“How many times am I gonna haveta read this same thing?”

“I don’t know… Until it works?”

I rolled my eyes and pulled my head back from the book. Firestorm was standing next to my bed on the roof of the General Store. “I don’t think there’s that much light left.”

She looked back at me with a big pout. “Can’t you use your flashlight?”

“I could. But I ain’t gonna use th’ batteries fer a book.” I glanced off towards the sky again. Maybe another hour or so before the sun went down and it started to get really dark. “Look… one more try, okay? Then break time.”

“Awww… Tri…” She reached out with a hoof and tugged on my Crusader cape, the only thing I was wearing.

“Ah! Ah! Don’t even start that.” I snorted at her then looked back down at the book. “Now…” I let out a long sigh and started back at the top of the page. “Close yer eyes an’ focus on th’ tip’a yer horn… Ya should feel some… sensation which would be magical energy…”

I glanced over at her when I paused. She had begun following the instructions once again, which was good. Her horn wasn’t glowing, though. Inky’s glowed when she did magic, so… I blew a small puff of air then looked back at the book. “Once th’ sensation grows stronger, open yer eyes an’ attempt t’ use yer horn like ya would yer hoof t’ move something.”

Once more I looked back over at Stormy and she was still following the instructions. Her eyes had opened and she was sort of slowly waving her horn back and forth, aimed in the general direction of my pillow. Nothing was happening, though.

After about a full minute of trying she let out a frustrated squeak and stomped her hooves. “Why can’t I do it? It’s not supposed to be hard.”

I gave a sigh and closed the book before pushing it off my mattress and onto the roof. “It ain’t a big deal. Ya’ve had that book fer… what… a couple’a days now? Ya jus’ gotta prac-”

“I been practicing for a lot longer than that, Tri! But it don’t happen when I want it to happen.”

“Well…” I looked back at her, “Maybe that’s why. Yer jus’ tryin’ too hard. I start not bein’ able t’ hit nothin’ with my rope if I’m tryin’ too hard.”

She just stared at me for several seconds before snorting and stomping her hooves again. “That’s just dumb.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ya jus’ need t’ relax…”

“I don’t wanna relax.”

“Too bad.” I stretched my wing out, curled it around the far side of her barrel, and drug her towards me until she was against my side. She fought for a short bit, but then gave up and just slumped into me. “Relax… enjoy th’ rest’a th’ day.”

Stormy gave a ‘hmph’. “Don’t wanna.”

“Well, there’s food. Ya want some food?”

“No.”

“Ya want some water?”

“No.”

“Wanna play tag?”

“No.”

“Mud fight?”

“No.”

I groaned then looked down at her head which was poking out from between my wing and my side. “Well what do ya wanna do?”

She snorted at me. “Magic.”

I shook my head. “Do ya even know what kinda magic ya wanna do?”

Stormy blinked a couple of times before saying, “The… magicy… kind?”

“That’s what I thought…” I bent my neck around and nosed at the top of her head before starting to pet her back with my wing. “Do ya know how long it took Inky t’ be able t’ thread a needle usin’ just her magic?” Firestorm seemed to relax a little bit from the back scratch, which I was thankful for, and shook her head. I snorted softly, “A looooong, long time. Actually I don’t even think she could do it ‘til after she got her cutie mark.”

Firestorm let out a groan, “Another thing I have to get my cutie mark to be able to do…”

I bit my lip then shook my head again. “No, that ain’t what I meant. I meant… I meant it takes a lotta time, an’ if ya worry ‘bout it it’ll just take even more time.”

She fell silent for a minute or so, then piped up with another question, “But I thought you said you stopped worrying about your cutie mark.”

My brow furrowed a bit and I glanced back at her. “Yeah? What about it?”

“Well… you stopped worrying and you never got it. So you can’t just stop worrying about it…”

“Uh…” Not where I thought that was going… “This ain’t ‘bout me, ya know. It’s about you. An’ everypony gets their cutie marks differently. Oh! Maybe you’ll get a cutie mark for relaxing!”

Stormy didn’t seem too amused by that. I could tell from her face, and also from the fact that she kicked my shoulder with her forehoof. I just snickered and kept rubbing at her back. She’d settle down eventually.

Roughly an hour later, the light of the day began disappearing, and Firestorm had indeed settled down. At least enough to have a bite to eat for dinner and just watch as dusk fell. That was enough, really. Just get her mind off of magic and the dumb book and onto something nicer. Like food. Food was nice.

“Tri?”

“Hmm?”

“You hear that?”

I blinked and looked down at Firestorm, then started to look around us, my ears swivelling to try and pick up any noises. “Hear what?”

Clank. Clank.

I turned a bit farther. I heard it that time. “It’s the ladder.” I cleared my throat and spoke up a bit louder, “Inky, if yer comin’ up here yer already too late, I have another filly.” I snickered and flicked my tail a bit as I waited for whoever it was to come up, though I was pretty sure I knew who it was.

However, my eyes went wide when I saw a purple stallion come over the edge of the rof on the ladder. That. Was not Inky. That was not Inkblot at all. That was… Moonshine. “Didn’t ya leave this mornin’?”

Moonshine gave a sheepish smile and a bit of a chuckle. “Yer quite right, son. However, I never did make it too far. I spent th’ last several hours tryin’ t’ get my cart unstuck… but… I ain’t got no luck.”

