And now I wait for my coming execution. From what I can tell, they will finish the wedding ceremony before disposing of me. My dirtied hands tighten into fists in the darkness of my cell, eyes set in silent glare at the ground. After little thinking, I've decided to attack when the captain returns. Just wait against the wall so they approach, as he will most likely want to get one last abuse in before getting rid of me. Then, I will make sure to do as much damage as I can, as fast as I can. Even if I don't manage anything fatal, like breaking their neck, I hope that I do enough damage so they don't forget me.

I sigh, mist appearing at my mouth from the chilled air. I let my ears listen to the sound of wind filtering through the slit in the wall acting as a window. The dampness of the wall behind me sinks into the rags covering my torso and legs, making them stick to my pale skin.

Out of nerves, I rub the slight facial hair I've grown over the time spent locked away.

They must be having a huge party upstairs. Every so often, I hear deep rumbling, and the sounds of hooves running on hard floor. Then, I see a guard rush down the corridor beyond the metal bars of my cell, breathing heavily in exertion.

"Changelings have overrun the lower city, we need everypony to push them back!" He yells out before disappearing back down the corridor, the two guards sat at a table in a dent in the stone wall listening in alarm.

As the two guards go to stand up, the sound of an explosion rings my ears as dust and small rocks erupt into the air from the right. With me being in the cell at the farthest end of the corridor, I see the guards stand up with spears drawn as black shapes rocket from the newly-made opening.

The sound of combat fills my ears as the black shapes begin throwing themselves at the spear-wielding guards, green blood splattering out when a spear found its way into the abdomen of one of the invaders. Screeching it falls down and its dead eyes look into mine as the cracked black exoskeleton continues to ooze a lime-coloured gore.

They are insect-like in appearance, but share the same horse-inspired shape yet with similarly odd proportions. Their wings beat rapidly and lifeless blue eyes glare with little expression. One of them receives a blow by the shaft of a guard's spear, sending it stumbling into a spear rack. But because of the enclosed space, the spears tip over and one slides into my cell.

A guard looks over with alarm before having his attention taken by the advancing invaders. With an eyebrow raised, I reach out a dirtied hand and grasp the metal point of the spear gently, as to not cut myself. Before swiftly dragging the rest of the weapon to my person.

Blocking out the sounds of yelling and spears swinging, I begin driving the spear into the chain locking my ankle to the wall. Over and over, the spear point is brought down until finally the aged and rusty iron splinters on one link. Crawling away from the wall, finally free, I use my hands to push myself up into kneeling position.

I hear one guard shout to retreat, and their fleeing hoof-steps on stone inform me of their departure. With no guards left, and hopefully the invaders following them, I can begin my escape from this place. Finally standing up on shaking legs, leaning on the spear to support myself, I shuffle over to the cell door.

Bringing the spearhead down, over and over, on the damp-ridden wood of the door, I weaken it. Cracks start to appear in the wet and flaking wood, splinters and dust erupting from its surface. The spearhead chips on its point, but I keep bringing the hard steel down without hesitation.

With a resounding "crack", a splintered hole sends dust and splinters into the air, making me drop the spear to cover my face. As the sounds of wood hitting the ground dies down, I uncover my eyes and begin using the spear to press down on the wood below the gap. Eventually, the wood gives and the gap is spread wider.

Crawling my way through the hole in the door, splinters jabbing flesh not covered by the tunic, I fall onto the hard stone of the corridor's floor. Standing back up, feeling the freezing stone underfoot, I move over to the table the guards had abandoned. Looking it over, I see an untouched bowl of soup and bread, evidence of them not having time to eat before the attack began.

Quickly slurping the soup down and nearly forcing the bread down my throat, I gorge myself on the food I had been typically deprived of during my imprisonment. My aching stomach satisfied, I begin to look around.

"Where'd they put my stuff?" I ask, since I know for sure that I came wearing my own clothes. They kept asking whether the clothes I had on were some sort of military uniform. I'd rather wear something decent than this tunic made from some sort of sack.

