Scouting ahead from behind a rock, Sunset spotted a prison heavily guarded by dragons, griffins, and yaks.

"How are we gonna get inside?" Starlight asked while surveying the area.

"I have no idea. This place is thick with guards and for all I know, a huge dragon can pop out at any moment." Sunset answered while touching her horn.

"Can't you use your horn? You seem to be more skilled at this than I am." Starlight asked as she hid back behind the rock.

"I would, but in case you forgot, my horn isn't working properly on account of the ooze trying to infect my body." Sunset responded as she pointed at her horn.

"Then how are we gonna get inside? We can't just sneak around and hope we don't get maimed on sight." Starlight asked before looking around the vicinity.

"Well, you were Twilight's top protege. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Sunset said in a condescending tone.

"You were the one who was sent to search for the Elements of Harmony. Shouldn't you have a plan for this sort of thing?" Starlight countered.

"Ssh! Hold on. Did you happen to hear the creatures while we were arguing?"

The two peeked from behind the rock and noticed that creatures were dead. It appeared that while the two were arguing, an unknown party managed to take out the creatures. They had no idea who took them out, but they needed to remain diligent.

"Are you two okay?" an unknown voice asked, startling the duo.

They immediately turned out to be none other than Tempest Shadow.

"Tempest? Oh, thank Celestia! You made it! How are you?" Sunset said, immediately hugging her friend.

"It was chaotic back at the Crystal Empire. They were monsters everywhere, ponies were dying, and Twilight and her friends were nowhere to be seen. I thought for sure I wasn't gonna make it. But now we're here…" Tempest explained as she looked at her surroundings.

"Didn't we meet near the infirmary? How's your friend?" Starlight asked, having not noticed Grubber's presence.

"Grubber? He's gone…" Tempest said with sadness in her voice.

"We're sorry to hear that. Hopefully, he's in a better place now." Sunset said.

"Hmm. Is there any reason why you're here?" Tempest asked as she looked at the compound.

"We're trying to figure out where Cadance and the others are being held. We were going to sneak around, but it seems you already did the job for us." Starlight explained.

“What are you looking for? Now that the Crystal Empire is gone, there’s nothing really worth fighting for now. The least that I’m doing is seeing how much longer I have left until I get eaten or worse.” Tempest asked while looking at the compound.

“We’re trying to find our friends and Princess Cadance. Did you happen to see them come here by any chance?” Sunset asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think the princess would be imprisoned here. Your friends are a different story though.” Tempest answered.

“I guess we’ll have to see for ourselves then…” Sunset said as she walked forward.

Throwing aside whatever fear they had left, Starlight and Tempest joined Sunset and went to the front door of the compound. Entering inside, they looked around their surroundings and saw nothing but dead ponies attached to various torture devices. Their entrails were spilled, their guts were hanging, and their bodies were severely mutilated.

“Dear Celestia…” Starlight said as she recoiled in horror.

But before they could take in the atmosphere, Tempest pulled the two unicorns behind cover so that they couldn’t be spotted by any of the creatures in the vicinity. But Starlight couldn’t get the awful images out of her mind. The sight of all the mangled ponies were enough to make her puke. To her, it was nothing short of a room of sadism and death. She wanted nothing more than to leave the compound. But before she could run out and vomit her guts out, Sunset and Tempest stopped and held her down. They even went so far as to keep her mouth closed from making any sort of noise.

“I know it’s too much for you to take in, but our friends need us and we need you to keep your lunch in until we leave. Got it?” Sunset said while keeping her friend’s mouth closed.

Starlight gave her a forced nod and the two let her go. Starlight swallowed her fear and made sure not to look at the corpses. The trio kept their heads down and proceeded to move forward. Moving through the entire prison, they spotted various ponies along the way deep into the prison and most of them were either dead or waiting to die. As much as they wanted to help them, they didn’t have the keys to help them. And even if either Sunset or Starlight used their horns, it would only draw attention to the guards and they would have to flee. Either way, it was hopeless to save all of the prisoners.

“I wonder if any of them are down there?” Starlight whispered as she snuck around, referring to their friends.

“They would have to be somewhere deeper. Guess we’ll just have to keep going.” Sunset whispered in response as they moved.

The trio continued to move forward and head deeper into the prison without drawing any attention to themselves. But everywhere they went, the prison sections were thick with torture devices and guards were around every corner. But somehow, not one seemed to have spotted them. For all they knew, it was probably a trap. But they couldn’t risk it and just kept going. Heading deeper, they heard loud coughing in one of the cells.

“Did you hear that…?” Sunset asked as she listened to the coughing.

“I did too. It’s gotta be over there.” Starlight said, pointing to the left direction.

The trio turned left and the source of the coughing was in the far corner. Sunset went forward and peered through bars to see who it was. To her surprise, it turned out to be none other than Applejack.

“Applejack…?” Sunset said in disbelief.

Starlight and Tempest shoved Sunset aside to get a closer look at Applejack. Upon seeing her, she appeared to be weak and unwell. Her hat was completely torn apart, her mane was completely messy and unkempt, and her body seemed to be light and shriveled up due to the lack of nutrition and water.

“S-Sunset…?” Applejack weakly said as she tried to get off the ground.

“We’re here, Applejack. We’re gonna get you out.” Sunset said.

“Where’s Apple Bloom?” Applejack asked, filled with worry and grief.

“We don’t know. We can find her, but first we-” Starlight said before being cut off by Applejack.

“I appreciate your good intentions, but I ain’t the priority anymore. You have to save my little sister.” Applejack insisted.

“We will, but we-” Sunset said before being interrupted as well.

“No. Starlight, I ain’t got much longer before this ooze picks up on our conversation, so listen up. I have been made a liar out of for the longest time and all that it’s done is eating away at my heart. I haven’t a clue about that dragon was talking about, but I don’t know anything about setting him up.” Applejack confessed.

“Set up? What are you talking about?” Starlight asked.

“Starlight. Whatever happened back at Twilight’s castle, I had no involvement in what happened and as far as I can tell, we were all duped.” Applejack said.

“Applejack, we can’t help you if you keep us in the dark like this. Tell us.” Sunset said.

Just then, Applejack’s heart started beating at a rapid pace.

“Oh no…” Applejack said in a scared voice.

“What? What’s the matter?” Sunset said as she tried to get the cell door open.

“He knows where you are…” Applejack said as she struggled.

“Don’t talk. Just wait.” Starlight said as Sunset and Tempest tried forcing the cell door open.

Applejack tried to speak more, but she could hardly muster the words. She knew that her time was going to be up any second. But before she could succumb to her natural causes, she tearfully said,

“Save… Apple… Bloom…”

With that said, Applejack fell to the ground and passed away. The trio stopped struggling and just looked at Applejack in a state of mourning and defeat.

“You don’t think…?” Starlight implied as she looked at Applejack’s fresh corpse.

“No. Whether they’re dead or alive, we have to find them. There’s no turning back.” Sunset said, trying to hold back the tears.

“We need to get moving, Sunset…” Tempest said as she heard the guards approaching.

The trio immediately started moving and went deeper into the prison block, proceeding to look for Apple Bloom on behalf of Applejack’s dying wish.

Author's Note

Since I am almost done (two chapters left), I will be publishing every two days per chapter. It's been around two and a half years since I started this story and I couldn't have gone through any further without your support. I'm proud to call this one of my greatest works and I hope that the next story that I write will blow your socks off. Anyway, I rambled on long enough. Enjoy the chapter.