The man must have seen the change in your expression, because his smile is instantly back. He relaxes his arms a little, and you feel the tension in your collar go slack. You quietly curse your traitorous expressions for giving you away.

“Oh, now that struck a nerve, didn’t it?” he says in an almost purr.

You try to remove all emotion from your face but it’s far too late for that. You've blown even the small trace of leverage you might have had. Now, it'll be a battle to find a new foothold, if you can find one at all.

“You killed her already,” you say lamely. “I saw you.”

He holds up his index finger and moves it back and forth slowly in front of your nose, making a chiding tsk noise through his front teeth.

“Not so,” he says cheerfully. “You just saw me beat the shit out of her, like I did to you. I admit, I tried with that first swing. But she was still breathing and I figured if I was going to take you captive then I might as well make it a party, right? Didn’t want this to be a sausage fest, after all.”

He chuckles to himself, enjoying his own jokes way too much for your comfort. He settles down on the rock across from you, and you can tell he feels that he has total control of the situation again.

“And you’re going to kill her?”

“Did I stutter? Yes, I’m going to kill her first and make you watch unless you help me. If you help me I’ll let her go. It’s as simple as that. Is that clear now?”

You’re still a moment, considering his words and whether or not there's any truth in them, then you nod. Even if he’s lying, agreeing to this could buy you some time, and if he’s telling the truth, it might be your only chance to save Twilight.

“Good, so start talking.”

“…I got here a few months ago. It was a whole messy weird situation, hard to explain.”

“Oh, gee, that sure is helpful,” he says sarcastically before getting up from where he’s seated himself.

He strides quickly towards you and then gives you a swift and painful kick to the ribs. You wince and turn away from him, holding back a cry of pain and surprise. He reaches over and sharply raises your chin with the crowbar so that you’re looking at him again. You’re sure that he can see the pain in your face, but you try to show as little of it as possible. Got to stay focused, strong. Got to be ready if any sort of opportunity presents itself.

“Details,” he says “I need details on this.”

He walks backwards, still facing you, and sits down again. He gestures with open hands for you to speak whenever you’re able, and you gasp in air for a moment or two before you again feel able to speak. You start to continue, then shut your mouth abruptly and shake your head.

“No, how do I know Twilight’s alive?”

“You’re just going to have to trust me on that.”

“Bullshit I’ll trust you. So far all you’ve done is beat the shit out of me and tell me you’re going to kill me. I need proof that she’s alive and safe before I’ll say a word.”

He stands up and walks back and forth in front of your bound body, glaring. He raises the crowbar to right below your chin, lifting your head so he can peer into your eyes.You can feel the warmth of his breath on your face, even from this distance, and smell his foul odor. You doubt he’s had any chance to clean himself since his arrival, and it’s beginning to show at this point.

“That’s some pretty ballsy talk for someone in your position,” he says softly.

“Not really. There are no other humans here, so you need me and I know it. For all I know other than that, though, Twilight’s dead. If you want my help, you’ll need to meet a few of my demands or else I’ll just shut up and you’ll be stuck here.”

It's not entirely a bluff in concept, but the confidence you say it with sure as hell is.

“I could beat it out of you.”

He taps the crowbar against your neck as he speaks. It feels shockingly cold on your skin, like no matter how many times he touches you with it, it still refuses to heat to your body temperature. Still, you force yourself to smile.

“You could try.”

He regards you for a minute or two, studying your expression, maybe thinking over his options. Then he shrugs and pulls the crowbar away from your skin. He slides it through a side belt loop before stepping back and looking for something near the candle.

“Suit yourself,” he says with a sigh. “But I wouldn’t make too many more demands if I were you. I might just start assuming that you’re lying about being the only human around here and decide that you’re expendable. It’s not totally out of the question that you’re just as much a liar as I am, after all.”

He stands upright, something small gleaming in his palm. You tense as you realize it’s a short, possibly home made, knife. He spins and approaches you with it brandished out in front of him. You start to struggle again, trying to get a hand loose or a foot under you to defend yourself. Nothing comes free. You’re bracing yourself as best you can when you notice him regarding you with a rather bemused look.

“Wow, a little paranoid aren’t you?” he asks, shaking his head.

He gives a tsk and then kneels beside you.

“Try not to struggle too much or try to get away. I have Emily here and a knife very near your wrists. Not to mention I’m bigger than you. Bet I could kick your ass faster than you could land a punch.”

