Escape from Arora Ridge Quarry

After their wash, the Ponies were put back to work. They all went through the rest of the day in a state of shock and uncertainty.

That evening, after the door to their hut was closed and locked, there was pandemonium as they all started talking and shouting at once. Everypony was in a state of panic as they made their fears and feelings known after a day of keeping silent.

Sugar gasped and looked worriedly at Sprout. They both looked at the door before urgently turning back to the others.

“Hey. Hey! It’s okay!” Sprout shouted. “Quiet. Quiet everypony.”

“We don’t want the Nirik back in here,” Sugar added. “It...It’ll be okay.”

“How do you know that?” one of the others asked.

“Yeah,” another added. “Sunnys gone. We’ve no hope now.”

Sprout and Sugar shared a look of dismay.

“You seriously think we have no hope?” Sugar goggled. “Just because she’s the Element of Hope doesn’t mean we literally have none.”

“What would Sunny tell you?” Sprout added. “We’ve still got further than we have in ages. Her friends are on their way, and we’ve got our alliance friends.”

“Exactly, it’ll be fine,” Sugar added. “Whatever Allura’s done to Sunny will be nothing compared to what her friends do to Allura when they get here.”

The others all looked at each other. They still felt worried, but they knew Sprout and Sugar were correct. There was still hope.

Suddenly, they heard a knocking sound coming from the tunnel. Both Sprout and Sugar hurried over and moved the mat. Then, they helped Thymus remove the concrete.

As he emerged from the hole, Thymus looked around worriedly. “I saw Allura escorting an orange pony. I...” he paused, sighed and looked at them with a sad understanding expression. “Ah, I see. Sunny is no longer among us.”

“We all got washed this morning,” Sugar sighed.

“She should have tried to escape,” another voice said.

They turned around and saw that Giselle was emerging from the hole, quickly followed by Skysurf.

“She tried to escape, Giselle,” Sprout defended. “Allura stopped her.”

Sugar groaned and looked down. “Apart from when she hesitated. I saw her looking back at us. I could tell, she didn’t want to leave us.”

“Well, she’ll likely be in high-security confinement,” Giselle frowned. “It’s down on level one, there’s no way we’ll get her out.”

“Why?” Skysurf asked. “What makes it high security?”

“It's a group of small huts surrounded by a fence. Each hut is not only securely locked but the fence is guarded too,” Giselle explained. “Inside her hut, she’ll be locked in a cage. I expect they'll have classed her as a high threat. So, she’ll have other, well, obstacles too.”

“Yeah, we get the picture,” Sprout sighed.

“We’ll just have to leave helping her to her friends,” Sugar responded. “They’re the Guardians of Unity, they won’t leave her. All is not lost.”

Skysurf nodded and sighed. “This is a setback, but I agree, all is not lost.”

“Agreed, so our task is still to get into a watchtower,” Thymus reminded. “Regrettably, I can’t see how I will help. Changelings are continuously watched and monitored by Nirik.”

“Well, there’s an opportunity for us,” Giselle grinned. “After we've dug out the ore, Griffons and Hippogriffs fly it to the nearest incline. I’ve found a blind spot on one of the routes we can exploit.”

“But they track us,” Skysurf frowned.

“Yeah, and I’m up for testing that tomorrow,” Giselle smirked. “I’ll land in the blind spot and time how long it takes before they send a patrol to investigate. I’ll act like I’m fatigued.”

Sprout frowned unsurely. “How’s that going to stop you getting in trouble?”

“It happens all the time,” Skysurf admitted. “Our wings have been clipped to limit our range. We often end up having to stop.”

“Clipped?” Sugar frowned.

Skysurf spread her wings and pointed to her primary flight feathers. “They’ve trimmed these right back. They don’t generate anywhere near as much lift as they should.”

“It’s not permanent,” Giselle reassured. “We’ll eventually grow new feathers, and these naturally fall out.”

“But until they do, we have to work way harder to fly,” Skysurf explained. "For example, we can't glide."

“Okay, you test your loophole tomorrow, Giselle,” Thymus nodded. “Sprout, Sugar, any idea which tower we should try to access?”

“It wasn’t a normal day, was it?” Sugar sighed.

Sprout shook his head. “The towers all had extra Nirik. Hopefully tomorrow things will have calmed down. Giselle, where’s your loophole exactly? We’ll check the towers around there.”

“Ah yes, that would make sense,” Thymus admitted. “No sense saying we should access one on the opposite side of the quarry.”

They continued to plan long into the evening, determined that by the time Sunny’s friends arrived, they would have some collars to give them.

Elsewhere, Sunny groaned, her mind was full of fog. It wasn’t helped by her blurry vision which wouldn’t clear no matter how much she blinked. Her body was numb which made it feel like she was floating.

