The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

Chapter 17

Escape plan

‘oww, oww, oww, oww!!’ Ridge repeated over and over as he stumbled around the closet.

“Why did I do this, it’s so stupid. Owwwwwwww!!!” he said as he put his hooves to his forehead trying to get the throbbing in his head to subside.

He quickly sat down against what he assumed was a shelf and took several long breaths to calm down. After a minute of lying there, he thought about the situation he currently was in. Slowly and carefully he moved his right hoof to his horn, gingerly feeling the clever stuck there.

‘Well, this is just lovely.’ He thought as he gingerly moved his hoof to his horn.

“Alright well we can’t do this in the dark anymore.” He said slowly standing back onto his hooves.

As his head moved when he stood up he could feel the cleaver in his horn.

Instinctually trying to use his horn to try and light the dark closet he was met by a flash of magical feedback and he reared up on his legs in shock.

“Arghh!!” he yelled as his left hoof caught on something.

Before he could even think as to what he had hit he felt himself begin falling backwards over it. As his head met the floor another flash of magic came from his horn and he heard something crack as all of his body weight pressed into his head. As another wave of pain washed over him he cupped both hooves over the top of his head..

‘Buck that hurt’ he thought as he came back to his senses.

As he lay there writhing on the floor he swore he could see the cleaver glinting there on the floor in front of him. After the pain subsided to a more bearable level, he moved a single hoof where his horn should have been.

“It’s really gone…”He said moving his hooves away as though he was touching something hot.

Suddenly the closet door swung open and he snapped toward it.

“What are you looking for Angel?” Ridge heard a stallion say.

“I heard something from in here Comet.” A mare said.

“Well hurry up I want to get back to the bunks before sunrise.” The pony named Comet said.

Ridge quietly moved behind a crate hoping that the two ponies wouldn’t notice that he was there.

“Well if you want to get back quicker you’ll help me look.” Angel said moving deeper into the closet and closer to Ridge.

Hiding down behind the crate even further he slowly saw the shadow of the pony creep closer and closer toward him. Frantically looking around for anything he could use as a distraction he saw something just a few feet away that chilled him to the bone. As silently as he could manage he reached out with his hoof and picked up the yellow thing and hid it behind himself.

“I think this is what you’re looking for, this cleaver must have fallen of one of the shelves.” Ridge heard.

“Oh, well I guess that was all for nothing then. I think I should go to the med-room and have my hearing looked at.” She said.

“Well you are a bat pony after all Angel you’re going to have better hearing than any pony.”

“Yea yea, whatever come on let’s get this back to the kitchen then we can get some shuteye.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” He agreed.

As Ridge heard the pair of ponies close the door he thanked Celestia that they hadn’t found him.

‘Well, Celestia is the one who got me here in the first place.’ His mind said out of nowhere.

Using his hooves to hide away what those guards had almost found under his cloak he slowly stood up and trotted his way over to the door.

‘one more stop’ thought before peeking out of the door down the hallway and setting off.

“Now do you understand Cadence?” Celestia said as she held Cadence under her wing.

“I understand it just fine, but why did you have to go behind my back?” she said raising her hooves into the air.

“I knew you would want to lose Twilight as your little filly. I thought you would hate to see her move on with her life.” Celestia said moving her wing away from Cadence.

“Well yea I still see her as that little filly from all those years ago. But I still see her as a mare that is growing up princess. It’s not our decision to how she lives her life, she should be the one who does that.” She said with a huff.

“Tell me Cadence have you ever seen Twilight talk to a Stallion, much less ask one out?”

“Well no, but like I said you shouldn’t forc…”

“I never forced either of them to do anything. I just introduced him to her, albeit under extenuating circumstances, nothing I did made anypony’s life for the worse.” Celestia said calmly.

“Bu…Can’t…It isn’t that black and white though, what if it didn’t work out between them.”

“Twilight wouldn’t have let that happen, she would have helped him no matter what and you know that.”