I just stared blankly at him. “And yer here… why?”

“Well! Haha… funny story that. The cart was stuck in some mud, but in tryin’ t’ get it outta there, I en-” he shook his head, “long story short, it’s stuck down a little whole, basically. I need somepony with wings t’ actually get it back out, ‘cause flyin’.”

I nodded slowly. “Right… Kari might be better fer that, actually.”

Moonshine shook his head. “Yer… elder? Mayor…”

“High Times?”

He nodded. “Yeah! He said I should come see you ‘bout it, ‘cause th’ griffin ‘round here was busy.”

I let out a long sigh and looked back towards the town. What was Kari busy doing? Ugh… whatever. “Yeah, yeah… how far ‘way is it?”

“Oh, not far at all!”

“Right…” I gave a second sigh then looked down at Firestorm, my wing lifting off of her a little bit. “Can I trust you to stay here?”

Firestorm shook her head a little. “No.”

I snorted. “Well stay here anyway, Stormy.” I worked my way up to my hooves and pulled my wing in. Just grab my armor, could leave the rest… I took off my cape, went about putting on my barding, which took about a minute, then got my cape back on, which Firestorm actually helped with. Knots were not my friends.

Once I was ready, I made sure Firestorm had laid back down on my bed, then looked back to Moonshine. “Alright… where’s th’ cart?”

Moonshine smiled at me. “I can lead ya right to it!” He speedily climbed back down the ladder and took off at a quick trot to the south. I spread my wings and stepped off of the roof, flying through the air several feet off the ground.

It quickly got darker and darker as we left the town and travelled out towards the cart. It wasn’t night time, yet, but it was getting close.

“How’d ya even get it stuck in mud? It ain’t rained out here in days.”

“If I knew that, son, I wouldn’t have gotten it stuck in th’ first place, now would’ve I?” Moonshine gave another chuckle. “It shouldn’t be too hard t’ get it out, though. Couple minutes’a work.”

I smacked my lips and kept on flying. Sooner this was done, the sooner I could get back to my bed.

After another mile of flying, we finally came upon the cart. It was sitting up against a couple of boulders at the base of a hill, with some other rocks around the wheels on the other side too, keeping it in place. The rocks were too big to simply roll over, clearly. I gave my head a little shake and descended down to the cart, landing next to it lightly. “How’d ya even get it in here? This makes no sense.”

Moonshine walked up to his cart and pointed up the hill, with my gaze following. “It had been up there, an’ when I got it unstuck, she jus’ slid right on down, hopped over th’ rocks, ended up in here.”

I licked my lips then leaned down a bit and looked at the rocks. I wasn’t even sure if I could lift that cart… had to be an easier way. Hold on… I stuck my wing out and prodded at a pair of the smaller boulders in front of one of the wheels. It wobbled a bit at my touch. It wasn’t embedded in the ground at all. We could just roll some of the rocks out of the way. How had he not see that?

I opened my mouth to ask that question when my breath got taken away. Suddenly I couldn’t breath, and even quicker I was shoved over onto my side. I gasped for air and tried to squirm and find out what hit me, but immediately a massive weight fell on top of me.

“Stop squirmin’, son!”

My eyes went wide and I wanted to yell for help, but all I could do was gasp for breath. I felt something touch my muzzle and tried to get away from it, but I had nowhere to run to. Duct tape put over my mouth and wrapped around my muzzle.

“There we go! Ya’ll’re a trustin’ bunch, ain’tcha?” Moonshine got off of me as he spoke. I tried to get to my hooves quickly, but he kicked and knocked them back away, sending me back down to the dirt. He then lifted my front off of the ground and slid something around my barrel and over my wings, cinching it up tightly. So tightly it hurt my wings, but I couldn’t move them at all.

He turned back to the cart and started to rummage for something. Once more I tried to get back up to my hooves, and this time I succeeded. I spun in place and aimed a buck for his side. I heard him grunt when it connected, but I went flying again through the air as he turned and returned the kick to my side.

“Feisty, too! That’s good… Genetic, ya know.” He caught up to where I’d landed and clamped something around my legs. All three of them. I tried a third time to get up to my hooves, but it didn’t work. Moonshine laughed above me and I looked down at my legs to find… chains. Connecting all three of my legs. I yelled again, but it just came out as muffled noises through the duct tape.

Moonshine turned around and rolled the rocks away from the front of the cart, then easily picked me up off of the ground and tossed me into the cart. In a space cleared out just my size. Just barely my size. I closed my eyes and pressed my head against the side of the cart. It was probably a weak spot… bet I could break it, roll out, and he’d never know.

“What’ve we got here?”

I blinked and opened my eyes again. The only place I could look was straight up, into the sky. The walls of the cart were too high, since I couldn’t, you know, move. I heard Moonshine walk away from the cart, then a scuffle, then a scream and a squeal… wait… no… no no no…

A few seconds later a filly got tossed into the cart, landing right on top of me. Moonshine leaned over the side and rummaged for a moment, then pulled out another set of chains from a large lockbox and put them onto the filly’s legs.

“I only really even wanted one outta this whole thing, ya know? But I recognize you… yer th’ other purchase. The one that got ‘way durin’ th’ lightnin’ storm… Idjits… runnin’ ‘way from lightnin’...” He snorted and walked back to the front of the cart.