She’d felt like this for hours. However, finally, the brain fog was clearing, and she was slowly getting some feeling back. The first thing she noticed was a strange metallic taste in her mouth.

She realised it was something in her mouth, between her teeth and pressing down on her tongue. Her face felt strange too, like something was hugging it. She groaned again and noticed it sounded muffled.

As she continued to blink, her vision was starting to slowly clear, and she realised she was lying down. Then, she felt a tightness on her back but couldn’t work out what it was.

Finally, everything that had been swimming around in her head came into focus. Her vision cleared and Sunny gasped as she saw she was laying on a mat within a cage.

She tried to move but her forehoofs felt restricted. She looked and gasped again; they were locked together by grey metal shackles. There was a short chain between them which she hoped would mean she’d still be able to walk.

She awkwardly pushed herself into a sitting position. Blinking worriedly as she spotted something strange.

Slowly she brought her conjoined hoofs to her face. Gasping as she felt a metal muzzle, covering her mouth and nose. She quickly realised that what was in her mouth must be part of the muzzle.

She felt around her head, the bridle she had been wearing was gone. Instead, there was a new bridle with wider straps which held the muzzle in place.

Then, as she felt around, her hoof caught something. Looking upwards, her eyes widened.

My horn? How is it... Wait!

She remembered the tightness on her back and looked around. Her wings were still there too.

However, she couldn’t move them. There was a series of straps pulled around them, holding them closed against her back. Much like those she’d seen some of the Hippogriffs wearing.

Sunny frowned with confusion before trying to dismiss her powers. However, nothing happened, her horn and wings didn’t disappear.

What? Why can't I... I don't understand... She gasped as realisation hit her. A...Allura, she must have done something! Can I even use magic?

Desperately, she tried to use the messaging spell. The muzzle would stop her speaking, but she thought Misty must have tried responding. However, again, nothing happened.

Sunny’s eyes widened in horror. She tried using magic again, this time levitation. Again, nothing.

No, nonono... I can’t... Why can’t I...

She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she struggled for breath and started trembling slightly.

Closing her eyes, she forced herself to take deeper breaths. Breathing slowly in and out through her nose.

That did the trick as she slowly started to feel calmer. Finally, she looked around and started taking notice of what else was around her.

Sunny’s cage was inside a small hut. The walls of this were all grey metal. It had a dark concrete floor and a white suspended ceiling. There were six square cages inside the hut and all the others were empty, Sunny was the only occupant.

The cages were arranged in two rows of three. Sunny’s was the middle of one of these rows. Therefore, one side of her cage was the metal-clad wall of the hut. Meanwhile, the cages on either side were in the corners of the hut, so two of their sides were walls.

Along one wall there were three alcoves, one within each cage. In each alcove, there were two bowls, like in the main hut. However, between the bowls, there was also a small groove.

The sides of the cages, which were not walls, were formed of open metal bars. The side opposite the wall with the alcoves had a cage door.

The cage doors led to a central aisle, the other side of which were the final three cages. Mirror images of those on Sunny’s side of the hut.

At one end of the aisle, there was a sturdy metal door. At the other end, there’s what appeared to be a control panel which was secured behind a glass cover. There were no windows at all, all the light being provided by a series of lights set in the ceiling.

Sunny let out a deep breath, she carefully got to her hoofs to try walking. Whilst the chain on the shackles was short, she found she still could slowly. She walked around in a circle before moving towards and investigating the bowls.

So? How am I supposed to eat with this contraption stuck to my face? She frowned.

Suddenly, there was a loud clunk from the door that made Sunny’s eyes widen in surprise. It was quickly followed by another and then a loud clicking sound of gears being turned.

Sunny frowned and turned towards the door as it slowly opened. Then, her eyes widened again as Allura entered with Twitch standing on her back.

“Ah, you’re up and about,” Allura grinned. “Had time to take stock of your situation? Trust me, you weren’t going anywhere before and certainly aren’t now.”

Sunny’s eyes narrowed as Allura came to a stop before her cage. Twitch jumped off and ran toward the control panel. He released the cover and then started pushing buttons.

However, Sunny’s eyes were on Allura as she stared back defiantly.

“Oh, is that the fire of hope that burns within you?” Allura sneered. “How lovely, we’ll see how long that lasts. It was so good of you to participate in our experiments earlier. Twitch assures me we’re ready to start accepting your Unicorn and Pegasus friends now. Did you have any questions?”

Sunny frowned and grunted before sitting down and pointing indignantly at the muzzle with a hoof.

Allura laughed as she looked towards Twitch. He pressed a button before giving a thumbs-up.

“Turn around, Starscout,” Allura smirked.

Sunny blinked before looking back at the alcove and the bowls. Above the small groove, there was now a green LED shining brightly.

“When the light is green, put your nose in the port,” Allura instructed.

Sunny looked back at Allura and narrowed her eyes again, unsure if she should trust her. Allura said nothing, she just smiled and waited.

