A Dance with Vengeance

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Chapter 1

To the untrained eye, the throne room sat empty, as it had for centuries. Ponies had come and gone, but never to stay long, for this was a taboo place. The shadow of the old king weighed on their minds and memories, like the faint remains of a nightmare best left forgotten. Even the newcomers, eager to claim the throne as their own, did not linger. The great crystal chamber repelled them all on the basest level.

The room’s unseen occupant, had she not been sealed away to slumber in crystal, would have said that her master—the great bastard that he was—had bewitched the room so that those who had no business there would be feel mounting panic and dread until they left. That meant that only her master, his slaves, and anybody sufficiently trained in magic could stand to be there. Of course, being unaware of the world around her, she was unable to express the great dislike she had for her master.

So the captive dreamer slept on, blissfully unaware that her master’s empire was on the precipice of liberation once more. She couldn’t wake during the many visits by the usurpers, and had she been able to, she probably wouldn’t have been particularly keen on playing the role of guard dog. As it was, her master had not been the one to banish her to her crystal prison, and only a pony versed in the same dark arts that had trapped her there could release her.

The throne room’s heavy doors remained open, as they had been so many years ago, and two figures crossed past the opening: a unicorn mare and a young drake. Both were frazzled, the weight of time bearing down on them. They were caught up in discussion, in search of some clue, just a hint, of where their true objective lay.

“It’s gotta be here somewhere; it’s just gotta be,” the mare said, trying her hardest to reassure herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the purple dragon peeking under a rug. “Not a claw, Spike!” Her chiding reminder elicited a jump and uneasy chuckle from the young drake, but she didn’t give him a second glance. “Celestia’s orders!”

The young mare paused in front of the doorway, deep in recollection. Her lips moved in sync with a thought, and Spike could just hear her whispering, “If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold...” She had already crossed half of the room when her eyes widened, and she snapped around to her companion. “Of course!”

“What is it, Twilight; did you find it!?” he panted, likely in hopes of a chance at a break as he followed close behind her.

Twilight shook her head, displacing some of her indigo mane. In spite of herself, she allowed a small moment of triumph to peak one corner of her mouth. “No, because this isn’t King Sombra’s castle!”

With a look of incredulity, Spike crossed his arms. “Well, isn’t this where he lived when he was in power?”

Again she shook her head. “It is, but it didn’t look like this.” Focusing on the largest crystal atop the great crystal throne, she screwed her eyes shut and began channeling raw mana into her horn as she mentally reconstructed a spell she’d seen only a few days prior. Content that her reproduction would be flawless, Twilight began to pour all of the negative emotions she’d ever felt into the spell. The aura surrounding her horn darkened from it’s normal magenta to a dark cloud of acidic green and purple. Wisps of similarly colored smoke even began to stream from the corners of her eyes.

With a grunt of discomfort, she unleashed the bolt of dark magic on the crystal formation atop the throne. The spell arced away from its intended target at the last moment, instead striking a smaller crystal and engulfing the room in a flash of violet light. When the pair had blinked away the dazzle, a patch of crystal flooring beside the pair had taken on the appearance of jet.

“Whoa, when did you learn to—get down!” Spike’s admiration of Twilight’s latest leap in spellweaving was cut short as a gout of black fire surged toward them. Knowing his scales protected him from most fire, both mundane and magical, he threw himself at Twilight, knocking her to the floor and covering her with his body.

“—me fight with you!”

From beneath her draconian shield, Twilight glanced the flames and the sudden outcry. There, standing in the patch of darkened crystal, was a strange bipedal creature—some sort of mostly hairless cross between a female minotaur and a monkey. To Twilight’s educated eye, her outfit resembled a Saddle Arabian bedlah modified to accentuate her unique curves, putting her chest especially on display.

Most of the outfit covering her bare tan skin was cloth, a lot of which was a sheer blood red material except for her grey vest, but most prominent was her jewelry. Her arms and legs all bore large golden bracelets that almost resembled shackles, and upon her crest was a form-fitting golden tiara that looked as though both sides met in back of her head to clasp around her very long purple mane, locking it in the ever popular ponytail style. Even her long pointed ears bore jewelry.

The creature froze, eyes wide in alarm. “What the? Where did they go?” she whispered, barely noticing the unicorn and dragon she’d inadvertently attacked. One hand darted up to her neck, grasping at a collar of black crystal that sat about her neck. Her slender digits traced a crack along sapphire clasp. She blinked a few times before an unmistakable smile creased her face. “I can’t feel his presence! The collar is there, but he’s not suppressing my free will!”

With one fist thrust toward the heavens, the girl leapt into the air with a gleeful shout. “I’m free! I’m really free!”

Both pony and girl alike paused as a loud moan filled the room. Twilight in particular became aware that the dragon on her back was in pain. “Spike!” she cried, levitating the baby dragon from her back onto the floor before her. “Spike, what’s wrong?”

Spike’s eyes had gone glossy, culminating in rivulets of moisture trickling down his cheeks. His clawed hands were gripping his side, where a number of his scales seemed to have melted. “It h-hurts, Twilight,” he whimpered. It was clear to the other two individuals in the room that he was trying not to bawl his eyes out like a stricken babe. “I d-don’t get it. Why does it hu-hu-hurt?”

Whatever glee the girl had grasped in the realization of her apparent freedom slipped away as the last few moments sunk in. She darted forward, shoving the purple unicorn out of the way. Crouching over the young lad, she commanded, “Show me.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight snarled. Her horn lit, and she dragged Spike away from her bipedal attacker. “You did this to him! I’m not letting you near him!”

The young woman narrowed her eyes, folding her arms before her, squishing her breasts together. “Do you take this boy as your slave then?” she intoned, warning heavy in her voice. One hand darted forward, her open palm stopping a few inches short of the Twilight’s muzzle. “Are you his master, pony?” she asked, her teeth bared just enough to reveal her incisors.

From this angle, Twilight could see the glossy, almost plasticy surface of the creature’s palms. She’d seen burn scars before, but none that reeked of brimstone. “No!” she screamed. If her burgeoning hypothesis was correct, this being was dangerous. “He’s my friend!” In a quieter voice, she added, “He’s my little brother.”

“Well then,” she said, softening her expression and lowering her hand. “That attack wasn’t intended for you, and had it been anything other than a graze, his soul would already have been consumed by the hellfire.”

Suddenly very wary of the being before her, the young mare swallowed. “You can help him?”

Holding her hand palm up, the woman nodded. A dark purple sphere of swirling clouds appeared in the air above her hand and she seemed to see something in it. She brought her other hand up, pointing one finger at the void—Twilight couldn’t help but surmise that it was a pocket dimension of some sort—flicking it occasionally. “Let’s see, breakfast, no... blanket? Maybe later. Playing cards? No time for solitaire.” She growled quietly to herself and one of her eyebrows twitched. “How did that even get in there? Who messed with my inventory and filled it with crap?”

A few moments passed before a smile lit up on her face. “Aha! There we go.” When the cloudy sphere vanished, a small crystal jar sat atop her open palm. “Here. Take this and smear it on the wound. It won’t heal it completely, but it’ll keep the hellfire from doing any more damage than it already has, and it’ll ease the pain considerably.”

