Wind Song was torn from his involuntary slumber by the resounding bang of a reinforced door being slammed. A dull throbbing pain in his skull, token of what could have only been the source of his unconsciousness, asserted itself as he opened his eyes and he was instantly blinded by the light of a torch burning in its bracket on the stone wall opposite the cold jail cell in which he lay. His throat was parched and sore. Dozens of aches and pains came to life all over his body, including a particularly painful spot on his head.

He shivered violently with the cold of the stones he was lying on and, as he attempted to sit up to get a better view of whatever had made the loud banging sound, his body ached in protest of its poor treatment.

An ominous “clack, clack, clack” and the muffled creaking of leather armor echoed up and down the passageway outside his cell as the source of the clatter made its approach. The pegasus, unsure of what to do, lay back down upon the floor and again closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious. One eye, however, he left slightly open so that he saw the hazy outline of the enormous griffon which stepped haughtily into view, silhouetted black against the torchlight.

The creature stopped before Wind Song’s cell and, reaching out with one claw, hooked a ring of large keys, which chinked and chattered as he sifted through them. The griffon found the correct key and he inserted into the lock on the cell door, which opened with a loud groan.

Another pair of griffons, slightly smaller, stepped into view behind the first. They appeared to be dressed similarly, the edges of their brown leather armor being just visible as they stood beside the light of the wavering torch. They were carrying something between them. A soft, dark bundle of something...or somepony.

Wind Song’s heart began to pound as he realized what it was. The larger griffon took whatever the two smaller ones were carrying in one beefy foreleg, and heaved it unceremoniously into the cell where it landed a few paces from Wind Song and rolled over a few times, motionless. Wind Song felt a strong combination of panic and anger rise up within him.

“That’s the last of em.” said the smallest of the three griffons in a female voice that had a slight rasp to it.

“For the sake of your pathetic skin you better hope it is, Fuga.” came the angry, and unmistakably male reply of the first and larger griffon as he slammed the cell door. “You almost left that one to escape. And if that had happened, do you really think the mistress would have let you live?”

“What exactly did you expect, Somnus, you dick?” the remaining griffon, also male, replied hotly. “It was pitch black in there and you didn’t give us any lights!”

The largest griffon, evidently called Somnus, said with a growl, “Do you think that excuse would be enough to keep you alive if the empress lost one of these six just because you didn’t look well enough? Libertus, she knew all six were there, because that’s the only way they could have gotten into the shadow chamber.”

The smallest griffon, Fuga, looked shamefully down at the floor, “Maybe. I just don’t understand what we’re doing here, Somnus.”

Somnus brushed by Fuga and Libertus, barely avoiding igniting his feathers on the torch as he passed.

“You know what we’re doing here.” Somnus snarled. “We’re doing what’s gotta be done. Now, come on. We’ve got a few ponies from the royal guard who haven’t died yet that are owed a solid questioning.”

The two smaller griffons followed the larger out of view, Fuga trailing behind Libertus and dragging her lion’s tail on the floor dejectedly, though Wind Song thought he saw her spare him a momentary glance of sympathy. A moment later, the same loud sound which had woken Wind Song up in the first place rang throughout the stone room again as the door closed.

Immediately, Wind Song rushed over to the little dark figure lying on the floor. Several large feathers could be seen, sticking out from the others at odd angles over the sleek dark hair of its coat.

“Moonlight!” he whispered loudly as he sat down next to her and attempted to shake her into wakefulness.

The little midnight blue pegasus didn’t move, but this only served to stir Wind Song into giving her a more vigorous shake.

“Windy.”

The voice had come from behind Wind Song, who stopped shaking Moonlight and turned to see the dark form of Honeybell in the cell next to his own. The skin around the bedraggled mare’s left eye stood out in the stereotypical black and blue of a riotous bruise and half-dried blood had soaked the side of her head.

