The Warlock

My back hurt. Not the kind of hurt where an old injury is flaring up, or even when you pick up a box wrong. This was a much less worrisome kind of ache. The kind from sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. I had grown accustomed to my hammock and hard surfaces like trees and the ground over the years, and I never readjusted to a traditional box spring mattress. I had experienced this kind of ache any time I stayed over at my parent's house. Neither my mother of father believed in the wonders of a hammock.

Not wanting to put up with the overly large sheet of foam and springs, I hauled my ass out of bed. I could feel the fog of sleep slowly leaving my mind as I geared myself for the day. While my brain was slowly waking up, my eyes remained firmly shut.

I had noticed that the sun was much brighter than yesterday. Even yesterday, the sun was a lot brighter than the one back home. I passed up my normal glasses in favor of my prescription sunglasses, both of which were thankfully in their case in my cargo pocket.

My lips smacked together, the fog had cleared enough that I could tell I needed something to drink. 'I got a canteen in my ruck.' I finally decided to open my eyes enough to look for my bag.

A few things were wrong.

With a jolt of adrenaline, I realized that I was no longer in the forest. That much was obvious. The room I was in looked to be at least a couple hundred square feet, and around fifty feet tall. The layout of the room was strange to me as well. The bed was situated in the far corner of the room, while a large tree dominated the center. There was a hole in the roof ten feet above the top of the tree to allow sunlight and rain in to sustain the tree. The base was surrounded by a multitude of river rocks. In the corner of the room opposite to the bed was a large waterfall, fed by a large grated tunnel near the ceiling. The rocks that made up the waterfall's face started at the very edge of the ceiling, and continued down until it reached a basin at the bottom. In the corner closest to me was a small door to what I assumed was a bathroom, hidden amongst a small mock up of a rain forest. In the last corner was a large set of double doors, banded with steel and lacking handles. The fact that there were no interior handles set me off immediately. This was an extra large cell designed to look like a small jungle.

The next thing that hit me was that I felt lighter than normal. Patting myself down, I came to the conclusion that they had emptied my pockets and removed my vests. I did not even have my boots. They were through enough to catch the razor I kept in the hem of my BDU blouse.

The last thing hit like a wrench to the face. My veins filled with liquid Freon and the entire world stopped for a moment. They had taken my ruck sack. That sack held one of the most precious things  in my life. I was not too worried about the Obrez, as I had bought it from my crazy Russian friend. The plasma rifle was cool and all, but I had no emotional connection to it. Even my phone was a nonissue compared to this.

They had taken my grandfather's 1911.

It had been my grandfather's best friend all throughout World War II, and it had first saved him on Juno Beach. It had followed him through France into Germany. The pistol had taken part in the liberation of no less than three concentration camps. It had saved him in Berlin, and had kept my family safe at home for three generations. The gun had seen its fair share of death. The pistol had been the only thing my grandfather willed to me, his Garand going to my father. Not only was it a piece of history, but it was also my only connection to my late grandfather in this insanity.

And they stole it.

I did not anger easily. It took a great effort to even make me mad. And even then, I take a while to get angry. But touching the 1911 was the fastest way to do it. The last person who mistreated the pistol knew this very well.

I felt the ice radiate from my very soul out to the tips of my fingers. My thinking became instantly clear. My heart beat leveled out, although it was much higher than normal.

I reached over to the bed and gripped the sheets. 'Silk. Perfect.' I knew exactly what to do. I ripped the sheets off the bed and got to work.

O0o0O

1 Hour Later

O0o0O

"I don't care, sister! We cannot let him roam Equestria!" Celestia had been digging her hooves in for over an hour, and Luna was getting fed up with it.

"Look, 'Tia. For the last time, he is not the type of human you know. He passed the dream test with far better results than even The Element of Harmony did! He is not a threat to anypony!" Luna tried to keep her voice from reaching epic decibel levels. "He is currently locked up in what amounts to a zoo enclosure with no knowledge of what is going on or where he is! He is an incredibly intelligent being, and will quickly figure out what is going on! The way he is being treated is inequine!"

"He is a human, Luna! You know, the beings that terrorized the world for over a thousand years and brought about the soul deaths of millions of innocents, including the souls of many of our friends, including Starswirl!" She immediately regretted the words as they came out, but did not show it.