“So you’re a betting man then?” you ask, calming down just a little now that you know he isn’t going to stab you.

Any info you can get on this guy could end up being valuable, so a little fishing now won’t hurt. He lets out a short laugh and sets to work on your bindings.

“That’s not a bet you should take little man. The stakes are way too high.”

It’s not an answer, but maybe it means he’s a risk taker, or he likes sport or chance or games. You tell yourself to keep that in mind, that it might be useful later. He unties you up to your stomach, then ties fresh rope around your wrists and forearms, binding them tightly and painfully together in front of you. Once he’s sure you’re secure, he unties the rest of you and gives your short rope leash a jerking tug.

“Keep up, and don’t try to move around side to side or nothing back there,” he grumbles as you climb to your feet. “There are rocks, it’s dark, and if you fall I’ll just drag you the rest of the way out there.”

You don’t doubt he’s telling the truth on that one at least. As you follow him through the dimly lit cave, you decide he’s probably capable of not only dragging you by your hands, but also having a little fun with it while he does, and that’s enough to keep you close behind him. Still, you look around constantly for anything that might help you. A sharp rock, a tool, anything. All you see is shadow and what might be moss or mold. The cave smells damp and musty, maybe from the bear that once lived here.

Light begins to show in front of you around a stoney corner. It’s faint, and softly rosy like dawn or dusk. You wonder if you’ve been unconscious for only the night or for a full day. Either way, some of the ponies will have noticed you’ve gone missing by now. You have to find a way out of here before they come looking for you and risk their lives at this man’s hands.

As you reach the entrance, you crane your neck to see over or around your captor, trying to spot any sign of Twilight. At first, even the low lighting feels blinding to you, and the wound on your head feels like it’s pulsing with each breath you take. Then, as things become comfortable again, you spot her.

Twilight is bound by her front hooves to a large thick oak tree. Her back hooves are tied apart to different tree roots, and the knots on them look hastier and less solid than those on her front ones. You can see a red scraping rash on her front legs where you’re sure she’s strained against her bonds, and her body shows signs of dirt and sweat. Her face is caked with a mixture of mud and blood so that you can’t see how bad the crowbar wound is, but you can see the area under her eye growing puffy and dark. She’ll have a black eye there for a while if she survives all this. When she survives all this, you correct yourself. There's no other option, you’re going to keep her alive, you have to. A rope loops behind her head and through her mouth, holding in what looks like a sock as a makeshift gag. The way she’s breathing so hard, the wretched state of her coat, and her defeated posture all tell you that she’s totally exhausted. If she’s lost too much blood, you think, she might even be too weak to recover from her injuries. Especially if an infection sets in.

She turns her head over one shoulder to face the man with a weary snarl, but then she spots you, and her eyes widen at the sight. You’re not sure how bad you look, but her expression is horrified, if not a little relieved. You now see several fresh looking wounds on her face and neck, and realize with horror of your own that the man has been beating her the entire time you’ve been unconscious, and with how they’re not bleeding, it’s probably been at least a day of this.

Her eyes meet yours, and you see tears begin to well there.

Oh Twilight, I’m so sorry, you think. I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you.

“Aren’t reunions fun?” your captor says, stepping between your gazes.

“You fucking piece of shit.” You spit the words towards him. “How could you do this? Why?”

“Oh,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “Thought you'd never ask. It was easy, honestly. You could say I was provoked, but if we’re being frank it’s because I don’t want to fucking be here. I’m pissed off that I have to be here with these girly ass misshapen little ponies, and until I saw you I thought that I might be here forever.”

He begins to pace back and forth, jerking your leash so that you’re forced to follow behind him like some sort of dog.

“So I got to thinking. No laws, right? No restrictions, no fighting back. Nothing. Basically, I can do whatever I want. And I thought to myself, now if I was a hitman or a serial killer or something hardass like that, this would be the perfect place to set up shop. I’m not one of those, but why not try my hand at it, right? But no humans to kill, no justice or vengeance to dish out, so I guess I got to settle for animals. Got to eat anyway. It was just a bonus when I found out they could talk. Well,” he pauses, giving Twilight a grin. “When I let them. Isn’t that right sweetie?”

Twilight glares at him, but there’s not much force there. She’s just too tired.

“Had to tie those back legs up quick though, you speak your mind pretty well with kicks, now don’t you?”

