Escape from the Wedding

Sarinas entered the library with a smile. With all the security off at the wedding, she didnt even have to worry about talking her way into the library, not that it would have been that difficult, given who her father was and all-- one of the few things she appreciated her father for.

She kicked her back leg a little bit-- she hated this dress she was expected to wear every time there was a formal even going on-- she knew it was traditional for fillies from their native land to wear such things-- but-- well-- this just wasnt her-- she wasnt even sure why she was expected to go to the wedding-- luckly she was able to slip out to some place more interesting.

She trotted into the library looking around, not even sure where to start. She'd only been in here once before and got almost no time to look for anything of interest.

"Hello?" she called out as she walked into the library, her hoofsteps muffled a little bit by the sandals she was wearing.

Continued from this...https://mlp-fim-oc-rp.rpg-board.net/t490-meanwhile#6585

"Mmph? Mmph!"

When Elegance awoke, she was bound and gagged. And really, really angry. Flailing violently, she tried to make as much noise as possible. After an hour or so, she had stopped to rest. And think.

She recognised it was the library. She had been here before. She wondered why her kidnappers had brought her here, but not half as much as she wondered how to get out of this mess. Examining her ropes, she surmised that her captors were not lacking in tying proficiency. There was no pony guarding her, hich was somewhat ditsturbing. Perhaps a guard wasn't needed, for any rescue would be...

The wedding! Of course. Everypony would be distracted by that damn frivolous display. She never liked that Princess Candance, but now her wedding was ruining her life. Goddesses.

When she heard the hesitant 'Hello?' she started a racket again, drawing attention. Anypony, anypony at all would be wanted.

Sarinas' ears perked up as she heard some kind of muffled yelling noise. She started slowly walking through the library, listening carefully for where the noise was coming from. She looked down isles before finally deciding a certain direction. She looked down isles as she continued to go, hearing the noise getting louder-- louder--

At last she looked down an isle, and in the very corner of the back isle was a filly bound up with ropes. Sarinas rushed to the young mares side and quickly pulled the gag from her mouth and began biting at the ropes to pull them off, finally freeing Elegance from her bindings.

"What happened to you?" Sarinas asked in complete confusion.

Elegance stared at her rescuer. A zebra in a formal dress of all things. There were so many things wrong with that image that it wasn't until her question that Elegance was bought down to a level of speech.

"What does it look like?" she said, a little cross, "I was abducted and tied up. Thus the ropes. As for why..." She glared at nopony in particular. "Treachery. Somepony was after important documents, and I'm afraid they have succeeded. This is now a matter of national emergency."

Her glare grew in intensity. "Or it would be, if the Captain of the Guard wasn't currently getting married to his betrothed. How irritating. Extremely irritating. This cannot do."

She turned her gaze to the zebra. "I must thank you for rescuing me, but Canterlot itself might be in danger. Did you see any guard on the way here? News of this must get to the princesses as soon as possible!" Her tone turned even darker. "For I fear the worst..."

Sarinas started to open her mouth to speak but Elegance never gave her the opportunity to get much in. "Do yah have any idea who would want to do this to yah?" She asked with some general concern, despite Elegance being a little short with her.

Sarinas looked up to the young mare when she mentioned the wedding-- she wasnt quite sure if she knew exactly what time it was-- and that the wedding was setting to start any minute now.

"All the guards are at the wedding-- as is Princess Celestia--" Sarians explained to Elegance, "Princess Luna is likely asleep by this point--" she told her.

Elegance stared at the zebra in horror. "So I'm forced to decide whether to interrupt the most prestigous wedding in a decade, a wedding that has already been interupted, or leave this to lie? By-What-arrgh! They told me this was a matter of highest security and all the guards are at a wedding? Next time a royal guard tells me to snoop through my brother's stuff for 'national security', I'm going to tell him to stick it up where Celestia's sun does not shine!"

The young noble stomped her hooves in a way not befitting of somepony of her status. "Worst of all, I do not know how much danger Equestria is in. The AME could be anything! The authorities thought it might be trouble, though..." She started pacing up and down, muttering to herself until...

"You!" She proclaimed quite suddenly, pointing to the zebra, "What would you do, if there is a chance Ponyville might be in danger, but you have to interrupt the wedding to warn everypony? For if you do, and there was no threat, you shall be shamed for causing trouble. If you don't nd there is...well, I don't have to elaborate further."

Sarinas just watched Elegance in complete bewilderment. There was clearly something big going on, but she had no idea what it was. She couldn't make heads or tails of the little mares rants. She kept wanting to ask questions, but never had the opening to get a word in.

