# Chapter S2

My head was pounding. At least today, it wasn’t a hangover but just the fact that some brute split my skull on the pavement between Coltchester and Trottingham. Just like yesterday, however, my mouth was all too dry.

"I fucking hate griffins," I said as Hammer simply 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 wind and those fucking 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!”

"Are you done?" he complained, clearly unable to ignore me as well as he wished.

"No the fuck I ain’t! They can’t just lock me up and expect me to sit quietly!" I shouted, taking off. After less than a metre of upward flight, there was a solid, though invisible ceiling. 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!

Still, expert flyer or no, the first time I’d flown up I’d slammed face first into the invisible barrier. I was no doctor, but I was decently certain that hadn’t helped with my headache.

I kept up my admittedly 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. I knew it wouldn’t get me out of here, but being overly dramatic would at the very least entertain me. All while venting my frustrations. Was a win-win, really.

Except for his Lordship, of course. He very much was 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 just 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 and I sat up on my rump. When I started looking around, I noticed a chest underneath the suspended plank I’d woken up on. 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 the fuck 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 trotted 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?"

"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, so I shot back sarcastically, "What gave you that idea? Maybe the fact that I word for word asked where we were when I woke up?"

"Ugh… I can’t stand brats. We’re in The Tower, dipshit," he said in a decidedly un-noble tone and choice of vocabulary.

The Tower? *That* Tower? The one that stood in the sea, by the eastern coast? That was the only thing that came to mind when he said that. 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 fourteen years. Even the Viscount has been mostly forgotten about."

"House Fell… Viscount… you mean Viscount Gaunt, the Four Point Oh?" Go me, receiving a better education in the span of a year than the rest of my life combined!

"Precisely. House Fell controls The Tower. Nowadays, it’s mostly used to get rid of ponies without having to kill them. I should have expected this…" He grumbled that last part to himself.

"Wait, why am I here? What did I do?" The answer was most likely that I had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

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, fuck 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. The noble, however, was only surprised at first, but then went back to his resigned expression.

"Seriously? You’re not even phased by *that*?" I said.

He seemed just as annoyed as before, still. "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." Maybe a day?”

I had somewhere to be! I couldn’t risk having them believe I'd just forgotten about my duties! "Well, I gotta go for real now."

***

This place was laid out like a maze. A quarter hour later, I was already lost. The good thing was that I didn’t feel like I was going around in circles, at least that meant I was exploring new areas. Well, maybe. The brick walls lit by torchlight all looked the same. On top of that, every corridor and every room had this weird ceiling that looked infinitely tall from far away, but turned out to be plain brick when I flew up towards it.

Out in the hallways, the illusory ceiling went slightly further up. It wasn’t much; just enough that I’d gotten my hopes up, only to be disappointed when it blocked my path. Oh, and I was refusing to think that the ceiling was invisible, for the sake of my sanity. Because I simply refused to imagine such a vast stretch up endless void was actually real.

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.

I was currently flying along a corridor, when the entire building shook again. I quickly moved away from the ceiling to see if anything was happening to the walls all the way up there. However, by the time I was far enough away, everything had gone back to normal. I was disappointed by the lack of insight for a brief moment, before noticing a black silhouette, flying far overhead.

"Okay, *weird.*" I’d decided the infinite ceiling was just some kind of illusion, but this was definitely enough to make me partly reconsider. *No, it’s got to be an illusion.*

However, what changed my mind was when the silhouette let out a piercing screech and started dive bombing in my direction. I quickly pulled back my crossbow’s string, loading a bolt. There was still a chance this pony was friendly, but I didn’t want to take my chances.

Quickly enough, it 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?

At first, I couldn’t see her—his?—face because of the dark. I could tell her black wings weren’t feathered and instead leathery. "Hi?" My voice was hesitant, but hopefully that would help me come across as non-combative. I really was in no shape to fight.

I’d talked to a few ki… kairohp… I’d spoken with a few bat-ponies 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 generally 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, given how cautiously she was approaching me.

After a few steps towards light and myself, 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 was entirely black, its eye sockets completely empty, and its fanged mouth ajar. It hissed again, lunging and spreading its wings. I flapped mine, launching myself backwards and simultaneously shot at its face. The bolt pierced into one of its eyes and it collapsed. Glowing green ichor spewed from the wound as it landed on the ground, unmoving.

In a swift, practised movement, I flipped around to avoid losing my balance from the bolt’s recoil. It wasn’t strictly necessary for such a light crossbow, but it was better than risking an airborne mishap.

I drew my crossbow again and flew upside down towards the ground—a trick I was *still* proud of. Not only was it hard to pull off in normal times, but being able to do it at any moment? Took months of daily practice, even for a natural like myself.

Anyway, this wasn’t the moment to be lost in thought. When I moved away from the ceiling, I noticed two more black shapes moving around up there, *both* coming my way. If only I could shoot them *before* they got to me. But noooo, there just *had* to be a one-way ceiling blocking my shots.

Actually… I didn’t know that. Maybe it just blocked *me* from passing. I took aim at the leftmost bat-creature-thing and shot… only for my bolt to stay stuck in the ceiling. Great.

And now it was coming for me, *and* I had to reload. Utterly fantastic.

Both of them immediately started descending. 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 swiftly dodged its body as it flew towards me with the rest of its momentum.

Overhead I heard more of them, but with the one behind I couldn’t afford to look now. This was bad, I only had like… three bolts left if my count was correct.