Luna's face lost all signs of emotion. "Yes, they were responsible for Starswirl's death. That does not, however, mean that Gareth is anything like the humans I have faced. He is the only human I have ever met that would put himself in harms way in order to help me. He voluntarily ran underneath a young bunyip to save me. I do not know many ponies that would do that. I had been hunting him for hours, and he still was willing to help me. So lets try not to lump him in with the other murderous members of his species, alright?"

Celsetia felt terrible. She had not meant to bring up Starswirl. She knew that he was the only pony in Luna's entire life to want to be her friend just to be her friend. Even the ponies she associated with on a regular basis wanted the political benefits of being her friend. And she did have a point. She should not be as hard on him as she was.

"I'm sorry, Luna. That was uncalle-" Celstia was cut off by a loud banging at the throne room doors.

She had instructed her guards not to allow any distractions. There were notable exceptions though, like if Blueblood had caught fire again, or Canterlot was under siege, or something happened to the 'bald ape in the guest room'. Hoping for the first option, she telekeniticly opened the door.

There was a single solar guard. The enchantments on his armor masking his features, the white stallion ran up to the princess and bowed.

"Your Highness, the ape has escaped!"

O0o0O

I Hour Earlier

O0o0O

I had a plan on how to get out and get my granddad's pistol.

I had already identified how I was going to escape. The hole for the waterfall near the ceiling looked big enough for me to crawl through. But before I could even consider escaping, I needed a weapon.

I walked to the tree and grabbed two relatively flat river stones. I pulled up the sheet next to me and began smashing the stones together. I hit them at an angle, so to get a sliver instead of a chunk.

With a crack, the top of the stone in my right hand came off. Testing the sharpness by brushing it against the sheet, I was pleased when it cut. I cut four strips from the sheet, trying to get each only an inch thick. I was left with four very thin ten foot strips of white silk. I braided three together into a single long rope. Folding the middle in thirds, I tied the knots into it until a cradle was formed in the middle. I cut off the ends until I was left with a five foot length. I tied both ends so the braids would not unwind. Taking the last strip, I wove a basket in the center of the cradle, and cut the extra off. Finally, I tied one end to my left index finger, and tied a large knot on the other end.

My homemade sling was done. All that was left was to find some ammo. Thankfully the bottom of the pool at the waterfall was lined with gravel, so that part was easy. I gave the sling a few test shots and after a few minutes of pegging the bathroom door, I felt ready.

The waterfall's rocks were incredibly slick. There was a fair amount of moss built up on every surface. There were definite steps hidden away on the side though, presumably for maintenance purposes. Unfortunately having no boots on made this much more dangerous than normal. Every step had to be taken very slowly, and I even used my hands to help climb as well. If an outsider were looking on, they would have seen me imitating a cautious gorilla walking up a stair case.

I made it up to the top with only minor incidents, like loosing my footing and sliding a few steps down. I made it intact though. My plan then hit another snag. The hole was covered by a grate.

The grate was held in place with four bolts, one in each corner. I wedged the makeshift knife into where it was bolted onto the wall. It took some serious jimmying to get it in, but i managed to get it in. Using the other large rock, I smashed the first bolt open. I repeated this process with the other three bolts. My knife was pretty almost undamaged. I shoved the edge of the knife into one of the bolt heads and watched it sink in. Lead. As dangerous as the lead is, and how monumentally stupid it was to put it near flowing water, I could not dwell on it. I now had an escape route. Throwing away the now useless river rocks, I got on all fours and climbed in.

It was not too small for me to crawl through, but I would have to squeeze into the small space. Thankfully this was easy enough. I did not have issues with claustrophobia like my dad did. I squeezed in and slowly worked my through the tunnel. The water would pool around my armpits and flow back to normal. I slowly wormed my way through the cramped tunnel, and eventually reached a cavern.

The cavern contained an underwater lake that connected to the tunnel. The bottom lip of the tunnel just met the edge of the lake, and water falling from the top displaced the water just enough to make the water flow back in the room.

There was a lip on the other side of the lake. A small shelf of rock that I could stand on. I pulled myself out of the tunnel and into the main pool. It was only a couple of inches deep thankfully, so I waded over to the lip and examined the workstation in the back.