Finally Elegance turned directly to her and asked her a question about other ponys safety, "Well-- I do not know much about Ponyville," she admitted, "but if ponies are in danger-- I think yah have to do something about it..." she explained her thoughts.

"Okay-- listen-- calm down--" Sarinas tried to calm Elegance, "what exactly is going on? whats the AME?" she tried to get answers.

"I don't know! That is the point!" Elegance snapped, "But apparently it was important enough to abduct me and steal documents about. The fact that it was hidden says something somewhat sinister..." It wasn't hidden very well, she amended in her mind, but it was hidden well enough to make her seriously worried.

"Plus, the fact that security had been ramped up so much because of an unknown threat...what if this was the threat they were talking about is this? Never mind what the Element of Magic was ranting about the Bride..." She frowned. She still didn't quite understand what was going on there.

Her gaze returned to the zebra suspiciously. "And if everypony is at the wedding, why are you here?"

Sarinas narrowed her gaze and frowned at the excitable filly-- she was not thrilled being snapped at when she was trying to talk calmly to help get things figured out.

"I am not much the--fancy event type..." Sarinas explained to answer Elegance's question, "I was there with my family and decided to slip out just before the events started-- We will probably be able to find Princess Celestia afterwards to tell her what is going on," she explained.

"But we are not going to get anything accomplished standing here freaking out," she told Elegance, "so we should probably get moving," she said, motioning towards the door.

"Freak out? I do not freak..." Elegance bit her tongue and shook her head, "You are right, we should get moving. Now." She strode towards the library doors in haste.

As she was moving, she figured she might as well talk to her rescuer. "You are one of the ambassadors from the Zebra Nations, am I correct? Seems almost improper to sneak out of a prestigous event." She shook her head. "But if more ponies were like you and actually did their jobs instead of being sidetracked by distractions, this probably would not have happened like this. A wedding is no excuse for guards to leave their duties. Why if it weren't for the bubble spell protecting Canterlot, you wouldn't think we are in a state of lockdown! Not only that, I heard it was the groom in charge of spell! An inefficient division of duties, I should think! One should delegate, when one has the resources availiable!"

Pushing the doors of the library open, Elegance squinted against the sudden light and took a deep breath.

"I am the daughter of the ambassador," Sarinas explained, "my father is the ambassador, my family will probably be too busy rubbing hooves with Canterlot upper class to even notice my absence." she said with some spite.

"You seem to have a lot of dislike for the royals..." Sarinas noted as they walked towards the door, "I mean, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza can be a little-- rude-- but I have met Shining Armor and I thought he was quite a nice stallion..." she explained.

Sarinas opened the other door of the entrance way open and stared in shock at what she saw. Black creatures were running down the streets of Canterlot. One turned to stare at the two mares and Sarinas took action and grabbed Elegance to move her out of the way before kicking the two doors shut. The doors began to move as the creature began pushing on it and Sarinas braced herself against the door.

"What are those things!?" she cried in a mix of emotions.

Elegance was shocked to her very bones. This...couldn't happen. Canterlot couldn't be invaded, it just couldn't. Not her city. Not her home. Being abducted was nothing compared to this. All of her certainty, all of her pride was stripped away in mere seconds.

Shaking, she turned to the zebra, eyes wide. "That...was...proof that though...Lord Armour might be nice...his security measures leave...muchtobedesired," she managed to stammer. Taking a deep breath, she then slammed a restraining bolt across the door. There were many valuable texts in here, she thought, surely there would be security built into the library. Unfortunately, the many runes on the door suggested that most of the locks were magical, and she had no way of activating them.

"Now what do we do?" she asked, but it was as much to herself as it was to the ambassador's daughter.

After Elegance put in the restraining bolt, Sarinas moved away from the door slowly, preparing herself to use her body again to keep it shut if the bolt proved to not be enough. When the door remained solid, she sighed a breath of relief and began to step away from the door. She was stopped suddenly. She looked down and her dressed had become caught in the door. She shook her head with annoyance and pulled herself out of it, leaving it stuck to the door.

She stepped away from the door and stared at it, studying it, trying to come up with anything to do. "I assume you are unable to activate the magical seals on the door with your magic...?" she asked, looking at Elegance's horn.

Sarinas looked around the library without moving from her standing spot. She kept seeing some shadows passing by some of the windows near the top of the library. "We can remain here and wait until this threat is gone..." Sarinas explained, "or go out there and hope they are not as strong as they look..." Sarinas said, turning to Elegance.

"Those are our only two options," Sarinas said with a sound of distress, "I can hold my own in a fight if need be... do you have any way to defend yourself...?"

