”Dad?”

His father lowers the newspaper, the brown eyes peering at him curiously. “Yes, son?”

“When I grow up, can I be in the Air Corps too?”

A smile graces the older stallion’s face. He reaches out with a hoof and ruffles the colt’s mane, chuckling. “Well son, if you work real hard at it… I don’t see what’s stopping you.”

Dissero woke with a start, his breath coming fast and shallow. He grunted as he rushed to climb to his hooves, ignoring the nausea that washed over him, teeth bared as he readied himself to keep fighting. He had to get back to his crew, had to—

He wasn’t on his ship anymore.

Damp stone brick surrounded him, the scent of stale air filling his nostrils. A wide door of heavy metal bars was set into one wall, the shadows dancing in the flickering blue glow of the magelights beyond them. High on the opposite wall was a tiny hole, a gentle trickle of rainwater dripping through as thunder rumbled in the distance.

He felt his knees going weak as the adrenaline drained from his body, replaced only with a terrible sinking emptiness. All the cuts and bruises he’d sustained in the fight came back to him as he nearly collapsed back onto the hard stone, saved only by the sudden presence of a warm shoulder at his side.

“Hey Dissy… you alright?”

Dissero turned, a small wave of relief passing over him as he saw Silver by his side. In an instant it was replaced by guilt. One of the pegasus’s eyes was a deep purple, and he was bleeding from a gash on his jaw. “Silver… fuck, Silver, I screwed up didn’t I?”

A battered Ember stepped into his field of view, her disapproving glare locked onto him, full of anger. “Damn right you screwed up! Look what you got us into!”

“Hey, shut it!” Silver barked, his head turning to face her as he guided Dissero down into a seated position. “He didn’t mean for this to happen, and any one of us could’ve left whenever we wanted. I’m sure he feels like shit already without you yelling at him.”

“Look around you, Silver!” Ember stomped a hoof angrily as she advanced on the two stallions. “This is a jail cell! Who knows what he’s gotten us into here?”

Stormslider cleared her throat, her voice calm as always despite the scrapes on her legs. “Maybe you should remember what he got you out of first, Ember?”

The fiery mare faltered at that, her mouth briefly left hanging, but not for long. She rushed up to Stormslider, pressing her face up against hers, ears back and tail flicking. “I swear to Celestia, Storm, I will burn every hair off your body if you bring that up again.”

Stormslider, for her part, seemed unimpressed. “Just don’t forget what he’s done for you.”

The two mares stared eachother down, a raging inferno versus a calm ocean. Eventually Ember looked away with a pointed “Hmph,” marching off to brood on the other side of the little cell.

In the corner of the cell, Cleaver looked up from his hooves, several small cuts on his flank. “They took my vodka,” he said, a quiet rage hidden under his accent.

Amidst all this, Dissero sat with his head down and ears low, oblivious to the rest of the world. He knew he shouldn’t have accepted the job, he knew as soon as he heard that pegasus talk that it would be trouble. And yet still, here they were, all in some vain attempt to rediscover an old sense of adventure.

“Hey, Dissy.”

Dissero looked up to see Silver holding out a hoof.

“C’mon, bud. We’ve got each other’s back.”

After a moment's hesitation, Dissero reached out to bump his own hoof against his oldest friend’s, beginning to feel his despair replaced by determination. What was he doing moping around like this? He’d gotten his crew in this situation, and by Celestia he was going to get them out! It wasn’t the first jail cell he’d been in anyways. He’d gone looking for adventure and here he was. He could handle this.

“They took, my vodka.”

“Okay, Cleav, we get it!” Silver shot an exasperated look the big stallion’s way. “They took your vodka! Okay! Y’know they took my damn goggles too and you don’t see me whining about it! Cheeky fucks!”

Cleaver frowned thoughtfully. “What about your headphones? Were very expensive, da?”

“Those are replaceable, the goggles aren’t!”

It was then that the sound of hooves began to echo down the stony corridor, and three ponies came to a stop on the other side of the bars. One looked to be a simple guard, a spear leaning against his shoulder and a set of mail adorning his chest. The second was a skinny yellow unicorn with a grey mane and pale green, bespectacled eyes, a clipboard levitating in the yellow aura of his magic.

The third was a pegasus, and Dissero was immediately put on alert by the scent which floated off of his barding, a smell which most Equestrians couldn’t even recognize, one which he thought he’d had the last of long ago.

Leather.

The dark grey pegasus looked over the trapped ponies one by one with his cold blue eyes, his grey mane cut close to his head. “Welcome,” he said, “to Harmony City.”

“You let us outta here right now you bastard!” Ember yelled, practically throwing herself at the bars. The grey pegasus showed no sign that he’d heard her.

“What did you arrest us for?” Dissero demanded. “What did we do?”

“You’ve all been given the very special honor of being placed in the service of the president, Robber Baron, delivered into his caring hooves by some clever bounty hunters.” The pegasus paused, a smug little smirk on his face. “Griffonians, very good at what they do. Tomorrow morning you’ll be escorted into the Inner City, where you’ll be able to earn food through your labor. Compliance will be rewarded, and resistance will be punished.”

