My head was pounding. At least today, it wasn’t a hangover but some brute splitting my skull on the road between Coltchester and Trottingham. Just like yesterday, though, my mouth was all too dry.
“I fucking hate griffins,” I said while Halterdawn stared at the ceiling—no, not ceiling… sky?—ignoring my ramblings. “They’re all so big, all they have is their size and muscles. Pegasi have to learn intricate ways of manipulating air currents and those stupid birds can just… flap their wings harder. Even bats have more magic in their flight, and they’re already way below pegasi.” I groaned. “Seriously, how unfair is that? And they get to live longer, to boot!”
Halterdawn groaned. He’d been trying to ignore me, but his patience had limits. “Are you done?” he asked. In a little bit over half an hour, I’d lost any respect I might have had for him.
“No the fuck I ain’t! They can’t just lock me up and expect me to sit quietly!” I took off mid-sentence to cross my forelegs. After less than a metre of upward flight, a ceiling materialised out of thin air. I started hammering against it with all four of my hooves.
With my skill, I had no issue flying upside down. Good luck trying that, griffin muscleheads! No amount of physical strength could change the way your wings pushed air. But magic could. Suck on that, you beaked cunts! Too bad that this idiot Halterdawn couldn’t appreciate how awesome I was.
Still, expert flyer or no, the first time I’d flown up, I’d slammed face first into the ceiling. I was no doctor, but I was decently certain that hadn’t helped with my headache.
I kept up my futile attempts to break out for another minute or two, until my head started spinning from the physical and magical exertion. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal in… I didn’t even know how long! I landed on the ground, too dizzy to bother standing. “Fuck this place, dude.”
At this point, I was bitching and moaning for the sake of bitching and moaning. It wouldn’t get me out of here, but being overly dramatic would at the very least make me feel better. All while venting my frustrations. A win-win, really.
Except for his Lordship, of course. He was very much having the opposite of fun. He should join me. Weren’t nobles normally amazing at complaining?
I lay on the ground for a few minutes, catching my breath all while contemplating going to sleep here and now. At least it would pass the time, right? Stars above, I was so bored. But the hard, cold, stone floor was quickly becoming uncomfortable. I sat up on my rump and took a third proper look around the cell.
It wouldn’t bring anything, but I might as well. To my surprise, though, I proved myself wrong. Underneath the wooden plank I’d woken up on sat a chest. Curious, I pulled it out and opened it.
Inside, I found my guard tunic, crossbow, and bolts, as well as the rest of my belongings. I furrowed my brow. “Why in Tartarus would they lock us up with our weapons…?” Glad to finally have something to drink, I took a sip from my cantine.
This made absolutely no sense. None at all! Unless… we weren’t meant to be locked up? I stood up, head spinning briefly, and walked towards the door. I tried the handle, and got it open.
I turned to Lord Halterdawn with what I could only hope was an expression of utter disappointment. “Seriously‽ You didn’t even try to open the door of the cell you’re locked up in?” I had an excuse, I’d assumed he had tried it already.
“Why would I? Do you really not get where we are?” Hey, why was he saying that like I was the idiot here?
I couldn’t let him have the last word. “Yeah, no shit, I don’t, what gave you the idea? Maybe the fact that I word-for-word asked where we were when I woke up?”
“Ugh… I can’t stand idiots. We’re in The Tower, dipshit.” His tone and choice of vocabulary were decidedly un-noble.
The Tower? That Tower? The one that stood in the sea, by the western coast? That was the only thing that came to mind when he said this. Why would we be in there? “Isn’t that just an old mare’s tale to scare fillies into behaving?”
Halterdawn scoffed. “Of course your generation would believe that. House Fell has been out of the game for the past forty-seven years. Even the Viscount has been mostly forgotten about.”
“House Fell… Viscount… you mean Viscount Gaunt, the 4.0?” Go me, receiving a better education in the span of five years than the rest of my life combined!
Halterdawn sighed. “Yes, precisely that one.” Then, he grumbled to himself, “I should have expected this. Shouldn’t have trusted those rich fucks.”
“Wait, why am I here? What did I do?” The answer was probably something along the lines of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the details escaped me.
Halterdawn rolled his eyes. “Can’t you think a little for yourself? It’s obvious you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Okay, screw this dude. I got that he was cranky because he was thrown in here, but he didn’t have to take it out on me. “Alright then, I’m off to find a way out.” As I slipped into my garb and put on my saddlebags, the ground and walls shook like crazy. So much, in fact, that I might have been knocked off my hooves if it hadn’t been for my wings. Halterdawn, however, was surprised only at first, but then went back to his resigned expression.