I’d told her… I’d told her to wait on my bed… I’d told her to wait on my bed and not to follow me. I knew it was dangerous but I wasn’t… wasn’t expecting… He’d been around all of us for a whole day…

The cart started rolling with a sharp jerk, one that sent Firestorm tumbling off of being on top of me and into the small area between my foreleg and hindlegs. I twisted myself a little to see if she was alright… and I immediately regretted it. She had fallen upside down and was too busy sobbing to right herself.

Hey… hey it’s gonna be okay… And we’ll get out of this crap, and run off, and he’ll never go, then we’ll go home and be safe again… because I’m not going to let you become a slave again only like two weeks after escaping…

Now if only I could actually say it out loud… I wriggled around a bit, getting enough freedom of motion to move my legs, and gently moving them up around Firestorm a bit, hugging her closer to my belly. She quieted some at my touch… but that wasn’t enough to stop her tears.

I closed my eyes and started pushing my head against the side of the cart again. She kept that up for very long, I was going to make sure I punished that two-faced liar before running off, too.

My eyes fluttered open. I glanced upwards, towards the sky, or at least the bits of sky I could see over the side of the cart. It was dark… but getting lighter. Morning? Had to be. I blinked a couple of times then came to another realization. We were stopped.

“Git me those idjits that ran ‘way from their job!”

“Yes sir!”

I heard quick hoofsteps as… somebody ran off to do Moonshine’s bidding. Did that mean he was in charge? I didn’t have long to consider that as his face was soon peeking over the edge of the cart.

“Ain’t y’all two jus’ sweet...’ Moonshine snorted, then reached into the cart towards Firestorm. I shifted as quick as I could, attempting to get my hindlegs around to buck his leg away from her. It worked, but he immediately turned and delivered a solid blow with his hoof to the left side of my face. I clenched my eyes shut. That was going to be yet another black eye…

“Try that again, son, won’t be so harmless next time.” I felt him reach back into the cart and grab Firestorm, who was definitely awake now… I could hear muffled noises and feel her writhe against me before he grabbed her. Next I heard a dull thud on the ground.

“You wanted to see us, boss?” New voice… mare.

“That’s right,” Moonshine replied. “This filly. Ya recognize ‘er?”

There was a short delay before the mare said, “Y-yeah boss. She’s the one that got away when the storm attacked us.”

“Exactly… More importantly, I found a bigger prize ‘long with her. Oh, an’ that town’a kids ya told me some kid mentioned t’ ya?”

“Yeah?”

“Found that, too.”

“Really?” The mare seemed shocked… and possibly a little bit scared.

“Really. Now… ya wanna make up fer what ya done screwed up?”

Another short delay followed by the mare’s voice, definitely nervous now, “Yeah! S-sure, boss, whatever. Anything.”

Moonshine gave a low chuckle. “Then th’ three’a ya go up t’ Rainbow Falls. It’s a week an’ a half there, week an’ a half back. Be back in three weeks. An’ bring back supplies an’ a few more ponies. We’re gonna take th’ town.”

My eyes went wide. No… no no no. They couldn’t… I wasn’t going to let them! Somehow. First step was being able to open my mouth. Then either being able to walk or fly came second. One or the other, either worked.

“Sure thing, boss! We’ll head out right now!” There was another flurry of hoofsteps as the mare… and apparently two others with her turned and ran off.

“Hey! You!” Moonshine had turned again to address someone else. “Take this thing an’ toss ‘er in with th’ other two kids. Grab her little cloak off’a her too.”

Wait… other two kids? What other two kids? What were they even doing with kids? What were they going to do with Stormy’s cape? What-

“Your turn!” My thought was interrupted by Moonshine reaching back into the cart, grabbing me, then tossing me onto the ground next to the cart. I curled up a bit. Landing on my side hurt…

“Get up!”

I groaned softly and looked around, finding where Moonshine was. Was he really serious?

“Get up, boy!”

I let out a snort. If he wanted me to go somewhere, he was gonna have to drag me.

Moonshine smacked his lips and shook his head slowly. “Lookie here, son… If I haveta get th’ whip, yer day’s gonna go from bad t’ worse. Plus you’ll end up with a buncha ugly marks all over that beautiful orange coat’a yers. So why don’t ya do yerself a favor an’ just get up?”

The left side of my face was already bruising up. I could feel it every time I blinked. He wasn’t kidding about the whip… Slowly I started to shift and work my legs under me. It was difficult with the chains, and it took me at least a full minute to accomplish, but eventually I got up to my hooves.

Moonshine walked around in front of me with a big smile. “Good work. Now follow me.” He kept walking past me off towards a bigger building.

I took a quick look around. We were in an area with actual buildings. Not portable ones like Asylum. This was the ruins of an older town. No clue which one. This was probably something we would’ve found while sending out scouts for the next possible town location… oh no… hopefully High didn’t send any scouts this way… or if he did, hopefully they turned around and went back before getting here.

Not that here seemed particularly dangerous. Other than Moonshine I could see… five other ponies in the area. And they all seemed to be watching. Watching him and me, specifically.

“Stop lollygaggin’ an’ follow me!”

I blinked and looked back towards Moonshine. Right… I took a deep breath then carefully started hobbling my way after him.