Two full minutes passed as Twilight considered the offering. Although the creature did not appear to have any reason to lie to her, the fact of the matter was that she was still the one to attacked her. Given that she had been sealed away in that crystal for a reason, there was some doubt as to how trustworthy she was. This could all be some ruse, and she might even be an agent of Sombra. Could she really risk Spike’s health on what could be contact poison?

Another pained cry from the poor lad made up her mind.

With a grunt, she popped open the container with her magic and began to coat the smoking, exposed flesh. Almost immediately Spike shuddered and twitched, before letting out a relieved breath. To Twilight’s surprise, he was even up on his feet again. One appearance of the being’s pocket dimension later, and the dragon was wrapped in a soft blanket.

“Thank you miss...” Twilight frowned. “I’m sorry, I just realized we haven’t exchanged names.” She pressed her hoof against her chest and said, “I’m Twilight Sparkle, personal protege of Princess Celestia. What is your name?”

The being’s ears twitched and her body tensed at Twilight’s words. “I see,” she murmured, stepping backwards. “Is she here now? Celestia?” Twilight shook her head, and as surprised to see the girl sag upon hearing this. “My name... my name is—”

“Shantae the Blood Dancer, the Butcher of Malachite Hill, Sombra’s pet.” All three occupants of the room jumped upon hearing the voice. There, in the still-open doorway of the chamber, stood a unicorn and a haggard alicorn—Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. The princess stepped forward, exhausted from her efforts in protecting the Empire. “I had hoped to deal with you after your master. In the name of Equestria and all that is good, you are under arrest.”

Shantae sank to her knees and moaned. “For fuck’s sake.” She looked at the alicorn princess with exhaustion. “Really?”

Author's Note

Edit: Thanks to Architect for spotting an overlooked issue in the first paragraph and the suggestion for an extra embellishment on the sentence that followed.

Chapter 2

~ Shantae: Present Day ~

Now, given those two rather violent titles, Blood Dancer and the Butcher of Malachite Hill, you might have expected me to put up a fight and live up to my legacy. After all, by all appearances I had just attacked Celestia’s student and her... brother. I’m sure this newcomer Princess and the unicorn—bearing the cursed touch of Sombra—both expected me to put up a fight. I could probably take them both, too.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t fancy myself the arrogant sort. That being said, when Sombra made me into his weapon, he taught me to pick my prey carefully. Here was an alicorn, probably not an alpha like Celestia and Luna, that looked to be on the verge of collapse. Her unicorn companion looked slightly better off, but only marginally. Without access to his magic, he had only his size and physique of his side. A makeshift Pikeball would probably have been enough to keep him off me. Really, the only threat in the room was Twilight Sparkle and her young drake friend.

Needless to say, I don’t think either of them expected me to get down on my knees, place my wrists together and offer them to the pair. “Alright, I surrender.” I glanced over my shoulder at Twilight. “If you’re looking for what I think you are, you’re right on the money. Remember, ‘Beware the lore door; it tells only lies.’”

The male unicorn glanced at Twilight and nodded. “He’s coming, Twily and I don’t think Cady can keep it up much longer.” Turning to me, he added, “I can handle her, even without my magic.” Uh-huh, you keep telling yourself that, boy.

Even as he strode toward me, a pair of manacles suddenly in his mouth, Twilight nodded, and approached the throne. “Be careful, Shining Armor,” she said. “She seems docile, but her magic isn’t to be underestimated—she burned through Spike’s scales.”

I rolled my eyes, ignoring Shining Armor as he struggled to fit the manacles around my bracelet-encased wrists using only his hooves and mouth. Watching that Twilight mare wield dark magic to reveal the entrance to my former master’s inner sanctum was far more interesting. That kind of raw power and talent—and she looked so young—could lead to great or terrible things. I just hope when the time comes she does not become a threat herself. Sombra was corrupted by the darkness, after all.

As a spiral stairwell appeared before the throne, and Twilight descended into the depths of Sombra’s domain, my captors of choosing dragged me out of the throne room by my shackles. The stallion was grumbling something through the chain he gripped between his teeth, but in spite of it, he seemed more concerned for this mare, this lesser princess. She was clearly expending herself doing something, even if nothing was readily apparent. Had Celestia and Luna...?

“I’m curious, sir and madame,” I said, quickening my pace until the chain had some slack. “Where are the Sisters now?”

The alicorn—Cady, he’d called her, although it was probably a pet name—gave me a curious look before diverting toward a large window. “Celestia and Luna are in Canterlot; why?”

Canterlot? What? Where in the blazes was that? “But that means they aren’t here. That’s impossible; I was just fighting them, unless...” I mused aloud. ”Why flee the field of battle when the upper hand was theirs?”

I joined the mare at the window, ignoring the dirty look Shining Armor was giving me. “What...?” I stared out at the city below, unsure of what exactly I was seeing. It was definitely the Crystal Empire, but at the same time, I was looking down at a completely different world. The sky was pure blue, lacking the telltale orange haze of Sombra’s influence. Likewise, all of the crystal houses were clear, without any of the corruption of his presence. It was just pure. Ponies were even holding a faire!

Placing my hands on the window, I allowed myself a smile. “They’re free! They’re all really free!” Celestia and Luna had won, and now the Crystal Empire was free. They... they... This was it then. They had to ‘deal’ with Sombra still, and then I was going to be tried as well. My hands slid down the transparent crystal, and I suddenly found myself needing to wipe my eyes. “I’m happy for them.”

The princessly pink pony beside me shook her head. “They aren’t free yet,” she said, nodding towards the edge of the Empire’s boundaries. “Until we have the Crystal Heart and we can fill it with love and hope, they will never be free.”

“But Celestia and Luna won, didn’t they? I don’t understand. Sombra’s been defeated, hasn’t he?” I tapped the glass with one of my long nails. “The Empire wouldn’t look like this unless he had been!”

“They almost did defeat him that day, but,” she answered, “he escaped, taking the entire Crystal Empire with him.”

“He didn’t...” I whispered, feeling my legs turning to rubber. “When Sombra held the reins to my free will, he told me once that he would never allow Celestia and Luna to take these people from him. He would sooner relinquish his hold and conquer them all over again, at a time when the Empire had been forgotten. To make it possible required the most heinous of sacrifices...”

Without warning, I rounded on Shining Armor slapping him across the face with my ponytail—not with enough force to kill, but enough to stun and perhaps concuss, though. See, Shantae—the character I’d become when displaced here—had a really unique primary attack: her hair was strong and struck like a steel bar.

The end of the chain fell from his mouth, and I caught it between my hands. As I darted off through the halls, I called back to them, “I’m sorry!” There was only one place I could go, as I ran unhindered through the empty castle. It was a place I knew very well, having spent four years of my life there, whenever I wasn’t playing pet or being trained as a guard dog. It was a room in the very depths of the castle that held close to two hundred ponies.