My jaw dropped, and I furrowed my brow, shaking my head. “Seriously? You’re not even phased by that?”
He was exactly as annoyed as before. “I was, the first three times it occurred. It just happens, deal with it.”
“Okay, how long was I out? How long have we been here?”
“I lost track of time. That’s how long.” After rolling his eyes, he added, “Maybe half a day?”
I had somewhere to be! I couldn’t risk having Pearflower believe I'd forgotten about my duties! Or worse, that I was skipping them on purpose! “Well, I gotta go for real now, was good talking to you.” If he wanted to stay here, that would be his choice.
This place was laid out like a maze. A quarter hour later, I was already lost. The good thing was that I wasn’t going in circles. At least it felt like that, but I couldn’t tell for sure. The brick walls lit by torchlight all looked the same. On top of that, every corridor and every room had this weird ceiling that stretched out infinitely far when viewed from the floor, but turned out to be plain brick when I flew towards it.
Out in the hallways, the illusory ceiling was slightly taller. It wasn’t much; just enough that I’d gotten my hopes up, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be solid. In a way, I was glad this was all just an illusion, because the idea of such a vast stretch of endless void above me hurt my sanity.
Really, the only thing nice about the current situation was how light my body felt, even with the hunger and concussion. At least when I was airborne. Hades, in my current state, flying was easier than walking.
The entire building shook again, knocking me out of my loop of thoughts. I let myself fall a metre to see if anything was happening to the walls inside the illusory ceiling. Not that anything could happen, given that they weren’t real. They couldn’t be.
However, by the time I was far enough away, everything had gone back to normal. Then again, the smart conclusion was that nothing had changed at all. The lack of insight was disappointing, but—
Was that a flyer? Was somepony inside the ceiling?
“Okay, weird.” It was almost enough to make me reconsider my complete and utter certainty about the illusion, but I am clever, I wouldn’t fall for tricks like that.
However, what changed my mind was when the silhouette let out a piercing screech and dove towards me. I quickly pulled back my crossbow’s string and loaded a bolt. There was still a chance this pony was friendly, but I didn’t want to take my chances.
She soon landed in front of me, seemingly unbothered by the artificial ceiling. So the ceiling definitely wasn’t an illusion. One-way force-field, then? Were those even a thing? But then, the endless dark would—No time to think about that, Silver!
Her—his?—face obscured by the dark, she took a step towards me. Her black wings weren’t feathered, instead reflecting light much like polished leather would.
“Hi?” My voice was hesitant, but hopefully that would help me come across as non-combative. I was in no shape to fight.
I’d talked to a few saro… saroj… I’d spoken with a few batponies before. I knew what they looked like and that they weren’t all too different from us pegasi. They lived longer in general, but still got outlived by earth ponies, let alone unicorns. Still, they were usually more than happy to chat with a fellow flyer. This filly? Not so much, judging by the caution she put into every step forward.
As it stepped towards me and into the light, its features became clear. It didn’t take a genius to realise that this thing was far from friendly as it hissed at me.
Its fur and eyes were entirely black, and its fanged mouth hung open. It hissed again, lunging and spreading its wings. I flapped mine, launching myself backwards before raising my crossbow. The bolt skewered its right eye and the monster collapsed, spewing glowing green from its wound.
In a swift, practised movement, I flipped around to avoid losing my balance from the bolt’s recoil—even though it wasn’t strictly needed for such a small crossbow.
With my shoe’s hook, I drew my crossbow’s string back and flew upside down towards the ground—a trick that filled me with pride even during such a tense moment. Not only was it hard to pull off in normal times, but being able to do it under pressure? Took months of daily practice, even for a natural like myself.
This really wasn’t the moment to be lost in thought. When I dropped down, there were two more black shapes moving around up there, both coming my way. I lamented not being able to shoot through the ceiling, but didn’t let it slow me.
Actually… I didn’t know that. Maybe it only blocked ponies from passing. I took aim at the leftmost bat-creature-thing and shot… only for my bolt to get stuck in the ceiling. Not surprising, but still disappointing.
Either due to bad timing, or because they’d heard me, both creatures started diving towards me. Frantically reloading, I managed to dodge the first bat as it landed, only for its buddy to cut off the path ahead of me. Seriously, how unfair was this? I wasted no time complaining and shot the one in front as it lunged. I dodged its dead body with ease.