He led the way towards one of the bigger buildings. Once he was at the door, he opened it and waited for me, then waved me to go in before him. There was no way I could open the door myself… so sure. I walked past him and took a look around after I got inside.

What I saw was not what I expected. It all looked… completely normal. And fully abandoned. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all. We had walked into an old library that looked like it hadn’t been stepped in for… years, at the very least. There were no slaves, no lights except for the lowly brightening sunlight coming in through windows. The only thing was a set of saddlebags on a table.

Moonshine let the door close behind me, then trotted past me, right towards that set of saddlebags. He motioned for me to follow him, so I did. As I got close, he pulled a couple things I couldn’t immediately identify out of his saddlebags, then turned back towards me.

“First things first.” He walked around behind me, bent down, and looked under my belly between my legs. “All intact. Good, good.” Wait… what? He walked back in front of me and must’ve seen the look on my face. “Oh calm down. Ya know why yer here, right?”

I gave my head a slow shake. Moonshine snorted. “Yer here fer-” he got cut off by suddenly yawning. He gave his head a little shake. “Actually, here, hang on.” He reached out, took ahold of the duct tape covering my mouth and wrapping around my muzzle, and gave a solid tug, yanking all of it off at once.

“Aah!” I let out a whimper and dipped my head down. The tape was off, but so was a bunch of my coat hairs and whiskers along with it.

“There,” he said as he tossed the duct tape some random direction. “Now ya can talk.” I didn’t say anything, though. I just wished I could rub the sore spots on my muzzle. “Yer here ‘cause life is an ironic bastard. Just like you, as it so happens.” My face screwed up in confusion and he let out a chuckle. “Ya see, pegasi down here are rare. Which means they’re expensive. But in order t’ make sure they don’ run off, ya gotta keep ‘em from flyin’. Either by tyin’ ‘em down ‘r clippin’ their wings. Pegasi’re rare an’ expensive… but in order t’ keep ‘em ya gotta keep ‘em from doin’ th’ thing that makes them unique.”

I chewed a little on my lip and slowly raised my head back up to look at Moonshine. “Then why have ‘em?”

“Status. Show off. If you’ve got enough fortune t’ buy a pegasus? Ooooh, everyone knows ya got it made in this world. So. You know what yer gonna do fer me?”

I licked my lips and gave my head another shake.

Moonshine smiled. “Ya owe me quite a debt, Buck… An’ yer gonna pay it off t’ me. By breedin’ me a little collection’a pegasi that I can sell off t’ th’ highest bidders.”

I just stared at him. Dumbfounded. Breeding a bunch of pe- wait… wait a second. I snorted and my wings fought to flare, but lost against their restraints. “Owe you a debt? What th’ hell’re ya talkin’ ‘bout?”

Moonshine gave another hearty laugh. “We’ll get t’ that soon ‘nough… Fer now, how ‘bout we play a little game?” I snorted again. “Good. The game will be Question-For-Question. I ask ya somethin’, ya answer it an’ get t’ ask me somethin’ in return. Sound good?”

I glared at him, bristling. “If ya wanna play that game, why not start off with answerin’ my last one?”

He smirked. “Good question. ‘Cause I don’ wanna give ya th’ answer t’ that one yet. My turn. How often does that town move places?”

My lip curled up in a bit of a snarl. So that’s how he’s gonna play this one, huh? Alright… Well, it’ll be three weeks before those other guys would get back, so, “Every two weeks. How long have y’all been here?”

He glanced over my head then looked back to me. “Set this outpost up ‘bout a month ago t’ do some work in th’ area. Was mostly finished, was gonna leave soon as we got th’ delivery of yer little filly friend I brought back with ya.” He paused as he yawned again, then took a step towards me. He reached out, untied the knot of my cape by my throat, then tried to pull the cape off of me. It got stuck, unable to come off of my wings with the straps holding them down.

Moonshine let out a soft grunt, let the cape fall, then looked back to me. “What’s the deal with that?”

“My cape?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… it’s a cape.”

“Yeah, but what’s it for?”

I scoffed and shook my head. “No! My turn. Who are th’ other two kids ya put Firestorm in with?”

Moonshine looked like he’d been taken a little bit by surprise, but he didn’t argue. Instead he leaned back a little and started to smile. He almost looked proud. “Couple’a kids we found down south’a here a ways… They both had capes on like yers. So what are yer caps for?”

I chewed on my lip for a moment. Two kids… in capes… no… surely not… “We’re Crusaders. Th’ capes’re our… uniform. ‘Cause they look cool. An’ it sometimes helps ponies in other places recognize somepony from our group. What… do those two kids look like?”

He nodded a little bit then let out a sigh. “Uh… One is blue, with a cutie mark of a pile’a black powder. Actually th’ other one is blue, too. Just not as… bright. An’ a unicorn instead of an earth pony. He had a little ball cap on. Horn sticking outta th’ front’a it. Was kinda cute, actually.”

That was… the last thing I wanted to hear. That perfectly fit the descriptions of not just Powder, but also Scout. This… that was… this is… bad.

“Oh right, my turn again.” Moonshine cleared his throat. “You were there when I asked th’ question th’ first time… but I’ll ask it agian, fer yer own sake. Does th’ name Absinthe ring any bells?”