There was an extremely primitive lab. There was old time alchemy equipment laying around, cauldrons of unknown fluids bubbling away, and even a quill and parchment taking notes automatically. The shelves lining the walls held powders, liquids, and various other ingredients. There were a multitude of completed potions in small vials. There were four funnels, all of them labeled with images. One was a shower head, one a toilet, one a sink, and one a waterfall. The waterfall one just emptied out into the pool, the others had pipes that I could assume lead to the aforementioned locations.

It was at this point I realized that I had been captured for experimentation. They were putting things into the water supply in hopes that I would drink whatever poison they felt like serving me. I was glad that I had not actually taken a drink of water today. Wherever I was, I needed to get out.

I slipped through the door and got my first look at where I was. The lab opened to a massive hallway. The ceiling was at least 25 feet high, and there was a painting on practically every surface. Almost all of them depicted some pony or a group of ponies. Lining the floor was a series of statues, all of them varying in height and who it was portraying. At about twenty feet, the paintings stopped, and the windows began. They alternated between frosted white, and beautiful stained glass masterpieces. There were some that had other creatures, but I did not stop to admire the art.

I had no idea where I was, so I needed to find out. I sat in the shadows of a large statue in wait. I did not have to wait long thankfully. I did not see what walked past but I definitely heard them.

"Did you see the weird ape thing the Chief brought in earlier today, sarge? What do you think it was?" The voice was feminine, and sounded rather young. The voice was also speaking English for some reason as well.

There was an exasperated sigh from the other walking with her. "Look Tycho, I don't care what she brought in. I just know that she wants us to guard the things it had on it's person. That's all." The voice was also female, but sounded older and more mature.

The voices carried on for a while as they walked to their destination. I of course followed them. Making sure that my feet made no sound and I stuck to the shadows. They walked like this for a good half hour. My bare feet preventing me from making any noise when I snuck after them. I had no idea just how large this place was. The ponies moved fast enough that we had moved through at least a mile of hallways. We eventually reached a hall where there was only a single door at the end. The two moved to stand by the door, and I got my first real glimpse of them.

I was hiding behind a rather large statue when I braved a peak. They looked like the guards I had seen earlier, but with different armor. They were both female, but that was not what caught my attention. They both were pegasi, but different. Instead of the normal feathered wings, they had lathery bat wings. Thestrals. I do not know why they taught mythology in English class, but I was thankful for the lessons.

The Thestrals stood by the door with a blank expression on their faces, utterly unmoving. There was no way I could get anything of mine while they were guarding that door.

'I could cause a distraction if the threstals weren't looking straight at me. Think Gareth, what can I do to-' I never finished my thought, as there was a loud groaning-whining sound seemed to be emanating from the very walls of the castle.

This meant absolutely nothing to me, but it definitely got the attention of the thestral mares standing in front of the door. They began chatting and gesticulating wildly at each other, before one of them took off down the hall, completely passing my position.

That left me with one thestral between me and my stuff. This one was apparently the boot, as she looked decidedly nervous. The noise stopped after two minutes or so. It was just me and the boot now.

I still did not want to hurt her, as she had done nothing wrong. I needed a way to distract her. I was limited to a few options, one of which was running around and making myself look like an idiot, then hopefully shaking her and getting in. Not really a good plan. I could use the sling and knock her out, but that might kill her. I was getting frustrated.

I wiped my forehead of sweat, the stress was getting to me. 'Okay, Gareth. Think. You are balls deep in enemy territory, they have your most prized possession, and they think that you are some kind of eldritch horror.' My pep talk sucked, but it was enough to help me focus. I turned my head to get a better look at what I could do to distract her when the sun shown through the gap in the side of my sunglasses. Cursing, I averted my gaze.

That was it! I readied my sling and waited for the boot to look in another direction. When she eventually closed her eyes for a yawn, I loosed the stone. In a fraction of a second, the rock sailed through one of the frosted glass panels. With great crash, enormous shards of smokey white glass fell to the floor below, where they further crumbled. The glass must have been much thicker than normal, as it seemed to shatter in larger pieces.

That worked. The mare jumped at the sound and flew outside to investigate. Wasting no time, I sprinted to the door, and jimmied the lock open with a somewhat intact chunk of the thick glass. I dashed in and shut the door just before the mare returned.

I quickly turned to see if anyone was in the room. It was thankfully empty. The room looked almost exactly like the one by the pool of water, except this time, it had three workbenches instead of just one, and it had more ominous looking ingredients on the shelves than the first room. I could plainly see where they had put my things.