“Don’t you ignore me you crisp fuck!” Ember shouted, banging against the bars with her hooves. “You think you can get away with this? Huh!?”

The pegasus looked at Ember as if seeing her for the first time, eyeing her up and down. “Looks like they’ve given us some more good stock,” he said, speaking to the unicorn at his side.

“Yes, sir,” the unicorn agreed.

“The Princesses will not simply allow Equestrians to be forced into servitude,” Stormslider stated.

The pegasus turned his eyes on her, the smirk growing wider. “Really? Harmony is very close friends with Gryphos, you know. I don’t think your Celestia will risk another war to save a few ponies. She’s a shrewd strategist, and very utilitarian.”

“You’re wrong,” Dissero said, standing up to his full height. “She cares for all of her ponies, each and every one.”

“Think what you will, Equestrian,” the grey pegasus said. “You speak of matters far, far bigger than you can ever hope to be.”

Silver Feather stepped calmly up to the bars, his wings spread as if for a fight, locking eyes with the pegasus. “What’s your name?” he asked.

The grey pegasus’ smirk broke out into a confident grin. “My name is Ashfall. I’d advise you spend the night wisely. You may not have so much time to relax in the future.”

With that, Ashfall turned and walked away, ignoring Ember’s yelled promises of retribution. The yellow unicorn and guard pony followed suit, their hoofsteps slowly fading into nothingness.

It was not a very eventful night.

At first they had tried searching for some weakness in the cell, some means of escape, but with no luck. The bars were too sturdy, the window was too small, and the bricks laid too smooth. It wasn’t even two hours, if the dim sunlight was any indication, before the crew collectively decided that they wouldn’t be leaving the cell without some means of outside help.

After another bout of arguing the cell lapsed into a heavy silence for the remainder of the night. There was no bed, leaving only wet bricks to sleep on, and so the crew huddled together for warmth as they settled down. All except for Ember, who pointedly slept on the opposite side of the cell, claiming that she could warm herself up with magic if she wished.

Dissero, for his part, didn’t sleep well, and really he wouldn’t describe what he did that night as “sleep” at all. He was convinced that Ember was right, that everything really was his fault, and as such he took upon himself the responsibility of getting his crew out. He strained to remember what he’d seen of the city from above, to analyze its layout, but he had been so entranced by the Cloudwall and the architecture that his efforts were largely in vain. He would need more time to make an effective plan, but still his mind raced, fruitlessly going over the same points again and again. Because if he wasn’t planning escape, then what else had he to think on but his own guilt? He would get his crew out, and then…

Then what?

He was stirred from his thoughts by the sound of ringing chainmail echoing down the hall. Lifting his head, he looked up to the tiny window in the wall and was surprised to see that morning had already come. His empty stomach rumbled loudly, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten anything since noon yesterday.

Suddenly the cell door swung open, the heavy metal causing the hinges to release a high-pitched shriek that caused Dissero to wince in pain. Silver Feather’s head shot up in alarm at the noise, while the rest of the crew began to wake more gradually.

Standing in the doorway were two guard ponies, each armed with a spear and wearing matching sets of mail barding. “Get up, you lot,” one of them said. “Time to head into the city.”

Ember let out a vicious yell, scrambling to her hooves. Before anyone else could even signal for her to calm down she was already charging at the guards, nostrils flaring and horn glowing.

They easily sidestepped her wild attack, smirking at each other as the mare passed between them. One of them swept her hooves out from underneath her with his spear, sending her sprawling into the stony floor with a strangled yelp, while the other followed up with a swift slap to her head with the flat of his spearhead.

“Anyone else?” the first guard challenged, looking back into the cell.

Dissero placed a cautioning hoof on Silver’s shoulder, knowing that he would be tempted to attack the guard’s as well. Silver looked back at him, the question clear on his face, and Dissero gave a subtle shake of his head. There would be a time for fighting, but it wouldn’t be when they were in the middle of some foreign dungeon.

The pegasus hesitated, but nodded nonetheless. He understood.

“Good to see the rest of you have some brains. C’mon, then.”

The crew were guided out into the corridor, with one guard on either side of them. Ember groaned as she climbed to her hooves, encouraged by the poking and prodding of the nearest guard. They were escorted through the dimly lit halls at a brisk pace, passing several other occupied cells along the way, and it was only then that Dissero realized how weak he was. He’d sustained several injuries in the fight on the airship, and the total lack of food wasn’t helping. He even thought that he could feel his legs beginning to shake.

They reached the bottom of a sturdy stone staircase, where another pair of guards were waiting. The crew was split up, with Ember, Cleaver, and Stormslider continuing down the hall while Dissero and Silver Feather were guided up the stairs.

Dissero couldn’t help but curse his luck. He could hardly plan an escape if he didn’t even know where his crew was. He’d have to find them as soon as possible, he thought, grimacing as he climbed up the stairs.

