Author's Note

Sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy.

Also, author's note. I changed Ponyville's name to be Ponyshire throughout the story.

10 - Escape Pt. 1

Cadance…she had come here somehow…that was throwing me for a loop, to be honest. Not wanting to worry her, however, I just reached my hand out of my cell and waved. “Nice to meet you, Cadance. My name is Blueblood.”

Cadance gasped from her cell. “Prince Blueblood of Canterlot?!” she asked in surprise.

I nodded automatically before remembering that she couldn’t see me. “Yes, that’s me,” I said, “and I’m here with Princess Zecora, a zebra royal from Farasi.”

“Wow…how did you two come down here?” Cadance asked.

In short, I explained what had happened, but left out some key details since I wasn’t sure if we were being listened to. I told her exactly what I told this Queen Dawn Star, nothing more and nothing less. “And that’s how we arrived here,” I concluded.

Cadance was silent for a bit, then she quietly replied, “Sounds like what happened to me…”

“What do you think they want from us?” Zecora asked from her cell.

I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t know,” was all I could say. And truth was, I didn’t know. I couldn’t think of any reason why they would keep us locked up here. I didn’t have enough information to work on. “Still, we need to work on getting out of here. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure my aunt and Zecora’s family will overturn every stone in Canterlot to find us, and if they find out we’ve been imprisoned here, well, say goodbye to Silver Sanctum.”

“Mother and Father wouldn’t be very happy,” Zecora agreed.

“But how do we get out of here?” Cadance asked.

I didn’t have an answer. I looked around the cell block, looking for anything that we might be able to use. I could use my magic in the cell, but if I tried moving my magic outside, it didn’t work. My mind was working overtime as I tried my best to come up with a solution. “Let me think a bit,” I said as I lowered myself down onto the cell floor. I returned to the bed and sat on the edge, staring out at the little bit of cell block I could see from the barred window in the door. We all sat there in silence for a bit, all thinking. I was seriously at a loss for what to do. I went back over the basics one more time. Our biggest issue was getting out of the cells, obviously. I began thinking back on all that I had been taught by Aura about what kinds of objects could block magic and whether there were ways around it. I remembered three big ones in one of her lectures.

The first way to block unicorn magic was with black water, a type of liquid that, when thrown on a magical creature, could block their magic until it evaporated or was washed out, which took a while. If someone swallowed black water, their magic wouldn’t work until it left their system, so it was used to keep the most dangerous of Canterlot’s prisoners hydrated since it wasn’t toxic aside from that.

The second way to block magic was by using a rare high concentration of iron called high iron. Normal iron didn’t block magic, but high iron definitely did. Magical nullification rings made of high iron were placed on the fingers of some of the deadliest criminals in Equestria while they were imprisoned as an extra security measure against escape.

The third, and the likeliest source in this cell, was nullstone, a black rock that looked a lot like obsidian. I looked around and saw that embedded in some of the stones were black rocks. Nullstone didn’t need to coat the entire wall to be effective since it also lined the walls of Canterlot’s dungeons. It was a powerful ore.

It was also brittle if it wasn’t used correctly.

Curious, I walked up to the nearest hunk of nullstone embedded in the normal stone walls of my cell. I dug a fingernail into it and scraped. To my delight, small flakes of black powder came off, landing on the floor. The nullstone in the Canterlot dungeons had been prepared correctly. Here, in Silver Sanctum, they weren’t. I looked around for something to scrape with instead of my nail. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything.

At that moment, I heard a large metal door opening from outside. I walked over and lifted myself up to peer outside, only to be greeted by the stern face of a eutherian guard. He glared at me, then slammed his fist into the door. “Get down from where, whelp!” he shouted. “Meal time!”

I let go of the metal bars and backed away from the door. A small sliver of light came from a meal slot at the bottom of the door. A stone platter came through the door with some kind of brown bread on it and a bowl with some kind of steaming stew in it. The slot closed and I heard the guard open other slots to shove the food in. “Eat up,” the guard said, “this is your only meal for the day.” And with that, he left, slamming the door behind him.

Curiously, I approached the tray and picked it up, taking it to the bed. The stew smelled pretty foul, and I could even see bits of meat in there. The bread smelled somewhat better, but it still didn’t smell all that appetizing. It was just then that an idea came to mind. I looked at the platter and found that there was a clay spoon on it. I picked it up and went back to the nullstone I was looking at earlier. To my delight, the spoon helped to scrape the stone away faster. A part of me felt like Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo, scraping away at the stone. Eventually, I did manage to remove the stone, letting it fall to the floor. However, the feeling of success was short lived when I looked around to see that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of nullstones buried in the wall itself. I figured that if the guards found the clay spoon missing, they might be suspicious.