Elegance shook her head rapidly. "Oh no, I'm a builder, not a fighter. Can hardly do anything with this horn," she sniffed, "And the only physical abuse I have ever had the misfortune to apply to use was slapping a stallion that got far too close for comfort."

Her gaze followed the zebra's up to the windows and the shadows cast by the unknown enemy. "If this truly is an invasion," she said slowly, not quite believing her own voice, "Then we really cannot simply stand around doing nothing. But neither do I think us fighting back would do us any good. With only two of us and that many of them, we would be ineffectual. Everypony else is at the wedding." She clicked her tongue. "This is why I was wary of the groom maintaining the bubble spell. He was compromised far too easily, and there was no guards on patrol..."

She didn't voice her fears that somehow her brother and his 'AME' was involved in said compromising of security. If it was, she decided, it was up to her to make it right.

"There are about a billion ways in and out of this place. It was designed by one of my ancestors, and he was a bit...unhinged. I think I can find a way to the sewer systems-" She scrunched her face in distaste at the thought of crawling around through the city's literal underworld, "And there, we can go to anyplace in the city, from the palace to the mountainside. They wouldn't be down there would they?"

She started walking deeper into the library, "But the question remains. Where shall we go? And what shall we do?"

"I am not a fighter either but I have got a good back kick" Sarinas said, looking back at the door, "I do not know what those things are-- but something tells me a swift kick to the face from a zebra will be more than enough to take down a couple of those bugs..." Sarinas smirked.

"Well-- everyone is at the wedding-- Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, my father, the guards, the elements..." Sarinas mused to Elegrance, "so if we get to the Castle we will at least be meeting up where everyone else capable of stopping this is at..." She answered.

"Meeting up with them is more than anything we will be able to do on our own..." She muttered anxiously.

"A couple, yes, maybe. An army? Probably not. But you're right, getting to the wedding is the highest priority. I think-"

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

Gigantic windows were not the best structures for security, a quiet part of Elegance's mind commented as the windows were systematically broken into. Elegance had a good look at the invaders for the first time. They were in some ways similar to pegasi, but also insects. And they were coming.

"-we should run. Run like Nightmare Moon was chasing us."

As she broke into a sprint, she called back to the zebra, "Keep up! And don't let me out of your sight! Getting lost in the deeper sections of the library might be worse than getting captured by them!"

As the invaders swarmed in, Elegance ran in and out of the bookshelves, following a winding path, deeper into the library, and looking back every so often to check that her companion was still there.

Sarinas began running and caught quickly up to Elegance. Like earth ponys, zebras were great runners-- and she was a very athletic zebra. "Yah do not have to worry about me keeping up" Sarinas said with a smile as she stayed glued right behind Elegance.

As one of the creatures came at them, Sarinas hesitated and gave one a swift kick to the face, doubling it over and knocking it out. Sarinas again tailed right behind Elegance, "I will keep yah flank covered," Sarinas told the unicorn, "these things are not so tough one on one..."

"Great! Fantastic!" Elegace called, running to another door, "In here!"

Through the door were the library's inner chambers, where the books themselves trembled with magic. If one listened closely, they could hear whispers of information from unseen tongues in the air. If one looked closely, they could see the various tomes tremble in place, held only by the other texts. If one smelt closely, they could smell knowledge.

The door automatically sealed shut behind them, and Elegance slowed down to regain her breath. "Hah...okay," she whispered. It was a library, after all, and this wasn't just any library. "Those doors-" she pointed behind her, "Can only be opened by two groups of ponies. Senior Librarians, and the family members of the one that built this place for checking up on the building and structure. I fall into the latter catagory. I don't even know if Celestia herself can get in."

She looked around. "Whatever you do, do not get lost in here. Even I have to rely on the ceiling paintings to find my way, and the bookshelves go all the way up, so even wings can't help you. And my older brother says some of the books...like to play tricks on you. They can't get in here anyway so we can go slow and-"

The door behind them opened, revealing a pony that looked exactly like Elegance in the doorway.

Sarinas spun around to look at the closed door as soon as it sealed up. She looked it over before trotting over to Elegance, not at all out of breath. She looked about the room curiously, a bit interested and bewildered by the tomes lining the shelves.

"I have never seen any place like this before," Sarinas said, looking at some of the books on the shelf, "These books are old... really old..." she pointed out.

Sarinas spun around as the door opened, staring in bewilderment at the other Elegance. She walked cautiously part way between the two Elegances. "What is going on here...?"

Elegance glared at the imposter, who smirked in return. "Who are you?" the noblepony demanded.

The imposter's smirk grew as she walked into the chamber, followed by a number of more Elegances and zebras. Putting two and two together, Elegance gasped.