They seemed to go on forever, up higher and higher and higher, past level upon level. As they went up, the rooms began to grow more welcoming and clean. Rugged stone blocks were replaced with exotic marble mosaics, and the dungeons and jail cells were replaced by open, well-lit halls. What kind of prison was this, that put its victims on the ground floor and everything else above them?

Finally they reached the top of the stairs, stepping out into the damp blue-tinged daylight of Harmony, and Dissero was able to get his bearings.

He was on the great wall he had seen before, the one that separated the massive towers from the surrounding city. Hundreds of airships floated above, almost completely blotting out the sun, the rain falling in sheets as it slid off their gleaming hulls. Outside of the wall, Harmony seemed to be a relatively normal city, if a bit unusually diverse and with an unusually gloomy atmosphere. Citizens moved about their business with purpose and energy. Inside the wall, however, things were drastically different.

For the most part the Inner City was little more than huddled together shacks and narrow dirt paths. The buildings were made of scrap metal and rotting wood, sloppily propped up against eachother and secured with wet ropes with myriad colors that clearly marked them as pony hair. Dissero thought he could even recognize airship parts incorporated into the structures. Here a propeller casing used as a hut, there a wing masquerading as a roof, and there a steel hatch set into the frame of a wooden shanty. The dirt paths which wound between the makeshift constructs were sparsely populated compared to the Outer City, with the ponies walking through them with drooping tails and heads low, their colors dull and lifeless.

Further into the middle of the city, the architecture became more sturdy. Squat buildings made of concrete or brick were lined up in neat rows, the blocks separated by wide cobblestone streets. Smokestacks rose from some of the larger buildings, while others had massive sliding metal doors, or open tops with the tops of cranes poking out. Industrial buildings, no doubt.

Also scattered across the Inner City, placed seemingly with neither rhyme nor reason, were strange, twisting spires of glimmering black stone. Angry red scars of some ore Dissero couldn’t identify marred their surfaces, and the larger spires had even been fashioned into outposts, with small towers jutting up from their tips.

It had been difficult to see all these details before, from his airship, covered in shadows as the Inner City was. But now, as he and Silver were prodded into a small cage suspended over the edge of the wall by a simple rope and pulley, it was becoming decidedly more obvious to Dissero what had happened.

He’d been captured, enslaved, and was just minutes away from taking his first step into what had to be one of the most elaborate slave labor camps in the Known World.

The cage door slid shut with a loud rattle, causing it sway slightly in the wind. Silver grabbed the bars with a hoof, looking down. “Helluva drop, huh?” he said.

“And a hell of a climb,” Dissero replied, scanning the base of the wall. It was hard to pick out details on the opposite side, but as far as he could tell there weren’t any openings at all. It seemed the only way in and out was through these caged lifts.

He turned to look at the guards. “You guys don’t have to do this, y’know, it isn’t right. We haven’t done anything wrong.”

One of the guards let out a harsh laugh. “Hah! Nobody gets into those cells without doing something wrong, believe me. I’ve tossed countless criminals into the walls, don’t need to know what every one's done to know it’s justice.”

The cage jerked into motion, the sound of the pulley squeaking above fading away as they were lowered down. The two stallions scanned the city below in silence as it grew steadily closer. After several minutes, Silver spoke again.

“So once we get down there, we’re gonna go and find everyone else, yeah? And snatch my lucky goggles?”

“I’m not sure it’ll be that easy, Silver,” Dissero said. He sat back on his haunches, wincing as the cage gave a vicious jolt. “We don’t know where the others were taken, or if they’ll even be kept in the city. We don’t know if we’ll be guarded, what we’ll be made to do, and I don’t know about you but I haven’t eaten in over a day. We need to get some food.”

Silver grimaced, looking down at his belly as it rumbled. “Y’know, now that ya mention it…”

“Right, so here’s what we’re gonna do. First, we find some food. Then we find the crew, and then we get the hell out of here.”

“Anything after that?” Silver asked, his wings out slightly for balance. “Maybe get an audience with the Princesses, get this place shut down, yeah?”

Dissero shook his head. “That Ashfall pony may not have been lying when he said that Equestria wouldn’t risk interfering. And if the way we were lured here is any indication, Harmony might have operatives inside Equestria. We shouldn’t risk it, we should just get out and leave the place be.”

After a moment, Silver gave a little nod. “Alrighty, Dissy. I’ll stick with you.”

The cage struck the muddy surface below, sending a small shock up Dissero’s legs with the impact. It had set down in a small clearing, a rare open space in the cluttered and messy shantytown of the Inner City, surrounded on one side by the massive wall and on the other by makeshift homesteads. For nearly a full minute the gentle pitter patter of rain, the muted hum of the airship engines above, and the distant rumble of far away thunder were the only noises. And then, with a tired squeal, the cage door slid open.

Dissero considered simply staying within the cage, simply refusing to comply, but quickly discarded the thought. No doubt the guards had a way of dealing with such ponies. There would be a time for rebellion, a time to fight, but that time hadn’t come just yet.

Taking a deep breath, Dissero took the first step into his new prison.

Author's Notes:

A little hint of things before, and things to come.

Also I'm totally referencing prior editions in these notes. Welcome to the in-crowd!