The piercing screech of another thing reached my ears, but I couldn’t afford to look now, not when I was already surrounded. Worse yet, I was starting to run out of bolts. I had, what, three left? What if it was less? Should I recount to make sure?
No time for that. I turned around at the last moment as the bat lunged. Pushing myself away with everything I had, I barely managed to avoid its fangs, only one of them scraping the base of my neck. The gash was far more bark than bite, burning horribly, but not actually dangerous.
Again, I poured every last ounce of strength and magic into my wings in an attempt to stop myself from crashing into the wall. My efforts failed me, and the shock knocked the wind out of my lungs.
Two seconds weren’t enough to catch my breath, but they were all I could afford right now. I was lucky I hadn’t slammed my head against the brick wall.
Before the bat could reach me, I took off and flew as fast as possible, leaving it in the dust. A mindless beast had no chance of keeping up with me.
Reaching a turn, I slowed down to take it without pushing my limits. I immediately regretted that decision when I found myself a mere few metres away from a kneeling monster. Damn it, if I’d been faster, I could have dashed past! Now I wouldn’t get there in time.
A third took a rough landing far behind it, one of its bones snapping noisily under the impact. I took a millisecond to thank my luck that those things weren’t good flyers.
That short instant almost proved fatal, as the bat in front of me lunged. Instincts took over. I spread my wings, lowered my head, and spun my whole body backward. I clenched my teeth. The stress nearly ripped every tendon in my wings, but the manoeuvre allowed me to duck underneath the jaws snapping shut where my head had been a millisecond prior.
The next moment, I was perfectly aligned to dump the excess momentum with a four-hooved buck right into its torso. It crashed into the ceiling, skull cracking loudly enough to echo. Meanwhile, I found myself tossed to the ground with enough force to stun me for Stars knew how long. A moment later, the beast fell next to me with a thump.
It wasn’t as rough as my previous encounter with the wall, but I knew I was in trouble. I had to get up, but I just didn’t have the time! Wherever I moved, I wouldn’t have enough momentum to dodge those other two!
Screaming swears inside my head, as I desperately scrambled to get up. When I heard them pounce in near unison, I knew it was too late to get out of the way. A flash of genius crossed my mind at the last moment.
I turned onto my back and gave a strong flap of my wings, sending a gust of wind upwards. It wasn’t quite as strong as I had hoped, since the floor blocked my range of movement, but it was enough to veer both of the monsters off course.
This bought me some time, but not enough to flee, especially as the abomination that I’d sent into the ceiling was already coming back to its senses, somehow still alive. By the time I was back on my hooves, a dagger landed by them with a clink. What? No time to think.
With practised ease, I slotted it into my front right horseshoe, right as the bat in front of me leapt again. A single flap of my wings later, I dodged backwards. Its jaw slammed shut right before my neck, its foul breath hot on my fur. That left it wide open. In a swift motion, I slit its throat, glowing green blood gushing out onto my coat. Don’t think.
I pulled it back over me, its remaining momentum helping me pivot mid-air. I kicked the corpse backwards at the bat ready to lunge, using it as a springboard to fly away in the opposite direction.
That left me to deal with the bat on the other side. Were there more? I was starting to lose track of them. Don’t think. It threw itself at me.
Adrenaline and a good weapon on my side, I had nothing to fear. Now that I was used to the height of the corridor, I comfortably dodged up. Pushing myself off the ceiling, I plunged the dagger through the back of its skull before it could even react. Would that be enough to kill it? Don’t think.
Air currents alerted my feathers to another monster diving for me. The creature slammed into me, pinning me to the ground, my blade still stuck in the skull. Before I could break out, the bat brought down its fangs on the base of my neck, barely above my right shoulder. My skin opposed them for a horrifying fraction of a second before ripping under the stress.
When it scraped my collarbone, I screamed in pain and threw my head back. The angle was awkward, the shock hurt me more than my opponent, but it gave me a brief opening. On their way out, the fangs tore my flesh some more.
That window was all I needed to turn onto my back, kick it off me, and pull out my blade. In the same motion, I swung the dagger at its face, splattering the nearby wall with my own blood. The blow was a lot weaker and slower than expected, allowing the bat to dodge backwards.
Flapping my wings, I fell back and reloaded my crossbow. The bat didn’t immediately lunge, staring at me instead. Was it wary? Were those things smarter than I thought? I had no idea if it would take the opening the moment I shot, but I didn’t want to take any risks. Somehow, neither did it, as it watched me leave.