I turned around at the last second when the bat lunged. Pushing myself away with everything I had, I just barely managed to avoid its fangs, only one of them scraping the base of my neck.

Again, I poured every last ounce of strength and magic into my wings in an attempt to stop myself from crashing into the wall. It wasn’t enough, and the shock momentarily 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, because that would have been the end of me.

Before the bat could reach me again, I flew away as fast as I could. As I reached a corner, I slowed down enough to not need to push my limits taking the turn. I soon regretted that decision as I came face to face with another monster. Damn it, if I’d been faster, I could have just dashed past!

I saw a third take a rough landing a few metres behind it. I took but a millisecond to thank my luck that those things weren’t good flyers.

That short instant almost proved deadly as I didn’t have the time to slow down enough to dodge the lunging bat in front of me. Instincts taking over, I spread my wings in a way that made them act like hinges against the air. The stress on them was immense, but the almost pivoting motion allowed me to pass underneath its open jaws. The next moment, I was perfectly aligned to evacuate the excess momentum with a four-hooved buck right into its torso. It crashed into the ceiling with at least one bone audibly snapping. Meanwhile, I found myself tossed to the ground.

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!

*Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck,* I thought 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, but another idea popped into my mind. They always lurched with their wings spread, which meant that…

I gave a strong flap of my own, sending a gust of wind upwards. It wasn’t quite as strong as I wanted, since I didn’t get to use the usual range of movement. Still, it was enough to veer both of them off course.

This bought me *some* time, but not enough to properly flee, especially as the abomination that I’d sent into the ceiling was coming back to its senses. By the time I was back on my hooves, a dagger landed at them.

With practised ease, I slotted it into my front right horseshoe, right as the bat in front of me leapt again. With a flap of my wings, I dodged backwards. Its jaw slammed shut less than an inch of my throat, but that left it wide open. In a swift motion, I cut deeply into its neck. Green blood squirted onto my coat as I grabbed its corpse and, using its remaining momentum, tossed it against one of the two bats that were about to lunge.

Its fallen brother’s body stopped it dead in its tracks. That left me to deal with the other. Thankfully, adrenaline and a good weapon had finally gotten me back into the fight. Now that I was used to the height of the corridor, I comfortably dodged up, looped the loop and landed on its back. Before it could react, I plunged the dagger deeply into the back of its skull.

As I was trying to pull out, my feathers alerted me of another zombie bat falling down on me. However, it was too late to avoid it. The creature slammed into me, and I nearly stabbed myself in the stomach because of it. As I tried to wiggle free, its fangs planted themselves into my right shoulder. Screaming in pain, I threw my head backwards. I must have hit it square on the muzzle, because it recoiled, hissing.

This gave me the opening I needed to get back up and out from under it. Turning around, I swung my dagger at its face. However, my injured shoulder made the swing a lot slower than I hoped, and it had the time to dodge. Falling back, I drew my crossbow again. Luckily, it didn’t immediately go after me, simply staring at me instead. Was it wary? Were those things smarter than I thought? Once I slotted a bolt, I continued falling back. I had no idea if it would take the opening the moment I shot, but I didn’t want to take *any* risks.

Now that I had time to breathe, questions assaulted my mind. What the hell were those things even? Who gave me that knife?

As I arrived at a corner, my second question was answered as I spotted the red stallion I’d arrived with. "Thanks for the dagger," I told him.

"You’re probably more effective with it than me. You better protect me with it," he said flatly.

*I was gonna anyway, but now I feel less inclined to do so…*

However, my annoyance didn’t get to last long. Another bat turned the corner ahead of us. I’d seen a few rooms with *actual* ceilings. If we could just 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 said, flying towards the bat that had just appeared in the distance. I tried to keep my neck steady, but the up and down motion of flight seemed to put more and more stress on my wound. When I was close enough to be confident about my aim, I shot the creature in front, embedding a bolt in its right eye socket.

Then came a thud from behind me. I turned around, only to notice that it was just Halterdawn, sprawled on the ground. "Get up!" I hissed, unable to hide the annoyance in my voice.

"I slipped on *your* fucking blood!" he shot back.

"Gee, sorry about that. Lemme just bleed less, why don’t I?"

Two more abominations dropped at the end of the corridor, and I heard the flap of wings of the one above us. It dove towards Halterdawn, but I intercepted it mid flight and slit its throat. To make matters worse, my vision was starting to blur and my breath was much shorter than I liked.

As I bolted into the nearby room, I closed the door and drew my crossbow again. Its ceiling was open, but this had to do for now. "Hide under the bed," I ordered the useless noble while looking for anything to slow the bleeding. I had to make do with one of the dirty rags haphazardly draped over the suspended plank that served as a cot. As the bats banged on the door—there were now at least four on the other side—I tied the tissue 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. 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 fucking miracle.

A bat landed in front of me. I sluggishly raised my dagger against it, only for it to effortlessly dodge back and knock my leg aside. With more mental energy than I could spare, I focused the creature’s silhouette into sharpness.

Only then did I realise this was no mindless zombie, but an actual chiro-whatever. She was wearing midnight blue full 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 starting to ring louder and louder. The edges of my vision were, too, growing darker and darker, but I was still able to see another bat land in front of me. "Where is the noble?" From where I lay, he seemed absolutely gigantic.

The mare undid a bottle from her belt, taking a step towards me. When he saw this, the buck 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, and noticed Halterdawn 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 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 the fatigue finally overwhelmed me.