I barely even felt the impact in my knees as I leapt down half-flights of stairs, and the novelty of my breasts freely bouncing as I ran barely even crossed my mind. I didn’t care that were Sombra here now, he would do the most awful of things to me if he caught me running in the castle. Despite my hopes that he hadn’t done it—that he hadn’t done something completely unforgivable—I knew what I would find.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I slid to a stop outside the door to the slave quarters, my still-shackled hands finding their way to the door. Sure enough the door was wide open. Every step into the room coincided with a surge in the dread I felt towards what I would see.

My eyes opened, and I screamed.

~ Shantae: 1,502 Years Ago ~

I sat in the corner of the slave baths, stripped bare of my clothes. Before me was a washbasin full of blood-stained water. Equally stained in blood were my hands and the clothes clutched in them. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the blood out of them. If anything, my efforts only seem to be dyeing the cloth the color of blood.

“Why won’t it wash out?” I whimpered, subconsciously clawing at them. “Why won’t the blood come out?”

None of the crystal pony slaves dared come close to me. It wasn’t just the blood, or the fact that I always got so snappish when it came to being naked. Word of mouth spread quickly among the two hundred some servants living in the castle. So when the bipedal freak Sombra kept as entertainment murdered one of the slave drivers, of course the ponies were going to be spooked.

If this had been my old life, I’d like to think that I’d have been fine with it. Making the hard choices at the office made it easy to ignore the cold shoulder I often got, but since I landed here in a body that didn’t belong to me, there was little social interaction I could draw on. There was nobody I could talk to about the change I’d undergone, or the continual assault of unfamiliar hormones. The only time I was ever allowed to speak was when answering or apologizing to the king and his slave drivers. After two years of it, I just wanted to cry most days.

... and I’d just taken a sapient life in cold blood. This wasn’t a fish or chicken for dinner, or even the act of mercy for an injured animal to spare it the pain of an agonizing death; I just kept slashing at him with my hair until he was nothing but bloody chunks. There wasn’t really anything I could say to rationalize it. He wasn’t whipping anyone, and he hadn’t been giving one of the many foals a violent dressing down. The poor sod wasn’t even doing anything; only by merit of being under Sombra’s employ and willingly working the slaves had he earned his death.

The thing that made it worse wasn’t that, when brought before Sombra, he wasn’t at all angry with me; he was fucking amused! That the sick bastard had the remains dragged into his throne room just so he could ask me himself if I had done it wasn’t what made it harder to swallow, either. No, he laughed as I stood there, gore still dripping from my hair, and sent me on my way.

God only knew what he had planned; the mere thought of it made me even more nauseous and I wanted nothing to do with it at all.

There came a gentle touch at my elbow, to which I let out a totally manly shriek. “Miss?” I looked down at my side, and was surprised to see a small blue filly. The way she was looking up to me reminded me a lot of my youngest daughter, and I couldn’t help but flinch away. “Are you okay?”

How did one even answer that question? Here was a child that clearly had enough empathy to look past the difference in species and the fact that I was still covered in blood to see see that I was in pain, to offer comfort, and I was at a loss for what to say. A capricious child like this would see right through an “I’m fine,” like it was freshly polished glass.

I shook my head. “I did a really bad thing,” I said, my voice shaking with each syllable. I let my clothes slip into the washtub, and hugged my knees close to my ample chest. “I-I hurt someone really bad and I don’t know what’s going to happen now. To any of us.”

“He was a bad pony,” the little filly said with a tone of finality that chilled me to the bone. “You isn’t. You hurt him ‘cause he was a bad pony who hurts us, right?” I nodded once, unable or unwilling to find the words. “When they was still alive, my mommy and daddy said a pony like you was a guardian... Not like those bad ponies who work for the king. You protect ponies ‘cause it’s the right thing to do.”

It was hard, but hearing the orphan’s words made it easier to breathe, like I wasn’t about to throw up. In a way, she was correct. Whether or not the stallion I killed had done anything when I lashed out at him was irrelevant. He was a slaver and had, on multiple occasions, dished out beatings and whippings on the poor souls I shared this bath with. If he hadn’t yet beaten, whipped, or worked a pony to death, he would have eventually.

By taking out that scum, had I not protected these ponies? Sure, Shantae probably wouldn’t have killed him, but she would have chosen to protect these ponies because it was the right thing to do; even when she’d been fired, she still protected Scuttle Town! I couldn’t protect the slaves that worked the mines, but perhaps I could be the Guardian Genie for this lot, at least for a time.

With a weak smile, I looked down at the filly once more. “What is your name, little one?”

“I’m Sapphire Brie!” she said, her own face brightening upon seeing my smile. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Shantae,” I said, placing a hand atop her head, giving her velvety little ears a rub. “I promise that I will never let the king’s goons hurt you or any of these ponies ever again. I give you my word as a Guardian Genie.”

~ Shantae: Present Day ~

“How long?” I asked, sinking to my knees. Both ponies had come running shortly after my scream, and I knew without ever turning my head that both were staring aghast at the horror that lie beyond the doorway. How couldn’t they? “How long have I been sealed away, beyond the passage of time?”

“Fifteen hundred years,” Cadance croaked. I could hear her voice cracking, and if she was anywhere near a decent pony as I believed she probably was, she was probably in tears. “Fifteen hundred years ago, King Sombra stole away the Crystal Empire. What... what happened here?”

I rose to my feet, shaking in barely suppressed anger. Stepping forward, picking my way through the mummified corpses of the ponies I’d sworn myself to protect—ponies who’d come to trust me to keep Sombra’s men civil, my friends—I pirouetted to face them both. Focusing on the two of them was all I could do to keep myself from searching for Sapphire in this mass grave, never mind thinking about my family. “He sacrificed all of their life energy, the life energy of nearly two hundred fifty ponies, to put the city and the rest of his slaves out of Celestia’s reach.

“You might think me a monster, some heartless killing machine loyal to the bastard who’d call himself king, but make ye no mistake. These were my friends,” I shouted, gesturing at the corpses at my feet. “Anything I did, it was to protect these ponies... to make sure this would never happen to them.

“I didn’t have the strength to break his hold on my body and mind until he set me against Celestia and Luna.” Tears began to stream down my cheeks as I stared at the gaping princess and her companion—guard, whatever. “If only they hadn’t been so quick to seal me away... I might have been able to save them...”

I shut my eyes and walked back through the field of lost souls, joining them back at the sole entrance to the mass grave. “Somewhere in there lies a little filly, Sapphire Brie,” I spat, digging my nails into my scarred palms hard enough to bleed. “Her blood is on the Sisters’ hands as much as Sombra’s.” I held out my wrists and growled, “I hold no quarrel with you, would-be Liberator, but I highly advise you to set me free so that I can hunt down and kill the son of a bitch that would use ponies’ very souls as currency to ensure his escape.”

Shining Armor stepped forward to block my way, his eyes narrowed. “You couldn’t stand up to him before.” It wasn’t a mockery or even an insult, just a mere statement of cold hard fact. “Why would you fare any better now?”

I looked him right back in the eye and gave him a cold smile. “Because you don’t give a soldier a weapon that can harm a god until you are certain he’s not about to turn that weapon on you.”