“Honeybell!” Wind Song exclaimed. “What’s going…”

“Shhhh!” Honeybell hissed urgently, lifting a hoof to her mouth. “You don’t want them to know we’re conscious yet, Windy.”

Wind Song responded, this time in a much lower voice, “Sorry. But why does it matter if they think we’re awake or not?”

Honeybell shook her head, “Because the longer we stay ‘unconscious’ the longer we get to live without being tortured and the more likely it is that we’ll all actually be conscious together. That’ll give us a better chance of getting out of here.”

“Tortured?” Wind Song asked with trepidation.

Another pony crept into the torchlight beside Honeybell. It was Orange Blossom, who was sporting a large bump above her left eyebrow, though she didn’t look quite so beaten down as Honeybell.

“Yeah. Didn’t you hear what that griffon, ummm...Somnus I think his name was...telling the other two about the royal guard ponies?”

The truth was, Wind Song had been so focussed on Moonlight that the exchange between the three griffons had gone largely unnoticed.

“Um...well, no.” he said. “And speaking of griffons, what’s up with that? Is Black Rose a griffon? I’ve never heard of them being able to use magic.”

“We don’t know.” echoed the voice of Willow from behind Honeybell and Orange Blossom’s cell.

Wind Song looked in that direction but the unicorn seemed to be completely enveloped in darkness.

“We think it’s more likely to be one of the Arimaspi.” said Snow Star from roughly the same direction as Willow. “After the griffons defeated their king when he tried to steal the idol of Boreas, the remaining Arimaspians were never heard from again. While they’ve been thought extinct for millenia, there’s no actual evidence to corroborate that theory or any stories that tell of how, or if, they actually died.”

“It just doesn’t follow that a race as powerfully magical as the Arimaspians could just vanish for no other reason than that their king was killed.”

“But what could they possibly want from us?” Wind Song asked. “And why would the griffons be working with them instead of against them?”

“We don’t know.” replied Willow and Snow Star in unison.

Honeybell and Orange Blossom also looked at each other, then back to Wind Song and shrugged. There were several moments of silence. An equine scream of pain echoed distantly from somewhere outside the door of their cell block. Apparently Somnus had held true to his word. Wind Song shivered, not entirely because the cold.

“Where exactly are we anyway?” he asked.

“Twilight’s palace, of course. In dungeon prison, cell block three.” said Willow.

Wind Song looked at, or at least in the direction of, the unicorn, amazed.

“How could you possibly know that?” he asked.

Willow let out a little whinny, “It was ages ago. Just after I graduated from the Academy of Magic, myself and a few of my fellow graduates were hired by the royal guard to reinforce several of the old lesser wards surrounding the palace dungeons.”

“You went to Twilight’s school?” Wind Song asked incredulously.

“Oh, no no. Nothing like that. I wasn’t nearly talented enough to get into Twilight’s school.” Willow said, an air of disappointment evident in her reply. “Our studies were more focused on brute-force utility than they were on delicacy.”

“We need to get out of here.” Wind Song said seriously, turning and looking back at Moonlight.

She had stirred and groaned. Wind Song immediately jumped up and ran to her side.

“I’m so sorry.” Moonlight said in a voice of profound melancholy, opening her great dark eyes and looking up into Wind Song’s worried face before closing them again. “I tried to get away with the scrolls. If I had been a little quicker, I could have gone for help.”

“No, no. You have nothing to apologize for.” Wind Song said comfortingly.

“Windy.” Moonlight said urgently, opening her eyes again and pushing herself into a half-sitting position. “They have the scrolls. That was our only hope for defeating Black Rose.”

“Then we’ll get ‘em back.” came the voice of Honeybell from over Wind Song’s shoulder.

Wind Song and Moonlight both turned to stare at the battered earth pony.

“And how exactly do you propose to do that?” replied Willow from out of the darkness.

“Willow, you said you know about the spells around this place, right?” Honeybell asked.