With a sigh of resignation, Sunny got up and walked over towards the bowls. With a final sigh, she pushed the muzzle into the port.

There was a click as the muzzle locked into position. A feeling of mild panic suddenly shot through Sunny as she realised it was stuck.

However, there was another click as the LED turned yellow. Sunny felt instant relief as the muzzle released from the bridle and she was able to pull her face away from it.

“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Allura cooed.

Scowling, Sunny spun around towards Allura accusingly. “What have you done to my magic?!”

“We’ve isolated it,” Allura smiled. “Isn’t that right, Twitch?”

Twitch folded his forelegs before nodding and making an 'uh-huh' sound.

“Despite his looks, Twitch is very clever,” Allura explained. “He’s specially designed your bridle and muzzle to keep you in check. Don’t even think of trying to break them, you won’t like the result. Now we can use them on all ponies, no matter what kind.”

Sunny’s eyes widened. “Wait. What do you mean, no matter what kind?”

“I already told you,” Allura grinned. “Thanks to your help, I can now recruit Unicorn and Pegasus ponies. I’ll need their help too if I’m to achieve my goal.”

Sunny sat down as her heart sank. “What goal?”

“Getting the Arora Ore of course,” Allura grinned. “Once it’s refined, Arora Ore is my ticket home. I need it to power the portal.” She smiled sweetly. “Any more questions?”

Sunny blinked, looking down as she processed the information. “Where’s home? Why do you need a portal to get there?”

“Home for Twitch and I is another realm,” Allura answered. “Somewhere completely different to this one.”

Sunny’s eyes narrowed. “Do you mean the human world?”

Allura laughed. “My, my, and here I thought you Ponies were naive. I’m impressed you even know of another realm. My home is not amongst the humans, but I do need to go there.”

Sunny frowned and cocked her head with interest. She was about to respond when, suddenly, Twitch began squeaking angrily and stomping a hind foot on the ground.

“You’re right, Twitch,” Allura smirked. “That is enough questions for now.”

Twitch jumped around and pressed another button on the control panel. Sunny gasped as she heard a buzzer behind her and looked around in confusion.

“That means it’s time to put your beauty mask back on,” Allura grinned.

“Why would I do that?”

“Oh, I think you're about to find out,” Allura smirked deviously.

Sunny gasped as she suddenly felt a pain in the back of her head. She leaned forward, placing a hoof behind her head and found there was a small box attached to the bridle.

“Ah, there’s your punishment,” Allura grinned deviously. “You know what to do. If you missed the buzzer, you’ll spot the light.”

Sunny blinked and looked back to the muzzle. The LED above it had turned red.

Suddenly, Sunny cried out as she felt the pain again. “What is that?!”

“Just a mild electrical shock,” Allura smirked evilly. “They’ll get more powerful and frequent. You know what to do.”

Sunny grimaced. Then with her eyes wide and panting with shock she got up and moved back towards the muzzle. She gritted her teeth and shook her head as she was shocked again. Then, scowling with reluctance, she pushed her nose and mouth back into the muzzle.

She closed her eyes, there was a click as the muzzle locked back into place on the bridle. Then a second click as it released from the port.

With the muzzle now firmly locked back into place, Sunny pulled her head back from the port. Then, she opened her eyes and turned around to look at Allura with an almighty scowl.

“Oh, don’t look like that,” Allura smirked before purring. “Just remember, you had a choice! Just remember, you didn’t have to!”

Sunny’s eyes widened as they flashed for a second. Thoughts suddenly forced their way into her mind. I have a choice... I didn’t have to...

She twitched, shaking her head as she blinked with confusion. Wait? What?

Allura smirked as Twitch jumped onto her back.

“If you behave yourself, you’ll be rewarded with sustenance,” Allura said before she purred. “Just remember, you have control.”

Sunny’s eyes flashed again, and she flinched. Another thought forced its way into her mind. I have control.

She shook her head in confusion, closing her eyes.

No, that’s not right, she argued. I had to! I didn’t have a choice. I don’t have control here.

Sunny gasped as she suddenly heard the door closing and looked up to see Allura and Twitch had already left. As she heard the door being locked, she blinked with confusion and sat down again.

She looked down at her hoofs and pulled on the shackles. Then she flexed her wings as much as the straps allowed.

She closed her eyes as she felt a huge void opening within her stomach. The same one she’d had when she had been on the airship but far, far deeper. She felt her heart sink into the void as her eyes widened with realisation.

I can’t do anything now. I can’t contact Misty. I can’t help the others. She closed her eyes and hunched over. Why didn’t I listen to Zipp and Hitch? I never thought something like this could happen. I’m completely helpless!

She took a deep breath as she opened her eyes, scowling with determination. No! I’m helpless now but there is still hope! My friends are coming and they'll rescue me.