My ruck had been completely emptied, along with all pockets and plates from my vest. The things from my pockets were there as well. The items within were neatly arranged in orderly rows. The boots and socks were laying off to the side along with my sleeping bag, hat, and spare clothes. My rifle was on one of the workbenches, and the pistol and Obrez on another. The last workbench had a simmering cauldron surrounded by mangled rifle casings.

I rushed over to the pistol before anything else. I examined it thoroughly, even field stripping it. Thankfully, there was no damage or missing parts. The Obrez and plasma rifles were much the same. I quickly reassembled the pistol and repeated the process with the Obrez with the same results.

The third bench was a major source of disappointment to me. They decided to rip open over a hundred of my rounds for my Obrez, and dump them into a cauldron. That table was a total loss.

The last thing I had left to do was gather all of my things and get dressed. Packing was simple. I reorganized my ruck and satchel every week or so. So, in less than ten minutes, I was back in full gear, and ready to kick ass.

Now I just needed to get out, and get some answers. The thestral was still outside so leaving the way I came was out. So was through the windows, they were too far off the ground. Thankfully there was a way out.

The room had another air vent.

O0o0O

I had a much harder time moving through the vents. I had to tie my plate carrier vest, rifle, satchel, and ruck to my waist with the sling, and drag them behind me. I did however have my load baring vest on, as it was just a few pieces of heavy material stitched together. My pistol and Ka-Bar were drawn and pointing ahead, tunnel rat style. This made for much slower movement, but I was moving. I had been in the air vents for at least a three hours. This place was more massive than I had first imagined. My legs and arms were killing me, but I continued on. I was not looking for an exit. Instead, I was looking for a very specific pony.

Luna.

Knowing how I had been kidnapped and placed in this compound, it was fairly likely that Luna had been as well. She was the closest thing to an ally in this world, and I was not about to throw that away. Because of how massive this place was, looking for one pony was like finding a piece of hay in a needle stack. Long, arduous, and painful.

I had recently climbed up a large vertical shaft that seemed to go on forever. I had slipped and almost fallen to my death multiple times, but I had caught myself. That vent had lead to a yellow and white room, with nobody in there. And with it being the only vent this shaft connected to, I had to scoot my way back and slowly slide down the shaft.

My endurance pool was larger than everyone else I had come across from the survival training I did, but this level was ridiculous. I had gotten tired, but not enough to matter. I had been crawling for hours and was only sore and winded. I blame adrenaline.

The shaft had ended a few moments ago, and I could see the light from a vent below me. I had passed more of these vents than I could remember and seen some things I wish I could not. This one was much higher up in the air than the others. If this shaft was like the other shaft, this was the only vent. The room was the same size as the other, only blue and purple themed. This time I could hear hoofsteps. They eventually walked underneath the vent and I saw them for the first time.

I had found her. She was pacing, and looked angry and frustrated. Looks like she had been kidnapped  as well, and was looking for an escape route. I could get her one.

"Psst... Luna! Up here!" I whispered to her, not wanting to alert any guards that might be nearby. "I'm here to bust you out!"

Luna immediately looked up towards the vent with a glowing horn. She seemed angry. I was too, I had been kidnapped as well. Slowly the vent was moved away, revealing my face. She stepped back in shock.

"Gareth, is that you?! Where have you been?!" She yelled, her anger having evaporated, and instead looked relived and nervous at the same time. She must have been worried about me. Silly pony, getting captured is for kids.

"Shhh... Keep it down. We don't want the guards to hear us. I have been in the vents for a few hours looking for you. I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, but I got a bit lost." I shushed her. "Look, the vent is not the biggest in the world, but we can find a way to get out."

Just as I shifted to offer her a hand, the room's doors burst open. Twelve thestrals burst in, all of them armed. They had the shoulder mounted crossbows I had seen earlier, and a smaller, hoof mounted version.

I did not think, I just reacted.

I swore, and cut the line holding me to my stuff, and scrambled to the vent. I came out of the vent and promptly fell into an ungraceful heap. But I was back on my feet in a second. I had landed next to the navy mare, and quickly stepped in front of her.

"Go! I'll hold them off!" I shouted, brandishing my pistol and knife. "What are you waiting for?! Go!"

It was then I felt something impact my stomach. I looked down to the bolt protruding from my midsection with horrified fascination.