“You’re fucked up,” you growl at your captor, giving a sharp tug against your lead rope.

Feeling resistance, the man spins and catches you in the gut with a sudden punch. You crumple forwards onto the ground, not even enough air in your lungs to let out a sound of pain. You hear a muffled whinny from Twilight.

“I told you, that’s not a bet you want to make,” he says slowly. “You don’t listen very well, do you?”

At last air comes back to your lungs. You breathe in gaspingly, tasting bits of dry leaves and dirt as you do. You flop heavily to one side, facing Twilight, as unwilling tears of pain leak from your eyes. The other human continues to pace, just at shorter back and forths now, to make sure he keeps your leash in hand.

“But even with all the fun, I want to get home. Too much to do there, too good a life to leave behind.”

He nudges your back with one boot, and you see a shadow fall over you. You glance up and see him, half silhouetted against the orange sky above you. The smile is back, an abrupt contrast against his dark shape.

“And you’re going to help me, aren’t you?”

You’re about to reply when you see Twilight. She’s silently nodding towards you, obviously trying to get your attention. The man is standing with his back to her, disregarding her completely, paying full focus to you so he doesn’t notice. But you do, and now she has you transfixed. What is she doing?

You watch as she closes her eyes and concentrates. With a brief spark and flash, a low glow flickers around her horn. You can see the strain it takes from her and realize that she must have waited, conserving this energy, until she knew where you were. Until she knew you were alive. All this time you were thinking about saving her, she was thinking about saving you. Of course! Her magic isn’t as strong as, say, Celestia’s, but rope should be no problem for her. She took those beatings because she was waiting. She could have gotten away by now. The realization and guilt are almost overwhelming in tandem.

The man must have only seen Unicorns briefly, because he’s made no attempt to restrain her horn or even cover it. He has no idea they do magic maybe, or how they work in general, and Twilight has taken advantage of that. Before, Twilight only stabbed him with her horn, so he might even think it’s just a sort of weapon. Still, the light of her magic is weak, and you’re not sure what she has in mind or how long she can go like this. You have to make some sort of distraction.

“...Yes,” you say suddenly, redirecting your gaze up at the man. “I said I’d help you.”

You sit up slowly, making sure you can still see what Twilight is doing behind him, in case she requires some further action from you.

“Good, we seem to be getting somewhere,” he says with a sigh. “Now, how did you get here?”

You think hard, trying to remember the details while still focusing on the scene at hand.

“I was running,” you say slowly. “Jogging. With my…a friend of mine.”

Why couldn’t you just call her your girlfriend? She isn’t here to refute it, no one here knows who she is or how you two interacted. Still, the word refuses to come out as you tell the story. You shake your head at your own foolishness and continue.

“We were up in the hills, coming back I think. We decided to go through a meadow, at her suggestion.”

Twilight’s horn has gained a little brightness, but not much. The ends of the ropes on her back hooves have also begun to glow faintly, and tremble a little.

“Get on with it, you were jogging with this girl, and?” He’s obviously impatient.

“We were going to race, we decided. She’s usually faster than me, but I thought maybe on the uneven ground of a field I might have a shot. I think we were making some sort of bet, winner buys lunch or something.”

The ropes strain not to move, but they begin to slide. The knots start to loosen, but you can see how difficult this is for her to do silently like this. Tears are streaming down her face and there’s a flush of red in her already scratched-up cheeks.

“But I was the one who tripped,” you go on. “And...”

This is where things got strange, you remember. There’s not much more than you recall clearly, but you just need to give Twilight a few more seconds.

“And what?” he demands. “Come on, and?”

The ropes are coming free, almost there.

“…and I fell.”

With a rush of unexpected force and a shrill cry through her gag, Twilight thrusts her hind hooves upwards, and the ropes are not enough to hold her. Before the man can fully turn, she catches him with a strong kick right below the ear. Dazed, but not fully unconscious, he tumbles sideways towards you with a grunt of pain. In the confusion, he also lets go of your rope.

He lets go. He lets go of your rope.

It takes your brain a few moments to process this, and you stand up shakily, dumbly staring down at the loose rope on the ground. You’re…free? A muted cry from Twilight snaps you back, and suddenly you have things to do. You half leap, half crawl to Twilight and begin to tear feebly at the front knot on her hooves. It’s better than the ones on her back feet, and your hands are shaking from the adrenalin of all this, but you locate the ends, the place where they cross, and begin to push the rope to give slack as quickly as you’re able.

