Her hooves hurt as she pushed herself to move faster, they were still behind her after all.
Her teal colored eyes narrowed as she continued to run, her cowl on her plain brown cloak falling back to reveal a shock of toxic green colored hair, done up in a pony tail.
Her brown fur faded to a soft yellow on her muzzle, and her features, usually smiling, was awash of all sorts of smiles, currently it was a determined mix of fear and hope.
Odd mixes truly.
Behind her flew three pegasi, she had run into the forest of Everfree, hoping the trees would slow them up, but no…they were trained to fly through trees, it was part of their jobs as collectors.
The brown earth pony mare pushed herself harder, she was almost there, once she got to the caves, she would lose them in the honey-comb and be home free.
She just had to get to the caves.
She had to…
Trip.
The mare let out a curse that no pony should really say and she flipped ass over hooves down an embankment and struck her shoulder on some rocks, a shooting pain ran through her, but she forced herself to stand up, the pain was almost unbearable, but she forced herself to move on.
“Come on Ramen…” she hissed to herself, “Come on…come on…you can do it.”
Behind her, the pegasi were closing in, she could feel them.
Fear and panic began to overtake her mind and when she felt them lift her off the ground she let out a scream of anguish and pain.
She knew where they would take her, who they would place her in front of, and she was terrified, They had barely been surviving, hiding in the forest, foraging and stealing.
One by one, the refugees were picked off and either killed on sight or taken for an audience with the one pony who held lives in her hooves.
One pony who enjoyed power and subjected her minions, no subjects had she, merely puppets with whom she played with and then destroyed when she grew bored.
The one responsible for all the pain and suffering;
Empress Celestia.
They dropped her in an unceremonious manner at the foot of the throne and a scream fell past her lips as she landed upon her injured leg, she lay there for a few moments, and when the voice hit her ears she tensed and slowly lifted her gaze.
“Well now, what have we here, a lost little Element of Virtue?” Celestia cooed down in a mocking manner at Ramen, the green haired mare felt herself shaking, “Come now, Ramen, are you harmed? We cant have that, now can we?”
Ramen felt the magic surround her, tugging at her soul, and it slowly started to heal her.
She let out another scream of pain as she felt the bone’s knit, the muscle and ligaments reattach and the skin connect again, by the time it was done, Ramen lay panting on the ground, her eyes glittering in a glassy manner as she slowly lifted her gaze to look up at the Empress.
It would be a lie to say that there wasn’t hate in the normally jovial pony’s eyes.
Celestia seemed amused by the look she was getting from the Earth Mare and she chuckled.
“Now then, where are the other Elements hiding?” she asked, Ramen lifted to her hooves and she looked up at Celestia, and then she did something she knew deep down she would regret later, if she survived.
The sound of something wet spattered at the ground just before the Empress and Ramen looked at her with fury.
“You wont learn any information from me.” She stated, and felt her stomach drop as Celestia let out a laugh of pleasure and clopped her hooves together in a clap.
“Wonderful…I was rather hoping you would give that as an answer…We can start now.” She said and she got up and began to walk towards Ramen, who took two steps back for every one of Celestia’s.
+.+.+
The grey unicorn mare with the faded tan and teal scarf let out a scream of pain and slumped to her knees, dropping the wood she had been collecting.
They made this clattering sound as they rolled off, the other two ponies with the unicorn, a dark grey almost black Alicorn with a compass for a cutie mark and a Zebra with a tribal sun for a cutie mark rushed over to her.
The Alicorn slowly helped her back to her hooves, while the Zebra took something out of a saddle bag.
“You should know better than to connect yourself to all of us, you feel our pain and we’ve no choice but to fuss.” He said in a gentle tone, The Alicorn on the other hand had placed her horn against the unicorn’s and sent some healing energy into the unicorn.
A few moments later the grey mare smiled at the duo with her, her eyes glittering with thanks, she then spoke in a grave tone,
“Ramen has been taken by the royal fleet,” she whispered. “We have to save her.”
The Zebra took a few steps back,
“The royal fleet took our joy, this does not bode that well…oh boy…” he rolled his eyes and shook his head, “And now you want to run to her aide? Are you that eager to lead a raid?”