Black hellfire wreathed my hands, and the iron shackles bubbled away into nothing. It hurt like fuck, and I was definitely going to need more of that healing balm when this was over with, but I didn’t care. The flames of hell weren’t anywhere near as bad as what I was going through right now. Everyone I ever loved or cared about, here or on Earth, was now dead. Even as I wrapped my hands around the crystal collar, I barely noticed. There was one thing on my mind and one thing only.

I was going to make that motherfucker pay.

Author's Note

Coming up next, a visit from the Merchant.

Chapter 3

~ 1504.5 Years Ago ~

“Walt, honey, are you sure about this?” Marissa asked, tracing her fingertips down my bare shoulder. “This isn’t a private party with friends; we’re going to be out in public, waiting in lines and everything. All those strangers who’ll judge.”

I shrugged, relishing in the feeling as the breast forms shifted freely on my chest. Neither of us had donned our costumes, as most of the major cosmetics—for me, the adhesives for my breast forms; for her, the green bodypaint—had yet to dry completely. “You can’t say that the thought doesn’t excite you,” I fired back, crossing my arms beneath my ‘breasts’ with a grin directed at my wife in the mirror. “Shantae was your idea, after all. Don’t you wanna put on a show starring your favorite ship?”

She only snorted, her eyebrow cocked at what was undoubtedly a display that gave her conflicting feelings. “Yeah, well,” she sputtered. “Why did you have to order those forms from a fetish site? You look like some kind of titty monster.”

Okay, I can admit that these were a bit overboard. I mean, I didn’t need to get anything as realistic or highly detailed as this, and the fact that they were just a bit larger than Marissa’s Cs was kind of pushing it. Still, once a bit of foundation was applied around the edges, they’d look and behave just like the real thing.

“‘cause you love when your husband has boobs as big as yours?” I said, pivoting on the spot to face her. In this new position, my artificial endowments were firmly squashed against her real ones, and, to my relief, no paint transferred over to my chest. “Paint’s dry; dress-up time.”

“What a shame,” she said in a teasing voice as I slipped past her to grab the bags from the bed. “How will I ever get by now that I’m not comparing breasts with my husband?”

I simply stuck out my tongue at her and threw her the lilac crop top and cut-off jean shorts from her costume bag before delving into my own bag. The moment my fingertips grazed the silky cloth, I knew the seamstress had gone all out. The bottoms came out in two pieces: translucent red silk bellbottoms, and a form-fitting black bikini bottom that clung to my body tight enough to hold the bellbottoms in place, but not so tight as to make the gaffe that hid my bulge apparent. All in all, the simpler of the set-up, and it went on quickly.

The red top was a bit more troublesome. In my defense, it was only because it took me a few minutes to figure out that the loops of transparent red cloth coming off the back were not in fact straps, but the showy little sleevelets that hung off the upper arm. After that, it was a cinch to put on.

I adjusted the top a few times trying to figure out why I had a bit of spillage going until it hit me that our seamstress friend had made it a little tight on purpose. Slipping on the matching red cloth shoes, I turned to Marissa and posed. “I think she did a pretty good job on this,” I said, doing my best attempt at a woman’s voice. “What do you think?”

Marissa shrugged, slipping on her dark green wig and yellow headband. “The boys are certainly going to love you right up until they figure it out,” she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. It was almost like she was channeling the character herself. The only thing missing from her ensemble was a set of red contacts; everything else—the shirt and pants, the skull earrings, the belt buckle, the ‘staples’ in her leg, even the wig—was spot on. “Perky and looking ready to pop-top at any moment. Yeah, she did a real good job.”

I glanced back at the bag that had my own accoutrements inside. “I know, it’s just a shame I couldn’t find a wig that does this any justice.”

Marissa helped me with the all the jewelry before plopping the wig on my head. “It could always be worse, darling. You could have tried to grow it out naturally” she said, sidling up beside me. One of her arms snaked around my back and under my arm to give one of my falsies a squeeze. Holding up her phone at an angle that the camera caught both of us, she gave me a peck on the cheek. “Long hair like that is a real pain to take care of. Now let’s call my sister and make sure she doesn’t forget to pick up the girls from school.”

“Why not wait a few minutes and enjoy ourselves first.”

~ ~ ~

The lineup for the convention was insane and not just in the figurative sense. For every normal person, I could see three Narutos, the odd Batman and even a few Spartans and Imperial Stormtroopers interspersed throughout the insanity. I can’t even emphasize that word enough here. You could lose your child to a fandom in this crowd, that’s how rowdy it was.

If not for a Buzz Lightyear getting punched out by a Terminator Space Marine over a fake ticket, I might never have been able to stand there straight faced as the most ludicrous, creepy stormtrooper pelvic-thrusted behind me. If he’d been your run of the mill white armor trooper, it wouldn’t have been an issue, and I could have laughed along with it. Instead, this was a fat guy in neon pink armor, and his helmet was shaped alarmingly like Gabe Newell’s face.

Note to self, purge the video from Marissa’s phone before it ends up on YouTube.

That aside, a fetching young lady—at least I think she was a lady—dressed like a stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl was there at the door, ready to take our tickets in exchange for con badges. She was all smiles as she escorted us in, not even blinking as someone else took her spot, and she was more than happy to show us around.

“Welcome to GeneriCon, ladies,” she said, earning a small snicker from my wife. “We have a lot in store this year. In the east showroom, we have the merchant’s corner, where you’re bound to find at least one souvenir. In the west showroom, we have an all-day Q&A with some of our many guest speakers. Every hour it’s someone new, so make sure you pop in from time to time.”

The con attendant grinned, taking in our costumes with a raised eyebrow. “But you two are probably looking forward to the Costume Ball.” She gestured towards a door opposite of the one we’d just come in. “That’s being held in the south hall. Just sign up at the desk outside, and then go on in at five. We have a few surprise judges out and about during the event, so be sure to mingle so that the judges get a good look at you both.”

With that, she was off.

Marissa wasted no time ushering me over to the sign-up desk for the Costume Ball. It was a no brainer signing up for the couple’s competition. Assuming no pros showed up, we were a shoe-in. The attendant taking down names raised an eyebrow when he found out I was a guy, but was otherwise cordial. He even offered a bit of advice: there was a guy in the merchant’s corner who had a number of items that could make for great last minute additions to cosplays.

Since we were looking for souvenirs to take home anyways, we decided that we may as well check him out. It wasn’t that hard to find the guy’s table, either. For whatever reason, the guy did his place up to look like the Happy Mask Shop, and the Merchant looked like the Happy Mask Salesman. Pretty fucking creepy.

“Hello, sir and madam,” the man intoned happily, his back turned to us as he moved some merchandise from boxes onto the shelves behind his table. We could see highly detailed faeries, a bandana embroidered with the infinity sign and some japanese writing. Hell, he even had a chainsword and bolter or two. “Are you perhaps looking for something special?”

I shifted on my spot and subconsciously toyed with my bracelets. “Well, I might be,” I said, looking uneasily to my wife. How had he known before I even spoke? “What do you have?”

The Merchant turned to us, and peered through one of his narrowed eyes. “Yes, I think I have exactly what you are looking for.” He crouched down beneath the table and rooted through a few boxes. After a few minutes spent exchanging awkward glances with Marissa, the Merchant popped up with an illustrious purple wig that came down well past my waist. “I was thinking about making a mask to go with this, but I can see now that it was made for you.”

