Starlight had been walking for hours with her captors, the shackles around her legs hurt and made it difficult to walk. She tried her best not to slow down for fear of being struck with a whip again. She looked back at the two dogs behind her, one was carrying her saddlebag while talking to the other. She hoped her herd would come looking for her, but at the same time she knew they were walking in the opposite direction. She tried to cast a spell over and over, but nothing was working the collar around her neck was stopping any magic she had from working. Starlight couldn’t help but think about how Sunburst was taken like this years ago, she should’ve never agreed to let him wander off from the herd back then. Instead the two of them went exploring and were ambushed by griffons, they’d grabbed Sunburst but were chased off before they could go after her. She wondered if this is what he went through, the fear of uncertainty, not knowing if she’d make it back to the herd ever again. A sudden tug on the chain around her neck broke Starlight out of her thoughts,

“Walk faster pony! Camps just ahead.” the Dog ahead of her shouted. Starlight looked to see smoke from campfires rising to the sky, a group of wagons and tents ahead on the horizon. Her heart froze, she looked back hoping that just maybe her herd would be there to save her, but there was nothing but her captors following close. The dogs marched into to their camp, Starlight looked around to see more Diamond Dogs, and griffons all over the camp. Large steel cages were everywhere each containing no less than three ponies each. Horrible as it was Starlight felt a little relieved that she didn’t recognize any of the ponies in the cages, a small bit of solace that she managed to keep them from finding Sweetie and the others. Starlight was led into the center of the camp where a large satyr was standing,

“We brought another pony for the cages.” the dog holding Starlight’s chain said. The Satyr turned and looked at the four of them, Starlight tensing up at his gaze.

“You idiots...were at capacity! We’ve been getting ready to head back to the capital for the last three hours!” he scolded. The dogs all became nervous by his anger,

“We can’t just throw her away, she’s one of the magic ones. That’s good bits we’d be wasting.” one of the dogs explained. The satyr stomped towards Starlight and looked down at her, Starlight wasn’t sure what he was going to do with her. Is he going to kill me? She thought, the satyr turned towards the diamond dog next to him.

“Throw her in with the beast we caught, its the only cage left with room. Worst case scenario it eats her and that’s one less problem.” he said. The diamond dogs nodded and tugged at Starlight’s chain making her follow them.

“The beast? What did he mean by that? Did you capture something bigger than a pony?” she asked nervously, her captors laughed at the fear in her voice.

“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough.” one taunted as they kept laughing.

They brought Starlight to a large iron cage with a thick tarp draped across it, one of the diamond dogs threw the tarp back revealing the door but still keeping half the cage covered. Two of the dogs grabbed Starlight and lifted her off the ground while unhooking the chain from her collar. She tried to struggle and get away as they brought her closer to the cage,

“Wait, wait, wait! I’m ok with being cramped in another cage with the other ponies! Honest! You don’t have to throw me in there!!!” she begged. They only laughed at how afraid she was and opened the cage door, quickly throwing her inside, she landed with a thud. She scrambled to get to her hooves but the shackles made it difficult by the time she stood up they’d closed the door and locked her inside.

“Have fun in there pony...” they said laughing as they walked away.

“Wait! Don’t do this! Please!!” she begged, a low growl came from the other side of the cage. She looked back to see a pair of white eyes glowing in the dark part of the cage the tarp was still covering. The a mass of blue flame erupted around the eyes giving Starlight a full view of the pitch black creature before her. She slammed her back to the cage, trying to back up and get away to no avail as it slowly started to approach her. She could feel the heat from the flames as it mover closer,

“Now I know what you’re thinking, should I eat the pony? And the answer may surprise you…” Starlight said nervously, the beast stopped just a few steps away from her its head tilting to the side in curiosity. Starlight closed her eyes and prepared for the worst,

“Wait...your a pony!” it said in a deep booming voice. Starlight opened her eyes in confusion,

“It can talk?” she thought, the creature sat down and instantly smiled at her. It closed it eyes and began to shake like a wet dog, the flames on its body disappearing and its black coat turning into a cream colored shade with green scales, the flames now a curly brown mane. A single brown horn on its head and a pair of excited yellow eyes looked back at her as it smiled,

“Oh my stars! You’re an actual pony, I can’t believe they finally gave me someone to talk to! I’ve been in here for days, I asked if they could put me closer so I could to talk to the others but they just ignored me of course. And it’s been so lonely here all by myself, but now your here and we can talk all we want. What’s your name? You have to tell everything about you, like where your from, and oh, just listen to me go. Hi! My name is Autumn Blaze and it so nice to meet you!” she blurted out before giving Starlight an eager grin. Starlight was dumbfounded, she was expecting to get eaten or worse not to have someone eager to talk. Autumn kept smiling back, she inched a little closer to Starlight excited to listen to what she had to say.