His words pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked back to him, my head shaking a little. “No…” But at least she got named after expensive alcohol. “I’ve never seen anyone by that name. How long’re ya gonna keep my tied up?”

Moonshine nodded slowly. “Very well… An’ I can untie ya right now, but in exchange I’d haveta clip yer wings.”

My nose wrinkled up. “Tied up’s fine…”

He chuckled then cleared his throat. “Tell ya what I will do.” He reached into a pocket in his barding and pulled out a key, then bent down and unlocked the cuff to my forehoof and removed that chain from the other set that was tying my hindhooves together. “Let ya walk a little easier. Ya can’t go fast, so there’s no chance you’ll get anyone without nobody seein’ ya… an’ remember… ya even try something like that, yer little filly friend gets th’ worst’a whatever yer punishment is too.”

I let out a slow breath and clenched my jaw tightly. “If you hurt her…”

Moonshine laughed. “Be a good boy an’ that won’t happen.” He paused due to another yawn then shook his head. “Alright, question time’s over. I need sleep, an’ you need t’ get situated.” He reached out again and started to undo the buckles on my leather armor vest. I tried to step away from him, but he caught me and held me in place. After minute he had the vest unbuckled and off of me, along with my rope, leaving me with just the cape that was still tied to my back under the strap that was tying down my wings.

I gave a long look to my vest and my lasso when he put it down next to his saddlebags. I was going to have to come back here and get that at some point… I didn’t have the faintest idea how, but I had to.

Moonshine walked past me back to the door and opened it again, once more waving for me to follow him. I turned slowly and walked after him. It was a lot easier with my front leg not being tied to my back legs, but it was still a pretty difficult balancing act.

When we stepped outside he led me back the way we had come, past the cart, and off towards another section of the little ruined town. There really weren’t many ponies here… I only saw four as we walked. He must’ve been telling the truth about this just being an outpost. But even then, there had to be just more than the four or five I saw outside…

As we neared what looked to be like… a two-story house, Moonshine stopped in front of the door and turned back to me. He reached into another pocket of his barding and pulled out a small picture. “Tell me, do ya recognize this?” He turned it around to show it to me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, then looked down at the picture. It was… a filly. Earth pony. Maybe five or six years old. She actually looked pretty happy. Light purple coat, orangey-reddish mane… wait. Wait a second… I gulped and quickly shook my head. “Nope, never seen her.” Please believe me, please believe me…

Moonshine snorted softly and put the picture back into his barding pocket. “Alright then.” He stepped towards the door again and opened it for me. “In ya go.”

I wanted to argue why I should go in there at all, but more importantly I wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible. So I walked forward through the door. It was slammed shut the moment I was past it and I heard several locks turning moments afterwards.

I lifted my head up and looked around, but the smell hit me before I could even see anything. What could smell so awful? I held my breath and looked around then I found it… urine and feces off in the far corner of… the living room? The building was a house, only all furniture had been completely taken out. Everything was gone. It was just walls, floors, and a roof.

I groaned softly as I was forced to breath again, simply not able to hold it any longer. Why would they do such a thing? It wasn’t just a one-time thing, either. It looked like it was a good day’s worth of crap for a few ponies… I looked the other way, off towards the kitchen, and saw a pair of adults laying on the ground. A mare and a stallion. They were asleep, leaning against each other, and looked like neither of them had had a bath in at least a month, if not more. They had the same type of chains on each of their hindlegs as I had, too.

I walked slowly over towards the kitchen, getting a better view to see the rest of it that was blocked by a wall. The kitchen was just as bare as everything else, and only the shape lent itself to being a kitchen at all. I peeked my head in through the doorway and looked deeper into the kitchen. There was one more stallion, laying against the far wall.

He had a vaguely cream colored coat… I think. He didn’t turn to look at me, he just kept staring straight ahead at the wall. I opened my mouth slowly, but then closed it again when I realized I really had nothing to say. And ‘Hi, I’m new here, could ya show me around’ wasn’t going to really cut it. Besides I had somepony more important to talk to.

I turned around quickly and went for the stairs. There wasn’t anypony else on the first floor that I could see. As I went up the stairs, I let out a little sigh of relief as the smell of the place got less and less bad. At least they had a designated area for that kind of stuff…

The second floor appeared to be bedrooms. And just as completely stripped out as the first floor. There weren’t even doors on the rooms. The only door in the entire place was the front door… with the multiple locks. Talk about privacy. I turned down the hallway and looked at the first door and bit my lip when I found what I was looking for.

Firestorm was curled up in the middle of the bedroom, her back to the hallway. On the bright side, she had also been half-unchained, and she was also the only one in the room. I cleared my throat softly and slipped in as well, stepping slowly towards her. “Stormy…”

Af first there was no reaction, but after a couple of seconds her ears swivelled backwards. Her head slowly followed, lifting up and turning around to look at me. They hadn’t removed the duct tape that was covering her mouth…

My ears pinned back against my head and I bit my lip hard. I shouldn’t have let this happen… Shouldn’t have trusted him like that… Should’ve made sure she stayed behind. “I… I’m sorry… here…”

I worked my way down to the floor next to her, then leaned over and started to rub my muzzle against hers, across the edge of the duct tape. After a couple of minutes a bit of it had peeled up. “This is gonna hurt a little… but it’s th’ best way. I promise.” I carefully got ahold of the peeled up bit of tape with my teeth. I waited for a moment, then quickly jerked my head away, ripping the tape off in one motion.