That was when another idea struck. Taking inspiration from The Count of Monte Cristo again, I poured most of the foul-smelling soup down into the toilet hole, but not before putting a bit of the stew on the spoon to make it look like I’d eaten it. I did have to force a bit down just in case they tried smelling my breath. I almost gagged, but with the help of some water it went down without me regurgitating it. Then, I held the clay bowl up and took a few steps back. I faced the toilet and took a few steps towards it. I pretended to slip and then dropped the bowl. To my delight, it shattered on the floor, leaving bits and pieces of the clay bowl everywhere along with small bits of clay. My luck held out even more as the piece nearest to the toilet looked sharp enough to be used as a knife if need be.

Just then, my luck ran out. I heard the dungeon door opening. “Hey! What was that noise?” the same guard called in from the door.

I stood up and scrambled towards the piece of clay near the toilet hole. Not knowing what else I could do, I kicked it into the hole, letting it fall into the nasty sludge. I turned to the door just as it was flung open. The guard looked around and then saw the broken bowl. He glared at me with hate filled eyes. “What did you do?!”

I looked down and then looked back up at the guard, “It slipped and I dropped it,” I said simply.

He groaned, then pointed to the corner of the cell. “Stand over there and don’t move!” he ordered. I did as I was told and watched him pick up the shards of hardened clay, holding them in one of his wings. He would look up at me every so often, making sure I didn’t move. Finally, he’d grabbed everything else, stood, and strode to the door. “Lights out soon, brats,” he said to us as he closed and locked the door to my cell. “You know the rules, pegasus whelp. Tell them.” With that final statement, he left the room.

I lifted myself up again and looked out of my cell door window, my eyes adjusting to the darkness around us. “What did he mean, Cadance?” I asked.

I heard shuffling from her cell, then Cadance replied, “There’s no talking at night. If they hear you talking too much, you don’t get any meals for the next day. They want us to be quiet.”

I scowled, looking back at the room where I would be sleeping. I knew I wouldn’t be able to see anything soon, so the time to act was now. I rushed over to the toilet hole, took a breath, held it, and peered in. There was nothing but darkness. I held out a hand, casting a simple light spell that illuminated the hole. I almost threw up at what I was seeing, but I kept it down. Using my other hand, I lifted the piece of clay out of the toilet and placed it on the ground gently.

It was none too soon, as well, because moments later, I heard a gruff voice calling, “Lights out! Keep your traps shut or no food tomorrow!” The lights above our cells and outside dimmed and went out, leaving us in total darkness. “And no magic casting from you, unicorn whelp! I see one light or hear something being cast, no food for two days!” With that, I heard a door slam and footsteps walking away.

Frowning, I crawled on the floor towards the piece of clay. My hand touched it, and I gagged in response. There was still fecal residue on it. Swallowing the bile rising in my throat, I picked it up, wiped it off with my handkerchief which had miraculously not been taken, then began feeling around for a stone. I decided to go for one near the wall separating me from the outside, and found one in a corner to the left of my cell door. I spent a while scraping at the stone, feeling around for the shards that came off and dumping it in the toilet hole before continuing. It didn’t take me too long, but eventually I had the entirety of the stone out from the wall. There were more normal stones behind it, but that didn’t matter. I placed the carved out stone in the toilet hole, then quietly moved the table over to the corner to hide my progress.

I realized that my body felt exhausted. Nullstones did diminish ones ability to use magic so I decided to sleep and recover my strength. I placed the clay shard under my pillow and got into bed. It wasn’t my bed at home, far from it, but it would do until we got out of here.

As I lay there, my thoughts drifted back to my home. I wondered how Spike was doing. I wondered if he missed me or anything. He was probably worried sick since he tended to crawl out of his own bed most nights and snuggle up next to me, especially if he had a nightmare. Perhaps someone told him a little white lie to ease his fears. I figured that Aunt Celestia was working overtime to figure out just what had happened to me. If Zecora’s parents were like my aunt, they’d be doing the same. I just hoped that there wouldn’t be any bad blood from this when things were sorted. My exhaustion began to get the better of me, and despite my best efforts, my childlike body was not as strong as my mind. Soon, I fell into a dreamless, fitful sleep.

I slept poorly that night, or so I remembered. I kept on waking up briefly, then falling back to sleep. I had no idea just how long I slept each time, but it felt like only a few minutes had passed before I woke up and was unable to fall back to sleep. I could hear the soft breathing coming from the other two cells, so I knew that the other two were probably still sleeping.