“Yea I know…” Cadence said, her argument losing steam.

“Look at it as a new begging and not an end. Twilight starts a new chapter of her life, Ridge ends a bad one of his, and everypony is happy. Can you do that for me Cadence?” She said nuzzling her neck.

“Alright I guess I can be okay with it, but one thing goes wrong and I’m on his side got it?” she said looking up at Celestia with a stern gaze.

“Deal!!” she said wrapping her in another hug.

After taking a moment to get her laughter under control she called out for Luna.

“Luna dear you can come out here now, I believe somepony wants to apologize.” Celestia said giving Cadence a side glance. As Luna made her way onto the balcony

She looked first from Celestia then to Cadence.

“Um, Luna I..I’m sorry for telling Ridge to sneak into your room and read your diary.” She said rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof.

Quickly running up to her Luna wrapped her into a hug.

“I forgive you Cadence you were just trying to help.”

Blushing Cadence returned the hug.

“Thank you Luna” Cadence said moving back to where she could look at them both.

“Well what do we do now sister?” Luna said looking toward Celestia.

“I believe that we need to find a certain pony do we not?”

“Yea I guess you need to tell him the truth don’t you.” Cadence said starting off toward the library.”

Quickly looking at each other Celestia and Luna shared a glance.

“Cadence we’ll find Ridge okay, you probably should be getting back to Shining shouldn’t you?”

Quickly turning around Cadence looked shocked.

“After all of that stuff about Ridge you expect me to just go to bed? I’m going to see this until the end, and there’s not a thing you can do about it.” she said stomping her hoof in protest.

“Alright then that’s fine by me what about you Luna?” she said glancing at her sister.

“It seems fine to me, so how are we going to find him?”

Nodding her head in agreement Celestia lit up her horn and produced a map of the castle. She unfolded it and traced her hoof along the edge until she came to the library they currently were in.

“Alright so we’re here now so Luna I want you to take the west wing and the dungeons, Cadence take the upper floors, and I’ll take the east wing and the gardens. Does everypony agree with that?” she said folding up the map and making it disappear in a flash of gold.

“Yea fine by me.” Cadence said.

“ Yes I’m okay with it, I’ll also tell my night guards to be on the lookout for him as well.”

“Good, we meet back here at sunrise if nopony finds him okay?”

“Right.” They said simultaneously.

Nodding her head quickly all three of them set off in different directions out of the library.

Quickly placing the quill back onto the table he neatly folded the note into a small square.

‘If I made it fine by myself last time, then by gosh I can do it again.’ He thought making his way toward the bed.

He quietly admired how well decorated the bedroom was, it had taken some doing but he had quietly made his way through the castle and made his way to Celestia’s bed chamber.

“So much for diplomacy” He said coming up alongside the bed.

All of the pillows on the bed made it look too comfortable for his taste, but he wasn’t here to admire the decorations. He had a job to do and he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. So quickly making his way up toward the head of the bed he grabbed several pillows and tossed them away. What greeted him was a book that was the color of the sun.

“What fun! I absolutely love invading ponies privacy now apparently.” He said sarcastically.

Setting his note for Celestia down for a moment he moved his hoof toward the diary. As he made contact with it he received a similar shock that made him stop.

‘What am I doing…am I no better than her now?’

A strong feeling of guilt quickly settling in his stomach he moved his hhof away from the bed.

“I..I can’t do it. This isn’t me.” He said making his way to where he had thrown the pillows.

As he put the pillows back to where they had been he felt something on his face. He pressed a hoof to his face thinking it was some sort of insect, but he found out he couldn’t swipe it away. Moving away from the bed he looked down to his hoof to find it wet. As he stared down at his now grey appendage he couldn’t keep himself from looking away.

“I..I’m utterly alone now. Nopony even cares about me anymore.” He said feeling tears fall from his eyes.

‘Except Cadence, she’s the one that helped you don’t forget her.’ He thought as a sudden sliver of hope shot through him.