“Ah!” Firestorm ducked her head down and held a hoof over her mouth.

I spat out the tape to the side and looked back at her, dipping my head back down to nuzzle her mane a little. “Hey, ya didn’t even yell as loud as me when mine got tore off.”

She let out a little whimper and didn’t move for a couple minutes, a couple of minutes I spent simply nosing through her mane. When she did decide to move, she shifted a bit then pulled her head up and back to look around the room, then look up at me. When she finally saw me, her eyes went wide. “Tri… your face…”

I grimaced a little. So it was that obvious, huh? Well… with half the coat on my muzzle missing and whatever the left side of my face looked like. I cleared my throat and forced up a smile that I really, really, reaaaaally didn’t feel. “Relax… ain’t that bad.”

“But it’s all…” She trailed off as she pulled a hoof up and put it against my cheek just below my eye. Even that soft touch hurt and was enough to cause me to flinch. She pulled her hoof back quickly. “Sorry…”

I closed my eyes for a moment then cleared my throat again. “It’s fine. It just hurts. Hurt b’fore ya touched it, too.”

“It’s not fine…” Her head fell again and she looked down to the floor and her forehooves. “I couldn’t do anything…”

I blinked then shook my head. “No, no, hey hey hey, Stormy.” I used my forehoof to lift her head up a bit and back towards me, at least so she could see me. “We can deal ‘bout bein’ useless later, okay? I promise, I’ll spend a whole week helpin’ ya with it. But we can’t have that right now.”

Firestorm pulled away a little after I spoke, her head going back where it had been. “But it’s why we’re here…”

I let out a sigh. “No, it ain’t. We’re here ‘cause… ‘cause ponies lie an’ make ya think they’re nice when they ain’t. That’s why we’re here. Ain’t got nothin’ t’ do with y- actually, you ‘member Grassy Knoll?”

Stormy sniffled a little, then glanced up at me again. “The cry-baby? With… the… the food thing?”

I nodded. “Yeah, him. If ya wanna blame somepony, blame him. He’s th’ one that told slavers where our town was.” I paused and my brow furrowed. “I just remembered… th’ slavers he told had t’ be th’ same slavers that had you. They stopped by th’ old town location, then kept goin’.” I bit my lip, then shook my head. “Anyway, point is, if he hadn’t’a ever told ‘em, jerkface never woulda shown up t’ town, an’ we wouldn’t be here… so… blame him.”

Firestorm gulped then looked back down. After a moment she let out a little whimper and put her head against my leg-less shoulder.

“It’ll be fine, Stormy… we just gotta figure out how t’ get outta here. We got three weeks. Plus we ain’t that far from home… unless we slept more than a full day. … I wonder if I can put a bounty out… like… telepathically.”

I felt a twitch against my shoulder, and Stormy’s head tilt up a little bit. “Isn’t that magic?”

I glanced down and nodded. “Yeah. Don’t ask me how t’ do it, though. I ain’t never even seen it done. Just heard ‘bout it existin’.”

Firestorm’s nose twitched a little and her head slid back down my shoulder.

“Don’t worry… was just a joke.”

Firestorm had apparently not slept all that much in the cart, because soon after our conversation ended, she drifted off to sleep, using my legless left shoulder for a pillow. I would’ve rathered a positioned where I didn’t risk her head sliding off if I moved wrong… but hey, on the bright side, I didn’t have to worry about drool like I did with Inky.

Really, I wished I could’ve slept too. As it was, we were locked in a house with nothing to do. No food as far as I saw. I couldn’t fly. Couldn’t even walk easily. Sleep would’ve been preferred to laying there doing nothing.

But my mind wouldn’t let me sleep. The picture Moonshine had shown me kept popping up in my brain. Why did he have a picture of Lily? When she was just a little filly? What did I owe him? Beyond that, how in the world were we going to get out of this place and back to Asylum?

For all four of those I had the same answer. No clue. But that didn’t stop them from just revolving around and around and around endlessly for a few hours at the least.

“Such bad luck, I do not understand it!”

I blinked and my ears perked up when I heard the deep voice, the questioning haze around my mind lifting. I glanced around for the source of that voice. Definitely wasn’t this room, and wasn’t in the hallway that I could see out of the empty doorframe. Sounded like… it came from a couple rooms down.

“And you practically promised me I was going to win!”

My brow furrowed a little. That sounded… a little angrier. Or perhaps annoyed. I bit my lip and looked down at Stormy. Still asleep. I took a deep breath. Stay here, or go investigate? Sitting here was going to make me go crazy, like that other guy who was just staring at the wall and didn’t even know I was there. I snorted softly, then decided to go take a look.

I brought my forehoof around and put it under her muzzle. I lifted her off of my shoulder then gently lowered her head to the floor, careful not to wake her. Once I was sure she wasn’t stirring, I got up to my hooves and made for the door. I turned down the hallway towards the direction I heard the voice in.

“Well maybe you’ll have better luck this time, Constable.” A new voice, not quite so deep. And with a bit of a strange accent, I couldn’t really place it.