You hear a groan from behind you as you force the rope back against itself once, then twice. How many times did he tie this? After what seems like an eternity but what was probably only a few seconds, the rope comes loose.Twilight springs unsteadily away from the tree and pulls the rope and sock out of her mouth. She teeters on her hooves like she hasn't used them in some time, but she stays upright.

“RUN!” she screams.

You hear the scramble of leaves behind you as your captor begins to stand up.

“What the fuck. What…”

He sounds drunk almost with how the words slur. You hope very sincerely that Twilight broke his jaw with that kick. The idea would make you smile if the situation weren’t so dire. You stumble up to your feet and make a move to run. With your hands still bound in front of you, running feels awkward, but it’s not impossible. You never realized how much you use you arms when you run,and it's painfully apparent to you now as you swing your arms left and right to help give you momentum. Twilight too dashes forward, and you’re shocked at how easy it is to keep up with her. After the sudden show of strength just moments ago, she must be so weak now. How much strength does she have left?

You feel a tug at your wrists and the rope snaps taught across your chest. You spin, clotheslined by your leash, and fall backwards onto the ground. The man is near you with the rope in his hand, still unsteady on his own feet, but now fumbling for the crowbar. He grabs for it in his belt, missing with every awkward swipe. Twilight too spins to face you and before he can get steady she kicks feebly out with one leg towards his knee. The blow finds its mark, though not with much strength, and he crumples sideways to the ground again. If his balance hadn’t been so off, that wouldn’t have done much good. You thank god, or Celestia maybe, for small favors.

You tug the rope into your hands and you’re once again free. You don’t need to think this time, you just start to run. You hear the man groaning behind you, but he’s still scrabbling around like he’s trying to get to his feet, so the more distance you can put between you, the better. Twilight awkwardly stumbles alongside you towards the dense treeline, but she looks as if she may faint at any moment.

Without thinking about your own waning strength, you reach down and hoist her over your still bound arms to rest against your chest. She lets you do it without protest, nearly limp and feverishly hot in your grasp. Her hooves bounce against your knees as they come up and down and her head hangs limply forward against her chest. Her muscles are relaxing, maybe she's becoming unconscious, but she's still alive. She’s free, with you, and she’s still alive.

Even in your mad flight into the woods, you feel a swell of gratitude in your chest for this little pony. She’s saved you so many times before now, without you ever asking for her to do it, even been the reason you’re free now. Without her you never wouldn’t…wouldn’t have made it. She's your guardian angel when you need it most, but now, as she rests feebly breathing against your heaving chest, she needs you most. You can finally begin to repay your debt.

“My turn,” you whisper as much to yourself as to her as you force your legs onwards through the brush.

Behind you, the sounds of your thrashing captor are fading now. You’re not even sure if he managed to actually get up after that blow last. Still you keep running, putting as much space between you and that terrible, sickening place as you possibly can. You have no idea where you're going or where you are, but you know for damn sure that you don't want to be here right now. You’re not fully escaped yet. You have to run for as far as you possibly can. Your muscles scream at you, your arms ache, your head pounds.

Just one more step, one more. Keep going.

“Keep going,” Twilight murmurs in your arms as if reading your thoughts.

You hold her tight to your body and focus your mind on the next tree, the next patch of earth, anything to keep you running. You'll run till your heart explodes, till your muscles tear. You'll run until you collapse unconscious so long as it keeps Twilight alive.

You won't let another pony die in your arms.

Not now, not ever.

Author's Note

Someone already asked about both these topics, so I'm going to cover them here.

Firstly, Twilight wasn't super magically powerful in the first season, as you may remember. This story does reflect that. I want to stress that, nowadays in the show? Twi would have snapped this fucker's neck so quick it would have made your head spin. (HAH had to make a joke at some point.) But here, I wanted her to be at a disadvantage, still learning, where magic is an effort that results in exhaustion. Especially if she's pulling her punches, waiting for the right opportunity.

The other question someone asked when they first read this is that I mentioned covering Twilight's horn, and if I subscribed to the idea that covering a horn would remove some, if not all of its power. I do think that's an interesting concept, and yes that is what I was getting at. But looking at some of the evidence? It's likely that's not show-truth either. Would just be interesting if covering a unicorn's horn left them powerless, in my humble opinion.

Next part coming out is the longest, so you know.

So thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you next time.

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