I felt tears come flooding back into my eyes. I may have had the mind of someone in his thirties now, but my ten year old body still had a bigger influence on my emotions. I missed my aunt. I missed my little dragon brother. I missed my friends. I missed my teachers. Hell, I even missed my stuffy eutherian guards. I held back on making any noise, but the tears kept coming, flooding out and making the dirty pillow damp. I gripped it, doing my best to keep quiet, but the occasional sob escaped my mouth. Thankfully, it seemed as if no guards heard me. After a while, the tears stopped and I found myself feeling a little better. Turning around, I opened my eyes, but due to how dark it was, I couldn’t tell if my eyes were even open. There was nothing but darkness above me.

Nothing but shadows…

I sat up, a thought coming into my head. Shadow…that was it! It was a long shot, but I’d seen it done a few times before and had read all I could read on the spell. Throwing my covers off, I slowly got onto my feet and stood, the darkness permeating everything. I sat on the cold harsh floor, closing my eyes as I began to try something known as a magical meditation. Aunt Celestia had told me about it once. She explained it during one of our more private lunches. Magical meditation was a way for a pony to ease any mana imbalance within the anima. Not only that, but it helped ease the mind if done properly. I’d tried it a couple times, and thought I’d felt something shift within me each time, but I felt like I was still missing something.

I focused inward, concentrating on the invisible part of me that was the anima. As instructed by Starry Swirl in Magic Spell Index, I concentrated on my mental image of the anima. In my mind’s eye, the dim image of a large lake appeared, the result of the damming up of a nearby river. I hovered over it and noticed that there was a storm blowing. The lake was choppy and the skies roiled with menacing clouds along with the flash of lightning every ten or so seconds. The rain soaked through everything, drenching the concrete holding the dam in place. From what I’d read, Starry Swirl had described a meditative storm as representing an imbalance of emotion. While emotion was a powerful factor in casting magic, one needed to have some sort of balance within themselves to cast it or even use it. Most ponies could maintain this balance without the need for magical meditation, but for those special few with a large enough anima, meditation helped keep that balance within.

In my mind’s eye, I closed my eyes again and stretched out my arms. Focusing, I acknowledged my worries, anxieties, and my sorrow. I reminded myself that these emotions, while valid, had to not hold me back from taking action. Instead, I needed to focus not on my anxieties and fears, but on the here and now. I took several breaths, inhaling slowly and exhaling. As I did so, the storm began to slowly recede. The rain and wind slowly ceased, but the clouds remained. Nothing I tried would make them go away, but they did brighten ever so slightly.

I opened my eyes, feeling a lot better now. I still could feel the anxieties and fears, but they weren’t as present as before. Instead, I used them as extra motivation. Slowly, I stood up and closed my eyes, feeling out with my magic. I knew that Shadow Walking was something that only eutherians were known to be capable of, but I had read that, on rare occasions, powerful unicorns like Starry Swirl had been capable of it. It was a long shot, but I had to try something.

I remembered how Starry said it felt, how it felt like descending into water feet first. I took a deep breath, exhaled, and began to try. I focused inward, like Starry said to do and like how Shadow had described it, working on feeling my way through the mana around me. I looked for a way to open the ethereal door to the Umbral, but nothing seemed to be working. I couldn’t feel any physical change, and there was certainly no change in the magic around me. Eutherian magic wasn’t like unicorn magic, and from what I’d learned about Shadow Walking, it seemed as if Starry had to force her way in whereas eutherians had a more natural connection to the Umbral. Which made sense seeing as Discordia had made them by corrupting a large group of Pegasi while they were inside the Umbral.

Still, I didn’t give up. Instead, I continued concentrating, trying to find a way in without needing to force anything. However, minutes passed by, and possibly turned into an hour, and there was nothing. After feeling discouraged, I decided to give Starry’s method a try. I began casting my magic, focusing on what I thought was the feeling of the barrier between the real world and the first layer of the Umbral. It was a bit difficult with the nullstone in the walls, but eventually I started to sense something different. I focused on a spot in the corner of the room. Slowly, I walked over to it, standing above the spot my magic was forcing open. I started slowly, not wanting to damage anything or be heard.

After several minutes, I felt something around my ankles. I felt the sensation of slight pressure around them. Instinctively, I opened my eyes and looked down, but thanks to the darkness surrounding me, I couldn’t see shit. I quietly cursed myself for my lapse, then resumed my concentration. The sensation began to slowly rise up, making its way to my knees.

And that’s when I felt a pair of hands grab my ankles.