“...Oh, um...My name’s Starlight, Starlight Glimmer. It’s nice to meet you Autumn.” she said, finally loosening up and sitting normally at last. Autumn danced with excitement,

“Oh you have no idea how much I missed talking to other ponies!” she said hugging Starlight,

“I used to talk to my friends all the time back home, but then they kept losing their tempers and turning into Nirik’s. So they all decided to use the spring to keep from talking or losing their tempers so they wouldn’t destroy the village, but I didn’t want to stop talking because I like it so much. Of course then they kicked me out of the village and I decided to leave to look for other creatures to talk to. But then these guys grabbed me and I wound up here, but now I have you to talk to!” Starlight smiled, it was odd to meet someone so positive given the situation they were in she thought. Autumn stopped hugging Starlight and looked at her with a smile,

“So, how long have you been here?” Starlight asked, Autumn stopped to think.

“Not really sure, I think at least a week maybe?” she answered.

“Pack everything up!” a voice in the distance shouted, Starlight turned to see the slavers beginning to load the cages onto the wagons around camp.

“Oh no, they’re moving us...” Starlight whispered.

“Is that bad?” Autumn asked, Starlight looked back concerned.

“It is for me! My herd was heading north today! If they plan on taking us into the Empire’s domain I’ll never catch up to them.” she whispered. Starlight slumped over a sad look on her face, Autumn put her hoof on her shoulder,

“Hey, it’ll be okay. It might not be today, but I’ll help you get back to your herd. I promise.” she said. Starlight looked up with a smile,

“Thanks Autumn, you know. The last thing I’d thought I’d do in all this was make a friend.” she said. Autumn smiled and hugged Starlight again excited that she said they were friends.

Over the next few days the wagons traveled across Equestria, stopping only a few times. Starlight was becoming more and more disheartened the further they traveled, Autumn continued to stay positive somehow getting Starlight to smile when she could. As the days went on they were given the bare minimum of food, a few scraps of bread and small bowl of dirty water. A few times the slavers tried to move Starlight into another cage, but each time they tried Autumn would change into a Nirik and scare them away. At night the two would look at the stars in the sky, Starlight telling stories she’d heard about the stars and the “Mare of the Moon” who made the skies light up at night. Autumn was always eager to listen, but she enjoyed talking and asking Starlight about herself more. Two weeks of travel had passed, the slavers stopping to rest for the night.

“Autumn...you think we’ll ever get out of here?” Starlight asked, Autumn smiled her enthusiasm still strong.

“Of course we will. And then we’ll run back north or whatever direction we need to, and I’ll get to meet your herd! And you can go propose to Trixie, like you wanted! It’s going to be so exciting!” she replied, Starlight smiled, she wasn’t sure if she believed Autumn’s words but it made her feel better that Autumn believed it. The two lay close to one another, the night was cold but Autumn was always warm at least. Starlight started to fall asleep when she heard screaming coming from behind her. Autumn and Starlight turned to look, it was difficult to see with only a few campfires to provide light. But they could see fighting happening between the slavers and an unknown group.

“The rebels are here!!!” a voice shouted, a blue explosion of magic caused a wagon to turn over as a group griffons and hippogryphs swooped in to attack the slavers.

“What’s going on?” Starlight asked,

“I don’t know! Are we being saved?” Autumn asked. Slavers ran past Starlight and Autumn’s cage fleeing from the attacking rebels, a blue blast of magic flew through the sky and struck the ground nearby turning the cage onto its side. Starlight looked up to see the door was broken, she smiled and told Autumn.

“Come on! If we work together we can get out!” she said, Autumn and Starlight turned their backs and began to kick the door furiously with their hind legs. The door swung open the lock flying off from the force, Autumn held the door open and waved for Starlight to escape. She scrambled through the door and fell to the ground, she opened her eyes to see four hooves in black armor in front for her. She slowly looked up and standing in front of her was a purple pony wearing matching black armor. Her mane was a bright shade of red, a scar over her eye, a broken horn, and green eyes looking back at her. She smiled back at Starlight and asked,

“Going somewhere?”

Author's Note

Chapter 2 done, writing Autumn excited is hard though. It's tricky trying to figure what she'll say during an excited rant. Definitely need to thank youtube for so many videos of her, really helped out. Also decided to throw in another underused character as well, though it won't be until next chapter that she really has any impact. I'll try and get another chapter up as soon as I can. Let me know what you think and leave some comments.