Seeing another dip in the stone wall, a wooden crate seated on the ground within it, I shuffle over to it. Pulling back the bolt holding it shut, I pull out my old clothes. Hurrying, I tear off the tunic and replace my old clothing back onto my shivering body, rubbing the dust off them as I go.

Once dressed, I look myself over to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I now wear a light brown t-shirt with rough denim trousers of a deep blue colour. With plain white socks hidden by thick brown leather boots, I can finally walk these halls.

With heavy steps, I listen to the sounds of hooves galloping on the floor above as the invasion rages on. Stepping over the fallen, chitinous invaders, I keep my eyes glossing over the stone walls and wooden doors for some sign of an exit. Or at least some stairway to escape from this dungeon.

Suddenly, a gold and white form barrels out of a door to my side. I hit my back against the wall with a grunt as I push my hands out to shove away my assailant. Sliding off the wall and backing up, the form rights itself and turns, revealing itself to be a guard.

Bringing up my fists, I let the guard shake his head to dispel dizziness before he attempts to headbutt me. Swinging my body to the side, I grab around his neck and twist my body around so he loses his balance. With my grip still firmly on his throat, I shove him away and spin my foot in the air to collide with the side of his head, where is helmet doesn't cover. The leather of my shoe protects my foot from the edges of the helmet as it impacts with his head.

With a groan, he falls to the floor where I quickly jump onto his back. Spinning the dazed guard around, tearing the gold helmet from his skull, before I drive my fist over and over again into his cheek until he stops trying to swing back. With his chest still rising and falling rhythmically, proving he hadn't been finished off, I quickly back up onto my feet.

Breathing heavily, I look over to the now open door and look inside. I immediately see a fireplace and move over to the door. Halting myself outside the door, holding my breath, I listen for breathing within the room. After a tense minute of listening, I slowly shuffle into the room with my fists up ready.

Within, I see a similarly stone-walled room with a red and gold rug laying on the ground. Besides the aforementioned fireplace, only a wooden table and pair of chairs are left. But I notice, laying on the wall closely to the fireplace is a small axe, used for cutting logs for the fire.

Preferring anything to being unarmed, I hastily grab the handle of the axe, giving it a test swing before heading back out the room. The guard is still unconscious on the ground, so I grab them by their rear legs and drag them into the room. If it takes longer for the rest of the guards to notice the knocked-out guard, then they won't notice my absence as quickly.

With the axe's plain wooden handle firmly gripped, sharpened metal head glinting in torchlight, I keep on searching for an escape from this dungeon.

After a while of dead-ends and stairways, I finally reach a new corridor that lacks the plain stone and darkness I had known for so long. Here, the ground and walls is bright marble with red carpeting. Windows also inlay the walls, letting me see out at the carnage happening in the city. Buildings ablaze and swarms of the same insect-like invaders darting across the sky as magic and primitive projectiles aim for them.

"The hell is going on?" I ask out-loud to myself, letting my hand rest against the cooled window pane. Hearing muffled laughter coming from nearby, my head locks-on to a grander door across from me.

Eyes squinting into a frown, I twirl the axe in my hand and twist my head this way and that as I scan my surroundings carefully. I had thought to burst through the grand door to seek out the captain for some axe-delivered revenge. But with an invasion going on and no way to tell who is on the other side of the door, I let myself mull over my choices.

But as I look around, I find that the only doors are the one leading to the dungeon and the grander one. Sighing, I look at the door and wander towards it, axe handle level with my head as I ready to swing it down. Grabbing the handle, I tug against it but find it immovable.

"Locked." I exclaim, letting the handle leave my grasp.

Not one to be defeated by this, and with only this way to go in order to escape, I bring the axe down with a yell. The metal edge bites into the door's centre, but only leaves a small indent. Taking a step back, I swing harder at the same spot, wood chips flying off the impact zone as the axe head is buried deeper into the surface.

With a final roar of effort, the axe smashes through the wooden panel, my body almost falling forwards as I re-balance myself after the strike. With only a weakened wooden panel remaining, I continue hammering the axe against it before finally forcing my way through the gaping wound left from my attacks.