“Honey, that’s perfect, isn’t it?” I said, extending a finger to stroke one of the bangs. It was silky soft, yet there was some heft to it too. “How much?”

“I could not charge you to make your outfit complete,” he replied, smiling in a way that unnerved me. “All I ask is that, when you put it on, you make the most of it and put on a good show.”

Marissa laughed, slapping me on the back so hard that the falsies on my chest nearly broke free of the tight confines of my top. “Darling, I think he’s saying he wants to see some of your moves.”

I carefully removed my tiara and the clip that put my current wig up into a ponytail, and plucked the cheap failure off of my head. The superior replacement had barely touched my scalp when Mari helped pull it into a ponytail. I slid the tiara back on and waited for her to close the clasp, marking my outfit compete.

After that... darkness.

~ Shantae: Present Day ~

I rushed outside in hopes of finding some sign of Sombra, just one hint of where the bastard was. Nothing could have prepared me for any of what I saw. The relative purity of the place was something I’d already seen from the window, but the atmosphere was something new entirely. The air was light and full of good cheer from the festivities, and the crystal ponies looked happy, even radiant.

In all the time I spent among Sombra’s slaves, I don’t think I ever saw a crystal pony look so shiny. It was true that the crystal ponies I’d lived alongside in the castle—the ones I’d ultimately failed to protect—looked marginally more... polished than the ones I’d seen in the mines, but all of it was a dull sheen compared to what I was seeing now. Even Brie was never this happy when she got to spend time with me.

Still, there were a whole lot of crystal ponies who weren’t all happy and shiny. Most of them seemed to be getting badgered or entertained by a number of foreign ponies. I could only imagine they were trying to lift the spirits of the Empire in an attempt to ward off Sombra. Admirable, but it’d all be for nothing if that Twilight mare couldn’t get the Crystal Heart from the castle summit. There could be no other reason to keep the artifact there unless it held the key to harming him.

Whatever the lesser alicorn was doing to repel the unicorn king and his dark powers wouldn’t last. It’d been plain on her face, especially after seeing what he was willing to do in order to retain what he believed rightfully his. He was without mercy for his own slaves, and I knew from experience just what he’d do to the five outsider mares trying to raise morale. Or at least, I knew what he would have made me do.

“Shantae.” It was little more than a whisper on the very edge of my hearing, and yet I could hear it as though it were thunder. My old human ears never would have picked it up, but the long, elf-like ears of a genie—or half-genie—were much better at picking up sound. I looked around, trying to pick up where. it’d come from. There! In the shade of one of the palace supports was a tiny figure shrouded in shadow. “Come and see!”

I knew that voice anywhere! “Brie!” I shouted, my heart quickening inside my chest. There was no doubt in my mind that it was her, as I darted out into the plaza. A lot of ponies looked up in alarm at my shout, and in an instant their happy luster went away. These ponies, it seemed, recognized me and took off screaming about Malachite Hill.

There was an unhappy shout of “What in tarnation?” as I vaulted over an earth pony in a stetson—a southerner, go figure—and a few more shouts about the Blood Dancer. All the screaming must have frightened the filly, because by the time I had reached the shadow she’d been standing in, Sapphire Brie was cantering off toward the outskirts of the small city.

Not being anywhere as fast as a pony at full canter, I knew that I’d lose her if I didn’t think of something quickly. Think, Walt, you played the games. How did Shantae get around when she reached an obstacle? She transformed! Elephant was a bit slower on foot, but could clear the path with brute force. Harpy could be useful, but I don’t think I remember the dance for that one. Same with spider. Since mermaid would be completely useless here, I guess that leaves me with one choice.

I slid to a stop by the wall of one of the crystal houses and frowned. There’d been two versions of the dance. In the original, there were two moves that needed to be done with the right timing, the second of which looked ridiculous and perhaps a bit mocking of old Egyptian hieroglyphs. That was simplified down into a single move followed by a pose in the Risky’s Revenge.

I decided to take a chance on it being the simplified version purely on the merit of my current attire resembling the ingame sprite—I had the vest, after all. Thrusting my hands out to the sides as if to brace them on a doorframe, I spaced my feet apart at shoulder width. My eyes slammed shut as I made a silent prayer to whomever might be listening that this worked.

“One, two, three, four. Hips move right, hips move left, shoulders don’t pass feet on the floor,” I repeated under my breath, thrusting my hips right and left just far enough to meet the imaginary lines cast by my elbows. In my mind’s eye, the adorable little purple monkey came into focus. “Please work!”

“Ya’ll stop that right now, ya dang queer varmint!” came that southern drawl as I shifted into the pose that usually followed the dance. Fluttering my eyes open, I pivoted, putting all my weight onto my right foot. “You’re scaring the locals, and we’re tryin’ to rally them.”

My right arm fell as I smirked down at the blonde earth pony. Light flooded my vision, and I was struck with vertigo. Every inch of my flesh crawled and compacted, and my hair pulled in, only for fur to sprout up elsewhere. Strangely enough, most of my clothes and jewelry stopped existing. I blinked my eyes as I grew acutely aware of the fact that there was now a very large pony. A little purple tail was even right there swishing in the corner of my eye. “What in the hay?”

Now, it sounded like she was about to shout something about a changeling, but it doesn’t take a genie to tell you that a sudden faceful of monkey is a conversation—or warning—breaker on the best occasions. It’s just like, one minute you’re looking down at a cute little monkey, and—BAM! I ain’t so cute wrapped around your face, now, am I?

But now I was getting sidetracked in the entertainment value of tormenting redneck ponies with my monkey... ness. I really needed to get back to chasing after Sapphire, lest I start considering other monkey endeavors. With an apologetic squeak, I kicked off from the mare’s face using the full force of my little hind legs, propelling myself up onto the wall.

Firmly grappled onto the wall above the gobsmacked pony, I considered my options. The monkey form was faster on foot, but there was also the option of the Monkey Bullet ability—if I was lucky enough to have it. Even if I did, how would that translate here? It worked well enough in a biplanar environment because there was just up, down, left, and right, but how would that work out with the whole third axis?

I was about to find out, because Brie was almost out of sight. If my new primitive vocal chords would have allowed it, I would have called out something heroic or suiting to the moment—maybe even a “Geronimo!” As it stands, I was not capable of human speech and a cross between a “Whoop!” and a scream was all I could manage as I kicked off from the wall to become the first simian projectile in Equestria.

Against all odds and reason, Sapphire Brie was still alive; I intended to keep her that way.

Author's Note

And so our Displaced has a first name, Walt.

Pink GabeN stormtrooper thanks IkioStar and Dash the Stampede for their help going over this chapter and the last few. [And yes, that is the face I had in mind regarding that storm trooper.]

Now, some of you will have noticed that rather than the Merchant taking on the appearance of the creepy flasher-like merchant from Resident Evil 4, I had the Merchant take on the appearance of the Happy Mask Salesman from Ocarina of Time/Majora's mask. I've noted in the compendium of 'Displaced Makers', the Merchant in fact doesn't have any predetermined physical form, only that his 'preferred look' usually ends up "Hella creepy." Happy Mask Salesman fit the bill quite nicely in my opinion.

