How the Tables Turn

Cloud Chaser and her search team moved up to the stage and hopped up onto it. Cloud Chaser went to the nearest pony and spoke, asking a question she had wanted to ask since she found out Rainbow went missing.

“Umm, excuse me? What exactly is going on here?”

“You’re not from here, are you?” The strange pony turned around, taking in the image of absolute horror behind them. “Alright, where to begin, where to begin? This has been going on for years. Years upon years upon years. Have you met Mistress?”

“Yes.”

“She controls this place, which is known as the Underground. Most of the ponies you see here have been here most, if not all, of their lives. We’re kept prisoner down here – we aren’t criminals, Mistress is just a crazy bitch – and every week twenty ponies have to be tortured. Most of us have been here for a long time, and you have arrived in the middle of the first attempt to break out. As you can see, it hasn’t gone too well so far.”

“Why don’t you all make a break for the exit while you have a chance?”

“They’ll be expecting that. They’re probably guarding the door now. Any other questions?”

“Have you seen a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane?”

“Friend of hers, huh? Yes, she arrived on Monday. From what Ashes told us, she isn’t faring too well.” As he spoke, he began to trot around helping other ponies as they lined up the injured along the back of the stage, and lined up the casualties along one side. “See, her and a newer arrival – lavender-gray, blonde mane-“

“Cloud Kicker’s down here, too?”

“Apparently. The two of them had their wings clipped, but together they could still fly. They put on a flight show here in the cafeteria, but Mistress saw it and had the guards go rip all their feathers out. Cloud Kicker’s alright, but from what we’ve been told, Rainbow… not so much.”

“She is alive, right?”

“Yeah, but anything more than that I’m not sure about. You’d have to talk… to…” The strange stallion lifted his head and glanced around. “HEY! ANYPONY SEEN ASHES?” Their question was answered when a group of ponies emerged from a hallway.

“Wait, what happened here? Why isn’t there a fight going on? Did Mistress give up?” a strange mare with a necklace asked. She was helping a stallion support a mare with a prismatic mane…

“RAINBOW!” She ran up to Rainbow Dash, who was being lowered to the ground next to the rest of the injured ponies. Her advance was halted by none other than Cloud Kicker.

“Slow down there. She isn’t exactly in tackle-hug condition.”

“What happened?”

“How did you find us?”

“We’ve been looking for you girls since Wednesday. We found an abandoned shack with a locked door.”

“Wasn’t abandoned when Sunbeam and I found it. Mistress – you’ve met her, right?” Cloud Chaser nodded. “She was up there with a couple guards. They knocked us out with magic and we woke up down here behind a curtain. Next thing I know, Rainbow and I are doing a flight show, then we’re told we have to break out or we’re going to be tortured, then a couple guards come by and rip all our feathers out. They only got my adult ones, but they ripped a lot of blood feathers off of Dash, and… well… she lost a lot of blood, and to make things worse, she has blood poisoning.” She leaned in close to Cloud Chaser as she spoke the next sentence, making sure Rainbow wouldn’t hear. “We’re talking a matter of hours unless we get her to a hospital.”

“Well, I guess you’re lucky some more pegasi came along, otherwise once you got out, you’d be going nowhere fast. Where’d you get the wingblades, by the way?”

“Phoenix killed a pegasus guard and took them.”

“Wait, WHO did WHAT?”

The stallion who had been carrying Rainbow strode over, introducing himself and Ashes.

“So you killed a pony.”

“The ends justify the means.”

“Yeah, but the means aren’t exactly necessary. Isn't killing a bit harsh?”

“Well, let’s just call it payback for nineteen years of hell.”

The strange stallion from before interjected at this point. “Like I said, most of us have been here all our lives. This place isn’t exactly pleasant. To be honest, that pegasus was the only casualty on Mistress’s side so far. And, as you can see…” He indicated all the injured and deceased ponies. “She isn’t quite as reserved. At least we’ll have weapons for the second onslaught.”

Phoenix nodded gratefully at the stallion and returned his gaze to Cloud Chaser. “We’ll talk about this more once we’re out. For now, let’s just take this one step at a time.”

“Okay, what do we do?”

“First of all, Ashes, you’re good at dressing wounds and comforting those in pain. Go help the injured.”

“Got it.” Ashes immediately broke off and ran back to her house for medical supplies.

Second of all, what’s your name?”

“Cloud Chaser.”

“Cloud Kicker, give Cloud Chaser the wingblades. She can fly, so she’ll make better use of them.”

“Oh no. If you think you’re going to get me to kill other ponies…”

“Well, we don’t really have any other options. You’re in the middle of a battle. It’s either put on the wingblades and fight or cower in a corner and get killed.”

“Can’t somepony else do it?”

Phoenix let out an annoyed sigh. “Okay, who else down here can fly? It’s just you, all the other pegasi have clipped wings or had their wings cut off years ago.”

Cloud Chaser cringed at the thought of having her wings cut off, but continued the conversation in earnest. “Well, actually…” As she spoke, her search team trotted out from the crowd.”

“Well, this might even the odds a bit.”

At this point, Ashes returned and began speedily cleaning and dressing wounds. She made her way down the line quickly. Some ponies received a black piece of cloth, and when she got to the end of the line, she began making her way back through, stopping at each pony who had a black cloth and undoing her work to stitch up deeper gashes before replacing the gauze to soak up some of the blood. Phoenix glanced around. The cafeteria itself looked fine, but the stage was blood soaked and gruesome. There appeared to be a small pool of blood gathering at front center stage, dripping off of the front onto the floor of the cafeteria. It would have been horrifying to any outsider, and it was horrifying for Cloud Chaser’s search team, as well as for Cloud Kicker and Sunbeam. Rainbow wasn’t in much of a condition to take notice.

Before Phoenix had time to really space out, Mistress' voice brought him back to reality.

“ATTENTION PONIES. YOU HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES LEFT.”

“Well, we have to coordinate an effort. I have an idea but it won’t be easy. First off, Cloud Chaser, where’s the exit? Don’t worry, I’m not ditching out on the fight, I just need to know for when I’m trying to get everypony out of here.”

“There’s one hallway that’s darker than the rest. I’ll know which door it is that leads to the office with the staircase.”

“Good. Then everypony needs to attack while we go look for something, anything, that might help us. Who knows what she might have in her office in case things went to hell like this?”

“Right.”

Kicker trotted out in front of Cloud Chaser’s group of pegasi. “Who wants wingblades?” After a brief moment of silence, Thunderlane came forward and took the wingblades, strapped them on, and began limbering up for imminent flight.

“Everypony else, grab a knife and get ready.”

”FIVE MINUTES.”

Everypony rushed forward and grabbed a knife, and there were four left on the table once everypony had one. The last four were placed among the injured, both for safekeeping and in case any guards somehow got behind the front line.

”ONE MINUTE.”

Distant hoofsteps could be heard coming from the hallways. They gradually got closer. Some of the ponies got off the stage and stood sentinel next to the hallways, preparing for the guards to emerge. Thunderlane took to the air and flew up above the ponies on the stage, hovering there and preparing to dive for the first guard he saw.

The whole room was caught in a dreadful, deafening silence for the next few moments. Shadows could be seen emerging from the hallways. Before any of them could do anything, there was a dull flash of white, which dissipated to reveal a single canister in the middle of the cafeteria.