"i don't need your help!"

After Icy, Cherry, and Middy had finally entered the town Icy decided to take a look at each alleyway to check if it was safe enough to sleep in and after she had found one she led Cherry and Middy to the middle

"This one will do, you can let go now Cherry." Icy said and Cherry nodded then let go of her tail and sat down

Middy looked around the alley "Are you sure this place is safe?" she asked

Icy nodded "Of course it is, trust me, I had a lot of time to tell safe places from bad ones and this is a safe place." she said

"Alright, I guess I'll trust you." Middy said

Icy sat down "We should get to sleep, we have a big day ahead of us if we want to find something to eat." she said

"I'll see you both in the morning." Cherry said as she laid her head down

"But you can't see Cherry." Icy said with a smile

"Hardy-har." Cherry said then she closed her eyes "Goodnight you two." she said then he drifted off to sleep

Icy giggled a bit "Goodnight Cherry." she said then she looked over at Middy and wondered why she wasn't laying down but then it hit her "Oh right, you're a bat pony, what are you going to do since you can't sleep?" she asked

Middy shrugged "I don't know, usually I would just explore the woods I was living in but since I'm here, I might as well explore the town." she said

"Alright, try not to get in trouble, we need some kind of food so we have to stay for as long as we can." Icy said then she laid her head down and fell asleep

"I won't." MIddy said ten she spread her wings and flew above the town

Middy flew around the town and explored every inch to make sure she didn't miss anything in case it was important to her or the others and while flying she spotted a cave inside of a rocky mountain but the cave looked like it was well built with pillars holding up the ceiling so she took a step inside to take a look around but inside the cave were chains attached to the wall and some pickaxes lying beside multiple rocks on the floor and when Middy picked up the rock she noticed it wasn't a rock at all, it was a gem, they were all broken gems

"Why would somepony mine gems? as far as I know, gems are used for making dresses pretty and dragons use them as food, what other kinds of uses could they have?" Middy questioned but then she heard voices coming from behind her so she quickly hid behind a rock

"How is our deposit looking?" one of the voices asked

"It seems we're down by six percent, ever since those five other ponies escaped we haven't made as much." the other voice said

the first voice groaned "No, this is unacceptable, every coin counts here and I will not a single bit slip through my hooves, go out and find more ponies, bring me fillies and colts if you have to I don't care, just get me back my lost bits!" he yelled and as he was talking Middy tried to get a good look at them but ended up kicking one of the gems which alerted both of them as they looked around "Somepony's here, find them and don't let them escape." he said

"That's my cue to leave." Middy whispered then she heard hoofsteps coming closer and tried to back up but found that the wall was keeping her from doing that so she took a deep breath and as soon as the pony came from around the rock she screeched at him and stunned him and quickly took this chance to make a run for it

Middy flew as fast as she could out of the cave but when she finally made it out she was suddenly wrapped up by a rope but the rope didn't cover her wings so she tried to fly out of it and when she looked back she saw a stallion who had a gray mane and tail who was also an earth pony and he had a good grip on the rope

Middy struggled to get out of the rope "Hey, let me go!" she said

"No way, this is my first time seeing a bat pony, with strength like yours, you'll be perfect for my mines." he said

"Alright buddy, you asked for it." Middy said then she turned around and grabbed the rope then she pulled as hard as she could which ended up pulling the stallion with him then she swung him around and threw him back into the cave and once he was gone she took the rope off of herself "I gotta get back to Icy and Cherry, we've gotta get out of here and fast." she said then she flew off back to town and to the alleyway where Icy and Cherry were sleeping

Middy quickly ran to Icy and shook her violently "Icy, wake up, we need to leave." she said

Icy slowly opened her eyes and looked at Middy "Middy? what's going on? why do you look so scared?" she asked

"No time to explain, we have to leave town, now!" Middy said then she ran over and woke up Cherry

Icy stretched as she stood up "But we can't leave, we still have to get enough food for the next trek." she said

"The food is gonna have to wait, we have to leave." Middy said as she picked up their bags and slung them over her back

"Wait, what's going on?" Cherry asked

Middy grabbed Cherry's hoof "No time to explain, we need to leave before they find us." she said

"Before who finds us?" Icy asked

"Us." a voice said behind Icy and once she turned around she saw multiple stallions standing in a group

Icy backed up "And who are you?" she asked

"Your future boss, as soon as I capture you and your friends then we'll have more bits than we'll be able to fit on our hooves even if they were put together." the stallion said