“Only the minor secondary and tertiary ones. The ones on these cells were placed by Twilight herself ages ago. I don’t even want to know what would happen if Snow or I tried to pick the locks on these cells with magic. Whatever it is, it wouldn’t be good.”

Wind Song cursed.

Just then, there came a quiet click at the dark end of the corridor outside the cells, followed by the faint creak of rusty hinges. The six ponies stiffened.

Quietly into the room stepped Fuga, the female griffon who had helped carry Moonlight into the room.

“What do you want?” growled Honeybell, none too kindly.

But, as the creature’s face came into focus in the torchlight, the expected cruel sneer of their captors was not present there. In spite of her cold reception, a look of deepest sympathy plagued her weary-looking features. Rather than speaking, she simply stared at them in silence, seeming to ponder the grim fate of her captives.

After several long moments held in silence, the ponies were beginning to wonder if Fuga would ever speak when she said unexpectedly, “You have information, information that Black Rose needs to complete her conquest of Equestria.”

Honeybell, who was still glaring at the griffon, replied, “Actually, y’all took that when ya bonked us on the heads a few hours ago.”

“The scrolls were blank.” Fuga said with an air of...was that triumph? “When my commander, Somnus, handed them over to Black Rose, she opened them and tried to read them, but there was nothing on them.”

The ponies’ eyes went wide.

Honeybell, still glaring angrily, replied, “And I s’pose y’all want us to tell ya what was on those scrolls, don’tcha? Well, I for one ain’t sayin’ a word. Not even if y’all…”

“Black Rose wants the information that’s on those scrolls.” Fuga interrupted. “Her powers are far greater than those of the strongest creatures of legend, Twilight, Celestia, and Luna included. If she wants that information from you, she’ll get it whether you like it or not.”

“So, ya just here to gloat then?” asked Honeybell sourly, sitting down hard on her haunches.

Wind Song, who had noticed that Fuga kept calling Black Rose by her name rather than “empress”, asked before the griffon could reply, “You don’t want Black Rose to get that information any more than we do, do you?”

The griffon turned one gleaming yellow eye to Wind Song and shook her head solemnly.

“So,” Willow asked from the shadows of her and Snow Star’s cell, “what she plans to do with the foals, sucking the magic out of them, that’s true?”

The griffon looked horrified, “She’s planning what?! I mean, I knew she was planning other things, but not that.”

“Other things?” asked Moonlight.

“When we, that is, Black Rose and the griffons, first arrived, we all knew that Black Rose wanted to capture Twilight’s power and take her place. While she was trying to subdue Twilight, she hinted that there was something else, and that once she found it nopony would ever question or challenge her. If she’s planning on harvesting ponies for magic, well, not even an army could stand against her.”

As Fuga made this last statement, she seemed to deflate. She sat down on the cool stones, her lion’s tail swishing back and forth.

Snow Star, however, perked up, “‘Trying’ to subdue Twilight? So Black Rose isn’t invincible?”

Fuga shook her head, feathers ruffling slightly, “Definitely not. She may have powers beyond any creature in the world, but she’s definitely not invincible.”

For the first time since they were captured, the six ponies felt their hopes rekindle like the radiant heat of a freshly ignited candle.

Wind Song asked, “So, why are you telling us this? And why are you here?”

Fuga looked straight at them, “Do you want to get out of here?”

The six ponies, who had been progressively leaning farther and farther forward toward Fuga without realizing it, all nodded vigorously.

Notwithstanding this sudden turn of their fortunes, however, Honeybell suddenly looked suspiciously at the griffon and asked, “Why?”

“What Black Rose has planned, what she’s doing...it isn’t right. Not even a mountain of gold can convince me otherwise.” Fuga paused, continuing in a regretful undertone, “I only wish the others of my kind could see that.”

The sincerity with which she said these words was what finally convinced Honeybell she was in earnest.

The earth pony mare nodded to the griffon, “Let’s do this.”