Now that I had a few seconds to breathe, questions assaulted my mind. What in Tartarus were those things? Who gave me that knife? Where the Hades was I? Would I survive this wound? That was a lot of blood pouring down my back. I clutched my neck with my good leg, wincing at the deep hole and strip of flesh.
As I arrived at a corner, my second question was answered. Halterdawn cowered behind it, occasionally taking a peek at me. “Thanks for the dagger,” I told him.
“You’re probably more effective with it than me. You better protect me with it.” He scoffed. The nerve on that pony.
However, my annoyance was cut short. Another bat turned the corner ahead of us. I’d gone past a few rooms with actual ceilings when flying around aimlessly earlier. At least I was pretty sure I had. If we could find one of them, it would be a defensible position. Hopefully it would give me enough time to stop the bleeding.
But I had to take a gambit first.
“Follow me.” I flew back where I’d come from. A bat was trotting towards us, intent but under no pressure. Was it still the same one? It didn’t have any blood on its muzzle.
I tried to keep my neck steady as I approached it, but the up and down motion of flight seemed to put more and more stress on the wound. I bit my lip and ignored the pain as I pushed on.
Finally close enough, I took aim and pulled the trigger. The bat didn’t dodge, and my bolt pierced into its skull. A shiver ran down my spine.
Then came a thud from behind me. I spun around, ready to impale the bat on my dagger. However, the only creature behind me was Halterdawn, sprawled out on the ground.
“Get up!” I no longer had the time or motivation to hide my annoyance. He huffed, but did as told while I loaded another bolt. One left.
“I slipped on your fucking blood!” He pointed at my chest in emphasis.
“Gee, sorry about that. Lemme just bleed less, why don’t I?” Did I even have a reason to not leave him to die right now? What the Hades was his problem?
Two more abominations dropped at the end of the corridor, and I heard the flap of wings of the one above us. It dove at Halterdawn, but I intercepted it mid-flight and slit its throat. As little effort as it was, I still found myself panting, my vision blurring.
I bolted into the nearby room and closed the door right behind Halterdawn. Its ceiling was open, but this had to do for now. “Hide under the bed,” I ordered while looking for anything to slow the bleeding. I quickly settled on some dirty rags haphazardly draped over a suspended plank.
As the bats banged on the door—there were now at least four on the other side, judging by the frequency—I tied the cloth around my torso as tightly as I could. I doubted it would be good enough to stop the bleeding, but it was better than nothing, right? As grim as this situation looked, at least there weren’t any shadows above us anymore.
Hah. I just had to think that. I just fucking had to.
More silhouettes than I could count with my blurry vision appeared above us, rapidly circling down. Was this my end? It couldn’t be. I was way too good a fighter to die in such stupid circumstances. But then, what else could I do? Pray for a miracle? I needed reinforcements, not a Sun-damned miracle.
A bat landed in front of me. I sluggishly raised my dagger against it, only for it to sidestep my blow and knock my leg aside. I took another swing at the silhouette, but it caught my hoof.
With more mental energy than I could spare, I focused the world into sharpness. This was no mindless zombie, but an actual batpony. She was wearing midnight blue half plate armour, dark grey fur showing through the few gaps in it. Her eyes were assessing me in a mixture of concern and fear, but she wasn’t hostile. This realisation was all that my body needed to give out, and my legs buckled out underneath me.
The room was spinning still, and my ears were ringing louder and louder. The edges of my vision were, too, growing ever darker, but I was still able to see another bat land in front of me. He was gigantic. “Where is that noble?” he said.
The mare undid a bottle from her belt, taking a step towards me. When he saw this, the stallion pointed to me and said, “And who’s this?”
Since all my willpower was going into just staying awake, I didn’t have the strength to reply as the mare poured the tincture over my wounds.
“Not sure. He did a good job protecting Lord Halterdawn, though.” She paused for a moment to inspect my wound and make sure the bleeding had properly stopped. “According to Gate, the Lord was brought here along with somepony. I think it’s safe to assume he’s a retainer.”
I checked the cot next to me, where Halterdawn was crawling out of his hiding spot, much slower than he needed to.
With how calm their discussion was, I found it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. The batpony stallion grumbled, “So he shall have to come along with the noble. How irritating.”
“You should see the upside, Captain Sir, Aurora will be more than happy to have somepony like him. After all—”
That was the point where I finally passed out.