I'll be taking a day or two to finalize the events of the next chapter before I start writing it out,

Chapter 4

~ 3rd Person: Present Day ~

The blue skies flickered orange as Princess Cadance struggled to keep her spell alive. A single thought was all that kept her resolve strong enough for her virtue imbued shield to repel Sombra, and every waking moment spent here in the Crystal Empire was making it hard to hold onto it. At first, it had just been the old king’s relentless attacks on the barrier, which had grown more numerous the stronger he grew. In fact, he could very well have been siphoning power from her through her own spellwork.

Seeing the Blood Dancer freed, however, had been nearly enough to break her spirits. Auntie Celestia had told her that Shantae had been a cruel, merciless killer on the battlefield. She’d seen the memory orb of the massacre at Malachite Hill. The mare in the memory had killed without mercy or hesitation, not even showing the slightest hint of emotion. What she’d seen a mere quarter hour prior before was not the same creature. Her domain over love and emotion told her that the creature’s display had been genuine, and that was the only saving grace in this scenario.

She had shown Cadance the depths Sombra could go to in order to achieve his goals. He was nothing short of a demon, and he was coming for her and everypony else in the city. With the power to subjugate minds and the readiness to barter souls in exchange for untold power, there was no way he would be content just regaining control of the Crystal Empire. If Twilight didn’t succeed, she shuddered to imagine what horrors lay in store.

And yet, Shantae had managed to break his hold! Through some fluke or chance happening in her short encounter with Celestia and Luna fifteen hundred years ago, she had regained her free will. Not only that, but the mare held no kindness for he who made her fight. The fact that she was eager to dispense vengeance upon him gave Cadance hope that Shantae could be more than just an ally of convenience. Had the mare not been as much a slave as everypony else under Sombra’s control?

“I’m still not sure we can trust her,” Shining Armor warned, placing a tray of high-energy fruits and vegetables on the balcony railing before her. “Say I believe you, and her little emotional display down in the slave quarters was genuine. All that means is that she has no problems turning on a pony if they slight her. She’s too volatile, dangerously so.”

He glanced down at the city below, where a speck of purple could be seen darting along the rooftops and bouncing between buildings. “Even if she was entirely under his control, the ponies here still remember everything as her actions. Applejack’s already reported an increased panic among the populace at Shantae’s reappearance, though she doesn’t understand the significance.” He gave her a dour look. “I’m not sure she could fit in here at all... and if not here, where? Elsewhere, she might get by, but who is to say she won’t snap and hurt somepony?”

Cadance frowned, watching the shadows at the edge of the city grow longer. “I don’t know, my love,” she admitted. Taking a mouthful of fruit, she rested her head on the bannister. “What worries me most is that there is something familiar about her—the way her emotions felt—that I feel like I should be alarmed about, but I can’t put my hoof on it.”

The frown on Cadance’s face was reflected by her husband. “There’s something else,” he said, pressing his side into hers. “Something about what she said struck me odd, so I went looking... You’re not going to like what I found...”

~ Shantae ~

Bouncing off of the sides of buildings lining the street like a ricocheting bullet was a far better means of getting around than running down the avenue. For one, this little monkey form packed a heck of a lot of power in its little legs; regardless of whether the Monkey Bullet ability was being amplified by my urgent desire to find Brie, it was easy to see how the Nega Shantae boss weaponized it so well. Additionally, while there were plenty of gawkers, none of the ponies I passed by started screaming bloody murder at the sight of me. That much was a welcome change to be sure.

Unfortunately, a lot of ponies were starting to notice the sky taking on the familiar orange tinge of Sombra’s influence. The look of dawning terror on their faces as the lustre drained from their coats was sobering, and I was incredibly tempted to abandon this foolish filly chase. She was just one foal, and Sombra didn’t stop being the most vile bastard I’d ever known just because it turned out that he hadn’t killed her.

At the same time, though, Sombra knew her. I didn’t just mean that, as a slaving tyrant, he knew of her; he’d seen her at the morning inspection of the castle slaves, and he’d seen me with Sapphire Brie and the way I often doted on her. So here was this filly who’d somehow survived a spell that should have left her a dessicated corpse among the mass grave: a filly he knew meant something to me. How could he not take notice of her continued existence? Even if the mystery of her survival did not interest him, her use in controlling me would.

No, I couldn’t let her go; I would have to find a safe place to keep her until I could deal with him. If I could find her.

Why was she coming this far out though? The way she always spoke of her parents, I could have sworn she’d been born into slavery. She’d never left the slave pits except to be moved to the castle. Brie wouldn’t have known her way around the city... and yet, she seemed to be moving very purposely towards what looked like a cairn near the boundary that kept the frozen wastes at bay. It was very peculiar.

Despite my smaller size, it was quite easy to catch up to her. Whereas Brie was only able to cut through the streets and alleys, I was able to shave off time by cutting over the rooftops. Plus, she couldn’t turn into a simian projectile, which certainly helped.

I was close enough to leap on her when she reached the edge of the barren field upon which the cairn was built. At the very instant my stubby arms gripped her sides, I mentally dispelled the transformation. There's no way to really explain how I knew how to revert, just like I couldn't put into words how movement in monkey form came naturally to me; it felt like a cop-out to blame magic.

The filly let out a small shriek at my touch, a shriek which carried over into a full blown scream as my momentum and change in mass bowled her over. She thrashed and cried incoherently, hooves never connecting, but the threat very real. “No! I won't go back! You can't take me away again!”

“Shh, Brie! It's okay!” I said as I unwrapped my arms from around her barrel and snaked my fingers through the bit of mane at the base of her neck. With a gentle tousle of the hairs, I nuzzled the top of her head, between her ears. “You're safe now! I'm here!”

Sapphire struggled a few moments more before she made any efforts to calm down. She seemed more confused than anything else, as though she could scarcely believe that I was actually there with her. Every one of her breaths came easier, and I could no longer feel her pulse against me. “Shantae?”

I just sat there, hugging her as she trembled against me. There was little to do but wonder as she calmed down. How had she survived? Why did she come out here? What would I do next?

Slowly, she pushed away and struggled to her hooves. When I too had gotten to my feet and confirmed that, yes, my garments had returned, I crouched so that our eyes were level. “Why are you out here, Brie?” I asked in a soft voice, fighting the desire to tousle her mane again. “It isn’t safe.”

Rather than looking chastened, or even the least bit afraid, she looked confused. “I... This is where I'm supposed to be,” she said, glumly. “Before the king and his slavers took me, this is where I belonged. I thought if I was free, I could finally return.”

The tone of her voice, the resignation with a bizarre tinge of hope, scared me. In all the time that I had spent with her, I'd always avoided the topics of her parents deaths and the circumstances of her enslavement, and I found myself regretting that decision. If being grabbed by a pair of shiny talking horses after waking up in the frigid tundra as a woman was a sore spot for me, I'd reasoned, surely such a thing would have been downright painful for others.