I kept walking towards the voices. The newer voice was quieter, wouldn’t have heard it from the room Stormy was still in. I heard a shuffling of hooves just ahead, then stopped at the next door in front of me. Had to be this room.

I stuck my head past the doorframe and peered inside, my eyes going wide when I did. This… was the first time in this house that I’d seen a room with… anything in it. There wasn’t any furniture, but there were four ponies. Plus… things. Objects. There were small piles of caps laying next to each of the ponies, along with a few other belongings. A pair of brushes, a small bottle of water… And, in between the four of them was a deck of playing cards that one of the ponies was currently shuffling them and dealing out four hooves of poker to each of the ponies sitting around.

More importantly… only three of the ponies were in chains. One of them wasn’t. In fact, the one that wasn’t was wearing armor, and saddlebags… and was a slaver. He was a big red stallion. Not exactly tall… but certainly… fat.

The slaver groaned and shook his head. “If Moonshine catches me he’ll send me back to Rainbow Falls… ugh…” Definitely mister deep voice, Constable. He finally made his way up to his hooves and shook his head. “So stupid of me, just to lose two weeks of pay.”

The other stallion dealing the cards, a yellow one with a black mane, tsk’d at him and shrugged. “Have it your way, Constable. You could be walking away from a winner.”

Wait… I recognized him. He, and the unicorn mare to his left, were the two I had seen down in the kitchen before. I glanced between them, then looked at the yellow stallion’s flank. His cutie mark was… a poker hand. Two aces, two eights, and some other card…

Constable scoffed. “Sure, walk away from a…” he sighed and reached down to look at the hoof he’d been dealt. He cleared his throat after looking at them, glanced around, then slowly laid back down in his spot, treating the cards gently as he did so. “Anyone open?”

The mare smiled. “That’s the spirit. I’m in for five.” She checked her cards then slid five caps into the middle. The other two slaves quickly followed with putting five caps each in.

Constable coughed into his hoof. “While I am temporarily out of funds… I’m sure that my integrity-”

“Ah ah ah!” The yellow stallion held up a hoof. “Caps game only, sorry.”

Constable almost looked wounded, but then lit up again, his hoof reaching out towards the yellow stallion. “Wait a minute, Hornbill, you used to pay me for certain… services.”

Hornbill tilted his head then shook it. “No, Constable, I wouldn’t want you to be a traitor.”

The mare nodded. “Nah, you’re too fine for that.”

The fourth pony finally spoke up, another stallion, reaching over and lightly patting Constable’s shoulder as he spoke, “Much too fine. A lovely pony!”

Constable grumbled softly. “Eh, I’m no better than anyone else…”

Hornbill snorted. “Well when you put it that way, Constable.”

Constable started to grin. “I can get you a bottle of perfectly clean water.”

“Oh blimey…” Hornbill rolled his eyes.

The third stallion shook his head. “C’mon Constable, you can do better than that. We get water anyway, hardly worth five caps.”

The mare held up a hoof. “Waitwaitwait wait a minute. He’s in. But you’ll have to come up with something better than that, Constable, if anybody raises.” Constable looked perfectly pleased with himself.

Hornbill cleared his throat. “Cards?”

The mare took out three cards and slid them towards the middle. “Three.”

“Three for the lady.” Hornbill slid her three more cards. “Constable?”

The slaver fought hard to try and not smile, and tried to not look too smug, but he was failing at both. “None.”

Hornbill’s brow raised. “Oooh…”

The third stallion tossed two cards to the middle. “I’ll take two.”

Hornbill nodded and slid the third stallion two cards. “Two. And three for the dealer.” He exchanged the cards.

The mare looked her new hoof over. “Up to you,” she glanced at Constable.

Constable cleared his throat and reached his hoof out, messing with the caps in the middle a bit, making a new group of ten. “Ten caps?”

The third stallion snorted. “On what?!”

Hornbill raised his hoof again, “Give him a chance! We have a stallion here who wants to give us free stuff, let’s give him a chance.”

Constable smiled. “Thank you.”

Hornbill nodded. “Now what’s the service?”

Constable glanced around then leaned in a little closer, his voice dropping near a whisper. “I can get each one of you… a fresh… fresh… apple. And maybe a little caramel...” He gulped then looked to Hornbill. “Ten caps?”

Hornbill shrugged then nodded. “Ten caps.” Constable grinned and leaned back, utterly pleased with himself.

The mare spoke up again. “So what’ve you got, Constable?”

The slaver seemed almost ready to burst and carefully put his cards down for everyone to see. “A beaaaauuutiful full house!”

The mare sucked in a breath and reached a hoof out to Constable’s foreleg. “Aw… wouldn’t you know I’d draw two more kings…” She laid her cards down. “Makes four of a kind.”

Constable’s jaw dropped and he looked down at her cards, reaching out to carefully touch and count each of the kings in her set. There were four. “HNNNGH! AAAAAH!” He stomped his big forehooves on the floor.

Hornbill smiled. “It’s okay, Constable. You’re a bad poker player, but a wonderful traitor.”

Constable looked ready to burst. He stomped again then got up and stormed out of the room, not even paying any attention to me. Although I did duck out of the way to make sure he didn’t try to go through me.

I turned a little and watched him go down the hallway, then trot right down the stairs. I heard the front door open then slam shut behind him. I gulped, then leaned forward again and stuck my head past the doorframe to peer into the room. The ponies inside were laughing to themselves, but also were all still looking at the doorway.

