately. Trapped in a corner and they barely made it out of the tower. As the footsteps grew louder the life seemed to drain out of their faces.

All around hoofsteps echoed with the occasional shout. Twilight saw a hooded figure run towards them. Her heart pounded nearly through her chest. Her blood boiled and her body pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat. She could see the look on Rainbow’s face was just as terrified as hers. We can not die now… we will not die now!” Twilight eyed a weapons case across the room. Quickly darting towards the rack she grabbed two swords that lay there. She slid one of them under the table towards the mare in shadows. Rainbow acknowledge and mounted it firmly into her hoof.

“Take that side.” Twilight whispered as she herself crouched on one side of the door. Rainbow reacted before Twilight was even finished speaking. The air silenced as adrenaline shot through Twilight. It did not take long for a guard to run through the doorway. Down he fell as Rainbow Dash cut through the rough part of his lower thigh. He did not suffer much longer as Twilight finished him off. The grizzly sound of his bones cracking as the sword plunged into his up back made Twilight nearly vomit. Moments later the room began filling with guards. Little did they know the two were hidden behind the weapons case shortly before they arrived.

They dispersed to the next available room; Twilight guessed they figured the two of them fled to another room after dispatching one of their guards. However they had not been foolish; they left what seemed to be two guards outside just in case. Once again they were trapped. “Now what?” Rainbow started to whisper.

“We don’t know how many guards are out there, for now we wait.” Twilight felt sickly and anxious. She felt the urge to get up and charge the guards, which would most certainly end in death.

No where else to go but in the corner behind a weapons case awaiting discovery and death. Twilight felt something rough and scratchy brush up against her flank and heard a sound above them. She looked up to a door opening into the ceiling. A rope had been lowered and a voice cut through the night “get up here.”

Twilight grasped the rope and pulled herself up as hard as she could muster leaving the bloody sword underneath. She made it up safely now it was Rainbow’s turn. “Come on.” Hissed the stranger.

Rainbow started climbing. She was half way there. She managed to get up just before the strange mare rescuing them started dragging the rope back through the opening and gently closed the door.

“Follow me, quickly!” The stranger whispered. Twilight really didn't feel like questioning their rescuer and obeyed. The crawl space was cluttered with dust and cobwebs. Twilight did not know how she could tell where she was going it was so dark in the tunnel. They rounded a corner after what felt like ages. “There’s a drop up ahead.” she warned.

Twilight’s eyes had adjusted at this point; She could vaguely make out the stranger. Before long her figure vanished into black darkness and Twilight froze. “Where did you go?”

Twilight heard Rainbow in front of her whisper off into the night, “She vanished.” She sounded panicked.

“Just keep moving forward!” The stranger shouted. She sounded distant to the two mares. Twilight moved only a few feet before she felt the ground shift to a downward angle underneath her. Cold night air whisked past her as she slid down the tunnel. They entered a new tunnel lit by candles. The brightness from the flames caused their eyes to strain to adjust to their new surroundings.

“How far underground are we?” Rainbow Dash asked in awe. Her eyes lit up at the marvelous display of candles trailing off into the distance.

“Just under the lowest level of the prison.” the stranger continued on, “this tunnel will take us out of here.” she began running forward. “Come on!”

They followed closely behind their guide through the tunnels every twist and turn. Twilight watched the flames dance as they trotted past. They had finally reached an opening where the tunnel let out into a wide cavernous room. The floor was rough and damp. The ceiling was supported by pillars about 20 feet in length. There were some smoldering old sacks lying in the corner of the room and some rubbish was jumbling up in the center of the floor. Dirt, old leather, scraps of clothes and what appeared to be bones.

“What is this place?” Twilight asked the unknown stranger.

“The opening.” she replied coldly.

“What do we do here?” Rainbow asked matching her tone.

“There are four doors here. Only one leads to freedom, the others-” she paused before continuing “Goddess knows what.” There was an extremely uncomfortable silence.

“Well isn't there a safer way out?” Twilight finally asked nervously expecting an answer.

“I could not tell you. When I came here I took an alternate path. It caved in on me. This, sadly, was our only option out.” she seemed just as nervous as the two mares were.

“How can we tell which door we are supposed to take?” Rainbow ask.

“The only thing I can tell you about the opening is it was crafted by the keeper. There is supposed to be a riddle that needs answered, in it lies the way to freedom.” She diminished sounding unsure.

Twilight noticed a slip of paper lying on top of the pile in the middle of the room. “Could this be the riddle?” She asked the stranger as she snatched up the paper.

“Let me read it - yes this is the riddle!” She sounded a little excited.

“Well, what’s the riddle then?” Twilight asked excitedly. It took the light purple stranger a while to respond. Her response was of no help however as she spoke the riddle aloud.