My eyes flicked between the cairn and the foal. Just what had happened? Had she been taken while mourning the loss of her parents? Had she, in some way, resigned herself to joining her parents in the afterlife sooner rather than later? Is she a risk to herself?

“Brie, have you ever seen an alicorn before?” I asked, hoping to distract her. “I don't mean in a book or scroll or on any sort of tapestry; I mean a real, live alicorn princess.”

She shook her head, her eyes wide. Her ears splayed backwards, and I couldn't help but think she might be a bit afraid of the thought. “Nuh-uh,” Sapphire said, glancing back at the mound. “I wanna go home.”

“Home is good!” I agreed, turning to face the tall spire-like castle. “The pretty alicorn princess has taken the castle, and she seems very nice. At the very least, she's keeping Sombra at bay, so it's probably safest there.”

Sapphires eyes went even wider, and she backed away from me. “That isn't home,” she cried accusingly. She thrust a hoof toward the mound. “That is!”

“But-”

Before I could get a word in edgewise, she spun on her hooves and darted across the field toward the burial mound. I ran after her, as hot on her tail as I could be in human form. We both closed the distance quickly, coming to a rest beneath the surprisingly tall structure.

Rather than come to a complete stop, however, Brie ran straight up the near vertical incline like it was nothing. I couldn't even fathom how that was possible, but something drove me to go right up after her. I'm not sure whether I was channeling the monkey form or if my desire to get her to safety made it possible, but I was right up there with her.

At the dome's peak, I joined the confounded foal atop a large crystal plug recessed in the ground. It was definitely Sombra's work, the polished black surface glinting wickedly as the sky above us flickered from blue to hazy orange. But why would he waste his time and energy to put this large a crystal atop a mass grave for slaves he cared little about?

Was there some sort of disease outbreak before I showed up? I wondered, kneeling to examine the surface for any sort of markings. Or did this precede Sombra, some sort of ancestral crypt that he didn't want them visiting?

“No!” she cried, slamming her forehooves against the glossy black plug. “He can't block it off; they can't get out if this is here!”

Again and again, her little hooves slammed into the sturdy crystal and her tears peppered its glossy black surface. But as tempted as I was to let her get it all out of her system, I knew it would only grow more dangerous the longer we were out in the open. The burial mound would surely still be here after all of this was over, right?

I stood back up and placed a hand atop her head. “C’mon, you little booger,” I said softly, nudging her back towards town. She didn't move, but she stopped her assault on the crystal. “I promise to do everything in my power to help with this after Sombra's gone, but I need to get you to safety.”

Once more, Sapphire jerked away from me, and, with a near feral scream, slammed her hooves against the crystal plug. “I gotta get home! I gotta help them!”

The glassy blockage shuddered beneath us. “Please tell me this isn't a vertical drop,” I moaned as my stomach gave a lurch. “Please be a sliiiiii—”

The ground opened up beneath us, and before she could even scream, we were falling into darkness.

~ ~ ~

There’s something to be said about waking up flat on your back, staring up into the angry eye in the ceiling that happened to be the entrance, I mused picking shards of black crystal out of my hair. It sucks!

When I’d awoken, I was on the floor of a cathedral-like room with a large hole in the vaulted ceiling casting light down upon me. All around me were the shards of the former blockage, glittering like diamond dust in the shaft of pale orange. Not one of the several corners of the room was shrouded in darkness. Sitting up and looking around left me with the realization that, besides miraculously surviving the fall, I was utterly alone in the room.

Sapphire Brie had definitely been here, though. There were hoofprints leading away from an almost filly-shaped impression in the dust and debris that littered the chamber's stone floor. They led straight through a darkened mouth carved into the chamber’s ‘south’ wall. That’s arbitrary south because I have no clue whatsoever which way is south in here or outside.

Heck, was there even a magnetic north or south here? Half the time, I wasn’t even sure the laws of nature as I understood applied here. Was Equus a spheroid world, or was this some sort of non-euclidean nightmare where the universe was in fact a parabolic shape at the bottom of which sat the ‘disc’ of Equus? Heck, maybe Pratchett had it right all along, only for the Disc World to be inhabited by small horses, rather than people.

That was neither here nor there, and largely a moot point; I was trapped in a subterranean crypt of some sort. If there was one thing I knew about places known to house the dead, say a Zombie Island or a nordic barrow, it was that, in these situations, there was always something that wanted to hurt you. I mean, Shantae—the actual character, not me—fought all sorts of undead things, including a dread pirate who just didn’t want to stay dead! So yeah, I had to find Sapphire before she got hurt, and figure out how to get the hell out of here.

With that in mind, I hopped back onto my feet and considered my options. I didn’t really want to fight any zombies, because I knew from personal experience as Sombra’s pet that undead ponies were extremely hard to kill. Oh, I could cheat with the limited amount of hellfire magic I had and burn them out of existence completely, but what then? Despite what the video game would lead you to believe, Shantae’s monster whipper was just not that good at killing a magically animated corpse... and if I ended up facing anything like that goat lich Grogar... I’d really wanna hold onto the hellfire. Besides, I wanted to save some of that for Sombra.

As I drew near the dark corridor, however, something curious happened: a single brazier just inside the darkness began to glow. I honestly couldn’t justify simply calling it a flame, because the phenomena was just so out there. Hundreds of tiny emerald shards began to flit and dance about atop the fixture like a swarm of iridescent insects, reflecting and amplifying light from some indeterminate source. Oh sure, it mimicked the pattern of a flame perfectly, but... Had it sprung up in response to my presence?

I followed the curving corridor for a time, never straying too far out of the light cast by the crystalfire. The entire time, my eyes never stayed in one spot too long. I’d look from wall to floor to ceiling to wall and back again, looking at anything and everything. Mostly it was circular tunnels carved into the stone, with a disturbing lack of recesses in the wall where I’d expect to find tier upon tier of corpses. Still, every so often I could swear I’d pick up a hint of movement in my peripherals, only to be met with empty space lit by green not-fire.

It wasn’t that I was following the light, though it did seem like the flames were trying to lead me in a certain direction; on the contrary, I would have loved nothing more than to not follow the eerie lights to my inevitable demise. The lights just happened to follow the same path that Sapphire seemed to have taken.

By the time I’d reached the first branch in the corridor, something felt really off. You know how you sometimes hear humorous idioms that are situationally relevant? The phrase “Quiet as the grave,” came to mind, but it didn’t really do any justice. At the very least, I would have expected to hear the echo of my footsteps down the tunnel or the flow of air... but there was nothing. It was like there was a bubble of silence around me, leaving me alone in the dim green light with my heartbeat. What wasn’t I hearing?

I continued on down the lit path, hoping that the unlit branch wasn’t the way out. The realization that the whole place was unnaturally silent had me casting glances over my shoulder behind me, but it wasn’t until the first straight stretch of tunnel that my blood froze. Far off behind me, the darkness was swallowing up the light.

“Shantae,” came his cruel whisper. I screamed. I don’t know why I screamed, but the thought of him down here with me and Sapphire terrified me, spurring me to run. “Pet.”