“Oh, come now Savhanna…” The Alicorn giggled softly, “I’m sure Sonnet knows what she’s talking about, shall I get the others?” she asked.
The grey unicorn, Sonnet, sighed softly.
“No, Rhapsody, Savhanna’s right…” she trailed off slowly and she shook her head slowly, “We shouldn’t be rushing into all of this, we need a plan.”
“A plan to save the spunky mare, We shall be braver than we dare, to rescue her from the crazy Empress, before Ramen Spice does not exist.” Savhanna stated and he looked from Rhapsody to Sonnet, and then he smiled lightly, “I am sorry to speak out of turn, but this is one lesson I wish for Ramen to never learn, the lesson of pain and death because of us, it would truly be a horrible loss.” He shook his head.
Sonnet nodded.
“Yes, We are going to save Ramen, we have to…” she winced again, “Before something worse happens to her.”
++
Ramen lay on the ground coughing and shaking.
Over her stood the Empress and two other ponies, they were unicorns, and they had only one job, whenever Empress Celestia went too far, they were to heal Ramen and keep her from dying.
Ramen felt the magic of the unicorns enter her once more and she shuddered and curled up, fighting back yet another wave of nausea.
She swayed on her hooves and she looked up at Celestia and the other ponies.
Ramen snorted and she swayed again and she stumbled slightly, falling backwards and sitting on her haunches.
She felt horrible, sick, tired, and sore.
Her eyes lifted to look at the trio before her and she coughed, a thin line of blood trickling down the left corner of her mouth.
“Is that the best you can do?” he staggered slightly to her hooves again, she swayed back and fourth and she spat at the horses before her’s hooves and then began to laugh.
The Empress and the other two ponies took a step back as Ramen, still laughing, even though she hurt so very much, stumbled forward.
“You think this is going to break me? You think that you breaking my legs, and then healing them so you can break them again or causing my head pain is going to make me turn on my own friends,” she broke down now, hysterical, pained, sad laughter escaping her and Empress lifted her head sneered and sent Ramen flying across the room, she hit the wall with a horrible sound and then crumpled down onto the ground.
Silent.
The Empress rolled her eyes and she sighed softly.
“Deploy the fleet…” she stated in an unamused manner as she walked back towards the throne room once again.
++
The black unicorn gave a short snort as he pulled on the rope closing the wooden door behind the trio that had just returned.
He offered a soft smile and he canted his head to the right, a few strands of red hair fell past his features and his eyes half lidded.
“You guys are late, did something happen…” he trailed off slowly, counting them, they were one short,“Where’s Ramen?”
Rhapsody frowned.
“The Royal Fleet got her.” She stated softly and she sighed shaking her head. “Sonnet wants to go save her, but we don’t know how to go about doing that.”
Sonnet bowed her head.
“Gather the resistance, Dusk, we need to hold council.” She stated softly.
A few moments later the small group of ponies was gathered around a wooden table, they were all looking at Sonnet with soft and yet worried eyes.
Finally the dark pony from before, Dusk, spoke up.
“What happened exactly and what are we going to do about it?” he asked.
Sonnet sighed.
“Ramen was taken by the Royal fleet, I am planning on going to the castle to get her back, anypony who wants to join can, but I don’t want to take too big a crowd because if we get caught then it’ll be harder for me to teleport us out of there.”
The other ponies all nodded slowly.
Rhapsody spoke up slowly,
“Well then, I’ll go.” She said softly.
Dusk and Libra also lifted their hooves,
“We’ll come as well.” They both said.
Savhanna nodded,
“Yes, me too…”
A young Pegasus mare with long white hair and a black coat.
She had a cutie mark of a flame and she smiled in a sad manner at the others.
“What is going on?” she asked softly, she leaned against Dusk and he lifted his head and nuzzled her hair, they had just recently gotten her back and Dusk couldn’t be happier.
“Ramen was taken by the Royal Fleet,” He said, “We are deciding who is going to go and get her back.”
The Pegasus sighed softly to herself.