"Boss? we can't work for you, we're only fillies." Icy said

the stallion stepped forward "Now that's where you're wrong, filly or even colt, the way I see it, work is work and bits are bits, so get over here so we can put you and your friends to work." he said

Middy trotted beside Icy with Cherry "Now would be a good time to use your magic to get us out of here." she whispered

"It sure would." Icy whispered back

"Why aren't you using it then?" Middy asked

"Because in case you forgotten, my horn is broken which means my magic is very unstable right now, I can only cast one spell before fainting from exhaustion, and I already did that when Cherry and I came here now we have to wait until my magic is replenished enough so I can cast another spell." Icy said

"Unicorns, typical, do you think you can cast one without it being fully replenished?" Middy asked

"I tried once." Icy said but she shook her head "But it ended up having some bad side effects for me, I have no idea what it'll do to you two, it's too risky." she said

Cherry put her hoof on Icy's shoulder after feeling around for a bit "It's a risk we have to take Icy, do it." she said

"Hey, what are you three whispering about over there?" the stallion asked

Icy looked at both Middy and Cherry then nodded "Alright, here's the plan, Middy lift us both up and take us back to the woods, once there I'll prepare the spell and since the woods are so confusing it'll take them a while before they can find us and by the time they do, we'll be long gone." she said

Cherry had a surprised look on her face and so did Middy "Wow, this must be one of those moments where one of your ideas is actually a good one." Cherry said

Icy narrowed her eyes at Cherry "I'll just ignore your comment and move on." she said

The stallion stomped his hoof "If you're done talking we have work to do, or more on the lines of you have wor to do and I have bits to count, so let's get moving." he said

"I don't think we'll be doing any work at all." Icy said which made the stallion look at her confused "MIDDY, NOW!" she yelled then Middy flew up, and both Icy and Cherry held their hoofs up which allowed Middy to grab them and fly both of them into the air

"STOP THEM, BRING THEM DOWN!" the stallion yelled then the other ponies chased after them as they flew into the forest

Middy flew through the forest and took multiple turns to make sure to confuse the ponies chasing them and after another turn, she finally stopped and slowly let Cherry and Icy down "We're safe, now let's get out of here." she said

Icy nodded "Okay, I want both of you to stand still and be prepared for anything, I only did this once and that was two days after I teleported another time, it hasn't even been a day since my last teleportation so be warned, the risk we're taking is extremely high and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, we might die." she said and she saw the worried looks on both Middy and Cherry "Are both of you sure you still want to go through with this?" she asked

Cherry and Middy's faces both turned to a determined one and nodded to Icy and she nodded back then she focused on her magic and her broken horn started glowing again as did Middy and Cherry then right before thy teleported the stallions came through bush and the main stallion gasped then Icy, Middy, and Cherry poofed away

"NOOOO, MY MONEY MAKERS!" the stallion shouted

once all three of them reappeared they found themselves in the middle of a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere so Middy tired to look around for something but couldn't see past the snow

"Icy, where did you send us? I can't see a single thing." Middy said but when she didn't get an answer she looked back only to find out that Icy was nowhere to be seen and neither was Cherry "ICY! CHERRY! WHERE ARE YOU?!" she yelled

Cherry tried to listen for her fiends but found she couldn't hear over the snowstorm "ICY! MIDDY! WHERE ARE YOU?!" she yelled

Icy was lying in the snow unconscious and wasn't moving at all

Middy continued to look around "I need to find them, we can't stay out here for long, we'll all freeze." she said then she spread her wings and flew just above the ground and went off to search for her friends

Cherry continued to try to listen for them but still couldn't hear over the snow then she shivered a bit "I can't stay here, I just need to pick a direction and stick to it, just like before." she said then she started trotting in a random direction hoping it would either lead her to a town or her friends

A group of soldiers walked through the snow "This seems to be the place where the magic was felt, what do you want us to do captain shining?" he asked

Shining armor walked forward and looked around "Spread out and look for what could cause the magic disturbance." he said and the soldiers saluted then they all walked around looking for something

"Sir Shining, I think I found something." one of the soldiers said and Shining walked over to see a filly buried in the snow and when he checked her with his magic he found she was barely alive

"Quick, we need to get this filly back to town as fast as possible." Shining said then he used his magic to levitate the filly and put her on his back "Let's get moving." he said then he ran as fast as he could back to the crystal empire