I shook my head and muttered, “You’re not here!” He wasn’t; he couldn’t be. The stallion had been a powerful mage—there was no mistake to be made about it—but he had little influence in the Empire right now. He wouldn’t waste his time chasing me down into a dark crypt when his seat of power was in even more danger of being taken than it had been when Celestia and Luna had appeared with their armies, slaying his hordes of slavers.

In my sudden fit of fear, however, I’d stopped looking ahead of me. At some point, Sapphire’s tracks vanished from the path the lights had been leading me. Actually, that wasn’t quite right. I had followed her tracks perfectly... until the lights simply stopped. This section of tunnel simply didn’t seem to have any of those strange crystal flames to light them... and by the time I reached portion of the tunnel that was lit, her hoofprints were no longer present on the dirt floor.

Dare I go back and attempt to feel my way along the floor in the darkness to continue following her? What if her trail simply ended because something that didn’t touch the floor had taken her? She could feasibly be anywhere in this labyrinth.

“I almost hope for a monster at this point,” I muttered under my breath, distracted from where I was going. “It’ll break up the monotony of all this empty tunn—augh!”

My foot caught on something in the dim light, and I fell. I wasn’t so lucky as to simply fall flat on my tits and be content in my pain; that’d be no fun, according to the universe. No, the thing I landed on was hard like iron, with lots of hard edges. “Just my luck.”

Pushing myself up, I let the dim light fill my eyes, and almost wish I hadn’t looked. You know that one silly thing from your childhood that haunts you well into adulthood, despite the irrationality of it? Mine was Ridley Scott’s Alien. The thing scared me to death when I was a kid, and put me off Easter entirely. The thought that inside some random egg, there could be some sort of face-raping creature that’d lay an egg in your throat, only for a black-carapaced horror to burst out of your chest days later... and my brothers convinced me to watch the next two, too!

... and now, here I was looking at my childhood nightmare, or something like it. It was some sort of creature that looked almost exactly like one of those alien xenomorphs... if it had grown inside a pony, instead of a person or dog, and it looked like it was partially made of crystal. I wasn’t sure what was with this region and crystals, but the mundanity of crystals at this point did nothing to lessen the effect.

I shoved off of the monster, half expecting the thing to wake up at any moment and show me its second mouth moments before I met my grisly end. Yet, as I sat there, staring at my would-be attacker, it simply did not move. It took me a further few minutes to realize that it wouldn’t move; the thing wasn’t going to attack me because it wasn’t alive... and it hadn’t been for some time. It was a dead semi-transparent husk... just like the ones I was slowly starting to realize were littering the corridor ahead of me.

Even though the light didn’t illuminate the floor that far ahead, I could see the green light reflecting off more crystalline carapace. Oddly enough, their general equine shape helped make it clear that none of them were facing me. What killed them?

Deciding that, no, my childhood nightmare wasn’t about to come facerape me, I picked my way forward through the hollow equinoid carapaces. I didn’t want to think what their lives had been like, or what their last moments had been. A few displaced light sources and gouges in the tunnel walls painted a clear enough picture for me; these creatures, whose numbers were hard to gauge in this half-darkness, had probably died painfully. Cracks and holes marred the limbs of the creatures, as though some predator had attacked... or if they’d been tearing at the walls in search of some means of escape.

The dead were thickest at the end of the tunnel, literally piled on one another. At first, I thought the tunnel just ended and the strange bug ponies had simply crawled down this corridor and died, but just as I was about to turn around, I caught sight of a small gap among the corpses. It was something I might not even have noticed had I not turned my head, but there it was, clear as day, blue light shining through a small hole.

“Uhuu,” came the soft cry on the other side of the gap, along with the telltale drip of water. That’s Brie! It’s gotta be!

It’s probably not the greatest idea to touch dead things of unknown threat level, but they were safe enough. Stepping over nearly one hundred of them in the greenlit darkness without one of them leaping up to take a chunk out of me had made me cocky, but this place wasn’t giving me a zombie dungeon vibe anymore. Besides, it’s not like I was desecrating them; I was just pulling their insanely light remains out of the way so that I could get at the hole...

... or rather, the door. It was a disc-shaped slab of stone that had, at one point, been in the process of rolling shut. The bug ponies had seemingly thrown themselves into the door’s track, sacrificing themselves in an attempt to keep the door open for their comrades and gumming the track with their remains. Even now, after however long—a millenia, dare I say?—ago this happened, there was still a sickly sweet smell of something.

Too bad they had done as bugs do, and swarmed the small opening. None of them would have even fit through the gap, though I wouldn’t have the same issue. All they’d done is provided a false sense of hope as they fought and died in an attempt to fit through the opening.

“Sorry, you lot,” I whispered as I slipped through the gap. “Something wants me going wherever this corridor leads, and you were kind of in the way.”

Once I was through, I looked around. Finding myself halfway up the wall of a small, but deep bowl-shaped cavern, I couldn’t help but whistle. The blue light that had caught my eye came from a bed of some kind of glowing lichen on the ceiling and stalactites, which illuminated a large pair of pony statues, the design of a chain wrapped around a raised forelimb plainly visible. Nearby, a small stream of water wound its way through the floor, a stoneware dish abandoned at the very edge of the flow. I’m pretty sure there was even a fair sized bungalow carved into the opposite wall near the cavern floor.

The crying stopped.

As I shifted my weight to look around, for some way down, my left foot caught a slippery patch of moss, and my balance was lost. With a groan of protest, I went arse over teakettle down the cavern wall. Egads, that’s so slimy!

My descent met a quick end as I found myself deposited in a small pool of surprisingly warm water. Not wanting to find out of there were any carnivorous cave fish waiting for a snack, I scrambled out of the pool, past an overgrown bed of mushrooms, and toward the statues. I don’t know why, but I felt myself drawn to them.

From close up, I could see that the towering pony on the right was an angry looking unicorn, for someone had smashed the horn off of his face... or else it had been carved that way. Conversely, the pony on the left was a pegasus, the likes of which I had only ever seen as a footsoldier during Celestia and Luna’s final attack on the castle. The pegasus looked sad rather than angry, her wings bound with chains and straps.

Looking at a pair of chains ending in manacles descending from their raised hooves made something click inside my mind. If the glossy look to the curved walls of the cavern was any indicator, they all seemed to all be covered in the same slick moss that I had slipped on, meaning that someone had meant to keep people, or ponies rather, down here. This is a gilded cage. Water, minimal food, and a shelter... Are these chains for sacrifices to their captors?

I wanted out of here, and fast. This whole place was creepy, and I was getting a really weird vibe about Sapphire Brie’s history. None of this was right. A child shouldn’t want some life of pending sacrifice over a life of freedom after years of servitude! I turned on my heel...

... and walked straight through the mare standing behind me.

Author's Note

Many apologies on the time it took for this to be posted. It's honestly been finished since the beginning of the month. I've been sitting on it, waiting for Dash the Stampede to look over it, but I guess things in life keep getting in the way. I'm easily partway through Chapter 5, although how quickly I finish that up is entirely contingent on how long I can peel myself away from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. Won't lie. Addicted.

And yes, there IS a changeling hive [in case you didn't already jump to that conclusion] underneath the Crystal Empire in this universe, but you'll have to learn about it more in the next chapter.