I opened my eyes in shock, but before I could say or do anything, I felt that pressure moving quickly up my body until it enveloped my head. Instantly, the darkness was replaced by a dim grayscale view of the cell around me, along with a very familiar pair of yellow eutherian eyes. I opened my mouth to greet my friend, but Shadow Hunt put his hand over my lips. “Not in here,” he whispered softly, “We’re not fully in the Umbral right now.” Confused, I frowned and looked at him. He noticed and continued, “I’ve been in your shadow since you woke up in that cave. When I came in here, though, I couldn’t leave the Umbral due to those stones. I can’t leave the cell because of the nullstones either. Right now, you and I are halfway through the Umbral. You gave me a way to come back and at least talk to you.”

I put my hands on his shoulders and smiled. “Nice to see you too, Shadow,” I said, greatly relieved to see him.

He gave me a slight smile and a nod. “It’s good to see you too, my prince.”

I looked around the room. I’d never been submerged in the Umbral before, but the grayscale around me was something I knew about from how Starry Swirl described it during her journeys through the shadowy realm. “So, I’m not all the way in the Umbral?” I asked.

“If you were, you’d be trapped like me,” Shadow explained. “I’ll explain more later. Right now, I’m stuck here until you can leave your cell.”

“I think I know how we can do that,” I said. “Am I invisible right now?” Shadow nodded. “And they can hear me, right?” He nodded again. “How long can we be in here?”

“Indefinitely,” Shadow said.

“You have any weapons on you?” I asked.

“Just a couple knives,” Shadow said, gesturing to his belt where two daggers were strapped.

“Perfect.” I reached down and before Shadow could protest, I took one and held it up. “We’re gonna make some noise.”

“My prince, that will bring the guards in-oooh…” Shadow’s eyes widened in understanding and he unsheathed his own blade. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

I nodded. “We can’t touch the real world while in this state, right?” I asked. He shook his head. “And you can get me back into the real world anytime?” He nodded. “Okay, here’s my idea…”

After I’d explained my plan, Shadow looked at me with a worried look. “Are you sure you can do that, your Highness?”

“There’s no other way that I can see right now,” I said. “We can’t do much.” Truth be told, I was more nervous than ever. I looked down at the knife in my hands, wondering if I could do what I needed to do in order to escape. I cleared my head of these distracting thoughts as best as I could, then looked back at Shadow. “I’ll do what I have to.” Clearing my throat, I walked over to the door. I then began to shout. “Help! Help! Someone help me!”

This immediately caught the attention of a guard, who flung the door to the dungeons open. A blinding light came from the door, but the light was immediately dimmed as a eutherian guard stood in the door. “Quiet in there!”

“Help me, please!” I repeated.

The guard growled and stormed over to my cell door. “I said quiet, you little whelp!” he snapped, looking into the cell and seeming to lock eyes with me. However, I saw the guard’s eyes widen, then frantically began looking around. “By her night mane…” he gasped as he fumbled with a set of keys. The door was flung open and the guard burst in, looking around frantically.

Just as he was looking under the bed, I gave Shadow a quick nod. I felt myself being pushed back into the real world. The world grew slightly darker, but with the light from the still open door, I could see the guard in front of me. I raised my knife and brought it down onto an area of eutherian armor that Shadow had explained earlier was a weak spot. Said area was right at the neck, so my hopes that I would only need to injure the guard enough to take him out of commission were moot. I didn’t know any offensive magic yet, so I couldn’t use that.

I heard the thud of blade piercing flesh, the gasp of pain that came from the guard as the air was driven from him, and the look of shock he gave me as his body went limp. His blood now stained my hands as I slowly stood, backing away in utter disbelief. I’d taken a life. It may have been because I had to escape with Zecora and Cadance, but I was still in shock.

The moment I exited the cell, Shadow appeared immediately. He rushed into the cell and grabbed the keys from the now dead soldier’s belt along with his sword. The armor was too big for the twelve year old eutherian, but the sword he held was big enough for my friend. I barely registered this as I could only stare at the bloody knife in my hands and my bloodstained hand and clothes. I could barely hear anything as white noise began filling my head.

I killed a man…I killed a man…oh dear God, I killed a man…

Thoughts like this went through my head on repeat, and despite not having eaten anything since breakfast before coming here, I felt my stomach churn. Getting onto my hands and knees, I began to heave. Nothing much came out, but bile and some small bits of the soup I’d forced down the night before came out onto the stone floor. I felt a hand on my back, rubbing affectionately and reassuringly, but I hardly registered it as I was too busy being sick.