Quickly realizing that he still had to look presentable for his plan to work he looked around the room for a mirror. Setting on the far wall of the room he saw one that would work perfectly for him. So slowly making his way to it he took a moment to dry his eyes and look at himself.

“I’d call it an improvement at least…” he said as he posed in front of the mirror.

His eyes were the first thing he noticed, instead of the emerald green they had been they had turned into a sort of a Hazel shade, and as he moved his hoof to his face again he ran a hoof through his completely white mane. Turning around he noticed his coat had lost its yellow sheen and been replaced with a dark and dull grey.

‘Well at least I can hide in a crowd now.’ he thought looking at the bare spot of fur on his forehead.

Satisfied at how he looked he moved his mane so that it covered that spot, and he then moved away from the mirror back toward the bed. As he came up to the bed he reached under his cloak and pulled out what he had hid earlier, he laid the letter on the bed then placed the item on top of it. Without so much as another word he turned toward the door and left the room.

Dear princess:

I don’t know where to begin with this so I’ll just come out and say it. I can’t believe you would so something like this to Anypony. Whatever your motives were I don’t believe they justify kidnapping a pony and forcing him to do your bidding. I don’t want to cause any trouble, so I’m not saying anything I’m just going to leave. Nopony seems to want to help me, other than Cadence, and I just can’t but help but feel betrayed by you. Don’t blame her for what has happened, all she wanted to do was help and I think her for that. I also took the liberty of ‘solving’ my own problems, now don’t bother looking for me because you won’t find me.

Goodbye: Ridge

As Celestia sat the letter back down on the bed she put her hoof against her forehead.

‘It’s what happened with Discord all over again.’ She thought as Cadence and Luna came running into the room.

“D..Did you find him?” Cadence as she looked around the room for Ridge.

“No, but he was so kind as to leave us a letter and a gift.” She said sarcastically then levitated the letter and item to Cadence.

“WHAT!!?” Cadence yelled as she back away from the items.

“It seems he went to extreme measures to ‘cure’ himself.” Luna spoke as she picked up the letter from the floor.

“He actually cut of his own horn, Can that actually work?” Cadence said picking up the yellow horn with her magic.

“All that Ridge managed to do was hamper his ability to use magic, he is still normal by any standards.” Celestia said standing up from her bed and going across the room.

“So what do we do now?” Luna asked passing the letter to Cadence so she could read it.

Celestia never answered her question as she stopped in front of her mirror.

“Well…?” Cadence joined in.

“We see where he went first of all” She said using her horn to send a bolt of magic into the mirror.

As Luna and Cadence stared at the mirror they didn’t see anything happen, and after moment Luna spoke up.

“Nothing happened.”

“Look again” she said stepping back from the mirror so both of them could come in closer.

As they stared into the mirror they realized they couldn’t see themselves only the opposite wall. But before they could say anything they saw somepony walk into the room.

“I enchanted this mirror to record anything that it sees happen.” She said quickly before turning back toward the mirror.

As the trio of ponies watch the strange stallion move across the room they watched as he moved about the room doing various things. It wasn’t until they heard sniffling did they become worried.

“I..I’m utterly alone now. Nopony even cares about me anymore.” They heard this pony say.

“Oh no, it can’t be him can it?” Luna said casting a worried look back to her sister.

“I’m afraid it is sister, he must have enchanted some disguise to help him out of the castle.”  She said using her magic to turn off the mirror unable to see anymore.

“Why did you do that? We still haven’t seen where he went?” Cadence asked looking away from the mirror.

“I know exactly where he is, I just didn’t think anything of it at the time.” She said trotting out of her bedroom and onto the balcony adjoining it.

Wondering what she was up to both the princesses followed her outside. When all three of them were outside Luna was the first to ask.

“Well are you going to tell us where he is so we can tell him?”

Celestia proceeded to slowly turn around to face her sister and spoke in a slow tone.

“The better question is when is he Luna…”