"It's them!" she cried, "The invaders! They turned into us!" Though it was a cry, the enchantments on the place reduced the volume considerably. Tensing, Elegance backed away into the magical bookshelves, keeping an eye on the imposters.

Them in front, the library at their backs. Truly, a rock and a hard place. Traversing this place was difficult in normal conditions, let alone these. The whispering grew in volume as she backed deeper. After a moment or two's hesitation, the imposters advanced at the same, slow pace.

Sarinas stared in disbelief as her mirror image also entered the room along with a couple versions of the unicorn she had been with. She stood frozen unsure what to do. The sound of Elegance backing into the bookshelf snapped Sarinas out of her haze.

She shook her head and narrowed her eyes. She scratched her hoof on the ground and lowered her head. With a swift charge she headbutted the front Elegance imposter right in the ribs, sending it topping over and against a wall, where it turned back into its normal black self.

She turned to face the remaining number of Elegance and Sarinas doppelgangers as she braced her stance, ready to fight against the numbers, out numbered at least 5-to-1, if not worse depending if there were more of these creatures elsewhere in the librar.y

"Get out of here!" Sarinas yelled to Elegance, her voice mixed with a combination of fear and determination. The look on her face was serious, "go to the princess-- I will hold them off as long as I can!" she said, her voice a little shaky.

Elegance bit her lip. This wasn't part of the plan, and she should continue running to get the Princesses. That might have been the smart thing to do, it wasn't as if she could much here. As she said before, she was a builder, a designer, an artist, not a fighter. But it felt somehow wrong, to leave the zebra to fight , outnumbered. Especially after being rescued by her. It felt like it went against a very strong part of her mentality.

Her attention was caught by one of the whispering texts to her side. Looking at it, it was a large green volume that boasted 2,000 pages. Taking one last wistful glance behind her, she levitated the text with a small grunt, and switched her direction.

"Damn Celestia and her stupid friendship and harmony speeches..." she grumbled as she walked up next to her ally. She was going to have a hard time justifying this to herself later. "Don't ask. Don't," she growled.

Sarinas looked over at Elegance in surprise as she stepped up next to her with the book. Sarinas took a step forward and looked back at her. "You do not have to do this..." Sarinas said with some concern, "They do not seem that strong, I can stall them while yah get away..." She tried to explain to Elegance.

Sarinas' concern for her associate was interupted as the creatures got tired of waiting-- One of them attempted to grapple her, which lead to her swiftly kicking it with her hind legs sending it hard into a nearby wall. It too returned to its normal appearance.

Two more jumped at Sarinas. "Go~!" she cried in panic, struggling with the creatures, "before it is too late, do not be a foal!"

2,000 pages of How to Kille Insects slammed into the face of one of the not-Elegances, sending it flying sideways into the not-Sarinas next to her. The text staggered back from the force of the blow, and Elegance winced to keep it airborne.

She didn't respond to the impassioned pleas of the zebra, concentrating on wielding the text like a clumsy shield, blocking any attempts at her. If she had the chance she would have said that she didn't want to explain to the ambassador of the Zebra nations that she left his daughter to be taken by the foe. She would have said that she couldn't have simply let them rampage inside one the family's projects. She would have said that though she was no fighter, she was no coward either.

She would not deny she felt foalish, though.

Especially when one of the not-Sarinases grabbed her. Forgetting the book, she struck the not-zebra across the face, hard. It staggered back, puzzled, before striking Elegance in the face.

As the two creatures attempted to restrain Sarinas, she began to buck wildly to get them off of her. The first one near her rear end was kicked in the face, leaving it flat on its back and unconscious. The other held on with a little more force, this one was a mirror image of her and that irritated her. She was used to have a mirror image around, her brother looked a lot like her-- a more muscular her-- but they even shared the same markings-- This this creature did not earn those stripes through birth...

Sarinas reached over with her head and grabbed the creature holding on to her by the back of its mane and pulled it free from the grasp it was attempting to get. It glared at her as she quickly spun around in place and kicked it as well.

Sarinas took a breath as she looked over to Elegance just in time to see one of the creatures, also appearing as her, strike the younger mare across the face. "Leave. her. ALONE!" Sarinas yelled as she charged at the other creature, hitting it in the side, but she didnt slow down as she kept charging at the wall. She ran full force at the wall, turning her body to the side just a little before making contact with the wall, cracking the creature between herself and the wall.

This stunt was probably not a good idea as she felt pains all over her body now from the bodyslam into the wall she just did. She glanced at the door to see no more creatures coming in for the time being and slowly walked back over to Elegance.

"Are yah alright?" she asked with a few hard breaths, "the door? can yah close it?" she asked of Elegance.