“First think of a person who lives in disguise, who deals with secrets and tells naught but lies. Next tell me what’s always last to mend. The middle of middle and the end of end. And finally give me the sound often heard during the search of a hard to find word. Now string them together and answer me this, which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?”

Twilight knew she had read this before, but where? The answer is the door they choose, which could end their lives. “I have the first part; a person who lives in disguises is a spy… or Pinkie Pie.. as for the other parts I’m still trying to think.”

Rainbow stopped after much pacing, “well, the last to mend, the middle of the word middle, and the end of end would be the letter D.”

“Yeah, yeah and the sound I always say when I have trouble thinking is an err sound.” The stranger said in excitement.

“Put these together, spy d err. SPIDER.” Twilight said solving the riddle. “Hey!” Twilight shouted to Rainbow, echoing through the cavern.

“What?” Rainbow responded in panic.

“What was the key made of?” Twilight realized. Rainbow slowly realize what she was on about.

“A spider!” Rainbow proclaimed.

“I don’t understand. What are you talking about?” the stranger asked the two, she was quite puzzled.

“The answer is a spider.” Twilight said as she revealed the key. “Check those doors; one of them is bound to have a spider on it.” She announced while running towards the doors. It was just their luck that multiple spiders began cascading downwards out of the webbing in the ceiling, each one as large as a good sized horse. A spider crawled over each door, two red ones and two blue ones.

One red spider rested in a newly spun web above its door while the other red one simply crawled around above its door. Same for the blue spiders, one in webbing and one not. “Great how can we tell which one to pick?” The stranger asked in concern.

Twilight had a brilliant thought “it’s obviously a blue one. This key is blue crystal. And if you listen to the riddle the spider is mending his web. So it’s clear that we go through that door.” She pointed towards the door with a blue spider resting in its web above the door, its massive legs were sprawled out.

It was eying the mares like flies, spreading webs across the ground ready to recoil on top of them. It was just waiting for them to come closer. Fally Twilight mustered up the courage to get closer, keeping low as she crept around all the webbing. She tried to open the door but it was locked. It was at this point that she realized she had the key to unlock this door. This key seemed to be a master lock opener as the door clicked open.

Once the door was opened Rainbow and the stranger joined her in sneaking past the spider guarding the door. They entered the tunnel with bated breath. When nothing happened to them they all let out a small sigh of relief at the fact that they had picked the right door. This caused Twilight to wonder what was waiting behind the other doors. Perhaps when the wrong door was opened it activated the welcome mat of a giant funnel web spider sucking the victim into its lair, never to be seen again. She shook the thought out of her mind not really caring to think about it.

Twilight could see light up ahead. “I see the way out!” She called back to the other two. They ran what felt like maybe a mile. As the group neared the exit giant blue spiders began crawling around above them on the ceiling. They leaped down from the ceiling above and reared up violently.

“Stay together!” Rainbow Dash screamed trying to see in front of the spider horde as they ran through them. Twilight narrowly avoided a string of web slinging towards her. The sticky ball on the end smashed against the wall where it stuck hard. She did not want to be pegged down with hundreds of over sized spiders chasing after them.

There was the exit of the tunnel. Twilight made it there first. She crouched behind a boulder outside and looked up in time to see Dash escape by lunging out of the tunnel. The spiders came to an enormous halt at the tunnels mouth.

“I don’t think they can pass outside!” Twilight cheered with a lift in spirit. The onslaught had retreated back into the eternal darkness. Morning was coming, the sun began to peak over the horizon.

They had escaped through the opening.

Twilight looked over at the mysterious girl. “Okay before we proceed any further I believe we need some formal introductions.”

“Yes quite. My name is Evelyn.” the stranger answered, her hair cast across her face which made her glow under the morning light.

“I'm Rainbow Dash.”

“And I’m Twilight Sparkle.” The air grew silent except for a few birds chirping in the trees above.

“Well girls, it’s time we set off.” Evelyn requested getting to her feet.

“To where may I ask are we going?” Twilight pleaded to her in wonder.

“To find shelter, we’re heading for Neighagra Falls to the East. It’s a land about 30 miles from here, which is where we shall find an abandon lakeside inn. That is where we shall take refuge from the Keeper.” Evelyn explained as she walked through some trees.

“What lake?” Twilight asked her while getting up to join her.

“Lake Garn.” She began poking through the thick forest. The two mares follow behind carefully avoiding whiplash from branches.

"Why did you rescue us by the way?" Twilight asked cooly.

"The Keeper thinks that keeping the Elements of Harmony separated can keep her safe to reign over us. I was hired by a select few ponies who believe that you and your friends are the key to bringing her down."

They walked a few hundred feet before something strange happened. The ground gave way beneath them.