Stepping through the newly-made split in the door, my leather boots stand on the splinters I had created as my frantic eyes scan the hall around me. I'd apparently just made a very bad move.

Standing before me are rows of gaping mouths and startled eyes of many ponies, with a wider variety of colours than what the guards had from my imprisonment. More of the insect invaders are in this room as well, who all give their lifeless stare at me with teeth bared and heads lowered as they look up at me like wolves.

Grabbing the axe with both hands, I bring it level to my head again in a defensive guard. I hear more laughter, and turn my head slightly to look over at the source. Another bug stands on a slight rise at the end of the room, taller than the others with more distinct eyes. I grit my teeth at the annoying sound of the laugh.

"More unexpected guests?!" She exclaims whilst laughing, before turning to the right with a gasp.

I also look, and my eyes lock onto the captain. My teeth grit harder, almost painfully so, as my legs seem to work on their own. My vision narrows until all I can see is him, my boots moving across the ground as my axe raises. I go to run at him, but suddenly a pink sphere engulfs him with another pony-like shape inside.

With a roar, a blast of pink detonates and hits me. The light is nearly blinding, but I see through squinting eyes the insect invaders getting blasted more harshly, and being sent through glass and beyond. My skin tingles and burns at the light, making me worry that what had hit me was a fiery attack of some sort. But as the light fades, I stumble a few steps back and slouch into a wall, holding my axe with one hand as the other holds the wall behind me.

I feel nauseous after the blast, but soon right myself by pushing off the wall with axe in hand. With the attention of the crowd now off the leader of whatever invasion forced had just blew out the building, all they can look at is my axe-wielding, unwashed form.

The captain himself turns and looks at me, a look of surprise gracing his features before hardening. He turns to me, as the pink pony of similar size looks between me and him with confusion. My final words ring out within his mind.

"...but no matter what, I will have my revenge.

"Seize him!" He shouts, tinges of panic lacing his voice.

The guards struggle out of some sort of dissipating green ooze before grabbing spears and pointing them at me. But because of the short shafts the spearheads are attached to, the threat of my axe swinging at them is enough to keep them back. I shimmy against the wall with my axe held high.

The exit, a grand set of double doors at the far end of the hall is already guarded by a swarm of gold-armoured ponies rushing in. As I feel my bare neck press against cool glass, I quickly glance back and see the stained panels behind me. I quickly twist my head back and swipe my axe to make the spear-wielding guards step back.

If I stay, I'm captured. I can't escape through the door, as they will grab me long before then. I see the captain's horn begin to light up blue, signalling the start of a spell. I've been here long enough to acknowledge the magical capability that comes with the horns on some pony skulls.

What they don't anticipate, is my resolve. Back in my cell, I made my peace. Losing my life to end this madness of capture is perfectly acceptable by now. With a roar, I swing the axe wide and shatter the glass window behind me. Rather than dying at the hooves of these demons, I'd rather let gravity do the dirty work. Throwing myself in the same breath as the swing, I hear gasps as I launch through the shattered glass.

Falling...

The sound of air rushing past my ears greets me for just a moment before the resounding eruption of water rings out as I sink deep into a pond of water. The freezing cold liquid hits me, and I gasp just before going under. Gritting my teeth, I open my eyes in the clear blue and begin swimming up.

Gasping for air, I tread water as I swing my head this way and that. I scan around myself, finding I had fallen into a garden's pond. I stare up at the broken window, and a voice in the back of my mind screams for me to run. Adrenaline pumping hard, I throw myself through the water as I splash frantically, grabbing the bank and barrelling away.

Boots smash into the ground over and over as I run. I look back to make sure no one is following me, and I see none of the bright colours that are present on the ponies. Turning back my head, I focus on putting as much distance between me and the army of guards that will soon come for me.

Maybe I can survive long enough to escape.

Author's Note

Hopefully this was good enough for those of you viewing. It has been a while since I've written, I guess.

Thanks for reading.