“That’s horrible…” she trembled and hid her face against Dusk’s neck, she was shaking slightly, one would notice that the cutie mark on her left flank was missing, and that there was only scarred tissue. she cleared her throat and she spoke up again, looking at Sonnet, “I want to go too, after all, I’ve already been in the castle…I know some of it, and where they are probably keeping Ramen.” Her tone was soft and worried. “I mean….if they didn’t kill her…” she added in a miserable manner.
Sonnet nodded.
“Okay, so Libra, Ember, Dusk, Rhapsody, and Savhanna will go with me, the rest of you wait here, we will be back as soon as we can,” she stated softly.
A brown stallion with two crossing sticks of cinnamon as a cutie mark spoke up.
“Please, be careful you guys, its dangerous out there and we don’t want to lose you…” he said softly.
Behind him a black and red Pegasus with a cutie mark of dice showing ones flapped his wings and pawed at the ground.
But before he could speak up, another unicorn spoke up instead, he was tall and had a strong build, his hair was lavender and a pale blue-green, his eyes were a light shade of olive and his cutiemark was that of a scroll and a quill.
“If you run into trouble, let me know…and I’ll teleport you out of there.”
Sonnet smiled at her brother and nodded.
“Okay, thanks Haiku…” she said softly, then she looked at the others, she then nodded again and they trotted out of the hideout.
Sonnet couldn’t help but feel her stomach twist slightly, she had a bad feeling.
++
When Ramen woke up again she found herself suspended in the air, her forearms are lifted over her head and her rear legs were slightly spread and secured as well, she was also aware of a rope around her neck, holding her head up and she felt heat in her left thigh.
She blinked slowly, the darkness slowly retreating into a dull grey before her vision cleared.
Pain rushed through her and she whimpered softly before she became aware of what was going on, before her stood the Empress and those unicorns again.
The Empress gave her a sick smile,
“Welcome back Ramen Spice, I am going to give you one last chance to tell me where your friends are hiding, if you fail to help us, you will cease to exist.” She sneered, “And to show that we are serious about this…”
Ramen felt something pulling at the skin on her left flank, she tried to look down but the rope held her head firmly in place.
The tight pain began to increase and she saw the unicorns were pulling at a rope, and the more they pulled it, the more the pain spread like wildfire along her flank.
Empress Celestia gave a dark laugh,
“Your friend Ember broke here, thanks to her we knew It was the Everfree we had to look. I wonder if you will be able to resist longer…”
Ramen was about to ask what the cruel empress ment by this when she felt her skin tear and the next thing she knew was mind numbing pain as her cutie mark was torn off her.
Blood spattered against the ground and the empress lifted the patch of skin before her, looking it over before she floated it over to the wall, where she hung it next to several others.
One Ramen noticed, was Embers, another happened to have belonged to WolvesBane, and another still, Hemlock.
Ramen was able to shift her head a bit and out of the corner of her eye she saw it, the decapitated heads of two ponies, she couldn’t stop the scream from escaping her this time and it echoed in the room they were in.
Empress Celestia chuckled.
“Do you feel like being more cooperative now, Ramen Spice?” she asked, the answer Ramen gave her was in the form of a loogie, Celestia scowled in a dark manner and stamped her hoof in rage.
“So. Be. It.” She growled, “Starjumper, Dawntreader,” She turned to the two unicorn, “Beat her….break her….then cut her up….I want this done over the next two weeks…don’t kill her too fast, but make her wish she was dead…” and with that the empress stalked out of the room.
One of the unicorns, a mare, walked up to where Ramen was hanging, Ramen looked back at the mare, she then noted the mare’s cutie mark, it was a tribal moon hiding behind some clouds, the male had a tribal sunrise, they both looked at Ramen in disgust.
“You better hope your friends come to rescue you really soon.” The female, Starjumper, said in a cold voice, a she spoke her horn flared into light, the rope around her neck pulling taught.
Shortly after, Ramen found she couldn’t breathe, she struggled as she tried to find a way to give her lungs precious air, the male unicorn, Dawntreader, slowly trotted over to the small puddle of blood from her wound and he sniffed at it, Ramen watched through hazy vision as his lips parted and his tongue left his mouth, lapping at the blood before slowly lifting his head to look at the almost unconscious earth pony.