As though on cue, Fuga stood and said, “Great! I’m going back out to make some preparations. There are several hidden hatchways that lead out of the palace and down into the Crystal Caves, but most of them are in well-travelled halls and rooms on the other side of the palace. As far as I’m aware, there’s only one down here in the dungeons. It’s in the west wing, and the room it’s in is guarded.”

“Oh, perfect! The Crystal Caves!” began Orange Blossom loudly. “That’s where..”

Honeybell slapped a hoof over her mouth and said, “Hush!”

Fuga continued as though she hadn’t been interrupted, “I’ll distract the guard there but I’ll need all six of you to be up and ready to go quickly when I get back.”

The ponies nodded.

“Well, this ought to be the easiest jailbreak in the history of jailbreaks.” Honeybell said after Fuga left the room.

“I only hope she knows what she’s doing. I mean, you saw the size of that other griffon...Somnus I think. He’s huge!” observed Moonlight.

The six friends had been sitting in their cells for about an hour when the cell block door opened. They all stood, anxious but ready to be on their way.

The figure that stepped into view, however, wasn’t Fuga. It was Somnus. They all took several steps back. All except for Orange Blossom that is.

“Well well well.” he said superciliously. “Look at you all here, all ready for me.”

“Why are you here?” Orange Blossom said with a snort of derision.”

“O.B!” Honeybell whispered loudly, looking worried.

The gigantic griffon simply laughed, “Oh ho ho! We’ve got a live one, eh? Well, if you must know, the empress asked me ever so kindly to come down here and bring one o’ you upstairs for a little chat. Something about some scrolls, I think.”

Somnus looked directly at Orange Blossom and leered at the defiant but trembling white pony.

“I s’pose you wouldn’t mind going first.” Somnus said, drawing out the key to the Honeybell and Orange Blossom’s cell, unlocking it, and drawing open the door.

Wind Song had to give the two earth ponies credit. Honeybell and Orange Blossom both stood their ground valiantly, that is until one of Somnus’ massive rear lion’s paws came around suddenly and bashed Honeybell squarely in the chest, sending her flying into the wall at the back of the cell.

“Honeybell!” the others called, hurrying to the bars between their cells.

“No, noooo!” screamed Orange Blossom as Somnus casually reached out and grabbed the distracted filly by one hind leg and began to drag her toward the cell door.

Spewing obscenities, Somnus gave Orange Blossom a hard yank. She had reached out and, grabbing hold of the bars of the cell door with her front legs, hung on like grim death. It was a true testament to Orange Blossom’s strength that she was able to hold on for so long. In the end, however, Somnus was still the stronger contender and managed to pull her free. Orange Blossom screamed and fought, trying to get loose. Just as Somnus finally managed to get the thrashing filly wrapped under one arm, the door to the cell block unexpectedly opened again.

In the doorway, lit from below by the strange glow of an amber colored gemstone, was Fuga.

“Oy! Fuga!” Somnus bawled. “Give me a hand with this one. She’s a fighter.”

What Somnus didn’t seem to notice was that the glowing gemstone was embedded in the haft of a spear a yard long, and it was aimed right at the larger griffon’s chest.

“Let her go.” growled Fuga in a low voice.

“What? What the shit’s the matter with you?” Somnus asked angrily, seeing the spear for the first time. “You said you were watching the…”

“I said, let her go, sergeant.” Fuga said again, interrupting him.

Somnus seemed to think for a moment, then dropped the writhing Orange Blossom who scrambled to her hooves and rushed to Honeybell.

“Oh I’ll let her go alright. Right back to the empress she’s gonna go, but not until I’ve ripped out every last feather on your pretty head! Now, put that spear down before you hurt someone and follow your orders!”

When Fuga remained where she was, the cornered Somnus growled and rushed at the smaller griffon.

Without flinching, Fuga rotated the spear in her claw on its axis, at which the gem on its shaft flared to a blinding brilliance. She shouted one syllable in a language none of the ponies recognized and, with a resounding “crack”, the spear shot forward toward Somnus.