Hornbill immediately saw me and looked surprised. “I don’t recognize you, lad. You new here?”

“Uh… Uh…” My mouth worked a couple of times. I hadn’t expected to get spotted. “I… I guess.”

Hornbill snorted and lifted up a forehoof to wave me in. “Well don’t be a stranger, get in here, introduce yourself.”

I swallowed and turned around to look behind me, back towards the room Stormy was in. The hall was still empty. I took a deep breath then stepped out around the corner and into the room. “Um, my name’s Buck.”

All three ponies looked me over after I walked in, Hornbill took a bit less time to do so than the others. “Aren’t you a piece of work… they didn’t take the leg, right?”

I blinked a couple of times, at first not understanding the question. I glanced down at my missing left foreleg, then looked back up as I realized I still had the other cut on my neck and my bruised face. “Uh, no. Leg’s been that way ferever.”

Hornbill seemed to breath a little sigh of relief. “At least there’s that. Nice to meet you, Buck. I’m Hornbill. Some of my friends call me Wild Bill. Some call me Hornbill. Some just never say my name, who knows why.” He chuckled then turned and pointed to the mare. “Lady Lake.” He then pointed to the other stallion. “Tumbleweed.”

Lady Lake and Tumbleweed both nodded and lifted up hooves to wave at me. I instinctively tried to give them a wave back with my wing, but the tight restraint was still around my barrel, holding my wings firmly in place at my sides.

I fidgeted for a bit, then simply nodded back at them. “Hi.”

Hornbill gave me another once over, then get up to his hooves and walked over towards me. “They did this though, right?” He lifted up a hoof and pointed at the left side of my face.

I bit at my lip and slowly nodded. “I uh… tried t’ put up a fight.”

Hornbill nodded in return, then put his hoof down. “I’ll get their doctor to take a look at you today. Maybe help with some of the swelling. The only first aid stuff we’ve got here is some bandages.”

My brow furrowed. “Really? But how can ya get their doctor t’ do stuff?” I blinked and glanced behind me, “An’ how won’t that guy get ya in trouble?”

Hornbill laughed. “We might be slaves, Buck, but that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. If they whip us to death, that’s a loss on their investment. And any time somepony doesn’t have complete control, that means there’s room for negotiation. Plus the doc’s a real nice guy.” He smirks, then motions back towards the card area. “Or, you know, room for taking advantage of gambling addiction. He’ll be back. So long as I keep giving him an occasional full house, anyway.” He chuckled again then turned and walked back towards them.

Lady Lake gathered up the cards as Hornbill walked back. “Why don’t you join us for a few rounds, Buck?”

It took my brain a few seconds to process everything that had just been said. “That’s uh… brave…” I looked from Hornbill over to Lady Lake. I started to say yes, but then glanced down for a moment. “Actually I uh… can’t.”

Hornbill reached out to Lake for the deck of cards, but Lake snorted and kept them away from him. “You only get to deal when Constable’s playing, back off.” She licked her lips then looked back to me. “Aw, why’s that? Not like you have somewhere to be…”

“Um… actually I do.”

Lady Lake tilted her head. “How’s that?”

“Uh… I ain’t here alone… ‘xactly… I gotta keep an’ eye out… she’s sleepin’...”

Lady Lake tapped the cards and smacked her lips. “If you didn’t have to worry about her, would you play?”

My brow furrowed again and my head tilted. “I guess so?”

Lake nodded then looked at Hornbill for a moment, then at Tumbleweed, then grabbed the cards in her unicorn magic and got to her hooves. “Let’s go play where you can watch then.”

The two stallions got busy collecting the caps and other items around the area, once more leaving the room completely bare like the rest of the house was. I wasn’t completely sold yet, though.

Lady Lake headed towards the door, but stopped when she got up even with me. She looked over at me, her head tilting. “Go on, lead the way.” She paused shortly before adding, “C’mon, kid, what else are you going to do? Lose your soul staring at the wall like that dumbbell downstairs?”

Well when she put it that way… “Um, this way.”

I cleared my throat and turned around, then quickly led them back down the hallway towards the room Stormy was in. When I got there, Stormy was still right where I’d left her, in the middle of the big empty room. I slipped in as quietly as I could and settled back down at her side, scooting up against her so that it was like I’d never left.

The three adults followed in after me, noticeably quieter than they had been in the other room. They spread out a bit in front of me and set up their spots for starting another card game. Lady Lake spent some time shuffling the cards while Tumbleweed split the pool of caps into four equal groups.

Hornbill looked over at me and Stormy while the other two were busy and smiled faintly, “Sister?” His voice was also a bit quieter, making sure to not waking her up.

I shook my head a little. “Just a friend.”

He nodded. “She’s cute. Glad she’s not here alone.”

Lady Lake spoke up before I could answer and started dealing the cards. “Game’s five card draw, ante’s a cap, minimum raise is three caps. Let’s get this started.”

I bit at my lip when Lake spoke, then took a slow breath. It was a lot better than thinking about questions I had no answers to. I reached out to take a look at the cards. Pair of tens… not a bad start.

Author's Notes:

Big thanks to Kibu, No One, and Scrap for help with grammar, spelling, and stuff.