He smirked at her, his teeth looked sharp…dangerous, nothing like a real pony’s teeth should look like, and the last thing she remembered before blacking out completely was the sensation of falling.
++
Sonnet and company looked up at the castle not to far away, the grey unicorn uttered a light sigh and then she started forward again, but a sudden pain rocketed through her and she stumbled and let out a keeing whine of pain.
As she pitched forward, Dusk caught her, supported her and Rhapsody looked at Sonnet in worry.
“What happened?” Libra asked in confusion. “Sonnet are you okay?” he asked.
Sonnet frowned, she then shook her head and she stamped her hoof.
“That is IT!” she growled, her horn shimmered hot white and the small group appeared in the room Ramen was in.
Dawntreader and StarJumper looked up in shock at the sudden appearance.
Sonnet frowned.
“Release her.” She stated sharply.
The two unicorns frowned at her, StarJumper growled.
“Make us.”
Dusk and Ember lifted their front right hoof and pressed them together, Dusk was shrouded in flames and they rushed forward, the flames engulfing them as they attacked the twin unicorn that stood in their way.
Sonnet and Libra ran over to Ramen while Rhapsody kept a look out, to make sure no other ponies showed up.
Starjumper and Dawntreader both fought back as valiantly as possible.
Throwing spells and it wasn’t until the throne room doors slammed open and there stood Empress Celestia and six guards did Sonnet and the others realize that this situation was bad.
Sonnet took a step back, Celestia smirked at her and the others in triumph.
“At last, I have you in my hooves, my little rebels…” she snickered and she began to trot forward. “I wouldn’t try to teleport my dears….I’ve blocked /that/ sort of magic.” She stated in a cold manner.
Sonnet still tried regardless, looking for an opening somewhere, and when she found none far away, but there was one close by, close by….she cursed, figuring that it would have to do and then turned to look towards the Alicorn before her.
“I will not let you harm anypony else…” she growled, lowering her head, there was a bright flash of light and when the light cleared, the small group of rebels wasn’t in the throne room anymore.
Celestia let out a growl of rage.
“Where did they go!? Find them!” she ordered.
++
They were in a room, it was dark and musty and there were covered items all over the place.
Things with cloths draped over them, Sonnet sat down and she bowed her head.
Rhapsody set to work healing Ramen Spice, while Libra began to look around, something pulled at him.
There was something enchanted in here.
He came upon a mirror and pulled the cloth draped over it off of it, it sat there, silent before him.
“Hm…” he said softly, “Sonnet….come here, tell me what you feel.”
Sonnet stood up and trotted over to Libra, the others watching them.
She looked at the mirror for a few moments, then at Libra.
“It’s a gate….” She said and lifted a hoof to the glass, the runes on the mirror sparkled and the reflection changed to a beautiful meadow.
Sonnet nodded,
“Everypony, jump through…” she said, the rag tag group of rebels jumped through the mirror, Libra casting a spell to cause the sheet that once covered it to return to doing just that.
They fell for quite a time, but landed in a soft and comfortably warm field of flowers.
Birds were singing, there were rabbits and other various wildlife here as well.
Ember and Dusk looked around slowly.
Savhanna and Rhapsody blinked.
Libra helped Sonnet up while Ramen Spice groaned in pain and trembled slightly.
“We have to get her help…” Rhapsody said, “I could only do so much….she’s still very weak….we need a safe place to rest.”
Sonnet nodded and she looked around slowly, in the distance she could see a clock-tower that seemed rather familiar, only…it was bright and cheerful, not dulled with age and battle worn.
“Where….” Sonnet whispered as she started forward, the small group traveled until they reached a sign.
The sign read:
WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!
And it was just as bright and cheerful as the rest of the place.
Over head a rainbow blurr streaked by, and looking at the town they were about to answer they noted that these ponies held no fear at all, they all seemed happy, healthy…
Sonnet looked at her small group.
“Well, here goes nothing…” she said and they all walked into the town.