Somnus was quick, but before the griffon had made it halfway to Fuga, the glowing spear had already buried its full length in his chest.

The huge griffon froze in mid-air as though time itself had stopped. His eyes had gone wide with surprise as though he hadn’t expected Fuga to actually try to kill him. The spear still glowed blindingly bright within his chest, so bright that everypony could see the silhouettes of Somnus’ ribs and spine standing out against the brilliance of the surrounding translucent flesh, feathers, and hair.

It was over in a heartbeat. From the spot where the spear had pierced Somnus, the whole griffon went up in a puff of glowing ash and embers. The charred husk of a griffon’s skeleton was all that remained, smoking and smoldering on the stones of the cell block floor. The acrid stench of burning bone, flesh, and hair permeated the air of the small room and all present coughed loudly.

“Come on! Quick! Someone will have heard that!” shouted Fuga, hooking Somnus’ key ring with one claw from its owner’s ashes and releasing the six ponies from their cells.

“What was that thing?” asked Willow, who was helping to support the dazed Honeybell as Fuga guided them hastily along the dimly lit passages of the dungeons. “The spear I mean.”

Fuga replied breathlessly, “Invention of Black Rose or the Arimaspians. I’m not sure which. It uses magical energy stored in its gemstone to launch and guide it.”

“Magical energy?” Snow Star asked, looking fixedly at the griffon. “From where?”

“I’m not actually sure.” she replied, then she saw that Snow Star and Willow were looking steadily at her.

The realization seemed to strike her like a hammer blow.

“Oh.” she said, her eagle’s beak open in a griffon’s approximation of shock.

A couple minutes later, they reached a large open chamber. Torches gleamed in brackets on either side of a large entryway which was secured with a huge iron portcullis whose bars were each thicker than Wind Song’s hooves.

“How are we going to get through that?” Moonlight asked in dismay staring up at the intimidating structure.

“We’re not going through there.” replied Fuga, guiding them to a large model of a set of balanced scales.

“We?” asked Wind Song hopefully.

Fuga looked momentarily up at Wind Song.

“We.” she replied. “If you’ll have me.”

As one, the six ponies smiled and nodded to which Fuga responded with a glowing smile.

The brilliantly wrought sculpture stood on a stone plinth about a yard high, which Fuga began to push on with all of her strength. Pretty soon, Orange Blossom separated herself from the others and, with her prodigious strength. With a loud grating sound, the little pillar slid aside to reveal a dark, crudely cut hole, which opened into total blackness.

“Okay, now, follow me, and stay close behind me.” said the griffon when a sudden echoing clamor made her freeze with one hind food held stationary over the entrance. Shouts followed shouts in the distance, rebounding off of the stone walls of the dungeon. And they were getting closer.

Fuga grimaced, eyes going wide with fright.

“Change of plan! Once you get into the tunnel, follow it upward until you reach a bunch of side passages. Take the fourth passage on your right. That’ll get you back to the caves and out of the city without being noticed.” said the griffon urgently.

“Wait! What about you?” asked Orange Blossom.

“I’ll come down after you! Now go!”

One by one, each of the six ponies lowered themselves into the tunnel below the entrance and helped pull the others down. The voices and shouts were getting close now. Wind Song, who was the last to enter the tunnel, stood with his hooves braced on the wall of the entrance. The griffon, however, didn’t move.

“Fuga, come on!” Wind Song called to her.

Instead of climbing down, however, Fuga simply looked down at Wind Song and said, “It’s too late! They’re almost here! Go, save Equestria!”

Fuga then made a lunge for the pillar.

“No!” shouted Wind Song, but it was already too late.

With a bellow of exertion, Fuga gave the heavy pillar a mighty heave. As stone scraped against stone, the little light left in the tunnel was snuffed out, and the six ponies were left in darkness.

Author's Note

The Thorn of Equestria - Chapter 11

The Thorn of Equestria

Chapter 12

By Wind Song

REVISED 20JAN21