When I was finally finished, I felt something being put into my hand. Looking up, I saw Shadow looking at me while holding his canteen in my hand. I gratefully rinsed my mouth out, then took a few swigs. Looking around, I saw that the person who had been comforting me was none other than Cadance. The pegasus before me was in dire shape, but her pink fur and her purple, dark pink and banana yellow colored mane and tail showed me that she was indeed Cadance. Her clothes were tattered and she was clearly malnourished, but the look in her light purple eyes was one of concern. Concern for me. “You okay, Prince?” she asked after I’d recovered.

I nodded, handing her the canteen. “Better,” I said.

As Cadance took a sip from the water pouch, someone tackled me to the ground. I was ready to fight, but the sobbing sounds coming from my back told me that this wasn’t an enemy. I turned around in Zecora’s tight grip and hugged my new friend back, stroking her mane reassuringly. “You saved me…” she said, trembling in my arms.

“Thank my friend and personal guard Shadow Hunt, not me,” I said, gesturing to the door where Shadow was keeping watch.

Before Zecora could do so, however, Shadow looked over. “Your Highness, we can’t stay here for much longer. We need to get out of here.”

I pushed down my reeling emotional outburst and nodded. I stood, holding the still bloody knife in my hand. “Do you know the way out?” I asked Shadow. “I don’t remember much about the trip from the throne room to here.”

He nodded and gripped the sword in his hand. “Follow me, everypony, and keep as quiet as a mouse.”

I was surprised to see that only one guard was stationed in the dungeon. When I thought more about it, it made sense. Thanks to the nullstone, there was no real way we could escape. Plus, we were children, so what real harm could we pose to a grown guard. Shadow and I took a crystal torch each and used the light to guide us. Shadow led us and I stood between both fillies, knife in hand. I continued focusing on the present and not on what I’d done to that guard. There’d be time later to deal. For now, I knew I needed to focus.

Eventually, we came to a closed door. Shadow made us stop as he put his ears against the thick wooden door. The three of us waited, and then he motioned us forward. Sword in hand, he slowly pushed the door open. A bright purple light poured into the passageway as he looked around. The rest of us waited anxiously until he came back in, shutting the door behind him. “Nopony out there,” he said as he slipped the crystal torch into a nearby empty sconce.

“Let me look,” I said as I approached, holding the torch in my hand out to him.

“I was paying more attention to the directions taken from the throne room to the dungeons, your Highness,” Shadow said as he took the torch from my hand and placed it in the other empty sconce opposite the first, “so I know how to find our way back.” He looked at us, then added, “I need to check something. Stay here and don’t leave.” Shadow slowly opened the door again, then stepped out into the purple light. I watched in shock as his body seemed to sink into the light instead of disappearing as it normally would.

“What did he just do?” Cadance asked me nervously.

“Eutherians can become invisible,” I said, knowing now wasn’t the time for long explanations on the Umbral and Shadow Walking. “When we’re free, I’ll tell you more about it.”

The three of us waited near the door for what felt like hours but what was probably only several minutes. Soon, Shadow returned, coming out of the ground surrounded by a slight mist. “I didn’t see any eutherians in the Umbral anywhere,” he said, sounding confused.

“We’re okay to leave, then?” I asked.

“Yeah, looks like it,” he said as he opened the door wider. “Let’s move, but quietly.”

Zecora moved quickly, but Cadance limped up, wincing a bit. I hadn’t noticed her limping before, and felt terrible for not noticing it sooner. I knelt in front of her, looking back at the young pegasus filly. “Climb on, hurry.”

Cadance looked stunned, then quickly shook her head. “But Prince Blueblood-”

“You can’t walk on that foot, so climb on,” I insisted. “I can carry you.”

Nervously, she climbed onto my back and clung to me. She was lighter than I expected, which wasn’t a good sign. Standing quickly, I left the set of stairs leading to the dungeon and followed Zecora and Shadow.

The hallway we’d entered was large, with purple glowing sconces lining the walls which illuminated the area around us. I noticed that certain things seemed to glow blue. A very familiar blue. Looking down at my clothes, I saw that a small portion were glowing, but when I covered them, the glow vanished.

They have black lights down here? I thought, looking up at one of the nearby crystal sconces. Does that mean that Shadow can move around in the Umbral while even standing in this purple light?

Before I could answer my own question, we reached a corner. Shadow held out a hand for us to stop, but before anything else could happen, four eutherians in those same guard uniforms turned the corner. Seeing us, they froze, then their hands went to their swords. “And where do you think you’re going, little runts?” one of them said in a threatening manner.

Oh, shit… I thought. Acting on instinct, I stretched out my hand and with a telekinetic shove, slammed the four guards into the wall behind them. I turned to Shadow. “Time to run?”

“Time to run,” he confirmed as he spread his wings and flew into the air above us. “Follow me!” And with that, we ran.